Timber Let the Dogs Out: Canine-Themed Run

[Timber Dragon]

Lucia Canidae was named apparently because her parents predicted their daughter's future obsession -- and it's not much of a name at all. Deciding that the remaining, oh, give or take 710 other Pokemon weren't doggie enough for her, she challenges the Reborn league with the power of all things bark and woof.

I almost feel sorry for her.




So! Seeing as my bird-themed and Ghost monotype runs somehow weren't enough, I decided to do yet another custom run based on a new theme: canines. I say 'canine' because there are only, like, three Pokemon that are actually dogs in the strictest sense, and I'm not that insane (yet).

The Pokemon available to me are as follows:

-Growlithe/Arcanine
-Vulpix/Ninetales
-Snubbull/Granbull
-Houndour/Houndoom
-Poochyena/Mightyena
-Electrike/Manectric
-Riolu/Lucario
-Lillipup/Herdier/Stoutland
-Zorua/Zoroark
-Fennekin/Braixen/Delphox
-Furfrou

Wow, lookie at that: four Fire-types, three Dark-types (Houndoom pulls double duty there), two Normal-types, one Fairy-type, a Husky that ate a lightning bolt, and a punchy steel wolf/jackal thing. The blurb in the intro there was not kidding about our heroine narrowing her scope a little.


And now for the current doggies! They're already evolved or on their way to evolution because I forgot to take any pre-Julia screenshots. (Spoiler: I win against Julia. Shh!)



Ability: Magician
My starter, and I request a suggestion for another name because otherwise I would have to keep him as constellation or else name him after a JRPG'd Nick Wilde.



Ability: Intimidate
Mightyena #1. Is very intimidating.



Ability: Moxie
Mightyena #2. Has lots of moxie.



Ability: Inner Focus (subject to change)
Special request granted by the lovely folks at the Request-A-Mon thread. Is mainly there so I would have something besides my starter and a Mightyena army to fall back on. I just chose Riolu in specific because you get it so late in the game that it seems kind of a waste, so I figured, oh well might as well be cheap!


Now, by the power of bark and wolf, let the run begin! Er, well it already has at the time of this writing but shut up

All hail the Mightyena army

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Well, it's more like a squad... or actually just a duo, because pre-Corey leveling options are awful in ep 15 and I'm way too lazy to grind anything else. And as much as the early-game 'throw Mightyenas at the enemy until you win' strategy is boring, it's also proof of how you can't micromanage a game like Pokemon.

Across multiple episodes, there have been so many changes to early game event mons for the sake of balance (read: not cheesing Julia with Magby/Mr.Mime/Ralts/Gothita/Gyarados/whatever) that they've overlooked an MVP you can get from any ol' random battle in the alleyway.



And just to drive the point home and/or to spite Julia, I even Common Candy'd my Mightyenas' levels because at 18 when they normally evolve, they can get OHKOs or close to it even without Moxie.

Yes, I beat her twice. Multiple times. Partly because of recording/storage issues (whoddathunkit high-quality uncompressed videos kinda sorta really take up a lot of space?) and partly because of the one or two times that I actually lost due to bad RNG and stupid decisions -- Mud-Slap can and will make life suck, Roar had brought out Electrode right off the bat, and sending out a somewhat squishy Fire-type out in the middle of a Rollout is probably something Ash would do (but at least he would still win somehow).



I could sorta guess how the fight would go based on whether or not Helioptile got in a Mud-Slap, which is why it's Roar'd out of the field immediately. Following that (and assuming it doesn't pull out Electrode), all Mightyena needs is one KO and it's all downhill for Julia.

I guess the lesson here is that no matter how much you try to painstakingly balance your game for optimal difficulty, your players will always find a way to cheese it.



Anyway, all that was just the roundabout way of saying tl;dr: Moxie Mightyena wins.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Timber Dragon

[TimTim]

Man's best friends getting some actions, keep it up mate, will follow this closely

[AnimeFg]

If you were truly insane you would try this run on hardcore, I'm sure it's possible, just very, very rage inducing

[Dreamy]

No mages? OK this works too XD. also what about eevee?

