Character: Dirk Strider | uber_marionettist Badge/Gym Leader: Blue/Earth Badge Elite/Regular: Elite Team:Yo. Battle Details: Leading with Empedocles and Stealth Rock is just how these things go now. This time, however, Dirk is leery of Leech Seed and status moves, and he swaps Empedocles out quickly for Salome the Mandibuzz. He's not doing this for the obvious type advantage, though. Instead, he's using her to Whirlwind Venusaur out to prevent it from building up too much momentum. Whoever is forced out takes Stealth Rock damage (against Pidgeot this is supereffective. Against Charizard, it's a terrifying 4x effective), the tradeoff here is that Whirlwind is a -1 priority move, meaning she'll go last almost every turn. And if it looks like she's going to faint, she has Roost. It's a bit gimmicky, but this strategy is one he's testing against Blue specifically because he has a multi-type team.
It's not until this rotation pulls Jolteon or Tyranitar that he calls her back and sends out.... Pulse Train the Klinklang.
At this point his strategy will differ depending on which Pokemon he's facing. If it's Tyranitar (whose entry to the field kicks up a Sandstorm), Pulse Train has a speed advantage, and will throw up an Iron Defence and then a SECOND Iron Defence to prevent Tyranitar from devastating it entirely with Fire Fang. Given enough survivability, it will follow up with Screech and then Gear Grind. It is, by this point, taking on a lot of damage, but should hopefully still be able to use Trick Room (at this point taking up five turns... the length of a Sandstorm that isn't extended by a Smooth Rock.)
This is where Dirk's strategy for Tyranitar dovetails with his strategy for Jolteon. If Jolteon is forced out against Salome and Dirk swaps her for Pulse Train, it will instead use Trick Room immediately before being recalled in favour of COS, Dirk's eviolite-holding Machoke.
Machoke is abysmally slow on its own, but in a Trick Room, it becomes blisteringly fast--giving COS plenty of time to flex and pose for the entertainment of an admiring audience, of course--and with an Eviolite to strength her defences, she's now capable of dishing out the hurt without being easily taken out herself by either a Jolteon or a Tyranitar. Jolteon, like (nearly) all Electric types, is just going to have its world rocked by Earthquake. Tyranitar, however, is one of those really heavy Pokemon, and COS has Low Kick.... which is a strategy Dirk himself used to use on the significantly taller Jake English on their joint television show.
She should have no problems dispatching one or the other, and if Dirk is lucky enough to face Jolteon first, the strategy with Pulse Train (followed by COS) is still usable on Tyranitar.
Assuming BLue doesn't just send the other of the aforementioned out immediately (in which case, uh, thanks Blue), Dirk will recall COS and send Salome back out.
Yeah, he's doing it again. Partially because it doesn't matter whether Trick Room is still up or not: Whirlwind's still decreased priority.
Once Whirlwind forces Blue's Venusaur back out, Salome will kick up a Tailwind (assuming Trick Room has expired) and use Air Slash to debilitate Venusaur as often as possible by making it flinch. Once her health is low, or Venusaur's is, she'll finish things off with Brave Bird. She has Roost and Venusaur has Synthesis, so this could be a huge ordeal. Or it could be very simple. It depends a lot on luck, flinching, and how much opportunity Venusaur has to Leech Seed or Poison Salome. Sleep Powder will be kind of a letdown for Blue if it's even successful, because Salome is holding one of Dirk's Bonsai-grown chesto berries.
At this point, if Charizard hasn't been KO'd by Stealth Rocks, Empedocles can swap in on it and possibly receive that maximised speed boost if Blue's unlucky enough to hit her with fire. If not.... Rock Blast is also 4x effective. It's 'only' 2x effective against Pigeot, but it's okay because Pigeot is light, and Heat Crash does big damage.
Against Blastoise, she'll either go boom (as she is known to do, but in this case ONLY if Pidgeot has been taken out) or get recalled in favour of DeBeers the Sableye. DeBeers will take on Mega form immediately, and either hit Blastoise immediately with Retaliate (if Empedocles has blown up) or Fake Out. This will be followed immediately by Detect, to scope out Blue's strategy. If that strategy involves Shell Smash, Dirk's will be quick and dirty, using Foul Play to use Blastoise's boosted Attack against it. If it involves Iron Defence, Dirk will have DeBeers use Night Shade to ignore the Defence stat all together... and Punishment to, well, punish Blastoise if it uses Iron Defence a second time (or if it uses Shell Smash after.)
If the strategy is Rain Dance based, then Dirk will direct DeBeers to use Disable next turn to try and pre-empt multiple uses of at least ONE water move, Confuse Ray to waste Blastoise's (and Blue's) time, and a remaining combination of Night Shade and Shadow Claw.
And if anyone is too debilitated to finish an opponent off, Dirk's final Pokemon is Gamehameha the Turtonator. She takes neutral(!) damage from water because of her half dragon typing, has Iron Defence and Shell Smash to raise her defence (or offence and speed) as necessary, Protect to scout tactics, Flamethrower and Dragon Pulse for STAB offensive choices, Flail for when she's hurt, and Explosion for when she's really hurt. With Tyranitar definitely out of the picture regardless of order, he's confident she'll be plenty to patch any holes his team might leave.
