MechaGoomba's Battling 101.1

[ZhengTann]

This is going to be my no-flavour battle, because the flavour is in the tutoring B)

2v2 Singles
48-hour DQ (The DQ of the pupil is by the discretion of the Tutor. If the Pupil asks for the DQ of the Tutor, the Manager of the Program should assign someone to replace them ASAP).
2 Recoveries, 5 Chills per mon
2 Substitutions per Pokemon excluding KO Substitutions.
Switch = OK
Abilities = ALL
Items = Training

Arena = ASB Tournament Arena

Remember - in any Tower match smaller than a 3v3, you are entitled to send more than what is specified in the format, up to 3 mons in your team. And the reason for that is readily apparent as you look at the arrangement of your mons and the team I field.

Team MechaGoomba:

Lucas the Riolu

Riolu [Lucas] (M)
Types:
Fighting: Fighting STAB; ignore weight restrictions on Circle Throw, Seismic Toss, Sky Drop, Storm Throw, Submission, and Vital Throw.

Abilities::
Steadfast / Inner Focus / Prankster (LOCKED)

Nature: Naive (+Speed, -Sp. Def.)
Stats:
HP: 90
Atk: 3
Def: 2
SpA: 2
SpD: 1 (-)
Spe: 69 (+) (Accuracy boost: 11%)
Size Class: 1
Weight Class: 2
Base Rank Total: 13

EC: 3/6
MC: 0
AC: 3/5

Attacks:

Level Up
Quick Attack
Foresight
Endure
Counter
Force Palm
Feint
Reversal
Copycat
Screech

Egg
Blaze Kick
Bullet Punch
Crunch
Circle Throw
Sky Uppercut

TM/HM
Toxic
Dig
Rock Tomb
Swords Dance
Poison Jab
Protect
Earthquake

Tutor

Other

Asimov the Golett

Golett [Asimov] (Genderless)
Types:
Ground: Ground STAB; immune to Sandstorm. Ignores Arena restrictions on Dig and Seismic Attacks for Arenas in which any land mass exists, Evasive Digging reduced from 6 per action Energy Cost to 5 per action.
Ghost: Ghost STAB; immune to the effects of full trapping moves and the Arena Trap, Magnet Pull, and Shadow Tag abilities. Ghost types can switch out while affected by a partial trapping move, but they will be damaged every action by their effect.

Abilities::
Iron Fist / Klutz / No Guard (LOCKED)

Nature: Impish (+Def., -Sp. Atk.)
Stats:
HP: 90
Atk: 3
Def: 3 (+)
SpA: 1 (-)
SpD: 2
Spe: 35
Size Class: 2
Weight Class: 4
Base Rank Total: 13

EC: 2/6
MC:
AC: 3/5

Attacks:

Level Up
Pound
Astonish
Defense Curl
Mud-Slap
Rollout
Shadow Punch
Iron Defense
Mega Punch
Magnitude
Hammer Arm
Focus Punch
Dynamic Punch
Curse

Egg
None

TM/HM
Earthquake
Rock Tomb
Low Sweep
Gyro Ball
Grass Knot
Protect

Tutor
Drain Punch
Fire Punch
Gravity
Ice Punch
Thunder Punch

Other

Alma the Ralts

Ralts [Alma] (F)
Types:
Psychic: Psychic STAB; can lift and throw opponents with Psychic regardless of Special Attack Rank. Psychic-type attacks are not godlike and cannot be used as a catchall for Disabling, Binding, and redirecting opposing attacks.
Fairy: Fairy STAB: -1 EN on non-Fairy typed Nature, Sound, and Scent moves (Stacks with second STAB where applicable). (Nature Power, Natural Gift; Sound Moves; Aromatherapy, Odor Sleuth, Sweet Scent)

Abilities::
Sychronize / Trace / Telepathy (LOCKED)

Nature: Modest (+Sp. Atk, -Atk)

Stats:
HP: 90
Atk: 0 (-)
Def: 1
SpA: 3 (+)
SpD: 2
Spe: 40
Size Class: 1
Weight Class: 1
Base Rank Total: 10

