Badge Requests

[indigo_league]

 What does it take? It changes for each gym! Normally, the games increase in difficulty as you progress, but that wouldn't be any fun if characters could just as easily take on the Gyms that are supposed to be for top trainers only. THEREFORE, the gym leaders aren't going to be pushovers like in the games! In order to win a badge, the mods will take into account your current roster and the attacks and advantages to see whether your pokémon is strong enough to win a badge or not.

Each gym leader has a Regular Team of pokemon and an Elite Team of pokemon you can challenge. It's up to a trainer to decide which team to challenge, but if you take on the Elite Team of six level 100 Pokemon, you'll receive double the prize money. The items, however, are not doubled. Excellent for trainers looking for the extra challenge or those looking to make money fast.

!!! Badges must be mod approved. To earn a badge, please comment on this post. Please don't ask for more than two badges to be approved at once!

JOHTO
Violet City Badge: Zephyr Leader: Falkner Team: Noctowl (L: 30) Honchkrow (L: 32) Pidgeot (L: 35) Rewards: [P10,000] TM Roost Can use Fly outside of battle Elite Team: Pidgeot, Dodrio, Swellow, Xatu, Staraptor, Pelipper	Azalea Town Badge: Hive Leader: Bugsy Team: Pinsir (L: 35) Heracross (L: 37) Scizor (L: 40) Rewards: [P12,000] TM U-Turn Can use Rock Smash outside of battle Elite Team: Scizor, Venomoth, Vespiquen, Yanmega, Galvantula, Heracross	Goldenrod City Badge: Plain Leader: Whitney Team: Girafarig (L: 40) Clefable (L: 42) Miltank (L: 45) Rewards: [P14,000] HM Rock Smash TM Attract Can use Strength outside of battle Elite Team: Ursaring, Granbull, Blissey, Exploud, Tauros, Snorlax	Ecruteak City Badge: Fog Leader: Morty Team: Haunter (L: 45) Misdreavus (L: 47) Gengar (L: 50) Rewards: [P16,000] TM Shadow Ball HM Strength Can use Surf outside of battle Elite Team: Drifblim, Spiritomb, Dusknoir, Mismagius, Gengar, Chandelure
Cianwood City Badge: Storm Leader: Chuck Team: Hitmonlee (L: 50) Hitmonchan (L: 52) Poliwrath (L: 55) Rewards: [P18,000] HM Fly Elite Team: Medicham, Machamp, Hariyama, Breloom, Primeape, Toxicroak	Olivine City Badge: Mineral Leader: Jasmine Team: Skarmory (L: 55) Magneton (L: 57) Steelix (L: 60) Rewards: [P20,000] HM Surf HM Whirlpool Elite Team: Metagross, Bronzong, Skarmory, Steelix, Magnezone, Empoleon	Mahogany Town Badge: Glacier Leader: Pryce Team: Dewgong (L: 60) Lapras (L: 62) Mamoswine (L: 65) Rewards: [P22,000] TM Hail Can use Waterfall outside of battle Elite Team: Abomasnow, Dewgong, Glalie, Froslass, Mamoswine, Walrein	Blackthorn City Badge: Rising Leader: Clair Team: Gyarados (L: 65) Kingdra (L: 67) Dragonite (L: 70) Rewards: [P24,000] HM Waterfall Can use Whirlpool outside of battle A reusable ticket for the SS Anne* Elite Team: Aerodactyl, Charizard, Kingdra, Salamence, Garchomp, Dragonite       *For defeating the Elite team only. Three week paid cruise vacation to be taken whenever and as many times as the holder desires. Boat can be caught from Olivine or Vermilion.
KANTO
Pewter City Badge: Boulder Leader: Brock Team: Rhyhorn (L: 30) Golem (L: 32) Onix (L: 35) Rewards: [P10,000] TM Rock Slide HM Rock Smash Elite Team: Rhyperior, Rampardos, Golem, Omastar, Kabutops, Onix	Cerulean City Badge: Cascade Leader: Misty Team: Golduck (L: 35) Lapras (L: 37) Starmie (L: 40) Rewards: [P12,000] TM Water Pulse Can use Surf outside of battle Elite Team: Quagsire, Lanturn, Floatzel, Lapras, Milotic, Starmie	Vermilion City Badge: Thunder Badge Leader: Lt. Surge Team: Electabuzz (L: 40) Magneton (L: 42) Raichu (L: 45) Rewards: [P14,000] TM Thunder Can use Strength outside of battle Elite Team: Manectric, Electrode, Pachirisu, Magnezone, Electivire, Raichu	Celadon City Badge: Rainbow Leader: Erika Team: Jumpluff (L: 45) Tangrowth (L: 47) Bellossom (L: 50) Rewards: [P16,000] TM Giga Drain HM Strength Can use Fly outside of battle Elite Team: Shiftry, Jumpluff, Victreebel, Bellossom, Roserade, Vileplume
Fuchsia City Badge: Soul Leader: Janine Team: Crobat (L: 50) Ariados (L: 52) Venomoth (L: 55) Rewards: [P18,000] TM Toxic HM Surf Can use Rock Smash outside of battle Elite Team: Crobat, Weezing, Toxicroak, Drapion, Arbok, Venomoth	Saffron City Badge: Marsh Leader: Sabrina Team: Espeon (L: 55) Mr. Mime (L: 57) Alakazam (L: 60) Rewards: [P20,000] TM Psychic HM Fly Elite Team: Jynx, Wobbuffet, Espeon, Gallade, Gardevoir, Alakazam	Cinnabar Island (Seafoam Islands) Badge: Volcano Leader: Blaine Team: Magcargo (L: 60) Magmortar (L: 62) Rapidash (L: 65) Rewards: [P22,000] TM Fire Blast HM Whirlpool Can use Whirlpool outside of battle Elite Team: Torkoal, Camerupt, Magcargo, Houndoom, Magmortar, Rapidash	Viridian City Badge: Earth Leader: Blue Team: Exeggutor (L: 65) Machamp (L: 66) Rhydon (L: 67) Gyarados (L: 68) Pidgeot (L: 69) Arcanine (L: 70) Rewards: [P25,000] TM Hyper Beam A reusable ticket for the SS Anne* Elite Team: Venusaur, Blastoise, Charizard, Tyranitar, Pidgeot, Jolteon       *For defeating the Elite team only. Three week paid cruise vacation to be taken whenever and as many times as the holder desires. Boat can be caught from Olivine or Vermilion.

The Elite Four is now distributing Keystones and Mega Stones to promising trainers! Any trainer who has defeated all eight gyms of a single region will be granted a Keystone and one Mega Stone of their choice. No player will be able to have more than one Mega Stone at a time, and those looking to switch theirs out may do so once every four months. Mega Stones may be used in any casual trainer battle, but as far as gyms go may only be used in Elite battles.

The Indigo Plateau is now open to challengers! To qualify, trainers must have all sixteen badges from Johto and Kanto. Every Pokémon they face will be level 100, and the Elite Four and the Champion have heaps of talent and experience. As such, we will be reviewing Indigo Plateau challenges with more scrutiny than we bring to badge requests. A higher level of strategy is required to win on this field. Show us what you've got!

ELITE FOUR
Bede Team: Mawile (L: 100) Sylveon (L: 100) Galarian Rapidash (L: 100) Primarina (L: 100) Tinkaton (L: 100) Hatterene (L: 100) Rewards: [P30,000] TM Draining Kiss Life Orb	Koga Team: Skuntank (L: 100) Venomoth (L: 100) Toxicroak (L: 100) Swalot (L: 100) Crobat (L: 100) Muk (L: 100) Rewards: [P35,000] TM Venoshock Expert Belt	Bruno Team: Hitmontop (L: 100) Hitmonlee (L: 100) Hitmonchan (L: 100) Hariyama (L: 100) Machamp (L: 100) Lucario (L: 100) Rewards: [P40,000] TM Power-Up Punch Protective Pads	Karen Team: Weavile (L: 100) Absol (L: 100) Spiritomb (L: 100) Houndoom (L: 100) Honchkrow (L: 100) Umbreon (L: 100) Rewards: [P45,000] TM Snarl Ring Target
Lance Team: Salamence (L: 100) Gyarados (L: 100) Garchomp (L: 100) Altaria (L: 100) Charizard (L: 100) Dragonite (L: 100) Rewards: [P60,000] TM Giga Impact A Dragon-type egg with one egg move and one TM move of your choice The League Certificate qualifying the winner to create and lead their own Pokémon "Gym." This Gym is part not of the Indigo League, but the Aurora League.	Aurora League Gym Leaders may choose their own battle specializations, as well as. design their own unique Gym (which will take one month to build from the time of request) and Badge (which will be available as soon as the Gym opens). They will be compensated for their work as Gym Leaders with a stipend that will cover building costs, labor (the Leader's and any Trainers they may employ), and rewards for victorious challengers. We ask that Aurora Gym Leaders think carefully about the location of their Gym and the difficulty level they wish to present challengers. We also ask that they create their own Badge Request page like this one so that others can request battles with them. To officially request an Aurora League Gym, fill out the provided template and comment here.

Please use this form to request a badge or a showdown with the Elite Four! Post your request as a comment to this post. Badges will generally be processed once per week, on either Wednesday or during the weekend. Please try not to PM or IM mods about badges (including elite challenges) unless your request has gone unanswered for more than a week.

!!! Please request badges as your character is actually in the general area of the gym!

!!! To preserve the spirit of the game, obtaining badges using recently-inherited Pokémon (ie, Pokemon received from dropped characters) that massively outlevel your own is discouraged. If this happens, you may be asked by the badge mod to revise your team. Inherited Pokemon that your character has had for a while and are the same level as the rest of your character's team are fine to use!

!!! Remember that you must fight all four members of the Elite Four and Champion Lance in a row. You may heal your Pokémon between battles and take a short break, but you cannot leave without ending your challenge.

<b>Character:</b> CHARACTER NAME | <user name="JOURNAL"> <b>Badge/Gym Leader:</b> NAME OF THE BADGE OR GYM LEADER YOU'RE CHALLENGING <b>Elite/Regular:</b> ELITE TEAM OR REGULAR TEAM <b>Team:</b> LINK TO POKEMON ROSTER <b>Battle Details:</b> MISCELLANEOUS DETAILS ABOUT YOUR TEAM/CHARACTER THAT'LL HELP YOU IN THIS BATTLE (recommended!)

「 NAVIGATION 」

Comments

[fingersandteeth]

Character: Steven Durante | fingersandteeth
Badge/Gym Leader: LET'S BIN JASMINE (for realsies this time)
Elite/Regular: nope still regular
Team: Erik (Lampent 71) + Tiger Mask (Incineroar 59) and Leo (Houndoom 48) for backup
Battle Details: So a million years ago--or, rather five weeks ago--Steven went against Bugsy in Azalea as a trial run for facing Jasmine with a fistful of Fire-types. Now, having taken the opportunity over the next five weeks to level up all those Fire pokemon, he's going back. And this time he plans to win. He's got three fire pokemon: one that's 11-16 levels above Jasmine's team, another that's just about the same levels as hers, and one back-up that's 7-12 levels below but hopefully we won't need to actually use Leo for this.

His main pokemon for this fight, just as it was with Bugsy, is his Lampent Erik. The little flame spoop is not only his highest leveled Fire-type, but one of his beloved ghosts as well. He'll start off with each opponent by Fire-Spinning them, before going next to Inferno. If they're still up, he'll do a Heat Wave, then a Flamethrower or two. When Fire Spin wears off, he'll reapply it.

Given level and type advantage, hopefully Erik's able to take all of them. But if he can't, next goes in Tiger Mask! He'll use Flare Blitz immediately, before he takes any damage, and then mostly just concentrate on Heat Wave and Flamethrower.

Because of that dang Flare Blitz, there's a chance that Tiger Mask could go down too. If he does, it's up to Leo. He'll Heatwave until he's out of the move and the gnaw away with Fire Fang until his foes are down.

Hopefully that will be enough to take her or Steven's going to be very, very embarrassed.

Character: Steven Durante | fingersandteeth
Badge/Gym Leader: let's make Clair despair
Elite/Regular: nope still regular
Team: Charlotte (Galvantula 84), Mushroom Samba (Shiinotic 61) + Timothea aka "Little Timmy" (Mimikyu 57), and Fail Whale (Wailord 82)
Battle Details: HOO BOY. While Steven has a small handful of dragons and fairies, the only fairy that's even close to being the same level as Clair's team is Skeleton... who as a member of Steven's Rocket team is disqualified, for reasons of not being allowed to go on television. But that's fine, because it turns out the only one he'll really need the Fairy-types for is Kingdra--Gyrados and Dragonite both have 4x weaknesses in other types.

