CN Talkback: Pokémon D/P: Galactic Battle “Evolving Strategies!” [11/14] (Spoilers)

**Lazerboy5000** · 11-14-2009, 12:14 AM

Ash, Brock, and Dawn continue their adventures through the Sinnoh region while battling some intense rivals and great villains.

Recently:
Dawn lost to Kenny in the Sandalstraw Contest, so both of them now have 4 ribbons.
Dawn gave Ambipom to a revered Pokemon Ping Pong player.
Ash won his 7th Gym Badge against Candice
Paul got to battle against Pyramid King Brandon and lost without knocking out a single one of Brandon’s Pokemon.
Hunter J attempted to capture Regigigas, but with Brandon’s help, they were able to stop her for now.

Last Time:
“Pedal to the Mettle!”
Ash and Paul have both arrived at Lake Acuity. Having this date set 10 days ago, the two begin the first half of this epic 6-on-6 battle.

This Time:
“Evolving Strategies!”
Saturday, November 14th, 7:00am Eastern
Encore: Sunday, November 15th, 7:30am Eastern
Part 2 of the epic 6-on-6 battle between Ash and Paul. Who will come out on top?

Notes:
Today is the second and final part of Ash’s 6-on-6 match with Paul.
I’ve been pretty busy as of late, so I haven’t gotten the chance to watch last week’s episode yet. Thus that is why the description is kind of short.
New episodes of Pokemon have been moved to 7am – 2 hours earlier on Saturday morning.
But if that’s too early, CN has the episodes on their website, so you can watch them on demand there.

**Terror of Death** · 11-14-2009, 02:33 PM

Ash got STOMPED OUT! Paul is teh best!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

Now on to the episode.

The match continues with Pikachu vs Magmotar. Pikachu delivers an awesome quick attack but is inflicted with burn. I’ve played the games countless times, but whenever special abilities that cause status effects are shown, I’m always surprised. Next, the two Pokemon deliver simultaneous attacks. The huge fiery explosion caused by Flmathrower and Thunderbolt looked absolutely epic. Pikachu follows up with a Volt Tackle but Magmotar respond by using Rock Tomb. The way Magmotars arm/hand changed shaped and sent out the purple energy balls into the ground was also epic looking. Pikakachu is unable to dodge and runs right into a bunch of rocks. Magmotar uses smog but Pikachu quickly uses the Thunderbolt counter shield. Totally wasn’t expecting that. Even though Pika is still being afflicted by its burn it delivers a Iron Tail before Mag could unleash a powerful Flamthrower. Pika is recalled and Buizel is sent out. It delivers an Aqua Jet that almost sends Mag toppling over. Buizel follows up with a water pulse but Mag counters with its Rock Tomb. Buizel goes through the rocks with Aqua Jet but Mag is nowhere to be found. That’s when we find out Rock Tomb was merely a distraction so that Mag could jump into the sky and use Smog. (That Smog looked like it gave Buizel paralysis, wtf?) Anyway, Mag is returned and oh no...

Out comes the brute, Ursaring. Buizel does Water Gun and Urs counters with a one armed Hammer Arm. Urs then uses Bulk Up to become even more of a beast. Bui uses Aqua Jet yet again but Urs takes the blow and lands a Slash attack right across Bui’s face. Urs uses Focus Blast but Bui uses its Aqua Jet counter shield in the nick of time. The Focus Blast is broken apart and turns into miniature energy projectiles that hit Urs. Bui does Sonic Boom but Urs runs through the attack and delivers a mighty Hammer Arm. Bui’s faces as its been closelined is priceless! Ash makes some poor judgment and decides to keep Bui in. Its KO’ed by Urs’ Focus Blast. Staraptor comes out delivers an Aerial Ace. But Urs is too strong and lands a Focus Blast, slash, and a finishing two armed Hammer Arm into the ground. Urs is returned and Ash sends out Chimmy. Paul brings out Electabuzz who is quickly returned after using Protect and Light screen. Paul unleashes his Torterra and we learn it can manipulate the direction of its Stone Edge!

Chimmy is returned and Ash sends out Gliscor who is quickly taken care of with Frezny Plant. Ash decides to uses Pika’s speed to topple Torterra with a couple Iron Tails but Paul recalls his Pokemon. Urs is sent out again and delivers a Hammer Arm that hits before Pika can land its quick attack. The way Pika’s eyes glaze over and is sent flying was hilarious! Before Urs can attack again its afflicted with paralysis. Pika gets in an Iron Tail but its also hurt by its status effect. Urs’ special ability guts kicks in and it delivers its signature two armed Hammer Arm attack after taking a Thunderbolt. Pikachu is sent into a pond and faints. Ash’s only Pokemon left is Chimmy. It lands a couple attacks that finally topple the brute.

