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Hey Everyone! This years SPL has started, and as such there's gonna be a ton of high quality ORAS games over the next few months, use this thread to discuss metagame trends, post your predictions, and just general banter in regards to ORAS OU this SPL.
Auction Results:
Heres everyone who signed up to play ORAS on each of the teams, ill put likely starters in bold text
Alpha Ruiners: pj, Eternal Spirit, Raptor, Booty
Circus Maximus Tigers: Seasons, Fc, BluBird, c0mp,
Congregation of the Classiest: Sylvi, MichaelderBeste2
Cryonicles: So Noisy, Lusa, Leru, -Tsunami-, Vileman
Dragonspiral Tyrants: LittleBigPlanet2, Chaitanya, Will of Fire, Isza
Ever Grande BIGS: Spl4sh, Devin, BlazingDark, FakeNagol
With the Ruiners getting knocked out of playoffs I wanted to draw attention to some mons and sets that I think are either surging that weren't very well known in the past or just straight up underrated in ORAS OU rn.
Scarf Volcanion is an absolute menace against a slew of teams. Being able to outspeed stuff like offensive Rotom, AV Torn, Keldeo, etc and just smash them with a second Steam Eruption after firing off your first means that you need way less chip to kill them. Also, this thing is just an incredible revenge killer into mons like Mega Diancie, Mega Lopunny, Serperior, Weavile, etc. Normally, choice attackers get absolutely ruined by Protect when trying to kill Mega Diancie, but the mons typically found on Mega Diancie teams, hate switching into Steam Eruption. I've found this set to be way better than the specs set if you're taking an offensive route for your team and can afford not running a bulky set. Unfortunately, pj never got the chance to use this monster in an actual game, but it's seen a lot of success this SPL and is probably my favorite Volcanion set rn.
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rock Tomb / Knock Off / Toxic / Swords Dance
- U-turn
It's pretty funny that this has somehow become an underrated Pokemon, but everyone and their mother has been telling me that Lando-T sucks and I just have to disagree. It ties together a lot of offensive teams very well by giving you an excellent pivot into some of the tier's premier offensive threats like Mega Lopunny and Excadrill while just providing the general physical offense deterrent against less common physical threats like Mega Charizard X and offensive Mega Scizor. Rock Tomb is my preferred filler move on this set for its ability to limit dangerous setup sweepers like DD Mega Altaria and QD Volcarona. Additionally, it removes the 50/50 turn 1 against DD Mega Charizard X so that you don't have to worry about predicting it to mega or not, which is vital for heavily offensive slanted games where one turn can flip the entire game. We ended up bringing it twice this year and it performed admirably in both contests, and I highly recommend considering it on offensive teams so that you don't fall into the trap of being as weak to Mega Lopunny as so many people are these days.
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Lava Plume
- Toxic - Roar
Once again, we actually didn't use this set ourselves because we never had need of it, but Heatran absolutely took off this SPL for its defensive attributes against many of the metagame's top threats coupled by the sheer annoyance that a burn spreader that adequately threatens clefable can cause. Roar is a really solid option on Heatran since it prevents you from falling victim to SubQD Volcarona shenanigans and is generally great as a phaser paired with Spikes due to the sheer number of switches that Heatran normally forces. If you have CM Clef counterplay that can deal with it later in the game yet want a way to phase it to prevent it from doing a lot of damage early, then this set is a perfect fit for your team. Heatran is insanely versatile and can run any number of move options ranging from Taunt on more offensive teams, to this set on Spikes stack, and even more offensive sets that capitalize on its tendency to be walled by Clefable these days. The sheer unpredictability of this mon is a lot of what makes it great and it's no wonder so many people spammed it this season.
I believe that credit of this set belongs to ABR, and it's been an absolute revelation for HO teams in the current metagame. Being able to provide emergency spin as well as the absolute nastiness that is sash Toxic Spikes. This set can completely flip matchups that would normally be unfavorable due to the sheer destruction that Toxic Spikes leave in their wake in certain matchups, and it can spin in vital positions for setup sweepers like Volcarona and Mega Charizard X that need it. All of this coupled with the very real threat of Shell Smash + Skill Link in a tier where a lot of the best ice resists get shredded by Rock Blast means that your opponent can get absolutely hosed if they guess your set wrong. Overall, this set has revitalized building HO for me and has brought a measure of consistency to what is historically a very risky playstyle.
