Pokemon Lunatic Crystal v1.6 - Rival (Victory Road)

After defeating Clair and obtaining the final badge of the region, the player makes their way through Victory Road where they're confronted by the rival.

His team hasn't changed since the battle in the Goldenrod Underground, however he does have improved movesets, so this battle is quite a challenge.

In this fight he uses Crobat, Alakazam, Porygon2, Magmar, Dragonite and Feraligatr. A mix of power, speed and bulk, with fantastic typing coverage and good move choices.

Crobat is the lead that will attempt to disrupt you with Confuse Ray, hit with a STAB combination of Razor Wind and Sludge Bomb, with Giga Drain for extra coverage. Crobat can also potentially withstand any lethal attacks with a held Focus Band. The best way to deal with it is to paralyze it and then defeat it with a super effective move, or to try and kill it as quickly as possible with a held Miracleberry to negate the confusion.

Alakazam is up next and it's yet another very fast Pokemon. Alakazam can paralyze you with Thunder Wave, hit for massive damage with a Twistedspoon boosted STAB Psychic, Fire Punch against Steel types and it has Recover to heal damage. Alakazam can demolish unpreapred teams, but it's still as frail as ever, either try and paralyze it and take it out with a strong physical move or switch into a Dark type like Houndoom that can resist anything Alakazam can throw at it.

Porygon2 is the tank of the Rival's team, with a great defensive typing, good mixed bulk, Recover and passive healing with Leftovers. It can badly poison you with Toxic and it has a great special move combination with Thunderbolt and Ice Beam. Porygon2 is tough to take out without super effective damage, so bringing a Fighting type here would be a good idea.

Magmar is up next. As usual it has an amazing offensive arsenal with Cross Chop, Thunderbolt and a STAB, Charcoal boosted Fire Blast, as well as Confuse Ray to confuse the enemies. If you can't outspeed it it's going to be a big threat, so a fast Water type like Starmie would be a fantastic choice here, Pokemon that can outspeed and hit with Earthquake or Rock Slide are also good answers, as long as they can take a hit from Magmar in return if they don't OHKO.

Dragonite is the Rival's strongest Pokemon. It has Thunder Wave to paralyze the target, a 120 Power STAB Outrage, Earthquake to take advantage of its' massive ATK Stat and to hit Steel Types and Extremespeed to pick off tired opponents. Just like Crobat, it's also holding a Focus Band so it can also withstand attacks that would otherwise knock it out. The best answer here is a fast Ice Beam user, but you can also take advantage of the Blackthorn move tutor and hit Dragonite with Rock Slide or Outrage, though exploiting a 4x weakness is the better choice. Make sure you're not on low on HP or Dragonite will take you out before you can do anything.

Feraligatr as usual, is the final Pokemon. It has a different offensive set this time, a STAB combination of Hydro Pump and Crunch, Earthquake to deal with Electric types and Ice Beam for Grass types which otherwise would wall it. Feraligatr is also a big problem now since it is holding a Quick Claw and can hit your Pokemon before they can do anything. An Electric or Grass type works but Earthquake and Ice Beam is scary with a Quick Claw, so try to exploit its' dark weaknesses with Bug or Fighting types since it does not have super effective options against those. Heracross is the perfect counter here.