Tournament World Cup of Other Metagames V - Week 2

Status
Not open for further replies.

dhelmise

everything is embarrassing
is a Site Content Manageris a Battle Simulator Administratoris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Programmeris a Community Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
Social Media Head
Information & Administrative Decisions | Qualifying Round | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Semifinals | Finals​

Art by Ticken edit by Syrinix
Scheduling
  • Scheduling should be done on Smogon VM walls, plain and simple.
  • If there is no communication on VM walls and a game goes undone, the game will be declared a dead game.
  • 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 captain 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: VM your opponents, schedule your matches, and be reliable. If you're not reliable, let your captain know so they can sub you out ASAP.

Use these VMs to initiate discussion about bo1 or bo3 as well!

Sportsmanship
Exhibitions of unsportsmanlike conduct with regards to World Cup of Other Metas V will be met with an infraction at the discretion of the WCoOM V hosts and OM mod team. This is unlikely to include interactions within a team's private chat unless there is reason found to make an exception.
  • Inappropriate nicknames: Games in which a player uses nicknames that break PS! rules will be forfeited, and the player will be removed from the tour. Replays are required for this tour, so it is important that PS! and Smogon rules are followed in these games.
  • Matching usernames: Players must play on usernames matching or close to matching their smogon names. If this criterion is not met, the match will not count.
  • Toxic Behavior: Insulting, flaming, and intentional timer stalling are some examples of toxic behavior. Instances of toxic behavior will be reviewed, and the appropriate punishment will be handed out at the discretion of the hosts and OM forum moderators.
These rules are meant to protect other users from being publicly flamed/bashed/provoked by another competitor for the duration of and following the tournament, as well as keep it a safe site for all.

All players must complete their matches by the given deadline. Any incomplete matches by that time may be subject to activity decision (MAKE SURE YOU POST ON YOUR OPPONENT'S VM WALL); otherwise, they will be declared a dead game. All matches should be done on your most notable alt (the one you registered for WCoOM V with) to avoid confusion, and the replay 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
Captains, 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 captains of the opposing team, the substitute's opponent(s), and myself. This is to assure that everyone is in-the-loop and that the OP is updated accordingly to reflect the new match-up.

Scarlet Group

:kyogre-primal: Asia Pacific (adem and pichus) - [3][5] - Europe (pannuracotta and Ainzcrad) :metagross:
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): RobDog747 vs STABLE
SS Almost Any Ability: Dj Breloominati♬ vs Eeveeto
SS Anything Goes: lotiasite vs Ballfire
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs Ivar57
SS Godly Gift: longhiep341 vs Lily
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs Axzel
SS NFE: Chloe vs Jordy
SS STABmons: DugZa vs pannuracotta

:wingull: US West (cityscapes vs DerpyBoi) - [3][5] - US Northeast (berry and Ducky) :urshifu-gmax:
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Morgan vs Chris32156
SS Almost Any Ability: XxLazzerpenguinxX vs Heracross2.0
SS Anything Goes: polt vs Will
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs TTTech
SS Godly Gift: Eggs vs Instruct
SS Mix and Mega: DerpyBoi vs Andyboy
SS NFE: lepton vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
SS STABmons: sasha vs Dr. Phd. BJ

Violet Group

:greninja: France (Dragonillis and LBDC) - [5][2] - UK (willdbeast and Greybaum) :sirfetchd:
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): lancert vs yuki
SS Almost Any Ability: Atha vs PA
SS Anything Goes: Royal1604 vs LORD SAGIS
SS Balanced Hackmons: Palapapop vs Tea Guzzler
SS Godly Gift: Heika vs Greybaum
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Clastia
SS NFE: Fraise vs SOMALIA
SS STABmons: LBDC vs Clementine

:calyrex-ice: Canada (Fc and omicorio) - [2][6] - US South (beauts and UT) :marshtomp:
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Phantomistix vs zee
SS Almost Any Ability: avyrie vs MZ
SS Anything Goes: Fc vs Kate
SS Balanced Hackmons: Tanny89k vs Quantum Tesseract
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs TPP
SS Mix and Mega: Career Ended vs beauts
SS NFE: Elfuseon vs Kabilapok
SS STABmons: Potatochan vs crying

Scarlet Group

Asia Pacific (adem and pichus) - [0][0] - Europe (pannuracotta and Ainzcrad)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): RobDog747 vs STABLE
SS Almost Any Ability: Dj Breloominati♬ vs Eeveeto
SS Anything Goes: lotiasite vs Ballfire
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs Ivar57
SS Godly Gift: longhiep341 vs Lily
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs Axzel
SS NFE: Chloe vs Jordy
SS STABmons: DugZa vs pannuracotta

US West (cityscapes vs DerpyBoi) - [0][0] - US Northeast (berry and Ducky)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Morgan vs Chris32156
SS Almost Any Ability: XxLazzerpenguinxX vs Heracross2.0
SS Anything Goes: polt vs Will
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs TTTech
SS Godly Gift: Eggs vs Instruct
SS Mix and Mega: DerpyBoi vs Andyboy
SS NFE: lepton vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
SS STABmons: sasha vs Dr. Phd. BJ

Violet Group

France (Dragonillis and LBDC) - [0][0] - UK (willdbeast and Greybaum)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): lancert vs yuki
SS Almost Any Ability: Atha vs PA
SS Anything Goes: Royal1604 vs LORD SAGIS
SS Balanced Hackmons: Palapapop vs Tea Guzzler
SS Godly Gift: Heika vs Greybaum
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Clastia
SS NFE: Fraise vs SOMALIA
SS STABmons: LBDC vs Clementine

Canada (Fc and omicorio) - [0][0] - US South (beauts and UT)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Phantomistix vs zee
SS Almost Any Ability: avyrie vs MZ
SS Anything Goes: Fc vs Kate
SS Balanced Hackmons: Tanny89k vs Quantum Tesseract
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs TPP
SS Mix and Mega: Career Ended vs beauts
SS NFE: Elfuseon vs Kabilapok
SS STABmons: Potatochan vs crying


The deadline for this round is Sunday, September 25th @ 11:59 PM GMT -4.
 

hayedenn

forgotten me already?
is a Community Contributoris a Contributor to Smogon
ok time, italicized games r what i am most excited to see

Scarlet Group

Asia Pacific (adem and pichus) - [3][5] - Europe (pannuracotta and Ainzcrad)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): RobDog747 vs STABLE - robdog can be good sometimes but stable is a better builder + more consistent player
SS Almost Any Ability: Dj Breloominati♬ vs Eeveeto - opposite of a highlight match, do not watch this (spitfire will win)
SS Anything Goes: lotiasite vs Ballfire - idk enough about either
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs Ivar57 - i rate both similarly in building and playing ability
SS Godly Gift: longhiep341 vs Lily - i think longhiep can win this but i think lily is a more established player and i think her teams apply better to a tour setting
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs Axzel - axzel will kill me (IM SO SORRY) but i think tect's experience leads me to favor him here. i think axzel will likely have the better team but i think tect is just a bit more clutch in tour settings in spite of himself
SS NFE: Chloe vs Jordy - i think chloe is a good player but i wasn't a huge fan of her w1 team and i don't think she understands nfe interactions as well as jordy does
SS STABmons: DugZa vs pannuracotta - the cotta is a tryhard and a better builder (although dugza's w1 team was very fire)

