Stalemate

Or What Happens When CPUs in Pokémon Run Out of Ideas

        I'm not really sure how many people will really care about this, but I feel like I should share the little anecdote of frustration I had recently while playing Pokémon Black Version. If you are not aware of this, there is a building within Nimbasa City known as Gear Station which is home to the Battle Subway. The Battle Subway is Black and White's version of the Battle Tower seen in previous games where players battle seven trainers in a row and see how long they can last.
        
        I went into the Gear Station and entered the Super Single Line, which is the advanced ranking of the single battles. The guy in front of the train asked me to choose the three Pokémon that I wanted to use in battle. I chose Dragonite, Eelektross, and Metagross, which in my opinion were nice choices. Now, when you choose your Pokémon, the game decides which Pokémon your opponents will have based off of what you entered. I don't consider myself an expert, but I would say that after thirteen years of playing these games that I'm pretty decent. Even though I consider myself a decent player at these games, I still have no idea what to do when we run into a stalemate. 

        I made my way to the third trainer, who's first two Pokémon were blown away by my Dragonite's awesome power. I was feeling pretty confident in this team that I had made, which was nice because I had been experimenting with other teams for a while and none of them were working very well. I was feeling all high and mighty when the trainer brought out his Steelix. What I thought was going to be a quick, flawless battle soon turned into a dreadful, agonizing struggle with sanity.

Dragonite

Steelix

VS

       
        For the people in the back, Dragonite is a Dragon and Flying type Pokémon while Steelix is Steel and Ground type. I have somewhat of an advantage over Steelix due to Flying type Pokémon being immune to Ground type attacks, but Steel type Pokémon are resistant to Dragon type attacks. "Not to worry," I said to myself for I taught my Dragonite Aqua Tail and Fire Punch which were two attacks that are super effective against Steelix. I quickly found out that those attacks would not do me any good thanks to Steelix's ridiculously high defense. I was only chipping away at his health little by little, but I still had hope. I figured all I needed to do was keep attacking and hope he doesn't fight back with anything super-powerful and I should be fine. Although Steelix couldn't attack with anything super-powerful, it didn't mean I was in the clear.       

      

        Steelix wasn't in the best situation either. His move list consisted of Earthquake, Stealth Rock, Curse, and Rest. It seemed to me that his strategy was built on raising his attack and defense, and then destroying me with Earthquake, but their was a hitch in his plan just like there was one in my plan. Earthquake is the only move he knows that does significant damage, and it is a Ground type attack. (Stealth Rock can do damage, but only when the trainer switches out Pokémon during the battle and even then, it isn't a whole lot.) If you remember, my Dragonite cannot be hurt by Ground type attacks, so what is a poor Steelix to do? Apparently it's build his defense up using Curse, and then use Rest to heal himself when his health gets too low until I run out of uses on all my attacks so that I'm forced to use Struggle and eventually cause my Dragonite to faint.

        Well, I wasn't having any of that. I couldn't switch to my other Pokémon because we would have the same situation with Eelektross, and he would wipe out my Metagross with one huge Earthquake attack. What did I do, then? Well I played the waiting game myself. I kept attacking him with Dragon Rush and Fly until he ran out of uses for Rest and Curse and he was left with moves that wouldn't work at all against me. I got down to the very last use for Fire Punch, which to my surprise gave him a burn. This burn would slowly drain his health while he just sat there helpless and not even able to touch me. He finally fainted and I won the battle. I was happy but irritated that it had to come down to using cheap tactics like that. 

        So what did we learn here? When someone has to resort to being a cheap jerk in order to win, all you have to do is be cheaper and a bigger jerk to beat them. Now, go out there and use what I have taught you.