[11] Mai vs Kratos Aurion (Ref: Metallica Fanboy)

3vs3 Rotation
DQ: 7 Days
Damage Cap: 40%
Banned Moves: Weather moves, moves requiring external resources
Arena: Cold Storage

Driftveil City has plenty of attractions: its picturesque lighthouse, its bustling marketplace, and, most important of all to trainers, its official gym. Surely any of those would have made fine sites for a battle and a worthy introduction to Driftveil's culture.

Instead, trainers and spectators find themeselves huddled, shivering, in a glorified walk-in refrigerator.

As it turns out, it's rather expensive to rent out Nimbasa's music hall for a few crazy trainers to have their battles in. And it's even more expensive when you have to pay for repairs after a couple of those trainers smash a hole in the stage and set fire to the orchestra pit. Over budget and facing a suddenly-inflated insurance premium on whatever location it decided to rent, the league found itself too strapped for cash to secure one of Driftveil's more desirable locales.

There was no way they could simply call off the battle, though, so they made do. And, with a bit of effort, they even managed to wrangle a local into teaching their battlers a unique bit of Unovan battle-style, the rotation battle. He's a heartbreaker... His name... Charles...

In a rotation battle, each player sends out three pokémon from the get-go, though only one fights at a time. Up to once per round, at any time, a trainer may choose to "rotate" their pokémon, swapping the one in battle for one of the two in reserve. Now, though the arena manages to avoid the iciest parts of Cold Storage, the floor's a little slick, and the pokémon being rotated in will need to take an action to get its footing. The act of rotating therefore takes a full action, but is otherwise unpenalized. A pokémon that is rendered uncapable of leaving the field under its own power cannot be rotated out.

The frigid conditions of Cold Storage are going to sap a bit of the fun out of this new battle style, though. It's so freezing that all pokémon in battle will lose 5% health and energy at the end of each round, whether or not they're currently in battle. Ice types, of course, love the cold and are immune to this effect--too bad they happen to offend Charles, who can't stand their shameless aping of his aloof and distant attitude. At the end of each round, any ice type actually in battle has a 10% chance (each) of becoming taunted, tormented, confused, or paralyzed as a result of suffering through Charles' intense, furious, and yet carefree stare for the entire round.

For these battles, the first player to post will post all three pokémon that they will be using, as well as which one will start in the active position. The second will then do the same, as well as issuing commands, and the battle will proceed as normal from there.

Click to expand...

Mai's Active Squad

Ma'at the Female Ralts
Ability: Trace
Item: Petaya Berry

Mafia Lover the Female Cyndaquil
Ability: Blaze

Dia the Male Sableye
Ability: Stall

Azuraine the Male Nidoking
Ability: Poison Point
Item: Black Sludge
Body Modification: Viewer Gender Confusion

Mafia Silencer the Male Deino
Ability: Hustle
Body Modification: Psychic Heritage

Mafia Goon the Female Zigzagoon
Ability: Pickup

Tuft the Male Accelgor
Ability: Hydration
Item: Big Root

Rael the Male Grumpig
Ability: Own Tempo
Item: Jaboca Berry

Kaleidoscope the Female Illumise
Ability: Tinted Lens
Item: Leftovers

Mafia Schizo the Male Bonsly
Ability: Sturdy

Kratos Aurion's Active Squad

Yggdrasill the Male Dragonair
Ability: Shed Skin
Item: Lucky Egg

Thorn the Male Nidoking
Ability: Poison Point
Item: Life Orb

Don Quixote the Male Arcanine
Ability: Flash Fire
Item: Leftovers

Folie à Deux the Male Girafarig
Ability: Early Bird
Item: Wise Glasses

Presea Combatir the Female Zangoose
Ability: Immunity
Item: Shell Bell

Yakuza the Male Honchkrow
Ability: Super Luck
Item: Expert Belt

Sadon the Male Garchomp
Ability: Sand Veil
Item: Yache Berry

Lesovik the Male Cottonee
Ability: Prankster
Item: Sun Stone
Move Modification: Sleep Powder

Defibrillator the Male Eelektross
Ability: Levitate
Item: Liechi Berry

1. Mai posts their three pokémon.
2. Kratos Aurion picks three and attacks.
3. Mai attacks.

Okay so! While my original reaction to this battle was sort of ridiculous, I've thought about it and this is okay! I feel better now.



