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It is recommended to play all games on SmogTours in the most current version of the format corresponding to those listed above. Games can be played on the Pokemon Showdown main server, but run higher risk of interference from server restarts/crashes.
Scheduling
Scheduling should be done on Smogon Profile walls, plain and simple:
- If there is communication on only one user's behalf, the win will go to them. Feel free to call activity in this thread beforehand
- If there is a very healthy back and forth regarding potential times and one user is a no-show, a manager may take the opportunity to sub out the no-show competitor; if this is not done, the user that showed up responsibly will be awarded the win.
TL;DR: Post on your opponent's Smogon wall, schedule your matches, and be reliable. If you can't play for any reason, let your manager know so they can sub you out ASAP.
Sportsmanship
Exhibitions of unsportsmanlike conduct with regards to the Other Metagame Premier League will be met with an infraction at the discretion of the OMPL host/OM mods. This is unlikely to include interactions within a team's private chat unless there is reason found to make an exception. This rule is meant to protect other users from being publicly flamed/bashed/provoked by another competitor for the duration of and following the tournament.
All players must complete their matches by the given deadline. Any incomplete matches by that time will be subject to an activity decision (MAKE SURE YOU POST ON YOUR OPPONENT'S WALL); otherwise, it will be a deadgame. All matches should ideally be done on your most notable alt to avoid confusion and all match replays must be saved and posted in this thread.
Substitutions & Lineups
Managers, if you wish to make any substitutions, you must post here tagging both the player you're subbing out, the player you're subbing in, the manager and assistant manager of the opposing team, the substitute's opponent, and all of the hosts. This is to assure that everyone is in-the-loop and that the OP is updated accordingly to reflect the new match-up.
Managers, when you send in lineups, please send it in with the tier and Smogon username of each player fully written out for ease of transcription.
W VIRIZZIONS (0) vs (0) Zoomer Zeraoras
AAA: Betticus IV vs Lana
AAA: shiloh vs Tbp24
BH: teamo vs quojova
STAB: Fusien vs Kaif
MnM: Pomellow vs TectonicDestroyer
GG: pannu vs Rio Vidal
PiC: NovaFish21 vs zoe
Bo3: fififlutters vs Icemaster
Commanders (0) vs (0) Heart Takers
AAA: RoFnA vs ghostlike
AAA: crow crumbs vs Stareal
BH: cityscapes vs Treeko928
STAB: Clem vs avarice
MnM: Axzel vs hayedenn
GG: Fc vs Ivar57
PiC: HiZo vs Frixel
Bo3: damflame 3 vs SammyCe123
Crazy Diamond Dialgas (0) vs (0) Gholden Witches
AAA: O1V7O2X9O vs Atha
AAA: GlalieGoesBoom vs Irene
BH: XxLazzerpenguinxX vs akira
STAB: word vs One Last Kiss
MnM: PociekMociek vs Career Ended
GG: aerobee vs Les2BG
PiC: DeepFriedMagikarp vs GhastlyPixie
Bo3: Clas vs QT
Pink Ponyta Club (0) vs (0) Dazzling Diancies
AAA: Glory vs Kinetic
AAA: feen vs Mada
BH: Ballfire vs Wheaty
STAB: xdRudi.exe vs abriel
MnM: Slither Wing vs zastra
GG: Lily vs LBN
PiC: Chromate vs yuki
Bo3: Mindnight vs TTTech
gg reviews gna be delayed cos i have beeg exams but dw they're coming
18/32 predicts correct both w1 and w2 so if i bold you statistically there is a 94% chance of me having guessed that matchup
W VIRIZZIONS (4) vs (4) Zoomer Zeraoras
AAA: Betticus IV vs Lana - have to back betticus here unfortunately
AAA: shiloh vs Tbp24 - tbp is a good clicker but are they going to get a good team passed to them
BH: teamo vs quojova - after last week i would not have been able to bold quinn. unfortunatelly i cannot bold teamo either
STAB: Fusien vs Kaif - i'll back the mainer
MnM: Pomellow vs TectonicDestroyer - mnm appearing to be a weakness of the virizzions again. if career is supporting tect full time now idt they're winning in the builder department
GG: pannu vs Rio Vidal - fraise defo needed a break from playing but this is definitely throwing rio in the deep end, even if pannu is off the back of a bad week. they're gna need one hell of a matchup to win this
PiC: NovaFish21 vs zoe - zoe is probably going to bounce back this week
Bo3: fififlutters vs Icemaster - i think fiora has been playing very well. won't count icemaster out esp after he played both bh sets fairly well last week. i think whoever wins bh takes the set, becos i think ice wins mnm and fiora wins gg
Commanders (0) vs (0) Heart Takers
AAA: RoFnA vs ghostlike - rofna has a real chance at taking this but idt he builds so i'm questioning who's building his teams lol
AAA: crow crumbs vs Stareal - bird can win if they get a fishy matchup
BH: cityscapes vs Treeko928 - city is better
STAB: Clem vs avarice - more revolving doors in the stab slot, i didn't even kn avarice was on the takers. i think i still back clem but this match should be close
MnM: Axzel vs hayedenn - stop calling me bonk >:[
GG: Fc vs Ivar57 - full credit to fc for beating pannu, you get a bold
PiC: HiZo vs Frixel - frixel did get unlucky last week but he definitely could have closed out the game much faster. hizo got a good win vs nf so i'll bold him
Bo3: damflame 3 vs SammyCe123 - sammy is back in bo3. i probably back sammy to win mnm and gg, and could win bh asw
Crazy Diamond Dialgas (4) vs (4) Gholden Witches
AAA: O1V7O2X9O vs Atha - Atha got decently unlucky vs kinetic last week but i can't not bold against them, even tho o1 is going to make this a fucking close game
AAA: GlalieGoesBoom vs Irene - i need to start bolding glalie more
BH: XxLazzerpenguinxX vs akira - akira bounced back last week. lazzer's going to have to put in some work to make this matchup work
STAB: word vs One Last Kiss - w0rd cooked last week with the team now he needs to get comfortable with them and play without blundering
MnM: PociekMociek vs Career Ended - tough mu for placu but he can defo make this close
GG: aerobee vs Les2BG - bit unfortunate to see starshine and nashrock both subbed out, it would have been a very nice match to watch. builderwise i think these teams are about even and so this will come down to playing ability - les probably has the knowledge advantage so it comes down to how quickly pure hackmons gets to grips with the tier
PiC: DeepFriedMagikarp vs GhastlyPixie - i need to start bolding dfm more
Bo3: Clas vs QT - qt probably wins bh, clas probably tilts the next. if he doesn't he wins gg easily but mnm is a real tossup beyond that
Pink Ponyta Club (3) vs (5) Dazzling Diancies
AAA: Glory vs Kinetic - matchup of the week. bo3 agreed to so we're going to be treated to some cinema here. this is a true 50/50 mu - i just think glory tilts easier
AAA: feen vs Mada - this is going to be close as with the matchup above. should be a fun watch
BH: Ballfire vs Wheaty - wheaty is due for a win and i think he can do it here
STAB: xdRudi.exe vs abriel - abriel definitely makes it close but rudi is one of the best stab players atm
MnM: Slither Wing vs zastra - i think i promised zastra i would bold him. sorry bonk :(
GG: Lily vs LBN - terrifying matchup for lbn. he definitely can do it but it's a very outside chance
PiC: Chromate vs yuki - ACTUALLY matchup of the week. everyone please get your popcorn and get ready... my gut says yuki but anything can happen so this will be an extremely fun watch.
