Fairy Run complete!

First of all, in case you haven't voted yet: http://strawpoll.me/1260835

So I finished up at L64, and the team was pretty much as before except for two changes, one key and one not so much:

- As mentioned, Mawile got Brick Break
- Since I only needed one Thunderbolt for the run, I swapped Energy Ball into Tinkerbell's slot. This turned out to be a good idea.

And as usual, have some PBP... now with actual HP loss totals for the whole round.

Drasna
Of course, I'm starting with the Dragon specialist here. I'd be a fool not to.

Morgan v Dragalgae
The opening Psychic takes Dragalgae down to 5%, and it counters with a Sludge Bomb (52/172). The Full Restore gets used, Morgan Moonblasts a little under half life off, and Psychic ends it.

Maleficent v Altaria
Switch in the physical user, Play Rough OHKOs. Next.

Iphys v Noivern
Noivern is able to squeeze in a move, and it's Super Fang (103/205). Play Rough OHKOs again.

Tinkerbell v Druddigon
Dazzling Gleam takes about 3/4 off Druddigon, who survives long enough to Chip Away and Tinkerbell takes it like a boss (142/193). I'm actually surprised it wasn't Retaliate. The 2nd Full Restore meets two Dazzling Gleams to end it.

Siebold
Trying to cram in as much experience before I go after the defensive type and offensive one...

Morgan v Clauncher
Thunderbolt gets Clauncher down to 5% in a nice bit of symmetry, and Clauncher fires a Water Pulse (97/172). On the Full Restore, Morgan Moonblasts to take about 2/3 off and drop the Special Attack... and then Thunderbolt wraps. Welp.

Morgan v Gyarados
Even Kerry Fraser sees this result coming - Thunderbolt OHKO.

Tinkerbell v Barbaracle
And now you see why I brought Energy Ball back - OHKO.

Unseelie v Starmie
Starmie futilely Light Screens, and eats a full power Megahorn for a OHKO.

Malva
Given a choice between Steel and Fire, Fire wins.

Maleficent v Pyroar
Pyroar leads with Noble Roar - and unlike the Ghost run, there's no critical Earthquake. It does about 70% after the debuff. Pyroar then tries Hyper Voice (53/203) and a second Earthquake ends it.

Iphys v Talonflame
Rather than use Brave Bird which wouldn't be resisted, Talonflame Flare Blitzes (157/205), and Waterfall does the rest.

Tinkerbell v Torkoal
Surf rolls off about 90%, and Torkoal fires off a Stone Edge (138/193). On the Full Restore Dazzling Gleam lops off 20%, and Surf finishes.

Iphys v Chandelure
Shadow Ball drops Iphys down to 51, but Waterfall off near-300 Atk finishes.

Wikstrom
Much like leaving the Jeopardy opera category to the end, it's the "Let's get this crap over with" fight.

Maleficent v Klefki
The evil keys drop some Spikes, and the resulting Earthquake... leaves Klefki with about 10%. Two Fire Fangs fire on the Full Restore turns, unfortunately the first one is the one that gets the burn. Klefki Torments but falls to a 2nd Earthquake.

Maleficent v Scizor
OK, question...this Scizor has Bullet Punch, right? WHY DIDN'T IT USE IT?? Fire Fang OHKOs. That was the 2nd theme of the run besides near misses - AI making some stupid moves.

Maleficent v Probopass
Earthquake activates Probopass's Sturdy, and the counter is the obvious Flash Cannon (25/203). Since I can't use a 2nd Earthquake because of Torment, Fire Fang ends it. At this point, Maleficent levels so he's out for the fight (I left Exp Share off).

Tinkerbell v Aegislash
Tink goes down to 169/193 because of Spikes. The first Flamethrower gets blocked by King's Shield, and the 2nd hits Aegislash in Shield Forme for about half. Because of the Spikes, Iron Head is enough to finish.

Gardevoir v Aegislash
Shadow Ball ends the match. Only one KO... phew.

Diantha
This is it. Don't get scared now. And maybe I might use Puck here?

Unseelie v Hawlucha
Hawlucha goes first and leads with the obvious Poison Jab (169/255). Moonblast OHKOs coming back.

Puck v Tyrantrum
Play Rough, the more powerful move here, does 70% and Puck survives the countering Earthquake because of Intimidate (46/148). 2nd Play Rough closes out the dino.

Puck v Goodra
Play Rough OHKOs. After the Ghost run, this is a godsend.

Puck v Aurorus
Iron Head OHKOs this time. He's on fire!

Tinkerbell v Gourgeist
...but now he's gotta come out as I need something to beat Ghost/Grass. Tink fires a Flamethrower... and it crits for a OHKO. Ooooh yeah.

