Tournament OMPL X - Week 2

[Isaiah]

Art by Kiwi
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Playoffs | Finals
Information Thread | Roster | Schedule | Standings​

Useful Information

There are 8 teams this year. Each team will have have 8 players and at least 4 subs. The players are bought using the 120k credits that managers receive during the auction. Managers and co-managers will be allowed to purchase themselves as players for their team at a fixed price of 20k. The managers must inform the hosts (Isaiah, UT) of all self purchases before the beginning of the auction. Teams can win their matchup every week by winning 5 of the 8 matches that their players have to play.​

​

The tier lineup this year is as follows:​

1. SS Almost Any Ability
2. SS Balanced Hackmons
3. SS Godly Gift
4. SS Mix and Mega
5. SS NFE
6. SS STABmons
7. SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5)
8. SS Anything Goes

All games will be played on the Pokemon Showdown main server or SmogTours in the most current version of the format corresponding to those listed above. The result between players may be decided in a best-of-one or best-of-three at the discretion of both players involved. If there is no agreement, the result will decided in a Bo1 by default.​

​

Winning a round rewards a team with 2 points, drawing 1 point, and losing zero points. In addition, the manner in which the round has been won will also be recorded i.e. the difference between a team's wins and losses in a specific week's round (referred to as "Win Differential").​

​

Playoffs:​

Each team will play one another for seven weeks. Based on the final standings, the top 4 teams will enter a Playoffs Round to determine the teams appearing in the finals.​

Tiebreaker

In the event of two teams being tied for a spot in the finals based on points and win differential, or a tie in the final round itself, we will have a tiebreaker round(s).​

Tiebreaker Rules: One metagame will be picked by each manager, and each manager will also pick one metagame to strike. Additionally, each manager will submit a backup meta to strike in case their choice is the same as the opposing team's pick. The third format will be determined at random by the hosts from the remaining unpicked, unstruck metagames. In the event that the picks and strikes from each manager are the same, the hosts will determine both the second and third format at random based on the remaining options. All three metagames must be unique, so no format can be picked twice.​

Substitutes

Substitutes are to be used in the case of extenuating circumstances, whether on the first day of the week, or the last. At the same time, players should be relatively well-aware of who all are available to play in the opponent's camp. If last minute substitutes are being frequently used or abused and the hosts find explanations unsatisfactory, the hosts still reserve the right to veto them. In order to further prevent this being the case teams are only granted a maximum of two substitutes per week. Any substitutions after the second will be vetoed.​

Trades

The hosts have decided to not include trades this year due to reasons outlined in this thread - all roster decisions will be final, so draft carefully!​

Scheduling

Scheduling should be done on Smogon Profile walls, plain and simple:​

• If there is no communication on Smogon Profile walls and a game goes undone, it will be left to the RNG to decide the winner
• If there is communication on only one user's behalf, the win will go to them. Feel free to call activity in this thread beforehand
• If there is a very healthy back and forth regarding potential times and one user is a no-show, a manager may take the opportunity to sub out the no-show competitor; if this is not done, the user that showed up responsibly will be awarded the win.

TL;DR: Post on your opponent's Smogon wall, schedule your matches, and be reliable. If you can't play for any reason, let your manager know so they can sub you out ASAP.​

​

Use these posts as a place to initiate discussion about bo1 or bo3 as well (or bo5 vs bo7 for 2v2)!​

Sportsmanship

Exhibitions of unsportsmanlike conduct with regards to the Other Metagame Premier League will be met with an infraction at the discretion of the OMPL host/OM mods. This is unlikely to include interactions within a team's private chat unless there is reason found to make an exception. This rule is meant to protect other users from being publicly flamed/bashed/provoked by another competitor for the duration of and following the tournament.​

​

All players must complete their matches by the given deadline. Any incomplete matches by that time will be subject to an activity decision (MAKE SURE YOU POST ON YOUR OPPONENT'S WALL); otherwise, it will be a deadgame. All matches should ideally be done on your most notable alt (the one you registered for OMPL with) to avoid confusion and all match replays must be saved and posted in this thread. The replays will be archived in a separate thread, and will be used to calculate usage stats.​

Substitutions & Lineups

Managers, if you wish to make any substitutions, you must post here tagging both the player you're subbing out, the player you're subbing in, the manager and assistant manager of the opposing team, the substitute's opponent, and all of the hosts (Isaiah, UT). This is to assure that everyone is in-the-loop and that the OP is updated accordingly to reflect the new match-up.​

​

Managers, when you send in lineups, please send it in with the tier and Smogon username of each player fully written out for ease of transcription, following these guidelines exactly.​

Matchups

The Malding Mavericks (Morgan and IBM) - [5][3] - The Uh Oh Kommo-os (XxSevagxX and willdbeast)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Chris32156 vs Itchy
SS Almost Any Ability: luisin vs avyrie
SS Anything Goes: Amberr vs Nevelle
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs a loser
SS Godly Gift: crying vs Lily
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs Zesty43
SS NFE: ojr vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
SS STABmons: Byleth vs LBDC

The Honey Linoones (aesf and Catalystic) - [4][4] - The Wiggly Family (Dragonillis and Osake)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs STABLE
SS Almost Any Ability: pdt vs MZ
SS Anything Goes: Trade vs velvet
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs MAMP
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs Eli
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs damflame 3
SS NFE: Simbo vs tlenit
SS STABmons: Sylveon. vs Fc

The Spinda Wheels (xavgb and in the hills) - [5][3] - The Hammered Hawluchas (astralydia and Dr. Phd. BJ)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): London13 vs Vrji
SS Almost Any Ability: shiloh vs Beka
SS Anything Goes: Skarph vs baconeatinassassin
SS Balanced Hackmons: xavgb vs astralydia
SS Godly Gift: TPP vs Dr. Phd. BJ
SS Mix and Mega: Greybaum vs iapt
SS NFE: TJ vs jonfilch
SS STABmons: FlamingVictini vs PA

The Larping Lopunnys (adem and DerpyBoi) - [2][6] - The Temper Tyrantrums (OM and drampa's grandpa)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Mubs vs papiloco
SS Almost Any Ability: The Number Man vs PandaDoux
SS Anything Goes: Junaa vs WSun1
SS Balanced Hackmons: cityscapes vs Nihilslave
SS Godly Gift: lepton vs Mossy Sandwich
SS Mix and Mega: Axzel vs Quantum Tesseract
SS NFE: King Leo V vs Stareal
SS STABmons: pannuracotta vs Finchinator


Deadline:
10:00 PM (GMT -4) on April 17th, 2022
​

For the Bot

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Chris32156 vs Itchy
SS Almost Any Ability: luisin vs avyrie
SS Anything Goes: Amberr vs Nevelle
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs a loser
SS Godly Gift: crying vs Lily
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs Zesty43
SS NFE: ojr vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
SS STABmons: Byleth vs LBDC

​

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs STABLE
SS Almost Any Ability: pdt vs MZ
SS Anything Goes: Trade vs velvet
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs MAMP
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs Eli
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs damflame 3
SS NFE: Simbo vs tlenit
SS STABmons: Sylveon. vs Fc

​

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): London13 vs Vrji
SS Almost Any Ability: shiloh vs Beka
SS Anything Goes: Skarph vs baconeatinassassin
SS Balanced Hackmons: xavgb vs astralydia
SS Godly Gift: TPP vs Dr. Phd. BJ
SS Mix and Mega: Greybaum vs iapt
SS NFE: TJ vs jonfilch
SS STABmons: FlamingVictini vs PA