Mew @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature - Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Will-O-Wisp
- Soft-Boiled
SR Mew is a really sick set that I love in this metagame, and it's particularly potent on the Mega Altaria + Magnezone stall team that we lost with in truly tragic fashion. Moving the SR responsibilities from Chansey to Mew makes it infinitely harder for Excadrill to spin on you and actually lets you keep them up against offensive teams. Not to mention, Knock Off is absolutely clutch against a lot of the mons that are typically good against bulkier teams by removing vital items. Removing Life Orb from Clefable, Leftovers from Manaphy, Choice Specs from Keldeo/Volcanion, Leftovers from Rotom-Wash, etc is extremely clutch and can win you games. Not only that, but this set can make use of Synchronize in very cheeky ways to disable big threats in tandem with Heal Bell support to turn those trades into purely beneficial plays. You can click Wisp against Magic Bounce Diancie and Synchronize burn to it so that it's walled by Chansey, Switch into Rotom-Wash clicking Wisp and send burn to him too, or even absolutely ruin a Gastrodon by giving it Toxic. With Mew's obscene bulk you can do stuff like trade against Weavile, which is one of the worst matchups for the team. Using this set makes bulky teams significantly more consistent overall from what I found, I highly recommend trying it out.
I hope everyone enjoyed reading this post, it was honestly very enjoyable to verbalize the reason why these sets are so good. Building and supporting ORAS OU for 10 weeks was an absolute blast and I look forward to being involved in the tier again next year!
Hi! I actually forgor we had an oras spl thread. I had fun writing something regarding the Volc Situation so I wanted to say something abt my Teams.
Jonfilch - MLopunny/Weaville/Slowbro/Excadrill/Clef/Torn T
This Team was selfmade (this can be taken as an opener for a pun) w/ help of MichaelderBeste2. I wanted to run BoltBeam and then Michael was like "why not thunder then". I got a lot of flame for running that clef for not being able to punish exca set but everybody starts somewhere, am I right..?
We wanted have good prio's since we predicted either some mlop/alakazam balance OR Hyper offense, the others kinda build themselves. Since the Team was really Weaville weak we decided to run Pickpocket to be able to steal weaville band..
In handsight that Team wasn't that good really but it was still fun to run.
Seasons - MScizor/Garchomp/Clef/Zone/Latios/Keldeo
I wanted to run my little Pony that week and I remembered blunder smashing soulwind in Smogon Tour in Finals with that Squad. We updated/adjusted some own moves and spread tho. We changed the Meta for Scizor since we thought it would deal way better w/ Seasons Scout and I am prettyb happy with the Team over all, really powerful and has a lot of playmaking abbilities.
False - MLatias/Torn-T/Crawdaunt/Clef/Garchomp/Exca
Since I called out Volcarona and I wanted to run Chomp offense back again I asked some ppl for Crawdaunt Teams since my attempt to make them work kinda flopped.. Seasons end up passing me this Team and I changed some stuff w/ Testing. Dauntis an underrated Pokemon w/ the combination of baiting Suits or against HO. I rather like SD then Band but it is also a great Set.
Neider - MMedi/Vile/Zapdos/Clef/Volcanion/Zapdos mncmt advised me to bring Mega Medi this week since the scout looked free for it and so I did. After many attempts of making a VoltTurn Tea, work xray helped me there with that Idea, I decided to pivot away from that and run a Squad that originally had MLop and just change it. In handsight the Zapdos should have had more spz attack.. Again a very fun squad to try out.
Spl4sh - MLop/Vile/Cofag/Exca/Thundi-T/Seismigoat
I wanted to finally run Tspike that week and after London Beats and I made several Versions with MAlakazam, I got into the known Lop/Vile Tspike Version. Refresh Toad with EQ was to beat Tox Volcanion. On a Side Note I wanna clarify one thing, Imade a huge blunder in Teambuilding there since on my old versions my Drill was always faster than Max Speed Tran and on this version it wasn't and nobody catched this and ended up mattering. But Team is known and I am not gonna pretend I made that squad.
