Honchkrow v Critical Damage! A Gimmicky OU Warstory

Okay, first ever post on Smogon! Relatively long time lurker though, so I understand what’s expected of me as a warstory writer. Before you start reading, be aware that this is not the most intense or prediction-based battle ever. In fact, the only remarkable thing about it were the Pokemon I used. Anyway, this is a battle between Critical Damage! and myself. We found eachother while seeking a battle on Smogon’s Pokemon Online server. It’s standard OU, but my team is… well, it’s different. I use 3 NFEs and three NUs. I’m not concerned with constantly winning, so long as I’m having fun with the Pokemon I like, so please don’t try to give me team advice. But I digress, lets gets started!
Ah, before we start, my team is:



The general idea being to stall with passive damage and stack entry hazards. Hippo brings the storm and the rocks, Roselia sets up spikes and stalls with Rest+Natural Cure, and Shelgon and Poliwrath phaze.

Battle between Honchkrow and Critical Damage! started!

Tier: Dream World OU
Variation: +18, -13
Rule: Rated
Rule: Sleep Clause
Rule: Freeze Clause
Rule: Species Clause
Rule: Wifi Battle

Critical Damage! sent out Crawdaunt!
Honchkrow sent out Scooba! (Hippopotas)
Scooba's Sand Stream whipped up a sandstorm!
Honchkrow: hello~

vs

Seeing his team beforehand, I figured he would lead with his Garbage Monster, so I decided against bringing out Beedrill first. Hippo instantly summons the storm, getting some delicious passive damage on what could be a dangerous set up sweeper. Thankfully though, I run Revenge on my Hippo. I assume he’s a DD+Sash variant, and I feel relatively confident I can take a +1 Crabhammer thanks to my Evolution Stone, so I go for rocks.

Start of turn 1
The foe's Crawdaunt used Dragon Dance!
The foe's Crawdaunt's Attack rose!
The foe's Crawdaunt's Speed rose!

Scooba used Stealth Rock!
Pointed stones float in the air around Critical Damage!'s team!

The sandstorm rages!
The foe's Crawdaunt is buffeted by the sandstorm!

vs
+1 Atk, +1 Spe

Everything is going according to plan, and I feel confident that I can survive the coming assault. In retrospect, the smarter move would have been going to my Poliwrath right away, but let’s just ignore that misplay.

Start of turn 2
The foe's Crawdaunt used Crabhammer!
It's super effective!
Scooba lost 340 HP! (100% of its health)
Scooba fainted!

The sandstorm rages!
The foe's Crawdaunt is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Honchkrow sent out Summerboy! (Poliwrath)

vs
+1 Atk, Spe

Oh god! Crabhammer OHKO’d me, which was incredibly surprising and demoralizing, as Hippo is one of my best stallers. I shrug it off and send out my boxer frog, knowing both of his STAB attacks can’t touch me. I run a spread of 252HP/182Atk/72Def, so I’m positive I can weather any assault it throws at me. I can try to set up a bulk up now, or just slam him with an Overhead Throw to neutralize him. I decide its way too early to start setting up, and phaze him.

Start of turn 3
The foe's Crawdaunt used Rock Slide!
Summerboy avoided the attack!

Summerboy used Overhead Throw!
It's super effective!
The foe's Crawdaunt lost 59% of its health!
The foe's Crawdaunt used its Red Card on Summerboy!
TsunTsun was dragged out!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Dragonite!
The foe's Dragonite was dragged out!

The sandstorm rages!
The foe's Dragonite is buffeted by the sandstorm!
TsunTsun is buffeted by the sandstorm!

vs


Oh, hell. I dragged out a Dragonite, which is really, really bad for me, seeing as my only other defensive wall, Shelgon, will fall to his outrage. And what’s even worse is that his Crawdaunt carrys Red Card, throwing my special wall into a very bad position. On the bright side, though, Poliwrath managed to avoid a rock slide attack from Crawdaunt. Because I have nothing to take any of his moves comfortably, I just decide to throw up some spikes. Entry hazards are extremely important to my team, and Energy Ball or HP Fire weren’t going to scratch the orange dragon. I say goodbye to my adorable flower and let him fall.

Start of turn 4
The foe's Dragonite used Outrage!
TsunTsun lost 276 HP! (90% of its health)

TsunTsun used Spikes!
Spikes were scattered all around the feet of Critical Damage!'s team!