Unseelie v MegaGardevoir
Battle of the Fairies down the stretch. Megavoir is faster (out of the gate, Mega speed doesn't take effect on the transformation turn) and Moonblast leaves Unseelie at 22HP. Flash Cannon... leaves Megavoir at 10%. Sigh. On the first Full Restore, a Moonblast does about 70% and lowers Megavoir's SA... but I have to heal here, giving Megavoir two shots at -1. Both hit, both lower SA, and Unseelie has 52 HP left, but Flash Cannon connects and we have a new champ!

Pictured: Two fabulous Pokemon and a fabulous trainer

I'll make the announcement about the next type Friday night or Saturday with a type preview, poll closes then.

Fairy Day 9: Don't Go Chasin' Waterfalls

So we're saved in front of the healing Ranger on Victory Road, in the L59-L60 range, and the team is as follows:

Iphys - Waterfall, Play Rough, Superpower, Dig
Morgan - Moonblast, Psychic, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball
Tinkerbell - Dazzling Gleam, Surf, Thunderbolt, Flamethrower
Puck - Play Rough, Iron Head, Strength, Rock Smash (soon to be Brick Break)
Maleficent - Play Rough, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Fire Fang
Xerneas (actual nickname: Unseelie) - Moonblast, Aurora Beam, Megahorn, Flash Cannon

The key is that roughly between badge 7 and Victory Road, you get a lot of the major TMs - Flamethrower, Shadow Ball, Brick Break, Energy Ball, Ice Beam, Rock Slide, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Dark Pulse, Psychic... mother of god, it's a mother load.

Oh, right, there was a Gym there too.


8th gym with Fairies: OHKO Flamethrower, nutshot, OHKO Iron Head, OHKO Flash Cannon. #easierthanyourmom

(Nutshot = hit itself in confusion, thanks Porygon's Big Show)

Right now, the issue is that Repels have started working in Victory Road, so I question how I'm going to get the next levels for the Elite 4 unless the Exp Share goes off big time. Don't have much time to find out how much training we'll have to get in at the final part of Victory Road... but is the Super Training enough that I could go in at L61-L62? Who knows.

Also, it's time to figure out which type is next on the docket. I'm thinking of alternating it based on the old Physical/Special split and since Ghost was physical/Fairy presumably special... it's physical next. Straw poll time!

Fairy Day 8: Packing a Legendary

They said I could use anything I ever wanted.

So I used a god.

I’m currently saved in Geosenge Town after clearing out Team Flare, and here’s where the team stands:

Iphys L50 – Aqua Tail, Play Rough, Dig, Rollout

Morgan L49 – Psychic, Moonblast, Thunderbolt, Magical Leaf

Tinkerbell L49 – Dazzling Gleam, Surf, Thunderbolt, Energy Ball

Puck L50 – Play Rough, Iron Head, Rock Smash, Strength

Maleficent L50 – Play Rough, Dig, Rock Tomb, Fire Fang

Xerneas (Dryad) L50 – Gravity, Geomancy, Megahorn, Moonblast (not Super Trained yet)

Sitting in the box: Robin L49 – Moonblast, Petal Dance, Nature Power, Wish

The Fairy gym did have some trouble with Sylveon, especially – a combination of Fairy not resisting itself unlike most of the old Special types, and Sylveon hitting like a truck with Dazzling Gleam. Thankfully, Aqua Tail took care of that.

The happiest part of the whole run is when I beat Valerie and got Dazzling Gleam, because it finally gave half the team Fairy STAB or *usable* Fairy STAB. The rest of them got it through the Move Returner, which made clearing out the Frost Cave and Olympia’s gym way easier. Team Flare was a flatout joke – except for a stray Poison Fang Golbat/Crobat. And thankfully, I got the nature I wanted for Xerneas on the first shot and it appears his 31s are in the Attack stats.

So now that I’ve got a mixed Xerneas, what should I do with it? Moonblast is a keeper, and I’m tempted to Bank it long enough to get it a hold of Flash Cannon in Y so I can actually have something that can super-effect other Fairies (I’m looking at you, Gardevoir). But what should I do with its other two slots? By my math, I’ve got Aurora Beam, Night Slash, Horn Leech, Psyshock/Psychic and Thunderbolt for two slots. Quite the list to work with.

Fairy Week 1: Thunderbolts For Everyone!

So I took a few days off from the run to play things for the podcast (Deus Ex Human Revolution, Retro's Best Game Ever, Bravely Default, Danganronpa) and witness the ascension of a god, messiah, angel, king, prince(ss) and all terrain vehicle to collective godhood. But before that happened, I did manage to get through three gyms in one 24 hour period so maybe I should have updated this earlier.

Oh well.

