Online Competitive Pokemon Battle Showdown Happy Fun Times

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Sneezey12

>Hippowdon v Skarmory

...why you didn't just start spamming EQ when he got below 50% health earlier on we will never know.

Because he could easily not Roost in response to obvious EQ spam, and as I explained to him, I needed him to be in a position where he *had* to Roost every turn, i.e. he was within range of his burn KOing him. Otherwise I'd be out of Earthquakes and thus out of luck. I did mess up by wasting a few Earthquakes earlier on though.

[Sneaze]

The thing is, once he got below 50%, it would have been safe to spam EQ, since if he didn't Roost, he's looking at a net loss of 6% health per turn, and inevitable KO after 9 turns (Pretty sure you have more than 10 EQ's at your disposal, if not, well, then bump the 50% down to like, 40%). If he does Roost, he's risking running into your EQ and losing health more quickly (a definite if you're just spamming EQ). Either way, he's losing, and it shouldn't take 50 turns to happen.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Sneezey12

The thing is, once he got below 50%, it would have been safe to spam EQ, since if he didn't Roost, he's looking at a net loss of 6% health per turn, and inevitable KO after 9 turns (Pretty sure you have more than 10 EQ's at your disposal, if not, well, then bump the 50% down to like, 40%). If he does Roost, he's risking running into your EQ and losing health more quickly (a definite if you're just spamming EQ). Either way, he's losing, and it shouldn't take 50 turns to happen.

You're right. >_> Oh well, my plan worked too.

[Princess Ana]

Fun Fact: i was right Talon on your win with Weezing.

4 SpA Weezing Sludge Bomb vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Regice: 46-55 (12.67 - 15.15%) -- 9HKO at best

You would have OHKOd him for sure!

And NICCEEEEEE with the mono-Dragon team. I think he was using a lead Chomp, Scarf KB, Scarftios, Scarfmence(the only Salamence I know that used Dragon Claw), and I'm not sure about Hydreigon, but let's not rule out the possibility of Scarfdreigon!

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by blazeVA

And NICCEEEEEE with the mono-Dragon team. I think he was using a lead Chomp, Scarf KB, Scarftios, Scarfmence(the only Salamence I know that used Dragon Claw), and I'm not sure about Hydreigon, but let's not rule out the possibility of Scarfdreigon!

Yeah, glad someone watched it. 'Cause that dragon one was just amazing. Really, really illustrated what a savior Light Clay Jirachi is for my team as it currently exists. When the likes of Staraptor and Togekiss are taking down a team populated by three former Übers, that's when you know that shit is working well. And those two specific turns where I have the blue-colored text? Yeah. Those are turns where there's simply no denying that things would've gone his way were it not for Light Screen or Reflect, but since they were there things went my way instead.

Originally Posted by blazeVA

Fun Fact: i was right Talon on your win with Weezing.

4 SpA Weezing Sludge Bomb vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Regice: 46-55 (12.67 - 15.15%) -- 9HKO at best

You would have OHKOd him for sure!

Oh. Sweet. So he would've switched in, taken SR damage, and died to Sludge Bomb. (BARELY.) And then Pinsir would've come in, taken SR damage, been at 75% HP ... and I guess I would've just had to stall him out or something. Will-o-Wisp + an early Pain Split or something, I dunno. See, we don't quite know what Pinsir had, but he might've still won. (Sludge Bomb / Will-o-Wisp / Clear Smog / Pain Split, as recommended by Smogon, is what the Weezing is running. So I can't really do too much to a Pinsir what with his resistance to Poison.) A few good Stone Edges would've done me in. And oh, looking Pinsir up on Smogon, it seems many run a Substitute Pinsir, so yeah, that could've fucked over any chance at W-o-W'ing him. So I might've still lost. Oh well. I WON! [/timeout victories]

[Talon87]

Wherein I suffer my first loss since adding in Light Clay Jirachi.