[Swampellow]

Woof Woof Bark *sniff*

I cannot wait to see how this goes.

[Taska]

You forgot Smeargle. Sketch could come in handy.

[Neco]

I somehow like the idea of such a run.

An idea I came across for your team: the Abra line. You are using other foxes and Abra is, partly, based on a Kitsune.

[Timber Dragon]

  On 9/30/2016 at 10:35 PM, DreamblitzX said:

No mages? OK this works too XD. also what about eevee?

Yeah, in the end I wasn't completely sure how I wanted that mage-themed one to go. And since a lot of the choices were Psychic-type, and I just got done with the Ghost monotype, I figured I'd scrap it for now and do a run I had considered before but didn't go through with because I wasn't used to working with such a limited amount of available mons. But now here I am!

I considered using Eevee, and even made a status asking for input, but most of Eevee's evolutions were too ambiguous to work for this run. I figured I'd stick with the ones that make you say unambiguously 'This is a doggie.'

  On 10/2/2016 at 1:53 AM, Taska said:

You forgot Smeargle. Sketch could come in handy.

  On 10/2/2016 at 11:19 AM, Neco said:

I somehow like the idea of such a run.

An idea I came across for your team: the Abra line. You are using other foxes and Abra is, partly, based on a Kitsune.

The Abra line has some fox-like traits but I don't think someone could take one look at it and go 'That's a doggie.' Smeargle is also a possibility, but with those stats I don't know what I could possibly do with it. Maybe make it a breeding slave. Ditto probably needs a friend.

Team Updates

Uh-oh. I did not expect this guy to evolve so soon. Pokemon friendship is weird. Anyway, he's a little too strong for this point in the game, so for now I'll hold off on using him if I don't really need to.

You may ask why, if I didn't want Lucario this early, I didn't just cancel the evolution. Weeeell the truth is I'd wanted Swords Dance. But then I realized I also didn't want such a strong move on such a strong Pokemon that I'm technically not even allowed to have this early, but by the time I decided that, I'd already made progress and didn't feel like restarting to an earlier save. Chances are I won't give Lucario Swords Dance until I can legitimately get him in the game... which is all the way in Ametrine. Dammit, I just HAVE to be honorable, don't I?

That's a lie. I just don't want folks thinking that I'm cheap.

PULSE Tangrowth

Do that a bunch more times until you win. Moving on!

Moar Team Updates

Ability: Static

Speshul Move: Flame Burst

Fun fact: I haven't seen Bolt yet. Maybe I should go do that.

Ability: Sand Rushh (subject to change)

Speshul Move: Fire Fang

Fun fact: Come to think of it, I don't remember watching Lassie much either. Well, I must have. I do remember an episode where she has to rescue someone from a field of landmines... huh. Lassie might've been more metal than we thought.

Florinia

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Later on I'll have more Fire-types than I'll probably know what to do with (I'm still figuring out how Houndoom will factor into this), but at this point we're not that great at the Fire-type thing. My actual Fire-type Pokemon currently has poor Fire-type moves, and my Pokemon with good Fire-type moves aren't even Fire-types. Since no one really packs that decent of a power, Florinia's stall strategy is annoying to deal with.

Case in point.

Wow really?

Well at least this time the RNG... threw me a bone.</sunglasses>

Hey, I didn't say that I'd NEVER use Lucario. It's not like he's getting a OHKO on Cradily... which is weird, because I thought Lucario would be an unstoppable force of dog at this point. Oh whatever, I win.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Timber Dragon

[Timber Dragon]

So! A comment on a random unrelated thread mentioned the 'Shift' battle style made the game too easy for him. Then I felt inadequate and not enough of a Pokermuns master, so to prove that I can be a Pokermuns master like the big kids, I decided screw it, Set battle style it is! Please bear with me while I adjust to this terrifying mode of conduct.


Team Updates


Ability: Rattled
I know that Courage the Cowardly Dog is a dude, but c'mon. She's a dog, she's cowardly, and she's purple. Good enough for me.


