Rock run complete!

Subtitle: We Will Rock You 'Cause We Are The Champions

We got Lairon, we got Shuckle, we got the tree, we're done. Wulfric met the business end of Skynyrd's Iron Head, Victory Road was a cinch after the Rival, but we hit the Elite 4 at the usual L64. Team was as outlined previously, so let's dance.

First up...
Malva
Probably the most obvious lead yet.

Steven Tyler (hence S.Tyler) v Pyroar
Pyroar gets the jump and lets loose a Noble Roar, so the Razor Shell counter only does about 70%. Pyroar then uses Wild Charge which does some light damage (129/169), but Brick Break is enough to do it in.

Denver v Torkoal
The opening Rock Slide does 75% to Torkoal... and flinches, which brings out Full Restore 1. A Dragon Claw on the FR turn does 35%, meaning Rock Slide 2 gets the duke.

Denver v Chandelure
Rock Slide OHKOs here.

S.Tyler v Talonflame
4x resist to Fire, 2x to Flying. Brave Bird takes Steven down to 96/169, and Rock Slide finishes after the recoil is assessed.

Drasna
The most appetizing of the remaining matchups.

Tori v Dragalgae
The opening salvo comes Earthquake, which does... 95% or so. Surf brings Tori to 50/166, so on the Full Restore turn Shell Smash intensifies. Earthquake gets the duke.

Madonna v Altaria
Ice Beam. 'nuff said.

Madonna v Druddigon
A second Ice Beam goes off... and Druddigon has 1%, more like 1HP, left. How he survived I'm not sure, but that lets him fire Revenge off... and Madonna's not taking too many 120 power Fighting moves and surviving.

Denver v Druddigon
Druddigon gets Full Restore 1, but Denver avenges the fellow fossil by Dragon Clawing Drudd to death (and taking 1/4 health on the Rough Skin)

Zappa v Noivern
Dragon Pulse brings Zappa to 74/170, but Ice Beam takes Noivern to 0.

Wikstrom
I thought this was the better matchup between S.Tyler resisting and the high Defense. Little did I know...

Tori v Klefki
Klefki lays down Spikes, officially screwing Sturdy Smash, and the EQ counter leaves Klefki at 5%. Another Smash on Full Restore, another OHKO with Earthquake.

Skynyrd v Scizor
I kept Fire Fang for a reason. OHKO

S.Tyler v Probopass
Razor Shell does about 70% damage on turn 1, and the countering Earth Power brings Steven to 68/169 and drops the SpDef. Brick Break ends it.

Denver v Aegislash
Denver takes a round of Spikes damage, then fires with Crunch (just slightly more powerful than Earthquake because of Strong Jaw) to lop 70% off. At this point, I'm thinking "Oh crap" but Denver SURVIVES IRON HEAD WITH 11 HP. In my notes, there's three !s for this. Crunch 2 finishes.

Siebold
There's really only one way I can win this fight. Let's see how it goes.

Tori v Clawitzer
Turn 1: Shell Smash. Clawitzer gets Water Pulse off... and Tori has Sturdy, so it survives with 1 HP. X-Scissor finishes.

Tori v Barbaracle
I'd have put Steven out if I didn't want to lose +2/+2. Earthquake OHKOs...

Tori v Starmie
...and X-Scissor OHKOs...

Tori v Gyarados
...and the +1/+2 Rock Slide OHKOs. Hrm. Tori levelled up here.

Diantha
Remember, she leads with a Fighting type. So why would I put Madonna out first?

Madonna v Hawlucha
Well, it helps when the Fighting move is actually 2x instead of 4x... or so I thought. Flying Press CHd... and Madonna hung on by SIX HIT POINTS. (!!!!!) Ice Beam OHKOed back.

Denver v Goodra
Dragon Claw OHKOs, which doesn't bode well for the next run...

S.Tyler v Aurorus
Not messing around with fancy dual-typed moves, Brick Break does its usual.

Skynyrd v Gourgeist
Skynyrd hits the air to dodge Trick-or-Treat (ooh, Shadow Claw STAB if I cared), and Fly OHKOs.

Zappa v Tyrantrum
Moonlight has to be the best shot here... nope, Tyrantrum survives with about 5% health and OHKOs back with Crunch. Operation Moon: *pop* FAILURE

Skynyrd v Tyrantrum
I figured Iron Head had to be a 2-shot based on the Wikstrom fight. On the Full Restore turn, we hit the first one... and it crits for the OHKO. Well now.

