- Greetings, Pokefans! Michael here, and in the
first two Pokemon games I ever played, Ruby and Leaf Green, I only used my starters,
Sceptile and Blastoise. But in the third game
I ever played, Emerald, I finally used a team of
Pokemon for the very first time. I decided to go on a nostalgia trip and play through Pokemon Emerald
using the same team I did as a 10-year-old when the
game came out in 2005, but with the knowledge and expertise that I have as an adult. So, don't forget to
subscribe to my channel, pick up a hat or a plushy
at MandJTVmerch.com, and let's dive in. The first choice is the
starter, and I selected Mudkip. I had already used Treecko in Ruby, and I wanted to change it up. And I chose Mudkip because
I saw my brother use it in Sapphire at the same time
I was playing through Ruby, and it looked fun to use and strong. For the record Blaziken is
also fun to use and strong, and I would end up using that
in a playthrough of Sapphire when I got that later. For the record, all the
Hoenn starters are amazing, best generation of
starters, just flat out. After returning to Birch's lab, I named my Mudkip Fen. This is not the same
nickname I gave my Mudkip in my original playthrough. I don't remember what its nickname was or any other team members, or even if they got nicknames at all because the playthrough was 16 years ago. So for this run, I'll be giving them nicknames
that I think are fun. I headed north to defeat May then continued onward until
I reached Petalburg Woods where I found a Shroomish, the second member of my original team. After catching it, I nicknamed it Lasso. This name comes from Breloom's ability to stretch out its arms, which I like to think it would
use to lasso its opponents to, you know, beat the crap out of them. As for why 10-year-old
me wanted to use Breloom, that was because I like the Pokemon. Always have, it's quite nice. Before long it was time to fight Roxanne, a fight I wasn't really concerned about due to having both a
Water and a Grass type. Fen crushed the first Geodude, then Lasso defeated the second. Lasso ended up trapped
in against Nosepass, and while this battle took a long time, Lasso was never in danger of losing due to healing from Absorb and Leech Seed. After the battle, Fen evolved
into a glorious Marshtomp. After being asked by the
CEO of an enormous company to deliver a letter to his own son, dude, just call him. You literally give me
a phone a minute later. I make my way to Dewford. Due to the higher levels that result from only
training two Pokemon, I felt comfortable
immediately challenging Brawly after beating the gym trainers. Lasso wasn't able to do much to Machop, so I brought in Fen who
easily dealt with it. Fen then defeated Meditite. I brought in Lasso for his
strongest Pokemon Makuhita and both Stun Spored and Leech Seeded it. I then brought Fen back in, and before long I was
forced to use Water Gun instead of the stronger Mud Shot because the Makuhita
used Bulk Up three times, which means it was at +3 defense, but more terrifyingly +3 attack. However, despite the boosts, it looked like I was going to be fine until the Makuhita lived on what had to have been literally 1 HP and then used Reversal, a
move that is 200 base power when the user's HP is that low. That combined with it being at +3 attack made the incoming OHKO very unsurprising but very terrifying. I was in a sticky spot until Leech Seed damage
immediately KO'd it and won me the battle. That is one of the most dramatic, very bad to very good situations
I've experienced in Pokemon that I can remember, After the battle I had to
backtrack to the mainland because I needed something
that could learn Flash, and I caught a Nincada. I then handed the letter off
to Steven in Granite Cave. Then headed off to Slateport. Before long it was time for
the next battle with May, a battle I was concerned about due to her Grovyle decimating Fen, and my only other Pokemon not being able to do much damage to it. She led with Wingull, and Fen took it down with some Tackles. In came Grovyle, and Lasso's Stun Spore failed due to Effect Spore putting
Grovyle to sleep first, which I could live with. I kept Tackling away, eventually paralyzing
it with Effect Spore, and eventually we were both in red HP. I thought I had the win since
