Showing posts with label pokemon battle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pokemon battle. Show all posts

Monday, December 16, 2019

All the Way to the Top

The final altercation has seemingly escaped us again, because after storming Rose Tower, battling all of the henchmen, and defeating Chairman Rose's aide in battle at the top of the skyscraper, Chairman Rose just let Leon go.  He didn't even monologue at us or anything.

Like, come on Sword/Shield. I know that the emphasis is the gym challenge this time around and you do a great job with that,  but you can't keep shoving the story back into the closet like this: we are at the end of the game and we only know that there is *something* going on with dynamax and that Chairman Rose is at the center of it and TWOHEROSDARKESTDAYSWORDPOKEMONENERGYCRISISDYNAMAXDARKESTDAY.
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The final test to see who should get the right to face off against Leon involves battling the gymleaders again in a tournament. However, against expectations, Bede arrived on the battle pitch to challenge me to a fight. Given his uniform and his new title as "Gymleader Bede", he seems to be doing well for himself now.

He unleashed an all out Fairy-typed assault on me. I was glad to have brought Mme.Trunks to overpower him with Sheer Force.

My first official finals battle was against Nessa and her water types. She told me that I would never battle the Champion because she would defeat me on the spot. Ultimately, her Golisopod, Barraskewda, Seaking,  Pelipper, and G-Drednaw were no match for Cheeto's power and Trash's ruthlessness.

My second match was against Allister the ghost trainer. I lead with Chirpy to scout and U Turn. His Dusknoir was tough, but Snorkle took care of it handily. Following this, I had Drednaw Dynamax in order to gain momentum against his next pokemon: polteageist and Chandelure. I came out of it with a burned turtle, but a clear lead.  His next pokemon was Cursola and his final was G-Gengar. Cheeto was able to barely hold on against Max Ooze in order to lower Gengar's speed with Drum Beating enough so that Trash would easily stall and then outrun it with Obstruct and then Night Slash.




The final match would be against Rihain again. I look forward to regaining my pride after our last match. I placed Cheeto in my second slot next to Chirpy just in case we would be doing another Doubles match.

This concern was for nothing as he battled me one-on-one. Against his Turtle Torkoal, I used my own, Snorkle. This ended up being the wrong choice as he uncorked a one-turn solarbeam on me. Trash was able to clean him out for me, but now I was fighting from a deficit.

I guess this one is going to be another tight match.

His Turtonator was playing coy with Shell trap, so I took a turn to revive Snorkle and send him back in. I dynamaxed him on a whim and used Max Rock to deal damage and to boost my own special defenses as a rock type in the sandstorm. Turtonator used sunny day, so I reset the weather the next turn with another Max Rockfall.

I have one Dynamax turn left and it is against Goodra. If I go for the sure Ice type  KO with Max Hailstorm, then the sandstorm will be replaced with hailing weather, but if I use Max Darkness, the KO isn't assured...I decide to play it safe and use the rock move...

Which turns out to be the wrong choice as Goodra uses Rain dance anyways. Snorkle shrinks back down to normal size and nets a KO with Ice Fang. Now I'm back ahead again. Plus, all in all, Rain would benefit me as well. Rain will at least boost the damage of my move Liquidation.

Which is SIMILARLY moot because his Flygon uses Sandstorm the next turn. WHAT THE HELL, MAN?!

His last pokemon is Duraludon. There is no way that I am going to take it out before it boosts up with Dynamax moves, so my goal here is to lower its speed enough with Cheeto's Drum Beating so that Bewear could KO with Hammer Arm.

The strategy plays out without a hitch.

Vs. Oleana

I led with Chirpy and decide to take out her Frosslass with Steel moves. I sure don't like that burn, but Chirpy is able to take her out. The next pokemon is Salazzle. Salazzle is a mismatch for me, so I decide to Uturn out of there and WAIT I FORGOT HOW FAST SALAZZLE IS.

Because of my error in judgement, Chirpy takes a huge chunk of damage as I swap in Snorkle. I am able to sneak away with the KO without losing Chirpy, but it didappoints me to leave damage on the table like that.

