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Tournament SCL III LC Discussion Thread
- Thread starter BlackKnight_Gawain
- Start date
time for my scl w3 vs expulso analysis
this week i wanted to go with something more basic. i had noticed i liked wattrel into the scl meta, especially vs someone w no sv lc games played, so i built around it. pretty simple stuff, nothing out of the ordinary at first sight
right off the bat, i see hes using a team that might give me a lot of trouble if i dont read it correctly. i notice he has 3 vullaby checks, which means two of them wont be using boring rocks evio sets. im thinking tink is the most likely to be the rocker, since its the best vull check and also it only realistically has one set. i didnt know if it would be scarf bray + rock polish glimmet or scarf glimmet + restalk bray, but i knew i had to be wary of the signs. aside from that, i notice my wattrel and my toed, as expected, have an awesome matchup, so my plan is to have them in as many times as possible to chip the opp mons, and maybe allow my gothita to trap stuff and win later on with foo or vull
i decide to lead off with my mienfoo, since i dont value its evio as much in this matchup, and i can use it to knock things off early game to give me an advantage, or uturn to give me momentum in case expulso leads mienfoo, which he does. he ends up going tinkatink on my mienfoo to absorb knock off, which gives me the opportunity to go toedscool and put something to sleep. he decides to trade knock on my toed for his tink asleep, which i very much take. now toed cant switch in as comfortably into his glimmet and mudbray, which are threats, but he has a lot more trouble dealing with both mienfoo and wattrel, so im more than fine with this.
after that free spore, i decide to take a free knock on expulsos team, since im not sure what will he switch into this toed, and progress is progress and i take it. he decides to absorb it with his mienfoo, to which i respond with my own, thinking im fine trading evio for damage. he instead decides to uturn into vullaby, which gives me the opportunity to go glimmet and threaten an attack with a tspike up. here i value power gem more than rocks, since staying in is a possibility, and whatever he decides to go to to absorb power gem will get poisoned or recieve a lot of damage and reveal a set in case of glimm. if he ever goes glim im fine with since damage on it is huge, it would reveal its set and i have a check in toed in case its evio. if he went tinkatink, id have free rocks. he ends up trading damage on glimmet for vullabys life, which i gladly take.
to revenge kill my glimmet, he goes to his own glimmet, revealing a choice scarf set as he uses dazzling gleam to kill mine. i decide to give it up since i would scout its move, i dont really have a switch in and id probs be obligated to sacrifice it anyway. having used dazzling gleam, i decided to trap it with my gothita. toed couldve been an option too, but worst case scenario he just goes foo which walls me, or i force it to tera just not to die. going goth gives me always more benefit, since i dont value its % and at worst i force a tera.
im forced to go to wattrel and tera just to avoid having something die to scarf dazzling gleam, and i decide to roost because i need wattrel alive, to which he safely goes mudbray to threaten me. im kinda forced to guess vs this mon, as my only check toedscool is damaged and knocked, and i need a knock off just to be able to trap it with gothita.
i try to maneuver around it with my foo uturning into toed just to scare it out and double to my vullaby, but he stays in, knowing my toed is kind of a sitting duck rn vs mienfoo. i knew vullaby also threatened mudbray with a knockoff, which i was more than happy to trade for my mon, but i very luckily dodged a rock tomb. i think my play was safe still, knocking this would result in my gothita easily trapping it, making it so another threat is dead, and vullaby is not the most needed mon. maybe going mienfoo to knock was safer tho, since energyball should pick it up from that range. that was probably a minor mistake on my end: knocking with mienfoo into going toedscool should allow me to have only toedscool dead if anything, and trap it or opp foo with my goth, or force damage on voltorb for gothita too.
as he misses im allowed to go to toedscool and threaten an earth power. he goes voltorb instead of mienfoo, which i think hes using to threaten my toedscool out into wattrel, just to double into glimmet. however, im not instantly threatened, since i live gigadrain, and i value earth power damage on voltorb for gothita later on. staying in also covered the glimmet double, which i more than happily take.
after this turn, the game is pretty much done. gothita should be able to pick every remaining mon up except tinkatink, which hasnt slept a turn yet. i make the very stupid mistake of thinking fake out will flinch the asleep tinkatink, which just wastes a turn of sleep lol i get lucky w sleep turns too but i dont think they mattered at all, game was pretty done atp.
i think this week was my best played yet, except for the 1000 ladder fake out incident. pls lmk if im leaving any mistake you think youve spotted, and wp to expulso and gl in future rounds pokebro, always a pleasure
this week i wanted to go with something more basic. i had noticed i liked wattrel into the scl meta, especially vs someone w no sv lc games played, so i built around it. pretty simple stuff, nothing out of the ordinary at first sight
right off the bat, i see hes using a team that might give me a lot of trouble if i dont read it correctly. i notice he has 3 vullaby checks, which means two of them wont be using boring rocks evio sets. im thinking tink is the most likely to be the rocker, since its the best vull check and also it only realistically has one set. i didnt know if it would be scarf bray + rock polish glimmet or scarf glimmet + restalk bray, but i knew i had to be wary of the signs. aside from that, i notice my wattrel and my toed, as expected, have an awesome matchup, so my plan is to have them in as many times as possible to chip the opp mons, and maybe allow my gothita to trap stuff and win later on with foo or vull
i decide to lead off with my mienfoo, since i dont value its evio as much in this matchup, and i can use it to knock things off early game to give me an advantage, or uturn to give me momentum in case expulso leads mienfoo, which he does. he ends up going tinkatink on my mienfoo to absorb knock off, which gives me the opportunity to go toedscool and put something to sleep. he decides to trade knock on my toed for his tink asleep, which i very much take. now toed cant switch in as comfortably into his glimmet and mudbray, which are threats, but he has a lot more trouble dealing with both mienfoo and wattrel, so im more than fine with this.
after that free spore, i decide to take a free knock on expulsos team, since im not sure what will he switch into this toed, and progress is progress and i take it. he decides to absorb it with his mienfoo, to which i respond with my own, thinking im fine trading evio for damage. he instead decides to uturn into vullaby, which gives me the opportunity to go glimmet and threaten an attack with a tspike up. here i value power gem more than rocks, since staying in is a possibility, and whatever he decides to go to to absorb power gem will get poisoned or recieve a lot of damage and reveal a set in case of glimm. if he ever goes glim im fine with since damage on it is huge, it would reveal its set and i have a check in toed in case its evio. if he went tinkatink, id have free rocks. he ends up trading damage on glimmet for vullabys life, which i gladly take.
to revenge kill my glimmet, he goes to his own glimmet, revealing a choice scarf set as he uses dazzling gleam to kill mine. i decide to give it up since i would scout its move, i dont really have a switch in and id probs be obligated to sacrifice it anyway. having used dazzling gleam, i decided to trap it with my gothita. toed couldve been an option too, but worst case scenario he just goes foo which walls me, or i force it to tera just not to die. going goth gives me always more benefit, since i dont value its % and at worst i force a tera.
im forced to go to wattrel and tera just to avoid having something die to scarf dazzling gleam, and i decide to roost because i need wattrel alive, to which he safely goes mudbray to threaten me. im kinda forced to guess vs this mon, as my only check toedscool is damaged and knocked, and i need a knock off just to be able to trap it with gothita.
i try to maneuver around it with my foo uturning into toed just to scare it out and double to my vullaby, but he stays in, knowing my toed is kind of a sitting duck rn vs mienfoo. i knew vullaby also threatened mudbray with a knockoff, which i was more than happy to trade for my mon, but i very luckily dodged a rock tomb. i think my play was safe still, knocking this would result in my gothita easily trapping it, making it so another threat is dead, and vullaby is not the most needed mon. maybe going mienfoo to knock was safer tho, since energyball should pick it up from that range. that was probably a minor mistake on my end: knocking with mienfoo into going toedscool should allow me to have only toedscool dead if anything, and trap it or opp foo with my goth, or force damage on voltorb for gothita too.
as he misses im allowed to go to toedscool and threaten an earth power. he goes voltorb instead of mienfoo, which i think hes using to threaten my toedscool out into wattrel, just to double into glimmet. however, im not instantly threatened, since i live gigadrain, and i value earth power damage on voltorb for gothita later on. staying in also covered the glimmet double, which i more than happily take.
after this turn, the game is pretty much done. gothita should be able to pick every remaining mon up except tinkatink, which hasnt slept a turn yet. i make the very stupid mistake of thinking fake out will flinch the asleep tinkatink, which just wastes a turn of sleep lol i get lucky w sleep turns too but i dont think they mattered at all, game was pretty done atp.
BlackKnight_Gawain
PUPL Champion
Halfway through the 3rd edition of SCL, getting closer to the playoffs ~
These are your week 5 matchups, start placing bets and predicts!
FOXES (Eric) vs BREAKERS (Tazz)
TERRORS (Laroxyl) v PLATOONS (Scottie)
ISLANDERS (Hacker) v SPARTANS (Wail)
DYNAMOS (Collette) v MACHINES (Elfuseon)
SHOGUNS (Eniigma) v GIBLES (dcae)
The Machines slot shaken up again for Elfuseon's turn over Expulso, the rest remain unchanged from last week.
Here's what you missed for week 4!
[SV LC]
[TMS] Expulso vs Hacker [ISL]
[GIB] Cam vs Collette [DYN]
[SHO] Eniigma vs Laroxyl [TER]
[SPA] Wail Wailord vs Éric [FOX]
[BRE] tazz vs Scottie [PLA]
BONUS GAME : [SPA] goldenghost vs Xiri [FOX]
That's it for this week, and I'm excited for the 2nd half of this tour! Who's the next person gettingdemoted subbed into LC? Will another LCer get picked up from midseason and still beat Drifting to an LC starting slot? Will Eric stay unbeaten longer than Osh? Will KSG retire from LC and take up farming every other tier to prove we play Lv 100s competently? Find out on the next episode of SCL Ball Z.......
These are your week 5 matchups, start placing bets and predicts!
FOXES (Eric) vs BREAKERS (Tazz)
TERRORS (Laroxyl) v PLATOONS (Scottie)
ISLANDERS (Hacker) v SPARTANS (Wail)
DYNAMOS (Collette) v MACHINES (Elfuseon)
SHOGUNS (Eniigma) v GIBLES (dcae)
The Machines slot shaken up again for Elfuseon's turn over Expulso, the rest remain unchanged from last week.
