The game that made me understand RBY's reputation

[Isa]

Instead of providing the log (which I'll do in a spoiler), I'll just make a description.

My Jynx against my opponents Gengar is the startup. He sleeps me.
I go Eggy as he goes Snorlax. I miss SPowder, he paraslams me, I miss SPowder again and he finishes me with BSlam+HBeam.
I go Lax, he paraslams me and I FP T2, so I am forced to boom T3, which on the other hand is a CH (although it'd still KO).
He goes Gengar and I go Starmie. I switch Chansey into his TBolt, but it takes a CH Explosion from Gar, which it'd have lived just barely otherwise.
I send in Jynx vs. his Exeggutor. I wake up the first thing I do and sleep him, then freeze his incoming Chansey with my first ice attack of the game.
He sends in Tauros on a Psychic and CH BSlams me, which otherwise wouldn't have killed me.
I send in Starmie. He blocks my TWave with Exeggutor and I miss the first Blizzard. The second connects but he wakes up. No worries though; the third Blizzard is a CH and kills his Eggy.
He goes Tauros. I TWave him and he gets a regular Body Slam. I miss a Blizzard and he CHslams me, killing my Starmie.
He dodges the upcoming Tauros ditto by saccing his frozen Chansey and going Golem. I actually connect two Blizzards, the second one being a CH, and his Body Slam does not paralyze me.
The final battle is a Tauros ditto where I have more HP than him and he is paralyzed, but he CHparaslams me. I win the speed tie on the final round but because I needed HBeam to kill him, I had to use that and I missed, whereas his Body Slam connected and killed me, giving him the 1-0 victory.

It was a horrible game, not because I lost but because almost nothing in that game came down to skill, only to RNG. I've never played anything like it because both of us had some horrible luck at times, previously I've only had similar games where one side completely outlucked the other.

Here's the log for the interested ones:

SPOILER: Click to show

Battle between Emix and Isa- started!

Tier: RBY OU
Mode: Singles
Rule: Unrated
Rule: Sleep Clause
Rule: Freeze Clause
Rule: Disallow Spects
Rule: Species Clause
Rule: Self-KO Clause

Emix sent out Gengar!
Isa- sent out Jynx!
Isa-: best of luck!
Emix: u2

Start of turn 1
The foe's Gengar used Hypnosis!
Jynx fell asleep!

Jynx is fast asleep.

Start of turn 2
Emix called Gengar back!
Emix sent out Snorlax!

Isa- called Jynx back!
Isa- sent out Exeggutor!

Start of turn 3
Exeggutor used Sleep Powder!
The attack of Exeggutor missed!

The foe's Snorlax used Body Slam!
Exeggutor lost 126 HP! (32% of its health)
Exeggutor is paralyzed! It may be unable to move!

Emix: sorry D:

Start of turn 4
The foe's Snorlax used Body Slam!
Exeggutor lost 128 HP! (32% of its health)

Exeggutor used Sleep Powder!
The attack of Exeggutor missed!

Start of turn 5
The foe's Snorlax used Hyper Beam!
Exeggutor lost 139 HP! (35% of its health)
Exeggutor fainted!
Isa-: :<
Isa- sent out Snorlax!
Emix: again :/

Start of turn 6
Snorlax used Body Slam!
The foe's Snorlax lost 28% of its health!

The foe's Snorlax used Body Slam!
Snorlax lost 140 HP! (26% of its health)
Snorlax is paralyzed! It may be unable to move!

Start of turn 7
The foe's Snorlax used Body Slam!
Snorlax lost 145 HP! (27% of its health)

Snorlax is paralyzed! It can't move!

Start of turn 8
The foe's Snorlax used Body Slam!
Snorlax lost 135 HP! (25% of its health)

Snorlax used Selfdestruct!
A critical hit!
The foe's Snorlax lost 71% of its health!
The foe's Snorlax fainted!
Snorlax fainted!
Isa-: lolCH
Emix sent out Gengar!
Isa- sent out Starmie!

