Heart Gold Kingslocke: Episode 7

Introduction/rules here.

We stand at a crossroads.

With Morty defeated and the Fog Badge in hand, I can continue west from Ecruteak City, towards Olivine City, or turn and head east, towards Mahogany Town.

Johto’s mid-game is pretty open; you can do the next three gyms in almost any order.  Whichever way I go, I’ll need Surf, either to investigate Lake of Rage or to cross the sea to Cianwood Island – but not immediately.  I don’t have any Pokémon accessible at the moment who can use Surf, but the Kingslocke rules do make exceptions when you need an HM to move forward in the story; if it becomes necessary, I’ll be able to defy the Eight of Wands and withdraw Abazigal the Dratini to handle that.  Still, it would be better if I didn’t have to… and I think my odds are best if I head to Olivine City first.

Next area, next card – or rather, next two cards, because we still have the Seven of Pentacles out.

Praise the Sun!

The Sun: Immediate: All ongoing card effects that can ban a specific Pokémon (Eight/Mate, Knight after a failed Challenge, the Tower, version 6 of the Wheel of Fortune, any Ten/Rule Card that makes a specific Pokémon unusable, or any card modified by a Ten/Rule Card to make a specific Pokémon unusable) are revoked, allowing you to use those Pokémon again.  Nine/Snake Eyes, Death and the Hanged Man are not revoked and can petrify more Pokémon in the future; however, all of your currently petrified Pokémon are freed (overriding the effect of Death).

I’d actually neglected so far to ask Jim the Editor to decide which of my two petrified Pokémon – William or Trixie – would be freed after I defeated Morty, but now it doesn’t matter: both of them are freed by the glory of the Sun!  The Eight of Wands is gone as well, which sadly does strip Kenya of her Champion status, but also means Abazigal gets to come back (Surf is not going to be a problem after all).  But best of all, the Tower has finally been breached!  Vasya, Lil’ Toby, Charlotte the Observer, Hopewell and Pineapple are all freed from their long imprisonment, and Breeze is no longer relying on the protection of the King of Pentacles to keep her out of the Tower either, which means she’s free to evolve (changing her Pokédex number to something that doesn’t end in a 0).

Just look at all the choices we have!

Of course, even in a time of rejoicing, we should consider which rules are still in effect: Judgement means I have to use Pokémon who all belong to a single generation, the Fool means I have to use as many as possible of my three newest Pokémon, the Magician means I can’t use physical attacks, and the Nine of Wands can chain-petrify Pokémon who are knocked out by super-effective damage.  The three Kings also continue to offer their royal patronage: Pokémon whose regional ‘dex numbers end in 0 can’t be banned; Pokémon from the Flying egg group can’t have their moves locked; Poison Pokémon can use TMs at any time.

Thanks to the Fool, Lavalene, Ampere and Paradise remain non-negotiable members of my team for now (which also pretty squarely locks me to generation I under Judgement).  But that’s also about to change because of the second card I drew: the Two of Pentacles.

Two – You: Immediate: You may catch one Pokémon of your choice in this area, and may teach one of your party Pokémon (or the new Pokémon) a TM/TR move of your choice.

Two of Pentacles: If you draw this card in an area with no wild Pokémon, you may forfeit your opportunity to teach a Pokémon a move.  If you do, instead catch the first wild Pokémon you see in the next new area with wild Pokémon you visit.

The Two of Pentacles offers a little consolation prize if you happen to draw it in an area where a Two would normally be a dud.  That doesn’t matter here.  I just have to check which Pokémon I have to choose from…

Hmm… Tauros is #150 in the Johto regional Pokédex, which would mean another Pokémon who reliably enjoys the royal blessing of the King of Pentacles.  There’s also potentially Miltank… or, from headbutting trees, Exeggcute or Pineco… or, I suppose, Spinarak or Hoothoot.  I’ll have to give it some thought as we move through the area.

