War Soap vs. Giygas' Soldiers

[Ashenlock]

EDIT:Before the mass confusion, yes, this is a Double Battle warstory.

Note: I gave StarmanXL’s side a romanticized name because I couldn’t think of the title. Starman, if you want me to change it back or take it off, just PM me and I’ll do it right away.​

Note: Dialogue was omitted from this battle log.​

I was chilling on PO, waiting for a rare double battle, when I see StarmanXL on, who I know from the forums is a Double Battle aficionado. I haven’t had a battle in a while and I really want to pick his brain and see his strategies, so I ask for a battle. He kindly accepts. I give team War Soap a little pep talk before sending them into the fray.​

<<<--War Soap vs Giygas' Soldiers -->>>




Battle between StarmanXL and Sirk started!​

Tier: Standard OU
Rule: Unrated​

Sirk sent out Thundurus!
StarmanXL sent out Dusknoir!
Sirk sent out Whimsicott!
StarmanXL sent out Hariyama!
The foe's Dusknoir is exerting its Pressure!​

At this point, I am pretty certain of his team’s theme. There was no pre-team check as far as I recall, but, as a general and somewhat obvious rule, in double battles, you can usually forecast the theme of the team by the two starting pokemon. It’s a very fast-paced metagame and such things as “suicide leads” seldom take the stage because of the opportunity cost: Are your stealth rocks worth the Trick Room the foe set up in that time? You Belly Drum’d and got +6 Attack, but the opponent KO’d the other teammate while you were doing it--was it worth it? etc. Not that these have specific answers, only they are very important questions to consider when teambuilding.​

Starman is running a Trick Room team, one of or perhaps the premier environmental-change-based teams of Gen IV and still going strong in Gen V. He is leading with Dusknoir and Hariyama; I only have experience using the latter, but I know what a force he is in Trick Room, and that Dusknoir is going to set it up right away. Hariyama will surely Fake Out one of my leads, but which? Whimsicott is the stereotypical “shut-down” pokemon, so he’ll go for him, but he might think I’d try to Thunder Dusknoir and hope for a critical or paralysis... For a moment I consider using both of my leads’ Taunts on him to be sure, but I reconsider, a fortunate move as I am about to find.​

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Start of turn 1​

vs.

The foe's Hariyama used Fake Out!
Thundurus lost 70 HP! (23% of its health)​

Thundurus flinched!​

Whimsicott used Light Screen!
Light Screen raised Sirk's team special defense slightly!​

The foe's Dusknoir used Trick Room!
The foe's Dusknoir twisted the dimensions!​

I didn’t get to set up Rain as I wanted to, but I got one of my two gambits done, and my team is no worse for the wear. Anyhow, I’m certain that I can foil his setup with ease, and get my Rain Dance done at the same time. But I decide that’s too risky. If I Rain Dance now, Thundurus might get KO’d right afterwards and I’d have only just returned the twisted dimensions to normal. So I use my pseudo-Protect to buy a little time while I fix things for my team.​

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Start of turn 2​

vs.

Whimsicott used Encore!
The foe's Dusknoir received an encore!
The foe's Dusknoir used its white herb to come back to his senses!​

Thundurus used Substitute!
Thundurus made a substitute!​

The foe's Dusknoir used Rock Slide!
It's super effective!
Thundurus's substitute faded!
Whimsicott lost 47 HP! (14% of its health)​

The foe's Hariyama used Close Combat!
Whimsicott lost 223 HP! (68% of its health)
The foe's Hariyama's Defense fell!
The foe's Hariyama's Sp. Def. fell!​

I did NOT see that coming at all. Clearly Starman had more than a Fake Out user in mind to ensure and defend his Trick Room status. Now Dusknoir has used a different move, an attack move to be specific, and neither Taunt nor Encore is going to be particularly effective. Fortunately I’m running a bulky Whimsicott and he survives the Close Combat, but he’s not useful for much more right now. Besides the moves mentioned or used, he has Endeavor, which because of his high Speed stat will probably move last, yet is better than switching out to a healthy, more delicate sweeper with full HP. In the meanwhile, Thundurus needs to get to work with what he’s supposed to have done on Turn 1. My choices made, I continue:​

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Start of turn 3​

vs.