paralysis made Lasso faster, but the Grovyle Quick
Attacked and took down Lasso. Fen finished it off though, then easily defeated Slugma
and won me the battle. On the way to Mauville, Lasso evolved into a beautiful Breloom, giving me a major power upgrade. Upon reaching Mauville, I
headed straight for the gym, ignoring most of the nearby trainers. That's because I was
saving them to use them to train up my soon to be
acquired next team member. The actual gym battle against
Watson was trivially easy. Fen OHKO'd every member of
his team except Manectric, but that didn't really even matter since Manectric couldn't
do much damage back to Fen. Afterwards I caught a
Marill to use for HMs, then Rock Smashed my way north dodging all the trainers I could, aiming for my target; the Fiery Path. In there is where I found
and caught a Torkoal. I named it Galavagos, a pun
that I am very proud of. Galapagos Tortoise and lava. It is very good, I agree. Thank you. And with this Torkoal, my team is now, well, basically complete actually. I never said Emerald was my
first game with a full team, just a team of more than one Pokemon. And I took baby steps and
started with a team of three. Nice little Fire-Water-Grass core. Well, I suppose there was a
fourth member that joined later, which you can probably guess what it was, but I don't consider that
a part of the main team. The main team is these three, and I have a lot of fondness for them. After all, I was able to
get two Silver symbols in the Battle Frontier using
these playthrough Pokemon as a 10-year-old, which honestly might be one
of the more impressive things I've accomplished in Pokemon. After quite a lot of
training and adventuring and Meteor Falls-ing, I encountered Maxie atop Mt Chimney. Lasso handled Mightyena
but needed two Mach Punches due to Intimidate. Fen barely couldn't OHKO Camerupt but was able to handle it the
next turn after he healed. Galavagos finished the
battle by defeating Zubat in two turns. I wasted little time
heading to fight Flannery, feeling confident due to
Fen being higher level than all of her Pokemon. Fen OHKO'd both Numel and Slugma, but then after being
unable to OHKO Camerupt, Fen got Attracted. I swapped to Galavagos and decided to try to lower its accuracy to prevent Attract happening again. I decided to see if Galavagos
could win without switching, and several Body Slams later, it had. In came her Torkoal, and I decided to try to
weigh in with my own for fun. It helped that Galavagos
learned Flamethrower right before she sent hers in. I started with the mistake
of trying Smoke Screen, forgetting about White
Smoke preventing stat loss. I got really close, but eventually she landed
an Overheat in the sun, KOing Galavagos. I brought in Fen and
easily finished things off. And then we do the weird Hoenn thing where we go to immediately
fight the next gym leader. Daddy. Norman led with Spinda,
while I led with Lasso. Mach Punch made quick work of it before Confusion could cause any problems. Mach Punch didn't OHKO Vigoroth, allowing it to do some damage, but a crit the next turn finished it off. Mach Punch once again
could not OHKO Linoone, but it wasted its first
turn attempting a belly drum that it didn't have
enough HP to carry out. Which thank God. Getting Belly Drum swept by
a Linoone is not very fun. I speak from experience. After he healed Linoone,
my next Mach Punch KO'd it. And thus he sent in his ace, Slaking. I immediately Leech Seeded it
at the same time it Yawned me. I attacked as it loafed around, almost KOing it but not
quite getting there. It's berry healed it,
and Lasso fell asleep. The Slaking did massive
damage with Facade, but Lasso's Effect Spore kicked in, putting Slaking to sleep. Norman didn't heal, so at
the end of the next turn, Slaking fell to Leech Seed damage, meaning for the first time
in my extensive Pokemon life, I won a battle while both
Pokemon were taking a nap. A while later after clearing Team Aqua out from the Weather Institute, a scientist there gifted me a Castform. Hail yeah! That I left in the party but did not use because I didn't use it as a kid. My fondness for Castform
has been more recent. I've always thought it was cute, but it didn't get a spot in
my top 10 favorite Pokemon until the last few years. After the Weather Institute, instead of continuing onto Fortree City, I decided to backtrack