As long as I have the opportunity, I’ll also have to devote some time to cycling in some of my older Pokémon who are compatible with Judgement; they’ve fallen behind, and it could be helpful later to have them at a high level and already evolved. 

This human is Baoba, former owner of Kanto’s Safari Zone, who has come to Johto to open a new one.  We’ll see more of him later, once it’s up and running.

Of the first-generation Pokémon I haven’t already checked for compliance with the Magician, Breeze is immune to the rule anyway thanks to Nadja’s bonus from the King of Cups, while Hopewell and Trixie are natural special attackers.  Things are looking less rosy for Pineapple the Sandshrew.  She can’t learn any special attacks off a TM, but will pick up Swift at level 15.  This will, unfortunately, make her devastatingly useless as long as the Magician stays in play, to the point that I’m not even sure it’s worth levelling her past 15 at all.

But in good news, we have an evolution even longer-delayed than Kenya’s.

And let’s see about that new Pokémon on route 39…

As the Fool continues to cycle, Lavalene is no longer compulsory and Killgore is instead.  Which means he’ll need something to satisfy the Magician.  Tauros is a pretty terrible special attacker, but I suppose there’s always the old standby…

YESSSSSS, hahahahaha, BURN THEM ALL

This is PokéFan Derek.  He is less insufferable than Beverly, but not by much; however, he does his best to redeem himself by serving as your personal secretary and reminding you of weekly events like the Bug-Catching Contest.

Here we are in Olivine City – Johto’s maritime hub, which corresponds on the map to the real port city of Kobe.

This Douchebag is here to challenge the gym, but he isn’t interested in fighting us; he’s too annoyed that his challenge couldn’t go ahead.  Jasmine, the Olivine Gym Leader, is off duty because she’s helping the sick Ampharos who makes the city’s lighthouse work.  Of course, going out of your way to help others is the most pathetic thing a person can possibly do in This Douchebag’s worldview, so he has nothing but contempt for Jasmine’s actions.

This is the reason I wanted to come to Olivine City first, rather than Mahogany Town – with a better fishing rod, I’ll have much better odds of finding more Surf-capable Pokémon in the future.  Of course, that’s moot now that I’ve drawn the Sun and gotten Charlotte and Abazigal back, but it’s still nice to have.

Now, speaking of the lighthouse…

Well… this is going to make life difficult.

Temperance: Ongoing: Your attacks with a base power higher than 80 are locked.

Four – Elements: Ongoing: Your Pokémon’s moves that get a Same-Type Attack Bonus (STAB) are locked.  This rule cancels out if you draw another Four.
Immediate: You may catch the first Pokémon you see in this area that does not share a type with any of your current party Pokémon.

Four of Wands: Fire, Electric, Bug, Dragon and Dark Pokémon may use their STAB moves as normal.  Water, Poison, Ghost and Fairy Pokémon are banned.

• Dual-type Pokémon have both of their STAB types protected, even if only one is named by the card.
• However, Pokémon that belong to both a protected type and a banned type just experience the standard effects of any Four: they can’t use their STAB moves, but they aren’t banned either.

In the Advanced Rules, the Fours – in addition to their baseline effect – make life harder for some types of Pokémon while going easy on others.  In combination with Temperance and the Magician, this makes for some… complicated logistics around which Pokémon are allowed to use which moves.

First, let’s clear up the bans: I only have two Pokémon who fall under the banned types, William and Trixie (who would otherwise be a very good choice, because Night Shade dodges all the standard “lock” effects).

