Clover vs. Zhorken (Ref: Mai)

Battle Format: 2 vs 2 double battle
DQ Time: 1 week
Damage Cap: 45%
Banned and Restricted Moves: OHKOs, suicide moves
Arena Description: Striaton City Garden

A grassy little park of sorts at the west end of Striaton City. There's a fountain in the middle, and a pond surrounding the fountain area on three sides like a letter U; there are also three bridges, leading over the pond in all three directions. The bridges to the south and west lead to narrow stretches of grass and bushes, with a thick wooded area around the perimiter of the garden; to the east is the garden entrance. Some bushes sporting pink flowers are scattered around, as well as some topiaries (carved bushes) depicting Pikachu and Pidove. Leading north from the fountain is a dirt path which leads to a set of four wooden archways covered in vines, and Route 3 beyond that, but we aren't going over there.

If any Pokémon incurs damage to any bush or topiary, the gardener will charge up and berate them for disrespecting such art. This costs the perpetrator their next action as they have to sit through the diatribe (even if said action happens next round.)

Additional Rules: Pokémon choices are to be PMed to the ref. Any refs considering picking up this battle: please consider Negrek vs me first; it's been waiting way longer. (I'm not gonna complain if you just want to take this one, though, of course.)

Click to expand...

Team Clover~

Calibri the Male Charmander
Ability: Blaze

Palatino the Female Poliwag
Ability: Water Absorb

Tahoma the Male Tropius
Ability: Solar Power
Item: Big Root

Sylfaen the Female Sandshrew
Ability: Sand Veil

Len the Male Igglybuff
Ability: Cute Charm

Aspen the Female Pichu
Ability: Static

---

Team Zhorken~

Enver the Male Buneary
Ability: Klutz
Item: Ring Target

Zal the Female Trapinch
Ability: Arena Trap
Item: Eviolite

Djalène the Female Ninetales
Ability: Flash Fire
Item: Absorb Bulb

Valicorth the Male Scolipede
Ability: Poison Point
Item: Scope Lens

Rhannyx the Female Deino
Ability: Hustle
Item: Lucky Egg

Emian the Male Mawile
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Item: Reaper Cloth

Zilliah Bailey the Female Farfetch'd
Ability: Keen Eye
Item: Stick

Jan the Female Snorunt
Ability: Ice Body
Item: Dawn Stone

Shoo B. Doo the Male Horsea
Ability: Sniper
Item: Lucky Egg

Zigzagoon the Male Zigzagoon
Ability: Gluttony

---

Everyone sends in their pokemon choices through PM! Then Clover attacks first (sorry that this happens for a birthday reffing buuut I guess the RNG does not give mercy due to the reason of birthdays), and after that Zhorken.

After that I ref. Why are most of the battles I ref double battles, when they confuse me too much to actually /battle in/? I have one from... nine months ago and it's both tricky and dead. Why yes I still am in the tournament. Negrek, if I pass to the next round, please don't make the next round anything other than one pokemon at the field at a time. I'm useless in the Battle for Asber, and I don't want to break my brain. :(

So, Zhorken's sending out Jan (snorunt) and Rhannyx (deino), while Calibri the charmander and Tahoma the tropius are Clover's choices.

Go!

DQ warning for Clover; approximately 20 hours to post. (Unlikely I'll get on exactly at that time considering school, but still.)

Wah I knew having a double battle as my second/first battle ever would be a bad idea. Conditionals are hard let's go shopping. Sorry guys! It will probably go faster after this once I get into the swing of things.

Okay okay. Okay. After basically eating the pokédex (and getting allllllll the advices from res and vikis), let's see if I can't spit up some kind of thing resembling a strategy.

... Yeah. This is totally not my usual style (back in the days of tcg and pojo mag, I ran alakazam stall decks), but let's roll with it. I kind of picked you two with an eye on a sunny-day unite combo thing from the start, but seeing how sunny day'll be draining to Tahoma anyway... Let's see how a sort of sweep does us? (You can tell I am totally confident, right.)

Right. So first things first, sunny day. Tahoma, you get us set up there -- you like the sun, right? It makes you feel all STRONG like you can take on the WORLD let alone some dinky snow cone and a beatlesaur. Sure, it might sting a bit, but I've got plans involving that root of yours for later, don't worry. Meanwhile, Calibri, your plan ... is gonna sting a little ~more~, unfortunately. But I promise it's for a good cause! I'd like an order of one large phantom-Bri, please. That would be a 20% substitute.

(Hmm, I think Tahoma could really take advantage of the substitute better than Bri could... but according to the pokédex, we're not in pokéspe, and thus I can't command phantomander to protect him instead. He could manipulate it, but that's too little mander and too much tropius body to shield effectively. Shame.)