to the Abandoned Ship to get the TM for Ice Beam, a move Fen could learn
that would be super helpful against Winona and Flying types in general since I had no coverage for them. This is a big difference
from how I played then versus how I played now. When I was a kid, I never used TMs, at least not before they
became unbreakable in Gen 5. I was terrified that if I
used this single use item that I could not get more of, I would want it later and
have no way to get it back. Therefore all the TMs that
you could not buy more of just rotted in my bag. And if a Pokemon's level
up moveset wasn't any good, which I could look up using
one of my trusty guidebooks, then I considered the
Pokemon to not be any good. But nowadays as an
adult, I use TMs freely. To be fair most of the
playthroughs I do for these videos, I don't touch after I beat the League, so it doesn't matter if I want
a TM later after the League. And the new games all have unbreakable TMs or infinite source TRs, so I guess if I was
playing a pre-Gen-5 game that I intended to have
as my main save file where I would progress past the League... Maybe I haven't changed
as much as I thought. After teaching Fen Ice Beam, I continued on toward Fortree City, encountering May along the way. Slugma went down fast to Fen. Grovyle took two turns
for Galavagos to beat due to the rain. And then Lombre went down
to a couple Mach Punches. Can I just say that the rival teams in Emerald are like weird? Like, May has Wingull, Slugma, and Grovyle in the immediately previous battle, but then for just this battle, the Wingull is gone and
she has a Lombre instead? And then for the final battle in Lilycove, the Wingull's back,
evolved into a Pelipper. The Lombre is gone. What happened? While fighting gym
trainers in Winona's gym, Fen finally reached its Fen-al form. (Michael laughs) And evolved into Swampert. Not long later, it was
time to fight Winona. Fen easily dispatched Swablu but had to switch when Tropius came in. Thankfully that was easy
for Galavagos to defeat. And then I brought Fen
back in for Pelipper. This thing was so annoying. For some reason, Pelippers
in Gen 3 are obsessed with using Protect for
absolutely no reason. Plus it was confusing me with Supersonic. Eventually Fen got down below half health, and I got so sick of dealing with it that I brought in Lasso
with its higher attack. This is risky due to
its 4x Flying weakness, but thanks to a flinch
and Supersonic missing, Lasso won it in three turns. Galavagos ended Skarmory
with one Flamethrower and Fen finished Altaria
with one Ice Beam. The battle was over. Afterward I caught a Pelipper to use my newly acquired
ability to use Fly. I made the lengthy journey to Lilycove, then back up Mt Pyre where I
was given the Magma Emblem. I headed to Jagged Pass
to open the entrance to the Magma Hideout. Side note, I thought the
Magma Hideout was one of the coolest things
about Emerald as a kid, and honestly still do. I remember looking ahead in my guidebook and seeing Magma Hideout under Mt Chimney, and just going like, "What? "What? "This makes so much more sense
than the ocean side hideouts "for the magma team!" I fought my way through, witnessed Groudon yeet
itself out of there, then had to fight Maxie once again. I led with Fen to eat the
Intimidate from Mightyena, then switched to Breloom and
destroyed it with Sky Uppercut. Fen did about two thirds damage
to Crobat but got confused, so I switched to Galavagos as he healed. Galavagos was confused
again but snapped out fast. Maxie healed again though and eventually switched to
Camerupt before I could KO it. I swapped to Fen and
defeated Camerupt with Surf and then finished off the Crobat. Next I returned to Lilycove to
battle May for the last time. This battle was pretty easy. Every team member was
OHKO'd except Pelipper, but I flinched it twice
in a row with Headbutt, so it never got to attack. After witnessing grand theft
submarine in Slateport City, I broke into the Aqua Hideout. Matt was easy to defeat, and then I continued on to Mossdeep City. At this point I was
feeling very confident. Because of the fact that
I only use three Pokemon, all of them ended up higher level than the gym leader's Pokemon without me having to do any grinding. So, I thought I was