WoF - MLop/Serp/Volcanion/Torn-T/Chansey/Exca
Since I had like 0 information what I should expect I brought something anti-offense since that was the only input I got. Team is strong and was used in Oras Invi as well, not my squad again. Nothing to say just some Chansey Offense.
Santu - MGyara/Cloyster/Mew/Serp/Volcarona/Thundi-T
Since we expected they gonna cteam us since I spammed MLop and Vile and moreBulky Offense I decided w/ my Team it is time to cheese. The Squad was build by my own w/ help by many to ask for opinions (to many to name them all but I appreciate all of you). Mega Gyara was originally Taunt but I got convince to switch to Sub. LO Volc is a relict of the past but I m damn sure that Mon is evil and pretty good w/ that Set. LO Giga is just stupid broken. Cloyster w/ TSpikes saw a recent trend in this SPL and I liked it as my choice of removal. Thundi T was also a great call in theory. I am overall pretty happy w/ the Team even tho some bad spirits really tried to gaslight me not to bring it
That conclude my Team Dump. I liked my Teams, some revamps of known Teams and some of mine. ORAS is a great spot and many things are viable and I am hyped what to see for next SPL in this Tier and for the rest of the year in the ssnl and circuit.
Until then, ORAS Community. If you made it this far, as always, much appreciated
I had wanted to post in the previous spl oras threads / the oras invitational thread but never did mainly due to not feeling satisfied with my performance. While I felt I've been at the top of oras for at least a year and a half now (really around when I qualified for stour) I never put up the results I felt I should be getting. After invi I had been liking oras as a gen and felt pretty confident going into spl, the gen had just really clicked for me recently. I had always been self sufficient in oras, even if a bit lazy occasionally, but I was pretty excited to work with TDK and felt like I could repeat my scl record under him. This is amusing to think back on in hindsight as I did mostly everything myself and was also pretty lazy a couple weeks. Oras is out of individuals as of now and I hope something comes of it as I think the meta is in a really good place at the moment. Just gonna share my thoughts prepping / analyze my games.
I wasn't really nervous for this game but moreso had anxiety for this being my opponents debut game. Losing to a completely unknown player would be extremely bad looks so I felt more pressure to win.
Sylvi is a player whom I had never heard of prior to now. Going into prep I just assumed he would be passed a team from Michael as I didn't see anyone else on that roster who could be the oras help. I compiled his invitational teams and noticed trends of similar and expected drill/torn/lop to be on the other side of the field. I knew a coffin balance would be amazing into him and made what was my favorite team I've made all season. It's a solid balance that can check basically everything, has orb cm knock clef which is big for making progress and lopunny for offense builds.
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Matchup looks solid and will probably come down to who gets the coffin turns right. Heatran lead was free as I don't really value it's leftovers since I can beat his clef with mine + sdef gastro. I plume > rocks t1 because free turn to fish burn so might as well get rocks up on the uturn. I pivot to clef on the slowbro's toxic although I was moreso trying to catch his clef with a knock. Turn 22 was funny, for some reason he is pickpocket weavile and he takes my life orb, which isn't super detrimental it's just funny that this turn happened in an spl game. Game was very close to over by turn 43 when I got the spike up, that trade was very worth it for me, although admittedly I thought he revealed moon as his 4th move. Game was over when he goes drill on the +1 moonblast, he can't remove hazards now nor can he break through clef + gastro. Was nice to start our season off with a win and also keep up my undefeated week 1 streak.
(I can't find logs but predicted he would bring 6 of lop/drill/torn/serp/volcanion/weavile/clefable/slowbro/rotom-w/coffin)
Looking at his teams when he's been under the ABR influence I felt like vincune + cresselia looked really good into him. There was a popular vincune team being used in the live weeks of the stour I qualified for and I used that as a starting point. I tried to build different variations of those two but basically felt like drill + malt + serp were mandatory and zone felt interchangeable but best as the last. Decided on serp moves and went with the team.
vs.
If his zapdos has volt switch this matchup felt unwinnable. He was multiple things for each of my wincons and azu (whether vest or cb) is a massive threat to me. Suicune realistically shouldn't win because volt always breaks sub and azu comes in. Serp is alright into these teams but I figure I'll struggle to get rocks up and I still have to get through zam + kyurem and get it in without taking much chip.
This game pans out really weird to me, I get alot more out of my suicune early game than I feel I should have including burning all of zam's encores. Trading drill for rocks felt worth to me, I go serp and pick a kill. Turn 25 feels like my big misplay this game, I should have went hard suicune on the jet as I know he's cb and I could keep the sack. I go cress to lunar dance the serp because suicune is going to get pp stalled by kyurem + his remaining mons. I get my suicune in again and am able to get it up to +6 and burn the kyurem. Turn 61 he opts to switch out, I think roost was the play because then I have 1 scald left and I get pp stalled by his clefable so twave clef into cb play rough can win the game still. My opp insteads decide to sack both his clef and his azu to burn all my scald pp and heal up the kyurem.
My big regret this game was not counting pp this turn, as if I had I would have switched out into serp turn 66 and saved two pp then my opponent would have been way more pressured to catch me on my other switch as I believe I only needed to switch twice to successfully pp stall. Disappointed I didn't count pp the turn but pretty happy with how I played this terrible mu and somehow managed to get myself in good positions.
Nothing but jank offenses the first two weeks I expected something more or less the same atp. Both teams had sand and they each got farmed by gallade so I hit up xray to use a team he had shown me a few weeks ago. Weavile, scarf volcano, static zap, and gallade meant I would be super good into the offense mu but I was a little worried about fatter teams because only wincon gallde isn't good.
vs.
A bulkier team came and I didn't feel great about mu, gliscor + zam with rocks up are hard to deal with, both his hazard setters my drill doesn't want to come in on and clef looks orb + rotom looks scarf so gallade has trouble. That said weavile looks good and if volcanion + zapdos click the right buttons I can definitely put myself in a good spot.
Lead clef to get up rocks asap, he has no removal and feels free. I was willing to take a trick but he later reveals to not be scarf rotom. Knocking off clef's orb makes me feel like I can win with gallade, I sd and drain the gliscor because I would need really bad drain roll into max eq roll to lose my gallade this turn. Turn 24 I throw, clicking drain punch guarantees a kill. If he leaves zam in I either suit vs non mega, or shard vs mega and he dies to rocks. If he goes ferro I kill with drain and instantly win. Gut told me he would go zam turn 29 which is why I double moon, I fish for para/flinch with my weavile since I feel as if zapdos + volcano win this endgame anyway. Going volcano first was definitely wrong from me, I was too paranoid about missing hwave into getting leeched and awkward turns but I was just overthinking the endgame and put myself in a bad spot. Happy with how I pivoted this game but not happy with the 2 big turns I messed up.
This weeks prep was pretty bad, I was just going to clef spikes it up and made a few teams but wasn't feeling too confident in them. One of my teammates told me to just reuse my week 1 team but change clef to lefties and that's how I went into this game. This was pretty stupid of me because I know seasons knows how to prep and if you prep for me you're probably going to prep for clef spikes, especially the gastro heatran skarm shit I've been using recently.
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From matchup I felt like I was fucked because I knew he had prepped for these builds and I basically let myself get cteamed. The game plays out weird he opts to not knock my heatran with clef but risk burn on torn to knock me with that instead? Sub drill basically forces me into skarm where he lets me get up a layer over just going magnezone initially. My gastro is in an alright spot because all the hazards are up and then comes turn 75 big throw where my opponent opts to go hard tyranitar on a confusion where I believe the game was over had he not gotten it because sand wouldn't go up again and I don't think he would be able to spin. The rest of the game is basically just me trying to do something but it's certainly unwinnable after that turn. Lesson learned though was don't be lazy in prep or shit like this happens. See some mild mald at the end. Was kinda happy I was able to get myself in a good position in such a dire matchup but moreso disappointed at myself for the lack of prep.
Prep done.
(I don't know how to explain prep for him other than I felt as if stall would never get me an unwinnable matchup and know he could not beat me otherwise.)
vs.
