Too Spooky: Timber's Ghost Monotype Run

[Timber Dragon]

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Vero Cole who had a special gift.

"I see dead mons..."

It was rather inconvenient.

One day, Cole decided that if he was gonna be haunted for the rest of his life, he might as well make use of the freeloading dead things that keep hanging around him -- it was better than wetting himself, at least. He confronted the spirits and, eventually realizing that maybe they were all just a bunch of lonely freaks who needed some friendship, a team was founded that day.

Years later, an older Cole decides to challenge the Reborn League. Utilizing the ghosts who once tormented him, he'll haunt his way to victory... assuming his team of spooks don't frustrate him into giving up.




So! Following the surprising success (for now) of my bird-themed run, I decided to do a straight-up monotype challenge using a type that I've never really used before: Spooky-type.

It's interesting how, despite me loving ghosts, I generally ignored them in Pokermons. I guess that's because there aren't too many to choose from in any given official game, and because other mons of the non-Spooky typing got the job just fine. So, a monotype challenge of a type I rarely if ever used before. In Reborn.

I'm sure I'll be fine.

i'm gonna die



Thanks to the nice folks in the Request-a-Mon thread, my team is as follows:



Crowe (M)
Species: Gastly
Nature: Bashful/Quick to flee
Ability: Levitate
My planned ace, if the nice rumors I hear about Gengar prove true.



Lizbeth (F)
Species: Litwick
Nature: Timid/Often dozes off
Ability: Flame Body
I was never a fan of Chandelure's design, but Shade taught me well how badly one can destroy you.



Babadook (M)
Species: Phantump
Nature: Gentle/Likes to fight
Ability: Natural Cure
Hey look at that, a Grass-type, another thing I almost never use ever. Trevenant looked interesting, though, and seems to be one of the few physical attackers I'll have.


aaaaand insert drumroll here


Cervantes (M)
Species: Honedge
Nature: Hasty/Quick to flee
Ability: No Guard
Yes yes, I know, Aegislash OP as hell, but y'know what? There aren't too many members of the Spooky-type club to begin with, and besides, I'm sure things will be much less cheap with these self-imposed limitations:
-Swords Dance is BANNED
-King's Shield is BANNED
-Sacred Sword is BANNED
-Anything else BANNABLE that I can think of is BANNED
In other words, the things that make Aegislash, well, Aegislash are forbidden until the time Honedge can be obtained legitimately in the game. In the meantime, Cervantes will have to settle for being a glass cannon who can hit like a truck but shatters when someone pokes him too hard. Unable to freely switch between Blade Forme and Shield Forme without switching out will probably make using an Aegislash tricky.

Anyhoo, let's get hauntin'.


Early game dead weight

seewhatididthere. A major concern that I had, one eventually proven true when fighting Julia, is that my ghosts in their early levels are... not that good.

Gastly and Phantump don't learn any useful STAB moves until much later, Litwick has to 'live' with a paltry base stat total of 275 until freakin' level 41, and Honedge at this point is little more than a Fury Cutter slave. Combine that with how I don't even have a full team*, and won't get any additions until after Corey**, and I'm looking at some early game hell.

*TECHNICALLY not true -- I do have a Golett, Frillish, and female Snorunt (for Froslass) in the PC, but only because the Request-a-Mon dude who altered my save file didn't know how to alter events like the Mystery Egg and the totem pole, assuming the totem pole can be altered too.

**I'm technically not supposed to use those PC ghosts until I'm first able to obtain them in-game, but that's more out of honor... though, I was this close to taking out that Golett and using it to wreck Julia's shit.

Still, I'll try my best, and if I absolutely can't handle it, I'll think of something. Probably something cheap.


Fern

Ghosties:

Litwick and Honedge do most of the work -- Gastly and Phantump don't have enough useful moves to contribute much. Lotad smacks Litwick around with Bubble, so I switch to Honedge for some Fury Cutter action. He finishes off Lotad and Snivy, but I feel bad, so when he sends out Budew I switch back to Litwick. Budew Stun Spores Litwick and Litwick Fire Spins it back. Budew wastes time Growthing while Litwick ignites it with Embers and Fire Spin damage.


Aster & Eclipse

Ghosties:

I do not remember the first Aster & Eclipse fight being this dangerous, but then, I never tried haunting them or anyone with a bunch of ghosties before.

Magby is the bigger threat thanks to Fern's chosen type, so I wanna take it down first. Elekid's Shockwave deals hefty damage to Gastly thanks to the field, so I try to use my last turn to Curse it. Unfortunately, as I thought, Elekid just finishes it off.

Honedge handle things with Fury Cutter while Fern's plants get beat up. Fury Cutter's stacking effect eventually plows through any type or non-STAB issues. With Fern's kinda-sorta help, both Magby and Elekid are taken down.


Julia is the real nightmare

Ghosties:

You'd think that someone who trains ghosts like they're pets would be terrifying, but I underestimated the effects of electricity and caffeine. This was undoubtedly the most trouble I've ever had with Julia in any of my runs. Even my very first run in Reborn. Even the one with the birds. For this, you may wanna cut me some slack when I primarily wound up depending on Honedge's Fury Cutter action.

I thought Julia would be pretty straightforward since my team was immune to her more dangerous moves like Sonic Boom and Explosion, but that just meant she got to rely on her Sp.Atk-raising Charge Beam. There's also how I wasn't going in with a full team, and a not-so-stellar one at that. I spent time grinding up my team, but the most important part was getting Litwick to level 20 so she can learn Flame Burst.

Getting past Helioptile was the biggest problem thanks to Mud-Slap decreasing my team's accuracy, which seriously wrecked me when the RNG was in a bad mood (and it happened a lot). Once past Helioptile, the rest of the fight is generally smooth up until Electrode. I could usually whittle it down to low HP, but enough Charge Beams to raise its Sp.Atk and no one on my team could survive -- no one.

On my final attempt, I lead with Honedge since No Guard will render any accuracy debuffs from Mud-Slap pointless. Fury Cutter does the trick, though Honedge does paralyzed. He beats Helioptile, Blitzle, Emolga, and Voltorb #1 this way, but two Super Potions (better be worth it) and enough damage later, and Voltorb's Aftermath finally finishes him off.

Litwick takes his place, and she needs to stay healthy to handle Electrode. I use Minimize... actually two, due to a misclick, but it wound up helping tremendously. Unfortunately, since Honedge had Fury Cutted everyone, Julia saved her healing items for Electrode. Some lucky hits finish Litwick off. Gastly is out, and all those Charge Beam buffs will probably OHKO Gastly or get close to it. VERY LUCKILY, Charge Beam misses and Gastly gets the finishing hit in with Night Shade.

So that's the first gym down, and I'm sincerely hoping Julia isn't an indicator of how the rest of the early game will go. I'm just hoping they can survive long enough until I can get those first Linkstones. See, that's another thing with all these ghosts: a lot of them need evolutionary stones to evolve to their final forms. I was lucky enough to get two free Dusk Stones in my inventory, but Corey and Shelly are most likely gonna drive me crazy. That's what I get for hanging around with a bunch of dead things, I guess.

