Tournament Smogon Premier League IX: RU Discussion

[col49]

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With this SPL coming in with the RU metagame at a pretty malleable stage, I felt it would be really interesting to discuss the potential games, their implications in terms of pokemon and teams used, and so forth. Let this thread serve as a hub for all discussions on this matter. Feel free to comment on the draft, post predictions, talk about qualities of certain games that you liked or found interesting, whatever you feel is appropriate. I'll be sure to update this thread with each week, perhaps including my own thoughts on the different games in doing so. As for the information for the time being:

SPL Schedule
Auction Log

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Projected Players / Support:

• Circus Maximus Tigers: atomicllamas, Eternal Spirit, lighthouses
• Indie Scooters: FlamingVictini, giara, elodin, Feliburn
• Team Raiders: TDK, -Tsunami-, Mael
• Ever Grande BIGS: Kushalos, Windsong, Mazinger, Hot N Cold
• Stark Sharks: Hikari, Tricking, dodmen, Arifeen
• Wifi Wolfpack: Tony, Kratosmana, soulgazer, Void, Nails
• Cryonicles: ict, aim, New Breed
• Dragonspiral Tyrants: dice, SilentVerse, J0ris
• Alpha Ruiners: Chill Shadow, We Three Kings, snagaa
• Congregation of the Classiest: Pohjis, Ajna, BOUFF

Thoughts

Though some of what I might deem as support roles here may be a bit of a stretch, on the whole I was pleasantly surprised by how much consideration was given to the RU slot operates here; most players have the tools to avoid total self-sufficiency, and some of the less "stable" picks have a suitable fallback. Tigers pick feels fairly obvious, Diogo is too hot currently to bench, and frankly E-Spirit is likely to OU as it was in the previous Tigres iteration. Putting the burden on Feliburn to shoulder RU is a pretty big jump, but if he can keep his nerves about him and FV offers up some support he could / should do fine. Worst comes to worst, the scooters have an abundance of hella flexible, hella French picks to hold things together. Everyone here's got their fingers crossed to see Shake pull it back, really. TDK and Mael both are solid enough fundamentally to help him get and keep his footing, though if all else fails or he simply feels more comfortable tackling another tier Mael proved himself capable and forward-thinking enough to fill their slot just fine. BIGS took an interesting approach here, pushing forward some BW players in HnC and Windsong to hold it down, the latter of which I would expect to take the spot if only for his most vested interest in the meta (noted for playing the current meta, participated in the Zoroark suspect). Kushalos and the ever-dynamic Mazinger should be fine to keep these two grounded, though as long as he remains interested in playing I have no doubts in Windsong's playing ability. Arifeen looks to be the designated player this time 'round, which is nice to see for all his efforts as of late (including noted contributions to Chillshadow's success in the Snake Draft). While he isn't heavily supported here, Hikari and dodmen both maintain a level of competency in lower tiers on the whole, and their unique outlook on the might help to expand Arifeen's admittedly more narrow scope of building. While it's tough to say for certain with the Wolfpack's NU slot possessing a level of uncertainty (no shade towards Earth, much love), there is a reasonable chance sougazer will be the player of choice here. Their building will perhaps be the most uncertain of the teams here, given it will likely pull from a massive think-tank of players that more flirt with the notion of RU than directly engage with it. Cryonicles is possibly the most inconsistent here, for as much as I respect New Breed, his recent activity on the tour scene has been indicative of severe disinterest, and the team itself is lacking in a full-fledged RUer beyond him to keep things sorted. That said, he has shown himself to be an exceedingly competent player, and with support from the iconic Joel PokeaimMD we might just see prime-time New Breed again. Hogg's strat of stacking yet more players probably too far in to still be playing this game has yielded a pretty interesting pool of players to work with here, thought ultimately I feel he will be quicker to spring Silentverse here than the SPL-green J0ris. SV showed himself to still be capable of bringing in wins w/his Snake Draft showing, in spite of his somewhat same-y builds (which ik will get to him when he reads me still calling that out, i'm very deliberately coaxing you out of your comfort zone here), and hopefully that consistency pans out here. Ruiners put a bit more of a risk out than I think they might've realized drafting a somewhat unsupported Chillshadow, given his reliance on Arifeen for building in his obviously impressive Snake Draft, but in spite of that I do feel confident he will rise to the occasion here. Lastly, Ajna. Should do well as long as he adapts to this meta well enough, BOUFF and Pohjis are both workhorses that should help him out and bounce ideas.

Replays

Week 1:
[RUIN] Chill Shadow vs soulgazer [WOLF]
[CRYO] New Breed vs Feliburn [SCTR]
[CONG] Ajna vs SilentVerse [TYRN]
[SHRK]Arifeen vs Eternal Spirit [TGRS]
[BIGS] Windsong vs -Tsunami- [RAID]

Week 2:
[CONG] Ajna vs. Tricking [SHRK]
[RAID] -Tsunami vs. Chill Shadow [RUIN]
[BIGS] Windsong vs. SilentVerse [TYRN]
[SCTR] Feliburn vs. soulgazer [WOLF]
[TGRS] Eternal Spirit vs. New Breed [CRYO]

Week 3:
[SCTR] njnp vs. -Tsunami- [RAID]
[CRYO] New Breed vs. Tricking [SHRK]
[BIGS] Windsong vs. Ajna [CONG]
[WOLF] soulgazer vs. lighthouses [TGRS]
[TYRN] SilentVerse vs. Chill Shadow [RUIN]

Week 4:
[RAID] mael vs. lighthouses [TGRS]
[CRYO] New Breed vs. soulgazer [WOLF]
[SCTR] njnp vs. SilentVerse [TYRN]
[CONG] Ajna vs. Chill Shadow [RUIN]
[SHRK] Tricking vs. Windsong [BIGS]

Week 5:
[RUIN] Chill Shadow vs. Windsong [BIGS]
[TGRS] lighthouses vs. SilentVerse [TYRN]
[CRYO] Nat vs. Ajna [CONG]
[SHRK] Tricking vs. Feliburn [SCTR]
[WOLF]soulgazer vs. [RAID]mael

Week 6:
[RUIN] Chill Shadow vs Nat [CRYO]
[CONG] Ajna vs Feliburn [SCTR]
[TYRN] SilentVerse vs TDK [RAID]
[WOLF] soulgazer vs Tricking [SHRK]
[BIGS] Windsong vs lighthouses [TGRS]

Week 7:
[TYRN] SilentVerse vs. Tricking [SHRK]
[SCTR] Feliburn vs. Windsong [BIGS] - Activity for Windsong
[WOLF] soulgazer vs. Bouff [CONG]
[RUIN] Chill Shadow vs. lighthouses [TGRS]
[RAID] Gingy vs. Nat [CRYO]

Week 8:
[BIGS] Windsong vs. soulgazer [WOLF]
[TGRS] lighthouses vs. Bouff [CONG]
[SHRK] Arifeen vs. -Tsunami- [RAID]
[CRYO] Nat vs. SilentVerse [TYRN]
[SCTR] Feliburn vs. Chill Shadow [RUIN]

Week 9:
[TGRS]lighthouses vs. Feliburn [SCTR]
[RUIN]Chill Shadow vs. Arifeen [SHRK]
[WOLF]PokeTCG gamer1288 vs. J0RIS [TYRN]
[RAID]mael vs. Bouff [CONG]
[BIGS]Windsong vs. Nat [CRYO]

Semi-Finals:

Finals:

Power Rankings

1. Ajna: 1.444 - Classiest

• Official: 8-3 SSD1, R9 RU Open VI
• Circuit: 1-2 RUPL

If we go by results alone, there is little doubt about who is the #1 RU player right now. The recent Snake Draft champion had an incredible tournament, and this coupled with his finals appearance in the RU Open earlier definitely shows that this rapper means business. Despite the potential issue of somewhat predictable builds at times, Ajna is consistent enough and has that X factor to overcome disadvantages and snag wins in the least likely of situations. As he is the player who we can mark down as the most consistently capable of bringing a game around in his favor, it would be a shock to see Ajna have a bad tournament.

2. Chill Shadow: 1.667 - Ruiners

• Official: 5-3 all-time SPL, 6-3 SSD1, R4 RU Open VI
• Circuit: RU Swiss Tour R5

Closing in on the top spot we have the beast from the Middle East. Perhaps not as extremely knowledgeable as some of the people in the RU pool this year, Chill instead stands out as one of the best all-around battlers, as his experience in several tiers and generations has given him a more widespread way of thinking when it comes to this game. During Snake Draft, he had massive support and many have considered Arifeen to be one of the biggest reasons for Chill's great tournament, but that'd be a disservice to this man's ability. It will be very interesting to see if his raw skill will be enough to offset the lack of support he will be dealing with this SPL.