The game is straight forward I defog on the meta to see if he's ice/zen, ice means rocks stay up but whatever I can go to mew to get my own. From here he doubles but goes into volcarona with rocks up not really making any progress, eq's into chansey and gets twaved for free, then basically loses his unburnt serp 1v1 to a mew. Game ended turn 20 because serp was too low and I had sacks, malt was going to come in and win that endgame.
Taunt serp with perma rocks up vs stall, bisharp can knock quag then sub chomp can waste recover pp + taunt thund in the back this game is definitely winnable but I guess if you can't think for more than 5 seconds at a time before losing your attention span it would be pretty unwinnable.
This week I expected cheese from my opponent, who was a massive cheeser the last time he played a full season of oras. He also has patterns in the builder where uses similar stuff for an entire season. This lead me to making an offense that I think was very good into most bulkier teams he uses and beats other offense. The volca set seemed good into him, it was pdef ish lum giga+ground, and I'm not a fan of suicide leads on ho so I opted for a max speed helm chomp. Thundurus is good anti offense/anti drill but in hindsight foul play is GARBAGE just use focus blast.
vs.
Honestly my matchup didn't feel very good, medicham is a big threat, I feel like realistically I should not be able to remove hazards, he has sand + fake out + torn for my volca, and rotom + coffin for my ttar. With that said I think with positioning I could probably win this, volca with a screen up and ttar weakened is a massive threat because of my spread. Thundurus is also mildly annoying because volts and chomp should be able to keep up rocks although it invites in the coffin.
Serp felt like the only lead into medicham, I eat the fake out then reflect as he goes ttar. I figured he was bulky rocks if he went to it and I have taunt but figured I'm just going to get some damage and I'll probably end up winning this with volc. I was seeing red for a while after the leaf storm missed. My chomp gets its nut off vs the coffin and I chip down the ttar a bit with thundurus. Turn 16 was actually a misplay, I should foul play once more then volt because those would put ttar in +1 volc range but volt does more so much my misplay works out because he crits me. Anyway turn 18 was also a misplay I should just earthquake > Iron head I lost sand rush for fun basically so I go chomp to sack it but he clicks fake out then dies to eq + helmet damage. At this point I stop seeing red because this feels winnable. We both pull the correct sequence after this but I have to earthquake the ttar because if he's twave he's going to para mine then get up his rocks. So I know he has a history of using modest max special attack rotom, this is what dissuaded me from going volca on the wisp as I knew even if ttar got burned I could still potentially win with volca. Turn 27 the edge crit might have mattered as he told me he was going to volt into drill and then click sd and sack it because tornt is probably going to beat my volca. He's right but w/e I missed leaf storm and this endgame was awkward so I'm not sure if I played it perfectly but it didn't feel bad from me.
I was feeling super confident in myself at this point in the season, I think the way I've been playing my games has been speaking for itself. I made a team with alakazam + chansey because I felt like fat was a good pick into my opponent. I ended up not using it and going the cheese route again with double fires. Xray showed me the aero tech of helmet eq physdef which is kinda anti drill because if you don't know what it is you're going to lead drill into it. Lopunny being his anti offense checks often enough made me want tspikes cloyster which also doubles as removal for ho. Double fire offense seemed pretty good into him but honestly in hindsight this is just some shit that's better on paper than in practice.
vs.
Him leading correctly made the beginning a lot more awkward for me, the aerodactyl can 1v1 excadrills but burning me with rotom put me in a super awkward spot but also makes me think jonas probably tested with him earlier in the season so he knew this tech. Turn 5 you see mald, there's definitely no reason you ever click anything apart from uturn into rotom. I clicked spear (I don't have rock blast) too because I figured with 2 rounds of rocks and the chip then rotom was in zardx range. Sometimes I wonder what goes through my opponents heads, like what was the plan here if I had rock blast + clicked smash and he missed cane, you go from having a scenario that guarantees me getting no kills into sacking 2 mons for fun because you clicked a rogue hurricane. The morons line was a little od from me but whatever I was getting fed up. Anyway I knew I lost because spinner gone and chose to mega + dd over non mega + dd because I figured that might bait him into attacking me over getting up rocks so then I have a fighting chance. Thankfully he chokes (again) turn 9 by eq > rocks and then once again by going lop > weavile after lando dies. He's using badamant so my aero is faster and I get up rocks. I get up a screen and figure If I get one of: Flame body burn on return or Hurricane dodge I win this game. I get neither (giga on the torn because flame didn't kill) and game's over. You see more mald at the end.
