Week 6 team reviews, everybody! Let's get straight into it.
Jabba vs triangles:
This match-up saw Jabba bring the same 6 as Johnald last week with a different Thief Skarm set. Big 4 will always be playable or decent. I think Rest Zap is probably optimal here, but either way, the 5+1 is strong. I'm not in love with DD Mence without Metagross, since I feel there is no better way of compressing forcing pressure into Skarm+waters, but I think being able to stall and Spikes shuffle with big 4 Zap could offer some compensation. Maybe there's also something to be said for using Mence to trade out Bliss for Zap if Skarm+Tar can trade into opposing Protect Pert (especially not with Wish Support), but BKC Tar without Mag/Spin or Wish hasn't been the most consistent approach for me lately. I feel like the tier has been getting a bit fast for Focus Punch Tar without something extra against Skarmory or Swampert -- probably a product of Aero teams foregoing Blissey for more active options.
Triangles brought double-elec Cloy. I love these kinds of teams, but I still can't bring myself to get behind Metagross as the sole rock resist on a team (and certainly not without a water-type to back it up). I'm assuming Meta was NOT Agility, considering how it was played into Blissey with Tyranitar behind it. A Thunder Wave would have decomissioned it. I'm not sure what to make of this either. On the one hand, I feel that the greed of a build like this should encourage the player to actively seek to trade out opposing Tyranitar and rely on non-Meta pieces defensively to get the most out of Meta, who is a more consistent endgame threat than Tyranitar. And Metagross bleeds value by letting Skarmory Spike up for cheap. On the other hand, I can see that Metagross offers a sturdy normal resist and compresses an extra physical attacker on a skinnier build. But there's no Spin, and we don't know what the Tyranitar set is, since it was revealed as the last mon to fodder to Mence against a Blissey comp where it would have had its chances. Was it Pursuit? in any case, I agree with leading Cloy and t1 Surfing Tyranitar (and t2 Spiking with Gar behind) and think it's one of the more theoretically interesting ways of making use of it. I also think Ice Beam was a devious touch. I don't know if I believe clicking it in front of unrevealed Mence from 41% is ever going to net value at this level, since DDing on the turn is exclusively a low ladder play, but without a clearly better move in that position, I can understand prefering a Cloy sac to wasting HP on another mon. It got its value as an HO Spikes lead. To that point, it's possible triangles kept Tar in the back to do everything in his power to avoid giving Mence a free turn, but that's also a consequence of running such a frail comp. No Pert means DD is free against phys Tar and a skinny Zap makes going directly to it rough. Anyway, I like this kind of comp with a Roar Zap set, but maybe Rest Talk Toxic should be considered with (Wish and/or) Roar Jolt? Hard to rely on Zap defensively more than once on this kind of team, but I think there might be some upside if you can find a way to slot Rest on Zap since it's oppressive.
Endill vs Garay Oak:
Endill brought one of the earlier versions of 'slop' that Fruhdazi built into the known CB Mence/Wish Jira/Yama/Cune Spin balance. With some RNG, Garay got packed up, but that's just what End Pert sand does to unprepared Sandless Bliss comps. Fake defensive builds will lose to RNG from any decently made offense (with set up threats or hard-to-wall traders), and Yama Bliss is fake defense. No new commentary to offer here.
mielke vs Blaise:
This game shows why I don't really respect Metagross without a real rock resist next to it. Same thing can be said for Registeel. Unfortunate to miss Meteor Mash against Tar, and Blaise DDing on mielke trying to preserve it was the ultimate punish. RNG is a factor, but this kind of thing happens less often to Swampert and Claydol -- though Double-edge and HP Bug crits are more problematic. Maybe offensive Starmie was the way to go here, as it outspeeds the standard bulky Ada Tar of the day to revenge kill it. I don't understand how this team plays into Gengar or CB Meta, but I really am a fan of how mielke keeps bringing fresh takes with the chutzpah to go off the beaten path, and seeing as he's made dumps on other tours, I'm keen on hearing his thoughts on this team in particular (and suspect he may bless us with them), since it's less intuitive to me.
Blaise revealed 3 mons: one of them was a lead off Cune and another was a DD Tar. I don't really get Cune+Tar or Cune that trades on most teams. I think I liked
ABR's team from CI5, because Cune can trade into Zap and Tox allows it to power through Blissey in service of Gyara or potentially Mence without Brick Break (don't use this), but one can only speculate as to what Blaise had in the back. I also prefer Registeel with Spin, but I can't get behind suicide lead Cune+Spin, since Spin serves Cune best, and trading Cune usually means playing with momentum which makes justifying Spin all the more difficult.
zinc vs Fruhdazi:
This was an interesting match-up.
