Forum Event: [The Tohjo Cup] Rnd 4: Erika vs. Morty!

This is a toughie, because I really do like both. After chewing it over, I think I am going with Erika, though Morty is very unique too. He has a great team, and brings so much intrigue as a ghost pokemon master. He has one of the most imaginative gyms of all, and ushers in such interesting history of the Johto region.

Erika's though made me give her the edge. She is one of the most striking creations that have come out of the world of pokemon. She has a graceful, traditional Japanese beauty and is surrounded by rich colors. She really captures the magic of nature. She's proud and dignified, even if she dozes off in the garden before battle, that only adds to her charm. While I would generally say that ghost is a stronger type than grass, Erika does have some good tools in her arsenal if she and Morty faced off. She has more dual types, and Morty has more monotypes. I think her Shiftry could play an interesting role in this battle.

I prefer Morty since I always looked forward to that Gym and found him somewhat challenging. (Hypnosis + Dream Eater).

With Kanto I felt like most of the gyms were easier to power through, since they didn't have any particular strategies. The only time I struggled against Erika was in Let's Go Pikachu, where I almost lost to Sleep Power + HP Draining moves. This combo would be effective, if she had the speed to support it. Where on the contrary it's very difficult to out-speed Gengar using Hypnosis.

The team above looks like a Sun Team with all grass types. I see that completely backfiring if any of the ghost types carry a fire move, such as Dusknoir.

I almost passed this one... (also note that this is just my opinion)

Character design and personality
Erika - I'm not gonna lie, Erika's design is somehow ordinary, but still interesting. I feel like her design was inspiration for design of Aroma Lady Trainer Class. I'm not sure about her personality in games, but I hated her in the anime. But her episodes were also one of the most memorable ones.
Morty - Similar to Erika, Morty's design is ordinary, yet great. I prefer his HGSS design to be honest.
None of them really stands out, but I think I like Morty more, because of his HGSS design.

Pokémon
Let's talk about Pokémon team when you face them:
Erika - Erika's teams are really bad. Her Pokémon are really underleveled and have bad movesets. In LGPE, there are 7 moves distributed between 3 Pokémon. That's pretty boring for 4th Gym Leader if you ask me. At least, she has nice variety of Pokémon in each game.
Morty - Ghosts are interesting Type and it's shame that there weren't more in early Gens. Morty is 1st Gym Leader that specialize in them and sadly he only uses Gastly-line, even with Misdreavus being introduced in Johto (and being only Pure Ghost-Type at the time). His Pokémon are even more underleveled than Erika's, but they use actual strategy, like Mean Look + Curse or Hypnosis + Dream Eater combos.
Erika's teams are really weak. I would still say Morty has better team, even when it's made out of one evolution line.

Gym design and grunts
Erika's Gym fulfills its purpose. It's great garden and I probably like it the most out of every Grass-Type Gyms. But then, there is Morty's Gym, which has interesting and fitting puzzle in it in both iterations.
I can¨t decide in this one, to be honest.

Actual battle
Well, this battle is really hard to analyze. Morty's team has a lot of crippling moves and fast Pokémon, but Erika has some bulky hitters with powerful moves like Power Whip and Leaf Storm. To be honest, this battle could go both ways, but Erika's Pokémon has higher average level and could probably survive through all the Confuse Rays and Will-O-Wisps, especially if she is able to set up Sunny Day, as most of her Pokémon has Chlorophyll as ability.

In the end, I like both Erika and Morty, but I feel like Morty is more memorable of the duo in the games, while Erika is more memorable in the anime. But I gave my vote to Morty.

I voted Morty simply because Ghost Pokemon are tougher to take down and have a considerable edge over Erika's Grass Types by knowing Fire and Psychic Type moves. That would counter any Sunny Day use(where Fire moves are consequently powered up) and a good chunk of her Grass Pokemon also happen to be Poison Types(wherein Psychic would do considerable harm). I will note that Erika's Shiftry would pose a considerable problem being part Dark Type but being part Dark doesn't protect it from getting roasted by Fire moves.