The Art of Bluffing

This was taken from an NU tournament final.

The situation is, he has a bulky SD Scyther, and I have a bulky SD Samurott, if my Samurott goes down he can sweep through the rest of my team.

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Start of turn 21
The foe's Scyther used Swords Dance!
The foe's Scyther's Attack sharply rose!

Samurott used Swords Dance!
Samurott's Attack sharply rose!

We both set up Swords Dances, at +2 we can still only 2HKO each other.

Start of turn 22
The foe's Scyther used Swords Dance!
The foe's Scyther's Attack sharply rose!

Samurott used Waterfall!
The foe's Scyther lost 60% of its health!

He decides to set up another SD whilst i waterfall, meaning he can OHKO Samurott and the rest of my team. If i decide to Aqua Jet here + he kills me, I will then be able to revenge kill next turn with Piloswine's Ice Shard. However if i Aqua Jet and he Roosts, he will be able to KO me next turn with enough health to live an Ice Shard from Piloswine. If i Waterfall and he attacks, i will also lose. So i had to do something to shift the odds in my favour.

Afro Smash: crot

I just needed one word to make my opponent make the move i wanted him too. By saying 'crot' it made him think that i would be going for Aqua Jet and hoping i crit to ko him, and it was subtle enough to make him not realise my true plans. You may say this was coincidence however my opponent had already taken 40 seconds to make his move at this point, and only 5 seconds after i said 'crot' he made his move.

Start of turn 23
The foe's Scyther used Roost!
The foe's Scyther landed on the ground!
The foe's Scyther regained health!

Samurott used Waterfall!
The foe's Scyther lost 65% of its health!

As you can see he roosted predicting me to Aqua Jet, but instead i Waterfall and put him into a checkmate situation.

Pokeboss9 forfeited against Afro Smash!

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As you can see, being wise with your words can help sway games your way, hope this helps in the future.

Bluffing really is immensely helpful, but it doesn't always work, especially vs inexperienced players imo

AKA

You have a scarfed lead
they have a slightly slower scarfed lead

They will probably try to kill your lead assuming you're not scarfed for whatever reason.
I peaked at like 1400 in UU (not that good tbh but still) because of scarfed azelf lead.
People leading with mien would go for uturn 100% of the time and just die to a psychic.
turn 1, they lost their scarfed, I'm up 6-5, etc etc

Inexperienced players will always assume, they won't take a bluff, even if it isn't.

-will add more later-

I feel like just saying stuff like this is really cheap, tho I must admit I've abused it quite a few times myself

The best way to bluff tho is to make the opponent think you're a different set than you are. Of course, this might turn out really badly, but it's really fun when it happens.

I mostly run a banded Heracross, as most people now, and bringing it in on Shaymins Seed flare, bluffing a scarf, is pretty funny. Opponents usually switches out, expecting Megakill :]

Photoshop wrote:The only reason he didn't go for an attack is because he knew he wouldn't live a hit from Piloswine.

Wouldn't that state that he made a bad move regardless because with Piloswine, he could have banked for a +4 Quick Attack kill?

Also, reading this, I imagined the city of Bristol shaking when you said "crot."

Bulky Scyther can easily live an Ice Shard from 40% and also he doesn't run quick attack. And Bristol luuuuu me.

But at +4 he can OHKO Piloswine with Bug Bite whilst Piloswine can't KO with Ice Shard from 40%

Eh, you're both kinda right, but we can't tell who is right w/o the person who afro battled

If he was more scared of AJ, he woulda roosted
If he was more scared of waterfall, he woulda bit you

If he bit you and you ran into him w/ water covering ur body, some hail from a shaggy goat thing woulda killed him