Which pokemon can beat Platinum's bosses by themselves?

[There Is No Arceus]

Heracross wiped the floor with Gardenia, and its Honey Tree colleague Aipom cound two-shot them all with Return, but the problem was that Roserade could outspeed and two-shot me with Magical Leaf. Not if she uses Stun Spore though; i won in attempt 4. Ambipom is Aipom's superior in every way except appearance, so he could outspeed and 2HKO Roserade. This fight was completely free for Drifblim, but Buneary had it rough. It's more or less the same pokemon as Aipom, except without Taunt to shut Turtwig down. So i had to stall Turtwig until the Reflect ran out, otherwise Cherrim would kill me. I'd hit a Return before the Reflect went up, then i'd hit a Quick Attack to bring my foe into heal range. I'd then spam Return hoping my foe would Sunny Day rather than attack me; he died the turn the Reflect ran out. Course, i'd usually end up way too damaged to survive another hit, but in attempt 7 i got to Cherrim with over half HP. Cherrim used Safeguard and Roserade used Stun Spore, allowing me to 2HKO them both. Its evolution Lopunny however won try 1.

The next pokemon, Gengar, is a lightweight who resists Grass, but due to low Attack and no access to special moves yet, i did have to use Hypnosis to put Turtwig and Cherrim to sleep to avoid Reflect and Leech Seed. Worked out well though. Its fellow ghost Misdreavus would use Taunt and Confuse Ray to shut its enemies down, then Return away while they flailed about hitting themselves. She managed to win first try, no doubt making Mismagius proud. Honchkrow of course win too, and Mars's girl Purugly turned out to not be nearly as heavy as you'd think, so she could Fake Out and then Return Turtwig, and spam Return against everyone else. Next up was Goldeen. She managed to fluke her way past the first two bosses; can she fluke her way past Gardenia as well? No lol, Goldeen is out. On to Whiscash, who may be the most awesome pokemon of all time with those adorable whiskers, but it does have that unfortunate double weakness to Grass. My strategy was to hit some Mud-Slaps on Turtwig and hope he'd keep missing me as i set up my Amnesias. Didn't work; i only got past Turtwig once, and i found out i didn't have enough Amnesias to tank Roserade's hits. Whiscash is out.

Chimecho's moveset clearly allowed for but one strategy: spamming Confusion. Mind Plate and Leftovers couldn't give me the damage range or the bulk i needed, but the Metronome ended up saving me here. Since i was just spamming one move anyway, it didn't cost me anything to just build up power through the Metronome, and i got the damage ranges i needed to win the fight at just 1 HP remaining. As for Stunky, he may resist Grass, but his stats garbage. Their not very effective Magical Leafs would outdamage my Returns, so what i ended up doing was set up Taunt and Focus Energy against Turtwig, and hope lady luck would grant me the crits i needed. She came through; i crit my foes to death in attempt 6. Jupiter's boy Skuntank needed no crits; Taunt against Turtwig ensured Return spam did the trick. On to Meditite, who needed two Meditates in order to one-shot everything with Return, and could use Protect for Leftovers recovery and to stall out the Reflect. Things worked out immediately once i found the right number of Meditates. For Medicham, the right number of meditates was zero; Pure Power Ice Punch did the trick. We're now at Bronzor who resists Grass and can spam Extrasensory, but atrocious offenses left him vulnerable to Leech Seed. I had Hypnosis and Confuse Ray, but Cherrim had Safeguard to stop these moves. Fortunately, in attempt 3, Gardenia just decided not to Leech Seed me despite getting tons of chances to do so, so i made it past Cherrim. I also had to put Roserade to sleep as her resisted Magical Leafs did more to me than my supereffective Extrasensories did to her, but she cooperated and didn't wake up, allowing me to win. Bronzong has actual offenses so he had it easy, and lastly for today, Rapidash burned Gardenia's plants to a crisp.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

We start today off with Bonsly, a pokemon with a weakness to Rock, bad special defense and so little Speed that even Turtwig outsped it. There was absolutely no hope for him; Bonsly is out. As for his evo, i immediately saw that Sudowoodo might be able to do it if his Quick Claw activated every turn and he got a crit every turn. Never happened of course Sudowoodo is out. Things went a lot better for Mime Jr though; i could Encore Turtwig into Reflect so that i could set up all the Meditates i wanted. I made sure to kill Turtwig on the turn the Reflect wore off, and i then plowed through everything else with my base 25 Attack. Ash's dad on the other hand spammed Confusion for the win. On to Blissey who shrugged off both Magical Leaf and Grass Knot, though Leech Seed was obviously an issue. My offense left something to be desired, but i had Softboiled to heal off the Leech Seed chip and Tail Whip to make my Returns do something. Would this have worked? We'll never know, cause i was never hit by Leech Seed. Gardenia threw, but a win's a win.

Clefairy was up next; sadly my foe didn't waste a turn leech-seeding my Magic Guard. What my foe did do was allow herself to get Encored into Sunny Day, allowing me to wait out the Reflect and kill once it ran out. After some Sing misses, Cherrim set up Safeguard so i Returned him to death, and a lucky crit got me the one-shot on Roserade. Clefable could do it by spamming Return with no need for luck or shenanigans, and after that came Raichu. Return spam combined with one Thunderbolt could get me past Turtwig the moment his Reflect ran out, and a tail whip plus two Returns killed Cherrim. I'd usually fall against Roserade though, as i needed 3 turns to kill him and i usually didn't get that time. In attempt 5 though, i got my Tail Whip in as my foe used Stun Spore. I got my first Return in as my foe hit a magical leaf, but i was now slower and in kill range. My only hope was to go for Quick Attack and hope for a crit. That crit came; Raichu lives to fight another day.

Spiritomb is heavier than you'd expect, or maybe he just has bad special defense, but either way he took a lot of Grass Knot damage. Fortunately, he was able to heal it all back by putting his foes to sleep and using Dream Eater for the win. The Gible clan was next; Dragon Rage is still OP, though Gible himself required all of his foes to use at least one status move in order to survive long enough to get his Dragon Rages off. Now it's time for our best baby from HGSS; Munchlax is slow and heavy, but that doesn't matter much when you have both Amnesia and Defense Curl to raise your defenses to +6. Once i was impervious to all damage, i spammed Return. Our triple champ Snorlax didn't bother raising his defenses; he just set up Belly Drum and swept. However, things didn't go well for all babies; Riolu had serious problems. His damage output wasn't nearly high enough, and he has no defenses, to the point where Turtwig was able to do almost half to him. No tools to incapacitate his foes either; Riolu is out. Lucario didn't have it quite so tough, considering he's a steel type.

We've now arrived at Quagsire, a slow pokemon who dies instantly upon touching a blade of grass. I don't think i have to describe how the fight went. Quagsire is out. Pelipper could spam Pluck for the win, and after that, Girafarig spammed Mind Plate-boosted Psybeams. Last for today is the Hippopotas family. These are slow, heavy pokemon with bad special defense and a weakness to Grass. With Hippopotas i gave up after 5 tries; Hippopotas is out. With Hippowdon though, i saw a path. Hippowdon gets Fire Fang, so if Turtwig got rid of the sandstorm and set up sun, i could deal some serious damage. Roserade still outsped and OHKOd me, but if my Quick Claw activated, i'd OHKO her first. This happened in attempt 5; Hippowdon managed to get through.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

For Marill, things were quite hopeless. Huge Power is nice, but base 20 Attack really hampers its effectiveness. Add in a Grass weakness and its fate was sealed. The only possible strat i saw was Defense Curl Rollout, but that required an obscene amount of crits and quick claw procs. Marill is out. Azumarill however could win if the enemies all went for the right moves. If Turtwig used Sunny Day at least once, Cherrim used Safeguard and Roserade used Stun Spore, i could Rollout them down. They never cooperated though; Azumarill is out. Things weren't quite that dire for Drapion; he resisted everything and killed them with Flame Plate-boosted Fire Fang. Its Great Marsh colleagues Toxicroak and Carnivine had a similarly easy time, but now we've arrived at the fishing encounters. Octillery has Gunk Shot and Aurora Beam, but he also has a speed stat of 45. I could one-shot Turtwig, but while Cherrim was also a one-shot, he outsped me and if he used an offensive move, Roserade could then kill me. Roserade wasn't even a two-shot thanks to its held berry, so i needed a crit in order to win here, but that crit never came. Octillery is out. Lumineon came after; he had to use Attract on Turtwig to prevent Reflect from going up, then he spammed Return boosted by his Metronome. However, i could not one-shot anything, so if they opted to all attack me, i needed a crit to win. They never cooperated; Lumineon is out.

