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Metagame SPL XI Discussion
- Thread starter Idyll
- Start date
- Status
SMB
W3 Recap:
- Not too many big picture trends this week different from the last two. Still surprisingly few birds and no Dracovish to be seen. Nobody ran hard TR, tho lunar ran a team with its only speed control option potentially being a goth.
- Stealth Rocks are coming back pretty quickly, esp since the main 2 Intimidate mons + a few other important Pokemon are weak to it and in a switch heavy metagame the extra chip is always welcome to ease prediction. Will we start seeing timbs on random Pokemon as a response? We also saw Toxic Spikes Toxapex but I'm chalking that one up to a singular ketamine-fueled teambuilding session.
- Unlike OU, it seems like LO Dragapult is the main pick right now. Its damage output is too valuable in a metagame lacking consistent or familiar sources of offense, and other mons (Rotom, Arcanine, Dusclops) can use wisp just as well.
W4 Predicts:
[WOL] Stratos vs stax [CLA]
Somehow stax keeps winning with teams more janky than chinese infection control, and there's no Mega Kang in this tier. Then again juggling SMB to RBY so he can tame Tauros for an hour or 2 is a move straight after my old, crusty, manager heart.
[TYR] marilli vs qsns [RUI]
marilli's building continues to be solid af, correctly packing Jellicent against the d*rm loving Tman. qsns ran into a Toxapex and forgot this isn't OU.
[RAI] kaori vs Memoric [SCO]
Tough call but Memo has been more solid this season, even after his loss this week. kaori got benched for lunar and neither builder looked particularly gr8.
[BIG] Ezrael vs MajorBowman [TIG]
#1 in pr: eliminated
#2 in pr: ???
#34 in pr: eliminated
keep bolding his opps tho.
edit: i've just been informed that memo was 4th, not 3rd, in the ever-accurate pre-season power rankings. i apologize for denegrating the venerable institution of the yearly jerk roundup.
[CRY] Tman vs Kiichikos [SHA]
I'm going to stop bolding Tommy one of these weeks, I swear. Both sides are 0-3 in DOU and it's pretty deserved but I'm going with the team that isn't giving up on their starter. (This is the part where u leave the snowman on the bench where it regrettably belongs).
- Not too many big picture trends this week different from the last two. Still surprisingly few birds and no Dracovish to be seen. Nobody ran hard TR, tho lunar ran a team with its only speed control option potentially being a goth.
- Stealth Rocks are coming back pretty quickly, esp since the main 2 Intimidate mons + a few other important Pokemon are weak to it and in a switch heavy metagame the extra chip is always welcome to ease prediction. Will we start seeing timbs on random Pokemon as a response? We also saw Toxic Spikes Toxapex but I'm chalking that one up to a singular ketamine-fueled teambuilding session.
- Unlike OU, it seems like LO Dragapult is the main pick right now. Its damage output is too valuable in a metagame lacking consistent or familiar sources of offense, and other mons (Rotom, Arcanine, Dusclops) can use wisp just as well.
W4 Predicts:
[WOL] Stratos vs stax [CLA]
Somehow stax keeps winning with teams more janky than chinese infection control, and there's no Mega Kang in this tier. Then again juggling SMB to RBY so he can tame Tauros for an hour or 2 is a move straight after my old, crusty, manager heart.
[TYR] marilli vs qsns [RUI]
marilli's building continues to be solid af, correctly packing Jellicent against the d*rm loving Tman. qsns ran into a Toxapex and forgot this isn't OU.
[RAI] kaori vs Memoric [SCO]
Tough call but Memo has been more solid this season, even after his loss this week. kaori got benched for lunar and neither builder looked particularly gr8.
[BIG] Ezrael vs MajorBowman [TIG]
#1 in pr: eliminated
#2 in pr: ???
#
keep bolding his opps tho.
edit: i've just been informed that memo was 4th, not 3rd, in the ever-accurate pre-season power rankings. i apologize for denegrating the venerable institution of the yearly jerk roundup.
[CRY] Tman vs Kiichikos [SHA]
I'm going to stop bolding Tommy one of these weeks, I swear. Both sides are 0-3 in DOU and it's pretty deserved but I'm going with the team that isn't giving up on their starter. (This is the part where u leave the snowman on the bench where it regrettably belongs).
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I want to write an appreciation post for everyone competing in the circuit from the community
qsns you have proven the doubters wrong. For various reasons your starting slot has eluded you but you belonged here every bit. Congrats.
I'm very happy about Stratos getting his starts, and by a cruel twist of fate it's of course going to be vs stax. I have confidence in Stratos to make solid plays (regardless of the outcome of the match) and no matter what the result both Stratos and stax are titans of our community.
I'm happy about kiichikos's SPL debut. You have improved so much and won so many games over the recent few years, and there's no-one stronger than someone who is always improving. I'm glad you finally get the shot you deserve, don't let the haters convince you otherwise.
For tman and mr gx it never feels good to start any tour 0-3 but I have faith in tman to turn this around - both of them have a strong positive mentality and I know tman is far closer to being a complete player than me and I trust them to turn the season around eventually.
smb, stax, ezrael, sam, bowman, memo, you have been all so competing for a longer duration than me, and it feels pointless making an appreciation post. You are all appreciated and I had fun playing vs you / look forward to matches vs you.
I also am very much looking forward to SMB vs TIN even though I know 0 about RBY. Here's to another fun week of competition
qsns you have proven the doubters wrong. For various reasons your starting slot has eluded you but you belonged here every bit. Congrats.
I'm very happy about Stratos getting his starts, and by a cruel twist of fate it's of course going to be vs stax. I have confidence in Stratos to make solid plays (regardless of the outcome of the match) and no matter what the result both Stratos and stax are titans of our community.
I'm happy about kiichikos's SPL debut. You have improved so much and won so many games over the recent few years, and there's no-one stronger than someone who is always improving. I'm glad you finally get the shot you deserve, don't let the haters convince you otherwise.
For tman and mr gx it never feels good to start any tour 0-3 but I have faith in tman to turn this around - both of them have a strong positive mentality and I know tman is far closer to being a complete player than me and I trust them to turn the season around eventually.
smb, stax, ezrael, sam, bowman, memo, you have been all so competing for a longer duration than me, and it feels pointless making an appreciation post. You are all appreciated and I had fun playing vs you / look forward to matches vs you.
