Koga & Crobat

Remember all those Zubats you used to complain about when you were going through caves in main series Pokemon games? Yeah, one of them is back with a vengeance. Koga & Crobat come with tools that make them a highly dangerous Tech Sync Pair. Crobat is one of the fastest Pokémon in the game, ensuring that the Move Gauge recovers at a faster rate, while also coming with a Passive that prevents Speed from getting lowered. Looking to badly poison your enemy and confound them with your agility and skill? Crobat will make sure to get the job done quickly, efficiently, and silently.

Easy Access to Poison and Poison Synergy

Crobat has access to Poison Fang, which has a good chance of leaving the target Badly Poisoned. Following up on that, Crobat can use the powerful Venoshock, which will deal double damage to targets inflicted with any variant of Poison.

Packed with Utility Buffs

Koga’s supportive moves consist of more indirect buffs rather than direct offensive stat buffs, but they are highly valuable nonetheless. 

“Move Like A Shadow!” raises Crobat’s Evasion Rate and Critical Hit rate, allowing Crobat to bolster both its offensive and defensive presence, albeit in an RNG-dependent fashion. Koga’s other supportive move is X Speed, which further raises Crobat’s already high Speed.

Plus, as if that wasn’t enough, Crobat even has access to the passive skill Haste, which prevents Crobat from ever losing Speed and ensures that once its engine revs up, it’ll never stall out.

Lacks Offensive Buffs

While it’s true that Crobat can land Critical Hits easily thanks to “Move Like A Shadow!”, he sadly doesn’t have any help from Koga as far as buffing its Attack for Poison Fang or Sp.Atk for Venoshock. So Crobat, despite being a Tech Pokémon that wants to step in for a Striker, sadly lacks the requisite offensive stats or direct buffing moves (except for its buff to Critical Hit rate).

Requires Target to be Poisoned

The majority of damage done by Crobat (Venoshock spam) requires the target to be Poisoned or Badly Poisoned for full effectiveness. This means that against three units, all three have to be Poisoned for Crobat to get Venoshock’s double damage bonus; each time a target dies, Crobat needs to re-apply Poison. So in a prolonged battle, it might take a lot of turns to put Crobat in a situation where it is ready to pump out its full damage. This isn’t even taking into account theoretical endgame fights with bosses who are immune to Poison or other status effects.

Crobat has multiple potential synergies that it can take advantage of thanks to its mixed Physical and Special offenses. 

Since Poison Fang is Physical, Crobat could team up with a Sync Pair that raises Attack.

However, since Venoshock, which makes up the bulk of Crobat’s damage, is Special, Crobat greatly benefits from being partnered with a Sync Pair that raises Sp.Atk as well.

Due to the passive Haste, Crobat would gain a lot from pairing up with a Sync Pair that can further increase its Speed, allowing the team to recover Move Gauge at an absurd rate.