On May 30, 2021, my colleague Victor V. Gurbo and I had an online Pokémon battle using Sword and Shield. We had done this many times before, although not since summer 2020. This battle was unique in that it was the first time I captured the video of a battle on my computer using a cheap video capture card and Open Broadcaster Software. In this article, I will explain why I recorded the battle, what it has to do with our (still) upcoming Pokémon Draft Battle project, and post the video. Along with the video, I will provide commentary on my ultimately victorious battle against Victor. Our rust showed quite a bit – with neither of us having played much Pokémon in recent months, but the final product is presentable.
Why Record Pokémon Battles?
In early December, Victor and I drafted Pokemon teams to use against one another in an online Pokémon Sword and Shield battle (Victor has Sword, I have Shield). Although we planned to wage our battle in February, circumstances intervened. It will still happen – albeit long overdue. One circumstance that intervened was my having the idea to see if I could set up a system to record our battle. I acquired a cheap USB dongle for outputting HDMI to my computer. I had successfully tested it with my Nintendo Switch and work computer a couple of months ago. On May 30, 2021, Victor and I had an online Pokémon battle with our preexisting Pokémon to see how my recording would work.
We completed our battle and my capturing the content using Open Broadcaster Software was successful. I then needed a way to upload the video. I do not want to upload videos directly to The New Leaf Journal, primarily on account of server resources and storage. However, I also do not want to use a stalker-ish big tech third-party service. I settled on uploading the video to LBRY (its video front-end is now Odyssee), a generally privacy-friendly (at least compared to YouTube, Daily Motion, Twitch, and the like) video hosting platform based on the LBRY blockchain. We used this service once for Victor’s excellent Mondrian video.
The final product looks terrific, as you will see in a couple of sections.
Prelude to Battle
I had suggested to Victor that we try recording a battle as a test a few weeks prior to May 30. He asked me if I would be free in the evening only a couple of hours before we ultimately battled. Neither of us had much time to prepare a team, and that would have been more difficult for me working on my computer. I fortunately had a saved battle team that was good enough for all normal purposes. I made a couple of minor modifications and then told Victor I was ready.
If only things were so easy…
To begin, I forgot that creating an online battle does not automatically connect your game to the internet. That caused a bit of a delay. In our first attempt to battle, I accidentally only selected one of my six Pokémon before hitting “ready.” The issue was that there is a minor lag when my Switch is connected to my computer. For a menu-based game like Pokémon, a tiny lag is not a big issue. But one has to be aware of it.
I forfeited the 1-on-6 battle. Victor counted that as a victory. We went again with the same teams, and as you will see below, I was able to select a full team.
The May 30, 2021, Pokémon Battle Video
The full video is embedded above.
The battle proper starts at about 1:20 into the recording.
Note: I wrote a basic introduction to the mechanics of Pokémon battles in my Pokémon Draft battle preview.
For my commentary, I will include outgoing links to video timestamps where appropriate, but you can also watch the entire video without leaving The New Leaf Journal and follow my commentary by scrolling down.
Do note that the battle is shown from my perspective since I was the one recording. I am “Celia” and Victor is “NIXON.”
Our Team Preview
I brought Kantonian Perisan (“Purrsianpook”), Type: Null (“Type: POOKIE”), Obstagoon (“Pookpapa”), Clefable (“Pookigakirei”), Galarian Rapidash (“Mylilpookzy”), and Espeon (“Pook Present”).
Victor brought Gengar (“#Gengadawg”), Dragapult (“#Dragadawg-S”), Ferrathorn (“#Ferrodawg”), Toxapex (#Toxadawg), Dragonite (#Dragondawg), and Jirachi (“#Jirachidawg”).
Because this battle was just for fun, I will not give a full in-depth explanation of the teams. My team featured two pure offensive Pokémon: Obstagoon and Rapidash (both strong on the physical side). Clefable is the best Pokémon on the team and my strongest special attacker, but it is also relatively bulky (especially against special attacks). Type: Null is my strongest defensive Pokémon and something of a utility pivot. Despite Espeon being an offensive Pokémon by nature, mine was focused on defense and on its special ability to reflect entry hazards – which Victor tends to be fond of. My Persian is a gimmicky special attacker, but I made it work in this battle.
