a loser's OMPL BH Review: Week 7
The final week of OMPL featured some pretty long games, coming in at an average of 108 turns per game. Despite two outlier games like the 342 turn Week 3 game and the 7 turn game in Week 5, BH games this OMPL are averaging 77 turns per game. This week seemed especially long when compared to the last three weeks though, which combined for 50 turns per game.
Smove_$wag vs pdt
From preview, it looks like PDT went with either semi-stall or a strange Psychic Surge team while TTTech went with his favorite which is slow breakers paired with hard imposter-proofers. Lunala could be annoying to PDT's team and it doesn't look like he has solid Palkia checks either. Mewtwo could potentially be threatening with like Mold Breaker, but having two Steel-types and Lunala doesn't bode well for it.
Things start out with several pivots and a couple items being removed, but after six turns we see PDT is rocking a Poison Heal core of Mewtwo and Ho-Oh (both of which are rare and weird) and Tech gets a third of his items removed but shows his go-to Prankster Parting Shot Registeel, Fur Coat Lunala, and Pixilate Xerneas. More pivots happen, and one from Flip Turn Magearna leads to Xern taking down Ho-Oh with Diamond Storm to get rid of PDT's Spikes user and item remover. PDT responds by sending in Mewtwo, which uses Thunder Cage on Xern who promptly spins it and the layer of Spikes away. We find out that PDT's Solgaleo is Prankster when it heals before Registeel pivots out to bring in Palkia. Scared of a Water-type STAB, PDT boldly switches to Giratina as we see Palkia use Nasty Plot and get to +1 from Speed Boost too. PDT has few good options here and goes back to Solgaleo to eat a Dragon move and forces out Palkia with Topsy-Turvy. Tech brings Lunala back in and uses Glare while PDT switches to a Magic Bounce Eternatus that sends the Glare right back. This leads to a pretty cringe interaction where Lunala (who threatens the entire team with Glare, Core Enforcer, and Hex) gets almost every read wrong as PDT switches between Bounce Etern, PH, Mewtwo, and Ice Scales Zama-C and ends up dying to a couple critical hits. These 20 turns end up making this battle about 100 turns longer than it should have been. The rest of the battle is incredibly boring and is only "highlighted" by PDT making some questionable calls that result in him losing Solgaleo and his only breaker, Mewtwo. The battle technically could have gone over 200 turns, but thankfully PDT got too bored and forfeited.
Parts of PDT's team seem neat, but solo breaker PH Mewtwo is Pre-DLC tech and Bounce Spin Eternatus is one of the worst sets I've seen in a while. Tech's team wasn't bad, but I thought the Dry Skin / Water Absorb improofing Magearna was a little too BH ladder tech to bring to a tour game. Not that it can't work, but PDT hadn't brought Imposter since Week 1 and had been bringing lots of FC Chansey lately. Glare seems like a worse choice over Nuzzle on Lunala, but I guess it makes sense considering Tech's extremely close call with Normalize last week.
MAMP vs xavgb
Preview shows us Melmetal's OMPL IX BH debut on stresh's side, alongside a very stresh looking core of Tina/Fini, one or two -ate users, and a lone breaker Kyu-B. MAMP brought an interesting looking team that has what looks like could be a very useful Eternatus and Golisopod if played right.
