Happy mid-week, everyone! It’s that time again for another fabulous article of BW Elite 4 Untamed, written by yours truly. I hope the past week has been a good one for all. Mine was fair up until this past weekend when I started feeling under the weather. I missed work on Monday to go to the doctor only to discover I have tonsillitis! Hooray! By the way, Korean doctor visits are A.) cheap and B.) ridiculously fast. two hours and fifteen clams later I comfortably resting on my bed dozing off from the sweet, gracing pills I feverishly ingested. Good times!
[spoiler]Last week we spoke about Grimsley, the dark type Elite 4 leader. This new article will be focusing on Caitlin, the psychic type user! Back in the RBY days psychic types used to be the front liners of any team. Everyone had a Mew, Mewtwo or Alakazam (if it didn’t, well, shame! ;p ). As the generations progressed, psychic types went more and more on the back burner, especially once dark types were introduced. Followed closely by useful bug types and a lack of improvement with new/old psychic types really sealed the deal. Generation V has cut them some slack with new dream world abilities, so their usefulness has improved somewhat. However, I do believe that the dark and bug types of the Pokemon universe are advancing at a far more rapid pace than the mysterious psychic type.
Caitlin is a rather interesting character. Her design looks like an anime angel who lounges in her PJs most of the day. Her “stadium” is, well, her bed? Odd Gamefreak, real odd. I think they could have done something a bit more fitting with a psychic type Elite 4 member, but that’s just me. Lucian, the previous psychic type Elite 4 member, was a far more intriguing. Little did I know, though, that Caitlin was actually featured in Pokemon Platinum on the Battle Castle! I enjoy these occasional crossover connections. 😉
Caitlin’s psychic line up consists of the typical three 48’s and the final level 50. It’s an all-female team with Reuniclus, Musharna and Sigilyph. Her level 50 is a Gothitelle. Prep up your fight by bringing bunches of lemonades and revives as usual. It can also be helpful to pack some X-Sp. Def items since Caitlin’s team is special based. As far as the Pokemon you’ll need, well, anything that’s a dark type (with the exception of the horrible Liepard) will do! Krookodile, Bisharp and Scrafty should do just the trick. They’re powerful enough to 1HKO most of her team and fast enough to land a hit without taking one. I used a Moxie Krookodile for this fight. I could argue that Moxie is easily one of the most useful abilities in the entire game equipped with the right Pokemon. Krookodile is just fast enough to get the job done, too. There are a few things though that one should be wary of while facing Caitlin. Many of her teammates hold some tricky moves up their sleeves that can counter the said Dark types.
Her first teammate is a 48 Reuniclus. She comes with Magic Guard, which will allow the holder to only take damage from attacks, thus negating their secondary effect (i.e poison, paralysis, etc). She can attack with Psychic, Energy Ball, Focus Blast and Thunder. Energy Ball can take out any Krookodile user while Focus Blast can KO just about any Dark type with a single hit. Take advantage of her sub-par speed and strike with a swift Crunch or Night Slash! Next up is her level 48 Musharna. I’m not going to go in with much depth on Musharna. If she kills you, then you definitely did something wrong. Musharna isn’t that much of a threat in any situation, so attack her with any type of offensive move (even neutral ones), to take her out quickly. After Musharna you’ll contend with a level 48 Sigilyph, which is easily Caitlin’s most threatening teammate. She comes with Shadow Ball, Psychic, Ice Beam and Air Slash. She can be quite a threat with her high special attack and speed, so make sure you use something sturdy. Bisharp completely walls her attacks (thank you Steel typing!) and even Excadrill will remain neutral against an Ice Beam. After you take out Sigilyph, she’ll toss out her level 50 Gothitelle. Gothitelle isn’t as big of a threat as Sigiliph, but she does contain some nasty moves like Calm Mind and Thunderbolt. Take advantage of her dark weakness and mediocre defense stat before she builds up her special abilities!
When you face Caitlin a second time, she’ll have the usual two new teammates and some minor changes to her existing ones (four level 71’s and a level 73 respectively). First, the changes; Musharna comes with Hypnosis and Dream Eater instead of Shadow Ball and Charge Beam. She’s still a pitiful excuse for a threat and can be taken out easily with a dark/bug move. Her Sigiliph comes with Flash Cannon instead of Shadow Ball, which is an odd replacement. Shadow Ball is infinitely more useful in this case, so if anything Sigiliph just got that much easier to fight. Reunculus remains the same and should be treated as stated for the previous fight. Gothitelle comes with Payback and Flatter instead of Shadow Ball and Calm Mind. Again, the prior to are far less useful, so her fight is actually much easier.
For this second fight, it’s important to bring along a fire type. Why? Well, Caitlin now uses a 71 Bronzong and a 73 Metagross. The psychic/steel type is one of the best defensive types in the game, so these two can be quite annoying as they resist plenty of attacks. Caitlin’s Bronzong is full of offensive moves. If anyone knows how to use a Bronzong, it definitely isn’t going to be offensive. Take it out easily with neutral water or super effective fire moves. Metagross comes with Zen Headbutt, Earthquake, Bullet Punch and Giga Impact. The first three moves are quite powerful and can leave pretty big dents on any team because of their type coverage and overall strength/STAB, but it’s nothing a strong fire type can’t handle (just mind the Earthquake!).[/spoiler]
That just about does it for this installment, folks! I tried to cut this one down a bit shorter so it wouldn’t be such a tedious read. I hope it helped some 🙂 Have a fantastic week and I’ll see you next time!
P.S Random fact again! My favorite candy is Candy Corn. Don’t hate. Seirously.