Confusion RNG is Confusing

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I really really hate Confusion. Unfortunately, Taka's early battles favor a confusion stall strategy for some ungodly reason. After enough RNG Bouffalantcrap, I had to go all the way back to the Department Store and pop Braixen and Electrike with Persim Berries because my adorably idiotic pooches kept fainting themselves. I'd sure have liked it if they, say, hit Chatot instead when we're both down to a sliver of HP, but nah.



First thing is to set the field ablaze with Electrike's Flame Burst. Lileep's Ingrain is hard for my pack to keep up with, so the field damage helps cancels things out. I'm not sure how Lileep is able to use Ingrain when the ground it's rooting itself into is on fire, but there you go. I'm just hoping we don't get convicted with arson. The city's destroyed with psycho plants, and I just lit the source on fire.

All in the name of stopping Team Meteor, I suppose.



I switch to Braixen to take advantage of my heroic pyromania. He faints Lileep and PULSE Tangrowth this way, but since he'd gotten Acid Spray'd previously, Chatot immediately takes him out.



Electrike's Persim Berry saved him from the previous Chatter, but that was eaten and once again my fate is up to the mercy of the RNG. In previous attempts, this did not go well. Let's see what happens.



huzzah

Moar Team Updates


I have a spiffy new Manectric. Yay.



Ability: Justified
And a spiffy new Growlithe. Yaay. Too bad I haven't though of a name yet. If only the police Growlithe wasn't set to female. Then I could've named her Balto... oh well.


Confusion RNG is very Confusing

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I forgot buy more Persim Berries, but since both Taka and ZEL both spam Confuse Ray I figured that I'd just be giving myself false hope so LET'S GET TO IT



So first thing first is to take down ZEL's Eeveelutions. It's easier if you can double-team him and his awful awful Chatot. Lileep isn't a huge threat compared to ZEL, except it still kinda is.



The RNG doesn't smile on me much during this fight. Confusion self-harm combined with their normal attacks takes out a chunk of my pack before I even start working on Taka, and it doesn't help that I had to fill a slot with a Cut slave.



Espeon is a pain in the ass with Future Sight, and I have no means of effectively countering Umbreon, who's a tank (I intentionally left Lucario behind because... honor-related stuff). I just had to be patient and slowly whittle Umbreon's HP down with what I had.

Eventually ZEL's team is finally finished and I get to gang up on Taka.



The fight is much more smooth from here. In the middle of fighting Tangrowth, Taka withdraws it for Chatot, which goes down pretty fast. I keep doing stuff until good stuff happens and then I win and stuff. Wheee

Edited November 19, 2016 by Timber Dragon

[Timber Dragon]

Corey

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Question: Do Poison-type leaders in Reborn need some sort of weird tolerances to fill their role? I mean, they need to if Corey can gas his own home and Aya can stand to live in a dump. For Corey's weirdness, though, the sucky thing about his field is that you can't get rid of it completely. Clearly the best solution is to blow it up.



I'm starting to think we've developing some bad habits when it comes to fire. First we ignite a forest, and now we explode Corey's gym. No wonder he hates us.

I could've used Manectric instead since he also knows Flame Burst, but I needed him for Crobat. Poor Growlithe is the sacrificial lamb today, bless her doggie heart.



When that explosion dies down, Braixen is free to sweep most of Corey's team with Psybeam + Twisted Spoon. The only real problem is Skuntank, who's immune. Luckily Ember burns it on the first use, and Braixen resists its Incinerate. He whittles it down low health before I switch to Manectric.



No, Braixen didn't bail. I wanted Manectric to be prepared for Crobat, so I was hoping Charge Beam would boost his special attack enough where he would OHKO it. Unfortunately I could only get one boost before Crobat shows up.



Manectric manages to survive a field-activated Venoshock (which is why I wanted to keep him healthy instead of playing more offensively) and knock it down to red health, but Crobat is faster and faints him on the next turn.



And I get lucky when Crobat uses Air Cutter instead of spamming Venoshock, which honestly would've been enough to sweep the rest of my team. Well, except for Lucario, but I didn't want to use him for honor stuff.

