Tournament SPL - RU Discussion

[Scythe.]

The matchup was not really in my favour considering how pressured Mega-Abomasnow was in that game: it was not only my only real Alomomola answer, but was also what kept Flygon from grabbing a kill each time it came out and hax definitely didn't help for that.

I made a questionable play, staying in with Abomasnow at turn 6, expecting from SubCM Meloetta to not carry Focus Blast (a rather debatable moveslot as well in Windsong's team, considering how damn threatning specs or even any other Meloetta is, and probably CM Slowking as well). I actually made that quick analysis and expected Hyper Voice to be his last slot, so I just expected him to Psychic as in breaking the sub and I mean, in a team full of mons able to constantly pressure the fuck out of steel-types (mega-camerupt life orb flygon virizion alomomola gallade), I figured out there was legit no way he'd carry focus blast. Either way, I decided to accept the chip damages since it's not like it would cost me the game, and is not going to prevent abomasnow from putting in work either.

Camerupt was a big pain too, this dual offensive ground-core was really tough to deal with. I managed to successfully lure out the Outrage early in the game, but then it turned out in turn 15 that windsong is even using the specially defensive spread, since it lived Blizzard despite the fuckton of damage Earth Power did. It was again quite far from expectable, this is imo what threw away my gameplans the most x_x Better be running SD Abomasnow next time haha. My gameplan from midgame was basically trying to get rid of the only fast special attacker left by either forcing Flygon to play the hazards trick game against Druddigon, or trapping it with Spiritomb after a Draco Meteor drop. Unfortunately, both attempts failed, and from this point the pressure and the hax together led me to make a suboptimal decision by not clicking bulk up with Gurdurr in what seemed to be an obvious Protect turn 28, which could have been my last shot in the game.

But overall the game ended up being an interesting first SPL experiment, I will definitely learn from it and give the best of myself during the next rounds

 

[Eternal Spirit]

galbia vs. aim
New Breed vs. atomicllamas
Meru vs. Esteemed User Ginku
Scythe. vs. 49
Kushalos vs. Windsong

gl all

 

[col49]

i'm bumpin this lol.

so, uh, to quickly bring up my w1, i think both myself and new breed played it well, and there were some eh aspects to it (leaf storm miss v.my drap let me chunk flygon for a ton, his ant nabbing high roll + max roll on my rotom prevented me from maybe edgin out w/cm king end-game), but really my main gripe was with my own build. to be frank, it wasn't very good, and it showed when i struggled to deal w/all of ant, rotom-c, and cbgon. so yeah, not to take away from his win, just think i really coulda had a better showing on the teambuilding front haha.

movin on to my game w/scythe, as i said in the thread, i think it was a really cool game. not ideal in certain aspects, but that's how it goes. i will say, i was thinking of bringing some kind of quag stall this week, which would have been nearly impossible from scythe's team to break w/o some ridiculous playing of what woulda had to be ebelt hp grass manectric, but i was encouraged not to. i blame dice. but yeah, instead i went w/a more aggressive spikestack w/the offensive battery of sd virizion / lo aero / cm 3 atks melo as the focus. at preview, i think scythe had most of my stuff covered decently, with a lot of uncertainty circling his gonner, which depending on the set made him more susceptible to certain things; was it defensive, virizion and some key doubles on the mush switch could swing the game heavily in my favor, and scarf would lend the team to some heightened degree of vulnerability to my spikes. he could have the king of compromise itself, scarf defog, but really idt he'd be getting apt value from throwing that around, so i figured itd just be playing as standard scarf. that said, my win condition was a bit in the air, but i acknowledged that priorities were in keeping pressure on the zonger, verifying the flygon set, and maintaining my virizion at decent hp, so i played from there.

led ant to keep some kinda pressure on his zong as he makes the fair wrath lead, which is keepin both ant and camel honest, so i go qwil to try to push that issue of revealing the flygon set. by not hard switching into it i get the read that it's scarf and play w/that it mind. as i said, i want to keep pressure on the zong, so i taunt it to keep that momentum. his going poliwrath reflects a similar intent (though this variant happened to be waterfall, so i wasn't fishing for burns), and i follow-up w/a sequence that basically results in his taking spikes and damage w/his drap and wrath in exchange for my qwil, a trade i was fine to make. to verify, i brought ant in with the intent to lose my scarf, since its value w/o it exceeded the option to pop off scarf gonner. i bring in melo with the intent to pressure the zong as he shows tect on wrath. the shadow ball crit was a major bummer, since it allowed me to pick up an extra ko as i focus blast on the predicted u-turn (just as a means to keep the drap honest, ofc), picking off the optimal manectric sac and giving my camel more leeway to sponge a hit and ko in turn. i choose to go aero on the proceeding gonner round, knowing that it's value lay heavily in my ability to remove that very flygon; if he went for u-turn then cool, i get the chance to chip at wrath for my ant, and if he does lock into outrage then camel eats and rk's, and ofc the latter occurs. he rk's via drap which is fine by me, and i bring in virizion to rk. his keeping the fodder and going mush suggested healing wish, and for that reason i feel as though i should've followed-up with the immediate baton pass from durant as i brought it in on musharna's moonlight. this is ultimately what i consider to be my sole, demonstrably poor play in this game, but hindsight is 20/20 haha. anywho, i try to sneak in virizion in the proceeding turn but get thrown out, and to clarify turn 27, i was predicting yet another circle throw, and did not want to superpower due to the risk presented by the def drop. iron head > x-scissor was a pretty obvious choice for flinch rate, and if i did get it (whoops), scythe was pressed to make the tect play and i could more aptly catch the free switch i wanted. so once again we make the same virizon, switch to musharna, go ant on the moonlight, go wrath on the ant cycle, but now he is cleanly in superpower range, so i take the shot and miss. can hardly complain when i caught a lucky break or two already, and life goes on. rk w/melo and cm on the predicted healing wish, knowing that if i catch the roll and live knock off, +1 shadow ball and virizion cc does favour me in the end. he gets the roll though and i drop, performing my last dance b.c i like to think i'm poetic.

but, uh, yeah. it was a nice game, i think we both played it about as well as we could've (though as i said, did not like that one play of mine in retrospect), so i can hardly complain about anything. kudos to scythe for playing well and for using tect poliwrath, 'cuz that bangs. if i see u in play-offs i'm gonna bring stall in 6-0 though, don't take it personally.

e: for those whose struggle to go to replay threads
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-ru-114839

my week 1 nicks are off everything everything's 2015 record, get to heaven. some really nice falsetto-heavy uk pop, the first five tracks are fucking incredible (the rest are good imo, but like they bang out stellar track after track to start).

week 2 was swan's to be kind, a really heavy record from a pretty interesting experimental noise rock outfit. probably not as accessible as the latter, but i would 100% recommend you at least try it if you've got the stomach for some more left-wing stuff

 

[MrAldo]

So gonna bring this back to life like when I light fire! Gonna attempt to be the Hogg of RU for this thread (dont expect me to get the matches live tho)

[ORAS RU]

• [BIGS] galbia vs. aim [WOLF]
• [CONG] New Breed vs. atomicllamas [TGRS]
• [SHRK] Meru vs. Esteemed User Ginku [RAID]
• [CRYO] Scythe. vs. 49 [FLCN]
• [RUIN] Kushalos vs. Windsong [SCTR]