The sandstorm rages!
The foe's Dragonite is buffeted by the sandstorm!
TsunTsun is buffeted by the sandstorm!
TsunTsun fainted!
Honchkrow sent out Mitsubachi! (Beedrill)

vs


More entry hazards! I know he has a poison type in the wings, but I have seen a lot of Balloon Dasotodasus lately, and I decide to risk my Beedrills life on the hunch and throw out some Toxic Spikes. Who plays conservatively anymore?

Start of turn 5
Mitsubachi used Toxic Spikes!
Poison spikes were scattered all around the feet of Critical Damage!'s team!

The foe's Dragonite used Outrage!
Mitsubachi lost 270 HP! (99% of its health)
Mitsubachi hung on using its focus sash!

The sandstorm rages!
Mitsubachi is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Mitsubachi fainted!
The foe's Dragonite is buffeted by the sandstorm!
silent on rampage is watching the battle.
silent on rampage stopped watching the battle.
Honchkrow sent out Summerboy! (Poliwrath)

vs


This Dragonite has ripped through my team, but (and I hate to say this) but the players he took out were sort of expendable. I feel fairly confident that I can weather this Outrage and toss him out, making him die to Stealth Rocks the next time he switches in. I Overhead Throw him for pitiful damage and hope that I can take on whatever he sends out next.

Start of turn 6
The foe's Dragonite used Outrage!
Summerboy lost 196 HP! (51% of its health)

Summerboy used Overhead Throw!
It's not very effective...
The foe's Dragonite lost 9% of its health!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Dasutodasu!
The foe's Dasutodasu is hurt by spikes!
The poison spikes disappeared around the foe's Dasutodasu's feet!
The foe's Dasutodasu was dragged out!
The foe's Dasutodasu is floating on a balloon!

The sandstorm rages!
The foe's Dasutodasu is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Summerboy is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Summerboy restored a little HP using its Leftovers!

vs


I was right! Poison is going to be monumentally helpful in the coming turns. Because Poliwrath is reaching the end of his rope, I decide to slam his Garbage Monster as hard as I can with Waterfall. If it comes in again, it’ll soak up all my toxic spikes, so I have to make sure he doesn’t switch.

Start of turn 7
The foe's Dasutodasu used Clear Smog!
Summerboy lost 40 HP! (10% of its health)
Summerboy's stat changes were eliminated!

Summerboy used Waterfall!
The foe's Dasutodasu lost 27% of its health!
The foe's Dasutodasu's Balloon popped!

The sandstorm rages!
The foe's Dasutodasu is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Summerboy is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Summerboy restored a little HP using its Leftovers!

vs


He uses Clear Smog for whatever reason. Maybe he thinks I used Bulk Up at some time. Either way, I keep hammering him with Waterfall and hope he falls soon. Not very elegant, but what else is a guy supposed to do.

Start of turn 8
The foe's Dasutodasu used Toxic!
Summerboy was poisoned!

Summerboy used Waterfall!
The foe's Dasutodasu lost 25% of its health!

The sandstorm rages!
The foe's Dasutodasu is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Summerboy is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Summerboy restored a little HP using its Leftovers!
Summerboy is hurt by poison!

Toxic'd vs

Ah, Toxic makes sure I’m gone after this. I might have been able to switch on to some water attack and heal up at some point, but oh well. That’s disappointing.

Start of turn 9
The foe's Dasutodasu used Clear Smog!
Summerboy lost 42 HP! (10% of its health)
Summerboy's stat changes were eliminated!

Summerboy used Waterfall!
The foe's Dasutodasu lost 2% of its health!
The foe's Dasutodasu's Aftermath damages Summerboy!
Summerboy fainted!
The foe's Dasutodasu fainted!

The sandstorm rages!
Critical Damage! sent out Crawdaunt!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Crawdaunt!
The foe's Crawdaunt is hurt by spikes!

Honchkrow sent out PremierBall! (Shelgon)
vs


And it’s a double down! I send out my Shelgon, hoping to phaze until I drop. I’m fairly sure he’ll bring in Crawdaunt as most players bring their leads in when there’s a double down.