Let's do this. Here's my plan:

1. Send out Dia (active), Rael, and Kaleidoscope.
2. ???
3. Profit! And by that I mean win the battle. Hopefully.

I think I feel the most confident I can with this setup, so I might as well post it before I re-analyze everything and panic. After this post I am not going to freak out. (Although it would've been much easier if Kratos sent out first, because now that way I couldn't be checked by every pokemon of theirs ever. Oh well.)

Maybe with some half-real confidence I'll do well! Either way though, Kratos, I still think we should have a nidoroyalty battle sometime.

Good luck! I'll probably be the one needing it, but I'd rather win from strategy than a lucky paralysis roll. That's ignoring the likely possibility that you curbstomp me within the first three rounds.

Hooboy. Third round, here we go. :/ Good luck to you, too, and somehow I doubt I'll be able to curbstomp you in three rounds; remember that I've never battled this way before, either, so it's entirely possible that I'll be overlooking things left and right.

Anyway! I think I'll go with Yakuza, Thorn and, to start us off, the vicious, bloodthirsty, flesh-eating, nightmare-inducing, city-destroying...









...teeny fluffy bundle of cottony softness. Lesovik, my boy, you're up! (If all else fails, at least I finally get my whimsicott out of this!)

Okay, Leshy—time to strike the fear of cottony softness into our opponents' hearts! Start with a taunt unless Dia protects or detects, in which case you should set up a safeguard. If he uses fake out... eh, just try your best to fight through it and taunt him anyway. If you can't, no big deal.

Next, if Dia (or his replacement if he swapped out) has been taunted successfully, or if Dia is rotated out on this action regardless of what happened last action, sleep powder 'em. If it hasn't been taunted successfully, taunt again, and if they try to protect/detect on this action and did not successfully protect themselves last action then safeguard. If they did protect/detect/etc. successfully last action then try sleep powder or taunt as appropriate and hope they screw up. Also safeguard if Rael is active, is not being rotated out and is not taunted.

Lastly, leech seed if your current target is asleep, and try sleep powder again if your target is Dia or Kaleidoscope but is not asleep OR if Rael is rotated in on this action. If Rael is active, is not being rotated out and is not asleep and/or taunted, giga drain. Also fall back on giga drain if you somehow end up taunted.

Taunt/Safeguard ~ Sleep Powder/Taunt/Safeguard ~ Leech Seed/Sleep Powder/Giga Drain

loopholes awaaaaaay!

(I think our referee is nearing a nidoqueen, by the way? Possibly also ultraviolet? So there is also that!)

Hmm. I knew you were sending out him by buying sleep powder, but that doesn't really make your commands any less tricky. Let's see, here... this’ll do well enough.

Dia! You're facing that pathetic, fluffy thing? Ha! First things first, we mug him and also punch him in the face need to do some simple phasing. Do this immediately when you get out, no wasting time! Go as fast as you can, before that weirdo cotton thing can move. You are one in control here, not him! Diamonds are forever, remember that. Then you must continue to eat away at the insolent fool-boy’s skin with your ghostly powers (shadow ball) until the end of the round.

He won't be able to touch you with that useless sleep power; how would your jewels fall asleep? While your jewels can often cause a problem, they really don't matter that much this time. Either way, though, if you're asleep snore as loudly as you can.

(I find it extremely ironic that I'm using your calculator to determine how much damage I'll be dealing to your pokemon, Kratos. Also, I think it’s finally occurred how biased I am towards Hoenn despite the fact I got all of the games within a very short timeframe. All three of my sendouts are gen three! I’m looking forward to this a lot.)

((Also, I'm looking forward to whenever we have two 'queens to go with this! It'll certainly be interesting.))

