[Pre-Bank OU] Powerstruggle

After waiting for the ladder to fix itself on Showdown, I finally see people posting replays on the chat so I take the chance to dive back in and continue testing my team. The rules are the standard for OU (beta):
Evasion Abilities Clause, Sleep Clause Mod, Species Clause, OHKO Clause, Moody Clause, Evasion Moves Clause, HP Percentage Mod. The replay can also be found here [ http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oubeta-61498899 ] so feel free to snap that in a separate window next to this and set the speed to 'Slow' and watch the battle happen while reading the story.
Piconoe:

-VS-
coolguy2772:

My first opponent of the night serves to not be disappointing. He shoots me a 'good luck' at the beginning of the match, proving that his name is not a lie and that he is in fact a 'coolguy'.

Seeing as he didn't have any hazard setting stallwalls, I decided to open with my Megaken, expecting him to go into Tyranitar first to get the 'storm set up for Excadrill while also planting some rocks. But boy, was I horribly mistaken...

coolguy2772: Go! Alakazam!

...crap...

Turn 1
Piconoe: Mistakes have been made
coolguy2772: we all make them
coolguy2772: :p

Piconoe withdrew Blaziken!

Piconoe sent out Scolipede!
Alakazam has Mega Evolved into Mega Alakazam!
Alakazam traced the opposing Scolipede's Speed Boost!

Alakazam used Protect!
But it failed!

Alakazam's Speed Boost raised its Speed!
In a moment of brash boneheadedness, I went into Scolipede, completely forgetting forgetting the fact that even REGULAR Alazakam could decimate Scolipede due to his EVs and Nature leaning towards Defense, not to mention the weakness to Psychic. But luckily for me, he plays it safe and tries to go for that Speed Boost he was planning to copy from me, not guessing a switch. Being the first battle facing Megakazam, I also completely forgot his Trace ability, practically giving him the win if I couldn't stop him now.

Turn 2
Alakazam used Psychic!
It's super effective! The opposing Scolipede hung on using its Focus Sash!
The opposing Scolipede lost 99.7% of its health!

The opposing Scolipede used Megahorn!
It's super effective! Alakazam lost 100% of its health!

Alakazam fainted!

The opposing Scolipede's Speed Boost raised its Speed!
Piconoe: Phew

Go! Tyranitar!
A sandstorm kicked up!
After making it in safe, I was completely at ease, knowing I could take out the Alakazam that turn. He goes for the Psychic, quickly reminding me how stupid and reckless it was to bring him in in the first place as I see the "Super Effective" flash up. My Sash triggers, letting me rest easy and go in for the kill. The question is, was lady luck going to be on my side? I cross my fingers as Scolipede fires across the screen towards Alakazam.

CONNECTED!

And that monster goes down before he can annihilate my team. 6-5 in my favor, always a good sign to get the first kill.

Turn 3

The opposing Scolipede used Megahorn!
It's super effective! Tyranitar lost 49.5% of its health!

Tyranitar used Stealth Rock!
Pointed stones float in the air around the opposing team!
The sandstorm rages.

The opposing Scolipede is buffeted by the sandstorm!

The opposing Scolipede fainted!

Piconoe sent out Blaziken!
Pointed stones dug into the opposing Blaziken!
I'm not safe yet, though. For his Sand Stream practically seals Scolipede's fate. I could Pass out, but he'd turn into switch-in bait at that point, and after looking at his team, Megahorn wasn't going to do a damn thing to anyone else, so I might as well put it to good use now. Once again, it hits, while coolguy takes the chance to get his Stones up, letting him tie the score up to 5-5 without even having to do anything.

Turn 4

Tyranitar, come back!

Go! Togekiss!
Blaziken has Mega Evolved into Mega Blaziken!

The opposing Blaziken used High Jump Kick!
It's not very effective... Togekiss lost 20.6% of its health!
The sandstorm rages.

The opposing Blaziken is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Togekiss is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Togekiss restored HP using its Leftovers!
The opposing Blaziken's Speed Boost raised its Speed!
Turn 5

Piconoe withdrew Blaziken!

Piconoe sent out Aegislash!
Pointed stones dug into the opposing Aegislash!

Togekiss used Air Slash!
The opposing Aegislash avoided the attack!
The sandstorm rages.

Togekiss is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Togekiss restored HP using its Leftovers!
Expecting my obvious High Jump Kick, he switches into Togekiss and tanks it like a boss. Blaziken is dead weight against him with my moveset, so after psychologically recovering from the initial blunder, I switch into Aegislash (the guy I SHOULD have brought in against Alakazam, giving him a useless ability as well as letting him tank up to 4 hits of Psychic). Of course the Air Slash misses, making me wish I went for a Swords Dance and another Speed Boost for a Pass next turn, but it was safer (and not plain stupid) this way, not to mention Aegislash's future survivability.