3. -Tsunami-: 3.600 - Raiders

• Official: 17-8 SPL, 2-3 RU SPL, 0-3 SSD1, R6 RU Open VI, 1st Smogon Classic II, GSC Cup II Winner
• Circuit: N/A

Snake Draft couldn't have ended worse for the proud weeb. A 0-3 start into ragequit true combo was surprising to say the least. Despite him swearing on his waifu that he would never come back to this game, here we have Shake dabbing into another tournament. We definitely have to remember that Shake is one of the best players not just in RU, but perhaps in the tournament as a whole, being tied for the most official tournament wins. His ability to keep composure in high-stake games, overall game sense, and knowledge of how to use "cheese" like no other make him a very intimidating opponent. The first few weeks will be crucial, as if this slump continues, we might see yet another ragequit. If bop thele it is Shake shows up, though, he could very easily be at the top.

4. lighthouses: 4.111 - Tigers

• Official: 4-0 SSD1, R3 RU Open VI
• Circuit: N/A

There is no doubt about lighthouses's ability as a player. Reaching the semifinals of OST is a big feat, and we can't forget his great showing in the Snake Draft. Perhaps something that further sets him apart from the competition is the amount of support he will be able to receive, having atomicllamas and Eternal Spirit to help him out and keep him grounded. And let's not forget the fantastic team chemistry (BARIL FTW). His builds can be a little streamlined, but again, the support he has and his unquestionable playing ability more than make up for it. He has received criticism in the past for not being up to par, but he will look to silence the haters once and for all this SPL.

5. soulgazer: 4.778 - Wolfpack

• Official: 21-8 all-time SPL, 3-3 SSD1, R7 RU Open VI
• Circuit: N/A

soulgazer is perhaps the most proven lower-tier player in the RU pool, although he is more known for his accomplishments in NU. Regardless, he showed he might have what it takes to make a splash in RU, ending with a decent record in Snake Draft. He also had a good individual year, reaching the playoffs of the Grand Slam, although losing in Round 1. However, the Canadian definitely lacks the longtime RU player experience to capitalize on the newest trends, and it shows in his building, as he opts to stay with tried and true strategies, which might hurt him in the long run. If he spends more time preparing for his games and less time being complete cancer in the Tournaments Discord, he has potential to do well this SPL.

6. Tricking: 5.889 - Sharks

• Official: 6-6 all-time SPL, R8 RU Open VI, 2nd Grand Slam VI
• Circuit: 4-2 RUPL

The man involved in the most recent cheating drama, Tricking will be missing the first week of SPL. That's a big win for the Sharks, who would have otherwise been down a lot from losing this seasoned tournament player. The Italian is really good and reliable at basically every tier he touches, and as such he's an immediate threat to any opponent he faces. Add to this that he now has the man that shares Chill Shadow's Snake success in Arifeen on his team, and Tricking becomes a much scarier foe, as this patches up Tricking's weak builds. Criticized for his Drapion boner, hit-or-miss builds, and several exploitable weaknesses, Tricking's prowess can be linked to the support he receives. As a player, he's definitely up there, and Arifeen having his back might just be enough to push him up hard.

7. SilentVerse: 6.900 - Tyrants

• Official: 15-13 all-time RU SPL, 4-3 SSD1, R4 RU Open VI
• Circuit: N/A

After a long absence from Pokémon due to League of Legends dependence, cute SV decided to come back to have a go at RU in Snake. He did much better than expected from someone still recovering from addiction and ended with a solid record. He is the most veteran of the bunch, playing RU since the BW days and being known as the absolute best player in the tier at his peak. Recently, he has been known to rely a lot on outside help, as well as for his resurfacing disinterest for the game. His start will be very important, as a losing start could completely end all the motivation he might have for the tournament. Regardless, SV is a reliable pick, and although historical players seem to have hard times in SPL, this man is the most capable of pulling a huge upset and reaching his past level.

8. Windsong: 7.222 - Bigs

• Official: 23-10 all-time SPL, 20-8 all-time RU SPL
• Circuit: N/A

This rank might be too unfair for Windsong. If there is a player that is known for shaking off rust extremely fast and always doing well in team tournaments, it's this guy. Just look at his ridiculous all-time SPL record to get an idea of just how good this guy can be. Despite Windsong being somewhat in the shadows for the past few months, sources have confirmed he has been playing RU. Add up the threat of complete lack of intel on him and he is definitely the dark horse of this pool. That said, it doesn't take away from the accomplishments of the people on top of him, and as a result he ends up ranked 8th. The overall playing level of the RU community has gone up a good amount, so this could go either pretty well or pretty bad for the BIGs RUer.

9. New Breed: 7.400 - Cryonicles

• Official: 11-13 all-time SPL, 9-9 RU SPL
• Circuit: N/A

New Breed used to be a ridiculous player back in the day. He started as a lower tiers guy, then moved into ADV and got a good amount of recognition there, and then proceeded to stroll into the Smogon Classic and end up first seed in its first edition, only to quit the game right before playoffs began. That basically describes New Brad as a player, sky-high potential surrounded by lack of motivation. It is hard to imagine much has changed for this player lately, but if there is a team that could bring out the best in him, it's the Cryonicles, a team full of good friends of his. Some people confirm that he has been following the game somewhat, but while there are some good RU players in his team in aim and ict, someone to feed him the metagame, get him completely ready, and build for him isn't really there. How much he will care is the most important factor here; either his team will have to sub him out early or he overtakes everyone on top of him.

10.Feliburn: 8.333 - Scooters

• Official: N/A
• Circuit: 3-2 RUPL

The three players we just talked about are all big name veterans, and the last player in the RU pool couldn't be more different. Feliburn is a more modern player with a good amount of metagame knowledge under his belt. There is certainly no one more thirsty to make a good impression than this man, but a tough road lies ahead of him. He isn't the most dynamic player or the most prominent builder, and maybe it would have been best to have him start as a sub and let him gain experience before transitioning into a playing role. His primary support is FlamingVictini, who, while being an amazing player on his own, isn't known as the best of teammates regarding support. Feliburn is very motivated and is no slouch by any means, but the competition might make it too hard for him to outplay any of his opponents in even ground.

Player Standings

1. [BIGS]Windsong: 6-2-0
2. [WOLF]soulgazer: 5-3-0
3. [TYRN]Silentverse: 5-3-0
4. [CRYO]New Breed: 1-3-0 / Nat 4-0-0
5. [TGRS]Eternal Spirit: 2-0-0 / lighthouses: 3-3-0
6. [SHRK]Tricking: 3-3-0 / Arifeen :1-1-0
7. [CONG]Ajna: 2-4-0 / Bouff 1-1-0
8. [RUIN]Chill Shadow: 3-5-0
9. [RAID]mael: 1-2-0 / -Tsunami-: 1-3-0 / TDK 0-1-0 / Gingy 0-1-0
10. [SCTR]njnp: 1-1-0 / Feliburn: 1-5-0

 

[MrAldo]

Im glad of seeing so many close friends having the opportunity to shine on the main stage, beautiful.

However, I cant give teambuilding advice from the sidelines anymore with so many people involved...

F

 

[Bouff]

glad to see feliburn finally get a shot. i think the ru pool here is lookin the strongest its been in years, ajna cs and lighthouses had p strong showings and snake and then u have other dudes who played ru in spl before returning (no meru makes me sad tho :[). hoping to see some entertaining games here

 

[lighthouses]

Feliburn

 

[Senpai D.M]

fav team after draft: tigers nice trio with lighthouses or llamas starting. Lighthouses had a nice showing in snake did better than I thought yet again he actually plays the tier lol and llamas can also start if he decides to either way they can bounce ideas off each other. Edit: lol I still feel Lighthouses has a good support in teammates and he should have a good showing and if not gama could even play but hes better in ou slot so we'll see

least fav team: cryos also have a trio of players that are capable of playing in ru so im guessing new breed might have to play ru unless ict decides too and the teams also shaky in nu so we'll see I guess. aim will mostly play different tiers but will be fun to watch

 

[Evan.]

fav team after draft: tigers nice trio with lighthouses or llamas starting. Lighthouses had a nice showing in snake did better than I thought yet again he actually plays the tier lol and llamas can also start if he decides to either way they can bounce ideas off each other.

least fav team: cryos also have a trio of players that are capable of playing in ru so im guessing new breed might have to play ru unless ict decides too and the teams also shaky in nu so we'll see I guess. aim will mostly play different tiers but will be fun to watch

managers cant play dude, lighthouses is gonna be the guy for us

 

[MrAldo]

MATCHAS

SM RU: Chill Shadow(RUIN) vs soulgazer(WOLF)
SM RU: New Breed(CRYO) vs Feliburn(SCOOT)
SM RU: Ajna(CONG) vs SilentVerse(TYRN)
SM RU: Arifeen(SHRK) vs Eternal Spirit(TIGR)
SM RU: Windsong(BIGS) vs -Tsunami-(RAID)

Well shit, it is New Year at 0:37 AM and I have nothing better to do atm so WEEK 1 for spl have been posted and we have the RU matchups right here.

