Authorized by shiny finder
Introduction:
Ok, trainer, you just copypasted the latest team in the RMT section that topped the ladder and clicked the "Find Battle" button on Pokémon Showdown. You breezed past your first 3 battles filled with players that don't know how to teambuild properly -that's another topic for a whole different guide- and finally you found an opponent with a properly built team only to lose the battle. You win some, you lose some, but you seem to be stuck on the same step in the ladder and can't climb to the top as the team in the RMT promised. "These kids with their annoying gimmicks, archetypes and bad MU's are ruining the game" you may say. Ok, boomer.
What you may be missing, is that even when teambuilding is a critical part in competitive Pokémon, the battle itself is the trail of fire, your team is your tools, your weapons, mere assests to fullfill your goal, but you are the one calling the shots and directing them, the final result of the battle comes from how well you can use them. From Youngster Joey to Pokémon League Champions this article will provide some guidelines for all skill levels you need to have in mind in order to achieve victory in the battlefield without mattering if you want to play the fun Random Battles or to shrug it out in OU. Without further ado, let's get going.
Knowledge
The first and more important thing to start woth is knowledge. Knowledge is crucial to a good reasoning and smart decisions in a Pokémon Battle. First come the mechanics of the generation you are playing. How do status works in this game? You may know that sleep works on 2-5 counter that will increase when the game says "*Pokémon* is fast asleep!" But did you know that the counter resets to 0 in Gen 5 after you switch and that in Gen 6 it doesn't? How do different pseudo status work too? Is there a team preview? Critical Hits? Type Advantage? STAB? Trapping? Z-Moves? Physical and Special split? Stat Boosting? Dynamixing? Mega Evolving? Switching? Each generation works different, and being aware of how the generation works will help you into forming a battleplan, abusing some aspects of it or being cautious about other ones.
After that you may want to look into the specific metagame you are playing. You should be thoughtfull of the most meta-defining mons and how to properly handle them. Meta strategies are also important too: weather, terrain, hazards, archetypes, common moves, abilities and items, cores, speed tiers, priority moves., etc. You can never know too much as the meta is constantly changing and evolving so you will need to also be updated. This may seem as a lot, but once you know all the basics you will keep yourself updated just by playing and watching slowly how the meta shifts.
Finally, you need to know your team, this may sound dumb but it is something players tend to forget (specially when copypasting RMT teams). Know about the roles of every one the Pokémon in your team, think about what is their job and how do they synergize with each other. Know your ranges too, you may see a weakened Tyranitar switching into your Latios and shoot a Draco Meteor only for the Tyranitar to survive with 10% HP left and murder it with Crunch.
Scouting
Well, you already read through all the resources available, know perfectly how your team works and jumped into your first important battle. Your first priority is to scout the enemy team. Some gens (and even tiers) may have or not team preview. If you have a team preview start, don't mind taking a few seconds just to watch your opponents team. With appropiate meta knowedge you may have an accurate idea of what archetype they are running, the roles of the different Pokémon on the team and even guess the coverage moves based on the team synergy you may have. Your opponent may want to pressure you by starting the timer, don't worry, keep it cool and take all the time you need, if they want to mash buttons they have Blitz.
In case there is no team preview, the things get trickier. You will need to scout the enemy team in order to create a succesful battle plan. Phazing moves and volt turn are really good for this (specially If you can lay a couple of hazards) as it forces switches and let you see the different Pokémon on the other team. Try to keep all your Pokémon alive in this phase and avoid trading KO's, as it may be a trap to get rid of the only member of your team that can stop their unrevealed sweeper.
Once in the battle, scout for coverage moves. Z-Moves, Hidden Power, Status Moves and regular coverage options are importante to check as they can be a nasty surprise later in the game as most of them may not get a OHKO but throught the battle they can chip your Pokémon into KO range are badly cripple them. Scouting items is important too, mostly choice items, Z-Crystals and consumable items that can't be as easily seen in the team preview.
