Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Round 2 game I had in the recent OU suspect tour.
The tourney actually snuck up on me by surprise and I decided to just use my Genie Offense ladder team which has been doing pretty well.
In summary, I was really un-prepared for Amoonguss considering it's teammates and not having hazard control bites me here despite an overall decent matchup. My goal throughout the game was to play the status game then try and win with Power Up Punch Lopunny. I'd like to think that I mostly made the optimal plays despite some mid game impatient impulses and in the end I was in a decent position to win with Lopunny but theeeennn.....the Aegislash 50/50s struck. Kudos to my opponent for reading me so well but tbh if I had attacked on the turn he Toxiced Lopunny I had the game won.
Sup Darkerones. I think Turn 22 you should've chose a better Spore absorber than Landorus seeing as how at the point in time Landorus was the biggest obstacle the team had to face other than Thundurus. Knowing that Landorus is asleep he can take into account what he's realistically going to have to contend with as such makes his game plan easier and yours a bit harder.
Turn 31 was more or less somewhat of a risk but I think the best play here was to Volt Switch on the Mandibuzz and go from there anyways. HO v Stall (calling it stall since it sure as hell isn't anything offensive lol) is basically a position where the Stall player is trying not to lose momentum. If Mandi got burned it would've potentially made handling Landorus a nightmare seeing as how it's one of the two last checks to Landorus that he has. He had a huge risk of getting burned and as such took the safe route which you could've capitalized on.
Turn 35 the Mandibuzz switch in seemed almost obvious seeing as how he's really trying to take out this Aegislash at this point. Rotom-W was a easy switch in there judging by how he's playing out this match. Basically the Sub wasn't necessary and maintaining momentum through doubles was important by utilizing Aegi + Rotom-W while preserving the genies + lopunny to win the end game.
I think getting burned by Rotom-W was one issue that made the outcome what it was seeing as how Aegislash spent its time hiding behind King's Shield to rack up the burn damage. I think early game some more pressure on the team would've helped tremendously. Judging by the way he was playing and knowing that letting the genies and Lopunny gain momentum would be a bad idea he made doubles and switches to reflect that and as such the best course of action was to maintain rocks, utilize Rotom-W and Thundurus to deter Mandibuzz, and break Chansey as quickly as possible as with rocks + Chansey out of the picture it would've removed Mandibuzz much sooner, all which can be done by going along with his switches in a reasonable manner. As you said most of the stuff that occurred that wasn't in your favor was during the mid-late game which was a result of going easy on him the first 10 turns or so spending time trying to gauge his actions when they were more or less given by about Turn 5. Anyways I hope that helped.
Alright,so looking at your team matchup you certainly have the advantage with Azumarril giving you the upper hand.You led off with it and that was the right call as nothing was safe against it 1v1 on his team except the Zard.
After looking at the replay,I can't fault much to be honest.The only thing that I can point out is Turn 10.M-Metagross,like you said,would've been a really good play here as it is 2HKOed by Crunch from Tyranitar as well as being a good switch in to Celebi.Had he gone into Heatran,M-Metagross had Hammer Arm.Although it doesn't kill,you always had a switch in to Heatran in the form of Azumarril.
And that's that.I can't fault you at all considering you did everything right.I'd advise you to read the OP though which states that replays which are close are preferred.We can't analyse much if you've done everything right :)
Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit
Username: mr.munchypants
Analysis:
Turn 1, I got my rocks up immediately, but I switched my Keldeo into Landorus thinking that it wasn't going to use earthquake even though it was obviously choice scarfed. Then, I sac'd my Keldeo thinking that he was going to switch out even though eqing the Keldeo was obviously the right decision. This was bad because because Keldeo was my best answer to Bisharp and really pressured his team with scald, only 2 of his 6 mons wanting to take a scald. I switched in my Lando and RPed up revealing that I was a double dance set. on the switch because nothing on his team resisted quakedge, but I could have waited until his ground resists were weakened in late game to reveal my set, but I did significantly damage his team with Landorus-T. I sac'd my Latios to get a free switch into Scizor so that Scizor could reset into a move that could damage Bisharp. Bisharp did sadly outspeed me and knock off my choice band, but I still did a good deal and pivoted out into zard to finish it off. I used Dragon claw to hit Lati hard just in case he wanted to preserve his Bisharp. I tried to OHKO it with u turn from Scizor, but I should have used bullet punch. Since Lati had 0.5 special attack, I brought in zard x so that I could get a DD up, and the rest is history.
Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Pursuit
Username: mr.munchypants
Analysis:
Turn 1, I got my rocks up immediately, but I switched my Keldeo into Landorus thinking that it wasn't going to use earthquake even though it was obviously choice scarfed. Then, I sac'd my Keldeo thinking that he was going to switch out even though eqing the Keldeo was obviously the right decision. This was bad because because Keldeo was my best answer to Bisharp and really pressured his team with scald, only 2 of his 6 mons wanting to take a scald. I switched in my Lando and RPed up revealing that I was a double dance set. on the switch because nothing on his team resisted quakedge, but I could have waited until his ground resists were weakened in late game to reveal my set, but I did significantly damage his team with Landorus-T. I sac'd my Latios to get a free switch into Scizor so that Scizor could reset into a move that could damage Bisharp. Bisharp did sadly outspeed me and knock off my choice band, but I still did a good deal and pivoted out into zard to finish it off. I used Dragon claw to hit Lati hard just in case he wanted to preserve his Bisharp. I tried to OHKO it with u turn from Scizor, but I should have used bullet punch. Since Lati had 0.5 special attack, I brought in zard x so that I could get a DD up, and the rest is history.
Turn 2 after getting up rocks, I think you should've clicked toxic on Landorus-T to wear it down because it was the only thing stopping your specific zard x set from sweeping. That or to intimidate lando with your own and go from there; you let keldeo take unneseccary damage and die when it was one of the more solid Bisharp checks your team had. Keldeo also lured in one of the psychics for Scizor to pursuit so having it alive would've been dandy.
Turn 14 you had a better sack in Landorus, which wouldn't be doing anything at that range of hp and at that point in the game; Latios couldve at least forced a sucker punch mind game with Bisharp or get a free kill/damage on something if it came in on Celebi imo.
Edit: Thanks Vinc608 for the correction; Landorus-T was not the sack due to it activating Bisharp's Defiant.
Turn 15, I think the better play was Superpower because with Bisharp out the way, a Zard X sweep was more likely, and it was highly unlikely your opp would switch the others into your Scizor.
As far as your team is concerned, maybe Jolly Zard X (72 HP 252 Atk 184 Spd) would work better with it seeing that you might want to outspeed scarf Lando-T at +1. Since you have Tank Chomp and your own Lando + Scizor, I guess it's not too crucial though.
I would run Surf>Grass Knot on Latios to hit various steel switch ins like Metagross and Bisharp hard, while still weakening ttar/hippo/etc for your Zard X; run Timid nature 31 IVs (because all your moves are special, there's no need for hasty nature). Hope this helped :]
Turn 2 after getting up rocks, I think you should've clicked toxic on Landorus-T to wear it down because it was the only thing stopping your specific zard x set from sweeping. That or to intimidate lando with your own and go from there; you let keldeo take unneseccary damage and die when it was one of the more solid Bisharp checks your team had. Keldeo also lured in one of the psychics for Scizor to pursuit so having it alive would've been dandy.
Turn 14 you had a better sack in Landorus, which wouldn't be doing anything at that range of hp and at that point in the game; Latios couldve at least forced a sucker punch mind game with Bisharp or get a free kill/damage on something if it came in on Celebi imo.
Turn 15, I think the better play was Superpower because with Bisharp out the way, a Zard X sweep was more likely, and it was highly unlikely your opp would switch the others into your Scizor.
As far as your team is concerned, maybe Jolly Zard X (72 HP 252 Atk 184 Spd) would work better with it seeing that you might want to outspeed scarf Lando-T at +1. Since you have Tank Chomp and your own Lando + Scizor, I guess it's not too crucial though.
I would run Surf>Grass Knot on Latios to hit various steel switch ins like Metagross and Bisharp hard, while still weakening ttar/hippo/etc for your Zard X; run Timid nature 31 IVs (because all your moves are special, there's no need for hasty nature). Hope this helped :]
I'd also like to add that on the turn when Chomp died to M-Loppuny, you could've gone into Zard then and proceeded to DD up and sweep. You made it really awkward for yourself in the end by relying on the SpA drop for Latias as an opportunity to DD up even though you had a few clear cut chances before
I'm liking what's happening now with the thread, just remember that anybody can rate anybody's match, make sure that you follow the rules when you do though.
This is one of the better games I had on the suspect ladder, and featured me using cancer rain to ez mode my way to reqs :D. On a more serious note lets analyse the teams on both sides.
