Speed is fun - 'till it kills!

Hello there, dear smogonites! Having lurked around the forums for a rather long time, you've probably yet to see me contribute to what is one of my greatest passions and what got me into competitive pokemon in the first place, warstories - but I'm trying to fix that now!

You see, I've been rather annoyed about the fact that weather is such a dominant factor in the metagame, and eventually I started throwing together a rather gimmicky - but strangely effective anti-weather team (peaked at #38 woo! and NO, I do not run scarf Lickilicky) that essentially tried to deal with whatever depended on being fast in order to score victory. During my laddering, I also noticed that this team makes for more interesting warstories, so here we are with one of those battles, which includes some rather fun plays as well as hopefully a few decent predictions. Enjoy!

DJ Landlos = my alt for the occasion (thank you smogcast!), and anything related to me and what my pokes will do will share that crimson red color, while everything related to my opponent will have this cool blue color.

Finally, keep in mind that english is not my native language, so please bear with me in case of some horrifying grammar/spelling mistakes. Without further ado, let it begin!

Battle between Perception and DJ Landlos started!

Tier: Standard OU
Variation: +15, -16
Rule: Rated
Rule: Sleep Clause
Rule: Species Clause
Rule: Wifi Battle

Meet the teams!
(due to the image limits, you'll only see the teams in this format, but I hope you'll manage still, I'm sure that some of you can figure out my team's strategy only by a quick glance)



Tyranitar, Blaziken, Reuniclus, Scizor, Virizion, and Quagsire.

Tar is currently in his lead slot, so I see no reason why it should stay in versus Mienshao. Reuniclus, which would otherwise destroy my rather unorthodox Mienshao lead is probably not a good bet on his part either, as the standard lead Mienshao set carries U-Turn and would just go to Scizor, killing it in two swift strikes. Virizion can’t take Fake Out + Hi Jump Kicks at all, Quagsire will not enjoy taking a kick to its soft, underdeveloped head, and while Scizor could easily eradicate Mienshao with Bullet Punch, it won’t be able to do anything to my Gyara. Nah, I’ll just stay in with Mienshao and see what he does, as I should be able to deal with anything that he tries to do.

vs.
DJ Landlos sent out Mienshao!
Perception sent out Tyranitar!
Tyranitar's Sand Stream whipped up a sandstorm!

Mmmmmkay. Having seen no sweepers that would benefit greatly from sandstorm being set, I conclude that this is some sort of Scarf Tyranitar in order to deal with the Lati@s, as otherwise there'd be no reason for it to stay in on me. Pursuit/Crunch won’t kill off Mienshao, Stone Edge will probably come close but won’t ohko (and might miss as well with its crappy accuracy), so all I’m left with is a Superpower, which Tornadus should be able to easily absorb and start setting up.

---

Start of turn 1
vs.
DJ Landlos called Mienshao back!
DJ Landlos sent out Tornadus!
Perception called Tyranitar back!
Perception sent out Scizor!

The sandstorm rages!
Tornadus is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Tornadus restored a little HP using its Leftovers! (albeit very stealthily from now on!)
Tornadus: 100%
Scizor: 100%

Wait, what? That certainly didn’t exactly go the way I expected it to :s Ok, let’s look at what we’ve got. The fact that he switched out probably means that #1 his TTar is not scarfed, and #2 he expected a Fake Out/U-Turn that Scizor could take easily (though why he would risk that when I’ve seen his team and know that he’s got no ghosts which prevents me from HJK-spamming I don’t know).
Regardless, Tornadobro has no business dealing with bullets. My switch-in might be very very obvious, but considering how it is next to the ultimate answer to any Scizor there is and is literally the only thing holding my team together versus it, I’ll take no chances. Gyarados, get out there and start doing your stuff!

---

Start of turn 2
vs.
DJ Landlos called Tornadus back!
DJ Landlos sent out Gyarados!
Gyarados intimidates Scizor!
Scizor's Attack fell!
Scizor used Bullet Punch!
It's not very effective...
Gyarados lost 12% of its health!

