I've enjoyed watching the SPL games this season and reading this thread, so I thought I'd contribute too.
First, I want to point out that the newcomers are playing well. Johnald and Zinc both had clean debuts: no egregious mistakes, and they pulled the trigger when they needed to.
I'm also going to comment on the teams used, but this is SPL Bo1. No team is perfect, and I've definitely brought my share of bad teams before. Don't take any criticism personally.
Fruh vs Skarpherim
Really enjoyable game with a lot of interactions. I like Skarph’s team structurally; it fits my own comfort zone well (Wish CM Rachi + cleric support, Skarm + Wish in general). That said, it’s extremely soft into Celebi, especially with Fight Aero and that Jirachi coverage, which feels odd into the premier Celebi spammer in the playerbase. Also, how is an IB Starmie ever slower than Celebi on this team?
Fruh’s team is also cool. It feels like an offensive take on classic Forry + CeleWater builds, which fits his playstyle. It’s pretty soft into TauntGar with Physical Ttar and Forry/Registeel as prime targets, but you can try to pivot around with Celebi, and Zap on Forry can function as a decent (50%) bait.
I liked Skarph’s early use of Jirachi to pressure Fruh’s defense while the set was still unrevealed, forcing some awkward lines. The hard Boom on turn 36 to open Aero was also nice.
Fruh did a great job leveraging his two main win conditions (Tyranitar and Celebi) to unlock the game.
On turn 50, though, I think the Celebi switch is pointless. Two turns later he’s in the same gamestate as turn 49, except he risked losing Celebi to an HP Grass crit on the initial switch.
Endill vs Zinc
Endill played a really strong game overall imo, consistently keeping up pressure despite some bad luck (the Meta boost, then the Pert crit later). Unfortunately, it ends with a misclick in a position where he’d already done the hardest part of the job, especially since both Mence and Hera were faster than Zinc’s Mence.
Turn 21 didn’t really need to be a prediction. HP Flying puts Mence in Hera range for later, and Suicune was always forcing Mence out to reset DD anyway.
Team-wise, not much to add. I was surprised by Zinc stacking Pert/Meta/Mence on TSS. The team looks very weak to Spikes, which is why Pert is often replaced by Claydol or Starmie in these builds. None of those mons help much against Suicune either, which is another big threat here. It worked out this time since Endill had no Spikes or CroCune.
mayo vs Prinz
Hard game to rate. Prinz gets hard punished by Bliss + 1 Spikes and misses a crucial Pump on turn 2, which would’ve given him room to trap Blissey with Dug. The playstyle is also pretty janky: if Skarm Roars Meta it forces Boom, and if it pulls Dug you get free Spikes anyway. The other big weakness shows too, namely Rest Suicune, which ends up pretty much winning the game by itself.
mayo’s team is a known, solid six, but I’m not sold on some of the sets. As it stands, Roar Cune kind of just wins. It feels like Blissey should have a status move to prevent that. These sets also explain why mayo went for the kamikaze Skarm turn 1, which could’ve been very costly.
Despite these nitpicks, both played well, and it somehow still came down to the wire despite mayo’s huge lead.
Garay vs Johnald
Really nice game overall; I liked what both players showed.
Garay’s Magneton switch on turn 14 was excellent. It covers a potential Spiker, Meta staying in to click RS or Mash, and even Boom, since the team could still be spikeless at that point. In that scenario, Magneton is the piece you’re happy to give up. That switch ends up being game-changing, denying Johnald his Spikes and letting Garay extract a ton of value from Mag afterward.
If I were Johnald, I’d probably try to leverage Sand earlier to pressure P2 and the likely Sand-weak backline, especially on turn 18 by bringing out Ttar. It also increases Swampert’s threat level, even though it had already been misplayed into taking a Toxic.
There’s also a line where Johnald can Boom Meta on turn 5. Either P2 switches and stays at ~50% for the rest of the game with Sand up immediately after, or you trade Meta for P2 outright, which is generally good for the team. That said, it’s not guaranteed you can convert that trade cleanly.
The midgame gets pretty wild: Cloy living a +2 BB, Snorlax full paras, Sub Mence reveal, etc., but both players navigated their outs correctly from there.
On the team side, I agree with Siglut: Sub Mence pairs well with TW Jolteon. I also like Garay’s TW Gyara as a partner for Heracross, since it can paralyze Mence and Aero. The team is definitely flimsy and probably struggles into a standard Ttar/Aero/Skarm core if the opponent correctly uses Ttar to check Gyara first. Still, if played perfectly, you always feel like you have outs with Meta/Lax/Mag as a breaking core.
river vs Triangles
Funny that this game ended up as a Dug/Aero ditto, basically a pure trade war.
Triangles definitely gets bailed out by the Pump dodge given how racey the game was, but that’s also the risk you take when running Pump (even if the extra damage vs Skarm or Pert is appealing).
Registeel really shows its value here as a Zapdos answer and as a hard punish to EQ with Counter. I also liked river’s Zapdos and Dugtrio usage to stay ahead in sack count.
Turn 21 is the critical moment (as shown by river’s timer usage). I tried to find a way to avoid the Aero guessing game and think there’s a possible line:
- Turn 21: sack Zapdos to Aero, go Regi on Edge lock
- Turn 22: click Toss. Either Aero Edges and doesn’t 2HKO, or you hit the Meta switch (more likely) for ~30%. Same situation as the game, except Dugtrio is still alive
- Turn 23: click Counter on Metagross. If it Mash-es, it’s in Rock Slide range; if it EQs, you die
From there, you can lock Aero into Rock Slide and always have the speed tie plus Dug in the back for Triangles’ Aero. This line only works if river is Adamant Dug, since that also gives you a chance to OHKO Aero with Rock Slide.
Alternatively, with Dug available, river can also hard Dug on turn 21 into a Meta double switch, EQ it into Rock Slide range, and reach an endgame of Aero speed tie + Registeel vs Triangles’ Aero.
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And that's it! I ended up yapping a lot more than anticipated when I started this post lol. Good luck to everyone in their week 2 games!
