SCL IV LC Discussion Thread

WEEK 3 MATCHUPS, I'M ON TIME THIS TIME I SWEAR:

[Platoon] Scottie vs Hacker [Gibles]
[Dynamos] Fille vs tazz [Machines]
[Terrors] Lokifan vs tko [Breakers]
[Foxes] Starsama vs Colin [Islanders]
[Shoguns] Envy1 vs Éric [Spartans]

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Week 2 Recap (ok I lied this is coming tomorrow) it's here now hope y'all happy:

[TMS] tazz vs Colin [ISL]
Some say that tazz might be the unluckiest player to ever grace an LC official. They may be right.

Switching things up a bit, tazz brings a more balance heavy option of tink-foongus with the big 3 and wallbreaker Stunky. Colin's opted for the unsuccessful in SCL so far ttm core without Voltorb. Right off the bat, Colin's put in some unlucky turns with a few crits, Static paralysis and a Play Rough miss. By turn 34, it looks decidedly over for him...until tazz revealing Scarf Mienfoo with Close Combat thinking he's won, only for Colin to pull an uno reverse and throw out a rare Tera Ghost Toedscool, which with +1 speed, 2 layers of spikes and a crit on Tink manages to eke out a win from being completely behind. Granted, I'd say colin was unluckier in this game but some less confident turns almost did certainly cost him, but those thinking tazz may be unlucky....you might wanna take your odds elsewhere.

[SPA] Éric vs Scottie [PLA]
Another big highlight game as two of the better LCers from last season duke it out. Eric fans will remember last season he was the closest to winning vs Scottie, robbed by a last turn crit. Scottie's coming off a 0-1 start to last place in PRs Envy after many ranked him high for good reason, so he's looking for the comeback here while Eric started off well this season with a big win over other PR favorite Lokifan.

Eric's team is fairly unique, with a birdspam build featuring Doduo and a defensive core of Tink-Foongus. Scottie's brought the fallen-out-of-favor during LCPL Shellder on a Glimmet-Toed-Foongus structure. Not risking a t1 scarf brave bird, eric rightly puts his tink into the fire of Scottie's Vullaby — which promptly misses two Heat Waves (not super game changing) into getting crit by Draining Kiss (super game changing). A couple of trades later, the Shellder reveals Icicle Spear before eventually being confirmed as Scarf. Eric eventually pulls through by saving his tera for Foongus, which with Tera Water puts the Shellder on a 50/50 of what to click and wins a speed tie over the opposing Foongus to pull the win, earning his revenge from last season. Great win for Eric, who's got a 2-0 start but many will be wondering how Scottie will fare if the rest of the season looks as unlucky as this 0-2 start for him.

[GIB] Hacker vs Lokifan [TER]
This matchup's players coming off a strong LCPL on the same team playing SV, into playing SCL after a weak w1 start of losses.

Hacker has switched things up by bringing a team he's brought before in a different tour with changed sets — featuring famed shitmon turned ok hazard setter Pineco. Unfortunately for him, he decides to use a Wisp Torchic, which misses immediately (one can count Hacker's many misses in the last few LC tours to painful dismay) and sets Lokifan up to get rid of it early, who lost his hazard setter turn 1 not realizing Hacker had switched up the Pineco's moves. Using a variant of SD Foo with Protect, hacker also burns his tera early to get rid of Vullaby and try and force the rest to be KO'd or weakened by Scarf Shellder, but Mudbray and Foongus prove too fat and continue to make progress. Ultimately Lokifan burns his tera on Voltorb and gets a para on the same turn on SD Foo, which misses High Jump Kick and means the game is essentially over from there in favor of Lokifan. Unfortunate week for Hacker who also starts 0-2 after being ranked high on the PR alongside Scottie. One will hope he's got more accurate moves in his next game....
[BRE] tko vs Fille [DYN]
Another 1-0 starter matchup, both come off wins last week looking to further prove that people had unfairly ruled them out compared to the others on the PR. Fille's opted for a triple poison ttm core, while tko brings another unique team this week featuring threatening sweepers in Torchic and Gible, the latter of which looks strong into this triple poison ttm team.

Both players trade early on the Spore war, but tko has the upper hand as he gets quite nearly every turn right early to mid game, trading his torchic to force progress. Fille also brings out a Mud Shot Mareanie, a tech presumably to win a 1v1 mirror without resorting to Acid Spray while simultaneously beating other poisons like tko's Glimmet. Fille using up his tera to tank a Brave Bird from Vullaby but dying to poison anyway means it just comes down to the Foongus sporing the Stunky as Gible comes in, sets up in spite of Scarf Glimmet and a Sucker Punch hit to sweep the remaining poisons.

[SHO] Envy1 vs Starsama [FOX]
Another battle of newcomers to officials, Envy and Starsama both come in as promising talent. Envy's coming off a huge win in being the first person to beat Osh in 12 games of official LC, so momentum's with him here. Starsama was hyped up over tazz last week, but failed to translate the audience's faith in him to success.

Both sides bring probably the most normal teams of the week, at least on paper. Envy opts for a double poison with Stunky and Foongus, with a Mudbray and Big 3. Starsama also does the same, but with a Gothita over Voltorb. Gotta love how identical SV LC gets huh...well at least as long as you ignore the rest of the week's games.

The first real surprise of the game after some standard opening turns comes with Envy using Bulldoze Mudbray when Starsama clicks SD on his Mienfoo. Clever tech, although it doesn't matter much as a few turns later the Mienfoo misses a HJK into getting KO'd anyway. Despite this setback, having a resttalk Mudbray up his sleeve means Starsama mounts a good comeback, even if Envy's Voltorb teras ice on the Mudbray's Tera Dragon and almost ends the game, but a poison and a well timed Sleep Talk Heavy Slam means the game comes down to the Stunky trying to 1v1 the Foongus which it barely falls short of doing.