So! We'll start off with Gyrados, who isn't really a Dragon-type despite being in a Dragon Gym (and what is with that?) Since Gyrados is double vulnerable to Electricity, Steven will pit them against Charlotte, his Galvantula, to take advantage of type and level advantage both. As usual when being brought in to shock the opponent, she'll Electroweb to slow/catch her opponent, Thunder Wave to attempt Paralysis, and the Electro Ball and Discharge to Damage.

Kingdra is really only vulnerable to Fairy and Dragon, which is where Mushroom Samba and Little Timmy come in. Sure, they're respectively six and ten levels beneath Kingdra, but that's where type advantage come in. Also, that's why he's got two Pokemon slotted for Kingdra. He'll start out with Mushroom Samba, who'll Moonblast and Dazzling Gleam against Kingdra as many times as necessary.

When it looks like Mushroom Samba is near fainting, he'll quick switch her out for Little Timmy (in the adorable Shiinotic costume Charley-the-Pokemon helped her make) who'll take advantage of her Disguise to avoid damage from Kingdra so that Steven can heal Mushroom Samba back up to full. Then it's Play Rough and Dazzling Gleam--with perhaps a Mimic if Kingdra does any particularly effective Dragon-type moves--and if Little Timmy goes down, then it's time for Mushroom Samba again, with the same Moonblast and Dazzling Gleam as before.

Hopefully that should be enough to handle Kingdra

Finally Dragonite, it turns out, is super vulnerable to Ice and luckily Steven remembered one very important thing that Armin told him about Wailords long, long ago: Wailords can learn tons of Ice attacks. Which Steven has taken full advantage of: investing in some TMs to make Fail Whale a fitting opponent for Clair's Dragonite. The level advantage honestly doesn't hurt either.

Fail Whale takes to the field with a Noble Roar, before summing a Blizzard and cloaking himself with Mist! Repeated Ice Beams and perhaps another Blizzard or two should hopefully finish Dragonite off at this point.

And with luck, Steven will be able to pocket his Rising Badge and, if binning Jasmine went well too, grab his Megastone!

You know. Whichever he eventually settles on once he's repeatedly talked himself out of various Gengarites.

[cyan_maid]

Character: Jane Crocker | cyan_maid
Badge/Gym Leader: Pryce for the Glacier Badge
Elite/Regular: REGULAR
Team: Dinah the Audino (lv 100), August the Delphox (lv 100), Madeline the Primarina (lv 100), Ramsay the Leafeon (lv 100), Dart the Bisharp (lv 100), and TAN the Rotom (lv 51).
Battle Details: Since Pryce's Pokemon are dual-typed, this battle isn't going to go as easy as Jane might have assumed from an Ice Type Gym - but that's fair and valid, because she'll have to put in some effort on this one. She'll lead with Dinah, using Simple Beam to nullify Pryce's Pokemon's abilities, then Power-Up Punch for the Fighting typing super effective bonus and attack raising effect. She's hoping that will at least get them through Dewgong, and that she can set up enough and chip away at Lapras's HP so that if Dinah goes down, she can follow up with TAN. While TAN isn't as high a level as her other Pokemon, it is the one strongest Electric type Jane has, and she'll be hoping that Lapras's lower base speed and TAN's Discharge, Shock Wave, and Electro Ball will be enough to secure their victory over Pryce's second Pokemon. Ramsay serves as a third leg of backup, hopefully cleaning up house with Leaf Blade before any Ice attacks can hit him.

As for Mamoswine, she'll try meeting it head on with August, knowing full well the opponent's Ground typing will spell trouble. Still, August has Mystical Fire, Flamethrower, and Fire Blast, which should put a dent in Mamoswine's HP. If he goes down, then Jane is going to turn to Dart - Steel type moves are super effective against Mamoswine, and Dart has Iron Head and Metal Claw, which she hopes will be enough to take it down. If not, she has Madeline for backup to come in the clutch with Sparkling Aria, Bubblebeam, and Hydro Pump. Hopefully, hopefully this should be enough to just eek out a win.

[uber_marionettist]

Character: Dirk Strider | uber_marionettist
Badge/Gym Leader: Blaine (Volcano Badge)
Elite/Regular: Elite
Team: Here. Mandibuzz, Coalossal, Beedrill (Mega), Rapidash, Machoke, Turtonator... because these longer writeups make his team choices confusing
Battle Details: This is it. The sixteenth and final badge. And for once, Dirk leads not with Empedocles, but with... uh. Mandibuzz?

He's leading with Mandibuzz.

There's a reason for this: one of Torkoal's moves is Rapid Spin, a move almost exclusively for its effect of clearing hazards off the field. Salome wastes no time trying to self-buff, though. For one, Torkoal's move Clear Smog could eliminate any of that at any time... and two, its move Eruption does more damage when Torkoal has more health.

So she leads with Bone Rush, a supereffective Ground Type move that only has 90% accuracy but does hit multiple times (2-5x). With any luck, that will take out a good chunk of Torkoal's health. This is pretty much their strategy for Torkoal, honestly. With moves like Curse, Iron Defence, Shell Smash, and Amnesia, Dirk knows that the longer it's on the field, the more of a pain in the ass it is.

Once Torkoal is down and Blaine sends out Camerupt, though Dirk recalls Salome for Mersenne the Beedrill. Or rather, Mersenne the Mega Beedrill.

This is not an intuitive move on his part, and will no doubt make even less sense when he spends the first turn using Endure. Even if it's boosted by a potential Drought thanks to Torkoal, Camerupt's no-doubt Fire-type attack will leave Mersenne with a minimum of one (1) HP. Then he uses U-Turn ahead of Camerupt's next attack, swapping in Empedocles the Coalossal to take the hit.

Two things about this strategy.

One: Mersenne's Ability (Adaptability) means moves with STAB (like U Turn) do 2x damage instead of 1.5x. Camerupt resists Bug type moves, meaning it's back to... 1x damage. So, like... neutral damage instead of garbage damage.

Two: Empedocles' Ability (Steam Powered) instantly raises her Speed to maximum when she's hit with a Water move. This was proved in Dirk's match against Misty. But it does the same thing if she's hit with Fire. This is significantly more useful as a strategy, because Fire's effectiveness is a measly 1/4 of its base (as opposed to Water's 4x its base.) In any case, Empedocles is now as fast as a kaiju made of coal is going to get.

This means that her Stealth Rock comes out way ahead of any Ground type moves Camerupt had prepared, guaranteeing the setup. Nice.

With a double weakness to Ground, though, the odds that Empedocles will be able to do much more than Self Destruct on out are pretty much nil. Which is fine, actually.

Mersenne is back, and again leads with Endure. At this point there's no way he has more than one fucking HP unless Blaine leads with Yawn... but now Blaine knows about U Turn, and obviously Yawn won't take effect in time, right?

Wrong, because this time Mersenne uses Endeavour, bringing Camerupt down to an equally dire one HP before fainting himself.

You might wonder at this point what the fuck Dirk is doing.

Well, now Salome is back and she has Whirlwind. Remember that strategy? He used it against Blue.

And all of Blaine's Pokemon except Camerupt take twice the damage from Stealth Rock.

That's right, Dirk Strider's plan is to be a goddamn pain in Blaine's ass. A few caveats. One, Salome will make damn sure to use Roost when faced with slower opponents like Magcargo (which is extra useful in Magcargo's case because it temporarily removes her weakness to Rock type. Nice!) and not faster ones like Rapidash. The one exception is Houndoom, which knows Thunder Fang... and Roosting temporarily eliminates that weakness, so depending on Salome's health, there's a chance that it will make the blow more survivable next turn when her -1 priority Whirlwind depends on her tanking one more hit of it (this time while weak to it.)

Two, he doesn't expect this to really take out all of Blaine's team (although pour one out for poor Camerupt if it gets dragged back out.) He does expect it to soften Blaine's team up for Acorn, whose typing makes him immune to burns... while Flash Fire makes him immune to Fire type attacks and his Drill Run will leave the remaining Pokemon in tatters (pour one out for poor Magcargo, which has a double weakness to Ground types.) If that still isn't enough, Dirk brought COS, whose Eviolite boosts her Defence and Special Defence, while her GUTS actually boosts her Attack if she's burned. Also, she knows Earthquake? (Pour one out for Magcargo again, because the poor thing is also weak to Fighting and COS lives for the chance to show off her Muscular Theatre skills.)

Anything somehow left will be Body Slammed flat and Dragon Pulsed out of the game by Gamehameha the Turtonator.

[stardiving]

Character: Estinien Wyrmblood
Badge/Gym Leader: Bugsy
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Temple (Corviknight, 57), Iceheart (Alolan Ninetales, 65), Ratatoskr (Flygon, 61)
Battle Details: After finally making it to Azalea and doing some heavy avoiding his feelings by keeping busy training along the way, Estinien is feeling pretty confident. Let’s see if he can make that work out for him.

First out against his Pinsir is going to be Temple the Corviknight, who will be using Taunt to make sure that no setup or status effects are going to be coming his way. Then, using his quad resistance to Pinsir, he’s going to set up a couple Hone Claws, just to be...really rude. Then he’ll have Temple use Brave Bird, hoping to get a one-hit KO, and following up with Drill Peck if he doesn’t. Since Brave Bird does recoil damage he’ll then recall Temple to sit on the sidelines.

Next up vs. Heracross will be Iceheart. She has higher base speed than Heracross, so he’ll have her shoot off a quick Confuse Ray to buy some time. For what you ask? Nasty Plot, that’s what. Then after Nasty Plot, he’ll have her use Blizzard and hope that the lower accuracy doesn’t work against him.

Once Heracross is down, Iceheart will be coming straight back. He really doesn’t have a great matchup vs. Scizor, the best he has is Ratatoskr, who can only do neutral damage, but can only have neutral damage done to her in turn. He really should’ve remembered to grab a Flamethrower TM for her before leaving Goldenrod. She is also significantly faster, so he’ll have her start with Dragon Dance to up her speed and attack further, then he’ll have her use Earthquake until something breaks. Whether that’s the Scizor, Ratatoskr herself, or the foundation of the gym…

Should Ratatoskr not be able to take out Scizor, Temple will be going out again as he has the better matchup. By this time since he’s left battle, the Hone Claws will have worn off, but hopefully the Scizor should be weakened enough to be taken out by an unboosted Brave Bird. His speed is unfortunately slower and he’ll still have some ruffled feathers from taking out that Pinsir, so fingers crossed it doesn’t come to that. If he does get KO’d and Iceheart has to come back out, well...she has the worst matchup against Scizor, but she also has Sheer Cold. It’s basically going to come down to a coin flip at that point but it’d be epic.

I PUT ON EYE OF THE TIGER FOR THIS ONE

[conniemaheswaran]

Character: Connie Maheswaran | conniemaheswaran
Badge/Gym Leader: Blue/Earth
Elite/Regular: ELITE TEAM
Team: Connie's entire regular roster!
Battle Details: Connie's challenging Blue's Elite team not only for pride, but for a purpose, and so she's pulling out all the stops.

Her first Pokémon will be Naga the Dragonite vs. Blue's Venusaur. Thanks to Naga's Dragon/Flying type, she takes a quarter damage from the vast majority of Venusaur's damaging moves, and will be carrying a Pecha Berry to cure Poison if Blue uses Poison Powder, relying on her double defensive advantage to weather any damage Blue inflicts while she's sleeping due to Sleep Powder. On the first turn, Naga will set up with Dragon Dance to put the definitive edge over Venusaur in Speed, then use Sunny Day to set up for her primary strategy (and to weaken Blastoise for the fight immediately after). Although Venusaur's Synthesis will be empowered by the weather, Connie is relying on Naga's overwhelming Attack compared to Venusaur's lackluster Defense to literally punch through the extra barrier with an endless barrage of super effective Fire Punches. Just before Venusaur goes down, Connie will refresh Sunny Day before taking it out with Flamethrower for the style points.

Connie will switch out Naga with Nemean the Luxray to take on Blastoise, relying on Sunny Day and Nemean's Attack-decreasing Intimidate ability to neuter many, although not all, of Blastoise's attacks. Nemean will go with a simple one-turn setup with Electric Terrain and alternate between Charge and Thunder Fang to whittle down Blastoise with super effective STAB attacks (and to protect himself from many of Blastoise's Special moves with Charge increasing his Special Defense), with the added bonus of the windup from Charge prolonging the fight so that it wears off by the time the final blow is struck and Charizard goes out, the sunny weather expires, preventing Blue's third Pokémon from gaining its effects. As Blastoise is weakened to the point of a final blow taking it out, Nemean will refresh Electric Terrain for Naga's later use, then Volt Switch to finish it off. If Blastoise pivots into Shell Smash to try and outdamage Nemean, Nemean will switch to spamming Wild Charge without using Charge to take it out before the stat boosts can give it a definitive advantage.

