Background
After a hiatus of about 6 months, I finally decided to get back onto Netbattle (Yes, NB, not Shoddy, N-E-T-B-A-T-T-L-E), and lo and behold, Netbattle wasn't functioning anymore. After all the glorious years that it has spent on my desktop, it had finally been discarded into the trash can, a sorrowful end for a programme that had once been the premier simulator. Instead, there was a new kid on the block, NBSupremacy. I logged on, but discovered that, to my dismay, everyone was using a DP team. I did still use my 4-year-old Adv team to some success, but it enjoyed none of the brilliant sweeps that it could have pulled off 2 years ago. I decided, finally, that it was time to get into DP.
And so, I built my very first DP team after reading some articles and analyses on the Smogon pages. It is exactly what the team description says, "a bunch of pokemons thrown together randomly". I didn't exercise any conscious synergy or teamwork into the teambuilding process, and just wanted to get into the action as soon as possible. Stall wasn't really my type of game, so I decided on a fast paced, offensive team that would work its defense through resistances.
I quickly discovered that I still retained some of my old pokemoning skills. Though adapting to a completely new metagame was challenging, it built upon what I've learnt in all my times of Adv'ing. I started winning, more, and more. NB didn't prove to hold the most challenging of battlers, but this match had a different flavour to it than most. Feigning disorder is a mantra of Sun Tzu, whereby he advised generals to heighten the enemy's self-confidence through pretence of weakness, and strike at the least expected moment. This battle is exactly that. Without further ado, I present...
Team ZeroPlan
Yep, the team with no conscious synergy in it. ZeroPlan was what I typed into the name field when I saved it, basically because it was a random team built out of pure randomness, and I love it. =)
The War
As you probably would have guessed by now, I'm using the standard Leadape, swiped right from the SmogonDex. Fake Out/Stealth Rock/Fire Blast/Close Combat with a Focus Sash. It has served me well in the battles that I've had, and was generally a spectacular lead. Starmie, however, was quite rightfully the bane of its existence, outspeeding me and resisting both STABs. I decided that Infernape was expandable and I didn't really require SR for this team to function (it was, after all, EVed without any damage calculations factored in). If I use Infernape to scout the opponent's appraisal of my own skill level though, not only would I get a good idea of his skill level, but also set up a sense of superiority in him that I could abuse in time to come.
With that in mind, I calmly click the Stealth Rock button the next turn as Starmie breaks my Sash with Surf.
The following turn is the crucial turn.
Although he might not have realized it, my opponent's comments went a long way in telling me about him as a battler. He loves to showboat about outsmarting his opponent, and he probably thinks that he outpredicted me by leaps and bounds in getting that Rapid Spin off. In his opinion, I'm probably not an experienced or skilled battler. That works to my favour, so I'll take it.
Starmie though, does pose a decent threat to my team, because I still don't know the auxiliary attacking move that it packs alongside Surf. My opponent expects that I'm not on the same level as him, so...
Tyranitar comes in to pose a dilemma for Starmie. Stay in and get Crunched, or switch out and get Pursuited? I took some time to digest those thoughts, and decided that my opponent probably doesn't believe that I could predict his switch, and hit the Pursuit button.
And it pays off. Nothing like sweet revenge. What will my opponent send out now?
Though CBTar is definitely a force to be reckoned with, Pursuiting a Skarmory switch-in is not its forte. No worries, though, as Gengar is perfectly poised to come in and force Skarmory out at the same time with the threat of a powerful Thunderbolt. Skarmory is obviously going out.
My opponent sends in a Spiritomb in an attempt to neutralize the threat, taking a hefty 39% from Thunderbolt in the process, which, considering my Gengar is neither Orb'd nor Spec'd, is pretty impressive.
Anticipating a switch on my part, Spiritomb uses Calm Mind, but not before taking another 37% from Thunderbolt. My opponent is visibly surprised from the continued onslaught, pausing for a long while before making his next move. The reason that I didn't switch out was because that none of my other pokemon would have liked a Will-o-Wisp to the face, which is what I expected Spiritomb to use in the first place. In addition, even if it had killed me with Shadow Ball, I could have easily picked it off with Salamence or Mamoswine. This situation, however, was totally unexpected, but favours me immensely.
Gengar kills off Spiritomb while only losing 12.5% of its health to the Sandstorm. LALALA's "no fucking way" here gives more insight into his psyche. He had expected to win that bout. And me doing so, apparently by spamming attacks like every other newbie, unsettled him. It went against his instincts, I shouldn't have won that, he was the superior player, he predicted my switch, but he lost.
Nevertheless, he appears to regain his composure after a slight delay, and responds with...
Heatran, especially the Choice Scarf version, is problematic for my team as well, since Tyranitar is really the only member on this team capable of taking more than 2 attacks from it. I doubt my opponent want to predict my switch to Tyranitar and use Earth Power, since from what I've shown I'm likely to continue Thunderbolting. Me switching to Tyranitar, on the other hand, is an obvious enough move, and probably wouldn't arouse suspicion on my opponent's part.
From that damage, I conclude that the Heatran isn't a Spec'd or Orb'd version, and that it's most likely a ScarfTran, given that it came in on Gengar without knowing my Gengar's item.
