The Worst Grab Is the Best Grab

by Doc – Owner, Founder, Wonders How Pac-Man Has The Tractor Beam If He’s Not From Galaga

Alolan Whip is the “Shine” of competitive amiibo in Ultimate. It’s basically unbeatable, and you have to anticipate it to beat it. Since amiibo AI can’t anticipate Alolan Whip, it always wins.

Trainer frostee realized the other day that, as a grab hitbox, Alolan Whip clanks against every tether grab in the game. If the tether grab is coming out while Alolan Whip’s hitbox is active, both of them will be canceled out. Whichever opponent has less endlag after their grab is clanked will get the upper hand in that situation.

This discovery probably won’t be any sort of upset to the amiibo meta: Incineroar is banned, and most of the characters with tether grabs don’t get much utility out of them for one reason or another. Even if Incineroar was unbanned and Alolan Whip was allowed to roam free, amiibo with tether grab would still have to use it against other amiibo to get a chance at countering Incineroar. As Sun Tzu said, “You can try to counter Incineroar, but you must first counter everything else as well.”

Either way, it’s a very cool discovery, and it’ll be useful for anyone fighting Alolan Whip-spamming Raid Bosses.