Tournament OMPL X - Week 7 (Tiebreaker @ #59!)

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Osake

Hasta Siempre
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Wigglies are dead but legends never die so I'm still here

AAA Review of Week 7 by ex-manager of the Wiggly Family Osake

This week was kinda weird and we saw more unusual stuff, and two unexpected match-ups in Career Ended vs avyrie and Beka vs Potatochan, and the two 5-1 players also got defeated, so it was a suprising and quite funny one!

1653320591137.pngavyrie vs Career Ended1653320603790.png

Probably playing their first AAA game of their life due to the randomization of the line-up, Career Ended brought the same team as shiloh vs PandaDoux during Week 5, but this time we actually knew the sets, aka TC Band GDos, Band Tinted Golisopod, and Pixi Koko. avyrie on the other hand brought some kind of classic balance with Pex/Corv/Chomp/Scarf Gene, and then an interesting Talonflame but mainly an Hydreigon which sees its first use in OMPL. Considered as trash by our loved Tier Leader, I think it actually has a niche atm with Tapu Fini being way less common (in tournament games) and Jirachi being one of the main special wall. Calcs of the Dragon Maw set are also stupid as it can OHKO's Blissey with minor chips after a Nasty Plot boost. We'll see which set it is on this game, but it is pretty threatening on paper.

avyrie immediately leads Talonflame that indeed has a great match-up here and blocks Mew's Volt Switch with their Garchomp, and then double on Talonflame against the incoming Blissey, that is known to be Magic Bounce (due to the previous game and the fact that you don't send Blissey against Chomp if you're not Bounce) and there avyrie clicks Will-O-Wisp, probably expecting the Mew but Blissey just clicks Teleport and can gain the momentum. After a couple of turns, Career Ended brought Zapdos-Galar in front of Corviknight with an unknown ability (its not Intim or DS, and FF doesn't fit well here. Maybe it was Volt Absorb, or Magic Bounce) and we'll never know it as Zapdos crits Close Combat and Corviknight just disappears. I don't think avyrie clicked Brave Bird so I don't know how much it mattered, but it's still annoying cuz avyrie loses their Flying-resist. Talonflame comes to revenge kill and is tricked by Mew - this was really a risky play, cuz if avyrie red the Trick and was able to prevent Mew to have their Scarf back, Talonflame was probably solo winning. But the play worked and now Talonflame is completely useless (ot almost). After a lot of turns were nothing happens, Career Ended is able to bring Zapdos in again and with the lack of Flying-resist Garchomp just get OHKO'd by Brave Bird. However, avyrie is finally able to bring in Hydreigon against a frozen Excadrill that thaws instantly, and it reveals Flame Orb which probably includes Flare Boost or Quick Feet. It also prevents Blissey from paralyzing/poisoning it, which is cool. Sadly, it loaded into Band First Impression Golisopod, which is really a painful MU since Blissey can just Teleport on it and revenge kill. Golisopod does 44 to Toxapex which is wild af LOL and Zapdos-Galar comes on the recovery, threatening once again avyrie's team. Fortunately, Toxapex only takes 72% and is able to Knock the Choice Band off, and can now PP stall it with Recover + Black Sludge. Career lets Zapdos die on Brave Bird's recoil and takes another kill with Golisopod against a weakened Toxapex. This now looks dire for avyrie as they are in a 3 vs 5 with no immunity to Earthquake anymore. Fortunately, their Genesect has some Dragonillis' power and freezes once again the Excadrill, allowing Hydreigon to come in and to do a solid 28% at Blissey at +2!! which just Teleport on Golisopod to force it out. The endgame is pretty quick at this point as Mew is able to put Toxapex in Golisopod range with Volt Switch and Golisopod just one shot Genesect with First Impression lol; Hydreigon comes to RK, kills Tapu Koko with Fire Blast (revealing Quick Feet, but the 28% was already a sign) and Golisopod just cleans the game, with Hydreigon still taking the kill on Mew.

