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The BW Cup had a plethora of strong competitors make it into the later stages of the tournament, representing a stronger field than normal, perhaps! The top 16 had many formidable BW players such as Finchinator, GaryTheGengar, Raiza, Excal, Star, Sergi, mael, Rewer, Garay oak, and Lily. However, the finalists consisted of two more recent standouts who ascended to stardom this Classic: Nalorium and Mako! Nalorium is known for his BW play, but this is one of his first deep runs, and he really stepped up his game within this year, impressing everyone with the wide array of teams he can pilot as well as his strong in-game execution. Mako, on the other hand, is more known for playing RBY, but turned it up to a previously unseen gear in BW while using a handful of solid teams as well!

Mako vs Nalorium - Game One | Game Two

In a game one battle of two new-age hyper offense teams, Mako trades Stealth Rock for Garchomp's life as a lead Abomasnow takes it out with Blizzard despite its Yache Berry. Lead Garchomp is one of the frequents on these weatherless offensive teams we see Mako piloting. The objective of the team is to set up Stealth Rock and then overwhelm opposing defensive cores with a barrage of strong attacks. Mako's team, in particular, has elite wincons like Cloyster and Dragonite while also packing a punch with Kyurem-B, giving it a bit of a classic "Dragon-type spam" feel to it. Frequently, these teams run Magnezone, but instead Mako is opting to simply overwhelm would-be problems like Skarmory or Ferrothorn with Scizor, a likely Fire Punch Dragonite, Kyurem-B, and Garchomp instead.

On the flip side, Nalorium is using a more modern offense, too. It uses lead Abomasnow, which aims to do as much damage as possible while setting up hail. Then, it functions similarly to Mako's team as it trys to muscle past opposing walls and defensive cores to assure progress is made. Mamoswine and Cloyster join Abomasnow to form a unique triple Ice-type core, as they all synergize nicely with complementary offensive profiles. Some of the most common BW OU structures don't contain Ice-type resistances, and seeing a core like this is quite jarring, especially in the context of later generations where most teams contain at least one strong Ice-type resistance. Jirachi and Starmie serve as glue with some resistances and Rapid Spin, respectively, while Dragonite is the final wincon that also has priority when needed.

However, this lead is short-lived for Nalorium, as Cloyster dispatches of the Abomasnow with Rock Blast, evening the match at 5-5. Nalorium sends out his Starmie in attempt to scare out the Cloyster and clicks Rapid Spin to remove the aforementioned Stealth Rock, but Mako either predicts this or Cloyster is a Focus Sash variant as he clicks Shell Smash, making it extremely strong in the face of a now slower Starmie.

From there, Cloyster is able to take out the Starmie on the following turn, 2HKO Nalorium's Jirachi while evading a Body Slam Paralysis, take out the opposing Cloyster with Rock Blast, and finally come up short against Mamoswine, as it survives at around a quarter of its health and stops the chain of KOs with a critical hit Earthquake, taking down the overly productive Cloyster. However, the damage has already been done, and the point of no return has already been surpassed.

Kyurem-B enters to revenge kill the Mamoswine, making quick work of it with Ice Beam, and then it finishes the job by taking out Dragonite. Mako wins a lopsided affair to start things out, as Nalorium found himself a bit soft against Cloyster, which is one of the most controversial and dynamic presences in the BW OU metagame.

For those who enjoy a good encore, Mako has you covered with yet another Cloyster in game two, this time joining forces with a specially-based duo of Dragon-types in both Latios and Latias. These types of teams are a more unique brand of offense that use an internal synergy scheme aimed at overwhelming foes. Latios and Latias are both versatile and can find themselves paired with Magnezone like they are here—this allows for the trio to wreck havoc on virtually any opposing team if timed correctly. Of course, it comes at the expense of defensive coverage, but Mako's aim here is to win before that becomes a big problem. Another interesting cast member is Conkeldurr, which is less common in modern BW and joins Jirachi rounding out Mako's team.

For Nalorium, we see a bulkier team, which is the first we see in these finals. He uses Clefable, which is one of the recent trends in BW, alongside another Magic Guard user in Alakazam while being paired with Sand from Hippowdon, Spikes from Skarmory, glue from Latios, and some spinblocking and defensive utility from Jellicent. This is a fairly common structure now, as it offers a great deal of longevity while still having speed and threat coverage for opposing offense in many cases.

Seeing shades of game 1, Mako leads Cloyster into Hippowdon and gets some chip on an incoming Jellicent before using the forced Recover to bring in Latios and use Draco Meteor, which seems to be Choice Specs-boosted, as it takes half of Skarmory's HP. Fearing Magnezone, Nalorium switches out Skarmory to Clefable while Mako does just that, pivoting to Magnezone to try to trap the Skarmory. Clefable uses the free turn to use Knock Off on Conkeldurr, which enters for Mako. A Bulk Up on a Latios switch-in followed by a trade where Latios's Draco Meteor falls short of taking out Conkeldurr, and Payback KOs Latios before Conkeldurr faints to sand itself, puts us at 5-5.

Latios enters for Mako while Clefable does for Nalorium, and a big Trick on a Thunder Wave leaves Clefable limited. Latios is fully paralyzed as Hippowdon enters, and Mako goes back to Cloyster as Hippowdon sets up Stealth Rock. However, Cloyster is able to get a Shell Smash off this time after attacking on the switch, which forced a Recover on the Shell Smash turn. From there, Cloyster is able to go head-to-head with Jellicent while getting burned along the way, and then Skarmory is able to heal on the burned Cloyster.

