OU Replay Contest - Round 4 Submissions OPEN

[Halcyon.]

I agree that Scarf Salamence would have been a good choice for the team, and Scarf Wynaut was unlucky that he didn't have it in this match, but I agree with everything SS said in his post about the match. Honestly, I think the match can be summarized in two sentences: Scarf Wynaut switched out Heatran on Latias. His Jellicent didn't get a crit. Had he simply Roared until Terrakion came in, then he could have worn everything down much more before having to try to take on Latias 1v1. He could have put it to sleep with Roserade and then revenged with Salamence. That was the big misplay of the match, and I think he easily could have won had he just kept it in. Also, he spent so many freakin' turns using Shadow Ball and didn't get a single crit.

 

[Halcyon.]

Okay, so here's my replay

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-41878730

Great battle here, which is seriously close. SootingStarmie make a few misplays, and Kushalos makes some great predictions (turn 1, turn 10, turn 23/24, etc). SootingStarmie is saved a few times by literally 1%, and the battle is seriously close. Turn 39 is the turn that determines the game. I recommend you watch it.

I think the clear MVP of this match is ShootinStarmie's Celebi. His opponent's team has just about nothing to deal with it, as EBelt Latios isn't doing much with Draco Meteor, and obviously Celebi is never going to stay in on Heatran, so he really has no way of defeating it, especially since it can use Baton pass to grab momentum for when he dares to switch in Heatran or Mamoswine. His EBelt Latios lure was neat, but he didn't really use it to its fullest. I think SS played a great match. He saved his Celebi for most of it, knowing that it took on most of his team, and then when everything had been sufficiently worn down, he was able to clean up with his other Pokémon.

I also think it's funny that his Breloom was saved one turn by being Jolly (sporing Celebi) and then lost the next for the same reason (couldn't KO Celebi).

 

[Shurtugal]

I'm going to comment on ShootinStarmie's match:

At a glance, I thought that Kushalos had the huge team advantage. LO Surf Latios absoluetely looks annoying to face alongside LO Mamoswine, and personally with TTar to eliminate Latios I thought SS had this lost.

However...

Kushalos didn't bring LO Latios; Kushalos brought EXPERT BELT Latios, which proved to hinder him the entire match (doing piss weak damage to everything). There were a lot of good and bad plays on both sides: ShootinStarmie's worst play imo was going into Gengar on Mamoswine -- I would have stayed in with Heatran since Gengar (whom is lured by both Superpower, piss weak Ice Shard, and EQ immunity) seemed like an obvious pick and was easily predictable imo (it also helps that Heatran didn't really contribute to much apart from checking Latios *whom was dead* and putting pressure on the opposing Heatran *although SS had Rotom-W). I saw no risk in just letting Heatra die since Gengar had more utility. (Like checking Breloom XDDDDDD)

However, SS plays well too (SR as Tyranitar crunches twice; then predicting the switch out to Latios and smashing the switch with a U-turn; Volt Switching with Rotom-W on Mamoswine predicting the switch out wonderfully). Kushalos pulls some good plays too (luring out LandoT and HP Ice'ing with Timid Tran; predicting Celebi early game and smacking it with HP Bug. Honestly that would have won him the game since it was in LO Draco KO range, but he brought Expert Belt so...)

Kushalos also made some bad plays (Crunching twince on LandoT when he should have predicted the obvious SR and switched out rather than let TTar take more poison damage, etc.).

IMO, if Kushalos brought LO Latios the game would have turned out completely different (the damage output on Rotom-W and Celebi immensely affected the match). However, I felt that SS simply outplayed Kushalos on an overall scale, and despite the team disadvantage still came out on top. The last few turns had me going with the sleep turns and what not XD.

Great match SS! :)

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

For the record, I am not Scarf Wynaut on Showdown...

This is yet another reason why I want my username changed.

I am kind of wondering why he didn't just switch to Skarm and whirlwind out before letting Latias eat his whole team really. Also interesting use of Hidden Power Fighting on Latias Scottie.

Well since I mentioned him by accident before, I looked at Starmie's battle. Overall it was very well played, he managed to keep his Celebi in the game despite the opponent having HP-Bug Keldeo AND Pursuit Support from Tyranitar. My option complain would be that we should of played around Breloom more cautiously at the end, perhaps sleep sacking a Rotom-W, if he got high rolls with Breloom on Bullet seed that could of been GG right there.

