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.

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

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).
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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".
_________________________
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

Special and Physical

With all the Generation-1 pokemon (Red and Blue versions) running all over the place I find myself more and more nostalgic about my old Pokemon Red playthroughs (R.I.P. Haunter/BLACK FOG).  As a queer side-effect of this, I've been turtling myself more and more into the ways of the older games.  Guess I'll never quite get over this disease I have: adulthood.
 _________________________________

I am actually in the small but stubborn camp of people who thinks that the first generation's treatment of Special vs. Physical attacks and defenses makes the most sense.  Back then there was no such thing as Special Attack and Special Defense, there was just "SPECIAL" which was your attacking and your defending stat for Special moves.  What made an attack a special attack or a physical attack was just the element of the move in question: fire = special, fighting = physical.

The current split for Special and Physical attacks occurred in the diamond and pearl era and it is that attacks which require physical contact or that use physical objects (rocks, swords, scythes, etc.) are physical--and attacks that don't require physical contact are special.  As far as special goes, it is basically just beams and stuff, or things that are more ethereal. Pretty straightforward, totally understand what they are going for, and furthermore this allows a fire pokemon to use both physical fire moves like fire punch and special fire moves like flamethrower.  It totally makes sense from a gameplay perspective and Gyarados is still grateful for this.  Alternatively, a rock type can attack physically with rock throw or specially with power gem.  I am still not quite sure what the hell a power gem is and what makes it a "rock" technique, but I digress.

This "new" special/physical model makes sense by basically having physical moves--moves that require a pokemon to use its muscles--scale in damage with a pokemon's attacking stat as its strength. The logic is that whether a punch is normal type (mega punch) or fire type (fire punch) it should still depend on how strong the pokemon throwing it is.

Special and Physical defenses, on the other hand, are a bit less obvious.  Physical defenses refer to the resiliency of a pokemon to getting punched in the face.  Obviously a pokemon like Onix would be able to be punched in the face to less effect than, say, Pichu.  Special defense, on the other hand, doesn't really mean anything.  Is this a stat based on the pokemon's reflectivity?  How well it refracts all those ice beams in order to take less ice beam damage?  Is it the presence of flame-retardant skin?  Or a gelatinous body that is resistant to cold or heat-based moves?  But aren't these all physical attributes anyways?  We'll get back to this...

I want to take this opportunity to point out that I  do not disagree with this way of looking at it, but I feel that this is only part of the equation and that it misses some of the narrative subtlety of the "older ways".

Under the old ways, certain types of moves were deemed "special" moves and all other moves were said to be "regular" or retroactively, "physical" moves.  Special moves included any fire moves, any ice moves, and any electrical, grass, water, or psychic moves (fine, technically "dragon" too, but there were no damage-dealing dragon attacks back then).  Everything else was physical: rock, poison, normal, fighting, ground, etc.

The particularly quick (or at least the particularly not-stupid) already see that any fire move, be it fire punch or flamethrower, is special.  While this seems to be an issue given my previously noted grievances, it actually makes sense in its own way: special moves don't refer to whether a move makes physical contact or not--but rather refer to the element of the move in question.  This is why a fire punch is special--it is a regular punch that is charged with the element of fire--which is something that not every pokemon can manage with proficiency.

Regular moves, in this paradigm,are not moves that make direct contact, but are moves that don't require any particular extra ability to use.  Basically, any pokemon could feasibly pick up a rock and throw it at a foe (rock throw), any pokemon could throw out a punch (karate chop), but not every pokemon has the ability or wherewithal to make their punch crackle with electricity (thunderpunch).  Naturally, not every pokemon has the proper training to execute every single regular move, but a regular move is basically a move where a pokemon needs not require the ability to summon special energies.  The word special is slightly misleading.  Special really refers to elemental prowess.

This also makes sense from the "defense" side: a pokemon with a high "special" is more in-tune with the elements, so not only would they be able to summon elements with more proficiency, but they would similarly be able to brush off elemental attacks with that same proficiency.  Finally, a "special defense" that works!  Why, oh why, did you have to split it into Special Attack and Special Defense, Nintendo?!?


Neither method is perfect.  The old way has issues rectifying things like why an Alakazam (which is not a particularly muscular pokemon) can punch someone for minimal damage with mega punch, but can then tear an opponent apart with a fire-charged punch.  The new way has trouble answering the question of how a meathead like a Hitmonchan has the ability to summon fire, ice, and electricity for its punches with extreme proficiency--as well as the question of what the hell special defense is and what bullshit reflective skin a Blissey must have in order to take fire blast for minimal damage but to cripple in fear of a fire punch.

