Week 6 Recap
Interesting week of games, some more exciting than others but a nice varied selection of teams. Gonna ramble a bit and hopefully give some ok commentary, wrote this over a few days and been awhile since I've done this or been playing high level myself.
yeezyknows vs robjr
Team Preview: Gonna try and analyze these without knowing sets in mind. Rob and yeezy both come into this game looking for their second win, with rob hoping to keep up his bounceback, and yeezy looking to continue to prove himself after an unlucky ending vs Lycans last week. They've both brought bulky offenses featuring Togekiss + Mega Steel types that look to be the rockers (as well as later revealing to be Specs Dragons.) Yeezy ironically is rocking a double steel build that I could see Rob using, while Rob has elected for a FWG core with Starmie as removal. Some keys for each player, yeezy is going to want to identify whether Togekiss or Hydreigon is the scarfer, if he loses his own kiss to a breaking Drei it could be dangerous very quickly. He can also look to try and force early damage on Rotom-H with Maggron or Togekiss, to potentially set up a Scizor win depending on set. Rob's Starmie has a solid matchup with yeezy's team if it is the bulky set commonly run of these sorts of squads, so he's going to want and try and control the hazards game and wear down yeezy's Aggron or Krookodile. Without any Pursuit he's going to want to limit Latias' free turns as well with smart doubles to prevent it from wearing down Steelix too quickly.
Turn 1: Similar to another game this week, Yeezy jumps straight out of the gate with a Specs Lati Surf (fantastic set honestly), catching Steelix and giving him a huge lead by pretty much preventing rocks on his side for the rest of the game. The next few turns both players pivot around, with Yeezy trying to shave off sleep turns from Tenta where he can, but rob manages to prevent this. This culminates in the next highlight turn.
Turns 8-9: Here Rob gets to retaliate with his own lure of sorts, Yeezy goes for a Knock Off on Rotom after pivoting into a Volt Switch. I don't really have any issues with this play since removing Helmet or recovery item makes it a lot easier to manuever with Scizor, and Krook isn't doing a ton in this matchup so it taking an Overheat isn't the end of the world. It'd still be able to disuade Volt Switch even at low health, but Rob busts out a Firium-Z and claims the first KO of the game. Now Rotom is going to have a much easier time grabbing momentum with Volt. We later find out this also stops Rocks from his side of play but I'm not certain you could guarantee that knowledge at Turn 8.
Turns 10-13: Attempting to regain his position with Latias still looking scary vs Rob, yeezy fires off a Psyshock which would cleanly 2hko Togekiss. Yeezy makes a smart double after to avoid giving a free turn to Hydreigon, while Rob stays in to roost. This is the first hint his is Scarfed as this is a pretty unnecessary risk otherwise. Yeezy gets an Air Slash on Rotom to try and continue weakening it, but on T13 Rob shows Pain Split and this is now much more of an uphill battle for yeezy. More switching follows with yeezy managing to burn Two sleep turns on Tenta in exchange for taking a Volt.
Turn 17: Rob finally pulls the trigger on Hydreigon and catches yeezy's kiss with a Specs Flash Cannon, now making Dark Pulse a very free move to click. Yeezy stays in and reveals Scarf Air Slash on Rotom-H, and he's now safely made some headway for Scizor. Both don't want to risk Togekiss or Rotom respectively, and we see Rob's Starmie for the first time.
Turn 21: Protect is going to be huge here for Rob, allowing him to safely switch around yeezy's Latias while forcing yeezy to make doubles if he wants to keep the upper hand. Yeezy manages to get Tentacruel's last sleep turn down but it is very low on health.
Turns 26-29: Curse is finally revealed on Aggron, but Rob's choice of offensive Rotom is once again going to save him here. Aggron can actually survive two Overheats and rest stall with the bulky spread, but an offensive spread is going to make this impossible.