Oh, and fun fact! My Pokemon will all be named after ghosts from movies, games, etc. See if you can figure out where I got their names from. Name names, post pictures, write poetry for all I care. You get a Like if you do... or something. I dunno. I just like ghosts, okay?

Edited July 21, 2016 by Timber Dragon

[anethia]

Nature: Gentle/Likes to fight

I won't question. I won't doubt. I will merely accept.

Anyway.... Babadook is from The Babadook, and Cervantes is from the Soul series of games? That's my guess. No clue for the others.

[Commander]

*TECHNICALLY not true -- I do have a Golett, Frillish, and female Snorunt (for Froslass) in the PC, but only because the Request-a-Mon dude who altered my save file didn't know how to alter events like the Mystery Egg and the totem pole, assuming the totem pole can be altered too.

Sigh...don't really like doing requests so I might have to teach a couple new people how to edit saves for the events. And yes, the totem pole can be altered. Some of the event mons are unusual levels (I think Golett is 31) and Egg Moves so you might be missing out on something just as a warning. But yeah don't ask me to alter save files because you would've gotten these mons instead of those 4:

Nincada, Misdreavus, Sableye, and Phantump

[FairFamily]

You're in for a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time of suffering. Ghosts tend to be on the later side of blooming bar a few exceptions. Honestly you were better off adding a misdreavus or sableye to your team, oh well. There is also good news however you can get a full team before Corey, you should be able to catch a shuppet and a drifloon before fighting him.

Edit:

Nincada, Misdreavus, Sableye, and Phantump

Wow I think you would have given him a much better team at least early game.

Edited July 21, 2016 by FairFamily

[Dreamy]

Been looking forward to seeing how this goes since doing your save. sorry I couldn't do the mystery egg and totem pole, but I kinda assumed you wouldn't use them till you'd reached those points anyway. I guess you could manually breed it if you were missing a specific egg move you wanted?

Sigh...don't really like doing requests so I might have to teach a couple new people how to edit saves for the events. And yes, the totem pole can be altered. Some of the event mons are unusual levels (I think Golett is 31) and Egg Moves so you might be missing out on something just as a warning. But yeah don't ask me to alter save files because you would've gotten these mons instead of those 4:

Nincada, Misdreavus, Sableye, and Phantump

I just gave him what he specifically requested, because who am I to judge what someone uses for their personal game?

I might be able to work out the egg and stuff with a bit of poking around. Is it through the events menu?

[Timber Dragon]

I won't question. I won't doubt. I will merely accept.

Anyway.... Babadook is from The Babadook, and Cervantes is from the Soul series of games? That's my guess. No clue for the others.

Yup, you got it! Crowe is a last name and is 'Cole's' ace, so that's a hint. Lizbeth I didn't expect many to get because she's pretty obscure (I think), but she's from a video game.

But yeah don't ask me to alter save files because you would've gotten these mons instead of those 4:

Nincada, Misdreavus, Sableye, and Phantump

That actually might've been a better starting team than what I picked. Of course, I couldn't resist a Gengar and Aegislash, but hooo boy am I gonna suffer before I get them.

You're in for a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time of suffering. Ghosts tend to be on the later side of blooming bar a few exceptions. Honestly you were better off adding a misdreavus or sableye to your team, oh well. There is also good news however you can get a full team before Corey, you should be able to catch a shuppet and a drifloon before fighting him.

Edit:

Nincada, Misdreavus, Sableye, and Phantump

Wow I think you would have given him a much better team at least early game.

Yeah, it's only the first gym and I'm already aware of the late bloomer problem. I actually considered requesting a Misdreavus and/or Sableye to start with, but it felt weird to request a full team. That might've been my mistake. Getting all the way to Corey with only four (weak) mons will be brutal, and I'll probably start over with a full team if it comes to that.

[Timber Dragon]

By chance I found a Trubbish in Obsidia Slums that was carrying a Black Sludge.

I've fought many a trash bag during my Reborn career and not one of them held any heal-y goo. This is a treasure that I will treasure by smooshing it onto my Gastly for better health. Yay.

Team Updates

Crowe's a Haunter now wheeeee


PULSE Tangrowth

Ghosties:

Lead with Gastly and use Curse, then Confuse Ray, then paralyze with Lick. Besides the damage from using Curse, Gastly didn't take a single point of damage. Maybe I'm getting the hang of this ghost thing after all.


Fern

Ghosties:

Lead with Honedge since Litwick would have trouble against Lombre's Water-typing. Honedge takes it down with his usual Fury Cutting action. He levels up and it turns out a Honedge can learn, of all moves, Aerial Ace. I have no idea why, but a flying ghost sword must be pretty damn terrifying. Tempting, but I think I'm okay without it.

Litwick handles things from here, because I feel guilty (it wouldn't be the first time I felt sorry for Fern). She handles Servine (luckily Leaf Tornado missed) with Flame Burst, though gets Leech Seeded. This makes Roselia an annoyance when this stacks with Mega Drain. Damage eventually adds up and another Mega Drain will faint her, but in a whim of the AI, Roselia uses Poison Sting instead for pitiful damage, allowing Litwick to get the finishing blow at 5 HP.


Flobot

Ghosties:

Florinia isn't too bad thanks to Litwick, and I always have Honedge's Fury Cutter to fall back on, but I like not having to depend on Honedge TOO much if another ghost can handle it -- I AM technically smuggling around illegal goods with that Honedge, at least until the time it becomes un-illegal'd.

Litwick leads with Minimize. Maractus's Sand Tomb hurts and I eventually use my sole Ultra Potion -- ordinary Potions aren't cutting it at 63 HP. Enough Flame Bursts burn it into fainting. I feel its pain. It's currently very hot over here and the mountains are on fire, and That's No Good. I hate hot.

For Breloom I use Will-o-wisp. Then I remember that the move that Burn would actually be useful against, Drain Punch, will just go right through my ghosts. Oh well, it's the thought that counts. Litwick gets Spore'd to sleep, twice. I get some healing in in the meantime while letting Burn slowly whittle down Breloom. Minimize also saves me some headaches, and Breloom goes bye-bye.

Ferroseed, Cottontee, and Cacnea are easily taken care of, though damage is starting to stack up and Cottontee had poisoned Litwick. When it's Cradily time, Litwick gets in a Will-o-wisp to burn it. It's her last gift before a lucky Smack Down smakcs her down and finally faints her.

Haunter saves the day with Curse. Combined with Burn damage, Haunter wraps up the fight with Night Shade. Yay!


Curse this Confusion RNG!

Ghosties:

Taka and PULSE Tangrowth is. Augh. Yes, I am declaring that 'augh' is now an adjective, because that's how irritating this fight was. It's augh.