My Flying egg group Pokémon – Paradise, Kenya and Breeze (also arguably Lil’ Toby, who has no egg group but evolves into the Flying-group Togetic) – can use whatever moves they want; so can Ampere, by virtue of her marriage to Paradise.  Hopewell, Lavalene and Abazigal belong to types favoured by the suit of Wands, so they retain the use of their STAB moves (and Abazigal can kinda do what he wants with Dragon Rage anyway), but still have to obey the Magician and Temperance (none of them have any moves with more than 80 power anyway).  The Fool still means I have to use Killgore, Ampere and Paradise, so then if I add Hopewell, Lavalene and Abazigal, that should be a solid team for climbing the Lighthouse.  The only tricky one is Killgore – Fire Blast is locked by Temperance, Pursuit is locked by the Magician, Horn Attack is locked by the Four of Wands and the Magician, and at the moment I can’t access any TMs for non-STAB special attacks with 80 power or lower that Tauros can learn.  I think the best Killgore can possibly do is flout the Magician and use Pursuit.

Yeah, this’ll do.

This is Gentleman Alfred. His special skill is being able to say absolutely nothing in three times as many words as anyone else.

This is Sailor Huey, and he is attempting to veil an indecent proposition.  He also thinks his Poliwag – a small round tadpole-creature – looks tougher than himself – a burly sailor man.

In the original Gold and Silver, Jasmine has no gym trainers; the building is just empty aside from her and the gym guide.  One of the very minor changes made by Heart Gold and Soul Silver is that two of the trainers you battle in the Lighthouse (who were already here in the original games and already had this dialogue about Jasmine) are now her gym trainers, and return with her to the gym when her quest is complete.  They don’t battle you a second time in the gym, simply recalling your previous battles and acknowledging your supremacy.  Neither of them actually uses Steel Pokémon (Lass Connie has a Marill, Gentleman Preston a couple of Growlithe), but as Preston notes, Jasmine’s own type specialty has recently changed from Rock, presumably after her Onix evolved into Steelix, so the Olivine Gym’s whole “deal” is slightly in flux anyway.

If we want to challenge Jasmine, we have to cross the sea to Cianwood Island.

…and this beach is where that journey starts!  But first… you know the drill.

Another Three of Cups!  That means another married pair, like Paradise and Ampere.  The first one has to be the first Pokémon I encounter, and if I get onto the water that can only be Tentacool or Tentacruel.  I’m banned from using Poison-types at the moment, but in the long term they’re favourable because of the King of Wands’ bonus, so I think I should slap Surf on Abazigal and go for one of them.

The second Pokémon is a free choice, which means some fishing is in order.  I think I would like…

And so it is that we are joined by the dread pirate Long John Ruby and his enigmatic spouse Antares.  Long John is currently banned by the Four of Wands along with my other Poison-types, and Antares is automatically banned along with 🌟’s husband (comprehending Antares’ gender first requires understanding the history of the entire galaxy, and 🌟’s true pronouns are impossible to write, speak or sign in any terrestrial language; they are here approximated through star emojis: 🌟/⭐/🌟’s/⭐self), but the piratical couple still replace Ampere and Paradise on the Fool’s list of Pokémon I have to use if I can.  Although our favourite robot/duck wives are no longer compulsory, I think I’m going to keep them on the team for now – partly because their marriage bond comes with immunity to so many cards, partly because Ampere should be very useful while crossing the sea.

As for the Eight of Cups…

Eight – Mate: Ongoing: The Pokémon in your current party that has spent the most time in your active party over the course of the game is banned.

Eight of Cups: If you have any boxed Pokémon that could form a Lovers-compatible pair with the banned one and are not currently sealed, petrified or in the Vessel, choose one and make it compulsory and a Champion as long as this card remains in play.

Tricky.  Last time I drew an Eight, Abazigal was the obvious frontrunner, but now Hopewell and Lavalene are also in the running.  Hmm.  Hopewell was with me from route 31, just outside Violet City, until I got through Union Cave.  Abazigal joined in Goldenrod City, was with the party until I caught Deerthing and had to do a Judgement switch, then rejoined very briefly between the Burned Tower basement and route 38.  Lavalene joined in the Burned Tower basement and I think has been with me ever since.  All three have seen a single gym battle.  I think upon reflection, and considering Abazigal has “done his time” in the Mate Crate already, I have to give a slight edge to Hopewell.  Unfortunately, Butterfree is in the Bug egg group and Hopewell is my only Bug-group Pokémon, so I have no romantically compatible Pokémon to fight as his Champion.

