I have been expecting you, Mr. Bond.

Wait what? Wrong show. I have been expecting you, trainer.

I'm back on my quest of covering every gym leader in Pokemon, and today I'll be going over what is easily the creepiest gym leader to date. Not even one of the Ghost ones comes close. Sabrina is the Psychic type Gym Leader of the Saffron City Gym. The real one, that is. There's also this weird Fighting Dojo claiming the rights to the Saffron Gym. Thankfully Sabrina can just Psychic them all into the next dimension.

Sabrina is clearly a sadist, as she has the trainer go on an endless time loop inside her gym, warping from panel to panel to finding the entrance again over and over again. I imagine she is just watching us through some screen and laughing to herself with some wine in hand.

Once the trainer finally finds the right warp panel, they can challenge Sabrina to a battle.

Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow, Fire Red, Leaf Green, Let's GO

Sabrina is a scary opponent. She uses the Psychic type, which in generation 1 is the clear best type in the game, with only other Psychic types resisting it and with strong Pokemon in its arsenal.

In Red, Blue and their gen 3 remakes, Sabrina uses a Kadabra, Mr. Mime, Venomoth, and an Alakazam. She only has Psybeam in gen 1, so her damage output is not actually as high as you'd think. In the remakes however, she uses a dual strategy of setting up Reflect and Light Screen to lower your damage output, as well as boosting her stats with Barrier and Calm Mind. Her Mr. Mime can even Baton Pass these stat buffs to her frightening Alakazam, so beware and take it out before it starts snowballing. Her Alakazam behaves a bit oddly, sometimes choosing to spam Future Sight and sometimes sweeping you with Calm Mind and Psychic. Pray to the heavens that you will make it out okay.

In Yellow, she just uses the whole Abra line. Including, yes, Abra. I'd say she's easier in this game.

After you beat her you don't really hear from Sabrina again, which is a shame. She has a great design and was an interesting character in the manga. In the anime she also had a terrifying role, almost keeping Ash & Friends as dolls in her doll house forever.

Pokemon Gold, Silver, Crystal, Soul Silver, Heart Gold

Once the player reaches Saffron City in the post-game, they can challenge Sabrina to a battle. Unfortunately she is rather weak in the Johto games. Psychic got nerfed heavily with the split of the special stat and the introduction of Dark and Steel types, and she uses only 3 Pokemon for some reason: her Mr. Mime, Alakazam, and the new Espeon.

In Heart Gold and Soul Silver, the player can call Sabrina during a certain day of the week, and rematch her in Olivine City. She has a full team of 6 this time, adding a Jynx, a Gallade, and a Wobbuffet to her team. Be careful of Wobbuffet, as it can trap your best Pokemon and ruin it with Counter or Mirror Coat.

Pokemon Black 2, White 2

Sabrina returns for the Pokemon World Tournament, appearing in the type expert and Kanto challenges. She uses some new Pokemon such as Hypno, Slowking, Exeggutor, Metagross, and Sigilyph. She is also a possible opponent in the legendary challenge, using a whole Mewtwo!!!! against you. Good luck!

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And that sums up Sabrina's game appearances. She's gotten a reputation as a terrifying gym leader to go up against, which is not entirely unwarranted. I think her memorable anime appearance, plus the way Ash eventually won by making her laugh, really stuck with viewers as well. I'm personally very happy to see Sabrina as her outfits tend to be among my favorites, especially that Heart Gold & Soul Silver one.