 Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of our Pokemon VGC 2019 Battle Series. I hope you all well had a great weekend and are looking forward to kicking off with a brand new team on the channel today. Thank you so much for tuning in as well and I just need to give each and every one of you a huge big shout out for all of our comments and suggestions for a new team played on the channel this week. I put a poll up on the YouTube channel on Tuesday last week and asked you guys what you'd like to play. We've had a flurry of comments as well and they've all been amazing, but it came back unanimous that you guys would like to see a mega-monetric team put together. So this is what you can see on your screen in front of you right now. It's a little bit different. As always the team is down in the description below. There is a poker piece and a roll piece, but before we get into anything I will just quickly go over the team for you guys. So we've got the Monetric, which is going to be the mega of the team, going to be able to mega-evolve, has Lightning Rod, turns into Intimidate. We've got Volt Switch on there, Snarl, and then we've got Hidden Power Water as well to complement that. Kyogre to help us snipe those Primal Groudons. If we're in a nice position to be able to do that, you could also go something like Eerie Impulse, but I feel in this core, if we've got more options to deal with Primal Groudon, the better, because we haven't got too much ground immunity here. So having that option there will really help us alleviate that issue to some extent. Then we've got the Lunar Lair. It's going to have the Z move. It's going to have the signature Z move, the Lunar Liem Z. We've got Roar on there. It's a deterrent against Xerneists. If it decides to Geomancer, you've got a way to Roar it out. It also kind of helps us, if we want to Roar our own Kyogre to help with rather control or Intimidate Cycling, or Psychic Terrain Support, or anything like that. So we've got that there. Got Tailwind as well to support that Kyogre. If we can get Kyogre into a Tailwind with its Weather Up, then we can be very, very disruptive to our opponents, and it's a really powerful kind of common strategy that we see quite a lot. And we've got the Mungai's Beam and the Side Shock there, then we've got the Kyogre. We've got a Bulkier Kyogre with how we want to operate within this team. Now, I did think about running a more fast, defensive Kyogre in this team, but with how we want it to operate, it's going to be switching in a lot. We need that bulk to help it operate a little bit better, and we haven't got dual Intimidate here. So against things like Rikwaza that are throwing out this big dragoness sense, it does help us out a little bit more, just being that bit more bulky here. Then we've got Tapulia. It's going to be Skaft. It's going to complement the Lunar Lair with its Psychic Terrain. So we've got more powerful Side Shocks. We've got Magic Room on there to help us again against opposing Zonius if we want to set up, because if they do get set up, this team really is quite vulnerable to that set up. So denying the set up is very important for this team. We've got to keep that in mind when we're playing games this week. So the Magic Room there, we've got Skill Swap. It complements the Kyogre for in a position where we've got Lele Kyogre out in the field, and we're worried about weather disruption from our opponent's side. Then we can easy Skill Swap, get an advantage and throw out those water type attacks once again. Then we've got Side Kick and Moon Blast is just the coverage moves there. And Tabulele, as we know, does really well at covering things like Ultra and Acrosma, Requaza and Salamence. Things that do give us a little bit of an issue if we don't check them and Tabulele does that perfectly. Then we've got Cortana. Now, the one thing about Cortana was I really wanted the Focus Sash on there. We've already got the Z move elsewhere on the team, and, you know, we could go the Z move there. But Cortana, I was like, I just want to prolong its ability on the field. The Focus Sash does that. We can at least take one big attack and we can still do some damage back. Get maybe a good return. But obviously, we've got the Hydragan in the team that gives us some ground immunity. And I feel like we cannot calc against any fairy type attacks with Hydragan. So it really needs that Focus Sash. I didn't want to go down a route where we're completely bulking it out. It makes it pretty useless offensively, whereas the Focus Sash allows it to perform that role. It has got Tailwind, so a second Speed