Tournament OMPL X - Week 3

[UT]

Art by Kiwi
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Playoffs | Finals
Information Thread | Roster | Schedule | Standings​

Useful Information

There are 8 teams this year. Each team will have have 8 players and at least 4 subs. The players are bought using the 120k credits that managers receive during the auction. Managers and co-managers will be allowed to purchase themselves as players for their team at a fixed price of 20k. The managers must inform the hosts (Isaiah, UT) of all self purchases before the beginning of the auction. Teams can win their matchup every week by winning 5 of the 8 matches that their players have to play.​

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The tier lineup this year is as follows:​

1. SS Almost Any Ability
2. SS Balanced Hackmons
3. SS Godly Gift
4. SS Mix and Mega
5. SS NFE
6. SS STABmons
7. SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5)
8. SS Anything Goes

All games will be played on the Pokemon Showdown main server or SmogTours in the most current version of the format corresponding to those listed above. The result between players may be decided in a best-of-one or best-of-three at the discretion of both players involved. If there is no agreement, the result will decided in a Bo1 by default.​

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Winning a round rewards a team with 2 points, drawing 1 point, and losing zero points. In addition, the manner in which the round has been won will also be recorded i.e. the difference between a team's wins and losses in a specific week's round (referred to as "Win Differential").​

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Playoffs:​

Each team will play one another for seven weeks. Based on the final standings, the top 4 teams will enter a Playoffs Round to determine the teams appearing in the finals.​

Tiebreaker

In the event of two teams being tied for a spot in the finals based on points and win differential, or a tie in the final round itself, we will have a tiebreaker round(s).​

Tiebreaker Rules: One metagame will be picked by each manager, and each manager will also pick one metagame to strike. Additionally, each manager will submit a backup meta to strike in case their choice is the same as the opposing team's pick. The third format will be determined at random by the hosts from the remaining unpicked, unstruck metagames. In the event that the picks and strikes from each manager are the same, the hosts will determine both the second and third format at random based on the remaining options. All three metagames must be unique, so no format can be picked twice.​

Substitutes

Substitutes are to be used in the case of extenuating circumstances, whether on the first day of the week, or the last. At the same time, players should be relatively well-aware of who all are available to play in the opponent's camp. If last minute substitutes are being frequently used or abused and the hosts find explanations unsatisfactory, the hosts still reserve the right to veto them. In order to further prevent this being the case teams are only granted a maximum of two substitutes per week. Any substitutions after the second will be vetoed.​

Trades

The hosts have decided to not include trades this year due to reasons outlined in this thread - all roster decisions will be final, so draft carefully!​

Scheduling

Scheduling should be done on Smogon Profile walls, plain and simple:​

• If there is no communication on Smogon Profile walls and a game goes undone, it will be left to the RNG to decide the winner
• If there is communication on only one user's behalf, the win will go to them. Feel free to call activity in this thread beforehand
• If there is a very healthy back and forth regarding potential times and one user is a no-show, a manager may take the opportunity to sub out the no-show competitor; if this is not done, the user that showed up responsibly will be awarded the win.

TL;DR: Post on your opponent's Smogon wall, schedule your matches, and be reliable. If you can't play for any reason, let your manager know so they can sub you out ASAP.​

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Use these posts as a place to initiate discussion about bo1 or bo3 as well (or bo5 vs bo7 for 2v2)!​

Sportsmanship

Exhibitions of unsportsmanlike conduct with regards to the Other Metagame Premier League will be met with an infraction at the discretion of the OMPL host/OM mods. This is unlikely to include interactions within a team's private chat unless there is reason found to make an exception. This rule is meant to protect other users from being publicly flamed/bashed/provoked by another competitor for the duration of and following the tournament.​

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All players must complete their matches by the given deadline. Any incomplete matches by that time will be subject to an activity decision (MAKE SURE YOU POST ON YOUR OPPONENT'S WALL); otherwise, it will be a deadgame. All matches should ideally be done on your most notable alt (the one you registered for OMPL with) to avoid confusion and all match replays must be saved and posted in this thread. The replays will be archived in a separate thread, and will be used to calculate usage stats.​

Substitutions & Lineups

Managers, if you wish to make any substitutions, you must post here tagging both the player you're subbing out, the player you're subbing in, the manager and assistant manager of the opposing team, the substitute's opponent, and all of the hosts (Isaiah, UT). This is to assure that everyone is in-the-loop and that the OP is updated accordingly to reflect the new match-up.​

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Managers, when you send in lineups, please send it in with the tier and Smogon username of each player fully written out for ease of transcription, following these guidelines exactly.​

Matchups

The Temper Tyrantrums (OM and drampa's grandpa) - [4][4] - The Malding Mavericks (Morgan and IBM)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Potatochan vs Chris32156
SS Almost Any Ability: PandaDoux vs luisin
SS Anything Goes: WSun1 vs BasedWhat?
SS Balanced Hackmons: Nihilslave vs quojova
SS Godly Gift: Mossy Sandwich vs crying
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs TectonicDestroyer
SS NFE: Stareal vs ojr
SS STABmons: Finchinator vs Byleth

The Hammered Hawluchas (astralydia and Dr. Phd. BJ) - [6][2] - The Honey Linoones (aesf and Catalystic)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Vrji vs Adam3560
SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs pdt
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Trade
SS Balanced Hackmons: TTTech vs Career Ended
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs Jrdn
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs Andyboy
SS NFE: jonfilch vs mncmt
SS STABmons: Clementine vs Sylveon.

The Spinda Wheels (xavgb and in the hills) - [7][1] - The Uh Oh Kommo-os (XxSevagxX and willdbeast)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): London13 vs Reece
SS Almost Any Ability: shiloh vs avyrie
SS Anything Goes: Skarph vs Nevelle
SS Balanced Hackmons: xavgb vs a loser
SS Godly Gift: FlamingVictini vs Lily
SS Mix and Mega: ez vs Ivar57
SS NFE: TJ vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
SS STABmons: TPP vs LBDC

The Wiggly Family (Dragonillis and Osake) - [1][7] - The Larping Lopunnys (adem and DerpyBoi)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): STABLE vs zioziotrip
SS Almost Any Ability: MZ vs The Number Man
SS Anything Goes: Seldanna vs lotiasite
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Eli vs lepton
SS Mix and Mega: Hats vs Axzel
SS NFE: tlenit vs King Leo V
SS STABmons: Fc vs pannuracotta


Deadline:
10:00 PM (GMT -4) on April 24th, 2022
​

For the Bot

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Potatochan vs Chris32156
SS Almost Any Ability: PandaDoux vs luisin
SS Anything Goes: WSun1 vs BasedWhat?
SS Balanced Hackmons: Nihilslave vs quojova
SS Godly Gift: Mossy Sandwich vs crying
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs TectonicDestroyer
SS NFE: stareal vs ojr
SS STABmons: Finchinator vs Byleth

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): vrji vs Adam3560
SS Almost Any Ability: beka vs pdt
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Trade
SS Balanced Hackmons: TTTech vs career ended
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs jrdn
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs andyboy
SS NFE: jonfilch vs mncmt
SS STABmons: Clementine vs Sylveon.

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): London13 vs Reece
SS Almost Any Ability: shiloh vs avyrie
SS Anything Goes: Skarph vs nevelle
SS Balanced Hackmons: xavgb vs a loser
SS Godly Gift: FlamingVictini vs lily
SS Mix and Mega: ez vs Ivar57
SS NFE: TJ vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
SS STABmons: TPP vs LBDC

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): STABLE vs zioziotrip
SS Almost Any Ability: MZ vs The Number Man
SS Anything Goes: Seldanna vs lotiasite
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Eli vs lepton
SS Mix and Mega: Hats vs Axzel
SS NFE: tlenit vs King Leo V
SS STABmons: Fc vs pannuracotta

 

[hayedenn]

barely any explanation predicts

The Hammered Hawluchas (astralydia and Dr. Phd. BJ) - [3][5] - The Honey Linoones (aesf and Catalystic)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Vrji vs Adam3560
SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs pdt
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Trade
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs Career Ended
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs Jrdn
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs Andyboy
SS NFE: jonfilch vs mncmt
SS STABmons: PA vs Sylveon.

