Badge Requests

[indigo_league]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Comments

[uncutetomboy]

Character: Akane Tendo | uncutetomboy
Badge/Gym Leader: Falkner!
Elite/Regular: Regular, baby
Team: S-chan (Luxray 41), with P-kun (Pachirisu 41) as back-up
Battle Details: Given all these birdbrains are weak to electricity, Akane's throwing her Luxray, S-chan, into the fray. If he faints or gets too low, her Pachirisu P-kun gets to step in to take his place. In general, she fights with a lot of overwhelming offense, but she does try to pay at least a little attention to status moves and type match-ups.

Mostly, S-chan alternates Charge with Thunder Fang and Spark. If P-kun has to sub-in, he'll use Spark, Electro Ball, and Discharge.

Character: Akane Tendo | uncutetomboy
Badge/Gym Leader: Bugsy!
Elite/Regular: regular plz
Team: T-chan (Tepig 45)
Battle Details: Okay, so, Akane is potentially doing something very stupid by just taking T-chan into battle without back-up, but he's her baby and she's very proud of him and she thinks that with type advantage he can totally one-shot this gym. Also, she brought a bunch of potions with her to help him get through this.

So yeah. Tail Whip and Defense Curl to lower their defenses and raise his, then Flamethrower the hell out of the bugs. Maybe use some Flare Blitz on the first one, with Akane throwing a potion at him to regain his health. Honestly, she's just relying heavily on (hah) fire-power.

[conniemaheswaran]

Character: Connie Maheswaran | conniemaheswaran
Badge/Gym Leader: Hive/Bugsy
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Naga the Dragonite and Chandrahas the Aegislash
Battle Details: Unfortunately for Bugsy, Connie's more in the mood to show off overwhelming power than clever tactics to Akane right now, and so she's sending in a Pokémon with 40 levels over his highest one in first: Naga the Dragonite. The strategy is depressingly simple: Dragon Dance as soon as she hits the field, then spamming Fire Punches until all the bugs are KO'd. If Naga is somehow taken out, Connie will bring out Chandrahas, power her up with Swords Dance, and just keep hitting the team with Aerial Ace over and over again. If Bugsy somehow deals with that... Connie will happily give the match to him, because holy shit dude those are some mad skillz.

Character: Connie Maheswaran | conniemaheswaran
Badge/Gym Leader: Fog/Morty
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Chandrahas the Aegislash, Artemis the Gallade, and Hercules the Pangoro.
Battle Details: Connie faces a challenge in this battle, as all of her Pokémon who are effective against Morty's team are also vulnerable to Morty's STAB Ghost moves, and they're all less fast than Morty's speedy partners. This will be a damage race. Connie will send out Chandrahas first, not even bothering with any setup and instead going straight for the throat with Shadow Claw spam. The level disparity between Chandrahas and the other ghosts as well as her titanic Attack stat, super effective move, and STAB will hopefully be enough to get through the Haunter and Misdreavus. However, since she's likewise vulnerable to Morty's Ghost STAB moves and has poor Special Defense and HP, that's likely as far as she'll go. Then she'll send in Artemis who will try to polish off the Gengar with Psycho Cut spam. While Artemis is still vulnerable to Ghost type moves, they have a much better Special Defense and has a respectable Attack plus their own STAB move that the Gengar is vulnerable to. If Artemis gets taken out, Connie will send out Hercules as a last resort and spam Crunch, but that's not likely to get her far.

[strings_theory]

Character: Jolyne Cujoh | strings_theory
Badge/Gym Leader: Falkner
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Here using Stone Free and Dickhead
Battle Details: Someone is upset and is going to take it out on Falkner with the most disrespectful manner possible.

Primarily this means using Stone Free who has an obvious type disadvantage but a huge level advantage to destroy some birds. She'll be using swords dance, sticky web, and protect to be absolutely obnoxious. Once swords dance is fully done then it's just x-scissor as far as the eye can see.

Dickhead is only here if backup. Even so he's using the tried and true rain dance and thunder combo.

Character: Jolyne Cujoh | strings_theory
Badge/Gym Leader: Chuck
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Here using Butterball, Jotaro, and Gum
Battle Details: WHO ASKED FOR GARBAGE.

So this battle is less of a challenge and more of Jolyne just seeing what kind of nonsense she can get into. Jotaro will be handling the hitmonlee via using tailwind to raise everyone's speed before flying to take advantage of that weakness.

Gum gets to handle hitmonchan via being an asshole and using sing to put it to sleep, charm to lower the attack stat, minimize to raise her evasion, and finally moonblast for damage.

Butterball gets to have fun with the poliwrath since water does jack and crap to him. Yawn will be abused to put it to sleep, disable to take out any awful attack, nasty plot to raise his special attack, and finally psychic for straight up damage.

[indigo_league]

Badge accepted for Falkner, but badge denied for Bugsy.

As much as T-Chan tries to keep his leverage against Bugsy's team, a singular Tepig will eventually be worn down by three bugs around the same level as him. However, Bugsy encourages Akane to try again later with some additional back up!

[indigo_league]

Badge accepted x2!

