Vs. Lurantis

Against a Bug and grass type, there is no shelter from my team.  Go Team Foul Wing!

Vs Lurantis: The Hedge Trimmers

I led with Sludj as I always go, spreading poison to Lurantis--and then to its ally partner Trumbeak.  The fact that the mantis pokemon summoned Trumbeak should have been my firs cue that the battle was going to be longer than I expected, but I didn't get the memo.

See, my squad is so strong against grass that I actually started writing this post before I even started the battle.  The original transcript read simply as:

"It was easy and I won easily."

I could not have anticipated that the pokemon would have Synthesis.  Stalling does not work, at the most fundamental of levels, against an opponent that can heal itself. Grimer was able to injure the two, but Lurantis healed itself and Trumbeak took out my lead.  

I switched to the more direct approach.  I sent in Sassy Sally and used the Fire Z-move "Inferno Overdrive".  Against a bug/grass type (even a bug/grass type that is several levels higher) this would be an easy KO.  Apparently however, Lurantis is only grass-typed, and so Inferno Overdrive mortally wounded it.

And then Lurantis just healed itself.

Solar Blade is basically Lurantis
calling upon Divine Intervention.

Obviously this wasn't working; I wasn't losing yet and none of its moves were hurting my pokemon much, but I couldn't keep this up.  Its second ally summon pokemon, castform, had used Sunny Day--thereby making Synthesis doubly effective.  I turned my attention towards the castform and took it out handily enough--but lost Sassy Sally in the process.

I sent in Ori-chan and ate a move called Solar Blade.  Seemingly, this is a two-turn charge move like Solarbeam, but dealing physical damage.  I used Feather Dance and Feather Dance again, then baton-passed out to Trumbeak.  The Feather dances were to weaken that Solar Blade attack.  The baton pass was to ensure that Lurantis' move would target Ori-chan before it switches out so that Trumbeak would enter the battle undamaged.

I knew I had the eventual win at this point.  Trumbeak has Pluck, Flame Charge, Roost, and Work Up.  I could boost my attack and speed and heal off the damage I took with roost--and then take out Lurantis with one attack.  

I'm not going to lie, I felt pretty good about myself after this win.

VICTORY!!

2-0

Vs. Wishiwashi

I think that Wishiwashi and Magikarp are pokemon that are diametrically opposed.  Magikarp is a weak pokemon that, through trial and struggle, eventually achieves something great.  The pokemon is based on the Chinese legend of the koi that swims up the waterfall and leaps through the dragon gate to achieve enlightenment and become a dragon itself.  Magikarp is an individual out to prove itself to the world.

Wishiwashi is a fish that is weak and timid and small.  In these ways, it has a lot in common with Magikarp.  However, Magikarp achieves strength for itself through tenacity; Wishiwashi achieves strength by working together with others of its species.

One thing I didn't know about the pokemon is that they have an ability called "Schooling".  This allows the pokemon to call upon others to work with it.  The pokemon then becomes one giant, powerful school of fish--capable of attacking with much greater power than any single one of them could.  See that wishiwashi pic up there? That's the little sardine in its "school form".

Vs. Wishiwashi: Experimental Uncertainty

Wishiwashi-School Form in the rain is probably the sort of match that I wouldn't want to be caught up in for long.  I wasn't exactly sure of what kinds of moves the pokemon would have, but anything with "Water" in the title would end up scoring an extra 50% damage in the weather...and 50% more for matching Wihiwashi's water typing.

This match was going to hurt.

I had decided to lead with Sludj because I wanted to start the match out with Poison.  Really every match should be started with poison.  That's a philosophy of mine.

After Wishiwashi called for help, I made sure to spread the pestilence to the second pokemon in the same way.  All totem pokemon boost their defenses in battle, so I wanted to stay off the offensive for as much of the match as possible.  I decided to stick to stall.  I traded protect's for a few moves to ensure that the poison could weaken the two opponents.  Ultimately, though, Water Gun in the rain was too much for Grimer and the totem Wishiwashi KO'ed Sudj.

Wishiwashi is a pokemon that works well as a team.  The two Wishiwashi on the field--one in its solo form and one in its school form--were in perfect synchronicity.  With all those Helping Hand moves being thrown about, I needed to remove the supporting fish from the field.  Helping Hand + Rain + School form + STAB Water Gun could easily remove every pokemon in my team.  I sent in Ori-chan.  I needed a quick win and Air Cutter is a spread move.  Air Cutter would damage both opponents.

And Ori-chan is fast.  Really fast.

With its support quickly removed, the totem Wishiwashi was unable to KO Oricorio as handily.  It was the precision strike that ended the match at that critical moment in battle.  My victory came three turns later.

Vs. Raticate

Previously on Ben's Spectacular Pokemon White Y Moon Playthrough:

Totem Pokemon are powerful guardians of Trial locations.  There is a Totem for each Trial.  The Raticate boss in charge of the Verdant Cave Shrine was trained and set there with one goal: stop the Trial Challengers.  But I have the advantage here: I'm not a Trial Challenger, I'm a veteran Pokemon Trainer.