Turn 6

Togekiss, come back!

Go! Vaporeon!

The opposing Aegislash used Head Smash!
Vaporeon lost 55.0% of its health!
The opposing Aegislash is damaged by recoil!
The opposing Aegislash lost some of its HP!
The sandstorm rages.

Vaporeon is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Vaporeon restored HP using its Leftovers!
Expecting the Iron Head, he switches into his Vaporeon, but that wasn't my plan at all. In fact, I don't even run Iron Head on this set. Little did he know that I was testing a replacement for its move slot. I go for the Head Smash and take out a huge chunk of his HP, as well as having it devour a large chunk of my precious HP, taking out a whopping FOURTY-EIGHT PERCENT of it, taking me down to 36% after the Life Orb.

Turn 7

Piconoe withdrew Aegislash!

Piconoe sent out Cloyster!
Pointed stones dug into the opposing Cloyster!

Vaporeon used Scald!
It's not very effective... The opposing Cloyster lost 39.7% of its health!
The sandstorm rages.

The opposing Cloyster is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Vaporeon is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Vaporeon restored HP using its Leftovers!
Turn 8

The opposing Cloyster used Rapid Spin!
Vaporeon lost 5.2% of its health!
The pointed stones disappeared from around the opposing team!

Vaporeon used Scald!
It's not very effective... The opposing Cloyster lost 29.3% of its health!

The opposing Cloyster fainted!
The sandstorm rages.

Vaporeon is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Vaporeon restored HP using its Leftovers!

Piconoe sent out Gengar!
Seeing as he has no Ghosts, I switch into Cloyster, eating the Scald before Rapid Spinning away the Rocks as he bites the dust to another Scald, putting him in the lead this time with 4-5.

Turn 9

The opposing Gengar used Thunderbolt!
It's super effective! Vaporeon lost 39.9% of its health!

Vaporeon fainted!
The sandstorm rages.

The opposing Gengar is buffeted by the sandstorm!

Go! Excadrill!
He keeps his Vaporeon out, expecting to easily tank any of Gengar's (he already knew it wasn't Megengar) standard attacks, even at 40%, while being able to dish out some nasty damage in return, probably not wanting to give me a free Sub on the switch out, sealing his fate. What he didn't expect was the type coverage my set gave me and took a surprise Thunderbolt to the face, chewing through his HP like butter. That ties us back up with 4-4, proving this to be a very close match so far.

Turn 10

Piconoe withdrew Gengar!

Piconoe sent out Gliscor!

Excadrill used Rock Slide!
The opposing Gliscor lost 16.5% of its health!

The sandstorm subsided.
The opposing Gliscor's Toxic Orb activated!
The opposing Gliscor was badly poisoned!
Turn 11

Excadrill, come back!

Go! Togekiss!

The opposing Gliscor used Protect!
But it failed!

Togekiss restored HP using its Leftovers!
The opposing Gliscor restored HP using its Poison Heal!
Turn 12

Piconoe withdrew Gliscor!

Piconoe sent out Aegislash!

Togekiss used Air Slash!
It's not very effective... The opposing Aegislash lost 14.9% of its health!

Togekiss restored HP using its Leftovers!
Turn 13

Togekiss, come back!

Go! Tyranitar!
A sandstorm kicked up!

The opposing Aegislash used Head Smash!
Tyranitar lost 45.3% of its health!
The opposing Aegislash is damaged by recoil!

The opposing Aegislash fainted!
The sandstorm rages.

Piconoe sent out Gengar!
At this point, he probably knew I had one of the Choice sets, so he switched went into his Ground powerhouse. Having done his job and unable to go any further, Gengar switches himself out for the MVP of my team, Gliscor. He takes the Rock Slide like a complete boss and shrugs it off like it's nothing. Knowing his Excadrill couldn't do a thing, he probably figured an Earthquake and switched to Togekiss. Either way, he got a safe switch since I went for the Protect over the Sub, wanting to heal up the Rock Slide while also making sure he didn't have any surprises hidden for me.

Unable to Protect again and not wanting to risk losing my clutch to a surprise move like he did his Vaporeon, I continued the switch war and went into Aegislash. He tanked the Air Slash, putting my mind at ease that he didn't have anything that could devastate Gliscor in the future. I tried going for the Head Smash again. He kept the switch war going by switching into Tyranitar, who was sent plummeting down to 6% while Aegislash died to his own move's recoil, sending Tyranitar's kill count to 2 without him even having to throw a single punch, putting him in the lead again with 3-4.

Turn 14

The opposing Gengar used Dazzling Gleam!
It's super effective! Tyranitar lost 5.2% of its health!

