I Didn't Get To Choose My Friends - Pokemon Platinum Random Team Run

Update 09: I Learned How Every Rose Has Its Thorns When A Rosebush Tried To Mug Me

You know what we haven’t had in a while? TEAM UPDAAAAATE!

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Mina’s deadly bipedal walking (seriously wasn’t that one of the Eldora Soul lines in Super Robot Wars T or was I imagining things) gave her a boost to her stats. Thundershock is nice, but it’s an early game move. Can its utility last in these challenging conditions?

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Just as a note, Anomalo hasn’t evolved and still has more Attack than Mina has Special Attack. Also just as a note, his moves put that stat to no good use. Also Past Me took these screenshots and then gave him Rock Tomb. Remember: Rock Tomb is 50 power, 80% accuracy, 100% chance to lower the victim’s Speed.

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In these early stages, Castellia’s Attack has not been outstripped by everyone else’s yet. And the tendency for there to be a lot of Physical attacks in the early stages of a Pokemon game means she’s fairly resilient.

Also Selfdestruct is there as the emergency button.

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No, Reina does not really need Bubble and Water Gun. I didn’t make her move list! If I made move lists Anomalo wouldn’t only have Scratch still!

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Dogu gets Rock Tomb naturally, because nothing is fair in this world except the coin flip. Also he gets Psybeam, which tends to end a lot of battles. As long as he doesn’t take a hit and break again.

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With Bite and Poison Tail (Two STAB moves!) and 41 attack Sid has now become the Day Ruiner for anything giving the rest of the team trouble. As it turns out, I didn’t have to drag his Wrap-having tail through the game nearly as long as I did my Dratini in Emerald. Now he’s deadly at both ends!

Now we got something else to do. Namely:

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This Gym.

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Petition to make Champ-to-be the new dude in terms of being applied everywhere.

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My strategy revolves around not those types, but Grass’ other weaknesses.

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The Gym is like a clock that doesn’t tell time (unless… the time it shows is the time of your appointment to beat the next Trainer). Beat a Trainer, the hands move. Sunrise, sunset, swiftly flow the beatings.

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Let’s!

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Gardenia’s team has a weird theme going on. Her Turtwig here has Sunny Day, but I’ve never seen it used. Sunny Day would boost Gardenia’s next Pokemon (a Cherrim. Spoilers), but it’s not THAT huge a boost. It’s like a Sunny Day team created by a kid who has only heard the words “Sunny Day team.”

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If I were better at Pokemon games, I would be making a comment about how I cleverly attempt to trick the AI into wasting Potions on something besides the Leader’s ace.

I’m not so this is all dumb luck.

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Regardless, this Turtwig just puts up a Reflect, gets healed, and never sets up Sunny Day.

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Cherrim’s ability boosts its Attack and Special Defense in sunlight… but Gardenia’s just has Special attacks.

WAIT HOW IS GRASS KNOT SPECIAL IT’S LITERALLY USING A ROOT TO TRIP THE OPPONENT

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It can only mostly bring Sid down… and it still doesn’t matter.

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I mean, he’s been getting all these good Physical attacks, so…

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Turns out it doesn’t really matter what the Turtwig and Cherrim get up to. Tuxedo Mask here is THAT much of an issue.

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Yeah, it’s not playing with its attacks.

But they say, when all you have is a weirdly shaped hammer, you learn to make its quirks work for you.

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Anything to even the playing field. If I’d been thinking more I would’ve tagged Mina in just to Thunder Wave it, but I was fixated on Grass resisting Electric and her being not useful.

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The Speed drop even lets Anomalo get two hits in and crosses over the Berry Threshold.

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But, uh. You already saw it did 40 damage in one NORMAL effective hit.

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And Dogu can’t one-shot it.

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And Castellia can’t finish it off from that point.

At this point I know that Gardenia has a second Potion (because this is actually take… three or four. This Roserade has been a brick wall). In the red means it’ll probably get used.

Of course, if it doesn’t, Roserade 100% takes out Castellia.

But if it does…

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The Roserade leaped back into the fray, ready to strike, but was instead puzzled as Castellia rolled over beside it and closed down all the flakes on her pinecone. And why did each one have “FRONT TOWARDS ENEMY” written on them?

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Thanks, Castellia.

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badges

Forest Badge lets us use Cut. And by us, I mean Scarfy.

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Rock/Ground types tend to be weighty so Grass Knot can be disproportionately powerful. I mean, I don’t think anyone on this team can learn it. But, y’know, in theory.

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It’s nice that Gardenia’s so encouraging even after losing.

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BUT YOU SOUND SARCASTIC, ADVICE GUY.