Smogon Snake Draft 2018: UU Discussion

[Sage]

Teams out sadly, so gonna talk about the teams I didn't really get a chance to unpack in other posts as well as brief recaps on ones I have.

Game 1 (W vs robjr)

Terminal Redux

LCD (Aggron-Mega) @ Aggronite
Ability: Filter
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Heavy Slam
- Fire Punch
- Toxic

Psychotropia (Nihilego) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 80 Def / 176 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Power Gem
- Sludge Wave
- Protect

Collapse (Krookodile) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 16 HP / 232 Atk / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Crunch

Ultimate Artificer (Jellicent) (M) @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hex
- Recover

Charging the Void (Florges-White) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Synthesis
- Wish
- Heal Bell

Cygnus Terminal (Hydreigon) (F) @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Focus Blast
- Defog
- Roost

I liked the idea of Z-Focus Hydreigon vs Rob because it took advantage of a lot of his non-fairy builds (or if there was one it is Klefki), as well as luring Cobalion like it did in the game. Aggron and Florges have been used other times besides me, forming a great defensive backbone (substitute Steel in for Aggron if you want etc.), I liked Aggron because it could trade with Hippowdon more easily than other Steel-type thanks to Filter and Hippo proved annoying for earlier drafts of this build. Fire Punch since my main SD sciz check was a Jellicent and wanted to have insurance. Jellicent was meant to help vs Stall and Suicune, Taunt was very useful in conjunction with Nihilego's Toxic Spikes. Krookodile does whatit does and compressed a million roles to make the team functional vs a multitude of threats (Manectric, Latias, etc.) Probably the most all around solid team I made of the tournament.

Game 2 (W vs McMeghan)

THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE

TRUMAN (Kommo-o) @ Life Orb
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 28 Atk / 228 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Clanging Scales
- Close Combat
- Poison Jab
- Taunt

TONYA (Scizor) @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 156 HP / 244 Atk / 100 SpD / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower

DONT BE FAMOUS (Aerodactyl-Mega) @ Aerodactylite
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 248 Atk / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Aqua Tail

READY FOR WAR (Palossand) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Compaction
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 16 SpA / 68 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Shadow Ball
- Earth Power
- Shore Up

DIANA (Primarina) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 156 HP / 252 SpA / 100 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Sparkling Aria
- Moonblast
- Psychic

WILDFIRE (Rotom Heat) @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 236 HP / 16 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Overheat
- Toxic
- Defog

Mostly built around unlocking the anti fat / anti offense core of LO Mixed Kommo-o and Hone Claws Aero respectively. Added Specs Band breaker duo of Primarina and Scizor, both also used typing to check dangerous shit like Latias and Hydreigon. Palossand and Rotom-H were the support for the team, providing Hazards, Removal, and a lot of defneivse utility. Very happy with hai this came out as well, ended up fighting wacky offense so Aerodactyl did a lot, Kommo-o ended up checking a Barbaracle of all things. Fun team to play with some cool sets and goat Brockhampton nicknames.

Game 3 (W vs Manipulative)

Shamelessly plugging this team lol already went in depth on this one. Nicknamed off of Fate classes because I'm a weeb and had to let that show at least once. Team performed mostly well in a abd matchup although I messed up the piloting at the end.

Game 4 (L vs Pak)

Particles and Waves

Particles & Waves (Suicune) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 152 Def / 104 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Scald
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Streams (Altaria-Mega) @ Altarianite
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Roost

Every Town (Bronzong) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 236 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Psywave
- Toxic
- Protect

Far From the City (Rotom-Mow) @ Electrium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 SpA / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Leaf Storm
- Pain Split
- Defog

Vanishing Point (Krookodile) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 16 HP / 232 Atk / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Iron Tail

K56 (Salazzle) (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 248 HP / 20 Def / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Toxic
- Protect
- Taunt

Pak looked very weak to Altaria and that's where I started for this team, adding Suicune early as I thought it would be a left field pick from me. Unfortunately it was such a good pick that Pak brought Lum Berry Tsareena because of how weak he was to it. Bronzong covered me as a rocker versus opposing Mega Altaria, and Krookodile did Krook things. Salazzle was a Scizor check as well as a way to annoy things like Empoleon and Nihilego, and just gain early momentum. This set is great people should use it more. Rotom got me some momentum generation and removal, even though I had to use dogshit mono Volt Switch because Pain Split was important on a bulky team like this. I'm not mad about how this team turned out, I think it's relatively solid although maybe Rotom-Heat + Something else in the salazzle slot would have covered all bases better. Moltres abused this teams lack of a proper answer to it in the game and I lost for it. Had Stakataka in an earlier draft but got too paranoid of opposing Alts.

GGs to all my opponents, respected you all as players and was glad to be given a chance. Looking forward to handsome gentleman Pak hopefully continue his undefeated streak, and also excited to see how Hogg does playing in this pool for Stage 2 on the Astrotias. UU games have been one of the higher quality in the lower tiers and hopefully that trend continues. @ everyone else post ffs


Edit: week 1 predictions because I'm cool

Hogg over Pasy
Lycans over rob
Pak over HT

 

[HT]

Pak see you sunday

 

[kumiko]

pretty clear this snake wasn't exactly how i'd hope it'd turn out, but shit happens. Regardless, UU is still awesome and I feel like sharing some of my thoughts and some things I came up with.

- McMeghan vs Manipulative
importable

Starting off, one of the first things I did after the draft was revamp the team Pearl and I made Empo for UUPL Finals (replay). Obviously, this team went through a few changes, mostly due to Gliscor being banned, but beyond just that I felt a few things would make the team more effective. Initially, I stuck with Mega Altaria, but ended up deciding I didn't really find myself sweeping with it often. At the time of the Gliscor variant's creation, for one, Amoonguss was OU, making DD 3 Atks virtually unwallable, but also a multitude of other things that hinder Altaria's odds of sweeping becoming more common in the time between when we first made the team and when I revamped it last month. I laddered with this variant a bunch and made some changes, but since I never save replays I don't remember everything, buuut initially I just replaced Gliscor with Cobalion because I thought max HP Cobalion behind screens seems impossible to kill (it really is btw). After that, one of the first things I noticed was I had virtually no switchin to Scald, so bulky Waters in general gave me a lot of pain. I also realized Altaria was by far the least effective member of the team. Its only niche was giving me more durability vs Latias and Hydreigon, but I wanted to forgo that to actually have a chance at sweeping with something else. I remembered the days of Vincune + Lucha + Mega Pert behind Veil and I figured I should give it a try. It worked well in the games I played with it, so I kept it. I also realized that I wasn't really sure I wanted Kommo-o anymore. Obviously it's a very effective sweeper, but I didn't want to simply ignore that matchup vs stall like the previous team does (Quagsire comes in and doesn't switchout and wins on the original). SD 3 Atks Haxorus is cool but obviously not as amazing as Kommo-o is outside of the stall matchup.

