Battle 1013 VS Office Worker Jana
We open with Vanilluxe-4 Taunting Oranguru and Gardevoir-4 Focus Blasting that slot as well. Gardevoir is oneshotted and replaced by Drifblim.
Mawile swaps out for Guru, with neither of these warranting staying; Vanilluxe Ice Beams the Guru slot and... freezes. Not only does Mawile not thaw, but instead of chipping it to death, Vanilluxe instead just Acid Armors to +6 and Taunts Spidey as well.
Araquanid OHKOs Drifblim after Gardevoir and 2HKOs Musharna-3, which Yawned Spidey before reluctantly attacking Mawile. This easily gives Spidey the Mush 2HKO and quite a bit of health before its nap.
Mawile is finally KO'd and Oranguru comes back and is allowed to set. Araquanid swaps for Drampa, confident Ice Beam will not be sent into it; some of you may recall that Vanilluxe-4 is so weak because it runs 252/252+ Calm. So, it survives the two Flamethrowers and fails to KO Drampa with Ice Beam... ...but freezes it as well.
I don't remember if I was losing my shit over this, but my Discord friends would probably assume I did.
Battle 1054 VS Dancer Jo
Uxie-4 opened with Yawn into the Guru slot and would use it every single turn until faced with a 20HP Guru, at which point it finally attacked with Dazzling Gleam.
Araquanid took out Metagross and was Yawned; it swapped for Drampa as Zapdos came in, which was the correct play because it showed Charge Beam. Oranguru had eaten its Lum from the Yawn that landed as it set TR, and hadn't been targeted again, so it landed a Psychic on Zapdos before it too became drowsy again.
Drampa Meteors Zapdos and is Yawned. Swap. Guru is now in its place and eats an Ice Beam, leaving it at the aforementioned 20HP.
By now, Uxie has annoyed me so much that I don't care that Articuno carries Sheer Cold; fucker has to die. Protect blocks both DGleam and Ice Beam, and Araquanid (who had come back in to replace Oranguru after it attacked Zapdos) kills Uxie.
Articuno finishes Guru off, but at least now Spidey & Mawile have it dead to rights.
Battle 1179 VS Aether Foundation Heidi
You know what Aether means: guaranteed 4s. Aurorus helpfully rolled Snow Warning.
Clawitzer-4 is one of the outlier mons that is impossible to EV for desireable calcs without sacrificing too much on the other end. The best I can manage is 25% KO rate. Aurorus has no weather working for its Thunder, and Snow Warning makes Hyper Beam far less desireable.
Using Oranguru as bait worked for multiple reasons: Aurorus whiffed Thunder and died, and was then replaced by the terrible set Tauros-4, which used Double Team and Protect until Drampa could come in and Meteor it to death.
The downside came from attempting to set T2 on Clawitzer, losing the roll and dying. Mawile came in, finished Clawitzer off with Crunch, and I was given another gift in lastmon Alolan Sandslash, all but guaranteed to open with Aurora Veil, which it did. This did not prevent it from being KOd by Iron Head and Liquid.
Battle 1185 VS Bellhop Donna
T1: Double Protect; Scizor-3 Uturns Guru slot, Bewear-3 Thunderpunches. Protects were meant to look for Z-Giga Impact.
T2: Swap Araquanid for Mawile; Bewear QC Thunderpunches Mawile. Scizor U-turns Mawile slot (!) and in comes Conkeldurr. Trick Room up.
T3: Bewear QCs... there's that fucking message again. Because Guru is not in danger of a Fling OHKO, and because Bewear tripped QC earlier without warning Unnerve, Mawile targets Conk with Play Rough first.
Bewear Sword Dances, "thankfully," in lieu of Hammer Arm. Conk actually does Fling Oranguru (normally prefers Superpower.) Both PRs connect, killing Conk and ~80% to Fluffy. Bastiodon replaces Conkeldurr.
T4: Bewear resist swaps to Scizor, which eats Iron Head. Bastiodon Rock Slides, killing Guru. Spidey back in.
