Tournament Pet Mods Premier League II - Commencement Thread

[Rezzo]

Last post didn't get enough attention so I am sprucing it up this week a little:

Ladies and gentlemen, Pokémon enthusiasts, brace yourselves for the exhilarating recap of Week 2 in the Pet Mods Premier League (PMPL)! The battles were fierce, the strategies were cunning, and the excitement was palpable as the six teams clashed to secure crucial victories. Let's dive into the action and relive the thrilling moments of this electrifying week!

In a captivating showdown, the United Tropius Company squared off against the Workers Union of Gensokyo. Both teams fought tooth and nail, leaving no room for complacency. However, it was the United Tropius Company that emerged victorious, claiming a hard-fought 5-3 win. A standout performance came from player Bobsican, who showcased their underdog spirit, battling against the odds and emerging triumphant in a tightly-fought contest against anaconja. Bobsican's determination and skill were evident as they strategized their way to victory, leaving fans in awe of their tenacity.

Next up, Dave's Dachsbuns clashed with the Think-A-Ton Crew in a clash of tactical brilliance. The Dachsbuns proved to be a force to be reckoned with, overpowering their opponents to secure a commanding 6-2 victory. However, amidst the battle, it was player Jester from the Think-A-Ton Crew who caught everyone's attention. In a stroke of accidental genius, Jester brought a Snorlax that only knew the move 'Curse.' Despite the unusual move selection, Jester's skill shone through as they tactically maneuvered their way to victory against Spellcaster. It was a moment of unpredictability that left spectators amazed by Jester's prowess and adaptability.

The final clash of the week witnessed a fierce duel between the Phantomire Gourgeists and the Close Combat Comrades. The Close Combat Comrades displayed their fighting spirit, clinching a hard-earned 5-3 victory. Player Ainzcrad proved to be the hero of the match, securing their team's first tournament win of Alternatium EX against their formidable opponent, Shiloh. Ainzcrad's strategic prowess and relentless determination propelled the Close Combat Comrades to victory, igniting a surge of celebration within their ranks. It was a momentous triumph that symbolized the team's resilience and ability to rise above challenges.

Week 2 of the PMPL showcased the indomitable spirit of these teams as they battled it out for glory. From underdog victories to accidental strokes of brilliance, the highlight games added an extra layer of excitement to an already enthralling tournament. The United Tropius Company, Dave's Dachsbuns, and the Close Combat Comrades displayed their unwavering resolve, clinching vital victories that propelled them further in the league standings.

As the Pet Mods Premier League intensifies, we eagerly await the forthcoming battles, where skill, strategy, and a dash of unpredictability promise to create moments of pure Pokémon magic. Stay tuned, fans, as the PMPL continues to captivate us with electrifying clashes and unrivaled excitement!

Edit: OK the forums doesn't fully support emojis, that's too bad

 

[Yoshiblaze]

A little late, but I'm back with Week 2's JolteMons recap!

This is gonna be a shorter one since one game wasn't played and (spoiler alert) one lasted 8 turns, so let's get right into it!

VS

vstra (United Tropius Company) vs Baloor (Worker's Union of Gensokyo)

Temporary Link (Requires you to be in the Pet Mods Discord server to view)

/ / / / / vs / / / / /

Getting the shorter battle out of the way first, this game lasted eight turns and, just from team preview, you can tell why. vstra of the United Tropius Company brought a Webs team featuring terrifying mid-speed sweepers like Mega Mawile, Tapu Lele, and Xurkitree, while Baloor of the Worker's Union of Gensokyo brought a screens team, featuring one of my favorite sweepers in Moody Mesprit. In JolteMons, Moody boosts your lowest raw stat by 1 stage every turn and was given to a couple set up sweepers like Mesprit, Decidueye, and even Hypno (Belly Drum + Speed Moody Hypno is very unviable but very hilarious). It's a really fun ability to use since you have to craft creative EV spreads to boost the stat you want, but in practice that usually just means it's Speed Boost with extra steps. None of the Moody users are super viable (though Moody is the reason why Decidium Z is banned when other signature Z-Moves are legal), with Mesprit and Decidueye sitting the C Ranks, but both are absolutely terrifying under the right circumstances. One of those circumstances would be a Webs team, since, if it's Speed boosting Moody, Mesprit can ignore the Speed drop it'll get from Webs. That, plus Hawlucha also ignoring the drop, leads me to give the advantage to Baloor here, as either Mesprit or Hawlucha have a clear path to sweep as long as screens get up. However, if vstra can prevent screens from getting up, then they have a pretty good chance of winning, as their offensive pressure can prevent any of Baloor's mons from setting up.

