Commander's Challenge Mode Run

[Commander]

Hey there, I decided to make a whole new run now that all the gym leaders officially have field effects. One thing I notice are a lot of comments about how so-and-so leader was super easy and not a challenge. It's a bit annoying so I decided to make a ruleset to give each leader a fair fight. So here's the basic outline of the ruleset for each leader:

Rules

1. I'm not allowed to use any of the starter Pokemon from the Grand Hall, but any found in the wild are fair game

2. The Gym Leader/Boss must be fought on their field effect the entire fight (aka, I cannot destroy or change it).

3. I cannot use any Pokemon who's type is resistant to the Leader/Boss's Type of Pokemon (ex. I can't use Grass Types against Julia)

4. I cannot use a Pokemon who's types are supereffective against a Leader/Boss (ex. I could not use Ghost Types against Shade), however, supereffective moves are not restricted

5. A majority of my Pokemon team must be at or below the Leader's lowest level Pokemon

6. This is a more personal rule, but I will be creating a ban list of Pokemon who either generally exploit or sweep the leader that I cannot use (ex. Goldeen for Julia and Hariyama for Florinia)

Personal Rules

1. I will not use breeding or reset for EVs. Whatever I catch is what it is, though I may reset for the ability for an event Pokemon.

2. I will avoid using items, but will use them if needed. However, I will avoid item spamming.

3. Revives will not be used at all

4. Not really a rule, but I'll try to change up my team quite a bit from leader to leader

The ruleset might seem a little confusing, but once I go through each leader, it will make a lot more sense. Alright, let's get on to the interesting Part...or at least what I remember of it.

The Path to Julia

Banned Types:

Ground

Grass

Electric

Dragon (if you have this type by this point...something is very wrong with your game)

My Ban List

All Starters (obviously)

Espurr

Trubbish

Goldeen

Ekans

Lv Cap: 13*

Truth be told, I did this before the actual version came out...and I kind of forgot quite a bit of it. It's probably a good thing because all I remember is getting KO'd quite a bit while grinding my Meowth, aka my "starter" for the run. Pretty much a lot of grinding and not much else. The Fern fight was a little interesting, but I easily beat him. Though I did want to strangle the kid during the Aster and Eclipse battle. The guy made me lose the fight twice because of his stupidity. Anyways let's get to the interesting part.

Vs Julia

Team Used:

Rocket (Meowth) Lv 15

Ability: Technician

-Fake Out

-Fury Swipes

-Bite

-Growl

Gluttony (Gulpin) Lv 15

Ability: Gluttony

Item: Black Sludge

-Amnesia

-Sludge

-Yawn

-Pound

Wolfy (Poochyena) Lv 15

Ability: Run Away

-Bite

-Tackle

-Howl

-Sand Attack

Scorch (Pansear) Lv 15

Ability: Blaze

-Fury Swipes

-Lick

-Incinerate

-Play Nice

Jenny (Rattata) Lv 15

Ability: Run Away

-Tackle

-Quick Attack

-Leer

-Bite

Wubs (Whismur) Lv 15

Ability: Rattled

-Pound

-Echoed Voice

-Screech

-Astonish

Summary of Battle:

...There's a bit of a story to the levels here. Considering I haven't fought Julia in a long, long time, I assumed here lowest Pokemon was 16. Anyways, I'll redo this battle in a new save because it wasn't that exciting (though Voltorb deserves recognition for putting a number on my team). Electrode put a big dent in my team, but using Rollout on Scorch pretty much ensued my victory. It ended in a 3-0. I will say that when you don't have any resistances, Julia makes good use of her field effect.

Note: I actually used a total of 10 Pokemon this episode (Spinarak, Wingull, Igglybuff, and Dustox didn't make the cut). It's actually pretty easy to grind now so I recommend experimenting with teams a bit more.

(Florinia is up next, but I'll get that one up tomorrow. It's quite the story).

[kirlial]

Good luck! Sounds like a very doable challenge though I'm already imagining that florinia's team will be very difficult. Will Cal the ex-gym leader count as a leader in this challenge?

[Mimmu]

I'd imagine Cal counts as a boss, right?

