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Previous: https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=166505

Here's the team for our final fight. Zygarde and Arceus are here to be big strong legendaries, Redcap Pika is here because they are an incredible support mon, Ohio Rizz the Grimmsnarl is here because they're a really good dual-screen setter, and Eve the Vaporeon and Kyubey the Mimikyu are here because they were the first mons we got and it felt wrong to end things without them.

Up the stairs is an ominous hallway leading to the arena. Our final opponent awaits...

: If we've met before, forgive me.

: I don't remember weaklings.

Wow, rude. Implying that you've killed me before and didn't recognize me.

We're here for some good, old-fashioned karma. And also saving the world.

: No. I refused the lies.

Ummm?

: There, you see? I can't even speak of [ERROR. TEXT MISSING].

Something is real fucky with the world if it can censor people as they speak.

: Not that it matters. Steel burns in my veins. The world is broken. It cannot be fixed, only reborn.

Yeah, why did you kill the dreamer?

: When the PC presented me with Zacian, it brought me power and... Clarity.

: 13 children had come before me. 13 Champions. Children that rose above the rest, forging their souls into offerings.

: I shall never sing for her grotesque indulgence.

Ooookay, but that doesn't answer my question. Unless you killed the dreamer to spite the seamother?

: Enough talk.

Yeah, enough chitchat. Let us let our overly powerful monsters do the talking for us.

Music - Champion (If you were observant during the update I fought red, you might have noticed that the name of this track foreshadowed it's use here!)

This is it. The final battle. Let's try not to die too horribly!

Blue starts off with Gyarados and Gengar, his two mons he kept for sentimentality. Gyarados intimidates us on entry to lower our attack; thankfully Arceus is a special attacker here.

The Gengar can mega evolve, of course. Mega Gengar has the ability Shadow Tag, which means that we can't swap out our Pokémon while it is out. Quite annoying!

Ohio Rizz has Prankster, which means they get to go first when using non-damaging moves (like the Reflect screen they just put up); they survive a thunderbolt from Gengar so maybe they'll get to put up the other screen next turn.

Arceus gives us some much-needed speed control with Tailwind, but unfortunately Blue was offended by the prospect of dual screens and had both his leads attack Ohio. I guess we'll have to make do with only physical defense. I decide to send out Redcap Pika to replace Ohio so that Arceus can get an attack buff from them entering the field.

Gengar isn't the only Mega Evolution Blue has, as Gyarados also Mega Evolves. It seems Blue is limited to the one mega evolution per turn rule that we're also capped by, so that's good. Mega Gyarados is Water/Dark and has the ability Mold Breaker (allows it to ignore abilities that affect moves, such as abilities that grant immunity to certain types).

Sadly, Gyarados will not be attacking this turn because of Fake-Out. Incredible move in Doubles.

Arceus and Gengar trade blows, with Arceus coming out on top.

Redcap gets a good priority hit in on Gyarados, while Arceus finishes off Gengar. Despite Reflect being up, Gyarados hits a decent amount with Waterfall, so Arceus will need to heal up next turn probably.

And here we are, the dog of the hour; Zacian. Hinted at as early as the second post of this LP, the mon that's been most associated with the Champion.

I mentioned back then that I considered Zacian the weakest link; since then the Champion got some team changes (he used to lead with Ho-Oh and Lugia, which were a terrifying wall that ended a lot of runs on their own; I personally find his new leads much more manageable to deal with (which makes sense, he's eschewing greater power for sentimentality reasons), but I also don't know whether I'd consider them a weaker link than Zacian. Not because Zacian is bad; Zacian is terrifying and very effective at punching holes through even the most defensive mons; but Zacian is a strong Pokémon in singles; they don't have many good mutitarget options and they aren't a lead (so you have time to prepare for them). Compared to some of the other nasty stuff on Blue's team, they're mostly just a mean gutpunch you have to put some thought into as opposed to a wall you need a full-on gameplan for.

Either way, I don't like your speed tier miss Zacian, you get the paralyze.

Arceus heals up, and then takes a bit of damage from Gyarados. So long as no one attack deals half of Arceus's health, they have a lot of sustain through recover.

