This is a match that Maestrol55 (from SkarmBliss) and me (from Smogon) had on the Pokémon Online beta server (because Shoddy 1 doesn't do doubles, and Shoddy 2 isn't out yet). This was from before the VGC ladder there was implemented, so we were agreeing to the VGC'10 rules informally (while the server rather cutely gave us rating points for Ubers doubles); the [VGC] in our usernames was to let each other know the ruleset we wanted to play. Here were the rules being used this battle (spelling out the “nonstandard” ones in full, for those readers unaware of VGC rules):
I'm a little torn on where to post this; the warstories in the VGC subforum tend to be short summaries of games played at the actual VGC, rather than the sort of warstory we see here in Stark Mountain. This was an interesting game played on a simulator, instead, making this a more conventional warstory, so it's in Stark for the time being; if it's in the wrong place, feel free to move it. By the way, this battle was ages ago, but I've kept it hidden by now to avoid revealing Maestrol55's team before his actual VGC took place.
Formatting: comments are in italics. Pokémon's owners are described as in the in-game, by using “The foe's” for Maestrol55's Pokémon and moves. Colours represent move types, as in Pokémon Online normally.
My team:
I didn't know Maestrol55's team before the battle, so it will be given at the end.
Battle between [VGC] Maestrol55 and [VGC] CFJ started!
[VGC] CFJ sent out Bronzong!
[VGC] Maestrol55 sent out Shiftry!
[VGC] CFJ sent out Rayquaza!
[VGC] Maestrol55 sent out Groudon!
The foe's Groudon's Drought intensified the sun's rays!
I'm using my standard lead here. Rayquaza acts to protect Bronzong while it sets up, both by nullifying weather, and by serving as an apparently much more dangerous target. The opponent is using Shiftry and Groudon, an obvious Sun lead. This doesn't give away much about the rest of his team, though; in the VGC, it's rare to attempt to hold the weather situation past the leads, due to the number of weather-inducers that teams tend to run.
Shiftry is pretty obviously going to Fake something Out here, probably Bronzong as the main purpose of the move is to prevent me setting things up turn 1. Nevertheless, I select Trick Room on Bronzong, in case he surprises me by focusing on Rayquaza. Rayquaza selects Sword Dance; dancing up and attacking will do as much damage as attacking twice (and Ray will almost inevitably die on turn 2, his job as a distraction done), and can survive anything that Groudon might try, while definitely getting a move in next turn due to Groudon rarely running a priority move and Shiftry not being able to do much damage.
Start of turn 1
The foe's Shiftry used Fake Out!
It's not very effective...
Bronzong lost 10 HP! (6% of its health)
Rayquaza used Swords Dance!
Rayquaza's Attack sharply rose!
The foe's Groudon used Rock Slide!
It's super effective!
Rayquaza lost 92 HP! (50% of its health)
It's not very effective...
Bronzong lost 16 HP! (9% of its health)
Bronzong flinched!
The sunlight is strong!
My Rayquaza: 50%
My Bronzong: 91%
The foe's Groudon: 100%
The foe's Shiftry: 100%
That went pretty much as planned; not the ideal start for me, but an acceptable one. Rayquaza is now set up, and an SDRay is likely to draw hits from the opponent; it can live as a sacrifice to let Bronzong set up its Trick Room. I choose to weaken Groudon; Shiftry is faster than me (even with Air Lock suppressing the sun suppressing Chlorophyll), and Groudon is slower, but more importantly, Groudon can take an Explosion from Bronzong unless weakened and Shiftry can't (although it's probably Sashed). I'll want to take them both out with an Explosion in the next two turns, and Rayquaza won't survive the inevitable repeat Rock Slide. (Incidentally, I didn't have Protect on Rayquaza this game; if I did, I probably would have used it.) So Trick Room from Bronzong, ExtremeSpeed from Rayquaza, and then I'll be able to set up (the opponents won't be able to kill Bronzong quickly) and hopefully sweep the enemy team with Explosion.
Start of turn 2
The foe's Shiftry used Sucker Punch!
Rayquaza lost 70 HP! (38% of its health)
Rayquaza used ExtremeSpeed!
The foe's Groudon lost 48% of its health!
