Character: Seto Kaiba | blue_ice Badge/Gym Leader: Falkner for the Zephyr Badge Elite/Regular: Regular Team Team:The Squad Battle Details:
vs. Noctowl Kaiba's aiming to give Mizuchi the Seadra (lv 36) a shot first. She doesn't have Swift Swim as a Seadra and can't use Rain Dance for fear of making Pidgeot unstoppable...and Smokescreen won't work either, so the plan's simple: use Focus Energy, then hit with Bubble Beam. If the Noctowl knows Fly, counter with Twister. She's hoping Poison Point doesn't activate, causing the Noctowl to transfer the poison with Psycho Shift, but Kaiba has antidotes should they be needed.
vs. Honchkrow Next up is Zephyra the Kantonian Rapidash (lv 68) for another type neutral matchup. She starts with Flame Charge to increase speed and do damage at the same time, then switches to Flame Wheel and Fire Blast. It's scary how fast the Honchkrow is, but she's hoping to pull of a burn to lower its damage and use Agility to keep up speed-wise. Fortunately, if Honchkrow uses Haze, it loses its own Tailwind boost too. It's another DPS-fest attempt. Hopefully on to the next stage:
vs. Pidgeot The ace merits the big guns: Leizi the Alolan Raichu (lv 44). Nuzzle is first priority, going for that sweet paralysis. Follow up with Double Team to be super annoying, then start hitting with Thunderbolt...hoping that she'll have stalled the Pidgeot enough to prevent Sand Attacks from lowering her accuracy too much. If so, he has potions.
Should he need fallback plans, Kingyoku the Hisuian Goodra (lv 72) is his standby tank. If called, he'll favor a Shelter->Acid Spray->Dragon Pulse strategy: shore up defense, lower opponent's special defense->big STAB special move. He'd most likely be needed against Noctowl. Against Honchkrow, Kaiba might also risk using Mothra the Mothim (lv 64), whose strategy will be Quiver Dance->Lunge, hoping to finish the DPS race before its weakness to Flying move kills it. He's taking a risk having only five usable mons, with only one being particularly bulky, but he hopes they're ready.
Character: Seto Kaiba | blue_ice Badge/Gym Leader: Whitney for the Plain Badge Elite/Regular: Regular Team Team:The Slightly Stronger Squad Battle Details:
vs. Girafarig
Kaiba knows his typings, so Mothra is the first out! Unfortunately, Girafirig can easily steal its opponent's stat boosts with its Swap moves, so Mothra's attack and defense boosting moves are right out. Instead, Kaiba starts to hit hard with Bug Buzz, using Poison Powder and String Shot to slow it down and chip away. Roost could be used in a pinch, but he'll opt to take advantage of Mothra's Swarrm ability kicking in at low HP in an attempt to finish it off.
vs. Clefable
Kaiba would've loved to use Kingyoku for the sweet Steel STAB damage, but there's just one problem: he's male, Clefable is (probably) female, and a potential Cute Charm ability will wreck his effectiveness. Zephyra the Rapidash (level 80) is sent in instead, on a mission to charge through. He starts with Poison Jab for the damage (and potentially poison if the Clefable's ability isn't Magic Guard), and then Smart Strike's perfect accuracy and Steel typing are super useful here!
vs. Miltank
This is it. This is the toughest battle. Kingyoku the Hisuian Goodra (level 85) is sent in here, because he resists Normal and Rock moves, and he lacks Dragon's usual weakness to Fairy. He doesn't have any super-effective moves, but his STAB moves do normal damage, so...it's probably fine?
He opens with Shelter to raise physical defense and evasion, follows up with Acid Spray to lower special defense, then goes to town with Dragon Pulse. *Hopefully* the Acid Spray is enough to keep his damage output neutral if he gets hit by Captivate?
