SPL XII - BW Discussion Thread

[Nalorium]

approved by Earthworm

Hey RoA! With SPL XII underway, this thread will be used to discuss BW related topics, whether it's about the players, general metagame trends, matches, predictions and so on. This thread will be updated frequently with each new week, player standings, and replays.

SPL INTRODUCTION!

SPL SCHEDULE!

NOTE: the trades that happen here will be taken into account


Likely BWers (starters in bold):

Alpha Ruiners - Frania, Separation, Raichy

Circus Maximus Tigers - Dice, Meridian, Watashi

Congregation of the Classiest - Steve Angello, Fakes, Jacob

Cryonicles - Finchinator, Malekith, Posho

Dragonspiral Tyrants - Elodin, John W

Ever Grande BIGS - Insult, McMeghan, Zokuru

Indie Scooters - Caetano93, snøfall

Stark Sharks - SoulWind, Luispeikou

Team Raiders - Jimmy Turtwig, BIHI, Eeveeto

Wi-Fi Wolfpack - shawyu 1313, Mael

Overall Usage Stats

BW OU

Leads / Combos / Moves + Teammates

+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Tyranitar          |   25 |  65.79% |  56.00% |
| 2    | Ferrothorn         |   17 |  44.74% |  52.94% |
| 2    | Latios             |   17 |  44.74% |  52.94% |
| 4    | Excadrill          |   16 |  42.11% |  56.25% |
| 5    | Alakazam           |   11 |  28.95% |  54.55% |
| 5    | Gliscor            |   11 |  28.95% |  54.55% |
| 5    | Landorus-Therian   |   11 |  28.95% |  45.45% |
| 8    | Politoed           |    9 |  23.68% |  44.44% |
| 8    | Tentacruel         |    9 |  23.68% |  44.44% |
| 10   | Magnezone          |    8 |  21.05% |  50.00% |
| 10   | Rotom-Wash         |    8 |  21.05% |  37.50% |
| 12   | Celebi             |    7 |  18.42% |  71.43% |
| 12   | Gastrodon          |    7 |  18.42% |  42.86% |
| 12   | Skarmory           |    7 |  18.42% |  42.86% |
| 15   | Reuniclus          |    6 |  15.79% |  50.00% |
| 15   | Keldeo             |    6 |  15.79% |  50.00% |
| 15   | Thundurus-Therian  |    6 |  15.79% |  33.33% |
| 18   | Garchomp           |    5 |  13.16% |  40.00% |
| 19   | Heatran            |    4 |  10.53% |  75.00% |
| 19   | Mamoswine          |    4 |  10.53% |  75.00% |
| 19   | Scizor             |    4 |  10.53% |  25.00% |
| 22   | Seismitoad         |    3 |   7.89% | 100.00% |
| 22   | Breloom            |    3 |   7.89% |  33.33% |
| 24   | Terrakion          |    2 |   5.26% | 100.00% |
| 24   | Jellicent          |    2 |   5.26% |  50.00% |
| 24   | Slowking           |    2 |   5.26% |  50.00% |
| 24   | Kyurem-Black       |    2 |   5.26% |   0.00% |
| 24   | Starmie            |    2 |   5.26% |   0.00% |
| 24   | Jirachi            |    2 |   5.26% |   0.00% |
| 30   | Xatu               |    1 |   2.63% | 100.00% |
| 30   | Tornadus           |    1 |   2.63% | 100.00% |
| 30   | Milotic            |    1 |   2.63% | 100.00% |
| 30   | Abomasnow          |    1 |   2.63% | 100.00% |
| 30   | Gyarados           |    1 |   2.63% | 100.00% |
| 30   | Amoonguss          |    1 |   2.63% |   0.00% |
| 30   | Hippowdon          |    1 |   2.63% |   0.00% |
| 30   | Zapdos             |    1 |   2.63% |   0.00% |
| 30   | Volcarona          |    1 |   2.63% |   0.00% |
| 30   | Kyurem             |    1 |   2.63% |   0.00% |
| 30   | Mew                |    1 |   2.63% |   0.00% |
| 30   | Latias             |    1 |   2.63% |   0.00% |

Power Rankings

 

[Revenge Killer]

The usages will be posted too?

 

[DYA]

I believe those are posted in the SPL usage thread in its forum

 

[FNH]

Finch is ready to go undefeated. Proof:

 

[Yumxi]

I feel like this is a good place to ask about how many people would be intrested in playing BW1 OU, i was told it was possible and a tourney could be held for it, possibly even made a side format or something. I've wanted to experience that meta for a while so, would people be intrested?

 

[Caetano93]

I feel like this is a good place to ask about how many people would be intrested in playing BW1 OU, i was told it was possible and a tourney could be held for it, possibly even made a side format or something. I've wanted to experience that meta for a while so, would people be intrested?

I'm one that will like to have fun in it since in BW1 i can use the broken combo of Drought + Chlorophyll

 

[Fakee]

Hello, these are my Power Rankings (It is just my opinion)

Order: 1.- SoulWind 2.- Finchinator 3.- Caetano 4.- Insult 5.- Frania 6.- Dice 7.- Elodin 8.- Shawyu 9.- Jimmy Turtwig 10.- Fakes

SoulWind

Hide

The veteran Spanish player is undoubtedly right now the best player of the generation today and his great records and tours praise him. Last season at SPL he was unrivaled, with an impressive 9-0, in addition to finally winning the Classic, his lauded individual title that was elusive for years that There is nothing more to comment on, the guy always chooses the best possible plays each turn and is capable of playing with any style of team at massive levels. We hope that this year he has a solid record as he has always done in team tournaments where he has always shown an enormous capacity to win his fights (and it will not be that he repeats an x-0 again).

Finchinator

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Last year has been the best for Finch if we refer specifically to BW, the last SPL ended with a 6-4 that although it is not a bad record, the level of the rivals was very high and we knew that it was not going to be easy for him. But that did not stop him from being conformist, and during the past year he continued to improve, becoming the Past Gen Championship in an outstanding way and being solid in each of his games, also adding to winning the Summer Seasonal and the Global Championship.

Caetano

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The brazuca and tutor of my companion, the truth is that in 2019 we saw very good things about him in Brazilian forums and giving very good games throughout that year, but 2020 was simply magnificent for him with a performance that surpassed widely the expectations in the SPL (6-4) being decisive in games that ended up consecrating Alpha Ruiners in their second consecutive SPL title.
Although he lacked an individual title throughout the year, he reached final instances in the Summer Seasonal and the Global Championship (also add a final in the Past Generation) with an offensive and attractive game to watch.
With all of the above said, we believe that Caetano is ready to once again set a positive record and with him being one of its main Indie Scooters figures looking to get the title again.

Insult

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In RoaPL he was the best in that tournament with a 6-1 record, but for quite some time he has been showing a good level in this generation, last year he played SS OU for Classiest we believe that this year we will see him play again in this generation.
Unlike previous years, he has not played so many individual / team tournaments and therefore there is not much record to analyze his year 2020, but due to the history of other years and his solid teams and that the little we have seen has fascinated us we have expectations that it will end positively.

