...

#05 - Viridian Gauntlet

This post was also started while I am traveling, but hopefully things have calmed down slightly (for a bit). I've also redownloaded the documentation in a way I'll be able to access properly during transit. So for this post I'm aiming to take on the next 2 trainers:

Next on the list is Brendan followed by Lass Anne, both in Viridian Forest. The reason I say those two specifically is because once those two are down, Lass Anne gives up the Infinite Repel (a nice QoL feature for me) and we'll get access to Pewter City, and our next batch of mons. But that all comes after the battles. What are we looking at?

Brendan has a decent team for this stage with some strong physical attackers. Adaptability Mustic Water Corphish with Aqua jet is pretty unforgiving, and Muscle Band Pure Power Meditite will probably be even worse than Snubbull. But we're not out of options yet. Let's consult our box:

Not shown is Nincada, which- let's be real, we're not using Nincada.

The first thing that jumps out at me is that Lady Wormadam might be useful again here, specifically against Meditite. Bug typing means it resists Meditite's only STAB (Rock Smash), and the complimentary Ground typing ensures it doesn't get stung by Rock Tomb. And Bug type attacks will be neutral against Meditite (Psychic is weak, but Fighting resists).
In fact, we can actually map this out a bit further. Allow me to introduce you to a tool I foolishly haven't yet used: the damage calculator:

With this helpful website we can actually simulate the matchups we'll see in our upcoming battles! Here I've input Lady's stats against Brendan's Meditite, and we can see good results.
We see that none of Meditite's moves do nearly enough to substantially threaten Lady, and that Lady's Struggle Bug actually does fantastic damage in return! With this, we can seal in Wormadam as our answer to Meditite. Now, I have a suspicion after the first Struggle Bug that Meditite will swap out, but I can cross that bridge later. Let's just keep going down the line and see what we currently have solid answers to.
The next mon to consider is his Corphish, and this one could prove rather challenging. Although helpfully, it's primary STAB type is one we have some good counters for:

Quag and Clod both have Water Absorb, giving them immunity to Corphish's nastiest move, which in itself helps eliminate the threat of Adaptability. But we're not out of the woods yet. Corpish still has a rather scary Knock Off, and Aerial Ace for coverage. Clod currently has better moves to deal with this, since Quag is stuck with Water Gun while Clod has Poison Tail (which plays to its better attack stat). So, let's try the calculator on this to see what Clod can do:

Yikes, not looking great for Clod here. It doesn't take the hits too badly, but it's doing barely anything in return. And Quag won't do any better here. We need a new plan. Grass/Ground is vulnerable to Aerial Ace, so why not try our other Water/Ground type Jimothy the Marshtomp?

That's more like it! Aqua Jet is within range for a 3-shot, but Marshtomp's Bulldoze has a chance to 2-shot! It's not a guaranteed through-line, but it'll also get guaranteed speed drops, meaning I can switch in another priority user to finish the job before Corphish can react. I like Marshtomp as my Corphish counter, who's next?
Numel is quad weak to Water, but it does have a Passho berry to reduce the first Water attack against it. It also has a defense-*lowering* nature, which combines with it being 5 base points lower that special defense means we want to attack it on the physical side. Now, just from placing Numel in the damage calculator it's already showing that a Marshtomp Bulldoze is a guaranteed out-speed and OHKO, which does get at something I was thinking: I have a team full of Ground types and Numel is weak to Ground. I could bypass the Passho berry issue by simply using one of those instead. But while Marshtomp handily annihilates Numel, there's no way Brendan is going to swap Numel in on Marshtomp unless it's his last mon, so I can't expect these two to naturally meet. In this case, I'm going to aim for having a separate Numel answer. But who to pick?
I'm going with Donna the Phanpy.

Not only does Donna not take that much from any of Numel's moves, even the second lowest Magnitude value (it does suck that the power is randomized but this is literally the second lowest, the lowest only having a 5% chance) it's still a clean 2HKO, with even a possibility for an OHKO. If the need arises, Ice Shard can even put in some work.
That just leaves Treecko, with a pretty nasty moveset. Unburden effectively guarantees it'll outspeed after item loss, and it has an Oran Berry. This is another case where a mon I've already used would seem the most helpful, Lady's Bug typing allows it to resist the Fighting moves and become neutral to Grass, but it's otherwise occupied. Our other mon who can do that is Clod, who isn't otherwise busy. Let's try the calculator and see what we find:

Hear me out:
Clod won't survive for long, but it might survive just long enough. Even at maximum hits, Bullet Seed won't get the KO. But Clod can definitely last long enough for at least one Poison Tail, which is substantial damage. Or if it uses Power-Up Punch instead to attempt to sweep (if the berry is consumed and the speed doubles), Clod can be sacrificed to bring in Erosion, whose priority STAB Ice Shard should probably close this out. Let's double check:

That settles it. And now, for the first time, I actually have a fully laid-out gameplan going into one of these fights (this is what I was supposed to be doing, and should be doing for all future fights as well).
Our team consists of the following:

• Lady is our primary answer to Meditite, to resist its moves and strike back with Struggle Bug.
• Jimothy can deal good damage against Corphish without dying too quickly, and if it doesn't get the 2HKO then it can pave the way for something else to do so.
• Donna is our Numel answer, not taking much damage and hitting back with Magnitude for only a tiny chance to not 2HKO.
• Clod can withstand a hit from Treeko, which gives it enough time to hit Poison Tail and deal good enough damage to it. From there, the priority users can clean it up.
• Erosion is our Ice Shard user.
• Toad feels like it kinda rounds out the roster, it's my fastest mon so far and Grass/Ground typing isn't *terrible* for this matchup.

It's Showtime!

Now, just like we practiced:

Lady vs Meditite, just as expected. Struggle Bug.

I'll admit, I forgot it had Fake Out. But still, that shouldn't matter.

The damage was minimal, so back to our plan:

Rock Tomb does *very* little damage. It does cause a speed drop, which isn't ideal, but doesn't change our plan.

Our Struggle Bug connects for decent damage. This is all good so far.
I go to launch another Struggle Bug.

Brendan switches to Numel, which is actually ok! What I didn't mention earlier was, even if Struggle Bug hits an unintended target, it also has that special attack drop associated with it. That drop only really had one target, so I didn't mention it, but this now makes Numel even easier to switch into!

Actually I forgot that Numel has Simple, making that special attack drop even stronger. Time for Donna to come out-

Donna eats a Flame Charge, Numel's speed boosts sharply, but we're still in really good shape. Flame Charge is Numel's only move that will deal any kind of notable damage to Donna, and Donna's Magnitude should do a real number on this thing.
Let's go gambling!

Wow, the AI here is much better at knowing when to switch.

Unfortunately for Corphish:

This is going to hurt.

Big damage, not bad at all!
Now, according to my calculations, this isn't our *best* scenario here.

A lucky Magnitude has a chance to really mess Corphish up, but Aqua Jet is putting Donna on a clock. And remember: we brought Donna as a Numel answer. We do have another option in the form of Jimothy, but I don't want to misplay this. Rapid Spin no longer has its associated speed boost in RR Hardmode, so opting for that isn't the best option. I could also aim to read the switch using Ice Shard, but I'm still not very good at anticipating switches here. Although it honestly might be worth trying just to see if I'm right that it might try switching to Treecko to resist Magnitude.
The answer is?

Uhhhhh I'm switching to Jimothy.

Alright, this is still good. Jimothy is still at very good health, and Corphish is in trouble. Now, at this point, I'm pretty convinced that an enemy switch is approaching, and I'm almost certain it's going to be into Treecko to resist Bulldoze. I'm going to instead click Body Slam, which is still very strong against a weakened Corphish, and we'll see what that does.

Alright, no enemy switch, just a bit extra Aqua Jet damage for the road and Corphish is down!

*Now* Treecko comes in. Treecko outspeeds Jimothy by a *lot*, but Jimothy has already served his purpose in this matchup. But if Treecko goes for Power-Up Punch instead (knowing it can take Jimothy out at any time), it puts a strain on the rest of the team. I'm going to click Rock Tomb with Jimothy, so if Treecko goes Power-Up Punch, it'll be at +1 attack but -1 speed.

It did go for Bullet Seed after all, but I don't regret my choice. This is still better, this is still going according to plan.

Here comes Clod to hit the Poison Tail. Remember: it's not trying to win the 1v1, Clod just needs to get a strong Poison Tail in to weaken Treecko so an Ice Shard can take it out.

Numel comes out instead, so Poison Tail is resisted. These enemy switches are rough! But I'm still very much in the lead. Clod is probably going down to whatever Numel has in store, so it's time to send Donna back in.

Another Flame Charge that Donna takes without issue. We're going to Magnitude again, if it forces another swap then it'll either be to Treecko or Meditite. If Magnitude rolls well, it could maybe take out Meditite, and if Treecko comes in we do have Ice Shard on Donna to deal a big hit to Treecko. We're going to click Magnitude again.
Let's go gambling!

Numel's Bulldoze drops Donna's speed and makes her consume the Oran Berry, but Magnitude strikes Numel down for good. 2 to go!