Backups: Leizi the Alolan Raichu (level 56) is the backup against Clefable---she's female, so she probably can't be infatuated, and she'll be attempting to hit fast and hard, throwing up a Light Screen, attempting a paralysis with Nuzzle, then hitting as hard as she can with Thunderbolt and Psychic.
Mizuchi the Seadra (level 52) is the fallback against Miltank. She'll be using Smokescreen to lower accuracy, then hit as hard as she can with Hydro Pump and Bubble Beam. Fortunately she's not Dragon type yet so she's not weak to Fairy moves!
Character: Seto Kaiba | blue_ice Badge/Gym Leader: Bugsy for the Hive Badge Elite/Regular: Regular Team:The Squad Battle Details:
Bugsy's entire team is weak to Fire, with an impressive 4x weakness on Scizor. Surely the smart move here is to attempt a steamroll with a very overleveled Rapidash, right? Well, he could. And that's plan B. But Kaiba's first going to try to let some other team members get a shot in the spotlight. Unfortunately for him, Pinsir and Heracross both have fighting moves, so letting the appropriately leveled Eevee try is right out, and King should probably sit this out too. That brings us to the other four:
vs. Pinsir First up is Mizuchi the Kingdra (74). Her standard strategy is Rain Dance (to activate Swift Swim), then hitting hard with Bubble Beam and Dragon Pulse. If Kaiba senses he could lose the DPS race, he'll use Yawn and hopefully put it to sleep in time.
vs. Heracross It's time for a bug mirror match! Kaiba sends out Mothra the Mothim (70) for that sweet double resistance to Fighting, and to show off his shiny bug to the bug gym. Just for fun. He goes for the standard strategy: Quiver Dance, then hit that 4x flying weakness with Air Slash, using Roost to recover if necessary. He's careful to avoid using physical attacks, can't risk a Counter.
vs. Scizor Kaiba's saving Zephyra the Rapidash (95) for Scizor: her 4x advantage is best used here. She opens with Fire Spin to start the chip damage before Scizor can start evading with Double Team, then starts blasting away with Flame Wheel. He can't risk the higher-power but lower-accuracy fire moves with Scizor's evasion.
Backup: Leizi the Alolan Raichu is sitting on the backup bench for this battle. If she's called on, she'll use Reflect to blunt the deluge of physical attacks, then Nuzzle for paralysis, and start zapping away with Thunderbolt, but she'll use Psychic if up against Heracross. Or he could just bring out Zephyra early and use Flame Wheel, but that's not fun, right?
Backups are Kingyoku the Hisuian Goodra (100), Mizuchi the Kingdra (100), and Mothra the Mothim (70).
Battle Details: Kaiba had a plan for this battle going in. He intended to evolve his Eevee to Umbreon, let her Dark type moves take center stage, and win the day. But then she snuck some Poké Puffs at the party, and he now has a Sylveon. Which. Isn't quite as useful to him at the moment. So this is plan B.
vs. Haunter
First up is Jonouchi the Bibarel. Kaiba promised this Bidoof that he'd be trained and used in at least one gym battle when they met, so...here's the little guy's chance. Ghost moves can't affect Normal types and Normal moves can't affect Ghost types, so both mons will need to be a little creative here. He opens with Taunt to attempt to stave off any status moves, then attempts to Bite. He bites hard, with water moves in the mix as needed. His backup plan is Kingyoku the Hisuian Goodra (100), who's a safe defensive pivot and can hit hard with Dragon Pulse.
vs. Misdreavus
Onimaru the Doublade is next, holding an Eviolite that was purchased back at the battle convention to boost his defenses. They're both ghosts and mutually weak to each other, but Onimaru aims to win the war of attrition with Swords Dance -> Night Slash. He wants to give his appropriately leveled Pokémon a chance, but should he fall, Mizuchi the Kingdra (100) is waiting in the wings to blast its dragon power with a speed and power boosting Rain Dance followed by Hydro Pumps.
vs. Gengar
This was supposed to be Selene the Umbreon's moment to show off her new power. But she's a Sylveon, so he's going to have to make do with a new plan. Selene opens with Misty Terrain to prevent most of Gengar's status moves. It's a bit of a risk to use a Fairy type with Gengar being part-Poison, but he doesn't actually have any Poison attacking moves in his standard learnsets.