That's all for this week folks! Lots of interesting trends this week as more people opt for spicing up the generic ttm cores or double poison structures, with many bringing uncommon mons like Pineco and Gible, and even more uncommon sets and surprise techs like Bulldoze Mudbray and Mud Shot Mareanie. Very excited to see where next week goes, so tune in to find out who's Norwood status is in jeopardy next week!


ps. LilyAC i am 4/4 on predicts for last week pls retroactively add me into the sheet :row:
 
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My predicts

Scottie vs Hacker - Scottie's been unlucky in general, and I think their 0-2 is stronger than Hacker's.
Fille vs Tazz - I think Fille's more likely to find an advantage vs tazz in the builder, but I think Tazz has played very well with decent teams.
Lokifan vs tko - lokifan is good but I rate tko and their crew as better builders
Envy1 vs Éric - Eric has looked good and I underrated them. Envy had a really cool tech last week with bulldoze Mudbray but let the game slip away
 
week 2 results:

(66%) tazz vs Colin (34%)
(28%) Éric vs Scottie (72%)
(72%) Hacker vs Lokifan (28%)
(50%) tko vs Fille (50%)
(50%) Envy1 vs Starsama (50%)

a majority has yet to win a single matchup, we're all collectively terrible at predicting
well done to Drifting Flou and bleahey for scoring 0/5

standings: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KL9NwE8PoRg4FRobUMRG-lQ4HftXZ2a7ZBHC8Ttpoa0/edit?usp=sharing
use tabs at the bottom for results per week, let me know if u spot a mistake


week 3: https://forms.gle/QsmAeKq946Y38R2d9
 
Scottie vs Hacker - Scottie has mainly been unlucky but still Hackers good and will probably bring like Sandygast or smth
Fille vs tazz - better player
Lokifan vs tko - is 2-0
Starsama vs Colin - this is such a 50/50 matchup that I forgot whether this is actually what I just filled out on the form
Envy1 vs Éric - Éric is now unstoppable
 
Scottie vs Hacker : I predicted for both of them the past 2 weeks surely it goes right this time
F i l l e vs tazz : Midas is passing Fille a Growlithe Kanto
Lokifan vs tko : Hasn't let me down in predicts yet
Starsama vs Colin : A close one as people have mentioned, I've liked how Starsama has looked more as of late
Envy1 vs Éric : Winning here but losing to me when I bring Nymble every game in Ladder Tour
 
i didnt forget about this weeks analysis!
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shellder is, obviously, the single biggest threat on this team. i have a lot of resources against it, but all of toed, foongus, vull and sd mienfoo arent as scary as a +2 shellder is. if i play my cards wrong, no matter the amount of tera waters i have, i will lose anyway, so i need to be very aware at all points
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after leading with mienfoo and hard switching out of vull for fear of a scarf brave bird ko (this team looks slow), i went to tinkatink and knocked the (i thought) incoming toed/foongus. however, he unleashed a heat wave which, unfortunately for him, missed. people have all complained endlessly about this and, while i think its lucky for me (obviously), i dont think its as game changer as people make it out to be.
heat wave deals 8 HP to tinkatink, and i recover 9 hp, so i would basically just lose 7 hp. that, against shell smash shellder, is as good as dead, but i did decide to take that trade anyway when the first one missed, because killing vullaby was incredible for my entire team basically. against scarf shellder, however, its way better the higher my hp is of course, but i dont think having it be at 50% would be that much worse when i just kept throwing off draining kisses anyway.
i also crit the vullaby, which wouldve been bad for me if he had hit the heat waves, but is incredibly good now that he missed them. it is what it is, im not denying it
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after 13 turns of foongus/mienfoo/toedscool loop, i ultimately went vullaby on a mienfoo double, and he decided to get knocked at that point trading for sludge bomb, apparently. i switched tink in because i valued my rocks on his, since his toed was incredibly low and i have a vull thats very threatening or a toedscool. however, since he used sludge bomb, i had a free turn where i could deny him from setting rocks up and get toed really low. he stayed in, i suppose to get rocks up, and just died. i had revealed my tinkatinks speed stat in turn 2, so this was incredibly surprising to me, but i take it. no shame in getting lucky when your opponent risks it, its on them. i had a toed which i didnt switch into the glimmet bc i didnt wanna deal with sludge bomb poisons with spikes when i didnt need to, and getting rocks myself was a big advantage.
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heres another turn where i cant help it but think he messed up. as i said in the beginning, shellder is my #1 priority, the game is controlled outside of it atp with my doduo and vullaby. osh is well known for using weird shellder sets like tera blast electric/fighting, so i was ready for basically anything. icicle spear is rare, maybe less now but still uncommon, but him revealing it to ko my foongus would be nothing but net positive for me, as that would reveal a lot of information potentially. i take my foongus dying if it means shellder wont win yet, so i giga drain here. here is the weird part: even tho i cant really know that yet, his shellder is scarf, and it does indeed have icicle spear. knowing this, why didnt he use it to ko my foongus? i can only think that he expected me to go to tinkatink to resist it, but wouldnt that just make me lose the game vs standard shellder? someone correct me if im wrong
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more foongus on foongus action happens until i eventually go into my toedscool to what appears to be his double to shellder. same deal with toedscool as with foongus here. toed is incredibly low value here, its nice to remove spikes but thats it. trading it just to ensure i dont lose to shellder is good for me, so i used earth power, which gives me the most out of this turn in every case (stay in tera, switch to vull/foong/foo). here however is where he decides to reveal scarf and kills my toed. as i said, this is nothing else but good for me, because now i can play completely safely knowing this wont set up and win, and my doduo will always be faster. this changes everything
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i use this opportunity to set rocks up with tinkatink, forcing toed to come in and remove them, which gives me a free switch into my threat #1 vullaby. using it to force a tera out of mienfoo and a lot of health lost on it, now my brave birds are incredibly free and i win the game
ggs to scottie, this was definitely a game influenced by luck, and i hope we can play in better conditions in playoffs or another tour. that said, man i think i played so well. there was no point in this review where i thought "i shouldve done this instead". sure, no game is perfect, but everything had a reason to happen and it allowed me to win, so im very happy with this game no matter what. envy next
 
