Pokemon Y: The Vivillon Battle Report

 

Welcome, dear fellow Pokefans and Bug 'Mon lovers, to the story of my Vivillon's battle prowess. Bug 'Mons usually make for wildly interesting battles, and Vivillon was no exception. I'd say this though: as far as Bug 'Mons go, Vivillon confortably lounges in the top tier. It's crazy fast, boasts sky-high Sp. Attack and HP and can gain great Type coverage; as a matter of fact, Vivillon is so good that my Swaziland mostly blazed through Kalos, one-shooting everything in his wake. There were, however, two instances where he met his match and I was forced to strategize and grind my way to victory. 

It should surprise absolutely no one that the first of these roadblocks was Grant's Rock Gym in Cyllage. Not only is Vivillon afflicted with a double weakness to Rock, but this is but the second Gym in the game, meaning that the benefits of overleveling had yet to kick in. I went in at lv. 32 with Psybeam, Return, Fairy Wind and Struggle Bug in my arsenal, and managed to beat every single Trainer in the Gym thanks to clever tactics; however, Grant was another matter entirely. I completely and laughingly failed to take down his Amaura: that darn fossil always opened with Rock Throw, destroying my Swaziland in the process. I tried using an X Defense on the first turn, and barely survived one-shooting; unfortunately, I could do nothing after that but heal every turn. There was no getting around it: I needed to grind. 

After taking down a number of wild 'Mons and Trainers I had avoided before, I was back with a vengeance at Lv. 35. Three levels weren't bound to make a whole world of difference; strategy was still very much needed, and I tried a bunch before nailing the right one. One-shooting failed, as well as two-shooting — well, at least I tried, didn't I? The Rocky Helmet + Super Potions combo — which I used to great affect with Amaura itself, how ironic — failed too, because Amaura's Rock Throw and Aurora Beam don't make contact. On top of that, Amaura now always opened with Thunder Wave and paralyzed me; so I had to take that into account as well. The winning strategy involved setting up 5 X Defenses and 2 X Sp. Attacks, while healing when necessary. I then used a Paralyze Heal and proceeded to attack with Psybeam, i.e. my most efficient Special Move under those rocky (indeed) circumstances — and down went Amaura in one hit! After that, Tyrunt was a breeze, meekly going down with a single Fairy Wind. Well done, you!

Once again, it should surprise no one that the second hairy battle situation of that run was the Elite Four itself. It was actually more uneven than hard per se, going from one-hit KOs to several turns of struggling. By that time, I had raised my Swaziland's affections all the way to Best Friends Forever (i.e. all five hearts), and it helped tremendously: Swazi 'toughened up' through a one-hit KO and survived with one HP, and avoided a couple of other potentially deadly blows. Malva's 'Mons were one or two-hit affairs with Psychic and Hurricane, as well as Drasna's ones with with Bug Buzz and Psychic; as for Siebold, his whole team went down neatly with Energy Ball. Wikstrom was the hardest of all by a very long shot, as my whole Move pool was non-effective against his Steel 'Mons. I set up one X Defense and one X Sp. Attack I had in store, and got a nasty case of Torment as I was getting rid of Klefki; still, with patience and lots of Full Restores, I finally managed to wear his team down and could move on to Diantha. It was sweet, sweet revenge to one-shoot her Aurorus with Energy Ball; I didn't have Fairy Wind anymore, but Energy Ball took care of Tyrantrum. Cherry on the cake, Mega Gardevoir went down in two clean hits with Bug Buzz, crowning my Pokemon League epopee in the smoothest and most satisfying way.  

That's it for Vivillon, dear fellow Pokefans; however, you'll be glad to learn that I'm not done with Bug 'Mons quite yet. I have not just one, but two other Bug runs lined up before the end of the Pokemon summer season — Gen III Bug runs, no less! I'll keep the suspense intact for now, and I'll see you Bug 'Mon lovers with glowing (hopefully) reports of those runs. And now, on the next One and 'Monly!