Smogon Premier League 9: UU Discussion

[HT]

On mobile bu some quick thoughts on my game with rob:

1. Changed to adamant shark last minute :(!
2. Hp fire lefties kyurem was a cool tech and caught me good shit. Thought i could get a free knock on tenta and keep spikes up in the long run
3. Played crobat too aggressively, burning z move early and staying in on what i thought was a pursuit krook which turned out to be sedge
4. I do think going hard krook at the end was a choke on his end since he won with a free switch. I believe scizor was in range of a -1 crunch as well at that point but i dont remember

game was fun gg man

 

[Pak]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-345761

Not much to say about my game this week. Double dance Gliscor seemed like a cool pick and did work in most test games I played with it so I was really excited for the game itself. At preview, I was 99% sure Krook was scarf based on the rest of the team and that would give me a free set up opportunity with Gliscor at some point, and once it set up, there was a very good chance it would straight up sweep. I managed to lure it in with Manectric and get Gliscor into a favorable (while not ideal since I hard switched into Knock) position and win from there. I may have rushed things a bit but it worked out so can’t really complain. gg to ahd.

I got lazy and didn’t post about my weeks 2 and 3 games so I’ll probably do that at some point this week.

 

[robjr]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-345636

Some thoughts about my game vs HT:

Was very excited to play my first SPL game, and this game was short(in turns at least), so this should be quick

Turn 1 was easy to see that crobat had a great matchup as my flying resist was lacking, wanted to lead off with krook because it covered most of his leads very well, and if he lead crobat i got off the intimidate and had a nice chance to get rocks up early

Turn 6, i expected a u turn on his end(or knock which turns out he had) because lefties had already been revealed and like HT already covered i didn't think he'd expect hp fire

Turn 9 incorrectly sacced my infernape over my togekiss, which made the game alot harder on myself

The next few turns was just me saccing off things to get an intimidate on sharpedo, to try and position scizor to win. At this point my timer was running low and i hadn't had a chance to call the damage sharpedo was doing

Turn 17 i should have sacced scizor to have a guarenteed win, but based of the damage sharpedo was doing i had no way to tell for sure if he as adamant or jolly because the rolls he got were in the range of adamant and jolly, so i thought going for the roll with scizor was the best way to go

-1 252 Atk Strong Jaw Sharpedo-Mega Crunch vs. 96 HP / 0 Def Scizor: 138-163 (45.2 - 53.4%) -- 35.5% chance to 2HKO

GG to HT and gl in future weeks

 

[Amaroq]

As we move into the midseason break, I wanted to take the opportunity to discuss the various performances we've seen so far. Pak leads the standings with an impressive 4-0 record, followed by Christo at 3-1, a whole pack of 2-2 players, and finally Sacri, Bushtush, and the combined Wifi Wolfpack UU, all at 1-3. Bulky offense seems to be the most prevalent playstyle as a whole, with pretty much everyone bringing it out at one point or another and several players leaning on it rather heavily. A lot of these teams have straddled the line between bulky offense and balance, but some players have shown more aggressive stuff, such as Bushtush's Sun team, HT's Barbaracle squad, Manipulative's Tailwind Tornadus build, and Cynde's Sharpedo HO. Stall has also shown up in the hands of Manipulative and Cynde, with mixed results.

I'm not going to dig too deeply into an analysis of usage stats, but I will mention a few things I find interesting. Mega Aggron has been quite popular, most likely due to its innate utility options and a combination of bulk, damage output, and coverage that allows it to check a number of popular threats without being passive. Mega Aerodactyl and Mega Manectric seem to be the Mega Evolutions of choice when players want immediate speed and offensive pressure, with Pokemon like Mega Beedrill and Mega Sceptile being largely or entirely passed up in favor of the above options. Mega Sharpedo has shown up on hyper offense teams, while Mega Altaria has found itself a place on all archetypes, thanks to its ability to serve as a sweeper, a utility/defensive Pokemon, and an immediate offensive threat, depending on what its team needs, and Rotom-W's recent departure from the tier has given Mega Pidgeot the chance to show what it can do. Other tier staples like Scizor, Gliscor, Latias, Hydreigon, Cobalion, and Klefki have seen plenty of usage, while new threat Azumarill has also been a popular pick, running multiple sets, and Amoonguss has risen on the strength of its antimeta attributes. The other recent suspect, Serperior, has largely fallen by the wayside, while Pokemon like Krookodile and Chandelure have received a surprising amount of usage relative to recent public opinion regarding their viability and effectiveness. Other antimeta options like Volcanion, Salazzle, and Moltres have also found their places in the SPL meta.

Below, I provide my assessment of the individual players and the states of their teams going into midseason as it relates to UU.

Hide

Pak has performed quite well so far, despite being an underrated pick placed low on the Power Rankings. In fact, he has yet to drop a single game. He's looked quite good, but is far from untouchable. The main question surrounding Pak is whether or not he'll be able to maintain his current success against a more difficult schedule in the second half of the season, as he has yet to play the top three players on the preseason Power Rankings, and it is possible that those players will exploit tendencies he's shown early on. The Raiders have neither the money nor the need to replace him and should devote any midseason changes they may make to improving their team in other areas.