This game was funny and I'm quite happy to finally see a Golisopod being strong after so many time, it was really the star in this game. Hydreigon managed to take two kills but it was kinda disappointing as it showed its lack of power vs Blissey. The crit on Corviknight definitely helped Career Ended but I don't think it changed the game much, Golisopod was still a beast and once the Talonflame was tricked it was kinda over for avyrie. We can also notice that Career Ended got their first win of the season in AAA, which is funny, but I think they played this better than avyrie and played well their Golisopod despite a full Toxapex on the opposite side. We won't see them again, and avyrie ends up with a sad record, but dw I did 2-6 and I'm still the best AAA player ever, always follow your dreams mate!

1653320679354.pngBeka vs Potatochan7891653320695683.png

Another match-up of outsiders, the returning Beka vs the new comer Potatochan, who's gonna win? As Career Ended, Beka brought a known team, but this time it was more a meme team than anything else. I don't know if it was a real call - this team does have favorable MUs, like it's not trash, but it's not reliable - or they just wanted to meme bc they were already in/were tired of AAA and just wanted to load a fun one. aesf even posted the team in his team dump in the AAA chan, but I don't think Potatochan knew this. Potatochan brought a quite classic but efficient balance, with the same core as avyrie in Garchomp/Scarf Genesect/Toxapex, and others classic mons in Zapdos/Heatran/Mew. If it wasn't Scarf Mew and breaker Genesect, their offensive core was kinda sus but with Zapdos/Garchomp/Heatran/potentially Mew, you have opportunities to make slow progress.

Heatran instantly reveals Protect, which will certainly be a pain for Beka cuz Protect vs Mono Band allows you to scout every moves. Heatran is then able to immediately put Rocks up which is really annoying for Beka, but Celesteela is able to come and OHKO Heatran with Earthquake but... no cuz it's Levitate! and then Heatran is able to OHKO Celesteela with Magma Storm but... no cuz it's Flash Fire! (and it was also Lava Plume, which I don't really understand cuz one of the point of LeviTran is that it can actually trap Garchomp, so Lava Plume feels weird). It also reveals Toxic the turn right after, and Lava Plume + Toxic has a weird synergy, and Beka's Mew reveals Teleport to bring Celesteela in, and to fire off a powerful Stone Edge that OHKO's the incoming Zapdos... but it missed! That's a big rip. It doesn't necessarily change the game a lot, but it's still annoying for Beka as it's even more difficult. Potatochan also takes a lot of times the turn right after, probably realising the kind of team they are facing LOL and searching a bit to find it. After a few turns of both players clicking U-turn, and Mamoswine being unable to setup Rocks vs the Magic Bounce Mew, Beka's Mew reveals Close Combat and Heatran shows once again why Protect is broken in this MU. Beka's team is getting weakened little by little by Rocks + U-turn and it's getting difficult, especially since his mons aren't really able to get clean OHKO except vs Heatran but it has Protect. Toxapex is able to setup Toxic Spikes which is huge to win even faster and Genesect tried to 1v1 it with Iron Head but Prankster prevents the flinch so it just doesn't work, but it gets a crit and Toxapex lives with 2% which is really sad for Beka, but since Toxapex Knock'd the Choice Band Genesect is able to kill with Extreme Speed. Zarude is then able to kill the Mew but that's all, and Garchomp can 1v1 it later because it was full HP Zarude (or almost) so it was slower ;_;. Beka revenge kills with Genesect and makes a good read by clicking Blaze Kick on the incoming Genesect - Potatochan probably expected Ice Beam? why not and then Garchomp can cleans the game, avoiding Genesect flinches and the Mamoswine at 4% is only able to setup Rocks for the joke.

This was really a favorable MU for Potatochan, and I'd liked to see how they would have played in a 'longer' game to see how they'd break with their team. It also showed how inconsistent the Mono Band is, and Beka didn't have a lot of room to play, esp with Rocks and Tspikes up on their side. Both players played this well, and Beka probably had a chance without this Protect Heatran, but eh, that's life. It was a fun game at least!

