'Tis the 5th Anni season, which means we get new toys to play with. I'm not interested in the popular toys, so after deliberating on my select picks and my Mix picks, I ended up deviating from my Support hoarding ways and picked... Variety Kiawe.
Kabu and Variety Kiawe are extremely obscure units that were quite hard to find, which also makes them harder to judge. The only video I could find with some depth on Kiawe was skippingmud's video, while Kabu's content was limited to CS turbos (and even then not the clean ones/fully invested ones) and gauntlet clears. I thus took it upon myself to test them both together (took me four candies, kek) and they haven't disappointed. Note that I've also done Darach in addition to the above clears, but my recording was corrupted, meaning I'll do Darach in a separate video (but it was pretty straightforward MPR gaming anyway)
These two Fire-types fit together like a match made in heaven in many ways; a lot of Kabu's otherwise revolting healing is counterbalanced by the fact that he only has one source of trap (why no Attack Trap DenA) while trap on its own is quite rare amongst even middle of the pack units, let alone the more competent ones. Kiawe so happens to be what's essentially "mini Anni N at home"; no DPS, no master passive, but excellent distributed debuffs, coverage of both a status and an inteference, and a strong nuke, with debuff and trap access being Kabu's most desired complements. In return, Kabu gets to use his Flame Wheel for 12.5 pings; with SS Morty and access to regen, that's four ticks of regen per turn -- nearly a quarter of health restored per turn, which is disgusting amounts of healing.
Kabu has personally impressed me in unexpected ways, and I'm glad he's managed to show his stuff outside of fast CS blitzes and show his long fight penchants. Him eating quad queue sucks, but his combination of 500+ AD, decent pressure in Haymaker, Flame Wheel, his ability to use his MAX for chip damage or external Max Guard protection, as well as the extra compounded damage from trap and burn damage, which can stack if I expanded grid energy for more Scorcher or Pokey Trap passives.
0:00 Lucy
Grids:
ng-pomatools.web.app/team?v0=025200085100&s0=3&l0=150&r0=6&p0=0&a0=17010101&t0=44444&x0=true&g0=AAECAwQFDA4QExYgIiQnKjQ1&v1=014802025001&s1=2&l1=140&r1=6&p1=0&a1=17010101&t1=44444&x1=true&g1=AAECAwQFBggKCwwRFBUXGhwfJigr&v2=014900005900&s2=3&l2=150&r2=6&p2=0&a2=17010101&t2=44444&g2=AAECAwQFBggLDhAjJygpLC0u
Lucy is countered by a cookie. I'm still using a team with weak offensive pressure, so the slowness is a risk. Max Guard was needed to block one sure crit Rock Slide from Nidoking due to Antitoxin cookies; a higher invested Morty would also mean a cleaner clear, but my luck with Sunny Day MPR is pretty good.
7:00 Thorton
ng-pomatools.web.app/team?v0=025200085100&s0=3&l0=150&r0=6&p0=0&a0=18040702&t0=44444&x0=true&g0=AAECAwQFGSAiJCYpKiwuMDM1&v1=010102064800&s1=3&l1=150&r1=6&p1=0&a1=21010101&t1=44444&x1=true&g1=AAECAwQFFxkaHB4hIiMkLw&v2=014900005900&s2=3&l2=150&r2=6&p2=0&a2=21010101&t2=44444&g2=AAECAwQFBggLDhAdICIjLi8
NC Rosa is used here to ensure rebuff access, as it's unreasonable to rely purely on trap as interference in Resillience stages. The side denial was very important; denying left Avalugg before it uses X Defense + All cuts into both Thorton's damage and lets Kabu get an easier kill; Kabu's max move was necessary to finish it off, while Kiawe also needs to deny Stealth Rock as two of the comp's members are Rock weak, and Rosa is already stressed for maintenance as is. Some minute techs were used here; Team Sync Regen and Propulsion on Kiawe were teched for a smooth second sync while also giving much needed maintenance so Rosa isn't as stressed for Pot MPRs. Kabu runs Defense Crush 2 in this comp.
15:08 Argenta:
ng-pomatools.web.app/team?v0=025200085100&s0=3&l0=150&r0=6&p0=0&a0=21010101&t0=44444&x0=true&g0=AAECAwQFDA4QExYgIiQmKSo0NQ&v1=014802025001&s1=2&l1=140&r1=6&p1=0&a1=21010101&t1=44444&x1=true&g1=AAECAwQFBggRFBUXGhscHh8gJigr&v2=014900005900&s2=3&l2=150&r2=6&p2=0&a2=21010101&t2=44444&g2=AAECAwQFBggLDhAjJygpLC0u
This clear was pretty simple; I intentionally messed up my queue to ensure that Argenta would also be syncced by Kiawe when trapped. There came a point where sides were chipping harder than Argenta herself, but I failed to deny Slowbro despite distributing the output, but still managed to get away with it. A further invested Morty would make both clears cleaner.
Gears used at the end of the video.