indigo_league | Badge Requests

Entry tags:

badges,
battle

Badge Requests

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.

「 NAVIGATION 」

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Character: Joey Wheeler |

infernofireblast
Badge/Gym Leader: Soul/Janine
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: "Charizard - LV100", "Dragonite - LV100", "Bisharp - LV100" , "Ceruledge - LV100", "Feraligatr - LV100", "Wailord - LV100"
Battle Details:
Janine's Team would be a situation where Joey certainly had the advantage, both in terms of the obvious level gap and in the way of the drastically disadvantageous typing that she'd be working with. Should Janine open with either Venomoth or Ariados the first Pokemon Joey would send out would be his Charizard, Red-Eyes Black Dragon. Both Fire and Flying-Type moves are super-effective against Bug Pokemon so nearly everything in Red-Eye's arsenal would be putting a major hurt against either of the two opponents it would be up aginst, and the additional boost given by his Wise Glasses Held Item would only add to the damage being put-out.

As a special attacker Joey's Charizard doesn't prescribe to the same school of opening with moves like Dragon or Sword's Dance, instead immediatley opening up with a simple-but-punishing barrage of Flamethrowers. Straightforward as it might be, the sheer offensive power that it would put out should be sufficient to put down either Aridados or Venomoth in one-to-two moves flat, not even counting the added bonus that the 10% chance to Burn that each volley would add. Should they manage to bring his Red-Eyes to low health, though, Joey would be on-standby with restorative items like Hyper Potions and Full Restores like always.

In the event that Red-Eyes was defeated while Janine still had Bug Pokemon out Joey would follow-up with his Ceruledge, Gearfried the Iron Knight. Gearfried has the Flash Fire, making him immune to Fire-Type damage and making it so that if such damage does hit him it would enhance any Fire-Type moves he uses for the rest of the match by x1.5. With his Life Orb Held Item already giving him a x1.5 multiplier to each move this means that, provided Flash Fire activates, he's able to put-out damage at a flat x2.25 multiplier before even adding-in super effectiveness. Starting the match off with a Sword's Dance before launching a proper opener of Flare Blitz would mean a massive amount of Fire Damage would come down on his opponent, while his own ability would mitigate the 33% Fire Damage he'd normally take as recoil in addition to manually activitating the boost to his successive Fire-Type moves.

The recoil from his Life Orb would still come into effect, taking 1/10 of his health after the opening salvo, but from that point on Gearfried would make use of his Bitter Blade move, making use of the massively boosted damage any Fire Attacks would put out but also healing 50% of any damage he inflicts. As powerful as each hit of Bitter Blade would be enough to practically restore Gearfried to full health after every attack, making the recoil damage of the Life Orb all but eliminated, and making it so that any of Janine's Pokemon would have to land a one-hit-knockout or else resign themselves to seeing the Ceruledge subsequently heal right baack to full-strength immediatley afterwards. Should things go badly for him, however, and attrition or a lucky critical bring his health down Joey would be waiting in the wings to use healing items to bring his warrior back to being fighting-fit once again.

In the event that Janine brings-out her Crobat Joey would bring-out his Feraligatr, Alligator's Sword. Feraligatr holds the Life Orb Held Item just like Ceruledge, but his Hidden Ability of Sheer Power adds a x1.5 to moves with secondary effects and then removes any secondary that would normally come about including the 1/10 recoil that the Orb would normally deal to him. This means that even before super-effectiveness is calculated-in Feraligatr he's got himself a combination that ensures a permanent x2.25 damage output to just about anything he goes up against while also eliminating any negative effects he would have to normally face. Adding in that he possesses Type-Advantaged moves for facing the Crobat and the poor thing is practically dead-on-arrival.

Starting-off with a Dragon's Dance to further increase the sheer amount of offensive strength that he's putting-out Alligator's Sword would then begin hitting the Crobat with Ice Punch after Ice Punch, dealing massive damage against the his Flying-Type Opponent as well as having a 10% chance to Freeze them with every hit. Short and one-sided as the battle should be, Joey would still be ready and waiting to use any restoration items necessary to bring his Feraligatr back to full strength should a lucky critical hit or something similar bring the match's result into question.

While just these three Pokemon should be sufficient to go toe-to-toe with Janine's Team and come out on-top Joey would still have a full other three-man team in-reserve if they were somehow brought down. Dragonite's Thunder Punch would spell doom for her Crobat almost as quickly as Feraligatr's Ice Puch did, Bisharp is capable of doing critical hits while depriving enemies of their held items and also possesses the ability to drop one-hit-knockouts on people with a single lucky hit of the Guillotine move, and Wailord's simple-but-effective method of blasting a heavily-buffed Water Spout can't be understated in terms of raw offensive power. One way or the other, the scales of battle should be leaning firmly in the favor of Team Joey.

b>Character: Joey Wheeler |

infernofireblast
Badge/Gym Leader: Marsh/Sabrina
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: "Charizard - LV100", "Dragonite - LV100", "Bisharp - LV100" , "Ceruledge - LV100", "Feraligatr - LV100", "Wailord - LV100"
Battle Details:
Sabrina is a Gym Leader with a powerful team and a fearsome reputation but, unfortunately, the team that Joey is bringing to bear against her is one of the hardest counters that he's had in the Gym Circuit. Should she open with either Espeon or Alakazam Joey would open with his Bisharp, Legendary Knight Hermos, who's Dark and Steel-Typing means that he only receives a quarter of any damage a Psychic Move would deal him while simultaneously making it so that he's doing super-effective damage to them with nearly every move. It's Dread Plate Held Item would make any Dark Moves it puts out even stronger than they already were and, should Sabrina try to go the route of hemming him up by using stat-lowering moves, his Defiant Ability would boost his attack even further in response.

Opening up with a Sword's Dance to boost his attack even further Hermos would then hit his opponent with Knock-Off, removing any Held Item they might have had and doing critical damage against them if they did indeed have one. After the initial salvo it would be a barrage of Night Slash's, all of which would be doing beyond super-effective damage and would also be granted the move's inherent heightened chance for a critical hit. With every possible base seemingly covered against her Psychic Pokemon and next to no damage able to come through in-return Hermos should have little problem eliminating both pure-Psychic Pokemon that Sabrina possesses but, should he falter, Joey would be ready and waiting with restorative items like Hyper Potions and Full Restores.

Against Sabrina's Mr. Mime the Pokemon that Joey would send out in response would be his Feraligatr, Alligator's Sword. Through the combination of his Life Orb Held Item and Sheer Power Hidden Ability each and every damaging move that he would put out would be hitting at x2.25 damage before calculating-in the added bonus of super-effectiveness and, so, though he would lack the bonus stab damage he would still be able to put-out terribly punishing damage while facing zero negative side effects.

Opening up with a Dragon Dance to set the stage he would then begin hitting with Crunch, dealing partial super-effective damage to Mr. Mime due to his being half Psychic, and having a 1/5 chance of lowering his opponent's defenses with every hit. Though Alligator's Sword himself wouldn't have any additional defense against the moves that Sabrina's Pokemon would be putting-out he wouldn't have any inherent vulnerabilities either, making the playing field skewed decidely in his ultra hard-hitting favor. Pit purely against a single Pokemon there should be little difficulty in Feraligatr coming out on top in the engagement but, should he struggle, Joey would be standing-by with healing items to ensure he can get the job done.

If the worst should happen and one or both of his attackers be knocked-out Joey would follow up with his Ceruledge, Gearfied the Iron Knight. Ceruledge, being a Fire/Ghost Pokemon still possesses resistances to Psychic Attacks but lacks the vulnerability to Fairy Moves that the partially Steel-Type Bisharp had. Regardless of the enemy that he's up against his method of attack would be the same, starting with a Sword's Dance before engaging into the same volley of Night Slash his predecessor had done. Despite the repeat performance the effectiveness can't be understated of putting out a rotation of high-critical chance after high-critical chance moves, and the offensive power should be more than enough to finish-off whatever was left standing after the scorched-earth that Bisharp and Feraligatr would leave. In the event that he ended up struggling, though, Joey would be quick to use items like Hyper Potions and Full Restores to ensure that he could stay in the fight long enough to get the job done.

Should things go terribly and all three of Joey's preferred fighters somehow be brought-down Joey would still posses three more LV. 100 Pokemon ready-and-waiting to enter the arena. With Charizard possessing Steel-Type Punishers and Dragonite and Wailord both fully capable of bringing the pain the battle should come out with a decidedly Joey result.

Edited 2023-04-19 19:45 (UTC)

Badges approved!

Character: Riz Gukgak |

nightyorb
Badge/Gym Leader: Fuchsia City / Janine
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Puk the Kecleon (lvl 76) (holding Sitrus Berry), Grum the Honedge (lvl 100) (holding Scope Lens)
Battle Details:

VS Crobat

Riz is going to start off this battle with his Kecleon Puk. Important to note that Kecleon's ability is Protean, meaning it will always change its typing to match that of the move it is executing, so every move it uses will gain extra STAB damage.

First things first, to compensate for Kecleon's low speed, Riz will have him use Trick Room. This will allow Kecleon to move first the next five turns, and will make it much harder for Janine to target Kecleon with something its Protean induced typing is weak to, as by the time Crobat attacks, Kecleon will already have assumed a new type. He'll re-up this if Crobat is not down within those five turns.

First, Riz will have his Kecleon use Ice Punch, both to exploit Crobat's weakness to Ice, but also for the additional chance of leaving Crobat frozen.

Next turn, he'll have Kecleon use Psybeam, again, both to exploit Crobat's weakness to Psychic and for the additional chance of confusion.

Next turn, he'll have Kecleon use Ancient Power. There is no additional chance of status effects here, but it is a rock type move that neatly exploits Crobat's weakness.

Now, these are the main three moves Kecleon has to target Crobat's weaknesses, so Riz will repeat using these (with Trick Room tossed in where needed) for the rest of the battle. He doesn't want to set up a pattern though, and give Janine a chance to guess what he is using next, so he'll pick which move to use next based on the position of the second timer on his watch: If it is on an uneven number, Psybeam; if it is on an even number, Ice Punch; if it is on a multiple of five, Ancient Power.

This is just to prevent from falling into a set pattern that Janine could predict and Riz kinda thought this would be a cool spy move!

Note: Because Janine's Crobat will be getting the first hit in, there is a chance she'll have Crobat use a move that prevents Kecleon from getting Trick Room off in the first round (such as a move that causes flinching or leaves Kecleon confused). Should this happen, Riz's first priority will always be getting the Trick Room up, so he'll keep repeating this move until it works.

VS Ariados

Against Ariados, Riz will bring out Grum the Honedge. As a combined Ghost/Steel type, Grum is completely immune to poison and normal moves, and he double-resists bug moves, and has a normal resistance to grass moves, which pretty much accounts for most of Ariados' roster (Riz has a Spinarak himself, so he knows what these pokemon can do.) It does leave Janine with a few Ghost and one Dark type move to which Honedge is weak, but we can't have it all!

Starting the battle, Riz'll have Honedge use Autotomize. This move should up Honedge's speed by two stages, and have it go ahead of Ariados' from the first turn on. This should hopefully limit the amount of super-effective hits Ariados can land on Honedge.

From here on, things are fairly straightforward with Riz spamming Arial Ace to take advantage of Ariados' weakness to Flying moves. Which isn't a very intricate strategy but if it works, it works.

Note: If Ariados' raises its own speed too, Riz'll have Honedge use Autotomize twice to still outclass it. Also, if for some reason, he becomes unable to use Arial Ace, he'll switch to using Iron Head. It doesn't target a weakness of Ariados, but it still does plenty of damage and might make it flinch!

VS Venomoth

Riz is going to leave Honedge on the field. Because as it turns out, what is good for the Ariados, is good for the Venomoth. Ariados and Venomoth have the same typing, so like with Ariados, Honedge resists/is immune to much of its move set.

Honedge should still have its boosted speed from the last fight. If Honedge used Autotomize twice during the last battle, Riz'll jump straight into attacking. If he only used it once, Riz's first move will be Autotomize.

