Improve your Battling: Replay Critique

[Void.]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-224097381

I'd like a critique of this replay (I'm the guy with Heracross and M-Lop). I stupidly sac'd Hera lol, was expecting Scald

You played pretty alright other than the heracross switch-in. The one other play that I didn't quite like was on turn 10, when you returned instead of using hjk on the bisharp, predicting sylveon presumably. It didn't backfire on you in this scenario, but you should always be careful when it comes to predicting on lower ladder. Two things you should always do before making a prediction are sizing up your opponent and thinking about the risk:reward. Your opponent stayed in on lopunny with mamoswine turns 1 and 2 when he had a slowbro, it's hardly inconceivable that he'd just stay in on the lopunny with bisharp as well. You risked losing lopunny, who was a very crucial mon vs the rest of his team, to try and hit sylveon on the switch, who didn't really pose too much of a threat to your team as you had a very solid answer to it in AV metagross. It's not always about getting the prediction right, sometimes you have to think about what your optimal play is.

 

[Polar Spectrum]

What could I have done better in this battle?

VP2W-WWWW-WWXR-56TW

- I was concerned about hard switching into any of my Pokemon
- The lead matchup was less than ideal.
- I left Mega Altaria on the bench because of Mega Beedrill and Gardevoir, and Support Lucario because of Landorus-T and Mega Beedrill. Although in hindsight, I could have resisted all of Beedrill's STABs, so Follow Me! + Rock Slide might have netted the beast.

First Turn - good call on the protect; very predictable. Does your entei have extremespeed though? Putting a bit of damage on Beedril before it swapped may have been a good move- U Turn is pretty dang common on them fuckers.

Third Turn - Wide Guard is a very solid option; Hyper Voice is to be expected along with EQ or rock slide- that draining kiss may not be specs doing just that much damage - you got dat double flinch and I imagine he's real upset by that. The damage to Terrakion from draining kiss is expectable though, remember gardevoirs sp atk and stab on a super effective move, against Terrakion's notably nnnnot substantial sp atk.

Not sure what you could've really done better late game; you didn't hit any protects and probably the only time you shouldn't have done so was when you might've died to that Rotom's Volt Switch anyways. The matchups here seemed like a disadvantage to you, based on which 4 you brought. Follow me from your luario definitely would've been invaluable, provided you could do something about Lando T quicker. Does your Swampert Carry Ice Beam? If it's the angel set, then I think so :U Ice Beaming that mofo early on might've been a solid option. Intimidating Entei at the beginning was sad too btw

 

[skyburial]

First Turn - good call on the protect; very predictable. Does your entei have extremespeed though? Putting a bit of damage on Beedril before it swapped may have been a good move- U Turn is pretty dang common on them psyduckers.

Third Turn - Wide Guard is a very solid option; Hyper Voice is to be expected along with EQ or rock slide- that draining kiss may not be specs doing just that much damage - you got dat double flinch and I imagine he's real upset by that. The damage to Terrakion from draining kiss is expectable though, remember gardevoirs sp atk and stab on a super effective move, against Terrakion's notably nnnnot substantial sp atk.

Not sure what you could've really done better late game; you didn't hit any protects and probably the only time you shouldn't have done so was when you might've died to that Rotom's Volt Switch anyways. The matchups here seemed like a disadvantage to you, based on which 4 you brought. Follow me from your luario definitely would've been invaluable, provided you could do something about Lando T quicker. Does your Swampert Carry Ice Beam? If it's the angel set, then I think so :U Ice Beaming that mofo early on might've been a solid option. Intimidating Entei at the beginning was sad too btw

Extreme Speed Entei was an event-only mon unfortunately. Swampert is usually my answer to Lando-T and yes it gets Ice Beam. It's a big target lately and that Mega Bee was cryptonite for it. Lucario was definitely needed in that match, and actually Altaria would have shut down Lando as well.

So maybe lead with Mega Altaria and Lucario, with Terrakion and Swampert in the back?

 

[Polar Spectrum]

If you led with Mega Altaria, knowing he'd lead with Mega Beedrill (because that's what it's used for mostly) I would've led with something else alongside Mega Altaria you KNOW will either immediately eliminate or scare off the bee. Because either he poison jabs (which would OHKO mega altarai, or mess up a non mega evolved one still, but maybe not OHKO) and its teammate ohko's it, because it's frail as hell - and his last mon gets a free move, or he protects, doesn't mess up your mega altaria, altaria gets the free move, to either handle his second mon or set something up and give his second the free move anyways, while your second mon either hits his second, or hits the beedrill's protect. Either way, that situation has a fair chance of being advantageous to you. I might've even gone Altaria + Terrakion lead; because while Terrakion doesn't want the intimidate - his stab Rock Slide spreads to either KO the beedrill should it attack Altaria, or hit the protect and still possibly flinch or at least get chip damage on the beedrill's teammate. Because again, you know on that first turn he's reeeally likely to protect given non mega beedrill's speed is, what like 80 lol.