[Commander]

All of the Ex-Gym leaders such as Cal and Blake I will do something for them. Cain, Victoria, and Ferm I'll try to stay true to the ruleset but I'm not going to swap out Pokemon until they start running their teams of six (since I'd have one Pokemon breaking the rule anyways). And now, onto the log:

The Path to Florinia

Types Banned

Fire

Grass

Bug

Poison

Flying

Dragon

Steel

Ice (Whew, that's a lot of types)

Banned Pokemon

Hariyama

Most of the fighting types available

Honestly, there isn't anything too threatening to Rini if you keep below the cap

Lv Cap: 23

Actually, quite a bit of stuff happens in this section before Victoria as I evolved Igglybuff into Jigglypuff and boxed Gulpin for the time being (T_T Probably forever because Shock Wave isn't a TM anymore). I'd make a post about Victoria and the Scraggy gang, but...it was mostly just Wingull Spamming attacks for both and Wolfy sand attack Scrafty. Jigglypuff was pretty useful through this part, but she's getting boxed pretty soon.

I actually did a lot side questing for this part to train up a Blitzle and get an Ice Fang Electrike. I had to skip Litleo because Mechanightmare owned me so many times...so many. I can't use it anyway so I skipped it for now. The Cain battle lasted about 30 seconds so I'm not going to cover it. I'd also make a huge section for pulse Tangrowth, but...the whole scenario was shortned...a lot. The pulse fight was pretty exciting until Blitzle paralyzed it and Scorch pretty much finished it off effortlessly. Should've figured it wouldn't be too hard because I have to fight two more later.

The school events themselves were rather interesting. I was training a new team so I got my butt kicked quite a bit. I see that the questions were made easier...but I'm not going to complain because I hated that part anyways. Then there's Fern. I'll summarize the first few tries by saying I had to leave the school to grind up my Rattata into a Raticate and withdrawl Mightyena from the box. Even then, I lost and additional two times. Thankfully, my spoink haxed its way to victory by allowing for that Roselia to hit itself to death. Mega Drain...you are starting to become my arch nemesis.

My Team for the leader

Jenny (Raticate) Lv 20

Ability: Run Away

-Hyper Fang

-Sucker Punch

-Quick Attack

-Bite

Wolfy (Mightyena) Lv 21

Ability: Intimidate

-Bite

-Swagger

-Howl

-Tackle

Wubs (Loudred) Lv 20

Ability: Rattled

-Pound

-Echoed Voice

-Bite

-Screech

Barksalot (Herdier) Lv 20

Ability: Scrappy

-Baby-doll Eyes

-Work Up

-Take Down

-Ice Fang

Pearls (Spoink) Lv 21

Ability: Own Tempo

-Magic Coat

-Confuse Ray

-Psybeam

-Psych Up

Ruso (Blitzle) Lv 20

Ability: Lightning rod

-Flame Charge

-Charge

-Shock Wave

-Thunder Wave

Summary of the Battle(s)

Back in the olden days, Florinia had one Pokemon with the others pretty much there to wear you down. I learned the hard way that this isn't the case any more. Let's just say the first run wasn't pretty (I also had a Luxio with me at the time) as a single Pokemon pretty much decimated my team. Clearly, Cradily isn't her strongest Pokemon, but this Monstrosity is:

Seriously though, this thing gave me so much trouble with that boosted Needle Arm attack. I had to sacrifice Jenny to basically take it out before it could set up. This thing give me shivers. Breloom wasn't too bad thanks to Pearls confuse hax (Spore Technician would've been a complete nightmare otherwise). Cacnea and Cottonee also went down to Confuse hax thankfully as well. Pearls wasn't able to finish Cacturne off so Herdier did with Ice Fang. I think Cacturne also pretty much one-shotted Blitzle as well (all he did was Flame Charge).

Ferroseed was a funny story. I brought Ruso along instead of Luxio for the sole purpose of Flame Charging this thing. What do I do? I send out Mightyena and Swagger the thing. It gets better. I pretty much flinch-fuse the thing until it dies (except one Pin Missle) so Wolfy barely survived. And now there's Cradily. It...actually wasn't that hard. The painful part was shutting down its Attack with Baby-Doll eyes from Herdier. While it was setting up, I pretty much made its one and only attack worthless. Even with a pitiful attack, this thing can still hurt. I'll admit I had to use about 10 healing items against this thing, but some of that was due to it getting a critical.

And people also say this thing has too much defense. Guess what? Stockpile is a double edged sword for her. Once it has a stockpile of 3, it can't raise it's defenses...at all. I just had Loudred screech three times before he fainted allowing Mightyena to almost one shot the thing. Thank the heavens this thing doesn't have Curse anymore or I would've been screwed.