Frania

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Like Insult we have not seen much during 2020 as far as BW is concerned (most of all we saw her active in Doubles) but she had a notable role in the Roa Olympics and above all she achieved the second best record of the last SPL with a 4 -0 showing authority and solidity in each game.
The pool is even, and we will not know if it will repeat a record of such magnitude, but that it will come out positive.

Dice

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Last year was not the best for him being honest (and more if we compare it with other years where he showed us classes on how to really play this generation), a 3-2 in the last SPL (if we talk about BW) ended with a 3-2 very tight and in the Classic it was not his tournament either.
We have seen a better Dice in SS OU where in Wcop and SSD it played quite well.
That said, as for the positive, Dice is still a Top player that one day he can play some game badly and in the other win with great category thanks to the experience he has and above all his particular but effective way of building teams (being of the most original along with zf).
Our forecast will not sound very encouraging for the figure that he is, but seeing that the pool is very even we believe that his record will be very similar to last year and can be positive, negative or in a draw of wins and losses.
Although, we would not be surprised if he vindicates himself and ends with an extremely beastly record.

Elodin

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His participation in SPL IX (where he actively played BW OU), left us with his 2-3 record, a decent record pulling the bad guys, Elodin has been in good shape in recent years, seeing the BW OU group is not a surprise that has a better performance than previous years, accompanied by John W could give very good results.

Shawyu

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He comes from doing good individual tournaments and is being an interesting player who can fight any of the players mentioned above, he still lacks some experience in decision-making in this generation but really, this boy looks very good.
Being a novice, and before such a pool, the forecasts indicate a negative record (and the most probable thing is that that will happen) we will not doubt that it will give competition

Jimmy Turtwig

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The veteran Jimmy, we do not know how this year will come to a renewed generation such as BW from the ban spore, and we do not have much information or records from last year in the gene to analyze in detail its level status.
We know that in ADV and GSC he is very good, but we do not know how he will get here, but with the help of people like BIHI or Eeveto (who is known particularly for his way of building teams) he can become a worthy opponent.
That said, our expectations are low and the odds of him hitting a positive record are also very low with the pool out there.

Fakes

Hide

Last season of SPL he obtained a 0-2 being transferred to DPP and that slot will be occupied by Frania.
He hasn't been very active in BW all year either, but he is a player with enormous experience showing good competition in ADV and DPP, and BW can bring things to the fore.
We believe that his record will be similar to last year, and we would not rule out that he will not play in this Spl la gen and pass into the hands of other players such as Steve Angello, Jacob or even JYTcampbell.

Good luck to everyone and ty for reading!
My english is horrible so sorry if you don't understand something.
Huge s/os to Gus2000 who helped me a lot

 

[CalamityGreed]

I'm one that will like to have fun in it since in BW1 i can use the broken combo of Drought + Chlorophyll

I agree broken on broken sounds beautiful.
On other notes looking forward see the teams people are gonna use this spl.

 

[Nalorium]

WEEK 1

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Insult [BIG]
[TIG] dice vs Caetano93 [SCO]
[TYR] elodin vs obii [CLA]
[CRY] Finchinator vs Frania [RUI]
[SHA] SoulWind vs shawyu 1313 [WOL]

General thoughts

Jimmy Turtwig vs Insult

Here we have a veteran against a superstar in current gens. On the one hand we have Jimmy Turtwig a player with a lot of experience who with the help of Raiza the 2 of them can do magic together. On the other hand we have Insult a player that honestly I have not seen him play much BW but all I have seen of him in the last year most of the teams that he used were SPL XI finchinator teams. I see the game in Jimmy's favor mainly because he has the support of raiza, a very influential BWer in the community. Anyway I hope to see a very interesting game to watch

-

dice vs Caetano93

One of the most important games this week, they are both very well known BWers with excellent team building skills. Both have a lot of experience in the tier, Caetano with a better year compared to Dice, but Dice is not really far behind, he has a lot of experience in the tier and without any doubt he can give Caetano a few problems. The doctor in the last SPL showed us all what he is capable of with a surprising 6-3 and very curious teams. Dice brought out some teams that left more than one of us speechless last SPL, with teams like Double Lati + Milotic. I hope to see a very close game between the two

-

elodin vs obii

Continuing with the matches we have 2 players that I have not seen lately in the BW stage, Elodin has experience in the tier but I do not think he is updated with the changes that occurred a year ago, on the other hand we have Obii a fairly solid player in general that with a good team he can surprise us all, similar is the case with Elodin. Honestly, I do not think I will see new builds or, if that is the case, not very solid, although with the help of their teammates, maybe we are going to be able to see some new teams surprise us.

-

Finchinator vs Frania

Here we have another HL match, both superstars in the tier. Finchinator with a 2020 that left us all with our mouths open, and Frania a player who in the last SPL swept and showed us a very nice 4-0. Finchinator the recent winner of the BW Circuit comes without brakes, I expect from him a very solid team like the ones he usually uses. On the other hand is Frania a player who honestly would not know what to expect him to use. Anyway I hope to see a very funny game

-

SoulWind vs shawyu 1313

Like.. SOULWIND - BW OU. Should I say something else? cmon. Soulwind, the mastermind of BW, comes this time with an incredible 9-0 in the last season and with the help of M Dragon they become an almost unbeatable combo. On the other hand we have the enthusiastic BWer of Shawyu, a very solid player who tends to take out and use teams quite out of the ordinary. I see this game quite in favor of SW but Shawyu can get a good MU and perform well in the game to put Soulwind in trouble. Without a doubt, the game that I most want to see and I am sure that I am not the only one who thinks so

Nalorium out .

 

[Finchinator]

click image for replay

Team Preview thoughts

Jimmy Turtwig's team looks very strong. This appears to be a variant of the tried-and-true Rain offense structure with a Choice Scarf Latios paired with special breaker Thundurus-Therian with a bit of a twist: Kyurem-Black. In this slot, we have seen Keldeo plenty, but also some other offensive options like Garchomp, Starmie, Breloom, Tornadus, and even fringe Pokemon Gyarados/Toxicroak/Latias. Kyurem-Black in this slot may leave you a bit reliant on Choice Scarf Latios as the sole revenge killer, but it opens up a world of unexplored offensive potential that compliments this Rain structure very nicely. I would expect the standard trio of dual hazards Ferrothorn, a utility Politoed, and fast Spin Tentacruel with either Toxic or Substitute as the filler move to be paired with Choice Scarf Latios. The remaining sets -- Kyurem-Black and Thundurus-Therian -- are less clear to be, but I believe neither will be choiced and both will be taking advantage of their strong coverage options to help break alongnside Spikes for Latios and Tentacruel (underrated win condition if Rain outlasts btw) to do their jobs later in the game.