The battle starts with vstra leading Landorus to get up Rocks, while Baloor leads Tapu Koko to get screens up immediately, recognizing how important getting screens up is here. Koko is able to get both screens up and U-Turn into Baloor's own Lando-T after taking a little over half from an EQ. The Lando switch forces vstra out into Araquanid as Baloor gets their Rocks up. The next turn came as a bit of a surprise as an Explosion from Lando-T actually OHKOs Araquanid, preventing it from getting Webs up. Araquanid isn't my preferred choice for a Sticky Web setter (which would be Gravitas Orbeetle for setting Gravity and Webs at the same time while putting something to sleep with Hypnosis), but one of its better traits is how naturally bulky it is for a Webber, and thus it doesn't really need to run Focus Sash, so it getting OHKO'd was super surprising to me. This might have been a roll, as 252 HP, 0 Def Araquanid only gets OHKO'd by a Jolly Explosion 56.3% of the time, but we can't know for sure if vstra's Araquanid was max HP. Either way, this is obviously an awful turn of events for vstra, as they won't have webs for the rest of the game and now has to deal with Baloor's powerful sweepers behind screens.

On the double KO, Baloor sends in Mesprit while vstra sends in Landorus. Landorus explodes immediately, dealing a pretty good chunk of damage to Mesprit even with the screens, while Mesprit gets a Nasty Plot off, as well as a Speed boost from Moody. vstra sends in Mawile and Mega Evolves to hopefully revenge kill Mesprit, but Baloor reveals Hidden Power Fire, which surprisingly OHKOs Mega Mawile. Assuming vstra wasn't running any HP investment on Mawile, this was actually guaranteed, but it still caught me off guard when I saw it happen. With Mesprit at +2 SpA, behind screens, and gaining more and more Speed boosts, there isn't much that vstra can do with their remaining mons, leading to them forfeiting after Mesprit OHKOs Xurkitree with a Moonblast, securing the win for Baloor and the Union.

I wouldn't beat myself up too much over this if I was vstra, this was an awful matchup and not being able to get up Webs, possibly due to a roll, pretty much sealed their fate, as nothing would be stopping Koko from getting screens back up later had Mesprit not swept. Rough luck, but they should be able to bounce back in future weeks.

As for Baloor, this was a good second win in Jolte for them, looking forward to see what they do in Weeks 4 and 5 (since they've already played Week 3).


TL;DR:

VS

Xrn (Dave's Dachsbuns) vs scorbunnys (Think-A-Ton Crew)

Temporary Link (Requires you to be in the Pet Mods Discord server to view)

/ / / / / vs / / / / /

Lastly, we have Xrn of Dave's Dachsbuns going up against scorbunnys of the Think-A-Ton Crew, in what will likely be the only PMPL I rematch in the entire tournament (unless these teams play in the playoffs or the Dachsbuns and the Comrades play and they decide to have dex and Paulluxx play Jolte that week). Xrn beat scor back in Week 3 of PMPL I, so let's see if scor can get their revenge, or if Xrn can improve to 2-0, both against scorbunnys and in this tournament.

Both players brought pretty standard balance teams, both featuring Mega Scizor and Moltres-Galar. The one out there pick is scorbunnys' Glaceon. While an unranked mon and currently sitting in NUBL, Glaceon can actually be pretty terrifying. Imagine if Kyurem and Dracovish had a baby but the baby was somehow still bad. That's JolteMons Glaceon. With Power of Alchemy, both Glaceon's Snow Warning and Snow Cloak are active at the same time and Snow Cloak was changed to be a Hail clone of Sand Force, boosting Ice, Water, and Fairy moves in Hail. These traits combine to make Glaceon an absolute nuke, hitting significantly harder with Ice moves than even the mighty Kyurem. Plus, it gets a strong Snow Cloak Water-type move in Meltdown, which has 1.5x power when used by Ice-types and then gets rid of its Ice-typing, so it keeps STAB on it. Meltdown also Soaks the foe, which is good for its intended purpose as a more defensive move, but it can backfire on offensive mons if you don't OHKO your target. Glaceon is hard to get to work, since it still has all of its terrible other traits, but with the right opportunity it can really surprise you. In scor's case, Glaceon could actually go hard here, as Xrn doesn't really have a switch-in to it. Mega Scizor does okay, but it needs to be careful as Meltdown can do ~50 or 60% (depending on Glaceon's item) and, if Glaceon isn't choiced, it can then hit Scizor with a Freeze-Dry since Meltdown turns into a Water-type. At the very least, Glaceon hates taking a Bullet Punch from Scizor or any move from Nidoking or Tapu Koko, so it needs to be positioned well to actually pose a threat. On Xrn's side, they have Nidoking, which is always terrifying and can potentially OHKO all of scor's mons aside from Rotom-Wash and Goltres, the latter of which can't do much back to it. Thus, kinda like the Nidoking game last week, this game is gonna be all about positioning each team's 1 terrifying wallbreaker to get kills.

