As promised, I am back to go over my games!
(click preview screenshot for replay hyperlink)
Team and Preparation
(click Pokemon for importable hyperlink)
Frania was someone who was newer to BW, but had a great track record thus far. I knew he would give me a great game and I also knew he had support of manager Prinz and some others with BW experience on the roster, so I figured that I would likely face an offense that did well against my good ol' Rotom-Wash Sands. I explain this a lot more in the video, but the main takeaway from that was that I wanted to run Rain with two Pokemon faster than Keldeo/Terrakion to assure sufficient revenge killing. Having priority on Mamoswine was also a plus due to how Ice weak those teams can be, but I am sure we have enough of my thoughts on Mamoswine from my last post -- including my explanation of Salac Mamoswine.
Tornadus is great at being secondary speed control, stopping momentum with Prankster SubTect, abusing the status I had on board, and dealing out strong damage with few durable resists common in the tier (none of which fit onto offensive teams besides Rotom-W and Jirachi, which both do not like facing Ferrothorn and other Pokemon I have). Lum Ferrothorn was mainly because Tornadus and Mamoswine struggle against Rotom-Wash, which almost always leads and wisps vs Rain. if I hit two whips, I basically trade Rotom-W for a burn on Ferrothorn, meaning Tornadus and Mamoswine become huge problems for the opponent. Perish Song Politoed was a safety button against Latias/Dragonite/Reuniclus/Celebi/BPass. The rest was pretty standard and I outlined every set in my video.
Game Overview
Preview is screened above -- I did face an offense, but it was not all ideal for me admittedly. He had three Ice shard resets, two of which surely where quicker, and a lot of threats. However, I had offensive tools as well and they can really open up the game for me if I handle them optimally. Main idea early for me is to make sure I get Rain up and try to level the hazard field (or force a trade on his end if he wants to get up vs no up at the very least). Sure enough, I get a decent trade, but I threw away that position right after.
Protect here was super unnecessary on my end and it cost me Politoed when Encore put me far ahead. I was surprised Frania risked that and I was surprised he was Calm Mind when nothing on the team benefitted from Tyranitar and Ferrothorn being muscled past or set-up on in the case of the latter, but it also made his whole team clear: he had to be Scarf Healing Wish Jirachi because it was Stealth Rock Landorus-T and non-Scarf Latios, so I knew exactly what to expect moving forward at least as I accepted the trade I settled for due to my misplay with the Protect on Calm Mind.
I do capitalize by getting off his hazards with Tentacruel, removing any impact from his Landorus-T. Speaking of trades though, I trade Ferrothorn and momentum for Stealth Rocks and Garchomp, which is fine as -2 Latios with Stealth Rock up still mandates Jirachi to come in, which is a non-threat given that it had to be Scarf as we discussed before. Knowing this, I went to Mamoswine to make him decide between spinning and killing Mamoswine -- I hoped he would pick the former, giving me a chance to leverage the position into forcing a kill on the Starmie with Salac Berry activated, forcing him to kill me with Iron Head from Jirachi and giving me a ton of momentum with Tentacruel. However, he went for the smart play and landed Hydro Pump for the kill on Mamoswine.
I was still in fine shape as I was able to use Latios to chip the Jirachi beyond repair, meaning it could no longer check Latios or Tornadus at all. However, things went south when he revealed Psyshock Starmie, which I did not expect given the Jellicent Sand match-up warranting an Electric move or Grass Knot to have much of a chance. This meant that he could get a KO on Tentacruel AND a Rapid Spin off, which completely warped my position and the game in his favor -- great call by Frania there since you absolutely have to take some risks with HO teams like this and that paid off a ton.
However, he gave a little bit of positioning back by foddering Latios, which seemed more useful than the weakened Starmie at that point and probably compromised his odds. Volcarona still had it if it was HP Ice (or Psychic + Psychic Gem) and avoided confusion though. Thankfully for me, he was Psychic + Psychic Gem, but I got very fortunate with timely confusion from Tornadus, allowing me to edge out Frania in a tight game that he ultimately deserved. I had a 20-30% chance to win going into the later stages, but that is not enough to bank on and I feel the misplay with Politoed and even not respecting Psyshock led to this, so I was not happy with my play at all here despite being content with my team choice. gg and wp to Frania, this one was not fair.
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Team and Preparation
Again: more insight on this in the video at great length, but this will forever be the coming out party for Colbur Roar Latios! The main thought was Insult is likely to use Sand balanced as that is his default playstyle, he beat me with it in RoAPL, and there are few reasons to change that up when facing me in particular. I did respect other things like Rain, but I knew extremes like Smurf, BP, Sun, etc. were very unlikely, so this gave me a few corners to cut if absolutely necessary.
