SPL XVII Week 2
We are two weeks into SPL XVII, and besides a couple of cool teams, there weren't a ton of major surprises: there was barely any weekday gaming, everybody had a Ting-Lu and a Dragonite, and a Tigers player left the team Discord. Nothing we couldn't have predicted.
It's now time for week 2, and if I'm being honest I'm hoping for some more interesting brings this week. Obviously we are
four years into SV OU being the current generation and people are slowing down on the innovation front, but there really were a lot of reused squads, or at most people employing the Virgil 3% rule on existing cores. Let's get some heat going, hopefully.
I wrote a bunch of my bits on different days, at different settings, so I tried a couple of approaches for my bits. Doing play-by-play is probably not super necessary when you can just read the battle log, I suppose, so I'll try and do a bit of other stuff. In any case, I like that this project has a lot of different voices on it, you kind of get a good cop/bad cop/??? cop dynamic from it. I don't know who's who.
Wi-Fi Wolfpack vs Cryonicles
bbeeaa vs bhkg 
1LDK: Fat balance vs Sun, I wanna like bea's team since it is kinda my style, but no ghost resist is not gonna work for me, funilly enough, the HO sun team that doesnt need a ghost resist has one, society and all that insane shit, y'know what I mean. While the fat team doesnt have glowking, it has spedef tera water gliscor, which is one of the oldest sun checks in the book, it can tank 3 steams from speed wake and you hit toxic into tech into spikes or knock whatever the fuck. As far as the game went, it was cooked from turn 1, I know you dont want to put your bumass sun setter first since its easy momentum parry, but you need that much more breaking power or else gliscor 1v1s your venusaur, badly poisons your tusk and wins a second 1v1, and then badly poisons your wake. Speaking of wake, draco meteor doesnt kill dozo lol but at least leaves it at Slither Wing range. Speaking of Slither Wing, bro also gets to drink piss thanks to crit espeed that leaves it on spikes range, and that pretty much finishes the game on the spot since the rest of the team is Oger-teal fodder
Fogbound Lake vs kDCA 
1LDK: Webs vs no hazard removal? hell yeah twin, game was cooked from preview. heatran deals with pult, spa wake deals with dnite, gholdengo trades with pecharunt, and spaa valiant just cleans, dragonite tera normal cannot kill val because it was well preserved
Originality56 vs clean 
1LDK: originality has an interesting take on what I like to call "Raging Bolt Logbait", for those who actually go outside (lets be real, no one goes outside, because, we, yes, thats right, WE, ALL OF US, THIS ENTIRE COMMUNITY, WE ARE ALL LOSERS) its just about baiting ting lu and chipping it over and over untill he fucking dies and then you win. So you would think he could force clean into a heavy trade position that may not end well. Which Clean responds by just "fuck it we ball sneaky dnite on the bridge" with tera ground to block electric attacks, bro spams roost untill zapdos misses, then dunks on it with spinner, then spamss roost again untill ting lu misses a ruination, takes most of his health, then facetanks a weavile to also break his ankles. From that point, Zamazenta can easily outspeed and preassure the rest of the team into a win for clean.
Let's Rumble Shall We vs watashi 
1LDK: This is one of those games, you know what im talking about, nothing, ever, happens, yes sir. watashi has problems to break double regen + zapdos slop since Oger-W gets brain damage from headlong rush into future sight. Pecharunt is also Nasty Plot with tera water to tank vs great tusk but hydrapple burns tera poison to easily eat Malignant Chain and counters with Giga drain that vaporizes it off the universe. And now that you have used tera, sd gliscor cannot get things for free thanks to both weavile and samu-h on the back. If any new player is looking at these and wonders how you can beat these squads? Load NP torn-T, none of that AV bullshit, those are tourist traps.
Congregation of the Classiest vs Dragonspiral Tyrants
Xrn vs Fusien 
1LDK: in this game, Fusien nukes lando with kyurem after avoiding rocks. Xrn uses his zama to counter; it got redirected at hatterene, killing her. Fusien reveals roar 3attack zama which is gonna lead to some tomfoolery. Scarf Glimmora tries to do something but fails. From this point on, garganacl has to peak in and out to Salt Cure everyone, and Xrn's option to overwhelm garganacl are tera ghost kingambit who's managed by zama, then we have.... twave hex dengo, ddance kyurem and id bp hslam crunch zama....
