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Game strategy: Building a Wally & Gallade team in Pokemon Masters EX

I really enjoy playing Pokemon Masters, it's my guilty pleasure phone game. One of the things I enjoy about it is that there's a big search space for team combinations. I was thinking about who I might want to 6 star next, which could be a whole essay on its own, but one of the Sync Pairs I'm considering is Wally & Gallade.

Wally & Gallade is definitely not the best Fighting striker out there, but I happen to both really like Wally and have him at 3/5 stars. As a striker, Wally's upgraded Sync move would be an all targets physical Fighting type move. That's good, but Mega Gallade's physical move is Close Combat. I have a pretty big idea of the builds I like to play, and the debuffs from Close Combat are not something I typically like. So, it seemed obvious to go for the Sync Move upgrades, and use the rest for Focus Blast support. The low accuracy can be buffed away, and Focus Blast just sounded more fun to me anyway.

Since I decided to build Wally around Focus Blast, I knew I wanted to have a sync pair that has Accuracy Up. My second 6 star was Lilly & Clefable, because I was really interested in the combos that an X Accuracy All could enable. However, I decided to go with Sabrina & Alakazam, because the Sixth Sense boost on Wally would be really good: healing, accuracy up, and special attack up all in one move. I decided to pick Leaf & Eevee because they're another really great 6 star I have available, plus I get a small Kanto theme buff. Finally, I synced Leaf & Eevee out for Tackle flinch spam, so that's a good way to run up my Sync Moves. To test it out, I decided to do Latias' challenge Part 2. I figured that was an easy way to see the impact of my changes.

First try

  1. Leaf & Eevee (EX) (5/5)
  2. Sabrina & Alakazam (EX) (5/5)
  3. Wally & Gallade (3/5)

This list wound up being very clunky. Everyone was fighting for the Sync move, which is not a fun feeling. On the one hand I really wanted the double sync buff from either of the support pairs early, when they're the most powerful. Leaf & Eevee want to go first to give those excellent buffs, but Sabrina & Alakazam want to go first to Mega evolve. Not to mention, this whole time Wally & Gallade really want to go first so they can Mega as well. Plus, if I were to 6 star Wally, he would want to go first even more to maximize his sync move damage. I decided to get the two double sync buffs first while I knocked out Flygon and Alakazam. This list wound up doing good damage with that strategy, but it didn't feel like I wanted it to. I wanted to showcase Wally, and instead he took a backseat and let the Supports buff him up. It wasn't a good way to decide if I want to 6-star him or not.

Second try For the second try, I knew two things. I wanted Wally to have a much better claim to the first Sync Move, and I wanted to tailor his support to be a little more specific. The accuracy buffs were essential, so once again I considered Lillie & Clefairy. However, I also checked the rest of my Accuracy Up pool to see if there were other options. I have had Sygna Suit Elesa & Rotom for a while, but only as a 1/5, so I just don't have a lot of Sync grid options with her. However, even without the sync grid, she brings a lot to help out Wally. X Special Attack All helps Focus Blast, Thundershock provides cheap moves, and Breathtaking! gives +1 Accuracy to a pair. The even better thing about Breathtaking! is that if a sync buff is already active, it provides +2 Accuracy instead! Not only are this exactly the support elements I'm looking for, it supports Wally taking the first Sync move. To round out, I picked Diantha & Keldeo. This is another one I only have at 1/5, but Keldeo is just so freaking excellent it doesn't need the Sync grid to be excellent. Aura Sphere and Move Gauge Up synergize really with Focus Blast and keep the team moving.

  1. Sygna Suit Elasa & Rotom (1/5)
  2. Diantha & Keldo (1/5)
  3. Wally & Gallade (3/5)

This second version instantly felt so much better. Wally boosted twice, Elesa finished his Special Attack buffs, and then I ran up the move counter with Thundershock and Aura Sphere. Wally took the first Sync move and would have been able to get some great splash damage if he had been 6 starred. After that, Elesa maxed his accuracy and the stat reductions from Aura Sphere had weakened Latias a lot. Wally was doing excellent damage with Focus Blast and was able to through one a half health bars.

Power creep always hurts the most on Strikers to me, because that role has always been about big numbers. I honestly thought whatever I could come up with for Wally & Gallade would just not be comparable to Bea & Sirfetch'd. This team felt really good and did exactly what I wanted to do. I think it would only work better with EX unlocked. Honestly I am really surprised at how fun this felt to play. I'm still not sure if Wally & Gallade is who I want to 6 star next, but they have definitely proved their capability. Ironically they have some pretty heavy competition from Diantha & Keldeo, since they're so general purpose. And as always I'm also considering adding another type to the 6 star supports.

#pokemon masters #video game