Back again!
Void vs Pkel
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-817150
Void:
Pkel:
Void brought an interesting kind of old school offense built around offensive Zapdos. I think this esp at lead Zapdos was a great choice against pkel, as it’s an absolute terror against offense, esp if pkel didn’t bring a ground type (he brings a lot of band flygon, but it only takes one hp ice prediction (or win a speed tie) and then the rest of the team gets brutalized by its coverage and speed and so far I’ve never seen pkel bring something remotely close to stall). These teams are typically spinless and were used a lot before Latias’s reintroduction into the tier. This style of team can really use a lot of lasts, but it prob something that do well against stall, id guess prob a Breloom, maybe a metagross? Could be a gar? I love this bring, lots of great anti-offense choices like the off cune, scarf gon, has suit tar for pkel love of scarf rotom, passho tran (good mon in general) for his love of offwaters. Just a great choice.
Pkel: I think this team a bit more shaky. Pkel has bringing this style of team a lot (lead / band flygon / lucario / scarf rotom / offensive core (double water here)) and I think players are really taking advantage of it. Offensive Forre lead is really old school, but these days I think is hard to justify, as you have to run from anything that can remotely carry a fire move (unless it’s sash? But it’s lefties), and these teams really need to keep momentum. The offense is def here: spikes + double water (rain dd kingdra too, a forgotten classic) luke, band flygon. But this approach can run into problems against opposing bulky offense (I mean I get why he brought it, if void brought a balance/stall pkel prob wins). I hope he doesn’t get subbed out, bc I think he brings a very cool approach to the tier, but yeah, this would have been a very hard game to win.
Christos vs Laurel
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-817183
Christos:
Laurel:
Christos: shout out to my man christos, I didn’t think malekith was doing that poorly, but hey he knows as much as anyone the bar is high in spl, I went 0-3 and eventually turned it around to start my only spl shits hard. Excited to see christos here, always underrated in the tier, solid fundamentals, and an excellent player. Anyway, I really like this team. It’s a classic with a twist. Mag + cm clef has been around really since dug’s ban and this is an even more defensive take on it. The main star here imo is the toxic milotic over the more standard roost choice scarf flygon who tries absorb clef’s knock off and generally be a good reliable revenge killer w the mag. What I like about tox milo is these teams have awkward mus into special water/fire attackers, trying to dance phys def cm clef + lati and have the propensity to really struggle w heatran. Milo typically uses haze, as it’s the primary answer to bulky sd sciz and gyara, but w hp fire scarf mag, cm clef, and it’s own toxic, he doesn’t really need that and can afford to do like he did ingame and surprise stuff like zap w toxic. Milo has a lot of cool options to explore. Not much else to say here, a classic and great team w a twist.
Laurel: I am a fan if laurel took one of his two saucy options here, but idk about both. I think rhyperior will prob take up the mantle for Machamp on para based offenses: it hits absurdly hard, it checks a bunch of random things, and really loves para. Hera is much more rarely seen, but is also an excellent choice on para based teams imo. I played around w it a couple of years ago: it’s a status pivot pursuit user that hits like a monster. However, I don’t really think they work well together: I think it really can struggle to pressure waters and you have to make unoptimal concessions like rocks fire punch rachi when you’d really rather be scarf or defensive to hold the team together. I think there gold in here somewhere w the tar + rhyperior or the paraspam + Hera.
Dridri vs Bkc:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-817002
Dridri:
Bkc:
Dridri: yeah idk about this one. I think the closest equivalent to this team is that old pdc build that led cb ape (ape / double hazard skarm / scarf tar / Lucario / gengar / quagsire). Dridri went with another spikes offense build but w milo this time as kind of a catch all defensive mon w a cm lati + gar + spikes offensive core. I used to build a lot of these types of teams when I first started playing tours on smogon in Dpp, and I just found milo struggles to do its job on these kinds of teams. Theoretically, it’s perfect: a utility check w recover, perfect bulky offense mon. In reality, I often found it got worn down very quickly and opened up holes in my defensive core, something I couldn’t cover w the offense I had. I think something very similar happens w this team: bkc wrested the momentum w sub zap, and never relinquished it once he cleaned up w the luke. I think you almost have to just go all in w these spikes teams w just enough defensive utility to survive (I’m thinking like the specs lati / skarm / dd tar / pert / gar / mag) spikes offense).
