010 The Starter Pokemon Battle

I had decided I would do something apart from my usual OU battles at each T-Flare battle which would be numbered a multiple of ten.  Somehow I didn't do it for Battle 020, but anyway...

Since this was my first one, I decided to upload a battle which I had done against myself, and used all starters.  I had been toying with the idea for some time, and knowing that by Generation IV there are 12 fully evolved starters, it was the perfect opportunity.  Everyone knows the starters so well through the selection of them and the story sequences with the rivals in the game, but I didn't expect to see so many views.  Battle 010 is currently my second most viewed video, and I'm not sure why it has been marketed differently than the rest of my battles.  Did someone Digg it or something?

I thought about making the battle a double battle as well for a change of pace.  I wasn't sure which music I wanted to use, so I blended in some remixed Pokemon Trainer battle music from each of the generations.  I started out with the same music as I did for the match I had with Blazeinferno for some reason.  I guess I thought a colosseum-style theme would fit, as it was intended to be a showcase anyway.

The Pokemon on my Platinum would be the first and second generation starters, while the Pokemon on my Pearl would be the third and fourth.

The leads are Venusaur, Charizard, Swampert, and Torterra.  Since Swampert and Torterra are commonly used as leads they seemed like great choices.  Venusaur and Charizard were chosen because they were the earliest in terms of Pokedex number.

Charizard's Base 100 speed allows it to go first from this group, and takes the time to use Substitute.  Torterra wins the speed tie against Bulbasaur and increases its speed with its Rock Polish, and Venusaur creates a Substitute to create the beginnings of a green plush collection.  Swampert finishes off the turn with Stealth Rock, meaning that the only HP lost this turn was on the Platinum side.

Torterra now boasts the top speed thanks to the boost, and uses an attack to hit both Venusaur and Charizard simultaneously.  Charizard would take x4 damage, but thanks to Rock Slide being relatively weaker in double battles, one could argue that it would be x2.  It really didn't matter too much considering that it hit the Substitute and not the actual Pokemon, but it was still enough to eliminate that Sub. 

Charizard used Belly Drum to increase its attack to +6 in one move, and it was EV'd properly so that this combination of Substitute and Belly Drum would bring it to the maximum HP allowable for the activation of a pinch berry.  In this case, Salac was used to increase the speed, which is great considering that Torterra would have outsped Charizard.  As an added bonus, the Blaze ability which activates when Charizard's HP is under 1/3 of its maximum boosts Charizard's attack even more.

Venusaur uses Leech Seed on Swampert, taking advantage of its Base 100 HP.  Swampert used Avalanche to try and get rid of Venusaur's green doll shield.  At the end of the turn, Venusaur restored the HP it lost through its item and Leech Seed, Charizard is being dangerously close to being KOd by either Swampert's Avalanche or Torterra's Rock Slide, and Swampert and Torterra were at near full HP.

The next turn begins with a Belly Drummed Blazed Charizard using a STAB Fire Punch on Torterra, and as expected, the super effective move fells the tank.  Venusaur decides to set up another substitute while Swampert uses Avalanche.  This particular Swampert's moveset did not have Waterfall so Avalanche was the only way to attack the flying red dragon which isn't a Dragon-type.  Surprisingly, Charizard survived.

Blaziken is brought out as a way to deal with Venusaur and to resist Fire Punch.  I didn't have a Flying move on Charizard, so I decided to get rid of the Swampert as quickly as I could.  However, all those power boosts was not enough to defeat Swampert.  Blaziken used its Thunderpunch to KO Charizard, and the music changes to some Gold/Silver remix.

I got my Venusaur to use Ingrain to further improve its tanking abilities.  Apparently it didn't seem much like a threat until now as it has remained relatively untouched compared to Charizard.

After all the HP gains and losses in between turns ended, I brought out Meganium.  I guess I wanted to lure out the Fire attacks to go toward it rather than Venusaur.  Maybe I could have threatened Swampert with the prospect of Energy Ball.  Meanwhile, Venusaur still didn't reveal to the audience whether it had a Grass or Poison STAB move.

