003 A battle against Aroma_Of_Cat

This is one of my favourite battles, if not THE favourite battle of all since the 4th generation of Pokemon.  It contains one of my favourite remixes, and I also got to battle with Aroma_Of_Cat, who a lot of us on T-Flare refer to as Dale.  After accomplishing many feats and gaining accolades on T-Flare, Aroma_Of_Cat has left to pursue other interests.  At the time of this battle, though, he was considered one of the better battlers around, so I was pleased to battle him.

If you're wondering why this battle has the online icon in the upper right corner, it's because I uploaded this video to the GTS so that I could battle my next opponent right away without having to wait about ten or more minutes setting up the camera and playing back the battle, although I wonder why I didn't bother to just save the video again from GTS afterward so that I could view it offline.

When we began the battle with the same lead, I wasn't sure which of us had a faster Metagross, so I opted to use Stealth Rock instead of Earthquake, in case I wouldn't be able to survive two attacks.  It was important for me to think for the long term of the battle, and besides, if it was a lead Metagross, the moveset would likely be the same as mine, which meant that my Gyarados or Salamence should be able to handle the Metagross should my Metagross fall to a critical hit.  Dale's Metagross used Earthquake as its opening move to deal some damage.  I can only guess that Dale wanted to inflict some damage and make me think about switching out so that he could set up Stealth Rock next turn without having to worry about getting damaged.

Since my Metagross had taken slightly more than 50% damage, I was actually contemplating switching out, but I stayed in, as switching out would have been a more predictable move.  I was thinking that Dale's Metagross would be using Stealth Rock or Bullet Punch on the predicted switch in, so I stayed in and used Earthquake with the assumption that I was generally faster, and not because of a speed tie.  Come to think of it, I actually gave my lead Metagross eight extra speed EVs, and took them out of Attack for the purpose of outspeeding other lead Metagross, especially those whose trainers think to put in four extra speed EVs.

So on turn one, I used Stealth Rock and he used Earthquake, and on turn two, I used Earthquake and he used Stealth Rock.  It's almost like we're testing out the waters or something here.  My Earthquake appeared to inflict more damage to his Metagross, and I had a feeling Dale would be switching out, given the speed difference and the likelihood that the next Earthquake would cause the lead to faint.  I took a gamble and went for Bullet Punch, thinking he would switch in a Pokemon immune to Earthquake.  I was hoping it wouldn't be Gyarados.

When the Gengar appeared, I knew I made the right decision.  However, after Gengar would survive the Bullet Punch, I would wonder what my next move would be.  I mean, it would be obvious that I would Bullet Punch again, meaning he'd probably switch into something else.  However, this was not the case, as I got the critical hit, easing my worry a little.

His next Pokemon was Heatran.  It seemed a little too obvious that he would be using Flamethrower or Fire Blast, and although this thought has cost me Scizor in too many battles in the future, I thought to stay in and at least see if it was a Leftovers, Life Orb, or a Choice Scarfed variant (at the time, Passho and Shuca Heatran were not popular).   I was also hoping that if it was a Choice Scarfed Heatran, it would have Fire Blast, and it would miss.  A poor way of thinking, but it made sense at the time.  I figured if it missed, I could nail it with Earthquake and take down another threat.

Once my Metagross fainted, I brought in my Choice Scarf Latias.  Knowing that Latias has Surf, it made sense that Dale would switch out.  I knew that Dale knew that Latias had Surf, so I was predicting he would bring in a Water-type, which lead to my decision to use Thunderbolt.  However, Dale brought in his own Latias, proving that Latias may not be one of a kind.  It would be expected that I would switch out, but I wanted to get the 10% chance of paralysis on Latias. 

I actually lucked out when he decided to use Trick to trick away his Choice Scarf for my Choice Scarf.  It basically meant that he would have to switch out on the next turn, unless he anticipated that I would switch as well, giving him another chance to Trick the Choice Scarf onto someone else.  And yes, somehow I got the paralysis to set in on Latias.