Treecko is next. Ice Shard.

Ice Shard deals good (albeit less than I was expecting) damage, and Power-Up Punch connects. Treecko is at +1 attack now, and is unlikely to go down to a second Ice Shard. But this is still perfectly fine. We have a second, stronger Ice Shard user right behind Donna waiting their turn.

Ice Shard forces Treecko to eat the berry, but it's already well within knockout range for another Ice Shard. Donna goes down to Bullet Seed, clearing the way for Erosion to enter the field.

Erosion's Ice Shard takes out Treecko. One more.

Meditite is back, and we have still have four pokemon left. I'm launching Ice Shard just for some damage before Rock Smash takes out Erosion.

Rock Smash is an OHKO, but Ice Shard did decent damage.

Lady is back to finish the job.

Sucker Punch takes out Meditite, and with that, the battle is won!

Imma be real with you all, that felt *so* much better. My confidence has been restored. That first battle had me questioning myself, but I'm not completely washed.
Our next battle is against Lass Anne, there are some other smaller trainers around but I won't be documenting the battles of any trainer whose team doesn't have a sheet. Otherwise this playthrough wouldn't be finished until after the sun collapsed.
So what's her team look like?
Well, it looks like this:

It's an intentionally annoying team. Fluffy Stufful is going to hit hard and wall physical moves, Audino is going to be a nigh-unkillable blob with the ability to pass Wish healing, and Metronome Clefairy with a *Life Orb* is going to be annoyingly unpredictable. But we do still have some agency here.
Clefairy is a Fairy type, which means Clod's Poison Tail can hit it for super effective damage.

Metronome randomness aside, I think Clod has a good chance here. That's good damage on Poison Tail, so it'll really come down to what moves Clefairy ends up hitting.
For Stufful, I'm inclined to try Shoal the Sandygast. Ghost typing ignores Low Sweep and Tackle, just leaving Aerial Ace to consider.

My instincts are correct, Shoal hard counters Stufful. That just leaves Audino. The thing with Audino is that it's just a big blob with healing, protection, and disruption moves. It doesn't have attacking moves. So what do I have to counter it?

Honestly, I don't really know. I feel like if I can get the battle down to just Audino, it'll only be a matter of painstakingly wearing it down.
It feels maybe a little reckless after what I just went through, but I think I'm ready to face this challenge.

Alright Lass Anne, let's see what you've got. Stufful vs Shoal, and our best damage move here is Mud Shot. That said, Shoal has the ability to set Will-O-Wisp, which would also be a very helpful move to set if Lass Anne is about to switch turn 1 for some reason. Halving Stufful's physical attack renders it even less able to damage Shoal, so that's the option I'm going with right now.

Stufful is burned, and Aerial Ace did very little damage. So little damage, in fact, that I think Lass Anne is about to switch out. Since the only thing I have to lose is maybe 4 HP, I'm going to click Will-O-Wisp again to try and burn an incoming target.

*Jackpot!* Audino was the best target for this, since burn can help limit its ability to constantly heal.
Now the only mon left over is Clefairy, who won't take damage from burn because of Magic Guard. It would have the halved attack, but right now it feels more worthwhile to start going on the attack. Audino doesn't have any damaging moves, so I'm going to click Mud Shot.

Yawn isn't great for me here, I need Shoal to stay alert in case Stufful comes back. But Mud Shot did good damage, I'm not complaining. Now I'm going to switch out before the sleep sets in. Jimothy has the highest speed stat of my remaining team, so Jimothy it is.

Not an unexpected move from Audino, and not one we really have much to do about. I'm going to launch Bulldoze from Jimothy, Audino is either going to survive this Bulldoze or it's not. It would be very nice if it didn't, but not the end of the world if it did.

Ah well, not quite. And Yawn is pretty annoying (it made me yawn in real life while typing this).

Wish restores some health, and then Burn will deal a tiny bit. I'll launch another Bulldoze to lower Audino's speed some more and deal a bit more damage before I switch out.

Another Wish, that sucks. An Insomnia mon would be nice for this, I don't think Oblivious works on Yawn. Jimothy is asleep now, so what do I do?
Well, here's an idea: Audino carries Swagger, presumably as its way of progress making (self damage boosted by boosted attack). Jimothy can't hit itself in sleep when confused, and it does provide an attack boost. So I can sit here for a while and see if Audino uses Swagger.

See? And all this time Audino sits there, if I do manage to wake up and use Bulldoze, Audino is toast. Of course, if I hit myself in confusion it's not great, but we'll get there if we get there.
After a turn of sleeping and Audino using Protect, this happened:

Now that's what I'm talking about! Jimothy may still be confused, but the plan worked!

