As soon as I entered Spikemuth, I healed my pokemon and then started to explore. There was a big Team Yell presence here and I wanted to get the scoop on it all. I stumbled across a Team Yell grunt standing behind a kiosk, thinking it was time to buy some TM's or Ultra Balls. As it were, he was there to greet Gym challengers and my challenge for the 7th badge had just begun.
I guess we're doing it live.
Because I stumbled upon this gym challenge, I had to use whatever was in my pouch at the time. All in all, I wasn't ill prepared considering what I could have had with me. I decided to teach Chirpy the TM U-Turn for the time being in order to adapt to the circumstances.
I made my way through the alleyways, fighting off Team Yell ambushes all along. And finally came across Piers, a grunge musician with an agressive hairdo. Without a Dynamax center, Spikemuth apparently doesn't bring in many gym challenge stadium spectators. That is why the town is so derelict. The stadium is an asphault pitch surrounded by chain link fences.
With the mood set, the match began. I led with Chirpy so that I could scout and U-Turn to an appropriate counter. I play with SET match rules, so switching out always costs me a turn (rather than playing under SHIFT options which ask you if you wand to switxh out qhen the opponent sends something else out) and pivoting with Uturn is an excellent way to do this without wasting momentum.
His Scrafty has Intimidate, which hurts, but I am able to KO it by monitoring my soeed to keep the damage of my foe's Payback in check.
His next pokemon is Malamar, who takes x4 damage from U-Turn since Psychic Types AND Dark Types are weak to it.
His Obstagoon is next. Since I have one of my own, I know what moves to expect and my first read is that it is going to use Obstruct. Obstruct has the same mechanic as Protect, but it also lowers Defenses if activated, so I decide to use Coil to get a boost to Attack, Defense, and Accuracy out of the turn whilst I avoid the Obstruct Defense drop. He can't use the move twice in a row to great effect, so essentially my goal was to boost and stall him out. I didn't know that it would be the Accuracy boost would be so useful in the end...
He defied my wxpectstions and used Counter. The next turn, he Obstructed my Bug Bite.
I'm having some trouble with my predictions apparently...
Now I am sitting at +1 atk, -1 def, +1 Accuracy. Also, he is a fadter pokemon than me. I need something big here and I get it when I get a lucky critical hit whislt hewhen uses counter next turn. I steal away the KO on a coin flip.
His last pokemon is his Skuntank. At +1 accuracy, I decided to risk a 50% accuracy Inferno. My luck holds out and I nail his pokemon burn it in one turn. this allows Centiscorch to shrug off a Sucker Punch and carry us to victory on 100 tiny legs.
After learning the true usefulness of Dynamax from Rihain in my battle with him, I was ready to apply my knowledge right away.
I worked my way north through the icey wastes of Route 10 and I swear the very same Mr. Mime chased me the entire way. Just as soon as I thought I had escaped, I would round a corner and he is already chasing me. I ended a trainer battle: Mr. Mime. Picked up an item: Mr. Mime. Turned the game on: Already a Mr. Mime there. Wake up at night to get a drink of water: Mr. Mime is inside my house in the closet and I'm still in my nightmare.
I finally made it to Wyndon City which is definitely not London, so stop saying so. The giant Ferris Wheel and Clock Tower are design coincidences.
And then I finally got it. Up until this point, I have been viewing Dynamax as I did Z moves: I have been viewing the three Dynamax Turns as three turns of powerful attacks. I have been focusing on the damage. I should have been focusing on the effects. Duraludon was using Max Knuckle in order to boost its party's attack. The damage matters less than the effects.
His Obstagoon is next. Since I have one of my own, I know what moves to expect and my first read is that it is going to use Obstruct. Obstruct has the same mechanic as Protect, but it also lowers Defenses if activated, so I decide to use Coil to get a boost to Attack, Defense, and Accuracy out of the turn whilst I avoid the Obstruct Defense drop. He can't use the move twice in a row to great effect, so essentially my goal was to boost and stall him out. I didn't know that it would be the Accuracy boost would be so useful in the end...
Ice, like I said, is a generally weak type, so I didn’t encounter much resistance until I encountered Melony’s final Pokémon, Lapras. She immediately Gigantimaxed it and took out two of my Pokémon in as many turns.
Opal was impressed by my battling, but said that I didn't quite have the shade of "pink" that she was looking for, so she escorted me back to Hammerlocke. We immediately found Bede and Opal seemed so smitten with his tortured version of "pink" that she spirited him away back to Ballollea for training. Crisis averted: I can't quite see him coming back as a villian now...