Start of turn 9
Isa- called Starmie back!
Isa- sent out Chansey!

The foe's Gengar used Thunderbolt!
Chansey lost 79 HP! (11% of its health)

Start of turn 10
The foe's Gengar used Explosion!
A critical hit!
Chansey lost 624 HP! (88% of its health)
Chansey fainted!
The foe's Gengar fainted!
Emix: :/
Emix sent out Exeggutor!
Isa- sent out Jynx!

Start of turn 11
Jynx woke up!

The foe's Exeggutor used Mega Drain!
Jynx lost 57 HP! (17% of its health)
Jynx had its energy drained!

Isa-: there you go
Isa-: some luck

Start of turn 12
Jynx used Lovely Kiss!
The foe's Exeggutor fell asleep!

The foe's Exeggutor is fast asleep.

Start of turn 13
Emix called Exeggutor back!
Emix sent out Chansey!

Jynx used Blizzard!
The foe's Chansey lost 18% of its health!
The foe's Chansey was frozen solid!

Isa-: things turn around fast...

Start of turn 14
Jynx used Psychic!
The foe's Chansey lost 14% of its health!

The foe's Chansey is frozen solid!

Start of turn 15
Emix called Chansey back!
Emix sent out Tauros!

Jynx used Psychic!
The foe's Tauros lost 36% of its health!

Start of turn 16
The foe's Tauros used Body Slam!
A critical hit!
Jynx lost 276 HP! (82% of its health)
Jynx fainted!
Isa-: what's up with you and your CHs
Isa- sent out Starmie!
Emix: :/

Start of turn 17
Emix called Tauros back!
Emix sent out Exeggutor!

Starmie used Thunder Wave!
But it failed!

Start of turn 18
Starmie used Blizzard!
The foe's Exeggutor avoided the attack!

The foe's Exeggutor is fast asleep.

Start of turn 19
Starmie used Blizzard!
It's super effective!
The foe's Exeggutor lost 43% of its health!

The foe's Exeggutor woke up!

Start of turn 20
Starmie used Blizzard!
A critical hit!
It's super effective!
The foe's Exeggutor lost 56% of its health!
The foe's Exeggutor fainted!
Emix sent out Tauros!
Isa-: this battle is completely ridiculous
Emix: yes , sorry -_-
Isa-: you cannot control the RNG
Isa-: neither can I
Isa-: no need to apologize
Isa-: besides, overall the hax has been sort of even, given that I woke up early and got a T1 freeze

Start of turn 21
Starmie used Thunder Wave!
The foe's Tauros is paralyzed! It may be unable to move!

The foe's Tauros used Body Slam!
Starmie lost 111 HP! (34% of its health)

Start of turn 22
Starmie used Blizzard!
The foe's Tauros avoided the attack!

The foe's Tauros used Body Slam!
A critical hit!
Starmie lost 212 HP! (65% of its health)
Starmie fainted!
Emix: oh god
Isa- sent out Tauros!

Start of turn 23
Emix called Tauros back!
Emix sent out Chansey!

Tauros used Body Slam!
The foe's Chansey lost 40% of its health!

Start of turn 24
Tauros used Body Slam!
A critical hit!
The foe's Chansey lost 26% of its health!
The foe's Chansey fainted!
Emix sent out Golem!

Start of turn 25
Tauros used Blizzard!
It's super effective!
The foe's Golem lost 61% of its health!

The foe's Golem used Body Slam!
Tauros lost 79 HP! (22% of its health)

Isa-: so I have to hit another blizzard
Isa-: what do you think
Isa-: is my accuracy 90% or 50%?
Isa-:
Emix: lol

Start of turn 26
Tauros used Blizzard!
A critical hit!
It's super effective!
The foe's Golem lost 38% of its health!
The foe's Golem fainted!
Emix sent out Tauros!

Start of turn 27
Tauros used Body Slam!
The foe's Tauros lost 27% of its health!

