Smogon Snake Draft Underused Discussion

Hi hi. So with the first official snake draft finished, this thread'll be similar to that of UU discussion threads for SPL in the past - so basically, players, predictions, matches, you get the idea.

Here's the list of dudes who are likely to play UU in the tour
Bushmasters: bugzinator
Rattlers: Manipulative / Bushtush
Nagas: Sacri
Taipans: Tesung / BOUFF
Leviathans: HT
Sidewinders: Pak
Serpents: Lycans
Astrotias: McMeghan / pokeisfun
Pitvipers: teal6 / meepsvictory
Gliders: Pearl / welli0u


I dunno what else to say here honestly, feel free to discuss thoughts on the potential uuers. Let's have a good season! :toast:
 
Phase 1 is here!

here are the matchups -
SM UU: teal6 vs. Sacri'
SM UU: teal6 vs. bugzinator
SM UU: teal6 vs. Pearl
SM UU: Sacri' vs. Lycans
SM UU: Sacri' vs. Manipulative
SM UU: bugzinator vs. McMeghan
SM UU: bugzinator vs. Manipulative
SM UU: Tesung vs. McMeghan
SM UU: Tesung vs. Pak
SM UU: Tesung vs. Manipulative
SM UU: Pearl vs. HT
SM UU: Pearl vs. Lycans
SM UU: McMeghan vs. Pak
SM UU: HT vs. Lycans
SM UU: HT vs. Pak


hls for me are sacri vs lycans, pearl vs lycans, tesung vs mcm, and mcm vs pak. meta is really volatile rn so itll be interesting to see how things go. have a good phase 1 :D
 
SM UU: teal6 (55-45) Sacri' - with good prep I think teal6 will have MU advantage and win in a close game
SM UU: teal6 (49-51) bugzinator - bugzi is the teal6 slayer so i gotta respect that
SM UU: teal6 (45-55) Pearl - Pearl seems to still be in top form with the shifts after preforming well in majors
SM UU: Sacri' (52-48) Lycans - this should be a close game, but giving it to sacri
SM UU: bugzinator (40-60) McMeghan - roro is the better player and has been playing SM UU more
SM UU: Tesung (45-55) McMeghan - both great players but roro is more experienced with the tier
SM UU: Tesung (55-45) Pak - im excited for this MU, overall great player vs "new" uu player
SM UU: Pearl (52-48) HT - both great UU players, could go either way but Pearl is better
SM UU: Pearl (49-51) Lycans - this is mostly a gut feeling tbh
SM UU: McMeghan (55-45) Pak - same feeling as the match vs tesung, excited for this one
SM UU: HT (49-51) Lycans - this could go either way, close game
SM UU: HT (50-50) Pak - this MU might set the tone for the rest of the season for both of these players

DESTROY EVERYONE MANIP

btw ict needs to sub himself in to fite manip in phase 3
 
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Yoshi

IT'S FINK DUMBASS
I'd also like to give my input on some of these match ups, and they're great ones, I must admit. All of these players have great knowledge and have shown performance in this tier, so It's going to be fun watching these replays!

SM UU: teal6 vs. Sacri' - While Sacri has shown to be a solid player, I believe teal6 has the edge over him in this match up, thanks to being more experienced (I believe) and has shown to prep a lot in the past.

SM UU: teal6 vs. bugzinator - Bugzinator has shown better performance than teal, but I think this game will still be very close. I'm particularly interested in this one.

SM UU: teal6 vs. Pearl - Pearl has been on fire lately, so I think he'll win, still a close game like the others!

SM UU: Sacri' vs. Lycans - Sacri has a lot more experience in UU than Lycans, so I believe he has the edge. If Lycans somehow does play UU a lot, I know he hasn't played UU recently, which Sacri has, and is doing very well int the UU open.

SM UU: Sacri' vs. Manipulative - Same thing as above even though I know Manipulative has a good amount of experience on his belt.

SM UU: bugzinator vs. McMeghan - Roro has been dabbling in the lower tiers recently, and I believe he will do quite well, as he's really flourished in everything he has tried. I'm not too sure on bugzinator though, but this game will be close.

SM UU: bugzinator vs. Manipulative - This game could go either way, so I really have no comment.

SM UU: Tesung vs. McMeghan - Deciding this was a very hard one for me, as I am aware that both players have quite the plethora of experience. Both have been playing for a similar amount of time, but I believe roro has more experience with UU, so I'm giving the edge to him. This should be a very fun match to spectate though, and probably my favorite match up of this phase.

SM UU: Tesung vs. Pak - Compared to Tesung, Pak is actually a fairly new UU player, although he has shown great results. However, Tesung is the better overall player so I believe he will win this match up.

SM UU: Tesung vs. Manipulative - Manipulative has more experience than Tesung in UU, so I believe he will win this match up.

SM UU: Pearl vs. HT - I know both are very solid players but I haven't seen much from HT so I'm going to go ahead and say Pearl is better.

SM UU: Pearl vs. Lycans - This is another exciting match up, I say Pearl mainly because I think Pearl has more experience with SM UU, and has been playing it a lot more recently than Lycans has. However, it could go either way.

SM UU: McMeghan vs. Pak - Same reasoning as Tesung vs Pak, with the addition that roro has way more UU experience.

SM UU: HT vs. Lycans - Same thing as before, I've seen more from Lycans than HT, so I'm giving the edge to Lycans for now.

SM UU: HT vs. Pak - If you couldn't tell, a lot of these whomever vs Pak comes down to the fact that the "whomever" has more experience than Pak, and this is no different. Pak is a lot newer than HT, so really, HT has the edge.

Like I said, I'm really excited to see these games, and also I hope pif plays in the future lol.
 
first match of uu occured earlier today http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-313820

some cool stuff from both sides imo, dual water dark has been pretty potent albeit underexplored, and while manip's team was relatively standard it complimented mega alt's strengths well. some interesting techs going more in depth, twave azelf and z-eq latias in particular.

this was a hard mu for sacri tho. he had adequate ways of dealing with mega altaria in zor and keys, but coupled with rocky helmet cobal and tentacruel it was pretty obnoxious trying to break manips team. the play rough miss didn't help a lot either since a weakened alt made crawdaunt a lot more threatening in the long run... with that being said i think sacri played that game well despite the disadvantages he had, manip just didn't really have to go out of his way and could play it safe for the most part.
 

