Pass The SPL XVI My Brotha: Week 4 Be Upon Ye, Amen
by ninth and 1LDK
Welcome to Week 4 of SPL XVI. Apologies that I couldn't get in some stats reading/predictions last time - was an extremely busy week IRL for me and the usage isn't up yet for W3. Rest assured people are bringing lots of Zamazenta, though. Decent uptick in Lokix and Alomomola too, some of Satan's greatest soldiers.
I wrote a couple of my recaps in the middle of the Super Bowl so if there's a drop in attentiveness for the later games that's why lol. Mahomes was out there getting sacked like blunder using an NU mon.
Dragonspiral Tyrants (0) vs (0) Wi-Fi Wolfpack
myjava (2-1) vs (2-1) Stareal 
1LDK: Stareal is using sun against a fat team who's only method of defending against it is wake, I'm certainly not a fan of triple dragon sun but seems it's going to work. Clefable tried to CM but paralyzes and crit psy noise does not let her. Pecharunt tries to poison tusk with Malignant Chain but fails and tusk laids rocks and ohkos pecharunt with headlong rush. Roaring Moon and Walking Wake forced Skarmory into working to death. Walking Wake kills Ninetales which means the weather is on a timer. And then Stareal times out....
Fusien (2-1) vs (2-1) clean 
1LDK: Here we start slowly by both tinkatons, fusien clicking twave, clean going for the kill. With Keldeo being badly poisoned, and dnite chipped, fusien's team just slowly dies due to chip + lack of healing, weavile does claim wake after he kills dnite, but tera grass moltres means keldeo can't break, and tera dragon pult is also too low on health
Mada (1-2) vs (2-1) Ewin 
1LDK: Ewin uses tera water ogerpon to ohko tinkaton, this was the last KO we would see for the next 987 turns, nah im joking im joking. Glowking then tanks a draco, but taunt blocks him from being a chill guy like that. so ogerpon is back in, takes a draco, misses a play rought, takes a vswitch then crashes out on weavile. Fraudnadus therian tries to be all fancy smashncy, but it has no drip, and rocks are up so no good. Once Ting Lu kills ogerpon-w, zama appears, and then a weird game of cat and mouse ensues where Ting Lu clicks eq while everyone on ewin's team tries to position himself, and what's worse is that somehow, ting lu does win vs zama???? And it gets tusk too? brooooo. dragonite has to put its foot on the table by preasuring pecharunt while tag teaming with garg to finally kill sweeper ting lu. Mada finally gets a glimpse of a comeback thanks to pecha double haxing dnite with crit + proc malignant chain. Fraudnadus Therian tries to kill glowking with tera steel taunt but glowking has focus blast, and future sight leave him almost dead. Garganacl has to show what an actual pokemon looks like by brawling for 50000000000000000000000 turns with pecha, while tanking raging bolt. F r a u d n a d u s T h e r i a n tries to go for a last sweep attempt with NP and finally kills glowking but dnite blocks him and kills pecharunt with its last breath, Garg walls him and wins
vk (2-1) vs (1-2) mncmt 
1LDK: deo-s trades damage for paralizys then doubles into dengo, vk then uses NP and dismantles treads but weavile comes and claims deo-s in return. Scizor comes in with a nasty close combat but even with a crit ting lu takes it like a man, can't take the second one tho. Keldeo comes in and claims scizor in return. Kyurem dds as mncmt switches weavile for kyurem, and ohkos with tera ground tera blast. dragonite uses tera fairy to barely survive an icicle spear, then kills back with tera fairy tera blast + espeed. Gholdengo scares dnite and brawls with keldeo, winning via a spedef drop. Iron Valiant comes after the dengo dies at the hands of dnite and wins
Indie Scooters (0) vs (0) Cryonicles
aesf (1-2) vs (2-1) crying 
