The one where… The writers come up with the most ridiculous way to knock Ash out of a tournament.
- The Cameo: Paul appears at the end of Ash and Tobias’ match, having watched their match on TV, disappointed with the outcome of Ash’s defeat.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Tobias defeats Ash with four Pokémon still standing, but this is a better showing than anyone else puts in against Tobias during the league (everyone else was unable to even defeat Darkrai, including the unnamed opponent in the finals).
- Defeating the Undefeatable: Sceptile beats Darkrai (who easily wiped out all other opponents including Heracross, Gible and Torkoal) with two Leaf Blades.
- Determinator: Sceptile's determination to win allows him to wake up from Dream Eater and lay the smackdown on Darkrai.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Just as he narrowly wins against Paul in a 6-on-6 full battle, in comes Tobias, aka the Darkrai Trainer, who proceeds to curbstomp Ash thoroughly in minutes. And when Ash took out the Darkrai, he just pulled out a Latios and swept the remaining half of Ash's team. He literally serves no purpose except to screw Ash out of a League win he practically had in the bag. Particularly egregious, given that legendaries are treated as a very big deal in the anime, and only the Elite Four-caliber Frontier Brains had been shown to wield them.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Ash's Sceptile manages to defeat Tobias's Darkrai, becoming the only Pokémon in the entire Sinnoh League to do so.
- Fighting from the Inside: Ash's Sceptile pulled this when it heard its Trainer's voice and broke free from Darkrai's Dark Void attack.
- Game-Breaker: Tobias shown to have only legendaries in his team (Darkrai and Latios). You expect any of the opponents to actually defeat them in a 1-on-1 battle? His other 4 pokemon are unknown, but could be assumed all legendaries.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Despite the overwhelming odds of being down 5-1 against a second legendary with no indication that Tobias doesn’t have more of them, Ash declares he's not ready to give up, flipping his hat for the first and only time in Diamond and Pearl to symbolize his drive.
- Mutual Kill: Pikachu and Latios knock each other out.
- One-Hit Kill: This happens quite frequently by Tobias’ two Pokémon. Only Sceptile and Pikachu don’t get knocked out the moment they get hit by an attack- although, Latios does manage to one-shot Sceptile the moment it goes up to bat.
- Power Up Let Down: Sceptile's Leaf Storm hardly does anything to Darkrai.
- Put on a Bus: This episode is, to date, the final appearance of Barry.
- Red Shirt Army: Aside from Pikachu and Sceptile, Ash's team essentially amounts to this: Heracross strikes Darkrai with a Sleep Talk-induced-Megahorn but is then knocked out by Dream Eater, Torkoal launches a Flamethrower (which Darkrai easily dodges) before being one-shotted with Dark Pulse, Gible lands a Rock Smash but Darkrai dodges his Draco Meteor then knocks him out with Dark Pulse, and Swellow is quickly out-maneuvered by Latios and knocked out by Luster Purge.
- Status Quo Is God: Ash loses to Tobias 6-2, the worst loss he ever gets in a round where he is eliminated.
- Wham Shot: Tobias, after a bit of bluster, sends out his second Pokémon… And it’s a Latios. And just like that, it’s now clear that Ash has no chance of winning this fight.
- The Worf Effect:
- Sceptile gets one-shotted by Latios after defeating Darkrai. Justified considering all the damage he had already taken.
- Swellow was one of Ash's most reliable Pokémon during Advanced Generation, and is often ranked as one of his strongest Flying-Types. Despite this, it gets taken out very quickly by Latios as well.
- Worthy Opponent: Tobias congratulates Ash on a well-fought battle, because since Ash was the only trainer in the league who defeated his Darkrai. He also goes out of his way to compliment Ash's Gible, claiming its Draco Meteor could have defeated any Pokémon other than Darkrai.
