Steel

Steel is a type that has always been special to me, this has been true ever since I had first heard of it back when my entire exposure to Pokemon news was the monthly "Beckett Pokemon Collector" magazine.  A new pokeon type?  This was unprecedented!  And when I caught my Skarmory, it was instantly my favorite from that game.  SUCH a cool design.

However, when on the other side of the coin and steel is my opponent, they love to give me headaches.  While Water types are typically weak to grass and electric, and flying types are more-or-less always weak against rock and ice, the steel type is made up of a whole bunch of nonsense pokemon with crazy dual types: steel/rock, steel/bug, steel/psychic.  As a result, you can't always count on the typical fire, ground, fighting weaknesses of the steel type to always work for you on the fly.

I had Venusaur take the lead on this one--deciding to Err on the side of caution and keep Flareon alive and healthy just in case Wikstrom decided to send in something crazy like Empoleon (Steel/Water).
His first pokemon was Klefki, a Steel/Fairy pokemon.  After going through the regular rigamarole of weakening it with Leech Seed and Sleep Powder, I sent in Lucario on a free turn and powered-up with Swords Dance for an easy KO.  I may rename this particular pokemon squad "SailorScout Mega-Venusaur-cario".

The next pokemon, Probopass, was a Steel/Rock type: easy pickings for Lucario's Close Combat move.  "Hahahaha, fear my 120x2x2x2 power fighting move!" I could see the end of the battle right before my eyes.

However, due to a miscalculation on my part, or more specifically "general idiocy", Probopass survived the 960-damage hit with exactly 1 HP left due to his "Sturdy" ability.  Lucario was taken-out handily.  Dang, guess it's going to be one of those matches...

I got the easy revenge kill with Greninja, but W's third pokemon was called Aegislash and it was a pokemon I had no prior knowledge of.  I had come across a pokemon called Honedge in my travels and it was a Steel/Ghost pokemon, and I assumed that Aegislash was the higher form of it, but I wasn't sure how it would battle.  As a result, I sent in Venusaur for some reconnaissance.

Aegislash kept changing its form due to its weird ability and I think the result of each transformation must have been a change in its base stats, but Leech Seed wore it down enough so that Flareon could come in for the finishing "Flame Charge" attack and gaining the +1 Speed increase to boot.

My heart sank as Wikstrom sent in Scizor.

I think my fear of Scizor stems from my old competitive Heartgold/Soulsilver battling from years ago.  I had a fantastic team at the time but no real answer to opposing Scizor.  I had to hope that I could wear it down with incessant chicanery and luck.  I guess mostly luck...

LUCKILY, Flareon outran Scizor due to that Flame Charge Speedboost and KO'ed it with Flare Blitz.  I checked the numbers: if Flareon hadn't gotten that speed boost against Aegislash, it would have been outrun by Scizor.  Given Scizor's massive attack and Flareon's weak defense, I could not guarantee Flareon's safety.  One Superpower from Scizor would have taken it out.  Basically, without Leech Seed wearing Aegislash into KO range, Flareon would have had to Flare Blitz, and Scizor would have removed it.

Of course this doesn't mean I was in danger of losing the whole match--I mean let's be realistic, I still had four other pokemon after Flareon.  We don't have to be so histrionic about this debackle.  However, it is interesting to consider the importance of even small decisions in a game like this.
_________________
Score that match: 5-0
Hyper Potions: 17 -3
Revives: 23 -1
_________________
Current Squad Status:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.57
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.56
FLAREON/Rox/lvl.54
LUCARIO/Knives/lvl.56
HIPPOWDON/Leviathan/lvl.54
GARDEVOIR/Missy/lvl.53

Sidelines: Pikachu, Scrafty, Aerodactyl, Dragalge

Dragon

Originally, I had planned to battle Steelio the Steel-Type Elite Four Trainer before Drasma's Dragons, but I realized my squad was a lot stronger against Dragons than Steel pokemon--especially if one of those steel types happens to be Scizor...<shudder>

I wanted to keep Greninja and Gardevoir at full health for as long as possible in this match.  I wanted to be able to move them in for an easy revenge kill in case the match started going sour, so I lead with Hippowdon.  I didn't expect the sandhippo to do much: maybe a little Sandstorm damage, maybe put the first pokemon to sleep before it is taken out.

However, luck was with me and her first pokemon was the Poison/Dragon typed Dragalge.  Hippowdon was just bulky enough to survive one Surf attack and countered with a knockout Earthquake.


Her next pokemon was Altaria.  After my battle against Serena, I knew Altaris would be too slow for my Greninja, so I sent out Froakles for the One-Hit KO Ice Beam.

Next came a particularly bulky Druddigon which took several turns of Gardevoir's Fairy-type attack to remove since Drasna kept spamming her Full Restores whenever her pokemon got injured.  All through this time, the sandstorm was whittling my own health away, so I was glad when Druddigon finally fainted as the sandstorm subsided.