Sacri'

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A few mores games have happened and I felt like talking about them

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-314913

Interesting one between Pearl and HT, I feel like the match up wasn't too one sided. Hydreigon and Gardevoir had the potential to be huge threats to Pearls team wheras HT was annoyed by the combination of Weavile and Scizor + Rotom volt turn core. The game itself was decided by a few key turns: Gardevoir dying to Weavile when HT was most likely expecting a Pursuit to come out and the removal of Bronzong by Banded Scizor. From there on Pearl's bolt beam Mega Latias was able to clean up HT's team without much problems. Pearl focused on keeping the momentum on his side early on, realizing that he could not let Hydreigon or Gardevoir get any initiative which allowed him to win his first game in a convincing showing.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-314766

This game that I've played with teal was a little bit trickier. The match up was pretty rough for me, Mantine was a huge annoyance to my wole team as it pretty much walled both Mamoswine and Volcanion which are my main breakers. I also was quite threatened by Raikou which was able to set up on quite a few of my mons. The game started off very well for me, teal stayed in t1 with his gardevoir vs my scizor, most likely trying to remove it with hp fire as he was expecting me to U-turn or Pursuit. I wasn't willing to take such a risk t1 though so I just decided to click bp which allowed me to kill Gardevoir as soon as the game begun. From there on I tried to pressure teals team with the combination of rocks and Sylveon as he didnt have a fairy resist. The turning point of the game was on t13, he allowed to Tbolt his mantine with latias so that he could get a toxic off. After that Mega Latias was able to T-wave his rock polish Cobalion which was also quite a threat. 2 Thunderbolts + banded bp could kill Cobalion assuming that I got decent rolls but I ended up getting a crit instead. From there on my Happy Jour Jirachi was pretty much set to sweep thus allowing me to win my first game of the tournament.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-315129

This game also had a crucial first turn. Manipulative let his Scizor take a flamethrower from bugzinators Hydreigon, most likely expecting bugzinator to try to keep momentum early on with U-turn. From there on the game was quite straight forward, bugzinator got rocks up, a spikes and a toxic off Manipulative's Hippodown. It turned out Manipulative Latias didnt have defog which allowed bugzinator's scarf infernape to put in a lot of work. Cobalion, which was Manipulative's only potential win condition, wasn't able to do much as chesnaught had both Roar and Drain punch to prevent it from setting up. There seemed to be quite a few doubts regarding bugzinators potential in this tournaments but his overall expererience as a player is still there and I have no doubt he'll be able to put up a fight against all of his remaining opponents.
 
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sorry for the lack of updates, replays being ded and school has kept me from doing anything in this thread -

results from phase 1:
SM UU: teal6 vs. Sacri'
SM UU: teal6 vs. bugzinator
SM UU: teal6 vs. Pearl
SM UU: Sacri' vs. Lycans
SM UU: Sacri' vs. Manipulative
SM UU: bugzinator vs. McMeghan
SM UU: bugzinator vs. Manipulative
SM UU: Tesung vs. McMeghan
SM UU: Tesung vs. Pak
SM UU: Tesung vs. Manipulative
SM UU: Pearl vs. HT
SM UU: Pearl vs. Lycans
SM UU: McMeghan vs. Pak
SM UU: HT vs. Lycans
SM UU: HT vs. Pak

unfortunately as mentioned before a lot of the replays got wiped or something so there are only a few replays post that that are still available :[ shoutouts roro for playing all 3 on deadline day



if anyone has replay dls i missed hmu and ill be eternally grateful


i guess in terms of record nothing is too off kilter here, most of the players higher in the rankings went 2-1 save for mcm who was the only 3-0 and tesung going 0-3 (although rng didnt go his way exactly but u can hear me rant about that on discord or something).

in terms of the meta, i think that the low usage of garde is kinda surprising given how unless u have a fat steel it runs up a check every time it comes in. on that line klefki was seen a lot which is to be expected....blanket checks garde and darks in one slot, and spikes are stupidly good what with how awkward it is to fit hazard control on teams. mega manec got its fair share of recognition too which was cool. lot of steel stackin teams too....without jirachi teambuilding will be at least a little bit easier for the next phase.

phase 2 mus will be up very very soon so stay tuned for that!
 
ok phase 2 is up

teal6 vs. HANTSUKI
teal6 vs. Lycans
teal6 vs. Pak
Sacri' vs. bugzinator
Sacri' vs. Tesung
Sacri' vs. McMeghan
bugzinator vs. Tesung
bugzinator vs. Pak
Tesung vs. Pearl
Pearl vs. McMeghan
McMeghan vs. HANTSUKI
HANTSUKI vs. Manipulative
Lycans vs. Pak
Lycans vs. Manipulative

mcm vs pearl and teal6 vs lycans look spicy as fuck. hf everyone and go tesung
 

McMeghan

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I've been closely following all the Lower Tiers Snake discussion threads, as I really like seeing what bystanders and players thought of what they've seen in the tournament. I'd like to add some of my thoughts after participating in the first phase myself.

Sadly, a bunch of replays don't work anymore, and I don't remember most of those games, so I'll only talk about battles with functional replays.


This was an interesting game with teams built under the same idea: get the hazards up with a fat defensive core, spinblock with a ghost type, abuse and revenge kill with a fast & flexible attacker (both the Mega of choice here). Both players also had a Snorlax to round up their team. Klefki is a very popular pick as a Spiker right now, which is no surprise considering its great defensive typing and the emergency Thunder Wave/Toxic it can provide to your team. Pearl managed to get a solid advantage thanks to the core of Hippowdon and Jellicent blocking a lot of teal's options to progress his gamestate. When Snorlax came on the field, all the hazards put its checks in kill-range allowing Pearl to take this game.

I'd say I prefered Pearl's approach to the "hazard stack balance" because of the flexibility of his defensive core to heal. Hippo and Jellicent have direct recovery moves while Tentacruel probably had Z-Haze. On the other hand, teal's Poliwrath has to use Rest to get back on track and everything else suffers from passive damages on the long run (outside of Gliscor).

HT vs Lycans


I'll say it straight up: I'm a fan of Lycans's team. Volt-Turn has been a popular archetype in UU, with Scizor as a centerpiece, and I'm a fan of the partners Lycans gave it. Very reminescent of the teams I was given to introduce me in the tier but also of the Volt-Turn teams that shaped BW1, a metagame I fancy a lot. SpDef Gliscor is an excellent mixed pivot to switch into a variety of attack while passively healing and keeping the momentum thanks to its own U-Turn. Flame Orb Heracross is also a great addition due to its ability to break through pretty much anything, and Volturn allows for safe entries on the field (and Flame Orb activation). That's exactly what happened in that game as Heracross broke through Mantine. Afterwards, Starmie had a field day.

We can see in this game a great perk of Volt-Turn teams: their ability to run fragile wallbreakers due to their easiness to get them on the field for free.

