Online Competitive Pokemon Battle Showdown Happy Fun Times

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Mercutio

> King's Shield

Ahahaha what crack was Gamefreak smoking when it invented this.

One way to work around Aegislash's King's Shield is to use Will-o-Wisp. (It by passes the shield, unlike Protect/Detect.) Another way to work around it is the same as you would ordinary Protect/Detect. You can switch that turn to a more advantageous match-up, you can boost your stats that turn, you can recover HP, whatever.

Aside: if Game Freak ever decides to create the burn equivalent of Toxic Spikes (Hot Coals? ), there are a whole lot of Pokémon who are going to be screeeeeeeeeeeeewed.

And now I am imagining a Badly Burned status where you lose 25% of your HP at the end of each turn. Damn. 5% of me thinks he wants this and the other 95% is like "NO! "

[Mercutio]

Yeah Gamefreak is weirdly uneven with stuff like this. Like, why isn't Hot Coals already a thing? Why do we only get Stealth Rock (or why do we get Stealth Rock in the first place)?

Well I ended up losing because Power Herb Solar Beam Acrobatics Simisage is too much for my terrible in game Lapras.

[Emi]

Yeah King's Shield and Spiky Shield made me panic becase LOL FERROTHORN LOL.

Fortunately it learns neither.

[dirkac]

>Hot Coals
So basically Burn Toxic Spikes?
I'd approve if it took at least two layers to actually cause the Burn, it seems too screwable and spammable, otherwise.

[Emi]

I'd be ticked off if only because it would necessitate that you have to run a Fire type along with any physical sweepers. Toxic at least doesn't cripple you.

[Mercutio]

Coming soon to Pokémon: Stealth Perv (Dark) Effect: "Hey, does this smell like chloroform to you?"

[dirkac]

Originally Posted by Mercutio

Coming soon to Pokémon: Stealth Perv (Dark) Effect: "Hey, does this smell like chloroform to you?"

An Entry Hazard that features stalkers and implied rapists?

wot



Anyway, regarding that Hot Coal, it would still be easily disspelled by Defog (which is omni-present), and likely by Fire Types, too, with Lviatet/Lfyyesnimmune.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Mercutio

Yeah Gamefreak is weirdly uneven with stuff like this. Like, why isn't Hot Coals already a thing? Why do we only get Stealth Rock (or why do we get Stealth Rock in the first place)?

I have a love it / hate it relationship with the game's deliberate asymmetries. On the one hand, of course I hate it that we don't have a Rock-type Fire Blast (by which I mean: special, base power 120, 85% accuracy) or a Psychic-type Double Edge (physical, base power 120, recoil damage). On the other hand, I bemoan that moves being unique to specific creatures has gone the way of the dodo since Generation 2 was unveiled; abilities, since Generation 4 was unveiled. Symmetry is fair but symmetry is also boring. If each of the eighteen types could do everything that the other seventeen could do, and if each type (or type combo) had a functional clone of each other type's (or type combo's) bestiary, then we'd really be playing nothing more than 18-way Paper Rock Scissors at that point. The only thing lending Pokémon even a semblance of fun and flavorful strategy is the fact that the various types have their own "personalities," i.e. they're not all the same. Rock is characterized by being wildly inaccurate and mostly physical but immensely strong. Psychic is characterized as being deadly accurate, speedy, and in the hands of powerful creatures ... yet not terribly powerful as moves themselves. Etc, etc.

On that note, I more specifically have a love / hate relationship with their decision to gimp physical attackers with Intimidate and burn status while doing nothing to gimp special attackers with a "Special Intimidate" or a "special burn". On the one hand, I value the deliberate asymmetry for helping to bring about a (more) varied metagame. On the other hand, sometimes I really, really wish that Intimidate lowered both the Attack stat as well as the Special Attack stat.

I dunno. I'll probably give you a different answer on different days depending on what mood I'm in. This asymmetric split between how they treat physicals and how they treat specials is something I think about more often than I should be admitting to.

[rotomotorz]

Bisharp SMASH(VGC 2014)
Just goes to show how good Bisharp is with Defiant

[Heather]

YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME I LOVE YOU

So I'm liking this team.
A LOT.
As you can see I gave up on my Deoxys idea because 4 move limit was making it awkward, and replaced it with Hannibal. Thoughts

EDIT: No really I love this team.

