Dragons, Dinos, and Donkeys (I mean ponies): an OU Warstory

Hey everyone, this is KIDOGO and CTC bringing you an OU warstory! This was a very close and enjoyable match we had recently on PS’s OU ladder that we wanted to share with you. Remember to comment, give your thoughts, and luvdisc it! :D On to the battle!

KIDOGO’s comments will be in BLUE
CTC’s comments will be in GREEN

Kidogo joined.
Ctc random joined.
Format: OU
Rated battle
Rule: Sleep Clause
Rule: Species Clause
Rule: OHKO Clause
Rule: Moody Clause
Rule: Evasion Clause
Kidogo's team:

Ctc random's team:

tickle my fancy joined.
BazAnderson joined.
BazAnderson left.
tickle my fancy left.

Well, starting out the battle and I have mixed feelings about his team. It’s clearly sand offense, which is usually pretty good to face with my rain semi-stall team. However, my opponent seems to have just about every sand offense threat that troubles my team on his team—terrakion, latios, and genesect especially. My team is pretty slow, so I can tell his fast sweepers will be troubling—my scarf latios will probably be valuable this game. Anyway, I want to get rocks up as soon as possible since he has no spinner, so my lead is rachi.

Looking at his team, my biggest concern is that tentacruel. It would spin away my hazards keeping celebi and jirachi at high health and unable to be ohko’d by my rp genesect, and it was also virtually impervious to anything genesect could do to it. Therefore, my gameplan is to abuse my fatchomp’s skin problems alongside its helmet to wear it down. Moreover, Jirachi and celebi needed to be weakened for either terrakion or genesect to sweep, and the set up duo do a great job at softening each other’s checks.

Battle between Kidogo and Ctc random started!
Kidogo sent out Jirachi!
Ctc random sent out Garchomp!

(100%)
(100%)

This is not a favorable match-up for me. As I have max hp and some def investment, I can probably take an eq to set up rocks, but it would mean basically sacking rachi. I also have no hope of surviving if it’s band or LO. Still…the fact that he led with it suggests that maybe it’s a SRer, and few players would leave rachi in on chomp so he’ll probably go for the rocks. Given this, I’ll just set up my own rocks now.

I thought I had a pretty good lead matchup, as most jirachi would straight up switch out unless chomp looks like the only possible sr user, and I had tyranitar and terrakion. However, Kidogo is REAL as hell and reads my move, while laying down the ever so important rocks.

Turn 1
Kidogo: gl
The foe's Garchomp used Stealth Rock!
Pointed stones float in the air around your team!
Jirachi used Stealth Rock!
Pointed stones float in the air around the foe's team!
(100%), SR
(100%), SR

Phew, glad that worked. I need to switch now, although I’m not sure who to. Truth be told, this team dates back to before the garchomp unbanning, so I don’t have a great counter—my celebi is physically defensive with hp ice though, so it’s a good check.

At this point I know for a fact that he’s gonna switch out, as that seemed to be the standard special d. jirachi. Without having to predict, I click dragon tail to rack up hazard damage.

Turn 2
Kidogo called Jirachi back!
Kidogo sent out Celebi!
Pointed stones dug into Celebi!
The foe's Garchomp used Dragon Tail!
Celebi lost 15% of its health!
Jirachi was dragged out!
Pointed stones dug into Jirachi!
Jirachi restored HP using its Leftovers!
(100%) -->
(73%) -->
(100%)
, SR
(100%), SR


Ahh…dragon tail…makes sense on a lead set. Still, he’ll probably eq sooner or later and I don’t want rachi weakened, so let’s try celebi again.

I have the advantage once again, but I fear that he may fish for the iron head flinch. However, I’m sure he knows he could potentially flinch me and stop the dragontail, but the risk of me going for earthquake outweighed the 12% he could saved on a poke. Even if he decides to iron head, he’ll be taking a hefty 30% while I laugh off an unboosted and uninvested hit.

Turn 3
Kidogo called Jirachi back!
Kidogo sent out Celebi!
Pointed stones dug into Celebi!
The foe's Garchomp used Dragon Tail!
The attack of the foe's Garchomp missed!
Celebi restored HP using its Leftovers!
(100%) -->
(67%), SR

(100%), SR


That was lucky for me, but I don’t think it makes much of a difference in the long run. I’m not sure what he’s going to do here, but I have three options: hp ice, recover, and baton pass. He doesn’t know that I have hp ice, so he may stay in with chomp. Then again, he also may switch, to either genesect or ttar probably, in which case baton pass is the best option. Baton pass would be terrible if he chooses to use dragon tail again though, and hp ice would be just as bad against ttar or sect. So for now I’ll just use recover, to see what he does and make sure celebi can come in on chomp again.

The miss is unfortunate, but I get an opportunity to bring in tar to change weather. If he uturns to set up rain, 2 things will happen: 1) Celebi will be weakened 2)Tentacruel will likely come out to spin soon

Turn 4
Ctc random called Garchomp back!
Ctc random sent out Tyranitar!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Tyranitar!
The foe's Tyranitar's Sand Stream whipped up a sandstorm!
Celebi used Recover!
Celebi regained health!
The sandstorm rages.
Celebi is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Celebi restored HP using its Leftovers!
(100%), SR

(100%)
-->
(87%), SR


Turns out baton pass would have been the better option here, but I’m happy with recover. Seeing no lefties and knowing he has SR on chomp, I’m feeling a choice set here, most likely banded. Baton pass is a great tool here to escape pursuit, although I’m not sure who to pass to—I lack a dark resist and even unboosted pursuit will hurt if it’s banded. I decided to go to rachi, since he’s already set up rocks and can take a hit while forcing tar out.