The Spinda Wheels (xavgb and in the hills) - [5][3] - The Uh Oh Kommo-os (XxSevagxX and willdbeast)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): London13 vs Reece
SS Almost Any Ability: shiloh vs avyrie
SS Anything Goes: Skarph vs Nevelle
SS Balanced Hackmons: xavgb vs a loser
SS Godly Gift: FlamingVictini vs Lily
SS Mix and Mega: ez vs Ivar57 (im sorry ivar ily)
SS NFE: TJ vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d (ho3n hasn't been super impressive so far but i think he will win this)
SS STABmons: TPP vs LBDC

The Wiggly Family (Dragonillis and Osake) - [4.5][3.5] - The Larping Lopunnys (adem and DerpyBoi)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): STABLE vs Mubs
SS Almost Any Ability: MZ vs The Number Man
SS Anything Goes: Seldanna vs Junaa (idk either really sorry)
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Eli vs lepton
SS Mix and Mega: Hats vs Axzel
SS NFE: tlenit vs King Leo V
SS STABmons: Fc vs pannuracotta

 

[db]

subbing in lotiasite over Junaa

Dragonillis Osake UT Isaiah

 

[spell]

gonna do some predicts because i'm super bored. go luchas despite the fact that i predicted against some of you LOOL i want you to win i swear

boop

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Potatochan vs Chris32156
SS Almost Any Ability: PandaDoux vs luisin - uomini di mareanie
SS Anything Goes: WSun1 vs BasedWhat? - Will is more accomplished + just a better player than BasedWhat? I mean this was a win for him no matter who was slotted in but yeah
SS Balanced Hackmons: Nihilslave vs quojova
SS Godly Gift: Mossy Sandwich vs crying - dunno
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs TectonicDestroyer - If Tect does win, I am looking forward to the paragraph of apologies he'll surely include in his winpost.
SS NFE: stareal vs ojr
SS STABmons: Finchinator vs Byleth - Byleth has more knowledge but idk dude... like 32 badges to 1.

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): vrji vs Adam3560
SS Almost Any Ability: beka vs pdt - literally the best player on this site
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Trade - highlight mu, not as one-sided as people will probably think since Trade is probab as close to bacon and skarph in terms of piloting as anyone. His builds and play are pristine but it's tough to say whether or not that'll be enough to beat bacon since obviously hes in near perfect form rn (though his game with skarph was a bit lucky on his end).
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs career ended
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs jrdn - has a PhD in winning in GG LMAOOOOOOOOOO
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs andyboy - both are friends hard to say but idk... feeling like The Andy will win this one despite lydia having more recent results.
SS NFE: jonfilch vs mncmt - definitely an interesting mu w two tour guys who only signed up for the ca reward clashing heads. both are friends so i want both to win but i'm going w jon because of slight bias.
SS STABmons: PA vs Sylveon.

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): London13 vs Reece - the only 2v2 mu i'll predict because of how sure I am that Lond wins this.
SS Almost Any Ability: shiloh vs avyrie - lph made open finals for aaa but I feel like rozes is just a better player esp with support
SS Anything Goes: Skarph vs nevelle - I love nev but like hes gonna get shredded
SS Balanced Hackmons: xavgb vs a loser
SS Godly Gift: FlamingVictini vs lily - GOOO LILY WOOOO shes so good at mons
SS Mix and Mega: ez vs Ivar57 - dont know ivar and i also dont want to predict for ez but this is where ill stand
SS NFE: TJ vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
SS STABmons: TPP vs LBDC

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): STABLE vs Mubs - radu winning?
SS Almost Any Ability: MZ vs The Number Man - The The The Number The Man
SS Anything Goes: Seldanna vs Junaa - Zay is a good player, no doubt abt that obvi but Juna is definitely more motivated 2 win.
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Eli vs lepton
SS Mix and Mega: Hats vs Axzel
SS NFE: tlenit vs King Leo V
SS STABmons: Fc vs pannuracotta - Normally i'd predict for a winner here, but since its literally fc vs pannu i'll just say that the spectators win. On the real though Fc definitely wins this. I KNOW pannu had a bit of a rough mu last week and got a fair bit unlucky vs finch but whether or not he won that battle shouldn't change the outcome of this one.

 

[QT]

Last week I managed to improve my % to 77%, at the cost of taking an L. Hopefully this week I can keep or improve upon the former while still fixing the latter.

The Hammered Hawluchas - [4][4] - The Honey Linoones
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Vrji vs Adam3560 Vrji has underperformed a bit thus far, but considering the strength of the 2v2 pool this tournament that's hardly damning, and 1-1 is still a perfectly respectable record going into week 3 regardless. Adam,on the other hand, has been struggling and has limited team support.
SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs pdt PDT may be 0-2, but it's been 0-2 against 2 of the best AAA slots in the entire tour, and he played both of them down to the wire. Beka, on the other hand, is also winless and has much less tournament experience to boot. In terms of support, Lydia is good but potentially overstretched covering multiple slots, while PDT has plenty of support to call on from teammates.
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Trade I can't bet against Bacon.
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs Career Ended This is a tough one to call, because I haven't been vibing with Career Ended's teams thus far but itschew has a bad habit of building teams that deal well with meta threats but crumble vs anything unexpected. Most likely a lot will come down to matchup this game.
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs Jrdn This has the potential to be one of the best godly gift matches all tour, with both being good players going into this match undefeated. I know better than to bet against Jrdn, but if there was a week to make me do it this would be the one.
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs Andyboy I feel crazy doing this, but it's been a hot minute since Lydia played MnM and they've been struggling to get into the groove this tournament. It would be insane to underestimate Lydia though, and they do have somewhat more team support to make up for how thing Lydia is spread. Definitely a highlight match.
SS NFE: jonfilch vs mncmt
SS STABmons: PA vs Sylveon. I can't bet against sylveon here

The Spinda Wheels - [5.5][2.5] - The Uh Oh Kommo-os
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): London13 vs Reece London is one of the absolute best 2v2 players in this pool.
SS Almost Any Ability: shiloh vs avyrie Shiloh's teams have continued to be suspect, but last week was better than the one prior and if this trend continues it shouldn't be too long before they're up to scratch. In terms of playing skills I definitely can't rate avyrie over shiloh either.
SS Anything Goes: Skarph vs Nevelle Nevelle is a good
SS Balanced Hackmons: xavgb vs a loser A loser is one of the best BH players currently active, and has a lot of dedicated team support, but it's tough to bet against stresh. Should be a very interesting match though, one of the highlights of the week.
SS Godly Gift: FlamingVictini vs Lily FV is a goat but I haven't seen them play GG before and Lily has been killing it in this tier so far.
SS Mix and Mega: ez vs Ivar57 Another week, another MnM player from the Kommo-Os. I haven't seen enough of either player in action to really have a sense of how they stack up.
SS NFE: TJ vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d Hoenn is one of those players that does really well or bombs, and thus far they've been bombing.
SS STABmons: TPP vs LBDC Last week, being matched up against Byleth meant I bet against LBDC in stabmons. This week, there's nothing similar holding me back.