Time for Wallace's boy Milotic. I could outspeed Turtwig and Cherrim and i had Recover to heal off the damage they dealt, but Roserade outsped me, dealt over half with each hit and took very little damage from my moves. I found no way to deal with this; Milotic is out. Mantyke was up next; he has Wing Attack despite manta rays not having wings, but off base 20 attack, that wasn't gonna do much. I had to rely on Supersonic so my foes wouldn't hit me too often, which meant Safeguard was a massive issue. By getting an Agility in on Turtwig, i could ensure i outsped Cherrim and got at least one chance to hit Supersonic before Safeguard went up, but if it was still up when Roserade came out, that was a problem. Course, even without Safeguard, the enemies would generally hit through confusion often enough to kill me. In attempt 10, i got Roserade to a sliver, but i never managed to seal the deal. Mantyke is out. Mantine had Signal Beam and Psybeam to hit them all for supereffective damage, but he still needed a crit on Roserade to win in attempt 5. Now it's time for some easier fights though; Snover and Abomasnow resist everything and have Ice moves to throw around.

Sneasel gets no ice moves, but he didn't need them. Taunt prevented Reflect, after which Turtwig was a two-shot. Cherrim wasn't a two-shot and in fact took many Returns thanks to Gardenia healing, but he didn't hit too hard in return. Then against Roserade, i hit a Screech so that my Return could one-shot. Weavile of course copied everything his younger brother did, meaning we've arrived at the first batch of legendaries. The lake trio all spammed Return, plus Confusion for against Roserade or when Reflect was up. Dialga was next, but since he doubly resists every one of Gardenia's moves, i decided to fuck around and see how many Ancientpower omniboosts i could get in this fight. I got only one, but it might have been more had i not crit Roserade to death. Palkia however does not resist Grass, and Grass Knot hit hard. In the first two attempts, i'd get paralyzed and Roserade could kill me, but in attempt 3 i was never fully paralyzed so DragonBreath spam got the best of Gardenia. However, last for today is Manaphy. Manaphy is weak to Grass and has few tools to deal with it, but it's a lightweight and it has base 100 stats across the board. I needed Supersonic to stop them from getting too many moves in, but they usually still killed me before my Returns got the best of them. In attempt 7 though, Roserade decided to be gracious and miss 2 Stun Spores in a row, allowing me to Return him down. If things are this hard for Manaphy, i'm not looking forward to Phione.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

On to the Platinum dex expansions. Rotom is stuck in its base form for one more fight, and it doesn't have good tools to deal with Grass types. I could chip away at them with Return, but Leech Seed or Reflect would spell my doom. So i used Confuse Ray to try and get my opponents to not use those moves. Took a while before they cooperated, but i won in attempt 6. Gligar was next, so i slapped a Metronome on him and started spamming Fury Cutter, building up strength against Turtwig and Cherrim so i could one-shot Roserade. Its evolution Gliscor instead used Flame Plate Fire Fang, but next was Roxanne's boy Nosepass. Noseass is a Rock-type heavyweight with no speed or moves. Nosepass is out. Probopass wasn't much better off; he isn't weak to Grass, but he's so heavy that Grass Knot was at 120 base power, and he had nothing to hit back with. He has good defenses, but that alone isn't gonna carry you. The strat was to use Rock Tomb to outspeed my foes and then spam Return hoping for crits. Those crits never came; Probopass is out. I had hoped that if any Rock type could stand up to this gym, it'd be him, but alas.

With Kirlia, the only strat i saw was Confusion spam, but Kirlia did not have the power or the longevity to make this work. I tried with the Mind Plate and with the Metronome, but neither item brought Kirlia the win. Kirlia is out. Gardevoir did have the strength to pull this off, and her brother Gallade could win by spamming Return. Lickitung then managed to get a first-try victory thanks to lucky Return crits on Turtwig and Roserade; my strategy of spamming Return did not work, but sometimes Lady Luck just smiles upon you. Lickilicky also got lucky; Return spam would have failed if not for a Stun Spore miss, which allowed me to Return my way to a first-try victory again. Now it's time for the Eeveelutions, starting with Vaporeon. Vaporeon doesn't have the tools to deal with Gardenia; the best i could do was Return spam. Worked about as well as you'd think; Vaporeon is out. Jolteon isn't weak to Grass, but his toolset is also limited to pretty much just Return. Holding a Metronome as i spammed that move would almost always get me to just before the finish line, but i needed a crit on Roserade to actually bring home the victory. That crit finally came in attempt 10, so Jolteon lives to fight another day. Umbreon also gets Taunt; shutting down Turtwig before he got Reflect up proved really valuable and allowed me to spam Return against everyone. Leafeon resists Grass so this fight was free, and Glaceon spammed Icicle Plate-boosted Icy Wind.

Now we have a bunch of pokemon who all resist Grass and thus won easily. The match was free for Altaria, Togetic, Togekiss and Houndoom. I expected it to be free for Magnemite too, but unfortunately Magnemite suffers from a condition commonly known as "being terrible". His damage output was so low he actually had to rely on Sonicboom, a move that has thoroughly fallen off. Leech Seed meant death, so to prevent my foe from using that, i used Supersonic and Thunder Wave. Even if i succeeded at not getting seeded, there was still the issue of Roserade dealing tons of damage, so i had to confuse him too. Unfortunately, all this just required a bit too much luck, which i never got. Magnemite is out. Magneton however gets Tri Attack and could thus use its pretty good Special Attack to beat them down, and Magnezone actually had enough Attack to do anything meaningful with Return, though i resorted to Mirror Coat for the final hit on Roserade. Tangela was up next, and while he doesn't have the best special defense, he does have a resistance to Grass and a Leech Seed immunity, as well as Ingrain. I did have to put Roserade to sleep for some extra time to recover, when to my surprise i discovered Gardenia actually understands how to use Natural Cure; she switched out to Cherrim to cure Roserade of the sleep. No matter though, i still won. Tangrowth is Tangela with real stats, so he also won.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Yanmega and Tropius obviously wiped the floor with Gardenia, but after that came Rhyhorn. Rhyhorn is out. Its first evolution didn't do any better; Rhydon is out. Rhyperior however gets Poison Jab, so hypothetically he had a chance; all he needed was Quick Claw procs on both Roserade and Cherrim and a crit on Roserade. Apparently Lady Luck wasn't willing to give us the tiny bit of good fortune we needed; Rhyperior is out. Now only Regirock remains to defend Rock-type honour.

Dusclops gets Fire Punch for some reason, and he used it to destroy Gardenia even though Turtwig refused to set up the sun. Primal Dialga's right-hand man did the same thing, meaning we've arrived at the Porygon clan. They all used Conversion 2 to become resistant to Grass, after which they spammed Psybeam for the win. Scyther and Scizor both 4x resist Grass so they obviously won, but after that came Elekid. Elekid may be a lightweight, but that doesn't compensate for baby pokemon stats. Didn't have any moves either; i had to spam Return, or Swift when Reflect was up. I only made it to Roserade once, and he just outsped and killed me. Elekid is out. Electabuzz's Returns hit a lot harder so he was able to do it, and Electivire gets Fire Punch. Its counterpart Magmortar of course burned Gardenia's team to the ground.