1653320769606.pngshiloh vs MZ1653320759001.png

After the pairings of outsiders, we now have two battles between the top AAA players. The first one opposed shiloh, who was in 5-1, supported by stresh and that had shown a lot of solidity in all their games, and MZ, who was in 3-3 but also the only one that defeated luisin so far, and supported by AAA seasonal winner Osake (the best). shiloh's team featured all the best mons in the meta atm, with maybe Lando-T as a niche pick but they used to like it, but it was a pretty solid build overall, and there isn't a lot of things to say about it. Some sets can vary, and the Scarf user is unkown, but the structure overall is easy to understand. On the other side, MZ decided that Ice was a fake type and brought 5 weakness to Ice with only Ferrothorn as a "resist". We can notice once again a classic core of Garchomp/Ferrothorn/Zapdos/Mandibuzz, that varies a bit but still features Chomp + Bird + Steel + weather control, and an offensive core of Salamence + Dhelmise. If the Salamence is Aerilate Facade, it's pretty threatening for shiloh's team and, on the other hand, if Genesect is Ice Beam and unlocked, it's dire for MZ.

Basically, both assumptions were true: Salamence was Facade, and Genesect Ice Beam unlocked, so the game was: who will win first. Genesect immediately reveals that its mixed with Blaze Kick + Ice Beam and it immediately claims a kill on Mandibuzz, and then also reveals U-turn to do a solid 52% to Dhelmise that Tricks its Choice Band on the incoming Blissey. It clicks SD on the incoming Heatran and Garchomp is sent as an answer. Then happens a very lucky sequence for MZ, where he dodges Toxic with Garchomp and flinches Heatran three times and, getting every read correctly and clicking Stealth Rock and Swords Dance on the Protect, MZ is able to almost kill the Heatran without having the Rocks on his side which is huge for Salamence - and the Heatran is almost dead. Heatran was Levitate, which is why Garchomp didn't click Earthquake, by the way (and it did not receive Grassy Surge heal). Mew comes on the Rock Slide and both players are able to setup a layer of Spikes, with Ferrothorn revealing the Chople Berry on Mew's Body Press, which is huge cuz Mew also reveals Volt Switch which means it doesn't have Ice Beam. A few turns later, Genesect comes on the field and reveals that it's Magic Guard and not Sheer Force as we first thought, and kills the Dhelmise. Zapdos then comes to revenge kill and is able to activate Salamence's Flame Orb with U-turn. After a couple of turns of Zapdos doing Zapdos things aka spamming Hurricane against the whole team, Salamence is able to come on the locked Blissey clicking Soft Boiled, which means a free Dragon Dance esp since the Mew doesn't have Ice Beam. There, MZ clicks Facade which is a weird play, but I think he was afraid of Scarf Jolly Landorus-T with Stone Edge which was a possibility and since the Salamence was Adamant (that's bc Im dumb, it should be Jolly 100%), he didn't want to take the risk. Mew and Fini both take a lot of chip on the Facade and MZ switches out in front of Fini, probably to not let Genesect take a free kill? I'm not sure; but Ferrothorn reveals Curse and is able to kill the Tapu Fini and to do a solid 74% to Blissey. MZ lets Ferrothorn dies on Blissey's Seismic Toss which was risky and then proceeds to setup Salamence once again, but this time clicks Dragon Dance on the incoming Landorus that was probably Scarf but not Jolly and Salamence kills it with Facade and basically wins a game that took more than 40 turns which a lot considering that both players had a 6-0'ing wincon, which against raises the point of AAA not being at all "who has the most broken breaker" but how do you play around it and when you're actually able to bring it in - here, MZ didn't let Genesect come freely often which allowed him to win with Mence first.

This game was pretty straight forward ngl, and it should've been easier for MZ if Salamence was Jolly as it was just a 6-0. Genesect not being Sheer Force was also huge as it was not able to OHKO Zapdos, that had defensive invests (and shiloh prob feared full Speed at the beginning too), and despite having 5 weaknesses to Ice MZ only lost two mons to Genesect. I will not talk much of my build as it didn't show a lot of things here, 5 weaknesses to Ice was a risk that I took because we were facing shiloh and classic balance shit was probably not enough, so I took the bet of no Mamoswine and Scarf Beam Genesect is easier to play around. The Salamence should 100% be Jolly tho, to outspeed Scarf Gene at +1 notably and others things like Landorus and that's on me, but I'm happy that the Mence call worked here. Not the greatest game, esp with the sequence vs Heatran (although Mence was winning earlier if it clicked DD on the Mew switch even with Rocks), but still happy that MZ defeated both luisin and shiloh, and also ends with a positive record lol that would have been sad if my support doens't even provide this ;_;

