Avery

Avery
Species	Human
Affiliation	Master Dojo
Hair color	Blonde
Eye color	Blue
Debut	Pokémon Shield

Avery is a rival trainer who was featured as a recurring opponent in the "Isle of Armor" DLC of Pokémon Shield. In Pokémon Sword, Klara appears as the rival instead. He specializes in Psychic-type Pokémon.

Background

Avery was descended from a long line of powerful psychics, and all of Galar's Psychic-type Gym Leaders throughout its history have come from his family. Since his birth, Avery has felt the pressure of living up to his family's standards and becoming a Psychic-type Gym Leader. However, the only psychic power that he was able to develop was telekinesis, and he lacked other abilities such as teleportation or telepathy. His family labeled him a disappointment, but Avery was determined to prove himself. He ended up developing a very arrogant personality, while also tending to be lazy about actually applying himself.

He once took part in the Gym Challenge, but he had the bad habit of levitating trainers who defeated him. This caused his status as a Gym Trainer to be revoked. Avery found a flyer for the Master Dojo and decided to train there. Avery's first appearance within the game was in a special scene at Wedgehurst Station, when he was on his way to the Isle of Armor. A Slowpoke had appeared in the station, and Victor/Gloria managed to catch it. At the time, he believed that the trainer's catching style was quite elegant. With that, he departed for the Isle of Armor and began training under Mustard at the Master Dojo so that he could become a Gym Leader someday. His attitude caused friction with the other students, but he started to become more friendly over time with the influence of Mustard and Honey. At the same time, he still remained arrogant and tended to avoid hard work.

During the "Isle of Armor" storyline, Avery was sent to the station to meet with a potential new student for the dojo and came across Victor/Gloria. Avery had mostly forgotten their first encounter and confused the trainer with the new student. Avery challenged the trainer to a battle in order to see how strong they were, and the young trainer defeated him. Avery was completely surprised by his loss and became worried that he would be overlooked next to this new trainer. Claiming that he had only used three percent of his power for the battle, he proceeded to give Victor/Gloria a Style Card and encouraged them to focus on sight-seeing around the Isle instead of going to the Master Dojo. Avery then returned to the Dojo and tried to tell Honey that the new trainer had given up, only for Victor/Gloria to show up there anyway. With the dojo's ranks filled, Mustard decided to submit his students to a series of three trials in order to determine who would receive the "ultimate armor" from him.

He then saw that Victor/Gloria was already receiving a dojo uniform and complained that he had not yet gotten one of his own. Mustard tried to give him one, but it was stolen by the targets of the first trial: a trio of super-fast Slowpoke. The students were tasked with pursuing the Slowpoke. Victor/Gloria ultimately succeeded in catching all three of them and gave Avery his uniform. Avery and most of the others had done well enough to advance to the second trial, which was to collect Max Mushrooms to make some Max Soup with. Avery came across Victor/Gloria after the trainer had found some of the mushrooms and tried to claim that he had sensed them first. Avery battled Victor/Gloria for the mushrooms and lost again. After retreating, he managed to find some Max Mushrooms of his own. Although he was somewhat late, Mustard accepted his Max Mushrooms and let him advance to the final trial.

The final trial was a battle between Victor/Gloria and Avery at the Master Dojo's Battle Court, which was located on top of a power spot. Avery attempted to rig the game in his favor by activating Psychic Terrain at the start of battle, but he still lost once again to Victor/Gloria. He proceeded to apologize for his cheating and lying. It turned out that Mustard was aware of his misdeeds, but he forgave him and let him off easily by assigning him to watch over the dojo's Pokémon for the next six months. Mustard felt that Avery was still a good and hardworking student, and Avery was humbled by this. He gave Victor/Gloria his League Card and admitted that he was starting to acknowledge the trainer's strength. Avery then set himself on becoming strong enough to truly beat Victor/Gloria. He could be found taking part in secret training with a Slowpoke at the Potbottom Desert. There, Victor/Gloria could receive his rare League Card, but Avery would grow self-conscious and retreat. Avery also appeared to congratulate Victor/Gloria after they completed Mustard's training.

Afterwards, Avery was found at the Master Dojo and could be challenged to rematches on a daily basis. There was also a chance of him appearing as a partner for Max Raid battles. Additionally, Avery could appear as a competitor in the Galarian Star Tournament, where it was revealed that he successfully became Gym Leader of the Psychic-Type Gym as part of the minor league. In that tournament, he could partner up with Bede, Marnie, Melony or Mustard, and he was available as a parter for the player after completing the Star Tournament twice.

Pokémon Roster

• Abra/Kadabra/Alakazam - Avery's Abra evolves into a Kadabra by the second battle and into an Alakazam for rematches.
• Slowpoke/Slowbro - This Slowpoke is sometimes shown accompanying Avery outside of the Pokéball. It evolves into a Slowbro by the third battle and is the Pokémon that he Dynamaxes in that battle and the rematches. Oddly enough, he is seen accompanied by a Slowpoke afterwards, indicating that he either has an additional Slowpoke (possibly the one that becomes his Slowking) or there is a continuity error.
• Woobat/Swoobat - Woobat is first used in the second battle and evolves into Swoobat by the third battle.
• Ponyta/Rapidash - Ponyta is first used during the third battle and evolves into Rapidash for rematches.
• Slowking - After taking part in the Galarian Star Tournament, Avery will start using Slowking in normal rematches and will Dynamax it instead of his Slowbro.

As a Max Raid partner, Avery uses Slowbro. For matches in the Galarian Star Tournament, he will use Slowbro, Alakazam and Slowking.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• Avery made a brief appearance in the bonus episode of the Pokémon: Twilight Wings anime shorts. He was seen training by the Master Dojo and levitating a fellow student while demanding a rematch, before receiving his invitation to the Galarian Star Tournament. He was later seen walking out with the other trainers for the tournament's opening ceremony.
• In the Pokémon Adventures manga, Avery appeared during the Sword/Shield arc, in which both he and Klara were shown apprenticing at the Master Dojo.

Trivia

• His Japanese name is Savory, and his English name is derived from that. Savory is both a type of plant and a taste, which matches how Honey and Mustard have names relating to different condiments.
• His uniform number is 026, which can be read in Japanese as a word meaning "brain".
• He has a habit of using the names of Psychic-type attacks in place of other words.
• Avery uses his telekinesis to keep his Pokéballs floating around his tophat at all times.
• During the Star Tournament, Avery will admired Shielbert's elegance and ask if he has a Style Card.
• Slowpoke/Slowbro and Slowking are the only Pokémon that Avery and Klara share in common between their rosters.