20 SpA Rotom-Heat Overheat vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Filter Aggron-Mega: 186-220 (54 - 63.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Rotom-Heat Overheat vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Filter Aggron-Mega: 229-270 (66.5 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Rob's going to reveal his own Scarf Kiss at this time but not get the flinch and take a Specs Tbolt.
Turn 42: With yeezy smartly sacking his Scizor (Fight-Z was not going to breaking Guss with the resources he had left, and Rob his Steelix, yeezy's best chances at this point are to get a Togekiss clean, and not let Rotom heal anymore since its in range of two Air Slashes. Rob harding Starmie I think could have been avoided by sacking Guss from the get go, as yeezy then only needed one flinch instead of two to break through it.
Turns 48-51: Rob goes for Dazzling Gleam which does give him slight odds in the speed tie, but unfortunately yeezy elected to sac his Cruel and not bank the game there with Hydreigon still needing two flinches. This gives him a reward for burning those sleep turns and getting a crucial Sludge Bomb + lucky Poison on Hydreigon, definitely increasing his chances for Togekiss to win. Yeezy then gets to bring in Latias, and unfortunately misses his Draco on Starmie, which would have made rob's endgame less likely if he ended up losing the kiss Speed tie.
Turns 54-58: Here we have some mindgames starting with turn 54, Rob can pick up a kill by getting Hydreigon in on sleeping Aggron, and yeezy is going to want to double to Latias to try and prevent that. He goes for it on the first go while Rob is able to punish it safely with no risk as Sleep Talk had been ruled out of potential. From there the kisses go for the tie which Rob wins, and the game is sealed.
Very fun game to spectate and analyze, props to both.
Christo vs Soulwind
Team Preview: Christo returns again with a variant of Mimikyu offense, this time featuring Celebi instead of Amoonguss as the Grass-type, and what looks to be Scarf instead of Rocks Krook in conjunction with Mega Aggron. Soulwind has the tried and true Articuno Pearl Stall. Christo's best option for breaking this team is obviously Celebi, and if he can keep Rocks up + carries Recover there's a chance it will do just that. Not a ton to go into at preview for this one.
Turn 1-20: Christo's going to opt to play aggressively and Rock T1 despite the Seismic Toss chip, this makes sense when one of his later techs is revealed, and then try and use Krookodile to disaude Soulwind's Defoggers in Gligar and Articuno from coming in while spreading Knocks on other targets for Celebi. Alo's Knock on T4 does reveal the Celebi to be Z, and it loses its leftovers to Krookodile right before that. Celebi / Krook and Alo / Bliss cycle for a bit after this, with Suicune being thrown in the mix to see how Soulwind responds to it.
Turns 39-54: With this exchange we see how Christo's Aggron can be more of a headache than expected thanks to Avalanche letting it pressure Gligar much more than usual. He doesn't manage to catch it on any of the Earthquake turns, but thanks to a Burn from Rotom Aggron wins is still able to win the exchange and keep Rocks up while forcing Soulwind back into Alo. Tur
Turn 65: I think Soulwind took a risk he didn't need to here by going straight for the Defog on sleeping Suicune, with a 1/3 chance of losing Articuno and then having to deal with a Burnt Gligar for the rest of the game. This would have made it possible for Aggron to get rocks for the remainder of the game if played with precision. At +3, even if 0 SpD Articuno safely takes a Scald so it could keep roosting in hopes for a Rest or Calm Mind pull, and with AloBlissQuag all healthy Suicune wasn't in danger of sweeping yet.
+3 0 SpA Suicune Scald vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Articuno: 162-192 (42.2 - 50.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
Turn 84: After some dancing with Suicune and the reveal of Haze on Quagsire, Christo tries to go for a 3rd Nasty Plot in hopes of catching Blissey recovering, but Soulwind makes a good Seismic Toss knowing Blissey lives +4 Shattered Psyche. Christo then is forced to recover and try and again later with Celebi while Soulwind sacks Articuno in the case of a Giga Drain, which would then let him trap with Aerodactyl.