1LDK: aesf is a certified weave nation resident with dodging ceaseless turn 1 3 games in a row, AV Mola does a good chunk to samu-h with play rough but gets burned by moltres real quick, this samu does a huge amount to ting lu with crit aqua cutter. Crying of course has a lot of surprises, Clodsire now has toxic spikes, as hazards. aesf has knock off tusk, which lets him knock clef's lefties and sinitchas covert cloak... then this sinitcha... uses tera normal..... I mean I guess if you think about it aesf has Latios which makes this matchup almost a loss for preview, but tera normal is always so funny when it's not on dnite. Choice Scarf Samurrot on crying's end gets suffocated by a gholdengo, who managed to click recover on a miss timed aqua cutter. With aesf sacking Ting Lu, both great tusk clean all the hazards, the zama also gets burned, and then we just chill for a bit until Latios trades its scarf for clef, takes a huge moonblast and uses tera steel to recover off the damage. Moltres just spams flamethrower for like 1000 turns then finally crying's tusk kills aesf's tusk. Latios starts rip and tearing with first victing being crying's tusk, we fast foward untill tera normal sinistcha kills gholdengo then latios gets a double kill with tea and moltres. With some more positioning, aesf wins
Nat (1-2) vs (1-2) Pais 
1LDK: webs vs screens, which way HO Man. We start by blaziken trading itself for 92% of ogerpon's hp. Ninetales sets up screens and finishes ogerpon. Iron Moth comes in and throws a dazzling gleam predicting roaring moon, but gliscor uses that as an entry point instead, which forces nat to make moth lose its booster. Both double into Gholdengo and Roaring Moon, so Nat once again triples into valiant, so now pais is forced to forfeit the boost. A crit moonblast into hat does a lot even with screens, and while valiant embraces the hate with destiny bond, but instead hat gives her love and affection with nuzzle, and guess what, it loses the booster again, but this was all a ruse since the second moth came out, a single crit psynoise vaporized him like raid. Gholdengo comes in again, gets walled by moon, valiant comes out again and a tera fairy tera blast puts it out of commission. Kingambit is next, and he instantly puts in the work with tera fairy tera blast 1v1ing moon with a crit and dealing a huge chunk to gliscor. Gholdengo uses this time to come in and set-up in front of the ninetales, survives a crunch from LO zama and deals massive damage with dazzling gleam before dying. Ribombee finally comes out and crits hat to win the 1v1, man, alotta crits in this match. Despite everyone being at low health, Kingambit just barely survives the 1v2, winning the game
TheFranklin (1-2) vs (2-1) zS 
1LDK: zS is packing a super weird team with serp + rotom + tinka and franklin is packing an even weirder team with a dlc 1 looking ass fat balance. The match starts with Tinkaton and encores apple into bonking it with ice hammer. Clefable gets stunned 1000 million times, while zS just switches randomly like a headless chicken, then Specs Valiant cracks open a tera fairy to make Clef explode. Zama forces valiant out by the fear of heavy slam but instead meets tusk with a heavy slam, then ice fangs an incoming pult who tried to get in a cc. later down the line Iron Valiant slam dunks gliscor with moonblast, val decides to trick its specs away into mola and sacks itself against zama. Then Pult comes in and hits zama with a nasty twave, with pult and a tinka sack, serperior gets a +2 from zama kill, then with the help of rotom, forces franklin to tera ghost and healing wish? On a fat balance? tf? Anyway, dirge gets back in, but even with that sacrifice, a single pain split into hydro ended what zS called "one of his worst displays in his life"
hellom (1-2) vs (0-2) ACR1
1LDK: Please raise your hand if you're an AV Mola hater, outside that, Weavile and Garg fight to the death and ACR1 sadly wastes his tera on garg in an attempt to survive weavile but dies anyway, With that huge lead acr1 tries to laid spikes but it's forced out by tera steel specs crown, dnite tries to heal but cant fully get back to multiscale so pecha has to come in and eats a massive ground move from tusk. Weavile finishes its day job by doing catastrophic damage to Pecharunt, which crown capitalizes by taking dnite off. We fast foward to a point where Pecha can finally heal back-- oh crown is back in, now gliscor is gone. With gliscor stacking hazards and neither pecha nor dengo being able to stop it, tusk cleans both to win the match.
