(Pokémon) A New Black/White Draft

[Grace]

Well, I have an update, but I haven't actually played for about 3 days. I saw a copy of Chrono Trigger and decided to buy it. That's what I've been doing these past days.

Basically, I beat everything in my path without difficulty. Things to note (basically everything):

- Refia learnt Scald in Pinwheel Forest

- Tiara smashed Pinwheel Forest

- I evolved Refia as soon as I reached Castelia

- I bought Belir back from the bench, trained it on Sandiles until it evolved (with Eviolite), then used the two fisherman on Route 4 (with the Basculin) to bring Belir back to a reasonable level (L22)

- I got the Amulet Coin

- I abuse the Amulet Coin in the Battle Company

- I clean up Team Plasma

- Gym is stupid easy, have to redo Burgh due to Tiara self KO'ing when KO'ing Leavanny (due to a Razor Leaf crit).

- Bianca is straight KO'ed

- Cheren is similar

- I get the Plume Fossil in the Relic Castle

- I stop part way through Desert Resort (mostly done anyway)

Name  Species    Nature  Ability      Lvl  HP Atk Def SpA SpD Spe
Tiara Herdier    Adamant Intimidate    30  86  68  50  30  45  50
Refia Simipour   Serious Gluttony      27  85  64  43  58  41  63
Belir Servine    Serious Overgrow      24  69  37  47  38  41  50
~~Bench is below this line~~

So I managed to salvage Belir's offense, although in comparison to the rest of the team, it's really underwhelming. Still workable now, though. Mostly going to be used as a spot check to certain Pokemon I can't deal with quickly otherwise. (Palpitoad in Gym 5, other random Pokemon (Boldores for Exp, maybe)) It will stay underleveled for the remainder of the game and be spending most of the time on the bench.

Tiara is a killing machine. And this close to evolution, I'll probably have her evolved by the time I take on Elesa. Lillipup and its respective evolutions are easily one of the most potent early-midgame mons, definitely above Snivy, that's for sure. The other starters? Possibly Oshawatt, and doubtful on Tepig.

Refia has great offense, but will taper off later. Simipour > the other two monkeys. Easily the most flexible. Even without the L22 move, Simipour beats the other two by having practically redeemable offense earlier (Cold Storage compared to whenever you get Solarbeam/other Grass move or Fire Blast (Iccirus)/Overheat (postgame)).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cleaned up Desert Resort, and bombed N into the ground. Refia evolved after the N fight. Offense just got stupider. I backtrack to get Archen. It takes me 15 tries to get a +Atk nature, and half of those were -Atk natures. Grr.

Name  Species    Nature  Ability      Lvl  HP Atk Def SpA SpD Spe
Tiara Stoutland  Adamant Intimidate    32 105  88  69  38  63  66
Refia Simipour   Serious Gluttony      27  85  64  43  58  41  63
Belir Servine    Serious Overgrow      24  69  37  47  38  41  50
Denul Archen     Adamant Defeatist     25  70  69  31  43  31  42
~~Bench is below this line~~

Edited November 23, 2011 by Manix

[eclipse]

GYM 6

Chargestone Cave was far less painful with thunder around. Celestial Tower was trivialized by Albida. Somewhere in between, Star Field evolved.

I'm glad I picked up thunder (the Zebstrika). She made life so much easier against Skyla! Paraflinching Swanna was awesome. Albida took out Swoobat and a good chunk of Unfezant's health, and empathy gained experience via Exp. Share.

Pokemon     Nickname     Nature    Lvl   HP  Atk  Def  SpA  SpD  Spd
Dewott      Albida       Sassy     34   104  72   57   69   51   55
Zebstrika   thunder      Naive     36   102  88   55   64   48  106
Audino      empathy      Calm      34   121  51   67   52   75   49
Sawk        Mei          Lonely    33   101  111  54   25   59   69
Gothorita   Star Field   Calm      33    88  45   53   57   75   49
Ducklett    Snow Goose   Sassy     32    86  49   40   35   48   39
Ferrothorn  Distress     Brave     35    87  51   71   24   75   22

[Kaoz]

2nd Gym

Snivy evolved. Caught Drillbur and Timburr and taught both of them Rock Smash. Servine solo'd the gym leader by dodging two Take Down and two Hypnosis... why did I draft Timburr again?

Pokemon	Lv	HP	Atk	Def	SpA	SpD	Spd
Servine	20	58	37	38	33	34	39
Drillbur14	45	27	19	17	20	27
Timburr	19	62	39	28	15	20	18

[eclipse]

For the seventh gym!

You might want to add a couple spaces between Drillbur and its level.

[Kaoz]

For the seventh gym!

You might want to add a couple spaces between Drillbur and its level.

Darmanitan solo.

I considered doing that, but eh. It's still readable.

[eclipse]

Darmanitan: ;/

(in other words, Pokemon names go up to ten characters)

[Grace]

Right, I return to Nimbasa and clean up Route 5 and 16 for Exp (like I need it). I then take out the gym with ease. Tiara OHKO's all of Elesa Pokemon with Return. Zebstrika gets to hit me with Spark, but that's it. That was probably the easiest time I've had beating her. I proceed to fight Cheren, leading Servine against Liepard, KO'ing it easily, and then Archen OHKO's everything else without thinking. Oops. I save in Driftveil.