Choose your favorite! These are some fire matchups, no idea why no lighthouses tho... maybe he is busy or something? Anyways, share your predictions, favorites and stuff!

 

[col49]

alrighty, since half a day is the baseline for stealing my thread, i will instead take the time to note that i've edited in the power rankings for those that perhaps don't follow the tournament as closely and missed them. additionally, i'll be making an effort to add the times during which the games are looking to be played (translated to EST, which perhaps betrays our culturally diverse playerbase and I do apologize for that) for those that might be interested in catching these live!

to touch briefly upon the player rankings, since i was offered the opportunity to rank them myself and want to avoid disclosing too much, i feel that perhaps they are a smidge too biased around very recent success. obviously i wouldn't call the idea of a 'hot streak' entirely bogus, nor would i want anyone to think this is me taking away from the recent success of players like ajna or lighthouses (both of whom i ranked highly, or what i might consider to be high), but some strike me as byproducts of not being around to give a full scope to the situation. windsong is probably the biggest example for me, as a player that has not only expressed current meta familiarity but has continued to perform in environments such as this, even as far as jumping back into a metagame he is not renowned for as he does now. i feel comfortable admitting i put him in my top 3, and to see so little reciprocation is something of a shame. new breed would be the other case, one that i myself can understand a bit more for his spottier interest in such things, but as someone who speaks with him from time to time and was around during his heyday i'd hope the current community will not be quick to dismiss him.

past that, the games this week are looking rather interesting. with the exception of eternal spirit slotting in for what i've gathered to be a currently pre-occupied lighthouses (that or llamas is just continuing to prove me wrong at all costs), the projected situations are what they are. chill shadow vs. soulgazer is one i'm looking out for, knowing that sg really felt some way about his r2 snake draft performance and chill in a way opened the floodgates to that, but honestly my highlight is feliburn v.new breed. i feel like this game really sets the stage for two of the players whose seasons could really go either way. gl to everyone involved, and if the players that haven't publicized their scheduling could lmk when you're playing i'd thoroughly appreciate it

 

[MrAldo]

Week 2 for RU on this SPL was... far more satisfying than week 1 by a far margin but I believe that it has more offer as the tournament keeps going.

Ajna vs Tricking was a really weird game tbh, mainly due to the team Tricking brought... a wild sun team with ditto and z-celebrate Zard (revealed to be that late in the match). Ajna brought a cool Balance team with most likely z-hoopa (really hard to use any other item on that), scarf roserade, durant, milotic cress and diancie for the defensive backbone. Cool stuff. The sun matchup for Ajna was pretty fair since Cress and Hoopa could take a hit from Venusaur and the latter could KO it back (in the end it wasnt even Life Orb so it was easier to check than anticipated). Ajna managed to apply good pressure, and get a burn, on that Venu early in the match to keep it low. Ghostium Z removes the gligar to keeps his rocks up. Plenty on Hax on favor of Tricking made pivoting on the ditto really difficult (like critting the milo) during the mid game. In the end Tricking tried to go for a hard read by using the Solarbeam predicting Ajna to use stealth rock or something else to preserve PP. Respectable, but it didnt worked out, the rolls for Diancie were more on less on Ajna favor I believe.

0 Atk Diancie Diamond Storm vs. +1 0 HP / 0 Def Charizard: 176-210 (59.2 - 70.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Yeah.

Chill Shadow vs -Tsunami- was a pretty close match that showcased 2 pretty cool looking teams. On Chill Shadow we have a neat bulky offense team focused on the offensive hazard stacking core of Kommo-O and Glalie to support Scarf Shaymin and Z-Move Durant to wear down its checks and clean lategame with the extra support from Future Sight from Slowking. I suppose the Gligar was Defog? -Tsunami- bringing another bulky offense team with a similar structure but with the focus of building around DD Kommo-O (proved to be Double Dance on the late game. Nice!) and bringing back a neat classic in Specs Garde (seeing the damage it did to Slowking, thats specs) and a scarf grass to revenge kill Gatr and Kommo-O. Game developed in a fast paced manner. 2 Pokemon DOWN from both sides at turn 11, with a snorlax blowing out (CB Snorlax is sick) and Gligar getting sacked at turn 12. It all will come down to strategic sacking. Nidoqueen Earth Power to put it in range of scarf leaf storm from Roserade, Slowking went for Future Sight on that turn and BAM, 4 Pokemon on each side DOWN at turn 15! Scarf Shaymin looked that it would win after Rotom-Heat got all out pummeled out of the game but Shake then reveals the Autotomize on turn 17 so Scarf Shaymin couldnt revenge kill! Shake won with a cool set that proved its worth on the late game. Outspeed scarf rade and shaymin and avoiding getting revenge killed tbh. Cool stuff.

Windsong vs SilentVerse was perhaps the most interesting game of the week to me (it was hella late at night too). Windsong brought a bulky offense team consisting of a double dragon offensive core of Mega Ampharos and Kommo-O (which was SD, one of Windsong favorites, cool set) with a Necrozma which I supposed was the main win condition? (I was expecting some autotomize heat but it was calm mind :( it probably still was autotomize but never got the chance to use it), Scarf Rade as revenge killer and Milo Gligar for the backbone. I LOVE MEGA AMPHAROS. SlientVerse a someone similar team but with Yanmega as the hole puncher supporting Virizion as the main win condition, bronzong gligar, and milotic for the backbone and Flygon as the revenge killer of choice, Cool teams. Spammin Haze on the Milotic was an interesting idea in order to bait the Z-move and allow the Necrozma to come freely but SilentVerse used close combat to take advantage of that (altho a crit helped with that, probably didnt matter in the long run) and not use the z-move. Dont agree much with the choices of calm mind necrozma and stealth rock defog gligar (personal nitpick, dont like having hazard control and hazards on the same mon, it is uncomfortable). The game at that point was to remove the Gligar, that is spdef so it handles Yanmega (if it is knock better) so Flygon could sweep with EQ (perfectly doable since Roserade doesnt resist ground and the Necrozma was basically dead at turn 15. SilentVerse had to be careful tho since the Flygon was at 10%, a couple of mistakes and it was over. The Roserade took a bug buzz at turn 40 (Maybe the Necrozma had recovery so thats why it didnt sack it? Believe that was the play if it didnt). This is huge for SilentVerse so the EQ cleanup lategame was totally doable at this point. The Psywave at turn 42 on that Gligar and Yanmega getting the roll next turn to kill it sealed the deal so Scarf Flygon came in at cleaned up the rest. Good game.

Feliburn vs Soulgazer This was rough to watch since Feliburn is my Brother. Feliburn bringing your standard mega abomasnow team. I really love mega abomasnow as a breaker but I dislike how streamlined the teams ends up being with him. You either need an actual remover or espeon alongside it. Really functional concept. Now Soulgazer brings a team rather similar to Chill Shadow in terms of hazards + slowking (which is probably future sight) but with p2 and rhyperior as defensive backbone with Durant Mismagius as breakers with Rade as Scarf perhaps (it later was revealed to be scarf mismagius then z-move Roserade with band durant. Oml, heat.). p2 looking mighty unbreakable on team preview. Unfortunate turn of events at turn 2 since Feliburn probably though the roserade was scarf with spikes, but in the end it was later revealed to be z-move. This setted back Feliburn so much. That p2 ATE that all out pummeling like it was breakfast so it had to be really damn physically defensive. Game defining double at turn 8 since that allowed p2 to recover and from there proceed to wall the rest of Feliburn team pretty much. p2 is sitting there taking absolutely nothing. Mismagius revenge kills the durant revealing scarf, tricks the milotic and from there roserade won so that was the end of that. Pretty onesided tbh.

Eternal Spirit vs New Breed ES team was insane. Like if someone brought this against me I will be hella scared since it is hard to read what this is on team preview. Later on you will discover that this team was totally tailored to handle New Breed. KEV brought your standard MiloLix bulky offense with ddance kommo-O as the main wincondition, defog rotom-cut, probably specs garde and maybe scarf moltres. Turn 1 we get to see the Moltres is Scarf By turn 4 we learn that the Slowking isnt Assault Vest and the Garde is Specs (nailed it!) What could the slowking be? That Bronzong is heatproof AF. What a wild team, digging it. Looking rough for ES until at turn 22 we get to see the tech, the OTR Slowking. This is such a throwback to spl7 of Llamas vs New Breed, oml. This slowking looking like it could easily go for game here depending of the set. It reveals the Nasty Plot at turn 23! Oh dear! Now on turn 26 this is where it gets really tough in terms of decision making. Lets throw some calc in this.

We know the Slowking was max SpA because:

+2 252+ SpA Slowking Shattered Psyche (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Milotic: 394-465 (100 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 0+ SpA Slowking Shattered Psyche (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Milotic: 312-367 (79.1 - 93.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 0 SpA Slowking Shattered Psyche (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Milotic: 283-334 (71.8 - 84.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

So we know the Slowking wasnt Defensive and this Kommo-O in front was definitely Dragon Dance. However, people say that Kev should have dragon danced on the mega camerupt sack but I believe that call is really bold to make cause the Slowking could have easily traded with the Kommo-O and get the hp it needed to use trick room again back through Regenerator since ES still had enough sacks to get enough hp use trick room again and Sigilyph could provide the enough chip damage for Scald to KO max spdef steelix since heavy slam doesnt KO Sigilyph. In the end going for DD on that Camerupt sack would have been an insanely ballsy play. Good job from ES baiting the z-move. In the end it was Scarf Shaymin with Dazzling Gleam (as it should be on a kommo-O meta) so it probably didnt matter much all that scenario on turn 27. Really great preparation from Eternal Spirit.

Lets see what Week 3 has for us. Im seeing njnp on RU so this isnt looking good already...

 

[lighthouses]

Week 4 is up
SM RU: mael vs lighthouses
SM RU: New Breed vs soulgazer
SM RU: njnp vs SilentVerse
SM RU: Ajna vs ChillShadow
SM RU: Tricking vs Windsong

Ajna vs Cs and Tricking vs Windsong should be pretty good, soulgazer vs New breed will probably be very interesting as well.
Please to those who are actually good at writing big posts(my english blows), don't let this thread die, it's the only lower tier spl discussion thread with no action whatsoever and i very much enjoy reading those posts, as im sure most people also do.
gl all

 

[MrAldo]

Week 3 was an interesting week with njnp vs -Tsunami- having the njnp RU debut and the game itself being a complete roller coaster of emotions (there was even a freeze on a calm mind espeon and it thawed on the next turn, holy shit). Windsong having a really solid performance against the acclaimed best RU player, Tricking having a dominant performance over New Breed (Tricking brought a really solid team), soulgazer vs lighthouses being a pretty close game and showcasing some interesting trendy builds atm, and Chill Shadow vs SilentVerse with some bad luck on CS side but both showing some really interesting techs and builds too (super fang noivern and ffs, you both used Gigavolt Havoc on their respective special setup users... thats pretty fire).

With Durant officially banned and Week 4 being the last time we could see the ant in action for RU in this generation I think it is a good time to talk about the Durant usage and how many people will miss all the things it brought to a team.

+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon | Use | Usage % | Win % |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1 | Durant | 15 | 50.00% | 60.00% |
| 1 | Milotic | 15 | 50.00% | 53.33% |
| 3 | Gligar | 14 | 46.67% | 35.71% |
| 4 | Shaymin | 9 | 30.00% | 55.56% |
| 4 | Kommo-o | 9 | 30.00% | 33.33% |
| 6 | Roserade | 6 | 20.00% | 83.33% |
| 6 | Moltres | 6 | 20.00% | 33.33% |
| 6 | Steelix | 6 | 20.00% | 33.33% |
| 9 | Diancie | 5 | 16.67% | 60.00% |
| 9 | Flygon | 5 | 16.67% | 40.00% |

Credit to KingKDot and Eo Ut Mortus for compiling the usage stats. Truly appreciate it. Here we have a list of the 10 most used mons atm during SPL. A 5 games per week sample size may not seem like much but it is good enough to showcase a clear tendency.

Durant is tied on first place with Milotic as the most used Pokemon on 3 weeks. Thats insane and really shows how good the pokemon was at covering many baselines for a team (fast, powerful, amazing resistances, versatility). It will be missed after Week 4, expect the use to reach 20 this week. Same with Milotic but thats not brainer, mon is insanely good.

Gligar and Shaymin are pretty interesting next on the line. Id not say Im surprised by Gligar since it is really good, but the low win percentage in something to consider, maybe something it was off with gligar builds. Who knows. Shaymin is somewhat surprising tbh, not the most comfortable mon to use but still showing strong as a competent scarfer and seeing Tricking strong performance with a sub seed shaymin on his team shows there is plenty of room for exploration with this mon.

Kommo-O low win percentage shows that despite its effectiveness the people were really prepared, or overprepared for this monster. All of this in a matter of 2 weeks. Would have lower if Feliburn Shaymin had dazzling gleam (pretty sure Feliburn could have won with the kommo-O out of the way) so yeah. Roserade having an insane win percentage isnt that surprising. Really competent scarfer and threatening hazard setter with the new drops. Moltres and Steelix showing low win percents is somewhat worrisome but it still shows they are great picks for bulky offensive teams, and with Scarf Moltres being on the rise means it is pretty competent on that role (maybe not anymore without Durant :v)

And last 2 are Diancie and Flygon. Diancie saw a sudden rise in popularity on week 3 with the addition of Mandibuzz since it was showcased on 4 out of the 10 possible teams on this week. Maybe it is time for a Diancie rise, certainly more appealing since it is a rocker that can pressure Mandibuzz unlike many others. Flygon still the old trusty good scarfer, maybe someone will have the balls to bust out the Dragon Dance.

Cheers!

 

[EviGaro]

Durant's winrate being effectively the opposite of Moltres is a bit interesting, though, as Moltres really started kicking off as a way to keep Durant in check. Yet it was starting to be obvious in the games, and the stats seem to back this up, that Moltres in practice doesn't actually work as well as intended here. Compared to other obvious scarf picks like Shaymin, Flygon or even Roserade, the defensive utility provided by scarf Moltres is very difficult to use.

Gligar's low winrate and high usage are not necessarily surprising to me either. Gligar just has that tendency to be an exploitable part of any defensive background, and players opting largely for offensive teams in this SPL makes it even harder to use that mon very well. Also keeping in mind that it was a Durant counter that couldn't counter Durant and yeah.

Roserade though surprises me a bit still, as it's a mon that has started to fall though a bit in recognition but is still apparently a defining threat in this metagame. Sleep Powder variants lose a bit of utility with Mandibuzz coming in, but it's a still a pain to deal with for several removers, while being a massive offensive presence with LO and a very efficient revenge killer with Scarf. Really pleased to see that. As for Diancie, glad to see that too, it's a very solid mon overall and while the old support set still seems underwhelming, it's really cutting a niche as an offensive rocker that makes you constantly worries about what exactly it's creeping on your team.

Would like to talk about the games a bit but honestly not sure what I can say to the players lol. I found the lighthouses/soulgazer game quite interesting in an odd way, as on one hand the game was played very tentatively and on the other you saw many gambles on what were essentially toss ups, but yet the game came down to which Milotic went down to poison first, which is... anticlimatic? Shake-njnp to me illustrated the difficulties of making stall extremely consistent in this metagame, and while you can point at Durant and think that it will get easier, there's a plethora of stallbreakers that might now come out with this ban and stall can't really effectively prep for all of them on top of every other known threat. The next few weeks will be very interesting in that regard.