US West (cityscapes vs DerpyBoi) - [3][5] - US Northeast (berry and Ducky)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Morgan vs Chris32156 - purely for the meme would i love to see chris win, but morgan would be so embarrassed if she lost to chris and would never show her face in public again so for that reason i think she will uber tryhard to beat chris who i am questionable on regarding his effort. this will be a great set though im excited to see. if morgan doesn't tryhard chris wins easy
SS Almost Any Ability: XxLazzerpenguinxX vs Heracross2.0 - another anti-highlight. sevag just reused an old wc team from last year and heracross brought a very questionable team i was to say the least, unsure of. im very unexcited to see this but i think heracross will clutch because he's actually building new teams
SS Anything Goes: polt vs Will - idk ag
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs TTTech - i would rate quo's building and playing more highly but this is the kind of game that just gives me the vibe that tech will win
SS Godly Gift: Eggs vs Instruct - i thought instruct's team last week was very questionable along with eggs, but i give it to eggs here because he didn't bring sun (bad)
SS Mix and Mega: DerpyBoi vs Andyboy - andy is just playing and building at a higher level
SS NFE: lepton vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d - id rate both similarly although ho3n is more "accomplished", can go either way
SS STABmons: sasha vs Dr. Phd. BJ - i love sasha but bj is just on another level than her in stab

Violet Group

France (Dragonillis and LBDC) - [4.5][3.5] - UK (willdbeast and Greybaum)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): lancert vs yuki - yuki is the goat and will do whatever it takes to not lose to lancer
SS Almost Any Ability: Atha vs PA - atha is on another level rn than the rest of the aaa pool
SS Anything Goes: Royal1604 vs LORD SAGIS
SS Balanced Hackmons: Palapapop vs Tea Guzzler - i think tea just understands the meta better rn
SS Godly Gift: Heika vs Greybaum - i think heika can definitely steal this but greybaum is tryharding
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Clastia - clastia's play last week was questionable, while damflame i think should have won his game but just had a couple misplays. damflame won their previous game for seasonal i think and i believe he will repeat here
SS NFE: PandaDoux vs SOMALIA - panda just plays and builds better
SS STABmons: LBDC vs Clementine - same as above
 
Asia Pacific (adem and pichus) - [3][5] - Europe (pannuracotta and Ainzcrad)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): RobDog747 vs STABLE
SS Almost Any Ability: Dj Breloominati♬ vs Eeveeto
SS Anything Goes: lotiasite vs Ballfire
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs Ivar57 - highlight
SS Godly Gift: longhiep341 vs Lily - highlight, the longest of hieps will win with unsets
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs Axzel - highlight imo, both are very strong
SS NFE: Chloe vs Jordy
SS STABmons: DugZa vs pannuracotta - snap me back or you better win pannu

US West (cityscapes vs DerpyBoi) - [3][5] - US Northeast (berry and Ducky)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Morgan vs Chris32156 - highlight team horse civil war
SS Almost Any Ability: XxLazzerpenguinxX vs Heracross2.0
SS Anything Goes: polt vs Will
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs TTTech - highlight
SS Godly Gift: Eggs vs Instruct
SS Mix and Mega: DerpyBoi vs Andyboy - highlight, i believe in the agency
SS NFE: lepton vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
SS STABmons: sasha vs Dr. Phd. BJ

France (Dragonillis and LBDC) - [4][4] - UK (willdbeast and Greybaum)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): lancert vs yuki
SS Almost Any Ability: Atha vs PA
SS Anything Goes: Royal1604 vs LORD SAGIS
SS Balanced Hackmons: Palapapop vs Tea Guzzler
SS Godly Gift: Heika vs Greybaum
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Clastia
SS NFE: PandaDoux vs SOMALIA
SS STABmons: LBDC vs Clementine
 
SS NFE: Chloe vs Jordy jordy looks good, chloe doesnt. chloe can grow in this tour if they get the sequences more narrowed down.
SS NFE: lepton vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d lepton looked better in their loss than ho3n in his win, that team from ho3n really made me scratch my head.
SS NFE: PandaDoux vs SOMALIA better plays + builds, if somalia fishes hard enough he could maybe pull something here.
SS NFE: Elfuseon vs Kabilapok kabilapok played pretty well in their debut vs panda despite the loss so ill give the benefit of the doubt. elfu is obviously good but didnt really have to do much last week since his cors kinda won 6-0. ill just give the familiarity with the tier as an edge for kabila in this one.

4/4 last week, this is gonna be hard to continue...

also go pannu!!! SS STABmons: DugZa vs pannuracotta
 
Last edited:
Tried to predict all of these but i'm very rusty in all of these metas besides MnM

Scarlet Group

Asia Pacific (adem and pichus) - [0][0] - Europe (pannuracotta and Ainzcrad)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): RobDog747 vs STABLE
SS Almost Any Ability: Dj Breloominati♬ vs Eeveeto - I trust Eeveeto to figure something out here eventually, he's just got a really good understanding for playing to win with very unique unpredictable structures. Dj played well last week from what I saw.
SS Anything Goes: lotiasite vs Ballfire - Loti is more proven and seems to have a great understanding of how to abuse the brokens in AG.
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs Ivar57 - I really like the effort and process for how Ivar preps and plays very surgical perfectionistic player that I think matches up well against Mamp's style of building and playing.
SS Godly Gift: longhiep341 vs Lily - longhiep builds creatively and is really fun to watch but Lily consistently plays well and seems to bring reasonable team choices from what i've seen.
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs Axzel - Hard to predict this one I'll choose Tect because I think he has a good sense of when to play aggressively and is more willing to swing for the fences in the builder. I do like Axzel's prep core and think he's a capable player though.
SS NFE: Chloe vs Jordy - Jordy seems to be doing well in NFE for a bit now and is able to pick up and play all kinds of different metas well. I trust Chloe playing lower tiers but does NFE count as a lower tier?...
SS STABmons: DugZa vs pannuracotta - Dugza's team was cool and he played well. pannu is extremely cringe... (but has been doing very well in stab recently)

Violet Group

France (Dragonillis and LBDC) - [0][0] - UK (willdbeast and Greybaum)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): lancert vs yuki
SS Almost Any Ability: Atha vs PA - PA is good, I just think Atha has had tournament AAA figured out for a time now. Rare balance of creativity and unpredictability in the builder while avoiding being too wacky and wild.
SS Anything Goes: Royal1604 vs LORD SAGIS - I trust Royal more I honestly haven't seen Lord Sagis play much in general
SS Balanced Hackmons: Palapapop vs Tea Guzzler - Tea Guzzler seems to understand and play BH games well. I don't know how Palapapop is at playing but the French have been pretty willing to bring some wild teams in BH across multiple OM tournaments and I’ve generally seen that work against them.
SS Godly Gift: Heika vs Greybaum - Greybaum has a knack for picking up all kinds of metas and building quite well. I trust him to prep well here and get the win.
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Clastia - I thought both of these players brought solid teams last week but I didn’t love the execution in playing those two games. damflame is a bit more proven so I’ll roll with him.
SS NFE: PandaDoux vs SOMALIA - I think Pandadoux cares more than Somalia does and that can go a long way in unofficial tours like this.
SS STABmons: LBDC vs Clementine - LBDC has a lot of STAB experience, knows what he's comfortable with using, and usually pilots pretty well from what I've seen. Clementine has shown they can certainly win as well and played well last week though.