Chimmy then evolves into Monferno (really cool looking evolution by the way) and is raring to go. Before Paul sends out Electabuzz we find out that Monferno knows Mach Punch. The battle that ensues is just simply amazing. Electabuzz is surprised to find out his old training buddy has evolved and is then treated to a Mach Punch to the gut. Electabuzz does Thunder and paralyzes Monferno. Monferno uses Flame Wheel. Electabuzz, Protects then uses Thunder Punch but misses. Monferno uses Dig and Electabuzz then uses Thunder. Monferno uses its Flame Wheel/Flamethower counter shield to protect itself from the electric attack. Monferno , while still using Flame Wheel hits Electabuzz across the chest. Monferno then uses Mach Punch but Electabuzz uses Protect followed by Thunder. Monferno looks like its about to collapse from paralysis but it rises up and its tail ignites into a even bigger flame! Monferno uses Mach Punch and Electabuzz uses Thunder Punch. The two punches collide but Electabuzz comes out victorious after a momentary pause. Paul agrees with Reggie that the battle was awesome and leaves Ash crying with Monferno in his arms and his pride crushed.

Awesome. Simply awesome. The art direction and animation this episode was top notch. Combine that with a well thought out match and you got one of the greatest battles in Pokemon anime history. I just hope that when Ash defeats Pual in the Sinnoh League its actually believable. The staff is going to have a hard time topping this battle but I’m confident they wont disappoint.

Also some slight spoilers but the DP series will go on for a fourth season. Episode 52 of Galactic battles will air in Japan during December so North America probably wont get to see the Sinnoh League and Grand Festival until Fall of 2010.

**Rud** · 11-14-2009, 03:31 PM

My favorite part of the episode?, One of Ash's pokemon evolves and still loses. I HATE when evolution suddenly turns a match around, its so cheap, finaly real skill and strategy prevails over garbage like Ash's spinning tricks or last minute evolutions. That made me so happy.

**Marvin Tikvah** · 11-14-2009, 04:15 PM

What a way to end the battle. Despite Ash being on the losing end again it was still an amazing match.

Seems Paul's Ursaring is quite the physical sweeper. He managed to KO about half his team before finally falling to the newly-evolved Monferno. The quick squash he had with Starraptor looked absolutely brutal. Poor bird didn't even manage to lay a scratch on him.

Seeing all those abilities being used in the battlefield was a great way to pump up the match. Paul really knows how to take advantage of those status effect abilites as well as defensive moves. It really fleshes out his fighting style beyond using the strongest types like the beginning of Sinnoh seemed to imply.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but his Electabuzz has yet to lose a match right? He pulled through once again but it'll only make Ash's victory that much sweeter when he finally topples that one, hopefully with his Monferno.

Speaking of Monferno, that was one dramatic evolution. I guess it was given that much spotlight to show how far he's come under Ash's tutelage and to show Paul he's not as useless as he proclaimed him to be. It just needed a little more emotion to drive that point home.

My favorite part of the episode is definitely the ending scene. Everyone suddenly goes silent after Monferno faints and no words need to be said between the group because Ash's disappointment is quite clear. That last song really gave that scene quite a feeling of disappointment as well.

On the other hand, Team Rocket's humorous commentary didn't ruin the episode. It actually lightened up the atmosphere a bit considering how serious the two opponents were. They were even smart enough to remain quiet in the end.

**Light Lucario** · 11-14-2009, 05:14 PM

This was an awesome episode. The battle was so intense throughout this second part as well. I wasn't too surprised that Ash was caught off guard by Magmortar's ability. It was his first encounter with this Pokemon. I have to say that the way they animated the burn was really intense. Pikachu would look fine, but then it would suddenly burst into flames. Rock Tomb was a good move for Paul to make, especially against Pikachu's Volt Tackle. It was nice that we also got to see some of Buizel's powers. I loved seeing Aqua Jet and Water Pulse in action again. I didn't think that Rock Tomb would be a strong enough defense for those water attacks, but Magmortar was probably stronger than I originally thought.

Paul's Ursaring finally made an appearance with its impressive Hammer Arm. Even though Ash knew that Bulk Up made Ursing's attacks stronger, he said that he didn't care. Yeah, talk about overconfidence. Keeping Buizel in when it obviously had taken a lot of damage was a terrible choice. I agreed with Reggie that it was poor judgment on Ash's part. Not only because of the damage Buizel had already taken, but it would have been smarter to save it for facing off against Magmortar again.