Control setter on the team. And it does give us some nice coverage elsewhere for things that we might otherwise struggle a little bit again. So coming back to the Cortana, though, that is why we've chose the Psychic Seed. We've got a really bulky set, so it kind of replicates an Assault Vest. But we've got the added bonus of having the Protect there on it as well. So Cortana in practice has been doing really well. Now, I went through a bunch of different teams with Mega-Monetrick, and this is one that I kind of settled on. This is one I feel like we can do very well within the format. So hopefully this week on the channel is going to be a lot of fun and we'll probably change things up next week. So do keep your comments coming for what you'd like to see mixed up with this team. We're going to add those in as we finish up with the team in the call next week before we move on to something else. But the Cortana, Psychic Seed, it's going to be able to take a bunch of attacks and do some really nice work, especially text things like Nailiga that we may struggle against if we can't get our Psychic terrain working and things like that. So that is the team in a nutshell. As always, it is down in the description below. There is a raw paste, poker paste. Check it out, try it out. And if you do try it out, do as always. Let me know what your thoughts are on the team. And if you do try it out and it inspires any thoughts for yourself, then obviously let me know how you get on with that as well. It's quite nice to see a team like this where we haven't got Incinero and Tapu Finian for a change. So just mixing it up a little bit on the channel this week and hopefully you guys enjoy it at home. But without further ado, let's get into it today. And if you do enjoy this content guys, as always, do drop a like on the video. It does really help the channel out a lot. Do subscribe to the channel as well for more Pokemon content and do leave your comments because I love hearing from you as you know and just your thoughts on the team, on the episodes, on anything that's been going on outside of the episodes. Today, events that you've been attending, how you've been getting on with some Pokemon calls, anything like that. And I will make sure to get back to you as soon as possible. It is hectic at the minute going on at home. And things are settling down so I should be able to get back to you all as soon as I can. But I do appreciate all the support and the comments that I get. But we've got a first opponent of the episode. So we'll jump straight into Team Preview. And our first opponent today is kicking off with a team of Salamence, Kyogre, Bronzong, Tapa Coco, Gengar and Groudon. So we've got that dual primal combination there. We've got the mega Gengar, probably the mega of the team, kind of dual megas as well between the Salamence and the Gengar. And then we've got the trick room setters on the team with the Salamence. It's got that intimidating support and the Bronzong with its trick room. So how are we going to deal with this? You know, like straight away Lunala jumps out of me and says, yes, choose me. But you've got to worry about that Tapa Coco. It can throw out a dazzling gleam. So then the Gengar will have to speed up Lunala and do some decent damage there. So I do probably want to check the Gengar with the Tapa Lele. It makes a lot of sense. Even if we haven't got our terrain set up and then the Lunala kind of covers the other things on the team. Now, what else do we want to bring? Cortana could be good here. Minetric could also be decent with its fake out to intimidate support, I should say. We definitely want our own Kyogre, I feel. But then I think it's a toss up between Cortana and Hydragan. Hydragan could be actually really good here if we can get rid of the Tapa Coco early doors. So I'm kind of leaning more towards that, if I'm honest. Yeah, we'll bring Hydragan. Let's go for it. So we'll get into this first one today. And if guys, if you're wondering why my eyes are all puffy and I'm sounding a bit nasally, it's because my hair fever at the minute is absolutely killing me. The pollen count at the minute must be ridiculous. And I don't normally suffer as bad, but I've been really suffering the last two days. So if I'm a bit nasally and not myself and I look a bit puffy and around the eyes, then that is the reason why. So hopefully it doesn't come across too bad in the video. But yeah, hair fever is horrible. I really sympathize with any of you guys out there that do have it or any other allergies that affect you like this. Like I walk up in the middle of the night and my