a loser's OMPL BH Review: Week 3
I have some more time this week so I'll get a little more in-depth with my discussion of last week's BH games. There weren't as many but two went long enough to make up for the lack of the fourth match. So, apologies again for the length but long games lead to longer discussion.
XxSevagxX vs PinkDragonTamer
Team preview shows us that both players brought relatively fat builds and that the game will likely be lengthy. Sevag's Kyu-B looks like it'll have a tough time finding an opening with Suicune, Zama-C, and Zacian-C on the other side, but could still be dangerous given the chance. Depending on the set, PDT's Zac-C could do some damage but likely not Imprison variants since sevag's team looks pivot heavy.
The battle starts out slowly, with sevag mainly using PH Fini with Spikes and Wisp while PDT spams Anchor Shot and burns recovery PP for no reason. He brought boots Zama-C, which is a set that really doesn't make much sense to me with lefties, helmet, and shell all being better options right now. 20 turns in, PDT finally clicks a move that isn't Anchor Shot and we see his Zyg-C is FC + Yache Berry. This doesn't matter much though because sevag traps it and PP stalls it to KO it... But actually doesn't and for some reasons lets it escape to struggle another day? This results in sevag's first momentum loss of the match, which is quickly recovered when his Etern is shown to be Ice Scales with Taunt and Sludge Bomb to easily check PDT's Xerneas. Speaking of this Xerneas, PDT trashes it a couple turns later by making a hard switch to it in front of a healthy Zama-C that happens to click Anchor Shot. This is a pretty big misstep, as Xern looked like it could have provided some pressure if PDT got some Spikes up too. After this, PDT reveals a very weird Prankster Suicune set that sevag's Zama-C traps. He forgoes PP stalling it, maybe to preserve Zama-C's PP for Zacian-C, and opts to clear Spikes with Spin Ho-Oh instead. PDT's Zacian-C is shown to be running Taunt, which is pretty cool but I don't get why it didn't reveal it much earlier against a Zama-C that was clearly Fur Coat. For the next several turns, PDT shows off his cool boots on Zama-C and Suicune and proceeds to make a questionable play of keeping Celesteela in on Mold Breaker Kyu-B to click Anchor Shot. Maybe he was sacking it or hoping to catch a Shift Gear attempt, but sevag's bluff ends up getting his Ho-Oh trapped instead. This ends Ho-Oh pretty quickly thanks to the earlier PP stall and now neither player has hazard removal left. But without Ho-Oh, sevag no longer can remove items and the boots on Zama-C and Suicune are proving to be pretty useful considering three layers of Spikes are up. After several turns of pivoting around not doing much, PDT finally sends in Zac-C to set Spikes of his own as it gets wisped by Tapu Fini to take even more chip. More switching around happens without much progress, but the Spikes are starting to wear on sevag when he decides to start spamming Taunt with Eternatus to force switches and pick up chip with burn damage. Sevag makes everyone nervous by continuing to pivot his Tapu Fini around on the Spikes with fairly low health, but PDT's defensive core is so passive (and burned) that it'll have chances to heal up for free if it really needs it. After several more boring turns, PDT finds his Suicune once again trapped by Zama-C but this time sevag chooses to PP stall it. The process is sped up though because Suicune is out of Spectral Thief PP meaning it Struggles quicker thanks to Taunt. From here it is basically over, as two of PDT's mons are walking corpses and the others die to Kyu-B's V-create. But sticking with the theme of the battle, 32 more turns go by and it finally is over.
Both of these teams were pretty interesting but I didn't love either of them. Both sides bringing two Taunt users is almost unheard of, but was useful for each side here as Taunt had the capability to shut down certain mons. PDT's double Prankster looked annoying to face but ultimately was too passive, and that Suicune set was just so weird. If PDT hadn't randomly lost his Xern or had used Taunt Zac-C earlier, I think the battle could have been much closer.
Stolen Identity vs xavgb
Yay, more fatmons at team preview. Both sides have Imposter Chansey, bulky Water-types, and Zama-C's so this should be another slow-going battle. Yolk's Pheromosa is the standalone breaker for the team but it seems to be in a fairly good position from the look of it.