Canada (Fc and omicorio) - [0][0] - US South (beauts and UT)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs zee - Not too impressed with Adam last week he's better than that
SS Almost Any Ability: avyrie vs MZ - I trust MZ's piloting ability and builders more he has a good understanding for what he's comfortable using and has played AAA for a while.
SS Anything Goes: Fc vs Kate - Fc and Kate are both very good at this tier but it's hard to predict against Fc with how dominant he's been in SS AG recently.
SS Balanced Hackmons: Tanny89k vs Quantum Tesseract - QT brings Gigas and Xern every game and one of them always somehow wins he's won a lot in BH recently and understands this meta.
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs TPP - I don't know how much either of these players care but I trust Jordan's building consistency in this tier.
SS Mix and Mega: Career Ended vs beauts - Career plays really nicely, generally positions very well early to mid game, and i'm happy to see him slotted in here. beauts puts a lot of effort into prep and has a wide range of team styles at their disposal. Last game's execution was a bit shaky from beauts but I think Career is fairly limited prep wise and is still learning the meta so i'll give the edge to beauts here.
SS NFE: Elfuseon vs Kabilapok - Elfuseon seemed to play fine last week.
SS STABmons: Potatochan vs crying - Tournament players who get passed teams generally do pretty well in STAB and crying is a good player.
 

Ducky

Aw Phooey
is a Contributor to Smogon
Scarlet Group

Asia Pacific (adem and pichus) - [6.5][1.5] - Europe (pannuracotta and Ainzcrad)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): RobDog747 vs STABLE - stable coming off a good win and i believe him to be the better player
SS Almost Any Ability: Dj Breloominati♬ vs Eeveeto - dj is coming off a win and has more experience that eeveeto
SS Anything Goes: lotiasite vs Ballfire - ive heard more good things about loti
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs Ivar57 - MAMP is just better at BH
SS Godly Gift: longhiep341 vs Lily - longhiep is unpredictable and i think he will build smth insane and win
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs Axzel - both good players, dont know who to pick
SS NFE: Chloe vs Jordy - Jordy is coming off a win and is the better player
SS STABmons: DugZa vs pannuracotta - Dugza is coming off both a week 1 win and a STAB ssnl win


Violet Group

France (Dragonillis and LBDC) - [4][4] - UK (willdbeast and Greybaum)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): lancert vs yuki - yuki is just a better player imo
SS Almost Any Ability: Atha vs PA - Atha is coming off a win and PA a loss, and atha is a great player and builder
SS Anything Goes: Royal1604 vs LORD SAGIS - Don't know either well enough
SS Balanced Hackmons: Palapapop vs Tea Guzzler - Tea has more experience and as good support
SS Godly Gift: Heika vs Greybaum - Greybaum is the better GG player here
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Clastia - both good but damflame is slightly better imo
SS NFE: PandaDoux vs SOMALIA - Panda is coming off a win vs a good opponent and is a better player
SS STABmons: LBDC vs Clementine - really exciting game, both great players and im excited to watch

Canada (Fc and omicorio) - [1.5][6.5] - US South (beauts and UT)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs zee - zee is coming off a good win and has a ton of doubles experience + beauts support
SS Almost Any Ability: avyrie vs MZ - both solid players, but MZ is a better player and has better support
SS Anything Goes: Fc vs Kate - Don't know enough to really say
SS Balanced Hackmons: Tanny89k vs Quantum Tesseract - QT just has much more experience and is a great player
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs TPP - TPP is coming off a win and has great support
SS Mix and Mega: Career Ended vs beauts - highlight game, both really solid players, im very torn but i think beauts has better odds
SS NFE: Elfuseon vs Kabilapok - elfuseon is coming off a win but I still think kabila is better at NFE
SS STABmons: Potatochan vs crying - Don't know how much experience with STAB either have and it should be a fun game
 

Tea Guzzler

forever searching for a 10p freddo
is a Site Content Manageris a Social Media Contributoris a Forum Moderatoris a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Smogon Media Contributor
OMWC BH Reviews: Week 1
by request of Ivar57

MAMP vs TTTech - :yveltal::dialga::ho-oh::palkia::ferrothorn::xerneas: vs :regigigas::xerneas::kyurem-black::zamazenta-crowned::zygarde-complete::ho-oh:
Palkia is really polarizing in these sorts of matchups. Either it gets stonewalled by the Fur Coat Steel-type or unmon Prankster Fini, or it 6-0s at preview. Only downside is that you usually have to use an equally-unmon Ferrothorn for Imposter-proofing, however MAMP gets away with it here.

First 4 turns are pretty tame, with both teams going for Toxic Orbs and MAMP leading the RegenVest user like most teams with one do. Turn 5 is when things start kicking up as MAMP reveals Swords Dance, which given that there isn't a good Fur Coat user here and the one thing that outspeeds Palkia (thus halving Fishious Rend's damage) also buffs damage via PrimSea, puts TTTech in a really rough spot. Seeing this damage-"halving" quality, TTTech goes to Zamazenta and starts spamming Roost, likely trying to either stall out Fishious Rend PP or is waiting for MAMP to SD again so he can go for a kill with Thunderous Kick. Doesn't happen though, as a crit on turn 9 kills Zama. TTTech's only real play here is to bring out Regigigas and hope he wins both speed ties, which he doesn't, so that drops too. Ho-Oh then comes in and reveals Prankster, meaning that it can stop Palkia ending the game instantly but can't really do much back (Entrainment can force Palkia out by removing Poison Heal, but is pretty uncommon). MAMP then reveals Nuzzle, which basically means it can wait for a full para and win the 1v1 early, which it gets on turn 26. From here, the game's basically done as TTTech has sustained too many losses to come back, and even though Kyurem gets up a Shift Gear, it doesn't kill Dialga (presumably this is Lum Berry, and even if it were LO you don't run recovery on this set) and dies.

