Smogon Premier League 6 Finals

By Jellicent, Laurel, KratosMana, and Zebraiken. Art by Zracknel.
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Introduction

The sixth season of the Smogon Premier League has just wrapped up. In the end, it came down to SPL 3 champions the Alpha Ruiners vs Congregation of the Classiest. Congregation ultimately decimated the Ruiners, going 9-3 in the series and claiming the coveted red trophy for all of their team members. Replays and logs can be found below, along with in-depth looks at some of the interesting battles we got to check out this season.

Alpha Ruiners vs Congregation of the Classiest

ORAS UU - reachzero vs Hikari

Hikari's team:
reachzero's team:

Kicking off the SPL finals, Hikari has a slight advantage over reachzero from the team preview depending on reachzero's Nidoqueen set. reachzero desperately needs to set up Toxic Spikes to hold back the impending slaughter from Hikari's sweepers. However, Hikari has the clear advantage if reachzero is not running Toxic Spikes on his Nidoqueen, as reachzero otherwise lacks a reliable way to handle Choice Specs Heliolisk and Krookodile. On the other hand, Hikari easily checks reachzero's only potential sweeper in Salamence with his Whimsicott and Swampert.

reachzero correctly predicts Hikari to lead with Krookodile or Swampert to set up Stealth Rock and leads with his Whimsicott. Hikari reveals that he is not running Choice Specs Heliolisk on turn 4 (via damage rolls), which means it is probably Expert Belt or Choice Scarf, both of which are easier to handle than Specs via Porygon2. Surprisingly to me, Hikari does not value his Krookodile much and lets it faint turn 7 after knocking off Salamence's Life Orb and setting up Stealth Rock. From this point, reach seems to be in a decent position; he can likely Defog Hikari's Stealth Rock with Empoleon, and Hikari lacks a solid way to beat Jellicent outside of a Choice-locked Heliolisk.

reachzero sacrifices his Salamence turn 8 to give him switch momentum into his next Pokémon assuming the Heliolisk is Choice-locked (great play on his part). Turn 9 is a true coin-flip, as Hikari is picking between Encore and U-turn, and reachzero is picking between Ice Beam and switching. Hikari predicts correctly, giving him some serious momentum with his soon-to-be-revealed Mega Swampert. On turn 11, reachzero makes a crucial mistake and switches his Jellicent into Hikari's Mega Swampert rather than his Whimsicott. This point clearly shifts the battle in Hikari's favor, as he lacked a solid answer to reachzero's defensive core, as Jellicent can burn both Mega Swampert and Mienshao with Will-O-Wisp.

On turn 13, we find out that reachzero's Whimsicott is running Giga Drain, further making me question why he did not switch it in initially. On turn 17, Hikari reveals that he is running Life Orb Mienshao and not a Choice Scarf variant, which basically means the battle is over as long as Hikari does not miss a High Jump Kick. Looking at Hikari's team, Poison Jab is a pretty safe assumption, as he wants some sort of Fairy lure for Salamence and Krookodile. From this point forward, Hikari needs to dodge priority Stun Spore from reachzero's Whimsicott and he wins. On turn 25, when Hikari uses Encore, he guarantees his win, assuming he is not haxed by Tri Attack because that means reachzero cannot Thunder Wave his Mienshao on the switch in. Hikari switches Mienshao in, it is not statused, and then he proceeds to hit his High Jump Kick, reveal Poison Jab, and win the battle. Overall, a nice way to start off the SPL finals with an almost completely clean battle. 1-0 Classiest.

ORAS OU - PDC vs CTC

PDC's team:
CTC's team:

From the team preview, the match up is heavily favored by CTC. All he needs to do is U-turn in his Manaphy on Heatran or Gliscor and set up a Tail Glow. However, if PDC is able to control momentum with his Tornadus-T, he might still have a chance; he needs to be incredibly cautious to not let CTC's Manaphy set up, though.

On turn 2, PDC misses a Magma Storm on CTC's Hippowdon, which allows it to set up Stealth Rock. If PDC was Power Herb Solar Beam, which is likely because he does not have Air Balloon, he could have potentially grabbed himself a nice advantage there by removing CTC's rocks for the game. On turn 8, CTC forces PDC to use Roost on his Gliscor by putting damage into it with his Mega Scizor, giving him a free opportunity to switch in his Manaphy. PDC is then forced to go into his Tornadus-T to put in whatever damage he can to CTC's Manaphy. The lord (CTC) Scalds PDC's Tornadus-T on turn 10 instead of Ice Beaming it, which allows PDC to get off a second Hurricane. However, PDC misses his second Hurricane, which pretty much seals his fate at turn 11.