The Wiggly Family - [3.5][4.5] - The Larping Lopunnys
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): STABLE vs Mubs A tough call, but ultimately I have to favor Stable here given their support
SS Almost Any Ability: MZ vs The Number Man If there's an AAA match to watch this week, this would be the one. MZ and TNM are two of the best AAA talents in the pool, and both are going into it off a win. I think TNM has a slight edge here but it's definitely anyone's game.
SS Anything Goes: Seldanna vs Junaa I'm going to have to shrug here as well; I don't know enough to make an informed call
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs cityscapes No contest here
SS Godly Gift: Eli vs lepton
SS Mix and Mega: Hats vs Axzel
SS NFE: tlenit vs King Leo V Tlenit is Tlenit
SS STABmons: Fc vs pannuracotta I havent been the biggest fan of FC's plays in some of these games, but in this matchup I've gotta pick them.

 

[Ducky]

not just omm player perdicts

not just omm perdicts

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Potatochan vs Chris32156
SS Almost Any Ability: PandaDoux vs luisin
SS Anything Goes: WSun1 vs BasedWhat?
SS Godly Gift: Mossy Sandwich vs crying
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs TectonicDestroyer
SS STABmons: Finchinator vs Byleth

SS Almost Any Ability: beka vs pdt
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Trade
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs career ended
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs jrdn
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs andyboy


SS Almost Any Ability: shiloh vs avyrie
SS Anything Goes: Skarph vs nevelle
SS Balanced Hackmons: xavgb vs a loser
SS Godly Gift: FlamingVictini vs lily

SS Almost Any Ability: MZ vs The Number Man
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Eli vs lepton

 

[80 yrs]

AG predicts
Wsun1 vs BasedWhat?
Baconeatinassassin vs Trade
Skarph vs Nevelle
Seldanna vs Lotiasite
Generally more solid players with much more experience win

 

[Osake]

AAA Review of Week 2 by Mix and Mega main and Redflix hater Osake :

im the best btw

MZ vs pdt

Game

Sooo MZ was once again the first one to play this week and brought a click click HO, dedication to Siamato, with classic screens koko, setup bulu/kommo-o/genesect/volcarona, and a weird Tyranitar. pdt brought a classic team that kinda felt old meta, which was basically fat + band zyg and a Tapu Lele that looked to be Triage at preview. The game didn't last long since, well, it's HO, and Tapu Fini showed that it was scarf T1, removing the light clay of Tapu Koko which was clearly annoying cuz screens were really helpful here. MZ used Light Screen and then kept the momentum with a U-turn on the incoming zyg, allowing to freely setup Tapu Bulu, that has a really good MU here since the corv was PrimSea as we'll see later. pdt sent Heatran, which would have lead to his loss if Bulu had clicked Close Combat but he didnt, and forced out bulu cuz if its Speedy Tran it outspeed. Its an uncommon set but MZ didnt want to lose his main wincon - and aesf said it was speedy tran - and switched to Ttar on the expected Magma Storm, but Heatran revealed a neat Will-O-Wisp that kinda shut down Tyranitar. It revealed that it was Weakness Policy - the full set is Dazzling + Rock Polish fyi, to have outcome against Triage Lele/Talonflame/Scarf Azelf - but with the burn it kinda did nothing and was left as a dead weight for MZ. A couple of turns later, Tapu Koko once again clicked an aggresive U-turn to keep the momentum which allowed MZ to send Genesect in front of Scarf Fini. Unrevealed Genesect is pretty scary so he switched to the Genesect counter, Desolate Land Heatran, but maybe he could have Trick'd here - Scarf Fini was maybe important for a clean clean (:d) but taking the risk of losing Heatran on a weird Gene set was maybe risky. Genesect revealed it was Shift Gear Tinted Lens Explosion and deleted Heatran, which was pretty big for Tapu Bulu notably. MZ then proceeded to setup Volcarona and let it die on Corv PrimSea after chipping it for Bulu, Koko came once again, stopped Corv healing, proceeded to setup Reflect, stopped Chansey Teleport, and then once again U-turn'd on an incoming Pokemon, which was Tapu Lele this time. Tapu Koko did 3 key U-turn that allowed MZ to maintain the pressure and that was impressive. MZ sent Tapu Bulu, so we had a duel of Tapus. Here came a tricky endgame with two 50/50 that decided who was winning the game. The first one was won by pdt : Bulu clicked Horn Leech on the incoming Corviknight - if he clicked Swords Dance, it was probably over. The second one was quite hard, so I'll try to explain it the best I can.
We have Corviknight at 62% vs Tapu Bulu at 50% with a Reflect up. The first turn is easy : Tapu Bulu clicks SD to win, and Corviknight clicks Brave Bird to chip it, and with Reflect up Bulu lives with 12%, and Corviknight has now 59% which means he's 100% in range of +2 Close Combat. Every Pokemon but Corviknight on pdt's side are dying from + Horn Leech (Chansey lives but does nothing back so its the same). However, Tapu Bulu is at 12%; which means that it can fire off two non-healing attacks before dying of Life Orb's recoil. The first scenario is : Tapu Bulu clicks Close Combat, Corviknight dies, and cleans with Horn Leech. But, if pdt hard swtiches something on the first CC - and this thing die -, Tapu Bulu is now at 2% and will die from next attack. If it kills Corviknight now, it dies with it and cannot clean with Horn Leech, which means lele/zyg/tapu fini can easily clean the game, probably. But ! if MZ reads the switch and clicks Horn Leech, he fully heals Tapu Bulu and wins at this point because Bulu will not die of LO's recoil.
That's what happened. pdt switched on Chansey, MZ clicked a key Horn Leech and won. That was a good but weird game imo, both players played well but, obviously, HO is kind of a MU fish and it worked here. That was a close game tho, and I enjoyed re-watching it. pdt's team was really classic, but solid and maybe enough to take advantage of MZ rust if he brought a more 'classic' team. I hope pdt will bounce back in next weeks tho, would be kinda sad if once again he goes in a negative score that doesn't reflect at all his skills - and he once again played very well.

luisin vs avyrie

Game-ing

luisin (la bichota) and avyrie brought two cool teams, but unfortunately it ended up in a very unfortunate match-up for avyrie that never got a chance to win. luisin's team, built by 17.5K benched beauts, was pretty good and pretty solid. It was a fat that featured sturdy walls with DS Slowbro, Unaware Mandibuzz, Doublade (that is rising in popularity!), and MG Chansey, supported by bulky setup in CM Bounce Koko/SD Defensive Chomp, and SD Doublade in a way. The team kinda relied on Chansey to wall special breakers, with the support of Garchomp, so depending of how speedy it is stuff like specs Heatran could have been a pain for this team, and a well-played Genesect could probably won. avyrie (formerly lph) brought a cool build, with Tinted Mienshao + Dhelmise, and with cool sets like offensive Scarf Fini and RegenVest Chomp, that have kinda dissapeared, and classic weather control in Dland Heatran and PrimSea Zapdos. The team looked cool, but really felt like a counter team of the previous weak, and I think it hadn't enough outs against potential walls; moreoever, I'm not sure of the synergy between Knock Shao and Dhelmise, and it showed off during the game : avyrie had 0 chance of making progress because Mienshao and Dhelmise weren't able to do progress against Doublade + Slowbro. The game isn't really interesting, 114 turns of avyrie desperately trying to make progress but unable to do so. This game was played on the builder, and even if there was part of a lucky MU for luisin, I think that's kinda the point of fat, having answers/soft checks to most of the threats, and avyrie team had no outs to make progress against that. luisin played that very well too, and piloted this well. avyrie did not played badly either, but there was nothing to do unless luisin chokes (which could have happened eh, but they really played well). I'm quite impressed by luisin's run for the moment, even if they are not building, and are certainly helped a lot by beauts' builds, they have a really good grasp on the tier and I did not expect that, so I'm quite happy to see it ! I hope avyrie will bounce back too, ge deserved to get wins tbh. I think the team just couldn't adapt to unfortunate MUs and that's maybe a proof of Kommo-o's lack of support in AAA, but it was still a good team, and it clearly could have won a lot of MUs - not this one, sadly.