But of course Gengar resists Fairy moves and is immune to Normal, so what's a Sylveon to do? Bite. She bites for some solid Dark damage. This plan would've gone off so much more smoothly if she was an Umbreon as planned.
If she's not quite enough, he'll try to throw up a Light Screen to reduce incoming special damage, then switch in Mothra the Mothim (70), who's the only Psychic user on his team who isn't extra vulnerable to Ghost or Dark. His Psychic moves may not be STAB boosted, but he can Quiver Dance and blast away. Hopefully.
Kaiba loves Mizuchi. His Kingdra is a powerful dragon of the seas...but she lacks certain abilities that a dragon of the seas should have. He could take the boat to fight Chuck first...but he thinks he has some solid type matchups against Jasmine's team and wants to try his strength against Jasmine.
vs. Skarmory
First up is Leizi. The Raichu usually loves to pull evasion tricks, but that's not going to work against Keen Eye Skarmory. Her main goal here is stay alive, then zappy-zap. Use Nuzzle for the paralysis first to slow it down, then Reflect to bolster her frail physical defense, then hit with Thunderbolt. Special moves are the move here, gotta avoid Skarmory's massive physical defense.
vs. Magneton
It's Zephyra's turn. The Rapidash is another frail speedster of an attacker, so she needs to hit hard and avoid paralysis as much as possible. She opens with Agility, then starts on Flame Wheel as her most reliable attack. She's avoiding Sunny Day because she doesn't want to hamper her partner in the next battle, so hopefully she can make it.
vs. Steelix
Now, finally, Mizuchi is up. The Kingdra is the whole reason Kaiba's attempting this fight now, so he wants her to do her best.
Now, this is going to be tricky because Steelix has a coverage move: Dragon Breath. Fortunately she's not quite as frail as Leizi and Zephyra. Special attacks are needed for this fight, so he uses Rain Dance to counter Sandstorm, has her wear a Rocky Helmet to hopefully keep up with the chip damage from a potential Stealth rock, and blasts with Bubble Beam at ever opportunity.
Backup:
Plan B is his own steel type, Kingyoku, who has Fire Punch for Magneton and Water Pulse for Steelix.
Battle Details: Hello, Chuck, would you like to meet this bedraggled looking teenager with an angry expression? How about his team of cute and cuddly Pokémon? He's chosen this squad carefully to counter the gym team, and he hopes it's enough that he can go home for the holidays!
vs. Hitmonlee
First out is Selene the Sylveon, looking to really shine in battle this time. Luckily for her, she's female and Hitmonlee is male, so if he makes a contact move there's a 30% chance he'll become infatuated. If not, though, Kaiba chooses Baby Doll Eyes over Charm for the priority to make sure his Attack is dropped asap, then hits with Moonblast, and Draining Kiss for heals.
vs. Hitmonchan
Hitmonchan hits hard and has a number of coverage moves with the elemental punches, so Kaiba has to be the most careful about his choice here. Leizi resists Fighting and Hitmonchan lacks coverage moves against her weaknesses, so in the Raichu goes. She uses Charm first to drop that threatening Attack stat, then starts hammering with Psychic. His SpDef is a bit higher than she'd like, but she hopes to win the war.
vs. Poliwrath
It's finally time for Aura's first gym battle! The Altaria is nervous, but excited. She doesn't actually have a good Flying type move (he'll have to fix that), but due to STAB and supereffective calculations Pluck is still her best move, though she also has a non-STAB Moonblast to fall back on. Shame she can't mega yet.