The foe's Groudon used Rock Slide!
It's super effective!
Rayquaza lost 20 HP! (10% of its health)
Rayquaza fainted!
It's not very effective...
Bronzong lost 21 HP! (12% of its health)
Bronzong flinched!
The sunlight is strong!
My Rayquaza: finished by Rock Slide
My Bronzong: 79%
The foe's Groudon: 52%
The foe's Shiftry: 100%
Ouch. VGC is an incredibly hax-heavy metagame, both because there are twice as many moves going off each turn, and because many commonly used moves, like the Rock Slide seen here, have decent chances for hax. Rock Slide is actually more likely to flinch at least one opponent than it is to fail to flinch either if the Rock Slider goes first, but that didn't happen here. At least both opponents are in Explosion range, but I'm going to have trouble getting set up in time.
I need to take risks in order to turn this match back around. This team relies on setting up both Trick Room and Imprison in order to prevent most Pokémon blocking my Explosions (with most of the other moves there to hit Steels and Ghosts; Rocks are almost completely absent in VGC), but I'm not going to have time to set both of them up now. (Incidentally, such a strategy would be an extreme gimmick in any other game, but VGC is so centralised that Imprison is almost a common strategy, although it's more commonly seen on Dusknoir or Azelf than on Bronzong.) Due to moves like Sucker Punch, and the chance of priority moves on the unrevealed Pokémon (which are very common in VGC), setting up Trick Room isn't “free” due to reversing the move order like it normally would be in OU; and because Protect is so common, I probably won't be able to blow up both enemies without Imprison being active, so I decide that Imprison is the higher priority here.
First, I have to send out a Pokémon. Under the circumstances, it seems a lot more sensible to send out Metagross, who can Explode, than Giratina-O who can't; besides, Giratina-O is my clean-up sweeper, and there isn't much to be able to clean up yet. Metagross also has a habit of baiting Protects, giving me more time to set up. So I send out Metagross, and click Earthquake to break Shiftry's sash (and because none of my moves hit Groudon well, and EQ at least hits it neutrally), and Imprison to let me blow up both enemies next turn. I'll be taking more damage than normal, and be easier to disrupt, than if I was set up, but I need to be flexible with the setup in a situation like this.
[VGC] CFJ sent out Metagross!
Start of turn 3
The foe's Groudon used Protect!
The foe's Groudon protected itself!
The foe's Shiftry used Sucker Punch!
But it failed!
Metagross used Earthquake!
It's not very effective...
The foe's Shiftry lost 29% of its health!
It had no effect!
The foe's Groudon protected itself!
Bronzong used Imprison!
Bronzong sealed the opponent's move(s)!
The sunlight is strong!
My Metagross: 100%
My Bronzong: 79%
The foe's Groudon: 23%
The foe's Shiftry: 100%
That couldn't have gone much better. Although Bronzong is now quite vulnerable due to the sun being fully active now, it can easily survive a Fire Punch or Eruption from Groudon, and I'm guessing Shiftry isn't carrying any Fire moves (and amusingly, can't Explode due to Imprison, although that wasn't on my mind when I used it), so it should be able to last a bit longer, at least against these opponents. Metagross, on the other hand, is less lucky; it probably can't survive long enough to pull off more than one move against these opponents (Shiftry won't be able to do massive damage to it but can wear it down with a neutral Sucker Punch; Groudon almost certainly can hurt it with STAB Earthquakes or an effectively-STAB Fire move, although I only fear the first due to my Occa Berry). It's also possible that the opponent will Earthquake on the chance that Bronzong is Fireproof, which is a much more sensible option in VGC than in OU, although Levitate is probably still better (and the nature that my Bronzong in fact runs).
Thus, I'm pretty sure that Explosion is the best move, but this leaves the choice of what to do with Bronzong, and I'm still not sure I picked the right move here. I could set up Trick Room and take the Explosion (Bronzong takes about 50% from my Metagross's Explosion, due to being very bulky and resisting Normal), but then I'd be very low on health and in danger of being finished by pretty much any priority move, not to mention the chance that it takes further damage this turn (the opponent is almost certainly predicting Metagross to Explode this turn, it's pretty obvious). So instead, I decide to Protect with Bronzong, to leave it on enough health to hopefully be able to blow up on both his unseen Pokémon next turn, giving me the win, even though it will have to go last.