Attempt #1. Haunter leads and spams Night Shade on Lileep. Black Sludge somewhat makes up the difference for whatever damage he takes. Lileep doesn't hit hard, but it makes up for a lack of strength with sheer annoyance in an Ingrain/Confuse Ray combo platter. No seriously, I got the jerk to probably 1 HP and Haunter gets Confused. Haunter's Black Sludge offsets whatever pitiful damage Lileep tries to poke him with, but it's otherwise an exercise in endurance and patience.

By the time I FINALLY finished it off amidst all of Lileep's healing (through Ingrain and Taka's items) and Haunter constantly hitting himself, Haunter doesn't have the HP to survive Cursing Tangrowth.

I heal Haunter and use Curse, but Tangrowth uses Growth and then a powered up Vine Whip to KO him. Litwick takes his place, uses Minimize (I'm starting to like this move), and then Flame Burst... which ignites the forest. Whoops. Didn't mean to do that, but the field damage combined with Haunter's Curse KO's Tangrowth.

Chatot is up next. Unfortunately the field effect doesn't affect Flying-types but does wonders against my own team! Especially Honedge. While Litwick is still on the field, she manages to survive Chatter, but gets confused...

... and hits herself, letting Chatot finish her off.

I hate confusion RNG. Just in case you haven't noticed.

Honedge heroically steps in, and for his troubles gets pounded by Chatot's attacks and the forest bonfire. Heroes tend to sacrifice themeslves, so I use his turn to revive Litwick. Unfortunately the field effect KO's Honedge before I get the chance to heal her, leaving her vulnerable to Chatter.

I take a chance and switch to Litwick despite being at half HP. She survies Chatter with 1 HP, get confused...

... and hits herself.

I REALLY HATE CONFUSION RNG

Welp, my only surviving ghost is Phantump, who is a bad idea to bring in for various reasons (like the small issue of how the ground is now fire). I use my last revival item on Litwick, Phantump is OHKO'd, Litwick survives Chatter with 3 HP, gets confused, tries Flame Burst...

... and hits herself.

I REALLY REALLY HATE CONFUSION RNG AS;IHKLGLSALSE


Attempt #1 + 1

Let's try this again. I ain't playin' this time. Haunter Curses Lileep and I heal with my pitiful potions to make up for it. Ingrain can't quite keep up with Curse, so whether or not Haunter gets confused (unsurprisingly, he does), Lileep still takes damage.

Once again, Curse on Tangrowth... except for that whole confusion thing. Because Haunter is still confused. Aaaaand Tangrowth uses Growth. Haunter barely survives the next Vine Whip, but at least he successfully lands the Curse. I heal him for however little it counts. Tangrowth uses Giga Drain, but Haunter survives with 1 HP (whooo).

For the first time the RNG is on my side -- Haunter manages to use Lick and successfully paralyzes Tangrowth before finally fainting.

This time I send out Honedge instead of Litwick. I kinda need my ghosts healthy and it's hard to do that when everything's on fire. While Tangrowth takes Curse damage and Honedge tanks its little superpowered plant attacks, I revive Haunter and heal. Mega Drain deals hefty damage, but its healing still can't keep up with Curse. Eventually Tangrowth faints, with Honedge down to 3 HP.

Honedge's last gift is to fully heal Haunter before getting Chatter'd. I was hoping Honedge could tank it somewhat with its Steel-typing, but his Sp.Def isn't that great and Chatot is augh in general, so oh well.

Haunter returns for (surprise!) Curse. He goes down immediately after, but his job is done. Litwick is sent out, Chatot hits hard with Chatter, Litwick gets confused, she uses Flame Burst...

... and lands the hit, enough to finish it off after Curse damage.


This battle was such augh. Unfortunately I'll have to slog through another one very soon, one involving an Umbreon and Chatot in the same battle. I don't know a stronger word for 'augh' at the moment, but whatever that word is, it'll most likely be what the next fight will be like.

aaaaaaaugh. I almost forgot that Reborn hates us.

[Kiri-Kizan]

Good luck!

[Dreamy]

I think minimize is confirmed MVP of this team so far.

[FairFamily]

I think minimize is confirmed MVP of this team so far.

I think it is curse.

[Marrowborne]

I think it is curse.

I think minimize is confirmed MVP of this team so far.

I honestly think both curse and minimize are the MVPs lol following this to see how it turns out!

[Dreamy]

I mostly said Minimize because I noticed it basically allowed a litwick to solo Florina

[Timber Dragon]

I think minimize is confirmed MVP of this team so far.

I think it is curse.

I honestly think both curse and minimize are the MVPs lol following this to see how it turns out!

I mostly said Minimize because I noticed it basically allowed a litwick to solo Florina

MVP is Curse moreso than Minimize. Minimize saved me some headaches here and there, but it's something that's dependent on chance. Curse at least is a guarantee, which is why I abuse it so much. It's very helpful against bosses like the PULSE fights and other problematic mons that I don't have the patience to deal with. Like Chatot. Freakin' nightmare birb.

So I forgot that Beryl Bridge is available immediately after you finish Jasper, and I also didn't know that you can do the Mystery Egg event immediately after finishing the police sidequest, so never mind -- I finally have a full team!

Team Updates

Edith (F)

Species: Drifloon -> Drifblim

Nature: Modest/Hates to lose

Ability: Flare Boost

Ideally she'll be a something of a tank doubling as a decent special attacker. She'll also be my only access to anything Flying-typish, and my only mon who'd be able to use Fly besides Giratina (fat chance of getting that one anytime soon) and... Golurk (because yes). I'm counting on her, but at the same time maybe I shouldn't expect too much from a dead hot air balloon.

GUESS THE GHOST: Can you guess who Edith is named after? Here's a hint: she's all floaty, spawns cherries, and REALLY likes kids.

Ambrose (M)

Species: Frillish

Nature: Mild/Mischievous

Ability: Water Absorb

Honestly I really wanted a female Frillish because... there aren't a lot of male ghosts that I can name my team after, SO OH WELL at least he has good stats besides speed. And oh yeah, he's a Water-type and I guess he'll be kinda tanky, maybe. Unfortunately, he's level 5 and after spending so much time on Drifblim, I'm too lazy to bring him up to speed for the next battle.

GUESS THE GHOST: He's from the same game as Lizbeth (Litwick), as one of her siblings. And if you couldn't guess where Lizbeth is from, think of Hellraiser/Pinhead... or the guy who made them.

Taka, ZEL, and the Tangrowth Orgy

Ghosties:

Though I have a full team (kinda -- I'm not quite counting my level 12 Frillish yet), this fight is still be augh mainly thanks to ZEL's Umbreon. Or rather, it's having to deal with Umbreon and THEN Tangrowth and THEN that evil Chatot. My first attempt fell apart in the end with Chatot and confusion issues (can't say I'm surprised), so I'm playing a bit more carefully this time around.

Haunter paralyzes Lileep with Lick and Litwick uses Minimize. Glaceon is a threat due to Bite, so it needs to go down fast. Haunter and Lileep team up against Glaceon and faint it, though Haunter takes serious damage along the way. I was lucky Glaceon didn't spam Bite, or that would've ended things fast.

Espeon's up next. Haunter has been weakened, so I switch him out for Drifblim. Litwick faints Espeon with some Hexs while Drifblim is a meat shield, though critical attacks make her less effective as a punching bag. Again, what else should I expect from a balloon?

For Umbreon, I switch out Drifblim for Honedge -- Fury Cutter is the only effective move I have against Dark-types. Umbreon Confuse Rays Honedge soon after, and Litwick's Flame Burst does measly damage. Litwick eventually faints from enough Feint (Attacks). Stupid never-miss moves... they're only fun when I'm using them, dammit.

Haunter is back out, though still weakened. Night Shade gets Umbreon down to the reds, though Feint Attack finishes Haunter off. The RNG shows some mercy and allows Honedge to hit Umbreon and faint it instead of hitting himself. I wonder how painful it is for a sword to hit itself? For that matter, how CAN a sword hit itself? I dunno, it's very confusing. It's probably all the Confuse Rays messing with our brains.

Anyway, that's ZEL's team down so I get to double-team Taka. Lileep's been kinda standing there all paralyzed and stuff, occasionally belching out Confuse Rays. Drifblim is back in. She's weakened, but I use her turn to revive Haunter while Honedge KOs Lileep.

Tangrowth is sent in. Honedge and Drifblim just keep attacking while Drifblim hangs in there like a champ with barely any HP -- I really wish I had better healing items besides Potions. Like, Super Potions are literally around the corner in Beryl Ward. It's like they're mocking me, especially with Taka using Super Potions. I guess the RNG threw me another bone and let Drifblim's Hex get a critical, lowering Tangrowth's HP enough where Honedge can finally faint it.

Now the fun part: Chatot! I hate him. Honedge attempts to non-Fury Cut with normal Cut, but Chatter hits Honedge, confuses him, and makes him hit himself (I'm still not asking how a sword is capable of it). Drifblim gets in some Payback though for okay damage. Both ghosts eventually get to low enough HP where Chatter will faint either one of them. I paused to decide who should take the fall. Since Drifblim outspeeds Chatot, I use her to get in some damage while I sacrifice Honedge's turn to heal my high-HP Drifblim for a measly 20. Chatter hits Honedge and he heroically takes the fall. What a trooper.

Haunter is back with (you guessed it!) Curse. Chatot finishes off Drifblim, so now I just gotta survive, which... isn't looking good because 1) the rest of Haunter's attacks are all Ghost-type, 2) Phantump is Grass-type, and 3) Frillish is a level 12 wet tissue paper. This does not bode well. Well, Chatot's HP is low enough where any old attack will finish it, assuming Curse doesn't do it.

I send out Phantump and Haunter uses Confuse Ray. Admittedly I feel a bit cheap using it, given how infuriating it is when I'm on the receiving end, but Haunter literally has no attacks that can hit Chatot and I have no more healing items by this point -- I might as well do something useful.

So Chatot gets confused and... faints itself from confusion damage.

Karma's a bitch, ain't it, Taka?

With that, I'll be buying some much needed Super Potions. Aahhhh.

[FairFamily]

Well done also don't forget your shuppet . For the sword hitting himself, I suppose he can smack himself with his sheath.

[Dreamy]

I'm dumb. I was thinking of curse as its non-ghost buffing form this whole time lol. I can see how superpoison could be much more useful, especially with nothing immune to it like normal poison.

[Timber Dragon]

Corey in the (Gas) House

Ghosties:

I hadn't realized how well Corey covered his weakness to Psychic until my poor ghosts kept getting pummeled with a bunch of Dark-type moves. I also hadn't realized he has Steel covered, too. Strategies... got derailed. Quite a few times. Yeah, this one had to be the hardest battle so far.

I'd have loved to level Frillish to an appropriate level, but the pre-Corey leveling options are so slow that I'd rather see if I can beat him with a team of four ghosts + two meat shields (Phantump hasn't seen much action, and a Poison-type leader isn't exactly a good battle to see what he's made of...). That made Haunter, Drifblim, and Honedge the only MVPs here -- Litwick has special plans.

Haunter had taken care of Skrelp just fine in previous attempts, but in latter attempts I switched to leading with Honedge. He spams Shadow Sneak, which gets priority and is his only STAB move. Skrelp's attacks are harmless thanks to the field and No Guard eliminating Smoke Screen's accuracy debuffs, but Venom Drench can be annoying if Skrelp keeps spamming it. It's a matter of endurance and getting Corey to use up his potions.

Croagunk with Sucker Punch is the first road block. Drifblim is the only ghost out of the bunch who can take a punch (tee hee). Two Hexs can take it down, but the field poisons Drifblim, so she can't stay out for long. If Croagunk uses two Sucker Punches in a row and if either of them ever get a critical, Drifblim will be KO'd and the fight might as well be over.

Skuntank is an even worse road block, what with being Dark-type and being beefy in general. Haunter comes in for a good ol' Curse, but Pursuit hits like a tank (how appropriate for a Skuntank) and it KOs him immediately after. The next step is to stall for as long as it takes for Curse to finish Skuntank off. Drifblim uses the last of her strength for a measly Hex. Frillish is a meat shield who revives Haunter, but after the previous damage added to Curse, Night Shade manages to faint it. Yay teamwork!

Haunter takes care of Grimer, whose defense buffs are useless against Night Shade. However, Nidorina with Bite becomes road block #3. Haunter and Honedge whittle it down before both fainting. By this point my only two remaining ghosts are Litwick and Phantump. I wanted to save Litwick for the very end against Crobat, but I have no other mons available and Phantump HAS to say alive while Litwick fights Crobat. I have no choice but to use Litwick.

The RNG shows a great mercy when Bite misses, letting Litwick finish it off with Hex. Now it's time for the strategy I've been saving for Crobat.

Crobat wastes time with Nasty Plot. Litwick uses Flame Burst. With the Corrosive Mist field effect, the result is pretty much as follows:

Pictured: Victory.

Litwick and Crobat are both KO'd and Phantump, as the only one standing, is left traumatized.

Good job, Litwick. I knew you could take one for the team.

[Timber Dragon]

Haunter with Shadow Ball is so bae. Also, did you notice how freakin' common Dark-type moves are in this game? Because they are and that's rather inconvenient for my ghosts.


Shelly

Ghosties:

Ghost-types against Bug-types aren't too much trouble, but Shelly is still tricky. Off topic, but did you notice how small Shelly's gym looks? How does anyone fight in here? Then again, Pokermans has never been known for accurate building proportions. Some houses don't even have beds in 'em! But anyway.

Struggle Bug is an annoyance by lowering special attack, not good for a bunch of special attackers, but teamwork is usually enough to offset the debuffs. Teamwork really was the key here. And I'm not just talking about how I usually sacrifice a teammate so another teammate can get the kill. We're all working together here! Really.

Haunter and Litwick lead against Illumise and Masquerain. Litwick burns the field with Flame Burst to get rid of those annoying field effects. It has the side effect of setting everything on fire, but my team will be fine. Well... half of them will be fine.