And from there on, its much the same as the last battle. Riz'll have Honedge use Arial Ace to take advantage of Venomoth's weakness, and he'll have Iron Head as a back-up should he no longer be able to use Arial Ace. He can also toss in Shadow Sneak and Night Slash if Honedge can't use its head anymore.

Riz thinks these two should be enough to take down Janine's pokemon. These are his ideal strategies, but if Kecleon gets knocked out early, he will bring Honedge into play earlier and depend on its much higher level to carry it through the rest of the fight. And should Honedge's HP really start flagging, it has Rest to serve as a way to regain all that lost HP while he has Snore as a way to attack still.

Badge approved!

(deleted comment)

Please refrain from submitting any more badges before your current badges have been processed. There is a hard limit on two badges per week, partially based on mod workload and partially based on the IC travel and preparation associated with taking on gyms. If you wish to backdate certain badges ICly, that is within your right, but we will not break the two badge a week limit OOCly for you.

Again, we reiterate. Stop submitting more badges before your previous badges have processed. This does not depend on time submitted or time zones.

Character: Misaki Yamazaki |

torinoko
Badge/Gym Leader: Celadon | Erika
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Agares the Pyroar, Dantalion the Ninetails, Sitri the Noivern, Gusion the Drone-Rotom
Battle Details: As in previous challenges, Gusion will only be recording the battle as a drone, making sure not to fly too close and get caught in the fight, while still getting good shots of the action. This time, with Erika's permission, Misaki will livestream the battle to her own little hosting site, and upload shots later.

Misaki's a little overleveled for this on accident! She will let Agares do the heavy lifting with Sunny Day and a large collection of fire moves, electing to use moves like overheat and flamethrower to minimize the chance of being poisoned. If Agares is poisoned, Misaki will swap in Dantalion or Sitri to cover for her while she tends to it, though she won't keep cycling them out if Erika chooses to spam poisoning moves.

Badge approved.

Character: Ryou Bakura |

rolltoavoidpossession
Badge/Gym Leader: Morty | Fog Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Hinotama, Haunt, Banshee, Grim
Battle Details: Ryou is so excited to be taking this gym on, despite some difficulty with the darkened gym layout! In fact, he's brought his own all-ghost team to face Morty with, despite knowing he'll have to be mindful of the type disadvantage going both ways.

VS Haunter

Ryou is leading in with Hinotama the Lampent, who will open with Imprison to seal off every move the Haunter shares with Hinotama. This will be followed up by Double Team to make the Lampent harder to hit, followed by Shadow Ball for damage.

Ryou's also given Hinotama a Chesto Berry to hold, just in case the Haunter manages to get a Hypnosis off.

VS Misdreavus

Ryou will keep Hinotama on the field, aware that Imprison will keep working so long as Hinotama stays out. He'll set up with Confuse Ray to get the Misdreavus confused before going for Shadow Ball again.

However, if the Misdreavus uses Perish Song, then Ryou will try to get the Misdreavus down as fast as possible with Shadow Ball, and, if the Perish Song count gets too low, will just switch to Haunt and have her finish up the Misdreavus with Shadow Ball. If the Misdreavus uses Perish Song and then switches out to Gengar to avoid the effect, then Ryou will switch to his own plan for the Gengar.

VS Gengar

Ryou will immediately, regardless of the state of the battle, send in Grim the Greavard to face the Gengar. This seemingly defies logic, since Grim is a mere level six and only knows four moves. He did give her a Chesto Berry just in case of Hypnosis use, but that doesn't overcome the sheer level difference. However, Ryou is unworried and is in fact hoping that the Gengar will try to use a Ghost type attack on the low level Greavard.

See, if a Ghost type attack is used on Grim, it'll simply not work. This is because 'Grim' is actually Banshee, Ryou's Hisuian Zoroark, in disguise as the little Greavard via her Illusion ability. Ryou won't drag this out too long, and will have Banshee just use Shadow Claw to deal with the Gengar.

If the Misdreavus from earlier is still around at this point, then Ryou will have either Hinotama or Haunt (whoever has more health) finish it up with Shadow Ball.

After the battle, Ryou will comment on how cool Morty's team is. ~~He's a fan of weird creepy stuff, what did you expect?~~

Badge approved.

Character: Joey Wheeler |

infernofireblast
Badge/Gym Leader: Volcano/Blaine
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: "Charizard - LV100", "Dragonite - LV100", "Bisharp - LV100" , "Ceruledge - LV100", "Feraligatr - LV100", "Wailord - LV100"
Battle Details:
Powerful as Blaine's Team may be the typing-disadvantages present across the board spell disaster against quite a few of the Pokemon that Joey would put forward.

Opening with his Wailord, Fortress Whale, would let him put the hurt on Blaine right from the start as his Choice Specs grant him a x1.5 multiplier towards Special Attacks at the cost of forcing him to use only that move for the remainder of the match. With his chosen spammable being the powerful Water Spout move Fortress Whale would also be gaining the Stab bonus in addition to the super-effective damage using such a move against a Fire-Type would have. Should he be up against either Magmortar or Rapidash his Water Spout would be crashing into them at a x4.5 multiplier but, if Blaine oped with his Magcargo, its dual-weaknesses would instead doom the poor Pokemon to be crushed with a devestating x9 multiplier to the damage. Dominating as this would be, the chance of attrition or lucky critical hits bringing down his Wailord still remained, so Joey would be waiting in the wings to make use of restoration items like Hyper Potions and Full Restores to bring his partner back up to full-strength.

In the event that Wailord was brought-down Blaine would have little cause to celebrate, as that would only mean Joey's more formidable Water Pokemon would now take the field. Putting forward his Feraligatr, Alligator's Sword, the fearsome reptilian would stand-ready to avenge his comrade. Possessing his Hidden Ability of Sheer Power and using the Life Orb Held Item allowed him to tap into a combo that granted him stacking x1.5 bonuses while simultaneously eliminating the recoil that the Orb would normally bring with it. Opening with a Dragon Dance to further increase his offensive power and then beginning with barrages of Aqua Tail would see him putting out damage at a x6.75 multilier against either of Blaine's pure-Fire Pokemon or a blistering x13.5 multiplier should Magcargo have the misfortune to step into the ring.

In the event that both of these Pokemon were somehow brought-down Joey would have 4 more LV. 100 Pokemon ready and waiting to take their place. His Dragonite also knows Aqua Tail and so could join in the trend of putting out punishing amounts of damage, both his Charizard and Ceruledge could absorb much of the Fire Damage that they would receive through resistances while meting-out alternative-typed attacks to circuvent Blaine's own resistances, and his Bisharp still has formidable moves and an advantage in level despite being an disadvantageous matchup. Overall there should be enough firepower present in Joey's Team to bring about an easy victory and net him a shiny new Volcano Badge.

b>Character: Joey Wheeler |

infernofireblast
Badge/Gym Leader: Earth/Blue
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: "Charizard - LV100", "Dragonite - LV100", "Bisharp - LV100" , "Ceruledge - LV100", "Feraligatr - LV100", "Wailord - LV100"
Battle Details:

Going up against Blue's Team would be the final obstacle stnding in-between Joey and having conquered both the Johto and Kanto Gym circuits, but would also be his first time facing a full team of six Pokemon. Having always had the numerical advantage in his previous engagements Joey would be in for a very different kind of battle due to having to essentially pair-off each member of his team into a near-bracket style showdown with Blue's. This would be a learning experience for facing the Elite Four though, so Joey stood ready to face the new challenge. Dividing-up his team in the following way, Joey would enter battle:

VS EXEGGECUTOR
Against Blue's Eggecutor Joey would put out his Bisharp, Legendary Knight Hermos. With his Dark/Steel Typing he would possess resistance to Grass and outright Immunity to Psychic moves while his own Dark-Type moves would see him dealing super-effective damage, boosted even further by his Dread Plate Held Item. Opening with a Sword's Dance and a Knock-Off would increase his attack further while both doing damage and depriving his opponent of any Held Item they may have had. Following-up with a barrage of Night Slashes would allow Hermos to have an increased chance of landing a critical hit in additon to the move's regular damage, making it all the more likely to land a crushing blow in additon to the already-heavy hurting he'd be putting on his opponent. His Defiant ability would make it so that if his opponent tried to reduce his stats it would trigger a massive jump in his attack power as well, making the fight against Exeggutor a significant mismatch from beginning-to-end, and hopefully resulting in an easy win for Joey's Bisharp.

VS MACHAMP
Against Blue's Machamp Joey would send out his Ceruledge, Gearfried the Iron Knight. Though a dual type of Fire/Ghost the Ghost half would grant immunity to any and all Fighting-Type moves that his opponent might put out, granting him a significant advantage. Though the Machamp could, of course, put out damage using other types of moves the removal of its Stab bonus would mean that Gearfried was in a strong position defensively regardless of what might come his way. Possessing a means of solid Psychic damage thanks to the Psycho Cut move, too, Gearfried would be able to deal consistant super-effective damage and present a very one-sided matchup. Opening with a Sword's Dance to further increase his offensive power and make the increased critical chance that each Psycho Cut brings with it even juicier. Overall Machamp should be in a very poor place to face Joey's Ceruledge, hopefully making for another easy win for Joey.

VS RHYDON
Blue's Rhydon is a formidable Pokemon but against Joey's Feraligatr, Alligator's Sword, it faces a truly unfavorable matchup due to a double weakness to Water. Feraligatr already has a fearsome combination thanks to his Sheer Power Hidden Ability and Life Orb Held Item, granting him the a twin x1.5 multiplier to any damaging move while simultaneously negating the recoil effect of the Orb, and Rhydon's vulnerabilities would only add fuel to that fire. Adding on the further boost from the Stab bonus would mean that any damaging water move Alligator's Sword would be crashing into his opponent at a staggering x13.5 multiplier. Boosting up with Dragon Dance before beginning the virtual doomsday that would be his barrage of Aqua Tails, Rhydon would genuinely be lucky if he wasn't blown off the field in a single hit. While lacking the defensive immunity of the previous two matchups the sheer overwhelming offensive disparity between the two Pokemon should make for a showdown that was practically over before it began.

VS GYARADOS
Gyarados would be the first of Blue's Pokemon for which Joey wouldn't have a hard-counter but putting in his Dragonite, Baby Dragon, would still allow him to answer with something capable of taking advantage of Gyarados's weaknesses. Beginning with the standard method of using a Dragon Dance to increase his offensive power Baby Dragon would then begin using Thunder Punch against his opponent. Though not benefitting from the Stab bonus the dual-weakness to Electric Moves that Gyarados posseses means that each and every hit would be slamming into it for a double super-effective x4 multiplier. Though Gyarados may well be able to respond with super-effective attacks of its own the scales would still be heavily slanted in Joey's favor, meaning that the gap would widen with every blow. Though harder-fought than the previous engagements the ability to take full-advantage of typing should make for another win for Team Joey.

VS PIDGEOT
The battle against Blue's Pidgeot would be the only matchup in which Joey's answer would be a straight-up brawl. No Type-Advantage, no Type-Disadvantage. Just a straight-up artillery battle with Joey's Charizard, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, at the center of it. Red-Eyes is spec'd as a special attacker, making use of the Wise Glasses Held Item to further increase his special attack and freeing him from the need to open with a move like Dragon Dance to deal maximum damage. Using the simple-but-effective strategy of simply spamming Flamethrower Red-Eyes would put out consistant damage while, doubtlessly, receiving return-fire from Pidgeot. If or when his health drops below the halfway mark, though, his Blaze Ability would go into effect, raising his attack power by half so long as he's using Fire-Type moves and giving him just the right push to come out on top. Though, by far, the hardest-fought battle of the Gym Battle the pieces should still be there to allow Joey's Charizard to emerge victorious, hopefully clocking yet another win and moving his team into a face-off with Blue's final Pokemon.