The sandstorm rages!
Gyarados is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Gyarados restored a little HP using its Leftovers! (after this he made sure to swallow them completely, eating up every mention of them ever since)
Gyarados: 88%
Scizor: 100%/ -1 Attack

No LO recoil and poor damage convinces me that this is yet another SD-ef Scizor. Now, I COULD Dragon Dance and proceed to do a little damage, but he carries Quagsire, which makes it sort of moot to boost up seeing as I would do very little to it regardless. (No, it is not because I run a CroGyara set you avid UU/Uber players from last gen, but because quaggy got the hot, “new”, and annoying as hell ability Unaware through the dream world, and added up with Recover + Stockpile or even Curse, that makes for a tank that is really hard to take down, as your boosts are nullified and it just keeps on boosting)

I’ve got three choices, seeing as Dragon Dance is basically out of the question – #1, I could Waterfall whatever comes in, decently damaging anything not named Virizion as well as probably doing pathetic damage to Quagsire, #2, I could EQ, doing significantly less to everything, and #3 I could Bounce, still doing fair damage to everything barring Tyranitar and Quagsire, (and who would switch in a Tyranitar on Gyarados barring some sort of PasshoTar with Thunderbolt?) but with the additional benefit of forcing Virizion out if it tries to switch in. Besides, what do you think would do the most damage, a giant aquatic serpent charging at you cloaked in water in order to soften the impact, or a giant aquatic serpent PRANCING at you from above, blocking out the sun as 235 kg’s of pure hatred crushes down on your feeble body from above? Yeah, I thought so as well.

---

Start of turn 3
vs.

Perception called Scizor back!
Perception sent out Quagsire!
Gyarados sprang up!

The sandstorm rages!
Gyarados: 88%/ Bouncing to the beat
Quagsire: 100%

Well damn. What felt like a great choice in the last turn suddenly turns into a very annoying situation, if it starts cursing/stockpiling, I’m going to have a pure hell getting through those boosts. My best hope in this situation is that he will either just status me, or best case simply recover off the damage gained. There’s not much I can do, barring perhaps hoping for parahax + tons of waterfall flinches, but let’s keep it realistic, Gyara is one of the better Jirachi-switch-ins, not the wishmaker itself.

---
Start of turn 4
vs.
Gyarados used Bounce!
Quagsire lost 29% of its health!
Quagsire used Toxic!
Gyarados was poisoned!

The sandstorm rages!
Gyarados is hurt by poison!
Quagsire restored a little HP using its Leftovers! (and will continue to do so despite me not telling you)
Gyarados: 82%/ Badly Poisoned
Quagsire: 77%

Graaaaah. Toxic makes sure that his Scizor will have a much easier time setting up now, considering how Gyara’s time is now pretty much limited. At the very least what I assume is his Stealth Rocker, Tyranitar, will have a hard time coming in on pretty much everything on my team barring Latios, so it might still have multiple switch-ins left. Regardless, I’m set up bait for Quaggy, so I might as well switch to something that can get some “scouting done”. Scizor is immune to Toxic if it tries to do that one more time, predicting a switch, and can U-Turn out for somewhat decent damage, eventually allowing me to cripple it beyond repair with Haxorus. If I’m even luckier he might even try to Encore Scizor into a “swords dance” for free set-ups on his part (but you know that’s not going to happen lol).

---

Start of turn 5
vs.
DJ Landlos called Gyarados back!
DJ Landlos sent out Scizor!
Quagsire used Recover!
Quagsire regained health!

The sandstorm rages!
Scizor: 100%
Quagsire: 100%

And all of a sudden the bounce damage might as well not have existed in the first place. However, it could be worse, it could’ve stockpiled! Needlessly to say, my Scizor can’t really do that much to Quagsire even though it is not a SD variant, as I run U-Turn, Bullet Punch, Roost, and a mystery move that is a key part of my team… so much so, that you can be assured that without it, this match would’ve been decided in my opponents favor. Regardless, Scizor has no business dealing with Quaggy – “scouting” time!

---

Start of turn 6
vs.
Scizor used U-turn!
Quagsire lost 26% of its health!
DJ Landlos called Scizor back!
DJ Landlos sent out Haxorus!
Quagsire used Waterfall!
It's not very effective...
Haxorus lost 16% of its health!

The sandstorm rages!
Haxorus: 78%
Quagsire: 80%

Oookay. That went better than expected, really – even though I sort of doubt that it would’ve mattered if he had gotten a curse up at this point. Enter the rage, the unstoppable killing machine, the “I don’t give a f*ck about you resisting my rage because you’re going to get 2hko’d anyway”, laddies and gentlewomen, I present thee with THE Choice band Rivalry Haxorus, now with 100% more graphics! (unaware this, quag)

---

Start of turn 7




Haxorus used Outrage!
Quagsire lost 79% of its health!
Quagsire fainted!

The sandstorm rages!
Haxorus: 72%/Choice locked into Outrage
Quagsire: 0%//Fainted

You might have heard the immortal saying “How well does Happiny take Close Combats from Machamp?”, and perhaps even the follow-up “How well does Pikachu take Earthquakes from Rhyperior?”, and wondered “my goodness, what could possibly the answer to these ultimate questions be?”