​

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Mubs vs papiloco
SS Almost Any Ability: The Number Man vs PandaDoux
SS Anything Goes: Junaa vs WSun1
SS Balanced Hackmons: cityscapes vs Nihilslave
SS Godly Gift: lepton vs Mossy Sandwich
SS Mix and Mega: Axzel vs Quantum Tesseract
SS NFE: King Leo V vs Stareal
SS STABmons: pannuracotta vs Finchinator

​

 

[Isaiah]

Pings

Bruh

The Malding Mavericks (Morgan and IBM) - [0][0] - The Uh Oh Kommo-os (XxSevagxX and willdbeast)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Chris32156 vs Itchy
SS Almost Any Ability: luisin vs avyrie
SS Anything Goes: Amberr vs Nevelle
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs a loser
SS Godly Gift: crying vs Lily
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs Zesty43
SS NFE: ojr vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
SS STABmons: Byleth vs LBDC

The Honey Linoones (aesf and Catalystic) - [0][0] - The Wiggly Family (Dragonillis and Osake)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs STABLE
SS Almost Any Ability: pdt vs MZ
SS Anything Goes: Trade vs velvet
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs MAMP
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs Eli
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs damflame 3
SS NFE: mncmt vs tlenit
SS STABmons: Sylveon. vs Fc

The Spinda Wheels (xavgb and in the hills) - [0][0] - The Hammered Hawluchas (astralydia and Dr. Phd. BJ)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): London13 vs Vrji
SS Almost Any Ability: shiloh vs Beka
SS Anything Goes: Skarph vs baconeatinassassin
SS Balanced Hackmons: xavgb vs astralydia
SS Godly Gift: TPP vs Dr. Phd. BJ
SS Mix and Mega: ez vs iapt
SS NFE: TJ vs jonfilch
SS STABmons: FlamingVictini vs PA

The Larping Lopunnys (adem and DerpyBoi) - [0][0] - The Temper Tyrantrums (OM and drampa's grandpa)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Mubs vs papiloco
SS Almost Any Ability: The Number Man vs PandaDoux
SS Anything Goes: Junaa vs WSun1
SS Balanced Hackmons: cityscapes vs Nihilslave
SS Godly Gift: lepton vs Mossy Sandwich
SS Mix and Mega: Axzel vs Quantum Tesseract
SS NFE: King Leo V vs Stareal
SS STABmons: pannuracotta vs Finchinator
​

 

[xavgb]

Yo.

Finch IN ator.

Let's gooo

 

[Garrett]

SS STABmons: pannuracotta vs Finchinator

Truly the world matchup ever conceived, but New Jersey residency holds a curse

 

[UT]

Pings

Bruh

I hate this​

Crying rn

 

[spell]

SS NFE: TJ vs jonfilch

I sincerely hope both of you lose.

 

[Quantum Tesseract]

Got a 59% on predicts again last week. Consistancy is good, sure, but improvement is better

The Malding Mavericks - [3][5] - The Uh Oh Kommo-os
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Chris32156 vs Itchy Polywraths represent
SS Almost Any Ability: luisin vs avyrie Luisin is coming into this slot off a win, which counts for a lot even if Shiloh's team was rather sketchy. I also wasn't too impressed with avyrie's building last week
SS Anything Goes: Amberr vs Nevelle Nevelle defeated lotiasite last week so by transitive property they must be incredible
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs a loser The power of 6 BH players was enough to beat city last week, I expect it will do the same again.
SS Godly Gift: crying vs Lily Crying had a great performance last week, but it's hard to bet against Lily, especially after seeing them improve in real time during their match as they got a better handle. Has the potential to be a very interesting match.
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs Zesty43 This pains me to bold, a lot, but I gotta. Zesty bailed on the game last week, and thats on top of the fact that we knew they were rusty and their teammate didn't bring the best team. I think we can all agree that the real loser here is beauts though.
SS NFE: ojr vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d Ho3n isn't the most consistant player, but their skills are undeniable when they try.
SS STABmons: Byleth vs LBDC Feels kinda crazy to bet against lbdc but byleth is byleth

The Honey Linoones - [4][4] - The Wiggly Family
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs STABLE Surprised stable is in over blanched, but ether way this is a very strong slot
SS Almost Any Ability: pdt vs MZ One of the best AAA matches this week - and best matches this week period - but I am assured that aesf will be directly supporting aaa this week which I think gives PDT a slight edge here
SS Anything Goes: Trade vs velvet Trade will forget rocks again but somehow bring the game down to the wire anyway.
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs MAMP Mamp will bring an incredibly sus team again and then somehow eke out a win anyway
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs Eli Eli did fine in their series against DPB last week but jrdn is the better player between the two.
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs damflame 3 If this were w1, I might be a little slow to bold this one, but Andy looks to be back in fine form
SS NFE: mncmt vs tlenit Tlenit is tlenit, they lost somehow last week but I assume this was a fluke until proven otherwise.
SS STABmons: Sylveon. vs Fc Another matchup that might have looked a lot different w1, going into week 2 this seems far more even than I would have expected. Sylveon still edges out FC but it would be far less of an upset for them to lose.

The Spinda Wheels - [5.5][2.5] - The Hammered Hawluchas
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): London13 vs Vrji 2 2v2 goats, I pick london to win because of my shameful betting against them last time but were it not for that my task would be far harder.
SS Almost Any Ability: shiloh vs Beka Sketchy AAA teams vs sketchy aaa player. If shiloh uses a stresh team instead of grabbing something from dlc1 again this should be a lockout, if not we could see a major upset
SS Anything Goes: Skarph vs baconeatinassassin The highlight AG match of the tour, potentially. Not sure how to call this one, I can't justify edging one over the other just yet.
SS Balanced Hackmons: xavgb vs astralydia Stresh is potentially the best BH player in the pool; lydia is good, but they are not. I do question the logic of putting lydia here in a matchup theyre still somewhat unfavored in rather than take a w elsewhere but
SS Godly Gift: TPP vs Dr. Phd. BJ Hopefully I predict this guy to win before he finishes his series this time
SS Mix and Mega: ez vs iapt ez lost to tect so all iapt has to do is outperform that and itll be fine.
SS NFE: TJ vs jonfilch Less of an obvious W for TJ than last week but still
SS STABmons: FlamingVictini vs PA FV is the goat, and I really didn't like how PA played last week.

 

[drampa's grandpa]

Highlight Matches!

Skarph vs baconeatinassassin
This is the match that we're having OMPL for. The two big bad AG players are facing off! Both of their reputations precede them, and both went for absurd amounts of money in the draft without anyone calling it an overpay. I very much recommend trying to catch this game, as it is possibly the highlight match of the regular OMPL season.

xavgb vs astralydia
Two of the best all round OM players facing off. Stresh has proven to be a formidable BH player in the past, and proved last week that he hasn't lost any of his skill or his connectivity problems when he beat one of the pool favorites quojova after disconnecting a number of times. Lydia is also an incredible player, although Balanced Hackmons is not what she is known for. Both teams have Balanced Hackmons support, so I expect to see excellent teams and excellent playing.

quojova vs a loser
Another high profile BH match. This time it's a loser and their millions of supporting friends versus quojova, one of the top draftable BH players in this tour. I rate both slots very highly, although I cannot deny that the Kommo-o's have a rather.... overbearing slot for any other BH team to face.