The choice to Scald Tornadus-T instead of Ice Beaming it was actually a legendary play that only a player of his caliber would think of. CTC made the hard read that Tyranitar was PDC's Stealth Rock Pokémon, as his Heatran was a trapper set (it still could have had Stealth Rock but it usually runs Taunt), and his Gliscor had Taunt which likely means he does not have room for Stealth Rock. Since CTC knew that PDC's Tyranitar had Stealth Rock, he knew that PDC was not running a Choice Scarf Pokémon and therefore lacked a revenge killer for Manaphy. CTC knew that even if he was hit by the second Hurricane, PDC would still go to Altaria to try and get the kill, as PDC did not have a better option (outside of maybe Scizor). Inevitably, PDC assumed that CTC was not running Ice Beam, and instead a Rest/Rain Dance mono-attacking set; CTC then pops PDC's Altaria with Ice Beam... really an amazing play. From here on, CTC basically runs away with the game, (AC) as PDC cannot do anything with half his team down against a +3 Manaphy.

Had PDC hit the 2nd Hurricane, it is likely he still would have lost, as without his Tornadus-T, he lacked a way to pressure CTC's team, and he still would have likely lost Altaria to Ice Beam. CTC still would have had most of his team, including a Mega Scizor and an Alakazam that could have easily weakened and taken out the rest of PDC's team. Despite the unfortunate amount of hax, it is unlikely that PDC would have been able to overcome the match up. CTC did play exceptionally in this battle, arguably making the best play every turn of the match. Nothing less should be expected out of an SPL finals match.

ORAS Doubles - finally vs Braverius

finally's team:
Braverius's team:

Looking at the team preview, finally seems to have a heavy advantage. He needs to be careful of Transform Mew, but his spread moves between Rhyperior and Mega Charizard Y should handle Braverius's Follow Me Clefairy. Furthermore, finally has solid checks to all for of Braverius's offensive Pokémon between Aegislash, Azumarill, and a fast Sleep Powder. However, Blaziken looks like a huge threat if it picks up two boosts and finally's Azumarill is KOed and his Cresselia is weakened.

finally goes with his obvious lead of Mega Charizard Y and Venusaur to put up sun and give him his fast Sleep Powder. The Fake Out + Dragon Dance from Braverius's Mew and Gyarados was obvious (as it was easily his best play), and I do not understand finally choosing to switch out, as his leads apply tremendous pressure. I assume that finally predicted Thunder Wave from Gyarados, but from Braverius's various other ways to check rain teams, a Dragon Dance set seemed far more likely. Furthermore, the possibility of it Dragon Dancing seems like an oversight on finally's behalf because it immediately put him in a bad position. On turn 2, Braverius smartly lets his Mew faint to give him switch momentum and apply more pressure to finally, and on turn 3 finally manages to get his Azumarill and Venusaur in safely against Braverius thanks to a Stone Edge miss.

Turn 4 seems like another interesting play by finally; fearing a possible Protect or switch by Venusaur while at risk of being OHKOed by Azumarill's Play Rough, it seems like Braverius's only play is using Protect on Hydreigon. Furthermore, by choosing to not Sleep Powder Gyarados he is ignoring the huge threat it poses to his team. Even if the Gyarados was Lum Berry or Safety Goggles, I think finally should have at least scouted because Gyarados can cause havoc with a few more boosts. On the same turn, finally's Azumarill gets hit by Gyarados's Stone Edge as it goes for Belly Drum, which makes me further question the no Sleep Powder (it does turn out that it is a Safety Goggles Gyarados, but I still disagree on not trying to Sleep Powder it, as there was no way to know). If finally Sleep Powders Gyarados, Braverius's Hydreigon runs nothing to hit Azumarill, so even if he loses Venusaur he would have a +4 75% Azumarill and a Mega Charizard Y on the loose.

Knowing that he would get the free Sleep Powder, finally targets the Hydreigon that just used Protect, and for some reason instead of Protecting or using Aqua Jet with his Azumarill, he just lets it get KOed. Taking nothing away from Braverius's superb play up to this point, finally seems to be letting the nerves of an incredibly high-stakes match get to him, whereas VGC veteran Braverius lives for these moments. On turn 6, finally decides to go into his Aegislash and Cresselia to set up Trick Room. To finally's horror, Braverius reveals that he is running Crunch Mega Kangaskhan turn 8, meaning that finally's Substitute Aegislash is at serious risk (which also means Braverius had a better match up than I originally thought). At this point, Braverius's Gyarados pretty much runs away with the battle, making me question why finally did not ever try to attack it, even with Rock Slide in Trick Room by Rhyperior.