Backups: He's also brought: Onimaru the Aegislash (65). He's normally immune to Fighting but they all have at least one coverage move against it, but he would attempt to time shields, then Aerial Ace, and Mothra the Mothim (70), who resists Fighting, is afraid of Hitmonchan's coverage moves, but can Air Slash and Psybeam the others.
vs. Espeon Reaper is up first. He first uses Infestation to prevent escape and start chip damage, then hits with Phantom Force. Using status moves and Hex unfortunately isn't an option with Espeon's ability, so he'll try to hit with heavy damage. When he's nearly won, he'll U-Turn into Selene the Sylveon to let her set up Light Screen for the next battle.
vs. Mr. Mime Onimaru the Aegislash is Kaiba's best counter against a Mr. Mime. He really wishes he had Taunt to stop the Mime's stat-swapping shenanigans, but his only Taunt user has a 4x weakness to Fairy, so. With the help of Selene's Light Screen, he starts hitting hard with Shadow Ball and Iron Head, attempting some reading by using King's Shield if he sees Mr. Mime setting up.
vs. Alakazam Mokie is up last, chosen for his immunity to Psychic attacks. His plan is to strike hard with Crunch and Night Slash, and hope that Sabrina didn't give the Alakazam any coverage moves. If she did, he'll use Parting Shot to pivot into Kingyoku and let the Goodra hit with an Acid Spray->Dragon Pulse combo.
Leizi is up first. Her job's to slow with her thunder attacks---Nuzzle first to slow down and paralyze, then Reflect to shore up her physical weakness, then Thunderbolts away. If Pryce happens to put rain on the field for his Water/Ice types, he'll switch to Thunder.
vs. Lapras
Kaiba sends Mokie in against Lapras, and his first move is Taunt. He doesn't want any part of that Perish Song nonsense. He follows up with Low Sweep to lower Lapras's speed, then launches into Brick Break, hoping that's enough.
vs. Mamoswine
Finally it's Zephyra's turn. Mamoswine can end her run with ground attacks, so her goal is to burn it all down as quickly as possible..so while he wouldn't ordinarily risk it, he'll absolutely use Flare Blitz. If she doesn't get it done, Mizuchi will switch in to try to wash it away with her favorite Rain Dance -> Surf combo.
It's Leizi up first again! She uses Nuzzle first to slow down and paralyze the Gyarados, puts up Reflect to deal with those scary Dark moves, and zaps with Thunderbolt. If she falls, Onimaru is in reserve to hit with Shadow Ball.
vs. Kingdra
Selene the Sylveon is next. Kaiba has a Kingdra of his own, and he knows how scary they can be when they set up in rain. He gambles on Kingdra having Swift Swim and and uses Skill Swap to steal it, then blasts away with Moonblast. If it's going well enough for him to spend a turn, he'll have her lay down a Misty Terrain to reduce Dragon damage for the next battle.
vs. Dragonite
The big one. Kaiba's chosen Kingyoku to finish the battle, and the Goodra is slow, but he resists Flying, takes normal damage from Dragon (hopefully reduced further with Misty Terrain), and...he has an Ice Beam for Dragonite's 4x weakness. King uses Shelter to bolster his physical defense, then blasts away.
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falkner attempt #1
Badge/Gym Leader: Falkner for the Zephyr Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular Team
Team: The Squad
Battle Details:
vs. Noctowl
Kaiba's aiming to give Mizuchi the Seadra (lv 36) a shot first. She doesn't have Swift Swim as a Seadra and can't use Rain Dance for fear of making Pidgeot unstoppable...and Smokescreen won't work either, so the plan's simple: use Focus Energy, then hit with Bubble Beam. If the Noctowl knows Fly, counter with Twister. She's hoping Poison Point doesn't activate, causing the Noctowl to transfer the poison with Psycho Shift, but Kaiba has antidotes should they be needed.