Victor’s team featured four very offensive Pokémon: Gengar (special attacker) and Dragapult, Dragonite, and Jirachi (physical) along with two defensive utility Pokémon: Ferrothorn and Toxapex. Victor tends to love setting up traps with Ferrothorn (stealth rock) and Toxapex (toxic spikes), so I tend to always bring something to deal with them when I battle him. In this case, the job fell on Espeon. In theory, Victor’s Jirachi posed a strong threat to all three of my offensive Pokémon.
A Paralyzing Battle Start (1:03)
I led the battle with Type: Null (“Type: POOKIE”) and Victor began with Dragapult (“#Dragadawg-S”). Dragapult is very fast and has a huge attack stat (I recalled Victor runs a physical attacking version), but I knew that Type: Null could take any of its attacks. I went for thunder wave since paralysis would cut Dragapult’s speed and effectively cripple it. However, Victor made a smart play by using U-Turn, a hit and run attack, and switching into his Ferrothorn (“#Ferrodawg”), which did not much mind paralysis.
Having paralyzed Ferrothorn, I had no intention of staying in. For one, Ferrothorn knows Knock Off, which does damage and removes the holder’s held item. My Type: Null has an item that significantly raises its physical and special defense, and without it, it would not be of much use. Furthermore, Ferrothorn could also set up stealth rock, which would be a problem for my team.
As I have done countless times, I switched into Espeon (“Pook Present”) – which Victor predicted and correctly landed a super effective knock off. No matter, my Espeon has a healing move (Morning Sun), knock off does less damage after it removes the held item, and my Espeon also knows Reflect, which halves the damage incurred from physical attacks for 5 turns. Victor’s Ferrothorn (probably) had stealth rock, which sets up an entry hazard on the opponent’s side of the field which causes damage every time a Pokémon switches in. However, my Espeon has a rare ability that repels rocks.
Suffice it to say, Ferrothorn could not hit through Espeon. Once I was healed and had reflect up, I began repeatedly using psychic, hoping to hit something on a switch.
A Hard Prediction Costs Victor His Dragapult (3:34)
Although my Espeon has no special attack investment, its base special attack is high enough that it still hits hard off its special side. Victor correctly saw that he had nothing to gain from the Ferrothorn vs Espeon matchup (it would ultimately be a stalemate). However, he appears to have not guessed that I would stay in and attack. In hindsight, Jirachi would have been a good switch because it is reasonably bulky and resists my Espeon’s attacks (that would have forced me to switch). Instead, he switched in Dragapult. This was an error for two reasons. First, Dragapult is not particularly bulky, as you see from its taking more than half damage from a neutral-effective psychic. Secondly, I had reflect up, which reduced the effectiveness of Dragapult’s physical attacks.
I did not want to sit on the Espeon vs Dragapult matchup, however. Victor likely switched Dragapult in because it is (A) faster than Espeon, meaning it would move first and (B) it has two super effective moves against Espeon. Having switched in, Victor’s best move would have been to use U-Turn again, which would have done significant damage to Espeon (albeit probably not a clean KO with reflect up) or allowed him to scout whatever I switched in while doing damage. I decided to make a very aggressive prediction. Dragapult has a massive physical attack, but only one physical ghost move to take advantage of it – Phantom Force. Phantom Force is a two-turn move (disappear on turn 1, attack on turn 2). It is super effective against Espeon (a psychic type) but has no effect on normal types.
Victor must have gambled that I would stay in with Espeon to try to finish Dragapult off. Instead, I switched into Obstagoon (“Pook Papa”), a Dark/Normal type that could easily 1-shot Dragapult if it had the chance. Now had Dragapult used U-Turn, that would have done heavy damage to Obstagoon (weak against bug moves) and given Victor a free switch-in of his own.
Alas for Victor, he used Phantom Force. Why did this work out poorly for him? Firstly, he could not switch Dragapult out while it was in the middle of its two-turn attack. Secondly, Dragapult’s being faster than Obstagoon worked to Victor’s disadvantage. Had I been faster, I would have attacked and hit nothing but air before Victor “landed” his attack for no damage. However, because Victor was faster, he moved first and I hit Dragapult with knock off for the first knockout of the match.
Furthermore, Obstagoon was burned by its held item – Flame Orb. Why would I want a status condition on my own Pokémon? Obstagoon has an ability that powers up its physical attacks when it has a status condition.
Dragapult, with it speed and massive attack stat, was one of the biggest threats on Victor’s team – so getting it out of the way painlessly was a key moment in the battle.