It's Dragon vs. dragon time, and Naga's playing for keeps. With the extra moment of preparation Volt Switch gave her, Naga will activate her newly-acquired Rain Dance from a TM to put a damper on Charizard's primarily Fire-type arsenal. While this is a mildly risky maneuver due to Charizard's access to Dragon-type moves, it also sets up for a later gambit. Naga will use Dragon Dance and open up with a veritable flurry of Thunder Punches empowered by Nemean's Electric Terrain, doing her level best to exploit Charizard's weaknesses and relying on her superior Attack to overpower it. However, if Charizard attempts to decrease her accuracy with Smokescreen, Naga will retaliate in kind with STAB-boosted Hurricane, refreshing Rain Dance if need be to make sure her hurricane of Hurricanes always connect with the false dragon. Connie will finish Charizard off with a Hyper Beam for style points, then switch out to the next fight. If Naga is KO'd due to earlier injuries sustained from her battle with Venusaur, Connie will bring out Nemean to finish Charizard off with a flurry of Wild Charges, exploiting the still-Electric Terrain, STAB, and super-effectiveness.

While ostensibly being Blue's most intimidating Pokémon, the fact is that there is very little Tyranitar can do against Connie's next pick: Artemis the Gallade. Artemis will hit the ground running with Swords Dance, boosting their already-high Attack, then go absolutely wild with an ORAORAORAORA's worth of Close Combat. While the lowered defense is an inconvenience, the boosted Attack, STAB, high Attack of Gallade, and the 4x super-effectiveness should make short work of Tyranitar, and Gallade resists many of Tyranitar's Rock-type moves. If Tyranitar goes for a last-ditch assault with Thrash, Artemis will use Protect after the first move, and if Tyranitar attacks with Hyper Beam or Giga Impact they'll eat their Figy Berry to recover the lost HP before going for the finishing blow.

Connie is mildly baffled as to why Pidgeot is even here, but she's still going to give it her all. She'll bring out Nemean again for this fight, relying on his resistance to Flying moves despite his battered state, and set up with Electric Terrain. Connie, knowing Blue has seen her tactics with Nemean before, will attack once again with Charge, hoping to bait him into using Feather Dance so that he'll weaken Nemean's Attack with Feather Dance in preparation for the seemingly-inevitable Thunder Fang or Wild Charge, but if he does she'll attack with Discharge instead, a Special move. While not Nemean's forte, Pidgeot has a small HP pool and low Special Defense, leaving an opportunity for a STAB super effective streak, although she'll continue Charging up to soften the impact of Pidgeot's many Special moves. Should Pidgey attempt to decrease Nemean's accuracy, Nemean will switch to spamming Swift instead to put stars in Pidgeot's eyes. In either case, Nemean will once again switch out with Volt Switch to finish Pidgeot off.

And finally, there is Jolteon. While Connie is on a mission, she's dedicated to finishing Blue off with style, and to making all her partners feel her gratitude to the journey she's taken with them. Firstly, Connie will call Chandrahas the Aegislash to her hand and conduct her Pokémon through their techniques with blade in hand. Next, she'll use Nemean's Volt Switch to bring in Cú Chulainn the Scizor, who will use a Swords Dance... then immediately Baton Pass to Jormungandr the Dragapult, who will use Lock On... and Baton Pass to Artemis the Gallade, who will Swords Dance themself and attack Jolteon with a high leap into the air that turns into an earth-shattering Bulldoze kick. Although that single move, as powerful as it is through two stacks of Swords Dance and as much as it exploits Jolteon's weakness, is unlikely to finish off Jolteon. Connie will recall Gallade and bring out Chandrahas... and herself with it, holding onto her Pokémon as it flies into the arena, protecting the both of them with King's Shield, then taking out Jolteon with a titanic Blade Forme headsmash while she wields Aegislash as a partner and weapon.

Eat your heart out, Ash.

[stardiving]

Character: Estinien Wyrmblood (stardiving)
Badge/Gym Leader: Whitney/Plain Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Iceheart (Alolan Ninetales, lvl 71), Temple (Corviknight, lvl 64), Cathedral (Bronzong, lvl 58), Ratatoskr (Flygon, lvl 66), Tree (Alolan Exeggutor, lvl 43)
Battle Details:
Estinien has heard stories of Whitney’s Miltank and intends to bring overwhelming force to try to beat her as quickly as possible before Rollout can wreck his team.

First off, vs Girafarig he will send out Tree, first using Confusion to get some setup going. Girafarig is much faster, so he’ll be using Stun Spore after that to slow it down a little, then using Dragon Hammer until one or the other faints--it’s a neutral hit, but powerful and a physical move taking advantage of Girafarig’s lower Defense stat. If Tree faints before Girafarig does, he’ll be sending out Ratatoskr to mop up with her Dragon type moves.

Versus Clefable, he’ll be sending out Temple. He just squeaks past Clefable in terms of base speed, and resists both Normal and Fairy type and can smack it around with Steel Wing. Between the type effectiveness and Temple’s level advantage, he’s hoping to get Clefable down without too much trouble.

Versus Miltank. Now this is the part he’s going to be extra cautious about. But instead of sending out one of his higher level Pokemon that have seen play in gym battles before, he’s sending out Cathedral, the wall-eyed bell. It’s slow, but its typing should play pretty well--it resists both Normal and Rock typing, which helps versus Rollout, and should Miltank have something like Fire Punch, its ability is Heatproof to protect from fire. Really the worst thing that could happen is a Ground or Fighting type move coming its way. The reason he wants to start with Cathedral is its move Heal Block, to stop Whitney from using Milk Drink for recovery. Then he’ll have it set up Future Sight, and start throwing around Heavy Slam. Should it get taken out, he’ll send out Iceheart to finish off the fight with Blizzard or Ice Beam.

[angewiesen]

Character: Jean Kirstein | angewiesen
Badge/Gym Leader: Rainbow Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team:

Battle Details: Having had most of his journey in Kanto, Jean expects most Grass Types to also be Poison Type, or at least have Poison Type moves, so he'll be leading with Chess the Corviknight to negate Poison moves and double resist Grass. While he probably won't be seeing as much Poison as he was expecting, his team is still stacked with Pokemon that would make quick work of Grass Types. Penny, Prick and Blaze all have STAB along with Chess, and even Edge and Sabre have access to Aerial Ace. Also, Chess, Penny and Prick are carrying Chesto berries, and Sabre, Edge and Blaze are carrying Cheri berries, since he knows various status inducing something-powder moves are very common on Grass Types. He tried to find Lum berries, but they're way harder to get your hands on than you'd think!

[uncutetomboy]

Character: Akane Tendo | uncutetomboy
Badge/Gym Leader: BLOO Blue
Elite/Regular: holy shit our first elite battle
Team: her main team, all of which are level 100! T-chan (Tepig), H-kun (Jumpluff), Q-no (Quagsire), R-ko (Gardevoir), S-chan (Luxray), and G-kun (Shiny Golurk)
Battle Details: Akane spent the weeks between beating Clair and going off to fight Blue's elite team with Connie fussing about how she should build the team she'd be bringing to battle, but in the end, she just brought her entire main team, figuring they could all cover type advantage fairly well. Each of them has a primary target in this fight.

Against Venusaur, Akane's sending in T-chan, naturally. What better to fight a grass starter than a fire starter? After rolling in with a Defense Curl, he uses Flamethrower and Heatwave to try to light Venusaur on fire and if it looks like he's getting closer to fainting, launches into Flare Blitz to take Venusaur down with him. If Venusaur does outlast T-chan, merely because it's in its final evolution and T-chan is everstoned into his first, that would be a case of letting R-ko quick jump in to finish the fight with a Psychic or two.

Blastoise gets H-kun! Grass against water. H-kun releases his Cotton Spores at the start of the fight, before seeding the competition with Leech Seed. Then it's Giga Drain, Giga Drain, Giga Drain, unless Blastoise has been entirely sucked free of hitpoints.

Then Charizard gets to fight Q-no and although the Quagsire is none-too-bright, he does understand battle and how to listen to Akane's commands. Muddy Water to decrease Charizard's accuracy, then Surf, Aqua Tail, and more Muddy Water to help bring him down, repeating as needed.

Luckily for R-ko, unluckily for Tyranitar, Gardevoir are part fairy now and so not nearly as easy to take down as they used to be. Because of this, R-ko's no more vunerable to dark attacks than she is to... just about anything really. Which comes in handy this next fight. Moonblast and Dazzling Gleam to hit hard and Draining Kiss for necessary HP restores. Repeat as needed.

Pigeot is a bird and birds hate lightning. That means it's S-chan's time to shine! Electric Terrain to power up its moves, then alternating Charge and Discharge as many times as needed.

Finally there's Jolteon. Electric types are stupidly OP and without enough weaknesses, but that's fine, we have a shiny giant robot. Mud-Slap to reduce accuracy, then taking turns with Earthquake and High Horsepower. If any attack fails, he'll throw a Stomping Tantrum.

Hopefully this will get Akane through so she can pick up her SS Anne tickets! She and Connie have Something Planned with Carly and Jolyne at the end of that boat trip and she doesn't want to be left behind!

[marmoron]

Character: Keith "STILL DON'T HAVE MOTH PROBLEMS" Yeehawson | marmoron

Badge/Gym Leader: Koga
Elite/Regular: Regular!
Team: Mothlad, Mothbro, Mothgal
Battle Details: Young Frosmoth will open up this battle and take on Koga's Crobat. Frosmoth will take a turn to set up some Hail, hopefully tank at least one of Crobat's attacks then go on the offensive by launching some 100% accuracy Blizzards to hit Crobat on its weakness to Ice attacks. Then, when Ariados comes in, Frosmoth will set up an Aurora Veil to bolster the team's defenses for the frailer moths and switch out. Mothbro will then come in and while the Aurora Veil is up, will start boosting his stats with Quiver Dance. Once he's gotten two QD boosts, Mothbro will use STAB Air Slash to make quick work of Ariados and Venomoth. Mothgal is back up moth who will clean up with Air Slash attacks of her own.


Badge/Gym Leader: Sabrina
Elite/Regular: Regular!
Team: Mothman, Mothgal, Mothlad
Battle Details: Volcarna coming in hot against Espeon by first using Amnesia to raise his special defense since a majority of Psychic attacks are Special Attacks. Then going to go on the offense with STAB Bug Buzz attacks to hit Sabrina's psychic types with super effective attacks. He'll be attempting to sweep with Volcarona by keeping him health with Giga Drains to gain back some health if he gets low, but otherwise this one will be relatively straight forward. Mothlad and Mothgal are back up moths who'll be going for Bug Buzz attacks as well, just in case the initial sweep strat with Volcarona doesn't work.

[lioness_rampant]

Character: Allura | lioness_rampant
Badge/Gym Leader: Brock / Boulder
Elite/Regular: Elite
Team: HERE: Rattata, Altaria, Milotic, Pachirisu, Tsareena, Bewear
Battle Details: It's been a while since she's been in the ring, but Allura is coming out swinging! ... with Klaizap the Rattata. Yes, that's right, a tiny Rattata is taking on a Rhyperior that could probably squash her under one of its big feet. However, what Klaizap lacks in size, she makes up for in speed and agility, dodging Rhyperior's attacks for dear life. She'll use Super Fang right out the gate to cut Rhyperior's HP in half, and from there she's going to use Grass Knot to finish off her enemy.

Once that's done, she'll be recalled in favor of Blaytz the Altaria. Yes, his Flying type makes him weak against Rock, but he'll Roost to negate his flying type in favor of his Dragon half. If that's not enough, Allura will Mega Evolve him to replace his Flying type with Fairy. He'll use Steel Wing, and his STAB moves Moonblast and Dragon Pulse to KO Rampardos.

Golem gets to tangle with Milotic. Rain Dance sets the mood, and she'll try an Attract to keep her opponent distracted. Whether or not that works, she'll follow with Aqua Tail and Return.

For Omastar, Trigel starts out with Super Fang to cut its health down fifty percent. followed by Nuzzle to do damage and paralyze. She'll then use Electro Ball--a move that is more effective the faster the user is compared to its opponent. Pachirisu's base speed stat is nearly twice Omastar's, so she'll use this move as needed to KO Omastar.

Kabutops will square off against Jewel the Tsareena, who begins with Teeter Dance to induce confusion in her opponent. She follows that up with Trop Kick and Leaf Storm.

Onix gets to tussle with Princess the Bewear. Princess is eager to fight! She uses Hammer Arm, followed by Strength, and Return for her finishing move.