Anyhoo, victory is me.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Timber Dragon

[Commander]

Lucario...probably could put a huge dent in hardcore, but I don't see it breaking anything since its best attacks other than CC are special based. In fact I've done SD users who couldn't auto win the match due to not being fast enough, but eh, this ain't Hardcore. I can't remember how every leader fights since its been like 14 months almost, but you don't really see that many tanky mons thinking about it so...maybe Lucario could break the game.

As for set mode, I'm pretty sure the hardest part will be managing exp over actual fights since exp is in such a shortage. I do like Set mode better because it cuts the number of menus you have to deal with, but that's a whole big debate in Pokemon in general. I just prefer shift for exp spreads so that one of my Pokemon isn't just carrying my team. Kudos if you do the rest of this challenge on set.

Yeah, yeah not a hardcore run, but I enjoy reading some runs from other people once in a while. I always find your runs entertaining for some reason.

[Timber Dragon]

Team Updates


Lassie's a Stoutland now yay


Sorry about your home, Shelly

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Come to think of it, Shelly's gym doubles as a library. Poor girl. Things might've gone better for her if she fought somewhere less flammable.



Growlithe gets things going with a Flame Burst bug barbeque (gross), giving our Fire-type doggies an edge. In one last act of defiance for setting her home on fire, Shelly takes Growlithe down soon after. Can't exactly blame her.



Having a little more restraint than Growlithe, Manectric chooses not to add more fuel to the flame and uses Charge Beam instead. This is absolutely positively predicting how Struggle Bug will lower his special attack, and Charge Beam has the chance to boost it back up. It's absolutely positively NOT because I saw Yanmega's Flying-typing and thought 'use Electric move,' somehow forgetting about the inferno raging in front of me.

... Actually, during Corey's fight, Growlithe was also the one who took one for the team and exploded the Corrosive Mist field while Manectric mainly stuck to his Electric moves. Hmm. I guess some of us gotta have standards.



Yanmega gets the last hit on Manectric, probably for being the other Flame Burst user. I COULD'VE healed him, but I guess I was too busy burning stuff.



Yanmega eventually faints and it's two against one on Volbeat. Bugsy's namesake did his best with Struggle Bug and whatnot, but the poor thing couldn't keep up.

Again, sorry Shelly. It was worth it.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Timber Dragon

[Timber Dragon]

Long wait for a small update, OH WELL


Team Updates


Vulpecula's a Delphox now yaaay



I have a spiffy new Zoroark now. I'm not 100 percent sure what to do with him with Houndoom around, but I guess it's nice not dying to Rock-, Water-, and Ground-types.



I have a spiffy new Houndoom now. I'm not 100 percent sure what to do with him with Zoroark and a bunch of other Fire-types around, but... nice roll with the shiny and the stats, I guess?


Daaaayum Manectric you scary

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Oops I forgot to set the battle style back to Set for this fight, but oh well, as you'll soon see, I did not need it.

Anyway, now that Growlithe has been established as our resident field-burning pyro, so I like to think that Manectric plays the role of the straight mon between the two. Of course he also has Flame Burst, but he tends to use it for general attacking purposes rather than to burn stuff in the name of VICTORY. (Well, he did it once during the first fight with Taka, but that was before Growlithe took the mantle.)

I figured that Manectric would be the sort who would try to encourage Growlithe to show more restraint, but then I fought Shade. Either Manectric just needed to be on the proper field to bring out his latent psychosis, or else his brand of field abuse is just more tactical than Growlithe's. And somehow more terrifying.



Discharge gets rid of Shade's Spooky-type field bonus. Using Discharge any more than that runs the risk of making the field spooky again, also making Manectric's Shocky-type bonuses inconsistent, so I stuck with Charge Beam.



Charge Beam continually boosted Manectric's special attack, and in no time, Manectric stored enough energy to single-handedly OHKO most of Shade's team.

I can't tell if Growlithe was impressed or not with this sweeping (she wasn't even on the team), but no one can argue with the results.



I swear I did not plan this out. But then, I'm also not one to pass over an awesomely cheap opportunity.



I suppose, lesson learned, Growlithe?

