30: The Elite Four Battle I -- Sidney

30: The Elite Four Battle I -- Sidney

The first member of the Elite Four you will face is Sidney, who is fond of Dark-type Pokemon as you will see by his team and their moves.  Sidney tends to practice an attrition-based strategy, damaging you with status hits and whittling away at your XP with a combination of direct and indirect attacks.

His team consists of the following Pokemon in alphabetical order (the order they are used varies):

Absol (Level 49)
Cacturne (Level 46)
Crawdaunt (Level 48)
Mightyena (Level 46)
Shiftry (Level 48)

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-- Sidney's Pokemon Team --

Level 49 Absol (Dark)
Moves: Aerial Ace, Rock Slide, Slash, Swords Dance

Strategy: Every Trainer has one Pokemon in their team that is their number one -- or main.  Often it is of a slightly higher level than the others, and it is often used for clean-up.  For Sidney that is Absol. 

His attacks are all physical so this is a time when pulling out your big gun to end this quickly is a good idea.  That and your highest level team member can take more damage and thus better survive the attacks.

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Level 46 Cacturne (Grass/Dark)
Moves: Cotton Spore, Faint Attack, Leech Seed, Needle Arm

Strategy: Sidney will use the moves in combination, first to slow you down, then to hit you with attacks that cause you to flinch, thus allowing him to beat on you without you getting to beat back once his Pokemon has a faster attack speed than yours.  That being the case you have to counter his Cotton Spore attacks to retain your superior speed so that you get to hit first, thus negating his flinch attacks.  If you cannot do that, than a blitz attack is mandatory here.

You can also take advantage of attacks that put you temporarily out of his range -- Fly, Dive, that sort of thing, so that his ability to slow your attack speed is eliminated.  You likely will not succeed 100% of the time if you use only one tactic, but by mixing them up you should easily manage this battle.

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Elite Four Battle I - Sidney

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Level 48 Crawdaunt (Dark/Water)
Moves: Facade, Strength, Surf, Swords Dance

Strategy: This is simply a nasty combination -- blitz attacks are the way to go, obviously, though you may find distance attacks that put you out of his range are also useful here.  There is not much else to be said for this one, other than be darn sure not to use Pokemon that are weak against Water-type attacks, right?

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Level 46 Mightyena (Dark)
Moves: Crunch, Double-Edge, Roar, Sand-Attack

Strategy: Sidney will use Sand-Attack on you to reduce your accuracy, so using moves that are certain to hit -- like Aerial Ace -- is one way to go.  You may find it useful to use accuracy improving items from your kit to counter his use of Sand-Attack.  Ideally in this sort of battle you want to use blitz attacks to take the Pokemon out quickly so that it never has the chance to mess with your accuracy, but remember that Sidney has several Full Restores and Max Potions, so you want to be sure that you do not lower its HP below 24% or he will use them -- get it low, then hit it with a KO Move.

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Level 48 Shiftry (Dark/Grass)
Moves: Double Team, Extrasensory, Swagger, Torment

Strategy: Expect to be hit with Confuse a LOT.  And Thank the Pokemon Gods for your Yellow Flute!  You did get the set of Flutes made in Fallarbor right?  Or at least at a minumum the Yellow, Red, and Blue Flutes?  I hope so because otherwise this is going to be a painful battle.

Between dealing with the Confusion Stat-down and his using Double-Team your miss rate is going to be frustrating, so this is a good battle to use your Flying Pokemon on, with Aerial Ace being your leading attack.

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After the battle ends the Trainer will tell you whatever is on their mind or reflect upon their experiences in battling you as they unlock the door in the north wall behind them and open it to allow you to pass.  On the other side of that door is a set of stairs leading to yet another door and the next battle area.

Before walking through the second door and entering the next arena, pause and check your team, healing any members that need to be healed using potions or other kit items.  Then check the PP levels of their moves.  The smallest replacement level is 10 PP and obviously as this particular item is rarer, more valuable, and harder to obtain, you will want to only use them to your best advantage, so if the PP level is marginal -- say less than 8 points gone -- there is no point in using a PP restoring item from your kit unless you absolutely need to have that move topped off.

Obviously you should correct any lingering status issues now, and review your team positions to put the best member in the number one slot for the coming battles (based on types).  Last, you should save ONLY if you are sure you can carry the day and win the battles ahead. 

If there is any doubt in your mind -- any at all -- do NOT save the game.  If you do save the game you are locking yourself into this battle series as there is no way out of here save for winning and becoming the Pokemon League Champion.  As long as you do not save inside the arena areas, you can always reload to your last save point -- which we made in the Lobby of the Pokemon League -- allowing yourself the option of some more leveling, or adding kit items, what have you.  The point is that by not saving inside the arenas you give yourself the ability to learn from your experiences here and tweak both your team and your kit to address any weaknesses you uncover.

Once you have finished taking care of recovering your team's capability for battle -- and save or not save depending -- walk through the second door and begin your next battle!