SPL XII - BW Discussion Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.

HIGHLIGHT TEAM


I have chosen this team for the synergy it has. The Tyranitar + Magnezone + Ferrothorn makes me quite interesting to show everyone. Unfortunately in his game vs SW he did not achieve his best work but in any case, the team was also very creative. Rotom-W also helps this team to gain a little more momentum which Latios and Gliscor appreciate a lot, I'll try to see if Caetano can give us a little summary of his team so we can see. Anyway, the Gliscor makes the job of glueing the whole team and with SR and Ice Fang he can put enough pressure on the Gliscor that I mentioned earlier
Hey, ty for the spotlight. Here is the team explanation:
The idea here is to abuse more standart structures with ferro+ latios with the Eject Buttom Ferrothorn. The main target for this is Latios but this also work really well with Alakazam since this Ttar here is Thunder wave (it need the paralyzes or a well trained Alaka just shread the team apart). It can work traping opposing ferros, but a hard switch to Specs Zone is more effective to avoid hazards. I made it Specs here because i didn't need the speed of a Scarf and a heavy hitter is still usefull in any MU. Gliscor have SR to soften the Ferrothorn moveslot, since with the eject tech it rarely have time to lay a lot of hazards and the Ice Fang is to solve the glaring weakness of this structure, SD Spdef Gliscor.Rotom-W is standart to grab momentum and also gives counter-options in the rain MU. Latios is Scarf because its the best revange killer and to soften a HO MU (and alongside Eject Ferro it worked wonders in the tests). The only MU this team didn't have an easy solution was a Gastro + Celebi balance, and to my personal nightmare, SW also bought a Spdef SD Ice Fang Gliscor. I did my best there but only with a miracle I could have won that atrocious MU.
 

peng

fuck xatu
is a Community Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnus
Thoughts on Week 3 teams so far (SW vs Fakes, Finch vs Caetano)

For non-video people
:tyranitar: Choice Scarf Tyranitar
Seen quite a lot of ScarfTar in SPL this year, including two appearances this week. Effectiveness of ChopleTar seems to have been gradually waning, as it often tries to do too much in one game and this can be easily taken advantage of by slapping loads of "Tyranitar-weak" pokemon together. A lot of the balances we've seen so far have moved "Zam/Reun-checking duty" away from Tyranitar onto other slots (lots of SDef Glisc, SDef Exca, Celebi, SDef Skarm etc) so that Tyranitar can run a scarf set, giving these teams better options vs typical balance killers like Terrakion, Garchomp, Starmie, Kyurem-B.

:heatran: Magma Storm Heatran
3 appearances in 3 weeks for Heatran, popping up with Magma Storm strats every time (and probably Sunny Day though unconfirmed). Good mon, good set. Always putting in work despite the absence of rain. Also, has anyone missed a Magma Storm yet?

:mew::latias: "New" Double Psychic
Soulwind ran out a different psychic spam than we're used to seeing, with Stallbreaker Mew + Latias. Stallbreaker Mew has always been an under-the-radar way of forcing burns on things like Tyranitar - this is just difficult to make the most of in the current meta because the obvious pokemon that benefit from this (Reuniclus) overlap so heavily defensively with Mew that you struggle to pull a solid team together. Latias (which I'm assuming is CM Refresh) is a real sleeper pick to take advantage of the burnt Tyranitar, along with burnt Ferro facilitated by a second Wisper, Rotom-W. Fakes' Heatran + Reuniclus shut down these Will-o centric strategies entirely and protected Tyranitar / Ferrothorn from status, but still a really cool way of utilising those two underexplored BW mons.

:magnezone: Celebi sand teams can use loads of cool Magnezone sets
McMeghan-style sand teams feature again this week, with Finchinator following the lead set by Insult and SW. I mentioned last week that ScarfTar-variants of these teams have loads of flexibility in Magnezone sets, including an unrevealed item slot on Soulwind's zone. This week Finchinator showed us yet another option - SubSalac with Charge Beam. Teams like this are typically shaky against Alakazam, so I like how proactive SubSalac Alakazam is as an option to patch-up this weakness. Behind a Sub, at roughly +4 SAtk and +1 Speed, you can often make Alakazam come to you and force a sash break to revenge kill it. Really nice choice, and I think Finch is quickly dropping his reputation for only using standard builds.

:kyurem: One moveslot away from success
Kyurem has always been a bit of a sleeper pick, and is exactly the kind of mon I'd expect Caetano to see the value of. I think he correctly noted that a lot of standard builds suffer at the hands of Substitute Kyurem, including a lot of Tyranitar / Ferro / Rotom-W / Lando-T / Latios-esque sands and Poli / Ferro / Tenta / Latios / Keldeo / Thundy rains. Knowing that Finch has somewhat of a reputation for these styles of teams, Kyurem seemed like a solid choice to gain an advantage. Caetano was probably disheartened to see Milotic in team preview, especially with Refresh, which caused huge issues for Kyurem + status strats. SubProtect was a good choice here if Caetano was hoping to see Ferrothorn by allowing it to reliably pressure stall Gyro Balls, but there must be frustration at how effective SubRoost could have been in this match-up!
 
Last edited:
[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Caetano93 [SCO] - Let's see if i'm able to break my horrendous MU luck in this game. :D

[BIG] FMG vs Fakes [CLA] - I'm a huge fan of FMG in newer gens but I don't like him in BW. At the same time, I'm trully impressed with Fakes in his last week game.

[TIG] dice vs Frania [RUI] - Dice is back, YAY. Happy to see the only other dude with builds more crazy than mine back in the tour. I'm curious to see how Frania and the Ruiners will prepare versus a guy that is almost unpredictable, but I think dice win here.

[TYR] elodin vs GaryTheGengar [WOL] - Elodin 3-0 LMAO. Yeah, i'm bolding my br friend and i just hope that this doesn't curse him for his first lose.

[CRY] Finchinator vs SoulWind [SHA] - Finch is 3-0 and doing a very good job in this SPL. Since i liked his games more than SW, I'm going with him. However, I will not be surprised if SW won here since he still is the best BWer of the site. Highline of the week and probably of the tour too.
 
187521.jpg
[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Caetano93 [SCO]
394051.gif

Many will think that I have something against Jimmy because so far I'm not betting on him, but let's look on the bright side. He has had quite respectable rivals in the field of BW (insult, frania and watashi) and has come out positive (2-1) showing that despite going as a light favorite for many and for others (as in my case) having a small disadvantage has played very well and above all the feelings are positive with his game in these first 3 weeks. In front he has a rival like Caetano who unfortunately had to deal with the 2 best BW players on the tour in the last 2 weeks (Soulwind and Finchinator) making his record at the moment a 1-2, but already in the last spl and throughout 2020 he showed us his ability to come back through his offensive game. The game starts a priori as even, but my vote of confidence goes to or doctor.