1653321087886.pngThe Number Man vs luisin1653321101499.png

Last AAA game of the week, that was clutch if Lopunnies wanted to have a tiebreak - which they got -, whereas luisin was just trying to get the best AAA record of the regular season, esp with shiloh's lose earlier. The Number Man brought a mix between shiloh and avyrie team with a solid defensive core of Tapu Fini/Blissey/Mew and the Koko check aka Excadrill, and avyrie's offensive core with Talonflame and once again Hydreigon, that saw two uses in the same week. luisin brought two uncommon mons in Latios and Thundurus, and then the classic beauts' core Garchomp/Scarf Genesect/Chansey and Corviknight to vary a bit. Thundurus was probably there to Knock Off Jirachi and Chansey, which is cool for Latios, and depending on the set it had a quite a good match-up, being faster than 5 mons out of 6 and threatening almost all of them.

Tapu Fini immediately Knocks Genesect's Choice Scarf which isn't really an issue, and Talonflame comes on eat the hit and proceeds to burn the incoming Garchomp. It then reveals U-turn, meaning that it's a more a support Talonflame with only Brave Bird as a powerful attack. Blissey comes on the burned Garchomp showing that it's Magic Bounce (as in Career vs avyrie game) and is able to put its own Rocks up a few turns later. Garchomp is then able to put its Stealth Rock too, but Hydreigon comes on the switch and starts firing off powerful Dark Pulse that are doing 29% to Chansey and, with some luck with the flinches, TNM is actually able to 1v1 Chansey with his Hydreigon lol. After a few turns of switches, with both players removing the Rocks, Hydreigon comes again and does 91% to Corviknight lul, with Latios coming on the U-turn to do a disappointing 38% with Psyshock on Tapu Fini. Thundurus reveals that it's Primordial Sea, which is cool with Thunder/Weather Ball/Knock Off and potentially Superpower, which means that almost nothing on TNM's team is able to switch on it, but is forced to switch-out by Tapu Fini that later proceeds to Trick the CM Latios which ends up doing nothing in this game. Gensecect gets a freeze on Mew - dang, Ice Beam really froze a lot this week - but Mew instantly thawed out :( and Hydreigon just comes on the field and OHKO's Genesect. Thundurus is finally able to come on the field and reads well TNM by clicking Thunder on the incoming Tapu Fini, thus not revealing Superpower if it has it which is cool to bait. Sadly, Mew is able to live a Thunder and Flip Turn's Thundurus to put it in range of Talonflame, and Thundurus dies having done little. The game at this point looks really hard for luisin, and TNM got the last read right by healing Mew on Latios' Psyshock, but Hydreigon was probably cleaning anyway.

The game was well played by The Number Man and he used his wincons better than luisin, as Thundurus could probably have done way more. He also gave its first win to Hydreigon, for the delight of Isaiah, and overall played this better and ends up with a positive record of 4-3 too. luisin's team was cool but Latios had a hard MU here and Thundurus wasn't able to do as much work as it could, but the flinches on Chansey also forced luisin to just die slowly yo Hydreigon which is sad. This win, combined to cityscapes' one, allowed Lopunnies to tie vs Tyrantrums which is cool for them, and I hope we'll see a great tie break!

This concludes the AAA review of this last week of the regular season. Analyses were shorter but I felt like there were less things to say. Maybe the games were less interesting, maybe I believe that after 6 weeks of analyses I don't need to explain things as much as before, maybe I have less motivation, I don't know. I'll try to make analyses until the end of the tournament, and I hope you liked them so far! I would like to thanks the Wiggly Family for their run, great time among you, and I wish the best for all the remaining teams: provide us good games!

Take care everyone :heart:

Due to staying awake quite late to support my team (until 5am my time), I wrote this review quite tired and there were a lot of typo mistakes - I've corrected some of them by rereading quickly but if you notice any others, or feel like I could've gone more in depth at some point, feel free to tell me and I'll correct/adapt the review!
 
