Playing better than your best: an Uber Warstory

Prologue:
So I'm on Shoddy and I've been playing around on ubers for a while. In fact, I've made a total of ten revisions to the team that I'm currently using. The team, as far as I could tell, had been edited to the point of perfection, fitting my personal style. While it may have ridden me to the top of the ladder(twelth as I'm typing this up), a single challenger was in my way: ggGerbil.
Over the last week, I have played ggGerbil a numerous amount of times: we know each other's teams pretty well, and he continuously ended up on top(excluding one match with a single Freeze in my favor). Once again, ggGerbil ended up on top in our last match. In the dumps, I press the "Find Match" button, hoping to find someone else who did ubers. As if by the command of fate, I came across no one other than:



ggGerbil sent out Wobbuffet.
Articanus sent out Latios.

The moment his name hit the screen I cursed at four things:
1) Me, for not making a good enough team.
2) ggGerbil, for making too good of a team.
3) Everyone on shoddy, for playing OU.
4) Colin, for not making a program that stops you from battling the same person twenty times in a row!

Having played each other immediantly beforehand, he know's I'm running an all Special Attack Latios. And I knew that Memento(my only non-attacking move) would be completely useless against the Limbo-blob. So the sequence of events this turn was a simple no-brainer.

Latios used Draco Meteor.
Wobbuffet lost 81% of its health.
Latios's special attack was harshly lowered.
Wobbuffet used Mirror Coat.
Latios lost 100% of its health.
Articanus's Latios fainted.
Wobbuffet's leftovers restored its health a little!
Wobbuffet restored 6% of its health.
6-5
Wobbuffet: 25%
Advantage: ggGerbil

This is already turning out as bleak as many of our previous matches! However, this allows for a free switch-in and attack from any of my five powerful uber beasts!

Articanus switched in Kyogre.
Kyogre's Drizzle caused a storm!
Rain began to fall!

Choice Specs Kyogre is in, and ready to cause some damage! In all of our previous matches, I've always Water Spouted to keep the pressure up at all times. So it was quite easy to predict the usual switch-in.

ggGerbil switched in Giratina.
Giratina is exerting its pressure!
Kyogre used Ice Beam.
It's super effective!
Giratina lost 56% of its health.
The rain continues to fall.
Giratina's leftovers restored its health a little!
Giratina restored 6% of its health.
Giratina: 50%

That's a beast of a wall, barely being 2HKOed by a super effective hit coming from a Choiced 150 base stat! Nonetheless, I need to keep the pressure up, otherwise the momentum will quickly shift in his favor. I know that his Stealth Rocker would love to come in on this Ice Beam, and Stealth Rock would completely cripple one of my key members. And I know he's unwilling to sacrifice Giratina, whom's existance would also lead to that same key member's demise.

ggGerbil switched in Heatran.
Articanus switched in Rayquaza.
The rain continues to fall.

Got that bitch! Choice Band Rayquaza's ready to release all hell onto ggGerbil for the multiple humiliations given to it beforehand!
However, after pondering on what I learned about my opponent from the previous match, I quickly realize that anything Rayquaza can do can quickly be countered. He has a Ground immunity that will easily come in on my Earthquake, and even if I try to Outrage for the 2HKO, Heatran's just going to come back in and set up Stealth Rock(which, as I've outlined before, is very bad for this team). Extremespeed and Dragon Claw are out of the question, as they both are only to be used to finish off weakened enemies, often for late-game. So.....

ggGerbil switched in Cresselia.
Articanus switched in Kyogre.
Kyogre's Drizzle caused a storm!
The rain continues to fall.

Now I'm in the perfect position. With Water Spout able to OHKO anything on his team except Giratina, who is in range for a 2HKO and outsped, so something's going down.

ggGerbil switched in Wobbuffet.
Kyogre used Water Spout.
Wobbuffet lost 25% of its health.
ggGerbil's Wobbuffet fainted.
The rain continues to fall.
5-5
Advantage: ggGerbil

Smart choice on his behalf. With no Wish-Passer and not enough HP to take any hit from my team, he was far from useless: he was a burden.
However, by using this "burden" as a sacrifice, he get's to do two things:
1) Scout out my move.
2) Give anything on his team a free switch-in.

ggGerbil switched in Groudon.
Groudon's Drought intensified the sun's rays!
The rain stopped.
The sun began to shine!