One thing I wanted to focus on was momentum and status management: Rotom-Wash was a great gameflow pick and Gliscor/Alakazam allowed me to soak up lots of status if played well. I feel that covering these little things against less experienced BW players can create openings they do not necessarily consider in preparation, especially when they come from newer generations that are less direct and high-tempo than BW. Dual Psychic was a pretty clear pick for me here at the end, even if I explored some other things. I was still wanting to use Latios on just about every team, but I felt a need to be extra careful against opposing Gliscor (particularly Protect variants when paired with Pursuit Tyranitar), Breloom, NP Celebi, and Thundurus-T on Rain, so using a Latios that was not only unchoiced to take advantage of free turns and use Recovery, but also able to minimize Pursuit with Colbur was HUGE here. It also made Alakazam's match-ups across the board better as it, too, dislikes Pursuit Scizor and Chople Tyranitar with Pursuit.
I explained Roar as the fourth move a lot above, so I do no want to beat that point to death, but getting the free Roar against Tyranitar trying to trap when the field is set, full of hazards on both sides, is a virtual game winner against structures relying on Tyranitar to check Psychic types. Overall, this Latios went ham and it very much led towards my Gliscor winning in the long game, which it did (sorry spoiler) after lots of build-up over 150+ turns.
Game Overview
The odds of me going close to turn by turn or even sequence by sequence like I did with the Frania game are near 0 -- this one took forever and I already did it plenty of justice in my YouTube video, so feel free to check that out if you wish.
The general idea was to get a lot of mileage out of Latios early in order to win with Alakazam or Gliscor. Exactly this happened, but I had to cut it close as killing Skarmory paired with a hard Rotom-W stop (Gastrodon) was a huge problem. I did manage to force absurd amounts of progress with Latios, which killed Gastrodon, forced a ton of hazard damage on Tyranitar by soaking up the Pursuit with Colbur and Roaring it, and then breaking the Sash of Alakazam, but the rest of my team was less directly effective.
Rotom-W and Alakazam forced switches and status or incremental chip respectively, but this alone was not enough. Ultimately, the end game revolved around suffocating a Pursuit damaged Reuniclus from recovering to potentially sweep me so that my Gliscor could close it out. I would advise clicking the replay or my video and checking it out yourself, but non-Taunt Skarmory loses 1v1 to SD Gliscor as all it can do is Whirlwind, which is a temporary solution to a permanent problem. Given the Latios progress, I just had to keep up momentum and not allow free turns when I had a clear win path after toeing the tight-rope for the first 50 or so turns of the game to get to that point. Thankfully, the end-game was not butchered and I prevailed in a tight one against a great opponent in Insult, gg wp bro.
Sorry this explanation was not as specific as the first, but doing that for a 150+ turn game is just not in the cards for me and most BW games are much briefer. Expect my insight on the next few weeks of games later this week!
(click preview screenshot for replay hyperlink)
Team and Preparation
(click Pokemon for importable hyperlink)
Frania was someone who was newer to BW, but had a great track record thus far. I knew he would give me a great game and I also knew he had support of manager Prinz and some others with BW experience on the roster, so I figured that I would likely face an offense that did well against my good ol' Rotom-Wash Sands. I explain this a lot more in the video, but the main takeaway from that was that I wanted to run Rain with two Pokemon faster than Keldeo/Terrakion to assure sufficient revenge killing. Having priority on Mamoswine was also a plus due to how Ice weak those teams can be, but I am sure we have enough of my thoughts on Mamoswine from my last post -- including my explanation of Salac Mamoswine.
Tornadus is great at being secondary speed control, stopping momentum with Prankster SubTect, abusing the status I had on board, and dealing out strong damage with few durable resists common in the tier (none of which fit onto offensive teams besides Rotom-W and Jirachi, which both do not like facing Ferrothorn and other Pokemon I have). Lum Ferrothorn was mainly because Tornadus and Mamoswine struggle against Rotom-Wash, which almost always leads and wisps vs Rain. if I hit two whips, I basically trade Rotom-W for a burn on Ferrothorn, meaning Tornadus and Mamoswine become huge problems for the opponent. Perish Song Politoed was a safety button against Latias/Dragonite/Reuniclus/Celebi/BPass. The rest was pretty standard and I outlined every set in my video.
Game Overview
Preview is screened above -- I did face an offense, but it was not all ideal for me admittedly. He had three Ice shard resets, two of which surely where quicker, and a lot of threats. However, I had offensive tools as well and they can really open up the game for me if I handle them optimally. Main idea early for me is to make sure I get Rain up and try to level the hazard field (or force a trade on his end if he wants to get up vs no up at the very least). Sure enough, I get a decent trade, but I threw away that position right after.
Protect here was super unnecessary on my end and it cost me Politoed when Encore put me far ahead. I was surprised Frania risked that and I was surprised he was Calm Mind when nothing on the team benefitted from Tyranitar and Ferrothorn being muscled past or set-up on in the case of the latter, but it also made his whole team clear: he had to be Scarf Healing Wish Jirachi because it was Stealth Rock Landorus-T and non-Scarf Latios, so I knew exactly what to expect moving forward at least as I accepted the trade I settled for due to my misplay with the Protect on Calm Mind.
