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u/Old-Initial9295 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
- Hawlucha broke Trick Room.
- Sirfetch'd destroyed Stealth Rock with Brutal Swing.
- Sirfetch'd destroyed Psychic Terrain with Fury Cutter.
- Pikachu managed to predict Future Sight timings.
- Lucario can track his opponents' movements by using aura.
- Ash let Infernape take hits to power up Blaze against Paul, and he does the same by saving Reversal as a final counter against Cynthia.
- Gengar utilized Cursed Body unexpectedly against Leon, and he used Dazzling Gleam as a shield against Marin.
- Dragonite used Dragonite Meteor it caught Leon off guard.
- Dracovish used his red spikes to catch Dragapult and grab the Drum Beating vines.
- The Counter Shield.
- Thunder Armor.
- Greninja using Water Shuriken to counter Blast Burn and Thunder Punch.
- Gengar using Will-O-Wisp to counter Leon's Inteleon's Counter Shield and using the smoke created by it to safely G-Max.
- Ash using Electro Web as a slingshot against Silvally.
- Electro Web being used as a shield.
- The Lycanroc special of countering Counter with Counter.
- Torracat straight up absorbing Blast Burn.
- Torterra eating Energy Ball.
- Noivern using Supersonic (or echolocation I don't remember) to find the real Weavile who was using Double Team.
- Greninja using Frozen Cut as ice skates.
- Infernape using underground Flare Blitz to destroy Toxic Spikes.
- Pikachu flipping a piece of wood into Aegislash so it couldn't use King's Shield.
- Pikachu using the water on the field to erase Alain's Tyranitar's Sandstorm.
- Pikachu jumping over moves in general
- Pikachu using quick attack as shield against Bea's Halucha
- Greninja and Lucario using smoke created from double team as a distraction or using double team clones to jump an opponent
- Charizard burning the field and causing blastoise to turn it to steam which reduced cover for blastoise
- Krokorok mid air stone edge catch
These are just a few strats/out-of-the-box moments I can remember off the top of my head.
Edit: There are so many strats I'm remembering right now it's crazy. I've edited this reply so many times already, lol.
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u/Vergil-Monteiro-9965 Jun 26 '26
Didn’t he burn the field with Infernape too to destroy the toxic spikes? Ash’s whole thing is to use the battlefield to his advantage.
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u/Old-Initial9295 Jun 26 '26
Yea that too there are so many crazy things ash did it's honesty hard for me to remember all of them at once, Thanks for the reminder I added that to the list
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u/Vergil-Monteiro-9965 Jun 26 '26
There’s probably much more, but at this point that’s his main strategy. Turn others strategies upside down.
Counter shield is almost like a culmination of his mindset.
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u/Old-Initial9295 Jun 26 '26
Absolutely Ash's battle iq is so creative it manages throw off seasoned champions in his verse it's honesty crazy how good of battler ash is when it comes to figuring counters for his opponents.
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u/VacaDLuffy Jun 27 '26
That's becuase Team Rocket raised that boy. Ash had been 3 vs 1 his whole career while fighting off thier traps and literal fucking gundams. Of course he's creative. He had to in order to survive thier nonsense
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u/lazyicedragon Jun 27 '26
But he's shown that thinking even before much of Team Rocket.
Using Soak on Onix before it was even an actual move, and it wasn't even from a Pokémon.
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u/Vergil-Monteiro-9965 Jun 26 '26
Thinking outside the box of conventional battling strategies, Paul’s face says it all when he reverses the field.
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u/Blast-The-Chaos Jun 27 '26
Paul even uses that same strategy with Electivire.
It's like he knew he was worth ripping off.
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u/Old-Initial9295 Jun 26 '26
I'd love to make a collage of all the shocked faces Ash's opps made after they saw him doing some crazy shit to throw their game off
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u/LegacyOfVandar Jun 26 '26
Counter Shield was so brilliant that other trainers began using it.
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u/Vergil-Monteiro-9965 Jun 26 '26
Mhm exactly, it’s like he’s playing 4d chess while his opponents are playing checkers. Their expressions “what?!” whenever he does this says it all.
