Vs. Rihain

With the gates open and my 7th badge in hand, I made my way west for Hammerfell again. Apparently the plot has been happening behind my back: Leon has been running around defeating Wild Dynamax  Pokemon that have started appearing around the island. He told me not to worry about them and to challenge his rival Rihain for my 8th and final gym badge.

This task was straightforward: to defeat Rihain's three acolytes in Doubles battles. Luckily, Doubles is my specialty.

The Battle with Rihain was also a doubles match: Gigalith and Flygon up front and Sandaconda and Duraludon in the back.

Gigalith activated Sandstream, but I was able to take it and Flygon out handily. Duraludon and Sandaconda came in. Duraludon dynamaxed and started firing off Max Knuckles. These hurt my pokemon, but they also boosted my foe's attack. The damage racked up. The stat boosts racked up.

And...I lost.
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Honestly this hurts. My core was solid. My pokemon were strong enough...How could I have lost? I should be better than this, doubles is my THING. I ranked in the Sinnoh Cup. I've won tournaments.

I took a break from the game and took stock of what happened. I had control of the field until the very last two pokemon. I didn't have weather, but the weather didn't aversely affect my party. It all started to go down when Duraludon dynamaxed...

And then I finally got it. Up until this point, I have been viewing Dynamax as I did Z moves: I have been viewing the three Dynamax Turns as three turns of powerful attacks. I have been focusing on the damage. I should have been focusing on the effects. Duraludon was using Max Knuckle in order to boost its party's attack. The damage matters less than the effects.

If Duraludon could do it, then I could. I came up with a new strategy. Give Snorkle the Choice Scarf and have it Ice Fang everything--Rihain's pokemon all take either neutral or Super effective damage from it and it gets a boost from Strong Jaws. And Dynamax Mme.Trunks as soon as Duraludon hits the field to absorn MaxKnuckles and retaliate with Max Knuckles of my own. This will make Snorkle's Ice Fangs hit even harder.

I charged back in, filled with purpose. I came back out five minutes later with the eighth and final badge: the Dragon badge.

Vs. Piers

As soon as I entered Spikemuth, I healed my pokemon and then started to explore.  There was a big Team Yell presence here and I wanted to get the scoop on it all. I stumbled across a Team Yell grunt standing behind a kiosk, thinking it was time to buy some TM's or Ultra Balls. As it were, he was there to greet Gym challengers and my challenge for the 7th badge had just begun.

I guess we're doing it live.

Because I stumbled upon this gym challenge, I had to use whatever was in my pouch at the time.  All in all, I wasn't ill prepared considering what I could have had with me. I decided to teach Chirpy the TM U-Turn for the time being in order to adapt to the circumstances.

I made my way through the alleyways, fighting off Team Yell ambushes all along. And finally came across Piers, a grunge musician with an agressive hairdo. Without a Dynamax center, Spikemuth apparently doesn't bring in many gym challenge stadium spectators. That is why the town is so derelict. The stadium is an asphault pitch surrounded by chain link fences.

With the mood set, the match began. I led with Chirpy so that I could scout and U-Turn to an appropriate counter. I play with SET match rules, so switching out always costs me a turn (rather than playing under SHIFT options which ask you if you wand to switxh out qhen the opponent sends something else out) and pivoting with Uturn is an excellent way to do this without wasting momentum.
His Scrafty has Intimidate, which hurts, but I am able to KO it by monitoring my soeed to keep the damage of my foe's Payback in check.

His next pokemon is Malamar, who takes x4 damage from U-Turn since Psychic Types AND Dark Types are weak to it.

His Obstagoon is next. Since I have one of my own, I know what moves to expect and my first read is that it is going to use Obstruct. Obstruct has the same mechanic as Protect, but it also lowers Defenses if activated, so I decide to use Coil to get a boost to Attack, Defense, and Accuracy out of the turn whilst  I avoid the Obstruct Defense drop.  He can't use the move twice in a row to great effect, so essentially my goal was to boost and stall him out. I didn't know that it would be the Accuracy boost would be so useful in the end...

He defied my wxpectstions and used Counter. The next turn, he Obstructed my Bug Bite.

I'm having some trouble with my predictions apparently...

