a loser's OMPL BH Review: Week 1
I enjoyed making these reviews in MAMP's absence last season, so I'm gonna pick up where I left off and dig into last week's games. I might get longwinded here, so sorry about that in advance.
Onyx Onix 7 vs PinkDragonTamer
Team preview shows that Onyx has brought what looks like bulky balance while PDT brought what looks like triple Steel stall. Depending on the set, Onyx's Groudon could be in a really good place.
It looks like we're getting off to a slow start with some pivoting and scouting from PDT's Imposter Chansey, until PDT decides to sacrifice his Registeel to a Mold Breaker Groudon for some reason. Maybe he could tell Registeel was deadweight already, but it was definitely a strange play. Onyx's Dialga is confirmed to be RegenVest and PDT keeps sending Imposter in for free recovery. Onyx reveals Baton Pass on his Zacian-C, which is pretty cool when paired with what looks like Choice Band Groudon. As cool as it is, it isn't quite strong enough to take down PDT's double recovery Prankster Giratina, which can take a hit and heal up with Sap or Recover. They dance around for a bit with pivots and it gets pretty boring. PDT manages to get a Spike up with his PH Regigigas only to be hit with Core Enforcer and have it spun away a turn later. Onyx brings in Calyrex-Ice, which turns out to be his Simple Shift Gear set, and puts FC Dusk Mane to sleep with Spore. A few Spectral Thief's later, Onyx makes a hard switch to Groudon in front of Dusk Mane and PDT has to sack something, as most of his team is heavily chipped, so he brings in Giratina who dies to Glacial Lance. This pretty much seals the deal as PDT is unable to make any kind of progress.
I was surprised by PDT's team choice here, especially considering it was recycled from WCoOM when the meta was still dealing with Calyrex-Shadow, but also because it is incredibly passive. It showed how out of touch he is with the current metagame, while Onyx's solid build with Groudon showed the exact opposite.
Quantum Tesseract vs a loser
From team preview, you can see that we both brought balanced builds but with a surprising amount of birds. QT's Zacian-C could be an issue depending on its role but nothing else sticks out much.
I was expecting an Imposter lead to scout, but QT leads DesoLand Ho-Oh and gets up Stealth Rock while I switch to Darm-Z, who then hits a Giratina switch-in with Glare. Depending on its role, this could be big for my Regigigas as I safely pivot it in to activate its Toxic Orb. I take out Regi to keep Dragon Tail unrevealed and bring in Zama-C, to which QT responds by bringing Ho-Oh back in on an Anchor Shot. This was a bit strange, as I could have been FF, but he doesn't hesitate to fire off sun-boosted V-creates. My Prankster Darm-Z can shrug them off though, so QT brings in Fishious Rend Xerneas who takes a Glare that softens the blow from Rend. I kept expecting him to hard switch his Imposter into my walls like Darm-Z and later Lunala, so I predicted this and ended up hitting a Yveltal switch-in with Nuzzle instead. Yveltal caught a full para as I switched in Rayquayza, still unsure of what his set was. I spin away the Stealth Rock while getting hit with Beat Up for minimal damage. Boomburst then does a lot of damage while Yveltal catches another full para and QT makes a hard switch to Zacian-C. This was a weird spot for me because I didn't want Ray gone yet and was expecting a move like Glacial Lance or Sunsteel Strike from Zacian-C, but both Darm-Z and Lunala were at pretty low health and I didn't want them randomly dying with Ho-Oh still around. So I send in Celesteela, hoping to take a hit and lure another with Prankster Destiny Bond only to be trapped and forced to struggle to death via Imprison Transform. I bring in Lunala next, and with recovering being an obvious choice I went for Nuzzle hoping to catch a switch to Imposter but was wrong again. I bring in Regigigas and phaze things around with Dragon Tail for a bit and miss a key Precipice Blades that would have KOed Zacian-C. QT continues to bring Ho-Oh in on Zama-C's Anchor Shot but this time I stay in to use Poison Fang while it downs me with V-create. Lunala finishes it off with Hex and following this I make a questionable play that ends with me losing Darm-Z to impostered Lunala. Things are still looking up though, as both Regigigas and Rayquaza offer no recovery for his Imposter and his Giratina and Xerneas are chipped. I end up catching his Giratina on the switch with a well-timed Hex and then QT sends in Xern to get his sixth full para of the battle. I'm not sure if he was going to recover with Sap here or go for chip, but it was definitely unfortunate and helped to finish off the battle.