Skynyrd v Gardevoir
In a Mega showdown, Iron Head wins. Flawless victory.

Pictured: The Elite 4 MVPs (though Skynyrd was the overall run MVP)

Now to assemble a few Pokemon for, um, nefarious purposes on the Dragon run...

The Rock Weekend: Under Pressure

Current location: Saved in Anistar City, about to pick up Flamethrower in the morning, team is L53.

Zappa - Psychic, Moonblast, Grass Knot, Charge Beam (last two to be replaced by Shadow Ball and Ice Beam, then swapped *back* to Grass Knot for one fight during the E4, yadda yadda)
Steven Tyler - Razor Shell, Night Slash, Rock Tomb, Surf (last two: Rock Slide and Brick Break)
Tori - X-Scissor, Rock Slide, Dig, Cut (last two: Earthquake and Shell Smash)
Denver - Dragon Claw, Crunch, Rock Tomb, Strength (last two: Rock Slide and Earthquake)
Madonna - Freeze-Dry, Thunderbolt, Ancientpower, Nature Power (last one: Dark Pulse)
Skynyrd - Fly, Iron Head, Fire Fang, Thunder Fang (no changes planned)

The story begins with a tour of Lumiose for shiggles as I try to see if I can stay up long enough to evolve both Denver and Madonna close together, but that didn't work out according to plan. Instead, we rolled Route 14 and took on the Fairy Gym, which went pretty much as expected except for Sylveon surviving long enough to squeeze a Charm off against Skynyrd.

Denver evolved in the Poke Ball Factory, and a quick tour of the 15->Lost Hotel->16 complex let me handle Madonna's evo and general leveling of the team - the fact that I'm able to do Sky Battles and not miss Exp is helping as well.

In the Frost Cavern, I actually didn't have all that much trouble with the Fighting round... though that's largely due to it being a combo of Skynyrd and Zappa's turn to ride. Even the dreaded Brains and Brawn got wrecked by Tori.

After the Psychic gym was swiftly dispatched, it was time for Flare. And a big run it was - Steven got Razor Shell to give it a usable Water attack for the first time since Surf was added, Zappa learned Moonblast for Fairy fun, and Skynyrd basically wrecked everything short of MegaGyarados.

Tomorrow's goals are two-fold: Get to the Elite, and figure out which 6 of 8 will be used for Dragon coming up next.

Rock Day 3: Fat Bottomed Girls

Current location: Saved in the central Pokemon Centre in Lumiose, team is L37. And we have...

Zappa: Psychic, Rock Slide, Grass Knot, Charge Beam
Steven Tyler: Rock Tomb, Surf, Poison Jab, Slash
Tori (now a Crustle): X-Scissor, Rock Slide, Dig, Cut
Denver: Dragon Claw, Rock Tomb, Crunch, Strength
Madonna: Ancientpower, Aurora Beam, Nature Power, Charge Beam
Skynyrd: Fly, Rock Tomb, Crunch, Rock Smash

Went up and picked up Aerial Ace (a solid filler) for Skynyrd to start, and then it was off to Geosenge for the dreaded Double Lucario. Thankfully, that fight ended quickly with Skynyrd's Bulldoze.

Through the Reflection Cave, only losing two Pokemon to the Throh/Hawlucha double shot, before levelling up a bit into Shalour City. Hawlucha couldn't touch Skynyrd, so it was three AAs, a Rock Tomb, and a 4th AA to finish.

Courmarine was fun when I didn't make the mistake of leading with the Water/Rock type, Poison Jab or no. A combo of Fly and X-Scissor got the job done there.

By this time, the team was building up a good supply of STAB (and in Denver's case, psuedo-STAB) moves, so much so that I had to start ditching Bulldoze and Dig in slots where I can't ditch HMs yet. This would present a problem with the Electric gym, where it took a combo of Skynyrd wiping out Emolga in one, a stray Full Restore and figuring out how to take out Heliolisk to get the badge and (more importantly) the Thunderbolt TM for Madonna.

Plans for the weekend that don't involve hunting monsters or podcast editing: At least get to Laverre City and figure out how we're getting past the Sylveon. (Probably the same way we always do: Mega Fly.) Also, I'm hoping to get Steven/Madonna/Denver to L39 tomorrow, so they'll evolve - although Madonna is a lady of the night, so I have to hold off on her.