Tsareena is another mismatch, so I waste a turn swapping in Centiscorch. I made another mistake here because it gets an Atk drop from Tsareena's trop kick and then gets messed up a bit by acrobatics.

I'm really off my game now.

Apparently, Centiscorch and Tsareena have a speed tie, so Centiscorch sneaks in one more Flame Wheel. Cheeto is able to finish off Tsareena and then Milotic with ease.

Her final pokemon is Garbodor. It promptly Gigantimaxes into a nightmare out of toy story. I decide to lower its speed with Drum Beating.

This was a third mistake. Garbodor's ability if Weak armour, so it comes out of the turn with -1Def, +1Speed.

I want to get snorkle in there to take advantage of the sandstorm, so I decide to have Cheeto Uturn out as Garbodor uses its G move.

Finally U have chosen correctly. Cheeto holds on and Snorkle gets in safely.

Dynamax: Max Darkness. Clean KO.


Finals: Vs. Hop

And here we are at the final match. I thought back to the first battle I had--when I first met Cheeto: he was able to defeat Hop's Wooloo and Sobble handily. All he knew how to do was Branch Poke. Now he knows the grass move "Drum Beating"...look at how far he has come now...

I led with MmeTrunks against Hop's Dubwool. Dubwool would be faster than me no matter what, so I decided to use Revenge to double the damage in return. MmeTrunks is able to gain two consecutive knockouts when Hop replaces Dubwool with Snorlax. I could count on her to gain us an early advantage. Hop sends in his third pokemon...

What the fuck it that? No seriously, it's definitely a sea urchin, but what is that? Does it evolve  from Pyukumuku? Is it something new entirely? Well it isn't taking much damage from Iron Head, so it must be a water type...

And then it uses Thunderbolt, so I'm very confused now.

I use the next few turns to exchange positions with Uturn. Cheeto and Corviknight form a solid duo at this due to their complinentary coverage. Chirpy sure looks strong these days! I'm glad that I brought him back to use against the Fairy Gymleader and I'm glad that he is still here supporting Cheeto and the rest.

Bewear wears down Corviknight with Baby Doll Eyes and Pain Split until it is safe to Hammer Arm it out of existence. Kitiguma is so strong now. I remember how quickly it improved after it evolved. I used to bring Stuffy around when I had no other perceivable options. I can still count on it now as well.

His final pokemon is Intelleon. Even though it is dynamaxed, Trash is able to come in and chunk its health down to critical levels. Retaliate is just that good and I have always been able to count on Trash, specifically, to serve revenge.

It is now Cheeto vs Intelleon: the battle of rivals once more. I see them, briefly, out of the corner of my eyes as they were before: a playful Grookey and a timid Sobble. Grookey turns back and gives me a determined look. I blink and the vision is gone. The smile I have still remains and Cheeto understands why I am smiling.

He plays us off to victory with his Drums. It has truly been a great journey.




Friday, December 6, 2019

The Proper Shade of "Pink"

Opal was impressed by my battling, but said that I didn't quite have the shade of "pink" that she was looking for, so she escorted me back to Hammerlocke. We immediately found Bede and Opal seemed so smitten with his tortured version of "pink" that she spirited him away back to Ballollea for training. Crisis averted: I can't quite see him coming back as a villian now...

Although that is truly an awkward way to tie up a plot thread...maybe something more will come of it.

As I wandered East, some more explosions started to happen around town. However, the Sonya/Leon "scooby squad" told me that they had it covered and that I should focus on just playing the videogame for a bit until they were ready for me to intervene. Essentially, this was a reminder that "yeah, eventually there will be some story wrap up, but it ain't yet.

I fought Hop again and crushed him loudly again.  I'm really starting to feel bad for the guy.  This might be the first time in the pokemon series where the rival character is so sympathetic.  If he quite pokemon battling because he can't beat me, then I'm going to feel pretty bad about myself...

Maybe this is what Opal meant by "pink". Someone who is cheerful, yet twisted by their own sense of doubt. Strong, but rotten. Maybe I'm the villain of this game.


Pokedex: 165 caught / 258 encountered




On Rotation: Copperajah, Corviknight, Toxtricity, Sandaconda