Ivar57 vs quojova
- :giratina::zamazenta-crowned::ho-oh::xerneas::regigigas::celesteela: vs :xerneas::regigigas::lunala::zygarde-complete::yveltal::heatran:
this is the game that people use if they want to complain about the meta lmao

I'm not going through this game turn-by-turn (because it'd take too long, this is 165 turns), but the long and short of it is that both teams stone-wall each other's main progress makers. Both teams have basically the same Regigigas set (Utility), and both are Imposter-proofed by (probably) Magic Bounce ultra-fats that the other Regigigas can't make progress on. Ivar's Zamazenta gets bricked by Zygarde-C and Xerneas by Heatran, and quojova's Xerneas and Yveltal (which is Roseli Berry Triage for some reason) get bricked by RegenVest Celesteela.

Yveltal reveals Nasty Plot on turn 15, but is the only thing besides switching, Knock and Nuzzle that has happened. Nothing interesting actually happens until turn 35 when Yveltal reveals Spikes (which still aren't doing much as Ivar's main defensive pivot, Celesteela, is unaffected), but on turn 66 quojova's Yveltal takes a large chunk off of Ivar's Xerneas and stops it from spinning (eating Roseli Berry in the process), and also injures Celesteela pretty heavily with Lava Plume. Circle Throw forces it out, and over the next few turns Steela gets back to full pretty easily, with Ivar getting rid of spikes on turn 79. From turn 97 onward, Ivar begins setting hazards of his own and gets 3 Spikes by turn 120, which virtually seals the game as Xerneas (which is paralyzed and on 23% after Spikes) will be hard-pressed to actually spin. Yveltal gets dragged out by Dragon Tail on turn 157 and dies to Regigigas, after which quojova doesn't have a wincon and forfeits 8 turns later.

I don't actually know if Zygarde is Bounce, i'm assuming not by the fact that quojova didn't try to bounce back Ivar's hazards when it wasn't at much risk of dying to Regigigas. If it was then this game could've potentially gone on significantly longer.

Palapapop vs Quantum Tesseract - :xerneas::zamazenta-crowned::groudon::regigigas::zygarde-complete::ho-oh: vs :regigigas::mewtwo::xerneas::zygarde-complete::zamazenta-crowned::ho-oh:
Interesting pick from QT in the form of Mewtwo. I think the mon is kind of mid, but there's no Psychic resist on Palapapop's side so it could go in here.

Game starts with lead Zygarde-C from Palapapop, which is usually a tell-tale sign of RegenVest, which QT reads correctly and dodges Nuzzle with. Both teams actually have RegenVest Zygarde-C, and up until turn 29 both teams are mostly just aiming to spread Paralysis, with QT getting 2 and Palapapop getting 1. Mewtwo gets in on turn 29 and shows it's Modest Specs with a crit on the Zygarde-C switch, forcing Palapapop to make a sack in order to force it out. Zygarde comes up empty predicting with Metal Burst, however pivots into Groudon and kills QT's Regigigas. QT's Ho-Oh reveals Anchor Shot + Glare (Haze/Shore up later confirms Prankster), however Palapapop's Ho-Oh traps and eliminates it thanks to Magic Bounce and Fire Lash, whilst also getting a Nuzzle on the Mewtwo. QT still has PHeal Xerneas in the back, which can't be easily checked thanks to Ho-Oh being at 7%, and thanks to the earlier Para on Palapapop's Zamazenta (which is the only remaining setup control) it can spam QD, wait for a series of full paras and close out the game.

Tea Guzzler vs Potatochan - :palkia::barraskewda::zacian::zygarde-complete::zamazenta-crowned::melmetal: vs :eternatus::xerneas::melmetal::zamazenta-crowned::groudon::yveltal:
An unexpected Rain bring, with no apparent Rain answer on Potatochan's team. This spells trouble at preview.

Lead Zygarde-C sets rain, however there is an Eternatus there so I decide to pivot through Melmetal in order to safely get one of the breakers on the field. The goal with rain is basically to keep Palkia in as much as possible, so you can just keep chaining kills together, so I go straight to it and kill Zamazenta. Xerneas comes in for turn 5, and to scout I go back to Melmetal to scout for Extreme Speed (which, if it were Pixie Plate, could kill from that range). It wasn't, so Barraskewda comes in and catches a Helmet Melmetal on the switch, which reveals Prankster and so hard-stops Barraskewda. I go to Zamazenta to Defog, which then pivots through a relatively-unneeded Zacian to Zygarde in order to get rain back up, and then I go to Barraskewda to start clicking the funny move again. Melmetal comes in and gets dangerously low, but we both switch out (Me expecting Melmetal to just spam recover, Potato going to Etern to live a hit from the fish), and in the next 4 turns Palkia gets 3 kills, closing the game.

Rain has unmatched killpower but can also get really bogged down against specific answers, however I felt confident that Potatochan wouldn't be bringing any of these (the most I expected was Prankster Fini). You're also hinging the success of your whole gameplan on 2 mons, which means you need to be really careful when playing them.
 
BH Predicts

Asia Pacific vs. Europe
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs Ivar57: This is definitely the highlight BH match of the week and one that I'm excited to watch. MAMP and Ivar both have a very characteristic structure with which they build with so it will be interesting to see whether they continue to stick with it, explore something different, or go somewhere in between. MAMP has built many pivot centered teams, built with hazard support, around a more unconventional breaker. These unconventional breakers have in the past been Swords Dance poison heal pokemon such as Groudon and Palkia, or Tough Claws users such as Zamazenta-C. This is something Ivar should be wary of, as TTTech got smoldered by SD Palkia, and Ivar recently had a game vs. XxLazzerpenguinxX in BH SSNL where one of his teams had no counter play to TC Zama-C after his Desolate Land Ho-oh dropped too low. Many of Ivar's structures tend to revolve around dual weather, and a more slow approach (similar to MAMP) to try and squeeze out a win. They tend to use Primordial Sea Zamazenta-C (with nuzzle to paralyze desolate land pokemon), desolate land Ho-oh, and poison heal Regigas (generally with a pivoting move). Many of MAMP's structures tend to be more resilient to Ivar's however, because of their longevity (Pheal + regen) so structure wise, it can be said that MAMP has the advantage. However, in two of his past three individual tour losses, MAMP fell prey to Magic Bounce Zyg-C. In the 2022 BH Open, MAMP was 2-0'd by XxLazzerpenguinxX using Magic Bounce Zyg-c, and in the most recent BH SSNL, MAMP lost twice to Magic bounce Zyg-C again, by Ivar (2-0). Thus, it has been shown that many of MAMP's past structures can be exploited by Magic Bounce Zyg-C. So, something to look out for is whether Ivar will use Magic Bounce Zyg-C, and whether MAMP will adapt his structures to better combat it.

This game will definitely be a close between two equally strong players! I expect both players to implement a more grindy game plan, and stick to their structures they've grown comfortable using. The question now arises, how will they tinker with their teams to catch their opponent off guard, and who's killer twist will inevitably land them the victory!

Off of previous results, Ivar beating MAMP in BH SSNL, and Ivar beating quojova in OMWC (who beat MAMP in OMPL) I will predicting him to win it. But once the game begins, and we hit team preview the only thing that matters is the quality of their prep and wit. Good luck to both players!