Now I am sitting at +1 atk, -1 def, +1 Accuracy. Also, he is a fadter pokemon than me. I need something big here and I get it when I get a lucky critical hit whislt hewhen uses counter next turn. I steal away the KO on a coin flip.

His last pokemon is his Skuntank. At +1 accuracy, I decided to risk a 50% accuracy Inferno. My luck holds out and I nail his pokemon burn it in one turn. this allows Centiscorch to shrug off a Sucker Punch and carry us to victory on 100 tiny legs.

Vs. Melony

The path north to Circhester took me through rocky ruins and snowy plains. Along the way, I encountered weird new Pokémon like Falinks the fighting type and Snom the ice larval bug. While Snom is sore of basic, I am interested in seeing what it may become in its imago form, Falinks is a bit off the rails in its design, but I respect it.
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Bear vs Bear

I know that Pokémon sword and shield are somewhat polarizing the fan base, but by now I have seen enough of the Pokémon to be able to confidently weigh in on the overall design sensibilities. Gen 8 so far as I have seen it has had a healthy blend of cool and cute designs as well as a healthy blend of  “animal like” designs and “what the fuck is that”. Honestly, I haven’t felt this positively about a generation since Gen 2 or Gen 3. Gen 7 had a lot of island themed Pokémon which definitely fit the game’s overall mood and setting. However, it didn’t offer much in terms of the weird or gnarly. It waltzed the bird-fish-mammal tropical waltz, but most of the Pokémon were fairly predictable in their designs. Gen 6 was filled with very specifically chosen animals and plants from the natural world. Basically all of the Pokémon were directly lifted from nature with very little modification or personalization. This isn’t bad, but it offers little to improvise with, creatively speaking. The rest of the Gen 6 additions were random fairy types that were included to pad out the rosters of that newly-introduced type (I’m looking at you, klefki and carbink). Gen 4 added...mostly a lot of bugs and plants. There were some truly unique or interesting mons, but Gen 4 was diluted in its cast of characters with the sheer numbers of evolution Pokémon it added in. Most of these evolutions, I might add, we’re not even obtainable until the endgame. When you add 100 Pokémon, but withhold 30% or more till the endgame, then you really haven’t added much at all.

And Gen 5? We just don’t talk about Gen 5...
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By the time, I arrived in Circhester, Hop had already lost his gym match with the resident Ice Type leader Melony. Ice types may be strong attackers, but they have a large number of really common weaknesses and they don’t typically have the coverage moves to handle a barrage of attacks, so I came into this challenge fairly confident of my ability to sweep.

I like how in these games, the lobbies of gyms are filled with NPCs that are gossiping amongst themselves about how they saw you battle on TV and are cheering you on. It really helps to pump you up for when you sweep through everything with Bewear’s Hammer Arm move. The gym leader used Frosmoth, the apparent evolution of Snom, as well as the Galar form of Darmanitan and the penguin Pokémon Eiscue. The later of these has an ice cube for a face. I might have found my first lazy design of Gen 8...

Ice, like I said, is a generally weak type, so I didn’t encounter much resistance until I encountered Melony’s final Pokémon, Lapras. She immediately Gigantimaxed it and took out two of my Pokémon in as many turns.

My final Pokémon is Ollie the Copperaja and Max Steelspike is not dealing enough damage to take Lapras out in two hits. Lapras' Gigantimax phase ended and I saw a glimmer of hope.

And then Lapras puts Ollie to sleep with Sing.

Yike.

Vs. Opal

Marnie met me in the gym lobby (before I got my pump, wth?!) in order to tell me that she considers me to be her primary rival and that she would meet me in the finals for sure. She also mentioned that her Morpeko seemed to like me. I think this means we're dating...

Corvisquire had evolved somewhat recently, but the last time that I had actually used him in battle was several gyms ago. His newly Steel-ed wings may have grown a bit rusty since then. I led with him in the gym warmup to help to him stretch his feathers.

Opal, the octogenarian gym leader (this is foreshadowing for later) and Fairy Type expert awaited me within. She is apparently looking for a replacement to serve as the new leader of her Fairy gym. As a result, the gym task was organized as an audition. Battles were performed on stage and interrupted with Fairy-themed quiz questions. Correct answers would give my pokemon a stat boost. Incorrect answers meant that we would have to fight from a deficit...

