Hey all, new forum member here!
My first experience of a Pokémon tournament in Birmingham prompted me to join Smogon for the sake of improving my game/ getting to know the larger Pokémon community. I hope that I can contribute something constructive to the lively discussions that take place here, and maybe engage some of you in some good games in my time here!
So, to begin I thought I'd share my experience of the Birmingham event/warstory from this past weekend: my party was as follows:-
Unfortunately, like 256 others last Saturday, I was knocked out in the first round! I won't deny i was disappointed: I had spent a lot of time working on my team and having come from Edinburgh to get 5 minutes' play was a blow. Here's how it went down...
After a long wait in the Master's queue (I actually made a last minute change from Dynamicpunch on Golurk to Hammer Arm while we waited), tensions were running high and i could feel the anticipation and adrenalin building. By the time we reached the battle zone, i was tangibly shaking with anxiety. After narrowly escaping being paired with my pal Chris who I'd arrived with, I was paired with a nice chap named Nathan, and we were led to our station...
Team preview revealed what I understood to be a fairly slow team- Conkeldurr, Haxorus, Eelektross, Chandelure, Golurk and Ferrothorn. After reading about the popularity of Trick Room, and having intended to use it myself, I decided to hedge my bets and select Reuniclus and Whimsicott to open, with Golurktross waiting to take advantage of Trick Room should either trainer use it.
turn one
A promising start. Nathan deploys Conkeldurr and Ferrothorn- I have Whimsicott protect while Reuniclus OHKOs Conkeldurr with psychic, after enduring an attack from him (unfortunately, ive forgotten exactly which one this was). Ferrothorn uses curse, cementing in my mind that Trick Room is coming. This is only compounded by the fact that Chandelure is next onto the field on Nathan's side.
turn two
I have Whimsicott Encore Ferrothorn's curse, and i think loudly to myself "I'm winning!" but of course this is where it all starts to go wrong. Whimsicott is OHKO'd by Chandelure's inaugural flamethrower. Reuniclus uses shadow ball on chandelure, just narrowly missing the OHKO by a sliver (highlighting the importance of proper EVs/natures- Reuniclus is my in-game Reuniclus). Ferrothorn continues to encore curse. stressed out, I send out Golurk, thinking "I'll just earthquake out of this situation!".
turn three
"Called it!" Nathan exclaims as Reuniclus protects himself from the oncoming (i hoped) earthquake. Golurk is OHKOd by shadow ball and I lose hope- it was now 3-2 in his favour and reuniclus really couldn't hope to land another hit before being KO'd as well. I send out Eelektross and await the end times.
turn four
Reuniclus is predictably destroyed by a second shadow ball barrage. Ferrothorn downed by flamethrower in one. I really need to give props to my opponent's predictions- i may have been being quite obvious but i still groaned when Eelektross' mold-breaking counter Haxorus took the stage
turns five, six and seven
Haxorus earthquakes, taking down Chandelure in the process but it is still clearly the prudent move. Surprisingly, Eelektross hangs in there with a quarter of health, firing back with Discharge but not really making a dent. Nathan, proclaming he can't afford to miss, follows up with aerial ace. As i reach to shake his hand and thank him for a good game, in a turn of events that would be echoed in the epic final later in the day, i realise Eelektross is still alive with 3 HP!. Though the use of Aerial Ace was a bad mistake on my opponent's part, it was not so grievous that it couldn't be met by one of my own: "Eelektross used GRASS KNOT!"...second aerial ace. Bam. Done. At least with a second discharge, if it hadnt scored the KO(hard to tell if it would've, initially it'd done about halfway), i couldve hoped for Hax.
I thank my opponent for a good, close game and move out of the battle zone somewhat sheepishly. I was disappointed, make no mistake, but i had learned a lot- my bad mistakes were overpredicting TR, the bad matchup with Golurk/chandelure, not having trained Reuniclus thoroughly enough, and of course that fatal imprudent grass knot. By singling out where you go wrong, i believe the potential is there to make a better go of it next time.
On the plus side, I had a really nice time at VGC Birmingham- my friend chris made it to round 4 and i got to watch his battle with Zog on the big screen, and then cheering on the frankly awesome final, the tension of that fight being only slightly undermined by the awesome dancing mascots to stage left. I even got Nathan's friend code before he left, which was awesome, nice feeling of catharsis there. I left feeling eager to up my game, meet more fantastic pokéfans and come back for VGC 2012 a better trainer :)
My first experience of a Pokémon tournament in Birmingham prompted me to join Smogon for the sake of improving my game/ getting to know the larger Pokémon community. I hope that I can contribute something constructive to the lively discussions that take place here, and maybe engage some of you in some good games in my time here!