The battle starts slow, with multiple turns of pivoting. One thing to note early on is that Xrn's Wishiwashi is running Flip Turn over the usual U-Turn. I'm not a fan of Flip Turn over U-Turn on Wishiwashi, since U-Turn can chip Water resists, but Flip Turn honestly paid dividends in this battle as its STAB + 1.2x boost from Wishiwashi's signature item allowed it to deal great chip damage to the like of Goltres. Xrn is able to get Stealth Rock up with Clefable early, setting them up in front of Scizor on a correctly predicted U-Turn, which also reveals that Clefable is Rocky Helmet, which is a neat tech.

Not too much progress is made for the first 20 turns or so, with mostly just positioning, Rocks being put up and then Defogged away, and a couple Swords Dances from both Scizors, but not much coming of it as both were forced to U-Turn out and their checks healed off the damage. The biggest occurence early on was Goltres being significantly weakened, switching out with just 24% of its HP, making it a worse short term check to Wishiwashi as it switched out after getting Regenerator suppressed by Core Enforcer. This leads to Xrn being in position to take out Goltres early with a surprise Hurricane from his own Goltres, but it unfortunately misses, with scor's Goltres Toxicing Xrn's in return before being able to switch out to get some Regen.

On turn 34, scor is able to get Glaceon in on Xrn's Goltres, allowing it to KO the incoming Clefable with a strong Meltdown, getting the first KO of the game. Xrn starts playing a little more aggressive, immediately Thunderbolting into Glaceon as scor switches it out for Lando, then staying in on Landorus to get chip with Dazzling Gleam. This pays off as scor's Lando just U-Turns, bringing in Mega Scizor. Xrn then Thunderbolts again, dealing a good chunk of damage to Scizor as scor U-Turns again, before finally forcing out Koko with Dragapult. Another U-Turn from scor on Xrn's Goltres switch-in brings Glaceon back out, promptiong Xrn to go into Mega Scizor, which takes just enough damage to be in 2HKO range of Blizzard after Hail chip, displaying just how strong Glaceon is. However, since Scizor threatens Glaceon with a Bullet Punch, scor is forced to switch to Rotom, allowing Xrn to Roost back up to full. Rotom does outspeed and burns Scizor, but with a healthy Scizor, Xrn doesn't have to sac anything when Glaceon comes back out in the future.

After getting burned, Scizor U-Turns into Tapu Koko, who's able to KO Landorus-T with a Dazzling Gleam after it came in to take a Thunderbolt. This leads to Dragapult coming in to force out Koko in Goltres, leading to another Dragapult U-Turn into Glaceon. Xrn U-Turns out into Mega Scizor again, this time taking nearly 80% damage from Glaceon's Meltdown + Burn + Hail chip. Xrn decides to switch Scizor out for Wishiwashi, probably assuming that Glaceon outspeeds, where Wishiwashi takes a kinda crazy 31% from a crit Meltdown, despite being 4x resisted. A follow-up Meltdown that's not only 2x resisted after the Soak effect nearly takes out Wishiwashi, but it just survives and gets to heal with Recover. This highlights that one problem with Meltdown I mentioned earlier, as a Glaceon wasn't quite able to beat Wishiwashi here because it had to use a resisted move. Ironically, changing Wishiwashi into a pure Water-type made it weaker to Meltdown, but still.

scor switches out Glaceon as Wishiwashi Recovers to full. Goltres is able to get a Toxic on Wishiwashi before it Flip Turns out, but Tapu Koko comes in for Xrn and scor doesn't have a switch-in for it anymore, being forced to sac Goltres to a Thunderbolt. After taking a Bullet Punch from scor's incoming Scizor, Tapu Koko also KOes Scizor before getting forced out again by Dragapult. scor doesn't go for U-Turn this time, instead really trying to get rid of Koko by going for Hex, but the incoming Goltres takes it extremely well despite being poisoned. Thus, Dragapult is forced to U-Turn (with its Dragon move on its set likely being Draco Meteor and not Dragon Darts, which might've killed at this range), bringing in Rotom, but Goltres U-Turns as well, allowing Xrn to finally send out Nidoking to clean up. Both Rotom and Glaceon go down to a single Acidic Fists after being sufficiently weakened earlier, while Dragapult falls to an Ice Punch after failing to KO Nidoking with an unboosted Hex, giving Xrn and the Dachsbuns the win.

The 5-0 win for Xrn doesn't quite tell the whole story, as Xrn really had to juggle between playing careful enough to not get eviscerated by Glaceon, but also risky enough to gain an advantage out of a stalemate, both things that Xrn managed to do extremely well in this battle. scor put up a great effort, but a couple misplays and some good callouts by Xrn eventually lead to Nidoking being in position to abruptly end the game. Another great win for Xrn to continue a good tournament run so far, while scor falls to 0-2 but still has more than enough time to turn it around.


