[Meta thread] Iron's PokeRole Adventure: The Skull Ruins

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

We'll definitely be seeing more of Swiftfire later.  She needs a chance to show off and have fun with her new move, after all And yeah, since Nathan doesn't really have any Poison nor Steel type pokemon, I had to get a little selective and/or clever with what I was picking.  Everyone was there for a reason, and Gallade was the only one I was unlikely to use in the battle due to having no real advantages besides Hypnosis shenanigans.  Charmeleon was really the only pokemon I knew I 100% wanted to use in the battle, and that was almost purely for the purpose of helping him prove himself in a gym battle.  (and the fact that he did it when he was at a distinct disadvantage type wise with no advantages to speak of is even better than any of the other situations he could have proven himself in, to be honest)

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Starmie would have had to roll a (6) on initiative to outspeed M-Gardevoir (Swiftfire would have needed either a (6) or a (5) and a Dex buff of some kind), and could have still taken a beating from that upcoming Pixilate Hyper Voice (5* Strength + 3 Power + 1 STAB + 1 Pixilate = 10 D6 base).  On top of that, Starmie also has no Priority moves nor any way to boost its Dex, unlike Calam and Swiftfire, and thus had no backup plans if it got a really, really low Initiative roll and no way to deal with A-Ninetales's Quick Attack.  And Starmie also happens to be weak to Hex, and that could have also hurt if it had already taken a Fairy type HV or two and only barely survived.  And when you're taking 6 D6 damage pool attacks, a 4 D6 recovery doesn't seem all that great for the most part, to be perfectly honest (and yes, Starmie does have Recover.  It's a 0 exp move for it after evolving).  My main win conditions were:

- Charizard, cuz Blaze, already high initiative roll, and A-Ninetales couldn't touch him
- Swiftfire, cuz Flash Fire + Fire Pledge chip damage (that's the other reason I wanted to use Charmeleon in this battle!  This combo doesn't work in the games, though, only in Pokerole.  It's usable in both singles and doubles, but it's more effective in Doubles since you can just trigger Flash Fire mid round), Leftovers, and A-Ninetales couldn't touch her
- Calam, cuz Iron Tail, +1 Dex, Super Luck, and +13 Initiative.  Had to give him the Sitrus Berry to compensate, though, just in case he had to draw things out a little.

Overall, those three were all generally safer than trying to risk using Starmie, imo.  It was all about making sure I could shut down that A-Ninetales almost guaranteed after taking down Gardevoir since A-Ninetales had chosen all 4 of its moves already, and thus made itself predictable.  Another reason I picked Calam is because it forced Angela to use a damaging move in M-Gardevoir's last moveslot, because none of M-Gardevoir's other moves were even remotely useful against him at that point.  If I'd picked Swiftfire, though, Angela could have just continued to spam Psychic and left that 4th moveslot open for something else to try and hinder me with (particularly if I botched the initiative roll and didn't get a (6) like Calam did at the end even though he only needed a (4) to outspeed everything).

On the note of Psywave, a 4 Strength, Mystic Water boosted Hydro Pump has a damage pool of 11 D6 base, which is still more powerful than 5 Badge Psywave if your opponent has less than 6 Defense.  Psywave is really at its best when a) the opponent is super duper extra tanky/you're debuffed significantly or b) you have enough gym badges/experience to start outdamaging every single move in your movepool.  Haven't quite reached point b) with Starmie yet, though.

Random aside: I also find it ironic how the Fairy Gym Leader didn't get to use a single damaging Fairy move in the fight.  And the only one that would have happened if Calam hadn't KOed Gardevoir was originally a Normal move.

