AG050

Pros and Con Artists (Japanese: ポケモンコンテスト・ハジツゲ大会！！ Pokémon Contest - Convention!!) is the 50th episode of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, and the 324th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on November 6, 2003, and in the United States on October 30, 2004.
==Blurb==
May and friends finally arrive in Fallarbor Town, ready for the next Pokémon Contest. There are already a lot of coordinators there, including one named Grace with a Medicham. Grace already has 3 ribbons, and shows off her Medicham's special combo.
May tries practicing combos with her Beautifly, but gets confused. Drew shows up and taunts her.
Meanwhile, Team Rocket is running a scam to sell fake PokéBlocks.
When Ash tells Drew he's not competing, Drew challenges him to a battle that Drew wins. Drew implies that it takes teamwork between a Trainer and Pokémon to succeed, which May doesn't have. With her confidence shattered, May is easily duped by Team Rocket's scam.
Before May can purchase a fake PokéBlock, Grace steps in and exposes the ruse. Team Rocket leaves in their balloon, stealing all of the Pokémon they can on the way out. Medicham frees all of the Pokémon, and then May and Grace team up to fight off Team Rocket.
May gets her confidence back and enters the contest, standing on stage next to a confident Drew. Her second Pokémon Contest is about to begin.
==Plot==
 and arrive at Fallarbor Town, where will participate in her second Pokémon Contest. May is far more confident than last time that she and will win. As they enter the Contest Hall, finds himself surrounded by beautiful girls and May becomes nervous about all the competition. They take particular interest in a which is practicing its . Suddenly various objects around the room begin to float, including Max's glasses and even . Medicham's , , tells it to stop and apologizes for its burst of psychic energy. Everything falls back to the ground and Brock immediately falls in love with Grace, though Max quickly pulls him away by the ear. May apologizes for Brock, saying that he does that with every beautiful girl, and Grace begins laughing hysterically in embarrassment, accidentally shoving May over.
The group and Grace have dinner, where it is revealed that Grace already has three Ribbons. May gets nervous again, but Grace tries to cheer her up by saying that the with the most experience won't necessarily win, it can just as easily come down to who they're facing and luck, but a Coordinator will never be able to win until they learn how to use their Pokémon's power completely. Unfortunately May still feels nervous, so Grace offers to show May some of Medicham's moves. Outside, Grace sends out her and shows off its and combines it with for a sparkling display. May hadn't even considered combining moves before, so the next day tries it with her Beautifly, having it use , then . Unfortunately May can't make up her mind and quickly tells it to use instead, then changes again to . All of this just ends with Beautifly getting tangled in its own String Shot. 's rival Drew shows up in time to witness this, and comments on May's indecisiveness. Drew asks how many Ribbons May has won, knowing that the answer is zero. May fires back with the same question, but it backfires on her as Drew reveals that he has earned three Contest Ribbons. 
Elsewhere, is trying another con by convincing a passerby that they have a secret Ribbon-winning product. The man is intrigued and can't wait to buy what they have, so Jessie and James guide him through to their alleyway store, “Dr Crock’s Pokéblock Shop”. has him swear to secrecy, before unleashing his spiel onto the customer. Meowth tries to sell the man silver and gold colored Pokéblocks, saying that the gold blocks raise a Pokémon's "coolness", while the silver blocks raise their "charismatic-tism". Using , Jessie and James pose as satisfied customers and convince the man that they really work, when in reality they are just regular Pokéblocks that have been painted. The man rushes off thrilled with his purchase.
Back inside the Contest Hall, Ash, Brock, and Max notice Drew, who thinks that the three are afraid because they're not entering the Contest. Ash says they're not, so Drew challenges them to a Pokémon battle to prove it. Outside, Ash uses and has it use against Drew's Roselia. Roselia counters with , which Taillow dodges. Roselia tries again with , and Taillow dodges it. Taillow goes in for a , but Roselia defends with , finally managing to hit Taillow. As Taillow falls towards the ground, Roselia ends the match with a well-aimed . May is in disbelief that Ash lost the match, though Drew admits that a Trainer and their Pokémon must be on the same wavelength to win. Overnight, May becomes increasingly discouraged about the upcoming Contest as she mulls over Grace and Drew's words of advice. 
