012 Bringing some balance to a tricky situation

This is another battle with Aroma_Of_Cat, and seeing as how he had recently battled my offense team, I decided to go back to using my balance team which I had created before I had started my YouTube account.  It should be interesting what Dale will be bringing this time.

The opening move the same for Swampert and Bronzong, so there was no real advantage gained there.  My Swampert could not do any significant damage to Bronzong with the moves in its arsenal, so I opted to phaze the Bronzong away and hope that I could save my Heatran or Zapdos to deal with it.  I chose Roar instead of switching out, because I was thinking that Swampert would be able to handle an Earthquake from Bronzong.  Bronzong used Reflect, though.

Swampert's Roar allowed me to see another Pokemon on the team.  This time, it was a Machamp, and it was quickly revealed that it was holding Leftovers, leaving me to think this was a bulky variant.  On the next turn, when it used Substitute, it made me think that even more.  It's odd that after seeing that my Swampert had Roar, Machamp would decide to use a setup move instead of attacking.  I guess Dale knew my thought process there, as I had indeed decided to use an attack.

On the next turn, DynamicPunch gives Swampert a confused state of mind.  Maybe Swampert is wondering how a 50% accurate move could hit him, and he let out a Roar, not realizing that the Machamp has the No Guard ability.  Machamp, despite its muscular appearance, decides to not anger the fully evolved Mudkip, and does a different kind of substitute by letting some random Pokemon come in... in this case, Exeggutor.

Anyway, thinking that Exeggutor would be using a Grass move, I decided to switch Swampert out for Celebi.  However, Dale had the Exeggutor use Trick Room, which I had not really suspected after only seeing Bronzong and Machamp.

On the next turn, Celebi gets hit with a super effective Hidden Power.  I'm guessing it was Fire, so when Celebi used U-Turn, I had thought about bringing in Heatran.  However, I needed to take Trick Room into account, so I figured I would bring in my priority attack user.

The Reflect wore off right after Scizor came in, and Scizor wasted no time showing how well it could punch two-legged trees.  As the tree was falling, my Pokemon yelled "SCIZOR!!" because it wasn't a Timburr.

Machamp makes a return to the battlefield and uses the Trick Room to its advantage.  DynamicPunch makes it mark, and Scizor, though confused, manages to use Brick Break to bring Machamp's HP to yellow.  Meanwhile, Life Orb damage brings Scizor to black, and is automatically recalled and never to be used for the remainder of the battle.  Without a priority user, it would be tricky to work around Trick Room.

Swampert was still my slowest Pokemon, but its Base 60 speed still outspeeds, in non-Trick Room situations, Machamp's Base 55, and both would probably not have speed EVs invested.  And yet, Dale still wanted to recall Machamp.  It was a good prediction, seeing as how Swampert used Earthquake against the levitating Bronzong.

The Trick Room wore off, but Bronzong still moved first since Swampert would be using a lower priority move.  Another Reflect appears while Swampert uses Avalanche... and effectively does nothing to Bronzong by the time the turn is over.

Thinking that Bronzong would be using Earthquake or Gyro Ball next, I swapped Swampert for Zapdos.  Bronzong, though, took the opportunity to set up Trick Room.  I was thinking that Bronzong would probably switch out into something that could take a predicted Heat Wave, so I opted to use Thunderbolt.  However, Bronzong, feeling its job was done, used Explosion in an attempt to take down Zapdos.  That didn't quite work, though, with Zapdos still hanging on in the red.

I obviously wished I had commanded Zapdos to use Roost that turn, but hey, Zapdos attempting to hit microscopic Pokemon could be feasible.  I guess Zapdos has really awesome eyesight, although the game decides to tell me that there was no target.

A Gastrodon from the west is sent out next.  It was a good move for Dale, since most Zapdos attack with Electric, Fire, and Ice.  Gastrodon begins buffing with its Stockpile, while Zapdos uses its Hidden Power Grass.  Despite being doubly super effective, Gastrodon survives, possibly due to the Stockpile. Gastrodon uses Ice Beam to defeat the legendary Zapdos on the next turn.

My next Pokemon to enter the fray is Gengar.  Gastrodon, with Trick Room obviously to its advantage, uses Stockpile again, making it tough for my special sweeper Gengar to deal significant damage.  This Gengar has gone through many move changes since I have had it on my team, and at this point, it was knowledgeable in the art of Energy Ball.  It did a decent amount of damage, and another Energy Ball would have been enough.

The Trick Room wore off, so I wouldn't have to worry about having another Stockpile come up if I could KO the Gastrodon.  I was predicting that Dale would switch Gastrodon out for something else, so I decided to use Shadow Ball instead.  I do recall lamenting to Dale after that match that I shouldn't have done that, but he said that it would have been a good move if he decided to switch to another of his Pokemon.