Start of turn 10
The foe's Crawdaunt used Rock Slide!
PremierBall lost 47 HP! (14% of its health)

PremierBall used Roar!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Urugamosu!
The foe's Urugamosu is hurt by spikes!
The foe's Urugamosu was dragged out!

The sandstorm rages!
The foe's Urugamosu is buffeted by the sandstorm!
The foe's Urugamosu restored a little HP using its Leftovers!

vs


Fantastic, I was right! However, I shuffle out to Urugamosu, which is scary. I have no SpD EVs, so if he has HP Ice or something, I’ve lost. Thankfully, it has less than 50% of its health remaining, so if I survive I can just roar it out and ensure it can’t come back in.

Start of turn 11
The foe's Urugamosu used Flame Dance!
It's not very effective...
PremierBall lost 81 HP! (24% of its health)

PremierBall used Roar!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Dragonite!
The foe's Dragonite was dragged out!

The sandstorm rages!
The foe's Dragonite is buffeted by the sandstorm!

vs


That went great! Flame Dance hardly scratched me, and I had enough energy to Roar the moth out. However, I drag in Dragonite, who clings to life with about 15% of his HP remaining. I know Shelgon is going to fall to the bigger Dragon, and I leave him in to face the inevitable.


Start of turn 12
The foe's Dragonite used Outrage!
It's super effective!
PremierBall lost 206 HP! (61% of its health)
PremierBall fainted!

The sandstorm rages!
The foe's Dragonite is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Honchkrow sent out Flareon!

Honchkrow: aww shit

vs


I’m really unsure what to do at this point, because if Flareon can’t outspeed, I’m done for (and when does Flareon ever outspeed anything). Shelgon gets slammed with the powerful Outrage and dies, and I have no choice but to send in my favorite Eeveelution. I run a set of Nitro Charge / Baton Pass / Bite / Façade @Flame orb, taking advantage of his new Guts ability. If I can outspeed, somehow…

Start of turn 13
Flareon used Nitro Charge!
It's not very effective...
The foe's Dragonite lost 9% of its health!
Flareon's Speed rose!
The foe's Dragonite fainted!

The sandstorm rages!
Flareon is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Flareon's Toxic Orb activated!
Flareon was poisoned!
Honchkrow: Woah
Critical Damage!: :>
Critical Damage! sent out Crawdaunt!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Crawdaunt!
The foe's Crawdaunt fainted!
Critical Damage! sent out Urugamosu!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Urugamosu!
The foe's Urugamosu fainted!

Critical Damage! sent out Denchura!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Denchura!
The foe's Denchura is hurt by spikes!

+1 Speed vs
, all fainted.
vs

3 Pokemon down in one turn! Flareon you ridiculous fuck! I’m at +1 Speed and I have guts activated, and just like that the match totally turned in my favor. In the matter of one turn, the match has become 5-1 to 2-1. I’m starting to feel really confident, but I have no idea what his last Pokemon are, and any priority will wreck me, thanks to the residual damage of Poison and Sandstorm. Dark/Fire/Normal has pretty good coverage, so I’m hoping that I can slam whatever he sends out next with a powerful enough attack to knock it out.

Start of turn 14
Flareon used Nitro Charge!
It's super effective!
The foe's Denchura lost 62% of its health!
Flareon's Speed rose!
The foe's Denchura fainted!

(Yes, it was a Denchura! Nitro Charge takes care of that by a long shot, and now I’m sitting comfortable at +2 Speed, meaning that even if he has a scarfed Pokemon in the wings, I can take it out. Unless his remaining Pokemon is a ridiculously physically bulky wall or a timid scarfed deoxys-s using agility, I think I can win.)

The sandstorm rages!
Flareon is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Flareon is hurt by poison!
Critical Damage! sent out Desukan!
Pointed stones dug into the foe's Desukan!
The foe's Desukan is hurt by spikes!

Honchkrow: FUCK
Critical Damage!: lol

+2 Speed vs


Oh, shit! It’s a Desukaan, a notoriously defensive ghost with a crippling ability and decent Special Attack. I think this is the end of the road for me.


Start of turn 15
Flareon used Bite!
It's super effective!
The foe's Desukan lost 47% of its health!
Flareon's ability became Mummy!