Name  Species    Nature  Ability      Lvl  HP Atk Def SpA SpD Spe
Tiara Stoutland  Adamant Intimidate    33 108  90  71  39  65  68
Refia Simipour   Serious Gluttony      30  94  70  47  65  45  70
Belir Servine    Serious Overgrow      28  79  43  54  43  47  58
Denul Archen     Adamant Defeatist     28  77  78  34  48  34  47
~~Bench is below this line~~

[eclipse]

GYM 7

Didn't bother with generic enemies in Twist Mountain. Most of the gym fell to Albida. Brycen was solo'd by Mei. The end.

Stomped through Dragonspiral Tower and the Desert Ruins. Somewhere in between, Albida became Samurott, and Snow Goose became Swanna. The latter's doing surprising amounts of damage.

Next on the evolution list are Star Field and Distress.

I'll do stats after Gym 8.

[eclipse]

New day, new post.

GYM 8

Detoured to get Thunderbolt for Star Field and thunder. With that, Star Field's usefulness went way up.

Beat up (almost) everything that stood between me and my final gym badge.

Distress evolved into Ferrothorn, and nearly soloed the entire gym (Dreydan's Druddgion got a really random Revenge critical that ruined it. . .but Distress + Iron Barbs + Rocky Helmet took that Pokemon down with him). Mei came in and 2HKO'd Haxorus with Brick Break.

Time for Victory Road. . .and maybe time I stop spamming Distress so hard. . .

Pokemon     Nickname     Nature    Lvl   HP  Atk  Def  SpA  SpD  Spd
Samurott    Albida       Sassy     39   134  107  85   98   67   72
Zebstrika   thunder      Naive     39   109  97   59   68   52  117
Audino      empathy      Calm      42   149  69   83   64   93   64
Sawk        Mei          Lonely    40   120  138  65   31   71   84
Gothorita   Star Field   Calm      39   105  54   63   67   90   59
Swanna      Snow Goose   Sassy     40   116  99   61   77   71   81
Ferrothorn  Distress     Brave     43   130  112  120  55   117  39

Star Field needs to fully evolve, but here's my thoughts on everyone.

Albida: Tanks decently well, does pretty good damage, and Revenge is hilarious. I might want to get him up to level 52-ish for the very last battle.

thunder: Outspeeds everything, can paraflinch, and Thunderbolt hurts like mad. I'm kinda using her like I used my Liepard in a previous draft. . .except Zebs outclasses Liepard in just about every way that matters.

empathy: Still absorbs hits like no one's business, and is damn good against things weak to Shadow Ball. Not sure if I want to bring him to the E4, as his offense isn't the best, and he stands no chance against Marshal.

Mei: Still takes things out very reliably with Brick Break, and is most definitely coming with me to the E4 (Sturdy guarantees that he'll get one hit in against Caitlin).

Star Field: Eviolite turned her into a massive special defensive tank. With Thunderbolt and Psychic, she's not too bad. I'm contemplating giving her Shadow Ball, so she can screw with a couple of E4 guys.

Snow Goose: I'll probably stuff her full of HP and Defense. She's rather frail, but that combination of Fly and Surf is damn painful. She can also bait Electric moves for thunder to absorb.

Distress: I'd have to be some brand of crazy not to take this Pokemon with me. He can lay on an impressive amount of hurt, and Rocky Helmet + Iron Barbs is downright unfair.

---

Matchup chart time. . .

Shauntal - Star Field and thunder can ruin the first half of her team, while Snow Goose and Albida can have fun with the second half. empathy would probably see some usage here, because this is a team full of ladies (more or less).

Grimsley - Mei solo. Next.

Caitlin - I'm gonna need to overlevel Star Field a bit, because she's gonna have to absorb Reuniclus and Gothitelle. I think thunder should be able to outspeed Sigilyph, and if I have him around, empathy can woo Musharna. If not, Distress and Power Whip should be able to do respectable damage.

Marshal - Out of the entire E4, he worries me the most. Snow Goose will need to magically be durable enough to start killing things, and Star Field has to do better than 2HKO. I'll have to paralyze that Mienshao in a hurry, or it'll outspeed the crap out of everything. Hmmm. . .maybe get it so it can't switch out, and then use Distress and its related abilities to force it to KO itself. . .ugh.

N - Mei is effective against half his team. WTF?

Ghestis - I will need Mei and Albida at full health, because the Pokemon that scares me the most is that three-headed abomination. The rest of his team is scrubby.

---

In terms of necessity. . .

Albida - Does a decent job sponging damage, and can hit back. The ladies have a lot of Electric moves, which makes him sad. I think I can keep him around.

thunder - If I can trigger Motor Drive, it'll make life easier. Can do decent things against the ladies, and is my one and only chance to paralyze that Mienshao. Will probably come along.

empathy - Hmmm. . .can actually do something against two of the E4, but is able to do nothing against another one. I'll probably have to leave him behind.