ORAS RU - Meru vs Bad Ass

Bad Ass's team:
Meru's team:

From the team preview, Meru seems to have a pretty good team advantage, with his Dugtrio capable of doing serious damage to Bad Ass's team. Furthermore, Bad Ass's biggest threat to Meru's team, Houndoom, is easily trapped and killed by Meru's Dugtrio if it lacks Sucker Punch. However, Bad Ass still has a Mega Glalie, which poses a big threat to Meru if Bad Ass is able to weaken or kill his Cobalion and Reuniclus.

Starting turn 1, Bad Ass reveals a Power Herb Solar Beam Houndoom which takes out Meru's Rhyperior. On one hand, he presumably removed rocks from being a factor for his Glalie, but on the other hand, he loses his Houndoom to Dugtrio, which is his biggest threat to Meru's team. We find out on the next turn that Bad Ass is not running Sucker Punch (probably has Nasty Plot), and, as assumed, Meru takes out Houndoom with his Dugtrio. On turn 3, Bad Ass makes a questionable play and Tricks Meru's incoming Amoonguss; I think he was going for the Druddigion (which would have helped him a lot), but took Amoonguss's Black Sludge instead. Rotom-M can either Trick back its Choice Scarf or switch here, as it probably does not run a move to hit Amoonguss. Meru makes a great play and goes for the locked-in Spore, predicting Bad Ass's switch.

On turn 4, Meru seems to be in a great position with Bad Ass's Houndoom gone, his Rotom with Black Sludge, and his Cobalion asleep. Unfortunately, Bad Ass's Glalie gets crit by Meru's Amoonguss's Giga Drain on turn 7, but then he nicely predicts Meru's Cobalion on his Glalie and double switches into his own Reuniclus. On turn 10, we find out that Meru is actually running Stealth Rock on his Druddigon and not on his Rhyperior, which makes that first turn all but more advantageous for him. Bad Ass decides to sacrifice his Rhyperior to take out Meru's Amoonguss to then get trapped by Meru's Dugtrio on turn 14. Meru shows he is running Substitute on his Dugtrio as his "filler" move, which forces Rotom-M to spam Leaf Storm, as Bad Ass can't risk Volt Switching. Meru takes advantage of this and goes into his Druddigon safely on a Leaf Storm, but Bad Ass smartly Tricks it his Black Sludge before his Rotom-M dies.

On turn 19, Meru is able to KO Bad Ass's already weakened Glalie with Cobalion, making the crit from earlier a little less of a factor, as Flash Cannon would have killed regardless. From this point, unless Reuniclus is running some weird Calm Mind Recover set with Shadow Ball, Bad Ass cannot possibly win unless Meru chokes. We then find out Reuniclus is actually Trick Room, which turns the battle into a snack wrap, as Bad Ass cannot dodge a Sucker Punch from Dugtrio. If he uses Trick Room to dodge it, he'll then be slower then Dugtrio on the next turn and will get killed by Earthquake instead. A combination of one bad play on his part, a good play by Meru, and a less-than-optimal team match up was Bad Ass's undoing.

ORAS NU - Teddeh vs FLCL

FLCL's team:
Teddeh's team:

Teddeh's build is bulky offense, relying on using Gurdurr, Seismitoad, and Xatu as fat pivots to deal with the myriad of threats to slower teams in NU, and relying on the raw power from his offensive trio to break down his opponents. Interestingly, the makeup of his team doesn't really give FLCL a strong read on what kind of Samurott set he carries—Samurott tend to run either a full special set with a Water-type STAB move, Ice Beam, and Grass Knot, or a bulkier Swords Dance set with Aqua Jet and Megahorn. Both variants are really threatening to FLCL's team, but figuring out which set Teddeh's Samurott is early on is very important, since he doesn't want to lose his checks to the wrong set—namely, a well-played Grass Knot Samurott could ruin FLCL's only really reasonable switch-in to Typhlosion.

Despite carrying some traditionally very bulky NU Pokémon (namely Seismitoad and Garbodor, sometimes Rotom), FLCL's build is very clearly a form of hyper offense that relies on entry hazards to wear down common answers to the combination of Klinklang and Sneasel. You can feel confident in thinking this because of his team's defensive synergy—or rather, the lack thereof. He relies on some pretty shaky checks to dangerous common NU threats such as Typhlosion (likely Scarf Rotom, maybe Pursuit Sneasel, and Seismitoad. If he's really wary it could be a Rindo Seismitoad or Scarf Seismitoad since he uses strange Scarf Pokémon often...), so we can safely assume he is intent on outplaying Teddeh hard and fast throughout the whole game. If he doesn't, well...