Insult's team looks unique. It feels like a modernized variant of the team McMeghan used (see: here and here) lots of in the past with Celebi over Amoongnuss (also, his Magnezone was Magneton at time). I do not want to provide too much input on this quite yet as I play Insult this coming week, but I will say that the dedicated defensive core this team makes use of two Pokemon -- Celebi and Gastrodon -- that we do not see a lot and it is very effective, so massive props to the Bigs BW core for this one. Also, always cool to see different applications of Magnezone in the metagame.

Game thoughts

Stealth Rock Celebi was a great pick from Insult as it defeats Tentacruel, meaning he can likely retain Stealth Rock while facing multiple Stealth Rock weak Pokemon. In addition, the strategy of using Magnezone, even if Rain is up, to severely weaken Ferrothorn and then promptly Rapid Spinning is a great plan from Insult in order to manage the field on his own side. Jimmy made some good pivots in the mid-game, but unfortunately could not get much cooking, especially with Kyurem-Black simply not having the best match-up here. One turn in particular helped the game snowball in Insult's favor: he caught the Latios with a Thunder Wave from Tyranitar, essentially rendering it useless. While there was some contesting down the stretch from Jimmy Turtwig, it was clearly in Insult's favor from there and he held on with a mostly clean endgame, even if his Gliscor died young.


click image for replay

Team Preview thoughts

obii's team looks solid. While it has nothing unheard of, Slowking is always an under the radar option defensively that can be effective and Mamoswine is a rising star in the metagame. The sets on his team can go a number of ways. Once we see the Landorus-T item or what Pokemon may have Stealth Rock, it will be more clear. Given current trends, I imagine it is 4A Chople Tyranitar with Stealth Rock on Landorus-T or Excadrill, but the game will dictate the specifics of course. The Breloom has to be Poison Heal as the Rotom-Wash match-up is pretty poor otherwise. This team looks like it has a lot of offensive potential with a good backbone to tie it together.

elodin's team strikes me as a bit less conventional from the structure of it; dual Water is a rarity on Sand, but Keldeo and Rotom-Wash are always respectable options. Celebi is making another appearance here, too, which could be promising against Breloom + Slowking if it is not Pursuit bait. Much like obii, elodin will be makign use of multiple Ground types, too, which is unnsurprising connsidering how effective they are in the metagame right now. Another big thing to note is the common core in elodin's team that is oftentimes a key part of winning the hazard game: Rotom-Wash + Excadrill. The former is able to cripple Ferrothorn while remaining immune to Spikes. The latter can spin all day on a burned Ferrothorn, rendering it useless besides a few timely pivots. Sadly, he is not encountering Ferrothorn here, but rather Breloom. Thankfully, Celebi leaves him prepared for that, so perhaps the team's structure was built around being well-off no matter the Grass type it encountnered.

Game thoughts

This game was a mess and it is not the fault of either player really. A turn 1 critical hit from obii put elodin behind, but then a clutch Substitute Excadrill followed by a timely critical hit on turn 10 put obii further behind arguably. Rotom-Wash was able to do its thing quite easily from there. I do not have a ton of analysis or commentary to provide here, but I think elodin did a good job staying on task after a rough start. His ability to retain momentum and apply pressure here was something that every BW player should strive to attain in their own gameplay. obii did not exactly make many mistakes, but he was put in a rough position and never was given much room to come out of it. Hopefully he gets a clean slate next week!


click image for replay

Team Preview Thoughts

SoulWind going with some reliable Sand balance should be no surprise; he has had more success with teams of this pace than anyone else ever has (and it is not particularly close). This build does a great job covering what it needs to while being able to push forward in games. Triple Steel is an intriguing pick, especially with Skarmory not being partnered by Jellicent, but there absolutely is some merit here and there are other ways to pressure Tentacruel here. Thankfully, he did not have to worry about that and running three Steels means Heatran or Excadrill may be able to afford more offensive variants, opening up games nicely. Finally, another Slowking appearance is pretty interesting -- will be cool to see how it holds up here.

Shawyu's team is another example of Triple Ground, which is making yet another appearance this week. This time, the pacing is slowed down a bit with Gliscor and Gastrodon on board. Shawyu's team is very Spike conscious with Excadrill + Magnezone, which seems like a smart idea against SoulWind. Choice Scarf Latios seemed like a near guarantee here given (I thought the same about SoulWind's team, too) at preview for me, but I was less sure about Gliscor. Without Spikes and with Magnezone, Swords Dance struck me as the most likely set, but utility Gliscor is impressive now, too. Stealth Rock could be on any of three Pokemon and that will kind of hint to the other sets from there via process of elimination, but there is likely nothing too crazy set wise anywhere. Strikes me as a solid overall build for sure.

Game thoughts

Shawyu got off to a hot start, getting off a Toxic and a timely trap of Skarmory. However, he may have taken his foot off the gas a little bit after this point whereas SoulWind, like the true BW veteran he is, took control. SoulWind did a great job minimizing the Excadrill, maneuvering around multiple Earthquakes that could have proven costly with Skarmory being removed from the game. SoulWind stole the show with a couple of surprise sets, too! Solar Beam Heatran and Colbur Berry Latios are quite uncommon, with the latter being unheard of in recent years, but both helped SoulWind mount an impressive comeback here. The later stages were tight, but it seems Shawyu was a bit shaken up whereas SoulWind retained momentum and kept his strong execution going, allowing for him to edge out a tight victory. His plays with Surf Latios in the early game coupled with his weaving around Excadrill likely gave him just enough room to emerge victorious here.

---

Unfortunately, dice-Caetano93 happened later yesterday and I did not get the time to give it as much thought as the other games. I will try to include it in a future week's posts if I have the time. I will also be posting all of my games (in BW) here after the season ends in all likelihood, so stay tuned for that.

 

[Nalorium]

WEEK 2

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Frania [RUI]
[CLA] obii vs shawyu 1313 [WOL]
[SCO] Caetano93 vs SoulWind [SHA]
[BIG] Insult vs Finchinator [CRY]
[TIG] Dice vs elodin [TYR]

General Thoughts

Jimmy Turtwig vs Frania

Here we have a pairing that I am sure will give us more than one surprise, on the one hand we have Frania, a player who comes from a not very memorable W1 but who brought out a team that surprised us a lot. On the other hand is Jimmy Turtwig a player whose dreams of winning were frustrated by a toxic scarf zone, ignoring that event, we saw a fairly solid team on his part. I see this match a little more in favor of frania but I still do not remove the fact that Jimmy manages to get a good MU.

-

obii vs shawyu 1313

Continuing with the matches we find Obii vs Shawyu, last week Shawyu showed us that he has a good enough level to play vs SW and put him in trouble, he used a very solid team and made some quite surprising plays. In the other hand is Obii a player who sincerely expected more from him, elodin managed to put him in trouble with his SubExcadrill and after suffering an HP Ice from Landorus his Breloom no longer managed to stop Rotom-W who gave him many problems in the end game. I see this game in favor of Shawyu honestly

-

Caetano93 vs SoulWind

The Game. This week's highlight game features 2 of the best BWers facing off. In one hand we have the Doctor who with some lucky crits managed to take the confrontation against Dice, but in the other hand we have the mastermind of BW who with some sets that drove us crazy managed to beat Shawyu. I hope to see a fairly closed game with some very interesting teams to watch. They both play very solid teams so honestly I have nothing left but to wait to see a game that leaves us all speechless

-

Insult vs Finchinator

We move on to our next match, Insult vs Finchinator, what a game! I really want to see this match taking place. Insult a player who showed us that in BW he can surprise us with very solid teams and Finchinator who last week managed to beat Frania in a very close game. I predict 2 fairly solid teams that are not out of the ordinary, probably a sand vs sand or rain vs sand. Anyway, it is the game that I most want to see, good luck to both.