[indigo_league]

Badge accepted x2!

[uncutetomboy]

Character: Akane Tendo | uncutetomboy
Badge/Gym Leader: Bugsy, attempt deux
Elite/Regular: just regular my dudes
Team: T-chan (Tepig 61) and L-suke (Litleo 31)
Battle Details: OKAY SO! Mindful of Bugsy's advice to bring some backup when she challenges him again, Akane works super hard to level-up and train both T-chan and the new Litleo she met during the caturday swam. Just before she leaves for the treasure hunt with Korra, she warps back to Azalea so she can take him on again!

With T-chan, she's still going to use Tail Whip and Defense Curl to lower their defenses and raise his, before Flamethrowering the hell out of the bugs, but she'll also switch in L-suke to give him time to rest and heal--at least when Bugsy's bugs are male bugs, given the whole Rivalry thing L-suke has going on. He'll Noble Roar to get their attacks down and then gnaw at them with Fire Fang.

And hopefully T-chan's leveling and L-suke's help will allow her to carry the day!

Character: Akane Tendo | uncutetomboy
Badge/Gym Leader: Whitney!
Elite/Regular: just the regulars!
Team: M-kun (Butterfree 61) and S-ko (Drapion 52) + C-kun (Crabbrawler 37), Mousse-fetch'd (Galarian Farfetch'd 33) and Ryo-ful (Bewear 33)
Battle Details: Since the treasure hunt team is meeting in Goldenrod before they leave, Akane figures she might as well challenge the gym there before they go! Although she's definitely annoyed that Whitney went and cheated by having dual-type pokemon that resist Normal's usual weaknesses. What's up with that?

Against Girafarig, she sends in M-kun, her Butterfree, who'll do a beautiful Quiver Dance to raise his stats before String Shotting the Girafarig to hobble its movements and then going in with Bug Bite and Bug Buzz.

Against Clefable, Akane sends in S-ko, her absolutely terrifying Drapion, finally giving her a reason to have held back from releasing the then-Skorupi back all those weeks ago. Toxic to hopefully get it poisoned right away, then Poison Sting and Poison Fang and once she's sure it is definitely poisoned, Venoshock. Some Cross Poison to make crits land more easily.

Finally, against that darn Miltank, Akane's going to be using most of the rest of her battle team slots to field in a couple fighting types, since she doesn't have a single one on the same level as Whitney's Miltank. Hopefully together they'll be enough!

C-kun, her Crabrawler, starts her out, with Power-Up Punch and Crabhammer, then Reversal when he starts getting low on health levels. Once he's spent, in goes Mousse-fetch'd, who Rock Smashes to lower the Miltank's defense and Detects to avoid getting hit. HOPEFULLY, Mousse-fetch'd will be enough to take Miltank down, but if not, in goes Ryo-ful whose job is to use Bind and his immense strength to literally hug Miltank until it passes out.

[conniemaheswaran]

Character: Connie Maheswaran | conniemaheswaran
Badge/Gym Leader: Plain/Whitney
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Cú Chulainn the Scizor and Chandrahas the Aegislash
Battle Details: The battle will start before Connie even enters the gym, since Connie will specifically plan to take on Whitney on the 18th to minimize the effect of her Clefable's Moonlight. After playing second fiddle to the rest of the team for so long (in the Pokémon's humble opinion), it's finally Cú Chulainn's time to shine! Since Girafrig's Power Swap and Guard Swap moves makes setup a dangerous proposition, the Scizor will open up by attacking the Girafrig X-Scissor, taking advantage of STAB and type advantage to cut Whitney's first Pokémon down to size. Girafrig is on its last legs, Cú Chulainn will take advantage of its low Speed to prepare for the next matchup with a Swords Dance after Girafrig has gotten its hit in, then on the next turn will use Bullet Punch powered up by another type advantage, STAB, and Technician to boot to finish the enemy off before it has the chance to steal the bonus. Since Cú Chulainn has impressive Defense, a Sp. Def boosting Nature and Characteristic, and resistance to the vast majority of Girafrig's moves, she should escape this fight with minimal damage.

In Connie's opinion, Clefable is the most dangerous foe in Whitney's roster, just out of sheer unpredictability through its Metronome move. With the Swords Dance set up from Girafrig's fight, Cú Chulainn will avoid setup (due to Encore being in its repertoire) go for the throat with multiple STAB, Attack-boosted, type advantage Iron Heads to take the Clefable down ASAP. Even if the Clefable tries debuffing the Scizor with Charm, Cú Chulainn's considerable natural Attack stat and Swords Dance should negate it before it can do any real damage to Cú Chulainn's Attack stat. And just in case the Clefable lands a Sing, Cú Chulainn will have a Chesto berry ready.

Afterwards, the Miltank is basically a free win. Although it has a high Defense, Swords Dance and wave of Technician-empowered type advantageous Vacuum Waves should take care of it. Granted, it's likely to be an endurance battle due to the Miltank's Milk Drink, and if it starts up Rollout Cú Chulainn will use Iron Defense to weather the storm. In the unlikely event Cú Chulainn is taken out, Chandrahas will go out next, using largely similar strategies and move typings as the Scizor, and respond to the Rollout with King's Shield to keep from getting KO'd through type advantage and to bring down the Miltank's Attack by a whopping four stages.