France vs. UK
SS Balanced Hackmons: Palapapop vs Tea Guzzler: This is another match up which I'm really excited about. I was quite impressed with Palapapop's team from week 1. I felt as if it showed a sound understanding, and had a sound base, along with its own identity. Palapopop's in-game play overall was pretty decent too, with only a few tactical ideas missed. Tea Guzzler's team on the other hand showed that he was willing to match up fish, and thus that game didn't really show us much. However, looking at his past tour games Tea Guzzler has generally brought very standard (and solid) balance teams, with Adaptability Palkia & Simple Etern being some of his preferred sets, and something Palapopop should definitely look out for. I anticipate that in the newer meta Palapopop will try and build a standard defensive core, but then implement more unique / off the path offensive structures as he's done in the past. In balance vs. balance I would give the advantage to palapopop because as we've seen from Tea, such as his match with Redflix in BH SSNL, he can falter a bit when his wincon doesn't have a clear path to victory. In a grindy match I would say both players are neck and neck, so the big decider for this match I believe will be which player has the better unique wincon. I feel as though even though Tea Guzzler has a sharper understanding of the current metagame, palapopop is able to build more unique structures which will catch Tea off guard. This game I believe can either propel or hinder one of these players from having a strong OMWC run, so thus I believe it is quite a significant game and as a result anything can still happen. Good luck to both!

Canada vs. US South
SS Balanced Hackmons: Tanny89k vs Quantum Tesseract: Tanny89k is making his OMWC debut after potatochan's loss to Tea Guzzler last week. This move generally makes sense on an intrinsic level, since Tanny89k is a BH main, however it wasn't a poor performance from potatochan that this sub happened, but to me, it seemed more of a consequence of just a line up shift. The fault for Canada was mainly in prep where they simply overlooked rain / Barraskewda. I don't expect such a blunder in Tanny89k's team. He's had a decent run during BH SSNL, where he's mainly brought stall and some balance archetypes. I expect this to be a longer game, but quite comfortable for Quantum Tesseract. QT generally goes for a disruptive midgame, which can then open up a late game wincon. I believe this matches up quite nicely vs. Tanny89k's building and play style. The match up is also compounded by the fact that Tanny89k is making his BH debut vs. the very experienced QT. However, QT's building style generally involved very little prep, where a team is constructed quite quickly - which is what I'd expect for him to do this week as well, so there's always a chance that they might might miss something which Tanny89k could have a chance of exploiting. A tough one for sure to start off your OWMC campaign for Tanny, but good luck to both players!
 
Ivar2022/09/19
Are you also going to do bh predictions for omwc?
Nihilslave2022/09/19
depends on whether sevag does that, cuz he already did that for round 1. maybe i can do conclusion for the previous week, however that's kinda tedious and is not my strength lol
That's it. Not to say I'm still helping some team: What do you expect to see? I'm obviously helping US West, and as a result I lost to Ivar together with 3 great BH players ;-; Tbh Tea did a good job on this. Look at that long article with many good points. I'll never be able to do this in English XD.
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs TTTech
These "XxLazzerpenguinxX"es in sevag's post killed my eyes. So I determine my prediction all at random. GL both ;)
Pokemon of the Week
:ss/palkia:
With totally 3 uses (reckoning qualification round in) and 100% winning rate, Palkia is no doubt the rising star of BH of Week 1.
Meta Observation
These Palkias, along with QT's Mewtwo, can be concluded into people's intentional application of powerful breakers in teams. Get bored by playing with and against RegiXern + VoltTurn + Hazard-Stack teams? Why not just use some fast powerful monsters to tear them apart?
Meta Trend
Meta will hopefully continue its cycle of Rock, Paper, and Scissors, where Paper teams are recently cut by Scissors ones. I believe this will always happen whenever a team style gets too good and is finally optimized to a limited pool. People may ask what "Rock" is. I'm not sure and won't tell the answer anyway. The only confirmed thing is that it won't be stall. Sorry Neighbour Stall Player ;-;
 

Dr. Phd. BJ

aphasia
is a defending SCL Champion
OMPL Champion
these predictions are NUFD (not up for discussion) i am not proofreading either.

Scarlet Group

Asia Pacific (adem and pichus) - [0][7] - Europe (pannuracotta and Ainzcrad)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): RobDog747 vs STABLE
- not predicting 2v2 pog?
SS Almost Any Ability: Dj Breloominati♬ vs Eeveeto - Okay yeah I hope you didn't believe I had Europe going 7-0 LOL. Spitfire played really well last week and somehow played around a Barraswekda that nuked everything, also brought Runerigus which is kinda swaggy. On the other hand, Eeveeto used Rotom-Freeze and Galar-Darm. The team was unorthodox and kinda just got bullied by Tapu Lele + Heatran, I'm hoping to see a better team this week from Eeveeto
SS Anything Goes: lotiasite vs Ballfire - loti has better game sense and fundamentals than Ballfire imo, however Ballfire isn't a slouch that should be taken lightly. Both players lost last week, as loti lost to Will while Ballfire lost to p0lt. loti had some very favorable positions in his game, whereas Ballfire lost Etern to Specs Ogre really early, which was worsened by the fact that his NDM has Knock Off instead of a status move and couldn't keep rocks up against Yveltal. I think Andy put it best when he said that loti has a "great understanding of how to use the brokens in ag"
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs Ivar57 - Easily the best BH game to watch on paper this week. I personally think that both players are actually even as far as sheer playing ability goes, they have similar building styles too, the main difference I would say is that MAMP will use more unconventional stuff than Ivar. Both players won last week, but in relatively different manners. MAMP loaded SD Palkia and kinda went in against TTTech, whereas Ivar had a much more slower game against quojova centered around pivoting + hazard pressure. This is genuinely a tossup, but I think Ivar played better than MAMP last week so I'm gonna give him the edge
SS Godly Gift: longhiep341 vs Lily - Both players were teammates during ompl, and both have very contrasting styles from what I've seen. longhiep is extremely creative and uses unique mons, whereas Lily uses more tried and true stuff, think of your slowbros/ferros/kokos/landos/kartanas. longhiep had extremely good mu last week, as he had multiple tools at his disposal against sun (air lock ray, snow warning alo9, other good offensive tools), whereas Lily beat Eggs in a rather slow manner, as Eggs really didn't have tangible progress making tools (that mewtwo set e.e) and the game was a very slow, pivot + future sight oriented game from Lily. This should be a good game to watch, however I do believe in Lily more regardless of if she just recycled a team from ompl
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs Axzel - This game is pretty interesting. Tect tends to use balance quite a bit, and he can occasionally get very aggressive in making reads. Axzel is relatively newer in comparison, however he had a solid run in ompl, especially for a 3k player. Last week Tect didn't play bad, he loaded into offensive Buzzwole which kinda ate his team alive, and he sac'd his volt immunity early and kinda got washed by Eleki + Buzzwole. Meanwhile, Axzel edged out derpy last week with a very offensive structure with Beat Up Weavile + Victini + SD Groudon. While I was a fan of his team, I was left frustrated after watching the game. Not preserving the sac after Weavile killed Milotic, and also letting Groudon die to Solar Beam Heatran when there was a full health Earthquake Ho-oh were very bad lines imo. I rate Tect's playing higher, and I think that will be the difference here
SS NFE: Chloe vs Jordy - Chloe is inexperienced in NFE, and her positioning and sequencing was just very off for whatever reason. On the other hand, Jordy has performed well in nfe indivs, nfepl, and even won pretty easily last week against lepton. Jordy has a different take on nfe than most players, which makes him tougher to prep for. Jordy should be favored here by a wide margin as he is a better pilot and is more familiar with nfe game play, although I would love to be proven wrong
SS STABmons: DugZa vs pannuracotta - Imagine bolding pannu LOL. DugZa is coming off a win in week 1 and a stab seasonal win, whereas pannu was a runner-up (yes that's right, runner-up) in stab open. Pannu used a cool structure last week utilizing specs torn to help punch holes for No Retreat Urshi + DD Zolt. However, I am bolding DugZa because he beat me last week x]