HT vs Pak


The first thing that jumps at the eyes is the similarity between the teams. We have a Volt-Turn ditto with the same choice of Pokemons in Weavile, Empoleon and Gliscor. I gotta say that Empoleon was a pretty popular pick in my opinion. It has an amazing typing in the tier fending off some of the strongest Pokemons around. On top of that, it was a solid stop to one of the most fearsome sweeper in zHH Jirachi.

Anyway, regarding the game, HT was off a very good start after picking the better lead which gave him momentum from the get-go, which is pretty important in this kind of match-up. He also got the first burn in the Empoleon face-off, further consolidating his advantage. On turn 27, HT was in a position to pretty much end the game when Pak gave him the opportunity to Swords Dance in a very precarious situation. Sadly, HT misscalced and decided to switch out when Bullet Punch was gonna kill Manectric. In a close finish probably decided by a Weavile speed-tie, Pak managed to comeback after a clutch Healing Wish and win the game.

This game also showcased Latias' overall utility in the tier. Not only is it a strong offensive presence with its Spec, LO or Z sets, but its versatility allows it to bring more to the table when needed. The Mega bulk allowed HT to tank a +3 Bullet Punch to RK the Scizor while Pak's Scarf Latias crippled the annoying Empoleon early game and healed Scizor's burn to come back in the game. You rarely go wrong when you add Latias to your team, as it has a plethora of option to direct you to the victory.​

If anyone's interested, we could probably ask the players for their R1 teams in the objective of collecting Usage Statistics.

Regarding the second phase, I'm probably looking forward Tesung Pearl and Tesung Sacri the most, but the whole field is interesting anyway.
 
Phase 1 featured a lot of good games with nothing too shocking occurring in terms of predictions. In terms of team choice, I thought there was some good variety considering the limitations the tier had due to Jirachi and others. Specifically, I was really impressed with roro's preparation. I'm glad to see stall actually working in the the meta and the use of Inner Focus Umbreon was really creative as well. To top it off he brought offense vs Tesung, letting his opponents know he is not relying only on bulkier builds. Sacri's building choice was cool to see even though I was not particularly impressed with the teams themselves. Sacri has been an exclusive user of bulky offense for his entire career, and I give him props for going outside of his comfort zone.

In terms of team options, I am glad to see some Snorlax in the meta, as shown by Pearl and teal. Snorlax fell off the map with the popularity of recycle + berry over the standard rest talk set. Recycle + Berry hype made Snorlax not used as much because the set is easy to deal with using Toxic. This in combination with the start of SM UU being incredibly offensive made Snorlax fall off the radar. Snorlax is really difficult to deal with(especially paired with Scarf Magneton) because ghost types are rarely, if not ever seen and fighting types are often scarf like Infernape. Similarly I'm glad Suicune worked in the meta. ORAS UU's 3 main bulky setup sweepers have vanished(Suicune, Snorlax, Reuniclus) this generation, and I would not allow it. Only yours truly, Christopher the Magnificent, could fathom the idea of using CroCune in this metagame. Crocune, or any Suicune, was the most prepped for pokemon in ORAS, and with little use in SM, most teams find themselves extremely vulnerable to it. Hopefully a Reuniclus is featured in the next couple phases, I apologize in advance if I foiled the surprise if some of you planned on whipping it out soon.

While I'm here, I'll do some predictions

teal6 vs. HANTSUKI - I can't really give HANTSUKI an advantage in these games as he probably doesn't have any experience with the tier
teal6 vs. Lycans - This is a really interesting matchup in general, I am going completely off my gut with this one
teal6 vs. Pak - i think teal6 will prepare better than Pak and have the MU advantage to win
Sacri' vs. bugzinator - knowing what bugzi will use is really tough, I think he will prep well for standard sacri BO and take the W
Sacri' vs. Tesung - sacri is the best when playing non UU mains
Sacri' vs. McMeghan - really cool MU here. gut feeling mostly
bugzinator vs. Tesung
bugzinator vs. Pak - i expect neutral MU with pak taking it
Tesung vs. Pearl
Pearl vs. McMeghan - HL
McMeghan vs. HANTSUKI
Lycans vs. Pak
 
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Eyan

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I'll be doing the usage stats for UU this tour, so here are they are for Phase 1:

SM UU

Code:
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Latias             |   18 |  60.00% |  50.00% |
| 2    | Jirachi            |    9 |  30.00% |  55.56% |
| 2    | Scizor             |    9 |  30.00% |  55.56% |
| 2    | Tentacruel         |    9 |  30.00% |  55.56% |
| 2    | Cobalion           |    9 |  30.00% |  44.44% |
| 2    | Klefki             |    9 |  30.00% |  44.44% |
| 7    | Rotom-Wash         |    8 |  26.67% |  62.50% |
| 7    | Krookodile         |    8 |  26.67% |  50.00% |
| 7    | Weavile            |    8 |  26.67% |  50.00% |
| 10   | Gliscor            |    7 |  23.33% |  42.86% |
| 11   | Hydreigon          |    6 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 11   | Hippowdon          |    6 |  20.00% |  16.67% |
| 13   | Manectric          |    5 |  16.67% |  40.00% |
| 14   | Infernape          |    4 |  13.33% |  75.00% |
| 14   | Aerodactyl         |    4 |  13.33% |  75.00% |
| 14   | Sylveon            |    4 |  13.33% |  50.00% |
| 17   | Nidoking           |    3 |  10.00% |  66.67% |
| 17   | Snorlax            |    3 |  10.00% |  33.33% |
| 17   | Beedrill           |    3 |  10.00% |  33.33% |
| 17   | Empoleon           |    3 |  10.00% |  33.33% |
| 21   | Mamoswine          |    2 |   6.67% | 100.00% |
| 21   | Steelix            |    2 |   6.67% | 100.00% |
| 21   | Volcanion          |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 21   | Cofagrigus         |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 21   | Azelf              |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 21   | Sharpedo           |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 21   | Amoonguss          |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 21   | Doublade           |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 21   | Mantine            |    2 |   6.67% |   0.00% |
| 21   | Gardevoir          |    2 |   6.67% |   0.00% |
| 21   | Moltres            |    2 |   6.67% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Pidgeot            |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Jellicent          |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Nihilego           |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Altaria            |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Blissey            |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Quagsire           |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Alomomola          |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Reuniclus          |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Chesnaught         |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Suicune            |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Umbreon            |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Starmie            |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Heracross          |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Raikou             |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Bewear             |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Poliwrath          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Crawdaunt          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Zygarde-10%        |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Kommo-o            |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Tsareena           |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Bronzong           |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Aggron             |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Magneton           |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
* 8 of the Latias used were Mega Latias
Huge thanks to all the players for letting me know the teams you guys used while replays were down so I could recreate them for the sake of these stats. If anything is wrong, let me know.
 