Team Rocket's con continues to thrive the following day, and May thinks that if she buys one of their Pokéblocks, she won't have to worry about Beautifly winning. However, Grace arrives and is immediately suspicious. The trio isn't able to answer Grace's question about what were used to make the Pokéblocks, so Grace blows their con and tells everyone that real Coordinators shouldn't rely on miracle products and should be mixing their own Pokéblocks anyway. May realizes she's right, and falls to her knees in despair. Grace has her Medicham use to further reveal Team Rocket's scam, and they try to take off in their balloon. As they leave, they steal May's Beautifly, Grace's Medicham, a , a , and a . Medicham uses Psychic to free the stolen Pokémon and Beautifly uses String Shot to stop their balloon from leaving. James has his use to break the thread. Jessie has retaliate with , but Medicham stops it with its . Beautifly dodges Cacnea's Pin Missile and hits it with , while Medicham blasts Team Rocket off with an . Afterwards, the competing Coordinators, including May, stand on the stage as the Fallarbor Contest is about to get underway.
==Major events==
* and arrive in Fallarbor Town and meet up with Drew again.
* Ash has a against Drew and loses.
* Drew is revealed to have earned three Ribbons already.
===Debuts===
====Humans====
* 
====Pokémon debuts====
* 
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* Max
* Jessie
* James
* Drew
* 
* s
===Pokémon===
Pokémon Trainer's Choice: 
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ('s; debut)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
* (Coordinator's)
==Trivia==
* The English dub title is a combination of the phrases "pros and cons" and "con artists".
* The gold and silver-colored Pokéblocks are references to the games.
===Errors===
* The blurb for this episode incorrectly formats Pokéblocks as PokéBlocks.
* When asks if wants to have lunch with him, Grace's sleeve is colored blue instead of yellow.
* In 's flashback of Drew, he says that a Trainer needs to be on the same wavelength as their Pokémon during battles, but in the scene where the flashback takes place, it was actually during Pokémon Contests.
* When Brock says that he and Grace make the perfect couple, part of Grace's right arm turns the same color as her shirt.
* When May asks what the sellers are going to run out of, the patterns on lower half of 's wings are colored yellow instead of red and blue.
AG050 error.png|Grace's miscolored sleeve
AG050 error 2.png|Grace's miscolored arm
AG050 error 3.png|Beautifly's miscolored wings
===Dub edits===
* Wine glasses are replaced with cylindrical glasses.
* 's pipe is removed from its disguise in the airing.
* In the English dub, talks about the five c's: cuteness, cleverness, confidence, classiness, and courage. He also talks about another two attributes, coolness and charis-magnetism. In the original Japanese version, the first five attributes are the five different Contest types, while the other two attributes are "low-key (silver block) and sexy (gold block)".
* In the English dub, Meowth says that the side-effects of the Pokéblocks are enlarged lips and the desire to kiss things. In the original Japanese version, Meowth says that they will increase sexiness.
* In the English dub, tells Drew that he is not afraid and will never back down to anyone. In the original Japanese version, he tells Drew that the reason he doesn't perform in Contests is that he is on a journey for Gym battles instead and adds that they are on their way to Lavaridge Town.
AG050 Original Edit.png|'s pipe
AG050 Dub Edit.png|No pipe
====Pokémon Trainer's Choice====
* Question:Trainers, which one of these Pokémon is the best to battle ?
* Choices: , , 
* Answer: OK, Trainers, if you answered Geodude, you were right!
==In other languages==
050
Category:Episodes written by Aya Matsui
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Hiroaki Shimura
Category:Episodes directed by Norihiko Nagahama
Category:Episodes animated by Toshihito Hirooka
Category:Episodes focusing on May
Category:Episodes focusing on Drew
de:Schwindel auf der ganzen Linie!
es:EP326
fr:AG050
it:RZ050
ja:AG編第50話
zh:宝可梦 超世代 第50集