Week 4
So Kingler decides to bring a frog spikestack team this week and Horii brings what you would expect as just a standard team but looks can be deceiving, as we'll later on. Krokorok got burned by Dusclops but manages to remove its Eviolite as well as Quaxwell's. Horii does managed to catch up Kingler a few times, especially on Turn 13 where he attempts to Roost but Horii just taunted which Kingler should've expected and even he acknowledges this in chat. By turn 16, the defensive pieces on Kingler's team are just incredibly chipped, though Dusclops could potentially Rest on a Monferno SD or Pignite lives a hit and revenge kills back, which Kingler intends to do after sacking Tinkatuff. Drakloak and Ivysaur proceed to 1v1 each other for a little bit before Horii's Ivysaur comes in to click Sunny Day of all things and proceeds to sweep. Not something I was expecting whatsoever but as a late-game wincon, this seems to have done its job incredibly.
idk if I'm the only one that finds it crazy that Nakoruru and Horii almost have the same 6? Building is in an interesting spot right now, not that I'm a particular fan at this current moment in time. In any case, neomon is back after doom subbed in last week and unfortunately lost to Ivar57. Nakoruru had some early momentum with Monferno knocking Koffing's Eviolite and managing to chip it down with Ivysaur's Leech Seed but the momentum shifts once neomon is able to get Raboot in freely on Ivysaur. But the turns starting from turn 11 to turn `5 are probably one of the funniest interactions I've seen in this metagame. Tinkatuffs at war stealing the Eviolite from one another like hot potato. Though once neomon got the Eviolite, he swapped into Koffing and Pain Splitted some HP back. After Nakoruru's Tinkatuff eventually dies, his Monferno is revealed to be Choice Band as it did 41% to Quaxwell which is insane and that's going to put in a lot of work this game seeing how Koffing is Evioliteless and Thwackey is pressured by Monferno. Not if Duosion has anything to say about it, it takes CC quite comfortably. neomon makes a great double into Thwackey, realising Krokorok was coming in on Turn 26 and it seems like every Thwackey is just LO these days. Certainly better than Banded rn due to the ability to swap moves and you can go SD. Once again, neomon is keeping momentum by doubling in Thwackey on Krokorok (Turn 33) which allows neomon to deal with Ivysaur with U-turn. Though Krokorok reveals Moxie which I should've noticed since there's no Intimidate and neomon decides to sack Quaxwell to Monferno. The Duosion that was able to take Monferno CC seemed like dead weight until Calm Mind came out with Acid Armor but being mono Psyshock means Krok always wins. Now it's Monferno's turn to be sacked and Thwackey should be in a prime position to win but again, that's not the case. Since neomon keeps letting Duosion in, Krok gets a free switch every time, especially when you are not winning the 1v1. After quite a few turns of PP stalling, which was futile in the long run, Nakoruru makes a pretty good play on Turn 73 by going Drakloak because he knows Duosion is never clicking Psyshock though at that point, hindsight is 20 20 but you might as well had clicked the damaging move because there's no difference between Psyshock and clicking CM/Acid Armor and it covers the play that I think won Nakoruru the game, though Quaxwell was at 88% and Wood Hammer would've killed Thwackey itself.
THE GOAT 5DOTS back with some funny stuff aka Murkrow, the mon is lowkey shiest and I've always wanted to use it. I genuinely cannot recall the last time I saw Gabite, Strap used in Week 2 but none were used in Week 3. Seems like Fraxure is the Dragon of choice these days and Krokorok has replaced Gabite as the Ground Rocker due to Intimidate + Taunt + Knock Off. 5Dots lets Wart rip very very early into the game into just thudding into Ivysaur. But Nashrock subbing on a mon known to have Encore is a choice of all time. I would've just EQ'd for chip, even with Gterrain up it's a 2HKO.
proceeds to glaze 5Dots section BUT 5DOTS THE GOAT DID THE SAME THING SUBBING ON A MON WITH ENCORE BUT TWAVE WAS CLICKED INSTEAD HOW DOES HE DO IT??? Gabite unfortunately gets sacked for the cause but I think Wart was probably better no? Ice Beam breaks the sub while Frax is locked into Stomping and idt Stomping would do that much? It's 75BP non-STAB on a mon with base 80def + Eviolite. So Ivysaur is the next to fall to Fraxure via Outrage and since Tink is at 6%, it can't even block the Outrage so yeah, good luck. Quaxwell takes it quite well enough to Roost on Outrage confusion and Nashrock takes the opportunity to Spin while 5Dots takes the opportunity to bring in the mon that beats Quaxwell. Big crit on turn 16 on Pignite but Scarf Pignite ftw. idk if 5Dots calced the damage or not but even if you realise it's not Eviolite, no one is expecting Scarf. Tinkatuff finally dies and Fraxure is yet again free to click Outrage. But 5Dots took the risk of no Axel (seems like no one is Axel anymore), DD again and deals with Quaxwell. Did Fraxure actually kill every mon on Nashrock's team?