Bo3: Mindnight vs TTTech - i don't see tech losing this
WEEK 3 PREDICTS
Hi it's me again. 11/24 last week (obviously counting the Taka win as a good predict bc I'm a fraud) so I gotta step up (just like TectonicDestroyer), here we go
Commanders (2) vs (6) Heart Takers
AAA: RoFnA vs ghostlike - ghostlike had a strong game last week and he said he was sad I didn't bold him
AAA: crow crumbs vs Stareal - honestly crow crumbs' game last week was not rly good and even when Betticus hard choked they did not get the winning path while being high on time so I think Stareal is just better here
BH: cityscapes vs Treeko928 - don't let me down again city, you're the only reason I appreciate watching BH games
STAB: Clem vs avarice - SORRY CLEM I SHOULD HAVE KEPT MY FAITH you're the goat and now you finish the season in 6-1
MnM: Axzel vs hayedenn - good game by Axzel last week so I would not count them out but I'm still a hayedenn believer and until they face 0-5 tect they are not going to lose
GG: Fc vs Ivar57 - apparently pannu said they did not respect Fc so they reused their stall and got owned. I do respect Fc as a player and rank them high in that pool, but while Ivar lost last week I feel like he played pretty passively against a player he thought weaker and got outplayed but it won't happen here. Tough game though, I hope y'all don't bring boring clefable fat
PiC: HiZo vs Frixel - close pairing I think, HiZo had a strong game while Frixel almost won against Chromate with a minor mistake at the end. That was a hard endgame though and honestly I enjoyed watching that game so just for that reason, I'm bolding Frixel
Bo3: damflame 3 vs SammyCe123 - not too convinced by damflame's games last week, though Sammy still has to prove in bo3
Crazy Diamond Dialgas (2) vs (6) Gholden Witches
AAA: O1V7O2X9O vs Atha - better player
AAA: GlalieGoesBoom vs Irene - x2
BH: XxLazzerpenguinxX vs akira - hmhmh Akira got "bailed" by MU last week cuz that Pikachu was nuts but that's also outprepped while Sevag got outplayed. While I believe it might not happen again to sevag, I believe Akira's strength in the building might show again against sevag
STAB: word vs One Last Kiss - I liked One Last Kiss game while word lost a 100-0 MU. While his team was good and interesting and he outprepped us, not winning such outpreps is kinda sad so I trust OLK more here
MnM: PociekMociek vs Career Ended - placu had an unfort game last week but I have high hopes on them bc they've been doing pretty good, though it's Career here and for now I still trust him more
GG: aerobee vs Les2BG - just like Boing I'm surprised both starters got subbed out esp Starshine who was doing pretty good but maybe they're busy or something, I'm giving the edge to Les2BG bc I believe he can bring something unusual and cheese aerobee. In an even MU I rate aerobee's skills higher though if they have a good grasp on the meta
PiC: DeepFriedMagikarp vs GhastlyPixie - I decided I was a GhastlyPixie believer since W1 and I was sad she did not get to play W1. DFM's pretty good though, and they're probably the favorite here, but I believe in my girl
Bo3: Clas vs QT - QT's been impressive so far and I'm happy, they got this
Pink Ponyta Club (4) vs (4) Dazzling Diancies
AAA: Glory vs Kinetic - hype matchup esp in bo3 but I rate Kinetic higher + in a bo3 setup they're less likely to tilt
AAA: feen vs Mada - good game by feen last week while Mada took advantage of pyu's choke
BH: Ballfire vs Wheaty - sry Ballfire but I think Wheaty is a better BH player
STAB: xdRudi.exe vs abriel - cool matchup but I rate rudi's skills a bit higher
MnM: Slither Wing vs zastra - i did not like zastra's team too much last week but I think they're still above Bonk
GG: Lily vs LBN - Lily's pretty good and LBN forgot the Zacian check last week
PiC: Chromate vs yuki - Chromate's fan forever AND they are lucky so they can't lose this
Bo3: Mindnight vs TTTech - mind played well in GG but still lacks knowledge in MnM and BH so
BH: teamo vs quojova (80)
Bo3: fififlutters(60) vs Icemaster
Icemaster genuinely impressed me in BH last week for all his comments about how BH players only shit on him. Fiora is still better though.
BH: cityscapes(70) vs Treeko928
Bo3: damflame 3 vs SammyCe123 (65)
BH: Ballfire (52) vs Wheaty
Bo3: Mindnight vs TTTech (65)
None of these are really controvertial the BH matchups are pretty one sided this week except Ballfire but that's just because I gotta stay a Ballfire believer I don't wanna see em go negative this OMPL :(
GG: pannu vs Rio Vidal : don't know who Rio Vidal is
Bo3: fififlutters vs Icemaster (gg) : fififlutters seems to have a lot of ideas in the builder + icemaster is probably not gonna build anything (or fraise will build smth but idk)
Commanders vs Heart Takers
GG: Fc vs Ivar57 : i liked a lot the team that Fc brought last week which was really fun and awesome to look at so i hope there will be similar tech this week !
Bo3: damflame 3 vs SammyCe123 (gg) : probably one of the most interesting mu in gg this week i think damflame will win this, mostly because i know that he can and he will build something new where i think sammy is kinda "failing" to renew itself (could be extremely wrong tho but damflame is french anw)
Pink Ponyta Club vs Dazzling Diancies
GG: Lily vs LBN : LBN brought mono-lose against Zac-C and Lily used a very cool hooh set so yeah
Bo3: Mindnight vs TTTech (gg) : pretty much the same reason as for damflame honestly i'm confident that he will bring something interesting !
On preview, Quinn's team looks relatively standard, with what I'd guess are regen Bro and Ting, Scales Elecceus and FC Audino, with Blissey either MG or Imp, if it's MG then the Elecceus could be FC with Audino as utility or it could be utility Elecceus. Unecro is something offensive no point in guessing since FC Maud Scales Elec Ting proof any viable set.
Taka's team looks strange, there doesn't seem to be an adequate improof to Garchomp or Blaziken, and nothing makes sense as the Fur Coat since Elecceus really should be spdef to not lose to TH Arceus, but given city's on the team it could be FC Kyogre as a soft check to both. My suspicion would be the Flutter Mane and Gholdengo are both immunity, with one WBB and the other Levitate. Regardless, the team kinda looks like it folds in half to Greninja or special attackers depending on what the arc is so I don't really know what to think.
In terms of matchup though I like Chomper here for Taka since Quinn has only slow FCs or potentially a Garchomp-weak FC if it's Elecceus.
Turn 1 Unecro misses a Psycho Boost and takes Tcage chip, revealing likely Adapt, Elecceus reveals likely not scales by switching out. Eject Button Dengo takes surprisingly little from the Psycho Boost and balloon Flutter is revealed which is going to be Fire Immune and Improofing both of the physical guys. Chomp comes in and reveals scarf or perhaps prankster sticky web only to get OHKOed by Ice Judgment. Chicken reveals drought and not Desolate Land which pretty much confirms the Kyogre is going to be using Hydro Steam and that this team is definitely a city "balance" similar to her Rockceus sun perhaps.
Kyogre being Growth with Speed Boost comes off to me as very weird and I have to say I really hate the concept. Kyogre would therefore be running Water for STAB, then either needs to drop V-Create or Electric/Grass coverage to not get walled by dragons. If it is Water/Fire/Electric then I can't respect that set at all since Blaziken also struggles with Eternatus and other dragons, "Chomp will surprise kill" isn't adequate counterplay to them. Speed Boost is also weird with webs. Luckily Quinn doesn't have a defensive Dragon though so this is fine? Even then it means Unec can likely RK.
Poison and LO chip down Ogre quickly but right at the end Quinn misplays and lets Kyogre catch the Imposter trying to counter-sweep with an OHKO bolt strike.
Unec reveals scarf with no Gigaton, being unable to kill a Flutter Mane from full, and at this point it's kinda over because Taka's Elecceus is far healthier and therefore wins the 1v1.
Sevag's team appears at first glance to be pretty standard, I'd guess FC mirai on here and then perhaps Levi Flutter or Levi Steelceus to help w Chomper, but just Mirai + Steela is enough if you outplay since the team has fairies. Scales Maud + Regen Steela spdef. Steelceus could be immunity or GaG and Improofs the Gardevoir if it packs coverage or knock for Teela, and Mane is likely spikes utility, my guess MG given the team style.
Quojova has loaded bomb squad, a sample team, albeit perhaps with some modifications to catch an opponent relying on the paste off-guard.
Matchup-Wise it doesn't seem like there's an adequate check to Blaziken on Sevag's end since Mirai will just die to Headlong Rush, while Bomb Squad doesn't have a Gardevoir check but is generally efficient at not letting it get in.
Celesteela immediately confirms Regen, Lu Flip Turn reveals this isn't completely unmodified Bomb Squad, Chicken comes out and then Psea Ballon Flutter comes in revealing that the team is in fact prepped adequately for Blaziken. At this point it seems sort of unloseable for Sevag since holding off Zam should be no problem while Blaziken can't do anything and Garde gets a kill if it gets in safely. However, then Audino switches out of Zam, revealing it perhaps isn't Ice Scales? In that case Zam becomes a lot more threatening although it should still be fine to outplay it long term.
Very little of interest happens until turn 20 where Audino confirms not Scales by taking a ton from Zam's Volt Switch, then presumably tries to heal on a Blaziken double, but quojova just attacks and the Audino is dead?? At this point Zam becomes insanely scary since MGB will 2hko everything bar a healthy Teela even if something else is Ice Scales, but to be honest it looks like Sevag may have just forgot to bring a Spdef core?
Exactly this proceeds to happen where Bomb Squad's flexibility makes it easily able to win the sack race against Gardevoir, leading to quick victory for quojova despite Sevag having what should have been an unloseable matchup.
Ballfire's team is weird because there isn't an improof for any of the good Blaziken sets unless it's something very strange like fire immune Ghostceus, leading me to assume it is a bad Blaziken set, with rest of team being a bunch of defensive guys and at least one Imposter but Ball has used two before I'm pretty sure.
Treeko's team at least is extremely easy to read, that'll be Bounce Clod, Scales Zacian, Regen Steela, Fc Waterceus, CB Garchomp and Imposter Chansey. Anything else seems absurd especially given Ivar and Sammy are the support. Bounce Poison + CB Chomp is a tried and true archetype that works and the defensive core is typical for the current meta, unless the Chansey reveals non-imposter then there's nothing to question here.
On preview, Treeko's team seems to have an advantage as well as just being better in general.