Here's what you missed for week 4!
[SV LC]
[TMS] Expulso vs Hacker [ISL]
Ah the battle of the pretend like it's pre home meta with a little bit of Mienfoo sprinkled in there — Hacker having been chumped by a Mareanie brings one himself, presumably to keep any potential Shelldering away. Expulso revives the old Grassy Seed HO team with the Unburden Shroodle, which miiiight be a threat long term. Hacker's Larvesta is kind of peak position into this team though, getting a free Flare Blitz early vs no Fire resists on Expuslo's side, which forces him to tera a pivotless Grookey set. You can't help but wonder if this was an overall incorrect decision long term that may have been better served by letting someone else take the hit or setting up his early game better, as Tera Shroodle might've done something, but loses out to Steel Mienfoo. You could probably summarize this game in the same SNL skit Expulso's Wattrel's nickname took inspo from.....
[GIB] Cam vs Collette [DYN]
After weeks of jokes about dcae cancering and coll being involved in an act call we actually found ourselves in a situation where dcae didn't/couldn't play and subbed out for cam, during which there was some minor drama about an act call. Either we see the debut of another LCer (also imported from UU....funny it happened against the tko team) in the form of Cam, who's brought a team that's a little rough into a modified version of the tazz poison spam that's been common throughout the tour.
Cam's unfortunately not experienced in SV LC which showed in some of his plays (t5-6 could've been a U-Turn on Mareanie to trap it with Gothita for example), and the odd Toed tera that I still can't quite figure out what for ultimately put him behind and gave Coll her first win in LC for this SCL.
Cam's unfortunately not experienced in SV LC which showed in some of his plays (t5-6 could've been a U-Turn on Mareanie to trap it with Gothita for example), and the odd Toed tera that I still can't quite figure out what for ultimately put him behind and gave Coll her first win in LC for this SCL.
[SHO] Eniigma vs Laroxyl [TER]
Ok so, insider information tells me the tazz poison spam was accidentally recreated in the Terrors LC lab, while Eniigma's team looks somewhat threatening with the Mudbray preview. There's some aggressive gaming on both ends, with each player trying to put themselves in the right position and securing some good kills, like Eniigma's Stunky critting a knocked Mienfoo. What puts Laroxyl ahead is Eniigma putting in Stench over Aftermath on his Stunky....which mean Laro's Stunky stays alive during their mirror trade to chip Voltorb next turn. Having a spored Tink also does Eniigma no favors as it's easy picking for Magnemite to remove, and Laro continues his impressive run of form with another W in his belt this week. What's extra funny is seeing Eniigma use Tera Psychic Mienfoo, a tech Pap (on Laro's team) swore by when DLC dropped, laddering to #1 with it....so even accidental sabotage couldn't stop Laro here LOL
[SPA] Wail Wailord vs Éric [FOX]
Wail comes in ready to get the Spartans on the comeback in this tier...or so's the hope. He's facing Eric, who's also undefeated so far to the astonishment of every PR writing armchair gamer. Wail's team looks really solid into Eric's at first glance, with another lack of fire resists on the latter's team gives Numel has a chance to do Numel things. The taunt Mienfoo lead gives Wail a good start, with Eric throwing Foongus away early to scout the opposing Vullaby. Wail puts pressure on Eric to chip away his repeated switches, and it's going good for Wail till Eric reveals Heavy Duty Boots Dual Wingbeat on Vullaby to beat Wail's one. Wail bounces back fast, with mixed Stunky (underrated) putting him ready in a winning position, or so it seems. Eric sacks Goth to Trick Scarf for LO on Stunky, and his last mon Vullaby is in on it locked into Play Rough. Wail makes the call to switch to Numel, and it's seemingly correct with Vullaby going Tera Fire to resist the Play Rough and attack back. Numel can't outspeed and loses to DWB, Goth dies to Knock and the Stunky still seems ready to win...........but Eric reveals Endure, allowing him to outspeed and win in the only possible scenario where HDB DWB + Endure wins (Brave Bird recoil and hazard chip loses the game!)
[BRE] tazz vs Scottie [PLA]
Hypest mu of the week, both are undefeated thus far looking to end the other's streak and the game lives up to it. I also forgot who won despite having seen this live (admittedly by waking up at 5:30am by mistake........), so I had to go back and watch this one carefully and it was great.
Tazz's team is screens HO, presumably to punish Osh's extremely safe and boring balance builds (which continues this week). Tazz teras the Vullaby too fast, revealing Ghost as it gets paraflinch'd to hell. He pays it back in full to reveal the uncommon Will-O-Wisp to burn a +2 Pawn that setup for free (lil chess man is hella fraud btw), but it puts in work by blocking a Parting Shot from Impidimp to let Tazz's next setup mon come in. Osh's great double switches to keep Imp trapped means he can safely (?) bring out unchipped Foongus vs Numel, which promptly reveals Tera Water, completely rendering the remaining Numel and Shellder useless as Osh remains the last of two unbeaten players this season.
Tazz's team is screens HO, presumably to punish Osh's extremely safe and boring balance builds (which continues this week). Tazz teras the Vullaby too fast, revealing Ghost as it gets paraflinch'd to hell. He pays it back in full to reveal the uncommon Will-O-Wisp to burn a +2 Pawn that setup for free (lil chess man is hella fraud btw), but it puts in work by blocking a Parting Shot from Impidimp to let Tazz's next setup mon come in. Osh's great double switches to keep Imp trapped means he can safely (?) bring out unchipped Foongus vs Numel, which promptly reveals Tera Water, completely rendering the remaining Numel and Shellder useless as Osh remains the last of two unbeaten players this season.
BONUS GAME : [SPA] goldenghost vs Xiri [FOX]
The Spartans, having been on tremendous negative form, have elected to opt for the strategy called "Completely Shaking it Up". We definitely didn't have KSG moving to PU after his 0-x start in LC, but here we are with him playing Xiri, who's not doing the best this tour but is still far far more experienced in lv 100 low tiers like PU (also my PUPL winning teammate this year!). KSG has his work cut out for him, with his choice of Aurora Veil HO vs Xiri's solid looking BO looks a bit troublesome. KSG starts off a little badly, letting 2 mons go down for some chip before Spiritomb comes in after Abomasnow has setup Veil. It reveals NP Trick Room, and Tera Darks to live a Sucker Punch as it goes crazy threatening to sweep the whole team. Alas for Xiri, Taunt Skunk means his Farigiraf can't setup its own NP TR early, and it eventually loses once veil goes back up again. Maybe KSG's heart was yearning for the lv 100 mines all along.......
That's it for this week, and I'm excited for the 2nd half of this tour! Who's the next person getting
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Éric vs tazz
Laroxyl vs Scottie
Hacker vs Wail Wailord
Collette vs Elfuseon
Eniigma vs dcae
Actually had some good predicts last week, turns out it's easier to say who's gonna win when you've seen who's been playing well. Happy that people brought Diglett-alola last week, this week I will request Greavard (underrated!)
Laroxyl vs Scottie
Hacker vs Wail Wailord
Collette vs Elfuseon
Eniigma vs dcae
Actually had some good predicts last week, turns out it's easier to say who's gonna win when you've seen who's been playing well. Happy that people brought Diglett-alola last week, this week I will request Greavard (underrated!)
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no way
I rlly like the thing eric's doing so ill try to imitate him, my formatting might be worse tho, heres the game https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9lc-725833
i was kinda busy all week and then i had someone over for the weekend so while over the week i formulated that i wanted to bring dual hazards glim to take advantage of dcae likely not bringing removal and scarf mag bcause i think its a great mon on non voltorb teams, i started putting it together sunday afternoon. And then while i initially tried to build around not losing to dig-a because it felt like a trending mon, i passed the idea to bbb who recommended committing to hard losing to it by adding stunky+mare and that sounded fun so credit to him for the team
so i ended up playing not dcae who used a team that does not feel like a dcae team, so unfortunately there is a toedscool to remove spikes and a wattrel to check mag, however tera ice cooks both of these so magnemite looks strong on preview, as does gothita, who i can't rlly stop from picking off my pokemon constantly, so my goal is to win before it does
i was kinda busy all week and then i had someone over for the weekend so while over the week i formulated that i wanted to bring dual hazards glim to take advantage of dcae likely not bringing removal and scarf mag bcause i think its a great mon on non voltorb teams, i started putting it together sunday afternoon. And then while i initially tried to build around not losing to dig-a because it felt like a trending mon, i passed the idea to bbb who recommended committing to hard losing to it by adding stunky+mare and that sounded fun so credit to him for the team
T1: The opponent has no ngas and i'm a very bulky foo, no drawback knock turn 1 bar confusion, knocking wattrel means nothing with longevity can switch into mar and brings mag 1 step closer to winning
T2/3: Magnemite is the only pivot into volt switch that doesn't get picked off by gothita, i hard switch out of foo instead of volting because my team is terrified of switching into grounds and i cant afford to let in toeds.
T7/8/9: i pivot into vull because i would like to save mareanie as a sack and if I stay in i can't punish hard gothita, because my foo is so chipped i have no better course vs glim than to knock it because I live a power gem, turn 9 i make my first major mistake and neglect to stay in and knock off for the 3HKO, as I am endure and would be able to live fake out and get a guaranteed knock vs someone on his team rather than have my vullaby simply die to rocks. This mistake costs me my mareanie
T15: While my opponent's play is most likely to sack toedscool to tera ice and then pick off magnemite with gothita and then win with a mienfoo or vullaby tera, this still leaves a bit of ambiguity vs stunky, and with how little my opponent's timer had gone down, i thought it was unlikely that this thought process would overpower the universal strong urge to not be "gotten" by a tera, so when assuming a tera water my only way to punish that is to click volt switch. I still need to pick a sack bcause of my ground weakness, at this point i've already determined that my tera will be glimmet to lure goth, as my mag needs to stay a steel type to resist psychic and electric hits all targets now. This makes stunky the most expendable so I toss it.