Badge/Gym Leader: Misty / Cascade
Elite/Regular: Elite
Team: HERE: Beautifly, Tsareena, Pachihrisu, Altaria, Florges, Mismageus
Battle Details: Lahja the Beautifly is up first, his Flying typing making him immune to Quagsire's ground moves. He uses Poison Sting to get things started, since every little hit point helps. He'll proceed to use a combo of Bug Buzz and Giga Drain to KO Quagsire.

Tsareena will be the one to handle Lanturn, using Razor Leaf, Trop Kick, and Return. If she finishes this fight, she's going to go as far as she can through the rest of Misty's team. If and when she gets KO'd, Pachirisu, Altaria, and Florges are on the job to back her up.

Starmie will face up against Tofram the Mismagius. He'll use Confuse Ray to start, then follow that up with Magical Leaf and Phantom Force until Starmie faints.

[cyan_maid]

Character: Jane Crocker | cyan_maid
Badge/Gym Leader: Clair for the Rising Badge!
Elite/Regular: ELITE TEAM BAYBEY
Team: Dinah the Audino (lv 100), Poirot the Kricketune (lv 100), August the Delphox (lv 100), Bettina the Crobat (lv 100), Madeline the Primarina (lv 100), and Ramsay the Leafeon (lv 100)
Battle Details: Hoo boy. Jane's first Elite challenge. And it's against Clair! She's been mulling ideas over through the Ice Path and is honestly kind of terrified, but by gum is she going to do her absolute best.

First of all: she is stocking up on Hyper Potions, Revives, and status healing items before even setting foot in the gym. She's got about P740,000 on her, so let's say...30 Hyper Potions, 15 Revives, and 6 each of Antidote, Paralyze Heal, Awakening, Burn Heal, and Ice Heal, which based on the items chart comes to P55,500. She's going into this with a cautious stock of restoratives, hoping to use them as sparingly as possible, but not discounting the need for them.

Now, for the actual battle.

Aerodactyl and Charizard both have a weakness against Water types, so Jane leads with Madeline the Primarina. She'll start with Baby Doll Eyes to lower their Attack, then follow with Attract to see if she can use Clair's Pokemon's gender to her advantage. If she can, then Madeline will follow with Captivate to tank their Special Attack before pummeling them with Sparkling Aria, Bubble Beam, and Hydro Pump. Hopefully, this will reduce the amount and intensity of any attacks she might receive while bombarding two of Clair's team with super effective attacks.

Once we get to Kingdra, then it gets a little tricky. Jane is going to, again, wear down its Attack/Spe Attack with Baby Doll Eyes/Captivate, but she knows Madeline can't carry the entire battle all by herself and will switch her out once the groundwork is laid down, and send out Poirot the Kricketune. Why? Easy - he has Perish Song. That's going out right away, with the hope that he can last long enough for it to take effect, but also chipping away at Kingdra's HP with repeated Fury Cutters. She doesn't expect him to hold up through the whole fight, but that's okay - if Kingra somehow takes him down, she will send out Bettina the Crobat to clean up house by using Fly to avoid some of Kingdra's attacks. Hopefully, this should be enough to wear through to the actual Dragons on Clair's team.

This is where Madeline comes back - Jane will take a turn to heal her up before striking Salamence with Moonblast and Dazzling Gleam; she's hoping the instant assault instead of stat lowering will throw Clair off-base. With perserverence, Jane hopes she can get through Salamence to start work on Garchomp, hitting it with Fairy attacks and Ice Beam. It's okay if Madeline goes down here, because then Jane can switch to Dinah the Audino and push through with Ice Punch, hopefully getting down to Dragonite.

And here is where Mega Evolution comes into play! Dinah will become Mega Audino to face off against Dragonite and come in with Play Nice to lower its Attack (which hits even through moves like Protect), then Attract if gender can again come into play and help reduce the potential amount of attacks that will come Dinah's way. Then? Oh, it's a full-on assault of Dazzling Gleam and Ice Punch. If Dinah falls, Jane has a Delphox, Crobat, and Leafeon to fall back on and take hits while she uses Revives on Dinah and Madeline (just in case), and will switch back out to one of them with their Fairy and Ice attacks as soon as possible.

Crossing those fingers that it turns out alright...!

[sleepallthewayhome]

Character: Newt | sleepallthewayhome
Badge/Gym Leader: Soul/Janine
Elite/Regular: Elite
Team: Hicks | Midday Form Lycanroc (Lv.100), Bishop | Beheeyem (Lv.100), Sleepy (Lv.100), Hudson | Marowak (Lv.100), Vasquez | Absol (Lv.100), Flame | Charizard (Lv.100)


Battle Details:

Okay continuing with the elite battles. Newt has made sure to stock up on potions and revives to bring with her to this battle. She's a bit nervous and will be making sure to keep all of her pokemon healed throughout the battle. She wants to win this one.

For the Crobat, Newt will send out Hicks as he's got an advantage as a Rock type and also is resistant to poison and flying attacks. They will be focusing on Rock type attacks starting with Accelerock as that goes first. Rock Tomb will be used also to lower the Crobat's speed and Stone Edge will be used to land more critical hits. They will also use Stealth Rock to lay a trap for a pokemon being swapped in. But sticking with Rock attacks against this pokemon.

Next is the Weezing and Newt will bring out Bishop the Beheeyem for this fight. Bishop is a Psychic type. The first thing they will do is use Psychic Terrain to power up Psychic moves for five turns. Then of course they will be using Psychic attacks to try and get the fight over quickly such as Psychic, Psybeam and Zen Headbutt. She will be keeping a close eye on HP when Bishop is out because she might need to use them later. They are going for a quick fight and will keep using Psychic Terrain to keep those Psychic attacks at a high advantage.

So the Toxicroak is the reason she's hoping that Bishop is still able to fight. If she's able to, she'll leave him there for a single round to use Psychic Terrain to cause Psychic moves to have even more power and then swap him out with Sleepy the Munna, another Psychic type. Either way there is a 4x type advantage for Psychic types and hopefully a bit more with that boost. So Psychic, Psybeam, Stored Power and Zen Headbutt will be used. For HP they will use Moonlight to restore HP if needed. But mostly they will be focusing on hitting hard with Psychic attacks. As long as she is able to she will swap Bishop out to keep putting up Psychic Terrain and then swap Sleepy back in.

Okay now the Drapion, Newt will be bringing out Hudson for the Ground type advantage. He is also resistant to Poison attacks and immune to Electric if the Drapion tries that one electric move it has. They will be trying to end this fight quickly. Not for the usual reasons, it's just that the Drapion kind of scares Newt so time to kill/knock it out as quickly as possible. Bonemerang will be used as it hits the opponent twice, always good. They are mostly going for Ground attacks so Bone Rush, Bone Club and Stomping Tantrum. If they go lower in HP then the Drapion, they will use Endeavor to cut down the Drapion's HP to match their own, but hopefully it won't come to that.

Against the Arbok, Newt will bring out Vasquez the Absol. They have two Psychic attacks that are at an advantage but for the majority of this fight, they'll have to go for non type advantage but don't worry there is a plan. So first of all, Quick Attack. Then Psycho Cut and Future Sight for those Psychic Attacks and they will be used a lot. They will also be using a mix of Normal and Dark attacks such as Scratch and Night Slash if the Psychic attacks run low. However if things start to get bad then Newt will use her Mega Stone to evolve Vasquez into a Mega Absol for that extra power boost. Hopefully bringing the fight to a fast end.

Lastly against the Venomoth, Newt will put out Flame the Charizard for the Fire/Flying advantage. Also because fire. Oh and it's also resistant to Bug attacks. So first Fire Spin to trap the Venomoth unable to move. Then a mix of Flying and let's be honest, mostly Fire attacks. Air Slash, Fly, Heat Wave, Flamethrower...Flamethrower again. Newt might really like this move. However showing that she will think about more then nuking from orbit fire, Newt will also be throwing in a few Dragon Breath to try and paralyze the Venomoth as well as using Fire Spin to trap it. But we will be ending this match with as much fire as possible really.

[fearinahandfulof]

Character: Cassandra the Dust-Eater | fearinahandfulof
Badge/Gym Leader: Storm/Chuck
Elite/Regular: Regular team
Team: Blade the Silvally, Isley the Corviknight, Neideen the Crobat
Battle Details: One thing about Chuck's party: they're all weak to Psychic, Fairy, and Flying attacks. Cassandra's pokemon on the whole don't have much in the way of Psychic attacks, but Flying and Fairy they can do, and these three in particular are currently the toughest pokemon Cassandra has, with all three having at least partial type advantage.

Hitmonlee: Hitmonlee doesn't have a lot of status moves, but the ones he does have are potentially a problem (or, in the case of Endure, really annoying), so right off the bat Neideen is going to hit him with Taunt to shut those right down. She'll follow that up with Confuse Ray in hopes of getting him to damage himself enough to speed the battle along. She'll then break out Air Slash - partly because Hitmonlee is weak to it, partly for the 30% chance of getting him to flinch. She'll continue applying Taunt and/or Confuse Ray as necessary, but the overall goal is to get through this one as quickly as possible. If she runs into trouble, Cassandra will either break out the necessary healing items or send Isley in to spell her.

Hitmonchan: Hitmonchan doesn't have Endure, at least. It does have a few other status skills that could be a problem, though, so Neideen (or Isley, if Neideen's not doing well) is going to open with Taunt; if Neideen's still in it, then Confuse Ray is next, followed by Toxic and Venoshock to soften him up more. Then she breaks out Air Slash and/or Air Cutter, reapplying the Taunt/Confuse Ray combo as necessary. There is a danger of Hitmonchan using Thunder Punch or Ice Punch, though, and if that happens, then Cassandra will switch her out in favor of Blade, who as a Fairy type does not have these weaknesses and is resistant to Fighting moves besides. Blade's first move will be Thunder Wave to inflict paralysis, followed by Aerial Ace or Air Slash - Blade doesn't have a STAB bonus for those, but they'll still hit Hitmonchan's weaknesses. If those don't suffice, then Blade will move on to Multi-Attack, which it does get a STAB bonus for, since Multi-Attack has the same typing as Blade. For the most part, though, Blade will want to be saving Multi-Attack for...

Poliwrath: Isley is the one who starts this battle off, since he's immune to Ground attacks. He'll likely start off with Taunt, then switch to Drill Peck and/or Brave Bird. Still, he does take normal damage from Water and Fighting, and there's a possibility of his getting hit by Hypnosis if he can't toss out another Taunt in time, so he's likely to be spelled by Blade midway through. Blade immediately opens with Thunder Wave again, then spams Multi-Attack until either Poliwrath goes down or it runs out of Multi-Attack castings, in which case it will switch to Aerial Ace, Air Slash (and if that flinches Poliwrath, so much the better), or Thunder Fang. Like the other two battles, the goal is to win as quickly as possible.

As always, Cassandra will use healing items as necessary.

Character: Cassandra the Dust-Eater | fearinahandfulof
Badge/Gym Leader: Plain/Whitney
Elite/Regular: Regular team
Team: Priscilla the Deino, Neideen the Crobat, Elizabeth the Aegislash, possibly Isley the Corviknight
Battle Details: They've been in Goldenrod City for a few weeks; they have the necessary levels; they might as well do this. Though Cassandra makes a point of waiting until the end of the week so her team can recover from the battle with Chuck's team, particularly Neideen. Fortunately, all of the pokemon deployed for this outlevel Whitney's team, if not by much in the case of the Miltank.

Girafarig: Girafarig has just enough status spells to be annoying, so right away Priscilla casts Taunt to cut down on that nonsense. Fortunately, Priscilla has the additional advantage of being completely immune to Girafarig's Psychic skills and has a number of levels on Girafarig besides, so even with Hustle as an ability she's actually in a decent position for this fight. At any rate, she follows Taunt up by using Scary Face to reduce Girafarig's speed and buffing herself with Work Up and/or Focus Energy, and then it's time to Crunch, and also to Bite (because even if it is weaker than Crunch, a 30% chance of causing a flinch is not to be ignored). Priscilla will still use Taunt as needed, but mostly she's going to do what a Deino does best: bite (and crunch).

Clefable: Speaking of annoying status moves, Clefable sure has a lot of them. This fight is Neideen's, and fortunately Neideen is a lot faster than a Clefable. Taunt and Confuse Ray will see a lot of use in this battle, and while those are active Neideen will also be breaking out Toxic, Venoshock, and Cross Poison to take advantage of Clefable's weakness to Poison. Clefable's Stored Power could be an issue, since Neideen is weak to Psychic attacks, but on the other hand it's a relatively weak attack and Neideen should be fast enough with Taunt to keep Clefable from buffing its stats. Neideen being resistant to Fairy-type attacks will probably also help a lot. 

