Online Competitive Pokemon Battle Showdown Happy Fun Times

[Cloneblazer12]

#Comeback (OU - 19 Turns)

Spoiler: show

Played like shit in the beginning. I lost TTar way earlier than I wanted to, and I mispredicted with Excadrill against Mawile. Idk if he knew I was gonna spin, or if he was just dumb enough to leave Mawile in against Excadrill since Earthquake is an easy OHKO. (Shrug). By that point, I knew that I had pretty much lost. Untill Talonflame came in. And rekt shit. He basically 5-Oed the entire team. The last turn was a tough choice. I. Had already revealed that I wasn't banded when I U-Turned out against Rotom, so I didn't know if he would predict the Flare blitz and nail me with Sucker Punch, or predict the Brave Bird (which idk if it even KOes from that range) and just use play rough. Luckily I got it right and won. So yeah, Smogon Bird (TM) OP.

Edit: 252+ Atk Sharp Beak Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Mawile: 78-92 (25.6 - 30.2%) -- guaranteed 4HKO

Yep. Would've needed a crit to win with Brave Bird.

[rotomotorz]

See also:
Heat Wave and Rock Slide both missed both opponents two turns in a row. I still won that match though

[Chiko]

Did some Battle Spot 'Rating Battles: Doubles' tonight and left with a 14-13 win/loss differential. :S

[DaisyInari]

Up against a Swords Danced, Rock Polished Landorus T? No problem BD

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by DaisyInari

Up against a Swords Danced, Rock Polished Landorus T? No problem BD

I dunno about "No problem" ...

Spoiler: show

You won by the skin of your teeth there, kiddo. ^_^; If Relicanth had had Aqua Jet you'd have been a goner.* Had his final Pokémon been anything which outsped Mismagius or had a priority move you'd have been a goner. Very close game.

Hippowdon hanging on with 1%HP was pretty vital. That was good fortune.

* Looking it up, Relicanth doesn't learn Aqua Jet. Could've sworn I've seen him using it before. Huh. Oh well. Point still stands about your good luck that the last thing didn't have a way to beat Mismagius to the punch.

[Talon87]

Small victories. (VGC 2014, 7 turns)

Spoiler: show

Not much to say about this one other than yay 1241. Would be nice if I could make it to 1300 but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm wise to your tricks! (VGC 2014, 9 turns)

Spoiler: show

Obvious Trick Room team was obvious. I knew that, 100% without any shadow of doubt, he was going to lead with Slowking as otherwise his team was going to be picked apart mercilessly for its abysmal speed. That meant leading with my team's two best Electric attackers: the Electric-typed Rotom and the Thunderbolt-bearing Gardevoir. I wasn't sure whether he'd co-lead with Mamoswine, Pangoro, or Azumarill but I was sure that whoever it was it was going to be a physical attacker.

And sure enough it was. Mamoswine. Before the match even got underway, I took a step back and rerouted my strategy: rather than balls-to-the-wall trying to electrocute the hippo, I decided it'd be imperative to get a Reflect up ASAP to help cushion physical attacks aimed at fragile Gardevoir. Turn 1 goes off perfectly: Gardevoir gets her Thunderbolt in, dealing nice damage to Slowking; Rotom-W gets Reflect up, helping to cushion blows for Gardevoir; Slowking predictably spends his turn setting up Trick Room; and Mamoswine doesn't do shit! He uses Protect! Awesome!

Turn 2 introduced an unpleasant surprise though in the form of Slack Off. :\ Luckily, I switched targets to Mamoswine (since I knew he'd be alternating between attacking and Protecting at this point) and it paid off. Hydro Pump almost OHKOs and then Dazzling Gleam finishes the job while also chipping off some of Slowking's HP.

The match goes my way pretty handsomely until around Turn 5 when Azumarill is out and has used Belly Drum. It's around this point in the game that I'm worried he's going to focus on Rotom-W and attempt to eliminate it. Luckily for me, he doesn't: he's too preoccupied trying to net KOs on Salamence and Charizard to notice that Rotom-W is his team's greatest enemy. By the end of Turn 7, I'm down to only three Pokémon of which one is badly injured ... but he's down to his final one. In allowing Rotom-W to remain alive this long, he allows Rotom to finish the job against both Water types.