Zacian one shots Redcap Pika as revenge for getting nuzzled. Zacian doing Zacian thing.

I do want to get rid of Zacian before they take out any of my other star players, so a Judgement followed by Thousand Arrows brings both of them down to red.

Sadly, Zacian finishes off Arceus before Zygarde finishes the job, so we're down one of our heavy hitters. Thankfully, both Zacian and Gyarados go down to another Thousand Arrows, so we're currently 3 for 3 on mons fainted.

Groudon and Kyogre? What are you, stupid?

Primal versions of both, I assume? You know that having both on your team means one of them is a weak link, right?

Groudon's gonna go Primal, and replace the heavy rain with strong sunlight, and Kyogre is jus-

...

Okay so they just combined their weather effects together. So normally, the Primal versions of Kyogre and Groudon set a weather effect that, for Kyogre, prevents Fire types moves from being used and buffs Water moves by 50%, and for Groudon, prevents Water type moves from being used and buffs Fire moves by 50%.

Parhelion Storm only applies the move prevention to the opponents side, so we can't use fire or water moves, while Blue is free to reap the benefits.

By some really dumb luck, Zygarde and Kyubey avoid Groudon's signature move (85% accuracy move, so not super rare but still pretty lucky).

Don't worry, in case you had any false hope that Zygarde survived the turn, Kyogre is here to happily freeze those hopes. 4x weakness to ice hurts.

Kyubey gets a swords dance off, but I'm worried it might not even matter.

Eve comes out and survives a hit from Precipice blades and then gets a minor heal from Water Absorb on Origin Pulse. Kyubey takes the free hit their ability gives.

Kyubey takes out a decent chunk of Kyogre's health (at the cost of some hefty recoil), but Eve's options for attacking are minimal thanks to the Drought effect. Ice Beam does scratch damage to Groudon.

Not that it matters; Steel burns in the Champion's veins. Our mons cannot survive, only perish.

Champion resets: 1

Well... That sure was a first attempt! We didn't even get to see the Champion's last mon.

Going back, lets see what the other options would have given us. I'm here to challenge you.

: Why? So that you may bleed yourself on the cursed altar? I killed one child, so she drowns them all. How loving.

He continues on about how something is wrong with the world.

Getting the impression the Seamother is a bit of a jerk!

: Yes. And I will prove the lie of our unworthy "Mother".

He continues on about the PC gifting him Zacian. That's all the dialogue we missed. Given how he repeats some stuff, I wonder if he had most of this speech planned out in advance.

Enough talk. Let's figure out how to kick your ass.

Redcap Pika can oneshot Gyarados with Sky's Vengeance, and Zygarde can oneshot Gengar, so we have a way to take care of both of the leads on the first turn.

Not that it matters; Zacian and Kyogre come out next and sweep the entire team.

Champion resets: 2

This run was interesting; I ended up paralyzing Zacian and Kyogre, and got some lucky accuracy drops from Muddy Water, letting Eve set up Aqua Ring and stay alive for a bit from all the failed attacks. Unfortunately it didn't end up working, but I found it quite amusing.

Champion resets: 3

A run where I almost took down Kyogre, and inversely a run that ended early because I gave Arceus the wrong plate and they got owned.

Champion resets: 5

Okay, we need more of a gameplan instead of just minor tweaks.

We aren't utilizing the leads enough. We have an excellent opportunity to set up on these weak fools. Paralyze them...

And buff our defense to infinity with Cosmic Power!

Redcap Pika can bypass Shadow Tag via Volt Switch, so we can buff up Arceus's attack really high as well.

A snag with this is that Arceus alone cannot handle both Kyogre and Groudon on the field at the same time. Having them both on the field at the same time is a lose condition.

Champion resets: 6

...At the same time, huh?

Okay lets get crazy here. A mon I overlooked and didn't consider viable for the throne gauntlet is Durant, but perhaps I was mistaken.

You see, Durant can learn Entrainment, a move that forces the target to have the user's ability. This normally wouldn't be relevant... Except Durant can also have Truant as an ability, an ability that forces the user to skip every other turn. It was an ability given to Slaking to balance them, and then given to Durant as a hidden ability as a pun (because Tru*ant*), but we're going to go wild with this.