Thundurus used Rain Dance!
It started to rain!​

The foe's Dusknoir used Rock Slide!
It's super effective!
Thundurus lost 136 HP! (45% of its health)
A critical hit!
Whimsicott lost 54 HP! (16% of its health)
Whimsicott fainted!​

The foe's Hariyama used Close Combat!
It's not very effective...
Thundurus lost 19 HP! (6% of its health)
The foe's Hariyama's Defense fell!
The foe's Hariyama's Sp. Def. fell!​

Thundurus fainted!​

Rain continues to fall!​

Sirk sent out Ambipom!​

Sirk sent out Jellicent!​

That went a little less well than expected, although a quick glance at the log would have reminded me of Rock Slide. At this point I am more than a little behind ratio-wise at 4-6, but my Rain and Light Screen are going strong thanks to Damp Rock and Light Clay whereas Trick Room is halfway done. Even if there were a Trick Room-extension item it probably would not be worth the opportunity cost of the various other items like Lum Berry and of course White Herb, which stop the Follow Me-immune Dark Void (In the VGC ‘11 case) or Encore (in my case).​

My choice of pokemon looks a little questionable, but at the time I had two main thoughts: preserve the main Swift Swimmer, and stall out Trick Room. Ambipom can help both of those, and Jellicent can... well, hurt stuff in the meantime. The non-Faked Out pokemon of the two (obviously Dusknoir, being a ghost) can’t hurt both of them, excepting Rock Slide which won’t do enough to be really threatening. I’m hoping he recognizes this and sticks to Ambipom, who doesn’t have Water Spout handy.​

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Start of turn 4​

vs.

StarmanXL called Hariyama back!​

StarmanXL sent out Parasect!​

Ambipom used Fake Out!
The foe's Parasect lost 35% of its health!
Ambipom is hurt by its Life Orb!​

The foe's Dusknoir used Will-O-Wisp!
Ambipom was burned!​

Jellicent used Water Spout!
The foe's Dusknoir lost 79% of its health!
The foe's Parasect restored HP using its Dry Skin!
Jellicent is hurt by its Life Orb!​

Rain continues to fall!​

The foe's Parasect restored HP using its Dry Skin!​

Ambipom is hurt by its burn!​

Argh! I did not see Dry Skin Parasect coming. But Starman certainly saw Fake Out coming, and Rain Dance too when he was teambuilding, because Parasect is (I now know) a bane of my team. He’s weak to several types, only one of which I have on my team, the user of which is not out right now. Not only that, the monkey who could conceivably stop him with Last Resort is burned now. And Jellicent’s Ice Beam was switched out for Hydro Pump earlier, so the best he can do is Shadow Ball.​

But the show must go on. I decide to take out Dusknoir while I can, IF Parasect lets me, and a nagging suspicion tells me he won’t.​

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Start of turn 5​

vs.

StarmanXL called Dusknoir back!​

StarmanXL sent out Kumatora! (Slowking)​

The foe's Parasect used Spore!
Jellicent fell asleep!​

Jellicent is fast asleep!​

Ambipom used Last Resort!
The foe's Parasect lost 46% of its health!
Ambipom is hurt by its Life Orb!​

Rain continues to fall!​

The foe's Parasect restored HP using its Dry Skin!​

The foe's Parasect restored a little HP using its Leftovers!​

Ambipom is hurt by its burn!​

The twisted dimensions returned to normal!​

That suspicion was right. I’m carrying Life Orb on Jellicent because Surf would ordinarily recover the lost HP *if* I was paired up with a Surfer. I’m not.​

But there are other important factors at play: Trick Room has expired, and Starman recognized this, because he sent in Slowking to put it right back in motion. It is imperative that I stop that from happening if I want more than a snowball’s chance in hell: Rain and Light Screen will be gone by the time the second Trick Room is gone and I’ll have no way to renew them, AND I don’t run Protect on this team to stall out the twisted dimensions, so conceitedly certain was I that I could shut down any Trick Room attempt from the start. So I cross my fingers and focus my forces on Slowking.​

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Start of turn 6​

vs.