Now the gloves are coming off ... (VGC 2014, 5 turns)

Spoiler: show

I went into this match with a ranking of 1275, trying to reobtain my personal best today of 1283. And in comes this guy with his team that looks ready to utterly wreck shit. Dark Void Smeargle, Perish Trap Gengar, SwagPlay Liepard, Ditto ... just looking at the team roster, I'm like, "Welp, this fucking sucks. " I anticipate he'll lead with Smeargle and so I do the best thing I can think of: I lead off with Rotom-W and Charizard. I'm optimistic that if I have Charizard use Protect and Rotom-W use Discharge that I might, might be able to get off a critical paralysis.

Well, that sure doesn't happen. To my surprise, he leads off with Liepard and Conkeldurr. And Liepard apparently learns Dark Void too. Oh boy. D:

But then a miracle occurs. Turn 2, he opts not to go for a second Dark Void (as he should have done) but instead goes for a Swagger on Mega Charizard. And his 50/50 chance for me missing my turn backfires. I use Heat Wave and not only OHKO his Liepard but I also break the focus of his Conkeldurr and deal it considerable damage too. Sweet.

On Turn 3, Smeargle arrives. Still unclear about how Dark Void works, I'm thinking, "Well maybe you can't use it if one of the enemies is already asleep. :o Maybe that's why he didn't use it on Turn 2." So I opt to repeat my orders for Turn 1: Discharge from Rotom-W, Protect from Mega Charizard. Unfortunately for me, Turns 3 and 4 prove that Dark Void works just as well when one target is already asleep as it does when neither is.

Turn 4 does see Conkeldurr KOed though and Smeargle reduced to 1 HP remaining. The match isn't looking too bad for me. And then comes ...

Ditto. Turn 5, there's Ditto staring me down, now in the form of a Rotom-W. And I know what he's going to do too: Discharge. So I'm asking myself:

• Do I use Discharge as well, risking that I'll KO my own Charizard but at least harming his Ditto a little and KOing his Smeargle?
• Do I let him use Discharge, KOing his own Smeargle, and opt to use Will-o-Wisp instead?
• Do I switch either of my creatures out?

And while I'm agonizing over these decisions, my opponent impatiently forfeits the match. He probably would have lost anyway given that Ditto-Rotom-W versus real Rotom-W would've already been close and then to top that off I had a Salamence and an Aegislash waiting in the wings, but still.

1297, baby! A new personal best.

Haven't done a Random Battle in weeks. Not since bunkering down on trying to ladder in VGC 2014. I didn't want great habits from that format to reinforce bad decisions in the VGC 2014 format so I've kind of sat it out for a long time. But seeing Daisy and Red frolicking about in the 1800s makes me think about going back to my roots soon. I dunno, we'll see. My accounts have likely fallen from the 1700s where I left them last to the 1500s, they've been idle so long.

[Red Panda]

Speaking of laddering in Randbats, I hit my peak a few days ago at 1923, in 26th place on the ladder. Might have screenshotted, on mobile.

I now sit at around 1860

[Talon87]

Just went back to play. Lost the first game. Won the second though, and ... 1301! New personal record, obviously, and I finally made it into the 1300s. Now, surely I'm about to exit right back out the way I came ^^; , but maybe not. Or maybe even so, I'll hopefully be back soon. But hooray.

Rotomotorz's recommended EVs for Rotom-W have been pretty good thus far. I miss the extra padding in defense but, though I hate to admit it, he was right that more often than not it hasn't really been a significant help. What has been helpful is surviving Grass-type Special attacks from enemies like Mega Charizard or, as you see in this battle, Mega Alakazam. My old Rotom-W wouldn't have been able to survive those, most likely.