Start of turn 4
Bronzong used Protect!
Bronzong protected itself!
The foe's Shiftry used Sucker Punch!
Bronzong protected itself!
Metagross used Explosion!
The foe's Shiftry lost 70% of its health!
The foe's Shiftry fainted!
Bronzong protected itself!
A critical hit!
The foe's Groudon lost 51% of its health!
The foe's Groudon fainted!
Metagross fainted!
The sunlight is strong!
My Metagross: died to Explosion recoil
My Bronzong: 79%
The foe's Groudon: died to Explosion
The foe's Shiftry: died to Explosion
Pretty much entirely as expected. Both players have 2 Pokémon left, so it's time just to send them all out.
[VGC] Maestrol55 sent out Ho-Oh!
[VGC] CFJ sent out Giratina-O!
[VGC] Maestrol55 sent out Cresselia!
The foe's Ho-Oh is exerting its Pressure!
My Giratina-O: 100%
My Bronzong: 79%
The foe's Ho-Oh: 100%
The foe's Cresselia: 100%
Not an ideal pair of Pokémon for me to face. Cresselia is bulky enough to survive the (relatively weak) Explosions that Bronzong can manage; Ho-Oh is a Fire-type physical sweeper, and will be able to do insane super-effective damage to my specially defensive Bronzong in the Sun. Because I don't have Trick Room set up, Bronzong is definitely going to die to Ho-Oh pretty much what it does, before it gets a move; I could try to repeat Protect, but I wouldn't gain much, so instead I just try to set up Trick Room on the offchance that the opponent doesn't target it, or the tiny chance that Sacred Fire misses. As for Giratina-O's turn, it's a much higher priority to kill the Ho-Oh than it is to kill the Cresselia, because the Ho-Oh will be able to kill me much faster (whereas Cresselia is nearly always seen as a support Pokémon in VGC, using moves like Icy Wind and Helping Hand, and thus is unlikely to be able to kill me directly.) My most powerful moves against Ho-Oh are Shadow Force and Outrage, which are both equally powerful; if I use Shadow Force I lose if it knows Substitute (and Ho-Oh often does in the VGC), but if I use Outrage I lose if I'm unlucky with Outrage targeting, or the opponent pulls tricks with Protect and I end up confused, or a mix of both. I decide that if the Ho-Oh knows Substitute I've lost anyway, and proceed to Shadow Force it.
Start of turn 5
Giratina-O vanished instantly!
The foe's Ho-Oh used Sacred Fire!
It's super effective!
Bronzong lost 115 HP! (70% of its health)
Bronzong fainted!
The foe's Cresselia used Icy Wind!
Giratina-O avoided the attack!
The sunlight is strong!
My Giratina-O: 100% and instantly vanished
My Bronzong: fainted to Sacred Fire
The foe's Ho-Oh: 100%
The foe's Cresselia: 100%
No choices to make this turn, I'm locked in. Time to see what the opponent does.
Start of turn 6
The foe's Cresselia used Helping Hand!
The foe's Cresselia is ready to help the foe's Ho-Oh!
Giratina-O used Shadow Force!
The foe's Ho-Oh lost 66% of its health!
The foe's Ho-Oh used Brave Bird!
Giratina-O lost 181 HP! (71% of its health)
The foe's Ho-Oh is hit with recoil! [note: Pokémon Online doesn't show the recoil amount, but it must have been 29% based on the rest of the log]
The sunlight is strong!
My Giratina-O: 29%
The foe's Ho-Oh: 5%
The foe's Cresselia: 100%
Giratina-O's bulk pulls through for me here, surviving a Helping Hand Brave Bird and almost KOing the Ho-Oh through Shadow Force and Brave Bird recoil. There's pretty much only one chance for me here; Ho-Oh outspeeds and can finish me from here, so I'm going to have to priority it to death to avoid losing instantly.
Start of turn 7
Giratina-O used Shadow Sneak!
The foe's Ho-Oh lost 5% of its health!
The foe's Ho-Oh fainted!
The foe's Cresselia used Icy Wind!
It's super effective!