T5: Lose the gamble on both Bastiodon rolling Soundproof and not clicking Metal Burst, killing Spidey at light speed. Womp womp. Mawile Crunches Scizor to death. Drampa and Bewear back in.
T6: Mawile can probably deal with Bastiodon from here, but I was still afraid of Bewear grabbing another QC proc, which it didn't. Both enemies go down.
This lil warstory does not adequately portray how NASTY these four as a group can be!
Battle 1187 VS Firefighter Calder
T1: Drampa replaces Araquanid right away and is paralyzed by Rotowash-3 Thunderbolt. Wailord-4 connects Fissure on Oranguru. Yay! Araquanid back in.
T2: Araquanid protects, blocks Thunder Wave. Wailord lands Blizzard on Drampa, tripping Berserk. Drampa Meteors Rotom, not requiring the Berserk to OHKO. Salamence in.
Regardless of the Mence set, it's safer to sack Drampa here. Meteor will debuff Mence very well, while there's no danger of swapping Mawile into an Earthquake or Crunch debuff.
T3: Salamence whiffs Meteor, Wailord whiffs Fissure. Ice Beam and Hyper Voice kill Mence and badly wound Wailord. Politoed in.
T4: Wailord whiffs Fissure, Politoed whiffs Focus Blast. Wailord dies, Drampa Hyper Voices Politoed to low. I wanted to be able to hit both of them if Drampa were able to attack, giving Mawile an easier time of cleaning up, though Wailord landing Fissure on Araquanid would've made this even more miserable than it already was.
T5: Politoed finally breaks the cycle of whiffs and kills Drampa but, too little, too late.
Battle 1213 VS Office Worker Savir
One of many battles to make me fear and loathe male office workers, especially Savir, who tended to just be meaner than Harding. He also is an excellent example of battles that can go to hell right away and simmer down into peace by running one or more do-nothing sets behind the leads. These bastards run the electrics I don't like to see, Ampharos and Vikavolt.
In this case, Mega Gardevoir and Bronzong-4 Hyper Beam x Rock Slide, killing Oranguru. The only compensation of Garde committing to Hyper Beam is that it can't move the following turn, giving me free reign to kill it if nothing else happens. Zong-4 is not much of a threat to Mawile and is slower outside TR. It Safeguards instead of Rock Slide, so no fear of flinching. Mawile Crunches it to red and Garde is no more. Rotomow enters; it Thunders, revealing Set4, but targeted Mawile, so that's a waste of a Protect. It targets Mawile again for the KO, but Araquanid finishes it off and I'm blessed with the sight of Shuckle, the best thing to see when you've got no setter.
Battle 1215 VS Office Worker Savir
Yes, two battles after getting Savir'd I'm thrown back into a cell with him. This is the first instance of Metagross and Magnezone both doubling into Oranguru for reasons that will never make sense to me. This also had the effect of putting Oranguru well into range of Bullet Punch, but luckily the ensuing Protect also blocked Volt Switch, letting Zone faint without touching Spidey.
Battle 1285 VS Janitor Paulo
Another one for the scream chamber. Vaporeon spent much of the time Yawning, and while the single Muddy Water it used didn't cut my accuracy, it froze Drampa with Blizzard. Aqua Ring also put it just out of range of KOs. By the time it and Goodra died, TR had long been shut off. Thankfully, Goodra is among the dragons Mawile can OHKO without needing Play Rough to connect.
Battle 1331 VS Veteran Dooley
T1: Terrakion-3 uncharacteristically uses Sacred Sword into Oranguru, and Landorus Explodes for the KO. No Trick Room for Repto. Failing to double Protect was arguably a misplay as, unlike Steelix, Landorus-3 does not exactly skyrocket in lethality by having sand up and no TR (though being able to Earthquake safely next to an ally is very bad for me) plus it's up there with the other Protect-spamming assholes. I send in Mawile to replace, and am not happy to see Entei come in across it.
