Challenge 22 rules and results

Ok so this challenge will be a test of your knowledge of the Black 2 and White 2 Gym Leaders and what you think effective strategy is. I will give you a Gym Leader along with the team they use when you first encounter them in normal mode. You have to tell me what you think the best way to handle that Gym Leader is given the options available to players at that point in the game (assume they didn't trade any Pokemon over from someone else or another game, so no wrecking everything with a lv 100 Charizard). At the end of each round, the player I think has the worst explanation will be eliminated. I want you guys to move fast and I don't want a round to last more than 6 hours. Since this is the final 7, I hope that isn't asking for too much and I'll be as reasonable as possible. Alright, if you have any questions, let me know. There will be 6 rounds and the last player standing will win immunity and guarantee their spot in the final 6!

Round 1: Burgh
Swadloon lv 22 No Item; Struggle Bug, Razor Leaf, String Shot, Protect
Dwebble lv 22 No Item; Struggle Bug, Smack Down, Faint Attack, Rock Polish
Leavanny lv 24 Sitrus Berry; Struggle Bug, Razor Leaf, Cut, String Shot

Get going!
(At the end of round 1)
Alright here are everyone's responses:

Purrloin-dudeski7373
I think the best option is to, at that point, have a pignite or a pansear (or maybe even simisear) that know fire type attacks and beat them. If you can't get either of them, then maybe a Tranquil would probably be your next best bet
Zebstrika-TheZappingZebstrika
The best way to deal with burghs team is to make sure you can get against his typing.

Bug Pokemon are normally VERY easy to defeat. 

Just make sure you have a well trained fire type Pokemon such as a level 23 Pignite. The gym should be a singe

. Just make sure that you can defeat it. If you don't have a fire type, a flying type would work just as well. Such 

as Tranquil.

It also would not hurt to have a few super potions at hand, just in case.

And, watch out for Leavanny's Protect.
Leavanny-masterofflam

Anyways, here is my explanation to how to defeat Burgh!!!

My Pokemon Team:

-Pignite, lv 28, Flame Plate; Flame Charge, Rollout, Smog, Arm Thrust

-Munna, lv 26, No Item; Zen Headbutt, Hypnosis, Psybeam, Synchronoise

-Blitzle, lv. 25, No Item; Spark, Pursuit, Flame Charge, Thunder Wave

Battle:

The battle would start off with Munna vs. Swadloon. Munna would have higher Speed stats, so he would go first. I would use Hypnosis, but it fails. His Swadloon would use Razor Leaf. It hits and my Munna loses partial of its HP. Swadloon then uses Protect, while it blocks my move of Zen Headbutt. I use Psybeam next and it kits Swadloon with a powerful effect. Swadloon has Red HP and is close to fainting. Swadloon uses Protect once again, but it fails. Munna then uses Synchronoise, which causes Swadloon to faint.

Burgh would then send out his Dwebble vs. my Munna. I still have the higher Speed stats, so I go first. I have Munna use Hypnosis. It hits this time and puts Dwebble into a deep sleep. I then use Psybeam, which lowers Dwebble's HP down to Yellow. Dweeble is still fast asleep, so I use Zen Headbutt, which knocks out Dweeble.

Burgh finally send out Leavanny vs. my Munna. His Leavanny has faster Speed stats and faints my Munna with Razor Leaf. I then send out my Blitzle vs. his Leavanny. Blitzle has a higher Speed stat, so he uses Thunder Wave, which misses. Leavanny uses Razor Leaf, and it hits, bring Blitzle's HP down to Low Green HP. Blitzle then uses Flame Charge which brings Leavanny's HP down to Low Red, but it Sitrus Berry brings its health back up to Middle Yellow HP. Leavanny uses Razor Leaf again, which brings Blitzle's HP down to Low Red HP. Blitzle uses Flame Charge, but it misses. Leavanny uses Struggle Bug, and it hits, causing Blitzle to faint.

It's down to Pignite vs. Leavanny with Middle Yellow HP. Leavanny has higher Speed stats, so it goes first. Leavanny uses Cut, which brings Pignite's HP down to High Yellow HP. Pignite then uses Flame Charge to end the battle, which he does!!!