 

[craing ;_;]

hai frands c: heres my repray http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-18501345

While ben gay's smeargle lead fails to cripple something with spore and set up crucial stealth rocks first turn, the opponent practically leads off with a significant 5-6 advantage. As our hero struggles to make some sort of progress in such a fruitless endeavor, he is praised by the hax gods and is awarded with a game-changing freeze. This allows him to get up stealth rocks, as well as letting him set up multiple trick rooms on the opponent since free turns are quite rare in this highly offensive metagame known as OU. However his opponent is barely showing any kind of weakness as he easily is able to recover from said hax and outplay our hero with his dirty antics. As the epic drama between ben gay and barelytesting comes to a close end, who will emerge victorious? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z.

Clarifications: Turn 16: I made a half-half prediction predicting him to fear ice punch and switch out to take it as it would stall out tr turns and rack up lo damage on me but he stays in outpredicting me and sets up rocks. Turn 17: He switches out to rotom fearing ice beam and trying to unthaw, although i don't carry it on cress and i switch to zong to take a likely uturn giving him a better impression that bronzong is levitate (i run heatproof). Turn 23: I switched out conkeldurr to cress although i could have killed his rotom off there because i didnt want my opponent to get a free switch in and i lose momentum, but I got greedy and he unfroze. Turn 36: A VERY crucial miss, if i didnt miss hammer arm, i would've taken an extra 10% and i wouldn't have been able to survive the recoil of rough skin and life orb when I killed garchomp off which means he would've won with his zor as i died to recoil. Turn 41: what determines the victor is this final move. Was a 50/50 situation whether he would bullet punch or switch out, but i could have killed him with mach since i outsped as trick room was up, so figuring that he would know this since he outplayed me the majority of the game, i predict his prediction and seal the game off with a very unorthodox tie. This is a game i should not have won and was surprised with the end result. Although it didn't come to me in the game, i actually could have won at turn 26 if i outplayed him there as that damage was very crucial, but that can be said about any situation. Overall, one of the best ladder matches i found on PS and a memorable one at that. (Sorry ill rate someones battle soon pretty busy atm :[)

 

[ShootingStarmie]

hai frands c: heres my repray http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-18501345

While ben gay's smeargle lead fails to cripple something with spore and set up crucial stealth rocks first turn, the opponent practically leads off with a significant 5-6 advantage. As our hero struggles to make some sort of progress in such a fruitless endeavor, he is praised by the hax gods and is awarded with a game-changing freeze. This allows him to get up stealth rocks, as well as letting him set up multiple trick rooms on the opponent since free turns are quite rare in this highly offensive metagame known as OU. However his opponent is barely showing any kind of weakness as he easily is able to recover from said hax and outplay our hero with his dirty antics. As the epic drama between ben gay and barelytesting comes to a close end, who will emerge victorious? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z.

Clarifications: Turn 16: I made a half-half prediction predicting him to fear ice punch and switch out to take it as it would stall out tr turns and rack up lo damage on me but he stays in outpredicting me and sets up rocks. Turn 17: He switches out to rotom fearing ice beam and trying to unthaw, although i don't carry it on cress and i switch to zong to take a likely uturn giving him a better impression that bronzong is levitate (i run heatproof). Turn 36: A VERY crucial miss, if i didnt miss hammer arm, i would've taken an extra 10% and i wouldn't have been able to survive the recoil of rough skin and life orb when I killed garchomp off which means he would've won with his zor as i died to recoil. Turn 41: what determines the victor is this final move. Was a 50/50 situation whether he would bullet punch or switch out, but i could have killed him with mach since i outsped as trick room was up, so figuring that he would know this since he outplayed me the majority of the game, i predict his prediction and seal the game off with a very unorthodox tie. This is a game i should not have won and was surprised with the end result. Although it didn't come to me in the game, i actually could have won at turn 26 if i outplayed him there as that damage was very crucial, but that can be said about any situation. Overall, one of the best ladder matches i found on PS and a memorable one at that.

Okay, this is a rate for ben gay's battle

Turn 4. That crit on Porygon-2 I'm pretty sure mattered. I don't think Magnezone would have been able to KO next turn, allowing you to get off another hit. Turn 10. BarelyTesting is just trying to stall out Trick Room turns, which is all he can do at the moment to be honest. Unfortunatlely, ben gay get's the Freeze on Rotom-W, which seems pretty crucial. Ben gay takes advantage of this and sets up SR, along with another Trick Room. Turn 15, BarelyTesting is still making great predictions, which is all he can really do vs. Conk under Trick Room. Turn 16, BarelyTesting gets his rocks up. Turn 20, Ben gay over predicts with Conk, which wastes a turn of Trick Room, as well as LO recoil. Turn 21, BarelyTesting makes another great play and sends in Landorus-T for the Intimidate. Turn 22, again another prediction, although the risk of going for a Hammer Arm on Landorus-T was too risky imo, so ben gay made the right play. Turn 23, Rotom-W finally thaws out, and gains a lot of HP back from Cresselia. Turn 25, ben gay shows us Lunar Dance, allowing Conk to be back at 94% health, which is amazing for ben gay at the moment. Turn 26, ben gay over predicts again, as he Ice Punches Scizor. Turn 27, ben gay finally gets rid of Rotom-W with a nice prediction.

After turn 35, ben gay's game plan was obvious. Explode with Bronzong, and sweep with Conk under Trick Room. Turn 40, Latias is taken out of the game by Normal Explosion, and Conk has 29% left vs. Garchomp and Scizor. Barely Testing switches in Scizor, luring in the Mach Punch to get so LO and Rough Skin reocoil (once he switches into Chomp). ben gay makes the play of the match and goes for Ice Punch on the predicted Garchomp. Scizor switches in and is KOd by a Mach Punch, while Conk is also KOd by LO recoil, resulting in a tie.

Fantastic game ben gay. This game involved a ton of prediction, and the game was seriously close. It was kinda haxy with the freeze, but no one controls hax. Great game Ben. :]

 

[Jukain]

Great submissions and discussion, everyone!

Update for submitters:

@X5Dragon, @Halcyon of Light, and @ShootinStarmie have fulfilled the commenting requirement

@MCBarrett, @scotti, and @ben gay still require one comment on another person's match in order for their submissions to be counted

There are two days left before the voting stage begins! @Tassa, I am considering a few options, including IRV (vote for all options in preferential order) and two votes (like the CCAT). Rest assured, you will have the option to vote for multiple replays.

 

[Usatoday]

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-40248688
Looking at the teams Usatoday is utilizing a hippo sand team focused around breloom and heatran punching through holes for jirachi to come in late game and iron head spam. His team also uses a defensive core between heatran, hippowdown, and rotom wash to provide momentum against the opponent by double switches, volt turning, and finally phasing. The dragonknight however is using a more offensive rain team that uses the offensive core of volcarona and dragonite to pound through each others counters so that they can set up and sweep potentially late game. He is also using a defensive rain core of politoed, tentacruel, and landorus therian to break through multiple pokemon and ensure spinning with tentacruel at the best possible moment. The final pokemon is a unique scarf jirachi spread used to help better take special attacks as his team hates to face choice spec latios. The actual battle is a close one with some misplays by both parties for example on turns 22-24 by letting the dragonite set up a assuming sweep however the dragonknight didn't fully train his dragonite's speed investment allowing jirachi to outspeed and ohko with ice punch. Looking at threats on both sides depending on the volcarona spread it could easily wreck Usatoday's team while vice versa the Latios could easily put in some work against the Dragonknight.

 

[ShootingStarmie]

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-40248688
Looking at the teams Usatoday is utilizing a hippo sand team focused around breloom and heatran punching through holes for jirachi to come in late game and iron head spam. His team also uses a defensive core between heatran, hippowdown, and rotom wash to provide momentum against the opponent by double switches, volt turning, and finally phasing. The dragonknight however is using a more offensive rain team that uses the offensive core of volcarona and dragonite to pound through each others counters so that they can set up and sweep potentially late game. He is also using a defensive rain core of politoed, tentacruel, and landorus therian to break through multiple pokemon and ensure spinning with tentacruel at the best possible moment. The final pokemon is a unique scarf jirachi spread used to help better take special attacks as his team hates to face choice spec latios. The actual battle is a close one with some misplays by both parties for example on turns 22-24 by letting the dragonite set up a assuming sweep however the dragonknight didn't fully train his dragonite's speed investment allowing jirachi to outspeed and ohko with ice punch. Looking at threats on both sides depending on the volcarona spread it could easily wreck Usatoday's team while vice versa the Latios could easily put in some work against the Dragonknight.

The DragonKnight starts off with a huge lead from turn 1, as he's able to cripple Usatoday's Hippowdon, making it much easier to win the weather war. Turn 4, Usatoday makes a nice play and Toxic's Politoed, putting a timer on it's health. Turn 7, Usatoday over predicts and goes for Will-O-Wisp. This was by no means a bad play, as I also expected something like Landorus-T to come in to take it. However, Politoed stays in and hits Rotom-W with a Toxic, which can be crucial if this isn't a Chesto Resto Rotom-W. Turn 9, DragonKnight makes a nice play, switching Tentacruel in on Rotom-W's Hydro Pump, and racking up even more Toxic damage. Turn 11, as expected, this is Chesto Resto Rotom-W, and Rotom-W is now back at full health vs. Politoed. Turn 13, Usatoday shows us that he in fact is running Poison Heal Breloom! He then made an excellent prediction last turn, and now has a huge advantage. Landorus-T comes in for the Intimidate, but expected the Spore, which I'm guessing is what will happen next turn. Turn 15, Usatoday has easily won the weather war, which is pretty big.