Character: Connie Maheswaran | conniemaheswaran
Badge/Gym Leader: Storm/Chuck
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Chandrahas the Aegislash
Battle Details: This is Connie's first serious battle—shocking, I know, but Chuck's Pokémon are the only ones she's faced on a level comparable to hers that doesn't have a glaring hole in their strategies that she can take advantage of- ha ha, just kidding, Chandrahas is immune to 90% of their moves due to her Ghost typing. The formula here is depressingly simple: Swords Dance first turn to coincide with what's likely to be a Focus Energy setup turn for Chuck's team, counter their first move with King's Shield, which should also debuff their Attack since most of Chuck's moves are contact, use Swords Dance again while Chandrahas still has a titanic Defense and Special Defense, and then go to town with Aerial Ace. The only worry here is Fire Punch and Blaze Kick, and even then Chandrahas's Attack should be monumental enough after this point to take out the first two with little effort. (Chandrahas will also be supplied with a Figy Berry before the battle just in case.) In order to avoid Circle Throw shenanigans from the Poliwrath, Connie is only bringing in Chandrahas into this battle, who should be more than enough to take all of them down anyways, especially with 20 levels on Chuck's team.

[strings_theory]

Character: Jolyne Cujoh | strings_theory
Badge/Gym Leader: Jasmine
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Here using Kentucky, Ermes, and Countess
Battle Details: So at least she's not using just one Pokemon to sweep this gym, right? Right.

Countess gets to start things off against the Skarmory, knowing full well that she's way fast than that skarmory. She'll be primarily using flare blitz to deal with this bird. That's it, that's the strategy.

Ermes is here to exploit that poor Magneton's four times weakness to ground! By just using earthquake. If that doesn't work, say, if Magneton has some dumb floating stuff. Then superpower will be implemented to hit that fighting weakness instead.

Kentucky is here for that Steelix's number. By using a combination of sky uppercut and flare blitz. But not before using copious amounts of bulk up to make sure these hits land.

Character: Jolyne Cujoh | strings_theory
Badge/Gym Leader: Bugsy
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Here using Gurdurr, Jotaro, and Bomber
Battle Details: Sorry, Bugsy.

Gurdurr will be starting the battle out here to deal with the pinsir. By using bulk up to max attack status out before just hitting the poor bug with copious amounts of rock slide in order to get that good, good flinch and take advantage of the rock weakness.

Jotaro is hilariously here for heracross and will not be using fire moves! Surprisingly. Instead he'll be abusing fly to take advantage of the 4x weakness. And also to avoid damage for a turn. Oops.

Bomber gets his battle debut by dealing with scizor! And he's going to have a hell of a time. He will be maxing out his speed via agility to make this even worse on the poor scizor, and court change if Bugsy was smart enough to set up any kind of things like reflect or entry hazards. We can't be having that nonsense now. Otherwise Bomber will be using pyro ball to finish it off.

[fingersandteeth]

Character: Steven Durante | fingerandteeth
Badge/Gym Leader: he's gonna try to beat Morty!
Elite/Regular: regular team plz
Team: Charley (Misdreavous 55) and Fangorn (Phantump 63) + Orcrist (Doublade 45) and Erik (Litwick 34)
Battle Details: Hokay, so. Usually when Steven has to face a gym, he'll go with Pokemon who do extra damage against the gym's pokemon, but who also are less vulnerable to those pokemon. He can't do that here. The only type that would work with is Dark and he's only got one sufficiently high-level Dark pokemon and Matthew's part of his Rocket team. Steven is very scrupulous about making sure not to use his Rocket team for gyms, because he doesn't need them to be identified when the match is broadcast on television.

But the thing about Ghost pokemon is that they're also vulnerable to each other and Steven has plenty of them. So he's going to be bringing the two strongest ghosts of his main team for this, along with two of his more recent spooky acquisitions as back-up and hoping against hope that Charley and Fangorn's level advantage will let him carry this gym. And also, Charley's spell tag.

It's mostly Charley against the Gengar and the Haunter, because she's got a decent slew of psychic attacks as well as her ghost moves that they'll both be vulnerable to, But Misdreavus aren't vulnerable to psychic, so he'll be switching her out for Fangorn when Morty brings out his Misdreavus, then bringing her back for Gengar. Erik and Orcrist are mostly just waiting on deck to sub in if the other two go down.

ANYWAY. Charley's main tactics include Psybeam and Shadow Ball to lob damage, a Confuse Ray + Hex Combo to inflict extra damage thanks to the status effect, and a liberal use of Spite, Thief, and Astonish. (Being a chipped Rocket 'mon, she's utterly ruthless and sadistic in battle and honestly? Steven is altogether thrilled about this, even if he's not letting it show on his face.)

Fangorn is also about Confuse Ray + Hex because that's such a clutch move combo. He also abuses the shit out of Phantom Force. If it looks like he's about to faint, he's sure as shit going to throw up a Destiny Bond to take the one who KO'd him down with him. What the hell, he'll probably use Thief too at some point.