I definitely caught some breaks with multiple full para's at clutch times in this game. I'm not sure how different things would have been had his Xern gotten off a Boomburst or two, but I'd like to think that Gigas could have finished things off either way. Our teams were fairly similar in strategy and it could have gone either way but it is hard to make progress when you aren't moving. I also think it worked out best for me that I never paralyzed his Imposter because that might have made improofing Regigigas a little more sketchy in the end.
xavgb vs XxSevagxX
Preview shows that both players brought Xerneas and Zacian-C, which could lead to some interesting plays but sevag also doesn't appear to have any Zacian-C switch-ins. Sevag's Groudon looks a bit out of place as its Ground STAB is not hitting much super effectively. Stresh's Zyg-C looks like it could either be a weak link or incredibly hard to take down, depending on its ability.
Not long into the battle, sevag is in a hole with a spike on his side as the opposing Zacian-C makes its first appearance. Palkia comes in on its Anchor Shot to reveal FC and Rocky Helmet, which is great against most Zacian-C but not good against Imprison variants. However, using Glare as Zacian-C Imprisons makes things more interesting as Palkia chips Zacian-C for 50+ the next turn. Alas, stresh whips out the ole' Jungle Healing while dodging the full para to finish off the Imprison trap and we watch Palkia struggle. From here, sevag switches around a bit trying to find an opening to break but doesn't make any moves, all while the spike continues to chip his mons. Zekrom finally fires off a Clanging Scales in front of Ho-Oh, hoping to catch the Zyg-C or Giratina on the switch, but ends up getting an Ice Scales Zyg-C which is the last thing sevag's matchup needed. Zekrom goes down to T-Waves and sevag brings in Xerneas, who has only revealed Nuzzle at this point. Zyg-C is well in range of being KOed by Pixilate Boomburst, but sevag opts for V-create in hopes to dent a Zacian-C switch-in. But stresh stays in to play the 75% roll and eats the V-create while healing up. Sevag makes a hard switch to his Zacian-C after this, as stresh doubles out to bring in Ho-Oh. Barring Bolt Strike, which seems unlikely considering sevag has it on Zekrom, stresh's DesoLand Ho-Oh lives anything Zacian-C throws at it. That being said, sevag chooses to go for the most chip damage with V-create and fish for a full para, but comes up short and dies to Ho-Oh's V-create in return. This pretty much wraps things up for stresh, as sevag no longer has anything that can hope to deal with his Zacian-C and the battle is over five Anchor Shots later.
Overall, the matchup was pretty dreadful for sevag here. Looks like he was hoping to throw stresh off balance with some paralysis spam, but only two mons got para'd and only one inconsequential full para was achieved. Despite having FC Palkia, sevag's Zacian-C counterplay was very lacking, which is surprising considering how easily Imprison sets can pick up KOs. And this was definitely the case in this battle, as Anchor Imprison Zacian-C was the MVP and stresh didn't even have to reveal half of his team. Future opponents should look out for this team being recycled!
sugarhigh vs cityscapes
At preview, we see city brought comfort food, which for him is unmon semi-stall, and sugar has brought what looks like bulky offense with a random Lugia. Both sides have a Palkia, each of which could prove vital in breaking the opposing team, but sugar's Zacian-C also stands out here since city appears to have no legitimate switch-ins.