Spoiler: show

Disappointing. The guy ran the bane of my existence, Terrakion, and his Close Combat managed to do far more damage than I anticipated. Was planning to take 20-30% HP damage, then take another 20-30% HP damage while Reflecting plus gaining Wish's health. Did not expect Close Combat to do friggin' 50% HP damage against my Jirachi. Son of a bitch.

Wherein my opponent manages to double Protect ... twice.

Spoiler: show

Yeah, I messed up near the veeeeeeeeeeeeery end with Mamoswine using Stealth Rock, but my thinking was that he was going to switch out to Ferrothorn (to soak up an Ice Shard and then scare me off with threat of Power Whip or something, even though I still probably would've stayed put and Superpowered his ass into the ground) and so I wanted SR up to ensure that Honchkrow would die on the switch back in. But yes, clearly failing to Ice Shard again cost me my woolly mammoth and threatened a dark horse victory for him were it not for his Life Orb recoil damage. Thank God he was holding that Life Orb!

Another win made relatively easy thanks to Jirachi's helpful screens and wish passing. Was bummed out by the paralysis though. Not much I can do about it either since he really does need to hold Light Clay.

This match almost entirely goes by without need for Jirachi's help, when suddenly ...

Spoiler: show

While I was admittedly doing pretty well even without Jirachi's help, I don't think there's any denying how nice it was to have Reflect as an extra insurance policy for my victory. His final two Pokémon were Mamoswine and Breloom. My final two (besides Jirachi) were Togekiss and Hydreigon. Hydreigon is a terrible matchup with Breloom given Technician Mach Punch, and he's not much better against Mamoswine given Ice Shard. Togekiss has bulk to handle either Pokémon individually (maybe -- Technician Breloom's kinda scary tbh) but not enough to handle both. So yeah, I was a little worried, though I still felt confident I could win it. But Jirachi? Jirachi made it so that my victory was all but guaranteed. When Hydreigon's Focus Blast missed the first time, sure, I was disappointed, but I wasn't horrified like I ordinarily would've been. I knew Hydreigon could still handle another Ice Shard, even without its Yache Berry, thanks to Reflect.

So thank you, Light Clay Jirachi, for yet another ensured victory.

Why has this set fallen out of favor!? It's working pretty nicely for me!

[Sneaze]

I decide to try some NU... after three consecutive opponents ragequitting on me this stallfest happens.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Sneezey12

I decide to try some NU... after three consecutive opponents ragequitting on me this stallfest happens.

Responses:

Spoiler: show

Lucky critical on Turn 11!

Turn 37, I'd not have done. Marowak's got Stealth Rock to contend with when he comes back in, and it's doubtful he'll ever be able to be switched in safely mid-turn. Would've left him out and Double-Edged again. Might've gotten lucky and KO'd Weezing. Would've at least brought him down (post-Black Sludge healing) to ~5-10% HP.

And then I see Turn 38 and laugh. Wish. Gotcha. Well, it's your call. Good luck passing it to Marowak at some point, but who knows. It's certainly doable.

Turns 46 thru 48 are pretty bad for your side. I would've forgotten about Scrappy too though. Would think most people'd opt for Thick Fat anyway. But I guess if Misdreavus is so popular in NU then some Miltank users'll opt for Scrappy instead, like this guy.

Turn 55, I was getting ready to quit watching and skip ahead to the end ^^; ... when Turn 58 rolled around and wooooo \o/ match over! But by forfeit. ^^;

[Sneaze]

Yeah... I was kinda regretting not giving Licki Dragon Tail. Though I probably would have lost if not for the lucky crit on Turn 11.

Hey look I actually won thanks to stalling... that's a first.

