Jirachee:
Sweepage:
replay
Team:
So when I started preparing for Sweepage, I knew he really liked bulky Starmie and defensive teams in general, so I wanted something that could put a lot of offensive pressure on the opponent. Magma Storm Heatran isn't a very common set in BW (it used to be popular on Sun teams, but not much else) so I thought it'd be both surprising and effective in that matchup. From there I wanted a team that could abuse the removal of Starmie and decided that Spikes abuse would be the best, hence the rather standard Alakazam + Latios + Spikes. I actually had some kind of Garchomp over Landorus-T at first but that version was very weak to Terrakion and Garchomp so I decided to make the switch. I decided to make it Smack Down because the team doesn't really like Spikes and I didn't want Skarmory getting free layers. BKC suggested HP Ice, I actually had SD there at first.
Match:
Looking at Team Preview, the matchup didn't look easily solvable but still very much in my favor as he did bring bulky Starmie, and the Landorus-T set I had was super rough on his team. His Dark resist was Tyranitar, so he couldn't switch into my own very well either. I decided that leading Ferrothorn was the best move so I could get Spikes up and potentially paralyze something because I didn't really need it to check anything and the early support would really help the threats I had to his team get to work.
Since he led Rotom-W and burnt Ferrothorn on the first turn, I was able to get what I wanted. I honestly expected him to be some kind of SR Jirachi because it switched into Ferro, with HP Fire probably. Sub just kinda slipped out of my mind which is why I stayed in to Leech Seed it expecting SR. Even then, since it was paralyzed it wasn't that big of an issue especially with Heatran on the team. I really hoped to catch Rotom or Starmie w/ the Magma Storm there, but the residual damage on Tyranitar was alright because now it'd have a much harder time switching into Latios. Also, Tyranitar gave Landorus-T free entry so I could start dealing damage and possibly set up Stealth Rock.
That's when the momentum took a heavy shift in my favor, because I was able to kill his main sweeper and I knew his Garchomp was scarfed at that point. Spinning was too valuable for him at that point so he had to go for it rather than try and catch something with Scald, so I thought going to my own Tyranitar was a relatively low risk move especially since I could remove Starmie really easily with CB Pursuit. The last play of the game that I think mattered was when my Ferrothorn died. Going Latios there on Rotom, I knew he'd keep it because it was his last Pokemon that could hope to beat Landorus-T and he had 2 good switches for Draco Meteor. Tricking there basically guaranteed I took out one of them since Jirachi can't really do much w/ a Choice item if it's paralyzed, and taking out Tyranitar's Chople meant Alakazam just went to town vs him. He did go to Jirachi which I think was the best possible outcome for that play. After that I think my advantage was too big to overcome so yeah... I could have gotten unlucky sometimes in that game (like Scald vs Tyranitar) so I'm glad everything went so well!