Unfortunately, after a couple turns, Garchomp lands a critical hit on Audino that does the same damage a normal hit would have done if it were band. The reason for this is since Celesteela doesn't have nuzzle, the team is soft in to MG Eternatus so Treeko felt Scarf Garchomp was better to get out of that situation witout an imp tie. I don't really like this personally since you're compromising the extremely strong breaker core to slightly better check an, albeit good, mon that nobody is running these days.
Because of this and of the reveal that the Blaziken is a dogshit MGLO set, neither team has good ways to making progress, leading to a 161 turn slog where Treeko always held the advantage but it looked at some points like Ballfire would be able to hold out indefinitely thanks to recover FC Aud and the Garchomp missing the crucial trick. Eventually though Treeko broke through.
I figured Wheaty's team would be FC Celesteela with Scales Hooh + Regen Ting Lu, either FC or Unaware Etern + utility flutter, MG Etern + immunity flutter, or Wheaty had called out that I wouldn't be loading SG Blaziken and both Etern and Flutter were progress makers. Ho-oh could also be MG or Bounce with Regen Steela and both Etern and Flutter defensive.
Mine is lefties Imposter to improve the TH Fairyceus matchup, Registeel and Ting Lu double regen spdef, Ghostceus and Eternatus double FC, and TC Starter Pika with 2 electric, collision course and glaive rush, glaive chosen over headlong rush to hit Giratina.
I won't give too detailed of a play-by play of this game, but essentially it was a race between Hazard Stack that I couldn't deal with too well since Ting Lu's rapid spin was my sole removal, and Wheaty lacking a Pikachu check, after the fact I found out that I got really lucky with a 25% Bolt Strike roll on what turned out to be FC Ho-Oh, I got pretty bailed for that tbh, although it actually makes a fair bit of sense given the team especially once Flutter and Celesteela were revealed as MG and Psea respectively. I should have used Electro Drift which is a 15/16ths roll to kill even +spdef Ho-Oh, but I didn't calc it and might have feared Scales anyway. Pika was still cracked in the matchup though and I think it does great against the current defensive cores.
BO3- 3 games this week despite only 2 matches going to BH waow
Clas' team seems like stall if the Flutter Mane is utility, but Flare Boost could be loaded. Groundceus is nearly for sure Scales and I wonder what the set would be since groundceus always has Imp issues, Blissey likely cloak or boots Imp, FC Zama and double regen Bro and Steela.
Ice's team is specs Garde, regen Ting Lu and FC Zamazenta, but the other sets are all largely flexible, although I would probably suspect MG Chansey over Imposter on this team.
Flare Boost Flutter Mane is quickly revealed, and knocks out Arceus Steel with a good damage roll, 68% in Clas' favor offhandedly. From here, Clas' position is unbelievably strong, since he has an unwallable breaker in Flutter mane, and Icemaster's Gardevoir can't come in safely because Imposter threatens to counter sweep and crack open Ice's core. However, Clas is under a lot of pressure from Zamazenta and eventually chooses to sack Flutter mane, and then doesn't take advantage of the unimproofed mon when Gardevoir comes in to claim a kill. This puts Clas in a position where he is forced to stall out Icemaster, but that should be no issue at all given he has Imposter.
Then Clas decides to trick Ting Lu's Assault Vest on to Imposter despite having no special attackers left to benefit from the removed item??? This incomprehensible play puts the advantage in Icemaster's hands, and while I believe he could have won the war of attrition in a couple hundred turns, I can respect the decision to tie and play a better game.
Clas asked me to pass Hyper Offense, likely not wanting another long game like the previous one. I passed this team which is pretty fun I won't comment on it much. Clas removed the nicknames which is extremely fraudulent behavior so I'm gonna make sure QT beats him this week.
Icemaster loaded a sample team which loses to SG Blaziken but is otherwise very solid although I don't respect the Ogre wincon personally.
Clas could probably have won this game but because he didn't recognize Ice's use of a sample and played greedily, he got the Zacian knocked turn 1 which prevented it from breaking through, then played strangely with the other mons on the team leading to Ice's eventual victory by attrition, since Ice didn't really have to do anything but play safely against a team that wore itself down quickly especially w how Clas plays it. Near the end Clas had a wincon of PP stalling and catching the Imposter switching out to grab kills with Zacian but didn't take it, so Ogre was able to quickly win thanks to a burn.
Mindnight's team seems like jank hyper offense, with likely prank MAud, GaG groudon and ghostceus, pixilate Val and perhaps tsong unburden NDW.
Ivar's team is Chomp + Bounce Poisonceus, although I suppose Treeko's team ended up being slightly different than expected but Ivar isn't the type to load weirdo Scarf Chomp I think. FC Zama Regen Ting Scales MAud Evio Imp.
Misty Surge is revealed on the Audino, so Ghostceus would be my Misty Seed set. It reveals it has healing instead of Gunk Shot. (Gunk Shot is necessary folks this is why you can't run healing!)
Zama gets crit but Groudon is handled fine by Imposter, Ival catches Imp with Explosion, kinda surprised that killed maybe Ivar was cloak Imp I'm too lazy to calc. NDW was a threat but Ivar just kills it with Chomp. Flutter almost wins with simpleplot but Ivar's consistent usage of Shadow Sneak on Chomp finally pays off, allowing him to clutch out the game. Mindnight could have won easily with more cautious play I'd bet, although it wasn't exactly an easy matchup.
W VIRIZZIONS (0) vs (0) Zoomer Zeraoras
AAA: Betticus IV vs Lana Betticus had a lot way to win last week but he took the wrong choice i hope he will take more time next time and win i believe in his upset. I still bold Lana there for their experience in aaa and their in game who is really solid
AAA: shiloh vs Tbp24 I really liked how shiloh built and played last week
BH: teamo vs quojova
STAB: Fusien vs Kaif I think fusien faced really bad mu and i still like how they build and played more like week 1 because he didn't play a really game last week
MnM: Pomellow vs TectonicDestroyer TectonicDestroyer should have a better build but i think they could raise their ig and be a solid player for this umpl
GG: pannu vs Rio Vidal I didn't like pannu teams from week 1 and week 2 more like the week 2 teams, but i believe they will wake up and cook some heaty teams
PiC: NovaFish21 vs zoe
Bo3: fififlutters vs Icemaster Fififlutters is doing really well in this slot, and i really like they build, this one is a HL match because icemaster can make it for sure
Crazy Diamond Dialgas (0) vs (0) Gholden Witches
AAA: O1V7O2X9O vs Atha atha is on a good way for the same 7-0 as last year and i really like their building rn, O1V7O2X9O can still make it with a better prep
AAA: GlalieGoesBoom vs Irene
BH: XxLazzerpenguinxX vs akira unfortunately sevag has not a great start and i really like akira's building, i believe sevag
STAB: word vs One Last Kiss depending on both mu this games is 55-45 mu for both can win
MnM: PociekMociek vs Career Ended Well i'm not gonna lie i think career has the edge the only reason i'm bolding pociek is because they always keep a high level of building for me ( i mean they cook some fire teams) while career is probably more busy some weeks because i really loved their prep last week, and they bounced on their week 1 so i'm sure he can reach this week
GG: aerobee vs Les2BG aerobee can cooks pure heat depending on both team but i bold les2bg because i overall prefer their teams even if sometimes he wants to bring too much fire in one same team
PiC: DeepFriedMagikarp vs GhastlyPixie
Bo3: Clas vs QT same reason as osake, qt seems to be determinated and he should be unstopable if he keeps this motivation
Pink Ponyta Club (0) vs (0) Dazzling Diancies
AAA: Glory vs Kinetic i'm copying osake on this one i think kinetic is better in a bo3 but Glory can for sure make it too
AAA: feen vs Mada idk it's a 50/50 but i prefer mada support
BH: Ballfire vs Wheaty it's your time
STAB: xdRudi.exe vs abriel i really like rudi's teams and it's why i'm bolding him, this is also a HL but every stabmons games are HL grace of the high pool level
MnM: Slither Wing vs zastra it's bonk comeback time, i really like they build while zastra is doing standart team and i'm p sure bonk will surprise them with some tech worthy of Haydenn prime
GG: Lily vs LBN Lily is back in her tier in oms, she will be unstopable with her different ho oh teams also she has better support than lbn who brought a 6-0 team by zacian
PiC: Chromate vs yuki both are doing well i still bold chromate i think they will take it
Bo3: Mindnight vs TTTech he had his two weeks loses to prepare better the five last week before poff.
I'm probably saying shit, and if you think so as osake says always make your own predicts
Pociek has brought a fairly standard and boring looking team with the classic mag + garg core everyone keeps spamming ever since wake got banned. Kilo (most likely lucarionite) is the only mon making this team a bit different but then u realise it means pociek has no ground type. The pecharunt looks most likely gyaradosite with lati mag and rocks garg. Overall a team that relies on Kilo + hazards to get the job done with a potential Cm arc as the bulky wincon.
emoxu9 on the other hand has a very crafty pivot heavy build with what most likely is diancite hoopa + luc raging bolt. Mag could be sab or lati and pinsirite great tusk as the volt blocker. Urshifu as the wallbreaker for the classic volt turn core.