Christo has also posted a good record. With only a single loss going into midseason, he seems set to live up to his preseason hype. His performance so far has been a solid very solid on the solid scale, and he has shown no reason to assume that will change. Christo has some potentially dangerous opponents remaining, especially Pak and dodmen, but seems poised to end the season with a respectable record. While the Dragonspiral Tyrants have plenty of money to spend at midseason, they have no pressing need to spend any of it on a UU player and will most likely use it to shore up other weaknesses in their lineup. That said, they gain nothing from reserving cash, and have so much of it that they may well spend some on another testing partner/substitute or other form of support for Christo, simply because it's better to use it than to lose it.

dodmen has gotten off to a rocky start, at least relative to the expectations of most observers, but has proven his skill time and again and has plenty of support from Hikari. His builds have been arguably the most interesting and creative of this SPL, at least in UU, and his past performances indicate that he can play at a high level. I doubt he'll stay down for long, both due to a lack of natural inclination to do so and Hikari's willingness to kick him in the butt if needed. The Stark Sharks have some money going into midseason, but it's hard to imagine another UU player significantly increasing the ability of a team containing dodmen and Hikari to prepare for opponents, so I think the Sharks will likely spend their credits in other ways.

Lycans has also gone 2-2 so far. His game vs. HT was pretty shaky and the rest of his play hasn't looked particularly inspired, but it hasn't looked bad either and he seems to be doing okay for himself so far. Lycans is a good player who has received a lot of hype for a long time, and he will need to step up his game in order to live up to it. The Indie Scooters have very little money to play with at midseason and will likely spend any resources they scrape up from trades elsewhere, but it is not out of the question for Scooters management to acquire some support for Lycans with clever trades.

HT is overperforming relative to a low preseason ranking and lackluster overall SM achievements, but his prior performances outside big team tours have shown that he has a high ceiling, so it's not necessarily a surprise to see him doing well. Some of his play has been questionable and he's made some teambuilding choices I disagree with (Adamant Mega Sharpedo comes to mind), but I've teamed with him twice in the past and know he can play well when he's in his zone. The Cryonicles have plenty of credits remaining at midseason and may benefit from picking up someone who can provide HT with more support, but they also have other weaknesses that they may need to address.

Manipulative has done better than most people, including myself, expected by ending up with a 2-2 record at midseason after defeating dodmen and Sacri' and losing to Pak and Christo. While I wasn't incredibly impressed by his performance in his first four games, he hasn't looked awful either and has brought multiple types of teams. If the Ever Grande BIGs manage to offload Mr. E the way they tried to earlier in the season, they could viably spend that money on purchasing a UU player to help a starter who lacks dedicated support. The hardest part of his schedule is behind him, so if his team picks up support and he learns how to use Steel-types and schedule properly with his opponents, he could very well end the season with a solid record.

A Hero's Destiny was ranked last in the preseason, and, despite his average record, I still consider that ranking correct. His play and teambuilding choices have been extremely questionable, and his two wins have resulted more from poor play by his opponents than from his own ability to take control of a game (HT failed to use the Mega Manectric that posed an enormous threat to his team correctly, while Cynde either brought stall without Stealth Rock or fundamentally failed to assess the value of keeping his own Stealth Rock up in that matchup and instead continually attempted to clear it). The Circus Maximus Tigers would be best served by spending some of their midseason money on a replacement UU player, or at minimum providing their starter with some proper teambuilding support.

Sacri' has performed quite poorly relative to his preseason ranking, but he faced the hardest opening two weeks of any player in this SPL. While the player third in the rankings losing to the players ranked first and second may not be particularly surprising, his loss to Manipulative is more baffling. Neither Sacri' nor any member of his team's support structure understood that Manipulative was likely to default to stall after losing two games before facing a stronger player, despite this trend being clear through analysis of his playing patterns. That said, Sacri's tour performances throughout 2017 certainly indicate that he is capable of playing at the highest level, and I believe that he will rebound now that some of his hardest matchups are out of the way. The Congregation of the Classiest has no need to replace him and will most likely spend any resources they create through midseason trades in other ways.

Bushtush has had a rough season. A strong early schedule, combined with a distinct lack of favor from the RNG, has resulted in a poor record. Bushtush has had strong performances in the past, but usually needs support to reach his peak. The Alpha Ruiners have a lot of problems to solve with 8000 credits, but might be well served by picking up support for Bushtush or replacing him entirely if the rumors I've heard about his lack of motivation are true.

Cynde has had the most disappointing SPL of all the starters, failing to produce a single win before being benched in Week 4. While his first two games were reasonably close, his performance in Week 3 was surprisingly poor. It's hard to say whether Cynde was simply nervous or unused to playing or if the game was symptomatic of a deeper problem, but the end result was PokeTCG gamer1288's appearance in the starting lineup the next week. PokeTCG gamer1288 didn't look particularly impressive either, and nearly choked the game away, so the Wolfpack are likely to spend some of their credits on a replacement. Crafty midseason bargaining may also allow them to shore up another weak spot on their roster.

Now that I've finished with my analysis of the UU players currently in SPL, I will discuss some players that I feel may merit considerations for support or starting slots.