[Talon87]

Wherein Latias proves her mettle. (Random Battle)

Spoiler: show

Sidenote: at the time of this post, the room is still open. After the match, I told my opponent "gg", something I normally hate hearing out of people but for whatever reason felt was appropriate to say there and then. Well, I got no response. And my opponent just waited around. As did I. It's been half an hour now and he still hasn't left the room. ^^; Here's what I noticed about Smogon's PS replays, and it's another flaw in the system which they should patch: when you ask to make a replay, PS stores only one replay per room, and it always opts for the latest copy. So like, for instance, if I make a replay after winning and then leave the room, but if my opponent then talks a bunch of trash talk once I've left and he then saves the replay, both of our replays (which are the one and the same file) will be his copy, i.e. the copy with all of his smack talk. The only way to really prevent this from happening to you ... is to be the second person to leave the room. ^^; So what you end up getting are these "stubbornness wars" where neither user is willing to leave for fear of the other saying some terrible things about him once he leaves and then re-saving the replay.

Anyway, this battle went very well thanks to an opportunity provided for me to bring in Latias and use her Calm Mind. Before that moment it had seemed like more of a roughly even match, but once I had Latias in with one Calm Mind "layer" up, it was pretty much gg.

Wherein my confidence in Jirachi leads me to allow a Conkledurr to Bulk Up three times. (OU) Who won this one? You'll just have to watch the video to find out.

Spoiler: show

CLUTCH VICTORY! \o/

This one boiled down to smart sacrifices and picking one's battles wisely. TBH, even the bit with Conkledurr could arguably be said to have been part of that "picking one's battles wisely" bit. Though I dunno ... that was kinda frightening. ^^;;

That Jirachi sacrifice at the end was unintentional. ^^; I mean, I intended to switch out! But I expected him to use Protect that turn. I didn't think he'd use Earthquake. Whoops. (And I was pretty instantaneous switching, too, so it's not like he saw me taking my sweet time and canceled his orders and picked new ones or something ... )

I've also never seen a Gliscor quite so bulky before. O_o ONLY 3HKO'd by Mamoswine's Ice Shard!? Insane. I normally OHKO, and 99.99% of remaining cases are 2HKOs. This is the 1% less than 0.005%. Crazy. Just glad that I managed to win in the end. Was really afraid of Gliscor outspeeding Togekiss and using Roost.

As an aside ...

Spoiler: show

I never imagined my rating would get so high on Smogon ... and with my own team, to boot! :'D It's just really, really too bad that Jirachi is a legendary. 'Cause it does still bug me. I know, I know, generations of trainers have allowed themselves one non-über legendary. But still. I was never one of those people. Didn't run Zapdos in Gens 1 or 2. Didn't run Jirachi in Gen 3. Didn't run Azelf in Gen 4. Didn't run Landorus or Tornadus-T or Terrakion or Genesect or any of them in Gen 5. But now here I am with a Jirachi on my team. It feels wrong. Even if I love the role he's fulfilling.

[Princess Ana]

Me trying out a Specsgrowth set

This battle wasn't what I would call tense, but it was definitely fun. And crap why does Stoutland hit so hard!? Granted Alakazam isn't the bulkiest, but damn.

And LOL at Tangrowth taking a CB Stone Edge like a bro. I find that I do like this set a bit for its utility against sand teams that like to use Hippo or Lando, since it lures Lando out and just plasters it with a Leaf Storm.

[Sneaze]

...how does someone with a rating in the 1700's not see the Lum coming on 'nite?

[Princess Ana]

Originally Posted by Sneezey12

...how does someone with a rating in the 1700's not see the Lum coming on 'nite?

I don't know. Then again, having a rating of 1700 could just mean you won your first five battles. :P

Smogon's cutoff for "elite" is 1850, which is what they use for 1850 stats. I should go get those. THEY DON'T EXIST NEVER MIND!!!! I'll just get the regular ones.