The foe's Desukan used Shadow Ball!
Flareon lost 87 HP! (32% of its health)

The sandstorm rages!
Flareon is buffeted by the sandstorm!
The foe's Desukan is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Flareon is hurt by poison!
The foe's Desukan restored a little HP using its Leftovers!
Honchkrow: ugh mummy D:


Lots of things happened just then; Bite is a 2HKO thanks to entry hazards, but because of his ability, I now have Mummy instead of Guts, neutralizing flareons guts boost. Just to stall the inevitable, I run damage calcs before I make my move. Using a ghost type Skarmory in Smogon’s calc application (Skarmory and Desukaan have very similar defensive capabilities), I see that it’ll do roughly 22.8% - 26.9%, which is really vital considering he has 27% left. I can’t live another Shadow Ball, so I have to KO with my unboosted jolly Bite. I go for the move and hope for the best, hoping that Skarmory is slightly more bulky than Desukaan and that the calcs aren’t exact.


...not to be that guy, but lets up the suspense a bit.

...


...

...drumroll~?






Start of turn 16
Flareon used Bite!
It's super effective!
The foe's Desukan lost 27% of its health!
The foe's Desukan fainted!

Honchkrow won the battle!
Honchkrow: you could not handle my girth
Critical Damage!: good game.you can get from me a feebas or a magikarp...what do you choose
Critical Damage!: gg
Honchkrow: Good game man!



Alright, just under the cut!! Great game Critical Damage!, nice to see Crawdaunt being used. And now for Props and Slops!
Props:
• Flareon, for ending with a 4-0 sweep
• Poliwrath and Shelgon, for phazing forever
• Critical Damage!’s Dragonite, for tearing through my team
• Shelgon, for taking down an Urugamosu
• Flareon, for outspeeding a Dragonite!
Slops:
• Roselia and Hippo, for doing just about nothing
• Dasutodasu, for not absorbing the spikes by switching out and in
• Me, for not realizing that Dragonite wouldn’t die from Overhead Throw + Rocks on switching in
• Me, for not realizing Hippo couldn’t take a +1 STAB Crabhammer

MVP:

Flareon, of course! Nitro Charge and Guts are just as good as Flare Blitz, as far as I’m concerned. Keep on being awesome, Flareon <3
 

alphatron

Volt turn in every tier! I'm in despair!
I knew this warstory was gonna be manly when you had a beedrill on your team. Good work man.

One thing confused me though. The balloon garbage bag absorbed the toxic spikes anyway...
 
fantastic battle. I really want to try evo stone shelgon. I like this match because you have 3 NFE and 3 NUs. It inspired me to make an evo stone team
 
You need to make your font not so small on the logs. Its not that bad, but I fear for some people it might be a little hard to read.

At first when I saw your line up, I raised an eyebrow. I was definitely confused, but completely enticed to see how this would play out. I generally LOVE underdog pokemon, and its rare to see teams set up like this. And as I continued reading on I was pleasantly surprised! There were a few odd plays, but overall this really was a fun and interesting read.

As for the commentary, I feel as if they were just a smudge bit lack luster. You explained what you were going to to next turn, and believe me, that right there is enough for beginning war story posters to fail at. However, I didn't get any reasoning behind your choices. Lets see some real insight! I want you to talk about what you PLAN on doing in a few turns, or what you think your opponent is planning on doing. That's what REALLY brings the quality of the war story up.


Overall, i give this an 7/10. Why? Formatting was pretty decent (aside from the small font). Battle was pretty straight forward, and nothing too intense, and no real prediction at all, which made it a little boring. But what REALLY made this war story awesome is your team. I really enjoyed seeing pokemon no one uses. I mean, a Beedrill? Flareon? Not to mention your NFE pokemon... And your biggest hitter on your team was a POLIWRATH! Awesome. Other than that, this is your first war story and I give you props for that.
 
People...using pokemon they like...competitively? I don't understand.

Anyways, I loved the battle. Better than seeing the same pokemon show up in the same warstories using all the same moves. I thought leading with Hippo was kind of weird, considering your Beedrill is sashed and probably wouldn't have mattered much anyways, but to each his own.

10/10, just for sweeping with Flareon.
 
Thanks for all the positive feedback! I'll be sure to keep your criticisms in mind when I write my next warstory (which should be soon!).
 
Brilliant warstory, congratulations on the win. My only question is: focus sash on a sandstorm team? I realize Beedrill is frail, but it just seems a little redundant.