I always forget the d in Pidgeot
Badge/Gym Leader: Blue/Earth Badge
Elite/Regular: Elite
Team: Yo.
Battle Details: Leading with Empedocles and Stealth Rock is just how these things go now. This time, however, Dirk is leery of Leech Seed and status moves, and he swaps Empedocles out quickly for Salome the Mandibuzz. He's not doing this for the obvious type advantage, though. Instead, he's using her to Whirlwind Venusaur out to prevent it from building up too much momentum. Whoever is forced out takes Stealth Rock damage (against Pidgeot this is supereffective. Against Charizard, it's a terrifying 4x effective), the tradeoff here is that Whirlwind is a -1 priority move, meaning she'll go last almost every turn. And if it looks like she's going to faint, she has Roost. It's a bit gimmicky, but this strategy is one he's testing against Blue specifically because he has a multi-type team.
It's not until this rotation pulls Jolteon or Tyranitar that he calls her back and sends out.... Pulse Train the Klinklang.
At this point his strategy will differ depending on which Pokemon he's facing. If it's Tyranitar (whose entry to the field kicks up a Sandstorm), Pulse Train has a speed advantage, and will throw up an Iron Defence and then a SECOND Iron Defence to prevent Tyranitar from devastating it entirely with Fire Fang. Given enough survivability, it will follow up with Screech and then Gear Grind. It is, by this point, taking on a lot of damage, but should hopefully still be able to use Trick Room (at this point taking up five turns... the length of a Sandstorm that isn't extended by a Smooth Rock.)
This is where Dirk's strategy for Tyranitar dovetails with his strategy for Jolteon. If Jolteon is forced out against Salome and Dirk swaps her for Pulse Train, it will instead use Trick Room immediately before being recalled in favour of COS, Dirk's eviolite-holding Machoke.
Machoke is abysmally slow on its own, but in a Trick Room, it becomes blisteringly fast--giving COS plenty of time to flex and pose for the entertainment of an admiring audience, of course--and with an Eviolite to strength her defences, she's now capable of dishing out the hurt without being easily taken out herself by either a Jolteon or a Tyranitar. Jolteon, like (nearly) all Electric types, is just going to have its world rocked by Earthquake. Tyranitar, however, is one of those really heavy Pokemon, and COS has Low Kick.... which is a strategy Dirk himself used to use on the significantly taller Jake English on their joint television show.
She should have no problems dispatching one or the other, and if Dirk is lucky enough to face Jolteon first, the strategy with Pulse Train (followed by COS) is still usable on Tyranitar.
Assuming BLue doesn't just send the other of the aforementioned out immediately (in which case, uh, thanks Blue), Dirk will recall COS and send Salome back out.
Yeah, he's doing it again. Partially because it doesn't matter whether Trick Room is still up or not: Whirlwind's still decreased priority.
Once Whirlwind forces Blue's Venusaur back out, Salome will kick up a Tailwind (assuming Trick Room has expired) and use Air Slash to debilitate Venusaur as often as possible by making it flinch. Once her health is low, or Venusaur's is, she'll finish things off with Brave Bird. She has Roost and Venusaur has Synthesis, so this could be a huge ordeal. Or it could be very simple. It depends a lot on luck, flinching, and how much opportunity Venusaur has to Leech Seed or Poison Salome. Sleep Powder will be kind of a letdown for Blue if it's even successful, because Salome is holding one of Dirk's Bonsai-grown chesto berries.
At this point, if Charizard hasn't been KO'd by Stealth Rocks, Empedocles can swap in on it and possibly receive that maximised speed boost if Blue's unlucky enough to hit her with fire. If not.... Rock Blast is also 4x effective. It's 'only' 2x effective against Pigeot, but it's okay because Pigeot is light, and Heat Crash does big damage.
Against Blastoise, she'll either go boom (as she is known to do, but in this case ONLY if Pidgeot has been taken out) or get recalled in favour of DeBeers the Sableye. DeBeers will take on Mega form immediately, and either hit Blastoise immediately with Retaliate (if Empedocles has blown up) or Fake Out. This will be followed immediately by Detect, to scope out Blue's strategy. If that strategy involves Shell Smash, Dirk's will be quick and dirty, using Foul Play to use Blastoise's boosted Attack against it. If it involves Iron Defence, Dirk will have DeBeers use Night Shade to ignore the Defence stat all together... and Punishment to, well, punish Blastoise if it uses Iron Defence a second time (or if it uses Shell Smash after.)
If the strategy is Rain Dance based, then Dirk will direct DeBeers to use Disable next turn to try and pre-empt multiple uses of at least ONE water move, Confuse Ray to waste Blastoise's (and Blue's) time, and a remaining combination of Night Shade and Shadow Claw.
And if anyone is too debilitated to finish an opponent off, Dirk's final Pokemon is Gamehameha the Turtonator. She takes neutral(!) damage from water because of her half dragon typing, has Iron Defence and Shell Smash to raise her defence (or offence and speed) as necessary, Protect to scout tactics, Flamethrower and Dragon Pulse for STAB offensive choices, Flail for when she's hurt, and Explosion for when she's really hurt. With Tyranitar definitely out of the picture regardless of order, he's confident she'll be plenty to patch any holes his team might leave.