Pryce's boy Piloswine was next, but he's heavy and weak to Grass. My only real option was to hit Turtwig with Mud-Slap to lower his accuracy and then spam Ancientpower hoping for omniboosts. I would need two of those to beat Roserade, but i never got more than one. Piloswine is out. Mamoswine needed only one omniboost, but it still took until attempt 7 until it finally came. Snorunt also had it rough; it may have STAB Icy Wind, but base stats of 50 across the board don't do it any favours. I could two-shot Turtwig and Cherrim as they set up Reflect and Safeguard respectively, but one Icy Wind wasn't enough to outspeed Roserade, and he'd kill me before i had the chance to get enough in. I tried with Leftovers and protecting every other turn, i tried with Icicle Plate and i tried with Metronome, but nothing worked. Snorunt is out. Glalie is a heavyweight who also doesn't outspeed Roserade, but if Cherrim opted to not attack me, i could get in an Icy Wind to outspeed Roserade, and then another for the kill. His sister Froslass does outspeed the rose, and her Icy Winds proved deadly. Absol would Taunt Turtwig and then spam Return for the win, and last for today is Satan himself. Giratina of course resists Grass, so he could win easily through Return spam.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Heatran burned Gardenia's team to the ground, but next was the Regi clan. Regirock was in big trouble; he's a heavyweight with a weakness to Grass and the kind of movepool you'll find on low-level legendaries. Return spam wasn't enough; Turtwig would get Reflect up and ruin my day. I had to get some Curses in, which meant exposing myself to Grass Knots, especially since i'd only actually get kills with Reflect down. I could think of two strats, both heavily luck-dependent. First off, i could run a Quick Claw and hope it activated twice in a row so i could kill Cherrim and Roserade. I could also run Leftovers, but this would require Turtwig to not use Grass Knot for 5 turns as i waited out Reflect; Cherrim would kill me if i had too much damage. In the end, neither strategy worked out; Regirock is out, and with him die the hopes and dreams of the Rock type. Things weren't quite as dire for the other regis; Regice spammed Icy Wind, and Registeel resists everything they have. Finally for the Regi clan, Regigigas spammed Fire Punch, with Slow Start ending just in time to OHKO Roserade. Cresselia would then win using Mind Plate-boosted Confusion.

On to the mythicals, starting with Phione. Phione may be a lightweight, but its movepool at this point consists of Bubble, Water Sport, Charm, Supersonic and Return. Three of those moves are completely useless, so all i could do was try and confuse my opponents, then spam Return hoping for enough self-hits. This actually got me past both Turtwig and Cherrim on most attempts, but Roserade never cooperated. Phione is out. Life wasn't quite as bad for Darkrai; Hypnosis put the enemies to sleep, and Return wiped them out. Now it's time for Shaymin, and i'm happy to say he beat this boss in his Sky Forme. I was able to do so while playing in the evening by simply changing the timezone on my PC. So i took a 5-minute trip across the Atlantic, wiped the floor with Gardenia, and went back home. Course, shaymin would have wiped the floor with Gardenia regardless of its form, but it's still nice that i solved this issue for future bosses. But that's enough about the gen 4 mythicals. If there was another who possessed the ability Multitype, i'd equip it with a Meadow Plate and spam Return, but that's just a pointless hypothetical.

Up next, there's our Hoenn champs. Zangoose set up his Swords Dances and Returned away, while Pinsir resists Grass and gets Brick Break to break Reflect. Latias would win with Draco Plate-boosted DragonBreath, but after this came two heavyweights with a weakness to Grass. Course, these heavyweights are the legendary pokemon Groudon and Kyogre, so they managed. Kyogre did need to fish for an Ancientpower-omniboost, but once that came in attempt 4, i could Return Roserade down just fine. Groudon got the omniboost immediately, after which his Returns also proved deadly. Rayquaza didn't take quite as much damage from Grass Knot, so he didn't bother with Ancientpower and just spammed Return. Jirachi resists Grass and gets Psychic to spam, so things weren't all that tough for him, but Deoxys isn't blessed with a great typing or movepool. It really only has Return, plus Night Shade for when Reflect is up. I would usually make it to Roserade, but not with enough health to kill him before he killed me. In attempt 5 though, i got a lucky crit and killed the rose. However, after that it was time for Suicune. The upside is that Suicune has a Flying move. The downside is that it's Gust. My enemies did massive damage to me, and while Suicune is by no means weak, it can't win this uphill battle on damage alone. I tried using Bite to flinch my foes, but Roserade outsped and outdamaged me, and i had no way to deal with that. Suicune is out. Guy beat all of Kanto, Johto and Hoenn, but Sinnoh is where he met his match. RIP friend, you did well.

Mewtwo won by being Mewtwo, and Mew spammed Sky Plate-boosted Pluck. Now it's just the gimmick mons left. For this fight, Smeargle sketched Growth off the Cherubi in the honey trees, Softboiled off Cheryl's Chansey, and Hypnosis and Confusion off the Bronzor on Route 211. The strategy was to put Turtwig to sleep, spam Growth to +6 and then use Psychic, with occasional healing when needed. Course, +6 Technician-boosted Confusion doesn't even OHKO Turtwig when it comes off base 20 Special Attack, but fortunately everyone cooperated and went to sleep so i could two-shot them all. As for our other gimmick pokemon, Wobbuffet had to play a bit of a guessing game as to what move Turtwig would use, and if Cherrim used Leech Seed it was over, but in attempt 2 i guessed right every time and Cherrim didn't seed me, allowing me to Counter and Mirror Coat my foes down.

And that's everyone. Of the 170 pokemon that made it to Gardenia, only 127 managed to defeat her, while a whopping 43 went down in defeat. Gardenia wasn't even one of the bosses i expected would be tough. If she makes this many victims, i'm honestly not sure anyone will be able to make it to the end. All in due time though; next up, the surviving 127 will be facing Jupiter in the Eterna Galactic Building.

Here's the table showing how many pokemon beat each boss:

Start	After Roark	After Valley Windworks Mars	After Gardenia	After Eterna Jupiter	After Fantina	After Route 209 Rival	After Maylene	After Pastoria Rival	After Crasher Wake
236	183	170	127
After Celestic Cyrus	After Canalave Rival	After Byron	After Lake Valor Saturn	After Lake Verity Mars	After Candice	After Veilstone Cyrus	After Veilstone Saturn	After Spear Pillar Admins	After Distortion World Cyrus
After Volkner	After Pokemon League Rival	After Aaron	After Bertha	After Flint	After Lucian	Champions	After Fight Area Flint & Volkner	After Stark Mountain Admins	After Survival Area Rival

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Now let's look at the stats, and how Gardenia shook things up. In total, 54% of all pokemon are still here, a stark drop from the 72% we had before.

Gen 1	Gen 2	Gen 3	Gen 4
22/49, 45%	16/40, 40%	23/38, 61%	66/110, 60%

Gen 3 has actually overtaken gen 4 somehow. Pretty massive gap here, with gens 1 and 2 underperforming massively. This is probably because many of the gen 1 and 2 pokemon here are the pre-evos of much stronger gen 4 pokemon.