Giratina-O lost 36 HP! (14% of its health)
Giratina-O's Speed fell!
The sunlight is strong!
My Giratina-O: 13% (= 35 HP)
The foe's Ho-Oh: finished by Shadow Sneak
The foe's Cresselia: 100%
It's all down to my heavily injured Giratina-O versus the fully healthy enemy Cresselia. Looking at my health this turn and last turn, I see that it took off just more than half of my HP; and worse, it's probably going first because my Giratina-O has a bulky rather than fast build, and it's just been slowed by Icy Wind. There's no way I can OHKO something as bulky as Cresselia with Shadow Sneak, so all I can do is click Shadow Force and hope that the damage RNG chooses to favour me this turn.
Start of turn 8
The foe's Cresselia used Icy Wind!
It's super effective!
Giratina-O lost 34 HP! (13% of its health)
Giratina-O's Speed fell!
Giratina-O vanished instantly!
The sunlight is strong!
[VGC] CFJ: wow, I'm on 1hp
[VGC] Maestrol55: 0.0
My Giratina-O: 1hp, and vanished instantly
The foe's Cresselia: 100%
Pretty much all a formality from here; damage calculation shines on me, and Giratina-O just pulls through with 1hp. This match could easily have gone either way, and can be considered more or less a draw, but from here, I've probably won. Still, I could be stopped by the Cresselia's item; if it has a Kasib Berry (which is pretty unlikely, but not impossible), I've lost, short of an Icy Wind miss (which I suspect is Cresselia's only attacking move); and if it has a Sitrus Berry (considerably more possible, because it tends to be better than Leftovers in the short matches you get in a VGC), I have no idea if I can do enough damage to finish it with Shadow Force + Shadow Sneak. There are a few other random things that could let it beat me, like Sandstorm (perhaps it knows it to deal with Shedinja?), but they're too unlikely to bother about now. So time to see what its item is, and if it can beat me like that.
Start of turn 9
The foe's Cresselia used Icy Wind!
Giratina-O avoided the attack!
Giratina-O used Shadow Force!
It's super effective!
[VGC] CFJ: you did more damage the turn before than that turn, I thought I'd lost
The foe's Cresselia lost 93% of its health!
The sunlight is strong!
The foe's Cresselia restored a little HP using its Leftovers!
My Giratina-O: 1hp
The foe's Cresselia: 13%
Luckily, it turns out to have Leftovers. If it had had Sitrus Berry, then it would be on 31% now, almost exactly the damage that Shadow Sneak would do (based on the damage that Shadow Force just did), and it'd all be down to damage variation again. As it is, though, I can just Shadow Sneak it to death...
Start of turn 10
Giratina-O used Shadow Sneak!
It's super effective!
The foe's Cresselia lost 12% of its health!
The foe's Cresselia fainted!
[VGC] CFJ won the battle!
[VGC] CFJ: gg
[VGC] Maestrol55: RATS! Darn it.
[VGC] CFJ: that battle could make a good warstory, I suppose
[VGC] Maestrol55: VERY GOOD GAME
[snip discussion about warstorying, identities of users, permission to post warstory, etc.; I agree to keep Maestrol55's team, and thus this warstory, secret until after he's participated in his VGC qualifier, when it'll become public knowledge if he does well]
My Giratina-O: 1hp
The foe's Cresselia: falls to Shadow Sneak
And that's the end of the warstory! Giratina-O finishes the bulky Cresselia, and lives to celebrate its victory by only a hitpoint.
Maestrol55's team was:
Props:
- Only 4 Pokémon allowed per team
- Only 2 Ubers allowed per team (the VGC ubers list is slightly different from the Smogon list; the non-event ubers on it are Mewtwo, Ho-oh, Lugia, Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina[-O])
- Double Battle (two Pokémon are sent out at a time, rather than 1)
- Event Clause for Pokémon (i.e. Mew, Celebi, Deoxys (all formes), Jirachi, Shaymin, Phione (lol), Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin[-S], Arceus are banned); event berries are allowed
- Soul Dew Clause
- Item Clause (no two Pokémon on a team may hold the same item)
- Species Clause
- Strict Self-KO Clause (if all remaining Pokémon die as a result of any move, item, or ability, other than weather, the owner of that move, item or ability loses; one notable difference from the standard self-KO clause is that you lose if you die to your own LO recoil. I haven't got a clue what happens if the last Pokémon dies to Rough Skin or Aftermath...)
- Flat Battle Clause (a Pokémon's stats are calculated at level 50 (or, at the choice of its owner, a lower level), which is why the damages shown here are much lower than you might expect; but they are allowed to have moves, evolutions, etc. that are impossible at level 50)
I'm a little torn on where to post this; the warstories in the VGC subforum tend to be short summaries of games played at the actual VGC, rather than the sort of warstory we see here in Stark Mountain. This was an interesting game played on a simulator, instead, making this a more conventional warstory, so it's in Stark for the time being; if it's in the wrong place, feel free to move it. By the way, this battle was ages ago, but I've kept it hidden by now to avoid revealing Maestrol55's team before his actual VGC took place.
Formatting: comments are in italics. Pokémon's owners are described as in the in-game, by using “The foe's” for Maestrol55's Pokémon and moves. Colours represent move types, as in Pokémon Online normally.
My team:
I didn't know Maestrol55's team before the battle, so it will be given at the end.
Battle between [VGC] Maestrol55 and [VGC] CFJ started!
[VGC] CFJ sent out Bronzong!
[VGC] Maestrol55 sent out Shiftry!
[VGC] CFJ sent out Rayquaza!
[VGC] Maestrol55 sent out Groudon!
The foe's Groudon's Drought intensified the sun's rays!
I'm using my standard lead here. Rayquaza acts to protect Bronzong while it sets up, both by nullifying weather, and by serving as an apparently much more dangerous target. The opponent is using Shiftry and Groudon, an obvious Sun lead. This doesn't give away much about the rest of his team, though; in the VGC, it's rare to attempt to hold the weather situation past the leads, due to the number of weather-inducers that teams tend to run.
Shiftry is pretty obviously going to Fake something Out here, probably Bronzong as the main purpose of the move is to prevent me setting things up turn 1. Nevertheless, I select Trick Room on Bronzong, in case he surprises me by focusing on Rayquaza. Rayquaza selects Sword Dance; dancing up and attacking will do as much damage as attacking twice (and Ray will almost inevitably die on turn 2, his job as a distraction done), and can survive anything that Groudon might try, while definitely getting a move in next turn due to Groudon rarely running a priority move and Shiftry not being able to do much damage.
Start of turn 1
The foe's Shiftry used Fake Out!
It's not very effective...
Bronzong lost 10 HP! (6% of its health)
Rayquaza used Swords Dance!
Rayquaza's Attack sharply rose!
The foe's Groudon used Rock Slide!
It's super effective!
Rayquaza lost 92 HP! (50% of its health)
It's not very effective...
Bronzong lost 16 HP! (9% of its health)
Bronzong flinched!
The sunlight is strong!
My Rayquaza: 50%
My Bronzong: 91%
The foe's Groudon: 100%
The foe's Shiftry: 100%
That went pretty much as planned; not the ideal start for me, but an acceptable one. Rayquaza is now set up, and an SDRay is likely to draw hits from the opponent; it can live as a sacrifice to let Bronzong set up its Trick Room. I choose to weaken Groudon; Shiftry is faster than me (even with Air Lock suppressing the sun suppressing Chlorophyll), and Groudon is slower, but more importantly, Groudon can take an Explosion from Bronzong unless weakened and Shiftry can't (although it's probably Sashed). I'll want to take them both out with an Explosion in the next two turns, and Rayquaza won't survive the inevitable repeat Rock Slide. (Incidentally, I didn't have Protect on Rayquaza this game; if I did, I probably would have used it.) So Trick Room from Bronzong, ExtremeSpeed from Rayquaza, and then I'll be able to set up (the opponents won't be able to kill Bronzong quickly) and hopefully sweep the enemy team with Explosion.
Start of turn 2
The foe's Shiftry used Sucker Punch!
Rayquaza lost 70 HP! (38% of its health)
Rayquaza used ExtremeSpeed!
The foe's Groudon lost 48% of its health!
The foe's Groudon used Rock Slide!
It's super effective!
Rayquaza lost 20 HP! (10% of its health)
Rayquaza fainted!
It's not very effective...
Bronzong lost 21 HP! (12% of its health)
Bronzong flinched!
The sunlight is strong!
My Rayquaza: finished by Rock Slide
My Bronzong: 79%
The foe's Groudon: 52%
The foe's Shiftry: 100%
Ouch. VGC is an incredibly hax-heavy metagame, both because there are twice as many moves going off each turn, and because many commonly used moves, like the Rock Slide seen here, have decent chances for hax. Rock Slide is actually more likely to flinch at least one opponent than it is to fail to flinch either if the Rock Slider goes first, but that didn't happen here. At least both opponents are in Explosion range, but I'm going to have trouble getting set up in time.
I need to take risks in order to turn this match back around. This team relies on setting up both Trick Room and Imprison in order to prevent most Pokémon blocking my Explosions (with most of the other moves there to hit Steels and Ghosts; Rocks are almost completely absent in VGC), but I'm not going to have time to set both of them up now. (Incidentally, such a strategy would be an extreme gimmick in any other game, but VGC is so centralised that Imprison is almost a common strategy, although it's more commonly seen on Dusknoir or Azelf than on Bronzong.) Due to moves like Sucker Punch, and the chance of priority moves on the unrevealed Pokémon (which are very common in VGC), setting up Trick Room isn't “free” due to reversing the move order like it normally would be in OU; and because Protect is so common, I probably won't be able to blow up both enemies without Imprison being active, so I decide that Imprison is the higher priority here.
First, I have to send out a Pokémon. Under the circumstances, it seems a lot more sensible to send out Metagross, who can Explode, than Giratina-O who can't; besides, Giratina-O is my clean-up sweeper, and there isn't much to be able to clean up yet. Metagross also has a habit of baiting Protects, giving me more time to set up. So I send out Metagross, and click Earthquake to break Shiftry's sash (and because none of my moves hit Groudon well, and EQ at least hits it neutrally), and Imprison to let me blow up both enemies next turn. I'll be taking more damage than normal, and be easier to disrupt, than if I was set up, but I need to be flexible with the setup in a situation like this.
[VGC] CFJ sent out Metagross!
Start of turn 3
The foe's Groudon used Protect!
The foe's Groudon protected itself!
The foe's Shiftry used Sucker Punch!
But it failed!
Metagross used Earthquake!
It's not very effective...
The foe's Shiftry lost 29% of its health!
It had no effect!
The foe's Groudon protected itself!
Bronzong used Imprison!
Bronzong sealed the opponent's move(s)!
The sunlight is strong!
My Metagross: 100%
My Bronzong: 79%
The foe's Groudon: 23%
The foe's Shiftry: 100%
That couldn't have gone much better. Although Bronzong is now quite vulnerable due to the sun being fully active now, it can easily survive a Fire Punch or Eruption from Groudon, and I'm guessing Shiftry isn't carrying any Fire moves (and amusingly, can't Explode due to Imprison, although that wasn't on my mind when I used it), so it should be able to last a bit longer, at least against these opponents. Metagross, on the other hand, is less lucky; it probably can't survive long enough to pull off more than one move against these opponents (Shiftry won't be able to do massive damage to it but can wear it down with a neutral Sucker Punch; Groudon almost certainly can hurt it with STAB Earthquakes or an effectively-STAB Fire move, although I only fear the first due to my Occa Berry). It's also possible that the opponent will Earthquake on the chance that Bronzong is Fireproof, which is a much more sensible option in VGC than in OU, although Levitate is probably still better (and the nature that my Bronzong in fact runs).
Thus, I'm pretty sure that Explosion is the best move, but this leaves the choice of what to do with Bronzong, and I'm still not sure I picked the right move here. I could set up Trick Room and take the Explosion (Bronzong takes about 50% from my Metagross's Explosion, due to being very bulky and resisting Normal), but then I'd be very low on health and in danger of being finished by pretty much any priority move, not to mention the chance that it takes further damage this turn (the opponent is almost certainly predicting Metagross to Explode this turn, it's pretty obvious). So instead, I decide to Protect with Bronzong, to leave it on enough health to hopefully be able to blow up on both his unseen Pokémon next turn, giving me the win, even though it will have to go last.