Meh, maybe you should just stick to setting things on fire.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Timber Dragon

[nsbwinner2]

What does the Delphox say?

In all seriousness, looks like a fun run, keep up the good work!

[Damage]

I'm liking the run and its a very interesting theme. Good luck dawg

[Timber Dragon]

ZEL, please, make up your mind which mon you wanna use

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This fight could've been slightly less annoying if ZEL didn't keep switching their Pokemon all the time. That by itself would just be a nuisance, but PULSE Muk makes the fight worse. Most of my team is weak to something in its moveset, and their own moves aren't diverse enough to keep up with its Protean.



In Manectric's case, it can give Muk total immunity -- probably payback for Manectric previously sweeping Shade. Also, I seemed to forget that Muk became Ground-type five seconds after becoming Ground-type, which is why I happily used Discharge even when it wasn't a good idea. I do these things sometimes.



ZEL's Eeveelutions aren't too bad this time around. Delphox's special attack-lowering Mystic Fire is useful against Glaceon and Espeon, but Muk takes him out pretty fast. He gets in one last Mystic Fire to lower Muk's special before going down.



This fight is mainly just a matter of pummeling Muk until stuff happens. The rest of ZEL's Eeveelutions are taken care of relatively easily, but after Muk gets done with us, we have a little less resistance to getting mauled.

We're not the only ones who like to burn stuff

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I tend to fight fire with fire when it comes to Charlotte. Since I have a gaggle of Fire-type mons and moves on hand, I figured I can do the same with Cal.

This was before I noticed that Cal's team seems to be bulkier than Charlotte's, so all it did was make our Fire-type moves slightly less useless while making it harder for my non-Delphox non-Houndoom mons to stay on the field.



Delphox OHKOs Infernape and wins a healing race against Charizard, but Cal's own Delphox faints him with Shadow Ball. Houndoom finishes the job, but is immediately taken out by Magmortar's Focus Blast.



Manectric manages to paralyze it with Discharge, but he can still only take a chunk out of Magmortar's HP (remember that whole "Not as squishy as Charlotte's team" issue).



And for once, we're not responsible for setting everything on fire. I'm not sure how a volcano can be even more on fire, but that's why Cal is the Fire-type trainer here. Growlithe must be in love.



Stoutland takes hits like a champ while I use her turns to revive and heal Delphox. When she inevitably goes down, Delphox comes back and lowers Magmortar's special attack with Mystic Fire. This along with paralysis lets him whittle down Magmortar's HP.

From there, Typhlosion and Blaziken are easily taken care of and we win. With all the fire usage happening during this fight, I think Cal's team and mine bonded today.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Timber Dragon

[Timber Dragon]

Team Updates


Our lovable pyro has grinded to learn all her pre-evolution moves, and now she's finally evolved into Arcanine! Imagine how much more chaos she can sow now that she's evolved.

Fun fact: I'd only named her Amaterasu because I was scrapped for female wolf names, but then I remembered Amaterasu is supposed to be a sun goddess. Yeah. Surprisingly prohetic stuff there.



Okay, show of paws -- who here ISN'T weak to Fighting-type?

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... Okay, now of you who raised your paw, who here isn't weak to Rock-type either?

*Everyone but Manectric and Granbull lowers their paw*

Not a very promising bunch.

Most of my team has a crippling weakness to Rock, Ground, and yes, Fighting-types, but I knew none of them would present serious problems until I got to Kiki. Now that I'm at Kiki, there's some serious problems.

I try to not grind too much solely to compensate for how much I suck, but Kiki is very unforgiving to my team on this field. If anyone uses Meditate or Calm Mind, the fight is pretty much over -- even the doggies who aren't weak to Fighting still can't survive the kind of brute force those buffs will give them.

That's why I got my own brute force! Enter Arcanine, who's back in action with new and improved Fire-type moves and who will gladly ignore basic self-preservation as long as she gets to burn stuff.

But now that she's an Arcanine, she gets to burn stuff EVEN BETTER. Isn't that amazing?!



She OHKOs Machamp.



And does the same to Gallade.