Normal	Fighting	Flying	Fire	Dragon	Water	Ice	Grass	Bug	Electric
23/39, 59%	9/12, 75%	20/34, 59%	6/12, 50%	9/9, 100%	9/38, 24%	9/12, 75%	14/17, 82%	9/20, 45%	8/15, 53%
Poison	Ground	Rock	Steel	Dark	Ghost	Psychic
11/18, 61%	9/27, 33%	0/16, 0%	11/16, 69%	11/13, 85%	9/14, 64%	21/28, 75%

Rock was at 100% before this boss, now it's at 0%. Gardenia really single-handedly wiped out every single Rock pokemon in this competition. We also saw some other massive drops, with Water going from 68% down to just 24%, and Ground from 85% down to just 33%. Only Dragon's still going strong at 100%, but that's what happens when you only have 2 NFE mons who both know Dragon Rage. I should also address that we somehow went from 8 to 9 surviving Bug pokemon; this was probably a clerical error in the earlier stats. I double-checked, we do in fact have 9 bugs still in this competition.

Babies	Cross-gen Evolutions	Starters	Honey Tree Pokemon	Legendaries
2/14, 14%	24/29, 83%	11/20, 55%	9/19, 47%	23/26, 88%

Mime Jr and Munchlax still defending baby honour. Even the legendaries didn't get through unscathed, losing Regirock, Phione and Suicune. We didn't lose any honey tree mons though, in part because they're mostly bug and grass types.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Jupiter time. For this fight, we'll have access to all items obtainable before fighting Jupiter. Beating Gardenia got us TM86 Grass Knot and allows us to use Cut outside of battle. With this newfound ability, we head back to Eterna Forest and cut our way through the exterior area, where we find the SilverPowder and TM82 Sleep Talk. We then proceed to backtrack further, heading to Route 204 where a lady behind a cut tree gives us TM78 Captivate. With all that though, it's time to storm the Eterna Galactic Building. We find TM46 Thief in the yard, and on the first floor we find a passage to a room with 5 appliances for Rotom to inhabit. We then fight our way to Jupiter, challenge her to thief her Sitrus Berry off her, lose, and then head back to challenge her again. So let's have a look at what we're up against.

Level	21	23
Ability	Inner Focus	Stench
Gender	♀	♀
Held Item		Sitrus Berry
Move 1	Giga Drain	Night Slash
Move 2	Wing Attack	Poison Gas
Move 3	Bite	Screech
Move 4		Smokescreen

Zubat's a non-issue, except maybe for pokemon weak to Flying. The real issue is Skuntank. Those Night Slashes will hurt for many pokemon, especially psychics. Smokescreen and Screech will also pose issues. Ultimately though, i think this team isn't nearly as tough to deal with as Gardenia before her.

We start off with Turtwig, who would set up one Curse on Zubat, kill Zubat, then set up another Curse on Skuntank hoping my foe wouldn't attack. Things didn't go to plan, but a crit on Skuntank got me the win anyway. Grotle got that same crit immediately, and Torterra needed but one curse to kill them both. Monferno and Infernape would start by spamming Return, and then switch to Flame Wheel once in Blaze range. The last of the gen 4 starters, Empoleon, resisted everything of note and could set up Swords Dance in order to sweep. Staraptor time; turns out STAB Return off base 120 Attack does a lot of damage. Its early-route colleague Kricketune doesn't have the best stats, but he does have Sing to incapacitate his foes and Focus Energy to crit them to death, spamming Return for the win in attempt 1.

Luxray killed them with Spark and Return, but next was Alakazam. You'd expect Zam to have trouble here, but no. With Confusion, Disable, Miracle Eye and a Colbur Bery, he could do it first try. Confusion obviously one-shot Zubat, then i used Miracle Eye on Skuntank while tanking a hit with my Colbur. Night Slash got disabled the next turn, and i could hit supereffective Confusions to take my foe down. Gyarados was next, but he gets Dragon Rage with which he easily killed the enemies. Roselia came after and played the stall game; i'd use Grasswhistle to put my foes to sleep, and while i could then Return Zubat down, my Returns didn't do enough to Skuntank and i had to use Leech Seed to boost my damage. Fortunately Skuntank cooperated and stayed asleep long enough, only waking up on the turn of his death in order to not quite kill me with Night Slash. Roserade however gets neither Grasswhistle nor Leech Seed, nor any other good tools for that matter. I really only had Return to spam, since Grass moves are useless in this fight. I tried with Leftovers and with the Metronome, but either way i needed Skuntank to not attack me so often that it was basically impossible. Roserade is out.

Now it's time for our first mirror match, though the actual mirror wasn't the problem here. My Zubat could beat hers with just two Returns, but then came Skuntank. My damage output was minimal, he could 2-shot me from full health, and my only real tool was Confuse Ray. I'd need an obscene amount of self-hits to survive this, which didn't happen. Zubat is out. Golbat however has actual stats so he could spam Return and win, as could Crobat. Machamp came thereafter, and with him i opted to run No Guard rather than Guts so as to prevent accuracy shenanigans; this proved a mistake though, as i got poisoned but my accuracy was never lowered. Didn't cost me the match though; Zubat was one-shot with Return, and Skuntank was two-shot by Revenge. It's now time for the first batch of honey tree mons. Beautifly took a lot of damage from Wing Attack and didn't deal all that much to Skuntank, but thanks to Stun Spore and a bunch of full paralyses, and a few key Morning Suns, i was able to get enough hits in in attempt 2 in order to win. Dustox however had serious problems. It could not outdamage Skuntank, and it didn't have anything like Stun Spore to help it. It did have Moonlight, which in combination with Protect for Leftovers gave me some survivability, but once i was hit by Screech, it was over. Crits also spelled doom. I could occasionally get a Return off, and this actually brought me close to winning twice, but close isn't good enough. Dustox is out. Last for today was Vespiquen; Defend Order made me unassailable, and Return spam then took out the enemies.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Floatzel had Ice Fang for the bat and Return for the skunk, so we're on to Cherrim. Cherrim could finally make use of Natural Gift; with the sun up, it could one-shot Zubat with Return. I'd then seed Skuntank and spam Return, finishing things off with a Magical Leaf because of Smokescreen. Took 5 attempts to get it right, but eventually it worked. Heracross would then go in poisoned and kill them with Guts-boosted Return and Brick Break. His honey tree colleagues Aipom and Ambipom just spammed Return and won, and Drifblim would Stockpile to +3 against Zubat in order to tank Night Slash, but Skuntank instead decided to poison me as i two-shot it. Buneary was next, and Skuntank was a range to three-shot with Return; i got the range on attempt 2. It wasn't a range for Lopunny; she won first try.

Gengar was up next and this is a bad matchup for him, but he had Hypnosis to put the enemies to sleep. Unfortunately Zubat would always dodge one hypnosis or wake up early, so he'd waste my Colbur Berry with Bite. Didn't need it in attempt 4 though; Skuntank stayed asleep long enough for me to Return him to death. Its fellow ghost Misdreavus had Psybeam for the bat, but my only tool to incapacitate Skuntank was Confuse Ray, and my only offense was the physical Return. My Colbur meant i could take one hit though, and in attempt 5 my foe decided to waste a bunch of turns with stuff like Smokescreen and Poison Gas, allowng me to chip him down with Return and self-hits. Honchkrow came after this, and his strategy was to Return Zubat down, then he'd Pluck Skuntank's berry and Return him down as well. Mars's girl PUrugly of course spammed Return and won, but next was Chimecho. Chimecho's strategy so far has been to spam Confusion and win, but that's not gonna fly here. Unfortunately, there's nothing else Chimecho can do; its Returns simply did nothing to Skuntank, nor did its Uproars. I also got no tools to incapacitate my foe. Chimecho is out.