Trainer, Orange wins the battle vs. Burgh and earns his 1st Gym Battle!!! ;D
Cofagrigus-THEDKA3

Against Burgh:

Having a fire, flying or rock type.
Joltik-ShinyStoutland
I think I should use a Pignite to deal with Swadloon and Leavanny with Flame Charge. For the Dwebble, I would use an Onix from Relic Passage with Smack Down.
Bouffalant-jacobwinner1999
My best recommendation for this gym is to head out to route 4 . And lurk in the sand until you find a Darumaka. Darumaka is a great fire pokemon who has high physical attack and knows a strong fire move early on. Once you catch a Darumaka, train it until you feel comfortable and take on the gym. Before you do so though i highly reccomened making it hold a wide lens. Wide lens can be obtained in castelia city. The only pokemon not weak to fire punch is dwebble. Dwebble can be taking care of by Dewott or panpout easily, and if you dont have either of them, you still could easily take it our with darumaka. Darumaka is the way!!!!! :)
Volcarona-wifishark8
Didn't do it

Round 1 rankings
1.Bouffalant
2.Zebstrika
3.Joltik
4.Leavanny
5.Purrloin
6.Cofagrigus
7.Volcarona

So Volcarona is out of the challenge. 6 players remain. Now for the next round:
Round 2: Elesa

Emolga lv 28 Static No Item Volt Switch Quick Attack Pursuit Electro Ball

Flaaffy lv 28 Static No Item Volt Switch Take Down Confuse Ray Thunder Wave

Zebstrika lv 30 Motor Drive Sitrus Berry Volt Switch Flame Charge Quick Attack Pursuit

The people who send me the top 5 most helpful strategy suggestions will move on from this round. I’ll hope to end the round 7 am. Get going!

Updated 6:10 PM 12/4/2013

Round 2 results

Purrloin-dudeski7373
For Elesa, a good thing to have would most defiantly be a Krokorok from route 4. If you do not have a Krokorok, 

then Boldore, which you can get from Roggenrola from early in the game is also a good option :)
Zebstrika-TheZappingZebstrika

In Order to efficiently defeat Elisa you have to think ahead. Thunder type Pokemon don't have many weaknesses. It would be best to use a ground type. Thunder doesn't effect Ground.

A Rock type would work just the same. As long as you have one of these Pokemon, she should be easy to defeat. You wouldn't even need a potion. Zebstrika knows a fire and normal type move, but not even those would work good on a Rock/Ground Pokemon.

Zebstrika is still perfect though lol!
Leavanny-masterofflam
Use a Gurdurr with Rock Throw, as well as a Drillbur with Earthquake. Gurdurr can take out Emolga with Rock Throw. Drillbur should also know Rock Slide in order to take out Emolga if Gurdurr faints. You'll need the Rock attacks for that damn Emolga, and some Ground moves, Drillbur learning Dig, to take out Zebstrika. Getting a Darumaka is also a great choice. They have incredible ATK. combine that with their Hustle ability and it can take out an opponents Pokemon with one hit. It's a good "power house" Pokemon to have.
Cofagrigus-THEDKA3
Elesa's weakness is against Ground type pokemon. However, for her Emolga, it is better to use a Rock/Ice type pokemon since Emolga's a flying type. Other than that, it is better to defeat Flaffy and Zebstrika with Ground type. Sandile/Krokorok is a great pokemon to use since it's attacks can chunk off a lot of health from Elesa's two pokemon, and it can easily clear out the Zebstrika (which could seem fairly powerful with it's Fire attacks, but it normally damages Sandile)
Joltik-ShinyStoutland
I would use the Onix from last time on her Emolgs as it is ground, which works pretty well. Smack Down would kill it. For Flaaffy and Zebstrika, a Krokorok would work. Just use the TM for Dig on it, and I have a digging crocodile that could go against Elesa with ease.
Bouffalant-jacobwinner1999
*Note* I strongly recommend not to use a grass type, because although electric moves may not do much to grass types, emolga is resistant to grass and zebstrika knows flame charge. For this gym, the best possible way to win without overleveling is to head to route 4 again and catch a sandile, or if you are playing the sequals a trapinch. Make sure to teach your ground type a rock move, such as rock tomb, and have it know dig as well. Because they are ground, emolga will only attack you with quick attack and persuit, two insanely weak moves, and sandile will take next to no damage from persuit. Flaaffy knows confuse ray and take down, which can be very deadly. I recommend bringing perrism berried or full heals to the fight, or just switching out if you must. Zebstrika knows flame charge, quick attack, and persuit, which is similar to emolga but zebstrika has flame charge. The main strategy during the fight is to start with your ground type. This prevents emolga from switching constantly with volt switch. Take out emolga by spamming rock tomb. To make it even easier, make your ground type hold a wide lens to help that shaky 80% accuracy. Make sure you take emolga down first or else the fight will be insane. With emolga down, you can now use dig. Dig was not an option before because if you attempt to faint flaaffy or zebstrika with dig when Emolga still in, Elesa will most likely switch in to Emolga once you are in the ground and no damage will be taken. With that being said, if you are a high enough level, you will outspeed flaaffy (very slow pokemon) and ko her in one hit. Zebstrika is a challenge. Unless you are overleveled Zebstrika will probably be a two hit ko, plus factoring in the berry and her healing Zebstrika it will be more. Watch out for flame charge because Zebstrika is a very powerful hitter, but you should be fine. If you were to take only one piece of advice from this it would be USE A GROUND TYPE. If you dont, this gym leader battle will be very difficult without some serious training.