Week 2 games. Lets see what happened. Credit once more to Reymedy.

galbia vs aim: Pretty good game from both sides imo with neat looking teams. Sadly an unfortunate hydro pump on turn 8 means that drapion knocks the shark out which was an extremely valuable mon for the end game that could have easily gave galbia solid chances to win alongside rotom. Unfortunate but thats the game. SDing on turn 14 with virizion against samurott was also rather questionable since a weakened unboosted samurott wasnt useful for aim at that moment so he should have leaf bladed again and keep virizion for the rhyperior, force the speed tie with its own virizion and weaken mesprit. The endgame devolved into gambles to take like galbia risking the sub on the burned rhyperior which was a way of winning the match but oh well, losing sharpedo so early really shaped the way the endgame developed imo. Fun match all things considered

New Breed vs atomicllamas: atomicllamas went on a rough start since New Breed got a pretty nice lead matchup with his sawk since atomicllamas didnt had a fighting resist and his dark resist being his own sawk so it was a rather safe lead. Atomicllamas went with the camel lead which made sense given it threaten the entirety of New Breed team. New Breed made some good plays by press knock off which made sense cause while atomicllamas didnt had a solid fighting resist recklessly pressing close combat would invite rotom and it risking a burn or a paralysis from it, on houndoom that would be unfortunate. Knocking off the venusaur and weakening mega camerupt gave new breed a really solid advantage. Atomicllamas managed to recover pretty well after an unfortunate crit on New Breed´s mesprit (it definitely mattered) but with sd abomasnow, scarf durant and atomicllamas scarf sawk (which he revealed) being its only way to deal with houndoom the game was pretty much sealed for New Breed. Great effort for llamas after a rough start.

Meru vs Esteemed User Ginku: Oh man, have you ever felt a giant pendulum blade coming at you and you make your best efforts to escape from it and prevent the massacre? Well, this replay is a good example of it. The moment you see the togetic + sharpedo combo on Ginku´s side you can say "yeah, this just win" so Meru played to avoid that. Weezing was a pretty solid lead, especially against the venusaur since weakening its t-spikes absorber is a fair trade. Kind of a stalemate at first until Meru does a good play switching on the sleep powder with his esca and disposing from venusaur meaning t-spikes were there to stay. Ginku could have went for the nasty plot on esca since it was clearly a banded variant (AV does 85% max) but going with the wincon so early was rather risky with the possibility of colbur slowking. T-Spikes gave Meru some chance putting meloetta, rhyperior in a timer and keeping sharpedo out of the game for now. Getting slowking weakened was a problem but he fixed that with sacking the flygon since it was a rather useless mon in this matchup. Great series of plays from Ginku from turn 21 to turn 24 with its rhyperior weakening the virizion. On turn 27 not sure why Meru when directly into slowking instead of weezing since keeping was a way of weakening sharpedo to attempt to survive but not sure if that mattered at that moment so oh well, so after this Ginku was in prime position to seal the game. Definitely a rough matchup for Meru since there was combination that could just 6-0 him but he played well for an attempt to avoid that. Well played. THE TRIPLE PROTECT THO, THAT WAS SICK.

Scythe vs 49: Solid match and a pretty neutral matchup imo. Great start for Scythe since 49 durant was most likely scared seeing the team composition so after that scald just doing his thing y´know, burning and stuff. Good series of doubles and stuff and pretty well played from both so far. Nice play from 49 at turn 8 by weakening the drapion, most reliable melo check on Scythe´s team for now, predicting the swords dance which payed out and nice superpower at turn 9. 49 played the qwilfish rather well emphasizing how spikes pressured scythe team. Turn 16 49 reveals the calm mind and sadly an unfortunate crit gets rid of the bronzong on turn 17 (if bronzong went for rocks that turn not sure if that would have mattered since the moment melo reveals shadow ball bronzong stops being a good check to it but was pretty unfortunate and showcases how letting the drapion get weakened could have really bad). Weakening the meloetta with u-turn was a fine play and sacking manectric since it was useless with a healthy virizion, a camerupt and 2 faster mons than it so that was a good decision in the heat of the match. Here comes flygon, 49 decides to hard switch into aerodactyl perhaps predicting the u-turn once more but Scythe that he is scarf (based on the meloetta damage it was a safe assumption) so flygon manages to get rid of aerodactyl and weaken the camerupt but that didnt mean much since 49 still looked with a pretty solid damage. Scythe was forced to go to drapion since it doesnt invite virizion to setup and among these turns that showcase how fat musharna is. Crucial superpower miss on turn 32 that gave Scythe a breath of air and a chance of victory. Really unfortunate for 49 since he weakened the poliwrath really well and for the combination of durant + virizion to just win. Musharna then reveals the healing wish and Scythe seal the deal with drapion. Really nice game, perhaps the best game of the week given both had a fair field.

Kushalos vs Windsong: Ah, finally some steelix on steelix action! JK. Rotom looking dangerous for Windsong and same with meloetta. Kushalos had a rather solid lead advantage with rotom so Windsong decided to pressure the rotom with sludge bomb which was a pretty good decision since a rotom behind a sub puts him into a pretty bad position. Unfortunate poison crit for Kushalos on his emboar (the damage output on that venusaur was crazy so there could have been 2 possibilities, too soon to tell which one). Turn 3 shows that the emboar was most likely a bulky variant and seeing the damage venusaur did with a crit it was most likely specs. Kushalos noticing that goes directly into steelix and it was indeed specs. A good series of turns here and there until a rather unfortunate leaf storm crit puts virizion on a pretty bad position. Weakening the virizion was fine so Windsong decides to mach punch the virizion. The crit was pretty important since without the crit virizion wouldnt die of rocks damage :( Hard switching the rotom on the tyrantrum was a rather questionable play, perhaps fearing the venusaur or perhaps the superpower to weaken steelix but imo going into mega steelix was better all things considered. Windsong should have heavy slammed the rotom instead of toxic since it was rather useless (even tho it still hold some value to burn absol and pressure slowking but on that weakened state that would be complicated). REALLY unfortunate focus blast with that sub cm melo on the tyrantrum. Meloetta not being faster than the adamant absol made a possible 50/50 not a 50/50 and that pretty much sealed the game (that meloe should have faster apparently o_o). Kushalos got haxed, no way of sugar coating it :/

This are my modest analyses, I know Im not a tourney player and I know it is easier to say the "what you could have done" after a match instead of the "what to do" in the match itself but gonna bring some attention to this thread y´know.

MAKE WEEK 3 PREDICTIONS!

 

[atomicllamas]

New Breed vs atomicllamas: atomicllamas went on a rough start since New Breed got a pretty nice lead matchup with his sawk since atomicllamas didnt had a fighting resist and his dark resist being his own sawk so it was a rather safe lead. Atomicllamas went with the camel lead which made sense given it threaten the entirety of New Breed team. New Breed made some good plays by press knock off which made sense cause while atomicllamas didnt had a solid fighting resist recklessly pressing close combat would invite rotom and it risking a burn or a paralysis from it, on houndoom that would be unfortunate. Knocking off the venusaur and weakening mega camerupt gave new breed a really solid advantage. Atomicllamas managed to recover pretty well after an unfortunate crit on New Breed´s mesprit (it definitely mattered) but with sd abomasnow, scarf durant and atomicllamas scarf sawk (which he revealed) being its only way to deal with houndoom the game was pretty much sealed for New Breed. Great effort for llamas after a rough start.