T2: Swap Mawile for Drampa. Terrakion Rock Slides, doing under 50% to Araquanid, while Entei Sacred Fires Drampa. No flinch, and Liquidation KOs Entei. Rotowash enters.
T3: Swap Drampa for Mawile, Protect Spidey; Terrakion Rock Slides Mawile for nothing, while Rotom Thunderbolts into Protect.
T4: Terrakion Earthquakes, doing a modest sum to Mawile and piss to Araquanid; Rotom Thunderbolts again for the Spidey KO. Mawile KOs Terrakion, finally.
T5: Rotom Thunderbolts Mawile for the KO. Drampa OHKOs Rotom with Meteor. Glad that's over.
Battle 1436 VS Sightseer Christian
T1: Heatran-3 uses Sunny Day, Drampa-3 uses Hyper Voice. There are a multitude of ways for this opening turn to go horribly, the worst of which involving Heatran-14 using Dark Pulse, followed by Drampa-4 Meteor into the Guru slot. Everyone is healthy but this is still a pretty bad way to begin attacking.
T2: Heatran 2HKOd by Liquid, while Drampa crits Araquanid with Hyper Voice. Wonderful. Heatran is replaced by Magnezone, even more wonderful. At this point, I'm ready for one of my Pokemon to die, to give a clean swap and play the Quick Claw lotto. Let's get this shit over with.
T3: Liquid hits Zone for under 50%. Oranguru can survive Hyper Voice, but not Fire Blast, which is what Drampa uses to KO it. Magnezone-3, true to form, uses Thunder Wave on Araquanid.
T4: Araquanid fully paralyzed. Mawile lands Play Rough, killing Drampa. Zone whiffs Thunder into Araquanid. Volcarona replaces Drampa, showing me my day cannot get better.
T5: Araquanid hits Volcarona with Liquid to soften it up, while Mawile lands Knock Off on Magnezone for the KO. Volcarona is running off its typical dumbfuck script and uses Quiver Dance instead of taking the extremely free KOs in front of it. Sunlight and TR both off.
T6: Volc Bug Buzzes Araquanid to death, finally, while Mawile finishes what was left with Knock Off. At least it was Set3, and didn't have Heat Wave.
Battle 1488 VS Collector Dennis
T1: Tauros-4 Double Teams, Drampa-3 uses Hyper Voice. TR up.
T2: Liquid predictably fails to 2HKO Drampa, but no Berserk. Tauros hits Araquanid with Toxic.
T3: Drampa gets the Quick Claw proc for Hyper Voice, bringing Oranguru to 7HP. Toxic never gets a chance to chip Spidey to death because the LO recoil from the Instructed Liquid does the job. Tauros Double Teams again. Drampa comes in, which is a big mistake no matter how I justify the decision, because Tauros has a fresh Protect and the backline is a mystery. Snorlax coming in affirms that was not the correct play.
T4: Swap Oranguru for Mawile, since it's better to intimidate Snorlax now, before it can batter Drampa. Oranguru can also come back in to Protect, or even outspeed Snorlax outside TR. Lax Protects, Hyper Voice connects on Tauros; Sitrus from Araquanid's sacrificial Liquid took it out of kill range, however. Tauros Earthquakes for piss.
T5: Tauros Protects. Hyper Voice and Iron Head fail to KO or flinch Snorlax, but it Earthquakes and dies to LO recoil. Togekiss enters, and this is gonna be even tighter. TR off.
T6: Togekiss Shadow Balls Mawile to death, while Tauros Earthquakes again. This fails to trip Berserk, but Hyper Voice connects and KOs the bull.
T7: Oranguru Protects, blocks Air Slash. Thank fuck this isn't Togekiss-4! That would've been a loss. Drampa Hyper Voices.
T8: Togekiss Air Slashes again, KOing Oranguru, while Hyper Voice finishes it as well.
While Snorlax using Protect on its first turn did me a favor, I still feel like I nearly ate shit over that.
Battle 1542 VS Worker Dan
T1: Swap Araquanid to Mawile, and any logic in that decision is thwarted by Manectric-4 launching Thunder into Oranguru, allowing Armaldo-4 to easily KO with banded X-Scissor. Araquanid back in.
