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indigo_league) wrote2022-08-31 08:56 pm
indigo_league) wrote2022-08-31 08:56 pm
Otherworlder Battle Tournament
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
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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.
Riz Gukgak VS Dirk Strider
Chit the Sableye
Nasha the Galvantula
Grum the Honedge
VS
Perfectly Generic Porygon (aka PGP) the Porygon
Heraclitus the Arctovish
Yolkai the Alolan Exeggcutor
no subject
Galvantula (Electric/bug) (speed: 108) (Unnerve - prevents opponent from using berries)
Honedge (Ghost/Steel) (speed: 28) (No guard - hits by or on this pokemon always hit)
Chesto berry - prevents sleep (held by Honedge)
VS Porygon 2
Riz is going to start the battle with Sableye, and immediately have him use Fake-out. This move always goes first and always makes the opponent flinch, but only works on the first round of battle. Riz’s strategy here is to get a bit of free damage in, and maybe be a little obnoxious and disrupt whatever Dirk was planning for his first move. None of Dirk’s pokemon are immune (or resistant) to normal damage, so even if he switches out Porygon2, the damage should still land on whoever else Dirk decides to bring in.
Whatever he does next is going to depend a lot on if Dirk switched out his pokemon or not on the first round, so please scroll down to the relevant section.
If Porygon2 stayed in
Riz’s first move will be to use Mean Look. This will force Porygon2 to remain on the field. Riz has seen Dirk use the Porygon2 -> Alolan Exeggutor strategy twice and he doesn’t want to end up on the receiving end of it.
(If Dirk ended up switching his pokemon on his second turn, again, scroll down to relevant section)
Riz’s second move will be depend on what use Porygon2 used previously
— If it set up a Substitute, Riz’ll command Sableye to use Power-up Punch. It hopefully should be enough to break through Porygon2’s substitute and in addition, also raise his attack by one stage. On the next turn, he’ll use Knock Off.
— If it used any other move, Riz is going to use Knock Off. This will deal damage to Porygon2, and knock off its Evolite, rendering it a lot more squishy.
(An interesting note, perhaps — if Dirk did set up his Trick Room in anticipation of being able to switch out Porygon2, this should now actually make Sableye the faster pokemon on the field)
Next up, will be Taunt, to force Porygon2 into using only damaging moves. If Sableye’s HP is still looking good, he’ll also toss a confuse Ray in the mix. (He’ll skip this is Porygon2 has already done at least 1/3 full HP damage to Sableye) And now that all of this set-up is over, Riz’ll focus on damaging Porygon2. He’ll switch between using power Up Punch (powers up Sableye’s attack) and Rock Smash (lowers Porygon2’s defence). Neither is incredibly powerful, but between Porygon2’s weakness to fighting, and the stat buff/debuffs, he hopes it’ll get him to where he wants to go.
Note that throughout this, Riz’ll be using Taunt every fifth turn, to force Porygon2 to keep using damaging attacks. However, there is always a chance he won’t manage (whether it is miscounting, some sort of status effect, or getting disabled), which means there is a chance that Porygon2 changes its type through Conversion.
If Porygon2 uses Conversion to change its type, please check below which move Riz will use in response.
Normal - Power Up Punch / Rock Smash
Fire - Water Pulse / Dig
Water - Thunder Punch
Grass - Ice Punch
Electric - Dig
Ice - Power Up Punch / Rock Smash
Fighting - Zen Headbutt
Poison - Zen Headbutt / Dig
Ground - Water Pulse / Ice Punch
Flying - Thunder Punch / Ice Punch
Psychic - Shadow Claw / Shadow Sneak
Bug - Power Gem
Rock - Water Pulse / Dig
Ghost - Shadow Claw / Shadow Sneak
Dark - Power Up Punch / Rock Smash
Dragon - Ice Punch
Steel - Power Up Punch / Rock Smash / Dig
Fairy - Poison Jab
!! If Sableye goes down during the fight against Porygon2, Riz’ll bring out Honedge, and focus on mopping up this battle ASAP by using Sacred Sword.