Overall, this was both a very fun and very challenging fight. And while I did get a huge advantage from Pearls's haxing skills, I'm sure I could've won without them...barely. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think the Florinia fight is at its best because of how well she uses her field and Pokemon now. I'm also terrified of Maractus now.

Next up I'll be facing Correy and I'm expecting to get my butt kicked many times.

Edit: Opps, I forgot to mention all the Pokemon I used. They pokemon missing above are Pansear, Ice Cream Cone, Litleo, Jigglypuff, Skitty, Drowzee, Slurpuff, and Electrike. Grinding is so easy now. It lets me use a variety of Pokemon.

[Commander]

So I'm just going to do a quick little update. Not much happened but what happened was kind of hilarious.

From Florinia to Taka

So to start this off, I trained up a Hopip because I needed something to take down Mechanightmare. It took so many resets but I finally managed to paralyze that thing in order to beat it. I then placed Litleo onto my team...wait a minute (I'll have to fix that typo in my previous post). So Luxio, Litleo, Skitty, Meowth, Skiploom, and Ice Cream Cone were placed onto the team.

Jasper Ward wasn't too exciting other than the fact it was a windy day. When I reached Taka, all hell broke loose. Lileep was hardly a threat, but that Pulse Tangrowth was a nightmare. By the time the thing would die, he would super potion it back to nearly full health. I had to Screech Spam just to put dents in that thing. What's worse is the fact it would never flinch and everything I had could be one shoted by it. Then there was that Chatot. It's one thing to face it normally, but when you throw Delta Stream into the mix, oh lordy. All I had not KO'd by that Tangrowth was a Skiploom and a Luxio. I don't know how, but Luxio decided to not hit himself and somehow paralyzed the demon with Spark. I barely one that fight with 9 HP remaining on Luxio. So yeah, don't fight Taka on a Windy day. (I'm not looking forward to that upcoming Pulse Battle).

Team Used (too lazy to give Pics this time):

Rocket (Meowth) Lv 21

Ability: Technician

-Screech

-Cut

-Bite

-Fake Out

Hane (Skiploom) Lv 22

Ability: Infiltrator

-Fairy Wind

-Stun Spore

-Sleep Powder

-Bullet Seed

Nala (Litleo) Lv 20

Ability: Unnerve

-Ember

-Work Up

-Headbutt

-Noble Roar

Rinoa (Luxio) Lv 24

Ability: Intimidate

-Charge

-Baby-Doll Eyes

-Spark

-Bite

Rosie (Skitty) Lv 21

Ability: Wonder Skin

-Disarming Voice

-Double slap

-Copy Cat

-Zen Headbutt

Blueberry (Vanillite) Lv 21

Ability: Ice Body

-Harden

-Icy Wind

-Avalanche

-Uproar

[Helia]

I ran into so much trouble with Maractus in the Desert Resort while playing black. Spamming Acupressure until it was too hard to beat it.

But Florinia now has a Cottonnee again? Where did Grottle go? Does she still have the Desert Field tho?

[Commander]

Her team got a little bit of a change. Honestly, I prefer the Cottonee to Grotle as Grotle was hardly a threat. I mean Curse is dangerous but just about any special attacker makes short work of it.

Her team is now: Maractus, Breloom, Cottonee, Cacnea, Ferroseed, and Cradily

Her field is still the dessert field which she uses to slowly chip away your HP (Though Breloom and Cacnea are offensive). I never fought any of her other teams since her debut one so I can't really say which version is the most difficult. Spikes was my biggest fear from Maractus because if she set them up, I was toast.

[Commander]

The Path the Correy

Banned Types

Psychic

Steel

Ground

Ghost

Dark

Rock

Banned Pokemon

Flying Types (not really, but no Gust or anything is allowed as it'd clear the field)

Fire Types (like Flying types, but no OHKO moves like Flame Burst)

Lv Cap: 26

Not much happened between Taka (and the Nightmare of a Tangrowth) up to the final Pulse Tangrowth battle. I did a little bit of switching and placed Skitty and Vanillite in the box to take out Electrike and Drowzee (who I leveled up to a Hypno). I also temporarily boxed Luxio so that I could have Surskit Sweet Scent spam in order to train. My team range was in all direction, but most were 23-25. The first time I faced them, I struggled a bit as Drowzee and Meowth could barely withstand the attacks and hax would pretty much be the death of me. After a training session, I did go back, but guess what I forgot. I left Luxio in the PC so he had no action this time around.