And here are the rankings
1.Bouffalant
2.Leavanny
3.Joltik
4.Cofagrigus
5.Zebstrika
6.Purrloin

Purrloin, sorry but you're out of the challenge since I felt your advice was the most general and least original or indepth out of the group.

5 players remain. Time for Round 3
Clay
Krokorok lv 31 Intimidate No Item Bulldoze Crunch Sand Tomb Torment
Sandslash lv 31 Sand Veil No Item Bulldoze Crush Claw Rollout Fury Cutter
Excadrill lv 33 Sand Force Sitrus Berry Bulldoze Metal Claw Slash Rock Slide

Alright get going! Let's end this round hopefully in 6 hours.

Updated 10:10 PM 12/4/2013

Round 3 results

Zebstrika-TheZappingZebstrika

Krokorok is his First Pokemon. Krokorok can be a very good Pokemon. Although, Ground types are easy to defeat. 2 out of the 3 starters can wipe it out. It might even be a one hit KO. Make sure not to use Psychic Pokemon because Krokorok will defeat it with Crunch.

Next we have Sandslash. They have good attack and defense. But once again a water/grass Pokemon will dominate.

*Note* If you chose Tepig as your starter, you can easily get other good water Pokemon. Palpitoad can be found easily and is great for a ground gym. Or it wouldn't hurt to catch a seawaddle.

His final Pokemon is Escavalier. This Pokemon is very strong. I highly recommend this for your team. But it still can be taken out easily by your grass/water.

I would recommend a few super potions because although you probably have something strong against these Pokemon, they are massive attackers.
Leavanny-masterofflam

Here's are some tips and strategies on how to defeat Clay:

To start, there are some good Grass-type Pokemon you can get in the Lostlorn Forest, such as Roselia, and Cottonee (Black 2) / Petilil (White 2). The version exclusives evolve into very helpful Pokemon with the Sun Stone (especially Petilil, who evolves into Lilligant which can learn Quiver Dance). You can get a Shiny Stone from a little girl in a house on Route 6 to evolve Roselia into Roserade, which has monstrous Special Attack.

You can also try to catch yourself a Timburr in the Relic Passage, since two of Clay's Pokemon are weak to Fighting-type attacks. Once it evolves into Gurdurr, it can learn Bulk Up at Level 29, which is great because Clay doesn't have any special attacks to his name. It'd be even better if you can trade with another Gen V game to get it to evolve into Conkeldurr, but even if you don't it's still a decent choice as just a Gurdurr.

Lastly, if you're REALLY desperate, you can get a Ducklett on the Driftveil Drawbridge and train it against Audino until it evolves into Swanna at Level 35. It'll learn FeatherDance and Roost along the way. However, that's the easy way out, since it'll be higher leveled than his entire team. Make sure to also look out for Krokorok's Intimidate!