He switched into Blissey to take the Thunderbolt.  I wasn't too concerned, because I could have switched to any of the other four Pokemon on my team, as they were all capable of dealing heavy physical damage.  I chose to go with Lucario because of its Fighting-type.  Of course, Dale did see this coming and decided to lower Lucario's attack upon the switch in.  After that, he brought in his Scizor, probably expecting me to switch out as well, or to avoid getting hit with a -2 STAB Close Combat which would have still dealt more than 50% when factoring in Leftovers recovery.

Instead of Attacking, though, I decided to use Swords Dance.  I guess I figured that if I was going to lose a turn to return the attacking stat to normal, I might as well keep the Pokemon I've already got out to avoid inflicting more Stealth Rock damage than necessary.  I used Closed Combat on Scizor, not expecting to KO it, but apparently Dale's Scizor was not fully trained in HP or Defense.

When he brought out his Heatran, I was wondering what he had planned.  It was not faster than Lucario, and would stand no chance against Close Combat.  I already knew it had Substitute from its earlier encounter with my Metagross, so it was definitely not Scarfed.  I spent a while thinking that the Heatran was a lure.  He probably would be switching out again to something that resists Fighting attacks to lower my defenses through the side effect of Close Combat, and reduce my HP slightly through the effect of Life Orb.  I decided to Close Combat anyway, and the Heatran fainted.

He brought out his paralyzed Latias again.  I decided to use Extremespeed because I was unsure if I could outspeed it, given that it was equipped with a Choice Scarf.  I later found out I did outspeed it, and I could have used Crunch (this version of the Lucario did not have Bullet Punch) for super effective damage, meaning that the Latias would have fainted.  Instead, I lost Lucario.

I brought out my Latias again, thinking that Dale wouldn't switch out knowing that Stealth Rock was in play and Latias would faint at the next entry, but I forgot to take into account that if he never brings out his Latias again, he could still win the match if somehow the last clash would somehow end in both Pokemon fainting at the same time, such as through Life Orb damage or Explosion, leaving him with a Latias in the wings which never has to be sent out once the victory has been declared.

He switches out into Blissey again, and my Latias' STAB Dragon Pulse doesn't leave much of mark, especially after the Leftovers recovery.  It was the most powerful move I had on Latias, and I didn't want to bring out another Pokemon to get Charmed, so I just stuck with Dragon Pulse.  I also wanted to see what attacking options the Blissey had, so that I could bring in the correct Pokemon.  If it was Flamethrower, I'd bring in Gyarados.  If Ice Beam was used, Scizor would be my selection.  If it was Thunderbolt or Charge Beam, it wouldn't matter if Salamence or Scizor was switched in as they both took neutral damage.

Seismic Toss was used, which made it very easy for me to calculate how many hits my Pokemon could take before it fainted.  At the time, my Gyarados had the most HP, so it was my choice.  Sure, my Scizor had 343 HP, and wouldn't have had to lose 25% of its HP for Stealth Rock, but it was equipped with a Life Orb, not Leftovers.

After a few Seismic Tosses, Dale decided to switch out.  I guess he wanted the Blissey to have access to Softboiled again after being Taunted, so he switched into his Latias.  I guess he was expecting that I would use Waterfall to damage Blissey, but in any case, Latias fainted from Stealth Rock damage and I was able to pull off a Dragon Dance, which meant that my turn was not wasted on attacking a non-existent target and I was able to gain momentum.

And the rest is history.

I was glad I could edit the music so that it would end at the right time without a fade out, making this one of the few videos that I have that could support that claim.  True, there was a little click somewhere in there, but I didn't hear it when I was editing.

After the battle, Dale jokingly said that he didn't want to catch me inside his head again.  I probably wouldn't be doing this well all the time, so like I said, this is one of my favourite battles.

The score on this battle was 4-0, and I didn't even bring out Salamence or Scizor, which was a lot better than I expected and helped boost my confidence in my battling prowess.

Would my ego be crushed in the next battle?  If you've seen the next battle, you already know the answer, but I guess I can write about that for next time.  Extend our reach to the stars above!