Pidgeot: Fuyu starts this one off with Hail to chip at Pidgeot's HP via weather effects, then switches to Ice attacks (and Ice-imbued Normal attacks, courtesy of her Refrigerate ability) to hammer at Pidgeot's Ice weakness... and, if she's very lucky, freeze Pidgeot solid, although the chances of this are relatively low (10% without the Snorunt status effect bonus). Also working in Fuyu's favor is her resistance to Flying-type moves and her possession of the Mist skill, which she can use to counter Pidgeot's accuracy-lowering Sand Attack. She also has Thunder Wave, and she'll use that to attempt to paralyze Pidgeot early on, since that has a 90% chance of success. Encore can also be used that to lock Pidgeot into less harmful moves if need be. Pidgeot does have a speed advantage, so Shinobu will be watching her health carefully, but the fact that so many of Pidgeot's moves are Flying-type helps quite a bit.
Dodrio: At level 98, Mochi is slightly underleved for this fight, but makes up for that by being straight-up immune to all but four of Dodrio's attacks. In addition, they've received a couple of new gifts just for this fight: Thunder Wave and Thunderbolt. So Mochi can shut down Dodrio's status moves with Taunt and then inflict paralysis on it with Thunder Wave before switching to Thunderbolt and going to town; Mochi can also keep their health topped up via Draining Kiss, which Dodrio isn't weak to, but which Mochi does have STAB for. Dodrio has the additional disadvantage of having no attacks that can hit Mochi's Ghost or Steel weaknesses, and while it's immune to Mochi's Ghost attacks, Mochi has a number of attacks in addition to the aforementioned Thunderbolt and Draining Kiss that Dodrio isn't immune to. So Mochi's actually in a pretty good position compared to Dodrio, who is likely in for a frustrating fight. Granted, Shinobu's still going to be watching Mochi's health closely, because the four moves Dodrio can hit Mochi with could potentially hurt.
Swellow: Hanami has Electric Terrain and Rising Voltage and she is not afraid to use them - especially as the latter is twice as powerful when the former is used. She also has Electrify to make Swellow's own moves Electric (which Hanami only takes half-damage from); granted, Hanami also only takes half-damage from Flying moves, but since Swellow has moves of other types, using it is still a net positive for her. Even better, Hanami has Charge, which makes her Electric attacks twice as powerful, and Nuzzle, which while weak is a guaranteed paralysis. In addition to Nuzzle and Rising Voltage, she has Thunderbolt (which itself has a 10% chance of inflicting paralysis), Spark (30% chance), and Wild Charge; however, the last causes recoil damage, so it's less likely to be used. She also has a few non-Electric attacks to deploy against Swellow, but while Bite, Crunch, and Play Rough may be formidable attacks in their own right, they're not going to hurt Swellow as much as Hanami's Electric attacks will, especially when Hanami has multiple ways to power them up.
Xatu: Arashi is likely to make life difficult for Xatu for a number of reasons. For one thing, she has Taunt, which shuts down all of Xatu's status moves. She's also part-Electric, with a variety of moves that let her take advantage of any lingering Electric Terrain effects. If Xatu manages to get out a stat-lowering move before Taunt hits, Arashi can punish it with Lash Out, which Arashi gets STAB on and hits one of Xatu's weaknesses. And then there's Aura Wheel, which hits hard at two of Xatu's weaknesses, in addition to raising Arashi's own speed (which in turn makes Arashi's Dark-type Power Trip attack stronger). All of which spells bad news for Xatu even before getting to Arashi's resistances: she's outright immune to Xatu's Psychic attacks and takes half-damage from Flying and Ghost. Further, Xatu has no way to hit any of Arashi's weaknesses; indeed the only skills it has that aren't Psychic, Flying, or Ghost-type are Leer and Wish, which are non-damaging skills. Given all of this, Xatu's chances of winning are relatively low.
