FireRed Omega: Marsh Badge

Having disposed of the Rocket goons (again),  I've traveled to Saffron City's gym to take on Sabrina. I'm expecting a tough battle, more difficult than any any preceding  or following.  Let's see the team.


Same as last time. After capturing a Larvitar in Mt. Moon, I trained it alongside my regular team for a while until I found it too time-consuming. Bringing a Tyranitar inside Sabrina's gym would have ensured victory: its dark type provides insulation against this gym's characteristic move, Psychic.  I expect the trainers to field a variety of Pokemon, and don't anticipate on any one Pokemon carrying the day. This shall be a team effort, although I imagine Dreikopf's speed will come in handy against Alakazam. My usual method is to use my Raticate against Sabrina's Alakazam:  while the psychic is powerful, he's frail. A preemptive strike could topple him before he attacks.


I'm only interested in your power to admit defeat gracefully, lady. Let's do this.


Boom!


Thunderbolt this.


Dreikopf may yet carry the day! Damn, he continues to impress me.


....well, can't win `em all. He did good.


I didn't expect to see Eris in this match, to tell you the truth.


Sabrina follows the Jynx with an Espeon. Given Sabrina's fondness for using HyperPotion, I used a little strategy here. First, I had Eris set up a kill with Thunderbolt. That, I figured, would hit Espeon's HP, but not enough to make Sabrina use the hyperpotion. Assuming Eris survived whatever she threw at him -- not a good chance, given that Espeon knows Psychic -- I'd follow the 'bolt up with a bit of Thunder.


Espeon barely survived the Thunder, and after drinking "Moo-Moo Milk" was ready to fight again. Too bad Sabrina didn't use HyperPotion: Espeon could've used a full HP bar.  With both 'mons paralyzed (Eris via Espeon's "Synchronize" trait), whomever was successful in landing their blow (Psychic of Thunder) would win. As it happened, Eris did.


She sends in Gengar, so I send in Hornblower. His "Bite" should dispatch the ghost with ease.


Hornblower won, eventually, through a lengthy exchange of Hypnosis/Pokeflute/Psychic/Hypnosis/Pokeflute/Psychic/Hypnosis. FINALLY, one of the Hyp's missed and Blastoise kicked that blasted ghost's ass. Psychic is a powerful move: I am surprised Hornblower survived so many of them.


And now the Big Bad of her team, Alakazam. Drei's out, so I send in Matthias to use his THUNDERPUNCH! which works so well.


Alakazam hits Mat with Psychic, but he stays on his feet. I know I need a powerful move to finish this thing off before Sabrina uses a Hyperpotion, and then I remember four little letters: STAB. Same-type-attack-bonus. Since Matthias is Fire-type and Flamethrower is fire-type, the move's power is multiplied.


The result is a critical hit.


An excellent battle, if I say so myself. The difficulties of the last gym meet were the results of my own arrogance. I defeated Sabrina with intelligence, not by level-grinding -- and for that, I am happy.

Giovanni's Return

I spent a good many hours climbing the stairs of Silph Tower, crushing minions and corrupt business-folks, taking their money and lifting all manner of things from off of of desks. Finally, I met my match. So, Giovanni, we meet again -- at last. When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master.


Only a master of...of...damn it, what was my line? Help me out here while I toss this Pokeball up and down and chuckle idly.


Ho-hum.


Takes a couple of these, but Drei knows what he's doing.


Now to take down this flying bug-

..what do you mean, "had no effect"? It's a flying-type. Eris is supposed to take it down! GAH!


Matthias enters battle, dodging rocks, and then he and the Flygon have a bitter Flamethrower v. Dragon Claw match. Matthias emerges the victor in their battle of attrition.


Ohh, that THUNDERPUNCH! will never get old.


This is pretty much why I replaced Harry with Hornblower. Usually my Water-type can destroy Giovanni single-handedly, but his team in Omega is more balanced.



Damn that Double-Edge!  It's a powerful enough move to have wiped the floor with a couple of my 'mons in the last match. I have to give Thad a hyper potion: I want him to gain some exp from this battle.


...yay? Silly Persian.


Well, it happens. And DON'T COME BACK!


...I don't want to have to climb all those steps again, my feet are KILLING me.

Chance Encounter in Saffron City

So, I went to Saffron City to face off against its gym leader -- only to find out that the city is crowded with goons. I don't like these guys. I can appreciate a good evil organization; don't we all want to rule over the world as criminal masterminds? -- but these guys are such amateurs.  So, I start looking for the source of these guys and spot a likely contender: an office tower, probably loaded with corrupt business-types.


