Day 2: Poisoned Water

The first gym took a heavy toll on my Pokemon.  I was glad to be able to move forward out of the town and catch a few new Pokemon to train.  It was a great surprise to me to discover that the next town and gym were adjacent to the towns I had already explored!  Ack!  Charmander did not cherish the thought of walking into the Poison Gym alone.

Luckily, there were fields on the south side town!  Thrilled beyond belief, I took Charmander to the fields and waited to see who the newest member of my party would be.  Rustling in the grass there was a.... Pidove!  Oh...  Not exactly a thrilling sight for a battered grass type Pokemon trainer.  I issued Charmander the command to Growl at his opponent, reducing their ability to deal devastating damage.  Between that and a hefty use of potions to restore his health, I finally managed to reduce the Pidove's attack and health to low enough levels to catch them.  With two options to fight with, my prospects started looking up immediately.

I continued my exploration around everywhere-but-the-gym, and discovered an industrial complex and trainers looking to combat.  It was in those fields that I encountered a Magnemite.  Perfect!  Since Lambchop had been taken out to pasture, I was thrilled to add another electric type to my party.  My resistance to its lightening made catching Magnestic an easy task.  NOTE: at the time, I thought the industrial complex was detached from the other Southern fields I caught the Pidove.  I don't actually think that's the case, so this may not have been legit to my rules.

With my two new friends, I began training them up, and made short (and much easier) work of the Poison Gym than I did the previous one.  This time, I lost none of my friends to the fight.  With an armament of 3 Pokemon at my disposal, my prospects are looking up again.

Day 1: CATCH... and release

In my previous post, I forgot to mention what I named the Snivy I was given.  I chose the only appropriate name: Charmander.  Now, when I do battle, I can loudly (and proudly) proclaim that my Charmander is the only one who can EASILY defeat those pesky water Pokemon.  Hahaha! Take that!

Having receive the gift of Charmander into my life, I set off for Route 19.  In this, I caught only the first pokemon I saw: A male Purrloin who I promptly named Saliva.  Cats are weird. Their first battle was against a mighty Patrat.  Weakening the Patrat significantly, Saliva then tapped out so that Charmander could feel better about himself and bring the battle to a close.  The next fight was against another Purrloin, and Saliva did so well that he gained clear knowledge, increasing his ability to fight and defend against further Pokemon, and learning to Growl for the first time.

Battling my way through Route 19, I cross into Floccesy City.  After a quick pit stop at the PokeCenter, I crossed into Route 20, where I befriended a Patrat: Gophrbroke.  He was a weak runt of a pokemon, but he chose to tag along, for the time being.  Facing off against other trainers, I made my way to the Ranch to the North, where I encountered a wild Mareep.  I made that Pokemon into lambchops before it even knew how to react.  By that, I mean I literally named the Mareep "Lambchops."  I now have electricity at my disposal!  With Lambchops in hand, I face off against Gary, my Rival.  His Tepig quickly succumbs to a Thunder Wave, and then is tackled by my fearsome sheep.  The ability to control lightening continues to grow, LC learns to attack with a Thundershock as a result of the battle.

About this time, Gophrbroke seems clearly distraught to be in close proximity to the new powerhouse that is Lambchop.  I made my way back to Floccesy city, and release him back into the wild of Route 20 to be with his family.

For now, my lineup consists of:

1. Charmander (Grass)
2. Saliva           (Normal)
3. Lambchop    (Electric)

EDIT: Upon exploring the ranch where Lambchop was found, I stumbled upon a Team Plasma member who was in the process of stealing a Herdier.  I drove them off, and returned the poorkemon to its rightful owner.  I was then directed back to Aspertia City to fight my first gym leader!  I breezed past the first two fights, dashing their Patrats and other pitiful Pokemon against my mighty team.  Lambchop proved especially helpful, as their electric charged and paralyzed enemies.  Cheren, however, proved more difficult.  

Gyms are hard, yo.

Leading with Lambchop, We repeated our Thundershocks, as before.  Cheren pulled no punches, and with a lucky shot, critical hit on a tackle, sending Lambchop to the grave before taking out a single one of his Pokemon.  Charmander mopped up quickly behind the late Lambchop.  Then, I switched to Saliva for the final fight.  Saliva proceeded to throw dirt in their face, reducing their feeble attempts to connect to near-zero.  Unfortunately, near-zero was not good enough, and while Saliva did manage to deal some small amount of damage, eventually they connected with a single blow.  Because they had been Worked Up, that single blow was enough.  Backed into a corner, I threw Charmander back out into the fight.  In a failed attempt to bind my opponent, Charmander was also hit by a tackle, reducing their hit points to a single one.  Gulping, Charmander let loose with a Vine Whip.  CRITICAL HIT!  The foe went down and Charmander saved the day.  My team survived by the skin of their teeth; 1 HP away from permanent death.

New lineup, resulting from fight: Charmander (Grass).  Looks like I'm going to need to catch more Pokemon.

Snivy I Choose You!

With the hype for Pokemon being at an all time high, thanks to Pokemon Go, I have decided to start my own Pokemon Challenge.  The last Pokemon game that I played was Ruby, on the Game Boy Advanced.  I have fond memories of the game, although I played both Red and Silver drastically more than I ever did Ruby.  So, I decided to pick up a copy of Pokemon Black 2 and play through that, not having any familiarity with anything new since then.

These days, all of the hype is playing through Pokemon games under some constraint.  People are doing the wedlocke/nuzlocke thing, so I thought I would impose my own limitations during the course of the game.  Here are the ones I have laid out:

1. I may only ever have 6 Pokemon.  I am not allowed to catch a pokemon if I do not already have room for it in my team.  There will be absolutely NO using the Computer to store additional Pokemon.  Any pokemon that may be sent to the computer, for whatever reason, will be released.
   
2. Every pokemon will receive a nickname.
   
3. A Pokemon that faints will be released.  They no longer respect a trainer that cannot handle their own family.
   
4. No Evolving.  Evolved Pokemon may be captured, but I must not let any of my pokemon evolve.  Any accidentally evolved Pokemon will be released.

With those restrictions in place, let the game begin!  I will catalog where I am in the plot periodically, as well as every pokemon caught, and released (and for what reason it was).

For my starter I chose the Grass pokemon: Snivy.  He's a cute little thing; let's see how long he lasts.