StarmanXL called Parasect back!​

StarmanXL sent out Shibirudon! (Eelektross)​

Ambipom used Last Resort!
The foe's Kumatora lost 40% of its health!
Ambipom is hurt by its Life Orb!​

Jellicent woke up!
Jellicent used Shadow Ball!
It's super effective!
The foe's Kumatora lost 59% of its health!
The foe's Kumatora fainted!
Jellicent is hurt by its Life Orb!​

Rain continues to fall!​

Ambipom is hurt by its burn!​

StarmanXL sent out Metagross!​

Yes! Evidently the finger crossing works because Starman’s healthy Trick Roomer is down and out. Meanwhile he has made another switch and saved me from any side damage incurred in the meanwhile. These were probably the most reasonable moves he could make, and earlier decisions tell me he does not make moves on a whim, or else his whims are always logical. He probably wanted to preserve Parasect because of his usefulness against my team, and for that I can’t fault him. However, Sleep ran out as soon as it could, and Trick Room was denied an encore.​

Metagross comes out in his stead. Metagross has higher base speed than Jellicent but is surely going for the lowest speed possible, unless he’s a failsafe against unsuccessful Trick Room attempts. Either way, I’m rather limited on move choices, and I’m not interested in switching right yet.​

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Start of turn 7​

vs.

The foe's Metagross used Bullet Punch!
Ambipom lost 96 HP! (32% of its health)
Ambipom fainted!​

Jellicent used Water Spout!
The foe's Metagross lost 76% of its health!
The foe's Shibirudon lost 98% of its health!
Jellicent is hurt by its Life Orb!​

The foe's Shibirudon used Wild Charge!
It's super effective!
Jellicent lost 240 HP! (70% of its health)
The foe's Shibirudon is hit with recoil!
The foe's Shibirudon fainted!
Jellicent fainted!​

Rain continues to fall!​

Sirk sent out Ludicolo!​

StarmanXL sent out Parasect!​

Sirk sent out Kingdra!​

This was a productive turn for me. I was a little worried about ThunderPunch, which would have been pretty counterproductive to Water Spout, but instead he took out the already crippled Ambipom. Now I can complete the Swift Swim + Swift Swim combo which is equally predictable and dangerous. But there is that damn Parasect again, and the boon of Surf + mutual 4x water resistance isn’t going to be worth much if not only merely one opponent takes damage, but the other opponent actually heals from it. However, I *can* take care of Parasect while I cut down Metagross.​

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Start of turn 8​

vs.

Ludicolo used Fake Out!
The foe's Parasect lost 9% of its health!
Ludicolo is hurt by its Life Orb!​

Kingdra used Waterfall!
The foe's Metagross lost 23% of its health!
The foe's Metagross fainted!
Kingdra is hurt by its Life Orb!​

The foe's Parasect flinched!​

Sirk's light screen wore off!​

Rain continues to fall!​

The foe's Parasect restored HP using its Dry Skin!​

The foe's Parasect restored a little HP using its Leftovers!​

StarmanXL sent out Hariyama!​

Not much to say hat hasn’t been said. I’m not too happy that Parasect is both drinking my rain and eating its leftovers, or that Light Screen is out, but I’m a little more self-confident now that things are rolling my way. Hariyama will no doubt follow Ludicolo’s example and stop one of us two. I can’t tell which, but my choices wouldn’t change either way, so I make them quickly and watch what unfolds.​

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Start of turn 9​

vs.

The foe's Hariyama used Fake Out!
Kingdra lost 56 HP! (19% of its health)​

Kingdra flinched!​

Ludicolo used Hydro Pump!
The foe's Hariyama lost 100% of its health!
The foe's Hariyama fainted!
Ludicolo is hurt by its Life Orb!​

The foe's Parasect used Spore!
Kingdra fell asleep!​

Rain continues to fall!​

The foe's Parasect restored HP using its Dry Skin!​

The foe's Parasect restored a little HP using its Leftovers!​

StarmanXL sent out Dusknoir!​

The foe's Dusknoir is exerting its Pressure!​

Kingdra’s Ice Beam ---> Parasect got stopped, but Hydro Pump did a nice, round 100%. Evidently Starman knows that Kingdra is my last--and only--Ice Beamer and Grass counter, or he wouldn’t have both Faked Out and Spored Kingdra to stop him cold. Parasect has been like a rock this whole match, which I’ve had to maneuver around awkwardly like an elephant in the room. Maybe Kingdra will have the same luck Jellicent had and wake up posthaste.​

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Start of turn 10​

vs.