I'll be so honest guys, I'm not going in-depth with bo3 sets. I already have to look into 8 games and this week is 12, it's just not happening sorry to disappoint. I'll mention some things about each game but that's all I'm doing. Game 1 went quicker than anticipated. Shing really does love using Sliggoo-H, especially against a Tinka-less team, Draco Meteor is gonna get spammed to high heavens but there's also no switch to Flash Cannon so that's just as spammable. Game 2 PD brings what I'm assuming to be Morgrem screens with setup mons while Shing brings Webs, you forget sometimes that this tier can run team structures like this from time to time. Another fast asf game where Scraggy just beats up Shing's team since Scraggy does just beat mons like Dusclops, Sliggoo-H, and Dunsparce. Finally game 3, PD decides to bring the same team again but it seems like I was wrong about Screens Morgrem, it's actually screens Drakloak. Scraggy is in prime position to sweep yet again as it takes out Eelektrik behind both screens but Koffing the MVP manages to 1v1 it since Knock can only do so much and HJK is resisted. Now Turn 16 of g3 is why I stopped running Nasty Plot Monferno because when you need to click Focus Miss, it Focus misses. 3 Focus Blast misses, I would've just ff'd personally but there's only so much you can do about RNG.
Stantler is definitely one of the most underrated pokemon in the metagame and when it does end up coming, it seems to be picking up wins. Now, I'll admit I certainly could've helped a bit more and I must apologise to my team but I'm not currently deriving any enjoyment from building in this metagame. My motivation was high for the first 3 weeks but it just kept going down. Back to the game at hand, fast Quilladin to kill the Banded Piloswine is some scary shit and no doubt Piloswine would've just cooked because that's what it always does but the trade was worth it for Terracotta. This is the issue that I'm finding right now as I'm watching this game, Raboot is easily checked if mons like Mareanie, Drakloak and potentially Linda come to the table and outside of that, Zpice's team is very passive outside of the Banded Pilo. Like the moment it died, my first thought was "Well we ain't breaking shit anymore." It's the sort of skew in matchup that is probably the reason why fast Quilladin even exists on this team because Banded Pilo will just 6-0. In the end, Sub CM Stantler (which is a gas set btw) just ends up winning.
6-0ing Strap in 15 turns I wonder how this happened? There's only so much I can cover for 15 turns but let's give it a try. So Stunky knocks Dunsparce's Eviolite and gets the paralysis. Dunsparce Thiefs the switchin, which best case scenario, came out the Ghost type and tbf, stealing a Specs is not the best item you could ask for but so be it. Once Stunky died, and Glimmet took a hit from Raboot, the dreaded Tspike struck and when the world needed removal the most (Quaxwell), he vanished aka Drakloak is a free switch every time.
sleid is really on his comeback and getting a win from Dragonillis is a big one, finally breaking even with the record. And he did it with Lampent of all mons (it was here for just vibes). Dragon is off to a good start, dealing with Glimmet by turn 5 and making sure Scraggy doesn't start sweeping yet but it always happens eventually... We see the screens from Morgrem and nice Taunt before it dies. Fraxure gets in with SD but Mud Shot halving its speed over two turns certainly stops the snowball for only a little while. Drakloak revenge kills and guess who's behind screens again? Scraggy. It manages to survive Linda's Brave Bird and it manages to 1v1 Wart and Tinkatuff thanks to Taunt and ye, Scraggy wins another game. Mon is crazy rn
No idea what to make of this Bo3, unmon testing centre or something. Why do I see a Mudbray and Floette on my screen? Mienfoo might have some potential.. Is this "cook of the week" worthy? Curse Mudbray certainly has to be "cook of the week", it was going toe to toe with Dunsparce of all mons. Servine somehow dealt with 5 mons but when you're at +6 spatk, anything is possible and Monferno low rolled Flare Blitz. G2 seems like Floette loaded into the wrong MU seeing how it did nothing in the long run thanks to AGrimer. Can't really see the vision with Floette, it can beat poisons with CM thanks to Psychic but the poison types that are psychic immune? Good luck. Game 3 the deciding game, you would think maybca doesn't want to win because there's a Hippopotas but if Mudbray can work, Hippo can work amirite? maybca is just lacking momentum all game seeing how Krok was putting in overtime by just spamming Knock Off. I don't want to say the team was bad, but the team wasn't good. No removal is probably the biggest thing here and like the team is just hella passive.
Hope I will continue to feel like writing these up as the tour goes on.
Horii vs Mirbro 
Nakoruru_XD vs vooper 
Dragonillis vs Terracotta 
Kingler vs TTK 
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