Tournament SCL VI Ubers Discussion

[LouisIX]

Approved by Taka and entrocefalo

Welcome to the Smogon Champions League VI Discussion Thread -- Ubers edition! This thread will be used to discuss Ubers in SCL VI related topics, whether it’s about the players, general metagame trends, matches, predictions and so on. Teams, Replays, and Usage Stats can be found here.

Commencement
Schedule
Pricelist
Power Rankings
Replays & Stats

Ubers Player Cores
Showdown Shoguns -- Sheik :
Arena Spartans -- Fc, Aerobee
Studio Gible -- Taka, Suzuya
Circuit Breakers -- Vitiate, Crying
Uncharted Terrors -- THE 11-0 baconeatinassassin
Power Plant Dynamos -- Monai, Mareep
Orange Islanders -- Lana, Highlord
Technical Machines -- Entrocefalo, cala_aa
Mt. Silver Foxes -- Skyiew, DugZa
Indigo Platoon -- Icemaster, Hacker​

 

[Kafkafka]

1.baconeatinassassin
2.Fc
3.Entrocefalo
4.Skyiew
5.Icemaster
6.Taka
7.Lana
8.Crying
9.Sheik
10.Mareep

 

[King Billu]

The Fc vs baconeatinassassin matchup will feed families

 

[Jojen]

1. baconeatinassassin
2. Fc
3. Skyiew
4. Icemaster
5. Entrocefalo
6. Taka
7. Lana
8. Crying
9. Sheik
10. Mareep

 

[S-Matrix]

1. Fc
2. Baconeatinassassin
3. Skyiew
4. Taka
5. Icemaster
6. Lana
7. Entrocefalo
8. Crying
9. Sheik
10. Mareep

 

[Edgar]

1. crying
2. Sheik :
3. Lana
4. Mareep
5. baconeatinassassin
6. Entrocefalo
7. Fc
8. Skyview
9. Icemaster
10. Taka

 

[LouisIX]

W1 Recaps
Studio Gible vs Indigo Platoon
SV Ubers: Taka vs Icemaster
vs

Recap

Taka is loading a Glimmora offense, led by a physical attacking core of Calyrex-Ice, Koraidon, and Zacian-C, backed up by Kyogre and Arceus-Ghost, both exerting serious special attacking pressure with critical utility in spin-blocking and weather control. Icemaster loaded a seemingly balanced team with both Hoenn weather legends and the almighty Ho-Oh, along with the recently popular pick of Arceus-Electric, while packing Koraidon and Zacian-C as its attackers. From the preview, the T-Spikes weakness of Icemaster's team is quite obvious, but Taka's team is also lacking a reliable switch-in against Arceus-Electric. The matchup seems to revolve heavily around the gameplay between Glimmora and Arceus-Electric.

The game started with a lead Glimmora vs lead Arceus-Electric. Glimmora Mud-Shotted the Arceus-Electric, tanked two Judgments, and laid two layers of Spikes. There might be some concerns on whether Taka should have poisoned the Arceus-Electric instead for the second layer of Spikes, but soon Taka successfully dodged the Dragon Tail from Arceus-Electric with Arceus-Ghost, getting a Calm Mind unpunished. Arceus-Electric landed a Dragon Tail on the second attempt to drag out Zacian-C, but it was no longer able to recover with two layers on the field, and Icemaster decided to let go of Arceus-Electric against Zacian-C for a Ho-Oh entrance.

As Glimmora went down, Taka found himself having a hard time dealing with Ho-Oh, as Zacian-C lacked the power to one-shot a 100% healthy Ho-Oh. As such, Taka decided to go Kyogre to tank a Sacred Fire. Facing the possible Water move that could potentially take away Ho-Oh within one turn, Icemaster correctly anticipated a non-Water move from Taka's Kyogre and landed a Brave Bird, putting Kyogre in range of Sacred Fire + Brave Bird damage. He then again predicted correctly on the Water move to position his Koraidon safely, revealing Heavy-Duty Boots on entrance.

Taka decided to go Zacian-C on Koraidon, as either losing Kyogre or giving a free SD was not acceptable, and Zacian-C took one for the team for 82%, basically ruling it out from the game. Icemaster continued to play safely and switched out to Ho-Oh, as Zacian-C could not 2HKO Ho-Oh without the Intrepid Sword boost. This time, Taka chose to pivot to Kyogre first for the Sacred Fire, then to Arceus-Ghost to take the Brave Bird.

Here, Icemaster decided to switch out to his own Zacian-C to avoid a potential Power Gem from Arceus-Ghost, which made sense since Ho-Oh was obviously a painful mon for Taka to play against, but he was also risking potential status moves from Arceus-Ghost, such as Will-O-Wisp or Thunder Wave. Instead, Taka clicked Taunt and had to decide a switch-in against +1 Zacian-C, choosing Kyogre, leaving it at 9% HP.

Icemaster again played with absolute caution and switched out to Koraidon even though Zacian-C was clearly faster, while Taka also made a double to his own Zacian-C, resulting in Koraidon vs Zacian-C. Icemaster again went back to Ho-Oh to maximize the position, while Taka read this and clicked SD. However, it seemed that Taka's Zacian-C did not bring an Electric move and clicked Behemoth Blade on Ho-Oh, doing only 41%.

Taka then put in Kyogre at 9%, which soon revealed Custap Berry to act prior to Icemaster's Ho-Oh and take it out with Thunder. Icemaster decided to go Koraidon and clicked Flame Charge without any worry of a potential Custap Berry after Taka's Kyogre had already activated it on Ho-Oh. Taka decided to go to his own Koraidon, tanking a Dragon Claw from Icemaster's Koraidon and then revenging with Outrage, a relatively rare move on Koraidon, especially in a Glimmora team.

Icemaster immediately went Zacian-C and clicked a free SD on a locked Koraidon, then surprised Taka with Trailblaze on the next turn’s Arceus-Ghost sac. With +1 Speed, Icemaster denied Taka's potential Scarf Koraidon revenge kill, which forced Taka to Terastallize Calyrex-Ice to avoid +3 Behemoth Blade OHKO and activate Trick Room. After claiming Zacian-C, Icemaster decided to go Kyogre first instead of Groudon, leaving the situation in a potential 50/50 where Kyogre had the possibility of Tera Fairy or Tera Ghost on Close Combat.

Taka eventually clicked Glacial Lance predicting a Terastal from Icemaster, which he didn’t get the call on, and the game ended in a Kyogre sweep under Trick Room.

Uncharted Terrors vs Circuit Breakers
SV Ubers: baconeatinassassin vs Vitiate
vs

Recap

Baconeatingassassin (Bacon) loaded a physical offensive team with seemingly only Kyogre as its special attacker, leveraging Landorus-Therian as a pivot with Koraidon, Zacian-C, Necrozma-DM, and Ekiller as the physical attacking core. Vitiate loaded an Arceus-Water balance, with Eternatus and Ting-Lu as checks to special attackers, and Koraidon, Zacian-C, and the super rare Zamazenta as his offensive core.

From the preview, it looked very hard for Bacon since his team was heavily physical-oriented, and not only did he have to face Arceus-Water—an annoying mon with Will-O-Wisp and Dragon Tail disrupting momentum—but also Zamazenta, which has immense physical bulk while posing a serious threat toward Bacon’s team without a Ghost type on preview.

Bacon decided to lead Ekiller and met Vitiate’s Ting-Lu. Bacon immediately boosted in front of Ting-Lu as it posed almost zero threat to Ekiller, while Vitiate traded 50% HP to set up Rocks and phaze out Ekiller, then traded another 50% HP to tank a Behemoth Blade from the Zacian-C dragged out, phazing it, and finally went down against Koraidon’s Scale Shot. Considering Ting-Lu’s role in SV Ubers, even though it looked like Vitiate completely let go of Ting-Lu for almost free, it was not as bad as it looked, since Vitiate did burn Bacon’s Zacian-C ability, with Ting-Lu almost stopping no one bar maybe Necrozma-DM in Bacon’s team.

Facing +1 Speed Koraidon, Vitiate decided to go Arceus-Water and try to cripple it with Will-O-Wisp, but Bacon anticipated it and stopped it with Taunt. However, Bacon did not expect a Dragon Tail and decided to click SD, resulting in taking a considerable amount of chip damage since his Koraidon was at -1 Defense. The bad luck for Bacon did not end, as Landorus-Therian was dragged out—probably the only mon Bacon did not want to see facing a taunted Arceus-Water. He immediately switched out to Kyogre, paralyzed the incoming Eternatus, but Vitiate’s Toxic Spikes forced Bacon to immediately Terastallize Kyogre to Poison type so that T-Spikes could be removed on Kyogre’s next entrance.

Bacon then decided to go Zacian-C on a paralyzed Eternatus and tried to set up against it, but unfortunately got instantly burned by Flamethrower. Vitiate preserved Eternatus and went Zamazenta, surprisingly in Hero form, and took Behemoth Blade for only 31%. Bacon was in big trouble with +3 Defense Zamazenta, as his team seemingly lacked methods to take it out quickly.

Bacon eventually decided to go Landorus-Therian on Iron Defense, taunting it to prevent further boosting while chipping it with Rocky Helmet, sacked Kyogre to absorb T-Spikes, then went to Necrozma-DM and traded 58% HP to take out the Zamazenta. However, Zamazenta had dealt enough damage to Bacon’s team, and without Kyogre and Zacian-C, as well as Koraidon and Necrozma-DM at low health and Terastal used, Bacon did not have enough resources to make progress on Vitiate’s Arceus-Water. Even with Chople Berry to tank one hit from Life Orb Koraidon’s Close Combat, Bacon was not able to come back with +4 Ekiller and lost the game.

Mt. Silver Foxes vs Arena Spartans
SV Ubers: Skyiew vs Fc
vs

Recap

Skyiew loaded an Arceus-Fairy balance, packing Lunala and Kyogre as his special attackers aided with weather control and Shadow Shield, followed by Koraidon, Zacian-C, and Necrozma-DM as his physical offensive core. Fc loaded a Deoxys-S HO, followed by Arceus-Electric and Kyogre as his special attacking core, with Koraidon, Zacian-C, and the obvious Trick Room user Calyrex-Ice.

The game started with lead Lunala vs lead Kyogre, where Fc traded his entire Kyogre to shut down Lunala completely, followed by a Deoxys-S setting up screens. Skyiew decided to switch out to Koraidon after Lunala attacked once and saw a screensetter Deoxys-S. Judging that a screensetter Deoxys-S is less likely to bring Thunder Wave or Psycho Boost, Skyiew decided to Flame Charge on Fc’s Deoxys-S, who clicked Spikes, then proceeded to click Swords Dance after Flame Charge left Deoxys-S at 1 HP, and Fc clicked Taunt on the SD turn.

Fc then brought in Calyrex-Ice under screens, and given that Skyiew’s Koraidon is a Flame Charge set, it lacked the ability to OHKO Calyrex-Ice even at +2. He decided to switch out to Heavy-Duty Boots Kyogre on Fc’s Trick Room. Fc then quickly brought in Koraidon for Sun, and pivoted to Arceus-Electric afterwards, while Skyiew decided to bring his own Koraidon on Arceus-Electric. Koraidon tanked +1 Ice Beam from Fc’s Arceus-Electric and decided to click Scale Shot after Trick Room ended, and as the GIF showed, it missed. Fc got a free boost from Agility, outspeeding the entire Skyiew team while threatening to sweep with potential Tera Electric.