If Porygon2 uses conversion to change its type, please check below for which move Riz plans to use
Normal - Sacred Sword
Fire - (unable to target weaknesses) Iron Head for the chance of flinch
Water - Shockwave
Grass - Aerial Ace
Electric - (unable to target weaknesses) Rock Smash for the chance to lower Defence
Ice - Iron Head
Fighting - Aerial Ace
Poison - (unable to target weaknesses) Iron Head for the chance of flinch
Ground - (unable to target weaknesses) Shadow Sneak for the move priority
Flying - Shockwave
Psychic - Shadow Sneak
Bug - Aerial Ace
Rock - Iron Head
Ghost - Shadow Sneak
Dark - Sacred Sword
Dragon - (unable to target weaknesses) Iron Head for the chance of flinch
Steel - Sacred Sword
Fairy - Iron Head
Honedge has Rest on standby if Porygon2 somehow manages to deal it a great deal of damage. (And if it is still holding its Chesto Berry, it’ll immediately wake up!)
If Dirk switches in Alolan Exeggutor
Riz’s first move will again be Mean Look. We are not dealing with a load of switcharoo here.
If Sableye’s HP is still good (2/3rd remaining), Riz’ll have him use Taunt to force AE to only use damaging moves. He doesn’t want to deal with AE either healing itself or putting Sableye to sleep. Unfortunately, that still leaves AE with plenty of damaging moves, but better than the spend turns unable to do anything.
Sableye does have a secret weapon against AE though. And that is Ice Punch. At 4x damage, Riz is hoping it’ll fell this big ass tree quickly. Should, for any reason, he become unable to use Ice Punch (out of PP, disabled, etc), he’ll switch to using Poison Jab. It only does 2x the damage, but it does have that chance of leaving AE poisoned.
As before, Riz’ll be refreshing Taunt every five rounds.
!! If Sableye goes down in the fight against AE, Riz’ll bring out Honedge. Honedge resists Grass and Psychic moves, and is immune to Normal attacks, so this feels like the best match-up to Riz. Hopefully, AE will already be down on HP somewhat, so Riz will try and focus on mopping up quickly by having Honedge use Aerial Ace. Should this move become unavailable, he’ll switch to continuously using Fury Cutter.
Honedge has Rest on standby if Porygon2 somehow manages to deal it a great deal of damage. (And if it is still holding its Chesto Berry, it’ll immediately wake up!)
If Dirk switches in Arctovish
First things first, Riz wishes to lodge a complaint against this creature. What the fuck is up with it? What vengeful god has created this abomination? Why has nobody taken old Yeller behind the shed and put it out of its misery?
ANYWAY, back to battling.
Again, first things first is a Mean Look. We are not playing switcharoo today.
After this, Riz will focus on using Thunder Punch which not only deal 2x damage to Arctovish, but also has a chance of paralysing it. Once paralysis has been induced, he’ll switch to using Low Kick Low kick does more damage to heavier opponents, and has the additional chance of making Arctovish flinch.
!! If Sableye goes down against Arctovish, Riz’ll bring out Galvantula. Galvantula will first use Thunder Wave to paralyse Arctovish (unless Sableye already induced paralysis before), before using Electro Ball. Electro Ball does more damage the bigger the speed difference between the two pokemon is. Arctovish is already slow compared to Galvantula, and with its speed further lowered by paralysis, the power of Electro Ball should be further boosted. If Galvantula’s HP starts dropping, she’ll start using Absorb, which should do 2x damage to Arctovish and also restore her HP in parts.
Vs Alolan Exeggutor
If Sableye is still up, he’ll first use the same strategy he intended to use for AE switching in. Which means, first a Mean Look to lock him onto the battle field. Then Taunt (if his HP is still above 2/3rds) to prevent AE from using status moves, then once that is done, he’ll spam Ice Punch with Poison Jab as a back-up. If necessary, he’ll refresh Taunt, unless AE is so down on HP, Riz judges it’ll go down to an Ice Punch in one hit.
Riz’ll keep Sableye on the field until it goes down.
!! If Sableye started off the battle very low on HP, Riz’ll forgo using Mean Look, and instead use Taunt on his first turn, to help set-up his next pokemon. If he gets any turns after that, he’ll focus on using Ice Punch until he goes down.
Of course, if Sableye already took on Porygon2 (and who knows what other pokemon), there is a chance he’ll already be low on HP or even completely out, if so refer to one of these strategies
If Sableye was still able to start off the battle
If Sableye was still able to start off the battle, once he goes down, Riz’ll switch to Honedge. Hopefully Sableye got his taunt in, so for a few round Honedge won’t need to worry about dealing with status moves. He’ll start off by having Honedge use Retaliate. This does double damage if an ally went down on the previous round. After that, he’ll use Swords Dance to boost its Attack and then he’ll focus on using Aerial Ace as often as he can. Honedge knows Rest, and he comes equipped with a Chesto Berry, so if his HP starts dropping low, Riz’ll have him use Rest to recover that, after which he’ll immediately wake up, refreshed and hopefully ready to chop down this tree.
