Otherworlder Battle Tournament

[indigo_league]

Welcome to the Otherworlder Battle Tournament

This is where you'll be submitting your strategies for the Otherworlder Battle Tournament. Please only submit strategies here. If you have any questions, direct them to our Tournament FAQ.


A small reminder of the rules

You will start the battle with the pokemon you put in first place on your submission form. You may only use one held item. If the item is consumable, you may replace it with the same item between matches. There will be no item usage during these battles -- any healing done must come from the pokemon themselves. You may only use moves from the pool you submitted earlier. Deviations from this may lead to a disqualification. Mega-stones are not permitted during this tournament. Your pokemon may also not evolve. If you do not submit your strategy before the deadline, your character will lose.

Initially, all comments on this post will be screened. Once a round has been completed, we will unscreen the strategy comments. Because the matches are not all happening at the same time, it is certainly possible for your character to watch other fights as they go down. As such, in later rounds, you are allowed to use information learned from earlier rounds i.e. if it is apparent in Round 1, that someone's pokemon has a certain ability, you may use that to build your strategy in a later round.

Comments

[islandshore]

A quick note for this battle: Riku normally uses nonverbal signals to direct his team. He won't be shouting the attacks out unless it is required for the tournament- if it is, then he will go with it for fairness. I just feel it's worth noting since it is a staple part of his usual technique. His team can work with spoken commands, though- so whatever's seen as fairest and most transparent.

Riku will open with Ultima the Aegislash. First turn, protect in order to block First Impression in case it gets used and to scout otherwise. If Golisopod stays in, he'll have Ultima use Toxic. If Golisopod switches, he will instead set up Substitute followed by another protect. Riku's strategy forks depending on his opponent. Because Sucker Punch is a very real possibility to account for with his Aegislash, he's hoping to work on annoying toxic sub and defense/evasion boosting tactic.

So, for the Golisopod, this is the idea he has in his head:

- Get a toxic in
- King's Shield to hopefully get some attack drops in, but he'll be mixing it in with Protects to avoid being too predictable and becuase he does not wanna risk stat drops or status inflictions too much.
- Substitute to deal with potential status issues and to have a safety cushion for if Sucker Punch gets used.
- Riku will only do direct attacks if he has the safety of a sub to avoid a potential Sucker Punch surprise and super effective damage. His move preference here is Shock Wave since it never misses, but if he ends up getting special attack drops, he has Rock Slide and Aerial Ace as alternative moves (depending on if Sand Attack spam happens). STAB moves may be used as well, and he does have Swords Dance if it comes down to it, but Riku prefers a stall-based, special attacking strat as his go-to.
- Early Iron Defense boosts to prepare for a potential surprise switch mid-battle or Emergency Exit triggering.

But this is obviously the best case scenario. Let's say a switch happens and the Doublade comes out. WELL THEN. No toxic. No Guard means all moves will hit, so Double Team is completely useless. It's also possible that it's got Eviolite, making it tanky. This is where Riku's potential setup with Golisopod is crucial. If he at least got the Substitute up, he can buy a turn with King's Shield. This is absolutely a case where Riku wants to make sure he bolsters defenses, but when it comes to offense, Riku's got a fun surprise...

Shadow Ball. Riku will not use any physical attacks when facing the Doublade. He'll be prioritizing defensive buffs, careful usage of Protect/King's Shield, and utilizing Shadow Ball as a super effective special move to hit the Doublade where it's weak. Of course, the Doublade's high attack coupled with its own ghost moves will make it a competent foe. Ideally, Riku wants to keep his Aegi alive for the Sylveon, but he also doesn't wanna risk a switch and leave himself open for attacks, so his main goal will be to last as long as possible to keep his buffs and play mind games with the enemy while letting his leftovers heal.

But if it proves too tricky, he may do an emergency switch to Crush the Hydreigon for his high special attack and wail on the dual swords with Dark Pulse, Flamethrower, and careful use of Protect and Roost.

If by some chance, Ultima makes it to Sylveon, with or without sufficient setup, his go-to attacking move will be Iron Head. Similar tactics with the other mons here- going to shield form ASAP after attacks so not to risk being too frail. That being said, he does have Flash Cannon to fall back on as well as other special moves, like Shadow Ball.

If Riku has to switch in Ultima later after sustaining damage, he'll first try to play a bit more defensively with Protect to try and get some leftovers healing first. And of course, King's Shield would be the go-to switch back to shield form between those Iron heads.