fine to just waltz right into Tate and Liza's gym and crush them like I had
all of the other gym leaders. It would be a breeze, right? Immediately things went awry
when Xatu set up Calm Mind and Claydol did big damage with Earthquake before I could even move. And then Surf didn't do anywhere
near as much as I needed. The next turn after they healed, Xatu finished off Galapagos. I was forced to send in Lasso,
you know, my Fighting type who immediately fell the next turn. I then had to send in Pelipper because in Gen 3 double battles, they force you to send
in your next Pokemon as soon as one of yours faints even if the turn isn't complete yet. They, thank God, fixed this in Gen 4. Pelipper of course immediately
fell to the next attack, meaning by the end of the third turn, two of my three main team members plus one of my fodder Pokemon were done. But at least Fen was able to beat Claydol. The next turn, they took out
my last two fodder Pokemon while I took out Xatu. But all I had left was Fen. I thought I had a chance to win it since it was my Surfing Water
type against two Rock types, but then Solrock started
charging Solar Beam, and I knew I was running out of time. I outsped and did more than half to it, so I thought I had it secured, but then it healed with its Berry. I healed hoping that it might allow me to live the Solar Beam, but then Lunatone's Psychic
dropped my special defense and it was over. I had lost. When I was a kid I never completed losses. I saved before every major battle. And if it looked like I was gonna lose, I turned off my game
and turned it back on. Now I know that the money
you lose is no big deal, but as a kid, it was terrifying. Today it's more just annoying. And a little embarrassing. I have lost to the seventh gym leader in two consecutive vanilla playthroughs! What am I doing? Since the nature of this challenge means my team can't
really change composition, all that was left to do was grind by battling every trainer I
could find in the entire ocean. Well, not the routes that
connect Petalburg to Dewford to Slateport 'cause I
(laughs) forgot about them. After a long time of doing that, it was time to try again with
substantially higher levels, especially Fen. Xatu started with Calm Mind again, but this time Fen was faster than Claydol and did big damage with Surf. Claydol's Earthquake crit Fen though, but didn't KO Galavagos, and he was able to hit
back with a Flamethrower that KO'd it. The last battle was using Body Slam instead of Flamethrower because I thought Ground resisted Fire when it's actually Rock that resists Fire, and let me just say the inconsistencies of the resistances not
just being the inverses of the weaknesses can get
very frustrating sometimes! In came Solrock, public enemy number one. Xatu KO'd Galavagos, and
Fen Surfed to hit both. Solrock immediately went for Solar Beam and healed with its berry. Next turn Xatu KO'd Nincada, but then this time thanks
to its extra power, Fen finished off Solrock before it could fire off the Solar Beam. For the next few turns, Fen Surfed away as they swept through the
HM mules in the other slot until eventually it was Fen
and Lasso versus Lunatone. Lasso was the fastest though, and oddly enough, my
Fighting type was the one to get the final KO at the Psychic gym. Breloom is such a good Pokemon. It's attack stat is insane, and it gets even better in Gen 4 once it can actually use
physical Grass type moves. It hits like a truck. Not long later, I teamed up with Steven to fight Maxie and Tabitha
at the Space Center. It took a while but wasn't very difficult. Fen never had to heal or leave the field. I then immediately went
off to the Seafloor Cavern. Soon I had fought through to face Archie. I led with Galavagos to keep his Mightyena's
Intimidate from working. Galavagos's powerful
Flamethrowers defeated it not long later. I struggled more against
Crobat due to Confusion hax and Air Cutter crits, which
forced me to heal at one point, but eventually Galavagos got the win. Finally Sharpedo was
easily defeated by Lasso. And then story stuff. Kyogre wakes up, Groudon and Kyogre fight, I go to fetch Rayquaza,
they stop fighting, and I saved the world