Staraptor: Staraptor has exactly three attack skills that aren't Normal or Fighting-type, which means it's Mochi's turn again. The first move, as always, is Taunt; if Staraptor manages to buff itself before Mochi can move, their next move will be to punish Staraptor with Burning Jealousy, inflicting the Burn stat to eat at Staraptor's health. If Staraptor doesn't do this, then Mochi will hit Staraptor with Thunder Wave and then shifting to Thunderbolt, with occasional switches to Draining Kiss to keep their health topped up. Shinobu will still be watching Mochi's health intently, giving out healing items as needed (especially when Staraptor uses Brave Bird) and keeping Mochi in Leppa Berries to keep Thunderbolt viable. In the meantime, Mochi will continue to keep applying Taunt and Thunder Wave to block status moves and inflict paralysis respectively, and hammer Staraptor repeatedly with Thunderbolt, Draining Kiss, and potentially other skills like Play Rough and Dark Pulse. And of course Mochi will continue to completely no-sell any Normal or Fighting moves Staraptor even tries to use. If Mochi ends up falling, Akari will spell them. Akari doesn't have Thunder attacks, admittedly, but she has that same immunity to Thunder and Fighting moves and has multiple skills that can potentially inflict Burn to eat away at Staraptor's health while she hits them with Fire.
Pelipper: Whether it's Mochi or Akari who's in, their first and last move this battle will be to use Taunt on Pelipper to prevent it from using Soak and then get out of the way (especially Akari) and let Raiju handle things. Raiju has a variety of Electric attacks, which can potentially cause paralysis and more importantly hit Pelipper's 4x weakness to Electricity. Unsurprisingly, Electric Terrain and Charge figure into that plan, as does Rising Voltage. Raiju also has Discharge (30% chance of inflicting paralysis) and Thunder Wave (90% chance of same), but at this point the plan is to do as much damage as possible as quickly as possible. If Taunt wears off, and especially if Pelipper manages to inflict Soak, Arashi will pop back in to reapply it so Raiju can get back to dealing out large amounts of damage.
Shinobu, as ever, is on item distribution duty as needed.
no subject
Badge/Gym Leader: Zephyr/Falkner
Elite/Regular: Elite Team
Team: Fuyu the Aurorus, Mochi the Mimikyu (holding a Leppa Berry), Hanami the Boltund, Arashi the Morpeko, Raiju the Luxray , Akari the Chandelure (backup)
Battle Details: In which Shinobu's team squeezes in one last gym battle before the month ends and his Snorunt fortune runs out.
Pidgeot: Fuyu starts this one off with Hail to chip at Pidgeot's HP via weather effects, then switches to Ice attacks (and Ice-imbued Normal attacks, courtesy of her Refrigerate ability) to hammer at Pidgeot's Ice weakness... and, if she's very lucky, freeze Pidgeot solid, although the chances of this are relatively low (10% without the Snorunt status effect bonus). Also working in Fuyu's favor is her resistance to Flying-type moves and her possession of the Mist skill, which she can use to counter Pidgeot's accuracy-lowering Sand Attack. She also has Thunder Wave, and she'll use that to attempt to paralyze Pidgeot early on, since that has a 90% chance of success. Encore can also be used that to lock Pidgeot into less harmful moves if need be. Pidgeot does have a speed advantage, so Shinobu will be watching her health carefully, but the fact that so many of Pidgeot's moves are Flying-type helps quite a bit.
Dodrio: At level 98, Mochi is slightly underleved for this fight, but makes up for that by being straight-up immune to all but four of Dodrio's attacks. In addition, they've received a couple of new gifts just for this fight: Thunder Wave and Thunderbolt. So Mochi can shut down Dodrio's status moves with Taunt and then inflict paralysis on it with Thunder Wave before switching to Thunderbolt and going to town; Mochi can also keep their health topped up via Draining Kiss, which Dodrio isn't weak to, but which Mochi does have STAB for. Dodrio has the additional disadvantage of having no attacks that can hit Mochi's Ghost or Steel weaknesses, and while it's immune to Mochi's Ghost attacks, Mochi has a number of attacks in addition to the aforementioned Thunderbolt and Draining Kiss that Dodrio isn't immune to. So Mochi's actually in a pretty good position compared to Dodrio, who is likely in for a frustrating fight. Granted, Shinobu's still going to be watching Mochi's health closely, because the four moves Dodrio can hit Mochi with could potentially hurt.