I also am very much looking forward to SMB vs TIN even though I know 0 about RBY. Here's to another fun week of competition
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Week 5 Games:
SS DOU: Kiichikos vs MajorBowman
SS DOU: stax vs Memoric
SS DOU: marilli vs Ezrael
SS DOU: Lunar vs Tman
SS DOU: qsns vs SMB
‐----------------------
Week 4 Recap:
- Gmax Lapras was the pick of the week, with 3 people bringing variants of the Laptop squad (Lapras/Hitmontop/Arc/Corv/Pult/Fairy) to varying success. It takes advantage of Lapras doubling its already huge HP stat through gigantimax, halving its damage taken with Aurora Veil, and doubling its damage output with Weakness Policy all in the same turn. Water/Ice is already good coverage as there arent many good Ice resists and the ones that exist get donked by Water for the most part (pls gib back good water types). However, as we saw in Stratos v Stax, if you can keep it off the field you can gain momentum quickly vs the rest of the team. Definitely a threat to keep an eye on.
- Like Landoge last gen, people are starting to shift towards special variants of Arcanine (Burn Up, Heat Wave, Flamethrower). There's a few reasons behind it: double Intimidate featuring opposing Arcanine, Corv usage picking up (qsns might have won if it was physical Arc), and fewer ways to reduce special damage.
- Building off that last point, we saw double Snarl from Marilli, 3 instances of gmax Lapras to set screens, and a Grimmsnarl which I _assume_ had screens of some sort maybe. People realized that special attackers were running around mostly unchecked (LO Pult, Togekiss, etc) and are trying to find ways to corral them.
-------------
Week 5 Predicts:
SS DOU: Kiichikos vs MajorBowman
I have nothing witty to say here
then again nothing I say is particularly witty
SS DOU: stax vs Memoric
at this point you could show me a paste of a CC2v2 team, tell me stax is going to use it, and i'd prolly still bold him
SS DOU: marilli vs Ezrael
gotta respect the beatdowns jon has been handing out. this is more of a 45/55 split though since marilli seems to have a good handle of this metagame and has been making savvy team choices all season.
SS DOU: Lunar vs Tman
both picked up a W last week but points for difficulty to Lunar. should be an interesting match.
SS DOU: qsns vs SMB
well that was a quick experiment, guess the tauros ranch got foreclosed.
SS DOU: Kiichikos vs MajorBowman
SS DOU: stax vs Memoric
SS DOU: marilli vs Ezrael
SS DOU: Lunar vs Tman
SS DOU: qsns vs SMB
‐----------------------
Week 4 Recap:
- Gmax Lapras was the pick of the week, with 3 people bringing variants of the Laptop squad (Lapras/Hitmontop/Arc/Corv/Pult/Fairy) to varying success. It takes advantage of Lapras doubling its already huge HP stat through gigantimax, halving its damage taken with Aurora Veil, and doubling its damage output with Weakness Policy all in the same turn. Water/Ice is already good coverage as there arent many good Ice resists and the ones that exist get donked by Water for the most part (pls gib back good water types). However, as we saw in Stratos v Stax, if you can keep it off the field you can gain momentum quickly vs the rest of the team. Definitely a threat to keep an eye on.
- Like Landoge last gen, people are starting to shift towards special variants of Arcanine (Burn Up, Heat Wave, Flamethrower). There's a few reasons behind it: double Intimidate featuring opposing Arcanine, Corv usage picking up (qsns might have won if it was physical Arc), and fewer ways to reduce special damage.
- Building off that last point, we saw double Snarl from Marilli, 3 instances of gmax Lapras to set screens, and a Grimmsnarl which I _assume_ had screens of some sort maybe. People realized that special attackers were running around mostly unchecked (LO Pult, Togekiss, etc) and are trying to find ways to corral them.
-------------
Week 5 Predicts:
SS DOU: Kiichikos vs MajorBowman
I have nothing witty to say here
then again nothing I say is particularly witty
SS DOU: stax vs Memoric
at this point you could show me a paste of a CC2v2 team, tell me stax is going to use it, and i'd prolly still bold him
SS DOU: marilli vs Ezrael
gotta respect the beatdowns jon has been handing out. this is more of a 45/55 split though since marilli seems to have a good handle of this metagame and has been making savvy team choices all season.
SS DOU: Lunar vs Tman
both picked up a W last week but points for difficulty to Lunar. should be an interesting match.
SS DOU: qsns vs SMB
well that was a quick experiment, guess the tauros ranch got foreclosed.
Stratos
Banned deucer.
Don't know if people are interested in this kind of content, but I figured I'd give basically a warstory of my game vs Stax. This might give some newer players insight in how not to play a DOU game as well as try to justify the fact that I got absolutely fucking stomped. And if any other players want to do something similar, I'd love to read your interpretations of your own games.
replay
So from team preview, I see two routes to win. One is using Hitmontop + Lapras. and the other is Hitmontop + Sylveon. In either case, I'll definitely need Hitmontop to block Snarls from Arcanine. In hindsight, I may have overestimated the viability of Sylveon as a win condition because Galarian Weezing removes Pixilate, but I didn't realize it at the time, and I'm reporting things as they happened, not as I wish they happened.
I can't straight up lead LapTop because Stax can counter by maxing Rotom or Duraludon and trading with Lapras, then trap Hitmontop. It's a similar but even worse outlook for leading Sylveon + Hitmontop. Letting Hitmontop get trapped is an express ticket to fuckedville, population: my asshole. I think I have a very good shot at winning, I just need to trade with the Gothorita and then I have two good wincons, so I don't lead my wincons off the bat.
Corviknight is obviously going to be completely useless against Rotom-W + Arcanine + Weezing + Duraludon, but even burned it can trade with a Gothorita that lacks any kind of recovery. I decide to lead this and play a drawn out early game with my least valuable Pokemon. Even if I have very little offensive presence, Stax doesn't have a good way to punish that; the best he can do is set TR for his Conkeldurr but between Sylveon and double Intimidate, that isn't going to blow me open. I waffle on my other lead for a while between Arcanine, Dragapult, or Lapras but in the end I go for Dragapult simply because of my ability to pivot out of a Goth lead so I don't get fucked. I don't want Draga to stay in early and trade in this matchup because its offense will be valuable for cleaning if my wincons (especially Lapras) fall just short.
Thus begins the early-game, and it pretty much goes according to plan. I'm able to pivot to Arcanine against two Pokemon that can't touch it. Duraludon sets Stealth Rock which is annoying (I didn't even know it got that) because it dampens Lap but I get into a good position where I can trade with the Gothorita.
Then the Rotom uses Nasty Plot. Yeah fuck me, I totally forgot it could do that. In hindsight I maybe should have noticed since I was wondering at preview why Goth was on a team that can't really punish being caught out of position very well, but it never fucking crossed my mind.