LpZ vs Baddy 
1LDK: Baddy rolled with fat balance vs hoopa-Unbound I would be shitting my pants on preview aint gonna lie. Samu-h officially becomes the new potential mon of the tier, going 0-3 on ceaseless landed, getting burned and then dying alone in his room with no loved ones around him lmao im gonna nom this mon to B+ as soon as week 5 rolls around. Pecharunt has to pull up for his team by using tera ghost to preassure treads and chipping moltres. Baddy manages to come back a bit with gliscor + oger encoring NP pecharunt and crippling zama. Sadly, LpZ freezes his blissey with ice beam and dtail leaves her at 16%, luckily, it can recover back with a moltres roost. Now it can recover and retailte vs pecharun--- and it got confusion haxed which forced Skarmory to be sacked. With Oger-teal dying, the game just becomes hoopa-U hell
Shengineer vs myjava 
1LDK: in this BO vs HO game, lando-t U-turns on hatt, so that Kingambit can bait treads, 1 goldship kick later and bro is gone. darkrai gets a chance to NP and glowking comes in, and you just know something is going to happen, colbur berry, no flinch, twave. Kyurem enter the field, clicks ice beam once, hatt frozen, second time, dead, then clicks ice beam infront of a zama, gets rewarded for ballsy play, zama is frozen, gets killed. darkrai is already parad so he just gets once shot, dnite is tera flying tera blast, 2 more and its on the bag
Lazuli vs Axzel
1LDK: turn 1 valiant knock offs moltres and gets instantly rolled over with crit brave bird and burns ting lu. Bro is double hazards so he genuenly has no other options but to spam whirlwind and ruination and pray one of those 2 crit. But he does manage to get a layer of spikes and rocks. Pecharunt gets on a war with LO crunch zama who def drops it. Pecharunt wins with +2 Malignant chain and lives at the excelent number of 1hp. Iron Treads spins to revenge kill and weaves focus blast to spin and free the rest of the team. weaves another focus blast and gets rocks before finally dying to the thirds time is the charm ahh focus miss. Moltres now free, burns kingambit whos still able to OHKO potential mon samu-h with a low kick. Raging Bolt uses tera fairy to volt switch out of a potential sucker punch, but no sucker comes. Kingambit sds again but doesnt sucker, so he just dies to pult. dnite is alone and while Axzel still has tera, he just doesnt use it and goes down vs pult
Alpha Ruiners vs Ever Grande BIGS
lax vs Stareal
1LDK: Lax is running the weirdest darkspam ever, you have ttar and meow with knock and the usual kingambit but team looks ugly i dont know how can I pick this apart. Regardless of what I personally feel, Volcanion crits glowking and that kinda frees meowscarada a lot since it can now flower trick pretty much for free since Kingambit is the only thing that can reasonably take it but theres rocks on the field too so not too good of a situation here. Pult crits garg with darts to shit on him. Stareal manages to turn it back with his kingambit catching a meowscarada while baiting sucker punch, while lando gets sacked by ttar for momentum, as tusk is in line to OHKO pult and feeding on kingambit. Sadly, tera fairy tera blast kingambit puts all hope down and lax takes it
sunsets vs JustFranco
ninth: Fresh off of winning OU circuit, sunsets has a pretty standard-looking Samurott/Ghold stacking core, with Ace/Tusk double removal to support Kyurem and what I'd wager is a pretty greedy Dragonite set. JustFranco is rocking an obnoxious double-Regenerator core of Glowking and Hydrapple, accompanied by more bulky support in Gliscor (the only hazards on his team if at all) and three physical attackers in Cinderace, Zamazenta, and Kingambit. Franco's Glowking is probably going to be pretty load-bearing as the main Kyurem answer. Ironically sunsets is kind of disincentivized from Ceaseless Edging because of how many Aces are on the field. In fact, they lead with it T1 into Franco's Ace, and both decide to not participate in that interaction, switching to Tusk and Apple respectively. This leads to a free bit of Giga Drain chip on Cinderace. To force the Apple out, sunsets U-Turns into Kyurem, but Franco just Draco Meteors and annihilates the Kyurem from full. This was a bit of a pincer for sunsets - their only good switchin there was Gholdengo who wouldn't do shit to the apple anyways. Now sunsets goes Ghold and starts Shadow Balling for decent chip on Ace, then doubles into Samurott on Franco's Gliscor. Franco decides to pop Tera Water on Gliscor and drops a very fast Toxic as sunsets starts stacking, then gets up his own rocks. This impels sunsets to go to his own Tusk, not to spin but to Headlong Rush - for a mere 38%, getting poisoned in the process - and then Roar out the Gliscor into Glowking. The pull forces Franco to go hard Hydrapple, which means sunsets can spin but not stick around for the following attack. The Earth Power midground takes Ghold for over half.