VS ARCANINE
Though it might the final showdown in the lineup of Blue and Joey's Pokemon the matchup between Arcanine and Joey's Wailord, Fortress Whale, would be anything but climactic. With Wailord's Choice Specs Held Item whatever move he opens with gets buffed by x1.5 but he must face the drawback of being locked-into that move for the remainder of the match. Thankfully for him, though, the move he would be getting locked-into would be the thunderously powerful Water Spout, opening with a massive Base Power and relying on the user's health pool to determine its strength. With a giant pool of HP, though, Fortress Whale would be in an fantastic place to capitolize on that damage, benefitting not only from his Held Item but from the super-effective and Stab bonuses as well. Httiing at a multiplier of x4.5 with every blast of his Water Spout and taking minimal damage from any Fire-Type Move that Arcanine would put out, the end result of their matchup would be anything but surprising.

CONTINGENCIES AND AUDIBLES
Just like in all his previous Gym Battles Joey would have a stockpile of restorative items like Hyper Potions and Full Restores ready-and-waiting to use on his team should they fall low health. As the vast majority of his matchups are very favorable towards Joey's Team, too, any of his Pokemon that might be unfortunate enough to be knocked-out by Blue's Team prior to defeating their assigned opponent would have their matchup subsequently taken-on another of Joey's Pokemon. With the majority of victories looking like they would result in relatively small amounts of damage received from their opposition any of the Pokemon tapped to serve as a "Round 2" for facing Blue's Team would almost certainly be fresh and ready for a fight. Even if Blue put an absolutely legendary performance forward in the battle attrition would 100% be his enemy, as Joey would be in a much better position to come-out with an intact team from each and every encounter. By hook or by crook Blue would begin to feel the walls begin to close in, and Joey would be able to control the match more-and-more with every loss Blue would take.

Badges approved.

Character: IV |

4play
Badge/Gym Leader: Plain Badge - Whitney
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Rockruff, Joltik, Glimmet, Meowth, Rolycoly, Magikarp
Battle Details:

vs. Girafarig
Since Girafarig is weak to bug types, IV will sick his Joltik Diva on it. It will come in fully charged so that it can use its electric attacks to the max from the get go, with the main strategy here being to paralyze Girafarg with Thunder Wave, while also amping the difference in their respective speeds by using String Shot and Agility. At that point it will be a nasty game of the little bug whittling away on Girafarig’s HP with all its got (Electro, Dark, Poison, Bug and Normal attacks) while also using Absorb to feed on the bigger monster in case it actually manages to lang a hit on it.

vs. Clefable
Dyson the Glimmet will be IV’s choice of poison for this fight, quite literally since he’s once more aiming to exploit Whitney’s pokemon’s type weakness. Dyson will hark it with her poison moves and Sandstorm until Clefable either manages to charm her or to do enough damage. If it’s the charm option, IV will switch Dyson out for Attila, the Rockruff, who can also take the area effects of Sandstorm since he’s a Rock type and dominate the battle by sheer level difference. If Dyson doesn’t get charmed and just takes enough damage, IV will eventually order it to use Self-Destruct, ending the battle in a double-k.o. with a big bang.

vs. Miltank
This fight is the tricky one. Shark the Magikarp will enter the ring first and hopefully land some good hits with Flail before Miltank’s raw power can eventually k.o. him. Rolycoly will enter the ring next, hopefully bringing the fight to an end with it’s 1/2 resistance against Normal type attacks. If Rolycoly goes down first, Cat the Meowth will be there to finish the fight.

----------

Character: IV |

4play
Badge/Gym Leader: Fog - Morty
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Fuecoco, Shuppet, Rockruff, Rookidee, Meowth, Magikarp
Battle Details:

vs. Haunter
This fight will be something if a test by fire for IV’s team, pun intended. Fuecoco starts the fight using its fire attacks, while also aiming to put Haunter to sleep with Yawn. At this point IV will switch it out to his new Shuppet, Gimmick, who is woefully underlevelled against this foe -- which is sort of the point, since it knows Destiny Bond. IV’s aim is to use the turn disruption with sleep to let Gimmic get the Destiny Bond in place, then have it wake its opponent and force Morty into attacking it, making his own pokemon go down in the process as well. (Either get defeated by endless attacks from a lvl 18 pokemon or hit it once and trigger a double.k.o., what a nice choice.)

vs. Misdreavus
Rockruff takes this fight, using his stone attacks as well as Bite and Crunch to win by sheer difference in levels. Should this fail Murder the Rookidee will be there to finish the fight with his fire attacks.

vs. Gengar
Cat the Meowth gets to shine in this fight. As a Normal type he’s immune to Haunter’s ghost attacks, but he sure can hit back using moves such as Bite, Taunt, Assurance, Nasty Plot and Play Rough. The level difference does the rest.

IV’s Magikarp will probably have tried to enter the battle at some point as well, once again ignoring its trainer’s orders to prove its mettle, but since Shark only knows Normal attacks, any such attempt will end in an embarrassing loss for the poor fish.

Badge approved.

Character: MARIK ISHTAR |

thetombkeeper
Badge/Gym Leader: CHUCK | STORM BADGE
Elite/Regular: REGULAR
Team: CHENZIRA the YAMASK, USI the GENGAR, BAHITI the PERSIAN, RAMSES the CORVIKNIGHT, LOTUS the CLEFABLE, MOSWEN the ALOLAN NINETALES
Battle Details:

VS HITMONLEE:
LOTUS takes the stage for once to take on HITMONLEE! She'll be using her FAIRY, PSYCHIC, and NORMAL type moves to annihilate the poor opponent.

VS HITMONCHAN:
RAMSES will be taking on HITMONCHAN, relying on his FLYING type moves but making sure to mix things up with his DARK types as backup. Should be an easy battle considering the type advantage and him being max level.

VS POLIWRATH:
USI will be taking on POLIWRATH. Mostly due to the fact that none of POLIWRATH's FIGHTING type moves will work against him. Likewise USI will be relying on his DARK moves as well as the odd ball PUNCH attacks (THUNDER PUNCH, SHADOW PUNCH, ICE PUNCH) he's learned from various Move Tutors and DAZZLING GLEAM for a FAIRY type.

Should any of them faint during the fights, MOSWEN, CHENZIRA, and USI are ready to replace them. He'll have plenty of HYPER/MAX POTIONS on hand as well.

----------------------------------------

Character: MARIK ISHTAR |

thetombkeeper
Badge/Gym Leader: JASMINE | MINERAL BADGE
Elite/Regular: REGULAR
Team: CHENZIRA the YAMASK, USI the GENGAR, BAHITI the PERSIAN, RANA the COFAGRIGUS, DENDARA the CHANDELURE, RAMSES the CORVIKNIGHT
Battle Details:

VS SKARMORY:
USI will be handling SKARMORY. Relying on his DARK, GHOST, and FIGHTING type moves, and his THUNDER PUNCH to widdle down the bird's defenses. He ain't got no FIRE type moves but that won't stop him one bit! As is of course tradition, he'll finish up with HYPONOSIS and DREAM EATER. Insert a Marik sounding laugh here.

VS MAGNETON:
BAHITI seems the best choice to go against MAGNETON. While she doesn't have any type advantages and her NORMAL type moves will do very little, she can rely on her other moves which are mostly DARK with a scattering of other types. ... And she does know DIG.

VS STEELIX:
Marik will try his chances and use DENDARA for this match. GHOST type moves are normal damage and he does know a good heap of FIRE type moves for maximum damage.

Should any of the main party faint, CHENZIRA, RANA, and RAMSES are on standby. Again, Marik will have plenty of HYPER/MAX POTIONS on hand as well.

Badges approved!

Character: Riz Gukgak |

nightyorb
Badge/Gym Leader: Misty / Cerulean Gym
Elite/Regular: Regular Team
Team: Tumble dry the Flapple (lvl 33) (holding Clear Amulet); Puk the Kecleon (lvl 76) (holding Sitrus Berry); Loggy the Hisuian Voltorb (lvl 100) (Happy To Be Here Back-up)
Battle Details:

VS Golduck

This is Tumble Dry's first big gym battle! Please all be very impressed by this ever-moving little dragon.

First things first, Flapple as a combined Dragon/Grass type, has a 4x resistance to Water moves. On the flip side, he also has a 4x weakness to Ice moves. This means Riz is going to be picking his opponents carefully as he knows a lot of water types can also learn ice moves.

Thankfully, Golduck is not one of those!

First, Riz is going to have his Flapple set up Leech Seed. Partially for the HP regain on Flapple's end, but also because he knows there is a chance Golduck might end up confusing Flapple at some point during the battle, and at least this way there will still be some continuous damage being done!

With this set, he'll have Tumble use Dragon Dance to boost his speed and attack, hopefully allowing the little dragon to move first in the initiative order.

Then finally, with his power and speed boosted, Riz will have Tumble use Grav Apple until Golduck goes down. The great thing is that this move does not only do damage, but it also lowers Golduck's defence, hopefully allowing this brave little dragon to win, even if he is just a tiny bit lower in level.

Should Flapple become unable to use Grav Apple for whatever reason, he'll switch to using either Twister or Dragon Breath. These moves can't exploit a weakness in Golduck, but they can still do damage. Plus, might cause Golduck to either Flinch or become paralysed.

Now, hopefully, Flapple will be able to win his first battle all on his own, but should he go down or look really in trouble, Riz will switch him out and bring in his other pokemon.

VS Lapras

Even if Flapple managed to get through the previous battle, the first thing Riz does is withdraw him. Golduck might not have access to Ice moves, but Lapras sure does!

Instead, he'll bring out Puk the Kecleon. Important to note is that Puk has the ability Protean, meaning his typing will always match that of the move he uses. This means every damaging move will have STAB damage.

To start, Riz will have Kecleon use Trick Room to compensate for its slow speed stat. He should now be able to go ahead of Lapras for the next five turns. He'll repeat this move if the Trick room wears off.

Next, Riz'll have Kecleon us Rock Smash. Lapras is weak to fighting moves, and it has the added bonus of potentially lowering its defence.

After this, Riz'll whip out the new TM move he taught Puk (thanks to the money he made from beating the Fuchsia gym!) -- Grass Knot. This grass type move (which Lapras is weak to) does the max of 120 points of damage to pokemon heavier than 440lbs; Lapras is 485lbs.

The only downside to using Grass Knot is that it leaves Puk as a grass type, which are weak to Ice moves. So if Lapras isn't down yet, he'll use Rock Smash again to become a fighting type once more.

VS Starmie

Riz will leave Puk in the field. Should he have taken significant damage from Lapras, he'll use his first turn to fully heal him with a Hyper Potion.

For this battle, Riz will be focusing on Kecleon's Dark type moves. This is because Dark type gives him immunity to Pyschic damage, which will make several of Starmie's heavy hitting moves useless.

If Trick Room is still active, Riz will have Puk use Foul Play; if Trick Room is not active anymore, he'll use Sucker Punch. This ensures he'll get the first move in, do dark damage to Starmie (which it is weak to) and will confer the psychic defence mentioned above.

After this, he'll switch between using Foul Play, Sucker Punch and Thief (once Puk has used up his berry) at random to keep Misty and Starmie on her toes. He might even go wild and throw in a Shadow Ball or Shadow Claw to break up the pattern, but based on their big level difference, this should be enough to finish out the battle.

But just in case, because Riz is planning a Mt Moon trip with his boy (so he doesn't have time to redo this fight), he is also bringing Loggy the Hisuian Voltorb to this fight. He doesn't think he'll need him, but if it gets to that, Loggy has got all the grass and electric moves.

Badge approved!

