Bad Luck You've Had So Far

Cretacerus

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Seeing as how there has been some policy discussion on the combination of No Guard and confusion inducing moves lately, I thought I'd throw in a recent experience I had with it in the OU environment (Random Battle). Even though it isn't my own bad luck in this case, the replay illustrates quite nicely how this seemingly strategic game will often come down to random coinflips, and how even the best plays and team-match-up can't save you from the almighty RNG:

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This replay features my first use of the terror known as Mega Pidgeot, which singlehandedly proceeded to hax its way through the opposing team, much to my opponent's dismay. Despite making all the right plays, he wasn't able to get a single hit off against the bird once it got into play safely. After losing four of his Pokemon to confusion and critical hits, he threw the game for understandable reasons.

Pidgeot used Hurricane!
The opposing Spiritomb lost 52.2% of its health!
The opposing Spiritomb became confused!
The opposing Spiritomb is confused!
It hurt itself in its confusion!


Pidgeot used Roost!
Pidgeot restored its HP.
The opposing Spiritomb is confused!
It hurt itself in its confusion!


Pidgeot used Hurricane!
The opposing Charizard lost 45.6% of its health!
The opposing Charizard became confused!
The opposing Charizard is confused!
It hurt itself in its confusion!

The opposing Charizard fainted!

Pidgeot used Hurricane!
The opposing Vanilluxe lost 44.1% of its health!
The opposing Vanilluxe became confused!
The opposing Vanilluxe is confused!
It hurt itself in its confusion!

The opposing Vanilluxe fainted!

Pidgeot used Hurricane!
A critical hit! The opposing Castform lost 87.3% of its health!
The opposing Castform became confused!
The opposing Castform is confused!
It hurt itself in its confusion!

-------------------------------

Anyway, there have already been several opinions in this thread stating that the absence of secondary effects can be counted as hax as well, and I generally agree with that sentiment (even though it was admittedly the choice of those users to take the gamble, making it somewhat less aggravating). Getting hit consistently after using Double Team, and not getting flinches with Serene Grace Air Slashes have already been mentioned as examples on the previous pages.

However, the following replay has to be one of the most amazing and miraculous thing's I've ever seen on Pokemon Showdown, and actually happened to a friend not too long ago:

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Even though it can be fairly unreliable as seen in this replay, the move Scald is commonly used as a deterrent for physical attackers, and in most cases it fulfills that role rather well. Avoiding the Scald burn more than one time is already going against the odds, and can be considered as bad luck on the opponents part. The chances of avoiding a Scald burn for 24(!) turns as seen in this replay are extremely small, at under 0.02%. To put this into perspective, the opponent was twice as likely to find a shiny Pokemon on a random encounter than to not get a Scald burn after all those turns!
 
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Even though it can be fairly unreliable as seen in this replay, the move Scald is commonly used as a deterrent for physical attackers, and in most cases it fulfills that role rather well. Avoiding the Scald burn more than one time is already going against the odds, and can be considered as bad luck on the opponents part. The chances of avoiding a Scald burn for 24(!) turns as seen in this replay are extremely small, at under 0.2%. To put this into perspective, the opponent was twice as likely to find a shiny Pokemon on a random encounter than to not get a Scald burn after all those turns!
Technically 23 turns, because one of those Scalds was a KO on Mamoswine.

But still... he got three critical hits and not a single burn in the first 22 attempts...

That being said, it's the classic Scald case - if you fish for a burn, you will not get one. And in this case, both were fishing for a burn...
 
I just got trolled hard by Heatran in OR.
Caught the blasted thing in a premier ball, which is always good.
Check the nature: Bold, which is what I'm looking for.
Take it to the IV checker.
Perfect HP, Sp Atk, and Speed.
AND THEN:
"But this Defense Stat, it's terrible..."
 
A while ago I was battling a friend of mine to help distract him from having finished finals week. It was fairly casual, with him using his ingame team from Y and me using something I threw together to counter it. His last Pokemon was Slowbro, and I was sweeping with a bulky SD Talonflame. I had gotten Stealth Rocks, a layer of Spikes, and a Swords Dance up with Slowbro at 75%, so I was fairly confident I could finish things without too much trouble.

... Only RNGesus laughed at me again and made Slowbro survive with 1 HP, letting it Surf Talonflame for a KO.

He wanted me to hold onto his Pokemon afterwards since he was selling his games (not because of the battle, mind you), so I looked at Slowbro's stats and got the following calc:

+2 252+ Atk (31 IV) Talonflame Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP (29 IV) / 0 Def (26 IV) Slowbro: 142-168 (70.6 - 83.5%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and 1 layer of Spikes [Damage roll: (142, 144, 145, 147, 148, 150, 151, 154, 156, 157, 159, 160, 162, 163, 165, 168)]

Honestly, I was a little impressed. Though, for the want of a .91 multiplier...
 
Notice how I've been absent for the last week? Well, that is because my corrupt hard drive finally went kaput, and I've been mostly cut off from the Internet for as long!

This, much to my chagrin, means that I'm only seeing the latest Sun and Moon news now, and I'm unable to leave any comments in the relevant thread, due to certain dum dums (you know who you are!) being unable to help themselves!

I can't believe it took a week (probably less) for it to get locked up!
 

Codraroll

Cod Mod
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Notice how I've been absent for the last week? Well, that is because my corrupt hard drive finally went kaput, and I've been mostly cut off from the Internet for as long!