Spoiler: show

Total battles: 686066
 Avg. weight/team: 0.381
 + ---- + ------------------ + --------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------- + 
 | Rank | Pokemon            | Usage %   | Raw    | %       | Real   | %       | 
 + ---- + ------------------ + --------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------- + 
 | 1    | Scizor             | 23.08087% | 240933 | 17.559% | 192134 | 17.383% | 
 | 2    | Politoed           | 19.57211% | 205734 | 14.994% | 188751 | 17.077% | 
 | 3    | Ferrothorn         | 19.45857% | 236651 | 17.247% | 204301 | 18.484% | 
 | 4    | Dragonite          | 16.48836% | 218803 | 15.946% | 170650 | 15.439% | 
 | 5    | Jirachi            | 16.20100% | 158832 | 11.576% | 130700 | 11.825% | 
 | 6    | Heatran            | 15.85986% | 164186 | 11.966% | 134852 | 12.201% | 
 | 7    | Tyranitar          | 15.35557% | 166524 | 12.136% | 142925 | 12.931% | 
 | 8    | Breloom            | 14.05700% | 166299 | 12.120% | 132668 | 12.003% | 
 | 9    | Rotom-Wash         | 13.81740% | 123909 |  9.030% | 107619 |  9.737% | 
 | 10   | Latios             | 13.75761% | 133067 |  9.698% | 104359 |  9.442% | 
 | 11   | Starmie            | 13.34829% | 150402 | 10.961% | 117636 | 10.643% | 
 | 12   | Keldeo             | 12.92283% | 108597 |  7.914% | 84037  |  7.603% | 
 | 13   | Garchomp           | 12.56496% | 158622 | 11.560% | 124457 | 11.260% | 
 | 14   | Terrakion          | 12.55253% | 112545 |  8.202% | 84768  |  7.669% | 
 | 15   | Celebi             | 10.71112% | 98813  |  7.201% | 81129  |  7.340% | 
 | 16   | Forretress         | 10.43795% | 124738 |  9.091% | 108074 |  9.778% | 
 | 17   | Alakazam           | 10.11065% | 144512 | 10.532% | 110026 |  9.955% | 
 | 18   | Landorus-Therian   | 10.04252% | 75977  |  5.537% | 66084  |  5.979% | 
 | 19   | Gengar             |  9.95701% | 164549 | 11.992% | 129434 | 11.710% | 
 | 20   | Skarmory           |  9.20325% | 109967 |  8.014% | 95024  |  8.597% | 
 | 21   | Volcarona          |  9.17070% | 129097 |  9.408% | 99044  |  8.961% | 
 | 22   | Salamence          |  9.15992% | 133913 |  9.759% | 101581 |  9.190% | 
 | 23   | Landorus           |  9.09626% | 71921  |  5.242% | 56428  |  5.105% | 
 | 24   | Ninetales          |  9.09316% | 130427 |  9.505% | 118547 | 10.725% | 
 | 25   | Mamoswine          |  8.78206% | 85347  |  6.220% | 68442  |  6.192% | 
 | 26   | Thundurus-Therian  |  8.67902% | 87390  |  6.369% | 68731  |  6.218% | 
 | 27   | Tentacruel         |  8.57082% | 98143  |  7.153% | 77763  |  7.036% | 
 | 28   | Gliscor            |  8.26339% | 126618 |  9.228% | 100389 |  9.083% | 
 | 29   | Jellicent          |  7.73679% | 84966  |  6.192% | 69881  |  6.322% | 
 | 30   | Gyarados           |  7.15906% | 101111 |  7.369% | 80955  |  7.324% | 
 | 31   | Espeon             |  6.99590% | 121826 |  8.879% | 95211  |  8.614% | 
 | 32   | Infernape          |  6.95482% | 114731 |  8.362% | 92196  |  8.341% | 
 | 33   | Latias             |  6.91747% | 66945  |  4.879% | 51845  |  4.691% | 
 | 34   | Magnezone          |  6.60907% | 72326  |  5.271% | 57880  |  5.237% | 
 | 35   | Lucario            |  6.42783% | 91616  |  6.677% | 71083  |  6.431% | 
 | 36   | Conkeldurr         |  6.36051% | 83363  |  6.075% | 66348  |  6.003% | 
 | 37   | Jolteon            |  6.30440% | 102134 |  7.443% | 82148  |  7.432% | 
 | 38   | Kyurem-Black       |  6.29340% | 70836  |  5.162% | 54298  |  4.913% | 
 | 39   | Venusaur           |  6.12139% | 92206  |  6.720% | 71140  |  6.436% | 
 | 40   | Donphan            |  5.89144% | 70028  |  5.104% | 58650  |  5.306% | 
 | 41   | Cloyster           |  5.87843% | 134164 |  9.778% | 103754 |  9.387% | 
 | 42   | Blissey            |  5.29273% | 103581 |  7.549% | 80494  |  7.283% | 
 | 43   | Vaporeon           |  5.04582% | 78845  |  5.746% | 62124  |  5.621% | 
 | 44   | Hippowdon          |  5.03199% | 53425  |  3.894% | 47789  |  4.324% | 
 | 45   | Hydreigon          |  4.88177% | 87705  |  6.392% | 69037  |  6.246% | 
 | 46   | Dugtrio            |  4.43594% | 50204  |  3.659% | 40204  |  3.637% | 
 | 47   | Toxicroak          |  4.40411% | 62624  |  4.564% | 48105  |  4.352% | 
 | 48   | Metagross          |  4.29298% | 82674  |  6.025% | 67134  |  6.074% | 
 | 49   | Reuniclus          |  4.26285% | 51357  |  3.743% | 39739  |  3.595% | 
 | 50   | Gastrodon          |  4.19848% | 49469  |  3.605% | 39977  |  3.617% | 
 | 51   | Haxorus            |  3.97379% | 61323  |  4.469% | 46781  |  4.232% | 
 | 52   | Tornadus           |  3.41432% | 29764  |  2.169% | 22879  |  2.070% | 
 | 53   | Victini            |  3.05064% | 39074  |  2.848% | 31105  |  2.814% |

