Pokemon Y: The Absol Solo Run

Since it has now been proven that I can run solo with traded 'Mons in X&Y, the time was ripe for me to dabble into Mega Evolution. I was always forced to give that appetizing feature a pass in my solo runs, as all my Ones and Onlies so far had either been forbidden to take part in the ME fun or granted the right to mega-evolve only after the credits rolled; but now, nothing stood between me and that ultimate evolution stage. I chose Absol as my first lone ranger with ME included, because a) I've been wanting to run solo with him forever, and b) his ME looks gorgeous as all hell. All it took was a bout of Ditto breeding in my X save and a quick trip to Kilourde Town to snatch the Absolite, and voilà! My newborn Absol was ready to travel to my Y cartridge, with the Absolite safely tucked wherever 'Mons keep held items, and could start wreaking havoc right away.

Absol's name might as well be a shortcut for "Absolutely Fabulous"; because oh my, is that 'Mon dope indeed. With an Attack stat that totally goes through the roof and a great learnset covering pretty much all the bases when it comes to elemental complementarities, Absol is stellar solo run material and is hands down the best Dark 'Mon I've had the pleasure of cruising with so far. My Move pool was delightfully varied and darn efficient: Night Slash, Thunder and Psycho Cut were the main fixtures for most of my run, supplemented by Flamethrower and Ice Beam as we got closer to the Pokemon League. On top of that, I had the opportunity to experiment with Moves never handled before. The first one was Future Sight, which looked awesome on paper yet turned out to be unfit for a solo run setting and was thus promptly ditched; the second one was Me First, which I hereupon deem one of the best Normal Move ever created since the dawn of the series. Not only was it fun to use, with the surprise element of never knowing what your opponent had up their sleeve, but it was amazingly efficient as well — you'd never believe how many 'Mons wield Moves belonging to types they are weak to. I had so much fun with all these Moves that I decided to give my beloved Return a pass — all the more so as Mega Evolution could trample any type resistance anyway.

Talking about this, how was my first experience with Gen VI's star feature? The answer is: pretty awesome indeed. It was incredibly satisfying to boot up my Absol's ME in the heat of battle and watch her become that unstoppable war horse; and it was even more incredibly satisfying to be able to do it over and over again. ME beautifully made up for Absol's lack of evolution, with the added bonus of getting to see my Absol evolve in such a way multiple times over the course of my run. I daresay that ME is actually too overpowered for a solo run setting, and made all things fighting a mite too smooth and easy — especially when applied to a 'Mon as strong as Absol. Of course, that absolutely won't prevent me from using the thing again if I get the opportunity — because I just love bulldozing everything that moves in my Pokemon runs, yeah baby.

In a nutshell, this was an excellent run and very convincing first try at ME. Only time will tell if I dabble in it again, but I'd bet that it will be the case indeed. As for Absol, I will definitely give him the opportunity to shine as a lone ranger in his home region at some point; that may also allow me to test if solo runs with traded 'Mons are viable in Gen III under more stringent obedience level caps. Thanks for reading as usual, dear fellow gamers, and stay tuned for more Pokemon goodness!