Character: Joey Wheeler |

infernofireblast
Badge/Gym Leader: Elite Four - Bede
Team: "Charizard - LV100", "Dragonite - LV100", "Bisharp - LV100" , "Ceruledge - LV100", "Feraligatr - LV100", "Wailord - LV100"
Battle Details:
As a standard opener, regardless of who he goes up against, Joey would bring in Bisharp, Legendary Knight Hermos, and throw down a Stealth Rock to start the match off. Depending on what Pokemon his opponent opened with he would then switch-out to it's corresponding counter (With the possibility of Bisharp remaining on the field, of course, should luck of the draw have his preferred matchup come-up first). While this means it might take a hit on the way out it also would mean that just about any subsequent Pokemon Bede might send out will be getting around a quarter of their health knocked-off on-arrival. With his opener delivered, though, Joey would then change his active Pokemon to reflect the following matchups:

VS MAWHILE
Against Bede’s Mawhile Joey would send out his Charizard, Red-Eyes Black Dragon. Charizard’s Flying-Typing doesn’t have a weakness to Steel or Fairy while his Fire-Typing is even resistant to the former, meaning that many of the hardest-hitting moves in Mawhile’s arsenal are thankfully less impactful. Through that same Steel-Typing though Charizard is able to deal-out super-effective damage and bypass the normally resistant Fairy-Type defenses. Beginning with Sunny Day to further bolster his Fire-Type moves Charizard would then open up with what’s functionally his go-to method of bombardment by sending-out Flamethrower after Flamethrower. With the benefit of his Wise Glasses Held Item and the STAB bonus added in to the mix he’d be hitting at nearly x4 the damage as normal and laying down the law with every attack. With Flamethrower also having a 1/10 chance of burning the opponent, too, it only sweetens the deal and makes a Charizard victory all the more unavoidable.

VS SILVEON
Against Silveon Joey would use his Wailord, Fortress Whale. With neither Water nor Fairy having a weakness to each other things would seemingly be on equal footing, but Wailord would have an ace-in-the-hole that would see him shift the match… heavily. The Steel-Type move Heavy Slam deals damage based on the difference in weight between the attacker and its target, hitting at 120 Base Power if the target amounts to less than 20% of the user’s weight. With Sylveon weighing-in at 52 pounds while Wailord weighs 877 the difference in the two is beyond severe and, so, every single hit would be coming-in at maximum power. Though the move wouldn’t benefit from the STAB bonus or the boost from Choice Specs thanks to it being a Physical Move damage being dealt from the super-effective bonus alone would make it debilitating. With Wailord’s own health pool being large enough to weather whatever Sylveon might send at it the match would have all the makings of a sweep, giving Wailord an easy win.

VS GALAREON RAPIDASH
Againts Bede’s Rapidash Joey would go with his Feraligatr, Alligator’s Sword. Much like the matchup between Wailord and Silveon, neither Feraligatr or Rapidash would have a weakness to the other’s typing and so the contest would appear to be even at first glance. Feraligatr knows the Steel-Type move Iron Tail however which, when stacked with the buffs from his Sheer Power Hidden Ability and Life Orb Held Item, would end up hitting at just under x3.5 with every hit. Considering Iron Tail hits at a Base Power of 120 and has a chance to lower the target’s defenses with every hit it would only take a couple of hits to put Rapidash down, meaning that even with the chance of missing present within the move, it wouldn’t take much to put his target on-ice. With the moves that would be coming at him in return only hitting for standard damage, too, it would make for a disparity of damage that should see Feraligatr carving-out a solid win.

VS PRIMARINA
Against Primarina Joey would bring-out his Dragonite, Baby Dragon. His Dragon-Typing would be vulnerable to Primarina’s Fairy Moves, but the same applied for their own Water-Typing thanks to Dragonite’s Thunder Punch. Thanks to being a Dual-Type the weakness from both of them was lessened compared to what it would have been as Mono-Types but it would still be a race to the top in terms of damage output. Thanks to his Multiscale Ability he’d be able to open with Dragon Dance without worrying about getting hit with an alpha strike by his opponent, and that extra offensive boost would be enough to give him the edge. Putting out super-effective damage with every move and having a 1/10 chance to paralyze the target would mean that there’d be a fair chance of getting a lucky break to really let him break-out but, regardless of who came out on top, whichever Pokemon was left standing would be a hairs-breadth from knockout.

VS TINKATON
Against Bede’s Tinkaton Joey would send forth his Ceruledge, Gearfried the Iron Knight. With weaknesses to neither Fairy nor Steel he’d be in an excellent position to deal-damage as Tinktaton was vulnerable to Fire-Type Attacks. Opening with a Swords’ Dance and following it up with a Flare Blitz would deal serious damage but, more importantly, activate his Flash Fire Ability. The ability would see the recoil absorbed and all further Fire Damage he put-out increased by x1.5 which, when combined with his STAB bonus, Life Orb Held Item, and super-effective damage would be see any Fire-Move he put out hitting at over x5 its regular damage. Spamming Bitter Blade from then on would continue to do potent damage, but would heal for 50% of any of the damage dealt. This would effectively allow Ceruledge to fully heal itself with almost every hit, and mean Tinkaton would functionally have to land a one-hit-knockout if it wanted to stay in the fight. With things so lopsided a victory for Ceruledge would be all but assured, landing yet another win for Team Joey.

VS HATTERENE
Against Hatterene Joey would send in his Bisharp, Legendary Knight Hermos. Bisharp would be in a similar boat to Ceruledge’s match, as both he and his opponent are vulnerable to one of each other’s Typings. In another race for the top buffing his damage output would be the key to victory, so opening with a Swords’ Dance would give the edge he needs. Kicking-off the damage output with a Knock-Off would let him do solid damage while simultaneously depriving his opponent of whatever Held Item they may have up their sleeves. Following-up with barrages of Iron Head would allow him to keep up a barrage of super-effective damage while also having a solid chance of causing them to Flinch, giving even better chance that Bisharp could pull-ahead and bring Hatterene down. With a good chance to come out on top in the blow-for-blow Bisharp should be able to take the day.

CONTINGENCIES AND AUDIBLES
As a standard closer is the idea that plans can certainly go in ways differently than the planner intended and, in cases like these, it’s important to have your ducks-in-a-row so that you’re able to respond accordingly to how the battle goes. Like he always does in these League Battles Joey would have a stockpile of restorative items like Hyper Potions and Full Restores ready-and-waiting to use on his team should they fall low health. With the majority of his matchups favorable towards his team, too, any of his Pokemon that might be unfortunate enough to be knocked-out prior to defeating their assigned opponent would have their matchup subsequently taken-on another of Joey's Pokemon. With the majority of victories looking like they would tidy victories any of the Pokemon tapped to serve as a "Round 2" would almost certainly be in better condition than their opposition. Even if things went quite badly attrition would be Joey's friend, as each Pokemon his opponent lost would tips the scales further and further into his favor. Once the proverbial walls began to close-in on his opponent Joey would be able to control the match more-and-more, making victory all-but-assured.

Character: Joey Wheeler |

infernofireblast
Badge/Gym Leader: Elite Four - Koga
Team: "Charizard - LV100", "Dragonite - LV100", "Bisharp - LV100" , "Ceruledge - LV100", "Feraligatr - LV100", "Wailord - LV100"
Battle Details:
As a standard opener, regardless of who he goes up against, Joey would bring in Bisharp, Legendary Knight Hermos, and throw down a Stealth Rock to start the match off. Depending on what Pokemon his opponent opened with he would then switch-out to it's corresponding counter (With the possibility of Bisharp remaining on the field, of course, should luck of the draw have his preferred matchup come-up first). While this means it might take a hit on the way out it also would mean that just about any subsequent Pokemon Koga might send out will be getting around a quarter of their health knocked-off on-arrival. With his opener delivered, though, Joey would then change his active Pokemon to reflect the following matchups:

VS SKUNTANK
Against Koga's Skuntank Joey would send out his Bisharp, Legendary Knight Hermos. With his Steel-Typing granting him complete immunity to Poison and Dark being resistant to Dark he'd be in a very good position to weather attacks. On the offensive side of things he'd have to rely on his Steel Moves to do damage, which wouldn't be hitting for super-effective numbers, but would still be doing far more damage than his opponent. Opening by buffing himself with a Sword's Dance and then sending out repeated volley's of Iron Head would mean solid damage output, but would also bring a 30% chance to cause his opponent to flinch with every hit as well. With the ability to shrug-off virtually everything his opponent can send out while doing fine numbers himself it would make for a very one-sided battle and should let Bisharp take the day.

VS VENOMOTH
Against Venomoth Joey would send out his Charizard, Red-Eyes Black Dragon. His Fire/Flying-Typing has weaknesses to neither Poison or Bug while his own Fire-Type Attacks will be super-effective against Venomoth, making the scales tipped solidly in his favor. Starting off with Sunny Day to lay the groundwork for further buffs, he would then begin sending-out barrages of Flamethrower. With the Sunny Weather, his Wise Glasses Held Item, the STAB bonus, and super-effective in the mix each hit would be landing at nearly x5 damage for every hit while his opponent would only be landing at the standard damage. This damage disparity would mean Venomoth would be very likely finished-off by the time the Sunny Weather dissipated, with Charizard as a clear victor.

VS TOXICROAK
Against Toxicroak Joey would use his Dragonite, Baby Dragon. Dragon-Type is weak to neither Poison nor Fighting, while Flying even possesses resistances against the latter. With defenses further bolstered by his Multiscale Ability halving the damage on whatever Toxicroak's opening salvo would be Dragonite would be in a solid position defensively. Thanks to Fighting's vulnerability to Flying-Type Moves, too, bombarding his opponent with the hard-hitting Hurricane Move would do punishing damage while also having a respectable chance to confuse them. Overall it would be another matchup in which the odds heavily favored Joey, and should result in netting another victory.

VS SWALOT
Against Swalot Joey would send out his Ceruledge, Gearfried the Iron Knight. While his regular Bitter Blade/Flash Fire combination wouldn't be effective in this matchup his Ghost-Typing would mean that he'd have resistances against at least half of the attacks coming his way. Swords' Dance would allow him to buff his attack power to make up for the lack of a STAB bonus, and then Psycho Cut would allow him to deliver consistently hard hitting super-effective damage. The moves inherently high chance to land a critical hit would also mean there's fair chance of just ending the fight in one-to-two hits, but that would be up to lady luck. Even just relying on the move's basic stats, though, Ceruledge should be putting-out punishing damage in comparison to the hits that would be coming his way and should give him the tools necessary to come out the victor.

VS CROBAT
Against Crobat Joey would send-out his Feraligatr, Alligator's Sword. Water-Typing has weaknesses to neither Flying nor Poison but his Ice Punch move, when stacked with the bonuses of his Sheer Power Hidden Ability and Life Orb Held Item, should make for a potent super-effective combo. Though unable to take advantage of the STAB bonus each hit would still be hitting at a multiplier of x4.5 and bring with it a 10% chance to freeze the target. Like with most matchups involving Feraligatr the sheer disparity in terms of offensive output should make for a solidly one-sided engagement, netting him a fast-and-straightforward win.

VS MUK
Against Koga's Muk Joey would use his Wailord, Fortress Whale. In what would doubtlessly be the simplest of his matchups against Koga's team neither Pokemon would have moves that were super-effective against one another or hold resistances to their opponent's typing. It would be a simple battle of artillery and, hopefully, that would be what would let Wailord come out the victor. With the stacking boosts of STAB and his Choice Specs Held Item buffing the already-powerful Water Spout move Wailord should be able to come out on-top and wash away his competition.

CONTINGENCIES AND AUDIBLES
As a standard closer is the idea that plans can certainly go in ways differently than the planner intended and, in cases like these, it’s important to have your ducks-in-a-row so that you’re able to respond accordingly to how the battle goes. Like he always does in these League Battles Joey would have a stockpile of restorative items like Hyper Potions and Full Restores ready-and-waiting to use on his team should they fall low on health. With the majority of his matchups favorable towards his team, too, any of his Pokemon that might be unfortunate enough to be knocked-out prior to defeating their assigned opponent would have their matchup subsequently taken-on by another of Joey's Pokemon. With the majority of fights looking like they would tidy victories any of the Pokemon tapped to serve as a "Round 2" would almost certainly be in better condition than their opposition. Even if things went quite badly attrition would be Joey's friend, as each Pokemon his opponent lost would tip the scales further and further into his favor. Once the proverbial walls began to close-in on his opponent Joey would be able to control the match more-and-more, making victory all-but-assured.

