Team Preview: The goal here is to attempt to simulate the opponent's default gameplan. Hawlucha's a massive beacon here, it's only viable set is a one-and-done setup opportunity, meaning that it can't be based off anything else. Megaman and zor reveal a small Volturn strategy, in getting Hawlucha into a position to set up. Latias at this point is 110% defog to keep volturn from wearing itself down and to give Weavile breathing room, which should be the case anyway but this is low ladder, anything can happen. Weavile's a strong mon with priority to get volturned in and to break through teams that bank on landog/chomp as their physical walls, while slowbro looks to be a standard pivot to get off TWaves or cheeky scalds. tl;dr lucha setup, volturn to get it into position, latias to avoid self-wear through volturn, weavile for priority and to cheese landog/chomp builds, bro to pivot into whatever if needed.
As for your own gameplan... your team seems to be exclusively "get in hoopa, nuke stuff, clean up", banking on hoopa pretty heavily. That works in this game, though.
Washtom doesn't beat lucha when it's set up and your only fighting resist is bopped by +2 acro, and only fears an ESpeed + other prio, so that's probably gonna be his gameplan this game.
In terms of leads, your opp's manectric outspeeds everyone, overheats/flamethrowers loom/zor, and safely volts off everything else (or try a cheeky non-mevo tbolt vs. washtom if he thinks you're volting), only fearing a Hoopa lead, which he probably doesn't expect due to having weavile, lucha, and a strong priority in (probably) banded zor's bullet punch. A
hoopa lead would have worn Hoopa down, but Dark Pulse does a ton to everyone, as his two resists are frail. However, keeping it and abusing Slowbro switchins can help avoid wearing down if you get a free switch, so a
Clefable lead to recover off the Volt or set rocks (or if you're real, flamethrower the zor switch, twave is more popular anyway so he might not expect it) can work too.
Lead: Hawlucha lead.
http://media.giphy.com/media/OYgcKl4X7fvyM/giphy.gif
The lead matchup is in your favor.
Turn 1: The play to make here was
Will-o-Wisp; while Volt would heavily damage lucha and give you momentum if he switches, the manectric switch-in is extremely enticing. Saying this is low ladder, it would be safe to assume a manectric switch is coming because low level players LOVE that sort of thing, where you might have gotten away with a hydro. But his main way to deal with washtom is Latias due to minimal hydro/volt damage, so in higher-level matches (and in this scenario) Latias would most likely come in, especially on turn 1, to absorb whatever and to get in position to nuke whatever you switch into. Wisp here is a safe, long-term play, wearing down Latias through LO + Rocks + burn and getting free switches on Roost turns, while putting Manectric on a timer for his volt-switch shenanigans - basically a rocks switchin at the end of each turn - and without risking Lightning Rod.
As for switch-ins,
Scizor's in no rush to mega evolve unlike some other, more offensive megas, so that shouldn't've been a priority, although the free U-Turn (well, almost. Should scout for a random HP Fire first) would certainly be a big deal.
Clefable is also a good idea, as it has a plethora of things it could do, be it setting rocks or hitting Zor with a flamethrower on the switch. Moonblast would get you nowhere right now. It should be noted, however, that since you're running Wish instead of Soft-Boiled (which I reccomend), a potential Psyshock crit could have put you really, really far back.
Turn 2: No reason not to U-Turn, doesn't take a tour player to figure that out.
Same applies for switching into hoopa. No reason to ignore a sucker, and there's no potential for luring here.
Turn 3: Something something ban hoopa. IDK. I'm pretty sure Dark Pulse 2HKOs even spdef m-zor, so there was literally no reason not to click it (which is why TBolt WASN'T the better play). The lucha sure is interesting, though. And no sitrus. This isn't the standard hawlucha set; I'm pretty sure the predicted gameplan we made at the beginning is null and void now, he has something else in mind.
Turn 4: My suspicion is that the hawlucha's Power Herb Sky Attack, as it's popular on low ladder luchas (big nuke LOL, more reliable in setup than sub/sitrus, dont use it tho doesnt do enough damage post-setup) which means he's probably going to stay in and either go for it to wear down Rotom or make a safe HJK. Either way,
Mega Scizor can eat both, and KO with Bullet Punch, easily recover the damage, or U-Turn. Probably Bullet Punch - his way of punishing it is switching into his own zor, hope you u-turn, and underspeed + u-turn your switchin.
And it turns out I was right. Clefable was enticing to take the HJK, but got murked by Power Herb Sky Attack (I don't think the crit mattered). This was ultimately due to switching to clef, not clicking TBolt. The good news is, Unburden resets if it switches out, so scaring it out with priority makes hawlucha a lot less threatening. Entei can work, but
Mega Scizor would still have done it better.
Turn 5: ESpeed was safe, opponent probably figured lucha was worthless now anyways. Which isn't true, but it would have a hard time doing much the rest of the match. Might have still been better to sack it and regain momentum.