Since Blaziken was Choice Banded, its Thunderpunch wouldn't have been effective on either Pokemon, so it was swapped for its more popular counterpart.  Venusaur was able to create yet another Substitute while Meganium protected the team even more with its Reflect.  Don't ask why it's behind the Pokemon.  Venusaur is going to very difficult to take down now.  Swampert's Avalanche doesn't do too much to Meganium as a result of the Reflect.

On the next turn, Infernape reveals that it has a special attack, not a physical one, and decides to hit the Pokemon which is not protected by a substitute.  This was done to prevent the setting up of Light Screen which was probably on Meganium.  Venusaur, not happy with all the HP it is getting, decides to Leech Seed some more instead of attacking.  Perhaps that was a mistake.

Seeing that the Pearl side had no Grass-types, the Platinum side brought out Blastoise to put pressure on Infernape.  To see if Infernape had Grass Knot, Blastoise used Protect.  However, Infernape wasn't interested in taking down Blastoise just yet, and wanted to get rid of that Venusaur which hasn't been doing much except racking up passive damage and healing.  Venusaur finally uses an attack, which happened to be Hidden Power Dragon, a very strange choice indeed.  I chose it because it would hit all Pokemon except Empoleon for neutral damage, although in retrospect Hidden Power Rock or Flying would have been a better choice overall.  I didn't take into the account the low power of a non-STAB move.

Swampert uses Avalanche when the Ruby/Sapphire music began, and gives super-effective damage which takes off a little less than 25%.  We then get to watch a whole bunch of healing and leeching going on, enraging Infernape for being the only one on the field not getting any recovery, prompting it to bring down Venusaur in one swift move.

Blastoise takes out Swampert, meaning that all of the Pokemon which have been on the field from the beginning have finally fallen past the halfway point of the battle.  Typlosion and Sceptile replace them.

Blastoise is near full HP but still wants to restore that little bit, so Protect is used.  The Choice Scarf Typhlosion uses its Eruption to hit both opponents... one for not effective damage, and the other for super-effective.  Sceptile barely survives while Infernape doesn't.  Sceptile was capable of using Rock Slide to hit Typhlosion for super effective damage, but instead used Swords Dance.

On the next turn, Blaziken makes a return, just in time to see its battle partner fall to another Eruption.  Blaziken then Thunderpunches the blue tortoise in hopes of avoiding a similar fate.  Blastoise yawns at the music, and thus has it changed to the fourth generation music we all know and love.  At the time there weren't many remixes that I cared for, meaning I had to stick with the original.

Now the Pearl side is down to the remaining two Pokemon, both of whom are on the field.  Blaziken is obviously locked into Thunderpunch, but that wasn't to consequential considering that the Platinum side had no resistances to Electric attacks.

Protect again from Blastoise, Eruption from Typlosion, a Thunderpunch hitting an invisible shield or something from Blaziken, and Agility from Empoleon describes the next turn.  Blaziken was obviously worn out by hitting some forcefield that it fell asleep.  Or maybe it was the yawn from earlier.

On the next turn, we see that Typhlosion is still faster than Empoleon, and takes the opportunity to use Eruption again, bringing both opponents to dangerously low HP.  Empoleon then uses Waterfall on Typhlosion who obviously didn't take that well.  Blastoise used Ice Beam on Empoleon.  I was pretty sure Blastoise could have finished the match already with Surf, but seeing as how it's a showcase, I wanted a chance for my remaining Pokemon to at least show up.

Feraligatr takes Typhlosion's spot.  If I recall correctly, the image of Feraligatr and Blastoise standing next to each other in that order looked pretty ridiculous from the Pearl side's point of view.  Feraligatr was covering Blastoise's face with its clawed hand.

After a Swords Dance from Empoleon, listening to Blaziken snore (but not using the attack Snore), and a Dragon Dance from Feraligatr, Blastoise decides that Water-type Pokemon should reign supreme, and takes out Blaziken with an Ice Beam.

A critical hit from Empoleon's +2 STAB Drill Peck wasn't enough to defeat Feraligatr, meaning that Feraligatr is able to end the battle with a +1 STAB attack of its own.

I was kind of hoping the battle would have ended in a draw or had just one Pokemon standing, but that was not the case this time.  Still, it was a fun battle even though it was against myself, and somehow, like I said before, several hundred views on the video is puzzling but not unwelcome.

Until next time, make it double!