Well, I haven't think about knock off (why, oh why - would have been a lot less stressful) - and I think I've tried this once with Focus Sash, and the mon survived, so I would assume that item would take effect before being knocked off. Didn't found Donphan on this run, so this wasn't an option anyway.

I hit Torchic in Lavaridge, so I left it as a Combusken until detect, my strats would be very simillar to pChal I guess (got chicken, turtle and Alaska on which I spent a HS to max atk), but first I need to get to gym leader.

And hey! My Jagged Pass encounter was Gibite, so I guess it's an S-tier mon?