i have lost a lot of randbats over the last few months. you name a pokemon, i've probably lost to it. however, there are five pokemon in particular that stand out to me as near-autowins for whoever gets them. spoiler alert: it usually isn't me who gets them. so here they are.
5. dustox
i think i beat an RU room mod a while ago with a dustox team and i have humbled many geomancy xerneas in ubers with whirlwind max sp.def dustox, so i'm already aware of how strong a pokemon it can be. so it follows that dustox also happens to be strong in randbats. once i almost got 6-0ed by a dustox because it took 30% or something at best from my pokemon's attacks and got to +6. the only reason i say i almost got 6-0ed by a dustox is that i had already removed a pokemon from the opposing team before it entered the battle. otherwise, if i hadn't done that beforehand, i would have actually gotten 6-0ed by a dustox. point is that iron defence + quiver dance dustox is just too strong. sometimes. but that's enough to make it here.
4. shuckle
i recently faced a shuckle with a lum berry regular salamence. i got to +2, got toxiced after my second boost, then clicked earthquake. now, if we factor out the glaringly obvious point that i may have forgotten that earthquake doesn't hit shuckle super effectively, imagine my shock when i saw that +2 earthquake did about 24%. so then i clicked outrage. but this shuckle had protect. the outcome was that i got to hit one outrage while my salamence got toxic stalled. then to add insult to injury my salamence hit itself in its confusion when outrage ended and removed the last 4% of its health with a self-inflicted wound while the shuckle on the other side just sat there looking at me. as if to say, "what"? i'll tell you what shuckle. you're broken. which is why you're on this list.
3. xerneas
see, xerneas wouldn't be on this list if i ever rolled xerneas on my teams. it would be a lot less broken in my eyes if i ever had the opportunity to use it. but i don't. i NEVER get xerneas. at least, i can't remember the last time i got xerneas, and i have incredible recall of the last five minutes. instead, i'm always the one that loses to it. so i think this makes xerneas pretty broken.
2. unown
ever seen a choice specs unown OHKO a venomoth? i have. that just shouldn't happen. and it was an unown-p, of all things. i thought the p stood for 'pathetic' but it actually stands for 'powerful'. i know, news to me as well.
1. noctowl
here we are: hands-down the most broken pokemon in randbats. every time i see this on my screen and hear its cry as it is sent out, my heart sinks and i type 'oh fuck' or something to that effect in the battle chat. and why wouldn't i? i don't think i've OHKOed many noctowl. it's so bulky. and it's also pretty fast in the world of randbats. so there are plenty of opportunities for noctowl to decide i won't be clicking an attack today. "<pokemon> flinched and couldn't move!" yep, that's the noctowl-is-on-the-other-side-of-the-field-and-my-fate-is-sealed experience. if that wasn't enough, noctowl also gets reliable recovery, a phazing move, and hypnosis. now, it generally doesn't run all of those and air slash at the same time. i think. much like with xerneas i never actually get noctowl so i wouldn't be able to tell you. unlike xerneas, when i do it suddenly becomes bottom 5 broken pokemon in randbats. but that's neither here nor there. sorry for going off on a tangent. back to what i was actually trying to say, noctowl always seems to have the perfect set to totally counterteam me. i struggle to sleep at night sometimes knowing that somewhere out there in my future, noctowl is going to surprise me in a randbat. i guess that's why noctowl's ability is insomnia, because that's what facing it in randbats gives you.
5. dustox
i think i beat an RU room mod a while ago with a dustox team and i have humbled many geomancy xerneas in ubers with whirlwind max sp.def dustox, so i'm already aware of how strong a pokemon it can be. so it follows that dustox also happens to be strong in randbats. once i almost got 6-0ed by a dustox because it took 30% or something at best from my pokemon's attacks and got to +6. the only reason i say i almost got 6-0ed by a dustox is that i had already removed a pokemon from the opposing team before it entered the battle. otherwise, if i hadn't done that beforehand, i would have actually gotten 6-0ed by a dustox. point is that iron defence + quiver dance dustox is just too strong. sometimes. but that's enough to make it here.
4. shuckle
i recently faced a shuckle with a lum berry regular salamence. i got to +2, got toxiced after my second boost, then clicked earthquake. now, if we factor out the glaringly obvious point that i may have forgotten that earthquake doesn't hit shuckle super effectively, imagine my shock when i saw that +2 earthquake did about 24%. so then i clicked outrage. but this shuckle had protect. the outcome was that i got to hit one outrage while my salamence got toxic stalled. then to add insult to injury my salamence hit itself in its confusion when outrage ended and removed the last 4% of its health with a self-inflicted wound while the shuckle on the other side just sat there looking at me. as if to say, "what"? i'll tell you what shuckle. you're broken. which is why you're on this list.
3. xerneas
see, xerneas wouldn't be on this list if i ever rolled xerneas on my teams. it would be a lot less broken in my eyes if i ever had the opportunity to use it. but i don't. i NEVER get xerneas. at least, i can't remember the last time i got xerneas, and i have incredible recall of the last five minutes. instead, i'm always the one that loses to it. so i think this makes xerneas pretty broken.
2. unown
ever seen a choice specs unown OHKO a venomoth? i have. that just shouldn't happen. and it was an unown-p, of all things. i thought the p stood for 'pathetic' but it actually stands for 'powerful'. i know, news to me as well.
1. noctowl
here we are: hands-down the most broken pokemon in randbats. every time i see this on my screen and hear its cry as it is sent out, my heart sinks and i type 'oh fuck' or something to that effect in the battle chat. and why wouldn't i? i don't think i've OHKOed many noctowl. it's so bulky. and it's also pretty fast in the world of randbats. so there are plenty of opportunities for noctowl to decide i won't be clicking an attack today. "<pokemon> flinched and couldn't move!" yep, that's the noctowl-is-on-the-other-side-of-the-field-and-my-fate-is-sealed experience. if that wasn't enough, noctowl also gets reliable recovery, a phazing move, and hypnosis. now, it generally doesn't run all of those and air slash at the same time. i think. much like with xerneas i never actually get noctowl so i wouldn't be able to tell you. unlike xerneas, when i do it suddenly becomes bottom 5 broken pokemon in randbats. but that's neither here nor there. sorry for going off on a tangent. back to what i was actually trying to say, noctowl always seems to have the perfect set to totally counterteam me. i struggle to sleep at night sometimes knowing that somewhere out there in my future, noctowl is going to surprise me in a randbat. i guess that's why noctowl's ability is insomnia, because that's what facing it in randbats gives you.
