Sets and Team Highlights - WEEK 5
thank you Aliss and SMB for the big help !
Victreebel
Victreebel
- Sleep Powder
- Razor Leaf
- Wrap
- Hyper Beam
Aliss vs. spies -
Game 2 - Turn 17
Things are looking dire for our protagonist here. Slowbro's at +6, has killed off sleeping Jolteon (letting spies get another Sleep off later), and has paralyzed Starmie. Alice has revealed Lead Jolteon, Starmie, and non-Counter Sing Chansey, her unrevealed (sans Snorlax and Tauros) is most likely Cloyster because of the Snorlax weakness, and the common Cloy/Mie/Jolt composition in the current metagame. However, these structures hardly ever lead Jolteon for this exact scenario: to not lose to Slowbro after sacking Jolteon to sleep. The last certainly isn't Alakazam. It could be Gengar, but then you might just autolose to Earthquake Snorlax. Rhydon is also on the game.
spies could theoretically win the game straight up with their Slowbro, or do enough damage where the match is out of reach. Cloyster would have to Explode for even a chance to kill, while Slowbro can easily take on both Tauros and Snorlax. However, to the surprise of everyone, Aliss reveals Victreebel. Slowbro is immediately forced out, as its in range of Razor Leaf, and never gets a chance to sweep. Aliss also could have brought Victreebel back in later to deal with Slowbro (Turns 44-58) if she didn't decide to fish for crits with her Tauros. While she couldn't clutch out the win, it could have been a clean 6-0 if Alice didn't have a Pokemon in the back that has only three uses so far in SPL.
H I G H L I G H T T E A M
SMB vs. Serpi -
Game 2
Through five weeks of SPL gaming, the most common six has been Starmie / Alakazam / Exeggutor / Snorlax / Chansey / Tauros at 13 total uses. On this team, SMB replaced Alakazam with Zapdos, which was only the second time this combinations been used.
A potential reason for using Zapdos could have been to counteract the rising Slowbro. It's up to 11th in overall usage and has the highest win percentage of any Pokemon. It does well against common RBY trends such as passive Snorlax, mono Ice Beam Chansey, and the (initial) lack of Exeggutor. SMB trades Alakazam's speed (notably outspeeding Tauros) for Zapdos's better Slowbro matchup, along with some other abilities.
When asked about his team, SMB said he brought Zapdos this week to switch up his playstyle since he doesn't use it often. RBY Players typically stick to using Jolteon or Zapdos, and SMB has been known to play the former. While the electric dog is more versatile, Zapdos offers cleaning potential and being able to put pressure on resting Pokemon. While it can typically only fill these roles effectively, it's great at its job. It's hard to switch into unless you're running Jolteon or Rhydon, while teams often carry 1-3 decent Alakazams switch-ins.
Game 2 of SMB vs. Serpi highlights Zapdos's ability to sweep late game. Starting at Turn 33, Zapdos is able to take down a full health Tauros, a weakened Alakazam, a sleeping Chansey, and a healthy Cloyster with a lucky paralysis to win the game (and set) for SMB. While SMB didn't specifically run Zapdos as a stronger check to Slowbro, it will still be interesting if players lean more on electrics to deal with the rising
USAGE STATS TRENDS
1. Starmie and Exeggutor had 17 and 16 uses respectively, the closest it's been so far.
2. Alakazam lead the week in Lead usage at 8 total (Starmie only had 6) with an impressive 75% winrate. Alakazam and Starmie dominated lead usage, and all other options were minimally used with poor winrates.
3. Following up, Jynx and Gengar had only 4 uses combined (all from the lead spot) and only 1 win.