T17/18: Would love to u-turn turn 17 but it's not worth it and could lead to an embarrassing loss, I get in glimmet instead of hard magnemite because I feel like to win i need to get a kill with glim and tera dark vs gothita, I bluff power gem vs vull and kill toeds with sludge (if he chose to 2hko me with vullaby instead my wincon would shift to tera foo)
T20: big mistake here on my part, no real reason for him to ever trick but if he did bank on me choking I could lose my glimmet, turning the endgame into a very difficult sequence involving predicting switches to vull by doubling into mag and/or winning the slowfoo tie and getting a knock off to sweep with tbolt. He doesn't do a hail mary trick so the game is a confirmed win for me.
T2/3: Magnemite is the only pivot into volt switch that doesn't get picked off by gothita, i hard switch out of foo instead of volting because my team is terrified of switching into grounds and i cant afford to let in toeds.
T7/8/9: i pivot into vull because i would like to save mareanie as a sack and if I stay in i can't punish hard gothita, because my foo is so chipped i have no better course vs glim than to knock it because I live a power gem, turn 9 i make my first major mistake and neglect to stay in and knock off for the 3HKO, as I am endure and would be able to live fake out and get a guaranteed knock vs someone on his team rather than have my vullaby simply die to rocks. This mistake costs me my mareanie
T15: While my opponent's play is most likely to sack toedscool to tera ice and then pick off magnemite with gothita and then win with a mienfoo or vullaby tera, this still leaves a bit of ambiguity vs stunky, and with how little my opponent's timer had gone down, i thought it was unlikely that this thought process would overpower the universal strong urge to not be "gotten" by a tera, so when assuming a tera water my only way to punish that is to click volt switch. I still need to pick a sack bcause of my ground weakness, at this point i've already determined that my tera will be glimmet to lure goth, as my mag needs to stay a steel type to resist psychic and electric hits all targets now. This makes stunky the most expendable so I toss it.
T17/18: Would love to u-turn turn 17 but it's not worth it and could lead to an embarrassing loss, I get in glimmet instead of hard magnemite because I feel like to win i need to get a kill with glim and tera dark vs gothita, I bluff power gem vs vull and kill toeds with sludge (if he chose to 2hko me with vullaby instead my wincon would shift to tera foo)
T20: big mistake here on my part, no real reason for him to ever trick but if he did bank on me choking I could lose my glimmet, turning the endgame into a very difficult sequence involving predicting switches to vull by doubling into mag and/or winning the slowfoo tie and getting a knock off to sweep with tbolt. He doesn't do a hail mary trick so the game is a confirmed win for me.
i also rrly like what erics been doing so here comes w4 vs wail
im ngl i just wanted something less spicy and balanced for this week, as i know wail likes to go crazy sometimes. i just wanted to trust my ability to outplay him. about the vull said, i built this w tera fire initially as i wanted to own tinkatink as well as resist ice and fire for shrew, larv and numel. later in two tests games, endure resulted pivotal for my win, and i thought brave bird didnt go well with it, hence the dual wingbeat. it procs weak armor twice so its not bad, multihits are broken in lc as we all know
i dont like it all that much. i dont think i lose straight up or anything close to that, but i need to be proactive. this is the second week my opponent uses a numel and i think ill lose to it if i dont make the plays i need to make. other than that tho, my vull set smacks this, and foo can v easily get into positions where it wins, as his foo counterplay is goth + tera lol i also was comf vs his own foo, as i am very sure it wont be sd tera steel: this is my first foongus of the tour lol
darkspam seems like a good bring vs me, as ive been spamming goth like a crackhead, but my tink should be fine taking that, coupled w voltorb (tho i gotta be wary of the numel). i will lead foongus, as he doesnt have a spore immunity
after leading foong vs obvious taunt foo, i tried to spore anyway bc a potential sleep is too good not to do that. after that, i giga on the tink/stunky switch, and he goes to vullaby. looking back, giga chip on tink wasnt that important compared to a potential poison vull, but i wouldnt say this is a bad play per se idk. atp, im still as afraid of numel: my numel counterplay is using vull and foo offensively, but i dont wanna waste my resources this early, especially when he has the potential tera fairy/ghost numel play to make. i decide to get ahead of that and spore on the uturn. i think the chances of him actually using bb and killing (its a roll, even if its in his favor) were low, and i wanted to get the momentum. even if he actually killed me, i didnt think id be that much behind, as id get progress w my voltorb and could still check foo w my other mons and even trap it
heres where i make a mistake very few pointed out: i was nervous bc of my low timer, and not decided whether id go tink or voltorb, as both would actually invite numel in. i decided to go gothita to trap it, as id take the numel if it meant killing the vullaby. after actually sending it in, i realized "wait, do i even kill?". i didnt. stupid me just went tink after, thinking maybe hell just tera or knock and ill be able to set rocks up or knock the incoming numel. turns out he uturned, but into tinkatink. thank god. i thought i lost there (probably wouldnt lose on the spot but itd put me way behind).
after trading rocks and my voltorb for his tinkatink and vullaby (making my vull extremely threatening in the process), i end up in a full health boots vull vs full health evio taunt foo situation. i do win this 1v1 in a vacuum, but i decide my vull is extremely valuable now, and i can check foo w my own tera fairy, which i could position into winning. for this reason, i decide to go to gothita, as i dont see it as valuable as the rest of the team, and it isnt an actual liability if he uturns as tink would be into numel.
however, he high jump kicks. this actually is super good for me, as it gives me a free kill on his mienfoo. i do understand why he did it, since he wanted to hit my vull for the most dmg and also my foo, but i absolutely take it.
killing it and inviting in the stunky is good for me too, because shadow tag wont allow the stunky to double to numel on my tinkatink lol. he does fire blast it tho, but i take it if i can revenge kill it w my mienfoo.
sadly, my foo got crit and died to play rough. i did not wanna tera bc, for all i knew, this could very well tera poison and beat my entire team. foo shouldve lived this, but now i have to deal with this stunky possibly winning. i know if i allow it to just pick its moves i lose for sure, so i decided to trick it into choice scarf, giving me a lot more leeway to beat it.
atp i thought id lose to the numel, as i was pressed to tera fire the vullaby in order to avoid just dying to the scarf play rough + aftermath.
to my surprise, he throws his numel aways. i do get this play after he told me why tho, he was expecting tera blast tera ground vull (a much more common set which fits the team, as i was so close to bringing it). sacrificing numel to go goth, using eball and then killing it w knock wouldve been the only play not to lose to that set, and any other standard set would also lose to this play. however, my set choice (which actually fits the team and was necessary, i do not think i fished and got lucky) actually gave me the game, as endure dual wingbeat was the only combination of moves capable of winning this endgame. ggs wail man ily
i think i couldve played this one better. the only play i questioned upon the first review was staying in w foong, but i think it was necessary overall, and tbh lily said she stayed in too so that got me relieved lol. the goth turn into vull was the biggest mistake that couldve cost me the game, and tbh dwb on the numel the second time was a v stupid mistake, but i wasnt sure if knockd kill and i had literally 10 seconds left. im glad w this game overall, but i need to improve my nerves related to timer management next time.
im ngl i just wanted something less spicy and balanced for this week, as i know wail likes to go crazy sometimes. i just wanted to trust my ability to outplay him. about the vull said, i built this w tera fire initially as i wanted to own tinkatink as well as resist ice and fire for shrew, larv and numel. later in two tests games, endure resulted pivotal for my win, and i thought brave bird didnt go well with it, hence the dual wingbeat. it procs weak armor twice so its not bad, multihits are broken in lc as we all know
i dont like it all that much. i dont think i lose straight up or anything close to that, but i need to be proactive. this is the second week my opponent uses a numel and i think ill lose to it if i dont make the plays i need to make. other than that tho, my vull set smacks this, and foo can v easily get into positions where it wins, as his foo counterplay is goth + tera lol i also was comf vs his own foo, as i am very sure it wont be sd tera steel: this is my first foongus of the tour lol
darkspam seems like a good bring vs me, as ive been spamming goth like a crackhead, but my tink should be fine taking that, coupled w voltorb (tho i gotta be wary of the numel). i will lead foongus, as he doesnt have a spore immunity
after leading foong vs obvious taunt foo, i tried to spore anyway bc a potential sleep is too good not to do that. after that, i giga on the tink/stunky switch, and he goes to vullaby. looking back, giga chip on tink wasnt that important compared to a potential poison vull, but i wouldnt say this is a bad play per se idk. atp, im still as afraid of numel: my numel counterplay is using vull and foo offensively, but i dont wanna waste my resources this early, especially when he has the potential tera fairy/ghost numel play to make. i decide to get ahead of that and spore on the uturn. i think the chances of him actually using bb and killing (its a roll, even if its in his favor) were low, and i wanted to get the momentum. even if he actually killed me, i didnt think id be that much behind, as id get progress w my voltorb and could still check foo w my other mons and even trap it
heres where i make a mistake very few pointed out: i was nervous bc of my low timer, and not decided whether id go tink or voltorb, as both would actually invite numel in. i decided to go gothita to trap it, as id take the numel if it meant killing the vullaby. after actually sending it in, i realized "wait, do i even kill?". i didnt. stupid me just went tink after, thinking maybe hell just tera or knock and ill be able to set rocks up or knock the incoming numel. turns out he uturned, but into tinkatink. thank god. i thought i lost there (probably wouldnt lose on the spot but itd put me way behind).
after trading rocks and my voltorb for his tinkatink and vullaby (making my vull extremely threatening in the process), i end up in a full health boots vull vs full health evio taunt foo situation. i do win this 1v1 in a vacuum, but i decide my vull is extremely valuable now, and i can check foo w my own tera fairy, which i could position into winning. for this reason, i decide to go to gothita, as i dont see it as valuable as the rest of the team, and it isnt an actual liability if he uturns as tink would be into numel.
however, he high jump kicks. this actually is super good for me, as it gives me a free kill on his mienfoo. i do understand why he did it, since he wanted to hit my vull for the most dmg and also my foo, but i absolutely take it.
killing it and inviting in the stunky is good for me too, because shadow tag wont allow the stunky to double to numel on my tinkatink lol. he does fire blast it tho, but i take it if i can revenge kill it w my mienfoo.