vs. Honchkrow
Next up is Zephyra the Kantonian Rapidash (lv 68) for another type neutral matchup. She starts with Flame Charge to increase speed and do damage at the same time, then switches to Flame Wheel and Fire Blast. It's scary how fast the Honchkrow is, but she's hoping to pull of a burn to lower its damage and use Agility to keep up speed-wise. Fortunately, if Honchkrow uses Haze, it loses its own Tailwind boost too. It's another DPS-fest attempt. Hopefully on to the next stage:
vs. Pidgeot
The ace merits the big guns: Leizi the Alolan Raichu (lv 44). Nuzzle is first priority, going for that sweet paralysis. Follow up with Double Team to be super annoying, then start hitting with Thunderbolt...hoping that she'll have stalled the Pidgeot enough to prevent Sand Attacks from lowering her accuracy too much. If so, he has potions.
Should he need fallback plans, Kingyoku the Hisuian Goodra (lv 72) is his standby tank. If called, he'll favor a Shelter->Acid Spray->Dragon Pulse strategy: shore up defense, lower opponent's special defense->big STAB special move. He'd most likely be needed against Noctowl. Against Honchkrow, Kaiba might also risk using Mothra the Mothim (lv 64), whose strategy will be Quiver Dance->Lunge, hoping to finish the DPS race before its weakness to Flying move kills it. He's taking a risk having only five usable mons, with only one being particularly bulky, but he hopes they're ready.
whitney attempt #1
Badge/Gym Leader: Whitney for the Plain Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular Team
Team: The Slightly Stronger Squad
Battle Details:
vs. Girafarig
Kaiba knows his typings, so Mothra is the first out! Unfortunately, Girafirig can easily steal its opponent's stat boosts with its Swap moves, so Mothra's attack and defense boosting moves are right out. Instead, Kaiba starts to hit hard with Bug Buzz, using Poison Powder and String Shot to slow it down and chip away. Roost could be used in a pinch, but he'll opt to take advantage of Mothra's Swarrm ability kicking in at low HP in an attempt to finish it off.
vs. Clefable
Kaiba would've loved to use Kingyoku for the sweet Steel STAB damage, but there's just one problem: he's male, Clefable is (probably) female, and a potential Cute Charm ability will wreck his effectiveness. Zephyra the Rapidash (level 80) is sent in instead, on a mission to charge through. He starts with Poison Jab for the damage (and potentially poison if the Clefable's ability isn't Magic Guard), and then Smart Strike's perfect accuracy and Steel typing are super useful here!
vs. Miltank
This is it. This is the toughest battle. Kingyoku the Hisuian Goodra (level 85) is sent in here, because he resists Normal and Rock moves, and he lacks Dragon's usual weakness to Fairy. He doesn't have any super-effective moves, but his STAB moves do normal damage, so...it's probably fine?
He opens with Shelter to raise physical defense and evasion, follows up with Acid Spray to lower special defense, then goes to town with Dragon Pulse. *Hopefully* the Acid Spray is enough to keep his damage output neutral if he gets hit by Captivate?
Backups:
Leizi the Alolan Raichu (level 56) is the backup against Clefable---she's female, so she probably can't be infatuated, and she'll be attempting to hit fast and hard, throwing up a Light Screen, attempting a paralysis with Nuzzle, then hitting as hard as she can with Thunderbolt and Psychic.
Mizuchi the Seadra (level 52) is the fallback against Miltank. She'll be using Smokescreen to lower accuracy, then hit as hard as she can with Hydro Pump and Bubble Beam. Fortunately she's not Dragon type yet so she's not weak to Fairy moves!