To start, each team gets a feel for the other with some Imposter scouting, pivoting, and an orb activation from PH Golisopod. Stresh reveals that Zac-C is running Knock Off, which is a neat move for the mon that really doesn't get that much usage. So 15 turns in, we've seen that yolk is running double Fur Coat (Tina and Kyogre) with Scales Zama-C, Helmet Bounce Registeel, and MGLO Pheromosa, while stresh has revealed a little less with PH Goli, Volt Switch Xern that's likely Pixilate, Knock Off Zac-C, and Prankster Cresselia. Yolk's Giratina knocks off Imposter Chansey's Eviolite which is nice, but then reveals a pretty wacky/passive FC set with Haze and Teleport. At this point, Registeel's Rocky Helmet has put in more work than anything else in the battle and is doing a good job of keeping Goli at half health. Stresh's Zama-C reveals Taunt, which opens up an opportunity for Zac-C to come in and we see it heavily chip Kyogre with Sunsteel Strike and then put it to sleep with Spore. Smartly, stresh switches out instead of powering through and uses this opportunity to heal up Goli to keep the improof intact as yolk brings in Imposter, trying to get a +2 Zac-C. So Goli does get to heal here and a couple turns later we see stresh make a hard switch to bring Zac-C in on Zama-C, likely in anticipation of an opposing double switch to Registeel, but Zama-C stays in an traps Zac-C with Anchor Shot. Then Zac-C gets big damage with Low Kick on Zama-C, forcing it out and knocking off the Eviolite from yolk's incoming Imposter Chansey. Yolk makes some nice plays to recover from this though and bounces back some Spikes in the process, and now things are looking fairly even if not slightly in yolk's favor. The next 15 or so turns is mainly pivoting around but we confirm that Xerneas is Pixilate as it spins away the Spikes and then yolk has his Chansey chipped a bit more when it switches into a Sunsteel from Zac-C. More dancing around leads to Pheromosa coming back in off a Teleport and hitting Golisopod for 56% with Mind Blown, but stresh is able to shake this off with more slow pivoting. At this point in the battle, the choices each player makes when stresh's Zac-C is in the field are very important. Yolk has kept good pressure on Goli so far by chipping it with Rocky Helmet, but he really has no super safe switch-ins to Zac-C with his Steel-types fearing Low Kick and Giratina and Chansey fearing Sunsteel. Yolk does well in coming out on top of a majority of the Zac-C turns by switching to Giratina, but then he boldy keeps in Registeel two turns in a row when it was in range of being KO'd by Low Kick. Stresh doesn't click it either turn, but it results in Registeel losing its helmet and this is pretty big considering how much work it has put in. However, Zac-C is now chipped down to 6% in the process and yolk brings in Chansey off a Teleport to face a potential Speed tie. This is an important sequence, as Goli is chipped enough to where it can't come in on +2 Sunsteel and everyone else takes decent damage on the switch. Stresh brings in Zama-C hoping yolk opts for Sunsteel to power through Goli, which he does. Zama-C is then in range of being KO'd by a second Sunsteel and stresh sacks Chansey instead so that he can safely bring in Goli and end the threat of Imposter. But he makes a really questionable play by clicking U-turn instead of using Bunker or Wisp, seeing as U-turn won't KO a Registeel switch-in who is at 15%. This leads to Goli being at very low health and after bringing in Cress off the U-turn stresh brings back in Goli for some reason, but yolk makes a mistake in clicking Spore instead of keeping up the pressure. And that was the last momentum yolk had in the battle, as stresh gets Zac-C back in to finish off FC Giratina with Sunsteel which leaves yolk with no more switch-ins for it. An untimely Low Kick crit takes down a sleeping Kyogre, but gives yolk a free chance to bring in Pheromosa. Stresh goes to Xern who tanks a Mind Blown and fires back with Extreme Speed to end Pheromosa and pretty much end the battle too.
I thought both teams were very solid and that both sides played well for a majority of the game. Pheromosa had a decent matchup here, but I didn't like how it was the sole breaker of the team seeing how it can be deadweight in certain matchups. This battle was very pivot heavy, with pivot moves being used 59 times overall. I think yolk could have benefitted from his own Spikes or Stealth Rock, which would have forced stresh to use Xern more and maybe chip at Goli in the process. I'm also not sure if yolk forgot that Xern had Extreme Speed or if he just hoped he wouldn't click it for some reason against Pheromosa.
Quantum Tesseract vs Onyx Onix 7
Team preview shows us that Onyx brought sun offense, which is neat, but not great when looking at QT's balanced build that contains Imposter, Groudon, Palkia, and Ho-Oh. Depending on their sets, each could be a big hurdle for Onyx's breakers but sun teams can snowball if they punch a hole or two.