Orcrist, if he needs to be subbed in, will mostly just focus on Shadow Sneak and Night Shade.

And Erik, if subbed in, will also abuse our favorite Confuse Ray + Hex combo, while also hitting with Night Shade, Shadow Ball, and Astonish. Oh and he'd definitely be Imprisoning moves.

Since Steven himself specializes in ghosts, he really wants to win this badge. I'm not even going to lie.

Character: Steven Durante | fingersandteeth
Badge/Gym Leader: let's smack Chuck!
Elite/Regular: still on the regular, baby
Team: William-the-Bloody (Swoobat 47) + Charley (Misdreavous 55) as back-up
Battle Details: A veteran of Steven's match against Erika, William is no stranger to matches where he's got all of the type advantage and no level advantage to speak of. But at least in this case, the level disadvantage is much smaller than it was in Celadon, being only 3-8 depending on which pokemon he goes against.

William makes liberal use of Fly to avoid being hit whenever possible, then dive-bombing back into the fray. He also makes fine use of Air Slash and Psychic to smack his opponents with lots of damage. He definitely makes use of Attract if there's any female Pokemon on Chuck's team.

If it looks like William's about to go down, Steven calls him back and sends out Charley to play distraction. The Hitmons mostly just have Fighting and Normal moves, which can't hit her at all, and she'll taunt them with Psybeam and mad dodging until William's healed up and ready to go back in. Lather, rinse, repeat as much as necessary. Steven's brought potions. He knows what he's up against.

[uber_marionettist]

Character: Dirk Strider | uber_marionettist
Badge/Gym Leader: Misty
Elite/Regular: Elite
Team: Here
Battle Details: If Misty is actually leading with Quagsire, then Dirk is leading with Carnivine: Levitate protects Fermat from Ground type moves, Swords Dance boosts its Attack to an absurd degree, and Power Whip does 4x the damage, now boosted. But once it's down? Dirk swaps.

Because Dirk's real lead is Coalossal, equipped with a focus sash. He's relying a bit on the element of surprise here: Coalossal is new to this region, and while her typing might be guessed with fairly easily by looking at her, her ability is not. The strategy goes like this: Coalossal's first move is Stealth Rock. With the Focus Sash, she cannot be knocked out in one hit, so that's a guaranteed setup. Each time Misty sends out a new Pokemon, that Pokemon now takes damage from Stealth Rock. But while his Coalossal's doubled weakness to water means that she's going to go down quickly once she's hit with it, being hit by it at all also maximises her speed. So with her remaining strength and a dramatic boost in speed, she's gets the (proverbial) jump on the next turn and uses Explosion.*

He follows Coalossal with his shiny Sableye, DeBeers, who has a Mega Stone... but also has the move Retaliate: a move whose base power is doubled if a Pokemon from its party fainted the previous turn.

So, uh, if the opponent was still standing after Explosion, that's... probably going to hurt.

Sableye's strategy otherwise is pretty simple. His Mega Ability, Magic Bounce, reflects all non damaging moves used against him back on the user. Quagsire's Yawn and Lanturn's Eerie Impulse, for example. Lacking anything supereffective offensively, DeBeers instead relies on superior defences and the opportinity to stack as many disadvantages against his opponent as possible, including the use of Night Shade (a move that does not rely on an Attack or Sp Attack stat to do damage) and the higher critical hit rate of Shadow Claw (his Attack isn't too shabby, actually) to wear his opponents down.

And once he drops?

It's Machoke's turn.

Guess what his Machoke has?

That's right: Retaliate.

She also has Thunder Punch and Rest, the latter of which goes very well with a Chesto Berry to keep her in the fight. If Misty sends out Lapras, that's extra damage from Stealth Rock and Fighting type moves. She also has Toxic, to wear down opponents even faster. She will mostly focus on Thunder Punch and Revenge until she's used her Chesto Berry, and even then she'll wait until her health is quite low to break out Superpower.

Dirk will be quick to swap her out if faced with Starmie, however.

At which point he'll send out his Porygon.

You know, the one with Trick Room.

And Lock On, and Zap Cannon, and Recover.

Oh, and speaking of Trick Room, Lock On, and Zap Cannon: Pulse Train the Klinklang has the same three moves, an extremely helpful Steel typing, Electric Terrain to boost its (and PGP the Porygon's) electric attacks and prevent being Sung to sleep. It also has Metal Sound, in case those Zap Cannons (or Discharge, if it runs out of Zap Cannon) don't hurt enough. Against Milotic, though, it will instead use Screech.

Against Milotic, Dirk plans to use Fermat the Carnivine. Boosted by Trick Room or not, Fermat's strategy starts with Swords Dance and Gastro Acid, then Wring Out followed by Power Whip. If she starts stalling or self healing, he'll Swords Dance a second time, then begin Stockpiling, otherwise the goal is literally to hit harder than Milotic can defend against.



*Dirk and Empedocles agreed on this strategy ahead of time, and whenever they win, she gets to make one (1) purchase of her choice with the prize money. Joke's on Dirk, though. She fucking loves using Explosion. It's fun and the look on her opponent's face is gold.