 

[Senpai D.M]

So uh I wanted to touch on week 3 just lazy and unmotivated by my posting prowess lol. Anywho I guess Ill review some events I found interesting. Coming into the week you can see Feliburn was benched after going 0-2 for a ou player not FV. njnp was cool to see from the start of week imo despite what others thought ofc.

njnp vs -Tsunami- As I said before we see a matchup of former ost winner and ru veteran and going into the match I saw right away Shake chose to bring stall lol I thought he won at team preview however njnp and co were prepared and built accordingly. Njnp made some mistakes (making durant switch etc.) and managed to pull a win was impressive and he seems to be playing for week 4 :o

New Breed vs Tricking - New Breed brought a solid build plus Pangoro and I really liked Tricking team theres a Dragalge. New Breeds team was on bulkier side and got picked apart by trickings build mostly breakers and a Rhydon?

Windsong vs Ajna - I wasnt really a fan of this game. Ajna made alot of switches and Windsong punished them rinse and repeat thorughtout the game. I guess it was cool to see Mega Bloastiose being used?

soulgazer vs lighthouses - Nice to see Virizion on the rise both players brought it. Lighthouses made a bit of overpredicts and eventually pulled a win.

SilentVerse vs Chill Shadow - Nice series besides the borefest that was Milo vs Milo. SV later showed gigavolt havoc on Milo :o CS also later showed Giga volt of his own on Mismagius lol as a last ditch effort and Milo won

 

[termi]

i did some "analysis"

njnp vs shake: Interesting team choice from shake, not particularly surprising considering he's been on top of the stall game for a while now, but considering some recent drops (particularly Mandibuzz) some may have been wondering whether or not stall could continue being successful heading into the new meta. njnp brought a team (built by Felipburn if I'm not mistaken 0:) with some Pokemon that definitely do well against bulky teams such as CM Morning Sun Espeon to prevent hazards from ever going up and threatening with a sweep that can't be ruined by status, the newest bane of stall in Taunt Tox Mandibuzz, Taunt Nidoqueen to deny Articuno free Defogs, and of course the ever-threatening Durant. Both players are really well-prepared for each other, on the one hand we see njnp's team stacked with dangerous stallbreakers, but shake's stall teams are never too susceptible to standard answers to stall. Taunt Nidoqueen was a big deal in this game since it meant shake could never Defog on it with full confidence, which directly contributed to him losing Dragalge after clicking Freeze-Dry rather than Defog in turn 78 (had SR been off the field, Moltres would be a guaranteed counter to Durant every time Mandibuzz turned out to be too much for shake's team though, especially when rocks went up turn 127 and njnp denied him the opportunity to Defog, making it impossible for him to PP stall Mandibuzz by switching around at a low cost since all the mons that are less susceptible to SR on shake's team can't really threaten Mandibuzz in any meaningful way (bar the aforementioned Dragalge which had been sacked at that point in the game already). Both players did really well in this game and before turn 78 shake was largely doing fine, correctly telegraphing njnp's moves, but ultimately njnp's preparation for stall and a few correct predictions tilted the game in his favor. Good game, props to njnp's builder.

New Breed vs Tricking: Cool teams, New Breed rocked a pretty bulky team with MiloLix and Mandibuzz, using Pangoro as a means to break opposing offensive cores while utilizing Shaymin for speed control. Tricking's team was significantly more offensive and generally did pretty well against New Breed's team. 2-3 potential Z-move users and 3 potential scarfers made it difficult to immediately tell which sets Tricking was rocking, something that may have contributed to his success in this match.Kev's matchup was a bit unfortunate since he really appreciated SR out of the way, but Tricking bringing Rhyp as his rocker + a team that generally pressured Rotom pretty well denied Kev the opportunity to ever get rocks off the field, which cost him dearly. SubSeed Shaymin greatly appreciated Kev's Shaymin getting weakened by being forced to take SR damage every time + a well-timed Dark Pulse coming from Megatoise and once Kev was forced to sac Rotom to the very balanced Pokemon Durant it was a matter of time until SubSeed Shaymin took it home. I feel Tricking generally managed to keep the momentum in his favor in this one, if New Breed had gotten the opportunity to get his own rocks up and pressured Toise enough to keep it from getting the spin off the odds might have been more against Tricking but the opportunity never presented itself.

Windsong vs Ajna: Not too much to say about this one, Windsong was on top of things from early on and didn't let up, whenever Ajna took a risk he got punished for it, Windsong played his Rotom quite well, generally this wasn't much of a game which is unfortunate because it could have been great considering both players are among the most exciting RU players in this tour. Nice teams on both sides though, a shocking but welcome lack of Milotic and other stupid fat shit.

soulgazer vs lighthouses: I liked how SG played this one, staying in on Bloom Doom Virizion with Milotic for two turns and switching to Durant right on the Bloom Doom was pretty impressive even if it's just a matter of winning some 50/50s. Lot of doubles lategame and a pretty close finish, Diogo managed to clutch by switching Rhyp in at the right moment and winning a 50/50, this one could have gone either way though.

Chillshadow vs SilentVerse: I like CS's team quite a bit, Noivern and Missy are underrated picks and Gigavolt Havoc is a nice tech to nail Mandibuzz and Milotic at the same time, something SV apparently also realized because he rocked that move on his Meloetta. I feel CS was a bit unfortunate in his matchup though since SV happened to bring very solid checks to Noivern and Missy in the form of Diancie and Meloetta respectively, whereas CS had no reliable way of dealing with Meloetta other than not letting it set up. The rest of their teams were very similar with a different pick for a scarfer and slightly different sets on their Milo and Gligar. Pretty interesting game to see other than the infamous Milo wars (ban this mon lol) but between a decent matchup and a bit of luck here and there SV was pretty convincingly in an advantageous position and in terms of playing ability both did a good job, no misplays here.


Predictions for this week:

mael [40] vs lighthouses [60] - mael's not to be underestimated considering he did fairly well in Snake Draft, but I'm gonna have to give this one to Diogo, hard to predict against him
New Breed [45] vs soulgazer [55] - this one could be really close, both players have seen a return to RU and have demonstrated they haven't lost their mojo, been more impressed with SG overall though, convincingly won twice and only barely lost once, from what I've seen he seems really at home in the meta atm so I'm giving him the edge
njnp [45] vs SilentVerse [55] - giving the edge to SV because he can build his own teams which always gives a slight edge imo + I liked SV's performances over the last couple of weeks, idk much about njnp but he seems like a player who knows what he's doing though so could go either way
Ajna [55] vs ChillShadow [45] - I never predict against my boy Ajna, CS is a tough opponent tho but I have confidence in Ajna :]
Tricking [40] vs Windsong [60] - both are really strong players & although idk if Tricking can build himself he can rely on a good team w/ feen to build for him, I think windsong was particularly impressive in his reads last week tho so I think he's got a good shot

miscellaneous predictions:
- someone's gonna bring a Linoone team against someone who's underprepared for that thing and it ends in a clean sweep
- someone's gonna bring an SD Mega Aboma
- we're not getting any stall this week but there still will be at least one 100+ turn battle
- everyone's gonna have a good time and everyone's gonna be nice to each other :} no salt allowed!

 

[Kushalos]

Feel like you guys sometimes forget im on windsongs team lol double danger

 

[termi]

Feel like you guys sometimes forget im on windsongs team lol thats some double danger

alright, correction to my previous prediction: Tricking [60] vs Windsong [40]

 

[Bouff]

mael [45] vs lighthouses [55] - this is an interesting mu considerin tht mael is a god dam warhorse and lighthouse has been on fire for the past few months, hope to see some fat nfe on mael's side

New Breed vs soulgazer - wish i could get afro smash's input on this game

njnp [40] vs SilentVerse [60] - idk honestly i didnt expect sv to do that well this tour but hes still got it given his games. njnp gets my credit for winning against shakeitup but ill give it to sv anyhow because hes got the veteran mindset, unless he ints or whatever the hell its called . what a stupid term

Tricking [35] vs Windsong [65] - honestly you can slap windsong in ru every year that it's in and he'll still do well even if he isn't active in the tier outside of spl, tricking is heat but windsong is hard to predict against

 

[col49]

ok, so like for example this would be a perfectly understandable period of time for someone to take over one of my threads. bearing that in mind, don't, i've updated the op w/replays, standings (made my best attempt at breaking tied records down by strength of schedule but i'm no expert, please do not take offense if i've made mistakes in doing so haha), and will be adding in expected play times as i track them down.