Azalea/Bugsy #1
Badge/Gym Leader: Bugsy for the Hive Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: The Squad
Battle Details:
Bugsy's entire team is weak to Fire, with an impressive 4x weakness on Scizor. Surely the smart move here is to attempt a steamroll with a very overleveled Rapidash, right? Well, he could. And that's plan B. But Kaiba's first going to try to let some other team members get a shot in the spotlight. Unfortunately for him, Pinsir and Heracross both have fighting moves, so letting the appropriately leveled Eevee try is right out, and King should probably sit this out too. That brings us to the other four:
vs. Pinsir
First up is Mizuchi the Kingdra (74). Her standard strategy is Rain Dance (to activate Swift Swim), then hitting hard with Bubble Beam and Dragon Pulse. If Kaiba senses he could lose the DPS race, he'll use Yawn and hopefully put it to sleep in time.
vs. Heracross
It's time for a bug mirror match! Kaiba sends out Mothra the Mothim (70) for that sweet double resistance to Fighting, and to show off his shiny bug to the bug gym. Just for fun. He goes for the standard strategy: Quiver Dance, then hit that 4x flying weakness with Air Slash, using Roost to recover if necessary. He's careful to avoid using physical attacks, can't risk a Counter.
vs. Scizor
Kaiba's saving Zephyra the Rapidash (95) for Scizor: her 4x advantage is best used here. She opens with Fire Spin to start the chip damage before Scizor can start evading with Double Team, then starts blasting away with Flame Wheel. He can't risk the higher-power but lower-accuracy fire moves with Scizor's evasion.
Backup:
Leizi the Alolan Raichu is sitting on the backup bench for this battle. If she's called on, she'll use Reflect to blunt the deluge of physical attacks, then Nuzzle for paralysis, and start zapping away with Thunderbolt, but she'll use Psychic if up against Heracross. Or he could just bring out Zephyra early and use Flame Wheel, but that's not fun, right?
morty attempt #1
Badge/Gym Leader: Morty/Fog Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular Team
Team: He's primarily using Jonouchi the Bibarel (46), Onimaru the Doublade (48), and Selene the Sylveon (64).
Backups are Kingyoku the Hisuian Goodra (100), Mizuchi the Kingdra (100), and Mothra the Mothim (70).
Battle Details: Kaiba had a plan for this battle going in. He intended to evolve his Eevee to Umbreon, let her Dark type moves take center stage, and win the day. But then she snuck some Poké Puffs at the party, and he now has a Sylveon. Which. Isn't quite as useful to him at the moment. So this is plan B.
vs. Haunter
First up is Jonouchi the Bibarel. Kaiba promised this Bidoof that he'd be trained and used in at least one gym battle when they met, so...here's the little guy's chance. Ghost moves can't affect Normal types and Normal moves can't affect Ghost types, so both mons will need to be a little creative here. He opens with Taunt to attempt to stave off any status moves, then attempts to Bite. He bites hard, with water moves in the mix as needed. His backup plan is Kingyoku the Hisuian Goodra (100), who's a safe defensive pivot and can hit hard with Dragon Pulse.
vs. Misdreavus
Onimaru the Doublade is next, holding an Eviolite that was purchased back at the battle convention to boost his defenses. They're both ghosts and mutually weak to each other, but Onimaru aims to win the war of attrition with Swords Dance -> Night Slash. He wants to give his appropriately leveled Pokémon a chance, but should he fall, Mizuchi the Kingdra (100) is waiting in the wings to blast its dragon power with a speed and power boosting Rain Dance followed by Hydro Pumps.
vs. Gengar
This was supposed to be Selene the Umbreon's moment to show off her new power. But she's a Sylveon, so he's going to have to make do with a new plan. Selene opens with Misty Terrain to prevent most of Gengar's status moves. It's a bit of a risk to use a Fairy type with Gengar being part-Poison, but he doesn't actually have any Poison attacking moves in his standard learnsets.
But of course Gengar resists Fairy moves and is immune to Normal, so what's a Sylveon to do? Bite. She bites for some solid Dark damage. This plan would've gone off so much more smoothly if she was an Umbreon as planned.
