a) O RLY? Then tell me how much strategy you need to body slam a pokemon then flinch it to death
Also, you do have to be very smart to try the 100% accuracy sleep move, dont you.
Paraflinch Jirachi is a lot more complex to use effectively than you are making it out to be. Might as well face it, it's a set based on hax, and that means that using such a Jirachi set is going to be a gamble. You've got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. You might often find yourself in a position where you just can't get the paralysis you're looking for with Body Slam (I swear, it has a 5% paralysis rate when I use it). So do you use Iron Head and hope for a flinch or two, or do you keep trying for paralysis? Heck, I've often found myself in situations where I might be a couple of Iron Heads away from beating, say, a Reuniclus, but they're just one shot away from killing me. Do I go with Iron Head and pray for a flinch? Or do I stall for Leftovers recovery with Protect and risk Reuniclus using Recover? Maybe I could go for Wish, but what if it breaks through paralysis and hits me with Focus Blast?
Since you mention it, there are very few Pokemon sets that are actually going to take a large amount of thinking and prediction to pull off by themselves. Heck, anyone with a basic knowledge of Pokemon could pull off some individual sets just fine. You might have something like Jirachi, which literally spreads status, attacks a few times, and heals when it needs to. Setup sweepers can just force a switch, set up on it, and then attack with whatever is most effective until its forced out or killed. Mixed or 4 Attacks sweepers may have one of their attacks absorbed by a Pokemon (i.e. Skarm switches into MixMence's Earthquake), but then they can just follow up with another effective attack and finish it off (i.e. MixMence kills of Skarm with Fire Blast). In fact, the only kind of sets that really require a decent amount of thinking, planning, and prediction the majority of the time by themselves is Choice sets, since you have to pick one move to be trapped into and deal with it.
The difference is that in competitive Pokemon, team synergy is the key. You are only going to be able to see a full strategy when you take the entire team into account. Any fool can take a Jellicent and spam Will-O-Wisps and Scalds, Recovering when its HP gets low. But it takes a skilled and keen player to predict when the opponent might send in a counter and what decision to make to handle the opponent's next move. You mentioned a chess game, and I think it's a good analogy. You might see someone moving their queen around and think that they aren't using as much strategy as a piece like the knight, which is much more restricted and specific in its moves. However, you are never going to see the strategy until you look at the full board and how the player sets up their entire set of pieces. Chess games are very rarely won with only one piece, and it takes at least two to get checkmate 99% of the time.
As far as throwing around Spore, you see that on more than just Sub Breloom, but even then you have to predict well. You only get one shot with Spore, so what happens if you put the wrong thing to sleep? Experienced players know how to designate "sleep fodder," which will allow them to take the sleep with a Pokemon that they may not really need to beat the opponent's team. It's hardly a brainless operation.
b) Well, i think i made it clear from the start that it is my opinion, and every persons opinion is obviously 100% subjective. So, personally, id rather let the opponent sweep me with his reuniclus than hax him to death. He deserves to beat me anyway if its come to that point.
Also, since it does take strategy to win, explain to me the exact strategic thoughts you make in order to ParaFlich the opponents reuniclus. They must be really complicated.
Pretty simple, actually. Hit Reuniclus with Body Slam until it's paralyzed, Iron Head to flinch as much as possible until it's dead, and Wish + Protect when your HP gets low. The thing is, how exactly is Reuniclus's agenda any more strategic? Throw up Calm Minds until you think you've got enough, spam Focus Blast/Shadow Ball until Jirachi dies, and Recover when your HP gets low.
c) Yeeeeah. Being obsessed with being creative and not wanting to use auto-plays are different things arent they. I believe that anyone smarter than an ape can figure that out. I really think you are smarter than an ape, as i dont believe any ape could type a sentence on a keyboard. So, if you just wanna go on with your straw man arguments, you can just go ahead, but you know perfectly well what i mean.
Hmm, not so much a straw man argument as a combination of satire and hyperbole. I was simply addressing your own comment about people using whatever sets as "obsessed with winning," which is nothing more than a question begging epithet and a broad generalization. Many players use things like specially defensive Jirachi (i.e. paraflinch), Terrakion, Breloom with Sub, and SubProtect Gliscor, and there are a good few others that utilize things like Perish Song, Sableye, and CM Slowbro. They are viable sets for the most part, and they all have specific roles and niches that are useful to take advantage of. However, very, very few of those people that use those sets are just obsessed with winning. I have used almost everything you named on that list, and I hardly even take competitive laddering seriously anymore. Not to mention that some of those things you mentioned are hardly easy to use in OU and require a person with a good amount of skill and experience to use effectively.
It's funny you mentioned an ape typing on a keyboard, because when you say "auto-play," you're implying a Pokemon set that could be used to succeed in battle even if the player were an ape randomly hitting buttons. There are no auto-plays in competitive Pokemon. Period. There is no such thing as a Pokemon set that can be used to guarantee success with no thought, just random button pressing. You might think of paraflinch Jirachi as nothing more than a set with a simple checklist that a player follows to succeed, but, as I've already demonstrated, most other sets can be classified the same way. Again, one competitive Pokemon set is hardly going to be more strategic than another; you have to take into account the entire team before the real extent of the strategy can be shown.