The foe's Tauros used Body Slam!
A critical hit!
Tauros lost 205 HP! (58% of its health)
Tauros is paralyzed! It may be unable to move!

Isa-: !
Emix: now, gl
Emix: ahahahha

Start of turn 28
Tauros used Hyper Beam!
The attack of Tauros missed!

The foe's Tauros used Body Slam!
Tauros lost 69 HP! (19% of its health)
Tauros fainted!
Emix won the battle!
Emix: D:
Isa-: well
Isa-: that's game 1
Emix: ook
Emix: just a moment
Isa-: gg

[Agent Syrup]

This makes me wonder: How different would the game be without Critical Hits? More or less fun? More or equal strategy? Hmm....

[Dexter]

so why didnt he explode with golem? actually why did a lot of things happen. I dont understand rby, good game though

[Dre]

Jun 28, 2013 16:02:32 GMT -8 Agent Syrup said:

This makes me wonder: How different would the game be without Critical Hits? More or less fun? More or equal strategy? Hmm....

The game would be less dramatic, but more skill-based. General rule of thumb, the less RNG there is in the game, the more tactical and calculated it becomes. Which is why GSC and wrap RBY are less RNG-based than non-wrap RBY. The former is because there is less RNG, the latter is because most of the RNG is insignificant (a crit wrap is much less of a deal than a crit body slam). GSC is obviously less RNG-based than wrap RBY though.

The unfortunate reality is though, wrap or no wrap, the higher the level of play, the more RNG- based it becomes. This is because consistent prediction is basically impossible against good players when they have multiple options. That's why a lot of good non-wrappers like to stack ice on their teams, because getting freezes by spamming ice attacks is more about probability than prediction.

[magic9mushroom]

Yeah, that's some crazy luck on both sides there.

[Isa]

Jun 28, 2013 18:05:41 GMT -8 Dexter said:

so why didnt he explode with golem? actually why did a lot of things happen. I dont understand rby, good game though

I suppose because he didn't know that he was out of HBeam range on his own Tauros, and he can still be shafted by paralysis, whereas a paraslam into an Explosion is a guaranteed KO. Explosion from Golem can never OHKO Tauros without a CH.

[magic9mushroom]

Jun 29, 2013 2:09:22 GMT -8 Isa said:

can never OHKO Tauros without a CH.

I forget what the probability is for Lax's SD to OHKO?

[Isa]

Roughly 18%.

[magic9mushroom]

Jun 29, 2013 7:25:21 GMT -8 Isa said:

Roughly 18%.

Is that including or excluding crits?

[Isa]

Excluding.

[Crystal_]

Why does Dre have to bring Wrap in everytime lmao. It's like, he always somehow finds a relation between Wrap and whatever the topic of the thread is. I'm impressed.

Liked the battle btw, looks like it mustve been fun. Seems like he got luckier than you though. On the other hand, no 255s, so overall just a 'B'.

But you lost so A+

[Dre]

I probably bring it up too often, but it was relevant to what I was answering. Wrap is an example of meta that is more skill based (as in, the better player has a better chance of winning in wrap than in non-wrap) because a lot of the RNG is less significant. I was answering the question by saying that if you removed crits, non-wrap would play more similarly to wrap, in terms of number of turns and the switching strategies.

[cheese]

Jul 1, 2013 2:40:42 GMT -8 Dre said:

I probably bring it up too often, but it was relevant to what I was answering. Wrap is an example of meta that is more skill based (as in, the better player has a better chance of winning in wrap than in non-wrap) because a lot of the RNG is less significant.

That is debatable.
(However, that doesn't mean anything has to start debating it on this thread )

Seems like a pretty crazy game, but stranger things have happened.

[Dre]

I've been using my non-wrap team on PS (because wrap hasn't been implemented there yet) and it's been fun having faster-paced matches, but I still stand by my original sentiment. I feel that the majority of my non-wrap strategy is improvised depending on the situation, rather than having a 20-turn plan with numerous back-up alternatives.

Then again I'm using a more advanced non-wrap team so I could develop its strategy the more I play.