This recovery turn allows Mako to switch to Magnezone, which takes out the Skarmory with a Hidden Power Fire on Spikes and then a Volt Switch, completing the trap and allowing Latias to enter safely while Nalorium stays on the back foot and sends in Clefable. Healing Wish allows Cloyster to enter one more time and go head-to-head with Clefable in exchange for a Thunder Wave—it uses Shell Smash a few times, as Clefable is now locked into Thunder Wave, but ultimately takes it out. Alakazam comes in to revenge kill the Cloyster, but uses Psyshock into the Jirachi switch. Jirachi scares out the Alakazam, leading the Latios to enter and trade some damage with Hippowdon before a Whirlwind brings out Magnezone, which with Air Balloon can set up Sunny Day to stop the passive sand chip damage.

Eventually some more continued use of Whirlwind leads to Latios getting back in repeatedly and having a number of chances to take out the Hippowdon, which it finally does on turn 40 after exhausting approximately 5 Surf PP with a timely critical hit! Fortunately for Mako, this was the perfect timing, as each Whirlwind could lead to Jirachi entering and taking chip from entry hazards, which could lead to it being too weakened to defeat Alakazam. Given this timing, Alakazam was not able to defeat the Jirachi, and after Focus Sash was broken while trying to take out Latios, Jirachi finished things off with a Choice Scarf U-turn to win the series 2-0 in favor of Mako!

DPP Cup saw quite a few upsets in the early rounds, with players like ABR, Bihi, Excal, Fakes, johnnyg2, Kristyl, Malekith, Soulwind, and Star getting eliminated before the quarterfinals. After eight grueling rounds, in this DPP Cup finals, we have DPP Cup XIII finals runner up twash against Sheik :. This is a very exciting pairing featuring one of the most creative current DPP players (twash) facing off against someone who has been doing excellent in the DPP Circuit for several years now (Sheik :—from now on I’m going to refer to him as Sheik).

Sheik : vs twash - Game One | Game Two | Game Three

In game one, we see a Metagross lead from twash up against a Jirachi lead for Sheik. In a one-on-one lead matchup, Metagross is heavily favored against Jirachi. Jirachi will typically switch out, or if it has Stealth Rock, it will sometimes set it up, as Metagross cannot OHKO Jirachi. A Metagross lead typically means a more offensive team from twash, whereas a Jirachi lead is most common on either balanced or stall teams.

The turn 1 exchange tells us a lot: Metagross outspeeds Jirachi while Jirachi sets up Stealth Rock. Metagross almost certainly has a Choice Scarf, as Stealth Rock Jirachi leads are typically faster than maximum Speed Metagross. Sheik deciding to let his Jirachi take damage means he probably has a strong enough defensive core to take that risk against Metagross, or he just really needs Stealth Rock up. On turn 2, we see twash switch to Heatran while Sheik's Jirachi goes for Fire Punch. Heatran is almost certainly twash’s Stealth Rock user, as Choice Scarf Metagross doesn’t use it, and a Choiced-locked Earthquake is free reign for Pokémon common on balanced teams, such as Zapdos or Latias, to switch in, so Sheik tried to get some initiative reading that twash would predict a switch out. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out for him, as Flash Fire-boosted Heatran could potentially be a challenge for him to switch into, and he gets to set up Stealth Rock freely.

On turn 3, Sheik switches to Tyranitar as twash sets up Stealth Rock. Heatran is forced out, so Metagross comes back in on a Superpower from Tyranitar, which, based on the damage, either got a very low roll or isn’t very invested in Attack. This signifies either a Choice Scarf Tyranitar or a mixed Tyranitar. With Stealth Rock on Jirachi, Sheik is most likely running a more balanced team rather than stall.

On turn 5, Sheik switches to Gyarados, whereas twash pivots back to Heatran. From Sheik, we’re mostly likely seeing a common archetype: Jirachi, mixed Tyranitar, Gyarados—maybe with Dragon Dance + Thunder Wave to synergize with Jirachi—Choice Scarf Latias, a Dragon Dance Tyranitar check like Breloom or Machamp, and a second bulky Steel-type that checks opposing Jirachi, such as Metagross or Empoleon, since the Jirachi as lead isn't necessarily reliable. twash decides to stay in and use Heatran's Magma Storm on the Gyarados in exchange for ending up very low on health and activating its Salac Berry. This is a highly unusual play: Salac Berry Heatran is extremely rare, especially with Magma Storm, while it probably would have just been KOed for nothing had Sheik used Earthquake, which is typically uncommon on Thunder Wave + Dragon Dance Gyarados, or set up with Dragon Dance. This also signifies twash’s team is weak to Gyarados and cannot really switch in. Additionally, Waterfall was not a bad play from Sheik, as twash could switch to Metagross and outspeed his +1 Gyarados should he try to set up on it. As it is, Gyarados is too low to switch in again after Stealth Rock, especially after Heatran uses Endure to lower its health further.

twash then gets punished for relying on Magma Storm’s accuracy and misses, while Gyarados then finishes Heatran off, and twash sends in Suicune. From this point, we have a pretty good idea of what twash is using, since he has used a similar team before. twash is most likely using his Weavile + Infernape team: some lead—he has used a few Pokémon such as Bronzong and Qwilfish in the past—Endure + Custap Berry—in this case Salac Berry—Stealth Rock Heatran, Lum Berry + Calm Mind with 3 attacks Suicune, Weavile, Infernape, and Choice Specs Latias.