Even with Water Spot's previous power cut to a third, it should be enough to OHKO the towering dinosaur. Of course, he is faster, and he'll more likely than not Attack head-on to weaken my power away from that of a OHKO. However, it's better than him getting a free Swords Dance and sweeping my team.

Groudon used Earthquake.
Kyogre lost 53% of its health.
Kyogre used Water Spout.
It's super effective!
Groudon lost 56% of its health.
The sun continues to shine.
Groudon's leftovers restored its health a little!
Groudon restored 6% of its health.
Kyogre: 47%
Groudon: 53%

Good, he can't sweep with half his HP. However, Kyogre's in a bad spot too. He can't Spout with his usual Wateriness, especially in the sun. ggGerbil likes it that way, too. Which is why he wants my Kyogre dead. His desire to kill Kyogre, though, leaves him blind to an easy switch-in on my side.

Articanus switched in Rayquaza.
Groudon used Earthquake.
It doesn't affect Rayquaza...
The sun continues to shine.
Groudon's leftovers restored its health a little!
Groudon restored 6% of its health.
Groudon: 59%

Trying to keep up with my streak of unpredictability, Outrage that would finish off Groudon is out of the question. Even if Groudon was left in for his demise, Heatran would co..... Heatran!

ggGerbil switched in Heatran.
Rayquaza used Earthquake.
It's super effective!
Heatran lost 100% of its health.
ggGerbil's Heatran fainted.
The sun continues to shine.
5-4
Advantage: Articanus

With Heatran gone, I begin to ease up a tad bit. I'm currently controlling the flow of battle, and I intend to keep it that way.

ggGerbil switched in Cresselia.

Oh yeah, his switch-in. Shit.
This leaves me in a huge predicament... he gets a free Thunder Wave on anything coming in next turn. Kyogre is too important to take it, and leaving Rayquaza in is just stupid. So the only one that can take it and not be too bothered by it is:

Articanus switched in Dialga.
Dialga is exerting its pressure!
Cresselia used Thunder Wave.
Dialga is paralysed! It may be unable to move!
The sun continues to shine.
Dialga: PRZ

This is a Bulk Up Dialga anyway, so it can Rest off the paralysis later. Not that it would ever get the chance with Groudon around. Speaking of Groudon, I know he's coming in next turn, and I only have one member on my team that can scare him off.

ggGerbil: some intense prediction in this one
ggGerbil switched in Groudon.
Groudon's Drought intensified the sun's rays!
Articanus switched in Smeargle (lvl 1 Smeargle).
The sun continues to shine.
Groudon's leftovers restored its health a little!
Groudon restored 6% of its health.
Groudon: 64%

Believe me, it's about to get a lot more intense. His Giratina is the number one counter to my Level 1 Smeargle tactic, being able to RestTalk my Spores and being immune to my Endeavors. So it's quite simple to assume it will be coming in next turn.

ggGerbil switched in Giratina.
Giratina is exerting its pressure!
Articanus switched in Kyogre.
Kyogre's Drizzle caused a storm!
The sun faded.
Rain began to fall!
The rain continues to fall.
Giratina's leftovers restored its health a little!
Giratina restored 6% of its health.
Articanus: I'm putting my complete effort into this battle so I don't feel like the hours[Exaggeration] I've spent making this team are a waste
Giratina: 56%

Looking at his options, the standard move to make would be to bring in Cresselia on an Ice Beam, T-Wave something, and wear me down slowly after setting up a Light Screen. Reading what he just said though, you can see he knows that I'm not doing the most obvious moves by trying to be unpredictable. Therefore, to stay unpredictable:

Kyogre used Ice Beam.
It's super effective!
Giratina lost 56% of its health.
ggGerbil's Giratina fainted.
The rain continues to fall.
5-3
Advantage: Articanus

I must BE predictable. For those who are confused, he probably expected me to Surf just to hit his Cresselia. He was beginning to realize that his usual Switching-shenanigans were having no effect this match. So he stayed in, hoping to throw me off-guard. Had I Surfed, he would have Rested to full health, making it almost impossible to kill. I would have then been forced into the position to switch, which is only asking for him to spread status and cause damage to my entire team.

ggGerbil: good
ggGerbil switched in Dugtrio.