Skyiew, seemingly lacking a move to take out Arceus-Electric at 34% HP, decided to trade his entire Necrozma-DM and the majority of Arceus-Fairy’s HP in order to take down Fc’s Arceus-Electric. At this point Skyiew was way behind, and after Fc set up Zacian-C, the game was over.

Technical Machines vs Orange Islanders
SV Ubers: entrocefalo vs Lana
vs
(credits to Maxomega for writing this part!)

Recap

Interesting preview from Entrocefalo's side, who brought an hazard-oriented team with a core consisting of Hatterene, Glimmora and the surprising Samurott-Hisui. The latter is almost nowhere to be found in SV Ubers, but has key features in setting up hazards against Hatterene, soft-checking Lunala thanks to Sucker Punch — which is otherwise hard to deal with seeing the rest of the team — and having a good matchup into Lead Deoxys-S. However, neither of these three are in Lana's team. Actually, she decided to bring a bulky team with Terapagos as hazards control, which could help against Samurott-H's Spikes and Glimmora's Toxic Spikes, especially since Entrocefalo lacks a ghost type. Moreover, Lana's Groudon seems to have an excellent matchup as there is no ground resist in Entrocefalo's team.

The game starts off with a strong lead from Entrocefalo: his Kyogre against Lana's Koraidon. As Koraidon is the only answer to Kyogre in Lana's team, and they are now face to face with rain up, Lana seems to be in a bad position. Both players switch out, Lana to Arceus-Electric to read a potential Thunder Wave, and Entrocefalo to Hatterene, before Entrocefalo goes to his own Arceus-Electric and starts setting up in front of Lana's Ho-Oh switching in. Lana then goes to Groudon to take Judgment and throws Precipice Blades to... Entrocefalo revealing Air Balloon Glimmora, which uses Mortal Spin to get the poison on Arceus-Electric switching in. Then a similar sequence unveils with Entrocefalo's Arceus-Electric at +1 in front of Lana's Ho-Oh. This time Ho-Oh stays in and takes Judgment, phasing Arceus-Electric and bringing Kyogre on the field. Entrocefalo gets a good turn by using Water Spout on the incoming Arceus-Electric, KOing it.

However, Lana sends Koraidon to threat a revenge kill to Kyogre and successfully read a Flare Blitz on the incoming Hatterene, and then another read of Scale Shot on Entrocefalo's double to Koraidon, KOing the latter and putting Hatterene at 30%. Seemingly lacking a direct tool to deal with +1 speed Koraidon, Entrocefalo then sends Glimmora to poison Koraidon, getting Toxic Spikes up in the meantime, and sacrifices Hatterene on Koraidon's Flare Blitz, taking both out. Now, Entrocefalo's Kyogre is facing Lana's Terapagos. Kyogre uses Water Spout and reveals to be Choice Specs from the absurb damage, while Terapagos spins the Toxic Spikes away. Kyogre takes out Terapagos, and Lana sends Groudon to set Spikes on the incoming Glimmora, which spins them away while poisoning Groudon before getting KOed. Then, Kyogre comes to revenge kill, takes out Ho-Oh and switches to Samurott-Hisui on Lana bringing Groudon. From this, a layer of Spikes is on Entrocefalo's side, two layers on Lana's side and Kyogre locked to Origin Pulse faces Lana's last Pokemon: Zacian-Crowned.

Zacian KOes Kyogre and now it's the final duel between Zacian and Arceus-Electric. Lana exhausts her Tera and reveals Substitute Tera Grass on Zacian, blocking almost every possible set from Arceus-Electric including Will-O-Wisp while gaining resist to Electric Judgment...... as Entrocefalo reveals Iron Defense on Arceus-Electric. Even though Zacian boosts itself with Swords Dance, without a crit Zacian cannot break and Entrocefalo takes the win.

Showdown Shoguns vs Power Plant Dynamos
SV Ubers: Sheik : vs Monai
vs

Recap

Sheik and Monai both loaded balance structures. Sheik’s team would probably look familiar to some of you who played through 2023–2024 SV Ubers, where Rain + Arceus-Fairy + Landorus-Therian was the most popular core back then. In contrast, Monai’s team looks far more modern, with the same six having been seen multiple times in numerous SV Ubers tour games in the past six months.

The game started with both sides trading off their Kyogre on Turn 1, both paralyzed by Thunder, and then Monai switched out to Arceus-Electric, as Monai’s Kyogre was slower. Arceus-Electric quickly revealed Will-O-Wisp on Sheik’s Giratina-O switch-in, and at this point it was quite problematic for Sheik, as his Giratina-O turned out to be a physical utility set, and getting burned severely chunked down its utility—especially when Monai had a Ting-Lu.

However, Monai was not able to convert such an advantage, allowing Arceus-Electric to get chipped by Sacred Fire, get burned, and even allowing Sheik to pivot in Arceus-Fairy freely and set up Stealth Rock, with Monai only returned a Will-O-Wisp on Arceus-Fairy.

Monai further decided to trade Ting-Lu entirely on Arceus-Fairy when there was a full HP Ho-Oh, for just one layer of Spikes and 67% HP off Arceus-Fairy. Later in the game, when Monai revealed a non–Heavy-Duty Boots Ho-Oh, Sheik quietly utilized his own Ho-Oh since Arceus-Electric was low on Recover PP, and with Monai’s Ho-Oh taking 50% every entrance, Sheik made his Landorus-Therian a serious threat to Monai’s team, which later revealed itself as a Scarf set.

Monai’s last resort was Healing Wish Hatterene to revive Koraidon’s health, but he still struggled to break the Ho-Oh + Landorus-T core, resulting in Landorus-T sweeping Monai in the endgame.

 

[LouisIX]

W2 Recap
Showdown Shoguns vs Circuit Breakers
SV Ubers: Sheik : vs Vitiate

vs

A CRITICAL HIT!

Sheik loaded a Deoxys-S offense — a common and solid pick in the current meta — but the unusual part is the lack of Zacian-C, a gap that could hurt the team's buffer against Koraidon. Since Vitiate loaded a full stall, that drawback becomes minimal. We can also see Clefable on Vitiate's team, a rare but solid pick on a stall team for tackling Koraidon and the Gliscor mirror better. Just looking at the preview, it seems pretty tough for Vitiate, since either Lunala or Kyogre has great potential to ruin a stall that leans on only Blissey — or maybe Ho-Oh counts as half.

The lead was Gliscor vs Deoxys-S, which was a kinda surprising lead from Sheik, and the more surprising thing was that Sheik allowed one layer with Deoxys-S, which hurt him even though he landed Icy Wind on Gliscor later. Choice Specs Kyogre was revealed after Deoxys-S went down, as it did 55% damage to Heavy-Duty Boots Blissey. With Vitiate having almost no choice but to Tera Blissey to avoid getting completely owned by Specs Ogre, RNG kindly sent Vitiate's hope into oblivion, as Sheik's second Spout not only crit but also rolled (almost) max. With no reliable Water resist and almost the entire team slower, Vitiate had nothing to do, and the game quickly ended with Kyogre coming in and spamming Surf afterwards.

Lesson from the game? Make sure your Blissey is max SpD in Ubers, I guess — that makes Blissey live even if the first Spout max rolls and the second Spout crit-maxes you. Well, you won't be saved from a Tera Water Spout unless you'd Tera'd Blissey prior to that, anyway.

Arena Spartans vs Uncharted Terrors
SV Ubers: Fc vs baconeatinassassin
vs

Recap

Fc loaded a heavily physical offense team, going further than what Bacon did last week, with Glimmora as the only special attacker on the team, while Bacon loaded a typical Eleceus + Hatterene balance. Looking at the preview, it was quite hard for Fc, since both Eleceus and Groudon are painful to handle and Glimmora may also struggle against Eternatus.

The game started with Bacon's Arceus-Electric vs Fc's Koraidon, a reasonable lead from Bacon, as Eleceus basically has the advantage in every matchup versus Fc's team. Fc quickly retreated to Ho-Oh, the only mon immune to Will-O-Wisp that also naturally takes a Judgment, while Bacon revealed Ice Beam, then followed with a Judgment–Sacred Fire trade where Fc crit and burned Eleceus but only did 56% damage to it. Fc then proceeded to go Ekiller, going for a fearless Swords Dance in front of a potential Will-O-Wisp Eleceus, while Bacon just modestly clicked two Judgments to put Ekiller to low health. Fc threw off another Extreme Speed that barely did 40% to Bacon's Groudon and went down, then revealed (another!) Air Balloon Glimmora. Bacon safely retreated to Eternatus, and as the preview expected, Fc's Glimmora had a hard time dealing with Eternatus, so he decided to let Ho-Oh take a Toxic in order to phaze Eternatus out and try to get a better position, ending up with Landorus-T facing Eternatus in a 1v1, where Fc lost as his Landorus-T only did around 60% to Eternatus with a super effective Earthquake. Fc then proceeded to Koraidon and Tera'd Fairy, trying to get a free set-up turn on Dynamax Cannon, but Bacon beautifully clicked Toxic instead, also clicking Tera Fairy on Eternatus to cover a potential Scale Shot. With Koraidon badly poisoned, it could not break through Bacon's team, and Fc's attempt to gamble on a choke from Bacon by clicking Scale Shot into a Fairy-type opponent failed. That basically sealed the game, as Bacon limited Fc's Koraidon to taking down only Hatterene — and Kingambit without Tera can only dream of taking down a fully healthy Koraidon.

Power Plant Dynamos vs Indigo Platoon

vs
SV Ubers: Monai vs Icemaster

Login and Topup your luck!

LOL Ice call this game "GOOD"

Monai brought another Deoxys-S squad alongside Sheik, this time featuring Eternatus and Zacian-C, leaning more toward an anti-offense approach. Icemaster loaded up an Arceus-Water balance team paired with Terapagos, which serves as both an excellent form of hazard control and an emergency phazing option in the tier. Looking at team preview, Icemaster seemed to have the better matchup, as the combination of Terapagos and Groudon could be troublesome for Monai, while Eternatus might not have enough longevity to break through Icemaster's defensive core before being worn down.
Icemaster led with Terapagos against Monai's Deoxys-S. Monai used Taunt and then switched to Lunala, threatening to break Terapagos's Tera Shell. He quickly doubled back to Deoxys-S as Icemaster switched to Arceus-Water. Icemaster then brought Terapagos back in to deny hazards, but Lunala came in once again. This time, Icemaster opted to set Stealth Rock and took a Meteor Beam from Lunala in return. Things quickly became unfortunate for Monai. Lunala failed to connect with every move it used afterward. Not only did Icemaster land a Toxic to break Shadow Shield, but Zacian-C also dodged a +2 Meteor Beam, which proved crucial later in the game.After sacrificing Deoxys-S to Zacian-C, Monai attempted to make progress with Dragon Dance Arceus-Ground. However, it failed to deal enough damage, allowing Terapagos to remove Spikes with Rapid Spin. Arceus-Ground then went down after dealing only around 60% to Groudon with a +2 Earthquake. Monai then tried to remove Groudon with Eternatus, at which point Icemaster revealed Endure. Once Custap Berry became obvious, Monai chose to use Agility while committing to Tera Fairy. Unfortunately, the turn ended up being largely wasted because Icemaster missed Precipice Blades. After several turns of unsuccessful switching attempts to bait out Meteor Beam, Icemaster finally went into an 88% Zacian-C, hoping to survive Fire Blast and retaliate with a super effective Behemoth Blade. Notably, this would not have been possible had Monai landed the earlier +2 Meteor Beam with Lunala.
Seems not enough, RNG put another big fat middle finger to Monai with another miss of Fire Blast. With few options remaining, Monai had to rely on winning the Zacian-C speed tie to gain a boost and clear the way for Koraidon., and RNG again said go F yourself as Icemaster critted his Behemonth Blade on Monai's Zacian-C, leaving Monai's Zacian-C too weakened to break through Ho-Oh and Arceus-Water together, as it would eventually fall to Wild Charge recoil. With Icemaster revealing Life Orb Scale Shot to pick off the weakened Lunala and outspeed Monai's Koraidon, he secured the victory, assisted by an insane amount of good fortune throughout the game.