The Road to Snowbelle City

The road to Couriway town brought me to an optional cave called the "Terminus Cave".  I took some time to explore the cave, coming out with a small fortune in random items, the TM for Shadow Ball (nice!), and a bunch of pokemon: Pupitar, Durant, Sandslash, Graveler, Gurdurr, and Torkoal.  When I reached the lowest part of the cave I met a character blocking a doorway who basically told me to come back when I have become the champion.  Nintendo must be hiding Mewtwo back there.

Just you wait...

When I reached the town, the Professor Sycamore found me and thanked me for killing his friend Lysandre.  Not in these words exactly but I could read between the lines well enough.  He then gave me the HM for Waterfall.  This is one item which I have been waiting nearly the entire game for because Nintendo is very good at teasing new areas to the adventurous.  "Hey, look!  A waterfall and several shiny items right out of reach, bet you can't wait to come back here, huh?"  Jerks.

He then battled me with his Venusaur, Blastoise, and Charizard.  I beat him handily, but it was still a fun battle anyways.  He ran off afterwards, congratulating me and mumbling something about a surprise.  Last surprise was a Bulbasaur, so I hope his next surprise starts with a C and breathes fire.

...

I meant Charmander.  I hope he gives me a Charmander.

The route ahead took me over a swampy gorge.  I didn't have to explore the swamp to cross, but I did anyways and caught a fucking Stunfisk.  No I don't mean a Stunfisk, I mean a fucking stunfisk because stunfisk is the most odious pokemon of all time.

As I crossed the bridge, three of the four Pokemon thieves appeared out of nowhere and challenged me to a battle.  I beat Serena's (the one who Nintendo was building-up to turn into my character's love interest in the game.  Looking back, glad that didn't happen) Delphox handily and Tierno (the one whose only trait is "likes to dance") only put up a slight fight (heh) with his Crawdaunt. 

The third battle was against Tierno (the quiet one) and it was actually quite difficult.  He had a Raichu, a Florges, and an Aerodactyl.  The first two of these were easy enough to beat, but his Aerodactyl outsped everyone in my team, including Pikachu, so I didn't even have the chance to attack before many of my pokemon were knocked-out.  In the end, I stalled it to death with Hippowdon using Yawn while Leech Seed took its health down.  Maybe Yawn/Roar/Earthquake/Toxic isn't the set to be running on this guy...at least not in-game.  I'll change it soon.

I made it to Snowbelle, the town of perpetual winter and bad ice puns, and found that the gymleader, Wulfric (the most Northern-sounding name of all time) had gone into the nearby forest to train.  I guess the path ahead is through the greenery!

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.46
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.45
FLAREON/lvl.45
SCRAFTY/Scrappy/lvl.44
HIPPOWDON*/Leviathan/lvl.44
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.46

On Rotation: Lucario, Gardevoir, Skrelp, Pikachu, Haunter

Yveltal!

I had just enough time to save my game before Yveltal emerged from its cocoon.  I know that this pokemon was cranky after its slumber because it attacked the first thing it saw: me.

Oh, so that's where the "Y" comes in!  It's all starting to come together now...  I guess the title screen should have given it away to me, but as we have already decided: I am a huge moron.

Legendary Pokemon Yveltal Catch Attempt #1:
Since this was my first attempt at catching a legendary pokemon in "Y-version" I really had no clue what to expect.  I know that the 2-minute cutscene of Yveltal screeching and flexing its muscles was meant to show-off its power, but I wasn't sure if this was going to be a repeat of the Y-version gym battles or not.  Would this be a simple battle or a rough slog?

Yveltal started the battle by killing every single pokemon in my team before I could throw one Ultraball...Okay, time to get serious.

Legendary Pokemon Yveltal Catch Attempt #The Second One:
I decided to stop screwing around and opened with Pikachu and used Thunderbolt to try to take off a big chunk of its health...wait too much...please stop going down...I killed it in one hit...damn...

Legendary Pokemon Yveltal Catch Attempt #C:
Fine, so its one of those "everything-or-nothing" matches huh?  I tightened my belt and decided to take a chance with Nuzzle+Electroball to Paralyze it, then weaken it just enough to keep it alive.  Luck was on my side--Yveltal was now Paralyzed and at an HP level in the red.  Now, its a matter of staying lucky by keeping alive long enough for one of my Ultraballs to bring it in.  Go Ultraball! ... Nope.

Three turns and three Ultraballs later Pikachu is gone and so is Venusaur, but Ultraball #4: Passes the first check, the second check, the third check, the fourth check, caught!  And on the fourth Ultraball too!  Legendaries have either gotten a lot easier to catch (how many Ultraballs did I waste on Mewtwo before I decided to burn my Masterball, anyways?) or I'm just awesome.

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.42
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.41
FLAREON/Hotfoot/lvl.42
SCRAFTY/Scrappy/lvl.41
HIPPOWDON*/Leviathan/lvl.43
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.40

On Rotation: Gardevoir, Lucario, Pikachu, Skrelp