Anorith with Rock Slide was one of the bigger threats, and Wormadam with Psybeam eventually finished off Haunter, but Drifblim, Honedge, and Frillish (who I had finally grinded up to speed) hung in there the best they could with Hexs and Nightshades and whatnots. Eventually Shelly goes down without... TOO much trouble.



With Shelly beaten, some wonderful wonderful improvements are finally happening. Evolutionary, Pokeyman-related things, such as Link Stones. With that, it's time for some Team Updates:

Crowe's a Gengear now whooooo

Babadook's a Trevenant now whooooo

Ambrose is a Jellicent now whooooo. Great Arceus look at that glorious ghost 'stache.

Cervantes is a Doublade now whooooo


Aaaaaand the new guys!

Casper
Species: Golett -> Golurk
Nature: Brave/Likes to thrash about
Ability: No Guard (will possibly change to Iron Fist)
I can finally take this guy out of the PC. I was strongly tempted to sic him on Julia when I had trouble with her, but I resisted the temptation for HONOR-RELATED REASONS and not because anyone will tsk tsk and wave their finger at me. Anyway, he's one of my few non-special attackers, a physical powerhouse who can take a punch and hopefully dish them out too.

GUESS THE GHOST: He's friendly. He's also a ghost. HMMM wonder who it could be?



Imhotep (M)
Species: Cofagrigus
Nature: Bold/Somewhat vain
Ability: Mummy
Yaaay another tank! And he can hit pretty hard too! Cool beans, cool beans. Also, it's gonna take some time for me to remember how to spell/pronounce Cofagrigus.

GUESS THE GHOST: Apparently flesh-eating scarabs are a job hazard in tomb raiding.


Augh there was so much grinding to evolve my ghosts and get the new ones up to speed. However it's all in the name of defeating a rival Spooky-type trainer that's probably creepier and more infuriating than my team can ever hope to be.


Spookies vs. Spoopies

Ghosties:

Ghost-types against Ghost-types. Bring it, Shade.

There likely won't be any other battle in this game where both sides will so easily be able to destroy each other. I figured that depending on how things went, Shade would either be the easiest gym leader, or the hardest.

We're both weak to each other and both take advantage of the Spooky-boosting field effect. We even share many of the same teammates, and that'll be an interesting mirror match.

It's a race to see who can beat who faster. Go go ghosts!

Gengar against Gengar. Crowe OHKOs 'Corey' with Shadow Ball. Yay.

Cofagrigus against Banette. Banette gets priority with a critical Shadow Sneak, which mummifies Banette. Imhotep gets the second OHKO with Shadow Ball. More yay.

Trevenant against Trevenant. Babadook's slightly underleveled but he has Feint Attack. Unfortunately, Shade's Trevenant OHKOs Babadook with Shadow Claw. I kinda suspected this (sorry, bro), so I guess Doublade's up.

Doublade uses Shadow Sneak for priority and to take advantage of the field effect. It brings Trevenant down to the yellows, but Trevenant's Shadow Claw returns the favor. Shade and I both heal, Shadow Sneak/Claw again, heal again, Shade runs out of potions and Doublade finishes it off. Toljda it'd be a race.

Rotom against Golurk. Rotom wastes time with Pain Split while Golurk Shadow Punches it for OHKO #3. Very nice.

Doublade against Doublade. Cervantes is still weak from Trevenant, but I gotta keep up the theme, y'know? Shadow Sneak deals decent damage, but Shade's Doublade faints him with Shadow Claw. Golurk is back. He knows Magnitude, but I want to preserve the field effect. Luckily Shadow Punch is enough to finish what Cervantes started.

Now the threat I've been worried about, Chandelure. Golurk stays on the field in the hopes he'd do some preliminary damage, but Chandelure is faster and its Shadow Ball faints him in what's nearly a OHKO. Gengar is back with his own Shadow Ball, in what IS a OHKO.

Yup. Definitely the toughest gym battle here. I guess I proved who's spookier.

It's still Shade. I mean, he doesn't even have legs.

[Dreamy]

I think we can all agree that there needs to be an ingame explosion graphic when you detonate the corrosive mist.

so satisfying.

[Timber Dragon]

ZEL and PULSE Muk

Ghosties:

I accidentally lead with Trevenant against Glaceon, whoops. Switch to Cofagrigus instead, because why not. Cofagrigus Shadow Balls, Glaceon Mirror Coats, and down goes Cofagrigus, whoops again. Wow this match is sucking so far. Gengar comes out to finish up the Shadow Balling and takes down Glaceon before things went even more south. Guess that's what I get for having a bunch of special attackers, but dem's the breaks with ghosties.

Golurk goes against PULSE Muk. Magnitude breaks the field, so when Muk uses Muddy Water (which it does a lot), it gains an Electric-typing that Golurk shrugs off. Some Mud-Slaps lower Muk's accuracy, though I don't know why I'm bothering since Muk will keep spamming an Electric-typed Muddy Water. Anyhoo, enough Magnitudes take down Muk.

Golurk stays for Espeon. Espeon uses Psychic, but Golurk hangs in there with 3 HP and Golurk OHKOs it with a field-boosted Shadow Punch.

Now it's time for my favorite of ZEL's Pokemon, Umbreon (whooo). Doublade comes out for his usual Fury Cutting action, so far my only offense against Dark-types. He has enough defense to survive a few Feint Attacks, but he doesn't last for long. Gengar comes out and finishes it off. Whoo.


Cal

Ghosties:

Golurk against Infernape. Magnitude gets it down to friggin' 1 HP. Hmph. While Cal heals I use Iron Defense. Infernape uses Swords Dance but the next Magnitude OHKOs it, so whatevs.

Typhlosion sets up a Solar Beam and Golurk Magnitudes it. Too bad.

Delphox uses Mystical Fire and Golurk 'tudes it. Too bad.

Charizard's next. Golurk is getting weak anyway, so I switch to Jellicent despite knowing that Charizard has an Electric-type attack waiting. Charizard instead uses Wing Attack, and I somehow forgot that the field effect weakened Water attacks (apparently I forgot we're fighting atop a volcano), so Brine doesn't OHKO. Too bad. Cal heals again, then uses Dragon Claw, and another Brine faints it. Welp, that was lucky.

Magmortar against Cofagrigus, 'cuz why not. Cofagrigus gets in a Shadow Ball, but a Thunder Bolt and Lava Plume faint him. Ohh wonderful and now the field combusts. I really should've stuck to Gengar like my original plan, but noooo I had to be NOT CHEAP and give other mons a chance.

Bah, screw it, Gengar. Some Shadow Balls take down Magmortar and I win-- oh, forgot about Blaziken. Shadow Ball takes Blaziken down to low yellows, but a critical Fire Punch finishes off Gengar. Oops. (Oh and it has Speed Boost, wonderful).

Send out a weakened Golurk in the hopeless hope he'd tank Blaziken's next attack. He doesn't, and faints.