Heatran isn't going to stay in on Tyranitar, regardless of its hold item, and I ponder my options. Pursuit isn't going to dent Heatran in the slightest, and Earthquake is probably the expected move. Whatever my opponent switches in is probably resistant or immune to Earthquake, and generally hardy enough to withstand a attack or two. Skarmory seemed like the perfect choice. I could, of course, just do a double switch, but I didn't want to spoil my strategy of feigning incompetence this fast, so Stone Edge it is.
Well well well, that train of thought didn't seem to matter now did it. Continued Stone Edges would just be Spikes fodder for Skarmory. It might learn from its mistake and try to Brave Bird or Drill Peck my Gengar if I try to get it in again. Salamence would be a better choice now due to Intimidate and a Fire Blast to scare Skarmory away.
Skarmory got its second layer of Spikes down while Salamence comes out to take Tyranitar's place. What would LALALA switch in to counter Salamence? My most likely move would be Fire Blast...and from what I've seen of his team so far, he would most likely try to use Heatran, which I assume is Scarved, to absorb the Fire Blast and threaten with a HP Ice or a Dragon Pulse. Earthquake would catch that perfectly...
Or not. Zapdos...what could this be packing? Since he sent it in to take a predicted Fire Blast, it is probably a Specially defensive version. Predicting a Thunderbolt or a Thunder Wave, I go to my trusty Mamoswine...
Oh what a bad move that is. My lack of experience with the DP metagame is showing. A Substitute Zapdos that is specially defensive...well it's probably some variant with Roost and...well I hope it's Hidden Power Ice. Although I knew that Sandstream granted Tyranitar a 1.5x boost in SpDef, I didn't want to get it in at this stage as it needs all the HP it can muster to check Heatran.
So Zapdos now has Heat Wave to play with as well? Once again not being familiar with the DP(P?) movesets and changes put me at a disadvantage. At least that Substitute is broken. Tyranitar, it's time for you to take the stage.
I frantically tried to undo the move the moment I clicked it. If Stone Edge missed even once, Zapdos could possibly kill my whole team from there. I can't switch out either. Keeping my fingers crossed...
The God of Fortune must be watching over me then. Stone Edge broke another Substitute, and on the Roost...
For those of you wondering why Stone Edge did so little. I realised just today that Tyranitar wasn't EV'd properly >__>. It was the Netbattle default of 85 EVs in every stat.
Due to a bug in Netbattle, once a Pokemon is killed by residue damage, the opponent gets a free turn. Not wanting to use up the Stone Edge and get locked into Struggle, I switch Tyranitar out for Salamence.
Bad choice. Mamoswine come in to threaten a KO with Ice Shard. This is very very bad for me. Mamoswine could easily KO my whole team if I made the wrong move. Tyranitar isn't going to do jack to Heatran now, so I made it Ice Shard fodder.
Now, my goal is to let Gengar get in and not be in KO range for Ice Shard and the subsequent Sandstorm. I switch in Salamence to get the free Intimidate off. From here, I could hopefully get to Empoleon on the Ice Shard, and then switch Gengar in on Earthquake. And all this time, rack up some Life Orb damage on Mamoswine so it could be in the kill range for Focus Blast Gengar.
Step one complete.
Step two complete. Now its Focus Blast time.
Ugh. I would have killed Heatran if that and my following hit both connected. Well, I guess 70% does bite sometimes. Nothing on my team can take a Fire Blast so I'll just let Gengar do as much damage as possible before dying.
That confirms my suspicion that Heatran is Scarved. In the next 10 seconds however, I completely forgot about this fact.
Salamence comes in and tries to Earthquake Heatran, assuming that it wouldn't switch out because of it's imminent death at 10% health anyway. Instead, Skarmory comes in to completely devastate my last hopes of winning. Heatran would outspeed Salamence and Empoleon once it comes back in, and Dragon Pulse/Earth Power would make short work of both of them. Mamoswine does the same thing by bypassing Salamence's speed with Ice Shard and outspeeding Empoleon. It really seemed like all hope was lost.
Unless...
My plan works out splendidly. For those who still haven't grasped why I made those moves, my only chance of winning right now is to Agility with Empoleon before Heatran or Mamoswine show their face. My only chance to do that is to keep Skarmory alive and let Salamence die. I Earthquaked the first turn to make it seem like I'm trying to predict hopelessly, as well as prevent the possibility of LALALA wanting to switch either Heatran or Mamoswine in. Of course, if he realised what my plan was, he could simply sacrifice Heatran to the Earthquake and let Mamoswine get a free switch in. My glimmer of hope depended on that he is celebrating his victory early and not paying attention to what my Empoleon could do.
Now I still get a decent chance at winning. However, if any of LALALA's attacks crit, I would still lose.
Skarmory is all but dead now.
I'm still holding my breath for if Ice Shard kills me, it would have all been for naught.
Holy shit. Empoleon hangs on by the skin of its beak and manages to secure the KO on Mamoswine. It's good game now.
LALALA's Team
Well that's it, hope you enjoyed the story. Now spit out those comments =)
PS: Yea I know about my lack of experience in DP, started less than a week ago so yep, still trying to adjust.
Edit: As per suggestions, my opponent's name has now been replaced by LALALA x)