Vs. Raticate: Young Balance

I started by sending out Growlithe as a scout.  Knowing that Raticate is a Dark/Normal type in this game, I wanted to save Pip Pip for later on in the engagement as my ace.  Pikipek has a fighting move in Rock Smash (something that makes me curious about what kind of pokemon it will eventually evolve into), which would do x4 damage against the opponent.  Raticate immediately powered-up by boosting its defense.  Totems apparently have this extra ability.

First turn: Raticate Bites Growlie, who flinches.  The end of the turn finds Growlithe injured and Raticate untouched.  And then Raticate summoned help: Rattata appeared on the battlefield to assist the Totem.  This two-against-one match was easily enough to overwhelm Growlithe, Pikipek, and Popplio; all of whom failed to move because of flinch.  Both of my opponents were fast--much faster than my more methodical teammates--and I was taking two attacks per turn.  I was outnumbered and outperformed. 

Trusting in my instincts and relying on the Pokemon knowledge I had accrued over a lifetime of battle experience, I reassessed the situation.  I only had three pokemon left; one of them, Misdreavus, would not be able to cause any damage at all to the Dark/Normal opponents with their Psychic and Ghost moves.  What do I do when it's time to call defeat?  I stall.

Knowing exactly what I had left--a long shot against the barely damaged duo--I sent out Grimer.  Grimer, with its superior defenses, would be able to tank the two pokemons' physical moves; Grimer would resist "Bite".  And finally, Grimer had one more trick up its goopy, goopy sleeves: I used Poison Gas--successfully poisoning both opponents.

Raticate must have anticipated exactly this possibility, because it was holding a Pecha Berry which immediately cured it of its poisoning.  One turn later, I re-applied the move and succeeded in poisoning the pokemon, but not without great cost to myself.  Grimer could be gone in two turns--turns I didn't have.

I used Harden.  I took damage.  I used Harden.  I took damage.  I was prolonging the inevitable, but each turn I could keep my pokemon alive was one more turn towards my opponents' defeat.  Poison damage had severely weakened the Rattata.  Knowing that Grimer had done its job, I spent the last turn aiming a futile "Pound" attack at the Raticate.  Rattata took out my Grimer before it could even move.  It was the last thing my foe did before it fell due to poison.

It was now Chompy vs. Raticate.  Raticate was wounded--but Raticate was faster.  Almost there!!!

Turn 1: "Bite" exchanged for "Tackle".  Turn 2: "Bite" exchanged for "Tackle".

VICTORY

The Verdant Cave Trial

I regrouped with Trial Captain Ilima at the mouth of the Verdant Cave.  Ilima warned me that I would not be able to quit my challenge once I began, so I made sure to choose a balanced and worthy team for the ordeal.

Battle Team 1

The Verdant Cave Trial was a challenge to defeat the three Rattata guardians of the cave and then retrieve the Z Crystal in the inner sanctum.  Normally an easy task, I could not have anticipated that each of my foes would have a powerful move that would exceed their level.  The first Rattata had Hyper Fang at level 11; the second had Super Fang at that same level; the third Rattata was actually a Raticate.  Since all of my pokemon were around level 11 and one was completely useless (Misdreavus only knows Psychic and Ghost moves--which the dark/normal type Alola Rattata are immune to), I had to rely on Sludj the Grimer to stall them out until they succumb to poison damage.

Team Skull showed up along the way and it's official: they're my favorite villainous gang ever.  They're funny.  I know when this game series tries to do humor, they tend to fall somewhere between "they mostly live in Minnesota" and "I'll use my frying pan as a drying pan", so for me to say this means something.

Having defeated all three guardians, I made my way into the inner Sanctum.

"Raticate, the totem pokemon of Verdant Cave, has appeared."

Bottoms-Up Training

Next on my list of destinations was the Pokemon Trainer's School.  In my moments of level-headedness, I have found that I am becom

ing increasingly more worried that this is going to turn into the "Pokemon Sight-seeing Tour" given the density of unstoppable dialogues and cutscenes.  Hau (the  Litten trainer and grandson of the Melemele Kahuna) and Lillie haven't left my side for more than a few minutes so far this game and, while I admit that I'm still not exactly sure of what I should be doing on these Island challenges, I hope this game cuts out the handholding sooner rather than later.

And then, I catch something new and weird and I forget all about my doubts.

On my way to my first day of Pokemon school, I managed to bag Spinarak and Grubbin.  I like Grubbin (this little pinchers are precious) and its pokedex entry specifically discusses electric pokemon, but I opted to stick with my current lineup of six.  Slowpoke is currently the weak link considering its wide move pool of absolute garbage support moves (yawn, growl, and curse in addition to tackle), but I'm not quite ready to give it up.  It must learn headbutt soon...

At the Trainer's School, I was tasked with finding and battling four specially chosen trainers.  They used pokemon local to that specific area including Bonsly and Grimer (in its cool green and yellow Alola frome).  On the school grounds, I bagged my own Grimer and Magnemite.  I decided to give them my 7th and 8th team slots and put my rapidly growing Yungoos in the box for a spell.  I like using an eight-pokemon rotating squad, but I'm noticing an over-reliance on dark-type pokemon and moves.