Another important thing to watch for is how your opponent answers to your plays. They may play it safe and go for a lot of low cost switches, maybe they fight fire with fire and fight back at you or they could even go super aggressive with a double switch on you. This will be very important to keep in mind as it can ease prediction later in the game when you might need it and let you gauge the skill level of your opponent. Always remember that information is power and every bit of it can help you change the outcome of the match.
Leading
In some tiers you can choose a lead to start the battle with, in other ones your lead is set from the teambuilding. Here you want to take that decision taking momentum into account. We all know what momentum is, but can't really explain it with words; I'll try my best to define it as "the impactful amount of options you have". This means the amount of options that will actually change the game -you can have all your team weakened at 20% HP against a +6/+6 DD Mega-Blaziken and you can still switch your Pokémon as you like, but unless you have some priority move to KO it you are pretty much done-. Choose the lead that will give you more momentum: This may be by starting setting up hazards or avoiding them being set up, maybe you have a Pokemon that pretty much can handle everything on the other team. maybe you want to set up your weather or just need to start dealing heavy blows right of th bat to enabe a late game sweep. The choice is yours and this will vary a lot considering all the type of MU's you mght face on the ladder.
One tiers without team preview it is a little bit more straight forward. Does your lead have the favorable MU this time or your's gets shutdown? You may need to just deal with a Pokémon loss or maybe switching out to do some damage control. Take into account the same scenariof or your opponente, if he has no option but to switch it is a free setup for your lead and maybe you can get some real damage with a little prediction.
Identifying Win Conditions and Lose Condition
After a couple of turns of battle, you already know enough about the opposing team to start identifying threats on both sides. Let's start with the most important ones: Win Condition and Lose condition.
Even when it is fairly implied by the name, let's try to define a little better what a Win Condition is. Your Win Condition is what you can actively do to get that win, this comes in various forms. The most first one that comes to mind is a Setup Sweeper, you can a get a boost or 2 and plow through your opponent if they lack a proper answer, that Pokemon (and a safe setup) is your Win Condition. Most of the time your Win Condition is a series of Steps: remove the revege killer, cripple / remove the wall, get a safe switch in, setup and sweep. A Win Condition may also be a defensive one, maybe you have a wall that is way too hard for your opponent to get past so keeping it alive is your Win Condition.
A Lose Condition on the other side is what your opponent can actively do so you lose the game. It may come in the way that they have a wallbreaker that wrecks your only defense against their team / sweeper. Or maybe it is a wall outlast your heavy hitters in 1v1 combat. You need to be wary as well on what your opponent can do to get their win.
Just remember, your Win Condition is your opponents Lose Condition and viceversa.
Find your pacing
Once you identified the key roles and assets of both teams, your Win Condition and your Lose condition you need to control the flow the game. Try to assess the risk / reward ratio in three levels: Best case scenario (BCS), average case scenario (ACS), worst case scenario (WCS). To get a proper assesment, you will need to compare the extremes with the average. In example, imagine you have an advantageous MU where you can easily wall your opponent with your 4 walls and just switch and stall out everything your opponent throws at you, you may try to do a double switch to bring your sweeper out but if you misplay you may give all your momentum to your opponent opponent. Your BCS is not really that much better than your ACS, and your WCS is way worse than your ACS, so playing it safe and slow is the way to go in this case. On the other hand, imagine you are now the one being walled out, but you can't directly switch your wallbreaker against certain walls because you may fear some status or the accumulated chip damage will render it useless after one hit. Your WCS isn't really that far away from your ACS as both wil lead to a loss in here, but if you can pivot through the walls and get a double switch to get your wallbreaker fresh and safe you can change the outcome of the match, here your BCS heavily outweights the ACS so that will be the best course of action.