So then the question is, what if the ghost sword goes down?

Riku has some backup plans.

For Golisopod and Doublade, his next mon would be Crush the Hydreigon. So, how do you deal with an annoying water bug? There are a few tricks up Riku's sleeve. Assuming Toxic was successful, Riku will prioritize an offense, but Crush does know Protect and Taunt as well. STAB Dark Pulse would be an obvious choice, but in anticipation for a switch, he'd go with Rock Slide first to try and at least get physical damage if a switch occurs. But the moment the Sylveon shows up, it's time to U-Turn outta there. Riku does not wanna risk dealing with that quad weakness.

If the Doublade comes out, well, Thunder Wave can hopefully make up for its poison immunity. Crush has multiple offensive options to deal with the sword- specifically Dark Pulse and Flamethrower and Taunt to prevent any boosting moves. He also knows Roost, Rest and Sleep Talk as a desperation strategy, as well as Flash Cannon for Sylveon if there is no avoiding that matchup, but that would absolutely be a last resort. If no other pokemon are standing, then he'll hope the raw power of his Hydreigon can do some lasting damage.

So, let's say the Golisopod stays. If boosting moves are used, time to Taunt to put an end to that and any unwanted sand attacks. Then it's time to hit hard and fast. He has Roost to heal up damage if the U-Turn strategy is met with a quick attack from Sylveon, and he has Rest + Sleep Talk as a backup strategy as a last resort full heal, though that runs into an unpredictable situation where it's hard to say which moves would be used.

So what about his Greninja? Well, that depends on the matchup.

Enigma has Protean, you see, so type matchups are hardly consistent. So, when put up against Golisopod, he's got a handy little move called Bounce to switch to the super effective flying type, avoid damage, and drop in for some extra pain. Of course, this brings a vulnerability to ice and rock, so I can see Riku going for a Protect after a successful Bounce to switch back to normal as a precaution and to scout/hopefully get some more toxic stall damage in if Ultima pulled that off. He may vary his moves a bit and throw in some special moves, like Extrasensory to try and get in some flinches, and Faint Attack if Sand Attack spam happens and Taunt didn't land.

Ideally, though, Riku will wanna protect where possible, Bounce to avoid as many hits and possible, and take advantage of Protean to keep changing type. To finish it off, he'd use Shadow Sneak for priority.

For the Doublade, Enigma's strategy is a lot more straightforward. If the Doublade is already paralyzed by Crush, he'll focus his efforts on offense with Dig, Hidden Power Fire, and Dark Pulse as his main offensive moves. Depending on the type Enigma is on the last turn, his opening move will change. Protect will be the go-to scouting maneuver. Hidden Power Fire will be the first offensive move used in order to get STAB and an unexpected type change. Then Dig to gain invulnerability and a convenient type change, even if it's physical rather than Special.

Riku's goal here is to try and keep type changing to make it harder to deal with, as Doublades can come with counters to Dark and Fire, but Ground is trickier to deal with. There's also Scald to try and land a burn, but Riku will try to prioritize protects and more super effective moves in order to make things quick due to Enigma's frailty.

For the Sylveon, Enigma comes packing a biiig surprise... Gunk Shot. Psyshock presents a risk to this strategy, so I can see Riku protecting after a successful Gunk Shot to see if the Sylveon's packing it. If not, then well. Gunk, Gunk, Gunk it up! No need to hold back on the poison party. The hope would be that the Sylveon's frail physical defenses would make it a quick defeat.

Additional Notes:

All of Riku's Pokemon know Double Team. Usually he likes to take advantage of the move, but given the unpredictability of his opponents and the possibility of no miss moves, I don't see him relying on this too heavily. That being said, if there's an opportunity to set up maybe one or two or to use Smokescreen with Enigma, it might be an alternate strat, but Riku wants to be as efficient as he can with his team and not take too many chances.

[indigo_league]

Both trainers in this battle are impressive tacticians and poured their all into their strategies. Watching the battle is like watching a chess match in motion as the two predict each other’s moves far in advance and begin setting up their own counters. Heck, Riku even guessed that Emet’s Doublade had an Eviolite. Riku’s Aegislash proves itself to be an intimidating foe as it cleaves through its opponent’s armor. Eventually, after a hard-fought battle on both sides, the crowd roars as Riku emerges the victor!

Riku advances to the next round!