I find myself almost always drafting the core of Rotom-W, Gardevoir, Charizard, and Salamence. It's rare that I sub in Talonflame for anybody and only slightly less rare that I use Aegislash. I feel like this might be a problem, especially since I don't feel like the four creatures I listed form any sort of special "dream team" cohesiveness. They play well together, yes, but they rarely put the opponent into a state of lockdown. The other thing I'm not too crazy about is how Talonflame's presence on the roster alongside Charizard's tends to make people draft anti-Charizard teams. Considering Charizard is one of my more powerful options when I choose to Mega Evolve him and not Gardevoir, it's not good to be encouraging my opponents to counterdraft him.

EDIT: And here's 1330. Trying not to get carried away thinking that the months-old goal of 1400 is within reach ...

[Chiko]

Let's try some Doubles on Showdown (Win! -5 Turns-)

Spoiler: show

Turn 1: I send out Ampharos and Gardevoir without much thought, my opponent sends out Aerodactyl (Mega) and Gengar. I don't Mega Evolve Amphy straight away in order to get Trick Room up safely. Which works as my opponent goes for Flamethrower with Aero against Amphy, burning it. They also try to put Gardevoir to sleep, the low accuracy attack misses. Amphy then uses Discharge with Gardevoir avoiding it due to Telepathy. Then, ofc, Trick Room happens.

Turn 2: Amphy Mega Evolves and uses Discharge, KO'ing the Aerodactyl and causing nice damage to Gengar, as well as Gardevoir. Gardevoir then Psychics Gengar, fainting it. In place my opponent sends out Hitmonchan and Kabutops. Pretty easy.

Turn 3: Amphy Heal Bells, Gardevoir destroys Hitmonchan with Moonblast and Kabutops uses X-Scissor on Gardevoir. Espeon comes out.

Turn 4: Amphy Discharges, KO'ing Gardevoir and Kabutops. Espeon Signal Beams Amphy. Meloetta comes out from my opponent and I send out Crawdaunt.

Turn 5: Amphy gets a crit with Dragon Pulse on Espeon, KO'ing it. Crawdaunt KO's Meloetta with Knock Off.

[DaisyInari]

No video here, but I'm proud to say I made the top 20 of randbats with 1922 after like, months of being around 1700 and less OTL

[DaisyInari]

A Sap Sipper Sawsbuck threatens my team, and then I get lucky BD

Rank 12 now \o/

[Red Panda]

Go Daisy!

[Heather]

I would try laddering in places on showdown but that requires me to actually stay active thanks to ladder decay. I'll win a few matches and get up kinda high in the 1000s before I get tired of it and put it down for another month.

[Talon87]

1362. (VGC 2014, 7 turns)

Spoiler: show

Glad I managed to win this one given that "it's shit" that I appeared to have correctly called the opening turn only for my opponent to be a gimmicky motherfucker running both special Salamence AND special Tyranitar. That and the fact that Rotom-W's Hydro Pump missed on Turn 2 put me very far behind in the match as we headed on into Turn 4.

Turn 4 sees a double Heat Wave miss. Bullshit. Fuck, I hate how much Heat Wave misses. I feel like it misses for me, no exaggeration, somewhere between 15% and 30% of the time I use it. Which is ridiculous for a move that is supposed to be 90% accurate. I mean, I hate that it's even that inaccurate! I hate that Heat Wave is only nominally 90% accurate when Surf, Earthquake, and so many other moves of equal strength and scope are 100% accurate. But I'd accept the 10% miss rate if it was really only ten percent of the time. It's the fact that it's not that pisses me off so, so much. It's getting to a point where I feel like I need to start logging every single battle I am in just so I can prove this to the Smogon programmers with cold hard math and not have them write me off as yet another loony kid who remembers the misses disproportionate to how well he remembers the successful hits.

Anyway, point is, Turn 4 is not much better than Turns 1, 2, or 3 were and my move does what it's supposed to only have a 1% chance of doing. How the fuck am I going to win this now?

Turn 5 sees a miracle take place. A, the opponent aims for Charizard instead of for Salamence. What the fuck!? Okay, I'll take it! And B, his attack misses anyway. What luck! Finally! The hax swings the other way! This gives me a 2-vs-1 turn this turn, allowing me to clobber both Kangaskhan with Heat Wave and OHKO the enemy Salamence with my own Salamence's Dragon Claw. Best of all, because the opponent already mega evolved his Venusaur, he's locked into an ordinary (frankly shitty) Kangaskhan. Sweet.