..Wonder no more. The answer is of course; “Still better than Quagsire takes CB Rivalry Outrages from Haxorus”.

Brushing that aside, I’m now locked in, and I can just about smell Scizor wanting to come in on a “not very effective” Outrage. Haxorus should be able to take an unboosted bullet punch and live, but hell who wouldn’t want to set up on this? So yeah, I can’t switch out and Scizor gets an almost free +2, but really that shouldn’t matter too much, as gyara should still stop him steel cold despite his current state of intoxication.





Perception sent out Scizor!

---

Start of turn 8
vs.
Haxorus used Outrage!
It's not very effective...
Scizor lost 65% of its health!
Scizor used Swords Dance!
Scizor's Attack sharply rose!

The sandstorm rages!
Haxorus calmed down!
Haxorus became confused!
Scizor restored a little HP using its Leftovers! (how I wish that my editing out of these facts would actually delete their existence as well)
Haxorus: 66%/ Confused, Choice locked in Outrage
Scizor: 41%/ +2 Attack

Pffft. Did I just say “free”? WITNESS THE POWER, bitches (though considering how a cb Outrage 3hko’s Ferrothorn with leech seed factored in, and that it does 70%+ to offensive Heatran etc, that’s a pretty bad damage roll, seeing as it should do (71.09% - 83.78%) to the standard 232 HP Scizor, damn you cherubi!) Regardless, there’s no merit to keeping Haxorus in now, so I might as well just nullify his boosts and make him understand that THIS IS WORSE THAN YOUR BERLIN, you aint getting through my wall even if you use dig.

---

Start of turn 9
vs.

DJ Landlos called Haxorus back!
DJ Landlos sent out Gyarados!
Gyarados intimidates Scizor!
Scizor's Attack fell!
Scizor used Bullet Punch!
It's not very effective...
Gyarados lost 28% of its health!

The sandstorm rages!
Gyarados is hurt by poison!
Gyarados: 48%/ Badly Poisoned
Scizor: 52%/ +1 Attack

Knew he was going to bullet punch, as otherwise Haxorus would’ve slaughtered him with his “resisted” attack. Regardless this is not a very good situation. The one thing that remains from my opponents Quagsire combined with ss damage leaves my Gyarados at less than half health, while in the meantime, Scizor have recovered next to half his hp thanks to lefties. At this time I don’t really have that much of a choice. Bounce could probably kill him at the health he’s got now, but that would force me to take even more toxic damage, and would give him a free roost + more lefties recovery, dragon dance is again not an option thanks to the fact that I still won’t ohko him if he roosts now, and Bullet Punch is currently a 2hko. Waterfall is the only option I’ve got, hopefully dealing enough damage, and if nothing else I could possibly flinch him to death, granting my team some well-earned rest.

---

Start of turn 10

vs.
Gyarados used Waterfall!
Scizor lost 43% of its health!
Scizor used Roost!
Scizor landed on the ground!
Scizor regained health!

The sandstorm rages!
Gyarados is hurt by poison!
Gyarados: 36%/ Badly Poisoned
Scizor: 65%/ +1 Attack


No flinchhax, unsurprisingly enough. Now, it is clear to me that I’m going to be fighting a losing war if I stay in, and I might very well need to preserve Gyarados in order to get off an intimidate later on, or possibly even twice if I manage to prevent TTar from showing its ugly face. Now, considering how the standard SD Scizor usually runs Roost/SD/Bug Bite/BP, there is next to nothing it can do to foe Scizor, but there is one set that just might do that!

Since I have yet to reveal what item I’m running on Scizor, my only hope lies on this one bluff – that I’ll smack his metal coat HARD with a CB Superpower and thrash him to hell and back – however that is nothing but a trick play! (Especially considering how I don’t run CB) I’ll U-turn out yet again, hopefully catching his one fighting resist on the switch, after which I can hopefully go to town on his team using Mienshao. Also, I’ve purposely given this Scizor a 30 IV in speed, so if anything else it should go last if it tries to Bug Bite/Roost, allowing me to bring out Latios unscatched I he decides to stay in, hopefully living a +1 BP, while killing it with Hidden Power Fire. Got that? Basically I’m betting the match on the fact that my opponent will play very conservatively, and bring out his Reuniclus to absorb a Superpower, while I’ll just U-Turn out of it in glee.

---

Start of turn 11

vs.
DJ Landlos called Gyarados back!
DJ Landlos sent out Scizor!
Scizor used Roost!
Scizor landed on the ground!
Scizor regained health!

The sandstorm rages!
Scizor: 100%
Scizor: 100%/ +1 Attack

izzy is watching the battle.

