Finally Satoshi VS Shirona, the dream match that we have been waiting not weeks, but years!!!

You can really see why Shirona is the best champ, I am not even mad they took out Dragonite, Gengar and Pikachu early on. Seeing Satoshi strugle reminds me of when I play Pokemon Platinum. Dragonite loss was Satoshi miscalculate, he should have recall it when it was sleeping. Gengar was suprising I thought it will be a double KO. Shirona plan against Pikachu was superb, using Togekiss as a bait to bait Pikachu out, using Toritodon to try to beat it using type advantage, and let Satoshi thought he had momentum and let Pikachu continue, and finally Destiny Bond to completely destroy Pikachu. Also Pikachu using Counter Shield was nostalgic, but too bad Shirona was just too strong.

Shirona retirement sadden me, wonder who will be the new Champion of Sinnoh, perhaps Tobias the cheater

Got to give it to Shirona/Cynthia.... She's pulling a Paul strategy and pulled a Pokemon Advance eps throwback move.

It finally happened, a battle between Ash and the real Cynthia

Pikachu using counter shield creating a psuedo electric terrain to counter hypnosis is smart.

Indeed it was good but Cynthia pulled a better smart move with that nasty destiney bond

I tried that in my pokemon diamond, now matter how much i shouted pikachu didn't spin sadly

She also used Togekiss to do some chip damage on Pikachu flinching him with Air Slash boosted by its ability Serene Grace. Gengar being knocked out from a Sucker punch was definitely surprising. And what makes Pikachu fainting worse is that Ash didn't even know it was destiny bond as Cynthia didn't call out the move.
No need to worry now that Roserade is burned its pretty much 3 v 3 and it might come down to Sirfetch'd and Lucario vs Garchomp by the end of next week's episode based on the preview. Burned Roserade vs Poisoned Dracovish might knock each other out, Lucario and Sirfetch'd might knock out Togekiss and Milotic respectively.

Chances are that Roserade's burn will be gone, if Roserade's ability ends up being Natural Cure.

Really dissapointed in dragonite. I thought he gonna use that new Draco Meator move when he was battling with Paul. I guess they gonna save that for Leon.

Sir, sir, its been confirmed by Ash himself. That dragonite is a girl. "My Kairyu is not gonna lose, no matter who SHE'S up against!"

well he´s been on a lose strike now so probably will be more lucky against Leon

All the dragonite's have been getting kicked in da crotch and spited on the neck -__-",

Dragonite may be have the worst treatment I seen as a pseudo legendary. Losing alot and got no new gimmick in any.I read on reddit that he was made after a Western Dragon. Alot of people don't like how he goes blue in two evolution and goes completely orange. Those fluffy white wings on the side of the head was gone. That I really like.

I don't like it, but it make sense after all western dragon are very angry dragon. Every dragonite we seen always look mad. lol. Maybe this was why he was so dislike.

Probably

at the very least they are giving Cynthia vs Ash a double episode instead of just 1

Gotta love how she gave him the hope of victory against spiritomb just to take it away in an instant from Destiny Bond. Especially since Pikachu is technically his ace it def rattled him. As for Tobias I doubt it, otherwise he be here and whoop everyone (Leon included).

Pikachu is his ace but that doesn't mean his last 3 are bad by any means. Lucario can mega evolve, Dracovish is a stubborn sun of a gun, and Sirfetch'd is just Sirfetch'd

Although the battles throughout the tournament were rather lackluster, this battle so far is ABSOLUTE PEAK.

The strats, the switches, the move combos are soo good from Cynthia, just what I expected from her.

Wooh spiritomb's destiny bond KO on Pikachu is peak strategic play.
Spiritomb has been a literal nightmare for Ash this episode, it's movepool of hypnosis, dreameater, suckerpunch & destiny bond is just perfect in terms of how all moves complement each other.

Wow, so far this battle is a 10/10. It's been long since I'm so hyped about a Pokemon battle, I'm looking forward to more crazy strats from Cynthia nxt episode!!!

Spiritbomb/Mikaruge was a nightmare for me too. I remember when I was playing Pokemon Platinum, this thing and Milotic completely destroy my team twice

Tell me about it, those 2 will hard to beat af. And if that didn't get to you than her ace with the lucked ratio Dragon Rush crushes you too quick -__-

Ig they are setting up a mega garchomp vs mega lucario nxt episode

The ace was actually easy for me, because I have actually same strategy for her, using Destiny Bond to drag her down xD

In the Sinnoh games I have a reliable anti-Gaburias tactic, switching back and forth between Luxray and Staraptor for the Intimidate abilities to kick in.
Against Spiritomb, I have no option but to brute force against that thing.

