Welcome back! Here's the rundown of my insane pre-Gym training. My primary concern when facing Lenora was her Watchog using Retaliate after I defeat her Herdier. With double power and Same Type Attack Bonus, I'm looking at an attack with a whopping 210 power. So my plan was to level up Gingersnap significantly. First, when she evolves into Herdier she should gain the Intimidate ability, which I can use to lower Watchog's Attack stat when it's first sent out. Second, Gingersnap's nature gives her high Defense, and once she evolves she'll have the highest Defense of my team by far, plus I can use an X Defend as soon as I send her out. So I raised Gingersnap's level to 16 and excitedly watched her evolve. Truthfully I was going to miss her Pickup ability, but it would be worth it for Intimidate...
...Except it turns out her ability is not Intimidate. It's Sand Rush... Why?
Well with this unfortunate hole in my strategy I decided I had to compensate by grinding levels like nobody's business. Along the way I ran into a little trouble against the most epic Audino I've ever seen. In two turns it hit with Doubleslap a total of 10 times, landing a total of three critical hits. Talk about a stressful battle.
Let's not forget that N had a Tympole... ugh. Gingersnap avenged Guava's loss without a problem.
After resuming my long, fear-induced training regimen, I had the thought to EV train Gingersnap in Defense a little by raising her two levels fighting only Roggenrola. Yes, I am taking this Gym battle very seriously.
That Defense stat... It's a good 16 points higher than the next highest Defense stat on my team. I'd say that's a job well done.
Here is a look at my team before entering the Gym.
After defeating the Gym trainers and solving the puzzle revealing Lenora's room downstairs, I quickly ran back to heal. I also gave Gingersnap an Oran Berry to hold as a precaution. Well, here goes nothing!
The first matchup was Scampi versus Herdier. Scampi won the round in a few turns thanks to it's Water Pulse, enhanced by Mystic Water.
Now this... this was the moment of truth. I had a 5 level advantage and high defense, but I would still be up against an attack with 210 power. How would this play out?
As one last precaution I used an X Defend. Okay, that's about all I could do for you, Gingersnap. Fingers crossed, and...
As you can see, Retaliate barely left a scratch. That was quite a relief. Gingersnap was able to take out Watchog easily with two attacks. Yay for over-leveling!
And with that, I earned the Basic Badge and the TM for Retaliate. That's an attack I would hope I'd never have to use, but it could come in handy if I'm in a particularly difficult fight and I lose a Pokémon.
With that the plot took me right back into Pinwheel Forest to chase after some Plasma Grunts who had stolen a Dragonite skull. In the meantime I started leveling Peach and she evolved! My team may still be incomplete, but it's getting stronger.
Speaking of training, Hot Wings reached lv 22 and learned Flame Burst! Finally, a decent replacement for Incinerate.
Next up, it's on to Castelia City. I'll get to that in the next installment. Until next time!
(credit for party sidebar format goes to Marriland)
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