This is a pretty accurate analysis of the game, there were about 2 turns that I don't think my plays were optimal, the first being the 1st turn, where my teams pretty apparent dark weakness meant he was far more likely to Knock Off than he was to CC, had I been real and set up SR on the first turn I think the game might have ended up going a different way (of course its really easy to say "I shoulda done this" after the game). The other turn I think I played suboptimally was sacking Sawk to Durant, however I was thrown off by the fact that New Breed was actually running Double Choice Scarf, so I thought my Sawk would be faster than his Durant:

252 Atk Flygon U-turn vs. 136 HP / 0 Def Rotom: 39-47 (14.1 - 17%) -- possible 6HKO
(it did 15.3%)

I didn't calc his Durant on my Bronzong (which I should have cause that would have revealed Choice Scarf), which was my mistake. Had I switched to Rotom I would have had 2 chances for him to miss instead of just one, which I guess still isn't a huge chance. I was also EXTREMELY close to running Gyro Ball / Trick Room / HP Fire / EQ Bronzong knowing New Breed's affinity for Durant, but I decided to go with the more practical Toxic. Anyways I thought other than that I played the game pretty optimally, but New Breed played the entire game really well and had a pretty cool team so props to him for a deserved win :0.

-
call me tele

 

[Windsong]

BTW MrAldo my Venu also outsped and put the Meloetta solidly in Pursuit range at the point of the Blast miss, which would have let Slowking clean, so I had the game very close to wrapped up even w/o the miss. It wasn't a 100% given like it ended up being with the miss, but it was pretty close to it. The early crits were really lame though, and turned what could have been a good match into one-sided jank. Sorry Kushalos :(

Re: Rotom v. Steelix: Toxic was a better play than Heavy Slam because I needed the Rotom out and if he'd turned out to be PSplit things could have gotten dicey if I'd Heavy Slammed there. At that point I still had no idea what his set was, and SubSplit Rotom had the capacity to do a lot of damage if it got around Lix (which it could if I Heavy Slammed on Split, given that I didn't have a clear idea how bulky Rotom was and my Lix didn't have much attack); my real mistake was actually the turn earlier, going for the Stealth Rock (!!) instead of the Heavy Slam--I got greedy w/ Rocks when I should have opted for just hitting the pretty clear Rotom switch-in; all Virizion was doing at that point was denting Steelix, and every mon on my team beat it from where it was--Rotom was the bigger threat, and I didn't want it behind a sub and I didn't want Absol burnt.

 

[col49]

ok, gonna talk about it while it's fresh

again, i think myself and windsong had a pretty cool game. i won't go into too much in terms of specifics, since the whole balance v.balance deal will result in a lot of pretty similar sequences, looking to achieve their own individual goals, but i will go into more broad stuff. basically, this game made me regret not bringing my own momo lol, which is really my own fault for sweating spikes too much. what this resulted in was basically his diancie and momo (supplemented by the fact that it was knock off) becoming far more pressing issues to deal with, since i had to micromanage my defensive dudes' hp much more carefully to accommodate. while the knock momo thing was essentially a whole lot of bad for me (rose has to lose evio, thereby making it more pursuit-weak and generally allowing some pretty easy whittling from windsong's end), it did open up more to gurdurr, who really does not want to stare down a tox momo, opening it up as my primary win condition here (since bu can muscle through fletch w/some effort).

initially, my gameplan involved the isolation and pressuring of his gonner, but as the type of team supported offered to it became evident, i instead pivoted towards setting up the gurdurr win condition, which had me pursuing the meloetta, chipping at the diancie, and setting up aggressively v.either of gonner or momo. his techs v.mine i figure ultimately put me on the backfoot of things, but w/a lot of damage on gurdurr and my team, i managed to maneuver something that was maybe winnable haha. unfortunately, momo picked up the first attempt burn, ruining our burn-less scald streak and disallowing from maybe pushing through and forcing some 50-50's (just to verify that i didn't "just win" w.o that, since it was far from it, but i'd have said that i could make a stand if i had managed to drain up to enough hp to safely bulk once).

but yeah, was a lot of fun. regrets as followed:
- not running momo =(
- the diamond storm crit on rose (4 Atk Choice Band Diancie Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 172 Def Roselia: 226-267 (74.5 - 88.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO), so eff u doofus =( i kid, but still, a pretty lame momentum swing
- pursuing the flygon; overthought the sequence for sure, roost was optimal and i should have tricked in accordance w/that


maybe next week i'll go w/my gut in terms of team-building, but i doubt it :p thanks for a fun one windsong, and best of luck in your future games

 

[MrAldo]

New week, new replays and that means new commentary. Will try to keep it shorter this time!

[ORAS RU]

• [RAID] Esteemed User Ginku vs. atomicllamas [TGRS]
• [CRYO] Scythe. vs. aim [WOLF]
• [SCTR] Windsong vs. 49 [FLCN]
• [CONG] New Breed vs. Luigi. [RUIN]
• [SHRK] Meru vs. galbia [BIGS]

Esteemed User Ginku vs Atomicllamas: Yay an eelektross. And Ginku assuming a 14 arm form Ive never seen before. Anyways, seeing the teams we have Ginku with a pretty simple and efficient squadron consisting of a sigilyph being most likely LO, your standard steelix, the famous combo of fletchinder + flygon with u-turn flygon perhaps to bring fletch and exploud safely, specs exploud to do exploud things and houndoom which is most likely nasty plot (talk about overkilling balance). Atomicllamas with an eelektross (yay) standard AV most likely, FROG being the stealth rocker, a sigilyph which could have been life orb (revealed to be sash), scarf durant cause slow team, LO venusaur and houndoom for some wallbreaking, cool stuff.

Interesting matchup here with an exploud being a massive threat to llamas and eelektross and venusaur being quite the annoyance for the 14 arm beast, ginku having some advantage cause exploud cause mercilessly spam boomburst. On the match, atomicllamas leads with eelektross being a pretty safe lead since it could 1v1 a lot of mons from Ginku. Seeing flygon not press u-turn reveals it is special (special sets with u-turn are a possibility but extremely rare, and unpractical imo). Eelektross reveals the hp ice, which is pretty cool given special flygon is annoying for llamas. Now, the massive pressure exploud puts on teams shows here. Llamas had no other choice but to stay in since eelektross was the only thing that could take 1 boomburst. The rest of the match evolved in a pretty standard way, making the most sensible switches. good trade with venusaur and flygon seeing the plant monster wasnt doing much to begin with and houndoom being the houndoom switch-ins. Atomicllamas could have scouted for hp grass on turn 7 but seeing the sigilyph that was a pretty odd bet to make and risky going directly to durant so it was fine. Pretty even match until a crit on turn 17 seals the game for atomicllamas. It definitely mattered but it makes me wonder... standard fletchinder is never KOd by houndoom sucker punch, not even crit unless it was a max speed no bulk variant...

