Kanto Part 11: An Epic Showdown

Lance informed me last time that I had one more challenge ahead of me as Kris had beaten him first.

Enter Champion Kris:

This battle started out the way all rival battles start with him leading Pidgeot. I counter with Skrillex who takes care of it pretty easily with 2 shock waves, the second was a crit but it didn't matter. Next up was Rhydon, so I swapped into LLCoolJ. LL got another useless crit as Rhydon was taken out by surf. Next up was Venusaur. I went into Spears to try and lower its defense with acid. Venusaur started off by going for growth of the first 2 turns to set up pretty quickly. I spammed acid as that was the only thing I could do against it for the time being. Venusaur then went for sunny day, which was nice for Spears to get the speed boost. He went for another growth after setting the sun as I continued to spam acid. This turn he thinks it will be a great idea to click solar beam, which makes sense now since he has the sun up. I watch as Spears' health quickly drops all the way to zero.

Death comes for ye:
Spears the Vileplume

I decide to counter with Migos, knowing that he is weak to grass. I wanted to cheese my way through the rest of the battle. I hit it with dig as Venusaur went for his second solar beam, missing Migos and running out the sun. Next turn, Migos connected with dig as Venusaur went for sunny day again. Migos dug another hole while Venusaur got most of its health back from synthesis. The dig connected, but me being as smart as I am, forgot that solar beam was a one turn move with sun up causing Migos to take a direct hit to the face.

Death comes for ye:
Migos the Dugtrio

Just like that we had lost 1/3 of our team. Thankfully, Venusaur only had 2 solar beams left. I went into LL to burn one of them with protect and then swapped out into Meatloaf on the sunny day. After taking the solar beam, Meatloaf was eventually able to knock Venusaur out with a double-edge and avenge the fallen. Next up was the dreaded Alakazam. I healed on turn one was Zam set up a reflect. Zam then hit Meatloaf with a psychic as I went for a shadow ball. This series of events happened again before both of us had to heal up. After taking 2 more psychics, Meatloaf was able to finish Alakazam off with shadow ball. I used the first turn against Gyarados to heal up Meatloaf as she got hit by a dragon rage. I swapped into LL on another dragon rage. Gyarados began thrashing LL went for blizzard, thankfully connecting. The next 2 turns I healed LL and Meatloaf respectively as I waited for Gyarados to get confused. I swapped back into Meatloaf on the first turn that Gyarados was confused and got hit by dragon rage. Gyarados went back to thrash as Meatloaf returned the attacks with double-edge. I was then forced to heal up Meatloaf as Gyarados continued its rampage. I then got off a toxic for some chip damage, but Gyarados went for dragon rage 2 turns in a row allowing Meatloaf to finish it with double-edge. His last Pokemon was Arcanine. I used the first 2 turns of this battle to heal Meatloaf and LL as Arcanine hit Meatloaf with an extreme speed and flamethrower. I swapped into LL for the rest of the battle. After 4 extreme speeds from Arcanine, 1 full restore on LL, and 2 surfs...Arcanine was defeated. Our journey was over...we were the champion! I mourned the loss of the fallen team members during the hall of fame ceremony, but began preparing for our next journey in Johto. 

Run Update

Team: 4

LLCoolJ the Blastoise

Level: 48

Blizzard

Bite

Surf

Protect

Skrillex the Jolteon
Level: 49
Shock Wave
Bite
Thunder Wave
Sand-Attack

Meatloaf the Snorlax

Level: 49

Double-Edge
Shadow Ball
Earthquake
Toxic

Jagger the Aerodactyl
Level: 37
Wing Attack
Fly
Rock Tomb
Ancient Power

Boxed: 22

RatPack the Rattata - Level 3

Yardbirds the Pidgey - Level 4

OZZY the Zubat - Level 9

B52S the Weedle - Level 7

Criss the Meowth - Level 14

R. Kelly the Drowzee - Level 13

MELLO the Jigglypuff - Level 17

Ludacris the Voltorb - Level 16

BahaMen the Growlithe - Level 17

Ghost the Gastly - Level 14

Gaga the Horsea - Level 23

LitaFord the Poliwag - Level 22

Eminem the Magikarp - Level 5

Bieber the Venonat - Level 26

Crimson the Goldeen - Level 20

Rush the Doduo - Level 24

BeachBoy the Lapras - Level 25

Sia the Tangela - Level 20

Motorhead the Ponyta - Level 34

FFDP the Machop - Level 35

Blondie the Psyduck - Level 31

Babymetal the Tentacool - Level 5

Deaths: 5

TLC the Butterfree lvl 5-17

Birdman the Fearow lvl 3-35
White the Arbok lvl 5-44
Spears the Vileplume lvl 14-47
Migos the Dugtrio lvl 19-45