to reflect upon the trends of the metagame to this point, it is fairly easy to observe the notion of centralization through the games, either broadly through very similar defensive backbones (milo being the most used pokemon of 3/4 weeks and of course gligar following it closely) or more specifically through the weeks in which kommo-o and durant were present. in the case of the latter i observed some pretty interesting adaptions on the part of the players involved, with a major highlight of the first half actually being shake's use of double dance kommo-o, which i felt was a very sharp tech that aptly exploited both the circulating players' distaste for doublade and fairy-types and the typical adoption of 90+ spe scarfers as to restrict it (credits to tdk for this pick, though i wouldn't want to detract from shake's solid utilization in-game). however, i feel the playerbase at large has yet to brew the kind of envelope-pushing defensive pokemon countermeasures i was so surprised by during the snake draft. mind you, i do feel there have been some points of interest here: the increased usage of choice specs gardevoir and abomasnow, as well as a handful of mildly adjusted meloetta / mismagius and a solid virizion pick from diogo have exhibited a solid consciousness of how many people are building their balances at this time, and many defensive pokemon have adapted in such ways that make counter-picking them quite difficult. milotic's refresh haze variant, credit to mael, is supremely difficult to cheese by conventional means or otherwise without making hefty assumptions w/spreads or the notion of scald not burning, and obviously gligar's immunity compatibility drastically shifted the manner with which players strove to play the hazard game. i feel that, to this end, the general ability to consistently overcome these builds has yet to be pinned down in full, as evidenced by the lukewarm performance of the aforementioned abomasnow, who in theory offers a very strong "anti-meta" presence. i have faith that this state of affairs will break however, as the tumultuous-even-by-our-standards nature of the metagame at this time very much pushed players to build quite safely, and with the bulk of shifts settled i feel the pool will have time to get creative.

to touch briefly upon the performances thus far, it was rather interesting to see a lot of expectations flipped on their heads. seeing silentverse and eternal spirit carry their momentum from snake was definitely cool, though windsong performing as well as he has is probably the bigger upset (except for me, cuz again, called it). as far as middle-of-the-pack records, i feel that none of the ajna / cs / tricking have been playing necessarily poorly, and to me spoke more to a matter of mindset than anything. ajna v.windsong was a game that i think was pointed to rather often, and in fact was something i spoke with windsong a week or two afterwards that boils down to familiarity. playing a somewhat unknown quantity in windsong can at times prompt you as a player to alter your play in some significant way, and attempting to run counter to your tendencies like that can be incredibly difficult for any player. as a player reasonably acquainted w/long term tour involvement, i can say that the fear of being counter-styled, be it through my play or building, constantly lingers in the back of my mind, so that need to keep variance can get to you at the worst of times, and i think that notion resulted in a slight tilted to risk v.reward management. as offhand spectators and his manager touched upon, there was a mild concern with new breed's building in this tour, so hopefully the addition of nat (congrats on getting bought btw!) will level out his performance. as for feliburn, while some mild concern was brought up when their ru stand-in, njnp, was traded over, i feel both him and fv are at their best in a more "stable" metagame, and to that end i feel his performance to this point will reflect a lot more comfort and ideally get a couple wins under his belt.

from the observer's perspective, lighthouses vs. silentverse is probably my highlight for this week, but i suppose i'm obligated to look forward to the windsong now. gl all, hoping to see five great, complete games

 

[MrAldo]

Even though I dont have the best connection right now Im not on the best mood where I am right now so I will rise this from the grave right quick.

Week 5 has been my favorite week in terms of building and playing this SPL. Some of the games where really really good like lighthouses vs SilentVerse that came down to the last wire in a 50/50 with Bruxish making its spl debut with a W! Chill Shadow vs Windsong showing some really strong preparation from CS side whipping out the sub nasty plot salazzle and something that will probably push Windsong out of the mlix mandi comfort zone. Nat having a really good debut showcasing a notable Shaymin set that smacked some pressure to Ajna. Cool matches.

Other 2 games werent that good unfortunately mainly because the preparation from both mael and Feliburn wasnt on point. Mainly on Feliburn side since I believe building with Barbaracle requires true finesse, something was lacking on felipes build imo.

Week 6 is on us ladies and gents and... wait what the heck?!

AJNA VS FELIBURN

HOLY SHIT! You better make this shit memorable. Better be good!

 

[Feliburn]

Alright gonna give this some life and post my thoughts on the past week and do some predictions for w7.

Lighthouses vs Windsong

Diogo using the diogo favorites Vaporeon and Dragalge while windsong unleashed a nasty sun team, at least a cooler sun variant than the one Tricking used vs Ajna some weeks ago. I feel like Diogo had a very good matchup with dragalge, windsong was packing one of the few mons that stop drag in esca but even then it had a lot of killing potential in this game. I think had Diogo clicked another Draco Meteor vs the weakaned esca in turn 18 the endgame would have been very different with Gardevoir having an easier time picking kills but maybe I'm overlooking somethin.

SilentVerse vs TDK

My boy SV unleashed some dangers in this game, Dragon Dance Tyrantrum and the always scary Vivillon-Ugly Forme. TDK had a nice balance w/ Golisopod, a mon that surprisingly made 2 appearances this week. Not rlly a long game, Vivillon did some damage and Tyrantrum cleaned right after, I feel like TDK could have gone to Mandibuzz turn 1 to take the sleep powder since mandi is fat enough to handle bee unless he was fearing straight up hurricanes or just forgot mandi got overcoat. The next turns were just SV being good enough to land all the Head Smashes needed.

soulgazer vs Tricking

Goat game of the week, 2 very nice teams, sg rocking the moltres mowtom volturn combo w/ the toxicroak and tricking was using a bulky offense w/ SD Drap. It was a p linear game in terms of plays, it got super intense right at the end; good call on sg's part on going to steelix predicting the shaymin hwish to drapion and then going right back into croak. However croak's mediocre offense and Drapion already high natural bulk prevented anything from happening, had sg found an opportunity to get an SD w/ croak vs the bronzong then it could have been a different story, but it was a v rough spot to be in.

Natalie vs ChillShadow

Nat running a balanced team w/ zong, milo and gligs as defensive backbone and Viriz and scarf Garde as the offensive mons w/ the Golisopod making yet another appearance in the tour this week only, while CS decided to roll w/ webs w/ some uncommon pokemon such as goodra and the ice cream. Early on we saw zong was actually heatproof, it could have been a tech to better handle salazzle or just an error on the builder, anyway CS didnt realize this and missed on a nice kill w/ earth power w/o letting queen take over half. Game came close and ended in a 50/50 w/ goodra and golisopod which nat got right.

Feliburn vs Ajna

Ajna using his sudden HOs and I decided to roll w/ a regular balance w/ croak featuring slowbro. I decided to use some techs that took advantage of ajna's common builds in sub seed shaymin w/ air slash and rindo berry slowbro to catch the scarf roserade he likes to use or a possible SD viriz which gave my team some trouble. I got a burn turn 1 which I guess put me in such a good position, dont know what would have happened had ajna managed to get the endeavor on slowbro, tho I was kinda ready for it w/ regen but idk. Game was p linear, it ended w/ me playing around brave bird and LO recoil on ajna's honch so it could kill itself.

Now for some predictions for this upcoming week. (Imma be a bit biased :x)

SM RU: SilentVerse vs Tricking: Both players have been doing p well so I really dont know who to root for, I talk more to SV so I'd obviously want him to win over tricking but to be 100% honest I think this could go either way.

SM RU: soulgazer vs Ajna: I always root for my guy, tho he's been playing v uninterested as of lately so who knows he could get his ass whooped.

SM RU: Chill Shadow vs lighthouses: my fav match this week, love diogo too much but I can't predict against CS either so here's hoping for a good match.

SM RU: Gingy vs Nat: gingy coming from ORAS / SM OU to RU, hopefully he finds a more comfortable spot in this tier for what's left of the tour, nat's been doing too hot in the past 2 weeks and I don't know how in touch gingy is w/ ru rn so giving it to nat.

SM RU: Feliburn vs Windsong: my team may be out but I'm still playing for my own record, I think windsongs a rlly cool guy so hoping for a fun game.

That's about it, gonna try to keep doing this sort of stuff for what's left of spl cause it's a bit more fun than what I expected it to be so yea, hope u enjoyed my first time sharing some of my thoughts in the games.