sadly, my foo got crit and died to play rough. i did not wanna tera bc, for all i knew, this could very well tera poison and beat my entire team. foo shouldve lived this, but now i have to deal with this stunky possibly winning. i know if i allow it to just pick its moves i lose for sure, so i decided to trick it into choice scarf, giving me a lot more leeway to beat it.
atp i thought id lose to the numel, as i was pressed to tera fire the vullaby in order to avoid just dying to the scarf play rough + aftermath.
to my surprise, he throws his numel aways. i do get this play after he told me why tho, he was expecting tera blast tera ground vull (a much more common set which fits the team, as i was so close to bringing it). sacrificing numel to go goth, using eball and then killing it w knock wouldve been the only play not to lose to that set, and any other standard set would also lose to this play. however, my set choice (which actually fits the team and was necessary, i do not think i fished and got lucky) actually gave me the game, as endure dual wingbeat was the only combination of moves capable of winning this endgame. ggs wail man ily
Starring: LeChonk O'Neal, Regggie Johning, Kaboom "The Jet" Smith, and Greedy "Chuck" Bark-eb
We in the Little Cup community have felt a lack of quality predictions for LC matches from non-LC players. No more "Dunno who X is" and "Y player is supposed to be good I think?". Therefore, a few of us have decided to come together and provide the highest quality shitpost. To be perfectly honest, we've followed the team records as closely as the OU players follow the LC games. We aren't here to provide commentary on the Gliscor PP stall wars, we prefer our games to max out at 30 turns and to be decided by a Mienfoo High Jump Kick miss. Without further ado, our TNT-style broadcast coverage of the Little Cup games this week.
LeChonk O'Neal: Eric's first big test in SCL. Tazz, as the better player, should be able to bring something standard and win convincingly. 65-35 Tazz favored.
Reggie Johning: Tazz has been displaying both great play and great teams, having only lost Osh so far. Eric is undefeated so far, but his opponents up to this point only have a combined 1 win. This will be his hardest opponent so far. I give the edge to Tazz, who has much better support and has shown his strength with a stronger schedule.
The Jet: Tutor vs tutee meeting on the biggest stage. Both players are off to impressive starts with, Eric boasting an undefeated record. But, his schedule has been of questionable strength, especially when compared to Tazz's. Overall I think Tazz has been cleaner in his games, and the dark horse duo of Eric and Drifting have to flex their creative muscles to pull one out. 70/30 Tazz.
Greedy "Chuck" Bark-eb: I think a lot of people are undermining the results that Éric has put up this season, being one of two currently undefeated players in this stacked LC pool is no easy feat. With probably his toughest opponent yet in tazz, I'm still predicting a 60/40 Éric because he will have an amazing matchup through his prep, and carry his advantage all the way to a victory.
Reggie Johning: Tazz has been displaying both great play and great teams, having only lost Osh so far. Eric is undefeated so far, but his opponents up to this point only have a combined 1 win. This will be his hardest opponent so far. I give the edge to Tazz, who has much better support and has shown his strength with a stronger schedule.
The Jet: Tutor vs tutee meeting on the biggest stage. Both players are off to impressive starts with, Eric boasting an undefeated record. But, his schedule has been of questionable strength, especially when compared to Tazz's. Overall I think Tazz has been cleaner in his games, and the dark horse duo of Eric and Drifting have to flex their creative muscles to pull one out. 70/30 Tazz.
Greedy "Chuck" Bark-eb: I think a lot of people are undermining the results that Éric has put up this season, being one of two currently undefeated players in this stacked LC pool is no easy feat. With probably his toughest opponent yet in tazz, I'm still predicting a 60/40 Éric because he will have an amazing matchup through his prep, and carry his advantage all the way to a victory.
LeChonk O'Neal: Wish I had thoughts on this one. Hacker has no building creativity and will likely load some basic shit and still win because Wail and KSG try to get cute in the teambuilder. 59-41 Hacker favored.
Reggie Johning: Wail is coming off a close loss against Eric in the previous week, and I'm glad he's getting another shot as his SV plays like he did during LCPL. Hacker, a top player in his own right, is also one of the most prolific builders of SV and has kept this up for the DLC meta, even if he's had an average start at 2-2. I'll give Hacker the win here in a close one based on a builder's edge, but will be rooting for my LCPL teammate in Wail.
The Jet: Hacker is the newest of the LCers in SCL, and looks to make a splash with a price tag attached. It's unfortunately been a bumpy start, but with a win under his belt he can try to carry this momentum. Wail isn't a new face to the big stage, being in SCL 1 and SSD 4, but still has to prove themselves in post-DLC SV. Subbing in for KSG and hungry for their first win, we'll see the best they have. Giving the edge to Hacker here off more familiarity with the gen, but its close. 55/45.
Greedy "Chuck" Bark-eb: Two players who are not living up to personal expectations stand in the way of each other's comeback in SCL. Wail is the starter this week after a nail-biting loss to Éric, hoping to bounce back for a strong push for the postseason. Hacker aims to get into Smogon and program all of his High Jump Kicks max-roll citing, bringing his record to a solid 3-2. As several of my cohosts said, this will be one of the closer matches this week but I'm taking Wail 55/45 as clever defensive teras on his team will give him the final push needed for a win.
Reggie Johning: Wail is coming off a close loss against Eric in the previous week, and I'm glad he's getting another shot as his SV plays like he did during LCPL. Hacker, a top player in his own right, is also one of the most prolific builders of SV and has kept this up for the DLC meta, even if he's had an average start at 2-2. I'll give Hacker the win here in a close one based on a builder's edge, but will be rooting for my LCPL teammate in Wail.
The Jet: Hacker is the newest of the LCers in SCL, and looks to make a splash with a price tag attached. It's unfortunately been a bumpy start, but with a win under his belt he can try to carry this momentum. Wail isn't a new face to the big stage, being in SCL 1 and SSD 4, but still has to prove themselves in post-DLC SV. Subbing in for KSG and hungry for their first win, we'll see the best they have. Giving the edge to Hacker here off more familiarity with the gen, but its close. 55/45.
Greedy "Chuck" Bark-eb: Two players who are not living up to personal expectations stand in the way of each other's comeback in SCL. Wail is the starter this week after a nail-biting loss to Éric, hoping to bounce back for a strong push for the postseason. Hacker aims to get into Smogon and program all of his High Jump Kicks max-roll citing, bringing his record to a solid 3-2. As several of my cohosts said, this will be one of the closer matches this week but I'm taking Wail 55/45 as clever defensive teras on his team will give him the final push needed for a win.
And now, a word from our sponsors on this 30-second break. Thanks to DreamyFleur for our incredible line of clothing, and grape tylenol for the Mienfoo, Munchlax, and Cubone art used!
LeChonk O'Neal: Flat out haven't seen Elfu win an LC battle in 4 months. I'm not sure Collette is good at SVLC, but with her and Drifting Ego-Jerking each other up in the LC Discord, she might know what she's doing. 63-37 Collette favored.
Reggie Johning: I have not seen Elfuseon play in ages, and while Collette only just made her first LC SCL (1-0 in NU) start last week, she played quite well and has kept up with the meta. Both are strong players but bolding Collette here.
The Jet: Collette has taken the driver's seat from TKO after a quick detour to NU, and looked promising in their first tour match of this meta. Expecting very tight gameplay, and a fairly standard team. Elfu on the other hand is picking up a slot marred by questionable team choices as their 3rd player to fill the position. Expectations are low, but without much to lose, Elfu has room to experiment and pull the first win for their team. 60/40 Collette.
Greedy "Chuck" Bark-eb: Elfuseon was once a top-tier LC competitor earlier this generation, but has recently struggled to recapture the magic in the newer iterations of the tier. He's hoping to bring the Technical Machines their first LC win this season, but his opponent Collette will do her best to stop that. She has very little history with SV LC as the majority of her recent team tours are in the older gens, but her win last week shows she isn't lost to time. Since I think both players have equal knowledge on the intricacies of SV LC, I'm taking Collette 60/40 as in my opinion she's the better player.
Reggie Johning: I have not seen Elfuseon play in ages, and while Collette only just made her first LC SCL (1-0 in NU) start last week, she played quite well and has kept up with the meta. Both are strong players but bolding Collette here.
The Jet: Collette has taken the driver's seat from TKO after a quick detour to NU, and looked promising in their first tour match of this meta. Expecting very tight gameplay, and a fairly standard team. Elfu on the other hand is picking up a slot marred by questionable team choices as their 3rd player to fill the position. Expectations are low, but without much to lose, Elfu has room to experiment and pull the first win for their team. 60/40 Collette.
Greedy "Chuck" Bark-eb: Elfuseon was once a top-tier LC competitor earlier this generation, but has recently struggled to recapture the magic in the newer iterations of the tier. He's hoping to bring the Technical Machines their first LC win this season, but his opponent Collette will do her best to stop that. She has very little history with SV LC as the majority of her recent team tours are in the older gens, but her win last week shows she isn't lost to time. Since I think both players have equal knowledge on the intricacies of SV LC, I'm taking Collette 60/40 as in my opinion she's the better player.
LeChonk O'Neal: I don't know if dcae will even end up playing this match. If subbed in, Cam is not good at LC. Eniigma 60-40 favored.
Reggie Johning: Eniigma and dcae are both good players, but are struggling up to this point. Eniigma's teams have been solid with some interesting but sound ideas, and dcae has brought screens twice. I think Eniigma's team is more likely to cook up some heat for the week, and thus will bold Eniigma. Looking forward to the Phanpy vs Chingling showdown.
The Jet: One of the goats of Little Cup and noted hater of Tera, Dcae hasn't had a showing you'd expect. Motivation is going to be the biggest factor for the rest of the season. Facing a hungry former ladder hero turned LC circuit curb stomper like Eniigma, this could be the most difficult-to-predict game of the season. Could be Dcae looking to reestablish himself, showing Eniigma the strength of an established tour player, or Eniigma's eclectic teambuilding making a statement. 50/50.
Greedy "Chuck" Bark-eb: Two players I have a lot of respect for with their grind of the game. While both are rumored to have effort concerns, I have faith that both players are going to give it their all in order to turn around the latter half of the season. With this in mind, I'm taking dcae 55/45 with this game being the start of his miracle run to the playoffs.