If Honedge is low on HP and likely to go down on the next turn, and Rest, for whatever reason, is not an option, Riz’ll use Shadow Sneak. As a priority move, it should be going first, so he can at least deal some damage still to AE before going down.
If Sableye was not able to start off the battle
Same as before, Riz’ll bring in Honedge to deal with AE. Really, the only difference is that without Sableye getting at least one turn, AE won’t have been taunted, and Honedge is running the risk of dealing with a lot more status-effecting moves. Unfortunately, Honedge has no real way of dealing with that, so he’ll simply have to cope.
He’ll start off by having Honedge use Retaliate. This does double damage if an ally went down on the previous round. After that, he’ll use Swords Dance to boost its Attack and then he’ll focus on using Aerial Ace as often as he can. Honedge knows Rest, and he comes equipped with a Chesto Berry, so if his HP starts dropping low, Riz’ll have him use Rest to recover that, after which he’ll immediately wake up, refreshed and hopefully ready to chop down this tree.
If Honedge is low on HP and likely to go down on the next turn, and Rest, for whatever reason, is not an option, Riz’ll use Shadow Sneak. As a priority move, it should be going first, so he can at least deal some damage still to AE before going down.
VS Arctovish
Dealing with Arctovish will depend a bit on which pokemon is still on the field.
If this battle starts off with Sableye on the field
If Dirk still has other pokemon left, he’ll start off using Mean Look. (Of course, if this is Dirk’s last pokemon, he’ll skip this).
First things first, he’ll focus on using Thunder Punch until Arctovish of paralysed. Once Arctovish is paralysed, and because it is a heavy abomination against God and all the is good in the world, Riz’ll start off using Low Kick on it. This move does more damage against heavier pokemon, and has a 30% of making them flinch. Arctovish is normally faster than Sableye, but that should change once it is paralysed, making it very valuable to have Arctovish flinch.
When Arctovish goes down, Riz’ll switch to using Galvantula. If Arctovish is already paralysed, she’ll immediately launch into using Electro Ball. If not, she’ll first toss in a Thunder Wave, and then switch to Electro Ball. Once her HP starts dropping, she’ll start using Absorb to regain some of it.
If this battle starts off with Honedge on the field
If Arctovish is Dirk’s last pokemon, he’ll leave him on the field. If Dirk still has other pokemon in reserve, Riz’ll switch to Galvantula.
If Honedge is kept on the field, he’ll first use Swords Dance to up his attack, before switching to using Sacred Sword until either it or Arctovish goes down. If Sacred Sword is not available for whatever reason, he’ll use Shockwave instead. If Honedge goes down, Riz’ll switch to Galvantula.
If this battle starts off with Galvantula on the field
If Dirk has other pokemon in reserve, Riz’ll first use Spider Web, to force Arctovish to remain on the field.
After, she’ll first do Thunder Wave to paralyse this ‘fish’, before switching to using Electroweb to deal damage and bring down Arctovish’s speed stat a bit further, and then its Electro Ball. If Galvantula’s HP is getting low, he’ll switch her to using Absorb.
Of course, there is always the chance that due to weird switching or lost battles, some less than planned match-ups might be occurring. Note that Riz’ll will try and switch his pokemon to one of the match-ups described below first, but if that isn’t an option for whatever reason (his last pokemon, locked on the field, God is angry), see below.
Galvantula VS Porygon2
First off, Riz’ll have Galvantula use Thunder Wave to paralyse Porygon2. After, she’ll use Signal Beam for its chance of inducing confusion in Porygon2. This is not an ideal match-up for Riz as he cannot target any weaknesses, so his only hope is to try an deal damage more quickly than Porygon2 can recover. If he can manage to induce both paralysis and confusion, hopefully, Porygon2 will be wasting enough turns unable to move, that Galvantula comes out on top.
If Porygon2 uses Conversion, please see below for which move Riz’ll use.
Normal - (unable to target weaknesses) Signal beam for chance of confusion
Fire - (unable to target weaknesses) Electro Ball
Water - Discharge
Grass - Bounce
Electric - (unable to target weaknesses) Signal beam for chance of confusion
Ice - (unable to target weaknesses) Signal beam for chance of confusion
Fighting - Bounce
Poison - (unable to target weaknesses) Throat Chop
Ground - Absorb
Flying - Discharge
Psychic - Signal Beam
Bug - Bounce
Rock - Absorb
Ghost - Throat Chop
Dark - Signal Beam
Dragon - (unable to target weaknesses) Signal beam for chance of confusion
Steel - (unable to target weaknesses) Throat Chop
Fairy - Cross Poison
If Galvantula is getting low on HP, she’ll use Absorb to recover some from Porygon2.