 

[Chloe]

i do not know half of these players u have been warned

The Malding Mavericks (Morgan and IBM) - [2][6] - The Uh Oh Kommo-os (XxSevagxX and willdbeast)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Chris32156 vs Itchy - never heard of chris numbers in my life
SS Almost Any Ability: luisin vs avyrie -

SS Anything Goes: Amberr vs Nevelle - this is om premier league not om farm league, stop letting nev do both in the same tour OML
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs a loser - my ompl 8 player :pleading_face:
SS Godly Gift: crying vs Lily - lily is so good at mons
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs Zesty43 - unless tect gets lucky (likely occurrence) he cannot win
SS NFE: ojr vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d - doesnt ho3n tryhard this tier
SS STABmons: Byleth vs LBDC - byleth is my bestie

The Honey Linoones (aesf and Catalystic) - [6][2] - The Wiggly Family (Dragonillis and Osake)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs STABLE - is half of the 2v2 pool just name + numbers?? idk ive heard of stable at least, not through good ways, but i have heard of him!
SS Almost Any Ability: pdt vs MZ - i think both could win both are very good but pdt is like super good and i think barely better than mz in aaa
SS Anything Goes: Trade vs velvet - one has been a rly good player for a while now. the other is velvet.
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs MAMP - le mamp va gagner facilement >:3
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs Eli - you could put jrdn in gen 3 lc ru and i'd still pick him
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs damflame 3 - if u told me to associate m&m players with m&ms, andy would be the green one before they made her unhot.
SS NFE: mncmt vs tlenit - better player, but could go either way
SS STABmons: Sylveon. vs Fc - wow this team is stacked

The Spinda Wheels (xavgb and in the hills) - [8][0] - The Hammered Hawluchas (astralydia and Dr. Phd. BJ)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): London13 vs Vrji - idk why this format is in this tour especially with the previous failures of 1v1 but ok
SS Almost Any Ability: shiloh vs Beka - should be easy enough for rozes
SS Anything Goes: Skarph vs baconeatinassassin - highlight match, could easily go either way, but leaning skarph so skooma love reacts my post
SS Balanced Hackmons: xavgb vs astralydia - ost finalist + pu council, i cannot predict against this man
SS Godly Gift: TPP vs Dr. Phd. BJ - much better player, idc if this is an untier tpp should still win
SS Mix and Mega: ez vs iapt -

there's no way someone wins with this lack of confidence :c
SS NFE: TJ vs jonfilch - spindas team looks broken
SS STABmons: FlamingVictini vs PA - idt pa is any good

The Larping Lopunnys (adem and DerpyBoi) - [3][5] - The Temper Tyrantrums (OM and drampa's grandpa)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Mubs vs papiloco -

SS Almost Any Ability: The Number Man vs PandaDoux - i swear tnm started playing after i left oms but i have only heard good things and his opp is french
SS Anything Goes: Junaa vs WSun1 - junaa thinks im a chronic alcoholic and to prvoe them wrongfds i am boldding their opoentnt
SS Balanced Hackmons: cityscapes vs Nihilslave - are u guys just making up ppl now
SS Godly Gift: lepton vs Mossy Sandwich - lepton is cool
SS Mix and Mega: Axzel vs Quantum Tesseract - i've never in my life rated quantum as a player but they're surely better here
SS NFE: King Leo V vs Stareal - better overall
SS STABmons: pannuracotta vs Finchinator - while going in with quantum teams doesnt fill me with much confidence, finch is good and should still win (edit: nvm fissure teams, should be good)

 

[Lily]

uh oh
gg go team!!

 

[fade]

SS STABmons: pannuracotta vs Finchinator

LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[80 yrs]

Highlight match!
Amberr vs Nevelle -OML farmed

 

[King Leo V]

Got 62.5% accurate prediction last week. Let's try to do better.
The Malding Mavericks (Morgan and IBM) - [3][5] - The Uh Oh Kommo-os (XxSevagxX and willdbeast)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Chris32156 vs Itchy - Idk cause I know that name.
SS Almost Any Ability: luisin vs avyrie - I don't know how this happened, but if you beat rozes, I gotta predict you.
SS Anything Goes: Amberr vs Nevelle - Idk, cause he beat loti at matchup.
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs a loser - Idk should be good match which I cannot understand but loser cause my previous manager.
SS Godly Gift: crying vs Lily - Done.
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs Zesty43 - tryhard points..
SS NFE: ojr vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d -I want both to win but Ho3n in better overall.
SS STABmons: Byleth vs LBDC - People speak pretty highly of their stab skills although I've always though LBDC is goated too.

The Honey Linoones (aesf and Catalystic) - [5][3] - The Wiggly Family (Dragonillis and Osake)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs STABLE - Idk I know they play DPP 1v1? or was it BW.
SS Almost Any Ability: pdt vs MZ - PDT is love.
SS Anything Goes: Trade vs velvet - Tours and Plaza derby. Velvet can catch people off guard with unique teams, trade slightly favoured still.
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs MAMP -Champ.
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs Eli - Told you I'd predict him even after 10 years of slumber.
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs damflame 3 - Andy goat.
SS NFE: mncmt vs tlenit Expecting a Leni bounce back.
SS STABmons: Sylveon. vs Fc - Hard call cause Fc is goated but, geerat still above.

I mean the linoones team has 5 people I literally cannot predict against, idk how they lost last week.

The Spinda Wheels (xavgb and in the hills) - [5][3] - The Hammered Hawluchas (astralydia and Dr. Phd. BJ)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): London13 vs Vrji -Idk still think this name looks like the name of a Winner.
SS Almost Any Ability: shiloh vs Beka - Rozes did not win last week, but still think they're better.
SS Anything Goes: Skarph vs baconeatinassassin - oof, Best ag match of the tour? Hard call.
SS Balanced Hackmons: xavgb vs astralydia - Fuck stresh, he always wins.
SS Godly Gift: TPP vs Dr. Phd. BJ - OM Slam
SS Mix and Mega: ez vs iapt - Better player I guess.
SS NFE: TJ vs jonfilch - I really liked how they played their game last week, cannot say the same for TJ.
SS STABmons: FlamingVictini vs PA - Xavgb prep win.

 

[Byleth]

stab predicts because im too lazy for the other tiers

SS STABmons: Byleth vs LBDC
Two cool stabmon mains go brr (lbdc pls john me till sunday)

SS STABmons: Sylveon vs FC
This guys been pretty consistent in the format lately and brings weird but good stuff, plays very good, please do not underrate this dood. Geerat is very good and a lot of the om communtiy has recognized that so I do expect this to be somewhat close.

SS STABmons: FlamingVictini vs PA
Assuming FV is not slightly lucked again has stresh and ith support on their side and is good player so expecting this to be a dub for the spin team

SS STABmons: pannuracotta vs Finchinator
As much as I want pannuracotta to win I don't think their experience in STAB is enough yet to outpacethe playing field vs Finchinator but should still be a close game.