And remember, if you have the Eviolite, that helps greatly for stuff that isn't fully evolved. Hope this all helps!
Cofagrigus-THEDKA3
Before facing Clay, you should have your Pokemon at least to Level 30 to have a better result. Despite clay's Pokemon being weak to Water type, you are able to defeat Sandshrew and Krokorok using water or grass type Pokemon. For example, to easily knock out Krokorok you can use Dewott's Water Pulse move when he is intimidated. You can also use Dewott to defeat Sandshrew before it can use it's threatening move, "Bulldozer" Grass Type Pokemon like Roselia or Lilligant can help you in this battle, plus any Pokemon that has Razor Leaf, Sleep Powder, and Leech Seed. Now for Excadrill there is a different way. He is 2x weak to both fighting and fire Pokemon, which gives you a huge advantage if you have a Pignite/Emboar. Same with Sandshrew, his bulldoze move can be a problem, so just attack with that Pokemon, and you can easily defeat Excadrill.
Joltik-ShinyStoutland

All you would need is a Dewott.

Razor Shell Krokorok.

Razor Shell Sandslash.

Water Pulse and Revenge Excadrill.

Lucario from Flocessy Ranch would work as well on Excadrill. It wouldn't destroy it, because of Lucario's Steel typing.
Bouffalant-jacobwinner1999

Normally there is a certain pokemon you have access to right before the gym that will be immense help to beating the gym. This fight is not the case. I will do each pokemon seperately.

Krokorok: If you chose snivy as your starter, krokorok will be a piece of cake. Just use leaf tornado and you will be 100% fine. If you chose oshawatt as your starter, be careful that you have a water move other than razor shell. Krokorok has the ability intimidate, which lowers the opponents attack. There are two ways to solve this. 1. Switch pokemon then switch back to dewott, or 2. If you have water pulse just use that. If you chose tepig as your starter, it may be difficult for you. My best recommendation would be to catch a deerling from route 6. It has a close evolution, at level 34 so it wouldnt be insanely hard to train and evolve it into sawsbuck. Use either energy ball or jump kick (both do insane amounts of damage) on krokorok to take it down.

Sandslash: Sandslash is either a tough pokemon to take down or an easy one depending on how you fight it. If you are using physical moves it will be tough to take down. Leaf tornado and water pulse are your best bets. Sandslash does know fury cutter, but servine has enough defense to take a few hits from it. If you chose tepig, your best bet is sawsbuck again. Just spam the heck out of energy ball and it will go down because of that low special defense.

Excadrill: Here we go. This is the only pokemon thats non legendary or non starter thats ranked uber in the metagame. Excadrill has legendary attack and high speed, and his steel type doesnt hurt when it comes to defenses. If you chose snivy as a starter your best bet is still leaf tornado if you can keep lowering his accuracy it will help you so much and every turn will wittle away hp. He will heal but you can take him out. If you chose oshawatt it will be easy to take him out, just spam water pulse and he will lose about 3/4 of his hp everytime you use it, and it may even confuse him and get the job done faster. If you chose tepig, you may think "oh i will just use fire since he is a steel type", im warning you, dont. Excadrill is faster than pignite and with that insane attack, he will ohko pignite. Your best bet is still sawsbuck. Jump kick combined with sawsbucks high attack works wonders against excadrill.

Overall, clay is the hardest boss so far because they give you little time to train and not many pokemon are availible for you to fight clay with, but with sawsbuck, servine, or dewott, the battle will be much easier

And here are the rankings

1.Bouffalant

(don't worry, the rank between 1st and 2nd isn't as large as you might think)

2.Leavanny

3.Zebstrika

4.Cofagrigus

5.Joltik

Joltik, you are out of the challenge. You were very vague and you only covered advice for 1 of 3 starter Pokemon options.

We are down to 4 players. Now for the next round

Round 4: Skyla

Swoobat lv 37 Unaware No Item Acrobatics Heart Stamp Assurance Attract

Skarmory lv 37 Sturdy No Item Air Cutter Steel Wing Fury Attack Agility

Swanna lv 39 Big Pecks Sitrus Berry Air Slash Bubblebeam Roost Featherdance

Ok get going!

Updated 12/5/2013 3:50 PM

Zebstrika-TheZappingZebstrika decided to drop out of the challenge so we're down to 3. Leavanny-masterofflam vs. Cofagrigus-THEDKA3 vs. Bouffalant-jacobwinner1999

Round 5: Drayden

Druddigon lv 46 Sheer Force None Dragon Tail Revenge Slash Crunch

Flygon lv 46 Levitate None Dragon Tail Crunch Earth Power Rock Slide

Haxorus lv 48 Mold Breaker Sitrus Berry Dragon Tail Slash Assurance Dragon Dance

Get going!