McMeghan approached me, as usual, without anything prepared, so I gave him this team because I wasn't really interested in using Screens myself. It's a cool team, but I'd rather use something more interesting and engaging myself, not to mention the fact there are some pretty atrocious matchups that you can't play out of.

set

Although both teams with Articuno lost with their games (TDK vs pasy_g & pasy_g vs HT), I still believe it's a great mon on stall. There's not a super elaborate reasoning as to why I picked it, it's pretty much the only Pokemon that can remove hazards vs SR / Toxic / Protect Empoleon. Like actually. It offers a lot more to teams, of course, stopping SR from Swampert, Seismitoad, etc and also helping stall teams deal with bulky waters easier via Pressure + Heal Bell. The Rock weakness is very apparent, but this really shouldn't be used beyond a team with at least another mean of removal (Gligar), but really is better off with two others. The games it was used in particular, I think both teams used were inefficient. I made a full on stall team very similar to what I used in this game on a separate occasion that was more aptly prepared for things in general (although it probably was going to lose vs NP Infernape in the longrun), but the reason I picked this team was because I wanted to use Curse Gligar. Before my game I should have realized that what I was using was pretty much just an inefficient version of the full stall team I used and laddered with, but hindsight 20/20. The game itself was not by any means an autoloss, but required some better play from myself and also ended abruptly due to the crit on my Gligar. Gligar was not necessarily going to win on its own, but max SDef Gligar being healthy would have kept me from losing to Infernape the moment it came in. To put the latter game bluntly, the edits to the stall I passed Tony were poor. This game was an autowin for pasy if Gligar had Knock Off, which it desperately needs. I would sooner want to have to sacrifice a mon to kill Heracross than to drop Knock Off on Gligar. Again, hindsight. But I think this mon is a very big boon for stall; it's obviously vulnerable to Scizor and Aeordactyl, but it's very bulky and can handle getting Pursuited a few times as long as the team is capable of keeping rocks off. And if you're using Articuno, I hope you can. The EVs in the pokepaste are to outspeed and do at least 90% to Crawdaunt. If this should not be necessary for your team, definitely drop the investment and speed. The 4 Defense EVs guarantee a CB Scizor Bullet Punch will never OHKO from full.

@

set

Something I've been loving to try lately in tournaments is Metronome on random Pokemon. When people started to use Metronome Mamoswine in OU in SPL8, I thought it was really stupid. I still do not like that set and never thought too much of it, but it made me realize there are some Pokemon that can legitimately abuse Metronome. One of the ones I was intrigued the most by was Nihilego. I don't really care to explain this too in depth, but the idea here is boosting both the power of Power Gem and boosting Nihilego's speed, thanks to Beast Boost, at the same time. I used this vs Lycans, and it did not get a chance to shine, but I still believe this set has potential to be pulled off.

@

set

Another idea I used but did not get a chance to shine was Scarf Starmie. The idea here was how a large majority of UU players, myself included, have an over-reliance on Scarf Krookodile, Scarf Hydreigon, and Mega Aerodactyl as their means of checking anything remotely fast. Although it's hard to properly abuse, as Scarf Krookodile is not exactly a lead, nor does Aerodactyl threaten to OHKO Starmie from the start, but Scarf Starmie won't be useless even if it can't get a surprise kill, as tricking Scarf onto a bulky Water is, at the very least, something.

set

Curse Gligar was something interesting I came up with scrolling through all the new mons that learned Curse. While obviously there are some things that can very much hard wall it (CM Latias, Kyurem, Swampert, Slowbro, etc), its bulk is absolutely absurd and with Eviolite intact, it's incredibly hard to kill. In my game vs pasy, on paper its matchup looks nice, but if it were to lose Eviolite, Empoleon becomes a giant roadblock, not to mention the fact by the time I revealed it was Curse, my lone Heal Bell mon was dead. Regardless, Gligar was still a huge part to this team in this game. In general, I think Curse Gligar is a quirky pick that generally won't be worthwhile, but some teams, particularly offensive ones, will find trouble taking it on. I wouldn't really recommend it being used unless you're specifically building around it, and even then you'll want to be sure another set or mon is not better.

import

This was probably my favorite team I made during Snake. Although my game vs HT didn't exactly go as planned, I'm still a fan of this team. The concept of this team wasn't anything obscene; I really wanted to bring CM + Rest Slowbro to Snake in general, and I felt it would be a good pick vs HT. I tried a lot of partners and combinations of mons alongside it, and ended up liking this one the most. The first thing I did was add a way to cure status, so that narrows it down to Heal Bell (Florges / Togekiss / Blissey) or Healing Wish (Blissey / Celebi / Latias). Blissey + Mega Slowbro cover a lot just between the two. Obviously, they can't cover everything, but I chose here to rely on offensively checking the stuff that those two could not. With Healing Wish and my team structure as a whole in mind, I opted to use Block > Slack Off on CM Rest MBro. Infernape and Terrakion are here to provide me with offensive checks to things like Scizor, Togekiss, Empoleon, Moltres, and so on. Hydreigon and Scizor were what I felt best rounded the team out, as I really wanted a Steel type and I needed a Choice Scarf mon immune to Earthquake. I also realized I needed Defog and Celebi insurance, so it became two easy picks.

While someone just skipping through the battle might think I just had a bad matchup, that was very much not the case. Mega Slowbro, Infernape, and Terrakion all posed to be big threats to his team should some things have gone differently. My team was quite susceptible to Volt Turn, due to my lack of Ground and my lack of Rocky Helmet / Flame Body to punish Scizor, but in a worst case scenario I can simply sacrifice one of my more useless Pokemon (Scizor) or make a prediction (Blissey staying in on U-turn) and get something going.

---

But yeah, SM UU is still really fun. Apologies again to my team for my poor performance, you guys deserved better. Thanks to McMeghan and Tony for helping me perfect things and bounce ideas, and special thanks to Pearl for all the help.

 

[Freeroamer]

Hogg vs Pasy: interesting matchup, Hogg is obviously coming in for his first big team tour game of UU for a while and I haven’t been super keen on the Astriota’s UU builds but then Pasy is coming off a rough phase 2 which makes this a hard one to call. I’m going to make the somewhat safer call and side with the person who has the more UU experience over the person who I think might bring the better team with the support he has, but this’ll be an interesting one.

Lycans vs rob: This one is definitely a reflection of early form, Lycans has been doing his thing as usual while rob doesn’t seem to have really found his groove yet, but I don’t think he’s a million miles away either. This should be a really good watch and I think it’ll be hella closer than records suggest.

Pak vs HT: highlight game of the week(end) for me between the two smashers, both of whom have impressed in the early stages of snake. Pak has the better record of 4-0 as opposed to 3-1 but I don’t think that counts for a huge deal here as both guys are coming off 2-0 phase 2s and in matchups like this where they know each other so well, how well they can prep for the other is usually the dividing factor because they should both play at a high level. I pussied out of bolding this one because I really can’t call it haha

Interesting matchups this week, each of the matchups is close in its own way to the point that I wouldn’t be confident of betting on any of them with certainty so hopefully that shows through in the games and we get some good watches!

 

[Pak]

Heyo, I'm going to talk a bit about my phase 2 games vs Sage and McMeghan. Due to the fact that both games were fairly straight-forward, I won't be going too in-depth on my turn per turn thought process. Instead, it'll mostly be my general game plans that I tried to loosely stick to during both matches.

Phase 2 vs Sage
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-396372

At preview, I immediately noticed a number of things that would play a heavy role in the match. First, my Agility Flyinium Z Moltres looked amazing, nabbing free turns on Mega Altaria, Rotom-C, Bronzong, and Choice-locked Krook, and possessing no clear countermeasure outside of Sage keeping up rocks. Tsareena could also get it into good spots on by U-turning on whatever, while serving as my primary check to Suicune by holding Lum Berry. Unfortunately, my hazards would be keep tough to keep down considering Rotom-C's favorable one-on-one matchup versus my two setters in Klefki and the sandcastle. Looking at Sage's side, Suicune is pretty much always threatening and could pose a huge issue with some lucky Scald burns on Tsareena or by simply wearing it down over time in combination with her rocks and potentially trapping it with Krook. Salazzle looked like a huge issue, assuming it had sub (which sage revealed it did not), so I kinda dodged a bullet there. Lastly, switching into any Mega Altaria set would be fairly annoying if I couldn't keep rocks off, meaning Moltres would be stuck Roosting instead of throwing out powerful attacks.