Time for a family reunion. Stunky doesn't have all that much to fear from these foes; Zubat's a joke and Skuntank's only offense is not very effective. I Returned Zubat down, hit a Screech and then spammed Return until Skuntank was dead. As for the mirror match, my Skuntank could easily beat hers by spamming Return. Meditite was up next, but Huge Power only does so much for you when you have piss-poor bulk. I could OHKO Zubat, but Skuntank could 2HKO me and i could not deal enough damage to prevent that. I'd run Detect for some extra leftovers recovery and Rock Tomb to gain the speed advantage, but even so, my Returns could not outdamage his Night Slashes. Meditite is out. Medicham however got a crit on Skuntank for a frst-try victory, but i'm sure she could have done it without the crit too. Its colleague Bronzor could kill Zubat with Extrasensory, but it had basically no offense against Skuntank. All i could do was use Hypnosis and Confuse Ray to incapacitate my foe as i chipped away with Return off base 24 Attack. This would obviously require a lot of luck to pull off, but in attempt 10 fate smiled upon me and delivered me a victory. Bronzong however has an actual Attack stat, so after putting Skuntank to sleep i could use Return spam to kill him before he woke up. Last for today was Rapidash, who spammed Return and won.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Time for one of our two surviving babies. Mime Jr may have the type disadvantage, but he does have Filter to lessen supereffective damage, and with Barrier and Reflect, he could raise his defense to astronomical heights. Once his Defense was set up, it was time to spam Meditate to get some semblance of an Attack stat. Even at +6, Skuntank was still a 3-shot thanks to its berry, but its supereffective Night Slashes barely dented Mime Jr's HP so i was able to win. Ash's dad had the exact same tools and used them for a first-try victory. Blissey came thereafter, but once again base 10 Attack and Defense weren't doing her any favours, especially since her only special move is Grass Knot which is not very effective. I ended up going for a moveset of Tail Whip, Sing, Softboiled and Return. Tail Whip would soften up my foes so that my Returns actually did anything, Sing allowed me to actually get Tail Whips and Returns in, and Softboiled was there for obvious reasons. Zubat was a non-issue, but Skuntank's Screech meant he could bring me to the red from full health. He also liked to use Smokescreen and Poison Gas, which also sucked but weren't as awful. It took until attempt 6 before he decided to just stay asleep and not do anything too nasty on most of his waking turns, though thanks to one Screech hit followed by Night Slash i was down to just 7 HP when i dealt the finishing blow.

Clefairy was next, putting its foes to sleep, getting in all its Defense Curls and then Returning away for a 1st-try victory. Clefable doesn't get Defense Curl, nor did she need it as Sing plus Return did enough. Raichu destroyed Jupiter with Zap Plate Thunderbolt, so Spiritomb was next. I put Zubat to sleep and ate its dreams, then i put Skuntank to sleep and Returned it to death. On to Cynthia's other boys, the Gible family. Gible himself would set up a Sandstorm against Zubat hoping that Sand Veil would cause Skuntank to miss me, so that i could Dragon Rage him down. Took all the way until attempt nine because one miss wasn't enough; i needed either another miss or a Poison Gas or Smokescreen (or a Poison Gas miss, as happened in attempt 9). Its evolutions didn't need a miss, so they just spammed Dragon Rage and won. On to our second surviving baby, Munchlax. Defense Curl meant the enemies couldn't hurt me, and Return spam meant i could hurt them. Course, if a baby could do it, triple champ Snorlax also had it pretty easy. Lucario also didn;t have it too rough, with its double Dark resistance and access to Bone Rush.

Pelipper spammed Water Gun, plus Pluck to eat Skuntank's berry. As for Girafarig, i thought he'd have a rough time, but no. In my first attempt, Skuntank just decided not to attack. He just hit a Smokescreen and a Screech while i outsped and 3-shot. Bertha's boy Hippowdon had zero issues Returning these enemies down, and Drapion resists Dark so he had an easy time. Saturn's boy Toxicroak was in the same boat and won just as easily, and Carnivine got lucky crits against both foes in attempt 2 so he could win. Last for today was Wallace's girl Milotic, who had Recover and Refresh but needed neither; Water Pulse spam killed everything.

 

[Nicolas721]

Poor Suicune, looks like it suffered from Legendary Early level moveset syndrome.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Poor Suicune, looks like it suffered from Legendary Early level moveset syndrome.

Suicune's levelup moveset isn't even all that awful, getting Bubblebeam at level 8 and Rain Dance at 15. These things don't help much vs Gardenia though.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Mantine would use Psybeam to kill the bat and then Bubblebeam spam to take out Skuntank. Snover was next, and while Icy Wind could one-shot Zubat, Skuntank would deal half my HP with Night Slash. I had to use Grasswhistle to put him to sleep, then i'd hit two Icy Winds to get the speed advantage. Return spam then got me the win as early as attempt 2. Abomasnow is less frail, plus he gets Ice Punch, so he spammed that for the win. Their snowy colleagues Sneasel and Weavile resist Dark, so they had an easy time.

We've now arrived at the first batch of legendaries. Uxie actually had trouble though. Confusion obviously one-shot Zubat, and i had a Colbur Berry to tank the first Night Slash easier, but my Returns did pretty much nothing. I'd always get three-shot. Eventually i figured out that i'd get three-shot with or without the Colbur, so i ditched it in favour of a Metronome to power up Return a bit. With this strategy, i'd still need my foe to use something other than Night Slash for one turn, but if he did that, i could kill him. Assuming he didn't crit me. Took until attempt 9 before he finally didn't press the offensive or crit me. Better late than never though. For Mesprit, the Colbur did make a difference; in attempt 5, my foe decided to Screech twice, and had i not had my Colbur he'd then have one-shot me. He didn't though, and instead he gave me the time to Return him down. Azelf then got a first-try victory thanks to a lucky crit. Dialga and Palkia Returned their foes to death, and Manaphy is one level shy of learning Bubblebeam so he did the same.

On to the Platinum additions. Rotom finally gets to use his appliance forms, though sadly they're all Electric/Ghost in this gen. Still, the better stats and moves are helpful. Zubat died to Shock Wave and Skuntank died to two Hydro Pumps and a Shock Wave, with me surviving thanks to Colbur. Gligar and Gliscor came thereafter; they both have great Defense so they could easily tank the enemy hits and dish out Returns to get the kills. Next though was Gardevoir who had serious problems. She's a special attacker, but she has no special moves to hit Skuntank with, while he has supereffective physical moves to hit her weaker defense. Colbur couldn't save me here. The only strat i could come up with was to first Growl his attack down and then spam Recycle so my Sitrus Berry would keep me healthy, but this obviously didn't work. Simply spamming Return also didn't work; Gardevoir is out. Her brother Gallade isn't weak to Dark and has an actual Attack stat, so he avenged his sister by Returning the skunk to death.

Lickitung and Lickilicky would get some Defense Curls in and then spam Return, bringing us to the surviving Eeveelutions. Jolteon spammed Thundershock and got a lucky crit for the win, and Umbreon's a Dark type so Skuntank couldn't do anything; i won first try even though i was poisoned. Leafeon has a great Attack stat and could thus OHKO Zubat, and his defense was good enough that Night Slash wasn't an issue either. Finally for today, Glaceon spammed Icy Wind and won.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Altaria won by spamming Return, plus Pluck to get rid of the berry. Togetic was next, but thanks to its poor Attack it needed to Yawn Skuntank to sleep before it could chip its foe down. Togekiss did not need to do that as it had Air Slash to spam, and Houndoom got some Howls in and Returned them down. Magneton and Magnezone resist everything Jupiter can do, so they won with ease, and while Tangela's typing isn't as amazing, it has Ingrain and leftovers to stay healthy as it puts its foes to sleep and Returns away. Tangrowth didn't even need to use sleep; Ingrain plus Return spam was enough. Yamnega used Return plus Bug Bite for the Sitrus, but Tropius is a garbage pokemon. Return spam wasn't enough, and even if i got a Leer in on Skuntank, he'd usually still kill me before i did enough damage. Took until attemp 6 before he finally wasted enough time with non-offensive moves for me t get the win.