Phase~ Shadow ball/Snore~ Shadow ball/Snore

Derp I hope that conditionals cancel out stall/speed. I don't know why that ability sounded like a good idea when I joined ASB

Kratos Aurion said:

(I think our referee is nearing a nidoqueen, by the way? Possibly also ultraviolet? So there is also that!)

Click to expand...

Indeed. Just one point of experience down. The catch is, I have to send out first in every battle ever, and in every battle ever, there's an ol' massive Nidorina counter lurking.

Mai said:

(I find it extremely ironic that I'm using your calculator to determine how much damage I'll be dealing to your pokemon, Kratos. Also, I think it’s finally occurred how biased I am towards Hoenn despite the fact I got all of the games within a very short timeframe. All three of my sendouts are gen three! I’m looking forward to this a lot.)

Click to expand...

What bias? Hoenn is the best region!

-----

3vs3 Rotation
DQ: 7 Days
Damage Cap: 40%
Banned Moves: Weather moves, moves requiring external resources

Click to expand...

Arena: Cold Storage

Driftveil City has plenty of attractions: its picturesque lighthouse, its bustling marketplace, and, most important of all to trainers, its official gym. Surely any of those would have made fine sites for a battle and a worthy introduction to Driftveil's culture.

Instead, trainers and spectators find themeselves huddled, shivering, in a glorified walk-in refrigerator.

As it turns out, it's rather expensive to rent out Nimbasa's music hall for a few crazy trainers to have their battles in. And it's even more expensive when you have to pay for repairs after a couple of those trainers smash a hole in the stage and set fire to the orchestra pit. Over budget and facing a suddenly-inflated insurance premium on whatever location it decided to rent, the league found itself too strapped for cash to secure one of Driftveil's more desirable locales.

There was no way they could simply call off the battle, though, so they made do. And, with a bit of effort, they even managed to wrangle a local into teaching their battlers a unique bit of Unovan battle-style, the rotation battle. He's a heartbreaker... His name... Charles...

In a rotation battle, each player sends out three pokémon from the get-go, though only one fights at a time. Up to once per round, at any time, a trainer may choose to "rotate" their pokémon, swapping the one in battle for one of the two in reserve. Now, though the arena manages to avoid the iciest parts of Cold Storage, the floor's a little slick, and the pokémon being rotated in will need to take an action to get its footing. The act of rotating therefore takes a full action, but is otherwise unpenalized. A pokémon that is rendered uncapable of leaving the field under its own power cannot be rotated out.

The frigid conditions of Cold Storage are going to sap a bit of the fun out of this new battle style, though. It's so freezing that all pokémon in battle will lose 5% health and energy at the end of each round, whether or not they're currently in battle. Ice types, of course, love the cold and are immune to this effect--too bad they happen to offend Charles, who can't stand their shameless aping of his aloof and distant attitude. At the end of each round, any ice type actually in battle has a 10% chance (each) of becoming taunted, tormented, confused, or paralyzed as a result of suffering through Charles' intense, furious, and yet carefree stare for the entire round.

For these battles, the first player to post will post all three pokémon that they will be using, as well as which one will start in the active position. The second will then do the same, as well as issuing commands, and the battle will proceed as normal from there.

Click to expand...

Arena status: Unchanged.


A security door latched open. Four people crawled into the enormous inside of the... Building? Structure? Well, more like oversized appliance. They weren't the first trainers to walk in for the official tournament, and they wouldn't be the last, although one of the four was supposed to be there for each of the battles. That one, sporting a roughly wine-coloured hair and outrageous beard of the same color, wore just jeans and an open jacket, in spite of how infernally cold it was within the League-appointed battlefield. He seemed not to care in the slightest, but then again, he seemed that way about any given thing.

The other three, however, were all geared up for cold, and realized as they got in that they weren't geared up enough. Just two layers of warm clothes did very little to the inhuman frostiness. There was a reason why those in that facility's employ wore protective all up to their heads.

It was not without reason that it was named the Cold Storage.

The massive refrigerator housed literal truckloads of goods. Each one of them were meant to be kept in low temperatures, which is why the reason why they were stashed in that specific place. That was one of the marking features of the place; other was the sheets of ice that spread out along several patches, notoriously making it difficult to remove the giant steel crates once they were loaded in. For those who weren't giant steel crates nor wearing appropriate gear, of course, the annoyance was another altogether: it made step tricky and slippery. Thankfully, the battle was to take place in a less iced spot, but it was next to impossible to nail down a range sizable enough that didn't at least have a thin sheet of slippery evil.

Upon finding that one patch, the fellows took position, with the battlers standing against one another and the referee between them. And Charlie next to the referee. The latter two exchanged a few mutters before Metallica Fanboy recited the rules and then commanded for the trainers to make their (three) sendouts.

Mai spent a couple of seconds psyching up, then withdrew three Pokéballs and tossed two to the sides and one into the battlefield proper. The one that went that way revealed a vaguely humanoid, dark purple figure, jewely eyes sparkling with the artifical lights. The other two sendouts were a chubby, black-and-purple pig Pokémon and a bipedal, lightly fluttering bug, mostly black but also notably blue.

Seeming keen on intimidation, Kratos Aurion first unleashed two powerful critters around his sides -- a large, black-feathered bird with an imposing hatlike crest and a massive, spiky creature of purple scales, sharp horn, massive ears and vicious grin. Only to then have the lead-in be a foot-tall fluff. Imperial suxors, but eh, there's a perfectly round number there, and that can't go to waste.

Commands were issued and, as such, began one of the matches for the third round of the 2011 League Championship.

Dia had been ordered to act immediately, but it couldn't help but become distracted and take note of his surroundings before that. And by that, I mean he spent about half a minute scanning his surroundings. Fortunately, his opponent was waiting on his move, so, regardless, he still had time to go first.

When he got around to performing his move, he grinned mischievously... And all of a sudden, there was no grin. And no Sableye around, either. All that could be seen were strangely floating jewels, two of which were obviously his eyes, so one could tell he hadn't escaped somehow. Still, it was a disappearing act of sorts.

At the time, Lesovik saw it (or rather, didn't see it) merely as amazing provaction fuel. After all, what kind of coward just up and disappears upon the prospect of being smacked by a foot-tall fluff? The remarks upon that coward's ability to fight or lack thereof ran quite wild.

Assuming that he'd gotten a rise out of his opponent, Cottonee eagerly recalled a few rambles in order to pull off the next wicked trick: sleep powder. It's so funny when they just keel over like they don't know what just hit them! However, this time, he was out of luck -- the powder, being perfectly solid although, well, powdery, went right through the target, to no significant effect.

At first, there was no telling what actually happened, but it became obvious that the sleep-inducing move failed when Dia quickly charged and then fired a blast of ghostly energy, sending his opponent tumbling backwards and leaving a strange mark on his face. Which was pretty much the most part of his body.

Irate that his genial trick failed so, the cottonseed Pokémon gave it another shot, to the same complete lack of effect. Another Shadow Ball flew in response, and on that note, the end of round rang.

Both battlers irradiated enough anger that it could melt some of the snow down. They seemed as though they were completely unaffected by the cold... But, of course they were. Even the gargantuan Nidoking in waiting trembled and shivered, to a rather amusing scene.


Arena status: Unchanged.

Additional notes:
- Sleep Powder failed to affect the phased Dia.
- The first Shadow Ball lowered Lesovik's Special Defense.
- Mai attacks first next round.

I realize I should have asked this question here where people could see it more easily, but Negrek told me in a conversation that taunt would stop phasing, though I'm not sure whether prankster should have let it go off before the phasing happened (and also implied that sleep powder would still hit, although she hasn't answered that and I personally am not sure why...?). I'll go post it again in the AAG, though, so she can answer that definitively over here. Sorry. :/

Thanks for the quick reffing, though!