So basically, my way of winning seemed to be me getting Tsareena and Moltres into as many favorable positions as possible, as they were by far the two biggest threats against Sage's team. Additionally, it would be heavily appreciated if I could keep her rocks off to prevent my Tsareena from being worn down too quickly by Suicune, and obviously so Moltres doesn't come in at half when it is needed to check the eventually revealed Dragon Dance Double Edge Mega Altaria. The rest of my members were mostly expendable, not theoretically accomplishing much on their own aside from Palossand getting up rocks or potentially landing a Toxic on Rotom-C to help out Klefki and itself in keeping hazards. In the end, I followed this loose plan pretty closely, which is the main reason why there isn't much to say about the individual turns themselves. I managed to put in hella work with Moltres, keep rocks off towards the end, and keep my Tsareena healthy enough to act as a reliable answer to the Suicune, so mission accomplished and I came out with a win in a fun one vs my friend Sage.

Phase 2 vs McMeghan
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-397404

This was a ridiculously straight-forward game for the most part so it's hard to give a whole lot of insight. To be honest, I expected to face something much bulkier than I actually did in this game, leading me to bring SD rocks Kommo-o, Block CM Mega Slowbro, and Nasty Plot Heal Bell Togekiss along with a generally solid supporting cast. Unfortunately, I ran into some super threatening hyper offense, including Haxorus, a mon I really really hoped not to see given my shitty matchup against it on paper. Theoretically, it could set up 1 Dragon Dance with rocks up and sweep me if I didn't burn it with Mega Slowbro, as it could break through Togekiss with Poison Jab and outspeed my main revenge killer in Scarf Krook, then kill it off with whatever it wanted. Most of the other mons seemed manageable, at least at preview, but that thing just stuck in my mind the entire game.

It seemed this game would obviously be a matter of me outlasting these hard-hitting threats, preventing as many set-up opportunities as I could. Going into the game a bit, the Talonflame gave me a bit of a scare when I got a min roll with my mono-attacking Mega Slowbro's Scald, but in hindsight it was probably better that we doubled down, since I didn't give something like Gatr or Haxorus a theoretical setup opportunity. Later on, I wasn't very decisive with how I wanted to use my Silvally-Steel. Sure, it could hit things with Toxic or Parting Shot back out to prevent Attack boosts, but it was really tricky with its positioning, especially considering I didn't know how fast Roro's Mega Blastoise was. Towards the end, my Haxorus fears finally came into play, as it came in on my Togekiss Air Slash...which seemed to do jack shit. Naturally, I didn't think much of it at the time since it was only a couple percentage points below the min roll against 0/0 bulk Haxorus and PS's rounding is fucking crazy. So anyway, Dragon Dance seemed ridiculously free on his end, as with rocks up on my side with Togekiss at below half, knocked off, and needed to beat Mega Blastoise, it seemed like a pretty bad situation for me. I went for what I thought would be a last-ditch crit attempt on the expected DD, but I ended up outspeeding and flinching the Haxorus, revealing it to be in fact, really really bulky. So yeah, that basically gave me the game on the spot; one I may have lost under more common circumstances. It's hard to say how the game would've played out had he outsped me, but in the end it worked out for me so I can't complain.

(e: now that I've thought the endgame through more thoroughly, I think I had the game heavily in my favor unless I would've gotten some atrocious Air Slash rolls and he was out of range of Silvally's Flamethrower after the 2 Air Slashes (Toxic would've been fine too but I assumed Lum at that point). I would go Silvally the turn after the first DD, threatening the KO so he is forced to attack. Then the turn after I would go Krook which would live anything against +1 (following Intimidate if he DD'd on the switch to Silvally) Haxorus besides Outrage, meaning Toge would theoretically win barring a crit on Krook or Mega Blastoise Water Pulse confusing Toge as I'm healing up, unless I'm missing something)

These were some really fun ones, gg to both Sage and Roro.

 

[McMeghan]

After putting this on hold for a while, I've finally taken the time to read this thread and it was quite interesting, as one would expect. Pak, your posts make me think you have a good way to approach the game and it shows in your results so far. Keep it up and keep those posts coming, as they're worth the read. To be honest though, the same could be said about everyone else, as the quality of every posts so far has been quite good.

Regarding my Snake tournament well... I thought I'd be more motivated when I signed up. I don't mean to use that as an excuse at all, but it just so happened that IRL commitments and other things took the time/interest I'd have put into Pokemon otherwise, and that kinda played in at least my preparation for my games. When I signed up, I felt like I might dig more into the tier and take the time to properly test and flesh out new ideas. Instead I did last minute stuff and hoped it'd be enough with my skills. With that being said, I'll contribute to this thread by delving into my teams and my games. This is gonna be a long post, sorry for drowning you in those babblings.

Game 1 vs Sage
Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-394419
Team: https://pokepast.es/90c466a19ce72740

Saturday came around and I was still team-less despite the fact I was scheduled to play Sage later. After some brainstorming, I decided I'd try to convert TDK's OU Screen Teams into UU. For the record, it was that famous team during last tour season that consisted of Tapu Koko/Landorus/Mew/Zygarde/Magearna/Greninja. Went with Azelf for screens, Metagross for Boom/Rocks and Froslass for Spikes. Whenever I build an HO, I like my support Pokemons to be able to threaten something in return and this is why I liked Froslass (DBond) and Metagross (LO Boom). Barbaracle is a pretty "standard" pick, I chose Tornadus because of Defiant and Sivally Ground because I wanted a Lightning immunity that could take on Scizor. I also wanted all my set up sweepers to be able to boost their speed on top of their offense.

Anyway, regarding the game itself, I knew before it started that I was weak to Scizor, especially CB as it really forces me to keep my screens up. Sage played well early to put me under pressure and the health lost on Azelf pretty much cut my chances to get my screens up more than once during that game (which would be needed later for Scizor). Barbaracle was looking great but I had no real way to weaken Kommo-O beforehand. Silvally also had a good shot (especially after Palossand was sacked) had I managed to get my Rocks up (and my screens).

All in all, my plays weren't precise enough and given the match up, I needed more outmaneuvering to win this battle.

Game 2 vs Manipulative
Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-394444
Team: posted earlier by TDK

While I was brainstorming earlier for Sage, TDK showed me this team and it caught my interest. It seemed straightforward and considering my state of mind regaring Pokemon in general, I didn't really wanna bother much so I decided to use it.

The preview had me concerned because of Hippodown and Mantine both being quite annoying for this team. Hippo can soak hits all day and waste screen turns between Slack Off and WW, while never really fearing an OHKO outside of a boosted Haxorus. Mantine on the other hand could stop my offenses and Defog the screens easily.

Turn 3 was a big deal: I figured Manip wouldn't risk me setting up there and putting Hippo in range of everything else in my team would be huge for later. There were some approximate plays around Mantine later on, letting it stay healthy and remove my Rocks & Screen. My only way to threaten it one on one and making progress was getting Haxorus on the field, which I did. A bit later, Manipulative took a lot of time to send Hydreigon vs Haxorus and since he had showed Scarf Magneton, I kinda hoped he'd be Modest Hydrei. Not to mention I felt like all my other Pokemons were more valuable at this point so I stayed in and lost Haxorus, allowing Doublade to set up. At this point I had to hope I wouldn't get burned by Scald, which I didn't and the rest of the battle is pretty straightforward from there.

Game 3 vs Pak
Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-397404
Team: https://pokepast.es/b3d11d31bae3a7b2

Much like with my first games, I would wait until Saturday to build some teams last minute for my games. Anyway, this team resulted from a desire to use Feraligatr and then me revamping an ORAS OU team from Leftiez (which was: Feraligatr/MGyarados/Latias/Talonflame/LandorusT/Starmie). Went with Haxorus over Gyarados because I wanted Mold Breaker in case I'd run into Stall. Mega Blastoise over Starmie because I could use some bulk. Lack of Dragon resist made me use two Haban berries to avoid being mindlessly revenged by Scarf Dragons like Latias or Hydreigon.