EC: 0/9
MC: 0
AC: 0/5

Attacks:

Level Up
Growl
Confusion
Double Team
Teleport
Disarming Voice
Lucky Chant
Magical Leaf
Heal Pulse
Draining Kiss
Calm Mind

Egg:
Encore
Will-O-Wisp
Skill Swap
Disable
Destiny Bond

TM/HM:
Psychic
Shadow Ball
Thunderbolt
Protect
Reflect

Tutor:

Other:

Team ZhengTann:

Levy the Unown

Unown - Levy

Levy is a book-lover, who chanced upon the library collection in the monastery Zheng founded. Inside, she was astounded to find books of a totally new philosophy to her, a history of a world she never imagined of. Resolute that she would not pass up this chance, she resided there until Jet and Droy happened upon her in their wanderings, and the trio soon became fast friends.

Nature: Modest (+SpAtk, -Atk)

Type:
Psychic Type: Psychic STAB; Levy's tome of spells enable her to lift and throw opponents with Psychic regardless of Special Attack Rank. Psychic-type attacks cannot be used as a catchall for Disabling, Binding, and redirecting opposing attacks.

Abilities:
Ability 1: Levitate
Type: Passive
Levy has a small magic rug, which floats above the earth when released or easily takes flight, evading the Ground moves Bulldoze, Earthquake, Fissure, and Magnitude. Earth Power will have three (3) less Base Attack Power. Dig and Dive can still strike her if their user is over Size Class 4, has Levitate, is 3.5m or larger, or is a Flying-type. Otherwise Dig and Dive will miss. Ground moves can still hit.

Stats:
HP: 90
Atk: Rank 2 (-)
Def: Rank 2
SpA: Rank 4 (+)
SpD: Rank 2
Spe: 48
Size Class: 1
Weight Class: 1
BRT: 14

Attacks (18 max):
Hidden Power Bug
Hidden Power Dark
Hidden Power Dragon
Hidden Power Electric
Hidden Power Fairy
Hidden Power Fighting
Hidden Power Fire
Hidden Power Flying
Hidden Power Ghost
Hidden Power Grass
Hidden Power Ground
Hidden Power Ice
Hidden Power Poison
Hidden Power Psychic
Hidden Power Rock
Hidden Power Steel
Hidden Power Water
Psychic

God (Shedinja)

God - Shedinja (U)

A husk of his former self, God came to be after falling in the battle between Demons, Angels, Fallen Angels, and two true Dragons. In order to preserve the Angels, God made the ultimate sacrifice, sealing the Dragons with the former Satans using their very life force, thus leaving the world in slight disorder. It is unknown whether the former Satans survived in the same way, and why God ended up in the hands of a Trainer, but now God can do nothing but watch the lives of a group of Pokemon under not one, but two Trainers who do not follow the ways of God.

Nature: Adamant (+1 Atk, -1 SpAtk)

Type:
Bug Type: Bug STAB; Adds an additional guaranteed attack on all multi-hit moves (does not include two hit moves) with a total hit cap of five (5).

Ghost type: Ghost STAB; immune to the effects of full trapping moves and the Arena Trap, Magnet Pull, and Shadow Tag abilities. Ghost types can switch out while affected by a partial trapping move, but they will be damaged every action by their effect.

Abilities:
Wonder Guard
Type: Passive
God, being God, suffers no damage from attacks that are not super effective. God's ability cannot be removed or copied by any means.

Stats:
HP: 80
Atk: Rank 4 (+)
Def: Rank 2
SpA: Rank 1 (-)
SpD: Rank 2
Spe: 40
Size Class: 1
Weight Class: 1
BRT: 12

MC: 0

Attacks:
Fury Swipes
Harden
Leech Life
Metal Claw
Mind Reader
Sand-Attack
Scratch
Spite

Night Slash
Feint Attack
Gust
Silver Wind
Endure

Shadow Claw
Thief
Aerial Ace
X-Scissor
Cut

I do apologise for giving you this shock. Yes, I am fielding FE mons, but notice that my team's average BRT and movepool size is not that far off from yours. Hence why only half of most mons are feasible in-ASB. If you want to win, you will find that some mons will do better at others in the same things, and those mons are the ones you should be looking for. Which, by the way, means you're off to a decent start with your team here - Lucario and Golurk are heavy enough hitters capable of holding their own against that half of most, and Gardevoir is widely regarded as the one of the best in-ASB.