by running an errand. It was then time for the final gym. Luvdisc did not fall to a Mega Drain due to Breloom's poor special attack and Mega Drain's low power, but Lasso fought through the
Attract so it ended up fine. Sealeo was an easy OHKO or at least it would have been
if Sky Uppercut didn't miss. If it's not 100% accurate,
it's 50% accurate. Yeah, I know. The next turn it hit
though and defeated Sealeo. He sent in Kingdra which outsped Lasso and KO'd it with an Ice Beam
before I could do anything. The next fight cemented Juan's Kingdra as my least favorite gym leader
Pokemon in all of Pokemon, except for maybe Whitney's Miltank. I'm not sure I can say the
Kingdra is worse than the Miltank but the fact that I'm considering
it should tell you a lot! The Kingdra is evil because
it is only weak to Dragon, an uncommon attacking type. It knows Double Team, which is obviously
evil, and it knows Rest. What this means is that it's difficult to do big damage to this Kingdra because it's only weak to Dragon, and it's hard to find Dragon type attacks. That means you kind of
have to whittle it down, but since it knows Rest, it can heal itself all the way
back up to full in one turn even after he runs out of potions! The next four and a half
minutes of this playthrough were solid suffering as
Kingdra barely lived, Rested back up, Double
Teamed, confused me, and even froze me at one point! I might have been able to win if I healed excessively
and stalled out its Rests, but since Rest had 10
PP and he had +4 evasion at a minimum, I decided I was done. I intentionally didn't
heal and let it sweep me, so I could start over and try again, which means using the
team I used as a child, I have lost two gym battles! I don't know if it's because
the team just isn't that good or doesn't have enough coverage, or if I'm just not as
good as I thought I was, or I got cocky or I lost as
a kid and I don't remember. But what I do remember is my
fourth team member, Rayquaza. I don't think I'll ever
forget discovering as a child that I could catch a level 70 Rayquaza before the Pokemon League and just being stunned and thrilled. There was no way I wasn't gonna use that. However, I wasn't gonna use
it for this battle with Juan. Reason number one for that is because I forgot to go get the Rayquaza before the first battle. But after I lost the first
battle, I had something to prove. I was gonna beat this
guy using my main three without having to lean on Rayquaza. I went right back in there again without doing a moment of training. This time I used Sky Uppercut on Luvdisc and OHKO'd it immediately. And my first Sky Uppercut
on Sealeo did not miss, meaning Lasso was totally
healthy when Kingdra came in. It used Double Team, but Lasso was able to land the Leech Seed. It Double Teamed again,
and I missed Sky Uppercut. It Ice Beamed and did three
quarters of Lasso's health, but Lasso landed the Sky
Uppercut doing massive damage. It didn't KO, but Leech Seed did. Brawly's Makuhita, Norman's Slaking, and now Juan's Kingdra, three gym leader ace Pokemon
that fell to Leech Seed that may have been huge
problems otherwise. This playthrough has really given me a new found appreciation for Leech Seed and strengthened my existing
appreciation for Breloom. And Swampert. And Torkoal. I just, I love these guys! With Kingdra down, Whiscash
and Crawdaunt were easy for Lasso to finish off. The final badge was mine, which meant it was time to catch Rayquaza but not with the Master Ball. I did not use the Master Ball on Rayquaza when I was a kid because I
wanted to save the Master Ball for the roaming legendary,
one of the two Lati, whichever one I selected. And I wanted to stay true
to that original run, so I decided I would catch this Rayquaza without using the Master Ball, which meant I would be trying
to capture a legendary Pokemon that was 22 levels higher
than my strongest Pokemon that also knew Rest to heal itself and could confuse itself
with Outrage and KO itself. It, well, it sucked. I saved beforehand of course
and would reset if I failed just like I did when I was a kid. On attempt one it KO'd itself
with Outrage confusion. On attempt two it KO'd my entire team. On attempt three it KO'd
itself in confusion, but then on attempt four after using both of my max revives and having only my level
