Game:

Pokémon Sword and Shield (2019)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 31:47

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3

With seven badges in hand, it is time to take on Hammerlocke's Gym Leader Raihan, but first, we hear some very shocking news from Hop about the Wild Pokémon on Route 7, and then we continue on and see what Raihan has in store for us.

As for the rest of the description, I recommend watching the full video before reading past this point of the description

That was some shocking news, but at least Leon is there to help out when things go really bad, even though he is not that good with directions. This section of Route 7 can only be accessed after beating Piers at Spikemuth, you get a Safety Goggles, which prevents damage from weather effects, which you will be seeing a lot of when challenging Raihan and his Gym Trainers, and a TM for Assurance, which does double damage if the target has taken damage on that turn.
Now onto Hammerlocke Gym, well the Gym Trainers are not fought in the stadium, instead in the treasure vault, and there is an interesting twist, these Trainers specialize in Double Battle and weather teams, so you can expect to see Drizzle Pelipper, Drought Ninetales, and Snow Warning Abomasnow, along with a Dragon-type partner that works well in their respective condition, even though I do find the Hakamo-o to be questionable, it does have Overcoat to give it immunity to Hail damage.
I do use Wailord on my team, just to see it Dynamax, because I remember those memes back when Dynamax was first revealed, and Dynamax Wailord became an Internet meme, as Wailord is one of the largest Pokémon, well it was once the largest of all Pokémon to be discovered since Gen 3, so that did become popular once Dynamax was revealed.
Now onto the battle with Raihan, and he's not just a Dragon-type specialist, he uses a Sandstorm team, and his team do not take damage from the Sandstorm, here is the team he uses.
Gigalith: Stealth Rock, Sand Tomb, Rock Blast, Body Press
Flygon: Thunder Punch, Breaking Swipe, Crunch, Steel Wing
Sandaconda: Protect, Glare, Fire Fang, Earth Power
Duraludon: Breaking Swipe, Body Press, Stone Edge, Iron Head

This is a challenging Gym fight, but then again Raihan is meant to be Leon's rival, so he is no pushover, his Gigalith has Sand Stream, and even if the Sandstorm wears off, his Sandaconda has Sand Spit, so it will bring back the Sandstorm.
Another thing to note is that his Flygon has Breaking Swipe, which is a Physical Dragon-type move with 60 base power that hits both targets and reduces Attack, so I can see this being a very popular move in Double Battles, specially in VGC Tournaments.
Now to go over each of his Pokémon, Gigalith will likely set up Stealth Rock on the first turn, and its Body Press can really hurt, as Body Press uses the user's Defense stat to calculate damage, and Gigalith has really good Defense, and this is a tough foe as the Sandstorm does give Gigalith a 50% boost to Special Defense. Flygon should go down with an Ice-type move, but it has Steel Wing to cover its type disadvantage to Ice and Fairy-type Pokémon. Sandaconda has Glare and Earth Power, which can be tricky moves to deal with. As for his ace Pokémon, Raihan will Gigantamax his Duraludon, and it looks like the Prism Tower from Pokémon X & Y in its Gigantamax Form. Duraludon is a Steel/Dragon-type with very good stats, but its Special Defense is quite low, so if you have any good Special attackers, you should be able to use that to your advantage, otherwise Duraludon will be a tough challenge, as it has a ton of resistances. Duraludon's Gigantamax move is G-Max Depletion, which is what its Dragon-type moves become, and it reduces the PP of the last move used, so it is basically an offensive version of Spite, and Duraludon can easily wear your team down because of that.
After beating Raihan, you will be awarded with a Dragon Badge and the TM for Breaking Swipe, even though it is quite weak, it's great in Double Battles, and as far as Dragon-type moves go, you are better off with Dragon Claw, Dragon Pulse, Outrage, or Draco Meteor for good Dragon-type moves. Sonia and Professor Magnolia will be waiting outside, and Sonia goes from Assistant to Professor, and that we have to board a train to Wyndon, which is where the Champion Cup is, and that there will be a huge tournament before we can finally stand up to Leon and his Charizard in a big battle.

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