PandaDoux vs The Number Man

Game

The Number Man brought an interesting team with Talonflame that can easily makes progress against fat builds, Specs Xurkitree that annihilates stall, and a neat Levitate Heatran in order to trap Garchomp - the main ground that stops Xurkitree from working. This was also the first appearance of Swampert this OMPL, while it was seen a lot 1 year ago, but it looks like its suffering a lot from the meta change. Panda brought Guts Genesect with U-turn, which is an odd set and I'm not a huge fan of it but why not, and then classic stuff, Chansey/Ferro/Regen Gdos/MGLO Koko, and WA Moltres that was kinda surprising considering the ferro + chansey defensive core to deal with Water. I am not a huge fan of both teams, Panda's one was probably built against TNM and they were maybe afraid of Waters etc so I think it's fine, the team is cool even if I wouldn't have run U-turn Gene and WA Moltres, but I was quite surprised by TNM team because it had no Defog, and it was against someone that is known to spam hazard stacks. The team isnt HO either, and maybe he expected to win quickly with Xurk but Spikes especially put a LOT of pressure on its team, and we saw it during the game, Panda did very little damage to TNM's team, but Spikes killed its entire team, and I believe it was a mistake to bring this against Panda.
Concerning the game, I think the MU was in TNM's favour, with Talonflame having a good MU, Xurkitree too (as we saw it 2HKOs Chansey lol), and Guts Genesect against Toxapex + Heatran is kinda hard, and Tapu Koko was hard walled by RegenVest Swampert. But the game was basically Panda pivoting around with U-turn and chipping TNM team with U-turn + hazards and weakening it little by little. Xurk had few entries but it could probably have done more damages against Ferro/Chansey, and having Talonflame knocked after turn 5 was annoying for The Number Man and he probably shouldn't have risk that. The game was weird to watch because Panda kept spamming Stomping against Heatran when Close Combat does more (ok it does a little more to Toxapex but it is not a big deal) because he didn't realise (according to what he said), which means that the Heatran could have won 3 times since it was Levitate. Overall I think PandaDoux played this game better, since he won a bad MU, but I think that game wasn't as good as we expected - between two of the better players of the AAA pool - and it was a little disappointing in game, imo. Both teams were cool tho, and I'm still excited to see those players in future weeks ! Note that PandaDoux is in 2-0 and already won against pdt and TNM, so he might have a pretty good record which is cool.

shiloh vs Beka

emaG

shiloh brought once again a wild team, featuring a Volcanion (again!) with MGLO (again!), a CM Koko that proved (again!) that it's a pretty threatening late game sweeper, RegenVest Landorus-T, Rocks Terrakion (which is kinda unusual), WA Excadrill, and DS Mew. The team was less wild than last week, but still featured cool mons. Beka brought something that looked like a Lydia build, with Regen SD Chomp, Mandi/Bro/Rachi, Pixilate Koko, and a cool Band TC Gdos. The first thing I thought when I saw those teams was "it's slow" and it showed off : Koko gameplay on both sides was pivoting and hope it doesn't click the right move so you can put something that is not OHKO to kill it; and the game ended on a Koko tie. I'm not a fan of those teams cuz, for example, Barraskewda could have destroy both teams : if it clicks Close Combat once on the incoming Excadrill, it's pretty much over for shiloh, and Barras just pivotes out on Bro, you bring something that threaten it (koko for example), U-turn on Jirachi, do it again, etc, and if you play well Slowbro can't never recover or is pp stalled pretty quickly.
The game lasts suprisely long looking at preview, since Volcanion and Terrak were pretty threatening for Beka's team (since Slowbro was poisoned) whereas Pixi Koko + Gdos was single handled by DS Mew, which could be taunted. Overall I feel like both players played well, but were not 'amazing' or 'almost perfect' as I felt when I watched luisin's game for example. Beka tried multiple times to break with Pixi Koko but got red several times against Mew and was unable to take advantage of this, whereas Volcanion came on the field only 2-3 times, when it could threaten Jirachi a lot and then threaten a burn on Chomp that would have ended the game probably. Beka did well for his first OMPL game - and he's not even an AAA main - and shiloh is rising progressively, so I believe both players can show impressive things in later weeks.
This analysis was a little shorter, but it was mainly Pixi Koko trying to break, shiloh pivoting around and chipping Beka's team, and CM Koko winning at the end after the tie so there is nothing much to say, which is also why I am less convinced ; the game wasn't bad, and both played well, but little things happened lol.

If this week showed something, it's Tapu Koko insane versatility and power, as it was key in 3 games (cleaned TNM, cleaned Beka but it could have clean shiloh, and screens helped MZ a lot). The week showed some diversity, with Heatran and Garchomp still being proeminent, Pixi Koko + physical breaker still being a powerful breaker core. We also saw a rise of Slowbro and Doublade, time will told us if it's only a trend of it they can become strong. The meta is still fat-oriented atm, but we saw a diversity of breakers that all performed well (except avyrie's one, rip) and used to work in pairs, or supported by two mid breakers (MGLO Koko and SD Regen Chomp, usually) in order to constantly make progress.
Next week games are pretty excited, and I recommend you to watch MZ vs TNM and PandaDoux vs luisin games, the first between two excellent players that are considered at the top of the AAA pool, and the second one between two outsiders that are currently in 2-0 and showed impressive things.

That's all for me, take care y'all, I wish you a very good day !

pls tell me screens worked or im gonna STAB Ren

 

[Jordy]

yo any team in need of a mnm/nfe player?

 

[Reece]

Predicts


The Temper Tyrantrums - [5][3] - The Malding Mavericks
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Potatochan vs Chris32156 he's got to win one week, right?
SS Almost Any Ability: PandaDoux vs luisin PD on fire lately, even after the win yesterday night
SS Anything Goes: WSun1 vs BasedWhat? Probably one of the more established players in this format, i think most times Will will have the edge
SS Balanced Hackmons: Nihilslave vs quojova coming into this MU with some decent wins
SS Godly Gift: Mossy Sandwich vs crying this is going to be a good game imo, both solid players but i think Mossy edges it with a consistent and well thought out start to the PL
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs TectonicDestroyer Idt i can bet against this
SS NFE: Stareal vs ojr ojr has been solid for this past tournament, beating Sinnoh last week, and a solid run in general
SS STABmons: Finchinator vs Byleth This is probably going to be the most entertaining game this week, seemingly Finch had a great game yesterday with great prep, yet both won last week in pretty good form. Going to give the edge to Finch based on the two playstyles.

The Hammered Hawluchas - [4][4] - The Honey Linoones
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Vrji vs Adam3560 I have a feeling that Adam has some secret tech lined up for us all to see, probably catching Vrji off-guard. Think Adam's performance outside of PL has been great, but this scenario may hinder him from a lack of experience
SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs pdt that green trophy looks p nice icl
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Trade I do not follow AG but i know this matchup is going to be heat, Trade edging a great win last week, while bacon beat scarph in some good fortune. I'm going to give it to the 'perceived' underdog this time (though not really) as this is probably a good, equal MU in terms of teambuilding ability.
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs Career Ended
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs Jrdn homie doesn't have a Phd. for nothing
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs Andyboy I'd say better recent results but this will be a good game i think
SS NFE: jonfilch vs mncmt Jon is a fellow Hustler who thought Obstagoon was banned
SS STABmons: PA vs Sylveon.

