The Replay & Critique Thread (MK 3)

Credits to Anti who was the creator of this thread originally! I've just decided to take over it. And revive it, since it was inactive. :3

Anywho, to those who don't know what this thread is about, the goal of this thread is to improve your battle execution. While you may have a decent or solid team at your hands, the next step that separates a good player, from a great player, is how they execute the place style of said team.

So here, all you need to do is post a replay of yours where you feel like you could have played better. Coming from a loss, could there have something that you could of done that would of secured you the win, but you weren't sure how? Perhaps you want to learn why a battle was one-sided against your favor? That sort of thing!

I will help you improve your overall gameplay, but if anyone wants to chip in, you're more than free to do so! Now, feel free to post away. c:

I guess I'll go first....

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ubers-383843159

Should've lost it really, but my opponent was like "hm Hi Jump Kick is totes best thing to click against Cotton Candy Fairy Arceus" at the end there -_-

I've been hesitant to reply to this because I don't want to be the only one giving advice, but since no one has posted, I'll just say that I think the regulars of this thread and its past iterations should also be posting advice and critique if they really want to internalize the skill set that this thread is supposed to be strengthening. If you give others advice, you begin to train the mind to identify crucial aspects of game flow and strategic thinking, skills that separate serviceable players from good ones. Even if your advice isn't very sophisticated or even good, you'll get better at that, too. I got good by giving a lot of bad advice which eventually got better, but you have to start somewhere. Any notion that advice is only for sage players to bestow upon others is nonsense. Practice breaking down the game--even your own replays--and you're going to improve doing so in real time. I shouldn't be the main respondent in this thread in large part because posting here helps me the least!

With that, I'll post some brief comments:

Nah said:

I guess I'll go first....

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ubers-383843159

Should've lost it really, but my opponent was like "hm Hi Jump Kick is totes best thing to click against Cotton Candy Fairy Arceus" at the end there -_-

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I know very little about Ubers, but it seems like your team needs more Speed control.

What do you think you could have done better?

Archy said:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokecommunity-ou-223553

Okay. Pulled this one by ****ing luck, got really high rolls at end game as well.

Outside the epic fail at turn one, I would like to know what went wrong.

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I have many more thoughts on this one, but first I'll ask you the same thing. What do you think you could have done better?

Archy said:

Personally, turns 14 to 17 are my biggest problem. A lot of the plays that Rabi made weren't that hard to predict, yet I ignored them. Like the Diancie double switch.

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I think you're placing the wrong emphasis on what went wrong. You put yourself in a huge hole early with a few different sequences:

Gliscor burn (1): As you identified in the battle chat and in your post, this was a terrible play. What does removing Rotom-Wash's item do? You effectively sac your Gliscor on the first turn of the game. It was a pointless risk. Suddenly, later game sequences like the Tyranitar sac are made possible/necessary because your lone check to Landorus-T is now dead. So it did a lot more than just maiming your Gliscor because it set up another sac later.

Gliscor sac (6-7): You had Volcanion (and even Latios) to switch into this Pokemon. This wasn't an indefensible play like the burn sequence because it preserves those Pokemon, but I would consider whether this was worth it. Finally, you missed an opportunity with Tyranitar to set Stealth Rock. Volcanion wasn't going to touch him--Chansey was at full.

Scizor sac (17): The crit bailed you as, as without it, Thundurus loses:

252 SpA Life Orb Thundurus Focus Blast vs. 4 HP / 252 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 169-200 (26.3 - 31.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO

I don't know what set this runs, but if it had Roost, you needed to use that. If it was SD+3 attacks offensive, Knock Off or Superpower would be superior plays, especially since he shouldn't have left Chansey in in the first place. Though to be honest, the game should have been over by this point and he let it slip.

I didn't see him make many plays you should have predicted--prediction is fickle business anyway. You just need to play smarter, earlier.

A battle from Main

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-386287326

I ended up winning the battle, but I feel like I could have played around some of there switches better so they gained less momentum. I also think if I'd been more careful I might have been able to prevent myself from losing Venusaur.

I'll be sure to contribute to this thread more as per what Anti said too.

Edit: Here's another one

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-386289843

I lost this one. Got a bit screwed over by the paralysis on Venu, but I probably should have seen it coming. Pretty sure that one mess up there is what cost me the game. Although I imagine there's lots I could have done better.

I'll give this a try.

gimmepie said:

A battle from Main

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-386287326

I ended up winning the battle, but I feel like I could have played around some of there switches better so they gained less momentum. I also think if I'd been more careful I might have been able to prevent myself from losing Venusaur.

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I wouldn't say that you made a huge misplay somewhere, but turns 10-15 is where you got a little greedy for the KO on Scizor and ended up losing your Mega-Venusaur. It wasn't knocked out, but after this you could only switch it in to soak up an attack and immediately switch it out again. After revealing HP Fire (I'm assuming), your opponent knows that he can't set up on your pokemon, and it probably would have been better to switch out Megasaur into Rotom or something else that would put pressure on Lando and prevented a switch into Scizor. It didn't end up making that big of a difference, as you still played around your crippled Megasaur well and pulled out the win, but like you said, you could have prevented that.

gimmepie said:

Edit: Here's another one

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-386289843

I lost this one. Got a bit screwed over by the paralysis on Venu, but I probably should have seen it coming. Pretty sure that one mess up there is what cost me the game. Although I imagine there's lots I could have done better.