FUCK, didn't see him use this in out last match! T.T
Goodbye, Kyogre, you did a great job.

Dugtrio used Earthquake.
Kyogre lost 47% of its health.
Articanus's Kyogre fainted.
The rain continues to fall.
4-3
Advantage: Articanus

This could be a blessing: with no Ghosts on the opposing team, a free switch-in, and no Sand Stream, Stealth Rock, or any other kind of residual damage in play:

Articanus switched in Smeargle (lvl 1 Smeargle).

Smeargle is ready to tear this bitch up!

Dugtrio used Earthquake.
Smeargle lost 100% of its health.
Smeargle hung on using its Focus Sash!
Smeargle used Trick Room.
Smeargle twisted the dimensions!
The rain continues to fall.
Smeargle: 8%(1 HP)

Letsee.... I'll go for one at a time. Spore Smeargle!

ggGerbil switched in Cresselia.
Smeargle used Spore.
Cresselia fell asleep!
The rain continues to fall.
Cresselia: SLP

Now I'm just going to Endeavor whatever comes out(or stays in).

ggGerbil switched in Groudon.
Groudon's Drought intensified the sun's rays!
The rain stopped.
The sun began to shine!
Smeargle used Endeavor.
Groudon lost 63% of its health.
The sun continues to shine.
Groudon's leftovers restored its health a little!
Groudon restored 6% of its health.
Groudon: 7%

This could get tricky... I've had opponents try to stall me out by switching the turn I Dragon Rage. I'll Endeavor whatever he thinks can take it!

Smeargle used Endeavor.
Groudon lost 6% of its health.
Groudon used Earthquake.
Smeargle lost 8% of its health.
Articanus's Smeargle fainted.
The sun continues to shine.
Groudon's leftovers restored its health a little!
Groudon restored 6% of its health.
3-3
Groudon: 7%
Advantage: Articanus

He apparantly thought that Groudon could take the second Endeavor: and he was right. I outpredicted myself and it ended up with Smeargle dead.
Even with his death, I'm not in a tight spot: in fact, it's pretty much GG at this point.

Articanus switched in Rayquaza.

All that's left is for Rayquaza to finish it all up.

Rayquaza used Extremespeed.
Groudon lost 6% of its health.
ggGerbil's Groudon fainted.
The twisted dimensions returned to normal!
The sun continues to shine.
3-2
Advantage: Articanus

Here comes Cresselia, who walls the hell outa me.

ggGerbil switched in Cresselia.

Now to reveal my final member and endgame sweeper:

Articanus switched in Tyranitar.
Tyranitar's Sand Stream whipped up a sandstorm!
The sun faded.
A sandstorm brewed!
Cresselia is fast asleep!
The sandstorm rages.
Cresselia is buffetted by the sandstorm!
Cresselia lost 6% of its health.
Cresselia's leftovers restored its health a little!
Cresselia restored 6% of its health.
Cresselia: 100%

SUPERMAN THAT HOE!!!!.... err, I mean Crunch!

Cresselia is fast asleep!
Tyranitar used Crunch.
It's super effective!
Cresselia lost 64% of its health.
Tyranitar lost 10% of its health.
The sandstorm rages.
Cresselia is buffetted by the sandstorm!
Cresselia lost 6% of its health.
Cresselia's leftovers restored its health a little!
Cresselia restored 6% of its health.
Cresselia: 36%

Alright, so even with Moonlight, Cresselia can't recover enough HP to save its hide. Not wanting to take the chance of an(unusual) defensive Dugtrio coming in and stopping me, I'll go with(one) of my surprise moves:

Cresselia is fast asleep!
Tyranitar used Ice Beam.
Cresselia lost 21% of its health.
Tyranitar lost 10% of its health.
The sandstorm rages.
Cresselia is buffetted by the sandstorm!
Cresselia lost 6% of its health.
Cresselia's leftovers restored its health a little!
Cresselia restored 6% of its health.
Cresselia: 15%

OK, that was a waste of time. But now he's in range for the Ice Beam KO.