Kratos Aurion said:

I realize I should have asked this question here where people could see it more easily, but Negrek told me in a conversation that taunt would stop phasing, though I'm not sure whether prankster should have let it go off before the phasing happened (and also implied that sleep powder would still hit, although she hasn't answered that and I personally am not sure why...?). I'll go post it again in the AAG, though, so she can answer that definitively over here. Sorry. :/

Thanks for the quick reffing, though!

Click to expand...

Indeed, I would have Taunt stop the phasing, but Dia phased before being taunted. Such is the way things go when the conditional commands rely on your opponent's move.

I'm pretty sure Sleep Powder wouldn't hit; as I've stated in the reffing, powder is solid, so, it would probably just go through a phasing ghost.

Oh hey wait. Shouldn't Kaleidoscope be at 97% health, because she has those leftovers? Feel free to correct me and say that those don't take affect, though.

Yes, this is absolutely necessary. Obviously two points of health will be critical to success.

Leftovers don't do anything unless you're in battle.

Oh. That's too bad.

Diiia~

We're doing splendidly! I think we should just keep you ever-so-slightly intangible for the time being, just because there isn't any urgent need for you to use any physical move. Now, since you're still ridiculously angry at that infuriating floating plant-thing, you might as well show him what you're made of with an very, very loud, intimidating snarl. In fact, make it loud enough you can't even hear what Lesovik may or may not be saying! You could just... make it like a really loud snarl, one that clears your head, fills the air with sound, and allows you to see reason!

Next action, when you've hopefully cleared your head of the unnecessary murderous intent, use substitute (20%). If you find yourself engulfed in mindless fury again, though, use ominous wind. But that should be an inuitive thing, not something you should wait to figure out! And also if you aren't engulfed in mindless fury yet and someone going to try to taunt you, use protect. (Context clues help and such!) Try your best to make sure that the sub gets up, okay?

Now this is the last round! Only one more action left until we get to exploit Kratos' failures instead of getting ours exploited! Will-o-wisp because we really need to get some statuses on Kratos' pokemon, and I will not be fighting with the conditionals to accomodate the fact that they could switch to Thorn. However, if you're completely infuriated use shadow ball. If you're not taunted and your will-o-wisp attack working would be prevented in any way (that includes it being made ineffective and being protected against!), then use calm mind.

Snarl~ Substitute/Ominous wind/Protect~ Will-o-wisp/Shadow ball/Calm mind

I had so much more to cram into these commands but statuses aaah >( now it's your turn to exploit loopholes

EDIT: I was going to be paranoid about this for about an hour more but whatever okay. Fine then forums, take my hitting of the enter key to make a new paragraph as permission to post.

(Not really a problem with the sleep powder thing, MF; I didn't word it quite right up there, but that's actually what my interpretation would have been as well. I was just surprised that Negrek had been implying it might work otherwise in this other conversation, and, well. I'm not going to complain about a potential loophole the head ref would allow even if it doesn't make sense to me!

Also, minor nitpick, but we should probably still be able to see Dia's whole body; he was just ordered to go intangible, not invisible.)

Hmmm. Welp. My fault for forgetting about phasing, but we can work around this. Get some of your health back and whittle Dia down some with two giga drains (gotta capitalize on a chance to get at least one in before the drop from snarl and all). After your second giga drain he should be busy setting up a pretty substitute, and since you were so mean to him before I think you should apologize! Profusely, even. Compliment him on his pretty sub, and make up for all your mean comments about his obvious cowardice by asking him for an encore. He'll probably still be a little touchy right after the taunt wears off, so while you're giga draining him make sure you admit that he is totally a threat and very scary and welp you guess you'd better attack him directly now, boy he sure has got you in a bind. Surely that will make him more favorably disposed to your requests for a repeat performance? It's not like substitute is a cowardly thing to do or anything. Of course it isn't.

Giga Drain ~ Giga Drain ~ Encore

Kratos Aurion said:

(Also, minor nitpick, but we should probably still be able to see Dia's whole body; he was just ordered to go intangible, not invisible.)

Click to expand...

Ah, that's right. I can't be bothered to go back on that on the previous reffing, though.