TL;DR:
The Glaceon team lost but like -
252+ SpA Choice Specs Kyurem Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Scizor-Mega: 174-206 (50.5 - 59.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Snow Cloak Glaceon Blizzard vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Scizor-Mega: 192-226 (55.8 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Hail damage

 

[Z Strats]

 

[Xrn]

Update: it was not danger.

 

[Gekokeso]

"Who is your favourite Burgundy player?"
"Yeah its uh:"

 

[Yoshiblaze]

Very late on this, but here's my Week 3 JolteMons Recap!

VS

vstra (United Tropius Company) vs Xrn (Dave's Dachsbuns)

Temporary Link (Requires being in the Pet Mods Discord to view)

/ / / / / vs / / / / /

First up is vstra of the United Tropius Company going up against Xrn of Dave's Dachsbuns. This'll be another quick game as you can see on team preview, with vstra sporting a Rain team that we've seen a few times now, one that Xrn's used themselves, while Xrn is using a standard screens team featuring Mesprit, looking to give it another sweep under its belt. If screens go up, Hawlucha, Mesprit, and especially Gyarados can easily sweep through vstra's team, but getting them up multiple times against the offensive pressure of Rain will prove to be difficult, plus Xrn has to make sure to not take too much damage while setting up or their mons are just gonna get Water Shuriken'd by Greninja.

The battle starts as expected, with vstra leading Pelipper and Xrn leading with suicide lead Excadrill, with the latter getting up Rocks while Pelipper U-Turns into Greninja, looking to get a kill early. The faster Greninja gets a kill, the harder it'll be for any of Xrn's mons not named Gyarados to sweep. Speaking of which, Xrn immediately switches in Gyarados, but it still takes over 60% from a Hydro Pump in Rain. This forces Xrn to switch, going into Tapu Koko, which is extremely risky as if Greninja hits this Hydro Pump, Xrn basically loses instantly, while Hawlucha could come in the next turn to force out Gren, Greninja can OHKO everything later on and it would be a lot harder for any of Xrn's mons to set up. However, Greninja misses its Hydro Pump, saving Xrn for now. This lets Xrn get a Light Screen up the next turn and then deal a huge chunk of damage to Gren with U-Turn. However, Hydro Pump is still ridiculously powerful, so Xrn is forced to sac Excadrill, allowing Greninja's Battle Bond to activate and making it much more dangerous.

Xrn sends in Gyarados next and Mega Evolves. Even behind Light Screen and with Gyarados' huge bulk and Water resistance, it still only barely lives a Hydro Pump from 40%, but it does live, letting it DDance up and heal a bit with Rain Dish. Rain Dish ends up being super useful, saving Gyarados from dying to Iron Barbs as vstra switches in Ferrothorn, who isn't Eject Button as we've seen from Ferrothorns on this specific Rain team before. vstra is forced to let Ferrothorn go down to 2 Crunches as Rain Dish keeps Gyarados at 17%.

vstra sends in Pelipper to reset Rain. vstra stays in to pivot out with U-Turn, with Pelipper taking a ton of damage from a Crunch from Gyarados but still surviving, nearly KOing Gyarados with U-Turn as well, and bringing in Mega Swampert to threaten a revenge kill. Xrn switches out Gyarados to preserve their one Water resist, sacking Tapu Koko, a necessary sac as nothing takes 2 hits from Pert and Terrain allows Hawlucha to outspeed Pert, but it does mean that they won't have Screens for the rest of the battle. Hawlucha comes in, activates Unburden with its Electric Seed, and gets a Swords Dance off, taking 49% in the process from a Mega Pert Flip Turn. vstra brings in Zapdos. Xrn goes for Substitute to stall a turn, but vstra goes for Volt Switch, allowing them to bring in Greninja to revenge kill Hawlucha with Water Shuriken, preventing it from doing any damage. Mesprit comes in for Xrn, being able to barely survive a Water Shuriken before revenge killing Greninja, but this allows Mega Pert to come in to KO Mesprit, and, after vstra switches out to let Pelipper reset Rain to make 100% sure that Volcarona can't countersweep them, then clean up the rest of Xrn's team, giving vstra a huge win for the United Tropius Company.

Hyper Offense has some very good matchups and some not very good matchups, with Xrn simply running into to one of them not very good ones. vstra used that advantage perfectly, making sure to not give Xrn any openings to turns things around, giving them a great first win of the tournament, and a win that the Tropius Company really needed as they were able to get a tie with the best team in the tournament. This should be a huge confidence boost for vstra after a rough first two weeks. As for Xrn, we know that they'll bounce back from this, with this being a bump in an otherwise great tournament run so far.