Updated 12/5/2013 9:50 PM

Leavanny-masterofflam

Drayden is a Dragon Type Gym Leader, therefore having Ice-Type Pokemon/Moves is crucial to the outcome of the battle. I would greatly encourage you to use Beartic with Blizzard to knock out his Dragon type Pokemon with a KO. If that doesn't work, watch out for his Fighting type moves that his Pokemon have. If Beartic could also learn Brine, it would be an efficient way to knock out his Flygon. Training a Vanilluxe to the max could do some serious damage as well when it learns Ice Beam at lv. 36. If you could, have it learn Hail as well, that way it does extra damage to his Pokemon and not your Ice-Types.

Drayden starts off with his Druddigon to get the fight rolling. This thing has several nasty attacks to hit you with, including Crunch and Revenge for some type coverage. Crunch hits extra hard due to Druddigon's Sheer Force ability, while Revenge makes any Ice-type pay if it doesn't knock out Druddigon in one hit. Its Dragon Tail forces it to strike last (actually, Revenge does, too), but it does decent damage and forces you to switch out afterwards.

His Flygon is the next thing up, and this thing is interesting in the fact that it's a Ground/Dragon-type with Levitate, meaning it is immune to Ground-type attacks (as well as Electric-type attacks, but you weren't going to use those against Drayden's dragons anyway, were you?). It packs Earth Power for doing potentially serious damage, as well as Crunch and Dragon Tail. Rock Slide can also be used to help combat Ice-type Pokemon looking to take advantage of its weakness.

Last comes his Haxorus. This thing is nothing to take lightly, because Haxorus has amazingly high Attack, plus it likes to open with Dragon Dance to boost both its Speed and Attack by one stage. That can quickly turn the fight against you, so try to take it out as quickly as possible! The only Dragon-type attack it uses, though, is Dragon Tail, which strikes last and gives you a chance to hit it regardless of its Speed bonuses, but it may decide to use either Slash or Assurance instead.

Cofagrigus-THEDKA3

For this gym leader, the ideal way is that Drayden's Pokemon are weak to Ice type and Dragon. For an ice type, 

use Beartic because it has a really high attack stat and knows the move Icicle Crash, which is great for a one-hit 

KO. He is a great pokemon to use against Flygon and and Haxorus because of this. However, it serves a 

problem against his Druddigon since it learns a fighting move, one of Beartic's weaknesses. For this, use a high

 defense Pokemon that won't be weak to Druddigon's moves.

Bouffalant-jacobwinner1999

Drayden is an insanely hard gym leader, probably the hardest gym leader in the game. The easiest possible way to win this fight is to whip out those max repels, and surf until you find rippling water. If you keep looking in the rippling water you will eventually find A Lapras. Lapras is just the best possible option for the fight with Drayden, and while extremely rare, it still beats training all of your pokemon to level 54 which takes forever. Now that you caught a Lapras (level 30-40) it should know Ice Beam and Perish Song. Ice Beam just works wonders against Drayden, and Perish Song, well i will get to that when we get there. Lapras has great special attack and Insanely high HP. once you train Lapras to around 45-48, just head for the gym and you're ready to take on Drayden

Druddigon: Druddigon is a very strong hitter but Lapras's amazing stats won't have you worried at all. Druddigon is slow and although it has reasonable special defense Lapras should take it out in 2 hits or even 1 hit. If Druddigon uses Dragon Tail on you your best bet is probably to finish it off with whatever Pokemon is swapped out unless your moves do no damage because 1. Lapras will probably already given 3/4 of damage, almost fainting druddigon, and 2. there is the risk that whenever you switch Druddigon will just use dragon tail again.

Flygon: Flygon has a high attack and high speed, so it will outspeed you. Your Lapras should be at higher than half health, so it will survive any attack from Flygon, even Rock Silde, which Lapras is weak to. If you use Ice Beam Flygon will go down in one hit, there is no question at all. Just make sure that once you faint Flygon, YOU DO NOT SWITCH Pokemon! I know it may seem wise to switch so you can heal Lapras, but Haxorus will stack Dragon Dances and take down your entire team if you let them.