Much like Pak said, I think the game was pretty straight-forward. When I EV'd my Pokemons, I went with a 271 speed number on Fera/Haxo to outspeed Manec at +1 and completely overlooked Togekiss. Granted I thought most of those ran bulk and not max max Timid, which ultimately costed me. I'm not gonna lie here and say I clicked Poison Jab on the flinch (which would have won me the game because Blastoise can take on Krook and Silvally at this point, unless crits). I clicked Dragon Dance and then I'd have to predict around Pak (dancing again to play around Intimidate while being in kill range from Air Slash).

Game 4 vs Robjr
Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-397667
Team: secret

And for my final team, I went with a revamp of an ORAS OU team I spammed, which consisted of abusing a Regenerator core with Mega Sableye to keep off hazards at the time. The team was: Infernape/Amoonguss/Slowbro/MSab/AV Torna-T/Scarf Drill. Defog Empoleon took MSab spot, AV Mienshao was the closest thing available to a bulky Pokemon with Regenator that could put chip damages all over the place and Scarf Tsareena was chosen to replace Drill for its access to Rapid Spin.

As for the game, well, I took a strong lead by getting a surprise kill on his Registeel after bluffing Scarf Mienshao in the early game. Without Rocks pressure, I knew I had a good advantage because Regenerator is broken like that. Once Hydreigon burned his Z Move, Mienshao was free to put chip damages everywhere and get momentum on my side too. Just had to watch out for Bewear but it revealed to be CB by getting the KO on Mienshao, unattainable otherwise, which meant it could be played around pretty rather safely thanks to Amoonguss and Slowbro. I had an answer to all his threats and I just had to avoid being on backfoot too much while getting my damages here and there when I could with Mien/Nape/Amoon.
---

There are some more things I ended up not using or could talk about, but I've said enough for now. UU is a fun tier, definitely the best by far in SM imo. The room for creativity is immense and the tier doesn't feel centralized at all.

To finish this post, quick shout-out to Pearl, TDK and Alpha Rabbit for bouncing things off.

 

[Shiba]

Gonna post since our team is out. Kinda sucks to play only 4 games since I had a lot more ideas lined up but I had fun and was happy w/ my performance in 3/4 games I played.

Phase 1:

vs TDK

ASTRO

SICKO MODE (Celebi) @ Psychium Z
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Psychic
- Giga Drain
- Dazzling Gleam

YOSEMITE (Krookodile) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

NO BYSTANDERS (Aggron) @ Aggronite
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Fire Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake

STARGAZING (Blissey) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heal Bell
- Soft-Boiled
- Toxic
- Seismic Toss

WHO? WHAT! (Alomomola) @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Scald
- Toxic

NC-17 (Mantine) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Roost
- Defog
- Haze

Looking at TDK's UUPL games + his open games, there was a common trend in being extremely weak to Psych-Z Celebi + I doubt anyone was going to prep for a super offensive grass now that Serperior and Breloom are out of the tier, so that's what I decided to build with. Mind you, I had no intention of making this an ORAS team + Mantine, but it kinda worked out that way LOL. As for the actual game, I had a really good matchup with just Blissey, but I would definitely say Celebi single-handedly won this game for me. It was just a matter of getting it in for free then playing around getting trapped by Krook (which I Giga'd Turn 14). I was fairly scared of Taunt Hydreigon, which is why I switched Blissey out a lot on it, but once it revealed Defog I knew the game was pretty much won at that point. Also big s/o to Adaam for advising Gleam over HP fire. You're a real one LOL

vs HT

DON

10 2 10 (Terrakion) @ Choice Band
Ability: Justified
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Quick Attack

BLESSINGS (Hydreigon) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Fire Blast
- U-turn

DEEP (Steelix-Mega) @ Steelixite
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
- Curse

ME, MYSELF & I (Rotom-Heat) @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 8 SpA / 248 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Volt Switch
- Thunder Wave
- Defog

MULA (Slowbro) @ Waterium Z
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Thunder Wave
- Slack Off

ON THE COME UP (Togekiss) @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Air Slash
- Roost
- Heal Bell

Was excited for this game vs my boy, HT. In prep I either wanted to use CB Terrakion or Mega Sharpedo, but I found it significantly harder to build w/ Shark than Terrak. I went with a basic T-wave spam build to help Terrak out, with Slowbro and Rotom-H luring faster Dragons like Lati or Drei. As for the actual game, I had a pretty horrendous matchup vs the Sharpedo + Specs Kyurem, but I ended up paralyzing everything (though I actually didn't get any important paras anyway) and took it to the last 2 turns where he dodged 2 in a row. As for the end game, I think I could've taken a few different routes with Toxic then switching around or even trying to Scald burn with Slowbro, but I felt my best shot was in the paralysis chances. Close game! I'll get you back for that NU open bs one day, andy...

Phase 2:

vs Lycans

SLIM

LUCKY YOU (Kommo-o) @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Drain Punch
- Poison Jab

NOT AFRAID (Rotom-Heat) @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 8 SpA / 248 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Volt Switch
- Thunder Wave
- Pain Split

MYNAMEIS (40.633%) (Scizor) @ Iron Plate
Ability: Technician
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Roost

FOREVER (Sceptile-Mega) @ Sceptilite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Giga Drain
- Dragon Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fire]

KILLSHOT (Empoleon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 180 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Protect

WONT BACK DOWN (Gligar) @ Eviolite
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 248 HP / 156 Def / 104 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 29 Spe
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Defog
- Toxic

Looking at Lycans last teams, I wanted to use an offensive Dragon Dancer vs Lycans. I experimented a bit with Haxorus but in the end I was 100% not expecting stall so I went for the safer choice with Kommo-o. As for the actual game, this was the only one I was mad at myself about. Turn 2 was kinda a headscratcher and made me lose in the end. The Gligar switch should be obvious + if he EQs he risks a roll on Earthquake (16+ Atk Rhyperior Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 76 Def Empoleon: 330-390 (88.7 - 104.8%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Leftovers recovery) and the Scald burn chance. I don't get either and that's the game pretty much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. In hindsight, it was definitely a misplay on my part but what can you do. Overall, I thought this was one of the better teams I built, but I just didn't execute correctly. Also Lycans is still THE player I hate playing the most on this site.


vs pasy_g

THE CHASERS

1 AM (Slowbro-Mega) @ Slowbronite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Scald
- Block
- Rest

PRAY FOR EM (Togekiss) @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Heal Bell
- Air Slash
- Roost

MONSTER (Krookodile) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

R.I.C.O. (Blissey) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Soft-Boiled
- Wish
- Toxic
- Seismic Toss

BALL PLAYER (Cobalion) @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
- Stealth Rock

BLESSED UP (Tentacruel) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 204 HP / 160 Def / 144 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Haze

For this one, I went with the counter-style to Accel in this game but got pretty much counter-styled back. Looking at teams I had a pretty bad matchup vs the Bewear, and it turned out to be SD which made it all the more dangerous. On the first turn Bewear came in, I wanted to go to Toge first but I believe Return was a roll if it was Choice Band and decided not to risk it since the Latias looked like it was the Z from team preview anyway. In the long run, the Toxic on the bear was huge because it was really the only thing he had that could break Blissey, which with double recovery in Wish + Soft-boiled actually clutched the game for me after a pretty bad matchup vs the bear. UU is easy man

Also just gonna post some sets I wanted to use but didn't get to since short season :(

Moltres @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 36 Def / 224 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Toxic
- Substitute
- Roost

Kinda an unexplored set, but definitely an interesting one I wanted to try out. Moltres forces a ton of switches + a lot of its switch-ins (besides like Nihilego) hate being toxic'd or lose to Sub shenanigans. I would encourage some people still in Snake to def try this one out in prep

Nihilego @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 80 HP / 176 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Knock Off
- Sludge Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Grass Knot

A neat tech with Knock Off and the +Speed variant for Nihilego. Knocking stuff like Empoleon or Krookodile on the switch allows it to beat them 1v1. Downside to this set is obviously the LO recoil on a weakass Knock Off, but a neat tech nonetheless.

