XY074

Fairy-Type Trickery! (Japanese: クノエジム戦！美しきフェアリーの罠！！  Gym Battle! The Beautiful Fairy Trap!!) is the 74th episode of the, and the 873rd episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on May 28, 2015 and in the United States on August 1, 2015.

Blurb
After observing the talents and skills of Laverre Gym Leader Valerie in action, it’s time for Ash to challenge her for his sixth Kalos Gym badge! First, Valerie’s Sylveon is up against Ash’s Fletchinder. Valerie is quite adept at drawing out the full potential of her Pokémon, but with help from Fletchinder's Steel Wing attack (which is super effective against Fairy-type Pokémon), Ash gets the first win—as Sawyer takes copious notes.

Valerie next sends out Spritzee, who gains the speed advantage by using Trick Room and knocks Fletchinder out. The score is now one to one! Ash sends in Hawlucha, who uses a powerful X-Scissor to break through Spritzee's Trick Room, leading the way to Ash’s victory and the Fairy Badge!

Sawyer really wants Ash to teach him how to battle with the same unique brand of creativity and power. Ash can't quite figure out how to put his strategy into words...but he promises to battle Sawyer later by way of explanation, as the journey to the Kalos League continues!

Plot
After witnessing Sawyer's loss against Valerie, and  arrive at the Laverre Gym for Ash to challenge her to a battle as well. Sawyer has come along in order to watch Ash's Gym. Entering the Gym, the group is greeted by four s, who show them into the main battle area. Sawyer brings out his just before Valerie arrives in order to help both of them grow stronger by watching Ash.

After Valerie's dramatic entrance, Kali acts as the referee, stating that each Trainer will use two Pokémon each. Valerie immediately calls out her and has a quick conversation with it in Pokémon language, much to the surprise of Ash and the others. Valerie then explains that she wants to be a Pokémon, so she learned how to speak to her Pokémon. After this brief discussion, Ash calls on to battle Valerie's Sylveon. Fletchinder quickly hits its mark with a attack, and Sylveon responds with. When Fletchinder attempts to use, Sylveon dodges and catches Fletchinder with its feelers, swinging Ash's Pokémon around and hitting it with at the same time. In order to break free from Sylveon's grasp, Fletchinder uses, making it faster as well as hitting Sylveon. Finally, a collision of and Steel Wing results in Fletchinder's victory in the first round.

Valerie recalls Sylveon and sends out the that battled Sawyer's  the day before. Ash realizes that the only move of Spritzee's that he knows of is, so he has no idea what the battle will be like. After another Steel Wing attack from Fletchinder, Valerie orders Spritzee to use. Ash responds by ordering Fletchinder to increase its speed by using Flame Charge again. This alarms, who explains to the others that because of Trick Room, the faster Fletchinder gets, the slower it will move. Despite receiving several direct attacks from Spritzee, Ash orders Fletchinder to keep on using Flame Charge. Suddenly, the Trick Room vanishes, and Ash seizes his chance with Fletchinder's boosted speed, ordering his Pokémon to use Steel Wing on Spritzee. However, Spritzee uses and knocks Fletchinder out.

Much to everyone's surprise, Ash sends out to battle Spritzee, despite its type disadvantage. Hawlucha opens with, but Spritzee dodges and once again uses Trick Room. After Spritzee hits Hawlucha with another Moonblast, Ash comments on Spritzee's strength with Hawlucha. Responding to Valerie's query if he can speak to Pokémon as well, Ash explains that he can sense rather than translate what his Pokémon are saying. Hawlucha then uses, but it misses and hits the wall of Trick Room. Working with Hawlucha's battle style of taking on its opponent's attacks, Ash orders Hawlucha to grab onto Spritzee just as it connects with. Using the speed from Spritzee's attack, Hawlucha bounces off of the wall and executes a spinning X-Scissor, cutting through Dazzling Gleam and ramming Spritzee with enough force to shatter the Trick Room. Clemont then realizes that X-Scissor was so effective on the Trick Room because it is a move and Trick Room is a  technique. As Hawlucha and Spritzee continue exchanging attacks, Hawlucha finally defeats its opponent with.

Following their fierce battle, Valerie congratulates Ash on his win and presents him with the. Inspired by Ash's battling style, Sawyer begs him to explain how he battles so well, and Ash suggests that the two of them go back and have a battle.

Major events



 * Ash's Hawlucha is revealed to have learned.
 * has a Gym with Valerie and wins, earning the.

Humans

 * Valerie
 * Sawyer
 * s
 * Kali
 * Blossom
 * Linnea
 * s
 * Kali
 * Blossom
 * Linnea
 * Linnea

Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: (US and international) Pokémon Quiz:  (Japan)
 * (Valerie's)
 * (Valerie's)
 * (Valerie's)
 * (Valerie's)
 * (Valerie's)
 * (Valerie's)

Trivia

 * Professor Oak's Pokémon Holo Caster:
 * This time, accompanies  and his.
 * and Sawyer narrate the preview for the next episode.
 * This is the first time since The Water Flowers of Cerulean City, 866 episodes ago, where Ash does not use a starter Pokémon in his Gym battle.
 * This is the first time since his debut that Hawlucha has used a new move, as well as the first time when he uses a move that is not Fighting type.
 * This is the first time in the that the dub version of Who's That Pokémon? reveals a  that does not appear in the episode.

Errors

 * In one scene, the blue tip on 's feeler is completely colored pale cream.
 * When Valerie orders to use  on Hawlucha while in, Spritzee is seen using the move before Valerie could call it out.
 * In one scene, the lower jaw of Treecko is incorrectly colored with the same green as its skin.
 * When Valerie walks up to Spritzee after losing to Ash, she wasn't holding Spritzee's Poké Ball. When Spritzee looks up at Valerie, a Poké Ball is all of a sudden resting in Valerie's hand.
 * In one scene, Sawyer appears with four triangle hair on his back just like instead of three. This error repeats in the next episode in recaps.
 * In the dub, when Ash's friends are looking at the field in awe, Bonnie's and Dedenne's mouth moves but no sound comes out.
 * When Sawyer was taking notes about Ash's battle, his pen was moving but his hand wasn't.

In other languages
Feen-List! EP878 XY074 XY074 XY編第74話 精灵宝可梦 XY 第74集