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Eyan

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Phase 2 is over; here are the results for the UU games:

teal6 vs. HANTSUKI
teal6 vs. Lycans
teal6
vs. Pak
Sacri' vs. bugzinator
Sacri'
vs. Tesung
Sacri' vs. McMeghan
bugzinator vs. Tesung
bugzinator
vs. Pak
Tesung vs. Pearl
Pearl vs. McMeghan
McMeghan vs. HANTSUKI
HANTSUKI
vs. Manipulative
Lycans vs. Pak
Lycans vs. Manipulative

Lycans: 4-2
McMeghan: 4-2
Sacri': 4-2
bugzinator: 3-3
Manipulative: 3-3
Pearl: 3-3
teal6: 3-3
HANTSUKI: 2-1
Pak: 2-4
Tesung: 2-4
HT: 0-3


Here are the phase 2 and cumulative usage stats:
Phase 2

Code:
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Latias             |   16 |  53.33% |  50.00% |
| 2    | Gliscor            |   11 |  36.67% |  63.64% |
| 2    | Scizor             |   11 |  36.67% |  63.64% |
| 4    | Weavile            |    9 |  30.00% |  55.56% |
| 4    | Infernape          |    9 |  30.00% |  55.56% |
| 6    | Doublade           |    8 |  26.67% |  50.00% |
| 7    | Gardevoir          |    7 |  23.33% |  71.43% |
| 7    | Klefki             |    7 |  23.33% |  42.86% |
| 9    | Swampert           |    5 |  16.67% |  60.00% |
| 9    | Rotom-Wash         |    5 |  16.67% |  60.00% |
| 9    | Hydreigon          |    5 |  16.67% |  60.00% |
| 9    | Nihilego           |    5 |  16.67% |  60.00% |
| 9    | Mandibuzz          |    5 |  16.67% |  40.00% |
| 9    | Tentacruel         |    5 |  16.67% |  20.00% |
| 15   | Blissey            |    4 |  13.33% |  75.00% |
| 15   | Cobalion           |    4 |  13.33% |  50.00% |
| 15   | Aerodactyl         |    4 |  13.33% |  25.00% |
| 15   | Krookodile         |    4 |  13.33% |   0.00% |
| 19   | Muk-Alola          |    3 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 19   | Empoleon           |    3 |  10.00% |  66.67% |
| 19   | Quagsire           |    3 |  10.00% |  66.67% |
| 19   | Alomomola          |    3 |  10.00% |  66.67% |
| 19   | Sylveon            |    3 |  10.00% |  33.33% |
| 24   | Manectric          |    2 |   6.67% | 100.00% |
| 24   | Blastoise          |    2 |   6.67% | 100.00% |
| 24   | Sharpedo           |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 24   | Altaria            |    2 |   6.67% |   0.00% |
| 24   | Aurorus            |    2 |   6.67% |   0.00% |
| 24   | Sandslash-Alola    |    2 |   6.67% |   0.00% |
| 24   | Salazzle           |    2 |   6.67% |   0.00% |
| 24   | Mantine            |    2 |   6.67% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Primarina          |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Zygarde-10%        |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Amoonguss          |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Raikou             |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Feraligatr         |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Seismitoad         |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Camerupt           |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Nidoking           |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Mamoswine          |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Crobat             |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Kyurem             |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Togekiss           |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Heracross          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Suicune            |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Steelix            |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Volcanion          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Reuniclus          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Bronzong           |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Bewear             |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Lickilicky         |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Aggron             |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Celebi             |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Gastrodon          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Azelf              |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Crawdaunt          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
Cumulative

Code:
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Latias             |   34 |  56.67% |  50.00% |
| 2    | Scizor             |   20 |  33.33% |  60.00% |
| 3    | Gliscor            |   18 |  30.00% |  55.56% |
| 4    | Weavile            |   17 |  28.33% |  52.94% |
| 5    | Klefki             |   16 |  26.67% |  43.75% |
| 6    | Tentacruel         |   14 |  23.33% |  42.86% |
| 7    | Infernape          |   13 |  21.67% |  61.54% |
| 7    | Rotom-Wash         |   13 |  21.67% |  61.54% |
| 7    | Cobalion           |   13 |  21.67% |  46.15% |
| 10   | Krookodile         |   12 |  20.00% |  33.33% |
| 11   | Hydreigon          |   11 |  18.33% |  54.55% |
| 12   | Doublade           |   10 |  16.67% |  50.00% |
| 13   | Jirachi            |    9 |  15.00% |  55.56% |
| 13   | Gardevoir          |    9 |  15.00% |  55.56% |
| 15   | Aerodactyl         |    8 |  13.33% |  50.00% |
| 16   | Manectric          |    7 |  11.67% |  57.14% |
| 16   | Sylveon            |    7 |  11.67% |  42.86% |
| 18   | Nihilego           |    6 |  10.00% |  66.67% |
| 18   | Empoleon           |    6 |  10.00% |  50.00% |
| 18   | Hippowdon          |    6 |  10.00% |  16.67% |
| 21   | Blissey            |    5 |   8.33% |  80.00% |
| 21   | Swampert           |    5 |   8.33% |  60.00% |
| 21   | Mandibuzz          |    5 |   8.33% |  40.00% |
| 24   | Quagsire           |    4 |   6.67% |  75.00% |
| 24   | Alomomola          |    4 |   6.67% |  75.00% |
| 24   | Nidoking           |    4 |   6.67% |  75.00% |
| 24   | Sharpedo           |    4 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 24   | Mantine            |    4 |   6.67% |   0.00% |
| 29   | Mamoswine          |    3 |   5.00% | 100.00% |
| 29   | Muk-Alola          |    3 |   5.00% | 100.00% |
| 29   | Amoonguss          |    3 |   5.00% |  66.67% |
| 29   | Steelix            |    3 |   5.00% |  66.67% |
| 29   | Volcanion          |    3 |   5.00% |  33.33% |
| 29   | Snorlax            |    3 |   5.00% |  33.33% |
| 29   | Beedrill           |    3 |   5.00% |  33.33% |
| 29   | Azelf              |    3 |   5.00% |  33.33% |
| 29   | Altaria            |    3 |   5.00% |  33.33% |
| 38   | Blastoise          |    2 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 38   | Raikou             |    2 |   3.33% |  50.00% |
| 38   | Cofagrigus         |    2 |   3.33% |  50.00% |
| 38   | Zygarde-10%        |    2 |   3.33% |  50.00% |
| 38   | Reuniclus          |    2 |   3.33% |  50.00% |
| 38   | Suicune            |    2 |   3.33% |  50.00% |
| 38   | Heracross          |    2 |   3.33% |  50.00% |
| 38   | Bewear             |    2 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 38   | Crawdaunt          |    2 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 38   | Moltres            |    2 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 38   | Bronzong           |    2 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 38   | Aggron             |    2 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 38   | Aurorus            |    2 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 38   | Sandslash-Alola    |    2 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 38   | Salazzle           |    2 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 53   | Pidgeot            |    1 |   1.67% | 100.00% |
| 53   | Jellicent          |    1 |   1.67% | 100.00% |
| 53   | Chesnaught         |    1 |   1.67% | 100.00% |
| 53   | Umbreon            |    1 |   1.67% | 100.00% |
| 53   | Starmie            |    1 |   1.67% | 100.00% |
| 53   | Primarina          |    1 |   1.67% | 100.00% |
| 53   | Feraligatr         |    1 |   1.67% | 100.00% |
| 53   | Seismitoad         |    1 |   1.67% | 100.00% |
| 53   | Camerupt           |    1 |   1.67% | 100.00% |
| 53   | Crobat             |    1 |   1.67% | 100.00% |
| 53   | Poliwrath          |    1 |   1.67% |   0.00% |
| 53   | Kommo-o            |    1 |   1.67% |   0.00% |
| 53   | Tsareena           |    1 |   1.67% |   0.00% |
| 53   | Magneton           |    1 |   1.67% |   0.00% |
| 53   | Kyurem             |    1 |   1.67% |   0.00% |
| 53   | Togekiss           |    1 |   1.67% |   0.00% |
| 53   | Lickilicky         |    1 |   1.67% |   0.00% |
| 53   | Celebi             |    1 |   1.67% |   0.00% |
| 53   | Gastrodon          |    1 |   1.67% |   0.00% |
Phase 3 matchups:

teal6 vs. Tesung
teal6 vs. McMeghan
teal6 vs. Manipulative
Sacri' vs. Pearl
Sacri' vs. HANTSUKI
Sacri' vs. Pak
bugzinator vs. Pearl
bugzinator vs. HANTUSKI
bugzinator vs. Lycans
Tesung vs. HANTSUKI
Tesung vs. Lycans
Pearl vs. Pak
McMeghan vs. Lycans
McMeghan vs. Manipulative
Pak vs. Manipulative

feel free to leave your thoughts on the previous phase as well as your predictions for the current one! I might do the same if I find more time.
 

McMeghan

Dreamcatcher
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis an Administrator Alumnusis a Dedicated Tournament Host Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis the 5th Smogon Classic Winneris the Smogon Tour Season 14 Championis a defending SPL Championis a Past SPL Champion
Big Chungus Winner
Man these threads are some of my favorite reads but they have been dead AF, UU being no exception... I've been wanting to post about week 2 but I kept pushing this back. Finally taking the time to share various things about the Phase 2 games, and I guess I'll talk about the one that have been happening in week 3.

Firstly, before actually talking about the games, some things I wanna say about the Usage Statistics (thanks Eyan for compiling them by the way).
  • Latias is first by a large margin. It is without a doubt the best Pokemon in the tier in my opinion. Mega-Latias is seeing more and more usage, rightfully so as it's very good. Between the resistances it brings to the team, the speed and the unique movepool, there is almost always a Latias set that will fit your needs.
  • Klefki is pretty high overall, compared to its ladder usage. Once again, very logical imo, priority status + spikes almost always pull their weight and you have a godlike typing to pivot into various stuff early game.
  • Doublade is 12th in usage compared to its 64th spot in the September stats. It's been seen on various archetypes in the tournament, maybe a sign of a future rise in usage if solid teams featuring Doublade get popularized.
  • Blissey has 4 wins out of 5 usage. While the sample is way too small to draw definitive conclusions, it does show that fat archetypes are not only viable, but successfull in the current sea of VoltTurns (or underprepared for?).
  • Alolan-Muk has 3 wins out of 3 usage. I think Muk is a much more solid Pursuiter than the other two popular Scizor & Weavile. Scizor can be prepared for with HP Fire while Weavile has to play mindgames and risk getting killed by misspredicting. Of course, the Pokemon is worse as a whole, but it accomplishes a game-winning task more solidly, which is worth considering when building, whether as an user or an opponent. More on this later when I'll talk about my games.
I'll move to the games now, starting by my own. I feel like explaining some of my choices regarding the teams I used.

vs HANTSUKI

Something I've been doing so far in Snake is revamping XY/ORAS OU teams, as the metagames share similarities in term of power levels, Pokemon used and dynamics. Ben gay topped the XY ladder with a team that went like this: Lickilicky/Doublade/Celebi/MAggron/Zapdos/Gyarados. I took it and adapted to SM UU by changing some movesets and putting Mandibuzz over Zapdos, and Mantine over Gyarados.

Mandibuzz & Mantine felt like a strong Defog core as they can perform against most of the SR and Spikes setters of the tier, allowing me to play without hazards pressure, which is always important for defensive teams. Lickilicky might not have been worth keeping but the team was actually pretty weak to Taunt Gliscor, and I decided to keep Licki for this reason instead of replacing it with something like Blissey. Deciding on Aggron moves was tough. I wanted Avalanche for Gliscor, Fire Punch for Scizor and Earthquake for Tentacruel. I would have appreciated EQ in this game to prevent Camerupt from freely switching on me and forcing me to play without Rocks. I think I should have relied on Mantine + Mandibuzz for Scizor and kept Earthquake (which would have been useful had I run into Tentacruel too).

The main reason I lost this game, which is also the biggest regret I have over my preparation was relying on Celebi to check Rotom-W. I knew beforehand Celebi was the only Pokemon standing in Rotom-W's way to beat me. Thanks to my experience of Black/White OU, I know that's just asking to lose to the combination of Rotom-W + Pursuiter. As a result, I put Protect on Celebi to make sure I could escape the Pursuit 50/50 from the popular CB Weavile and CB Scizor. The problem is that I focused so much on those two that I completely overlooked Muk. Muk ended trapping Celebi very easily, and from that point Rotom-W just ran circles around me and between him and Gliscor, I don't think I had a way of winning this game.

When I built this team, I considered using Amoonguss over Celebi to avoid ending in this kind of situation. I would have had to shift Heal Bell on Lickilicky and that would have been a much better approach that what I ended up going with.

Moral of the day: don't forget other Pursuiters than Weavile and Scizor exist.

vs Sacri

I straight up jacked the teams from HT vs Manipulative here, because it felt very solid and I wanted to use Empoleon Bulky Offense. Sacri' went for a similar approach.

It was pretty close and Sacri' played well. Lookin' back, the game has been decided on a lot of micro-plays/small decisions I feel. For example the Pursuit/Knock Off with Weavile vs Raikou, who to Healing Wish, etc. On turn 21, I hard switched a dangerous Weavile on his Raikou's Thunderbolt because I was very scared of a CM Z-Shadow Ball set and it ended up costing me.