Staraptor didn't even had a chance to land a decent hit on Ursaring before being knocked out. Too bad since a Close Combat might have defeated it right then and there. The Focus Blast looked pretty cool though. The way Paul used Electabuzz's Light Screen again was pretty clever. Even with a type advantage, Chimchar's Flamethrower didn't seem to do that much damage to Torterra. The way Torterra controlled the movement of Stone Edge was pretty impressive too. At least Ash made a good call with changing Pokemon again. I was so surprised that Gliscor got knocked out by Frenzy Plant. Considering that it has the most rest compared to Ash's other Pokemon, I thought that it would have lasted a lot longer than that. I doubt that Pikachu could have defeated Torterra with simply just Iron Tail and Quick Attack. It's been a long time since we've seen Pikachu's Static ability, but that eventually just helped Ursaring win the match. Pikachu did put up a good fight though.

I loved how Chimchar was able to beat Ursaring. I remember the last time it faced Ursaring and it was so scared, so it was nice that Chimchar could defeat it. I also loved the awesome evolution sequence they had for Chimchar's evolution. It was just so cool and dramatic, especially with how they focused on all of the parts of its body that were changing. Plus, it looked so darn cute. The battle between Electabuzz and Monferno was just excellent. Monferno's Mach Punch was animated so well and it was cool to see a major Flame Wheel land on Electabuzz too. I was disappointed that Monferno lost. I knew that Ash wouldn't have been able to beat five Pokemon with Monferno. It was fairly clear Ash when three of his Pokemon were knocked out fairly quickly. Still, it would have been nice if Monferno's first battle was a victory.

At least Paul didn't insult Ash after their battle. He even admitted that it was an interesting battle. He just ignored Ash's presence, which is somewhat better I think. I did feel bad for him when he cried as he held Monferno in his arms. Hopefully, he'll be able to learn from this battle so he can grow as a trainer.

Overall, it was a great episode and an excellent battle. Despite Ash's poor choices during the match, I thought that he did fairly well, especially with some of the early matches and the last two. He just didn't have a strategy as well-thought out as Paul's. Aside from not calling back his Pokemon when he probably should have, I think he also suffered from overconfidence and hoping to finally beat Paul. One of the bright sides for Ash from this battle is that he showed Paul that his training method didn't work for Chimchar, but under his care and strength as a trainer, Ash gave Chimchar the skills and experience necessary to grow and eventually evolve. That was the favorite aspect of the battle for me. I'm looking foreword to see what happens in the next new episode.

**Terror of Death** · 11-14-2009, 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by Lightning Tiger

My favorite part of the episode?, One of Ash's pokemon evolves and still loses. I HATE when evolution suddenly turns a match around, its so cheap, finaly real skill and strategy prevails over garbage like Ash's spinning tricks or last minute evolutions. That made me so happy.

Yeah, I was really glad about the evolution not making Monferno too strong. Strategy and skill should always triumph over luck and determination, IMO. But Ash didn't use the spinning dodge this battle if memory serve's me right.

Ash needs to do some major preparation for his next battle with Paul. The majority of Paul’s Pokemon are too well balanced and don't have any major weaknesses. He cant possibly outsmart Paul in terms of strategic ability so if I were Ash I would do one of four things:

1) Use Charizard, Sceptile, and Snorlax. Their arguably Ash’s three strongest Pokemon so they can close the gap in power. Paul and other trainers uses their reserves so Ash should start doing this more often in non Battle Frontier matches. But I doubt he'll break his rule of using only Pokemon he caught in each region.

2) Evolve Monferno, Buizel, and Grotle. This probably wont happen before the League and Ash has never wanted his Pokemon to evolve unless they want to.

3) Teach everyone new attacks. Thy need a bit more more variety in their movepools.

4) Teach everyone the spinning dodge technique or work on their speed. Don’t be too stubborn, know when to recall each Pokemon, and let Paul be the first to call an attack. Pauls Pokemon were getting in way too many hits so if Ash can avoid most of them I think he’ll be okay.

**honorableninja** · 11-14-2009, 05:45 PM

this episode make me wonder if ash will throw his whole only use region only pokemon plus pikachu out the window come the league or least when he battles paul again he might call in some of his own heavy hitters like a certain plant and fire lizard.

**Rud** · 11-14-2009, 06:06 PM