Alomomola @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Def / 216 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Scald
- Mirror Coat

Mirror Coat fish, nothing much to this really. Eats Specs Primarina Moonblasts, Mane Tbolts/Volt Switches, etc and throws it right back at them. Kinda a gimmick in a sense, but in bo1s gimmicks are always useful

===============================

predix for stage 2:
HT vs Pak - cant predict against either of my boys
Lycans vs robjr - expecting rob + cynde to pick it up from here on out
Hogg vs pasy_g - UU is easy man

Well, that's gonna be all from me. I really enjoyed my first official tour, even though I only got to play in 4 games ( change format >:( ). Hopefully I'll be around for another chance in SPL!

Also big shouts to Eyan and Adaam for me to bounce ideas off of, you guys were essential in my prep and I really appreciate you both :]

 

[Pak]

Stage 2 Week 1 vs HT
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-400249

Loose Plan: Hm this was a tough one to piece together a concise gameplan at the beginning, mainly because I expected his Moltres to have Defog due to the lack of a grounded poison/overall weakness to hazards between Mega Aero and Moltres itself. Between a hypothetical Defog Moltres and Empoleon, I would basically never get my hazards up with Cobalion and Klefki as my setters. Aside from that, my Cofagrigus and scarf Hydreigon both had potential to clean later on, so I guess the goal was to just play things out until one of their paths to win became clear.

Lead/first few turns: Another mon with a nice matchup here was my Mega Blastoise, as it could beat five out of six one-on-one, so it seemed like a pretty easy lead to get some momentum from the start. If he led Celebi, which he did, I had some non-awful counterplay options that would force him into some tricky situations. ie forcing Dazzling Gleams as I stayed in with Klefki. I could never justify risking my Hydreigon on any turn, so what I did opt to do was attempt to put Celebi into Hydra Dark Pulse range with Celebi.

Turn 6: I really really wanted to double to Cobalion here to prevent an Empoleon Defog, but like I said, Moltres just seemed like a decent defogger at preview, meaning that while it would have gotten my momentum going in a big way, there was also a good chance he could kill it all off instantly.

Turn 15: I guess Draco was a bit of a misplay here since scarf Hydreigon was really obvious looking at my team, and he could safely scout with Roost which he had just revealed. Unfortunately, Dark Pulse didn't 2HKO and I'd be risking health on my Hydreigon on ensuing turns. Draco at least got me a bit of damage, and even though it did force me to sack a mon, it meant Dark Pulse was an easy 2HKO when I brought it back in.

Turn 23-24: This Moltres was looking like pretty dangerous. It was essential for me to get these turns right if I had any hope of breaking through this goon without too much damage being done. I managed to get in Nidoking on the obvious Toxic, willing to trade a bit of its health to put Moltres in Draco range and worsen its future matchups against my Cobalion.

Turn 25: If he subbed here I probably lost on the spot, though I doubted HT would go for anything besides Flamethrower there, as Sludge Wave on either Sub or Roost would net more damage on him or Earth Power would straight up kill if I went all in on Roost. Considering the next hit would most likely put him into rocks range, Flamethrower just seemed safe on his end.

Turn 27-28: Going to Cobalion on Scizor covered multiple options that would've put me in a good spot. If I got it in on the BP, it would give me rocks, meaning scarf Hydreigon and Cofag would have a much much easier time in cleaning things up with Moltres so low and Aero getting chunked. If he Superpower'd either turn, then Cofagrigus was in for free on a -1 Scizor to start setting up for free.

Turn 29: Now that rocks were up, I needed to keep Moltres as low as possible for Hydreigon to safely clean later on, meaning Swords Dance was always my play here. +2 Close Combat does enough to keep Moltres honest and +2 Iron Head breaks sub so that's cool too.

Turn 30:

Cofag Aero calcs

252+ SpA Cofagrigus Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Aerodactyl-Mega: 120-142 (39.8 - 47.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
+2 252+ SpA Cofagrigus Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Aerodactyl-Mega: 240-283 (79.7 - 94%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Cofagrigus Never-Ending Nightmare (160 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Aerodactyl-Mega: 240-283 (79.7 - 94%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ SpA Cofagrigus Never-Ending Nightmare (160 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Aerodactyl-Mega: 480-565 (159.4 - 187.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Aero was at 98 so Nasty Plot into Z move prevented any Roost spam fuckery. Looking back maybe this wasn't the most optimal sequence considering Hydreigon probably had it eventually anyway. However, this was a more direct path that sped things up considerably, at the cost of risking Stone Edge crits.

The rest was fairly straightforward. This was a really fun one to play, gg HT.

 

[Accel]

Stage 2 Week 2 vs Robjr

Thoughts at preview (click the below gif for the replay):



I decided to go with a build based around SubRoost Kyurem for my game versus Rob, and the idea from the start was to use something that would pressure his typical bulky offensive style. At preview, it immediately seemed that this particular Kyurem set would definitely have a sizable impact on the game since it could Substitute up against Tentacruel and Rotom-H and proceed to wreak havoc on the rest of Rob's team. Amoonguss was crucial in this game as it could take one of Rob's mons out of the game via Spore and also had enough speed creep to Clear Smog or Spore his Reuniclus if need be. On time team I was rocking Thunder Wave Mega Aggron, and while it left me completely walled by Rotom-H, it also gave me the opportunity to paralyze Tentacruel if it ever came in expecting to spin for free. My own Krookodile wasn't too effective since Rob brought a Mega Altaria, so I figured I'd use it to create some switching pressure of my own and to prevent Rotom-H from gaining any momentum. Waterium-Z Starmie was another threat of mine that looked great at preview, as nothing would really want to switch into it and, had I played it better, may have had a more favorable impact versus Rob's team. Togekiss was running the standard stallbreaker set and was literally the only thing standing between Reuniclus and the rest of my team.

As for Rob's team, CM Reuniclus was pretty apparent and was by far the biggest threat to my team. Considering that there was a Tentacruel and even a Rotom-H to get rid of hazards, I wrote off the possibility that Mega Altaria was running a Defog set, and instead figured that it was likely to be a Dragon Dance or mixed set. Cobalion was very clearly his rocker, and I had a couple of decent checks to it on my team so I wasn't worried about it too much. Rob's Krookodile was undoubtedly his scarfer, and I had to be especially careful of it while my Starmie was in. Rotom-H's set was an unknown for me as well, since Tentacruel was most probably his spinner, and I figured it was one of those bulky Toxic sets that have found more general effectiveness as of late. Of course, Tentacruel was his spinner and may have had Toxic Spikes, which I wasn't too worried about as I had my Amoonguss to remove them from play.

Leads and Initial Turns: Kyurem and Starmie were definitely the two weapons I immediately wanted to make the most use of, and I figured Kyurem was the safer lead since I didn't have to play my way out of a 50/50 involving Rob's Krookodile. Fortunately, Rob led with his Rotom-H and was most probably trying to gain some momentum of his own right off the bat, and I used the opportunity to sub up and start to get a feel for the game. Rob maneuvers nicely around my Kyurem and ends up bringing Reuniclus, which seemed to have a Z-move due to its lack of Leftovers, on a Earth Power that was aimed at his Cobalion. This gave him the opportunity to potentially set up and win the game if my Togekiss wasn't able to dispatch it. I didn't want to immediately switch into Amoonguss or Togekiss since both mons eventually invited Rotom-H to come in and threaten the whole team, including Kyurem.