Tyranitar fainted!
The sandstorm rages.

The opposing Gengar is buffeted by the sandstorm!

Go! Noivern!
Turn 15

The opposing Gengar used Dazzling Gleam!
It's super effective! Noivern lost 75% of its health!

Noivern used Draco Meteor!
The opposing Gengar lost 87.8% of its health!
Noivern's Special Attack harshly fell!

The opposing Gengar fainted!
The sandstorm rages.

Noivern is buffeted by the sandstorm!

Piconoe sent out Blaziken!
Seeing that his Tyranitar could be killed by any one of my attacks, even if I had to use one he resisted, and that two of his three could effortlessly be strongwalled by Gliscor, I set my sights on Noivern and launched off a Dazzling Gleam.

The score was once again tied at 3-3 as he sends out the Noivern. Thankfully this wasn't the Scarf set, or else Gengar would have come short by 13 speed, and I get off the Gleam, taking out 3/4ths of his health. He follows up with a Draco Meteor, taking out my lovable little ghoul, putting him in the lead yet again with 2-3.

Turn 16

Noivern used Draco Meteor!
The opposing Blaziken lost 57.6% of its health!
Noivern's Special Attack harshly fell!

The opposing Blaziken used Flare Blitz!
It's not very effective... Noivern lost 18.9% of its health!
The opposing Blaziken is damaged by recoil!

Noivern fainted!
The sandstorm rages.

The opposing Blaziken is buffeted by the sandstorm!
The opposing Blaziken's Speed Boost raised its Speed!

Go! Excadrill!
Thankfully Gengar's sacrifice was not in vain. Blaziken wouldn't have been able to outspeed Noivern at all and the Draco Meteor would have torn him to shreds at full power. Blaziken survives a staggering FIFTY-SEVEN percent hit, even at -2. While both would be resisted, I decided to go with the Flare Blitz instead of High Jump Kick, afraid of both a Togekiss switch in and the chance of missing and killing himself, practically handing coolguy the win at that point. He barely survives the recoil with 12% and brings the score back to being even once again at 2-2.

Turn 17

Excadrill used Rock Slide!
A critical hit! The opposing Blaziken lost 11.9% of its health!

The opposing Blaziken fainted!
The sandstorm rages.

Piconoe sent out Gliscor!
I foolishly left Blaziken in and went for another attack. Misjudging the sheer amounts of speed Excadrill could get from an active Sand Rush compared to a +1 Adamant Megaken, I ate a Rock Slide to the face before I could even do anything, putting the score at 1-2 and leaving me with my last Pokemon.

Turn 18

Excadrill used Swords Dance!
Excadrill's Attack sharply rose!

The opposing Gliscor used Substitute!
The opposing Gliscor put in a substitute!
The opposing Gliscor lost 25% of its health!
The sandstorm rages.

The opposing Gliscor restored HP using its Poison Heal!
Turn 19

Excadrill used Rock Slide!
The opposing Gliscor's substitute faded!

The opposing Gliscor used Earthquake!
It's super effective! Excadrill lost 100% of its health!

Excadrill fainted!
The sandstorm rages.

The opposing Gliscor restored HP using its Poison Heal!

Go! Togekiss!
Luckily for me, I already knew my last Pokemon could handle both his Excadrill AND Togekiss, so I could rest easy. I went for the Sub, giving him a chance to boost with Swords Dance. It wasn't enough though, because all he was capable of doing was breaking my sub before I OHKO'd with Earthquake, bring Gliscor back to square one and the score to 1-1, leaving us both with our last Pokemon.

Turn 20

The opposing Gliscor used Toxic!
Togekiss was badly poisoned!

Togekiss used Air Slash!
The opposing Gliscor lost 34.9% of its health!

The sandstorm subsided.
Togekiss restored HP using its Leftovers!
The opposing Gliscor restored HP using its Poison Heal!
Togekiss was hurt by poison!
Turn 21

The opposing Gliscor used Protect!
The opposing Gliscor protected itself!

Togekiss used Air Slash!
The opposing Gliscor protected itself!

Togekiss restored HP using its Leftovers!
The opposing Gliscor restored HP using its Poison Heal!
Togekiss was hurt by poison!
I go for the Toxic and hit. While Air Slash does a nice 35%, I am graced with him not putting any EVs or Natures into his speed, seeing as I barely put in any myself and only beat him by 15 base, so I'm in no fear of flinching, as well as being able to SubProt in peace, sealing the game for me. We trade kudos to each other on the great game, further sealing his title of "coolguy" and making me believe that saying he's only the 2772nd cool guy is just him being modest.