Start of turn 4
Bronzong used Protect!
Bronzong protected itself!
The foe's Shiftry used Sucker Punch!
Bronzong protected itself!
Metagross used Explosion!
The foe's Shiftry lost 70% of its health!
The foe's Shiftry fainted!
Bronzong protected itself!
A critical hit!
The foe's Groudon lost 51% of its health!
The foe's Groudon fainted!
Metagross fainted!
The sunlight is strong!
My Metagross: died to Explosion recoil
My Bronzong: 79%
The foe's Groudon: died to Explosion
The foe's Shiftry: died to Explosion
Pretty much entirely as expected. Both players have 2 Pokémon left, so it's time just to send them all out.
[VGC] Maestrol55 sent out Ho-Oh!
[VGC] CFJ sent out Giratina-O!
[VGC] Maestrol55 sent out Cresselia!
The foe's Ho-Oh is exerting its Pressure!
My Giratina-O: 100%
My Bronzong: 79%
The foe's Ho-Oh: 100%
The foe's Cresselia: 100%
Not an ideal pair of Pokémon for me to face. Cresselia is bulky enough to survive the (relatively weak) Explosions that Bronzong can manage; Ho-Oh is a Fire-type physical sweeper, and will be able to do insane super-effective damage to my specially defensive Bronzong in the Sun. Because I don't have Trick Room set up, Bronzong is definitely going to die to Ho-Oh pretty much what it does, before it gets a move; I could try to repeat Protect, but I wouldn't gain much, so instead I just try to set up Trick Room on the offchance that the opponent doesn't target it, or the tiny chance that Sacred Fire misses. As for Giratina-O's turn, it's a much higher priority to kill the Ho-Oh than it is to kill the Cresselia, because the Ho-Oh will be able to kill me much faster (whereas Cresselia is nearly always seen as a support Pokémon in VGC, using moves like Icy Wind and Helping Hand, and thus is unlikely to be able to kill me directly.) My most powerful moves against Ho-Oh are Shadow Force and Outrage, which are both equally powerful; if I use Shadow Force I lose if it knows Substitute (and Ho-Oh often does in the VGC), but if I use Outrage I lose if I'm unlucky with Outrage targeting, or the opponent pulls tricks with Protect and I end up confused, or a mix of both. I decide that if the Ho-Oh knows Substitute I've lost anyway, and proceed to Shadow Force it.
Start of turn 5
Giratina-O vanished instantly!
The foe's Ho-Oh used Sacred Fire!
It's super effective!
Bronzong lost 115 HP! (70% of its health)
Bronzong fainted!
The foe's Cresselia used Icy Wind!
Giratina-O avoided the attack!
The sunlight is strong!
My Giratina-O: 100% and instantly vanished
My Bronzong: fainted to Sacred Fire
The foe's Ho-Oh: 100%
The foe's Cresselia: 100%
No choices to make this turn, I'm locked in. Time to see what the opponent does.
Start of turn 6
The foe's Cresselia used Helping Hand!
The foe's Cresselia is ready to help the foe's Ho-Oh!
Giratina-O used Shadow Force!
The foe's Ho-Oh lost 66% of its health!
The foe's Ho-Oh used Brave Bird!
Giratina-O lost 181 HP! (71% of its health)
The foe's Ho-Oh is hit with recoil! [note: Pokémon Online doesn't show the recoil amount, but it must have been 29% based on the rest of the log]
The sunlight is strong!
My Giratina-O: 29%
The foe's Ho-Oh: 5%
The foe's Cresselia: 100%
Giratina-O's bulk pulls through for me here, surviving a Helping Hand Brave Bird and almost KOing the Ho-Oh through Shadow Force and Brave Bird recoil. There's pretty much only one chance for me here; Ho-Oh outspeeds and can finish me from here, so I'm going to have to priority it to death to avoid losing instantly.
Start of turn 7
Giratina-O used Shadow Sneak!
The foe's Ho-Oh lost 5% of its health!
The foe's Ho-Oh fainted!
The foe's Cresselia used Icy Wind!
It's super effective!