The Wiggly Family - [3][5] - The Larping Lopunnys
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): STABLE vs Mubs both equal in playing ability, i think it comes down to support here which STABLE wins
SS Almost Any Ability: MZ vs The Number Man both extremely solid players with wins behind their belts to boost confidence, TNM edges it imo
SS Anything Goes: Seldanna vs lotiasite SIKE loti got subbed in
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs cityscapes MAMP LE CHAMP meets an unfortunate end
SS Godly Gift: Eli vs lepton
SS Mix and Mega: Hats vs Axzel
SS NFE: tlenit vs King Leo V better recent results imo
SS STABmons: Fc vs pannuracotta this will be fun to watch, FC wins this

 

[willdbeast]

yo any team in need of a mnm/nfe player?

you can be our mnm week 4

 

[adem]

zioziotrip over Mubs

STABLE Dragonillis Osake UT Isaiah

 

[RADU]

zioziotrip over Mubs

STABLE Dragonillis Osake UT Isaiah

 

[ojr]

OMPL Week 2 NFE games coverage

Metagame Talk

Builder visual:

Usages:
8 times:
Vullaby
7 times:
Piloswine
5 times:
Corsola-G
4 times:
Gurdurr / Roselia
3 times:
Raboot
2 times:
Hattrem / Thwackey / Hakamo-o / Lampent / Electabuzz
1 time:
Charjabug / Tangela / Wartortle / Ferroseed / Duosion / Machoke / Marshtomp

Overall Usage:
15 times:
Vullaby
14 times:
Piloswine
9 times:
Roselia
8 times:
Raboot
7 times:
Corsola-G
6 times:
Wartortle / Electabuzz / Gurdurr
4 times:
Thwackey / Hattrem
3 times:
Ferroseed
2 times:
Clefairy / Machoke / Duosion / Hakamo-o / Lampent
1 time:
Linoone-G / Charjabug / Tangela / Marshtomp

Usage compared to last week:
+3:
Corsola-G
+2:
Gurdurr / Hakamo-o / Lampent
+1:
Vullaby / Charjabug / Tangela / Marshtomp
+0:
Piloswine / Thwackey / Hattrem / Machoke / Duosion
-1:
Roselia / Ferroseed / Linoone-G
-2:
Raboot / Electabuzz / Clefairy
-4:
Wartortle

Building trends:
- Vullaby reaches perfect usage, 8/8 times. Vullaby is just very splashable on every team as of now, its an almost perfect mon. It gives your team a knocker, hazard control, momentum and much other defensive capabilities. Interested to see how the metagame develops to counteract vs it.
- Corsola-G rises. Piloswine is the best mon in the tier and when u can open up that mon to not be forced to set rocks its even better. Corsola-G just helps with that amazingly. We have also seen Wisp Whirlpool Cors-G paired with rocks Pilo but im less of a fan of that. Overall Corsola-G's insane bulk lets it check A LOT as long as it isnt knocked.
- Gurdurr rises. Fighting types are great rn and Gurdurr is a resemblance of that. Whilst it isnt as outright threatening as Machoke in most matchups it has great defenses to help it check stuff like Raboot rn. Its also an effect of people trying to mix up their removal as it can defog pretty handily vs Piloswine. We saw ho3n use forb gurdurr which is a cool breaker on webs but im not really sold on it since machoke can do the same thing but has a better speedtier (I guess that was compensated with the webs bring) at the cost of losing mach.
- We see more diversity. Some week 1 big names like Roselia, Raboot, Electabuzz and Wartortle drop in usage and we see new anti-meta picks in Hakamo-o and Lampent.
- Clefairy gone missing? The best glue mon in the tier -@Shing'n Streets has no usage in week 2! Do people see less use in Clefairy in this meta or is it just a coincidence. I think its the latter personally, even though we shall see in the upcoming weeks if that proves me right.

The teams + games analysis below for each matchup

ojr vs ho3n

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1554711499

the teams:
I try to mix up the standard shit from last week whilst not going too overboard with Hakamo-o as standout pick. I dont bring spikes this week because I believe in my dual SD core to make enough progress. Im also kinda bringing some anti-set up sweeper (which ho3n is known for) mons with Haze Corsola-G (unrevealed in the game), Nuzzle Hattrem (which is great for paralyzing vullaby's too!) and Thwackey with its strong prio. ho3n on the other hand brings something I havent seen in a while, webs! I honestly dont think webs was that amazing for him in this matchup as my main "fast threats" do not really care that much webs, Thwackey mainly relies on prio and Hakamo-o can undo the speed boost with Scale Shot. Besides that I also have a hattrem which makes getting webs up harder in the first place. I would definitely say that the matchup is in my favor here and that I dont really have to pull much plays to win this game.

the game:
I get off to an early lead by paralyzing the vull as planned and then him getting some unlucky para on t2 which allows me to crash the vull afterwards which has good odds of him not breaking through para + flinch. Then he takes a lot from pilo with gurd cuz he is flame orb and this mon can be a real threat if it clicks the right move. I get the turn right and get up rocks. ho3n has balls of steel and gets up a spike on the turn I uturn out with vull which was really nicely done by him. But because of the early rocks + vull taking a lot of damage from pilo, hattrem is actually a threat and does a lot to lampent. he pulls a nice double into pilo but I get out of there relatively well by going pilo on crash. then we trade health but then he flinches me with crash which was unfortunate cuz I had superpower. It was fair game though because of the early para on vull, I think it evens out. I decide to save my pilo cuz the ice shard can still be useful vs a knocked roselia and go into corsola. he gets to bring in his lampent again and will do a chunk of damage to hakamo-o. I just kill it off because the lampent dies to rocks. I trade webs for getting the charjabug at rocks range which is fine for me because webs will not matter that much in this stage imo. I sack the hakamo-o because at this low health vs double prio it wont do much and not risking him going for knock onto cors. a little sack war engages here which results in me getting forced into hatt at a point on his rose. him getting the sludge bomb poison was annoying for me as it meant that he could go pilo and pick me off afterwards because without that poison I was for sure claiming a kill without having to die first. ho3n sacks his pilo and then we get into an endgame where im very favored. him getting the poison on corsola does not matter that much but its kind of annoying. at first I kind of fuck around being too scared of gurdurr coming in later but it ends up being fine. as I ultimately catch his gurdurr switching in and im just able to sack my corsola preventing him from drain punching if he had it. vullaby is able to outlast the roselia which ends in a gg. despite me clicking roost on some dumb turns lmao.

jon vs tj

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nfe-620368

the teams:
Not a super exciting preview matchup as we see 5/6 mons being the same, so wont go too in depth here. these teams are pretty similar to what was spammed in w1. just like w1 we see a cors + pilo which could mean they are repeating the rocks cors + cb pilo combo from w1 but it doesnt necessarily have to be that but in the game it is revealed to be CB pilo again. I think this matchup is still a bit in jon's favor as the cors helps really well vs raboot. I think both raboots are threatening as always but tj's raboot less so because it has to break through gurdurr + corsola-g.

the game:
It pains to say but this game feels over at turn 1. gurdurr is the only good raboot check on this team and it getting knocked immediately is just plain terrible. especially when jon blocks the recovery from drain punch and gets in the raboot first WITH ROCKS UP which is just bad news for tj. gurdurr gets sacked, this is getting from bad to worse, and the gurdurr doesnt click mach punch too (stresh revealed this in om cord). tj decides to threaten the tie with his own raboot. he blitz'd which is a nice play cuz he cant risk the hjk onto corsola-g but the gurdurr eats it p well anyways. whilst hjk'ing on knock might seem like a cool outplay from tj here, losing the boots blows since it will not be getting as much opportunities without boots. jon mach punches too to put it in rocks range which just makes this looks unwinnable for tj at this point already. tj preserves the raboot on the ice shard and gets up is rocks which is a nice sequence. jon manages to lose his cors evio which is a bit bad and couldve probably been avoided but its still overall a fine position for him. tj wants to make progress now with his pilo onto the cors which is nice and then attempts to block strength sap but jon reads into that. tj chips the corsola even more just before healing wishing which gives him a good chance to win with raboot still if he wins the tie which he has to play for but he doesnt healing wish the raboot. this is a huge questionmark play to me and from here the game is pretty much over as tj does not have enough left to beat cb pilo and raboot.
since the endgame was pretty pointless I didnt have a chance to point brave bird vull from TJ which was a cool bring and makes this team actually way more offensive than it looks on paper. this brings us to 2 brave bird vulls now out of 2 weeks.