 

[col49]

alrighty, op should be up to date, much love to feliburn for discussing in the discussion thread xx to not redundantly break down thoughts on the games, i will circle back to the prediction i made in my last post wherein i mentioned something to the effect of "most players are playing it a bit safe to account for the volatile tier shifts, i would imagine this changes in future weeks". i would say that actually panned out in spades in the last week specifically, where it was a great time to be a spectator to be sure. we saw a net 4 water / bugs, 2 apiece, across the pool, something that to me touches most notably upon the leniency with which they find themselves sneaking in on traditional sr setters among other things (as queen as at the point rarely straying from the ground / ice / non-attacking utility variant), which in the context of the webs setting araquanid i found to play integral role in its ability to serve purpose in the mid-game. a couple cool deviations from milo as well, as we saw a vaporeon paired w/[curse] m-lix from diogo and a slowbro from feliburn, which in a stroke of serendipity i was having some conversations with both diogo and obii, feliburn's manager about prior to their games, though i of course give both the benefit of the doubt that it was merely coincidence. while i would say vaporeon didn't quite hit the match-up it would've loved to experience, this deviation seemed very fluid and reflected a positive shift in building mentality imo. in the more offensive sphere, seeing sun hit its mark in the windsong game was pretty exciting for even in a game against what i might deem the criminally under-appreciated dragalgae, certainly speaks to the potency of that 1-2 punch of ninetales venu even this far past the immediate sm hype of the archetype. of course, after my relentless bullying of silentverse this whole season, his pulling out a very nice and over-performing vivillon was equally cool to see, and just goes to show that bullying works, and should be done whenever possible. dual exploration of webs was to me quite interesting as well, and as one of the humble builders who messed w/it i feel it is exceedingly potent, as the tier's collection of pokemon apt to exploit them is broad to the point that even the more 'off' match-ups can find themselves stifled by their reliance on a speed-crept defensive pokemon or mid-tier scarfer to substantiate an offense game. while the variation we decided upon did not quite hit the mark, i feel the contents of the chillshadow v.nat game reflect how debilitating and restrictive they can be for a conventional balance. do yourselves a favour if you didn't watch the games this week, i feel collectively they were among the most interesting ones played in this tier.

i'll be updating the approximate times games will be played as i can get them, fingers crossed they keep the same quality of play and building we've seen recently. gl to all players, let's have some fun w/it

 

[lighthouses]

The vaporeon team was made during week 5, i was gonna use it versus SV but decided not to so i just spared it for week 6 to save me some time.
Have been really dissapointed in my own play this season, for some reason i feel as if im not able to play my best in this tour but o well, will keep giving it my best.

SM RU: SilentVerse vs Tricking: Giving the edge to SV purely due to metagame knowledge(and also because tricking bought sd ground z drapion which is a sin against humanity)
SM RU: soulgazer vs Ajna: I love Ajna but SG bothers me constantly to test/look at teams and all that, while Ajna just seems a bit unmotivated, hoping for a good game though
SM RU: Chill Shadow vs lighthouses: My timer will go down to 5 seconds and i will not scald the ninetales and then lose
SM RU: Gingy vs Nat:
SM RU: Feliburn vs Windsong: Not predicting windsong to win because as someone who plays feli a thousand times a week i can confirm that his underperforming has been due to nerves, which is something i feel like he can overcome(specially now that his team is out)

Glhf all

 

[MrAldo]

We are really close to 2 pages, omg!

+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon | Use | Usage % | Win % |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1 | Milotic | 27 | 45.00% | 55.56% |
| 2 | Gligar | 23 | 38.33% | 47.83% |
| 3 | Durant | 19 | 31.67% | 52.63% |
| 3 | Gardevoir | 19 | 31.67% | 52.63% |
| 5 | Steelix | 15 | 25.00% | 40.00% |
| 6 | Shaymin | 14 | 23.33% | 64.29% |
| 7 | Flygon | 13 | 21.67% | 38.46% |
| 8 | Roserade | 11 | 18.33% | 72.73% |
| 8 | Virizion | 11 | 18.33% | 54.55% |
| 10 | Bronzong | 10 | 16.67% | 80.00% |
| 10 | Tyrantrum | 10 | 16.67% | 80.00% |
| 12 | Diancie | 9 | 15.00% | 44.44% |
| 12 | Kommo-o | 9 | 15.00% | 33.33% |
| 12 | Mandibuzz | 9 | 15.00% | 33.33% |
| 15 | Blastoise | 8 | 13.33% | 62.50% |
| 15 | Rotom-Mow | 8 | 13.33% | 50.00% |
| 15 | Nidoqueen | 8 | 13.33% | 50.00% |
| 15 | Moltres | 8 | 13.33% | 37.50% |
| 19 | Rotom-Heat | 7 | 11.67% | 71.43% |
| 20 | Sigilyph | 6 | 10.00% | 50.00% |
| 20 | Espeon | 6 | 10.00% | 50.00% |
| 20 | Toxicroak | 6 | 10.00% | 50.00% |
| 23 | Rhyperior | 5 | 8.33% | 80.00% |
| 23 | Snorlax | 5 | 8.33% | 60.00% |
| 23 | Cresselia | 5 | 8.33% | 40.00% |
| 23 | Yanmega | 5 | 8.33% | 40.00% |
| 27 | Slowking | 4 | 6.67% | 75.00% |
| 27 | Drapion | 4 | 6.67% | 75.00% |
| 27 | Salazzle | 4 | 6.67% | 25.00% |
| 27 | Glalie | 4 | 6.67% | 25.00% |

Ok, after 3 more weeks we more usage stats related information and after 6 weeks I believe we have enough info to gather more than just 10 mons and just talk about top dogs and stuff. Here we have the top 30 pokemon in usage during the first.

Must of the rest below these 30 mons have either an abysmal win % (like Feraligatr, Bewear, and Araquanid where they have only been used twice and havent won a game... when SD Gatr beats Milo but I guess people dont know that) or are one hit wonders that expert wielders managed to win a game with (pretty ridiculous to have only a zydog during 30 whole games, and shoutouts to the sawk and mega camerupt user Eternal Spirit, Feliburn with the Slowbro, and SilentVerse for winning with Vivillon) but yeah, in general it shows the general bulky trend of the RU playing this spl. Bulky stuff, balance and bulky offense in general.

Some things that are really interesting besides Milotic being top dog in usage (which isnt really surprising at all tbh, shoutouts to the people that believe Milotic is broken):

1. The general effectiveness of grass types. Roserade and Shaymin still sitting comfortably on top 10 while having fantastic win rates (over 60%) and the other most relevant ones in Virizion and Rotom-Cut are sitting on 50% win rate at the very least so they have good picks for the tournament players in general. Maybe because they make for excellent picks in general for any teams based on their respective niches (shaymin for scarf, rose and virizion for being against balances since most of the roses that have lost were scarf, and rotom-cut for being second best hazard control) so thats dope. And they bop Milotic too and people love that.
2. Salazzle atrocious win rate. The most curious part is that there have been only 4 salazzles through 30 games, and one destroyed somebody (I think it was ChillShadow vs Windsong) but that Salazzle-Totem is a different mon according to stats AND IT HAS 100% WINRATE (must be a sign). Anyways, the deal is that Salazzle is a top threat in the RU metagame but I believe this is a sign that people are heavily preparing for it so people either dont wanna use it or just teams pack enough counterplay to make it somewhat of a liability. Pretty interesting tbf, it is still an outstanding wincon so dont sleep.
3. Bronzong and Tyrantrum feeling really well. 80% win rate on both sides dawg. Since week 4 these have top effective picks for many many teams. Bronzong provided invaluable defensive utility when you wanna use another mega like Blastoise or even Abomasnow, and Scarf Tyrantrum being an amazing scarfer especially with DD Gatr being pretty much non existant in this tournament and Banded pressing its main STAB Move with virtually no punishment. 8 wins out of 10 is really really good and I expect to see more on the next couple of weeks and even playoffs.

Thats the most interesting bits I think. Mega Blastoise good effectiveness is too be expected. Maybe Diancie getting rekt after being slightly gassed during week 3 and 4 is interesting too. Discuss imo.

Week 8 predicts tomorrow since there is still a week 7 RU Game left, like damn.

 

[Nat]

This thread doesn't see a lot of activity so I suppose I'll heed 49's call from some weeks back and make one about my game I played for week 8 earlier today vs SilentVerse.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ru-355188

T1: I knew pretty fast that stoise was going to do really well in this game, and figured it led well vs anything besides cress. Him leading chesnaught scared me a little since wood hammer almost took out stoise, but at the time I had decided it was a worthy trade to ice beam for good damage. Looking back I should have switched out and been more patient since a lot took on chesnaught anyway. Thankfully he switched to lax, though.