Here's where we stand, after 5 badges and about to head out to Route 14:

Azumarill (iphys): L39, Aqua Tail/Dig/Rollout/Rock Smash
Gardevoir (Morgan): L38, Confusion/Thunderbolt/Magical Leaf/Calm Mind.
Florges (Robin): L38, Fairy Wind/Magical Leaf/Nature Power/Wish
Slurpuff (Tinkerbell): L38, Draining Kiss/Surf/Thunderbolt/Energy Ball
Mawile (Puck): L39, Fairy Wind/Vice Grip/Rock Smash/Crunch
Granbull (Maleficent): L39, Dig/Rock Tomb/Rock Smash/Strength

The nickname conventions are weird - half actual Fairies, a tribute, and what appear to be a pair of Fire Emblem Awakening references.

The Fighting gym, as was expected, was pretty easy. Sadly, I didn't get Morgan to evolve until after I had gotten Robin's Shiny Stone on Route 12, so it ended up being the final evolution. (Speaking of Robin, who do I have to kill to get a Floette-E? Special Fairy Head Smash off 125 base SpAtk? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!) The core problem is that the Fairy moves were still weak here - and they haven't improved much either.

I had some unexpected challenges with the Grass gym - in addition to Jumpluff being a pain with Acrobatics until I figured out "hey, we can get it to -4 Attack by swapping between Puck and Maleficent", Gogoat was surprisingly durable and Weepinbel's part Poison nature proved costly. Well, until we installed Morgan. Problem solved.

However, the Clemont fight went largely as I hoped, with much Special Defense tanking. Morgan had Calm Mind at this point, so I charged it up against Emolga and got rid of it, and it pretty well finished the job after that.

Looking ahead: The Fairy gym coming up will likely be won by a combination of resistances and iphys Aqua Tailing everything in sight - its effective Attack rating right now is 176. I'm going to need Heart Scales for Morgan, Robin (x2), Puck (x2) and Maleficent, and then everyone on the team but iphys will have Fairy STAB (that comes at L50). If Venomoth doesn't get Fairy typing in a future game, someone's asleep at the switch.

Last question for this update - should I go against the rules on either the Rock or Water runs and use Omanyte Lord Helix? If so, which one would it be better for? Either way, it'd be joining at the Fossil Lab about the same time Aerodactyl does. (I'm more tempted to use it in Rock because I'm biased towards special Waters, so I can sub out Binacle.)

Opening Weekend: Fairies Frying

After a busy weekend of running over half of Kalos with the Fairy group, with some notable exceptions - I'm presently saved in Cyllage City having just beat Grant for the Cliff Badge.

So far, the only things I'm packing that aren't Fairy are Fennekin, a Pikachu I caught randomly, a shiny Bunnelby who's probably going to the Bank at some point (in before Diggersby tho :/), a Fletching for aerial transport purposes, the Charmander Sycamore sticks you with, and an Eevee I could turn into Sylveon if I felt like it.

Other than that, it's all Fairies all the time. Here's where I stand:

Azumarill - L24 - Brave, Huge Power - "iphys" - Aqua Jet, Rollout, Bulldoze, Rock Smash
As expected, it rolled the Bug gym with Rollout. Surskit didn't even have a chance to touch me as it elected to Water Sport on the Defense Curl turn. The nickname comes from the fact that I caught it as a female but it became male at evolution - it's named in honor of a friend.

Kirila - L23 - Quiet, Synchronise - Confusion, Magical Leaf, Thief, Teleport
Yes, Thief. Its main purpose was a) to provide alternate attack methods, and b) to help with leveling up by robbing Audino of their berries. Hasn't done much to this point, but it's only a few levels shy of becoming Gardevoir and that pleases me very much.

Floette - L23 - Rash - Fairy Wind, Razor Leaf, Nature Power, Wish
Amazing that the first Fairy move on the team and the only one of the right type is three Pokemon in, but hey, more coverage. Nature Power has been Rock Gem and Earth Power, which has actually come in handy fairly often. I don't mind Rash because hey, Florges is base 154 SpDef, I can give a little up.

Slurpuff - L23 - Quiet - Fairy Wind, Endeavor, Fake Tears, Round
The first (and probably last) beneficiary of Synchronise. When asked why I used this guy: "It learns Surf" (and soon, too). Actually managed to OHKO Grant's Tyrunt after a CH from a couple of levels down.

Mawile - L23 - Naughty, Intimidate - Fairy Wind, Vice Grip, Rock Smash, Bite
The Amaura killer, Mawile popped him with a couple of Rock Smashes. Took about an hour to find one with a Attack-positive nature and Intimidate, but I've taken steps to make sure the SpDef deficit doesn't come into play.

Granbull - L23 - Adamant, Intimidate - Bulldoze, Rock Tomb, Rock Smash, Strength
Just added on Route 10, and I'm not sure if this will fill the role of effective Ground type or Fang-killer. It was a quick evolution, at any rate - in fact, the whole team is. Only 2 evolutions left, and one's a stone I'm two routes from.

