User blog comment:Cfp3157/Pokémon Tournament: Marshal D. Fitzgerald vs. Ken Fukusaki/@comment-422690-20141218234452

Round 1: Ulysses v Killer Croc

Marshall: Ken:

Killer Croc has one super effective move and one ½x resisted, while Ulysses has one ½x resist and no super effectives. Ulysses has several defensive moves and Leftovers for a passive heal, but Killer Croc has a Scope Lens, increasing his crit chance. Overall, Killer Croc has just enough damage to tear Ulysses to shreds, despite its tanky nature.

Round 2: Carnegie v Fists o’ Fury

Marshall: Ken:

Carnegie has two super effective moves, while Fists o’ Fury has two ½x resisted moves. While Fists’ muscle band will up his power, Carnegie has too much defense and the passive heal from leftovers to be damaged too much. This is a very easy win for Carnegie.

Round 3: Merlin v Elefun

Marshall: Ken:

Elefun has no modifiers to his attack moves, while Merlin has one super effective attack and one that won’t hit. What really swings this in Merlin’s favor, though, is his mega evolution; the stat boost will really put the hurt on Elefun. As a side note, I question the wisdom of giving a Pokémon Sand Veil and not having it learn a move to cause Sandstorm.

Round 4: Gatsby v LitLeolab

Marshall: Ken:

Gatsby has one super effective move and two ½x resisted. Protean makes calculating LitLeolab’s move modifiers a pain. Gatsby, however, has an Expert Belt, which powers up super effective moves. This would give him a clear win if not for two things: LitLeolab can do a Sunny Day/Solar Beam spam combo which Gatsby is weak to if spamming Waterfall, and the power of water-type moves is reduced when Intense Sunlight is active. All of this means that LitLeolab should actually pull off a win here, though it’ll be quite injured.

Round 5: Kaiser v Phantom

Marshall: Ken:

Kaiser has no modifiers for his moves, while Phantom has two ½x resisted moves. Kaiser’s ability and item are useless here, since none of Phantom’s moves make contact. Phantom’s ability, Poison Point, does come into play, since most of Kaiser’s moves make contact. I think that Phantom’s Leech Seed will heal her enough to win the war of attrition against Kaiser, despite the initial disadvantage from Stealth Rock and Spikes.

Round 6: Mattilda v Art

Marshall: Ken:

Mattilda has one ½x resisted move, while Art has one move that won’t hit, leaving him using Fly as his only offensive attack. Art ultimately loses this one thanks to both that and Rest, which is a terrible, awful move that should never be used. He’s leaving himself wide open for four (!) turns (turn used Rest on, three turns afterwards), during which Mattilda will recover a quarter of her HP from leftovers while still laying down the pain.

Round 7: Carnegie v Killer Croc

Marshall: Ken:

Carnegie has one super effective move, while Croc has three ½x resisted and two super effective moves. Carnegie – as with the rest of Marshall’s team – is a strong mitigation tank with that passive heal from Leftovers so common in the tourney. Croc is a straight bruiser, bolstered with the Scope Lens to increase his crit chance for massive burst damage. In other words, Killer Croc is exactly the type of enemy that Carnegie is weak against. Croc should win this without too much trouble, despite not being in top form thanks to that battle with Ulysses earlier and the Spikes/Stealth Rock combo.

Round 8: Merlin v LitLeolab

Marshall: Ken:

Merlin has two ½x resisted moves and one that won’t hit, while LitLeolab has no modifiers to his attacks. Both are coming off of hard-fought victories, and so are equally weak. Merlin’s ability won’t come into play here, and Lit has an attack boost from Moxie. Personally, I think Lit will ultimately end up winning here, but he’s going to be very near death afterwards.

Round 9: Mattilda v Phantom

Marshall: Ken:

Mattilda has one ½x resisted move and one super effective, while Phantom has two ½x resisted and one super effective attack. Matilda’s attacks don’t make contact, so Poison Point can be ignored. All in all, with the passive heal from Leftovers, the active heal from Roost, her super effective attack, and the status boosting nature of Nasty Plot should carry this for Mattilda.

Round 10: Mattilda v Killer Croc

Marshall: Ken:

Killer Croc is Ken’s last line of defense, as LitLeolab is so weak at this point that he’ll likely fall to the entry hazards. Croc has one super effective move, one ½x resisted, and one that won’t hit, while Mattilda has no modifiers to her moves. Croc is weak, yes, but he can hit very hard and has a very high crit chance, letting him do enough burst damage to beat Mattilda down before she can completely cut him down, though it will be a very, very close match.

Final Count

Marshall: Ken:

Ken Fukusaki wins.