Ever Grande BIGS (0) vs (0) Congregation of the Classiest
Kate (0-0) vs (2-1) lax 
1LDK: Lax is running a super weird team against Kate's rather standard team, I guess the bet was trying to out depth her with meta knowledge, but it's not gonna work. Kyurem has a good matchup vs kate but freeze dry hits dengo, as Gholdengo NPs on the glowking, then said glowking clicks sludge bomb and gets killed by sball. Survived a Knock Off from Great Tusk revealing shuca berry then OHKOs tusk with another sball. darkrai does a good amount of damage vs mandibuzz, then lets samu-h take the draco meteor, then outspeeds and kos pult with ceaseless edge. Kyurem tries to make a comeback with tera ground, which works vs dengo, but samu forces kyurem out, dondozo walls him but gets clapped by hatterene. Kyurem fucks hatterene then takes an ice beam to kill darkrai. Raging Bolt predicts a protect by using CM + tera ghost and wipes out kyurem and mandibuzz.
tko (0-0) vs (2-1) leng loi
1LDK: Before I start, I just wanna say I have this intense cold and sorry if I fuck up something. So uh Keldeo baits hydrapple and ohkos with specs icy wind. Band scizor returns the favor by ohkoing treads with cc. Life Orb pult sacks itself to bring keldeo down to red health before getting washed. The darkrai set is np pulse wisp ice beam. darkrai + moltres wipe down ting lu. Hatterene walls this darkrai set so once she stands on business even with the flinch, she paras moltres with nuzzle and kills herself via healing wish upon the keldeo, who makes pult's job worthless. Keldeo wastes no time in extinguishing moltres. Takes a huge cc and takes a dump on the scizor. darkrai finally comes in but weavile unironically walls him, even with the burns. Tera Ghost blocks spin from tusk and puts the elephant in keldeo range
bhkg (1-2) vs (2-1) LpZ 
ninth: This Veil team that everyone keeps bringing is kind of funny but it also has a really nice, consistent colorway, it's not super-flashy but it's easy on the eyes. All you need to know about LpZ's squad is that the Gliscor is SD Agility and the Volcanion, if unchanged, is Taunt Wisp Overheat Eject Pack. bhkg has an interesting fat team: what jumps out immediately is the two blue special attackers in Latios and Primarina. One fast and one slow, both extremely powerful, they'll provide the majority of bhkg's upfront damage alongside Zamazenta. Passive damage comes thanks to the three obscene walls, with Ting-Lu's Ruination and hazards, Pecharunt's constant threat of toxic poison, and Corviknight's Rocky Helmet bodyblocking. I hope this game isn't too long, Kendrick's about to perform. LpZ uses the aforementioned Eject Pack Overheat to chip Latios and bring in Ninetales, setting up Aurora Veil. Round 1 begins, and Gliscor comes out at first - stuffed by Ting-Lu - then Hatterene tries to set up, but bhkg's Pecharunt Parting Shots
itself to force out the Hatterene and successfully stalling out the veil. Ninetales is still narrowly safe to bring into Primarina, though, and LpZ sets up a second round of Veil. This time LpZ gets a tiny bit more action going, landing a burn on the Latios and 1v1ing bhkg's Primarina with his Hatterene before it wears off.
bhkg's Pecharunt is proving problematic, as it can constantly stop Hatterene's setups with Parting Shot and takes little from Gliscor's EQ. The third and final round of Veil ends with Hatterene hitting a couple of Draining Kisses but no permanent eliminations for that reason. The repeated chip takes a toll on Pech, though, and it can't safely switch into anything anymore, allowing Hatterene to free-fire Psychic Noises and chip Zama/Corv for big damage. This enables LpZ's own LO Zama to finish the Corviknight off, draw Tera Poison out of the Lu, and bring it down to 9% before dying. With his Tera still intact and the Zama chipped, LpZ's Gliscor can now get busy, clicking Tera Normal Agility, eating a Draco like it's nothing, and clicking a completely unresisted Facade/EQ combo for the win.