Zinc loaded a Sandless Aero Wish Jira Spikes balance without Spin. I think this kind of team is good with a Zap>Celebi instead, but I saw too many people clowning this comp and saying it felt incomplete. I'm here to say I support Gengar with Wish support and think that this is one of the few ways to attempt it without Dugtrio (or Flygon) and that I feel that Sandless Gar should be claiming a few scalps in this metagame where people are running Sandless Gar-weak comps. More Lax than in a while, (mono) Stoss Bliss, etc. I think it's easier to make this kind of thing work with Flygon, for sure, but the only I could be higher on this concept is if zinc found some way to slot Rest on Gengar to really stick it to the type to come unprepared for Gengar. Ghosts are foul and cheap, and they should be used to do stuff like this more often. I appreciate that Celebi is used to have a better match-up against Claydol, and I can understand prefering it to Rest Zap, especially with Swampert, but I think Zap's phasing and activity against Suicune deserves consideration. Rest+HP Grass+Roar has a lot of match-ups, and I think we should see it more often. In any case, Toxic on Jira and Pert and Leech Seed on Celebi are enough to hold CM Bliss at bay. And if this is Bold Recover Celebi, it should be good enough vs Snorlax. All of the pressure here should keep Suicune off balance. Only something like Raikou (with sufficient Celebi counter measures) looks scary here -- and of course some superman comps are, too -- but there is something to be said for zinc's ambition here. I also have to say that it's very difficult to do Celebi+Jirachi well, but this comp comes close, using real defensive sets on a competent team that is sufficiently built to justify it. Multiple Skarmory checks, multiple Sand and Spikes immunes, multiple mons with Recovery -- this is a by-the-books team which does have its place at the SPL level. If there are any critiques I have of this build, they're that the offense against Swampert is non-existent, which means that Aero can be slow to revenge kill against Pert+Spikes+Spin and that it's not particularly good against mixed attackers, but you can't win them all with Aero.
Fruh wanted a break from building on the week and loaded an ABR team. This is another one that puzzles me, but I think I can more or less intuit the idea here. It's a BKC-esque 'fighter' balance with CB Rock and what might be Agility Metagross? I like the idea here, with CB Rock being more likely to lure Jirachi and Metagross than Tyranitar to better support Metagross. Wish to support the bulky attackers and Starmie as a kind of pseudo Milo with more presense against offensive teams due to speed and coverage, where the slow pieces divide the game against bulkier grounded teams. Plus, Starmie can bluff Spin and trade with Gengar before Claydol is revealed -- or maybe it even has Spin to allow the synergy to go both ways!? Trading either into Gar also frees Regirock to go to town. I think I would like Thief on Skarmory, though, because stealing Leftovers from Zap, Gar, Skarm, or Lax are good for all of the obvious endgame plans here and free Meta to more comfortably run Boom>Slide (not having to mu divide Rest Zap and Cune). This is probably strictly an upgrade on the Spikeless fighter balance style of old typified by Garay Oak's bring on the week, but I avoid teams that are this grounded with speed that struggles to hold tempo against Blissey, but this is a conceptually rich team, and while I didn't originally love it, I think it bears further consideration, and maybe I'll just have to play it to find out if my concerns are as relevant as I make them out to be. Instant classic?
mayo vs Johnald:
mayo brought a standard Aero Spikes comp with what looks to be Super Jirachi in the special check slot. I think Zapdos works a lot better because it can better switch into Pert, beat Cune, and trade with or paralyze opposing Zap more consistently, among other things. But a gamble that there will be no Zapdos and relying on an Ice Punch Gar to carry some of the load (with pressure from an offensive Pert to get it low in the first place) could be considered. The extra rock resist and Skarmory check frees Swampert to run a more offensive set, since Aero is less scary. I can understand mayo's choice to use a non-Lefties (Lum? Bluffing Lum?) Tar, but this match-up makes me think we should see more Sub Tar instead, like Boah or the standard with HP Ghost, but slotting Wish and Spin are hard. Maybe instead of Regirock on Fruh's bring, for example? I've been extremely high on Johnald's ability to build (and pilot!!) defensive comps for a minute and forcing people to come very prepared against him, and I think this bring by mayo was a good try, but the longevity of a Tyranitar that didn't flinch the Suicune (lol) was wanting.
This was an interesting comp. I hate these kinds of teams for being unable to revenge kill bulky, grounded threats, so I have avoided them like the plague. I don't really trust defensive Jirachi without Protect, but Reflect is a really clever try here. With TW+Aroma Bliss and Toxic and WoW to hit the mons that can't be TW'd, this team is well positioned to counter many of the trends of the meta. This team isn't as easy to counter as it might look, with Wish+Reflect Jira and TW+Aroma Bliss covering up so much defensively, Cune+SkarmGar+Tox Jira guaranteeing offense against stall, and defensive Jira+2x floating Aero checks patching the mu against EC and adjacent comps. This team checks all the boxes and is frustrating on paper, to boot. I don't see how it beats Forretress+Quagsire, though, so it's probably unviable. Anyway, Johnald is having the best SPL of anyone so far in terms of average quality of play and build combined, and I think this guy is one to watch -- or to put on a watch-list, after the terrorism he's wreaked with Dusclops and EBC shenanigans.
Recap:
