Not using his ace Pikachu allows Ash to field a specific Pokémon lineup tailored precisely to Gary Oak's habits. (Actually, Pikachu has a zero percent win rate against Gary, so he wasn't sent out anyway—just kidding).
For Ash to make such thorough preparations shows that Gary is indeed a highly unique opponent to him!
After all, in previous competitions, Ash never talked about making a tactical game plan; he basically relied on adapting to the situation on the fly, just sending out whoever he felt like using. Let's see how strong Ash's painstakingly assembled team really is!
In the Footage—
The battle between Ash and Gary Oak officially begins! The random field selector draws the Rock Field, and it is Gary who attacks first. Gary looks at the Rock Field, thinks for a moment, and releases the Ground/Poison-type Nidoqueen!
Ash looks at the opponent's power-focused choice and releases his own power-focused combatant, Kentauros! Although Kentauros is a Normal-type, it also holds a lot of advantages on this specific terrain! The two sides quickly clash in battle, but unexpectedly… Kentauros is swiftly defeated!
Gary's Nidoqueen is not only amazingly powerful, but its baseline stats are incredible… Nidoqueen takes Kentauros's Take Down head-on, counterattacks with Hyper Beam, and secures a clean one-hit knockout. The caliber of this Nidoqueen is not at all like average cultivation; its level is exceptionally high!
Immediately afterward, Ash replaces it with Heracross. Gary, ever the master tactician, naturally recalls Nidoqueen and sends out a Fire-type counter, Magmar! Magmar has a clear type advantage over Heracross, but Ash's Heracross is surprisingly agile, pre-empting the matchup by using a frantic fury attack to send Magmar flying upwards!
However, Magmar releases a Fire Blast directly in mid-air, letting the massive flaming character cover its own body as it hugs Heracross! It uses this method to guarantee that the Fire Blast hits with absolute precision!
After executing this searing point-blank tackle, Magmar still spews out a Flamethrower at zero distance, making Heracross suffer another devastating blow!
Yet, after taking two consecutive super-effective Fire-type moves, Heracross forcefully stands its ground through pure perseverance! It even uses its wings to blow away the residual flames burning on its body! Immediately after that, it unleashes the ultimate Bug-type move, Megahorn! It completely defies the type disadvantage and defeats Magmar! This is the raw strength of the ultimate inverse-attribute master!
Following this temporary setback, Gary releases his third Pokémon… which is also his starter and absolute ace, Blastoise! From Professor Oak's mouth, the audience learns that on the day Gary left Pallet Town to start his journey, the Pokémon he chose was Squirtle! And now, the ace Pokémon in Ash's hands is Charizard. This scene plays out exactly like...
[Diantha: The two of them really are just like Red and Green! Competing against each other the entire way, having the exact same signature aces in Charizard and Blastoise, and even their sheer output is not far apart!]
[Lance: Although Pikachu is Ash's ultimate partner, it is undeniable that Ash's strongest Pokémon right now is his Charizard! Pikachu's true, latent strength won't be fully unlocked until after his rebirth!]
[Green: From the beginning, you guys have been talking about rebirth this, rebirth that… What exactly is this rebirth?]
Green has a strong interest in this so-called rebirth of Pikachu. Even though he has become one of the strongest trainers in his own world, he has never heard of such a phenomenon as rebirth…
[Flint: The so-called rebirth is…]
Flint breaks down the unique traits of Pikachu's rebirth for Green. Green, who is far away at the Alola School, almost loses his pupils in shock after listening.
Is this thing even a Pikachu anymore??? A literal rebirth… what is this, Ho-Oh's Sacred Ash Nirvana? After being reborn, by temporarily resetting its baseline strength, it gains far superior potential and an explosive growth rate…
This Pikachu is even more abnormal than Red's Pikachu, and even more ridiculous than Red's Charizard! Its future ceiling is simply immeasurable…
[Leon: This can be regarded as a confrontation between Red and Green in advance. But unfortunately, even if Gary wins this, he can't win the tournament overall.]