Sheik then pivots from his Latias to Jirachi on twash’s Suicune, but twash probably can’t switch into Latias anyway, so he just keeps Suicune in, and it uses Ice Beam. After pivoting Latias back in, twash trades his Suicune’s health with Latias’s health while Sheik sacrifices his Jirachi to Choice Scarf Metagross in exchange for getting his Scizor a free switch. twash’s probable Infernape looks very threatening.

Scizor could be very dangerous to twash if it is a bulky Swords Dance set, but since he uses Superpower on the Suicune sacrifice, it probably is Choiced-locked into Superpower. Knowing this, twash goes to his Latias and forces Sheik to either sacrifice his own probably Choice Scarf Latias or take damage on Tyranitar. He takes the Surf with Tyranitar, realizes it is Choice Specs, and then reveals his Empoleon. Agility Empoleon is extremely threatening to the rest of twash’s team, as only Mach Punch Infernape can really stop it. Sheik probably wanted to keep his Tyranitar for a potential Custap Berry, as the switch to Empoleon on Latias’s Surf put it in range of Infernape’s Mach Punch. After the critical hit Surf, twash continues to weaken Empoleon for Infernape, sacrificing his Weavile to get Infernape in safely. From here, Infernape just cleans up, giving twash the 1-0 lead.

We see a Metagross lead again from twash in game two, whereas Sheik leads with Rotom-A. A Rotom-A lead could mean a few things: a defensive team leading with RestTalk Rotom-A that has nothing better to lead, a more offensive team built around Spikes, or, more rarely, an anti-lead trying to KO as much as possible with its coverage. Nevertheless, Rotom-A is one of the worst possible leads to face as Metagross, so twash switches out to Heatran on Will-O-Wisp. twash might be running the same team again.

Sheik switches to Latias on a Flash Fire-boosted Heatran as Heatran gets up Stealth Rock, likely signifying a stall team from Sheik in the form a Rotom-A lead, either defensive or Calm Mind + 2 attacks Latias, Clefable, either Bronzong or Jirachi but mostly likely Skarmory, a second bulky Steel-type like Jirachi or Bronzong, and a filler, which is mostly likely a bulky Ground-type like Hippowdon, Gliscor, or Flygon. This team is the most common "superman" style in DPP OU that aims to be totally or mostly immune to Spikes. Heatran then stays in and uses Magma Storm as Latias sets up Calm Mind. Calm Mind + 2 attacks Latias probably will just trade with Explosion Heatran, as it commonly runs Hidden Power Fire and cannot really hurt Heatran effectively. This happens, and Rotom-A comes back into Metagross; Rotom-A is very threatening, as twash most likely doesn’t have any pivots that like switching into Will-O-Wisp left.

Latias comes in on Will-O-Wisp and uses Trick on the incoming Bronzong. Sheik smartly pivots to his Clefable on the incoming Suicune. This means it is highly likely twash loaded up the same team. Clefable can typically stop Suicune with Encore, forcing a switch. twash needs to start playing aggressively himself, as Sheik’s defensive core is difficult to break with what he has left, especially if Sheik has Hippowdon in the back to stop Infernape.

twash goes to Metagross on the Encore from Clefable and Tricks his Choice Scarf to Rotom-A as Metagross gets paralyzed by Discharge. Sheik then pivots to his Skarmory to set up Spikes on the Metagross, as it can’t really hurt the Skarmory.

Infernape comes in on the Spikes, and it looks very threatening to the rest of Sheik’s team. Sheik scouts it out by pivoting his Clefable into Fire Blast and then his Bronzong into Close Combat. Rather than risk a miss, Sheik uses the opportunity to set his Suicune up on the Choiced-locked Bronzong. Because Clefable took the Fire Blast, it struggles to check the +1 Suicune. Sheik’s best out is to make twash’s Suicune run out of Hydro Pump PP or miss at a crucial time to get an Encore off. This doesn’t happen: twash sets up to +3 while Clefable is forced to heal, Clefable takes a huge hit from Hydro Pump, and twash finally misses Hydro Pump on the Bronzong sacrifice, leaving him with 1 Hydro Pump left.

Rather than use the last Hydro Pump PP, twash predicts a Toxic from Bronzong only to have it use Earthquake on his Metagross switch. He then pivots Latias into the Bronzong, but since Clefable is too low to take a Surf + Draco Meteor, Sheik sacrifices his Bronzong to give his Clefable a free switch. After going for the Draco Meteor critical hit on Clefable, Latias then uses Healing Wish to get twash’s Metagross back in the game.

At this point, Clefable is still needed for Suicune, so Sheik pivots to Rotom-A as twash pivots to Infernape. Sheik can no longer switch into Infernape safely, so he needs to sacrifice it, and he reveals the Hippowdon. Infernape cannot OHKO Hippowdon, so he needs to pivot out. From this point on, the decisions turn into mind games: twash can’t switch into Hippowdon anymore, but Sheik both can’t let Hippowdon switch into Infernape or take a hit from Suicune, as it gets 2HKOed by Fire Blast, and can’t let Hippowdon be the last Pokémon left, as it gets OHKOed by Metagross’s Explosion.

