"Charizard! Mega Evolve!" Jacob's finger lightly touched the Mega Stone, and his clear voice rang out across the field.
A burst of colorful light wrapped around Charizard's body, stretching and swelling it larger and larger.
"Grrraaah!"
With Charizard's roar, the light shattered apart, revealing Mega Charizard Y's dark gray form, wreathed faintly in firelight, with flames dancing around its body.
As Charizard's strength grew, its command over fire energy, especially its special attacking power, became even more terrifying.
"Trainer Jacob has had Charizard Mega Evolve right at the very start of the match!" Julio's voice rang out over the arena.
"Even though this isn't the first time we've seen a Mega Evolution, it never fails to make our hearts race."
"It feels like we've been carried right back to that summer when Jacob won the championship — a scene still fresh in all our minds."
"Mega Evolution has practically become one of Jacob's signature moves."
"And there it is — Jacob's ace Pokémon, Mega Charizard!"
As the announcer's excited voice carried through the arena, Mega Charizard Y let out a burst of fire energy that spread outward and surged up into the night sky.
"Drought has activated!"
"Charizard is now fighting Politoed for control of the weather!"
On the field, fire energy and Water-type energy collided head-on. The pouring rain slowly weakened into a light drizzle, and then stopped altogether.
"After Mega Evolving, Charizard's raw power should be about equal to Politoed's, but there's no doubt Mega Charizard has the stronger grip on fire energy."
"The heavy rain has completely stopped. It's a shame it's nighttime — if this were daytime, the weather might have turned to harsh sunlight instead."
"This new weather is fair to both sides, really. It's brought them back to the same starting line."
...
The heart of any rain team's strategy is the weather itself.
Take away the rain, and a rain team's strength drops by at least half.
Break the rain, and you've won almost half the battle already.
That's the common wisdom, but for a true master of rain teams, things are never quite that simple.
Watching the downpour fade away, Edgar showed no sign of panic. In his decades as a trainer, he had faced this exact situation more times than he could count.
"Politoed, use Feint." Edgar's voice rang out calmly.
Hearing Edgar's command, Jacob's brow furrowed. Feint was a move that could be described as extremely annoying to deal with.
Feint sharply raises the target's Attack stat, but at the same time, it leaves the target confused.
At first glance, having Politoed use Feint to boost Mega Charizard Y's Attack looked like a mistake on Edgar's part.
But in truth, Mega Charizard Y was built around special attacks, so a big boost to its physical Attack stat did almost nothing for it.
The real danger was the confusion. Once Mega Charizard fell into that state, it would essentially be fighting against itself — and that made the move far more troublesome than it first appeared.
Facing Politoed's harassing tactic, Jacob's frown deepened.
Rather than waste time playing along with Edgar's pace, Jacob decided to strike first. With a wave of his hand, he called out Charizard's strongest move: "Charizard, use Blast Burn!"
...
"Wow! It looks like Trainer Jacob is fired up today — Mega Evolving Charizard right at the opening bell and immediately unleashing its strongest attack, Blast Burn!"
"Grrraaah!"
Mega Charizard let out an angry roar, and as it roared, the flames covering its body burst outward all at once, scorching fire wrapping around its dark gray form.
The blazing flames, glowing like a small sun, lit up the night and drove back the chill of winter.
Charizard beat its wings with Dual Wingbeat, and the fire covering its body surged outward like a wave of seawater. In almost an instant, the flames spread across the entire battlefield, turning it into a raging sea of fire.
Faced with Mega Charizard Y's devastating attack, Edgar made a quick decision and had Politoed dodge the worst of it.
"Politoed, use Protect!"
Politoed, which had just used Feint, had no choice but to cut the move short and throw up Protect instead.
The scorching flames baked the battlefield, and the effort of unleashing Blast Burn left Charizard briefly unable to move.
"Return, Charizard." Taking advantage of the opening Blast Burn had created, Jacob recalled Charizard at once, then immediately reached for Sceptile's Poké Ball.
(Normally, a Pokémon can't be switched out while it's recovering from a move like Blast Burn, but under this match's rules, switching is allowed even then.)
"Go, Sceptile!"
At Jacob's call, his other ace Pokémon, the towering Sceptile, appeared on the field.
"Return, Politoed." On the other side, seeing Jacob switch Pokémon, Edgar calmly recalled Politoed as well, bringing out a backup Pokémon in its place.
That first exchange between the two trainers had been nothing more than a probe — each side testing the other's hand.
"Your turn now, Ludicolo!"
Ludicolo, a Water- and Grass-type Pokémon, looked like a dancing duck wearing a wide sombrero.
Jacob studied Ludicolo carefully.
Swift Swim as its Ability, roughly Quasi-King-level strength, and holding an A-grade Damp Rock.
Nothing special, but no glaring weaknesses either. The one thing worth noting was the Damp Rock it held, which meant Ludicolo served as the team's backup weather-setter. It had also learned all the key moves a rain-team Pokémon would need.
It was clear that Edgar was running a standard rain team — just a weaker version of the ideal one.
Because a truly ideal rain team, in Jacob's mind, would have Primal Kyogre as its weather-setter and special attacker.
Its physical attacker would be a Mega Swampert with maxed-out Attack and the Swift Swim Ability, making it the team's main physical threat in the rain.
And finally, to round out the defense and cover its weaknesses, a Zapdos — one that could handle Grass- and Electric-type threats with ease.
What's more, in the rain, Zapdos could land Thunder and Hurricane with guaranteed accuracy, giving it enormous power and filling in any remaining gaps in the team's coverage.
That was the rain team Jacob pictured in his mind.
Unfortunately, in this world, a team like that was probably impossible to find.
Just the Mega Swampert alone, out of those three Pokémon, would already be far beyond what ninety-nine percent of trainers could manage — never mind the Zapdos and Kyogre on top of it.
There was still a small chance of finding a Zapdos somewhere. But a Kyogre? Surely no one out there had actually caught one.
...
The Ludicolo standing before him, in the rain, could only really function as a second-rate attacker. Its Special Attack and Attack stats weren't especially high, and it was only Quasi-Heavenly-King-level in strength. Jacob was still confident he could handle it.
In fact, Jacob knew of one Pokémon that was especially dangerous to rain teams: Ferrothorn.
Ferrothorn was a nightmare in the rain, whether it belonged to you or to your opponent.
Whether a rain team could truly be called strong often came down to one question: could it get past a Ferrothorn?
Whenever this kind of matchup came up, Jacob found himself thinking about the power of the Steel type. If only he had a Ferrothorn of his own, this match would already be as good as won.
"Fake Out, Ludicolo!" Just then, Edgar's voice rang out again.