Studio Gible vs Orange Islanders
vs
SV Ubers: Taka vs Lana

Recap

As I expected, Taka loaded a Smeragle offense to surprise everyone, while Lana loaded yet ANOTHER Deoxy-S offense, marking the 4th appearance of Deoxy-S this week. It is always hard to predict the MU advantage with a Smeargle on the Screen, but it seems to be largely depends on the lead position on both sides.

Taka surprising leaded Flutter Mane with Booster Energy, while Lana leaded Arceus-Ground, trying to cover Nuzzle and probably brought Taunt to stop Smeragle as much as possible. Whats more surprising is that Taka's Flutter Mane lived an Earthquake from Arceus-Ground --- with the Icy Wind damage its pretty much a 252 Def and 252 Speed Flutter Mane if I have to guess. Determining that Areus-Ground staying would be useless, Lana decided to go Deoxy-S, hoping her Deoxy-S could live Flutter Mane, which failed. To this point, losing the hazard lead for almost completely free, Lana was way behind and she finally decided to go Koraidon and trying to bait Mooblast with tera fire to get a Speed boost and the momentum, while Taka correctly clicked thunderwave to nullify Lana's attempt. With Smeargle being basically untouched and opposing Koraidon went harmless after paralysed, Taka had all playing room and Lana's last try on IDCM Necrozma-DM failed as it not only have to face consistent distrupt from full health Smeragle, but also have to hope Taka's Arceus-Ground to be phyiscally offensive set, which wasn't, effectively sealed the game for Taka.

Technical Machines vs Mt. Silver Foxes
vs
SV Ubers: entrocefalo vs Skyiew

Recap

Another surprise came from Entrocefalo's team choice, featuring Giratina, Chansey, and the extremely rare Arceus-Dark. The absence of several common stall staples made the team look even stranger. In contrast, Skyiew loaded an Arceus-Electric Balance consist of Kyogre and Terapagos, similar to what Lana brought last week against Entrocefalo. Just from the preview, Skyiew may have to work hard to pass the Giratina/Chansey core, and would probably need some luck or specific stallbreaker set from Koraidon or Zacian-C to help breaking Skeledirge, Kyogre and Arceus-Dark.

The game quickly swung in Entrocefalo's favour. Even though Skyiew correctly anticipated a Tera Fairy + tera blast from Entrocefalo's Kyogre to avoid giving away his own Koraidon, Entrocefalo still managed to paralyze Koraidon with Chansey to nullify its threat.

As Skyiew's Eleceus being supportive, Ho-Oh being defensive and Kyogre not being a breaker Specs nor a Calm mind set, it looked like Skyiew's only hope was Zacian-C against Entrocefalo's Skeledirge and Ho-Oh. However, as Entrocefalo is running a Chansey instead of Blissey, which create some sort of hazard pressure for him, since his Chansey was playing agressive to push the process instead of keeping its health. At around turn 32, Skyiew going Terapagos to take Kyogre's Tera blast and setting up stealth rock, and again, Entrocefalo was too aggressive to push the progress, clicked Will-O-Wisp instead of defog, which Skyiew roar Giratina out and drag out Ho-Oh. Entrocefalo decided to push again by staying Ho-Oh for a Brave Bird to take a toxic, which proved to be critical in endgame.

Skyiew then sacking Koraidon to Ho-Oh to put in Kyogre, and Entrocefalo's position became very shaky after Chansey's health going low with Skyiew's Kyogre successfully full para'ed Chansey after hitting Origin Pulse on Chansey switchin, leaving Chansey in range of a potential 2HKO.

Entrocefalo refuse to take the gamble, going Giratina instead, phazing Kyogre out with Dragon Tail while taking Ice beam damage, putting it into range of almost everything after rocks, and all of a sudden Entrocefalo loses the ability to defog and handle Skyiew's Kyogre and Ho-Oh.

With Entrocefalo's Ho-Oh now badly poisoned, he turned to Arceus-Dark on Ho-Oh, and got burnt by Sacred fire that heavily cut its longetivity. As Arceus-Dark revealed Sludge Bomb, Skyiew decided to go Zacian-C, hoping no Will-O-Wisp from Entrocefalo's Arceus-Dark, which it appeared to be the case as Entrocefalo did not stay Arceus-Dark in front of Zacian-C for the remainder of the game.

The game eventually devolved into Skyiew repeatedly pivoting Kyogre into Skeledirge and claiming knockout after knockout as Entrocefalo gradually ran out of switch-ins. This ultimately led to a Kyogre-versus-Kyogre endgame. Although Entrocefalo managed to dodge two Origin Pulses, it still was not enough. Skyiew's Zacian-C landed a critical-hit Behemoth Blade to remove Entrocefalo's Kyogre from 81%, and with both Ho-Oh and Arceus-Dark crippled by status, Entrocefalo could no longer withstand Skyiew's Ho-Oh and a healthy Zacian-C. What had once been a favorable position slowly unraveled, and Skyiew completed the comeback to take the win.

 

[LouisIX]

W3
Indigo Platoon vs Showdown Shoguns

SV Ubers: Icemaster vs Sheik :
vs

A CRITICAL HIT!

Icemaster brought a Glimmora offense and we finally saw him use Ekiller in this SCL. His team consisted of Kyogre as the only special attacker, so you might expect Icemaster to struggle versus bulkier teams. Meanwhile, Sheik brought a team that looked bulky, with Landorus-T, Arceus-Water, and Eternatus as the defensive backbone. Not only did Eternatus effectively shut down Glimmora, but the Ditto in the back also seemed to be a nightmare for Icemaster’s team. A very tough MU for Icemaster from the preview.

Without much surprise, the lead was Kyogre from Icemaster versus Eternatus from Sheik, but what was surprising was that Icemaster’s Kyogre was actually Choice Specs, and it almost took Eternatus down. From the damage of Dynamax Cannon, it was revealed that Sheik’s Eternatus was also an offensive one, so Sheik dodged a bullet from Icemaster’s Specs Kyogre as it has 31% chance to straight OHKO Eternatus; otherwise, Sheik would be in huge trouble dealing with Glimmora. Icemaster predicted a switch and went Glimmora, and Sheik went Arceus-Water trying to eat an Ice Beam. Icemaster then decided to click Mortal Spin at the cost of giving up Focus Sash to Judgment. However, Arceus-Water was still a big problem for Icemaster to deal with, and he eventually decided to go Koraidon. Sheik successfully landed a huge Will-O-Wisp on Koraidon. Still, Specs Kyogre remained a big threat for Sheik, and Icemaster continued to aggressively double back to it on Sheik’s Landorus-T switch-in for Koraidon.

As Glimmora was still on the field, Sheik didn’t seem to want to give up Eternatus too early and decided to go Arceus-Water trying to catch an Ice Beam, ending up putting his Arceus-Water down to far too low with the damage from Specs-boosted Origin Pulse + poison. Sheik tried to get back momentum by going Koraidon to Scale Shot, but it was blocked by Icemaster’s Zacian switch-in, and again Icemaster doubled to Kyogre on a Landorus-T switch-in. Sheik finally gave up his Arceus-Water, went Koraidon and tried to Scale Shot, and again it was blocked by Zacian. Even with Ice’s brilliant doubles to remove Arceus-Water, he was still at a disadvantage dealing with Landorus-T, Ditto, and Zacian-Crowned on Sheik’s team.

On turn 12, Icemaster finally decided to stop doubling on the Landorus-T switch-in, and Sheik immediately clicked Stealth Rock on a Kyogre switch-in to deny Glimmora for the rest of the game. Icemaster missed the Origin Pulse on the Koraidon switch-in, sacking Glimmora while Sheik clicked Swords Dance. Icemaster then went Zacian trying to threaten a KO with a potential Play Rough, and Sheik decided to play safe and go Landorus-T. With Rocks on the field, Icemaster’s team did not seem comfortable taking Landorus-T’s Earthquake with Rock damage. Icemaster eventually decided to stay in and click Behemoth Blade on Landorus-T, while Sheik clicked U-turn to get his own Zacian-C on the field. Sheik clicked Swords Dance on Icemaster’s -1 Atk Zacian, which was mostly a safe move, and Icemaster went to his own Necrozma-DM.

With Icemaster’s Koraidon being burned and his Zacian-C having lost its ability, Sheik decided to Tera Electric, trying to take down Necrozma-DM so that +3 Zacian-C could take down most of the Pokémon on Icemaster’s team, if not outright sweep. Surprisingly (or not), Icemaster’s Necrozma-DM was bulky enough to tank the +3 STAB-boosted Wild Charge and revealed Trick Room. Sheik immediately sacked his own Landorus-T, which was the right move since Specs Kyogre in Trick Room would be a huge pain to face if Sheik allowed Kyogre to come in with Trick Room turns still remaining. Sheik then came back with Zacian again and took down Icemaster’s Necrozma-DM, and Icemaster decided to go Ekiller.

Under Trick Room, Ekiller was able to boost first with Bulk Up, a relatively rare move to be seen on Ekiller, but it seemed to be the perfect set for Icemaster to win against Sheik’s team after all the chip on it. The game looked even more dire for Sheik after Icemaster revealed Tera Fire and Recover on Ekiller, effectively pinning Sheik’s Zacian on the field, and Sheik had no choice but to allow Icemaster’s Ekiller to heal back to full. Sheik sent out Ditto, and he surprisingly saw that Icemaster’s Ekiller had Earthquake! I’m pretty sure Sheik felt like stumbling upon an oasis at the very moment he was dying of thirst in the desert lmao. Earthquake doing super-effective damage on Icemaster’s Tera Fire Ekiller forced Icemaster to spam Recover to keep Ekiller out of 2HKO range from Ditto. But soon Sheik’s Ditto said “yeah I topped up today” and landed a critical hit on turn 29, taking out Icemaster’s biggest wincon. With Koraidon being burned, Zacian at low health, and Kyogre being slower than anything else, the game became unwinnable for him against a healthy Ditto and Koraidon, and the game quickly went to Sheik’s Koraidon and Ditto securing the endgame.