Things start off pretty rough for sl42 here, as sugarhigh's team develops into I-Sword Baton Pass and city comes up empty on attempts to poison sugarhigh's mons not named Regigigas. A couple turns of dancing around leads to city's Groudon taking a one-two punch from V-create Zacian-C, further cementing the fact that the base 90 Speed tier is garbage. Sugar's Lugia comes in and is shown to be Ice Scales + Spikes and Bunker, which I have no clue what this does for his team but does happen to check Pixilate Xern somewhat. And it actually comes in clutch later, as after a couple Spectrals and Baton Passes, city's Xerneas ends up getting +4 SpA passed to it and this turns into +5 after a Quiver Dance. This looks really scary, but Scales Lugia tanks the Boomburst and forces out Xern after stealing the boosts. City brings back in Triage Celesteela to maybe scare off Lugia with Toxic, which it succeeds in doing only be KOed by Zacian-C's Fishious Rend shortly after. Things are looking quite bleak for sl42 now, down 6-3 with Imposter at 28% facing a Speed tie and sugarhigh's team in pretty good shape. City goes for the tie as sugarhigh switches to Prankster Giratina and has to burn some recovery PP as impostered Zacian-C spams Sunsteel. This is where sugarhigh starts to make questionable decisions that ultimately lose the momentum he'd had all game. Lugia and Xerneas face off again, and while Bunker was scouted earlier on Lugia, sugarhigh never clicks it and Xern is able to stall out turns with Rapid Spin and Quiver Dance and Lugia dies to poison damage. From this point on, we are shown just how good Pixi Sap Xern is with a Speed boost as it just heals for free in front of Zacian-C's face. After some more dancing around, sugarhigh sends Zacian-C back in to face Xern with Rapid Spin boosts and city must have been wary of a critical hit cause he switches to Palkia as sugar passes the Attack boost to his own Palkia. Here we find out city's Palkia is FC as it tanks a +1 Dragon Darts and chips the opposing Palkia heavily with Core Enforcer. SL42 tosses this progress in the trash though, and loses his Imposter to Dragon Darts and negates most of the chip damage he picked up as Palkia uses Strength Sap on Xern. But here we see the perils of getting creative with Palkia, as +1 Fishious Rend with Tinted Lens is not enough to OHKO Xerneas, who proceeds to Spin and Saps its way to victory.
At multiple times in this battle, I had no clue how city would be able to win. I feel like he was playing on his heels the entire battle due to his soft defensive core and he was really unable to make progress with anyone outside of Xerneas. But Xerneas, thanks to a key Toxic from Celesteela, was really all he needed to break through sugarhigh's team in the end. If sugar had brought a much better and more standard Adaptability Palkia, it might have been gg much earlier though.
Metagame Observations
Unsurprisingly, Zacian-C, Giratina, and Xerneas led the way in usage this week. Zacian-C is the best mon in the meta right now and you absolutely have to prep for its variety of sets or you just lose. Baton Pass Zacian-C saw more usage than it has in a good while, but this isn't too surprising considering it can easily overwhelm an opponent in a tournament setting. Anchor Imprison was also used a couple times and put in some work in each of its battles. Bulky balanced teams are still king, as all eight teams could be described in this manner.
Upcoming Matches
cityscapes vs Quantum Tesseract - this battle should be interesting as both players have been active lately but I'd have to give a slight advantage to city as he's been a little more creative in the builder.
a loser vs Onyx Onix 7 - another interesting match here, as each of us are capable of bringing a variety of playstyles. Buckle up for a wild ride that will range from 25 to 400 turns.
PinkDragonTamer vs xavgb - last year, PDT showed that rust was a non-factor early on and proceeded to have a great showing all season. One week in, this is not looking to be the case as he now has to face stresh, who has been untouchable in BH for some time now.
sugarhigh vs XxSevagxX - both players will be looking to recover from a week 1 loss, so expect some fun and quality builds from both sides.