Then she overstimulates herself and tries out her new toy, Heat Wave. It doesn't quite do the same damage as her burn-hugs, though, allowing Toxicroak to put an end to her rampage.



Kiki heals Toxicroak but Delphox one-shots it. He almost manages to KO Hitmonlee, but Kiki heals it too and Hitmonlee eventually faints him with Knock Off. Manectric takes his place.



Way to hang in there, Manectric.



Unfortunately, next up is the battle's biggest roadblock, Lucario, which had put a stop to many of my attempts. It outspeeds my team and a field-boosted Aura Sphere does insane damage even without Calm Mind.

Manectric can't even get a hit in before getting KO'd. My own Lucario can't do anything except use his turn to revive Arcanine.

Arcanine, after returning to the field, immediately destroys herself with Flare Blitz.



WORTH IT.

Got lucky with Lucario using Hidden Power instead of Aura Sphere. Maybe her pyromania freaked Lucario out and had a lapse in judgement? So much for Kiki's training.



With Lucario out of the way, and with my only other surviving mon being Stoutland, Granbull is free to get a final OHKO in against Medicham with Play Rough.



TEAMWORK

Edited November 19, 2016 by Timber Dragon

[Timber Dragon]

Adventures at Azurine Island

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Well now, contrary to my bird-themed and Ghost monotype runs, the Azurine Island fights actually went pretty smoothly this time around. Well, smoothly in the sense that I didn't think "Why is this so hard?! I don't remember this being so hard!", because I still got smacked around, but I gave Aster&Eclipse and Taka back as much as they dished out.

Things even went by so quickly that I merged the two fights into one video, because clicking on extra links is more work. (In other news, Timber discovered the magic of basic video editing on Youtube. Yay Youtube)



Most everyone got a chance to fight except for Arcanine, who I guess is still physically/mentally(?) recovering from her... enthusiasm against Kiki. It's sorta nice being able to watch the whole pack in action instead of having one or two mons sweep everyone by exploiting the field or whatever.

Don't have too much to say for this one tbh, but that's okay because the REAL battle's up next...

In which we all learn how to take one for the team

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I told myself that I would find a way to beat Solaris's Garchomp even if I had to save up for thirty Cotton Candies and stall it until it ran out of PP. That'd be boring to watch, though, so I had to go through a lot of trial and error to find creative uses for my fluffy punching bags -- and I'm still not completely satisfied.

Fun fact: even after I won, I started over because I thought the video dragged on too long. You are very welcome.

Most of my team is weak to Ground, but at the same time I didn't want to rely too much on an Air Balloon strategy. I think there's something in Garchomp's AI that gets confused whenever anyone has an Air Balloon, because there's a chance Garchomp will just keep spamming Earthquake even if your mon is happily floating in the air. I wound up giving one to Arcanine anyway just because the strategy I had in mind for her (you can probably imagine what it involves) is too much of a pain to execute without it, and in the end the balloon didn't amount to much anyway.

I didn't want to be too cheap, but I was still cheap. But that's what you get for siccing a level 75 pseudo-legendary on me, you dick.



First we get rid of those Leftovers. Delphox hangs in there with Focus Sash, and with his item slot used up, he can attack Garchomp and steal the Leftovers with his Magician ability.

Besides preventing that gradual healing, getting rid of the Leftovers has another critical role.



Stoutland lowers Garchomp's attack with Baby-Doll eyes, which has priority status. She gets to do this twice because Garchomp's first Dragon Rush misses, but the next still OHKOs her.



HOWEVER! Stoutland is holding a Sticky Barb. Since Garchomp used a contact move, the barb transferred to it and will do gradual damage.

This is the second reason I needed to get rid of those Leftovers -- the Sticky Barb doesn't transfer if the target is already holding an item.



Heeeey it's Mightyena! We haven't seen you for a while. You've just been collecting dust in the PC, but I took you out so you can get beat up by a land shark dragon.

We try to reduce Garchomp's attack as low as it can go. Stoutland and Mightyena work together by using Baby-Doll eyes and Intimidate, then using their turns to revive each other or a teammate.