Violet Group

France (Dragonillis and LBDC) - [:psysly:][:worrywhirl:] - UK (willdbeast and Greybaum)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): lancert vs yuki
SS Almost Any Ability: Atha vs PA - Another case of experience + results in a tier against inexperience. Atha rolled everyone last world cup and has a ton of support, whereas PA... does not. I am rooting for PA, but I just don't see it
SS Anything Goes: Royal1604 vs LORD SAGIS - Royal got busy with offensive Groudon last week, then almost got reversed by a simple Etern + Ho-oh. LORD SAGIS fished with webs and was fortunate enough that omi's lines were shaky in addition to how amazing the Specs Ogre mu was. Bolding LORD SAGIS cause he didn't misplay last week and won much more convincingly despite using webs.
SS Balanced Hackmons: Palapapop vs Tea Guzzler - Wish Pala and damflame flipped slots personally. Pala lost to qt and used SD U-Turn Regigigas, which just feels off to me idk. Tea Guzzler just kinda ate with Palkia in rain last week, not much else to say. I think Tea is a better builder and player than Pala in the tier
SS Godly Gift: Heika vs Greybaum - Heika did well in omfl, however they did click SD with a Mimikyu in front of a DD NDM c: Greybaum loaded fightspam and managed to bully through Clef + Torn-T with it. Greybaum is the better player here
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Clastia - damflame managed to lose to a Zygarde with an Ice Beam Slowbro last week, whereas Clastia let Skarm die very early and didn't really have good tools to break after that. Idk, I think both players are inconsistent which makes this tough to predict, I'll bold damflame cause all the French people like my posts c:
SS NFE: PandaDoux vs SOMALIA - Panda performed really well last world cup, although his builds can be fairly linear at times. At the end of the day, Panda brings good builds and plays very strongly in nfe. SOMALIA brought a team somehow 6-0'd by Galar-Cors, on top of that he ran into Sub SD Hakamo-o which got 5 hits against Gurdurr and kinda ruined everything really early. I want to see a better build from SOMALIA before I consider bolding them
SS STABmons: LBDC vs Clementine - Low key hype mu. A funny bit about this matchup is that LBDC played crying last week. crying loaded the same exact 6 last week that Clementine did. LBDC has been relatively consistent in stab the past year, whereas Clem has been more hit-or-miss at times, however he is generally pretty good. LBDC uses more unique teams that suit his play, while Clem kinda just loads up whatever offense he can get his hands on. Both players have their own style, however I think LBDC's consistency is enough to make me bold him here.

Canada (Fc and omicorio) - [6][5] - US South (beauts and UT)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs zee
SS Almost Any Ability: avyrie vs MZ - avyrie looked good last week despite loading no steel, MZ didn't play badly last week he just lost to tspikes and whatnot. MZ has better support and has gone positive in like every om team tour for the past decade it feels lmao, bolding him here even though I want avyrie to win
SS Anything Goes: Fc vs Kate - Fc's galar-ag game is very dominant rn, I think there is a strong argument after his performance in agpl. Although he didn't play it last week, that doesn't really matter... lol. Kate almost pulled off an insane reverse sweep after somehow not losing to off Groudon. This is easily the best ag game this week, however Fc is a better galar ag player than Kate is atm.
SS Balanced Hackmons: Tanny89k vs Quantum Tesseract - QT is the better builder and player here, they looked good last week against Pala. Tanny89k played in omfl and did pretty well there to my knowledge. I think this mu is more even than people think, as qt can play down to their competition at times. I have to bold qt here, especially since I am still relatively unfamiliar with Tanny89k.
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs TPP - Cracked mu, Jrdn is one of the best players to touch oms. However, he occasionally has off tours around this time of the year (last world cup + past iterations of om snake) and I'm unsure about his motivation. On the other hand, TPP has great support, and his play resembles a lot of thought as I like to say. Idk if I'm more excited to see the teams or the game itself, as Jrdn's teams are very distinct and creative in their own way whereas TPP could be using anything (ut is defo supporting tho cause of attack zapdos LOOOOL). I am bolding TPP here as I think he is more consistent than Jrdn, however if you know anything about oms + standard tiers, this is a pretty hype mu assuming both players are going 100%
SS Mix and Mega: Career Ended vs beauts - Career Ended is starting this week thankfully. I think he is a very good pilot when he slows down and thinks through his plays. beauts is a very good builder who's play can vary quite a bit at times, although they are very good when they are on. There isn't really much of a scout for Career Ended, so I am assuming the mu is relatively neutral. I do think that Career Ended will win since beauts will be larping in game chat and just start clicking. This battle is a battle of attention span more than anything else
SS NFE: Elfuseon vs Kabilapok - Elfuseon may have had the easiest win ever last week, but he is a great lower tier player who participated in nfe seasonal and made it relatively far. Kabilapok actually won that same seasonal, however I am still not 100% convinced in them as a player yet. Kabilapok may have lost last week, but he played really good, Panda just made a couple doubles and got Raboot going before CB Pilo could break first. I think Kabilapok is a higher ceiling nfe player than Elfuseon, and his play as of late is enough to warrant me bolding him
SS STABmons: Potatochan vs crying - I already know how this game is going to go down. Fc isn't playing, which means that Potato will be using an Fc team. This means that Potatochan will load up a random 6-0 or do absolutely jack shit mon (could be a cress, zarude, crawdaunt, ludicolo, etc.) and either win effortlessly or just not have any openings whatsoever and lose. Seeing as Fc lost last week, there is a 100% chance Potato will load up that 6-0 mu I'd bet my life on it (sry crying can't argue with the data)
 
WCoOM Week 1 GG Review: The calm after the storm

With Kyogre ban announced right before the tour began, it's speculated that the new meta will be volatile, with Slowking-G rising in popularity and Gastrodon and Tangrowth no longer on most teams to deal with the killer whale. Relive the moments as I will make GG Recaps throughout this tour, and enjoy the high quality games the tour has to offer. Without further ado, let's jump straight to it.