Turn 9-12: Reuniclus gets a CM up vs my Kyurem and it wasn't in my best interest to stay in and fish since my Ice Beam pp was starting to get low. I hard switch into Amoonguss on a forced Recover to try and put Reuniclus to sleep and subsequently Clear Smog it. Rob made use of Natural Cure on his Altaria to prevent me from Sporing any other members of his team, and I saw this as an opportunity to switch into Mega Aggron and get my hazards up while Rob switches to Rotom-H.

Turn 13-18: I hard switch into Kyurem while Rob makes a nice play and gets a Toxic off on it. At this point, Rotom-H hadn't revealed Pain Split, so I figured I'd get a bit more damage off on it and wear it down. When I switch into Krookodile to prevent him from Volt Switching out, the Rotom-H does reveal Pain Split and gets to stick around for a bit longer. I try to get some initiative of my own here and Knock Off the Rotom-H, however Rob switches to his Cobalion and gets some chip on my Krookodile via Rocky Helmet. I go immediately into Amoonguss and get some chip on his Cobalion via my own Rocky Helmet, and put it to sleep while Rob gets his own hazards up.

Turn 19-22: I switch out into my Starmie and hope to get rid of the hazards on my side asap, since it especially risks Kyurem and Togekiss's impacts on the rest of the game. Rob proceeds to accomplish the same goal with his Tentacruel, and here I overthink the situation. Instead of outright going for a Rapid Spin, I opt to go for a Hydro Pump since I was fearing a double into his Krookodile and it blows up in my face. I attempt to spin the next turn, and Rob ends up scoring a poison on my Starmie with Sludge Bomb which further complicates things for me. Again, I was hung up over a potential switch into Krookodile if I hypothetically targeted Tentacruel with a Thunderbolt or Psyshock, and decided to get some chip off on the Tentacruel via Z-Hydro Pump while also covering the Krookodile switch. Rob stays in again and finishes my Starmie off with another Sludge Bomb.

Turn 23-29: I bring in my Krookodile on his Tentacruel and aimed to scare it out while doubling into my Togekiss to Heal Bell Kyurem. This works out, and at the end of the Heal Bell turn, Togekiss is in against his Rotom-H. I go into Amoonguss to try and pivot into a Toxic and instead get hammered by Overheat which barely falls short of finishing Amoonguss off. However, now that his Rotom-H is at -2 SpA, I figured going into Togekiss again on a potential Toxic turn was an option since his Rotom-H was minimally invested in its SpA stat in the first place. Togekiss then ends up against Rob's Tentacruel and I Heal Bell the second Toxic off and subsequently switch into Kyurem and get burned by Tenta's Scald. This was helpful as it meant I could basically pivot into Rotom-H freely without having to worry about getting Toxic'd.

Turn 30-32: Rob gets his Reuniclus in on my Kyurem while I Roosted to get it back to full so it could check Rotom-H more reliably. Since the option of putting Reuniclus to sleep has expired due to Cobalion being asleep, my only option was to go to Togekiss and attempt to 1v1 it. Rob switches out into his Rotom-H as I Roost up with Togekiss to recover the damage Reuni's +1 Psyshock inflicted. Now that Kyurem is burned, I switch into it as Rob doubles out to his Mega Altaria.

Turn 33-36: I had to consider the fact that this was a bulky Altaria of some sort, and could not knock it out with Kyurem's Ice Beam, so I double into Mega Aggron to scout for its set. Altaria mega's up and hits Aggron with a Frustration, and I have an opportunity to set up hazards again as he's essentially forced out in fear of a Heavy Slam. As he goes into his Tentacruel, I fire off a Thunder Wave and basically nullify it as a check to my Togekiss, as Rob passes up the spinning option to try and get a burn off on my Mega Aggron. I see this as an opportunity for Amoonguss to recover some health back, and I switch into it as Rob brings in his Rotom-H.

Turn 38-47: Here, Rob and I switch into Reuniclus and Kyurem, respectively. I don't want to fall victim to a Reuniclus sweep, so I immediately switch into Togekiss. After a couple of turns, I manage to force another Recover on Rob's end and manage to boost up to +4 on Togekiss. It's not in Rob's best interest to stay in, so he switches to Rotom-H as it gets heavily chipped by rocks and a +4 Air Slash. Here the Pain Split was obvious, so I go back into my Krookodile to limit the amount of health Rotom-H can recover back, and manage to knock it out with a Knock Off.

Turn 48-52: Rob brings in his Mega Altaria and aims to chunk something as I'm forced to switch out. I go into Amoonguss expecting a potential Dragon Dance, however Rob ends up downing it by virtue of a Fire Blast crit. The next turn is possibly the most pivotal turn of the game, and is one that I rushed into. Without considering that going into Togekiss or Mega Aggron was in my best interests, I go into Kyurem and expect Ice Beam to KO Rob's Mega Altaria. However, it doesn't go down and I end up taking a ton of chip myself from a Frustration. I take out the Mega Altaria with a second Ice Beam the next turn. Rob then brings in his Krookodile and ends up trying to catch my Togekiss with a Stone Edge. I went into my own Krookodile to scout for any non-Pursuit moves and end up catching the Stone Edge favorably, which allows me to Earthquake freely, and I end up taking down Rob's Cobalion on the switch.

Turn 53-59: Reuniclus switches in freely after the Cobalion sack and has yet another opportunity to set up. Again, it's in my best interest to immediately go into my Togekiss and play my odds at preventing a Reuniclus sweep. We play it out, and I can't catch a break as Reuniclus avoids getting flinched twice and is able to down Togekiss with multiple Psyshocks. However, the Reuniclus is at 25% now and I'm able to get rid of it with a Knock Off from my Krookodile.

Turn 60: By far the most important 50/50 of the game. If I win the speed tie and Knock Off his Krookodile's scarf, then I win the game with my Kyurem as it outspeeds everything and can recover up vs Tentacruel. Rob wins the speed tie and downs my Krookodile with a Earthquake.

Turn 61 onward: Going into my Mega Aggron was in my best interests, and I manage to get some good chip off on Krookodile with a Heavy Slam while his Earthquake fails to 2hko me in return. Rob's now forced to go into his Tentacruel on my second Heavy Slam. At this point, if Tentacruel manages to get any chip off on Aggron, then Rob's Krookodile wins the game with Earthquake as Aggron would then be in range. Consequently, I cannot take Rob's Tentacruel down after getting chipped by Scald, since it then allows Krookodile to come in and finish the game. Continuously using Fire Punch and Thunder Wave on Tentacruel while being mindful of critting Fire Punch was my best bet, as Kyurem's way too low for me to think about pivoting it into Tentacruel. I thought that once Rob's Sludge Bomb pp had expired, I could go into Kyurem on a potential spin, which wouldn't have KO'd Kyurem. Scald wasn't an option for Rob especially since that let me bring in Kyurem and most probably win the game. However, I rush through it and end up misclicking my way into a Heavy Slam, which then allows Krook to finish me off.

I'm satisfied with how I played most of the game, although I believe that the Kyurem / Mega Altaria trade was definitely the start of a downhill trend of events for me. Losing the odds games in the Togekiss / Reuniclus and Krookodile / Krookodile scenarios definitely hurt as well, and I was due to win the games if both situations had gone my way.

Thanks for reading! Every game's a learning experience, and I've definitely learned and will improve upon the flaws that were made apparent on my end during this game. gg Rob, I hope that we can play again in the future.

