Pokemon Yellow - 0 Exp Part 8: Blaine & Sabrina

Channel:

MoogleBoss

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Published on June 2, 2011 5:16:44 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hbWqwslDXA

Game:

Pokémon Yellow (1998)

Duration: 6:51

2,727 views

22

Two more gym leader battles, first against Blaine (I always fight him before Sabrina because fire-types are a lot easier to counter than Kadabra and Alakazam) and then against Sabrina. I decided to combine them into one video because Blaine was too easy and uploading him separately would be unfun. Sabrina was trickier, as you will soon see.

Blaine is Cinnabar Island's cryptic gym leader who uses fire-type pokemon. They're *those* fire-types who were pretty much interreplaceable in Red/Blue/Yellow. I mean, really, try to persuade me Ninetales, Rapidash and Arcanine aren't the same exact pokemon just with different appearance and very slight learnset and base stat differences. All pure fire-types, moderately fast and with decent attack stats. I suppose Flareon is also very similar. I've never really had the urge to train one of them for endgame, besides Charizard of course (natural Flamethrower + Dig + Earthquake + Swords Dance + natural Slash is pretty damn good).

Anyway, you normally fight Blaine either with your water-type, or with your rock-type (probably Graveler/Golem). In this challenge, the highest-levelled rock-type available at this point is lv. 22 Onix from Rock Tunnel, so we need a water type.

And really, it's stupid not to catch that lv. 40 Staryu at Seafoam Islands with a Super Rod, and evolve it into Starmie for kickass results. IMO, Starmie is the best Pokemon in this game based on pretty much any criterion besides maybe availability, which is a bit too late.

Lv. 40 Cloyster is also a possibility, but it's dual ice, meaning Fire Blasts hurt it significantly (and a critical one kills it in one attack).

Starmie doesn't have much trouble surfing Blaine's pokemon. Not much to say here.

Sabrina is more fun. In Yellow, she leads with Abra who has no offensive moves. Just for the laughs, I wanted to try the Farfetch'd setup thing one more time. Abra reduces accuracy with Flash, so setting up on it may backfire. This is why I first reduce Abra's accuracy with Dugtrio before I start setting up on it. If Flash connects anyway, X Accuracy can be used. I'm normally against X items (remove the unique qualities of using specific pokemon etc.), but it's such a drag to switch out and do it again hoping Flash won't connect next time.

This time Farfetch'd needs all 3 Agilities to outspeed Kadabra and Alakazam. He has no trouble OHKO'ing either of Sabrina's pokemon, but there's one thing that can go wrong: Alakazam has Reflect and Recover, allowing him to survive a Fly and outstall Farfetch'd while he keeps going high up into the air to the attack.

I could've solved this by wasting a useless TM like Take Down on the bird for an immediate attack without charging, but I thought it'd be a waste of TM. Looking back, I could've even used Double-Edge - I never needed it in this challenge afterwards.

So anyway, Zam can kick Farfetch'd ass, and if that happens we need a Plan B. This is where Starmie comes in again. It's dual psychic, meaning it doesn't really fear Psychics. It also has Psychics of its own, and in Generation 1 Psychics had a 30% chance to lower the target's Special stat. After getting a special fall or two, Starmie can easily overpower Zam with STAB Surfs.

Kazam can get psychic falls on Starmie too, but the AI doesn't like not very effective attacks, it seems (preferring to set up Reflect multiple times instead - even though in RBY it doesn't run out until you switch out). In case of a special falls, Starmie can just switch out and then get back there doing its business. Wasn't necessary though.


http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0D2874F080AF75F3
Playlist of the challenge

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