Secondly! Now that we're all prepared, let's take out that little runt of a stalagmite. She's not too much of a threat to you, Bri, especially now that her water attacks will be all dried up, but she could seriously mangle Tahoma's lovely fern-wings with that 4x advantage. Let's see if we can't hit that damage cap and take her down in a quick three rounds or less, haha!

Calibri, since you're the speedier one, what you want to do is turn that drying Jan into a frying Jan! (Oh my god, I am Clover the Clever, I should get extra points for that.) But yeah, you get this party started with a little /more/ heat -- get up close and personal with a flame blitz! I know, you'll feel even more ouchies, I'm sorry. I'll get you your favourite aguav pokéblocks when we're through. Tahoma, your job is easier: as soon as Bri's out of the way, solarbeam that sucker! Aren't you grateful now for those rays of sunlight, giving not only the move an easy go of it, but empowering your very cells for that extra kick? I know I am.

Oh. Wait. This is putting all my exeggcute in one basket. This is where those handy ~conditionals~ come in, right!! Okay, let's see. That little sneakrunt could go and try to hide in some bushes or near a topikary (or topidove) to bring out that nasty gardener man, and we wouldn't want that to happen. So if it looks like your snazzy attacks might harm a single twig on his plants, why don't you show off your singing voices instead with a little karaoke! Both of you can give the runt and the derpno -- not a square, not a cross, but a round! (Can you tell it's gotten really late now.) Yes. A round sounds good.

Alternately she could just use protect and I could come up with something different for that either aiming only at the deino or doing something for yourselves but you know what no it's too late for thoughts let's just say if either the bushes are in danger or you can't get to the snorunt somehow (it's okay to blast through a substitute if she sets one up) just use round.

Jesus one more action. Okay, uh. If both the solarbeam and the flame blitz hit, then that's all we can do for that runt for now, and we want to focus our efforts on nixing the Nyx. Bri, hm, fire won't do very well against her, and you probably won't have gotten bad enough for blaze to kick in yet. What if... Ooooh, dragon pulse! Yeah, dragon pulse looks good. And Tahoma, grass is in a similar spot... Neat, flying does regular damage. How about you send that dino back to the stone age with a good old air slash!

On the other hand, if one or both of the attacks missed, we can still do some damage to the bugle corn chip... but god, I cannot even care right now. Let's just say for this third one, if the snorunt was not hit for whatever reason with both flare blitz and solarbeam, let's just grace them with your lovely karaoke again. It's Pikachu's Jukebox night.

That should be it. Sob you see why I've been procrastinating. And how obvious is it that I am coming from a roleplay background with like zero asb experience sob. I will see what I can do towards trimming the fat next round. but hey here's the handy dandy tldr!:

Calibri: Substitute (20%) ~ Flare Blitz @Jan/Round (if Jan is shielded through bushes or protect) ~ Dragon Pulse @Rhannyx/Round (if Nyx is shielded or FB/SB didn't hit)

Tahoma: Sunny Day ~ Solarbeam @Jan/Round (if Jan [...]) ~ Air Slash @Rhannyx/Round (if Nyx [...])

GO

TEAM

JANNYX

:D

First, Jan's gonna set up a Light Screen. Make sure you two stick close enough together that you're both covered by it—that shouldn't be hard, I don't think. Meanwhile, Rhannyx, you ~get yourself pumped~, or whatever the phrase is, with Focus Energy. Yes, I know, that means you have to wait a bit longer to get your violence on, but this will help with that, I promise. Critical hits a fifth of the time sound good, right?

Then, Jan, when Tahoma tries to dazzle everyone with his silly Solarbeam, show him how to really hit like an avalanche. With a bright white Avalanche, of course. Rhan, you use Earth Power on Calibri, or at least on his double. I can't think up anything witty to say about that but making the ground fuckin' blow up will probably speak for itself. He'll be coming after you so it should be pretty easy to avoid uprooting any topiaries with it. (Don't pout like that. If you're good, I'll let you go wild on all the plants you want once we've won, okay?)

Final action! Rhan, you take down Calibri's substitute with Dragon Pulse. (Earth Power might have already taken it down if it scores a crit, I guess; in that case just hit Calibri himself.) Jan, you slow them both in their tracks with an Icy Wind. Make sure to wait and move after Rhannyx so that that sub doesn't get in your way.

Rhannyx: Focus Energy ~ Earth Power @ Calibri ~ Dragon Pulse @ Calibri
Jan: Light Screen ~ Avalanche @ Tahoma ~ Icy Wind (wait)

((Also n.b. Negrek says that Hustle shouldn't affect special attacks, despite what the A&A Guide mistakenly says.))

So uhhh. Clover says she's not interested anymore and nothing's happened here so I guess this battle just. Dies? Oh well.