Character: Steven Durante | fingersandteeth Badge/Gym Leader: LET’S GO BEAT THE ELITE FOUR Elite/Regular: I MEAN THE WHOLE ‘ELITE’ THING IS LITERALLY PART OF THEIR NAME?!? Team:Charley (Misdreavus), William the Bloody (Swoobat), Fail Whale (Wailord), El Diablo Verde (Hawlucha), Little Timmy (Mimikyu), and Charlotte (Galvantula), all level 100 Battle Details: Steven comes to face the Elite Four dressed in his zoot suit from Prom, because it was a great outfit and he wants to get more use from it. His Mimikyu, Little Timmy, is wearing her Misdreavus costume in order to look like her ‘mama,’ Charley.
For the last five months or so Steven has diligently been having his Pumpakoo Mervyn use Pick-up to gather items for him, as well as stockpiling whatever Elixirs, Ethers, and Restores (both normal and full/max) that he comes across. He’s also coming to the challenge with so many potions of various levels for healing time as well as whatever berries his boyfriend did not use for his own match. Please assume he’s topping up the PP as well when he heals between matches, even if I don’t specifically mention it. During match potions/restores will likely happen at Steven’s discretion, with him going for the Max Potion/Full Restore first because this is the Elite Four, after all, and what has he been stockpiling them for if not for this? (Between match healing has him use his regular, Super, and Hyper Potions in whatever combination is most effective, because at that point he won't be pressed for time.)
Since he’s letting Thace face the Elite Four first, he’ll be paying close attention to his boyfriend’s matches, in hopes that observation will let him guess some of the abilities of the various pokemon, as that will affect his strategy. (Hopefully said E4 members are not surreptitiously feeding ability-changing candy to their pokemon between matches.)
Steven and his Pokemon have spent long hours together going over the strategy for these matches. He’s worked out various code phrases to deal with the various contingencies he’s taken into account, as part of his strategy here is to not give his opponents a hint of what he’s going to have his Pokemon do until they do it. This is not because he’s a spy like his boyfriend (he’s not) but because deep down he’s actually a bit of a bastard.
Unless otherwise noted, Charley will always have a Spell Tag and Fail Whale will always have a Mystic Water. Little Timmy gets to hold a Shell Bell. Everyone else gets Sitrus Berries. Pending Koga’s defeat, El Diablo will wear the Expert Belt for the matches against Bruno, Karen, and Lance.
WILL
For Bronzong, he’ll send in William and take advantage of his speed to Imprison any moves that they share (including Imprison!) and then Taunt it out of using any status attacks. After that, William gets to lob Shadow Balls at Bronzong, steal its held item with Thief, and (if he’s been able to verify that this is a Levitate Bronzong) breath fire with Heat Wave to melt that steel and hopefully leave a burn along the way. If it’s a Heatproof Bronzong he’ll just concentrate on the Shadow Balls and the Thievery.
For Jynx, he’ll send Charlotte in, since she’s not particularly vulnerable to any of Jynx’s moves and has a lot of lovely bug attacks to make herself useful with. Sticky Web puts a speed-killing stage hazard in which will hopefully persist past Jynx’s turn and Screech fucks up her defense. Bug Buzz fucks up Jynx’s special defense as well and hits her nice and hard in the bug weakness. If Jynx is still up, Charlotte will steal the held item with Thief just for funsies and make good use of the Throat Chop reusable TM that Team Rocket gave Steven for Christmas.
Little Timmy takes on Grumpig, since her half-fairy typing means that she’s not especially vulnerable to Dark moves and Grumpig’s only Ghost attack is a status attack, which is easily neutralized by Little Timmy Taunting as soon as she takes the field. After that it’s time to lob some Shadow Balls (and hopefully lower that special defense) and Thief away Grumpig’s held item, because the pig didn’t need it anyway. Maybe she’ll cut a pig with X-Scissor. She’s got options.
Charley takes Slowbro, as the pink lump has no Dark or Ghost attacks which she’d be otherwise vulnerable to. She’ll Taunt right away to disable its Status moves, Thief to steal its held item (if it has one), and then lob some Shadow Balls of her own at the ‘Bro, with perhaps a Dark Pulse for variety.