Galvantula vs Alolan Exeggutor
First, Galvantula will use Cross Poison until AE has been poisoned. Once that has been accomplished, Riz’ll have Galvantula use Bounce to take advantage of AE’s weakness to flying.
no subject
Fuck spiders all my (Serket-traumatised) homies hate spiders
He knows that by this point, his opposition's number one goal out of the gate is going to be preventing Trick Room.
He also knows (because he HAS one) that Sableye is slower than Porygon2. And Honedge is even slower than that. This puts him in an interesting position.
And you know what he decides?
He says: fuck it.
He knows, because HE HAS ONE, that Sableye has Fake Out. He is counting on Riz choosing that, and so has PGP use Substitute. If Sableye used Fake Out, this does absolutely jack shit, but gives away nothing of his actual strategy. It's also possible Sableye is using Mean Look, in which case PGP is trapped... but now it's behind a Substitute.
Which is the perfect setup for Lock On and Zap Cannon to for a whopping 120 base damage and guaranteed paralysis.
If Riz didn't swap out Sableye himself, and PGP does not have a Substitute up, the next turn is for Mirror Coat. This will reflect Confuse Ray back at Sableye, and also works on Mean Look. Of course, Mean Look can't hit Sableye... but now Dirk knows Riz is trying to trap PGP.
Which means he'll try recall PGP manually rather than let that happen, and send out Yolkai the Alolan Exeggutor instead. Riz will have one (1) turn to do whatever it is he thinks he's going to do before Dirk has Yolkai using Dragon Tail to force a switch. Ideally to Honedge (and Knock Off if Honedge has that Chesto Berry) but even Galvantula is fine.
If Riz isn't trying to trap PGP, though, he'll go ahead and use Teleport to swap in Arctovish.
At which point he's counting on some common sense type matching to save his god damn butt when he manually recalls Arctovish and instead sends out Yolkai the Alolan Exeggutor, at which point Dirk will have Yolkai use Dragon Tail to force a switch and end that boost. Even if Mean Look traps Yolkai, there is nothing keeping Sableye on the field.
This is also Dirk's strategy against Honedge. He knows exactly how that Honedge gimmick works now, and he is not having it. He doesn't want to let it set up, and the Dragon Tail switches rack up damage, however gradually. The only exception is that the very first time Honedge comes out, he will lead with Knock Off. After that, Yolkai will use Hypnosis. With Honedge's No Guard, that's an instant Sleep. He's having absolutely none of that recovery nonsense. (Also, he uses Chesto+Rest himself on his unicorns. He has little Chesto bonsais in his room, which are definitely not competing with his puppets as a substitute for actual friends. Shut up. Stop sleeping your sword.) Obviously, if Honedge uses Protect, Dirk will... uh, just fucking try again next turn.
And once Honedge is asleep, Yolkai knows Flamethrower. Why the fuck does it know Flamethrower. Dirk, what. Well, whatever. The important part is that Flamethrower is not only super-effective, it's also a special attack, which circumvents Honedge's stupid high physical Defence.
If for some reason this is not how No Guard works and I'm an idiot, Dirk will just have Yolkai use Dragon Tail again. This is Dirk's preferred method of dealing with Honedge in that case. The one downside is that Honedge can Rest and heal up before Dragon Tail hits... but that also means it will always be switching in with some damage. The important part is that Riz will have to choose between healing Honedge (and having it swap in with damage and asleep next turn) or doing literally any damage to Yolkai. Eventually (one hopes) he'll get Honedge in while it's asleep and he can go ham on Flamethrower that way.
If Yolkai ends up facing Galvantula? Tough shit. Dragon Tail.
Sableye again? Giga Drain if Yolkai is low. The goal is just to force Honedge, and unless probability REALLY sucks for Dirk? He'll get there before Yolkai can be whittled down.
If Yolkai faints against Honedge, Dirk's backup plan is to use PGP the Porygon. Download boosts PGP's already somewhat disgustingly bulky defence, and its Normal typing gives it immunity to Ghost type moves (barring setup.) As a bonus, PGP knows Shadow Ball, which is nice, but even better, it knows Foul Play, which is super effective against Honedge, and--crucially--uses Honedge's Attack stat instead of PGP's.
