Here I am with another accomplishment. I was browsing through my pokemon Bank, when I spotted this beauty:
See anything unusuall? Yep, she has the move Cotton Guard, which normally Shupette/Banette can´t learn. Only Banette with this move was distributed wia Dream World in the 2011 as a Halloween gift. My is from PAL region (as I live in Europe), where the distribution was even shorter. Apparently I soft reseted for Adamant nature and trained her to lvl 100, so even back then I had to know how rare this pokemon is. Anyway, by the looks of it, I transfered her to pokeBank so she would be safe in case I want to restart my game, and left there for several years, without getting her to gen6/7 games. Well, that was about to change.
When I looked at her, I realized something. This is pretty rare pokemon. And with good nature. Also one that can mega evolve. So why not go one step further and spice her up with ribbons?
As I didn´t yet transfered her to newer games, she was free to go to Kalos, Hoenn or Alola. My first stop was Hoenn. I checked her and by the looks of it, my past self even EV trained her. Great. I went first for the easy ribbons - Effort and Daily. I was afraid I wouldn´t be able to get the Footprint ribbon, as she was level 100 when I sent her to Hoenn, but no. The guy actually acknowledged I got her at lvl 37! Great!
Next I maxed out her contest stats. I can´t believe how easy it was in ORAS. Contest were fairly easy, mainly thanks to them maxed stats. I also finalized her moveset, giving her Shadow Claw instead of Shadow Ball and Will-o-Wisp instead of Hex.
Pokemon Amie was also a breeze. I have to say, I much prefer Amie over Refresh, and thats mainly because of them minigames. What can I say, I like them!
Then came the harder ones. Super Training and Battle Maison. I got into Super Training first. You can imagine my dismay, when I found out you need to get medals even in secret Super training, which means 12 more courses. And they are HARD. Finally I managed to beat it in alloted time and got all the medals. That one Blackbelt guy near the Brawlys gym was pretty impressed and rewarded Banette with Training Ribbon. Good. Now the only ones from Hoenn that were missing were the Royal/Gorgeous ones, Honenn Champ and Maison. Hoenn Champion was quite easy, and I needed to grind money for the three pricey ribbons anyway. After that, I realized we need to make a quick detour to Kalos. Just for a little while, to get only Kalos exclusive ribbon, the Kalos Champ one. That done, Banette returned back to Hoenn and I started to think about strategies for Maison.
I was only happy that - unlike in gen 4 - you only get two ribbons, Skillfull and Expert Battler, regardless of the type of battles you pick. In gen 4, there was ribbon for EVERY type of battles. Anyway, I chose Singles, because it seemed to be the easiest. Single battles were a breeze. Super Singles not so much. My first strategy was simply to plow through with sheer force. Didn´t work out. My second strategy was Shell Smash Focus Sash Cloyster. Also didn´t work out. So in the end I decided on TruAnt strategy with Haxorus. I used Haxorus because of Mold Breaker (no Sturdy, thank you) and Dual Chop (also no Focus Sash). It worked pretty well and on my third try I faced the Battle Chatelaine. I knew her team (Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus), so I switched back to Cloyster. Victory was pretty easy. So, all the ribbons secured here, all that remains is to go to sunny Alola.
Here we have only few new ribbons to get, namely Alola Champ, Battle Royal one and two from Battle tree. The first one was doozy. The second one took a few tries, but it was quite all right. As I was doing this in Ultra Sun, Singles battle tree was also super easy. Not so much Super Singles. I soon found out that it is harder than Maison, for a few reasons. First, AI gets smarter. Second, wider variety of pokemon they use. Third, they use Z-Moves and megas. Well, so can I. First, I tried Cloyster again. Nope, didn´t work. Next I used Durant (with mega Salamence this time) - no, also didn´t work, mainly because of Focus Sash Weavile and generally more pokemon that can´t be Entrained - namely Komala, Mimikyu and mainly Wishiwashi. In the end, I succeeded with brute force team, consisting of mega Salamence, Greninja and Mimkyu. Fine, but when I get to Red, I need Banette here.
So, for the 50th battle, I used Cloyster (again), Raichu with Lighting rod (to sponge electric attack and deal with Charizard, Lapras and Blastoise) and Banette. It started well. I sent out Cloyster, he Venusaur. Great. I set up Shell Smash. He uses Sludge Bomb. Brings me down to sash. And POISONS. So, Cloysetr died and Raichu with Banette couldn´t save the battle. Lost. So close and I lost because of stupind poison. Ok, time to grind that stupid tree again. After a while, I got back to Red. He led again with Saur, I with Cloyster. I Shell Smash, he Energy Balls (why didn´t he do this before???). I kill Saur. Next comes Snorlax. Yay. I was certain, that I bring him to low HP, but won´t kill. Icicle Spear. Well, no Sitrus, and it would be close but... he died??? Yay! Next comes Blastoise and victory is in sight. I use Rock Blast, brings him to about 75%. He uses Hydro Pump, which reveals that he is the Custap Berry set. Anyway, Hydro Pump whittles down that 1 HP Cloyster had left (overkill much there, Red???), and I sent out Raichu. I don´t know if he is in a Berry range, so I Protect just to be safe. Nope, no Berry activates. Next turn it is Thunderbolt and bye bye a go go Blastois. Finally, after several weeks of trying (and putting up with shenenigans like Rock Blast missing 3 times in a row, while opponents Focus Blast hits every time, Quick Claw activating 3 times in a row, Sing never missing (I hate you, Wallys Altaria!!!) and other nice things like that), Battle tree is conquered. I get nice stamp but more importantly, Banette gets her ribbon.
And here she is, blast from the past with all her accessories attached.
Let me just tell you one thing. I HATE BATTLE MAISON AND TREE WITH A PASSION!!!!