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UT

Roaring 20s, tossing pennies in the pool
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Tiebreaker

Tiebreaker
In the event of two teams being tied for a spot in the finals based on points and win differential, or a tie in the final round itself, we will have a tiebreaker round(s).​

Tiebreaker Rules: One metagame will be picked by each manager, and each manager will also pick one metagame to strike. Additionally, each manager will submit a backup meta to strike in case their choice is the same as the opposing team's pick. The third format will be determined at random by the hosts from the remaining unpicked, unstruck metagames. In the event that the picks and strikes from each manager are the same, the hosts will determine both the second and third format at random based on the remaining options. All three metagames must be unique, so no format can be picked twice.​


Matchups

:lopunny: The Larping Lopunnys (adem and DerpyBoi) - [0][2] - The Temper Tyrantrums (OM and drampa's grandpa) :tyrantrum:
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): zioziotrip vs Potatochan
SS Godly Gift: Jordy vs Mossy Sandwich
SS STABmons: pannuracotta vs Finchinator

Deadline:
10:00 PM (GMT -4) on May 29th, 2022
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): zioziotrip vs Potatochan
SS Godly Gift: Jordy vs Mossy Sandwich
SS STABmons: pannuracotta vs Finchinator
 
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hayedenn

forgotten me already?
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SS Godly Gift: Jordy vs Mossy Sandwich
- I have not seen Jordy play GG before (he very well may have) but the tier is fairly easy to get a grasp on for someone as experienced as he is. If Jordy builds his own teams rather than using Instruct's (no shade), which I have not been that impressed by, I think he is in a good position to win here. Mossy hasn't had a great OMPL so far, and I think some of his teambuilding has been suspect, especially with his Sun team. If the matchup is even and neither gets cheesed, which is of course possible, I am taking Jordy.

SS STABmons: pannuracotta vs Finchinator
- I got clowned on a little bit for supporting Pannu in stab, but here they are playing the person who bodied him w2. Despite that hot start for Finch, he has gone on to get a bit of a mediocre record considering the standards that were thrust upon him after said bodying of pannu. I think this game will be settled in the builder, with the player that gets matchup going on to win. I know that seems a bit obvious, but I trust both players' abilities to win the games that they're supposed to. Pannu has shown a good proficiency in their building thus far in OMPL while the Tyrantrum's has been more suspect, which is why I'm bolding Pannu > Finch.

nya pannuracotta do not fail me
 
Predicts:
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): zioziotrip vs Potatochan: Potato is the greatest player on showdown idk what to say,
SS Godly Gift: Jordy vs Mossy Sandwich: Jordy goated don't trip, theyre gonna pull out some fire shit bro
SS STABmons: Pannuracotta vs Finchinator: Even though finch is very very good and they're cool, its THE cotta(they'll probably hax finch but yknow a win is a win)
 

Clas

My death was... greatly exaggerated
is a Tiering Contributor
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): zioziotrip vs Potatochan - zio good but u be trippin if u think hed beat potato
SS Godly Gift: Jordy vs Mossy Sandwich - dont doubt the moss
SS STABmons: pannuracotta vs Finchinator - toss-up, finch won last time but has been on a decline as of recent. still think finch wins if theres no hax, otherwise cotta likely has the advantage this time
 

Fardin

Tournament Banned
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): zioziotrip vs Potatochan - picking 2v2 as ur choice of a tie breaker is pretty fucking odd, i dont have an opinion on this but i heared pomatochan is really good as a player

SS Godly Gift: Jordy vs Mossy Sandwich - jordy is goated, as long as he uses kartana bo with 4 attackers and 2 slow pivots, he will win 100%



SS STABmons: pannuracotta vs Finchinator - this is a guess so im not sure, but i assume the team with potatochan was the one who chose 2v2? which leads me to believe adem and derpy were like "i think we can rely on pannu to take on this tie breaker for us vs finch, i mean they are 5-2 afterall."
if they did chose pannu, i think this was a simple case of the managers not even having any context for how the 5-2 happened in the first place and was just hastly decided that this is a sound decision (its not). finch should probably take this, but ive seen enuf from pannu this tour to believe no matter how low the chances are, they will one way or another actually end up winning. im bolding pannu purely for the obscurity of pokemon as a competitive game, and how well they were gifted by the gods in it.
 