emforbes (1-2) vs (2-1) S1nn0hC0nfirm3d 
ninth: A great poet once said "in the cut, Garganacl" and this seems to hold true here. It's Garg vs. Garg, with emforbes using it as part of an bulky, physically biased Lokix/Alomomola/Corviknight U-Turn core, naturally featuring Tusk for Lokix's hazard protection and Zamazenta because why not. Garg looks like a major wincon here benefitting from Knocks and Scalds whittling down the opponent. Sinnoh's team is on its face more offensive, with Dragapult and the rising Keldeo as faster offensive options: Tinkaton compresses much of the team's utility in rocks/Encore/knocks, while Zapdos serves to hit Volt Switch and spread paralysis. The plan for the Zapdos becomes obvious turn 1 as Sinnoh hits Thunder Wave, full paralyzing emforbes' Alomomola several times and also paralyzing Tusk on the Knock: Sinnoh switches it in on every contact attack he can, fully intent on drowning emforbes in yellow. When given the opportunity, bringing in his Tusk cleanly, he immediately mashes Tera Fighting Close Combat, which two-shots emforbes' Corviknight from full and frankly probably 2HKOs the entire team too.
Up a mon and with much of emforbes' team paralyzed, the combination of Sinnoh's Great Tusk and Keldeo is a major issue for emforbes, and his Garg ends up self-sacrificing to the Tusk in order to get rocks up. Zamazenta is emforbes' last chance, and with ID and Tera Fire to block Dragapult's Will-O-Wisp, it gives emforbes some very real hope for a comeback as he flattens Tinkaton. Unfortunately for him, despite dodging the first two Statics, +6 Body Press only does about 50-53% to Zapdos, meaning the partially healthy bird can survive and send off a Thunder Wave, defusing the sweep. It still manages to break through for a kill on Garganacl, but Keldeo scares it out. From here Sinnoh's Tera Fighting Tusk goes on a rampage, melting the enemy Tusk in two, oneshotting the Lokix, and getting the full para against the Alomomola to presumably two-shot it as well. emforbes forfeits first, then we get this message:
Winning and then asking your opp to do a favor for you is nasty work.
Circus Maximus Tigers (0) vs (0) Alpha Ruiners
Storm Zone (2-1) vs (2-1) oldspicemike
ninth: I don't know if this exact sand core Storm Zone's using was ever in vogue in SWSH but the color palette sure reminds me of a SWSH team. The Tyranitar/Excadrill synergy is obvious, with the highly offensive Iron Valiant and Dragapult present on the chance that sand ever goes down. Rotom-Wash provides the team with a much-needed Ground immunity and usually specs into physdef, allowing Glowking to provide the special defense. oldspicemike has the most offensive Ting-Lu team I've ever seen - after the bowl it's full-on violence with Roaring Moon, Iron Valiant, Scizor, Kyurem, and Landorus. There's a decent backbone to it between Landorus and Lu but the goal is all-out offense. Storm takes the tempo early with a U-Turn into what looks like Specs Valiant, but it doesn't do that much to mike's Scizor, who can click Band U-Turn for big chip on the Rotom. mike brings out his Kyurem, which naturally invites in Storm's Tyranitar, a natural wall to it. Unless the Kyurem is
Body Press, that is, and completely flattens the Tyranitar.
This is not great for Storm: Lando walls the Excadrill, Kyurem and Valiant sponge some pivot moves, and mike runs out the sand, meaning Drill is basically also dead against four faster mons. Storm's Valiant does claim two kills with Specs Moonblast, until mike brings out Roaring Moon. The two go Tera for Tera, with mike turning into a bird and Storm turning into a fairy: Acrobatics oneshots the Valiant damn near from full. This enables mike to bring out his own CM Valiant, which gets a drop on Storm's Glowking and leads to it being sacked. While Storm's Dragapult is the fastest mon alive, it is also Banded, and mike repeatedly stuffs its attempts with the Fairy-type Valiant and the generally bulky Landorus, running up increasing amounts of hazard chip on it. Dragon Darts does absolutely zero damage all match, as by the time mike's Valiant dies in a 1-for-1 with Excadrill, he reveals there's something faster yet on the team - Scarf Lando, which Stone Edges it to death. There's nothing left for Storm and he forfeits.
