I did train up a little bit, but not as much as I had intended. I didn't want to wander around Victory Road for the experience, because I hate stupid Golbat Confuse Ray attacks. So I stocked up on Hyper Potions and Revives and made for the Pokemon League. My party needed a sixth player, so I threw in the Kyogre simply because it was my highest level pokemon stashed in the box. It is not one of my favorites; looks a little too Digimon for my tastes. The following is a play-by-play of my final battles against the Elite Four and the League Champion.
Sidney fields quite a mixed bag. He has a very diverse team, but they are all from level 46 to 49, so he was not much of a challenge. First up is his Mightyena, which I countered with ol' Knifejaw. I kept Knifejaw in against his Absol, which isn't the best move when the Absol uses an Aerial Ace attack, but whatever. When Sid brought in the Cacturne, I switched to Razorbeak, back to Knifejaw to handle the Sharpedo, and back again to Razorbeak to polish off the Shiftry. All in all, very little damage and no wasted items.
Phoebe is a fan of ghost-type pokemon, but her team is very repetitive. First up, she tosses out a Dusclops; I started off with my Golduck and Waterfalled the 'clops out of the arena. Next was a Banette, which received lessons from Darkling's Faint Attack. Phoebe then sent out her own Sableye, which I matched against Kyogre and his Hydro Pump move. Another Banette, back to Darkling. Another Dusclops, this time I used Gringo and his Crunch attack. Phoebe was a little tougher than Sidney, but only in terms of using Hyper Potions at the end to bring everybody back up to full HP. And her pokemon will start in with Confuse attacks, so pack the Persim berries.
Glacia, a master of ice, was my first real difficult (and annoying) match. By now, I'm used to the constant cheap use of Full Restores just when the enemy is almost knocked out, but Glacia adds in freezing moves like Ice Beam and Blizzard. Now is when I had to dip into the berry bag for some quick thawing. Glacia's first three pokemon, a Glalie and two Sealeos, were handled by Knifejaw. The Glalie being the toughest of the three thanks to Knifejaw's inherant type advantage over the Sealeos. Then she throws out another Glalie, but Knifejaw was in a bad way, so I sent out Darkling to Faint Attack and Shadow Ball the floating ice-rock back to its poke ball. Her final pokemon was a Walrein, which I started off my Kyogre... and he did well at first, but Walrein's Full Restore unevened the odds, so when the Kyogre passed out I switched in the Golduck, figuring a water type would minimize the enemy attack damage. Not so much, but I did get the Walrein down to a controllable HP level, whereupon I brought in my superfast Razorbeak to finish the job.
Drake, the dragon-type specialist, is the last of the Elite Four. His first offering, a Shelgon, was Crunched by Gringo. His Flygon and Altaria were brought down by Razorbeak. (And again, the Altaria insisted on increasing stats with Dragon Dance before actually attacking when facing Razorbeak.) I pitted Gringo against a second Flygon, but Gringo came out hurting, so Drake's last pokemon - a Salamance - required a switch. I brought in the Kyogre and wielded a super-effective Ice Beam attack.
By this time, I have used a lot of Revives and Hyper Potions, so I felt a little stretched as I headed up the staircase to the Champion's room. But what the heck.
With everybody revived and nearly full on HP, I faced Steven. First is a Skarmory (the only non-Ruby/Sapphire creature in this entire sequence!), who I flattened with Kyogre. His Aggron fell to Knifejaw, and Kyogre took down a Cradily. Back to Knifejaw to knock out a Claydol... Steven used two Full Restores on that one, but I kept Knifejaw just as healthy and I eventually came out ahead. Next up was an Armaldo, which I knew to be weak to water attacks... but Kyogre was low after his two fights, so I brought out the Golduck. Waterfall. Steven's final pokemon is a mighty Metagross, a pokemon I had never seen before. Using an amazing Meteor Mash move, the Metagross decimated most of my team while I tried some hesitant attacks (doing very minor damage) and poured some potions into Knifejaw, Razorbeak and Kyogre. Razorbeak soon joined Darkling, Golduck and Gringo on the sidelines, so I switched in Kyogre. The Hydro Pump attack did the trick... and I am now the new Pokemon League Champion.
Here is my winning team. We made some questionable choices and relied heavily on assistance from items, but we did it.