I think on turn 15 Franco knows Trick is coming, the Ghold is pretty obviously Scarfed, so he decides to feed the Scarf to the Glowking that has outlived its usefulness and loses to all 5. This now means Ghold is slower than Ace, allowing his own to come in and Change the spikes to sunsets' side as they also go Ace. sunsets reveals an Ace set that I like - Libero Gunk Shot - and it drops Franco's own Gliscor low, but just out of kill range, but still low enough to force a Protect and enable a re-Court Change. With a U-Turn into the poisoned Tusk, Franco learns to sit back and observe, not everything needs a reaction, and gets Rocks up as Tusk dies with a suicide Roar into Glowking. sunsets Changes the Court for a third time (spikes on their side, rocks on Franco's) as Franco pivots into Zamazenta, who starts clicking Iron Defense. Ghold comes in for sunsets but drops from 47% to Crunch, and the game is over with a strong 6-0 from Franco.
ACR1 vs Setsu
ninth: That's LuGholdNiteZama from ACR1: the last two are Great Tusk (notable, this core often doesn't have any removal) and Raging Bolt. Setsu has an interesting-looking HO that kind of reminds me of those Kyurem/Lando HOs that went around last SPL or the one before, but with the added twist of a Zamazenta and a Pecharunt for further physical tankiness. Right away I'm noticing that ACR1 has one (1) Ice resist and four weaknesses. This mon, Gholdengo, is also the only Moonblast resist, although Ting-Lu basically counts as a resist to Valiant. Bolt's kind of scary for Setsu to switch into, though, and her complete lack of removal will mean rocks really hurt. She leads Zama and immediately CCs the Ting-Lu for 88%, who Red Cards it out as ACR1 gets rocks up - he pulls Lando, who can U-Turn on ACR1's Ghold to pop its Balloon and go back to Zama. Knowing it did a shitload to Lu, ACR1 brings in his own Zama to stop Setsu's LO Zama, but he outspeeds with his own CC, meaning Setsu survives and can CC back on the same turn for the kill. Now ACR1 tries to switch around and minimize the damage, sacking Ting-Lu before bringing in Dragonite to watch Zama die in front of him and hopefully set up on the death turn - but Iron Head flinches, precluding a setup chance.
Setsu sends out Kyurem and starts Icicle Spearing, shaving 34% off the Ghold before switching back into Gambit to sponge its attacks. Note that her timer's getting pretty low. Simultaneously the two switch out to Kyurem and Booster Speed Tusk - ACR1 clicks Head Smash and blows the Rocks-weak Kyurem away. ACR1 gets his Dragonite in as Setsu tries to Earth Power the Tusk, and hits Tera Flying as Setsu Taunts, but immediately being shuffled out into Ghold by a surprise Red Card. As ACR1 goes back into Ghold, Setsu gets rocks up and suicide Taunts one more time to stop any sweep, then goes Pecharunt. Nasty Plot + Malignant Chain fails to kill, with Lum Berry curing the poison and confusion simultaneously, but it gets the Dragonite low enough to be finished off with Vacuum Wave. Setsu throws out a Tera Ghost Shadow Ball to kill Ghold, immediately Moonblasts the Bolt for the oneshot, does the same with Tusk, and Setsu picks up her first win of SPL.
sire clod vs pdt 
ninth: Offense vs offense. My favourite. Both of these teams look like the plan is to keep sending out demons until somebody sweeps (probably the Dragonites). Doesn't really super look like screens from pdt's Deoxys, probably just an attacker. As I say that, he leads it, but sire clod leads Ghold and pdt has to switch before we find out the set. Ghold misses the Thunder Wave on Moth, who Fiery Dances for a suspiciously low 22% to Kyurem; that's gotta be AV, right? pdt hard switches back to Deoxys, sire clod Dragon Tails it right out, yeah that's probably AV? Now pdt just brings Moth back in and sacks it to get up Toxic Spikes, which touches four mons on sire clod's team. He makes an earnest attempt to revenge kill with Deoxys' Superpower but misses the kill (it's LO, okay I'm not completely washed with this team preview shit) and dies to Ice Beam; Wellspring finally gets the job done.
sire clod brings in Darkrai to get the 2HKO with Sludge Bomb, but pdt Trailblazes, and just like that the Darkrai's also dead. Now sire clod's Valiant has to come in and take poison to revenge kill, and it chips the Scarf off pdt's Gholdengo before dying to Make It Rain. Okay, 3v3, both have the same 3 mons. clod's Tusk is Boots and can remove the Toxic Spike (presumably just in case something else Teras), but pdt aggressively brings Dragonite in on a Headlong Rush and starts DDing immediately. He turns Tera Flying and gets up 2 DDs, Ice Spinner really isn't doing enough, and sire clod's Tusk is down. clod has a wall in a Bold-ass Balloon Ghold, who Thunder Waves it and paralyzes to get the kill, but there's still pdt's own Tusk, who is Booster Speed. This is it: a showdown between Bulk Up Tusk from pdt and Tera Flying Dragonite from sire clod. pdt opens with Rapid Spin and gets dropped into 2HKO range by Tera Blast. Now faster, pdt makes a great call and Bulks Up, as instead of attacking sire clod Roosts. I'm guessing he wanted to be healthy to get a boost and super-guarantee the Ghold kill (assuming he's not EQ last), but pdt's aggressive endgame line means that his Ice Spinner outspeeds and guarantees a 2HKO, crit or no crit.
Team Raiders vs Stark Sharks
zS vs Attribute 
leng loi: This is the second game in 2 weeks that I've seen a preview for Attribute and thought, "no way he wins this". Unlike last week, however, this one didn't get absolutely thrown by his opponent, so let's get into it. First, I want to point out that Cinderace once again finds itself with an insane matchup into zero fire resists. Similarly, zS' Kyurem really slaps almost regardless of set. The likely gseed Ghold will be helpful into it, but most Kyurem sets can get past it with a little maneuvering. On the other hand, zS has numerous answers to almost every threat that Attribute can present. Getting rocks up obviously would be great, but that's a tall order. Tera Gholdengo can 100% put in work but we need to see some great positioning from Attribute to get the Gholdengo and Kyurem out of the way beforehand. The first 5 turns see the two players position well and zS ends up trading his presumably AV Kyurem for significant damage on both Gholdengo and Ting Lu. Cinderace comes in to revenge and Attribute offers Ting Lu in response. It's important to note here that Attribute may suspect Band or Flame Plate at this point depending on his Ting Lu spread. I'm assuming it's relatively PhysDef from headcalcs based on AV Kyurem not often running max SpA. Life Orb Zama forces it out and Hatterene stays in on two CCs, unafraid of a potential Heavy Slam. zS gets a paralysis on Zama in exchange for this risk. Ghold comes in on the paralyzed Zama and we learn that it is Offensive Ghold (likely Scarf) and Offensive Tornadus (likely Boots). The next few turns see Zama fall to Hatt for a handful of percent and a free entry for Kyurem. Here, zS is forced into a tough position to deal with Kyurem. It has revealed Protect so you can assume Tera Ground, and the Ghold is locked in to Make it Rain. Nonetheless, zS doesn't have any great options into the Tera, so he stays in to get damage to stick. Attribute goes for the safe tera and nets a kill on Ghold. Great Tusk comes in to revenge which is ??? on first glance but Attribute seems to assume Scarf and goes to Torn to scout. Again, headcalcing here, but I'm assuming he realized it wasn't Scarf based on damage and goes for the Bleakwind which does a pitiful 55 to a very bulky AV Tusk. I think I still would have liked to see Banded Ace come in, though zS probably didn't want to risk losing the PP on Pyro Ball. It could also be a miss consideration, as Cind looks a lot more useful in the lategame than Tusk does, but in that case I think it may be a little too risk-averse of a play. Going back to the game, Bleakwind drops Tusk's speed which is very unfortunate for zS because now a second Bleakwind KO's after the Rapid Spin resets him to zero. Attribute doesn't risk the miss or the Dnite setup opportunity, so he smartly U-turns to Ghold for the Spin immunity. From here, Tusk KOs the Torn, which could have been useful into Cind/Dnite, especially if it's Taunt>Heat Wave. From here, Kyu stalls all of Cind's Pyros with Pressure + Protect, but dies on a 2/3 chance in return. From here it's no Tera Rillaboom against the world for Attribute, and he fails to pull it off.
JJ09LIE vs Plague 
ninth: Gonna be completely honest I'm not entirely sure what to make of this JJ09LIE team. All I can say is that it kinda looks like something lax would love (green and purple bipedal shitmon, 3 AV candidates). Plague lowkey has a Prime Pult-ass team if you don't look at it too hard; functionally it's two special VoltTurn guys and then a shitload of bulky physical damage. Main thing I'm looking at here is that JJ's Zapdos is going to need some amount of brute force to take down, be it Specs Pult, Toxic or SD Gliscor, or something else unexpected. Surf also only has one (fake) resist in Dragapult. That said I do think Plague's Crown is decent here just clicking moves constantly - Treads and Zapdos are JJ's most robust switch-ins but they don't really love constantly coming into Specs Tachyon Cutters. As we see from the opening, Zap takes 34% and should probably Roost every time it switches into it, allowing Plague to get their Gliscor activated. JJ dodges the Toxic with Treads and the two spit out some hazards on the floor, then remove them - JJ is a turn ahead of Plague here and gets a free click with Kyurem as a result, but Crown eats it. Okay, it gets frozen, but it still ate. Here I think JJ kind of hesitates a bit on the freeze and switches consecutively from Treads to Primarina, which really only gave Treads 6% of Lefties and Crown some more time to thaw out. He is able to get the Primarina in position to start Surfing, though, and drops Gliscor extremely low. Plague Spikes up again, and JJ Flip Turns only to just miss the kill as he goes into Treads to remove.
Plague scares Treads out with their Tusk, and uses that threat to get rocks up against the Zapdos. Crown comes back on the missed Hurricane, and drops a 56% Psychic Noise on Zapdos as it misses Cane again. Now JJ has no choice but to switch to Zarude, which Plague catches with Pult; they're rewarded with a U-Turn into Crown to start cooking again, and the Primarina is taken down. The Crown has to leave, allowing Treads to remove rocks, but Plague sacks Gliscor to get 'em up again. Okay, rocks are up, Zap is low, it's Gambit Time for Plague. They SD up on the Zama switch in, turn Tera Fairy, and Tera Blast everybody to death. Zap paralyzes, and Zarude Tera Poisons to delay, but none of it can stop the sweep. Actually, looking back at the JJ team, Moonblast has only like fake switch-ins on that whole team. I feel like Enam fell off and people stopped respecting this demon type, am I exaggerating?
Eternal Spirit vs hellom 
ninth: We got some hellom webs HO, nice, real 2024 vibes. It even has a Ribombee like 2024! Eternal Spirit (aka Gama) has two birds (Dragonite and Gliscor) and a couple of bulkier mons that don't necessarily care about being fast - the main thing I guess I'd hate to be slow on his team is the Ghold, the Tusk (who may be outsped by hellom's Ghold), and perhaps the Gambit in a 1v1 endgame situation. hellom leads Ribombee and immediately gets them up, with Gama getting rocks up as hellom switches to Ghold. Air Balloon Gambit comes out for Gama on the Nasty Plot from hellom - he stays in, stomachs a Sucker Punch, and Thunderbolts for 74%. Ghold lives to tell the tale too, as hellom pivots back to Bee on a failed second Sucker. hellom suicide Moonblasts for a bit, but Gama can really only damage it through Toxic, and nobody is really dying here for some reason. Ghold is eventually sacked to bring the Gliscor low. Now hellom brings out Enamorus, Substitutes up on the switch to Ghold, and OHKOs it with LO Earth Power. Kingambit breaks the sub with Sucker but it dies to Draining Kiss, a fun move that you normally only see on Enamorus-Turtle.
Eternal Spirit decides it's Dragonite Time, which forces hellom to declare it's Zamazenta Time; neither of them want to keep going down that path with a full-health Pecharunt in the back for Gama. A series of switch-arounds results as we go from hard immunity to 4x weak, culminating in hellom sacking Ribombee to CC from Boots Tusk. He sends out his Enamorus again and immediately gets more value: Draining Kiss finishes off the Gliscor, then Moonblast (fuck it, double STAB) drops the Dragonite to 30% through Multiscale before dying. This gives hellom enough latitude to safely SD up with his Balloon Gambit and start attacking, turning Tera Fairy on the Tusk to survive HLR and OHKO it. The sweep is contained by Gama's Toxic Pecharunt (I guess this is the set of choice now, I don't hate it) and a self-hit. There's one more trick up hellom's sleeve, though: +SpA Moth with Psychic, which annihilates Pecharunt in one crit and then cleans out the Dragonite too for hellom's first win of the season.
Ash KetchumGamer vs Nat 
ninth: Okay. Who on the Raiders okayed all the bipedal green-and-purple shitters this week? This is the second one. Ash KetchumGamer has an Okidogi partnering an otherwise normal-looking Ting-Lu/Hatterene BO. To be fair, this Okidogi actually has a pretty decent matchup into Nat's first three mons with Fighting/Poison, it just can't do shit against the back three. Her squad is participating in what seems like a rise of Ogerpon-Regular on balance, a favourite fast utility pivot and good enough as a Wellspring Stopper. There are notably three birds on her squad in Landorus, Bronzong, and Mandibuzz, two of them also pivots. as well as a panic-button wincon in Kingambit. Nat leads by U-Turning on Hatterene, getting Red Carded into Landorus, the only mon that can absorb Ash's Nuzzle. Anticipating an attack, Ash Pain Splits, only to - ah, hang on, this Landorus is SD. And Ash has no real Ground resists. He's able to get it out of there with Red Card Ting-Lu losing half, but this is gonna be a problem moving forward. Card pulls Mandibuzz, and now Ash gets to Rocks up as Nat U-Turns to Ogerpon. The Dawg Okidogi comes out on Nat's U-Turn to Bronzong, and to its credit nearly kills it with a crit Knock Off, but against its credit gets immediately deleted by Psychic Noise from a mon with 79 SpA. Now Ash gets a free-ish Cudgel, but Nat's Mandibuzz takes a whopping 44% from a crit and Roosts it off.
Nat U-Turns back into Lando, but eats a Dazzling Gleam for 49% to preclude another setup attempt - Nat opts to just sack the Lando and get more chip on Hat, bringing it low enough for her Clefable to finish it off. Kingambit comes out for Ash, and Nat throws a Flamethrower out there for 39% and a popped Balloon as Ash Iron Heads to end it. Remember this interaction. You will note that Mandibuzz walls most of Ash's living team, so he's gonna need his Dragapult to do some lifting. Also note that Pult outspeeds Nat's whole team. Recognizing this, she Teras the Ogerpon to have some speed and U-Turns out, sacking the Bronzong to get in Gambit and force Ash's own sack of Ting-Lu. Buzz still walls Ash's own Gambit, and worse yet, it turns out that Clefable passed Kingambit a Sticky Barb when it died, expediting its death. Nat goes hard Gambit knowing it's good into whatever Ash clicks, and kills it with Iron Head. From here, Ash does crit the Mandibuzz, but Nat is comfortable sending out her own Ogerpon to finish the job. Ash Tera Waters on the off chance Nat misclicks and he can crit Cudgel, but it doesn't happen.
Circus Maximus Tigers vs Indie Scooters
Ewin vs Pais 
leng loi: I'll be so real I really dislike Pais' team here. I feel like sand really necessitates offensive pieces that contribute defensively. Rillaboom kind of does by virtue of strong priority, but I would like this team a lot better if it was anything else over Ogerpon. Overall, the game is very short. Ewin gets screens even after switching in Deo on Prim. Then, the combination of Ceruledge with CC and Tera Poison BU Tusk clean really easily because the Moltres is offensive.
entrocefalo vs DAHLI
ninth: In my W2 preds I said this game felt like it was gonna be long. I see a Corviknight, a Pecharunt, a Moltres, and a Garganacl at TP. Fuckin' knew it. First thing to flag down is that Primarina kind of beasts on entrocefalo, his main out is to Tera the Garg immediately. Second thing is that the Garg is also pretty good, entro has to worry about getting Knocked by Weavile but if he hits +6 it won't matter. Zama's good but that Pech will annoy it for sure. DAHLI leads Primarina, presuming entro can't hit it with much, but gets hit by a 35% Thunderbolt from Gholdengo immediately. No Leftovers - that Prima is permanently chunked. They trade Surfs and Recovers for a while, entro burns through 6 before going hard Samurott and Flip Turning to Garg on the Moonblast. It crits for half, and entro uses this as the time to Tera Water, though Psychic Noise blocks his Recover. Treads comes in on another Moonblast and DAHLI decides to preserve Prima.
A bit of chip is exchanged in each direction as DAHLI gets rocks up, then brings the Prima back in on Moltres' U-Turn. It's getting lower and lower. More pivots are exchanged as entro gets the rocks off with Treads (now below half), and he stays in on DAHLI's Tusk to EQ it for more chip as DAHLI gets rocks up again. One more U-Turn allows entro to get Garg back in again and Recover up on Pecharunt; Kyurem's Freeze-Dry only does below half and it gets Cured back. Alright, turn 25, let's recap: rocks up on both sides, DAHLI's Tusk/Prima/Kyurem are around half health, and so is all of entro's team save for Zama. DAHLI brings Weavile in with a U-Turn, compelling entro to use up Dauntless Shield - Zama loses Expert Belt, but the threat is enough to force DAHLI to go Pecharunt and enable a Garg heal-up. DAHLI uses a turn to spin the rocks off, but this lets Garg get a Curse and start spreading Salt Cure, taking a small chunk from Pech and a big one from Weavile. Both switch out, but entro's state is advantageous and DAHLI has to switch again, which entro catches with Ghold and uses as a chance to heal. DAHLI's pivot turn allows Ghold to get +2, and DAHLI sacks Weavile to the Make It Rain. They stall out a couple of Make It Rains with Sub Kyurem, but it gets the Kyurem low-ish and now I'm thinking that, with Weavile dead, that Garg is gonna be a threat.
Sure enough, Garg is now able to safely 1v1 the Primarina for the kill. DAHLI's able to get the Kyurem in for a Sub and kill on Ghold, having exhausted all Make It Rains, but can't kill the Moltres fast enough to avoid the Roar and subsequent Roost. Anyways, from here the Garg just wins: DAHLI pulls out Bulk Up Brave Bird Tera Fire Corv as a last resort, but I don't think that keeps pace with a Curse Garg holding on to Lefties and 5 Recovers. A crit expedites things and entro takes a good win to move to 2-0 - I skimmed over a lot of the pivot turns because this game is 69 turns long but he was getting a lot of the key switch turns right to preserve advantage.
Patatexv vs Storm Zone 
ninth: I'm gonna be so real I'm writing this at work. Storm has a very Storm Zone-looking sand team: the defensive core is two weirdos (Zapdos and Toxapex) and there's a pivoting core of Zapdos and Ogerpon, who I bet is probably banded. Patatex has a double-Psychic special core followed by four physical mons with a combined BST of 6000, and one imagines the double removal may be important for the Dragonite's item choice? I think the way this goes depends on how many Helmets are on Patatex's team, because I can see Storm just spamming Band U-Turn ad infinitum until the Drill or Valiant can sweep. Getting past the Zapdos with the special mons will be crucial to Patatex. Sure enough, Storm leads with Oger and starts U-Turning, getting Drill in on a Nuzzle. He subs up on the Lando, then drops a crit Rock Slide for half before both switch to Zapdos and Tusk. Patatex stays in on a Hurricane, narrowly lives, and Ice Spinners for chip before dying. +Speed Crown pops out for Patatex, but immediately wastes it on Tyranitar. Anyways, did you know that Hurricane keeps 70% accuracy in sand? Storm chips Patatex's Dragonite down to 30% (sand breaks Multiscale which really helps) but Patatex still gets off a Scale Shot on Tyranitar, then the Frenchman aggressively Dragon Dances on Storm going hard Valiant. It's looking scary, but Storm grinds the Dragonite down by absorbing a Fire Punch with Eject Button Toxapex, before Vacuum Waving the Dragonite with Specs Valiant to prevent the sweep.