After reading over the teams and taking a stab at guessing some of their sets, it looks Teddeh's team has matchup advantage. He has two solid answers in Gurdurr and Seismitoad to FLCL's primary offensive threats (Klinklang / Sneasel), and he has the offensive potential to pressure FLCL very easily if he starts with a favorable lead and the defensive backbone to retaliate if he doesn't. Should FLCL be able to chip away at those two or weaken them sufficiently via something like Rotom's Trick or a sneaky Seed Bomb or Explosion from Garbodor, he could run away with the game on the gears of a boosted Klinklang.

——

FLCL reveals that he is running Mold Breaker SR Rampardos on turn 1, setting up guaranteed rocks at the expense of taking Rampardos down to its Sash against Gurdurr. The next turn, his offensive Garbodor crits and KOes Teddeh's Xatu with a Gunk Shot, leaving him in the optimal position to carry out his game plan—to later drop a few layers of Spikes on Gurdurr when it inevitably comes in on Sneasel or Klinklang and whittle down Teddeh's team. The game continues onward until Teddeh reveals he is in fact running special Samurott by uselessly using Hydro Pump into an incoming Seismitoad. Unfortunately for FLCL, it turns out that his thought-to-be-Timid Seismitoad was, in fact, not Timid, and it was outsped and KOed by Samurott's Grass Knot in the following crucial turn. FLCL is down an answer to Teddeh's seemingly Choiced Typhlosion, and suddenly is on his heels trying to plot out how to re-establish the control he had earlier on in the game.

After the loss of Seismitoad, FLCL faces a really tough decision. All of the few options he has remaining will bear lasting effects in the late-game because of how easily Typhlosion can get a kill. Only Rotom and likely Garbodor can KO Samurott at this point, and Samurott is too powerful for Klinklang to make an attempt to boost unless he really feels like he needs to rely on the Hydro miss to ultimately win the game. A Choice-locked Rotom baits in Seismitoad after Samurott faints (it's "useless" to try to preserve it because the risk/reward is too low to do so), and sending in Garbodor to revenge kill it allows Typhlosion to come in and cleanly KO anything barring a Fire Blast miss.

FLCL elects to KO Samurott with Garbodor, leaving him with another difficult decision of "what do I sack?" and the immediate follow-up question, "how do I kill Typhlosion afterwards?" Rolls very slightly favor Scarf Rotom's Thunderbolt to KO a 50% Typhlosion... and he just misses the roll, getting 49.5% to miss the KO and inevitably fall victim to the doom of Typhlosion... which also misses its Fire Blast. What a lucky duck! (Though, of course, FLCL probably would have preferred the miss to have occurred a turn earlier, but who's counting?)

After being gifted another chance to keep fighting by the grace of luck gods -Tsunami- and Soulgazer, FLCL makes a stretch of a play to desperately pull himself off his back foot after reading that Teddeh makes a relatively safe switch into Seismitoad (to preserve Typhlosion as death fodder later). He brings in Sneasel expecting Seismitoad to come in freely and gets roasted by Teddeh making the absolute safest play—to leave Typhlosion in and click Fire Blast once more. From there, Teddeh cleans up the remainder of FLCL's team with Pursuit Sneasel to eliminate any tricksies with Rotom, and Seismitoad and Gurdurr to handle Klinklang.

BW OU - SoulWind vs papai noel

papai noel's team:
SoulWind's team:

Looking through team match up, SoulWind does seem to have a slight edge. Double Dance Landorus-T, coupled with the easy entry hazard-stacking he can make sure to get on the game, is definitely gonna be a pain for papai noel to deal with. He has to make sure Skarmory stays healthy the whole game, with only Scarf Heatran to stop it, which gets hurt really hard by the entry hazards. Also, Landorus-T might be important for SoulWind to beat papai noel's Reuniclus alongside Jellicent and Tyranitar, while papai noel only has his Tyranitar—which is gonna struggle through entry hazards—to stop the annoying thing. However, papai noel does have some surprises such as Thunder Wave Latias that can help him out.

On the first turn of the game, papai noel gets off an unexpected Thunder Wave on Tyranitar, which is gonna help him a lot later, considering it's one of the only things SoulWind has for Reuniclus. SoulWind gets his rocks up in the field and makes the early reveal of Landorus-T's set a bit after, which gives papai noel the mindset that he has to keep Skarmory healthy for it. papai noel wins an important mind game between Skarmory and Landorus-T, which means his Skarmory is gonna be healthy for later.

