Stryke vs Eifie

Arena said:

2vs2 Single
Style: Switch
DQ: One week
Damage Cap: 40%
Banned Moves: None
Terrain: ASB Central Stadium

Although designed to be a state-of-the-art battling facility and located at the very heart of ASB Central's battle district, ASB Central Stadium actually sees very little use. Most battlers prefer the infinite variety of the holodrome's simulated arenas to the basic, if impressive, stadium field, and official tournaments tend to feature tours of other regions rather than a homefield brawl. There is one advantage to the stadium, though--its proximity to the holodrome grants it access to a full range of simulation options, allowing trainers to trick out their team to whatever extent they like before battling.

There's nothing much to say about the battlefield: it's a large, rectangular arena covered in astroturf. A circular pool will open in its center if a Pokémon requiring water to move around in is sent out. In this arena, Pokémon can summon absolutely anything they need for their attacks: tidal waves, boulders, and so on are in ready supply.

Other: This battle takes place between a referee and one other member. The referee will use their own team of Pokémon, but the other battler may choose either to use their own team OR choose any six nonlegendary Pokémon with any items and abilities to use for this fight. In the former case, their Pokémon gain experience as normal. In the latter case, they may choose to apply the experience earned by their rental Pokémon, minus one point, to their team in any manner that they choose.

The prizes for this battle are $20 to the winner, $10 to the loser, and $15 to the referee. This battle does not fill a battle slot for the mentoring referee.

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me said:

In case you weren't aware, I wanted to direct you to a couple of old threads that you can look through for precedent and stuff if you can't find anything in the Question Box, etc.: the old Attacks and Abilities Guide and the old ASB Rules. A quick search through those might help you find answers to some of your questions, and if not, you are absolutely encouraged to post in the Question Box or ask me about anything you're not entirely sure about. It is always, always better to ask than to proceed with your best guess if you're not 100% sure. Feel free to bombard me with messages!

Here are some old test battles that you might want to look at:

JackPK's test battle
TruetoCheese's test battle
Vipera Magnifica's test battle

(Note that Jack was actually a ref in the old league and was taking the test to make sure he was still qualified, so you don't need to worry about holding yourself up to that high a standard.)

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Eifie said:

Not much has happened in the league since the last test battle I attempted to mentor, so I hope you'll forgive me for copy-pasting my spiel from there instead of rewriting it in different words:

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Round One

The world inside the Pokéball was dark, infinite, humming. Green cyberspace lines zoomed by, traveling infinitely fast but never fleeing the confines of the Pokéball. Floating inside of this virtual nothingness was a Porygon, looking everywhere and nowhere as lines of code glowed into and out of existence. Dragonflycave dot com adeptly manipulated the lines as they flew by, twisting them into new phrases and placing more symbols neatly in a line. Dimly, it heard a cry outside of its virtual world and felt a strange tug of gravity as its Pokéball was launched into the air. Dotcom only had an instant to close its eyes - a half-hearted attempt to protect them from the shock of sudden light. Its grumbles at its situation came out as strangled electronic computer blipping sounds. Seeing no opponent yet, Dotcom continued to code, paying no heed to the new field around it.

On the other side of the field in another Trainer's hand was an entirely different Pokéball world. The Darumaka's home was an infinite sandy desert with rolling dunes and distant sandstorms. Super Smile Tomato was already bouncing around, grinning hugely from yellow eyebrow to yellow eyebrow, hearing her name called from outside her Pokéball. As the desert disappeared and the breezy grass field flashed into its place, Tommy cackled with delight and jumped around, looking for her opponent. As she did so, the chill of the light breeze snipped at her, and she briefly recoiled her arms and legs into her body to warm up.

As Tommy bounced around, Dotcom spared the barest fraction of its concentration to give the Darumaka a quick scan. The Porygon paused: the Darumaka was equally weak to both physical and special attacks, and Dotcom's driver prioritization system faltered. They kicked back in a microsecond later and raised Dotcom's Special Attack.