Elite Four Challenge 3/5 (Divided-Up Due to Text Limits)

infernofireblast - 2023-05-03 04:04 (UTC) - Expand

Elite Four Challenge 4/5 (Divided-Up Due to Text Limits)

infernofireblast - 2023-05-03 04:06 (UTC) - Expand

Elite Four Challenge 5/5 (Divided-Up Due to Text Limits)

infernofireblast - 2023-05-03 04:06 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

indigo_league - 2023-05-04 22:22 (UTC) - Expand

Character: IV |

4play
Badge/Gym Leader: Storm Badge - Chuck
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Fletchinder, Noibat, Sprigatito, Shuppet, Fuecoco, Rookidee
Battle Details:

vs Hitmonlee
Since Hitmonlee's only elemental attack is fire-based, IV is going to send Ruin the Fletchinder into this fight. It's fighting and fire dual-typing lets it only take half the damage from whatever attack Hitmonlee is going to throw at it, while it can shine by first upping its chance to further evade any attacks by means of things like Agility, Quick Attack and Tail Wind and then raining down flying attacks like Aerial Ace, Fly and Acrobatics on its enemy. Even if Hitmonlee manages to hit the small bird it can still recover using Roost while its ability Flame Body might end up leaving Hitmonlee with Burn status after making contact.

vs. Hitmonchan
Beast the Noibat is IV’s choice poison for this round. While it's generally rather difficult to punch a tiny bat out of the air (Hitmonchan's three time the size of Noibat’s full wingspan), Noibat is going to add to the confusion by using Double Team before continuously using Supersonic on its opponent. With a little luck this will be enough to make Hitmonlee either knock itself out or run into one of Noibat’s many flying type attacks like Air Cutter, Air Slash and Hurricane and allow it to land a critical hit.

vs. Poliwrath
IV’s Sprigatito, Macabre, and Gimmick the Shuppet will be tackling this round. Sprigatito will go first, using its fairy and grass attacks to weaken and sap away on Poliwrath’s health. Once Sprigatito's own health is running low, IV will have it use U-Turn to switch out with his Shuppet, which will once again use the Destiny Bond + notably lower level combination while forcing Poliwrath also to rely on its elemental attacks only thanks to its ghost typing.

Should any of these strategies fail IV has brought his Fuecoco and his Rookidee with him. Both have either a type advantage in either offense or defense against fighting types.

No Magicarps were hurt during this fight. (For once.)

Badge approved!

Character: Keldor |

behindblueskin
Badge/Gym Leader: Bugsy/Azalea Town
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Fushimi | Sugi | Zefa | Shishito
Battle Details:

Against Pinsir

We start things off with one of Keldor's latest acquisitions from prom; namely Fushimi. Since she's got the level disadvantage going in despite having the type advantage, her two jobs are 1: gain EXP, and 2: lend an assist to Sugi in the form of a couple Embers and maybe a Tackle or Bite, then recalled and Sugi sent out to help finish things up with a Quick Attack-turned-Wing Attack. With luck, that should seal the deal. If not, well, there's always Feather Dance.

Against Heracross

Once that's over, and the feathers are swept away, it's time to send in Zeta the Corviknight. Oh dear. It looks like Heracross is starting to sweat. While its Fighting type should, in theory, help it stand up to a Steel type, it's the fact that both Fighting and Bug are weak to Flying types that's got the blue beetle feeling nervous. You'd think that'd have Keldor feeling more charitable towards his opponent, but you don't win badges through mercy, so, after a Hone Claws, it's time to squash this six-legger with a Drill Peck and a Brave Bird.

Against Scizor

Today's just not the day to be double-weak to something, because when Shishito enters the ring, the poor mantis is gonna be feeling the heat. Torch Song might make some people sing along, but Scizor won't be providing a duet tonight, and Will-o-Wisp won't make it feel like dancing to the tune, either. That won't be the end of its woes, because thanks to Torch Song that Flamethrower is gonna hurt really, really badly.

Edited 2023-05-10 07:27 (UTC)

Badge approved!

Character: Bruno Bucciarati |

nellacerniera
Badge/Gym Leader: Lt. Surge, Thunder Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Laura (Gliscor, Lv70), Buttons (Skitty, Lv70), Nevio (Sandslash, Lv70), Angelica (Hisuian Lilligant, Lv70), Cetriolo (Gastrodon, Lv70)
Battle Details: So, Electric-types. Bucciarati is fairly certain he probably has this, but hey, who knows.

It's actually not Buttons out first against the Electabuzz, but rather, Laura the Gliscor... who is mostly coming out to set up three layers of Spikes.

It's only after that that Buttons will be entering with Fake Out, as per usual. From there, Bucciarati will be ordering the Skitty to use Attract at the first opportunity--it's got a good chance of sticking, after all, and that's something Bucciarati's going to bank on for this part of the battle (as well as hope the infatuation keeps kicking in when he needs it...). From there, the Skitty will alternate between Charm and Tail Whip--yes, most of Electabuzz's moves are Special rather than Physical, but the possibility of Low Kick is just worrying enough that Bucciarati would rather the damage be minimized. Once the Electabuzz has been worn down with Charm and Tail Whip, Bucciarati's actual offensive starts: and it's a lot of Buttons using Dig. Static and any resulting paralysis isn't much of a deterrent--after all, being paralyzed gives Buttons a huge boost when she uses Facade, and when that runs out of PP, Buttons can just fix herself right up with Heal Bell. If Buttons starts getting low on HP, she will use Sing, and then Dream Eater if Sing takes! Otherwise, it's Dig, Facade, Play Rough, and Payback until either Buttons or the Electabuzz go down.

In the case that Buttons goes down first, it'll be Nevio the Sandslash out to replace her. There's not much to say here, except that Nevio will be using Bulldoze and Sand Tomb until Electabuzz goes down, alongside Rest if he needs to top up on HP (and Snore to stay on the offensive despite being asleep).

Regardless of whether Bucciarati has Buttons or Nevio out when Electabuzz goes down, either Pokemon is being withdrawn in favor of sending out Angelica. When sent out, the Hisuian Lilligant is immediately using Sleep Powder to try to put the Magneton to sleep, and using this until it works. Once the Magneton is asleep, Angelica will be using Sunny Day for that sweet, sweet Chlorophyll boost. From there, Bucciarati will order her to use Victory Dance. After that, it's simply a matter of using Rock Smash and refreshing Sunny Day. If Angelica's HP gets low, she'll use Synthesis if Sunny Day's still going, or Drain Punch if Sunny Day hasn't been refreshed yet.

Now, if Angelica gets nailed with Supersonic, Bucciarati will switch her out in favor of Cetriolo the Gastrodon. Cetriolo will waste no time in letting loose with Earth Power and Bulldoze in hopes of taking out the Magneton as quickly as possible. If Cetriolo gets hit with Supersonic, Bucciarati will switch Angelica back in and switch back to the previous strategy.

Once Magneton goes down, what happens next depends on which of the Pokemon Bucciarati still has out. If he has Cetriolo out, he'll effectively carry on with the strategy he used against the Magneton--Earth Power and Bulldoze! There might also be an occasional Mud Bomb thrown in for flavor, Protect used occasionally, and then Recover when the Gastrodon's HP gets low. If Cetriolo does end up close to fainting, well and truly cornered, and out of HP for healing moves? Memento.

If Bucciarati has Angelica out... she's getting withdrawn immediately in favor of Laura. The Gliscor will kick things off with Sandstorm, and from there, Bucciarati orders her to start using Sand Attack to reduce Raichu's accuracy and Swords Dance to increase her own attack (while refreshing Sandstorm as necessary). Once Raichu can barely hit her and her attack has been maxed out, Laura will start using Earthquake repeatedly in hopes of ending the fight quickly.

If Cetriolo or Laura go down, Bucciarati will swap to the other and use that respective strategy. Should the other go down, out will come Nevio with Sandstorm, Sand Tomb, Dig, and Earthquake. Nevio will use Rest to keep his HP up and Snore to stay on the offensive while asleep, and Protect if Bucciarati sees the need to use that! Angelica will be prioritized next if Nevio goes down, the Hisuian Lilligant using Poison Powder, followed by Magical Leaf, Petal Blizzard, and Giga Drain+Mega Drain. If Raichu's still up after these? Leaf Storm and Close Combat as last resorts.

Should Bucciarati be left with Buttons, he will have her use Attract immediately and use a similar strategy that he did against Electabuzz--Dig, Facade, Play Rough, and Payback, with a Sing+Dream Eater combo if she needs to restore her HP and Heal Bell if Paralysis from Static gets annoying.

Character: Bruno Bucciarati |

nellacerniera
Badge/Gym Leader: Janine, Soul Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Celeste (Metagross, Lv70), Buttons (Skitty, Lv70), Teodoro (Slowpoke, Lv70), Cavolo (Corviknight, Lv70), Ciarduna (Talonflame, Lv75)
Battle Details: So, Bucciarati actually took a bit to fully decide on a team here, and he's mostly got his fingers crossed this will work out.

Much like his battle against Lt. Surge, Buttons is not the first one out. No, instead it's Celeste out first for one major reason: Stealth Rock. After the entry hazard has been set and the Metagross has used Scary Face on the Crobat, Bucciarati withdraws them to send out Buttons. While she uses Fake Out upon entry as usual, she won't be sticking around much longer after that. No, she just uses Thunder Wave (because speed is the major concern with a Crobat) before she, too, is withdrawn. Instead... perhaps surprisingly, Teodoro gets sent out. The Slowpoke uses Psychic Terrain first, mainly to power up his Psychic-type moves. From there, it's really just a matter of using Psychic, Confusion, and Zen Headbutt. Bucciarati has Teodoro refresh Psychic Terrain when needed, Slack Off will be used to restore HP, and any pesky Bites are met with a Disable. Luckily, thanks to Own Tempo, Supersonic won't be an issue!

That being said, if Teodoro goes down prematurely, it'll be time for Celeste to return to the battlefield. If Psychic Terrain is still up, the Metagross will almost certainly benefit from it, with their own Psychic, Confusion, and Zen Headbutt. In addition, Celeste has a super-effective Rock Tomb, even if they don't get STAB from it.

Ideally that'll be enough to take the Crobat out. However that gets done, Teodoro or Celeste won't be staying out to battle Ariados. No, instead, it'll be Cavolo brought out. Cavolo leads with Taunt to shut down all that potential status move nonsense, and he'll follow that up with Swagger to stack confusion on top of it. A bit risky, but not exactly playing with fire given all of Corviknight's resistances. From there, Cavolo uses primarily Fly (the semi-invulnerable turn is very appealing) and Drill Peck, refreshing Taunt as needed.

If Ariados goes down at Cavolo's... talons, Bucciarati will keep the Corviknight out and repeat more or less the same strategy with Venomoth, with Taunt being especially important here. (Although, Bucciarati will opt to not use Swagger this time--that Venomoth could have Tinted Lens, and Bucciarati's not willing to test that out.) That being said, Pluck will also be added to the rotation of Flying-type moves in this case if one of the others runs out of PP.

Now, if Cavolo happens to go down, Bucciarati will send out Ciarduna. The Talonflame will be doing her best to work quickly to take the Ariados or the Venomoth down, using moves like Heat Wave, Fly, and Acrobatics in order to capitalize on the Bug type's weaknesses, using things like Flame Charge and Aerial Ace if the other moves run out of PP.

If Ciarduna happens to get taken out, Celeste will be coming back out. This time, they'll lead off with Sandstorm and after that start hammering away at Venomoth with the remaining Psychic-type moves they have the energy for as well as Rock Tomb. If Celeste goes down and Teodoro hasn't been KO'd already, it'll be the Slowpoke's turn again.

With. Something of a surprising TM investment: Flamethrower. Good lord, Bucciarati. That being said, that's not the only thing the Slowpoke will be using in case of Venomoth--in fact, Bucciarati will be having Teodoro start off with Yawn, and otherwise hammer away with Psychic type moves, including Dream Eater. He has a similar strategy for if he's forced to resort to Buttons, replacing Yawn with Sing. The Skitty might be limited to Zen Headbutt in terms of Psychic-type moves, but she does have one more card to play if she gets poisoned: Facade.

Hopefully, though, all this will be enough for Bucciarati to walk away with the badge.

Badges approved!

Character: Riz Gukgak |

nightyorb
Badge/Gym Leader: Brock / Pewter City / Boulder Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular Team
Team: Tumble Dry the Flapple (lvl 40) (Holding Clear Amulet); Niknik the Wishiwashi (lvl 79) (Holding Sitrus Berry)
Battle Details:

You know him, you love him. This battle starts with the return of Tumble Dry the Flapple! After his first big win in Cerulean City, he's come now to kick some rock butt. He might even go all the way! Riz and him are certainly trying to make that happen!