Miltank: Miltank is more of a challenge, thanks to its ability to buff its defenses - and to the dreaded Milk Drink. That its only weakness is Fighting moves doesn't really help, either. So Neideen starts things off again, hitting Miltank with Taunt. Then it switches out for Elizabeth, who is resistant or outright immune to many of Miltank's attacks and more importantly has Sacred Sword, which is a Fighting-type move. The two will likely end up switching off for most if not all of the battle, with Neideen Taunting the Miltank while Elizabeth keeps using Sacred Sword. There's a chance that Neideen will run out of Taunt uses, in which case she'll be spelled by Priscilla (who spends a few turns casting Scary Face on Miltank as well to lower her speed, in addition to the Taunts) or Isley. It won't be quick, and it will likely be messy, but hopefully it will suffice.

Cassandra, of course, will be using healing items as necessary.

[uber_marionettist]

Character: Dirk Strider | uber_marionettist
Badge/Gym Leader: Elite Four
Elite/Regular: .... Elite Four.
Team: Coalossal, Smeargle, Rapidash, Banette, Cloyster, Beedrill. (All Pokemon will be level 100 by the time of his actual challenge.)
Battle Details: Dirk's battle strategies are written under these principles, which means every fight is drawn out and dramatically orchestrated in ways that really are not necessary. The only Pokemon not interested in these tactics is his Cloyster, who is so full of fucking rage that she has no room left in her terrifying little black orb of a body for theatrical performances. On the other hand, watching physical attacks bounce near-harmlessly off her closed shell is its own kind of dramatic staging, so that's all right.

Will

Despite his feelings about Water types, Dirk can't deny it's thematically appropriate.

So: Cloyster. Iron Defence. Spikes... twice. Toxic Spikes... at least once, hopefully twice. Swap out. Both because he wants to heal up and because.... well.

Here's the thing.

Bronzong has one of two Abilities. Either it has Levitate or it has Heatproof. Acorn the Rapidash leads with Fire Spin to find out which. In either case, Bronzong is now trapped by Fire Spin, unable to escape the coming Flamethrowers or Drill Runs. As usual, Acorn is equipped with a Chesto Berry, fitting the relatively fragile (albeit Steel resistant) Fire-type with a one-time opportunity to fully heal himself in a single turn. (After that, Dirk has to waste an extra turn using that Flute he got from the Aether HQ.) Alternatively, it means Bronzong wastes a Hypnosis, giving Acorn a chance to refresh his Fire Spin or use Sunny Day--the latter of which is his planned strategy if Bronzong tries to make it Rain. Because Bronzong is SIGNIFICANTLY slower than Rapidash, Acorn is guaranteed to go first next turn, meaning that unless Acorn is Asleep, the hoped-for Water type Weather Ball will instead be Fire.... activating Acorn's Flash Fire Ability.

If all goes well, Dirk will be facing Jynx with a powered-up Acorn ready to lay waste... or else discourage Will from using Jynx next at all. Dirk's prediction is that if Will doesn't use Jynx, he'll opt either for Slowbro (Water against Fire, you know) or for Xatu (immune to Spikes AND Toxic Spikes. You know, because it flies?)

Both of those are weak to Acorn's Wild Charge.

At this point, what Dirk uses depends ENTIRELY on whether or not Xatu has been dealt with. If so, Dirk waits until he's taken a chunk out of whoever's next and swaps out to...

... Beedrill?

Yes. Mega Beedrill.

Mega Beedrill's blisteringly fast speeds and 2x STAB (instead of 1.5x!) thanks to Adaptability means using the supereffective Fell Stinger will take a weakened opponent out. And when that happens, Beedrill's attack raises twice. Just like a Sword's Dance. And at this point, everything being sent out is presumably still landing on those Spikes and Toxic Spikes.

The downside, of course, is that Mega Beedrill is weak to Psychic.

Which means that if whatever comes out next is at full health, Dirk is going to have his Beedrill use all that buffed up nonsense to Pin Missile anything that's really hurting, or else U-Turn the fuck out. U Turn is actually a bit stronger than Fell Stinger, so even if it doesn't totally KO the opponent? That will hurt.

But it probably will.

You know what also hurts?

Medea the Cloyster. He bought a Pin Missile TM to go with Rock Blast and Icicle Spear, and his favourite strategy is still on the table because of course he taught his Cloyster Self Destruct.

Medea is also what happens instead of Beedrill if Will's Xatu is still up (assuming Gardevoir isn't on the field at the time. If Gardevoir is on the field at the time, then Dirk is using Acorn for Fire Spin + Poison Jab, or Beedrill for Adaptability boosted Poison Jab + Fell Stinger. Contingencies within Contingencies...)

This battle's strategy doesn't much account for the opponents' attacks after Bronzong, because it's all about evoiding blatant weaknesses and moving fast enough, with enough damage to take out the opponent in as few hits as possible. Worst case scenario, he has his beloved art buddy Peaches to hop out, use Wish, and then Baton Pass that heal to another Pokemon (like Beedrill).... or Plush Rump, who is a fucking Ghost type and you would THINK could be Dirk's main offence here, but it's more fun to save some tricks for later, and Dirk would rather have something guaranteed to be effective in case of emergencies than need something super effective in a pinch and... not have that. So.




Koga

Hey, Skuntank! Dirk knows a lot about Skuntank. Steve's got one.

Set-up goes a little faster this time, because he's leading with Coalossal. Just one round of Stealth Rock, and then he sends out Acorn. His reason here is really simple.

Acorn is one of the only two Pokemon on his ding dang team with a Ground type move. Also like before, he leads with a Fire Spin to keep Skuntank from being switched out. Unlike before, he takes the time to try for Hypnosis before going ape with Drill Run. Dirk expects Acorn to get Poisoned during this. He's got a brand new Chesto Berry, and even after it's used, Acorn still has Rest. Any time Acorn is low on health--or badly poisoned instead of just poisoned? Rest. Dirk doesn't expect Acorn to stay in the fight past Skuntank, though. Between the potential for the Ability Aftermath and the fact that Skuntank can choose between Memento and Explosion?

Honestly, he just wanted to get the Psychic immune firebreathing skunk out of the damn way. If he HAS to, he will use Peaches' Wish + Baton Pass here. If he REALLY has to, he'll use Peaches' Transform and Explosion to finish Skuntank off. But... it probably won't come to that. Because fucking Yikes.

Anyway.

For Venomoth, Dirk sends Empedocles back out, because she's resistant to most of what Venomoth has to threaten her with and Heat Crash does the maximum amount of supereffective STAB damage possible. She also won't be needed for anything after Venomoth, so any status inflicted is fine. If Paralysis proves annoying, Dirk has Full Heals, but even if Heat Crash is Disabled, she has Burn up and Rock Blast/Rock Slide, so there's really no way to go wrong. Or, if there's too much status flying around (confusion, flinching, etc) he'll focus on getting off a successful Self Destruct. Venomoth being weak to Stealth Rock to begin with, the advantage was already to Empedocles... status be damned.

His plan for Toxicroak is swift and dirty--or, well, at least it's swift, because it's Mersenne's turn. Toxicroak can't poison a Mega Beedrill and it can't hit him for very much damage either because neither Dark nor Poison nor Fighting really hurt much. And Drill Run will hurt a LOT. But with Toxicroak's limited options, there's room to use the less effective Fell Stinger for a final blow, giving Mersenne that sweet, sweet 3x Attack boost.

Meaning there's no reason not to leave Beedrill out for Swalot. The thing about Swalot is that it has a lot of painful tricks--like Wring Out, which does more damage the more health Beedrill has. And Curse, and Stockpile, which REALLY boost its defences. (And Swallow can be used to self heal!) And Yawn, which... puts Beedrill to sleep in a move or two.

But he's counting on the fact that Swalot is starting out with a bit of its health chipped out by Stealth Rock, and Beedrill is so much faster and so powered up at this point that if Koga spends any turns on setup at all, Beedrill will quickly destroy it, and then U-Turn out... because Mega Beedrill is even faster than Crobat. Really.

That U-Turn is to Medea the Cloyster, who is leading with Iron Defence, then going straight to Shell Smash. See, the nice thing about Crobat is that it's weak to Stealth Rock, and it's also weak to Icicle Spear. The problem with Crobat, however, isn't its speed, or the ability to cause flinching. It can also cause Confusion, of course, and has Mean Look, but those aren't the real problem either. The real problem is Haze. If Koga insists on using that especially often, Dirk will just have Cloyster use Whirlpool, then Icicle Spear freely without any Shell Smashing or whatever. There may or may not be some stupid prediction mind-games at the end with Crobat's Quick Guard vs Cloyster's Ice Shard. But as with Protect and Endure, the odds of success with Quick Guard drop by 50% with each consecutive use. So either Cloyster will get the hit in... or its health will be super low and it'll Self Destruct, taking Crobat with it.

By the time he's facing Koga's Muk, Dirk's team is in a bit of a shambles, but that's all right. He planned for this. Besides, the Banette that's been hanging off his neck this whole time, while giggly and energetic, hasn't even yet stepped into the ring.

Without anything on Koga's side capable of Defog or Rapid Spin, Muk is subject to the same 12.5% health loss from Stealth Rock as everything else. Which is important: Muk's greatest assets are its Attack and its genuinely imposing quantities of health.

Plush Rump leads with Knock Off, due entirely Dirk's wariness of items like Black Sludge that Muk can used to self-heal. Then it's Will-o-Wisp (racking up turn-based damage and dropping Muk's Attack) and a mix of moves like Psychic, Night Shade, and Feint attack. Only one of those is supereffective, but one of them disregards stat boosts to do a set amount of damage, and the last can't miss, even with all the Minimising in the world.

This is the closest Dirk will let things come to really looking like a potential loss, and he'll still be keeping a close eye on things, but he still has Peaches, who should still have Wish and Baton Pass, as well as a variety of options like Water Pulse (which can Confuse) and Flamethrower (which can Burn.) With Wish to self heal and Baton Pass to give that heal to Mega Beedrill (and Mega Beedrill's immunity to being poisoned and combination of Focus Energy+Drill Run), that should be plenty.


Bruno

Dirk respects Bruno, but he is negative levels of afraid of the guy. Sure, Cloyster's weak to Fighting, but its Defence is astronomical. Plus, Iron Defence is actually pretty effective against all those Physical Attacks, meaning it's pretty feasible to use that a couple of times, then set up Spikes three times. At that point, maybe it's time for a Shell Smash and round of five painful Icicle Spears. Or maybe it's time to Self Destruct. Either is fine, really. Because Plush Rump exists and can't be hit by Fighting moves, and literally five out of Bruno's four Pokemon are weak to Psychic.

See, moves like Hitmonchan's Fake Out can't hit Plush Rump either. And the only move that Hitmonless has that can hit a Banette is Blaze Kick. So Plush Rump will lead with Will-o-Wisp, and with a little predicting, Dirk can swap Empedocles in on Blaze Kick and activate her Ability, Steam Powered.

Empedocles is now as fast as a colossal coal kaiju can be, and combined with the damage from Spikes, the painful Burn left by Plush Rump, and any Psychic-inflicted damage Plush Rump did... odds are that a single Heat Crash is all it will take to remove Hitmonlee, and set up Hitmonchan to get a similar treatment. Sure, Fake Out works. Once. And Hitmonchan has some priority moves like Vacuum Wave and Bullet Punch, and ways to prevent damage like Detect. But Empedocles is leading with Tar Shot, making that Heat Crash super effective now, and... well.... you know. Self Destruct?

By the time Hariyama is out, Dirk is down two Pokemon, though Plush Rump has potentially taken zero damage.

But Hariyama has Whirlwind, so...

.... it's a good thing Dirk has zero remaining Pokemon who can be totally obliterated by it? Except Peaches, who can just.... Transform into it and Whirlwind it right back out. Basically, what happens now is up to Bruno. If Bruno lets him, Dirk will just use Plush Rump to do Psychic Damage. If Acorn is forced out, it's time to Bounce. If Peaches is pulled out of her ball, it's time to be the Hariyama and Whirlwind it right back, ensuring that it takes another round of Spikes if it wants to show its face again. And Beedrill will U-turn right back to Plush Rump.

That said, Plush Rump may not survive Hariyama. Heavy Slam hurts when you're a lightweight ghost. And Brine is... well, that also hurts. But one way or another, Dirk has Options here.