---

Start of turn 12
vs.
Perception called Scizor back!
Perception sent out Reuniclus!
Scizor used U-turn!
It's super effective!
Reuniclus lost 70% of its health!
DJ Landlos called Scizor back!
DJ Landlos sent out Tornadus!
The sandstorm rages!
Tornadus: 100%
Reuniclus: 30%


I go to Tornadus for two reasons: #1 It can 2hko/ohko everything on his team with Hammer Arm/Hurricane (I’d use Air Slash because missing sucks, but the power decrease is so notable :[ ), and #2 It also carries U-Turn to let me grab momentum, as well as hopefully letting me kill Reuniclus if he stays in, or even lets me scout on a still potential ScarfTar waiting in the wings, trying to switch in on a resisted Hurricane. Missing sucks, so we’ll U-Turn again!

---

Start of turn 13
vs.

Tornadus used U-turn!
It's super effective!
Reuniclus lost 29% of its health!
Reuniclus fainted!
DJ Landlos called Tornadus back!
DJ Landlos sent out Scizor!

The sandstorm rages!
Scizor: 100%
Reuniclus: 0%// Fainted



As you can see, I'm in a pretty comfortable lead, but it isn't as onesided as you might think due to my one Scizor check being really worn down. Call it about even.

Perception sent out Blaziken!


Went to Scizor in case Reuniclus survived the weaker U-Turn from Tornadobro (guess some old shoddy mechanics still remain inside me), luckily that wasn’t the case. However, he sends out Blaziken, which would normally be a massive pain in the kahooters of any team, especially offensive ones without weather changers/resisted priority, and to top it off it is versus a Scizor that can’t do anything to it! …or at least that would usually be the case, if it wasn’t for the fact that my Scizor carries a move that it shares with only one other steel-type.

It is not too hard to figure out what Blaziken would do as a switch is fairly obvious, it is either going to set up on me or Protect – in other words, me and my metal bug are going to brave the 4x SE attack, it is time to reveal my secret weapon! Finally, the moment you have all been waiting for! Ready yourself, you mental metal monster.

---

Start of turn 14
vs.

Blaziken used Protect!
Blaziken protected itself!
Scizor used Tailwind!
A tailwind started blowing behind DJ Landlos's team!

The sandstorm rages!
Blaziken is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Blaziken's Speed Boost increases its speed!
Blaziken's Speed rose!

Scizor: 100%/ Tailwind active, 3 turns remaining
Blaziken: 94%/ +1 Speed

That’s right, you saw it here first. TAILWIND, the one non-weather field effect that isn’t easily taunt-able, that doesn’t require outrageously slow users to use in a decent way, and that cannot be cancelled out regardless of how many sand stream users you carry. To be honest, Scizor isn’t the only one on my team to know this move, as I’ve got Tornadus for emergency-tailwinds in case of, say Shell Smashers or weather abusers gone wild, as well as Latios for late-game sweeping purposes, but Scizor is usually the one to open up the show with its excellent resistances and slow enough speed even in tailwind, to allow me to get in my rather fragile sweepers unharmed (and it is tons of fun in other situations as well, nothing like people bringing their HP Fire Magnezone into Scizor as you Tailwind, only to outspeed and U-Turning out, or for instance people switching Gyarados into Scizor for a couple of free Dragon Dances, and then you Tailwind and U-Turn out to Haxorus for a quick OHKO with Outrage.. ah). Our job here in handling Blaziken is done, however, as I do not expect the fighting cock to allow us to make any more gimmicky moves. Brace yourself, brave soldier.

---

Start of turn 15
vs.
Blaziken used Fire Blast!
The attack of Blaziken missed!
Scizor used U-turn!
It's not very effective...
Blaziken lost 13% of its health!
DJ Landlos called Scizor back!
DJ Landlos sent out Mienshao!

The sandstorm rages!
Mienshao is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Mienshao restored a little HP using its Leftovers! (and proceeded to hide it somewhere up his sleeves, getting it all over his fur and making it sticky. eww)
Blaziken's Speed Boost increases its speed!
Blaziken's Speed rose!

Mienshao: 100%/ Tailwind active, 2 turns remaining
Blaziken: 75%/ +2 Speed

Oh right, it is apparently MissKen! Missing for him sucks I guess, but then again there is the everlasting Power vs. Actually Hitting issue… U-Turn still does a decent amount of damage considering the 4x resist, and allows me to bring in my part two of my anti-Blaziken defense; Mienshao.

Remember how Blaziken is an annoying prick because it gets faster every damn turn? Well, with Tailwind you can essentially negate those boosts provided you kill it quickly enough, as Mienshao is now also at a current +2 speed, aka faster than any chicken to ever walk the earth – that is, until it MC Hammers again.