[Talon87]

The matches are getting much closer now the higher I get in the rankings ...

Garchomp, Dragonite, Hydreigon, Salamence, and two other blokes decide to take on Team Wish Star.

Spoiler: show

Another dragon team. The moment I saw the roster, I knew this would likely be a tough fight. I also knew that Jirachi would likely play an important part in keeping us alive. I was correct on both points, although the latter was noticeably less so the case here than in the previous match against an all-dragon team. For instance, Jirachi's final Reflect proved kind of moot. And much of the battle in the middle took place with neither screen up.

I got veeeeeeery lucky on Turn 20. Salamence took off 96.2% of Staraptor's health in one hit. He'd have very probably swept my entire team had he not been KO'd by Staraptor. Choice Scarf made him faster than anyone else I had and Moxie would've meant he would've been hitting with Choice Band-level power against no matter who I sent out to replace a fallen Staraptor. Would've been bad.

But I'll happily take the 1-0 victory, and it's been a long time since Starmie's gotten to be the last Pokémon standing, so go, Starmie!

There's no way that this is going to last, so I decided to go ahead and take a photo of my current W:L ratio in OU:

16 wins, 5 losses, and 0 ties. Not bad. Granted, three of those losses are post-Jirachi (I had only two losses before then), but I didn't have too many wins yet either. (I think my ratio was something like 7W 2L 0T, but I forget.)

[Sneaze]

How do you check your W:L?

[Princess Ana]

Originally Posted by Sneezey12

How do you check your W:L?

/rank

Note, you can also check any other user's ranking by typing in

/rank [name of person you want to check]

I learned this a couple of days ago.

[Sneaze]

Wow I suck. 20/26 UU. 5/1 so far in NU though, so hopefully that keeps up.

[Talon87]

As the going gets tough, the tough get going!

Spoiler: show

This was my next match after posting the above post so ... chalk me up now to 16W 6L 0T.

This guy's team, and my loss to it, reminds me why I fucking hate modern OU so much though. LEGENDARIES EVERYWHERE. In previous posts, I have been kind by saying "two legendaries on every team." And Smogon OU metagame apologists in this very thread have been all, "Oh no, Talon! You're wrong! You must be seeing what you want to see! OU isn't that bad!" Well not only is it that bad, with pretty much half of all teams I've encountered above 1550 rank having two legendaries, but we're starting to see the emergence of more and more legendaries on the teams as I head on up the scoreboard. This guy had four fucking legendaries. FOUR! -_-; Kyurem-Black! Keldeo-Resolute! Heatran! And Landorus! Four goddamn legendaries padded out by Forretress and Rotom-W! Gimme a fucking break, man! If I wanted to fight legendaries all day, I'd go play in Übers! This is dogshit, is what this is.