Her final pokemon was Noivern, which outsped my Greninja, but failed to KO it in one hit--Greninja retaliated with one final Ice Beam to end the incredibly boring match of the boring one-hit-KO's.
_________________
Score that match: 6-0
Hyper Potions: 20 -1
Revives: 24
_________________
Current Squad Status:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.57
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.56
FLAREON/Rox/lvl.55
LUCARIO/Knives/lvl.56
HIPPOWDON/Leviathan/lvl.55
GARDEVOIR/Missy/lvl.56

Sidelines: Pikachu, Dragalge, Scrafty, Aerodactyl

Fire

As I crept into the inner sanctuary of the Pokemon League I was met by an auspicious lady with pink hair.  She introduced herself to me as Malva, a fire trainer and Elite Four Champion.  The purpose of the Elite Four is to try to wear you out--as a final test to see if you are worthy of battling the strongest trainer--and she made it absolutely clear to me that I was no hero for defeating Team Flare--and that this meant nothing as I challenged her for my first battle.

And there is no better way to put me in the mood for battle than to tell me I can't do it...

I had decided to open with Hippowdon  to be safe--I knew that Froakles was going to do most of the "heavy lifting" for the match, but his frailty made me take pause from scouting with him.  I knew Hippo' would be able to take anything that she could throw at me--so I started her against Malva's Pyroar.  The exchange was quick, but it left my sandhippo with low health.

Her next pokemon was Torkoal and I knew that this was going to be the time where I set-up Froakles for the game-ender.  Due to Torkoal's naturally high defense and the fact that it kept using 'Curse', I knew Greninja's special attacks would be best for the match, so I used Yawn to put her turtle to sleep and then switched Froakles in and put up a Substitute (for safety).  I took her Torkoal out with one "Scald" the next turn.

Her next pokemon was Chandelure and I outran and overpowered it with one attack.

Her final pokemon was another level 65 Talonflame--and I know that the last time I played, I stall-killed one of those with Mega Venusaur, but in-battle against the fifth-strongest trainer in the known universe is not the place to get cute, so I kept Froakles in for the one-hit-KO Scald.  But thank goodness for that Substitute because Talonflame moved first with Brave Bird--and that would have definitely hurt.
_________________
Score that match: 6-0
Hyper Potions: 24 -1
Revives: 25
_________________
Current Squad Status:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.56
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.55
FLAREON/Rox/lvl.53
LUCARIO/Knives/lvl.55
HIPPOWDON/Leviathan/lvl.55
GARDEVOIR/Missy/lvl.52

Sidelines: Pikachu, Scrafty, Dragalge, Aerodactyl

Water

Part of the reason I always choose the water-type starter is this weird fascination I have with bulky "stall" pokemon--that is, pokemon who take hits like they are nothing and retaliate with the same predictable (albeit reliable) moves.  In the case of the "bulky water", these moves are surf, hydro pump, and ice beam (repeat).  As a result of this, I chose to lead with Gardevoir for round 2 of my pokemon gauntlet--Gardevoir has the special defense to take hits--and with calm mind, I could set-up against those very same bulky waters that always loved to set up on me...

Siebold opened the match with a pokemon called Clawitzer.  I used Charge beam, trying to test it out to see how strong his pokemon was and found that Clawitzer takes away exactly 50% of my health while I am unboosted (no Calm Mind).

This was good to know, but it meant that I was going to have to sacrifice Gardevoir initially (I wasn't going to survive long enough to set up, but one revive would fix that).  I sent-in Venusaur and Mega-Evolved to use Leech Seed and Sleep Powder while I used revive and hyper potions on Gardevoir.  Mega-V was doing so well, as a matter of fact, that I kept him in.

What happened next was nothing short of genius.

Solarbeam is a two-turn move: on turn one you gather sunlight to charge your attack and on turn two you fire the 120-damage solarbeam.  I timed my attack so that the sleeping Clawitzer died due to Leech Seed on the turn where I charged my attack and the Solarbeam hit the switch-in for the one-hit KO.  Starmie was the lucky recipient.  I have to say, this was one battling moment that I will most likely remember forever.  It is second only to the time that I predicted the move "Explosion" and switched-in my ghost-type Gengar to ignore this Normal-type attack.

I decided not to test my luck and brought-in Gardevoir on the free switch to start setting-up Calm Minds while I burned through my hyper potions keeping her alive.  The final two turns of the match were two consecutive one-hit-KO's against Gyarados and Barbaracle.
_________________
Score that match: 5-0
Hyper Potions: 21 -3
Revives: 24 -1
_________________
Current Squad Status:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.56
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.55
FLAREON/Rox/lvl.55
LUCARIO/Knives/lvl.56
HIPPOWDON/Leviathan/lvl.55
GARDEVOIR/Missy/lvl.56

Sidelines: Pikachu, Dragalge, Scrafty, Aerodactyl

On the Doorstep

And here we are at the Elite Four, ready to take on the best in the world in final battle.