WEEK 4 MATCHUPS (FREE FROM VOLTORB TYRANNY):

[Breakers] tko vs Scottie [Platoon]
[Gibles] Hacker v Envy1 [Shoguns]
[Spartans] Éric v Starsama [Foxes]
[Machines] tazz v Lokifan [Terrors]
[Islanders] Colin vs Fille [Dynamos]


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Week 3 Recap(Pay to Unlock, Now Only a 1.99 weekly subscription fee):

[PLA] Scottie vs cleann [GIB]

Surprise LC hero from last year's Gibles returns to be a surprise hero again for this year's Gibles, temporarily replacing Hacker who couldn't play for hurricane reasons. Scottie's season has been a shock so far, going from undefeated to unwinning so far and it appears to continue. Bringing a ttm + goth team versus Hacker's ttm + torb team, the game starts off unlucky with a choiced Mienfoo missing HJK while trying to force out Mareanie. What ensues is a very messy set of trades, where cleann has a slight advantage from having a toed that can heal up with giga drain in the mirror. Until turn 33, it looks pretty bad for cleann until his torb reveals tera psychic, which is just enough to clutch vs Gothita before Scottie's timer runs out. Unfortunate game for Scottie, but cleann gets to show off his chops again in LC officials.
[DYN] Fille vs tazz [TMS]

I have to confess, I actually forgot how this game went until about midway through watching this replay. I'm unfortunately out of town so these writeups are shorter (and late(r)) this week so as much as I want to break this one down turn by turn...I can't.

Firstly, let me preface by saying don't take tazz to vegas. Secondly, if you do, he might learn how to count cards, which is the equivalent of what he did in this game. After about 23 uninteresting Foongus turns that'll matter later if you keep count, tazz's tera is wasted on a Mienfoo that gets crit to 5% in a trade for Fille's Vullaby. Next, his Shellder gets crit, which luckily doesn't end up mattering too much for him. The remaining 30 or so turns ends up being some extremely clever and calculated doubles on both sides, but tazz manages to outwit fille into wasting his foongus move count — although very nearly getting lucked again....but clutches the win. Great game, definitely a must watch for people wanting to learn some smart plays.
[TER] Lokifan vs tko [BRE]

Lokifan brings a very surprising team combo, in Snowshrew and Axew but this ends up being very potent in a matchup vs tko's toedbray balance. Ice resists are sparse in this meta, and with the usage of tera dragon skyrocketing just as torb is about to get banned, snowshrew ends up looking real potent. In fact, it clutched an LCPL tiebreak game in finals too just right before this.

Loki opens with some ballsy plays into Vullaby, safely taking it out with Mienfoo in a gambled set of turns. Turn 13 sees him tera...and miss triple axel which might end up being costly, as later his other wincon in Axew gets crit on a memento'd Mudbray but barely lives, which does nothing as Mudbray teras to Steel to live. Loki however gets a good gamble in, taking a Rapid Spin on Mienfoo while low as it clicks Swords Dance instead, leaving him able to Triple Axel and KO it to win the game.
[FOX] Starsama vs Colin [ISL]
Colin brings Torchic + no clear removal (presumably Vullaby with Defog) into a Trapinch build from Starsama. T13 sees Starsama's Tera Fight Scarf Mienfoo take out Vullaby (which if it was able to defog or trade, opens up the game for Colin) before Colin tries to bait it to KO itself on Tera Ghost Glimmet. Good scouting from Starsama allows him to open a line into Trapinch to get a kill on Foongus, before trading with Torchic later and eventually getting the game down to Starsama's paralyzed stunky to sucker punch the sleeping glimmet to win.
[SHO] Envy1 vs Éric [SPA]

Eric switches it up with a Grookey build, while Envy plays it safe and brings a standard goth balance. Eric's early tera burn opens it up for Envy to safely tera his Vullaby to poison, and trade with Eric's SD Foo bringing the game into a Grookey speed tie (which he later confirmed wasn't fast enough for the tie), i forgot the exact sequence of events oops!

grookey was still doomed to lose from that spot onwards with eric's spread. Short writeup for this, but I'll let Eric elaborate on the details whenever he drops his post...

very short writeups this week, i'm busy and out of town :(
you know the drill, post 'em predicts and things you're looking forward to in a new meta on the big stage and stuff. see y'all in no torb meta!
 
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BlackKnight_Gawain said:
bringing the game into a Grookey speed tie
Click to expand...
what tie are you talking about pokebro grookey is 17 and glimmet is 16