Frustration about my not-an-0-1 loss aside , let's offer some brief comments on this match.

First off, Jirachi noticeably didn't get to do its job nearly as effectively as I should've liked. I didn't think a burn would be that important given that I'm a Light Clay defensive Jirachi, not a Choice Scarf physical Jirachi. But to be perfectly honest, it really did shorten Jirachi's longevity far too much. The other problem was that my opponent, whether knowingly or unknowingly, stalled out Reflect and Light Screen with frequent Protects and other non-attacking moves like Stealth Rock or Toxic. So this made leading with Jirachi sort of a bust. And then when Jirachi came back out later on in the match, it wasn't really able to do too much for the team -- and it fainted shortly thereafter.

Second, I just could not secure the necessary OHKOs or 2HKOs. I was always just a little bit shy. Turn 19 shows a good example of this, with Hydreigon reducing Landorus from 65% HP to 15% HP. Good, but not good enough. And Hydreigon then got knocked out. Turn 25 is another painful example of this. Togekiss manages to take off 92.9% of Keldeo-Resolute's HP in just one hit. Unfortunately, it falls shy of the desired OHKO, and that allows Keldeo-Resolute to reduce Togekiss to critical before fainting next turn. (Granted, she probably didn't have much chance against Kyurem-Black's Outrage anyway ^^; , but you get my point.)

Third, the battle replay doesn't show it, but I tried -- unsuccessfully -- to do quite a few feints. One of these was on Turn 18, where I waited ~45 to 50 seconds before ordering another Focus Blast. It was obvious that he'd switch out to Landorus, so I wanted to make him think that I was mulling over my attack options or even switching out. I wanted to do whatever it took to invite Heatran to stay put, to get him to hurriedly cancel his orders for a switch and to try and outplay me. Didn't work. ^^;

[Rangeet]

Talon; you should make an LC team, which I should fight. I'm currently just above 1700 in LC. :3

[Talon87]

If your name is BrownCongee, then I just kicked your butt 3-0 in my first LC match ever. ^^; If it's something different, well, I made a Little Cup team just for you, 'Geet. Can't say I'm a fan, of either the format or the team I threw together, but if it net me a 3-0 victory against someone whose score had been 1662 going into this match, then I'd say it can't be all bad.

[Rangeet]

Patrick Brooks, PMed you.

[Talon87]

Wherein I partake in my first Little Cup battle ever, squaring off against Imposter Rangeet!

Wherein I partake in my second Little Cup battle ever, squaring off against the actual Rangeet!

Spoiler: show

Regarding my decision to Substitute near the end with Misdreavus: I expected Rangeet to Shell Smash (in the [correct] expectation that I couldn't OHKO him) and to then try and stage a turn-around victory. So my plan was to put a substitute up while he Shell Smashed, and to then Shadow Ball him after his defenses had dropped after he expended his first powered-up turn demolishing my sub. But to be honest, this was a bit of a dumb plan anyway. I should've just Shadow Balled period (as it turned out was the proven case on Turn 25) and then, Shell Smash or no, sent out Cranidos once Misdreavus died.

Thing is, I am really, really, really not used to seeing Rock Blast. To the point that I forget the move even exists. Bullet Seed, I see often enough. Tail Whip, I rarely see. Rock Blast, I never see. At least not in OU. But I've seen it used two or three times now in the shit tiers (NU and Little Cup), and I'll have to try to remember in the future that if I'm up against a Rock type, do not bother with making a sub. Seriously, though: the last time Rock Blast was even a thing in OU was during Gen 3 due to Sceptile and a need to break through substitutes.