Not quite.

See, I haven't chosen my six-pokemon squad yet--something I should have done at the game's start.  Guess I'm way behind on this one...

As I procrastinated at the doorstep of the Pokemon League, I found a trainer who offered a bit of helpful advice: that the elite four each specializes in a pokemon type and that I could fight them in whatever order I pleased: Fire, Water, Steel, and Dragon.  Let's team build...
 __________________________
Okay, so let's start with the core pokemon: Froakles has Ice Beam and Scald, so he will be invaluable against a fire team and against a dragon team.  And Venusaur is, as previously established, unkillable.

 Let's add Pikachu for that Water gym and Gardevoir for the dragon team.  The addition of Gardevoir will allow my team to maintain some general bulkiness since it takes Special Hits like a champ.

 But I bet that water gym has a water/ground type or two kicking around--and water types are generally known for their bulk, so Pikachu is more of a weak link for this team.  It won't be outrunning anyone at such a low level either...Let's put some more bulk of our own in that slot instead.  And let's get Lucario in here--he just learned Close Combat.

And for the last one...hm...Aerodactyl is pretty fast and powerful and I know a lot of those dragons are actually also flying types...plus the rock moves will be doubly effective against that fire team...but it doesn't look like I have much to battle the steel team...and I know there's got to be a Metagross, there is always a Metagross...Oh god, what if there is a Scizor...it's decided then.

Elite Four Battle Squad: The Secret Six

We may be underleveled and we may be disconnected, but we have the tactical skills and we have the foresight to overcome any obstacles.  Plus, I just bought 50 hyper potions, so there's always that...

Current Squad Status:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.55
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.54
FLAREON/Rox/lvl.52
LUCARIO/Knives/lvl.55
HIPPOWDON/Leviathan/lvl.54
GARDEVOIR/Missy/lvl.52

Sidelines: Pikachu, Aerodactyl, Scrafty, Dragalge

The End of the Road

After I defeated Serena, my fortune changed drastically for the better.  My pokemon were finally strong enough to contend with my foes: battle became much less about guessing how many hits I can take before dying and going for a revenge kill and more about which of my pokemon would defeat the foe the fastest.  I was finally back.

As a matter of fact, the last half of Victory Road was a lot of fun.  One notable match that really sticks-out for me was my Mega Venusaur actually stall-killing a Level 65 Talonflame with Leech
Seed and Poisonpowder.  Talonflame is a Fire/Flying type and this particular Talonflame had both Flare Blitz, the strongest fire attack in the game, and Brave Bird, the strongest flying attack in the game.  You can see how this was exciting to me.  Mega Venusaur is just plain unkillable.  He cannot be defeated.

The road ended with a five-person gauntlet of strong veteran trainers with strong pokemon including skarmory and glaceon--but after this was over (and it was over not a moment too soon) I found myself at the base of the steps up to the Pokemon League.  I had made it to the top.

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.54
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.53
FLAREON/Rox/lvl.52
LUCARIO/Knives/lvl.53
DRAGALGE/Toxie/lvl.49
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.47

On Rotation: Pikachu, Scrafty, Hippowdon, Gardevoir

No Quarter: Battle at the Summit

What better way to truly test the strength of my new pokemon team than to battle my rival--a trainer whose strongest pokemon is 13 levels higher than mine?

Serena seems to have been busy since the last time we have fought each other, having added a bulky Altaria to her team in addition to her fully evolved Chesnaught and Vaporeon.  The presence of Absol and Meowstic are the pokemon on her side that shy her team away from being a true "Bulky Offensive" squad (my second favorite battle strategy, by the way).
______________________________
The "Rival as your friend" thing that the Pokemon series has been glomming-onto since Sapphire version has never really worked for me until fairly recently.  I guess I can attribute this to me being a dumb teenager for most of that time (I think I was fourteen when Sapphire version came out) and the one thing teenagers like more than pretending that no one understands them is being contentious. 

As a result, I wanted all of my enemies to be true enemies--and all of the battles all the time to be "epic" or "badass" without really knowing what either of these words really mean.  Even as early as last year I didn't like the "Friendly Rival" trend because I thought it was juvenile.  Now, though, I think I am starting to see what Nintendo/Gamefreak is going for.

Your rival doesn't have to be a huge jerk or even a classic "bad guy" to be threatening--and they don't need to be an imposing presence to challenge you and get you excited about a fight.  In real life there are surely people who are asses who give you a hard time.  These are people that you just can't wait to "show" as in "I'll show you one day" or "some day you'll see".  These types of rival-characters follow naturally from the "mean jerk" trope that was so especially pervasive in the 90's and early 2000's.  I am not saying that this trope is not currently relevant or motivational, but it is less effective at creating a compelling story.