T2: Thunder and X-Scissor into Protect, while Iron Head KOs Armaldo. It's replaced by the last thing I wanted to see, Vikavolt.
T3: Swap Araquanid for Drampa. Now, Vikavolt-4 has a guaranteed, you read that right,
guaranteed OHKO on Araquanid with Thunder, so I'd like to know WHAT KIND OF FUCKING HALLUCINOGENS MADE YOU TARGET THAT SLOT WITH BUG BUZZ. Manectric whiffs Thunder into that same slot, while Mawile connects Rock Slide and critically injures both.
T4: Thunder hits Mawile, but does not paralyze. Bug Buzz kills Drampa. Rock Slide connects again, for the double KO. Mudsdale enters last.
T5: Both Mudsdale-34 carry Earthquake, which does not tell me anything, and my heart sinks to see it survive Liquidation due to Passho.
T6: Rock Slide connects, bringing Araquanid down to 9HP. No flinch, but Spidey needs 18HP to survive Life Orb, so they both die. Fortunately, tree mechanics award draws in favor of the player.
Battle 1553 VS Youth Athlete Hilario
Dugtrio lands Fissure and OHKOs Oranguru. Hilario discarded any sort of lead she'd have gained by using Substitute and Sandstorm; Starmie showed Power Gem, ie no Ice Beam for Drampa. Battle was over by T4, as the speed trainers run nothing but glass.
Battle 1559 VS Office Worker Jana
T1: Double Protect; Blizzard and Z-Explosion. Vanilluxe-3 brought Snow Warning.
T2: Swap Araquanid for Mawile, into a Blizzard freeze. Lickilicky detonates and is replaced by Aromatisse. This is a bother not just because my Aroma murderer is a popsicle, but Blizzard plus Hail plus Explosion ensured that I'm not going to be resetting.
T3: Mawile utterly miraculously instathaws, killing Aromatisse! What's more, Vanilluxe attempts Sheer Cold and whiffs.
T4: Blissey exits as soon as it enters, as we're not waiting to see Minimize or Mud Bomb. Blizzard KOs both Oranguru and Mawile.
T5: Drampa and Spidey both have the honors, as 252hp Ice Cream is far too fat to be OHKOd by Flamethrower.
Battle 1589 VS Bellhop Gilroy
T1: Double Protect into Swords Dance (Bewear) and Head Charge into Guru slot. Bewear warned of Unnerve, but this is still not great.
T2: Swap Araquanid for Mawile. Bewear Thunderpunches Mawile for over 50%, while Head Charge hits Oranguru. No LO recoil, so it's Bouffalant-3. Damage also does not indicate Reckless. It occurs to me they both could've Swords Danced.
T3: Play Rough whiffs into Bewear, but not trusting Mawile nor Bewear not to pull some Quick Claw shenanigans, I targeted its slot with Psychic, which crit. Bewear Hammer Arms Oranguru to death, then is killed by Earthquake friendly fire. Drampa and Mudsdale in.
T4: Meteor OHKOs Mudsdale, while Iron Head flinches Bouffalant and trips Sitrus Berry. Rotofan last.
T5: Hyper Voice connects, so Bouffalant was Sap Sipper; not leaving that to chance, Mawile also Iron Headed the slot. Rotom whiffs Thunder.
T6: Hyper Voice and Knock do their jobs.
That turn with the whiffed Play Rough could have gone far worse, between Head Charge or Payback being used and forcing me to spent another turn gambling on QC not triggering. That wasted turn would've also put Rotofan on the field without Trick Room up.
Battle 1728 VS Punk Girl Zed
T1: Swap Araquanid for Mawile. Toxicroak-4 Taunts Oranguru, while Muk Stone Edges Mawile.
T2: Toxicroak Taunts Mawile, Muk Crunches Oranguru. Psychic and Play Rough OHKO both enemies. Sableye and Tyranitar in.