11/10

Evo Stone went a long way in terms of making people's faves playable ^_^'
 
Aw, you predicted the balloon and then the garbage bag ignored logic and absorbed the toxic spikes anyway... (Same way my Doryuzu keeps getting hurt by Spikes, I guess).
 
Greatest battle...ever tbh! The creativity(on your side anyway) was fan freaking tastic! I'm defiantly going to try using shelgon when I get my hands on this game! I thought the commentary was great too!

100/10
 
This is absolutely. I think that you should put a link to this warstory in the Flareon topic, because everyone is moping because Flareon still sucks, and didn't even get solar beam (thank you game freak) this gen. 10/10 for floating GarbageBag absorbing TSpikes.
 
People...using pokemon they like...competitively? I don't understand.

Anyways, I loved the battle. Better than seeing the same pokemon show up in the same warstories using all the same moves. I thought leading with Hippo was kind of weird, considering your Beedrill is sashed and probably wouldn't have mattered much anyways, but to each his own.

10/10, just for sweeping with Flareon.
lol, some of us do that since adv. Gimmicks will always give you a certain surprise factor.

@OP, this was truly inspiring. Flareon sweeps are always gorgeous to see, and this wasn't an exception. Grats on using that team.
The formatting was a tad awkward imo, though, but readable nevertheless.
 
Interesting team. The commentary could've been better and the font was small. It didn't have the interesting endgame most of the best warstories have but it still managed to be a fun read. almost cringed with Beedrill though. As someone else said, why sash something when you're running Sandstorm?
 
Interesting team. The commentary could've been better and the font was small. It didn't have the interesting endgame most of the best warstories have but it still managed to be a fun read. almost cringed with Beedrill though. As someone else said, why sash something when you're running Sandstorm?
I generally lead with him, but I thought I could smack his Dasutodasu with a STAB EQ from my Hippo in this case. It was a dumb idea in retrospect, but setting up Toxic Spikes on a poison type just seemed kind of silly to me.

Thanks for all the comments guys, I'll be sure to write again soon! Currently working on Daruma Mode Hihidaruma and Luvdisc competitively, they've been working well.
 
I generally lead with him, but I thought I could smack his Dasutodasu with a STAB EQ from my Hippo in this case. It was a dumb idea in retrospect, but setting up Toxic Spikes on a poison type just seemed kind of silly to me.

Thanks for all the comments guys, I'll be sure to write again soon! Currently working on Daruma Mode Hihidaruma and Luvdisc competitively, they've been working well.


Oh my lord I can not wait to read this. I mean, I thought I was crazy for using UU/NU underdog pokemon in OU... but I would have never thought of using Beedrill, and even then youre going one step further and going with LUVDISC?

I can't wait.
 

alphatron

Volt turn in every tier! I'm in despair!
People...using pokemon they like...competitively? I don't understand.

Anyways, I loved the battle. Better than seeing the same pokemon show up in the same warstories using all the same moves. I thought leading with Hippo was kind of weird, considering your Beedrill is sashed and probably wouldn't have mattered much anyways, but to each his own.

10/10, just for sweeping with Flareon.
Mind if I sig this? And I'm looking forward to some submersion luvdisc action. Assuming you're actually using submersion of course.
 
Well, I am quite speechless. Winning with 3 NFEs and 3 NUs? And commentary is pretty good to. But why Focus Sash on Beedrill when it's used in Sandstorm? Pretty redundant if you ask me. But, Pokemon is just not Tekken or Street Fighter, where it doesn't matter which character you use, what matters is how you use him/her, some Pokemon are just better than others, take note, although this should be pretty obvious.

Overall: 8/10
 
my first post, yay!

anyways, it was a great battle, especially considering the team you used.

one thing, right before the start of turn 13, you say that you run Flareon@ flame orb, but you have toxic orb instead. might want to fix that.
 
Excellent warstory, love it :D
9/10
This guy is really showing how NFE and NU are pros.

EDIT: I forgot to say but, please increase your font. It's quite hard to see in small font.
 
Did...did Flareon just sweep a team?

No, this warstory never existed. I refuse to believe this travesty exists.

10/10 warstory, I'm still wondering how the hell you pulled it off.
 
Original and inspiring. Format was a little off but who cares. 10/10 for using Flareon and Beedrill.
 

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