Kingdra is fast asleep!​

Ludicolo used Hydro Pump!
A critical hit!​

The foe's Dusknoir lost 20% of its health!
The foe's Dusknoir fainted!
Ludicolo is hurt by its Life Orb!​

The foe's Parasect used Seed Bomb!
Ludicolo lost 114 HP! (33% of its health)​

The rain stopped!​

The foe's Parasect restored a little HP using its Leftovers!​

Well, it’s 2-1 now, but essentially 1-1 with the power of Spore. Rain is now gone, but both of my Swift Swimmers are faster than Parasect anyway, and neither of them will use a Water attack. I almost laugh when I remember Ludicolo has two water attacks and one grass attack, and only the latter of the two is going to do anything. A sense of irony tells me that this time Spore is going to stick around a while longer.​

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Start of turn 11​

vs.

Kingdra is fast asleep!​

Ludicolo used Energy Ball!
It's not very effective...
The foe's Parasect lost 10% of its health!
Ludicolo is hurt by its Life Orb!​

The foe's Parasect used Seed Bomb!
Ludicolo lost 93 HP! (27% of its health)
Ludicolo fainted!​

The foe's Parasect restored a little HP using its Leftovers!​

The duel ends, as my opponent had a better weapon. Or rather, better armor; the equally powerful Energy Ball and Seed Bomb have completely different outcomes when one pokemon is 75% resistant to it and the other is 0%.​

Now it’s *really* a duel, as sleep is bound to end now. The big question is: Ice Beam or Draco Meteor? I usually reserve Draco Meteor for situations like this, where it hits harder than supereffective Ice Beam, but if it doesn’t hit or doesn’t KO the match is his.​

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Start of turn 12​

vs.

Kingdra woke up!
Kingdra used Ice Beam!
It's super effective!
The foe's Parasect lost 75% of its health!
Kingdra is hurt by its Life Orb!​

The foe's Parasect used Seed Bomb!
Kingdra lost 91 HP! (31% of its health)​

The foe's Parasect restored a little HP using its Leftovers!​

As I see how this match is going to end, I realize that Starman could have shut me down again with Spore and if I had been asleep for two or more turns, the game was his. Well, no time to feel lucky.​

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Start of turn 13​

vs.

Kingdra used Ice Beam!
It's super effective!
The foe's Parasect lost 26% of its health!
The foe's Parasect fainted!
Kingdra is hurt by its Life Orb!​

　
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This was one of the most fun Double Battles I’ve had, and that in addition to the good insight into two different popular doubles team-styles made me want to make a warstory out of it. Double battles aren’t the most well-received metagame, but I hope this will pique some interest in the Smogon community. Many of us want to compete in VGC ‘11 and while this was done in Standard OU, perhaps it can help in teambuilding and strategizing in that tier too.​

Props:
-Team was built to handle the enemy threat.
-Successful setup from early in the battle.
-Pokemon switches were made at least decently well, preserving the sweepers till the end.​

Slops:
-My opponent knew how to counter my countering of his Trick Room better than I knew how to counter it.
-Did not predict my opponent’s switches at all, and less than half of his total moves.
-Moves were hastily made and Starman saw that, and utilized Parasect to its fullest.
-Team War Soap lacked counters to what would obviously counter rain, and nearly lost for it.​

Hope y’all enjoy. If anything’s not clear, please tell me so I can edit it.​

 

[Benlisted]

Horray for the first doubles warstory! And a very nice one at that - well written, well commentated and pretty tense, as any TR/Rain showdown would be. Shows off both teamstyles excellently, as well as the diversity of the meta and the inventiveness of in particular your opponent's team in order to better deal with the metagame.

Would've loved to see this as a double commentary tbh, but we can't have everything. Curious as to why you didn't use Politoed btw? Anyway, well done and very much hope to see more from you.