310493.gif
[BIG] FMG vs Fakes [CLA]
109467.jpg

Ok, Fakes has given the biggest surprise so far from this SPL (and not just from BW anymore ....) he played a game against SW simply perfect, and despite the fact that SPL XI was not the best for him, he started on a VERY good path with a tremendous victory that opened up possibilities for him to set a good record and, most importantly, help his team fight for the playoffs qualification. On the other hand, FMG is an out of series in new gens but I do not think I say the same in old games since I have not seen much of it (and more in this generation) because the most recent game in BW is in the Classic of the last year. We will see how he does it, but this day there are chances of seeing Fakes win again.

126615.png
[TIG] dice vs Frania [RUI]
317670.png

The most even duel of the week, both so far have no victories and are looking to get out of a bad streak that haunts them for 3 weeks. On the one hand Dice that unfortunately we could not see him in action the week before but that the genius of crazy constructions is back. Frania has had the luck against in her games no matter how well she played them.
Duel to recover good feelings and above all duel of different styles, puff difficult to predict....
I leave it outdoors, but this is for anyone.


145572.png
[TYR] elodin
vs GaryTheGengar [WOL]
114541.jpg

Elodin 3-0, that's my only argument to justify why I'm betting on it.
Jokes away, the guy has shown a solidity seen only in the best players, and he has left feelings of being part of that group of players. He is one of those responsible for why Tyrants is the first place with a noticeable difference with respect to the rest of the teams (in addition to being undefeated).
Gary said it last week, he defends himself in BW and I was not surprised by his victory against Frania being practical and safe in his plays.
I think elodin will get the victory again.



114198.jpg
[CRY] Finchinator
vs SoulWind [SHA]
64874.jpg

Do you realize that BW is together with ss ou and gsc the gens that get the best matches in this present SPL?
Will it be because of the quality of the players? Will it be for the games even and above all entertaining for the viewer?
Well, I think that the 2 questions are affirmative and the 2 maximum referents of this generation today, will face each other. Without a doubt the game of the week in this SPL, players with a veteran and extensive experience who have a track record with each other going back several years on big tours.
The game that SW lost I don't think will affect him too much, in fact it will make him stronger, but the motivation that I believe, Finch feels for a simply perfect start (3-0) will make him the winner of this game.
Great duel that absolutely no one should miss. :blobthumbsup:


PD: Good luck to all of you in your respective games and hopefully we have fun like every week.
 

peng

fuck xatu
is a Community Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnus
No video for the last 3 games but some notes I had:

:garchomp: Outrage-less Chomper is a balance killer
I've been down on Garchomp for a little bit and struggle to justify using it on teams. However, the recent uptick in balance teams may have changed Garchomp's fortunes a little. Teams stacked full of SDef Gliscor, Skarmory, Celebi, Gastrodon, SDef Excadrill, Reuniclus, Tyranitar and the like really struggle to play around Garchomp which sets up freely on Celebi, so they often rely on waiting for it to lock into Outrage so that Skarm / Exca or a Scarf Tyranitar can deal with it. This seemed like a trend that was easy to take advantage of, if anything a little bit predictable - just don't run Outrage on Garchomp, and what can these teams do against it? Although we didn't see elodin 's full set, I very strongly believe it to be SD / Dual Chop / Earthquake / Aqua Tail @ Yache Berry, which gives his rain team an incredible match-up against all the balance teams going round - Aqua Tail in rain ruins Skarmory and also hits common Outrage targets like Gliscor and Landorus-T which Dual Chop feels weak against (it could be SubSalac but that feels shakier vs skarm/gastro teams). Dual Chop has some other niche uses which justify it over DClaw, including beating Sash Alakazam and also letting you hit Thundurus-T behind Sub. Frania takes things in a different direction, instead taking advantage of ChainChomp which is just as hard for balance to play around. Noting that Protect + SDef Gliscor can serve as an interim answer to ChainChomp (max damage from Rash DMeteor is approx 68%), he picks up Hidden Power Ice here giving him an insane match-up against tons of the early SPL sand balance teams. Unfortunately we didn't get the Garchomp vs Sand balance match-ups that would have showed off these sets at their best, but regardless these are both really smart decisions considering the direction that sand builds have been going in the last few weeks.

:tyranitar::skarmory::jellicent::heatran::latios::alakazam: Jimmy laid a trap
Needless to say I love these 6, since its been mine and many others go-to ladder team for the better part of 2 months. The common version of this team is old-school sand balance built around the defensive utilities of Skarmory, Jellicent, and Heatran and their ability to spread status and lay down hazards, with double Taunt disrupting the progress of the opponent. Eventually, the stage is set for double Psychics to do their magic. When watashi stares this down at team preview, he's probably therefore expecting a pretty slow, give-and-take game between two balance teams, only for Jimmy Turtwig to reveal he's playing an undercover hyper offense team! Really cool squad. Sitrus Jellicent is a creative way to help spinblock vs Excadrill whilst also staying out of 2HKO range from things like Alakazam. Caught myself, and tons of others, off guard with this. Would have loved to see what the Heatran set is, as I can't imagine it being SubProtect without a defensive Skarmory partner.
 
Last edited:

elodin

the burger
is a Tiering Contributoris a Two-Time Past SPL Championis a Past SCL Championis a Past WCoP Champion
World Defender
[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Caetano93 [SCO] - Caetano had a rough start to the tournament. If we're looking at this realistically, his record right now should be an 0-3 and his only close game would've been his first one vs dice, arguably his easiest opponent thus far, since he then faced SoulWind and Finchinator. That said, we all know Caetano is a player capable of pulling impressive wins and maintaining solid records. I find it extremely unlikely that he would have such a bad start to the tournament, and I'm very confident in his ability to start netting wins from now on. So far he has been very unlucky regarding his team choices, getting some pretty unfavorable matchups in his last 2 matches, but one wonders if that's something that is just bad luck of if it's an aspect of the competition himself and his team are not putting enough effort in. Jimmy has turned around his season after an amazing game week 2 against Frania and a very convincing win vs FLCL last week. That said, even though I saw just how well Jimmy can play week 2, his week 3 match really didn't impress me that much considering how easy it was to pilot that win after getting all hazards up. He didn't really make any mistakes, and he has shown us how well he can play, but it just seems like the stakes are much higher for Caetano this time around. This should be a close match, but I do think now it's the time for Caetano to bounce back in this tournament which means he should take this game more seriously than ever, and I do believe he's a quality player who's able to clutch a win here.