4 Atk Life Orb Houndoom Sucker Punch vs. 152 HP / 76 Def Fletchinder: 148-175 (48.8 - 57.7%) -- 95.3% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Fletchinder Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Houndoom: 261-307 (89.6 - 105.4%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO

4 Atk Life Orb Houndoom Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Fletchinder: 165-196 (62.2 - 73.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Unless llamas was running more attack, we may never know... Pretty nice game regardless

Scythe vs aim: Pretty cool looking teams on both sides. Aim with an emboar, most likely a scarf variant seeing the rest of the team. An slowking, physically defensive most likely cause main fighting types check, status spreader rotom-N, rhyperior as the rock setter, most likely a LO venusaur and a durant, LO seemed overkill so wasnt sure what it was (revealed to be scarf later on). Scythe with a slowking, phys def as well most likely, bronzong with hp fire most likely and being the team rock setter, standard swords dance virizion probably with zen headbutt, standard spiritomb with pursuit and all that good spiritomb stuff. Flygon with seeing the team composition definitely a special variant, could be roost + 3 attacks even cause the need for hazard removal seems minimal on the team and a durant which could have been LO as well but scarf was also a possibility (revealed to be sub salac! hot!)

Rotom-N had a really great matchup against Scythe so it was a sensible lead all things considered. Flygon seeing the potential issue rotom-N could be lead with flygon, one of the few mons on his team that stop it from doing its thing. Turn 2 reveals the u-turn with a special set, which is pretty interesting and cool ngl, still sold it is roost + 3 attacks. Good series of plays on Scythe on turn 3 and 4 getting the pursuit right both times and was a pretty good trade seeing rotom-N was such a threat for him. Scald wars until turn 10! where aim reveal the grass knot and I was like "nice". With slowking gone, scythe is in an uncomfortable position since flygon by itself isnt good against boar so it could press flare blitz constantly. Match evolves pretty well and pretty evenly despise Scythe being 1 down on mons. Turn 25 with the sub salac durant!! A 50/50 was in order here, Scythe being forced to win it and then a speed tie against aim´s durant. Gets both and the superpower hit on emboar to seal the match. Really well played from both.

Windsong vs 49: Feel 49´s post showcased this game pretty in detail and it makes sense given he played the match himself. Also, I feel I will just repeat what he said so read his post for this one. Gonna point out that love how 2 balance squads are 100% different from each other in this matchup, lovely. Shoutouts to knock off mola and how sneasel fits pretty well on balance.

New Breed vs Luigi: Shoutouts to team magma and team aqua, sharpedo and mega camerupt on both sides! We have some nasty pass on Luigi side with sharpedo being the main recipient and venusaur with mega camerupt being the secondary having good offensive and typing synergy with sharpedo and y´know F/W/G. Druddigon as the rocker of choice, most likely phys def rocky helmet cause it makes ton of stuff kill itself and covers ton of threats and a durant on the last slot being a good and stuff, most likely scarf. New Breed with the hazard stacking with a lovely qwilfish + camerupt hazard stacking core, working pretty well together thanks to their typings and stuff. Scarf durant and sharpedo that love the spikes support, tangrowth being the offensive glue and wallbreaker on the team and eelektross being the flying resist and special tank to soft check bunch of special attackers. Also loves spikes to be more annoying. How to use sharpedo 101, with 2 different goals!

WHO LEADS WITH SHARK?! but it worked pretty well for Luigi and tbh made sense since it could weaken pretty much everything and perhaps pretty the camerupt lead which could had take a life otherwise, not bad but risky imo. Eelektross showing why it is good on turn 2, the hydro pump scouting on tang was fine cause it has regenerator. Nice series of plays, sleep powder on the camel, doubles like druddigon to the durant, great stuff. Druddigon based on that qwilfish revealed to be an offensive variant. Interesting, a defensive variant could have worked well here but thats fine as well. REALLY UNFORTUNATE HYDRO PUMP MISS AT TURN 13. Was a sack anyways but sharpedo was putting work :( oh well... MONS.

Switching eelektross directly into mega camel makes you think it has aqua tail, and it reveals that! Prime position for Luigi and venusaur to get this. Sensible sack on togetic at turn 16 since there was no need for nasty pass. Here comes drudd, it wasnt LO after all I didnt saw it was a crit on turn 7 lol, it was probably yache berry now that I think about it. Nice play from Luigi next turn on the durant double fire punching while. A pretty risky gamble but since venusaur could potentially just wins if a double of that caliber happened so kudos on Luigi for that play on turn 19. From here venusaur wins, pretty nice game. Unfortunate hydro miss but oh well.

Meru vs Galbia: Look at these fire teams, fresh. Standard special sharpedo and scarf durant combo again most likely (pretty dominant duo and easy to put on teams) it was band durant so mission aborted, a magneton! Could be specs but seeing magneton position in this metagame nowadays I would say a magnet rise variant, a virizion that could be calm mind or swords dance, going with swords dance (proved to be calm mind, rip me). Seismitoad is the rocker and a musharna which I have no idea what it could be running but it most likely involves baton pass. Galbia team looks cute. probably a life orb delphox here (proved to be scarf), standard spin blastoise most likely, mah boy steelix looking golden, a rotom-cut... its been a while; definitely doubt it is a choiced item since in this metagame it can put a player in a bad position so I would expert belt I guess (proved to be yache berry, oh!), exploud ready to break through stuff and a sigilyph that it could be sash.

Always lead with your volt switcher, it is generally safe! It is tbh, as it shows here, magneton vs rotom-cut. Meru seeing the steelix switch-in (and since it is rather risky to make a guess so early in the game for galbia side) it goes for hidden power... which could be hidden power water, fire or ground. Going with fire on this one since it can also trap bronzong and weaken it. It reveals the magnet rise next turn meaning the steelix is out of the game (unless roar, it didnt had it) so 1 down on galbia side. Fat musharna at turn 5, sacking magneton against exploud cause it already did his thing on turn 7 (shoot, it lived!) so it can work as fodder for Meru. Nice! Durant hustling on turn 11 (RIP). Dont think it mattered since not even adamant scarf can kill sigilyph from full unless it was band (and still me thinking that sigilyph is sash) so yeah, dead ant is dead. Leftovers musharna would have lived that boomburst at +2 if it had leftovers, rip x 2. Virizion kills exploud, sigilyph kills virizion back and it looks like sharpedo is in prime position to nail this with a crit flinch on toise at turn 18 (justice imo) but on turn 20 the yache berry rotom-Cut saves the day!

Scarf delphox to trick the seismitoad and rotom-cut seals the match. RIP Meru, victim of hustling and if calm mind baton pass musharna leftovers is better, living proof is this game.

Week 4 predictions imo, please!

Luigi vs Galbia - Luigi, the new breed slayer! Galbia experience and it getting a win will work on his favor to keep the good momentum going.

atomicllamas vs 49 - I like both so not betting against anyone here, may the best (or luckiest) win

Alexander vs New Breed - Alexander plays RU?! Guess he has Scythe on his team but New Breed got this imo

Meru vs Windsong - Windsong is too lucky, lol. LGI Meru!

Afro Smash vs Esteemed User Ginku - I trust in the power of the Afro!

Discuss!

 

[Meru]

it was band ant oO running a scarfer on a pedo team is stupid

 

[MrAldo]

Yeah, just forgot the musharna there, lol. How silly of me. I stand corrected, band made much more sense on the team after you mentioned it and my thoughts.

 

[lighthouses]

Scarf ant gets pedo in with baton pass and is a reliable source of speed control, i don't see the issue oO

 

[atomicllamas]

Cumulative Stats

ORAS RU

+ ---- + ------------------ + --- + ------- + ------ +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use | Usage % | Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + --- + ------- + ------ +
| 1    | Durant             | 12  | 40.00%  | 50.00% |
| 2    | Flygon             | 11  | 36.67%  | 63.64% |
| 3    | Virizion           | 9   | 30.00%  | 44.44% |
| 4    | Steelix            | 8   | 26.67%  | 62.50% |
| 5    | Slowking           | 7   | 23.33%  | 42.86% |
| 5    | Camerupt           | 7   | 23.33%  | 28.57% |
| 7    | Venusaur           | 6   | 20.00%  | 66.67% |
| 7    | Bronzong           | 6   | 20.00%  | 50.00% |
| 7    | Meloetta           | 6   | 20.00%  | 50.00% |
| 10   | Sharpedo           | 5   | 16.67%  | 40.00% |
| 10   | Sigilyph           | 5   | 16.67%  | 40.00% |
| 10   | Qwilfish           | 5   | 16.67%  | 20.00% |
| 10   | Rotom              | 5   | 16.67%  |  0.00% |
| 14   | Houndoom           | 4   | 13.33%  | 75.00% |
| 14   | Fletchinder        | 4   | 13.33%  | 50.00% |
| 14   | Abomasnow          | 4   | 13.33%  | 25.00% |
| 14   | Blastoise          | 4   | 13.33%  | 25.00% |
| 18   | Alomomola          | 3   | 10.00%  | 100.0% |
| 18   | Drapion            | 3   | 10.00%  | 66.67% |
| 18   | Exploud            | 3   | 10.00%  | 66.67% |
| 18   | Rhyperior          | 3   | 10.00%  | 66.67% |
| 18   | Tangrowth          | 3   | 10.00%  | 66.67% |
| 18   | Escavalier         | 3   | 10.00%  | 33.33% |
| 18   | Spiritomb          | 3   | 10.00%  | 33.33% |
| 18   | Aerodactyl         | 3   | 10.00%  |  0.00% |
| 18   | Emboar             | 3   | 10.00%  |  0.00% |
| 27   | Gallade            | 2   |  6.67%  | 100.0% |
| 27   | Mesprit            | 2   |  6.67%  | 100.0% |
| 27   | Poliwrath          | 2   |  6.67%  | 100.0% |
| 27   | Rotom-Mow          | 2   |  6.67%  | 100.0% |
| 27   | Togetic            | 2   |  6.67%  | 100.0% |
| 27   | Absol              | 2   |  6.67%  | 50.00% |
| 27   | Amoonguss          | 2   |  6.67%  | 50.00% |
| 27   | Diancie            | 2   |  6.67%  | 50.00% |
| 27   | Druddigon          | 2   |  6.67%  | 50.00% |
| 27   | Eelektross         | 2   |  6.67%  | 50.00% |
| 27   | Musharna           | 2   |  6.67%  | 50.00% |
| 27   | Sawk               | 2   |  6.67%  | 50.00% |
| 27   | Seismitoad         | 2   |  6.67%  | 50.00% |
| 27   | Gurdurr            | 2   |  6.67%  |  0.00% |
| 41   | Accelgor           | 1   |  3.33%  | 100.0% |
| 41   | Aromatisse         | 1   |  3.33%  | 100.0% |
| 41   | Delphox            | 1   |  3.33%  | 100.0% |
| 41   | Garbodor           | 1   |  3.33%  | 100.0% |
| 41   | Hitmonlee          | 1   |  3.33%  | 100.0% |
| 41   | Jolteon            | 1   |  3.33%  | 100.0% |
| 41   | Manectric          | 1   |  3.33%  | 100.0% |
| 41   | Samurott           | 1   |  3.33%  | 100.0% |
| 41   | Sneasel            | 1   |  3.33%  | 100.0% |
| 41   | Tyrantrum          | 1   |  3.33%  | 100.0% |
| 41   | Banette            | 1   |  3.33%  |  0.00% |
| 41   | Magneton           | 1   |  3.33%  |  0.00% |
| 41   | Mawile             | 1   |  3.33%  |  0.00% |
| 41   | Medicham           | 1   |  3.33%  |  0.00% |
| 41   | Roselia            | 1   |  3.33%  |  0.00% |
| 41   | Smeargle           | 1   |  3.33%  |  0.00% |
| 41   | Weezing            | 1   |  3.33%  |  0.00% |
+ ---- + ------------------ + --- + ------- + ------ +

Lots of talk about matches (which is actually p cool, keep up the good work MrAldo :p) and predictions, but anyone have any thought on the usage stats thus far?

Durant Flygon Virizion Steelix being top 4 doesn't surprise me at all, you have 2 very important threats (Durant Viriz) and two really splashable mons (Flygon and M lix). Surprised that M Aboma is used less than Mega Camel, and that both have such bad w-l, also camel is getting tons of use in spite of only one manectric use thus far. Tyrantrum has been used once, which is funny as fuck to me :p. Houndoom's only loss was to another houndoom. You guys notice anything interesting?

 

[MrAldo]

Guess 3 weeks is a sizable statistical "sample" so yeah.

Camerupt usage is pretty surprising to me (and pleasing to an extent), didnt expected to be used that much. 7 camels! Rotom usage is also rather impressive, being the most used mon that isnt RU by usage over a bunch of notable like houndoom and abomasnow, and tangrowth! Surprising diversity as well, lets see how it behaves after some more weeks for a more sizable sample.

Togetic with that 100% win rate. LGI!

 

[Lord Death Man]

I've been following usage stats solely because I have an active hatred of Rotom and am validated every time it loses.

The most interesting thing to me about the Rotom, Camrerupt, and Abomasnow use is how poorly they're all doing. While I dislike Rotom, several matches I've seen it do nothing in should have been matches where it did very well - same for Camerupt and Abomasnow. What about these mons is making them not live up to their suggested threat level/potential? Meanwhile, I'm ot at all shocked by Durant's, Flygon, Virizion, or Steelix's usage. A little shocked at Virizion's win/lose, but these are all incredibly splashable mons and it makes sense they'd see a lot of use.

Surprised by the low use of Diancie, Manectric (outused by Rotom-Cut!), Tyrantrum and fairies in general. In turn I'm also surprised at the lack of use fighting types - other than Virizion - are getting, and also by the poor win/loss ratio on those fighting types that seem to me should be dominating, since the most common fighting checks being used are of the "can't switch in" variety. Interesting trends overall, and I think they reflect an attempt to counterteam threats that, almost paradoxically, aren't being used.

Teams seem very balance-oriented and I think Aim's game1 Exploud team was the best anyone has done at exploiting this trend so far. I've seen several weird sets and they were often weird in a bad way but I am expecting some legitimately good, tier-changing innovation at this rate eventually. You can really see the influence several players who didn't get drafted are exerting on the tier, as well, and I'm also shocked at how little impact other specific players who didn't get drafted are exerting.

Most games I've watched have been frustrating and hax-heavy so I don't have a desire to comment on them individually. I have noticed several players make comments (about the tier, the game in general, etc) that seemed odd to me and then saw them played and immediately keyed in on why they made those comments in the first place.

predicts are galbia, llamas, alexander, windsong, ginku. they use cooler mons generally (assuming scythe makes alexander's team) and cool teams deserve to win imo

edit: if this post seemed negative or mean spirited, it wasn't meant that way

 

[ryo yamada2001]

Hi everyone, I like watching the SPL and I like watching the RU as well so I figured I'd make a post like this. It's not really exciting but its a fun way to procrastinate and perhaps learn something about the RU meta.

This is a list of all the RU teams used in the SPL up to week 3 (I'll update it every week with the new teams):

http://puu.sh/mPEsW/3647defe93.txt
The L in front of a team implies the team has lost.
The W in front of a team implies the team has won.

However if you prefer seeing sprites rather than a wall of text here's the list with sprites, have fun!:

Week 1 | 10 teams:

W|

L|

W|

L|

W|

L|

W|

L|

W|

L|

Week 2 | 10 teams:

W|

L|

W|

L|

W|

L|

W|

L|

W|

L|

Week 3 | 10 teams:

W|

L|

W|

L|

W|

L|

W|

L|

W|

L|

 

[tko]

re: galbia vs luigi
looking at team preview, luigi's team seemed to have decent matchup with virizion + hazards from qwilfish (where was the tspikes!), and all galbs really had for virizion was his checks in tang and melo, but luigi had switch ins for those. sharpedo was also looking like a threat, though galbia had a poliwrath.

going into the game, meloetta dies turn 4, which is really unfortunate for galb because it was one of the said chekcs to virizion, making a sweep that much easier. afterwards, a couple turns later comes in steelix vs virizion. luigi went for the sd cc which i assume he thought killed lix from full, but it didnt, and this was a huge turn of the game. virizion was a huge threat to galbia, luigi could of ended up instead of sacking virizion, he could of went out to qwilfish (or even emboar, it was not as important) instead. sacking virizion gave galbia a chance to win the game, but when poli died the game was basically sealed. idk if the durant was scarf, but if it was scarf then it mattered. if durant was banded the crit did not matter (or if galbia was running an obscure spread). but yeah, as i said earlier, sharpedo was a threat, but galbia had the poli. the second poli died sharpedo basically could clean at that point, and it did.

 

[col49]

again, going in fresh.

i learned sleep powder venu is way less reliable than i expected. my main gripe was w/how i played the zonger in the game, before i cover anything else. was more cheesed about the overall series than anything, so i just sorta was doing w/e there and i shouldn't have given wrath hard checked everything sans exploud. just thought i'd get that out there before anything, b.c bleh, didn't care for it. my intelligent sequence there would have been go zong, pivot gonner (expendable enough that his getting aggro and bursting again wouldn't hit too hard, and acceptable v.potential switch-ins), and playing from there.

anyway, i brought some stuff i knew llamas wouldn't be super prepped for, mainly fast sleep induction, poliwrath (he's got a penchant for ant and doomer, not big on stronger grounds n such), and pursuit sneasel for his inclination towards psychic beaters. exploud balance was a fair pick for me, given i've been taking a somewhat bulky offense stance these past weeks, so not too crazy there. i lead venu to keep the threatening stuff honest as he goes registeel. going from there, the powder misses and constant early wakes really hit me hard, since it forced me into positions where i had to let key members take hits i didn't want them to, with the major nail in the coffin being the stoss hit, given that with that extra 26% or so i'd have been in a very strong spot to take that boomburst, get the chip i needed to put it in w.e range, and play from there, potentially tecting myself into a position wherein i could eat a sneasel hit and handily seal the game (which would only really require 20% net hp, not a far-fetched thing idt).

honestly, this one was kinda lame. different breed then my poor show v.kevin1, so i guess its in the name. not to discredit llamas, he didn't make any egregiously bad plays (though he didn't make any particularly good ones either, just a very middle-ground thing), but rng wasn't giving me an inch in this one haha. sorry to my fans, hopefully mids will gimme some karma points

 

[atomicllamas]

I was Low Kick Sneasel (which I assumed you weren't, and if you were pursuit Sneasel I don't think you were Oo), so an end game with my Sneasel / Exploud / Flygon vs your Wrath / Venu / Sneasel, was definitely winnable for me (well if I had a layer of spikes but you did crit my qwil :p), but yeah RNG was definitely in my favor so sorry for that. Hopefully you have better luck in future weeks dude !_!

Also if anyone is curious I was using Registeel (thanks spirit :p) because it can check M Aboma / Exploud (unlike M Lix) and Special Shark (unlike Bronzong, also not pursuit weak), as someone who has never really used Exploud before, I found it really hard to build a team without a major weakness to anything because it provides 0 Defensive Synergy while also not being that fast. I did suspect 49 would be pretty weak to Exploud given his usage of slower Bulky Offense builds (and I think his team was kinda weak to the Exploud Tomb combination).

he's got a penchant for ant and doomer

I'll give you that I probably use ant a lot but I almost never use doomer ?_?, idk where people get the idea I like certain mons, like fuga told breed to use Power Herb Houndoom against me week 2 cause I like Poliwrath, even though I've literally only made 1 RU team in gen 6 with Wrath, lol.

 

[tko]

Hide

ORAS RU

+ ---- + ------------------ + --- + ------- + ------ +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use | Usage % | Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + --- + ------- + ------ +
| 1    | Steelix            | 5   | 50.00%  | 40.00% |
| 2    | Flygon             | 4   | 40.00%  | 75.00% |
| 2    | Sigilyph           | 4   | 40.00%  | 25.00% |
| 4    | Spiritomb          | 3   | 30.00%  | 100.0% |
| 4    | Durant             | 3   | 30.00%  | 66.67% |
| 4    | Fletchinder        | 3   | 30.00%  | 66.67% |
| 4    | Qwilfish           | 3   | 30.00%  | 66.67% |
| 4    | Poliwrath          | 3   | 30.00%  | 33.33% |
| 9    | Diancie            | 2   | 20.00%  | 100.0% |
| 9    | Alomomola          | 2   | 20.00%  | 50.00% |
| 9    | Sharpedo           | 2   | 20.00%  | 50.00% |
| 9    | Sneasel            | 2   | 20.00%  | 50.00% |
| 9    | Tyrantrum          | 2   | 20.00%  | 50.00% |
| 9    | Virizion           | 2   | 20.00%  | 50.00% |
| 9    | Bronzong           | 2   | 20.00%  |  0.00% |
| 9    | Meloetta           | 2   | 20.00%  |  0.00% |
| 9    | Tangrowth          | 2   | 20.00%  |  0.00% |
| 18   | Abomasnow          | 1   | 10.00%  | 100.0% |
| 18   | Amoonguss          | 1   | 10.00%  | 100.0% |
| 18   | Emboar             | 1   | 10.00%  | 100.0% |
| 18   | Exploud            | 1   | 10.00%  | 100.0% |
| 18   | Jellicent          | 1   | 10.00%  | 100.0% |
| 18   | Registeel          | 1   | 10.00%  | 100.0% |
| 18   | Roselia            | 1   | 10.00%  | 100.0% |
| 18   | Aerodactyl         | 1   | 10.00%  |  0.00% |
| 18   | Blastoise          | 1   | 10.00%  |  0.00% |
| 18   | Granbull           | 1   | 10.00%  |  0.00% |
| 18   | Samurott           | 1   | 10.00%  |  0.00% |
| 18   | Scrafty            | 1   | 10.00%  |  0.00% |
| 18   | Venusaur           | 1   | 10.00%  |  0.00% |
| 18   | Weezing            | 1   | 10.00%  |  0.00% |
+ ---- + ------------------ + --- + ------- + ------ +

new usage stats out for the week o~o
Im kinda glad that sigi is getting a bit more use because it honestly deserves it as a great ru mon, and that is not represented in its w/l. Durant also seems to be dropping, perhaps because more people seem to be preparing for it in the form of poli / qwil, which are also good in tanking other mons as well.

I feel like tyrantrum could get used more, people may seem to be sleeping on its power despite still having the potential to break offense, and that its only set isnt scarf. Seeing venusaur at one use is also quite surprising, despite having more usage the past weeks. Registeel might become more popular because of its ability to counter maboma, have rocks, not taking a mega slot, and the power of twave (for things like sharpedo, other fast things). Regi is a solid check for special attackers and spreading status, just quite unfortunate that it dosent have recovery so its on the same boat as bronzong.

 

[Meru]

Since everybody is going over their own games, I guess I'll share my mindset for my game against Windsong last week.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-ru-118591

I thought it would be good to bring Spiritomb against Windsong since he seemed to have a fetish for Meloetta, using it on 2 out of his 3 teams. His third team used Lee and Absol as wallbreakers, so Spiritomb could do also pull its weight against those builds if he chose to revive some version of them.

From team preview, it was shown that we both had more defensive teams. Despite this being more of a slower game, it was clear that I could play aggressively and pressure his team early on with status, because his team either

A) had no cleric support, meaning that status would rack up more harshly the earlier it was applied
B) was using SpDef Meloetta, which is ridiculously complete fodder to getting trapped with Spiritomb.

With that in mind, I led with Fletchinder, which could threaten everything with WoW or Acro except Mola, which I had Amoonguss to counterplay with, and Specs Melo, which would get trapped and killed by Spiritomb if it killed Fletchinder with any of its STAB moves. Turn 1 leaves me trading status on Weezing for Taunt to let Mega Steelix get a free switch-in, letting it get SR up. From there, Windsong was able to use SR, the threat of Sigilyph, and Steelix's phazing to pressure the lack of recovery on my Diancie, although he still had to play carefully around the threat of Spiritomb. Steelix's Roar backfires when Spiritomb gets Roared in. Steelix creeped to be faster than Spiritomb so I ended up taking more damage from Earthquake than I wanted but it was worth it for WoW on his Rocker, which came in handy later. He could've let Mola take the WoW and kept wearing me down instead of letting his rocker weakened but then he would've lost momentum since my Alomomola would have been able to Wish pass more. I think maybe he could've also used Weezing to prolong his Lix taking status, which might've bought him enough time to break through Diancie, but maybe he thought I was CroTomb, idk.

From there, more Roars come out and bring my Fletchinder to 1%. He could either Roar, which risked Fletchinder getting Roost off, while he takes more burn damage in the process, or he could Earthquake in prediction of my Roost. I decided to make the absolute safest play and go Flygon. Getting this Defog off meant that Flygon was able to come into burned Mega Steelix for the rest of the game, meaning the hazard game was officially clear on my side. Winning the hazard game also gives me the breathing room to pass a Wish to Diancie straight in Sigilyph's face. With SR gone, Steelix burned, and Diancie back at full, a lot of Windsong's previous work had become undone, which transferred the game back to an apparent stalemate between two Mola's carrying their teams to ensure a non-loss.

Windsong, however, might've been playing too conservatively with his Alomomola, letting Sigilyph switch in only to get 3HKO'd by Amoonguss's Sludge Bomb, which wasn't smart since he knew he lacked Roost. However, he had done enough prior damage with Sigilyph to put my regen core temporarily on the backfoot, allowing Sharpedo to come in and nab a kill. After Sharpedo kills Diancie, my Regen core regains momentum and is healed back to full. Turn 46 shows Alomomola moving with negative priority, which meant he was carrying Mirror Coat. Since I played rather conservatively and decided to just Spore, I managed to scout his Mola's 4th move without giving it the advantage of a surprise kill. This knowledge meant that I knew his Mola didn't have Toxic, which let me use my own Mola to pressure his with Toxic, giving me a large long term advantage.

After landing Toxic on his Mola, every single member of his defensive core could no longer stall into eternity, leaving his only win conditions to be a sweep on Sharpedo, which was very difficult with my regen core in tip-top shape. He had to use Meloetta to break it, but had to play ridiculously carefully around my Spiritomb. This was made even more difficult by my Mola being able to pass a Wish to Spiritomb in his Mola's face. Windsong makes some valiant attempts to do this, but on turn 79 when Amoonguss lands a Spore on Meloetta, this means that Meloetta automatically has to give up a free turn to stay in, giving me the luxury of switching in Spiritomb unscathed. Since he would fear the 100% loss of being Pursuited much more than not waking early and getting a big Gleam on my Spiritomb, I decided to choose Sucker Punch. No need to play risky since I could repeat a loop like this until Meloetta got poisoned or Spored again. Sucker Punch kills off Meloetta, leaving him with a defensive core crippled by status, and a Sharpedo lacking any form of wallbreaking.

Thought it was my best game yet despite being relatively Stall vs Stall. Props to Windsong for a very cool and close back-and-forth game.

 

[MrAldo]

Nice, thanks everyone for commenting their games and thecrystalonix for the Luigi vs Galbia input so just 2 games to cover, which is a lot less than 5!

[ORAS RU]

• [CRYO] Alexander. vs. New Breed [CONG]
• [WOLF] Afro Smash vs. Esteemed User Ginku [RAID]

Thanks again to Reymedy for the great job collecting every replay. Lets see

Alexander vs New Breed: The italian OU wonder was chosen to start in RU for week 4! Thank God he didnt brought pikachu as he once said on smogtours chat. God bless! Seeing the teams on preview, New Breed brought a pretty interesting team, something pretty different to what he brought on past weeks since they were different variations of offensive builds (the one on week 2 being pretty heavy offensive) so yeah. In detail, team looks like a pretty nice balance squad focused around hazards with scarf tyrantrum + sigilyph wearing down common checks thanks to hazards and good offensive synergy. Scarf tyrantrum / standard steelix / spikes roselia (probably mixed def but with emphasis on spdef) / defensive poliwrath being the durant check / offensive utility spiritomb (probably dread plate) ans sigilyph (I assumed it was calm mind psycho shift, proved to be LO).

Alexander brought a pretty good, cool looking and straightforward build having virizion + fletchinder as the main offensive battery, fletchinder being a major living pain for offense and virizion being a living pain for balance. Fletchinder beat virizion checks and counters, virizion does the same for fletchinder. Steelix doing what steelix does best, the necessary hazard removal for fletchinder is blastoise it being a cool spinner, a scrafty which is a pretty interesting addition, could be banded (proved to be ddance since it died to LO air slash from sigilyph) and Alexander had a sigilyph on its own (was assuming LO but proved to be calm mind psycho shift, odd with no pursuit trapper but it is fine I guess)

Going to the game, both sigilyph leads. Amazing, and understandable since both sigilyph did work against each other teams respectably. Turn 1 Alexander goes for the calm mind on the spiritomb switch-in and it inmediately reveals it is calm mind psycho shift seeing the flame orb activated. New Breed being quite vulnerable to status and its status absorber being pretty sigilyph bait, forced to go to poliwrath. Hard switching into tyrantrum wasnt an option since he was psycho shifting 100%. Going to poliwrath was the only option. Poliwrath was likely a sack and if it survived the plan what circle throwing. Plan executed. New Breed had a pretty rough start, trading a burn with fletchinder to get up rocks which is a fine play. Alexander made a good play going to its own steelix predicting the toxic and getting rocks up. Unfortunate crit on turn 8 but imo, going for will-o-wisp was ok cause doubt Alex would risk the sigilyph and risk the lum berry on the virizion but in the heat of the game the decisions can be tough.

Pretty sure the fletchinder on turn 11 was a sack so going for head smash was rather safe. Steelix mega was the primary option for switch into tyrantrum no matter what, no point lowering virizion health when it won. In fact, New Breed having that rough start puts him in a terrible position against virizion. Well, tyrantrum dies and steelix gets weakened. Steelix dies next turn to sigilyph. Nice decision from Alexander trading damage with the sigilyph so virizion can clean. That was the plan but an unfortunate stone edge miss seal the game for New Breed (no calling out the miss doesnt make it more fair!) and that was it. Shame on that miss cause virizion literally won but oh well, m o n s!

Afro Smash vs Esteemed User Ginku: I was so looking forward to this and I missed it!! FUCK. Ok. And here we see a jellicent! You dont see much of these nowadays but it does so much work in this match and walling shit in general. Going to the team preview, Afro Smash brought a pretty cool looking balance team with flygon, jellicent and diancie being the defensive backbone and fletchinder + mega aboma + durant being the offensive battery. Goal of the team was clearly support a fletchinder sweep. Standard spdef flygon (I assume) / spdef diancie / wallbreaker mega abomasnow with ice shard / standard swords dance fletchinder / physically defensive jellicent, probably colbur berry / durant (scarfed or banded, mmm... gonna go with band, yes). Tangrowth is a threat for this.

Esteemed User Ginku with a spike stacking team, stacked (heheh) with wallbreakers and an offensive cleaner to take advantage of spikes. Qwilfish + bronzong providing the defensive backbone and the hazard setters; sigilyph, tangrowth and durant being the wallbreakers and aerodactyl being the offensive cleaner, outspeeding most of the tier and stuff. Pretty straightforward team tbh, cool looking as well but fletchinder was gonna put work.
Hazard Setter qwilfish, physically defensive / LO sigilyph / Specs tangrowth / mixed defenses bronzong / banded durant / LO aerodactyl imo.

To the match, Afro Smash seeing the how well jellicent matched against his team, really solid lead. Ginku leading with durant cause it is generally solid to lead with but this isnt the case. Free wisp since not much on Ginku team could take a wisp too well, hard switching into sigilyph and then doubling into tangrowth was fine, albeit riskier, but the hard switch into tangrowth was fine as well tbh since it has regenerator to make the burn not so bothersome. Tangrowth being such a threat makes it a good reason to hard switch. Ok, tangrowth is in and Afro Smash is more or less forced to go to fletchinder since it has pretty shaky grass resists and damn, it took 68% with a crit (takes literally 42 min). From there fletchinder roosts and a couple of haxy turns between fletchinder and Ginku bronzong, burns, rocks and a toxic miss that could have mattered in the long term. Cool u-turn fletchinder there and an unfortunate toxic miss on the flygon switch-in.

Then the game developed pretty much in a linear way, making the appropiate play after the flygon switched out fearing the ice fang on aero (a possibility) like tangrowth into jellicent, fletch taking a ton from specs leaf storm (impressive damage) following a predictable line with Afro Smash having the advantage and jellicent putting tons of work as predicted with diancie and flygon down but with their job done. Really risky play from Afro Smash on turn 33 but really payed out letting jellicent stay in on the tangrowth predicting the ancientpower (perhaps? it looked like a sack to me to get to durant and iron head something then proceed to clean with fletch). Fletch comes in and cleans it. Well played, jellicent putting work and fletchinder putting inmense pressure even with no SD. Enjoyable game tbh.

And, no week 5. We having some salty suite matches and Im glad to see that none of the RU community members are getting into beefs (I know there are but lol, none have time for some salty suite apparently). Guess there is All Stars week also coming soon so lets discuss the matchup I guess:

ORAS RU: Windsong (3-1, Indie Scooters) vs New Breed (3-1, Congregation of the Classiest)​

Cheers! Cya on Week 5!!

 

[Senpai D.M]

Will 49 win when we return? Find out next time on SPL z

 

[Scythe.]

former tier leader and RU SPL 5 demolisher SilentVerse has just been drafted to the bigs!!

 

[atomicllamas]

Did this for UU so I might as well do this here, read into this what you will but at mid season here is the how people's record stack up by W-L then by strength of schedule.

Mid Season Ranking

1. New Breed (3-1)
2. Windsong (3-1)
3. Luigi. (2-0)
4. Scythe. (2-1)
5. atomicllamas (2-1)
6. aim (2-1)
7. Esteemed User Ginku (2-2)
8. Meru (2-2)
9. Afro Smash (1-0)
10. galbia (1-3)
11. alexander. (0-1)
12. qsns (0-1)
13. Kushalos (0-2)
14. 49 (0-4)

At midseason Wolfpack, Scooters, and Classiest are 3-1, Tigers, Sharks , Raiders, Cryonicles, and Ruiners are 2-2, Bigs are 1-3 and Falcons are 0-4. The only team that opted to invest in dedicated RU help at midseason is the Bigs who bought SilentVerse. Not sure if the BIGs are planning on starting SV or just having him help out galbia (or maybe they'll alternate or something :o) but I definitely think this could help turn around the BIGs RU season if SilentVerse decides to log off LoL for the rest of the season. Cryonicles also bought HJAD, not sure how much help he will offer Scythe. in RU, but he can sub in there if Scythe. has internet issues again. 49 technically had the most difficult strength of schedule in the field, so I think he has a pretty good chance of turning it around for the second half of the season. Based on Ruiners buys at midseason it looks like they are going to be sticking to Luigi. as their starter in RU, which isn't a horrible choice given that they had 1 win total in NU and UU. I also think Ginku is gonna do really well in the second half of the season since he is the most solid player playing RU in this SPL in my opinion.

Looking forward to playing Scythe. next week, his builds have been pretty interesting and seem solid so far so it should be a fun one :o.

 

[Pearl]

free kushalos he dindu nuffin