T3: I must've expected Tyranitar to use anything but a Rock attack, because I swapped Araquanid for Oranguru and was swiftly murdered by Stone Edge. Good job, idiot. Sableye is neither Prankster nor Stall, but Will-o-Wisps Mawile before it can Iron Head Tyranitar. Oranguru back in.
T4: Oranguru Protects, and Tyranitar Earthquakes. Sableye whiffs another Will-o-Wisp. Play Rough KOs Tyranitar.
T5: Another Will-o-Wisp. Tyranitar helpfully broke Sableye's Focus Sash, and Play Rough easily KOs through a burn.
The T3 comedy of errors had to be the only reason I saved this battle... Taunt was amusingly the least of my problems.
Battle 1737 VS Black Belt Chucky
Tyrantrum-4 has guaranteed OHKOs on both my leads if it rolls Strong Jaw. Otherwise, Head Smash can still be directed into Oranguru, so bringing in Mawile is mandatory. Hariyama-4 runs 0 attack EVs because it's a brilliant Belly Drum/Counter set.
So, Mawile comes in for Araquanid immediately, and Tyrantrum Crunches Oranguru... ...with the Defense drop. Guru sits at 41hp, and Harry caps at 37 with -1 Brick Break; using Brick Break in itself and not Belly Drum was a bit questionable, but it did a good job of denying TR.
Fortunately -1 Crunch does less than 50% on average to Spidey, and -1 Harry is utterly laughable. They Crunch and Drum, then die, and I'm greeted by the soon to be Mega Scizor and its friend, Time Bomb. I don't want to weaken Scizor to the point of discouraging Lickilicky from detonating, since it's easier to have Drampa come in on just Scizor.
Protect dampens Breakneck and whiffs Aerial Ace, while Mawile Iron Heads. Spidey sack, kaboom, checkmate.
Battle 1753 VS Ace Trainer Poppy
T1: Double Protect scouts Honchkrow-3 (Swagger) and Mega Aggron (Stone Edge.) It's not easy to get worse lead pairs than this.
T2: Because Black Hole Eclipse had been warned but not used, the correct play was to keep Araquanid in, using Liquidation on Honchkrow, and swapping Mawile for Oranguru. However, I misplayed and swapped Mawile for Araquanid instead. Without a crit, -1 Stone Edge caps at 65% on Araquanid and was worth the risk. Instead, Honchkrow BHEs Oranguru for the easy OHKO and Aggron Stone Edges Mawile for a small amount.
Drampa comes in for Oranguru, which was another misplay. Flamethrower won't OHKO Mega Aggron because of Filter, and only gets a roll at it with Berserk tripped. Araquanid can't 2HKO Mega Aggron without a defense drop, but it still could've bought a turn with Protect.
T3: Honchkrow Swaggers Mawile, while Aggron Dragon Rushes Drampa to below 50%. No self hit for Mawile, and Iron Head OHKOs. No flinch for Drampa, and Flamethrower leaves it in the red. Weavile enters.
T4: Araquanid comes back in for Drampa and eats Weavile's Fake Out. Aggron Thunder Waves Mawile. No self hit, no paralysis, Knock Off KOs Aggron. Umbreon enters.
T5: Weavile Ice Punches Mawile, Umbreon-3 Swaggers Araquanid. No self hit, Leech Life hits Weavile to sash. Mawile fully paralyzed.
T6: Weavile Night Slashes Araquanid, Umbreon Psych Ups Mawile. No self hits; Araquanid nearly OHKOs Umbreon with Leech Life and recovers all damage from Weavile. Mawile Iron Heads Umbreon for the KO.
T7: Weavile-4 Taunts, finally revealing its set. Araquanid obliges, biting for the KO.
...I was briefly convinced this was the end of the run! Not one, but two disastrous calls on my part, and I feel like Aggron using Thunder Wave was an AI throw that snowballed. Swagger resulting in no self hits also helped immensely, though without them, Araquanid x Mawile are about as bad a matchup for Umbreon-3 and Weavile as they come.