If she's not quite enough, he'll try to throw up a Light Screen to reduce incoming special damage, then switch in Mothra the Mothim (70), who's the only Psychic user on his team who isn't extra vulnerable to Ghost or Dark. His Psychic moves may not be STAB boosted, but he can Quiver Dance and blast away. Hopefully.
jasmine attempt #1
Badge/Gym Leader: Jasmine for the Mineral Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular
Team: Today's main players are Leizi the Alolan Raichu (90), Zephyra the Rapidash (100), and Mizuchi the Kingdra (100). Kingyoku the Hisuian Goodra (100) sits in reserve with a Fire Punch in case things go wrong.
Strategy:
Kaiba loves Mizuchi. His Kingdra is a powerful dragon of the seas...but she lacks certain abilities that a dragon of the seas should have. He could take the boat to fight Chuck first...but he thinks he has some solid type matchups against Jasmine's team and wants to try his strength against Jasmine.
vs. Skarmory
First up is Leizi. The Raichu usually loves to pull evasion tricks, but that's not going to work against Keen Eye Skarmory. Her main goal here is stay alive, then zappy-zap. Use Nuzzle for the paralysis first to slow it down, then Reflect to bolster her frail physical defense, then hit with Thunderbolt. Special moves are the move here, gotta avoid Skarmory's massive physical defense.
vs. Magneton
It's Zephyra's turn. The Rapidash is another frail speedster of an attacker, so she needs to hit hard and avoid paralysis as much as possible. She opens with Agility, then starts on Flame Wheel as her most reliable attack. She's avoiding Sunny Day because she doesn't want to hamper her partner in the next battle, so hopefully she can make it.
vs. Steelix
Now, finally, Mizuchi is up. The Kingdra is the whole reason Kaiba's attempting this fight now, so he wants her to do her best.
Now, this is going to be tricky because Steelix has a coverage move: Dragon Breath. Fortunately she's not quite as frail as Leizi and Zephyra. Special attacks are needed for this fight, so he uses Rain Dance to counter Sandstorm, has her wear a Rocky Helmet to hopefully keep up with the chip damage from a potential Stealth rock, and blasts with Bubble Beam at ever opportunity.
Backup:
Plan B is his own steel type, Kingyoku, who has Fire Punch for Magneton and Water Pulse for Steelix.
chuck attempt #1
Badge/Gym Leader: Chuck for the Storm Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular Team
Team: Aura the Altaria (77), Selene the Sylveon (75), and Leizi the Alolan Raichu (90).
Battle Details:
Hello, Chuck, would you like to meet this bedraggled looking teenager with an angry expression? How about his team of cute and cuddly Pokémon? He's chosen this squad carefully to counter the gym team, and he hopes it's enough that he can go home for the holidays!
vs. Hitmonlee
First out is Selene the Sylveon, looking to really shine in battle this time. Luckily for her, she's female and Hitmonlee is male, so if he makes a contact move there's a 30% chance he'll become infatuated. If not, though, Kaiba chooses Baby Doll Eyes over Charm for the priority to make sure his Attack is dropped asap, then hits with Moonblast, and Draining Kiss for heals.
vs. Hitmonchan
Hitmonchan hits hard and has a number of coverage moves with the elemental punches, so Kaiba has to be the most careful about his choice here. Leizi resists Fighting and Hitmonchan lacks coverage moves against her weaknesses, so in the Raichu goes. She uses Charm first to drop that threatening Attack stat, then starts hammering with Psychic. His SpDef is a bit higher than she'd like, but she hopes to win the war.
vs. Poliwrath
It's finally time for Aura's first gym battle! The Altaria is nervous, but excited. She doesn't actually have a good Flying type move (he'll have to fix that), but due to STAB and supereffective calculations Pluck is still her best move, though she also has a non-STAB Moonblast to fall back on. Shame she can't mega yet.