Me - Politoed/Kingdra/Azumarril/Swampert/Ferrothorn/Latias
Him - Landorus-T/Suicune/MScizor/Talonflame/Raikou/Kyurem-B
Let's start from turn 1. His Landorus-Therian was obviously a SR variant,so I lead with my Politoad which had heavy speed investment in the hopes of catching Landorus-Theiran first up. No such luck. He leads with Scizor, so I opt to put a big chunk of damage on Scizor with Hydro Pump as he U-Turns out to Kyurem-B, forcing me out to go to Ferrothorn, as he doubles to Talonflame. Well played by my opponent so far, but this is where it starts to get interesting.
I judge that its a Sp.Defensive variant of Talnoflame from team preview,and go for Stealth Rocks, as he taunts confirming my suspicions. Of course I have to be careful to not let anything get in the range of Talonflame's Brave Birds late game, so that was definitely lingering at the back of my mind. The WoW was obvious so I go to Kingdra to try to load some damage onto his team, and he goes to Raikou, and I miss Hydro Pump,but the fact that he switched it in ,instantly tips me off to the fact that its an Assault Vest version. So now I know that he has Bulky U-Turn(probably Defog) MScizor/AVest Raikou/Sp.Defensive Talonflame/~Crocune/~ KyuB/SR Lando-T(the ~ imply probably). So now I just try to get a big chunk of damage off on to Raikou, and hit with Hydro Pump to shave off 75% and confirm that its an AVest version while he Volt Switches out to Talonflame. Now that I'm in range of Brave Bird I'm forced out and go to Ferrothorn to try to accrue some recoil damage on Talonflame, and here I make a misplay.
I expect him to Taunt again so I switch to Azumarril as he Taunts,and eager to get rid of Talonflame, Waterfall as he WoWs and cripples it for the rest of the match. But now Talonflame is also cripple so o3o. I expect him to preserve Talonflame(to try to check my Rain Sweepers late game), so I go to Politoad to get my rain back up as he goes to Suicune. Here I make a safe play and go to Ferrothorn as he doubles back to Talonflame,and I go to Azumarril,letting him Roost back to a decent amount of health. Of course looking back the Roost was obvious so I could have just SR'd. Realizing that I might be able to get SR up, I switch Azumarril out of Talonflame as he Taunts(Fookmi says I'm getting read like a book ;;) my Ferrothorn.
And here I decide that Azumarril is now totally useless so decide to sack it N_N. Now I bring Latias in and Healing Wish my Kingdra :D, and open with Scald in the hopes that what ever comes in would catch a lukE burn. Suicune gets burned :D. And here I make a play. I predict that he will expect me to bring in Ferrothron for the EZ rocks, and instead stay in and opt to Scald, magling his Talonflame :). But not OHKO'ing it sadly, here he sacks his Talonflame which has been a pain so far,in exchange for a burn, once again putting Kingdra on a timer. The next few turns feature me bringing in Ferrothorn and finally getting my Rocks <3, and generally irritating Suicune with Leech Seed/Power whip, and not getting burned,and not dieing, yadda yadda, and him revealing his obvious Defog MSciz. And me getting in some chip damage on Suicune with another Hydro Pump :). Suicune was still in its rest cycle so I took the opportunity to bring in Swampert and Mega Evolve,and Earthquake into the obvious Landorus-T switch in ;;/.
The rest of the game is more of me not getting scald burned with Ferrothorn, and just using it to irritate my opponent having realized by that point that it was obviously my win condition. The rest of the game(the end game basically) involves me throwing around Leech Seeds willy nilly(and getting SR up),him revealing SR Lando-T, and me trying to chip everything into the range of Kingdra+MPert. I manage to get Politoad in on 50~ MSciz forcing it out, and draggin in KyuB, setting up as ez switch for Mpert :). And of course seeing as how rain was up he had to sack Lando-T by this point. Sadly Lando-T's Intimidate,weakens my Earthquake just enough that I can't kill ~30% Suicune letting it Rest vack up to full health N_N. Luckily my MPert is till at full health so I can still stay on the offensive :). Again I go to Ferrothorn to get off a Leech Seed,while he tries to burn me, but I ofc skillfully dodge the pleb burn,and I even manage to Power Whip him while to again tries to burn me but to no avail oWo. Here he goes to MSciz to tank the obvious Power Whip,and here I decide to wrap up this game. I go to Kingdra,tank a U-Turn,while he brings out KyuB. Here I predict the obvious switch in to MSciz, And drop a Scald, and then another Scald as manages to get a low BP roll,allowing Kingdra to take out MSciz before fainting. And after this it's ez street. I EQ the 30% Cune, and the 50% KyuB,and that's the game :D
Azumarill @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 88 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Superpower
- Waterfall
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Power Whip
Turn 14 you had a better sack in Landorus, which wouldn't be doing anything at that range of hp and at that point in the game; Latios couldve at least forced a sucker punch mind game with Bisharp or get a free kill/damage on something if it came in on Celebi imo.