 

[Osake]

AAA review of the last week by AAA Seasonal Winner & best AAA player Osake :
(i am the best after all those who are better than me)

First of all, I would like to say something about several that happened about AAA in the past weeks, and yesterday too, because I find this behavior extremely unpleasant and immature. This is really disgusting from some people here to metabash AAA everytime they can because it doesn't suit at what they want. You're not alone in your world, and I'd like to say that there are at least three visions of AAA right now : people that find breakers broken, people that find fat/walls broken, and people that find the tier fine. Which means there isn't an obvious problem on the one everyone should agree, so no, you're not right with your opinion that saying the council should do this or this. And we are not either, maybe there is a problem if so many people dislike AAA, but as I said, there isn't an obvious problem and a magic solution that would solve it, so we are thinking, doing surveys, and from what I've seen we are one the OMs that discuss the most with its community, we put a lot of effort in this. And it's really, really frustrating, to see people that spit on it every chance they get. I'm not saying you should not express your opinion, obviously you have the right to dislike it and the right to express it. For example, PandaDoux dislikes the current AAA metagame (unless something has changed, but I don't think so). I disagree with some of his takes, but is that a problem ? No. Has it express his takes ? Yes. Several times ? Yes. Is he doing it every time he can (at least in public, eh if you want to say a tier or someone is bad in private with your friends that's up to you, nobody knows anyway lul) and trashing it all the time and everytime there is a game ? No. Does PandaDoux annoy me with his opinion on AAA ? I regret that he dislikes it cuz I would like that everyone enjoys the tier, but the way he expresses it is totally fine.
Now, is this fine ?

This is pure metabashing without any other goal than hurting people that like this meta. And this is one example among many others, even if most of the time there is also an explanation of why peolple dislike AAA, this is mostly not respectful for people that take time and pleasure in this tier.
Do I metabash Godly Gift, despite I prefer Camomons and like 3 games were annihilation in 20 turns by a random sweeper and the opponent couldn't do anything ? No.
So please, don't metabash AAA for no reason, and if you disagree, just do it respectfully, is that too hard to ask ?
Thanks.

I'd say the same for people trashing other people when they play a game badly or their team isn't optimal. You can say it obviously but you can be nice with people you know, everyone is doing their best and it's not nice to hear people saying you suck (I mean, unless it's your friend or if it's obviously a joke, I'm talking of things that can hurt people) and it's a recurring problem, both here and during the last World Cup.
Anyway I don't want to be mean any longer, let's move to the point of this post, a quick AAA review of last week games !

Edit : following a demand of goatjr, I'll put the replays so you can also watch games!

Game 1 : MZ vs astralydia

Game

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8almostanyability-1549585878
MZ brought a pivot spam + 2 breakers, both with Magic Guard, a rising Volcanion that have been several times lately and a Galarian Zapdos that has kinda disappeared due to Zapdos and Koko prevalence, but had a good MU vs the fat builds Lydia has made lately. The team featured a weird Delta Stream Landorus-T that acts as a Terrakion check and a Garchomp soft check, as well as helping against Primal Weathers in general, and an interesting double Scarf to keep the Speed control.
Lydia brought an offensive core of fast strong physical breakers with Tinted Cinderace and Pixilate Koko that work well together, a solid defensive core with Pex/Jirachi/Mandibuzz, that used the rare Dauntless Shield tho, and her classic Regen Chomp (SpD I assume) that was kinda expected.
The match-up was probably even if it has been between two players that have played the tier recently, but MZ's break deserved him here, as he was kinda guessing every set without knowing them when, except DS Mandi and Dland/Tinted/MGLO Cinde, sets were not so hard to guess. The main mistake was thinking the Cinderace was scarf and not chipping it with Genesect U-turn and Mew Volt Switch, that would have helpe the MU a lot, and probably not using Mew enough because Spikes would probably have won the endgame. Lydia on the contrary had certainly a good MU with her Cinderace, but it was kinda difficult for her to keep hazards off the field with Mandibuzz so it severly limited ht times he came on the field. Toxapex was kinda annoying, but both breakers could break it, and the lost of the Life Orb on Volcanion was compensated by Brave Bird's crit ; however, I wouldn't call this "hard luck" cuz Volcanion had several times to get a crit/spdef drop before, and Toxapex was probably mixed so it takes more than 50% on Brave Bird usually (the crit on Garchomp with Volcanion earlier definitely helped tho).
I wouldn't say it was an excellent game, both players played well with a couple of mistakes on both sides (I've noted more MZ ones bc he's my player so I cared much during the game and I knew the sets), and I think that proved that MZ was still kinda rusty. Interesting building tho, and I think those players will give good games in the next weeks !

Game 2 : shiloh vs luisin

Game

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8almostanyability-1550400359
shiloh (volknerd) brought a team that looked really old, but also a really shiloh's team and that was kinda the thing I'd expected from them. The team was kinda farmed by Blissey + Terrak answer tho, and I feel like Terrak alone wasn't enough as a wallbreaker, especially when your defensive core relies a lot on Wish Clefable (I assume it was even if it wasn't revealed cuz RegenPort Clef without Wish, esp with Levitate Doublade, looks really weird to me but that's only my humble opinion) to stay healthy throughout the game and, as we saw, Clefable was unable to heal its partners which led to a defeat of shiloh as long as Doublade died since it was the answer to Garchomp and kinda Koko. On the other side, luisin had a really good MU imo, because both of its breakers were had only Doublade as a real answer and it wasn't Regenerator. Their team puts also a lot of pressure on Clefable, the only annoying thing was Rotom-Wash but it doesn't 2HKO SpD Chomp so it happened to be quite manageable with just switchs. I think luisin played this game pretty well, they had a good MU and played safely ton convert it, Koko was kinda farming the whole gang and they only had to care of a Volcarona sweep but it did nothing and they had Toxapex in the back. shiloh couldn't really do something in this game imo, and I hope they'll bring more solid builds, either more aggressive or not relying on Wish Clefable to heal the whole team, in next weeks, cuz they still managed to play well so I hope we'll have great games in the next week ! Kinda excited to see luisin too, to see if it was a lucky win based on MU or if it's really a threat, but the way they played make me think that they are clearly not to underestimate !

Game 3 : avyrie (not the banned user) (formerly lph) vs The Number Man (or THE and w/e you want after)

ok so first of all I had to reduce the size of the text bc of those guys stupid nicks.
secondly avyrie lost this on preview bc of his unviable avatar (Givra ☯ it's ugly...) whereas TNM The Videotape Returner had a beautiful CA with broken Dragapult

Moving on the real game

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8almostanyability-1550415088
avyrie (it'll be painful to write it without mistakes lol) brought an interesting team, with another Volcanion with Substitute > Defog (yeah MZ had Defog lul) and an interesting Boots Taunt Grassy Surge Zarude. This team farmed me in tests (bc I didn't have a Volc counter ok not my fault) but I'm still not sure of what the Zarude does (Taunt is a neat move tho). I found Water Absorb Blissey kinda strange with Ferro + Zarude in the back, but since the Ferro was full SpD and not 188+ + Zarude without priority that kinda made sens, I think. TNM (sorry its too long) brought a fat + Inteleon, and SD (I think) Garchomp to make some progress if needed, and loaded in Water Absorb Blissey which is like an insane counterteam bc you can't outpp softboiled. However, both teams kinda struggled to break each other, as Zarude without Band doesn't hit hard and Volcanion faced Chomp + Seismic Toss MG Chansey, and obviously Inteleon vs WA Blissey and SD Chomp against Corv/Zarude/WoW Mew, not great. The team would probably have been pretty long if avyrie didnt let his Blissey get Trick, which was the mistake not to make and it was kinda over at this time. It's kinda sad bc that would have been interesting to see a long game, and I think Zarude could have won with the right plays (that was hard), and except from this avyrie played well and went kinda unlucky early (Scizor burn would have been kinda annoying for TNM), so I hope he'll bounce back and get some wins next week ! I should mention that Power Whip miss too, TNM should never have risked that but get rewarded, they were winning and risking 300+ turns just to dinner 10 minutes faster was not the smartest play imo lol, but the game went faster so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . I think it was the closest game to "AAA games last long" but that was mainly bc both teams brought one breaker and they found a counter, so obviously if it's your only way to break you have to accept the long game (and both teams were 3 walls + regen scarf mew + mid breaker (Zarude/Chomp) + breaker, so they were counting on their breaker to break), but Blissey died early so that was easier.