Onyx leads with a Prankster Destiny Bond Tapu Fini, which is a big mistake IMO considering how often QT leads with Imposter, which QT does to scout and reveal the set. Anyway, a couple turns later Onyx brings in Mold Breaker Ho-Oh who tricks a Scarf to a Palkia switch-in while getting a Rocky Helmet in return, telling us that Palkia is likely Fur Coat. Onyx then brings in Reshiram to face Palkia, who is locked into Scald with sun active, only to hit a Ho-Oh switch-in for 29% with Core Enforcer. So far, things are looking pretty rough for Onyx despite the tricked Scarf, which could still prove annoying on Palkia. We find out that Onyx gave Tapu Fini a Kebia Berry, which is something I had to look up and seems pretty reactionary to QT's Nasty Plot Eternatus from the previous week. Darmantian makes its first appearance and tickles FC Palkia in sun for 38% with V-create, but Palkia is forced to click Choice Scarf recovery if it wishes to continue switching into Darm. A couple pivots later, Onyx brings out Zekrom who uses Shift Gear in front of impostered Tapu Fini and proceeds to use Spore on a switched-in Groudon. Things are actually looking up for Onyx, at least until QT brings in double recovery Prankster Zama-C to rain on his parade (get it? cause it's a sun team). QT's Xern comes in and reveals Quiver Dance and misses a Thunder Cage on Tapu Fini, but this is probably for the best as Onyx gains a false sense of security and ends up losing his Drought Ferrothorn when Xern shows that it's running Lava Plume as well. With limited sun turns remaining now, it seems Onyx would be forced to get aggresive as he brings in Darm, but instead of going for the V-create he opts for U-turn. He brings in Reshiram who pelts an incoming Ho-Oh for a big 23% critical hit and then hard switches to Tapu Fini who dies to a crit from Ho-Oh's Rapid Spin. The next sequence of plays don't make much sense to me, as Onyx uses his last three turns of sun to set Sticky Web in front of QT's Aerilate Spin Ho-Oh. One would think that he'd try to use Darm as much as possible here and maybe chip Imposter and/or Palkia. Things then get boring as QT spams Rapid Spin while Onyx continues to set Sticky Web and switch around. QT finally brings Xern back in as Onyx doubles out to bring in Ho-Oh, which leads to two unfortunate turns where Onyx's Ho-Oh fails to achieve a 69.1% 2HKO with V-create and falls to Thunder Cage. I'm not sure what would have happened had Xern died here, but this effectively ended the game as Scarf Palkia cleans up the rest of Onyx's team with Core Enforcer.
While sun is cool and fun to use, I don't think bringing it to OMPL was a good idea. Sun has been crippled this gen by the Forme Clause and lack of strong breakers after DGZ got banned. I don't love Sticky Web being used here, but it kinda makes sense considering Darm is Tinted. Hindsight shows that like any other entry hazard would have been better for the matchup though. But speaking of matchup, this was an unfavorable one for Onyx (for the second week in a row).
Metagame Observations
Despite only having three games last week, Zama-C was still used five times, which is one less that it was used the week prior. It had somewhat lower usage in Week 1 while Xerneas had solid usage, but ironically enough Xern's usage has dropped off slightly while Zama-C's has greatly risen. Other than this, a lot of new faces showed up mainly due to Onyx's sun team, which gave slightly more variation in builds compared to previous weeks.
Upcoming Matches
PinkDragonTamer vs sugarhigh - Will PDT finally get a win? Will sugarhigh actually show up? The over/under for subs in this match is starting at 2, so stay tuned to find out!
xavgb vs Quantum Tesseract - stresh was shown to be human last week and QT has some momentum, but I don't think this will be enough to dethrone stresh quite yet.
a loser vs XxSevagxX - I've played this dude so many times this gen that my brain shuts down when I start thinking about this match.
cityscapes vs Onyx Onix 7 - Onyx will be looking to get back on track but this is not the easiest week for them to do so. Both players are great and unique builders, so look for some interesting tech in this matchup.
The Rozelias (Catalystic and shiloh) - [2][4] - The Fullmetal Alcremists (Jrdn and Andyboy) 
The Spinda Wheels (xavgb and Jordy) - [5][1] - The Five-Star Jolteons (Ransei and Racool) 
The Zoomer Zeraoras (a loser and Redflix) - [3][3] - The Temper Tyrantrums (OM and Chazm) 
The Based Boomers (The Number Man and Lasen) - [3][3] - The Wiggly Family (Dragonillis and Wigglytuff) 