yo fren! thanks for the team. Analytic im not sure if im allowed to post since you're busy and stuff but im going to go ahead with it anyway.
right off the bat, your opponent made some really interesting reads as you tried to feel him out (no homo). first of all, i think just looking at his team, you'd realise that cune is probably going to be your biggest threat considering that it can wall your entire team bar kingdra and honestly imo, your best way to win is to clinch crucial kills with band azu esp if at team preview you already noted that his team is leaning towards the bulky offensive side. right off the bat, considering that you also had an inkling that he was potentially spdef talon, you should've honestly played your band azu a wee bit more conservatively as that would've meant that you didn't need to be pressured to just drop latias to bring kingdra back onto the stage.
turn 9: let's say you were eager to get rid of talonflame, why did you not choose to lock yourself in on ajet considering that even without the rain ajet had a chance to kill. since if he didn't go for brave bird, he can't touch you as ajet is +1 prio. with rain, it was a guaranteed ohko and you could've prevented your azu from being crippled.
turn 16: rip azu. now instead of sacking your latias here, you should've just went for psyshock and allowed your latias to be burn fodder so that you can use healing wish later to bring kingdra in for free rather than to pressure yourself later in the game considering that kingdra was crucial to winning the game now that azu is out of the count. had you still have latias for the next 20 odd turns you didn't have to risk thorn getting burnt.
turn 31: arguably, standard kyub sets can't really touch ferro so he would've either a) switched or b) went for ice beam. setting leech seed to preserve ferro more for the long run is arguably the better option since you are going to rely on ferro to win.
turn 35: a really decent play here since it not only puts kyub on a timer but helps you enable kingdra to kill cune should ferro become set up bait later if it gets burnt.
turn 42: focus blast would've been a much more better option since it is definitely going to hit almost everything for neutral or SE and it can catch kyub/land-t for the kill. arguably the acc is a problem, but since you were already behind, i think the risk would've been better.
other than that, your plays were pretty well done ^^. hope i helped!
Ah ty for the analysis Zanbaku. In that replay, fook said that I was getting read like a fiddle,during that passage of play with Talonflame and Kingdra N_N. I possibly sacked Latias too early lol,and I was probably super lucky that Cune never burned me over the course of four turns too,and you were right, I understood that focus blast was the best play but the accuracy kind of made me not do it N_N. Overall super tight tho
Looking at team preview, Mamowswine and Scizor were both absolute terrors to my team. The team matchup wasn't ideal for me at all.
Lead: Looking back, I should have led off with Starmie. Mamoswine was really obvious and my Starmie had HP Fire so it was definitely my best lead whereas Tyranitar was my absolute worst.
Prominent Turns:
Turn 3: I think EQ would've been a better play here, I thought he would go out to Manaphy but it was too risky on his part to do so now that I think about it.
Turn 9: I think losing Scizor was a pretty big thing for him, this allowed me to set up rocks later on(idr lol) and it reduced the pressure on me to quite an extent. I knew that judging by the doubles that he was making, he would go out into Scizor expecting Tyranitar to come in on Latios. Risky play on my part but it paid off greatly.
Turn 13: I decided to let Starmie die here because I'd gotten rid of Mamoswine which meant Thundurus couldn't be revenge killed anymore. I also got the Scald burn in the process and to be fair, this was a 50/50 as I was fearing the Ice Beam on the incoming Thundurus switch.
And that's it, it was a really good game and I had to work really hard to beat my friend, PomMan
So this was my first WCOP game for Team Afrabs vs boudouche of Team France. From team preview, it was apparent that I had good match up seeing that boudouche brought offense, meaning, Exca one shotted everything --some just needing a bit of prior damage-- except for Lando-T. On top of that, my Volcarona looked like it could plow through his squad with a bit of damage on Keldeo, and set up opportunities for my Volc were definitely available. On the flipside, his Volcarona was looking like a big threat to me, seeing as if I gave it 1 chance to set up, things could go down hill, which they sorta did, but luckily for me, boudouche missed a crucial Fire Blast on my Hippo allowing me to retain the sand for Excadrill and consequently win the game.
From Turns 1-6 I feel that I made the optimal plays and kept my eye on some of the big picture which was to keep Hippo healthy and not give any free turns to Volcarona.