VS

hidin (Close Combat Comrades) vs scorbunnys (Think-A-Ton Crew)

Temporary Link (Requires being in the Pet Mods Discord server to view)

/ / / / / vs / / / / /

Next up is hidin of the Close Combat Comrades versus scorbunnys of the Think-A-Ton Crew, with both players looking for their first wins of the season this week. hidin what appears to be another Mesprit HO team like Xrn's team from earlier, but with completely different Pokemon around it aside from Volcarona. It also appears to be the kind of HO where you just lead a hazard setter and then have 5 sweepers as opposed to a Screens or Webs team, with said hazard setter being either Terrakion (who gets Spikes, among a bunch of other things, in JolteMons) or Garchomp. Meanwhile, scorbunnys is running a more offensively leaning balance team featuring the first appearances of the tournament for Zeraora and Mega Diancie. Mega Diancie didn't really get any notable changes in JolteMons, but Zeraora is a really interesting mon as it gets Electro Ball, which is a Body Press clone based on the user's Speed stat. While it does a lot less damage than you'd think considering Zeraora's 143 Speed and having STAB on it, it still does enough damage to make Zeraora a great mixed attacker and the next best Electric pivot after Tapu Koko. In terms of the matchup, scor kinda has to walk on eggshells for the entire game, as any of hidin's 5 sweepers could sweep them aside from a non-Scarfed Lele. On the other hand, Weavile heavily threatens everything on hidin's team, so using it to deny setup opportunities will be key.

The battle starts with hidin leading Terrakoin, revealing it to be their suicide lead, while scorbunnys leads Weavile. Weavile can't OHKO Terrakion, even if it was Banded since Terrakion's Concussion disables items, and Terrakion threatens Weavile with a possible Accelerock (which it also gets in JolteMons), so scor is forced to go into Gliscor, which tanks a High Jump Kick from Terrakion. Terrakion gets Stealth Rock up as Gliscor deals a good chunk of damage with Earthquake, then Taunts Gliscor as scorbunnys predicts a switch and U-Turns, bringing in Zeraora. hidin switches into Garchomp, which Zeraora can't touch unless it's running HP Ice. Garchomp tanks a Knock Off and doesn't lose its item, meaning that it's a Mega Garchomp. scor switches, revealing that they likely don't have HP Ice, into Tapu Fini, who absorbs a Scale Shot from the now Mega'd Garchomp.

hidin goes into Kartana, taking very little from a Tapu Fini Draining Kiss, revealing that scor's Fini is likely a Calm Mind set. scor switches Fini out for Zeraora, a little surprising when they have Heatran but I'm guessing they were worried about Swords Dance or a prediction with Sacred Sword, who just barely lives a Leaf Blade. hidin switches to Mega Garchomp as Zeraora does some more chip damage to it with a Close Combat. Zeraora hits Garchomp with another Close Combat, lowering it to just 15%, but hidin goes for the Earthquake, finishing Zeraora off. scor sends in Weavile to revenge kill Garchomp, taking Rocks damage in the process. This plus no Soul Blade activate reveals that Weavile is likely Banded, or maybe a Never-Melt Ice set that's supposed to appear Banded.

hidin goes into Kartana, who survives a Knock Off the next turn and OHKOs Weavile with a crit Leaf Blade, getting a Speed boost from Beast Boost, meaning that it's the infamous Timid Kartana set. For those wondering, even with the low Attack stat of Timid Kartana, the crit there likely didn't matter as Leaf Blade did 72% minimum and Weavile was at 75%, so the crit only mattered 25% of the time. scorbunnys sends out Diancie, but immediately pivots to Heatran on a Leaf Blade before Heatran revenge kills Kartana with an Earth Power after also taking a Sacred Sword. Volcarona comes in to Quiver Dance, only having to eat a Toxic from Heatran before KOing it with Hidden Power. This means that scor's best check to Tapu Lele and Mesprit is now down, which is huge as either one will now have a much easier time sweeping. The latter comes in for hidin on the next turn, with them switching out Volcarona for Mesprit as scor brings in Tapu Fini and Calm Minds. Fini is able to stop Mesprit from sweeping just yet by Taunting it, forcing hidin to go into Lele the next turn as scor Calm Minds again. Lele Calm Minds in front of Fini, allowing it to take very little from Fini's +2 Draining Kiss. Tapu Lele then OHKOs its fellow Tapu with a critical hit Life Orb Psyshock, a critical hit that likely did matter, but Lele likely would've beaten Fini 1v1 anyway. scor is able to revenge kill Lele with Mega Diancie. However, this allows Mesprit to come in, tank some Diamond Storms, and use Calm Mind and Moody boosts to clean up the rest of scor's team, giving hidin and the Comrades the win.

hidin gets a good first win of the tournament, giving Mesprit its second win of the tournament, which is cool to see. With HO being brought as often as it has in this tournament, it really seems that people have gravitated towards our resident bootleg Espathra here, to quite a bit of success. As for scor, it's another tough loss, but all you can really do is get back up and keep it pushing,

VS

Fluore (Phantomire Gourgeists) vs Baloor (Worker's Union of Gensokyo)

Temporary Link (Requires being in the Pet Mods Discord server to view)