I do capitalize by getting off his hazards with Tentacruel, removing any impact from his Landorus-T. Speaking of trades though, I trade Ferrothorn and momentum for Stealth Rocks and Garchomp, which is fine as -2 Latios with Stealth Rock up still mandates Jirachi to come in, which is a non-threat given that it had to be Scarf as we discussed before. Knowing this, I went to Mamoswine to make him decide between spinning and killing Mamoswine -- I hoped he would pick the former, giving me a chance to leverage the position into forcing a kill on the Starmie with Salac Berry activated, forcing him to kill me with Iron Head from Jirachi and giving me a ton of momentum with Tentacruel. However, he went for the smart play and landed Hydro Pump for the kill on Mamoswine.
I was still in fine shape as I was able to use Latios to chip the Jirachi beyond repair, meaning it could no longer check Latios or Tornadus at all. However, things went south when he revealed Psyshock Starmie, which I did not expect given the Jellicent Sand match-up warranting an Electric move or Grass Knot to have much of a chance. This meant that he could get a KO on Tentacruel AND a Rapid Spin off, which completely warped my position and the game in his favor -- great call by Frania there since you absolutely have to take some risks with HO teams like this and that paid off a ton.
However, he gave a little bit of positioning back by foddering Latios, which seemed more useful than the weakened Starmie at that point and probably compromised his odds. Volcarona still had it if it was HP Ice (or Psychic + Psychic Gem) and avoided confusion though. Thankfully for me, he was Psychic + Psychic Gem, but I got very fortunate with timely confusion from Tornadus, allowing me to edge out Frania in a tight game that he ultimately deserved. I had a 20-30% chance to win going into the later stages, but that is not enough to bank on and I feel the misplay with Politoed and even not respecting Psyshock led to this, so I was not happy with my play at all here despite being content with my team choice. gg and wp to Frania, this one was not fair.
---
Team and Preparation
Again: more insight on this in the video at great length, but this will forever be the coming out party for Colbur Roar Latios! The main thought was Insult is likely to use Sand balanced as that is his default playstyle, he beat me with it in RoAPL, and there are few reasons to change that up when facing me in particular. I did respect other things like Rain, but I knew extremes like Smurf, BP, Sun, etc. were very unlikely, so this gave me a few corners to cut if absolutely necessary.
One thing I wanted to focus on was momentum and status management: Rotom-Wash was a great gameflow pick and Gliscor/Alakazam allowed me to soak up lots of status if played well. I feel that covering these little things against less experienced BW players can create openings they do not necessarily consider in preparation, especially when they come from newer generations that are less direct and high-tempo than BW. Dual Psychic was a pretty clear pick for me here at the end, even if I explored some other things. I was still wanting to use Latios on just about every team, but I felt a need to be extra careful against opposing Gliscor (particularly Protect variants when paired with Pursuit Tyranitar), Breloom, NP Celebi, and Thundurus-T on Rain, so using a Latios that was not only unchoiced to take advantage of free turns and use Recovery, but also able to minimize Pursuit with Colbur was HUGE here. It also made Alakazam's match-ups across the board better as it, too, dislikes Pursuit Scizor and Chople Tyranitar with Pursuit.
I explained Roar as the fourth move a lot above, so I do no want to beat that point to death, but getting the free Roar against Tyranitar trying to trap when the field is set, full of hazards on both sides, is a virtual game winner against structures relying on Tyranitar to check Psychic types. Overall, this Latios went ham and it very much led towards my Gliscor winning in the long game, which it did (sorry spoiler) after lots of build-up over 150+ turns.
Game Overview
The odds of me going close to turn by turn or even sequence by sequence like I did with the Frania game are near 0 -- this one took forever and I already did it plenty of justice in my YouTube video, so feel free to check that out if you wish.
The general idea was to get a lot of mileage out of Latios early in order to win with Alakazam or Gliscor. Exactly this happened, but I had to cut it close as killing Skarmory paired with a hard Rotom-W stop (Gastrodon) was a huge problem. I did manage to force absurd amounts of progress with Latios, which killed Gastrodon, forced a ton of hazard damage on Tyranitar by soaking up the Pursuit with Colbur and Roaring it, and then breaking the Sash of Alakazam, but the rest of my team was less directly effective.
Rotom-W and Alakazam forced switches and status or incremental chip respectively, but this alone was not enough. Ultimately, the end game revolved around suffocating a Pursuit damaged Reuniclus from recovering to potentially sweep me so that my Gliscor could close it out. I would advise clicking the replay or my video and checking it out yourself, but non-Taunt Skarmory loses 1v1 to SD Gliscor as all it can do is Whirlwind, which is a temporary solution to a permanent problem. Given the Latios progress, I just had to keep up momentum and not allow free turns when I had a clear win path after toeing the tight-rope for the first 50 or so turns of the game to get to that point. Thankfully, the end-game was not butchered and I prevailed in a tight one against a great opponent in Insult, gg wp bro.
Sorry this explanation was not as specific as the first, but doing that for a 150+ turn game is just not in the cards for me and most BW games are much briefer. Expect my insight on the next few weeks of games later this week!