More often than not the real motivators in life are the friends you know.  They are always challenging you to score better on your tests, work harder at your job, lift the bar for five more pounds, or do one more chin up.  In real life, you always feel better competing against these people as friends and rivals--and the result is a lot more of a fulfilling "hero's journey".  Battling Serena is about testing your mettle and your intestinal fortitude--and it is not one bit less exhilarating than battling Blue at the end of Pokemon Red...well, maybe just one little bit...

Now I should really stop talking about this--before I say something crazy like, "Pokemon Y has taught me to be a better person".
_________________________
The battle itself was something of a stall-fest with Serena tanking-out most of my hits and me learning how to use my Venusaur's Mega-Evolution.  Up until this point I have been using Mega Lucario and Mega Aerodactyl, but since Aero' has been left in the PC for the trip through Victory Road, I wanted to test out the durability of Mega-V.

Part of the reason the battle took so long was that I was using the opportunity to figure out what Venusaur can and can't handle in terms of stalling.  My Venusaur is currently running Sleep Powder/Poisonpowder/Leech Seed/Solarbeam at time of writing, so knowing what it can set-up on is crucial to my future Elite Four success.

The results of my experimentation: Mega Venusaur is an absolute tank.  Victory against Serena: 4-0.

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.54
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.52
FLAREON/Rox/lvl.51
LUCARIO/Knives/lvl.53
DRAGALGE/Toxie/lvl.49
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.49

On Rotation: Gardevoir, Pikachu, Hippowdon, Scrafty

Over Hill and Under Hill

The first part of my trek through the cavernous "Victory Road" was fraught with failure--my severely underleveled pokemon were being picked-off by wild Haunters and Druddigons--to say nothing of the trainers I came across. 

It seemed that every pokemon I fought was designed specifically to ruin my day.  My Lucario knows Shadow Claw, but the wild Haunter has Sucker Punch and Lucario is KO-ed.  My Venusaur has Petal Dance, but the wild Graveler has Earthquake and Venusaur is KO-ed. 

I had to fight the same damn trainer with the same damn Hawlucha three times before I won, and every time my Psychic/Fairy type Gardevoir was put into an obvious mismatch against a Fighting type (whose attacks would do quarter damage, QUARTER DAMAGE against me) it would have Poison Jab as one of its moves.  Since poison is super effective against fairy, I would have to define this as  "godamn bullshit".

But, through this all, I used my revives and used my super potions and my pokemon got stronger.  Soon I was only losing two pokemon to each wild haunter--and soon enough, I would start defeating them outright.  Eventually, my pokemon became strong enough to take on the trainers' pokemon.  There was still the huge level difference, but my pokemon, being better-trained specifically for certain roles, began to come together.  By the time I made it out of the first cave into the sun, my pokemon were all sitting at a comfortable level 51--and starting to win rather than just not lose so badly. 

It was then that Serena, my rival, caught up to me and challenged me to a battle.

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.52
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.51
FLAREON/Rox/lvl.50
LUCARIO/Knives/lvl.51
DRAGALGE/Toxie/lvl.49
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.49

On Rotation: Gardevoir, Pikachu, Hippowdon, Scrafty

Before the Storm

With eight badges in hand and a box FULL of pokemon, I found myself at victory road, ready to take on all-comers.  I defeated the gatekeeper in battle and passed through the gate and into the cave and was immediately 6-0ed by a level 60 Weavile.  I didn't even get a chance to attack once...

I am wondering how I even made it this far--the wild pokemon I am encountering are all around level 58 and the strongest member of my team is arguably Gardevoir, who is sitting at a tenuous 47.  Either I am one of the luckiest bastards out there or I am just extremely good at not repeating the same mistakes twice.

Now that I think on it, what I recall of my journey could be described as a series of lucky breaks with one or two clever battle decisions thrown in there for giggles.  Along the way I have been defeated a lot (and I mean A LOT) but I always bounced back with a plan for victory.  A little foresight can go a long way.

But against a series of 5 elite trainers (well, an elite 4 and a champion, heehaw-heehaw-heehaw) I am fairly sunk.  I don't think that the pokemon league will allow me to use my 12-pokemon rotating team.

Finally, at the end of the game, I have to make the tough decision about who to bring with me through the finale--and it is a decision that I am not looking forward to one bit.

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.47
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.46
FLAREON/Hotfoot/lvl.47
LUCARIO/Knives/lvl.47
DRAGALGE/Toxie/lvl.48
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.45

On Rotation: Pikachu, Scrafty, Hippowdon, Gardevoir

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.
________________________
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...

________________________
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