DugZa (2-1) vs (2-1) pdt
ninth: I'm trying to watch the Super Bowl at the same time as recapping this game and I'm not gonna lie my ADHD is
not strong enough for this. DugZa has a very powerful looking webs setup: the usual abusers in Roaring Moon/Wellspring/Ghold are present, but slow bruiser Scizor and Moonblast master Enamorus also take up roles as high-power mons who can afford to invest in more power thanks to the webs. pdt's team uses the impenetrable bird combo of Corviknight and Gliscor, paired with slow ultra-violent bruisers in Hydrapple and Kingambit: having fairly safe switch-ins helps for the fast Dragapult + Zamazenta endgame. DugZa immediately starts with webs: pdt counterleads with Corv and removes them once, but gets repeatedly paralyzed and whittled down with weak resisted moves, eventually just settling for the kill with webs up. The accumulated chip eventually leads to pdt sacrificing the Corviknight to Enamorus' Moonblast.
Now, pdt's living Moonblast resist is (checks notes) Gliscor, and he has to pray for a triple Protect just to allow his Dragapult to revenge kill it after Toxic damage. In turn, this enables DugZa's Moon to come in and threaten a sweep, and pdt uses Kingambit to stop it: Tera Fairy Gambit doesn't play out as DugZa's own Tera Blast Fairy outspeeds and outmuscles it. pdt's Roar Zamazenta prevents the takeover (though DugZa Roosts on the Roar, giving it a second chance later on) and starts setting up Iron Defenses in hopes of its own sweep - but it's slower than Ghold and can't 2HKO, losing its life. Now DugZa's Moon can end things, and even though Hydrapple narrowly survives a Tera Blast with 1%, Wellspring is in the back to Play Rough and finish the game just in case. Jon Batiste really hit that "land of the free" three times lol.
3d (1-2) vs (3-0) Fogbound Lake
ninth: Enamorus
and Glimmora? Welcome back HOME OU. 3d's flavor of hyper offense is one that we've all seen plenty of over the last few years of SV - vomit 500 layers on the floor, use Ghold to make sure nobody removes them, then send out the fast setup sweepers and Moonblast clickers - but Glimmora's been pretty quiet recently so it's interesting to see back. His team's attackers are mostly very fast with Cinderace, Enamorus, Roaring Moon, and Zamazenta, in contrast with Fogbound Lake whose team is more laid-back but no less powerful. He's got the modern special-spam core of Gholdengo/Darkrai/Raging Bolt, which has an average effective SpA of like 140 between them. Physical damage is mostly handled by Ogerpon-Wellspring, a mid-high-speed bruiser that notably outspeeds base Enamorus - Tusk and Corviknight provide a backbone and removal for the usually less-Boots-inclined style. Fog identifies the lack of Electric immunity and starts hitting Discharge early on, forced out by 3d's Glimmora pulling out a Red Card: drawing Darkrai means it can set up rocks safely. Fog's Gholdengo Makes it Rain on 3d's own, enabling 3d to start Shadow Balling forever, heavily chipping Corviknight and Bolt as a sacrifice before dying. Between this chip and Cinderace's U-Turn, 3d drags Great Neck into dies-to-rocks range.
3d uses the low-health Cinderace as Make It Rain bait, enabling his Roaring Moon to come in on the dropped Specs Ghold and narrowly survive, Knocking it to death. With Ghold dead, 3d's Zamazenta is now cleared for takeoff, mashing Iron Defense and preparing to clean house. Tera Ghost from Corviknight is a bandage on a stab wound as Fog can't break through the Substitute with anything, and his best shot is stalling out all Body Presses by constantly U-Turning in and out. It doesn't end up working out, and 3d takes the win.
