Familiarity Breeds Strategy! – Pokémon Season 13, Episode 29

Plot episodeFull Battle vs Paul, part 1

Familiarity Breeds Strategy! is the 29th episode of Pokémon DP: Sinnoh League Victors, the thirteenth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 648th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 653, Bulbapedia code DP186). It first aired in Japan on 5 August 2010 and in the United States on 18 December 2010. It falls within the season’s Ash vs Paul: the Full Battle stretch (EP186–EP188).

Premiered on 18 December 2010; with no new episodes on Christmas Day or New Year’s Day, the Full Battle resumed only on 8 January 2011.

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

Ash takes a two-nothing lead in the first part of his six-on-six quarter-final Full Battle against Paul. Before the match, Gliscor shows off its training with the Air Battle Master, Paul tells his brother Reggie he is satisfied with his team, and Dawn reminds Paul of Cynthia’s words about strength.

Pikachu opens against Paul’s Aggron, evolved from Lairon, trading Iron Tail with Metal Claw, but Metal Sound and Flash Cannon send Pikachu flying, so Ash switches to Infernape. Flare Blitz burns Aggron, and Mach Punch beats its Flash Cannon to knock it out.

Paul’s Gastrodon blocks Staraptor with a Muddy Water Counter Shield and freezes it in place with Ice Beam, so Ash brings in Buizel, whose Ice Punch defeats Gastrodon. Watching from home, Reggie suspects his brother is losing deliberately to learn Ash’s strategy. Paul sends out Drapion, which cancels Buizel’s Water Gun, catches it in its tail and swivels its body around, and the episode ends with Ash urging Buizel to break free.

Major Events

• The Full Battle against Paul begins. Infernape beats Aggron and Buizel beats Gastrodon for a two-nothing lead
• Paul’s Lairon has evolved into Aggron
• The East Sea Gastrodon’s TV debut, the last Generation IV debut of Diamond and Pearl

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Gastrodon#0423 · DP186

Captures and evolutions

• Lairon → Aggron#0306 · Paul · evolved off screen, revealed in the Full Battle

Trivia

• The English title plays on “familiarity breeds contempt”, for two rivals who know each other’s every move.
• The screenplay is by Atsuhiro Tomioka.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Sinnoh storyline.

Changes in the English Dub

• The dub has no eyecatch, and the cut takes Ash’s line “Goukazaru! Kimi ni kimeta!” with it
• Paul says he “dislikes” Ash, where in Japanese he “used to dislike” him
• Brock’s mistaken explanation of Metal Sound is corrected in the dub
• Oración
• The Band Version opening’s lip-sync is corrected

Part of our Pokémon DP: Sinnoh League Victors guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.