I liked his Protect/Toxic Empoleon. Definitely worth running if you can afford Defog/SR somewhere else. Empoleon has a very good typing in the metagame imo, and it's one of the best MGard check atm.

Healing Wish Mega-Latias gave me a shot at coming back in the game. Latias showing once again its versatility and swissknife-ness to give you the most chances at winning.

At the end, it was shown our Gliscor actually tied. Very unfortunate for me since I had Taunt and could have PP Stalled his Gliscor had I run just 4 more EVs. Talking about Gliscor, I've seen TDK say recently that it was the Landorus-T of UU. I can definitely agree with that. Gliscor feels like a good fit of any team thanks to its myriad of sets and the ability to check all kind of threats depending on your spread and moveset, while acting as a win condition when you run Taunt or Swords Dance.

vs Pearl

I used a team from Mael this round. It featured two things I wanted to use: Bulky Infernape and DD Block Feraligatr. I honestly just wanted the Fera to work and that's why I went with it. Bulky Infernape is a set I liked a lot in ORAS because it was one of the only Pokemon who could effectively switch on Weavile while laying down Rocks. Thanks to Slack Off, you can check the currently suspected Pokemon for a long time.

Had I made Feraligatr more bulky, I could have set up on Sandslash and win there, but the EQ damages caught me off guard. Infernape on the other hand did a ton of work. Broke Aurorus' sash, surprised Pearl by switching moves (it did look Scarfed here) and U-Turned on Latias for a trap and even countered a boosted Doublade later.

Outside of that, I don't think the game was super interesting because Pearl's team struggled with fat and I had good answers to his set-up sweepers. I do like his Krookodile and feel like it could be a fun wincondition even outside of Veil-oriented teams. I'm not a big fan of those because without Ninetales, you have to "waste" two slots on support mons, which means you pretty much have to win with 4 Pokemons, and it's hard to cover everything, both offensively and defensively with just 4 Pokemons.

I know it's getting long, but bear with me as I want to briefly talk about the other games too.

There were a lot of Volt-Turn cores once again. No surprise there, as UU has very potent Volturners and pairing them with strong breakers that would otherwise have trouble getting on the field is a no-brainer option. It worked particulary well in this game where Lcans abused Spec Primarina vs teal. Gardevoir was often featured on those teams with mixed success.

In his game vs Manipulative, Pearl brought a Seismitoad. Very good metagame call imo, as Seismitoad can completely break Volturns momentum by hard countering Rotom-W and Manectric and threatening these teams with his stabs and the potential of Scald burning. On top of that, you have a Rocker which doesn't invite the incredibly popular Tentacruel for free, allowing you to play with Rocks up vs those teams.

On top of the Lcans-teal game linked earlier, we had Manipulative beating teal in this game with another strong Primarina showing. Primarina feels like a good inclusion in Offense atm for its ability to break Balance and offering a Sharpedo-Mega check, which is a big threat to this archetype. Another reason to use Empoleon more!

Anyway, I've said what I wanted. Please share your thoughts on the UU games, whether you're playing in the tournament or not. I'd appreciate them a lot and I always feel like they're interesting and help us summarize into words the metagame development.
 
alright, ill bite too. combo of lazy + school sucks but no excuses tho. gonna talk about tesung's games and the team choices for them first since hes on my team and u know im about clout by association

bugzinator vs tesung - there was a distinct lack of mega gardevoir in the last phase (2 uses and neither of them won...somehow). obviously jirachi played a big role in this but it's still pretty boggling, so i figured that it'd be worth building with for at least one game. specs hydra was the wave rn too, and bugzi seemed to like those usual balances that rely on klefki to take care of dragons and fairies, so stacking that shit seemed nice. then doublade rounds it out, soft checking fairies, setting up on keys, taking advantage of cobalion (which is really good rn aside from being a bit awkward to fit on teams since being a steel that can't switch into fairies that well is kinda bleh and me personally i hate stacking steels but whatever), got some priority in case stuff like that or dd malt gets out of hand. swamperts isn't too fancy on this team, just a standard rocker that gives a more solid fire resist, at least slightly blocks up the voltturn shenanigans, secondary maero check, that kind of stuff. toxic is used here instead of roar like in past metas because crippling rotom-w, latis, hydra, malt, whatever is really important and phazing isn't that valuable since the most threatening conservative wincons (in other words any variant of latias lol) doesn't give a shit about pert anyway. counter was an option but honestly zor isn't that big of a problem since offensive sets can't really come in on anything for free and bulky sets are set up bait for doublade. nape is the standard scarfer...not much to say there because it's one of the best revenge killers in the tier lol. nihilego "lures" empo with gigavolt, absorbs tspikes, that kinda jazz. it might seem like an awkward meta choice what with steels being so common, but none of them are good switchins in the long run barring maybe fat zor and megalix, the latter of which bugzi happened to bring here -_-.

as for the game, it was honestly just a good mu for tesung. the combination of toxic swampert, taunt mega garde, and specs dra just managed to apply so much pressure to bugzis team that it wasn't that hard of a task for him to just nuke shit. real talk though spd sylveon...that shit is tankier than i thought lmao. 64 from a god damn nihilego is so mind boggling that i had to make sure i wasnt having a stroke. annoyingly enough it was because of that bulk and the combination of it being able to wish / cure status from steelix and mandibuzz that made this game annoying. reuni didn't do too much here but honestly it's a good choice on bugzi's part - spikes are so good rn and having a wincon thats able to set up on keys is a god send. unfortunately it has the problem of fucking scizor existing...not that it was a thing in this game. but after tesung got lix super low with the gk nihi it was just a matter of nape cleaning up shop. really proud of that team honestly, i don't think i've built something i liked that much since xy.

tesung vs pearl - not really anything to say on tesungs team for this one, just the stall mcm brought phase one. its consistent enough tho. i told tesung to stall sacri instead of pearl but it worked out here so its fine i guess.

pearl brought some wonky veil offense, something you don't really see anymore after that wretched fox moved up thank god. pretty mu based tho like other hyper offenses in this breath are, but pearl had some pretty cool sets in power trip krook straight down from eevee pass ubers shit to salazzle, who is also a good option rn because zor / garde / keys are all super good and no one wants to use maero, that thing got 4 uses phase 1 which i'm pretty sure is the lowest its been in any uu tour ever.... tesung happened to bring it this time, but it's the thought that counts tho. not much to say about the game really, pearl played it fine but he didn't really have any good ways of breaking tesung and if he wanted to win he'd probably have to make like 150120 pulls on the trigger.