/ / / / / vs / / / / /

Last but not least we have Fluore of the Phantomire Gourgeists and Baloor of the Worker's Union of Gensokyo. Looking at the teams, Baloor is running that one Rain team we've seen a few times now, including a win from vstra earlier with it. Meanwhile, and I know this is a little blasphemous, but I'm starting to suspect that Fluore might be a Beaf Cultist alt account in disguise, as they're running Beaf's Week 3 PMPL I team, another team co-signed by their manager zxgzxg. That said, it's a really interesting team, featuring stuff like Curse Goodra (Curse being one of the more controversial buffs in the JolteMons, with the non-Ghost version giving you +2 Attack, +1 Defense, and -1 Speed (and before you go check, Scizor doesn't learn it anymore)), as well as Scarf Gourgeist-Small. Gourgeist-Small used to be one of the most terrifying wallbreakers in JolteMons, as its doubled SpA from Light Power plus a 130 BP STAB move in Deafening Shriek made it nigh impossible to switch into without a Galarian Moltres, which could get sniped by Moonblast. However, it got massively nerfed during PMPL I, ironically right after Beaf Cultist originally used this team, losing Moonblast and being the main reason why Deafening Shriek got nerfed to 100 BP, making it way easier to switch into as the user is forced to switch out if the move doesn't OHKO the foe. Thus, Gourgeist-Small kinda fell off the face of the earth, just barely staying in OU (and it should really be UUBL) as its other forms languished in the lower tiers. Thus, it's an extremely rare sight nowadays, but it's gonna pay dividends for Fluore as Scarf Gourgeist is a great Rain check, as it can take any 1 hit from Swampert (or completely wall it if it's not running Ice Punch) and OHKO it with a Grass move while also revenge killing Greninja easily. Fluore just has to be careful around Zapdos and Ferrothorn when using Gourgeist, but Goodra, Heatran, and Buzzwole should be able to help with that. Additionally, Fluore's defensive backbone matches up really well against Rain, with Fluore having an answer for all of Baloor's breakers, with just a shaky matchup into Greninja as they lack a Dark resist, arguably giving Fluroe the advantage here.

The battles with the standard Pelipper lead from Baloor as Fluore leads with Air Balloon Heatran. Fluore boldly stays in to get Rocks up as Pelipper U-Turns, allowing Heatran to stay alive to deal with Ferrothorn later but immediately popping its Air Balloon. Swampert comes in for Baloor, Mega Evolving and Flip Turning out, likely predicting a switch. However, Heatran stays in, taking a ton of damage but surviving. Baloor goes into Manaphy, who eats a Toxic that's immediately healed by Hydration. Fluore now switches Heatran out, going into Gourgeist, who takes 51% from a strong Surf. Baloor switches out for Ferrothorn to take an Energy Ball from Gourgeist. Howevere, this version of the rain team is using Eject Button Ferro, so Baloor pivots into Zapdos. This still forces Fluore to switch, sacking Heatran to a Hurricane.

Goodra comes out for Fluore to try to take on Zapdos, but it can only do about a third of Zapdos' HP with a Thunder Punch, while two Hurricanes and an unfortunate confusion hit leaves Goodra in KO range. However, thanks to Goodra's Black Sludge, it just barely survives a third Hurricane and gets to heal 66% of its HP with a Life Dew in rain, as Life Dew is a Shore Up for rain in JolteMons, saving Fluore from losing another mon to Zapdos. Both sides switch out, with Baloor bringing in Ferrothorn and Fluore bringing in Gliscor. The latter doubles into Gourgeist while the former gets up Rocks. Gourgeist is able to pick off Ferrothorn with a Fire Blast, right after Rain ended, which is pretty major as it was Baloor's best switch-in to Gourgeist. Baloor brings in Greninja to try to revenge kill Gourgeist, but Fluore switches to Buzzwole, taking almost half from a Dark Pulse, but not enough for Baloor to wanna stay in. Baloor switches to Zapdos, but Fluore predicts this and goes for Ice Punch, KOing Baloor's next best Gourgeist switch-in. This was an absolutely huge turn, as now Gourgeist can just click Energy Ball whenever it's able to come in and kill something. It was also pretty risky on Fluore's part as 2 Dark Pulses would've killed (or maybe even just 1 more) and Buzzwole dying would give Baloor Ash-Greninja, which can destroy everything with Dark Pulse and possibly even kill Gourgeist in rain with a Water Shuriken if Xrn figures out that it's Scarf. Plus, Buzzwole dying would mean 1 less Mega Pert switch-in. A huge gamble paying off for Fluore there.