That final Pulse battle was kind of hard. ZEL's team really hurts especially the Glaceon and Espeon. Luckily, Creeper (Hypno) was able to shut those two down with Hypnosis. Lileep was also a bit of a threat with Confuse Ray, but other than that, I just let him do his own thing or put him to sleep. Meowth's job was to Screech until all of Zel's Pokemon were KO'd which he became death fodder to future sight.

Then there's Taka's team. Lileep is always pathetic and went down easy. Pulse Tangrowth was the thing that was really giving me problems. While it's nowhere near as threatening as the Forest one, the thing can still put a huge dent into my team or practically sweep it. Thankfully, Hypno was the foundation here and combined with Litleo could take it down. And Chatot came back driving me up the wall with its Chatter Haxing. Thank the heavens he went after Hypno in my final attempt or I might've had to retry even more. Still not as hard as the Taka battle though. Now for the fun part:

Gym leader Team:

Rinoa (Luxio) Lv 25

Abiltiy: Intimidate

-Sparks

-Baby-Doll Eyes

-Charge

-Bite

Nyu (Pikachu) Lv 25

Ability: Static

-Charge Beam (I was a noob and forgot Electro Ball was actually good)

-Thunder Wave

-Sweet Kiss

-Volt Tackle

Sparks (Manectric) Lv 26

Ability: Static

-Thunder Fang

-Bite

-Ice Fang

-Quick Attack

Bo (Flaaffy) Lv 26

Ability: Static

-Electro Ball

-Thunder Wave

-Take Down

-Charge

Rosie (Delcatty) Lv 25

Ability: Wonder Skin

-Feint Attack

-Doubleslap

-Charm

-Zen Headbutt

Jenny (Raticate) Lv 25

Ability: Guts

-Hyper Fang

-Sucker Punch

-Crunch

-Quick Attack

Overview of the battle: I just want to say that this fight was epic. I knew that Corrosive Mist Field was dangerous which is why I made some adjustments to create a team that hit hard and fast. I wasted used my only ability capsule on Jenny to get Guts because I couldn't use Bo until the end. The fight started out pretty good (minus the like 10 retries) where Luxio would be knocked down into the red while facing Skrelp. Croagunk never did anything as he always got a Zen Headbutt to the face (poor guy). Nidorina was a threat so I used the last bit of life in Luxio to cut her offense down to nothing with Intimidate and Baby-doll eyes. Jenny would then finish her off (though she did get knocked out on my final attempt).

Skuntank was another big threat for me. While most of my Pokemon could survive a hit, they'd easily go down in two from this thing. I pretty much sacrificed both Nyu and Sparks to this thing because Aftermath pretty much promises someone is going to get KO'd. Grimer was also a pain because Acid Armor made its defense impenetrable (fortunately, Rosie got a crit with Zen Headbutt). Then there was Crobat. Venoshock alone could practically OHKO any of the Pokemon I chose. He KO'd Bo twice with that move, used Nasty Plot the third time, and Air Cutter that last time. Basically, Bo would Paralyze in and I'd prayed he and Rosie could take it down. Jenny would've one this battle earlier, but she had to miss with Hyper Fang and the Crobat had to KO her with Venoshock. Luck was on my side and the beast was paralyzed twice so that I could finish him off with a red HP Delcatty.

Thoughts on Correy: I loved this battle. I actually had to plan out my attacks ahead of time due to the Poisoning of my Pokemon. The scary thing is that Crobat alone could've destroyed me. I'm not sure if the Corrisive Field fight has the same Pokemon, but the team I fought was definitely made for the Mist version. This fight was very hard for me (I'm terrified of Aya now) as I had to figure out what I wanted to bring to this fight. Delcatty was the hero (she jumped to Lv 29 at the end of the fight) by tearing through a couple of those Pokemon with Zen Headbutt.