If the two of them met on the grand stage of the finals, it would definitely be several times more exciting than this current match! But then again, in the real world's upcoming Indigo Plateau Conference finals, the two of them seem to have lined up to meet! It's just that... the gap between the two in the real world right now appears far too massive.
In the Footage—
Gary Oak turns the tide after bringing out Blastoise, directly defeating Ash's Heracross, repelling Muk, and then defeating Bayleef! Although Bayleef used Vine Whip to float in mid-air and startled Gary briefly, it still didn't cause any real trouble for Blastoise! Gary's Blastoise… is on an entirely different level compared to the rest of his team! It's just like the gap between Ash's Charizard and his other Pokémon.
In this way, Ash has already revealed four of his Pokémon and had three of them knocked out by his opponent! The situation looks overwhelmingly bleak for Ash… Because Ash lost three Pokémon, there is a five-minute halftime intermission.
During the break, Brock and Misty try their best to comfort Ash, but they find that Ash's face doesn't show the slightest bit of discouragement; instead, he is completely filled with fighting spirit! It seems that the losses in the first half of the match didn't affect Ash's morale at all. Ash, you've really grown a lot compared to before!
Pikachu, acting as a cheerleader on the side, desperately wants to jump onto the field. Because he sees Gary's Water-type Blastoise, he feels that if he plays, he can definitely help Ash win this crucial round! But Pokémon that are not registered in advance have no legal way to participate.
If anyone could just jump in at will, the tournament would be a total mess! Therefore, Pikachu can only regretfully remain on the sidelines as a cheerleader. For this reason, Pikachu crosses his arms over his chest, puffing out his cheeks in a visibly sulking manner.
The five-minute break passes quickly, and Ash completely regroups to take the field. Since Ash was the one who lost three Pokémon first to trigger the halftime, he must be the first to send out his Pokémon as play resumes.
"It's up to you, Snorlax!!"
Ash brings out his God of War, Snorlax! Just looking at Snorlax's massive, broad frame instills a profound sense of security!
Furthermore, Snorlax is currently one of the most powerful Pokémon in Ash's arsenal! It's not even an exaggeration to say that its raw combat power is second only to Charizard!
"Snorlax… Hmph, exactly as I expected! Go, Arcanine!"
How many heavy-hitters Ash has on hand, how many battles he has under his belt, and his usual patterns…
Gary Oak already knows it all! This time, it wasn't so much Ash who assembled a team to counter him; it's more accurate to say that he assembled his team specifically to lock down Ash! He fully anticipated that Ash would send out Snorlax!
In the face of Ash's heavyweight option, he chooses a textbook high-speed hit-and-run strategy! Arcanine's speed is completely superior to Snorlax's, allowing it to manipulate the giant using pure agility—that was Gary's plan! However, his countermeasure… backfires completely the moment it collides with Ash!
"You want to use speed to target Snorlax… Snorlax, Body Slam!"
Seeing Gary use Arcanine, Ash immediately sees through his rival's train of thought. However, Ash has no intention of recalling Snorlax; he believes fully in Snorlax! After all, this is one of the strongest fighters in his hands!
Snorlax suddenly leaps high into the air, falling with the crushing momentum of a meteor! Gary's pupils contract as he quickly shouts:
"Dodge it and use Fire Spin!"
"Woof!"
Arcanine roars, rapidly dodging Snorlax's crushing Body Slam. Snorlax impacts the ground heavily, missing Arcanine by a fraction of a centimeter! If Arcanine had been even a millisecond slower, it might have been flattened! The agility of this Snorlax is a bit beyond Gary's imagination… fortunately, Arcanine's reflexes are fast enough.
The dodging Arcanine opens its jaws, and a blazing fire shoots out in a spiral! Swirling, scorching flames envelop Snorlax layer by layer! Fire Spin doesn't do as much raw damage as Flamethrower, but its greatest strength is its trapping effect! Snorlax is temporarily immobilized!
"Very good, Arcanine, use Fire Blast!"
"Snorlax, don't lose to him! Just fire Hyper Beam like this!"
"Snoooor—"
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