Apologies for double posting, but nobody else is posting and I tend to have larger posts! Blame my Creative Writing A Level for that one.
Well since my last post a week ago, I've since made it to the Cold Storage in Driftveil City! Funky times eh? My Pinwheel Forest capture was a Petilil, which I didn't want since Pansage has much better coverage and Grass types aren't exactly super useful a lot of the time. I made my way through the forest, cleared out Team Plasma and moved on to Castelia City! First though I headed to Route 4 and nabbed a Sandile! I named him Ruffian, and replaced my newly evolved Liepard with him because Liepard was actual garbage to use (Thief/Pursuit are terrible STAB moves). I grabbed the Amulet Coin from the dancers and the Exp. Share from the battle-centric building and slapped them onto my team since extra money and experience is good to have. I also nabbed a Leaf Stone and evolved my Pansage into Simisage! It knew Seed Bomb by this point and that's all I really needed on it.
I cleared out Team Plasma once again (listening to the riveting tales of Ghetsis and Burgh's interpretation of his speech) and finally took on the third gym which was not going to be much of a problem with a Roggenrola and a Pignite. And it wasn't, Pignite 2HKOed Whirlipede and one-shot Leavanny, whilst Roggenrola dealt with Dwebble. Easy stuff. I rolled my numbers and got a 5, which was a nice change from the 1 bonanza I'd been facing. Especially given that there's the Desert Resort, Relic Castle, the fossils, Route 5, Route 16 and Lostlorn Forest to deal with. Bianca was my first new rival challenge - her Herdier fell to Pignite's Arm Thrust, Munna was KOed by Sandile's Bite, Servine fell to Pignite's Flame Charge and Panpour was destroyed by Blitzle. Easy stuff! Cheren was much of the same, although him leading with Pidove threw me off a bit. Pignite still 2HKOed with Flame Charge though. Dewott fell to Simisage, Pansear fell to Roggenrola and Liepard was taken out by Pignite again. All was good in the hood.
The routes leading up to Nimbasa weren't particularly exciting - I caught a Maractus and a Yamask and obtained the Plume Fossil before scaring off Team Plasma and obtaining the Bike from the day-care man. I cycled up to Route 5 and caught a Solosis I named Bubbles, and on Route 16 I caught a Minccino whose name is irrelevant because I won't be using it. I then added a Swadloon to my collection which I named Leafyboi, because I ran out of names for her. It was here that I did some team swapping - Blitzle had been struggling to pull its weight for a while now and I wanted a change, even if it was close to evolving and receiving a nice power boost. I dunno, it was underwhelming for a long time. I added the Solosis to my team instead since Psychic was a good type to have. Simisage was swapped with Swadloon because I like Leavanny a lot, have never properly used one before and figured the Bug STAB and okay coverage would be better than Simisage's TM repertoire. And finally, the hardest choice - Boldore was swapped with Archen. Boldore was amazing for so long but my god is it slow, and outside of Rock moves it kind-of sucks? Meanwhile Archen came packed with Pluck and could learn Rock Tomb + Dig for some sweet coverage. So there you have it, my new team.
I ran up and down the Skyarrow Bridge for a few hours whilst watching Avatar: TLA until Swadloon evolved, got my team to Level 26 and took on N and the gym. N fell pretty easily although Sigilyph is OP as hell! Psybeam + Air Cutter 2HKOed everything on my team. But we managed thanks to Archen also being really freaking strong. Elesa was a tougher challenge, especially with no items. Solosis with the Eviolite tanked Pursuit + Volt Switch to put the first Emolga into 2HKO range, before critting and one-shotting the Zebstrika I planned for Sandile to take out. Said Sandile then failed to KO the second Emolga after Solosis fell and was KOed instead. I had Herdier come in to finish the job with Retaliate. Cheren fell also fell in similar fashion to before - Liepard fell to Pignite, Dewott fell to Leavanny, Archen beat his Tranquill and Pansear was wrecked by Sandile. Easy stuff! The two kids with Herdiers? Less so. Luckily mine pulled through on that one with Intimidate after they repeatedly crit my Pignite. I caught a Ducklett on the drawbridge and a Vanillite in the Cold Storage, where I saved. I rolled a 3 which is cool, although honestly the Pokemon between now and the gym kinda suck? Deerling could be cool since Herdier is starting to struggle a bit and I've never used Sawsbuck before, also frees up Leavanny's spot too for a Water type later on. Plus getting Deerling earlier helps narrow down my choices later on (ideally meaning I can nab a Cubchoo on Route 7 in winter, and a Woobat in Twist Mountain so Axew is free in Mistralton Cave). Karrablast could be neat once I have access to Shelmet? Foongus would suck a lot. My team is cool though so far! Pignite is doing serviceably, Herdier is struggling a smidge but is otherwise fine. Sandile is good (evolution will help on that front), Leavanny has done okay so far, Archen is the strongest thing on my team and Solosis is actually surprising me! Replacements look possible for Herdier and Leavanny depending on what Route 6 and later Chargestone Cave and beyond open up for me.
White Team:
Chonker the Pignite, Level 28 (
♂)
Return, Flame Charge, Arm Thrust, Fire Pledge
Floofykins the Herdier, Level 27 (
♀)
Return, Crunch, Dig, Strength
Ruffian the Sandile, Level 28 (
♂)
Bite, Crunch, Dig, Rock Tomb
Beaky the Archen, Level 27 (
♂)
Pluck, Rock Tomb, Dig, Return
Bubbles the Solosis, Level 28 (
♀)
Recover, Hidden Power, Psyshock, Endeavor
Leafyboi the Leavanny, Level 28 (
♀)
Return, Bug Bite, Razor Leaf, Protect
Former & Unused Members: