XY Doubles Replays

[Pocket]

Laga choked in the first game IMO - saccing Heatran against your Levitate Heatran when he had Rotom-W, for instance. I have to admit, you pulled that Skill Swap Cress + Sub Tran combo excellently. Why isn't your Heatran holding Leftovers, though @.@ (Heatran ended up dying to your own Hail lol). Also, seems like you've ditched Druddigon for Haxorus n_n - at that point, you should go with Kyurem-Black, which has greater special bulk, and functions better in Trick Room (assuming you're using Haxorus under TR ?.?)

You had a major handicap on the 2nd round, but you put up a good fight, Deoxymoron. I don't really understand your affection for Hippowdon, though. Tyranitar could have saved you against Laga's Heatran and Latios much more reliably, and you have Talonflame for Hitmontop. It was your weakest link IMHO.

 

[Laga]

Laga choked in the first game IMO - saccing Heatran against your Levitate Heatran when he had Rotom-W, for instance.

I wasn't saccing Heatran tho. I just thought the Rotom-W switch-in was so obvious, so I reckoned he would use Heat Wave to predict the switch-in. I just got outplayed there :/

Anyways yeah, those two games were both really good. The first team kept surprising me, and eventually got the better of me through the stupid sub levitran :/ The second game i played a little better, though i did make a misplay in not going for the Tailwind / hitting the other mon with Latios when Mega Garchomp attacked it; I forgot Tailwind was up :(

 

[Deoxymoron]

Laga choked in the first game IMO - saccing Heatran against your Levitate Heatran when he had Rotom-W, for instance. I have to admit, you pulled that Skill Swap Cress + Sub Tran combo excellently. Why isn't your Heatran holding Leftovers, though @.@ (Heatran ended up dying to your own Hail lol). Also, seems like you've ditched Druddigon for Haxorus n_n - at that point, you should go with Kyurem-Black, which has greater special bulk, and functions better in Trick Room (assuming you're using Haxorus under TR ?.?)

You had a major handicap on the 2nd round, but you put up a good fight, Deoxymoron. I don't really understand your affection for Hippowdon, though. Tyranitar could have saved you against Laga's Heatran and Latios much more reliably, and you have Talonflame for Hitmontop. It was your weakest link IMHO.

My Tran is holding Charcoal, which I like because it gets a few neat OHKOs and 2HKOs that it couldn't before.

calcs

252+ SpA Heatran Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 153-181 (40 - 47.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ SpA Charcoal Heatran Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 184-217 (48.1 - 56.8%) -- 89.8% chance to 2HKO

252+ SpA Heatran Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Mawile: 266-314 (87.5 - 103.2%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Charcoal Heatran Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Mawile: 320-378 (105.2 - 124.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ SpA Heatran Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Conkeldurr: 180-213 (43.4 - 51.4%) -- 7.4% chance to 2HKO
252+ SpA Charcoal Heatran Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Conkeldurr: 216-255 (52.1 - 61.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

There are quite a few others, especially with Helping Hand. But yeah, I'm considering switching back over to Leftovers. I'll definitely try Kyurem-B as well, I can't believe I forgot him >.<

To be honest, I don't love Hippowdon. However, it has a very important trait that means I have to run it over Tyranitar- its typing. Being neutural to EQ and immune to Discharge is super important on a DisQuake team. Although Tyranitar is also somewhat bulky, especially on the special side, its combination of 7 weaknesses (3 of which have priority) and average physical bulk didn't really work out for me. On any other team, I'd have run it instead.

 

[Nollan]

Thought I should present a couple of replays from earlier today.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-71650671

A fun match vs blarajan (youngjake takes over turn 6 onwards). My semi-TR team does work against his sun team in a pretty one-sided match. It does highlight Thundurus-T, a threat which I think is incredibly underrated in the Smogon Doubles metagame. Other mentions go to Cresselia for its use of Trick Room which allowed me to pretty much dominate the remainder of the match and Heatran for a well placed Eruption.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-71641541

Another interesting match against Pocket (Briggs Bear). My team won mostly because I had VoltTurn on my team which allowed me to avoid the effects of Perish Song with Landorus-T and Rotom-W. While it is true I would quite possibly have lost without the critical hit on Ice Punch, Pocket pulled off a double Protect and a critical hit later on so it balances out. I really just posted this to show Perish Trap isn't unbeatable, though it is admittedly very annoying...

Just to talk briefly about the team I used, it's built around Defiant Tailwind Braviary, which imo is probably one of the best Defiantmons available since Tornadus lost Flying Gem. Other members of the team include: Lando-T, Specs Rotom-W, Substitute Heatran, bulky Conkeldurr, and Snarl Raikou.

Bonus Prebank Replay

Just as a tribute to Prebank SmogDubs, here is a match between me and kingofmars:

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-67453195

After some intense predicting, a WoW miss puts things in my favor. Unfortunately, I get caught off guard by Choice Scarf Gardevoir, which snags on easy KO on Garchomp. Ultimately, it comes down to TTar and Mega Pinsir vs Scarf Gardevoir and Charizard. I likely would have lost if Charizard Y had mega evolved and attacked, since Tyranitar would have lost its SpD boost from sandstorm and taken 50% more from Moonblast. Then Heat Wave would've landed a double KO. Fortunately for me kingofmars used Protect instead, which gave me the win.

 

[Darkmalice]

Now that both me and Laga got knocked out of Minotaurs, here's our round 1 battle against each other. It's my bulky Trick Room team versus his goodstuff team.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-70445853

A few perks:
-Scrafty's surprise move - you will see it if you watch
-It's better to Volt Switch with Mega Manetric early in the match then try to score a KO with a coverage attack - the opponent will usually try to avoid said coverage attack (this keeps on happening against good opponents). This also helps set up TR (as Intimidate activates before to help it set up).
-Risky move by me on round 4, keeping Heatran in against the threat of Earth Power. Sacced Manetric in the process, and had the chance to 2HKO both opponents with Heat Wave... set up Sub instead. I should have played that better.
-Accuracy denying Laga the chance to stop Subtran from spamming Subs - at this point, he lost the ability to reliably check it
-A lot of predictions on both sides

 

[BLOOD TOTEM]

Moving a couple of replays from my cores post to here.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-72281146
This game shows how damn good Feint can be. My opponent had Heatran stone walled by Wide Guard Hitmontop, thankfully, Scizor was available to come in on it and break it. I feel that it really is a strong move to be using since the Wide / Quick Guard buffs. It works great with the spam of powerful spread moves and, notably Trick Room and Tailwind as it keeps your momentum going and makes you harder to stall out.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokebanksmogondoublesbeta-72042395
A decent game, again, Feint performs well helping me to take out his Charizard and keep my Trick Room's momentum going. I feel it also shows the importance of running some unexpected Ground-type coverage to help you slam the tran. Hyper Voice / HP Ground / Psyshock is probably the optimum set for Mega Gardevoir outside of my weird TR set imo.

 

[RamsahtheNurse]

It has Wide Guard (Egg Move) which is pretty cool. I just think people are expecting Aegislash to be an offensive menace when it really isn't. A Swords Dance set seems pretty unpractical for a Pokemon who lacks good offensive STAB, imo. I can see something like Gyro Ball / Shadow Sneak / Wide Guard / Protect (King's Shield can't guard from status so it is inferior imo) or Gyro Ball / Shadow Sneak / Sacred Sword / Wide Guard working pretty well on it, though.

Aegislash with protect is silly due to it not going back into devensive form

 

[Nollan]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-73874821

Close match vs Lolkomori (wut is a double). Shows HailRoom is as stupidly anti-meta as ever (even if the only use of Hail was a sacrifice to get Shaymin-S out of the way x_x). Highlight team members of the match are Jellicent for proving itself awesome when I dropped Chandelure to a bad misplay and Assault Vest Scrafty for being annoyingly bulky (tanking LO Dragon Pulses all day long).

 

[Pocket]

A bit of hax, but still an interesting game, Nollan ;d. Marowak is such a ballsy mon with Bonemerang utterly shitting over SubTran. That alone makes it a worthy candidate on Trick Room teams. Sub Protect is also another innovative option on Marowak; have you considered Play Rough for Scrafty, though? Its lack of Fire-resistance is unfortunate, but I guess that's where Chandelure and Jellicent come into play.

 

[VarunR]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-74386822

A 22 turn game, with me essentially countering Rain without Sun, losing my Charizard-Y early. Lost in the end due to a bloody critical hit.

 

[Haruno]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-73949691

Close match vs Nollan with me using truces team against his good stuff. Shows how big a prick that bisharp is to offensive teams. A pretty close match that only ended in my win because of a questionable play on nollans part but a good battle overall.

 

[Nollan]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-73949691

Close match vs Nollan with me using truces team against his good stuff. Shows how big a prick that bisharp is to offensive teams. A pretty close match that only ended in my win because of a questionable play on nollans part but a good battle overall.

Was trying out CB Bisharp and Scarf Cloyster. xD So far I can say I'm not very impressed.

Also had a good match vs Blank_Zero:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-74470203

After I was caught off guard by Jolly Scarf Landorus-T (srsly do people actually use that?), then Rock Slide missed Togekiss (;-;), and after I misplayed (or misclicked or whatever went wrong I honestly don't care xD) using Eruption into Wide Guard I was pretty sure I was going to lose. Fortunately for me, Conkeldurr saved the day (LO Conkeldurr is still the best hands down imo).

 

[AuraRayquaza]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-smogondoubles-333

Me vs pwne in our farm league match and i shit you not, this was one of the best games ive ever played. Straight away from turn 2 there were predictions being made. The game could really have gone either way with one hydro pump miss each. Turn 26/27 is where the floodgates opened, and some ballsy plays on my side set myself up for a heatran endgame sweep. Overall, a great game and we both played pretty much immaculately throughout.

 

[BlankZero]

This right here was a fun match.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-76811892

Showcases how well ScarfTar does in this meta right now.

Edit: Me vs AuraRayquaza for Team bats tour.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-76834931

 

[BlankZero]

Double Post cuz SPL games aren't posted ever and SPL players don't post games.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-78658547

Good ladder match finally.

 

[youngjake93]

Double Post cuz SPL games aren't posted ever and SPL players don't post games.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-78658547

Good ladder match finally.

There are threads for SPL replays and here is a non-SPL game from me bro. Now you are liar :D

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-78691542

This is also against WrightOfWay and the match I used to get #1 on the ladder this time. It has a combination of overly safe plays, but also paid-off ballsy predicts. 29 total switch-ins in this battle shows how Stealth Rocks keep looking more and most enticing. Also, my favorite part was 1% HP Scarf Landorus-T :D
Lots of metagame knowledge at work here such as switching in Heatran on the WoW, switching Heatran out on the Feint+Earth Power or substituting on the Wide Guard.

 

[Pocket]

lol dat 1% sweep xD I also enjoyed the double-target KO of the opponent's Landorus-T with your Dragonite and Kangaskhan's priority moves.
The only questionable play that I managed to spot was Turn 21 where you used Protect with Dragonite and Sucker Punch on a Garchomp, which used Protect. I would have went with ExtremeSpeed on Garchomp for the coinflip KO and Drain Punch Tyranitar with your Kangaskhan. It didn't matter in the end, though

 

[youngjake93]

lol dat 1% sweep xD I also enjoyed the double-target KO of the opponent's Landorus-T with your Dragonite and Kangaskhan's priority moves.
The only questionable play that I managed to spot was Turn 21 where you used Protect with Dragonite and Sucker Punch on a Garchomp, which used Protect. I would have went with ExtremeSpeed on Garchomp for the coinflip KO and Drain Punch Tyranitar with your Kangaskhan. It didn't matter in the end, though

Turn 3 I targeted Heatran on an obvious Protect because it was threatened by everything out at the time.
Turn 5 I completely unnecessarily lock myself into Rock Slide lol which gave him a lot of momentum.
Turn 9 I was pretty positive of the U-Turn, but Protected Dragonite.
Turn 17 I could have Dragon Clawed Garchomp on another obvious Protect from Heatran.
Turn 18 I could have Dragon Clawed/Earthquaked instead of Extreme Speeding bc Garchomp was debilitated so it was a low risk predict, but meh.

So yea it was definitely not flawless lol, but most of my misplays were just overly safe rather than dumb at least.

 

[BlankZero]

There are threads for SPL replays and here is a non-SPL game from me bro. Now you are liar :D

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-78691542

This is also against WrightOfWay and the match I used to get #1 on the ladder this time. It has a combination of overly safe plays, but also paid-off ballsy predicts. 29 total switch-ins in this battle shows how Stealth Rocks keep looking more and most enticing. Also, my favorite part was 1% HP Scarf Landorus-T :D
Lots of metagame knowledge at work here such as switching in Heatran on the WoW, switching Heatran out on the Feint+Earth Power or substituting on the Wide Guard.

I feel like if I hadn't let Scrafty AND Lando get burned in my game, I could have done better. Good replay though. I hope we can get that guy onto the forums or something soon.