Information is Power
One of the most important things is to gather information, take into account that as you are scouting your opponent and and setting up your game plan your opponent is doing exactly the same. As stated in the section above, finding your pacing and assessing the risk reward ratio above is crucial to reaveal your trump cards. You are not hitting a Full HP Eviolite Chansey with your Thundurus Superpower at the first opportunity, you want to hit it where she thinks she is safe eating a Thunderbolt or a Volt Switch and then smacking her into oblivion. Getting the most amount of information while giving the least makes a big impact on the long run. Conditioning is also a really important thing. If you made the same play 3 times in a row on a specific interaction, your opponent will start expecting that play, that's how you can manipulate your opponente and have a better time landing a read. Your opponent may be doing the same to you, so remember to mix things up a little, you may have 2 walls that can block an enemy, mix how you switch in so you are not prone to a coverage move or a double switch. In a battle with a team preview, try to handle an opponent without revealing your whole team if possible, that will lead into making your oppoents battle plan flawed and easy to crack with one of your reserves. Information is power, get as much as you can and give the less you can
Play every card you have
Sometimes you will be forced to play every card you have, even luck. You may be getting sweeped by a Tapu Lele, but if she needs to and 2 Focus Blast in a row you are still in the game. Accuraccy, critical hits, secondary effects are just some of the stuff you may need to fish for in order to win a game, don't take shame on it as they are part of the game. Also take in mind that Pokémon is a resource game. HP, Pokemon and PP are all resources. If you need to pivot through your team to PP Stall a dangerous move, do it. Don't remember to lie, sometimes you cann foce a switch by bluffing a set and that can be the difference between being stomped and having a second chance. Sometimes saving a "death Pokémon" is also useful. Imagine you have a Flareon at 20% HP, Stealth Rocks are on your side of the field and here comes a revenge killer. Do you let the Flareon down or you save him? Assuming you can wall the revenge killer with something it may be a good idea to keep him on the back as it will later provide a free switch if you need it. You need to be aware of what resources you still have and make use of every little bit of them as optimally as you can, even when individually those little optimizations and little to a single interaction in the long run they will add up and be a huge game changer.
Remember to have fun
You are playing because you llike the game, right? Remember to have fun. I know, it can be really tilting missing two Draco Meteors in a row, but remember to keep your head cool and shrug it off (specially if you are playing on ladder). Having a good mentality is probably one of th most important things to have while battling but it is also one of the most overooked ones. If you aren't in the right state of mind give it a rest, go to your happy place, hydrate yourself and get back in the game, at the end of the day, this is just a game that you are spending time into to enjoy and have some fun.
Practical Example
I want to share with you a little replay when we can see in practice all of hat I've already talked before. I will use a Random Battle replay to show you how this can be used in any tier no mattering the situation.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7randombattle-1007387011
My Team:
Tapu Fini (Calm Mind)
Cresselia (Calm Mind)
Mimkyu (Swords Dance. Z Move)
Blaziken (Mega, Swords Dance)
Hawlucha (Swords Dance)
Wailord (Choice Specs)
Right of the bat we can see that my team has 2 Win Condition routes. Via the Calm Mind slow setup sweep or a burst option with two Swords Dance users. Seeing Meloetta on turn 1 makes me go for the Swords Dance route, as Meloetta can consume a lot of resources to get rid off with special attakers, I have 1 more Swords Dance user to keep the pressure going and they have better speed control. I also have already Tapu Fini out so it may be good way to start softening the opponents team.
I Calm Mind to setup a scout position. Meloetta switching out reveals a mixed set, and after seeing the scald damage on the Swallot I see I can win the 1v1 and remove it from the game, a lucky crit KO's my Tapu Fini. I decide to go for Wailord. Specs Water Spout will soften pretty much anything he throws at me. He shows his Mega Blastoise and I end up making a nice dent on it.
After that, I withdraw Wailord because having a nuke is always useful, and show my Cresselia. This will help me keep softening the team and even scouting. I get the Meloetta on turn 12
On turn 13 he shows up his Alolan-Raichu. I could've won the CM war as I can also boost my special defense and have reliable recovery, but an unlucky parahax and him thawing out gives me another bad luck strike.
At this moment I am in a bad spot. Alolan-Raichu can outspeed and OHKO everything on my team at +2. So I have to threaten it with Mimikyu. I can go directly for the Shadow Sneak and KO him, but my opponent has been consistenly switching out to not lose Pokémon, so i go for the aggro read and Swords Dance. Here comes a softened Swalot that I can KO but I got greedy and disguise and went for a Swords Dance and got Yawned. I finish up the Swallot as I have setup sweepers and yawn just shuts them up. I stil think that Sword Dancing was the correct play ith the information I was given. I could've plowed through his team with a full HP Mimikyu, at +3, but him keeping the Yawn hidden was a good play too.