Eventually Garchomp's attacks get down to... not-OHKO-y levels, all while the Sticky Barb keeps damaging it. We're still in danger, unfortunately. A critical hit will still OHKO us, and no one but Stoutland and Granbull can survive Earthquake even with all the debuffs.



And there's the Full Restores to deal with.

(P.S. That's Zoroark in disguise, btw. The real Granbull is happily biding her time by not getting pounded. Poor Zoroark. His only action this fight is to faint to heal someone else, but we all gotta work together here.)

Anyway, when Garchomp's attack can't go any lower, it's time to finally bring out Arcanine.

I guess I got impatient that Garchomp's attacks weren't doing enough damage even though I just had to wait for Earthquake or a critical hit, so rather than wait around for Stoutland to faint, I switch her out for Arcanine...



... but since Arcanine was switched in permaturely, Garchomp's next attack just popped her balloon. Not only was it wasted on an attack that barely scratched her, it got rid of the item that would have otherwise saved her from the REAL problem, Earthquake.

Luckily she gets a freebie anyway -- Garchomp gets another Full Restore while Arcanine is free to do what she does best.



Pictured: Part 3 of the plan. No one should be surprised by this point.

No one should also be surprised that Arcanine was immediately taken down by Earthquake. HMM I wonder if a balloon could've helped with that OH WELL

Anyway, now we just have to stall Garchomp while the Sticky Barb and field damage do their work. I could've attacked with Stoutland or Granbull to speed things up, but if I did then the Sticky Barb would've just transferred over to them. I could've given at least Granbull an item to hold so she could freely attack, but between field damage, Garchomp's Rough Skin, and its normal attacks, it was too dangerous. In hindsight, I probably also could've grinded Zoroark to learn Embargo to get rid of that healing problem, but that's hindsight for you.

Oh, and I probably also could've NOT sent in Delphox and Arcanine during the stall phase when Earthquake could OHKO them even with all those debuffs, but y'know what? I still win. Feels good, man.



And Granbull is the only survivor because Garchomp got a crit and knocked out Stoutland. Good thing I revived her when I had the chance.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Timber Dragon

[BlackRum]

Wow that is actually quite an elaborate strategy to take down that Garchomp. Well done.

[Dreamy]

I think "Burn Hugs" Is the single best thing I've ever heard Flare Blitz be referred to as. Thanks for that =)

[Timber Dragon]

I could've sworn Aya had a Muk somewhere

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Or maybe I'm thinking of previous episodes. Or Cain. Honest mistake, really, given that Cain is as pretty as his sister.

I hadn't gone into Aya's fight with any particular strategy in mind, so the battle was pretty much just a race to see who can bum rush each other faster.



We don't have any particular strengths or weaknesses here, but it was actually risky to send Delphox out for most of the fight. Nidoqueen and Tentacruel are leading and Gengar will most likely OHKO him once it comes out, so he sits on the sidelines for the most part.



Unfortunately nothing is flammable on this field, so Arcanine sticks with Flare Blitzing everyone into submission while her partners support her. Heat Wave might've been the better choice, except that I had thought that it hits everyone including allies (it doesn't) so whoops.



Arcanine takes down Nidoqueen and Drapion with some backup, then goes down in an epic double KO against Gengar. I'm sure she had fun.

With Gengar out of the way, Delphox can finally come out.



Oh.

Y'know, I hadn't noticed how much Aya actually counters her Psychic weakness... even though she has a Gengar and a Drapion and a Dragalge with Shadow Ball, and maybe one or two other Dark-type moves somewhere in there. I don't always pay attention to these things, guys. Well, at least Delphox gets some good hits in.

Anyway, Arcanine gets revived for one last Flare Blitzy hoorah. Then it turns out Dragalge was the last one, so yay!

And the Poison-resistant Lucario didn't do a damn thing today.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Timber Dragon

[Timber Dragon]

Too bad Sigmund's not stupid enough to use Electric-type attacks against Electric-type Pokemon...

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... otherwise I could've relied on Manectric's Lightning Rod, which I changed from Static, to tank/gloriously sweep Sigmund's team. It's a shame Sigmund has plenty of non-Electric stuff, because my options are pretty much to either get wrecked by Discharge, or get wrecked by everything else.