[BIG] FMG vs Fakes [CLA] - We finally saw Fakes' BW debut last week this SPL. He had a very impressive showing, beating the best BW player on the site while playing an overall solid match, and one would be silly to not think that's a pretty amazing feat. While I'm a huge fan of FMG's modern gen prowess, he's a player who has never really impressed me in BW particularly, and I'm fairly unsure as to how well he's gonna perform vs an experienced player such as Fakes. I do think this will be a close match and if FMG manages to get a favorable matchup I'd give him the upper hand, but betting against Fakes right now doesn't seem like the wisest decision.

[TIG] dice vs Frania [RUI] - dice has had a very unfortunate SPL so far. Realistically he should probably be carrying an 1-0 record under his belt at least, maybe even a 2-1 had he played week 3. Things really aren't going his way this tournament, but I still think he's a top 2 player in this pool and should be able to start netting wins from now on, unless he gets as unlucky as he did week 1. Frania has also been very unfortunate this tournament, losing his week 1 and week 3 games on very unlucky breaks, but while his week 1 game was extremely clean, his last couple weeks haven't been the same. There were plenty of mistakes in his week 2 game vs Jimmy, where he was the one getting a lucky break and still couldn't clutch the win due to playing too passively. He did get pretty unlucky last week, but there were also some poor decisions in letting Rotom-W get chipped early in the game and not being confident enough to pull triggers with Landorus-T early on. Even though I do feel like Frania should probably have a positive record by now, dice is a more confident and more experienced player who's likely hungry to start netting wins for his team, so I favor him in this matchup.

[CRY] Finchinator vs SoulWind [SHA] - Even though SoulWind is coming off a loss week 3 and Finchinator has put up a respectable 3-0 record thus far, I still feel like betting against the Spanish would be a rookie mistake. Records don't really mean much when you take into account factors outside of the sheet. While Finch and I are both 3-0, I got an activity win vs one of the toughest players in the pool and he got very lucky breaks week 1 in his match vs Frania. That's how the game and tournaments go, so I don't mean to discredit Finch on his great season so far, but the fact SoulWind right now has a worse record doesn't mean he isn't the most consistent player between the two. Not only that, but SoulWind has personally always impressed me whenever he faced players of great caliber, which I consider Finch to be, so I feel like he has the upper hand here. His ability to pilot a wider variety of teams should be extremely clutch in this particular matchup, as I feel Finch's team choices are more predictable and exploitable as well. Highlight of the week for sure.
 
Last edited:

Nalorium

is a Tutoris a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris the defending BW Circuit Champion
World Defender
WEEK 4

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Caetano93 [SCO]
[BIG] FMG vs Fakes [CLA]
[TIG] Dice vs Frania [RUI]
[TYR] elodin vs GaryTheGengar [WOL]
[CRY] Finchinator vs SoulWind [SHA]

Jimmy Turtwig vs Caetano93

Welcome everyone to a new week of the SPL, so lets start!, in one corner we have the doctor who comes off a not very good run due to his MU's, who has shown us very curious sets throughout these weeks. Personally, I really liked the kind of ideas that he is using and I hope this time it is not the exception. In the other is Jimmy, this boy in his last game surprised me quite a bit although I was quite thoughtful in the way Watashi played. I hope to see a very interesting game, although I think it is a bit in favor of Caetano

-

FMG vs Fakes


Was I the only one who was surprised when seeing FMG on BW? Tbh Im a big fan of watching FMG SS OU, but I don't know to what extent FMG ability in BW OU. He's a pretty solid player overall so I don't doubt he can do well in BW. On the other hand is Fakes who sincerely blew us all away when he beat SW. Honestly I cannot declare a 100% sure winner but I am opting for Fakes due to his performance in the last week.

-

Dice vs Frania


Here we have my second favorite match, the craziest builder in the pool is back, Dice. And not far behind is frania, who honestly things are not going the way we all would like. I think we are going to see a very interesting game on the part of both of them and in the same way, quite curious teams. I think frania will have a hard time preparing a team against someone so unpredictable and someone who has only played 1/3 weeks.

-

elodin vs GaryTheGengar


Elodin is leaving us all surprised with his impressive performance throughout the weeks, he has remained constant and using quite curious sets. I think he will be the winner of his match against Gary who had a bit of luck in his last game. I don't think Gary is capable of defeating Elodin, but maybe with the help of BKC, Shawyu and his other teammates could give us some surprises.

-

Finchinator vs SoulWind

Bruh's stream

I wait a full year to see these 2 face off once again in the SPL, and you ask, was it worth it? it was worth every damn second. Finchinator with a solid 3-0, taking out very solid teams wants his revenge against SW for their last matches. Finch is blowing me away with his team selection lately, personally I never thought I'd see him able to use milotic, but he shut my mouth when I saw his impressive performance with milo. In the other corner is Soulwind, who did not have the most favorable game vs Fakes. But anyway every time I see SW play, he every time amazes me at the ability to elaborate some plays that he does. They both have an incredible ability to buildear and play their games. Finchinator supported by Posho and his other teammates and Soulwind + MDragon, what could go wrong? Who will win? Who will lose?


WEEK 3
SETS AND TEAMS TO
HIGHLIGHT



SUBSTITUTE + PROTECT KYUREM



Kyurem @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
- Substitute
- Protect
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power

This rather curious set, that I am not going to lie, left me thinking about its usefulness and why choose Protect instead of Roost. The biggest problem I saw at first glance was "What happens if he loses Politoed and the climate that remains is Sand", but I came to the conclusion that really with Landorus + Politoed they should win the war against TTar and that if it came to facing a Latios Spamming Draco meteor or a ferrothorn with a gyro as Peng mentioned, could be quite useful. I will be testing it and I hope to see Caetano use a similar set in future occasions


[I'll edit this, when they pass me the pokemon set]


HIGHLIGHT TEAM




Finchinator surprised us all when his Milotic destroyed Caetano's Kyurem, this team is perfectly structured in my opinion, I don't want to talk about this anymore since in a few minutes we will have the analysis of the creator, but I can only say that Magnezone + Milotic is a core that I would like to see more often as this could work magic against what is being used lately. Refresh complements Milotic very well who helps the team a lot and gives support to Gliscor to be able to break the rival team more easily. In summary I see this team very solid and quite difficult to break, due to the defensive core of Milotic + Celebi who against Sand and rain teams this duo makes it great. Lets wait to Finch goat analysis.

- - -

Overall Usage Stats are up here!