On the other hand if you're playing ASB to write stories, fool around, and generally try your darnedest to have fun, then I love you just as I love The Wanderer and Matezoide and Maxim. Well, others too, but them three foremost.

Also, I'm setting the bar a little high here. Unown and Shedinja, with the former's unique compatibility with Hidden Powers (see Handbook for details) and the latter's Ability alone, bring vital mechanics into the battle that compels you to understand them if you want a nice, clean fight. Referees are definitely fallible, and there will be matches where mistakes were made in reffings, not corrected until much later, which by then would cause nothing but quagmires. As a battler, you would want to understand every single bit of ASB mechanics pertinent to the round at hand, be able to visualize the post-round scenarios after seeing you and your opponent's orders, and get ready to correct every mistake your referee makes during that round of reffing. You'll never know when a single HP is going to be the difference between an Endure win or a hopeless lost at later points in the match.

So, you now have to decide which one of the three you'll be benching, and which two to send out in battle. To help you in your decision, you may do your calcs. Study Unown and Shedinja, then find out their highest BAP attacks versus your mons, and calculate how much damage they can deal per action without a combo. If you have any questions, or can't seem to find a piece of reference, PM me and I'll give you a sense of direction.

Do the same for your own mons against mine, and you'll get to see which member of your team stands a better chance in a damage race - which is the surest way to win in-ASB. After that, then you may decide which one of us is sending out first. Second player to send out orders first R1, then first-to-send-out counters by ordering second. Bonus points if you figure out why you're given this choice.

 

[MechaGoomba]

I will bench Lucas, and I would prefer that you send out first.

 

[ZhengTann]

You don't have to specify whom you'll be benching at the start - you may find yourself changing your mind as the match progresses. In fact, let's see if you'd change your mind right now.

Sending out God (Shedinja w/ Exp. Share).

Why would you not bench Riolu now, you ask? Take a look at Shedinja's speed, then do the same for your team. Find your own answers - if this is a damage race, who can come out top?

Last post, I'd ask you to run calcs to find highest potential damage per action. This round, let's see if you can predict the first two rounds into the game. I currently have in my mind a handful of plausible scenarios how the first two rounds will turn out. Now your job is to guess which scenarios I have, assess them, and make one of your own that ensures you taking the lead instead. Also, I'm going to write down my thought processes ITT as I post orders. I encourage you to do the same, and we could even provide feedback to each other if loopholes were discovered.

Finally, it'd be helpful if you can keep your ASB profile in your signature, so I don't have to haul over to Registration Center everytime :x

 

[MechaGoomba]

Sending out Lucas (Riolu w/ nothing)

Lucas: Blaze Kick - Crunch - Blaze Kick

IF Harden THEN Swords Dance but only once AND push back actions.
IF Sand-Attack THEN Foresight but only once AND push back actions.


Apparently I either forgot I had Blaze Kick or assumed it was too low-power to be useful. Using it, Riolu wins the damage race.

As far as I can tell, there are very few ways God has of interfering with opposing attacks. While Endure has the potential to be annoying, I know that I cannot possibly KO God this round and thus I currently don't need to sub for it. Attacking into a Harden, if you Harden twice or more, is less of an issue than potentially being stalled by sub-abuse.

PS: I currently can't actually edit my signature. There's some sort of bug going on where the option isn't visible.