Battle 1890 VS Colress
Magnezone-3 Thunder Waves Oranguru, wasting its Lum Berry, and PZ-3 Signal Beams, not only scoring confusion but resulting in a self hit for Oranguru.
Signal Beam will 2HKO Oranguru, so rather than play that game, Mawile came in for it. Zone-3 Thunder has 6% OHKO odds on Araquanid, or 0% if it misses, which it did. Araquanid scored the OHKO roll on Porygon-Z. Electrode coming in is a welcome sight.
Zone whiffed Thunder into Protect, then evidently said "enough of this" because it went back to Thunder Waving. Mawile took Zone down with two Knock Offs, then it and Drampa doubled into Alolamuk (Air Balloon!!! Wee-oo! Wee-oo!) to ensure it lived only that turn.
Battle 2102 VS Office Worker Harding
Repto: "Wow, Poppy! It's hard to get worse lead pairs than this!"
Harding: "lol Savir have your phone ready"
WHY DID MALE CLERKS BECOME MY EZRA
Rolling Ampharos-3 and Escavalier-4 together is not so bad. I can't set on this, but they're manageable. If Ampharos is Mega, it's way too dangerous to swap vanilla Mawile into a guaranteed Thunder OHKO, just for the purpose of Intimidate.
T1: Oranguru Protects, Ampharos-4 whiffs Confuse Ray, Araquanid smacks Escavalier with Liquidation and is KOd by Megahorn. This targeting doesn't occur unless Escavalier is LO Set3. There's the recoil.
T2: Small compensation in Escavalier having no Custap Berry. Mega Ampharos lands Thunder on Mawile, rolling the absolute max damage, 151. No paralysis, and Mawile KOs Escavalier with Knock Off. Originally, my plan was to get rid of Escavalier so Oranguru could set, then I'd deal with Ampharos. But, who enters third but Metagross. RIP
T3: Oranguru Protects, just in case Metagross is Set3 and wants to detonate, but it wisely goes for Bullet Punch. It's now Oranguru and Drampa VS three.
T4: Meteor finally gets rid of Ampharos, and Metagross Meteor Mashes Oranguru. Vikavolt enters. By now, I'm convinced that Metagross is Set4 and just won't explode.
T5: Flamethrower 2HKOs Vikavolt, Metagross- Earthquakes! It IS METAGROSS-3!! Where's the boom!? You love the boom!!!
T6: Flamethrower loses the 38% 2HKO roll on Metagross thanks to Occa Berry. Metagross KOs Oranguru with Meteor Mash. TR expires, and I am now more uncomfortable than I was at the start.
T7: Metagross Bullet Punches Drampa, likely because it still had over 50% HP and Mash looked like it wouldn't KO. Finally, that's over with.
Battle 2314 VS Preschooler Naya
T1: Garchomp-3 locks into Outrage, which ended up being very necessary. It whiffed into Araquanid's Protect, while Hydreigon-3 Taunted Oranguru.
In hindsight, Double Protect was the safest play here, looking for both Earthquake and for Garchomp to evolve, as it doesn't use Sandstorm over Stone Edge.
T2: Araquanid swaps for Mawile. Hydreigon whiffs vanilla Meteor into Mawile. Outrage smacks Oranguru for a chunk, Oranguru hits Garchomp with Psychic.
T3: Outrage and Taunt both directed into Mawile. Mawile whiffs Play Rough into Hydreigon. Oranguru hits Chomp with another Psychic. Taunt wears off.
T4: Hydreigon Flamethrowers Mawile into the yellow. Garchomp Outrages Oranguru, also into the yellow. Mawile whiffs another Play Rough. Trick Room up.
T5: Mawile whiffs its third consecutive Play Rough. I'm sorry, did Garchomp lock into Outrage or Muddy fucking Water? Oranguru Instructs, and finally Play Rough lands. Outrage whiffs into Mawile. Dragonite enters.
T6: Play Rough OHKOs Dragonite, then whiffs into Garchomp. Outrage whiffs into Mawile. Kommo enters.