Ok I have to rush or I'll be late at school so

Game 4 : PandaDoux vs pdt

Barraskewda is so big lmao we can see its tail!!

Game

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8almostanyability-1550433476
I'll make it a little faster cuz I'm late, PandaDoux brought an interesting team, only using classic mons but not being that much of a classic team with an offensive core of Barraskewda + Dhelmise, another physical breakers spam, with a solid defensive core and broken Zapdos. pdt brought a nice Magic Bounce Koko, Band Adapt Terrak, and RegenVest Landorus. Note that that was the only game we saw a Zapdos, despite it being one of the best mons rn imo. pdt had a difficult MU with its only true beaker, Terrakion, struggling against Dhelmise (fight immunity) + Kommo-o + Corviknight, but managed to bring it a lot of times on the field and would probably have deserved a crit at some point, because I think he played this better and got the opportunities to "luck" his win. I'm kinda surprised of non-Leftovers Tapu Koko, it was maybe Shuca Berry to lure Garchomp ? not sure, but I really like Leftovers on this to win against Blissey easily. Poltergeist misses in early were kinda annoying, definitely, but the Close Combat crit kinda killed the game instantly which is kinda sad, pdt still had chances to win with Terrakion. I think letting Mew get poisoned in early was also a mistake cuz the MU against Barras was already kinda hard, but it was kinda difficult cuz if it was Poison Jab Koko couldn't in so yeah, he had to take a risk. Panda played well but probably a bit too safer assuming he would never get lucked (he was a crit away to lose against Terrak a lot of times), but managed to convert his positive MU and his team was cool, kinda happy that he won his first OMPL game. I'm kinda excited to see both players in next weeks, PandaDoux with his solid building will certainly improve a lot in game during this OMPL I think, and pdt played this really really well and I will definitely watch his games even if he plays in another tier.

This closes the AAA review from Week 1, if I had to do quick metagame trends I'd say that all teams were Balance or Bulky Offense, and a lot of teams kinda relied on only one breaker to break, which is kinda a MU fish I think but it also exploits the power of bulky mons and the power of offensive breakers. I think Volcanion will disappear after its two performances of this week too lol.

Stay tuned for the next week, feel free to blow up this bar of likes, comment, and turn on the bell if you want more reviews ! (idk if it means something in english lol it's just how French YouTubers end their video)

Good luck to Beka too for his first OMPL game in AAA next week !

Take care y'all, have a nice day !

im hella late to school now fuck

 

[DuGuo]

Week1 - 1/1

SS Balanced Hackmons: cityscapes vs Nihilslave
We can always believe Nihilslave!
SS Mix and Mega: ez vs iapt
XiaoBao JiaYou!

 

[Ducky]

more omm predictions

the

SS STABmons: Byleth vs LBDC - Both are coming off a win, but I've heard very good things about Byleth's STAB skills
SS Almost Any Ability: The Number Man vs PandaDoux - Honestly not sure, but leaning towards TNM
This once again concludes my predictions

 

[ojr]

OMPL Week 1 NFE games coverage

Metagame Talk

Builder visual:

Usages:
7 times:
Piloswine / Vullaby
5 times:
Wartortle / Roselia / Raboot
4 times:
Electabuzz
2 times:
Ferroseed / Clefairy / Gurdurr / Corsola-Galar / Thwackey / Hattrem
1 time:
Machoke / Linoone / Duosion

Building Trends:

- Piloswine remains king. Even though Shing expected it to take a hit by the latest bans, it has not reflected in usage as it is still the most used pokemon in the meta. 7 out of 8 games might be below its standard but Piloswine is still a metagame defining mon in this meta. There were 3 players that opted for a CB Pilo instead (jonfilch, tlenit and King Leo V) of the classic consistent stealth rock set, could this be a more popular pick in the meta than before?
- Vullaby SKYROCKETS in usage. I think we all expected it to rise a lot of with Golbat banned but being tied in usage with Piloswine is actually extreme. I do believe Vullaby is an excellent defogger in this meta since its spikes immune but I do not expect it to stay this high on usage and that most of the building will adapt to its rise.
- Almost everyone uses spikes, Roselia or Ferroseed is on every team bar one. This one is super interesting and I expect people to use more Hattrem in response to this.
- Roselia has bloomed and Tangela is doomed? (I tried really hard to make a joke here and this my best attempt) Another metagame change that was to be expected. With the departure of Golbat, spikes Roselia becomes so much more potent and Ferroseed as well. This all does not bode well for Tangela since they are excellent checks to it. I do not expect to see Tangela completely die since it still has phenomenal stats but the metagame is certainly not in favor of it.
- Momentum Generatoring aka voltturning is one like every team as well. This also makes sense since it abuses spikes so well and makes this metagame pretty fun to me honestly. Lets keep the metagame proactive guys :)
- Duosion drops the ball. Vullaby being used a lot, a lot of of the metagame threats mainly being physical makes it a way worse special sponge and future sight setter. Dont really have much to add to this and dont think Duosion will be used as much as it was in previous meta.

The teams + games analysis below for each matchup

ojr vs TJ

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nfe-618727

lol yea its me vs tj will try to not talk too much about myself.
the teams:
We see both of us bring quite similar style of teams and what kinda seems to be the standard of teams w1. Both got our pilo, vullwart hazard control, different spiker, our momentum pivot and then the filler pick of our team. I think the matchup is in TJ's favor as spikes wearing me down for Ebuzz to clean is pretty potent. Clefairy was revealed to be Wish after the game which couldve played a really big part in this game if ferro didnt die so early and that couldve been really annoying for me to break. My Raboot is annoying for TJ though as I get to set hazards every time I uturn pivot with it.

the game:
Early on you can see me try to set hazards asap and try to pressure with Raboot from there. TJ toxics my Raboot though which makes that gameplan a lot less sustainable. I do get to kill off the Ferroseed earlier though because of my hazard pressure from spikes which allows me to play without spikes from him as soon as I spin which is a huge win for me. In the midgame you can see that Electabuzz starts becoming a real demanding pokemon as it forces me to play very reactively and be wary of how damage I take on certain mons because of my pilo getting low on health quite quickly + knocked off which makes volt switch super free. I also make a mistake by forgetting about covet which couldve been easily avoided by simply sacking wartortle. Eventually I get some good process with Raboot by killing the wartortle and deciding to sack it in return of chip on electabuzz which puts it in range of leaf storm of roselia. meanwhile TJ is still in a great spot as his electabuzz looks very potent to clean if my gurdurr gets a bit lower. Late game I make use of BU gurdurr to position myself in a winning position with roselia but I unfortunately miss a crucial leaf storm onto electabuzz.