Unfortunately at this point I am up shit creek. My two win cons are both worthless because +3 Rotom will just outspeed and destroy them. I need to max Draga and trade with the Rotom if I want a shot at the game. So I have to explain Turn 7. Why didn't I max Dragapult and target the Rotom here? Good fucking question, I ask this to myself hourly. The answer is I almost did like five times; you can see I take 90 seconds on the turn. The obvious play from me is max Draga, use Wyrmwind on the Rotom and Brave Bird the Goth to prevent a Heal Pulse. I figured he would counter by Tbolting the Corv for a KO and Heal Pulse to almost negate my Wyrmwind. I don't know the Rotom's spread exactly but I figure it's pretty damn bulky since the plan was to weaken with Arc and set up with Goth. I didn't think to calc at the time (another mistake) but Arc Snarl damage confirms that it was probably Calm, so special Draga is barely outdamaging Heal Pulse. Making a hard read at this point (which I was pretty convinced I had to do), I decided to take out Goth with Draga and let Corv die, then max Draga the following turn to damage race Rotom. In hindsight, I think the right play was probably to max Draga and use Max Guard while I attacked the Goth with Corviknight. If I trade, I can bring in Hitmontop and KO the Goth with priority to prevent Heal Pulse while damage racing the Rotom. I'm not sure it would have saved me anyway though, because at that point I would lose to Arcanine. And I never expected HH when he had already shown FO and Heal Pulse (I was sure he was TR, given his team's low Speed, and Protect, because Protect on a trapper is so valuable).
Once Draga went down I kind of played like a clown, but hey the game was basically already over. I thought if I got Hitmontop and Sylveon on the field together I might be able to pull off a Fake Out + CM into sweep, but really things kinda fell apart. Not protecting Lapras when it had 2% HP was a misplay in case Stax doubled into it, but I doubt he did anyway.
So hey, that was my game. If you enjoyed this writeup, sucks for you, because I'm benched the rest of the season and can't do any more. But maybe I'll do them for seasonal games or something. And I'd love to see other players do this too.
replay
So from team preview, I see two routes to win. One is using Hitmontop + Lapras. and the other is Hitmontop + Sylveon. In either case, I'll definitely need Hitmontop to block Snarls from Arcanine. In hindsight, I may have overestimated the viability of Sylveon as a win condition because Galarian Weezing removes Pixilate, but I didn't realize it at the time, and I'm reporting things as they happened, not as I wish they happened.
I can't straight up lead LapTop because Stax can counter by maxing Rotom or Duraludon and trading with Lapras, then trap Hitmontop. It's a similar but even worse outlook for leading Sylveon + Hitmontop. Letting Hitmontop get trapped is an express ticket to fuckedville, population: my asshole. I think I have a very good shot at winning, I just need to trade with the Gothorita and then I have two good wincons, so I don't lead my wincons off the bat.
Corviknight is obviously going to be completely useless against Rotom-W + Arcanine + Weezing + Duraludon, but even burned it can trade with a Gothorita that lacks any kind of recovery. I decide to lead this and play a drawn out early game with my least valuable Pokemon. Even if I have very little offensive presence, Stax doesn't have a good way to punish that; the best he can do is set TR for his Conkeldurr but between Sylveon and double Intimidate, that isn't going to blow me open. I waffle on my other lead for a while between Arcanine, Dragapult, or Lapras but in the end I go for Dragapult simply because of my ability to pivot out of a Goth lead so I don't get fucked. I don't want Draga to stay in early and trade in this matchup because its offense will be valuable for cleaning if my wincons (especially Lapras) fall just short.
Thus begins the early-game, and it pretty much goes according to plan. I'm able to pivot to Arcanine against two Pokemon that can't touch it. Duraludon sets Stealth Rock which is annoying (I didn't even know it got that) because it dampens Lap but I get into a good position where I can trade with the Gothorita.
Then the Rotom uses Nasty Plot. Yeah fuck me, I totally forgot it could do that. In hindsight I maybe should have noticed since I was wondering at preview why Goth was on a team that can't really punish being caught out of position very well, but it never fucking crossed my mind.
Unfortunately at this point I am up shit creek. My two win cons are both worthless because +3 Rotom will just outspeed and destroy them. I need to max Draga and trade with the Rotom if I want a shot at the game. So I have to explain Turn 7. Why didn't I max Dragapult and target the Rotom here? Good fucking question, I ask this to myself hourly. The answer is I almost did like five times; you can see I take 90 seconds on the turn. The obvious play from me is max Draga, use Wyrmwind on the Rotom and Brave Bird the Goth to prevent a Heal Pulse. I figured he would counter by Tbolting the Corv for a KO and Heal Pulse to almost negate my Wyrmwind. I don't know the Rotom's spread exactly but I figure it's pretty damn bulky since the plan was to weaken with Arc and set up with Goth. I didn't think to calc at the time (another mistake) but Arc Snarl damage confirms that it was probably Calm, so special Draga is barely outdamaging Heal Pulse. Making a hard read at this point (which I was pretty convinced I had to do), I decided to take out Goth with Draga and let Corv die, then max Draga the following turn to damage race Rotom. In hindsight, I think the right play was probably to max Draga and use Max Guard while I attacked the Goth with Corviknight. If I trade, I can bring in Hitmontop and KO the Goth with priority to prevent Heal Pulse while damage racing the Rotom. I'm not sure it would have saved me anyway though, because at that point I would lose to Arcanine. And I never expected HH when he had already shown FO and Heal Pulse (I was sure he was TR, given his team's low Speed, and Protect, because Protect on a trapper is so valuable).
Once Draga went down I kind of played like a clown, but hey the game was basically already over. I thought if I got Hitmontop and Sylveon on the field together I might be able to pull off a Fake Out + CM into sweep, but really things kinda fell apart. Not protecting Lapras when it had 2% HP was a misplay in case Stax doubled into it, but I doubt he did anyway.
So hey, that was my game. If you enjoyed this writeup, sucks for you, because I'm benched the rest of the season and can't do any more. But maybe I'll do them for seasonal games or something. And I'd love to see other players do this too.
What Stratos said can basically be summarized to exactly why Gothitelle is such an oppressive force in a balanced metagame. "Just Don't Lead Your Wincon vs Traps" is such a basic advice to say and IIRC a big part of Stratos arguing that Gothitelle is Bad in XY/BW but honestly I've never bought into it, particularly because it falls flat in balance-forward metagame like SM and SS. Leading the member that puts in the least amount of work often means leading the very thing that will get totally set up all over until you get fucked because these teams often carry crippling status and stat drops (Arcanine, Incineroar). Apply those effects to a Pokemon that isnt going to be doing well the first place and trap them? That's a free win. You blame yourself for the Dragapult turn but don't because by all intents and purposes the game was assuredly 100% over on turn 3. I fully know that probably doesn't make you feel any better, lol, but just saying.
You could have stayed in the game for a few more turns by doubling into Draga on the Goth from the Corvi slot on turn 3. That gives you a tactical edge, but they can just switch out and try again, until you get it wrong. Playing turn-by-turn like that is not a sustainable gameplan against competency and requires you to play like a lord through the entire game without missing a single beat or immediately lose. The best way to play around Gothitelle is in the teambuilder, putting in enough pivoting moves and anti-trap measures to beat it, or you risk losing without a fight.