Say Misdreavus had done as she did on Turn 24 (making a Substitute), and say she had gotten hit by Rock Blast, it broke past the substitute, and she fainted. Would Rangeet have won? It's hard for me to say. Possibly. Head Smash kinda sucks for its recoil problem, while Earthquake, Crunch, and Fire Punch only hit for neutral non-STAB damage. Plus he had Sturdy + Oran Berry. So it's hard to say. But I think I might've won via Head Smash. That's probably what I would have gone for, in any event. 150 base power, STAB, and he's 2x weak to it. Probably would've been a 2HKO. The only question would've been if he could've killed me in between my first Head Smash and my second. Actually, I guess the second question would've been ... would I have missed? Oh well.

EDIT: Never mind about Sturdy. Yeah, I definitely had this one in the bag. Forgot about Stealth Rock. Stealth Rock broke Dwebble's pseudo-Sash, so it would've been a simple matter of one Head Smash. And I'd have outraced his Dwebble too. Yeah, I won this regardless after all. (Sorry, Rangeet. ^^; )

Watching the battle with Impostor Rangeet again, one thing is pretty clear: the real Rangeet is better than the fake one. Or at least, I get the feeling watching the replay with fake Rangeet that I was kicking his ass. Whereas in the battle with the real Rangeet, I was fighting a pretty damn defensive fight at times. And if anyone was doing asskicking in that fight, it was Rangeet with his several opportune KOs (like that Vacuum Punch and that Stone Edge).

[Slash]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Oh. Sweet. So he would've switched in, taken SR damage, and died to Sludge Bomb. (BARELY.) And then Pinsir would've come in, taken SR damage, been at 75% HP ... and I guess I would've just had to stall him out or something. Will-o-Wisp + an early Pain Split or something, I dunno. See, we don't quite know what Pinsir had, but he might've still won. (Sludge Bomb / Will-o-Wisp / Clear Smog / Pain Split, as recommended by Smogon, is what the Weezing is running. So I can't really do too much to a Pinsir what with his resistance to Poison.) A few good Stone Edges would've done me in. And oh, looking Pinsir up on Smogon, it seems many run a Substitute Pinsir, so yeah, that could've fucked over any chance at W-o-W'ing him. So I might've still lost. Oh well. I WON! [/timeout victories]

Just noticed this. Pinsir doesn't resist Poison.

Also, Mold Breaker Pinsir might have Earthquake, although I have no idea if it was a Mold Breaker or Moxie Pinsir since I didn't watch it.

[Talon87]

Critical hits: Nature's stallbreaker.

Spoiler: show

Not gonna lie: I got lucky in this one.

Turn 2: I never think of Yanmega having Giga Drain. I'm going to remember it one of these days. (Though in my defense, I really did think that Ice Shard might've had enough juice in it to OHKO Yanmega. Curse it for being such a weak move! If only it had a base power of at least 60!)

Turn 4: I expected him to Bug Buzz, and wanted him to KO himself via his Life Orb damage whilst doing the least possible damage to my side. Sort of backfired, but I decided to go ahead and give Togekiss vs. Yanmega a shot.

Turn 5: Thank God for not flinching. -_-;

Turn 6: You can't see it in the replay, but I feinted here.

Turn 11: Lucky critical hit #1. Although in my defense / in anti-defense of his frustration, I still think I could've 2HKO'd him despite his Cosmic Power buff. And I very much doubt that he'd have been KO'ing me that turn.

Turn 13: Should've gone for the Air Slash here but didn't see Roost coming. Instantly regretted going for Shadow Ball instead the moment he Roosted.

Turn 18: Lucky critical hit #2. And unlike the first time, this time really was important.