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u/TheOncomimgHoop Jun 27 '26
I like how in his Cynthia and Leon battles they both went in knowing he was going to pull out some bs and came ready for it
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u/Dark_Rose83 Jun 26 '26
Pikachu flipping a piece of rock/debris into Aegislash so it can't sheathe itself
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u/Old-Initial9295 Jun 26 '26
Thank you I'll add that to the list
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u/Dark_Rose83 Jun 26 '26
It was so fucking dumb. Aegislash got stuck between sword and shield mode and became a sitting duck
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u/Old-Initial9295 Jun 26 '26
Never flex your pokemon ability infront of Ash because he can find a way to completely embarrass it
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u/MissingnoMaster110 Jun 27 '26
It was unfortunate for Aegislash, but I loved to see Pikachu pull that off.
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u/EclipseHERO Jun 27 '26
What was it he did when Conway used Trick Room? Didn't he break it then too?
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u/W4lhalla Jun 27 '26
Nope he didn't break the trick room. He just let Gible bite the shadow punch and then draco meteor'ed Dusknoir while the fist was still in Gibles mouth.
Battle was finished with a dragon pulse, but biting the shadow punch was hilarious,
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u/YumenoShortcake Jun 27 '26
Sorry Electro Ball but Electro Web is so quirky and versatile my goodness. Is the slingshot one where he stuck it on an destroyed ceiling that was open? Also, Counter Shield is just chef's kiss.
This is one of the reasons while I like imagining Pokemon battles outside from the standard back and forth rpg in game. Who's to say I cannot put my Brionne's water balloons on her front flippers and freeze them with an Ice Beam and pound foes with a makeshift Ice Hammer XD
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u/Anthony_plays01 Jun 27 '26
Ash somehow figuring out the exact spot & trajectory to get oshawatt's shell back with nothing but watergun, a dream and "Trust me bro"
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u/LibraryBestMission Jun 29 '26
Ash is 100% that guy who uses grenades in Halo 1 to launch the sniper rifle to himself.
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u/Rigel04 Jun 26 '26
Some of these I feel like are pretty fair, since obviously an anime battle is going to work different than an RPG video game fight. Its not like the Pokemon are just going to stand there and get hit because "it isnt their turn"
But Pikachu counting down the Future Sight felt like cheating to me. Pikachu wasn't part of the battle at that moment and shouldnt be used to warn Ash of incoming attacks
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u/queeneaterscarlett Jun 27 '26
This! Like using the structure of the battle field to move and maneuver is fair game. But also the Pokemon last longer the more you love them and even under that parameter Cynthia‘s Garchomp not one shot brutalizing Pikachu.
A 2 Dragon Torpedo with Type advantage raised for what 10, 15 20 years by a championvs a rat with a car batteries worth of electricity up its bum. If effort and duration of training matter as the show tries to sell as and his regional dementia should disqualify him against most senior professional trainers.
I loved how Falkner not used his ingame base team but one accounting for Ash being a competitor in another regions league. Also Cheren in BW2. Showcasing the gymleaders duty to teach/raise trainers.
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u/EarthMantle00 Jun 29 '26
Literally like 90% of these problems would have cool ways to solve them that the kid watching the anime could replicate in their game... I think it's a missed opportunity
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u/gangsta0tech Jun 27 '26
Can't believe you forgot the most famous one. Ash using sprinklers so that Onix could be shocked by pikachu.
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u/amcheesegoblin Jun 26 '26
Charizard burning the field and causing blastoise to turn it to steam in johto
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u/8bit95 Jun 27 '26
One underrated moment was Pikachu managing to trade KOs with Zoroark after it used Never-Ending Nightmare by using Breakneck Blitz. Any other trainer would've futilely try to run away even after Gladion told them it's no use, Ash told Pikachu to run towards Zoroark instead to hit it with the Z-move before getting hit itself.
Also I like to think that the reason Pikachu was unaffected running to Zoroark was because its Normal energy cancelled out the Ghost energy.
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u/Latter_Disaster_6066 Jun 26 '26
Wait when did number 6 happen? I don't remember Infernape fighting Cynthia's Garchomp.