Alas.  Who on earth can I bring up instead…?  I could just take Breeze or Kenya, but they’re kinda redundant with Paradise.  Sesame or Zoltar would have to learn Shadow Ball in order to comply with the Four of Swords, but honestly that doesn’t seem like a bad decision for either of them… yeah, yeah I think Sesame is the way to go.

Right – without further ado, let’s take this show on the waves!

The sea around the Whirl Islands is a separate route from the beach and the water we’ve crossed already, so it’s time for another two cards.

Page – Never Have I Ever: Immediate: Teach all of your current party Pokémon a new move from a TM or TR (if possible, this must be a move that Pokémon has never known in the past). If some of your Pokémon can’t learn any new moves from the TMs you have, do as many as you can.

Page of Swords: As many as possible of the new moves you teach while resolving this card’s effect must be physical attacks.

Well, this is fun.  I’m not allowed to use physical attacks, but I have to prefer them.  Let’s see… what are my options… I can put Rock Tomb on Killgore and… eugh, Drain Punch on Sesame, that’s hardly ideal, but I think I have to.  Then U-Turn on Paradise, and… I could put Strength on Lavalene, but I can’t be forced to use HM moves, so I don’t have to.  Eh, I think I will anyway.  That’s all the physical moves I can do, and that just leaves Ampere and Abazigal.  I can teach them… I dunno, let’s do Flash and Swagger respectively.

And of course, we all know what the Tens do:

Ten – Rule Card: Immediate: An observer to the game may revoke any or all (or none) of the cards you have in play, AND free any or all (or none) of your petrified Pokémon.
Ongoing: Your observer may either make up a new rule, which becomes the ongoing component of this card, OR change the rules for one other card in play or in the deck (except the Kings).

The Ten of Cups adds this special rule, but it’s of no consequence since I have no petrified Pokémon currently:

Ten of Cups: If your observer uses this card to free one or more petrified Pokémon, those Pokémon cannot be petrified again for the rest of the game.

Let’s go over the procedure for custom observer rules on this run again.  Anyone can leave suggestions on any post in this series at any time.  When I draw a Ten, Jim the Editor will pick the most appropriate or interesting rule from everything that’s been suggested so far.  Also, Jim’s been getting jealous because he doesn’t get to make up the rules for this one himself, so I’ll let him decide whether to wipe any of the cards in play.

Congratulations to Riley!  So, let’s unpack this… There are five different wild Pokémon you can find on route 41, including by fishing with the Good Rod: Tentacool(/cruel), Mantine, Magikarp, Shellder and Chinchou. 

Any of those choices would give me access to my other Water Pokémon: Long John Ruby and Antares.  Beyond that… it’s complicated.

The tricky bit is that we have to decide whether to treat this as a “banning” effect, in Kingslocke rules language.  What’s at stake here is that, if it’s a “ban,” the King of Pentacles will allow Kadabra (#90), Tauros (#150) and Farfetch’d (#160) to slip through the net (on the other hand, if it’s not a “ban,” then our married couples can dodge it – so if I pick Chinchou, then Ampere will be able to join the party even without her wife).  Riley’s wording seems to follow the way Judgement, the Hermit and the Lovers work – cards that don’t actually say they “ban” anyone.  But that’s because those cards are based on choices in how you arrange your party and let you change your mind any time – if there’s a specific Pokémon you want to use, you can always juggle the rest of your team to make it possible.  Once I choose and catch a Pokémon, the rule is effectively a ban on any Pokémon that doesn’t match its types.  Jim the Editor thinks the best interpretation is to treat the effect as a ban, but also add that Pokémon who do match the selected types are compulsory (so I have to prioritise them over any other Pokémon who are capable of evading the ban).