Now that Usatoday has won the weather war, and Landorus-T is asleep, he's in a commanding lead. Turn 20 however I believe was a misplay. Latios can't touch Jirachi, even if it is Scarfed (which is what I'm assuming by that damage from Surf). Turn 21, DragonKnight uses Latios as set up bait, and again Usatoday imo misplays by staying in only to break Multiscale. Turn 22 and this is looking like an easy sweep for Dragonite, depending on it's coverage move. Turn 23, DragonKnight shows us that he's running Earthquake, and even Usatoday says "gg" in the chat box. Turn 24, Choice Scarf Jirachi out speeds +2 Dragonite and OHKOs with Ice Punch! This much have been a bulky version of DD Dragonite. Turn 25, this Volcarona could be scary if it has HP Ground, but if it doesn't Heatran walls it. Turn 26, Volcarona uses HP Ground and KOes Heatran! Surely this is GG. Turn 27, DragonKnight makes a very questionable play and switches Volcarona out. maybe he was fearing the Trick? Jirachi tries toget some hax going and goes for Iron Head. Turn 34, Jirachi is going for the Flinch Hax, as Usatoday can't really do much else. Turn 36, Jirachi gets a burn, and Volcarona is at very low health. He needs to move next turn to have a chance in sweeping. Turn 37, DragonKnight switches Jirachi in, maybe he's going to use Healing Wish for Volcarona? Turn 38, he revials the Healing Wish! This could be good game right here. DragonKnight doesn't go for Quiver Dance, which imo probably will cost hit the game. It would have been much safer to go for Quiver Dance first. Turn 41, it turns out they're both using Healing Wish Jirachi! Rotom-W is back at full health, and Usatoday looks like he's going to win! Breloom comes in on a predicted Toxic and sweeps easily.

GG!

Well, this match was very intense. I think DragonKnight had so many opportunities to win, but Usatoday somehow stopped a +2 Dragonite, a Volcarona without Heatran, and a Volcarona at full health. Seriously good battle. At times I thought it was GG for DragonKinght, and some how Usatoday found a way to grab the victory. There wasn't much (if any) hax in this match, which is always nice to see as well. I think it's clear that Usatoday's Jirachi was the MVP of the match, stopping a Dragonite sweep, and putting Rotom-W back at full health.

Great game.

 

[MCBarrett]

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-40248688
Looking at the teams Usatoday is utilizing a hippo sand team focused around breloom and heatran punching through holes for jirachi to come in late game and iron head spam. His team also uses a defensive core between heatran, hippowdown, and rotom wash to provide momentum against the opponent by double switches, volt turning, and finally phasing. The dragonknight however is using a more offensive rain team that uses the offensive core of volcarona and dragonite to pound through each others counters so that they can set up and sweep potentially late game. He is also using a defensive rain core of politoed, tentacruel, and landorus therian to break through multiple pokemon and ensure spinning with tentacruel at the best possible moment. The final pokemon is a unique scarf jirachi spread used to help better take special attacks as his team hates to face choice spec latios. The actual battle is a close one with some misplays by both parties for example on turns 22-24 by letting the dragonite set up a assuming sweep however the dragonknight didn't fully train his dragonite's speed investment allowing jirachi to outspeed and ohko with ice punch. Looking at threats on both sides depending on the volcarona spread it could easily wreck Usatoday's team while vice versa the Latios could easily put in some work against the Dragonknight.

I'll be doing these comments as I watch the battle and pausing in between.