Reggie Johning: Eniigma and dcae are both good players, but are struggling up to this point. Eniigma's teams have been solid with some interesting but sound ideas, and dcae has brought screens twice. I think Eniigma's team is more likely to cook up some heat for the week, and thus will bold Eniigma. Looking forward to the Phanpy vs Chingling showdown.
The Jet: One of the goats of Little Cup and noted hater of Tera, Dcae hasn't had a showing you'd expect. Motivation is going to be the biggest factor for the rest of the season. Facing a hungry former ladder hero turned LC circuit curb stomper like Eniigma, this could be the most difficult-to-predict game of the season. Could be Dcae looking to reestablish himself, showing Eniigma the strength of an established tour player, or Eniigma's eclectic teambuilding making a statement. 50/50.
Greedy "Chuck" Bark-eb: Two players I have a lot of respect for with their grind of the game. While both are rumored to have effort concerns, I have faith that both players are going to give it their all in order to turn around the latter half of the season. With this in mind, I'm taking dcae 55/45 with this game being the start of his miracle run to the playoffs.
To Laroxyl: This is an extremely big shit post do not take us seriously or hate us afterwards
Thank you for tuning in on today's show of Little Cup in SCL, we'll catch you soon for coverage of Week 6!
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its scary how accurate greedys predicts were. i think hes on another level honestly
BlackKnight_Gawain
PUPL Champion
These are your week 5 matchups, start placing bets and predicts!
GIBLES (cleann) v TERRORS (Laroxyl)
MACHINES (Elfuseon) v SHOGUNS (Eniigma)
SPARTANS (goldenghost) v DYNAMOS (collette)
BREAKERS (tazz) v ISLANDERS (Hacker)
PLATOONS (Scottie) v FOXES (Éric)
More shakeups! First timer cleann (who to the best of my knowledge has never played LC) has swapped in one of the most expensive players (also notably winless), will this swap change the Gibles' LC fortunes? The Machines meanwhile seemed to have finally figured it out, with Elfuseon sticking around hoping to continue his form, while goldenghost returns for a shot at redemption now that his schedule's on the easier side after starting vs the toughie gauntlet.
Here's what you missed for week 5!
[SV LC]
[FOX] Éric vs tazz [BRE]
[TER] Laroxyl vs Scottie [PLA]
[ISL] Hacker vs Wail Wailord [SPA]
[DYN] Collette vs Elfuseon [TMS]
[SHO] Eniigma vs dcae [GIB]
Anyway, drop your predicts for this week! A lot of these matchups are great given the twists and turns of the season, and I think there's some big upsets on the card.
Will Hacker bring another fraud mon to a game this week? Will Clean(n) with two ns (no relation to clean with one n) suddenly display LC mastery and own Laroxyl? Will Eric swap out for Drifting who stops LC Jesus Scottie? Will Greedy figure out how to not go 0-5 in a week prediction set? Time to find out.......
GIBLES (cleann) v TERRORS (Laroxyl)
MACHINES (Elfuseon) v SHOGUNS (Eniigma)
SPARTANS (goldenghost) v DYNAMOS (collette)
BREAKERS (tazz) v ISLANDERS (Hacker)
PLATOONS (Scottie) v FOXES (Éric)
More shakeups! First timer cleann (who to the best of my knowledge has never played LC) has swapped in one of the most expensive players (also notably winless), will this swap change the Gibles' LC fortunes? The Machines meanwhile seemed to have finally figured it out, with Elfuseon sticking around hoping to continue his form, while goldenghost returns for a shot at redemption now that his schedule's on the easier side after starting vs the toughie gauntlet.
Here's what you missed for week 5!
[SV LC]
[FOX] Éric vs tazz [BRE]
Eric's haters will say he's undefeated largely because of an easy schedule, which comes to an end this week with him facing the tougher side of the pool starting with tazz. Eric's got the clam in the back, but no ground which means tazz's updated poisonspam (now with a Mudbray over Glimmet) with its Magnemite can keep clicking Volt Switch for free. This is a fairly unremarkable game, Eric's mistakes a bit clear cut having traded his Vullaby check early for a single Spike for a Shellder sweep, before letting Magmemite get sacked to a pair of telegraphed Knock Offs from tazz's Stunky. I also question Mienfoo's tera choice since it doesn't really accomplish anything and potentially gave up a better path for a Shellder sweep, although that point may remain moot with tazz having Water Mudbray healthy in the end.
[TER] Laroxyl vs Scottie [PLA]
The highlight matchup, both players are arguably top 3 in the pool and there's a lot at stake as the Terrors and Platoons lead the standings hoping to make an impact statement in every tier. Of course, LC is what we're focusing on and people are skeptical if Scottie's dominance might be beat—but if anyone can finally trip him up it might be Laroxyl. Well...
Scottie's team is super interesting, he brings Pawniard again and the fallen-out-of-favor Drifloon on a team that looks almost pre-DLC if it weren't for the Big Two in Mienfoo-Vullaby. Laro's team is fairly standard balance and similar to his past few weeks, and notably lacking removal and flying resists outside of Tinkatink. A t1-2 trade between both foos knocking, but Scottie's having Acrobatics puts Laro down but he gets the revenge kill with Gothita. Scottie's able to get up rocks and a spike pretty safely, which is big with no removal on the other side. SD Pawn also just proceeds to rip a hole at +2 as well, taking good advantage of the chip and lack of resists to Dark/Steel STAB, giving Scottie a pretty dominant win over Laro. Scottie remains the only undefeated starter as of this game....
Scottie's team is super interesting, he brings Pawniard again and the fallen-out-of-favor Drifloon on a team that looks almost pre-DLC if it weren't for the Big Two in Mienfoo-Vullaby. Laro's team is fairly standard balance and similar to his past few weeks, and notably lacking removal and flying resists outside of Tinkatink. A t1-2 trade between both foos knocking, but Scottie's having Acrobatics puts Laro down but he gets the revenge kill with Gothita. Scottie's able to get up rocks and a spike pretty safely, which is big with no removal on the other side. SD Pawn also just proceeds to rip a hole at +2 as well, taking good advantage of the chip and lack of resists to Dark/Steel STAB, giving Scottie a pretty dominant win over Laro. Scottie remains the only undefeated starter as of this game....
[ISL] Hacker vs Wail Wailord [SPA]
My friends at the good bumwatch show on Smogon TNT have dropped some incredibly spicy predicts, which insinuated Wail would overcook in the builder and Hacker will play it safe. Unfortunately, it looks to be the opposite as Hacker has two unmons in Wingull and Gible while Wail has a very safe six. I was inclined to give Hacker more positive commentary this week because he nicely asked, but unfortunately semi-scripted smack is back on the menu as he got me raising eyebrows at these two picks.........
To his credit though, Hacker probably put in the cleanest game of his season (and maybe of this week). Some great plays with Vullaby and Tinkatink versus a pretty passive Wail trying to read him and falling flat just put him in a great position, and the Protect Tera Dark Wingull let him at least flex Gible on the winscreen. Not much to say here, but I really do admire how clean his positioning was. Unfortunately docking points for the team pick....maybe next week Hacker :)
To his credit though, Hacker probably put in the cleanest game of his season (and maybe of this week). Some great plays with Vullaby and Tinkatink versus a pretty passive Wail trying to read him and falling flat just put him in a great position, and the Protect Tera Dark Wingull let him at least flex Gible on the winscreen. Not much to say here, but I really do admire how clean his positioning was. Unfortunately docking points for the team pick....maybe next week Hacker :)
Elfuseon swaps in for Expulso who swapped in for Acehunter....dire times for the Machine's LC slot as they look for their first win vs the tko/collette combo, who've been going strong so far. Both sides bring some fun teams, with Diglett-Alola on both sides again, but Collette also has the less common two of Larvesta and Mareanie (which have both put in good showings in other teams past weeks). Both players are big fans of trying to out-read their opponents, and it really shows in the double switches trying to outplay the other's clicks. They both have double ground teams, but also triple weak to ground move mons, but Coll's relying on the Larv/Toed to take those hits while Elfu has a Vullaby, and Mudbray in a pinch. A big difference though, comes in t2 where you can see Coll's Mienfoo is less bulky and takes more from an Earthquake from Life Orb Dig-A. Coll's plan of trying to repeatedly switch also backfires a bit, because Elfu goes for the accumulated chip and sets up his path pretty well — once most of the resists are worn down, a forced Tera on Mareanie is Coll's best bet out. This ends up mattering little in the end as Elfu had enough ways to make progress, especially once he revealed Draining Kiss Tink which ultimately scored him and the Machines their first win in this tier for the season.
[SHO] Eniigma vs dcae [GIB]
dcae loads a non vullaby team, rare in this meta and both sides bring Pawniard. It's a similar enough matchup, and dcae getting up guaranteed tspikes after early KOing Eniigma's Foongus is good for his progress. I've watched this replay a few times now, and I'm still trying to figure out why dcae made some sus switches — was he expecting bizarre Eniigma tech on the level of Scarf Voltorb or a stray Tera? At a point dcae looked in good position but then swapped out versus a near dead Mudbray that claimed too much damage and a kill, after which it wasn't really recoverable once Eniigma's Vullaby revealed Tera Ground. Either way, another win for the first timer Eniigma versus the experienced dcae, who continues a shocking winless run...
Anyway, drop your predicts for this week! A lot of these matchups are great given the twists and turns of the season, and I think there's some big upsets on the card.
Will Hacker bring another fraud mon to a game this week? Will Clean(n) with two ns (no relation to clean with one n) suddenly display LC mastery and own Laroxyl? Will Eric swap out for Drifting who stops LC Jesus Scottie? Will Greedy figure out how to not go 0-5 in a week prediction set? Time to find out.......