[asmywitness]

Character: Tyler Huang | asmywitness
Badge/Gym Leader: Ecruteak Gym
Elite/Regular: regular all the way
Team: Team here, using Dexter, Caltrops and Jester
Battle Details: Tyler plans on opening with Caltrops to face off against the large target of Haunter, and will be opening with Autotomize and Magnet Rise to turn himself into a speeding cannonball of doom and start crashing around the stadium at ridiculous speeds. Any attacks that come at him, he'll flash on Protect, and will largely be using Heavy Slam to try and crush the Haunter - since Haunter weighs 0.2lb, he's going to do max damage even with the staggering weight loss - and fire off Mirror Shot and Zap Cannon to do ranged damage.

Dexter is planned to go against Misdreavus. Despite the slight level disadvantage, the use of Nasty Plot and Smog will shroud the battlefield in enough darkness that Dexter can be much more sly in its use of Inferno and Feint Attack, leading up to finishing off Misdreavus with a vicious flurry of Thunder Fang, Fire Fang and Bite.

Fighting the Gengar is a risky play: Tyler's using Jester, a Dusknoir. He'll open with Future Sight, to try and use that knowledge to gain as much of an upper hand on the speedier Ghost as possible. He'll use Bind next, and Shadow Sneak into range so he can wail on Gengar with Shadow Punch and Ice Punch. When Gengar breaks free, Jester will use Astonish to make it flinch, then Shadow Sneak to gain some distance and fire off a Shadow Ball or two before he repeats the whole thing. This is largely going to be a war of attrition, with Jester's increased defense stats. If things start getting dire, he'll use Curse and Gravity to slow the Gengar down further, and move onto staying out of reach until it gets too worn down to fight back properly.

[indigo_league]

Well done, Jolyne!

Hive Badge and Mineral Badge APPROVED.

[indigo_league]

Connie's strategy against Chuck is unconventional, innovative, and very risky... but also very clever!

Plain Badge and Storm Badge APPROVED.

[indigo_league]

Akane has definitely learned from her first challenge to Bugsy... she's gone a little overboard, in fact! Bugsy doesn't mind, though. He's glad to have seen her grow as a trainer.

As for Whitney, she's cutting it close with her strategy against Miltank... but with such high level Pokemon in reserve, she squeaks by!

Hive Badge and Plain Badge APPROVED.

[indigo_league]

Steven's strategy against Morty, while thorough, features a small but significant miscalculation: Hex doesn't get any stronger against a Confused opponent. It only doubles in power if the opposing Pokemon is inflicted with a status that persists when switched out or the battle ends.

With this in mind, the playing field is almost TOO even: Steven's Pokemon have a level advantage of Morty's, but Morty's Pokemon have evolved and Steven's have not. This match could be anyone's win.

But Imprison is a clever way to take advantage of a challenging matchup, and a Confused opponent is a vulnerable opponent. His use of Psychic moves against the dual-type Haunter and Gengar is also well-advised. Even though Morty uses many of the same strategies himself, Steven narrowly nabs the win.

Maybe it's the bond between Steven and his Pokemon.... or maybe it's that Rocket chip implanted... somehow... in a ghost....? Oh well, try not to think about it too much.

After all that, though, it's probably quite nice when the Storm Badge is a straightforward win!

Soul Badge and Storm Badge APPROVED.

[a_sin_for_him]

Character: Lust | a_sin_for_him
Badge/Gym Leader: Plain/Whitney
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Gym Team
Battle Details:

This is the fulfillment of a ridiculous dream Lust has had - challenge Goldenrod with only her Espurr babies. Definitely using the bit of level advantage she's got for physical impact and utilizing status attacks. Particularly Leer to weaken Whitney's team - especially the Miltank - and Reflect to boost defense.

[conniemaheswaran]

Character: Connie Maheswaran | conniemaheswaran
Badge/Gym Leader: Mineral/Jasmine
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Nemean the Luxray, Artemis the Gallade, and Jormungandr the Dragapult
Battle Details: Connie will open with Nemean the Luxray, who will stay on the defensive for the first few rounds of the fight by using Wild Charge to outrun Skarmory's attacks (without actually attacking the bird Pokémon, to avoid the recoil damage), the overwhelming electric aura around the Luxray concealing his form and the extreme speed of Wild Charge hopefully being enough to prevent the other Pokémon's moves from hitting. However, Nemean's case of the zoomies isn't a ploy for time—its true purpose is to tear up as much as the high iron-content ground as it can, freeing clumps of magnetic particles from the floor and scattering them around the arena, which Nemean will then magnetize and lift into the air with Electric Terrain. This obscuring cloud of magnetized metallic particles should conceal him from even the Skarmory's discerning eyes, but due to Nemean's "gleam eyes" talent as a Luxray, it can see through it perfectly. From there, Nemean will further cloak himself in the electrical terrain using Charge to sheathe himself in electricity, then lash out with a STAB and Charge-empowered Discharge to hit Skarmory where in hurts—with a type advantage Special move to contrast Skarmory's low Sp. Defense. In addition, since Discharge targets the entire field, Skarmory won't be able to pinpoint Nemean's location through the use of the move.