With Dusclops, i used Thunderpunch to kill Zubat, then by disabling Night Slash and hitting a Taunt, i forced Skuntank to struggle itself to death. I of course repeated this strat with Dusknoir; when you find a win condition like this, you'll want to do it twice. The Porygon clan was up next; they all Psybeamed Zubat and used Conversion2 to resist Night Slash so they could Return away in peace, Recovering up when needed. Porygon himself however ended up needing a crit in his winning attempt due to screeches allowing Skuntank to deal meaningful damage, but that crit came and he won. Scyther then opted for STAB Technician Sky Plate Wing Attacks, and Scizor did the same with Metal Claw. Electabuzz and Electivire would deploy Zap Plate Shock waves, though Electabuzz only won first try because of a Static paralysis that led to a full paralysis. With their counterpart Magmortar, i spammed Return, winning first try due to a lucky Flame Body burn. Mamoswine would hit a Powder Snow to kill Zubat, and Skuntank died to supereffective Mud Bombs. Glalie would then use Icy wind for Zubat and speed control, then once he outsped he spammed Return and won. Last for today was his sister Froslass, who had serious problems. She'd get 2-shot with or without Colbur, and she didn't deal nearly that level of damage in return. The only strat i saw was to confuse my foe, hit a Leer and then spam Return, but this required a lot of self-hits. Didn't work until attempt 10, and even then i only won due to a crit.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Absol spammed Return and won, so we're on to Satan himself. Giratina may be weak to Dark, but he has a base Defense of 120 and HP of 150 so he took Night Slashes with ease and could retaliate by spamming Return for the win. The damage the enemies did to Heatran was only just more than what Leftovers could heal; easy win. It's now Regi time; Regice spammed Icy Wind and won, Registeel was in the same boat as Heatran and Regigigas didn't need to get going, killing Zubat with Thunderpunch and Skuntank with STAB Return. Cresselia was next and could one-shot Zubat with Confusion, but against Skuntank i needed either a crit Return or for him to not attack me once. The crit i needed came in attempt 2 and brought me the victory.

Mythical time. This fight was completely free for Darkrai, but i still went for the Disable-Taunt strat i discovered with Dusclops; when you discover such a fun way to trivialize Jupiter, you'll wanna do it whenever you can. For Shaymin, i opted not to take a trip to New York this time; land form can spam Return and win just fine. And that's all the gen 4 mythicals. Can't think of another one that equipped a Dread Plate and killed them with Return and Earth Power. Nope, none come to mind.

Time for the Hoenn champs. Zangoose set up 3 Swords Dances and then Returned away, and Pinsir put his amazing offenses to use, killing Zubat with Return and Skuntank with Brick Break, though in hindsight Return would have done more. I need to remember that Pinsir is not actually a Fighting type. Ash's girlfriend however had it rough. It could not one-shot Zubat, so it couldn't keep its Colbur intact for Skuntank. Skuntank could then two-shot me before i could three-shot him. So i swapped to using a Draco Plate, which powered up my DragonBreath enough to OHKO Zubat. Skuntank then set up Smokescreen, allowing me to get the win. Kyogre of course drowned them with Rain-boosted STAB Splash Plate Water Pulse, and its rival Groudon used Return on Zubat and Mud Shot on Skuntank. The third member of the trio, Rayquaza, equipped a Draco Plate and spammed Dragon Claw. Jirachi also had it easy, with base 100 stats across the board and the ability to spam Return. As for Deoxys, Zubat was a one-shot, but Skuntank decidedly was not. I thought it was over when he crit against my Colbur and did over half, but then i got a crit and knocked him out for a first-try victory. Mewtwo won by being Mewtwo, and Mew Returned Zubat to death and then transformed into Skuntank, gaining his Dark resistance. I used all 5 my Smokescreens, then all of my Screeches, though only 2 hit. The idea was to then use Night Slash against his weakened defense, but because it's not very effective i needed three hits, and due to Smokescreens against me i got only 2. I thus had to waste my 5 PP for Poison Gas and Struggle him to death, made possible by Leftovers recovery. Would this win have been possible using normal moves and not transforming? maybe, but this was more fun.

Smeargle time, and i played defensively. I copied Leech Seed off the Cherubi in the trees, Softboiled and Refresh off Cheryl's Chansey and Defense Curl off the Munchlax in the trees. I'd seed Zubat and boost my Defense to +6, then i'd keep spamming Defense Curl until he was dead. Then against Skuntank i did the same thing; i never even needed Refresh or Softboiled. Our other gimmick mon, Wobbuffet, spammed Counter as it tends to do. I lost in attempt 1 due to an unlucky Night Slash crit, then in attempt 2 my foe hit a Screech, and then a Night Slash that left me with just 4 HP as i countered with an OHKO.

And that's everyone. Of the 127 pokemon that got here, 121 beat Jupiter, while only 6 went down in defeat. Course, this fight was just the calm before the storm; next up is Fantina, and i expect her to be even tougher than Gardenia was.

As usual, here's the table showing how many pokemon beat each boss:

Start	After Roark	After Valley Windworks Mars	After Gardenia	After Eterna Jupiter	After Fantina	After Route 209 Rival	After Maylene	After Pastoria Rival	After Crasher Wake
236	183	170	127	121
After Celestic Cyrus	After Canalave Rival	After Byron	After Lake Valor Saturn	After Lake Verity Mars	After Candice	After Veilstone Cyrus	After Veilstone Saturn	After Spear Pillar Admins	After Distortion World Cyrus
After Volkner	After Pokemon League Rival	After Aaron	After Bertha	After Flint	After Lucian	Champions	After Fight Area Flint & Volkner	After Stark Mountain Admins	After Survival Area Rival

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Stats time, even though we only lost 6 mons. 51% of pokemon is still here, just over half.

Gen 1	Gen 2	Gen 3	Gen 4
21/49, 43%	16/40, 40%	19/38, 50%	65/110, 59%

No great upsets here. Gen 3 has hit the 50% mark and is thus just below average now.

Normal	Fighting	Flying	Fire	Dragon	Water	Ice	Grass	Bug	Electric
23/39, 59%	8/12, 67%	19/34, 56%	6/12, 50%	9/9, 100%	9/38, 24%	9/12, 75%	13/17, 76%	8/20, 40%	8/15, 53%
Poison	Ground	Rock	Steel	Dark	Ghost	Psychic
8/18, 44%	9/27, 33%	0/16, 0%	11/16, 69%	11/13, 85%	9/14, 64%	18/28, 64%

Poison made a big drop, from 61% down below the 50% mark. We saw a drop among psychics too, but not as steep.

Babies	Cross-gen Evolutions	Starters	Honey Tree Pokemon	Legendaries
2/14, 14%	23/29, 79%	11/20, 55%	9/19, 47%	23/26, 88%

We lost a cross-gen evo in Roserade, but other than that, these categories remained unscathed.

Edit: i figure it might also be fun to keep track of how our Hoenn champs are doing:

• Suicune lost to Gardenia
• Gardevoir lost to Eterna Jupiter
• Snorlax, Medicham, Zangoose, Pinsir, Latias, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi, Deoxys, Mewtwo and Mew are still going strong

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Time for gym three, which will probably be the most difficult gym in the game. For this fight, we have access to all items obtainable before beating Fantina. Beating Jupiter got us the bike, which we can use to access Cycling Road and the path underneath it. This gives us access to both parts of Wayward Cave; the eastern portion with Mira gives us nothing useful, but in the section hidden beneath Cycling Road, we find a Grip Claw as well as TM26 Earthquake. We also find wild Gible here, from which we can steal a Haban Berry. As we head back out, we take a Shuca Berry from a Ponyta on Route 206; turns out we could have gotten this all the way before Roark, but it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. We make a quick detour to the Oreburgh Gate; at the lower level, the bike gives you access to TM31 Brick Break. We then progress east through Mt. Coronet, ignore Cyrus's rant and continue onto Route 208, where we find the house of the Berry Master. Guy can give us the Figy, Persim and Lum berries. We proceed onward into Hearthome, where a girl in the hotel gives me her Shell Bell. We meet Fantina in the contest hall, then we head straight for her gym to take her on. So let's have a look at what we're up against.