With Gardevoir, Charley stays on the field just long enough to Taunt away its status attacks, before switching out with Fail Whale, who springs into action with a Noble Roar! If observing Thace’s match earlier shows that Gardevoir has the Ability Trace, Steven will then have the big old wail let loose some Toxic to poison Gardevoir good, but if Gardevoir is a Synchronize Gardevoir or Steven doesn’t know for sure, he’ll just have Fail Whale jump directly onto Gardevoir with a Heavy Slam, as the poor little thing weighs less than twenty percent of what Fail Whale does, meaning it’ll take maximum damage from the Steel move. And then if Gardevoir is still up, he’ll do it again.
For Xatu, as long as William is still up, he’ll toss William in first just long enough to Imprison their common moves and Taunt away its Status moves, then switch to Charlotte, whose Electric attacks are everything Xatu hates. (Steven knows, because he’s got a Xatu of his own back home.) Electroweb captures the birb in an electric web for both damage and fucking up its speed and his next move is determined if Steven’s figured out if it’s an Early Bird or Synchronize Xatu by watching Thace’s match. If it’s an Early Bird, Thunderbolt hits it hard with lighting, with the added bonus of paralysis. If, however, it’s a Synchronize Xatu or he doesn’t know, discretion will be the better part of valor and he’ll merely have Charlotte Thief away its held item before using good old Throat Chop as many times as she needs to.
El Diablo is being kept largely out of the fighting this round, as he’s vulnerable to Psychic in general, but should he be the last Pokemon standing Steven will use his turn to Max Revive whoever the Pokemon he’s currently fighting seems most Vulnerable to and if El Diablo’s still up after tanking the hit at that point, he’ll U-turn to let the revived Pokemon back in the fight.
TIME TO HEAL NOW.
KOGA
For Skuntank, there’s really only one choice, because the damn thing is only vulnerable to Ground and most of Steven’s Ground moves on his Elite Four team reside with Fail Whale. Luckily, none of Skuntank’s attacks are anything it’s really vulnerable to. Fail Whale takes to the field with a Noble Roar, then Earthquakes and Bulldozes until Skuntank is down. And since neither of those are contact moves, it shouldn’t matter if Skuntank has Aftermath or not (although Steven will be paying attention to Thace’s match anyway just because it’s good to have as much data as possible.)
William takes Venomoth, because he’s not particularly vulnerable to anything the moth has and in the case of its handful of Grass and Psychic attacks is actually resistant to them… well, unless this is a Tinted Lense Venomoth and even then those attacks would only hit William normally. He’ll Imprison any moves they have in common and Taunt away the Status moves, before smacking with such moves as Psychic, Zen Headbutt, Air Slash and Dual Wingbeats. If he thinks he can get away with it, he’ll use Thief to steal Venomoth’s item and then Acrobatics to hit him really hard.
El Diablo takes on Toxicroak, since he’s not particularly vulnerable to anything that the froggy has and he’s got some nice, useful Flying attacks to hit it where it’s weak. Feather Dance reduces its attack and Dual Wingbeats and Aerial Ace hit it in the Flying Vulnerability. El Diablo can even smack into it with a Zen Headbutt if we want to take advantage of the frog’s double weakness to Psychic. If it uses up its held item somehow or just doesn’t have one, then we get it with Acrobatics.
Charley takes on Swalot, since nothing it has for an attack is anything she’s particularly vulnerable to, thank goodness. She’ll Taunt to keep it from using its status moves, then go right to hitting it hard with Psychic, as many times as needed until it goes down.
Charlotte takes Crobat, because she’s not particularly vulnerable to anything it has. She’ll throw an Electroweb on top of it, Screech to lower its Defense, then start nailing it with a bunch of Thunderbolts in succession. Sometimes you don’t need an overly complicated strategy.
Finally Little Timmy takes on Muk for much the same reason as the others take on their opponents: it doesn’t have anything she’s particularly weak to. Taunt to shut down its status moves, then Psychic as many times as she needs to until it’s down. Draining Kiss if she needs to heal up at any point, then back to Psychic.
TIME TO HEAL! Steven presents the Expert Belt to El Diablo, who promptly ties it around his waist.
BRUNO
William will start us out against Hitmonlee, because the bulk of its attacks are Fighting, which William is doubly resistant to. Even the ones that aren’t Fighting aren’t ones that William is particularly vulnerable to, either. He’ll Taunt to keep it from using what status moves it has, then start smacking it with Psyshock to take advantage of the hitmon’s much lower regular defense stat and his own higher special attack, Psyshock being weird like that. But weird in a useful way. If it starts looking like the hitmon is… hitting too much, he’ll switch to Flying to gain that precious turn where he can’t be hit before divebombing down to smack the hitmon in the flying weakness.