Stryke (OO)

Dragonflycave dot com the genderless Porygon
Speed: 40
Ability: Download
(Raises the attack stat corresponding to the opponents' weaker base defense by one inherent stage upon entering battle.)
Item: Up-Grade
(Raises moves' final damage by 1%. Only works for Porygon. Helps Porygon evolve.)
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Compiling code and missing the tranquil cyberspace [+1 SpAtk]
Commands: Conversion (Psychic) ~ Reflect ~ Toxic

Eifie (OO)

Super Smile Tomato the female Darumaka
Speed: 50
Ability: Hustle
(Multiplies all moves' base power by 1.2, but lowers their accuracy by a flat 20%.)
Item: Zoom Lens
(Raises moves' accuracy by 20% when the holder moves after its target.)
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Raring to go!
Commands: Power-Up Punch / Focus Energy / Snatch ~ Brick Break / Focus Energy / Snatch ~ Rock Smash / Focus Energy / Snatch

-----

Tommy bounced to her feet and smiled wickedly at Dotcom. The Porygon ignored her, running lines of code and flipping its irregular polygonal feet, and Tommy let her opportunity to strike first pass by. Patience was hard for the little Darumaka, but she did her best, stamping her feet against the field and leaving little footprints of scorched grass. Finally, she was rewarded when Dotcom's eyes darted over to her; Dotcom decided that this little bouncing fireball might get in the way of its coding, and began shifting its internal DNA towards a typing capable of higher concentration. Immediately, Tommy ceased her bouncing and let a dark, murky glow surround her. Just as Dotcom was tiding up the ends of its internal changes, the sneaky dark glow struck out at the Porygon, briefly wrapping it in a halo of malice, before jolting away from Dotcom and back to Tommy. The strange dark energy wrapped itself around Tommy again, shifting the Darumaka's internal makeup ever so slightly into something Tommy wasn't quite sure she recognized. What was this new power that her dark energy had Snatched for her? Finally she recalled the single attack she knew that matched this, and the new internal changes calmed her and made her think of sleep. Across the field, Dotcom muttered in displeased electric chirps as the entirety of its carefully arranged code disappeared before its eyes. All that work, gone.

In front of it, the Darumaka stared at Dotcom again, watching for its move. Dotcom wasted no time - this fire fluff was getting in its way and it was not going to stand for that. Again, Dotcom shifted its focus internally and extended its computing powers to the field around them, planning traceries of a golden dome that would completely cover it and hopefully protect it from Tommy's incessant thievery. It spared the Darumaka only a passing glance, but the contempt in its eyes was clear. Much to Dotcom's dismay, just seconds before it began to draw the dome from the land around it, a second dark aura flashed from Tommy to Dotcom and stole the barrier. Dotcom quipped in anger - now Tommy bounced underneath the golden dome that Dotcom meant to use itself. It flashed her a menacing look and its voice crackled.

Gleeful at her success so far, Tommy just about launched straight into another attack, but remembered her trainer's orders and waited for a third time. Fed up with this unseemly conduct, Dotcom twisted around and conjured up a horrible glob of poisons brewed from the worst manner of glitches and bugs. With a jerk of its head, Dotcom flung the glob at Tommy, who shrieked as the poisonous mixture sank through her fur and into her blood. She backed away, shuddering and shivering as the poison began to sap at her strength. She flung out in a wild rage at Dotcom, striking it with a hard punch to the side. Dotcom shrugged away, head and legs rotating with annoyance. It hissed and wheeled to face Tommy once more.

-----

Stryke (OO)

Dragonflycave dot com the genderless Porygon
Speed: 40
Ability: Download
(Raises the attack stat corresponding to the opponents' weaker base defense by one inherent stage upon entering battle.)
Item: Up-Grade
(Raises moves' final damage by 1%. Only works for Porygon. Helps Porygon evolve.)
Health: 93%
Energy: 96%
Status: Annoyed that its coding keeps getting interrupted [+1 SpAtk]
Used: Nothing (Snatched) ~ Nothing (Snatched) ~ Toxic

Eifie (OO)

Super Smile Tomato the female Darumaka
Speed: 50
Ability: Hustle
(Multiplies all moves' base power by 1.2, but lowers their accuracy by a flat 20%.)
Item: Zoom Lens
(Raises moves' accuracy by 20% when the holder moves after its target.)
Health: 98% 99%
Energy: 85% 86%
Status: Energized, but feeling a little funny [Psychic-type, Reflect (4 more actions), Toxic poisoned (2% this round, 3% next round)]
Used: Snatch (Conversion (Psychic)) ~ Snatch (Reflect) ~ Rock Smash​

• Speed order: Dragonflycave dot com (40) < Super Smile Tomato (50)
• According to Bulbapedia, Download automatically raises Special Attack if the opponent's Defense and Special Defense are the same. ASB precedent says it's random, but random got Dotcom a Special Attack increase anyway, so.
• In general, I hope that was okay! It took me longer than I thought it would, but once I get the hang of the general order of things, I think the next one shouldn't take as long. Let me know if there are any issues and I'll be happy to correct them!
• Stryke commands first

Eifie said:

The energy cost for Rock Smash in the database already takes its extra effect into account, so Rock Smash should only have costed 3% energy. (In general, you probably want to briefly verify each energy cost you take from the db using the formula in the Damage and Energy guide, though I think most mistakes in the db have been taken care of now.)