Now, for the basics first, which will be the same for all opponents -- Tumble Dry is a Grass/Dragon type, meaning he has a resistance to ground moves, and no particular weaknesses to Rock or Normal, which covers most of the moves Brock can actually use. Additionally, all of Brock's pokemon are ground/rock types, which have a 4x weakness to Grass.

Tumble is holding a Clear Amulet, protecting him from having his stats lowered by his opponents.

So. Let's begin.

Because of their similar typing and weight (yes, important to Riz's strategy), Riz is going to have Tumble Dry use the same strategy for all of Brock's pokemon. He's also going to try and have Tumble Dry take on all the opponents, though he brought Niknik the Wishiwashi with him as back-up. Her water type is as devastating to these rocky boys as Flapple's grass typing is.

Riz is going to start off each encounter with a heavy hitter -- Grass Knot. Grass knot does more damage against heavy opponents, and Brock's pokemon are respectively 253.5 lbs (Rhyhorn), 661.4 lbs (Golem) and 463.0 lbs (Onix). That means this move does 100 points of damage to Rhyhorn, and 120 points of damage to both Golem and Onix.

And that's before taking things like STAB and their 4x weakness into account.

Honestly, Flapple might just be able to one-shot each of Brock's pokemon, but even if he isn't, a second Grass knot should be able to take them out. If, for whatever reason, Grass Knot becomes unavailable, Flapple has Grav Apple too.

Riz is hoping that between the grass weakness and Tumble Dry's slightly higher level, he'll be able to sail through. But just in case something goes wrong, he's also bringing his Wishi-washi to the fight. If she has to step in, she'll be using Hydro-pump and Aqua Tail to hopefully end the battle quickly.

Badge approved!

Character: Minfilia Warde |

prayreturn

Badge/Gym Leader: Erika
Elite/Regular: Elite
Team: Here. She is using Chocobo, Nald, Yda, Zale, Fatebreaker, and Wild Rose.
Battle Details: It's been a while since Minfilia has tried using a team that isn't her regular ones - but she's doing it intentionally.

She leads with Chocobo the Archeops. Now, you might be wondering - what's the plan here? Tailwind, and then Aerial Ace. If Shiftry - or any of the other Pokemon Erika switches in - goes for an attack and it's super strong? They'll notice the Archeops is Focus Sash. And it knows Endeavor. And Quick Attack. Thus, the plan is to go for strong moves pre-Ability, then go for Endeavor and Quick Attack. If Tailwind drops and there's still no damage on Archeops, go for it again.
--
Nald the Pyroar, trained in this sort of thing, will try and burn any opponent first of all with Will-o-Wisp. Chip damage is important. And then go for Flamethrower. If he is close to death and can take one more blow, Endeavor. If he cannot? Overheat.
--
Yda, meanwhile, is going to go for Swords' Dance and Protect, holding Leftovers. Agility, too. And then she'll be going for Fire Punch and Aerial Ace. Notably, she's trying to avoid going up against Jumpluff with Yda.
--
Zale is a spice to switch in and out! Minfilia notes that Shiftry is the best physical attacker, so Intimidate isn't the best counter. So he's there for two things:
Torment to prevent set-up spam or trying to spam status moves;
Flamethrower. The good classic.
--
Minfilia notably doesn't speak to Fatebreaker - they seem to be fighting under their own power, with Minfilia just approving. He's waiting for a Pokemon that doesn't seem to have the ability to poison him, before going for Power-up Punch and Aerial Ace. But also, Hypnosis alongside his Wide Lens.

Why Hypnosis? For Dream Eater. Especially against the half-Poison-types. A bit of healing, a bit of nightmares.
--
And finally, a non-Mega-evolved Wild Rose. Minfilia keeps her starter close, after all! She's there for Fire Punch and Flamethrower support, with a bit of Covet to steal held items since she doesn't have one of her own. If a Pokemon seems to be abuisng their ability - like, speeding up under the sun, there's always time for Simple Beam and Play Nice if they're relying on physical attacks.

Badge/Gym Leader: Guys we need to beat Misty.
Elite/Regular: Elite
Team: Here. She is using Thancred, Sasaxia, Coeurl, Beaknette, Kraken, and Wild Rose.
Battle Details: Minfilia is leading with-- Thancred?! Her Pachirisu? Why??

Well, because she remembers her tourney, and she wants to show that she's learned to fight her weaknesses. With Magnet Rise (to dodge Ground-type moves) and then Seed Bomb, she'll go after Quagsire with Seed Bomb until it faints.

Other then that, Thancreds' moves are his usual. He will go for Nuzzle and Sweet Kiss, and Attract against any female Pokemon, before going for Electro Ball. Or Super Fang, against Milotic. If Thancred is close to fainting, he'll either use one last Electro Ball, or a Quick Attack.
--
After Thancred, her main special attacker is Sasaxia the Lilligant. She aims to use Sleep Powder against her opponent, before going for Teeter Dance and Quiver Dance, using Giga Drain as her main attack. A simple strategy, with a Lum Berry as insurance against status effects. If her opponent is about to knock her out, go for Sunny Day to weaken them as she goes down!
--
Coeurl the Liepard is also a simple strategy. Choice Banded Wild Charge. Yes, it'll knock them out, but it's also a good wallbreaker. Minfilia will save Coeurl for Lapras or Milotic. If it's out against Starmie and there's no Choice lock, she'll go for Crunch instead.
--
Beaknette the Sawsbuck is also a simple all-out attacker - using Horn Leech! And just Horn Leech. That is, after going for a cheeky Leech Seed.
--
Kraken, meanwhile, is a wall against water attacks. Switching in if a water move will kill one of her Pokemon, Kraken is sent out and then uses Imprison to block a lot of common moves for Water-types. This also blocks, for example, Starmie using Recover. She'll then go for Hidden Power Electric, or Shadow Ball, depending on the enemy - and using Recover to make himself more durable.
--
As always, Minfilia insists on using Rose the Audino, her dear starter. She will Mega Evolve, and use either Thunderbolt or Grass Knot, depending on the enemy. If she sees an opening, she'll go for a cheeky Power-up Punch and then Thunder Punch. hehehe.

Badges approved!

Character: Minfilia Warde |

prayreturn
Badge/Gym Leader: Blaine
Elite/Regular: Elite.
Team: Roster. She'll be using Mimi, Rhalgr, Moenbryda, Moenbroda, Tiger's Eye, and Kraken.
Battle Details: Now, Minfilia would usually lead with a Water-type. Perhaps a Ground-type. But instead, she's leading with... Mimi the Persian. First, she'll be going for a Fake Out, before going for a Rain Dance and switching out. That's right, she's countering in case Torkoal has Drought as its' ability. This is also why Mimi has an Eject Button - in case of being attacked, it means Minfilia can switch her out.

If Mimi is stuck in and has to fight, however, she'll be going for Nasty Plot and then Power Gem against any of her opponents. If the opponent is a Special Attacker, she'll also go for Swagger. If her opponent tries to set up? Taunt.
--
Rhalgr is being saved for Houndoom. While it's not likely, Minfilia is ready for Mega Houndoom - by using Dynamic Punch to confuse the Pokemon, before going for a Focus Energy and then Cross Chop if at high HP, Mach Punch if not. Why Focus Energy? To try and get crits, so that any burns can be countered. After Rhalgr comes out, he's not switching out. No matter who she's facing.
--
Moenbryda is Choice Band'd. She is still defensive, due to being trained that way. She's here for Earthquake, and Earthquake alone. Minfilia hopes that Moenbryda can fight Magcargo and/or Magmortar.
--
Meanwhile, Moenbroda is Choice Scarf'd. She is there for Aqua Tail. Yes, two Feraligatr! Honestly, Minfilia wanted to see how fun it'd be to use two of the same Pokemon, in similar but different roles.
--
As for a Ground-type... well, Carkol isn't that. But what Tiger's Eye has is Rock Slide and Earthquake, and Eviolite. Given time, said Pokemon will use Stealth Rock, before using Rapid Spin himself to speed up faster then others. Minfilias' plan is for Tiger's Eye to outspeed and out-strike her opponents.
--
Wait, Minfilia isn't using her starter? No. Minfilia also realised she needs a bulky Special Attacker, so she has Kraken. Kraken will go for a mix of Recover and Rain Dance to keep attacks weak - but prepared to strike. If Kraken has over 60% HP, Kraken will go for Water Spout. Under that, he'll go for Surf.

Character: Minfilia Warde |

prayreturn
Badge/Gym Leader: Janine
Elite/Regular: Elite.
Team: Roster. She'll be using Mammet, Tiger's Eye, Warburton, Flipper, Urianger, and Hisui.
Battle Details: Fast and dangerous is how Minfilia sees this battle, and thus, she's not taking chances. To counter Crobat, she'll be leading with Mammet. She knows none of her Pokemon outspeed Crobat...

...but Trick Room doesn't care about that, does it?

Mammet will lead with Trick Room, using a single Hone Claws, before spamming Shadow Sneak. She's holding a Lum Berry. If Crobat or any other Pokemon uses a field set-up move, Mammet will use Copycat. But Mammet is more there to soften an opponent, and show that Minfilia is going to use speed control.
--
Once Mammet faints, out comes Tiger's Eye. Still Eviolite. His goal is Stealth Rocks, to give chip damage. But first, Crobat has to go - so Smack Down > Earthquake. Same against Venomoth. Once the Defoggers are knocked out, Tiger's Eye will set up Stealth Rocks, and Spikes if there's HP to spare.

If he's still alive, he'll go for the Smack Down (on Weezing) > Earthquake combo.
--
It's Warburton time! Minfilias' strong Flygon, one of her first Pokemon. He's got his Rock Slide, he's got his Defog if needed, and he's got Dragon Tail to phase out annoying opponents. If they're not levitating or flying, he's got Earthquake or Earth Power, depending on their strengths. He's even got an Expert Belt! If he's about to faint, he'll U-Turn out.
--
We all know that Janine likes to use status moves. Buffs. Double Team, and the like.

So that's what Flipper is for. Her friendly Malamar. Janine might realise something is up when Flipper is switched in if she's used too much Double Team, or Swords' Dance, or any such move. No, no, she'll switch in the Focus Band Malamar, use Topsy-Turvy. And then switch him out.

If he's made to stay in, he'll use Torment, and then Psychic.
--
Urianger has noticed that Psyshield Bash seems to have been adjusted sometime. Still, he is ready and willing to fight. He will go for Attract on any female Pokemon, alongside Hypnosis. When there's time, he'll go for Psyshield Bash. Defense is still Defense!
--
Hisui is in the back as a Cleric. The old team version. Heal Bell to get rid of Poison, and Soft-Boiled to tend to herself. She is also there for Healing Wish if Minfilia feels its' needed - if one of her Pokemon is low HP and toxic'd, she'll likely sacrifice Hisui this way.

Badges approved!

Character: hitoka yachi |

chirpier
Badge/Gym Leader: falkner
Elite/Regular: regular
Team:

Battle Details:

▶️ Noctowl (L: 30) will be facing off against mint the alolan vulpix (L:30) and we should have type advantage here! we will likely start with confuse ray to lower the chances of noctowl getting hits in, then lowering its hp with STAB aurora beam. once we've got a foot in, mint will be using nasty plot to get a little more dangerous before using the more offensive STAB aurora beam and STAB icy wind. we've got a chance to stay in and beat noctowl, but if not, our next pokemon, lotus the togetic (L: 38) should finish things off pretty easy!

▶️ Honchkrow (L: 32) as mentioned above, lotus should take the lead with honchrow, starting it off with another status move, yawn, followed by nasty plot to make it hit hard and then STAB dazzling gleam and the rock type move ancient power. i believe we have more of a chance for togetic to survive this one, so onto the next!