Right away, it looks like RegenVest Melmetal is here as Eternatus Volt Switches out to bring in PrimSea Golisopod, who gets his boots knocked off. Stresh Volt/Turns around a bit and brings in PH Tapu Fini, who gets trapped by Anchor Shot Zama-C. I hope MAMP didn't get too excited here after using Anchor + Entrainment on Fini, cause we all know stresh isn't gonna let his PH mon fall to that stuff. Fini Flip Turns out and brings in Ho-Oh, who gets its Fire Lash denied by Golisopod, who then goes for Fishious Rend and hits Giratina on the switch. This brings back memories of last OMPL with Shift Gear Goli, which was pretty cool, but we don't get to see the rest of the set as it soon falls to Aerilate Extreme Speed from Ho-Oh after being provided a false sense of safety. MAMP responds by bringing in Groudon, who could be really threatening here, and uses Shift Gear while stresh brings in Xerneas. We see that Don is using Poison Heal, which is a bit disappointing considering Adapt or Mold Breaker have much more utility while keeping the Goli improof. Don hits Xern for a decent 71% but gets that undone by Strength Sap and is then out-done and forced out by a 72% from Boomburst. This leads me to believe that stresh's Xern is Timid, which is fairly rare, and that he was hoping to tank whatever Don threw at it and move first to Sap it. MAMP does manage to get some hazards up over the next several turns, but it is fairly inconsequential with boots Spin Xern chilling in the back. Turns out that Ho-Oh is actually the boots spinner and comes in to clear the way for Melm, who eats a Clanging Scales thanks to the Assault Vest. Groudon comes in a couple more times and attempts to set up, but is checked pretty well by Prankster Giratina with Haze, Entrainment, and Spectral Thief. MAMP brings PH Xern back in to face Giratina and gets hit with Entrainment while getting Spikes up again, but stresh is forced out and brings in Ho-Oh to check the Xern. But here, MAMP pulls out a surprise Diamond Storm to hit Ho-Oh really hard, although for not quite enough as the Xerneas didn't have the right nature. This is pretty huge, considering neutral Attack Xern would have had a 93.8% chance to KO Ho-Oh meaning that rocks and spikes could stay up. Stresh sacks Ho-Oh the next play, chipping Etern some more in the process, and ends up having to sack Tapu Fini after Melmetal gets two full paras against MAMP's Metronome Pixilate Magearna. But Magearna meets its end when Kyu-B comes in with Mold Breaker Choice Band V-create to revenge kill it and even stays in on the incoming Zama-C to KO it too. From here, Kyu-B and Xern clean up for the win.
I thought MAMP showed big signs of improvement here and it is a shame about the Xern nature because having Xern around with hazards up would have given more opportunities for Groudon to finally break through Giratina. Stresh's team looked solid, but it was pretty risky to send Ho-Oh in on Xern like that when two moves hadn't been revealed yet.
idea vs XxSevagxX
Sevag with Giratina / Zamazenta-C / Xerneas / Celesteela / Tapu Fini... where have I seen this before?? idea is rocking a somewhat similar team, with Zama-C, Xern, Celesteela, a different Ghost and Dragon, plus Regigigas. Sadly this looks like the grind I was expecting this battle to be.
This battle starts out with some action pretty quickly with sevag activating PH Fini and landing a Will-O-Wisp burn on Celesteela, who stays in on Fini to use Nasty Plot. Sevag brings in Eternatus who takes basically nothing from +2 Oblivion Wing, meaning it is either Ice Scales, Unaware, or like, Shadow Shield lol? Etern Taunts it and forces it out, which leads to some pivoting around that brings in Regigigas to activate its Toxic Orb. idea predicts a Giratina switch here and uses Glance with Gigas as Tapu Fini stays in, eats the hit easily, and pivots out to bring in Tina. Both sides get Stealth Rock up and at 9 turns in the battle is looking very even. Gigas comes back in and doesn't mess around with predicting this time as sevag brings in Tina to ignore the Facade. Then, anticipating a switch, sevag uses Scald instead of Core Enforcer to maybe land a burn on Xern but Gigas stays in and uses Glacial Lance to hit for 25%, confirming that Tina is FC. idea does bring Xern in on the next turn though and starts clicking Boomburst, getting good chip on sevag's Xern only to be forced out by Etern a few turns later. idea brings in Lunala to face Etern and Lunala clicks Spirit Shackle, a move that is rarely seen, but sevag had switched to Tapu Fini who just U-turns out of there. Lunala gets forced out by Encore Zama-C so idea brings Celesteela back in and Steela tries, unsuccessfully, to deal with sevag's Eternatus. After this, some more pivoting around brings Gigas back in to face Eternatus and Gigas sets up with Shift Gear as sevag is forced to go to