Eggs W1 WCoOM V.PNG
Eggs vs Lily
Lily W1 WCoOM V.PNG

We start off with a pretty interesting matchup as both players bring Cobalion. Eggs' team looks like it struggles to break, with Cobalion fearing Scald burn from Slowbro and maybe Stun Spore and Focus Blast from Tangrowth. If it has no Stone Edge, it won't go through Ho-Oh either, and the same goes for Lily and her Cobalion. Comfey is also walled by Ho-Oh and Ferrothorn, so all Eggs' hopes lie on Mewtwo since Lily's 3 Regen will definitely outlast his team. In contrast, Lily's Koko can wear down Lando-T over time with Gleam, or she can just stall the game out.

After a bit of scouting, Mewtwo is revealed to be Wisp Taunt, which is pretty bad since Eggs won't be able to force any progress if Lily just switches around Ho-Oh and Slowbro. Koko then gets a free switch on turn 10 with Future Sight against Washtom which also reveals to be Scarf. At this rate it seems like Eggs will just slowly drop to Koko as Lando takes a huge chunk. Pretty uneventful as Mewtwo reveals Ice Beam on turn 39 and Lily just switches. Even with Rock up and Slowbro getting a Scarf, it doesn't matter and Lily just slowly takes one by one and wins. Overall a pretty underwhelming team from Eggs so Lily didn't need to do anything special.

TPP W1 WCoOM V.PNG
TPP vs Heika
Heika W1 WCoOM V.PNG

TPP brings Atk Zapdos which clearly shows UT's influence. Besides that we see Suicune which can be Crocune or Vincune, maybe trying to capitalize on the fact that Water immunity becoming less important post Kyogre ban. SpD Mienshao was a favorite in gen 7 but pretty much only jrdn uses it in gen 8 so we will get to see it in action. Heika brings a pretty classic HO structure with Celesteela. Pangoro has a pretty good matchup here if it gets an SD up without losing too much health, preferrably on Suicune to avoid a Scald burn. If Excadrill has SD EdgeQuake it will be devastating as well, as is Celesteela if it catches Rotom with Meteor Beam. Seems like it comes down to if TPP can prevent these from setting up with good positioning.

The game starts with TPP trying to take advantage of Shuckle with Vincune, however he loses the exchange as Shuckle sets Web and Mewtwo comes in, and he can't afford to risk Mewtwo getting to +4 and end the game immediately or being CM Recover which eats Suicune alive. Heika should have looked at the sample teams though since he assumes Zapdos has Defog, which isn't the case and thus loses all hazards in exchange for Excadrill getting a free turn. He sadly gets a Static para and that prevents the sweep. Pangoro manages to get 3 kills before going down. Now it comes down to if Celesteela or Necrozma cleans. Heika decides to SD with Mimikyu before Necrozma and loses the game becausr of that, although partly because this Necrozma is pretty fast. Overall a pretty good game at the start but the endgame is a bit of a letdown.

Instruct W1 WCoOM V.PNG
Instruct vs longhiep341
longhiep341 W1 WCoOM V.PNG

Instruct unleashes Sun which is pretty matchup fishy, however the twist here is it's a Yveltal team. Basically Victini, Venusaur and Heatran try to power through the whole team. Unfortunately, when one decides to matchup fish, they have to accept they may not get any catch. My team looks very resilient against Sun, with Rayquaza and Ninetales-A cancelling sun, Latios being able to take a hit from all 3 sun abusers, and Landorus-T + Swampert taking hits from Victini and Heatran well enough to slow it down. However, if Heatran turns out to be Eruption, it can be problematic if it gets a free switch. Yveltal might also cause troubles if I guess its set wrong, but overall I should be heavily favored judging from team preview.

I lead with Rayquaza cause it nukes everything and can take hit from Torkoal as well. Instruct reads that well and counterleads with Yveltal,
so I switch out expecting a Dark Pulse / Knock Off. But since it turns out to be Foul Play, it must be defensive, and likely to be Foul Play / U-turn / Roost / Filler like Sucker Punch or Defog. With Cobalion at +1, I go for Stone Edge to catch either Torkoal or hit Yveltal, which actually really 2HKOs Torkoal. I then go for Rock since I know if Torkoal is sacked the game is over instantly. After barely surviving a CC, Gastrodon reveals Eject Button to go to Venusaur. Instruct predicts my switch and clicks Sludge Bomb against Latios, but still has to switch out fearing Scarf. From that, he goes Yveltal to get Victini in, then finally gets Venusaur against Swampert. This time though I go Cobalion since in Hail Venusaur can't do much to it and Instruct misplays by clicking Sludge Bomb. He then sends in Yveltal which is kind of weird but then goes Torkoal to get sun again before sacking Gastrodon. Venusaur clicks Weather Ball this time as I want to sack Latios which turns out to live and reveal Scarf to KO it. Once Heatran is shown to be Air Balloon, game is over due to not enough damage left to push forward. Heatran tries one last ditch Eruption before falling and Ninetales-A cleans up. Not really an educational game considering how overwhelming the matchup was, but at least there were some predictions to be made on Instruct's side.

jrdn W1 WCoOM V.PNG
jrdn vs Greybaum
Greybaum W1 WCoOM V.PNG

This is likely the most standard team jrdn has shown in GG, but at least it has Atk Tornadus-T which is my favorite Pokemon to use. The team definitely feels a bit too focused on physical damage (though that's the case for most Calyrex-I team, and it doesn't seem like the attackers can do much to Slowking. Greybaum on the other hand shows up with 4 Fighting, no hazard removal and hopefully gets away with it. The irony is he still brings a Magnezone because even 4 Fighting can't break Skarmory. Clefable and Tornadus-T definitely can pose a problem, but Pangoro can also put in insane work if it gets an SD up. Will-O-Wisp is something to watch out for as well.

Both players opt for a safe start with Rotom-W vs Slowking. In the end, one gets Rock with Clef and the other FuturePort. Magnezone seems like it can get some damage done with a correct prediction, which it doesn't as jrdn predicts a Body Press against Excadrill and goes Tornadus-T. He then midgrounds to Kommo-o to take Flash Cannon. Turn 5 is a big turning point, with Greybaum predicting the Tornadus-T switch-in and eliminating the huge threat to his team. Side note: We see no Leftovers or Air Balloon, combined with its moveset, it's safe to say it's Assault Vest with Thunderbolt/Discharge as last move. Zapdos-G is sent out to CC and then basically do nothing as Clefable heals everything back. However, jrdn makes a kinda weird play and doesn't Volt Switch again or Wisp but instead switches out? Even if it's Scarf, revealing it is much better compared to potentially letting Pangoro get +2, and Volt + Hydro deals at least 80% with 0 SpA. The result is it almost falls to CC, although now Clef might be able to do its stuff again. The next FuturePort cycle occurs which results in Zamazenta Base against Kommo-o, which screams Play Rough or Psychic Fangs, and forces the Rotom sack. Slowking basically is unkillable now and just Teleport again and again until Greybaum wins. I don't really like Greybaum's team considering how many holes it has, but he had a good matchup and the predictions clinched him his first win.