mncmt vs stareal

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1550400658

the teams:
We see again at preview very similar teams. 2 different takes on the (already a classic?) pilo vull rose boot structures. Machoke is a very cool pick and it deserves a lot of credit for this match. Its a great pick with golbat which was its biggest annoyance gone and tangela getting outclassed by roselia for the most part. If you look at this matchup on preview I think its pretty hard for stareal since the machoke will probably be claiming more kills before stareals electabuzz really gets going. That being said, if stareal can keep the machoke in check as much as possible and not let it come in too much he could volt-turn his way to a win between boot + ebuzz.

the game:
In the early game we see mncmt play very offensive with his pilo and get a lot of use out of that. mncmt managing to get up rocks on a turn stareal doesnt go hattrem is quite big as well. Then the machoke starts going in by immediately claiming 2 mons as soon as it enters the field. mncmt gets pretty risky the roselia but stareal fails to punish it predicting mncmt to preserve health since it was his only ebuzz check at this stage. I can definitely understand the play stareal made but it ultimately lead to him losing there on the spot. the rest of the game after this is not really relevant as the game is pretty over.

jonfilch vs tlenit

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nfe-618908

the teams:
We see a double grass team from jonfilch which look quite slow on preview but is ultimately fine with relying on the strong priority from thwack and CB pilo. where we mostly saw raboot and/or electabuzz as the momentum generators on this new style of team thwackey is used instead which is cool because with SD it can act as a cool wincon and makes u rely less on defensive wart and ferroseed to be safe vs ss wart. from tlenits side we also see that same style we have been seeing all week but it has corsola as rocker which frees up CB pilo. corsola is a great pick for a rocker from a building perspective right now as vullaby doesnt really beat it but corsola doesnt like taking the knock off so its a weird matchup but with potential static fishing from electabuzz it could make that exchange more favorable. cors can also spinblock vs wart but it still has to be wary of toxic, the roselia solidifies the matchup even further vs spin wart.

the game:
In the early game we see both players just trying to make progress by knocking and setting hazards. until a trade happens between ferroseed and cb piloswine which seemed like a good trade for jon. After that thwackey comes in and puts tlenit in a bad position. tlenit still sees some use in pilo and decides to keep it around which essentially cost him his ebuzz which makes jon's vullaby actually look pretty annoying since he kinda lost both mons (pilo dies to rocks) that would outright threaten it without a knock. Raboot cant really make progress here as long as the clefairy isnt knocked and it starts looking tougher and tougher for tlenit. tlenit tries to get a few cycles where he wants to sludge bomb poison the vullaby but he doesnt get it. but then ultimately puts jon in a position where he is forced to take the knock on vull which was nice sequencing. But then pilo demands a kill again and tlenit decides that now is finally the time to sack his own pilo. jon makes an error because trick + knock off is confusing and forgets he isnt knocked with clefairy which gives tlenit another chance to sbomb poison the vullaby and he finally gets it. This poison makes the vull more playable, since corsola is now able to force vull out and tlenit can now try to pressure the vull more easily on switch in. im unsure why tlenit spikes and just doesnt go for the sludge bomb on the incoming vull switch as jon did not have a good switch in anymore. this allows him to defog the hazards away and get back in a decent position but the rocks go right back up as jon does accordingly. finally jon is able to pull an aggro play here and get the cb pilo in which would force a KO were it not for crash missing. tlenit whirlpools the vull and is forced to burn roost pp which is coming into play at this point. eventually the pilo comes in on a healing turn from rose again and will now finally claim a kill. what follows is a sack war where jon is able to get an important suicide defog off with vullaby which ultimately secures the game bar any misses.

Ho3nconfirm3d vs King Leo V

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nfe-619067

the teams:
We see a bit different teams in this matchup which still have some resemblances to the standard teams we have been seeing but have weird spins on it. Leo is using a very offensive team, as per usual. He does not have the spiker grass type which makes his team pretty different from what we saw from others. In fact if u compare his team to stareals team u have the exact same 6 except for thwackey over roserade which makes leo's team a bit fighter weak but more safe vs SS wart. Another very interesting note is that Leo is also using a rocks CB pilo, I didnt even realise this at first but after running calcs I realised that it is indeed CB. A very Leo-esque pick which comes with high risk vs high reward on this team. On the other hand we have ho3n who is using the only non pilo team of the week and no ground type in general at that. Im not really a fan of that because he is very prone to getting voltturned all over the place. its also the only duosion of the week which I already explained earlier in the metagame part of this post is not as good anymore as it used to be. both sides have very interesting teamchoices and are not standard at all but I like Leo's team more and think he also has a better matchup because of that.

the game:
Turn 1 is amazing for Leo already. As if the electabuzz wasnt bad already for ho3n, thief electabuzz makes it even worse since duosion will take a lot more damage from volt switches now. Leo lets ho3n freely future sight tho but what reveals to be a physically defensive vullaby will be able to deal with it even after a knock off. I think Leo makes a pivot into electabuzz instead of uturning / roosting respecting the possbility of taunt which is a fair play but puts ho3n in a decent position. Leo tries to get on the initiave again by forcing rocks up but this is a defog gurdurr which is gonna be very annoying to deal with for Leo, were it not for Leo having a tech up his sleeve with brave bird vullaby which will significant chip + knock the gurdurr before taking the trade. This trade is very nice for Leo since the gurdurr will be much less of a pain at half health + no evoilite. as you can see afterwards that piloswine will be able to take out gurdurr from this range with hhp. Leo is forced to sack hattrem to ss wart and then make an amazing play to keep up the momentum by uturning on the roselia. Leo keeps up the pressure and is able to knock corsola which makes raboot even more scary at this point. Eventually Leo puts himself into a position where the pilo can pick the cors off and at this stage its looking pretty bad for ho3n. As leo keeps on getting plays right and keeps the momentum up giving ho3n no breathing room he will force another kill with piloswine. ho3n does reveal a cool tech with sub wartortle but its too little too late. Even with Leo almost making the choke of the century, by not attacking the sub immediately with ebuzz volt. he manages to get thwackey back in position to clean the game after a very dominant, were it not for that one error, win from Leo.

I dont know if I will do this every week but I will try to

 

[Fardin]

week 2 hype, only doing mnm and ag and couple fun ones i see cause im lazy sorry


SS Anything Goes: Amberr vs Nevelle - no comment
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs Zesty43 - ngl i think zesty will just roll up with some extremely random tech and wins with 1 hp left on his last mon


SS Almost Any Ability: pdt vs MZ - super hyped, both really good players but got to give this to MZ cause he has way more experience in the tier, can go either way tho
SS Anything Goes: Trade vs velvet - trade has way better fundamentals imo
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs damflame 3 - no question



SS Anything Goes: Skarph vs baconeatinassassin - best mu this entire tour. 2 super solid players. i do rate bacon's teams better in ss, but he has a literal mental block when it comes to playing skarph which i dont know if he will overcome. gonna give the edge to skarpy
SS Mix and Mega: ez vs iapt - losing to tech last week removed my confidence in him, but i also dont know his opponent so im staying with ez


SS Anything Goes: Junaa vs WSun1 - wsun should take this but he always disappoints in match ups he should win. can go either way but staying with him 51/49 type shit
SS Mix and Mega: Axzel vs Quantum Tesseract - qt will farm this pool
SS NFE: King Leo V vs Stareal - king never takes an L in ompl
SS STABmons: pannuracotta vs Finchinator - how is pannu starting lol

 

[a loser]

a loser's OMPL BH Review: Week 1
cityscapes vs a loser
vs
I wasn't surprised to see Lugia on city's team but Dialga and Type: Null were definite surprises based on comments I've seen from her over the years. Looks like I brought the standard RegiXern balance shored up by Don, Ho-Oh, and Zama-C.

