Rounds 1-4 Video
Round 1 –
Marshtomp/Anorith lead, Plusle in back. Continually swapped Marshtomp slot. Anorith ancientpower spam. Plusle in case Anorith dies to water move.
Round 2 –
Girafarig/Sealeo lead, Tropius in back. Giragarig nice mixed attacker. Both it and Sealeo have recovery. Sealeo ice ball can sweep quickly. Continually swapped Tropius slot.
Round 3 –
Pidgeot/Sandslash lead, Ivysaur in back. Typical EQ lead with ivysaur as an electric/water/grass switch in if needed. No swaps
Round 4 –
Tauros-1/Aero-1 lead, Miltank-1 in back. Typical EQ lead with thick fat Miltank to be able to recover and win end games if needed. Especially after tauros intimidate. Ended up swapping Miltank for a Slowking as a water/ice/fighting resist and to have a special attacker if needed. Then swapped for Walrein just for an extra swap as I felt it as similar enough and could boost my swaps.
Round 5 Video
Round 5 – Poison slow and steady initial trainer.
Gengar-2/Gard-2 lead with Amph-2 in the back. I virtually always take Gengar if I have the option. One of the best factory mons. Gard-2 helps against poison trainer. It’s not super fast, but with calm mind and Gengar’s wisp maybe I could get some setups going. Had the option of magamar-2 in the back. Both it and Amph-2 have fire/electric coverage which I felt I needed for steel/bulky waters. I preferred Amph as it’s a little bulkier, doesn’t have to rely on hitting fire blasts, has thunder wave so the speed of Magmar wasn’t as important, and although both are weak to ground, I’d rather not be weak to water. Ended up swapping Amph-2 for a Kingdra-2 which had better speed, good coverage, recovery and could still deal with steel types. After defeating a scary team of Salamence, Flygon, Walrein I was facing a normal type trainer. I opted to swap out Gengar for Salamence as I felt it paired well with calm mind Gard and rest Kingdra. I also preferred the intimidate on lead rather than swapping it in.
Round 6 Video
Round 6 – No type no phrase initial trainer.
Vaporeon-4/Arcanine-3 lead, with Shuckle-3 in the back. Intimidate lead with Vaporeon to take out EQ threats. I figured if I face a scary electric mon or something stally Shuckle might be able to deal with it. But ultimately, planned on swapping Shuckle later. Shuckle toxic came in handy Battle 1 where I had to face the stally Milo-3 with leftovers that would have probably beat my Vaporeon in a 1v1. I didn’t like the pokemon for swaps in most rounds and funny enough I had to face a 2nd Milo-3. But Battle 6 was a water type trainer and since I just beat a Jolteon I took that over Shuckle.
Round 7 Video
Round 7 – Poison High Risk initial trainer.
Xatu-4/Tauros-2 lead, with Hariyama in the back. This was a tricky draft. I really wanted fake out on lead as well as intimidate as well as the option to EQ. I favored Xatu up front facing the poison trainer so I chose Tauros to be able to have fast EQ and intimidate to let Xatu live hits. Opposing lead is Gengar/Vileplume which is terrifying because gengar has psychic for Hariyama and Tauros can’t touch it. So I need to get rid of it with Xatu. Luckily it barely doesn’t kill with ice punch and no freeze. I swap Gengar for Xatu which makes my team kind of weak to psychic but I figure I can always destiny bond with Gengar if needed. Which I did have to use in battle 6 when I faced an Aero/Lapras lead. I could not guarantee a KO on Lapras with a double up and an intimidated aero was not super threatening. So I figured I would trade Gengar with Lapras and get chip into aero with Tauros since Lapras always saw the kill on Gengar Tentacruel in the back made it an easy clean up with fake out.
Round 8 Video
Round 8 – 25 swaps. No type High Risk initial trainer.
Latias-1 (random ivs)/Salamence-5 lead, with Ninetales-4 in the back. Pretty solid lead with special coverage, EQ and intimidate. Just worried about ice moves which is why I took Ninetales. A scary battle 2 lead with Milotic and Kingdra came. I opted to stay aggressive and EQ dragon claw the Kingdra. Thankfully it was Milo-3 which didn’t see a kill with blizzard and just used attract on Latias. Afterwards I swapped Ninetales for Milotic for the bulky recovery. The next lead was also terrifying, Starmie, Flygon. I swapped to Milo and ice beamed the Flygon. It was Starmie 7 which started to boost up but thankfully Latias hit a couple tbolts through brightpowder. I then swapped Starmie for milo to have more consistent damage moves. It came in handy eating an ice punch from Gengar a couple rounds later. I should note that the video is spliced around the 18:52 mark. Once I saw the Flygon/Starmie lead I couldn’t remember the trainer type/phrase so I paused OBS to double check and hit record again.