I found several identical looking older women...or perhaps the same woman every time (it is hard to say for sure with these NPC's). By the end of it, Chirpy the Corviknight was all warmed up and ready to anchor the team.

I led with Eurypyro against Opal's Galarian Weezing. I didn't expect that the quiz would continue into the gym battle, but it did. Right off the bat, Eurypyro (the Centiscorch) was kneecapped by a quiz question. Since he is a centipede and he has 100 legs, this was a particularly effective kneecapping. He was taken out handily in two turns due to my inability to give him the support that he needed.

3-4

The questions continued and I was completely stumped and unable to assist my pokemon in crucial moments. EMF was able to overpower Weezing despite this. Against her Mawile, I misread another question  and EMF was handicapped just like my previous pokemon. He was able to take out Mawile with Discharge, but his stats were nuked by my quiz answers.

3-2

Togekiss started turning things sour for me right off the bat. It outsped my quiz-weakened Toxtricity and actually got the universal +1 boost from Ancient Power. I was finally able to get one quiz question right when I flattered Opal by saying that she looked 18 rather than 88. It pays sometimes to have tact.

This small victory, however, was short lived as Togekiss got a second Ancient Power stat boost. (This is a 10% possibility for each, remember). Toxtricity is unable to secure the KO against Togekiss.

2-2

Cheeto comes in and is able to finish Togekiss off with a lucky critical  hit. Her last pokemon is Alcremie (pronounced like "alchemy"). Cheeto gets a huge hit against it, but Alcremie Gigantimaxes and takes  it out in one hit whilst restoring its own HP as a bonus effect.

1-1

Corviknight stretched its Steel Wings. It is Gigantamax Alcremie vs Dynamax Chirpy.

Chirpy gets the KO with Max Steelspike! Welcome back, old friend!

Vs. Allister

Stow-and-Side is a city with a lot of personality: almost straight out of an Indiana Jones story or a pulp fiction with a marketplace on sandy stone walkways and people battling in the square. The gym sat at the top of the hill.

Allister specializes in the Ghost type. As such, I decided to bring in my own nightmarish team.

The task of this gym was to board a giant rotating disk and to guide it through three pachinko-like mazes. I am very happy that I wasn't made to use the motion controls.
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 3 vs 4

I led with Guzma the Golisopod because I figured that its priority moves in Sucker Punch and First Impression combined with its ability Emergency Exit would make it an ideal scout. Allister led Yamask. I had caught one recently and its regional variant was dual typed with ground, sooo...

RAZOR SHELL.

3-3 tied up

This must be the evolution of the regional Corsola. It used curse, so Guzma's Sucker Punch fails. I switch in Zorro and Nasty Plot up. The next turn I pick up the kill with Snarl.

3-2 lead.

Mimikyu is a mismatch for me, but I'm not ready to send in Guzma again...and I forgot about Mimikyu's "Disguise". In previous games, Disguise as an ability prevents all damage for the first  attacking move.  In this game, it must have been debuffed because it still took some small nominal amount of damage.

I am able to whittle it down a bit before it takes me out with Slash. Guzma comes in for Sucker Punch and nets the revenge kill.

2-1

Allister's last pokemon is Gengar and he immediately causes it to Gigantamax. Guzma gets off one more Sucker Punch before Gengar annihilates it with G-Max Phantom.

1-1.

With the match tied up, it all comes down to whether or not Trash can take the hit. Trash will get the KO with Max Darkness but it won't be able to outrun Gengar. It's time for Trash to get her first Dynamax: hopefully it gives her enough bulk to survive Gengar's last move: G-Max Ooze. If she can take the hit, then I win...

And...she lives!!

Vs. Kabu

Team Yell greeted me to town in Monsoke City  and Marnie challenged me to a battle. She used a slew of Dark amd Poison types including a powerful Hamster poke.on called Morpeko which kept morphing between a cute forme and an amgry looking forme. It was able to take out nearly my entire team, but Trash was able to tank a hit from it and RETALIATE in the coolest battle conclusion ever.

She wished me luck on my third badge.