Turn 21: I expected him to be Choice Scarfed, though I'll admit I thought it a queer choice to go for Rock Slide over Stone Edge. But I figured "Meh, he must want the flinch chance or something. " Anyway, I definitely grew concerned when he used Swords Dance, but at least I neutralized that specific turn with Reflect. But if he Swords Danced again next turn ... x_x

Turn 22: I kinda took a little while here to decide what to do, long enough that he must've called the switch and figured Rock Slide was his safest bet. Damn. But hey, at least he didn't use Swords Dance again. And I'm pretty sure I'm faster--

Turn 23: ... why did I think I was faster? -_-; I know 100 is less than 108. And I know that Staraptor's base speed is 100 while Terrakion's is 108. 'Cause I just looked them both up the other day. Sigh. Oh well. We've still got this one in the bag since ...

Turn 24: ... out comes Starmie. And yeah, it's gg from here on out. That's what happens when you choose not to run Choice Scarf, Mr. Terrakion User!

I don't think he was having fun in the sun.

Spoiler: show

The match was otherwise completely fair, imo, right up until the two turns preceding his ragequit. And to be perfectly honest, one out of two Fire Blasts missing isn't that uncommon. (Though you'd still bet money on the two hitting rather than either missing.) But yeah, the fact that both missed, I can see why that'd frustrate him. Especially since Light Screen faded directly before he fired off Fire Blast #2. (And given that it was a Fire Blast boosted in power by the sunlight and coming off of a Heatran, it probably would've been enough to either KO Togekiss or else bring her down to the single digit %HPs.

Still though. If you ignore those final two turns, the score was 6-4 my lead, and if I do say so myself, I was commanding the battle fairly well. Chlorophyll Venusaur is always a problem, but I was pretty confident in my ability to get rid of Heatran long before he could get rid of Jirachi. Not to mention that Hydreigon completely fucks over all four of his remaining guys. So yeah, even if we were to give him back his Fire Blasts -- and even if we assume that the first one KOs Togekiss before Togekiss gets a chance to hit Heatran -- I'd still say I was doing pretty well.

EDIT: While I did forget about the Turn 1 critical hit, a) the flinch is part and parcel of the move (20% chance) and b) I still think I'd have KO'd Ninetales before she'd have KO'd me. Though admittedly a weakened Hydreigon could've changed the match greatly had he not ragequit. *shrug*

Wherein I'm facing a chip off the LoL block.

You'll want to watch this one for what happens at the very end. Just read our dialogue each step of the way.

Spoiler: show

I find that responding in Japanese usually gets someone to shut up so I opened with a simple "I'm good. How are you?" But when the guy follows this up with "fuck yuo", pause, and then again "fuck yuo", I have to let him know that not only is he dealing with someone who speaks fluent English but that he's a failure of a troll. This was something of a mistake in the short run, though it proved to be a huge success in the long run. Y'see, this set the troll off and he starts LoL-ing it up. So as I proceed to knock out not one but two of his powerhouse Pokémon, he flips out and starts cursing up a racist storm. Well, I may be white as white can be, but I don't abide by bullshit like this. And when a community I'm in is of a like mindset, I take advantage of it.

"How do you report a user?" I ask in the public channel.
"PM a mod" ... answers one of the admins. Before I can even lift a finger --

Diatom joined.
Mopain was muted by Diatom.
Mopain's alts were also muted: niglett69, ShowEhs, happyman, GrilledBear
Diatom left.

-- happened in the course of like ten seconds. He then PMs me. "Done."

Soon after, the LoL guy forfeited and left. Typical /b/tard troll. Once you take away his mouthpiece, he loses all reason to live to continue being there and moves on to his next hangout where he can hope to annoy people to death with his /b/tardedness.

Wherein I have a lengthy post-battle conversation with my opponent. O_o

Was actually a pleasant surprise. I wished him well in the end and he did the same to me. A welcome reversal of my experience with Jackass above.

In other news, my OU ranking currently is 1733, with 19 wins, 7 losses, and 0 ties. Not too bad, but yeah, I've been encountering heavy resistance from enemy teams recently. And yes, nearly every team continues to have at least two legendaries on it. It's very annoying. -_-;

[Firewater]

got bored, did some matches- granted it's in Random

Dunsparce is amazing

So is Weepingbell.