Turn 97: Christo gets his own Rocks basically in a way to force a Defog and get them off his own side allowing him to use Rotom and Celebi more easily.
For the rest of the game, there isn't really too much to say. Christo keeps going for chances with Celebi, but isn't ever able to get a Toxic dodge or mispredict from Soulwind who piloted his team very well. This game goes to show how even when facing dangerous breakers Stall is no walk in the park to play against without breaks, although I do think the odds were in Christo's favor to get one or two of those chances with how long the game went on.
Adaam vs Corckscrew
Team Preview: Definitely the most off-meta of our games this week so far. Adaam comes in with a Blissey balance looking to support Latias and potentially Bisharp as the win condition, along with a hazards core of Mega Steelix and Tentacruel. Corckscrew has a bulky offense with multiple setup threats in Suicune and Venomoth, and a pretty standard core of building blocks in what looks to be Scarf Krook, rocks Bronzong, and standard Rotom-H to support this unique pair of sweepers. I could see Adaam's Bisharp making a lot of progress on Corck's team since the Steel is weak to Knock Off, and the revenge killer giving Bish attack boosts via Defiant. Corck's Venomoth is actually quite threatening in this matchup depending on if it has Roost for setting up on Blissey, and luckily Adaam elected not to bring Scizor, leaving Sucker Punch as his only priority.
Turns 7-29: Not too much happens in the beginning as both players attempt to feel each other out, Bisharp gets a Knock Off on un-mega'd Altaria but Adaam safely doesn't risk any speed issues without scouting the Altaria set and switches out, and Corck manages to remove Blissey's Leftovers. Here we find out that it is in fact Vincune on Corck's team, but Adaam is very prepared for this outcome. With Haze Tentacruel and Wish Blissey, he will almost certainly be able to hold back Suicune, especially with no rocks on his side. He also manages to get a Toxic Spike up while dancing around Vincune.
Turns 30-37: Venomoth comes out for the first time to clear the T Spike, and we see that it is in fact Roost, making Blissey setup bait. Corck doesn't manage to hit Sleep Powder on the Togekiss that came in, but it would have required a 3 turn sleep in order to potentially dodge the Thunder Wave. Unfortunate not to get any chip on the Togekiss though.
+3 252 SpA Tinted Lens Venomoth Bug Buzz vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Togekiss: 126-150 (33.6 - 40.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Definitely not out of the woods yet though, Adaam has to lose a ton of health on his Tentacruel in order to Haze and try and keep the Moth under control, leaving it unable to do anything for the rest of the game once Corck gets Rocks up. This also makes Suicune instantly super dangerous without Haze.
Turns 45-48: After trading Rocks and getting Adaam's Toxic Spike off, Corckscrew sacs Altaria to get a Fire Blast off on Steelix. This likely means he wasn't Heal Bell as I think he would have saved Altaria to get rid of Venomoth's paralysis. Corck then takes the free turn to get Suicune in and fire off a Scald to start working on chipping Adaam's team down. He can't go Blissey safely in fear of letting Cune set up. On T48 I think Adaam was fine letting a weakened Steelix die since he knew the difficulty Wishing it would be, or he could have just been trying to gain some momentum by getting Blissey in on an Overheat and not letting it take more damage from rocks + Volt.
Turn 51: Adaam goes for the kill on Rotom with Sucker Punch, but once again this week Pain Split shows up in a big way, both weakening Bisharp right here and allowing Rotom to sit on Blissey more often in the future. Corck's position is looking very strong at this point.
Turns 60-64: Corck brings out Venomoth to try and get some health back on it and Sleep Blissey, but I think must have misclicked into a double Para chain, which lets Blissey get the KO.
Turns 71-75: Latias reveals CM Psyshock, at least giving Adaam a chance at victory if he can force damage on Zong and keep it near full to take on Krook. Still a tall order. With Bisharp burned from the Suicune Scald, it isn't able to stay out on the field very long, managing to weaken Rotom-H but not remove anything crucial like Krook's Scarf or Suicune / Zong's Lefties.