Charley takes on Hitmonchan because she can’t be hit by any of its Normal or Fighting attacks and even the attacks that can hit her (the elemental punches) aren’t ones she’s especially vulnerable to. Calm Mind to raise her specials, then alternating Dazzling Gleam and Psychic until the hitmon is down. If she gets low in the process, that’s what Full Restores are for. (Or possibly Max Potion, but since the elemental punches all have a chance at side effects, it’s probably gonna be Full Restore.)
Charlotte takes Hitmontop since she’s resistant to its Fighting attacks and not especially vulnerable to anything else. She’ll Screech to lower its defense and spin a Sticky Web to lower its speed and then she’ll Bounce until it’s either down or she’s out of Bounces--and if that happens we might have to bust out Fail Whale a bit early to Zen Headbutt at it.
In any case, Fail Whale then takes on Hariyama specifically to counter the big guy’s Heavy Slam. With Fail Whale outweighing Hariyama by a good few hundred pounds, the Slam will do minimal damage. Meanwhile, after Noble Roaring to intimidate the big guy, Fail Whale uses a combination of Bouncing and Zen Headbutts to take it down.
Little Timmy takes on Machamp, mostly because thanks to her dual Ghost/Fairy typing there’s literally only a single attack in Machamp’s entire moveset that can hit her and it only does normal damage. She’ll Taunt to keep him from using status moves, then go straight into Dazzling Gleams, with Draining Kiss to heal if/when Machamp’s single usable move gets her too low.
And now? Now it’s time for Lucario. Steven’s been specifically holding El Diablo Verde in reserve to deal with the weirdface fitedoge, whose Steel dual typing negates the traditional Fighting-type weaknesses--although luckily it also gives Lucario some weaknesses of its own. And El Diablo’s own type combination makes it resistant to Lucario’s Fighting attacks, what luck! El Diablo does a Feather Dance to lower Lucario’s attack, then a Swords Dance to raise his own, before finally showing off his signature Flying Press, which Lucario ought to be exquisitely vulnerable to. Repeat said Flying Press as many times as necessary.
no subject
Badge/Gym Leader: LET’S GO BEAT THE ELITE FOUR
Elite/Regular: I MEAN THE WHOLE ‘ELITE’ THING IS LITERALLY PART OF THEIR NAME?!?
Team: Charley (Misdreavus), William the Bloody (Swoobat), Fail Whale (Wailord), El Diablo Verde (Hawlucha), Little Timmy (Mimikyu), and Charlotte (Galvantula), all level 100
Battle Details: Steven comes to face the Elite Four dressed in his zoot suit from Prom, because it was a great outfit and he wants to get more use from it. His Mimikyu, Little Timmy, is wearing her Misdreavus costume in order to look like her ‘mama,’ Charley.
For the last five months or so Steven has diligently been having his Pumpakoo Mervyn use Pick-up to gather items for him, as well as stockpiling whatever Elixirs, Ethers, and Restores (both normal and full/max) that he comes across. He’s also coming to the challenge with so many potions of various levels for healing time as well as whatever berries his boyfriend did not use for his own match. Please assume he’s topping up the PP as well when he heals between matches, even if I don’t specifically mention it. During match potions/restores will likely happen at Steven’s discretion, with him going for the Max Potion/Full Restore first because this is the Elite Four, after all, and what has he been stockpiling them for if not for this? (Between match healing has him use his regular, Super, and Hyper Potions in whatever combination is most effective, because at that point he won't be pressed for time.)
Since he’s letting Thace face the Elite Four first, he’ll be paying close attention to his boyfriend’s matches, in hopes that observation will let him guess some of the abilities of the various pokemon, as that will affect his strategy. (Hopefully said E4 members are not surreptitiously feeding ability-changing candy to their pokemon between matches.)
Steven and his Pokemon have spent long hours together going over the strategy for these matches. He’s worked out various code phrases to deal with the various contingencies he’s taken into account, as part of his strategy here is to not give his opponents a hint of what he’s going to have his Pokemon do until they do it. This is not because he’s a spy like his boyfriend (he’s not) but because deep down he’s actually a bit of a bastard.
Unless otherwise noted, Charley will always have a Spell Tag and Fail Whale will always have a Mystic Water. Little Timmy gets to hold a Shell Bell. Everyone else gets Sitrus Berries. Pending Koga’s defeat, El Diablo will wear the Expert Belt for the matches against Bruno, Karen, and Lance.