 

[skyburial]

If you led with Mega Altaria, knowing he'd lead with Mega Beedrill (because that's what it's used for mostly) I would've led with something else alongside Mega Altaria you KNOW will either immediately eliminate or scare off the bee. Because either he poison jabs (which would OHKO mega altarai, or mess up a non mega evolved one still, but maybe not OHKO) and its teammate ohko's it, because it's frail as hell - and his last mon gets a free move, or he protects, doesn't mess up your mega altaria, altaria gets the free move, to either handle his second mon or set something up and give his second the free move anyways, while your second mon either hits his second, or hits the beedrill's protect. Either way, that situation has a fair chance of being advantageous to you. I might've even gone Altaria + Terrakion lead; because while Terrakion doesn't want the intimidate - his stab Rock Slide spreads to either KO the beedrill should it attack Altaria, or hit the protect and still possibly flinch or at least get chip damage on the beedrill's teammate. Because again, you know on that first turn he's reeeally likely to protect given non mega beedrill's speed is, what like 80 lol.

So since my team is a bulky, slow one without Trick Room, what do you think about Talonflame taking the place of Volcarona/Entei? Lucario and Talon share 0 weaknesses and can double onto Focus Sash Terrakion for a priority kill, plus Landorus will be left vulnerable to one of them once it picks a move. Two priority users would be a huge boon, don't you think?

 

[Polar Spectrum]

So since my team is a bulky, slow one without Trick Room, what do you think about Talonflame taking the place of Volcarona/Entei? Lucario and Talon share 0 weaknesses and can double onto Focus Sash Terrakion for a priority kill, plus Landorus will be left vulnerable to one of them once it picks a move. Two priority users would be a huge boon, don't you think?

Um, Talonflame runs a certain risk to it with people always knowing how to play around it given how common it is. For like, 2-3 VGC worlds now, it's been a stalwart piece. Pachirisu guy even used his signature overheat talonflame to win worlds last year. I think it'd give you a quick offensive edge, but I can't say I'm certain of the overall contribution of Talonflame to your whole team. Then again, I've never touched one, so I maaay just be unaware of its boons. Although from what I've heard of your set, its only attack would be brave bird - and that would carry some surprise factor. (The other moves; not brave bird. I honestly don't know what moron or buffoon would be surprised by brave bird on Talonflame lol)

The two priority mons makes for a good trick; but with BOTH their only attacks being priority - take into account how it would go *if* and I say if, because we both know it's not TERRIBLY common; - you ran into an opponent with quick guard.

It may help more than AV Entei, but honestly Sacred Fire seems like such a boon - and AV on that thing really gives you a strong anti pixellate hyper voice spam. Idunno; if someone were to change on your lineup - I probably wouldn't put a Talonflame in - but that's just me there.

 

[skyburial]

Um, Talonflame runs a certain risk to it with people always knowing how to play around it given how common it is. For like, 2-3 VGC worlds now, it's been a stalwart piece. Pachirisu guy even used his signature overheat talonflame to win worlds last year. I think it'd give you a quick offensive edge, but I can't say I'm certain of the overall contribution of Talonflame to your whole team. Then again, I've never touched one, so I maaay just be unaware of its boons. Although from what I've heard of your set, its only attack would be brave bird - and that would carry some surprise factor. (The other moves; not brave bird. I honestly don't know what moron or buffoon would be surprised by brave bird on Talonflame lol)

The two priority mons makes for a good trick; but with BOTH their only attacks being priority - take into account how it would go *if* and I say if, because we both know it's not TERRIBLY common; - you ran into an opponent with quick guard.

It may help more than AV Entei, but honestly Sacred Fire seems like such a boon - and AV on that thing really gives you a strong anti pixellate hyper voice spam. Idunno; if someone were to change on your lineup - I probably wouldn't put a Talonflame in - but that's just me there.

Not being surprised by Brave Bird doesn't change the fact that it's the hardest hitting priority move in the meta. I could try mixed TF, I thought about that. I'm also gonna give Rotom-H a shot. All the stops are coming out on this team.