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Since Tommy was only poisoned on the last action of the round, she should only have taken a fraction of the poison damage, in this case 1%. The damage will still increase for next round as normal (i.e. you don't have to take into account the fact that she was poisoned on the third action and shift the damage for all successive rounds back). So next round she'll take 3% damage total from poison.

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I need to check with MF on whether the base power increase from Hustle should result in a proportional energy cost increase. This is the case for other abilities that affect base power such as Torrent, but in this case I think Hustle's accuracy drop already balances that out so that there's no need for an energy penalty.

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I'm in a bit of a hurry so I'll check again tonight in case I missed something, but everything looks good aside from those minor things I pointed out. Well done! Stryke, you can go ahead and command.

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Sandstone-Shadow said:

As a side note, does Hustle affect the accuracy of non-damaging attacks?

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Eifie said:

I need to check with MF on whether the base power increase from Hustle should result in a proportional energy cost increase.

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Round Two

Stryke (OO)

Dragonflycave dot com the genderless Porygon
Speed: 40
Ability: Download
(Raises the attack stat corresponding to the opponents' weaker base defense by one inherent stage upon entering battle.)
Item: Up-Grade
(Raises moves' final damage by 1%. Only works for Porygon. Helps Porygon evolve.)
Health: 93%
Energy: 96%
Status: Annoyed that its coding keeps getting interrupted [+1 SpAtk]
Commands: Signal Beam/Agility/Conversion(Flying)~Shadow Ball/Agility/Conversion(Flying)~Tri Attack/Agility/Conversion(Flying)

Eifie (OO)

Super Smile Tomato the female Darumaka
Speed: 50
Ability: Hustle
(Multiplies all moves' base power by 1.2, but lowers their accuracy by a flat 20%.)
Item: Zoom Lens
(Raises moves' accuracy by 20% when the holder moves after its target.)
Health: 99%
Energy: 86%
Status: Energized, but feeling a little funny [Psychic-type, Reflect (4 more actions), Toxic poisoned (2% this round, 3% next round)]
Commands: Encore ~ Focus Punch / Mimic (Conversion) / Facade ~ Focus Punch / Mimic (Conversion) / Facade

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Tommy had recoiled her arms and legs back into her body to try and burn away the shuddering chill of the poison, but she sprang back into action on the next round. She hopped up to the Porygon and started clapping her little hands together, creating little sparks of fire and cheering. What a great Poison attack! The best! Dotcom's commands were compiling in neat lines and conditionals in its minds' eye, but its programming paused: the little Darumaka really liked Toxic that much? Wow. Well, maybe Dotcom could take this opportunity to show off a bit. Yes, it COULD manipulate nature in such a way. Dotcom conjured up another slimy glob of toxins and launched it at Tommy, who again shivered deeply but forced a delighted smile onto her face.

Tommy's smile turned devious again, and she settled into a low crouch, turning her eyes away from Dotcom and concentrating. Under her breath, she whispered mantras of strength and determination, and her fists began to glow with a powerful light. Across the field, Dotcom twirled its head and legs and crafted another toxin glob, flinging it at the Darumaka and making shrill chiming sounds. Look at how technology rules nature! the little Porygon cried cheerfully. The poison washed over Tommy, but had no further effect; she merely lifted her gleaming eyes and gave a brief snort of amusement before releasing a savage cry. Tommy leaped through the air, words of power aglow in her mind, and struck Dotcom down so hard that its head, legs, and body all lost gravity to each other; the pieces tumbled several lengths down the field. Dotcom's vision went all static as the world spun. There was a dent in the side of its polygonal face, quickly restored by its internal programming. Dotcom's pieces floated slowly back together and it ran a quick internal calibration, making sure everything was functional. Tommy cheered, both joyous and mocking the Porygon.

The truth dawned upon Dotcom with all the fury of the worst kind of computer-crashing thunderstorms. Why, the insolent little firebug! How DARE it pull such a heist against it?! Dotcom fired up all internal controls, code blazing in fury. Why, once the little fireball picked a move, it would PAY. It hovered, cursing in short, furious blips and squiggly symbols. Laughing maniacally, Tommy remembered its own orders and waited as well, skipping past the weird attack order that she'd never done before and selecting the final one. Dotcom, deciding not to play this waiting game with Tommy, unleashed a blinding triple beam of light that struck Tommy down to the ground. Motes of red, blue, and yellow energy zapped the Darumaka, but none of them stuck to inflict further damage and instead faded away into the air. Tommy retaliated with a savage yell and pummeled the Porygon with her tiny fists, the poison soaking into her skin fueling her violence.