Mei - Will be soloing a E4 member. I'd be stupid not to bring him along.

Star Field - I'll need her to absorb Special damage, and maybe get a heavy hit in on Marshal. The fact that she can dish out damage means that she made it in. Barely.

Snow Goose - Her offense isn't bad, and Flying will be a big boon against Marshal. The sign pinned to her tail feathers that says "hit me with Electric attacks" should help trigger thunder's ability, which should be all kinds of funny. Also, Featherdance. Yep, she comes.

Distress - Even with a Fighting weakness, his Defense is through the roof, so he probably won't be OHKO'd normally. Given that most Fighting moves require contact, he can damage them as he goes down. This is my favorite Pokemon, so I'm definitely bringing him along!

Edited November 26, 2011 by eclipse

[Kaoz]

3rd Gym

Beat Team Plasma, caught Darumaka and had it solo the gym; OHKO'd everyting besides Dweeble which was 2HKO'd.

Pokemon		Lv	HP	Atk	Def	SpA	SpD	Spd
Servine		23	66	42	43	38	38	45
Drillbur	20	60	38	25	22	27	37
Timburr		23	73	47	33	17	24	22
Darumaka	22	68	46	31	17	28	32

[Snivy]

Gym 3:

After a little trainig for Mist and Lillil, easily cleared forest and then benched Lillil.

I used everyone in the gym (mostly Mist, making her level up again.)

Leader 3:

Mist took a pursuit easily and did a lot of damage to whirlipede, causing Burgh to use his hyper potion on turn 2 while Mist OHKO'd it then with a chritical hit form Zen Headbutt.

She missed against Dwebble on turn 3 but did a good amount of damage. She then survived a faint attack but missed again. She survived a second faint attack and used moonlight to help herself longer. 2 more faint attacks finished her, causing me to send out Bob. One Shell Blade later bob was level 23 and Leavanny was sent out to fight Bob. bob survived a razor leaf (just) and dealt a little damage with tackle. The second razor leaf finished him forcing me to bring in the big guns (Tamara) who brushed off a razor leaf like it was nothing and finished the fight with one air cutter. I then withdrew Lillil and prepared for catching Sandile.

VS Bianca:

Lillil easily beat Herdier while taking no damage.

Bob took a flame charge and OHKO'd Pignite.

Lillil shrugged off every attack Pansage used but eventually took a lot of damage and got paralyzed. A synthesis solved the health issue. in the end, after 3 synthersis uses and a heck of a lot of cuts, she beat the monkey.

I then for some reason decided to let her fight Munna. I switched her out after a critical Psybeam left her with a single hit point, sending Bob in her place. Bob took another critical Psybeam and ended the match.

I then found a good sandile and caught her.

Stats:

In Party:
Pokemon    Nickname   Ability      Nature  M/F  Lvl  HP  Atk  Def SpA SpD Spd   Move 1         Move 2        Move 3        Move 4        Item
Dewott     Bob        Torrent      Lonely   M   23   68   52   31  43  33  35   Tackle         Razor Shell   Water Gun     Fury Cutter   Mystic Water  
Tranquil   Tamara     Super Luck   Rash     F   24   69   49   39  37  28  39   Gust           Roost         Air Cutter    Quick Attack  None
Munna      Mist       Forewarn     Quirky   F   23   71   25   27  39  30  21   Zen Headbutt   Moonlight     Psybeam       Hypnosis      None
Petilil    Lillil     Chlorophyll  Modest   F   22   56   23   31  46  31  23   Cut            Synthesis     Magical Leaf  Mega Drain    Big Root
Sandile    Sam        Moxie        Bashful  F   16   46   30   19  18  19  28   Sand-Attack    Torment       Sand Tomb     Assurance     None

[eclipse]

ELITE 4 - THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Finally finished training everyone up to where I want them to be.

Pokemon     Nickname     Nature    Lvl   HP  Atk  Def  SpA  SpD  Spd
Samurott    Albida       Sassy     48   163  139  112  121  82   90
Zebstrika   thunder      Naive     48   133  125  77   86   63   149
Audino      empathy      Calm      42   149  69   83   64   93   64
Sawk        Mei          Lonely    48   142  169  82   37   85   105
Gothitelle  Star Field   Calm      50   144  87   113  105  143  90
Swanna      Snow Goose   Sassy     50   143  130  80   98   88   102
Ferrothorn  Distress     Brave     48   145  130  138  61   130  46

Time to see if my theory holds. Go me!

Complete.

Grimsley - Mei solo. Next.

Chauntel - Gave me a surprising amount of grief. Snow Goose took out Cofgagrigus (barely), Albida got a Surf critical in to beat Chandelure, used a tag-team of thunder, Snow Goose, and Albida to take out Jellicent (asdf Cursed Body), and Albida managed to OHKO Golurk.

Caitlin - Star Field managed to outdo Reuniclus, Distress took out Musharna, Mei moved before Sigilyph and OHKO'd with Payback, and Star Field and Mei managed to beat Gothitelle.

Marshall - Three Bulk Ups and some well-placed Brick Breaks downed his team. I was quite surprised.