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goldengoat
FREE DRIFTING
my game
this week i wanted to go with a fire resist since ive been lacking in that department lol i figured shellder would be a good idea since i think its also a v strong mon in this metagame, easy to set up and hard to stop. however, i very much struggled all week, both deciding its set and its teammates. tinkatink felt like the better vull check here, since knock would be very valuable and it deals with gothita, stunky and opp glimmet better, but glimmets spikes work super well in tandem with shellder. i ultimately decided to go w glimmet bc spikes had been working so well in test games
i noticed a matchup i hard to work around really well. stunky is able to pressure me a lot and also stop shellder from sweeping with sucker punch. also, mag wouldnt be nearly as useful as i hoped itd be, since it not only has to deal with a mienfoo foongus mudbray core to check it, but an opposing magnemite as well to trap it if i ever manage to kill anything w flash cannon (my only spammable move otherwise).
i figured i needed to play aggressive with my vullaby, knocking the mudbray off and hopefully killing the stunky so my shellder can win.
most people disagree with what i did here. stunky switched into my vullaby brave bird, and i switched out into my magnemite. i thought his play would be either play rough or gunk shot, as they are the only moves to actually threaten vullaby (2hkoing evio and ohkoing otherwise). at the same time, as i said earlier, i put 0 value on my magnemite and a lot on my vullaby, so it just felt natural to switch out into it. if it dies i couldnt care less, and if it doesnt die then better for me. i felt like i couldnt risk my best wincon just because. however everyone else disagrees, saying tazz was obviously gonna knock off there because it was a better midground into everything i could do. like, i understand knock gets you more average reward, but gunk shot/play rough deals with the actual problem you want to deal with: my vullaby. if i get hit by it im basically dead, while if i get hit by knock off i couldnt care less. if vullaby is my win condition i just didnt wanna risk that. yet, in hindsight, i wish i had stayed in, and i can empathize with the sentiment of knock being a better midground. idk why, bc i felt like tazz is a scout person and he would know, but knock is a way better move if you only have eviolite in mind for some reason. i dont actually disagree with past me tho, i 100% believe staying in was a bad, risky play for no reason, even if magnemite wouldve proven more useful later on.
now this is where i disagree with past me. so heres the scenario: tazz has a 1 turn asleep mienfoo, and a full health mudbray and obvious scarf magnemite in the back. in my mind, there are only three possible scenarios then: he stays in tryna wake up and damage me, he goes mudbray and plays a tera mindgame with tera steel/dragon or go magnemite. past me used shell smash, as it felt free and thought "i can just use protect to scout mudbrays tera, its the perfect time to set up". however hidnsight me agrees with the general consensus: liquidation here is better. he has very little reason to stay in, as it would just give me more boosts lol. even if he does, theres no guarantee he wakes up this turn, since hes only been asleep for one turn. if he does switch out however, theres two possibilities: going mudbray on shell smash or magnemite on liquidation. if he did go magnemite on liquidation not only would i get free damage on it, but i also would just be able to go mienfoo, knock and turn and repeat the process, so he would get nothing done. if he does go mudbray, id get like 60% damage on it, which would just win me the game. id be able to actually set up on it later and kill it, and win after that. i didnt identify tera water as his choice, and that cost me the game. it is actually a very good tera for mudbray, so props to him. however, had i only been a little more patience, or rather had i identified i could afford to be so, i would have taken this game too.
regardless of the outcome, this is another game im happy with how i played it. it wasnt perfect, i dont aim for perfect. this is my first big tournament, and im playing much much better than i myself expected. ggs to tazz and ggs to osh too. hes my opponent this week, and as some of you may know, hes my eternal nemesis and i have never won vs him and never will, even if he doesnt know that lol
this week i wanted to go with a fire resist since ive been lacking in that department lol i figured shellder would be a good idea since i think its also a v strong mon in this metagame, easy to set up and hard to stop. however, i very much struggled all week, both deciding its set and its teammates. tinkatink felt like the better vull check here, since knock would be very valuable and it deals with gothita, stunky and opp glimmet better, but glimmets spikes work super well in tandem with shellder. i ultimately decided to go w glimmet bc spikes had been working so well in test games
i noticed a matchup i hard to work around really well. stunky is able to pressure me a lot and also stop shellder from sweeping with sucker punch. also, mag wouldnt be nearly as useful as i hoped itd be, since it not only has to deal with a mienfoo foongus mudbray core to check it, but an opposing magnemite as well to trap it if i ever manage to kill anything w flash cannon (my only spammable move otherwise).
i figured i needed to play aggressive with my vullaby, knocking the mudbray off and hopefully killing the stunky so my shellder can win.
most people disagree with what i did here. stunky switched into my vullaby brave bird, and i switched out into my magnemite. i thought his play would be either play rough or gunk shot, as they are the only moves to actually threaten vullaby (2hkoing evio and ohkoing otherwise). at the same time, as i said earlier, i put 0 value on my magnemite and a lot on my vullaby, so it just felt natural to switch out into it. if it dies i couldnt care less, and if it doesnt die then better for me. i felt like i couldnt risk my best wincon just because. however everyone else disagrees, saying tazz was obviously gonna knock off there because it was a better midground into everything i could do. like, i understand knock gets you more average reward, but gunk shot/play rough deals with the actual problem you want to deal with: my vullaby. if i get hit by it im basically dead, while if i get hit by knock off i couldnt care less. if vullaby is my win condition i just didnt wanna risk that. yet, in hindsight, i wish i had stayed in, and i can empathize with the sentiment of knock being a better midground. idk why, bc i felt like tazz is a scout person and he would know, but knock is a way better move if you only have eviolite in mind for some reason. i dont actually disagree with past me tho, i 100% believe staying in was a bad, risky play for no reason, even if magnemite wouldve proven more useful later on.
now this is where i disagree with past me. so heres the scenario: tazz has a 1 turn asleep mienfoo, and a full health mudbray and obvious scarf magnemite in the back. in my mind, there are only three possible scenarios then: he stays in tryna wake up and damage me, he goes mudbray and plays a tera mindgame with tera steel/dragon or go magnemite. past me used shell smash, as it felt free and thought "i can just use protect to scout mudbrays tera, its the perfect time to set up". however hidnsight me agrees with the general consensus: liquidation here is better. he has very little reason to stay in, as it would just give me more boosts lol. even if he does, theres no guarantee he wakes up this turn, since hes only been asleep for one turn. if he does switch out however, theres two possibilities: going mudbray on shell smash or magnemite on liquidation. if he did go magnemite on liquidation not only would i get free damage on it, but i also would just be able to go mienfoo, knock and turn and repeat the process, so he would get nothing done. if he does go mudbray, id get like 60% damage on it, which would just win me the game. id be able to actually set up on it later and kill it, and win after that. i didnt identify tera water as his choice, and that cost me the game. it is actually a very good tera for mudbray, so props to him. however, had i only been a little more patience, or rather had i identified i could afford to be so, i would have taken this game too.
genisu
I COULD BE BANNED!
great job with your analyses, its helping me improve and really understand how great players think tysm!!!
BlackKnight_Gawain
PUPL Champion
Hello and welcome to week 6, here's the fights on the card for this week:
TERRORS (Laroxyl) vs (Éric) FOXES
ISLANDERS (Hacker) vs (Scottie) PLATOON
DYNAMOS (Collette) vs (tazz) BREAKERS
SHOGUNS (Eniigma) vs (goldenghost) SPARTANS
GIBLES (cleann) vs (Elfuseon) MACHINES
Look, a week without a lineup shuffle! That being said, some fun points of observation:
1. Drifting is finally freed and it's in OU, not LC...raise your hands if you also had this on your bingo
2. Osh remains the only undefeated player in SCL (who's played all 6 games)
3. We've had 16 unique players who've played a game so far, which is actually tied with NU and PU for most shuffles. In particular, two teams have fielded 3 players each (Gibles and Machines, combined for a startling 1-x record).
Anyway, on to week 5's recap
[GIB] cleann vs Laroxyl [TER]
[TMS] Elfuseon vs Eniigma [SHO]
[SPA] goldenghost vs Collette [DYN]
[BRE] tazz vs Hacker [ISL]
[PLA] Scottie vs Éric [FOX]
Drop your predicts for the week! Will Drifting shine as an OU mainer this week? Will the curse of one of the two winless slots be broken this week? Will I actually catch most of the games live this time instead of being asleep or doing something else during them?
Looking forward to this week a fair bit, put on a show LCers!
TERRORS (Laroxyl) vs (Éric) FOXES
ISLANDERS (Hacker) vs (Scottie) PLATOON
DYNAMOS (Collette) vs (tazz) BREAKERS
SHOGUNS (Eniigma) vs (goldenghost) SPARTANS
GIBLES (cleann) vs (Elfuseon) MACHINES
Look, a week without a lineup shuffle! That being said, some fun points of observation:
1. Drifting is finally freed and it's in OU, not LC...raise your hands if you also had this on your bingo
2. Osh remains the only undefeated player in SCL (who's played all 6 games)
3. We've had 16 unique players who've played a game so far, which is actually tied with NU and PU for most shuffles. In particular, two teams have fielded 3 players each (Gibles and Machines, combined for a startling 1-x record).
Anyway, on to week 5's recap
[GIB] cleann vs Laroxyl [TER]
The Gibles have opted for a fresh revival in this slot by sending in someone mistaken for a different user (clean, singular n) so often that the low-hanging jokes had to be avoided in this title. Anyway, focusing on the game — cleann's team is opting for a good mix of top mons, including the evil clam that can sweep unprepared. Laro brings a rarer Vullaby-less team and the also rare Pawniard, alongside what was later revealed to be Giga Drain Toedscool. Laro's game is aggressive to a fault, taking advantage of cleann's lack of experience in the tier and punishing him with every play following a Hi Jump Kick call with a Wattrel switch-in. With multiple outs vs Shellder too and forcing a Vullaby tera that didn't really amount to much, cleann didn't really have much of a chance to turn this game around, leaving the Gibles still looking for their first win in LC while Laro continues his top form.
Elfuseon continues as the 3rd Machines LC player, who finally seems to have broken their curse on this slot last week with a win. I have to confess, this might be one of my least favorite teams brought in the tour so far. It's a very passive six, with the Koff + Tink core being notoriously out of place in an offensive tier. Wingull is uncommon too, with its typing a dreadful liability vs the very common Voltorb-Hisui. Being the most offensive option in Elfu's team isn't a great look either... On the flipside, Eniigma has Larvesta + Toedscool, a combo gaining in popularity while also keeping up his use of Stunky and Voltorb, alongside another Pawniard.