So, to begin I thought I'd share my experience of the Birmingham event/warstory from this past weekend: my party was as follows:-
Archeops @ flying gem
Acrobatics
Fly
Rock Slide
Dragon claw
Gigalith @ Normal Gem (from in-game playthru)
Explosion
Rock Slide
Earthquake
Protect
Whimsicott @ Leftovers
Grass Knot
Taunt
Protect
Encore
Golurk @ Ground Gem
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Hammer Arm
Shadow Punch
Eelektross @ Magnet
Discharge
Charge Beam
Flamethrower
Grass Knot
Reuniclus @ Life Orb (from in-game playthru)
Psychic
Shadow Ball
Protect
Trick room
Acrobatics
Fly
Rock Slide
Dragon claw
Gigalith @ Normal Gem (from in-game playthru)
Explosion
Rock Slide
Earthquake
Protect
Whimsicott @ Leftovers
Grass Knot
Taunt
Protect
Encore
Golurk @ Ground Gem
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Hammer Arm
Shadow Punch
Eelektross @ Magnet
Discharge
Charge Beam
Flamethrower
Grass Knot
Reuniclus @ Life Orb (from in-game playthru)
Psychic
Shadow Ball
Protect
Trick room
Unfortunately, like 256 others last Saturday, I was knocked out in the first round! I won't deny i was disappointed: I had spent a lot of time working on my team and having come from Edinburgh to get 5 minutes' play was a blow. Here's how it went down...
After a long wait in the Master's queue (I actually made a last minute change from Dynamicpunch on Golurk to Hammer Arm while we waited), tensions were running high and i could feel the anticipation and adrenalin building. By the time we reached the battle zone, i was tangibly shaking with anxiety. After narrowly escaping being paired with my pal Chris who I'd arrived with, I was paired with a nice chap named Nathan, and we were led to our station...
Team preview revealed what I understood to be a fairly slow team- Conkeldurr, Haxorus, Eelektross, Chandelure, Golurk and Ferrothorn. After reading about the popularity of Trick Room, and having intended to use it myself, I decided to hedge my bets and select Reuniclus and Whimsicott to open, with Golurktross waiting to take advantage of Trick Room should either trainer use it.
turn one
A promising start. Nathan deploys Conkeldurr and Ferrothorn- I have Whimsicott protect while Reuniclus OHKOs Conkeldurr with psychic, after enduring an attack from him (unfortunately, ive forgotten exactly which one this was). Ferrothorn uses curse, cementing in my mind that Trick Room is coming. This is only compounded by the fact that Chandelure is next onto the field on Nathan's side.
turn two
I have Whimsicott Encore Ferrothorn's curse, and i think loudly to myself "I'm winning!" but of course this is where it all starts to go wrong. Whimsicott is OHKO'd by Chandelure's inaugural flamethrower. Reuniclus uses shadow ball on chandelure, just narrowly missing the OHKO by a sliver (highlighting the importance of proper EVs/natures- Reuniclus is my in-game Reuniclus). Ferrothorn continues to encore curse. stressed out, I send out Golurk, thinking "I'll just earthquake out of this situation!".
turn three
"Called it!" Nathan exclaims as Reuniclus protects himself from the oncoming (i hoped) earthquake. Golurk is OHKOd by shadow ball and I lose hope- it was now 3-2 in his favour and reuniclus really couldn't hope to land another hit before being KO'd as well. I send out Eelektross and await the end times.
turn four
Reuniclus is predictably destroyed by a second shadow ball barrage. Ferrothorn downed by flamethrower in one. I really need to give props to my opponent's predictions- i may have been being quite obvious but i still groaned when Eelektross' mold-breaking counter Haxorus took the stage
turns five, six and seven
Haxorus earthquakes, taking down Chandelure in the process but it is still clearly the prudent move. Surprisingly, Eelektross hangs in there with a quarter of health, firing back with Discharge but not really making a dent. Nathan, proclaming he can't afford to miss, follows up with aerial ace. As i reach to shake his hand and thank him for a good game, in a turn of events that would be echoed in the epic final later in the day, i realise Eelektross is still alive with 3 HP!. Though the use of Aerial Ace was a bad mistake on my opponent's part, it was not so grievous that it couldn't be met by one of my own: "Eelektross used GRASS KNOT!"...second aerial ace. Bam. Done. At least with a second discharge, if it hadnt scored the KO(hard to tell if it would've, initially it'd done about halfway), i couldve hoped for Hax.
I thank my opponent for a good, close game and move out of the battle zone somewhat sheepishly. I was disappointed, make no mistake, but i had learned a lot- my bad mistakes were overpredicting TR, the bad matchup with Golurk/chandelure, not having trained Reuniclus thoroughly enough, and of course that fatal imprudent grass knot. By singling out where you go wrong, i believe the potential is there to make a better go of it next time.
On the plus side, I had a really nice time at VGC Birmingham- my friend chris made it to round 4 and i got to watch his battle with Zog on the big screen, and then cheering on the frankly awesome final, the tension of that fight being only slightly undermined by the awesome dancing mascots to stage left. I even got Nathan's friend code before he left, which was awesome, nice feeling of catharsis there. I left feeling eager to up my game, meet more fantastic pokéfans and come back for VGC 2012 a better trainer :)