Once Skarmory is taken care of, Connie will swap out Nemean for Artemis the Gallade for what will be a much more straightforward fight: power up with Swords Dance, then hit the Magneton where it hurts with as much Close Combats as it takes to bring the other Pokémon down. Which shouldn't be a lot, due to the level discrepancy, but still. From there, Connie will send out Jormungandr to take on Steelix. Jormungandr's main strategy will be similar to Nemean's: evasion and deflection, using Phantom Force, Quick Attack, and a speed more than quintuple that of Steelix to dodge and evade its attacks. However, like Nemean before, Jormungandr has a deeper strategy: to literally tie the massive Steelix up in knots, using its clumsiness and serpentine body to lead it around and around in loops until it's tied up in an inescapable knot. Once it's sufficiently bound, Jormungandr will use Infestation to keep it there and U-turn to swap into Nemean. Nemean will then Electric Terrain and then alternate between Charge and Discharge until the Steelix is out for the count.

Badge/Gym Leader: Glacier/Pryce
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Artemis the Gallade and Cú Chulainn the Scizor
Battle Details: Unlike Jasmine's Pokémon, Pryce's don't have a monumental Defense, which makes this fight considerably easier for Connie to handle. Artemis will go in, immediately Close Combat the Dewgong to avoid its Horn Drill (which should take it out in a single hit due to the level discrepancy, STAB, and super-effectiveness), Swords Dance as the Lapras comes in, and Close Combat as many times as it takes to take out the Lapras and the Mamoswine. Should Artemis fall due to their plummeting Defense and Sp. Defense stages before they can take out the entire team, Cú Chulainn will pick up the slack, entering with a Swords Dance and spamming Iron Head until all of Pryce's team is down.

[indigo_league]

It's by no means an easy fight, but thanks to Tyler's strategy and his team's determination, Tyler will just barely be able to eke out a win!

Badge accepted!

[indigo_league]

Whitney is surprised by Lust's...unusual party composition. It's certainly a tough fight, given that all of the Espurr have the same exact moveset while Whitney's team has a variety of moves, but in the end, the battle boils down to these cute kitties wearing down Whitney's Pokémon.

Badge accepted!

[pangoro voice] ORAORAORAORAORAORAORA- ORA!!!!

[seacub]

Character: Emporio Alniño | seacub
Badge/Gym Leader: FALKNER
Elite/Regular: REGULAR TEAM
Team: Scoops the Diggersby, Bats the Pumpkaboo, and Cuja the Pangoro!
Battle Details: I call this challenge 'the first gyms deserve love too'

Emporio has taken his time to really consider how he wants to take the gyms, and after a bit of thinking decided he wants to take them seriously.

This is very unfortunate for Falkner.

As he told a few others, going at the gym with overleveled pokemon didn't seem in the spirit of the gym challenge. But going after it with the standard turn-based doesn't seem like taking it very seriously either! And as the gyms of Johto are about to find out...

Someone's taken lessons from Jolyne. (And sadly, unlike Jolyne, Emporio definitely isn't swearing- which means the smack-downs are going to be very publicized.)

Challenging first the notion that a Ground Type pokemon is useless against Flying, Emporio is leading with Scoops the Diggersby- a bit over-levelled, but Emporio feels that with the rabbit's stats and otherwise lack of advantages (read: the fact that he definitely can't use any ground moves here), it's fine enough. Much like Jolyne, Emporio doesn't give verbal commands of the typical sort- his first order is simply to 'disorient'-

But not for the sake of the pokemon.

A lot of flying pokemon, Emporio has noticed, have 'Keen Eye'- so while Scoops utilizes Dig and Bulldoze, it's not to get away or make a hit- it's to stir up as much dirt, ground, wood, and whatever else might exist in the arena until the very air is thick with it. It might not hamper the bird's ability to see, but it'll make it much harder for Falkner to give any true warnings and orders.

Scoop's next move is to use Laser Focus, as Emporio commands the rabbit to 'take aim, and FIRE!'...which is no doubt confusing until the end result. With Laser Focus upping the Critical Hit chances, Scoops Bounces up to make simple use of a Take Down- and that one is a STAB. Of course one hit isn't likely to do it- but once in the air and slamming a bird toward the ground, it's time for the repeated Take-Down....alongside Flail, a move which only grows stronger with Scoops' injury.

That strategy won't well work for all the birds though. As Honchkrow comes out, Scoops is being pulled back- and he'll be handsomely rewarded for working with this strategy. The next one forward however is going to be his Pumpkaboo- another curious choice, particularly since they're in an even worse situation than Scoops. The Diggersby, at least, didn't have immediate weaknesses. Bats? Has two, even if there is still a sizable level gap.

Emporio has confidence however, and tells Bats to 'use their surroundings'- and Bats does just that. While all the wreckage settles, there's plenty of shadows all around, and those are made use of while Shadow Sneak comes into play...until they're close enough to take the Honchkrow Trick-or-Treating. Before the Honchcrow can try much from there, Bats will be using Astonish and Confuse Ray to further send the Honchkrow off its game- and from here, combine the use of Scary Face with Shadow Ball in what's gone from a not-so-effective strategy to a Super Effective one.