Game discussion got long

In tests I would lead Giratina and Spiky Shield to guarantee an orb activation but I figured city would lead imposter to scout so I just led with U-turn Ho-Oh and this guaranteed that both of my orbs got activated easily. City brings in Dialga against Regigigas and I see that it is RegenVest and this worries me because the one time I faced it in testing was a very tough battle. Gigas makes some dents after boosting with Swords Dance but is forced out by Lugia's Worry Seed, which leads to city's Imposter scouting my Zama-C. In a move she later questioned, I stay in and set Spikes while she does the same. This is sketchy because Imposter can 1v1 FC Thunderous Kick Zama-C but I really thought she'd anticipate a switch to Giratina here so I went with a different play. Her Dialga spins away my Spikes since it threatens out Giratina with Core Enforcer. My Groudon comes in and I end up hitting Imposter with Glare after city makes some doubles to get Regen Lugia's health back up. This leads to an interesting dynamic where my PH Worry Seed Tina can pressure her dual Regen core with Seed, Spectral Thief, and spinblocking, but is pressure in return by their methods of ability removal.

City brings in paralyzed Imposter against my Xerneas and sees it is packing Jungle Healing and in a number of turns her Imposter is back to being healthy, which was annoying for me. However, I end up paralyzing it again a few turns later and city has started to eat up turns simply by switching in and out with her regen mons and Imposter Chansey. This is pretty boring and safe playing which makes me want to get more Spikes set. Having Imposter paralyzed is nice, but it makes improofing Regigigas harder too because it can OHKO my own Gigas with +2 statused Facade. At turn 52, after I've crit her Lugia several times, Lugia gets off a Lava Plume and burns my Groudon. This made me pretty sad as Don pressured the Regen core nicely with Thousand Arrows. I try to get Spikes up again only to see Lugia is running Defog, which means it will be even tougher to get hazards to stay down. City finally brings in PH Xerneas and tries to setup on my Ice Scales Fire Lash Ho-Oh after trapping it with Thunder Cage but is eventually forced out at low health. This is pretty big as a series of turns with some untimely full paras leads to city's team being severely chipped with Null at 4%, Chansey at 26% and paralyzed, and Xern at 19%. City ends up sacking Xerneas so that she can bring in Pressure Zama-C. I'm not familiar with Pressure Zama-C but I was forced to take Gigas out at this point because I didn't want to suddenly lose my best offensive presence. Zama-C proceeds to show off a neat moveset of Anchor / Coil / Substitute / Bunker that seems to target passive walls and chip away at PP of their useful moves. Luckily my team could handle it fairly well with FC Zama-C, Prankster Haze Groudon, and Spectral Tina. Despite this, a 58 turn PP stall was still in order as I swapped my Zama-C in order to get three layers of Spikes down against her depleted team. I sent in Giratina after Zama-C went down because +4 Anchor Shot didn't OHKO and I didn't want to give Imposter a chance to heal with my Groudon. Around turn 158 I'm in a good position with my Spikes chipping Dialga and Lugia at too low of health to Defog in front of Tina. City takes a risk and stays in with Dialga after being Worry Seeded to hit me with Core Enforcer and chip me down to 13% where the next turn KOs me from poison. Here I make a bad play by switching out Giratina as I was playing too safe and afraid I'd need Tina to check Imposter and her Zama-C. Lugia is still able to Defog in a pinch but Dialga would be KO'd by Spikes if it had to come in before this so city stays in a spins away the Spikes as I switch out. Lugia goes down to Gigas and without Spikes, Type: Null is able to come in after and use Lunar Dance to fully heal Imposter Chansey. I was afraid of Destiny Bond but Lunar Dance definitely gave city's team a second wind as Imposter was able to pester my team. The next 50 or so turns are pretty boring with city switching in and out with Dialga and Imposter, occasionally bringing in Zama-C as well, while I go between Ho-Oh, Gigas, and Tina mainly. This gives everyone a chance to heal up nicely on both sides as we look for an opportunity to break through. City winds up with Imposter on +2 Gigas and I'm forced into a pickle with no great way to pressure it or stop it from setting up to +6. I catch a lucky break as Imposter full paras while I switch into Groudon and force it out. From here, I'm able to chip Imposter back down to 35% and I finally send Xerneas back in and proceed to catch Chansey with a clutch full para and dodge a double protect from Zama-C and end the game.

City's team was cool and unique, straying away from popular styles that involve para spam and hazard stack, rather relying on forcing out common poison healers and winning a slow game with Imposter, Zama-C, Xern, and Lunar Dance support.

Nihilslave vs Career Ended
vs
When using Spectrier, seeing Regigigas at team preview is not ideal. When using Mewtwo, seeing no Dark-types or resists at team preview is ideal. This one will probably come down to whose breaker makes the right call and when.

10 turns in and Nihilslave as activated orbs on both Xern and Gigas, so far revealing Swords Dance on Regi while Career has revealed PH Xern, FC Helmet Zama-C, and Poison Fang Don. Nihilslave's Don is Prankster with Sap, Spikes, and Glare, varying slightly from the meta choice, and Career's Prankster is Parting Shot Ho-Oh. Zama-C reveals Rapid Spin, meaning it must have some way of dealing with spinblockers. Nihilslave's Toxic Orb Imposter looks to be in solid position against Career's PH Xern and makes some big moves knocking off Groudon's Assault Vest, Ho-Oh's boots, and quickly removing his Imposter with +2 Moonblast after hazards. Ho-Oh forces out the Imposter of Xerneas with Entrainment and Nihilslave responds by sending in Psychic Surge Mewtwo, who proceeds to take out AV-less Groudon easily with Expanding Force. Career's Spectrier comes in to force out Mewtwo and Nihilslave sends in Regigigas to take the expected Ghost-type move. Zama-C comes in for Gigas and is then forced out by Lunala, meaning Zama-C either wants to avoid Nuzzle or can't pressure it as a spinner, which would be bad news for Career. Groudon begins to pressure PH Xern with Thousand Arrows before going down to an untimely crit, which forces Nihilslave to bring in a worn down Imposter. Career sends out Ho-Oh to be shredded by Stealth Rock and be KO'd by Moonblast on the switch. This effectively ends the game as Nihilslave's own PH Xern with QD, Sap, and Moonblast is able to finish off the remaining two mons.

Nihilslave's team was cool, as Mewtwo is underused but valuable at times, but it was also very risky to bring against an opponent known to use Belly Drum and Final Gambit. However, the off-meta Prankster Don, Mewtwo and its terrain, and Toxic Orb Imposter all came in handy against Career's squad. I didn't like his team much at all. The Xern is good and Imposter is fine but RegenVest Don along with Prank Ho-Oh supported by Spin Zama-C were some weird choices.

MAMP vs TTTech
vs
It is hard to know what MAMP will bring to tours but this does look like a MAMP team for sure. TTTech appears to have strayed from their usual Null, Registeel, Xerneas core but stuck with Regigigas and Giratina.