Other Pokemon used: Pokemon I posted in previous update, Surskit

[AuthorReborn]

Hey there, I decided to make a whole new run now that all the gym leaders officially have field effects. One thing I notice are a lot of comments about how so-and-so leader was super easy and not a challenge. It's a bit annoying so I decided to make a ruleset to give each leader a fair fight. So here's the basic outline of the ruleset for each leader:

Rules

1. I'm not allowed to use any of the starter Pokemon from the Grand Hall, but any found in the wild are fair game

2. The Gym Leader/Boss must be fought on their field effect the entire fight (aka, I cannot destroy or change it).

3. I cannot use any Pokemon who's type is resistant to the Leader/Boss's Type of Pokemon (ex. I can't use Grass Types against Julia)

4. I cannot use a Pokemon who's types are supereffective against a Leader/Boss (ex. I could not use Ghost Types against Shade), however, supereffective moves are not restricted

5. A majority of my Pokemon team must be at or below the Leader's lowest level Pokemon

6. This is a more personal rule, but I will be creating a ban list of Pokemon who either generally exploit or sweep the leader that I cannot use (ex. Goldeen for Julia and Hariyama for Florinia)

Personal Rules

1. I will not use breeding or reset for EVs. Whatever I catch is what it is, though I may reset for the ability for an event Pokemon.

2. I will avoid using items, but will use them if needed. However, I will avoid item spamming.

3. Revives will not be used at all

4. Not really a rule, but I'll try to change up my team quite a bit from leader to leader

The ruleset might seem a little confusing, but once I go through each leader, it will make a lot more sense. Alright, let's get on to the interesting Part...or at least what I remember of it.

The Path to Julia

Ground

Grass

Electric

Dragon (if you have this type by this point...something is very wrong with your game)

cough Noibat cough

[Commander]

cough Noibat cough

And now for another update

The Path of Shelly De Killer

Banned Types:

Fire

Flying

Poison

Fairy

Fighting

Ghost

Rock

Steel

Additional Banned Pokemon

Manectric

Ampharos

Myster Egg

Lv Cap: 31

After Correy made his speech, I made my way back, defeating the Scolioped group (rather easily with Delcatty) and swapped the team around a bit. I put Rosie back in the box, but I withdrew Vanillite and Blitzle took the place of Luxio. I can't remember too much other than me having to basically heal after every trainer due to the level difference. The Magma fights were also kind of nightmarish with Manectric basically having to take down 3 Pokemon by himself. I also continued that Magikarp event which is kind of hard facing Lv 37 with a team of 25 and under.

The Aster and Eclipse battle consisted of my Pokemon getting their butt kick and Victoria kind of doing her own thing. Belly Drum Hariyama ftw! Not a hard fight, but I evolved Blitzle into Zebstrika and Buizel into Floatzel (that's how underleveled I was). The Orphanage fight was also a bit hectic consider my team was Electric types and Normal types and he had a Magneton. Somehow I won. Somehow. As for Victoria, not a hard fight, but not an easy one either. 28 was my highest, but with a bit of para haxing, I haxed my way to victory.

Gym fight team

Nyu (Pikachu) Lv 29

Ability: Static

-Charge Beam

-Sweet Kiss

-Nuzzle

-Volt Tackle

Ruso (Zebstrika) Lv 30

Ability: Lightning Rod

-Flame Charge

-Spark

-Shock Wave

-Thunder Wave

Rinoa (Luxray) Lv 30

Ability: Intimidate

-Spark

-Bite

-Swagger

-Charge

Tiki (Floatzel) Lv 30

Ability: Swift Swim

-Aqua Jet

-Swift

-Fury Cutter

-Pursuit

Jenny (Raticate) Lv 29

Ability: Guts

-Hyper Fang

-Quick Attack

-Crunch

-Sucker Punch

Rocket (Persian) Lv 28

Ability: Technician

-Cut

-Fake Out

-Screech

-Swift

Overview of the battle: On my first attempt, I completely destroyed her Sigmund style. I had Manectric spam Discharge which powered up Zebstrika who spammed shock wave and she went down pretty fast. On my second attempt, I forced myself not to use Shock Wave, but Discharge pretty much just decimated her team. I then banned Manectric because he just broke the fight (only because my partner didn't take damage). I was going to bring Tediursa, but I got bored trying to train it and Stoutland was just right above the level cap so...he wasn't an option either.