Other notes about the run:
- I've taken the time I'd normally spend on filling the Pokedex and devoted it to Super Training. It takes about an hour to go from 0 - maxed, and my usual plan is "use leftover bags" - "grind on L2 until full of bags" - "use new bags" - "grind on L3 until full" - repeat last two until maxed. It won't make much of a difference now, but it could later on.

- I'm still pondering nicknaming the rest of the team, but haven't had much inspiration to this point.

- The Exp Share is staying on for now, but I'm going to run through the Battle Chateau for a bit before the next update to have additional TM funds. Time to find out if anyone can Poison Jab.

- I've got two Heart Scales, and I estimate I'll need about six for Gardevoir, Mawile and Granbull.

Type Preview: Fairy

Introduced in X/Y to serve as a hard check for the Dragon type (super-effective AND immune), the Fairy type is quite a potent one, with wide movepools and a good variety of dual types.

Which is a good thing, because they have some, shall we say... statistical issues.

Type Effectiveness:
Attacking: Double damage to Fighting, Dragon and Dark. Resisted by Fire, Poison and Steel.
Defending: Super effected by Poison and Steel. Resist Bug, Fighting and Dark. Immune to Dragon.

Dual types:
Water, Psychic, Steel, Electric, Rock, and Normal. Grass and Flying are locked to Friend Safari or Pokemon Bank.

Probable Final Team:
Azurill/Marill/Azumarill: Unlike the Ghost run, it's Fairies for all gyms, and they're all I'm catching. The annoying parts are going to be: a) finding one with the ideal nature (Attack boostng)/ability (Huge Power) combo, and then getting it to happy-evolve before Marill learns Rollout at level 10.

Ralts/Kirila/Gardevoir: So much of this team is built on the early routes. I've used Gardevoir before, but not in a run where it got the Fairy type. Unlike Gengar, though, its Mega is like Mawile's and stuck in the postgame. For various reasons, I'm hoping for a Modest one with Synchronise ability.

Swirlix/Slurpuff: Provides a pure Fairy, I didn't realize a) that its stats were as balanced as they are, and b) it learns Surf so I don't have to waste that slot on Azumarill. Bonus: Learns Flamethrower and Thunderbolt.

Mawile: Steel/Fairy is the best defensive type combo in the game, Mawile has Intimidate, and I figured I used Sableye on the last run so I should use its actually-functional counterpart in this run. Provides a physical/special balance.

Snubbull/Granbull: Another re-typed Fairy, will provide coverage with elemental Fangs, another dose of Intimidate, and someone's gotta learn Strength.

Xerneas: You give me an uber, I'm going to use it. No exceptions. Plus, it's an excuse to get one I want.

Why not use...?
If there's a lot of options for a type, I'll explain why I'm not using it at the endgame. Ghost didn't have that problem, fairy does.

Flabebe/Floette/Florges: It'll be there until Team Flare, but if I'm going to bring three pure Fairies I'm going to make them as strong as possible.

Spritzee/Aromatisse: For one thing, I'm in X. For another, it's MORTALLY slow. I'll sacrifice Moonblast for something that won't have to constantly heal.

Eevee/Sylveon: I've used Sylveon before, and a combo of bad movepool and the time it takes to get a usable one isn't worth it.

Dedenne: Yes, it'd provide an Electric STAB, but I bet Gardevoir (among others) can still outdamage it. And it doesn't even learn a special Fairy move!

Mr Mime: Gardevoir > Mr Mime as far as Psychic fairies go, and it's just bloody creepy.

Carbink: Too defensive for the run, movepool issues.

Major Battle Expectations:
Viola: Marill will roll everything to death.
Grant: Mawile will Rock Smash Amaura to death, and the team being able to resist Strong Jaw Bite will make this far easier than the Ghost run.
Korrina: Hopefully the grinding will allow me to have Gardevoir here for an easy win.
Ramos: I may not be able to super-effect anything, but Mawile will resist everything.
Clemont: High Special Defenses will open the door to an easy win
Valerie: Going to have to overpower everything since Mawile's STAB comes at the Move Returner and I don't think anyone's going to have Poison moves.
Olympia: Gardevoir's gonna wreck a lot of stuff, with Granbull along for the ride.
Wulfric: Install Mawile, problem solved.

Rival: I'm going to go Fennekin as a starter, so the rival I fight the most has -Dark Greninja. and the other has -Fighting Chesnaught  at the end. Thankfully, Absol will *not* be a problem this time.
Team Flare: The mostly Dark-types shouldn't be a problem.
Elite 4 and Champ: I'll definitely save Wikstrom for last, but Drasna goes first.

Trainer:
For the first time, I play a guy. And his name? On the suggestion of my brother... Takei. As in George Takei. Oh my, indeed.