 

[Pak]

Hello, I've been too lazy to post over the last few weeks so I will be combining them all into this post. Since it's 3 games, I won't be going super deep into each individual one, but I will talk a bit about my general gameplans and touch on some key turns/sequences that either had a big impact on the games' outcomes or some plays that I regret making.

Stage 2 vs Lycans
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-400835

Loose Plan: So looking at preview, my Ghostium NP Celebi looked really good if I could get it into good spots, but it would have to be healthy enough to not get picked off by Mega Aerodactyl and would naturally hand Infernape momentum whenever it got in for free. The problem was that my Infernape counter in defensive Primarina handed Nidoking free turns, which absolutely obliterated my team. It definitely looked like an uphill battle from the start, mostly because of that combination.

Turns 1-4: I played this initial sequence too passively, pretty much ignoring my way to win, and Lycans took full advantage by getting Nidoking in safely on my Primarina. The crit on Rotom-H sucked a decent amount since I'd live and could at least get damage on something, but it did give my Celebi a free switch.

Turn 6-7: These turns might've looked a little weird considering I was Ghostium and at +2 Special Attack, but my main fear was throwing out my Z into a Protect, which would essentially waste it since its minimized damage never 2HKO'd in combination with the following +2 Shadow Ball against max Sp Def Zong. The next turn I switched because like I said, I needed to keep Celebi healthy to maintain its solid one-on-one matchup vs Mega Aerodactyl. In hindsight this wasn't the best sequence because the Shadow Ball calc showed he had some phys def investment, but I stand by these plays.

Turn 18: This turn was also really big, but didn't work out in my favor and I again stand by it. If he Leaf Stormed as I switched to CB Sciz, he would be in a really awkward spot, and he was playing really aggressively to this point, so I went for it and lost my mon that could tank a hit from Nidoking.

Turn 19: My odds of winning at this point weren't great, but the crit here ruined any chances I still had. Sciz at least gave me a Poison immunity to hopefully pivot around Nidoking and w/e else, but yeah things were still grim.

The crits were kinda annoying ngl, but I got some key turns wrong and didn't play aggressively enough initially, so this loss is mostly on me. gg to Lycans.

Stage 2 vs Rob
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-403148

Loose Plan: I didn't have Roar on Empoleon so the presumably Sub Roost Kyurem absolutely destroyed me at a glance. Rocks Krook looked like it would do a decent job of keeping them up since my remover was lefties Rotom-C. Keeping rocks off would be essential for my Agility Moltres, which looked like my way of winning. So basically, try to keep Kyurem out or at least pressure it rocks, and try to get my Moltres in good spots to damage shit and clean later.

Turn 1: This was pretty obviously Charti Toge after he stayed in here and clicked TWave, but I still want to talk about why I clicked CC, which may have looked weird at the time. Krookodile is by no means a counter to Terrakion, but if he pivoted into it on Stone Edge, I'd immediately be on the back foot. Like I said, my sole remover in Rotom-C which would struggle in doing so long term, as well as hand free turns to Kyurem by clicking Defog. It didn't ultimately matter, but yeah.

Turn 5: This is the one turn I regret. I 112% needed rocks to help Moltres wear stuff down and win later, but fsr I knocked expecting Kyurem to come in, which would make Toxic the better play because Kyurem isn't exactly neutralized by losing its item. Also this revealed my last move, showing Kyurem could come in and get free subs on Empoleon. Rocks was wayyy better here to pressure everything and I would win the 1v1 vs Tenta anyway since I had knock and I was paralyzed.

Pointless Bitching: I got full para'd both of the following turns I went for rocks and missed 3 Hurricanes, all of which would've been really helpful to hit. Him getting the tspike after dodging the 2nd time with tenta meant I was forced to defog and let Kyurem in for free, and obviously not killing Infernape lost any chance I still had. I didn't play perfectly in this game, but it was really frustrating since p much all of these turns played a big role in ruining my chances. gg not robs fault.

Stage 2 vs Hogg
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-403940

Loose Plan: My matchup here was pretty solid. When making this team, I kept in mind my matchup in a hazard stack mirror, given my grounded poison, no rock weaks, and number of mons that effectively took advantage of Spikes. Assuming Hogg's Starmie wasn't Toxic or like offensive with Tbolt or something which didn't look overly likely on his bulkier framework, I could p easily keep my hazards up, put on pressure with Tsareena and Latias, then ideally clean with my scarf Nihilego later on.

Turns 2-5: After his Raikou revealed Protect turn 1, I assumed it would be some kind of Protect Calm Mind 2 attack set, causing me to expect Chesnaught to come in and nab it with an early Toxic. I was kind of caught off guard and wanted to keep Krook as healthy as possible, so I went to Latias to get more information. Assuming that it didn't have Toxic, I thought I could beat any set one-on-one or go to Tsareena the following turn to slowly U-turn out.

Turns 7-9: Like I said earlier, I was pretty content in trading hazards, since my team seemed to take advantage of them more between Jellicent, Latias, and Nihilego. Also, Tsareena could spin eventually if needed.

Turn 16: Calm Mind may seem kinda weird here since I'm boltbeam Latias and he has a full health Florges, but if he went Florges I could clear TSpikes with Nihilego and if he went Aggron, I could potentially nuke it with Gigavolt Havoc for Nihilego to clean later.

Turn 25: Part of me wanted to TBolt the incoming Mega Aggron to chip it further for later, but a Nidoqueen sac also made a bit of sense to prevent something like that, making Power Gem a fine play since it got respectable damage anyway in combination with hazards.

Turns 26-27: At this point it was pretty clear my win path was my Scarf Nihilego. Going hard into Tsareena on the rocks put on the most pressure, forcing him to either take a decent hit with Aggron, or to sack a mon to scout the move I locked into. As I've said 40 times, I just wanted as much damage as possible for Nihilego to clean things up with one of its stab moves.

Turn 28: This wasn't a huge deal since he didn't click the spin, but my play here was pretty poor in trying to predict a double to Raikou or Florges to do their things in front of the obvious Jellicent. While not exactly an autoloss, giving up my hazards on the spin kill would've made my endgame much murkier since I wouldn't put on the same amount of pressure and Nihilego wouldn't be as immediately threatening.

Rest of the game: I just wanted a safe opportunity to bring in Nihilego, where it could KO the foe and start accumulating boosts. The opportunity never presented itself since Starmie and Raikou were always barely out of range of my STAB moves when I got free switches, and obviously it wasn't worth risking any TBolt para shenanigans or w/e else. It played out fine in the end anyway so we cool.

A little straight forward as a whole, but a cool game nonetheless, gg Hogg. It was fun to finally play him in a tournament.

 

[Freeroamer]

UU: robjr vs Kory2600 - 9am Sunday

Only one UU game to look at this time, so I’ll go into a bit more depth here. I’ve played Kory a lot of times via ladder and once in the latest UUPL and there’s no doubt he’s well acquainted with the tier and has some great support via HT and Sacri’ (idk how much input he’s giving now he’s an OUer) so I’m not making this predict based on more UU experience or whatever, I just think Rob has rly hit a stride with his UU in the last few weeks with 4 straight wins and I feel like that’ll continue here but this is definitely a very close one, will be surprised if it’s one sided.

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/smogon-snake-draft-ii-usage-stats.3641316/

Biggest surprise out of these definitely has to be Slowbro usage, it’s been a mon on the rise for a while but to be 4th in usage, with a solid win rate to boot is pretty incredible. Tentacruel being on 1/5 teams is pretty surprising too as it’s often a mon that gets written off but obviously spin plus the mons it can check are appreciated. Don’t rly have a lot more to say (at work atm) but it’d be cool if more people shared an opinion seeing as we’re so near the end now!