 

[Ashenlock]

Thank you very much Benlisted! To answer your question, this team was in Standard OU, and while I didn't try Politoed I imagine it wouldn't be allowed even though it was a double battle team.

There are other reasons though. For one, Thundurus can set up Rain after Tyranitar, Hippowdon, Abomasnow, or Ninetales have come out as a lead and cancel it out. Another reason is Thundurus' double functioning as a shutdown lead and a valuable Thunder user. The main reason perhaps is that I want to mimic what I am able to make ingame most easily, because I intend to make whatever team works on PO as a Global Battle Union team, and I already have a Thundurus ingame.

 

[LeviLamprey]

Nice battle, that Parasect really was a force though. It was quite fast-paced but you explained yourself very well. However, I felt that the underprediction really hurt your battle. Regardless, a pretty nice (and rare) Double Battle Warstory. 8.75/10 ^_^

 

[StarmanXL]

Lol no need to romanticize me so much dude; I'm just some guy who likes to play doubles, not a savant at it or anything.

Anyway nice commentary, and I enjoyed the battle. I have to admit I played too recklessly with my Eelektross when I coulda made much better use of Parasect midgame. Honestly near the end I choose my target at random with Parasect, as I thought that I was boned either way at that point (surprised your Ludicolo didn't run IB!). Oh well.

Also this story reminds me that I need to give the rest of my team Mother-related names.

 

[ginganinja]

Nice well written warstory. I quite enjoyed it!

 

[Its_A_Random]

In agreement with the others, this was a very good warstory, one of the better ones around. The battle was excellent, & some really good in depth commentary. Good Job! Hope to see more from you in the future. 9/10.

 

[His Eminence Lord Poppington II]

Finally, a decent warstory, an lesser seen format as well. Bravo. Starman switched a lot for a VGC match though, and that parasect seems like a rather niche counter, as it doesn't operate particularly well under TR, with such a low damage output.

 

[Lork]

i really enjoyed this man

 

[Splendiferous]

Parasect was uber strong in vgc'10. Nice to see it again.

 

[Friar]

Nice warstory! It was cool how the two strategies were working against each other the whole game. Nice battle and nice commentary especially, congrats ^_^

I'm intrigued by the use of Water Spout on Water Absorb Jellicent with a Surfing partner, cool idea.

 

[min min]

But under Trick Room Parasect has quite a fast Spore.

As for the warstory, I'd give it 10/10 for the format, commentary, haxlessness, good match, and obscure metagame. It was partly due to the LC warstories in Stark that boosted the tier's popularity, and I think this will be great in promoting doubles usage. Great work, keep it coming!

 

[Sprocket]

Finally, a decent warstory, an lesser seen format as well. Bravo. Starman switched a lot for a VGC match though, and that parasect seems like a rather niche counter, as it doesn't operate particularly well under TR, with such a low damage output.

This wasn't a VGC match, this was a doubles OU match.

 

[Ashenlock]

Thanks very much for the commentary folks. I don't know if this is the first double battle story off of PO, but it's not the first on Smogon. In summer 2007 somebody whose name eludes me wrote a story about a Gamestop tournament, and chronicled all of his matches up to the top. He beat all-uber teams with under used pokemon; it was pretty epic. Just thought I'd mention it because it was an inspiration that made me start doing double battles and this story wouldn't exist without it.

@StarmanXL: I didn't mean to over-romanticize you, but going through the logs and writing up the commentary did make me realize that you were a very strategic opponent. The only move I didn't understand was Seed Bomb over Spore in the end, but as you said you thought it was over and didn't expect Ludicolo not to have Ice Beam. I thought you played better than me and so I didn't want to make this story appear biased towards myself, as stories told in the first person usually are by default

Incidentally, after I had finished everything including the title I looked down and realized I was wearing my Giygas shirt! (Yes, there is actually a Giygas shirt) I didn't realize it when I made up a name for your team. Just a little bit of trivia.

If y'all think it would be better to have the teams' HP levels posted or (Double Battle) in the title, just tell me, though I don't know if I'm allowed to edit my title if its nothing serious. Thanks again for the praise, I've never done a warstory before and was happy to see it went over well.

