SPL Doubles Discussion / Replays

[Pocket]

I updated the SPL Doubles Weekly Usage with Week 6 and Week 7 stats, so check it out! Here's the player rankings at the end of Week 7:

A Doubles SPL match has already taken place this week: Nollan vs Biosci. Nollan brings with him unconventional Pokemon (last week he won with a Mega Heracross), and now this time he won with CM Sylveon :d. I think Nollan particularly used his Kangaskhan smartly, taking advantage of Fake Out support to offer his team some critical momentum. At what point in the game do you think Nollan had it won / Biosci lost the match? Any questionable / excellent plays you want to point out? Did Nollan's team have a particular team advantage? Discuss away :V

 

[BlankZero]

I think Biosci choked right around Turn 11. Not going for the easy kill/Overpredicting Protect on Sylveon really put him in a right spot. Not sure if he runs Fake Out on Kang or not, but it would have been super easy to kill her that turn and not lose all of his momentum to a double target on Lando.

 

[Pocket]

Well, I guess Biosci was expecting Yache or Sash on Landorus-T, so he wanted to double-target it to seal for the KO. However, it also make sense for Nollan to Protect that turn to block Fake Out from Kangaskhan, so going for Landorus-T was ultimately futile. Nollan's Sylveon was burned and at low health, so Nollan electing to Hyper Voice instead of Protect for that some last ditch damage is not unexpected, either. It all paid off for Nollan in the end.

But yea, eliminating Sylveon there would have been nice for preserving Biosci Kangaskhan's full health and Raikou. In this scenario (Biosci's Kangaskhan (100%), Raikou (11%), and Breloom (100%) vs Nollan's Landorus-T (100%), Kangaskhan (50%), and Heatran (100%)), I wonder if Biosci could have been able to pull a comeback.

 

[Lasagne]

That wasn't a choke. That was a good play by Biosci to play around the predicted Protect on Sylveon. However, Nollan outpredicted on that turn and Protected with Lando-T instead. This wasn't a misplay on Biosci's part, just a very good play on Nollan's part.

 

[Bughouse]

Turn 8 could have easily been improved as well, where Kangaskhan could have netted the kill on Rotom-W and gotten a +1. There was no need for Raikou to snipe that. The protect from Sylveon seemed rather obvious.

 

[Nollan]

To offer my own comments, I made a fairly risky play turn 1. Double protecting was both useful for burning Fake Out and scouting for moves, but it risked the possibility of Kangaskhan using Power-Up Punch on its partner and putting a +1 Kanga in my face with both Protects burned, which is a pretty bad situation to be in. I decided to go for it since I figured Biosci wouldn't expect Protect on Trevenant, but I probably could've played better there.

Another poorly executed play on my part was using Power-Up Punch on turn 3. The Keldeo switch in should've been fairly obvious and using Return was a better play to get as much damage onto it as possible, instead of trying to set up a Kangaskhan sweep that was never going to be successful. Honestly, I started this battle off pretty poorly, which I guess just shows that I still have much to learn.

As for the win, I probably more or less had a good position when Sylveon got a free Calm Mind boost. His team only had one Fairy resist and it was a Special Attacker, so I knew Sylveon could potentially take the game when I saw Biosci's team in Team Preview. It is very possible knocking out Sylveon on turn 11 could've turned the game around, though it'd be very close in that given situation and it'd really come down to who makes the best plays imo. Hard to say, really.

As a last note, I was expecting the PoP turn 8 as well, though I wasn't worried about it since Landorus-T could just reverse the Attack boost if needed.

 

[youngjake93]

To offer my own comments, I made a fairly risky play turn 1. Double protecting was both useful for burning Fake Out and scouting for moves, but it risked the possibility of Kangaskhan using Power-Up Punch on its partner and putting a +1 Kanga in my face with both Protects burned, which is a pretty bad situation to be in. I decided to go for it since I figured Biosci wouldn't expect Protect on Trevenant, but I probably could've played better there.

Another poorly executed play on my part was using Power-Up Punch on turn 3. The Keldeo switch in should've been fairly obvious and using Return was a better play to get as much damage onto it as possible, instead of trying to set up a Kangaskhan sweep that was never going to be successful. Honestly, I started this battle off pretty poorly, which I guess just shows that I still have much to learn.

As for the win, I probably more or less had a good position when Sylveon got a free Calm Mind boost. His team only had one Fairy resist and it was a Special Attacker, so I knew Sylveon could potentially take the game when I saw Biosci's team in Team Preview. It is very possible knocking out Sylveon on turn 11 could've turned the game around, though it'd be very close in that given siuation and it'd really come down to who makes the best plays imo. Hard to say, really.

As a last note, I was expecting the PoP turn 8 as well, though I wasn't worried about it since Landorus-T could just reverse the Attack boost if needed.

Lol I remember saying "Nollan wins" when you got the CM boost for free. Also, people were saying CM Sylveon has too low of physical bulk, but Intimidate support allowed yours to tank! I honestly thought it would be LO or Pixie Plate though because you score some nasty ohkos at +1 with those. Leftovers kept you healthy throughout all the chip dmg though.
It was a good game!

 

[Pocket]

Lol never considered Biosci's Kangaskhan using PuP on his own Landorus-T! That would have been cool.

Another questionable play imo is when Biosci used Icy Wind on Turn 5. Landorus-T's U-turn and Keldeo's Secret Sword would have taken Rotom-W down, and Rotom-H would have not had to eat a Hydro Pump. Maybe he expected Nollan's Landorus-T to switch into Rotom-W's place? Not too sure about the thought process there.

 

[Nollan]

Another questionable play imo is when Biosci used Icy Wind on Turn 5. Landorus-T's U-turn and Keldeo's Secret Sword would have taken Rotom-W down, and Rotom-H would have not had to eat a Hydro Pump. Maybe he expected Nollan's Landorus-T to switch into Rotom-W's place? Not too sure about the thought process there.

I think Biosci very much expected Lando-T to come in and weaken his Lando-T's EQ so Sylveon could tank any potential attacks fairly easily and either attack or use Calm Mind again. Icy Wind (thanks to LO) would've brought my Lando-T down to Sash and U-turn would have finished it off, putting Biosci in a good spot. I opted to Protect Sylveon assuming he would try to chip away at it (was wrong, obviously) and figured he would avoid an all-out double attack on Rotom since most Rotom-W run Protect and Sylveon was (in my mind at least) a bigger threat. What really confused me is when he opted to bring in Rotom-H. The Hydro Pump on Landorus-T was a likely play I would make. Knowing Sylveon had used Protect that turn, bringing Kangashkan-Mega (or even Breloom who could Spore the Sylveon) in made much more sense to me, as it could use Fake Out to chip away at Sylveon and put it into the range where Return should be close to a KO if not one. He probably expected me to expect that and use Will-O-Wisp with Rotom-W instead, crippling one of those potential switch ins (my logic was that Hydro Pump would be a safer play since it damages any given switch in a fair amount). I guess that's just a show of how much thinking goes on in these matches (aka an unhealthy amount most likely).

 

[Biosci]

lol actually thinking I was thinking out my moves at all that game. I just sort of started clicking buttons after turn 5 when I overthought him switching or not from Rotom-W. Switching in Raikou was definitely not the right call after Keldeo fainted, and I just gave up on winning it at that point with other distractions that were bothering me irl.

The team I had was hastily put together, and it definitely showed that game. Kinda mad at myself for not bring the other team I wanted to use, but it's all hindsight. Nollan did what he needed to win after turn 5, and got the win. Not sure why you guys are thinking so much of it all lol