I had played Noisy in ribbon and invitational recently and felt like ferrotran looked good into him at the times and still felt that way now only I wanted to use Gliscor. Previous weeks I felt like I had put myself in bad spots because I hadn't listened to my gut picks and decided to stick to gliscor. I took an edited a team used against me, biggest changes making the zam modest and gliscor taunt knock (after spending a week cooking up different piles of garbage).
vs.
He brought some memes because team out but Kyurem-Black looked somewhat scary depending on set. Zone + spin is definitely not what I wanted to see with spikes and dia is always scary. Landorus felt scarf and not defensive to me. Rotom wash looks really good into him and ferro with leech tect is also annoying for him to deal with. Gliscor with rocks up is also kinda unkillable and zam has no switch in.
So I'm fast rotom and thought I was faster than max speed neutral nature kyurem but I'm actually slower and he just happens to be not max speed lol. Tbh the wisp turn 2 was definitely headass I guess I just figured no earth power I really didn't know what to expect from this mon. I pivot around and get up hazards + prevent a spin, ferro freeze was annoying because I knew I won on the spot with spikes + zam. Turn 39 I might not have taunted because I don't think I would have considered rock polish had he not clicked it with diancie the turn prior. Not really happy with this game tbh I felt like I was in turbo click mode.
I sound nervous as fuck because I am, my team needs me to win this game and then we are in playoffs.
Spl4sh was actually the player I looked forward to playing the most all season so I was a little down I wouldn't be able to. I knew shaf would be using some offense and sand is great into offense. Static zap is tough for helm chomp teams to deal with and I expected these builds so I remade a CBB team from invitational. I changed some sets from the original version to be a bit more of a ct to what he likes and was super confident in the bring.
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Matchup wise zap checks most of the team, scarf volcano has no switch, mtar + sand check most of the team, and serp stops me from losing to crab. I think my prep was perfect here because unless I mess up this game super hard there's no way I lose.
Lead zap was extremely free, plan t1 was to volt into ttar and ice punch, I'm not going to ice into a possible weakness policy dnite and have him dd t1. He pivots well and I get volcanion in on metagross and it's a bit of an awkward turn. Steam is a 60ish percent chance to kill combined with burn chance I figured there's just too much upside to not click it as opposed to flame. I get the play right and he goes chomp into serp, burning serp certainly helped because it let me go zap to kill it with hwave > pivoting awkwardly to get volcano back in. Turn 10 was a little clicky from me tbh as I could have potentially lost to lstorm miss + bp on metagross, but I figured air slash into ttar is kinda bad for him and I do live so he would also need to flinch. Game is over after serp puts crab into flame range.
Another week I was really lazy in prep, I figured Michael would bring something very similar to what Sylvi brought vs me but I didn't really have any good ideas as I already used the coffin vs him. I liked cm 3 atk alakazam and it was friday evening when I got fed up with spending all week making no progress that I decided to take my last weeks team, exchange the mega, and change some sets. I played Spellcaster in a game that decided whether or not I would use the team, win and in, lose and back to the drawing board.
Going into the game I had very little faith in the team I was using. This week was probably the most frustrated I had been all tour I felt like I was doing everything on my own for the entirety of my season and had no confidence it whatever picks I came up. I was still feeling good about myself and how I had played this tour but sometimes I overthink what my matchups are going to be like and this leads to more nerves. This game was a good example of that.
vs.
Matchup felt whatever to me, I knew alakazam was a big threat but also knew that he was likely rock slide or toxic drill so I'm pretty ungood into that + ferrothorn is a decent stop to serperior as they don't really carry hp fire anymore. Mega tar itself was a big threat as nothing can survive a 2ko and drill is obviously super threatening with sand up.