JJ09LIE (1-2) vs (1-2) Laroxyl
ninth: Now this is a JJ09LIE team. Valiant and Dragonite and Darkrai on HO, just how it should be. Feel like Primarina's been less common as of recent but I like it on HO, its 1v1 profile is really good, like a baby Archaludon without having 4 STABs. Laroxyl has that gross Lokix/Alomomola/Pecharunt/Cinderace pivot-spamming balance where the bulk of the game-ending offensive threat is from SD Gliscor and kinda Cinderace. Frame 1 JJ identifies that nothing on Laroxyl's team wants a Scarf and hits Trick, crippling the Alomomola and taking its Assault Vest. Two Body Slams fail to paralyze the Darkrai, which is karmic justice for loading Body Slam Alomomola, and both switch out: Laroxyl comes out with his Lokix in for free against JJ's Gholdengo. A free U-Turn does 25% to Dragonite (I can't tell if that's strong or weak lol) enabling free rocks from his Tusk. However, JJ's Valiant hits the field (shiny as one might expect) and starts mashing Moonblast, dealing over half to the Vest-less Alomomola and forcing in Pecharunt. Laroxyl again makes a neat double, bringing in Cinderace on Gholdengo, then predicts the incoming Dragonite and hits it with a Will-O-Wisp. This is less deleterious for JJ, though, because it's using (and missing) Hurricane.
Laroxyl switches to Gliscor, which invites in JJ's Tusk on a failed Protect, and suddenly both sides have rocks up. Soon enough, Laroxyl Flip Turns against JJ's Primarina, and brings in the Ground-type Gliscor to beat the Water-type. Obviously he's going to Tera this and start SDing, but the Scor still takes over half from a neutral Surf. JJ sacks the crippled Dragonite, then goes into his Specs Valiant which surely oneshots it. Tera Fairy allows it to score a 2HKO on Laroxyl's Cinderace, but Pyro Ball chip means First Impression can finish it off. Primarina comes in and also starts Moonblasting, responded to by Alomomola - but on turn 25 JJ09LIE calls out the Mirror Coat and hits Psychic Noise instead, preventing the reflection kill and allowing him to win the 1v1. JJ proceeds to win another 1v1 as his Gholdengo squeezes through against Laroxyl's Gliscor thanks to Dazzling Gleam and a potentially premature Knock. At this point, since Lokix is not Boots, JJ's Darkrai cleans up the remainder of Laroxyl's team as long as the bug doesn't get three switch-ins of free-firing. An Ice Beam freeze on Pecharunt probably didn't matter but it locks down the kill there. Lokix comes in once - U-Turns on the Tusk. Lokix comes in twice - Leech Lifes the Ghold, fails to kill, and dies to Dazzling Gleam. Game over.
Stark Sharks (0) vs (0) Team Raiders
Niko (0-3) vs (2-1) Yovan 
ninth: Okay, before we get into the match, we have to address the greatest scheduling conflict in recent memory. I'm not putting this in a spoiler, you're all bearing witness to this psychological warfare.
Things opened normally, with Yovan making first contact on Niko's page. Niko responds with a suggestion to play Thursday 9pm - maybe he's busy on the weekend, that's fairly reasonable.
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Yovan, though, suspects an ulterior motive.
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Niko is briefly confused but continues as diplomatically as he can, allowing Yovan to state his preferred time, if not Thursday 9pm.
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The time in question that Yovan wants to play at:
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The Art Of The Deal.
The game day comes, and although Yovan replies in the wrong message chain at first, they get there eventually.
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All this and it ends up being sun vs webs. Niko's sun is a bulkier variant on the archetype, trading extra sweepers like Gambit or Moth for two fatter mons in Clefable and Corviknight forming a more solid defensive backbone. Yovan has Araquanid webs with three Paradox mons, Tusk, and Gholdengo, these teams explain themselves. Now, Niko's Clefable has a trick up its sleeve in that it's also a sweeper, being Calm Mind/Cosmic Power/Stored Power: he's able to lead it confidently against Araquanid, sponge a Surf, and start boosting up. He exhausts Tera Poison against Yovan's Gholdengo, taking nothing from Shadow Ball and reaching a horrifying level of stat boosts...only for Draining Kiss to deal a mere 40% to Araquanid on the switch and get Red Carded out. Yovan's Araquanid continues to eat hits, dealing over half to Niko's Corviknight and popping its Eject Button, then 2HKOing the Torkoal in sun as it spins away the webs.