T2-T4: I imagine he cursed here because ice beam almost always means aura sphere is excluded on any stoise set. I really didn't have a reason to not aura sphere the next turn when he switched to cress. He went chesnaught afterwards most likely to scout the dark pulse, though there was no way I was going to risk letting it get twaved or toxiced, much less when I had originally thought he was colbur berry due to the lack of lefties.

T5-T10: I figured it was worth going for rocks even if he was taunt, since he had no hazard removal whatsoever on the team. Even though he went drapion, I felt getting spikes up was the most important thing rose could do this game, so I was ok sacking it. I half expected him to be waterium-z vs my gligar (especially since he wasn't band, and my scarf rose outsped him) but thankfully that wasn't the case. He was just adamant scarf I later discovered.

T11-T14: I expected to uturn into stoise but it turns out he was super speedy. I knew checking jellicent with stoise would scare him out since he showed lefties and not colbur, and thankfully spin worked out into a situation where he was scouting. I imagine he went hard back jellicent after moreso as a desperation play to recover hp back since it was dangerously low with 3 layers of hazards up.

T15+: The rest of the game is pretty boring. It became a situation where he was forced to go to his scarf adamant drapion to check ninetales, and then taking 30 from hazards each time. The most notable thing left is probably that I pursuited his cress in order to pop his colbur later on for stoise, though he didn't have one and I imagine this was fairium-z or psychium-z (maybe to force out golisopod trying to leech life, idk). Similar to my last game, tyrantrum cleaned up the rest.

Overall I'm definitely happy with this game, and it's my favorite outside of my first of the season. The matchup was definitely in my favor though, which was kinda a funny inverse from me vs Sv in snake. Looking forward to playing windsong next week n_n

 

[Bouff]

ok im bored so i may as well write up some stuff about my games -

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ru-353543

this game obviously did not pan out the way i wanted it to. looking from matchup, i notice that his medicham switchin is a gardevoir, and that i more or less had direct answers for everything on his team. that being said at preview i assumed grassium rotom-c, scarf gon, and specs garde (which as we will later see is not the case at all), so esca was looking pretty tasty. he didn't have a whole lot for mamphy either but i had to be a bit more careful with my moves on that one seeing as how he had 2 volt immunities, and i'd have to rely on focus hits to knock down his snorlax from that end. plus i have milo / glig, you know, your average boring rarelyused defensive core. all in all i felt like this mu was kind of in my favor

he had to lead gardevoir t1, literally no matter what, because he doesn't know whether im scarf medi or not and him trying to have medi nuke something early on will get him fucked up. so i lead esca, but for some reason i realize i don't have pursuit, which is pretty shitty (considering that more or less 20-30%ish chip on garde allows for bp medi to shit on it). great planning i know. i still have knock though! which is nice because literally nothing on his team wants to take that. he goes into nidoqueen and gets up his rocks, i go to milo because he can't really threaten it with anything. get the scald burn on lax, pretty neat, but nothing of note really gained there barring other than confirmation that he had rest. gligars the switch here because i want my rocks up plain and simple, if he tries to boost i can just haze with milo.

then he goes rotom, and this is where things start to tread down a little. for reference, i had changed u-turn to acro like probably 10 minutes before the game because i was really fucking scared of virizion, and that had punished me here. what also punished me here is that i decided to use this team instead of the one i had been thinking of for the past few hours that made this game a lot easier but whatever right?

anyway i roost here because i figure maybe hes just gonna let off a leaf storm, ill roost off the damage. after this we both just play around a bit and i reveal acro, he goes back into lax and eventually we both just wear down our escas until im forced into my gligar. then he brings in the flygon and now as i learn in the following turns i am fucked. admittedly at this point im thinking "ok, he HAS to be dd" because i mean for what other reason would you possibly ever bring a flygon in on a gligar. so milos the instinct play, he sets up his dd. im getting scared as fuck here because that z move is coming so i gotta play the sac to bait it and then haze off the flygon. i get it wrong, he subs, which is like ok, if he dd'd again i was probably more fucked anyway but this wasnt good either. now i KNOW this z move is coming when i bring back the milo, but of course im too much of an idiot to go with my gut and i let my milo drop there. afterwards there isnt a lot to say on the game, because maybe the ONLY possible way of me winning here was to healing wish up escavalier with shaymin, but id never find myself at a point where i can do that and have his team at a point where they all just won't beat down on it anyway. don't think i played awfully this game but i just wish i stuck to my gut

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ru-354156

at this point i had quite the mixture of emotions flowin - our team was basically out, i lost my game the other day, and my ego was basically shattered. so im like fuck it, i might as well enjoy myself, so i cop the omfuga team and rock with it, tho i edit it to put megalix on and make machamp the guts user > yama like it was before champ had moved up.

immediately i notice here is that his whimsi answer was ninetales, which with rocks up wasn't too hard to chip down. rotom ended up being much more pivotal to this game than i had made out in preview, in fact it doing a whole lot of anything didn't even cross my mind at all. in any case i wanted my rocks up just to make it easier in the early game so i lead lix, while he leads jelli presumably to counteract that.

i go machamp right after this because i figured that pretty much anything he clicked would have put my lix in a terrible position, though i was expecting wisp rather than the taunt, which was a better play on his end because rocks were gonna be troublesome for him. i get a knock crit on his viriz switch, which was shitty because well that was his best rotom answer.

i have my whimsi at full, and it can tank pretty much anything even at +1, but for some reason im like nah i wanna keep this thing at full. so, out of all things, i thROW THE ROTOM at viriz which was a very fucking risky play that somehow worked in my favor, then i vswitch to the whimsi just so i could take probably like 20% less than i would have from cc. stupid i know but it worked out i guess.

honestly i was really fucking scared he'd stay in predicting uturn, but i also couldn't really afford to lose any momentum from staying in on the tales switch, so im like fuggit and uturn to the slowbro on his ninetales. i know it'll tank sbeam from an unboosted fox, so i figure ill put it on a timer and go from there, because no matter what i'd end up saccing something in this sequence. so i do that, and sac the skunker because out of everything i had it was the least important, though it still was nice to have to pressure jelli / sigi and em.

after this im kind of at a standstill, because nothing i have can ohko ninetales barring the lix provided i can keep sturdy up, so i kinda had to go for it there without entirely saccing another mon. i know my plan here is incredibly obvious here, but if i overpredict and he stays in i am FUCKED. so i was perfectly ok with making the safe play, even if it meant i was gonna lose a bit of momentum. rocks was a valid play of course, and maybe i did play it too safe, but i was ok with dragging the game out a bit.

he makes the pivots he needs to to keep his sigi / tales safe which is whatever, not a bad state for me. i keep the momentum train going with whims, and FINALLY get my rocks up on garde. my safest opp i guess, but whatever. he goes sigi, im tryna punish the defog at this point if he decides to go for it, even if i lose my sturdy. i believe i got a relatively good roll with lix, but he burns it which is whatever. my rocks stay up as the snake goes down, which isn't so bad.

idk why i was thinking so long to go to rotom, but i notice my timer is low as fuck so im like w/e im sballing this bitch. i was kinda scared of the rhyp but the spd drop helps me a lot, coupled with the eq which i assume he does to catch the machamp. i was really not comfy with letting rotom get low had he rock blasted, or evne if he got up rocks, but thankfully i came out of this exchange with rotom still at full.

now i kinda fuck up a bit here. i figure that, now that rhyp is dead, more or less i don't really need slowbro for a whole lot, so its good for ninetales fodder. i switch it into that no problem. he goes into garde, my mind blanks cause like uhhhh ok i guess hes gonna moonblast? i dont need this bro anymore so what am i gonna lose from scalding. it hwishes and immediately in my brain i realize i fuck up because that was pretty much the only reason he brought it in in the first place, but somehow i manage to forget that and im like ok w/e imma get more dmg on this garde, rather than slack off which allows me to live a sbeam. this was really fucking bad yeah LOL. at this poitn im like, ok my best option is to just get chip on the ninetales by volting and saccing machamp assuming he stays in - he goes viriz, which allows me to get a free moonblast off no problem. he goes into jelli after saccing viriz, which can only realy threaten whimsi if it gets a burn off on it, since moonblast isn't doing a whole lot to it. fuck it whatever im goin to champ and nabbing one. killing jelli makes it a LOT easier for me to win so i don't have to rely on some bullshit with it vs rotom end game. i knock the sigi as well because i dont really need machamp as if he attacks i just rk it, then chip ninetales with champ and win from there.

yeah this was a lot of writing for no reason but uhhh yeah! i had fun both of these games i think