There's only one more left however- and Emporio doesn't intend to have Bats face the last one either. While Falkner no doubt wonders what's next, Emporio sends out none other than...

Cuja. The burly bear is ready to prove her mettle here, type disadvantages be damned. It's clear from the get-go that unlike the other two, Emporio isn't having his Pangoro play sneaky either. No, instead all Emporio says is....

'Okay! You know what to do-!'

Pangoro opens with Taunt- goading the proud Pidgeot (not to mention indirectly a certainly irritated Falkner) into charging forward for a direct blow. Any attempts to simply use special moves find themselves buffered by the ruin around them- chunks of stone and wood used for shields while the bear continues Leering and using Work-Up as if to say, 'Is that all'? When the bird finally gets near, Emporio seems ready to remind the world that most birds aren't just flying...

They're also normal, making 'Fighting Type' a matter of standard effectiveness! with Low Sweep, the bear knocks the wind (and speed) out of the Pidgeot; from there she uses speedy moves like Bullet Punch and Night Slash to put that bird down.

...

Emporio apologizes for the damage after, but, as he nervously tells Falkner afterwards...he hopes he gave him a good fight?

[joekid]

Character: Johnny Joestar| joekid
Badge/Gym Leader: Falkner
Elite/Regular: Regular Team
Team: Abba the Ampharos, Animal Collective the Tropius, and Tusk the Dragalge
Battle Details:

Falkner may remember Johnny as the guy that was with Emporio (aka the eleven year old that laid the smack down with a Diggersby). Johnny, unlike his travel companion, has never considered playing nice and isn't going to start now.

In the spirit of being an asshole, Johnny's first Pokemon on the field is Ampharos. Over-leveled and with a type advantage, Falkner can probably taste Johnny's smug aura from across the gym floor. Falkner is also going to learn, very quickly, that one of Johnny's favorite techniques to to wait for anything to swoop in before commanding a quick Discharge from Abba. It covers an area, it's a STAB attack, and it looks cool as hell. It's perfect.

Should things start to look dicey for Abba, Johnny will happily switch in Animal Collective the Tropius. There is no type advantage here, and his grass typing is even at an disadvantage, but considering how over-leveled Animal Collective is, Johnny is willing to bet on his banana dinosaur. It doesn't hurt that Tropius can also fly, helping to maneuver and make distance between himself and any pesky bird. With high use of Leer, Magic Leaf, and Air Slash, Johnny has all the confidence in Animal Collective's abilities.

However, if things were to go very, very south, Johnny has one more friend in the wings: his Dragalge who is affectionately named Tusk. With the move Twister at his disposal, Tusk is a force to behold for a trainer like Falkner, as it can even hit Pokemon preparing to use moves like Fly. 1-2 combos of Twister and Hydro-Pump are Johnny's plan with Tusk. Is it the most cunning of strategies? Probably not. Is Johnny hoping that Tusk's extra levels will make it so it doesn't matter? Absolutely.

Johnny isn't really concerned about giving Falkner a good game like Emporio was, but he will still treat the outcome with the respect of a good sport. Of course, should he win, he is immediately going outside and flying around on Tropius' back for quite some time. Cut him some slack, he's a pretty late arrival for the badge circuit...

[breakyourlife]

Character: Steve Palchuk | breakyourlife
Badge/Gym Leader: Marsh Badge (Sabrina)
Elite/Regular: Regular!
Team: Over here! (Galvantula [lvl 88], Alolan Persian [lvl 70])
Battle Details:

Six Eyes is a good girl with a nice level and type advantage. Unfortunately for the Galvantula, Steve will more than likely get off to a bad start being caught out by Espeon's Syncronize leaving both poisoned when she tries using Toxic. Still, with moves like Bug Buzz she shouldn't have too much of a problem taking it down.

Annoyingly, Mr. Mime doesn't have that same weakness to her movepool. He doesn't resist much either, though, so she'll be staying out and using Giga Drain if things start to look bad. Plus, using Toxic shouldn't cause a problem here.

Hopefully she can make it to Alakazam where her bug type moves will have that type advantage again. If its ability also happens to be Syncronize... well, she's already been afflicted with poison this entire fight. Toxic can't hurt her more than it already has.

It's probably just as well he brought along an Alolan Persian for backup though. Cheshire has plenty of dark type moves up his sleeves for when poison proves too much for Six Eyes.

Character: Steve Palchuk | breakyourlife
Badge/Gym Leader: Soul Badge (Janine)
Elite/Regular: Regular!
Team: Over here! (Grumpig [lvl 69], Goodra [lvl 75])
Battle Details:

Steve's Grumpig, Slinky, is going to be coming out first. He has Confuse Ray and a variety of psychic type moves at his disposal, and he'll be making full use of them. That should hopefully serve him well enough against Crobat, and the plan from there is for him to make use of his level advantage to try and take down the others.