One may question Icemaster’s Terastal timing, as Tera Fire made his Ekiller weak to his own move versus Ditto. You may have noticed that Sheik’s Zacian-C dealt 38% damage with Close Combat on +2 Defense Ekiller — that’s a number that can only appear on a 0 HP investment Ekiller:

252 Atk Tera Electric Zacian-Crowned Close Combat vs. +2 0 HP / 0 Def Arceus: 124-148 (32.5 - 38.8%) -- 6.2% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

Given if Sheik rolled the number a little bit lower, or if Icemaster’s Ekiller was not 0 bulk EV, Icemaster would have won the game at the moment he healed back his Ekiller without committing the Tera, since +2 Extreme Speed was already enough to clean up the rest of Sheik’s team, and Ditto would have had to dream of landing multiple critical hits to take it down.

Overall, Icemaster played this game very well, just the luck wasn't on his side this time.

KARMA LOL LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID TO MONAI LAST WEEK HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Studio Gible vs Mt. Silver Foxes
SV Ubers: Taka vs Skyiew
vs

Recap

CHIYU TIME! Taka brought the ND Ubers nightmare into SV Ubers, with the sun duo for obvious reasons, supported by Kyogre, Arceus-Fairy, and Terapagos—a pretty solid trio against any potential setup Koraidon. Meanwhile, Skyiew brought a much more standard-looking team consisting of Deoxys-S and friends, and the only eyebrow-raising thing was Arceus-Electric, a very rare Arceus to be seen on a Deoxys-Speed team.

The game started with Deoxys-S from Skyiew and Taka’s Kyogre, and Deoxys-S immediately went down to Origin Pulse after only putting up Stealth Rock. Skyiew then set up sun and pivoted to Arceus-Electric, one of the best mons to face Kyogre under sun, while Taka went Arceus-Fairy on Koraidon, then to Terapagos on Arceus-Electric’s Calm Mind. Up to this point everything looked normal after Skyiew lost his lead—

I remain in doubt about leading Deoxys-S and gifting it just to click rocks with no Ghost on your own team versus a Terapagos.

Fearing a potential Toxic, Skyiew switched out to Zacian-C, while Taka spun off the rocks, meaning Skyiew’s Deoxys-S was now officially confirmed to be zero contribution in this game. Taka switched to Groudon to take a hit from Zacian-C, and Skyiew revealed Air Balloon Kyogre on Taka’s Spikes. Taka’s team now seemed to be in big trouble against Kyogre, as Air Balloon freed it from hazards, and Ice Beam from Skyiew seemed extremely free. Taka eventually decided to go to his own Kyogre to try to take an Ice Beam, but Skyiew correctly anticipated that and clicked Thunder, not only dealing a ton to Taka’s Kyogre but also paralyzing it, basically putting Taka’s Kyogre out of the game.

Skyiew’s second Thunder took away Taka’s Kyogre, and Koraidon came next. Taka immediately doubled to Terapagos on Skyiew’s Zacian switch-in, seemingly trying to stop a potential Scale Shot. At this point, Taka was already in a difficult position—either give up Terapagos’ Terashell or go Groudon and take a hit at the cost of inviting Kyogre again. Taka eventually decided to go Chi-Yu on Behemoth Blade, taking 43% damage. Doubting a potential Scarf Chi-Yu, Skyiew decided to scout with his Kyogre, and Taka got the call right by landing a Dark Pulse on Kyogre for 42%, a very high roll from the calc. Still, Skyiew’s Ice Beam was extremely free, and Taka pivoted Terapagos first, then went Koraidon on Origin Pulse. With one layer of Spikes on the field and Kyogre’s health being low, a Fighting move from Taka’s Koraidon posed a serious threat to Skyiew. Skyiew decided to Tera Fairy his Kyogre, tanked a Low Kick from Koraidon for 44% HP, and traded for a paralysis on Taka’s Koraidon.

From this point the game seemed quite dire for Taka, as he now lost his faster mon against Skyiew’s Eternatus, and seemingly nothing in Taka’s team could stop Eternatus. Taka took away Skyiew’s Kyogre, and Skyiew immediately went Eternatus and clicked Meteor Beam to claim Taka’s Koraidon in return. Taka went Chi-Yu first, then back to Arceus-Fairy to immune Dynamax Cannon. Taka had no choice but to gamble that Skyiew’s Eternatus did not bring Sludge Bomb—which was indeed the case—and Skyiew retreated Eternatus to Arceus-Electric on the obvious Thunder Wave from Taka. Skyiew tried to set up Arceus-Electric again, yet fearing Toxic from Terapagos, switched out to Zacian while Taka clicked Roar instead, dragging Arceus-Electric out again. This time, Skyiew went back to Zacian, trying to immune Toxic and attack, while Taka doubled to Groudon, putting Skyiew in an awkward position since his team now had no Ground immunity. Skyiew eventually let his own Koraidon take the Precipice Blades, making it Chi-Yu food if Chi-Yu was faster.

Skyiew’s Koraidon did not seem to have any method to pass through Arceus-Fairy, but Taka traded Arceus-Fairy’s health to paralyze Skyiew’s Zacian. After that, Taka successfully got some correct hax on Skyiew, including going Groudon for free on Zacian’s FP, dodging two Fire Blasts under sun from Eternatus to keep Terapagos healthy, and putting Skyiew in a painful spot where Terapagos’ Roar dragged out Arceus-Electric.

After taking several Spikes damage, Skyiew eventually positioned his Koraidon on Terapagos to threaten a setup. On turn 32, Skyiew decided not to Swords Dance and clicked Scale Shot, while Taka correctly went Arceus-Fairy, then fell to Flame Charge, while Groudon claimed Koraidon after taking a Low Kick with 14% HP left. Here, Taka decided to sack the only sun setter in the game, going Chi-Yu and revealing Tera Fire Choice Scarf Overheat to kill Eternatus at 51% HP, but then failed to kill Arceus-Electric at 51% HP, eventually folding to a Calm Mind Arceus-Electric without further help from hax.

Had Taka been aware of the sun turns, he would have gone Terapagos on Eternatus and kept clicking Roar. If Skyiew’s Eternatus was a Recover + Meteor Beam set, just commit to it; otherwise, if Skyiew decided to attack, Taka could either anticipate the attack and go back to Groudon to set up sun, then clean with Tera Fire Chi-Yu under sun—as it demolished everything on Skyiew’s team at that moment—or sack Terapagos and rely on Groudon’s super-effective Precipice Blades, which were still doing enough to clean the endgame (though accuracy checks would be needed).

Quite a shame for Taka not being able to seal this endgame with Chi-Yu when Skyiew played extremely conservatively with a Deoxys-Speed team.

Orange Islanders vs Power Plant Dynamos
SV Ubers: Lana vs Mareep
vs

Well, stall game.

Lana loaded a team very similar to what Icemaster brought, while Mareep, subbing out Monai, brought a full stall team that I would say definitely surprised Lana given how her team looked. The MU seemed to be hinging on what Kingambit set Lana had.

The game quickly went to Mareep’s side without much surprise—Lana’s team lacked longevity and struggled to break through Skeledirge + Gliscor + Corviknight, especially with Zacian-C being absolutely deadweight in this MU without Tera Dark Crunch. Even if Life Orb Koraidon posed some threat against Mareep, Lana allowed Spikes in the early game, which severely cut Koraidon’s durability, and thus Mareep was able to stand against it until Koraidon died to Life Orb recoil. In the endgame, Lana successfully managed to position Kyogre in front of a set Iron Defense Corviknight with only Kingambit at the back, forcing Mareep to kill Kyogre with Clodsire and give Lana’s Air Balloon Kingambit a free Swords Dance in the last-mon scenario, as Clodsire couldn’t even touch Kingambit. Lana further boosted one more time with Tera Fire on Mareep’s attempt to burn it, but then failed to ID Corviknight, as not only was Lana’s Kingambit slower, but it also had a PP problem against Roost + Protect with Leftovers of Corviknight. Sad game for Lana.

Uncharted Terrors vs Technical Machines
SV Ubers: baconeatinassassin vs entrocefalo
vs

Recap

Both sides brought a balance team. Bacon brought Arceus-Water with Groudon, Terapagos, and Lunala, while Entrocefalo seemed to return back to norm with solid picks like Ekiller, Koraidon, and Necrozma-DM. Notably, this is the third Terapagos Entrocefalo has seen in this SCL.

The lead was Terapagos from Bacon vs. Kyogre, and Entrocefalo decided to immediately break the Terashell with the risk of taking Toxic, but he dodged it, making it a bad start for Bacon. Bacon then went to Koraidon to take Origin Pulse, while revealing U-turn on Entrocefalo’s Ho-Oh, going to Lunala against it. Entrocefalo decided to go Kyogre to scout, while Bacon clicked Psyshock, doing almost half on Kyogre—revealing both Specs Lunala and max physdef Leftovers Kyogre, both very rare in the current Ubers. Bacon decided to go for another Psyshock to further press Kyogre’s HP for teammates such as Necrozma and Groudon, while Entrocefalo decided to paralyze it with Thunder Wave in exchange.

Entrocefalo then went to his own Necrozma to take Psyshock with quadruple resist, boosted with Dragon Dance on a Groudon switch-in, then landed a critical-hit Sunsteel Strike on Groudon for 70% damage to put Groudon into range, while Bacon’s Groudon did not do enough back. Entrocefalo tried to dodge one Precipice Blades by clicking Morning Sun to heal the damage, but was unsuccessful, then clicked Sunsteel Strike again on Bacon’s Groudon—this time Bacon preserved Groudon and went Arceus-Water. Both sides recovered, and Bacon revealed Calm Mind Arceus-Water on Entrocefalo’s Ho-Oh switch-in.

Entrocefalo then went back to Koraidon to set up sun, clicking U-turn to Ho-Oh to scout Arceus-Water’s move, while Bacon revealed Dragon Tail to drag out Kyogre, calling up rain and forcing Entrocefalo to go Koraidon again. As the U-turn damage was high enough to indicate Choice Band, Bacon retreated to Lunala and correctly anticipated Close Combat, then made another beautiful read by tricking Ho-Oh’s Heavy-Duty Boots with Specs, making it weak to Stealth Rock. Bacon set rocks with Terapagos being faster, avoiding Sacred Fire killing it before rocks went up. With rocks up and Lunala healthy enough to block spin, Entrocefalo now found his position difficult against Calm Mind Arceus-Water.

He decided to go for a burn gamble with Sacred Fire and took 58% from Judgment—he got the burn, but Bacon correctly read the Koraidon switch-in next turn by clicking Dragon Tail, luckily dragging out Ho-Oh again for further Stealth Rock damage. Entrocefalo went back to Terapagos, but with Lunala alive, he could not spin off the rocks, and decided to go Arceus, taking a Psyshock from Lunala. He then boosted with Swords Dance, but got unlucky on the damage roll on 48% Groudon, leaving it alive and able to click Will-O-Wisp to cripple Ekiller.

But then, as Bacon preserved his Groudon again and went Necrozma to take on a burnt Ekiller, Entrocefalo revealed Facade and immediately took away Necrozma with the aid of a critical hit. With nothing able to stop Facade Ekiller, Bacon had to go Koraidon—the only thing faster—to take away Ekiller at the cost of 45% health. Entrocefalo went Necrozma-DM on an obviously Choice Scarf-locked Koraidon without sun and tried to boost on it, while Bacon went Arceus-Water and clicked Calm Mind, taking one Earthquake from +1 Necrozma-DM for 39% health.