Machamp will be facing none other than Acorn, who will be mixing Bounce with Double Team in order to maximise field longevity. This is because Acorn is also in charge of taking down Lucario, leading (of course) with a supereffective Fire Spin and utilising that essential Chesto+Rest combo in order to heal when things look grim. Otherwise, the plan is Flare Blitz and Flame Wheel. If Peaches must be utilised, it will be an immediate transformation into Lucario, followed by Me First. Bruno has to know what's supereffective against his own Pokemon, and while Peaches isn't as strong as a natural Lucario, Me First increases the power of its copied move by 50%, more than making up for the difference.

If Peaches is really lucky, that move will be Close Combat or Aura Sphere. If not, it'll be something like Counter or Swords Dance. In that case, Dirk will use a Revive on Acorn. Again, he's come too far to lose to his own stubbornness here.

(He also still has Mersenne the Beedrill, if he wants to rely on Drill Run again or needs a sacrifice to be able to get Acorn out onto the field in fighting form. But that's not nearly as quality a script.)

[fearinahandfulof]

Character: Cassandra | fearinahandfulof
Badge/Gym Leader: Fog/Morty
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Neideen the Crobat, Priscilla the Deino, Elizabeth the Aegislash (backup), Misty Malarkey the Skitty
Battle Details: The entire reason Cassandra is trying these next two gyms? Because Lily the Pikachu several of her pokemon want to be able to Surf during their Sinnoh vacation, and they're very persuasive when they want to be. This may work out better in theory than in practice.

Haunter: Neideen is starting off here, because she has the speed; she'll be leading off with Taunt (again) in an effort to shut down Haunter's status moves. She'll follow that up with Confuse Ray and then start piling on the damage with Bite (mostly for Flinch potential), Crunch, and her newest acquisition: Dark Pulse. The idea is to keep Haunter and its status moves locked down and do as much damage as possible as quickly as possible.

Misdreavus: The same strategy as above applies here; Neideen is the only one of Cassandra's stronger Pokemon with the necessary speed to get around Misdreavus's own speed. That said, if Misdreavus does manage to cast Confuse Ray or Perish Song, Cassandra will either heal her up or send in Priscilla the Deino to spell her; Priscilla doesn't have Neideen's speed, but she does have Taunt and Crunch and is happy to use them. Less ideally, she can send in Elizabeth, although Elizabeth's slow speed and lack of Taunt may not be enough to make up for her strong attack and defense. Elizabeth's weakness to Ghost attacks also makes her less than ideal (although she does have some Ghost and Dark attacks, at least) so she's definitely the third option here.

Gengar You know who's got this? Misty Malarkey's got this (hopefully). Granted, she's not the most ideal choice; she's not the speediest pokemon and she can't learn Taunt. Worse, she has Normalize as an Ability, which means all her moves become Normal by default. However, she does have an immunity to Ghost attacks, and more importantly she has the move she'll be leading off with: Foresight. If Misdreavus is male, her second move will be Attract, followed by Captivate to lower Gengar's special attack; otherwise she'll just go with Captivate and then stick to things like Sing (followed up with Wake-Up Slap), Disarming Voice, Double Slap, and Play Rough, with maybe one or two attempts at Covet in case Gengar has an item, and Heal Bell to keep herself topped up. If this doesn't work, then the Neideen-Priscilla tag team will take over; otherwise, why not let her have a little fun for a change?

As always, Cassandra is ready with healing and curative items if needed.

Character: Cassandra | fearinahandfulof
Badge/Gym Leader: Mineral/Jasmine
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Misty Malarkey the Skitty, Lily the Pikachu, Isley the Corviknight, Blade the Silvally
Battle Details: This part of Operation: Get Surf is much dicier than the last, but they're still trying it. They may or may not regret it.

Skarmory: For a change, it's not Neideen leading the festivities off; it's Lily the Pikachu, who is admittedly several levels below Skarmory but does have a type advantage. Lily leads off by buffing herself with Double Team, Agility, and Light Screen and debuffing Skarmory with Charm and Play Nice, throwing in Thunder Wave as well to hopefully paralyze it. Then it's time to break out Thunderbolt. hitting Skarmory in one of its weaknesses over and over in hopes of taking it down fast. If Pikachu seems to be flagging, then Blade or Isley will step in, although hopefully that won't be necessary for this battle. Misty Malarkey is also available to step in and cast Heal Bell to heal up the entire team.

Magneton This is where things start to get risky. Magneton is immune to Electricity, which neutralizes Lily (who's nine levels below Magneton in any case), and Cassandra's strongest pokemon all have some nasty weaknesses (Electricity in the case of Isley and Neideen, and - ironically - Steel for Blade). Isley lucked out and got Fire for his Hidden Power element, but he doesn't get a STAB with it. Still, it's better than nothing, and Isley does have four levels over Magneton, along with Iron Defense and Scary Face to buff himself/debuff Magneton. Cassandra and Misty Malarkey will both be on  healing duty for this one.

Steelix Another risky fight, because while Blade has six levels on Steelix, it still has that glaring Steel weakness... which is why Cassandra shelled out for a Flamethrower TM for it, because while Blade does have Fire Fang, Steelix's high defense means wearing it down that way will take time they may not have. Blade's first move will be to lower Steelix's special defense with Metal Sound, and then it will shift to pure offense, sticking with Flamethrower until either Steelix goes down (hopefully) or it runs out of castings, at which point it will have to shift to the aforementioned Fire Fang. Cassandra and Misty Malarkey are again on healing duty, with Misty Malarkey also getting in casts of Charm and Captivate to lower Steelix's attack and special attack, respectively.

[marmoron]

Character: Keith | marmoron
Badge/Gym Leader: Blaine
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Mothlad,Mothchick, Mothman, Moth Junior, Mothbro, Mothgal
Battle Details:
Aaaaand here we go, bringing a team of moths to a pit of fire. Since Magcargo's Fire/Rock typing is a death sentence, Keith ain't messing around. Venomoth will use Sleep Powder to put that thing straight to sleep, then hit it with a supersonic to keep Magcargo from attacking even if it wakes up early. (Sorry, Blaine, this might get real annoying fast).Then Venomoth will go on the offensive with neutral Psychic attacks to whittle down the flame snail while it's snoozing or hitting itself in confusion. Magcargo will of course be put right back to sleep if it wakes at any point during this strategy.

Enter Magmortar and a quick switch out to Masquerain for INTIMIDATION. Literally her ability. Masquerain will kick things off by using Water Sport to reduce the power of any fire type moves used by 67%. This will help cut down the damage taken from any super effective fire type attacks. Then adding insult to injury, Masquerain will go for a Rain Dance to further decrease the potency of any Fire type attacks. For this battle, she'll be holding onto a Damp Rock to keep RD active for more turns. Now that Masquerain can tank Magmortar's fire type attacks much better, it's time for everyone's favorite combo of Stun Spore + Air Slash flinches. Paraflinching Magmortar for the win???

In comes Rapidash. While Water Sport and Rain Dance are still in effect, Keith will send out Dustox and use Toxic to start whittling away at its HP and put Rapidash on a timer. Since fire type moves should be doing less damage, Dustox should be able to tank at least one attack, then retaliate with Venoshock which doubles in base power when the target is poisoned.. Repeated use of Venoshock will hopefully clinch the victory. But if not, there are back up moths like Mothim who can pick up the slack and toxic stall a little with Protect to rack up more toxic damage.

Badge/Gym Leader: Blue
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: See Moths linked above
Battle Details:
First up is Volcarona who resists both of Exeggutor’s grass/psychic type attacks with his fire/bug type. Naturally, this can only mean one thing: it’s time to dance. Quiver Dance will boost Volc’s special attack, special defense and speed stats which is never what you want to see with a pokemon that has base stats as naturally high as Volcarona’s. After 2 QD boosts, Volcarona will go on the offensive and use Bug Buzz which should OHKO Exeggutor due to its 4x weakness to Bug type moves. Next comes Machamp who, being a fighting type, isn’t going to appreciate a powerful +2 Hurricane to the face. Likewise, Rhydon won’t appreciate taking a super effective +2 Giga Drain that it has a 4x weakness to. The upside of Giga Drain, too, is that the move restores Volcarona’s HP as well. Just in time to … switch on Gyarados? Yep, the sweep stops here for now.

Frosmoth switches in on the Gyarados and will proceed to be both massively amazingly lucky and incredibly irritating, as after managing to hang on after taking an attack, she’ll go for a stun spore to slow it down. One her next turn, she’ll go for an Attract, and oh boy para-attract is not a fun status condition to try and break out of. Taking the turns while Gyarados is either immobilized by love or paralysis, Frosmoth will set up Hail and Aurora Veil to cut the attack power of Blue’s pokemon by 50%.

Cue a switch out to Venomoth who’ll be taking advantage of the protection of Aurora veil + Gyarados’s dual status condition to go ahead and do some more dancing. After boosting with Quiver Dance twice (which it should be able to do due to Aurora Veil helping to increase Venomoth’s bulk and/or Gyarados being paraluzed) , it’s time to attack with a Leech Life. Leech Life will both restore some of Venomoth’s HP that’s been getting whittled down by hail and do neutral damage thanks to its Tinted Lens ability. However, once the Hail / Aurora Veil turns expire, it’ll be time to switch to using +2 Bug Buzz to do more damage with Venomoth’s higher Special Attack stats to hopefully clinch the KO.

Pidgeot is immediately getting Sleep Powdered. Thanks to the previous+2 QD boosts, Venmoth should be able to outspeed the birb. Once the Pidgeot is asleep, we’re pulling a similar annoy and conquer strategy by using Supersonic to keep Pidgeot from attacking as much as possible even in the event that Pidgeot wakes up early. While the bird pokemon is asleep. Venomoth will be going for +2 STAB Bug Buzz which gets the buff to neutral damage from Tinted Lens as well. This will potentially be a little grindy, and if Pidgeot manages to KO Venomoth on a turn where it wakes and breaks through confusion, Keith will switch back into Volcarona who has a base speed of 100 to Pidgeot’s 91, so Mothman ought to be able to finish the job with a speedy Flamethrower.

And finally, in comes Arcanine. Volcarona naturally outspeeds Arcanine with its base speed of 100 compared to Arcanine’s base speed of 95. But rather than go on the attack, Keith will have Volcarona go for a string shot to decrease the doggo’s speed by 2 stages.Given Volcarona’s Fire/Bug typing which means he’ll only take neutral damage from any fire attacks as well as its replenished health from Giga Draining Blue’s Rhydon earlier, Mothman should have enough HP to tank at least one hit and then go for a hail mary hurricane to get in some chip damage. Then after Arcanine knocks out Volcarona, Keith will send out Masquerain. Masquerain should outspeed a -2 speed Arcanine and be able to set up Water Sport to further weaken the doggo’s fire attacks. With that buff to the moth team’s defenses, Masquerain will start going for Air Slash for that chip damage. It’ll be a bit of a battle of attrition, but if Arcanine prevails, Keith will switch into Dustox who easily outspeeds a -2 speed Arcanine and can go ahead and use Toxic. Then a combination of Dustox (and if needed Mothim) using Prrotect-Toxic stall shenanigans should be enough to whittle away at Arcanine's HP.

[shiro2hero]

Character: Shiro | shiro2hero
Badge/Gym Leader: Volcano Badge / Blaine
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: The Gang
Battle Details:
Okay, here's where the strategy of "use the type advantage" sort of falls apart. Because guess who does not have a water pokemon on his main set? This guy. So after way too long on Cinnabar Island, way too long strategizing, he finally goes to face the gym. With a secret weapon he's hoping will work.

He'll start out the fight with his Gengar, and the trusty old Hypnosis/Confusion routine. That usually works pretty well. Following that up with Marowak. Using ground/rock type moves on the fire pokemon. If Marowak ends up fainting, he brings his Gallade out, for some Reflect/Light Screen.

But only that.

Because the next pokemon he uses, with all else failing, is... a Spheal. A Spheal with Surf, Water Pulse, and a level 100. Europa the Spheal is the last bet, last stand pokemon - and one he kind of hopes will surprise the opponent into dropping their guard a little so she can wash out the competition.

[spacebolin]

Character: Hunk | spacebolin
Badge/Gym Leader: Hive/Bugsy
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Pidge (lvl 49 Pidgey), Twinkie (lvl 49 Boltund) and Spearmint (lvl 87 Poliwhirl)
Battle Details: First up is Pinsir, which means Pidge is starting things off with an Agility to raise her speed and then a Feather Dance to lower Pinsir's attack. Following that up with Tailwind will double her speed, and then she'll just spam Air Slashes until Pinsir falls.

Pidge will Feather Dance and Tailwind again and then swap out to let Twinkie have a go at Heracross. Twinkie is already faster than Heracross, and he's going to use that doubled speed to his advantage, relying on either Spark or Wild Charge to get the job done.