tlenit vs simbo

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nfe-620765

the teams:
tlenit is bringing the first and only tangela of the tour so far in week 2 (never thought id say that lmao). with again the cool lampent pick which again pulls the hakamo-o which is unfortunate for it but if this raboot has no dark move it will get a lot more opportunities to come in. the rest of the team is pretty straightforward but its a cool team. on the other side we have xxstandardnfexx + hakamo-o to make me happy. on preview this game looks a lot in simbo's favor because the roselia is rly good here.

the game:
simbo practically gets up rocks for free which is a fantastic start. but he really doesnt make much use of it as they end up in a vull on vull scenario. but simbo gets the vull back up to full and gets to try and get up rocks again as tlenit fogs. he gets up rocks again and forces in the wartortle. tlenit doesnt spin and simbo's rose punishes the spin with poison point as he sbombs predicting vull probably. this is a good position for him though since the wart is shell smash and poisoned this pilo can get up rocks way more freely. simbo sbombs again instead of spiking is weird because it was quite free to go for and tlenit gets in the lamp. lampent does a fuck ton with 43 from fire blast which means this haka does not have like any bulk??? he misses a very unfortunate scale shot onto ebuzz which sets him back. he makes a nice predict going vull on psychic and then corsola on focus blast which was very nicely manoeuvred. he night shades to force a vull roost and crashes onto vull which is super good for simbo. then crashes again on the lampent which was a nice move from tlenit. then tlenit fire blast burns the haka as pilos health is very valuable. this was not a very nice game for hakamo-o as it dies without doing anything. simbo gets a good chance to spike with roselia but doesnt take it and instead sludge bomb poisons the pilo which is pretty nice for simbo. he makes a cool risky ass raboot pivot but it works out as he uturns and positions the rose in again. but again he doesnt spike?. now lamp is claiming a kill with fire blast if it hits and it does and now its suddenly looking pretty shitty for simbo cuz he didnt get up those spikes. as he again refuses to get it up on a third opportunity which couldve been a third layer. he sacks the pilo to lamp again but just before getting it in spike range with ice shard (this is getting ironic). this time tlenit doesnt go tang on raboot and position himself so that simbo cant get up a spike with electabuzz. he thiefs the corsola and then trades the useless wartortle for getting corsola in a position where its sack fodder for lampent. now the weirdest play of the game happens imo as simbo clicks high jump kick for god may know what reason. then he misses which ultimately ends the game on the spot since at this low health the raboot is never winning even with a spike up vs a non knocked tangela. im very sorry that I had to be so harsh on simbo here since I know he has been good in NFE and LC before but this showing was just not it.

stareal vs leo

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1555446839

the teams:
we see some weird slow fat team from stareal which we havent seen in this meta before and its certainly an interesting pick. Im not sure if im a fan of it yet purely cuz its the first time im seeing it in action but I feel like on these fatter builds ur gonna need some wish support to stay safe vs raboot spikes longterm. from leo's side we see the first marshtomp of the tour (also cuz of this no 8/8 pilo fuck u leo). machoke is usually decent vs fatter stuff but its gonna need something interesting like encore / toxic to get through corsola-g. An sd drain thwack could also do numbers vs this team but its gonna need to be played very well. depending on sets this matchup could be on either sides favor but im leaning more towards stareal since leo generally tries to overwhelm the opp offensively and dont think its gonna be able to do that vs so many fat mons.

the game:
we see stareal get up rocks early in exchange for a burn on corsola but the burn doesnt seem like something thats gonna be super game breaking this early on. he manages to get leo's cors very low immediately which is just great for his physical attackers. pilo is immediately gonna force damage onto machoke after leo defogs the rocks away and then stareal outplays the machoke. its weird that leo doesnt decide to knock on the mandatory sap from stareal though. stareal gets up his rocks again and heals on the setting of rocks from marshtomp. stareal gets to pressure leo with spikes and vullaby just goes for a suicide defog before dying. knowing leo this vullaby couldve easily been no roost which just gets exposed here painfully. then leo decides to try and 1v1 the ferroseed with corsola but that just gives stareal a free leech + 3 spikes whilst still staying alive and the corsola is practically dead to spikes with no removal remaining. Leo gets a fortunate crit on the vullaby with (CB?) thwackey but at this stage with 3 spikes up, a full health non knocked gurdurr with mach punch is going to be too much of a pain to handle. especially when stareal keeps his composure and avoids any potential knocks from machoke. the marshtomp gets trapped by corsola and trades. stareal even makes some flex play going into pilo on volt and then tries to flex again but leo reads into it and volt on duosion. its still over though as CB thwackey is not gonna be strong enough to beat a healthy eviolite gurdurr and knock picks off the electabuzz.

 

[a loser]

a loser's OMPL BH Review: Week 2
quojova vs a loser
vs
Seeing Palkia on quojova’s team came as a big surprise as I had never seen him use it in any battle that I could remember. However, it didn’t look like a problem as I had Tapu Fini on my side.

To put things simply, I started off the game with a series of poor decisions. Leading Chansey to scout isn’t inherently bad, but Snorlax and Giratina would have been much smarter considering quojova’s team at preview. So I started off having to decide who would get paralyzed by RegenVest Dialga’s Nuzzle and decided Imposter was my best bet to take the hit so that I could slow pivot out… hopefully. I got Snorlax poisoned successfully and knocked off Pixilate Magearna’s Metronome but sadly +SpD Snorlax is not bulky enough to handle that mon. Then I made a horrible play by sending in Eviolite Imposter to face a set that is known to run Anchor Shot. I guess that’s what I get for bringing a mon that I usually never bring and have never enjoyed using. Anyway, I’m in deep now and will have to attempt to dig myself out of a hole. I see that quojova is running Fur Coat Palkia, which along with Pixilate Mag put a lot of pressure on my FC Zama-C. One of my only “safe” plays at this point is stalling out Mag’s Boomburst with Snorlax, despite taking around 46% each hit. I am able to do this somewhat “successfully” and by turn 75 Mag has four recovers and six Boombursts left and I’m still only down one mon. On turn 76, my Giratina uses Final Gambit and hits a Dialga on the switch, removing both from existence. I was aiming for Eternatus to surprise it so that Tapu Fini might have a window to sweep later on but this didn’t work out. I could have used Trick to give the switch a Scarf but that was much too risky at this point in the game. This gave me an opening to bring in Palkia and quojova brought in Zama-C to face it. I was very tempted to stay in and fish for a burn with Steam Eruption but sevag would have probably passed out.

proof

sevag — Yesterday at 1:49 PM
Losr ...
I swear if you stay in on a scales zama-c w/ that palkia
I'm going to slap u

So I switched in Shed Shell FC Zama-C in case it went for Anchor Shot but got hit for over half my health from banded Close Combat. I made the obvious switch to Tapu Fini and quojova counters by bringing in Eternatus. Without knowing the set, I switched out to Zama-C to face a Sludge Bomb but instead get hit with Lava Plume and chipped even lower. Its time for more playing chicken against Magearna and quojova gets all the plays right to wear down Snorlax on top of getting a Rapid Spin speed boost to ensure it beats my other guys. I make another poor play by not sacking Snorlax and instead send in Tapu Fini, who gets 2HKO’d by Boomburst. This was bad because Fini could have maybe had a chance to setup and cheese past the team but beating Gigas would have been very tough. Anyway, Fini dies and Palkia comes in and takes out Zama-C while getting chipped by CC more. This leads to my last stand with Gigas facing Palkia and after getting Gigas in range of a KO quojova has to decide risking +1 Facade’s 43.8% chance to OHKO me or itemless Steam Eruption’s 75% chance to not KO Gigas. He went for the latter and I got the mid roll and Gigas went on to clean the rest.

