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