BETWEEN WORLDS

Here's my team going into Team Plasma's Castle:

Pokemon     Nickname     Nature    Lvl   HP  Atk  Def  SpA  SpD  Spd
Samurott    Albida       Sassy     49   166  142  114  123  83   92
Zebstrika   thunder      Naive     48   133  125  77   86   63   149
Audino      empathy      Calm      42   149  69   83   64   93   64
Sawk        Mei          Lonely    52   154  185  89   40   93   114
Gothitelle  Star Field   Calm      50   144  87   113  105  143  90
Swanna      Snow Goose   Sassy     50   143  130  80   98   88   102
Ferrothorn  Distress     Brave     48   145  130  138  61   130  46

Two more battles, and I'm done.

The good news: I'm done.

The bad news: I forgot to grab final stats, and I have no way of doing so. Sorry.

Sent thunder back, because electric wasn't the best type to keep around.

N - Reshiram (nickname Diavolo) went critical on Zekrom, and Mei punched out (mostly) everything else. Including that stupid bird. Because it went critical-happy on my team.

Ghestis - Snow Goose gave Cofagrigus the, erm, bird. Bouffalant suicided into Distress, Hydreigon was taken out by a combination of Mei and Albida, that stupid eel learned why you do not piss off Diavolo, Seismitoad went down to a single Grass Knot courtesy of Star Field, and Bisharp met the same fate as Bouffalant.

---

Final thoughts:

Samurott: This one was awesome. Sponged hits when he needed to, and dished out damage in return. I guess my original one hated me or something.

Zebstrika: A revenge killer, who outclasses Liepard in every way that matters.

Audino: I should've named him Jeigan. Awesome earlygame, decent midgame, bleh lategame.

Sawk: About the only time he isn't godly is the sixth gym. Sturdy means he can dish out damage in places where I normally wouldn't sent him out.

Gothitelle: Did her job as a tank, and put the hurt on when it counted. She had pretty good type coverage when all was said and done.

Swanna: She's frail, but she sure packs a punch! Luckily, all I needed to do was Surf, but if I had to, she could've started spamming Brave Bird. The extra levels I gave her helped her to sponge damage (she finished off Ghestis' Cofagrigus with 2 HP remaining).

Ferrothorn: Awesome as always. Putting a Rocky Helmet on him meant that anything that touched him regretted it.

Reshiram: This one seemed weaker than the last one, but got criticals when it mattered. Thank you~!

Edited November 28, 2011 by eclipse

[Grace]

I'm making progress, I swear. It's just... Chrono Trigger.

So, I begin by going to catch a Vanillite. I catch ~15 before I find one I want. I call it Elei. I then proceed to glue and Exp. Share to it while I clean up around Driftveil. The gym is dealt with by Belir, with Refia assisting against Clay (Excadrill, lol). I move to Chargestone Cave, get the most broken item in the game (Lucky Egg), and catch a Joltik. I name it Aeria.

Name  Species    Nature  Ability      Lvl  HP Atk Def SpA SpD Spe
Tiara Stoutland  Adamant Intimidate    33 108  90  71  39  65  68
Refia Simipour   Serious Gluttony      32 100  76  50  69  47  75
Belir Servine    Serious Overgrow      30  85  46  58  47  50  62
Denul Archen     Adamant Defeatist     31  84  88  38  53  37  53
Elei  Vanillite  Naive   Ice Body      32  67  45  40  55  46  42
Aeria Joltik     Quiet   Compoundeyes  24  61  31  33  42  35  34
~~Bench is below this line~~

[Kon]

Late updates are late, but my new job has been eating all of my time. ;-;

Gym 4

Ha, this gym was too easy. I evolved Harley with my new Sun Stone and proceeded to troll all of the trainers. Elesa wasn't all that difficult either, just really annoying 'cause her Emolgas kept spamming Volt Switch. Johnathan just tanked their hits like a pro and did a Will-O-Wisp + Hex combo to take one of them down, then tagged out with Harley to toake down the other and Zebstrika. It's pretty sad, even a crit of Flame Charge couldn't kill my darling Harley. XD Everyone's levels were 27.

Gym 5

Clay was harder than Elesa, but not by much. I used Johnathan to burn his Krokorok and swapped to Bruce to avoid being KO'd by Crunch and disposed of it with a Razor Shell. Since I have this somewhat disturbing obsession with keeping everyone's levels even I sent out Johnathan again to kill Excadrillon his own, which ended up being a tedious process of burning the little bastard and tanking his his 'till he died. And for the finale I OHKO'd his Palpitoad with Harley just to piss him off. With Johnathan's nice new level up, the team boasted a shared level of 31.

Gym 6

You know, I've beaten this gym three times now but I can never remember much from it aside from the cannons. Then again, this is also the gym that's always the quickest to blast through, especially now thanks to a neat little discovery I made that Jean-Paul could learn Charge Beam. Thanks to that I 2KO'd Skyla's Swoobat and oneshotted her Unfezant and left Harley and Johnathan cleaning up what used to be her Swanna. I believe my team's levels were at 37-38.

