As the match loaded in, Serena's enhanced Snow Team, built around Alolan Ninetales and Baxcalibur, continued to climb the ranked ladder with a clean winning streak.
The core game plan was extremely straightforward:
Lead with Alolan Ninetales to set Snow
Immediately deploy Aurora Veil
Then let the fully empowered Baxcalibur do nothing but attack relentlessly
Simple. Brutal. Effective.
Of course, once battles reached higher ranks, things were never that simple.
Weather stealing, tempo control, positioning—these factors all had to be taken into account.
After a string of consecutive wins, Serena finally matched against an opponent named
"The Wind-Like Billiards Boy", an international player from the Johto region.
Pokémon Masters EX was a global, interregional game.
Running into foreign Trainers with strange IDs and unusual Pokémon nicknames was completely normal.
That said, if this were a novel, everyone would obviously have eaten a universal translation candy,
all speaking Donghuang dialect fluently.
In anime, everyone spoke Japanese.
In Hollywood movies, everyone spoke English.
Consistency was important, after all.
The opposing Trainer's Pokémon lineup was filled with Johto-typical species:
Typhlosion, Politoed, Mantine, Togekiss, Ambipom, Sunflora…
The strange part was that every single Pokémon had its nickname changed to something like
"XX-taro".
Politoed-taro.
Mantine-taro.
Typhlosion-taro.
Sunflora-taro.
It gave off a confusing vibe—
half Rain Team, half Sun Team, yet neither fully committed.
At its core, however, this was just a multi-type balanced team.
"Alolan Ninetales is very fast," Serena muttered during team preview, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
"It's great for setting Aurora Veil first… but if Politoed comes in to steal weather, things could get tricky."
"So we won't lead Ninetales this time. Let's see how Politoed is played first."
The chat instantly reacted.
[Solid analysis, I've learned everything already.]
[Start already! I'm starving for action!]
With her steadily growing popularity, the number of live comments was clearly increasing.
The stream finally had real interaction and atmosphere.
On the other side of the ocean, a carefree Trainer wearing a cap and goggles cracked his knuckles as the battle loaded.
"So many Ice- and Grass-types?"
"Watch my Typhlosion-taro burn everything down!"
"Using Flamethrower feels good once—
using it forever feels even better!!!"
"Go! Incineroar! Rillaboom!"
Serena opened with the classic 'Tiger–Ape Duo'.
A Snow Team… without Ninetales or Baxcalibur on the field.
Perfectly reasonable.
As for The Wind-Like Billiards Boy, he led with Typhlosion and Ambipom.
Slap—!
Ambipom immediately struck Incineroar—
then struck again.
Fake Out!
Fake Out: A priority move that only works on the first turn after entering battle, causing the target to flinch.
The Pokémon infamous for greeting others with a slap—Incineroar—
had finally experienced what it felt like to be on the receiving end.
But almost instantly, Incineroar's best buddy struck back—
Slap—!
Rillaboom smacked Typhlosion clean across the face.
Typhlosion: ???
"It was Ambipom who hit first—why are you slapping me?!"
The first turn ended like nothing happened.
Ambipom and Rillaboom exchanged slaps.
Thanks to Grassy Terrain, both Incineroar and Typhlosion recovered a bit of HP, undoing the minor damage.
"Looks like the opponent saw how many Pokémon on our team fear Fire," Serena said calmly.
"They're switching into Sun Team mode."
"In that case—
Rillaboom, use U-turn!
Incineroar, use Parting Shot!"
After a tense exchange of prediction and mind games,
Rillaboom was focused down by Flamethrower and Ambipom's combo attacks before it could U-turn out.
Incineroar, however, successfully used Parting Shot, spitting out a stream of incomprehensible Pokémon trash talk before retreating.
Then, at last—
The true stars of this live team showcase entered the battlefield.
Alolan Ninetales.
Baxcalibur.
"Two fragile Ice-types?"
"Let's see how my Typhlosion-taro deals with this—"
Ambipom continued spamming Double Hit,
while Typhlosion launched another Flamethrower.
But Ninetales moved first.
Aurora Veil activated.
Under Aurora Veil's protection, Flamethrower's damage was massively reduced.
On top of that, Baxcalibur's Dragon typing further mitigated Fire damage.
The attack failed to seriously injure it.
Instead—
It triggered Baxcalibur's unique ability.
Thermal Exchange activated!
Thermal Exchange:
When hit by a Fire-type move, this Pokémon's Attack rises by one stage and it cannot be burned.
Crackle—!
As the ice on its body melted away, the halberd-like blades along Baxcalibur's back grew sharper.
It entered Stage Two.
Crimson Godzilla Mode.
"Now—Baxcalibur, use Scale Shot!"
Whoosh—!
Whoosh—!
Whoosh—!
Baxcalibur charged forward, launching razor-sharp scales at Typhlosion.
One hit.
Two hits.
Three hits.
Four hits.
Typhlosion was instantly knocked out.
The reason was simple.
Baxcalibur was holding the item Loaded Dice.
This item drastically increased the chances of multi-hit moves landing 4–5 times.
With Thermal Exchange already boosting its Attack,
a single Scale Shot deleting a frail Fire-type wasn't surprising at all.
What followed was nothing short of a massacre.
Alolan Ninetales slowed the field with Icy Wind
Baxcalibur, protected by Snow + Aurora Veil, began harvesting the remaining Pokémon with Icicle Spear
Thanks again to Loaded Dice, Icicle Spear consistently hit 4–5 times at full power.
Baxcalibur was one of the rare Pokémon whose both STAB moves were multi-hit attacks—
making it absurdly compatible with Loaded Dice.
No recoil.
No drawback.
Only stable, overwhelming damage.
Once you used it, there was no going back.
"YOU — LOSE —"
The dim words appeared on screen.
On the other side, The Wind-Like Billiards Boy, Akane, froze.
"…What the hell?"
"I can't break through it at all."
"And why do Icicle Spear and Scale Shotalways hit four or five times?!"
Brother.
Your team—
This is completely insane.
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