Niko scares the bug out with Moon as he U-Turns into his Walking Wake, which is sure to do some heavy damage. However, instead of attacking, he doubles into his Band +Speed Moon on Yovan's switch to his own +Attack Moon. Niko gets a free 91% on the U-Turn into his +Speed Tusk, which is tickled by Acrobatics: Yovan sacks Araquanid, but he's far from out of the woods yet. An instant Headlong Rush crit blows away Raging Bolt, then Niko sacks his low-health Corv to Shadow Ball. Somehow both Wake and Ghold walk away from each other with slivers of health, but this means that Niko's Band Roaring Moon - the fastest thing left, thanks to Yovan's Moth being +SpA - is now cleared to click Outrage and start farming. It nukes Moth and nearly kills Tusk, allowing Niko's own Tusk to finish the deal. Yovan's last-ditch effort is with Tera Flying Moon, but it can't kill Niko's Clefable with EQ and drops there. With nothing left for Niko's Wake, Yovan forfeits, leading to the thrilling conclusion of this saga:
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Fc (0-0) vs (3-0) Eternal Spirit 
ninth: This game happened very late on Sunday night and the Eagles were putting belt to ass so I went to bed before I caught it. Series is 6-5 Sharks-Raiders, if Fc wins he secures the week win. His team looks like he made it when SV came out and just replaced the quickbanned mons with Cinderace and Kyurem. Ace, Rotom-Wash, and Dragapult form a versatile VoltTurn core that smoothly transitions from physical to special damage. Kyurem comes in with the help of potential removal from Ace, and this Lu/Ghold angle is the shit I expected. Eternal "Gama" Spirit has a neat left-field HO that seems to specialize in a fast, upfront blitz wiith Ogerpon-Wellspring, Meowscarada, Enamorus, and Scizor all incredibly hard to switch into. Kyurem serves a bulkier, slower, but no less deadly role, and because probably nothing on this team has boots, Great Tusk is mandatory to prevent rocks from 6-0ing. The game starts with Fc's Cinderace taking a
Scarf Kyurem's Draco to the fae and barely surviving. Fc gets up rocks, but a pattern starts emerging: Gama's team is extremely hard to switch into, necessitating Fc to sacrifice his Cinderace in service of getting them up. The rocks cripple Gama's Kyurem and lead to its sacrifice at the hands of Fc's Gholdengo, who gets some Nasty Plot boosts up before taking the kill.
Eternal Spirit brings out his Meowscarada on the Ghold, and clicks not Knock Off but Flower Trick, predicting the Tera Fairy as Fc recovers - it doesn't kill but it does too much for him to stay in. Now Gama goes on the offensive and drops Tera Grass Flower Tricks, now all but unresisted. Kyurem takes almost half and tickles the Scizor, allowing a U-Turn back to Wellspring: Fc's Dragapult loses much of its health to finish the Wellspring. At this point Fc is in serious trouble, though, as this invites in Great Tusk to get up rocks. Now Kyurem is dead to rights, and the combination of Meow and Enamorus is ready to end the game. Fc's Ghold loses the 1v1 to CM Enamorus, and Moonblast + Flower Trick picks off the remainder of the team. Eternal Spirit is now the last remaining undefeated SV player and just clutched a point for the Raiders - he's on one hell of a run right now.
Lily (2-1) vs (1-2) Hiko
ninth: After all the Ting-Lu/Dragonite/Zamazenta/insert-Ghost-here it's almost refreshing to see Lu alongside Glowking and Corviknight for once. Lily's team, which was probably used in a Blimax video 2 years ago, uses Darkrai and Kyurem as the main endgame threats while setting up the hazard game with Ting-Lu: Cinderace/Corv/Glowking pivot around and cover removal/physdef/spdef for each other as neded. Glowking also could imply Specs Blizzards from the Kyurem. Hiko also has Kyurem and Cinderace but his team skews much more offensive overall, with Samurott responsible for hazards preparing for the Gholdengo/Dragonite one-two punch. Lily immediately leads Glowking and attempts to fire off Specs Blizzards, but gets walled out by Hiko's Samurott, which means either the Rott is AV or the Kyurem isn't Specs because 31 is mad weak. Hiko sacks his Samurott after successfully knocking the Corviknight, setting a Spike, and dealing almost half to Cinderace, good night buddy you deserve a good rest. The damage on Corv allows Hiko's own Great Tusk to bulldoze through it with two Close Combats (love seeing this move on Tusk, it has 131 attack), but the repeated defense drops invite in Lily's Darkrai, who takes a freebie on Cinderace.
