Dian fell into thought. Servine's Grass-type moveset was still missing a few pieces, and her other moves were even less cohesive.
Even if she relied on Contrary and used Gastro Acid or Worry Seed to avoid its drawbacks, she would still need to guard against opponents proficient in the Dark-type move Snatch... No, Servine herself could learn Snatch to counter attempts to steal her stat changes.
Stat changes were difficult to steal in the first place, and moves like Baton Pass that transferred those changes were not easy to execute either... This was because every Pokémon had a different physique.
But that did not mean there were no Trainers who excelled at such tactics. Veteran Trainers, in particular, would experiment with all sorts of strategies during the long stretch of growth before reaching Hall level, since these could give them a substantial advantage over other Veterans.
Of course, battles took on an entirely different form after reaching Hall level. Simple tactics became almost useless... Hall-level Pokémon were already approaching perfection, capable of handling all sorts of unfavorable conditions and complex strategies.
As for Elite-level Pokémon... Dian recalled a probing battle he had once had with Lorelei. The gap had been an absolute chasm. The defenses of Lorelei's Cloyster were probably beyond anything an ordinary Pokémon could break through.
Coupled with its thoroughly integrated offensive arsenal... The Pokémon in an Elite's hands, especially those considered core team members, had undoubtedly crossed some seemingly insurmountable threshold, gaining strength and progress equivalent to a qualitative transformation.
Of course, so far, he had only ever had a probing battle with Lorelei, and that had been a long time ago.
As for challenging the other Elites... There was little point. If an Elite brought out a Pokémon that was not part of their main team,