 

[sarunibi]

I rate this 10/10 simply for Parasect and the fact that it is a doubles match.

I think this is the first time that I've ever seen anyone use Parasect seriously in an OU match. Unfortunately for Parasect, it has always carried an infamous reputation for "sucking", but seeing it own in a match changes things completely. Parasect was always one of my favorites since the 1st generation, but it was difficult to utilize it. Now I've got a desire to breed a good one in my games after seeing how useful it can be.

This is truly one of the best examples of how nearly any pokemon can earn you a win if you just learn how to utilize them properly instead of just focusing on base stats and its tier ranking. Kudos to both of you in the match.

 

[Benlisted]

@ the above - Parasect has actually been the poster child of Rain Stall for some time, which is a rarely used but viable playstyle in singles (Johnathan got voting rights with it in at least the last round). Can stall like a mofo even there, give it a shot.

 

[TheMaskedNitpicker]

Nice warstory! Well-played on both sides, although Starman, I'm surprised you didn't focus your fire on the sleeping Kingdra rather than the Ludicolo. I suppose you didn't know for sure that Ludicolo didn't have Ice Beam.

On a side note, this battle also reaffirms by belief that Item Clause is a good idea. You had at least four Life Orbs on your team, right Ashenlock?

EDIT: Oh, hey, Ashenlock. Have you ever considered Memento over Endeavor on Whisicott? It would serve a similar purpose of "move you use when your HP is low" but it would get the Prankster boost. If you run across a lot of situations like the one in this battle where Whimsicott gets outsped before it can use Endeavor, then maybe it's worth trying. Of course, it also makes Taunt more dangerous to you. You'd probably want to run Mental Herb if you did that.

 

[Ashenlock]

On a side note, this battle also reaffirms by belief that Item Clause is a good idea. You had at least four Life Orbs on your team, right Ashenlock?

That is correct, 4 of them. I have since reduced that number, partially because I like the item clause because it adds an angle to prediction (You know your opponent has a Choice Scarf, for instance, therefore no other pokemon has it), partially because this is a test team for the Global Battle Union where I will need to honor the item clause, but mostly because it's just fun finding new usable items for team members when you know you can't rely on the same one.

Although I am grateful for the praises, as I look over this a second time there are a lot of things I did wrong. Ambipom, for instance, was a gimmick that I immediately removed in favor of Toxicroak. A quick scroll through the pictures reminds me that I *never* switched, either. I was excited to make this battle log into a warstory because I knew I could use and describe several of Starman's useful tactics (White herb on Dusknoir, Dry Skin Parasect) to make it interesting. If I had waited a little longer, I would have gotten other logs where I played better, but alas. Anyway, thanks y'all.

 

[BKC]

Really nice commentary and interesting battle, doubles seems quite fun. 9/10

 

[SP458]

I'll be short: this warstory is great. No really big misplays (although Starman didn't try to put Kingdra to sleep instead of hitting it), very good commentary and format (percentages?). Seriously, NUs are NUs because they're hard to use, but when they're well used, they're as valuable as OUs and this warstory demonstrated that.

Format: 8/10
Battle: 9/10
Commentary: 8/10
Overall: 9/10

EDIT: When I talked about NUs, I mentionned "good" but not used Pokémon (like Slaking, Parasect or Shuckle).

 

[BARON9]

Great warstory! It's nice to see the doubles metagame receiving some love with Gen 5.

It's pretty crazy how much of a boost Mental Herb received this year...Trick Room teams are becoming increasingly harder to counter now. Then again, rain is just as difficult to counter (to me, at least) so this was a good matchup.

Your team has great synergy, but you also seem to rely heavily on speed for many of your pokemon - Jellicent's Water Spout, Kingdra/Ludicolo's Swift Swim, etc... I think that Bouffalant would be a good addition to your team (possibly over Ambipom). Herbivore provides a grass resistance (nice switch in against Parasect's Spore) and it could serve as a good poke to counter opposing TR teams with low speed, 525 Atk after a single boost!!, and even has access to Taunt.

Again, I really enjoyed this warstory - nice formatting as well!