I decided to go with pure power on this gym matchup. My team has one very particular counter to Fire in Drednaw, but other than that, I am lacking. I decided to choose reliable pokemon that can take hits and cause heavy damage. Trash is in there as my revenge-killer. Stufful can debuff with Bulldoze. Zorro is my booster.

This challenge had a unique task before hands. Instead of solving a puzzle and battling trainers, my job was to earn points by catching pokemon. The other trainers would not be fighting directly against me, but rather making it tougher for me to weaken  and catch the pokemon. It was fun to be sure, but an unintended side effect of the task itself is that now I had Stuffy, Trash, Zorro, Drednaw, Litwick and Sizzlipede as my gym team.

 

Ninetales takes out stuffy, but he has done his job by lowering its speed with Bulldoze enough so that Trash can Retaliate and take it out in one clean hit.

Trash has to eat an intimidate when Arcane is switched in, so I move Zorro into position for some boosting and snarling. It doesn't mind the burn that it picks up.

Nasty-Plot boosted Snarl brings arcanine to critical health, but Thievul is KOed in the end. Now it is time for Trash to Retaliate again. Another clean KO.

Trash has done her job now, so it is time for her to rest. His final pokemon is Centiscorch, who seems to be the gym emblem itself. Trash fires off a Baby doll eyes and faints in one move.

Drednaw may be a much lower level, but he has Centiscorch in a mismatch.  As a Rock/Water type pokemon, it can tank anything that Centiscorch could dish out. Max Rockfall takes him out handily.

Vs. Nessa

Riding a wave of momentum after my grassy victory, I blasted my way across Route 5. I picked up a slew of new pokemon along my way: so many that I am still sorting through them all in my head.  I got a fighting type Octopus from a raid battle and the bleached Galar variant of Corsola.  I am fully on board with all of the pro-environmental messaging that this game has and if this is how we get people to take human-caused climate change seriously, then so be it.

As soon as I made it to Hulbury City, I came upon Chairman Rose.  I didn't recognize him at first without his fancy outfit and I was honestly a bit put off at seeing an important story character so off-model in basically joggers and a teeshirt. I was instructed to get my Water badge at the gym and to immediately meet him at the seafood restaurant for what I assume will be boiled Krabby Legs.

The task before Nessa's water gym battle was a fairly standard switch maze.  I had to battle trainers and work my way forward whilst shutting off water pumps to open the way. I made it through fine, but Stufful came out of the task with some pretty sizable damage on her.

Nessa had three pokemon like I did. She led with Goldeen against Stuffy. Stufful had already accomplished her job in getting us here, so She gave off one last parting shot to critically damage the Golden before being taken out.

Now Señor Zorro has just recently learned the perfect move for a situation like this.  He's remarkably bulky as a recent evolution and as such, a move such as Nasty Plot is excellent for him. With two Nasty Plot boosts, his Special Attack triples: Golden stood no chance.

Neither did Nessa's second pokemon: Arrocuda (a barracuda pokemon that knew aqua jet).

When Nessa sent in her final pokemon, Chewtle's evolution Dreadnaw, I considered dynamaxing Señor Zorro, but I was unsure if doing so would reset his stat boosts or not. He's fast, though, so he outran the dynamaxed foe and brought its HP all the way down into the yellow. Dreadnaw retaliated with Max Geyser, which Zorro was barely able to hold on through.  However, I must have overlooked something because Max Geyser triggered rains and Dreadnaw must have the ability Swift Swim because he moved first for the remainder of the match.

Despite his speed, though, Dreadnaw was not powerful enough to defeat my Kaiju-sized Thwackey.

Vs. Milo

Pokemon Sword and Shield continue the trend set in Pokemon Sun and Moon of having a "task" to complete before the gym battle.  In this gym, the task was to herd 20 wooloo forward through several fields to unlock the path forward. I swear to god that everything about this game is designed to pump you up.

Bleppo the Dottler was able to make quick work of the Grass and Grass/Poison with its access to both Bug and Psychic moves. I'm getting sort of pumped about what its Stage 2 evolution is going to be like: Bug/Psychic is a new type combination if I am remembering things correctly.

I made it to the inner chamber and walked onto the field to challenge Milo to my first badge.

I led with Bleppo. Bleppo is remarkably bulky as a Stage 1 cocooned bug, so I figured that it would work as a good scout.