Kanto Part 10: Spooky Scary Dragons

Enter Agatha:

My strategy versus Agatha was to spam shadow ball with Meatloaf. After her first Gengar, this battle was fairly easy. It wasn't a tough battle, just super annoying. She began with the Gengar that knew double team and setup 2 of them right away. Next she felt a confuse ray was in order and Meatloaf missed 2 shadow balls before breaking out of confusion. Gengar landed another confuse ray and Meatloaf missed agin. Gengar then got to +3 evasion as Meatloaf hurt herself in confusion. At +4 evasion, Meatloaf was finally able to finish off that annoying Gengar. I decided to give her a break against Golbat and swapped into Skrillex to ko Golbat. Meatloaf then took care of Arbok with an earthquake and the last Gengar and Haunter with  more shadow balls.

3 down...1 to go.

Enter Lance:

Lance led Gyarados and I countered with Skrillex. He chose to dragon rage Skrillex as I went for a shock wave, just barely missing an OHKO. Lance healed and Skrillex again connected a shock wave. One more shock wave and Gyarados was down. Next, Lance went into one of his Dragonair. Meatloaf entered the battle and ko'd it with 2 double-edges. His second dragonair was more of a problem. I was forced to heal on turn one as Dragonair landed an outrage. The second outrage critted Meatloaf as she went for a double-edge forcing me to heal once more the following turn. Luckily, Dragonair became confused after 3 outrages, but still landed a hyper beam. However, Meatloaf ate it up and finished it wiht shadow ball. In comes the feared Dragonite. LLCoolJ missed a blizzard as Dragonite went for safeguard. I land a double protect as Dragonite outrages. LL lands a blizzard to pop Dragonite's berry as it continues to outrage. I protect on the last outrage that causes confusion. Dragonite hits Meatloaf with a powerful hyper beam the same turn I swapped her in. Snorlax was able to pick up the KO thanks to the recharge on hyper beam. Last up was Aerodactyl. I decided to play the long game on this one. Aerodactyl connected with hyper beam as I once again healed up Meatloaf. On the recharge, I decided to attempt to toxic it, but Meatloaf missed. Next, Aerodactyl went for ancient power as Meatloaf once again missed a toxic. At this point, I decided I needed to damage this thing before he got the boost. Aerodactyl hit Meatloaf with a wing attack as she connected with a shadow ball. I was forced to heal before the incoming hyper beam. On the recharge I decided to have Meatloaf try again to toxic Aerodactyl. Thankfully, she was able to land it and get some solid chip damage on it. I healed again as Aerodactyl picked up the ancient power boost. I healed again to stall out the toxic and again Aerodactyl attacked with ancient power. This time, I swapped LL in on the hyper beam and proceeded to ko Aerodactyl on the following turn with a big surf.

My Elite Four challenge was finally at an end and with full party in tact. I had done it...or at least I would have if Kris hadn't arrived before me. Our toughest battle yet was still ahead and I could feel myself trembling at the battle before me.

Kanto Part 9: A Song of Fighting and Ice

The time had come for our final tests...

Enter Lorelei:

She started the battle with her trusty Dewgong. I started with Skrillex. After 2 shock waves, Lorelei had to heal, 2 more shock waves and it was down for the count. Cloyster was an easy knockout for Skrillex thanks to its low special defence. Skrillex came through in the clutch with a crit OHKO shock wave against the fat Slowbro. Here is where the battle gets really fun: Lapras. I hoped to hax my way through this battle as Lapras gave my team the most trouble. I started by thunder waving it only to be critted in return with a surf.Skrillex retaliated with a shock wave and lived an ice beam on low HP. Time for a quick heal, only to be critted by a body slam. Another heal, this time Lapras went for confuse ray. Skrillex went for a sand-attack, but he hurt himself in confusion. I was forced to use a full restore after taking 2 ice beams. I decided to try and lower Lapras' accuracy as much as possible and hope for many full paralysis. I got Lapras to -2 accuracy and started spamming shock waves. After 2 straight full para, Lapras' sitrus berry popped. Lorelei went for the full restore forcing me to thunder wave it again. 2 more shock waves, and the long drawn out battle with Lapras was over. Here final Pokemon was Jynx and I decided Meatloaf was my best counter for her. Meatloaf decided to take a little siesta, sleeping for 6 out of 9 turns. When she wasn't sleeping, her shadow balls were doing the most damage. Meatloaf came through in the end and Lorelei was defeated.