WEEK 3 USAGE STATS



BW OU

Leads / Combos / Moves + Teammates
Code:
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Tyranitar          |    6 |  60.00% |  66.67% |
| 2    | Latios             |    5 |  50.00% |  60.00% |
| 2    | Ferrothorn         |    5 |  50.00% |  40.00% |
| 4    | Landorus-Therian   |    4 |  40.00% |  50.00% |
| 4    | Politoed           |    4 |  40.00% |  25.00% |
| 4    | Tentacruel         |    4 |  40.00% |  25.00% |
| 7    | Excadrill          |    3 |  30.00% |  66.67% |
| 7    | Keldeo             |    3 |  30.00% |  33.33% |
| 7    | Thundurus-Therian  |    3 |  30.00% |  33.33% |
| 10   | Heatran            |    2 |  20.00% | 100.00% |
| 10   | Celebi             |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 10   | Skarmory           |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 10   | Alakazam           |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 10   | Garchomp           |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 10   | Rotom-Wash         |    2 |  20.00% |   0.00% |
| 16   | Jellicent          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 16   | Magnezone          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 16   | Milotic            |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 16   | Gliscor            |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 16   | Reuniclus          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 16   | Breloom            |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 16   | Mamoswine          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 16   | Scizor             |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 16   | Kyurem             |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 16   | Mew                |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
Nalorium Out.:pirate:
Most likely tomorrow I will edit this post with the sets that will be delivered to me tomorrow
 

Finchinator

-OUTL
is a Tournament Directoris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past WCoP Championis the defending OU Circuit Championis a Two-Time Former Old Generation Tournament Circuit Champion
OU Leader
Nalorium asked me to explain my team from last week as the highlight, so here are some of my thoughts from the teambuilding process:

The team I used week 3 against Caetano93 was different than my normal approach; one of my observations from Caetano93's first two teams was that he adapted his playstyle to match-up well against the norms of his opponent very well. I wanted to deviate from my norm of using things like Latios (previously used it in 12 consecutive games) and Ferrothorn (everyone spams it, but I have high usage as well) as well as stray from my typical bulky-offensive approach in order to not have weaknesses overlap. In addition to this, I wanted to be super conscious of status moves and status spread due to the wide array of potential poison and burn spreaders in the metagame.

After taking a look through both Caetano93's team history as well as my own, I determined that I wanted to use an Ice resist that was not Rotom-Wash and I wanted to use a Keldeo and Thundurus-Therian check that was not Latios. There were some other early parameters I set on my team construction process, but few of them stood out to this specific team like these two. Also, I was watching some games from prior weeks and I realized there was a structure used multiple times that had a difference pace than my norm that seemed quite effective, making me very curious. This archetype being the Sand balance that Insult used week 1 and SoulWind used week 2, both seeming to be loosely based off of an older McMeghan team that utilized Amoonguss over Celebi.

What I really liked about these teams is how they made use of Celebi, which does very well against common Rain options like Thundurus-Therian lacking Nasty Plot, Keldeo, and Breloom. They knew that the main way to take advantage of it was Spikes from Ferrothorn or Skarmory, so they paired it with both Magnezone, to remove the Spikers themselves, and Excadrill, to remove the Spikes they set. Right off the bat, I decided I wanted to try to give this archetype my own spin, so my team started with the trio of Magnezone, Excadrill, and the aforementioned Celebi. From there, adding Tyranitar was a formality -- it provided Sand to further dissuade Rain, it gave the team a Pursuit trapper for enemy Psychic types, and it had potential to either function as a special tank or a surprise revenge killer. Ultimately, I went with the latter, leading to a Choice Scarf set, but there are absolutely variants of this team that can make use of the former if they opt for Choice Scarf Landorus-Therian as the fifth member. However, I preferred Gliscor as a more defensive member, which also solidified the concept from before about being strong against opposing status due to it having Protect + Toxic Orb with Poison Heal to shrug off opposing status. Gliscor + Celebi made it so that it was hard for status to make a long-term dent in my gameplanning. Gliscor's main purpose was to give the team a Ground immunity and I even opted for a more physically defensive set to help with Excadrill and Swords Dance Garchomp.

At this point, I had Magnezone, Excadrill, Celebi, Tyranitar, and Gliscor. This is the same first 5 of the team that Insult and SoulWind used I alluded to before. Their last was Gastrodon, but my teammate Posho advised Milotic and I actually quite liked it. I never intended to use Gastrodon here as I feel it leads to some very risky match-ups. For starters, Caetano had used Leftovers Jolly Mamoswine against me multiple times in recent tournaments and, as I said above, I wanted an Ice resist. This left me considering Slowbro, Milotic, and even Alomomola, but Milotic stood out due to it being a lot less passive. The combination of Scald, Refresh, and Toxic while being a mono-Water type offers a lot. It is not Pursuit weak like Slowbro, it is not piss weak and Wish reliant like Alomomola, and it sticks with the theme about being strong against status. As you saw in the game, it helped with the Kyurem match-up and it would have also checked Jolly Mamoswine, especially when paired with Rapid Spin + Magnezone support to rid the field of entry hazards.

I had my 6 at this point, but I did make some adaptations set wise. First off, I went with U-turn over Baton Pass on Celebi. This allowed for Scarf Tyranitar to have a foolproof trap against Latios in most scenarios, as we saw in my game, and it means that I do not get outright 6-0d by a bulky Nasty Plot Celebi, which decimated the prior variants of the team. It also allowed for slight chip on Life Orb Reuniclus and breaking the sash on Alakazam. Of course, the trade-off was being Pursuit vulnerable, but Caetano would likely anticipate Baton Pass the first time around and by the second time, Tyranitar will have taken 25-30% from U-turn plus entry hazards or other attacks potentially, so it felt like something I could minimize. Another thing I opted for was a physically defensive Gliscor with Ice Fang. I had some special defense investment, but I wanted to be strong against opposing Excadrill, Garchomp, and Substitute + Dragon Dance Dragonite. Celebi and Refresh Milotic made me feel a lot safer against Rotom-Wash and Alakazam, too, which made me feel ok not investing in special defense as much. Finally, I opted for a Magnezone set only seen once before -- Smogon Tour finals in the game between Luigi and SoulWind, which was on a team I made as well (although Luigi gets credit for creating the Magnezone set). Substitute + Charge Beam + Flash Cannon + Hidden Power Fire with Salac Berry allowed for me to get multiple kills in many games when facing Ferrothorn teams and Caetano had sky-high Ferrothorn usage, so I felt confident with this choice. I did not feel the need to use Sunny Day with my current Rain match-up or Balloon + Magnet Rise with my current Gliscor match-up.