-----

Stryke (OO)

Dragonflycave dot com the genderless Porygon
Speed: 40
Ability: Download
(Raises the attack stat corresponding to the opponents' weaker base defense by one inherent stage upon entering battle.)
Item: Up-Grade
(Raises moves' final damage by 1%. Only works for Porygon. Helps Porygon evolve.)
Health: 53% (capped)
Energy: 85%
Status: Enraged and ready for revenge [+1 SpAtk]
Used: Toxic ~ Toxic ~ Tri Attack

Eifie (OO)

Super Smile Tomato the female Darumaka
Speed: 50
Ability: Hustle
(Multiplies all moves' base power by 1.2, but lowers their accuracy by a flat 20%.)
Item: Zoom Lens
(Raises moves' accuracy by 20% when the holder moves after its target.)
Health: 85% 84%
Energy: 62%
Status: Gleeful and still snickering at her trickery [Psychic-type, Reflect (1 more action), Toxic poisoned (3% this round, 4% next round)]
Used: Encore ~ Focus Punch ~ Facade​

• Speed order: Dragonflycave dot com (40) < Super Smile Tomato (50)
• Darumaka can't learn Mimic, so Tommy didn't use it. She took heed of the "if you can't do that" in her commands and moved on to Facade.
• Dotcom's orders gave it instructions based on Tommy's moves, but didn't explicitly say "wait." Because of this, I gave Dotcom a 50% chance of attacking without waiting to see what Tommy did (roll ≤ 50 for Dotcom attacking anyway, rolled 34), and Dotcom did attack. (I figure that's an okay way to handle that, but let me know if I should have done it differently or if I was really misinterpreting commands.)
• Tommy noticed that Dotcom was no longer Encored because Eifie asked me to do that, in order to force Tommy's conditionals and test if I let Darumaka use a move it didn't know. For other refs looking at this, don't take this as precedent; I posted about it in the Question Box and whatever answer it gets there should take precedent over this.
• Dotcom's damage hit the cap in action three
• Eifie commands first

Eifie said:

(SS: Normally, when the effects of a move or ability are changed in the middle of a battle, the referee should continue to use the old effects for the duration of the battle unless both battlers agree to use the new ones. I don't particularly care whether we use the old or new version of Hustle, so it's up to Stryke.)

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Round Three

Stryke (OO)

Dragonflycave dot com the genderless Porygon
Speed: 40
Ability: Download
(Raises the attack stat corresponding to the opponents' weaker base defense by one inherent stage upon entering battle.)
Item: Up-Grade
(Raises moves' final damage by 1%. Only works for Porygon. Helps Porygon evolve.)
Health: 53%
Energy: 85%
Status: Enraged and ready for revenge [+1 SpAtk]
Commands: Shadow Ball ~ Tri Attack ~ Conversion (Water)

Eifie (OO)

Super Smile Tomato the female Darumaka
Speed: 50
Ability: Hustle
(Multiplies all moves' base power by 1.2, but lowers their accuracy by a flat 20%.)
Item: Zoom Lens
(Raises moves' accuracy by 20% when the holder moves after its target.)
Health: 85%
Energy: 62%
Status: Gleeful and still snickering at her trickery [Psychic-type, Reflect (1 more action), Toxic poisoned (3% this round, 4% next round)]
Commands: Taunt / Double Team (max clones) ~ Hidden Power / Double Team (max clones) ~ Flare Blitz / Double Team (max clones)

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Tommy bounced straight into action, leering at the enraged Porygon and making funny faces at it. Ha! Tommy cried. You FELL for it! For effect, she let herself roll around on the ground, clutching her stomach as she laughed and leaving scorched grass in her wake. Betcha STILL can't hit me! Hearing this impudence, Dotcom screeched a frustrated dial-tone sound. It sank closer to the ground and lowered its head, eyes flashing. Muttering darkly under its breath, it haphazardly created a sphere of ghostly energy. That would show her for stealing its attack so long ago. Dotcom darted forward and flung the dark sphere into motion and it burst against Tommy, filling her ears with horrid ghostly whispers and cries. As she dug her toes into the ground, comforting herself with its solid presence, the golden barrier around her flickered and faded.