Right now I had just rushed through Twist Mountain and into Iccirus to go catch a Shelmet and then a Mienfoo. Wish me luck. :P

Pokémon   	Nickname    	Nature  	Ability	F/M	Lvl   HP   Atk  Def  SpA  SpD  Spd
Samurott      Bruce   		Serious 	Torrent 	M 	39	132  93   77   94   71   72
Swoobat   	Jean-Paul   	Bold    	Unaware 	M 	39	109  59   59   67   56   106
Whimsicott	Harley      	Bold    	Prankster   F 	39	98   58   89   78   63   106
Cofagrigus    Johnathan   	Timid   	Mummy   	M 	38	94   47   120  85   88   39

Edited December 1, 2011 by Kon

[Kon]

Stupid double post. DX

Edited December 1, 2011 by Kon

[Kaoz]

4th Gym

Got Sigilyph. Drillur had no problems with beating the gym.

Pokemon		Lv	HP	Atk	Def	SpA	SpD	Spd
Servine		27	76	48	50	43	45	53
Drillbur	27	77	51	32	29	35	50
Timburr		24	76	49	34	18	25	23
Darumaka	23	71	48	33	18	30	33
Sigilyph	22	66	34	36	56	45	53

5th Gym

Drillbur brought Excadrill down to half health, the rest was taken care of by Servine.

Pokemon		Lv	HP	Atk	Def	SpA	SpD	Spd
Servine		32	88	58	59	51	52	62
Drillbur	29	82	54	34	31	38	53
Timburr		24	76	49	34	18	25	23
Darumaka	26	79	54	36	20	33	37
Sigilyph	24	71	37	39	60	48	58

I doubt Timburr will get another level on this run...

[Grace]

I clean out Team Plasma in Chargestone Cave with Joltik (suprisingly good off the bat). I clean up Route 7 for Exp, and go to Celestial Tower to get a Litwick. I name it Parla. I give Parla some levels on Audinos (seriously, cannot be hurt at all). Clean up Celestial Tower, Denul evolves, beat Skyla with Aeria (who evolved part way through the gym). I clean up Twist Mountain as well. I get to Iccirus, and got all of the TM's (Fire Blast, Blizzard and Thunder (!)). Elei evolved somewhere along the way. Currently in Mistralton Cave to get the Dusk Stone for Parla.

Name  Species    Nature  Ability      Lvl  HP Atk Def SpA SpD Spe
Tiara Stoutland  Adamant Intimidate    40 129 108  85  48  79  83
Refia Simipour   Serious Gluttony      41 126  97  64  87  60  96
Parla Litwick    Rash    Flash Fire    34  84  30  51  57  43  23
Denul Archeops   Adamant Defeatist     40 122 137  64  94  63 101
Elei  Vanillish  Naive   Ice Body      37  88  64  57  74  63  61
Aeria Galvantula Quiet   Compoundeyes  39 109  74  59 100  61  83
~~Bench is below this line~~
Belir Servine    Serious Overgrow      32  No idea at all

Edit: ITT: Somehow overleveled mons.

I go through Mistralton Cave, getting the Dusk Stone and having Parla kill Cobalion in 3 turns. Yeah. I go to kill Virizion, this time in 4 turns. (Didn't have Fire Blast on, silly me)

I proceed to clean up Route 1 (surf) and Route 17 and 18. I somehow manage to get Parla to L41, and it evolves. Then I immediately evolve it again. That wasn't my plan at all...

I proceed to have Parla clean up Gym 7. Even manages to OHKO Cryogonal after it uses Light Screen with Fire Blast. Oops.

In picking up 7 Rare Candies, I decide to feed them to Elei to evolve (L40 to L47).

Name  Species    Nature  Ability      Lvl  HP Atk Def SpA SpD Spe
Tiara Stoutland  Adamant Intimidate    43 138 116  91  52  85  91
Refia Simipour   Serious Gluttony      42 129 100  65  89  61  98
Parla Chandelure Rash    Flash Fire    45 118  62  98 154  84  84
Denul Archeops   Adamant Defeatist     40 122 137  64  94  63 101
Elei  Vanilluxe  Naive   Ice Body      47 128 108  90 121  96  97
Aeria Galvantula Quiet   Compoundeyes  39 109  74  59 100  61  83
~~Bench is below this line~~
Belir Servine    Serious Overgrow      32  No idea at all

Edit 2:

Remember me evolving Elei? Well, after cleaning out Team Plasma with Galvantula and Stoutland, I reach the 8th Gym. I OHKO everything in there with Elei. No exceptions. At this point, I'm ignoring all optional fights (don't need the levels). I clean up shop to get to the Elite 4. After some testing, I have to give Parla 2 levels and as many Calciums as possible in order to OHKO Cofagrigus (L47 was required).

Shantual: I OHKO everything aside from Chandelure with Parla, who is outsped and OHKO'ed by Chandelure. Refia comes in to safely 2HKO.

Caitlin: Parla OHKO's Reinculus, 2HKO's Musharna, I swap to Aeria to OHKO Sigilyph. I swap Parla back in, failing to OHKO Gothitelle and getting KO'ed in return. Aeria cleans up with Signal Beam.