Knowing this, twash sets up Calm Mind with Suicune, but Sheik makes a nice play to wear down the Infernape with Seismic Toss rather than using Softboiled on the +1 Hydro Pump. Sheik then sacrifices his Clefable, as Suicune can’t switch in again with Spikes, and Hippowdon + Skarmory can handle the rest of twash’s team. twash makes an excellent pivot with his Infernape as Sheik, predicting the Explosion, switches in his Skarmory. twash should win the game from this position if Infernape hits two Fire Blast, as Blaze-boosted Fire Blast will put Hippowdon in range of Close Combat. Unfortunately, he misses Fire Blast on the Hippowdon switching in, letting Sheik win the game. twash had hit many inaccurate moves in a row prior to this, but Sheik takes the game and ties the set 1-1.

In the deciding game, we see an Empoleon lead from twash and a Gliscor lead from Sheik. An Empoleon lead can mean a few things: most often, it means an offensive team with a Focus Sash Empoleon having Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, and two of Stealth Rock, Grass Knot, Aqua Jet, and Knock Off. It can also be a specially defensive Empoleon on a more stall-focused team or a Choice Specs Empoleon on a more balanced team. For Sheik, a Gliscor lead is relatively uncommon; it's typically a bulky defensive pivot set, but it can also run a Choice Scarf on stall-focused team to set up Stealth Rock immediately against more offensive teams. Regardless, Gliscor is forced to either use U-turn or otherwise switch out immediately.

Gliscor pivots to Clefable as Empoleon uses Hydro Pump, potentially 2HKOing Clefable. Sheik is certainly using a stall team; unfortunately, it might really struggle against Empoleon, especially if this Empoleon has Knock Off to allow it to 2HKO Clefable more easily. Additionally, either twash got a good roll and Clefable doesn’t have anywhere close to maximum special bulk, or Empoleon has the very uncommon Mystic Water, as Clefable doesn’t normally take that much damage from Hydro Pump. Sheik cannot risk potentially letting his Clefable get 2HKOed for free, so he switches to his Milotic, and it takes a Knock Off. Milotic is relatively uncommon on defensive teams but is the best Water resistance Sheik could have had in this scenario, and since Empoleon has Knock Off, it probably cannot threaten Milotic with Grass Knot. At this point, we have a very good idea of Sheik’s team: lead Choice Scarf Gliscor, potentially specially defensive Calm Mind Clefable, Milotic, Magnezone or Magneton, defensive Jirachi, and a filler that is most often Choice Scarf Flygon, but since Gliscor probably a has Choice Scarf, and, as such, is not that bulky, it will probably be something that can better handle Breloom.

Empoleon tries to freeze Milotic early or otherwise make Sheik believe it has Grass Knot, but this fails and twash’s Empoleon gets lowered into Torrent range. twash then pivots to Latias on the Milotic and then pivots again into Metagross on the Tyranitar switch. From here, we have a decent idea of twash’s team, as he used a similar core in a previous round. It is probably a common structure we first saw BKC use in Jirachee's DPP Invitational: lead Empoleon, Choice Scarf Latias, specially defensive Metagross, mixed Tyranitar, Choice Band Gyarados, and Choice Specs Kingdra. If this is twash’s team, Sheik is in huge trouble: Milotic is Knocked Off, Clefable is weakened, and sand is up. Metagross gets Stealth Rock up as Sheik goes to Jirachi.

Physically defensive Jirachi is not a great Metagross switch in, but since Sheik doesn’t really have any other options due to what is likely a Choice Scarf Magnezone or Magneton that can’t trap Metagross at full health as his last, and twash’s Metagross can’t 2HKO it, it works out. Sheik confirms his Gliscor has Choice Scarf, as it doesn’t reveal Leftovers, and he sets up Stealth Rock as Gyarados comes in.

Dragon Dance Gyarados normally could be handled by Hidden Power Electric Milotic in this situation, but since we have a pretty good idea this Gyarados has Choice Band, he could be in trouble if Gyarados uses something other than Waterfall on the Milotic switching in. This is exactly what happens: Gyarados uses Outrage as Milotic switches in, 2HKOing it and leaving it too low in health to heal up effectively. Sheik then reveals his last Pokémon: Leftovers Magnezone, probably with Magnet Rise to trap Bronzong and Metagross. Unfortunately for Sheik, Gyarados only gets a two-turn Outrage, and twash gets to keep his very threatening Gyarados. However, twash needs to keep the pressure up so Sheik can’t switch to his Milotic and heal it up.

twash then goes to Latias on the Magnezone and tries to use Trick to swap its Choice Scarf away but meets the Tyranitar, which Pursuit traps it. However, this means Sheik has to deal with the Empoleon, which looks extremely threatening from this position, and Tyranitar is locked into Pursuit. Sheik makes a questionable play and sacrifices his Clefable to the Empoleon, which is fair considering the game state at this point, to try and trap the Empoleon with his Magnezone. However, lead Empoleon typically runs quite a bit of Speed, whereas Magnezone on this build is typically bulky enough to trap Fire Punch Jirachi. Empoleon then outspeeds the Magnezone and OHKOes it with Torrent-boosted Hydro Pump.