anyway w3 vs envy analysis up
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the first thing i noticed is my voltorb does go insane. i figured theyd have to use their own voltorb to trade + probably electric vullaby to deal with it. i also thought i needed to be extremely wary of gothita if i didnt wanna lose my mienfoo for nothing, since it was really good too if i managed to spam it correctly, since their team lacks a fighting resist.
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i lead with mareanie bc i thought it was my best lead vs mienfoo, i can easily pivot out of voltorb and for lead vullaby i have the best counter in the game and could get easy rocks. they end up leading with mienfoo, which turns out to be 10 speed, which means they get an easy gothita trap instead of getting threatened of a 2hko. i got crit by the uturn, which funnily enough wouldve mattered if this mienfoo wasnt 10 speed, bc thatd mean goth would just die before i die.
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i had to get some momentum back after losing a mon (which wasnt really important atp but its still a deficit), and i basically had two options: stunky or tinkatink. tinkatink would give me free rocks, trading for their own, and stunky, as i saw it, didnt give me any guaranteed progress. i then ended up setting my rocks up, but now (without timer presssure) i think there were some stunky lines where i could guarantee a kill, which could potentially be better than the rocks, but im not really sure yet. im in the back still tho, i need to even it out
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as they went mudbray to punish my rocks, i saw there were only really two options from them: setting their own rocks up or going for a coverage move. i thought eq was off the table, because just blanking into grookey is a lost turn. with that in mind, i had two options myself: voltorb and grookey. i think going voltorb was better, because grookey needed health vs voltorb, and didnt force as much progress vs vullaby/mienfoo. voltorb, on the other hand, basically guaranteed a kill on mienfoo if i got it (burning my tera, but it was worth it to not be goth weak too), and if they went voltorb theyd risk giving my mienfoo free turns. sadly, i got stone edge crit, which will matter later
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after getting the mienfoo snipe, we had a little switch dance until i positioned my mienfoo vs their mudbray, with grassy terrain up. it was a perfect opportunity to get my sd up, and they went vullaby. i was so sure it should be tera electric and, while i thought endure was a possibility, if they actually got to click endure i could just react and go to tinkatink myself. therefore, i just clicked hjk, hoping to get a kill, but envy surprised me with a tera poison, which avoided a kill and killed me back. i think this is what ultimately lost me the game (spoilers), since i went from an incredibly good position into a reallly difficult one. this, coupled with the fact that my voltorb got crit, which forced me to go for gigadrain unless i wanted to get trapped, sealed the deal for them.
after the tera poison turn, idk how i couldve gotten the game back. envy had 4 mons at full health and i had 4 mons chipped, and i cant see how to force more damage than the one im taking.
i think this was actually a good game, probably incredible to spectate, but it sadly meant im 2-1 now instead of 3-0. im not sad with it tho, its a well played game in the context of scl, and i hope all future games are as good as this one.
 
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week 3 results:

(62%) Scottie vs Hacker (38%) cleann
(31%) Fille vs tazz (69%)
(34%) Lokifan vs tko (66%)
(34%) Starsama vs Colin (66%)
(34%) Envy1 vs Éric (66%)

a majority finally won a matchup, with a lot of people correctly predicting tazz. on the whole though, we still did pretty bad. nobody got them all right, and 3 people got them all wrong

updated standings (i've decided to nullify any games with substitutes):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KL9NwE8PoRg4FRobUMRG-lQ4HftXZ2a7ZBHC8Ttpoa0/edit?usp=sharing
 
WEEK 5 MATCHUPS (WELCOME TO THE HALFWAY POINT):

[Terrors] Lokifan vs Colin [Islanders]
[Foxes] Starsama vs Kaboom [Dynamos]
[Platoon] Scottie vs tazz [Machines]
[Shoguns] Envy1 vs tko [Breakers]
[Spartans] Éric vs Hacker [Gibles]



​
Week 4 Recap(I got a pay raise so this is up faster):

[BRE] tko vs Scottie [PLA]
A big hl mu for the week, with both players hyped up but coming in off losses. Scottie is looking to beat his winless streak while tko looks to get back on the win sheet after a bad last week. Neither have deviated from super safe structures this week in the first torbless week, with tko bringing shellder tink stunky while scottie brings diglett-alola, all of which benefit from the loss of voltorb-h this week.

Tko starts off strong, throwing in Balloon Tink turn 1 to steal Choice Scarf from Scottie's Vullaby. I'm a big fan of him saving the tink on 5% to knock the opposing tink t9 and lock it into Choice Scarf, which I think might be my favorite play of the season so far as it just forces Scottie's defensive core to rethink how it plays while punishing him further for his opening clicks. This only gets better as tko boldly calls a Toed switch, KOing it instantly with Ice Hammer in what is a strong start anyone could ask for in this game. Things start going wrong for tko from t16, as he misses a crucial HJK on Osh's Tink and is forced to later lose eviolite on Stunky to make progress against it. The endgame ends up falling flat as tko has no options but to hope Scottie has the worst possible Dig-A set and/or calls the wrong move so that Shellder can sweep, but it ends as Tera Dark Sucker is in fact, the best possible set to win. Unfortunate for tko after a strong start to this match, but Scottie finally gets to claim a win this week and break his losing streak after a tough month.
[GIB] Hacker vs Envy1 [SHO]
Hacker returns to the Gibles lineup after a clutch cleann substitute covered for him last week to play Envy who ended the Eric winstreak last week. Hacker takes full advantage of the meta shakeup to bring Wingull + Elekid, two mons that had literally negative presence as Voltorb-Hisui invalidated them so bad you would be clowned for this build less than a week ago. Envy brings a similar structure to his past few weeks, opting for another Marebray but with a Diglett-A this time (a mon which seems to be a clear winner in many eyes from the meta change).

T1 Hacker is forced to take a rough trade on Elekid to scare off Vull, before making a big double into Wingull to catch Mudbray coming in. Making another good call Hacker hits a hurricane (the layers of irony on this week cannot be overstated) while Envy is forced to tera thinking a water move is coming in. Hacker's good predicts continue as he catches Mienfoo coming in, so his Psychic click pays off in chunks. T9 sees a surprising trade as Mare lives an EQ (and Mudbray lives a Surf), a set which was later confirmed as speed invested defensive Mare. Hacker's strong game sense plays off again as he just confidently clicks HJK on a 5% Mare which switches, and KOs the incoming Mienfoo. It reveals it is Scarf next turn as it goes Tera Fighting to click HJK again, before taking a bit of a weird path in the endgame until he knocks Envy's Mare and forces in Elekid to wrap it up. Overall, a strong game by Hacker and a return to form as he played to the level expected from him over the last few weeks. Most crucially, he figured out how to hit a low accuracy move this week..........
[SPA] Éric vs Starsama [FOX]
Starsama comes in this week as the best record holder so far, with Eric's strong start on the downturn right now. Another Goth bring from Starsama, who doubles down on the Dig-A trend, while Eric opts to innovate a bit and bring back Magnemite as a potential meta mon.