After I inevitably lose some games and my season concludes, I'd be glad to write up similar posts if I feel that there's people in the community that would actually appreciate me putting in the time. But for now, it feels both unwanted and probably be misconstrued to be arrogantly self-indulgent.
Looking forward to all our 5 matches this week. Still rooting for Kiichikos for his first win. Here's to another fun week of competition.
edit: fwiw I don't think just because a Pokemon is "broken" it deserves to be suspected. Incineroar and Landorus-T are both broken AF yall, I don't know why no-ones willing to admit that. Maybe it's because some people's tiering philosophies won't stand up if they admit that. I think everyone agrees we are never gonna suspect them though and they aren't uncompetitive, but they are too strong in the neutral game and that's why almost every team has them. "Broken checks broken is a flawed metagame opinion smogon tiers should not subscribe to" is a social construct. We've all been playing fine in a tier (XY DOU) that has 3~4 absolutely broken Pokemon where broken indeed ends up checking broken, and I think the XY DOU game has its beauty in some way. We could not only just free Skymin, but also probably free Mega Salamence and a few more Ubers and be perfectly fine because the game is balanced around broken Pokemon. I think this was why there was disagreement on Jirachi ban which had go through multiple iterations of suspecting to go through - it is clearly broken, but whether it is more broken than Thundurus, for example, is not an obvious question. Gothitelle is much tamer than some other broken Pokemon we've let walk.
You could have stayed in the game for a few more turns by doubling into Draga on the Goth from the Corvi slot on turn 3. That gives you a tactical edge, but they can just switch out and try again, until you get it wrong. Playing turn-by-turn like that is not a sustainable gameplan against competency and requires you to play like a lord through the entire game without missing a single beat or immediately lose. The best way to play around Gothitelle is in the teambuilder, putting in enough pivoting moves and anti-trap measures to beat it, or you risk losing without a fight.
After I inevitably lose some games and my season concludes, I'd be glad to write up similar posts if I feel that there's people in the community that would actually appreciate me putting in the time. But for now, it feels both unwanted and probably be misconstrued to be arrogantly self-indulgent.
Looking forward to all our 5 matches this week. Still rooting for Kiichikos for his first win. Here's to another fun week of competition.
edit: fwiw I don't think just because a Pokemon is "broken" it deserves to be suspected. Incineroar and Landorus-T are both broken AF yall, I don't know why no-ones willing to admit that. Maybe it's because some people's tiering philosophies won't stand up if they admit that. I think everyone agrees we are never gonna suspect them though and they aren't uncompetitive, but they are too strong in the neutral game and that's why almost every team has them. "Broken checks broken is a flawed metagame opinion smogon tiers should not subscribe to" is a social construct. We've all been playing fine in a tier (XY DOU) that has 3~4 absolutely broken Pokemon where broken indeed ends up checking broken, and I think the XY DOU game has its beauty in some way. We could not only just free Skymin, but also probably free Mega Salamence and a few more Ubers and be perfectly fine because the game is balanced around broken Pokemon. I think this was why there was disagreement on Jirachi ban which had go through multiple iterations of suspecting to go through - it is clearly broken, but whether it is more broken than Thundurus, for example, is not an obvious question. Gothitelle is much tamer than some other broken Pokemon we've let walk.
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Stratos
Banned deucer.
Yeah, I lost the game as soon as I got trapped. But if I had known what I know now about Stax's team, there are way better plays to avoid getting trapped than a Corv double on turn 3. I probably would have led LapTop, gone straight from Lap into Sylv and just damage raced his team, and I think I would have had a good shot. I only played the way I did because I thought I had all the time in the world to get rid of the Goth, which was obviously wrong.
Anyway, my team is weak to Goth, since it relies so much on Hitmontop to get past Arcanine, and Top's the biggest Goth food in the meta. SMB and I knew this going in, but unfortunately the new heat I'd been working on all week wasn't working out super great (though it probably would have won this...). I don't think most replays with Goth are going to work out this way, though I wouldn't be opposed to a suspect and it'd be a better use of our time than suspecting HypnoGrav lol.
Anyway, my team is weak to Goth, since it relies so much on Hitmontop to get past Arcanine, and Top's the biggest Goth food in the meta. SMB and I knew this going in, but unfortunately the new heat I'd been working on all week wasn't working out super great (though it probably would have won this...). I don't think most replays with Goth are going to work out this way, though I wouldn't be opposed to a suspect and it'd be a better use of our time than suspecting HypnoGrav lol.
Stratos made mistakes in the teambuilder as well as during the game and I think that's mainly the reason he lost, not Gothorita being broken. Not having speedcontrol as well as Rotom counterplay put him in a really bad position at preview, even Duralodon seemed problematic, due to him not being able to outspeed it with Lapras and Hitmontop. I think the assumption that Gothorita made Hitmontop unusable is wrong as well, without spa investment it only 3hko's it with Psychic and that's a move it doesn't even always run (unlike it's final evolution). I'm not sure what leading with Corviknight was meant to accomplish, to me not starting with Dragapult + Arcanine was a major mistake. It forced him to switch out Dragapult against Duralodon, which lead to Rotom being able to set up freely. His team wasn't able to regain any control after that, which I think also has to do with the wrong selection of pokemon for the match. Had he brought Whimsicott he would be able to start the game with Lapras and in the worse case scenario trade it for killing Rotom.
I think its a shame that the small mistake of choosing to run Sylveon cost him this much, I'm sure if he brought a team he felt more comfortable with he wouldn't have made the same misplay while selecting his lead. I hope the Wolfpack gives him another chance to start, we all know you can expect better from Stratos.
I think its a shame that the small mistake of choosing to run Sylveon cost him this much, I'm sure if he brought a team he felt more comfortable with he wouldn't have made the same misplay while selecting his lead. I hope the Wolfpack gives him another chance to start, we all know you can expect better from Stratos.
Stratos
Banned deucer.
Goth trapping and killing Hitmontop isn't that bad. What's bad is Goth trapping and not killing Hitmontop. I just have to sit there firing off burned uninvested CCs while he 1v2s the rest of my team until Hitmontop is frail enough to OHKO sideways (which also costs an entire turn). I do think Arc + Draga is a better lead than Corv + Draga (or Corv + Arc) when you know the Rotom is NP. I don't like Whims on the team because Sylveon is essential in the trick room matchup, but maybe my paranoia of trick room is to my detriment as a builder. I've thought about it before but triple bulky setup plus double softeners is not the kind of team that needs or makes good use of speed control. Having a way to boost Lapras that's less obliterated by Goth would help the team but as I sit here I think I've thought of a better one.
Anyway, I'm not benched because I lost; I'm benched because SMB is better than me and we don't need him in RBY anymore.