Baloor goes Pelipper to reset rain, then goes into Manaphy as Buzzwole Roosts. Surprisingly, Buzzwole outspeeds Manaphy, smacking it with a huge Close Combat before getting KO'd by a Surf, allowing Gourgeist to pick it off next turn with an Energy Ball. This brings in Mega Swampert, forcing out even Scarf Gourgeist, bringing in Slowbro as it Flip Turns. Greninja comes out, forcing Fluore to sac Gliscor to 2 Dark Pulses and activating Battle Bond. However, this lets Gourgeist come in to get a kill, KOing Pelipper with an Energy Ball as Baloor deduces that it's likely Scarf.

Mega Pert comes back in to force out Gourgeist, but instead of Flip Turning Swampert EQs instead, dealing some chip to Slowbro. At the time I watched it, I thought this was a misplay, as it allowed Slowbro to Teleport out into Gourgeist, who then ended the game by killing Pert with Energy Ball, then forcing Greninja to lock into Water Shuriken meaning that it could never beat Goodra. However, this really wasn't a misplay on Baloor's part as there really wasn't much they could do at this point, as they pretty much lost as soon as Zapdos died. Had they Flip Turned there instead, Greninja gets to kill Slowbro, but without Rain neither Pert nor Greninja can beat both Goodra and Gourgeist and Baloor still loses. And Baloor needed both alive to win, so they had to sac Pelipper on the turn they did which meant that they wouldn't have rain for that endgame. Ultimately, the game came down to that Ice Punch on Zapdos, with Fluore being able to cash in that gamble to get the win. Unfortunate first loss of the tour for Baloor, but they're another player that can definitely bounce back, while Fluore was able to nab another good win for the Gourgs, while using Gourgeist, which is fun.

Week 4's recap is gonna be a trip, all I'm gonna say

 

[G-Luke]

Not a weekly recap, but Alternatium EX and Fusion Evolution SV have both recently launched Tiering Surveys. If you have any experience playing either of these metagames, whether in preparation for PMPL or not, you are urged to try and participate. Your opinions will help shape the future of the competitive landscape of these metagames, making them better to play and more fun to watch!

Alternatium EX link

Fusion Evolution SV link

 

[G-Luke]

Not a weekly recap, but Alternatium EX and Fusion Evolution SV have both recently launched Tiering Surveys. If you have any experience playing either of these metagames, whether in preparation for PMPL or not, you are urged to try and participate. Your opinions will help shape the future of the competitive landscape of these metagames, making them better to play and more fun to watch!

Alternatium EX link

Fusion Evolution SV link

A quick update, these surveys will be closed on Tuesday, so time is of the essence if you didn't fill them out

 

[Gekokeso]

 

[BeeOrSomething]

View attachment 527241
View attachment 527271

 

[Bobsican]

Gotta give anaconja a taste of his own medicine and do an euology of how the WUoG and the Think-a-Ton Crew didn't even make it to semis:

Okay, as we can see here, it's quite clear the TaTC didn't spend their budget quite well. A good start was around their leaders in decently known Pet Modders Sticky Fingaa and Lord Zorz (the latter which formerly gave leadership to the Turn 1 Booomers in the previous PMPL), and from there they managed to get Earl, who is a good strategist and player even beyond the tiers he mains, but beyond that, some basic research from the past PMPL sheet shows that they overpaid a lot on players with questionable precedents, which isn't helped by some of the players being newcomers this PMPL round, and thus one can claim at least some had difficulty getting customized.

From here, it's clear some of their most expensive players got significantly more Ls than Ws, and it sure isn't helped by activity Ls being called on them multiple times, which implies that their leaders didn't do a good job moderating their players to at least push for a substitute in such cases, and so overall there were problems everywhere, but at least Earl didn't get hax'd to death like the past PMPL.

Now, onto the Union Workers of Gensokyo, Anaconja (who led this team the past PMPL) + Adem apparently is a potent combination from what I've heard, and so the two being the managers of the team sounds good on paper, they also managed to get into their team a variety of decently known users from the OM and Pet Mods communities, but from there the issue is clear, not only were they unable to pick some of the better players they had last PMPL as other teams got luckier, it also seems the Earl curse went on to G-Luke instead, who apparently was suggesting stuff to this team, and let's just say that didn't fare well...

From weird choking to IMO wasting the potential of some of the players they picked (MFW IsoCon never played a game), it's clear the WUoG lost the mentality and some of the resources that made them win the last PMPL.

 

[G-Luke]

Why is my name being called I'm not even in the damn tournament?

 

[zxgzxg]

I'm gonna give myself a taste of my own medicine and do a eulogy of the greatest PMPL team ever, the Pantomire Gourgeists AKA The Gourgs AKA GG PG Money Gangz.