Cresselia is fast asleep!
Tyranitar used Ice Beam.
Cresselia lost 15% of its health.
ggGerbil's Cresselia fainted.
Tyranitar lost 10% of its health.
The sandstorm rages.
3-1
Tyranitar: 70%(Stupid Life Orb)
Advantage: Articanus

Now comes his last member:

ggGerbil switched in Dugtrio.

Hmmmm.... in retrospect, I should have Rock Polished. Then I could have Ice Beamed this little turd for the OHKO.
For those wondering what my fourth move is, it's Flamethrower.

Dugtrio used Earthquake.
It's super effective!
Tyranitar lost 70% of its health.
Articanus's Tyranitar fainted.
The sandstorm rages.
2-1
Advantage: Articanus

This is GG unless he had the hindsight to pack a Focus Sash with Stone Edge and pray for a critical hit.

Kuseru has entered the room.
Articanus switched in Rayquaza.

Sorry Kuseru, you missed all the good parts. I hope I'm wrong about the Focus Sash and critical hit....

ggGerbil: gg
Rayquaza used Extremespeed.
Dugtrio lost 100% of its health.
Dugtrio did NOT survive with Focus Sash!
Dugtrio did NOT use Stone Edge.
Dugtrio did NOT get a critical hit!
Rayquaza lost shit.
Articanus's Rayquaza did NOT faint.
ggGerbil's Dugtrio fainted.
2-0
Articanus wins!
Articanus: gg
Kuseru has left the room.
ggGerbil has left the room.


Individual Assesments

Team Articanus

Latios- Made Wobbuffet essentially(SP?) useless with a powerful Draco Meteor.
Overall Chaos: 81%, no KOs, 0 Assists

Kyogre- Dealt two Ice Beams to Giratina, both requiring prediction. It finished off Wobbuffet after Latios' devestating blow. Also crippled Groudon, who could have easily ran through this team after a Swords Dance.
Overall Chaos: 193%, 2 KOs, 2 Assists

Rayquaza- By forcing out many of Kyogre's counters, Kyogre was able to keep his fully-powered assault of Water Spouts with free switch-ins. A predicted Earthquake took care of Heatran who generally gave me problems in previous matches. Two Extremespeeds sealed the deal for the match, eliminating both Groudon(but then, a Caterpie's Tackle would have done the same) and Dugtrio(who was probably locked into a Ground move anyway).
Overall Chaos: 206%, 3 KOs, 2 Assists

Tyranitar- Killed a sleeping Cresselia. Didn't do anything else really, it didn't even force a switch.
Overall Chaos: 100%, 1 KO, 0 Assists

Smeargle- It put Cresselia to sleep, crippling it for a guaranteed end-game. It also Endeavored Groudon, easily putting it into CB Caterpie range. Too bad I didn't have one on me. It also forced a switch to Giratina, which was met by Kyogre and promptly Ice Beamed.
Overall Chaos: 69(aka OVER 9000)%, 0 KOs, 2 Assists

Dialga- It forced a switch to Groudon. Otherwise, it did nothing except take a random Thunder Wave.
Overall Chaos: 0%, 0 KOs, 2 Assists

Complete Chaos: 649%

Team ggGerbil

Wobbuffet- Killed off Latios first turn for a great start. Also became a great sacrifice later on. Shouldn't have switched once Kyogre came out. It would have worked better to have kept it in, saw the Ice Beam, the brought in Heatran for a free Stealth Rock. This by itself would have probably won ggGerbil the match.

Giratina and Heatran- They were the Testimony against Level one usage in ubers. All switches made to and from them were highly predictable. A resist? I'm coming in! A threat? I'm outa here!