And ya, Lando-T running SR would be a Metagame ruiner in high level play I think, since Ladder games don't involve 25+ turns or multiple switches. Also, good use of CM Cress. Could you PM me that set? I used to run one at the beginning of SmogDubz but haven't seen a super one in a while lol.

 

[Laga]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-78711607

An amazing game I had against apt-get :)

There are a shitton of smart and noticeable plays from both sides, but keeping Terrakion alive for the end game was very smartly done by apt. And balloontran is gey imo =/

 

[youngjake93]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-78711607

An amazing game I had against apt-get :)

There are a shitton of smart and noticeable plays from both sides, but keeping Terrakion alive for the end game was very smartly done by apt. And balloontran is gey imo =/

The play I wanted to see was on Turn 8. Laga could have Mach Punched Rotom-W and switched out Landog. The next turn when Terrakion came out, you would have had your reliable switch-in waiting in the wings rather than on the field locked into worthless Stone Edge.
Good stuff guys. I like the balloontran lol and I like how apt-get played aggressive against Conkeldurr while conservative enough with Terrakion.

 

[WrightOfWay]

I feel like if I hadn't let Scrafty AND Lando get burned in my game, I could have done better. Good replay though. I hope we can get that guy onto the forums or something soon.

And ya, Lando-T running SR would be a Metagame ruiner in high level play I think, since Ladder games don't involve 25+ turns or multiple switches. Also, good use of CM Cress. Could you PM me that set? I used to run one at the beginning of SmogDubz but haven't seen a super one in a while lol.

I am around here, I just never post. I'm pretty new to doubles and am having a lot of fun learning the format.

 

[youngjake93]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-79294612

Me vs Ablast
Very interesting lengthy battle. Stealth rocks basically got me the win here. Arctic switched in a total of 23! times while I switched in 18 times. I really thought I was going to lose for most of the match, but my Pokemon pulled off some clutch maneuvers in low HP situations. I find it funny how we both played scared of things like Scarf Stone Edge Landog or Draco Meteor Megarchomp, but they didn't happened. Good intense battle!

 

[BlankZero]

So I got quite a few good battle in today, as well as some fun matches with my tutee.

Me Vs. Pocket

I was actually really worried during this battle. His predictions were amazing the whole first 85% of the game but I somehow pulled off a win. I set up Rocks because I figured his Deo would have Sash, and Lando has Stone edge still instead of Rock Slide, which honestly, I don't prefer. his Kiss living with 6% really threw me off though, and hurt me so much early game. the Flinch the next turn didn't help either. The whole early game was just me thinking "how can I kill Kiss while not letting Kanga set up and wreck me." Then i switch in TTar thinking he won't go for the PuP on Bisharp when it can easily Protect, but he does anyhow. Then he predicts the Stone Edge. I finally get a break when he sets up Tailwind the same turn I set Trick Room, and he reveals Suckerpunch as his 3rd move (Return/Double Edge obvious at this point). Things go ok til he gets the second Protect up on DeoA and I just Suckerpunch into it again, instead of just killing Chomp, and I lose Cress. Luckily, Pocket chokes on the last turn, Heat Waving me (guess he though I was 4 HP Tran or something) and gives me Flash Fire as I kill his Tran. I wrap up the game 1-0, and breathe a sigh of relief lol.

Me Vs. averagejoel

This game was actually a lot of fun. It showed off the effectiveness of a few of my sets (Shuca/NonSub Heatran with Ancientpower, Emergency TR/CM Cress, and Sash Full Speed Lando) against Standard Sand. My predictions in this game saved my ass (as did a little luck [thank you 0 turn Freeze]), and I ended the game in a close 3-0.

Finally, I have 3 replays from my most recent tutoring session. I challenged Gyarad0s to make a new team that didn't use Tailwind, Autoweather or Suicune, as he favors them pretty hard. He ended up with a Manual Rain team that did pretty damn well, which he modified and adapted in the second game. We finished the session with his new Manual Sun team which runs MegaHoundoom.

I also adjusted the team to include Bulky Rotom over Lando to add Burns and a Water resist to the team.

Tutoring Session replays

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-79748354
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-79754256
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-79758054

 

[Pocket]

lol I thought Landorus-T was scarfed all throughout the game, despite it changing moves and using Protect at various moments in the battle. It just didn't register to me fsr v_v. I guess 2 hours of sleep got to me or something; surprised that I can ever choke like that, though z_z