So he decides to stay healthy for later, which means that Kidogo most likely has baton pass on his celebi. I decide to pursuit on the off chance that he messed up and had uturn instead, and because I don’t want to overpredict early game.

Turn 5
Celebi used Baton Pass!
Kidogo called Celebi back!
Kidogo sent out Jirachi!
Pointed stones dug into Jirachi!
The foe's Tyranitar used Pursuit!
Jirachi lost 27% of its health!
The sandstorm rages.
Jirachi restored HP using its Leftovers!
(100%)
-->
(73%), SR

(87%), SR


The turn goes as expected, and the damage he does confirms that it is indeed banded. I’m expecting him to go to chomp here, so I’ll double switch to politoed to get the rain up and get an advantageous match-up.

I lose a bit of momentum, as he will most likely uturn here. I decide to switch in chomp to punish him for using a weak uturn to gain switch advantage, at the same time scouting his set for body slam.

Turn 6
Kidogo called Jirachi back!
Kidogo sent out Politoed!
Pointed stones dug into Politoed!
Politoed's Drizzle made it rain!
Ctc random called Tyranitar back!
Ctc random sent out Garchomp!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Garchomp!
Politoed restored HP using its Leftovers!
(73%)
-->
(93%), SR

(87%)
-->
(93%), SR


My guess is that he’ll switch, since toed can take any of chomp’s attacks and possibly burn with scald. One of his water resists seems most likely, so I’ll go for the toxic, which makes both latios and keldeo much easier to deal with.

Turns out he didn’t want to take huge damage just for uturning, so he dry switches into toed to summon his weather. I decide to earthquake to weaken the likely physically bulky toed, as he can only scald or toxic to do any damage to me.

Turn 7
The foe's Garchomp used Earthquake!
Politoed lost 34% of its health!
Politoed used Toxic!
The foe's Garchomp was badly poisoned!
Politoed restored HP using its Leftovers!
The foe's Garchomp was hurt by poison!
(65%), SR

(87%, toxic), SR


So he stays in—I guess he thought it was worth potentially having chomp crippled to get some extra damage on toed. Now a protect would be the best option if he stays in, to get some lefties recovery and stall for poison, but I’m feeling very strongly that he’ll switch, so I’ll go for a scald.

I’m glad he didn’t burn me, as toxic won’t be as bad. Predicting the celebi or gastrodon, I double switch to genesect.

Turn 8
Ctc random called Garchomp back!
Ctc random sent out Genesect!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Genesect!
The foe's Genesect's Download raised its Special Attack!
Politoed used Scald!
A critical hit! The foe's Genesect lost 88% of its health!
The foe's Genesect fainted!
Politoed restored HP using its Leftovers!
Ctc random: ok
Ctc random sent out Moetios (Latios)!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Moetios!
(71%), SR

(87%, toxic)
-->
(fainted)
-->
(87%), SR


Well that worked…a little too well. To be fair though, if scald had burned I probably could have stalled the burn damage to kill him anyway, but that was lucky for me regardless. Latios…hmm. I want to scout its set first, since it can do serious damage to my team. I really would prefer it to be choiced though, since that means that once I protect I can switch to the appropriate counter as opposed to having to predict.

That crit certainly foiled my rp gene sweep, but that’s what I get for taking the risk and making a bad play. :c I send out latios baiting the jirachi so I can start dtailing, weakening his team for the new gameplan—terrakion sweep. In order to do that I need to start spamming dracos, but not before removing the metal doll on kidogo’s team.

Turn 9
Ctc random called Moetios back!
Ctc random sent out Garchomp!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Garchomp!
Politoed used Protect!
But it failed!
Politoed restored HP using its Leftovers!
The foe's Garchomp was hurt by poison!
Kidogo: sorry for that
(77%), SR

(87%),
-->
(74%, toxic), SR


I’m guessing he predicted me going to jirachi to take a DM, especially since many toed don’t run protect in order to get another utility move (refresh, encore, perish song, haze). There’s really little disadvantage for me to protecting again here, I stall for health and poison damage if he stays in and even if he switches, I have very little idea who he’ll be going to and don’t want to double switch.

Kidogo apologizes for OUTPLAYING ME HARD by going for the protect… facepalm….Jk it was for the scald crit. I do appreciate when players acknowledge crits and misses that matter. However, it’s part of the game. Back on topic, so once again it’s my garchomp facing his toed. I decide to switch to latios on the obvious protect and recover some health for free. If he goes for toxic or scald, he is risking 35%~ health on his weather starter which I doubt he would want.

Turn 10
Ctc random called Garchomp back!
Ctc random sent out Moetios (Latios)!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Moetios!
Politoed used Protect!
But it failed!
Politoed restored HP using its Leftovers!
(83%), SR

(74%, toxic)
-->
(75%), SR


So he goes back to latios. I’m very tempted to attack here, probably with toxic, since I feel he will probably do something other than outright attacking, but I’m still worried about a specs DM KOing my weather starter, so I’ll just protect once more (getting to be a pattern here, huh?) and if he uses anything other than DM I’ll know a bit more about his set. As a bonus, I’ve gotten almost all my health back by now.

Protect is the safest move for him to go for, so I recover for some free health.