The mu is easily favoured towards emoxu, whose raging bolt goes insane and the general ability to not block momentum greatly hurts placu's team. Placu on the other hand needs to be extremely on point with kilo + hazards to take the win in this mu with wearing down of bolt their top priority in order to sweep with arc water (if cm).
The Game
We see both lead with their mag (how original!) and emoxu reveals to be sablenite thus winning this exchange, altho they do get owned when placu gets the predict right with volt switch on kilo. Turn 2 we see what could be a misplay as mega evolving kilo means VA is gone, thereby emoxu now never has to think twice about clicking volt switch from either mag or raging bolt. Turn 4 we see the first real misplay of the game, as emoxu goes to urshifu rather than tusk on a very obvious salt cure. Turn 5 is another bad turn for them as they go for surging strikes over u-turn, thereby chipping shifu further. Turn 8 is the most confusing switch in of the game, as emoxu sacks their shifu for no reason. There was no way there that placu isnt clicking fleur as they want bolt to die asap so a switch to mag or arcanine made much more sense but sacking shifu was a terrible play. Despite this , emoxu is still ok as they have bolt + mag to gain momentum and tusk to kill the garg. Turn 9, we see a volt switch kill into hoopa which is ?????? cuz thats like guaranteed spikes off now since eleki is like 1000% coming. Turn 11 is also extremely wierd and appears to be a very desperate double from emoxu to get hoopa on either arc-water or pecha which tbh is super ambitious considering garg walls any arcanine at that range (maybe not double-edge but just click that if u have it anyways). Placu continues to outplay their opponent in turn 15 getting an advantageous rocks. At this point placu is clearly ahead. Turn 18 crit doesnt matter much and we just see garg going crazy for no reason as tusk refuses to click a ground move. It finally dies but the game has p much slipped away from emoxu with rocks up on their side , low tusk / bolt and mag and eleki + waterceus still alive. Turn 39 ig is a 50/50 (?) cuz if placu gets the play wrong and arcanine comes in, maybe emoxu gets hoopa in on arc water allowing it to tank 1 judgement and kill arc-water but that really depends on what set arceus is. But that doesnt happen and placu wins it anyway
Overall a debut to forget by emoxu9 which showed that they still were getting a hang of mnm interractions and overall tour-game situation/ pressure. They still have time though and hopefully have a solid showing in the next few weeks. Nevertheless a great game to unrust by pociek and we shall see if they can continue this form against zeraoras.
We see the first usage of the most ass and overhyped mon in the mnm metagame by bonk in Kingambit. Its most likely either gonna be latiosite or aero. The rest of the team is basic af (a theme which is recurrent ngl) like u can literally put urshifu instead of gambit and its gonna be a public 6.
Rofnoa has gone prehistoric time teambuilding by bringing milo which btw used to be a wake check but ig they forgot wake got banned. Groudon is cool and ig supports ceruledge with sun. Garg is prob latiasite and Etern is most likely defensive cuz otherwise shifu just wins.
Matchup wise, i dont like bonk's breaking power cuz gambit as ur primary breaker is ass but also i believe his team is more suited to prolong the game which can work ig cuz milo + groudon aint gonna survive much. Ceru vs arc-water is rough so rofnoa needs to play this well with sd don to have a chance.
The Game
Turn 1 we see Bonk revealing an interesting tech with sub arc water. I was also experimenting with it while building and i think its cool esp vs garg and pecha builds but solo water kinda hurts and prob needs time to sweep so i'm a bit surprised bonk reveals it this early but ig he was just going for game then and there. Turn 3 rofna revals offensive etern allowing them to break the sub which is good but they really wanted to lose to shifu with this team cuz solo milotic as ur answer is interesting. Turn 4 is kinda unlucky for bonk cuz the poison sucks and now suddenly the main check to ceruledge is poisoned. Turn 6 is a big blow as milotic reveals haze thereby p much negating any progress bonk could make. This is super good for rofna as now ceru is in a good position, milo has mega evolved while opposing arc water is poisoned. Turn 9 we see another major problem for Bonk as he cannot stop milo from gaining momentum everytime as rofna continues to force this cycle of forcing a tusk switch in and getting a flip turn off till turn 11. After that till turn 19 its basically clicking buttons for rofna as he continues to improve their mu while all bonk could do is get rocks up. Turn 19 is also like a pretty early nail in the coffin as bonk reveals he isnt even nasty plot pecha. Now, this is extremely weird cuz like this means all Bonk was relying on was sub arc to win games???? which is super lazy cuz like the overall breaking power of the team is extremely questionable (and yes i never count dnite cuz everyone preps for alt espeed). Given the state of the game bonk's only hope now is a dnite sweep which tbh could happen and to no one's surprise he does get a chance at turn 28 after getting a DD up and getting rid of eleki. turn 29 we def what is a huge throw from rofna going into ceru. Now bonk can get an espeed off and get ceru in rocks range so it cant switch out and then win with ceru off cuz ho-oh + pecha p much can win vs the rest of rofna's team. but bonk switches out????????????????? and gg. Basically the game is over at this point as ceru does its job for the rest of the team to clean but also at least we see garg was curse + sr and pecha was night shade.
I think both teams had their flaws but nothing too crazy on the play by both players. A cool tech by bonk which got completely blocked and ended up having not much breaking power (which u could say doesnt apply much to this game considering dnite could still win) but yh wp to rofna.
Zastra has brought a raging bolt balance with a cool pick in Arceus Normal and the basic defensive core of what appears to be sablenit garg + latiasite pecha (cant be gyara cuz otherwise no answer to groundceus) and pins tusk.
Tect similarly has the most basic (and boring) defensive core of the mnm metagame with pecharunt + magearna and pins tusk. The thing is mag can either be sable or lati and pecha can also be lati or gyara.
Both have opted for electric type + shifu as their breaking power. The mu is p even or u could say very slightly in favour of zastra as their electric type can switch in to ours thereby can win a cycle or 2 and can shift momentum.
The Game
The game starts with both getting their sablenite mons revealed and Tusk getting the rocks off in turn 2. Turn 3 tect gets the play right but eventually misses a crucial hurricane in the following turn which results in now bolt getting free damage off to mag. Tect gets a series of following turns right finally forcing raging bolt to take hurricane from zap in turn 11. Turn 12 is lucky for tect as altho he misses , a confusion hits allows him to get a u-turn on the following turn and now raging bolt is finally in hurricane range from zap. Turn 19 is also huge as garg finally goes down altho it chips shifu decently. Turn 23 is the first misplay from tect (which u would see planty of later) as he decides to let zap take damage for guaranteed kill on rbolt. Ig he was afraid and wanted it dead no matter what but i think going dnite here and then hard zap on an incoming pecha made more sense but either ways we move. Turn 24 zastra gets a huge play right as it chips dnite significantly with ice spinner. Turn 34 we finally see tect revealing gyaradosite pecharunt with foul play meaning arceus isnt as threatening anymore. Turn 37 we see zastra reveal its BU altarianite tusk and gets a rapid spin off while risking a para (which tbf is fair) and now it basically wins on the spot but then we see one of the most weirdest plays ever and a huge throw with another bulk up. like wtf?? literally any ground move kills or wins bro. Anyway this allows tect back in the game as he gets malignant chain poison and now all he has to do is sack one mon and revenge with dnite which is what he ends up doing. Basically now this is a done game as pecha+dnite wins vs zastra's final 3. Tect finally stops fooling around and realises its covert cloak after god knows why spamming 50 malignant chain. then tect starts to play extremely safe and keeps using pshot and letting ekiller spam its moves. Turn 66 tect has the opportunity to kill but knowing that shifu will come gets off a u-turn. Now a normal person would think that he is doing this to find a way to heal off his dnite so that shifu doesnt win but when at turn 76 he finally does get the chance to heal dnite off he clicks espeed anyways ????????? bruh what are these end game plans and then at turn 81 he kills arc with zap anyways? BRO U COULDVE DONE IT LIKE 20 TURNS AGO. ANYWAY, we see shifu coming up against zap and now suddenly zastra can win. Tect also in his last hope which can win does not go for malignant chain at turn 84 when that was the only winning play. Now shifu can literally live a espeed off at full kill and win BUT NOOOOOOPE what we see instead is zastra switching out. ig he was scared of espeed critting but actually even now espeed crit wins if zap hurricane hits but we see it missing anyways and shifu closes it out.
Standard-ish but still somewhat respectable take by both on volt-turn balance in this metagame. The endgame was played horrid by both with that tusk always closing it out and then after tusk died that pecha winning with foul play spam but nerves got the best of both of them which is somewhat understandable
We again see the most ass mon in MnM in action with career bringing gambit balance. Now this is truly one of the most known 5 in this metagame in lati mag / sable garg/ latiosite or aero gambit / alt eleki / cm groundceus and helmet etern. jeez almost as if qt is playing, i expected better career.
Meanwhile the lando-T is a dead giveaway that hayedenn has brought offense (who is surprised). so its most likely pins mag / LO or PH etern / PH lunala/ Dnite with facade and maybe lopunnite zama or aggro zama who knows why zama is there.