From here, the game and set are pretty much over: Sheik tries to revenge kill the Empoleon with Gliscor, but Gyarados switches in, forcing Sheik to sacrifice his Tyranitar to try and win with physically defensive Wish + Protect Jirachi. Gyarados then gets a critical hit on Jirachi with Waterfall, and Metagross ends the game with Explosion.

ADV Cup was loaded with strong competitors this year, as we saw players like ABR, Dice, baddummy, and pkThunderbolt falling before the fourth round of the tournament had even begun. The fourth round saw even more strong competitors fall, with ArcticBreeze, Triangles, z0mOG, and Jirachee all falling in this round. After a few more hard-fought rounds, top 8 saw RBY players Mako, Genesis7, and stunner047 make their exits, alongside Hclat. Eventually, in the ninth round of the tournament, we saw a rematch of this year’s SPL Finals ADV game, between McMeghan, a two-time ADV Cup winner and a player known for his love of both bulkier teams and Baton Pass, and robjr, a capable player in many tiers who has seen an uptick of results in his ADV placements this year with a 4-3 SPL performance and a 5th-6th place in the most recent Callous Invitational.

McMeghan vs robjr - Game One | Game Two | Game Three

Game one gets off to an explosive start, with robjr’s Choice Band Medicham obliterating McMeghan’s lead Forretress with Focus Punch as he lays down Spikes. Unfortunately, the pressure is immediately equalized as McMeghan follows up the Forretress with a Dugtrio. McMeghan's response to robjr's Snorlax reveals his whole team: a Forretress lead trying to bait Magneton to trap it so Skarmory can roam free after Dugtrio traps Magneton. To complement this strategy, McMeghan has a strong defensive core of Claydol, either Milotic or Suicune, and either Calm Mind or Aromatherapy Blissey. Since McMeghan is using a combination of Spikers, and he has already laid down one layer from the lead Forretress, he can delegate the Skarmory to answering robjr’s Snorlax. However, robjr's team structure leads McMeghan to believe robjr has a Magneton, so he uses Roar to scout it out. With the Magneton and Metagross revealed, the rest of robjr's team can be deduced, as it has been used most prominently by Mana and SEA before: he likely has Suicune and Dragon Dance Salamence in the back. robjr’s Magneton can threaten to neutralize McMeghan’s Skarmory in this game, but he has to be wary of the Dugtrio he knows is visible, creating some strange interactions between robjr’s Snorlax and McMeghan’s team, which lets McMeghan crucially get up all three layers of Spikes. robjr ends up getting rid of his Magneton to land a Toxic on the Blissey, freeing up McMeghan’s Skarmory to answer the Snorlax safely. The endgame comes down to robjr attempting to duel a Calm Mind Blissey with his RestTalk Suicune, which is not a favorable interaction for the Suicune. However, Blissey's Thunderbolt outside of sand is a damage roll to 3HKO Suicune when both are at +6, so McMeghan has to be careful with PP, as he would lose if Blissey runs out of Thunderbolt uses. Fortunately for McMeghan, he gets the rolls needed, and robjr forfeits with the Blissey remaining at maximum boosts and an unrevealed last slot.

Game two sees a much more traditional lead matchup, with McMeghan leading off with a Tyranitar and robjr leading off with a Zapdos. robjr hard switches his Zapdos out to a Swampert, which gets immediately incapacitated with a critical hit and a Special Defense drop. robjr answers the now-revealed special Tyranitar with a Blissey, which lets McMeghan get the first entry hazards of this game as he pivots in Forretress. robjr answers with a Skarmory, which lands a Thief on the Forretress, while it is blasted with a Zap Cannon. McMeghan trades some of Tyranitar's HP with robjr’s Zapdos, as McMeghan reveals the second spinner with a Claydol in the back. At this point on turn 10, we don't quite know what either player's full team is. The fact McMeghan chose to fight off Zapdos with his Tyranitar means he probably doesn't have Blissey and more likely has Jirachi as his special wall, perhaps has a fast Flying-type such as Salamence or Aerodactyl, and then another bulky pivot such as Milotic or Zapdos. Robjr's team could have almost anything in his last two slots, but he likely has a Tyranitar. McMeghan also reveals a defensive Jirachi from the move Toxic, which is immediately met with a Thunder Wave from the Zapdos. The Jirachi being defensive shows that the Thief on Forretress will let it heal up later thanks to Wish—if the Jirachi can stick around. Unfortunately for McMeghan, that will not be happening due to that earlier Thunder Wave and a Thunderbolt critical hit catching him on switch in followed by 2 instances of full paralysis. This is made worse by the fact that McMeghan's team structure struggles against Zapdos, especially if Jirachi faints without getting a Toxic off on it. The Zapdos does go down to a Tyranitar Crunch, but now the damage onto the Forretress and roughly quarter health Tyranitar will be sticking around. robjr’s luck does not stop there, as the Blissey narrowly survives several attacks from the Tyranitar and Milotic on very narrow margins while paralyzing the Milotic with Thunderbolt. McMeghan looks to make huge progress with a Dragon Dance Salamence, but it is swiftly blown up by the Claydol. The Milotic is instantly fully paralyzed afterwards, ending the game for McMeghan and tying the set at 1-1.