Stufful comes out, but I'm already about to switch to Shoal. Stufful is basically powerless against Shoal, so this will probably force another switch. If it does, we can start working on damaging Clefairy, and if not Stufful will go down to Mud Shot.

Low Sweep whiffs against Shoal, naturally.

Clefairy comes out and gets hurt pretty bad by Mud Shot, which is great news for us. The speed drop makes it very likely that Shoal is going to outrun on this next Mud Shot, dealing great damage. It's not likely to net the KO, but it should put Clefairy down to a sliver of health.

Mud Shot connects, and Clefairy answers with... Sludge. RIP Clefairy.

Which just leaves...

I'm not going to bother with the play-by-play screenshots, it's just Mud Shot until Stufful falls over.

Lass Anne is down! And this is a very exciting point for me for the reasons I mentioned above.

Except, I may have been wrong about something.

See this kid? He's actually Catcher Sammy, *another listed trainer*. We've actually got one more trainer before we can leave Viridian Forest.

Let's hope this is an easy one, right?

Alright, fine. Let's map this out. This *won't* be a cakewalk, the enemy team has pretty good speed all around, making this a bit unfortunate. Kriketune and Volbeat both have Grass coverage, so trying to spam Jimothy Rock Tomb is out of the question.
For Kricketune, I'm seeing that Lady does pretty well against it defensively.

Bullet Seed at 5 hits both times only gets the 2HKO 0.4% of the time, meaning I get at least 2 turns in on it. That's not even accounting for Oran berry, and the fact that it's more likely for Bullet Seed to *not hit max number of times both times*. I'm happy calling Lady my Kricketune answer. And on a broader note, I'm very impressed with how useful Wormadam has been on this run so far, props to Wormadam. You surpassed my expectations, I applaud you.
Volbeat... has Prankster for some reason, despite having no status moves. I guess the devs were just being silly (a little "ha ha" funny, I suppose). Anyhow, its type coverage is actually pretty threatening. Grass and Water are two of Ground's weaknesses, so I need a mon that can cover it from both angles. For this, I'm looking to Clod first and foremost. Water Absorb negates water, Poison typing makes Mega Drain neutral. Flash is an Electric type move and I never have to worry about those ever, so that just leaves how well it can out-damage Hidden Power Bug. Well, let's consult the calculator:

Well this certainly won't work, it doesn't do nearly enough damage to stop Mega Drain. So if that won't work, what will?
We could try Toedscool, sure it'll be weak to Hidden Power Bug, but it has a good special defense stat.

Not so good either, and I can't even use Stun Spore because Electric types are immune to Paralysis. This isn't looking good.
But once again, Wormadam seems like a great contender if you factor in the special attack drops from Struggle Bug.

I hate to simply rely on one pick over and over, but for this battle that might be what I need to do.

You know what, I've done enough calculating for one day. Let's see what happens if I just go for it.

Alright kid, square up.
First turn, Kricketune vs Lady.

...except not, in comes Volbeat to take the Struggle Bug. I guess I can't complain (yet). Another Struggle Bug.

Incoming Water Pulse is shrugged off, and Struggle Bug hits to lower special attack again. I'm just going to keep hitting Struggle Bug. I either hit Volbeat again, hit an incoming Dustox, or hit Kricketune. Right now there's no bad target for Struggle Bug.

Ohhh, I see what they were going for. Not bad, not bad.

If nothing else, Volbeat is within Ice Shard range pretty comfortably. In fact, I think I'll switch to Donna right now to spare Lady more confusion procs.

A double switch? Not what I was expecting. Let's consider: Dustox will probably Toxic this turn, it's built as a tanky mon with Roost and Black Sludge for healing, Protect, and then Toxic and Psybeam for progress making. Bug/Poison means Ground moves hit neutral, so let's see if another Magnitude can make some progress.

No kidding, I thought Magnitude 7 would deal more damage. I guess it's only 70 base power, I shouldn't be too surprised. But yeah, this isn't exactly getting me anywhere fast. It's probably going to use protect here, but there's not a ton I can do about that. I'll launch another Magnitude this time.

I'll admit I wasn't expecting the Psybeam. That didn't do as much damage as I was worried it would, but the Toxic clock is ticking. This one has to be either Roost or Protect, which again makes me want to click Magnitude.
Let's go gambling!

Ok that's the protect I was expecting, but even with that I still think I just keep clicking Magnitude.

*These trainers and their confusion-*
Alright, Donna is down to last little sliver of health, so I'm going to launch Ice Shard. Dustox will probably use Protect, expecting that, but it'll still allow a clean switch.

