Final Update Wooo
vs. Red
Pikachu lv 77
-Headbutt
-Thunderbolt
-Hidden power
-Thunder
I lost SEVERAL times :embarrass, so I will only describe the battle which I won
Vs. Pikachu - Okay, so I started off with a headbutt…some how managed to have more speed than Red's Pikachu. Anyway, headbutt took out more than half of his Pikachu's hp and caused it to flinch! Lucky, I guess. All it took was another headbutt to finish off Red's Pikachu. Much easier than I had anticipated despite being 5 levels below Red's Pikachu.
Vs. Espeon - I really had to watch out for psychic. Pikachu used thunder to get the job done, but it only depleted slightly more than half of Espeon's hp (wish i had a lightball!!) in addition to paralyzing it. Espeon used his deadly psychic, severely damaging Pikachu. I could not risk an "Attack missed" with another thunder, so I countered with a thunderbolt instead to finish off Espeon. Espeon was nothing compared to Red's next pokemon.
Vs. Snorlax - Lol now I know why everyone fears this pokemon! I started things off with thunder which barely dented Snorlax's hp. Snorlax responded with body slam which MURDERED Pikachu. I switched to Totadile and used a revive. After my poor Totadile was crushed, Pikachu used thunder which took out a reasonable chunk of Snorlax's hp this time and paralyzed him. I got VERY lucky after this - Snorlax was fully paralyzed for the next two turns. This saved me a few revives which I could use for later. After a thunder followed by a thunderbolt, Snorlax fainted…ugh. I'm so happy he never used rest.
Vs. Venusaur - Although thunder was not very effective on grass types, it did more damage than headbutt. Venusaur luckily DID NOT use sunny day and prepped up for a solarbeam instead. This gave Pikachu a free turn to use thunder. Each time Venusaur used solarbeam, I was forced to heal with a hyper potion. While Venusaur was taking in sunlight, I attacked. Eventually, I resorted to thunderbolt, as I needed more accuracy. After using my last potion, Venusaur FINALLY fainted from Pikachu's thunderbolt. :knockedou
Vs. Charizard - A pleasant change compared to the last few pokemon. A single thunderbolt left him in critical hp, but flamethrower destroyed Pikachu. :cer_pissed: After being revived, Pikachu used thunderbolt to finish off Charizard. Pikachu also grew to lvl 77.
Vs. Blastoise - I tested my luck with thunder which, of course, missed! :cer_pissed: Blastoise used surf which caused Pikachu to faint. Used another revive. Pikachu used thunderbolt this time and took out more than half of Blastoise's hp. After one more thunderbolt, Blastoise fainted!
And the most difficult, frustrating but entertaining battle came to an end!
Thoughts/Reflections - I noticed that there are quite a few instances where g/s/c really caters to electric pokemon. Anyway, overall there were no issues with most of the trainers and gym leaders (maybe Clair and Jasmine were exceptions) of Johto and Kanto. The Elite 4 and Red, on the other hand, were pretty difficult. Pikachu's special attack was often inadequate for sweeping the opponent's pokemon. If I had attached a light ball to Pikachu, this would have been a different story. Pikachu's weaknesses really became apparent in the battle with Red whose pokemon were at similar level to Pikachu's. I never realized how skilled Red was in g/s/c until this battle. In one of my attempts to defeat Red, his Espeon used reflect and his Snorlax used amnesia rendering all of my attacks against snorlax next to useless.
For the most part though, Pikachu was able to take quite a few hits while sweeping an opponent's entire team. I am very pleased to have used Pikachu in my first solo challenge! ^_^