I know this was pretty long (sorry Nalorium oops), but honestly this was just brushing the surface for me. There are so many intricacies and considerations to put into BW teambuilding. I will be posting my teams and thoughts on here and YouTube for all matches after the season ends in all likelihood.
 

peng

fuck xatu
is a Community Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnus
Cool shit from week 4:

:thundurus-therian: 4 attacks Thundurus-T
Sky-high usage of Gastrodon looks to have triggered a return back to a Thundurus-T coverage option that we've not seen for quite some time - Grass Knot. FMG used a 4-attacks set to great effect in his game against Fakes, which lured in and removed Gastrodon early game. This set is a terror for these Sand balance teams to face, especially with Fakes opting for a physically defensive, GDrain Celebi. Soulwind also looks to have used a similar Grass Knot set, which he paired with Scarf Scizor to form a core that removes the common counterplay to Rain Keldeo (also seen in W3 by watashi). This 3-mon core is really reminiscent of the Ttar + Lando-I + Keldeo cores back in early BW2, where the combination of Pursuit and tech coverage options can remove Keldeo and Lando-I's counters for one-another. One to look out for in future!

:celebi: Celebi - not just a specially defensive Stealth Rocker
We've seen lots of specially defensive SR Celebi so far, clearly because of its ability to reliably set-up against anything on rain. However, Celebi has a huge support movepool that it can take advantage of if Stealth Rock is moved elsewhere (assuming Recover, a switch move, and a single STAB are mandatory) - NP and CM with Baton Pass; screens and Safeguard; coverage options including Hidden Powers and Earth Power; status moves like Thunder Wave and Toxic; Future Sight; anti-Reuniclus options including Worry Seed, Heal Block, and Perish Song; and even wacky stuff like Sunny Day to really destroy the Rain match-up. Celebi really has an insane amount of tech. This week we saw Fakes' drop SR on Celebi on his variation of the common Magnezone-style Sand Balance, which allows use of Nasty Plot + Giga Drain and a physically defensive spread - this provides a nice win condition especially with the replacement of SD Gliscor for Skarmory, and also enables passing to Gastrodon. GaryTheGengar uses Substitute + Baton Pass Celebi on his sand bulky offense, which helps to protect Celebi from its nemesis, U-turn Landorus-T, as well as nicely support Choice Band Terrakion. Cool applications all around.

:tyranitar: Thunder Wave Tyranitar
"Brazilian" Tyranitar was kind of laughed off as a gimmick not too long ago but has moved to the fore as one of the top options on Chople Tyranitar. Teams have increasingly relied on overloading Tyranitar with double or even triple Psychic, in many situations preventing it from beating Alakazam or Reuniclus in the late-game. Thunder Wave somewhat alleviates this issue by crippling Latios or Alakazam (assuming they don't stay in) meaning that even if Tyranitar is lost in the 1v1, you at least now have a full team of Pokemon that outspeed them. Also a clutch option against switch-ins like Keldeo. We've seen a lot of this since Week 1, either directly revealed or just strongly insinuated (I think Gary sacced a Scarf Latios very early against an Alakazam team last week, which would suggest a super confident Zam match-up so probably Thunder Wave?). This could be taken advantage of by...

:Alakazam: Sub Alakazam
This one didn't work out but I love that Frania had the balls to try this at the top level. Long ago, Sub + Life Orb Alakazam was a legit set before Focus Sash became completely dominant, for obvious reasons. Substitute prays on all the Protect spam in the format, with things like specially defensive Excadrill always trying to eek out the extra lefties recovery to stay out of Focus Blast range. In addition, Alakazam is great at forcing switches to provide set-up chances. Sub with Life Orb can be ridiculously scary to face, effectively building its own multi-use Focus Sash on free turns, but getting an extra 30% kick to all its attacks and therefore ruining common checks like SDef Gliscor, SDef Excadrill etc etc. In modern BW, Sub could be a neat option to capitalise on Thunder Wave Tyranitar, combined with Life Orb to steal surprise KOs through Chople. Definitely a high risk option but really really scary in the right match-up

tune in next week to see how else finch can use colbur latios
 

Finchinator

-OUTL
is a Tournament Directoris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past WCoP Championis the defending OU Circuit Championis a Two-Time Former Old Generation Tournament Circuit Champion
OU Leader
Really cool games this week. I was happy with my performance despite it being a messy one, but feel bad for SoulWind, who is clearly a stronger player than his record currently shows. Hopefully we get a cleaner game later in the tournament to see if that is, in fact, the only way I can beat him aha. The same goes for Caetano, who put up a close fight with Jimmy and his creative hail pick. I am excited to see him bounce back now that he gets to face some slightly less proven opponents. GTG has put up a great fight though, so it will not be easy for the Doctor here. Finally, it was great to see dice and FMG get on the board with some strong showings of their own!

Some thoughts on what we saw:

:Gliscor:

This thing may finally be coming back down to Earth after being everywhere. It was only used once this past week, which was me using a U-turn set. I think that variant is super underrated and will likely rave about it a lot once the tour ends, but for now it is cool to see more variance among teams and people reacting to this trend while also deviating a bit themselves. I am curious to see if there will be some rebound as the tour continues.

:Alakazam:

Alakazam is all over the place; we saw another four uses of it this week and I do not see this Pokemon dropping much in usage moving forward either. I personally am pretty low on Life Orb as Focus Sash accomplishes a lot of the same things while also having much greater utility, but there are a few roles and the ability to ease prediction with Substitute that make it a unique option on some teams, which was showcased this week and peng touched on it. I expect to see a steady diet of Alakazam Spikes moving forward.

:Reuniclus:

Joining the Magic Guard party, Reuniclus also saw four uses this week I believe. It is impressive that this Pokemon is as timeless and adaptable as it can be. We saw almost all different variants of it this week despite general conventions catering to the Calm Mind variants and I imagine that Reuniclus will continue to evolve with the tier like it always has. I think that Magic Guard (and using it with other Psychics/multiple users on the same team) is seeing yet another peak in the metagame, which seems to happen every year or two and should be expected at this point.

:Scizor:

The pesky alternative Pursuit user has been surfacing on Smurf HO as a breaker and now on a couple of Rain builds this week by both SoulWind and dice. It feels like Scizor's revival, which seemed to briefly stall during mid-late 2020, is now back in business. It will be interesting to see if people continue to use it to try and improve their match-up against the above Psychic types and Latios. Having strong priority is nice, too, if you opt for band. Scarf enjoys the speed, especially if you EV it to outpace things like Alakazam, which I feel is pretty important for maximizing utility of Choice Scarf variants.