Whilst I'm on the subject, the pokemon storage system has really been streamlined and improved.  I'm quite impressed with how it has been fixed up.  Moving pokemon, items, and selecting teams for battle is all done from the same menu now by toggling different options at the top of the screen, so rather than navigating into and out of different box modes from the PC startup screen, all you have to do is tap one button to switch from moving pokemon to moving held items.

It is the little things in this game that are really warming me up.  Like how trainers are visibly giving their pokemon orders in the background in battle. Or like how when you try to pet your Alola Grimer your hand gets stuck in its goopy goopiness.

"You mean here...now?"

After I took out the head student's Alola Grimer, a Poison/Dark type in this game, I was challenged by the teacher.  At this point, I realized what exactly I was up against.  Crew of underlings, boss battle at the end: I was basically up against my first gym leader.  Teacher Emily carried Magnemite and Alola Meowth, both of which were actually surprisingly tough.  At this point, I realized I really had no answer to steel/electric.  Joy.

Ultimately, I had to sacrifice two pokemon in order to debuff the magnetite enough that I could take it out with Grimer's STAB Bite.  Alola Meowth was a lot easier to defeat--after I realized it was Dark-type.
__________________
Newly graduated from Pokemon School, I was escorted to the next part of town by my two annoying friends: Hau the Litten trainer and Lillie the Office Supplies Bandit.  I immediately bactracked to the school when I realized I could snag my own Alola Meowth there.

Current Squad:
Popplio/Pako Pako/lvl 10
Yungoos/Chompy/lvl 9
Pikipek/Pip Pip/lvl 8
Pichu/Rai Rai/lvl 8
Slowpoke/Pokey/lvl 8
Rattata/Snackers/lvl 8

On Rotation:
Grimer/Sludj/lvl 8
Magnemite/Mags/lvl 8

Pokedex: 14 caught

The Good Kind of Tough Choices

I ended-up spending a lot more time than I expected screwing-around in the Route 4 hedge maze getting a feel for this new fairy type and I still haven't decided on whether I prefer Ralts (who was on my main team back when I played Sapphire Version and has always been a sleeper favorite of mine) or this Dandelion thing I just caught.  Ralts is a known commodity, but Flabebe, as I have found after fighting the scores of Combee that inhabit Route 4,  is something of a Special Defense Tank.  I have always been more of a fan of stall-teams, probably because I'm such a huge pussy, so having a Special Tank like Flabebe is fairly fulfilling for me.  For now I'm just going to keep a seven-pokemon rotating roster until I decide I'm tired of something.  These kind of tough choices are the good kind, I feel.

Professor Sycamore as he appears in Pokemon Red

As soon as I made it to Glitch City (Lumiose City), I met up with Professor Sycamore, who immediately challenged me to a battle.  I was expecting a battle against three magnemite or maybe a
Porygon, a Grimer, and a Cubone (These are typical pokemon carried by a "Super-Nerd") or something weird like that, but he surprised me with Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle.

Updates: Fire type added

And it is at exactly this moment that I found out that Fairy Type Attacks are not very effective against Fire Type Pokemon (sigh).  I updated my chart to reflect this new data, but Flabebe still has not forgiven me for this oversight.


-----------------------------------------
I'm not quite sure if I was good all this year, but apparently Christmas came for me anyways: Professor Sycamore gave me my choice of his three pokemon.  I was thinking of picking up Charmander because I really wanted to see that Charizard in 3D, but I decided to stick to my roots and pick Bulbasaur--who was my very first pokemon ever.  I named him "Bulby".

Which brings up that question of what to do with my pokemon team--which is now made up of eight pokemon.  Bulbasaur, Froakie and Raich--I mean, Pikachu are non-negotiable and I'm still pretty high on Flabebe and Ralts...

Guess I have an eight-pokemon cycle for now!

My gang of pokemon-thieving friends arrived just after the battle so that Professor Sycamore could give us all a nice pep talk about following our dreams and finding others who have different views or some "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood" nonsense like that. I really wasn't paying attention, I was too high on Bulbasaur at this point--which is a problem because I think he said something important about Mega-Evolving Bulbasaur in his monologue and I definitely missed it.  Hopefully this isn't going to be a problem (SPOILER: it probably is).

On the way out the door I met the obvious villain-du-jour Lysandre.  Why did I immediately identify him as the villain?  Because he said he wanted to save the world.  Only bad
guys say things like that, this is the first thing you learn at protagonist school.  I should have been intimidated, but who can be scared of a guy named Lysandre?  That's like being afraid of a guy named Lloyd!

Current Squad:

FROAKIE/Froakles/lvl.13
BULBASAUR/Bulby/lvl.10
PIKACHU/PikaPi/lvl.11
BUTTERFREE/Felix/lvl.11
FLABEBE/Pixie/lvl.11
FARFETCH'D/Quacklin'/lvl.11

On Rotation: Ralts, Zigzagoon