The top of Turn 6 sees the obvious happen: Tyranitar has returned to make the sun go away. But Turn 5 went so swimmingly well that the match pretty much reverses at this point and I'm able to turn an almost certain defeat into an almost certain victory: Salamence absorbs a non-STAB Ice Beam thanks to Yache Berry and KOs Kangaskhan while at the same time bringing Tyranitar within KO range next turn. I don't even need Charizard to do anything, although I protect with him all the same because I'm still worried that the Tyranitar might be mixed and packing either Stone Edge or Rock Slide.

Turn 7 is game.

[Heather]

Twlon's experience with Heat Wave is half of mine with Rock Slide. The problem is they dun goofed and so when missed attacks normally go of course, Rock Slide doesn't, and I feel like it misses almost half the time, probably a bit less.

[Chiko]

Seeing as TR isn't really my thing, I'd like some feedback.

[rotomotorz]

Team Rocket is a bunch of goofs who suck at catching Pikachu


Trick Room is backwards. It relies on slow, bulky Pokemon rather than quick Pokemon which the metagame favors, and can screw up teams that aren't ready for it. But at the same time, there are many TR checks such as Hammer Arm Kangaskhan (<3) and Ferrothorn, so you have to be able to know when to or not to use TR. Its best to have some failsafe Pokemon in case you can't set up TR or if it isn't beneficial for you to do so. Although I despise using TR because I bad af with it but :/

[Sparkbeat]

Just gonna throw this in a spoiler for people that don't want to be spoiled on ORAS.

Spoiler: show

So, Mega Sableye is going to stay Ghost/Dark, and it's ability has been changed to Magic Bounce. While it'll definitely miss getting to have Prankster along with buffed defenses, I still think this Mega could see some use, since it has the best defensive typing of all Magic Bouncers. Plus, it can still function as Prankster Sableye, then Mega evolve if you need to bounce something. It probably won't shake up the metagame any whatsoever, but it's a nice little buff to Sableye. Kinda sad we don't get to see a new ability though.

[rotomotorz]

Originally Posted by Sparkbeat

Just gonna throw this in a spoiler for people that don't want to be spoiled on ORAS.

Spoiler: show

So, Mega Sableye is going to stay Ghost/Dark, and it's ability has been changed to Magic Bounce. While it'll definitely miss getting to have Prankster along with buffed defenses, I still think this Mega could see some use, since it has the best defensive typing of all Magic Bouncers. Plus, it can still function as Prankster Sableye, then Mega evolve if you need to bounce something. It probably won't shake up the metagame any whatsoever, but it's a nice little buff to Sableye. Kinda sad we don't get to see a new ability though.

Spoiler: show

The problem with Mega Sableye is that its HP doesn't get buffed, giving Sableye the Dusknoir predicament, only it can bounce status in exchange for weaker-ish offenses. I find it a waste of a mega slot, honestly.

[Talon87]

What I'll say is this: the new mega in question is a nice addition to the Nintendo metagame, the reason being that it is a solid counter to SwagPlay. High physical defense allows it to laugh at Foul Play while Magic Bounce gifts it immunity to Swagger's confusion effect and to Thunder Wave. Smogon finds it worthless because Smogon has already used politics to rid its meta of the problem Mega _____ is clearly meant to address. I'll stop short of saying "meant to solve" since he's only one Pokémon and if everyone has to add him to their teams in order to win then we're right back where we were in February with Blissey, but still. I can see a lot of people in the Nintendo meta being excited over this guy if the Nintendo meta is plagued by SwagPlay anywhere near as bad as Smogon was this past winter.

[Chiko]

Originally Posted by HeroicRein

Let's try some Doubles on Showdown (Win! -5 Turns-)

Spoiler: show

Turn 1: I send out Ampharos and Gardevoir without much thought, my opponent sends out Aerodactyl (Mega) and Gengar. I don't Mega Evolve Amphy straight away in order to get Trick Room up safely. Which works as my opponent goes for Flamethrower with Aero against Amphy, burning it. They also try to put Gardevoir to sleep, the low accuracy attack misses. Amphy then uses Discharge with Gardevoir avoiding it due to Telepathy. Then, ofc, Trick Room happens.