• So right off the bat Usatoday gets a Scarf tricked to his Hippowdon which is pretty unfortunate. He does make a good play in going for Whirlwind rather than the obvious Earthquake which would have possibly let his opponent set up with Dragonite. Not sure of the set yet though.
• Usatoday then brings in Heatran to force out the Jirachi and sets up a Sub on the Politoed switch in which is a nice play, especially since he turns out to be a Sub Toxic set which is very neat. Both weather starters are crippled early on which is interesting.
• Usatoday then brings in Rotom-W predicting the switch but his opponent stays in. Usatoday predicts a switch again, going for Will-o-Wisp but Politoed stays in and Toxic's the Rotom-W. Very nice play there. It will be interesting to see if Usatoday is running Chesto but I'm gonna guess E-belt since I've rated one of his teams before ;)
• The opponent really seems to want that Rotom-W gone, as he protects once more with Politoed causing it to rack up even more Toxic damage. Maybe he feels Hippowdon will be easy to take out since its scarfed? Or maybe he has Healing Wish on his Jirachi, both things to look out for. The opponent continues to wear down Rotom-W with Tentacruel and its about time to reveal Rest if he has it.
• He does in fact have Rest which is huge because the opponent wasted about 30% Hp on his Politoed to try to wear down Rotom-W. Usatoday seems to be in control here.
• And that seems to be it for Politoed as the opponent almost seems to be sacking it to a pretty obvious Volt Switch. Makes me very curios about Healing Wish on Jirachi. Usatoday decides to go into Breloom which gets Toxic'd.
• Another win for Usatoday since his Breloom is Sub with Toxic Heal! The opponent has to be feeling pretty down that he basically gave his opponent the weather war and didn't get anything Toxic'd successfully in the process. Landorus-T comes in and gets the Intimidate for the opponent.
• Landorus-T takes the Spore and Politoed goes down to a Focus Punch. The opponent is gonna have to break Breloom's sub and set up with Dragonite or Volcarona if he wants to win.
• Dragonite comes in and Usatoday switches out into Hippowdon which is a good play since he won't be able to sweep thanks to Whirlwind. Dragonite sets up a DD on the switch and goes for the Outrage, which does a nice chunk, before getting Whirlwinded out. Dragonite does have Leftovers which means it can keep its Multiscale up in the Sand. The opponent has to be weary of Status though and I'm sure that is part of Usatoday's plan of taking it down.
• More Whirlwinding ensues until Jirachi and Latios enter the field. Latios stays in and goes for Surf as Jirachi U-Turns out, doing a nice chunk. If I were Usatoday I probably would've gone into Jirachi since it could've taken the U-Turn and wouldn't have been set up bait for Dragonite depending on the set. Heatran is still around so Volcarona isn't as much of a problem. He stays in though and is possibly locked into Surf as Dragonite comes in.
• Dragonite gets two DD's and is able to take out Hippowdon. The tables have definitely turned at this point.
• And it turns out he is running very little speed on his Dragonite and Scarf Rachi is able to save the day with Ice Punch. Definitely a nice break for Usatoday but he doesn't have rocks or a phazer in Hippowdon and his Latios took some nice damage so he'll have to hang on to Heatran so Volcarona can't sweep.
• The opponent goes right into Volc to set up as Heatran comes in. It has leftovers but +1 HP Ground from Bulkarona is enough to do away with Heatran. Not looking good for Usatoday at this point but maybe his opponent is running too little speed again. Maybe Jirachi can outspeed and get a para with Body Slam to save the day again.
• That seems to be what my opponent was fearing as he switches out but Usatoday went for Iron Head as Lando-T comes in. Maybe no Body Slam? Anyways Usatoday has to keep that Volc from getting a favorable matchup.
• Rotom-W comes in and misses Hydro Pump on Tenta, and they trade Toxic for Volt Switch as Latios comes in.
• The opponent scouts the Draco and should just sac his Tenta to get a free setup with Volcarona. He decides to switch into Jirachi though which is actually not the best play. That was potentially game right there, very risky locking into Draco with Volcarona on the field.
• Jirachi eats the Specs Draco after the first one misses and U-Turns out into Volcarona taking out Latios in the process. It looks like Volc is still safe though since Jirachi didn't show Body Slam earlier. Maybe it can lock Volc into QD with a Trick though.
• He just goes straight for the Iron Head which does wayyyy more than I expected. Looks like its gonna come down to the flinches and wether or not Flame Body activates.
• The opponent gets a QD but Jirachi still outspeeds. The next Iron Head would've KO'd but Jirachi gets burned so its gonna take two from this point.
• The opponent decides to switch out into Jirachi which seems odd but he finally reveals the Healing Wish! Very well done keeping that until the end of the match. It seems all but over for Usatoday at this point.
• The opponent makes a very strange play though, not going for Quiver Dance and instead going straight for Giga Drain. This leaves him with much less Hp than he could've had and a comeback might still be in the works for Usatoday.
• Usatoday then shows his own Healing Wish and gets Rotom-W back to full health sealing the game for him! Very nice play there. From there its just business as usual with Sub Punch Breloom and thats an awesome game!

Hopefully this wasn't too long but I think it shows a pretty interesting way to look at a match play by play and I definitely had fun doing it.

 

[ShootingStarmie]

@Jukain So I'm not sure how this works? I mean, who decides what the best battle is? Are we going to vote on this? Also, do people who provide good analyiis of games get anything in return? Just a few questions, but overall I'm really liking the thread so far

 

[Halcyon.]