Scizor will be the real challenge, as Hunk doesn't have a single type advantage. Spearmint will lead the charge this time, starting with a Hypnosis and alternating between Earth Power and Hydro Pump to (hopefully) claim the win.

And then, after resting up...

Character: Hunk | spacebolin
Badge/Gym Leader: Plain/Whitney
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Pidge (lvl 49 Pidgey), Truffle (lvl 45 Thievul) and Tiramisu (lvl 93 Midnight Lycanroc)
Battle Details: Pidge will start things off with a nice Tailwind to double her speed (and the speed of her teammates) and then immediately swap out so Truffle can join the party. The Thievul's first move will be a Snarl to deal a bit of damage and lower Girafarig's special attack. He'll follow up with a Sucker Punch or two and then a Night Slash to hopefully finish off Whitney's first pokemon.

Pidge will come back out for Clefable, bust out a Tailwind to double her speed and then immediately follow up with some combination of Air Slashes and Wing Attacks to hopefully claim victory. If she falls, Truffle will come back out with Quick Attacks and Tail Slaps.

Miltank is going to be the real challenge here. If she's made it this far, Pidge will hit the cow with a Feather Dance and follow up with a Tailwind, at which point she'll rely on Air Slashes and Wing Attacks to hopefully claim the win and the badge. If Pidge hasn't made it this far, Truffle will lead the assault with a Snarl and follow up with Sucker Punch and Night Slash. As a last resort, he's brought along Tiramisu. The Lycanroc will start things off with a Scary Face to lower Miltank's speed a bit, a Howl to raise her own attack... and then Rock Slide and Stone Edge to hopefully wrap things up for the win.

[breakyourlife]

Character: Steve Palchuk | breakyourlife
Badge/Gym Leader: Volcano Badge (Blaine)
Elite/Regular: Gunning for Elite!
Team: Over here! (Swampert [lvl 100])
Battle Details:

So, someone's got a little cocky after their victories against Gardenia and Blue. Said someone's all set to show Blaine he's all washed out. Maybe. Hopefully.

(I guess we'll see.)

Buttsnack will immediately be mega evolving and starting things out with Attract. Or at least that's Steve's plan. If Torkoal is male then Buttsnack's not going to waste his time with a move that won't work, he'll go straight into Rain Dance. If Torkoal is female, Rain Dance will be Steve's next order.

From then on, his main plays are going to be his more powerful water and ground moves like Surf, Waterfall, and Earthquake.

He will be refreshing Rain Dance as needed, then Attract as new Pokémon are released. If Buttsnack ignores this order for two different Pokémon then Steve will appear to get the hint and tack "if it's a girl" onto the end for the remainder of the match. Apparently the Pokémon is training the trainer in this case. Whether Buttsnack blatantly picking and choosing which orders to take impacts on if Steve is eligible for this badge... well, that may not even matter in the end. He's not super familiar with either Camerupt or Houndoom, so yes, this does apply to those, even with their gender differences.

Speaking of Camerupt and Houndoom, those will likely be his biggest challenges since Buttsnack doesn't resist ground or dark moves. This will mostly be combated by making use of hyper potions, though if his health is low-ish when a new Pokémon is sent out Steve might chance him using Endeavor before he heals him back up if he doesn't seem likely to faint from just one attack.

[insidegalra]

Character: Thace | insidegalra
Badge/Gym Leader: Plain/Whitney (probably on 8/28-8/29 when his team has their levels for the week)
Elite/Regular: REGULAR TEAM
Team: LINK TO POKEMON ROSTER Kaltor (Cherrim, 45), Zaivar (Klefki, 49), Vrig (Aegislash, 50), Athvrix (Meowstic, 41), Ankuyr (Falinks, 37)
Battle Details:
Before battle, Thace will make sure he's got plenty of healing items (again, Lemonades are a preference, and he is a dedicated Berry forager). He'll also watch gym battles for several days as research.

Held items: Kaltor: Heat Rock, Zaivar: Black Glasses, Vrig: Sitrus Berry, Athvrix: Oran Berry, Ankuyr: Sitrus Berry

Thace will enter the gym with six Pokemon that are not in balls (his Whismur will be in her sling, but absolutely not battling) and arrayed around him like a fighting unit. Well, his Aegislash is in her reinforced sling on his back, but otherwise! In fact, he won't have a single ball on him. Is this a quiet protest against the idea of Pokeballs? Yes, yes it is. (But he is the registered trainer of all six; he just left their balls behind in his room.)

Like with his battle with Gardenia, Thace has spent hours pantomiming and discussing with his Pokemon in order to put this strategy together. So he'll be nearly silent, except for a 'switch' or two, and soft encouragement while administering healing items.

Against Girafarig: Kaltor will be sent out first, to set Sunny Day, and Leech Seed! Then Zaivar will come out, set Crafty Shield, and then spam Foul Play, alternating with Draining Kiss if their HP falls between 2/3-1/2. Should Zaivar end up needing healing items because Draining Kiss and Leech Seed isn't healing quite enough, Kaltor will go back in and either use Petal Blizzard (high HP) or Morning Sun (middling to low HP) for the turn and then pop back out. In a worst case scenario (Zaivar and Kaltor both really needing healing), Thace will send out Ankuyr for a First Impression, and then switch back in the one with higher HP while he continues healing the other (and Ankuyr).

Against Clefable (if Ability Cute Charm), barring anything particularly disastrous in the first battle, Kaltor comes back out to reset Sunny Day and Leech Seed! (if the old Sunny Day is about to expire in a turn or two it'll be Leech Seed, Petal Blizzard or Morning Sun, then Sunny Day to reset).

If Clefable has Magic Guard, Athvrix goes out. Fake Out, Roleplay, Covet, in that order.

While that's happening, Thace will heal up Zaivar. They'll go in and repeat Crafty Shield, use Metal Sound and this time spam Flash Cannon. Rather than attempting Draining Kiss, if Leech Seed isn't healing enough (or didn't get set), they'll switch with Kaltor (same strategy as above). If Zaivar gets too tired/beat up to continue (or Thace is running below the number of healing items he's calculated to need for the Miltank) Athvrix will step out to finish it. She'll start with Fake Out, and either: Leer, Covet (if she didn't open this battle), or just spamming Psyshock with the occasional Light Screen or Reflect in the mix (depending on which attack kind the Clefable is using most)

Now comes the battle Thace is expecting to be exceedingly difficult. If Kaltor is in rather poor shape, it's Sunny Day and Leech Seed followed by him getting the hell out of there. If his health is pretty good, however: Flower Shield, Growth and Petal Blizzard, (by which time he's probably running low on HP: if it's still high he'll Petal Blizzard one more time).

Then, if Zaivar is in decent shape, they'll come out. Crafty Shield is a favorite, of course, and Torment every so often, but actually be focused primarily on Draining Kiss until their HP gets too low (which means a hit from the Miltank would put them dangerously close to fainting). Trying to get Miltank to use up some of those Milk Drink PPs before the main battler arrives? Yup.

After (or instead of) Zaivar, Vrig will come out. Autotomize, King's Shield, Iron Defense, Swords Dance, and then spam Sacred Sword. If Rollout starts getting high in power, King's Shield again. If the Miltake uses Milk Drink, Spite will come into play (Did Thace hunt down a move tutor for Spite precisely to nip healing moves in the bud and prevent long battles of attrition? Yes, yes he did.) Thace will be holding out switching for healing as long as he can, probably until after the Sitrus is used up, and if it looks like switching is necessary? A healing item for Kaltor before he switches in (unless he's almost out). In best case Scenario, this is enough to take the Miltank down.

If not, Athvrix comes out (or returns!). Fake out is the starting move, Leer x2, Psybeam, Reflect, Psybeam, reflect. Leer after Defense curl is used. But mostly Reflect and Psybeam. (Is Thace hoping that confusion chance is in his favor? Yes) If Thace still has healing items left, he'll be using them to heal up Vrig so she can go back in and finish it. If he doesn't, he's hoping Athvrix can pull through and have enough strength to finish things.

And if that isn't enough, well, Ankuyr will be sent out. Bulk Up is first, followed by Focus Energy, followed by Protect. If Ankuyr's HP is still pretty high, Rock Smash, if middling, Reversal. Hopefully the Sitrus Berry will keep Ankuyr from fainting long enough to use that Reversal.

If out of healing items, and his five battlers all have HP that isn't enough to withstand the Miltank, Thace will forfeit rather than risk one of his family fainting.

If Thace wins, he'll be more interested in information than the Badge. What does Whitney think about Pokeballs and Storage? Isn't it risky and a little cruel to leave Pokemon in storage and unable to get out if something happens to their trainer? Why haven't the people here worked on better methods of communication between humans and Pokemon? Etc.

[cyan_maid]

Character: Jane Crocker | cyan_maid
Badge/Gym Leader: Blue for the Earth Badge
Elite/Regular: ELITE TEAM
Team: Dinah the Audino, Dart the Bisharp, August the Delphox, Bettina the Crobat, Madeline the Primarina, and Ramsay the Leafeon. All lv 100.
Battle Details: Jane is well aware that rolling up to what is supposed to be the toughest of the Kanto gym leaders first in this leg of Badgequest is kind of wild! However, he's the first one she gets to on the road, so he's her mark for today. Since his team covers a wide swath of types, she also has to make sure hers is diversified, and Jane also takes care to bring plenty of healing items and revives with her. No messing around, she means business!

She's going to try to stick to 1v1 and "hit fast, hit hard" as much as possible against each of Blue's Pokemon. Venusaur gets the full brunt of August's fire prowess; he starts with a Flame Charge to be sure he has the speed advantage over his opponent and then unleashes with Mystical Fire, Flamethrower, and Flame Blast. Blastoise gets Ramsay, who will use Grass Whistle to put the other Pokemon to sleep, boost up with Swords Dance, and then go all in with Leaf Blade. Charizard gets Madeline, who will use Sing to put her opponent to sleep (or try at least) before pummeling with Hydro Pump, Surf, and Sparkling Aria.

Tyranitar is a little tricky; hopefully, she'll have enough healing items left at this point to keep Madeline ready to fight in case she's needed, but Jane will initially lead with Dinah, Mega Evolving her to take advantage of her Fairy typing to Dazzling Gleam the shit out of Blue's Pokemon. She can also use Power Up Punch, which Tyranitar is 4x weak to due to Fighting typing on the move, and it also raises the Attack stat by one stage when it's used. Pink fluffy toddler vs Godzilla analog, who will win? Place your bets~

(And if Dinah goes down, again, Madeline will sweep in with Water type moves.)

Pidgeot is where she's going to try something a little more experimental and use Bettina, making this an aerial battle. Bettina will start off with Mean Look to keep Blue from switching to Jolteon, and she has Confuse Ray and Supersonic to confuse her opponent, as well as Roost to get a quick HP refill. From there, most of her damage dealing will rely on Poison moves; Poison Fang will hopefully inflict poison on Pidgeot (it has a 50% chance of badly poisoning a target), which will enhance the potency of Venoshock, and hopefully this is enough to bring Pidgeot out of the sky.

Lastly is Jolteon. Jane doesn't have a foolproof Electric type counter, but she does have Dart the Bisharp. Now that he's taken to her, he's more than eager to battle for her. He'll lead off with Scary Face to lower Jolteon's speed as much as he can, and then Iron Defense to pump up his Defense and Swords Dance to do the same for his Attack. From there, he's going to rely on Metal Claw and Night Slash, and if desperate or on his last legs, he will unleash Guillotine, which only has a 30% chance of hitting due to both Pokemon being the same level, but it's a last-ditch effort if he's going to go down. And if he does, and Guillotine doesn't hit, Jane will hopefully have Pokemon other than Madeline who can clean up house.

[breakyourlife]

Character: Steve Palchuk | breakyourlife
Badge/Gym Leader: Volcano Badge (Blaine)
Elite/Regular: Elite
Team: Over here! (Miltank [lvl 100], Swampert [lvl 100])
Battle Details:

Okay, so here's the thing. I don't know who's starting this battle, but Steve does. Once again, his strategy is going to rely heavily on Attract, but this time he knows exactly which Pokémon Buttsnack can use this on and which ones he can't. He also has Bessie on hand, another of his team who knows this move.

Basically the plan is to switch between the two depending on the gender of the Pokémon he's facing. In either case, when Torkoal is close to fainting whoever's out will use Stealth Rock before finishing it off.

When Bessie is out she will be using Toxic after Attract. She will then shift to high damage moves like Surf, Earthquake, or High Horsepower. She also has access to Milk Drink and Heal Bell if she needs to heal herself or any status conditions. She does have Thick Fat which gives her increased resistance to fire type moves, as well as being equipped with Rocky Helmet which will inflict damage if her opponent attacks her with a physical move.

