Improve your Battling: Replay Critique

[Anti]

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

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

My analysis will be limited on this one because, honestly, I've never used a Trick Room team in my life. I can't say I know how to run one effectively since it's such a specific style to run. Anyway, some thoughts:

- Heatran took a major bite out of your team in the early going. Leading off with the Cofagrigus allowed it to put an early beating on you. Honestly, an alternative play is difficult to really recommend, but Exploud might not have been a terrible lead choice. His most obvious lead plays are Rotom-W and Heatran, and Exploud can weaken both of them. I might get a better answer to one of the most common defensive Pokemon in the tier, but in this situation I might try to pressure it early. Not sure this is a great recommendation though, so take it with a grain of salt.

- Similarly, I didn't love the Bronzong sac. You note in the battle chat that it was a misprediction, but unless TR requires this as a style, why take such big early risks? That's a high-risk/low-reward play. Under Trick Room, Bronzong has immense utility against everything except the Rotom. You really missed it in the endgame. I might have actually tried to wear it down with Cofagrigus or something as it's more expendable anyway? Hmm. The biggest thing is that the Heatran got way too much early momentum on you. You'd want to fix that in team building though more than anything.

- I can talk about the endgame scenario with much more certainty. I think you needed to send the Abomasnow into Kyurem-B instead of Honchkrow. You have three TR turns and four Pokemon to kill. If his Dragonite has ExtremeSpeed (as many/most do), then you lose, as it bypasses TR *and* Sucker Punch. Banded ES kills and non-Band is a roll, but you kill yourself on the recoil anyway. The main point is that if the Honchkrow dies, your opponent can just wait out the TR turns and then OHKO the Abomasnow with Heatran. Meanwhile, he cannot do the same with Abomasnow, as he cannot hold out the Nite to kill Honch when Abomasnow can nail it with Ice Shard after TR expires. You have to bring in the Abomasnow on the Cube, as the Cube was at low enough health to EQ it to death without needing to predict. You at least give yourself a chance, even if it requires perfect execution. When you forced yourself to switch out of the Honchkrow, you were forfeiting a precious TR turn and forced the EQ mispredict at the end.

Honestly, even with all this, the odds were slim. Any one play of him successfully playing around you (leveraging the threat of Heatran, really) and he won. You lost this game early, not late.

Unless I'm understand the sets you're running incorrectly?

Though really, I'd just take this whole post with a huge grain of salt. That was such a wonky game that I honestly had trouble really giving solid advice besides "get a Heatran counter." Feel free to correct errant assumptions and I'll try to correct them if I messed it up.

I'll address the other battles later.

 

[KorpiklaaniVodka]

My analysis will be limited on this one because, honestly, I've never used a Trick Room team in my life. I can't say I know how to run one effectively since it's such a specific style to run. Anyway, some thoughts:

- Heatran took a major bite out of your team in the early going. Leading off with the Cofagrigus allowed it to put an early beating on you. Honestly, an alternative play is difficult to really recommend, but Exploud might not have been a terrible lead choice. His most obvious lead plays are Rotom-W and Heatran, and Exploud can weaken both of them. I might get a better answer to one of the most common defensive Pokemon in the tier, but in this situation I might try to pressure it early. Not sure this is a great recommendation though, so take it with a grain of salt.

- Similarly, I didn't love the Bronzong sac. You note in the battle chat that it was a misprediction, but unless TR requires this as a style, why take such big early risks? That's a high-risk/low-reward play. Under Trick Room, Bronzong has immense utility against everything except the Rotom. You really missed it in the endgame. I might have actually tried to wear it down with Cofagrigus or something as it's more expendable anyway? Hmm. The biggest thing is that the Heatran got way too much early momentum on you. You'd want to fix that in team building though more than anything.

- I can talk about the endgame scenario with much more certainty. I think you needed to send the Abomasnow into Kyurem-B instead of Honchkrow. You have three TR turns and four Pokemon to kill. If his Dragonite has ExtremeSpeed (as many/most do), then you lose, as it bypasses TR *and* Sucker Punch. Banded ES kills and non-Band is a roll, but you kill yourself on the recoil anyway. The main point is that if the Honchkrow dies, your opponent can just wait out the TR turns and then OHKO the Abomasnow with Heatran. Meanwhile, he cannot do the same with Abomasnow, as he cannot hold out the Nite to kill Honch when Abomasnow can nail it with Ice Shard after TR expires. You have to bring in the Abomasnow on the Cube, as the Cube was at low enough health to EQ it to death without needing to predict. You at least give yourself a chance, even if it requires perfect execution. When you forced yourself to switch out of the Honchkrow, you were forfeiting a precious TR turn and forced the EQ mispredict at the end.