Seeing his Necrozma-DM act faster on Earthquake, Entrocefalo decided to Tera Ground and try to kill Arceus-Water with the help of STAB-boosted Earthquake. But to the surprise of both players, the +1 Speed Necrozma-DM was actually speed-tying with Arceus-Water, and Bacon won the second speed tie to stay alive under the +1 STAB Earthquake by recovering first. One more turn Entrocefalo tried to win the speed tie but failed, then decided to click Dragon Dance instead on turn 35, while Bacon clicked Judgment to put Necrozma-DM down to 7% HP, as Judgment became super effective against a Ground-type Necrozma-DM. Entrocefalo was forced to click Earthquake, while Bacon decided to sack Groudon instead.

However, with Ho-Oh losing its Boots, Kyogre’s health being very low with rocks on the field, and Terapagos unable to do anything back to Lunala, Entrocefalo’s team was super fragile to Scarf Koraidon—where Bacon later revealed Tera Fire. Entrocefalo sacked Kyogre to bring in Terapagos, then tried to double with Koraidon and clicked Outrage, but Bacon’s Tera Fire Choice Scarf Koraidon simply acted faster and swept Entrocefalo’s team in the endgame.

Had Entrocefalo not clicked that second Dragon Dance, and instead committed to the speed tie—and won it—the game might have gone a completely different way, where Bacon would have had to rely entirely on Tera Fire Flare Blitz while Entrocefalo still had enough sacks and Kyogre around. A close game, but not played perfectly.

Circuit Breakers vs Arena Spartans
SV Ubers: Vitiate vs Fc
vs

Recap

Vitiate brought Deoxys-Attack offense, consisting Arceus-Ground and hatterene in the team, a weird composition if I have to comment. Meanwhile, Fc brought two slow attacking mon of Kingambit and Calyrex-Ice, supported with Arceus-Ground, Landorus-T and Kyogre. It seems both side are trying to Cteam opponent, and the preview looks like Fc is more in advantage with Landorus-Therian being annoying for Zacian-C, while Hatterene seems inviting both Kingmabit and Calyrex-Ice with Only Kyogre at the back for Vitiate as well.



The lead was Deoxys-A vs Kyogre, where Vitiate revealed Grassknot to post a 2HKO threat, and Fc attempted to paralyse Deoxys-A with Thunder failed. Since Grass knot is a contact move which means rocky helmet will chip Deoxys-A to death, Vitiate might worried about that and clicked spikes instead of killing Kyogre, while Fc clicked thunder to claim Deoxys-A. Vitiate went Arceus-Ground on his Deo-A sack, revealed to be a Special attacker set with Judgment on Landorus-T switch-in. Scaring a potential Ice beam, Fc went to Calyrex-Ice, surprisingly taking hazards damage, while Vitiate seemingly do not bring Icebeam, clicked Calm mind instead. Fc then took down Arceus-Ground by Glacial Lance, with the cost of putting his Calyrex-ice into 19% health. Vitiate went Koraidon and clicked Iron head to claim the 19% hp Calyrex-I and revealed Life orb. Fc went Landorus-T, getting the Earthquake damage while Vitiate boost with Swords Dance and try to kill Landorus-T with Life orb boosted Scaleshot, but seems his Koraidon wasn't skilled and landed only 3 hits on Landorus-T, leaving it alive and Koraidon thus die to Earthquake. With only 3 mons left and only Zacian-C being faster, Vitiate position was nearly unrecoverable by just 7 turns of the game. He killed Landorus-T with his Zacian-C, but then Fc revealed Dragon Dance Arceus-Ground on taking a Behemoth Blade for 68% health. Fc was lucky, as if Vitiate's Zacian-C had solar blade that would have Ohko Arceus-Ground as the sun was still on and he would have to hope Zacian-C did not brought a fighting move then he could proceed a kingambit endgame. Nontheless, Vitiate's Zacian was not Solar blade neither nor Tera flying, decided to go Hatterene and activate Custap Berry after tanking +1 Earthquake to revenge Arceus-Ground, but its too late as now Fc's Kingambit came in for free and boost on Hatterene, with Fallen 3 Kingambit was able to kill Kyogre at +2 if not a max phydef Kyogre, and Fc's luck prevent it from FP against Kyogre, proceeded to Tera fire to dodge a potential super effective fighting move, sealing the endgame for him.

 

[LouisIX]

W4
This week is very very boring, and since some may want a more dense analysis instead of flooding battlelog, this would be a relatively short one. (also more personal as well. Don't take it too serious if you feel you are offended.)
(thanks ego for trashtalking the entire ubers community and letting me know at least there is someone reading.)

[SHO] Sheik : vs Highlord [ISL]
vs

Recap

Arceus-Water balance vs Arceus-Water balance. Highlord brougut Dialga and Flutter Mane, both rarely seen in the current meta state but are very effective on handling common Arceus formes, while maintaining serious speed control via Thunderwave and Protosynthesis, while Sheik's choice of mon is probably looking for a faster pace game with Landorus-T without any hazard control, tho just from the preview it looks like not much Sheik can do with this core against Highlord's Arceus-Water+Dialga+Ho-Oh core and can only hope Koraidon to do something.

The game itself did not surprise me despite this probably being the longest game among others. Sheik overall fail to make progress with Arceus-Water and Landorus-T, especially after revealed as an offensive scarf set it basically means a dead meat on any switchin under rocks. Meanwhile, Highlord did play very careful by keeping his Ho-Oh on field as much as he can after killing Sheik's Areus-Water with CM Lunala, shutting any set-up chance from Sheik's Koraidon. On the other hand, Sheik's team fail to make any meaningful progress on Highlord's Ho-Oh in the entire game espeically his own Ho-Oh got paralysed, and the last mon IDCM Necrozma-DM was shut down by tera dark Flutter Mane as well. A typical Highlord game showing off his excellent preparation.

[SPA] Fc vs entrocefalo [TMS]
v

Recap

Webs vs Arceus-Electric + Landorus-Therian + Giratina-O, I would say that its probably not Fc's intention to counter webs with the team composition but somehow it worked, since Entrocefalo's mon choice was a bit modest and was probably looking for something more offensive in the prep instead. Just by the look of the preview you can tell it is going to be quite dire for Entrocefalo, since Ting-lu easily stops Lunala and Arceus-Electric, and we are living in a world that we break by special attackers. So if you can't break with your special attackers in HO its gonna be quite tough to face opposing Arceus formes with potential Will-O-Wisp or Thunder Wave.

Again the game not really surprised me from the preview. Even if Fc looked to be lucky *** again by dodging the first turn Stun Spore the entire situation wouldn't change much for Entrocefalo, as sooner or later his team will face serious pressure against Ting-lu and Landorus-T, and the game ended when the Koraidon set of Entrocefalo was not the "Right" set and fail to sweep against Ting-Lu.

[GIB] Taka vs baconeatinassassin [TER]
vs

another Bacon Masterpiece?

Taka trying to replicate what Bacon brought W1, while Bacon brought the almighty Arceus-Electric (this shxt was brought 6 times this week and no one was even thinking about Eternatus or Glimmora. LOL) with Giratina-O, probably anticipating a Arceus-Ground with so many Arceus-Electric being used recently, and the rest of Bacon's team are pretty standard, I should say. From the preview it looks like again another Arceus-Electric fxxk all with Groudon+Giratina-O at the back, really tough to play for Taka.

The game itself was interesting at least in the first few turns. Lead Arceus-Electric vs Lead Koraidon, later revealed to be Lum berry, and they were speedtying AGAIN (recall last week's Entro vs Bacon?), and If I have to guess they are prob speedtying at 341 (Taka baconeatinassassin sad react plz if I am wrong LOL). The first two turn interaction was pretty tough for Bacon, as not only he missed the first Will-O-Wisp to give a free set-up, but also he was Wisping a Lum Berry Koraidon, effectively giving 2 free turns for Taka's Koraidon. Normally this would probably gonna be a blow-out game for Bacon, but since Taka brought 2 fire-type move witih Low Kick, there was still room for Bacon to play as Giratina-O can tank +2 FlareBlitz, which he did switchin Giratina on Low Kick, probably hoping for no Dragon-move or trying to bait with potential tera, and doing all that to... miss the 90 accuracy move Dragon tail Lol. Bacon trying to anticipate a Flare Blitz and went Kyogre which immediately die to a correct click of Low Kick from Taka. Again, given if Taka's Koraidon brought Dragon type move the game could be super dire for Bacon, but as it wasn't the case, there was still room for Bacon to play, as Arceus-Electric and Groudon were still painful for Taka to deal with. Bacon went Necrozma-DM trying to trade, where Taka refused (I wouldn't) and went to Kyogre taking 51% damage from Photon Geyser, most likely an offesive Kyogre set from the damage. Bacon then beautifully pivot in Arceus-Electric and clicked Will-o-Wisp to hit Taka's Ekiller, which allowed Bacon to heal back his Arceus-Electric, and then dodge the +2 Facade with Giratina-O. In just 5 turns Bacon was able to turn the momentum back as Taka already burn his Lum Berry on Koraidon and end up not making any progess on the big pain in the *** , Arceus-Electric. Taka then decided to attack with Zacian-C, trying to chip Groudon for teammates but Bacon immediatley Tera-Water on Groudon and land the Will-o-Wisp on Taka's Zacian-C. That not only stopped Taka's attack but also open up Bacon to boost its Necrozma-DM, as there was nothing in Taka's team that has both the power and speed to take NDM down. With no choice, Taka use Tera fire and almost all of the hp on his Koraidon to take down NDM, but then leave his team open to Choice Scarf Koraidon, as Taka's Koraidon was slow as the lead shown, the game ended with another Scarf Koraidon Sweep for Bacon.

Just not sure why this Zacian-C is not a breaker cteam set for Groudon tho. Solar blade prob would have made Bacon's life harder as Tera caly may probably F him over after Groudon dies to Solar blade. Just saying.

[BRE] Vitiate vs Icemaster [PLA]
vs

Recap

Vitiate loaded a bulky offense, while Icemaster loaded Arceus-Electric balance with Terapagos for HO. Again Arceus-Electric is posting its threat of wisping every thing in sight while Terapagos against a no-Ghost team favours Icemaster in hazard exchange but Icemaster also gotta be careful against Kyogre as not only he did not bring his own Kyogre for the lead but also lacking a reliable switchin means he would have to lean on perfect read everytime. (Which he did not as the saint said so.)