Grimsley: Denul OHKO's Scrafty with Acrobatics, I'm forced to revive Parla to OHKO Bisharp. Elei OHKO's Krookodile with Ice Beam after taking an Earthquake, and Stoutland 2HKO's Liepard.

Marshal: Denul fails to OHKO Throh twice, making Marshal use both Full Restores, then Denul OHKO's it without a crit. Sawk manages to bring Denul down to 3 HP, not before Denul KO's it the following turn. Conkeldurr is OHKO'ed by Acrobatics (after Elei is used as a decoy to heal Denul), and Mienshao is outsped and OHKO'ed.

Team stats before N's Castle:

Name  Species    Nature  Ability      Lvl  HP Atk Def SpA SpD Spe
Tiara Stoutland  Adamant Intimidate    47 150 127 103  56  92 101
Refia Simipour   Serious Gluttony      44 135 105  68  94  64 103
Parla Chandelure Rash    Flash Fire    50 130  70 109 183  94  94
Denul Archeops   Adamant Defeatist     49 148 170  77 116  76 124
Elei  Vanilluxe  Naive   Ice Body      51 138 121  97 131 104 105
Aeria Galvantula Quiet   Compoundeyes  47 130  90  70 123  74 101
~~Bench is below this line~~
Belir Servine    Serious Overgrow      32  No idea at all

I Master Ball Reshiram, and leave it out of my party for a challenge. I know I can sweep the final two fights with it.

N: I lead Elei and almost OHKO Zekrom with Blizzard. Elei gets KO'ed, and Tiara secures the KO with Ice Fang.

Klinklang (Zoroark) comes out, met with Parla, who OHKO's with Fire Blast.

Carracosta is next, which Aeria blasts with Thunder, gets KO'ed, and Denul revenge kills.

Vanilluxe is met by low HP Parla, who dodges Blizzard and OHKO's with Fire Blast.

Archeops is a pain. It has the capacity to outright KO 5 of my 6 party members. I'm forced to use Tiara, who takes 75/150 from Acrobatics (after Intimidate) at worst. Eesh. I eventually KO it.

Klinklang requires me to sacrifice Tiara to heal Elei, who summarily OHKO's it with Fire Blast.

Ghetsis Dennis: I wipe out in my first attempt. Ugh. Bloody Hydreigon.

So, I go and get an X Speed and X Special (Elei can't OHKO Hydreigon with Blizzard without +1 SpA). The resultant battle is as follows:

Cofagrigus: Set up X Speed and X Special, after using a Full Restore to fully heal, I KO it with Ice Beams.

Hydreigon: This thing can outright KO EVERY one of my party members. But, Elei outspeeds it (X Speed) and OHKO's it with Ice Beam (X Special).

Bisharp: I keep Elei in, and freeze Bisharp on the first Ice Beam. I almost KO it, but it thaws and KO's with Stone Edge. Parla takes the revenge kill.

Bouffalant: I swap in Tiara, and proceed to stall while it kills itself with recoil.

Seismitoad: Refia is swapped in, and chips at it until it KO's her. Tiara comes in to finish it off.

Eelektross: Aeria has some fun using Flash against it, and getting some chip in before she's KO'ed by Flamethrower. Tiara comes back in to KO it.

About time I finished this. Final stats:

Name  Species    Nature  Ability      Lvl  HP Atk Def SpA SpD Spe
Tiara Stoutland  Adamant Intimidate    49 157 134 107  59  96 105
Refia Simipour   Serious Gluttony      44 135 105  68  94  64 103
Parla Chandelure Rash    Flash Fire    51 132  72 112 188  96  95
Denul Archeops   Adamant Defeatist     49 148 170  77 116  76 124
Elei  Vanilluxe  Naive   Ice Body      52 141 124 100 134 106 107
Aeria Galvantula Quiet   Compoundeyes  47 130  90  70 123  74 101
~~Bench is below this line~~
Belir Servine    Serious Overgrow      32  No idea at all

Opinions:

Lillipup/Herdier/Stoutland: Has a beastly early and mid game, and is passable until the very end. Easily the best on the team.

Panpour/Simipour: Shaky early game, but picks up once you early evolve it. But it drops off so hard late game, because of it's abysmal defenses and mediocre offense.

Litwick/Chandelure: So slow to begin with, but can be easily brought up to speed. Evolving it immediately to Chandelure makes it really strong at that point. This one didn't seem to be that useful, a bit slower than usual. Late game, it has no durability to speak off, thanks to common weaknesses.

Archen/Archeops: Hits like a truck, can't take hits all game. And later on, without being overleveled, it can't outsped the major threats at all, making it less than stellar.

Vanillite/Vanillish/Vanilluxe: Early on, it can't do much because of a limited movepool. Once it evolves, it can deal some good damage, and it cleans Gym 8 up easily. Reasonably durable (but still has common weaknesses), and can mix quite easily.

Joltik/Galvantula: Normally, I get better Galvantulas. This one was really underwhelming, didn't outspeed much (which is its major draw point) and therefore couldn't do as much.

Snivy/Servine: Earlygame offense was horrible, and even evolving it didn't help much. There's a reason it stayed on the bench.