3vs3 Rotation
DQ: 7 Days
Damage Cap: 40%
Banned Moves: Weather moves, moves requiring external resources

Click to expand...

Arena: Cold Storage

Driftveil City has plenty of attractions: its picturesque lighthouse, its bustling marketplace, and, most important of all to trainers, its official gym. Surely any of those would have made fine sites for a battle and a worthy introduction to Driftveil's culture.

Instead, trainers and spectators find themeselves huddled, shivering, in a glorified walk-in refrigerator.

As it turns out, it's rather expensive to rent out Nimbasa's music hall for a few crazy trainers to have their battles in. And it's even more expensive when you have to pay for repairs after a couple of those trainers smash a hole in the stage and set fire to the orchestra pit. Over budget and facing a suddenly-inflated insurance premium on whatever location it decided to rent, the league found itself too strapped for cash to secure one of Driftveil's more desirable locales.

There was no way they could simply call off the battle, though, so they made do. And, with a bit of effort, they even managed to wrangle a local into teaching their battlers a unique bit of Unovan battle-style, the rotation battle. He's a heartbreaker... His name... Charles...

In a rotation battle, each player sends out three pokémon from the get-go, though only one fights at a time. Up to once per round, at any time, a trainer may choose to "rotate" their pokémon, swapping the one in battle for one of the two in reserve. Now, though the arena manages to avoid the iciest parts of Cold Storage, the floor's a little slick, and the pokémon being rotated in will need to take an action to get its footing. The act of rotating therefore takes a full action, but is otherwise unpenalized. A pokémon that is rendered uncapable of leaving the field under its own power cannot be rotated out.

The frigid conditions of Cold Storage are going to sap a bit of the fun out of this new battle style, though. It's so freezing that all pokémon in battle will lose 5% health and energy at the end of each round, whether or not they're currently in battle. Ice types, of course, love the cold and are immune to this effect--too bad they happen to offend Charles, who can't stand their shameless aping of his aloof and distant attitude. At the end of each round, any ice type actually in battle has a 10% chance (each) of becoming taunted, tormented, confused, or paralyzed as a result of suffering through Charles' intense, furious, and yet carefree stare for the entire round.

For these battles, the first player to post will post all three pokémon that they will be using, as well as which one will start in the active position. The second will then do the same, as well as issuing commands, and the battle will proceed as normal from there.

Click to expand...

Arena status: Unchanged.


Trainers and Pokémon alike shivered with the terrible frost of the Cold Storage. Metallica Fanboy seriously wondered what the hell the League was thinking. There are so many insanely rich referees like himself! A bit of fundraising would have prevented this for sure. He sure wouldn't mind donating, both because he minds very few money-related things and because he'd want to make sure this could be avoided.

Tired of the sequential prank failures and feeling the damage from the enemy attacks, made that much worse by the cold, Lesovik didn't mind settling for cutting the losses for a little while. Nonchalantly, he let rip a surge of innate Grass-type power, surrounding both him and his foe with a moss green aura as said foe's vital force was absorbed away.

Dia found it to be a minor annoyance by and large, but he was already very annoyed due to his previous being called a coward. Of course, he was about to let all of that out in a single bout. Mustering all his rage, he struck a threatening pose, screeching eerie, echoing notes through his slasher grin.

Holy poison-type moves. This guy meant business. That prank didn't just fail to go right, it went wrong; terribly wrong. Now shivering even more than what the temperature would naturally make him, the Cottonee could barely keep his focus as he attempted another Giga Drain.

Feeling much better with the release, the Sableye proceeded with the next command, hoping that it would spare him from much boorish trickstery. Not through physical manipulation -- it's kind of hard when you're not, you know, tangible -- but by use of psychic forces, he hefted a likeness of himself from a clump of ice. When that much was done, he proceeded to imprint it with a considerable amount of life force, giving it strenght to move and, most importantly, to serve.

Just then, however, there was a scream. EEEEEEE, SNOWMEN. They're so cool! Who cares about battling anyway, let's keep making these!

