The day has come for Ash's gym battle with Flannery, with her grandfather acting as referee. Since Flannery is a Fire-type gym leader, Ash is counting on the Water-type Corphish as his main strategy. Ash wins the first round with little trouble, but when Flannery's second Pokémon enters the battle, one unexpected move creates a problem that could seriously hurt his chances of winning.
Tropes
- Death or Glory Attack: Torkoal's Overheat is extremely powerful, but it gets weaker every time it's used.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Flannery has Torkoal start by using its most powerful attack, Overheat, several times in a row to knock out Ash's Pokémon. However, Overheat gets weaker every time it's used, so while using it is enough to knock out Pikachu and Treecko, once Corphish enters the battle again, the move is too weak to knock it out (Corphish's resistance to Fire-type moves helps, too). This forces Flannery to rely on Torkoal's other moves and allows Corphish the opportunity to wake up to finish the battle.
- Status Effects: Flannery's Slugma puts Corphish to sleep with Yawn, which causes serious problems, as Ash is now unable to rely on his main strategy until it finally wakes up in the final round. In addition, Treecko gets burned by Slugma's Fire-type moves.