In closing, I'd have to say that this was one of my best matches so far, and a really close one, too, never being more than ±1 the entire time. I'd say I'm also getting a lot better at strategic calls (though my noviceness to the competitive scene still shows with a couple glaring mistakes here and there) seeing as I only just started about a week ago.

I'd say that Gliscor is probably the best addition I've put in my team yet, pulling his weight around more than multiple other team members combined (huge thanks to HypoLast for reminding me how amazing this adorable little bugger is). As for something I learned from this match, it's probably that there's a reason nobody uses Head Smash on Aegislash despite it's very useful coverage and GIGANTIC damage output, being the sole reason Aegislash died this match (taking nothing but a single Shield Forme Air Slash, a Stealth Rock, and 2 Life Orb uses otherwise). I'll probably switch it to King's Shield or test out another move to cover for things Shadow Sneak, Shadow Ball, and Sacred Sword can't cut it against while Aegislash is out for repairs from violently smacking itself around like that.
 
Cool warstory. Head Smash on Aegislash is a cool move, I like the set.

I was going to ask why you weren't using Mega-Gengar instead of the basically pointless mega-Blaziken, but luckily I read your RMT and realized it was a scarf set haha. There were a few misplays, but still an overall fun battle and an enjoyable read, well done.
 
Thanks. :D And really? I like it and all, as well as it giving him an answer to Fire, but the recoil is SUUUUUUCH a turn off. I get recoiled by so much it's unreal. And yeah, I'm sing Mega Blaziken because I prefer to pick favorites and build teams around them than simply build teams on pure statistics, or else I might not have even used him in the first place. Probably would have used Mega Mawile or Kangaskhan instead. Also, LO Blaziken is unappealing because the guy's pretty squishy from what I've seen and the extra defense boosts as well as not having even MORE recoil is nice.

As for the misplays, aside from those I pointed out in the Warstory, what other misplays did you notice? As I stated, while I've been in others, I'm still extremely novice to Pokemon's competitive scene. I'd hate to make the same ones again in the future because I didn't even notice it was there. You never learn that way.
 
This was an alright read, I think it's most major shortcoming is the fact that the match just isn't that interesting from an outside perspective. I'd also like to see you explore your writing style a bit. Let your personality come through a bit more. I was liking what I was seeing from all of the "coolguy" comments. =)
 

November Blue

A universe where hot chips don't exist :(
is a Contributor Alumnus
One big misplay I say was your Gliscor using Protect on turn 11. Excadrill can't really do anything to it, so using Sub or Toxic would have been a better choice, I think.

I haven't actually battled in 6th Gen yet, but I have to wonder... If Aegislash is a pivot, how useful is King's Shield?
 
This was an alright read, I think it's most major shortcoming is the fact that the match just isn't that interesting from an outside perspective. I'd also like to see you explore your writing style a bit. Let your personality come through a bit more. I was liking what I was seeing from all of the "coolguy" comments. =)
Oh, really? It seemed pretty interesting to me at the time, but then again I just dived into the competitive scene because of the new breeding mechanics, so I haven't experienced that many games, and most of them are boring steamrolls by one of the two teams. I also felt like I played that (minus my giant failure of an opening) a LOT better than most of my other games, which again probably just isn't interesting to someone who's used to seeing good matches on a regular basis.

Also, my personality wasn't coming through? I thought I was doing a good job in that regard to the fluff I added. Maybe it's just that I'm PAINFULLY analytical. So maybe that actually is my personality coming through. XD

One big misplay I say was your Gliscor using Protect on turn 11. Excadrill can't really do anything to it, so using Sub or Toxic would have been a better choice, I think.

I haven't actually battled in 6th Gen yet, but I have to wonder... If Aegislash is a pivot, how useful is King's Shield?
And yeah, I should probably take more advantage of the fact that Gliscor walls certain people and be more fearless when there's no way they can hurt me. I'm just always terrified of something coming out of nowhere and getting Super Effected into an early grave by something I didn't see coming. I don't know movesets and move pools yet, so I'm admittedly skittish in my matches.

I actually normally fling a Toxic at someone already poisoned or Steel types if they can't do anything to me and they don't have a Steel to switch into, I just never encountered Excadrill before. Now that I know that he is properly stonewalled, I'll be more comfortable around it in the future. Thanks for the tip, though.

As for Aegislash, I hadn't tested King's Shield on the mixed pivot version yet (switched to Goodra before getting a chance to test it, which was actually next on my agenda in fact!) so I wouldn't know. I only tested it on the set-up physical sweeper version before seeing Dragontamer's warstory and wanting to test UltiMario's build.
 
On at least 95% of these war stories, there's always at least a few comments critiquing the war story as boring. I write war stories, try to think up unique strategies, and am basically here to entertain. So would someone PLEASE tell me what their definition of "exciting" is.
 

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