Level	24	24	26
Ability	Levitate	Levitate	Levitate
Gender	♀	♀	♀
Held Item			Sitrus Berry
Move 1	Will-o-Wisp	Shadow Claw	Shadow Ball
Move 2	Future Sight	Sucker Punch	Psybeam
Move 3	Shadow Sneak	Confuse Ray	Magical Leaf
Move 4	Pursuit	Hypnosis	Confuse Ray

Many pokemon have been relying on Return for damage thus far, but that won't fly here. We don't really get other good offensive options either. Meanwhile Fantina gets to throw Shadow Balls at me. Setting up will also be difficult, with Duskull having Will-o-Wisp to hider me. The first two pokemon can get annoying with status, and the Mismagius can hit me way harder than i can hit her, even getting good coverage options for pokemon that resist Ghost. Darn and Steel types will probably have it relatively easy, but everyone else will struggle here.

We start as usual with Turtwig. I equipped him with a Lum Berry so he could safely Curse for a while, though i never found the amount of curses that would let me tank a hit from Mismagius and OHKO in return with Bite. I only ended up beating the thing because of a crit in attempt 5; Haunter does nothing if your defense is high. With Grotle, i did find that number of curses; it's two, but it was safer to get only one in and two-shot Mismagius, for fear of Duskull hitting Will-o-Wisp. With Torterra i opted not to Curse at all and just spammed Bite for a first-try victory, though this only worked because Mismagius opted for Confuse Ray into my Lum rather than attacking me. The success of the Turtwig line was not a sign of things to come though; Monferno had it rough. Equipped with a Flame Plate, he could two-shot Duskull and Haunter with Flame Wheel, but the problem was Mismagius. I'd get hit into Blaze as i hit a Rock Tomb for the speed advantage, but i'd then need a crit to finish things. All this was assuming Duskull and Haunter cooperated and didn't do too much damage. I never got the luck i needed, Monferno is out. Infernape however outsped all its foes, and the power of Flame Plate Flame Wheel was sufficient to avenge his fallen son. Last of the starters was Empoleon who got all three Swords Dances in before Duskull decided to Will-o-Wisp my Lum Berry, then i used Pluck thrice.

Staraptor is immune to Ghost, so he had little issue spamming Pluck for the win, though he did use Thief to steal Mismagius's berry; i was almost at full HP so Pluck would have wasted it. However, up next was Kricketune. Kricketune has only 2 moves that can hit ghosts: Leech Life and Fury Cutter. Both of these moves are absolutely terrible, and also not very effective. I obviously didn't use Leech Life, but Fury Cutter's power resets to 10 if you miss a move or hit yourself in confusion, which tended to happen. I needed to use Sing to stop my foes from burning or confusing me, but that has only 55% accuracy. Needless to say, i never managed to make meaningful headway with this movepool. Kricketune is out, but honestly i'm surprised he made it past Roark in the first place. Well done Kricketune, making it this far. Luxray had it slightly easier than that, one-shotting everything with Dread Plate Rivalry Bite.

Zam was next, and you'd expect him to have it difficult. He probably would have, if not for the fact that he got lucky in attempt 2. Psybeam confused Mismagius, who proceeded to hit herself twice as i Psybeamed her down. Alakazam thus lives to fight another day. Gyarados came thereafter, and put Fantina's ghosts back in their grave with Dread Plate Bite. Roselia time; i opted to play the stall game here. Grasswhistle kept Duskull asleep, and Leftovers plus Leech Seed kept me healthy even if burned. I'd then set up 6 Growths and kill my foes with Giga Drain, which also kept me healthy. As for Golbat, he survived Mismagius's two Psybeams on 1 HP, killed her with Dread Plate Bite, and proceeded to outspeed and OHKO Haunter. Crobat got a crit to one-shot the witch, so he had it even easier. On to Machamp and his levelup movepool was quite clearly useless, but he does get Thief by TM. Going in poisoned for Guts left me with not enough bulk to tank Mismagius's hits, but going in paralyzed did work; my and Fantina's Sitrus Berries provided me with just enough healing to Thief everything down.

Time for Beautifly who somehow did it again. Beautifly may not have the best stats in the game, nor the best movepool, but with the right luck she can achieve great things. She did need Duskull to not hit Will-o-Wisp; i needed leftovers for survivability. I'd either two-shot or three-shot Duskull depending on whether i hit the range, then i'd use Stun Spore on Haunter and spam Thief, with the occasional Morning Sun to stay healthy. I'd also Stun Spore Mismagius for speed control and the chance of full paralysis, then i spammed Morning Sun until she was fully paralyzed and i got an opening to use Thief. This is a terrible strategy that's way too crit-prone and likely to run into PP issues (Morning Sun has only 8), but these issues did not come into play in attempt 6, when Beautifly fluked her way to a victory. Really curious to see how far she's gonna make it. Our other Bug/Flying type, Vespiquen, would two-shot Duskull with Pursuit and then set up 6 Defend Orders against Haunter, with the occasional Heal Order to stay healthy. This bulk allowed her to spam Thief for the win.

Floatzel had Dread Plate Crunch, and Cherrim needed to get 3 Growths in in order to OHKO everything with Petal Dance, which Duskull allowed in attempt 7. Last for today was Heracross, whose Guts Night Slashes made this fight trivial. So far, the massacre i predicted isn't really happening. Guess Mismagius isn't as strong as i thought it was, and levelup movesets at this point aren't as bad as i thought.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

We start today with Aipom, but without STAB Return, he's not all that good. My best offense was Thief, so i equipped a Lum Berry hoping Duskull would will-o-wisp me exactly once. Duskull was a 3-shot though, and Fantina liked to heal him, so there was a decent chance he would use will-o-wisp again. Haunter died to a Screech and a Thief, then against Midmagius the idea was to get a Screech in, Thief away the Sitrus and get the kill. Never went to plan though. Aipom is out. Ambipom then came out for vengeance and used Technician Thief to kill the ghosts first try. Next up was Drifblim. Guy got kicked off Fantina's team in the transition from DP to Platinum, so he had something to prove. The deck was stacked against him though, with his Ghost typing but no good Ghost moves. He had to set up 3 Stockpiles against Duskull to tank Mismagius's hits, but if he got burned, it was over. Payback was my main offense, which actually did good damage if i moved last, which i always did against Mismagius and Haunter. In attempt 5, the stars aligned and Duskull spammed Shadow Sneak, allowing me to get the Payback boost against him too. The defense boosts also meant Mismagius and Haunter couldn't beat me. Drifblim thus showed its former trainer why kicking it off the team was a mistake.

Buneary had one move that isn't Normal or Fighting, but that move is Grass Knot and Mismagius weighs a whopping 4.4kg, so i figured my best bet was to run Foresight and Return. You'd think that having to use a move on each pokemon just so you can do anything to them would be a death sentence, but no. Duskull's attack is low and he doesn't always go for a burn, and Haunter cannot do anything to normal types so long as you don't attack him, so i was free to spam Defense Curl to protect myself from confusion self-hits and heal up with my leftovers. Once Haunter was out of Sucker Punches, i killed him, and while Mismagius would get annoying with Confuse Ray, in attempt 7 i never hit myself and my Returns got the best of her. Lopunny also used Foresight, though rather than running lefties and stalling against Haunter, i ran Lum so as to not have to deal with Duskull's Will-o-Wisp. STAB Return easily outdamaged everything anyway. Time for a family reunion. Gengar may not have access to Shadow Claw like his younger brother Haunter, but he does have Shadow Punch, as well as Hypnosis. I put Duskull to sleep and punched him twice, then i punched Mismagius twice as she brought me to a sliver. Gengar then put his younger brother to sleep to prevent Sucker Punch, and punched him once for the victory. This was immediately followed by another family reunion, but this one didn't go quite as well. Misdreavus's strongest STAB option is Astonish, so i had only that and Thief for offense. This only barely outdamaged Duskull; i had to use Confuse Ray to make it past him with good health. Course, things were entirely hopeless once Misdreavus reached her sister Mismagius; Shadow Ball two-shot me even with the healing from two Sitrus Berries. I had Confuse Ray to try and prevent this, but obviously Mismagius never hit herself enough for my weak Astonishes and Thiefs to get the best of her. Misdreavus is out.