eyes are just like throbbing. But we are going to see my opponent lead out with Tapa Coco and Gengar here. So I mean, the psychic into the Gengar is pretty obvious, but I kind of don't want to leave it unchecked because it then has an easy way to get rid of our Lunala. One thing we could potentially do is set up a tailwind here. But I feel like when you're bringing the Gengar that you're kind of more probably inclined to have the Bronzong in the back. Although Groudon and Kyogre could also be in the back as well, so the tailwind could be good. But we could use this opportunity to just nuke the Tapa Coco, but tailwind here is really appealing. And I think I'd probably prefer to go for a tailwind rather than anything else. So we'll go for that and we'll check the Gengar like I say with this psychic, which should be able to take it down even out of Kyrae. So there we go. Gengar going to mega evolve, unless it's like a really bulky mega Gengar. But it does just protect. It's kind of obvious then we'll see this Coco maybe go for a zing move. But if it does, then we do get a tailwind up. I'm just going to see an electric web, which is fine because you do get a tailwind set. Then this next turn, we can attack into the Coco and go for that psychic into the Gengar. Although the Gengar might switch out this next turn. So that's something we've got to keep in mind. So the double up into the Coco might be a bit more appealing. There's not really anything my opponent has to switch into a psychic though. If this Gengar does switch out, except the Bronzong. So we could go for a Moongest Beam. I just worry about the Coco Bean, either a Salt Vest or Sashed. I think that's the one thing that I do worry about a little bit. That's why I kind of want to go Moongest Beam into that slot rather than the zing move and preserve the zing move for later on in this match. Yeah, we'll go for it because I do expect it to be Sashed, Coco. And I just don't want to waste the zing move into it just yet. The Gengar is going to switch out. Probably see Bronzong. Ah, Kyogre coming. She don't mind. We'll probably see another electric web from this Coco. But we will get a psychic into this Kyogre. My Bronnet needs to get two more electric webs off to actually start out at speeding us now. Well, the Lele anyway. And I think the nice thing about getting this damage off now is that we may put the Kyogre into zing move range by preserving it at least. Even after this electric web, it'll just nullify that tailwind. So we should still be faster than what my Bronnet can throw out. We do get the Moongest Beam. It doesn't quite take the Coco down, but at the next turn, Lele will still at speed the Coco because of our tailwind and we can zing move it into the Kyogre. It's whether or not the Kyogre protects her. That's the big thing, I think. We've got to be careful about when our tailwind does pitter out. So see, we've got how many turns? Two more turns. So we're pretty safe at the minute if that Gengar does come in. We'll go for the psychic into the Coco and then the zing move into the Kyogre. Let's see if we can take it. Ah, tap a Coco, actually protecting. That's interesting. There's the psychic. And here we go. Going to get the zing move. One problem about running the zing move is obviously I've got to cut this out every time we use it and we'll probably be using it most matches. So it's a little bit extra work, but it's fine. So we'll be right back when we come into the Kyogre slot and hopefully we can pick up that tail there. So into the Kyogre we go. Is it going to be enough to pick up the knockout though? It's going to be close, I think. Ah, we get it. So that's good. That's at least one thing down. Ooh, we get a critical hit. Would have been interesting to see if we got it otherwise. Gengar might come back in now. I'd imagine the Gengar probably protects this next turn to stall out our tailwind. So we can get rid of the, yeah, we can get rid of the Coco now. Probably want to switch Lunala out. It's a bit of a shame that our terrain, our shadow shield has been broken, but I mean, we do have Hydragan in that. That's the beauty, like once we get rid of the Coco, which we can do now. Coco actually going to switch out. Ground, I'm going to hit the field. So there's no bronze on the back, just as dual primals. And Hydragan really not a bad option to have here. Problem is that the Lele's going to be prime target for this Gengar the next turn, but we do have a Hydragan on the field because of the ghost typing of Lunala we're not trapped in. I wonder if the Gengar actually attacks here. It'd be interesting to see if