Now, looking at the initial draft, I think we all have the same question, 'Why is zxgzxg so goddamn sexy? And how did such a cracked team lose so fucking hard?" Now I think this can be boiled down to a few subtle but deadly flaws:

• In their M4A slot, absolute goats Lasen and Ara unfortunately passed away in a tragic flood while trying to find out what the fuck Mega Mismagius does. We'll never know now.
• The FESV slot zxgzxg, as previously mentioned, is unbearably sexy and was too busy getting bitches and investing in crypto to actually play well. He also has no idea what Regenerator does.
• shiloh , the Alternatium SEX main, it burns when I pee. Like reeeeeally burns. Is that supposed to happen? Am I gonna die?
• Cao Jie, bless his heart, got haxxed every week, so I solely blame God for that one.
• On Week 3, Curse+Rest Snorlax broke into bekama's home and shot his 28 Gourgillion times, rendering him unable to play. Quite sad.

So despite TTTech and pokology winning every game of Gen 6 RU they played,

 

[zxgzxg]

Apologies, there was a spider on my keyboard and it pressed the Enter key for me. Lil' fucker was banished to the shadow realm of my stomach for his transgressions.

Anyways, despite TTTech winning all 15 weeks, the weight of my sins forever curses me, allowing me to never feel joy. I pray that someone may break my curse of immortality, freeing me from my hellish punishment. I hope the Gourgs have better luck (and better support, looking at you Beaf Cultist) in 10 years, when PMPL III is being hosted. Until then, here's another Discord screenshot of @anacooma I find quite humorous:

Lmao, ana is pooping!

 

[Beaf Cultist]

Why is my name being called I'm not even in the damn tournament?

shadow edit: thought the first post was like one of those tiktoks with subway surfers on half the screen and minecraft girlfriend mod on the other half and burger king foot lettuce guy talking about the effects of late stage capitalism on the spread of big chungus where it loops perfectly but then zxg posted again and ruined the bit. big L!


shadow edit 2 so i don’t have to make another post later: schedule conflicts ended up preventing me for signing up for pmpl this year, but keeping track of how things were going and providing support to the gourgs in the later weeks were still super enjoyable, and i’m looking forward to managing the gourgs playing next year! also if yall don’t do jolte meta discussion posts or team dumps or smth i will drown you in HO sample team pokepastes. also also sub to vaporemons (it is the best pet mod).

 

[Gekokeso]

Why is my name being called I'm not even in the damn tournament?

Why is my name being called I'm not even in the damn tournament?

Imagine not making pet mods the priority in your existence as a Smogon user smh.

 

[DuoM2]

what in the hell have you people done to this thread

 

[G-Luke]

I commend Bobsican for somehow being cringe and lame even as one of the best win rates in the tour. That takes real skill and no social awareness, and not alot of people have both

 

[Bobsican]

I apologize if what I posted was unintentionally offensive, but in any case you don't have to be on a team to participate, G-Luke even has admitted to have been giving feedback to some teams in the Pet Mods Discord, I'd screenshot that but chances are that'd be taken as offensive too ironically.

 

[Beaf Cultist]

 

[Sabelette]

At this point i can’t tell how many layers of irony everyone’s on and if anyone is genuinely mad

 

[Gekokeso]

At this point i can’t tell how many layers of irony everyone’s on and if anyone is genuinely mad

Welcome to the pet mod experience, the answer is yes.

 

[anaconja]

 

[Bobsican]

 

[adem]

Gotta give anaconja a taste of his own medicine and do an euology of how the WUoG and the Think-a-Ton Crew didn't even make it to semis:

View attachment 529210

Okay, as we can see here, it's quite clear the TaTC didn't spend their budget quite well. A good start was around their leaders in decently known Pet Modders Sticky Fingaa and Lord Zorz (the latter which formerly gave leadership to the Turn 1 Booomers in the previous PMPL), and from there they managed to get Earl, who is a good strategist and player even beyond the tiers he mains, but beyond that, some basic research from the past PMPL sheet shows that they overpaid a lot on players with questionable precedents, which isn't helped by some of the players being newcomers this PMPL round, and thus one can claim at least some had difficulty getting customized.

From here, it's clear some of their most expensive players got significantly more Ls than Ws, and it sure isn't helped by activity Ls being called on them multiple times, which implies that their leaders didn't do a good job moderating their players to at least push for a substitute in such cases, and so overall there were problems everywhere, but at least Earl didn't get hax'd to death like the past PMPL.

View attachment 529313

Now, onto the Union Workers of Gensokyo, Anaconja (who led this team the past PMPL) + Adem apparently is a potent combination from what I've heard, and so the two being the managers of the team sounds good on paper, they also managed to get into their team a variety of decently known users from the OM and Pet Mods communities, but from there the issue is clear, not only were they unable to pick some of the better players they had last PMPL as other teams got luckier, it also seems the Earl curse went on to G-Luke instead, who apparently was suggesting stuff to this team, and let's just say that didn't fare well...

View attachment 529316

From weird choking to IMO wasting the potential of some of the players they picked (MFW IsoCon never played a game), it's clear the WUoG lost the mentality and some of the resources that made them win the last PMPL.

top tier analysis, well done :thumbsup: