Steel run complete!

This was probably the hardest run yet in terms of available movepool (shallow, and I left a couple of types in the box) as well as a couple of unforced error and the bad end of Lady Luck.

Here's what happened:

Siebold
No real obvious entry points here, so I went for the thing I could probably OHKO.

Meg v Clawitzer
Thunderbolt OHKO.

Meg v Gyarados
Thunderbolt OHKO.

Celeste v Barbaracle
Cross Chop goes first, takes Celeste down to 65/171 with Iron Barbs taking off 12%. Power Whip... MISSES. Then Cross Chop goes for the win... and IT misses. Power Whip doesn't miss again.

Celeste v Starmie
Surf takes Celeste down to 33, but Power Whip ends it.

Wikstrom
I figured I'd go for the mirror match next on the grounds of having multiple moves that could SE, versus uh, one for Dragon.

Trina v Klefki
Klefki drops Spikes, and Shadow Claw... does 70%. This lets a second layer of Spikes go down before Shadow Claw finishes.

Lianne v Probopass
Knowing Sturdy's coming, I Iron Head... it does about 30%. Earth Power is survived at 17/162, which lets Brick Break finish.

Lucky v Aegislash
Hidden Power gets dodged by a turn 1 King's Shield. Hidden Power is SE and does 20% against Shield Form, and the Iron Head counter drops Lucky to 25/159. Psychic goes first this time and takes 40% off Blade Form before Iron Head drops it.

Lilly v Aegislash
Mega Earthquake finishes it.

Celeste v Scizor
Forgetting that I didn't have anything to really SE it... X-Scissor+Spikes leaves Celeste at 82/171, and the countering Shadow Claw does about 30% (so down 40% with IB). A second X-Scissor criticals, and that's it for Celeste.

Meg v Scizor
Thunderbolt finishes.

Drasna
There's one trouble spot but then it should be smooth sailing... right?

Lilly v Dragalgae
Mega Earthquake OHKOs.

Lucky v Noivern
And HERE IT IS. Flamethrower takes Lucky to 43/159, and it survives Dazzling Gleam with about 20% health. Two DGs, no criticals, 2 Full Restores, and I decide to switch in Laurie to absorb a Flamethrower...

Laurie v Noivern
...only Noivern's faster so the 2nd one KOs.

Trina v Noivern
Another Flamethrower hits the Shield down to 92/164, Iron Head finishes.

Lucky v Altaria
First Dazzling Gleam does 70%, Moonblast takes Lucky to 19 and lowers Lucky's SA, and the 2nd Dazzling Gleam finishes.

Lucky v Druddigon
Because of the SA drop, Dazzling Gleam only does 40%. Revenge finishes.

Celeste v Druddigon
Since Celeste is full, I Revive Lucky and Laurie while Celeste takes two Revenges and does some Iron Barbs damage (down to 25/171). A Hyper Potion hits the 3rd Iron Barbs, and Iron Head finishes.

Malva
This one will have a lot of quick fights...

Lilly v Pyroar
I go to hit the Mega and Aura Sphere it into next week... only it locks in Psychic for 40% and Flamethrower OHKOs.

Lianne v Pyroar
I try to Brick Break, but Pyroar's faster. OHKO.

Meg v Pyroar
I (Max) Revive Lilly while taking two Noble Roars, so Thunderbolt doesn't KO but does stick Pyroar into Full Restore range, so I swap back to Lilly..

Lilly v Pyroar 2
...and this time, there's no misclick. Lilly levels here.

Meg v Talonflame
Flare Blitz takes Meg down to 24/170 (doesn't trigger Sturdy, surpisingly) and Thunderbolt cleans up.

Meg v Torkoal
Thunderbolt... doesn't do enough to OHKO Torkoal (leaves it at 5%) and Earthquake finishes.

Trina v Torkoal
Torkoal gets Full Restore 2, but eats two Rock Slides and goes down after the first does 70%.

Lilly v Chandelure
Earthquake OHKOs.

Diantha
I've cleared this in six rounds before, will I get lucky again?

Lilly v Hawlucha
I stuck Psychic on specifically for this. Hawlucha goes first and Flying Presses Lilly to 41/167, but Psychic OHKOs as expected.

Celeste v Goodra
Probably a bad move... and Fire Blast OHKOing only confirms *that* opinion.