Mu wise id rather be the offense here but honestly either etern wins first or the cm groundceus.
The Game
Turn 1 haydenn gets the lead they want against garg altho career gets the rocks up. Turn 2 we see groundceus tanking a Meteor Beam and then we see a problem , the lunala is slower than the arceus, meaning career can actually force this in a cm war. tbh an argument can be made career couldve gone gambit turn 2 and then force lunala out (altho gambit wouldve been super low or dead) but its fiiiiiiiiiine , its just the game gets decided by a crit. Moongiest is only 8pp tho but hayedenn gets the crit in turn 13 anyways. Eleki comes to revenge it but losing ur main defensive wall is p bad for career. Lando comes in and having no switch in to mold breaker ground type, career decides to sack the gambit. Beauts continues to play well and catches the sucker and reveals cm mag which basically means it has less chances of being pinsirite. Turn 20 is also huge as garg gets chipped hard basically forcing career to sack it. It reveals diancite finally and gets a good damage vs etern basically finishing the match cuz career has no answer to zama. Zama finally comes and reveals rusted sword which tbh is p cool and not expected and gets enough kills for etern to clean it up.
This game was ass cuz both were good players and i cant bash any of them much. Beauts played super well and got all the reads right and career was just in the backfoot after arceus loss. Ig maaaaaaaaaaaybe the gambit line vs lunala saved career from "who crits first" wincon but like thats just hindsight. cool tech shown by hayedenn which for sure gonna be seen in the meta in the future.
WE Finally SEE some non pecha/garg/mag shit by two players. Fiora has gone overboard by not even bringing -atespeed, something which is quite daring but ig raging bolt with tclap is gonna make up for the priority loss. The mag's most likely sab, absolite or lati iron moth which in itself a very good pick vs pecharunt, pinsirite tusk and meta shifu with ghostceus. Clas on the other hand has gone p bulky with their defensive core- sablenite hippowdon, lati glowking and arc fairy which is most likely cm. They heavily rely on FS + urshifu to get their breaking done which ig is fine when considering pecharunt's usage but like the thing with these kind of builds is ur super open to ghost types like ceruledge or arc-ghost.
MU def goes to fiora with arc-ghost and moth both seemingly super strong. Fiora's team is also super heavy on momentum which basically works well against the fat type clas has brought. Arc-fairy here is basically a dead mon and idk if clas;s breaking power is that good
The Game
Fiora gets the lead right with shifu vs hippo but clas outplays them, being able to mega evolve and get rocks up. Turn 2 hippo reveals whirlwind so arc cm is not a 6-0 atleast altho unless ur whirlwind mon is ho-oh taking damage while phasing the other mon is most likely a loss in the long run. Turn 4 fiora gets the hazard off and gets the moth on arc-fairy on turn 7 and continues to gain momentum with u-turn. We see tusk reveal double edge and gets good damage off vs arc fairy. Double edge is an interesting option over bslam altho imo the para is p valuable when considering wincon sequences. Anyways, fifi gets hazards up as arc recovers and now we see how bad clas's team's inability to outright threaten lati mag is. Arc fairy is also super unfortunate here as basically its free for fiora to go mag or even moth everytime arc fairy comes (which it has to vs shifu or tusk). Turn 18 we see clas clicking surging vs ghostceus and allowing shifu to get chipped which is weird cuz u dont 2hko at that range and its gonna click recover next anyways which at that point just u-turn into hippo brother. Turn 23 is another big one as moth gets the boost and honestly this is the problem with FS glowking. Either u run FS + toxic and be a sitting duck or run dual psychic stab and get walled by dark types till infinity. Regardless Moth gets the kill and we see Clas going eleki???? u have a spd hippo right there fam anyways clas sacks the eleki as it doesnt kill and its gg from there. With hippo Low and nothing to force a trade with explosion, arc-ghost just wins but we see fiora trying to stall recovers from arc-fairy with urshifu. T34 fiora reveals twave mag and the arc is para'd while being in range of shifu so yh game over as we see it kill the rest of the mons altho the tusk is revealed to be rusted sword. I get clas's final stand to get tusk in vs mag and get a rspin off to be able to outspeed and get a sweep but i think that was much better to execute at turn 34 when mag was at -2 spa after fleur.
Overall cool and unorthodox teams by both altho fiora had a strong mu but RS tusk was also interesting by Clas prob won if it could get a spin off but o well. Prob my favourite game too simply cuz we see a no espeed team getting a dub in a tour environment.
We see a very boring team and a very "yh bro idk what u cooked but if it wins it wins just yolo" team. Damflame's team is basic but strong with rbolt as a breaker and cm arc as a late set up wincon. The problem? its only spd wall is sablenite mag. I think this is something we see a lot atm in the meta where people just pretend rbolt/lunala or bulky cm arcs are the only spa mons available in the meta.
Mindnight's team is lacking a good defensive backbone and tbh hoopa is ass but ig their main motive was to take advantage of the bland builds that have plagued the meta which this team does. Volc can be cameruptite or lucarionite or anything tbh idk man i played this tier a year ago lol.
MU obv goes to the team that has a fire type special attacker and if its LO etern, it can win too. From damflame's side he has to keep the pressure on with rbolt and get a lot of plays right to win this.
The Game
A very aggressive lead from damflame shows that he knows breaking with rbolt is the way to go but vs glowking it cant do much as it clicks volt out. Mindnight gets volcarona out vs mag and gets a qd up which now is super dangerous but damflame reveals mask tusk, which tbh could tank 1 hit from cameruptite but then mindnight gets the KO as volcarona reveals char-y. this is basically donezo now as volc will get a kill unless damflame sacrifices eleki with boom to trade. Instead damflame goes to rbolt to chip volc ig and run it out of sun. Im not sure if i get this line cuz id say rbolt is still a threat if eleki goes down vs mind's team and now sacking rbolt is ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Anyway volc sets up further and gets the kill but runs out sun so now cm arc water can do something (until milo reveals haze or glowking reveals toxic). T8 we see arc click twave....................... im not a fan of twave arc at all like bro just run sub/taunt or like something better. Milo allows Hoopa to come in vs arc which again is just weird cuz no hoopa wins vs defensive arceus and if the idea is to chip the arc then just go etern or glowking to get a poison off. Turn 14 is extremely lucky for mind as hoopa gets a para and fp on arc and the game is essentially over at this point and we soon see a forfeit from damflame 8-9 turns after.
Overall the mu was excellent for mindnight and they also got fairly lucky helping them to secure a 6-0. Interestingly enough this was the 2nd time this week an -atespeedless team won
We see corviknight's first appearance in this tour. Ice's team utilizes Entei + shifu as a breaking power with grounceus and pecharunt as the defensive core. The etern is most likely offensive as pecha + etern doesnt make too much sense.
TTTech's team is fairly standard Ceruledge BO with the most boring core of mag/tusk/pecha and either rocks or wisp cm arceus.
tttech has the mu considering ceru can be either luc or latiosite both looking strong. From ice, Etern + shifu needs to work overtime to get this dub.
The Game
Turn 1 etern reveals offense LO and gets good chip altho tttech makes a smart play with pain split, thereby winning this exchange. We see hard entei on ice beam and then ice gets the double right on arc-water with etern, allowing it to heal altho tech reveals cm. Turn 6 imo is a huge misplay from ice as u always go corvi there and then slow u-turn to pecha but now tech gets a huge chip on pecharunt forcing them to go back to etern and sack it to get a poison off. This is super bad for ice as with etern gone, its gonna be a lot more harder to break tech's core. T11-12 we see ice getting rocks up and get a burn off on dnite which is p big but then dnite reveals facade on the following turn and gets the crit on corvi and now its basically tech's game to lose. Entei forces dnite off and tech reveals the pecha to be gyaradosite. Ice gets to heal their pecharunt and we see arceus exchange status with the tusk as it gets a burn off but also takes the para from bslam. T24 is somewhat ok for ice as arc gets low while it gets no significant chip on shifu which means the pecharunt if its np does have a chance to win now if its positioned well. Anyways Dnite gets sacked and we see rocks off with spin from tusk. Entei gets a burn off vs pecha and we see pecha vs mag. Turn 32 is quite puzzling from ice as they hard entei on mag cuz like if the pecha is np i think clicking that is free and also beneficial since u can threaten plenty at +1 while also surviving most hits and if u expect volt then hard entei doesnt work anyways. But anyways , we see mag get a spike off and then entei is fucking blind and misses a 95% move which basically means it has to die the next turn which it does altho it gets a crit off on gyara pecha and takes it down with itself. Honestly tho idt this is even in favour of ice cuz if the pecha survived we couldve atleast had our pecharunt getting a np up vs it but we move. Ice gets arc ground vs mag and tech immediately hards into ceru as arc gets the fp. Now i fully believe ice clicked SR there so the fp doesnt really matter but if ice is a secret genius and clicked judgement...........oh my god that's rough. Anyways ice clicks judgement the following turn only for ceru to reveal latiosite which basically ends the game then and there with setting up with SD.