Victor’s Early Jirachi Dynamax (5:38)
Victor had to think carefully about what to switch in to Obstagoon. Obstagoon is a very powerful physical attacker and likely faster than three of his remaing Pokémon. Ferrothorn would have likely been able to wall it.
Victor switched in Jirachi (“#Jirachidawg”). As it turned out, Jirachi also had U-Turn. A good play would have been for Victor to U-Turn out, doing solid super effective damage to Obstagoon, and then switch into Ferrothorn, which would have effectively forced me to switch back into Espeon.
However, I did not know that Victor’s Jirachi had U-Turn. I did not even know for sure that it was a physical attacking variant (Jirachi’s special attack stat is the same as its physical, so it can credibly have different focuses). I was confident that it had nothing to take Obstagoon out with, so I sat on it and used Obstruct. Obstruct protects Obstagoon from all damage for one turn and weakens the opponent’s defense if it makes contact. Effectively, I was scouting (this would have also blocked U-Turn).
Victor went a different route. He “dynamaxed” Jirachi.
Dynamax does three things. It makes your Pokémon very large (this is funny in some cases). It doubles the Pokémon’s health points while it is in dynamax. Finally, it changes the Pokémon’s attacks into powerful max moves. However, you can only use dynamax once per battle and it only lasts for three turns. It goes without saying that how one uses dynamax can decide a battle.
I think Victor erred here for two reasons. Firstly, I still had reflect up, which reduced the damage of Jirachi’s physical attacks. Secondly, Jirachi was important to Victor’s team because of its type advantage against much of my team, meaning he exposed it a bit early.
Obstruct only partially blocks dynamax moves, so Obstagoon took a small bit of damage from Jirachi’s max bug attack.
After that turn, my team’s Reflect, set up by Espeon earlier in the battle, wore off. I decided that I did not want to see how much damage Jirachi’s max bug move would do without Reflect or Obstruct, so I switched into my defensive pivot, Type: Null, to effectively stall out the dynamax turns. Type: Null, with its item, is massively bulky on both defensive wings, and I was confident that it would take whatever dynamax Jirachi had to offer without difficulty. Furthermore, paralysis would cripple Jirachi once its dynamax ended, effectively weakening Victor’s biggest threat to my team.
Type: Null took the max bug well. I was confident that Victor would not switch out and give up his last dynamax turn, so I went for Thunder Wave. Victor gambled (I presume) that his strongest attack, his max steel move, would be enough to knock out Type: Null. Type: Null’s bulk came through for me in the clutch, and it ate the max steel attack, paralyzed Jirachi, and stalled out Jirachi’s, and Victor’s final max turn.
Victor’s U-Turn Sets Up a Key KO (8:07)
Having paralyzed Jirachi, there was not much Type: Null could do to it, and I did not think that it would survive another attack. The paralysis made Type: Null faster than Jirachi, however, so I took advantage to U-turn out of the battle to safety. Here, I made a bit of a questionable choice – switching into Obstagoon. To begin, I did not expect that Victor would use U-turn himself (I inferred he had U-turn from his max bug move). U-turn certainly would not have knocked out Type: Null, and Jirachi’s best attack, Meteor Mash, likely would have. Perhaps Victor was spooked after having seen how well Type: Null took his max steel move.
My plan with Obstagoon was to eat Jirachi’s attack and then remove its item with a super effective Knock Off. Did Victor predict it with U-turn? Perhaps. I may have been too cute by half here, but credit to Victor for punishing my switch.
Victor switched into Dragonite (“#Dragondawg”) – which I will mark as an error. Gengar, being faster, would have either finished off my Obstagoon or forced a switch. Dragonite was capable of finishing off Obstagoon, but it is also slower – giving me a parting attack if I wanted it.
Here I had a plan. I knew nothing about Victor’s Dragonite (first time I saw it), but Dragonite can have an ability which reduces damage from attacks when it is at full health. I had a secret weapon for removing Dragonite, but that ability would ruin my plan. Thus, I decided to accept the loss of Obstagoon, which was on low health anyway, to damage Dragonite and set up its removal on the next turn. I used Knock Off, dealing some damage and removing Dragonite’s item. From the light damage I dealt, I will venture Dragonite did have the Multiscale ability, justifying my choice. Dragonite easily knocked out Obstagoon with Earthquake, putting Victor on the board.
Persian’s Icy KO of Dragonite (9:39)
Persian (“Purrsianpook”) is not known as a strong Pokémon. It has little going for it besides its solid speed. Persian has not been particularly useful in a competitive sense since the original Pokémon games. However, I like Persian, and my Persian had a special role to play against Dragonite.
My Persian runs a special attacking set based on its ability, Technician, which powers up attacks with a base power below 60 (60 is fairly weak). One of its attacks is icy wind, which does quadruple damage against Dragonite since both of Dragonite’s types – dragon and flying – are weak against ice. Furthermore, Persian is also faster than Dragonite – Dragonite’s mediocre base speed is the only one of its stats that lets it down a bit.
Persian very much needed to take Dragonite out in one shot. For one, Persian is not especially bulky, and Dragonite’s attack stat is quite high. For two, if Victor’s Dragonite carried Dragon Dance (a stat boosting move), that could create a dangerous situation for my team. Had Dragonite been at full health and protected by its ability, Icy Wind would not have been a 1-hit KO. As it was, however, Icy Wind would be more than enough.
I switched Persian in and was curious if Victor would suspect something (I doubted Victor knew what set my Persian would be running). Fortunately for me, he did not, and Persian took Dragonite out in one shot from high health.
Victor switched in Jirachi, which was a good play. My Persian had a very unfavorable matchup against Jirachi. However, there was not too much left for Persian to do, so I sat on the matchup instead of switching in to a Jirachi attack. On the first turn I used Nasty Plot, which doubles Persian’s special attack. Jirachi nearly knocked Persian out in one shot with Meteor Mash.
On the next turn, I made a mistake that could have come back to haunt me. I used Icy Wind instead of Swift. Swift is a touch stronger than Icy Wind (base power 60 vs 55), and moreover, it receives a same type bonus of 50% when used by Persian (it is a normal move and Persian is a normal type). Icy Wind barely dented Jirachi, but Jirachi’s paralysis kicked in, giving me another turn. On the next turn, I used Swift, which did a decent chunk of damage, before Jirachi finished Persian off with another Meteor Mash. I doubt that had I used Swift twice, it would have been quite enough to knock out Jirachi, but it would have been close. Clear error.
High Horsepower is Only 95% Accurate; Rapidash Does Not Want to Switch (11:56)
I switched in Rapidash (“Mylilpookzy”) to finish off Jirachi. This was not ideal, but I did not have many options for the job other than Clefable – which I did not want to use just yet. My Rapidash is a pure physical attacker and has an item called Choice Band. Choice Band locks Rapidash into the first attack it uses after its last entry, but increases the power of the attack by 50%.
In theory, I should have easily knocked Jirachi out on the first turn after entering. I used High Horsepower, a move with 95% accuracy.
It missed. My 95% accurate move missed.
This was a potentially disastrous turn of events. I can say with confidence that Jirachi’s Meteor Mash would have easily been a 1-hit KO against my Rapidash. However, Jirachi’s paralysis kicked in again. We were both unlucky, but my missing a move that hits 19 out of 20 times was far more unlucky.
After that strange turn, I landed High Horse power to finish Jirachi off and take a 3-2 lead.
Victor switched in Gengar. Here, I made a significant error. Gengar is a ghost type and a touch faster than Rapidash. Its best ghost type move, Shadow Ball, would be a clean 1-hit KO against Rapidash. Most Gengars, including Victor’s, also carry a poison type attack. I forgot that Rapidash is not weak to poison, meaning I made a decision based on the assumption that it was uncertain whether Victor would use Shadow Ball or a poison move. I effectively sacrificed Rapidash – which granted had mostly served its purpose given what Victor had left – rather than gamble on a switch. The correct play would have been to switch in Type: Null, which would null Shadow Ball and at worst be sacrificed for a free switch (Type: Null also had served its purpose by this point). I ended up not paying for sacrificing Rapidash, but the smart play would have been to switch.
But Rapidash’s sacrifice was not meaningless. I switched in Type: Null. This was smart in one way, although I made another sub-optimal play along with the good move. I noted that my Rapidash ran Choice Band. Victor has run his Gengar with different items before, but he has on some occasions run it with Choice Scarf. Choice Scarf locks Gengar into one attack in return for boosting its speed by 50%. Switching in Type: Null allowed me to confirm what Victor’s Gengar was using. If it had Choice Scarf, Victor would have no choice but to switch since it was locked into a ghost move, which does not effect Type: Null, a normal type. If Gengar had a different item, Victor would have used a different move to finish off Type: Null, but thereby confirmed that it wasn’t scarfed.
The most important reason I wanted to confirm Gengar’s item is because Victor has, at other times, run Gengar with Focus Sash. Focus Sash activates if a Pokémon at full health is hit by a move that would knock it out. Focus Sash preserves that Pokémon with 1 hit point. This is a valuable item on Gengar for two reasons. Firstly, Gengar is frail. Secondly, Gengar is fast and has a huge special attack stat, meaning it can often make use of that extra lease on life to turn what would have been its being KO’d into a KO the other way.
(A minor point of interest: If Gengar was not scarfed, that would mean that there was a chance that my Espeon, which could 1-hit KO Gengar with psychic (albeit possibly be 1-hit KO’d by Shadow Ball), was faster or tied – owed to the fact that Gengar and Espeon have the same base speed.)
Victor swapped Gengar out, implicitly confirming it had Choice Scarf (unless he was playing a very complicated mind game with me). Where did I err? I used Thunder Wave despite the fact that the best play in the scarf scenario would be for Victor to switch back into Ferrothorn. There was nothing to gain here. Had Gengar not been carrying Choice Scarf, it would have finished off Type: Null before I could hit it with Thunder Wave. I should have used one of Type: Null’s attacking moves to do some damage, or U-turn for a free switch in.
My brain freezes were piling up.
Nick Wastes Time With Espeon (14:04)
I then made another odd play. I swapped Espeon in against Ferrothorn, perhaps out of habit. Espeon’s presence in the battle prevented Victor from trying to set entry hazards. However, at this stage of the battle, there was no danger to me from entry hazards (for reasons you will see in the next section). Although we each had three Pokémon left, Type: Null was dead weight at this point. Espeon could still serve a theoretical purpose, but only against Toxapex and Gengar, not Ferrothorn (unless my goal was a draw). Why did I switch in Espeon?
What ensued was an odd lull in the battle. Espeon could, in theory, stall Ferrothorn out for the rest of the battle. However, my Espeon could not do too much damage to Ferrothorn in return. Given long enough, the matchup would ultimately favor Ferrothorn. However, because Victor was spamming Knock Off, I did not want to switch my best Pokémon into an attack that would cost it its valuable item before it could move. Had I thought this through before hand, I would have allowed Ferrothorn to knock out Type: Null and used the opportunity to switch in Clefable – preserving Espeon for the unlikely case that I would need it later (and not wasting time).
I could have even stopped wasting time with Espeon and switched Type: Null back in.
Toward the end of the pointless battle, I came to my senses and let Espeon go instead of healing again to continue stalling. I will never have those two minutes back.
Clefable the Closer Prepares the Sweep (16:22)
I was trailing Victor 4-3 after wasting time with that awful Espeon-Ferrothorn battle. But I had no fear. I had not yet sent out my strongest Pokémon, Clefable (“Pookigakirei” – see what I did there?). I also had not used my dynamax yet. Furthermore, I cleared what would have been one of Clefable’s biggest dangers, Jirachi, and I confirmed that Gengar did not have Focus Sash – meaning I would only have to take one hit from it before knocking it out. Victor did have Toxapex remaining, which had an advantageous type matchup against Clefable, but a bad matchup in practice at this stage of our battle (Espeon could have, in theory, been useful in dealing with Toxapex).
I had a bit of a choice when I swapped Clefable into Ferrothorn. My Clefable had two attacking moves, and one of those moves, Flamethrower, was four times super effective against Ferrothorn. There was no question that would be a 1-hit KO. Furthermore, Clefable carried an item called Life Orb. Life Orb increases the damage that moves do by 20%. In return, it damages the Pokémon holding it a little bit every time it attacks. My Clefable, however, has an ability that nullifies passive damage (including from entry hazards like the ones I prevented Victor from setting up with Espeon). That ability nullifies Life Orb damage, meaning Clefable can use Life Orb without the normal drawback.
(One can argue that Victor should have switched to Toxapex as soon as I switched in Clefable, but I do not think that it would have changed the final result other than possibly causing me to win on time instead of knocking out all six of his Pokémon.)