Turn 6: Slowbro's either Scalding or Toxicing if it's staying in, or a double to Weavile on the hoopa switch. Saying he still kinda loses to hoopa, and since he's still kinda losing despite holding the momentum, I'd assume the double, in which case staying in and Extreme Speeding again would put you in a REALLY strong position. Of course, he could still potentially stay in and scald, but ultimately, we don't know enough about the opponent to predict his playstyle and therefore which play he'd lean towards, and he knows a Weavile double gone wrong could basically lose him the game, so it's really a 50/50. You still have m-zor to switch into weavile if that happens, so it's probably safe enough to switch into Hoopa.
Critburn hurts, though. The timer is too short to be a wincon anymore, just a powerful wallbreaker to open up holes. You still get a free Dark Pulse, but you're much more suspectible to priority now, as you're effectively weakened.
Turn 7: Dark Pulse is still completely free, no reason not to.
...? For the record:
252 SpA Choice Specs Hoopa Unbound Dark Pulse vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Weavile: 137-162 (48.7 - 57.6%) -- 94.9% chance to 2HKO
Might be carrying pursuit, but still no real need to focus blast. More of a contingency issue though, since the opp should have gone to weav.
The lati switchin was dumb, something something low ladder. Opponent should have gotten murked for his misplay, but w/e.
Leftovers. Remember this, it's important. Very little damage output.
Turn 8: No reason to not go m-zor, lefties latias HP Fire would do 0. Free U-turn. Could only pivot into manectric, but specs focus blast would leave a dent.
Turn 9: Free U-turn. He has no good switch-ins.
The best idea here might be
Entei (which you ended up doing, gj). Band to pseudo-ignore Intimidate, can tank any hit. loom and zor probs don't kill with their priority and get roasted. No real reason to wear down Washtom, which still has uses, while Entei's only really there to beat zor, and washtom can do that with wisp.
Turn 10: No need to E-speed, you took any hit anyway and you didn't need Entei healthy for anything.
Sacred Fire hits the hardest of everything, and had a strong chance of burning Latias or Slowbro. A scizor double would have also put you in a big advantage, but had too much risk in case he predicted it. Which he might, he's pretty down now.
Turn 11: Washtom doesn't like the burn chip, but likes it a lot better than your other options. Hoopa's no longer available as a switch.
Turn 12: A free volt... or is it? Manectric is low, non-evo'd, and low ladder loves to abuse stuff like lightning rod. Hydro would have killed, while
Will-o-Wisp would be the contingency answer as it affects everything - wears down manectric, latias, and slowbro if it decides to stay in, and cripple zor and weav.
See that volt damage? 7. Wisp is 12 per turn. If your goal is to wear down latias you're doing it wrong. Maybe if you had 0 switchins and you needed pressure to beat it, but not now.
Breloom can still Mach Punch the weav (it lives one ice shard afaik), it's not sac material just yet. And entei's still at full, use that.
But volting on manectric would give it new life, and free entei damage. Could potentially still turn the match. Shouldn't've been comfortable.
(EDIT: fsr I got it confused with Volt Absorb up to turn 20. My bad. Last sentence still applies.)
M-zor still the best option.
Turn 13: Still a free U-turn. At this point you're dancing around with washtom/zor, no need to do anything else. Just will-o with washtom and hardswitch into zor.
Turn 14: Still should've will-o'd IMO, but getting this volt off worked out. Going to
Breloom would work here, does the least work ATM and puts you in a position for a free spore.
Hoopa was still useful for you, shouldn't've sacked it. You managed to get a free switch this time, but scald was certainly an opportunity. As was catching on to the constant volting and switching in manectric.
Turn 15: Whee free dark pulse.
Turn 16: Hoopa's basically dead, just
sack it. If weav is cocky and SD's, dpulse + bpunch from zor finishes it off.
Zor still works as a switch in, but what are you saving Hoopa for? He's not gonna let Slowbro get kills, and that's the only way it'll do work. Of course, you'd basically need to try to get bro to kill something anyway lol, and you already have three other ways to beat it.
Turn 17: Yeah, U-turn works. Hits bro, kills weav, kills manectric, gets entei out vs. zor.
Turn 18: Free Sacred Fire. No burn hurts a bit but is workable, was a 50/50 anyway.
Turn 19: Washtom, again with scald. At this point you have well-defined counters to what he does, you should have the win in the bag.
Turn 20: I have a feeling that the opponent's caught on, and switching Manectric in. I'd be careful.
Will-o-Wisp still doesn't hurt.
How'd I know? I swear I didn't peek the replay/your notes. At least it's still weak to priority, which is what I was worried about before, when I thought it was Volt Absorb lol. I'd say this is choke #1.
Turn 21: Good thing you kept that hoopa I guess.
Sack Hoopa. Not gonna do anything, and everything on your team's getting bopped by thunderbolt or flamethrower, while everything non-rotom's getting intimidated, which might matter.
Thankfully he bolted, so loom lives. Be careful next time.
Turn 22: Mach Punch. No need to lose loom now, at least force out something else.