Gastodon survives the Shadow Ball, and is able to use Recover.  This could be an issue, so Gengar uses Taunt to prevent any more Stockpiles and Recovers for a few turns.  Unfortunately for me, Gastrodon wasn't given the message that it couldn't use its move this turn, since it used Ice Beam.

Energy Ball, Ice Beam, and Energy Ball are the next moves, and Gengar is in the red by the time Gastrodon fainted.  Dusknoir comes in, which is an odd choice considering that Gengar is faster and can use a super effective Shadow Ball.  This must be some sort of trick, I thought.  I realized that Dusknoir could be carrying Shadow Sneak, which would have defeated my weakened Gengar, so I switched out.  I figure that Gengar has enough HP to survive another Stealth Rock, anyway.  Heatran would be able to handle a Shadow Sneak, so it was my choice.

I was tricked, all right.  Trick Room, to be exact.  Heatran, despite weighing about four times the amount of Dusknoir, was still able to be Seismic Tossed.  I guess Dusknoir has a really good grip.  Anyway, Heatran used its Substitute this turn, in order to bring itself down to the berry... the Salac berry, which increases speed.  Why would I be doing this, anyway?  I knew there was Trick Room which was used on the turn before.  Could I really survive the remainder of the turns of the twisted dimensions?

After Dusknoir broke the Substitute, Heatran used Flamethrower and didn't really do as much as I had hoped.  Still, it was something.  Looking at the amount of HP my Heatran had, I didn't feel a need to use Substitute again, so I chose to attack.  Dusknoir indeed used Seismic Toss, and effectively activated Heatran's Salac Berry.  Flamethrower hits Dusknoir and brings it down to the high yellow.

The next move seemed odd to me, but I'm sure Dale had a reason for doing it.  He switched out Dusknoir, even though another Seismic Toss would have defeated Heatran.  Machamp comes in, just in time to take some Stealth Rock damage and a Flamethrower.  The twisted dimensions returned to normal right after that, and my super speedy Heatran could now go first.

Dusknoir returns, and gets hit by Flamethrower.  Dale mentioned that if Flamethrower did not do maximum damage, Dusknoir would have survived.

Rampardos, known as a glass cannon, is Dale's last Pokemon in this battle.  I am told that it has Mold Breaker, and then I commanded my Heatran to harness the ability of a Planeteer to finish the battle.

This was a pretty nice battle.  I had to use every Pokemon on my team to achieve victory, so I really felt like I had used my balanced team well.  I felt a bit more confident, though, and the gyms were about to reopen.  My next battle will be the first gym battle I would be recording for YouTube, so until next time, protect the world from devastation.

011 Malice provides malice, Pokemon style

Malice is my opponent for this battle.  Weavile is her lead Pokemon, which is able to use its Fake Out on my Metagross.  I figured it was coming, but I still wanted to leave Metagross in.  True, Lucario has Inner Focus, but switching into it would have meant that the flinch wouldn't have occurred anyway since it wouldn't do a move that turn.

As usual, I set up the entry hazard, and seeing as how I went first, I knew that Weavile was using Counter.  Since most lead Weavile had Focus Sash, using Bullet Punch to try and defeat it wouldn't have been a good idea, so I decided to switch out to Salamence.  I figure if I could use my Flamethrower, I'd avoid getting hit with Counter.  Getting the Intimidate was also nice.

However, after I switched, I realized that Weavile may have Ice Shard or Ice Punch, and there was no way my Salamence could have been faster.  I decided to switch into my Gyarados due to its neutrality to Ice-moves, and also for its Intimidate.

Malice commanded her Weavile to use Taunt, which was probably intended for Salamence, but hitting Gyarados with it was still beneficial.  I then decided to use Return in an effort to break the Focus Sash.  I didn't switch back to Salamence and go with Flamethrower, because I wasn't sure if having three Intimidates would have made the Ice-move survivable.  Anyway, Gyarados falls to the Counter, since it's not affected by stat changes.

So, early in the match, I lose Gyarados, which really shook my confidence.  I decided to switch in Salamence, even though using Metagross' Bullet Punch would have been better.  I guess I wanted to get in another Intimidate, even though the Weavile is already in KO range.  Weavile uses its Taunt to ensure that Salamence wouldn't be able to Dragon Dance for a while, but seeing that coming, I went straight for the Flamethrower and take out Malice's lead Pokemon.

Latias is her next Pokemon, and seeing as how it would have been faster than my Salamence, I should have switched out.  I was thinking that maybe Malice would have predicted that and would have used another move, so I stayed in.  However, Malice still commanded for a Draco Meteor, despite knowing that I had Metagross on my team.  After this blue screen of death, Salamence is down. 