WILL
For Bronzong, he’ll send in William and take advantage of his speed to Imprison any moves that they share (including Imprison!) and then Taunt it out of using any status attacks. After that, William gets to lob Shadow Balls at Bronzong, steal its held item with Thief, and (if he’s been able to verify that this is a Levitate Bronzong) breath fire with Heat Wave to melt that steel and hopefully leave a burn along the way. If it’s a Heatproof Bronzong he’ll just concentrate on the Shadow Balls and the Thievery.
For Jynx, he’ll send Charlotte in, since she’s not particularly vulnerable to any of Jynx’s moves and has a lot of lovely bug attacks to make herself useful with. Sticky Web puts a speed-killing stage hazard in which will hopefully persist past Jynx’s turn and Screech fucks up her defense. Bug Buzz fucks up Jynx’s special defense as well and hits her nice and hard in the bug weakness. If Jynx is still up, Charlotte will steal the held item with Thief just for funsies and make good use of the Throat Chop reusable TM that Team Rocket gave Steven for Christmas.
Little Timmy takes on Grumpig, since her half-fairy typing means that she’s not especially vulnerable to Dark moves and Grumpig’s only Ghost attack is a status attack, which is easily neutralized by Little Timmy Taunting as soon as she takes the field. After that it’s time to lob some Shadow Balls (and hopefully lower that special defense) and Thief away Grumpig’s held item, because the pig didn’t need it anyway. Maybe she’ll cut a pig with X-Scissor. She’s got options.
Charley takes Slowbro, as the pink lump has no Dark or Ghost attacks which she’d be otherwise vulnerable to. She’ll Taunt right away to disable its Status moves, Thief to steal its held item (if it has one), and then lob some Shadow Balls of her own at the ‘Bro, with perhaps a Dark Pulse for variety.
With Gardevoir, Charley stays on the field just long enough to Taunt away its status attacks, before switching out with Fail Whale, who springs into action with a Noble Roar! If observing Thace’s match earlier shows that Gardevoir has the Ability Trace, Steven will then have the big old wail let loose some Toxic to poison Gardevoir good, but if Gardevoir is a Synchronize Gardevoir or Steven doesn’t know for sure, he’ll just have Fail Whale jump directly onto Gardevoir with a Heavy Slam, as the poor little thing weighs less than twenty percent of what Fail Whale does, meaning it’ll take maximum damage from the Steel move. And then if Gardevoir is still up, he’ll do it again.
For Xatu, as long as William is still up, he’ll toss William in first just long enough to Imprison their common moves and Taunt away its Status moves, then switch to Charlotte, whose Electric attacks are everything Xatu hates. (Steven knows, because he’s got a Xatu of his own back home.) Electroweb captures the birb in an electric web for both damage and fucking up its speed and his next move is determined if Steven’s figured out if it’s an Early Bird or Synchronize Xatu by watching Thace’s match. If it’s an Early Bird, Thunderbolt hits it hard with lighting, with the added bonus of paralysis. If, however, it’s a Synchronize Xatu or he doesn’t know, discretion will be the better part of valor and he’ll merely have Charlotte Thief away its held item before using good old Throat Chop as many times as she needs to.
El Diablo is being kept largely out of the fighting this round, as he’s vulnerable to Psychic in general, but should he be the last Pokemon standing Steven will use his turn to Max Revive whoever the Pokemon he’s currently fighting seems most Vulnerable to and if El Diablo’s still up after tanking the hit at that point, he’ll U-turn to let the revived Pokemon back in the fight.
TIME TO HEAL NOW.
KOGA
For Skuntank, there’s really only one choice, because the damn thing is only vulnerable to Ground and most of Steven’s Ground moves on his Elite Four team reside with Fail Whale. Luckily, none of Skuntank’s attacks are anything it’s really vulnerable to. Fail Whale takes to the field with a Noble Roar, then Earthquakes and Bulldozes until Skuntank is down. And since neither of those are contact moves, it shouldn’t matter if Skuntank has Aftermath or not (although Steven will be paying attention to Thace’s match anyway just because it’s good to have as much data as possible.)
