Ok. This was quite a challenging series of battles, especially considering as I was completely unprepared for it. Half asleep, I was returning from levelling up Pokémon in Victory Road, and wandered straight into the Élite Four’s rooms. Oh well, I figured, I had little to lose except about a half hour of levelling up.

So, my team consisted of: Pikameowth, a level 71 Luxray, Rukario (level 70), Emporeon (level 70), Golem (level 70), Staraptor (level 50), and AYR (level 50).

Despite having four level 70+ Pokémon, this was still challenging. Their Pok&eacute’mon have enhanced speed, and “priority” attacks, enabling them to get in a hit first. And I had insufficient healing supplies. Their Pokémon also have moves that you won’t expect, for example Flint’s Infernape with Thunderpunch, which puts any water (non-ground) Pokémon at a disadvantage, and certainly made mincemeat of Emporeon. Unfortunately for Infernape (and fortunately for me), the attack only knocked off about one-third of Emporeon’s HP.

Before this, Aaron and Bertha weren’t too difficult, however Aaron’s Vespiquen managed to wipe out Golem’s PPs for Stone Edge, with a combination of Golem missing and Vespiquen’s Pressure ability. Those 120-damage 80-accuracy moves seem to have their accuracy reduced in Élite Four battles; I should have learned my lesson ever since Charizard’s Fire Spin way back in Blue.

Lucian’s Bronzong was another difficult one, its Steel and Psychic type made it invincible against Poison, super-resistant against Psychic, and resistant against Normal, Grass, Ice, Flying, Rock, Dragon, and Steel. Its only weaknesses were to Fire and Ground. But wait… it has the Levitate ability, making it invincible against Ground, making its only weakness against Fire. And as we know, Fire in Shinou is rarer than hens’ teeth (Combusken’s teeth even).

Cynthia, the Champion, was a real challenge. Her first Pokémon is a level 61 Spiritomb. Its Ghost/Dark type has no weakness at all! And, Emporeon’s Hydro Pump missed. Twice. With Spiritomb’s Pressure ability, this wiped out four PPs, rendering that attack useless. (One can live in hope that one of these attacks may eventually succeed. Naaah.) However, one Surf took it out. Next up was the toughest Pokémon, a level 66 Garchomp, so out came Rukario. His Dragon Pulse took down Garchomp to a sliver of HP, but one Earthquake from Garchomp managed to OHKO Rukario. RIP. That left me with Pikameowth’s electric attacks to struggle against her Rukario. In the end, all I could do was use Pikameowth to stall whilst I Max-Revived my Rukario, who ended up knocking out hers with Aura Sphere. Another one OHKO’d her Gastrodon, and Pikameowth came back for a one-hit Discharge against Milotic. That left only her level 60 Roserade. By this time, most of my Pokémon were weakened, and the Roserade has speed, enabling it to wipe out the slivers of HP on any of my Pokémon. Emporeon, dead, his Drill Peck failing to come off in time. Golem, dead. Rukario, dead. Pikameowth, dead. Staraptor, dead. Her Roserade down to a sliver. To the rescue, AYR’s Quick Attack! The last time I pulled this off was in the battle against Surge’s AOR in Yellow!!!

Victory was mine!!!

Ok, all that remained for the National Pokédex was to capture those three little pixies. Mesprit was a matter of showing up in Lake Verity and watching it escape à la Entei and friends. It still gets added to your Pokédex as having seen it. Uxie took 17 Dusk Balls to capture, but I gave up on Azelf after about ten attempts, and let it die. Its Nasty Plot takes its Special Attack stat up so high so that one hit takes the HP of any of my Pokémon down to about half, leaving me to use 2 Hyper Potions for every ball I was able to throw at it. Oh well, there’s always Pearl. I have a few unused Master Balls from my Hoenn games that I can trade across. But now, I have my dream team of newly-hatched Pokémon in Diamond to trade across to Pearl. All level 1: Growlithe, Pichu, and Rukario (all female!), and HM Bitches Skarmory and Bibarel (ok so the Bibarel is level 21). And you can trade non-Shinou Pokémon into a game before receiving the National Dex!