Round 9 Video
Round 9 – 28 swaps. Water, no phrase initial trainer.
Salamence-3 (random ivs)/Gard-4 (random ivs) lead, with Porygon2-3 in the back. Idea is just to intimidate and let Gard live hits while it smacks things. Endure can also act as “Follow-Me” if Mence gets low. Porygon2 as a ghost switch in that can also maybe win with stall thanks to intimidate mence. Terrfying Starmie/Suicune lead. I tbolt Starmie and swap Mence to Porygon2. Starmie ice beams Porygon2 and freezes but luckily I have lum berry. Tbolt takes out Starmie. Then Suicune ice beams Porygon2 and FREEZES again! Aero comes out in the back. The only Aero that can KO Gardevoir is Aero-2 with choice band and if it goes for Hyper Beam. It could also target Porygon2. I don’t’ want to risk that so I swap Mence for Porygon2 and tbolt Aero. It is indeed Aero2 and Hyper Beams gardevoir but I live in the red. Thankfully Suicune just goes for Rain Dance. I double the Suicune and win. Although Suicune is very tempting to take, I like Gard’s coverage and the intimidate next to it. Porygon2 is a great switch in for Gardevoir and has access to recovery. Plus Porygon2 has perfect ivs while Suicune has 3 ivs. Next trainer is Normal, High Risk which Suicune also doesn’t really help with. So I don’t swap. The lead is Snorlax/Exploud and since White Herb activates I know it’s either Exploud3 or 4. One has shadow ball and the other has ice beam. Both are scary so I opt to double it. Snorlax curses and Dewgong comes out.I tbolt Dewgong and keep doubling the Snorlax to take it out. I swap Porygon2 for Lax for the extra bulk and potential thick fat as a Mence switch in. The 7th battle was extremely scary with a Walrein/Heracross lead. Even after intimidate, Heracross-2 would outspeed and KO Gardevoir. And Hera-1 has Focus Band, while Hera-3 has Brightpowder. So I just had to psychic and hope it’s either not Hera-2 or he misses megahorn. Thankfully I hit and KO while Mence swaps to Lax. Walrein goes for Sheer Cold and misses. Venusaur is in the back. I opt to target down Walrein so I don’t lose to OHKO moves and Venu isn’t threatening to Mence in back. It goes for Surf and I am able to clean up.
Round 10 Video
Round 10 – No Type High Risk initial Trainer.
Milotic-2/Granbull-1 lead with Miltank-3 in back. This was a weird draft, the general idea was that milo hits decently hard and I prefer to have ice beam on something if I can once I hit round 8 and the Latis are in play. With intimidate Milo should live plenty of hits and Granbull can annoy stuff with twave + get speed control. Miltank has shadow ball to hit ghost types that Granbull can’t touch. Also with endure reversal I should hopefully be able to 1v1 a good amount of pokemon if needed. Being in the back I have to worry less about intimidate. Some notable matches include facing a Gengar, but luckily it was Gengar-1 and missed 3 Hypnosis. I also had to face a Raikou that immediately set up double team and Granbull still hit a Mega Kick for the one shot. A lot of the battles I just spammed surf with Milo and chipped stuff down while Granbull paralyzed things. I got lucky in battle 7 when a Blaziken/Ludicolo lead used sunny day then rain dance.
Round 11 Video
Round 11 – No type, High Risk initial trainer.