Clefable vs Ferrothorn
Life Orb provides a significant boost to Clefable’s power, and if I took Ferrothorn out in one turn, I would have ensured that I kept Life Orb for the duration of the battle. However, I thought long term. Both of Clefable’s attacking moves – Flamethrower and Moonblast, were weak against the bulky Toxapex. My Clefable’s non-attacking moves are Moonlight (recovers 50% health) and Calm Mind (boosts special attack and special defense by one stage). I knew that I would need some calm mind boosts before dealing with Toxapex, and if that cost me my Life Orb – so be it. Furthermore, I gambled that Victor was not totally sure what Clefable’s ability was, and thus might not go for Knock Off right away.
I was in luck. I set up my first Calm Mind and Victor had Ferrothorn use Leech Seed. Leech Seed saps an afflicted Pokémon’s health every turn and gives that health to the Pokémon on the other side of the field. Unfortunately for Victor, Leech Seed deals passive damage, and thus does not affect Clefable. I felt lucky, so I tried a second Calm Mind. Ferrothorn was unable to move due to paralysis (the events of turn 1 had consequences).
With two Calm Minds up, I decided it was time to remove Ferrothorn before it removed Clefable’s Life Orb. I KO’d Ferrothorn with Flamethrower. On to Toxapex.
Clefable vs Toxapex
With two Calm Minds up, Gengar was no threat to my Clefable. Because Calm Mind boosted Clefable’s Special Defense in addition to its Special Attack, Gengar would not do much damage to it. Furthermore, with the special attack boosts, I knew that I could take Gengar out in one shot. Toxapex (“#Toxadawg”), however, would be a pain even with two Calm Mind boosts (effectively doubling Clefable’s Special Attack). I knew that I would dynamax Clefable, but I decided to set up an additional two Calm Mind boosts before doing so.
After the first, Victor’s Toxapex used Toxic. This seemed odd to me – Victor should have already seen that passive damage – in this case poison – has no effect on Clefable. However, after the second – the reason was revealed. Toxapex used Venoshock – which does bonus damage when used on a poisoned opponent. Furthermore, Venoshock, a poison move, is super effective against Clefable, a fairy type. While it was no threat to Clefable at this stage, it did a decent chunk of damage considering that Clefable’s special defense was boosted by four Calm Minds.
Finally, I dynamaxed Clefable (note that one cannot use normal stat-boosting moves while in dynamax, which is why I waited) – having held off until late in the battle. Victor likely predicted this, going for Baneful Bunker instead of Venoshock to try to run out the clock. Baneful Bunker ordinarily protects Toxapex from all damage for one turn and poisons the opponent if it makes contact. Similarly to what happened to my Obstagoon earlier, it does not fully protect against dynamax attacks. Toxapex took a small chunk of damage from my max fairy move despite Baneful Bunker.
At this point, we both saw that the clock was counting down on the battle. Victor, left with nothing but stall tactics, went for a second Baneful Bunker. However, Baneful Bunker is likely to fail when used consecutively, and it did there. Despite being not very effective (meaning it does 1/2 damage), the max fairy move was enough to take Toxapex out from more than 75% of its health (I may have needed all 4 Calm Mind boosts, however).
Clefable vs Gengar
Victor and I have been playing Pokémon since 1998. I suppose it was fitting that our battle came down to two of the original Pokémon – Clefable and Gengar. Of course, the battle was all but over. Gengar landed one attack, but Clefable ended the day with a max fire move, giving me the 6-4 victory off a late-game Clefable sweep.
Had Gengar had Focus Sash instead of Choice Scarf (I presume it was Scarf), Victor would have had one extra turn to potentially run out the clock and get a second attack in after my Clefable was out of dynamax. Had we run out of time, I would have won by virtue of having more remaining Pokémon.
Conclusion
Neither Victor nor I were at our best in this Pokémon battle. We were both rusty, and in hindsight we each made our share of questionable plays. Victor’s post-dynamax Jirachi U-turn and my late-game Clefable set up were the highlights of the battle. (As was my Persian taking out Dragonite – still proud of my sneak attack).
The combination of Victor using his dynamax early on Jirachi and my Obstagoon taking heavy damage made me commit fully to clearing the way for a late-game Clefable sweep. I managed to pull it off, and in so doing, demonstrated some mechanics of Pokémon battles.
Most important, my test of my recording set-up and posting to LBRY proved to be a great success. I look forward to taking advantage of this for my uncoming Pokémon Draft Battle against Victor and perhaps some other video game projects in the future.