Cresselia- Thunder Waved my Dialga. Should have let Groudon sleep and kept her awake. Then should have brought Dugtrio on Endeavor and Sucker Punched(assuming you had it).

Groudon- Kept me away from switching in fear of a Swords Dance sweep, and dealt a blow to Kyogre that crippled it into KO range for Dugtrio later. It stayed in on Smeargle and finished it off. Read above about sleep.

Dugtrio- Revenge killed Kyogre and Tyranitar. Read two above about Sucker Punch.

Pros

* Match was fast-paced.
* Lots of good predictions.
* It was fun!

Cons

* A bit lopsided.
* Dialga didn't do much.
* Other player didn't [get a chance to] make any predictions.

Final Lineup

Team Articanus


Team ggGerbil
 
Very nice battle, I see you dropped your BrightPowder on Smeargle, a pretty smart choice, lol. Very nice predictions all the way througout, I just wish that we could've seen ggGerbil showcase some of that skill you kept mentioning.

Oh well, nice commentary, sweet team and a good hax-free Game.

EDIT: It's spelt "Essentially"
 

JabbaTheGriffin

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tbh it's lame when people predict a switchin based on previous matches.
Are you just supposed to ignore information that you already have ?_?

i can see how it's lame if you're using a different team, because you then have a flat out advantage. but in this situation they both knew each other's teams so I think that actually makes the match more interesting from the get-go.
 
I just wish that we could've seen ggGerbil showcase some of that skill you kept mentioning.
Yeah, trust Articanus to warstory the match in which he outpredicted me on almost every turn, but seriously I thoroughly enjoyed playing this match despite the loss (in case you didn't know, I'm ggGerbil on Shoddy).

In all honesty I'm not all that skillful (I've just got into Ubers), I'm just using an unorthodox team that people aren't used to so I'm netting plenty of surprise wins. After this though I'll probably have to use a new team as everyone will know what my team does lol!

Anyway, enough of my ramblings. Congrats Articanus on a match well played!
 
Very nice battle, I see you dropped your BrightPowder on Smeargle
it was the strangest thing.... it only worked on you!
;P

tbh it's lame when people predict a switchin based on previous matches.
It's not like I changed my entire t....
oh wait, Jabba beat me to it.

Yeah, trust Articanus to warstory the match in which he outpredicted me on almost every turn
I was more posting it to show how, even if a team was built better than yours, you can easily overcome it though smart playing.

pretty good
thanks, and congrats on getting first on the uber ladder. You were the first person to face the wrath of my Smeargle(back in the days with Solrock ;D).

Thanks for all the fast responses guys! I hope to see more comments. I also added a lot of analysis at the end, and I hope to add more by the end of the night.
 
Makes me want to get into Ubers! Interesting teams, Dialga didn't do much, but your Smeagle set was cool.

I actually think that when opponents know each other's teams it makes the match more interesting. Mind games become so much more important.
 
Interesting. I saw your team on Smashboards, and I was curious how a battle would turn out.

I always really wanted to try ubers, but I never have time to really get into it.
 
Interesting. I saw your team on Smashboards, and I was curious how a battle would turn out.

I always really wanted to try ubers, but I never have time to really get into it.
You should try shoddy. That's an easy way to get into it.

It's not that hard to get in the top 100 either: playing 2 hours with a half-decent win rate would be enough.

But yeah, the team has gone through revisions even after I posted it.
 
Pretty good. I like the Smeargle tactic, it was pretty awesome. The ending was good with how Rayquazza did NOT get raped.
 
Arg I hate that smeargle -.-

Cool warstory though.
Your not the only one. And some people don't even realize it's lvl 1, making them do switches that allows me to rack easy kills. It took out 5 people, allowing for an easy Sweep from Rayquaza.

Anyway, thanks for all the feedback guys! I'm actually thinking about making a peer edit for the set, since it was copy+pasted from the ADV Smeargle analysis. In fact, I am thinking about trying to redo the whole analysis, since it doesn't apply to DP that much with Scarfs and Priority moves everywhere.
 

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