Doublade comes out for a priority Shadow Sneak... and doesn't quite KO it, gets Blaze Kick'd -- critical and boosted by the field -- and OHKO'd to next Sunday.

Okayokayokay, Jellicent's back out, though only at around half HP. Welp, Blaziken uses Bulk Up and Jellicent finishes it off with Brine. Yay.

Okay NOW I win.


Kiki

Ghosties:

Fighting-types against Ghost-types. How much could possibly go wrong?

Lead with Cofagrigus because why not. Well, maybe he'll Mummify everyone and it'll be funny, I dunno. Cofagrigus Will-O-Wisps Machamp after getting past two Rock Slides (the first finched him) and uses Hex for lovely double damage. We both heal (well, Kiki needs it; I'm just paranoid). Rock Slide tends to flinch Cofagrigus and that's annoying. We both heal again, Cofagrigus keeps using Hex, and finally Machamp faints.

Gengar is up against Gallade. We both maul each other with Shadow Ball and Night Slash, but Gengar outspeeds it and gets the finishing blow, albeit with HP in the 20's. Kinda ironic how Fighting-type Pokemon would know Dark-type moves. I thought Fighting-types had some kinda honor thing going on and Dark-types were, like, the opposite of honor.

Golurk against Lucario. Lucario Calm Minds and Golurk OHKOs it with Magnitude. Too bad for Lucario. He stays for Toxicroak, who gets in a Sucker Punch. Golurk uses Magnitude... 4. Ugh. Another Sucker Punch and down goes Golurk.

Cofagrigus is back for Will-O-Wisp, and since Toxicroak outspeeds him, Sucker Punch is useless (haw-haw). I heal Gengar and then faint it with Hex, though Cofagrigus got poisoned with Poison Touch.

Hitmonlee faints Cofagrigus with Knock Off, though gets Mummied. Jellicent takes his place because why not. Unfortunately, Medidate + Knock Off is a OHKO. Doublade comes in for the heroic sacrifice of reviving, uh, I dunno, Golurk. Which doesn't help since Knock Off just KOs him too. Gengar with Shadow Ball gets it down to the reds, Knock Off OHKOs him too. Drifblim uses her turn to revive Gengar AGAIN, Gengar comes back and finishes him off.

Okay well Gengar is my only ghost left, he only has 56 HP, and I have no more revival items. Then again, Kiki is down to her last Pokemon too, Medicham. Gengar heals, and Ice Punch knocks him down to roughly the same HP as before. Welp. I dunno why I bothered since he outspeeds it and Shadow Ball can OHKO it, and Gengar does outspeed it and does OHKO it.

Okay, so some things did go wrong, but whatever, I win.

[Dreamy]

and I somehow forgot that the field effect weakened Water attacks (apparently I forgot we're fighting atop a volcano), so Brine doesn't OHKO. Too bad. Cal heals again, then uses Dragon Claw, and another Brine faints it. Welp, that was lucky.

Isn't it only like a 10% power drop on superheated? I guess that could still be the difference between winning and losing occasionally.

also, the why not's, they're too strong!

[Timber Dragon]

Isn't it only like a 10% power drop on superheated? I guess that could still be the difference between winning and losing occasionally.

also, the why not's, they're too strong!

True, it's not that big a loss, but it's the principle of the thing dammit.

why not why not why not why not why not why not

Aster & Eclipse (again)

Ghosties:

Stupid Azurine Island, making me take an HM slave to a Meteor admin fight.

Gengar and Doublade take down Solrock and Rhydon while Lunatone just kinda floats there.

Magmar is annoying with Feint Attack, and Lunatone helps it out with Psywaves. Gengar and Doublade team up against Magmar, but they don't quite do enough damage and is continually healed with Ultra Potions. Eventually Doublade faints from enough Psywaves to the scabbard, and Golurk takes his place. He uses Magnitude, but Gengar had already fainted Magmar so the rest of us just Levitated over it. Oh well.

Now Milotic is out. Hydro Pump misses, which is good because I'm pretty sure it had Golurk's name on it. Eventually they take it down, Electabuzz is out, and Gengar finishes off Lunatone. Then Elecatbuzz faints. Yay.

Taka (again)

Ghosties:

At least I'm not bringing in Bidoof this time. Also, I'm already not sure how I'm gonna handle Chatot. Maybe just Curse it again -- haven't seen that thing in a while, huh?

Anyhoo, Gengar vs. Klefki. I should've led with Golurk, oh well. Gengar Shadow Balls it a few times and good stuff happens, like him learning Dark Pulse, which replaces Night Shade and finally gives Gengar a non-Ghost move in his arsenal.

Jellicent is up against Gligar. Gligar also happens to know Night Slash so ugh, Gligar outspeeds it and faints Jellicent first. Never mind. Gengar is back out with Shadow Ball, Taka heals twice with Ultra Potion, and Gengar keeps at it until more good things happen, like Gligar and its stupid Dark-type move fainting.

Chatot, wheee. Gengar uses Curse (yay)... but Chatot outspeeds it. And uses Nasty Plot. Oh lordy this is gonna hurt. Well, I guess they're roughly the same speed because Gengar managed to get in a Dark Pulse before Chatter chats him into fainting, like the worst pick-up line ever. Golurk holds down the fort the best he can, considering moveset consists of two Ground-type attacks, Shadow Punch, and Iron Defense... which is useless against Chatter. Oh, and I also forgot to get more revival items before coming to this fight, silly stupid foolish me. Well, Curse eventually does its job and Golurk hangs in there with 23 HP and is confused.

And now I win -- oh right, Cradily. Doublade has a role besides as a healing sacrifice this time. Time for Fury Cutting action! Unfortunately Doublade's awful Sp.Def is vulnerable to Giga Drain, not to mention Cradily outspeeds him, and you know you're slow when a Cradily of all things is faster than you. That doesn't last long. Oh well, Doublade, you tried. I trust you'll be less useless as an Aegislash.

Cofagrigus is out cuz why not. Shadow Ball doesn't do much, so Will-O-Wisp + Hex it is. Hex gets a critical and burn damage whittles down the last of its HP.

Man, I just love how Taka is such a good sport about losing. It almost makes me forgive getting mauled by his awful awful Chatot.

Solaris and the Garchomp

Ghosties:

HeygaizwannaseeifIcanwinthiswithoutCurse?

lol jk. That's not happening. I WAS trying to do this by burning Garchomp, except that I learned that Solaris has three Full Restores to wreck my strategy. This required buying more Cotton Candies... I'll be stalling for a long time.

Cofagrigus leads with his widdle pink Air Balloon to offset that little Earthquake-y issue, kind of a bad idea to do on top of a volcano, but I'm not questioning Team Meteor's logic. I had a feeling I would need Cofagrigus's Power Split one day, and today I was proven right. Stone Edge luckily misses, and Power Split averages out Garchomp's scary attack power with Cofagrigus's pitiful stick arms. This should make Garchomp's attacks easier to not die from -- easIER, not easy. Cofagrigus can still barely survive Dragon Rush, and that's after Cofagrigus managed to burn it with Will-O-Wisp. He doesn't last long after that.