Fifteen turns in and the game is looking interesting. MAMP has PH Xern, Spikes Volt Switch LO Regen Etern, Knock Off + Waves Groudon, and Prankster Taunt Celesteela while TTTech has shown Boots Pixie Spin Magearna, Prankster Tina, Swords Dance Regigigas, and PrimSea Zama-C. Spikes + Volt Switch and Groudon look like nice momentum creators for MAMP but TTTech's Magearna and Regi could put pressure on this core in return. At turn 22 Gigas comes back in and uses Swords Dance in front of Etern as MAMP sends out Prank Celesteela. At this point, Steela has revealed three moves of Anchor, Taunt, and healing so the last one has to be Haze / Topsy or like Destiny Bond. TTTech must have guessed Haze and clicks V-create here to catch Celesteela but MAMP sends in Etern for some reason? Celesteela gets back in with a Volt Switch and then it does Haze as Gigas uses Facade now. MAMP then makes a hard switch to Bounce Dialga as Regi uses Swords Dance again. And here we see a downside of Jolly SD Gigas as +2 V-create has a max roll of 95% and Gigas is forced out by Core Enforcer after clicking Facade again. Things get less exciting after this as Etern continues to pivot around and Scales Don continues to scare away Magearna. MAMP eventually brings in Yveltal off a pivot to face a worn down Gigas and catches a Zama-C switch-in with Thunder Cage. Things are looking dire for Zama-C as Yveltal uses Nasty Plot into Oblivion Wing and chips it down to 12% while getting hit with Topsy-Turvy. But Zama-C's Shed Shell lets TTTech bring in Magearna, who blasts Yveltal away as it tries to catch it healing with Taunt. This was big for TTTech but allows Groudon to come in safely and force out Mag again. Then, in a sequence interesting double switches and mispredictions, MAMP's Etern wears down Magearna to 22% with Volt Switch and it has no chances to recover. Now TTTech is unable to find openings for Gigas due to it being so chipped and the fact that Groudon can trap and KO anyone else on the team except Giratina. So he not-so-smoothly attempts to bait Groudon into KOing Giratina and take it down with Destiny Bond but MAMP reads this well and switches out to bring in Etern again. From here TTTech tries a few more times to break through, finally setting a layer of Spikes with his own Regen Etern before it is trapped and KOed by Dialga and the game is basically over.

MAMP's team looked solid but nothing too crazy. Double Taunt was cool although I thought having it on Triage Yveltal might be overkill as moveslots are very valuable. I've never been impressed by Scales Don in the past so this was by far the most work I'd ever seen it put in. TTTech's team was fine too and things might have gone differently had he guessed correctly on the early Gigas turns and caught Etern with a KO.

xavgb vs quojova
vs
If you covered up the names on team preview I'd have probably guessed stresh was the side with Kyu-B. These teams are looking fairly similar though with both being balanced builds. Kyu-B definitely stands out as a breaker that could pick up a KO for free if it gets the right opportunity (and clicks the right move).

Just a few turns in and we find out stresh brought Etern with Trick (item unrevealed) and that quojova's Imposter is holding a Toxic Orb. This gets sent into stresh's PH Regigigas that is running an interesting set of Dragon Dance / Facade / Dragon Tail / Baton Pass. Gigas and Imposter of Gigas fool around for a bit until quojova brings in his own PH Gigas and tries to Nuzzle Zama-C but hits the opposing Gigas instead. Both Zama-C are running lefties and item removal but one with Knock and the other Corrosive Gas. Quojova's Xern comes in and reveals Pixilate that tickles stresh's Etern for 21% damage with Boomburst, showing that it is Ice Scales (I say this cause reading quojova's scout of "scales" made me think Clanging Scales lol). Stresh's Regi comes back in and chips Zama-C down to 50% with Facade and stresh sends out Don, expecting a recover maybe, but gets Anchor Shotted and brought down to 1% by Fishious Rend before setting Spikes and becomes the first KO. Things are looking good for quojova here until he Baton Passes his Xern in to face Zama-C and attempt to Rapid Spin the spike and Strength Sap. Upon attempting, Zama-C uses Anchor and then Magic Bounce is revealed to block the Sap and KO Xern. Not all is lost though, as quojova still has Kyu-B that gets brought out by Dragon Tail. We see that Kyu-B is Mold Breaker and stresh has to make a decision of who to switch in with Gigas chipped and goes with Tina, perhaps hoping for a V-create or Shift Gear, but is OHKO'd by Glance. This lets Xern in for free, who proceeds to roll AV-less Kyogre with Boomburst and knock it out in return. Stresh ends up tricking Etern's Black Sludge to Imposter Chansey, which is neat, but also risky as Chansey could Trick it right back onto someone who wouldn't appreciate it. Turns 40 through 133 consist of PP stall and an exhibit of how weak Fishious Rend can be without STAB or a boosting ability. Finally quojova's Zama-C is KO'd by Struggle and Kyu-B comes back in and KO's Regigigas with Bolt Strike. This is nice and all, but now he has no way to deal with stresh's Xerneas and the game wraps up shortly after this thanks to Imposter holding sludge and being poisoned.

Both teams were similar and solid builds that used PH Gigas, Bounce Zama-C, and Pixilate Xern. quojova got in a big hole losing his own Xern and basically from that point on he had to beat his own improofing mon that was the opposing Zama-C all while fending off Xerneas and that was a tall task.

Metagame Observations
To no one's surprise, Xerneas, Zama-C, and Regigigas led the way in usage this week. TTTech was the only one who didn't bring Xern, opting for Magearna instead. Groudon also saw a lot of usage, most being the rising Prankster Glare set. Swords Dance on PH Regigigas continues its rise in popularity as of late, with 3/5 using it this week. This could lead to more devoted Gigas answers in the upcoming weeks like FC Steels or Ghosts with Topsy-Turvy. The games were fairly long this week, averaging 136 turns, but this really isn't too long considering what each of the matchups were.

Upcoming Matches
quojova vs a loser - should be a good one here. We both like balanced teams typically so this has potential to get lengthy depending on what we bring. I'm trying not to john so this should be one you can watch before the weekend.

Career Ended vs MAMP - I was really disappointed in Career's team last week. It definitely looks like they adapted their building style to fit more with their teammates' (I think pdt is on the team? can't remember, already forgot). I'm hoping to see some heat from both sides of the field this time cause I know they can both cook it up.

xavgb vs astralydia - I was pretty surprised to see astralydia in this slot but can respect the decision. It is tough to slate anyone against stresh these days so I'll just take this as the manager taking one for the team.

cityscapes vs Nihilslave - This will be good. cityscapes will be ready. Nihilslave had a neat build last week, showing that they are still capable of building and playing with off-meta sets but no one plays with unsets like city.

 

[vivalospride]

xavgb this roster will surely destroy this tour but a team without 2/3rds of vmr can only go so far. I am rooting for you, at least you don’t have playoffs pdt

hello shiloh

 

[quojova]

won gg

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1553201491

 

[TectonicDestroyer]

gg, somehow didnt get punished for choking on balls

 

[Dj Breloominati♬]

 

[cityscapes]

bro PLEASE just say “gg sorry for hax” or just “gg” like a normal person i am BEGGING you. if i lost and my opp said this i would move to the mountains of central asia and become a yak farmer (note that this is opposed to losing to someone who posts a song in their winpost, which instead inspires me to pan for gold in california 150 years after the gold rush)