Or that happens instead, sure.
Alright, who do we send in now? I'm thinking Jimothy. Dustox is the only mon here without Grass coverage, and Jimothy has the most effective Rock move on my team.

Here goes Rock Tomb. Many things can happen here, but we'll see what outcome happens.

Toxic, then Rock Tomb is what that looks like. I thought Rock Tomb had a speed drop associated with it, I guess not. Dustox is probably going to try some dastardly trick like Protect or Psybeam confusion, but I have the advantage here, one more Rock Tomb connecting will take it down. This could also be a switch, which would actually be fantastic since it means Kricketune gets hit with Rock Tomb.

Of all the things I expected, this wasn't one of them. I thought Rock Tomb would out-damage Roost, but I was very mistaken. And now, Jimothy is the one on a clock. That said, I still think I win this by persisting. The moment Dustox chooses something that isn't Protect or Roost, it's over.

This repeated for 4 rounds until Jimothy died to Toxic.

I know what I was thinking, but admittedly it wasn't the best plan.
So who do I send in now?
I'm going to go with Shoal.

It's not pretty, but Mud Shot does more damage than Psybeam, and Will-O-Wisp can help mitigate some of that recover.

Toxic is to be expected, Will-O-Wisp misses. That sucks. The clock is on, I need to start dealing damage. As much as burn helps, Shoal doesn't have all the time in the world to try this. We click Mud Shot.

Dustox lands a Psybeam that confuses, but Shoal still lands Mud Shot. Now it's probably going to spam Roost, and it'll heal faster than Mud Shot can damage it. But now is another time to Will-O-Wisp.

Will-O-Wisp connects! That's excellent news for me. That health bar is formidable, but it's a bit more manageable like this. We now switch to basically just spamming Mud Shot until Shoal goes down.

*This kid is brutal.* Shoal goes down to the combo of confusion damage and Toxic. As this goes on I'm less and less sure I'll be able to actually pull through here. But we play until the end. Lady goes out next, mostly because neither of my other options fare particularly well here. I'm going to start using Struggle Bug to try and lessen the damage of Psybeam.

Struggle Bug deals minimal damage here, but it does a little bit. I'm going to try Sucker Punch, I think Dustox is likely to Psybeam here based on what it's done before.

Right now I think Dustox is going to Roost, I don't think it's going to try Psybeam. Poison is going to do damage either way, and I think this Dustox will prioritize longevity. I'm going to launch another Struggle Bug for the road.

Toxic damage doesn't take out Lady just yet but things aren't looking good for Lady. That said, all these Struggle Bugs have lowered Dustox's special attack, which might just allow Clod to come in and survive them. Clod is immune to Toxic, and if I can make Psybeam liveable for Clod then it might save this matchup. Lady will do one last Sucker Punch.

Poison Tail will do nothing damage to Dustox and Clod's special attack is minimal. Our main attacking move is going to be Slam, which at least has 80 base power. I'll be honest, I don't think I'm making it through this battle, but I'm not going down without a fight.

Or we can get confused, sure, that also works. Great. I don't think Clod survives another Psybeam, but hopefully we can hit at least one Slam. Maybe if it crits we take out Dustox? Wishful thinking.

No such luck. Clod falls

Erosion, if you're going to bring us home it'll have to be the sweep of the century. It's not a fair expectation, but if you do it I'll personally photoshop you a platinum trophy.
Erosion's only real attacking option here is STAB Ice Shard, which is strong but we'll see if it's strong enough. Turn one from Dustox is going to be Toxic to start the countdown clock.

*What on earth are they feeding this Dustox? That was barely any damage.*
Alright, we can't go back now. For basically the rest of this battle I'm just spamming Ice Shard, so here's how it goes.

Much better damage that time, and Psybeam doesn't deal much. No confusion proc, so we have a chance here. Dustox is going to Roost, but Ice Shard priority means I'll get one last hit before this battle is officially over. If this hit nets the KO, we'll have taken down one mon. I just checked, turns out neither other mon is actually down, but I'm pretty sure we got at least one of them close (there was a time gap in this battle, don't worry about it).

...well, gg. I'll skip the last few turns of struggling, we didn't make it out of this one.

So, that kinda sucks. We got two battles done and done rather well, but the unexpected third stopped us from reaching Pewter City. Infuriatingly, the same exit that leads to Pewter City is also the one that leads to our first entrance to Diglett's Cave, which is also where a lot of key Ground types are that will really make a difference in our run.
I'm going to call it for this post specifically, but rest assured I'm not done yet. Some kid isn't going to stop me that easily, the next attempt I'll have a much better plan for.