Should You Pull? Emma & Crobat

Not everyone who played Pokemon X and Y knows about Emma. This poor, homeless girl was part of a post-game arc where she was taken in by the international police officer Looker to act as his protege. However, she’d unknowingly fall victim to a Team Flare scientist named Xerosic and be used to steal Pokemon under the guise of the thief Essentia against her own knowledge while she slept. In fact, her Crobat was actually given to her by Xerosic to use while he used her to do his bidding. She now works as a member of the Looker Bureau in Lumiose City, Kalos, and has finally made her way to Pasio to bring new power to the often-overlooked Poison Type. All that I can say to this is Welcome Emma, it’s great to see you doing so well!

Emma & Crobat comprise a Poison Type Striker unit with a weakness to Psychic Type moves. They have high Speed and Attack, but middling Defenses. Their kit starts with Poison Fang, a 2-bar, Poison Type move that has a 50% chance to Badly Poison the target when successful. Potion comes next, and it’s exactly what we’re all used to by this point; a 2-use, on-demand 40% recovery for Emma & Crobat or a team mate. We follow this up with Here We Go! Which provides +4 Attack for Emma & Crobat and +4 Speed for the entire team. Finally, we come to Emma & Crobat’s Buddy Move; B Cross Poison. This is a 4-bar move with high base power, a built-in 100% Critical Rate, and a low chance to Badly Poison the target when successful. The catch for this one is the fact that it can only be utilized while at least one Sync Pair on the other side of the field is Poisoned or Badly Poisoned, making it a bit unwieldy due to the fact that it requires a bit of luck with Poison Fang and/or some team support to activate.

Passive Skills come next, and the list begins with Head Start 2 and its ability to lower the Sync Move counter by 2 when Emma & Crobat enter battle. Next is Toxic Freebie 4, which has 50% odds of giving Emma & Crobat the Free Move Next effect when attacking a Poisoned/Badly Poisoned opponent. And, finally, Critical Sync gives Emma & Crobat’s Sync Move 100% odds of landing a Critical Hit so long as the target doesn’t have some sort of Critical resistance up.

So let’s not beat around the bush: Emma & Crobat are good. In fact, they are the first really good Poison Type Striker that we’ve ever seen. And no, Sygna Suit Giovanni & Nidoking don’t count, as they’re technically Ground Type and just moonlighting in Poison Type damage. They hit very hard with B Cross Poison and Sync Moves, have an outstanding setup time with ever-important Speed buffs built in for added value, and their great Move Gauge management that can allow them to stand front-and-center as the team’s main attacker or off to the side in a more supportive role without taking up much of the Move Gauge. And to top all of that off, they’re Poison Type! This is one of the absolute rarest types to see good damage-dealers for, meaning this is a potential God-send for many players who have been starving to have this brand of Type Coverage on their team! And while it’s hard to overstate their value as an outright attacker, they can also play a more supportive role extremely well. Team-wide Speed buffs, early Sync Move counter support, and the ability to go very light on the Move Gauge given a little care all mean that they take up very little real estate to do their job, and they can still do that job devastatingly well even if they aren’t your team’s main damage dealing focus. So how about down-sides? Well, they are sub-par against any opponent that they can’t actually Poison for whatever reason, and struggle against targets that can recover from Poison effects repeatedly. That aside, they only hit +4 Attack naturally with Emma’s Trainer Move, they’re a bit on the frail side, and… that’s about it. Seriously, this is a very solid Sync Pair that fills a much-needed niche for many players.

Sync Grid Considerations & Lucky Skills

Sync Grid & Sync Levels

Emma & Crobat have a very solid base-kit that allows them to do their job really well right out of the box, and that’s a good thing since their grid offers very little at ⅕. Some stat boosts and attack power boosts are the highlights, though Antitoxin and Unflappable are situationally useful. ⅖ us where we start to see some utility really show up, with Virulent Toxin 2, Toxic Chance 3, Toxic Hit (Attack Up) 4, Toxic Hit (Speed Up) 9  and Toxic Power 1 standing as the real highlights, with all of the above making it easier to start going in for the kill or increasing attack damage once the Poison is already properly set. ⅗ is where the real power begins to unfold, with Toxic Power 3, Inertia,  and Ramming Speed all playing perfectly into Emma & Crobat’s base kit while providing substantial damage boosts. 