a loser

I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me?
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a loser's OMPL BH Review: Week 7
anaconja vs. Tea Guzzler
:Xerneas-Neutral::Solgaleo::Yveltal::Groudon::Giratina-Origin::Chansey: vs :Regigigas::Zygarde-Complete::Xerneas-Neutral::Melmetal::Chansey::Yveltal:
Tea Guzzler makes their OMPL debut using a very stresh-like build that looks similar to the teams he brought against me and Ren (but no Etern this time). anaconja looks to be a little soft on Xerneas, depending on what Solgaleo and Groudon do for the team.

Several pivots and scouts start the game off, with Toxic Orbs activated for anaconja's Xerneas and Tea Guzzler's Regigigas, and we see Tea's Pixilate Xern do a nice chunk to Imposter and that his Melmetal is Prankster. anaconja brought Fur Coat Giratina-O with Glare and STABs that clicks Core Enforcer a few times to make Zyg-C burn two recovery moves. We see that Solgaleo is likely Magic Bounce as it takes 21% from Facade and a few switches later anaconja's Xern gets a spike up and paralyzes Tea Guzzler's Yveltal with Tina-O's Glare. Yveltal removes the spike with Aerilate Rapid Spin though and does a good job of denying Imposter Chansey recovery with a Chansey that actually has minimum Atk investment.
anaconja's softness to Xern on preview begins to come to light as Boomburst dents anaconja's Xerneas and does 37% to Solgaelo. He gets a chance to catch his breath, though, when Xern goes for V-create on Solgaleo but hits Groudon instead and gets forced out. Things get bad again quickly though, when Tea Guzzler's Imposter comes in on Yveltal and starts spamming Boomburst and ends up crit-killing Solgaleo with Knock Off. Over the next series of turns, anaconja comes up empty trying to predict a Xern switch and catch it with Glare and ends up having to sack his own Xern to get Imposter back in safely. It takes damage from Spikes though, chipping it further before it pivots out and then anaconja's Yveltal goes down to Imposter while spinning away the spike and at this point the battle is pretty much over.

You could say the Yveltal crit on Solgaleo was unfortunate, but 65 BP Knock Off was doing 33-40% anyway and I assume the Yveltal would have been faster than Solgaleo. anaconja's team really just lacked solid Xern counterplay, which is not good against a stresh/Tea Guzzler core as they love Xern. There wasn't much he could have done here to make the game go better outside of massive luck with para hax, maybe.

Nihilslave vs TTTech
:Groudon::Lunala::Zygarde-Complete::Celesteela::Zamazenta-Crowned::Cresselia: vs :Regigigas::Xerneas-Neutral::Palkia::Heatran::Giratina::Melmetal:
Nihilslave's team looks strange on preview. It doesn't look like offense or screens balance with these mons but it also doesn't look like semi-stall. We'll see what it ends up doing. TTTech comes roaring back with a familiar cast Regi/Xern and Tina but brings along Palkia (likely improofed by Heatran) and another Melmetal.