On turn 20 when he sends Blastoise, I calculate he needs 3 turns to KO my Mimikyu. One to destroy disguise, and 2 for the actual damage. Knowing how sleep works in the generation, a second turn wake up is luck, a third turn wake up is regular, and because I am faster my third turn comes earlier than his. Worst case scenario, I can bring my Hawlucha to setup and trigger my unburden to sweep.
I end up waking up on turn 2 and KO-ing Blastoise, he sends Mewtwo who I can weaken with a Shadow Sneak.
Wailord makes an appearance again. He goes into a bad spot unless his last Pokémon resists him. Neither Mewtwo or Raichu can switch into a Hydro Pump. So I just click and he reveals the Tsareena.
Right now is where the battle comes the most interesting. If he knew that the rest of my team was, he coud've won the battle pretty easily. He could've let Mewtwo get KO-ed by Wailord and then just sweeped with Raichu because of his dual STAB's on Electric and Psychic. But he didn't knew what my last 2 Pokémon were, so he went to the safe route and tried to wall me. So I just let the Wailord die, switch in my Mega Blaziken, setup and sweep.
Here we can see how the use of scouting and not using of it can severely change the outcome of the battle, and having a plan or the early game, mid game and late game setups a better chance of getting a winning strategy. I played by the book and dealt with the RNG that comes with every Pokémon battle, shrugging off the bad ones and using my knowlede of it to keep Mimikyu on the battlefield. There were some good and bad plays on both sides, but taking advante of them is what makes a good player.
Final Message
Playing Pokémon is easy, mastering is difficult. Try to see these as a series of guidelines of what you can do to improve your battle experience any given time, doesn't mattering if you are playing a fun Random Battlles game or the Finals of the Smogon Premier League. Don't mind bending and breaking this guidlines according on what you think is best for you, they are not written in stone. I just hope that when you feel a little stray on what you should do on a battle, you remember any of the advice given here.
Introduction:
Ok, trainer, you just copypasted the latest team in the RMT section that topped the ladder and clicked the "Find Battle" button on Pokémon Showdown. You breezed past your first 3 battles filled with players that don't know how to teambuild properly -that's another topic for a whole different guide- and finally you found an opponent with a properly built team only to lose the battle. You win some, you lose some, but you seem to be stuck on the same step in the ladder and can't climb to the top as the team in the RMT promised. "These kids with their annoying gimmicks, archetypes and bad MU's are ruining the game" you may say. Ok, boomer.
What you may be missing, is that even when teambuilding is a critical part in competitive Pokémon, the battle itself is the trail of fire, your team is your tools, your weapons, mere assests to fullfill your goal, but you are the one calling the shots and directing them, the final result of the battle comes from how well you can use them. From Youngster Joey to Pokémon League Champions this article will provide some guidelines for all skill levels you need to have in mind in order to achieve victory in the battlefield without mattering if you want to play the fun Random Battles or to shrug it out in OU. Without further ado, let's get going.
Knowledge
The first and more important thing to start woth is knowledge. Knowledge is crucial to a good reasoning and smart decisions in a Pokémon Battle. First come the mechanics of the generation you are playing. How do status works in this game? You may know that sleep works on 2-5 counter that will increase when the game says "*Pokémon* is fast asleep!" But did you know that the counter resets to 0 in Gen 5 after you switch and that in Gen 6 it doesn't? How do different pseudo status work too? Is there a team preview? Critical Hits? Type Advantage? STAB? Trapping? Z-Moves? Physical and Special split? Stat Boosting? Dynamixing? Mega Evolving? Switching? Each generation works different, and being aware of how the generation works will help you into forming a battleplan, abusing some aspects of it or being cautious about other ones.
After that you may want to look into the specific metagame you are playing. You should be thoughtfull of the most meta-defining mons and how to properly handle them. Meta strategies are also important too: weather, terrain, hazards, archetypes, common moves, abilities and items, cores, speed tiers, priority moves., etc. You can never know too much as the meta is constantly changing and evolving so you will need to also be updated. This may seem as a lot, but once you know all the basics you will keep yourself updated just by playing and watching slowly how the meta shifts.
