The Pokemon Crystal Morty fight is where this series took its first loss. Ten episodes, five weeks off, and a Gengar that would not go down.
Where We Left Off
Last time we survived a rival battle in the Burned Tower that we had no business surviving, then fell straight through the floor. This episode picks up in the basement with the team exactly as beat up as we left it.
The first few minutes were a reunion tour. We caught a Koffing on the way out, and Maximus Prime in chat named him Grimace. Then I walked into the middle of the room and the three legendary beasts woke up and bolted, which scared me far more than it should have. Jess assured me nothing down there could kill us. She was right, but I did not believe her at the time.
Prepping for the Pokemon Crystal Morty Fight
Ecruteak’s gym is ghost type, and that is a problem for a team built around Jack the Quilava, Fenris the Geodude, and a pile of normal types. Normal and fighting moves do nothing to ghosts. Our only ghost is Maul, and ghost moves hit him just as hard as he hits them.
Fenris showed up with the strategy that carried the whole episode. Morty’s trainers put you to sleep with Hypnosis, then use Dream Eater. A Pokemon can only carry one status effect at a time. So we went to Sprout Tower and let wild Gastly paralyze the team on purpose, one at a time, before walking into the gym. Paralyzed Pokemon cannot be put to sleep.
I called it strategery. I call it the most Pokemon knowledge I have absorbed in a single sitting.
The Sages Go Down
Attempt one at the gym went badly. Sage Ping’s Gastly and Medium Grace’s Haunter chewed through Maul and Jack, and we limped back to the Pokemon Center with two fainted Pokemon.
Attempt two was the good run. We bought potions, went back to Sprout Tower for another round of paralysis, and cleared every sage in the building. Sage Jeffrey’s Haunter hit us with Night Shade twice in a row and we still got through. By the time the last Gastly fell, I really thought we had it.
Morty
Morty leads with a level 21 Gastly, then two Haunters, then Gengar. We got the Gastly. We got the first Haunter. Then the paralysis that saved us against the sages turned on us. Maul, Jack, and Fenris were all paralyzed, and paralyzed Pokemon skip turns. Haunter’s health bar did not move for three rounds because nothing we sent out could act.
Maul went down. Jack went down. Fenris got one last Self-Destruct on Gengar, and Gengar shrugged it off. Then Dream Eater, then Grimace, then Logan, then Hoot. Everybody.
Fenris had called it in chat two hours earlier: we were under-leveled and playing too cautiously. He was right. He is usually right when he disagrees with me.
What’s Next
We saved before the fight, so nothing is lost except pride. Next week is a grind episode. Maul needs levels, and probably an evolution, before we try the Pokemon Crystal Morty fight again. If you have advice on where to train for a ghost gym, drop it in the comments, no spoilers past Ecruteak.
The chat this week was a full crew: Fenris on strategy, Max on names and moral support, Seb the Sleeper on food and Mega Man, and 8-Bit Moss Player arriving just in time for the collapse. Congrats to Fenris on the birthday Sega CD.
Catch up on the run so far with the compilation of the first 10 hours, or go back to Episode 9 for the rival fight that set this up.
New schedule: Pokemon streams every Monday at 6:00 PM Central. The Game Show airs Wednesdays at 9:00 PM Central on the BreakmanX YouTube channel.
