[X] My Assistant

[Kamaitachi]

The Preliminaries and First Round Match of Jill Laurent and Taggarty Lee.

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

While it's true Tag didn't need the knockout right then and there, he did need to whittle down Vinyl. Doing so would put him on the defensive (a necessity given his absurd offensive power). The sooner he got to fainting, the closer Tag got to victory. If Vinyl could be knocked out before Pele knocked out Tobi, then victory was all but assured.

It's possible that Tag did not foresee Jill's following strategy. Growth was effective at making Vinyl an offensive. While in the Sun, three of his stats were doubled. However, Weatherball wasn't Vinyl's only unique attack. "Vinyl, Synthesis!"

This exchange all happened in a matter of seconds, as Pele was still in the air. So, even though Bachi's Poison Jab hit home, Vinyl immediately absorbed the intensified sunlight, essentially healing him to full health. Just after that, Pele landed hard onto Tobi. It wasn't an exceptionally powerful attack, and it would take a few hits to eventually whittle down the Ninetails, but Jill was clearly prepared for the long game. Both of her remaining pokemon had heals, both of which were intensified in the sunlight.