It is really not too difficult to have a guess at what Blaziken will do, as I’m faster, HJK would leave me half-dead, and Protect foils any try you could ever have at Fake Out-ing it.
Now, what should I do? Considering how straight out attacking fails, how about we ultilize one of Mienshao’s more underused options?

---

Start of turn 16

vs.
Blaziken used Protect!
Blaziken protected itself!
Mienshao used Substitute!
Mienshao made a substitute!

The sandstorm rages!
Blaziken's Speed Boost increases its speed!
Blaziken's Speed rose!
Mienshao: 75%/ Subsitute, Tailwind active, 1 turn remaining
Blaziken: 69%/ +3 Speed

Score. Considering how some, if not all Blaziken don’t invest fully in speed, but rather to hit some benchmarks after two/three boosts, I’m partially confident that I might even get out of this with my sub intact! Regardless, he is now unable to just spam Protect in order to chance me taking the HJK recoil, so I might as well just attack now as it is probably the best chance that I’ll get at KO’ing him.

---

Start of turn 17

vs.
Mienshao used Hi Jump Kick!
Blaziken lost 68% of its health!
Blaziken fainted!

DJ Landlos' team tailwind petered out!
The sandstorm rages!
Mienshao: 75%/ Subsitute
Blaziken: 0%// Fainted

Perception sent out Virizion!

\o/ No treacherous HJK misses, only death to the chickens, and I’ve still got my sub up! Virizion will probably by all means break my sub and outspeed as my tailwind has quickly faded away, but I don’t want to HJK it as well because #1 it could miss, and #2 it will outspeed anything on my team barring Tornadus and severely damage everything on my team with a little prediction with a CM/Giga Drain/HP Ice/Focus Miss set, seeing as I run a MODEST nature on Latios due to tailwind’s boost, so I will fail to outrun it (I figured why not run modest due to the fact that you lose speed ties with timid non-HP Fire base 110’s anyway, so.. )

Regardless, since rocks have yet to be set on the field, I might as well bring in a mon that is guaranteed to force the strange french beast out, Tornadus!





---

Start of turn 18

vs.
Virizion used Giga Drain!
Mienshao's substitute faded!
Mienshao had its energy drained!
Mienshao used Baton Pass!
DJ Landlos called Mienshao back!
DJ Landlos sent out Tornadus!

The sandstorm rages!
Virizion is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Virizion restored a little HP using its Leftovers! (Silly french beast, not eating up your leftover snails. Luckily we'll hide the details about those from now on)
Tornadus: 100%
Virizion: 100%

Now, I COULD set up a Tailwind on a very easily predicted switch, but that would potentially allow Scizor to take a Hurricane on the free switch, SD up, and go to town on my team, so I’m taking no uncecessary chances atm. Rock you like a Hurricane!

---

Start of turn 19
vs. , (and here I'll have to stop using the fancy arrows to empathize a switch, my apologies for that)

Perception called Virizion back!
Perception sent out Tyranitar!
Tornadus used Hurricane!
It's not very effective...
Tyranitar lost 13% of its health!

The sandstorm rages!
Tyranitar restored a little HP using its Leftovers! (and due to his unvillingness to share with anyone else, they will remain his for the rest of the match, and no one else will ever cast their eyes upon them)
Tornadus: 100%
Tyranitar: 93%

Speak of the rock and it rears its ugly face. None of Hurricane’s two potential 30% effects decides to show up here, no miss and no confusion, which I guess is sort of okay. Now, in a terrible derp moment I'm thinking that he is still going to outspeed me, (despite me actually SEEING the leftovers), so I figure “why the hell not”, and decide to set up a priority Tailwind in order to outspeed him with whatever I’ll send in next, as I’m in no mood to play the Pursuit/Stone Edge mind-game.

---

Start of turn 20
vs.

Tornadus used Tailwind!
A tailwind started blowing behind DJ Landlos's team!
Tyranitar used Stealth Rock!
Pointed stones float in the air around DJ Landlos's team!

The sandstorm rages!
Tornadus: 100%/ Tailwind active, 3 turns remaining
Tyranitar: 99%

All.. right? Great, I let him set up his rocks, which means that Gyarados will only have one shot at intimidating Scizor and preventing him from sweeping my entire team, hurr durr. I still don’t get why he would bring in Tyranitar on Tornadus if it wasn’t scarfed, as every set I know carries some sort of Fighting move… I really need to stop overthinking things. As long as I maintain some sort of offensive pressure, I should be able to kill off his Scizor using Latios, not even giving him a chance to set up – but in order to do that I’ll have to kill off this bastard. Hammer away!