William takes Venomoth, because he’s not particularly vulnerable to anything the moth has and in the case of its handful of Grass and Psychic attacks is actually resistant to them… well, unless this is a Tinted Lense Venomoth and even then those attacks would only hit William normally. He’ll Imprison any moves they have in common and Taunt away the Status moves, before smacking with such moves as Psychic, Zen Headbutt, Air Slash and Dual Wingbeats. If he thinks he can get away with it, he’ll use Thief to steal Venomoth’s item and then Acrobatics to hit him really hard.
El Diablo takes on Toxicroak, since he’s not particularly vulnerable to anything that the froggy has and he’s got some nice, useful Flying attacks to hit it where it’s weak. Feather Dance reduces its attack and Dual Wingbeats and Aerial Ace hit it in the Flying Vulnerability. El Diablo can even smack into it with a Zen Headbutt if we want to take advantage of the frog’s double weakness to Psychic. If it uses up its held item somehow or just doesn’t have one, then we get it with Acrobatics.
Charley takes on Swalot, since nothing it has for an attack is anything she’s particularly vulnerable to, thank goodness. She’ll Taunt to keep it from using its status moves, then go right to hitting it hard with Psychic, as many times as needed until it goes down.
Charlotte takes Crobat, because she’s not particularly vulnerable to anything it has. She’ll throw an Electroweb on top of it, Screech to lower its Defense, then start nailing it with a bunch of Thunderbolts in succession. Sometimes you don’t need an overly complicated strategy.
Finally Little Timmy takes on Muk for much the same reason as the others take on their opponents: it doesn’t have anything she’s particularly weak to. Taunt to shut down its status moves, then Psychic as many times as she needs to until it’s down. Draining Kiss if she needs to heal up at any point, then back to Psychic.
TIME TO HEAL! Steven presents the Expert Belt to El Diablo, who promptly ties it around his waist.
BRUNO
William will start us out against Hitmonlee, because the bulk of its attacks are Fighting, which William is doubly resistant to. Even the ones that aren’t Fighting aren’t ones that William is particularly vulnerable to, either. He’ll Taunt to keep it from using what status moves it has, then start smacking it with Psyshock to take advantage of the hitmon’s much lower regular defense stat and his own higher special attack, Psyshock being weird like that. But weird in a useful way. If it starts looking like the hitmon is… hitting too much, he’ll switch to Flying to gain that precious turn where he can’t be hit before divebombing down to smack the hitmon in the flying weakness.
Charley takes on Hitmonchan because she can’t be hit by any of its Normal or Fighting attacks and even the attacks that can hit her (the elemental punches) aren’t ones she’s especially vulnerable to. Calm Mind to raise her specials, then alternating Dazzling Gleam and Psychic until the hitmon is down. If she gets low in the process, that’s what Full Restores are for. (Or possibly Max Potion, but since the elemental punches all have a chance at side effects, it’s probably gonna be Full Restore.)
Charlotte takes Hitmontop since she’s resistant to its Fighting attacks and not especially vulnerable to anything else. She’ll Screech to lower its defense and spin a Sticky Web to lower its speed and then she’ll Bounce until it’s either down or she’s out of Bounces--and if that happens we might have to bust out Fail Whale a bit early to Zen Headbutt at it.
In any case, Fail Whale then takes on Hariyama specifically to counter the big guy’s Heavy Slam. With Fail Whale outweighing Hariyama by a good few hundred pounds, the Slam will do minimal damage. Meanwhile, after Noble Roaring to intimidate the big guy, Fail Whale uses a combination of Bouncing and Zen Headbutts to take it down.
Little Timmy takes on Machamp, mostly because thanks to her dual Ghost/Fairy typing there’s literally only a single attack in Machamp’s entire moveset that can hit her and it only does normal damage. She’ll Taunt to keep him from using status moves, then go straight into Dazzling Gleams, with Draining Kiss to heal if/when Machamp’s single usable move gets her too low.
And now? Now it’s time for Lucario. Steven’s been specifically holding El Diablo Verde in reserve to deal with the weirdface fitedoge, whose Steel dual typing negates the traditional Fighting-type weaknesses--although luckily it also gives Lucario some weaknesses of its own. And El Diablo’s own type combination makes it resistant to Lucario’s Fighting attacks, what luck! El Diablo does a Feather Dance to lower Lucario’s attack, then a Swords Dance to raise his own, before finally showing off his signature Flying Press, which Lucario ought to be exquisitely vulnerable to. Repeat said Flying Press as many times as necessary.
TIME TO HEAL AND RESTORE SOME PP.