While Mai's Pokémon hadn't quite forgotten the slights from just hardly more than two minutes back, there was an unavoidable rush of feel-good from the childlike excitement that had been awakened. And he was right, anyway; who cares about battling? It's too damn cold for that. It's not like it was a tournament match or something like that anyway. Right?

And the rest of that round was dedicated to snowmen.


Arena status: A portion of the ice was ripped out and sculpted into snow Sableyes.

Additional notes:
- Kratos Aurion attacks first next round.

Mai said:

If your pokemon is encored into, say, substitute or something else with a variable power (haha Mai you're so obvious when you're looking for loopholes), can you decrease the power of the attack or are you stuck on the level you were before?

Click to expand...

Negrek said:

You can't decrease the power of the attack, no, although since the substitute would just fail repeatedly, you shouldn't be charged the normal amount of energy for it, either.

Click to expand...

Does this mean I get energy back :D?

(Don't worry Dia; we'll get those points avenged.)

Phased pokémon can't use attacks like snarl and uproar because they don't have any vocal apparatus to speak of while they're insubstantial.

Mai said:

Does this mean I get energy back :D?

(Don't worry Dia; we'll get those points avenged.)

Click to expand...

There was never any loss of energy beyond the first Substitute.

Negrek said:

Phased pokémon can't use attacks like snarl and uproar because they don't have any vocal apparatus to speak of while they're insubstantial.

Click to expand...

Fair point. I'll fix the calculations to reflect such, but, again, I can't be bothered to go over the reffing proper.

At some point later I might actually do a general revision to go over all these corrections.

Excellent work, Leshy. If Dia stays in, solarbeam and energy ball his sub until it's down—it should only take the two hits, so he'll be forced to make one more before the encore ends. (Be sure you tell him that you're only knocking the first one down because you want to see him make an even bigger, better one than this! Snowmen snowmen snowmen~) End with a safeguard after all that.

If Dia is rotated out at any point, however, take a chance and sleep powder whoever comes in. If Kaleidoscope is Dia's replacement and sleep powder misses the first time, keep trying, and safeguard if it hits; also safeguard if Rael is the replacement but sleep powder missed. If on the last action you don't have a safeguard, set it up now; if Rael/Kaleidoscope is asleep and you do have a safeguard up, or if you couldn't put Rael to sleep but do have safeguard up, then test your hidden power.

Solarbeam/Sleep Powder ~ Energy Ball/Sleep Powder/Safeguard ~ Safeguard/Sleep Powder/Hidden Power

We may have gotten ourselves in a bit of a loss here, Dia, but there's no need to worry; I was not lying when I said I'm not allowing us to get curbstomped. Kratos may have gained the advantage by wasting two out of three turns somehow every single time, but eventually you just won't get taunted or encored anymore and it will be okay.

Shit, let's be risky. Kaleidoscope, you're up; come out flying as high as you can so you can avoid that sleep powder. Secondly, use silver wind to blow Lesovik away--including any sleep powder that might flying at you. Do that again on the last action, and if you're asleep swap in snore.

Swap in Kaleidoscope (flying)~ Silver wind/Snore~ Silver wind/Snore

EDIT: Also, hold your breath when there's powder in the air you haven't blown away yet. It may be a bit difficult, sure, but I can hold mine for a decent enough amount of time and it can't take that long to get rid of that pesky, sleep-making pollen. In general, do whatever it takes to stay conscious. 'Kay :D?

3vs3 Rotation
DQ: 7 Days
Damage Cap: 40%
Banned Moves: Weather moves, moves requiring external resources

Click to expand...

Arena: Cold Storage

Driftveil City has plenty of attractions: its picturesque lighthouse, its bustling marketplace, and, most important of all to trainers, its official gym. Surely any of those would have made fine sites for a battle and a worthy introduction to Driftveil's culture.

Instead, trainers and spectators find themeselves huddled, shivering, in a glorified walk-in refrigerator.