Patatex sends out Crown and Tachyons Storm's Ogerpon low, but not low enough to die from Helmet chip, enabling Storm to Knock and kill Hatterene. Patatex takes this chance to SD in Gambit's face before Storm sacks the Pex to Kowtow, scaring it out again with Valiant. This does result in Storm sending his Tyranitar out to die to whatever Patatex sends out, but now it's Drill Time. An aggressive Rock Slide whiffs, then Storm misclicks EQ on the Lando switch in, and before you know it the sand's all gone - but right before it ends, Storm's Zapdos gets in, throws out a Heat Wave, and drops Kingambit extremely low. He gets Drill back in on Gambit but loses the mind games, but Valiant guarantees the kill with Shadow Ball. Now Patatex has only a Lando and a dream, and it just occurred to me that it's Scarf Lando. This probably occurred to Storm Zone way earlier than it did to me, and he baits out Tera Blast Fairy from the Lando, in order to bring back the Valiant and Tera Ghost. It just narrowly lives a crit Tera Blast, kills, and Storm finishes the game off with a 2% Valiant.
Kate vs heileone
ninth: Kate just has a variant of the Sepa/Vert screens sample team, heileone has the SD Gliscor Samu/Ghold sample team. Notably heileone has no removal for Glimmora, but Kate's removal loses to Samurott. Okay! I have a meeting in the morning so I'll make this quick. heileone Tricks a Scarf onto the Screens Deoxys, then paralyzes it, then paralyzes the Moltres, then full paras it as they get up the goob layers with Samurott, then Encores the Moltres into NP. Zama has to come out early to stop the bleeding, and only does about half to heileone's Clef so it can also paralyze Glimmora. Kate's whole team is slow as shit now. She's able to kill the Clef with two more Heavy Slams, but the combination of Spikes and Helmet means it's at 19% after all's said and done. This now opens a great path for heileone's Normal Dragonite to ESpeed it for the revenge kill, but its Dragon Tail is slower than Kate's Kyurem's own - no sweep for now, and Kate also pulls Zama too.
heileone immediately Crunches the Deo for chip, then goes hard Samu on the Psycho Boost and starts Ceaseless Edging, putting 3 layers on Kate's side but 2 Toxic ones on their own. Kate's Moltres does a bit but not enough to Dragonite, and she switches hard to Kyurem to deal with it, but Dragon Tail crits and just kills Kyurem straight up from 59%. From here, heileone's Boots Samurott just wins: Moltres eventually dies despite a missed Razor Shell, because hitting Hurricane through para is impossible, and Ceruledge quickly follows.
And that's Week 2 in the books. There were a lot of samples brought still, but I'm happy with the slightly increased diversity. I only count eight Ting-Lus! I'll edit in more stuff here probably later, but for now, we'll see y'all next week.
Congregation of the Classiest - Xrn, Lazuli, LpZ, Shengineer, LB
Circus Maximus Tigers - Ewin, Kate, entrocefalo, Patatexv, LOOR, Cow
Wi-Fi Wolfpack - bbeeaa, Fogbound Lake, Let's Rumble Shall We, Originality56
Dragonspiral Tyrants - Fusien, myjava, Baddy, Axzel, Django, Luispeikou, Poek, Lady Bug, SoulWind, Vert
Indie Scooters - Storm Zone, DAHLI, heileone, Pais, tko, waffle04
Stark Sharks - ATTRIBUTE, Nat, hellom, Plague, Achimoo
Team Raiders - zS, JJ09LIE, Eternal Spirit, Ash KetchumGamer, tier
Alpha Ruiners - lax, fakenagol, ACR1, sunsets, sire clod, sugarhigh, devin, Metallica126, Fakes
Ever Grande BIGS - JustFranco, Stareal, pdt, Setsu, Larry, Hiko, Mako
Cryonicles - clean, kDCA, bhkg, watashi, Dugtrio Is Broken, Luigi, MGdos16, Zokuru
hellom vs sire clod 
Nat vs lax 
pdt vs Shengineer 
Storm Zone vs Let's Rumble Shall We 