BKC comes w another classic, one of the many cb tar balances w saw this week, this time w sd Lucario. This is a great team that I believe he’s brought before? I like all the little techs in here: choice scarf rachi to get up immediately, sub zap, focus loom to help break open for his assuming bp lucario. There’s not much to say here: this style is prob one of the most common of the last year and can really use anything in the luke spot (the standard was scarf tran last year w almost certainly star last, but pert, celebi, gyara, etc etc saw plenty of use there too over the years.) excited for more great bkc teams!
Groudon vs crucify:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-817369
Groudon:
Crucify:
Groudon: groudon comes w a pretty interesting special offense featuring a choice specs kingdra lead. Shout out to coco, he was always on the Kingdra lead. I think this team is good! Weve seen a lot of these choice scarf Meta special offenses of the form water lead (most often Cune) / heatran / meta / lati / ghost / x. I don’t know if I love ddtar here, as this looks like absolute food for agility Meta/empo and I’ve more often seen like flygon or Breloom as the last, but I think this works pretty well. wow tran is another one im not hugely high on, as it means you’re dangerously weak to heatran if your own tran can’t touch it or you have rocks on scarf meta. Overall though, I like the team choice, just a solid special offense based around double (specs) dragons
Crucify: crucify’s team is a little out there, also based around specs Kingdra + offensive lati (prob that same set up bkc in w1 had w the Lum rain lati?) but w some interesting choices for a team like this like the donphan rocker + cb tar + scarf rachi, something more common on balanced builds. It’s like he mashed a special offense w the lati Kingdra rotom w cb tar balance. I feel like this team is teetering on the edge, as you have a good defensive core to withstand one loss of momentum from donphan - I’m assuming Lum lati for loom, you have scarf rotom as a backstop, Kingdra can live most hits from like a Gyara, but don’t quite have a good defensive core to withstand donphan or Cb tar being forced out more than once, meaning you need to play this pretty aggressively, which crucify did here. Also on the surface this looks pretty dire into specs dragons, mixed Flygon, or Gengar, but it beat the dragons and gar pretty comfortably. Idk I feel like this team wants a heatran, but Donphan as your dd tar check and rocker worked pretty well here.
Ladybug vs We three kings:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-817586
Ladybug:
Wtk:
Ladybug brought an interesting twist on this balance (an identical 6 to bkc prob) by making Breloom the sd user and giving Luke a scarf. It’s very interesting, as swampert is horrible bc loom is sd facade unless you have zap w hp grass, which it doesn’t really like to have in Dpp bc you like zap to be able to handle Dragonite/glis in a pinch. Idk how I feel about scarf luke here, I feel like you need another breaker to help out the rachi? But at the same time, this really does well Into ho w the insta rocks rachi, the phys def zap, and scarf luke that I think you can afford it. Gengar requires some exquisite maneuvering here, as does Empoleon, but that’s par for the course for teams like these. Very cool take on cb tar balance.
Wtk’s take is a bit more shaky, even if it’s the same guts of the cb tar balance . Zap used to be a common lead on these teams, but taking a scarf t1 just makes this a total L, even w celebi (I find on these teams even if celebi beats loom, it still gives you problems), to the point I think you should prob just lead rachi. I’m not sure how I feel like about scarf gon here, he looks a little out of place w a defensive zap and celebi to check sweepers, but I think it makes sense into the heavy offense ladybug has brought so far. Swampert is the most common last here instead of the Flygon. This team really really leans on the cb tar against stall, but against ladybug I think it was an excellent choice, just think in today’s metagame, leading rachi was a better choice.