Eric's game starts pretty bad as he trades Vullaby for a Knock on Mudbray instead of opting to use Toedscool to avoid risking an unsafe play. He's then forced to trade up Glimmet for rocks, which doesn't add much right now, reveals a scarf mag and takes chip on Toedscool, which reveals Giga Drain and makes you question his t4 play into the next few turns giving him a very faulty position. Defog Vull essentially makes the whole Glimmet trade pointless and t18 has Starsama reveal tera flying blast Dig-A, which longtime SV LCers will remember was a Kanto Dig staple and a good reason for its ban. With Sub up, and EQ + Tera Flying Blast it just confidently wins even if it highrolled Eric's Mag.
[TMS] tazz vs Lokifan [TER]
There's not really a lot of jokes I can keep making up about someone being unlucky week to week, but if I can say this without any irony and see it happen in-game really affirms that one is in fact, really unlucky.
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Despite dodging some bad juju last week, tazz comes in off a good win that had a great set of sequences i'm too lazy to further expand on, but is worth watching so go check it out if you haven't. Lokifan also comes in after a very confident win with equally confident plays, so this is week is a strong test for both players in this new meta to keep up form.

tazz goes safe here, opting for a ttm + stunky as this type of structure is more consistent without the constant torb tera risk. Loki brings the now far better snubbull alongside trapper goth. Loki's opening moves are kinda bad, going for a Knock on a predictable tink and forcing to trade Stunky on a Mud Shot Mare isn't the strongest start. He does however, show his ability to take a risky play like previous weeks as he sends in goth on a rock + spike up into Surf chip, but successfully gets it right to remove Mare. He then trades Mud for some chip and rocks, which he loses anyway despite getting a Toed turn right. T16 has him get in Vullaby and force a Defog through for his gameplan, but loses it in the process which will be crucial later. The Snubbull gets a good Earthquake click in but fails to KO Evio Stunky, before a set of doubles has a crucial Gunk Shot miss on Gothita on t20. Loki gets a Sucker call right and throws in his Stunky and trades, and with 18% uses Explosion to pivot in the preserved Goth to trap and KO a chipped Mienfoo in a pretty brilliant play. T25 he messes up a bit, as it this point it's obvious the Vullaby is Scarf and Snubbull could've clicked twave/eq, but he goes for the worse click in Play Rough while losing Eviolite on Snub. This means Tera Flying Brave Bird scores a kill on a further chipped Snub, and the game is pretty lost for loki....but he manages to actually crit on Tera Fight Scarf HJK to win the game. Loki's endgame definitely could've been sharper and it's a little bad that tazz got lucked, but I think Loki could've realized the Vullaby set earlier and played into a better set of outs after having played fairly better for most of the game up to that endgame.
[ISL] Colin vs Fille [DYN]
Colin and Fille both continue to prove themselves this week after some questionable past few weeks. Colin continues the trend of safe post-torb teams seen this week with a triple poison + mudbray core, and fille goes for the safe goth balance if you ignore the glaring Buizel on your screen. A t1 LO flip turn confirms its set, but it's gone by t3 in a questionable sack so it really makes you question what it was meant to add to the team....

Colin does a good predict t6 as he realizes an incoming Gothita is possible and throws in Stunky, gets a knock on Vull and a gunk poison on Mudbray. T11 Colin manages to Spore Goth and get it heavily chipped before losing Foongus, and then getting a crucial Roost up on his Vullaby, before being made to sack Glimmet trying to presumably attack Fille's Vullaby. T20 has him go Tera Ghost to presumably catch an HJK attempt, before KOing Fille's Mienfoo on an attempted SD turn. Fille teras his Vullaby, but the game is quite over at this point and he concedes, letting Colin bounce back after a close loss last week.

What did everyone think of the first torbless week? Drop your predicts for next week and hope we see more innovative builds now that the annoying ball is gone!
 
BlackKnight_Gawain said:
[GIB] Hacker vs Envy1 [SHO]
Hacker returns to the Gibles lineup after a clutch cleann substitute covered for him last week to play Envy who ended the Eric winstreak last week. Hacker takes full advantage of the meta shakeup to bring Wingull + Elekid, two mons that had literally negative presence as Voltorb-Hisui invalidated them so bad you would be clowned for this build less than a week ago. Envy brings a similar structure to his past few weeks, opting for another Marebray but with a Diglett-A this time (a mon which seems to be a clear winner in many eyes from the meta change).

T1 Hacker is forced to take a rough trade on Elekid to scare off Vull, before making a big double into Wingull to catch Mudbray coming in. Making another good call Hacker hits a hurricane (the layers of irony on this week cannot be overstated) while Envy is forced to tera thinking a water move is coming in. Hacker's good predicts continue as he catches Mienfoo coming in, so his Psychic click pays off in chunks. T9 sees a surprising trade as Mare lives an EQ (and Mudbray lives a Surf), a set which was later confirmed as speed invested defensive Mare. Hacker's strong game sense plays off again as he just confidently clicks HJK on a 5% Mare which switches, and KOs the incoming Mienfoo. It reveals it is Scarf next turn as it goes Tera Fighting to click HJK again, before taking a bit of a weird path in the endgame until he knocks Envy's Mare and forces in Elekid to wrap it up. Overall, a strong game by Hacker and a return to form as he played to the level expected from him over the last few weeks. Most crucially, he figured out how to hit a low accuracy move this week..........
Click to expand...
true but ur bald
 