A crit Draco Meteor from Hiko's Kyurem fails to oneshot Glowking (jesus this mon is bulky), and the battle somewhat resets as Hiko brings in Tusk again as Lily switches in Lu. Lily chooses now to use Tera Fairy on the Lu and win the 1v1, but this invites in Hiko's Dragonite who can Encore it and start setting up. Lily retreats to Darkrai, where she reveals the plot twist - it's Scarf Trick, and Dragonite dances right into a choice lock while exhausting Tera Fire in the process. Now it can't set up, lost its Loaded Dice, and Lily even Court Changes the single spike back to Hiko's side to drive it home. The Tera Fairy Ting-Lu takes over from here, forcing the Dragonite out, setting rocks, and mashing Whirlwind and EQ. Hiko's Scarf Gholdengo tries its best but Lily can just sack to get the SpA drops, and her Darkrai cleans up for the victory.
Attribute (2-1) vs (1-2) Mimikyu Stardust 
ninth: Ah, Electric Terrain, you're really not incredible but I still love you. Mimikyu Stardust has a bold Pincurchin-centered HO featuring Irons Valiant and Crown for the obvious Proto synergy, Raging Bolt for obscenely powerful Electric attacks, and Hawlucha as the final wincon once it is inevitable; Meowscarada works as conditionless fast damage and pivoting if things get dicey. I have to shout him out for bringing the hawk Pokemon against Attribute, who has the increasingly popular combination of Gliscor, Clefable, and Corviknight forming the backbone of a physically inclined BO/balance. Clef is the only source of special damage on this team that relies on setting Rocks and Samurott's Spikes, spamming Knocks with Weavile, then finishing with Dragonite. Mimikyu definitely doesn't lead with Pincurchin into an enemy Gliscor, instead bringing it in turn 2 against Attribute's Corv. Air Balloon Valiant (interesting) comes out with a +Speed boost, but it really tickles Gliscor and gets Toxiced, so instead Mimikyu switches hard to +SpA Iron Crown and blows the Gliscor away with Tachyon Cutter. This naturally invites in Attribute's Samurott, which sets a Spike before retreating - scary for Mimikyu's largely Boots-less squad.
Attribute's Corv takes major chip from Crown but just heals it all back because Pincurchin is not a threatening mon: Mimikyu sacks his weakened Meowscarada to remove its helmet, then activates his Raging Bolt. Rising Voltage is now a free kill and change: Corviknight obviously gets oneshot, but when Weavile comes out in revenge, Mimikyu hits Tera Fairy...and gets flinched by Icicle Crash. He still gets the kill, but the extra chip from Ice Shard means that Attribute's Dragonite can finish it with Extreme Speed and it doesn't get chipped, which ends up being problematic as Iron Valiant can't push it below 50% to block Multiscale after Roost. Mimikyu does lock him into Roost, forcing the Samurott sack, but this just enables Dragonite to come back in and Extreme Speed it down. Pincurchin is sacked to set up Electric Terrain for Hawk Tuah, but Mimikyu immediately doubles to Crown on Attribute's Clefable and knocks it out. However, Cutter can't finish off Dragonite and it can just EQ/ESpeed on that thang to end the game in favor of Attribute. The endgame of this was pretty interesting, I calced it out and Hawlucha can't kill Bold Clef in two turns (and usually dies to Moonblast after rocks) so that was always gonna be an issue.
I had to cut the back end of this post into 2 parts because I yapped too much lol
(24-17) vs. 
(25-16)
(4-0) vs 
(0-4)
Ewin vs crying 
(4-0)
(2-2) vs 
(2-2)
(3-1) vs 
(1-3)
]
Stareal vs TheFranklin 
Mimikyu Stardust vs DugZa 
TheFranklin vs zS 