---

Start of turn 21
vs.

Tornadus used Hammer Arm!
The attack of Tornadus missed!
Tyranitar used Fire Blast!
Tornadus lost 51% of its health!

The sandstorm rages!
Tornadus: 49%/ Tailwind active, 2 turns remaining
Tyranitar: 100%


Hnnnnng. I guess that sort of makes up for his Fire Blast miss earlier, though I find this miss much more frustrating due to the fact that I’ve opted to use the MORE accurate option, sacrificing power and special defence in the process, and hax still comes back to bite me in the bottoms. Regardless, I find it terribly unlikely that he is going to stay in now that he knows that a OHKO is within reach on my part, so I’ll scout and see what he’ll bring in, and act accordingly.

DJ Landlos: accuracy my ass <- I should never have used Hammer Arm in the first place, durr.

---

Start of turn 22
, vs. ,

Perception called Tyranitar back!
Perception sent out Scizor!
Tornadus used U-turn!
It's not very effective...
Scizor lost 9% of its health!
DJ Landlos called Tornadus back!
DJ Landlos sent out Latios!
Pointed stones dug into Latios!

The sandstorm rages!
Latios is buffeted by the sandstorm!
Latios: 82%/ Tailwind active, 1 turn remaining
Scizor: 97%


Yeaaaaah, this might be fairly obvious, but I want this Scizor GONE. Hidden Power Fire!

---

Start of turn 23

vs. ,
Perception called Scizor back!
Perception sent out Tyranitar!
Latios used Hidden Power!
It's not very effective...
Tyranitar lost 8% of its health!
Latios is hurt by its Life Orb!

DJ Landlos's team tailwind petered out!
The sandstorm rages!
Latios: 66%
Tyranitar: 98%

Predicting the obvious HP Fire, Tyranitar switches in and shrugs the hit off like everyone shrugs off whatever ramblings Tim Buckley has about playing Pokémon Black. Once again, I’m not feeling in the mood for taking a Pursuit/Crunch mindgame, so I’ll just do as much damage as possible and try to overwhelm it with a massive modest LO Surf. It’s got to do SOMETHING to it, right? ..Right?

---

Start of turn 24

vs.
Latios used Surf!
It's super effective!
Tyranitar lost 43% of its health!
Latios is hurt by its Life Orb!
Tyranitar used Crunch!
It's super effective!
Latios lost 55% of its health!
Latios fainted!

The sandstorm rages!
Latios: 0%// Fainted
Tyranitar: 61%






DJ Landlos sent out Mienshao!
Pointed stones dug into Mienshao!


At this point, I’m rather confused. I thought that back in the good ol’ days of Platinum, Specs Latias could 2hko TTar on the switch with Surf, so I expected a modest LO Surf do to about roughly the same.. Regardless, this Tyranitar is getting annoying, and with Latios’ pathetic damage output I’m not feeling like tempting the hax gods on this one, switching Scizor in to shatter its ‘so called’ hard exterior. Nope, I’m smashing through this in style. Mienshao, show him your art of “coup de kick”.

---

Start of turn 25

vs.
Mienshao used Hi Jump Kick!
It's super effective!
Tyranitar lost 60% of its health!
Tyranitar fainted!
The sandstorm rages!
Mienshao: 94%
Tyranitar: 0%// Fainted

Perception sent out Scizor!


Urrrgh. Undoubtedly my opponent has now noticed that my team is now easy pickings for his SD Scizor, and there is very little I can do with it. Regardless, I KNOW that he is going to dance up now, and considering how what I think is my only hope now is to 2hko it with a one-two using Haxorus and Mienshao, hoping for Haxorus to live a +1 bullet punch at its current health with its pretty decent physical bulk, I might as well get this dancing party started. Let’s kick it up a notch!

---

Start of turn 26
vs.

Mienshao used Hi Jump Kick!
Scizor lost 61% of its health!
Scizor used Swords Dance!
Scizor's Attack sharply rose!

The sandstorm rages!
Mienshao: 94%
Scizor: 42%/ +2 Attack

Nice. Now, considering how my “plan” involves forcing Scizor’s attack stat down to +1, I really hope that he doesn’t catch on and decides to simply BP, knowing that Mienshao would KO him if he tries to be greedy. Gogogogogo conservatism, please?

---

Start of turn 27

, vs.

DJ Landlos called Mienshao back!
DJ Landlos sent out Gyarados!
Pointed stones dug into Gyarados!
Gyarados intimidates Scizor!
Scizor's Attack fell!
Scizor used Bullet Punch!
It's not very effective...
Gyarados lost 9% of its health!
Gyarados fainted!