Honchkrow used STAB Thief to wipe the floor with Fantina, and Mars's girl Purugly killed them with Faint Attack. Stunky and Skuntank of course both resist Dark, though Stunky did need to hit a Screech before his Thiefs outdamaged Mismagius's Shadow Balls. There was also the problem of Duskull not burning me, meaning i'd still have my Lum Berry against Mismagius and i couldn't steal her berry. In attempt 4 though, Mismagius kindly used Confuse Ray to waste my Lum, and i could steal her berry for the survivability i needed. Jupiter's boy Skunank however did have it easy; his HP never dropped low enough to consume his stolen berry. Medicham time, though things didn't go too well. Mismagius would always outspeed and get me to a sliver, and in order to OHKO her, i needed to get 3 Meditates in on Duskull while he used Will-o-Wisp only once and never went for Shadow Sneak; that move would allow Mismagius to OHKO. I finally got what i needed in attempt 8, but then Haunter outsped and killed me. Medicham is out. After this came Bronzor, who has pretty high defenses and access to Extrasensory, but no offensive stats to speak of. I would use confusion and sleep to get my foes to do nothing, but despite that, i still could never get enough damage in on Mismagius before her Shadow Balls got the best of me. Bronzor is out. Bronzong on the other hand has an actual special attack stat, so he avenged his son and killed the ghosts with Extrasensory, after putting them to sleep.

Rapidash spammed Flame Plate Flame Wheel, though the crit on Misdreavus may have mattered. Nest up is one of our two surviving babies, but things didn't go too well for Mime Jr. The only strategy i could think of was to use Meditate a few times, mimic Shadow Sneak off Duskull and use that to kill my foes, but even at +3 Shadow Sneak did less than half to Mismagius. It had Filter plus Reflect and Light Screen, but decent defenses won't help you when you have no real way to hurt your foes. Mime Jr is out. Ash;s dad has better stats, but i still found that my Psybeams didn't do enough to Mismagius. So i tried with Meditate and Thief, but there was no way to get enough meditates up without getting burned, even if i carried a Lum Berry. Mr. Mime is out. We're now on to Blissey; great bulk, but its only ways of dealing damage are Rock Tomb off base 10 Attack and Grass Knot on a pokemon that weighs nothing. I opted for a moveset of Refresh, Softboiled, Tail Whip and Rock Tomb; Tail Whip to soften them up, Refresh against burns, Rock Tomb for damage and Softboiled for survivability. Against Duskull i'd Tail Whip to -6, get rid of my burn and Rock Tomb him to death, occasionally Softboileding or getting rid of more burns. However, since i was afraid i'd run out of Rock Tomb PP, against Haunter i decided to spam Refresh until he struggled himself to death, made possible by the fact that he likes to put me to sleep. A trillion years later, i was face to face with Mismagius, who couldn't do anything as i Tail Whipped it down and then chipped it down with Rock Tomb. We're now on to Clefairy; Magic Guard meant i could set up all the Cosmic Powers i wanted without worrying about a burn, but my only form of offense was Grass Knot. I found that if i set up Stealth Rock and stalled Haunter out of all his PP, i had just enough Grass Knots to kill both Duskull and Mismagius. This was very time-consuming as well as very crit-prone, but after 4 attempts and about 20 minutes in real time while playing with speedup, Clefairy managed to win. Clefable doesn't get Cosmic Power, but she does get another offensive option: Metronome. I still used Grass Knot against Duskull and Haunter to preserve PP since Metronome has you flailing about a lot before you do anything useful, then once i reached Mismagius i hit a sing and started Metronoming. Took until my 4th attempt until Clefable decided to consistently go for damage, but i managed to win.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Raichu equipped a Zap Plate and spammed Thunderbolt, and Spiritomb had STAB Spooky Plate Ominous Wind to kill them with, finishing things with a Shadow Sneak. Next though was Gible and things were quite hopeless. His strongest tool is still Dragon Rage, but that's also his only useful tool. He couldn't OHKO anything, was slowr than both Haunter and Mismagius and doesn't have any defenses. Gible is out. Gabite however did outspeed Haunter and would outspeed Mismagius after one Rock Tomb, allowing him to get enough Dragon Rages in to kill them both. Cynthia's boy Garchomp still had nothing better than Dragon Rage, but he outsped everything and easily tanked their hits as he raged them down. Now it's time for our sole surviving baby, Munchlax. I used Odor Sleuth and Return on Duskull; thankfully he missed his one Will-o-Wisp attempt. Then against Haunter i could set up all the Amnesias i wanted, plus Defense Curl to reduce damage from self-hits. Thus, there was nothing Fantina could do as i killed her two remaining mons with Odor Sleuth-Returns. Our triple champ Snorlax doesn't get Odor Sleuth, so instead he set up Belly Drum on Duskull and then killed all of Fantina's mons with the OG Ghost move, Lick.

Lucario OHKOd them all with Dark Pulse, and Pelipper killed everything with Dread Plate Payback, though the crit on Mismagius probably mattered. Girafarig came next; Psybeam two-shot Duskull, and against Haunter i spammed Agility until he was out of Sucker Punches, then i killed him. I then used an Odor Sleuth on Mismagius so i could kill it with Return. After this, Hippowdon and Drapion would Bite down on Fantina's ghosts, but Saturn's boy Toxicroak was outsped and two-shot by Mismagius's Psybeam. I ran Dread Plate to OHKO Duskull with Faint Attack, then i hit Mismagius with Swagger hoping for a self-hit; one was enough for Feint Attack to get the kill. Haunter then went down in one hit; thankfully he didn't go for Sucker Punch. As for its fellow Great Marsh mon, Carnivine set up Ingrain and then spammed Bite. Took until attempt 4 before Duskull decided not to burn me, but in that attempt i got a crit on Mismagius and OHKOd her, getting me the win.

Milotic would bring Duskull into kill range, then waste time until he hit me with a Will-o-Wisp to trigger Marvel Scale. I was under the assumption that this would raise my Special Defense and allow me to tank Mismagius's hits better, but upon looking it up afterwards i found that it only raises Defense. No matter; i had the bulk to Recover off Mismagius's hits and hit back with Water Pulses, eventually getting the kill that way. Haunter was easy, so i got a first-try victory despite not understanding game mechanics. Mantine came hereafter and spammed Splash Plate Bubblebeam, winning due to a crit on Mismagius. Snover came after, and he had Grasswhistle to incapacitate his foes, but in order to win i had to hit that 55% accurate move on all three enemies, and they had to stay asleep as i chipped them down with Icy Wind. Against Mismagius i also had Swagger to incapacitate her, and in attempt 4 she decided to hit herself when she woke up, allowing me to put her back to sleep and get the kill. Abomasnow didn't bother with Grasswhistle, choosing instead to kill the enemies with Icicle Plate Ice Punch. Lastly for today, Sneasel and Weavile destroyed Fantina with Dread Plate Faint Attack.

 

[Nicolas721]

So proud of seeing Munchlax inheriting the OPness from his dad.

The weird AI may be a compensation due to the gym order change that happened between DP and Platinum.