Booth reaches his apartment sometime around 6:00. After finishing dinner he goes to watch something on TV with Ben.
"Hey guys, I got another team to practice with us tomorrow." Damon comes in and says.
"Did you find a fourth member yet?" Ben asks.
"Yes, I have someone joining for tomorrow. He's not yet an official team member for the competition though. In any case, we can do our preparations in the morning. The team battle will start whenever both teams are ready."
"Sounds good." Booth says.
"Yeah, I'll be ready." Ben adds after Booth.
---
The next morning Booth arrives at a training room in the Tiered Trainer Center with Ben. Damon is already there with another trainer. The trainer greets the rest of the team. "Hello, my name is Tyler. I use a Snow Form Sandshrew and I have about two weeks of experience as a tiered trainer."
Ben smiles and welcomes Tyler, "Glad to have you. I'm Ben."
Booth also introduces himself, "Nice to meet you, Tyler. My name's Booth."
"Nice to meet you both."
"Good. You can all warm up then we'll try to work on a strategy." Damon says.
The three nod and start getting ready. Booth starts by doing a coordination exercise with his Pansear. He makes sure to pay attention to Pansear's condition during the exercise. About fifteen minutes later Damon calls everyone back together to explain the game.
When everyone is ready, Damon begins explaining, "A team battle's rules are pretty simple. Two teams fight to determine a victor and there are 20 minutes for each battle. Realistically, a battle will never take that long. In any case, we win when the opponent's team has no more usable pokemon or forfeits.
Each team can use a total of four pokemon per battle and only use two at a time. There can be one trainer or up to six trainers on a team. Any questions so far?"
"What size is the normal team in a tournament?" Ben asks.
"There are generally 3-4 trainers per team. You might see a team with 6 trainers, and occasionally you will see a team with one or two trainers. But these kinds of teams are unusual to see at Tier 1."
Booth speaks up next "How many pokemon can each trainer bring?"
"Like normal competitions, trainers can bring all six of their pokemon. Of course a team can still only use up to 4 pokemon. Being able to bring all your pokemon seems like a decent advantage for a team, but it's very difficult for a tiered trainer to use multiple pokemon."
Booth asks another question, "Are Tier 2 trainers able to participate?"
Damon thinks to himself. Then gives his answer after some thought. "Tier 2 trainers are allowed to participate in a Tier 1 competition as long as they don't use any Tier 2 abilities. In the first place it's hard to tell whether a trainer is a Tier 1 or 2 trainer. If a trainer uses a Tier 2 ability they'll either get a warning or their pokemon will be counted as fainted."
"That seems good." Booth responds.
Damon continues his explanation on team battles, "What we need to work on is how to act as a team. You'll want to familiarize yourself with your teammates' skills, their pokemon, and how you can aid them. I've never done a team battle in an official competition, so we will have to figure this out among ourselves. If you find something or have any questions then feel free to ask. If there's nothing else we can start."
The rest of the team nods and begins sharing their pokemon's abilities first. Each person gives an example of a move. Then answer questions on the specifics of what the move does, and what situations they would generally use the move in. The group goes to the next person after showing off their moves and explaining their gameplan.
Ben is in the middle of explaining one of Buizel's moves, "Pursuit is a move that will do double damage when attacking an opponent from behind. With Buizel's speed it's dangerous to have your back turned."
"Talk about keeping an opponent on their toes. You already have Quick Attack to catch opponents, do you have Aqua Jet too?" Booth asks.
"Yes, I just learned it recently. And you're right Buizel is great at chasing opponents down. You have to pay close attention to Buizel, otherwise once a move is launched it's near impossible to react to it. On the other hand Buizel's defenses aren't as strong, so if you catch him you're sure to get a lot of damage."
Next, Damon explains some of his Morgrem's features. He has his Morgrem use its moves and describes the use for them.