As for the real battle, it wasn't too bad. Nyu pretty much set up Paralysis and heavily damaged Masquerain before she switched into Arnorith. Illumise was giving me a ton of trouble, but she didn't do too much thanks to confusion and Para hax. Confuse Ray gave me a ton of trouble, but Luxray was able to not hit herself and kept turning her Swagger on. She didn't really attack as I was setting up a whole bunch of charges. Ruso pretty much just T-wave then Spark on repeat. Wormadam was probably my biggest threat thanks to its tanky type and that boosted Giga drain. Every time it attacked, it hurt. Yanmega was the same way, but it was at least a bit frail. Those two went down at the cost of my Zebstrika.

Bugsy was the last one out. I actually had a battle before this one and it pretty much just decimated the remainder of my team (not like Crobat though). The thing did Pull of a tail glow and a Struggle Bug, but Luxray and Floatzel survived slowly chipping its HP down while it was trapped in a Parafuse hax. Jenny didn't get any action this time, .

Thoughts on Battle: Eh, this was kind of a letdown compared to Correy and Florinia. She was kind of tough, but not too tough. She'll either be really easy or really hard depending on the team as Struggle Bug hurts. I kind of wish the Rain Dance AI worked because that'd be a huge advantage to me (she only did it once). Illumise and Wormadam are a pain. If I didn't have those Electric Types, this would've been a very tough battle to the point it'd be nearly impossible. I would've used something else, but the only other option I had was a Teddiursa. (Don't worry, we're going to see a completely different team for Shade).

I also have a little question: Since my Mystery Egg was an Elekid, do you think I should be allowed to use it, or keep it permaboxed until Charlotte?

[Omega_Ra1der]

The Path of Shelly De Killer

I see what you did there... Eureka!

[kirlial]

Nice to see shelly was beaten without too much trouble, she was a nightmare for me in my grass mono and I resorted to jumpluff using acrobatics with an x attack while the rest of my team gave support - most of them were part poison but they were lacking any attacks that could really hurt most of her Pokemon.

Elekid is pretty good, but I think it's okay to use - though your team's starting to contain quite a few electric Pokémon.

[Commander]

Sorry for the brief pause but I've been busy playing Roy in Smash. I have to write speeches for a class which takes up a bit of my time. I also have to move furniture around every other day while my mother touches up the house.

I also wanted to say something about Shelly's leader fight. While her AI is a little finky (why she used Dazzling Gleam instead of struggle bug idk) it works pretty well for her overall team that is quite good...scary good. I'd love challenging her team like that again without electric types (not on this run though). I just couldn't use 80% of my boxed Pokemon which made it a little difficult to pick a good team.

Now onto the mini-update:

Rival Revivals

To start off, I boxed my two normal types and brought out Manectric and Stoutland (newly evolved I might add). This was after a few attempts of him kicking my butt and then he kicked my butt even more (that freaking Roserade). I boxed Nyu (he wasn't much help) to bring out Lv 22 Scorch (Pansear) who put in work. The guy took down Ferroseed by himself. I think Zebstrika took down Ludicolo (he wasn't a threat for once) and the combined efforts of Stoutland and Manectric took out that Roserade. I don't remember how I KO'd it, but I used Scorch's Yawn before it KO'd him. I was so happy when I took this sucker down. I swear, Fern is my arch nemesis on this run. Not looking forward to the rematch.

I also did a lot of Sidequesting. I took out that Beartic with the team's combined efforts, knocked out the Shiftry and Nuzleaf guild (and took all of the Nuzleafs), found Croagunk and Nidorina, and I finally got some sunshine to do a certain few events. That's about it before fighting Cain. As for the Cain battle, nothing particularly interesting happened other than Stoutland beating up his Nidoking. It was pretty easy with the team I had. I will say due to Shade's field effect, I'm going to box all my normal and electric types so that I don't accidentally screw up his field. (It'll be a challenge keeping it a short circuit field with the rotom).

I'm only going to put Stoutland's data as all the guys are gonna get replaced. RIP Electric Monotype Run

Barksalot (Stoutland) Lv 35

Ability: Scrappy

-Baby-doll Eyes

-Crunch

-Ice Fang

-Take Down

[Commander]

Sorry about the delay, but I had a lot of stuff holding me up. I also had to train up a bunch of new team members. Anyways, let's get onto shade:

The Darker Shade of Shade

Banned Types

Ghost

Dark

Normal

Additional Bans

Electric Type

Steel Type

Level Cap: 35

Eh, I don't really know what color to make it since Black won't work. Anyways, I pretty much dropped the current team off to take back Jumpluff, Semisear, Driflim (temporary), Vanillite, Croagunk, and Granbull which was an okay team altogether. After a long session of grinding, I broke in to Sigmund's lair house and fought a whole bunch of Orderlies. Well more like Shelly fought the orderlies and I used it to gain experience (since my levels were 28-30). Blueberry died pretty every fight so that ice cream didn't get too much experience.