:Seismitoad: :Hippowdon:

Fringe Stealth Rockers that handle common removal well have surfaced. dice has now used both of these bad boys and others have made Seismitoad work, too. It will be interesting to see if the metagame shifts towards them even more as time elapses. With people shifting away from Stealth Rock on (just) Tyranitar, it could be very possible to see them pop up increasingly often, even when paired with Tyranitar, especially in Seismitoad's case.

:Celebi:

This Pokemon has been surfacing on various Sand structures so far, but we saw a cool exploit with Substitute + Baton Pass this week from GTG. Fakes also used a Nasty Plot variant himself. Will Celebi keep up with the metagame or eventually bow out like it has done for the most part in recent years? I personally think it has some nice versatility and sticking power, but we shall have to see.

I also wanted to point out that we saw a game with no: Latios, Ferrothorn, Landorus-Therian, or Excadrill earlier and I really enjoy how people are trying to reinvent older archetypes, like Frania with this LO Alakazam Sand, or work through new structures, like dice with this quad Water Rain. The same praise is extended to both Jimmy and Caetano, who rocked similarly creative structures. Caetano's OTR Reuniclus DragMag had some BKC vibes from a couple of years back whereas Jimmy rolling up with Hail is absolutely an unexpected pick with surprising upside. That game presented us with some alternative strategies that are very much worth considering moving forward.
 
[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs elodin [TYR] - Since my predicts are cursed, I'm trying to help my friend elodin here... :p
In a more serious note, Jimmy is a bit better than elodin and have more team flexibility (more if the team already loses and he bring another Mr. Aboma). However, elodin have all the tools to do a very close game, MU win, or fish an act win. This can go at any side when the ps hax starts to show its ugly claws.

[CRY] Finchinator vs dice [TIG] - I'm bolding Finch versus everyone now. After his win versus SW, there is no reason to think he will not go 9-0. If finch where doing his predictable team patterns, then i will be bolding dice, but after 4 weeks of 0 |Finch-styles teams being used (boring standart) I think its time to start re-evaluate the old meme saying that Finch only bring Ttar + Ferro + Latios + Rotom + Lando. At the same time, if still exist a player in the pool that can be a road block to Finch perfect score is dice with his insanely cool build, but please don't bring Donphan again... I'm really hiped for this game and i expect a cvery hot anti-meta team from dice versus a metagame theory inovation from Finch. Gl both, week highline.

[SHA] SoulWind vs FMG [BIG] - I really don't see SW losing here... FMG is not bad but he is not SW level. I expect a good game from both sides but sadly, FMG will need to be with the crit mode activated to win this match.

[WOL] GaryTheGengar vs Caetano93 [SCO] - I think i discovered why i'm so ungodly unlucky in the last weeks. Let's see if i'm correct in this game.

[RUI] watashi vs Fakes [CLA] - Fakes is doing a very good SPL in BW this year. Also, he showed enought ability to defeated SW, a feat very few players can claim. I honestly didn't liked watashi game last week and with how bad the Ruiners are, I don't think he will do any prep for this.... So, yeah, Fakes is the favourite here.
 

Nalorium

is a Tutoris a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris the defending BW Circuit Champion
World Defender
WEEK 5

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs elodin [TYR]
[CRY] Finchinator vs Dice [TIG]
[SHA] SoulWind vs FMG [BIG]
[WOL] GaryTheGengar vs Caetano93 [SCO]
[RUI] watashi vs Fakes [CLA]

-
Later today/Tomorrow I'll be posting my thoughts and HL's from last week. Good luck to all players!

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs elodin [TYR]
[CRY] Finchinator vs Dice [TIG]
[SHA] SoulWind vs FMG [BIG]
[WOL] GaryTheGengar vs Caetano93 [SCO]
[RUI] watashi vs Fakes [CLA]
 
187521.jpg
[RAI]
Jimmy Turtwig vs elodin [TYR]
145572.png

In my humble opinion, I think it is the most even game this week. Jimmy has already shown a good game for several weeks and despite everything I always bet against him because of the level of the rivals he faced (and mainly because he had not been active in BW after the spore ban). In any case, he has kept my mouth shut and the record he is keeping in this SPL is highly worthwhile. And speaking of records, elodin has, like Jimmy, a 3-1 leaving good feelings in each of his presentations. Unlike other players, he draws more standard equipment but that are useful and functional. Pufff, brother this is a 50/50 at first glance and the game I feel that it will lean towards the best MU serve or for certain turns (some determining prediction or by the hax itself).

114198.jpg
[CRY] Finchinator
vs dice [TIG]
126615.png

I do not want to praise myself, but from the PR I announced that from what was shown and seen during the past year Finchinator could come out undefeated in this SPL.
It seems he's headed for it, I'm hopeful 9-0 (and the record may be even higher if his team makes it to the poffs)
But if there is anyone who can stop Finch's winning streak, that's it. He says that the past game has shown signs of improvement, returning to the victory path, making the previous one of this match have more hype (or at least that's what I feel).
Classic BW duel, two players with totally opposite styles and ways of building. Battle of the week without a doubt, the show will be 100% guaranteed.
My prediction? I think to go against a guy with 4-0 at this point is to be crazy because it is practically an automatic bet.


64874.jpg
[SHA] SoulWind
vs FMG [BIG]
310493.gif

Honestly and despite the fact that FMG swept Fakes with a probable Thundu 4 attacks, unfortunately he will touch him with a Soulwind that comes from losing 2 games in a row and most likely comes unleashed by the bad luck he has had. And of course, the desire to return to victory is very high and a player of his caliber has the aspiration and motivation to win absolutely everything.
I think that unless FMG gets a very good MU or tries to make the odd crazy play it will be very difficult.
Likewise, in a game like Mons there will never always be the odds, and I don't rule out any surprises.



114541.jpg
[WOL] GaryTheGengar vs Caetano93 [SCO]
394051.gif

Of course, if we talk about bad luck, another player who has had it in this SPL is Caetano. It is curious that he is the only player in this SPL who has brought the 3 most used types of equipment (rain, sand and dragmag). That being said, I suppose it will pull off something standart without wearing some fancy mon. Gary, for his part, continues to surprise me with his way of coming back from games (2-0 with victories against frania and elodin) and when you think he's about to lose, the guy keeps fighting and wins. We will see how he is doing now in his 3rd game, and although the records are totally opposite, I trust that the doctor will recover and come out of his losing streak.

46293.png
[RUI] watashi vs Fakes [CLA]
109467.jpg

I think we all agree that at the moment it is not being the desired SPL of FLCL or its Alpha Ruiners team. Bad luck? We do not know, I suppose that he will understand the reason for his bad start. There are still many days ahead to vindicate himself, and for my part I have hope that he will return to victory. But I don't think it's this day, although the guy is already part of the history of tournaments in Smogon, his previous game did not convince me enough compared to what Fakes is doing that with the victory he had against SW he demonstrated enormous skill . Here there may be several scenarios, the resurrection of Watashi and that it begins to take off towards the top or that Fakes wins in a solid way and without the game being closed at 100%.