The game quickly went into both Groudon spitting Wisp and spikes onto each other and with some doubling the situation reached Kyogre vs Ho-Oh on Turn 7, as this time Ice fail to make the correct read and get OHKO by a faster Kyogre. If I have to comment this, it was probably Ice being over confident (as he had done this to taka on W1) on his Ho-Oh Speed EV, trusting his Ho-Oh would act faster and breaking Air-balloon on Kyogre was worth a trade given he was probably winning the hazard war. Turnout its not the case so Icemaster basically gave his Ho-Oh for free. And Ho-Oh seems not the only victim here as Icemaster trying to set-up his Koraidon afterwards but then Vitiate reveal Tera-Fairy on Koraidon's +2 scaleshot and taking it down with 2 Ice Beam. Without Koraidon, and Ho-Oh, it was pretty obvious that if he wants to lay hazards with Groudon it risks Kyogre to come in and claim something, and if not laying hazards there seems no way for Icemaster to break through NDM+Groudon on Vitiate team. Icemaster proceed to boost his Zacian-C after laying 3 layers on Vitiate, but then was forced out on a pretty obvious Custap Berry Groudon of Vitiate, which not only put him further back in momentum but also looking dire to a potential Scarf Koraidon of Vitiate with rocks and spikes up on Icemaster's team. Eventually Ice just could not force out Kyogre with Arceus-Electric even with Sun up, and has to go Zacian-C at the last turn of Sun to kill Kyogre. But that does not really change anything unless Ice Zacian-C win the speedtie and crit Vitiate's Zacian-C to wish for a miracle, which he didn't, and thus the game was ended in Arceus-Electric fail to do a 1v3 with only 4 recover left.

[FOX] Skyiew vs Mareep [DYN]
vs

Boring Arceus-Electric Mirror

Both brought Arceus-Electric balance with Mareep having Lunala and NDM while Skyiew having Ho-Oh and Zacian-C instead. Both team did not seem to be containing Calm-mind Arceus-Electric (or maybe Skyiew does with a Ho-Oh Teraing, if he think it is worth), and the game quickly came down to CM war of two Arceus-Electric. Both players traded freeze back and forth but the only thing matter was the critical hit on Mareep at Turn 37, ended up in Mareep throwing his Groudon and buring Tera on NDM to allow him bring in Koraidon to take it out, leaving him out of Steel resist and the rest was routine for Skyiew, simply get in Zacian-C safely and do the work alongside the Flamecharge Koraidon as all the physical stopper of Mareep's team were gone from the crit. Sorry but this game is just really not worth any time or effort to watch and analyse.

 

[Slikkles]

W4
This week is very very boring, and since some may want a more dense analysis instead of flooding battlelog, this would be a relatively short one. (also more personal as well. Don't take it too serious if you feel you are offended.)
(thanks ego for trashtalking the entire ubers community and letting me know at least there is someone reading.)

I don't play ubers but I enjoy reading them. Thanks LouisIX

 

[Fc]

ego called us garbage and dumb and stupid for not posting so now I will have to step in. Welcome to...

THE FC PLAY OF THE WEEKtm
The Fc Play of the Weektm is where I will talk about my favourite play from each week when I remember to do it but for now I will say each week. This will not be limited to a single turn but sometimes it might be, either a very impactful / creative turn or a very good sequence. I will not feature myself as that is biased no matter which side of the game it is on. I may also have some double featurers and colour commentary on other things such as
THE FC SET OF THE WEEKtm
Which is still in progress. Anyway, let me get into The Fc Play of the Weektm for week 4 which just concluded. Since it is the first edition you will get two plays as a bonus.
My honourable mention goes to vitiate from turns 7-9 of his game, using Kyogre for massive progress. Turn 7 is just getting a good read on his opponent and playing well, realizing that icemaster needed Koraidon really badly to make progress and also check EKiller, so he didn't want it to take a hit. From there Koraidon was essentially forced in, as Kyogre is very threatening and eleceus would just invite Groudon back in from vitiate, which now has no answers with Ho-Oh gone even if it's burned. Vitiate opts to Ice Beam then immediately burn tera, going 2 for 1 without taking a single percent on the Kyogre then later using it for another kill, before it still put in workr as it died by not allowing Zacian-C to click SD safely for a reverse sweep, instead mandating a Behemoth Blade to take out the Tera Fairy. Good play, vitiate.


The actual play of the week goes to baconeatinassassin on turn 14 of his game, terastallizing Groudon to wisp the Zacian-C. After some very unfortunate luck to start the game, bacon found himself clawing back after the Koraidon on taka's side revealed no dragon move, allowing for improved positioning and not getting instantly swept. I liked this play for multiple reasons. First off, it can be natural sometimes to just take the kill in front of you and preserve such an important resource as tera, especially after Groudon switched in taking 43% the turn before. Also, he decided not to kill the Zacian-C, but actually just wisp it and set rocks on the switch. This later allowed for his Occa DD NDM to take 8% from the Zacian-C that was forced to pressure Giratina-O to chip it, and set up for insane progress that led to a game winning sequence. The tera water also had the added benefit of preventing Calyrex-I from winning too easily should it have come to that, but it didn't. Good play, bacon.

The Fc set of the week goes to highlord for his fuckass flutter mane set. I didn't like it. But it is very interesting so I will mention it, I don't know why it's tera dark and also taunt and also boots that seems excessive. Regardless, it put in big work and ended up winning him the game from a very comfortable position and prevented the CM ID NDM from reverse sweeping, which it's usually capable of as a last mon. Good set, highlord.

I will see you next time on THE FC PLAY OF THE WEEKtm.

 

[Edgar]

Yo! I made a small coverage video on Vitiate vs Icemaster as I thought it was a very interesting game for many reasons:

I was also going to cover Highlord vs Sheik but wasn't feeling too well yesterday, but I also thought that was a pretty cool match. If you guys want to see me cover that one on a separate video or other matches as well, let me know. :)

 

[LouisIX]

W5 WELCOME TO THE SCALESHOT LAND

[SPA] Fc vs Taka [GIB]
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Hit 4 or Hit 5, that is the question.

Finally we saw a poison type in SCL with Taka brought a Glimmora offense, while Fc brought a Dual Water type balance. For Fc it could be quite trouble to deal with Taka's Arceus-Electric espeically if his Groudon get poisoned by Glimmora. But on the other hand, Taka's team did not seem to be quite handling Zacian-C from Fc, as Taka's Eleceus may not be bulky enough to stop it or Fc could have a tera specficially for it on Zacian-C and maybe the game could come down to a Zacian-C speedtie as well.

Fc leaded Arceus-Water for Glimmora, and Taka lead Lunala. Fc's Arceus was faster to click Calm Mind but Taka's Lunala was still doing a 38% damage on a +1 Arceus, revealing its item to be a Choice Specs. Fearing of the CM Arceus-Water, Taka pivot to Koraidon first to summon Sun, then went to Eleceus then phazing Arceus-Water out with a surprise Dragon tail without taking any damage since Fc did not expect that in a Glimmora team and clicked CM instead. Groudon dragged out and Taka revealed Air balloon Glimmora then both side traded a layer of spikes then Fc went Arceus-Water on Glimmora.

Taka decided to click the button right away by going Koraidon to take Judgment then boost right away knowing Fc's Arceus did not bring status or phazing move, then Taka's Koraidon was definitely very skillful and took down both Water type pokemon in Fc's team as the GIF shown. With no choice, Fc brought Ho-Oh to try tanking one attack from +2 Koraidon, but Taka decided to go Glimmora for a layer of Tspikes. Personally I would probably stay Koraidon since its basically not able to boost again and who knows if there would be another miracle if you clicked scaleshot again LOL. Nonetheless Taka laid one Tspikes and sucessfully read a Zacian-C switchin by hitting a mudshot on it, putting it at 59% hp with -1 spe. From this point the game looked pretty dire for Fc already but Taka did not play optimal to give Fc some chances to fight back, for example Taka did not spin with Glimmora after threatening out Fc's Zacian, costed his Lunala's ability, and on top of that did not went Kyogre first on Fc's Koraidon resulted in sacking his own Zacian-C and have to burn Tera fairy on Kyogre, which eventually left Taka open to a potential anti-Sweep by Fc's Zacian-C if Taka's Eleceus could not handle it. Luckily enough, Taka paralysed Fc's Koraidon with Kyogre, which then it got a critical FP on the turn Taka had to risk going Lunala to prevent a SD from Zacian-C, where Specs Lunala cleaned up the rest of Fc's team. After the game Fc revealed his Zacian-C being a Tera Ground with tera blast, so yes if Fc could manage to land one attack on Lunala with Koraidon that could be a heroic come back for him. Sad game for Fc.

[BRE] Vitiate vs Denial [TMS]
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recap

The Machines decided to bench Entrocefalo and put their bench player Denial (previously known as Lunala) to play against Vitiate this week. The mu from the preview was pretty dire for Denial tho. Both side loaded Groudon so you can expect a hazard war here but as Vitiate brought Terapagos (4th the Machines had faced in Ubers this SCL) , even if Denial has a spinblocker in Arceus-Ghost, it did not seem to be effective to make progress against Terapagos as not only it lacked move to immediately punish Terapagos but also hate toxic. Perhaps the Eterantus on Denial team would be painful for Vitiate to deal with, as the only toxic absorber on Vitiate's team was NDM and it would take quite some time to take down Groudon and Ho-Oh before hazards went up... and that probably need a tons of outplay.

The game started with both side leaded Groudon, spit wisp to each other and start trading hazards. I don't understand this, as If I were Denial I would definitely trying to kill opposing Groudon asap since I literally had zero control to hazards and I wouldn't trade hazards even if the team were boots spam as there was a clear knock off user NDM on opposing team.

So the following 10ish turns were pretty routine, Vitiate got his Ho-Oh in after Denial showed Wisp, Spikes and Rocks on Groudon which indiciated it had no Stone Edge, then start WWing. After Denial revealed taunt on Arceus-Ghost and Vitiate somehow decided to not stay Ho-Oh against it, while Denial sent out Eternatus on a Terapagos toxic. Things went tricky from here, as Vitiate decided to spin on Eternatus with the price of getting Toxic, and later allowed his Ho-Oh to be Toxic as well. That resulted in Vitiate lost control against a potential Calm Mind + taunt set of Arceus-Ghost, which it was, and all of a sudden the situation looks a bit dire for him. Luckily, Vitiate managed to burn Arceus-Ghost early, so that it was on a timer with only 6 PP left of Recover. Eventually, Denial did not really make any predict and Arceus-Ghost eventually took down Terapagos, Groudon before his Arceus-Ghost went down. From this point it looked Denial was in a clearly better position, as Vitiate's options were pretty limited and obvious with Ho-Oh being badly poisoned, and Denial having a big scarf Koraidon at the back should stop any potential reverse sweep attempt from Vitiate.

But then things got tricky again. Vitiate tera his Arceus-Water to poison type to avoid toxic from Denial, which seemed to be surprising to Denial as the turn before Denial retreated Ho-Oh to Eternatus (well lets be honest its just super obvious tera). As a result of this misplay, Vitiate got 2 boost from Calm Mind, and Denial did not seem to have a clear idea to handle it. Denial first went to Koraidon and try to click Outrage but not able to do significant damage on Arceus-Water besides maybe wasting some Recover PP. At the cost of giving up the Koraidon, he finally realised the only real solution was to tera Ho-Oh to phaze it. Reviewing it back from turn 48, it literally costed Denial a Terastal and a big Koraidon just for not staying Ho-Oh against Arceus-Water. Losing Scarf Koraion and Groudon went low hp means that Vitiate's potential DD NDM could be deadly for Denial, and Denial did not seem to be preventing that as well in the late game, allowing Vitiate to boost his NDM in the late game and beat Denial's NDM as Denial burnt Vitiate's NDM item with Eternatus so that the knock off from Denial's NDM could not dealt as much as Vitiate's NDM did.

Yeah the terapagos team won as expected but man what a weird game to say the least.