Finally, you need to know your team, this may sound dumb but it is something players tend to forget (specially when copypasting RMT teams). Know about the roles of every one the Pokémon in your team, think about what is their job and how do they synergize with each other. Know your ranges too, you may see a weakened Tyranitar switching into your Latios and shoot a Draco Meteor only for the Tyranitar to survive with 10% HP left and murder it with Crunch.
Scouting
Well, you already read through all the resources available, know perfectly how your team works and jumped into your first important battle. Your first priority is to scout the enemy team. Some gens (and even tiers) may have or not team preview. If you have a team preview start, don't mind taking a few seconds just to watch your opponents team. With appropiate meta knowedge you may have an accurate idea of what archetype they are running, the roles of the different Pokémon on the team and even guess the coverage moves based on the team synergy you may have. Your opponent may want to pressure you by starting the timer, don't worry, keep it cool and take all the time you need, if they want to mash buttons they have Blitz.
In case there is no team preview, the things get trickier. You will need to scout the enemy team in order to create a succesful battle plan. Phazing moves and volt turn are really good for this (specially If you can lay a couple of hazards) as it forces switches and let you see the different Pokémon on the other team. Try to keep all your Pokémon alive in this phase and avoid trading KO's, as it may be a trap to get rid of the only member of your team that can stop their unrevealed sweeper.
Once in the battle, scout for coverage moves. Z-Moves, Hidden Power, Status Moves and regular coverage options are importante to check as they can be a nasty surprise later in the game as most of them may not get a OHKO but throught the battle they can chip your Pokémon into KO range are badly cripple them. Scouting items is important too, mostly choice items, Z-Crystals and consumable items that can't be as easily seen in the team preview.
Another important thing to watch for is how your opponent answers to your plays. They may play it safe and go for a lot of low cost switches, maybe they fight fire with fire and fight back at you or they could even go super aggressive with a double switch on you. This will be very important to keep in mind as it can ease prediction later in the game when you might need it and let you gauge the skill level of your opponent. Always remember that information is power and every bit of it can help you change the outcome of the match.
Leading
In some tiers you can choose a lead to start the battle with, in other ones your lead is set from the teambuilding. Here you want to take that decision taking momentum into account. We all know what momentum is, but can't really explain it with words; I'll try my best to define it as "the impactful amount of options you have". This means the amount of options that will actually change the game -you can have all your team weakened at 20% HP against a +6/+6 DD Mega-Blaziken and you can still switch your Pokémon as you like, but unless you have some priority move to KO it you are pretty much done-. Choose the lead that will give you more momentum: This may be by starting setting up hazards or avoiding them being set up, maybe you have a Pokemon that pretty much can handle everything on the other team. maybe you want to set up your weather or just need to start dealing heavy blows right of th bat to enabe a late game sweep. The choice is yours and this will vary a lot considering all the type of MU's you mght face on the ladder.
One tiers without team preview it is a little bit more straight forward. Does your lead have the favorable MU this time or your's gets shutdown? You may need to just deal with a Pokémon loss or maybe switching out to do some damage control. Take into account the same scenariof or your opponente, if he has no option but to switch it is a free setup for your lead and maybe you can get some real damage with a little prediction.
Identifying Win Conditions and Lose Condition
After a couple of turns of battle, you already know enough about the opposing team to start identifying threats on both sides. Let's start with the most important ones: Win Condition and Lose condition.
Even when it is fairly implied by the name, let's try to define a little better what a Win Condition is. Your Win Condition is what you can actively do to get that win, this comes in various forms. The most first one that comes to mind is a Setup Sweeper, you can a get a boost or 2 and plow through your opponent if they lack a proper answer, that Pokemon (and a safe setup) is your Win Condition. Most of the time your Win Condition is a series of Steps: remove the revege killer, cripple / remove the wall, get a safe switch in, setup and sweep. A Win Condition may also be a defensive one, maybe you have a wall that is way too hard for your opponent to get past so keeping it alive is your Win Condition.