I'll also see if I can get the right Heatran from someone, probably.

On the subject of Quick Guard, I put Dark Pulse on my Luc in place of Protect today to see how it fares. Protect was the move I used the least.

 

[skyburial]

A horrible, horrible lead matchup and poor team choice illuminate that I was not at all prepared for Rotom H. Turns out I only have one offensive and one 1 1/2 defensive answers for the little devil (which is typical because it's typing is pretty ferocious, let's be real here). Not only that, but I brought 3 Pokemon that were weak to Ground! I won by the skin of my teeth... what do you guys think I could have done better?

AEQW-WWWW-WWXR-SVCP

Some notes to recent team changes:

- Lucario's Protect has been replaced with Dark Pulse for the Aegislash matchup. I'm thinking of replacing Helping Hand with Protect again, though.
- Support Gyarados and Talonflame were left on the bench in this match.
- Altaria now has Earthquake in place of Tailwind, thanks to TF.
- Terrakion has Taunt over Quick Guard now for the same reason, but I will probably reverse that since Gyarados has Taunt and Talon is not invested in Speed.
- Aegislash's set is Wide Guard, Shadow Ball, Flash Cannon, King's shield. Modest Nature with 4 Speed EV's to outspeed other Aegislash. Which happened in this battle.

 

[punkysaur]

Yesss!Where were you anti before?You have started just the thing I was looking for!
All hail BigDaddyAnti!
Now to serious matters.here's my replay.I Wish you will prowl the sahara desert meditate near the Nile river and give me your critique on this-
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-224680589

I am showing you the one I won cause-
1-This is my best team that has got me the most wins
2-Most of my losses with this team are due to getting sweep'ed!I have understood why that happens

P.S-Also pls suggest an earthquake remedy as eq completely destroys this team!

 

[Nah]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-224680589

I am showing you the one I won cause-
1-This is my best team that has got me the most wins
2-Most of my losses with this team are due to getting sweep'ed!I have understood why that happens

P.S-Also pls suggest an earthquake remedy as eq completely destroys this team!

Uh....couple of things I can think of:

1) You should've switched Scolipede out for Tyranitar at the beginning of the battle. Scolipede can't do jack shit to Talonflame and can't even Baton Pass because of priority Brave Bird.

2) Probably would've been better to bring Black Kyurem in earlier than you did on Suicune. I suppose that you were fishing for the Scald burn (which happened), but Crocune doesn't care about burns or most status. There's always the issue of Black Kyurem getting burned (which also happened), but bringing it in earlier would've made it difficult for your opponent to set up Calm Minds since it resists Water and threatens with Fusion Bolt.

You made a few good predictions though. As for your EQ problem, ya just gotta try and fit a Ground immunity on your team somehow.

Someone else can probably give a better and more in-depth critique though.

 

[Sanguine]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokecommunity-ou-157263

how do i mega beedrill

 

[champagnepapi]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokecommunity-ou-157263

how do i mega beedrill

I typed this up in notepad so I apologize if it's a little messy, at the same time I tried to make it concise.

Basically here are some things you could visualize in team preview:

Sanguine:
Volt Turn+SR will be hard to stop
if the azum is BD it can potentially win with ferro removed by mag+blastoise weakened, you can utilize the fact that blastoise comes in on heatran to spin rocks
in order to this
make sure you have something to beat florges all the time

Lukey:
Doubling with hazards up can allow you to damage the opposing team
if glisc can hit waters, that can be useful for blastoise as it is probably the most threatening member, darmanitan
can also weaken them with correct prediction, if you get it in a lot it gets more chances to do this

Now the battle:

Sanguine's Lead Heatran. This is an okay lead, if it were a subtoxic glisc or blastoise lead then luke
gets momentum and it would be a bad start, i think rotom-w might be a better lead, it will probably force him into
florges which will make him lose momentum

Lukey's Lead: Darmanitan. This works, you can uturn out of anything or get the chip with a flare blitz, i'd probably
lead this also

Turn 4 I think you should have gone to heatran rather than beedrill so you can start chipping blastoise with toxic or
lava plume burn or whatever

Turn 5 he wouldn't leave in his florges because he gains nothing from it, U-Turn would have given more momentum

Turn 10-Alright nice you trapped the magnezone, this helps azumarill a lot when it's doing more damage, if you can get it in more often that's good.