When Buttsnack is out his tactics will be very similar to the last time he faced Blaine, transforming into Mega Swampert as soon as he's called out. After Attract he will use Rain Dance before going on the attack. His main moves here will be Surf, Waterfall, and Earthquake. While he doesn't have healing moves, Steve will be using Hyper Potions to boost him when he does get low on HP.

If either one of them does happen to faint, then hopefully the other will have enough strength left to finish the match, but Steve will be doing his best to prevent that from happening.

[insidegalra]

Character: Thace | insidegalra
Badge/Gym Leader: Bugsy, Hive
Elite/Regular: REGULAR TEAM
Team: LINK TO POKEMON ROSTER Vrig (Aegislash) 58, Zaivar (Klefki) 53, Brodar (Noivern) 50, Trax (Diggersby) 46, (Vruli the Whismur and Ylnok the Azurill are strictly non-battlers but are hanging out in the sling to be tiny cheerleaders)
Battle Details:
By now, Thace is fairly confident that Gym Leaders don't load up their teams with useful TMs (although he can't fathom why), so he did most of the research in the Goldenrod library before heading out on his little badge quest. He still takes some time to watch some battles before challenging himself, though.

His arrival is pretty standard now too. He'll come in with no balls on him, and exactly six Pokemon. Vrig and the babies are happily nestled in the sling while the others are arrayed around him like a well-drilled military unit. Also as usual, Thace is mostly silent except for the ocassional 'switch' and soft encouragements while administering healing items. He's done his usual stock up of lemonades and potions and other healing items, of course.

Held items: Vrig-Oran Berry, Zaivar-Leppa Berry, Brodar-charcoal, Trax-Oran Berry

Against Pinsir, Vrig starts out and Thace uses an X-Speed to get her going. She starts with Autotomize, Swords Dance x2, and then will spam Aerial Ace. Every once in a while she'll throw in a King's Shield just to mix things up. In the unlikely event that Pinsir chips away enough at her HP, she'll switch with Trax for healing.

Trax is this battle's heal-staller! He'll come in with Bounce (or with Dig, against the Scizor), and then hop back out once it's done, which will give Thace time to heal whoever needs it.

Heracross gets to face Brodar! Brodar will set up with Tailwind, Double Team, and Super Fang! Then he'll start spamming Fly. When Heracross is starting to get really low on HP, however, Zaivar is sent in with Play Rough (and Draining Kiss if need be) to finish it off!

Meanwhile, Brodar gets healed.

Against Scizor, Zaivar throws out Crafty Shield before changing places with Brodar. Brodar resets Tailwind and Double Team, and then uses Screech x2. And then, well, Thace bought him a Flamethrower before leaving Goldenrod and he's going to use it! A lot! If Brodar needs to heal, he'll use Roost. But otherwise it's flamethrower until the end, or he starts getting too injured/tired to successfully make it through one of Scizor's attacks (Thace has done the math). If he does need to get switched, Zaivar will take over with Foul Play!

If Zaivar needs to be switched out and Brodar can't come back in, Trax will step in with Swords Dance, and then Laser Focus and Scorching Sands until the end.

Thace is fairly sure that the team will get through just fine on account of level advantage, but as always, if he runs out of healing items and doesn't have any Pokemon who can survive one of Scizor's attacks without fainting, he'll forfeit rather than risk it.

Character: Thace | insidegalra
Badge/Gym Leader: Falkner, Zephyr
Elite/Regular: REGULAR TEAM
Team: LINK TO POKEMON ROSTER Vrig (Aegislash) 58, Zaivar (Klefki) 53, Korvulk (Sharpedo) 44, Athvrix (Meowstic) 49, (Vruli the Whismur and Ylnok the Azurill are strictly non-battlers but are hanging out in the sling to be tiny cheerleaders)
Battle Details:
By now, Thace is fairly confident that Gym Leaders don't load up their teams with useful TMs (although he can't fathom why), so he did most of the research in the Goldenrod library before heading out on his little badge quest. He still takes some time to watch some battles before challenging himself, though.

His arrival is pretty standard now too. He'll come in with no balls on him, and exactly six Pokemon. Vrig and the babies are happily nestled in the sling while the others are arrayed around him like a well-drilled military unit. Also as usual, Thace is mostly silent except for the ocassional 'switch' and soft encouragements while administering healing items. He's done his usual stock up of lemonades and potions and other healing items, of course.

Held items: Vrig-Leppa Berry, Zaivar-Oran Berry, Korvulk-Persim Berry, Athvrix-Magnet

Vrig will take on Noctowl. Autotomize, Metal Sound x2, and then Shock Wave! She knows the signs of Sky Attack, and will use King's Shield when she sees them. If Noctowl has Roost Vrig will of course retaliate with Spite. But if Roost is enough that the battle is starting to drag on (and the chipping away of her HP is starting to get worrisome), Athvrix will come in to spell Vrig while she gets healed.

Athvrix has Charge Beam and a Magnet to power it up. She's also willing to use Psyshock a few times too. If Noctowl is still kicking and Athvrix needs a break, Vrig will come back in. And so on.

Honchkrow gets to fight the shark while the others get healed. Korvulk is very eager to take this bird down. But he'll start with Scary Face, Agility, and Screech. He also has a Persim Berry, in case Honchkrow should try to use Swagger on him (Thace is kinda hoping for that) during setup. Once set-up is done, Korvulk is going to go to town with Ice Fang mixed with a Focus Energy or two to increase chances of Crits. If Korvulk can't finish it with decent HP, Zaivar will come in with Play Rough and Draining Kiss. If Roost should again come into play, the two will alternate will Thace heals them and uses his other Leppa berries.

Pidgeot will get to tangle with Zaivar first! Zaivar is going to start with Crafty Shield. And then use a rotation of Metal Sound, Flash Cannon and Draining Kiss. Why send out the fairy key? Thace is expecting Roost with this one. Falkner gives them out, so why not give his bird who'd learn it anyway a chance to use it early? So Zaivar is there to do damage and reduce Sp. Def until they can't keep going (ie, their HP gets low enough that Thace will worry about fainting)

Vrig will take over the next leg of "wear the bird down" and absolutely will use Spite if Roost happens. In general though, she'll lead with Autotomize, and then alternate strings of Shock Wave with Iron Defense (and a King's Shield or two in there) to help her tank for longer. She's holding a Leppa Berry for the exact purpose of re-upping Shock Wave if its PP gets low.

In the event that Vrig can't quite make it, or is in need of a healing break, Athvrix will step in for a bit! Athvrix will start with Role Play to snag Pidgeot's Ability for a bit. And then she'll use Charge Beam.

And if she needs to rest, Korvulk will get sent back in to Ice Fang the Pidgeot down.

If everything goes horribly wrong, and Thace is out of healing items and his Pokemon are all low on HP he will forfeit if any of them is in risk of fainting.

Upon winning, he will ask both gym leaders about their thoughts and opinions concerning the treatment of Pokemon and balls and storage in general but he won't push. He's got his sights set higher in his search for information.

[fearinahandfulof]

Character: Cassandra | fearinahandfulof
Badge/Gym Leader: Mineral/Jasmine
Elite/Regular: Regular 
Team: Lily the Pikachu, Elizabeth the Aegislash, Priscilla the Hydreigon
Battle Details: Time for a rematch.

Cassandra admittedly doesn't have the best team for a fight against Steel types. But her pokemon have spent a few weeks concentrating on ways to get around this. Admittedly one of those ways is via being greatly overleveled, but Cassandra has also been paying attention to resistances and weaknesses.

Skarmory: Skarmory of course has two glaring weaknesses: Fire and Electricity. And Lily is here to subject it to copious amounts of the latter, thanks to Rising Voltage and Thunderbolt. Lily does lack Taunt, but she does have Thunder Wave to try to inflict paralysis, and she's also level 83 at this point. She can also use Nasty Plot to boost her special attack and Double Team to increase her evasion if need be, but mostly she's going to be hitting Skarmory with a lot of lightning.

Magneton: Unfortunately, Lily's electricity isn't as helpful here, given that Magneton is also a partial electric type. That's where Elizabeth comes in: Magneton is weak to Fighting, and Elizabeth just so happens to have Sacred Sword (and 21 levels on Magneton). She also has Automize and Swords Dance to buff her speed and attack, respectively, as well as King's Shield to protect herself from Magneton's attacks in a pinch.  If she somehow manages to run out of uses of Sacred Sword before the battle ends, she can switch to Night Slash, but this will hopefully not be necessary.

Steelix: At first glance, Priscilla seems like an odd choice for this battle. She's a Dark/Dragon type, for one, and she's only (well, "only") level 69. But of the three pokemon who are taking part in this battle, she's the only one with Taunt - and more importantly, Cassandra has taught her Flamethrower. She's also learned Nasty Plot, the better to raise her special attack and do more damage with Flamethrower. She'll spend this battle switching between Taunt, Nasty Plot, and Flamethrower, hopefully wearing Steelix down and netting her team the win. But if she does start flagging, Lily is there to spell her - with Surf, ironically enough, which will hit another of Steelix's weaknesses.

Cassandra, for her part, will be passing out healing and curative items as needed.


Badge/Gym Leader: Hive/Bugsy
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Licht the Mimikyu, Rhiannon the Alolan Ninetales, Dart the Drakloak, Priscilla the Hydreigon (backup only)
Battle Details: After everybody has had a chance to rest from the Jasmine rematch, Cassandra and company will be winging (literally) their way down to Azalea Town, because it's occurred to Cassandra that she should... probably do that at some point, and it's the one Johto warp she missed during 4th wall (she has multiple fliers, fortunately, so they'll be doing that in shifts). Once they're properly recuperated from the trip, it's time to take on Bugsy and company.

Pinsir: Licht is admittedly something of an unconventional choice for this battle; for one thing, they don't have a type advantage.. What Licht does have is: 1. Taunt, 2. Resistance or outright immunity to Pinsir's attacks, and 3. Burning Jealousy. Licht also has a variety of attacks of other elements (including Drain Punch and/or Draining Kiss to keep their health up), but mostly they're going to be setting Pinsir on fire and Taunting it.

Heracross: Heracross is weak to Fairy attacks. Rhiannon has Fairy attacks, in particular Dazzling Gleam and Draining Kiss (the latter of which will also keep her nice and healthy). She also has Nasty Plot to boost her special attack, Double Team to boost her evasion, Disable and Spite to affect the moves Heracross can use, and Confuse Ray to confuse it and hopefully get it to hit itself a few times. She will probably try to finish the fight with Triple Axel, mainly for style points.

Scizor: Scizor's only weakness being Fire makes this a bit tricky, since Cassandra is trying not to send out the usual suspects (sending out a level 93 pokemon against a level 40 one seems less than fair), and a few of her pokemon have some glaring weaknesses she'd rather not see exploited. The solution in this case turns out to be sending out Dart, who isn't too overleveled, and could probably use some gym battle experience. Dart doesn't have a type advantage, but does have a shiny new Flamethrower skill to deploy courtesy of the Goldenrod City Department Store.  Dart also happens to be immune to Fighting and Normal attacks, and resistant to Bug, which helps. If Dart does start to struggle, then Cassandra will likely bring in either Licht (if they've got any more Burning Jealousy to use) or possibly Priscilla, but she's hoping neither of them will be necessary for this battle.

As ever, Cassandra's on Item Caddy duty.

[marmoron]

Character: Keith | marmoron
Badge/Gym Leader: Brock!!
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Venomoth, Frosmoth, Volcarona
Battle Details: Keit and his even more overleveled moth buddies have returned for a second throwdown. Time for redemption???

Venomoth kicks things off against Rhydon. Sleep Powder is the move of choice. While Rhydon snoozes away, Venomoth will take a turn to set up a Quiver Dance to stat boost. After that, Venomoth will go straight for Bug Buzz to deal neutral damage with its Tinted Lens ability, and hopefully score a KO considering the level difference.

Frosmoth will take the stage with Golem. For this battle Frosmoth will be holding onto a Weakness Policy. Frosmoth will first attempt to set up the hail, and should probably be able to survive at least one 4x effective rock attack from Golem thanks to the level differential, though not necessarily well. This will activate weakness policy and then it's time to spam 100% accurate +2 Special Attack Blizzards to take Golem down.
Finally, when Onix comes in Frosmoth is going to hit it with another Blizzard to hit Onix's weaker special defenses. Assuming that doesn't OHKO, Brock will have to contend with a level 100 Volcarona waiting in the back that will be spamming Giga Drain as well as Venomoth who is ready to be deeply annoying with Sleep Powder and Bug Buzz!