I think tech played this relatively well and i think ice made some misplays here and there which made it much more tough esp given the mu disadvantage and this game proved even more that corvi is ass in the metagame and shouldnt be used.
Both have opted for Arceus Water Balance altho qt has brought boring but strong supporting cast in sablenite garg/pecha(lati or gyara)/pins tusk / alt eleki and lucarionite ceruledge. I swear at this point i think this is a public team man.
Sammy's 6 isnt public at the very least but its equally basic with tusk/mag/pecha/eleki and shifu as the breaker.
MU id say is p even at preview where both team's breakers would hope for the opposing arc to be low to actually sweep or threaten.
The Game
We see Arceus-W vs pecha in turn 1 and sammy immediately reveals gyaradosite as QT hard switches into ceruledge for some reason??? Like was qt afraid it would click NP turn 1 instead of a chance to poison a defensive arc? cuz i think pecharunt was the better switch in 10 times out of 10. Anyways ceru gets poisoned which is super nice for sammy as he stays in and clicks malignant chain again while qt has to switch out to tusk(tbh this is a sex move and shouldve been awarded another poison). T4 we see tusk reveal pins and get a body slam off on sammy's arceus and qt immediately goes for the arc vs arc sequence as they switch into their own arceus. T5 we see qt's arc is faster and reveals WoW which p much favours qt to win this cm war but sammy switches out T7 to pecharunt vs an obvious judgement............ IDK whats up this week with going pecha vs a judgements thats 100% gonna 2hko cuz i wouldve preferred u get ur own judgement off and then switch so that pecha comes in against a recover but thats just hindsight ig. Anyways this means sammy is forced to go back to their own arceus and have no choice but to get through with the cm war. T9-44 we basically see how wisp arc will always beat ice beam arceus-w despite sammy getting a few freezes (and also importance of faster arc in such cm wars) and qt wins the exchange. Its still not finished cuz if sammy gets the explosion turn right vs arc water and somehow qt throws away their own eleki, shifu + tusk can still win but its super tough. Sammy does get the explosion turn right. Turn 46 we see shifu vs pecha and i think this is an extremely safe play by qt here with parting instead of attacking the shifu cuz its not like u dont have a sable garg for magearna in the back but yh sammy gets the turn right as it chips down pecharunt while qt goes to eleki. Unfortunatrly for qt, the tusk is hearthflame so basically it does negative damage. Sammy gets the double right and Shifu claims another kill and now the game is slightly favoured to Sammy. we see another cycle of tusk vs eleki but then turn 51 is extremely extremely confusing to me on both sides. Like why did Sammy click temper flare vs the remaining mon. if he was expecting pins tusk to come in then he just goes hard shifu and if not then just eq or headlong is the way. Similarly, why did qt go to ceru esp since sammy's play was double or eq/headlong??? ig they were expecting rocks but at this point of the game idk if they even matter. Anyways this temper allows qt to activate weak armour and now ceru will get a kill. Sammy switches to pecha and then immediately doubles to shifu to stall the ceru so that it dies to toxic poison. turn 54 qt gets the play right on clicking BB again allowing ceru to live one more turn while also knocking down pecha. Ceru getting a kill again is basically game over as sammy sacks mag and now there is no way for qt to lose and we get to see the dub in nedt few turns.
This was an interesting game and closest in terms of mu as well. Some key turns such as T7 and T46 swayed the game here and there but some final level headed plays by qt allowed them to take victory.
LMAO what are these dogshit as mu fishing team bruv. ok srsly tho, to no one's surprise we see another HO by hayedenn but Bonk has too gone for lemme just win faster strat with rain.
The thing with hayedenn's team is that it boasts two -ate speed so usually it should negate the mu vs most opposing HO's but the problem is they not only have 0 switchins to urshifu but bonk also has an archaludon and arc-ground, So ceru and entei in rain vs these arent the best bet. MU def goes to bonk and its gonna be really tough for hayedenn as they will have to get an explosion turn right as well pick their trades for either ceru or zama to win,
The Game
Hayedenn gets the lead right T1 with entei vs mag but it doesnt really matter cuz bonk switches to peli - gets up the rain and pelipper is gonna be max def its gonna tank a stone edge anyways, which is what ends up happening T2 but with entei clicking double edge. T3 we see aech reveal swampertite but it goes for electroshot which doesnt kill which is super ass LOL. also i have just now seen this mon doesnt even get weather ball..........
whats the point in using it then? this is so bad man we need to ban this mon from mnm so no one falls for it. Regardless, arc gets a trade off vs etern and still bonk is ahead. We see bonk preserve the arc (most probably for a sack) and goes mag against eleki while eleki reveals glalitite and haydenn subsequently hards into ceru on mag which is a good play but then they switch out on turn 7??????? like is polt not free? even if u assume they switch into arc-ground u can go tusk on the next turn anyways and its always gonna live 1. But ok, we see tusk vs shifu which means hayedenn has to sack it. Deoxys comes in and reveals cameruptite but there is mag so not like it can do much unless the mag is low and now with tusk dead mag can just freely click volt switch which it does T10. turn 11 is big as ceru reveals diancite destiny bond (srsly man wtf are these 1200 elo sets and why are they working) and takes down shifu with it. Its still ok for bonk tho , they have a arc-ground and an eleki to clean things up. Hayedenn gets another turn right with eleki explosion which tbh i think couldve been avoided by bonk but ehh its fine still, Arceus ground still wins. Turn 13 is where the game changes as Bonk clicks feather dance to a later revealed aggronite zamazenta. Now i saw people saying its hindsight that bonk shouldve clicked hurricane as it was no way to know but like i dont really see what do u lose clicking hurricane here? like at best its lopunnite with howl and arc-ground does not die to +1 anyways so going for hurricane damage with confusion chance is always the play. Anyways this allows hayedenn to get BP's up and p much sweep the team unless hurricane confuse which doesnt happen as zama wins.
These toddler ass HO's are the worst ngl , u cant even call them bad cuz they are gonna work 6/10 times and thats more than enough in this meta. But yh jokes aside, im happy that both went with innovative teams and the game was interesting apart from the throw. Hayedenn continues their strong run from last year which is good for the old gaurd.
BRUH LOL, despite losing both games last week see another appearance of the most ass mon in MnM....like guys u need to learn GAMBIT IS NOT IT. Anyway, Zastra's team looks like a slow offense team cuz it has a pert and pert doesnt fit anywhere except offense imo. I cant say i like the idea behind this 6 cuz its super slow. i think if zastra faces a wow arc its p much 6-0 as long as rbolt is dead.
Career has finally learned not to bring pecha/mag/tusk/garg and has brought samu-h , a mon i think is still quite good despite people's complain about magearna rise. Zama could be anything tbh and the etern is for sure defensive.
MU wise i just dont like zastra's team and if its WoW groundceus i think career literally cannot lose this but in general i think career's team has a lot of opportunities to win with samu-h/ tusk/cm ceus and even zama vs the slow breakers.
The Game
Zastra gets the lead right with rbolt and gets a draco off vs arc-ground , forcing it to click recover while pert comes in on the switch. Turn 3-4 we see both of them getting hazards up as turn 5 etern reveals helmet which is p bad for entei. Career gets a good chip vs pert as it clicks flip turn on etern and continues to outplay to get a toxic off vs arceus. T9 samu gets sacked so career's arc-ground can come in and stall the opposing arceus. At that point its p tricky but i think after the first eq, setting up again wouldve been better for zastra but they were all 50/50s so tough luck as the arc dies to toxic poison T12. Career for the second consecutive week is on the verge of going to a cm war sequence but gets the switch turn right T16 as it is able to toxic off the lunala in the following turn while it dies to psyshock. Career is able to trade off the zama (which is crunch aggronite) vs lunala and at that point its super hard for zastra to win cuz hazards are up and H-arc can win. We see arcanine get the kill vs pert as entei comes. Career switches in to tusk which reveals hearthflame so basically entei needed to crit stone edge twice to win the game but it ends up missing it and its over at this point as tusk sweeps.
Was a fast paced game and like i said i think i just didnt get the idea of slow breakers in this meta. Zastra couldve still won or atleast favoured if they got the arceus turn right so not too bad of a showing for them despite the loss and strong comeback from career after tough w1 loss. another example of why gambit sucks lol
Ok im not gonna pretend tect's team does not have mag/tusk/pecha despite me bashing everyone for bringing it but we have dragapult which is just...sex so it evens out. Anyways the idea is to have pult + etern break through most cores with lati pecha or cm arc working as late set up wincons. Its super heavy on spa attackers as most people rely on either ho-oh or mag as the spd wall which can be taken advantage off.
Placu's team is exactly what u would except from a spacespeakers build (altho idk if its his) but that ceru + samu-h is a classic last year ompl core. the mag's most probably sablenite with cm defensive arc ground and defensive etern (offensive wouldnt make sense here as shifu just wins)
The mu is def favoured towards tect as he can break through multiple mons while having enough defensive answers to most of placu's offense. The thing he obv needs to be worried about is samu-h getting spikes off easily but its still his game to lose.