See? Unprofessional. You don't go around saying you're against justice. You want to rule the world, say you're doing it for justice. Make your enemies the bad guys!


...is that who I think it is?


Oh, I was single-handedly dismantling Team Rocket's mad scheme to take over the world. Wouldn't do to have competition. Say, why don't you join me?


...I'll take your ugly-ass bat as a "No".


...the hell was that?


SURPRISE!  (I taught my Blastoise "Dig" to ruin the day of Electrics.)


Drei's new "Drill Peck" move does come in handy.


AGH! WTF?


....whew. TAKE THAT! Stupid Gardevoir. Next time I'll have Hornblower sit on you.


Uh...I guess?

..hey, where'd you go?

Firered Omega: Rainbow Badge

Here we are in lovely Celadon City, about to face off against Ericka, who prefers grass-types. I figure this to be my easiest gym yet: my Matthias' Ember and Flamethrower could take out her gym single-handedly. Rather than taking the easy way out, though, I'll be letting two of my other Pokemon take the lead. First, let's see the team.


As you can see, the face of my team has changed for the first time. I officially dropped Harry from the roster following the battles with Giovanni and Gary. Looking back over the records of other gym battles, Harry's the team member who has contributed least, and I can imagine no real use for him in the future: I usually drop my Butterfree in favor of a Drowzee in Vermilion, anyway.  I'd need a surf-enabled Pokemon at some point, and my encounter with Giovanni made it clear I need a Water-type. I debated between Seel (for the novelty), Gyrados (for the awesome), and Blastoise:  I decided in favor of Blastoise given that I didn't want to spend forever training a Magikarp. The Squirtle some random pedestrian gave me was at level 20, and came out of the box with Bite and Water Gun. That made training in Lavender Tower fairly easy.


He soon evolved into a Wartortle, then a Blastoise, and learned "Icy Wind" along the way -- making him useful against Plants, despite his water-type weakness. Ericka's trainers learned that the hard way.


None of her trainers offered anything substantial in the way of resistence: Hornblower exhausted his Icy Wind, and soon I switched to Gaia.


Gaia's "Toxic" is a plant-killer.


Given my raging rampage of success, I decide to attack Ericka without returning to the Pokecenter to refresh my troops. Gaia's got plenty of Toxic left, and if she falters Matthias can take down Ericka's entire team easily.


Take that!


As potent as "Toxic" usually is, it doesn't take down this Victoribel quickly enough: it puts Gaia to sleep and then knocks her out with a critical-hit Sludge Bomb. I sigh.


Fine, I say. Matthias can have Ericka's team all to himself.


...except, this guy's giving me trouble. He takes Flamethrower with dignity, and it looks like I'll need three or four Karate Chops to take him out. Fine. Not like a plant can throw anything at my trusty Magmar in the meantime.


Wait, what? Oh, shit.


So I bring out Thaddaeus, my ever reliable "Plan B". He'll show these frickin' plants what-for.


He is a little out of his element, though....these Grass-types just don't fall apart like I expected them to.


Still, Thaddaeus is a good bruiser. He can hang on.


And thus my second "Oh, shit!" moment of the night.


This is not looking good. My three champions are out of action.That Blastoise's "Icy Wind" PP is all worn out means he's just a liability, meaning two out the three 'mons I have left are in no way suitable to face off against Grasses. I decide to send Blastoise out in the meantime: he's got good defense, and has two non-water moves available. Maybe can he can take these seedy types out with brute force.


When Ericka's next demon knocks my Hornblower to sleep, I start pawing through my bag. Ho hurr! I can restore his Icy Wind! The day is saved!


Also  I have a Pokeflute! Forgot about that. Tee-hee.


Only...Giga Train knocked my battle-tank to its knees before I could send the winds of death at the Vileplume, so I had to send in poor Dodrio. He's not a bad choice, acutally: his "Tri-Attack" has freezing and burning elements.


....Buddha bless your heart, you mean little bird, you saved my ass!


And I concede that I was almost defeated by a Grass-type leader and only survived because my Dreikopf is a badass.


Seriously, WTF?  How could a Grass-type leader do this?  Half of my team could've taken this gym by themselves!

In thinking back, I realize it was ill-considered of me to engage Ericka without refreshing Hornblower's "Icy Wind". Forgetting about the Pokeflute was stupid. What would have happened had Dodrio failed? Well, I still had a couple of revives: I'd send in Eris as cannon fodder while I applied those to Matthias and Blastoise. While my failure was still quite possible in such a scenario, I figure one of them would've gotten off their power-move before falling again.

Well. That was a real learning experience.  By the way, had I gone to the Pokecenter before challening Ericka, this would've been the result:


See you in...Saffron City? I think?