As it turns out, it's rather expensive to rent out Nimbasa's music hall for a few crazy trainers to have their battles in. And it's even more expensive when you have to pay for repairs after a couple of those trainers smash a hole in the stage and set fire to the orchestra pit. Over budget and facing a suddenly-inflated insurance premium on whatever location it decided to rent, the league found itself too strapped for cash to secure one of Driftveil's more desirable locales.

There was no way they could simply call off the battle, though, so they made do. And, with a bit of effort, they even managed to wrangle a local into teaching their battlers a unique bit of Unovan battle-style, the rotation battle. He's a heartbreaker... His name... Charles...

In a rotation battle, each player sends out three pokémon from the get-go, though only one fights at a time. Up to once per round, at any time, a trainer may choose to "rotate" their pokémon, swapping the one in battle for one of the two in reserve. Now, though the arena manages to avoid the iciest parts of Cold Storage, the floor's a little slick, and the pokémon being rotated in will need to take an action to get its footing. The act of rotating therefore takes a full action, but is otherwise unpenalized. A pokémon that is rendered uncapable of leaving the field under its own power cannot be rotated out.

The frigid conditions of Cold Storage are going to sap a bit of the fun out of this new battle style, though. It's so freezing that all pokémon in battle will lose 5% health and energy at the end of each round, whether or not they're currently in battle. Ice types, of course, love the cold and are immune to this effect--too bad they happen to offend Charles, who can't stand their shameless aping of his aloof and distant attitude. At the end of each round, any ice type actually in battle has a 10% chance (each) of becoming taunted, tormented, confused, or paralyzed as a result of suffering through Charles' intense, furious, and yet carefree stare for the entire round.

For these battles, the first player to post will post all three pokémon that they will be using, as well as which one will start in the active position. The second will then do the same, as well as issuing commands, and the battle will proceed as normal from there.

Click to expand...

Arena status: A portion of the ice was ripped out and sculpted into snow Sableyes.


There was a distinctive determination in Mai's words as the commands were issued, for the third round of the third round (of the 2011 Tournament).

Dia was having plenty of fun with the snowmen, but understood that he wasn't exactly in prime condition and swapped out eagerly, tagging in the fragant black-and-blue flying insect in waiting. The sudden call to battle took a while to sink, and she wasn't exactly graceful as she hurried to the battlefront. Luckily for her, the opponent's welcoming attack was a long shot. That just meant she had to stay away from the ground, specifically where that weird green powder landed.

Undaunted by the loss of the element of surprise, Lesovik pressed ownards with the hilarious taunt that he didn't get to hit the other opponent with. It suffices to say that it blew up on his face. The Silver Wind attack that was used in response to the Sleep Powder, that is.

Even when the pollenic threat was all eliminated, Kaleidoscope continued to flap her wings at wind-generating speeds, providing an additional surge of Bug-type energy to keep the airborne powers flowing in. The move's target felt said powers quite strongly, as an ill elemental match for anything aerial (although wind alone tends to aid his species).

Disappointed that he didn't get to work up some mean mischief, the Cottonee again settled back and tried to cut losses, namely by preparing for the next round with a veil of energy that would keep him safe from nasty status moves. Like the ones he was trying to use.

As she felt the great discomfort of fighting in the shivering cold -- which was only so much worse than just standing in it -- the Illumise reached for the item which she'd been holding, but left on the ground as she hurried for the fray. Just before the end of round, she made a pit stop to grab a series of assorted, tiny pieces of food from the Leftovers bag, supposing that it would help her endure the temperature.


Arena status: A portion of the ice was ripped out and sculpted into snow Sableyes.

Additional notes:
- I gave the first Sleep Powder an accuracy roll with reduced sucess chances. It failed miserably. The second Sleep Powder was repelled by Silver Wind, and failed to impact Lesovik while being blown back.
- Incidentally, I'm not sure to what extent I get to apply this sort of biological babble on Pokémon, but "breath holding" should probably not work with insects, as they have airholes all over their bodies. By the same token, interestingly, they never feel fatigue.
- Mai attacks first next round.

Fucking insect biology, how does that work?!

Out of random curiousity, what was the reduced accuracy of the sleep powders? And what was the chance of it impacting Lesovik?