Fugui could only accept his fate—what could he do, when it was his father who gave him that name?
As he spoke, he tossed two Poké Balls. Two Pokémon arced down from the air and landed.
Pokémon: Excadrill
Sex: Male
Type: Ground / Steel
Ability: Sand Rush (In sandstorm, Speed doubles.)
Aptitude: Orange
Basic Moves: —
Egg Moves: —
......
Pokémon: Pupitar
Sex: Male
Type: Rock / Ground
Ability: Shed Skin (At intervals, the user has a one-third chance to cure its own status condition.)
Aptitude: Red
Basic Moves: —
Egg Moves: —
Auron studied the two for a while, then said to Fugui, "Not bad. Have you decided on your next Pokémon?"
Fugui answered, excitement bubbling up. "I have—Steelix. I want a Steelix like Uncle Dax Jonas's."
Yu Xiuzhu froze. Good kid—calls me "brother," calls Dax "uncle." I just lost a whole generation for free?
"No," Auron said with a shake of his head. "Steelix doesn't bring that much to a Sand team."
Within Sandstorm builds, Steelix's role really wasn't obvious. The Ground/Steel typing was already covered by Excadrill. Steelix's upside was sky-high physical Defense, but its flaws were even clearer: low Speed, too many weaknesses, poor counter-pressure—its niche was awkward to say the least.
Off to the side, Yu Xiuzhu felt like he'd been caught in the cross-fire. So we were just talking about evolving Onix for me—and now, not a moment later, Steelix 'doesn't do much in Sand'…
"What's with you?" Dax asked, eyeing Yu's pained expression.
"Don't ask. If you ask, it hurts."
"Master, then what do you think I should pick next?" Fugui asked.
Auron thought for a moment. "You've already got your weather setter, Tyranitar, and your attacker, Excadrill. So next, you need pieces for defensive synergy."
No sooner had he said it than Yu Xiuzhu's face changed. He hooked an arm around Dax and started dragging him toward the door.
"What are you doing?!" Dax yelped as Yu hauled him away.
"What do you think I'm doing? The man's teaching his disciple—are we supposed to stand here and listen? Move it. Or are you planning to eavesdrop?"
Dax sighed. He didn't bother arguing and let himself be towed outside.
Ji Qianyi wasn't that interested in Sand teams either, so she followed the two of them out with a smile.
Auron opened his mouth, helpless. He'd wanted to say it's really fine—but before he could, they were gone.
"Hahaha—Xiaoze, teach him well. You've got this. Dad's stepping out too," Ashen Vale laughed, clapping Auron on the shoulder before heading out after them.
"Ahh…" Auron let out a breath, then turned back to Fugui. "Forget them. Where were we?"
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"Master, you were saying my team needs something for defensive synergy."
"Right. In broad strokes, the biggest threats to Sand are Fighting, Water, and Ground. So we counter them by covering type matchups appropriately.
"First, split your defensive slots into two flavors: attackers that patch blind spots, and true supports / tanks."
"Start with the tanks: Gastrodon. It's an excellent Water wall—Storm Drain turns every Water move into a non-issue. Water/Ground is a great resist profile, and once Storm Drain triggers, its damage is respectable too.
"Second, Amoonguss. Grass/Poison, with access to Rage Powder and Spore—it has real strategic weight. In Sand, it checks Water, and anything the Sand core can't muscle through you can put to sleep and dogpile. Clear Smog lets you blank out setup. Don't tunnel too hard on putting things to sleep, though—if an ally can secure KOs, it's often better to Rage Powder and enable your partner."
"Third, Jellicent—Water/Ghost. Dual defensive typing on the special/physical axes. Compared with a standard Sand build, it's even better in Trick Room Sand. Water Spout under Trick Room hits like a truck. If you don't need it to deal damage, it can just play the role of a proper wall."
"Mhm. 'Trick Room Sand' is an advanced variation—I'll walk you through it properly later."
"Mm-hm!" Fugui's eyes shone. He suddenly realized this master really knew a lot—much more than his brother.
"The ones I just named skew defensive. Now two that skew offensive."
"Yes, Master!"
"First, Togekiss. I already told your brother—4× resist to Fighting, can attack and support, very solid baseline, a classic glue pick.
"Second, Salamence. Dragon/Flying lets it punish Ground, Water, and Fighting all at once, and Water + Fire + Flying coverage fills gaps that Sand cores often lack. It can also boost team speed via Tailwind. Its only real drawback is availability—it's a pseudo-legendary, so it's rare."
"Third, Alakazam, pure Psychic: classic fast, frail special attacker. It absolutely deletes enemy Fighting-types. With Magic Guard, it ignores sandstorm chip entirely."
As he said it, a thought struck Auron. In Sand, the best Mega attackers are actually Mega Alakazam and Mega Salamence. But Mega Evolution hadn't been developed yet, so this was the best he could do for now.
That thought soured his mood a little. I've got to accelerate the work on Mega Stones. If I can, I want them in place before term starts.
After all, it wasn't just about creating Mega Evolution. From the official standpoint, if you wanted to roll it out to society, then at minimum you had to guarantee that a Pokémon, after Mega Evolving, remained fully conscious, didn't go rogue, and still obeyed its Trainer.
That was one of the crucial prerequisites. Next, every Pokémon capable of Mega Evolution would need its post-Mega data recorded and registered. So from the outside it might look simple—find a Pokémon, give it a Mega Stone, Trainer wears a Key Stone, trigger the evolution, done, publicize it.
Absolutely not. Look at Steelix as an example. It had been nearly a month already, and they were still waiting for the official documentation before promoting Steelix as Onix's evolution across society.
And yes, part of that delay was because Auron himself kept dragging his feet on the paper "On Onix's Evolution into Steelix: Methodology."
"Master, Master—anything else?"
Fugui's eyes sparkled. Everything Auron had just said had opened a new world to him. He'd never imagined you could play Sand this way. He'd always thought his big brother had the deepest understanding of Sand—turns out, his brother had only scratched the surface.
"There's more…" Auron rubbed his chin. "There's Reuniclus, which fills a role similar to Alakazam—special Psychic attacker, but better in Trick Room. And Milotic, which overlaps with Gastrodon as a bulky Water—different toolkit, same slot."
"And what you need to think about right now is your next Pokémon and Pupitar's evolution path. If you don't evolve into Tyranitar, your Sand team has no meaning. Without weather, you can't call it Sand. You can't just bring a Sand team and literally click Sandstorm every match—that'd be idiotic."
"Also, you need to factor in school starting. There isn't much time."
Brothers, here's an extra update for you all—I took the day off today.)
(End of this chapter)