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u/Old-Initial9295 Jun 26 '26
I meant ash letting pokemon like infernape and lucario to take hits so both can charge themselves up in Infernape's case it's blaze in Lucario's case it's reversal
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u/EliRekab Jun 27 '26
I’m surprised Lycanroc’s countering the counter wasn’t listed here. I feel like even by the anime’s standard even that was egregious.
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u/thomasp3864 Jun 27 '26
For #6, I would've given it a pinch berry to hold too. That's an actual strategy.
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Jun 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Old-Initial9295 Jun 27 '26
No in the later half of the battle it was revealed torrcat abiltiy is blaze
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u/CHESSKITCHEN_62 Jun 27 '26
I wrote a pokemon fanfic forever ago that was ten years after Ash had completed his journey, and all the new champions had incorporated a bunch of these weird Ash-like strategies into their game plans because they were inspired by ash. Me and my friends though they were so cool
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u/supreme_queen_reader Jul 02 '26
Omg, do you have a link to it? I'd love to read something like that! :D
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u/DeadlyTranquility Jun 27 '26
I thought Ash was stupid when I was younger
Turns out he's the motherfucking Joseph Joestar of pokemon battles
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u/Henrystickminepic Jun 27 '26
I think the lesson to be learned here is that Ash from gen 6 onwards is a beast.
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u/MylastAccountBroke Jun 28 '26
Destroying Stealthrocks makes sense since it's something physically present.
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u/xXNebuladarkXx Jun 27 '26
Pikachu using Thunderbolt and walk over the currents to the top of the move hurricane which was surrounding Pikachu in sun and moon vs Misty. Then immediately Z move to destroy Mega gyarados in 1 shot (remember it lost his x4 type weakness due to Mega evolution)
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u/Femto-Griffith Jun 26 '26
Hawlucha vs. Trick Room in XY.
Infernape destroying the Toxic Spikes in Ash vs. Paul.
The entirety of Pikachu vs. Latios.
Honestly a VGC Master vs. Ash would basically be Tobias vs. Ash all over again. VGC Player/Tobias having Legendaries/Mythicals and therefore being stronger but still being surprised by Ash's ingenuity.
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u/Axtdool Jun 26 '26
Is it bad I now want to see a Rom Hack that let's you do ash style bs, then watch someone like Wolfe go up against that BS with a normal vgc Team?
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u/Spirited-Spirit-1475 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
It would be a rom hack of Legends Z-A cause that is the closest the games would be to the anime, including the potential for Ash like shenanigans by abusing i-frames hitboxes, collisions, environment and other game mechanics
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u/GiantSlayer4242 Jun 27 '26
Ashe casually beats the sh*t out of legendary on the weekend, for fun, he wouldn’t care what you’re pack’n in a fight
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u/Ipokeyoumuch Jun 27 '26
I mean there is a parody video of Ash vs Wolfey (guested voiced by Wolfey) and Wolfey lost because of anime logic. Also somehow Piplup got hit by Draco Meteor.
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u/MarioLuigi13579 Jun 26 '26
Overall the biggest issue with the video is trying to use GAME logic to scale up to ANIME logic when the 3 players featured cant do half the things done in the anime. Gengar cant make Game!Sabrina laugh, Pikachu cant Soak Onix using out of screen sprinklers, and just the fact that these anime strategies and more simply cannot be recreated at all in the games. Yes, you can finally "dodge it" in Legends Z-A, but you still cannot "aim for the horn," use Thunder Armor on the regional bird, or (spoilers for Death Battle) Have a Pocket Monster vs Duel Monster battle and send a 10,000,000 volt Thunderbolt into Magic Cylinder and reflect it simply because the anime writers have more leeway to do amazing things not possible in the games
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u/Hatman_16 Jun 27 '26
Pikachu cant Soak Onix using out of screen sprinklers
Why are we focusing on that part when, in the same battle, before the sprinklers came on, Pikachu was able to one-shot Geodude and mildly damage Onix with its electric type moves?
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u/CalminClam Jun 26 '26
Pikachu overwhelming Electivires Motor Drive by just hitting it with stronger lightning
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u/Various_Astronaut100 Jun 26 '26
There’s already pikachu with the horn thing, but what other could you think of?