it does. Thinking it can outspeed us. Nah, we're upon a plane, it's safe. And the psychic into the ground on is quite nice. Here regardless, so problem is the Lele's definitely going to go down this next turn. But we do check, we do check this Gengar with the Dark Pulse. The other thing is what we could do is probably just go for another tailwind or we've got the opportunity to because it's going to really help set up our Kyogre when it comes onto the field to get around that type of coco which otherwise would be a huge problem for us. So there's the Shadow Ball into the Lele. We'll go down, but if we get our tailwind up which we should do, this will open the door for Kyogre to come in and close this game out for us. So Hydragan doing all the work here and because we've got the focus sash as well, we don't need to worry about whatever even Dragon Claw coming out. Wow, okay, Hydragan not broken that. But yeah, now I think it's fine because we get Kyogre and we're in such a nice position now to pick up like the type of coco probably comes in for the ground on. It's what I would imagine because you probably want to try sack the coco. Yeah, yeah, but I still think we'll be all right as long as we can kind of utilize our tailwind turns effectively, that's what we need to do. Like dogpulse, the Gengar, water spout. Because then when the ground on comes back in, we've still got access to Ice Beam and Earth Power which would be more than enough. Yeah, we're going to see this and then the protect on the Gengar for sure. Makes sense just to sack the coco like this though. So it's not over, over. We've still got to, yeah. But I mean, even when the ground on comes back in this next turn, we can just dogpulse the Gengar that has to get a double protect to get around this and we can Ice Beam the ground on regardless which puts it kind of in range. And if the Gengar fails the double protect this next turn then it will go down to dogpulse for sure. So Hydragan doing some work, which is nice for us to kick off today. Shame that we haven't brought my net trick yet but we've still got one more game to go after this so hopefully we can bring it then the ground on does into the battlefield. I think even now like Kyogre should be able to deal with the ground on with Ice Beam effectively. We should take, it will take three precipice blades to get us. And like I say, the ground on, the Gengar needs to go for a double protect. The ground on needs to drag and claw the Hydragan here. We're not going to see the double protect here. We're going to see the dogpulse into the Gengar. It is going to be more than enough and we'll see what this ground on goes for. It goes for a precipice blades because it's concentrating down on to the Kyogre. It's kind of locked because then you're not concentrating down on the Hydragan, which leaves us open for an earth bar the next turn. So Hydragan doing a really nice job here, especially just taking that opportunity to get the tail end up when we needed to. And just having that added security of the focus there really helps us out. So I'm going to be able to close this one up very nicely here with an Ice Beam and a earth bar. We don't even need to worry about switching out at this point and there's the forfeit. So very good game to my opponent. Nice way for us to kick off today. So that's very good. Nice to get the Hydragan going as well because it's one of those Pokemon I think that it does have a hard time in the Ultra series, especially with all the fairy types going on. Scarf, Tapu, Lele, Xerneas. But when you don't see those sort of things and you can eliminate them, then it does a really good job. It really does. It's such a great Pokemon. It's done so well in past formats. It'd be nice to see it be able to get some limelight in the Ultra series. But it might be a bit too far for it to go. We'll hop over into our main screen while we await our next opponent of the episode. So hopefully it's not too long and we'll click out of Trainer Music. I've heard people don't like Trainer Music. They've heard it far too many times, but we'll go with No Cross My Vision 2 because why not? Why not? I've kind of been good with No Cross My Vision 2 recently. I've kind of held off playing it too much. Maybe once or twice a week. But we've got an next opponent from Japan. 