Hide

Eyan is likely the frontrunner for a starting slot post-midseason. He reached top 16 in the 2017 UU Open and has received considerable hype from influential members of the community after a solid performance in UUPL V. Multiple managers have stated that they considered buying him during the original auction, and some of those managers may have money at midseason.

Shiba posted a good record in UUPL V, made it to Round 5 of the 2017 UU Open, nearly reached playoffs in the 2017 Grand Slam and, more recently, has gotten off to a strong start in the second UU Classic. While some of his previous interactions with the tournament community may raise questions about his attitude, he's dedicated to the tier, hungry for the chance to prove himself, and has a strong tournament resume compared to other options.

Amaroq feels very awkward about both plugging himself for a spot on an SPL team and describing himself in the third person. Despite a poor UUPL record, Amaroq made top 32 of UU Open and is performing reasonably well in the second UU Classic. In his completely unbiased opinion, Amaroq would make a decent support option for a team that needs one, or a starter if managers have concerns about other candidates.

bugzinator had a solid Snake Draft performance and has historically been a good player. While he has yet to sign up, his old manager is likely to be looking for a UU player and may encourage him to do so.

Disclaimer: all content contained herein is intended as analysis and constructive criticism, rather than as a personal attack. No offense is intended.

 

[Pak]

Shockingly, I was too lazy to post about my other games but here are the week 5 matchups:

SM UU: Bushtush vs Manipulative
SM UU: A Hero's Destiny vs Christo
SM UU: HT vs Sacri'
SM UU: dodmen vs Lycans
SM UU: Void vs Pak

Highlight match is definitely dod vs lycans since they're good friends, great players, and know each other really well from teaming in snake. HT and Sacri' looks pretty fire as well and I'm really looking forward to playing Void. gl everyone.

 

[Bouff]

SM UU: Bushtush vs Manipulative - watching bushtush is always fun, manip pulled off an impressive win last week but my gut is telling me bush because hes just a madman
SM UU: A Hero's Destiny vs Christo - idk its hard to predict against christo, but it'd be cool seeing ahd nab this one. christo has brought some nice techs this season tho
SM UU: HT vs Sacri' - hes alright i guess
SM UU: dodmen vs Lycans - hl of this week, can't really pick a winner but it'll be fun to watch
SM UU: Void vs Pak - void is no slacker but predicting against pak is a mistake rn lol, that gliscor sweep was delicious

 

[Sacri']

time to post some predictions as its been a few weeks since i have last made any

SM UU: Bushtush vs Manipulative (51-49) - Quite an interesting match up, Manipulative has been doing good so far and I would definitely not count him out for this game but I feel like Bush is the kind of player that can (and very likely will) do well against him. This is a fairly even game id say so yeah, no clear cut winner before it ends but Bush definitely has what it takes to pull off a comeback.

SM UU: A Hero's Destiny vs Christo (40-60) - This one was slightly easier to predict, Christo has been playing well and bringing good teams all things considered so this is quite likely to go his way. Ahd seems a bit less consistent though he is not to be slept on as hes been doing much better since his w1 game against dodmen.

SM UU: dodmen vs Lycans (49-51) - not picking a winner is boring so i'll go with lycans for this one. I'm not gonna lie, I put a lot of Lycans' success in snake on dodmen's back but looking at things now, i'm definitely sold on Lycans being great on his own. Both have been good so far this season but just remembering Lycans game vs christo convinces me he has what it takes.

SM UU: Void vs Pak (45-55) - This is a lot tighter than most people would expect I believe. Still predicting Pak to win because his prep and plays have both been on point thus far but I truly believe in Voids ability to do well in a brand new tier if hes given good teams (which he most likely will) so ye i'm also very excited to see this one.

 

[Hogg]

Bushtush v Manip just happened. Manip shocked us all by bringing a bulky Steel, but with his only Water resist unable to threaten Azu, it was not enough. Specs Chandy (or “Delure,” as the kids are calling it these days) was a cool move on Bushtush’s part, but it was Azu that hard carried that win. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-348094

 

[Bushtush]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-348094

Just played my game vs Manip so ill write down my thought process team wise and game wise. First off looking at looking at manips previous teams this SPL, I could tell immediately that specs chandelure, cm lati and nido rlly put in work vs him. I opted for specs chand since I havent used chand yet this SPL and it is really good rn imo. Chandelures natural partner is Hydriegon, and after looking at his teams again I realized theres only ever 1 dark resist in a fairy, so I decided Posinium-Z hydreigon would be a great lure, get rid of the one dark resist and then my darks would put in work. This is also why i opted to use Krook. From there, I just built the rest of the team in Mega Manectric which I dont usually like but, in this case I was building offense and volting into my breakers sounded great. Dual Band in Azu+Scizor, azu cause its broke(BAN PLEASE) and Scizor as a mandatory steel. Game Wise I just played it out as best i could, the gliscor i could tell would be annoying especially if it was speedy so I had to play around that.

Turn 1: Lead Chandelure cause i had good MU vs most mons and I expected scarf nape to be the lead.

Turn 2: Switched into mane cause it was generally safe in case he was some speedy tent and cause I didnt see recovery so I was skeptical

Turn 4-6: Volted cause gliscor never comes in there and I was able to bring in Azu which put in loads of work

Turn 7: The scout was definitely obvious, and a very good play on his part. Should have taken advantage of that and not wasted my Z.

Turn 15: Now here was a general 50/50, I expected the pursuit which put me in a great position, If he stone edged I coulda revenged which is why I was fine with making the play of staying in.

Turn 18: Misplayed bad this turn, shouldn't have HP Iced as uturning into gliscor is what i expected but in hindsight I should have just bolted as I dint lose much by doing that.

Turn 21: I probably shouldn't have stayed in, but him gunking meant scizor got a kill afterwards, and depending how he played could have cleaned, but looking back at it safest play was to switch out regardless

As Hogg mentioned above, Azu was definitely the MVP that game. I expected a Pidgeot balance team originally, but this MU turned out to be even better luckily...I was honoured to play Manip, hes a great player and this MU was definitely not in his favor. I fully expect him to crush the next few weeks, hes a guy I look up too for sure.

 

[HT]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-349049

Here's my game vs sacri'. Some initial thoughts before the game starts. We have very similar teams based around magneton trapping steels to support our megas along with krook for speed control and emp as a glue. At the start I was really worried about mega bee since it rapes me with rocks up and empoleon is easily trapped by mag. Id have to set up rocks and get a successful scarf pursuit off on it with krook to get rid of it. Looking at my team i didnt feel i had a clear advantage with anything as good as his bee was vs me, but my krook looked pretty good only having one losing match up vs toge, which is why i led it.

Turn 1-2: He leads toge and i lead krook. I could stone edge it right away, but i didnt want to risk a dazzle or z aura sphere on empoleon right off the bat, which i know he likes to run from previous teams. So i make the midground play and hard bat so i can get a ssss off and i either put it in knock range and die from offensive toge or live a defensive air slash and taunt it next turn. The former ends up happening which im /ok/ with since toge is a huge pain, although it does make me incredibly weak to bee.

Turn 3: He goes hard bee on my krook thinking that its a non scarf variant and i get a free kill, which was a huge relief for me since that was easily the biggest threat.

Nothing of note really happens after these beginning turns. I just had to play my krook conservatively so it could clean up late game and my team backbone was good enough to allow me to do so. I thought he had a possible cm z or scarf lati in the back that could win it for him, but it turned out to be LO 3 attacks which is why he forfeited early. A cool fact about both our teams is that were both running hp grass mag, which is why i didnt hp fire originally when i got my mag in on his mag. Glad I got to show off my eject button slowbro tech to kill a 7% emp.

gg bro gl in future weeks

 

[Void]

Since I was reviewing the game anyway, thought I might as well post my thoughts on my first ever UU game in a team tour.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-349456


T1: I was always going to switch here tbh, even though I was scarf volc I couldn't even straight up steam as it didn't kill, plus there's also the off chance that he's scarf nihi. Getting them up was probably the play for him here but I suppose he predicted the aggressive steam on the rocks.

T2: Perhaps this time it was me who should have got rocks up, but I didn't want to risk my best cb zor switch-in getting hp iced.

T3-T4: I basically sac'd volc to have his pidgeot dead to rocks here, and if he heat waved then that would be even better but it didn't happen. This is part of what contributed to the scizor sweep later on, but with unmega'd mane as my only flying resist it was a pretty tough choice. Amoonguss was quite expendable in this matchup so maybe I could have discarded him instead, but without getting off the steam eruption on pidgeot, I may well have just ended up losing to it instead down the line.

T5-T8: I volt switched on the pidgeot both times knowing he would never go to krook as I could easily just go for hp ice, and finally got my rocks up. Calling the hp ice was cool and all but it meant that I let him chip the mane, which he was probably quite happy about in the end.

T9: Big misplay on my part. I can't really explain why I went gliscor here, going to sciz and bping to prevent the rocks was always the play. Even if he wasn't rocks nihi there was really no downside to going sciz, if he goes volc he takes rocks damage and I can switch to hydra. Between this and switching into to pidgeot once, he got all the damage he needed on mane.

T10+: I thought it would either be band sciz or SD LO, the former was no big threat and I could play around the latter, but this particular set had me super shook. I thought I could get a slow u-turn into mane but my sciz ended up outspeeding. I prob should have just hard mane or amoong as I u-turned out there as he was not going to play his scizor aggressively at this point, but with him having rocks up it was really only a matter of time before I lost this game anyway.


Ultimately even if I made the right plays, it was a tough one to win, and expecting to make the right calls on what mons to preserve given his unexpected scizor set might be asking for too much. T9 probably lost me the game on the spot, if I managed to capitalize on the fact that he hadn't got his rocks up get and I had, I did maybe have some limited outs here, though I'd have to get multiple calls correct. But even if I had lost after that, at least I'd feel like I did all I could, which is definitely not the feeling I have right now.

gg to pak, and hopefully I'll be able to put up a better showing if I stay in this tier next week

 

[Sacri']

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-349049

Here's my game vs sacri'. Some initial thoughts before the game starts. We have very similar teams based around magneton trapping steels to support our megas along with krook for speed control and emp as a glue. At the start I was really worried about mega bee since it rapes me with rocks up and empoleon is easily trapped by mag. Id have to set up rocks and get a successful scarf pursuit off on it with krook to get rid of it. Looking at my team i didnt feel i had a clear advantage with anything as good as his bee was vs me, but my krook looked pretty good only having one losing match up vs toge, which is why i led it.

Turn 1-2: He leads toge and i lead krook. I could stone edge it right away, but i didnt want to risk a dazzle or z aura sphere on empoleon right off the bat, which i know he likes to run from previous teams. So i make the midground play and hard bat so i can get a ssss off and i either put it in knock range and die from offensive toge or live a defensive air slash and taunt it next turn. The former ends up happening which im /ok/ with since toge is a huge pain, although it does make me incredibly weak to bee.

Turn 3: He goes hard bee on my krook thinking that its a non scarf variant and i get a free kill, which was a huge relief for me since that was easily the biggest threat.

Nothing of note really happens after these beginning turns. I just had to play my krook conservatively so it could clean up late game and my team backbone was good enough to allow me to do so. I thought he had a possible cm z or scarf lati in the back that could win it for him, but it turned out to be LO 3 attacks which is why he forfeited early. A cool fact about both our teams is that were both running hp grass mag, which is why i didnt hp fire originally when i got my mag in on his mag. Glad I got to show off my eject button slowbro tech to kill a 7% emp.

gg bro gl in future weeks

HT covered all I had to say more or less, a poor team analysis on my end made a comeback pretty much impossible. Looking back at it I should also have switched out vs bat early on but it is what it is. Bear with me until the end, here's to hoping i'm not completely out of it.

 

[Pak]

Week 6

SM UU: Bushtush vs HT
SM UU: Sacri' vs Lycans
SM UU: Christo vs Pak
SM UU: Void vs dodmen
SM UU: Manipulative vs A Hero's Destiny

Overall, cool matchups. I'm really looking forward to Sacri' vs Lycans since they have some of the highest ceilings in the tournament, meaning we could be in for a slug fest. Bushtush vs HT looks interesting as well, as they're both coming off wins and are hoping to keep their momentum going. As usual, gl everyone and I'll post about my last game at some point if I stop being lazy as hell.

 

[Bouff]

SM UU: Bushtush vs HT - ht been a strongman as of late but bushtush is back in the mindset
SM UU: Christo vs Pak - dont lose to dustain
SM UU: Void vs dodmen - i dont really know what to say here, bit of a safe prediction i guess, void is solid so it might be closer than expected
SM UU: Manipulative vs A Hero's Destiny - bit of a risky pick but my guts telling me ahd gonna pull this

 

[Highways]

SM UU: Christo vs dodmen
SM UU: Lycans vs Manipulative
SM UU: PokeTCG gamer1288 vs Sacri'
SM UU: Bushtush vs A Hero's Destiny
SM UU: Pak vs HT

Week 7 Matchups! Highlight is, of course, Christo vs. dodmen. I'm also willing to see AHD vs Bush...

[21:50:48] +a heros destiny: hey we are playing next week
[21:50:48] +a heros destiny: wanna schedule now?
[21:51:17] +Bushtush: bro eat my balls
[21:51:52] +Bushtush: jk JK
[21:51:54] +Bushtush: JK JK JK
[21:51:57] +Bushtush: uhh

 

[Sacri']

Better late than never, here are some thoughts on my game from last week.

Lycans vs Sacri'

Very fast paced game, the key turns of the game went down early. The match up seemed more or less even, the combination of Primarina + Manectric was definitely scary for my team but the combination of Specs Hydreigon + SD Gliscor could be tough to deal with for him. I knew from the start that whoever was able to put the most pressure early on would most likely win the game. I was off to a great start as my curse Mega Aggron damaged Amoongus early on and forced it to Spore. From there, I chose to use my Z-Hyper Beam which would hurt anything that wasn't Scizor and pick off Amoonguss regardless of the spread it was running. His Scizor forced my Gliscor in which gave Primarina a hit off. I decided to let Aggron go down on that turn but it turuned out to be a sub variant. This was actually better for me because rocks + sub damage meant that it would have trouble dealing with Gliscor/Hydrei. I went to Seperior and then doubled to Azumarill, I wasn't willing to give up momentum and I knew he wasn't likely to let Primarina go down for free. He Dark Pulsed expecting a banded Liquidation to come out but I went right for the play rough, being AV meant that I didn't have to worry about being choice locked, he had no way to know this but this pretty much sealed the game. Azumarill got damage off Manectric and Scizor, Chandelure ended up taking out Manectric as he didn't have a switch in anymore and from there SD Gliscor was guaranteed to win regardless of the crit on his own Gliscor.

As for the week overall, Void beating dodmen in a close game was definitely unexpected but he had a playable match up and was able to put himself in a position to win late game. Christo also ended Paks winning streak, there was some rough luck early on though I do believe that it would have been a hard game for him either way as Christo's Scizor set turned out to be a massive threat. Very much looking forward to watching
the games this week, dodmen vs christo is obviously a fun one as I believe they hadn't played since UUPL. Pak vs HT should also be a lot of fun, gl to all players as always!

 

[Pak]

Thoughts on key turns
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-353900

Turn 1: I led with scarf Chandelure since it was my most expendable member and I would willingly trade with Mamoswine, which was looking like the biggest threat to my team. I wanted to get off as much damage as possible to limit its number of potential Life Orb hits since I wasn't expecting a sash variant, making me go straight for the Fire Blast and get a lucky burn. Unfortunately for HT this let my Chandelure survive and get off two more hits on his CB Azu and grab momentum as it locked into a move, so this definitely mattered.

Turn 7: Not a huge turn but it seemed he didn't have Knock Off on his Emp so I went hard to my Facade Recycle lax as he fished for the burn. Didn't work out but it would've been nice since I could just set up on the emp without fearing Toxic.

Turn 8-15: I was fine trading Empoleons and didn't feel the need to risk my Breloom at any point. Weakening/removing his Empoleon freed up my Mega Aerodactyl and Snorlax later on and my emp wasn't particularly needed for anything besides fodder.

Turn 17: Azu coming in was pretty obvious but predicting was unnecessary. I just needed rocks up for mons in the back to really put on the pressure and close out the game.

Rest of the game: There was no reason for me to make any risky plays since I had sacks, multiple mons that could win, and rocks up.

The burn really sucked but fwiw I had counter on Swampert to lure his Azumarill eventually, so I'd say the team matchup was pretty clearly in my favor since that combines with the fact that my Snorlax and Mega Aero were such big threats to his team. Wish it could've been cleaner but ye. gg and gl in future weeks bro.

 

[Pearl]

DaSpoofy requesting a Pak SPL montage if possible

 

[Highways]

DaSpoofy requesting a Pak SPL montage if possible

I'd rather request a half-a-gorilla-fighting-bushtush montage tbh

 

[Pearl]

On a more serious note, I've been updating both the replays and the player standings in the OP on Sacri's behalf, so this thread shouldn't be missing out on anything as of now. Let me know if you spot any mistakes or feel like there's anything else I could add (such as usage stats for our tier, which I might get to later if there's any demand at all)

With that said, here are the match ups for Week 8:

SM UU: Manipulative vs PokeTCG gamer1288
SM UU: A Hero's Destiny vs Sacri'
SM UU: dodmen vs Pak
SM UU: HT vs Christo
SM UU: Lycans vs Bushtush

I might post predictions later in the SPL thread (which I'll inevitably end up reposting here as well), but at a glance I'm expecting HT vs Christo and dodmen vs Pak to be this week's highlights.

 

[Amaroq]

We have some interesting matchups this week, a lot of which could go either way. I'm very excited for dodmen vs. Pak in particular. Might as well post predictions.

Manipulative vs PokeTCG gamer1288: Like most people (I think), I'm favoring Manipulative in this matchup because he has more experience at this level of play. Additionally, while Manipulative has stumbled occasionally, I haven't seen him do anything outright bad, while PokeTCG gamer1288 almost choked a win vs. HT and has looked less impressive overall, although his matches represent a smaller sample size. I think this match will ultimately come down to which player actually brings a good team, since both have a history of using weird/flawed builds (something something Manipulative doesn't use Steel-types).

A Hero's Destiny vs Sacri': Sacri' is the stronger player and has used better builds. I know he's disappointed in his rough start and am of the opinion that he's hungry enough to still try to obtain the best record he can even though his team is out as a point of personal pride. While both players have demonstrated exploitable tendencies, I haven't been a big fan of A Hero's Destiny's builds or play this tournament and feel that Sacri' will be able to win this match handily if he just brings something good that he's comfortable using and plays at the level I know he can.

dodmen vs Pak: Highlight match of the week. I'm going with Pak because he's been very consistent so far, but, if anyone can stop him, it's dodmen. The Sharks are fighting for their lives and need every win they can get. I think this game will be decided as much in the preparation stage as in the execution, as Pearl and Pak match wits against Hikari and dodmen. This match is really too close to call with any certainty.

HT vs Christo: HT has done quite well this tournament, but he's had some shaky moments, both on the field and in the teambuilder, whereas Christo has brought solid builds and piloted them well. If HT brings a good team and plays at or close to his ceiling, he's more than capable of matching Christo, but Christo has been more consistent and I tend to go with the reliable pick.

Lycans vs Bushtush: One line after saying that I tend to go with the reliable pick, I'm gonna predict that one of the more volatile players in SPL will win. Bushtush has high highs and low lows, and it's hard to tell where he's going to fall in any given week. The Ruiners are still trying to scrape up as many points as possible for a potential playoff spot, and Scooters are out, so Bushtush has more reasons to be motivated than Lycans. I predict that if he brings a good team that has a Pokemon faster than non-Choice Scarf Krookodile and a Ground resist that isn't an Altaria that has yet to Mega Evolve, he'll take this win home (alternatively, stall can function without either of the things mentioned above, but Bushtush doesn't seem to buy into that level of passivity).

 

[Pak]

Thoughts on key turns
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-355253

Turn 1: Obviously got the lead matchup I was hoping for with Specs Moltres in on Scizor but unfortunately I missed my Fire Blast, which otherwise would've put me in a great spot right away. It really just halted my early momentum, especially considering how awkward Empoleon is to play around with my team.

Turn 6: Judging from the way dod brought it in, I was pretty much obligated to scout the possibility of Scarf Breloom. Going to my pre-mega'd Altaria covered Bullet Seed and Spore and lost me way less than going straight to my Sleep Talk Moltres if he aggressively went straight for the Rock Tomb.

Turn 14: This was probably my only real regret of the game. He didn't lose much from Stone Edging a frozen Krook and I had no real reason to switch my Starmie in and let it get weakened, which would come into play later.

Turn 22: A bit of a 5050 (one that could've been avoided had I not let Starmie get weakened) in the sense of momentum. I'd be in a bad spot if he Earthquaked on my switch to Starmie since I'd be down on sacks, and if he got up rocks as I went Moltres, his Scizor could've been a bigger threat in the long term. Getting Moltres in here with no repercussions basically guaranteed a kill and put me in a great position overall going into the end game.

Turn 33: Game was pretty much over at this point but going Scizor guaranteed the win. Dod couldn't let my Moltres in safely and once his Breloom locked into any move that wasn't Rock Tomb, my Moltres came in and closed out the game.

Not a whole lot to say overall. It was a pretty straight forward game with a decent amount of hax on both sides but luckily I hit enough moves to come out with a W. Moltres is fire, Pearl is a p good builder, etc. gg and gl in week 9 to dodmen, he's one of the players I look up to most in the community so it was fun playing him again.

 

[dodmen]

yeah I honestly should have just led scarf breloom, not sure if pak would've stayed in and uturned/attacked turn 1, but potentially getting off a turn 1 kill would've put scizor in an amazing position. i also really regret changing aero's pursuit to ace (for serperior) last minute, that would've helped scizor a lot too. I am rather proud of my nicknames though. gg man you played the better game

 

[robjr]

My thoughts on the key turns in my game vs Manipulative:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-354835

T1: I lead aero here just to provide offensive pressure to serperior or lati if he led with either, as well as if he lead with ape id get to see if he was scarf or not. My main plan this game as to either remove lati and get breloom in a position to win, or remove mega aggron and weaken scizor, to put it in a position to win.

T3: Pivoted into my aero because of the fact I had the sand boost + he showed no item so I didn't want to go hard lati. Glare was in the back of my mind but I prefered aero to take a potential glare over lati either way.

T4: After he glared me, it was fairly obvious he would double out into either aggron or krook. Doubling to breloom activated my toxic orb and landed me a kill depending on his switch.

T9-13: Once I slept the aggron and he left it in as I swords danced, I knew I could put scizor in a position to win later. I got fortunate with the max sleep turns, but even so he couldn’t kill me in one hit and his aggron would still be very low.

T24-27: After seeing he locked into pursuit, scizor just came in and cleaned up now that infernape was in range of a +2 bullet punch.

Not much else to say about the game, good game to manipulative and hope I can play you again in the future.

 

[Sacri']

Felt like commentating on my two last games and on a few others from last week as well.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-353449 vs PokeTGCgamer1288

Turn 4: I go Scizor immediately after sporing the Empoleon, it was overall my best play because it pressured more or less everything as his only steel resist was asleep.

Turn 5: I scout for the HP Fire by going hard Hydreigon, given his Scizor match up I knew he wouldnt miss on an opportunity to at least heavily damage it early on or outright KO-ing it.

Turn 6: I knew this Latias wasn't likely to be scarfed but I figured he wouldn't risk it immediately as it had a fairly decent match up. If he did go for the Draco Meteor, it would have at least allowed Scizor to come back it to potentially trap it and I gained a lot by removing rocks as I knew he would probably not be able to get them back up given that Empoleon was asleep.

Turn 9-10: I decide to get rocks up with my Swampert, I knew that he could potentially Close Combat but getting rocks up was still my top priority on that turn. The massive CC damage did reveal that my Swampert wasn't max defense but I knew for a fact that he would try to double on that turn as I had too many things that could take advantage of CC to come in. I catch the Latias on the switch with the Z Ice punch, this was a fairly agressive play on my end but it put me in a fantastic position early on.

Turn 14: This was definitely a mistake on my end. I had realized that Gengar would put in a lot of work once Altaria went down but I accidentaly went hard into it on the turn it died to poison which allowed Krook to trap it. Sub Hex + Focus Blast Gengar would have pretty much swept the 4 'mons left so I knew I would have to keep on playing agressively after losing that massive advantage.

Turn 19: This turn sealed the game. Terrakion still seemed too important for him to let it go down so I took advantage of that and clicked U-Turn which allowed me to get the KO on the Krook. From there Banded Scizor + Scarf Hydreigon were always going to clean up the rest of his team.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-355127 vs a Hero's Destiny

Nothing too surprising happened early on, I took advantage of Curse Aggron's good match up to damage Gliscor and his own Aggron. I found out that his Snorlax was an Earthquake Leftovers match up which seemed to indicate that it was a Rest + 2 Attacks variants.

Turn 15: He makes a smart play here: he immediately Sludge Waved my Azumarill as I expected him to just spin on that turn. Health on Azumarill would have helped me to pressure his team a bit more but I was still able to take the Tentacruel down on the following turn as I was certain he would spin this time.

Turn 19-20: I let Crobat go down at the cost of a Taunt on his own Taunt Gliscor. I wanted rocks to go back up to pressure Chandelure and Togekiss that both still had the potential to be threatening.

Turn 22: I go hard Chandelure against his own Chandelure as he couldnt lock itself into Shadow Ball without letting Krook pursuit it. He doubled to Gliscor and I stayed in, hoping to just kill it on that turn with a Specs HP Ice but it turned out to be faster. This was slightly annoying but Chandelure wasn't too necessary anymore.

Turn 24: He went for Trick to later allow his Snorlax to beat my Latias but I go hard Krook on that turn. I was completely free to Pursuit on that turn as I knew it would put it in range of rocks and he couldn't KO my Krook without letting my Latias win. I assume he didn't expect my Latias to be a LO Psyshock variant but it basically cleaned up the whole team as Snorlax was still asleep and it couldn't take CM boosted hits.

Bushtush vs Lycans: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-354992

Turn 13: After a fairly straight forward game of not letting the opposing Amoonguss get a Spore Off, Bushtush makes the first agressive play of the game and gets his Chandelure in on Bronzong. This seemed to indicate that it was Scarf as it revealed Fire Blast and damaged the Moltres which puts it in Ice Shard range from Mamoswine after rocks.

Turn 22: Bushtush's physically defensive Empoleon beats Krookodile which is rather crucial as it was Lycans Chandelure and his main form of speed control. This is even more important knowing as Bushtushs Chandelure was CM Z Trick (no I didnt guess it, I just happened to be the one that made Bushs team) and this gave it a lot more potential to sweep later on.

Turn 23: Bushtush makes a very agressive play there and goes hard Krook on the Tbolt. Starmie being Z-Move, it was able to tank the Knock off and KO the Krook in return. This seemed like a decent turn for Lycans but in indsight Bushtush gained a lot more from this as it put Starmie in range of Ice Shard after rocks thus meaning that rocks would stay up the entire game.

Turn 33: I believe that Lycans hadnt noticed that Mamoswines Icicle Crashes were doing more to Bronzong turn after turn thus meaning that it was metronome. By that point Icicle Crash was strong enough to OHKO Amoonguss thus making it able to clean up the team thanks to Ice Shard.

HT vs Christo https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-355025

Turn 1-3: Christo makes the good call of leading banded Scizor, it allowed him to trap Bronzong early on at the cost of rocks being up. This made Latias' match up a lot better even though the potential threat of a Pursuit for Scarf krook still had the potential to annoy it.

Turn 7: HT makes a smart play there, noticing Christo's lack of ground type, he decided to take advantage of it by getting a volt switch off vs Suicune.

Turn 13: That play was absolutely crucial there, Christo made a very smart double and managed to heal his Sylveon up vs Manectric. Had he gotten that wrong, Manectric + Krook would have very likely been able to clean his team up. It worked out and managed to put him back in a decent position.

Turn 19: Christo reveals that Nihilego is scarf and decide to HP Ice the krook to prevent it from potentially trapping it for free. This was quite important as it allowed Christo to put Krookodile in range of Latias hits which came into play a few turns later.

Turns 20-22: A very interesting series of plays happen here. HT makes a smart play and stays in with Mantine to take the Draco, knowing that even if Latias happened to have something to hit Mantine it wouldn't risk going for the electric move with Krook still around. Thinking that Azu was safe to take the next Draco, HT let it take a Z Thunder which weakened it a lot. This ended up helping Christo a ton as Azumarill was definitely HT's biggest threat left.

From there the combination of Scizor + Latias + Suicune was enough to allow Christo to win in a rather interesting game.

Week 9 MUs & Predictions:

A Hero's Destiny vs Lycans: Fairly interesting one, AHD definitely has a lot more pressure on his shoulders as his team isn't guaranteed to get in playoffs but I definitely think that Lycans will take the game seriously regardless of the fact that his team can't make playoffs. While Lycans had a rather rough end of season, I still feel like he brings better teams and plays a bit better than AHD so favoring him here.

Bushtush vs dodmen: I genuinely don't know that to expect from this game. Bushtush has definitely been playing very well lately but I expect dodmen to be extra motivated considering that sharks need to get as many wins as they can. I don't think I can predict the outcome of this but it should be a very fun game to watch regardless.

Cynde vs Christo: I don't know how seriously Cynde is going to take this game as Wolfpacks are going to playoffs regardless of the outcome of the week. While Christo is in the same spot, I expect him to care enough about his record to still bring his A game and thus should be able to beat Cynde.

SM UU: Manipulative vs Tman: I obviously expect the UU player to beat someone playing their first SPL game. Don't have any data of Tman in UU and I wouldn't be too surprised if he was given some memes to use given that Cryos cant make playoffs either way.

As for myself, I'll play Pak at the end of the week (either Friday, or Saturday, time tbd), looking forward to a fun one! Gl to everyone as always.