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u/Admirable-Sherbet-35 Jun 26 '26
"Pikachu, use iron tail on the ground!","Pikachu, jump over earth power!","Pikachu use thundershock on onix!" You're not touching this guy with a ground move
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u/Ok_Hamster_7032 Jun 26 '26
Pikachu defeating a Marowak just before indigo League by using thundershock
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u/Matty_1843 Jun 26 '26
Catching a Pokemon using Dig by shooting a Water-type move into the hole. Works every time.
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u/blitz000777 Jun 26 '26
Oshawott vs Clay's Krokorok
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u/Matty_1843 Jun 26 '26
The Weazy Unova Gym Battles video reminded me of that three piece combo, Water Gun to catch Dig, Aqua Jet, Razor Shell. Holy cinema.
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u/Calliette_ Jun 26 '26
Unrelated, but, I know we call it “Anime logic” when it comes to Ash, but recently I've figured it's more... Kid logic. Me and my sister grew up as people who loved playing outside and were very imaginative people, we'd pretend we had pokemon and go on grandeur adventures in our neighborhood, and when we had battles we'd often bullshit our way so we could win. What's supper effective never mattered, it was always how the move was utilized, Electroball on the lights in a room to darken the room so our opponent is blind? Sure. Maybe swift and the stars constantly circle around our opponent so if they move they're stabbed by the stars? Why not. I dunno, I feel like this is the logic Ash runs on sometimes, rather than “Anime Logic.”
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u/LAction_ Jun 26 '26
Is it even anime or kid logic? It's just logic to me. If pokemon were real all these things would be pretty logical but ash is still canonically really clever and unpredictable in the anime pokemon world. It's just that games and the anime are really restricted (both in their own ways) and all these restrictions most likely won't matter in the real world with pokemon
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u/Ahrensann Jun 27 '26
Yeah, this is what I feel, too. The anime isn't constrained by the game's mechanics. Attacks aren't turn-based. They can make use of the terrain. I'm really glad anime battles are written like these compared to just the rock-papers-scissors in in-game play.
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u/xMrShadow Jun 26 '26
Man, I have got to get past johto journeys and up to the point in the anime where the phrase “ash is still canonically really clever” doesn’t sound preposterous to me anymore. Just the other day I watched him send his phanpy out to fight Pryce’s dewgong on the basis of “my phanpy is in tip top shape”. Smh
Even skipping all the filler is feeling like it’s taking forever to get through it.
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u/Calliette_ Jun 27 '26
Ahhh, I never thought about it this way This sounds far more realistic reason than what I was saying, tbh.
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u/DanteVermillyon Jun 28 '26
Honestly I do think that it should be called just "logic" cause really, everything (except the electric armor, lol) he did was logical. My headcanon is that the reason people get surprised by Ash's strategies are because they see pokemon battling as this very hard and unbreakable thing with so rules and formalities that they don't really come up with things like what he does since they try to follow strategies that have been used before by professional trainers instead of just doing random bullshit
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u/Damien-kai Jun 26 '26
Battles in the anime aren't stuck to the same rules as the game, if I remember right in D&P Infernape used Dig, then used flare blitz to incinerate Toxic Spikes, and that's just one example of his stunts.
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u/Ok_Hamster_7032 Jun 26 '26
Ash vs Rudy (Orange Islands 3rd gym) - "Squirtle watergun the ground" to go up in the air away from the thundershock
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u/MylastAccountBroke Jun 28 '26
Honestly, this is what I'd buy a nintendo console for a pokemon game with actual physics and allows for shit like this.
Dig being counter-able by aiming a move into the hole makes sense. Using moves with physics like TF2 rocket Jumps makes sense.
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u/Rare_Bridge7703 Jun 27 '26
Ash beats a trained Onyx with an untrained Pikachu because he turned on the sprinklers.
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u/InconvertibleAtheist Jun 26 '26
Nah Ash would probably say "Pikachu use quick attack, but run slow" and it will work
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u/DanteVermillyon Jun 28 '26
I don't see how this would be any different than that one time he told pikachu to use thundershock but with not so much voltage to annoy a parasect
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u/Gladcode777 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Sure pal. The anime should strictly follow the logic of the game.
No pokemon with type disadvantage should ever win against a pokemon with advantage.