The Game
We see mag mirror Turn 1 and tect immediately doubles to tusk (which reveals mask) to stop mag from volting. both get their rocks up T2-T4 altho rocks groundceus means its not CM. Turn 6 is super confusing from tect as he refuses to mega evolve mag and doubles to pecharunt on the mag?? idk what is this sequence bro just mega evolve ur sable mag so it can switch in to etern better. Turn 9 is a huge misplay from placu letting the arc get burned means if etern is toxic it can no longer win vs cm. Turn 11 is also super sus from tect as hard etern was always the play there but he keeps playing passive and now switches to mag to mega evolve. So we are at Turn 11 now and tect has not once brought his breakers in the field (which btw has a good mu) while his defensive core has been chippped hard and burned. Cool!!! Placu continues to outplay in T13-14 getting the gknot and volt play right and is again in a good position. Encore samu-h puts even more pressure vs tect as now he finally gets etern in (debatable switch in as mag better ngl) and trades etern vs samu-h while placu also gets hazards off with an incoming eleki spin. At this point its bad but still salvageable as pult can still do things and arc-water healthy means it can win. Turn 20 we see headlong being clicked over spin as tect thinks ceru might come in which is fair but then he refuses to click spin again vs an obvious recover................. spin was 100% the play there always as since two spikes are up its like tusk will get a free turn to click spin again cuz its gonna die to everything but we move. Arc-water finally comes and starts setting up cm and we finally see why getting that burn was so bad for placu. it kills the eterna and now eleki comes in to threaten with explosion. placu gets this turn right as well (which tbh props man that was insane). Tusk died and i think this game is done cuz arc with spikes damage will lose to luc polt and our only hope is pecha to survive one polt (for which it needs to be 100) and then get the explosion turn right with arc-water vs eleki. Turn 39 we see exactly that with ceru vs pecha but since pecha is at 85 thats a roll in their favour. BUT IT MISSES LOL, this basically allows pecha to sweep as there is nothing placu can do now.
super super unfortunate game for placu ngl cuz they completely outplayed tect in a lot of turns to turn around this mu. For tect, for a second week we see extremely weird and losing sequences which WE HOPE DOESNT HAPPEN BRO. Anyways, team wise both of these were ok, ours was just better ;)
Axzel has brought the same team career brought so we know the sets. Emoxu has gone with a completely different apprach than the standard meta with Ekiller and sinistcha!! is this a cope for urshifu and arc-ground? anyways likely the lunala is offensive cuz sinistcha is 100% gonna be some defensive thing and the mag has to be latiasite.
Matchup wise having 2 ghost types vs samu-h is rough and aggro zama literally hard stops ekiller so id rather be axzel here
The Game
Samu-h get the flip turn off vs mag to let arc-ground in and stop volt switch turn 1. Turn 2 emoxu clicks pain split which idk i agree with? cuz like i think going sinistcha here is always the play assuming thats ur answer to cm groundceus. Turn 3 axzel gets the play correct on a sinistcha switch in with ice beam, doing 80% enough for sinistcha to be useless now vs arceus. I think these turns in general have been recurrent where people have gone to the "answer" right after the first cm from arc ( icemaster's and sammy's game come into mind) and then the arc clicks an attacking move so the "answer" is no longer helpful. Emoxu now goes back to lati mag and it reveals ice beam. Groundceus reveals ice beam on its own and gets a lucky freeze - allowing arc to get to +6. This is very unfortunate for emoxu as now they have to trade off the mag vs arc, which ends up happening t24 with arceus at 35%. Entei comes in to revenge kill as Axzel goes to the defensive etern which gets a toxic off against lunala. The lunala reveals teleport which means it was some FS set. Turn 29 is also a smart play from Axzel , going arc to get an intim off to tank a very obv double edge. Emoxu gets turn 30 right with tusk which reveals hearthflame mask and gets a rspin off but then goes for rocks vs tusk which was 100% gonna be pinsirite. This play is very confusing to me as was the idea to sack tusk here but then u just lose to arc-h. Regardless with tusk this low the realistic chance to win this game is 0 and the pins tusk also gets a spin off. Arc comes in and reveals bulk up but it doesnt matter cuz aggro zama will wall any ekiller 10 times out of 10 as zama sets up ID vs an incoming lunala. Crunch gets a kill vs lunala which means it wasnt defensive (so maybe specs tport?? but then maybe clicking an attack was the play T28? ) and the game is over.
I think the early turns fucked up emoxu altho he also got unlucky with the mag vs arc-ground interraction (but it was always gonna be who freezes first). not a fan of sinistcha bring either and axzel just played solid enough to secure the win. Rough start for virizzions mnm slot.
Another Ekiller from virizzions but this time its in a HO - pins or mask tusk / lucarionite or latiosite ceru/ lati or pins mag / scarf bas and RS moon. U cant really judge a HO in this meta but this has enough speed and fishing techniques *cough* basc *cough*
Damflame's team is interesting even tho it has a garg and fundamentally has a strong 5 when we exclude zama which idk if is gonna be RS or aggronite. I think if the pecha isnt latiasite id not be happy with my groundceus mu cuz ww in general might lose in a last mon situation if ho-oh gets toxic'd at some point but luckily damflame aint facing a cm mon here.
if the pecharunt is gyaradosite, id rather be damflame here cuz its a good check for both basc and ceru and (if) aggro zama- is a chefs kiss mu too.
The Game
We see pecharunt reveal gyaradosite turn 1 which is p decent here as basc clicks flip turn to mag to negate the toxic. It kinda sucks that the pecharunt is toxic and not malignant chain as i think toxic + foul play is way too passive but we move. Damflame gets the garg in vs mag as fiora sets up the hazard. Very surprised that damflame didnt click SR here as getting ur rocks up vs HO is always beneficial. Fiora continues the momentum getting a double right with basc and gets a flip turn off again vs an incoming dnite T5 to let Roaring moon in. I think tun 6 is genius from damflame ngl harding into zama (which reveals RS itself) and now damflame is actually in a better position as it claims a kill. While i praised T6, i equally wanna say what the fuck is turn 8 from damflame as zama clicks cc bro??? the tusk was so obv pinsirite if it wasnt mask why would u do less damage lol - Blade was so free here. This is funny cuz fiora's tusk reveals double edge meaning the damage actually mattered since it might die to recoil faster (and in actual game too fiora got an extra double edge off). Turn 11 is also something i completely disagree with, u always just attack with garganacl there or try to get rocks up cuz when u look at the game , garg is really not that important - u have pecharunt for ceru and basc and if ho-oh can get a burn vs arc thats just a win. There's also the fact that maybe u can stay in the following turn as tusk will click rspin mostly and u get salt cure up and now u can force a 50/50 with either going ho-oh or staying in for dedge. But anyways t11 we see a passive play from damflame and then he switches the garg out as ho-oh takes mega damage and is forced to switch out. Once again im not gonna act like this was a good play cuz its ur just inviting basc which literally ends up happening. Basc now gets a free flip turn into ekiller which sets up with SD while pecharunt comes in. Ekiller reveals eq which leaves pecha at 5% meaning the game is essentially over since after ekiller is done, both basc and ceru can sweep. Also just wanna say foul play here made more sense than toxic but the game was over regardless.
I think damflame def played too passive which costed him the game despite being up after T6 and we see HO take another win in this ompl.
Two extremely unique teams from both these players. Ice has used pert HO and not brought slow breaks (take notes zastra) while clas has gone with caly-ice + alomomola balance. Do i think either of these are viable? absolutely not lol what is this a 1100 mnm elo ladder battle but its bo1 so anything works based on scout.
Alomomola has a p good mu vs us and depending if that zama is aggronite it can actually just win once iron moth goes down. From ice's side he really needs that zama to die asap and has to work with iron moth overtime to get the win. Overall id say its in favour of clas.
The Game
Swampert gets the momentum vs mandi which reveals sablenite. Ice doesnt mega-evolve turn 2 for god knows what reason (ig he wanted to fake latiasite set but not sure if thaaaaaaaaaaaaaats really the way) while mandi pivots into arc-ground. Clas gets a crit and immediately doubles into alo as ice pivots back into eleki. T5 is super weird as clas clicks wish over an attack. imo if ur not gonna mega evolve to keep regen u always click scald there but ice gets the subsequent turns right with protect and then turn 7 is super big as he catches arc-ground with glalitite eleki explosion. Turn 9 ice reveals sub magearna which is p bad for clas as they go to zama which reveals RS. Mag finally reveals pinsirite and shift gear. Turn 11 is also p cool from ice to get zama to click cc and get a defense drop thereby allowing bslam to ohko which it does. The following subsequent turn is basically forcing off the mag and clas healing mandi and hard switches caly vs dnite espeed which trades off some damage against RS zama as it gets killed. Turn 17 is a misplay from ice as he does not sack zama and instead switches into pert which basically is dead in the next turn. This is huge as sacking zama and then going pert wouldve been a lot advantageous. Moth finally comes in and gets a kill vs mandibuzz. Turn 23 we see both espeed not killing each other which is funny cuz that means clas is some specific defensive set (which is BS lol). we also see a ggwp in the chat which is ??????????? like bro there is a ping mag right there which can win. Turn 25 is super smart play from ice as he gets the play right and sacks dnite for mag to come in vs alomomola. T26 ice doesnt sub and instead risks a scald burn which i dont get? (apparently its a 50/50 since if clas goes hard eleki here it can volt into alo again as mag clicks SG and now its again a guessing game since if u click pain split eleki can come, which is fair but i think id rather sub cuz this sequence seems much more in favour of the mag user). Regardless, it doesnt get the burn and the game is over.