Turn 11
Politoed used Protect!
Politoed protected itself!
The foe's Moetios used Recover!
The foe's Moetios regained health!
Politoed restored HP using its Leftovers!
(89%), SR

(100%), SR


Well, turns out I was right and I should have toxiced there. Nevertheless, I now know a lot more about his set—it’s not choiced and is most likely LO > ebelt or something, since those are the sets that tend to run recover the most. I’m almost certain a DM is incoming, so I’m going to rachi to take the meteors.

Here I’m in a dilemma. Is the double switch to garchomp to obvious? Should I just draco fishing for massive damage on everything that’s not jirachi? I look at jirachi’s remaining HP, which is 80ish percent, and figure out a way to take it out, enabling latios to unleash unresisted meteors.

Turn 12
Kidogo called Politoed back!
Kidogo sent out Jirachi!
Pointed stones dug into Jirachi!
The foe's Moetios used Draco Meteor!
It's not very effective... Jirachi lost 37% of its health!
The foe's Moetios's Special Attack harshly fell!
The foe's Moetios lost some of its HP!
Jirachi restored HP using its Leftovers!
(89%)
-->
(36%), SR

(90%), SR


Hmm, rachi’s at about 35% health now. Wish is probably the best move here—either he stays in and I get to heal rachi, or I pass the wish to whatever Pokémon counters his switch-in.

Delicious hit. 1 more draco will bring him within what I call suicide range. I’m praying to Charles Darwin that he isn’t packing both wish AND protect.

Turn 13
The foe's Moetios used Draco Meteor!
It's not very effective... Jirachi lost 17% of its health!
The foe's Moetios's Special Attack harshly fell!
The foe's Moetios lost some of its HP!
Jirachi used Wish!
Jirachi restored HP using its Leftovers!
(25%), SR

(80%), SR


I’m somewhat surprised that he stayed in here, as he’s not doing much and that was a somewhat amateurish move, but OK. I’m hoping he just made a mistake and that I’m not somehow falling into an unseen trap. I have two options here. My moveset is stealth rock, wish, thunder, and iron head. My first choice would be to use thunder on latios for that 60% paralysis, but he’s almost certainly going to chomp, so iron head is the better option. But wait. He has rough skin (bye bye SV) can rachi survive that? Yeah, I’m at 26%, I should be fine, rough skin only does 12%. Wait—what’s his item? No lefties, but I assume it’s yache berry or focus sash, right? Even if it’s that residual damage one—iron helmet or something, 12.5 + 12.5 = 25, so I should survive even that, right? Oh well, I’ll go for the iron head…

I’m really nervous right now. He hasn’t revealed protect yet and obviously wished on the predicted switch. He could go for the protect, and I would be able to do nothing but watch his health regenerate. He is most likely going to attack with body slam or iron head if he doesn’t have protect since I cant hurt him, and since most rain rachis have thunder I was hoping for the iron head. If he protects then garchomp still gives me momentum with dragon tail.

Turn 14
Ctc random called Moetios back!
Ctc random sent out Garchomp!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Garchomp!
Jirachi used Iron Head!
The foe's Garchomp lost 20% of its health!
Jirachi is hurt by the foe's Garchomp's Rough Skin!
Jirachi is hurt by the foe's Garchomp's Rocky Helmet!
Jirachi fainted!
The foe's Garchomp was hurt by poison!
Kidogo: oops
Kidogo sent out Celebi!
Pointed stones dug into Celebi!
(fainted)
-->
(88%), SR

(80%)
-->
(43%, toxic), SR


Just too late, it simultaneously occurs to me that the standard item on SRchomp is rocky helmet—and that its name is rocky—and that I vaguely recall it doing surprisingly more than 12.5% damage, which explains why CTC stayed in to chip away at rachi. And just as the thought occurs to me, I see rachi’s health abruptly fall to 0! Well, that was a huge mistake on my part. Rachi was ready to be healed to good health, but is now dead. Well, latios becomes a much bigger problem now, but I should hopefully be able to play around it. Anyway, out comes celebi to beat chomp. I have a feeling he won’t switch this time now that I’ve revealed recover and BP, so he’ll most likely go for the dtail. Accordingly, I’ll just hp ice to finish it.
Yes!!!! Rocky helmet is indeed a broken item in conjunction with rough skin. My plan worked out as Kidogo did not suspect the helmet. I leave chomp in on celebi because it can really maybe switch into 1 more attack. I use dragontail on the probable giga drain/ psychic to deal some damage, and on the off chance that he will thunderwave the latios switchin or leafstorm the tar.

Turn 15
Celebi used Hidden Power!
It's super effective! The foe's Garchomp lost 43% of its health!
The foe's Garchomp fainted!
Celebi restored HP using its Leftovers!
Ctc random sent out Tyranitar!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Tyranitar!
The foe's Tyranitar's Sand Stream whipped up a sandstorm!
(94%), SR

(fainted)
-->
(75%), SR


And now I’m in trouble. I have no dark resist and rachi is dead, so nothing on my team can switch into bandtar safely. What’s even worse is that, now that I’ve revealed baton pass, he’s certain to go for the crunch now, meaning my switch-in will take a ton of damage. Well, the only poke that may be able to survive two hits is tentacruel, but only if I get rain up. Looking back at this, I don't really know why I didn’t simply sac celebi, as it would have saved both toed and tenta a ton of damage and celebi had already beaten chomp, its main purpose, but at the time I guess I was thinking that perhaps it could be used to wall keldeo. (Which would have helped at the end!)

Derrrp. Of course he has hp ice lol. So now I lose a deterrent to his spinner for absolutely no reason. I bring in tar to fire off some powerful banded crunches hoping to weaken gastrodon for terrakion and latios later on.

Turn 16
Celebi used Baton Pass!
Kidogo called Celebi back!
Kidogo sent out Politoed!
Pointed stones dug into Politoed!
Politoed's Drizzle made it rain!
The foe's Tyranitar used Crunch!
Politoed lost 52% of its health!
Politoed's Defense fell!
Politoed restored HP using its Leftovers!
(94%)
-->
(43%, -1 Def), SR

(75%), SR


Without the defense drop I might have stayed in with toed, protecting once to get some more health. But even still, it’s too risky, so off to cruel.

I guess he wanted rain up so he could spin on tar or use boosted scalds from gastro, but I have no reason not to go for crunch again.

Turn 17
Kidogo called Politoed back!
Kidogo sent out Tentacruel!
Pointed stones dug into Tentacruel!
The foe's Tyranitar used Crunch!
Tentacruel lost 58% of its health!
Tentacruel's Rain Dish heals it!
Tentacruel restored HP using its Black Sludge!
(43%, -1 Def)
-->
(42%), SR

(75%), SR


Ugh, I really need to fit a dark resist on this team. I ended up overpredicting here, as I expected CTC to predict me predicting his switch and attack instead of protecting, and thus predicted him attacking as well and so went for the protect. Looking back, I should definitely have gone for the spin, but I was feeling too intimidated by the threat his ttar posed to risk it.

Predicting the obvious protect, I switch to latios to put pressure on every switchin. Also, I just realized it was kidogo, a friend of mine whom I met on the beta server. Had i realized it was him earlier I would have stayed in because he obviously doesnt play at the level of the average battler.

Turn 18
Ctc random called Tyranitar back!
Ctc random sent out Moetios (Latios)!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Moetios!
Tentacruel used Protect!
But it failed!
Tentacruel's Rain Dish heals it!
Tentacruel restored HP using its Black Sludge!
(55%), SR

(75%)
-->
(68%), SR


I’m not in a great position here, as a latios DM would pretty much KO anything on my team. Even psyshock would do a good amount to anything as well. I really wish I still had rachi. Either way, I’ll protect to gain some health and go from there.

At this point I destroy his entire team with the combination of psyshock and draco. I go for the psyshock to force in celebi or latios to absorb it, in which case tar does massive damage. Basically kidogo has to pick his poison.

Turn 19
Kidogo: oh hi lol
Tentacruel used Protect!
Tentacruel protected itself!
The foe's Moetios used Psyshock!
Tentacruel protected itself!
Tentacruel's Rain Dish heals it!
Tentacruel restored HP using its Black Sludge!
(68%), SR

(68%), SR


Hopefully he’ll go for the psyshock again and I can get celebi in, from which point it should definitely be able to survive a non-specs DM. The only issue is that celebi is massive ttar bait, and ttar is going to be really troublesome if I give it any more free switch-ins. I’m really tempted to just RS, but he might think psyshock + DM KOs celebi and go for it accordingly and tenta is too valuable to risk…gah, I’ll go with the obvious play once again.

I predict one of the psychic types switching in and decide to go to tar and spam banded crunches.

Turn 20
Ctc random called Moetios back!
Ctc random sent out Tyranitar!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Tyranitar!
The foe's Tyranitar's Sand Stream whipped up a sandstorm!
Kidogo called Tentacruel back!
Kidogo sent out Celebi!
Pointed stones dug into Celebi!
The sandstorm rages.
Celebi is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Celebi restored HP using its Leftovers!
(68%)
-->
(81%), SR

(68%)
-->
(62%), SR


And I facepalm once more—I need to start playing way more riskily. Nice switch on his part, and I’m left having to sacrifice something. I opt for celebi: gastrodon should be able to handle latios, and celebi has already taken down garchomp while giving free switch-in opportunities for ttar. Meanwhile, I’ll tap it with hp ice.

At this point his entire team is 2hko’d so I assume he’ll sac his celebi. One terrak check down!

Turn 21
Kidogo: grr
Kidogo: ttar too strongth
Celebi used Hidden Power!
The foe's Tyranitar lost 10% of its health!
The foe's Tyranitar used Crunch!
It's super effective! Celebi lost 75% of its health!
The sandstorm rages.
Celebi is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Celebi fainted!
Ctc random: yea xd
Kidogo: aww
Kidogo: celebi so bulky though
Kidogo sent out Gastrodon!
Pointed stones dug into Gastrodon!
(fainted)
-->
(93%), SR

(52%), SR


Wow…celebi actually survived a super-effective CB crunch…and then died to SS afterwards, but whatever, it was doing 10% with hp ice. Anyway, I send in gastro to threaten an eq, which hits his whole team hard, but intend to go for a toxic to hopefully nail latios on the switch, which will let me stall latios out pretty easily with gastro.

I send in latios to sponge a hit and perhaps discover his spread judging from psyshock damage.

Turn 22
Ctc random called Tyranitar back!
Ctc random sent out Moetios (Latios)!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Moetios!
Gastrodon used Toxic!
The foe's Moetios was badly poisoned!
The sandstorm rages.
The foe's Moetios is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Gastrodon restored HP using its Leftovers!
The foe's Moetios was hurt by poison!
(100%), SR

(52%)
-->
(44%, toxic), SR


Now, here comes the prediction part. I can only beat latios if I recover with gastro, but if he switches to something else (terrakion most likely) while I recover, I’ll be forced to sac something else, which is bad as I really am short on Pokémon. The thing is though, gastro can pretty much beat anything on his team 1-on-1, and if he kills gastrodon with latios while I mis-predict and eq, I’ll be in more trouble then if he gets in safely with terrakion or something. So recover for now.

Here I complain a little because IM A BAD PLAYER :C And because I was frustrated since that thing lives pretty much any 2 hits from any of my pokes. I recover on his recover to gain some health. Latios currently 2hkos his entire team and I doubt he’ll risk anything with his only potential counternin gastrodon.

Turn 23
Ctc random: my gene was the only thing that can touch that thing
Ctc random: gastro bulky as hell
The foe's Moetios used Recover!
The foe's Moetios regained health!
Gastrodon used Recover!
But it failed!
The sandstorm rages.
The foe's Moetios is buffeted by the sandstorm!
The foe's Moetios was hurt by poison!
(100%), SR

(76%, toxic), SR


He regains health, but that’s largely irrelevant, as latios will either be stalled by poison or KOed by DM from my scarftios (if I end up being able to kill it), both of which would happen regardless of how much health he has. We’re in the same spot as last round though. I really really want to go for the eq to hit that terrakion switch-in…but gastro is too valuable to risk. I could really be in trouble if terrakion comes in. Please let him attack…

This turn I was sure he’d recover on the probable psyshock, so I send in rak bluffing the banded set so I can set up a sub. My logic was that if I lose terrak to scald i would still have 2 win conditions, while his gastro is the onlything standing in thenway of latios. Classic risk v reward.

Turn 24
Ctc random called Moetios back!
Ctc random sent out Terrakion!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Terrakion!
Gastrodon used Recover!
But it failed!
The sandstorm rages.
(100%), SR

(76%, toxic)
-->
(93%), SR


Darn, should have gone for the eq. Well, something has to be sacrificed. Looking at the teams, I have Politoed / Tentacruel / Latios / Gastrodon and he has Tyranitar / Terrakion / Latios / Keldeo. Hmm. Scarftios can probably beat terrakion, latios, and keldeo 1-on-1 (and even bandtar if I’m locked into surf, since he’s at low health), so latios is pretty much necessary to keep. Gastrodon could potentially wall latios and possibly keldeo depending on the set, while KOing ttar, so he’s valuable. Toed will possibly let me win the weather war and is at decent enough health to take a hit. Tenta, on the other hand, can’t really wall anything—latios OHKOs, as does ttar, and while it can sort of wall keldeo, it needs rain for that which I can’t get without sacrificing something. So my hope at this point is that I can switch tenta in and prevent him from leaving this with a sub intact.

The thing is, I was testing out the sub rp liechi set instead of my regular sub salac set :C therefore I couldn’t boost my attack immediately.

Turn 25
Kidogo: darn
Kidogo: almost eqed
Kidogo: well
Kidogo: if that thing is banded
Kidogo: i'm in trouble
Kidogo called Gastrodon back!
Kidogo sent out Tentacruel!
Pointed stones dug into Tentacruel!
The foe's Terrakion used Substitute!
The foe's Terrakion put in a substitute!
The foe's Terrakion lost 25% of its health!
The sandstorm rages.
Tentacruel is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Tentacruel restored HP using its Black Sludge!
(100%)
-->
(55%), SR

(68%, substitute), SR


Well, tenta should be able to live an SE—it would be really really nice if that missed though—remember stone miss, worst move in the game?! Really please don’t crit though. Anyway, spinning takes lower priority here. Death to subs!

I decide to make obvious moves and take out tentacruel, because he has to scald to prevent set up. The combination of Sedge and CC takes out that big threat.

Turn 26
Kidogo: uh oh
Kidogo: was afraid so
The foe's Terrakion used Stone Edge!
Tentacruel lost 45% of its health!
Tentacruel used Scald!
It's super effective! The foe's Terrakion's substitute faded!
The sandstorm rages.
Tentacruel is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Tentacruel restored HP using its Black Sludge!
(10%), SR

(68%), SR


Well, no hax in either direction, I suppose I should be thankful for that. Bye bye tenta…

Turn 27
The foe's Terrakion used Close Combat!
It's not very effective... Tentacruel lost 10% of its health!
The foe's Terrakion's Defense fell!
The foe's Terrakion's Special Defense fell!
Tentacruel fainted!
The sandstorm rages.
Kidogo sent out Latios!
Pointed stones dug into Latios!
(fainted)
-->
(88%), SR

(68%, -1 Def, -1 SpD), SR


Now that the sub’s down, I go to latios to threaten it. It’s clear at this point that latios is my only hope of winning the match, as it beats every one of his Pokémon 1-on-1. However, Ttar and its looming threat of CB pursuit is really problematic—I can’t use psyshock or DM until it’s gone, or latios is guaranteed dead and I lose. Given that, I really have no option but to surf—I really hope he doesn’t go to latios though, as I don’t have anything left to take it on. I’ve been playing way too predictably this match though—it seems likely he’ll go to latios, but I really have no alternative because of ttar.

I switch to latios on the obvious surf, as his team structure suggested a scarf latios. Since he’s locked into surf, I could 2hko any switchin. I psyshock the predicted gastrodon, hoping it was specially defensive seeing as celebi was physically defensive.