 

[ZhengTann]

I should've told you this earlier, but every new profile is now entitled to one each of Amulet Coin, Lucky Egg, and Exp. Share, if they did not have any previously. You can't use them this battle, but go claim them and get approved so you can use them in your next. Also you don't have to just wait on me - go issue/accept some Tower matches, or jump into Hall. If nothing else, you get to farm counters and build your team. And I'm sorry for being this late, although it's likely I'm going to be this slow until somewhere next fortnight :(

Shadow Claw > Aerial Ace > Sand-Attack

MechaGoomba’s team:

HP: 90
En: 100
Spe: 69 (+11%)
Ranks: 3/2/2/1
Status: N/A
Stats: N/A
Other: N/A​

ZhengTann's team:

HP: 80
En: 100
Spe: 40
Ranks: 4/2/1/2
Status: N/A
Stats: N/A
Other: N/A

Arena: ASB Standard Arena​

Now you've learned how to use match-up to your advantage. As hyped-up as ordering second is, you've seen right here that it means jack when you have a limited movepool. Instead of wasting a second order merely outdamaging your opponent, you've locked your opponent into an unfavorable matchup, and still outdamages ordering first. Honestly if this is a Switch = KO match, you would've won here and now.

As you progress in-ASB, you would find the same thing with FE mons - for example, as strong as Mega-Heracross is, it can't outdamage ordering second against the likes of Tomohawk and Skarmory, IIRC. The trick is to play in a lot more matches - with experience, you’d be able to remember what weaknesses cripple certain mons against certain opponents.

Now bear in mind advantages like this will be hard to come by - study Battle Tower rules to understand who sends out first in a regular Tower match, and read through the rules of all other matches you're participating in so that you'd be able to spot and use these opportunities whenever they arise.

Round 1

Action 1:
Riolu used Blaze Kick!
RNG Roll (CRIT) [<=625 CRIT]: 5035/10000 (NO)
RNG Roll (EFFECT) [<=1000 EFFECT]: 5120/10000 (NO)
[9+(4.5-3)]*1.5 = 15.75 damage (Shedinja)
-7 energy
Shedinja used Shadow Claw!
RNG Roll (CRIT) [<=1250 CRIT]: 1912/10000 (NO)
7+3+(6-3) = 13 damage (Riolu)
-4 energy

Action 2:
Riolu used Crunch!
RNG Roll (CRIT) [<=625 CRIT]: 4068/10000 (NO)
RNG Roll (EFFECT) [<=2000 EFFECT]: 5854/10000 (NO)
[8+(4.5-3)]*1.5 = 14.25 damage (Shedinja)
-6 energy
Shedinja used Aerial Ace!
RNG Roll (CRIT) [<=625 CRIT]: 773/10000 (NO)
[6+(6-3)]*1.5 = 13.5 damage (Riolu)
-4 energy

Action 3:
Riolu used Foresight!
Shedinja is marked for target!
Other changes: Foresight 6a (Shedinja)
-6 energy
Shedinja used Sand Attack!
Riolu's Accuracy fell!
Stat changes: {3/4} -1 Acc (Riolu)
-5 energy

Post Action:
Other changes: Foresight 5a (Shedinja)

Post Round:
Riolu: -26.5 HP, -19 EN
Shedinja: -30 HP, -13 EN

MechaGoomba’s team:

HP: 63
En: 81
Spe: 69 (+11%)
Ranks: 3/2/2/1
Status: N/A
Stats: {3/4} -1 Acc
Other: N/A​

ZhengTann's team:

HP: 50
En: 87
Spe: 40
Ranks: 4/2/1/2
Status: N/A
Stats: N/A
Other: Foresight 5a

Arena: ASB Standard Arena​

The reason behind my orders is simple - this is a Switch = OK match. If I stay, your lead on the damage race will only extend until your win becomes the only possible outcome of the match. So I had to limit your lead - triggering your Substitution to effectively waste an action - and then force you to change your behaviour pattern by switching. I find that the longer a match draws out, the harder it is for me to track the match and remember my overall strategy. I'm assuming the same applies to everyone else, so what I'm doing here is a different kind of stalling - switching around my team to draw out the match (to clarify, my intention does NOT include deliberately going past DQ) until you slip up, and then capitalise on it. Might work, might not, but worth a try!

Switch phase initiated. Levy (Unown w/ Amulet Coin) coming in. Counterswitch?