"Morgrem's False Surrender is a move that bypasses an opponent's defenses. The move is good on its own, but it becomes great when used with another one of his moves." Damon show's his next move against Ben's Buizel. "This move is Sucker Punch. It is quick and interrupts any moves an opponent may use. While the move is fast, Morgrem will be in a bad spot if the opponent blocks it."
"Regardless, the gameplan you can make with these moves is great! The move False Surrender makes the opponent want to attack, while Sucker Punch punishes them for attacking recklessly. It's a frightening combo for sure." Booth comments.
Ben cringes just remembering his fights against it. "It feels dirty when you're on the receiving end. It's not unbeatable though. As long as you keep your distance and play patiently. Morgrem will definitely struggle."
Booth goes next. He shows some of his moves and their applications.
"I can fire multiple Incinerates and they linger on the field." Booth shows off one of his more recent versions of the move first.
Booth fires the Incinerate forward. This Incinerate moves slower than the normal fireball. However, it still flies faster than most pokemon can move. It lands on the ground, but the fire's intensity hasn't settled down quite yet. After a few seconds the power in the move declines and the fire dies out.
"I lengthened the time it stays around to create a sort of fire wall." Booth says as the move finishes.
Damon gives his assessment, "Hmm, it seems like a good move to create space. The problem is working a move like this into a strategy for team battles. In team battles, moves like this often interfere with your teammates. If we can find a situation to use it in, the fire wall could be good though."
"I haven't considered that. I guess it's something like how hanging back will only cause the opponents to attack your teammate first."
Tyler adds his opinion, "To make the move work we could try something like covering their escape. Or trapping them between a fire wall and one of your teammates."
"That's good thinking. In this case the wall isn't to protect yourself as much as to obstruct the opponent from escaping."
The group reviews the fire wall as well as the moves and the situation Booth uses them for. For Booth's last move he shows Flame Burst. After the fireball explodes against the wall the group makes its judgement.
"Your Flame Burst definitely has the most power out of any of the moves on our team so far. It will work great as a finishing move. The large blast radius and the speed of the fireball are excellent. The range is good for its power too. I'm sure it takes a lot of energy, though." Ben gives the move a positive review.
"Yawn is a great set up for it. Although it takes a while, if the opponent isn't ready, the effects will be severe." Damon adds.
"I tested it on some wild pokemon yesterday, and even if the move doesn't knock them out they are sure to be left reeling. And like you said Ben, the move does take a lot of energy, so I can take quite a beating if it misses." Booth states.
Lastly, Tyler presents his move's with his Sandshrew. He shows some Ice moves as well as Steel moves and how they work in battle.
"Icicle Spear is Sandshrew's only strong, ranged Ice move. It's good, but Sandshrew's greatest strength comes from curling up. Using my vision I can direct Sandshrew while it uses moves like Rollout and Gyro Ball. The speed Sandshrew gets when doing so is higher as well." Tyler explains.
"That's a great application of your pokemon's strengths. Does your Sandshrew get significant buffs to its attack or defense too?" Damon asks.
"Yes, curling up covers most of Sandshrew's weak points, raising its defense quite a bit. When it's rolling it raises its attack, defense, and speed. Sandshrew can also deflect a good deal of attacks when rolling. Additionally, I can get more power for my moves with roll's momentum."
Tyler gives an example of this with his Sandshrew. The Sandshrew leaps into a roll and gains a good amount of speed in just a second. Next, the Sandshrew hops out of the roll and launches an Icicle Spear.
"Shing!"
A three inch wide ice spike slices through the air. The length is as long as a dagger and looks equally as sharp. The spinning blade accurately crashes into a gash on the wall. While the Icicle Spear doesn't break, the wall now has a mark testifying the raw power of the move.
"Impressive power. And the speed is certainly better than before. You built up speed very quickly and had a fast transition from roll to attack." Tyler nods at Damon's analysis. Damon continues. "Still, I'd need to see how you move before making any decisions on strategy. If that's all everyone has for moves we can start working on our strategy for our match today."
The team agrees and they begin working on the team's strategy.