[Subject 18]

Originally Posted by Fat Manitary

Just a few things I noticed

@BlankZero

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Turn 1 - I'd never stay in with Skarmory against Nidoking, if you don't invest in SpD both Flamethrower and Thunderbolt will activate Sturdy (and he carried Fire Blast), and I don't understand why your opponent switched in Espeon instead of killing you...ok maybe he wanted to bounce back one hazard and setup screen or something similar but Skarmory 2HKOs if he can't put up Reflect, and killing the Skarm is just easier.
You have a really bad match-up against Nidoking since your team is weak to Fire moves, Volcarona can't survive 2 consecutive Fire Blast (even with a Quiver Dance between), Haxorus doesn't like taking all that damage (he takes 36.75 - 43.37%) and Nidoking outspeed him, and Keldeo fears the Thunderbolt.

Turn 3 - Why do you choose Celebi over Keldeo? Keldeo 252+ is faster (at this point you know that Nidoking isn't scarfed) and threaten him with Surf, while Celebi is slower, take 61.13 - 72.02% from Fire Blast and only 2HKO with Psychic so Nidoking can try to kill or just switch out after the first hit. Idk why he used Ice Beam: maybe he thought you switched in Haxorus, but Fire Blast deals 36.75 - 43.37% damage and Adamant Haxorus has 2 speed point less than Timid Nidoking (and he's Timid seeing the damage of Ice Beam)

Turn 5-6 - Again, why switch into Keldeo and mostly why stay in with Forretress if he has Fire Blast? Maybe you could U-Turn to Forretress to see if he Thunderbolt'd (trying to predict the switch to Keldeo) and then to Keldeo to take the incoming Fire Blast

Turn 8 - From the damage it's hard to say what is the Rotom-W set, but surely it doesn't invest much in SpD (at most ~120EV with neutral nature) so he has a chance to be scarfed and Volt Switch does 67.49 - 79.87% damage which is a kill after recoil/poison. You are already in a bad position though, since Celebi would be trapped by Scizor and Haxorus doesn't like free damage+poison and the incoming Scizor forcing another switch

Turn 8-9 - I wouldn't put Volcarona on Whimsicott exactly because he has priority Leech Seed, you could use Celebi instead since Toxic Spikes prevent paralysis and you're immune to Leech Seed so you can heal or U-Turn out preventing a switch/U-Turn to Scizor

Turn 11-12 - Flash Fire Arcanine (I hope he hadn't Justified!) just wall you, and with the Leech Seed damage the OHKO with Flare Blizt is guaranteed while you need a +2 to have a chance to 2HKO him. If you sacrifice Volcarona (as you did) you have nothing dedicated to Scizor, and if you switch to Haxorus he gets seriously damaged by Flare Blitz+poison (not counting that scarf Rotom-W will KO after the damage)

@BlackRussian

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Turn 3-4 - I don't understand your choice: why don't you directly send out Swampert? In this way you took a free Psyshock!

Turn 5 - Bad choice for your opponent: even without the crit your Swampert 2HKO 252/252+ Donphan and unless he runs 164 Spe EVs you're faster

Turn 13 - You know that Alakazam is not scarfed, and it outspeed Landorus (even if he's modest) so that was a bad move. You don't know if he has a sash or not (well, from the damage dealt to Swampert he probably carries a sash and not a LO) but in any case it's broken and scarf Heracross outspeed him taking at most 28% from Focus Blast so switching him in and using CC (foreseeing a switch to Skarm, you still KO zam if he stays in) was probably the best choice.

Turn 23 - Here you probably lost your last chance. Ok, +6 Flash Cannon deals at most 36.78% to 252/4 Bold Eviolite Chansey (it has not EV investment in SpD seeing the damage of +2 FC) but if you want to wish-pass, switch when Chansey will probably be Softboiling and not when he has no risk in Seismic Tossing! You could just reach +6 (meaning that Latias can't switch in and take at least 57% damage, and this only if she's 252/252+), try to see how your opponent use Softboiled and switch at the right moment.

@White Symphoni

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Sadly that crit didn't help in understanding what set is Mew using, probably sacrificing Scizor was the best thing to do to be sure that Tornadus would have KO'ed him.
I'd suggest to U-Turn out against the Hydreigon and KO with Breloom but I'm probably conditioned by watching how the match was played, since he probably can KO Breloom on the switch (or maybe not thanks to the rain...I'm not experienced enough to tell you what was the less risky way to play)

Originally Posted by Fat MCBarrett

I liked the idea of this thread and its been dead for a while so i thought i'd start it back up.
Hope my advice helps...

BlankZero

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Turn 5: This is your first mistake really since you weren't aware of nidoking's set and its a pretty uncommon poke in ou. but u-turning into forretress broke your sturdy and allowed him to ko next turn with fire blast. i think u-turning into keldeo would have been the best option. He resisted all of nidoking's moves besides earth power, and threatened him out immediately with a stab water attack.

Turn 7: Here you should have switched into celebi. celebi resists both of rotom-w's stab options and since you have u-turn you can gain back the switch initiative next turn.

Turn 12: The match was pretty much lost at this point already but i think switching out into haxorus would have given you a chance to set up with volcarona after arcanine was gone.

Summary: Not saving your forretress to spin away t-spikes was really detrimental because nearly everything left on your team was hurt by them. You also did not match up very well with arcanine after your keldeo fainted so you should have tried to save your keldeo to have a chance to take out arcanine.

BlackRussian

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Turn 4: Here you should have gone into jirachi immediately rather than heracross and switching into swampert. Jirachi has the best defensive matchup with alakazam and alakazam is most dangerous with a focus sash so breaking that without losing to much should have been your first priority. Also it didn't seem like there were many setup opportunities for jirachi looking at the opponents team.

Turn 13: Here i would have sacked swampert, seeing as it already did the only job it could perform in taking out donphan. Heracross was still around as a physical attacker to take out chansey. After sacking swampert, you then had a perfect opportunity to revenge kill alakazam who is your biggest threat at this point in the match.

Turn 23: First of all you should be running psyshock on cm jirachi as it deals physical damage allowing it to set up more easily on special walls such as chansey. However, you still could have taken out the chansey since at +6 flash cannon would have done 34% each turn and you have a 10% chance at dropping chansey's special defense every turn with flash cannon so you should have stayed in to collect your own wish. If you really wanted to switch though heracross was a better option than swampert since he could survive a seismic toss and regain hp the next turn from the wish.

Turn 24: Should have just gone into heracross here. Poisoning chansey does nothing due to its ability natural cure which heals status such as toxic, burn, paralysis etc. upon switching out.

Summary: Be careful when facing alakazam, break its sash with a poke you know can take an attack such as jirachi or heatran and proceed to revenge kill it. Also psyshock on jirachi would have helped this battle since you did have some set up opportunities.

White Symphoni

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I don't see any real screw ups here. That crit on politoed didn't help. The only thing i can think of is after scizor was taken out you could have brought breloom in to take out mew with mach punch. considering the life orb we can assume its only defensive investment was 4 hp ev which would give mach punch a 99% chance of taking mew out from that range. All that would do is prevent hydreigon from coming in next turn and setting up tailwind. which really didn't bother you considering you had super effective priority on his remaining team besides keldeo. I would honestly have to say you played it the best way you could have. Although it was close as far as number of team members go he had no chance of winning after you started out the match very strongly.

Thanks for that. And are we allow to post more than one battle?