Best strategy for Spiritomb now is just growth and Dazzling Gleam or Moon Blast.

Admit it, we also had nightmares against cynthia's friggin spiritomb sunofa cheating stall strat....then there's friggin immortal gastrodon and milotic to whoop yer damage squishy team comp while garchomp sits and wait for his turn to sip some of his cannabis friggin maxpotions

And that's before you get to the completely overpowered Garchomp that's always on her team at +5 levels higher than everything with perfect IVs and EVs (Most NPC pokemon aren't assigned Evs except in post game battle facilities)

This battle is the best battle in the entire tournament so far

Everyone has been waiting this battle between these 2 for over a decade and this did not disappoint.
And Spiritomb's move is definitely move pool is deez nuts awesome.

The battle is interesting, but the animation could have been way better. As someone who just came to watch this tournament, the anime has had much better animation in some of the older series.

Great start to the battle so far. Loving Cynthia's tactics
-Hyposis + Dream eater
-Destiny bond to take out the opponent's ace
-Serene grace to increase chance of flinching
-possibly natural cure on roserade to remove the burn

Oh it's a fact Cynthia's Roserade has natural cure ability.

if lucario has innerfocus ability it will turn the tides

CYNTHIA IS SO COOL AND BRUTAL I ABSOLUTELY ADORE HER AHHHHHHHHHHHH Can't wait to see the next half of the battle! Just the kind of strategy I was expecting from the best champion!

I never knew I need Breakdancing pikachu in my life

everybody's talking about it but Cynthia's switchouts were truly genius. to bait out type advantages she leads with spiritomb and destroys dragonite with hypnosis and dreameater.
she switches out to roserade as the safest bet against ash's team. ash sends out gengar. gengar burns but roserade prolly has natural cure. she switches BACK to spiritomb and ko's gengar through type advantage. she THEN sends out Togetic to bait out ash's pikachu. switches tp gastrodon to win through type advantage but pikachu is an outlier and ash's ace so he clears gastrodon and she sends out spirtomb again and destiny bonds pikachu his best mon. she has him in the palm of her hand. pikachu couldve prolly taken on milotic and togekiss if given the chance so she takes it out asap. literally cant be mad

cynthia should be at the top instead of leon

Honestly with how much strategy she has, she really should have been. Especially since all we see with Leon is brute strength, especially through his Dynamax, it's disgusting how he's made a top champion. Honestly Steven and Cynthia at least could defeat him with such cheap strategies.

they should have added something to leon to make him deserve his position on the top

Is the child his

CYNTHIA RETIRING?? NOOOOOOOOOO :(

Really happy to see the Kanto gang joining in on watching though, and really glad they acknowledged Ash's league win.

7:22 Dnite hits that dab!

This battle is... really underwhelming so far, gotta be honest. Dnite's death I can take since it was combo'd to death but GENGAR'S? Dying to ONE SHADOW SNEAK (I'm assuming the Leaf Storm before did basically nothing)!? Nah bruh, I'm calling rigged.

Things I DO like about this battle though:
- How Pikachu beat Gastrodon - Thought that was funny
- Cynthia's switching tactics - You can tell she's taking this seriously
- Pikachu's breakdance Tbolt

I do miss the quality that came from the first two battles of this tournament though... what happened? Hopefully the next ep will turn the hype up to 100.

That all said... is this the first time we're seeing Destiny Bond in the anime?

I recall seeing that move in the Hoenn Pokémon league, Katie's Misdreavus used it against Ash's Glalie iirc.

Ah, right. I liked the Katie fight tbh, dunno how I forgot that.

Sucker Punch, not Shadow Sneak

It is? oh.

Actually, this was Sucker Punch (Surprise Attack in JP), no Shadow Sneak.

I want cynthia to win

Mommy Cynthia for the win, but can’t help but wanting ash to be the ultimate champion as well…damn!

PLEASE CYNTHIA BREAK THROUGH THE PLOT ARMOR AND DEFEAT SATOSHI

Why? She has a bit of plot armour in Ash not recalling the asleep Dragonite and just sacrificing it for nothing

We've spent all this time seeing Ash do some crazy ass tactics across the past 3 generations, and now here's Cynthia reading him like a book. Good to see Cynthia's still an absolute menace.