Turn 7 after Jirachi Icy Winded my Latias, I perhaps should've switched out to Tornadus-T or smth for two reasons: 1- He could easily go to Volc here looking to set up and 2-He could go for Iron Head, get a flinch, and make my Lati unable to switch in on Keldeo and Mega Mancetric, which he did get. I stayed in against my better judgement hoping to get back to a better amount of HP which was a misplay.
Turns 8-9 is when I switch to Hippo expecting another Iron Head, though boudouche opted to Icy Wind. I felt that he would run Grass Knot to lure grounds for his Mega Man, so I pivoted to Torn-T turn 9 which was a fair play, but the damage on hippo turned out to be pretty big as this meant the following: Both Latias and Hippowdon were no longer switch ins to Mega Manectric (I would have to sack something before attempting to bring either of them in on MMan) and Hippo was put into +1 Volcarona range.
Turn 10 was a huge misplay on my part. At that point there was no way he stayed in on Torn-T with Rachi and my best play by far was to U turn out, maybe to heal hippo back up or smth, but I decided to Knock Off. Right here I lost a ton of momentum and basically had to sack something cause the events of turns 8-9. Going to Hippo was too risky; Latias was still useful for Keldeo; Excadrill was an important piece in this game; Volcarona is just as important; so it had to be Ferrothorn that took the bullet. After the game, I realized my max HP Torn T actually lived a T-bolt from that range, but I was thinking it was the 156 HP spread I usually run + fear of potential crits, but yeah I could've u turned on M Man there, haha.
Turn 12 I brought in Exca only to bait in Lando for a free Roost with Mega Latias, which I doubled into. But tbh I probably should've doubled to Hippo there as a healthy Hippo > a healthy Latias at that point.
Turn 13 I don't even Roost but Ice Beam thinking he'd want rocks and totally forgetting about the big ass threat named Volcarona. Whether I Roosted or not was irrelevant; the Latias play was questionable since that invited Volc which at that point in the game should've been kept out.
Turns 14-15 I'm forced into Hippo as if I went Torn, boudouche's Volcarona gets another Quiver + a Hurricane miss would be p gross. Unfortunately for boudouche, he missed Fire Blast turn 15 and gets blown away by Stone Edge, which at that point sealed the game. Had he killed my Hippo, after Exca comes in, he could easily go to Lando and just go from there. I don't know if I would've lost had the Blast connected but it would make the game harder for me to win.
So after that it was just make safe plays and win. I could've played that entire game better and legit earned the win w/o hax but o well. Learned a lot from this game though and hope you all did too after reading this :]
Jirachi @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Ice Punch
- Healing Wish
1-3: With the lead match-up, I was trying to cripple/weaken the Latias as I knew, barring a crit, Rotom-W could live a Draco and then Pain Split and burn it.
4-6: Knew the Latias was switching out. In hindsight, Garchomp was the clear switch as it normally runs Rocky Helmet + Rough Skin and I should have just doubled instead of weakening my Jirachi. My Specs Keldeo hits everything on his team hard, and I was expecting his Keldeo to stay in. Was not expecting Scarf HP Electric though...
7-9: Alakazam comes out, and I felt Talonflame was best equipped to handle it. I Roost up expecting the switch and then go into Jirachi expecting the Psychic.
10-12: We both pull the double and I get the favorable match-up of Rotom-W vs Skarmory. I Wisped thinking he'd go back into Garchomp, which also was the driving force behind the following Hydro Pump.
14-15: Predicted his Garchomp switch but should have considered how much that would hinder Jirachi. After that mistake I decided to go for the kill.
16-18: Saw an opportunity to Defog and then get up my own Stealth Rocks. I was trying to Roost up on the attacks, but got deceived by the damage roll.
20: Finger slip --> misclick... damn. I wanted to switch into Rotom-W here (even though I was misleading my opponent in the chat lol)
21-27: Ending of the game. I Volt Switch to get the kill and go into Keldeo as I figured it could not outspeed his last two mons. Went back into Rotom-W with the hope and faith it would crit or something? Yeah GG.
Im sorry but you may not have read the rules correctly, you must give the reasoning behind your moves in the match, how can anybody make a judgment on what you need to improve on if they dont fully understand the reasons behind your moves at the time. While I could say "make safe plays", "you shouldve done this here" etc, those suggestions are only good in hindsight (although you did make several questionable plays throughout the match that no matter what way you look at it cost you the match). If you really want help explain why you made the moves you did at the time and you should be fine, edit them into your post above and ill adress it then. Next time remember to read the rules thoroughly before posting.