T7: Play Rough OHKOs Kommo-o, then connects on the Instruct and finally puts Garchomp down, as well.
This battle footage was sold to both Blueberry and Eisenberry Academies for lectures as to why competent trainers should not use moves below 100% accuracy.
Battle 2330 VS Mallow
T1: Lurantis-4 uses Sunny Day with a Quick Claw proc. Tsareena U-turns Oranguru, sending in Talonflame after it. Trick Room goes up.
T2: Mawile swaps in for Araquanid, fearing Gale Wings. The safest play is to protect Oranguru; instead, it hits Talonflame with Psychic to ensure Gale Wings is broken, because both 34 like to get cute with Swords Dance now and then. The problems begin when Intimidate trips Lurantis' Contrary, getting Oranguru killed by Solar Blade, then redirecting Flare Blitz into Mawile, OHKOing it as well. Sweatagross.
T3: Drampa and Araquanid VS all four of Mallow's Pokemon. No QC, thankfully, because +1 Solar Blade has 56% OHKO odds on Araquanid. Hyper Voice KOs Talonflame through the Sitrus it ate after murdering Mawile, and Leech Life KOs Lurantis. Trevenant joins the return of Tsareena.
T4: Trevenant whiffs Focus Blast into Drampa and is OHKOd by Flamethrower. Leech Life rolls the OHKO on Tsareena.
...whew! That is definitely the nastiest run-in with Mallow I've ever experienced, and the closest she's come to defeating me.
Battle 2379 VS Office Worker Savir
When you see lineups like this, does the name even surprise you anymore?
T1: Mawile swaps for Araquanid. Magnezone and Scizor Volt Switch and U-turn Mawile, respectively, bringing in Steelix and Vikavolt. Mawile is on 26hp.
Now, we rightfully fear both Steelix sets at this point, but Oranguru is at full HP and can at least attack something. With Vikavolt next to it, Steelix has little reason not to Earthquake. With Explosion still on the table, Vikavolt becomes the higher priority.
T2: Steelix-4 it is. This is good, if only because Mawile will move before it. Mawile misses the Play Rough OHKO on Vikavolt, then dies to Earthquake. Oranguru chips Vikavolt with Psychic for the KO. Drampa and Scizor come in.
T3: Drampa OHKOs Scizor with Flamethrower, while Steelix predictably uses Sandstorm, granting a nice strong hit on the Instruct.
T4: Drampa kills Steelix and lands a good hit on Magnezone-4. Zone Thunderbolts Oranguru for a nonlethal sum.
T5: Flamethrower ends it.
-1 252+ Atk Life Orb Scizor-3 U-turn vs. 252 HP / 228 Def Oranguru: 109-127 (55.3 - 64.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Mega Steelix-4 Earthquake (spread) vs. 252 HP / 228 Def Oranguru: 64-76 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 98% chance to 3HKO
Scizor targeting Araquanid T1 more than likely turned this battle from a near-loss into a win. That math is not pretty! Even if it survived, it then becomes Bullet Punch bait for Scizor, when I *needed* those Instructs!
Battle 2396 VS Scientist Stein
T1: Double Protect. Lickilicky-3 whiffs Knock Off, Gastrodon-4 Curses.
T2: Drampa swaps for Araquanid. Lickilicky crits Drampa with Body Slam and paralyzes. Gastrodon Earthquakes, putting Drampa at 21hp. Trick Room goes up.
T3: Lickilicky procs Quick Claw and whiffs Hammer Arm. That was to give me hope before stabbing me in the chest, because Drampa is fully paralyzed. Gastrodon Earthquakes again, killing Drampa. Oranguru hits Lickilicky with Psychic. Mawile in.
T4: Gastrodon Curses. Mawile connects two Play Roughs on Gastro, leaving it around 30% after Leftovers. Lickilicky Hammer Arms Mawile.
T5: Gastrodon and Lickilicky Curse & Hammer Arm again. Mawile kills both of them with Play Rough. Enemy Drampa and Dusknoir replace them. Drampa must be Set4, since Quick Claw was taken.