Laurie v Goodra
Iron Head goes first, does 55%... AND FLINCHES. Big move. 2nd Iron Head ends it.

Lianne v Tyrantrum
Can I go 2/2 on this? Nope... Iron Head does 70% but Earthquake is a OHKO.

Trina v Tyrantrum
Thankfully, Iron Head from Trina is enough to pick up the pieces.

Trina v Gourgeist
Gourgeist goes for Phantom Force, causing Shadow Claw to miss, so I switch to Meg...

Meg v Gourgeist
...and it does a little bit (106/172). I Flash Cannon against what I thought would be Flamethrower (a Victory Road trainer pulls it) for 90%, but instead they use Trick-or-Treat. I Hidden Power against the Full Restore and Flash Cannon ends the pumpkin.

Meg v Aurorus
As usual, Flash Cannon OHKOs.

Trina v Gardevoir
Shadow Ball takes Trina in Shield down to 78/186... but Iron Head hits true for the win!

Pictured: You can almost make out Lilly there

The Dark preview will probably go up tomorrow morning once I settle on a team, and the run will probably start tomorrow at work.

Steel Day 7: Down The Stretch They Come

I'm going to save the team update for the end, because I managed to go from Route 16 to saved outside of Victory Road again in the time since the last post, watch a bunch of anime AND work on a podcast edit. I call that a win.

So yeah, went to Route 16, cleared it out to get the new team together and work out the kinks, ran through Frost Cavern again, hit the wall of Fighting types (I am so glad I only have to worry about that two more times), and beat down Anistar Gym this morning. The key was to get Lianne the Pawniard up to L52 so it would activate beastmode as a Bisharp - though it did get Sigilyph AND Meowstic pretty well thanks to learning Night Slash early enough.

I left the Exp Share on for all of the Team Flare complex, and finished with a L52 Bisharp right at the end of the first Lysandre fight in Geosenge. Didn't bother checking the Xerneas, but MegaLilly took about 95% off MegaGyarados... unfortunately, Gyarados did 100% with Earthquake coming back.

Ripped though Route 19 to Snowbelle and promptly engaged in a righteous beatdown of the Ice gym, complete with everything going down with one hit except for Mamoswine. I knew I had a MVP on that run, and I think that was it.

From there, it was off to Victory Road, in which I had to leave Meg the Magnezone behind... a move I regretted immensely when I got beat down by the Veteran with the Talonflame. Thankfully, that mistake will not be made twice. At the end, I went through the Honey for Floatzel procedure again... AND FOUND A SHINY FLOATZEL. By this point I had already sold my Poke Balls, except for the Master they won't buy, so I snagged it. Haven't looked at its stats either.

Anywhere, here's the team at L64:

Lilly - Aura Sphere, Metal Claw, Psychic, Earthquake
Trina - Iron Head, Shadow Claw, Sacred Sword, Rock Slide
Celeste - Power Whip, Iron Head, Poison Jab, Shadow Claw
Laurie the Bisharp - Naive, Defiant (+2 stages of Atk when hit with a stat debuff) - Iron Head, Night Slash, Poison Jab, Brick Break
Lucky the Klefki - Timid, Prankster - Dazzling Gleam, Flash Cannon, Hidden Power (Poison), Psychic
Meg the Magnezone - Mild, Sturdy - Thunderbolt, Flash Cannon, Tri Attack, Hidden Power (Ghost)

And the next run is due for a previous Special type, and I had a choice to make - either wreak vengeance on the Fighting type, or get the last of the special weaknesses over with. We're keeping it high up in the type chart, and I'll still get to use Malamar... because we're going Dark.

Steel Day 5: Rapid-Fire Decision Making

The run is currently saved on Route 16, and I have a bit of a problem.

I started out the day by beating about the Fairy gym - as expected, it went Lilly -> Trina -> Thumper for the Gym. Then, we cleared out the Poke Ball Factory, and I went out to Route 15.

In back to back catches, I managed to find a Naive (+Speed, -SpDef) Pawniard with Justified, and a Timid Klefki. Both with stats quite high for the level. Snuck through to the Lost Hotel, and encountered a Mild Sturdy Magneton on the first shot.

And of course, because I'm crazy, I Super Trained the lot of them. Having access to Laverre's vitamin supply helped in that regard.