Swellow: Hanami has Electric Terrain and Rising Voltage and she is not afraid to use them - especially as the latter is twice as powerful when the former is used. She also has Electrify to make Swellow's own moves Electric (which Hanami only takes half-damage from); granted, Hanami also only takes half-damage from Flying moves, but since Swellow has moves of other types, using it is still a net positive for her. Even better, Hanami has Charge, which makes her Electric attacks twice as powerful, and Nuzzle, which while weak is a guaranteed paralysis. In addition to Nuzzle and Rising Voltage, she has Thunderbolt (which itself has a 10% chance of inflicting paralysis), Spark (30% chance), and Wild Charge; however, the last causes recoil damage, so it's less likely to be used. She also has a few non-Electric attacks to deploy against Swellow, but while Bite, Crunch, and Play Rough may be formidable attacks in their own right, they're not going to hurt Swellow as much as Hanami's Electric attacks will, especially when Hanami has multiple ways to power them up.
Xatu: Arashi is likely to make life difficult for Xatu for a number of reasons. For one thing, she has Taunt, which shuts down all of Xatu's status moves. She's also part-Electric, with a variety of moves that let her take advantage of any lingering Electric Terrain effects. If Xatu manages to get out a stat-lowering move before Taunt hits, Arashi can punish it with Lash Out, which Arashi gets STAB on and hits one of Xatu's weaknesses. And then there's Aura Wheel, which hits hard at two of Xatu's weaknesses, in addition to raising Arashi's own speed (which in turn makes Arashi's Dark-type Power Trip attack stronger). All of which spells bad news for Xatu even before getting to Arashi's resistances: she's outright immune to Xatu's Psychic attacks and takes half-damage from Flying and Ghost. Further, Xatu has no way to hit any of Arashi's weaknesses; indeed the only skills it has that aren't Psychic, Flying, or Ghost-type are Leer and Wish, which are non-damaging skills. Given all of this, Xatu's chances of winning are relatively low.
Staraptor: Staraptor has exactly three attack skills that aren't Normal or Fighting-type, which means it's Mochi's turn again. The first move, as always, is Taunt; if Staraptor manages to buff itself before Mochi can move, their next move will be to punish Staraptor with Burning Jealousy, inflicting the Burn stat to eat at Staraptor's health. If Staraptor doesn't do this, then Mochi will hit Staraptor with Thunder Wave and then shifting to Thunderbolt, with occasional switches to Draining Kiss to keep their health topped up. Shinobu will still be watching Mochi's health intently, giving out healing items as needed (especially when Staraptor uses Brave Bird) and keeping Mochi in Leppa Berries to keep Thunderbolt viable. In the meantime, Mochi will continue to keep applying Taunt and Thunder Wave to block status moves and inflict paralysis respectively, and hammer Staraptor repeatedly with Thunderbolt, Draining Kiss, and potentially other skills like Play Rough and Dark Pulse. And of course Mochi will continue to completely no-sell any Normal or Fighting moves Staraptor even tries to use. If Mochi ends up falling, Akari will spell them. Akari doesn't have Thunder attacks, admittedly, but she has that same immunity to Thunder and Fighting moves and has multiple skills that can potentially inflict Burn to eat away at Staraptor's health while she hits them with Fire.
Pelipper: Whether it's Mochi or Akari who's in, their first and last move this battle will be to use Taunt on Pelipper to prevent it from using Soak and then get out of the way (especially Akari) and let Raiju handle things. Raiju has a variety of Electric attacks, which can potentially cause paralysis and more importantly hit Pelipper's 4x weakness to Electricity. Unsurprisingly, Electric Terrain and Charge figure into that plan, as does Rising Voltage. Raiju also has Discharge (30% chance of inflicting paralysis) and Thunder Wave (90% chance of same), but at this point the plan is to do as much damage as possible as quickly as possible. If Taunt wears off, and especially if Pelipper manages to inflict Soak, Arashi will pop back in to reapply it so Raiju can get back to dealing out large amounts of damage.
Shinobu, as ever, is on item distribution duty as needed.