Turn 2: Amphy Mega Evolves and uses Discharge, KO'ing the Aerodactyl and causing nice damage to Gengar, as well as Gardevoir. Gardevoir then Psychics Gengar, fainting it. In place my opponent sends out Hitmonchan and Kabutops. Pretty easy.

Turn 3: Amphy Heal Bells, Gardevoir destroys Hitmonchan with Moonblast and Kabutops uses X-Scissor on Gardevoir. Espeon comes out.

Turn 4: Amphy Discharges, KO'ing Gardevoir and Kabutops. Espeon Signal Beams Amphy. Meloetta comes out from my opponent and I send out Crawdaunt.

Turn 5: Amphy gets a crit with Dragon Pulse on Espeon, KO'ing it. Crawdaunt KO's Meloetta with Knock Off.

This is what I'd like feedback on, my first shot at Trick Room. :/

[rotomotorz]

Originally Posted by Talon87

What I'll say is this: the new mega in question is a nice addition to the Nintendo metagame, the reason being that it is a solid counter to SwagPlay. High physical defense allows it to laugh at Foul Play while Magic Bounce gifts it immunity to Swagger's confusion effect and to Thunder Wave. Smogon finds it worthless because Smogon has already used politics to rid its meta of the problem Mega _____ is clearly meant to address. I'll stop short of saying "meant to solve" since he's only one Pokémon and if everyone has to add him to their teams in order to win then we're right back where we were in February with Blissey, but still. I can see a lot of people in the Nintendo meta being excited over this guy if the Nintendo meta is plagued by SwagPlay anywhere near as bad as Smogon was this past winter.

Its not. Too much Safeguard and luck involved since you can only target one Pokemon at a time.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by rotomotorz

Its not. Too much Safeguard and luck involved since you can only target one Pokemon at a time.

I should have been less lazy and looked up the proper name. The reason I specified "Nintendo" and not "VGC" was because I was trying to go for the 6v6 singles experience on the 3DS. I forget its name, as I rarely use it, and I was lazy. Of course VGC players (and even the general public) would associate "Nintendo" with "VGC" as VGC is the format for all Nintendo-sanctioned tournaments. My error in choosing to use that label.

That stated, thanks for the insight about SwagPlay's role in the VGC climate. I had wondered if the reason I wasn't seeing it was because it was shit worthless (due to Safeguard and other options) or if it was amazing and only seen at the upper echelons of the tier (as its users fast skyrocket up the ladder due to the strategy's strength). You've explained it's the former and for reasons I can readily appreciate. Thanks.

But back to what I had wanted to convey originally ... I'm saying that Mega ______ is a pretty healthy answer for 6v6 Singles played on official gamepaks when using the Nintendo WiFi Connection and randomly challenging strangers to battles. I imagine that those battles see some level of SwagPlay usage (if even only as little as 5% of all games) and Mega _______ exists to crap all over those trainers. So I imagine, anyway. I could still be wrong, but at least this time it wouldn't be because of poor word choice. ^^;

[Red Panda]

Guess who I saw!

Spoiler: show

Halfway through the battle I saw the name and a little light clicked on in my brain. Daisy! This is the second time we've randomly found each other on PS. The first time ended in a tie, but this time Feraligatr came through for Daisy and gave her the win.

[rotomotorz]

Originally Posted by Talon87

That stated, thanks for the insight about SwagPlay's role in the VGC climate. I had wondered if the reason I wasn't seeing it was because it was shit worthless (due to Safeguard and other options) or if it was amazing and only seen at the upper echelons of the tier (as its users fast skyrocket up the ladder due to the strategy's strength). You've explained it's the former and for reasons I can readily appreciate. Thanks.

Swagger is used in VGC, its just less effective because you can only target one Pokemon at a time and even if both your opponent's Pokemon are confused there is still a higher chance of either one of them attacking. That said, a more popular strategy is using Safeguard and then Swaggering your own Pokemon, providing a Attack boost to your team mate while said team mate destroys souls(See also: My horrible experience with Rhyperior)