I built nine different team versions this week, while our BH support built several more teams of their own. It was tough in the end to decide which direction to go and sadly it didn’t go well for me in the end this time around. Quojova’s team was cool though, I later learned that Zama-C was Steely Spirit.

cityscapes vs Nihilslave
vs
It is hard to see Dragapult in team preview and not assume it is Normalize. This is what the ladder teaches us, at least, but we've also see in recent tours that NormPult is a sleeper pick in tour battles so I'm curious to see what city brought. Nihilslave's team looks a little more standard and bulky compared to last week's team.

Both sides lead Imposter Chansey to scout and we see cityscapes is using Spikes PH Gigas and a Prankster Glare Darm-Z that takes some big chip damage from Nihilslave's Fur Coat Solgaleo Spectral Thief. Nihilslave's Zygarde-C reveals Prankster by outspeeding Darm-Z's recover and brings Chansey back in while it heals. He stays in and risks being hit with Glare to fire off a Glare of his own as city pivots out with U-turn to bring in Gigas and set more Spikes. After a few turns of pivoting, scouting, and ability removal, Nihilslave gets Xerneas in finally to spin away the Spikes and face off against Regigigas despite being at -1 due to Parting Shot. This gets his Xern down to 12% in the process and it gets forced out by a healthy, unscouted Xern on city's side that reveals Pixilate as it hits an incoming FC Solgaleo for negligible damage. A little while later, Nihilslave brings in Chansey off a fast Parting Shot to face city's Zyg-C that is spamming Thousand Waves, leading us to assume Chansey is holding a Shed Shell. City pulls out her Zyg-C to send in Dragapult, who is hit with Worry Seed and revealed as Normalize indeed and sets a layer of Spikes as Nihilslave switches out. Things are looking very bad for Nihilslave after city's Pult also reveals Taunt. Their Xern is chipped down to the point that a single spike KO's it on entry and the rest of the team is slower than Pult and no status moves have been revealed. But city takes Pult out, not wanting to be Taunted by Imposter, which leads later to Nihilslave bringing Kyogre back in and showing a neat PH set of QD / Scald / Core Enforcer that could be threatening to city's team under the right circumstances. However, city's FC Zyg-C is able to deal with it at +1 with Topsy-Turvy and the threat of trapping it and removing its ability. Xern is finally sacked to the Spike and city now has three layers up and a NormPult that is able to spam Entrainment, forcing Nihilslave to switch in and out on the Spikes. Nihilslave's last effort comes when they finally send in Eternatus and city plays it safe by taking out Pult and bringing in Darm-Z as Etern uses Nasty Plot. It is promptly hit with Glare as it takes Darm-Z out with Earth Power and city responds by sending in Xern to chip it down to 3% as it goes down to Sludge Wave. Gigas gets the honor of finishing off the game, probably just so city could show off Thousand Arrows, proving OM cord wrong that Gigas never runs it.

Nihilslave's team is solid proof of why Gastro Acid is a garbage move in BH. It has less PP than Entrainment, doesn't reveal abilities like Worry Seed, and does nothing to stop Normalize Ghost-types from spreading their ability. Nihilslave also recently told me they don't like using Metronome Xern as the only hazard removal for the team and going down to Spikes spam here likely cemented this in their brain. cityscapes made the gamble of bringing NormPult here and it paid off very nicely.

xavgb vs astralydia
vs
Fairy-type, Imposter, Yveltal, and Don are seen on both sides. I'm not too surprised to see similar builds coming from these two. The items held by each Imposter could play a big role here. No Ghost-types on either side is interesting.

stresh leads Imposter Chansey to scout astralydia's Yveltal, revealing Knock Off / Boomburst / Spikes / Sap with Aerilate and stays in to Knock Off an incoming Magearna's Metronome. Mag fires off a Boomburst, hitting stresh's Don switch-in for big damage that it shrugs off with a recover as lydia brings Yveltal back in and ends up removing Chansey's Eviolite. stresh finds an opening to get Regigigas in and activate its orb and lydia responds by bringing in their Don to absorb a Nuzzle and take a measly 20% from Facade that tells us Don is Fur Coat with Helmet. Don forces out Gigas with Entrainment and lydia brings in Blissey to face it, but stresh switched out first and brought in Yveltal. We see that stresh's Yveltal is also Aerilate but with Boom / Spin / Sap / Volt and that lydia's Blissey is Toxic Orb. After a few doubles, stresh's Gigas gets up a Spike and U-turns on Groudon, showing it won't be able to pull off the KO with Waves + Entrain easily. This leads to an interesting sequence where Zama-C and Ho-Oh face off with unrevealed sets and Zama-C traps Ho-Oh with Anchor Shot and Taunts it while Ho-Oh goes for Brave Bird. Here we see Zama-C is Fur Coat and Ho-Oh is not Magic Guard as it takes recoil and chip damage from Rocky Helmet. A few turns later we find out Ho-Oh is Prankster as it gets trapped again and slowly KO'd by ineffective moves and residual damage, but paralyzes Zama-C before going down. Yveltal comes in after this and proceeds to 2HKO a switched in, Eviolite-less Chansey meaning Yveltal is holding a Sharp Beak. This is confirmed in the next series of turns when lydia's Yveltal out damages stresh's Yveltal 64 to 49. stresh goes for a potential tie here while lydia brings in Regigigas who gets chipped down to the thirties and further by Zama-C's helmet on the switch. Then stresh makes a double to bring Yveltal back in while lydia does the same and the process repeats as stresh goes for the tie with Boomburst and ends up taking down Gigas on the switch. For the next few turns we get a flashback to MAMP vs TTTech of a Volt Switch teammate alongside Groudon pressuring a Pixilate Magearna until Xerneas is brought in to KO Mag with V-create. Blissey comes in to scout next, telling us Xern is Pixilate with Extreme Speed + Boomburst and the game is effectively over from here as lydia's depleted team is unable to handle the -ate spam core.

Both teams were solid and again were similar to one another but stresh's very good plays from turn 31 to turn 39 pretty much sealed the deal for their victory as lydia was playing from her heels and got all the doubles wrong. This was a fun one to watch.

Career Ended vs MAMP
vs
Regigigas, Xern, Etern, and Zama-C are the best mons in the meta so why not use them, right? Lunala is looking solid here for MAMP since it can cover at least half of Career Ended's team on paper.

