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.

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!

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.

009 Luna's tone is set

Wow, was this ever a poorly recorded battle.  Bad focus at points and constant shaking should not have occurred, but apparently I was pacing around the room where this was recorded.

Anyway, my opponent Vogeltje is also known as Luna (NOT to be confused with Lina).  She leads off with Persian while I lead off with, you guessed it, Metagross.  I knew Persian leads had Fake Out and possibly Taunt, so I opted not to use Stealth Rock on the first two turns of the game.  Instead, I just went for the Earthquake to deal damage to Persian, and then used Bullet Punch to finish it off.  Maybe Luna was waiting to see if I had Meteor Mash or Bullet Punch so that she could plan her moves.

Venusaur is sent out afterwards, and attempts to hinder my Metagross through the use of Sleep Powder.  Luckily, my Metagross is equipped with a Lum Berry for situations like these.  Metagross uses the super-effective Earthquake, which still does less than half after factoring in Venusaur's Leftovers.  I knew that Luna would try Sleep Powder again, but I had nothing on the team to take status ailments so I was really hoping it would miss.  Unfortunately, the 25% chance of missing did not occur and Metagross starts its slumber.  Now, I kind of wish I had switched out here, as Sleep Clause would have prevented any more attempts at sleep.  I could have brought out Scizor or Salamence who both have a double resistance to Grass type attacks, but I kept Metagross in.

Leech Seed is used next, and for some reason, I decided to keep Metagross in to help Luna's Pokemon regain health, when a simple switch could have prevented that.  Venusaur creates a substitute, and Metagross wakes up just in time to knock it down with a critical hit.

Knowing that Luna didn't withdraw Persian when it was in KO range of Bullet Punch, I surmised that Venusaur would also stay in, as it probably wasn't in any danger of being KO'd... it might be close, though.  I opted for Bullet Punch to do as much damage before getting hit by another Sleep Powder, but Luna saw that coming and brought in a Steel-resistant Pokemon... Feraligatr.

On the next turn, I thought about two things I could do.  I could use Explosion and take out Feraligatr before it could cause serious damage to my team using its Swords or Dragon Dance, or I could lay Stealth Rock now and then use Explosion on the next turn.  Obviously my choice wasn't as optimum as I had hoped as a +2 Earthquake is enough to take out my Metagross in its moderately weakened state.

If it was a standard Swords Dancing Feraligatr, I knew that it would have Waterfall, Ice Punch, and Earthquake as its attacking options.  Looking at my roster, the Pokemon that would have the best chance at survival would be Gyarados, as it takes neutral damage from Ice Punch and less than that with the other moves.  Gyarados also could use its ability to lower Feraligatr's attack.

When Gyarados entered, I knew that Feraligatr would attempt to use another Swords Dance, so I opted to use Dragon Dance to increase my stats as well.  Unfortunately, Gyarados' Return used on the next turn at +1 took out only half of Feraligatr's HP.  Given the Leftovers recovery, another Return wouldn't do enough to KO Feraligatr, so thinking about the next few turns, I decided to Taunt to prevent any more stat boosts.  It was a good idea at the time, but then again, Feraligatr was already at +3, soon to be +2 if I bring in my Salamence.  Barring Scizor, the rest of the team had weaknesses to either Ice Punch and Earthquake, so a +2 would probably mean they wouldn't stand a chance.

I brought out my Latias, hoping to scare away Feraligatr with the threat of Thunderbolt.  I guess Luna was really confident in her Feraligatr's ability to survive a Thunderbolt since the HP was at about 75%.  I used Dragon Pulse expecting the switch, and my misprediction cost me Latias who doesn't really like cold hands.

I was now left with Lucario, Salamence, and Scizor.  I'm not sure why Lucario was chosen over Salamence, but Lucario was still able to use Extremespeed to KO the Feraligatr.

Seviper is Feraligatr's replacement, and knowing that Flamethrower would be the best move to use against Lucario, I brought out Salamence to take the heat.  Luckily for Luna, the burn hax occurred, giving my Salamence a reduced attacking stat.  Knowing this, Luna brought in her physical wall, Steelix.

I don't know why I didn't use Salamence's Flamethrower.  It would have been super effective and not have been affected by the physical attack drop.  True, it still wouldn't have defeated Steelix in one hit, but seeing as how Steelix's Stone Edge would have missed, Salamence could have threatened with a KO.  Maybe I was afraid of a potential Heatran.

Lucario is sent out next.  I decided to use Swords Dance, thinking that the possibility of Close Combat would scare Steelix away, but Steelix stayed in and used Earthquake.  After the match, Luna specifically commented on this strange decision and asking me why I thought she would recall her highly physically defensive Pokemon.  I didn't really have an answer for her at the time.  Checking it now, if the damage calculations are correct, Close Combat would have defeated Steelix at its current HP level, even if it had maximum EVs in HP and Defense.  Could I use that as justification?

I am now down to my Choice Banded Scizor, while Luna had the option to use Steelix, Venusaur, Seviper, and another one which hadn't been revealed yet.  Scizor's moves were Bullet Punch, Superpower, Pursuit, and U-Turn.  I needed to pick a move that would work best against all these threats, so perhaps Bullet Punch would work. 

However, I picked U-Turn for some very strange reason.  Was it a misclick?  I know Steelix resists Bullet Punch and would take less from that than U-Turn, but seeing as how there was still a Seviper which resists U-Turn, is faster than Scizor, and has Flamethrower, U-Turn would not win the battle for me unless Luna switched out her Pokemon on a turn where I commanded U-Turn and a critical hit occurred.  Maybe the slight difference in damage caused by Scizor's Bullet Punch would have allowed the Steelix to KO Scizor first.

Bringing out Mismagius after the Steelix fell to four Bullet Punches pretty much meant the game was over as a 3-0 for my opponent.  A rather humbling defeat from a team which consisted of no OU Pokemon at all but at least I showed that I don't only upload battles that I win.

So until next time, prepare for trouble.

008 Frozen Fishsticks

Ah, my first repeat appearance of a T-Flare battler.  This time, trogdor0 has a full team to battle with.

The lead for the opposing team this time is a Weavile.  An easy target to hit with Bullet Punch, yet I still decided to select Stealth Rock as my opening move.  Perhaps I thought the Weavile would switch out, but instead it decided to use Brick Break.  Maybe trogdor0 thought I would switch into another Steel type to take a predicted Night Slash.  In any case, after the first turn, my Bullet Punch lands on Breloom instead.

I thought it would be 2HKO, so I opted to Bullet Punch again, but perhaps the Stealth Rock damage created some sort of an optical illusion, or I got near max damage on the first hit.  Breloom remains conscious in the red, and executes its Sky Uppercut, which I always envision as a Shoryuken.  Breloom falls to the third Bullet Punch.  I suppose if it switched out, it couldn't switch back in without taking the Stealth Rock damage again, so trogdor0 opted to get a fresh opponent in.

Typhlosion was sent out, and predicting an Eruption from the usually Scarfed Pokemon, I switched to my Latias.  Latias then avoided the Earthquake, which worked out better for me.  I'm not sure why I decided to use Surf to attack the Typhlosion if I made the assumption it was holding a Choice item.  The Typhlosion wouldn't have been able to hurt Latias at all in this case.  I could have used Dragon Pulse instead.  It would have done enough to KO Typhlosion after the Stealth Rock damage, and it would have done decent damage to the Feraligatr that jumped in.

Knowing that Feraligatr can use Ice Punch, I switched into my Gyarados which would be able to intimidate its opponent and take neutral damage.  However, Gyarados was unlucky to obtain the 10% chance of being frozen.  I stayed in to hope for a thaw.  Perhaps trogdor0 thought I would switch out, so the Feraligatr used Superpower.  This brought its Attack down another stage, so it would make sense for trogdor0 to switch out at this point.  I decided to stay in, hoping that Gyarados would thaw on trogdor0's switching turn and attack whatever check or counter he had.

Jolteon appeared, and I was thinking that my Gyarados needed to thaw now and get a critical hit with the move I selected.  However, neither happened.  Next, Jolteon used its Charge Beam and gets the Special Attack boost, while Gyarados is still incapable of attacking for yet another turn.

The substitute appeared on the next turn, giving Jolteon a nice shield to take the attack of whatever Pokemon I choose to replace Gyarados with.  Gyarados would be able to break the Substitute if it could attack, though.  However, Gyarados is still frozen (in mid air, mind you) for the fifth turn since the Ice Punch.

I considered switching Gyarados out to my Latias to take a resisted predicted Thunderbolt, but then remembered that most Jolteon have Shadow Ball as one of its coverage moves, so that wouldn't have been good news for Latias.  I also figured that Gyarados needed at least 93 HP to be able to switch into Stealth Rock again, which it didn't have.  Anyway, Gyarados faints to Shadow Ball, so it's a good thing I didn't decide to bring Latias in.  Since Gyarados didn't accomplish much in this battle, I was actually contemplating getting a Lum Berry for it.  After some deliberation, though, I stuck with Leftovers for the time being.

While Scizor and Lucario would take neutral damage from Charge Beam/Thunderbolt and half damage from Shadow Ball, they could have been good candidates, but they tended to be weaker on the special defense side, so I brought in Metagross instead, despite that it takes neutral damage from Shadow Ball.  I needed to break the substitute, so I was happy that Metagross was able to execute its Earthquake.  I obviously wouldn't outspeed Jolteon, and switching to my Latias to take a hit wasn't a good idea, so I was kind of stuck with using Bullet Punch to inflict a little damage to make it easier for my faster Pokemon or priority attackers.

My Metagross falls, and I bring out my Choice Scarf Latias.  I keep thinking that Jolteon is frailer than it actually is, so I was a little shocked to see that it could survive Latias' Dragon Pulse and retaliate with Shadow Ball.  The critical hit was necessary to KO Latias in one attack, so that was really fortunate for trogdor0.

I brought out my Lucario to revenge kill the Jolteon which has had such a successful run of knocking out Gyarados, Metagross, and Latias.

Gallade comes in to stop my Lucario, and does so handily thanks to its Close Combat and ability to outspeed Adamant Lucario.  Come to think of it, what move did I ask my Lucario to do?  Crunch would have done the same amount of damage as Extremespeed, and Close Combat wouldn't be effective on Gallade.  I obviously didn't choose Extremespeed.  Was it Swords Dance?  I really can't remember, but in any case, I wish I had spent a little more time weighing in my options.

Scizor is sent out and OHKOs the Gallade with its Bullet Punch.  That may have been what trogdor0 wanted, though, since my Scizor was Choice Banded, and two of the remaining Pokemon on the team hold resistances to Steel moves.  Typhlosion takes a Bullet Punch well, and even though it has low HP, Eruption is still enough to capitalize on Scizor's only weakness and KO it in one attack.  I was a little surprised.

I was left with one Pokemon left, and I hope Salamence could hold its own against three other Pokemon.  Knowing that Weavile is fast, I decided to take a turn to boost my speed, knowing that I wouldn't be losing too much HP this turn from Eruption.  I took another turn to Dragon Dance, just in case the Feraligatr was really bulky.  I don't know why I didn't Dragon Dance again for insurance.  Perhaps I was thinking a maximum damage critical hit from Typhlosion would have limited the ability for Salamence to sweep, given that Salamence is going to take Life Orb recoil.  Now, looking back at the amount of HP it had, it would still have been able to survive.

Anyway, Typhlosion falls to a +2 Dragon Claw.  Weavile is sent out and takes Stealth Rock damage, which is probably good thing since it was probably wearing a Focus Sash.  I then realized that Weavile could have carried Ice Shard, but I was lucky that it wasn't used.  Weavile could not handle the Dragon Claw and faints, leaving only one more Pokemon in the way of victory.

Feraligatr takes some Stealth Rock damage before being torn by a +2 Dragon Claw, boosted by Life Orb.  Apparently, my earlier decisions for my Latias to not use Dragon Pulse on Typhlosion or its switch-in, or exercising another Dragon Dance with Salamence cost me the match, as Feraligatr survived with a single hit point.

And thus, my winning streak on YouTube has ended, which I guess in a way is a good thing.  I didn't want to be thought as someone who only uploads videos of them winning.  However, this was a close match and would have been upload-worthy anyway, so I don't think I shook off that impression just yet.

So, until next time, protect the world from devastation.