robjr tries his luck with another Medicham in game three, and what would eventually look to be almost the exact same team as he used in game 1. The Blissey lead from McMeghan means that it is likely he is also using a similar team from game 1, as a Blissey lead signifies a team that does not want to switch into Zapdos early and has an excellent early-game switch into opposing Tyranitar, such as Milotic or Suicune. This time, McMeghan only has one Spiker, and it is immediately neutralized by robjr’s Magneton. The Magneton quickly follows suit, though, as it is taken out by a Dugtrio. robjr makes a questionable play and decides to switch his Medicham into the Suicune, sacrificing it to weaken McMeghan's Suicune so it can no longer use Roar to phaze robjr's Suicune out. This sacrifice brings out robjr's Snorlax, and at this point, it is a very dangerous game for McMeghan, as he will struggle to put pressure on Snorlax with only one layer of Spikes and nothing to limit the Snorlax other than Claydol's Explosion, his badly weakened Suicune's Roar, and his unrevealed last Pokémon. With McMeghan’s Steel-type taken out, the Snorlax from the other side looks to try and put up a great deal of pressure. However, robjr lets it take an Explosion from Claydol, thus instantly stifling its use here. The Dragon Dance Salamence follow-up would look to be threatening if it was EV-invested to live the Blissey Ice Beam that was coming its way, but it falls, leaving robjr with just his Metagross and Suicune remaining. robjr attempts to set up an Agility Metagross sweep; however, McMeghan’s Suicune has just enough HP left from earlier that it can safely use Roar to phaze out the Metagross and use Rest to recover up to full health on robjr’s Suicune, forcing an Explosion from the Metagross to take it out. robjr's Suicune is more than capable of winning in these circumstances, but it is met with an extremely strong Earthquake from a Dugtrio and an uncommon last slot of Jirachi in the back to boot. The Jirachi narrowly takes out the Suicune with two uses of Thunderbolt, granting McMeghan his third ADV Cup victory.

Joining any Smogon Classic Cup is like entering a meat grinder, but GSC Cup IX especially so. Each round saw strong players get eliminated: McMeghan in round 1, Star round 2, Kenix round 3, ABR round 4, Vileman round 5, and Conflict round 6. This incessant pruning produced two excellent players for the finals match—Rubyblood and Malekith. Both users have important stakes heading into the match; winning this set will secure Rubyblood’s spot in the overall Classic playoffs, while Malekith aims to become the third player to win two GSC Cups.

Rubyblood vs Malekith - Game One | Game Two | Game Three

Game 1 features an offense against offense slugfest, a common sight in modern GSC. Right out of the blocks, Malekith seizes the initiative with a Thunder paralysis into full paralysis on Jynx. Two turns later, a prediction from Malekith lets Zapdos Thunder Forretress for significant damage. Malekith is immediately able to convert this damage into a Spikes advantage to start wearing down his opponent’s team. A Reflect Zapdos from Rubyblood helps his team stabilize and finally get Spikes up, but it’s too little, too late. Malekith’s Snorlax is able to steadily bulldoze its way through his opponent's weakened team, and Explosion from both Cloyster and Steelix seals the game. Despite the one-sided opening, this game was deceptively close. Snorlax winning the Speed tie on the final turn could have brought the game back into contention, but without knowing Malekith’s last Pokémon, it’s difficult to know who held the advantage.

Hoping to bounce back from his loss, Rubyblood brings a more defensive team in game 2, which features Miltank and the uncommon Quagsire. Malekith opts for another fairly standard offense team, albeit one hiding a few sneaky tricks. After the opening exchange, Malekith again comes out on top with the Spikes advantage, as Snorlax is forced to switch out, fearing Nidoking’s Lovely Kiss. Nidoking is able to use Thief to steal Leftovers from Zapdos on the switch, but this interaction gives Rubyblood crucial information. In Generation 2, a Pokémon's Special Attack and Special Defense EVs and IVs are tied together, and it is impossible to reduce one stat without reducing the other. In GSC, Nidoking sometimes drops its Special Defense stat so it can OHKO Zapdos by countering the bird’s Hidden Power. However, this reduces Nidoking’s Special Attack stat, which Rubyblood is able to identify because Thief only dealt 6% damage to Zapdos. With this information, he is able to switch Snorlax in on Counter and preserve his Zapdos. After two Lovely Kiss misses and a Screech dodge, this Snorlax is able to cleanly claim two knockouts. From there, Malekith’s strategy falls apart, as it relies on Nidoking removing opposing Zapdos so Acid Armor Vaporeon can set up. With Zapdos to keep Vaporeon in check, Rubyblood has no issues securing a victory with Quagsire.