▶️ Pidgeot (L: 35) lotus might not have too much time to waste, so we're going to use yawn again to make things easier for our next mate. lotus will try and get an ancient power in before going down and switching with poppy the hattrem (L: 35). poppy will take advantage of pidgeot's sleep by using STAB psychic and brutal swing, and when it wakes up: STAB psybeam for a change at confusion. life dew will be used to heal up any hp and stay in longer, but i believe this should be enough to take down pidgeot!

Badge approved!

Character: Ryou Bakura |

rolltoavoidpossession
Badge/Gym Leader: Jasmine | Mineral Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Chimera, Hinotama, Jotunn
Battle Details: Ryou is a competent trainer so far. He's beaten four gyms and is going for the fifth. Except here's the thing: he really needs an eye exam. He's been trying to hide it, make up for the problem by looking up the gym leader's teams beforehand and relying on audio cues/his weak vision to get by (most trainers tend to call their attacks, after all), but by now it's becoming more obvious. He had notable problems navigating Morty's darkened gym layout, seems to squint more than he should.

And now it's getting him in trouble.

VS Skarmory

Ryou will face Jasmine's Skarmory with Chimera the Dracozolt, who is going for a simple strategy of Charge+Bolt Beak. If the Skarmory gets too many stat ups for comfort, then Ryou will have Chimera use Dragon Tail to force a switch. However, it's entirely possible that Ryou might miss a stat boost in the rush of battle, so it's possible that the metal bird might get away with a use of Iron Defence or Agility. Not great, but possible to overcome.

VS Magneton

The Magneton will be faced with Hinotama the Lampent, who will lead in with Confuse Ray, followed by Double Team to increase evasion and Flame Burst for damage. It's a familiar strategy, and one Hinotama knows how to pull off.

VS Steelix

And this is where it all falls apart. Ryou intended to bring Wight the Cursola for the Steelix, but messed up when picking his team and instead brought Jotunn the Baxcalibur. And by the horrified look on his face when the ice dragon comes out, it's clear this wasn't intentional. He'll do his best anyways, trying to find some way to come out on top, and maybe he'll have a brief moment of hope when he sends Hinotama back out, but when his team consists of a Dracozolt, Lampent, and Baxcalibur and the opposing Pokémon is a Steelix that almost certainly has Rock and Ground moves, there isn't much chance.

GDI Ryou, please get some glasses.

Badge denied! (Please visit the optometrist, Ryou, everyone is worried you'll fall over a ledge.)

Character: Keldor |

behindblueskin
Badge/Gym Leader: Chuck/Cianwood City
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Sugi | Miryoku | Nami
Battle Details: When Keldor was sent to Cianwood City during Fourth Wall Weekend, he was pleased. When he found out who ran the gym, what kind it was, and what the rewards were, he avoided any and all doors and entrances to make certain he stayed put.

Once it was all over, the level-grinding began. A lot of serious level-grinding, but it was all worth it.

And now it's battle time, and the vistors intend to win, 'cause Keldor really needs that HM.

Against Hitmonlee

The end of Fourth Wall brought with it a trip to the Safari Zone to get some firepower. A level 40 Galarian Ponyta became Keldor's target, and it took a couple of visits and lots of bait to win over Miryoku, but win over her he did, and now that she's a Rapidash, she's eager to show off her moves against the kicking sensation, Hitmonlee, who's gonna need all its footwork to go up against something it's double weak to.

A blast of Confusion will tangle 'Lee's toes, some Agility on herself to make her harder for her opponent to land in a hit, and finally a Stomp/Psybeam combo to end things on.

Against Hitmonchan

Feeling mighty pleased with herself, Miryoku might not want to go back in the ball straight away, but if Sugi's going to have his turn, she'll have to. Once she's recalled, it's time to become speed and build up a Tailwind, so that the next 'mon will get a boost of their own. Unfortunately, Pidgeots don't learn any Psychic moves aside from Agility, so if he wants to make sure 'Chan's punches don't land, Sugi'll need some Sand Attack. With the breeze from Tail Wind, it doesn't take much to pull Hitmonchan's punches, and with a Wing Attack, the only blows being landed will be Sugi's.

Against Poliwrath

"Play Nice" sounds nice, but coming from a rather Impish Alolan Raichu, the effect it'll have on Chuck's Poliwrath will be anything but nice. And now that we're all getting along, we shouldn't have to worry about things getting violent, but just to be sure, a Thunder Wave will take care of what Play Nice didn't.

With that, it's now time to shock Poliwrath's world with a Thunder.

Cough up that HM, Chuck. Please.

Badge approved!

Character: Minfilia Warde |

prayreturn
Badge/Gym Leader: Blue, Viridian City
Elite/Regular: Elite
Team: Main list.
Team: Rose, Thancred, Moenbryda, Berry, Warburton, Alisaie

Battle Details:
Viridian City is where the best fighters are. And so, Minfilia knows she'll be fighting for the best.

It may seem odd, then, that she's leading with her Audino. And not Mega Evolving right away...? It's because Minfilia wants to see how Blue reacts. It's clear that they have a Mega Stone.

So, Minfilia will see if Blue will take the bait... by going for Misty Terrain. If Venusaur stays in, she'll switch to Psyshock.

But, if not? Minfilia will switch up moves. She predicts that Tyranitar would be switched in, thus she'd switch to Dazzling Gleam. Blastoise gets Thunderbolt, Charizard gets Surf, Pidgeot gets Thunderbolt as well, and Jolteon gets Hyper Voice. Either way, she will let Rose fight until she's at half HP, before switching her out depending on the opponent, to let Rose heal.
--
For Blastoise, Minfilia has Thancred. Minfilia feels she needs to use her dear Pachirisu to take on Blue, as a promise. He's empty-handed. And ready to Nuzzle. If Blastoise is female, Attract is on the table - but if not, it's time for Electro Ball. (Discharge may do similar damage, but Electro Ball hits better.) He'll also go for a cheeky Sweet Kiss now and again.
If Thancred is in against Tyranitar, Charizard or Pidgeot, he'll be going for Nuzzle as well. And depending on the Pokemon, Discharge (Charizard, Pidgeot) or Seed Bomb (Tyranitar). Venusaur? Also Discharge.
--
For Charizard, Minfilia has Moenbryda. And first of all, Moenbryda will use Block. Either this'll trap Charizard in, or it'll trap somebody else in. We'll begin with the Charizard situation. Screech, and then Rock Slide and Aqua Tail alternating. If Moenbryda is burned, then Facade.
Meanwhile, if she's trapped another? Same strat. Screech, and then a damaging move. And Facade for the times status changes things. (Tyranitar instead gets Whirlpool and Surf, no Screech.)
--
For Tyranitar, Minfilia has Berry. And only for Tyranitar. Why? Because Minfilia wants to show her resolve.
AKA... If Misty Terrain is already up... (if it's not, Berry will set it up...)

Misty Explosion. Yeah. Minfilia sees Tyranitar as the biggest threat to her team. (Berry has agreed to this plan.)
--
For Jolteon, Minfilia has Warburton. If Jolteon has Magnet Rise or an Air Balloon, Warburton will go for Feint Attack (to burst the balloon) and Boomburst. But, if not? Sand Tomb, and then Earthquake.
Warburton is also backup for Tyranitar, due to. Trapping with Sand Tomb, and then Earthquake or Superpower as a last resort.
Venusaur and Blastoise are also part of this. Charizard and Pidgeot would get hit by Rock Slide instead.
--
For Pidgeot, Minfilia has a combination. Alisaie the Meowstic will be going for Fake Out (of course), Gravity to prevent Roost, and then Reflect. After that combo and protecting herself a little, the Meowstic will be going for a single Nasty Plot, and then Psychic. Not even a super effective move...? No, Psychic is stronger. If it feels like Alisaie is about to faint, she'll switch to Sucker Punch.
If Alisaie is still all set up against Venusaur, Blastoise, Charizard, or Jolteon, Psychic is what she'll use. Tyranitar gets Magical Leaf instead.

-----

Character: Minfilia Warde |

prayreturn
Badge/Gym Leader: Brock, Boulder
Elite/Regular: Elite
Team: Main list.
Team: Cucumber, Wally, Moenbryda, Moenbroda, Bunny, Rose

Battle Details:
Now, Minfilia knows that Brock is usually the first. Perhaps that is why she chose to go to him last? Or perhaps she was Leery over his... flirtations.

But she has a plan. That plan?

It begins with the one, the only... Cucumber! Said Mamoswine will be using Hail to set up the snow (and remove any Sandstorm), before using Stealth Rock and Blizzard. Break sashes/Sturdy, and then go for the chill. If Cucumber seems close to fainting, he'll be using Ice Shard.
--
After Cucumber faints - if Kabutops or Omastar are out - well. Wally the Abomasnow comes on out. The Abomasnow has a Focus Sash, because Minfilia has a plan against the combo.

His plan is Wood Hammer. Yup, that's it. At least one of the Water/Rock-types should have fainted from that.
--
Now, it worked well against Blaine. So she's going for it again!

Moenbryda is Choice Band'd. She is still defensive, due to being trained that way. She's here for Earthquake, and Earthquake alone. Minfilia hopes that Moenbryda can fight Rampardos or Golem.
--
Meanwhile, Moenbroda is Choice Scarf'd. She is there for Aqua Tail. Yes, two Feraligatr! Honestly, Minfilia wanted to see how fun it'd be to use two of the same Pokemon, in similar but different roles.
--
Now, a lot of this is things Minfilia has done before. A single overpowered move. Weather to remove enemies weather. But she's using a Pokemon she hasn't used before in gyms next - Bunny the Cinccino! First of all, Bunny is able to use Sunny Day to remove Sandstorm or Rain Dance. And then... Bullet Seed. Technician Bullet Seed. If the enemy Pokemon sets up, Encore to trap them in a non-damaging move. And then more Bullet Seed.
--
And now, back to her starter. Always, her starter. Well, mostly. Rose will Mega Evolve right away, use Entrainment to get rid of any good ability, and then go for Ice Beam, Grass Knot, and the such... you know. Special attacks, for a special Audino. If Minfilia feels that it's coming down to chip damage, well. Rose can outlast, using Life Dew.

If it seems that they're down to the wire, Minfilia does have One More Plan. And that is... Simple and Baby-Doll Eyes. Because, once again, most of the threat is from the physical side.

Badge approved! x2

Character: Ryou Bakura |

rolltoavoidpossession
Badge/Gym Leader: Jasmine | Mineral Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Hinotama, Will-o-Wisp, Wight
Battle Details: Ryou's back, now with glasses so he can actually see what he's doing and not just fumble along! (And by the look on his face as he stares around the gym, he's still a bit overwhelmed by how much better his vision is now that he's dealt with the problem!)

He's fully expecting Jasmine to remember what he did last time, so he'll be mixing it up a bit this go around!

VS Skarmory

Ryou will open with Hinotama the Lampent, and in a break from his more usual status inducing tactics, will instead go straight for Overheat as an opener. If the Skarmory is still up after that opening blast, he'll then do some cleanup with Flame Burst to knock the metal bird down.

VS Magneton

Mindful of how Overheat would have lowered Hinotama's Special Attack, Ryou switches the Lampent out for Will-o-Wisp the Pumpkaboo and leads in on the Magneton with Trick-or-Treat to forcefully add the Ghost type onto the Magneton. From there, it's all Shadow Ball spam with maybe a few Pain Splits if Will-o-Wisp's health is getting a touch low and he thinks Pain Split will provide a health boost.

VS Steelix

Here we go again with the Steelix. This time Ryou actually managed to bring the correct Pokémon for the fight and sends in Wight the Cursola, who will open with Perish Song to put the Steelix on a time limit. From this point forward, it's just a mix of Hex for damage and Strength Sap as a health recovery measure as he waits out those turns, depending on what's more needed in the moment.

Notably, he's not out to make his own Pokémon faint and will switch Wight out for Will-o-Wisp on the last turn before Perish Song kicks in, sparing the Cursola from being taken out as well. And if the Steelix tries to use Crunch, it turns out that Wight was given a Colbur Berry to hold to help reduce the damage from a super effective Dark Type attack.

If he wins this time, it's going to be one heck of a triumphant way to earn his personal battle theme.