Anyway, now that the minutiae are taken care of, let’s return to the actual choice.  Tentacool, Mantine, Magikarp, Shellder and Chinchou all either have secondary types or gain them after evolving.  Tentacool would bring along my other Poison-types: William the Nidorino and Trixie the Gastly (the downside, of course, is that I already have a Tentacool).  Mantine or Magikarp (after evolving into Gyarados) would pull in my Flying-types: Kenya the Fearow and Breeze the Pidgeotto (Paradise can evade bans anyway because Farfetch’d is #160).  Chinchou would allow Ampere the Magnemite.  Finally, I don’t have any other Ice-types, so even if I can find a Water Stone and evolve Shellder into Cloyster, that won’t bring anyone else along.  But THAT’S NOT ALL!  I also still have Judgement and the Fool in play, so I have to use Killgore and Ampere if I can, and I’m restricted to one generation.  So… if I catch Mantine or Chinchou, they’ll still be the “anchor” of this rule but I won’t be able to use them at the moment…

I have a feeling a second Tentacool is the optimal choice in the short term, but I don’t really want a duplicate.  Gyarados would also be good, but we get a “free” Gyarados later in this game.  Chinchou is… probably worse right now, but I kinda want one.

So if I have to use my Water- and Electric-types, and I have to use Killgore, but I can’t use generation II Pokémon, and other than that I can only use Pokémon whose ‘dex numbers end in 0… then the team should look something like…

This?

And since Jim’s removed the Four of Wands I can use my STAB moves again, but still have to avoid physical attacks and moves with more than 80 base power… except for the married couples, who can ignore those rules as long as they’re together.  Putting Surf on both Antares and Long John Ruby seems like a no-brainer here.

The whirlpools on route 41 prevent us from landing on the Whirl Islands for now.  We’ll have to come back later if we want to investigate.

And here we are on Cianwood Island – or, roughly Awaji Island, the island that closes off Osaka Bay.  In reality, you can reach this island from Kobe via the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (which was the longest suspension bridge in the world until a few months ago)… but that bridge was completed only 18 months before the original Gold and Silver were released, and Johto is very traditional, so really, who can blame them for being a bit slow catching up to the march of progress?

Well, we got what we came here for, but there’s several more things to check out on this island before we leave – not least of which is a Pokémon Gym.

This poor guy is in a state because Some Douchebag intimidated him into surrendering his Pokémon, and now he’s not sure he can protect the one he has left, so he’d prefer to hand it over to someone who seems marginally more trustworthy.  The implication seems to be that his Pokémon was taken by the rival character – and, by extension, that the stolen Pokémon was the Sneasel who appears in the rival’s party in later encounters (and, after all, Sneasel is a very rare Pokémon in Johto – without access to Mount Silver, where else would he have found it?).  In generation II, there might be an argument that you got the better deal; Dark and Ice attacks both use the special attack stat, so Sneasel is pretty bad.  In generation IV, though… yeah, That Douchebag stole the good one.

You can catch wild Shuckle in several places, both in OG Gold and Silver and in these remakes, but they only appear when you use Rock Smash on cracked boulders, which is pretty easy to miss, so it’s nice of the game to give you a Shuckle here.

The Fool makes Shuckie compulsory, but the Ten of Cups bans him because he’s not a Water- or Electric-type, so his presence won’t alter our party – at least, not right now.

Well, well, well; look who it is – Mr. Crystal Blue Basement-Leopard von Runsaway himself.

Eusine has become jealous of Suicune’s interest in the player character and wants to impress it by defeating them in a battle.  This is our first and, I believe, last battle with Eusine (kind of an oversight on the remakes’ part, if you ask me; these games hand out rematches with significant characters like Gym Leaders left and right).

(I don’t normally draw a card for just one trainer in a town – even a fairly important one like Eusine)

As before, the Magician and Temperance interfere with each other in quite a helpful way – Killgore can’t possibly obey both, so he ends up free to use the attacks I actually want.

I think Eusine’s Drowzee knows Dream Eater, so I’m going to drop an Awakening here.

