BW099

← BW098 : Beauties Battling for Pride and Prestige!

Best Wishes series

BW100 : A Village Homecoming! →

A Surface to Air Tag Battle Team!

BW099   EP756 大空と大地のタッグバトル！ The Tag Battle of the Sky and the Earth!

First broadcast Japan October 18, 2012 United States February 9, 2013

English themes Opening It's Always You and Me Ending

Japanese themes Opening やじるしになって！ Ending みてみて☆こっちっち

Credits Animation Team Kato Screenplay 米村正二 Shōji Yonemura Storyboard 古賀一臣 Kazuomi Koga Assistant director 古賀一臣 Kazuomi Koga Animation director 夏目久仁彦 Kunihiko Natsume No additional credits are available at this time.

Screenshots on Filb.de Preview thread on BMGf Closed Original review thread on BMGf Dub review thread on BMGf

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 Best Wishes series, 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.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

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 corn field, Ash and his friends come across a Drilbur. Then, Pikachu points out to a Braviary and Cilan 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 Iris 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 Unfezant and Pansage 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 evaluates their Pokémon, and comes to the conclusion that they need to catch a Water-type 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 Frillish, but fail to catch either of them because of meaningless bickerings. Then they spot a Corphish and a Buizel, 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 realizes that they would be the ultimate perfect match, one being Water and Flying, the other Water and Ground.

Major events

For a list of all major events in Pokémon the Series, please see the timeline page.

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

TV episode debuts

• Braviary

Characters

Humans

Dare da?

• Ash
• Iris
• Cilan
• Soren and Rocko
• Emmet (fantasy)
• Ingo (fantasy)
• Chili (fantasy)
• Cress (fantasy)

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Braviary

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Axew (Iris's)
• Unfezant (Ash's)
• Pansage (Cilan's)
• Braviary (Soren's)
• Drilbur (Rocko's)
• Corphish (Rocko's; new)
• Buizel (Soren's; new)
• Frillish (×2; male and female)
• Eelektross (Emmet's; fantasy)
• Chandelure (Ingo's; fantasy)
• Swanna
• Palpitoad

Trivia

• Professor Oak's Pokémon Live Caster: Foongus
• Cilan breaks the fourth wall twice during the episode by pushing the split screens featuring Soren and Rocko apart from each other.
• Ash owns a Pokémon from both of the Water-type species which Soren and Rocko caught: Buizel and Corphish.
• Iris narrates the preview for the next episode.

Errors

• Ash's Unfezant took damage from Drilbur's Drill Run, even though Flying-type Pokémon are supposed to be immune to Ground-type attacks.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		天空和大地的雙打對戰！
Dutch		Een koppelgevecht team ter land en in de lucht!
Finnish		Maasta-ilmaan tag-ottelutiimi!
German		Ein Zweiermatch-Team voller Überraschungen!
Greek		Μιά Ομάδα Μάχης Ζευγαριών Εδάφους Αέρους!
Italian		Lotta multipla tra cielo e terra!
Korean		창공과 대지의 태그배틀!
Norwegian		Et bakke- til lufttagkampteam!
Polish		Specjaliści od Dwuwalk!
Spanish	Latin America	¡Introducción al equipo de Batalla Doble aérea y terrestre!
	Spain	¡Equipo de batalla de dobles tierra aire!
Swedish		Ett heltäckande tag-stridsteam!* Ett flygande tag-stridsteam!*

← BW098 : Beauties Battling for Pride and Prestige!

Best Wishes series

BW100 : A Village Homecoming! →

This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.