There have been previews for battles that did not reveal every Pokémon Ash used in the subsequent episode, so I wouldn't count it as certain that Farfetch'd won't appear. Although I agree with you that I think this will be a 2 on 2.
A thought came to me. What if the same thing that happens to riolu happens to dragonite and gengar? Think of it, Allister could have pokemon that would be great to fight gengar with. Same with raihan he has pokemon that can fight dragonite. I think now that the episode date change we’ll most likely see mini arcs like the riolu one
Initially when Ash got Dragonite, Gengar and Riolu in quick succession, that was my first thought. That his Pokemon would be developed in mini-arcs before episode 65-80 (after which, reserve rotation would factor in) and I hope it still sticks true. It would kind of be similar to his SM team with individual rivals and stakes for each.
I've also been questioning whether they're hiding the fact this is a 3 on 3. In that playset we saw recently...
Not necessarily. In all the group shots, both Riolu and Farfetch'd are unevolved. The only time we see Lucario is in the Eternatus scene, and Farfetch'd is absent there. We see Riolu+Farfetch'd in the OP, Riolu+Sirfetch'd in the toyset, but we never see Lucario+Farfetch'd.
Ash is probably going to meet raihan next as he’s in the opening along with leon.
And Raihan is certainly a much tougher challenge than Bea. He's among the top 8 trainers and his trainer cards say he could be champion in another region if he wanted.
Especially when you consider that dramatic shot of the leek dropping which pretty much signifies one of its biggest weakness.
You’d think something like that would lead to some kind of story arc with it but then kids heads might explode from having to process more information than can be contained in 1 episode.
It’s definitely in the episode since I believe it was in the cast list but the question is if it’s gonna do anything or just appear in a group shot.