I felt comfortable leading clef and my opponent opts to lead mega tar. I guess he knew from my team that I wasn't twave clef so he opted to stay in and stone edge? I don't want to rag on my opponent but if I was twave I would have clicked it and this could have gone really south for him turn 1 as the ttar is no longer a threat whatsoever. Anyway I moonblast for chip and turn 2 I'm already in a not great spot, stone edge is very (80%) free from my opponent and imo it's just always the play. I don't think drill even kills 0 hp ttar at that hp and I lose on the spot if he clicks fire punch/eq/sp and I go drill. Volcanion looks the most useless so I decide to sack it but my opp goes for sp and dies to steam the next turn. The rest of the game is just me pivoting to get my zam in to cm on his clef. If I hit the blast on his ferrothorn I win with serp, and I do just that. I don't think I made any misplays this game even me leaving clef in on drill was calculated and I felt I came out of those sequences better than my position going in to them.
I wasn't sure who was passing raizen teams but I figured I would face more or less the same things the raiders had been using all season. Looking at their scout they had 0 rotom, 0 torn, a lot of bisharp, and a fire type on every team. I posted this in my channel monday and blunder told me that sounds like Keldeo food so I loaded up an abr team that was posted in our server about halfway through the tour. Prep done. I felt like going with a nickname though so I asked anti for options:
Prep done.
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Looking at the matchup I think the Heatran is scary if it's the magma set, and my zard-x + thund-t counters are chansey with no toxic. However he can't really keep off rocks and zapdos/keldeo/amoonguss/knock clef are all really annoying for him to deal with. This matchup is definitely winnable from either side with positioning but I felt more than confident enough to win this.
This game feels pretty straightforward, I play like an asshole but I also have heal bell chansey so I can afford to let my metagross take a para/burn. Turn 10 was a dickhead pump but I figured low spatk inv doesn't even ko with leaf storm + you are prob either synth/glare/doubling anyway. I think I play this game perfectly and give him no openings and keldeo runs through his team.
Around saturday evening - night I got a dm from my manager asking to put me into tb and I was more than confident in my ability to bring us a win. I felt as if this move forced roro into gen 6 > giving them room to put him in a different old gen as (no offense to anyone on raiders) nobody on that team was beating me except maybe roro, I do not care what the spectators have to say about this. I was excited to not only be in a finals tb but also to have been picked for it and knowing I'm either getting a win or going against a top player of all time.
I knew roro would either use ferro + heatran fat or some jank offense but I felt ferrotran was more likely so I insisted upon hp fire manaphy. Honestly it's kinda ridiculous how lazy I was for this because I think my team would have gotten rolled by offense and all I really did was iron out some spreads/moves while ABR built most. I guess I was that confident I would roll into ferro + heatran but looking back at it the team is kinda dick into mlatias but figured if manaphy killed ferro then it's good enough (even though it's walled by mlatias).
vs.
I felt the ferro lead and maybe I could have lead clef and bluf fflame but I figured lati was fine because free trick barring him going to his own. I trick the heatran and immediately go mana, I didn't glow up because I didn't feel like trade of having manaphy parad for the clef was really worth it. I opt to go to my own just to get rocks, didn't feel like risking Gliscor on a rogue knock off. He goes heatran on my clef and turn 6 is one of my two regrets this game, I didn't want to go manaphy on a possible magma and then have him go latias on my manaphy because after rocks + trap damage I'd be in tbolt range and I don't have ice beam anyway. My gut told me I should go manaphy and I really wish I listened to myself because I would have tg on the gliscor and if he goes ferro he'd die to hpfire and game would be over right then (I find it much more likely he'd go ferro on a full hp manaphy over lati). Turn 27 I switch because I don't have ice, +1 mash does 85 max, and I'm in eq range. Turn 33 leech was a misplay, not a big deal but going right to latias or clefable was for sure better. Turn 36 is my other regret this game, I said to myself I should double ice beam here as the double back to gliscor was so telegraphed but also the downsides of him just twaving me are so bad because I lose my hwish and both my gliscor counters are parad. Faster u-turn into clef as I get double parad on the gliscor when using 252+ orb ice beam. Looking at his position I think he had to go for this, it just really sucks for this to happen because the game was instantly over had he not gotten both full paras. I opt to bin hp on manaphy > the 10% parad clef because it's still potentially an hwish recipient whereas manaphy has no ice beam and is useless. Turn 44 ferro gets frozen, this isn't that big of a deal but it puts me in such an awkward spot vs the latias. Thankfully I win both speed ties, don't get max rolled on tbolt, and hit both mashes so that kind of cancels out the freeze I guess. I'm gonna separate this turn and the rest of the end game.