-

Dice vs elodin

Finally, we have Dice vs Elodin, the 2 players who in W1 played teams with unusual sets. We saw how dice with an unusual sand team that would have beaten Caetano if it weren't for the RNG. In the other hand we have Elodin, who showed us a sand team with sets out of the ordinary. Landorus LO and Sub Excadrill are some examples. I honestly do not know what to predict for this game, both are very unpredictable players.

-

WEEK 1
SETS AND TEAMS TO
HIGHLIGHT


TOXIC MAGNEZONE

Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Fire]
-Toxic
- Flash Cannon

This goat set played by Insult saved him from an incredible problem. With Toxic, Zone can deal with one of his most famous counters, Gastrodon. I really like the idea of using Toxic Magnezone in the same way this set allows you to intoxicate Mons that can usually stop him as Thundurus-Therarian, we saw the potential of this set when Insult managed to intoxicate Jimmy's Thundurus NP when he was about to sweep his team after the Nasty Plot.Thanks to information that was given to me, I know that if Zone gets Gastrodon intoxicated, incredible threats like Gliscor Protect SD or Tyranitar can more easily break the rival team.


LIFE ORB LANDORUS-THERIAN

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 72 SpA / 184 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stone Edge
- Rock Polish

elodin in week 1 brought us this incredible set. He tells me that this set is great if you want to finish with the rival team, at +2 this pokemon is able to outspeed the entire tier and with the LO give 1HKO to almost the entire tier except mons like Skarmory. Double booster landorus sometimes has problems getting to +2 in Atk and speed and still have problems killing mons like Gliscor but with LO and HP Ice you will be able to kill those mons that can threaten you with toxic among other examples. He is not afraid of the chip caused by the Life orb in this team thanks to another move that he has on the team.




SOLAR BEAM HEATRAN

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Serious Nature
- Magma Storm
- Solar Beam

Unfortunately I don't have much information on this set used by Soulwind. In his game against Shawyu we could see that this set is incredible when it comes to trapping and eliminating gastrodon. Surely this set also has a utility under rain either Earth Power for tentacruel among other moves. Getting Gastrodon out of the way was quite helpful for Slowking and Tyranitar to do something else.


HIGHLIGHT TEAM
by Frania

This HO brought by Frania is great, starting with the team we have a lead lando, whose mission is to put the rocks on the rival team and after that to pressure the rival team with a possible EQ, Sedge or even Explosion. Continuing with the team we have 3 mons all very offensive that can easily put any team in trouble. Garchomp Sub SD, this set is excellent when it come to sweep a team, with SD is capable of 2HKO / 1HKO almost the entire tier. We continue with CM Latios Dragon Gem, this pokemon is a beast, his Draco meteor at +1 is able to 1HKO mons Tentacruel that if he gets a toxic it would get him in trouble or even kill Tyranitar after hitting a Draco Meteor + Surf. We continue advancing with the team and we meet Volcarona, an incredible sweeper who against Sand usually has quite good MU's. We saw that she was Bug Buzz and according to him also Psyquic so she is capable of defeating pokemons like Keldeo, Tentacruel or even Terrakion. The spinner of the team, Starmie with LO becomes another threat for most of the teams and also provides the respective spin which Volcarona needs on a mandatory basis. And finally we have Jirachi, a solution for Latios and also give momentum to the team. His incredible movepool helps the team a lot with moves like Ice Punch to take down Landorus who can put a lot of pressure on Garchomp. In conclusion we have a quite offensive HO with a very useful offensive core for most standard teams, with some quite useful techs to break the teams of your opponents.


EXTRA

As a bonus I would like to give a short review of the team used by Finchinator. I think it is a great idea to combine Mamoswine + Tornadus, as long as you are sure that your opponent is not going to play rotom-wash. That offensive core can break through most rain teams and weatherless teams without much trouble. Adding to that thanks to everyone's favorite jellyfish, Tentacruel, Mamos and Torna will not be afraid of rocks. Soon Finchinator will give us an exclusive analysis of the team that he used!.

- - -

BW Power Rankings and Overall Usage Stats are up here!

Fomat for Prediction post

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Frania [RUI]
[CLA] obii vs shawyu 1313 [WOL]
[SCO] Caetano93 vs SoulWind [SHA]
[BIG] Insult vs Finchinator [CRY]
[TIG] Dice vs elodin [TYR]

WEEK 1 USAGE STATS


​

+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Tyranitar          |    6 |  60.00% |  66.67% |
| 1    | Latios             |    6 |  60.00% |  50.00% |
| 1    | Excadrill          |    6 |  60.00% |  50.00% |
| 4    | Ferrothorn         |    3 |  30.00% |  66.67% |
| 4    | Landorus-Therian   |    3 |  30.00% |  33.33% |
| 6    | Celebi             |    2 |  20.00% | 100.00% |
| 6    | Politoed           |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 6    | Tentacruel         |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 6    | Gliscor            |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 6    | Magnezone          |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 6    | Gastrodon          |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 6    | Garchomp           |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 6    | Slowking           |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 6    | Mamoswine          |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 6    | Breloom            |    2 |  20.00% |   0.00% |
| 6    | Starmie            |    2 |  20.00% |   0.00% |
| 17   | Xatu               |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Seismitoad         |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Keldeo             |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Rotom-Wash         |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Tornadus           |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Heatran            |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Skarmory           |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Kyurem-Black       |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 17   | Thundurus-Therian  |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 17   | Hippowdon          |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 17   | Zapdos             |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 17   | Scizor             |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 17   | Jirachi            |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 17   | Volcarona          |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |

Nalorium out

 

[Fakee]

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Frania [RUI]
[CLA] obii vs shawyu 1313 [WOL]
[SCO] Caetano93 vs SoulWind [SHA]
[BIG] Insult vs Finchinator [CRY]
[TIG] Dice vs elodin [TYR]

 

[Perish Song]

Quite suprising to see Alakazam had no usage at all, thought a Pokemon of that high caliber could have certainly fulfilled a niche in at least one team. Rip my boy :(

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Frania [RUI]
[CLA] obii vs shawyu 1313 [WOL]
[SCO] Caetano93 vs SoulWind [SHA]
[BIG] Insult vs Finchinator [CRY]
[TIG] Dice vs elodin [TYR]

 

[Caetano93]

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Frania [RUI]
[CLA] obii vs shawyu 1313 [WOL]
[SCO] Caetano93 vs SoulWind [SHA]
[BIG] Insult vs Finchinator [CRY]
[TIG] Dice vs elodin [TYR]

 

[Wizard]

Unfortunately I don't have much information on this set used by Soulwind.