Giratina. Gigas lands a big critical hit on Tina for 59% and Tina clicks Scald in return, expecting a switch. This is a pretty bad play by sevag here, as Core Enforcer or recovery are much much safer cause he didn't know yet if Gigas could have been running something like Spore as well. Now Tina can easily be KO'd by Glance, but idea suspects a switch and tries to catch Zama-C with a surprise V-create. Sevag stays in with Giratina, tanks the V-create, and recovers to force Gigas out. I'm not sure if sevag was sacking Tina here or just had a lucky prediction, but this was a big momentum loss for idea. More switching around allows some mons to regain their health and sevag brings in his Celesteela who comes up empty revealing Poison Fang as idea brings in Regigigas. Gigas sets up again and this time sevag decides to handle it with Prankster Zama-C. This starts out well for Zama-C, who Encores it into +1 Facade, but ends terribly when Gigas lands another big crit and KO's Zama-C. This isn't too bad for sevag though, considering at this point he keeps idea's Celesteela and Xern checked well with Etern and has Giratina still for Gigas, unless a lot more crits happen. Celesteela tries again to break Eternatus but fails, so idea brings back in Gigas who catches a Taunt from Eternatus. This leads to a big turn, as idea threatens the Etern with both Facade and Glance and is slower than Etern so it avoids ability suppression so he makes a double to Xern in anticipation of sevag bringing in Giratina. Much to idea's dismay, sevag keeps Etern in and clicks Sludge Bomb, nailing the Xern who is now chipped to the point of no return. Xern dies the next turn and a few turns later sevag brings back in Celesteela and we see that his is also running Triage but with a much better moveset thanks to Leech Seed. It messes around a bit and KO's Zama-C with its Rocky Helmet but gets forced out by the threat of V-create from a somewhat healthy Gigas. I say somewhat here because the rocks and two layers of Spikes are really wearing down idea's team quickly. idea later comes up empty on a Destiny Bond lure from Lunala and gets up being Taunted and KO'd instead. This pretty much wraps up the win for sevag, but in reality that happened when Xern died.
I feel like sevag was pretty favored in this matchup, despite the fact that he might have been swept by Belly Drum Xerneas. idea was unlucky running into an opposing Triage Celesteela cause that meant sevag was prepared for it and it wasn't able to make any progress due to Taunt Eternatus. Some timely crits kept idea in the game though, and I think had he sold out on getting rid of Giratina instead of focusing on predictions he could have maybe won this one.
A Touch Of Crazy vs Stolen Identity
Preview shows us that yolk brought a very yolk-y build as he is still holding onto hopes that Registeel is a viable Pokemon. Crazy has brought an assortment of bulky offensive mons that look like they might have issues with Pheromosa and Xerneas.
yolk starts out scouting with Imposter as crazy leads with Palkia, which leads to crazy bringing in the Kyogre improof as yolk makes an interesting switch to Giratina. I mean, I don't think crazy would really risk a Speed tie on turn one but going to Giratina on Palkia is still a little risky. Crazy pivots out with Baton Pass to bring in PH Gigas while yolk brings Chansey back in and starts doing what every Imposter-carried user loves to do: just click moves and waste time. Crazy's Gigas gets a sub up, unfortunately too late to prevent Imposter, and yolk starts spamming unboosted Facade, which is
just powerful enough to break through sub on decent rolls. Chansey does get chipped a good bit here but brings in Pheromosa on a Baton Pass to force out Gigas and bring in FC Solgaleo. Mosa uses High Jump Kick here and doesn't do much damage, but this means that Mind Blown is a likely next move so crazy is forced to bring in Palkia to eat a hit. It tanks the Mind Blown and gets U-turned on and clicks Dragon Energy as Mosa brings in Zama-C. Crazy brings Gigas back in and tries to get a sub back up so he can pass it, but yolk's attacks like Anchor Shot from Zama-C are hitting for 24-25% and are again just enough to break the sub and keep Gigas from getting momentum. Hoping for a friendly roll, crazy Baton Passes to Kartana but has the sub broken again. Regardless, yolk has to decide here if Kartana is using Sunsteel or coverage, as coverage likely removes Zama-C, Registeel, and Imposter while Sunsteel nukes everything else. FC Giratina comes in to take 66% from Sunsteel, meaning a low roll from Steelworker Choice Band, so yolk brings Zama-C back in and forces out Kartana. Zama-C is looking like a problem here for crazy, and he brings in Palkia and attempts to burn it with Steam Eruption and maybe stall for a bit, but gets trapped with Anchor Shot and ends up having