Edit 2: Here's another match because ily guys.

Edit 3: Remember kids, switching resets your sleep counter, so you sleep longer!

Thanks to a forfeit on a match i would have much rather finished, I BROKE 1200!!!

[Rangeet]

Congrats Myles. I thought switching didn't reset your sleep counter anymore, though?

[Mew The Gato]

It does not.

[Shuckle]

Sorry Myles but Match #1 wtf was your opponent even doing.

Tyranitar AND megazard. Nothing immune to Sandstorm except Garchomp, which he only brings in later. Nothing that benefits from Sun. Switches Garchomp in RIGHT AFTER YOU USE ICE BEAM. I don't think you could have lost if you'd tried!

Congrats on the rest of them though, those battles were solid. You seem to really click with all-in speedy sweepers.

Re: sleep counters, you sleep 2 turns after using Rest, every time. Umbreon slept for 1 turn and then got switched out. Last turn, he slept 1 turn. Next round he would have woken up.

[Rangeet]

I found this really hilarious.

If I may toot my horn...man I love making perfect choices to piss people off sometimes.

[Shuckle]

Originally Posted by Rangeetsuper

I found this really hilarious.

If I may toot my horn...man I love making perfect choices to piss people off sometimes.

This was actually pretty funny to watch. You outpredicted him before you even showed up.

[rotomotorz]

Originally Posted by Shuckle

Sorry Myles but Match #1 wtf was your opponent even doing.

Tyranitar AND megazard. Nothing immune to Sandstorm except Garchomp, which he only brings in later. Nothing that benefits from Sun. Switches Garchomp in RIGHT AFTER YOU USE ICE BEAM. I don't think you could have lost if you'd tried!

Congrats on the rest of them though, those battles were solid. You seem to really click with all-in speedy sweepers.

Re: sleep counters, you sleep 2 turns after using Rest, every time. Umbreon slept for 1 turn and then got switched out. Last turn, he slept 1 turn. Next round he would have woken up.

Mega Zard and T-tar in one team is fairly common and a decent strategy

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Myles Fowl II

YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME I LOVE YOU

So I'm liking this team.
A LOT.
As you can see I gave up on my Deoxys idea because 4 move limit was making it awkward, and replaced it with Hannibal. Thoughts

EDIT: No really I love this team.

Edit 2: Here's another match because ily guys.

Edit 3: Remember kids, switching resets your sleep counter, so you sleep longer!

Thanks to a forfeit on a match i would have much rather finished, I BROKE 1200!!!

As I had hoped, Staraptor is an easy enough Pokémon for you to understand. And as you saw for yourself, he 2HKOed the physical wall that is Gliscor. Because that's what Staraptor does. He's a battering ram, and nothing that doesn't resist Flying or Normal is left standing once he's done.

Unfortunately, you leave us with so much groan otherwise. ^^; I'm glad to see that you're enjoying your new playtoys, but the games you've posted are mostly examples of you winning where:

1. you made some bad choices but they were canceled out by the opponent's
2. you made some bad choices but your team covered your ass
3. you should have lost the game but hax saved your ass

Originally I wrote up detailed explanations for each of these bullet points since I figured that no one likes to be told they're doing things wrong and then those accusations aren't backed up with concrete proof. But on second thought, I've decided to withhold the explanations for now. I believe that sharing them would not be in the spirit of our sincere desire to cultivate your growth as a battler. Everyone knows, even yourself, that you're still learning. No reason to beat you up over your mistakes. With experience comes wisdom. Now that your new team has helped to lift you out of the academic hellhole that is the 1000s, you can start learning the basics of OU battling in the 1200s through trial and error. Games with the three bullet points I listed above, you'll win; games without, you'll lose at first but over time you'll learn from these mistakes and improve. So let's look forward to that and in the meantime support your development as a battler.

But yeah, Myles ... try not to make cocky remarks during your games. You're not ready for that yet. It's not polite to do period, but if you are to do it, at least have the skill and the knowledge to back it up. (That sleep clause remark ... ugh ... so much groaning! ^^; )

[Shuckle]

Originally Posted by rotomotorz

Mega Zard and T-tar in one team is fairly common and a decent strategy

I'm sorry for not understanding the possible benefit of having both Sandstorm and Sun on the same team. Is it so you trick the enemy into thinking it's going to be Sunny for a little while and then BAM IT'S SANDING BABY

or is there some kind of coverage or synergy those two have? because I'm just not seeing it.