Haxorus: Here we go. Let me first say that if your Lapras has Red HP you must heal or he will take you out. Make sure you have full health and he will probably attack you again but you won't be in red health so don't worry. Haxorus will begin stacking Dragon Dances. Instead of using Ice Beam just take no risks and use Perish Song. For the next 3 turns, just heal and no matter what he does he will go down in 3 turns. Even if he uses 2 dragon dances and attacks you, you will live, even if it's by the slimest margin. Both of you will go down and the fight will be yours (assuming you have 5 or 6 team members and you only sacrificed Lapras and one other)

There is another strategy which is less time consuming but may not payoff. It requires any Pokemon that can learn Ice Punch. It takes 10 red shards (which you should have at this point) and you must go to one of the hotels in Driftveil City and there will be a move tutor man. Here is a list of Pokemon that can learn Ice Punch: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Ice_Punch_(move)#By_Move_Tutor

Use any one of those Pokemon (make sure they have high attack though! Probably the best possible Pokemon is either Floatzel, Lucario, Throh/Sawk, or Scrafty) and train them to level 48-50. Just Use Ice Punch against Drayden's Pokemon. Druddigon and Flygon will easily go down (especially Flygon), and Haxorus will too if your Pokemon have high enough attack. If you want to be 100% to win this battle, use Both Lapras and a pokemon with Ice Punch! This will guarantee your win against Drayden.

I have one more thing to say. If you are lucky enough to be playing the game when the season is winter, you can catch a Cubchoo at route 7. Cubchoo will evolve into Beartic, which decimates Drayden's whole team with Icicle Crash. If it isn't winter and the above strategies don't work, just change your season to winter and backtrack to route 7 and catch Cubchoo.

The reason this explanation is so long is because Drayden is so hard to defeat. If you don't have Beartic, Lapras, or Ice Punch (best Pokemon is Lucario for Ice Punch, such high attack and Steel type helps a lot, just watch out for Earth Power!), prepare for a great challenge. I looked and looked and I don't see many, if any, better ways to approach this gym.

The Results

1st Bouffalant

2nd Leavanny

3rd Cofagrigus

I don't like to judge things by length especially this late in the game, but ultimately to be as fair as possible, I couldn't eliminate anyone else but you Cofagrigus. Sorry but you're out of the challenge.

It's down to Leavanny and Bouffalant!

Round 6 (Final Round)

Carracosta lv 49 Sturdy No Item Scald Smack Down Crunch Shell Smash

Wailord lv 49 Water Veil No Item Scald Rollout Bounce Amnesia

Jellicent lv 51 Cursed Body Sitrus Berry Scald Ominous Wind Brine Recover

Get going! The best one wins immunity!

The final results

I'm not even gonna show what Leavanny and Bouffalant put for the final round. But I know who wins immunity. It's Bouffalant. But let me explain. It turns out last round Leavanny copy and pasted a large amount of his response from Marriland's website. I don't mind you using the internet to your advantage, but I'm trying to compare Leavanny and Bouffalant's insight on how to beat each gym leader, not Marriland vs. Bouffalant. I'm pretty lenient on this sort of stuff so the only punishment Leavanny gets is losing the challenge. If this was early on in the game and you copied from someone else on your team, that's a different story and I never made a rule against it. But here it's the final 7 and a lot is on the line, so I reward people who do things fairly and use their own brain as opposed to taking the easy way out. And I know you've been stressing out about school stuff (join the club) so that might've been the reason why you did that, but it still doesn't change how I feel about this.

Bouffalant, congratulations. You're safe from the vote and you are guaranteed to make it to the final 6 for the third time in my camps, following Total Pokemon Media and Total Pokemon Black 2.

After 22 challenges and surviving 21 eliminations, it is over for one of the following 6 players:
Purrloin-dudeski7373
Zebstrika-TheZappingZebstrika
Leavanny-masterofflam
Cofagrigus-THEDKA3
Joltik-ShinyStoutland
Volcarona-wifishark8

Vote someone off and explain your votes and send confessionals! In the event of a tie, we go by whoever gets the most votes first. But the only tie scenarios are 3-3-1 or 2-2-2-1 votes and I don't see either of those happening. It should be a very interesting vote especially after what happened in Elimination 21. Good luck and get going! Voting ends tomorrow night!