They're all TMed up as much as possible, and all about the same level as the team (L41). I do want to use them all (even the repeat offenders and ones I know will return in the future, looking at you Lilly/Trina/Thumper) so I'm not sure what to do short of running back to the PC all the time.

Here's what the possibilities are:

Lilly - Aura Sphere, Metal Claw, Dragon Pulse, Dig
Trina - Cut, Shadow Sneak, Sacred Sword, Iron Head
Thumper - Dig, Ice Fang, Fire Fang, Iron Tail
Weevil - Play Rough, Iron Head, Crunch, Strength
Celeste - no changes
Parker - no changes
Pawniard - Thief, Metal Claw, Poison Jab, X-Scissor
Klefki - Dazzling Gleam, Mirror Shot, Foul Play, Torment
Magnezone - Thunderbolt, Flash Cannon, Tri Attack, Metal Sound

I believe we are at the point where this run's official hashtag is going to be #FirstWorldProblems

Steel Day 4: In The Interest of My Sanity

Somehow, work was quiet enough today that I made it to Laverre City. Here's what we have now at L39 with one exception:

Lilly - Return, Shadow Claw, Dig, Low Sweep
Trina (now an Aegislash) - Cut, Aerial Ace, Shadow Sneak, Night Slash
Thumper -  Dig, Rock Slide, Crunch, Iron Tail
Weevill - Fairy Wind, Crunch, Rock Smash, Strength
L40 Celeste (now a Ferrothorn) - Power Whip, Metal Claw, Rollout, Poison Jab
Parker (now a Probopass, THANK GOD) - Thunderbolt, Power Gem, Bulldoze, Rock Smash

Cleared out Shalour quite quickly to start, a combo of Lilly and Trina having quite a fair bit of fun with the rival. From there, it was over to the Gym for another round of Trina trolling. Machoke got the one hit in, but it was fun watching Hawlucha futilely Hone its Claws while I pecked away at it with Aerial Ace.

I thought the 4th gym would be an excuse to catch Thumper up, but I didn't get as much experience out of the Route 12->Azure Bay complex as I thought. Probably due to a lack of Sky Battles. The gym was wrecked quite hard - throwing Thumper at Acrobatics Jumpluff was all well and good until it nearly got 2-shot by Grass Knot.

Route 13 is normally the bane of my existence, but HALLELUJAH PARKER EVOLVED. (It took a Rare Candy, but still.) Finally, a usable 6th who just happened to start learning special moves around the same time. The Power Plant had this annoying habit of knocking out Trina who was still a Honedge... but the healing post-Scientist let me get into Lumiose, where a few rounds of Secret Super Training got me a Dusk Stone, where Lumiose Gym finished the job and got one more evo out of the way.

The gym itself pretty much went as anticipated - Led with Parker against Emolga, Bulldozed the Volt Switch-switch into Magneton for a 2HKO, but Thumper had some Grass Knot issues after Celeste had some Thunderbolt issues (2HKO under Electric Terrain). After getting rid of Heliolisk, Emolga fell to the power of Power Gem (aww yiss).

After clearing out Route 14, we're saved in Laverre. Tomorrow's goal: Beat the Fairy gym, raid Route 15 and the Lost Hotel for potential replacements (Klefki, Pawniard, Magneton) and hopefully get far enough to maybe get to Anistar.

Steel Day 3: Screw Fighting, Let's Just Troll Everything

We're currently down in the Reflection Cave, about to enter Shalour City, get MegaLucario and all that other good stuff.

The team as it stands now:

Nosepass "Parker" - Rock Tomb, Bulldoze, Rock Smash, Spark (L26)
Lilly - Return, Shadow Claw, Power-Up Punch, Bulldoze (L27 - same as the rest)
Trina - Shadow Sneak, Pursuit, Aerial Ace, Cut
Thumper - Bulldoze, Smack Down, Autotomize, Gyro Ball
Mawile "Weevil" - Fairy Wind, Bite, Rock Smash, Strength
Ferroseed "Celeste" - Metal Claw, Rock Smash, Pin Missile, Rollout

The first stop was to the grand Battle Chateau, where I leveled up Parker (who by the way, is a PITA to use when all of its special moves come post-evo and you have nothing but physical) and worked my way up to Cyllage Gym. Thumper got Amaura with Gyro Ball, and a combo of Celeste and Lilly got rid of Tyrunt. Bite doing like, 1/4 health to Tyrunt because of Iron Barbs + Rocky Helmet was the fun part.