Meet SoTrueAnt, our newest team member. They will be replacing Ohio Rizz, as screens aren't very helpful for us.

Champion resets: 8

But first, a few more resets as I experiment with Arceus plates.

Once more, with feeling!

First off, we paralyze the leads and set up some speed control. Tailwind is super important here; I want SoTrueAnt to be able to move first.

I went with Steel-type arceus. This isn't the most ideal because Blue has some fire, ground and fighting moves that are threatening, but it makes setting up against the leads a lot less of a threat.

Gyarados gets a lucky freeze on Redcap Pika...

But Redcap gets a lucky turn-1 dethaw and manages to Volt Switch.

I brought out Eve here with the expectation that they'll faint and I can send out SoTrueAnt afterwards, but might as well rolls for some accuracy drops from Muddy Water.

You fool, you have activated my trap card!

Gengar not only no longer has Shadow Tag (which means we can switch freely), but now they are stuck with an ability that render them useless every other turn.

Two turns later (when both Gengar and SoTrueAnt are no longer loafing around) SoTrueAnt gets off a Sand Attack to lower accuracy for good measure, before being taken out by Gengar.

A little bit of setup...

A few sacrifices...

And we're ready to dance.

Our gameplan is simple: Gengar is Blue's dead weight. We will filter all of his mons through his other team slot, preventing any unholy synergies from occuring as we sweep. I can't take full credit for the idea; a random comment from a pro-Pokémon player who nuzlocked the game in the discord inspired this strategy.

Kyogre is down. The weathers combining will still happen if Groudon comes out before the heavy rain wears off, but neither fire nor water types being unavailable is a concern to me.

Pikachu Nuzzles Zacian while Arceus almost oneshots them. Honestly, I think the nuzzle was a misplay.

I think a Sky's Vengeance would have been enough to take out Zacian after Judgement and Pikachu might have lived.

Although, maybe not. I really doubt Gengar would have aimed a useless attack at Arceus.

Gengar skips a turn, so Arceus finishes off Zacian while Zygarde buffs up for Groudon.

Zygarde dodges the Precipice Blades, while Arceus takes a pretty hefty hit from them.

Zygarde takes a few potshots at Groudon while Arceus heals up between attacks.

Okay, Arceus is still above half health after that attack and Zygardes about to go down, time to send it.

Woo! Groudon down, only one mon left to take care of (not counting Gengar).

Unfortunately, Zygarde goes down to Gengar, so we'll have to solo the last mon with Arceus.

Blue's last mon is Rayquaza, completing the Weather Trio. Delta Stream activates...

And it has a new effect. When it banishes weather, it will leave behind a screen depending on the weather. Because the combined weather was up, that means we're stuck with Aurora Veil.

This is on top of Delta Stream's existing effect, which removes all of Flying type's weaknesses, turning Rayquaza's 4x weakness to ice to only a 2x weakness to ice.

And of course it's Mega Rayquaza, a Mega Evolution on top of a Legendary Pokémon's incredible stats, along with the added benefit of being the only Mega Evolution to not require a held item to Mega Evolve (letting them hold literally anything).

A Mega Rayquaza that is nearly 30 levels above Arceus.

I don't know what Mega Rayquaza is holding, if anything, but I can't imagine that power has been used for good.

Okay, let's heal up and anticipate the worst...

Pfffhahahahahaha

Is that the best you can do?

Pitiful.

Pitiful!!!

Ahahaha you can't even touch me.

That Judgement did that much damage through Aurora Veil; as soon as the Veil wears off Rayquaza is getting blown up.

...Okay, good thing too, because it seems Rayquaza has wisened up and started using a super effective move on Arceus.

We can stall out a bit using recover...

I made the stupid mistake of setting up another Tailwind, being brought to low HP by Earth Power, and assuming that it was fine cause Gengar skips their next turn and I can outspeed and one shot Rayquaza. Forgetting that Rayquaza has Extreme Speed. Arceus survives, thankfully, but ooooof that was clutch.