Incoming non-lazy double post:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-392883
Phase 1 vs Manip
Loose plan: I realized early on that for me to have a chance at breaking through his fat core, I would absolutely need to get my CB Terrak into favorable positions while not unnecessarily risking it. This mostly applied to getting it in on his non scarf Hydreigon, which became apparent after Infernape revealed a presumably Scarf set turn 1. Hydreigon was the primary foe that gave Terrak free turns, but if Manip ever got me with a Draco as I tried to pivot into it from Emp or anything else then I would most likely lose on the spot.
Turn 1: At preview, I was kind of like "oh shit Infernape leads off well vs everything not named Gligar", and Gligar wasn't really actively pressured by anything else on his team while it was at full health, so it was a fairly easy decision to lead with it. Infernape U-turning out turn 1 was a huge relief, as any ordinary set up variant would've given me a lot of trouble, while also revealing that his Hydreigon was most some kind of specs/taunt/z variant so I had to watch out for that in the future.
Turns 8-9: I basically a free double to my Terrak, as he was either going to his Hydreigon (which completely walled by Celebi set) or his Steelix as a middle ground. Terrak would obviously get a free hard hit off vs Hydreigon, and applied enough pressure vs Steelix that he would be forced to attack. The latter of which ended up happening and I got a free switch to Rotom with rocks up.
Turns 10-11: With rocks on his side and me possessing all the momentum, I had no reason to predict any switch he could make, but still chose to try and Toxic Hydreigon or Florges on the switch to put on even more pressure. The next turn I missed my Overheat which was really frustrating since I could spam banded Stone Edge if Steelix was low, but I should've attacked it the turn before anyway so it was on me in a way.
Turns 13-14: Florges revealing it was WishTect caught me off guard, and it made the matchup much more playable, as I could keep any real damage on Florges later on by going to Emp and clicking Roar whenever it tried to heal up.
Turns 15-16: Terrak was essentially a free switch again since there was no world where he would Scald there, and it would give me a free hit on whatever. I opted to go for the safe edge on knocked out his hazard control option.
Nothing meaningful happens for a while.
Turn 35: Taunt Hydreigon is revealed, which was probably a top 3 threat I noticed when preparing the team I used. As mentioned earlier, it would be really hard for me to ever justify risking going from Emp to Terrak on a predicted Dark Pulse, and it honestly didn't seem too necessary with the decent lead I had heading into the latter half of the game.
Turn 52: Hey look, another risk-free switch to Terrakion. Between Toxic and Life Orb recoil, attacking into my incoming Terrak instead of Roosting would KO his Hydreigon. If we were to double down, the combination of Gligar + Empoleon looked just fine in dealing with his remaining members, so it looked like a fine play on my end to really put on the pressure down the stretch.
Turn 58-end: I just needed to get my Terrakion back in on his Hydreigon and throw out moves at this point, making my Hydreigon a fine play against his since he likely wouldn't go for Draco Meteor, and if he did, then Terrak would be inside.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-394535
Phase 1 vs Rob
Loose Plan: Ugh this was a weird one. He had some huge threats to me in Moltres and Mega Blastoise (hell, even Empoleon), and it was hard to formulate any meaningful gameplan early on. However, once his Moltres went down it was pretty clear that my way of winning would be trapping his Latias and cleaning later on with Krook since no more ground resists would remain.
Turns 4 and 6: Maybe my only big regret in this game was not doubling to Rotom-C to either absorb whatever Emp would go for, or to catch a Mega Blastoise switch. Letting Blastoise in was really stupid since Ice Beam variants tore me to shreds. He caught my Rotom-C on turn 6 and it was looking real bleak at that point.
Turn 8: I got Stak in to set up rocks so this Moltres destroys me a little less, but went for Toxic since I didn't think there was a reason to risk Moltres here when it abused a couple of my remaining mons and probably got kills as a result. Toxic would let me wear down his Blastoise a bit, as I would sack my Slowbro the turn after and maybe trade Stak for suicide rocks against it later on. Instead, I dodged and got all the momentum with rocks going up the turn after, which was obviously really unfortunate for rob.
Turns 18-20: I was still behind at this point, but I had realized my aforementioned way of winning, meaning I had to lure in his Latias somehow. Getting in my Infernape on Emp would do just that while also pressuring Emp out, something the rest of the team couldn't really do. Given that Nihilego had Protect, I kind of made a gut decision that Emp would have it too, letting it scout my presumably choiced Ape's move. I CC'd into Protect on turn 19 to make him think Lati was the play the following turn, and then nabbed it when U-turn to get a free trap. (SD Z-move U-turn is a hot set)
Turn 29: If Nihilego got a hypothetical Speed boost from killing Altaria, I would lose on the spot, so Krook was a play I had to make. It also let me keep my Earthquake deterrent to keep the endgame more firmly in my favor.
Turn 31: Hard switching to Altaria was a guaranteed win if he were to stay in, as it blocked Earthquake and any move that KO'd it gave either Infernape or Krook a free KO of their own. Infernape punished Knock Off and Krook punished Stone Edge.
Turn 34: I had to lose a Speed tie and get crit to lose, so luckily it worked out.
This was a really fun one and it was a pleasure to play rob again after I caught an L in SPL finals. gg to both my phase 1 opponents.