Honetsly, in Usatoday's match, I think his opponent could have won if he had stayed in on Jirachi when he had already gotten the Quiver Dance up. His set wat (if I'm not mistaken) Hurricane / Giga Drain / HP Ground / Quiver Dance (which is a pretty bad set, mind you, but whatever). He had a way to KO everything on Usatoday's team Latios and Breloom would die to Hurricane, Rotom-W would die to Giga Drain, and Jirachi would die to Hidden Power Ground. What's more, if Usatoday had stayed in on Volcarona, it could have gotten to +2, which would have assured his victory. I honestly don't know why he switched out, considering he already knew that Jirachi was Scarfed. That was the misplay of the match, and the second he did that, he lost. That's not to undermine Usatoday, as he played very well considering his only counter to Volcarona was taken out. It was a good match, but I think switching out Volcarona really cost him the match.

 

[Jukain]

@ShootinStarmie:

You will vote for as many or as few options as you want, in preferential order. I'm thinking of adding the best commentary's author's name to the on-site page that will exist for winning replays. However, as the weeks progress, the name will be taken off and replaced with the new winners.

Votes will look like:

favorite replay
others
listed
preferentially

favorite commentary (cannot vote for self)

You also have to comment at least once for your submission to be included.

Good luck to all submitters and commentators!

 

[Legitimate Username]

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou11670326

My alt is Alienation. I think it's also noteworthy that I had happened to meet the other guy, BarreZ, on the ladder just a few battles earlier, so we were somewhat familiar with each other's teams. Both of us used some underrated strategies. I had a Trick Room team, while he had a weatherless balance team with Wobbuffet. A lot of trapping occured with Shadow Tag, Magnet Pull, and Pursuit. And BarreZ played Wobbuffet extraordinarily well, coming in at just the right times with Encore to repeatedly steal momentum and gain a Mirror Coat KO, as well as a well timed Trick with his Scarf Chandelure. It was rather difficult to find an opportunity to overcome that, and the ending of the battle was pretty intense with both sides hoping to not fall victim to bad luck.

I'll comment on another battle later when I get the chance. X5Dragon, I like yours a lot in particular, since I'm a sucker for last Pokémon comebacks and yours was rather impressive.

 

[ShootingStarmie]

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou11670326

My alt is Alienation. I think it's also noteworthy that I had happened to meet the other guy, BarreZ, on the ladder just a few battles earlier, so we were somewhat familiar with each other's teams. Both of us used some underrated strategies. I had a Trick Room team, while he had a weatherless balance team with Wobbuffet. A lot of trapping occured with Shadow Tag, Magnet Pull, and Pursuit. And BarreZ played Wobbuffet extraordinarily well, coming in at just the right times with Encore to repeatedly steal momentum and gain a Mirror Coat KO, as well as a well timed Trick with his Scarf Chandelure. It was rather difficult to find an opportunity to overcome that, and the ending of the battle was pretty intense with both sides hoping to not fall victim to bad luck.

I'll comment on another battle later when I get the chance. X5Dragon, I like yours a lot in particular, since I'm a sucker for last Pokémon comebacks and yours was rather impressive.

Turn 8, Alienation makes a nice prediction and goes into Porygon2 on Chandelure. Turn 13, BarreZ nicely traps Victini with Scizor, but now allows Magnezone to revenge kill him easily, making a late game sweep with Salamence possible (or easier). Turn 17, Wobbuffet counter traps Magnezone, takes the Thunderbolt nicely, and KOs back. Turn 23, BarreZ makes an exelelent double switch into Wobbuffet, trapping Reuniclus. Turn 26, BarreZ shows us Crunch, which is a pretty weird option on Garchomp tbh. Turn 32, Chandelure uses Overheat which imo was a bad play. This allows Reuniclus to come in pretty easily and set up a TR for a late game sweep. Turn 39, the game is over, even though Salamence did get an unlucky burn.

Overall, it was an okay game. It involved quite a lot of trapping and the players didn't make too many mistakes. Nice replay.

 

[craing ;_;]

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou11670326

My alt is Alienation. I think it's also noteworthy that I had happened to meet the other guy, BarreZ, on the ladder just a few battles earlier, so we were somewhat familiar with each other's teams. Both of us used some underrated strategies. I had a Trick Room team, while he had a weatherless balance team with Wobbuffet. A lot of trapping occured with Shadow Tag, Magnet Pull, and Pursuit. And BarreZ played Wobbuffet extraordinarily well, coming in at just the right times with Encore to repeatedly steal momentum and gain a Mirror Coat KO, as well as a well timed Trick with his Scarf Chandelure. It was rather difficult to find an opportunity to overcome that, and the ending of the battle was pretty intense with both sides hoping to not fall victim to bad luck.

I'll comment on another battle later when I get the chance. X5Dragon, I like yours a lot in particular, since I'm a sucker for last Pokémon comebacks and yours was rather impressive.