Anyway, I'm not benched because I lost; I'm benched because SMB is better than me and we don't need him in RBY anymore.
Week 6 Pairings:
MajorBowman vs Marilli
Ezrael vs Lunar
Memoric vs SMB
qsns vs Tman
Kiichikos vs stax
------------------
Week 5 Recap:
- Some pretty fire teams and techs all around last week. No major metagame trends different than past weeks; other than Bowman everyone ran some form of balance with speed control options in either direction. However, mostly everyone got to that point in a different way which is neat, so I'm just going to point out a few cool techs and sets.
- stax has brought Gothorita twice now. We all know what big Goth does, but Gothorita trades any semblance of offensive presence and the ability to self heal with a berry for bulk and pure support. Sort of like Dusclops vs a more offensive TR mon. He paired it this week with Durant, which even at -1 atk still claimed an Arcanine and put some big holes in Memo's defensive core. Iron Defense Kommo-O is a neat set (essentially SD for Body Press that can't be Intim'd away) but it wasn't able to do anything vs the offensive pressure Durant was able to put out.
- qsns's (or rather umbreon098's) team was fucking fire. I know I soft dragged stax for bringing Toxic Spikes but vs a lot of these soft balance teams you can start racking up chip quickly between sand and 12% toxic/turn and there's like, maybe 3 viable grounded Poison-types in the metagame to remove them. Dandy Weezing in general is pretty underexplored I feel, esp vs Goth where if you take away its main purpose you leave the opponent with a weak & slow mon out on the field and you can freely carry out your gameplan.
- Ezrael brought a neat semi-room team with Bronzong + Weakness Policy Rhyperior in the back. WP Rhyp getting self proc'd is nothing new, but I thought using Gyro Ball was clever because vs Rhyperior it has a super low base power but still lets you do shit like 2hko Togekiss and Dragapult without a wasted moveslot. Official "Nice Tech" stamp from me.
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Week 6 Predicts:
MajorBowman vs Marilli
Jake just bounced back from an L, Marilli just took his first. Should be a fun one to watch!
Ezrael vs Lunar
Do I think Lunar can win this game? Absolutely. Is the safe money on Ezrael? Absolutely. 5-0 doesn't lie, even though Lunar has won 2 in a row now.
Memoric vs SMB
This is definitely a bounce back game for SMB after running into a surprisingly frisky qsns last week. Memo hasn't looked particularly hot all season imo.
qsns vs Tman
The predict is obvious rn given that qsns just beat SMB and looks to have a quirky build style down pat. Tman just looks lost though in his building. Last week was a semiroom team built around getting Dracovish to either bomb away fast teams in TR or slower ones in Tailwind but it ended up just not doing much of anything. If he can bring it back to basics a bit i think he can salvage a decent record this year.
Kiichikos vs stax
Is stax going to bring Gothita to flex next? Full on doubles stall? An OU team he stole from his teammates and just loaded into the builder? Who knows!
MajorBowman vs Marilli
Ezrael vs Lunar
Memoric vs SMB
qsns vs Tman
Kiichikos vs stax
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Week 5 Recap:
- Some pretty fire teams and techs all around last week. No major metagame trends different than past weeks; other than Bowman everyone ran some form of balance with speed control options in either direction. However, mostly everyone got to that point in a different way which is neat, so I'm just going to point out a few cool techs and sets.
- stax has brought Gothorita twice now. We all know what big Goth does, but Gothorita trades any semblance of offensive presence and the ability to self heal with a berry for bulk and pure support. Sort of like Dusclops vs a more offensive TR mon. He paired it this week with Durant, which even at -1 atk still claimed an Arcanine and put some big holes in Memo's defensive core. Iron Defense Kommo-O is a neat set (essentially SD for Body Press that can't be Intim'd away) but it wasn't able to do anything vs the offensive pressure Durant was able to put out.
- qsns's (or rather umbreon098's) team was fucking fire. I know I soft dragged stax for bringing Toxic Spikes but vs a lot of these soft balance teams you can start racking up chip quickly between sand and 12% toxic/turn and there's like, maybe 3 viable grounded Poison-types in the metagame to remove them. Dandy Weezing in general is pretty underexplored I feel, esp vs Goth where if you take away its main purpose you leave the opponent with a weak & slow mon out on the field and you can freely carry out your gameplan.
- Ezrael brought a neat semi-room team with Bronzong + Weakness Policy Rhyperior in the back. WP Rhyp getting self proc'd is nothing new, but I thought using Gyro Ball was clever because vs Rhyperior it has a super low base power but still lets you do shit like 2hko Togekiss and Dragapult without a wasted moveslot. Official "Nice Tech" stamp from me.
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Week 6 Predicts:
MajorBowman vs Marilli
Jake just bounced back from an L, Marilli just took his first. Should be a fun one to watch!
Ezrael vs Lunar
Do I think Lunar can win this game? Absolutely. Is the safe money on Ezrael? Absolutely. 5-0 doesn't lie, even though Lunar has won 2 in a row now.
Memoric vs SMB
This is definitely a bounce back game for SMB after running into a surprisingly frisky qsns last week. Memo hasn't looked particularly hot all season imo.
qsns vs Tman
The predict is obvious rn given that qsns just beat SMB and looks to have a quirky build style down pat. Tman just looks lost though in his building. Last week was a semiroom team built around getting Dracovish to either bomb away fast teams in TR or slower ones in Tailwind but it ended up just not doing much of anything. If he can bring it back to basics a bit i think he can salvage a decent record this year.
Kiichikos vs stax
Is stax going to bring Gothita to flex next? Full on doubles stall? An OU team he stole from his teammates and just loaded into the builder? Who knows!
Week 7 Matchups:
SS DOU: Memoric vs Tman
SS DOU: kaori vs Kiichikos
SS DOU: qsns vs Ezrael
SS DOU: MajorBowman vs stax
SS DOU: SMB vs marilli
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Week 6 Thoughts:
- lol this meta is dead who cares. thank fuck we have some better offensive options tho now.
- 2 minor notes about the metagame though. People realized that NP Rotom is the most dangerous Rotom set, with 4 (possibly five as we didn't see Memo's set) uses of it. Ezrael was the only person who used Rotom and confirmed it wasn't NP, but his had an interesting tech with Light Screen that allowed it to support more than your standard Volt Switch / Wisp fare. People also finally realized that supported correctly, Duraludon is a dangerous mon with 3 uses of it.
- Seriously looking forward to the new metagame though, a lot of room for creativity here with good dynamax options, good support options (balanced cat of friendship is back <3), and of course good offensive options that fill out that speed void that existed between 95 and 142. Predicting at least 8 Incineroars and at least 6 Melmetal, as well as 2 assholes bringing broken Beat Up.