The game goes on and all entry hazards get set on both fields, meaning Reuniclus is gonna be a blessed Pokémon for both teams the whole match. papai noel gets an important Thunder Wave off on Jellicent, meaning Reuniclus can now set up on it and deal with it just fine. But he gets caught off guard by a really good play made by SoulWind: a Will-O-Wisp prediction into his Tyranitar, meaning his only way to deal with SoulWind's Reuniclus now is either paralyzing it with Latias so Reuniclus can win the CM war, or hoping for the Reuniclus to crit his. However, the same thing goes to SoulWind, due to his checks being paralyzed and his Landorus-T being at a low amount of health.

After a couple turns and great predictions by SoulWind, the match gets to the way pretty much none of the teams would like it to come out to: A CM war deciding it all. Both Reuniclus start using Calm Mind and Recover, and both teams are praying the best comes out of it, aaaaand...... papai noel gets the Psyshock crit! At this point SoulWind has no hope, and the victory goes to the Classiest. Not the best game, but there were definitely great plays and interesting team ideas from both players.

DPP OU - august vs Asuya

august's team:
Asuya's team:

By turn 5, both sides have Stealth Rock set up, but august is in a solid lead thanks to his star Celebi KOing Gliscor and taking ~80% out of Tyranitar's HP. Asuya starts to swing things back in his favor after this, however, by taking out Celebi with Jirachi and revealing what would prove to be a massive pain in Leech Seed + Protect Shaymin. Both sides have cleared the field of entry hazards and eliminated the opposing Stealth Rock setters by turn 12, though Asuya's Starmie is in a much better position than august's paralyzed and battered Tentacruel.

From there, both sides play aggressively, sacrificing Pokémon and inflicting as much damage on the opposing team as possible while scouting for sets. Before long, Asuya is down to Shaymin and Gyarados against august's Tyranitar and Jirachi. Asuya goes for Leech Seed with Shaymin as august's Tyranitar Dragon Dances up. Turn 31 is the real turning point. august's best hope here would have been to Dragon Dance again while Shaymin Protected, as from there he could have a clean sweep. Instead, he goes for the Fire Punch as Shaymin leeches some free health. The second Fire Punch is not enough to KO, while Shaymin's Seed Flare + Leech Seed damage is enough to bring Tyranitar down to 7%. A Protect here would guarantee Tyranitar's death, so august switches to Jirachi.

Sacrificing Celebi, Asuya brings out Gyarados, knowing from before that august's Jirachi's best response to it is Iron Head. Nothing but a string of flinches could save august at this point. Gyarados Dragon Dances and proceed to clean through Jirachi and Tyranitar with Earthquake, winning the battle for Congregation.

GSC OU - Tiba vs Mr.E

Tiba's Team:
Mr.E's Team:

Looking at team match up, Tiba's offense has a bit of an edge over Mr.E's stall team. Not only does his team pack more of a punch, but it also carries Rapid Spin and Heal Bell to hinder Mr.E's reliance on passive damage. On the flip side, Mr.E's Pokémon can take quite a hit, especially with the aid of Light Screen Blissey and Reflect + Leech Seed Venusaur.

Tiba starts things off with Zapdos dishing out a harsh 64% damage with Thunder against Forretress, which sets up Spikes turn 1. The battle continues on with chip damage on both sides until turn 16, where hax favoring Tiba first comes in. Mr.E's Venusaur takes 61% damage from Starmie's Psychic as it tries to set up Leech Seed but misses. Switches and chip damage continue on until turn 51, where Mr.E's luck truly proves sour. After Whirlwinding in Marowak, Skarmory is fully paralyzed as Marowak sets up with Swords Dance. A critical hit Rock Slide the next turn removes Skarmory from the game completely, much to the chagrin of Mr.E.

Two turns later, Tiba lands another critical hit, this time his Zapdos nailing Venusaur for 74%. Turn 64, Mr.E's Tyranitar Roars back in Marowak, which goes straight for the Earthquake this time and takes out the switch-in, Blissey, which was at 67% health. A crucial critical hit on Venusaur knocks it out turn 73, and the Body Slam paralysis that follows the next turn proves too much for Mr.E. He forfeits the game, ending it in a win for the Alpha Ruiners that he'll complain about for years to come.

Conclusion

As always, this year was hard-fought all around. This ended up being quite possibly the least controversial SPL yet, so a huge thanks should be extended to host Zebraiken and the rest of the TD team for that. Congratulations Congregation for your well-deserved trophies.

Stay classy.

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