Career Ended leads with Dusclops to face MAMP's Lunala and uses Prankster Parting Shot to bring in a Comatose Zama-C to eat Lunala's Nuzzle. This was weird to see cause Comatose Zama-C is a set I've rarely seen and only personally ran in pre-DLC Gen 8 BH but it was talked about by morogrim in the OM cord a few days before this game was played. We told him it was unviable as a Regigigas answer, though. Anyway, things keep moving as MAMP gets Gigas in to activate its orb and it ends up removing Black Sludge from Career's Ho-Oh, leading us to believe it is Magic Guard. It reveals Fire Lash as Gigas gets up a layer of Spikes and Career then brings in Xerneas who just Flip Turns out of there. Ho-Oh comes back in and catches an incoming Gigas with Trick to receive its Toxic Orb and at least become immune to paralysis and maybe threaten to poison someone else with it later. For now it is forced out by Gigas, who stays in to use Knock Off again and removes Etern's Black Sludge as it is switched in. We're at turn 13 and Career has brought the timer down to 10 seconds over the last several turns, adding some unneeded pressure to the game. Dusclops comes back in and out spamming Parting Shot to show us MAMP's Zama-C is Magic Bounce and Gigas continues to Knock Off everyone's items in the process. Dusclops is back on the field after Zama-C bounces back a spike and is just spamming Anchor Shot at this point. Instead of forcing it out with Parting Shot, Career makes a hard switch to bring in his own Zama-C who is caught by Anchor Shot and the Zama-C's then kick each other and MAMP gets scared and brings in Don as Career stays in and heals up. At turn 32 the timer is still in the 20s and 30s but Dusclops fires off a Glare to catch Xerneas who then catches two full paras in a row before being forced out by Etern. Etern faces Gigas a few turns later and reveals Switcheroo that fails while Gigas spams Facade. Both switch out and both bring in Zama-C again and MAMP doubles to bring in Lunala. At this point, Lunala is in a great spot as there are no threats of Black Sludge Trick remaining and Zama-C is forced to recover thanks to Comatose boosting Hex. Career sends Gigas back out and boldly uses Spikes in front of bounce Zama-C as MAMP brings in Lunala to face the +1 Gigas but Gigas just gets forced out the next turn as Lunala reveals Core Enforcer. MAMP keeps momentum by getting more Spikes up and pressuring Career with Gigas and Volt Switch Groudon. Starting at turn 83 Lunala finally has a field day, hitting Etern with Nuzzle and forcing it out after it catches a full para and Career sends in Ho-Oh to be sacked instead. Xern then comes in and is nuzzled while chipping Lunala with Boomburst but goes down the following turn to Hex. After some random switches Career gets Gigas back in and is facing Bounce Zama-C at +1 from Dragon Dance. Here Career decided to dance again as a last ditch effort, with Lunala chipped to 54%, but Zama-C stays in to reveal Topsy-Turvy and force it out. A few turns later we get the same sequence but this time +1 Gigas hits Zama-C with Precipice Blades for 84% before getting its boosts inverted. MAMP's Eternatus comes in and gives Gigas its Black Sludge and Lunala gets the last laugh taking it out with Core Enforcer.

Again I was not impressed with Career Ended's team. Trick Black Sludge was neat, but doubling up on an already risky strategy was not ideal here and it didn't come to fruition thanks to MAMP's Knock Off Gigas raining on his parade. Zero attacks Pranksters are not my cup of tea and I don't understand Flip Turn Xerneas with Volt Switch is infinitely better. MAMP's team looked pretty solid but as far as I can tell he didn't have a Prankster and that is pretty risky to bring against this opponent. At least that's what I was led to believe based on the actual good and cool teams I've seen Career Ended use before.

Metagame Observations
Xerneas, Zama-C, and Regigigas continue to lead the way in usage this week, making up 1/3 of the total mons used. There was a Fur Coat mon on all but one team, with users including the usual Zamazenta-C and Lunala as well as the more rare Palkia, Groudon, and Solgaleo. Zama-C was used five times and had four different abilities while Xerneas and Regigigas were Pixilate and Poison Heal each time they were used, respectively. While Swords Dance Regigigas was the rage last week, Dragon Dance came back as the main setup move this week, if setup was used at all. The battles got shorter this week, going down from 136 to 84 turns on average.

Upcoming Matches
Nihilslave vs quojova - both OMPL rookies now have a win and a loss under their belt. quojova has shown two nice builds so far and Nihilslave is probably suffering PTSD from going down to NormPult. I'm looking forward to this one.

xavgb vs a loser - we haven't played each other much historically but I don't believe I've ever beaten stresh. He edged me out in OMPL last year and won in a crazy haxy endgame in the most recent World Cup. This should be a good one so be sure to watch it this Friday afternoon GMT-5! (edit: thanks UT...)

ItsChew. vs Career Ended - The Hawluchas are starting their third BH player in as many weeks as ItsChew. makes their OMPL debut. I'm not sure I fully understand this decision but it is always nice to get everyone some playing time. Career Ended is still looking for their first win and this week is definitely the one to get it, if any, as their competition for the remainder of the tour only gets tougher.

MAMP vs cityscapes - Two of the most experienced BH players in the pool face off in what should be an epic battle. MAMP has taken care of business so far, sporting the highest mon differential in +7, while city is fresh off a dominating performance against Nihilslave. This one is really a toss up and I can't wait to see it.

 

[UT]

GMT-6

Is this just because a loser can't schedule?

 

[Fardin]

only doing ag and mnm cause idk any other metas plus any other fun mu

SS Anything Goes: WSun1 vs BasedWhat? - hm wsun should take this, plays as good but has way more meta knowledge and probably better teams by now too
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs TectonicDestroyer - hmm, they are on like the same level playing wise, but qt has far superior teams which will be the deciding factor here

SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Trade - heat mu, trade has been on fire lately and i expect some heat shit, but i think bacon is just the better player as far as ss ag goes, but like an upset is possible here easily
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs Andyboy - hmmm, andy is just levels above her playing wise but chazm has some of the best teams whenever she builds for mnm, but i think andy got that area covered as well with team support, gonna give him the edge

SS Anything Goes: Skarph vs Nevelle - hm, sorry nev this is going to be a wash as long as skarph preps for cheese or ho
SS Mix and Mega: ez vs Ivar57 - idk ivar, going with ez

SS Anything Goes: Seldanna vs Junaa - hmmm, zay should take this comfortably as long as she has shit for ho
SS Mix and Mega: Hats vs Axzel - axzel won last week but played pretty damn poorly, on the other hand idk hats at all so giving him the edge
SS STABmons: Fc vs pannuracotta - yo sub pannu out

 

[Finchinator]

Prediction

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Potatochan vs Chris32156 everyone

 

[Dr. Phd. BJ]

won gg https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8godlygift-1557205274

 

[DuGuo]

Nihilslave

 

[Dragonillis]

Schedule W3 vs The Larping Lopunnys (adem and DerpyBoi) : (GMT=0)

2v2 : Sunday, need to specify
AAA : Saturday 3 PM
AG : Saturday 3 AM
BH : Sunday 4 AM
GG : Friday 11 PM
MnM : Sunday 4:30 PM
NFE : Sunday evening
STABmons : Friday 9 PM

I will update if I can be more precise.

 

[luisin]

TEAM HORSE NUMBER ONE ONLY GOING HIGHER :HORSE: ⤴

amazing game, good luck in the next ones PD!

 

[ojr]

everything in -4
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Potatochan vs Chris32156 --- sunday 7pm
SS Almost Any Ability: PandaDoux vs luisin --- played
SS Anything Goes: WSun1 vs BasedWhat? --- Saturday 9pm
SS Balanced Hackmons: Nihilslave vs quojova --- sunday 10pm (not sure yet)
SS Godly Gift: Mossy Sandwich vs crying --- saturday 11pm
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs TectonicDestroyer --- tect = blocked @qt tell us when u play in om cord
SS NFE: Stareal vs ojr --- sunday 12pm
SS STABmons: Finchinator vs Byleth --- sunday 6pm

TEAM HORSE NUMBER ONE ONLY GOING HIGHER

 

[xavgb]

Won gg

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1559248659

 

[pannu]

i ask talking ben "Ben, should i cheese FC?"
Talking ben: "hohohoho, yes."

gg friend

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8stabmons-621543