The sandstorm rages!
Gyarados: 0%// Fainted
Scizor: 48%/ +1 Attack




DJ Landlos sent out Haxorus!
Pointed stones dug into Haxorus!

Part two, check. Now, let’s just hope that our everyday hero, mr. Rageguy himself survives the incoming storm, force-feeding this bug a healthy dose of rage.

---

Start of turn 28

vs.
Scizor used Bullet Punch!
Haxorus lost 52% of its health!
Haxorus fainted!
The sandstorm rages!
Haxorus: 0%// Fainted
Scizor: 54%/ +1 Attack

DJ Landlos sent out Tornadus!
Pointed stones dug into Tornadus!


… at this point, however, I panic. The ONE thing that I hoped would stand up to it is gone. I can’t switch in Scizor, as my opponent now knows that it poses no threat to his Scizor, so he could just keep on dancing on his own, eventually shredding off the metal coat of my poor soldier with his massive +6 BedBug Bites. I really doubt that Tornadus could survive a hit from BP, and as I send him in on his suicide mission I start typing “gg” in the chatbox, knowing that this battle is lost.

---

Start of turn 29
vs.

Scizor used Bullet Punch!
Tornadus lost 23% of its health!
Tornadus fainted!

The sandstorm rages!
Tornadus: 0%// Fainted
Scizor: 60%/ +1 Attack

DJ Landlos sent out Mienshao!
Pointed stones dug into Mienshao!

This sucks Mienshao, feels like early Plat when EVERYONE and their mother ran SD BP Scizor, setting up at every possibility, and you know what? We’re going to replace that sucky thing Latios with a Zapdos, because he damn well didn’t pull his weight, and being Scizor weak, SCIZOR weak out of all things is one of the greatest insults known to man, at least it was in 4th gen. Oh well, all you need to do now is to take the hit and die, and soon all of this will be over… at least we had a good shot at it.

---

Start of turn 30
vs.

Scizor used Bullet Punch!
Mienshao lost 78% of its health!

Scizor used Bullet Punch!
Mienshao lost 78% of its health!

Scizor used Bullet Punch!
Mienshao lost 78% of its health!

Scizor used Bullet Punch!
Mienshao lost 78% of its health!
Mienshao used Hi Jump Kick!
Scizor lost 59% of its health!
Scizor fainted!
The sandstorm rages!
Mienshao: 15%
Scizor: 0%//Fainted

Perception sent out Virizion!

OMG. I honestly didn’t expect this, but Mienshao singlehandedly pulls out unexpected bulk from his sleeves, surviving a +1 BP (had I only known this earlier), and delivers the one-two that Haxorus failed to complete with a kick straight in Scizor’s smug prick face. We’re back in this game, baby! Also, Virizion comes out, but barring the odd case that it runs HP Fire, Scizor should be walling it all day long. Right now, I’m floating around in ecstasy, and I might as well try to smash his face (even more) in in order to make it easier for Scizor. In the immortal words of Rising_Dusk: Mienshao, use Hi Hump Lick!



---

Start of turn 31
vs.

Virizion used Calm Mind!
Virizion's Sp. Att. rose!
Virizion's Sp. Def. rose!
Mienshao used Hi Jump Kick!
Virizion lost 91% of its health!

The sandstorm rages!
Mienshao: 15%
Virizion: 9%/ +1 Special Attack, Special Defence

---

Start of turn 32
Virizion used Giga Drain!
Mienshao lost 15% of its health!
Mienshao had its energy drained!
Mienshao fainted!

DJ Landlos: gg

The sandstorm rages!
Mienshao: 0%//Fainted
Virizion: 14%/ +1 Special Attack, Special Defense
DJ Landlos sent out Scizor!
Pointed stones dug into Scizor!

I gg, knowing first-handed from experience that if you don’t resist a BP from Scizor, you’re probably not going to enjoy taking the hit. Time to wrap this up.

---

Start of turn 33
vs.

Scizor used Bullet Punch!
Virizion lost 14% of its health!
Virizion fainted!

DJ Landlos won the battle!
Perception: gg

We say our gg's and continue our journeys on the road of potential pokemon masters or something. Good game Perception, whoever you are.

MVP:
Everyone but Latios, who failed to pull his weight this day, though this here guy really deserves a special shoutout;

Mienshao killed half his team, was constantly a threat, while also actually hitting with his damned 90% moves. \o/

Final result:

Props:
- Mienshao for existing, regenerator for existing, Hi Jump Kick for existing..
- Tailwind, and Scizor for pulling it off while enduring the heat
- Blaziken for doing nothing :]
- My opponent, Perception, for the excellent game.
Slops:
- Latios. Uber my ass.
- SD Scizor, what a menace.
- Me, for not being more ballsy while using Tornadus >:/
- aragornbird, for not having an animated gyara backsprite
- Sweden, just because.