Scizor is sent out next.  I was thinking that Malice's Latias was Choice Scarfed since it didn't take any Life Orb recoil or recover from Leftovers.  A -2 Draco Meteor wouldn't be too consequential for Scizor, so I anticipated Malice to switch.  I decided to use this prediction to my advantage and use Pursuit.  It wasn't enough to KO Latias with super-effective damage.  Malice was able to bring in Heatran, a great counter to Scizor, especially one who just used Pursuit.

I saw that Heatran had Leftovers, so I was anticipating that it would be one of the Substitute variants popular at the time.  I was thinking that Malice would think that I would switch out, as most Scizor at the time had Choice Band, so she took he opportunity to set up her Sub.  However, my Scizor had recently been changed to have Leftovers, so I was able to use Brick Break.  After I broke the Substitute, I decided to switch out to my Latias, thinking that Heatran would use Flamethrower or Fire Blast.

On the next turn, I thought that Malice would switch out to a Water type Pokemon to take the expected Surf, so I tried to outpredict and use Thunderbolt.  Malice didn't switch out, though, and the Heatran used Toxic.  I wasn't really expecting that at the time, seeing as how I ran a Heatran with Substitute and three attacks, and just assumed that her Heatran was like that.

Malice recalled Heatran in favour of her own Latias, which was defeated by a critical hit from Thunderbolt.  The score is now tied, but I can't relax just yet. 

My Latias is now facing up against her Scizor.  Sound familiar?  I also like how the Scizor is named after one of the very few Spongebob Squarepants episodes I decided to watch.  Anyway, regarding the battle, the only difference is that I'm not stuck on Draco Meteor.  I was able to use Thunderbolt with moderate effectiveness before having Latias take a U-Turn.

Malice brought out her Uxie, and then Latias fainted.  I had the advantage of choosing a Pokemon to go up against Uxie without having to take a hit in the process, so I chose Scizor.  It had a resistance to Psychic moves and could hit back with a Bug move.  However, Uxie didn't get enough sleep, and thus its survival instincts were lacking.  It just Yawned in the face of danger, while Scizor used its Swords Dance.

Malice, thinking I would try to use my Bug-type move before having Scizor fall asleep, recalled Uxie and brought in Gliscor.  I'm not sure why this Gliscor didn't make an appearance after Latias used Thunderbolt on Heatran.  Anyway, I switched out my Scizor before it could fall asleep and sent out Metagross.  It was intended to stop Uxie, not Gliscor, which I knew would have Earthquake.

I used Bullet Punch here for some reason.  I mean, I used it for priority, but I also knew that Gliscor is physically bulky.  If I used Explosion, I wasn't entirely sure if it would have been enough to take it down (I found out later that it could have).  Metagross survived the expected Earthquake, so I decided to try for Explosion now.  Of course, 364 divided by two is more than 175, so it wasn't likely that it would survive.  I was probably kicking myself for not using Explosion in the first place.

Scizor is brought in, since it takes neutral hits from both of Gliscor's STAB attacks.  Gliscor uses the turn to use Taunt, as Malice knew from the previous encounter with Uxie that Scizor had that move.  A good move on her part.

The non-boosted Bullet Punch does about 20% to Gliscor, while Gliscor's Earthquake does roughly the same, thanks to Scizor's Leftovers.  I was thinking that I could just keep doing this and win out at the end, seeing as Scizor would move first each turn.  The only thing that could ruin this strategy is if Gliscor had Roost, or somehow scored a critical hit.

On the next turn, Gliscor scored a critical hit.

The Bullet Punch lands on the next turn, and Malice called for Gliscor to use U-Turn.  Heatran shows her garish mug as Scizor just stands there bewildered, only to get hit by a blast of fire.

Let's see... who I do I have left... Lucario, and... wait, that's it?  Meanwhile, Malice still has Heatran, Uxie, Gliscor, and Scizor.  Looking at this list, Lucario has absolutely no chance of using Swords Dance.  Heatran would Fire Blast, Uxie would Yawn, Gliscor would Earthquake, and Scizor would Superpower.  Well, I suppose I did have a chance if Fire Blast missed, but I'm sure Malice would probably have picked Earth Power instead.

Heatran falls to Close Combat, and Malice brings out Gliscor.  My Lucario lacked Ice Punch, even though most people had suggested it as a part of a moveset.  My Lucario used Extremespeed to at least get in one attack before it fainted.

Could I have won if I used Explosion when I could have?  Probably not.  Even if Gliscor fell, Uxie was at near full health, and a non-STAB Crunch wouldn't have been enough to defeat it.  The thing I remembered most about this battle even before recently rewatching it was the switching I was doing just to defeat Weavile.  Good game, Malice.

Blog will resume shortly

I know I haven't been keeping up with my blog, but I think I should be able to find a bit of time to resume on at least a weekly basis.  I haven't really seen a lot of interest until now, so I do apologize for assuming that no one cared about this portion of cyberspace.