Turn 13-Beedrill is the better switch here, Magnezone just invites in Glisc which gets chip damage on your water types that
you want to preserve, Luke will never leave florges in on beedrill [even if he does you have 2 steels to switch in] so you
get a free uturn out every time. When you do this, Luke is caught in the dillema of sending in Glisc, which invires in Azumarill, or
getting big damage on one of his healthier offensive pokemon, so it would put you in a very good position

Turn 15-Yeah this is rough I guess. It's the consequence of sending in Magnezone instead of Beedrill, it's now a prediction
that you have to guess correctly. I feel like Latias might have been a decent choice to send in but raikou could become problematic
if heatran gets weakened later on, plus you dont want sr on your side of the field [in fact id try to remove it asap, since
ferrothorn is dead]. i would have gone heatran on the second flare blitz so you can preserve rotom though, darmanitan
are almost always choiced

Turn 18-Alright nice, we toxic'd it. This is a good step towards winning

Turn 19-Another tough prediction. Honestly it's tough to call because he can afford to NOT hydro pump. Latias
252+ SpA Mega Launcher Mega Blastoise Dark Pulse vs. 72 HP / 0 SpD Latias: 236-278 (73.9 - 87.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO lives a dark pulse though,
so you could get the defog off and get momentum back. if you're lucky he doesnt risk his blastoise and goes to florges, so you are able to keep
latias. not sure about saccing azumarill since it's your last gliscor switch and still does some damage to his team

Turn 20-I probably would use play rough here, it's free and will probably ohko/2hko his whole team.

Turn 25-Same scenario as before, I would go lati>azum since with azum gone you cant break gliscor

Turn 29/30-Good prediction on the florges, but I wouldnt leave it in on raikou here because latias is really your only
hope to break gliscor, it's also now able to drop draco meteors once florges is gone, it's probably your most valuable
team member at this point in the game

Turn 33: I'm not sure you could bring it back at this point but I guess for the sake of saying it, it's better to sac latias
here since its dead to SR

With the game ending shortly after. It was a close game, but I'd just be considerate of which Pokemon can do the most damage to his team, and therefore should be the ones you would try to preserve, while choosing the
less valuable ones as sacrifices.

 

[Anti]

Yesss!Where were you anti before?You have started just the thing I was looking for!
All hail BigDaddyAnti!
Now to serious matters.here's my replay.I Wish you will prowl the sahara desert meditate near the Nile river and give me your critique on this-
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-224680589

I am showing you the one I won cause-
1-This is my best team that has got me the most wins
2-Most of my losses with this team are due to getting sweep'ed!I have understood why that happens

P.S-Also pls suggest an earthquake remedy as eq completely destroys this team!

turns 1-3: what zekrom said in point 1

turns 5-6: oof, you get bailed out a bit here but you're switching a water into a pokemon that spams volt switch. unfortunately, can't think of a great play here since your team is insanely weak to rotom-w. victini is probably the play here? doesn't seem great in this matchup given the gliscor and your inability to remove it if he plays smart.

suicune sequence: what zekrom said in point 2.

[yeah scald could burn you, but that's just a risk you have to take. it will always have that chance so you might as well cut your losses and not let it boost so much.]

turn 15: there is no reason to sac this, you can't switch into rotom-w so having something to RK it with earth power or just to sac it to to bring something in safely is paramount. the play here is victini.

turn 28: ok i know this isn't you but there's a lesson here and it pains me to watch this. your opponent should have won this game or at least had a chance to with the rotom vs. metagross. instead, he dicks around with needless overpredictions when simple plays will do and it finally gets him burned. total lack of risk/reward comprehension, meta might win 1v1 but major choke by your opp regardless. there is NO REASON not to spam volt switch vs starmie especially when rotom is the last poke. oof.


anyway, kinda rushed through this because the big issue is the team you're running. from the start of the game you are under immense pressure from the rotom. besides the lack of a ground immune or even resist, you don't have anything that can deal with status and voltturn is a huuuuge problem. also, doesn't seem like you have a rocker. stealth rock is MANDATORY on every competitive team.

a landorus-t would be great to give you SR support and some defensive capacity in general, probably over the punchless victini. cube wants roost over draco which doesn't hit anything notable; if you want a dragon stab outrage at least lets you run over chansey. not gonna go too in-depth as this isn't a rmt thread (though i encourage you to make one!), but the biggest thing i notice is that you're reacting to him almost the entire time. you aren't executing a strategy because he is too busy pressuring you. if you bring a more solid team, these issues will naturally dissolve, which is rly nice. :)

 

[punkysaur]

turns 1-3: what zekrom said in point 1

turns 5-6: oof, you get bailed out a bit here but you're switching a water into a pokemon that spams volt switch. unfortunately, can't think of a great play here since your team is insanely weak to rotom-w. victini is probably the play here? doesn't seem great in this matchup given the gliscor and your inability to remove it if he plays smart.

suicune sequence: what zekrom said in point 2.