Rock Day 2: Princes of the Universe

Current location: Cyllage City, just beat Grant and got the most important thing of all: STAB for everybody!

Let's meet the team, shall we?

Zappa the Lunatone (L25) - Naive - Confusion, Rock Slide, Hypnosis, Psywaye
- Psywave is actually proving to be quite useful right now, it's actually outdamaging Confusion. That'll change as the SA stat increases, of course.

Steven Tyler the Binacle (L24) - Clamp, Rock Tomb, Shadow Claw, Slash
- Those last two moves are doing way more damage than they should. Thank you, Sniper.

Tori the Dwebble (L24) - Bug Bite, Rock Tomb, Bulldoze, Cut
- First Pokemon stuck with an HM, first one to evolve, and the first to have lunch with Bug Bite.

Denver the Tyrunt (L24) - Brave - Rock Tomb, Strength, Bite, Bulldoze
- Second Pokemon stuck with an HM, I wish his other Strong Jaw moves didn't require breeding. Voted "Most Likely To Not Use Bulldoze".

Madonna the Amaura (L24) - Mild - Aurora Beam, Nature Power, Icy Wind, Take Down
- Same as the Ice run, except now it has five teammates off the hop.

Skynyrd the Aerodactyl (L24) - Naughty, Pressure - Rock Tomb, Bite, Rock Smash, Bulldoze
- About to pick up Aerial Ace for a secondary STAB, which will be quite abused in the upcoming Gym.

Basically, it was "get everyone up to speed, then go beat Grant" day. And it worked out well, as the early availability of Bulldoze/Rock Smash means it's easy to beat down a bunch of fellow Rock types. For what it's worth, I got Lightningrod / Adamant Rhyhorn and Sturdy / Rash Nosepass if for some reason I want or need a B-team.

The Grant fight was a Madonna sweep like the last one, bar the Amaura surviving Power Gem (it was 2 levels down from the Ice run, you might recall) and managing to squeeze off a T-Wave. Tyrunt still got one-shot, though.

Tomorrow's plan: Unlock Mega-Skynyrd. Anything else is cream cheese.

Rock Day 1: Don't Stop Me Now

Current location: Saved in the Ambrette City Pokemon Center. We have two Pokemon currently for the run:

male Binacle "Steven" - Adamant, Sniper, trained for Atk/Spd. Named after the Aerosmith front man largely because my favourite Aerosmith song is, amazingly, "Janie's Got A Gun".
female Dwebble "Tori" - Naughty, Sturdy, not yet STed. Named after Tori Amos, who was the first result for "Troubled Female Rocker" that qualified. (Also applicable: Madonna, Cyndi [Lauper].)

I was hoping for Tough Claws on Binacle simply because it would kick in more (33% boost on every move but Surf v 300% 6% of the time... give me the former) but when it came up Adamant, I didn't really have a choice. I haven't gotten them any battle experience, nor TMed them, but that'll go down tomorrow once Tori's ready to go.

In the meantime, I ended up with a Naughty Chespin and official "Mountain filler" Fletchinder came in at Modest. The first gym went down to Rollout (at least Viola did), and the only thing I've left to do on Route 7 is clean out a couple of Smeargles, get my Battle Chateau on, and pick up a few items with Cut.

The plan for tomorrow (Thursday) is get the fossils, and add Lunatone to the team. I've already figured out two nicknames ("Denver" for Tyrantrum in loving tribute to Denver, The Last Dinosaur, "Zappa" for Lunatone because duh, Moon Unit.)

Type Preview: Rock

It's a type known for physical defense, and for being the only type that would be super-effective on a Pokemon of all 18 elements. Its special defenses are in the crapper, though I can take steps to mitigate this. It's without question the most physically biased type in the game, and all of its Pokemon show up within 20 minutes of each other. It's weak to Fighting again, because I hate myself.

One question: Do you smell what the Rock is cookin'?

Type effectiveness:
Attacking: Super effective against Fire, Ice, Flying, Bug. Not very effective against Fighting, Ground, and Steel.
Defending: Super effected by Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground, and Steel. Resistant to Normal, Fire, Poison and Flying.

Dual types:
Fire, Water, Ice, Ground, Flying, Psychic, Bug, Dragon, Dark, Steel, and Fairy are all in XY. Add in Bank for Grass and Fighting.