In a winner take all game 3, both players bring similarly offensive teams, with 4 shared team members. Malekith brings a Growth Jolteon team with the objective to set up on opposing Zapdos after weakening or removing Snorlax. Rubyblood brings a flexible team featuring Nightmare Starmie, with the goal to go head-to-head with Thunder Zapdos and harass Rest Snorlax. Early-game is an even exchange with both players setting up Spikes and shuffling their teams around to wear foes down. However, Malekith’s Golem provides important utility over Rubyblood’s Steelix, as Golem is able to permanently remove Spikes. Rubyblood is on the back foot without Spikes, but a fortunate Sleep Talk roll KOes Golem and grants Rubyblood a 5-4 advantage. Steelix’s Explosion simplifies the game to a 4-3, but now Rubyblood’s team choice plays a deciding factor. Starmie struggles to make a dent in Snorlax and is easily forced out by Jolteon. The lack of Spikes also lets Malekith gain valuable Leftovers healing and hold on despite being down a Pokémon. Rubyblood makes some excellent plays with Hypnosis Gengar, putting Malekith’s Gengar to sleep and removing Snorlax with Explosion. Alas, Malekith gets the perfect wake up and removes Rubyblood’s Snorlax with Gengar’s Destiny Bond. From then on, Jolteon is easily able to clean up the remaining Zapdos and Starmie. While Rubyblood regretted staying in with Snorlax on turn 58, the play is understandable. It’s more likely that Gengar stays asleep than wakes up, and if it does not wake up, the game is almost certainly won. This is not to discount Malekith at all; he made the best play he had at his disposal, and it paid off with his second GSC Cup victory.

The oldest generation of OU has no shortage of fierce competitors and even fiercer upsets, with Amaranth, Conflict, Mako, Genesis7, Sceptross, SaDiSTiCNarwhal, Star, Torchic, and more all falling in the first three rounds and shiloh, Malekith, Rubyblood, Ctown6, and stunner047 coming up short of the quarterfinals. Raiza, twash, egalvanc, Excal, Unowndragon, and zf were all left behind by the top six, and SoulWind, Melbelle, and Kaz were taken out just before finals. A three-way round robin between ABR, Serpi, and chub was all that remained, a set of matches that went through two bracket resets before a victor emerged in the third set.

ABR vs Serpi - Game One | Game Two

RBY Cup finals gave us an incredibly interesting matchup in terms of participants, and game 1 lived up to the spectacle without question. Our protagonists are Serpi—well-known as one of the best RBY players—and ABR—the player with the most success in Smogon tournaments of all time.

Team-wise, game 1 features a Victreebel squad on Serpi’s side, while ABR brings probably the most standard 6 in the tier—the big 4 + Alakazam and Zapdos. Serpi drops Chansey for the matchup, an opinion considered more justifiable now than at probably any time in Gen 1’s competitive history.

ABR gets sleep to stick, and Serpi gets permanently bodied by the paralysis on Victreebel, as that was his main plan to push his own sleep through. After that, ABR is cleanly ahead, he's 6-5 with a foe asleep while none of his own Pokémon are, and he can just trade down with multiple opportunities to use Explosion, trusting that Zapdos will pull through in the one Pokémon up endgame. It gets a bit shaky when Alakazam is fully paralyzed multiple times in a row, but as long as Chansey also doesn't, he's going to win comfortably off the back of the god bird, with things like the Thunderbolt critical hit on Starmie barely mattering, since Serpi's anti-Zapdos plan was pretty much exclusively "land an Explosion on it," and he failed to do that. Serpi's team choice is playing with fire, and he got burned.

This game is all about the sleep mismatch giving ABR a one-Pokémon lead and the back Zapdos. These two things dictate how ABR plays the whole way through: he doesn't take these lame one-for-one Explosion uses if he's not confident that he can win that endgame, and he can be confident that he'll be fine because he's one Pokémon up by default thanks to sleep, and even in an even count endgame—like the 2-2 that ends up materializing—having a Zapdos will be a crushing advantage, especially since it's clear from fairly early on that Serpi's team isn't a Rhydon team, would be far too Ice-weak with the two Grass-types. So, he can afford to play on the safer side and look to trade one-for-one without pushing his luck too much—he uses Explosion with his Exeggutor despite Psychic being a reasonable option to try and push it for a bit more, as it would've hit Victreebel and worked. He uses Explosion with Snorlax when it was at high HP and healthy because he is confident that the endgame is fine and he doesn't need to squeeze any more value out of it to make it all the way. He withstands losing a Pokémon to full paralysis because his matchup and position is so crushing that he can just afford it. It looks back and forth on the surface but it's likely ABR felt completely in control from turn 7 onwards.

Game 2 of the RBY Cup finals is decidedly less interesting for the average spectator. We get treated to a classic matchup off the bat, with Serpi’s Gengar facing down ABR’s Alakazam, although there’s a little funny business as Serpi brings in his Exeggutor and then takes 60% while using Hypnosis to put the Alakazam to sleep. Serpi gets pretty good value from this Exeggutor, though, immediately paralyzing the Starmie switch-in and then using Explosion on it, leaving the Water-type at low health.

After a Tauros's Body Slam from Serpi turns into a Counter hitting Gengar from ABR, Serpi opts to bring in his Cloyster, saving the near-death ghost. This would turn out to be a tough decision, as the Cloyster is brought to 12% from Snorlax's Explosion, which sets the stage a few turns later on turn 13 for ABR to bring in his Dragonite. Dragonite here does Dragonite things, dealing a trillion damage uninterrupted with Wrap and throwing in a few key Thunder Wave uses along the way. By the time Dragonite is done with its efforts, Serpi’s team is almost ubiquitously destroyed, and a quick Tauros run wraps it up, ending the first series.

It's tough to pin too much blame on Serpi here; when a good Wrap user does good Wrap things, it’s quite easy to see that home. Keeping Cloyster might have given another option, but it’s a bit difficult to make that call with the information he had. ABR heads into the second series with a win in the bag. The game was extremely back-and-forth in a way that deserves emphasis. Multiple times throughout the match momentum swung back and forth between the two players with ABR ultimately taking it home.