I am actually REALLY loving Iron Barbs right now. It's nice to be able to survive the Fighting offense and be able to do something back + take 1/6 off. Metal Claw as the sole STAB is a bit troubling for it, but that's going to change shortly.

Ran Route 10 to Geosenge, won a Lucario fight, and was still horribly under-leveled... so I did some wild grinding to get everyone on the same level and cranked the Exp Share. I don't know when it's going off, but probably not until the Grass gym.

Tomorrow, I have an extended shift from hell at work because of the weather (11.5 hour day) so any progress I'll make is going to be a bonus.

Steel Day 2: Leg Day Cancelled Due To Lack of Legs

Current location: Ambrette Town Pokemon Center, though I skipped ahead to grab a full team. Currently, we have Lilly the Lucario, Trina the Honedge, the still-unadorned Mawile, and three newcomers:

L18 Ferroseed: Female, Jolly, trained in Atk/Speed, moves Rollout/Rock Smash/Pin Missile/Metal Claw. Not sure what a Jolly version of the slowest Pokemon (in terms of base speed) I've ever used will do, at least until evolution. At the very least, I can't wait to do some trolling with Iron Barbs + Rocky Helmet when we go to the Chateau shortly.

L20 Steelix "Thumper": Female, Impish, Rock Head (blast), trained in Att/Speed, moves Bulldoze/Gyro Ball/Stealth Rock/Automatize. The ingame trade paid off as I got a Heart Scale off the Luvdisc and now have something that can stay behind since it gets boosted Exp.

L11 Nosepass: Female, Timid, Sturdy, trained in SA/Speed, moves Tackle/Block/Harden/Rock Throw. I still have to TM this thing and curse the fact that it doesn't evolve until Courmarine.

So basically the entire day was spent catching stuff and Super Training. Ferroseed took about 10 minutes of skating 'round the bottom of the Glittering Cave, Luvdisc-> Thumper took about thirty seconds, and then I wanted a Sturdy Nosepass with a good nature so I hatched a plan. Since Nosepass come in hordes only, and if they don't have Sturdy they have Magnet Pull, I sent Lilly out to catch them. Bulldoze clears out the ones that aren't Strudy, and from there, it's pick one at random and take out the rest.

This is all well and good when you can use Honey to draw them out... until it starts raining on the route and honey stops working. Bloody hell. Thankfully, a quick duck inside the Cyllage Pokemon Center fixed that up right quick.

I don't have to do any catching for a while, so it's down to evening out the team levels and raiding Gyms. Thankfully, Mega-Abomasnow is dropping by today so I don't have things like work to distract me.

Steel Day 1: Hunting and Gathering

Current location: Saved outside Glittering Cave, just caught Mawile and have to ST it, then go back for Ferroseed. Current team:

L22 Lucario "Lilly" - Docile nature, Steadfast, maxed Attack, rest split between Speed and SA. Moves: Return, Quick Attack, Power-Up Punch, Bulldoze
L22 Honedge "Trina" - Brave nature, maxed Attack and Speed (for whatever that's worth).  Moves: Rock Smash, Aerial Ace, Shadow Sneak, Pursuit
L15 Mawile "HelloInsertNameHere", female, Hasty  (+Speed-Def), Intimidate, will max Attack and Speed. Moves: Whatever Mawile comes with, except sub Astonish for Rock Smash

It took about twenty minutes on the 8th soft reset to find Riolu, train it up, happy it up and evolve it - I actually did all but the last bit last night but had no Gym progress to report. It took a lot of skating that loop from the restaurant in Santalune to the first turn on Route 22 to get the happiness up to the point that it would evolve... but it was worth it when Lilly no-sold Infestation in the gym and wiped out Vivilion with two Quick Attacks.

After that, it was the mandatory skating session to route 6 to get Trina, which in itself took about ten soft resets before I got one I was happy with (or could put up with). Got it STed through the new method, and leveled it up with the trainers I bypassed starting on Rt 22 and going all the way up to 6.

That double Furfrou fight is quite satisfying when you have one Pokemon that's SE against Normal wasting them with type bonus moves while the other Pokemon can't touch it, actually. Shame I won't have Honedge again after this, it's quickly becoming a favourite of mine.