I feel like Alienation's opponent had a very high chance of winning. If BarreZ thought his moves more carefully, he could have won. Such as on turn 8 as he went for shadow ball instead of overheat since nothing would want to take a overheat from a chandelure and the P2 switch in was quite obvious, tho he ran flame body to circumvent that. Also several turns where he trapped trick roomers with wobbuffet. Although going for encore was a good play to lock Alienation into trick room, he switched out right after he encored, so staying in to waste another turn of trick room activation was the optimal play as the turn after that where he should have switched out would make the effects of trick room disappear, thus giving him an advantage. Also turn 22, he made a questionable play by switching out to his rachi instead of going straight for the kill with his chandelure as he already tricked the choice scarf to loom, making him faster under trick room. Turn 24 (very crucial misplay) as well as he went for encore instead of mirror coat as if he didnt go for shadow ball and trick room instead, trick room wears off that turn so he outspeeds and can encore after and set up on that. Also several misplays on Alienation's part such as not recover stalling chomp or scizor with P2. A pretty decent match if i do say so myself.

 

[Helldoom]

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oususpecttest-45029292

Great match on the ou suspect ladder between Helldoom's sand balance team and Ngenius Alt's hyper offence team. Ngenius has 5 threatening sweepers and Starmie, his spinner. My strategy is to set up spikes with Skarmory and prevent his Starmie from spinning with Jellicent. The match is very close, the winner of the match has only 1 pokemon left with 10% HP.

 

[Jukain]

@scotti and @Usatoday, please make at least one rate of at least a paragraph of someone else's replay. Otherwise your submissions will be excluded from the ballot.

@Helldoom, you must do the above as well as expand your description to at least one paragraph.

 

[Scotti]

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oususpecttest-45029292

Really close match on the ou suspect ladder between Helldoom's sand balance team and Ngenius Alt's hyper offence team.

Even through your not done with your paragraph Jukain said i could still comment on yours so here i go. On Turn 5 You did a good switch into Skarmory on and incoming Bullet Seed. Also the next turn you put down spikes to make sure Breloom didn't switch back in, but then your opponent sent out starmie. Turn 7 your opponent was smart enough to use Hydro Pump when you switched into TTar though you would have lived 2 Hydro Pumps your opponent got a crit which made Starmie into a threat. Turn 9 you did a good job using recover on Jellicent when your opponent returned to Breloom (Which died from hazards) to keep there Starmie alive. Turn 12 You predicted the Dragon Dance and went straight to Skarmory to use Whirlwind. Turn 14 your opponent did a smart move using Swords Dance which game him the upper hand since after that he KO Skarmory with Superpower and Skarmory seemed important to your team. Right after on Turn 15 you made good use of Scald and burned his Scizor while he was being stupid and went for another SD. Turn 21 your opponent did a smart play when he predicted the switch to Jellicent and use Thunderbolt with Starmie instead of Hydro Pump or Ice Beam. Turn 24 you did an ok job when you switched Donphan on Dragonite predicting a Dragon Dance however if he used Outrage instead that would have costed you the game since Outrage would 2hko and then you're stuck with a Scarf Latios, and Psyshock wouldn't beat Dragonite, so it was a pretty risky play, but you predicted right in the in, though i would have just kept Latios in since Psyshock 2hko and even if he did Outrage you could revenge kill it with Donphan then kill Volc with Donphan.

Anyway it was a pretty good match i must say though your opponent got you a few times and you got him a few times it was a pretty good match =).

EDIT: Finally Done LOL

 

[Legitimate Username]

Now to comment on a match.

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-40494117

On the first turn, it's a bad matchup for GoBears. X5Dragon, having a Sashed Breloom, makes the safe choice by using Spore. Kyurem-B managed to avoid a Mach Punch, but ends up asleep instead. GoBears then makes the obvious switch to a counter in Celebi. X5Dragon has no reason to switch out though, since Breloom gets to +2 and has no future opportunities to switch in. Breloom then manages to weaken Celebi significantly despite the bad luck on Bullet Seed hits. When Starmie manages to spin away Stealth Rock but dies in the process, X5Dragon is pretty much forced to bring in Dragonite at this point. GoBears sets up rain with Politoed, but dies to a critical +1 Outrage. However, GoBears's Forretress has Gyro Ball, allowing it to wear down Dragonite while it stays locked into Outrage, and even manages to barely tank a Fire Punch. Scizor then reveals to have the SD set, freely using Forretress as setup fodder to get to +3. Keldeo manages to tank a Bullet Punch and revenge it with Surf.