tesung vs sacri - in terms of building for this one, i felt like sacri was gonna bring some wacky shit to counterstyle my usual stuff, and i hadn't built with crocune in a long ass time so it seemed like a good choice. expected his answers to that to be something like cm latias, and spikes + crocune is always potent, so keys was the first thing that came to mind. rounded the hazard shit up with rocky helmet krook, added fire fang to that bitch because fuck a scizor. you could run taunt too if u want but defog is exclusively ran by empo these days, and theyll usually just scald anyway so *shrug*. heracross beats down every fat wall in the tier to pave the way for a crocune sweep as well. maero is the speed control, pursuit traps, just the usual emergency check to things. latias is the standard z thunder set so that opposing steels get fucked up, empo in particular.

i think this game shows how dominant voltturn is tho. hera managed to break through a lot of sacri's team, but thru a combination of sub toxic tect gliscor and cm dragonium hp fire latias (-_-) and manec pressuring tesung it was kind of obnoxious to find a way to win.

also psa: PLEASE do not make the mistake of iron tail maero like i did. it seems cool in theory because it shits on malt but then you remember that no one runs that and you end up wishing eq or literally anything else was there instead (see: rohan vs l56).

hopin to see more bulky offensive stuff this phase or just lesser used stuff in general. maybe we'll see more of the fairy megas, maybe not. either way shud be fun! :toast:
 
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First I just wanted to say that this was an incredible set of uu games. Despite the tier being quite a mess throughout the regular season, there was quite a variety of styles and team choices, all with varying degrees of success. I really love that we had some fresh and interesting perspectives on the tier with several of the players being new to the current metagame. I'm looking forward to the 3 upcoming playoff game in the new, better version of the tier.

I'll go over two of my favorite games from the most recent phase:

Lycans vs McMeghan - We (Lcans and I) had no idea what to expect from McMeghan so we just decided to use a team I built for myself to use in grand slam, the focal points being Sub Toxic Gliscor and CM Reflect Type Stored Power Mega Latias. McMeghan brought a really cool balance team with Umbreon, something that looked extremely difficult for us to deal with, and his own Mega Latias, which I assume was something like Dragon Pulse + HP Fire + Defog.

I had SD Corkscrew Crash on SR Cobalion to lure opposing Gliscor and let my own Gliscor go to town, but McM revealed some defense investment on his Gliscor by living a +2 hit, setting Lcans back a lot. However Lcans was able to gain some ground by knocking off Umbreon's Leftovers, statusing it, and wasting its Moonlights with Scarf Chandelure. It also helped that Umbreon didn't have Heal Bell (something that I think would have been impossible to break in combination with Gliscor) and was physically defensive to counter Weavile, letting Chandelure really dent it. Lcans played Chandelure extremely aggressively throughout the mid game, something he had to do to keep Umbreon low and force Mega Latias out. Even after running out of Moonlight, McM still could have possibly done something with Gliscor, at least stalling Mantine out of Roosts before being forced back out by Chandelure. However Lcans scored on an early crit to knock Gliscor out, bringing the game to an early end despite some end game desperation/fishing from McM.

Sacri vs HANTSUKI - Hantsuki made a great call by bringing Zygarde against Sacri, but he barely had any opportunity to bring it in during the game (he had CB Scizor to pivot but that also had no safe switchin opportunities). His team also had a hard time taking down opposing Gliscor, something exacerbated by the fact that his weavile lacked Pursuit. Sacri brought a standard looking Volt Turn team but with a twist, using Nasty Plot Z move Infernape on a team where it looked Scarfed and using what I believe was Scarf Rotom instead. Really cool idea especially with Muk to trap some Infernape counters.

Right off the bat Sacri put himself in a great position by removing Gliscor's Toxic Orb, making his Scizor's Bullet Punch extremely threatening against a team where the other main Scizor switchin was heavily pressured by Scizor's teammates. Hantsuki managed to get Weavile in against Gliscor safely twice, but the lack of Pursuit came into play here as he was unable to get anything useful out of those turns. Pursuit would've put Gliscor into 2HKO range of Thousand Arrows, forcing Sacri to sack something else to bring in Gliscor against it, which may not have outright won it for Hantsuki, but would've given him a great shot depending on his Altaria set and Sacri's fourth move on Gliscor (probably Toxic).

Like I said it's been a great tour so far, if not exhausting to make so many teams for in such a short amount of time. UU-wise, I'm extremely happy that I was able to get Lcans, someone who I've teamed with in smaller tours before and someone I know I can count on to win games. I'm also very happy that Sacri was able to prove himself in UU in an official team tournament, tying with Lcans and bugzinator for the best UU record (6-3). Here's to an exciting playoffs.
 

McMeghan

Dreamcatcher
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis an Administrator Alumnusis a Dedicated Tournament Host Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis the 5th Smogon Classic Winneris the Smogon Tour Season 14 Championis a defending SPL Championis a Past SPL Champion
Big Chungus Winner
To be fair, the Toxic miss on Mantine turned out to be pretty game-chaging imo as Mantine was the only real stop to Gliscor in this game, considering the Latias set. Standard Umbreon would have helped me defensively but it would have just created a stallmate between our teams.

I'll probably make another post to go into more details on the Phase 3 games, whether it'll be about mine or other's that have caught my interest.

It was a fun tier to play in; definitely did not regret my choice of signing up there. I'll keep an eye on the tier's development until SPL as I really like the dynamics of it.
 

Sacri'

the end is here
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Both semis games were played today and I felt like commentating on them.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-326707

Interesting team choices from teal and Pearl here, they were both running balanced teams which we havent seen too much of this tour, though this was mostly due to Mega Gardevoir being a massive threat to that archetype. The match up seemed about even I think, Chandelure, Zygarde and Hydreigon all seemed like they had the potential to threaten teals team if used wisely while the combination of Krook, Mega Latias and Sylveon could also be difficult to deal with. The first 20 turns of the game didn't actually put either player in a good position, they were basically trading and removing hazards while also chipping the opponents team. On turn 25 Pearl's Chandelure died to a crit Z Iron head which was quite unfortunate as it could have either revenge killed the cobalion or pressured teal to either predict or outright let something go down so as to trap Chandelure with Krook. From there Pearl tries to pressure the opposing team with an unexpected dragon dance Zygarde but going to Sylveon on the Z Outrage prevented it from putting too much work. The game more or less ends there as teal managed to get a pursuit off Tentacruel which in terms allowed him to win with Cobalion later on. I feel like this game could have ended up being much tighter if Pearl got slightly luckier on some turns, this was well played on both ends regardless of that though.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-326869

Interesting match up here as well, bugzinator brought a very interesting looking stall team featuring Xatu, Scizor, and Altaria while Lcans brought a Muk Alola bulky offense which is always extremely reliable according to me. Lcans starts off by pressuring bugzi's team with his Z Fighting Togekiss which turned out to be quite clutch as it weakened both Blissey and Quagsire significantly. A few turns later, bugzi attempts to heal his Quagsire up but Togekiss turns out to be strong enough to just kill it on the turn it tried to receive the wish. This was quite important for Lcans, quagsire being by far bugzi's most reliable way to beat Scizor. About 30 turns later, bugzi's Scizor drops to an unexpected Hp Fire from Mega Latias. From there all Lcans needs to do is force Alomomola to waste wishes so that his bulky SD Scizor could clean later on. This was a quite convincing showing on Lcans's end as he managed to take the game despite not having any dedicated stallbreaker. In hindsight, it seems obvious that bugzinator should have played differently with his Quagsire but I don't think he realized how big of a threat bulky scizor could end up being. It's hard to blame him considering how threatening Togekiss was early on and I'm obviously not implying this was en easy position to be in.