the burn removed when Zama-C reveals Aromatherapy. I think that Zama-C vs Palkia might have been inevitable in this matchup, but I think that crazy's decision to do it this early in the game was not ideal. But he does get Zama-C down to only one Soft-Boiled left in the process, and Zama-C flees before Palkia can struggle and leaves it with only Strength Sap remaining. yolk bring in Xerneas, who shows off a cityscap-esque set of Quiver Dance Pixilate, and crazy brings in Kyogre who steals the boosts. Of course, yolk immediately brings in Imposter to take advantage of this situation as crazy passes to Gigas who tries to get a sub up yet again. He does this time, as Chansey takes its opportunity to heal up, but crazy makes another questionable call by passing the boosts back to Kyogre instead of Kartana or the unrevealed Eternatus. This leads to yolk getting momentum back as he passes to Pheromosa, who easily breaks Kyogre's sub to bring in Giratina. We then see that Giratina is a very yolk set with FC Haze and Tina gets phazed out with Dragon Tail to bring in Xerneas. I'm sure crazy would have loved to face someone rather than Xern here, but he brings in Kartana who is able to survive a big hit from Boomburst. Kartana then clicks Bullet Punch, which doesn't make too much sense here considering that Kartana is faster and a potential Extreme Speed would go first anyway, but yolk switches to Magic Bounce Registeel who chips Kart even further with Rocky Helmet. At this point, crazy is running out of options and doesn't have much for Pheromosa so he finally brings in Eternatus to try to make something happen. It sets up with Focus Energy as yolk brings in a PP-depleted Zama-C and proceeds to miss Overheat and get trapped for important chip. This is pretty huge considering that Zama-C only had one recovery PP left and would have been 2HKOed and left Eternatus with a decent amount of HP left. But due to the miss, Zama-C goes down after chipping Etern to 37% and yolk responds by bringing in Pheromosa who proceeds to miss a Head Smash and be OHKO'd by Sludge Wave. This miss is really big for crazy, since Eternatus is now a huge threat to yolk's team and he has no choice but to bring in a very healthy Chansey now. But here, crazy plays it much too safe and has to pray for good RNG as he pulls out Eternatus to bring in Ice Scales Ogre. Ogre gets crit on the switch and the following hit to be KO'd and Gigas comes in next to be KO'd by a Draco Meteor crit. This is quite unlucky for crazy, as Imposter'd Eternatus only has a 50% chance to land the crits, but he gets all the crits he needs to reverse sweep and get the win. Considering the state of his team when Chansey came in, crazy pretty much had to risk the Speed tie here because landing Draco would have meant Chansey took 80.9 - 95.8% and this could have made it more manageable for his teammates to revenge kill Imposter and maybe sneak out with a win.
Crazy's matchup wasn't awful here but he had a lot of bad luck and misfortune with yolk always getting the roll to break the Substitute when it really mattered and then all the crits at the end sucked too. yolk's team definitely looked like a merging of sl42 and his own ideas more than anything we'd seen from them all season, but it was pretty lame to see Eviolite Imposter put in so much work here and get the win.
Metagame Observations
In terms of usage, there was no surprise again to see Xerneas, Zama-C, and Eternatus leading the way. Diamond Storm on Xerneas shows how good Desolate Land Ho-Oh has been lately at stopping Fishious Rend variants, and despite the awful coverage outside of Ho-Oh this move almost picked up two kills this week. And despite the longer games, there were still plenty of offensive sets being used this week like Triage Celesteela, PH Gigas, and various Xern and Palkia sets.
Upcoming Matches
Smove_$wag vs a loser - this should be an interesting game. Tech and I have played a good bit against each other this generation throughout the multiple DLC releases and metagame shifts, so it'll be fun to see how this one ends up in the new meta without Zacian-C. I'm not sure how much QT is gonna help build here since he'll definitely be busy with AAA and MnM already. I'm looking forward to a good one here though, so show up to watch this Thursday at 4pm GMT-5!
xavgb vs XxSevagxX - stresh finished the season unblemished, but he definitely got some chinks in his armor along the way. Sevag is playing well and has come a long way since the lopsided Week 1 loss to stresh and certainly has more material to scout with, but I'm not sure still if that will be enough to take him down. However, who knows how burnt out stresh might be currently from BH building and supporting his team, while sevag really has nothing to lose here going up against the best of the best. I'm definitely looking forward to this one.