Metagross-1/Salamence-3 lead with Feraligatr-4 in back. This is a solid core up front with Metagross to hit ice types or light screen up front next to intimidate. While Feraligatr can switch in for ice or fire moves against Mence or Meta. After battle 2 I decided to swap Feraligatr for Gyarados-4. Not an ice resist, but another intim and ground immunity for Metagross. Also, I can for for earthquakes with Gyarados or Salamence freely if they’re both on the field. Battle 4 was an extremely scary Magmar/Latios lead. I decide to Swap Meta to Gyara and go for endure since it is very likely to target Mence. Latios does Dragon Claw Mence and Magmar goes for Barrier which is awful because now Mence can’t one shot it. This is very bad because both Magmar and Latios are almost guaranteed to target Mence although Latios could also see a kill with thunderbolt on Gyarados if it has it, which it likely does. If they both target Mence, then Magmar will likely flamethrower an incoming Metagross. I decide to dragon dance Gyarados and Crunch Latios because if I double edge I will die and Metagross will take 2 hits and likely die as well. With a dragon dance I can outspeed and KO any Latios the next turn. However, Latios goes for shadow ball, indicating it’s latios-6 which means it actually doesn’t have thunderbolt. Metagross takes a flamethrower putting it at 30% health. Now Latios is likely to thunderwave Gyarados because it can’t kill Metagross but Magmar will kill. So I have 4 options, 1. Frustration Latios preventing twave and attack the incoming pokemon with either meteor mash, aerial ace or façade. 2. Frustration Latios and light screen giving Gyarados a better chance to 1v2. 3. Dragon dance and KO Latios with metagross. 4. Dragon dance and light screen. With 1 dragon dance already and access to rest I figure gyarados should be able to 1v2 a good amount of pokemon, besides fast electric types or gengar. With 2 dragon dances I will outspeed every single electric besides Jolteon-4. Option 1 doesn’t save me from electric types because I won’t KO them, though it would save me from gengar. Option 2 or 3 doesn’t save me from electric types either. I figured of all the threats I could lose to, an electric type in the back was probably the most likely and option 4 gave me the best chance to beat that. So I dragon dance accepting the twave and light screen. I am risking multiple para’s in a row on Gyarados but I thought it was worth it. Magmar barriers a 2nd time and Latios dragon claws. Thankfully I am able to get the rest off. I can’t risk paralysis and rest turns without chesto versus Latios so I take it out with frustration. Heracross is in the back which is slightly terrifying. It could reasonably be any set. Heracross-1 does not die to +2 frustration and it has counter. +3 has a chance to KO and + 4 guarantees it. However rock tomb and megahorn are 3HKOs so I can’t spend time boosting up. Heracross-2 has both attract and bulk up and is the opposite gender of gyarados which could get bad fast if I don’t KO quickly. I have an 81% chance to KO heracross-3 with frustration, but it has brightpowder and single target rock slide does around 60% to gyarados. I also have an 81% chance to KO Heracross-4, but it has Salac Berry and Reversal. After chip from magmar, I will likely die to megahorn and low health reversal if I don’t hit the frustration roll. Not to mention the longer I take to KO heracross the more I risk getting burned by magmar and having to rest, Which likely means I lose unless I dodge megahorns. Ultimately, I chose to go with the EQ, then frustration route. I felt it gave me better odds against heracross-1 and 4, along with the small chance to crit magmar which would KO. Heracross rock tombs indicating it is Hera-1 and Magmar goes for the smokescreen…I never thought a magmar would be so threatening. After 1 more rock tomb heracross will outspeed me. So I need to hit a frustration through smokescreen and dodge heracross’s focus band or else I almost guaranteed lose. Gyarados connects. But Magmar burns with flamethrower. At 40% health I don’t want to risk a crit flamethrower and burn damage. I’ll need to rest anyways because it will take 2 healthy EQ’s to KO magmar. With Flamethrower doing 15-18 and hitting on the turn I rest. Once I wake up I’m down to about 48% health. I dragon dance and another flamethrower puts me within crit range. It looks to be a roll to KO at this point so I rest up to be safe. Next time I wake up I EQ which barely doesn’t kill. I’m in high roll crit range at this point, but I go for the EQ anyways. It misses and Magmar gets the roll, but doesn’t crit thankfully. Stupid to risk that, but I didn’t get punished. I rest up and hit the EQ when I wake. I pass up on Latios as I don’t feel like it fits with the core I have now. I’m able to clean up the rest of the battles fairly easily.
Round 12 Video
Round 12 – Normal type, no phrase initial trainer.