After going through that Ordeal (is that a pun?), I did a couple little sidequests. The first was the Pangoro fights which all ended in Blueberry killing them (don't ask me how a terrible Ice type beats an high leveled fighting type) mostly thanks to Jumpluff who is a complete boss. (Seriously, I love this thing for its Speed and Sleep Powder). There also was the Aqua Boss battle which Jumpluff and the electric types took care of. Kind of hard, but way easier than I remember. So let's get to the team (a few oldies are back):

My team:

Queensly (Nidoqueen) Lv 35

Ability: Sheer Force

-Bite

-Double Kick

-Toxic Spikes

-Body Slam

Hane (Jumpluff) Lv 34

Ability: Chlorophyll

-Acrobats

-Leech Seed

-Sleep Powder

-Bullet Seed

Blueberry (Vanillish) Lv 35

Ability: Ice Body

-Mirror Shot

-Taunt

-Acid Armor

-Ice Beam

Snukie (Granbull) Lv 35

Ability: Tangled Feet

-Bite

-Headbutt

-Rock Smash

-Heal Bell

Scorch (Pansear) Lv 35

Ability: Blaze

-Flame Burst

-Acrobatics

-Bite

-Yawn

Tiki (Floatzel) Lv 35

Ability: Swift Swim

-Pursuit

-Aqua Jet

-Fury Cutter

-Swift

Summary of the Battle: This is like the Correy battle all over again. It's also kind of awkward to thinking about how Corey had to face his own Pokemon in battle. I had to reset quite a bit until Correy didn't hit my Nidoqueen with a crit for three turns. When that happened, I used one of my scarce Hyper Potions while he healed and then spammed Bite which 2KO'd Trevenant on the switch and then KO'd Correy when he came back in. Next came Bannette which I potion spammed against with Granbull (I only have 10 of those things so I couldn't do that much). I can't remember whether or not it KO'd Granbull, but I know it went down pretty quickly from the poison. Next was Doublade who was destroyed by Scorch's Flame Burst.

Then came Rotom. Hane pretty much took the thing down after a long fight. I tried to avoid this, but it managed to use Discharge changing the field effect. Unfortunately, I ko'd it before it could change back breaking one of my rules. Hane kind of Leech Seed and Bullet Seeded while he hung on for dear life. Fortunately, only Chandelure remained who wasn't affected too badly by this incorrect field (I wanted to keep it in the Short-Circuit field the whole fight). After slowly picking my team off one by one, it was KO'd by the poison leaving only Queensly left making me the victor.

Thoughts on Shade: He definitely got nerfed (and slightly buffed) quite a bit. Banette was a good trade for Dusclops because that thing was scary, especially if it got a crit. I do miss Spiritomb because Doublade wasn't really doing or adding anything but I really like the rest of his team. He doesn't use the field effect quite like the previous leaders, but he sure knows how to put up a fight with that boosted Shadow Ball/Claw. Everything is pretty tame except Chandelure. Nidoqueen is the only Pokemon on my team that wasn't one shot by this thing and Jumpluff was the only thing that outspeeds it. Correy pretty much outspeed anything I have (it tied with Hane who has a plus nature in speed plus a few EVs).

Baz if you're reading this, good luck against this guy in you Mono-psychic run. Too bad Girafarig is unavailable at this point.

I'd also like to take a minute to say Vanillite sux and you shouldn't use it until it fully evolves. The thing has been nothing but deadweight up until now.

[Commander]

Finally! You have no idea how painful this whole sections was. Grinding. Lots and lots of grinding.

To The Cal Zone!

Banned Types

Water

Ground

Rock

Fire

Dragon

Additional Bans: N/A

Level Cap: 36

...That sounded better in my head. Anyways, I ended grinding a few new members since Nidoqueen, Jumpluff, Granbull, and Vanillish aren't going to have any use in this section. I trained up a Dugtrio, but that was it before storming Blacksteam Factory. The factory was kind of boring and I was just grinding up my mons. The Zel fight was a little anticlimatic because Pulse Muk kept trying to spam Muddy Water on Dugtrio (just think about it and you'll understand). It was a hard fight but Manectric, Croagunk, and the others knocked 'em out pretty easily.