It's definitely the sunny day set. It capitalizes on most politoeds going defensive to trapkill them and win the weather war. Status heatran is not really good right now due to status absorption running rampant (refresh poli, seismitoad, sdef scor etc).

 

[Gus2000]

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Frania [RUI] (Between frania's game vs jimmy's for week 1 I stay with frania and I still think he will make a good record
We will see that they will both this time, but be very careful with this confrontation because it looks to be more than interesting.)
[CLA] obii vs shawyu 1313 [WOL] (I"m very fan of shawyu and his way of playing in bw I had a huge vote of confidence that I would play good games during SPL, and I was not disappointed at all against soulwind. on his side obii cost him against elodin but I think he will rebuild and give competition I opted for shawyu, since I see him more firm and solid in his last tours (not only in spl, if not in circuits and roa tours.)
[SCO] Caetano93 vs SoulWind [SHA] (Not only does it seem to me like the showdown of the week of bw, but of this spl
great players will fight face to face as figures of their respective teams difficult to forecast.
Although it is undeniable to say that sw is the best player of all time in this generation, what the doctor has shown lately has been incredible (and let's remember that he has an even-positive record in his confrontations with sw.)
[BIG] Insult vs Finchinator [CRY] (Very attractive duel to see finch has known how to assert itself and consolidate itself at the top during the last year in bw sweeping the circuits insult by his side will always render you masterfully in these scenarios I think finch will take it for what he has shown lately but I would not be surprised if insult took it.)
[TIG] Dice vs elodin [TYR] (I am not very in favor of the teams of says that he takes out in scenarios like this, but it has been his essence and being one of the most influential exponents historically speaking in all of BW there is nothing more than to respect him. I'm sure he says after the defeat (f for that crit) he will win this time against an elodin that I liked and liked his previous game a lot.)

That being said, I wish all players the best of luck and hopefully they entertain us with great games this week <3

 

[peng]

Getting late in the UK and likely gonna miss the dice v elodin game but writing up some thoughts for the games so far:

The return of Gliscor
Tons of Glisc usage this week, 6 teams out of the 8 run out so far. Big mix of stuff, seeing some specially defensive SD and a couple of support sets with combinations of SR / Knock / EQ and Toxic / EQ / Wing Attack. This of course goes hand in hand with a super low usage of Lando-T, which is present on the other two teams used. Even more confident now with putting Gliscor on-par with Rotom-W / Zam / Reuniclus in that 2nd tier of sand mons below the obvious fellas. Super solid pick thats hard to punish, as well as providing a common win-condition in a week full of spikes-stacking grimy sand builds. Finch vs Insult reveals a really interesting nuance of the SD Gliscor vs Whirlwind Skarmory match-up though - having a Magic Guard user in the back makes it super difficult to get Gliscor as the lone surviving Pokemon due the the Alakazam spikes immunity, making it difficult to set-up on the Skarmory. If the board was a bit different in the end-game this odd situation could have been really, really interesting, though with Insult's team so weakened by this point there wasn't much that could be done to take advantage.

Shadow Ball -> Signal Beam
This has been coming for a while but the gradually increasing usage of Celebi, including a couple of appearances in week 1, seems to have spooked some of the Alakazam players this week, with Signal Beam being common. Only loses 5bp compared to Shadow Ball but makes up for it by making a clown out of Celebi, as well as being able to remove weakened Tyranitar when not wanting to risk Focus Blast. Seems like a super easy decision to make and we should be likely to see Signal Beam stick around moving forwards.

Finch's Colbur + Roar Latios
This set is incredibly cool and acts as a really effective supporter for Finchinator's Alakazam here. The early reveal of Recover should have been a giveaway that Latios was non-choiced here (or else finch has massive balls to choice lock into Recover vs Tyranitar...), so I think Colbur was on a lot of people's minds already just watching the replay. Colbur + Roar is so wacky but I absolutely love it on this team, as forcing TTar and a partner to take an extra SR + 2/3 spikes is always going to be more profitable than just throwing weak as shit Draco Meteors at it. Will be interesting to see if this set pops up again in future or if its just a one-off!

Soulwind's mystery Magnezone item
I'm a huge fan of the team Soulwind ran out this week with ScarfTar / Gliscor / SR Celebi / Excadrill / Gastrodon / Magnezone, and have been playing around with a lot of variants of these 6 for the last week or so (EDIT: also the same 6 as Insult in week 1). Something that's interesting about these teams is that you don't necessarily need to use Air Balloon Magnezone due to already having a sturdy Excadrill answer in Gliscor, and similarly the presence of Scarf Tyranitar means than Scarf Magnezone isn't essential either - this opens up the item slot for some cool stuff like Chople Berry, Custap Berry, Salac Berry, or even Rocky Helmet which deters U-turns in the face of Celebi. Here, Soulwind's Magnezone item remained unrevealed for the entire game, though we know its not Air Balloon, Choice Specs or Choice Scarf. Most obvious selection that I could guess would be Chople Berry + Thunder Wave, as these 6 end up struggling against HP Ice + Signal Beam Alakazam when you go down the Scarf Tyranitar route. Something crazier is possible though, any predictions?

Might update with thoughts after Dice vs Elodin.

 

[Finchinator]

Re: and Sand balance,

We saw an astounding 6/8 Gliscor in week 2 and another 2/10 in week 1, combining for a total just shy of 50% usage. While this number will go down as the sample size increases, Gliscor is still a great pick right now. I feel that it suits the metagame's more balanced pace now, much like Leftovers pivot Landorus-Therian fit the metagame's more bulky-offensive pace during the early stages of last SPL. I feel that these Sand balance teams that are heavy on Protect, suffocating Ferrothorn, and Magic Guard Psychics with speed also are a reason for the decline in conventional offensive Rain builds. The metagame has reacted well to them with these archetypes and I feel these trends even predate SPL with players like SoulWind, ABR, and even myself on occasion relying upon them in their Classic run earlier in the year at points. Within this archetype, we have seen some nice range, too. Shawyu with the Seismitoad, obii rocking the offensive Heatran, my Roar Latios, SoulWind with some fresh cores featuring Celebi and Slowking, etc. -- I wonder if the future of the metagame will continue to be more balance oriented as opposed to bulky-offense centric in the coming months. To me, this seems more likely now than ever before.

Re: outside of DragMag,

I'd be lying if I said I was a big fan of all applications of this historically -- some people over-rely on Magnezone as a glue, for instance. However, in a metagame that is as reliant on Ferrothorn as ever, it seems like a very promising development if used properly. I personally feel Magnezone is best used with a spinner or at least a few Spike immune Pokemon on board. The teams in SoulWind-Caetano both were good examples of this from a "try out these 6 Pokemon" POV I feel. I am curious to see if we will continue to see this as Magnezone's usage in the metagame has been pretty limited. To me, it almost feels as if this trend was inevitable. We saw a pick-up in generation 7 Magnezone exploits and an even bigger surge in generation 6 Magnezone exploits, so it trickling down was not the biggest shock. I always found it fascinating how one trend in one generation inspired another. This has happened before with BW, too. For those people who are zoomers or were not in touch with BW 5-7 years ago, Choice Scarf Landorus-T was not big during BW itself, but picked up in usage as it did in the XY metagame as well. It has been one of the most common sets since then, of course.