Gengar comes in and again barely survives Dragon Rush, and KOs himself to use Curse (what a trooper!). From there it's just a matter of holding out long enough for Solaris to use all his Full Restores and letting Curse work its black magic. Golurk gets in two Mud Slaps for all the good it did, and Trevenant uses Leech Seed to speed things along. Around the time Solaris uses up Full Restore #3, Cofagrigus is back out and it's safe to use Will-O-Wisp again.

Curse + Leech Seed + Burn is a potent combination. Garchomp is in the reds, and I just gotta hold out for a little longer... unless it turns out Solaris has, like, infinite Full Restores or something. Then I'm rage quitting.

Nope, he doesn't. Garchomp falls to its triple status gangbang, and the star player actually earns his exp instead of being upstaged by the meat shield who just happened to be on the field at the time of victory.

[Dreamy]

So full restore doesn't heal curse? Interesting (I've never tried it before)

also fun fact, in my last message, I tried to copypaste the wynaut picture, but when I hit post it replaced it with the words "why not", because why not?

and that time I typed the words and it changed to the picture. I learned an important lesson here today

Edited August 10, 2016 by DreamblitzX

[Timber Dragon]

Team Updates


Kayako (F)
Species: Froslass
Nature: Hasty/Often lost in thought
Ability: Snow Cloak (may change to Cursed Body)
Hey, remember that Snorunt I'd been keeping in my PC? ... You don't? Well, I'd been keeping a Snorunt in my PC, and now that I have the Dawn Stone to evolve her, I get a Froslass now! She doesn't excel in anything but speed, but she's overall balanced and my only access to anything Ice-type. Unfortunately I'm currently too lazy to grind her up to speed, so you'll probably see more of her... later. Soon-ish.

GUESS THE GHOST: Crooooooak



Beetlejuice (M)
Species: Spiritomb
Nature: Sassy/Often dozes off
Ability: Pressure
You have no idea how many soft resets it took to get a Spiritomb with a not-bad nature and good-ish IVs. I even had to skimp out on a measly 4 in Attack because the rest were pretty good and I had little patience left. EV training it is, then.. oh well. Spiritomb will probably be the ONLY member of my team who's not weak to Dark-type... even though he won't have any way to reliably attack said Dark-types due to being Dark-type himself. Meh. I'll think of something.

GUESS THE GHOST: Gee I wonder who it could be.



Aya

Ghosties:

Ghosts just happen to resist some of Aya's more dangerous attacks. Doublade also happens to be immune to them, but that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be able to survive for long. He's been falling behind for some time now, and honestly I'm not expecting much.

Gengar and Doublade lead against Nidoqueen and Tentacruel. Nidoqueen should go down first to protect Doublade's shiny steel ass -- literally. Did I ever mention Cervantes is shiny? I wanted that bloody-looking sword for this spooky run, dammit. Anyway, Nidoqueen needs to go down for Gengar's sake, too. She has Crunch, and you know how much I love Dark-type moves.

We keep wailing on her with Shadow Ball and Shadow Sneak, not quite dealing enough damage but making Aya use up her potions. Eventually she goes down and Dragalge. Enough Muddy Waters from Tentacruel and a Hydro Pump from Dragalgae take down Doublade, not that that's hard to accomplish by this point.

Cofagrigus takes his place, because why not no, because he's a tank. We keep healing (maybe I should've stocked up on more ice cream...) and Gengar finally KOs Dragalge.

... oh crap I totally forgot Aya has a Drapion. Uh oh uh oh uh oh you know how much I love Dark-types. Uhhhhh errrr crap I wish I could get Golurk out here, but it's dangerous with Tentacruel out. Gengar focuses on Tentacruel, but Drapion KOs Gengar soon after with Night Slash. Cofagrigus successfully Will-O-Wisps Drapion and with Tentacruel down to low health anyway, I can probably risk bringing out Golurk.

It turns out Drapion has Aqua Tail too, but Golurk's such a beefcake that he's just like, nah. Golurk finishes off Tentacruel and...

Oh Arceus, now Aya's Gengar is out on the field. This is the worst thing ever. Granted, Drapion is burned and down to the reds so maybe this won't suck THAT badly? Well, Gengar easily KOs Cofagrigus with Shadow Ball, but Golurk OHKOs it with Shadow Punch. Believe me, I know from first-hand experience how hard-hitting yet squishy a Gengar is. I'm also glad that Drapion isn't spamming Night Slash. So yay, it didn't suck that badly!

Jellicent comes out because why not no, because he's another tank-ish ghost and the rest of my team besides Golurk and Drifblim are fainted anyway.

... and Venusaur comes out. I did not plan this fight well, did I? Ground- and Water-type against Venusaur, what could go wrong? Jellicent uses his turn to revive Gengar and Golurk is KO'd by Power Whip. Drapion uses Confuse Ray Jellicent before finally succumbing to burn.

Gengar is back out and Shadow Balls Venusaur for good damage, and Venusaur Leech Seeds Jellicent, nearly restoring its health to full. Oh, so that's how you're playing it. Gengar uses Curse, because you know the drill. Leech Seed restores much of Venusaur's HP, so I switch out Jellicent (who's confused and useless) for Drifblim. Double Shadow Balls from Gengar and Drifblim finish off Venusaur and win the fight.

Oh, and I teach Jellicent Sludge Wave, because why not because Gengar couldn't learn it.



Moar Team Updates

ta daaaaaaaah

bam

Cervantes is an Aegislash now whoooo

Since there are more ghosts that need Dusk Stones to evolve than there currently are Dusk Stones to evolve them with, I'd requested an extra one in my inventory (Request-A-Mon actually gave me two. That was nice!). That meant that, yes, I could've evolved Cervantes into Aegislash the second he became Doublade. I just held off on it for as long as I could for honor-related, I-refuse-to-let-anyone-nag-me-about-cheesing-the-early-game-with-an-Aegislash sort of reasons.

But now that I made it to Yureyu HQ, which is a hop skip and jump away from obtaining a Dusk Stone legitimately anyway, I figured I might as well evolve him. He's been lagging behind

And just to remind everyone:
-King's Shield is BANNED
-Sacred Sword is BANNED
-Swords Dance is BANNED
-Anything else I deem BANNABLE is BANNED. This wound up including things like Iron Defense and Power Trick, though for Power Trick, it's more that I thought it might get in the way... but it's still King's Shield Lite in a sense.

These limitations will not be lifted until the time Aegislash can be obtained in Reborn legitimately. Until then, I'm not sure if anyone's aware of how tricky it might be to use an Aegislash without being able to freely switch between Blade and Shield Formes. At the least, I won't be using Aegislash's full potential, so that evens things out. Riiiight? Right. Shut up.


Dr. Butt

Ghosties:

Since I have a field effect to my advantage, I figured I could take on Sigmund instead of ditching Heather to fight the relatively easier Sirius. While my available Pokemon count is only 5 since I have to bring along an HM slave, I'm still in a double battle with Cain who can... usually do useful things.