Multiple Flip Turns by TTTech open the game as Heatran takes a Nuzzle from Lunala and Regigigas has its orb activated. Moldy Don gets in to set Stealth Rock but gets forced out by Palkia, who likely surprises Cresselia with a Nuzzle. We see that Nihilslave's Lunala set has an interesting moveset with Nuzzle, Spikes, and Worry Seed that can somewhat mess with Regi/Xern though it can't stop them from pivoting or setting Spikes. Nihilslave starts making some progress with Aerilate Steela and Prankster Cresselia paralyzing Xern and chipping it with its helmet and then for some reason TTTech just sends in Giratina to be killed by Lunala. I guess he was trying to bounce some Spikes back and heal up in case Nihilslave anticipated a switch to Regigigas. But this lets Palkia back in to face Lunala and TTTech goes for Nuzzle again here and ends up just taking more helmet damage. This leads to us finding out that Heatran is indeed Water Absorb for the hard-improof and a few pivots later Nihilslave brings in Zama-C and uses Swords Dance as Palkia comes in.
Things get weird here, as Palkia has only taken damage from hazards and helmet at this point but Nihilslave takes out +2 Zama-C and brings in Zyg-C while Palkia heals. This leads to a terrible sequence for Nihilslave where Steela goes down to Core Enforcer followed by Fishious Rend and Lunala comes in to be hit with Nuzzle and be fully paralyzed twice while taking massive chip from Rend. Forced out, Nihilslave brings in Cress to pick up helmet chip and stall it but it winds up having Prankster suppressed by Core and getting fully paralyzed while somehow only taking 45% from Rend. This means that Palkia isn't Adapt and probably is Fur Coat, which justifies pulling out Zama-C at least. But now Nihilslave is in a big hole and has to sack Groudon to Rend and then sends in Lunala only to double out and sack Zyg-C so Lunala can heal with Regenerator. A full health Lunala scares out Palkia but this allows Gigas to come in and get a spike up, ensuring that Cress is dead meat. Lunala ends up paralyzing the Palkia, who later goes down to Zama-C but paralyzes it in the process which allows for Gigas to clean up with Precipice Blades for the win.

The full paras against Nihilslave were pretty lame to see and definitely helped put the nails in Cresselia's coffin. On the other hand, the Fur Coat Palkia set using the Adaptability moveset (but with Core) was very well positioned in this matchup. Props to TTTech for bringing solid nicknames. I don't always understand them but they make me smile. Also for the second week in a row TTTech is part of a match with no repeat mons.

Andyboy vs Ballfire
:Ho-Oh::Zygarde-Complete::Barraskewda::Xerneas-Neutral::Regigigas::Melmetal: vs :Xerneas-Neutral::Regigigas::Zygarde-Complete::Lunala::Ho-Oh::Zamazenta-Crowned:
When in doubt, just bring the team that the tier’s best player just used, I guess. Works out cause you just click the button for the funny move and andy should have experience doing this with the fish in other tiers. Ballfire is repping a very meta-looking team.

The game gets out to a slow start as we get confirmation that andy is using stresh’s fish team. There is lots of interaction between both sides’ Zyg-C and Regigigas while they click their STAB moves and pivot around until the fish is finally brought in on a pivot and it becomes clear that Ballfire is in a pickle. Fur Coat Lunala is sent in and takes 56% from Fishious Rend, chipping it with helmet, but now Ballfire has to pick someone to sack and chooses Ho-Oh. This allows Zyg-C to come in and stall a few turns recovering what health it can and chipping it further with helmet before falling as well. Ballfire then brings in an unrevealed Zama-C and andyboy plays it safe here, taking out the fish to bring in Ho-Oh. This leads to a sequence where Ballfire gets somewhat back into the game with Regigigas, spamming Spikes and spreading paralysis, but loses this slight momentum when andy is able to get Zyg-C back in and heal up. More slow pivoting on andy’s end leads to Ho-Oh KOing Xerneas and from here andy is able to finish off the rest of Ballfire’s team thanks to Lunala getting poisoned and Ballfire having no means of breaking Zyg-C. The fish comes in to finalize the matter.

This was the longest game of the week but it was really just a matter of time before the fish got in and just won as Ballfire had absolutely nothing that could check it so long as andyboy didn’t play terribly and allow it to be paralyzed or worn down by Spikes and helmet. The game lasted longer than it should have as andy waited around and let Ballfire spams Spikes and Facade with Regigigas due to having no Ghost-type but ultimately the Spikes weren’t going to be an issue with Boots Spin Xern in the back.

cityscapes vs quojova
:Celesteela::Entei::Xerneas-Neutral::Regigigas::Chansey::Eternatus: vs :Eternatus::Xerneas-Neutral::Chansey::Dialga::Kyogre::Palkia:
cityscapes continues to rake in cash by sponsoring the Entei Lovers Fan Club and quojova's lineup looks eerily similar to his team against ItsChew but with the order switched up. This could be to hide a recycle or a way to mess with city's head on preview.