Lokifan vs Colin - I think Colin is way better than the community gives him credit for he is very very great, he plays a lot of test games with a lot of high level players and is obsessed with his craft
Starsama vs Kaboom - there is a lack of CM Sweepers in this metas and Starsama isnot as lucky as tazz or kingler so the main anti Midas strategy wont work.
Scottie vs tazz - Very high entertainment level, tazz is definetilly good enough to be allowed to beat Osh but will get hax cause of "curse" and in the end Osh will win cause of "hax"
Envy1 vs tko - I do have an oppinion here, but I dont wanna predict against my dear friends S2 S2
Éric vs Hacker - I love both players both like to have the initiative and arent afraid of unorthodox picks, this is a personality pick just because I will be cheering for Éric.
 
week 4 results:

(42%) tko vs Scottie (58%)
(61%) Hacker vs Envy1 (39%)
(61%) Éric vs Starsama (39%)
(61%) tazz vs Lokifan (39%)
(55%) Colin vs Fille (45%)

special shoutout to dvs for getting 0 here

week 5 results:

(59%) Lokifan vs Colin (41%)
(67%) Starsama vs Kaboom (33%)
(52%) Scottie vs tazz (48%)
(33%) Envy1 vs tko (67%)
(26%) Éric vs Hacker (74%)
much better predictions these past 2 weeks! 4 people got everything right in week 5 (Novax, Hacker, Elfuseon and myself :blobuwu:)

updated standings: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KL9NwE8PoRg4FRobUMRG-lQ4HftXZ2a7ZBHC8Ttpoa0/edit?usp=sharing
let me know if u spot any mistakes
 
WEEK 6 MATCHUPS (SECOND HALF):
[Gibles] Hacker vs Starsama [Foxes]
[Breakers] tko vs Éric [Spartans]
[Machines] tazz vs Envy1 [Shoguns]
[Islanders] Colin vs Scottie [Platoon]
[Terrors] Lokifan vs Colin [Islanders]
[Dynamos] Kaboom vs Lokifan [Terrors]




​
Week 5 Recap (inspired to write):

[TER] Lokifan vs Colin [ISL]
Lokifan continues his sheist bring streak with this week's featured unmon in Finizen with a little Grookey support and a Marebray defensive core. Colin brings another ttm, this time with the big dog Growlithe-Hisui in the back.

Colin starts off really unlucky by missing an Air Slash with Vull, which sucks as special Vull had some potential strength here. This would end up being the first of many unlucky moments for him though...like the t8 boomburst crit and t11 hjk miss. Being forced to burn his tera on one of the two Boomburst resists means the Finizen gets stronger too, although 3 more Head Smash misses and Loki having a clearcut Tera Normal Boomburst made this an ungame between two strong players. Unfortunate way for Colin to lose, and with this game Lokifan goes to the top of the record sheet for this season.
[FOX] Starsama vs Kaboom [DYN]
There's honestly not a lot to write about beyond matchups and trying to predict who might've won— but the reality is kaboom timed out early enough in the game that this isn't worth recapping without just going into full blown speculation territory. On to the next.
[PLA] Scottie vs tazz [TMS]

I can finally stop a 3 week bit about tazz's luck and write about something else! I quite like both teams here, tazz brings a Chinchou, which I think is highly underrated post torb, on a defensive backbone of tink + foongus. Scottie's got the goober offense, with Torchic, Axew and Shellder, with potential memento and breaking support in Stunky or Dig-A.

Early game Scottie mementos and gets a quick kill on Vullaby with Torchic, but then greeds heavily by trying to setup on Foongus with Axew and gets solidly chipped and slept. Tazz uses his tera on Foongus to remove Torchic, and Dragon seems safe here as Axew is asleep at low health and his Shellder counterplay is still decent. Scottie tries to pressure with Stunky from there to not much avail as Tink walls it, and the mixed Vull also flops as it teras to beat Chou, which just Ice Beams on it anyway in a trade. Once Stunky loses its Evio trying to 1v1 the Tink, it was completely over as Scarf Foo comes in and wraps it up. A good comeback for tazz, and back to losing ways for Scottie after finally clutching out last week.
[SHO] Envy1 vs tko [BRE]

tko comes in bringing the same six as lokifan from a few weeks ago (incidentally vs him) while envy has elected to switch it up a little and go ttm + dig -a from his usually bray heavy teams. Off the bat though, tko starts really unlucky with a t2 hjk miss that puts him way too far behind on a team that needs careful play. Another crit on his foo after some attempts to bring it back to more health doesn't help either, followed by another u-turn crit on Stunky after it loses evio trying to make progress into Envy's team. T14 really rubs it in, with a full crit on Bray doing 70%, forcing it to tera and reveal Tera Flying to KO Diglett. At this point Envy just looks immensely favored, but tko pulls some clever plays with some good switches into Envy's safe plays with Vullaby, which takes big chip from switching into Tera Blast Flying from Bray. Envy plays a bit too passively with Mienfoo from t24-27, and really greeds by trying to knock on t30 instead of KOing tko's mienfoo back, leading to Envy's foo being slept on t35. I personally think the rocks on t42 with tink was also greedy, although I have some detractors in discord for that — but giving shrew the chance to spin here instead of being sacked as tko risked was bad for envy. Turn 48 has tko risk getting rocks up to deal with vull, and manages to do so and KO a sleeping Mienfoo. The resulting trade on axew lets it get dragon dance up, and a faster bray set means that teraing Mare didn't matter as tko pulls a great comeback from a terrible early game.
[SPA] Éric vs Hacker [GIB]

Hacker, another chou believer, has brought his own chou team featuring dig-a and bray into eric's marebray+goth build. Hacker starts strong, t1 sleep and a good double to Vullaby on Goth lets him knock Eric's mareanie and KO dig-a, which was the biggest inconvience to chou here. After a double knock trade on the Vull mirror, Hacker confidently brings in Chou to do some damage and risks a volt on Mudbray, getting it right before being forced to trade his Vull for Eric's. A couple of turns later, Hacker is able to comfortably do some chip with his bray, before sending foongus out to force some more progress, with Eric being unable to do much as his Gothita is too low to switch into a Foongus attack (or any attack really). T30 has Eric incorrectly the Foongus tera and tries to hit it with Stellar Tera Blast, failing to kill it and letting Hacker have a clean chance to wrap up the game with Diglett boosted by tera ground.

All round great games this week with some really refreshing builds. I personally think the SV meta is really good now and this week was the perfect microcosm of games to showcase that. Hopefully we see more interesting builds next week, and hopefully less lazy slapping on dig-a...........


PS. Drop predicts!
 
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w5 analysis vs hacker (i had to miss last week bc my msg got deleted lol)
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both our wincons are diglett alola because banning voltorb was a mistake

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he leads foongus and gets a free sleep off on my mareanie, as i had no spore immune and it was kinda useless anyway. immediately after, i thought that his options going forward were staying in and sludge bombing, which would risk 70% of losing to gothita, going mienfoo or going vullaby, which both beat gothita. i spent a lot of time thinking and, thanks to timer and overall pressure, i flopped and ended up going to gothita, kind of tunnel visionning on him staying in. he makes a good play and goes vullaby, which forces incredible amounts of progress because diglett alola is somehow still legal, and if i get my mudbray knocked i lose. in hindsight, and honestly in the moment too, you realize that me going mienfoo would cover absolutely every single play he makes: i uturn out of foongus into goth, i can potentially 1v1 vull and also mienfoo and trap it, and chou/bray/dig would straight up lose to foo. mienfoo was 100% the best play here, and i instead went gothita, which made me lose a lot more than youd think.
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immediately after, i made the clearest bad play i could make, which everyone rightfully noticed. as i said, vull exerted incredible amounts of pressure, because i didnt want my mudbray to get knocked just to lose to diglett after. i decided to go mareanie, eat the knock and bait a brave bird (the only way vull can ko it), to go diglett and threaten back, gaining back some momentum. without much context, that sentence makes sense right? its risky, but its based on logic. HOWEVER, we forget the fact that my mareanie was asleep, so hacker had absolutely no reason not to knock again. this is an incredibly dumb mistake, which lost me the game, and is not typical of scl play, but rather 1000 elo ladder players. it made me feel really sad afterwards but whatever, thats the nature of competition i guess.
the one thing i love about myself playing is that i never lose focus or tilt, so even after this dumb mistake, i was still able to kind of get back at the game. dont get me wrong, it was almost unsalvable at this point, but i did manage to get to a position where if he made a mistake, i could win.
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imagine he teras here and my goth just traps everything lol he is a good player and therefore didnt fuck up obviously, but if theres a lesson to learn here is that you should never give up while playing, there always are paths to victory, however small. this a game with lots of pressure after all, in some timelines hacker, however good he is, wouldve fucked up just like i had earlier. always look out for win conditions guys
this game sucked, i played bad and lost because of it. im coming off of 3 consecutive losses, where my team is also losing alongside me, so i feel awful about it. next week i play tko, someone who i respect a lot. im projected 5-4 (spanish curse) so lets see what happens. and ban diglett alola
 
WEEK 7 MATCHUPS (scl going STRONG):


[Terrors] Lokifan vs Starsama [Foxes]
[Platoon] Scottie vs Fille [Dynamos]
[Shoguns] Envy1 vs Colin [Islanders]
[Spartans] Eeveeto vs tazz [Machines]
[Machines] tazz vs Envy1 [Shoguns]
[Gibles] Hacker vs tko [Breakers]




​
Week 6 Recap (this week was kinda epic ngl):


[GIB] Hacker vs Starsama [FOX]

This week on the Hacker kitchen special, he's brought two of the three Johto baby trio, Magby and Elekid which feel very solid right now given the tier's recent ban. With a Mudbray and Mareanie defensive core, this team seems pretty weak into the opposing goth shellder team on paper.

Hacker's lead into Mudbray kinda forces him to trade the Vull immediately to KO it with Elekid, but losing it immediately to Scarf Foo is not great. A few turns later, he's forced into another bad corner with the same trade in reverse, but Starsama having Goth gives him a better spot to trade the chipped and trapped Mudbray as Hacker has nothing for it after except tera, but has to also worry about the Shellder. A good bluff does force him into luring Shellder out into a Shell Smash, but a 50/50 on Tera Steel vs Icicle Spear/Liquidation going wrong means he's lost the game after Starsama gets the turn right.
[BRE] tko vs Éric [SPA]

tko's love for torchic continues as he brings an offense heavy team with it and stunky, on a backbone of tink and foongus versus eric's sloppy-ish slow snubbull-chou with a toed and glim. The early game is good for Eric as tko is forced to make some predictions that don't work, such as trying to snag an item with Balloon Tink or get the Ice Hammer hit on Toed. By turn 19, tko's forced to sack Foongus after being unable to avoid rock + spike going up. Turn 24 tko has lost both tink + foongus and his rocks, so this is pretty firmly in Eric's favor up to this point. Managing to get a crucial turn right later, he gets to preserve his foo after Eric's scarf foo failed to kill with knock + poison chip. After letting Shellder get knocked, tko goes for a very greedy play with Tera Fairy Shellder, boosting twice on the scarf foo taking advantage of it being locked into Knock Off. Eric trying to use Snubbull to lower its attack doesn't work too well as Shellder ends up being Rock Blast + Icicle Spear, letting it beat the Chinchou and chip Snubbull. Torchic comes in and it's just Eric trying to get turns right with Roost but Will-o-Wisp makes it unable to break the remainder of tko's team, letting the latter comeback after a bad start to this game.
[TMS] tazz vs Envy1 [SHO]

I find it very amusing tazz brought the same six as tko before —have to wonder if notes were crosschecked— while Envy sticks to his usual gameplan of Bray + multiple poisons balance. Tazz gets the first two turns right with his Balloon Tink being successful in yoinking an Eviolite, and then immediately hitting Ice Hammer to get the KO on Vull. After some turns of Foongus war avoidance, tazz manages to force a trade on Glimmet in exchange for letting a spike and rocks go up. Sacking the Torchic to burn Stunky, he gets to trade Foo to get that KO'd to clear up a wincon path for Shellder in the back. Foongus gets a turn right too to Spore Envy's Foo, which loses scarf while asleep to Stunky. The Stunky mementos on Mudbray and the telegraphed tera from Envy's Foongus doesn't matter as tazz scouts it with substitute, before using his tera to seal the deal with boosted Rock Blast.
[ISL] Colin vs Scottie [PLA]

I find this game hilarious, if solely because of Drifting's terrible live commentary when this was happening which gave us this gem:
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Anyway before we get too ahead, on preview we can see Osh's team is a brayglim balance with Magnemite, while Colin's got the good check for this core with Chou and Foongus. Early game starts good for Colin, getting a spore in and trading Osh's bray for his Vull without repercussion. The aggressiveness with Vull continues for a few turns until he takes a big hit with Analytic damage doing a ton to Foongus.

A confident SD on the foo mirror means the Vull isn't too much of a risk but Colin plays it safe in case of tera but gets punished with losing bray and heavy chip on Stunky in the following few turns for not aggroing the Vullaby into being a non-threat. Osh is pretty comfortable with Magnemite being lost in exchange for some further chip, as he later reveals one last surprise in Scarf Glim, which overpowers the rest of the team as Colin burns tera on Stunky to try and kill it. A good start from Colin, but he really gave up a lot in the midgame which let Osh's good prep ultimately win out despite a shaky looking matchup.
[DYN] Kaboom vs Lokifan [TER]
The craziest game of the week, as Terrors came into this game 4-5 down looking for the tie. Spoilers, not only did Lokifan deliver, but he dropped an all-timer in an LC official in a crazy game vs Kaboom.

Lokifan's brought a very safe looking ttm featuring trapper pinch into a very Hacker-esque build with Elekid and...Corphish? The start of this game loki makes the correct play to send vull out early, hoping to catch a lead Spore but the Sludge Bomb poison crit gives Kaboom a huge start. The next few turns mark the start of a long game where both players will try to double and outpredict each other, but I think Loki has the edge here by getting several of them right (such as getting Toed healed up easily due to Kaboom switching in foo over vull, presumably to avoid the risk of spore). Non-CC bray also means the toed has an easier time switching in/out and with both sides not putting rocks up, this sequence of constant switches to catch the other in a bad position is unpunished by constant chip. T27 sees kaboom finally comfortable with putting Vull out knowing the risk of Spore is low, meaning Loki has a bit of momentum sapped with Toed not healing up as frequently to check Mudbray later. It actually does get a bit crazy here, as Loki passes up rocks for more switches, but Kaboom also does not set rocks or try to attack on any of these next few turns in t25-28. T30 sees the latter finally attack, but a crucial HJK miss means a big setback as Loki keeps his Foo at max. T33 loki finally takes his chance to reveal ID Vull, risking it to get more progress which works as a he lands a crit Air Slash on Mudbray being sent out to check it. The roar reveal puts loki back a bit, but loki being insane aggros into Mudbray (switched for foo) with Mareanie anyway. This aggression continues for another few turns with Acid Spray/Sludge Bomb clicks, before Loki sends out Vull on a predictable Spore turn. Elekid checks it though, but Kaboom smartly pulls it out on a predictable pinch turn. Loki gives up some vital tink health for a twave on foo T47, FINALLY putting up rocks t48, and twaving foongus 49 before continuing to be aggro and get some health back for minor chip on foongus with tink. T53 loki tries to get a good turn in with pinch on vull, but misses Stone Edge before feinting into Mud. A few turns later, he sends out tink into kaboom's vull and manages to heal up after living a brave bird and twaves this too, before getting spored while trying to get more health back to check vull later. Multiple turns of trying to eat hits later, kaboom finally loses the first mon of the game, sacking his mudbray t71. T74 Elekid comes back in, and misses a crucial focus blast on a sleeping tink, but loki sacks toed to get pinch in and revenge with First Impression. This gives kaboom his big break, as Corphish finally comes out. On paper, you'd be forgiven for thinking this is tera water dd to take full advantage of Crabhammer's high crit chance (useful vs Iron Defense Vull) as well as stronger Aqua Jet priority. Loki takes the risk and goes for the earthquake to get chip in, but doesn't feint before being sacked. Mare comes in and it's guaranteed to tank tera water crabhammer....if it was that. A surprise tera psychic fish (bad in a Stunky heavy meta I would say, while also giving up Corphish's main adaptability stabs) works out and KOs Mareanie with Tera Blast. Loki being a bit crazy this game, continues and risks not teraing here while kaboom takes the switch to scout whatever tera it could be. T87 loki risks it with a lower health vull to get the air slash kill on foo, and switches to preserve vull, although a +1 dd here means aqua jet is risky with the poison chip on top. Loki finally uses his tera here to show off flying Mienfoo, which eats a +1 tera blast and uturns out, comfortably giving loki the win as last mon foongus can't do much to the rest of his team. A great game if you saw this live, and almost certainly a record for longest game in an LC official (if anyone knows a longer one do drop it here!)

Anyone else really loving post torb meta? SCL games are getting way better now and this week sees another big reshuffle with Fille back in, and Eric out after a bad run thus far, with Eeveeto stepping up...which means something heinous will be loaded. Exciting week ahead, drop predicts!


PS. Drop predicts!
PSPS . writeup got delayed bc i lost it halfway through :tymp:
 
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