A Battle with the Champion

I had met the champion before in Lysandre's cafe, but I had forgotten who this Diantha was.  In the best game of all time, Pokemon Red version, I remember being absolutely taken aback by my rival Gary being my final opponent.  Whenever someone had referred to the final gauntlet of trainers in that game, it was always the "Elite Four" or the "Final Four".  It was never the "Elite Four and also the Champion".

Battling Gary specifically, even, was a surprise--and it was even more shocking because the last time I had encountered him in that game was in Saffron City in the Silph building--at least three gym-badges before.  This is exactly enough time to totally forget about that character.

Similarly, the re-introduction of Diantha here was a surprise: "oh yeah, you're still a person aren't you?!" It's not nearly as cool as battling your rival, but it's still something.  It was like battling Steven in Ruby version or Cynthia in Diamond.

Diantha thanked me for taking care of Team Flare and graciously accepted my challenge.  Time for battle!

I find it a little funny that I spent an entire day earlier in this year gushing about how cool Hawlucha is given the fact that it was never formally on my team.  When I made my way through Victory Road, I was reminded of this since it seemed like every single trainer carried one--and all of them had some obnoxious Fairy-killing move like Steel Wing or Poison Jab.

Her first pokemon was Hawlucha.  Is the word I am looking for "opportune" or "destined"?

I had led the match with Hippowdon for tanking and scouting purposes--most of the pokemon I am coming across are physical attackers (like Hawlucha) and Hippowdon can at least put things to sleep and stall them with Sandstorm.  This is exactly what happened, I put Hawlucha to sleep, letting sandstorm whittle it down,then sent in Froakles, hoping to score an easy kill with a super-effective ice beam.  However, Diantha used a Full Restore on the switch.  The result of this is that I switched my Greninja into a fully healthy Hawlucha who not only outspeeds my low-level ninjafrog, but also hits it super-effectively (since Fighting is strong against Dark). 

After sacrificing Greninja to get a free switch-in, I chose Venusaur for some sleep powder/leech seed stalling while I used Revive and hyper potion.  I was positive that I would need that froggie later in the match.

I had calculated it so that Venusaur would survive four hits after Hawlucha woke up, so I set-up my now-trademark "Leech Seed KO/Solarbeam switch KO" move (charging Solarbeam on a turn such that it will hit a switch-in pokemon after a KO).  The issue is that Hawlucha scored a critical hit at the most important part of the exchange and Venusaur was taken out.  Hippowdon had just enough durability to take out Hawlucha.

I remembered her next pokemon, Aurorus, from a trainer battle following my eighth gym match.  Aurorus is the evolution of the fossil pokemon I got at the start of the game--and is Rock/Ice typed.

Now, what do both Ice and Rock HATE?

I sent in Lucario and immediately "went Mega".  The question was whether I wanted to risk MegaLuk's health with a turn 1 Swords Dance or if I wanted to go for the sweep immediately.  I play dangerously.  Mega Lucario used Swords Dance against Aurorus, who used Reflect (thank you).

The rest of the match was an easy sweep: Lucario One-Hit KO'ed Aurorus with Aura Sphere, then the bulky Dragon Goodra with Close Combat and the evolution of the fossil Tyrunt, Tyrantrum, with another Close Combat.

Her next pokemon was the Grass/Ghost pokemon Gourgeist, but I had taught Lucario Shadow Claw when I took on the Psychic gym for type coverage, so the Swords Dance-boosted super-effective ghost move One Hit KO'ed Gourgeist as well.  Lucario just cannot be stopped.

Her final pokemon was Gardevoir, who actually surprised me by Mega-Evolving, but Lucario outsped it and defeated it in one hit as well.

Korrina's Punchy Pokemon

So, giant tribute to the greatness of our Lord Lucario aside, there was really nothing to the Tower of Mastery--it was just a huge room with a spiraling staircase that I wasn't allowed to ascend.

Time to earn a gym badge!

The Shalour City Gym was a Fighting Gym inside a skate park, and while a fighting gym may have been a huge problem in my Pokemon White playthrough with my massive weakness to Fighting types in my team, I came into this gym with a certain amount of swagger and confidence.

Gymkiller Squad #3: The Punch-Takers

 

Scraggy - Intimidate coverage to soften the blow of her physical pokemon
Floette - Fairy type resistance against Fighting attacks.
Kirlia - Confusion plus a double resistance to fighting moves.
Flareon - Fire Fang's possibility of Burn is too tempting not to bring in.
Ivysaur - Poison Typing resists fighting attacks, Leech Seed + Sleep Powder are my friend.
Aerodactyl - For cleanup/suicide revenge-killing.

I made note of all of the level 28+ pokemon running around in the gym and I realized just how under-leveled my squad was--which I guess is the tradeoff for being able to rotate more than six members in and out of the team.