From here I can:
Mash the reuniclus -> die to gknot (ik he parad but this is worst case scenario}
lati + beam kill reuni or beam into clef -> hwish my clef
It's now my clef + gliscor vs his own clef + gliscor
Clef is 4 speed so might be slower than his clef, go to gliscor to not risk twave
Gliscor taunts to not risk uturn on double twave -> he goes gliscor on taunt -> I have to faster uturn out to clef and risk freeze -> he goes clef on my clef and I go back to gliscor to not risk para, repeat with maybe some variations like me staying in to double moon or him double to gliscor on my gliscor
The only way I can lose is if I get hit with faster twave into paras as I knockout the clef with moon, or I get ice fang frozen on the uturn into clef, which I am sure he would be able to click a few before my clef won.
My route was go latias to hwish the metagross on the reuniclus. I knew that hwishing up the clef still had "outplay potential" from roro's side (not outplay to win the game, just outplay to fish for more chances of luck) whereas hwishing up the metagross forces him to react. It's as simple as hit a mash on the clef, hit two on the gliscor, and the game is won. I don't even have to risk on the reuniclus because I just go into my own gliscor and taunt then attack it. Me saying I threw in the battle chat was just an overreaction, I didn't have enough roosts to stall out ice fangs anyway and it was probably better to go for rolls anyway to save as many roosts as possible.
The former was what my teammates thought I should do in game discussion and after reviewing I do agree that hwish clef > meta was better but I still understand and don't regret why I chose to hwish the meta. The only reason I even really broke down these last turns is because after getting completely robbed in my tb game that won us the trophy I have to see "heinously choked/fatass throws" in my teamchat when I didn't have a garunteed win no matter what route I took.
Despite how the season (mine and my team's) ended I have to say I'm super happy with my performance. Going 8-4 while being pretty unlucky and without that unluck having a tb win vs a top 5 player oat feels good as hell. Thank you to soulwind / blunder / klefkiholder for helping me with ideas throughout the season & ABR for making my finals tb team for me while I fed my fortnite addiction. Thank you to the rest of the sharks for trusting in me to play tb and really just trusting me in general throughout the season I was really glad to team with every one of you and while I'm sad we lost I really enjoyed this experience.
those are also all the games I recorded minus the tb game, I didn't delete recordings cus lost games just didn't record between weeks 1 and 9
Rocks mold drill sucks you want sub/sd
clef > drill
lop best mega by far but STOP using adamant it's so unnecessary
gallade is better than metagross and medicham
coffin needs nshade/sball for sub drill
torn-t SUCKS it doesnt check shit all it does it be mildly annoying early game STOP throwing it out to twaves just to knock something
zam broken
malt broken on paper but kinda suck in practice
static zap is AMAZING if you dont run into a water/ground
taunt knock gliscor is broken when you dont face other gliscor
screens/moth only broken because of variety. you'll get fucked by them sometimes but shouldn't consistently
specs keld is so mid feels broken on paper but need the right mu + too many pivots now
drill + clef + serp + torn being 4 of the top 5 most used mons in past 3 years is cool
Alpha Ruiners: pj, Eternal Spirit, Raptor, Booty
Circus Maximus Tigers: Seasons, Fc, BluBird, c0mp,
Congregation of the Classiest: Sylvi, MichaelderBeste2
Cryonicles: So Noisy, Lusa, Leru, -Tsunami-, Vileman
Dragonspiral Tyrants: LittleBigPlanet2, Chaitanya, Will of Fire, Isza
Ever Grande BIGS: Spl4sh, Devin, BlazingDark, FakeNagol
Indie Scooters: Sjneider, Beraldinho, Lodon Beats, Yelodash,
Stark Sharks: Jonfilch, Ayaka
Team Raiders: Kebab mlml, false, Ash KetchumGamer
Wi-Fi Wolfpack: Santu, Savouras