The only reason Dirk isn't using PGP as strategy A against Honedge is that he might need PGP for Galvantula. Because PGP is the only Pokemon not weak to Galvantula's typing. Uh. Haha. Yeah. That part is bad.
The good news is that Download will boost PGP's Eviolite-boosted Special Defence, and also PGP isn't weak to anything Galvantula can do. Dirk doesn't know that for sure, because he has beef with spiders for symbolic and also personal reasons, but it's a lot less obviously "bug and poison versus the Grass Dragon" or "Electricity versus the Ice Fish." You know. Basic... common sense... stuff...
Anyway. Against Galvantula, he's aiming for quick 'n dirty. If Honedge is still up, he'll be leading with Magic Coat in an attempt to deflect any Screeching, a round of Agility just to make Electro Ball hurt less, and Tri Attack for STAB-boosted status roulette to start off with. Ice Beam for super-effective damage, if Galvantula is getting lower on health. Recover is an option if PGP the crits start to hurt, and Defence Curl will help with those Physical attacks... he hopes. He'll only use Defence Curl if he managed to deflect or avoid Screech, though. And even then, Defence Curl will be followed by Magic Coat again.
He will not use Trick Room unless Honedge has already fainted. He does not want to get stuck with a lightning-fast Honedge. If Honedge has fainted, though... PGP loses nothing from being slower than Sableye. And if PGP is looking low, Trick Room will set up Heraclitis to use Whirlpool and trap Galvantula immediately next turn, setting up for super-effective, STAB-boosted, (hopefully) flinch-inducing Icicle Crash. If he fails to trap Galvantula and gets stuck with Sableye, he can stall; the next turn is for Protect, and then... well, frankly, he'll just swap Heraclitis for Yolkai, because all those nasty super-effective moves Sableye has against Heraclitis aren't worth jack shit on Yolkai. You're going to electrify a dragon tree? For 1/4 the damage? Sure, have fun.
He's hoping that Yolkai's aforementioned immense resistance to Electricity will discourage Riz from using Galvantula against her, but if not, Yolkai's first move will be to Teleport the fuck out. If that's not possible, Yolkai will use Dragon Tail to force a switch. Or, if Honedge is already out of the picture, then Ancient Power is a pretty strong super-effective deterrent that has the potential bonus of boosting all of Yolkai's stats. Yes, it's slightly weaker than Flamethrower, but consider: it's still super-effective, and stat boosts are desperately needed this fight.
Dirk's real issue here is Arctovish, who is best used as a sweeper. Against Honedge and Sableye, this isn't much of an issue, as long as either one is already hurting. He'll immediately move to trap them with Whirlpool, and then that STAB-boosted moves-first Fishious Rend is really something to finish off with.... however, he does not want to get stuck being slapped back with Counter. If either one ends up facing Arctovish before taking much damage, he's going to gamble on Icicle Crash for STAB damage and to try and get some Flinches. Because both of them have Supereffective move against his doomed fucking fish. Who can't even Super Fang its way through them. Yikes. (Yes, this would have been a great time for him to use Waterfall, but for some fucking reason he didn't teach Waterfall to Heraclitus. (Don't forget to keep your rosters updated, kids. This could happen to you.) That said, if he catches Sableye using Sucker Punch to beat Icicle Crash to the punch, or even a single Power-up Punch he'll take advantage of the relatively low damage and use a turn for Hail, and follow it up with Aurora Veil. Now those blows do half damage, and Arctovish is set up for Blizzard... aka, a high damage STAB move that can't be Countered back at him.
Basically Heraclitus' role here is relegated to "trapping Galvantula if Trick Room is up," "finishing move on Sableye," or "desperately softening up the opposition."
One note: if Honedge comes in on Yolkai after a fainting-related switch, and Yolkai isn't trapped, he will manually switch her out for Porygon2 (if he's been able to remove that Chesto berry) or Arctovish (if not.) If Honedge wants to Retaliate on Porygon2, it's bulky and has recovery, and the attack won't even be boosted because of how Retaliate works. If it wants to use Retaliate on Arctovish, it's free to. That's a turn he can have Heraclitus use Fishious Rend on and really deliver some hurt. Worst case scenario, he either has Reflect up already for Yolkai.... or if she's already hurting, she can beat Honedge to the punch and Giga Drain health back before she loses it to Retaliate. Then, with Retaliate spent, she can proceed to de-set up Honedge as previously described. He's just not taking any chances here.
Win or lose, he will straight up congratulate Riz for his strategy. (He's always a sucker for a good sword.) He'll suggest Riz ditch the spider thing, though.
no subject