Of course, there's that pesky bug weakness that might get in the way of that a bit. That's where Booger comes in. His Goodra doesn't have any type advantage, but she's got a decent level advantage and isn't weak to either Ariados or Venomoth. She'll be taking a simple offensive approach to try and finish the match.

[uncutetomboy]

Character: Akane Tendo | uncutetomboy
Badge/Gym Leader: Morty!
Elite/Regular: regular plz
Team: S-jiro (Shiftry 50), M-san (Murkrow 50), and G-kun (Golurk 71)
Battle Details: OKAY SO. Ideally, Akane's going to be cycling S-jiro and M-san in and out for Morty's Haunter and Misdreavous. We're doing straight-up type weakness here, with the two Dark pokemons being resistant against Ghost damage and doing extra damage to Ghost-types. If one looks like it's close to fainting, she'll sub in the other so she can heal the first.

S-jiro uses Sunny Day to make the inside of the gym sunny to boost his speed. When up against Haunter, he'll use Extrasensory. He'll also use Feint Attack and Payback on any and all opponents.

M-san Torments and Taunts his opponents, using that Taunt to set up a series of Sucker Punches. He also makes use of Fowl Foul Play and Feint Attack.

Akane saves G-kun, her Ghost-Punching Robot, for Morty's Gengar, since their legs mean they're no longer immune to Ground damage. His Iron Fist means his punches are more potent; accordingly, he spams quite a few Shadow Punches in a row. He'll also use Phantom Force to sneakily hide and attack. High Horsepower and Earthquake inflict more Ground-type damage.

However, since G-kun is technically another ghost, there's a chance he'll be taken down due to the Ghost mutual vulnerability. In that case, S-jiro's going back in, using the same tactics he did with Haunter.

Character: Akane Tendo | uncutetomboy
Badge/Gym Leader: Chuck
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: R-ko (Gardevoir 66) + M-chan (Munna 51) as back-up
Battle Details: R-ko is both Psychic and Fairy, so that hits TWO of Fighting's weaknesses. M-chan's only Psychic, but she's also the emergency back-up anyway.

So! R-ko uses Calm Mind to boost herself, then Hypnosis to put her opponents to sleep and Dream Eater to steal their HP while they're snoozing. Moonblast, Dazzling Gleam, and Psychic all get used as straight up attacks. Draining Kiss also gets used for HP-stealing.

If M-chan has to sub in, she uses... basically the same tactics, minus the Dazzling Gleam and plus a Zen Headbutt.

[uber_marionettist]

Character: Dirk Strider | uber_marionettist
Badge/Gym Leader: Erika (Rainbow Badge)
Elite/Regular: Elite Team
Team: Roster
Battle Details: As he did against Misty, Dirk is leading with Empedocles the Coalossal, with Stealth Rock as the first move, followed by Incinerate to get rid of any held items, and then finally Heat Crash. Heat Crash specifically is going to hurt a LOT, as it turns out that a burning coalstack kaiju is more than five times the weight of the tengu plant. In fact, Coalossal outweighs all of Erika's team by a lot, and switching out will incur additional damage via Stealth Rock (which is supereffective against Jumpluff). So that sucks, because Coalossal will be using it pretty much endlessly until she nearly goes down, and then it's time to repeat the same exit move she used against Misty.

But Dirk's done his research, and it turns out Erika does not have any half Water- or Ground- or Rock- types. This means a few things. One: if she's going to use Weather, it'll be Sunny Day. Perfect for Fire types. And two: he's free to follow up with Gamehameha the Turtonator, whose Shell Smash boosts her offenses immediately, and whose Iron Defence patches up her defence again just as fast. She'll be using Flamethrower and Body Slam, the former for its super effective damage and the latter in hopes of paralysing the opponent. However, if her opponent is NOT part Poison (so, you know, Bellossom and Jumpluff), she will instead use Toxic and set up Shell Traps mixed in with the Flamethrowers. This puts Erika in a bind, as Toxic will be doing increasing amounts of damage as the fight drags on, but if Erika goes on the offensive with a physical move, the Shell Trap will inevitably go off, doing massive Fire-typed damage.

And once she's low?

That's right, Explosion.

Why the fuck do Dirk's Pokemon know so many suicide moves? It's almost like he's got some kind of obsession with that strategy or something.

Anyway, once Gamehameha has Exploded, he'll follow up with Acorn the Rapidash, who is blisteringly fast and only going to get faster as he uses Flame Charge and harder to hit as he uses Double Team. Eventually he'll be using Flare Blitz, which has that painful Recoil.... but he's holding a Chesto Berry, so he can use Rest for free to heal up and wake up on the exact same turn.

And if anyone is left standing after all of that, Dirk has Salome the Mandibuzz, whose Whirlwind, Air Slash, and Brave Bird do loads of damage... and Pulse Train the Klinklang, who takes half damage from most types and zero damage from Poison, who cannot BE poisoned, and whose Screech, Shift Gear, and Gear Grind make a decent, if not especially super-powered, combo. It also has Hyper Beam, which is strategically sort of a stupid move in a real match but this should be more like a tedious "mopping up" grind than it is anything requiring a concern about momentum?

Also, he has that Mega Sableye, who probably isn't needed at this point?