Sigmund wasn't too bad. Cofagrigus leads alongside Cain's Nidoking and gets some burn action in with Will-O-Wisp to offset Luxray's Crunch and Electivire's whatevers. All of Cain's team eventually falls, but luckily that only happened when Sigmund was down to his last Pokemon, Lanturn. Lanturn was a bit of a problem against Golurk with Bubble Beam, but the day was eventually saved by Aegislash's Night Slash. Not bad for his debut boss fight.

[Dreamy]

so do you actually have anything for aegislash to do in shield forme or is he basically just permanently in blade mode?

[Timber Dragon]

so do you actually have anything for aegislash to do in shield forme or is he basically just permanently in blade mode?

He does have Autotomize in case I need to keep him in Shield Forme, but once he's out in Blade Forme and attacking, there's no changing back until I switch him out. Without being able to freely switch between forms, the only use I have for Shield Forme is for stalling while I heal a teammate or something. I would have done Iron Defense instead, but I figured that anything that made it safe to come out of Shield Forme defeats the purpose of banning King's Shield. Well, besides how King's Shield also lowers the opponent's attack if it makes contact... and Iron Defense doesn't cover special defense, but you get the idea.

Team Updates

Lizbeth's a Chandelure nao

Hey lookit who we haven't seen for a while. Shelly had been her last big moment before her awful Litwick stats made her unable to keep up. She does evolve into Lampent at level 41, just one larger than the level cap at the time, but I held off on it so she could learn Shadow Ball... at level 53. Which I only got close to after beating Aya. And I was far too lazy to switch train her against those Grand Hall weirdos without the Exp. Share (otherwise I would've taken her to Yureyu and used her freakish special attack to wreck Sigmund), but I grinded her to get Shadow Ball, used up one of my Dusk Stones, and holy hell I'm gonna enjoy wrecking Serra.

So many years of bad luck

Ghosties:

The Mirror Arena is probably my least favorite field in Reborn, so I'm getting rid of it ASAP. Since Golurk will be going down as a Ground-type anyway, he might as well make himself useful by shattering the field with Earthquake.

Golurk barely survives Frost Breath and unleashes Earthquake, dooming us to enough years of bad luck to curse our descendants. Serra will have some serious cleanup to do. The resulting misfortune KOs Golurk and takes Cryogonal down to half, but at least the field is gone gone gone. Like Serra's career. Wow, I keep picking on her.

Chandelure and Aegislash were the MVPs here, respectively equipped with Flame Plate and Iron Plate. Flame Burst and Iron head make for a potent duo. There were some minor bumps here and there, like Serra abruptly withdrawing Vanilluxe for Aurorus (whose 4x Steel weakness I was saving for Aegislash to maul), evasion-based annoyances, and Froslass in general, but wrecking the field really made the fight straightforward.

... oh wow, I really DID crack those mirrors with Earthquake. Like, it shows up on the map and everything. I thought I was just joking, but who'da thought that actions have consequences? Nice touch, Ame. Nice touch.

Er, sorry about the mirrors, Serra. But hey, you're an ex-model, you can afford to replace 'em. I think.

Why so Sirius?

Ghosties:

Firsttimethatjoke'severbeenmade whoooo. I keep forgetting what mons Sirius has besides Chandelure and Seviper, so let's just do this thing.

Oh speaking of Chandelure, look who's leading with one (hint: the one who's not me). In karmic retribution from previously sweeping Sigmund's orderlies, Chandelure's Shadow Ball OHKOs Golurk, whoopsie. In defiance of that karmic retribution, my Chandelure throws a OHKO Shadow Ball right back at it. Mmhmm.

For Seviper, oh gee if only I had my little ground golem not-fainted, that'd be convenient. Since I know it has Aqua Tail, I send in Aegislash with Iron Head. It doesn't quite KO Seviper, and Sirius uses up most of his potions. Y'know, even though I'm not using King's Shield and whatnot, I'm very grateful Aegislash has a Hasty nature -- if he can't defend himself in Blade Forme, then at least he can outspeed a few things.

For Manectric, oh gee if only I had my little ground golem not-fainted, that'd be convenient! Sheesh. I send in Gengar because stuff. Shadow Ball does more stuff and Sirius uses up his last healing items.

For Honchkrow, of gee if only I had something that DOESN'T DIE TO DARK-TYPES. Well, I have Spiritomb but he's Dark-type too. Too bad I hadn't brought in Froslass, not that she's quite up to par yet anyway. All right, Chandelure it is. She Will-O-Wisps it to save her some pain and KOs it with Flame Bursts.

For Probopass, oh gee if only I had my little ground golem not-fainted, that'd be convenient what with that 4x Ground weakness! Ye gods, Sirius, no wonder you wanted Golurk out of the way. Well, Jellicent doesn't see much action despite being in the party a lot. Aaaaand the first Rock Slide gets a critical and flinches him, and the second KOs him. Welp. Gee, if only I had my little ground golem not-fainted, that'd be convenient.

Well, okay if we're gonna be tank-y. Cofagrigus comes out and gets paralyzed, Probopass Rests, and Cofagrigus gets a Will-O-Wisp in. A LOT of bad luck with RNG and Rest, Cofagrigus eventually faints with Probopass down to the reds, I get annoyed and finish it with Chandelure.

Hitmontop Sucker Punches Chandelure (dammit) and does the same to Gengar, though he hangs on with 8 HP, though the next KOs him obviously. Aegislash is the only one left. I use his turn to revive Chandelure just in case, and Iron Head finishes it off.

Steelix

Ghosties:

Steelix's Stone Edge misses and Cofagrigus safely Will-O-Wisps it and Power Split makes things even worse. Sorry, Steelix. Must be tough getting solo'd by a dead coffin with stick arms.

PULSE Abra

Ghosties:

Uh oh.

No one in my team outspeeds it. No one in my team resists it. Aegislash in Shield Forme, equipped with a berry that temporarily resists Dark-type attacks, can barely survive a Dark Pulse. AEGISLASH. In SHIELD FORME. Can't take a Dark Pulse without help. And apparently, PULSE Abra is beefier than I thought -- Night Slash barely took out a quarter of its health.

All right, welp. No choice then. Gengar gets my only Focus Sash to survive Dark Pulse and unleashes Curse. Now we just gotta survive -- WHAT. Why is Curse not doing any damage? Is... is this a glitch? Oh. Oh fucking hell, it has Magic Guard.

All right, welp. No choice then. Cofagrigus gets my only Focus Sash, and I go aaaaaall the way back to the Move Tutor so he can relearn Grudge. Now, if only Dark Pulse didn't flinch me. Try again, and THERE. Finally, it works.

Now it can't do anything but spam useless Hyper Beams while I spam not-so-useless Shadow Balls.

That's what you get for making me waste a Focus Sash AND a Heart Scale, dick.

Edited August 15, 2016 by Timber Dragon