To sum up week 1, we got many interesting teamstyles, however with noticeable flaws which can be attributed to inexperienced players and new meta post Kyogre. It defintely will be interesting to see how the meta evolves from here.
 

pannu

THE GONG OF KNOCKOUT
is a Top Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Social Media Contributor Alumnus
Week 1 games in OMWC
(Click on the pictures for replays!)
1663972748962.png
Like, i know i called both of these guys my son in my predicts but they didn't have to take it so literally and load up a team i made and a mon i popularized. This game was really weird, FC let his walls get overwhelmed quite easily (and also forgot Water Spout on specs Pelli which is like ??? the only reason to run this mon outside of Rain???) and albiet he got a bit unlucky with rolls on the Zydog, which i thought was a cool bring, especially with stuff like Washer, Thundy-T, Corv, and Pex Being so popular. Clemetine sorta no-diffed though (which can be expected cuz he was using my team). Fc's team is really cool, I've built a handful of Specs Peli semi-rain teams myself and its a very underrated mon, BlissBuzz is also a super dope defensive core rn and the Zydog bring is very on par with his innovative style, ill definitely have to try the mon out myself.

1663972662767.png
If i had a dollar for everytime someone used my old OMPL sand team w1 in OMWC, id have two dollars, which isnt alot but it is weird that it happened twice. I actually spoke with beauts about this team and we did change some sets, the pex is AV, Torn has diffrent Evs and moves, and Rotom is 4a Expert Belt, a set i believe is courtesy of Fissure ?. Theres some other changes too, honestly i think i prefer this version of the team to the one i used in OMPL. This game wasnt to interesting so i wont cover it, lots of questionable plays and yellow magic (Is this a BH reference?). LBDC's team is quite cool though; ive always been a big fan of Steelix even though i never used it myself, and the defensive core is quite solid. Hatt and Ace are sorta weird brings? But i FW it, i mean after all it won.

I will say that this is a pretty weird team for CB Buzzwole. Buzzwole has been on quite the rise recently in viability and usage, with a whopping two uses and 50% winrate this week! I personally didn't expect this in a post-gambit meta, as Buzzwole was one of the biggest losers of that ban IMO. While i think that sets like 3a + Roost are quite good (Sand Counter + Momentum gainer:wow:) I think that alot of its recent popularity can mostly be credited to CB Buzz; popularized on "Cutman". Personally i think the set is very good, however, it doesnt quite beat 3A Pivot in my opinion as it requires Future Sight support and heavy pivoting to work at all. Those No-Retreat sets that pop up at times are very poor in my opinion, especially in a post-gambit meta.

1663972627149.png
Dr. Phd. BJ why are you playing STAB? I thought you retired? You better sub out by next week, i wanna play betathunder. Despite that, the doctors team is very cool, Urshi-RS is a mon i rate surprisingly high in the current meta despite it being unable to run No-Retreat + Gambit, and this more balance approach is a very cool one, i definitely like this team, or at the very least the concept. Dugzas team is an eyesore! But then i found out that longhiep built it so i went like "oh checks out". The Choice Specs Porygon he brought was incredibly cool, definitely "word-esque" as I've heard it described in the om cord. I dont really get 2 Poison-types no psychic resist + blissey + RillaLucha Balance but, it worked. I do wanna point out that i think some really suboptimal sets were brought this game, im not a huge fan of Flip Turn on mons that get U-turn in a Seismitoad meta, the extra damage just isnt worth it in my opinion. Similarly. i think running any non-SD Rillaboom is also a bit of a waste. Encore Hawlucha was cool though.

1663972592884.png
God, not being able to play on alts hurts my soul, what a stupid rule. Anyways, for my own game this week i not only got dodged by Byleth, but also ended up bringing sand, i think that this team has some very cool sets, cores, and techs id like to talk about. Heres an edited version of my team, that you can reference and follow along what im on about. if you wanna use this yourself make your own EV spreads and fill in the missing moves!

One of the MVP's this game was Specs Tornadus-T, this set is very interesting and has some things over NP, notably immediate power and the freedom to run an extra coverage move, at the cost of being more prediction reliant and having less, hell, little to none defensive utility. I think the set works on this team because it will help the main two sweepers, Dracozolt and Urshifu through their checks. Notably in this game Tornadus killed Rotom-W, which was a major pain for my team to handle, Heatran, and Seismitoad, while almost always being in the back to pressure Buzzwole aswell. In tests its also gotten surprise KO's on mons like Rotom-H, Thundurus-T, and Toxapex too. Speaking of Seismitoad, Sasha ended up using a Sp.Def Seismitoad this week, i would like you all to know that max max Sp.Def Seis is very ungood, you can run some Sp.Def if you want, but it needs the defense to handle mons like Dracozolt and Tyranitar. If you wanna run a Sp.Def mon run Gastrodon instead.

Another cool set on this team is Urshifu. Ive been laddering quite a bit of SSOU recently and a set I've fallen in love with is ProtPads Urshifu, Surging Strikes is so spammable and Close Combat and U-turn are fantastic moves to hit the very few resists with as well. However, Urshifu really only needs those 3 moves to work, the last slot can be almost anything, which led me to the idea of No Retreat. No Retreat last on Urshifu is great because it makes Urshifu a sweeper and not only a wall breaker, against more offensive teams you can set up a No-Retreat and basically be both Choice Scared and Choice Banded while being able to switch moves. U-Turn and Protective Pads also help out,letting Urshifu stay healthy and be able to pivot around in a game, with little to no punishments. U-Turn notably lets it escape No Retreats trapping side effect. It can also help with putting yourself in good situations, lets say that your opponent has a Tangrowth against this team, you can force it in with No Retreat, then U-turn out into your Torn-T and get a free attack! Really cool synergy with the rest of the offensive threats on this team. Its also a really good partner for Dracozolt specifically, as it lures Seismitoad amazingly (+1 CC does 70% min, if you get trapped by TWaves you can freely set up more No Retreats by the way) Unfortunately this was a really bad Match-up for Urshifu so it didn't do anything, definitely a worthwhile set tho.

Urshifu needs Future Sight to function, which led me to wanna use AV Slowking. I used to hate the mon Post-Lele Post-Gambit, but i think its a really good mon in the current Meta. Its similar to Rotom-W in that its a Water-type that puts offensive pressure on teams and isnt totally passive. Future Sight is another great tool in its arsenal. Its got a very wide movepool and can tech almost anything it wants to, on this team I've got Grass-Knot for opposing Urshifu and Seismitoad, however you can run alot of things, Flamethrower comes to mind as something I've ran in the past for CG Ferro. You should definitely use Slowking more.​
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top