Non T-Flare 001 The Amazing Flying Paralyzed Gyarados

This is a battle against my real life friend, and at the time, my opponent wasn't actually prepared for a battle, so six random Pokemon (properly EV'd ones, though) were selected for that team.  The purpose of the visit was to trade items and event Pokemon, not to battle.  We were in the same room and sharing the same Internet connection, so luckily the connection held out for the entire battle.

My lead, Metagross, faces off against a lead Gyarados.  Thanks to Clear Body, Metagross is not affected by the Intimidate.  I was thinking that this Gyarados would be a threat to the rest of my team if I didn't somehow dispose of it, but I also felt I needed to Stealth Rock the opposing field.  I took a risk and hoped that Gyarados wouldn't use Taunt.  Luckily for me, it used Dragon Dance instead.

Since Kura's Gyarados is now faster than my Metagross, it was able to deal heavy damage to my Metagross.  I knew my slower Metagross wouldn't be able to survive two hits from the speedier Pokemon so I was glad I told it to use Explosion that round.  Bullet Punch and Earthquake, the other two moves known by my Metagross, wouldn't have been able to put Kura's Gyarados on the spot, anyway.

After the double KO, I switched into my own Gyarados, while Kura brings out Alakazam.  Since Alakazam is not used for its physical attacking ability, Intimidate doesn't really do much except take up time and lower the amount of damage Alakazam would inflict to itself through confusion.  I was hoping that Alakazam wouldn't attack my Gyarados, and luckily, Kura withdrew Alakazam to bring in Raichu with the hopes that its obvious Electric-type would deter Gyarados from staying in.  I used Dragon Dance that turn, though, making Gyarados faster than Raichu.

I knew Raichu had the Static ability, but seeing as how my attacking moves were Waterfall and Return, both which would count as physical contact, I decided to just go for the attack and hope I avoid paralysis.  Seeing as how the paralysis did set in, I thought about how a Stone Edge and Earthquake Gyarados would fit into my team instead.

Kura brought out Miltank, which was a great idea since Gyarados is now slower, and Miltank is physically defensive.  Miltank uses Body Slam to inflict damage, and possibly paralyze another Pokemon if I switched.  I was surprised that Gyarados' +1 Waterfall did a lot.  I'm not really sure why I did that, as I had recalled Kura mentioning Milk Drink prolonging Miltank's stay on the battlefield.  At least Gyarados was able to execute another Waterfall through the paralysis to almost negate the HP gained. 

I guess Kura was hoping for paralysis to stop my Gyarados next turn, as Miltank went for an attacking instead of using Milk Drink.  I took the turn to use Taunt, which worked out quite well.  I knew that Gyarados could take another Body Slam so I figured I may as well try to increase the attack and speed of my paralyzed Gyarados to have an easier time defeating Miltank, if somehow Gyarados could not move until after the Taunt wears off.

Miltank attacked first on the next turn, so the speed increase wasn't enough.  It's okay, though, since I was aiming to increase the attack.  Two subsequent Body Slams brought Gyarados down to the red, and I was really hoping I could get Gyarados to use its attack.

After the defeat of Miltank, Alakazam appeared to boast its ability to move around freely and quickly.  It wasted no time using its Psychic to defeat Gyarados.  I guess I forgot that paralysis cuts speed in half, not lower 1 stage.

Scizor came in to threaten Alakazam with the prospect of a Bug-type move, so Kura switches it out, only to be hit by a super effective Pursuit with twice the power.  We had a good laugh over that for a little bit.  Come to think of it, this might be the first and only time that my Choice Band Scizor used Pursuit super effectively on a fleeing Pokemon.  We'll have to see from later videos.

Kura sent in Houndoom to threaten Scizor with the prospect of a Fire Blast or Flamethrower, so I switched out Scizor for Latias.  I guess I forgot to take into consideration that Houndoom could have used a Dark-type move if a switch was predicted.  Neither occurred, though, as my opponent used Sunny Day, knowing that I would switch, but unsure of what I would switch into.

I did not command Latias to use Surf because of the reduced damage that water attacks have in the sun, so I opted for Dragon Pulse instead.  Houndoom did not use a Dark-type move for some reason.  Perhaps my opponent overestimated the power of Flamethrower in the sun, or maybe the Houndoom lacked Dark Pulse or Crunch somehow.  In any case, Latias was inflicted with a burn which really didn't concern me much, since Latias was my pure special attacker of the team. 

Knowing that Houndoom wouldn't survive another Dragon Pulse, Kura switched it out for Crobat.  Crobat takes a hit and survived.  I was thinking that Crobat was really frail.  I mean, it sure doesn't look very sturdy with those wiry limbs.  I guess it was thought that Crobat could outspeed Latias, but my opponent probably didn't realize that Latias had a Choice Scarf.  If my opponent knew that, I'm sure the decision to let Houndoom faint before switching in Crobat would have been selected.  As it stood, Crobat was unable to issue one attack before it fainted from a 2HKO.

Houndoom comes in and takes Stealth Rock damage before falling to Latias' Dragon Pulse, and ending my first Non T-Flare battle which I would place on YouTube.

Anyway, my friend had decided to rematch me at a later date, so I used this opportunity to mention my YouTube channel so that some of my strategies could be analyzed.

I wasn't sure what to call the video, though.  X001 sounds strange, and I didn't want to have it named 010 because I had reserved the numbering system for T-Flare members including myself.  Even though I mentioned the site, Kura wasn't comfortable joining a competitive community like T-Flare, so I just went for the label of "Non T-Flare".  This, however, made the name of the video long enough to be cut off by YouTube's video selector on the right side.  I typically want to have my opponent's name show up on the selector if possible, so I switched the order to show Kura's name first before mine.  I still kept Charizard as JMTL on my intro, though.

Until next time, say "Yes" on Nugget Bridge.