Reshiram: lolwut

Edited December 9, 2011 by Manix

[Grace]

Did everyone else die or something? Just wondering.

(Also, if you didn't notice, I finished, see above.)

[eclipse]

I finished, too. ;/

[Snivy]

I've been procrastinating for so long. I'll do my best to finish fast (hopefully within a few days since I'll get time off school soon)

[Kaoz]

6th Gym

Dealt with Team Plasma, caught a Klink and had it use the Lucky Egg for a bit. In the end it was able to handle the arena without much of a problem.

Pokemon		Lv	HP	Atk	Def	SpA	SpD	Spd
Serperior	36	109	78	80	68	71	92
Excadrill	37	139	103	58	53	61	85
Timburr		24	76	49	34	18	25	23
Darumaka	31	92	64	43	23	38	44
Sigilyph	31	89	48	49	77	61	74
Klang		38	95	78	76	64	70	53

7th Gym

Darumaka got to use the Lucky Egg on the way to the next gym which resulted in it soloing the gym without getting attacked once.

Pokemon		Lv	HP	Atk	Def	SpA	SpD	Spd
Serperior	37	112	80	82	69	72	95
Excadrill	39	147	109	61	56	65	91
Timburr		24	76	49	34	18	25	23
Darmanitan	41	148	125	64	43	58	94
Sigilyph	32	91	49	51	79	63	78
Klang		39	97	81	79	66	72	55
Axew		31	79	60	40	30	38	48

Edited December 24, 2011 by Kaoz

[Kon]

I've not died, although I feel like I have. ;-;

After getting both my Shelmet (Barbara) and Mienfoo (Dick) I evolved Barbara immediately and beefed them up using the leftover trainers in Twist Mountain. I managed to get Dick to level 38 from 31 but Barbara only got to level 34 from 32 'cause that's when I ran out of trainers and got sick of punting Cubchoos that wouldn't leave me alone.

Gym 7

This was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I nearly soloed the gym with just Barbara, but I had to pull out Dick a time or two for when some of the Pokemon were giving her a hard time. Against Brycen... I've almost forgotten what I did with him, even though it was just yesterday.... I believe I took out his Vanillish with Barbara using Yawn and then pounding away at it with Giga Drain and Struggle bug and tried to do the same with Cryogonal but it took out a giant chunk of HP so I switched with Dick who oneshotted with a Force Palm. I think he was able to do the same to Beartic as well.

Wow... I forgot how ridiculously easy the sixth and seventh gyms were... hopefully I won't snore through Drayden's gym too.

Pokémon   	Nickname    	Nature  	Ability 	F/M	Lvl   HP   Atk  Def  SpA  SpD  Spd
Samurott  	Bruce       	Serious 	Torrent  	M 	39	132  93   77   94   71   72
Swoobat   	Jean-Paul   	Bold    	Unaware  	M 	39	109  59   59   67   56   106
Whimsicott	Harley      	Bold    	Prankster	F 	39	98   58   89   78   63   106
Cofagrigus	Johnathan   	Timid   	Mummy    	M 	38	94   47   120  85   88   39
Accelgor  	Barbara     	Relaxed 	Hydration	F 	38	119  67   48   88   53   112
Mienfoo   	Dick        	Impish  	Regenerator  M 	39	89   75   58   53   50   59

Edited December 18, 2011 by Kon

[Kaoz]

Finally done with this...

8th Gym

I completed this one a while ago actually, so I don't really remember any details. I think Excadrill pretty much took care of everything without problems though.

Pokemon		Lv	HP	Atk	Def	SpA	SpD	Spd
Serperior	39	118	85	86	73	76	100
Excadrill	46	171	132	71	66	76	107
Timburr		24	76	49	34	18	25	23
Darmanitan	41	148	125	64	43	58	94
Sigilyph	42	117	67	65	103	82	102
Klang		39	97	81	79	66	72	55
Axew		37	92	74	47	36	45	58

E4 and Team Plasma

Excadrill took care of most of the E4 with the exception of Marshal who was solo'd by Serperior. Beat N and Gethis with Zekrom and Excadrill respectively.

Pokemon		Lv	HP	Atk	Def	SpA	SpD	Spd
Serperior	46	139	104	102	86	90	118
Excadrill	53	197	153	81	78	87	124
Timburr		24	76	49	34	18	25	23
Darmanitan	43	156	132	67	45	61	99
Sigilyph	43	120	68	67	106	84	104
Klang		40	100	84	81	67	73	56
Haxorus		48	147	155	86	78	87	114
Zekrom		52	168	145	137	138	125	100

---

I believe I'm supposed to put my thoughts on my team here as well...

Snivy/Servine/Serperior

It was decent all things considered, though not terribly efficient.

Drilbur/Excadrill

Had a slow start but became great once evolved. Certainly trivialized a good amount of battles.

Sigilyph

Honestly, I expected it to be a bit better. It missed quite a few KOs barely and was underwhelming on the defensive end. Though I guess I didn't level it as much as others at times.

Timburr/Gurdurr/Conkeldurr

Drafted only to take on the 2nd Gym which Servine ended up doing. Can't really say much besides that it's terribly slow.