Lefties zor, didn't notice that before. Not band, but most likely holding Roost. Remember this.
Turn 23: Ambiguous play here. Roost and Bullet Punch are both options. Unsure how much BP does to Entei, but I'm pretty sure it fails to 2HKO with lefties, so
Entei seems to be a strong option.
You had no reason to sack loom. It could still mach punch manec, spore, and bullet seed bro.
Turn 24: Same as last time, sacred fire.
No burn again, 25% chance. That's the chance of Magma Storm missing, or 5% less than Focus Blast or Hurricane missing. The lower chance, but still nothing to get mad over.
Turn 25: Washtom is still the best option, although it's getting a bit low now.
No burn is nice.
Turn 26: Megaman is mega now, volt away! Nothing but benefits.
Zor's your only real switchin now, scald burn is still scary.
Turn 27: U-turn. Where's my popcorn? might as well check my youtube sub box while we're at it...
Too bad it doesn't kill.
Critburn again? okay. Crit is fine, burn is annoying but happening sooner or later. Didnt have many other options. It does mean that you now have to be a bit more careful with washtom, maybe get a pain split off something later on if it's healthy enough?
Turn 28: Volt is basically the only option, letting Slowbro potentially heal up after a wisp would be dumb. And puts more burn damage on you.
Free entei switch. Time to try and burn bro again!
Turn 29: No reason not to
Sacred Fire.
...waitwat? What was your gameplan there? Double on the bro switch? I don't think you needed to. Now he gets a switch to megaman, which BP doesn't kill. This is probably choke #2.
Turn 30: At this point, zor dies and washtom dies. Entei can take a hit and retaliate, but Hoopa's basically useless at this point. The only use it had was as death fodder or to win in a 1v1 slowbro scenario.
Turn 31: Entei can stomach a hit.
Sacred Fire kills everything but bro, which gets another chance to burn it. Which you kinda want right now, since washtom/zor is running low.
now THAT is a game-changer. A big one. Something's going down next turn.
Bro could have taken an espeed, switched to zor, come back in with regen health and scald/get a chance to switch out again, so yes, the crit does matter a lot.
Turn 32: ESpeed. The opportunity to knock out bro now is too big, kills megaman, kills weav, 2hkos zor, with contingency for a regen'd bro available in the form of a hard switch to washtom next turn, literally no matter what. This is also why the crit matters, a double regen'd bro would be basically back in action, for more burn chances on zor, and washtom might be just a bit too weakened...
Turn 33: Your opponent has two options: Hardswitch bro on the espeed or roost on the switch to slowbro. This is a really hard, ambiguous call, but based on how the opp's been playing, I'll say he's hardswitching, and switch in
Washtom.
But I guess I was wrong. He went for the Roost, and you read it correctly. But now bro gets a free switch, and you're forced out... can washtom take a hit?
Turn 34: Scizor can't afford the potential burn, so washtom's the only real answer.
Unfortunately, the opp reads that and recovers.
Turn 35: Slowbro's his wincon now, washtom and zor are weak enough. The real question is, will he tank the volt, or sack megaman? I think he wants to tank it and to Scald. This is when you need to be a bit more risky in order to get ahead, so Pain Split the full Slowbro as it stays in.
Good. You're back in action, with the upper hand.
Turn 36: He's most likely going to recover, so
Volt Switch seems to be the only real option. Wisp would be too little too late and give slowbro a free turn.
Pain Split seems like a good idea, but you give Slowbro a free turn to recover, putting you back at square one. This is probably choke #3.
But he Psyshocks instead. This is important since you can no longer switch into another Psyshock.
Turn 37: Now that you're too weakened, you basically need to get your health back somehow.
Pain Split again. I don't think Volt kills.
Yeah, volt doesn't kill, and now you have a problem. Either Zor's taking a Psyshock (it would take stupid reads to be Scald), or bro just got a free recovery. At any rate, zor's your only choice at this point.
But it's psyshock, so it works out. Keep in mind washtom's inability to switch into a psyshock.
Turn 38: Free U-turn is free, something dies.
Whoa, he just sacks his bro. You win now lol.
Switch to Entei and E-speed everything.
Turn 39: ESpeed still kills after indimidate afaik. I don't see you losing this one.
Turn 40: Actually, you can. If it's sash weav and he crits everything. Maybe not even then.
Losing band doesn't matter, espeed + bp wins.
Turn 41: Going fast is fun.
Extreme Speed whee
UHHHHHHH
Even unbanded, Extreme Speed + Bullet Punch won the game. Knock Off doesn't even kill, so 2 Extreme Speeds would have won. Why Sacred Fire? Choke #4.
Turn 42: See above.
...and you still don't espeed. Serious question, what was keeping you from clicking Extreme Speed?
Turn 43: Bullet Punch, win the game.
okay. At this point, you're just asserting dominance. He probably should have ice sharded, but a flinch would have really hurt, as would a crit, if you decided to not Bullet Punch next turn.
Turn 44: See above.
Yay, it finally happens.