Apart from the pert sack, i think ice played this very well and outplayed clas throughout despite the mu. Alomomola is ass and it got a good mu but do not use that mon friends!! Another HO win in the tour and i think we need to step up as a community cuz these ass offense teams dont deserve this high of a winrate.
QT out here beating the "boring teams" allegations by bringing a stall - something which hasnt seen usage in competitive mnm in a long time. Do i like stall? ofc but do i like the 6 here? prob not. its most likely altarianite tusk / helmet dodonzo / sable hippo and lati garg. [could also be sable garg and alt hippo with some rest pins tusk]
Unfortunate for qt, they face an eternatus which is #1 stall problem. Spectrier may also be a problem if positioned well (and is nasty plot). That ekiller is covert cloak for sure given last week's team from diancies but its not like thats gonna help vs giratina much. overall id still be tech mostly since i dont trust stall and the ability to outplay and force long games in mnm often help the breakers.
The Game
This has to be the most painful turn 1 we ever see in a stall mu as etern gets a toxic off vs hippo which later reveals to be sablenite. this is tragic, im not sure why qt didnt go garg there. anyways turn 4 tech forces garg to mega evolve and now etern basically will get toxic off vs everything and hippo cant even switch in cuz it will take chip damage everytime. T6 we see curse garg reveal (while qt also gets their hazards up) so ekiller is more than doomed in this mu. T15 mag reveals pinsirite shift gear which ig can work if its painsplit meaning qt is even in a bigger trouble altho etern still remains the most effective mon against the stall here. Turn 29-30 is also big for tttech as he gets the predict right to chip giratina and also heals off his etern. Dondozo tries to set up but vs etern its hard stopped. Turn 37 we see etern click recover once again and now its down to just 4 recovers so maybe not all is lost for qt. T40 pain split mag finally makes an appearance and gets the kill against hippo and in a few more turns vs giratina. [Its also important to note that giratina here is covert cloak and not helmet so basically qt's team has no way to damage pivots and mostly rely on hazards to chip them off, god i really wish they faced a volt turn team when using this] Honestly im not sure why tttech didnt click pain split turn 43 , its not like 1 curse will do much vs etern and it chips dondozo a lot. T47 tttech gets the play right and the garg gets poisoned which is p good for him. turn 51 tech finally gets the hazards off which is good for etern's longevity. T59-66 we see the first interaction of spectrier vs ho-oh and im not a fan of tech risking spectrier at this point of the game as i think getting ho-oh toxic'd first makes it much easier or u just hard etern so that ir runs out of sacred faster. He also gets lucky here with a sacred fire miss which allows him to switch out. T85- T90 we finally see that tech's team is now open to dondozo sweeping as etern has run out of dmax cannon which forces him to sack the tusk and go spectrier to force it out. Turn 91 again imo is a crucial mistake from tttech's side as keeping spectrier alive was literally his only way to wincon and going etern here and doubling to ekiller couldve actually helped him a lot but now sacred fire gets a burn and suddenly the game is a lot more favoured to qt. The rest of the game is basically qt poisitioning the team well for a dondozo sweep as spectrier is gonna go down to chip damage anyways which indeed happens and the game is over at T128
I think it was a very interesting game positioning wise, where qt played to their outs despite the horrid turn 1 esp against etern. From tech's side i still think turn 91 was just game throwing as as long as spectrier was in the field , there were much better chances. Solid game by qt tho that somehow carried a stall to win (a stall without RH btw so we know it just got lucky cuz that team sucks otherwise!!!!!)
Both have unconventional teams. Ivar has brought a fundamentally strong 6 where the zama most likely is aggro or tbh could even be RS now i look at it since ivar's team has 2 -atespeeders. The good spa mon (aka lucarionite zapdos) and lati pecha + sable mag or lati mag + gyara pecha.
Mindnights team is more 2024 type with arc-h and glowking. I think the zama is RS? etern is defensive and mag most likely sable. I dont like their breaking power even with RS zama (and i assume the glowking is FS). I think at that point u just run shifu cuz it offers a lot more.
The Game
T1 mindnight gets the lead right and gets hazards up altho he megaevolves his arcanine which is a bit meh cuz intim is always good to have and its not like fire/fairy is walling something special here. Turn 4 we see the zama is the bad set NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! who allowed this to happen? poor mindnight he wasnt told lopunnite zama is just ass and cant even break latiasite pecharunt.. yh this game is over. Anyway zama does 0 damage to pecha as it heals off and tries to pivot which is blocked by mind's sab mag BUT, this also shows how helpless midnight's team actually is - it literally cannot break or threaten pecharunt at all unless with FS. at best u go etern and stall it out which mind finally does turn 8. Turn 21 ivar gets the explosion off vs etern and now i think with nothing to trouble pecha it will eventually pave the way to win. T22 mind gets the incoming switch right but then switches to arc-h? im not sure what he was expecting but he gets rocks up and sacks arc-h - possibly knowing his only way to victory is by trying to chip pecha asap. but with mag at 15 now and arc-h dead, ivar's dnite is super threatening. turn 28 we finally see dnite get to set up but takes a toxic which ultimately is even more threatening as it reveals facade and cleans up. Even without facade im p sure ivar just won cuz pecha + zama at that point always won (any zama as long as not lopunnite)
I think this match was literally decided on match up lol, mindnight's team too much reliance on FS to break showed and the team literally couldnt do much (lopunnite zama is just too weak man ur just fishing for defensive lunala teams to show up) . Ivar just played solidly and won with using only 5 of his mons.
Holy fuck that took too much of a time , hayedenn told me to do meta insights with usage stats but fuck that. Instead u get my predicts
Axzel vs hayedenn : For sure the person to beat in this tour atm even tho they got lucky last week, i think they are more comfortable in the meta as well and their playing ability hasnt drained off much. Axzel i havent seen much off and they just reused careers team against a weaker opponent. Its also lot harder to prep for hayedenn and i look forward to what they cook this week.
Bo3 [MnM]: damflame 3 vs SammyCe123: Both i dont rate very highly in mnm ngl but sammy has very strong fundamentals and is a much better player. Damflame made a lot of errors in their game last week and i expect sammy to bring a better team and position it well to get the dub
MnM: PociekMociek vs Career Ended : Somewhat of an upset ig? since i rate career extremely highly but pociek in both weeks has played extremely well getting all the aggressive calls right and positioning their wincons well. Career hasnt disappointed at all but i also rate him much in the builder than a player since he likes to use sneaky techs but given placu's form i'll just bank on them outplaying. Its gonna come down to MU as well and as long as pociek doesnt use (idk if they are being passed team or they build) a team without ground type, i'll favour them.
Bo3 [MnM]: Clas vs QT : Its funny cuz the last time i favoured qt this heavily against clas , they were in my team and we lost cuz we forgot to bring a cm idef mag check. This time tho im sure qt will not forget to be ok vs cheese sets and their superior building and playing ability should be enough to secure the dub
MnM: Slither Wing vs zastra : Whose hyped for this mid off LOL? jokes aside tho i rate both players equally on playing level and despite bonk's throw last week i think he can be an extremely crafty builder when the need arises. Zastra can sometimes bring similar core which are easy to exploit and I think bonk's gonna get the mu right and get the dub here
Bo3 [MnM]: Mindnight vs TTTech: i think mindnight's still getting a hang of MnM and his team last week was p bad too. hopefully he uses a better team this week altho i still think tttech's superior knowledge and playing ability would be too much for mind to handle.
STAB: Fusien vs Kaif - i think fusien is probably the better player + stab is just mini ou
STAB: word vs One Last Kiss - u cant go wrong with chosing the goat of this tier
MnM: PociekMociek vs Career Ended - career is probably just the overall better player
MnM: Slither Wing vs zastra - zastra is more proven in mnm
Bo3: fififlutters vs Icemaster - ice is the best OM player in this tour rn
AAA: Glory vs Kinetic - kinetic has aura, he will probably win
STAB: Fusien vs Kaif - i think fusien is probably the better player + stab is just mini ou
STAB: word vs One Last Kiss - u cant go wrong with chosing the goat of this tier
MnM: PociekMociek vs Career Ended - career is probably just the overall better player
MnM: Slither Wing vs zastra - zastra is more proven in mnm
Bo3: fififlutters vs Icemaster - ice is the best OM player in this tour rn
AAA: Glory vs Kinetic - kinetic has aura, he will probably win
W VIRIZZIONS (1) vs (1) Zoomer Zeraoras 
Commanders (0) vs (2) Heart Takers 
Crazy Diamond Dialgas (2) vs (2) Gholden Witches 
Pink Ponyta Club (1) vs (2) Dazzling Diancies 
