Like No One Ever Was (Pokemon SI)

[Skyfyre]

Author: Sky Fyre
Published: 2023

This article contains spoilers for the Scarlet and Violet games.
So, we've had Scarlet and Violet out for a week now, and a certain Trainer is already getting a reputation up there with some of Pokemon's worst offenders for toughest fight in the game. That's right, I'm talking about Nemona Glitterati, your rival. She's the first one you fight at the start, and the one you have to fight near the very end.

Nemona is infamous for more than just your final battle, however. While she starts out like a basic rival, it's clear from the start that she's a Champion-ranked Trainer and is slowly building up a team to match you. She ramps up her team rather suddenly once you start your Treasure Hunt, but you don't need to win any of those battles, so as much as Nuzlockers might gnash their teeth, I'm only going to talk about the one battle you need to win to progress the story.

In order to go to Area Zero and complete the game, you need to beat Nemona after the Elite Five (haha, sorry Geeta, but putting your Glimmora in the back? Don't think you get to call yourself Champion after that). Thankfully, you get the chance to take a break in between them and Nemona, which most players use to grind out a quick ten or twenty levels to beat her. I can't blame them, but she is beatable at her own level. You just need to be prepared with solid counters and make sure to use good items (because she will too).

The first Pokemon she throws out is always a Dudunsparce. Don't let his silly body fool you, this Pokemon is a tank (and as a quick aside, I appreciate the dialogue she shares in this battle, giving you background on her and her team, like how 'Dun' was her starter when she was six). High health with Roost to heal (on top of the Leftovers he has equipped), and a decent attack backing strong Moves like Hyper Drill and Earthquake to hit you hard. Finally he has Glare to Paralyze you if you have a tanky Pokemon of your own.

You might think about using a strong Fighting Type to beat him down fast, but that's a mistake; go for a Ghost Type. The reason for that is her second Pokemon Gothitelle. Part of what makes her so difficult to beat is that if Nemona is at a disadvantage, she won't hesitate to switch her Pokemon around, so you'll want to have good coverage for multiple Pokemon on her team. Especially Gothitelle because she has Shadow Tag, locking you in with her when she switches in. Yeah, get used to hidden Abilities, a lot of her Pokemon have that.

Gothitelle has Psychic, Focus Blast, Nasty Plot, and Trick Room. With a Sitrus Berry and high defenses, if she gets a Pokemon she can set up against, she can sweep. Focus Blast does have a low hit chance though, so a Steel or Dark Type might take her out. Spiritomb is easier to get than ever in Gen 9, able to be found in three locations in the overworld, so if you can get one of them, Gothitelle is pretty easy to take out.

Next up is Scyther. If you've played the game up to this point already, you'll remember this jerk from her challenge after the third Gym. You know, the one where she pops up right after you've won, then challenges you to a battle with Pokemon about four levels higher than Iono (who's supposed to be the third Gym Leader by order)? Yeah, Scyther's back, with the same Eviolite to boost defense making them a tough hard hitter with Technician boosted Dual Wingbeat. Thankfully for this battle your team will likely have higher BST than back then and she doesn't tend to Terastalize Scyther to add more Flying STAB to the Dual Wingbeat in this battle. He's more of a setup role in this battle, with Tailwind and U-Turn over making the most of his high attack power and Technician, but he's still a tough customer with Swords Dance this time to let him do a ton of damage if you aren't careful. Since she doesn't Terastalize him often, a Rock Type attack will do a ton of damage to him.

Next up are the Pokemon that vary based on your starter. Thankfully Nemona picks the starter 'weak' to yours, but the secondary Typings of each makes things pretty even between most. Even worse though; whatever starter you choose, she has a Psuedo-Legendary that counters it. Yeah, it's insane. So if you picked Skeledirge, she has Hydregion, Meowscarada has to fight Kommo-o, and Quaquaval takes on Salamence.

All Dragon Types means that she has resistances against your base starter Typing, but it also means that they all have quadruple weaknesses to deal with. Fairy for Hydregion and Kommo-o and Ice for Salamence.

Hydregion uses Choice Specs alongside Earth Power, Flash Cannon, Dragon Pulse, and Dark Pulse giving them good coverage to hit what they need. Will often be sent out mid-way through the battle to let Nemona switch them out again if you take advantage of the Choice Specs lock. Same for Salamence with Choice Scarf letting them hit insanely fast. Fire Fang, Earthquake, Dragon Claw, and Dual Wingbeat.

Kommo-o works a bit differently. They have a Throat Spray to let them further boost with Clangorous Soul. Find a way to get rid of this omni-boost + additional Special Attack boost or you'll be in serious trouble. Clanging Scales and Tera Blast get heavy boosts off this. Also has Body Press, giving them a STAB Fighting Move that makes use of their high defense, and will sometimes use that one before even going for an Clangorous Soul.

All of her starters have their Hidden Abilities. This gives Protean to Meowscarada letting him drop his bad Typing, Moxie so Quaquaval can build up steam and tear through your team easier, and Unaware so Skeledirge doesn't have to deal with your boosts.

Meowscarada is equipped with Choice Band to boost his high Attack further. Flower Trick always hits and always crits for high damage, Knock Off makes use of his other STAB and can remove your items, U-Turn for scouting, and Play Rough to cover his bases. A hard and fast hitter, but a priority Bug Move like First Impression can take advantage of his quad weakness.

Skeledirge uses Throat Spray to get even more of a Special Attack boost from Torch Song. Their slow speed and lack of recovery means he likely won't ever sweep, but he might take a few Pokemon out before you can stop him. Yawn can force switches, and Earth Power and Hyper Voice give him coverage against Types he'd have trouble hurting with Torch Song.

Quaquaval has a Life Orb, which will chip away at his own health, but usually not by enough to matter if he gets a few Aqua Steps in to boost his speed and sweep your team with that and Moxie. Close Combat is a good Fighting Move to make use of that STAB, and he's got Brave Bird and Rapid Spin for more coverage and hazard removal.

Something to make note of is that Nemona's team doesn't tend to have a lot of entry hazard or weather or terrain removal. If you can get those set up, it might help deal with the powerhouses she throws at you. Of course, some might still tear through anything you set up…

… Like her last but certainly not least Pokemon, Houndstone. If you've seen the memes about 'Nemona is banned!' this is why. Houndstone is a new Ghost Type that has a specific Move called Last Respects which Smogon has banned from most of their tiers, and it's one that Nemona abuses. It's a ghost Type Move with 50 base damage, and 50 more for each of Nemona's Pokemon that has fainted. Considering that she only sends out Houndstone at the very end of the battle, that means she'll hit you with a 300 power STAB boosted Move.

Houndstone also has Play Rough, Bulldoze, and Body Press. Of these, you'll only really see Body Press if you use a Normal Type against him because Last Respects is just that strong that even against a Dark Type, it's still better than Play Rough. Houndstone is pretty slow and is weak to Fire in addition to Dark and Ghost because of her Ability, Fluffy. That plus the Assault Vest she wears means that taking her down is incredibly annoying and has the potential to sweep you even with a mostly full team left if you aren't prepared. Because of Nemona's tendency to Terastalize before this, you'll rarely run into a situation where she Tera's her Houndstone to give it even more of a boost to Last Respects (thank Arceus).

Speaking of that, yeah, in addition to swapping her Pokemon around freely, Nemona's AI is also pretty free with who she Terastalizes. She rarely Terastalizes at the end of battle and some Pokemon are less likely than others, but all of them are tricky to deal with. Here's a list:

• Dudunsparce: Tera Normal (adds more damage to Hyper Drill)
• Gothitelle: Tera Dark (defensive, no STAB boost, but makes the usual counters difficult)
• Scyther: Tera Flying (gets rid of some of his Bug Type Weaknesses and lets Dual Wingbeat hit even harder)
• Houndstone: Tera Ghost (Last Respects even more deadly, rare)
• Skeledirge: Tera Dark (defensive, Types good against Dark aren't good against regular Skeledirge. Also powers up Snarl)
• Quaquaval: Tera Water (takes away some weaknesses from Fighting and powers up Aqua Step)
• Meowscarada: Tera Fairy (very rare to be used, usually Nemona just uses Protean to change their Type)
• Hydregion: Tera Poison (purely defensive. Levitate means that he's only weak to Psychic when Tera'd, which he'd otherwise be immune to.)
• Kommo-o: Tera Steel (defensive boosts. Has Flash Canon which get boosted as well)
• Salamence: Tera Fire (defensive against Fairy and Ice, boosts Fire Fang too)

Some general advice is to use Protect or other protection Moves to stall against speed control from Tailwind and Trick Room and watch out for those switches. Try to have coverage on most of your team, or see if you can otherwise force switches through Moves like Dragon Tail. Make sure to make the most use out of items as you can for this battle, and for that, follow the link to my next guide, detailing the top ten best held items in Scarlet and Violet and where you can find them. A lot of great post-Elite gear like Assault Vest and Life Orb can be found in the wild in Scarlet and Violet. Thanks for reading, and good luck against one of the toughest Trainers to date.

Spoiler: A/N:

So, to be clear here, this is not 100% accurate about the future. There's no guarantees that these specific Pokemon will be on her specific team by the time we reach the game start (obviously, since some of them are modular based on the player's choice while the ones in the fic won't be). Still, I thought it was a fun little meta view on what SI!Nemona might be like as a battle challenge for the players of the games. What do you think of the team and her potential battle choices/strategy?