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Week 7 Predicts:
SS DOU: Memoric vs Tman
No way around it, Memo got absolutely robbed last week by SMB. However, I'm predicting Tman for 3 reasons here:
1) His team choice was excellent last week, the right mix of slightly off-meta in a standard archetype that will see him well in the future
2) He is better than his record currently shows
3) Memo didn't post the fucking matchups again so I have to double post
SS DOU: kaori vs Kiichikos
A few things going on here. I don't think Lunar played poorly last week vs Ezrael. Jon is just playing on another level this season and it wouldn't surprise me if he actually ran the table. I don't think Kiichikos has played super badly the last few weeks, but that comes with the flip side that I think he's hit his skill ceiling and doesn't have a win to show for it. Could he pick up a win vs Kaori, who has looked Pretty Meh when he's played? Sure. But this is a prediction of what I think will happen, not what could theoretically happen.
SS DOU: qsns vs Ezrael
Another case of "it's not you, it's your opponent". qsns has been kind of up and down all year, and this isn't the type of match you bounce back from a close loss on. Jon has been on a fucking kill streak all year with savvy meta picks and interesting techs and I'm excited to see what he comes up with for the new metagame.
SS DOU: MajorBowman vs stax
SS DOU: SMB vs marilli
Neat teams from both last week. I think overall marilli has been more consistent, while SMB got totally bailed last week by a last second crit. Should be a good one to watch though.
SS DOU: Memoric vs Tman
SS DOU: kaori vs Kiichikos
SS DOU: qsns vs Ezrael
SS DOU: MajorBowman vs stax
SS DOU: SMB vs marilli
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Week 6 Thoughts:
- lol this meta is dead who cares. thank fuck we have some better offensive options tho now.
- 2 minor notes about the metagame though. People realized that NP Rotom is the most dangerous Rotom set, with 4 (possibly five as we didn't see Memo's set) uses of it. Ezrael was the only person who used Rotom and confirmed it wasn't NP, but his had an interesting tech with Light Screen that allowed it to support more than your standard Volt Switch / Wisp fare. People also finally realized that supported correctly, Duraludon is a dangerous mon with 3 uses of it.
- Seriously looking forward to the new metagame though, a lot of room for creativity here with good dynamax options, good support options (balanced cat of friendship is back <3), and of course good offensive options that fill out that speed void that existed between 95 and 142. Predicting at least 8 Incineroars and at least 6 Melmetal, as well as 2 assholes bringing broken Beat Up.
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Week 7 Predicts:
SS DOU: Memoric vs Tman
No way around it, Memo got absolutely robbed last week by SMB. However, I'm predicting Tman for 3 reasons here:
1) His team choice was excellent last week, the right mix of slightly off-meta in a standard archetype that will see him well in the future
2) He is better than his record currently shows
3) Memo didn't post the fucking matchups again so I have to double post
SS DOU: kaori vs Kiichikos
A few things going on here. I don't think Lunar played poorly last week vs Ezrael. Jon is just playing on another level this season and it wouldn't surprise me if he actually ran the table. I don't think Kiichikos has played super badly the last few weeks, but that comes with the flip side that I think he's hit his skill ceiling and doesn't have a win to show for it. Could he pick up a win vs Kaori, who has looked Pretty Meh when he's played? Sure. But this is a prediction of what I think will happen, not what could theoretically happen.
SS DOU: qsns vs Ezrael
Another case of "it's not you, it's your opponent". qsns has been kind of up and down all year, and this isn't the type of match you bounce back from a close loss on. Jon has been on a fucking kill streak all year with savvy meta picks and interesting techs and I'm excited to see what he comes up with for the new metagame.
SS DOU: MajorBowman vs stax
SS DOU: SMB vs marilli
Neat teams from both last week. I think overall marilli has been more consistent, while SMB got totally bailed last week by a last second crit. Should be a good one to watch though.
Week 8!
[WOL] SMB vs Tman [CRY]
[RUI] qsns vs Kiichikos [SHA]
[CLA] stax vs Ezrael [BIG]
[TIG] robjr vs Kaori [RAI]
[SCO] talkingtree vs marilli [TYR]
memoric: overrated
miltankmilk: outdated
talkingtree: ACTIVATED
[WOL] SMB vs Tman [CRY]
[RUI] qsns vs Kiichikos [SHA]
[CLA] stax vs Ezrael [BIG]
[TIG] robjr vs Kaori [RAI]
[SCO] talkingtree vs marilli [TYR]
memoric: overrated
miltankmilk: outdated
talkingtree: ACTIVATED
Week 7 Recap:
- 9/10 Incineroar, 7/10 Melmetal, 3 Beat Up (featuring one team that had double Beat Up but used neither?? and still won??), just like I predicted. The reasoning behind them is pretty simple: Melmetal is generally regarded as one of the strongest mons in the format right now, but it's not ultra splashable on every archetype (2/3 teams that had Beat Up didn't have Melmer). Incineroar, meanwhile, is the best glue mon in the format and picking up right where it left off from USUM. Beat Up was only used 3 times because 2 people gentlemans'd it out of the matchup and it's like hard TR++, where you kind of have to go all in on it. I've made a post on my thoughts on Beat Up but my thoughts haven't changed on it (and I hear 2 matches have already gentleman'd it out of week 8 too).
- One Pokemon I didn't mention but got a solid 5 uses was Necrozma. It wasn't used a ton in USUM but it had a solid niche; now it's in a tier where it can use its versatility to its advantage due to the lack of high powered threats. Psychic/Ground covers mostly everything in the metagame, it can set SR or Trick Room to support the team, and has good power with Weakness Policy/Dynamax behind it.
- One interesting thing that's been a theme this whole generation is the side-pop Weakness Policy. In USUM it was very rarely seen and regarded as a gimmick; why would you waste your time attacking your own Pokemon when you could be doing a ton of damage to your opponent or positioning yourself. However, in this gen, when big hits are harder to find, one turn of setup can do a lot of damage. Dynamax gives you bulk, Trick Room or fast Pokemon like Dragapult have the speed; the Weakness Policy adds the power.
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Week 8 Predicts:
[WOL] SMB vs Tman [CRY]
Tommy has almost fully turned his season around and won 2 in a row; SMB is also on a 2 win streak though a bit shakier than Tommy's.
[RUI] qsns vs Kiichikos [SHA]
qsns managed to get 2 OHKOs the first 2 turns with Solar Power GMax Charizard and still lost. Then again Kiichikos brought standard af Beat Up and lost to a Celebi I can't bold him :(
[CLA] stax vs Ezrael [BIG]
Winner guarantees #1 record in SPL XI, loser is still having a pretty fuckin good season. Lookin forward to seeing what kind of shenanigans these two get up to.
