Tournament Smogon Snake Draft 2018: RU Discussion

[Master Chief]

Shoutouts snagaa for making the broken team and frogs for being the best RUPL team

squad up

I'm only gonna talk about 3 games from the last phase cause I only found interesting stuff in them out of all the games played

49 vs Aldo

Rlly appreciated the offense v offense matchup in this game, respect for using ballsy teams like these vs each other considering both of u have used v strong balances in the past. This game looked like a slugfest w/ each other just getting kills left and right which made it p hype to watch. Aldo opening w/ the z espeon and getting the KO on toise t1 was p damn cool to watch too. Came down to 49's avchamp (u getting a ROAST for this one bro ROFL) clutching out the damage needed for the zydog to pick the KO. ggs bros.


KW vs rabbit

Didnt even know rabbit got to play, rocking the houndoom balance while KW used a more offensive build, tho both using slowking oo. Dunno what KW was thinking when he let Rhyperior and Croak, two mons that clearly had so much more potential vs rabbit, die while doing absolutely nothing, basically crippling himself throughout the entire game. rabbit also proving he has balls of steels, on the croak vs viriz turn having NO fear for sucker when his main wincon was clearly needed to win that game, imma give it to him and say he read the tryhard so ya grats on that official tour dub dude.


Ajna vs Mop

I didnt know what other game talk about and 2 felt super short so here we are. Ajna using usual Ajna and mop whips out the big boy sun team w/ ninetales, which I find funny cause 7 mins before the game ajna challed me and got owned by said mon ROFL. I'm gonna try to keep the edgyburn down a bit, but man I feel like Mop just didnt play this properly, not trying to take credit away from ajna's dub, it still came down to a speedtie too which makes this a rlly close game but I honestly feel like mop had that won most of the time.



ig I can do predicts now cause less matchups to talk about


Aldo vs Ajna

Much love to aldo but I'm rooting for ajna in this one, knowing both for years I can just tell Ajna has the edge on this, and ppl seem to think Aldo is gonna just use one cheesy set and completely turn around the game when Ajna has shown that he is also a big madman when he feels like it. Not trynna look down on aldo cause I'm loving his run so far, but u gotta go w/ the kid.


KW vs Esche

I dont have much to say bout this one, idk what esche could even use cause it's been a year since I last saw him touch ru at high level, hoping some heat like the one he used last year's rupl tho cause it'd be fun to watch but who knows, feeling like kw has the edge cause we are talkin about ex cheese master King Wynaut so he could also use somethin like that if he felt like it.

49 vs Gama

LMAO gama rlly back in ru, cant escape fate bro. Unfort cause I'm a believer and was hoping diogo could still use the opportunity to bounce back . Last time I remember seeing gama play ru he created one of my favorite replays of all time (wait isnt this the team u used Alpha Rabbit ROFL who knew), making it p clear this man sometimes gives NO fucks, while I haven't rlly seen 49 make this level of ballsy doubles, I'm more confident in his builds so I'm thinking this game will come down to how much ES can pressure 49's team so I'm not gonna vote for either cause both are p cute too.

Gl to u ppl

As for the other players, I talk mad shit but props to u all for doing ur thing throughout the tour and ggs overall.

I'm gonna b mainly rooting for diogo's team to win cause I dont think I could stand ajna winning another trophy, but outside of them ALDODRAFT2018

 

[col49]

appreciate the input y'all. 'grats to the teams that made it through and kudos to those that didn't quite do so; the sun division in particular really came down to the wire, and i would say that by and large the overall quality of games were ticked up in this phase. more specifically i'd like to extend direct congratulations to alpha rabbit for a successful debut and august for a strong comeback, in spite of the unjust loss to the miserly ajna, always cool to see.

Ajna [SERP] vs MrAldo [NAGA]
esche [COBR] vs KW [LEVI] - Sunday, 2 pm
Eternal Spirit [ASTR] vs col49 [BUSH] - Sunday, 12 pm

i was pleasantly surprised by some of the building risks and unconventional picks taken this past phase, and even moreso the fact that multiple people came to the conclusion of less visible picks like rotom-h / houndoom / sigilyph. the adaptation to m-toise i touched upon in the past phase definitely was felt in these past weeks, though the inverse could be said as well. i was a fan of kw's adoption of sub on blastoise, as it very much touches upon the luxury spin presents in the context of most teams.

anywho, as a brief personal note, i'm fairly satisfied with my prep and (generally) play this past phase. i was happy to get to use that cloyster set after bringing it up off and on for some time, and think i made the necessary plays there to set up doublade effectively. in retrospect, while i can't undercut the solid play from aldo, i can look back and recognize i should have not stayed in with blastoise turn 1; in acknowledging i had the luxury to lead and threaten a ko v.most anything with blastoise, i should have recognized his lead choice of espeon meant either that he had something up his sleeve (be it the seen z zap cannon or specs gk) or simply desired to get as much chip possible via a specs psychic. under all these conditions, i should have valued blastoise's hp over uxie's, who was deceptively useless beyond constant u-turn pivoting, and used the fact that he was pressed to deal with the threat in front of him to ensure a comfortable pivot in without any 'real' risk of him attempting to cover it via something like a specs shadow ball. a play like this would have ensured the battery of yanmega / avchamp / blastoise would have [potentially] had a much more comfortable shot at going to town, rather than coming down to wire as it did. notwithstanding, happy the opportunity presents itself for a rematch, and the current set of games look pretty interesting to be sure. gl y'all

 

[eifo]

Ajna [SERP] vs MrAldo [NAGA]
Ajna is hands down amazing at mons. Great builder, even better player. And while I love Aldo both as a user and as a builder, I am afraid that Ajna is simply a step above playing-wise. In the games I have seen Aldo play in thus far, he has typically brought some fairly standard offense with a cool twist. His matchup is always winnable, oftentimes even favorable. The problem however, lies with his ability to pilot the teams he builds. The pattern is as follows: during the early game the players are typically a bit passive, figuring out how the opponent plays in order to adjust properly. During the mid game his opponent gets a bit more aggressive, giving him/her the upper hand. Meanwhile, Aldo is typically not able to pull the trigger, and ends up losing out on a lot of momentum because of it. The problem with this is that when one uses offense, they have to be the one on the offensive, as there is no defensive backbone to lean back on. This leads to his opponent gaining a lead big enough to where they can safely wrap up the end game. Once Aldo stops playing super safe and starts pulling the trigger, his win rate will improve dramatically. I will eagerly be awaiting that day, but for now, a player of Ajna's caliber is sadly too much for him to handle.

esche [COBR] vs KW [LEVI]
Sadly I have not seen too many of Esche's games in USM, but I vividly remember the funky squads he brought in SM. Frankly I have no idea how knowledgeable he is about the current meta, but since he is starting I assume he knows more than enough. In fairness it is not a hard meta to learn either. In any case, his builds are cool and I enjoy watching him pilot them - regardless of who built them this time around. He is a solid player that will definitely give KW some trouble. However, KW is something else. His builds are sometimes super wonky, but I for one like them nonetheless. In fact, I find exactly that kind of creative mindset rather intriguing. That being said he does not always cheese his way through - or does he? While he plays his games well and brings relatively functional, if not always conventional teams, there is more to him as a player than simply his builds and plays. Whenever his builds or plays cannot keep up with his opponent's (which in his defense, they usually do), he simply lucks his opponent and thus claims the win. It seems almost as if he is shielded from losing.

how this game will be won

All hail Barbaracle

Eternal Spirit [ASTR] vs col49 [BUSH]

Gama is the polar opposite of Aldo: Instead of making too many safe plays, the guy is a maniac that throws around his mons all willy nilly - and it works! Does there even exist a more aggressive player than him? Frankly, I do not think so. However, one thing is for sure, and that is that he does not know of the feeling us mere humans know as fear. He will go balls to the wall at any time in any game, which makes for a great watch(and more often than not good results as well). THat being said, his opponent this time around - 49 - is a teambuilding genius. The spreads he makes are out of this world, and his creative mind always comes up with some cool techs to catch his opponent off guard. For the second year in a row someone won RU Open while relying on his builds, which only further proves my point about them being that good. I am going to predict 49 to win based on his vast knowledge of the tier and his teambuilding skills. In fairness I may be slightly biased after teaming up with him during RUPL (and watching his mind in live action - great show, you guys should try it sometime), but even so he should be able to give ES a great fight. Really looking forward to this one.

 

[Senpai D.M]

[SERP] Ajna vs MrAldo [NAGA]
[COBR] esche vs KW [LEVI]
[ASTR] col49 vs Eternal Spirit [BUSH]

 

[col49]

Ajna [SERP] vs. esche [COBR]
MrAldo [NAGA] vs. Eternal Spirit [ASTR]
KW [LEVI] vs. col49 [BUSH]

part of me was mulling over posting, as frankly the assessment of three games is a fairly paltry offering and i'd like to have a larger sample size if i were to talk about things in a perfect world, but such is an attitude unbecoming of a thread host and i'm trying to be a good boy. mu's for this coming week, no significant line-up changes on the ru front so we're getting about what we expected. as much as i would like to see aldo bounce back from what i might perceive to be a personally disappointing loss last week, eternal spirit is probably the most difficult roadblock for him given the way his style of play matches up to what aldo has exhibited until this point. likewise, esche seems to still be getting his footing in this tour, and to have to play ajna in the midst of his hot streak bodes poorly for that. however, i am of a fan of all four players, in spite of how i might phrase things, so ideally we'll get some enjoyable, high-quality games here.

i touched briefly upon the prior aldo game, but looking beyond the sequencing issues it is something of a bastion for the players arguing the broke qualities of barbaracle; it found a comfortable free turn, and (in theory) found its way through a conventional, defensively sound team by merit of typing, coverage, and physical orientation. i think the route taken to achieve this result was sound, as was the team choice to support it (note: another unique blastoise application via work up, which i understand was spoken on but has yet [to my knowledge] to have been applied aptly in a 'major tour setting'), which on a purely theoretical level makes it a pretty interesting game to observe. kw v.esche was, in my eyes, far more linear, but was cool to me in the way that it showcased celebrate meloetta (which i'm of the mind is more than a little ridiculous, but please don't take my word as gospel, get a feel for it yourself) and kinda cemented hp ice shaymin as a lynchpin 'mon again.

and lastly, my own. prepping for this was such a disaster for me honestly, given not only how little free time i had that week but just off the basis that i was dealing with someone as wild as gama. by the end of it i had ran through two concepts and on saturday evening found myself settling on one of the lesser known teams i had prepped for slam, which was meant to showcase coba berry shaymin as a tool to remove noivern for a partner, here sd shadow claw bewear (which not only drops a long-term check, but in the short term allows you to still cover doublade and not have to expend your z in catching said noivern). to be entirely honest, i felt the manner in which i play shifted somewhat for the sake of this game, as my opponent's stigma as an aggressive player prompted me to reassess some of my more prescient ideas throughout. for an easy example of this, i was incredibly tempted to shadow claw into gligar after swords dancing as a means to cut out the need for a decent roll on doublade, being all but positive he would make the switch in order to dodge the breakneck blitz. notwithstanding, after a few sequences and a bit of conditioning and minor chip i found myself pushing towards the goal of pressing advantage via toxic spikes, and to that end i made a fairly consistent point of bringing dragalgae (which was icy wind with a fairly noteworthy pdef investment that allows it to play into gligar, in addition to the broader utility of reducing midpaced attacker's speeds) into florges as a means of restricting blastoise. the overarching game plan was suppress major counterplay and punish free turns via gardevoir, and ultimately it did so with the added benefit of some critical hits at key junctures, which is regrettable to be sure. i think gama played the game well for sure, the manner in which he concealed information via bluffing scarf shaymin in the early game in particular was real impressive, so while it was a shame it couldn't be cleaner i hope the both of us can look back to it without regrets.

i'll try to get times out there as they become publicly available, and as always gl to the competitors

 

[Senpai D.M]

[SERP] Ajna vs MrAldo [NAGA]
[COBR] esche vs KW [LEVI]
[ASTR] col49 vs Eternal Spirit [BUSH]

I'm clearly out of touch, I guess I'll go for the winners for this week sigh

 

[MrAldo]

Just to revive this thread and spark some discussion

[SERP] Ajna vs KW [LEVI]
[NAGA] MrAldo vs col49 [BUSH]
[COBR] Corazan.. vs [ASTR] Tricking

These are the matchups for Smogon Snake Draft Stage 2, Week 3 and this consisting mainly of rematches from Stage 1 except for the last matchup since Cobras and Astrotias werent on the same group. So yeah, given that I already started mentioning the matchups may as well do some predictions.

Ajna vs KW

KW has been rather impressive but this is honestly not that surprising given that him has incredible support for this tier with Robert Alfons and Eternally which is actually much more than any other RUer has had in a very long time so he has a solid knowledgeable cushion to build for him, ofc he knows the tier himself, but having not 1 but 2 lads to bounce ideas with helps a lot in a gen where gaining advantage through the teambuilder is so important. BUT, Ajna in a vacuum is a much better player on the long run, and he knows how to pick up on trends to take advantage of so I believe he has the advantage here. KW has been rather lucky at some points and made questionable decisions that end up working somehow but that doesnt diminish his impressive run so far and really shows how having solid support (REALLY solid in this case) goes a long way. Hopefully this doesnt end up like the first game, as said I favor Ajna here since he certainly plays the game a lot better and has more experience.

Hopefully KW doesnt screw up a solid win path like I did, haha...

MrAldo vs col49

STAY TUNED FOR THE REMATCH HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND. ANOTHER SLUGFEST COMING AND IM EXCITED

Corazan.. vs Tricking

Now this is an interesting matchup as it is unfortunate. ES didnt had the luck going his way against col49 notably, and against me where an early seed flare ended up mattering in the long run which is crazy (sorry for that btw) so yeah, the RU from the Astrotias been having a pretty unfortunate run this snake not being able to foster a win which is super rough. The Cobras havent had much luck either, which their RU and NU falling short they have decided to put someone else to make their debut. I still believe in Esche cause this guy has the balls to pick up certain things that can take advantage from the opponent in the builder and thats an important quality to have in such a short tournament.

In the end I favor Tricking cause I know he is very capable of playing RU given he has done that before on previous rupl iterations with me and during SPL for the Sharks using Arifeen builds, and Tricking has plenty of playing experience so I give him a notable advantage here. Hopefully Corazan.. can pull up cause I love upsets!

Will update the OP with the rest of replays, update the records and stuff.

 

[eifo]

[SERP] Ajna vs KW [LEVI]
Ajna is still the best RU player around, however KW is almost as good and just as lucky as ever. Expecting some nice Grass/Water/Steel BO on Grass/Water/Steel BO action with both players opting for an interesting pick in the free slot. Typically they both pick something you would not expect in that slot, as an ace up their sleeve. Alternatively Ajna may bring something fatter. KW uses offensive builds exclusively, so this should be a reasonably short and intense game, nonetheless. Looking forward to a great game. Rng may potentially fuck it up, but hopefully that will not happen.

[NAGA] MrAldo vs col49 [BUSH]
The game of the builders. Two of the best builders around, but not the greatest players (quite yet, but hopefully sometime in the future). 49 is a slightly better player tho. Aldo is really bad at end games specifically, and almost managed to choke away what should have been a really easy game last week. His passive playing style has not changed either, which pulls him even further down, as he is extremely predictable. Considering all of the above, Aldo is a mediocre player at best in my humble opinion. I really wish he was just a bit better playing-wise, because in that case he would easily go positive in any team tour and make it far in all the RU tours, but for now I believe 49 is a step above him.

[COBR] Corazan.. vs [ASTR] Tricking
I have never seen Corazan play RU before. Tricking on the other hand has shown great results in the past. In theory this should be an easy W, but who knows? Maybe Corazan actually plays the tier regularly - in which case that would make the game all the more enjoyable.

 

[Hot N Cold]

Ajna vs King Wynaut hl of Stage 2, both of them have the best records in RU by now and both of them are the ones using the most solid teams in the last rounds (and their records supports that too). Ajna probably plays a bit more solid overall but KW can make some LUCKplays to make the difference. So no idea which can win.

MrAldo vs col49 both of them are very knowledge in this tier but in the teambuilding process sometimes they tries too hard and fails using bad sets or unmons while other times both can make more or less original teams while at the same time they're using solid teams. No idea which can win neither lol both similar players with same strengths/weakness but probably col49 is gonna know better how to exploit Aldo weakness than the opposite so
slightly advantage to him I guess

Corazan vs Tricking no idea about Corazan while Tricking is a good player which sometimes plays RU (during SPL, Slam) and with Ari and Diogo support I dont think he'll find problems to get in touch with RU metagame.

 

[Sir Isaac Mewton]

Ajna vs KW : KW will bring a team with setup (rather than un-setup work up mega blastoise lol) and won't get haxed/choke as he has proved to have the perfect combination of rng and skill. Ajna is very consistent though and a friend of mine through and through so I won't put it past him. Bolding KW because he's the one with the bold plays and also to provide extra motivation to my bestie!

MrAldo vs col49 : will see some nice teams for sure. Hopefully they play nice as well ~...^

Corazan vs Tricking : Both teams do what seems impossible for others and actually changed up their ru slots so hopefully we'll see a good one here. Tricking's great and always uses the broken stuff but Corazan's been the ace up their sleeves. Been waiting to see him play and expect him to secure this one for sure.

 

[CrashinBoomBang]

I know I don't really post in these threads (as I have no reason to), but I think it is appropriate this time!

Before Snake draft, a bunch of mainers convinced my that King Wynaut was "a meme" and "the laughingstock of RU" and such. Having never seen him play before, I just took their word as the truth (bad) and moved on.

Then his game vs Ajna happened, and I just want to say that that was probably the single most impressive SSD 2 game to date. Between my high standards and me being so crusty that I've played for a decade at this point, it's hard to impress me Pokemon wise, but that was an absurd game. Aggressive plays all over, every trigger pulled, every single one worked. Not to call people out, but all the people who think you're bad can seriously learn something from that game. Like, a whole lot about playing aggressively in a high pressure situation while not fucking around. Some say the Salazzle sac was a little bit weird (and I agree, Virizion was a huge issue without it, but again, KW most definitely made up for it with sheer playing ability, and it's not like there were any ironclad Aerodactyl checks on that team anyway), but apart from that I don't see any flaws in how that game was played. I can count on one hand the amount of players that actually double to Machamp every time, and that's something that I can respect.

Again, not to call anyone out, but sometimes I wish people calling KW "bad" or "a clicker" would instead work on improving their own ability because I haven't seen anything a tenth as good from them as I saw that game. You know who you are.

KW these are the kind of career games that'll get you picked again for future team tours by managers that look past records, although I'm sure your current record more than satisfies the people who just look at spreadsheets too. I'd be happy to see more games of that caliber from you! Great work dude. Hope the haters who are worse than you will step off at least a little bit after that because you showed that you're better at Pokemon than every single one of them.

 

[col49]

Ajna [SERP] vs. lighthouses [ASTR]
MrAldo [NAGA] vs. KW [LEVI]
esche [COBR] vs.col49 [BUSH]

back at it y'all. appreciate everyone for their input over the course of things, it's really great to see. getting some shake-ups from the cobras and astrotias this week, with esche and lighthouses returning, stoked to see what they pull up with. was definitely keen on the ajna kw game last week, not only for another credit to av champ but for the what to me felt like some more 'refined' aggro play, as impossible as that kinda thing is to really quantify.

to keep my own experiences brief, i am mildly disappointed w/my own performance in the leviathans series; while idt any one play could be qualified as poor (with the exception of perhaps bringing king in on the tox, i had at the time convinced myself stoss was far more optimal but it was not worth the downside of that timer), the match-up did not offer me the liberty to play it overly lax, and i let kw regulate the pace of the game far too much in the early stages of the game. by the time i started pulling the necessary triggers i was already in a hole, so for however flashy some of the endgame plays might've been they were really just me trying to force a choke. only have myself to blame for it, think it was fairly clean beyond the bad odds of what i learned to be ~an 80% chance to ko his spider w/the lax return i tried to push the issue with, live n learn. tried to take these pacing ideas to heart w/my prep for the aldo game, bringing something a bit more geared towards pushing momentum w/a pretty straightforward barb + scarf memento garde concept, targeting some of his tendencies as a builder via timid av goodra and banded drill run golisopod, which looked both to help with his usual bulky offense leanings (picking off w.e and there generally not being much outside the seen doublade that loves predicting and coming in on the first impression, acting as a serviceable thousand arrows resist in light of my grass being unable to do so) and providing a croak lure of sorts. while i didn't get to play aldo himself this time, i once again managed to make another hasty play around the z move user, as i should have recognized the possibility of the z aero and memento'd, rather than tricking. beyond that though, the plays made to me feel fairly self-explanatory with the potential exception of my end-game from going rotom on garde. this sequence was largely in anticipation of healing wish, as i knew sam didn't have the leniency to attack into the lix and maintain enough resources to win from there, and by forcing him to hw into doublade with rotom-c out, i was all but guaranteed to ensure the win outside a wisp miss, which did end up happening. past that, i just needed to get all the damage in edgewise on doublade with what i had without allowing him enough boosts, which could be achieved by going barb and clicking liquidation, given if he sd'd twice i would ko w/2 liquidations + lix eq + first impression, or as it panned out 1 liquidation + 2 eqs provided no crit.

 

[Denial]

Hyped to see how those players will use the new toys we got.
Ajna [SERP] vs. lighthouses [ASTR]

This game is gonna be really interesting. Ajna is one of the best ruer and lighthouses is surelly motivated af for the comeback, I expect a really good match

MrAldo [NAGA] vs. KW [LEVI]

After that battle vs ajna, im always gonna cheer on KW, and I dont liked how aldo played his battles.

esche [COBR] vs.col49 [BUSH]

I really dont know about this one, col plays ok one time and one time he does dumb plays, still rooting for him since esche didnt convince me with his battles.

 

[Sir Isaac Mewton]

Ajna [SERP] vs. lighthouses [ASTR]: Guess after the W last week the Astrotias thought they'd go back to the norm of nothing but L's in RU. Ajna is still the third best RU'er so should win, tho in a similar fashion to Khabib vs Conor that submission will have an impact on plays.

MrAldo [NAGA] vs. KW [LEVI]: Started hyping this guy when he managed to knock me out in the Open and a bit before that when I heard him shitting on everybody. The Khabib, the Lebron James of RU vs the friendly neighbor Aldo, who hasn't pulled a trigger all tour. Still will be the highlight of the week.

esche [COBR] vs.col49 [BUSH]: col49 has been very steady and I think he will win in a close one. Esche did not accept a team or any winning advice from one of the best, so he deserves to lose every round. Jk's hopefully we'll see another cool analysis by col49 after, it's always nice to see players explaining their thought process.

 

[col49]

Ajna [SERP] vs. col49 [BUSH] - Sunday, tbd
Sam [NAGA] vs. esche [COBR]
KW [LEVI] vs. lighthouses [ASTR] - Wednesday, 7 pm est

final week of the phase y'all. as i'm to understand things, the only team 100% out of contention is the astrotias, and i have every confidence lighthouses will be playing for realsies so i'm looking out for some competitive games. stoked on my own ofc, hoping to pull something out for the spectators.

went tre fast-and-loose with last week's team, striving to capitalize on my opponent's expectations of me (i have teamed with both esche and cs in the past and felt they would be conscious of the way my teams tend to come together), with the primary focus here being mix aboma, exploiting a tendency from esche to skew towards less specially defensive steels if any (in this case none). i approached the remainder in something of an art of peer pressure angle, using a looser defensive core that prompts specific responses in order to open up turns to my offensive mons to nab turns, ultimately looking to substantiate melo. typically i am not wont to use a team structured like this, as they will almost always look good on paper but fold to tons of realistic gameplay scenarios in application, and to that end i shifted away from a lot of more traditional build picks for ones that favored shedding defensive mons as the game plays out (ie.calm mirror coat milo, pdef earth power diancie with a sizable spa investment to punish fighters and specifically ohko barb if it attempts to smash after sr dmg). i'm overall satisfied with the way i played the game, the ice punch crit on diancie actually turned what was a really favourable roll to live any non-heavy slam secondary hit into an assured ko when moonblast into anything really opened me up, but by the time he revealed his machamp set i was able to fairly safely discern the zydog and shaymin sets and formulate a game plan from there. i took liberty in assuming he would not anticipate the mirror coat and was rewarded for it in the last turn, but on the whole i feel esche played quite well. folks were quick to point not not dd'ing twice as a misplay, but at the end of the day he needed a crit on aboma regardless of my spread (0/0 mild takes 57% from +2 espeed, while aboma comes in at 59). the blastoise into aboma play was to me the most suspect (i made that play more expecting to get the recovery from necrozma to put me into safety v.the late-game zygarde), but in his reveal on necrozma i can better understand how he sought to respond to my melo. gg to him, hoping for some more cool ones in the coming week!