[ISL] Highlord vs Icemaster [PLA]
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Dialga wins again

Another Dialga appeared on the screen. From the matchup preview, it seemed like Dialga once again had a favorable position. Icemaster brought Arceus-Water and had no Thunder Wave absorber on the team, while Dialga looked strong against Arceus-Water, defensive Eternatus, Ho-Oh, and even NDM if it lacked Earthquake. Dialga also helped ease the pressure on Arceus-Ground against Arceus-Water. Overall, I expected the game plans for both sides to be fairly straightforward: Icemaster would need to break through Landorus-T with his physical attackers, while Highlord would likely look to position Arceus-Ground as his primary win condition.

The game started with a Arceus-Water vs Kyogre, not an ideal lead match up for Icemaster as the threat of thunder/thunder wave exists, yet there wasn't much thing to do to avoid the twave on the lead scenario, so Icemaster stayed to click Stealth Rock but the bad news was Highlord's Kyogre used a 120 BP Thunder Wave instead, putting Icemaster in a shaky position versus a potential set-up Arceus-Ground.

Icemaster quickly went to Eternatus to eat the thunder, luckily this time it wasn't a Thunder wave, then Highlord proceeded to Dialga and taking 36% from Dcannon, a suspicious damage that its hard to tell the Dialgas EV right here, especially when Icemaster revealed toxic on Eternatus later in the game.

Highlord soon pivoted into Arceus-Ground and revealed Calm Mind against Icemaster's Ho-Oh. Fearing a possible Rock-type move, Ho-Oh retreated to Eternatus in an attempt to poison it, especially since Arceus-Water, Icemaster's supposed answer to Arceus-Ground, had already been heavily weakened. Even though Arceus-Ground was eventually badly poisoned, it remained extremely difficult for Icemaster to contain because he did not want to risk Ho-Oh's health against a potential Power Gem.

This sequence ultimately resulted in Highlord correctly predicting a Zacian-C switch-in and knocking it out with Judgment. Arceus-Ground finally retreated on the eighth turn of toxic damage. Icemaster then attempted an aggressive Swords Dance against a fully healthy Kyogre, after which both players committed their Tera. Highlord successfully removed Koraidon during the exchange.

At this stage, the game looked dire for Icemaster, but he managed to get a full paralysis on Highlord's Life Orb Koraidon, giving NDM a free Dragon Dance. However, he was unable to fully recover afterward because Highlord preserved Kyogre, limiting NDM's opportunities to heal.

With Ho-Oh already gone to Koraidon, even Landorus-T became too much for Icemaster to handle. Landorus-T shut down NDM's recovery attempts with Taunt, effectively sealing the game while Highlord still had a full-health Zacian-C waiting in the back.

I would say Icemaster once again had a rather unfavorable matchup. Nevertheless, Dialga continued to demonstrate how much pressure it can put on the balance structures that have become increasingly popular in the current SV Ubers metagame. I'm looking forward to seeing what new ideas Icemaster brings in the coming weeks. (yeah I mean tinglu)

[TER] baconeatinassassin vs Mareep [DYN]
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Fardin.jpg

Someone called Fardin said in the Ubers cord that Mareep played like a 1250 elo ladder player in this game... Not trying to judge his statement but the game did look pretty one-sided to Bacon due to the following reasons:
1. Mareep loaded a Glimmora HO and thus left him very few options when the positioning did not look well, specifically Kyogre vs Dialga, Zacian-C retreated vs physically defensive Arceus-Ground and overall the weaknesses to Thunder Wave of Mareep's team
2. Mareep did not really do agressive read or defensive pivot either, which then costed him the healthy Zacian-C against the Scarf Koraidon from Bacon, then the air balloon of Kyogre was broken by Bacon's Power Gem from Arceus-Ground to which left Mareep open to Arceus-Ground in the late game, and the most disasterous, going Koraidon on Arceus-Ground while Tspikes was on the field and the Sun turn ended as well, effectively sacking Koraidon for almost free.
3. Mu wise, Glimmora was mostly shut by Dialga and Weezing-Galar in terms of spreading poison, in contrast Bacon laid Tspikes which forces Mareep to Tera Poison his Arceus-Ghost as the last hope. That also made Mareep fail to handle Arceus-Ground at the end.

4. In hindsight, from all of the above 3 points it can be observed that Mareep probably did not aware of the threat from Arceus-Ground, or he would probably try his best to damage Arceus-Ground as much as possible on the turn his Zacian-C faced Arceus-Ground the first time. Should he stayed attacking or even boosting, the game may have gone less one-sided.

From a teambuilding perspective, I also was not particularly impressed with Mareep's choice here. Personally, I think Glimmora hyper offense is fairly underwhelming in the current SV Ubers landscape. If I were to use Glimmora, I would rather see it function as a utility pivot than as the centerpiece of a dedicated HO structure.

On the other hand, Bacon's team looked much more coherent. The defensive backbone of Dialga, Galarian Weezing, and Arceus-Ground was particularly interesting, providing solid answers to common Arceus formes such as Arceus-Water and Arceus-Electric. This in turn allowed Ho-Oh and Kyogre to operate with much greater freedom. Choice Scarf Koraidon was not especially surprising to me, although it may have been less obvious from Mareep's side. Had he identified the set earlier, Zacian-C might have been able to contribute more before eventually being picked off.

Quite interesting team from Bacon but the game overall is boring. baconeatinassassin nice one

[FOX] Skyiew vs Sheik : [SHO]
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Recap

An offensive match up of both team bringing a lot of offensive mon including Ekiller with limited pivots, but Skyiew's Landorus-Therian could be very tricky for Sheik's team overall, and Kyogre+lunala did not seem to be funny to face for Calyrex-Ice as well. I would prob say as log as Sheik poisoning Landorus-T the game could prob go either way or even leaning on speedtie on key mon such as Zacian-C and Koraidon.

The game itself was pretty straight forward. Sheik decided to not go for poisoning Landorus-T and instead puttin 3 layers of spikes, while Skyiew laid Stealth Rock and escaped Landorus-T from being poisoned. Sheik then proceeded to win the speedtie against Zacian-C but the Landorus-T was too big as an obstacle, and the Stealth Rock damaged stacked up as Sheik's team were all hazard vulenrable. The key turning point for Sheik was turn 9 where he missed Scaleshot versus a low HP Kyogre, and on turn 11 Skyiew tricked Choice Specs to Sheik's Ekiller switch effectively seal the game as Ekiller was the only healthy Set-up Sweeper available for Sheik at that moment. The game ended in another Flame Charge Koraidon from Skyiew end ---- a "Oh come on man" moment for me LOL.

As a side note, only Taka won with a "typical Ubers" poison type this week (ofc Weezing not count lmao) after I urged for some poison types last week. I guess thats also an skill issue isn't it

 

[LouisIX]

W6

[PLA] Icemaster vs Skyiew [FOX]
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Those who used only Flame Charge Koraidon eventually get punished

Deoxys-S vs Hatterene Balance. There used to be a time when people thought Hatterene was the “go-to” answer to every HO suicide lead, but as the meta developed, it wasn’t the case anymore. On top of that, Arceus-Ghost on Icemaster’s team looked deadly to Skyiew. On the other hand, Lunala + Groudon + Kyogre + Eleceus looked good against Icemaster’s physical attacking core, especially the Calyrex-Ice, so it was hard to tell the MU advantage in the Preview.

The game was pretty quick. Icemaster revealed a screensetter Deoxys-S on Skyiew’s Kyogre lead, then went to his own Kyogre, while Skyiew went to Koraidon and traded 86% of its HP to take down Icemaster’s Kyogre. But then Icemaster confidently sent Zacian-C on +1 Speed Koraidon, not afraid of Flare Blitz at all (because Skyiew just never brought that move LOL). This time, Icemaster’s Zacian-C was very skillful, taking down Skyiew’s Groudon in two hits with critical-hit assistance. With no choice, Skyiew went Eleceus, trying to trade with Calm Mind, but Icemaster refused and went Deoxys-S to set up screens. Fearing a potential hazard that could ruin Lunala’s ability, Skyiew retreated +1 Eleceus to Hatterene, but then it created a chance for Icemaster’s Calyrex-Ice to boost. Skyiew opted to trick the Specs on Lunala to try to contain it, but Calyrex-Ice was too bulky under screens, and it took away Kyogre and Lunala, forcing Skyiew to Healing Wish the Hatterene to revive that 14% HP Koraidon as his only hope, taking away Icemaster’s Calyrex-Ice with Flame Charge we all knew before it was clicked. Icemaster went Arceus-Ghost while Skyiew clicked Swords Dance, and for the second time in the game, Skyiew got punished for spamming the same Koraidon set, as +2 Flame Charge did not take out Arceus-Ghost. So he had to click Scale Shot, which hit a well-timed Tera Fairy from Icemaster’s side, and obviously, with only Arceus-Electric left and no Tera, there were too many pieces for Icemaster to deal with this Eleceus, and the win was granted to Icemaster.

yeah it took me a while to accept what is "going Zacian-C on a +1 speed Koraidon, and Koraidon retreated against Zacian-C"

[ISL] Highlord vs Vitiate [BRE]
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Skippable recap ngl

Stall apppeared again in Week 6, and from the preview it seems that Vitiate's breakers would be NDM and Koraidon and it would prob be very hard for Koraidon to find a SD chance alongside Hatterene, Eternatus and Arceus-Electric. The game looked really dire as Vitiate was fully committed to handling an offense team, opted to Choice Scarf Koraidon and a Defensive Eternatus, and Calm Mind Arceus-Electric without Psyhock can only break CM Blissey, Tyranitar and Ho-Oh in its wildest dream, while Skarmory, Gliscor can sit all day against non-Stone Edge Groudon and the physical attacker NDM. Close to an unplayable MU for Vitiate.

[TMS] entrocefalo vs Taka [GIB]
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Recap

A Giratina-O on screen looks really disgusting for Taka and the Lando-T+Groudon dual intensify that. Arceus-Electric was having a hard time against Eternatus, so you may quickly deduce that Kyogre most likely was the only advantage mon there fore Taka, but to be honestly for me the Mu looks as dire as Vitiate, if not worse.

The lead was Giratina-O vs Deoxys-S, and what Deoxys-S did in the whole game was pin Giratina-O on the field to take an Ice beam from taka's Kyogre. Entro preserved 21% HP Giratina-O and went Waterceus to take Ice Beam, and what surprised me was Taka retreated his Kyogre to Koraidon, then double to Zacian-C after Entro clicked Calm Mind and reveal psyschock on Zacian switch-in. With Sun intact this Zacian-C was actually threatening here as if this was a Solar Blade varient then Entro may find it hard to contain without a Rain summoner on his team. Entro decided to go Landorus-T first on Taka SD, then beautifully anticipate a Tera-Grass from Taka's end with a Giratina-O sack. Now Entro knows his Ground wouldn't contain this Zacian, decided to go Eternatus that was bulky enough to tank a +2 Behemoth Blade then revenge with a Sun-Boosted Fire Blast. Without Tera, Taka tried to break with Koraidon but fail versus Tera fairy Landorus-T, and it does not seems the rest of Taka's team could handle Koraidon anymore without Tera. Eventually Taka's Kyogre was not even breaking Entro's Waterceus, and once Kyogre was down, Koraidon and dual Grounds were too much for Taka to break with Eleceus, and so the game was decided.