Getting past Raichu and Luxray usually gives me the most trouble when it comes to this fight. I went through a few different leads before settling on Arcanine to take down Raichu ASAP.

Exceeeept that Luxray Intimidates her, which somehow freaked me out enough where I ignored good ol' Flare Blitz for Heat Wave. Unfortunately she doesn't survive for long against those field-boosted Electric attacks.



Lucario gets the last hit on Raichu and Luxray with Bone Rush (and a little bit of friendly fire from Electivire). Lanturn, probably the second biggest asshole in the fight, soon faints Lucario though.



Delphox sets up a Light Screen and throws a bunch of Flamethrowers at Electivire until they both faint.



Eelektross, after waking up from a Sleep Powder, gets an epic triple KO against everyone including Rotom. Man, so much friendly fire today.



Manectric finally sees some action by getting the last hit on Lanturn. Lightning Rod renders Eelektross's attacks useless while Cain and I double-team him.



[insert electricity-related victory pun here]

Edited November 19, 2016 by Timber Dragon

[Dreamy]

  On 11/15/2016 at 3:39 AM, Timber Dragon said:

while Cain and I double-team him.

Oh my....

[Timber Dragon]

  On 11/17/2016 at 1:16 AM, DreamblitzX said:

Oh my....

... I walked right into that one, didn't I.

Oh, and I went back and spoiler'd my previous posts so all those pictures won't bog down the thread. You guys are welcome.

Mirror, mirror, in my brain

How this field can cause me pain

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I hate this field.

Really, when your strategy revolves around exploiting hax -- and bringing extra punishment when it fails me -- you can be sure I'll shatter your field's ass the second it's convenient.

Unfortunately for me (yet fortunately for Serra's property), we don't have any moves that can break the Mirror field. We just need to do our best and hope we don't smack our faces against a mirror.

Luckily Serra wasn't that hard. Honestly, Bennett previously, for some ungodly reason, gave me more trouble. Three tries to beat that guy. Three! In what unholy world can a BUTTERFREE bring on the pain? I could've recorded that fight so the world to see my failure, but my heart wouldn't handle the shame.

Anyway.

I figure I'd lead with Houndoom, to give my demonic woof some more screentime. With Flamethrower, in addition to hitting hard, it won't punish me if it misses.

... In other news, I just now noticed that Cryogonal has an epic angry face. Something about that isn't right.

Houndoom takes down Cryogonal and Jynx before enough boosted critical Frost Breaths faint him.

Afterwards, Lucario is the MVP (Most Valuable Pooch) for most of the fight. Never-miss Aura Sphere is valuable on a field like this. He sweeps most of Serra's team by lobbing his fighty balls everywhere.

The ironic part is that Lucario's nature (Jolly) actually hinders his special attack, to the point that I hadn't been sure I'd even bother with Aura Sphere. I'm glad that I kept it. I guess his base special attack is so high that he does good damage even with a hindering nature. Still, Lucario might be paying a visit to a certain alleyway doctor on Seventh Street...

And Lucario's streak ends when Aurorus, in one last act of defiance after getting OHKO'd, lightly taps him with hail damage. After taking so much punishment, a little bad weather is what does him in. Geez, Lucario. _{jk, we love you}

Uh-oh I wasn't paying attention and didn't realize Serra was down to her last Pokemon. Otherwise I wouldn't have sent Delphox out against Froslass. That's bad.

On the off chance that Flamethrower doesn't OHKO him (and honestly it probably would have), he uses Mystical Fire instead to lower Froslass's special, just in case, also stealing her Bright Powder with Magician. And just to rub it in that Flamethrower probably would've been the better option, she OHKOs Delphox with a brutal critical Shadow Ball.

And Arcanine tanks a Shadow Ball and saves the day with Flare Blitz, because Arcanine Flare Blitzing someone is obligatory by this point.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Timber Dragon

[Dreamy]

  On 11/19/2016 at 7:43 PM, Timber Dragon said:

by lobbing his fighty balls everywhere.

I swear you're doing this on purpose now.