Turn 28
Ctc random called Terrakion back!
Ctc random sent out Moetios (Latios)!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Moetios!
Latios used Surf!
It's not very effective... The foe's Moetios lost 18% of its health!
The sandstorm rages.
Latios is buffeted by the sandstorm!
The foe's Moetios is buffeted by the sandstorm!
The foe's Moetios was hurt by poison!
(82%), SR

(68%)
-->
(33%, toxiced), SR


Once more, a stellar prediction on his part and I’m forced to sac. Looking back at this, I really should have sacked toed, since the weather war was of minimal importance here—that might have changed the course of the game. However, I was very attached to the idea of winning the weather war, and so opted to go to gastro instead, hoping I could live two hits from latios.

Turn 29
Ctc random: scrfd
Ctc random: i asssume
Kidogo called Latios back!
Kidogo sent out Gastrodon!
Pointed stones dug into Gastrodon!
The foe's Moetios used Psyshock!
Gastrodon lost 58% of its health!
The foe's Moetios lost some of its HP!
The sandstorm rages.
The foe's Moetios is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Gastrodon restored HP using its Leftovers!
The foe's Moetios was hurt by poison!
Ctc random: hmm
Ctc random: i dunno if draco kills
Kidogo: i bet it does
(82%)
-->
(42%), SR

(5%, toxiced), SR


Not even close—I forgot, this is a total SpD gastro and LO psyshock hits very hard. It seems unlikely that he’ll psyshock again, since DM KOs everything on my team at this point…his latios is about to die from LO + SS + toxic damage though, so it only gets one hit. If he psyshocks while I switch to latios, that could win me the match right there…given this, he’ll probably go for the DM though. Oh well, maybe gastro can live it?

Ctc random: scrfd
Ctc random: i asssume

I know I know….Only a bad player would ask such a stupid question—is his latios scarfed? Would a base 140 move coming off 130 special attack with a life orb take out an ex-NU at 42%??? Can Geico save you 15% or more on your car insurance in 15 minutes??? I only have 1 hit left and I lose nothing by going for draco.

Turn 30

The foe's Moetios used Draco Meteor!
Gastrodon lost 42% of its health!
The foe's Moetios's Special Attack harshly fell!
The foe's Moetios lost some of its HP!
Gastrodon fainted!
The foe's Moetios fainted!
The sandstorm rages.
Kidogo: give me a minute
Kidogo sent out Latios!
Pointed stones dug into Latios!
Ctc random sent out Terrakion!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Terrakion!
(fainted)
-->
(70%), SR

(fainted)
-->
(62%), SR


Well of course not. Anyway, latios is my savior right now and he’s coming right back in. The problem is that, with SS up, his terrakion can certainly take a surf and probably can KO back with SE, but I can’t use psyshock because of that darn ttar. It’s a definite possibility that he’ll predict a switch though, which might actually be the best move for me to do, come to think about it…eh, I’ll just surf. A sub on the switch would mean gg for me, I’ll have to hope he overpredicts…

Here I make a terrrrrrrrible misplay and clicked sub over rock polish. Logically, had he switched out I would have set up a sub and tok out everything else, so there was absolutely ZERO reason for him to do so. Psyshock was also out of the question due to tar, so basically the only thing he would do is surf. There was literally no reason at all for me not to rock polish AND be in liechi range and be ready for a sweep. However, I was dumb enough to bank on a switch and sub……

Turn 31
Ctc random: i have a wierd set on terak
Latios used Surf!
It's super effective! The foe's Terrakion lost 51% of its health!
The foe's Terrakion ate its Liechi Berry!
The Liechi Berry raised the foe's Terrakion's Attack!
The foe's Terrakion used Substitute!
It was too weak to make a substitute!
The sandstorm rages.
Latios is buffeted by the sandstorm!
(63%), SR

(11%, +1Atk), SR


It actually happened! My dragon will take out the ram!

Yea…I lose my 2nd win condition for no reason whatsoever. Sigh, now I have to rely on keldeo to do lategame sweeping.

Turn 32

Kidogo: phew
Latios used Surf!
It's super effective! The foe's Terrakion lost 11% of its health!
The foe's Terrakion fainted!
The sandstorm rages.
Latios is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Ctc random sent out Tyranitar!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Tyranitar!
(57%), SR

(fainted)
-->
(41%), SR


Okay, it’s 2-2 now and in comes the big bad dinosaur—he’s weakened now though, so latios just might be able to take him!

Here I send in tar FORGETTING how frail it is without much investment. I had about 120 evs in hp and was banking on survivallllllllll…….but I don’t get it -___-
Thats a whopping 2 gamechanging misplays in 2 turns buddy, at this point I was considering taking up bingo over mons as a new hobby…


Turn 33
Latios used Surf!
It's super effective! The foe's Tyranitar lost 41% of its health!
The foe's Tyranitar fainted!
The sandstorm rages.
Latios is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Kidogo: gg
Ctc random: gg
Ctc random sent out Keldeo!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Keldeo!
(51%), SR

(fainted)
-->
(93%), SR


And he does! Latios is hands-down my MVP this match—it KOed terrakion, ttar, and is about to deliver the final blow to his other musketeer pony. Unless this is a subdeo (which doesn’t seem likely given that he had sub terra), I think I’ve got this game—I just need to go to toed and then come in to revenge with latios!

At this point I could only spam hydro. No reason for him to stay in.


Turn 34
Kidogo: i think
Kidogo called Latios back!
Kidogo sent out Politoed!
Pointed stones dug into Politoed!
Politoed's Drizzle made it rain!
The foe's Keldeo used Hydro Pump!
The attack of the foe's Keldeo missed!
Politoed restored HP using its Leftovers!
(51%)
-->
(27%), SR

(93%), SR


Useless misses are useless—toed isn’t surviving this one unless I get about 5 protects in a row, in which case I really wouldn’t feel deserving of the win anyway, so I’ll just let him die a peaceful death and let latios come in to clean up!

After having revealed the rest of my team keldeo has to be scarfed, so Kidogo is obv TROLLING ME >:0 jk. I click hydro cuz im choice locked

Turn 35
Kidogo: unless you're sub
Ctc random: i had rp liechi
Ctc random: on terak
Kidogo: ahh
Ctc random: i shoulda rpd
Ctc random: lol
Ctc random: gg
The foe's Keldeo used Hydro Pump!
It's not very effective... Politoed lost 27% of its health!
Politoed fainted!
Kidogo sent out Latios!
Pointed stones dug into Latios!
(fainted)
-->
(39%), SR

(93%), SR


And the almighty dragon of justice returns to the field, this time to unleash his mighty psychic powers on the poor pony trembling in fear of his terrifying visage…yeah. Psyshock ftw!

Here I start to explain and look for excuses yada yada, like I always do after a loss due to misplays. I was so embarrassed to have gone for sub on terrak. Now I have a 94% keldeo up against a 39% latios, and it looks like game.

Turn 36
Ctc random: forgot bnd tar is frail
Ctc random: :C
Kidogo: the thing is
Kidogo: i couldn't use psyshock till tar was dead
Kidogo: cause of pursuit
Ctc random: yea
Ctc random: i thought ud switch
Ctc random: sac toed
Kidogo: so i was expecting you to send in keldeo
Ctc random: or something
Kidogo: on the surf
Kidogo: so i'd sac toed
Ctc random: i was acing terak
Ctc random: cuz low health
Kidogo: yeah
Kidogo: i mean after terra
Kidogo: to force me out
Kidogo: since scarf
Ctc random: i didnt know tar cnt even take scrf surf
Ctc random: at 42%
Kidogo: ikr
Kidogo: not as bulky as expected
Latios used Psyshock!
It's super effective! The foe's Keldeo lost 91% of its health!
The foe's Keldeo used Hydro Pump!
It's not very effective... Latios lost 39% of its health!
Latios fainted!
Ctc random won the battle!
Ladder updating...
Kidogo's rating: 2017 → 2009
(-8 for losing)
Ctc random's rating: 1771 → 1797
(+26 for winning)

(fainted)

(2%)



Kidogo: !!!!
Ctc random: wow
Ctc random: wut
Kidogo: lol
Ctc random: lol
Kidogo: after all that
Ctc random: :CC
Ctc random: bulky horse
Kidogo: ikr
Kidogo: aww
Ctc random: thats like
Kidogo: fun battle though
Ctc random: the opp of tar

And then the utterly unexpected happened—keldeo pulled unexpected bulk from its sleeve and lived the psyshock with 5% left, netting CTC the win! I don’t think either of us expected that, but a perfect way to end the match and keep us surprised. I’m actually kind of glad CTC won this one—he outpredicted me throughout the match (I was playing way too predictably) and I wouldn’t have come close to winning without his endgame blunders. I noticed reading through this that I should have stayed in with latios to surf once—it could have survived an hpump outside of rain—to net me the guaranteed KO, but of course hindsight is 20-20 and CTC has plenty of those moments as well. So looking back on the match, I’d like to give latios kudos for being so pro and nearly winning me the match, keldeo for being so fat and taking the super-effective STAB, and CTC for a great and very close battle—you definitely deserved the win!

Wait what? Survivalllllll! I don’t know whether to complement keldeo’s bulk or scrutinize scarf latios for being so weak. Well that was a great experience nonetheless! I had a lot of fun this battle, mostly because my opponent Kidogo is a tremendous battler (then sitting at #1) and gave me hell with the unorthodox rain balanced team that he used to get #1. I had the chance to exhibit my gimmicky helmet chomp which was great since everyone else ran a choiced set at the time. Props to Kidogo’s latios for pulling its weight as an offensive threat despite being a pursuitable. The worst part about the battle was that I could have displayed the viablilty of liechi rp rak but messed it up completely, so boo thumbs down for that misplay. Kudos to band tar for being a threat to balanced teams, and lo latios for being so versatile. But most importantly shout out to Kidogo for, once again, being a fantastic battler and amiable user, and for suggesting that we make the warstory.
 

Lavos

Banned deucer.
I like the part where Steve wins.

Nice warstory, Kidogo. It's refreshing to see two good players duking it out with extensive commentary as opposed to the usual lack of skill and/or dialogue in warstories. You really did a good job with this. The constant sprite links must have been a pain :/
 

ginganinja

It's all coming back to me now
is a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a CAP Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Excellent warstory, with solid predictions from two experienced players. It even has dual commentary! Well Done both of you.

A+
 
Wow really cool! The bast part is of course the double commentary, which can help people know what a player think during a match, something you can only guess by watching a replay.
 

Shurtugal

The Enterpriser.
is a Tiering Contributor
CTC is so awesome :P A+ warstory you both! CTC for being a great player and friend and Kidogo for being an equally great player!
 

ganj4lF

Nobody is safe from the power of science!
is a Team Rater Alumnus
Wow, very nice warstory, awesome predictions by both of you! Was really a pleasure to read.
 

