Character: Dirk Strider | uber_marionettist Badge/Gym Leader: Sabrina - Marsh Badge Elite/Regular:Elite Team Team:Yo. Battle Details: The thing about Sabrina leading with Jynx is this. Obviously, Empedocles has her one turn to use Stealth Rock, which goes as usual. But Jynx, being relatively lightweight (in the literal sense) and also part ice.... is really weak to Heat Crash. This is great, because Jynx has a lot (and I do mean a LOT) of really disruptive move options. Moves like Lovely Kiss, and Wake-Up Slap, and Heart Stamp. But honestly, once Stealth Rock is set up, Empedocles only needs to be able to land a hit on Jynx once or twice, depending on how much Sabrina feels like trying to fight a losing battle against a strange new Pokemon she's probably heard about by now, since Dirk has been bringing her to every battle in Kanto.
When Sabrina sends out Wobbuffet, she's probably expecting Empedocles' traditional explosive exit. Maybe she even plans to Counter it, or set up a Destiny Bond. (Though let's be real: exploding on a Wobbuffet isn't going to take it out so easily.)
But Dirk has other plans: the first move Empedocles uses against Wobbuffet is Tar Shot.
Then the big boom.
See, Dirk's followup Pokemon is Acorn. And this is where things get... weird.
Wobbuffet is a Pokemon notorious for ending streaks. Let's just be honest. And Sabrina's been partnered with her Wobbuffet for how many years? Her prediction game is no doubt off the charts. So Dirk intends to make this as much of a nuisance as possible. Accordingly, if the Wobbuffet is female, Acorn's starting out with Attract. If not, he's leading with Fire Spin. The intention, of course, is to take advantage of Fire Spin's multiple turns of damage, now supereffective thanks to Tar Shot. More importantly, the consecutive 'end of turn' nature of Fire Spin means that it can't be Mirror Coated back at Acorn after the first turn it's used.
After that, Dirk's plan centres mostly on the use of Hypnosis, Flame Wheel, and Fire Spin to give Sabrina as hard of a time as possible predicting what she's countering. Wobbuffet's Shadow Tag means there's likely no escape for Acorn in the likely event of a final stand Destiny Bond, but that's all right. Two for two was pretty much the plan for this part to begin with.
It's at that point that things are going to get... tricky.
Sabrina's third Pokemon is generally Espeon, and Dirk's, accordingly, is PGP the Porygon2.
Yes, the "tricky" was a play on 'Trick Room.' Yes, the very next move is Conversion2--rendering PGP resistant to Psychic, if not outright immune.
In fact, PGP will continue to use Conversion2 until it lands a Ghost type. Not Dark, no. Ghost.
PGP knows Shadow Ball.
PGP also knows Recover, Magic Coat, and Signal Beam (in case Sabrina catches onto Shadow Ball and starts using Copycat.) Espeon is fast, meaning it's slow as dirt in a Trick Room, and against an opponent that resists everything it can throw (and moves like Swift and Last Resort rendered completely useless against the 'ghost' Porygon2), it mostly has the ability to screw around with PGP's stats a little and then faint... or Baton Pass out with whatever health is still has.
In either case, if Sabrina sends out Gallade or (uh, less likely) Alakazam, then PGP remains in play. Now a ghost, it's immune to Fighting moves, and Trick Room makes it faster than either opponent. This is extra good news against Gallade, since it comes with a lot of genuinely dangerous move options, like Night Slash. Magic Coat is not exactly useful against Gallade, though, meaning that after the inevitable Stealth Rock damage, PGP's strategy will be to hit it hard and fast (lol) with Shadow Ball for as much damage as possible, Recovering if it can... until, you know, Gallade crits with Night Slash, Hypnotises PGP to sleep, or else faints.
If Gallade is still around at that point, Dirk's strategy is to send out Gamehameha the Turtonator and Shell Trap Gallade into oblivion.
Once Gardevoir shows up, though, Turtonator is recalled immediately in favour of Pulse Train the Klinklang.
You know, the Steel type. With Electric Terrain to prevent sleep, Screech to lower Gardevoir's defences and Autotomise to boost its own attack and speed, plus Gear Grind to deliver the hurt, Pulse Train is Gardevoir's nightmare scenario. At best, Gardevoir can hope to Teleport out... to, uh, Espeon (if it's still around) or Alakazam, who can only barely hurt Pulse Train more than Gardevoir could.
And without Gardevoir, there's still Gamehameha. With her Body Slam, and Dragon Pulse, and Explosion.
And. Uh. Well. His Mega is still DeBeers the Sableye.... sorry, Sabrina.