Both lead with Imposter and we see that city transforms first and realizes she'll have to sack someone to Nuzzle or else be trapped. Celesteela comes in to take the Nuzzle and promptly uses Trick to give the incoming Kyogre a Choice Scarf in exchange for an Assault Vest. city's Imposter scouts Dialga next to see it is the same FC set that got para haxed to oblivion against Nihilslave earlier in the tour and then quojova scouts Celesteela to reveal a unique Regen set with Trick, U-turn, Circle Throw, and Defog. A slow pivot lets DesoLand Entei come in and it Nuzzles Dialga on the switch and Xern comes in on the predicted Core Enforcer. Xern uses Spikes to get a layer up and a few turns later, after PH Palkia is revealed, Xern comes back in and starts booming. Kyogre is now a liability without the AV, taking huge damage from Boomburst and forcing quojova to send in Imposter. city makes some bold plays here to just spam Boomburst more against Imposter, who is playing it safe by sapping and spinning, and gets chipped decently before city brings in a badly bred Imposter to somewhat deny recovery from Sap. This leads to doubles from both sides and Palkia facing Entei.
Palkia uses Nuzzle while Entei gets Stealth Rock up and city makes a risky hard switch to Eternatus who takes some chip from Rend and activates a Flame Orb. This is risky cause quojova could have spammed Nuzzle until he got bored here and I think not doing so was a poor decision as there is no way city would risk sending in Xerneas there. So Etern is likely Flare Boost and Kyogre comes in on all the hazards and dies to Core Enforcer. Dialga follows this up by coming in and takes 70% from Earth Power and chips Etern slightly with Anchor Shot. Not spinning or using Core here was also a weird play but I guess quojova really wanted to take out Xern. Dialga goes down the following turn and Xern comes in and forces out Etern with the threat of Extreme Speed, which it uses to do a little damage to Entei. Here city makes a strange play and doubles out to bring Etern back in but quojova stays in to KO it with Boomburst. Now city can send in Imposter, who cleans up Xern with Boom + E-Speed and KOs Palkia with two E-Speeds but gets paralyzed in the process. Now Eternatus can come in and it starts spamming Strength Sap to stall the limited Boomburst PP and finally sets up with Nasty Plot when Imposter full paras. We see this is the same Simple Plot Eternatus from last week and in two unfortunate turns Etern misses two Blue Flares and drops to Boomburst and the battle is effectively over.

The misses were pretty bad for quojova but +3 Blue Flare actually wouldn't have KOed Imposter Chansey from that range (unless the Xern was -SpD, then it has a chance to KO, or if Etern was a boosting item instead of Lum this time). The only real chance quojova had to win here was to KO Xern here (or 2HKO it with the help of a full para) because taking any more chip from Boomburst would put it in range of E-Speed from city's Xern.

Metagame Observations
Three Melmetal. Am I seeing this right? Did we go back in time to pre-DLC BH? Everyone who used Melmetal this week won so maybe they are on to something. The fish returned for the third week in a row and picked up its third win. In unsurprising news, Xern and Regi led the way in usage once again.
In the shortest week so far, the average length of games was only 51 turns. This was helped by all the games being fairly lopsided, with the winning side of each battle having at least four more mons left than their opponent at the end.

Upcoming Matches
TTTech vs cityscapes or Nihilslave - I’m predicting the Tyrantrums to win the tiebreaker here so I think it will be a rematch of TTTech and Nihilslave. Tech definitely had some luck on his side in this recent match but I think this will be a toss-up as both players are playing well right now.

xavgb vs quojova - a rematch from Week 1 but a lot has happened since then. These teams tied overall that week so I’m not sure if the managers (mainly stresh) will shake up the lineup at all due to Tea Guzzler’s solid performance. If the rematch stands though, I’m leaning slightly toward stresh to win this one based on experience and overall skill in the builder.
Apparently I got the standings wrong so the matchups based on my prediction would be TTTech / ItsChew. vs quojova and xavgb / Tea Guzzler vs Nihilslave / Ren. This could be interesting considering Ren was the only one to beat stresh but again I'm not sure what the playoff lineup will be despite the Spindas winning the week. I think TTTech has to be the play for BH in this position after chew's cheese wasn't able to break past quojova a few weeks ago.
 
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