T6: Mawile kills Drampa with Play Rough, while Dusknoir eats a strong Instruct hit and shuts off TR (which was going to expire anyway...)
T7: Oranguru protects, and Dusknoir whiffs Pain Split. Iron Head kills Dusknoir.
So, in addition to having flashbacks of that ill-fated test run, of course it had to be Stein! Not today, evildoer!
Battle 2403 VS Scientist Robyn
T1: Mega Aggron whiffs Stone Edge into Protect, and of course we need Jellicent-3, too, which Water Spouts. This is pretty far from ideal, and Jellicent is going to shut off TR, but we have to at least try to delete Aggron like this.
T2: Araquanid cuts Aggron's defense on the second Liquidation, when it needed to do that first to grant the 2HKO. Predictably, Aggron Thunder Waves, mercifully eating Oranguru's Lum. Jellicent shuts off TR.
T3: Araquanid Protects. Aggron launches Stone Edge into Oranguru, killing after Water Spout. Drampa replaces. So much for resetting or chipping Aggron to death...
T4: Araquanid swaps for Mawile. Jellicent Water Spouts, dropping Mawile to 21hp, while Stone Edge whiffs. Drampa kills Aggron with Flamethrower, and Conkeldurr replaces.
This was probably less safe than sacking Araquanid here, but Spout/Edge would've surely killed it.The Stone Edge whiff was ultimately probably irrelevant.
T5: Araquanid swaps with Mawile. Jellicent Water Spouts, and rolled high enough on both this and the previous, in order to trip Berserk. Conk turns out to be Conkeldurr-4, and clicked something besides Mach Punch into Drampa because Drampa moves first, OHKOing with Meteor. How's that Iron Ball treating ya now, buddy? Aromatisse enters.
The Scientists only run Aroma-4, so no nasty Thunders or Moonblasts bringing things to a swift end.
T6: Drampa swaps for Mawile, to prevent it from being hit by Jellicent's final Water Spout plus a Dazzling Gleam. Jellicent kills Mawile, Aromatisse uses Aromatic Mist on Jellicent, and Liquid brings it to red.
T7: Jellicent's options are now Will-o-Wisp, Recover (it has not been hit once) or Trick Room. It burns Drampa, and Aromatisse uses Aromatic Mist again on its partner. Spidey KOs Aroma, and Energy Ball does around ~40%.
T8: Spidey uses Leech Life because what else, and LO drops it to 40hp. Drampa Energy Balls Jellicent again, and Jellicent... sets Trick Room :gigglypuff:
T9: One more Energy Ball finishes the job.
While very stressful, and not really the most difficult battle the team faced, at a whopping nine turns it was easily among the longest S&F has faced. Most battles on average are over by T4.
Battle 2567 VS Aether Foundation Heidi
T1: Oranguru Protects. Liepard-4 is always a tossup between attacking directly, and Nasty Plot. It uses Nasty Plot, while Hydreigon whiffs Crunch. Araquanid brings Liepard to sash.
T2: Oranguru swaps for Mawile, and Liepard Dark Pulses it into the yellow. Hydreigon Dragon Rushes Spidey without flinch, and Leech Life finishes Liepard. Mamoswine enters. This is pretty bad considering it has both Earthquake with an airborne partner, and Stone Edge for Araquanid.
T3: I gambled on Stone Edge, since calling it with Protect made this optimal. Unfortunately, both Hydreigon and Mamoswine use Earthquake, killing Mawile. Oranguru back in. At least I have a shot at getting Drampa in clean, and will be able to kill Mamoswine on the Instruct, and merely put into Berserk for Hydreigon.
T4: Hydreigon hits Oranguru with Crunch, no def cut. Mamoswine throws by Earthquaking, failing to kill either. Araquanid kills Mamoswine with Liquidation, then drops into the red from LO. Garchomp enters last.
T5: Hydreigon 2HKO'd by Leech Life, and Garchomp KOs Oranguru with Earthquake.
T6: Drampa OHKOs with Meteor.