In his defence, Psychic types really give him a headache.
no subject
Badge/Gym Leader: Sabrina - Marsh Badge
Elite/Regular:Elite Team
Team: Yo.
Battle Details: The thing about Sabrina leading with Jynx is this. Obviously, Empedocles has her one turn to use Stealth Rock, which goes as usual. But Jynx, being relatively lightweight (in the literal sense) and also part ice.... is really weak to Heat Crash. This is great, because Jynx has a lot (and I do mean a LOT) of really disruptive move options. Moves like Lovely Kiss, and Wake-Up Slap, and Heart Stamp. But honestly, once Stealth Rock is set up, Empedocles only needs to be able to land a hit on Jynx once or twice, depending on how much Sabrina feels like trying to fight a losing battle against a strange new Pokemon she's probably heard about by now, since Dirk has been bringing her to every battle in Kanto.
When Sabrina sends out Wobbuffet, she's probably expecting Empedocles' traditional explosive exit. Maybe she even plans to Counter it, or set up a Destiny Bond. (Though let's be real: exploding on a Wobbuffet isn't going to take it out so easily.)
But Dirk has other plans: the first move Empedocles uses against Wobbuffet is Tar Shot.
Then the big boom.
See, Dirk's followup Pokemon is Acorn. And this is where things get... weird.
Wobbuffet is a Pokemon notorious for ending streaks. Let's just be honest. And Sabrina's been partnered with her Wobbuffet for how many years? Her prediction game is no doubt off the charts. So Dirk intends to make this as much of a nuisance as possible. Accordingly, if the Wobbuffet is female, Acorn's starting out with Attract. If not, he's leading with Fire Spin. The intention, of course, is to take advantage of Fire Spin's multiple turns of damage, now supereffective thanks to Tar Shot. More importantly, the consecutive 'end of turn' nature of Fire Spin means that it can't be Mirror Coated back at Acorn after the first turn it's used.
After that, Dirk's plan centres mostly on the use of Hypnosis, Flame Wheel, and Fire Spin to give Sabrina as hard of a time as possible predicting what she's countering. Wobbuffet's Shadow Tag means there's likely no escape for Acorn in the likely event of a final stand Destiny Bond, but that's all right. Two for two was pretty much the plan for this part to begin with.
It's at that point that things are going to get... tricky.
Sabrina's third Pokemon is generally Espeon, and Dirk's, accordingly, is PGP the Porygon2.
Yes, the "tricky" was a play on 'Trick Room.' Yes, the very next move is Conversion2--rendering PGP resistant to Psychic, if not outright immune.
In fact, PGP will continue to use Conversion2 until it lands a Ghost type. Not Dark, no. Ghost.
PGP knows Shadow Ball.
PGP also knows Recover, Magic Coat, and Signal Beam (in case Sabrina catches onto Shadow Ball and starts using Copycat.) Espeon is fast, meaning it's slow as dirt in a Trick Room, and against an opponent that resists everything it can throw (and moves like Swift and Last Resort rendered completely useless against the 'ghost' Porygon2), it mostly has the ability to screw around with PGP's stats a little and then faint... or Baton Pass out with whatever health is still has.
In either case, if Sabrina sends out Gallade or (uh, less likely) Alakazam, then PGP remains in play. Now a ghost, it's immune to Fighting moves, and Trick Room makes it faster than either opponent. This is extra good news against Gallade, since it comes with a lot of genuinely dangerous move options, like Night Slash. Magic Coat is not exactly useful against Gallade, though, meaning that after the inevitable Stealth Rock damage, PGP's strategy will be to hit it hard and fast (lol) with Shadow Ball for as much damage as possible, Recovering if it can... until, you know, Gallade crits with Night Slash, Hypnotises PGP to sleep, or else faints.
If Gallade is still around at that point, Dirk's strategy is to send out Gamehameha the Turtonator and Shell Trap Gallade into oblivion.
Once Gardevoir shows up, though, Turtonator is recalled immediately in favour of Pulse Train the Klinklang.
You know, the Steel type. With Electric Terrain to prevent sleep, Screech to lower Gardevoir's defences and Autotomise to boost its own attack and speed, plus Gear Grind to deliver the hurt, Pulse Train is Gardevoir's nightmare scenario. At best, Gardevoir can hope to Teleport out... to, uh, Espeon (if it's still around) or Alakazam, who can only barely hurt Pulse Train more than Gardevoir could.
And without Gardevoir, there's still Gamehameha. With her Body Slam, and Dragon Pulse, and Explosion.
And. Uh. Well. His Mega is still DeBeers the Sableye.... sorry, Sabrina.
In his defence, Psychic types really give him a headache.