[TIG] robjr vs Kaori [RAI]
Jake couldn't live without Landoge one second more, so I had to let him play a tier where it's all Landoge all the time. Just gotta remind him that Earth Power / U-turn / Protect / Defog @Iapapa Berry is not legal nor advisable in BW OU
[SCO] talkingtree vs marilli [TYR]
I gotta do it. tree has been a starting caliber player for years now and he finally gets his shot in place of a surprisingly struggling memo.
- 9/10 Incineroar, 7/10 Melmetal, 3 Beat Up (featuring one team that had double Beat Up but used neither?? and still won??), just like I predicted. The reasoning behind them is pretty simple: Melmetal is generally regarded as one of the strongest mons in the format right now, but it's not ultra splashable on every archetype (2/3 teams that had Beat Up didn't have Melmer). Incineroar, meanwhile, is the best glue mon in the format and picking up right where it left off from USUM. Beat Up was only used 3 times because 2 people gentlemans'd it out of the matchup and it's like hard TR++, where you kind of have to go all in on it. I've made a post on my thoughts on Beat Up but my thoughts haven't changed on it (and I hear 2 matches have already gentleman'd it out of week 8 too).
- One Pokemon I didn't mention but got a solid 5 uses was Necrozma. It wasn't used a ton in USUM but it had a solid niche; now it's in a tier where it can use its versatility to its advantage due to the lack of high powered threats. Psychic/Ground covers mostly everything in the metagame, it can set SR or Trick Room to support the team, and has good power with Weakness Policy/Dynamax behind it.
- One interesting thing that's been a theme this whole generation is the side-pop Weakness Policy. In USUM it was very rarely seen and regarded as a gimmick; why would you waste your time attacking your own Pokemon when you could be doing a ton of damage to your opponent or positioning yourself. However, in this gen, when big hits are harder to find, one turn of setup can do a lot of damage. Dynamax gives you bulk, Trick Room or fast Pokemon like Dragapult have the speed; the Weakness Policy adds the power.
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Week 8 Predicts:
[WOL] SMB vs Tman [CRY]
Tommy has almost fully turned his season around and won 2 in a row; SMB is also on a 2 win streak though a bit shakier than Tommy's.
[RUI] qsns vs Kiichikos [SHA]
qsns managed to get 2 OHKOs the first 2 turns with Solar Power GMax Charizard and still lost. Then again Kiichikos brought standard af Beat Up and lost to a Celebi I can't bold him :(
[CLA] stax vs Ezrael [BIG]
Winner guarantees #1 record in SPL XI, loser is still having a pretty fuckin good season. Lookin forward to seeing what kind of shenanigans these two get up to.
[TIG] robjr vs Kaori [RAI]
Jake couldn't live without Landoge one second more, so I had to let him play a tier where it's all Landoge all the time. Just gotta remind him that Earth Power / U-turn / Protect / Defog @Iapapa Berry is not legal nor advisable in BW OU
[SCO] talkingtree vs marilli [TYR]
I gotta do it. tree has been a starting caliber player for years now and he finally gets his shot in place of a surprisingly struggling memo.
Week 9 Matchups:
[CLA] stax vs Kaori [RAI]
[TIG] MajorBowman vs Tman [CRY]
[RUI] qsns vs talkingtree [SCO]
[WOL] SMB vs Ezrael [BIG]
[SHA] Kiichikos vs marilli [TYR]
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Week 8 Recap:
- Putting aside Beat Up for a bit, teams mostly centralized into 2 archetypes: Goodstuffs & Sunroom.
- Goodstuffs teams were brought 6 times, winning 4 matches (one loss was goodstuff v goodstuff). These teams generally fell into the same pattern of Incineroar / Melmetal / Dragapult / bulky Psychic (Goth or Necro) / 2 more. The 2 more is really where things got interesting: in the 2 matchups where Beat Up wasn't gentlemans'd out, Terrakion was put in. Other popular picks were NP Rotom-W, which fits well as a Melmetal/Incineroar check, or Whimsicott as Tailwind support. The archetype in general is very solid and moving forward it'll be interesting to see what adjustments are made to beat it.
- The other main archetype was Sun(room). Torkoal / Venusaur / Gmax Charizard / TR setter / Fake Out is the main core of this archetype (with the exception of Ezrael who decided to use Torkoal as a more supportive Pokemon than TR attacker and ditched the TR). In general, this type of team is extremely flexible, allowing you to work in both TR with Eruption Torkoal, or rely on Solar Power Gmax Charizard + Chlorophyll Venusaur to spread fast damage and Sleep opponents. However, the only sun team that won was Ezrael's, which again ditched the TR option. It'll be interesting to see if players try to make it work with different combinations of Pokemon.
- There were a few wildcards within those archetypes, but the one team that really stood out was talkingtree's pre-home-esque Durant offense. Even though it was burned and Intimidated, it still managed to pick up a KO on a Terrakion and do large chunks of damage before going down. Another interesting tech was Zeraora reprising its gen 7 role as "fast annoyer" with Electroweb + Snarl to debuff the opponent. However this was less effective given he ran into a Clear Body Dragapult, which was unfazed and kept spamming full power Shadow Balls. Overall it was a neat team, points for creativity even though it lost in what may be Arcanine's last SPL DOU appearance until Gen 9.
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Week 9 Predicts:
[CLA] stax vs Kaori [RAI]
stax took a tough L last week but played extremely well during it. I think he's had a great season and since this match has playoff implications I can't bet against him giving it his all here.
[TIG] MajorBowman vs Tman [CRY]
I've been in the lab all season waitin for this matchup
[RUI] qsns vs talkingtree [SCO]
Fire matchup with 2 fire builders, so obviously we're gonna get two standard ass teams here because fuck my predictions right?
[WOL] SMB vs Ezrael [BIG]
Not bettin against him now LOL. SMB's been good this season but Ezrael is just on another level like I've said.
[SHA] Kiichikos vs marilli [TYR]
marilli is just better. I've been impressed as hell with the season he's had and I'm looking forward to seeing what he brings here.
[CLA] stax vs Kaori [RAI]
[TIG] MajorBowman vs Tman [CRY]
[RUI] qsns vs talkingtree [SCO]
[WOL] SMB vs Ezrael [BIG]
[SHA] Kiichikos vs marilli [TYR]
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Week 8 Recap:
- Putting aside Beat Up for a bit, teams mostly centralized into 2 archetypes: Goodstuffs & Sunroom.
- Goodstuffs teams were brought 6 times, winning 4 matches (one loss was goodstuff v goodstuff). These teams generally fell into the same pattern of Incineroar / Melmetal / Dragapult / bulky Psychic (Goth or Necro) / 2 more. The 2 more is really where things got interesting: in the 2 matchups where Beat Up wasn't gentlemans'd out, Terrakion was put in. Other popular picks were NP Rotom-W, which fits well as a Melmetal/Incineroar check, or Whimsicott as Tailwind support. The archetype in general is very solid and moving forward it'll be interesting to see what adjustments are made to beat it.