Backups:
He's also brought:
Onimaru the Aegislash (65). He's normally immune to Fighting but they all have at least one coverage move against it, but he would attempt to time shields, then Aerial Ace, and Mothra the Mothim (70), who resists Fighting, is afraid of Hitmonchan's coverage moves, but can Air Slash and Psybeam the others.
sabrina attempt #1
Badge/Gym Leader: Sabrina for the Marsh Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular Team
Team: Mokie the Pangoro(65), Reaper the Dragapult(65), and Onimaru the Aegislash(75), with backups Kingyoku the H. Goodra (100) and Selene the Sylveon (87)
Battle Details:
vs. Espeon
Reaper is up first. He first uses Infestation to prevent escape and start chip damage, then hits with Phantom Force. Using status moves and Hex unfortunately isn't an option with Espeon's ability, so he'll try to hit with heavy damage. When he's nearly won, he'll U-Turn into Selene the Sylveon to let her set up Light Screen for the next battle.
vs. Mr. Mime
Onimaru the Aegislash is Kaiba's best counter against a Mr. Mime. He really wishes he had Taunt to stop the Mime's stat-swapping shenanigans, but his only Taunt user has a 4x weakness to Fairy, so. With the help of Selene's Light Screen, he starts hitting hard with Shadow Ball and Iron Head, attempting some reading by using King's Shield if he sees Mr. Mime setting up.
vs. Alakazam
Mokie is up last, chosen for his immunity to Psychic attacks. His plan is to strike hard with Crunch and Night Slash, and hope that Sabrina didn't give the Alakazam any coverage moves. If she did, he'll use Parting Shot to pivot into Kingyoku and let the Goodra hit with an Acid Spray->Dragon Pulse combo.
pryce attempt #1
Badge/Gym Leader: Pryce for the Glacier Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular Team
Team: Leizi the Alolan Raichu (100), Mokie the Pangoro (72), and Zephyra the Rapidash (100), with Mizuchi the Kingdra (100) in reserve
Battle Details:
vs. Dewgong
Leizi is up first. Her job's to slow with her thunder attacks---Nuzzle first to slow down and paralyze, then Reflect to shore up her physical weakness, then Thunderbolts away. If Pryce happens to put rain on the field for his Water/Ice types, he'll switch to Thunder.
vs. Lapras
Kaiba sends Mokie in against Lapras, and his first move is Taunt. He doesn't want any part of that Perish Song nonsense. He follows up with Low Sweep to lower Lapras's speed, then launches into Brick Break, hoping that's enough.
vs. Mamoswine
Finally it's Zephyra's turn. Mamoswine can end her run with ground attacks, so her goal is to burn it all down as quickly as possible..so while he wouldn't ordinarily risk it, he'll absolutely use Flare Blitz. If she doesn't get it done, Mizuchi will switch in to try to wash it away with her favorite Rain Dance -> Surf combo.
clair attempt #1
Badge/Gym Leader: Clair for the Rising Badge
Elite/Regular: Regular Team
Team: Leizi the Alolan Raichu (100), Kingyoku the Hisuian Goodra (100), and Selene the Sylveon(95) as main team, with Onimaru the Aegislash (80) in reserve.
Battle Details:
vs. Gyarados
It's Leizi up first again! She uses Nuzzle first to slow down and paralyze the Gyarados, puts up Reflect to deal with those scary Dark moves, and zaps with Thunderbolt. If she falls, Onimaru is in reserve to hit with Shadow Ball.
vs. Kingdra
Selene the Sylveon is next. Kaiba has a Kingdra of his own, and he knows how scary they can be when they set up in rain. He gambles on Kingdra having Swift Swim and and uses Skill Swap to steal it, then blasts away with Moonblast. If it's going well enough for him to spend a turn, he'll have her lay down a Misty Terrain to reduce Dragon damage for the next battle.
vs. Dragonite
The big one. Kaiba's chosen Kingyoku to finish the battle, and the Goodra is slow, but he resists Flying, takes normal damage from Dragon (hopefully reduced further with Misty Terrain), and...he has an Ice Beam for Dragonite's 4x weakness. King uses Shelter to bolster his physical defense, then blasts away.