This, much to my chagrin, means that I'm only seeing the latest Sun and Moon news now, and I'm unable to leave any comments in the relevant thread, due to certain dum dums (you know who you are!) being unable to help themselves!

I can't believe it took a week (probably less) for it to get locked up!
If it is any comfort, we'll open it again in a couple of days, in anticipation of CoroCoro news. You can use the mean time to write up the best post ever.
 
If it is any comfort, we'll open it again in a couple of days, in anticipation of CoroCoro news. You can use the mean time to write up the best post ever.
Hopefully, I'll be caught up on reading everything I missed before then.
 
It's not really bad luck but... When I was 14 I put my Diamond cart into my pocket...
I forgot that I had chocolate in the same pocket...

You can guess what happened...

8 months later...My game froze when it was saving...

500 hours lost... Mystery Mew, 10th Anniversary Lugia and my Emerald Pokemon....

It still makes me sad to this very day...
 
Here's yet another terrible bit of battling luck. (Randbats, for reference.)


The opposing Slowbro-Mega's Slowbronite is reacting to ezequielcs92's Mega Bracelet!
The opposing Slowbro-Mega has Mega Evolved into Mega Slowbro!

Mantine used Air Slash!
The opposing Slowbro-Mega avoided the attack!

The opposing Slowbro-Mega used Ice Beam!
Mantine lost 20.2% of its health!
Mantine was frozen solid!
 
At the start of the year i encountered my very first shiny pokemon in X/Y: A... Male Combee. :/
The worst part is that i was playing in someone else's 3DS, and as i don't have a 3DS, the shiny male Combee was lost forever like a week after that.
 
I will never let down the day I saw a wild shiny Hariyama in the Victory Road in Emerald and it used Whirlwind. Keep in mind back then Whirlwind wasn´t blocked if your own pokémon was a higher level.
 
i once played firered on a emulator. Id decided that i wanted to get a tauros so i went to the safari. After searching in the right place for almost an hour, Ive found 4 kangaskhan, a couple of scyther but no Tauros. What made it even more annoying is that I ran into a Chansey, which is known for having a microscopic chance of appearing, TWICE!
 
This happened in the battle maison in Y (doubles):

I had a team of Blissey, Volcarona, Garchomp and Skarmory.

Turn 1:
Volcarona misses heat wave on both of their pokemon.
Blissey misses toxic.
Turn 2:
Volcarona misses again.
So does Blissey.
Turn 3:
Volcarona faints.
Blissey misses toxic again.
Turn 4:
I send out Skarmory.
Blissey gets frozen.
Skarmory gets frozen.
Turn 5:
Blissey faints.
Skarmory frozen still.
Turn 6:
Sent out Garchomp.
Garchomp hit both with earthquake
Garchomp gets frozen.
Skarmory thaws out and roosts.Turn 7:
Garchomp faints.
Skarmory gets frozen.
and then they proceed to kill Skarmory.

I get this luck all the time in the Battle Maison, I swear it cheats or everything I come against has bright powder, the odds on this happening is ridiculous.
This is by far the worst luck I've ever had and probably will ever have, I'm just lucky I went for earthquake on Garchomp knowing me I would have missed both rock slides if I used it.
 
>Switches Lv 50 Emboar in on a Lv 42 Delcatty
>Delcatty used Attract
>??????
>Lose

Stuff like this happens to me ingame ALL THE TIME.
Pokemon is such a wonderful game ^^
 

CTNC

Doesn't know how to attack
Guess who just got Shiny Charmeleon? Guess where I got it! Not the XY Friend Safari, I wouldn't be posting here if it was there. It was in Emerald's Battle Factory ;-;
(To add insult to injury, I was sweeping my first opponent until their last Pokemon swept me.)
 
My level 25 Ivysaur with 72HP got beaten by a level 21 Poliwag that it could easily KO and could do at most 2HP damage to it. I used two Super Potions and still lost. How did this happen, you ask? Because this is gen 1. Enemy trainers have infinite PP and waking up takes a turn. So it outsped me, used Hypnosis, and kept me stunlocked for over 150 turns while plinking me to death. I could do nothing but watch helplessly.
 
I have played pokemon for almost 20 years and i have had my share of bad luck at times. I have been frozen for 20 turns in a row, paralyzed for 6 turns in a row and have been critted like 4 times in a row.
 

Sylveon.

Penny saved is still a fucking penny
Okay, this happenned to me today. In a UU battle, I had almost beaten stall, my conkelldurr with about 94% of his health was against a blissey. I was teasing my opponent who happenned to be a friend that I might still lose forgetting how awesome a luck I have.
Here is how it went :
Turn 1 : Blissey uses thunder-wave.
Conkeldurr is paralyzed, it can't move.
Turn 2 : Blissey uses wish(he had given up by then)
Conkeldurr is paralyzed, it can't move.
Turn 3 : Blissey uses seismic toss.
Conkeldurr is paralyzed, it can't move.
Turn 4 : Blissey uses seismic toss.
Conkeldurr is paralyzed, it can't move.
Turn 5 : Blissey uses seismic toss
Conkeldurr uses bulk up(fucking misclick)
Turn 6 : Blissey uses seismic toss.
Conkeldurr has fainted.
GG huh!

Similarly, once I lost in what was my last 1v1 match as mega-mawile vs scarfty.
Yeah you guessed it right I was Mega-Mawile.
Missed 3 play roughs against a AV scrafty and used iron head on the 4th but after that it crits me with drain punch to secure a deserving win :).
 

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