Turns 83-105: Once Suicune got in on Blissey, Corck made a nice double to cover the Latias switch. Adaam stays in hoping to bank on a no Crunch Krook but unfortunately he is packing it. From there, Krook just has to Crunch while he waits for a chance to get Suicune in and Sub up. I think the Defense drops definitely made it easier but from here it was really hard for Adaam to pull a Trick off if Corck plays safe (assuming he had Trick.)
Bit of a messy game here, but Corck's threats were difficult for Adaam's team framework to handle and despite losing Venomoth he was able to force enough damage on the Cruel early for Suicune to win eventually. Little things like Crunch Krook and Pain Split Rotom made it a lot harder for Adaam to get any breaks too.
Lycans vs Corazan
Team Preview: For this game, Lycans has a similar team structure to what Rob brought with Starmie and Guss supporting a different Rocker and Scarfer and Moltres as the Fire-type instead of Rotom. Corazan has brought something more... interesting for sure with Milotic as a bulky Water in a bulky offense with some decent firepower thanks to Nidoqueen and Terrakion. Moltres could be big in this matchup for Lycans depending on Milotic's investment, as well as Altaria depending on set. Once the Aggron is weakened, not much on Cora's team stops it after a DD if it's Earthquake. Togekiss generally eats teams with no flying resists, and this one is no different, so supporting it will be Cora's objective. Terrakion can try to get rid of faster things like a potential Scarf Krook (or Cobalion if Togekiss wasn't scarf) with good prediction.
Turns 1-10: The game's going to start pretty unlucky for Corazan, with both his Draco on Krookodile and Stone Edge on Amoonguss missing their marks and letting Lycans get off a Spore for free. Milotic is going to take good damage from Earthquake, suggesting that is at the least a mixed spread and not full physical Defense. As Corazan tries to double in Latias to get some more chances at Dracos off, Lycans is going to bring in Altaria to prevent this. Here Cora predicts Lycans to try and catch either Aggron or Nidoqueen and stays in to get some chip on Altaria. Not sure if I agree with the risk there as losing Latias would make Cobalion much scarier, but he does immediately reveal to be Scarf Kiss on the Starmie, it once again rearing its dangerous head.
Turn 15-19: Lycans makes a nice read on Cora wanting to save his Togekiss' Scarf in this matchup, and is able to get rid of Cora's sleeping Terrak and free up room for another Spore later. However, this leaves the flincher itself back in for another chance to cause mayhem, and that it does, getting Lycans' Moltres down to 20% and getting another Air Slash off on Krookodile.
Turn 22-23: After letting Milotic eat another hit and then doubling, Cora once again brings in and reveals Specs Lati (to the spectators, with Lycan's own knowledge of his Altaria spread he should have scouted it as Specs already.) This also is going to bring Cobalion in range of one Air Slash instead of two, as Lycans desperately needs Rocks if he wants any chance of beating Togekiss.
252 SpA Choice Specs Latias Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 80 SpD Amoonguss: 309-364 (71.5 - 84.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Turns 28-32: After Milotic and Moltres are both sacced, Cora chooses to let his Scarf be removed in favor of knocking Krook out. This does give Latias a bigger chance at winning, but I also think with Aggron still healthy, letting it take the Knock Off and keeping Togekiss scarfed is a valid choice to secure a clean as well. Cobalion is able to take out Nidoqueen with a Corckscrew crash. Amoonguss is sacced to Latias after Queen is gone so that either Starmie or Altaria can get a chance to recover depending on if Cora Dracos or Psyshocks.
Turns 33-37: Cora plays a nice sequence here by forcing Starmie out and getting Cobalion very low. Protect is going to make it hard for Latias to get koes so its going to be up to Togekiss to try and break through either Starmie or Altaria so Lati can win.
