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.
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Score that match: 5-0
Hyper Potions: 17 -3
Revives: 23 -1
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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

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...
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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

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).
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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".
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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

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

Lysandre's Reckoning

No sooner had I caught Yveltal than Lysandre barged-into the door to try to steal Yveltal back from me.  This was the first instance of real hand-to-hand human conflict in the pokemon series and I was surprised to see Lysandre use his obvious height and size advantages to his benefit to just take the pokeball out of my hands after beating me up.
...
Nah, I'm just kidding, he challenged me to a pokemon battle instead.

I had the option of using my newly-caught Yveltal.  Remembering how much trouble I had against Mienshao in my last fight, I took the Flying-Type advantage of having Yveltal in my squad and sent Ziggy the Linoone back to the box.
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Yveltal is Dark/Flying, so Mienshao's Hi Jump Kick dealt about 60% damage to me right off the bat, but I knocked him out that same turn with Oblivion Wing, a powerful Flying type move.

Next, against Lysandre's Pyroar, I sent-in Greninja, who was too slow to move first.  As a result, it had to eat one of Pyroar's Hyper-Voice attacks and survived it with exactly 1 HP left (wow).  Water Pulse did about the same amount of damage to Pyroar, but I was able to pick it off by using "Water Shuriken", a move which always moves first.

Pikachu took out Honchkrow in one hit, and then stays-in against Gyarados.  This is Lysandre's final pokemon, and I knew that Pikachu would move first and destroy that Water/Flying type with a powerful Thunderbolt move.  But Gyarados did the unexpected.  Gyarados evolved into Mega-Gyarados.

This is the point where the tide of the battle begain to turn.  Gyarados tanked Pikachu's Thunderbolt--only taking about 50% damage (this will be important later on)--and one-hit-KOed Pikachu with Earthquake.  I sent in Hippopotas to try to whittle its health down with sandstorm, but he was taken out in one hit by aqua tail.  I sent in Venusaur hoping it would survive enough to poison it, but poisonpowder missed and Venusaur died on turn two of Gyadaros' outrage.  Mega Lucario was next.  Mega Lucario was LAST.  It was over, Lucario just couldn't hit Gyarados hard enough with Shadow Claw and my fighting-type moves will be too weak.

But wait a minute...flashback...

"...Gyarados tanked Pikachu's Thunderbolt--only taking 50% damage..."

Exactly half damage?  Could it be?  When Gyarados evolves, is it no longer a flying type?  Will Aura Sphere still work?  I take a chance with aura sphere:  super effective!  Mega Gyarados is Water/Dark!  KO!

The Mega-Evolution Descendent

After I swept her team with Scarydactyl, Korrina told me she would like a true battle with me as two Mega-Evolution users and ran off to the Tower of Mastery.  I ignored the fact that I have already beaten her twice (I mean, how many times do I have to prove myself anyways?) and instead focused on something she called herself, "Mega-Evolution Descendent" or something like that.

I made my way to the Tower of Lucario to fight her for our re-rematch and the Mega-Evolution Guru--erhm, Steve--told me she was the Mega-Evolution Successor and that she was upstairs.  What the hell does that mean?  Mega-Evolution Successor?  Those words mean nothing together!

I found Korrina at the top and she gave me the special snap-on, bejeweled Mega bracelet which would allow me to evolve my pokemon.  There, one of the two Lucarios (which, to me, sounds like a delicious breakfast cereal) she had with her asked her if it could battle her on my side.  Mutiny! Hahaha!

So I entered-into a battle against Korrina with her Level 32 Lucario--and I got my first taste of Mega-Evolution.  The way it works is if you have the special Livestrong Mega Bracelet on and your pokemon is holding a special stone (in this case it was called Lucarionite), you can choose an option to Mega-Evolve before your attack from the battle screen.

Of course I chose to test this out, evolving Lucario into Mega-Lucario.  After transforming, Lucario's stats in Attack, Special Attack, and Speed increased by 1.5x.  His ability changed to "Adaptability" which changes the Same Type as Attack Bonus (STAB) from 1.5x to 2.0x (fighting and steel attacks increased in power).  Finally, he changed his appearance by changing the color of his paws.  It's these big changes that are the ones that count I guess.

After the battle (which ended in exactly two turns) I got to keep the Lucario, who I named "Knives" and stuck in the box until the rest of my team gained enough levels to use him.  Hopefully by then I will know what to do about the 11 pokemon in my team!

Wait a second!  FLASHBACK...

 

 

 

Two Weeks Earlier...

I've got to go try this out.

Current Squad:

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

On Rotation: Kirlia, Pikachu, Hippopotas, Lucario

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.
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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