Enter Bruno:

Against every Elite Four member, I had at least one drawn out battle. Luckily, his first Pokemon was not that. Spears OHKO'd Onix with a giga drain after taking an earthquake. I had to rely on Spears against Hitmonchan as I wanted LLCoolJ to be as healthy as possible for Machamp. I thought putting Hitmonchan to sleep would be my best play. However, that was not the case. Hitmonchan decided to wake up after 1 or 2 turns...EVERY...SINGLE...TIME!! It frustrated me to no end and I felt that I was going to lose something in this battle based on how our second fight was going. After a lot of back and forth with attacks, heal after heal, Spears took care of Hitmonchan thanks to defense drops from acid. Spear's job was done, now it was up to LLCoolJ. After 3 surfs and 2 max potions, Hitmonlee was down. Next up was his ace, the massive Machamp.  I was super lucky in this fight as it could have been a lot worse. I was forced to heal on turn one as Champ missed a cross chop. LL hit with a crit surf, popping Champ's sitrus berry as he went for bulk up, the worst thing he could have gone for after getting some HP back. LL hit another surf as Machamp went for scary face, thank God! Machamp landed his last cross chop before being knocked out by LL with another surf. LL closed our second fight out by beating Onix.

Our challenge was coming to an end, but our hardest battles were yet to come.

Kanto Part 8: Meet the Squad

I wanted to share a little about the team I am bringing to the Elite Four.

LLCoolJ the Blastoise (Leftovers)

Surf

Blizzard

Bite

Protect

With a bit of luck and care, our starter has survived the long journey and hopefully will see it all the way through. His moveset has not changed in a while. Surf is there for a hard hitting STAB move for things I don't have a super effective move, Bruno's Onix, and Kris' Arcanine. Blizzard will help greatly against Lance and his Dragonites. Bite is there for Agatha, although I may save LL from having to face them and protect will allow me to scout for things and get some leftovers health back.

Meatloaf the Snorlax (Leftovers)
Double-Edge
Earthquake
Shadow Ball
Toxic

I decided to completely change Meatloaf's whole moveset. I was rocking double STAB, rest/sleep talk, but I figured this set was going to give me problems. I decided to just have her learn double-edge for a strong STAB move and I would deal with the recoil. Earthquake was there for an extra move. I would just click it if it was super effective or if I ran out of double-edges or shadow balls. Shadow ball allowed Meatloaf to easily handled Agatha's whole team and Kris' Alakazam. Meatloaf was our main wall so I taught her toxic to stall out opponents.

Skrillex the Jolteon
Shock Wave
Bite
Thunder Wave
Sand-Attack

Honestly, not much to say here about Skrillex's moves. This has been the standard moveset pretty much the whole game. I decided to keep thunder wave to slow some things down, which in combination with sand-attack, may come in handy. Bite will help against Agatha and shock wave is pretty much his only STAB move option (didn't want to grind up to learn thunder). 

Spears the Vileplume

Giga Drain
Acid
Sleep Powder
Sunny Day

Much like Skrillex and Migos, Spears' moveset hasn't changed all that much. I decided to teach her sunny day to boost her speed thanks to chlorophyll. Sleep powder to be annoying and allow her to freely set sunny day. Giga drain and acid for STAB. I planned on using Spears specifically against Bruno since I was worried about his fighting type Pokemon.

Migos the Dugtrio

Rock Slide
Dig
Magnitude
Slash

Nothing new to report here. Dig and magnitude were unfortunately Migos' best STAB options since I did not teach him earthquake. Rock Slide to hit flying types and hopefully get some flinches. Slash was there because I didn't have a good fourth move for him. I was a little weary about using Migos at all in the Elite Four because of him being so frail, but I figured I'd roll with him since he has been on the team for a good part of our journey.

Jagger the Aerodactyl

Wing Attack
Fly
Rock Tomb
Ancient Power

Last, but not least, our newest addition to the team. Jagger was meant to be death fodder since he was the lowest leveled member of our team. There may be certain situations in which he could come in and be useful, but otherwise he will ride the pine until he has to make the ultimate sacrifice.

I'll split the Elite Four into 3 parts (Lorelei/Bruno, Agatha/Lance, Champion Kris). Stay tuned to swee how our journey ends!!