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We made it out of the Deepwood last time. Let's explore Shimmering Lake!
Icy Wind is a multitarget ice move. Only 55 power, but it makes up for it by slowing everything it hits. Useful if you need ice coverage!
: Beware electric beasts.
Anomally? 
Aaaaa!
Go away, crab man!
Mega Gyarados? Oooooh, nice find.
Wish responsibly? What counts as an irresponsible wish?
Yeah sure I'll make a wish.
...Are irreponsible wishes anything but "The Champion's Victory"? Anyways I'm wishing for happiness.
ooooh!
I'm going to name you Omelette because of your egg. Chansey and Blissey are both very good from my understanding; Blissey has some impressive special bulk and okay special attack, while Chansey with eviolite is probably way bulkier but less versatile. Curious which one I'll go for.
Illegal wish!? Who are you to judge my wishes, mysterious voice in the water?
Oh shit, it's the wish police!
Fuck that noise, peace!
: The subversive wishers will not escape again.
No thanks, I don't want the police to hurt my little friends.
: Do you know then, the Riddle of Lightning? The odds of being struck by lightning are tiny. Yet lightning always find a target, one it was unlikely to strike. To test one's luck is to test the favor of creation.
Typo with "find" instead of finds. Unrelated, but as a Canadian I keep trying to use Canadian spelling for words like favour and colour and then keep having to correct myself when I realize the text is using American spelling. Damn muscle memory.
Anyways sure, I'm down for Shadow Cards.
I'm also down to lose.
: It seems creation prefers my life to yours. Come back when you've changed your fortunes.
I need to get these weak water types out of my deck; they're really bad even without the type disadvantage.
Another typo; no period at the end of this.
Wow, I just completely crushed him.
: Lightning dances around you, but leaves you untouched. Here are your winnings. I can feel the soul of this Voltorb calling for you. Take it. We'll play again.
I win again and win a Shinx card.
I lose the next one though, so we're 2-2. Whether this is a net loss or a net gain depends on whether I win the next one.
Thankfully his decisive Shinx card kinda sucks, so we win, and with our victory a Rotom card. Very nice!
: The Riddle of Lightning... I thought I was close.
I'm... not sure what exactly you're trying to solve here?
: A storm is brewing in the Poker Lounge. Contenders gather like stormclouds, awaiting the tournament.
And with that, he vanishes.
: But the voice told me where he took it. Deep in the Feverthorn Jungle... There is a cave of ice. Only the KEY CARD can open the Laboratory. But my old teacher is powerful...
There's that sequence of On's and Off's again. Curious.
You know, I'm not much of a setup sweeper, but if I were this move is basically the bread and butter for physical attackers. Swords Dance buffs attack by two stages per use, so one use doubles attack, two triples attack, and three quadruples attack. The important thing is starting off with something that can't kill you fast to set up on. Mimikyu would probably make good use of this. Extremey good find!
Huh???? What do you mean by WHICH Charge? Why is WHICH emphasized?
This doesn't answer my question! What did they mean by this?? 
: ^ Deepwoods v Feverthorn Swamp
Wait, Skyspear Climb?
Yup, going to the left takes us straight to Skyspear Climb. We won't be exploring there this update, but good to know we can bypass the trainer who was blocking us in the farmlands.
Dang, didn't need to buy that Dawn Stone last update. Ah well.
Hint for what you can catch here! They come at a decently high level too.
Oooh, very nice. Not sure what I want to use this on.
Hi there fisherman friend!
: I had just dropped a line before you arrived, you see. And of all things, I fished up a Grimer! Let me tell you, this stench won't wear off easily... If you take a step back, I won't be offended! (pause)
He says that he caught a Grimer, but Grimer aren't available to be caught here by fishing as far as I know.
Yes please.
: Good, good. One sunny day, I came here to fish, hoping to find some Cloyster. The fishing was slow, and in my youth, I was careless. As the sun beat down on my brow, I found myself drifting off to sleep. Suddenly, I was jolted awake by a ferocious tugging on my line. Before I knew what was happening, I'd been pulled into the water!
We know that Gyarados can be found here, so was it a gyarados?
: Aye! I'd hooked a Gyarados! It swam towards me as I fumbled with my Poke balls. But it was no use! The beast was nearly upon me! Just then, I hear a sound--a low, dolorous tone. The Gyarados froze in place, unsure.
A Wailord? We can find Wailmer here, after all.
: Aye! A Wailord, of all things, had come to my aid! With another low tone, it blasted a beam of water at the Gyarados from it's spout. The Gyarados roared in rage, but it knew it was outmatched. Gnashing its teeth, it retreated to the depths from which it had emerged. The Wailord ascended, bringing me to the surface on its back.
Another pause.
: I hope it amused you as it once did her. And please, take this with my gratitude.
We caught a Squirtle back in the forest; we could have a Blastoise and Mega Evolve it if we wanted!
: Perhaps I'll take the long way round. I look forward to our next encounter.
He walks off.
Inside the house we get a pokeball refill. We'll be making use of these shortly.
We have two of these! The only one we don't have is Mightyena, found in Skyspear Climb.