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One word: Competitive.  Nathan knew that Angela had that oversized Jigglypuff on hand, and didn't want to contend with a Jigglypuff with an instantaneous +2 Strength due to inflicting -1 Dex if he didn't have to!  Now, I obviously don't know for certain that Angela's Jigglypuff has Competitive instead of Cute Charm (because I doubt it has Friend Guard since that's useless in single battles, and Pokerole nerfed the Abiltiy HARD by completely altering how it works.  The book basically makes it a worse version of Telepathy), but I couldn't discount the possibility (on a related note, I don't think Angela expected Nathan to use Calam or Gallade at all, which is partially why I had no problem with showing Calam to her before the battle).  That, and Grid kinda needed to keep the pressure on Alolan Ninetales.  You saw what happened to Gardevoir when she gave Charizard the opportunity to attack her twice essentially for free, right?  Captivate wasn't even an issue for Charizard because Blaze was just too dang powerful (which is why I chose to use Flamethrower over the Super Effective, High Crit Shadow Claw).  If you spend more time setting up than your opponent does, you can get punished for it veeeerrrryyyy easily if the dice are kind to your opponent.  I didn't want to spend too much time setting up with Grid and end up down a pokemon without significantly damaging the icy fox in any way. (I was expecting a little Blizzard spam since it was hailing, to be perfectly honest)  With Electro Ball in his arsenal, Grid can essentially turn Agility and Thunder Wave into an SD/Nasty Plot for himself when using that specific move (as long as his Dex is equal to or higher than the opponent's) while also retaining all the other benefits of those moves, so he can be either reeeeeaaaalllly offensive or incredibly annoying as necessary thanks to his large(ish) variety of offensive and support moves both (and T-Wave kinda fits in BOTH categories for Electro Ball users).

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Just have Terra ask about the nifty new ring Nathan's wearing.  That should be a good opportunity to get Terra up to date on Angela IC reeeeaaalll fast 

Because unlike most of the other Creshirean gym badges, this one isn't mostly flat, and is rather noticeable.

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I'll say this about encountering Angela: if you're looking for her OR hoping she runs in to you, it's more likely either will happen if you're doing the same thing she's doing: which is usually training against pokemon her Fairies have a type disadvantage against.  Which usually means Poison types since Steel pokemon aren't common in the areas she frequents.  Though as Spira found, there could also be a conflict of interest when you find a rare pink pokemon that she might be interested in catching...thinking about it, though, now that Nathan knows Angela has a Mega Gardevoir for her signature pokemon, there is another way he could track her down...

Of course, you also need to be looking in the right places at the right times.  If it's the weekend and she's on the western side of the region, she won't be in the Safari Zone.  Nathan can explain that IC, among...other things you'd probably want to know about Angela before you go purposely looking for her.

But hey, if you don't want to go for her Gym Badge, that's fine.  You only need 6 to enter Borealis Road and head to the League's final battles, after all.  (...which is probably why everything seems to be kicking off now.  The climaxes of most pokemon games tend to occur just before the final 1 or 2 gym badges when there's an 8 badge requirement, after all...and since you only need 6 in this campaign to challenge the League, and anyone who's been collecting gym badges at the soonest opportunities would currently have 5+...)

Fair and good points on your choices and decisions, mate, especially in regards to not laying down the Sticky Web! If Angela is as devious as I am with battling, I'd sure as hecky take advantage of a +2 STR at a negligible cost! Still think Starmie would have been an safe choice in their own right, but I can understand you had better options and a more solid game plan for the others. Plus, how can one resist the opportunity for Calam to flaunt his superiority to a type he's supposed to be weak too, and when its practically begging and giving you all the right reasons to take it?

Also, thank you for reminding me how scary Grid is, and my own vow to never deliberately face off against the jive spider if I can help it. He's just plain nuts imo, and arguably even worse than Gallade or Calam, geez.....

I honestly didn't notice Angela not using Fairy type Moves, but that is pretty humorous. A shame she couldn't put on a fairy good performance, but what she showed off was magical in its own, so I'm still on cloud nine from it all!

Hm.....good to hear, but Terra's likely not heading back to the Safari Zone anytime soon, so I guess I'll have to catch her in Arrowroot if I want a battle. Much simpler that way, especially with Nathan's Knowledge and locals scuttlebutt guiding him right to her. Heck, if he has her phone number, getting in touch and arranging a battle is much easier potentially, but like I said l'm not in a rush to conquer all the Gyms just yet. I may not get around to getting Angelia's Badge for awhile, but rest assured I will when/if the opportunity presents itself. Challenging and fun battles are one of the main reasons I enjoy Iron's campaign, so missing out on Gym Battles is a no go for me if I can help it! Expect Terra to be asking about the ring when its convenient and appropriate, mate!

The sad part is that Terra's behind on Badges, and likely will remain so due to the Plot pushing the group to new ground and diabolical(?) mysteries and intrigue. All I just hope is that a Legendary Pokemon isn't involved in this particular mess, or at least if there is one its like Deoxys , where we could avoid it and/or getting taken aback by it is not Instant Game Over.