In the grand victory for irony, I actually managed to catch Snorlax on a Quick Ball. Heh.

After running the Route 8 complex, we hit Glittering Cave and only had to loop the route once before we got a Mawile, and it was an easy catch this time. Still have to ST it, but then we get to Ferroseed... and I suspect I'll be using that Rocky Helmet I just picked up on Route 9 for maximum trolling.

Type Preview: Steel

There once a type that was so dominant defensively that they had to take two resistances away from it in the name of balance. It has good dual types, powerful attacks and keeps up a very irritating theme from the Ice run.

Time to climb aboard the wheel of Steel.

Type effectiveness:
Attacking: Beats Ice, Rock and Fairy. Resisted by Fire, Water, Electric and itself.
Defending: Super effected by Fire, Fighting and Ground. Neutral to Water, Ghost and Dark. Immune to Poison. EVERYTHING ELSE is resisted.

Dual types:
Available in XY: Electric, Grass, Fighting, Ground, Flying, Bug, Rock, Ghost, Dark, and Fairy. Theoretical but not in the game: Fire, Water, Psychic, Dragon.

Probable final team:
Riolu/Lucario: In addition to being the run's Mega (that they GIVE YOU, for heaven's sake) it's the first one up, will come with 3 max IVs and provides a huge mix of attack variety. Even if I'm stuck using Feint for a few levels.

Honedge/Doublade/Aegislash: Returning champion from the Ghost run, will serve the same role and may actually get its own evo item once I have access to the Move Returner.

Mawile: Another returning champion. I wanted to give Klefki a go, but I'd have to get a great draw on the nature to justify carrying a Pokemon who relies on Hidden Power for coverage. No real changes from the Fairy run.

Steelix: Just Steelix, since the one I'm using is from the Cyllage City ingame trade to avoid that awkward Onix phase. Comes Impish, and I'm not sure about the IVs but hopefully the Attack is good enough.

Ferroseed/Ferrothorn: I've actually used it in BW2, and its movepool was good enough there so this should be fun. Provides the passive damage factor that saved Abomasnow in Ice.

Magneton/Magnezone: Completes the Electric trio, but the shrinkage of the movepool (no access to Signal Beam because of a lack of move tutors, for instance) means I'm using Hidden Power AND Tri Attack for coverage.

Why not use...?
Nosepass/Probopass: May consider (again, depends on the nature) but the Nosepass phase is going to be quite annoying to get through (can't evolve it until of all places, Route 13) and the fact that it comes in hordes only means I'm stuck grinding at least 10 levels early on.

Escavalier: Trade evo, generally sucks overall, will have a full team by the time it comes around.

Pawniard/Bisharp: Another one at least worth considering, I'm going to be flexible with this one (how apropos). Not looking forward to a 4x weak to Fighting, but the trolling possibilities from Defiant...

Klefki: As mentioned above, has movepool problems.

Lairon/Aggron, Durant, Skarmory, Scyther/Scizor: All come Route 18 or in Scizor/Skarmory's case, LATER. Don't want to take the time at that point.

Major battle expectations:
Viola: I'll only have Lucario at this point, but its stats are so insane for a Pokemon of that level that I can probably win a Quick Attack race.
Grant: Steelix is designed to treat this gym like the Machop ingame trade in GSC.
Korrina: Hi Honedge, enjoy the sweep.
Ramos: Resist the STAB? Check. Insane defense to get around Acrobatics? Check. Easy win? Check.
Clemont: "(trainer) sent out Steelix! Hilarity ensues!"
Valerie: The 2nd gym everyone SEs.
Olympia: Depending on the team makeup, I either outstall everything or just rip everything apart.
Wulfric: lols

Rival: Since I'm taking Fennekin out of play, this will be no issue until Flareon shows up.
Team Flare: Houndoom will be the biggest issue, but Steelix and Lucario should be able to win damage races.
Elite 4: There isn't a clear entry point here - I'm leaning toward going Siebold->Drasna->Wulfric->Malva at the end, since I really don't have a Water type.
Champion: Remember what happened in the last fight? I'm picturing something like that.

Trainer:
Having one of the Pokemon locked into "Thumper" means I'm sort of limited in my options, but it turns out that was the name of a character in Veronica Mars. So I'll pull the characters from that... and my trainer will be named Veronica as a result.