I am grateful to Nalorium for creating this thread to share ideas and above all to discuss and analyze each of the games of this generation as fun as BW is.
Good luck to all players in their respective games and we look forward to some entertaining battles.

PD:
It would be very good as a suggestion that, like Finch, some players (not all, because obviously they are not obliged to do so) can explain how the preparation of their teams has been or give their reflections of the week because they are contributions that contribute significantly to the community.
:blobthumbsup:
 
[RUI] watashi vs Fakes [CLA] - Fakes is doing a very good SPL in BW this year. Also, he showed enought ability to defeated SW, a feat very few players can claim. I honestly didn't liked watashi game last week and with how bad the Ruiners are, I don't think he will do any prep for this.... So, yeah, Fakes is the favourite here.
And I already got one of the games cursed...
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5ou-541475

At the same time, Xatu still have 100% win rate. Obviously is an S tier mon.
 

Gamer1234556

"Because... Scald is a shit Ferro answer!!!"
Seeing Celebi and Scizor with a lot of usage in this SPL is really nice after their pretty rough declines in the meta's history.

It seems like most teams nowadays seem to be overloading on "Tar" weak mons (Psyspam teams with Latios, Reuni, and Zam), so having T-Wave instead of SR really helps. I just kinda wished Tar had, like, reliable recovery or something, so that it can deal with most of the mons it is usually good against consistently.

Also, am I the only one who thinks that Starmie really sucks atm? I feel like the central problem with Starmie is that it tries to do so many roles at once that it doesn't end up standing out in any of them. As an offensive mon, it faces competition with Keldeo and Thundurus-Therian (Since both have consistent ways to deal with the top metagame's staples) and as a spinner, it finds itself outpaced by Tentacruel and is cockblocked by Jellicent if it doesn't have T-bolt. I guess during the days when Hidden Abilities weren't a thing and Excadrill was banned was where it was at its prime, but nowadays it faces so much competition in every role that it doesn't end up seeing much usage as a result.
 
Last edited:

Nalorium

is a Tutoris a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris the defending BW Circuit Champion
World Defender
MU's

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs elodin [TYR]
[CRY] Finchinator vs Dice [TIG]
[SHA] SoulWind vs FMG [BIG]
[WOL] GaryTheGengar vs Caetano93 [SCO]
[RUI] watashi vs Fakes [CLA]

Jimmy Turtwig vs elodin

Welcome everyone to another week of the SPL, this time 2 veterans will open it. In one corner we have Jimmy, he's surprising me with his teams. In the last week we saw a strange variant of the popular sand team but this time changing TTar for an Abomasnow. I like the way he's playing and I'm sure the help from Raiza has been great for him. In the other corner we have Elodin, who although in the last week did not have the best game, he has been quite constant using curious teams with interesting sets. I will slightly say that Jimmy is going to be the winner of this match, who I think with the help of Raiza will be able to defeat Elodin. Although I still feel that it can end in a fairly closed game

-

Finchinator vs Dice


This week's game highlight will feature Finchinator who is rocking a solid 4-0 against some very good opponents, using pretty solid teams and I hope he continues to surprise us with solid teams. I feel that at this point he has become a very difficult opponent to take down, but I do feel that sometimes he is somewhat vulnerable to sets quite out of the ordinary and the expert in that is Dice. Dice is a player that you can never predict what he will. But I feel that Finch's preparation for his matches and the experience of the times that he has seen Dice play will be enough to beat him. But as I said previously, Dice is completely unpredictable so I wouldn't be surprised if he manages to beat finch.

-

SoulWind vs FMG

SoulWind is not having he's best streak, although he has generally played he's games well, some crits have put it in trouble that has led to losing its games. On the other hand we have FMG, who is coming off a solid victory against Fakes, using a set that managed to destroy Fakes. Although it seems something quite strange and surely you disagree with me, I believe that FMG is going to be victorious against SW.

-

GaryTheGengar vs Caetano93

To culminate with this week's matches we find a player who is destroying whoever he crosses his path, GaryTheGengar. Although I am honestly not liking the teams he uses, they are working for him. So far we've seen that his 2 teams are certainly focused on getting their offensive pokemons under the sub. In the other we have Caetano who is certainly having very bad luck with his MU's, which has caused him multiple problems when playing his games. Anyway I feel that Caetano will be the winner of this match, since I do not see Gary very solid in general lines


WEEK 4
SETS AND TEAMS TO
HIGHLIGHT


AoA Thundurus-Therian




Thundurus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
Hidden Power: Ice
- Thunderbolt / Thunder (?
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Grass Knot
- Focus Blast

It's been a while since I saw this set work, but I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised to see it, the team of FMG was going through serious problems against Gastrodon, so this set really managed to do pure magic. In addition to working quite well for eliminating Gastrodon and Seismitoad, it is also a surefire way to eliminate a weakened Tyranitar without risking the miss. Slugs are probably no longer safe against Thundurus. It seems quite prudent for FMG to change the common substitute or NP for G.Knot, since these moves would not be very useful against the sand teams that are currently being used.


Life Orb Alakazam



Alakazam @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
- Substitute
- Psychic

Possible moves
HP Fire/Ice
Focus Blast/ Grass Knot
Shadow Ball/ Signal Beam

I have not seen this set since Caetano I use it in the final of the SPL, imo its quit creative this set but you depend a lot on your alakazam being able to put under sub so that this mon can really destroy, although without sub it is still quite destructive . I think it was quite a risky option for Frania but seeing that Dice does not use Tyranitar much, he could see it as a very useful option. Could this be the last time we see this Alakazam?


HIGHLIGHT TEAM


Today without any shame, I have become a fan of using Seismitoad under rain. Since I saw Dice use it, I have not stopped building things around him, it seems incredible to me the way in which he made this team work, besides being creative it seems to me that all mons have a perfect synergy, on the one hand we have Seismitoad In addition to being an incredible rocker, he has the ability to counter Rotom-W, a mon that causes great trouble to Gyarados and in general to some rain teams. After that we have Magnezone another pokemon whose purpose is to liquidate with Ferrothorn so that it becomes even easier for Gyarados to sweep with the rival team, continuing with that we have Tentacruel who is a great mon to provide the team a spin that Gyarados appreciates so much. And finally Scizor, who is quite useful when it comes to eliminating threats like Alakazam or Latios. I will not speak anymore and I will leave the rest to the creator of this masterpiece Dice.