Re: and other offensive Rain Pokemon,

We have seen very few of these Pokemon, if any at all. They had their moments in the spotlight last year when the metagame was perhaps a bit more proactive, but now it seems they are sliding under the radar. I worry that the abundance of anti-Rain/Magic Guard heavy Sands may hold them back more with time, too. I do think Thundurus-Therian has potential to destroy a lot of teams regardless of what they have, so I predict we will see at least some of it in coming weeks. However, Starmie and even Keldeo may see less usage than normal, which is saying something seeing as Starmie Rain has already been on the decline for a couple of years due to Tentacruel being absurdly good and hard to pass up on.

I'm not going to go over every game this week, especially seeing as dice-elodin never happened, but I do want to touch on some things.


click for replay

SoulWind's team was really cool, in my opinion. It was eerily similar to Insult's build from last week, perhaps even taking a page out of his and McMeghan's book, but it absolutely worked. To refer to what I said then,

Insult's team looks unique. It feels like a modernized variant of the team McMeghan used (see: here and here) lots of in the past with Celebi over Amoongnuss (also, his Magnezone was Magneton at time). I do not want to provide too much input on this quite yet as I play Insult this coming week, but I will say that the dedicated defensive core this team makes use of two Pokemon -- Celebi and Gastrodon -- that we do not see a lot and it is very effective, so massive props to the Bigs BW core for this one. Also, always cool to see different applications of Magnezone in the metagame.

I feel that the application of Celebi is enabled by Magnezone; Celebi being stonewalled by Ferrothorn is problematic, but Magnezone solves this, especially with Excadrill to remove Spikes. This also enables Tyranitar and Gastrodon, which both struggle to check things with Ferrothorn (Spikes) being present. One final thing I enjoyed here was the choice to use SD + Ice Fang Gliscor. With Celebi and Gastrodon for Rotom-Wash, being walled by it was not a big deal at all. With Magnezone to trap Skarmory and Leech Seed/Worry Seed Ferrothorn, struggling against them was not a big deal at all. This was the perfect team to fit this set on to and I think there are a lot of similar ways to integrate Gliscor on to teams properly, too. This is just one of the best examples that highlights a tournament wide trend.

Caetano's team was also unconventional, employing a double electric core that you do not see very often. I have less commentary on it specifically, but I do believe that any team with Gliscor+Magnezone and enough support right now can be dangerous. I feel that Caetano may have invested himself a bit too much in to the trapping concept by going all-in on Eject Button Ferrothorn, likely trying to catch a Latios on Draco Meteor with Pursuit Tyranitar getting in safely. Aside from this, his team seemed pretty wise though. I will not offer much more of a comment now as we play this week, but it is always a pleasure seeing what the doctor comes up with.

The game itself highlights SoulWind's mastery in the metagame pretty well. He simply does not make many mistakes. SoulWind absolutely fell behind early in the game after he lost Gastrodon against Magnezone+Rotom-Wash for virtually nothing due to a drop -> critical hit in the Tyranitar sequence. However, he rebounded nicely, much like he did against Shawyu, by ramping up the tempo of his play a little bit and making the opponent outplay him to earn the win. It has been a struggle for people to do that and while Caetano perhaps got close, he ultimately was held back by his own ambitious Ferrothorn item choice and SoulWind's strong end-game execution. I am honestly really curious to see how this would have played out if the Ferrothorn was not Eject Button; I think it would have been more open, but regardless a very deserved victory for SoulWind. I'm sure Caetano will have some great showings himself down the stretch, too, especially after he loses to plays me this week


click for replay

This was an absolutely crazy game. Frania was using a 6 we have seen before -- similar to the build I used in Classic vs Tamahome and a number of other Jellicent balances. It is a very solid structure and his approach going into the game seemed great. I do not have much else to say about it as it is a very solid team without many gimmicks or surprises, but the ability to beat just about every opposing structure you are likely to see is present. Jimmy Turtwig also brought a great team that played as a pretty standard build with Terrakion in the "filler" slot that you may usually see a Latios in. The main drawback of using Terrakion there is that you struggle against Keldeo a bit more than normal builds as you have no true counter. However, he did not encounter Keldeo, so this was entirely irrelevant here and Terrakion actually posed a massive threat to Frania. Overall, both teams were solid and there was nothing really out of the ordinary to express about them.

As for the game, I personally believe Jimmy's execution was strong throughout. While he got no mileage out of his seemingly blind Terrakion, he was able to restructure his gameplan as the match transpired, which is an impressive skill that I feel only a veteran like Jimmy could do without breaking much of a sweat. He got so much out of his Alakazam and Landorus-Therian throughout, which was absolutely needed seeing as he needed quite literally every single last HP from both of them in order to emerge victorious here due to some obstacles he encountered. I think his ability to take some large risks with Landorus-T, especially after he got the first Earthquake wrong, and then Alakazam in the closing stages of the game really highlights some great BW play. Unlike more modern generations that have a ton of hazard removal, Regenerator, and Magic Guard users not weak to Pursuit, BW is a tier where a lot of progress is permanent and games are defined by proactivity as an extension of this. Jimmy went far out of his way to weave in-and-out of trouble throughout the game, creating openings through sequences he thought up on the fly. The Earthquake into Gliscor to hit Excadrill and the Alakazam on the Gliscor's Protect to save just enough HP are great examples of this.

I do not think Frania even made any mistakes down the final stretch of this game either. In fact, I think that he may have had a few sloppy turns, but his overall understanding of his win condition was strong and he made some great plays as well. I just feel like Jimmy really stole the show with his own positioning. I feel like this game was much more in his wheelhouse than his struggle to break through week 1 against Insult. As for Frania, his 0-2 is completely unfair, especially after his unfortunate match against me week 1. I am confident he will rebound strong.