ShootingStarmie

Bulletproof
is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Very very good predictions from both battlers, and a big surprise at the end (Scarf Latios is so weak .-.). It's great to see detailed commentary from two great players.

Great war story, 9/10
 
Good battle by two good battlers; nothing much i can say besides RUN MODEST LATIOS KIDOGO. jk lol, this was a pretty good read. 9/10 battle, 9/10 commentary, 9/10 overall.
 

dragonuser

The only thing I look up to is the sky
is a Top Tutor Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Three-Time Past WCoP Champion
Really nice warstory. Great predictions and plays made by the both of you, and nice commentary as well!
 

CTC

Banned deucer.
is a Two-Time Past SPL Championis a Two-Time Past WCoP Champion
Big Chungus Winner
I just discovered yet another misplay!!!!!No, two!!!! I feel like an ass battler lol
On turn 26 when i had rak out vs cruel in sand I could have set up rock polish!!! What was I thinking trynna ohko cruel from 55% smh
On turn 32 I shouldve sent in pony instead of tar and spammed sword!!!
Ermahgerd im gonna play digimon from now on
Then again those misplays gave the story a twist ending~ #badplays2012 #dontjudgeme #onlywoncuzofteammatchup imo
I really appreciate the effort Kidogo put into this warstory, presenting it in such an enjoyable manner, so big shoutout to him for being a great battler and friend :]
 
I was incredibly confused as to why you didn't just set up Rp against Tenta, since you weren't KOing him at that percentage, and you were guaranteed +1 / +2, but I'm awful at this game, so I probably missed something
 
I just discovered yet another misplay!!!!!No, two!!!! I feel like an ass battler lol
On turn 26 when i had rak out vs cruel in sand I could have set up rock polish!!! What was I thinking trynna ohko cruel from 55% smh
On turn 32 I shouldve sent in pony instead of tar and spammed sword!!!
Ermahgerd im gonna play digimon from now on
Then again those misplays gave the story a twist ending~ #badplays2012 #dontjudgeme #onlywoncuzofteammatchup imo
I really appreciate the effort Kidogo put into this warstory, presenting it in such an enjoyable manner, so big shoutout to him for being a great battler and friend :]
Same to you CTC :)
And ik, I always end up looking back and being like "why didn't i just do this, it would have easily won the battle for me". Like it was just a horrible move on my part to switch out with celebi that first time and cripple both toed AND tenta when celebi was just ttar bait...you did have a lot of opportunities to sweep though, that version of my team was terribly weak to ttar and terrakion. Then again, if you had RPed ith terra and subbed down, you would have lost terra without killing tenta if SE missed, which would have been way worse. It made the match more interesting regardless! :D

I was gonna read it but I didn't wanna go blind but the green text.
: [

Pocket EDIT: Changed CTC's Text Lime -> Green
Good point, and thanks for the catch pocket. I had the screen on really low brightness when I was choosing colors, so I didn't realize how absurdly bright it was before. much better now!

I like the part where Steve wins.

Nice warstory, Kidogo. It's refreshing to see two good players duking it out with extensive commentary as opposed to the usual lack of skill and/or dialogue in warstories. You really did a good job with this. The constant sprite links must have been a pain :/
Thanks lavos, it was fun to make (and yes, the moving sprites were a bit cumbersome but I just can't do a WS or RMT without them ;p). Thanks for the comments!

I was incredibly confused as to why you didn't just set up Rp against Tenta, since you weren't KOing him at that percentage, and you were guaranteed +1 / +2, but I'm awful at this game, so I probably missed something
As CTC said above, this was definitely a misplay on his part--good catch, not at all bad judgement on your part! I think mostly he just didn't think of it at the time--also remember that, had SE missed, he would have lost terra for nothing since he would have had to sub down to liechi range (whereas terra lives a scald from 70%). Even if he had hit, he would have had to hit SE on latios and gastro could have lived a +1 CC and KOed, so it wasn't necessarily game-changing. Definitely a misplay though, and a very nice catch on your part!

Thanks for the comments everyone, and remember to luvdisc! :D
 
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Great battle from two of you, nothing less to be expected though. I thought ctc's rocky helmet play with garchomp really sealed somewhat of a game because it set the momentum in his favor, but Kidogo was able to fight back. Ctc's known to get somewhat careless when the momentum shifts, but nevertheless he made some plays to compensate and sealed the win. I appreciate this warstory very much, it makes me want to do some too.

Luvdisc'd, and my 100th post couldn't have gone to a better thread. Once again, well done you two. Very good read.
 

Joeyboy

Has got the gift of gab
is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Awesome warstories dudes!

It was well written and you explained the moves you were going to make before doing them (the mark of a good warstory).

GG gg :D
 

Gimmick

Electric potential
Oh my lord that Garchomp/Celebi/Politoed situation.

This was actually really fun to read! You should write more~
 
Thanks for the comments everyone!
And the next time CTC have another battle like this, we'd def make another WS :)
 
Excellent warstory.

I felt though that you could have kept Celebi for Keldeo at the end with a a tad bit better playing, as you said your obsession with winning the weather war cost you the match, a sacking Politoed earlier on could of change the game in my opinion.
 
Hey guys, great warstory! Format was solid and the dual commentary went just about as in-depth as you would want without getting too rambly...great battle too. I know this makes me want to warstory debut and hopefully it creates some revitalization of threads like this.

Cheers
 

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