[yeah scald could burn you, but that's just a risk you have to take. it will always have that chance so you might as well cut your losses and not let it boost so much.]

turn 15: there is no reason to sac this, you can't switch into rotom-w so having something to RK it with earth power or just to sac it to to bring something in safely is paramount. the play here is victini.

turn 28: ok i know this isn't you but there's a lesson here and it pains me to watch this. your opponent should have won this game or at least had a chance to with the rotom vs. metagross. instead, he dicks around with needless overpredictions when simple plays will do and it finally gets him burned. total lack of risk/reward comprehension, meta might win 1v1 but major choke by your opp regardless. there is NO REASON not to spam volt switch vs starmie especially when rotom is the last poke. oof.


anyway, kinda rushed through this because the big issue is the team you're running. from the start of the game you are under immense pressure from the rotom. besides the lack of a ground immune or even resist, you don't have anything that can deal with status and voltturn is a huuuuge problem. also, doesn't seem like you have a rocker. stealth rock is MANDATORY on every competitive team.

a landorus-t would be great to give you SR support and some defensive capacity in general, probably over the punchless victini. cube wants roost over draco which doesn't hit anything notable; if you want a dragon stab outrage at least lets you run over chansey. not gonna go too in-depth as this isn't a rmt thread (though i encourage you to make one!), but the biggest thing i notice is that you're reacting to him almost the entire time. you aren't executing a strategy because he is too busy pressuring you. if you bring a more solid team, these issues will naturally dissolve, which is rly nice. :)

Thanks for the critique Anti and Zekrom!
Also I initially had landorus-t as you mentioned but then switched it to scolipede for reasons obvious!But that startegy used to always fail if my opponent was spamming eq!So going to lando back!
Ty once again!
Also the thing you said about my team being exceptionally weak to rotom-
1:-In case of this I generally sacrifice some pokemon(depends on the opponents team) and then revenge kill it!

 

[luke]

You generally don't want to rely on sacrificing Pokemon to deal with an opposing one. The goal is to keep your team as healthy as possible for as long as possible!

 

[KorpiklaaniVodka]

also, doesn't seem like you have a rocker. stealth rock is MANDATORY on every competitive team.

...except for Trick Room and maybe Baton Pass. The latter playstyle is a shit strategy and all, but the former does not NEED SR (although it's appreciated). Most of the abusers (Crawdaunt, Rhyperior, Mega Camerupt, Exploud) have enough raw power to gain a ton of kills without needing prior damage.

 

[KorpiklaaniVodka]

Sorry for the double post but here's the PCL match which I lost:

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokecommunity-ou-158567

 

[Sirfetch’d]

sri wanted me to post this here so: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokecommunity-ou-158267

it's my pcl match. misplayed diancie kinda bad but wanted to get some good critique about it all so i don't misplay again haaha

 

[Nah]

I guess I'll post one too:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-226046899

It was kinda close at the end there but really he probably could've won sooner and with less dead Pokemon if he didn't switch his Mega Zard Y out on turn 31. Dunno why he did that when Zard outspeeds Mamo and it was burned.

Also I lost to a Scarf Togekiss earlier too. Who the fuck uses Scarf Togekiss?

 

[skyburial]

I guess I'll post one too:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-226046899

It was kinda close at the end there but really he probably could've won sooner and with less dead Pokemon if he didn't switch his Mega Zard Y out on turn 31. Dunno why he did that when Zard outspeeds Mamo and it was burned.

Also I lost to a Scarf Togekiss earlier too. Who the psyduck uses Scarf Togekiss?

In this particular battle, I would think that the Ferro switch would be a pretty safe prediction to bank on. For one, it almost completely walled your team, because your Metagross doesn't have Hammer Arm. And second, while this one was set up for hazards and disruption, a tankier set would have pooped on 2/3 of your mons. Bigtime liability. I could tell where the battle was going right around turn 12-13, before that you were completely in your element (gj on taking out Starmie so early).

On team building, the fantasy core in this team was pretty neat. The issue was that while the foundation was strong, rest of your team is seriously vulnerable to all the common grass types barring Breloom, and that actually compromised a member of your core. Mega (or Life Orb) Venusaur would have done just as much damage as Ferrothorn, methinks. Grass types, yo. Think about it.