 

[Knight of Cydonia]

I've really enjoyed watching the games so far. Sand is dominating as the safe choice with Tyranitar on 14 out of 18 teams (and Hippowdon on one). Poor Politoed has only been seen twice, and Keldeo once (which was on a sand team). It got me thinking about rain teams that could potentially exploit these likely sand match ups. Ferrothorn, Latios, Rotom-w, Celebi, Gastrodon, Slowking and Seismitoad are all seeing high usage on sand teams and combinations of these can give the typical rain archetype a hard time. Combined with Protect on Excadrill, Heatran, Gliscor etc, it is not surprising that pokemon such as Choice Specs Keldeo can feel underwhelming. Its not all bad news though - with as many as three ground types per sand team alongside Tyranitar itself, there is potential for rain for sure. Some thoughts I had on breaking sand teams:


Keldeo @ Lum Berry / Expert Belt
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Bug] / Hidden Power [Ghost]

Calm Mind Keldeo on rain teams could yield good results against quite a few of the defensive sand cores so far, especially with Protect being used to scout Choice moves. Force out Tyranitar, Landorus-t, Heatran, Excadrill, Gliscor etc and set up a Calm Mind, or even grab two if they use Protect. Lum Berry for Toxic / T-wave users, or Expert Belt to give a better chance to OHKO Ferrothorn and improve the Slowking matchup etc. Hidden power Bug hits Celebi hardest, while still hitting Slowking. Hidden Power Dark if a Jellicent pick is suspected over Celebi. Hidden Power Grass could be nice, but Secret Sword already hits Gastrodon and Seismitoad hard enough. I think this set has the potential to surprise and punish some teams that can deal well with Choice Keldeo sets, for example both of Soulwind's teams so far. This set opens the door for others such as Agility Thundurus or Choice Scarf Latios to potentially clean up late game.


Thundurus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid / Modest Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Thunder / Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Ice
- Focus Blast

While a Substitute Thundurus-t set can abuse switches and Protect users very well, and Agility is a great late game sweeper, this set has a different purpose. Nasty Plot ensures that pokemon such as Celebi and Gastrodon don't sit on it and allows most sand defensive cores to be broken apart. Max/max Chople Tyranitar is ohkod at +2 after rocks. For example, in the Frania vs Jimmy Turtwig game above, neither defensive core is well equipped to deal with this set, and revenge killing after is the only option. This can then let your Choice Scarf Keldeo, Latios etc clean up.

Finally, a tried and true combination is Keldeo and a Pursuit user. The common rain team typically has difficulty fitting a Pursuit user into the 6 slots, without even taking into account that the best Pursuit user in the tier is Tyranitar. However, with Latios and Psychic pokemon in general at a peak in usage, there has never been a better time in my eyes to consider this option when teambuilding.


Scizor @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
- Superpower

Classic Choice Band Scizor. Traps Latios, which is ever present and always a pain for Keldeo and rain teams in general to deal with. Can also do a number on Celebi without Baton Pass, Slowking and Alakazam, potentially opening up a sweep for your Keldeo. Commonly forces in Landorus-t on sand teams, giving the safe U-turn into one of your rain abusers. Choice Scarf is also an option, it doesn't deal with Celebi and Slowking as well but has its own merits. Could Scizor fit on a rain team without compromising the overall structure?


Weavile @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pursuit
- Night Slash
- Ice Shard
- Low Kick / Fake Out

A Pursuit user that I would love to see brought out in an SPL game (although probably not going to happen). Similarly to Scizor, it can assist rain teams by trapping Latios, Celebi, Slowking and Alakazam, as well as Jellicent and Starmie. Fake Out is neat for Alakazam with Sash intact trying to stay in. Also provides pretty decent revenge killing capabilities with Ice Shard. Of course unlike Scizor it has no defensive utility and and is weak to Stealth Rock and sand, making it hard to switch in to what it wants to trap. The range of threats it can trap is still impressive and maybe someone could take a risk on using it for the potential rewards.

In any case I look forward to seeing what teams are used in future weeks - if rain can make a comeback, or if not, what innovations sand teams will bring.

 

[Nalorium]

WEEK 3

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Watashi[TIG]
[TYR] elodin vs Insult [BIG]
[CRY] Finchinator vs Caetano93 [SCO]
[SHA] SoulWind vs fakes [CLA]
[WOL] GaryTheGengar vs Frania [RUI]

-
Sorry for not having put anything up until now, but I have been sick, I will try to put the usages later when I feel better and my thoughts about the MUs, HL sets and teams tomorrow probably. Anyways tysm for sharing your thoughts and analysis and making this thread a little more active Fakee Perish Song Caetano93 Wizard Gus2000 peng Finchinator and Knight of Cydonia

Fomat for Prediction post

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Watashi[TIG]
[TYR] elodin vs Insult [BIG]
[CRY] Finchinator vs Caetano93 [SCO]
[SHA] SoulWind vs fakes [CLA]
[WOL] GaryTheGengar vs Frania [RUI]

 

[peng]

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Watashi[TIG]
[TYR] elodin vs Insult [BIG]
[CRY] Finchinator vs Caetano93 [SCO]
[SHA] SoulWind vs fakes [CLA]
[WOL] GaryTheGengar vs Frania [RUI]

GL all, lets see some cool shit

Bonus points for Roar techs

 

[Gus2000]

Gracias por la mención Nalgorium

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Watashi [TIG] (Jimmy's game has been quite good to tell the truth and he was able to overcome Stone's miss to win a good player like Frania. On the other hand, watashi will debut as a bw player in the current spl also having Dice as a support and enough experience to face high-level battles. Match very equal, but my vote of confidence will go to the Tigers player)

[TYR] elodin vs Insult [BIG] (A pity not to have seen elodin in the previous week, because he left me very good impressions in his battle against obii
Regarding insult, these 2 SPL games have been very solid as I expected from him and despite losing vs Finch, his game of week 2 was very good and anyone could take it.
My bet for this match is for the Ever Grand Bigs player or better known as a fan group of Mami Chan)

[CRY] Finchinator vs Caetano93 [SCO] (Before the SPL started, together with my friend Fakee, we posted the PR that will be above this post.
We believe and we will continue to do so that the only players with the ability to leave x-0 were SW and Finchinator due to the great dominance they have had in the last 2 years in BW. Unfortunately that record can only be held by 1 and will be decided next week.
Caetano surprised last week with Ferro Eject Button (although against a celebi balance he was spoiled) and I think he will put aside the surprises and use something more standart but that is solid.
Difficult to forecast, and while it could be a draw, the record between them is favorable to Finch.
An extremely attractive and exciting game that any lover not only of BW, but also of Mons should not miss.)

[SHA] SoulWind vs fakes [CLA] (I cannot go into much detail in this match because it will be one of the few times that I will see fakes play in bw and the last spl was not very pleasant for him in this tier because I ended up with a 0-2 having to be replaced by Frania. Also, in front of him is SW that I think there is no doubt that he is without a doubt the best BW player The game is somewhat uneven, there is little chance that there will be any surprises so I think SW will win.)

[WOL] GaryTheGengar vs Frania [RUI] (Gary is characterized by playing more regularly adv or dpp (not counting ubers) but he can also defend himself in BW (although I am surprised not to see shawyu here, and that will be the technical decision of the mangers)
Frania I have very little to say, he is a very good player who hardly makes mistakes in his games.
It will be a more than interesting match and I would not be surprised if Gary gets the victory, because as I said he defends very well in the tier, but my bet is for Frania + than anything because she is more active and has more travel in BW.