27 Pelipper left standing, I finally succeeded. I ended up naming the Rayquaza Reset for obvious reasons. Oh my God, I'm glad that's over. At the Victory Road, I
easily defeated Wally. I made my way through,
did a bit of grinding, and then it was time for the League. First was Sydney. Lasso took down Mightyena,
but had been Intimidated, so I swapped to Galavagos
when Absol came in. After I failed to OHKO it, I swapped Lasso back in,
expecting him to heal. He did not and did big damage with a Swords Dance boosted
Rock Slide, so I had to heal. Once Lasso beat Absol though, the rest of the battle was smooth sailing using both Lasso and Galavagos. Next was Phoebe. I didn't want to lean on
Reset too much for the League because it's broken obviously, but since I was fighting
the Ghost type trainer and none of my main three
team members had any Dark or Ghost moves, I felt I kind
of needed it for this fight. Reset Outrage swept through
her first three team members. By the way, Reset had a modest nature, which meant that it's Dragon
moves were extra strong. And then I swapped it out
to get rid of confusion. I used Galavagos to fight Sableye, and while it took a
bit due to her healing, I was able to beat it without
any damage on my side. Finally was Banette which
Galavagos also KO'd. Two down, three to go. Glacia was next. Lasso easily dealt with her two Sealeos, but he wasn't quite able to OHKO Walrein. Unfortunately that meant Lasso fell to a super effective Ice Beam. I brought in Fen to try to
wear it down with Earthquakes. Miraculously it was barely a two hit KO, so it went down without
landing a hit on me. Her two remaining Glalies
were easily dispatched by Galavagos. Next was Drake. I led with Fen whose Ice
Beams were blocked twice by Protect, but eventually
got through and defeated it. Fen also defeated Altaria in one hit. When Kingdra came in, I swapped to Reset 'cause I was not messing
around with anymore Kingdras. After it was down, Fen defeated
both Flygon and Salamence with Ice Beam. One battle left. Wallace. Lasso OHKO'd Wailord right away with a critical hit Sky Uppercut. I was scared of Milotic's Ice move though, so I brought in Fen for it. It Toxic poisoned me, and I Earthquaked it which
would have been a two hit KO if not for its berry. He swapped in Ludicolo, forcing me to switch to
Reset and KO it with Fly. Next was Tentacruel, which Fen easily handled
with an Earthquake. Next was Whiscash, which Lasso
unfortunately could not OHKO due to Giga Drain's poor power in this Gen and Breloom's poor special attack. After an Amnesia, I had
to switch to Sky Uppercut, which was able to get the job done. He brought in Milotic, but
this time I left Lasso in. The Ice Beam hit, but Lasso
lived with just 16 HP, firing back with Sky Uppercut. Sadly it barely was not enough, and I had to swap to
Fen on the healing turn. I healed Fen on the next turn, but I knew Earthquake was a two hit KO, and it didn't have a berry this time. I healed, it Surfed. It Surfed again, and I Earthquaked. I wasn't positive I
would live another Surf, but I risked it and clicked Earthquake. Fen lived it though and fired
back with its own Earthquake, KOing the Milotic. Finally was Gyarados and
since I had no electric moves on anyone except Reset, I finished the battle with a
Thunderbolt from my Rayquaza. And thus I had beaten Pokemon Emerald using my original team of
Swampert, Breloom, Torkoal, and Rayquaza plus a couple HM users. Overall the three non
legendary team members were pretty darn good. I apparently had good
taste as a 10-year-old, and I think if they were supplemented with some other Pokemon
that had other coverage like electric or flying or
dark or some other moves, then it would be a pretty stellar team. Regardless though I will
always have a strong fondness for these three Pokemon, and Rayquaza too but
it's less fair, you know? Don't forget to pick up some
merch at MandJTVmerch.com, and thank you so much for watching with an extra special thanks
to my patrons over on Patreon who help support my channel independent of fluctuating YouTube ad rates. If you want to help
support me in the same way, the link is in the description below. Also, if you wanna check out some more of my fun Pokemon content, I
recommend these videos here. All right, that's all I have for now. So until next time, Pokefans, gotta catch them all.