1572 rated player. So we'll hop straight into Team Preview. Okay, so our next opponent today is running a team of Groudon, Incineroar, Salamence, Tapu, Fini, Xerneas, and Thunderous Incarnate. So we've got that Xerneadon build. It's quite standard other than the Thunderous there that's going to be a bit of a problem for our team to deal with. But right, I think Lunala's still going to be good here. It's a good countermeasure to the opposing Xerneas if it does decide to set up. Maybe we go Kyogar as well initially. Although, Minetric could be good in this match. Just to deter the Thunderous from throwing out any big electric type attacks, it's probably going to go torn and that's kind of why I want to have Lele in the back to switch in rather than anything else. Do we want Minetric here? I mean, it's good against Tapu, Fini, but then Cortana's just as good as well. So we could actually bring Kyogar, Tapu, Lele in the back and then Cortana. Yeah, I think I like that. So we'll lock in with that. We'll full goal Hydragan in this match because the Xerneas pressure there. Other than the Xerneas though, I mean, Hydragan does really well, but if my opponent brings Xerneas, it's going to sit on the field. It's going to be firing out attacks and that locks you out, bringing really Hydragan onto the field. And I think by leading Kyogar with Lunala, we should put enough pressure onto the Incineroar to kind of make it think twice about staying in because of the potential switch out into Tapu, Lele. We're going to see Incinero grow out on. Now, if my opponent's running a faster grow out on, we're going to be in an extremely strong position going into this first turn. We do have the fake out to worry about from the Incineroar, of course, which is cycled off right now, but we'll see who primal reverts first. I've got to imagine the grow out on well, yeah, so we'll get our rain up. Put us in a nice position because we've got that option to switch in Tapu, Lele, turn one and just water spout and, you know, the ground on probably get the precipice blades off, but at the same time, we'll get some good damage onto both targets. Kind of tempted just to do that really, preserve Lunala as well for later in this match, if I can. Yeah, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. There's not many times where you get yourself in a position like this, so, yeah, we'll just switch in Lele and go water spout. Like, even after a precipice blades, we should be in a good enough spot to take down the ground on if it decides to stay in. I doubt it does. I think it'll switch out. I think the Incineroar as well probably go fake out into the Kyoka here. So if we can catch that, that would be amazing. And then anything coming in on the switching and we'll be able to, we'll be able to nuke with a water spout here. So, we'll switch good old Lunala out. Keep the bat for later. There's Lele coming onto the field. We'll activate this psychic train. Now we know we're going to be taking impressive with blades from the ground on. I think if it stays in, there's a fake out. Yep. And, oh! Oh, it's a speed tie. Wow. Unless, hmm, it has to be a speed tie. There's no way the ground on goes for a roll there. Let me take a massive advantage like so early on in this game. Okay. Zoneus and... We're going to see Zoneus and Salamence. There's the Zone. There is the Zoneus. We can't roll it out though. That's the thing. That's going to be the type of thingy. So we'll get rid of our psychic train. But at this point, it doesn't really matter too much. How are we going to get around this? We need to, I think, hmm, good magic room and water spout. It gives us a bit more room to operate. Do we do that water spout? It's just a kind of one, like we've got cotton on the back, which will deal with these pretty effectively. But we need to get our psychic train out in the field. And if we magic room, we can't utilize our... We can't utilize our psychic train, our psychic seed, which makes it a bit harder. So, do we just double attack? Zoneus, I think, here. Yeah. And then the next turn, switch. We get a special defense drop. That would be huge. Yeah, there's the gym. So there's nothing we can do to really stop this. But we'll get enough damage onto it. All we need to do is try and maneuver our board position around where we can get our Lele back onto the field with the psychic train and then get Carton out and then deal with both of these things pretty, pretty effectively. But we need that psychic seed boost. And you've got to think twice about using the magic room because utilizing the magic room would have been really great. It would have given us an extra turn. But it's not going to be enough to effectively deal with how we need it to. So we're going to go get Lunala in. Do we protect Kyogre? Yeah, let's protect Kyogre here. Because maybe the Zoneus, it's not going to like taking a Skald at this point. But it's just all about now