 

[Sage]

Rob vs Kory

Kory's teams are very difficult to prep against and I feel like he usually does well vs the bulky offenses and balances that Rob is most comfortable with, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Rob deviate from his traditional favorites. Gotta pick my ex teammate he's rarely makes mistakes, although can be prone to finding tough matchups due to his very goal focused teams.

Some interesting things from the usage stats:

Terrakion is clearly showing how threatening it is, with Palossand being brought more times than Hippowdon in an attempt to better check it. I don't think this is anything against Hippowdon but Terrakion is probably the scariest thing at lead to not have an answer for in the tier (outside of ones like Scizor and Latias that are mandatory.)

Blissey's versatility in builds has definitely come up in this tournament; it's value in balance and even Bulky Offense as a potential Stealth Rock user that gives you a switch vs dangerous trade forcers like Primarina is remarkable. It can also run Chople Counter on these sort of teams more easily as a cool tech to patch a Fighting weakness although I don't think that was brought to the Tournament, just something to think about.

Gengar and Chandelure have been brought zero times (despite Bushtush's brainwashing of Lycans about the former..) I think Gengar still has some room in the meta because of it's better workarounds to Pursuit and Dark types in general (Sash Counter, Sub Hypno / Focus Blast), while Chandelure is a pretty awful pick. It is the worst of the Fires at dealing with Scizor, it has trouble getting through Hydreigon (who is also being seen more on stall), and in general rarely finds room to do anything, with the exception being its Scarf set still having some use on offense for Memento and somewhat patching its mediocre Speed tier.

Defensive threats like Jellicent, Chesnaught, and Mienshao are starting to establish themselves in high tier play, and I wouldn't be surprised if this group of mons were more relevant in the meta when we check in a couple months.

Can't wait to see Rob and Kory's game and whoever plays Pak in finals, should be a great pair to watch.

 

[Freeroamer]

one last game...

UU: Pak vs Kory2600 - A very cool finals game between 2 of the best potential UUers listed in the OP from all that time ago at the start of Snake. Favouring Pak like I have done for pretty much every game he's played so far I think, he's simply been the stand out UUer so far in this tournament and has had an extra week to utilise with regard to tossing around ideas etc. which I think he will have made good use of. I expect this one to be very close though, Kory looked well up to the pace when he played another one of the tours stronger UUers in Rob last week even if ultimately I think the game was going to be very hard him prior to the timeout, great game regardless. Best of luck to both and give us a good one!

I think the overall quality of games throughout the tour, but especially in the second phase onwards have been excellent, with the vast majority providing great watches. Will probably make a more detailed post about some of the games I really enjoyed watching once the finals is over.

 

[Pak]

To finish this round of smoghorsing, I'm going to go over by finals game, mainly because it got kind of controversial at the end. What may be seen as a choke by SDing, I stand by 100% and it just didn't go my way, but I'll get more into that later.

Finals vs Kory2600
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-408311

Loose plan: At preview, a couple things jumped out to me. While my Mega Altaria was pretty bad offensively here, it was important defensively here in handling Mienshao. My Swords Dance Rockium Z Terrak was looking really really nice, outspeeding everything but Aero and could definitely put in some work if I could get it in safely. Spore was pretty annoying, as it was nice to have everything in this game, but Amoonguss itself was definitely manageable. Rocks would be huge for pressuring his Aero and Rotom-H, and that's made really clear throughout the early- to mid-game.

Turn 4-5: These turns were risky, but I was really confident they would work out. My Mega Alt was max attack Adamant, meaning Frustration had a decent chance to kill any non-super bulky spread after rocks, and Kory made the good play of trying to catch my middle ground in Bronzong. It would cover Moonblast on Alt or Psychic on Tentacruel, so I was fine risking my roll/getting off some meaningful damage. The following turn, it was really hard to click Roost, but my main fear was Kory hard switching to a helmet Amoonguss which would obv kill me if I attacked again, so I went for it. These turns were kinda big in grabbing a bit of early momentum.

Middle part thing: Nothing too meaningful happens for a while. I start to prioritize keeping rocks at the cost of letting my Mega Aerodactyl check get weakened, but I was fine in doing so, as they were mainly for Aero itself anyway. His Rotom-H revealed to lack Pain Split, meaning I should grab damage on it wherever I could in hopes of keeping rocks. Mienshao was a bitch.

Turn 34: This might've looked weird, but I expected a Protect to scout a potential Pursuit, which would ideally give me a free attack with Rotom-H. Rotom was actually p tough for him to switch into, but I couldn't find many opportunities to do so safely.

Turn 44-45: Okay like, I guess this worked out since I took a chunk out of Bronzong for my other stuff like Rotom-H/Terrak, but fsr smogtours showed me Amoonguss at 35%, which meant a +1 Frustration could really pressure it even after Regen. It also forced him to reveal Synthesis, so it could've been a worse exchange on my end, but pretty whack nonetheless.

Turn 52: Big turn on the Krook vs Aero threat of Pursuit. I actually lacked Stone Edge in favor of Crunch, but idk staying in on a safe Stone Edge when I have a threatening Terrak in the back just didn't seem optimal on his end so I went for suit. The crit was pretty nice too.

Loose endgame: Okay so, if I SD with Terrakion at any point, the game would be heavily in my favor. Ideally, there are less sacks to scout my Z move against Amoonguss, but for every one that went down, the chances of him catching me with Mienshao would also increase.

Turn 60: This made me pretty mad because I just couldn't pull the trigger on SD. In the end I opted for going Rotom-H, which forced a Bronzong sack and didn't lose me the game immediately if he caught me with SDing against Mienshao. In hindsight (and a bit in the moment), it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to risk his Mienshao this early in the sequence, and as I said, he's only more likely to stay in the longer this game progresses so this may have been a golden opportunity.

Turn 63: The big one. Alright I believe I did not directly choke on this turn, so I'll be going into that.

calcs

252 Atk Terrakion Continental Crush (180 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Mienshao: 221-261 (66.3 - 78.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (Mienshao at 71%)

252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 240+ Def Amoonguss: 89-105 (20.6 - 24.3%) -- guaranteed 5HKO (Amoonguss at 88% after rocks)
252 Atk Terrakion Continental Crush (180 BP) vs. 248 HP / 240+ Def Amoonguss: 267-315 (61.9 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Based on previous calcs as well as the fact that you literally can't just assume hes running less than max or at least a shit load of Defense investment, Close Combat into Continental Crush was not a guaranteed kill on a Amoonguss (he did reveal that calced spread to me after the game). I was also in no position to assume that his Mienshao was running less than max HP (which was revealed to me to be 100 HP, but you can't guess that in the moment and to be quite honest I didn't remember the standard Mienshao spread at the time). So basically, I had a couple options. I could make the safe play of clicking Close Combat, which would instantly win me the game if he stayed in, or would at least bring it down to rolls on the play I expected to be more likely. Hard Continental Crush was not guaranteed to kill Mienshao, meaning that would also come down to rolls, and it did not align with what I thought Kory would do in this scenario. Considering Amoonguss was the much safer play, as there was also no guarantee I was even Rockium Z, I didn't expect him to risk losing instantly if I went for the safe move. I'm not saying staying in is a bad play as it prevents my attempted aggressive sequence, but in theory Close Combat was my safest move which would also give me a chance at a first turn wake to win, due to the fact he'd have to hard Mienshao the following turn after Spore. I'll admit not knowing the standard Shao spread was pretty dumb and could've given me a win, but I just want to make my thought process clear. What all this boils down to is I tried to make a read to prevent things from coming down to RNG, as there was no 100% guaranteed win in my mind at the time, and I stand by my play of clicking Swords Dance and losing the game on the spot. If you don't agree with my decision to take the game out of the hax gods' hands, then so be it.

It was a good season overall, gg to kory and I'll probably be making another post in the actual snake thread at some point.