Feel free to leave your thoughts regarding these games as we are waiting for the finals game to happen!
 

pokemonisfun

Banned deucer.
My game with Sacri' tagging you just in case you have different opinions on the game

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ou-324927



At preview, my team is made by the amazing builder Pearl. Give him some likes in his RMT here - it is basically the same team I used except Scizor was Defog, Gliscor was Toxic over Fire Fang, and Latias was CM HP Fire Psyshock. The difference is not huge, but Pearl's current version is probably better because it deals better with the weaknesses he identifies later in the RMT (Gliscor, Scizor). Not knowing anything about Sacri's sets, I would say it is a fairly even matchup depending on his sets although I have serious issues because for example Latias is my only good Cobalion switchin and he has both Weavile and Gardevoir to punish that. However, crocune is a massive threat, so I think it's fairly even.

Turn 1: I don't make a good prediction, I expected Gliscor or Cobalion so I led with Suicune to throw off a scald, he does the safe and winning (as in he "won" the turn) choice of Rotom Wash.

Turn 5: The first of many missed opportunities I had to Z pummel Rotom to make it much easier for Suicune to sweep, I played a bit too safe with Scizor because I thought I needed it to counter Gardevoir and Weavile, which although true, didn't really come into play.

Turn 7: In my mind, Rotom Wash now is unlikely choiced because he used a WoW

Turn 11: I've been swept too many times by Cobalion to try and play with it and heal with Sylveon. but actually, the much better idea is to just Hyper Voice on the fairly obvious Swords Dance, and then sack Muk if needed. Another poor choice by me.

Turn 13: Maybe I can get a crocune sweep? But after he brings in Gardevoir, I don't want to mess up my chances and figure I can set up later.

Turn 15: I used Scizor on 99% of my nonstall teams so I figured Sacri had HP Fire, I wanted to sack Muk to Gardevoir but break its sub. That did not work out and I lose Muk for nothing, at this point, you can consider my position to be worse but not even close to lost yet because I still have Suicune.

Turn 21: After a little tickle with Gardevoir and Scizor, Sacri decides not to rely on Focus Blast to try and get a kill, and just get as much damage as possible with Hyper Voice. Scizor ends up breaking the sub while itself having 60%, which is a pretty positive result for me but I'm still worse

Turn 22: Yet another chance missed to Z pummel his face

Turn 25: After he got some momentum with Volt Switch with the OBVIOUSLY BROKEN WEAVILE (I regret my vote but it doesnt matter now), I get what I can only describe as extremely lucky miss. By turn 25, i would venture as far to say I am even close to winning (as in the game is won, not just better) after Weavile dies and I make a good prediction by not fearing Pursuit the second time. The reason I say that is not only does he still not have a crocune answer (Weavile was never an answer but could at least remove Lefties) but now a lot of pressure is relived on Latias which can beat most of his team if Gardevoir is just a little more weakened and Empoleon removed

Turn 26: really expected him to set up on Scizor, thought I would just get a free kill and seal the game. However, he ends up reading me and trades Scizor for Cobalion, making the game more even but still better for me.

Turn 29: with Rotom Wash toxiced, this is almost completely winning again

Turn 34: I think Sacri starts to play badly here for the few turns previous to this, although Toxicing Latias was probably an annoyingly bad mistake on my part.He is letting Empoleon die for little reason. My idea is to stall him out of torrent range, but the critical hit on me ruins that idea (although I won't deny the CIcilce Crash miss is far more important and was probably the only thing that let me get this far)

Turn 36: Decisive mistake, I let Suicune get tricked because I fogot Cobalion already revelaed the Z move. This was a bad idea because 1) it lost me the game 2)I should have seen his lack of scarfer 3) Even if i didn't think it was scarf, why not just play it safe. I am so sorry Pearl this was supposed to be your win :(

Turn 38: I still try because I think I may be winning still if Sylveon can stall out Gardevoir. But after he reveals sub CM, there is nothing to be done and I just lose.

Turn 42: gg

I have no problem being honest in this game because I know for certain no team ever wants me to play for them ever again considering I contributed nothing. In fact, I think I have the record for least wins despite being on TWO teams which is the opposite of impressive.

Personally I think it was a lot of fun still and if you get anything out of this, be more impressed by both my teams (team McMeghan and Ciele) because they got as far as they did with a basically absent team member (me). Feedback very welcome, as always, I want to improve my skills.
 

Sacri'

the end is here
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnus
My game with Sacri'
Turn 34: I think Sacri starts to play badly here for the few turns previous to this, although Toxicing Latias was probably an annoyingly bad mistake on my part.He is letting Empoleon die for little reason. My idea is to stall him out of torrent range, but the critical hit on me ruins that idea (although I won't deny the CIcilce Crash miss is far more important and was probably the only thing that let me get this far)
You're wrong about this. Letting Empoleon die was the only way to reliably put Gliscor in Gardevoir range, this was my main win condition as both of its checks were already dead. After the game changing Icicle Crash miss, I purposely put you in a position that led you to believe you had a safe win with the thing you wanted to sweep with from the start. In hindsight your best play was to switch out but it made sense you let your gard down as any other rotom set would have failed to do anything. If you don't face a specific set in tests, you tend not to see it coming especially in high pressure situations. This is something that tends to come with experience in tournament games so don't be too harsh on yourself, I hope you won't give up on playing tournaments.

I'm personally satisfied with the results that I put up playing SM UU throughout the year, I still have a lot to learn but this is the very first time I felt so comfortable playing and building in a tier. I hope USUM UU won't be any different for me, looking forward to finding this out in SPL. I think it's somewhat unfortunate that more people didn't take the time to give their thoughts or even to ask questions about these games because I feel like watching and giving my thoughts on highly competitive games had a very important impact on my growth as a player. Hopefully this'll be better with SPL as well.
 

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