Ah, but we’re not done! This is a Sync Pair with a fully unlocked grid. And while ⅗ is entirely viable, the additional tiles unlocked at higher levels can provide some utility. At ⅘ we get Here We Go!: Catalytic Kick 9 to add a bit more move gauge support and Ruthless Toxin 9 to spread some random stat-drops, which can be potentially useful in some scenarios. Finally, 5/5 offers Venomous Sync All 9 to help out with making sure that B Cross Poison is usable while allowing for more chip damage and Team Evasive Maneuvers 4, which can be nice for a little additional team support. All-in-all, the tiles from ⅘ are nice, but ⅗ is a perfectly viable stopping point. 

EX Viability

As for EX viability: the answer is a resounding Yes! This is a Striker of a rare type that has strong Sync Nuke capabilities on their grid, so the ability to make it into an AoE attack can make it much easier to clear many stages!

Lucky Skills

For Lucky Skills, the classic Critical Strike 2 is always a big one, but this time it has some real competition. Head Start 1, when combined with Emma & Crobat’s innate Head Start 2, instantly cuts one full rotation off of the first Sync Move Cycle. The loss of damage that going this route entails is noticeable, but it’s also unlikely to be the deciding factor for most battles, so Head Start 1 may be the better option in this case due to its ability to work well on both offensive and supportive builds

Games Modes

It’s been stressed already, but Poison is a pretty rare type, so many players probably groan to themselves when a Poison weakness shows up in the Champion’s Stadium. Well, groan no more, as Emma & Crobat can tackle these stages extremely hard. And even if you don’t want to utilize them on-type, they can be great in the team’s 3rd slot, where they can utilize their great Move Gauge management to keep up the damage exceptionally well. Just make sure that you leave off the Status Immunity effect, otherwise they’re not going to do well at all. On the other hand, the Legendary Arena/Gauntlet is… a bit of a mixed-bag. While Emma & Crobat are great for Tapu Bulu while it’s weak to Poison Type attacks in particular, the fact that they need to have the opponent poisoned in order to deal any real damage means that they’re going to need to re-poison the boss every single HP bar. And while the ability to Poison is great for getting through Uxie’s gimmick, once it’s built up a Poison immunity, Emma & Crobat are basically done. Moving on, the Battle Villa is actually semi-friendly towards Ema & Crobat. They have a 100% Critical Rate on B Cross Poison and their Sync Moves, so all that they really want is a bit of Attack support to shine. And on that note, they have an MP Refresh tile for Emma’s Trainer Move, so it’s possible to fish for that and reset the stage if you don’t get it, as +4 Attack is ample to complete the job. Finally, any Extreme Battle that has any sort of a weakness to Poison Type attacks or being poisoned should fear Emma & Crobat, and even those that don’t need to watch out, as this is a very strong unit regardless! The one caveat is Full-Force Battles or other multi-stage battles, as these require that you either re-poison each new layer of enemies or keep one poisoned enemy active in order to make B Cross Poison usable and not have to resort to fishing for RNG with Poison Fang.

Team Compositions

Simple: Janine & Crobat and Coga & Crobat to get the triple-Crobat team going and you’re 100% done!

Okay, seriously though; Emma & Crobat have great move gauge management, so they can pair up with the other big Poison Types in order to obliterate anything that’s moving. Halloween Iris & Naganadel can set up Poison Zone and drop their own high-damage toxic Hyper Beams while also helping to ensure that the opposing team always has someone poisoned, while Sygna Suit Giovanni & Nidoking can hog the Move Gauge as much as they want with devastating Poison Jabs and Max Ooze, dropping huge amounts of damage between the two of them. Those two aside, this is also a fantastic general-utility unit that can fit with most Strikers and provide high damage and team support even off-type.

For supporting Emma & Crobat a bit, Red & Snorlax or Christmas Jasmine & Ampharos are great for their ability to boost on-type Poison moves or Sync Moves to a new level, Summer Hilda & Grapploct can patch up their missing Attack while managing enemy buffs, and bulk-builders like Sygna Suit Aura Cynthia & Lucario can help protect against strong AoE moves or Sync Moves. Having access to Sync Pairs like Sygna Suit Leaf & Venusaur that can spread around Poison for Emma & Crobat can also allow them to get into the work a lot faster. 

Showcase Video

In case we haven’t made it clear enough yet; yes, Emma & Crobat are worth adding to your team. In fact, they may be the highlight of the entire month. They can help out a lot of players who struggle with Poison-weak content, are capable of huge damage that even makes them useful off-type so long as they can spread around some poison, and can work on just about any other team thanks to their supportive kit potential. However, it’s probably best to wait a bit before making the commitment, as the 3.5 year Anniversary is right around the corner!

On that note; I was awake at reset and pulled her as soon as she was available.