With Trailblaze, Deoxys-S and Kingambit its kinda obvious on what MU Taka wants to catch but Entro literally just brought the complete opposite of what Taka wants. Also note that a change of Spatker choice from Kyogre to Lunala could literally swing the game completely as Entro's team lack a ghost resist. Unlucky prep for taka.

[TER] baconeatinassassin vs Sheik : [SHO]
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Well, Bacon Won. What do you expect?

A Ditto appeared on the screen. Ditto is not a heat choice in the current ubers even tho setup sweeper in the meta is heat, because with Tera it is way too easy to handle opposing Ditto and let alone Ditto is not able to counter those slow setup, so probably Sheik was acutally loading a Landorus-T HO backed up with a Ditto trying to abuse opposing Zacian (as it is the only thing Ditto can abuse in the tier). Bacon loaded Glimmora but it did not really looked like an offense team with Landorus-T, Kyogre and Arceus-Eletric alongside Glimmora.

From a teambuilding perspective, I also was not particularly impressed with Mareep's choice here. Personally, I think Glimmora hyper offense is fairly underwhelming in the current SV Ubers landscape. If I were to use Glimmora, I would rather see it function as a utility pivot than as the centerpiece of a dedicated HO structure.

You're welcome baconeatinassassin

The lead was Kyogre vs Eleceus from Sheik which probably trying to counterlead a Glimmora, then both side traded an attack and Kyogre only took 44% on a super-effective Judgment, revealing the Kyogre to be a Assault Vest set. Sheik trying to heal his Eleceus by went to Koraidon first for Sun then switch back to Eleceus, but then Bacon revealed Icy wind to further chip Eleceus while stopping it to heal back since its in the ice beam range after taking Origin Pulse and Icy Wind damage and Kyogre could be faster after the speed drop. Sheik then proceed to his Koraidon to boost against Bacon's Air-balloon Glimmora and sucessfully took down Landorus-T with two Scaleshot. Sheik went Lunala on next but then was stomached by a Kasib Berry NDM which tanks +1 Moongeist beam even when critted, and OHKO Lunala since it lost the ability on switching into Bacon's Eleceus. Sheik took this opportunity to heal back his Eleceus but then face an awkward situation when Bacon pivot in Glimmora on Sheik's Landorus-T. If it click U-Turn then tspikes was up, and landorus-T lacks move to hit Air Balloon Glimmora so it basically means Bacan had a free turn of clicking a move right there. Sheik eventually chose to go Eleceus and ate earth power from Bacon, then Bacon just mortal spin the Eleceus without hesitiation.

There might be some concerns on whether Taka should have poisoned the Arceus-Electric instead for the second layer of Spikes

Again you're welcome baconeatinassassin

With Eleceus being poisoned, its basically in the death count and after Bacon revealed U-turn on his Koraidon it did not seem favourable for Sheik's team to break through against Eleceus+Kyogre core. Sheik eventually decided to go for it with Calm mind Eleceus but Bacon was also a CM Eleceus as well and the poison was critical on this CM war. Sheik did freeze Bacon for a couple but Bacon also instant thrawed a couple and eventually Sheik fail to land a critical hit in 7 attacks. Facing a healthy Eleceus at +4 with the correct coverage move in Dazzling Gleam for Koraidon, Sheik had to go for Tera fire Koraidon following with Ditto to take away Bacon's Eleceus, but since Ditto's Judgment was normal type attack, Bacon quickly pinned that ditto locked in Judgment with a Tera Ghost Kyogre, as nothing in Sheik's team could take Origin Pulse from Kyogre at this point. Without Tera, and Ditto being pinned on the field, Sheik had no hope to get through Scarf Koraidon simply clicking Flare Blitz.

Sorry but its really hard to not praise Bacon or should I say learn to build? lmfao

[SPA] Fc vs Mareep [DYN]
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Recap

For this last game of the week, nothing feels particularly surprising regarding the two teams brought. Fc's team might seem weak to Koraidon, but Arceus-Ground is probably a defensive set, like what baconeatinassassin brought last week against Mareep and which ended up making a good difference during the game. Here again, Mareep's team seems weak to Arceus-Ground and he needs to poison it early with Eternatus or make good use of Kyogre to prevent Arceus-Ground from coming on the field before Kyogre goes down, and also he might want to be careful on Fc’s Lunala as his team is lacking a ghost resist as well. Looking at Fc's point of view, Kyogre seems like the one threat to cripple as his water resists are Kyogre and Koraidon, which may make him too predictable on dealing with Mareep’s Kyogre.

Right off the bat, the typical Kyogre’s mirror on lead, Mareep immediately throws off a Thunder and revealed a Choice Specs Timid Kyogre from the damage, while Fc modestly clicked Thunder Wave to limit Mareep’s Kyogre, while still being able to remain 50% HP thanks to Sitrus Berry. Fc continued his plan to further cripple Mareep’s Kyogre by clicking Thunder, while Mareep went to Arceus-Electric after he locked Thunder, and burnt Fc's Arceus-Ground on the switch. Both switch-out, Mareep to Koraidon and Fc to Terapagos, which sets up rocks. Now, Kyogre is in front of Terapagos, ready to fire off a strong attack... but gets paralysed and then phazed out, showing how Fc cares more about racking up entry hazards than the health of his Terapagos. Another Roar comes and this time Zacian-Crowned is dragged out, damages Terapagos and then gets phazed out. To this point, the early full para of Kyogre on Terapagos heavily damaged Mareep as he not only took multiple rocks damage but also lost his Zacian-C’s ability, which eventually made him struggling to force any meaningful damage on Fc's team without getting punished by a strong attack. It is now Fc's Arceus-Ground against Mareep's Arceus-Electric. Mareep sends Koraidon again, which got caught by Fc who clicked Judgment to put Mareep’s Koraidon down to 41% hp. Fearing the potential Ice Beam, Mareep kept refusing to go to his Landorus-T, but he also lacked answer to it now so eventually the paralysed Kyogre comes out, as Fc can then sacrifice Terapagos. As Mareep’s Kyogre was locked to Origin Pulse, Fc tried to set up Koraidon to remove Landorus-T, but this time the Koraidon was having some skill issue as a Scale Shot miss leaves Landorus-T at 48%. Fc then proceeds to go to Kyogre and threaten a KO on Mareep’s team, and Mareep eventually decided to sack Landorus-T on Kyogre for his Zacian-Crowned entry. At that moment Mareep may have thought it was completely playable with all pieces still available and Landorus-T looked like the least important pieces among them. But is it really the case? Well...

Fc switches in Arceus-Ground on Wild Charge from Zacian-Crowned, then reveals IDCM on Mareep’s Eternatus switch-in. Without a Tera-Flying, Mareep could not stop this Mono Groundy at all, and what is even worse is that the Groundy was already burnt which means Mareep can’t even toxic it. Mareep couldn’t have thought that it was already too late when he sacks Landorus-T, couldn’t he? Failing to land a critical hit with Koraidon and Zacian, Mareep eventually forfeits. Very sad to see another game in which Mareep gets owned by underestimating Arceus-Ground.

Author's thought:
6 Eleceus LOL good job! I can't wait the day it comes to an EARTH POWER Eleceus

 

[LouisIX]

W7
HL1:
[PLA] Icemaster vs baconeatinassassin [TER]
Speaking from a commentator perspective its hard to not praise bacon on both playing side and building side. Icemaster's team needs quite a lot of luck to advance and I think Icemaster was less fit comparing to the season start, so bolding bacon here.
HL2:
[FOX] Skyiew vs Highlord [ISL]
Everytime when Highlord appears in SV I am impressed of his effort, if you watch his game closer you will get what I mean. Meanwhile Skyiew is basically the complete opposite of Highlord if you watch his game close enough, and that makes my bold obvious in this mu.

[BRE] Vitiate vs Hoennseptile [GIB] GIB is baiscally out, look forward to a good game
[SHO] Sheik : vs Fc [SPA] Just picking an obviously more experienced player here, sheik did not really surprise me throughout.
[TMS] entrocefalo vs Monai [DYN] DYN is out and TMS is in a must-win situation. Just bolding the one who need to tryhard here.

 

[Fc]

I was busy so I missed last week so welcome to

THE FC PLAY OF THE WEEKTM **DOUBLE FEATURE**

Where I will look at this weeks and last weeks games. In exchange for being late you will also get

THE FC SET OF THE BIWEEKLYTM

Where I look at the best set of the 2 weeks that happened.

For week 5, the Fc play of the weekTM goes to highlord, with his sequence from turns 6 through 9. Turn 5 he switches in the groundceus and doesn't get burned, which lowkey ends up being really helpful. The Ho-Oh now cannot risk staying in if it's a physical set that was just being really risky, and whirlwinding while taking a power gem against a special set would be tough now that you've done no chip damage. Icemaster goes to eternatus and throws off a toxic, and the groundceus clicks cm and ohko's it. Ho-Oh comes back in to waste some time, and highlord clicks cm again on a recover which was just trying to get more poison damage and heal off any hit. Now that the groundceus is +2, a power gem is actually an ohko on a roll, even if not a super amazing one, so icemaster tries playing around that by going zacian-c. Highlord judgmented again, dropping that and getting a 2 for 1 with the groundceus without burning tera. He then proceeds to never power gem the ho-oh, implying he didn't have it in the end. The fact is, though, that icemaster didn't know this, and he played exactly how you'd want to if you have gem; switch into ho-oh, and double cm to get the better roll against recover. Good bluff and good play, highlord.

For week 6, the Fc play of the weekTM goes to entrocefalo, for turns 14 through 20. This week I don't think there were any incredibily notable plays, nothing that swung a game in a turn or were big sequences that favoured someone in a cool way. This sequence was quite good, though, just a well piloted execution in a midgame. I'm not actually sure what taka's kyogre is here given the rolls, it looks timid specs from the ice beam but origin pulse crit does 65 min to waterceus and did 62 in the game, so maybe it's just some sp.def on the waterceus. Either way, entro starts by going waterceus on the ice beam and immediately cm's up, being willing to stay chipped for the pressure on the next turn. Koraidon SD's on a psyshock, and the eternatus is sacked by entro instead of waterceus since it was slightly healthier, even if the etern could have proved a threat against the eleceus lategame. Entro then tera'd the lando, expecting taka to get impatient and go for game on the spot, since finding another chance might have proven difficult, but if he switched maybe koraidon + gambit coulda done it. With the koraidon out of the way entro goes waterceus on the kyogre revenge killing, living a crit and getting some chip with judgment. Preserving waterceus instead of etern comes back to help him, and lando is able to stay alive for the endgame vs gambit. Good play, entro.

The Fc set of the biweeklyTM goes to icemaster for his ghostceus in week 6. While it's nothing exactly new, it was arguably the most impactful set that isn't incredibly straightforward. Modest tera fairy taunt was perfectly positioned for the endgame here, being able to stop koraidon and beat the opposing arceus in one set, removing the chance for any bad luck or a reverse sweep. Good set, icemaster.

BONUS SET OF THE BIWEEKLY goes to bacon for his kasib ndm, there's legit 2 ghost types in this tier and he happened to get crit by one and still live because of kasib, then drop it in return. The applications of this set probably come in like 20% of games, so good set, bacon.