Turn 55: After Togekiss and Starmie sit on each other for awhile and Lycans sneaks in Cobalion on a Trick, we get to the next big turn of the game with Latias in on Cobalion and having to predict between Star or Altaria. He correctly wins what I personally think was a 50/50 at this point, as losing either Star or Altaria would give Corazan a pretty clear path to victory.
From here on out, the game is pretty much over for Lycans, he elected to rock with Cobalion, I think it might have been slightly
slightly more probably to just try and kill Aggron and then bank on a Draco miss somewhere down the line, but this would have been really hard to pull off anyway with Cora's Latias revealing roost. Togekiss was just too threatening across the game when nothing could really safely switch into it and Cora got the flinches when they mattered.
ht vs Accelgor
Team Preview: For the final game of the week (thank god I am running out of steam lol), we've got hairy toenail and the speedy bug facing off. I'm kind of tired and both these team frameworks are somewhat self explanatory (at least on preview, I'll get to them in the match), Both have Scizor / Coba dual steel cores and a Regenerator pivot, while Accel has gone more offensive with Aero and Mimikyu, probably relying on Spore and Disguise vs. HT with Rotom-H and Altaria giving him a little more natural bulk.
Turns 1-4: I can't really fault Accelgor for staying in here, as nothing else on his team wants to take a Scald. HT happens to be what is likely Z-Future Sight Slowbro and this is going to be very tough for Accelgor to get back into without his main pivot into Altaria and Spore. I don't think as a spectator I can get a full view of what happens in the Scizor Mimikyu exchange, but based on what I see its possible Accelgor thinks HT's Scizor is heavily invested in bulk and tries to midground between Scizor and Cobalion with Shadow Claw thinking he lives Bullet Punch. I'm using the bulkiest spread I see commonly on offensive Scizor which is meant to always live two Krookodile hits, and the Shadow Claw damage we see could have been a low roll there, being 65%. If Accelgor was Adamant its probably more fair to try this, but I think Sneak was overall the safer play as even if he can go Coba you can save Mimikyu for later. It's also possible he calced with different spreads and made his plays based off those.
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Mimikyu Shadow Claw vs. 252 HP / 48 Def Scizor: 220-261 (63.9 - 75.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
204+ Atk Technician Scizor Bullet Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mimikyu: 252-296 (100.3 - 117.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Turn 8: Accel's Cobalion ends up being Calm Mind, and he does manage to get rid of Krookodile thanks to Cobalion's good bulk, but it wasn't ever going to be making a full sweep especially without Electrium for Slowbro. Now at at 5v4 with Coba super weak things are looking really rough for Accel and HT mostly just has to play safe to win.
Turns 15-18: Future Sight Slowbro is able to rack up a lot of damage on Swampert quickly, but Accel is definitely playing as well as he can to try and make something happen with Aero and maybe a lucky Stone Edge now that Scizor is Knocked and Slowbro has been chipped. His classy 3 attacks Pert (not as cool as Big Al) doesn't give Altaria any room at all to stay healthy, but Coba now dies to hazards.
Turns 20-24: Once Coba is sacced to get Aero in, it takes out Slowbro and actually manages to live the Iron Plate-less Scizor's Bullet Punch with some clutch bulk investment on Aerodactyl. Now things could have been dicier for HT, but Accel still needed an EQ crit. Ice Fang would have given him ~17% odds there but it was unlikely with Knock Scizor and Special Coba both being able to surprise Gligar. Cobalion then finishes the game for HT's win.
Accel wasn't able to recover from HT's early lead, but still managed to put himself into a position with odds to win which is impressive nonetheless. Enjoyed this game as well as the teams used in it.
Predictions are a meme but definitely looking forward to Accel / Misa and Lycans / Rob next week. Thanks for reading this post if you somehow made it through all of that, and bigger thanks to all the Snake players for a great tournament so far!
we shouldn’t be outdone by the other sub forums.
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