Probable final team:
Binacle/Barbaracle: Ideally this would be an Omanyte, but Lord Helix is technically postgame so that's a no go. We'll make due with a Pokemon I've used before, who has decent move variety even if it's incredibly biased toward physical with the sole exception of Waterfall.

Dwebble/Crustle: Two words: Shell Smash. One more: Sturdy. Seriously, one Smash and this thing nearly swept Iris R2 in BW2. My body is ready to see if we can repeat this in XY.

Lunatone: I need one of the Celestial Bodies to make sure I have something else to switch into Earthquake, and Lunatone has a wider movepool. In fact, I'm probably not even using Special Rock STAB on this one because it doesn't have any - it does, however, have Moonblast.

Tyrunt/Tyrantrum: Rock/Dragon with psuedo-STAB on Dark moves and this thing hits like a truck. Since it's a fossil, it's way easy to control the nature.It may be possible to forego Earthquake and still rock everything.

Amaura/Aurorus: Wait, really? 2 Fossils? And the answer is yes. I suspect this one's more essential than Tyrantrum, so this is the control experiment.

Aerodactyl: 3rd fossil of the run. You get its Mega Stone as part of the story. I'd be a fool. Problem is, it's got like nine moves I want to use. (All three Fangs, Iron Head, Fly, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Crunch, and Dragon Claw.)

Why not use...?
Solrock: Really relied on move tutors when I wanted to use it, because the movepool is highly Special but the Attack is the higher stat. If I could get, I dunno, Zen Headbutt and Flame Wheel on it I'd be happier.

Relicanth: Combination of lower stats than Barbaracle and less overall damage even if Barb ends up with Sniper. Plus, it comes in at like, post-6th badge and I'll need a Surfer far before that.

Rhyhorn/Rhydon/Rhyperior: For all the love Rhyperior gets, I'm stuck with Rhyhorn for a long time and then it's a trade evo.

Nosepass/Probopass: Wasn't too thrilled with it in the Steel run and can't think of a Pokemon in here it's better than.

Roggenrola/Boldore/Gigalith: Trade evo, not enough advantages to being pure-Rock.

Carbink: The ability I want comes in hordes only, and Lunatone probably has a stronger Moonblast even without type bonus.

Corsola: Sucks [redacted] through a straw.

Geodude/Graveler/Golem: Trade evo, no real variety in moves.

Magcargo: See Corsola. If it could Power Gem I might've considered it, but no dice.

Shuckle: Probably the worst Pokemon possible for an ingame run, and that covers a LOT of ground.

Aron/Lairon/Aggron: Simple matter of availability (post-7th badge).

Larvitar/Pupitar/Tyranitar: Same issue as Aggron, with the added hassle of being a Y Pokemon.

Sudowoodo: Stats aren't that hot, and it's technically AFTER the 8th gym city.

Major battle expectations:
Viola: I won't have a Rock type at all or this would be a cakewalk, but since my starter choice is Chespin I'll still have Rollout.
Grant: An entire party of Pokemon who can use Rock Smash at minimum means this should be easy. Or I'll just use Amaura again.
Korrina: Aerodactyl and Lunatone get their paychecks here. And every other cave in the game.
Ramos: Aerodactyl is the obvious answer here, but the urge to get Dwebble into Crustle here is strong.
Clemont: Bulldoze or Dig everything before they can Thunderbolt us is the plan.
Valerie: Pretty sure someone's going to get to Poison Jab everything in sight, with comedy Ground moves for Mawile.
Olympia: Fire up Crustle, Barbaracle or anything with X-Scissor really.
Wulfric: Finally, something that can outrun Cryogonal. The hard part's going to be getting rid of Avalugg (probably involves Ancientpower from our two Specialists.)

Rival: He's stuck with Delphox, because I'm evil like that. Lunatone probably has the most fun here.
Team Flare: Scraggy/Scrafty are the trouble spots, along with the sick running joke of Gyarados problems.
Elite 4: Order is Fire -> Dragon -> Steel -> Water. Not going to have the option of randomly throwing Grass Knot on something this time.
Champion: Remember, Rocks take neutral damage from Flying Press. Also, Aero v Gardevoir is going to be quite entertaining for the eight seconds it lasts.

Trainer:
Since we're playing a female this time, and I'm not going straight for the "Roxanne" reference from RSE, I'm going to go with Joan (as in Joan Jett, best known for "I Love Rock 'n Roll"). The Pokemon will be named after rockers of choice as well.