Milo sent in Gossifleur. I have experience with Gossifleur and I was able to take it out handily with Struggle Bug.

Milo's second and final pokemon was Eldegoss. Given the similarities in both name and form, I felt safe in my assumption that it was an evolution for Gossifleur. I felt confident in Bleppo's ability to take it out, but this is Cheeto's tale as much as it is mine, so I swapped in Cheeto for our very first Dynamax team-up!

Before I started Shield Version, I had decidedly negative feelings about Dynamax. I was on board with Mega Evolutions and I was in board with Z moves, but Dynamax was just the newest gimmick--and a lame one at that. 

I am still not sold on Dynamax, but the Kaiju matchup between Cheeto and Eldegoss was pretty cool to witness.

Pokédex:40/66

Current Squad:

Thwackey/Cheeto/lvl 19
Thieval/Señor Zorro/lvl 19
Chewtle/Snorkle/lvl 18
Corvisquire/Chirpy/lvl 19
Dottler/Bleppo/lvl 19

Stufful/Stuffy/lvl 16

On Rotation: Zigzagoon, Growlithe

Upon the Doorstep...

Emerging into the sun from the Mines, I squinted, cinched up my bag, and put on my big boy pants because it was nearly time for me to claim my first badge.

Along the way, I came across a Hardy Sea-Faring Meowth who knows naught of this land-lubbering life and I just had to adopt it as my Steel type. Yeah, I know, it's the best, grumpiest salty captain if the waves. And also it is a cat, so that is always a bonus as well.

My evolution streak continued when Chirpy the Rookidee evolved into Corvisquire. Corvisquire has a great design, but I think that the existence of "Corviknight" as an already established pokemon has spoiled the ending of this particular pokemon's lineage. I like the blue colouration on this pokemon.

Sonia took me to see a giant Kecleon marking in the hillside. She mentioned the "Darkest Day" where all the Giant Pokemon attacked as being somehow linked to Dynamax and this giant Kecleon, but decided that it was time that I run off to get a gym badge. The writers of this story definitely get what the player wants this time around. #gen5worstgenfightme #gen5toomuchdialogue

In order to make things difficult, I had decided at the start of my playthrough that I would be limiting my party size for gym matches. For my first badge, I decided that four pokemon would be a good number to bring along. I had done some recon and found out that the Gymleader Milo is a specialist in the Grass Type. By this, I mean that I was forcibly introduced to him earlier on Route 4.

Vs. Kahuna Hala

Prepared with the knowledge that I would be battling a Fighting Pokemon master, I assembled my most reliable squamates for the task.

Battle Team 2: The Fighting Frenzies

Vs. Kahuna Hala

...and apparently I also brought Slowpoke along for some reason.

I was unsure of whether or not the team I had selected would be over or under leveled.  I prefer to keep the game on the challenging side, so I didn’t want to take in, for example, my level 17 Oricorio with Air Cutter.  Or-chan is a little bit too strong for what I anticipated the Kahuna’s pokemon would be—somewhere in the 16-17 range.

I approached him back at Route 1 on the Melemele outskirts.  As a matter of fact, our battle arena was the very same stage where I had fought his grandson Hau and his Litten at the festival of our Lord and Savior the Kamen Rider Space blah blah Tapu Koko.  Indeed, it was the very stage where I had met and befriended Pako Pako.

With a weird sort of nostalgia coursing through my thoughts, I started the match.

Trumbeak vs. Mankey is the sort of battle that normally wouldn’t get even a footnote in any battling tactics analysis.  Even if Mankey is the same level as Trumbeak, level 14 in this case, it just plain can’t compete.  Trumbeak took one hard Karate Chop critical hit, but held on to defeat both Mankey and Hala’s second Pokemon Makuhita.

The Makuhita was able to weaken my lead, Pip Pip, to identically 1 HP, but Kahuna Hala now only had one pokemon left compared to my five remaining healthy switch-ins.  For the future, I need to remember to only bring in three pokemon per gym match to make it a fairer fight.

His third pokemon was a Crabrawler.  It knew the Fighting Z-Move “All Out Pummeling”.  Unfortunately for the Kahuna, Crabrawler wasted this move immediately against my 1 HP Trumbeak in the most spectacular sort of overkill that I have ever seen.  The animation for this move is insane and over the top and to see it strip off exactly one point of health made me make a ridiculous squeaking noise.