- The other main archetype was Sun(room). Torkoal / Venusaur / Gmax Charizard / TR setter / Fake Out is the main core of this archetype (with the exception of Ezrael who decided to use Torkoal as a more supportive Pokemon than TR attacker and ditched the TR). In general, this type of team is extremely flexible, allowing you to work in both TR with Eruption Torkoal, or rely on Solar Power Gmax Charizard + Chlorophyll Venusaur to spread fast damage and Sleep opponents. However, the only sun team that won was Ezrael's, which again ditched the TR option. It'll be interesting to see if players try to make it work with different combinations of Pokemon.
- There were a few wildcards within those archetypes, but the one team that really stood out was talkingtree's pre-home-esque Durant offense. Even though it was burned and Intimidated, it still managed to pick up a KO on a Terrakion and do large chunks of damage before going down. Another interesting tech was Zeraora reprising its gen 7 role as "fast annoyer" with Electroweb + Snarl to debuff the opponent. However this was less effective given he ran into a Clear Body Dragapult, which was unfazed and kept spamming full power Shadow Balls. Overall it was a neat team, points for creativity even though it lost in what may be Arcanine's last SPL DOU appearance until Gen 9.
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Week 9 Predicts:
[CLA] stax vs Kaori [RAI]
stax took a tough L last week but played extremely well during it. I think he's had a great season and since this match has playoff implications I can't bet against him giving it his all here.
[TIG] MajorBowman vs Tman [CRY]
I've been in the lab all season waitin for this matchup
[RUI] qsns vs talkingtree [SCO]
Fire matchup with 2 fire builders, so obviously we're gonna get two standard ass teams here because fuck my predictions right?
[WOL] SMB vs Ezrael [BIG]
Not bettin against him now LOL. SMB's been good this season but Ezrael is just on another level like I've said.
[SHA] Kiichikos vs marilli [TYR]
marilli is just better. I've been impressed as hell with the season he's had and I'm looking forward to seeing what he brings here.
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Semis Matchups:
marilli vs qsns
Tman vs stax
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Week 9 Recap:
- Eyyyyy people brought interesting teams! Only one instance of Melmetal/Goth Balance (marilli), and one Sunroom (Kiichikos), and those were both in the same match. This isn't to say that people totally tossed Melmetal/Incin/Pult/Goth out of the builder, but rather found more interesting ways to build around them rather than looking at Tier 1 of the VR and saying "hm, this looks like a good team".
- Weakness Policy is, to nobody's surprise, dominant right now. I'm not going to comment on whether that's a good thing or not, but as I think I've said before: in a metagame short on instant offensive presence (think Koko or Kartana just bombing away last gen), having a way to double your offensive output is incredibly valuable, especially when paired with an instant 2x HP boost. However relying solely on it for your team strategy is dangerous, as we can see in Jake's match where he didn't get the WP pop on Necrozma and subsequently couldn't get the rest of his offense going.
- One interesting wrinkle to the WP-centric teams is that the counterplay to WP is to just avoid hitting your opponent SE vs typical users like Necrozma or Melmetal. It makes for some tricky situations where you have to balance getting enough damage off on them with strong neutral attacks while not taking too much damage yourself.
- Don't have a ton else to say here this week, shoutouts to everyone who reads these :)
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Semis Predicts:
marilli vs qsns
If we're just going by last week, then I feel marilli played pretty flat vs Kiichikos while qsns hit the turbo button vs tree and never let up. In general though I think both players have had a great season and I wouldn't be surprised if either player won. It's going to come down to who can execute their game plan first, and I feel qsns has been a bit better doing that this season. I don't necessarily mean I expect WP Hyper Offense from either, but I think whoever has the early lead will probably hold onto it.
Tman vs stax
stax had it all last week: fun team, got a lil lucky with the Durant roulette, but also made a great read and took out the transforming Mew before it could do anything. Tman has really turned around his season and definitely looks like a better player and builder than at the start if the season, so it wouldn't surprise me if he takes it, but stax has been more consistent this season. Look to see some interesting team choices from both users; they've both gone mostly non-standard this whole tour. Personally I'm rooting for Tman here as a friend but I try to make these predictions objective or else I would have bolded Jake every single week.
I'll probably go more in-depth into the actual games for next week/finals instead of general meta observations.
edit: gonna wrap the three PO games all in one. prediction: qsns d. stax
marilli vs qsns
Tman vs stax
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Week 9 Recap:
- Eyyyyy people brought interesting teams! Only one instance of Melmetal/Goth Balance (marilli), and one Sunroom (Kiichikos), and those were both in the same match. This isn't to say that people totally tossed Melmetal/Incin/Pult/Goth out of the builder, but rather found more interesting ways to build around them rather than looking at Tier 1 of the VR and saying "hm, this looks like a good team".
- Weakness Policy is, to nobody's surprise, dominant right now. I'm not going to comment on whether that's a good thing or not, but as I think I've said before: in a metagame short on instant offensive presence (think Koko or Kartana just bombing away last gen), having a way to double your offensive output is incredibly valuable, especially when paired with an instant 2x HP boost. However relying solely on it for your team strategy is dangerous, as we can see in Jake's match where he didn't get the WP pop on Necrozma and subsequently couldn't get the rest of his offense going.
- One interesting wrinkle to the WP-centric teams is that the counterplay to WP is to just avoid hitting your opponent SE vs typical users like Necrozma or Melmetal. It makes for some tricky situations where you have to balance getting enough damage off on them with strong neutral attacks while not taking too much damage yourself.
- Don't have a ton else to say here this week, shoutouts to everyone who reads these :)
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Semis Predicts:
marilli vs qsns
If we're just going by last week, then I feel marilli played pretty flat vs Kiichikos while qsns hit the turbo button vs tree and never let up. In general though I think both players have had a great season and I wouldn't be surprised if either player won. It's going to come down to who can execute their game plan first, and I feel qsns has been a bit better doing that this season. I don't necessarily mean I expect WP Hyper Offense from either, but I think whoever has the early lead will probably hold onto it.
Tman vs stax
stax had it all last week: fun team, got a lil lucky with the Durant roulette, but also made a great read and took out the transforming Mew before it could do anything. Tman has really turned around his season and definitely looks like a better player and builder than at the start if the season, so it wouldn't surprise me if he takes it, but stax has been more consistent this season. Look to see some interesting team choices from both users; they've both gone mostly non-standard this whole tour. Personally I'm rooting for Tman here as a friend but I try to make these predictions objective or else I would have bolded Jake every single week.
I'll probably go more in-depth into the actual games for next week/finals instead of general meta observations.
edit: gonna wrap the three PO games all in one. prediction: qsns d. stax
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