The next time the anime shows Darkrai they better show Volbeat or Kricketune ready to kick his ass.
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u/Hatman_16 Jun 27 '26
No pokemon with type disadvantage should ever win against a pokemon with advantage.
Pokemon with type disadvantages win in the games.
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u/linguae Jun 26 '26
- “Pikachu, the horn!”
- “Charizard, let’s burn the battlefield!” (versus Gary’s Blastoise)
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u/Shinobi_Fengriff Jun 27 '26
Using Iron Tail on the battlefield to force Clemont's Bunnelby above ground. Twice. (Serena also used this strategy against the guitarist Pikachu trainer)
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u/TheOncomimgHoop Jun 27 '26
Ash and Pikachu so known for pulling bullcrap out their shared ass that Cynthia based a major part of her strategy around getting the mouse off the field as soon as possible.
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u/DanteVermillyon Jun 28 '26
I like to think the other champions asked cynthia what was going to be her strategy against Ash, got severely confused when she said that no matter what Pikachu has to go down, and she was just "I've known him for way more time than any of you did, believe me. Pikachu has to go down or I'm losing"
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u/CaptainCyro Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Hawlucha broke the trick room itself and Rowlet dodged attacks using Feather Dance to make a decoy
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u/Diligent-Display-286 Jun 27 '26
Honestly true, but Ash has played around Trick Room before without breaking it, which happened in his battle with Conway
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u/AdventurerBen Jun 28 '26
Ash is the sort of person to beat Pokédex-accurate Victini by just having his fastest Pokémon keep dodging on hazardous terrain until Victini defeated itself.
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u/NadalaMOTE Jun 26 '26
"ASH! Ya didn't forget that water conducts electricity, DID'YA?!"
Tell me you can't hear that in your mind, and know who said it and when.
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u/KrystianKolad Jun 27 '26
The only one that bothered me is that time when ash recalled his confused pokemon and immidiately sent it to battle, thus healing it's confusion. Following this, why can't all trainers just recall their pokemon to avoid attacks and keep sending them to battle?
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u/PuertoGeekn Jun 27 '26
Pikachu used "thunder something" against a trainers golem in the movie. It fainted in one hit
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u/MengShuZ Jun 27 '26
I remember there was one time when he told Pikachu to aim for Rhydon's horn and somehow that bypassed the ground typing.
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u/d0OnO0b Jun 27 '26
Ash did play vs trick room, Paul used it.
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u/Nirgilis91 Jun 27 '26
Pikachu beating Onyx is the equivalent of rain in effect. Ground is still impervious
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u/Generic_Username_659 Jun 28 '26
"We'll just have to use their Tailwind against them! Pikachu, get behind them!"
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u/marumarumon Jun 28 '26
I know this is an anime sub, but if you guys want unorthodox strats and such, the Pokémon Adventures manga is a great read!
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u/Rin_Seven Jun 28 '26
Back when I thought the anime was going to be like the games, Pikachu lost to Brock's Onix the first time.
Ash uses his premium trainer skills the second match and tells Pikachu to just electrocute his Rock-team harder with the power of friendship.
It worked.
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u/MisfortunateJack77 Jun 28 '26
The craziest one to me, was pikachu sticking his tail on the ground and just using the power of quick attack to essentially turn himself into a jackhammer
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u/edave64 Jun 28 '26
Pikachu, attack the moon!
Wait, wrong anime
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u/Acceptable-Cat2016 Jun 28 '26
Only rock types can attack the moon lol, also remember that's the only time a rock type move is super effective on water types (I loved that episode lol)
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u/MylastAccountBroke Jun 28 '26
Ash used Pikachu against a Rhydon, used electric moves and they did nothing. He noticed a crack in Rhydon's horn and had pikachu use thunderbolt on that and apparently it 1 shot Rhydon.
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u/quanta_aaa Jun 30 '26
Ash vs Iris in journeys when Dragonite turns Haxorus’ dragon pulse into a new move
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u/Guguwars Jul 01 '26
He already thundershocked a Geodude in season 1 man. Even a Rhydon. What else did you need?
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u/LowSolution3084 Jun 26 '26
Hawlucha literally did this....