After I lost Trumbeak, I sent in Pokey for an admittedly boring exchange of Yawns and Confusions.  I won the match four turns later.

Wulfric Gives Me the Cold Shoulder (heh, heh)

I was getting sick of Skrelp constantly dying, so I took advantage of all the grass and fairy types present in the forest to get him some easy training.  five levels and about ten super potions later, Skrelp evolved into a terrifying atrocity called Dragalge, a Poison/Dragon type.  Dragalge is not only an awesome-looking pokemon, but it is an absolute tank with its special attack and defense.  I look forward to using him...just not against the next gymleader.  Dragon types are definitely allergic to Ice types.

The forest itself was a bit of a puzzle--and it gave off a severe "Altering cave" (from firered version) vibe what with its maze-like room structure, but I found Wulfric at the end and convinced him to return to the gym.  Imagine if the real world was like this--like if you had to find and convince a teacher to come to school or a lawyer to come and steal all your money.

In preparation for my eighth gym battle I decided to make things extra-challenging for myself and to only carry three pokemon with me into the match--the same number that I know Wulfric will use.  I don't know what pokemon he will have--just that my three-pokemon squad will have to take him on alone.

Gymkiller Squad # 8: The Three Icebreakers

I was unsure of whether to take Gardevoir or Scrafty.  Scrafty is strong against Ice types with his fighting moves and his huge defenses, but Gardevoir is something of a juggernaut of my team: she has never been defeated.

PLUS: If I know anything about this game and Nintendo in general, there MUST be some Ice-Fairy that they are about to unveil in this battle--and the only thing Scrafty fears more than fairies is dying alone.
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Gym Attempt #1: Wulfric opens with Abomasnow, who is a complete mismatch against my Flareon.  Flareon takes out Abomasnow with only one Flame Charge, but now it is hailing, which means I will have to end the match quicker than I had hoped.  His next pokemon is Avalugg.  Avalugg is apparently a monster of physical defense, because Flare Blitz, the strongest physical fire move in the game, does barely 50% damage.  Also, Avalugg has the ability: Ice Body, which heals it during hail.  Drat.

Avalugg then takes out both of my remaining pokemon handily, but not before I find out how small its special defense is after I nearly take it out with one Psychic delivered by Gardevoir.  Hmmm.  Maybe we can deal with this after all...

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Gym Attempt #2: After removing his Abomasnow, Flareon is once again battling Avalugg.  I still haven't seen his third pokemon, so this is a little unnerving--it COULD be Articuno...probably not.

Avalugg is now using Curse while Flareon is being worn down by hail.  And Wulfric uses a hyper potion...I decide to send-in Gardevoir before Lucario this time to try to pick it off with Psychic, but she dies with one boosted Avalanche.

However, Lucario is able to take-out Avalugg with one Aura Sphere, and Wulfric's final pokemon is Cryogonal (luck is on my side), who dies with one Power-Up Punch in its big, stupid, snowflake face.

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.46
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.45
FLAREON/Hotfoot/lvl.47
SCRAFTY/Scrappy/lvl.46
HIPPOWDON*/Leviathan/lvl.45
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.45

On Rotation: Gardevoir, Pikachu, Lucario, Dragalge

Olympia's Psychic Showdown

If nothing else at all, Gymleader Sabrina most certainly taught me one unforgettable lesson that I have retained in the back of my head in every single pokemon game I have ever played: fear Alakazam.

So much is my fear of Alakazam that I always, ALWAYS keep a pokemon who knows a strong dark or ghost physical attack (like crunch) handy with me just on the off-chance that I run into some trainer with either a Kadabra or an Alakazam.  And full disclosure: as soon as I realized White version didn't have any of the older pokemon in it, a part of me heaved a sigh of relief at the fact that I wouldn't have to worry about coming-across my blood-enemy.

This is something I have never admitted to anyone before.