Darumaka/Darmanitan

Solid pick and trivialized the 3rd and 7th Gym.

Klink/Klang/Klinklang

As Timburr, I drafted it only for a single gym. Unlike Timburr, it actually managed to do something there.

Axew/Fraxure/Haxorus

Didn't really get to use it much because of the late evolution.

Zekrom

...

[Kon]

What's this? Could I actually be... finished with this draft? Why yes I am. Well, to be honest I finished this a while ago, I've just been too busy procrastinating to post. ^_^;

Gym 8

Oh yeah, this gym was a lot tougher than the last two were. Having a team with pretty low defense finally came around and bit me in the ass, especially with all the Dragon Dance-loving Fraxures. I had all that I did written down in one of my notebooks so when I stopped procrastinating I wouldn't forget everything, but unfortunately I can't find it, so I wont be able to go into detail on my battle with Drayden. I do remember forgetting to get my last draft pick Pawniard until I was at Drayden, so I made my way out of the gym and caught a nice one with little trouble. It was a female with a Jolly nature and the ability Defiant, I decided to name her Cassandra and benched Jean-Paul for her. For my last gym battle, what little I do remember is that I used mostly Harley and Jonathan to deal with Fraxure and Druddigon, although Dick and Cassandra were dragged out with Dragon Tail. After those two were dealt with Haxorus was oddly easy, although I do remember letting Jonathan faint so I could take the chance to finish him off. Afterwards I think everyone was level 43-44 except for Cassandra who was level 35 from 32 'cause I gave her the EXP. Share before the battle.

On my way to the Elite Four I let everyone have the Lucky Egg to help train them quicker, and by time I was at the end of Victory Road everyone was at 49-50. Although I usually don't do this, I ended up using the six Rare Candies that I had to buff everyone to level 50 and Cassandra to level 52 so she would be evolved for the long battles ahead. Well, that and when I did a trial run with her at level 50 she kept getting her ass handed to her.

For the E4 battles I didn't bother going into detail with them, but I did write down who went up against who. Everyone won their battles.

VS Shauntal

Me                     	Shauntal
Cassandra              	Cofagrigus
Bruce                  	Golurk
Harley                 	Jellicent
Bruce                  	Chandelure

VS Caitlin

Me                     	Caitlin
Barbara                	Reuniclus
Jonathan               	Sigilyph
Barbara                	Musharna
Barbara                	Gothitelle

VS Grimsley

Me                     	Grimsley
Dick                   	Scrafty
Dick                   	Liepard
Dick                   	Bisharp
Bruce                  	Krookodile

VS Marshal

Me                     	Marshal
Harley                 	Throh
Jonathan               	Sawk
Jonathan               	Mienshao
Harley                 	Conkeldurr

I caught Reshiram with fricking Harley, named it Harvey, and then never used it. Checking it's nature, it was Calm....

VS N

As you could probably tell, I didn't swap anyone out for Harvey 'cause this bitch is easy. For Zekrom I led with Harley who para-seeded and tagged out with Jonathan, taking him down the rest of the way and using up his Full Restores or whatever he had (Oh and Jonathan two Fusion Bolts in a row!). Carracosta mangaed to get 2HKO'd by Harley on account of Zekrom's Light Screen.Vanilluxe and Klinklang were OHKO'd and 2HKO'd respectively by Dick and he would have took down Zoroark too if it weren't for the fact that Klinklang used Metal Sound on him and I got a little worried because Dick's Sp. Def was already kind of pissy, so Bruce came out and took him down instead. Archeops went down quickly to two Metal Claws from Cassandra.

VS Ghetsis

Cofagrigus and Harley had a battle of the Trolls, but Harley, the Troll Queen, won out in the end, then retreated in favor of Dick for fricking Hydreigon, who is a bloody cheater. I managed to take out most of his health with a Drain Punch, but then he really laid the hurt on me, so I decided to wait it out until he missed which gave me the opportunity to off him. Cassandra tok over for Bouffalant but after he used Earthquake I switched to Jonathan who tanked everything he could throw at him and Burn-stalled him out. He stayed in for Eelektross and employed the same tactics. for the last two, Dick OHKO'd Bisharp like a pro and Harley just laughed Seismitoad to death.

Pokémon     	Nickname    	Nature      	Ability     	F/M 	Lvl   HP   Atk  Def  SpA  SpD  Spd
Samurott    	Bruce       	Serious     	Torrent      	M  	51	171  126  102  123  92   97
Swoobat     	Jean-Paul   	Bold        	Unaware      	M  	43	119  65   64   73   62   118
Whimsicott  	Harley      	Bold        	Prankster    	F  	52	130  83   121  104  85   143
Cofagrigus  	Johnathan   	Timid       	Mummy        	M  	51	124  68   160  118  116  56
Accelgor    	Barbara     	Relaxed     	Hydration    	F  	51	157  94   72   118  70   153
Mienshao    	Dick        	Impish      	Regenerator  	M  	52	137  146  92   108  84   123
Bisharp     	Cassandra   	Jolly       	Defiant      	F  	52	133  152  123  68   101  91

I'll post my thoughts on my team later.

Edited February 21, 2012 by Kon