A Lose Condition on the other side is what your opponent can actively do so you lose the game. It may come in the way that they have a wallbreaker that wrecks your only defense against their team / sweeper. Or maybe it is a wall outlast your heavy hitters in 1v1 combat. You need to be wary as well on what your opponent can do to get their win.
Just remember, your Win Condition is your opponents Lose Condition and viceversa.
Find your pacing
Once you identified the key roles and assets of both teams, your Win Condition and your Lose condition you need to control the flow the game. Try to assess the risk / reward ratio in three levels: Best case scenario (BCS), average case scenario (ACS), worst case scenario (WCS). To get a proper assesment, you will need to compare the extremes with the average. In example, imagine you have an advantageous MU where you can easily wall your opponent with your 4 walls and just switch and stall out everything your opponent throws at you, you may try to do a double switch to bring your sweeper out but if you misplay you may give all your momentum to your opponent opponent. Your BCS is not really that much better than your ACS, and your WCS is way worse than your ACS, so playing it safe and slow is the way to go in this case. On the other hand, imagine you are now the one being walled out, but you can't directly switch your wallbreaker against certain walls because you may fear some status or the accumulated chip damage will render it useless after one hit. Your WCS isn't really that far away from your ACS as both wil lead to a loss in here, but if you can pivot through the walls and get a double switch to get your wallbreaker fresh and safe you can change the outcome of the match, here your BCS heavily outweights the ACS so that will be the best course of action.
Information is Power
One of the most important things is to gather information, take into account that as you are scouting your opponent and and setting up your game plan your opponent is doing exactly the same. As stated in the section above, finding your pacing and assessing the risk reward ratio above is crucial to reaveal your trump cards. You are not hitting a Full HP Eviolite Chansey with your Thundurus Superpower at the first opportunity, you want to hit it where she thinks she is safe eating a Thunderbolt or a Volt Switch and then smacking her into oblivion. Getting the most amount of information while giving the least makes a big impact on the long run. Conditioning is also a really important thing. If you made the same play 3 times in a row on a specific interaction, your opponent will start expecting that play, that's how you can manipulate your opponente and have a better time landing a read. Your opponent may be doing the same to you, so remember to mix things up a little, you may have 2 walls that can block an enemy, mix how you switch in so you are not prone to a coverage move or a double switch. In a battle with a team preview, try to handle an opponent without revealing your whole team if possible, that will lead into making your oppoents battle plan flawed and easy to crack with one of your reserves. Information is power, get as much as you can and give the less you can
Play every card you have
Sometimes you will be forced to play every card you have, even luck. You may be getting sweeped by a Tapu Lele, but if she needs to and 2 Focus Blast in a row you are still in the game. Accuraccy, critical hits, secondary effects are just some of the stuff you may need to fish for in order to win a game, don't take shame on it as they are part of the game. Also take in mind that Pokémon is a resource game. HP, Pokemon and PP are all resources. If you need to pivot through your team to PP Stall a dangerous move, do it. Don't remember to lie, sometimes you cann foce a switch by bluffing a set and that can be the difference between being stomped and having a second chance. Sometimes saving a "death Pokémon" is also useful. Imagine you have a Flareon at 20% HP, Stealth Rocks are on your side of the field and here comes a revenge killer. Do you let the Flareon down or you save him? Assuming you can wall the revenge killer with something it may be a good idea to keep him on the back as it will later provide a free switch if you need it. You need to be aware of what resources you still have and make use of every little bit of them as optimally as you can, even when individually those little optimizations and little to a single interaction in the long run they will add up and be a huge game changer.
Remember to have fun
You are playing because you llike the game, right? Remember to have fun. I know, it can be really tilting missing two Draco Meteors in a row, but remember to keep your head cool and shrug it off (specially if you are playing on ladder). Having a good mentality is probably one of th most important things to have while battling but it is also one of the most overooked ones. If you aren't in the right state of mind give it a rest, go to your happy place, hydrate yourself and get back in the game, at the end of the day, this is just a game that you are spending time into to enjoy and have some fun.