Hahah, fµ¢£ you

Easy.

I have to be fairly careful with Electrode.  Half of my party is weak to Electric attacks, and if any of those three are hit by a stray Shockwave, they could all get petrified at once.

WHOAH HOLY $#!T I did not realise Eusine had that kind of firepower on tap.  Do I… heal Killgore and just hope the next blast misses?

Oh, buggeration

Ampere… shouldn’t take much damage from Thunder, but I think Electrode probably has Soundproof and is immune to SonicBoom.  Thunder Wave might help, though.

Oh, wait, no, we’re okay.  Eusine’s must have the other ability.  Static?  Something like that.  I don’t think Ampere can win this, but we should still be able to take it down without exposing anyone who’s at risk of petrification.

Never mind!  Haha, fµ¢£ you!

Sesame seems like the logical choice, but might be too high-risk/high-reward here – the King of Pentacles doesn’t protect her from petrification, and I don’t know for sure that she can survive a Shadow Ball.  Paradise is weaker, but Haunter shouldn’t have anything that will petrify her.

ugh, never mind, we’re gonna bounce.

Too late on the trap there, Haunter.

This, however, could get tedious.

Several turns later…

There.  Easy.

I think we’ve come far enough for one day, but before I sign off, let’s poke our nose into the gym and see what cards we get.

ugh, this is all I need.  The Five I don’t mind, but it’s such a pain that Jim got rid of the last Four for me, when this one would have cancelled it out.

Five – Guys: Ongoing: Your female Pokémon are banned (unless you have no male or genderless Pokémon).  This rule is revoked if you draw a Six/Chicks and cancels out if you draw another Five.
Immediate: You may catch the first male wild Pokémon you see in this area.

Five of Wands: When you draw this card, roll a 6-sided die to randomly choose one of your Pokémon to identify as male for the rest of the game (if you roll a Pokémon that is already male or has already changed gender in the past, re-roll, unless there are no eligible Pokémon in your party).  All cards and rules permanently treat that Pokémon as male, even after this card leaves play.

That Pokémon is trans now.  What, there’s still a little ♀ sign on the stats page?  I don’t give a $#!t; the author is dead; Game Freak doesn’t make the rules to this challenge; I’M IN CHARGE HERE.  You can go and change your Pokémon’s name to celebrate his identity even if the Wheel of Fortune is in play; that’s how many fµ¢£s I DON’T GIVE

Well, I guess we’d better roll.

5 it is!

Now we just… command+C, command+V, click and drag…

If only the bureaucratic processes of the real world were this straightforward…

I don’t think a name change is necessary here, “Sesame” seems suitably gender-neutral, but I’ll discuss that with him privately.

So… Paradise can’t be banned because her ‘dex number ends in 0, but Ampere unfortunately has no such protection and has to get back in the kitchen.

Paradise is less useful without her magnetic robot wife, but she does still have Nadja’s bonus from the King of Cups, so she can use whatever moves she wants… and besides, it’s not like I have anyone else to replace her with.  Everyone who can ignore the type restriction from the Ten of Cups is already with me.

As for the Four…

Four – Elements: Ongoing: Your Pokémon’s moves that get a Same-Type Attack Bonus (STAB) are locked.  This rule cancels out if you draw another Four.
Immediate: You may catch the first Pokémon you see in this area that does not share a type with any of your current party Pokémon.

Four of Swords: Flying, Psychic, Ice and Steel Pokémon may use their STAB moves as normal.  Ground, Rock, Grass and Fighting Pokémon are banned.

No change in the Pokémon I can actually use.  The STAB limitation is, as always, a pain; Killgore and Sesame are going to lose Horn Attack and Psybeam.  Fortunately, Antares and Long John Ruby still protect each other from move limitations by the power of their transcendent cosmic love, the kind of love that can only exist between a jellyfish pirate captain and an immortal starfish from the centre of the galaxy.  I assume.

Well, next time we can take on the Cianwood Gym, with this party…

…and these cards!