Giratina-O lost 36 HP! (14% of its health)
Giratina-O's Speed fell!
The sunlight is strong!
My Giratina-O: 13% (= 35 HP)
The foe's Ho-Oh: finished by Shadow Sneak
The foe's Cresselia: 100%
It's all down to my heavily injured Giratina-O versus the fully healthy enemy Cresselia. Looking at my health this turn and last turn, I see that it took off just more than half of my HP; and worse, it's probably going first because my Giratina-O has a bulky rather than fast build, and it's just been slowed by Icy Wind. There's no way I can OHKO something as bulky as Cresselia with Shadow Sneak, so all I can do is click Shadow Force and hope that the damage RNG chooses to favour me this turn.
Start of turn 8
The foe's Cresselia used Icy Wind!
It's super effective!
Giratina-O lost 34 HP! (13% of its health)
Giratina-O's Speed fell!
Giratina-O vanished instantly!
The sunlight is strong!
[VGC] CFJ: wow, I'm on 1hp
[VGC] Maestrol55: 0.0
My Giratina-O: 1hp, and vanished instantly
The foe's Cresselia: 100%
Pretty much all a formality from here; damage calculation shines on me, and Giratina-O just pulls through with 1hp. This match could easily have gone either way, and can be considered more or less a draw, but from here, I've probably won. Still, I could be stopped by the Cresselia's item; if it has a Kasib Berry (which is pretty unlikely, but not impossible), I've lost, short of an Icy Wind miss (which I suspect is Cresselia's only attacking move); and if it has a Sitrus Berry (considerably more possible, because it tends to be better than Leftovers in the short matches you get in a VGC), I have no idea if I can do enough damage to finish it with Shadow Force + Shadow Sneak. There are a few other random things that could let it beat me, like Sandstorm (perhaps it knows it to deal with Shedinja?), but they're too unlikely to bother about now. So time to see what its item is, and if it can beat me like that.
Start of turn 9
The foe's Cresselia used Icy Wind!
Giratina-O avoided the attack!
Giratina-O used Shadow Force!
It's super effective!
[VGC] CFJ: you did more damage the turn before than that turn, I thought I'd lost
The foe's Cresselia lost 93% of its health!
The sunlight is strong!
The foe's Cresselia restored a little HP using its Leftovers!
My Giratina-O: 1hp
The foe's Cresselia: 13%
Luckily, it turns out to have Leftovers. If it had had Sitrus Berry, then it would be on 31% now, almost exactly the damage that Shadow Sneak would do (based on the damage that Shadow Force just did), and it'd all be down to damage variation again. As it is, though, I can just Shadow Sneak it to death...
Start of turn 10
Giratina-O used Shadow Sneak!
It's super effective!
The foe's Cresselia lost 12% of its health!
The foe's Cresselia fainted!
[VGC] CFJ won the battle!
[VGC] CFJ: gg
[VGC] Maestrol55: RATS! Darn it.
[VGC] CFJ: that battle could make a good warstory, I suppose
[VGC] Maestrol55: VERY GOOD GAME
[snip discussion about warstorying, identities of users, permission to post warstory, etc.; I agree to keep Maestrol55's team, and thus this warstory, secret until after he's participated in his VGC qualifier, when it'll become public knowledge if he does well]
My Giratina-O: 1hp
The foe's Cresselia: falls to Shadow Sneak
And that's the end of the warstory! Giratina-O finishes the bulky Cresselia, and lives to celebrate its victory by only a hitpoint.
Maestrol55's team was:
Props:
- Giratina-O, for being bulky enough to survive two Pokémon with luck from damage calculations, and powerful enough to kill them anyway
- Maestrol55's Groudon and Ho-Oh, for keeping Sun up all game, preventing my setup, and threatening my Steel-heavy team
- Relatively hax-free for a VGC game (if you think this game looks haxy, just watch random VGC games and you'll see vital crits and flinches and secondary effects every few seconds)
- My Bronzong, for being too slow to set up everything I needed in time
- Maestrol55's Shiftry, for being reduced to doing nothing but trying to Sucker Punch Pokémon that weren't attacking anyway
- The VGC ruleset for making most matches more full of hax than prediction, making it hard to warstory them, and making some very weird clause decisions