I hope you enjoyed reading this battle as much as I did enjoy writing it up. All sorts of feedback/views/critizism will be greatly welcomed. Signing out!

This warstory seriously competes for the best one I've read this gen. It wasn't perfect, but my god it was fantastic. Your dealing with Blaz was simply amazing - Tailwind Scizor + Sub Mienshao was hilariously epic, and definitely the highlight of the warstory. Your commentary was great throughout, your format almost spot-on, and nice touches in the Haxorus ragepicture XD, the team preview screenie, and item mentions in brackets.

Personally there wasn't anything I expressly disliked about the format and the commentary - my only mild grievance is with the battle itself, which whilst thoroughly entertaining wasn't the amazing display of incredible skill and prediction it could've been - but admittedly this somehow adds to the charm a little, which is great, so it isn't much of an issue at all.

But yeah, if you have other teams as original as this one, and get another good+amusing battle, I'd love to see another warstory from you! Great job.

I really liked the warstory. There were some comments that didnt make much sense but that might just be because I'm tired. Most did make sense though and were very good. Also, the battle was good and interesting, the formating was good and it was funny at times. 8.5/10

what a good warstory, really nice man, 9/10

Excellent format and comments, you definitely put effort into writing this. Interesting battle too. Well done.

10/10

Amazing warstory man; great battle and excellent commentary!

Praise the lord, a warstory I'm actually glad I read.

Fantastic warstory, one of the best I've read, seriously!! 10/10

Very nice warstory, some gutsy predictions there. (Woulda been less close if you hadn't sacked half your team =P)

i really love your movesets bro...
it's nice to see that other people like to use banded rivalry boosted outrages with their haxorus...
definitely one of the best warstories of this generation...

Very good read. Thorougly entertaining commentary and a great battle. I look forward to more warstories from you in the future.

10/10

Like everyone else before me, great warstory, definitely above par and the usual stuff that ha been in Dragonspiral. Good show, a jolly good show.

Excellent warstory, the comments were very in-depth without rambling and the battle was certainly entertaining bolstered by a nice sense of humour (Hax vs derpfish). I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and hope to see more from you in the future.

Wow.

Excellent thought process, awesome alternate movesets, use of tailwind, funny bits made me laugh without overpowering the story itself, all in all just well done sir!

9.5/10. This is what most warstories should aspire too.

Also, to adress your forward, your english is rather excellent so you could probably take that part out if you wanted to. ;D

When I saw your warstory was your 4th post here in Smogon, I was skeptical about its quality...

And... It was amazing. Unorthodox strategies (Tailwind Scizor, Haxorus) which worked well, great commentary and formatting with sprites and percentages and... I can't continue.

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

Excellent Warstory. Original and effective, bravo. 10/10

This.
Is.
Awesome.

Best warstory of gen 5 IMO. Great job

10/10. Only minor improvement could be the battle, but no battles are perfect.

Great warstory, great narration, great format and graphics. Most of all, great originality; Very refreshing to see a battle that isn't the same cliche pokes every time.

10/10

This is the first warstory I have read from beginning to end this generation. Good job. :)

I liked this warstory. The comments were pretty good and you explained your though process pretty well.

My only nitpick is at the beginning: you rationalize that Ttar might be scarfed, so why switch out? It has a 0% chance of OHKOing Mienshao with Superpower, and you cleanly OHKO with a fighting move. Stone edge doesn't come close to OHKOing. I think you underestimated its defenses. You made a bunch of other mistakes, but this one stood out the most. Its really important that do calcs before you make assumptions because they can screw you over.

Other than that, it was a solid warstory. It was very pretty, easy to read and humorous too.

8.5/10

That warstory made me want to murder Scizors in my sleep. Well, moreso than I already want to. But all in all, good show. That was really an interesting match.

Great warstory. Good comments, good gameplay, and it entertained. Was formatted and neat, and I liked the uniqueness of your team ^^

This was well presented and solid, though my comments all echo PK's. He said it best that you made quite a few very serious mistakes throughout the match that nearly cost you the match several times. That said, you still did pretty well, used some fun sets to make it interesting, and presented the warstory exceptionally. Good job, and I'll definitely be back to read more from you should you post any.

Vexatious, you have been topped. Simply amazing (Roxas)! 10/10

Very nice warstory, keep 'em coming! This should be a decent standard for 5th gen warstories in the future.

9/10