I can't call this game too impressive, tbh. An early Tera Ground Vullaby with Tera Blast quickly gets rid of Tink and 1v1s Koffing, which means Elfu's already without a defensive core. Aggressively playing into Toedscool with HJK Foo also gets him spored, leaving his offensive options neutered too. From there the game just is downhill for him, with the Wingull not amounting to much even with going Tera Dark as it can't really break the rest of the team in time before it falls.
I can't call this game too impressive, tbh. An early Tera Ground Vullaby with Tera Blast quickly gets rid of Tink and 1v1s Koffing, which means Elfu's already without a defensive core. Aggressively playing into Toedscool with HJK Foo also gets him spored, leaving his offensive options neutered too. From there the game just is downhill for him, with the Wingull not amounting to much even with going Tera Dark as it can't really break the rest of the team in time before it falls.
Unfortunate cannot even begin to describe KSG's luck...............
Honestly, I hadn't seen this replay till writing this and I couldn't help feel awful watching the trainwreck of sequences in this game unfold. KSG's using an uncommon-ish (at least in SCL so far) Scarf Vullaby that racks up two quick kills somehow, before his Wattrel claims a third and this game looks really one-sided for a bit. Collette reveals the completely never-seen Subsitute/Tera Flying Blast Voltorb, which kind of 1v1s a Stunky that had some unfortunate aim and claimed a Static proc on Foo before promptly dying to the opposing Voltorb. Pretty much everything goes against KSG by the end of the game in a game that never looked like it was losing if you stopped after the third early kill....
Honestly, I hadn't seen this replay till writing this and I couldn't help feel awful watching the trainwreck of sequences in this game unfold. KSG's using an uncommon-ish (at least in SCL so far) Scarf Vullaby that racks up two quick kills somehow, before his Wattrel claims a third and this game looks really one-sided for a bit. Collette reveals the completely never-seen Subsitute/Tera Flying Blast Voltorb, which kind of 1v1s a Stunky that had some unfortunate aim and claimed a Static proc on Foo before promptly dying to the opposing Voltorb. Pretty much everything goes against KSG by the end of the game in a game that never looked like it was losing if you stopped after the third early kill....
This is a game that looks a little more lopsided than it should, with good looking teams on both sides. Hacker's aggressive early game with the Wattrel is rewarded as he puts Tazz's Mienfoo low from t1, and accumulates progressive chip with some well-timed pivot clicks. Tazz's lesser used Tera Ice Voltorb seems to be good versus the overall team, but unfortunately it's chipped enough to the point where it (and nothing else) really resists Tera Fighting Scarf Reckless Mienfoo's Hi Jump Kick, which miraculously lands every hit with zero misses or Static procs to seal the game for Hacker. Good use of uncommon tech as Hacker claims a victory over one of the better performing players so far.
Eric/Drifting have started strong so far contrary to everyone's expectations. Scottie continues to remain this pool's demon as he remains the only undefeated LC player atm (and if you read my lines above, he — spoiler — won again and has the best record of any player in SCL III across all tiers).
The funny thing about it all is, by all accounts, he probably should've lost.
Now the discourse on this has been done to death in the LC discord, and yes, if you look at the replay Scottie definitely misplays and puts himself into a losing position that he probably shouldn't have been. Conversely, tera haters will cite this game having been over turn 1 in Osh's favor because of an uncommon tech in Tera Blast Ground Larvesta taking out Glimmet on a speed tie. My personal takeaway is that the game was decidedly less one-sided because of a t1 tera. What really harmed Osh's overall plays were trying to bluff the Larvesta as Scarf far too long, and for some reason not trying to Earth Power Tera Elec Vullaby with Toedscool, but sacking it in range for an incredibly bailed out crit final turn from Mienfoo. There's definitely some confusing middlegame plays, like the decision to sack Vullaby as well to Gothita instead of luring out a Thunderbolt with Ground Larvesta. It's hard to deny that as the game played out, Scottie should've lost, but it's also hard to deny that this game turned around t1 on a speed tie — regardless of what your stance on Tera is. All in all, good interesting game compared to the rest of the week, and a great reminder even the best players need some luck for unbeaten runs to happen in a season.
The funny thing about it all is, by all accounts, he probably should've lost.
Now the discourse on this has been done to death in the LC discord, and yes, if you look at the replay Scottie definitely misplays and puts himself into a losing position that he probably shouldn't have been. Conversely, tera haters will cite this game having been over turn 1 in Osh's favor because of an uncommon tech in Tera Blast Ground Larvesta taking out Glimmet on a speed tie. My personal takeaway is that the game was decidedly less one-sided because of a t1 tera. What really harmed Osh's overall plays were trying to bluff the Larvesta as Scarf far too long, and for some reason not trying to Earth Power Tera Elec Vullaby with Toedscool, but sacking it in range for an incredibly bailed out crit final turn from Mienfoo. There's definitely some confusing middlegame plays, like the decision to sack Vullaby as well to Gothita instead of luring out a Thunderbolt with Ground Larvesta. It's hard to deny that as the game played out, Scottie should've lost, but it's also hard to deny that this game turned around t1 on a speed tie — regardless of what your stance on Tera is. All in all, good interesting game compared to the rest of the week, and a great reminder even the best players need some luck for unbeaten runs to happen in a season.
Drop your predicts for the week! Will Drifting shine as an OU mainer this week? Will the curse of one of the two winless slots be broken this week? Will I actually catch most of the games live this time instead of being asleep or doing something else during them?
Looking forward to this week a fair bit, put on a show LCers!
scl w6 eridbst vs osh
i kinda just felt like using larv vs him bc hed been spamming like pawniard and shit, and since i had been lacking fire resists i thought a fire type would be able to spam stabs pretty well. tazz had used a team i liked earlier in the season so i just used that
he clearly had the same idea i had w the larv, and we ended up playing a kind of mirror match. i thought i had the advantage, as scarf goth could trap a lot of his mons, and i knew i had to use that as an advantage. larv looked like it was scarf here, as he didnt need evio as much to deal w foo, with watt being there, and the team looking kinda slow.
i lead glimmet bc i thought it ws super good and it had a lead advantage over every possible lead of his. he lead with larvesta, which led me to believe i had free rocks. those rocks would pretty much force the toedscool to spin them, giving me a free turn. however, my glimmet exploded instead. i thought i lost here, as i thought this was a scarf tera ground larvesta, which is really difficult for my team to take on, and my probably best mon in this matchup second to gothita was dead without doing anything. now id have to play games vs vullaby and larvesta, and id have no rocks to play with.
a different play i could have made was to go vullaby here, since even if i did not expect this play (who would), id still have a +2 speed vullaby on the field had he uturned, and it would be both menacing for him and safe for me. however i dont regret not doing that, i still think those free rocks were too good to not use
im very proud of this play. after i lost all momentum and a mon, i had to force progress somehow. the only mon of mine that actually threatened that larvesta atp was my vullaby, but i knew if i just attacked there, while i would knock something important off for sure, id give up a tspike on my field, which would be terrible. instead, i doubled to goth on the larvesta into glimmet, knowing i would get something trapped guaranteed, be it the glimmet or the wattrel, which would be hugely impactful. he did set rocks up tho, as i had no real way of deterring that.
i think this was my first mistake imo. the vull came in to revenge kill my gothita and, since my vull check was fucking dead, i tossed mienfoo to it, as i didnt value it much more than my other mons. in hidnsight, i think larvesta shouldve been the sacrifice here: its slower than everything and, even if its true it does check opp foo and toed, its not like i dont have outs vs those already. at least mienfoo is faster than everything here, and can threaten hjks on a lot of stuff, since i can always trap the wattrel. also it doesnt force me to remove rocks to function either. it wouldve been a very different game had i killed my larv instead of my mienfoo.
i am, however, really proud of how i played this sequence. after i terad vull into electric and uturned out of the knocked wattrel, instead of taking my kill with gothita, which i very much couldve, i went toedscool on his wattrel. i think this is smart bc it allowed me to threaten a spore on his team, and even a spin. instead of killing the wattrel with my gothita i was able to kill the vullaby, which was much more threatening to me.
another slight mistake here as i view it. i spun here bc i wanted my stupid larvesta healthy and i thought id trap larv after w my eball goth. however, had i known it wouldnt die, i wouldve knocked. killing his larvesta was much much more important imo than having rocks up, as it wouldve allowed me to have goth for that endgame, which would have pretty much sealed it on my end.
that was the game. im really sad it had to end like that, as i wanted this win so much. however, i cant help it that im just happy with this game. even if i made mistakes, i played out of my mind i think, and almost made it back, or arguably shouldve. i take losing to scottie on a hjk crit a million times over just playing bad and winning. im also super excited to play this week vs my pokebro final boss laro hf man
i kinda just felt like using larv vs him bc hed been spamming like pawniard and shit, and since i had been lacking fire resists i thought a fire type would be able to spam stabs pretty well. tazz had used a team i liked earlier in the season so i just used that
he clearly had the same idea i had w the larv, and we ended up playing a kind of mirror match. i thought i had the advantage, as scarf goth could trap a lot of his mons, and i knew i had to use that as an advantage. larv looked like it was scarf here, as he didnt need evio as much to deal w foo, with watt being there, and the team looking kinda slow.
i lead glimmet bc i thought it ws super good and it had a lead advantage over every possible lead of his. he lead with larvesta, which led me to believe i had free rocks. those rocks would pretty much force the toedscool to spin them, giving me a free turn. however, my glimmet exploded instead. i thought i lost here, as i thought this was a scarf tera ground larvesta, which is really difficult for my team to take on, and my probably best mon in this matchup second to gothita was dead without doing anything. now id have to play games vs vullaby and larvesta, and id have no rocks to play with.
a different play i could have made was to go vullaby here, since even if i did not expect this play (who would), id still have a +2 speed vullaby on the field had he uturned, and it would be both menacing for him and safe for me. however i dont regret not doing that, i still think those free rocks were too good to not use
im very proud of this play. after i lost all momentum and a mon, i had to force progress somehow. the only mon of mine that actually threatened that larvesta atp was my vullaby, but i knew if i just attacked there, while i would knock something important off for sure, id give up a tspike on my field, which would be terrible. instead, i doubled to goth on the larvesta into glimmet, knowing i would get something trapped guaranteed, be it the glimmet or the wattrel, which would be hugely impactful. he did set rocks up tho, as i had no real way of deterring that.