Her smile faltering just a bit, Tommy looked up at Dotcom and exercised her patience again. Tired of any form of patience or chivalry, Dotcom pulled a recent attack back into the workspace and unleashed twining, triplet beams of blue, yellow, and red. It scanned a bit of Tommy's internal code and aimed for her immune system, hoping to cause extra damage. The beams struck Tommy hard and she squeaked in pain, but Dotcom's immune-targeting system wasn't quite foolproof yet. Fuming, Dotcom filed a few quick error logs for later use, scratching them into cyberspace with sweeping, angry keystrokes. As the triple-colored beam faded behind her, Tommy sought deep into her own inner world of energy. At the same time, she contemplated a bit of her own meaning and purpose. This Psychic-typing really seemed like her thing, except when her thing was rushing madly into motion. Hmm. Perhaps she could train herself out of it. Around her, glowing orbs of energy spun in a frenzy, their glow seeming to come from within Tommy's contemplation. Their multi-colored, shifting presence suddenly flashed into one: an eerie, chittering aura like the creek of wood behind you, in a dark cabin, in the middle of the woods. She smiled. Now it was Dotcom's turn to hear the voices. But to her dismay, her haunting attack drifted right off of Dotcom - clearly it was too rational to believe in ghosts.

Dotcom was becoming used to moving first. It screeched and glared at the Darumaka, her insulting words still crawling under its shiny, metallic skin. She would pay. But first, it looked at her fiery presence and thought that the heat might damage its delicate machinery. Focusing inward, Dotcom tried to rearrange its coding to one that would better resist fire, but no matter how hard it tried, it couldn't get the Darumaka's rudeness out of its head. It gave up trying to concentrate and retorted to flinging itself at Tommy instead, battering her with sharp points and hitting itself in the process too. Lost in her own ineffective plans, Tommy sighed. So much for deep, contemplative thought. With a quick, carefree shrug, Tommy abandoned all thoughts of peaceful meditation and embraced her true, fiery self, letting flames blaze about her in a chaotic storm. Now this was battle! Letting out a warrior's cry, Tommy leaped at Dotcom and crashed into it, dragging them both to the ground and igniting a wide line of grass. As the flames flickered out, leaving behind a scorched patch, Tommy limped away from Dotcom. Dotcom shook itself and rose higher, above the thin smoke and finally filing away Tommy's cruel words.

-----

Stryke (OO)

Dragonflycave dot com the genderless Porygon
Speed: 40
Ability: Download
(Raises the attack stat corresponding to the opponents' weaker base defense by one inherent stage upon entering battle.)
Item: Up-Grade
(Raises moves' final damage by 1%. Only works for Porygon. Helps Porygon evolve.)
Health: 39% 37%
Energy: 78% 75%
Status: Letting go of hurt feelings (but reprogramming to enact justice) [+1 SpAtk]
Used: Shadow Ball ~ Tri Attack ~ Nothing Struggle (Taunted)

Eifie (OO)

Super Smile Tomato the female Darumaka
Speed: 50
Ability: Hustle
(Multiplies all moves' base power by 1.2, but lowers their accuracy by a flat 20%.)
Item: Zoom Lens
(Raises moves' accuracy by 20% when the holder moves after its target.)
Health: 50% 45% (capped) 44%
Energy: 47%
Status: Was feeling really peaceful, but decided that wild and chaotic is more fun [Psychic-type, Toxic poisoned (4% this round, 5% next round)]
Used: Taunt ~ Hidden Power ~ Flare Blitz​

• Speed order: Dragonflycave dot com (40) < Super Smile Tomato (50)
• Tommy's Snatched Reflect ended after the first action.
• Tommy rolled a random Ghost-typing on her Hidden Power, which is unfortunate for her since Dotcom's still a Normal type.
• Flare Blitz would have received STAB benefits but Tommy's been Converted to Psychic type.
• Conversion is a non-damaging attack and due to the Taunt, Dotcom couldn't use it and used Struggle instead. The Taunt wore off at the end of this round.
• Struggle is listed as Normal-type in the Database, but I'm pretty sure it's been typeless damage since Gen II. I didn't apply STAB for it but can fix it if need be.
• With the addition of Struggle, Tommy hit the damage cap on action 3, but it didn't actually change the numbers - she took exactly 40%. just kidding because of Dotcom's Up-Grade, she took 41% damage and had it capped at 40%. So, her health should be 45%. Tommy didn't hit the damage cap because her self-inflicted damage from Flare Blitz doesn't count to the cap total, so she's technically below the cap and has ended at 44% health.
• I should stop doing these late at night because sometimes I look at words and they don't seem like words! Let me know if I missed something important.
• Stryke commands first