Apophyll was kind of boring too. I did a lot of training and prepping for two completely different leaders (in fact, I have two completely separate teams for each leader). Grinding took forever. When I got done grinding, I faced Cal with a team (it had Granbull and Gothorita who aren't shown on the list) and he whooped me with Magmotar alone. I then had to grind up Grumpig and Hypno to bring some Sp Def into the mix I got beat so badly. I was sure I saved so I reset, but it turn out I didn't save in the past 2 hours so I said screw it and hacked my levels and EVs back to where they were (I might've given Grumpig like 10 more Def EVs than what it originally was, but oh well!) Now let's get onto a hot battle:

My team

Creeper (Hypno) Lv 36

Ability: Forewarn

-Headbutt

-Psybeam

-Hypnosis

-Disable

Trinity (Dodrio) Lv 36

Ability: Tangled Feet

-Accupressure

-Double Hit

-Pursuit

-Pluck

Barksalot (Stoutland) Lv 36

Ability: Scrappy

-Retaliate

-Crunch

-Ice Fang

-Take Down

Pearls (Grumpig) Lv 36

Ability: Thick Fat

-Psybeam

-Confuse Ray

-Power Gem

-Magic Coat

Rinoa (Luxray) Lv 36

Ability: Intimidate

-Bite

-Charge

-Thunder Fang

-Swagger

Glenn (Toxicroak) Lv 36

Ability: Poison Touch

-Mud Bomb

-Sucker Punch

-Venoshock

-Drain Punch

Summary of Battle: OML you should've seen how bad this guy kicked my butt. It makes Correy and Shade look like they were showing mercy. Fire moves hit so hard and there are so few checks I can use at this point in the game (unlike Charlotte). Hypno managed to put Infernape to sleep and this is the first time he didn't use Flame Wheel, but instead wasted his Ultra Potions and used Mach Punch, then Close Combat. Next came Charizard who Luxray took down rather easily with Thunder Fang (thank the heavens it was a Physical Charizard). Magmortar came out and I hit it with Grumpigs confuse ray. It never hit itself and Power Gem barely did anything to it. After sacrificing Luxray (idk why he used Solar beam on the switch) I healed Hypno at an attempt to put the thing to sleep, which failed miserably. with its last bit of life, I healed Grumpig back up and finally KO'd his ace.

Delphox came out next which Barksalot did a big chunk of it using Crunch before being finished off by Mystical Fire. Glenn then finished it off with Sucker Punch. Typhlosion came out next and it...just spammed solar beam while Grumpig slowly killed it. Cal was having an off day today. His last Pokemon was Blaziken. Dodrio outspeed it and hit the thing with Pluck (leaving him in the red) and barely survived a Fire Punch. Speed Boost made it outspeed killing Dodrio right afterwards. I then prayed Toxicroak could take a hit, but it was one-shotted by Blaze kick. I then had no choice but to send Grumpig back out with his mere 40 HP. I prayed he would do something stupid...and he did. Pearls survived a Double kick and ended the fight using Psybeam.

Thoughts on the battle: I know this is supposed to be a miniboss, but this run makes him deserve his own little section. Honestly, this is the hardest challenge I've faced yet because his team is good and his field effect makes them better. My advice is to not run up there and treat him like the rival battles because he whooped me so hard. I know I "cheated" my way through this, but I barely won so I'll take the win and run to Kiki.

Additional: I know Toxicroak is technically illegal, but he literally is not usable until Charlotte due to his typing so I made a little exception. And I needed it.

[kirlial]

Nice job on Cal, he's no joke.

It took me like a dozen tries on my grass monotype and I made sure to fight him in the rain. I basically had lilligant put the infernape to sleep, leech seed and then use 6 quiver dances. (plus healed her so she didn't faint whenever it woke up before I put it back to sleep.) After that she giga drained the whole team and I was lucky not to miss many sleep powders and that charizard thought thunderpunch was the move to go for, while typhlosion was set on sunny day. Yeah those dozen tries were basically me waiting for the stars to align. 'Course now I can say I beat Cal with just a lilligant; she's so awesome.

Nice team you have there but you won't be able to use many of them against Kiki next.