Counter Shield

**Counter Shield** (Japanese: **カウンターシールド** *Counter Shield*) is a tactic developed by Ash Ketchum in *Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl*. Ash developed this technique while trying to find a way to prevent Fantina's Pokémon from making his Pokémon sleep with Hypnosis. It was eventually used for both offensive and defensive purposes. Ash took inspiration from the Contest Battle between Dawn and Lila in the Celestic Contest in *Battling The Generation Gap!* to develop this technique.

In *Shield with a Twist!*, Ash used it in his Gym battle with Fantina. Amazed with the method, Fantina named it the *Counter Shield*. It eventually helped Ash with his battle, earning him the Relic Badge.

In TBC, this technique was later used by Liam and later Azusa, who used TBC and Snowbelle respectively, to counter Carnivine's Bullet Seed.

In *Evolving Strategies!*, it was used again by Ash's Pikachu, Buizel, and Monferno against Paul's Pokémon. This time, however, all three Pokémon were defeated, and Paul didn't seem all that impressed with the technique. However, he later used this technique with his Gastrodon's Muddy Water in *Familiarity Breeds Strategy!* and his Electivire's Thunder in *Battling a Thaw in Relations!*, where Buizel used the technique once again.

In *Piplup, Pansage, and a Meeting of the Times!*, it was used by Dawn's Piplup to counter Cilan's Pansage's Rock Tomb attack.

In *When Regions Collide!*, Brock commanded his Geodude and Steelix to use Gyro Ball to deflect attacks, and mentioned that "a certain challenger of his" taught him to use a Pokémon's attack as a means of defense.

In *Bewitch, Battle, and Bewilder!*, Ash used it for the first time since Sinnoh during his battle against Cynthia. Pikachu used Thunderbolt to counter Spiritomb's Hypnosis.

In *A Flood of Torrential Gains!*, Leon instructed his Inteleon to use a Counter Shield of his own, having seen the technique in the last semifinals battle.

## Trivia

* Pikachu and Buizel's Counter Shields are similar to the way Dawn's Ambipom used Swift for her appeal in the Solaceon Town Pokémon Contest in *Team Shocker!*.
* Piplup's Counter Shield is similar to the technique he perfected in *Like It or Lup It!* while training for the Jubilife Contest.
* During her battle against Conway in *Camping It Up!*, Dawn commanded the Grimer she borrowed from the Pokémon Summer Academy to use Poison Gas while spinning to surround its body with smoke in order to avoid the opponent's attacks. This was shown to work the same way as the Counter Shield but was used before the tactic was introduced to the series.
* During Ash's battle against Korrina during the World Coronation Series, his Dragonite used Dragon Dance in a way to not only boost its attack power and speed, but also deflect the opponent's physical attacks, resulting in a counter reminiscent to Counter Shield. This technique is used again in *Aim For The Eight!*, during Ash's entrance battle against Raihan, and in *Toying With Your Motions!*, during the finals of the Masters Eight Tournament.
	+ In *Thrash of the Titans!*, Dragonite uses a similar style of counter by using Hurricane around itself to deflect a Psycho Cut and a Dragon Pulse from Iris's Haxorus.
* Of all the characters that have taught their Pokémon to use Counter Shield, Leon is the only one that did not appear in *Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl*.