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I'm not convinced that's what lost you the game. It definitely hurt, but Megasaur only really countered Ferrothorn and Sylveon, which you still had Heatran for. In my opinion, you lost because you didn't really have anything for Mega-Medicham. I'm not sure which EV spread you're running on Rotom, but if it's a defensive variant, then Rotom was your only real switch in to Mega-Medicham, and even then I'm not sure if it would be able to take two hits. Unfortunately, we never really found out because on turn 16, Rotom got taken out of the fight. Not knocked out, but put on very low health. Recognizing that you needed that Rotom and doing a hard switch into Heatran would have put you in a better spot since their team didn't really have anything for Heatran besides revenge killers and a check from Lando, who doesn't really want to switch into that burn chance anyway.

It just came down to the fact that your team is very Mega-Medicham weak, and recognizing that from the start and playing around that weakness more might have lead to a different battle.

I'm gonna post a recent replay of mine and give some thoughts I had about it. But of course I would also like others to say what they thought about the replay and even what I said about it.

Using this replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-397499119 (ignore their friend in the chat)

I think the main problem here for me was losing Garchomp and Skarm early in the game to Mega Medicham (also why is everyone using this thing lately it seems). While I was not expecting both Thunder Punch and Ice Punch on it, there was probably no need to let Skarm (and Garchomp) die when it did. Even if it was the usual set with Hi Jump Kick/Zen Headbutt/Fake Out/BP I probably should've been more careful with them (my thoughts on sending them in was literally "yeah HJK does like 30% to them right should be ok"--it does more than that).

Anyway reason why that's a problem became apparent late-game: I had lost all my answers to their Jirachi. The comeback I was starting to make with Keldeo in the middle there after playing around that boosted Porygon-Z didn't matter because of that. Ttar would've been good to have too but at that point in the match I think my only option was to let it die =(

The bits of hax on Mega Sableye were unfortunate but that's the game a stall 'mon plays (and hax also bailed me/Amoonguss out sort of against Pory-Z sooooooo).

...so yeah

Nah said:

I think the main problem here for me was losing Garchomp and Skarm early in the game to Mega Medicham (also why is everyone using this thing lately it seems). While I was not expecting both Thunder Punch and Ice Punch on it, there was probably no need to let Skarm (and Garchomp) die when it did. Even if it was the usual set with Hi Jump Kick/Zen Headbutt/Fake Out/BP I probably should've been more careful with them (my thoughts on sending them in was literally "yeah HJK does like 30% to them right should be ok"--it does more than that).

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Skarmory was just, 'eh', fair enough, you didn't expect it to have Thunderpunch - but yeah, Sabelye would of been a much better option against it than Rocky Helmet Garchomp.

Nah said:

Anyway reason why that's a problem became apparent late-game: I had lost all my answers to their Jirachi. The comeback I was starting to make with Keldeo in the middle there after playing around that boosted Porygon-Z didn't matter because of that. Ttar would've been good to have too but at that point in the match I think my only option was to let it die =(

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Doesn't your scarf-tar have Superpower? Either way, you could of still outsped with i it and possibly killed it in one turn, since I have a feeling that PZ was Modest?

Nah said:

The bits of hax on Mega Sableye were unfortunate but that's the game a stall 'mon plays (and hax also bailed me/Amoonguss out sort of against Pory-Z sooooooo).

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You probably shouldn't of bothered Recovering again there - you could of just Foul Played twice, and then Revenge kill with Keledo's Secret Sword, winning you the match... but, eh, SpD drop was indeed unfortunate.

Nah said:

I'm gonna post a recent replay of mine and give some thoughts I had about it. But of course I would also like others to say what they thought about the replay and even what I said about it.

Using this replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-397499119 (ignore their friend in the chat)

I think the main problem here for me was losing Garchomp and Skarm early in the game to Mega Medicham (also why is everyone using this thing lately it seems). While I was not expecting both Thunder Punch and Ice Punch on it, there was probably no need to let Skarm (and Garchomp) die when it did. Even if it was the usual set with Hi Jump Kick/Zen Headbutt/Fake Out/BP I probably should've been more careful with them (my thoughts on sending them in was literally "yeah HJK does like 30% to them right should be ok"--it does more than that).

Anyway reason why that's a problem became apparent late-game: I had lost all my answers to their Jirachi. The comeback I was starting to make with Keldeo in the middle there after playing around that boosted Porygon-Z didn't matter because of that. Ttar would've been good to have too but at that point in the match I think my only option was to let it die =(

The bits of hax on Mega Sableye were unfortunate but that's the game a stall 'mon plays (and hax also bailed me/Amoonguss out sort of against Pory-Z sooooooo).

...so yeah

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Shawn's last point about the endgame is really significant. A useful question to ask yourself might be "why Recover?" There was nothing to gain from it except getting haxed and giving Jirachi Leftovers recovery. I know it's tempting to keep these mons healthy, and usually it's the right play, but there I think it was kind of an autopilot play. Watch out for those!

You pretty much nailed what happened early game. I'll add a few things.

First, Mega Medicham (and Mega Metagross) run elemental punches quite commonly. Just something to remember for next time. His bringing Medicham into Skarmory was also probably a hint that he had ThunderPunch. The middle echelons of the ladder often lack subtlety.

The only more general advice I would give that hasn't been touched on is that Mega Sableye is crucial in any Medicham match-up. You might want to consider leading it in those match-ups to get it mega evolved. Sableye can still check Medicham without that, but it pretty much has to sacrifice itself to do so. That's where identifying threats in Team Preview can be tremendously useful.

You and Shawn covered the rest.

e: except disabling spectators in the chat, it's highly recommended as it can break focus + 90% of them are insufferable, including the people in this one

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokecommunity-monotype-227798

I ended up winning this one but that's largely because I managed to get a poison on Camerupt which I was otherwise really struggling with. Any tips for either of us are much appreciated.