At this point, the oncoming Kingdra sweep is fairly obvious. The pattern in this battle is that X5Dragon's hyper offense team did a good job of constantly threatening to sweep with a boosted attacker, and while few of them managed to net a KO, GoBears's Pokémon were just barely hanging on after each succesful defense. Breloom, at +2, and Starmie brought Celebi down to 31% (I think Kingdra's Dragon Pulse hit it with a minimum damage roll though, bad luck). Dragonite at +1 weakened Forretress to just 6% health. Scizor managed to hit Keldeo with a +3 Bullet Punch, leaving it 22%. Kyurem-B was a non-issue. Fortunately, the crit on Kingdra's Surf that killed Thundurus-T didn't matter, as it would have safely OHKOed anyways. Despite surviving the previous onslaughts, they were pretty much asking to die in such swift consecutivity. Overall, it was a very enjoyable battle to watch.

 

[Jukain]

Everyone other than @Helldoom is currently qualified -- Helldoom, you still require an expansion of your battle summary to at least a paragraph and a comment of at least one paragraph long. This must be completed by tonight at 11:59 EST. PM me if you need a little bit more time past then, but I'm not granting much more.

More submitters are welcome if they fulfill the requirement listed in the OP by the deadline.

Currently, @X5Dragon, @Halcyon of Light, @ShootinStarmie, @Legitimate Username, @ben gay, @scotti, and @MCBarrett will be the replays included in the vote. Good luck to all participants!

 

[Chou Toshio]

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-40248688
Looking at the teams Usatoday is utilizing a hippo sand team focused around breloom and heatran punching through holes for jirachi to come in late game and iron head spam. His team also uses a defensive core between heatran, hippowdown, and rotom wash to provide momentum against the opponent by double switches, volt turning, and finally phasing. The dragonknight however is using a more offensive rain team that uses the offensive core of volcarona and dragonite to pound through each others counters so that they can set up and sweep potentially late game. He is also using a defensive rain core of politoed, tentacruel, and landorus therian to break through multiple pokemon and ensure spinning with tentacruel at the best possible moment. The final pokemon is a unique scarf jirachi spread used to help better take special attacks as his team hates to face choice spec latios. The actual battle is a close one with some misplays by both parties for example on turns 22-24 by letting the dragonite set up a assuming sweep however the dragonknight didn't fully train his dragonite's speed investment allowing jirachi to outspeed and ohko with ice punch. Looking at threats on both sides depending on the volcarona spread it could easily wreck Usatoday's team while vice versa the Latios could easily put in some work against the Dragonknight.

I have no idea why you switched out a +1 / +1 / +1 Volc out of Jirachi, even if it was scarfed. Also, even after than (bad) play, after you protected against Latios with Tentacruel to scout the Draco Meteor, you should have STAYED IN AND LET TENTA TAKE THE METEOR. Then you bring in Volc on a -2 latios, and go to town.

Tenta dies, you bring in Volc, set up, gg. Honestly, the opponent played bad too since Rotom-W was almost GG against everything you had left (Tenta, Volc, sleeping Lando-T, Jirachi)-- but instead of pressing his offense and kicking your ass with rotom-w, he gives you opportunities to try setting up Volc-- the only thing in your team that can give you the win at this point. It's pretty silly.

And THEN you use Giga Drain instead of Quiver Dance against Rotom-W--- huh???

I dunno, some pretty big late-game brain farts on both sides. It was a good battle through the middle though for the most part; but still some questionable stuff.

 

[Usatoday]

I have no idea why you switched out a +1 / +1 / +1 Volc out of Jirachi, even if it was scarfed. Also, even after than (bad) play, after you protected against Latios with Tentacruel to scout the Draco Meteor, you should have STAYED IN AND LET TENTA TAKE THE METEOR. Then you bring in Volc on a -2 latios, and go to town.

Tenta dies, you bring in Volc, set up, gg. Honestly, the opponent played bad too since Rotom-W was almost GG against everything you had left (Tenta, Volc, sleeping Lando-T, Jirachi)-- but instead of pressing his offense and kicking your ass with rotom-w, he gives you opportunities to try setting up Volc-- the only thing in your team that can give you the win at this point. It's pretty silly.

umm did you read who was who? I was the one with the rotom wash my opponent had a volcarona not me lol ;]

 

[Chou Toshio]

Oh whoops-- that doesn't change the fact that this replay has some poor plays at the end; you definitely made better decisions overall though. The way he used his Politoed was terrible.

 

[Usatoday]

Oh whoops-- that doesn't change the fact that this replay has some poor plays at the end; you definitely made better decisions overall though.

if I were to guess what my opponent was thinking is that he knew I love to use scarf jirachi and hence didn't want to risk the flinch he also revealed that he lacked a fire stab meaning the best he could do was a hidden power ground which I don't think ohkos jirachi at plus 1 hence he may have not wanted to be flinch haxxed to death and preserve hit volcarona. As far as the tentacruel I guess he wanted to preserve it for death fodder but you were right in that it was completely useless to him given what I had left but oh well everyone makes booboos