i think this was my first mistake imo. the vull came in to revenge kill my gothita and, since my vull check was fucking dead, i tossed mienfoo to it, as i didnt value it much more than my other mons. in hidnsight, i think larvesta shouldve been the sacrifice here: its slower than everything and, even if its true it does check opp foo and toed, its not like i dont have outs vs those already. at least mienfoo is faster than everything here, and can threaten hjks on a lot of stuff, since i can always trap the wattrel. also it doesnt force me to remove rocks to function either. it wouldve been a very different game had i killed my larv instead of my mienfoo.
i am, however, really proud of how i played this sequence. after i terad vull into electric and uturned out of the knocked wattrel, instead of taking my kill with gothita, which i very much couldve, i went toedscool on his wattrel. i think this is smart bc it allowed me to threaten a spore on his team, and even a spin. instead of killing the wattrel with my gothita i was able to kill the vullaby, which was much more threatening to me.
another slight mistake here as i view it. i spun here bc i wanted my stupid larvesta healthy and i thought id trap larv after w my eball goth. however, had i known it wouldnt die, i wouldve knocked. killing his larvesta was much much more important imo than having rocks up, as it wouldve allowed me to have goth for that endgame, which would have pretty much sealed it on my end.
goldengoat (pls im begging)
BlackKnight_Gawain
PUPL Champion
Wonderfully delayed post coming out, shoutout smogon being down for a day and for some reason a 2nd extra day...
Here's the the update for week 7! Pairings for the week are:
SPARTANS (Wail Wailord) vs (dcae) GIBLES
MACHINES (Elfuseon) vs (wesh papillon) TERRORS
BREAKERS (tazz) vs (Eniigma) SHOGUNS
PLATOON (Scottie) vs (tko) DYNAMOS
FOXES (Éric) vs (Hacker) ISLANDERS
A few changes as teams accept their playoffs fates — making his SCL debut this week is wesh papillon, subbing in for Laroxyl who's going to play OU for funsies as the Terrors are solidly locked in for playoffs. Drifting continues to be freed in the wrong tier...while dcae, wail make their returns for their respective teams. tko also comes back for coll, after having subbed in for her early last week.
Week 6 might've been one of the more exciting weeks in terms of quality of games, with a lot of great showings on all sides and some fun mons showing up (and a freed Drifting for the fans, but sadly in OU....). Let's talk about it!
Week 6 Recap!
[TER] Laroxyl vs Éric [FOX]
[ISL] Hacker vs Scottie [PLA]
[DYN] tko vs tazz [BRE]
[SHO] Eniigma vs goldenghost [SPA]
[GIB] cleann vs Elfuseon [TMS]
BONUS GAME:
[TER] oldspicemike vs Drifting [FOX]
I would've honestly just ended it at this....but credit due should be given because Drifting did play this well outside of a few rough predicted turns, like the Sneasler switch expecting Ceaseless Edge and might've potentially won if the Zamazenta was higher health versus a crit damaged Dragonite. Mike also had a great team with (to the best of my knowledge) a very untried set in bulky resttalk Samurott-H, which kind of clutched up in getting a Gliscor kill after Mike seemingly threw his own one away earlier (which would've folded anyway to SD Ice Fang). All in all, great spectator game and the fans are itching for more Drifting in OU....
#DriftingSweepWeek7
I enjoyed a lot of the tech this week and it's fun to see how creative the builds are getting despite looking relatively samesies on paper week-to-week and person-to-person. Week 7 will hopefully deliver some more as more teams are potentially fighting for the last playoff slot and hopefully willing to experiment in some less consequences oriented games. I'm also excited to see more LC Mainers in other tiers, with Laro debuting in OU vs Isza this week and Drifting always with the potential to surprise as he plays Wolf.
Drop your predicts for the week! Will one of the last winless slots finally claim a week? Will every player bring at least one unmon per side? Will Drifting surely not lose to a guy named after an animal internet men are obsessed with? Let the 2nd last week of regular season commence!
Here's the the update for week 7! Pairings for the week are:
SPARTANS (Wail Wailord) vs (dcae) GIBLES
MACHINES (Elfuseon) vs (wesh papillon) TERRORS
BREAKERS (tazz) vs (Eniigma) SHOGUNS
PLATOON (Scottie) vs (tko) DYNAMOS
FOXES (Éric) vs (Hacker) ISLANDERS
A few changes as teams accept their playoffs fates — making his SCL debut this week is wesh papillon, subbing in for Laroxyl who's going to play OU for funsies as the Terrors are solidly locked in for playoffs. Drifting continues to be freed in the wrong tier...while dcae, wail make their returns for their respective teams. tko also comes back for coll, after having subbed in for her early last week.
Week 6 might've been one of the more exciting weeks in terms of quality of games, with a lot of great showings on all sides and some fun mons showing up (and a freed Drifting for the fans, but sadly in OU....). Let's talk about it!
Week 6 Recap!
[TER] Laroxyl vs Éric [FOX]
Seems like both players had the right set of ideas for each other this week, opting for the underrated Diglett-A with Life Orb breaker on similar structures, with Laro preferring double grass in Foongus/Voltorb over Eric's Wattrel/Stunky. The start is pretty rough for Laro, as Eric's plays are more aggressive. It's clear playing the Dig aggressively both players is the right path to take, and while Laro has more KOs racked up by turn 17, he's got a lot of chipped mons while Eric's Diglett-A is at more health. Opting for the speed tie, Laro's game opens back up as he gets it with his Dig, and Eric's early tera means he's got less options to deal with it. Funny enough, Laro has to opt for the same tera in Fairy Tinkatink, which basically is fat enough and stays alive between resists and Draining Kiss to heal it up, after which Voltorb picks off Eric's last two mons for the win.
The haters are going to have a real hard time discrediting Osh's dynamic run so far, with this game definitely showing off some deserved chops. Hacker's team is fairly standard from what he's brought so far, while Osh has another Shellder and Drifloon again. Both sides have some tricks up their sleeves tho...and the first gets revealed turn 5 as a Knock Off from Toedscool on Drifloon procs Weakness Policy and Unburden. Tera Blast Ground also just chunks through Hacker's flying resist in Tinkatink, and it goes down claiming Stunky in a Destiny Bond trap as Hacker is forced to trade one more to prevent a sweep. The surprises don't end there, as Shellder comes in on Vullaby next and reveals Scarf Icicle Spear, claiming another KO and Hacker's definitely been caught off guard hard. Hacker does threaten back for a little bit with Scarf Tera Fighting Reckless Mienfoo, which potentially can win just off chip on the Foongus (and aimbotted hjks...). Shame it's not enough as it comes out a little too late to do its thing, which would've otherwise had Hacker as my MVP in the Tech Department for this week...
tko subbed in for coll, who's been doing good so far, and while their combined record is good as they ended up as one of the more reliable dynamos slots. Still, they've got the more reliable looking team than tazz who's brought nymble, which has long fallen out of favor but still does well into cheesy threats I suppose. The issue ends up being that tazz's team ends up getting pretty overwhelmed by a +2 NP Vullaby (although admittedly without the flinch it would've been a lot more even....), and with tera having been burnt right before to take out tko's glimmet, not having any outs for the remaining mons just kinda meant tazz was doomed post-flinch. Unfortunate game, since it looks like the Mudbray might've kept him in the game longer.
I'm already a huge fan of what ksg brought, I love seeing Snover but it's kinda funny because it's not a Hail team since it's Sandshrew Kanto and not Sandshrew-Alola. KSG's early game is great, but I think switching in the Scarf Snover vs Vullaby expecting Brave Bird was a mistake and probably just cost him the game outright. I kinda wish we got to see the Tera Bug Sandshrew do things earlier, because that would've been a great way to put KSG on the board even though the Spartans are out (and surprisingly won a week??).
I'm not gonna lie, I genuinely thought for most of the game cleann might've pulled a major upset by pulling off a non-mainer win after how reasonably strong the pool has been. The teams look pretty normal for the most part, with another Magnemite use this week coming from Elfu, and cleann's brought the reliable Dig-A. Cleann might've jumped the gun little with tera, predicting in the Foongus switch and tries to get rid of it in a greedy Voltorb play after Elfu's good early start. The greedy plays do work in his favor though, as he keeps getting the Foongus turns right and suddenly looks strong after chipping Mienfoo after Elfu's own greedy seeming HJK play, and then healing up on a Mudbray sack. But then the kicker comes in, Elfu also had the idea to bring Scarf Shellder this week and grabs a KO from Rock Blast (although given his recent luck I'm surprised it didn't miss...), before coming back in to end the game with Tera Ice Icicle Spear in a rollercoaster of a game.
BONUS GAME:
[TER] oldspicemike vs Drifting [FOX]
I would've honestly just ended it at this....but credit due should be given because Drifting did play this well outside of a few rough predicted turns, like the Sneasler switch expecting Ceaseless Edge and might've potentially won if the Zamazenta was higher health versus a crit damaged Dragonite. Mike also had a great team with (to the best of my knowledge) a very untried set in bulky resttalk Samurott-H, which kind of clutched up in getting a Gliscor kill after Mike seemingly threw his own one away earlier (which would've folded anyway to SD Ice Fang). All in all, great spectator game and the fans are itching for more Drifting in OU....
#DriftingSweepWeek7
I enjoyed a lot of the tech this week and it's fun to see how creative the builds are getting despite looking relatively samesies on paper week-to-week and person-to-person. Week 7 will hopefully deliver some more as more teams are potentially fighting for the last playoff slot and hopefully willing to experiment in some less consequences oriented games. I'm also excited to see more LC Mainers in other tiers, with Laro debuting in OU vs Isza this week and Drifting always with the potential to surprise as he plays Wolf.
Drop your predicts for the week! Will one of the last winless slots finally claim a week? Will every player bring at least one unmon per side? Will Drifting surely not lose to a guy named after an animal internet men are obsessed with? Let the 2nd last week of regular season commence!
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congrats on your win Eric