Practical Example
I want to share with you a little replay when we can see in practice all of hat I've already talked before. I will use a Random Battle replay to show you how this can be used in any tier no mattering the situation.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7randombattle-1007387011
My Team:
Tapu Fini (Calm Mind)
Cresselia (Calm Mind)
Mimkyu (Swords Dance. Z Move)
Blaziken (Mega, Swords Dance)
Hawlucha (Swords Dance)
Wailord (Choice Specs)
Right of the bat we can see that my team has 2 Win Condition routes. Via the Calm Mind slow setup sweep or a burst option with two Swords Dance users. Seeing Meloetta on turn 1 makes me go for the Swords Dance route, as Meloetta can consume a lot of resources to get rid off with special attakers, I have 1 more Swords Dance user to keep the pressure going and they have better speed control. I also have already Tapu Fini out so it may be good way to start softening the opponents team.
I Calm Mind to setup a scout position. Meloetta switching out reveals a mixed set, and after seeing the scald damage on the Swallot I see I can win the 1v1 and remove it from the game, a lucky crit KO's my Tapu Fini. I decide to go for Wailord. Specs Water Spout will soften pretty much anything he throws at me. He shows his Mega Blastoise and I end up making a nice dent on it.
After that, I withdraw Wailord because having a nuke is always useful, and show my Cresselia. This will help me keep softening the team and even scouting. I get the Meloetta on turn 12
On turn 13 he shows up his Alolan-Raichu. I could've won the CM war as I can also boost my special defense and have reliable recovery, but an unlucky parahax and him thawing out gives me another bad luck strike.
At this moment I am in a bad spot. Alolan-Raichu can outspeed and OHKO everything on my team at +2. So I have to threaten it with Mimikyu. I can go directly for the Shadow Sneak and KO him, but my opponent has been consistenly switching out to not lose Pokémon, so i go for the aggro read and Swords Dance. Here comes a softened Swalot that I can KO but I got greedy and disguise and went for a Swords Dance and got Yawned. I finish up the Swallot as I have setup sweepers and yawn just shuts them up. I stil think that Sword Dancing was the correct play ith the information I was given. I could've plowed through his team with a full HP Mimikyu, at +3, but him keeping the Yawn hidden was a good play too.
On turn 20 when he sends Blastoise, I calculate he needs 3 turns to KO my Mimikyu. One to destroy disguise, and 2 for the actual damage. Knowing how sleep works in the generation, a second turn wake up is luck, a third turn wake up is regular, and because I am faster my third turn comes earlier than his. Worst case scenario, I can bring my Hawlucha to setup and trigger my unburden to sweep.
I end up waking up on turn 2 and KO-ing Blastoise, he sends Mewtwo who I can weaken with a Shadow Sneak.
Wailord makes an appearance again. He goes into a bad spot unless his last Pokémon resists him. Neither Mewtwo or Raichu can switch into a Hydro Pump. So I just click and he reveals the Tsareena.
Right now is where the battle comes the most interesting. If he knew that the rest of my team was, he coud've won the battle pretty easily. He could've let Mewtwo get KO-ed by Wailord and then just sweeped with Raichu because of his dual STAB's on Electric and Psychic. But he didn't knew what my last 2 Pokémon were, so he went to the safe route and tried to wall me. So I just let the Wailord die, switch in my Mega Blaziken, setup and sweep.
Here we can see how the use of scouting and not using of it can severely change the outcome of the battle, and having a plan or the early game, mid game and late game setups a better chance of getting a winning strategy. I played by the book and dealt with the RNG that comes with every Pokémon battle, shrugging off the bad ones and using my knowlede of it to keep Mimikyu on the battlefield. There were some good and bad plays on both sides, but taking advante of them is what makes a good player.
Final Message
Playing Pokémon is easy, mastering is difficult. Try to see these as a series of guidelines of what you can do to improve your battle experience any given time, doesn't mattering if you are playing a fun Random Battlles game or the Finals of the Smogon Premier League. Don't mind bending and breaking this guidlines according on what you think is best for you, they are not written in stone. I just hope that when you feel a little stray on what you should do on a battle, you remember any of the advice given here.