getting the Carton around to the field. The Finnees definitely in leaf blade range. So we've got that. Zoneus actually protecting here. He's going to protect on our Kyogre, protect. We're going to see. Finnega fall. I see wind. Okay. We'll break our Shadow Field, which does make Lunala a bit more vulnerable. I feel like you have to go Dazzling Gleam here because you're either going to take a Z-Moon from Lunala or you're going to take a Skald from Kyogre. And although we can't burn it, Skald's still going to do a decent amount of damage even after these boosts. And I would even say it might be in range. It'd be very close. I'm going to see Moonblast. It's going to be into Lunala. So we will lose Lunala here. It's fine. It's a shame we lost our Shadow Shield. And there's a Skald. Come on. Come on. Oh, it's so close. So close. So close. Heal Pulse. Oh no. That's not so good. So I think now what we'll do is we will get our Tabillelion to the field. I don't want to bring Kotaro until I lose something. We'll go for a Psy-Kick into... Did we go into it? Hmm. There's no point. And I could... Could be... Hmm. We could skill swap the Zernius. Take away its fairy or a boost. Um... And just protect. And if Lele... But with them unlocked in, it's... No, we'll be better off just Psy-Kick. Into... We're just going to proc a barrier on the finish. It's definitely a leaf blade range. You want to leave that low. And I'm just going to Psy-Kick into the Zernius here. And I'm just going to go for a Psy-Kick there. If we lose Lele, then that's fine. Because that opens the door for Kotaro to come in. Yeah, Minblast. We're going to go into the Kyogre, so we'll get this Psy-Kick off. He'll pass. Of course, we're going to continue to see that, I think. But that's alright. Because we just want to keep Zernius in a position where it's... You're probably going to chase down the Kyogre now. I think... I think that's what we'll do. That's what you would do. I'd imagine. Hmm. Minblast into Kyogre. Now into Lele. Huh. We could pick up a burn here, you know. And although you will get the Heal Pulse off with the Finny, you get a burn. That would be huge. Burn! Burn! Heal Pulse. Now we've got to make a little bit of a... a decision. Um... We get Kotaro onto the field. Do we attack the Zernius? Or do we get the Beast Boost attack in the Finny? Because there's a part of me that would think... Maybe you go for the Katana with the Zernius. But maybe there's a part of me that thinks you'd probably protect. Because I don't think we'd take two Moonblasts. That's the thing. Let's get rid of the Finny. Let's get rid of that Heal Pulse support. Yeah, they're going for that Protect. Okay, that's fine. Yeah, they want to try an Icy Windus. But this would be more than enough to take down the Finny. Get a Beast Boost and now we lock the game. I think my opponent then needed to attack. And I think you just need to attack the Katana to deal with it. Because now this Katana, as we'll hopefully see, it will take a Moonblast pretty comfortably. Um... We do have the Protect if you wanted to, but I think a Smart Strike plus one is going to be more than enough to take down this Zernius. But it was like... Yeah, so Moonblast... Into Katana. Psychic Seed Boost. Yeah, I mean, we take that pretty well. Smart Strike plus one. That's why I think you needed to like attack it last turn. Because you do that, well, actually takes it. Plus one Bulky Zone. And it's called enough to pick up the Kao there. So I think a little bit... I can see where my opponent was coming from there because they want to try and catch out us targeting the Zernius. But at that stage, it's like... The Tapu Fini is so disruptive to what we're trying to do and it's kind of obvious that you would want to go for that Speed Controller. I think you need to attack into the Katana. If you do that then... We get rid of the Fini, but then you can dazzle the next turn and you take away any kind of threat from the Katana by doing that anyway. But good games. I hope you guys have enjoyed today's games. Two wins to kick us off today. So that's good. That's good progress. And I hope to continue that for the rest of the week. We've seen a nice few options from the team. We haven't really seen very much of the Mega Minetric, which is the main man of the team. So hopefully going into tomorrow's episode, we'll see a bit more from Minetric as we go through this week. Thank you so much for tuning in, guys. I look forward to hearing your comments and hearing from you all very soon. And we'll be back with another episode tomorrow. So until then, take care of yourselves and bye-bye.