[Heather]

You know how I said I love Staraptor? Here he is again putting down lots of this guy's team.

As for the sleep counter thingy, I could have sword Umbreon was supposed to wake up sooner than it did.

EDIT: SO MUCH HAX JUST OCCURRED. Facing a Dragonite Batonpassed to have +2 in Speed, Defense, SpA and Spdef. CRIT ICEBEAM KO. Lady Luck continues to flip off my oppinent before he's running on a team that only has one pokemon not on 1%, and he forfeits.

I feel horrible saying that i broke 1300 in that match. Link is here.

I feel so bad.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Shuckle

I'm sorry for not understanding the possible benefit of having both Sandstorm and Sun on the same team. Is it so you trick the enemy into thinking it's going to be Sunny for a little while and then BAM IT'S SANDING BABY

or is there some kind of coverage or synergy those two have? because I'm just not seeing it.

Sand to fuck over dedicated sun teams. Sun to fuck over dedicated sand teams. Either to fuck over dedicated rain teams. And lol at hail teams in OU. That's how it was in Gen V, anyway, and I doubt that much has changed since then aside from the players. (Ninetales weeps. )

Incidentally, you see this in VGC 2014 as well. (Although there it makes much more sense since you're picking four out of six to send out and you're also scouting the enemy team.) I often will see Politoed and Tyranitar or Charizard and Tyranitar on the same team. And it's not uncommon for me to see them both sent out on the same active squad of four too. Particularly the rain/sand combo: they lead with Politoed to set up the rain and then they wait for me to raise the sun. Whether I do it on Turn 1, Turn 2, or Turn 5, they wait -- and once I've done it, out goes Politoed and in comes Tyranitar, changing the weather immediately back to a non-sun weather.

I don't know how common rain is at the top of the OU ladder these days -- I haven't heard much about it so I assume it's not a big deal anymore but still decently viable? -- but I would imagine that Tyranitar and Mega Charizard Y being on the same team in OU would be intended as a counter to the rain team similar to the one I've described for VGC 2014.

That stated, I don't think Mega Charizard Y is all that common compared with Mega Charizard X at the top of the OU ladder. But again, someone can correct me on that if I'm wrong.

[Rangeet]

Just as all seems lost...

Spoiler: show

This time I was the one who lost the predicting wars- twice. I still managed to pull through in the end, though, because Keldeo is just that good.

[Mew The Gato]

Originally Posted by Shuckle

I'm sorry for not understanding the possible benefit of having both Sandstorm and Sun on the same team. Is it so you trick the enemy into thinking it's going to be Sunny for a little while and then BAM IT'S SANDING BABY

or is there some kind of coverage or synergy those two have? because I'm just not seeing it.

Commonly, it is used so that you can recover your five turns of weather instantly.

Say you have only Mega Charizard Y on a team, while the other team has both Mega Charizard Y and Tyranitar.

In the first case, Mega Charizard Y may switch in, do something, switch out, switch back in in a couple of turns... and then see its Drought promptly fade. And Mega Charizard Y is a lot less threatening without Drought.

In the second case, if you use Tyranitar's Sand Stream to override Drought, you shall get full five turns of Drought when Mega Charizard Y switches back in. Both Pokemon are solidly powerful, anyway.

It also means you can freely use offensive Water Types in your team.

[Heather]

Lady luck i did NOT give you permission to baby me.

I feel the need to write to Smogon about how lucky I'm getting. 3 Hydro Pump misses in a row? That only happens to me after some Double teams ingame.

Answer that question of his, please.

My team saves my arse again.

[Cloneblazer12]

So um, why am I facing someone who's consistently in the top ten when I've decayed?

Yeah so in this match I faced one of the best battlers on PS, lil manaphy, someone who's consistently in the top ten. I'll let you see the match for yourself. I didn't even realize who I was facing till I saw the ELO update. :$

[Kindrindra]

Originally Posted by Rangeetsuper

Just as all seems lost...

Spoiler: show

This time I was the one who lost the predicting wars- twice. I still managed to pull through in the end, though, because Keldeo is just that good.

I was going to post a "Let us never speak of this again" gif but I couldn't find one with her pushing the rock out of the way.