Smart Strike! It's a 70 power physical steel move that never misses. Not bad!
: The Willbreaker cannot be contained much longer. We tried...
Willbreaker? Didn't we see a statue talk about that near the Champion's throne? Speaking of the dreaming halls...
Poke
Poke
Poke!
Damp rock! Very useful if you plan on using a Rain team, cause it extends the duration of the rain effect when held by whoever sets it.
We can lower the barrier here, allowing us to travel between the two dreaming hall entrances we've found really easily. Not that useful when we have Fly, but can't hurt.
Back outside; oh geez she has 5 pokemon.
We can deal with them pretty easily though, even despite a type disadvantage.
Solar Blade! This is a physical version of Solar Beam; about the same damage (it apparently does 5 more damage but that's not super significant), same charge up turn, same ignoring of charge up turn in sunlight. Pretty cool!
I opt to use the Evoscope to see what makes Happini evolve, but it seems like they evolve through unknown means. They're an oval stone evolution in the mainline games, but we don't have that here. We'll have to use another method of evolution.
Seamother tear getting some usage!
Thankfully, Blissey is a level up evolution, so we don't need to waste another tear.
Mad scientist! They've gone mad with power! 
I opt to use Entei for massive single-target damage here. Razor Leaf isn't enough to KO anything, but I use it just to get some damage in on both targets.
Electrode survives the first round, but a discharge from the newly sent out Raichu brings it into Razor Leaf KO range in the second. Raichu catches a fatal case of "on the receiving end of a legendary's attack".
Lastly is Lanturn, who goes down really easy to Rillaboom because of grass weakness. Hey, we didn't lose anyone this area!
Level 30! We'll be using that in a second.
Another Ashen Shard, one away from our next reward.
Bring Kyubey up to level 30...
Lets see our encounters!
The tall grass here makes double encounters pretty common. Voltorb evolves into Electrode, the 5th fastest pokemon (after Regieleki, Speed Deoxys, Ninjask, and Pheromosa; tied with Mega Alakazam. He's a speedy boi, and very little will outspeed him; he even gets Electro Ball to make use of his fast speed. Electabuzz was one of the coolest mons in Gale of Darkness, being a late find but I remember him being really strong and havign him on my endgame team in that game, so I imagine he or his evolution are pretty good. I don't know how good Dedenne is; maybe they have a good catch movepool here, but they don't impress me looking at the wiki. Pachirisu won an IRL tournament apparently; I don't know the specifics but Follow Me, Nuzzle, and Super Fang on a pokemon immune to electric types was apparently the missing puzzle piece for the team of the winner; the one we catch has the same moveset but with Electro Ball instead of Protect. Regular Pikachu appear here; sadly, they don't seem to be as good as their costumed forms. The costumed Pikas seem to have a lot better stats compared to just PIkachu; Raichu might be worth using though if you pick up a regular Pikachu. Lastly, we have Ampharos, a real cutie. They get a Mega Evolution that gives them extremely high special attack and a secondary type in dragon. Not bad; definitely worth picking up one!
Next, we have fishing encounters.
We already caught Galarian Corsola; regular Corsola has okay bulk and some decent moves; probably not super great but I could see someone making use of it. Lanturn has an interesting typing and it's choice of either Electric or Water immunity. I could have sworn that it learned Tail Glow, which would have made it amazing as a sweeper, but it seems like I was wrong; Game Freak should really give Lanturn Tail Glow.
Punkachu!
Punkachu is an electric-steel type with access to Punk Rock (boosts sound moves by 30% and takes half damage from sound moves), decent stats, and holy shit that moveset. Clangorous Soul is an omniboost that boosts all stats (save accuracy and evasion) by one stage at the cost of 1/3rd the users HP. Boomburst is a 140 damage normal sound move that deals damage to everything and goes through substitute. Overdrive is an 80 damage electric sound move that hits both opponents and goes through substitute. Meteor Mash is a 90 damage steel move that has a chance to raise attack.
Of these, Meteor Mash is the only iffy one, because Punkachu is a special attacker and Meteor Mash doesn't get a bonus from Punk Rock. This little guy is pretty insane looking though; imagine how strong he'd be with a Light Ball.
Back to catching; Wailmer evolves into Wailord; Wailmer also comes with Heavy Slam when caught. There's only like 30 pokemon heavier than Wailord, although Heavy Slam only deals the real good power if the target is 20% of the weight of the user. On top of that, Heavy Slam is a steel move and Wailord gets no Stab from it. Might still be useful though! Cloyster on the other hand has really good defensive bulk; the one I caught had 100ish in her defense stat. She has both Shell Smash and Iron Defense; which means she can raise her defense to be even bulkier, and then Shell Smash to become a sweeper. She also has Skill Link, which forces multihit moves to hit the max number of times, and can be taught Icicle Spear to give her a guaranteed 125 power ice move with no drawback. Cloyster seems really good.
ROCK CONCERT!!!
And of course, Gyarados. Decently high leveled one too; though it won't do much good against the electric trainer who guarded the exit here, you could catch one and use it elsewhere ready to go potentially.
Alright. Next time, we either explore Skyspear Climb or Fevertorn Jungle. One of the two.
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