Again and like last week, I wish everyone luck in their respective matches and we hope they entertain all the fans of this generation a lot (:

 

[Fakee]

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Watashi[TIG]
[TYR] elodin vs Insult [BIG]
[CRY] Finchinator vs Caetano93 [SCO]
[SHA] SoulWind vs Fakes [CLA]
[WOL] GaryTheGengar vs Frania [RUI]

 

[Caetano93]

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Watashi[TIG] - Interesting game here. Jimmy really impressed me with how he played last week but at the same time Watashi is a legendary player. I'm going with the former since I belive he is the better of the pair.

[TYR] elodin vs Insult [BIG] - Not much to add here since elodin game 1 was a mess and game 2 was an act. I'm going with Insult because I think he is better atm in BW.

[CRY] Finchinator vs Caetano93 [SCO] - Standart sand user versus the guy who thinks Dusclops is viable. What could go wrong?

[SHA] SoulWind vs Fakes [CLA] - Literaly impossible to not bold SW. However, I'm curious to see how Fakes will adapt to the more bulky teams SW is using in this SPL. I have very high expectations for this game.

[WOL] GaryTheGengar vs Frania [RUI] - I don't like the decision of benching Shawyu. I know that Gary is a good player but I don't know how much he played BW after the sleep ban. Time will tell if this was a good decision or not. Going with Frania because this is the week she need to step back into her game and because I think she have more experience the new DragMag gen.

 

[Nalorium]

MU's

[RAI] Jimmy Turtwig vs Watashi[TIG]
[TYR] elodin vs Insult [BIG]
[CRY] Finchinator vs Caetano93 [SCO]
[SHA] SoulWind vs fakes [CLA]
[WOL] GaryTheGengar vs Frania [RUI]

General Thoughts

Jimmy Turtwig vs Watashi

A match which in all sincerity I don't expect much from him. We have Jimmy a player who has remained constant throughout these 2 weeks taking out solid teams with offensive pokemons like Kyurem-Black or Terrakion. I liked his performance and he may surprise us with another team of that style. Replacing Dice we have Watashi, a player that I haven't seen much in BW OU lately, but I do know that he is an experienced player and with the help of Dice and Meridian they can build a good team. I see the game a little more in favor of Watashi.

-

elodin vs Insult

Continuing with the confrontations we find Elodin vs Insult. On the one hand we have Elodin who with the only game he played showed us a rather curious set, will he play something like that again? and on the other hand we have insult, who has used very solid teams that have given him somewhat constant results. Elodin can take advantage of this if he gets to use some team that can stand up to the sand teams of Insult? Or would Insult use something out of the ordinary to surprise elodin? All this and much more on Friday at 5 PM

-

Finchinator vs Caetano93

This week's highlight game features Caetano facing off against Finchinator. I'm sure this game will surprise us all, both have already faced each other on multiple occasions so they don't lack experience between one and the other. I honestly do not opt for either, both are very good and anyone can surprise us. I hope to see a quite entertaining game and with teams that stop talking (I also need content for HL sets of Week 3)

-

SoulWind vs fakes

Fakes returns to BW replacing Obii, Fakes is a player with a lot of experience in old gens and without a doubt he will be able to give Soulwind a good fight. The BW master is rocking his 2-0 with pretty solid teams who I honestly hope he keeps using more fun sets. This is another match that I really want to see too. Probably Fakes with the help of TDK and his other teammates can get another quite curious team that can beat the kind of teams that SoulWind uses

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GaryTheGengar vs Frania

I do not understand the reason for benching shawyu if he was not doing it wrong, I suppose for problems of availability to play or something like that. I do not know to what extent GaryTheGengar knows on how to play BW and more to be able to face Frania, but I suppose that with the help of Shawyu and BKC they can get to do something good, on the other hand we have Frania who although he has not won his matches he has been quite close to doing it and with varied teams. I see game quite in favor of Frania although Gary can use something interesting.

WEEK 2
SETS AND TEAMS TO
HIGHLIGHT


ROAR LATIOS

Latios (M) @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Surf
- Draco Meteor
- Roar

Are the tyranitars bothering you? The solution is already here, roar + colbur latios comes to solve all these problems. I really liked this idea that finchinator brought in last week, taking advantage of its object can provide a roar in front of TTar without any problem. This set accompanied by Spikes + SR, provides a massive chip to Tyranitar helping Latios and Alakazam. I hope to see it more often


EJECT BUTTOM FERROTHORN

Ferrothorn @ Eject Button
Ability: Iron Barbs
- Spikes
- Power Whip
- Knock Off

This set was quite a surprise to me when I saw it, but looking at the team structure it makes a lot of sense. This set helps you trap Pokemon like Latios. When Latios puts a meteor drake, the object will be activated and you can enter Tyranitar and kill him with pursuit / crunch. Something similar happens in Ferrothorn vs. Ferrothorn that will also allow you to enter Magnezone and kill him with HP Fire.


GLISCORS

I would like to highlight the incredible use that this vampire has had. Beating Ferrothorn, Landorus and Latios, Gliscor proves that it is here to stay. Whether it's SD + 2 attacks or Stealth Rocks, gliscor provides incredible support to the team. Probably the incredible amount of gliscor can make moves like HP Ice or Ice beam look much more than usual.


HIGHLIGHT TEAM

I have chosen this team for the synergy it has. The Tyranitar + Magnezone + Ferrothorn makes me quite interesting to show everyone. Unfortunately in his game vs SW he did not achieve his best work but in any case, the team was also very creative. Rotom-W also helps this team to gain a little more momentum which Latios and Gliscor appreciate a lot, I'll try to see if Caetano can give us a little summary of his team so we can see. Anyway, the Gliscor makes the job of glueing the whole team and with SR and Ice Fang he can put enough pressure on the Gliscor that I mentioned earlier

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Overall Usage Stats are up here!

WEEK 2 USAGE STATS



​

BW OU

Leads / Combos / Moves + Teammates

+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Tyranitar          |    8 | 100.00% |  50.00% |
| 2    | Gliscor            |    6 |  75.00% |  50.00% |
| 3    | Ferrothorn         |    5 |  62.50% |  60.00% |
| 3    | Alakazam           |    5 |  62.50% |  60.00% |
| 5    | Rotom-Wash         |    4 |  50.00% |  50.00% |
| 5    | Excadrill          |    4 |  50.00% |  50.00% |
| 7    | Landorus-Therian   |    2 |  25.00% |  50.00% |
| 7    | Magnezone          |    2 |  25.00% |  50.00% |
| 7    | Gastrodon          |    2 |  25.00% |  50.00% |
| 7    | Latios             |    2 |  25.00% |  50.00% |
| 11   | Terrakion          |    1 |  12.50% | 100.00% |
| 11   | Seismitoad         |    1 |  12.50% | 100.00% |
| 11   | Celebi             |    1 |  12.50% | 100.00% |
| 11   | Jellicent          |    1 |  12.50% |   0.00% |
| 11   | Heatran            |    1 |  12.50% |   0.00% |
| 11   | Amoonguss          |    1 |  12.50% |   0.00% |
| 11   | Skarmory           |    1 |  12.50% |   0.00% |
| 11   | Reuniclus          |    1 |  12.50% |   0.00% |

• tigers vs tyrants didn't get played

Nalorium Out