- - -

Overall Usage Stats are up here!

WEEK 4 USAGE STATS

:bw/celebi:


BW OU

Leads / Combos / Moves + Teammates
Code:
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Tyranitar          |    5 |  50.00% |  40.00% |
| 2    | Ferrothorn         |    4 |  40.00% |  50.00% |
| 2    | Latios             |    4 |  40.00% |  50.00% |
| 2    | Alakazam           |    4 |  40.00% |  50.00% |
| 2    | Reuniclus          |    4 |  40.00% |  50.00% |
| 6    | Excadrill          |    3 |  30.00% |  66.67% |
| 6    | Politoed           |    3 |  30.00% |  66.67% |
| 6    | Tentacruel         |    3 |  30.00% |  66.67% |
| 6    | Skarmory           |    3 |  30.00% |  33.33% |
| 6    | Gastrodon          |    3 |  30.00% |  33.33% |
| 6    | Magnezone          |    3 |  30.00% |  33.33% |
| 12   | Landorus-Therian   |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 12   | Celebi             |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 12   | Keldeo             |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 12   | Scizor             |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 12   | Thundurus-Therian  |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 12   | Gliscor            |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 18   | Terrakion          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 18   | Abomasnow          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 18   | Mamoswine          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 18   | Seismitoad         |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 18   | Gyarados           |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 18   | Rotom-Wash         |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 18   | Jirachi            |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 18   | Garchomp           |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 18   | Kyurem-Black       |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
Nalorium Out. :pirate:
 
Last edited:




team sets

hi all, was hit up to outline this team. i didn't make this in accordance with my opponent's replays or tendencies or anything; i just wanted to make a generally strong team around gyarados as i've always had lots of success with it. the abundance of abuseable waters, glis/lando/exca, etc. give it ample set up opportunities in the current metagame. in addition, i had experimented lot with seismitoad sand in the past and found it useful, so i figured he could be a cool gyarados partner as a hard stop to electric-types. politoed and tentacruel were the obvious tack-ons, for rain and spin support respectively, and i had this shell of 4 mons in my builder with a lot other compositions for months. i fumbled between lots of ferrothorn abusers and steel-types to occupy the last few slots, but i ultimately decided on scarf scizor and magnezone.

i've used scarf scizor in my other game this spl too, and i find it to be a really reliable way to knock psychic types out of the game while staying useful. i've personally been using less and less chople tyranitar because it feels as though he trades 1 for 1 at best. if you nab a kill against lati@s or alakazam with an aggressive scizor play, you still have a fast momentum mon to keep up pressure. in practice, i just find that it's a really strong set to maintain an advantage and has a lot of cute applications.

magnezone just makes tactical sense with the rest of the team. he traps steels for the waters and enables a ferrothorn-soft composition otherwise. i'm pretty safe against excadrill, so no need for balloon business.

seismitoad covers the rotom-washes, thundurus (hopefully), is the status absorb, stealth rock, etc.

as for other minor sets choices: tentacruel has sludge bomb because breloom is a bit of a threat. i could use venoshock but i enjoy the poison chances more if they swap tyranitar or lati@s. politoed is chestorest because i decided

a) having 3 pokemon entirely clocked by water absorb would be bad, so it definitely needs toxic
b) i'm garchomp weak, so i need ice beam
c) i want to be able to feign a choice set and catch things with toxic, thus chesto rest (plus the survivability bit)

feigning my poltioed set actually won the game if you watched the replay. i didn't even play the early game that well.

just went with a bulky offensive spread. scizor has no steel move because you never click the steel move and bug bite lets you beat reun 1v1 most of the time.

i think that's about it. it's not a super deep concept or anything, i just wanted to enable gyarados by having the defensive core to hold down the fort until i'm able to release the kraken. it has a few holes but i generally think it's a cool team and i figured i could nab a win with it in spl since it isn't the easiest to read from preview.
 
Last edited:




team sets

hi all, was hit up to outline this team. i didn't make this in accordance with my opponent's replays or tendencies or anything; i just wanted to make a generally strong team around gyarados as i've always had lots of success with it. the abundance of abuseable waters, glis/lando/exca, etc. give it ample set up opportunities in the current metagame. in addition, i had experimented lot with seismitoad sand in the past and found it useful, so i figured he could be a cool gyarados partner as a hard stop to electric-types. politoed and tentacruel were the obvious tack-ons, for rain and spin support respectively, and i had this shell of 4 mons in my builder with a lot other compositions for months. i fumbled between lots of ferrothorn abusers and steel-types to occupy the last few slots, but i ultimately decided on scarf scizor and magnezone.

i've used scarf scizor in my other game this spl too, and i find it to be a really reliable way to knock psychic types out of the game while staying useful. i've personally been using less and less chople tyranitar because it feels as though he trades 1 for 1 at best. if you nab a kill against lati@s or alakazam with an aggressive scizor play, you still have a fast momentum mon to keep up pressure. in practice, i just find that it's a really strong set to maintain an advantage and has a lot of cute applications.

magnezone just makes tactical sense with the rest of the team. he traps steels for the waters and enables a ferrothorn-soft composition otherwise. i'm pretty safe against excadrill, so no need for balloon business.

seismitoad covers the rotom-washes, thundurus (hopefully), is the status absorb, stealth rock, etc.

as for other minor sets choices: tentacruel has sludge bomb because breloom is a bit of a threat. i could use venoshock but i enjoy the poison chances more if they swap tyranitar or lati@s. politoed is chestorest because i decided

a) having 3 pokemon entirely clocked by water absorb would be bad, so it definitely needs toxic
b) i'm garchomp weak, so i need ice beam
c) i want to be able to feign a choice set and catch things with toxic, thus chesto rest (plus the survivability bit)

feigning my poltioed set actually won the game if you watched the replay. i didn't even play the early game that well.

just went with a bulky offensive spread. scizor has no steel move because you never click the steel move and bug bite lets you beat reun 1v1 most of the time.

i think that's about it. it's not a super deep concept or anything, i just wanted to enable gyarados by having the defensive core to hold down the fort until i'm able to release the kraken. it has a few holes but i generally think it's a cool team and i figured i could nab a win with it in spl since it isn't the easiest to read from preview.
Grats on making Gyarados work in modern BW OU. Good luck vs Finch.
 
And the 9-0 dream is over... dice not only defeated Finch but also destroyed Milotic 100% win rate.
At the same time, we saw a no weather battle with no one bringing DragMag. Do you guys know how rare this is? Oh, and Finch also didn't used Latios. Cows are flying in this SPL...

PS: F*** you elodin, you lost using Xatu. :psyangry:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top