BW099

A Surface to Air Tag Battle Team! (Japanese: 大空と大地のタッグバトル！ The Tag Battle of the Sky and the Earth!) is the 99th episode of the, and the 756th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on October 18, 2012 and in the United States on February 9, 2013.

Blurb
On the way to Vertress City, site of the upcoming Unova League, our heroes notice a Drilbur and a Braviary who seem to be watching them. Their Trainers—brothers Rocko and Soren—show up soon after and challenge Ash to a Tag Battle! Ash is happy to accept, and decides to pair up with Cilan for a similar land-and-air team of Pansage and Unfezant.

The first move the brothers call for is Drill Wing, which none of our heroes has ever heard of before! It turns out Soren and Rocko are skilled at using double-move attacks—in this case, Drilbur’s Drill Run combined with Braviary’s Wing Attack. It doesn’t take Ash and Cilan long to pick up on this technique, and with some impressive teamwork, they defeat the brothers...who immediately start blaming each other.

Cilan steps in to break up the fight, and wields his Pokémon Connoisseur skills to offer them some advice: each brother is well matched with his own Pokémon, but they need a Water-type Pokémon to round out their land-and-air team. And of course, since Cilan is also a Fishing Connoisseur, he’s happy to give them some lessons on how to catch one. They first hook two feisty Frillish, but can’t agree on a strategy for catching them, so the Frillish get away. Once Soren and Rocko calm down and start working together, they manage to catch a Buizel and a Corphish to add to their team. Now they can boast of being rulers of the land, the air, and the water!

Our heroes say goodbye to the brothers with promises of a Tag Battle rematch if they meet again, and the journey to the Unova League continues!

Plot
While walking in the middle of a cornfield, and  come across a. Then, points out to a  and  then suggests that the Braviary is watching them. They continue to walk, only to be interrupted by laughter. Suddenly, two boys pop out, and challenge Ash and his friends to a Tag Battle Ash then accepts, but Cilan and are reluctant. Cilan asks for the boys to introduce themselves, which they do, stating their names are Soren and Rocko, and that they are brothers.

After hearing from Cilan that he is a Gym Leader and Ash is a would-be competitor of the Unova League, the brothers decide they want to battle them. Ash and Cilan respectively bring out their and  while Soren and Rocko battle with their Braviary and Drilbur.

Soren and Rocko amaze them with their dazzling combination moves, and they get Ash and Cilan cornered. But Ash and Cilan manage to come up with their own unique combination moves and ultimately win. After the loss, the brothers become crestfallen. Cilan their Pokémon, and comes to the conclusion that they need to catch a  to gain mastery over the third aspect of the nature that comes after land and sky. To do so, Cilan goes with them to a river to fish. First they spot out a male and a female, but fail to catch either of them because of meaningless bickerings. Then they spot a and a, and using some perfect move-combinations, they taste the fruit of success. Ash and the gang congratulate them and part ways on good terms. After parting ways, Cilan, Ash, and Iris come upon a Swanna and a Palpitoad, and Cilan is dismayed to realize that they would have been the ultimate perfect match, one being Water and Flying, the other Water and Ground. Ash and Iris reassure him that Soren and Rocko seemed happy with their new Pokémon so Cilan decides things did work out well after all. With that, the three friends continue on their journey.

Humans

 * Soren and Rocko
 * (fantasy)
 * (fantasy)
 * Chili (fantasy)
 * Cress (fantasy)
 * (fantasy)
 * Chili (fantasy)
 * Cress (fantasy)

Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?:
 * ('s; fantasy)
 * ('s; fantasy)
 * (Soren's)
 * (Soren's; new)
 * (Rocko's)
 * (Rocko's; new)
 * (×2; male and female)
 * (Soren's; new)
 * (Rocko's)
 * (Rocko's; new)
 * (×2; male and female)

Trivia

 * Professor Oak's Pokémon Live Caster:
 * breaks the fourth wall twice during the episode by pushing the split-screens featuring Soren and Rocko apart from each other.
 * owns a Pokémon from both of the species that Soren and Rocko caught:  and.
 * narrates the preview for the next episode.

Errors

 * Ash's Unfezant took damage from 's, even though Pokémon are supposed to be immune to  attacks.

In other languages
Ein Zweiermatch-Team voller Überraschungen! EP761 BW099 BW099 BW編第99話 精灵宝可梦 超级愿望 第99集