Badge approved! (And congrats to Ryou for winning the rematch!)

Character: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd |

nastyboy
Badge/Gym Leader: Janine for the Soul Badge
Elite/Regular: Elite Team
Team: Team of Dean the Emboar, Gremlin the Rattata, Shuck the Midday Lycanroc Demoiselle the Nidoqueen, Lavellan the Nidoking, and Silkie the Indeedee
Battle Details:

If there's one thing that has Dimitri worried about Janine's Crobat, it's actually less to do with the poison, and more to do with the speed that Tailwind can give it. But that's alright. That's why he sends out Shuck the Lycanroc up against them in the first round.

And right off the gate, she bursts out with a wild Howl, strengthening her up for the rest of her attacks this round. This will come in handy for things like Crunch which will not only deal damage, but lessen any speed boosts that Crobat might hope to get from Tailwind.

Of course, that's not the only problem with Crobat. The risk of being badly poisoned means Dimitri wants to settle this fast... Or, if they can't do it fast, then they can make it all the harder for Crobat to land a hit with multiple instances of Sand Attack.

Blinded with sand, Howls echoing in their head... That's the perfect set up for Stone Edge to hit Crobat hard. And if Crobat still tries to get ahead with Tailwind, Shuck isn't afraid to not only slow them down but hurt them bad with Rock Tomb.

And as a parting gift... She leaves behind some Steal Rock on that side of the field for future combatants.

The next match is a bit of a coinflip when going against Weezing, due to Dimitri not being sure if Janine's will have the ability that just makes other pokemon flinch, or if it'll be completely immune to ground moves. Despite that uncertainty, he still sends out Demoiselle the Nidoqueen in a hopeful move!

Granted, with Demoiselle, it isn't as though Dimitri can't work around that potential ground immunity anyway... As always with this kind of gym, the main threat is poison - and with Weezing in particular, there's Assurance and Destiny bond to beware too!

That's fine, too. Can a Weezing really try to make a bond when, instead, Demoiselle makes the first move with a bit of Flatter? Trusting her poor foe to be confused for a moment, she takes advantage of their weakness by going on the offense! Not only does she bite down hard with some Crunch in hopes of making them all the weaker, but she goes full speed ahead with moves such as Drill Run or Stone Edge to really hit hard and fast!

Maybe, if she's fortunate, with a tactic like this, they'll be able to take down Weezing quick before any of those self-destructive moves can take both of them out... But it's alright if not. She's fully prepared to go down with the ship!

And that's not the last Janinee will see of the Nido-line! Following Demoiselle up to match against her Toxicroak, Dimitri unleashes Lavellan the Nidoking!

In this case, it may be a rush to see who uses Flatter first to confuse their opponent - Toxicroak or Lavellan. Either way, Dimitri hopes they can put their opponent into quite a state before Earth Power can roll out through the battlefield!

In all truth, Nidoking is more of a physical heavy hitter than anything else... But that doesn't mean Lavellan is completely without tricks! For example, a ground type using water moves like Whirlpool! That means Toxicroak is completely trapped in place to the mercy of the likes of Surf, backed by Lavellen doing a little Focus Energy to hit even harder! Dimitri hopes that unexpected tactics like this will help them seize victory.

Following up this match up, against Janine's DrapionDean! On one hand, unlike with some of the others, there's no real type advantage here. But there's no disadvantage either!

This means Dimitri and Dean can just focus on going with the things that Dean does best - setting up with a massive Flamethrower and following up with Assurance to really hit Drapion where it hurts! After all, considering those poison moves and Venoshock? They know they're going to get hit with the same thing.

But what Drapion won't be able to mimic is Dean's ability to Protect himself. Anytime it looks like Drapion is gearing up for a really venomous move, up the shield goes. Dean doesn't plan on letting that Venoshock get him right down to the bones, nope!

Of course, when Drapion is using other moves is when Dean plans to return the favor, going hard with Rock Smash to soften his opponent up and Arm Thrust to get ever stronger. And if Drapion dares to try and speed up with a couple different moves... A Gyro Ball is waiting for them.

Things start to get fun and a little weird up against Arbok, because that's when Silkie the Indeedee steps out onto the field.

And she steps out in style, too, hesitating not even in the slightest to let forth the worbling effects of Psychic Terrain go out into the field. This puts her in the perfect position to shoot off some Psybeams, all to get Arbok confused and in a mess.

A bout of confusion, after all, gives her a little bit of breathing space where she can get a Calm Mind, and convince her new friend here to Play Nice.

Although maybe that's a little hypocritical, considering she doesn't plan on easing up on Psybeam, Psychic, or Swift... With plenty of Calm Mind sprinkled inbetween.

And then, finally.... the truth menace.

Venomoth.

For a foe with so much poison, confusion, health drains, and more powder than should be legally in any country, truly this is the biggest challenge of the match. There's no helping it.

In the face of such an enemy, Dimitri unleashes Gremlin the Rattata.

There's no point in messing around here. Gremlin bursts with a Thundershock right off the gate, so that he can rush forward and dig his teeth in with a Super Fang. Letting Venomoth get an inch means giving it a mile, after all, so they want to finish up quick! So Gremlin will bust out all the moves - Shadow Ball, Mud Slap, Bubblebeam, everything that will make Venomoth weaker and finish up the battle!

As always, one can only hope that things go according to plan... But Dimitri isn't afraid of using Pokemon who've already battled (potentially with the exception of Demoiselle depending on her match) to help clean up any of the others if things go south.

The exception, for once, is Gremlin. Dimitri wants him at full strength when he goes up against that Venomoth.

Badge approved!

Character: Eda Clawthorne |

mamalike
Badge/Gym Leader: Whitney, Plain Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Roster
Battle Details:
Eda heard Whitney provides a pretty big challenge, especially as a first gym. So did she do research...? Well, some! She read up on some general information for the Pokemon Whitney uses before she decided just training hard and going for it was the way to go. ~~There may have been an exclamation of "Who am I, Lilith?!"~~

While her two Meowstic will also be on-hand, Eda will mainly use four Pokemon: Queenie the Noivern, Carver the Sylveon, Grudgby the Cinderace, and especially Hooty the Flamigo. The idea is for this to be his time to show his stuff!

Still, first out is Carver so he can set up Misty Terrain. Eda has no patience for status conditions. Carver will stay in (and come in again at times) to use Sand Attack - evasion boosts are a favorite tactic here - and Hooty will not be used against Girafarig. Against that Pokemon, Eda will use Queenie, setting up with Double Team and hitting hard with Dragon Pusle and Air Slash as the go-tos.

When Hooty does get to battle, Eda will not hesitate to use Detect to keep him going longer, though his main attack will be Low Kick, especially if he gets to face off with Miltank. That said, Hooty is underleveled and while he has a ton of will to fight, he's not bright, which means he relies on his trainer to be quick with directions when things get rough. In other words, his instincts are lacking. As such, there's a good chance Eda will have to switch to Grudgby.

Grudgby has the Libero ability, so he'll go heavy on Double Kick to keep that Physical typing against Miltank. Eda will need to realize during battle that Clefable has the fairy typing that is a major weakness to a lot of her team... At that point, Grudgby will get in powerful fire attacks as long as he can, mixed in with Bounce to avoid some hits should things get rough. Also against Clefable, Carver will be brought in if needed, to set up Light Screen and Sand Attack, and then hit the opponent with a barrage of Quick Attack and Swift attacks.

Overall, Eda's approaching this with determination and drive, and a lot of heartfelt desire for her Pokemon to succeed for their own sakes and pride, but her information on Whitney's specific Pokemon is limited.

Badge approved!

Character: Riz Gukgak |

nightyorb
Badge/Gym Leader: Blaine / Volcano badge
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Niknik the Wishiwashi holding Clear Amulet (lvl 100), Puk the Kecleon holding a Sitrus Berry (lvl 97)

Battle Details:

Magcargo

Starting off against Magcargo, Riz will bring out Niknik his Wishiwashi. The reasoning is simple. She is a water type, which Magcargo has a x4 weakness to. Her type will also protect her from Margarco's fire attacks. Also, she is level 100.

Listen, if you wanted Riz to put more fancy effort into these strategies, you should let him take on elite teams already. It's not his fault he has to take on these gyms with completely over-levelled pokemon!

At the start of the battle, Niknik will go into her School form which boosts almost all her stats. From there, Riz will have her use Whirlpool to trap Magcargo on the field and deal some damage each round. Then he'll follow that up with Hydro Pump and Surf until Magcargo is down. Magcargo should be unlikely to inflict much damage to Wishiwashi due to the combination of her higher level and her typing, but should something powerful hit through anyway, Riz will have her use Aqua Ring to regain HP each turn.

Magmortar

For Magmortar, Riz will leave Wishiwashi on the field. Unlike Magcargo, Magmortar only has a 2x weakness to fire, but beyond that, not much changes. Wishiwashi still takes reduced fire from its fire attacks, and her level is still (unsurprisingly!) 100.

For this battle, Riz will simply repeat his early strategy of using Whirlpool, then Surf and Hydro Pump. Because Magmortar takes less damage from water attacks than Magcargo, he suspect he'll repeat this more often than in the first round. Once Magmortar's HP is getting low, he's switch to using Brine.

Again, if Wishiwashi's HP is getting low, he'll have her use Aqua Ring to regain HP on each turn.

Rapidash

Again, Riz is going to leave Wishiwashi out on the field. Depending on how she is looking, he might top up her HP with a potion at the start of the fight. But beyond that, it's again a fire type pokemon with a weakness to water against a level 100 water pokemon who resists fire attacks.

The strategy for this fight will be the same as the one in the last two.

One important thing to note is that if at any point Wishiwashi's HP gets lowered enough that she drops out of school form, Riz will have her use Flip Turn to inflict damage and switch out with Puk the Kecleon.

Puk the Kecleon has the ability Protean which changes his typing to the type of the attack he is using allowing him to always do STAB damage.

If brought in as a back-up to Niknik, Puk will use Aqua Tail and Ancient Power to target the weaknesses of Blaine's fire pokemon. Should he somehow run out of PP for these moves, he'll switch to using other normal, ghost or dark type moves in his arsenal (like Strength, Sucker Punch, and Shadow Ball), as these moves will make sure his type doesn't become one which is weak to fire type moves.

Badge approved!

Character: Ryou Bakura |

rolltoavoidpossession
Badge/Gym Leader: Chuck | Storm Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Hinotama, Will-o-Wisp, Haunt
Battle Details: Yeah, Ryou's walking into the Fighting type gym with a team full of Ghost types. RIP Chuck, probably.

VS Hitmonlee

Ryou will face Chuck's Hitmonlee with Hinotama the Lampent, whose typing makes him immune to anything the Hitmonlee can do. This immunity means Ryou doesn't need to spend time on setup, so he'll just have Hinotama go right into using Psychic. And if the Hitmonlee tries using Blaze Kick? Hinotama's ability is Flash Fire, making the Lampent immune to Fire attacks and giving him a nice boost to his own Fire attacks. If Flash Fire is activated, Ryou will take advantage of it and have Hinotama switch to using Flame Burst instead.

VS Hitmonchan

Hitmonchan actually has a bit more of a varied movepool, so this one will be a bit more of a threat. Or it would be, if he didn't decide to keep using Hinotama. Hinotama will actually use Will-o-Wisp to inflict a burn on the Hitmonchan in order to nerf those elemental punches it has access to, then go in for more Psychic (or Flame Burst, if Flash Fire was activated.)

VS Poliwrath

Ryou switches out to Will-o-Wisp the Pumpkaboo at this point, banking on his Grass/Ghost typing making him either immune or resistant to anything the Polywrath can throw at it. Even so, he's taking no chances, setting up with Worry Seed to change the Polywrath's ability to Insomnia in case it had Swift Swim, followed by Confuse Ray to get it confused to reduce the odds of it hitting (especially important since Polywrath has access to Belly Drum and Hypnosis), and finally Seed Bomb for damage. In case a Hypnosis actually connects, Will-o-Wisp is holding a Chesto Berry as a quick cure.

Ryou also brought Haunt the Yamask as backup just in case, but it shouldn't come to that.

Badge approved!

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