Zapdos-2/Gengar-4 lead with Scizor-2 in back. Generally I don’t like Zapdos-2 but I felt like it synergized well with Scizor by having access to rain dance. Scizor could also switch in for ice moves. Additionally scizor could resist and kill psychic types for gengar and eat ghost/dark moves. The first trainer being a normal type also lended itself to an extra normal resist. The first battle went well, but the 2nd battle lead was Glalie/Ampharos. I couldn’t remember the type/phrase which could influence my decisions greatly so I paused OBS to check and forgot to hit record for the remainder of the battle as well as battle 3. Once I realized this I started recording again and took notes. Here is how the battles played out – Turn 1: I double the glalie with fire punch drill peck to not risk ice beams. Fire punch crits and vileplume in back takes 80% from drill peck. Ampharos tbolts zapdos doing a little less than half but paralyzes me. Turn 2: Gengar finishes vileplume and ampharos crits a tbolt into gengar to KO while zapdos sets up rain in case amph has fire punch. Turn 3: Scizor does 60% with silver wind, Ampharos tbolts zapdos and barely doesn’t kill while zapdos thunders to finish off Ampharos. Next battle is dragon high risk. Swapping for glalie is tempting but just for this battle, it makes me very weak to fire and gengar already has ice punch. I opt for no swaps. Lead is Ninetales/Flygon. Turn 1: I drill peck ninetales and ice punch flygon. Ice punch misses, but drill peck crits to KO ninetales. Flygon uses façade into zapdos. Latias in the back. Turn 2: Scizor should be able to handle it so I double the flygon. Ice punch lands this time and drill peck does about 60% to latias. Latias ice beams zapdos which barely doesn’t kill indicating it’s likely latias-3. Turn 3: Gengar finishes with ice punch. Latias-3 is also tempting, but I have ice coverage with gengar and electric coverage with zapdos. I also favor the 31iv bulk and speed from zapdos which allows for easy double ups with drill peck and gengar. Therefore, I don’t swap. On the 5th battle I beat a team with dugtrio. The 6th battle was a steel type trainer, no phrase. As much as I like this core, I felt I needed better answers to metagross so I swapped scizor with dugtrio. Lead is Sceptile/Registeel. Sceptile Crunches Gengar to do 80%, Zap drill pecks Sceptile to KO and Gengar Fire punches Registeel which does a little less than half. Registeel sets up Curse and Metagross is in the back. I really don’t want to risk registeel resting as it will make it extremely hard for zapdos and dugtrio to KO. So I opt to Drill peck and Fire punch which barely picks up the KO. Metagross rock slides to take out Gengar and misses Zapdos. This means it has quick claw. I decide to set up rain dance and EQ. That way I can guarantee Thunder KO next turn as Meta EQ will take out Dugtrio. This does risk double rock slide QC with flinch or QC rock slide crit. But I figured I’d rather do that than try to hit 1 / 2 thunders (I know technically you have a better chance to hit 1 / 2 thunders than miss both, but I didn’t want to take those chances). I swap dugtrio for metagross. Final battle is Victribel/Dewgong lead which is slightly scary as Dewgong could have sheer cold or ice beam. I Psychic victribel and figure the upside of a raw thunder hit are better than going for rain dance as I could get crit or frozen by an ice beam. Psychic Kos and Granbull comes out. Thunder misses and Dewgong goes for sheer cold which also misses. I’ve already committed to no rain dance and my chance to hit thunder is better than sheer cold so I decide to keep playing the odds and go for a raw thunder again. I Psychic Granbull and crit which barely doesn’t KO. Thunder connects thankfully and KOs Dewgong. Granbull overheats Zapdos and I clean up next turn.
Rounds 13+ - I decided to stream these live now that it was getting close to WR, all vods are posted. Since they have live commentary I didn’t feel the need to do write-ups of the thought process behind drafts or decisions.
Round 13 Video
Round 13 - Regice-1/Glalie-3 lead with Weezing-4 in back
Round 14 Video
Round 14 - Metagross-6/Entei-4 lead with Raichu-2 in back
Round 15 Video
Round 15 - Shiftry-1/Arcanine-4 lead with Snorlax-1 in back
Round 16 Video
Round 16 - Crobat-4/Espeon-3 lead with Blissey-2 in back
Rounds 17 & 18 Video
Round 17 - Electabuzz-4/Starmie-7 lead with Umbreon-4 in back
Round 18 - Aggron-2/Salamence-5 lead with Snorlax-5 in back
Round 19 Video (youtube link was incorrect, fixed to twitch highlight)
Round 19 - Sceptile-3/Metagross-2 lead with Altaria-4 in back
I was able to swap Sceptile for a Gengar and Lax for Altaria, but the last battle ended with a menacing Latios/Entei lead. Unfortunately Metagross-2 doesn't KO any Entei sets with Earthquake so I'd have to double up with Gengar to KO, but Gengar is likely dying to Latios which means Meta EQ will hit my Snorlax in the back. I opted to Destiny Bond to at least take out the Latios and try to Meteor Mash something in the back. This ends up being Tauros, but it misses. Entei sets up double teams and although I hit a shadow ball for chip with Snorlax to put it into EQ range, I'm not able to hit either of my 2 earthquakes and Entei takes me out with a +1 Flamethrower.