After I beat all four trainers in the gym, Gymleader Korrina jumped down from the ceiling to challenge me in the center of the room, announcing her appearence as if she were the special guest star on some weird pokemon sitcom.

Normally I wouldn't make note of this, but Korrina is just so...weird.  I have no clue what her personality is--I'm not sure if they're going for "over-the-top" or "thinks she is a movie star" or "flashbacks of her service in the Great War"--but she just comes across as kind of bonkers.  And that helmet is definitely not helping her out.

I was sure my strategy of cycling Scraggy in-and-out of battle to continuously intimidate opponents (lowering their attack after each switch-in) while tanking hits with my fighting-resistant pokemon was a winning one.  She led with Mienfoo and after lowering her attack with my Scraggy, I switched to Pixie to take hits and use Fairy attacks to whittle it down.  This is the point where I was introduced to the attack "Power-Up Punch", which raised Mienfoo's attack with each hit.  DAMN, time to change strategies.

I barely took out Mienfoo with Floette and Korrina next sent out a high-level Machoke to clean-up Floette and Scraggy.  Scraggy was able to lower the Machoke's attack enough to survive exactly one hit before being taken out by another "Power-Up Punch", and Kirlia was able to cripple the Machoke before falling to yet another Punch.  This, of course, prompted Korrina to use a Hyper potion. DOUBLE DAMN.

At this point, I was staring at a Machoke with a +5 boosted Attacking stat (which is the same as if his attacks were at 3.5x strength) with only Flareon, Ivysaur, and Aerodactyl.  After Flareon was unable to burn the Machoke with Fire Fang, and Korrina used yet another Hyper Potion, I realized it was Aerodactyl or bust.

In the end, it was Aerodactyl and NOT bust, as Scarydactyl took out the (now fully-powered at +6 Attack) Machoke in two hits.  Her final pokemon was Hawlucha--and not Lucario as I expected (since she had Lucario with her both times I saw her in the past). 

At the end of the match, she gave me her badge and tried to make what I think was a joke about how she has to re-evaluate her life after her loss to me.  I'm not sure if this is a just poor attempt at humor or Nintendo/Gamefreak taking irony to the highest possible level--with their eye-rolling eyes coming right out of their heads due to self-aware camp.

She told me to battle her again at the Tower of Mastery.  Since I have already kicked her ass on two separate occasions, I am kind of getting sick of this charade.

Current Squad:

FROGADIER/Froakles/lvl.27
IVYSAUR/Ivy/lvl.26
FLAREON/Hotfoot/lvl.25
FLOETTE/Pixie/lvl.23
SCRAGGY/Scrappy/lvl.24
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.26

On Rotation: Pikachu/Hippopotas/Kirlia

Hawlucha

Well, I think I found my favorite pokemon of the new generation!

Hawlucha is a Fighting/Flying type pokemon modeled after the lucha libre wrestling phenomenon of Central America--taking on the signature costume design and high-flying wrestling tactics of the same.  And he is freaking freaking freaking freaking awesome.  I don't think I have been so completely sold on the design of any one pokemon for a long time...as a matter of fact, I think the last pokemon I LOVED the design of was Milotic (and Sharpedo, for that matter).  Sure, I've liked many of the pokemon since Sapphire version, but I liked them in more of the way I liked the design of...say...Jolteon.  I like Jolteon and I think it is cool, but you won't see it in my top ten.  Hawlucha, YOU have made the cut.
________________________

I made my way north of Cyllage City to train Flareon (whom I have not actually used in battle yet) and to explore a little more and found myself in a stone garden not unlike stone henge.  All the trainers in the area had something to say about how important and powerful the rocks were, but I really don't see what they could mean by this.

Of course Team Flare was there.

In between talking about how much they hate puppies and the laughter of children, Team Flare dropped a few hints about some 3000 year-old legend.  I had no clue what they were talking about, but I am absolutely certain that it will all be explained in EXCRUCIATING detail very, very soon.

On my way into Geosenge City, I caught Yanma, Electrike, Sigilyph, Snubbull, Emolga , and (after three failed attempts) Hawlucha.  I am really tempted to bring-in Hawlucha over Aerodactyl, but I feel like adding another pokemon with a Flying or Ice weakness on this team would be me asking to be rolled-over.

As I stumbled around town, I found myself in battle with a trainer named "Leader Korinna" who used two Lucario.  I had met her before, but this is the first time I battled her--and it wasn't until I had defeated BOTH of her Lucario with "Hotfoot" the Flareon that I realized that she must be a gymleader.

I think I just earned a gym badge without even knowing it.

Current Squad:

FROGADIER/Froakles/lvl.22
IVYSAUR/Ivy/lvl.22
FLAREON/Hotfoot/lvl.22
FLOETTE/Pixie/lvl.21
SCRAGGY/Scrappy/lvl.22
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.22

On Rotation: Kirlia, Pikachu, Hippopotas