Part of this fear of Psychic pokemon comes from the fact that there was no way to counter a Psychic type in Red version (Only one Ghost move in "Lick", only two Bug moves in "Pin Missile" and "Twinneedle"--and both of the pokemon that learn these three are Poison types who are weak against Psychic), but another significant portion  most certainly comes from battle wherein Sabrina's Alakazam crushed my pokemon team handily and repeatedly.

Psychic types are not as scary these days what with the abundance of Bug and Dark moves being thrown all over the place, but you can always count on a Psychic battle to be balanced on the edge of a knife: one misread cue and what was once an easy victory is now gone.  Slowbro started using Curse, Alakazam used Calm Mind, Solrock used Rock Polish--these are the last things you see before you get swept away.

Gymkiller Squad #7: Please not Alakazam...

I built this team expecting the worst: bulky pokemon with strong special defenses and Pikachu to paralyze speedy pokemon (like Alakazam) with Nuzzle. 

The battle opened with a turn of luck: I opened with Pikachu and Gymleader Olympia opened with the Psychic/Flying Sigilyph, who I took out handily after it set up Reflect (but thankfully before Light Screen).  Pikachu died the next turn as Olympia revenge-killed me withSlowking, but not before dealing-out some massive damage with Electroball.


I ended-up taking out Slowking fairly easily, but lost Gardevoir and Lucario to Olympia's final pokemon, Meowstic.  I was a little relieved that Olympia left her Alakazam at home, but slightly disappointed that her master pokemon was something I'd already seen and battled multiple times before. 

Greninja eventually took Meowstic out in what seemed to be a war of attrition with Olympia using multiple Hyper potions.

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Van Frog/lvl.41
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.38
FLAERON/Hotfoot/lvl.38
SCRAFTY/Scrappy/lvl.40
HIPPOWDON*/Leviathan/lvl.40
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.40

On Rotation: Gardevoir, Pikachu, Lucario, Skrelp

The Fairy Gymleader Valerie

Laverre City is home to the Sixth Pokemon gym: A fairy-type gym led by Gymleader Valerie.  I have really been less than diligent about exploring this new fairy type, but I do know a few things: Poison type is super-effective against Fairies, and that Fairy attacks absolutely WRECK Scraggy.

I know that I could just look up the answers online, but I've come this far without looking crap up and I'm not going to ruin my streak.  Also I'm stubborn.  That means it's time to do some guesswork--just like I did before my battle with Jasmine in the Steel Gym of Olivine City way back in Pokemon Silver.  I had no clue what the steel type was weak against, so I lost plenty of times along the way, but afterwards, I definitely understood the steel type (fire and ground, got it).   Let's treat this as a learning experience...

Gymkiller Squad # 6: The Quick-Learning, Fairy-Eating Super-Squad

I chose my team such that I limited the amount of guesswork I would need--and I chose Pikachu specifically because I fear Azumarill (now water/fairy) more than I do clowns or dying alone.  The only Fairy Pokemon I'd seen up to this point had been Gardevoir, Mr. Mime, Dedenne, Azumarill, and Carbink, so I was a bit apprehensive about carrying too many water-types around with me out of fear of coming across that electric/fairy rat.  On the other hand, I wanted Venusaur with me so I could deal with the (later two) water and rock fairies.

Gymleader Valerie is every bit as weird as Gymleader Korrina, but her big thing is she wishes she was a pokemon, not a pokemon trainer.  I totally get what they're going for with this character, but I still think it's stupid.  Maybe if Valerie had put as much thought into her battling technique as she did into her wardrobe I wouldn't have destroyed her entire team with only Pikachu and Gardevoir.

Her squad consisted of Mawile, Mr. Mime, and Sylveon.  Sylveon is a new fairy-type evolution of Eevee.  There are about 30% too many ribbons and bows on that pokemon, if you ask me--and I really feel that this design is a missed opportunity to differentiate Fairy pokemon as magical beings rather than just cute ones.

The funny thing is that my low-level squad of misfits consistently defeats pokemon teams up to ten levels their greater.  I'm not sure if this is because I'm a genius or this game is too easy.  

Current Squad:

FROGADIER/Froakles/lvl.34
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.35
 FLAERON/Hotfoot/lvl.34
SKRELP/Toxie/lvl.35
HIPPOWDON/Leviathan/lvl.34
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.33

On Rotation: Lucario, Gardevoir, Pikachu, Scraggy