ABR vs chub - Game One | Game Two

The second series starts with ABR leading Gengar and facing down chub's Starmie. Both players opt to switch out, with ABR bringing in a Jynx to keep up the sleep pressure, while chub loses the interaction by choosing Exeggutor, which was forced to take a Lovely Kiss on the next turn.

chub's switch back into Starmie is prescient, as it eats an Ice Beam from Jynx and manages a critical hit Surf, putting more immediate pressure on ABR. chub uses this momentum shift to get his Chansey in, correctly calling ABR’s switch to the same Pokémon, with a Sing coming out immediately afterward, making ABR’s special wall significantly less useful.

After a little pivoting, we get some Snorlax against Snorlax action, with chub revealing both Reflect—to chase out ABR’s Snorlax—and Earthquake, which punishes ABR’s Gengar switch. Fortunately for the US Northeast mainstay, though, Gengar hits a hard Psychic and forces the Snorlax to reconsider its options, now close to fainting. ABR ends the interaction with his Gengar by going for an aggressive Explosion, and he gets the call mostly right, dealing heavy damage to the sleeping Exeggutor and allowing him to bring in Tauros, keeping an immense amount of momentum.

In the subsequent turns, chub gets his Tauros to face down ABR’s sleeping Chansey, and interestingly, ABR lets his Chansey take a hit and try to wake up, which it does successfully. Seeing stars, chub goes for a front-footed Hyper Beam, but he only manages to catch ABR’s Starmie, which doesn’t mind the damage so much and is happy to get a key paralysis on Tauros. chub is forced to bring in his Chansey as the Starmie uses Recover to heal essentially to full, but he’s thankful that his Chansey has the lungs of Mariah Carey and hits another Sing on the first try—this time through paralysis.

We see the odds play out as ABR’s Snorlax and chub's Starmie face off, the Starmie desperately using Recover while paralyzed as the Snorlax continues to Body Slam. Unfortunately for chub, ABR had trained his Pokémon just a bit better, and it’s able to clear out the opposing Starmie, setting up for an endgame decidedly in ABR’s favor as chub brings out his Zapdos to try and wrestle back control. The plan does not go particularly well, though, as Zapdos only manages to chip the Snorlax and receives its own paralysis back, limiting chub's options further.

ABR continues to wring life out of this paralyzed Snorlax even further, managing to somehow sneak through a Swords Dance against chub's Chansey, one of his few Pokémon remaining that kept most of its intended function. The last few turns of the game are predictable, as ABR is able to launch attacks without care as chub's team can hardly move at this point, and a few turns later, he takes the match home, going 1-0 up in the second series.

For the first time in the Cup finals, we get a mirror lead, with both competitors starting with Alakazam. chub, however, doesn’t want the interaction and immediately goes into his Chansey, a decision justified by hitting Sing through paralysis a turn later.

The match continues until we get Snorlax against Snorlax, with chub revealing Reflect, which ostensibly puts some pressure on ABR. However, the man isn’t the all-time leader in the Hall of Fame for nothing; he correctly assumes that he’s about to eat another Body Slam and manages to dispatch chub's Snorlax with a well-timed Counter from his own. chub brings out Exeggutor in the aftermath, but momentum seems clearly on ABR’s side at this point.

ABR goes through a little bit of pivoting to get the Exeggutor paralyzed, using his sleeping Alakazam to reset his own Starmie’s Special drop before bringing in Snorlax to attack the Exeggutor. He’s successful, too, with a critical hit Body Slam before a full paralysis, allowing him to beat the Exeggutor down. The middle game settles into a bit of a lull, as ABR’s Starmie and chub's Alakazam are both paralyzed, so we get some switching and positioning between the two with the tilt of the game gradually seeming more in ABR’s favor.

In an echo of the Serpi series, one might think that the decisive moment comes when ABR unveils a Dragonite, but he misses a Wrap on chub's Starmie and allows himself to get paralyzed. At this point you might think that the Dragonite’s utility is greatly diminished, and in most cases this would be true, but it gets off an Agility—remember: this resets the paralysis speed drop in this generation—and manages to dish out an astonishing amount of damage from this point. The dragon’s parting gift is a paralysis on chub's Tauros, and with ABR bringing out another wrapper in Victreebel immediately after, the situation looks grim for chub.

Interaction-wise, chub has a difficult task ahead of him, as he desperately cannot let his own Starmie get paralyzed; otherwise, Victreebel will run rampant. This means that it cannot happily absorb Body Slam from ABR’s Tauros, an as-of-yet unrevealed Pokémon that is looking more and more dangerous as the turns tick by. ABR manages two critical hits with Surf through paralysis, some fortune that seemed to speed the game up, removing Alakazam as an option for chub and bringing us into the endgame.

From here it is routine; ABR's Victreebel launches a Razor Leaf against the Starmie, which paralyzes it back. This is not enough, of course, and the paralyzed Starmie goes down to the next attack, although Tauros would have swept from this point almost certainly anyway, barring Starmie getting multiple uses of Recover while Victreebel is paralyzed multiple times. ABR cleans up and wins his first RBY Cup, a notable victory from a player that only really picked up the tier in earnest not too long ago.