Honestly, even with all this, the odds were slim. Any one play of him successfully playing around you (leveraging the threat of Heatran, really) and he won. You lost this game early, not late.

Unless I'm understand the sets you're running incorrectly?

Though really, I'd just take this whole post with a huge grain of salt. That was such a wonky game that I honestly had trouble really giving solid advice besides "get a Heatran counter." Feel free to correct errant assumptions and I'll try to correct them if I messed it up.

I'll address the other battles later.

I was forced to sac Bronzong because I was 100% sure he'd switch out, since my P2 traced Heatran's Flash Fire and couldn't do jack shit bar Toxic. I generally deal with Heatran by switching into P2 and then into Bronzong, anticipating a switch. This worked every single time before this battle. As for Abomasnow, I was afraid EQ would fail to KO Cube.

 

[Nah]

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.

I thought that it would be more of a team composition thing than anything else....I kinda think that's my biggest problem right now =(

But you're right, looking back at the replay there's a couple of spots where I should've predicted a switch into Ferrothorn but didn't, and if I did I could've gotten that out of the way a lot sooner.

 

[skyburial]

I thought that it would be more of a team composition thing than anything else....I kinda think that's my biggest problem right now =(

But you're right, looking back at the replay there's a couple of spots where I should've predicted a switch into Ferrothorn but didn't, and if I did I could've gotten that out of the way a lot sooner.

At first blush the simplest solution looks to me like it would be running Rotom-Heat in place of Rotom-Wash. Still burninates the town, 4X resists Steel, and levitates over Ground moves, but also has Overheat for Grass types.

Also, Talonflame can take out Mega Venusaur with a BB.

 

[Anti]

I was forced to sac Bronzong because I was 100% sure he'd switch out, since my P2 traced Heatran's Flash Fire and couldn't do jack muk bar Toxic. I generally deal with Heatran by switching into P2 and then into Bronzong, anticipating a switch. This worked every single time before this battle. As for Abomasnow, I was afraid EQ would fail to KO Cube.

when in doubt, calc. it will save you from more bad decisions than you'd think. also, when you play against really strong players, they're going to leverage their heatran well enough to exploit that you have to play around it/hope it doesn't have flash cannon or taunt or something.

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

some thoughts,

turn 9: probably would have spun here. it being unaware clef, there isn't really a flamethrower risk. i don't think anything needed the chesnaught weakened and a hippowdon switch-in would have made this an inferior play. unless you don't have spin with defog on the lati.

turn 15: very nitpicky here, but i don't see any reason not to waterfall actually. the only scenario i like knock in is if chesnaught comes in, but you threaten that poke nicely.

turn 19: ok, less of a nitpick. the only thing rp can outspeed is the lati, but this is where team analysis helps. that lati is the only thing on his team that can mega, so it's almost certainly mega (esp. given the team-build) so even if it's speedy, it won't be running anything that can hurt you. i would have moonblasted here to prevent a wishpass to cofgagrigus, who can otherwise force your azumarill out and cut its attack with mummy. getting hit with a moonblast sucks but isn't a huge deal. rp just doesn't help you in any way.

turn 25: i liked the idea to double, but not to the azumarill. if he stays in (as he did), you're wearing out one of your better wincons, whereas a double into diancie (assuming ep on coverage) or heatran would have beaten both the switchin you anticipated and the current mon.

turn 39: the hippowdon is sand force (didn't summon sand/did a ton of dmg in sand), so you want to be wary of powering it up. but since you did, i thought the exca play here was short-sighted. what exactly did this accomplish for you? i would immediately go for azumarill here, because if he goes for the eq ko after getting waterfalled, diancie sweeps his team--it has a clean ohko on every poke (again assuming ep for the tran). if he tries to stall you, he is at the mercy of a flinch/waterfall's high damage output. if he switches to chesnaught, you can go to the lati or even sac the exca to get diancie in safely and get a free kill since nothing can come into moonblast. this sac was needless, and here you can smell blood in the water.

turn 47: as you pointed out yourself, this is a big misplay. at this point in the game, your path to victory is very simple: weaken the hippowdon into diancie moonblast range and sweep. that range is...

252 SpA Mega Diancie Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 112 SpD Hippowdon: 205-243 (48.8 - 57.8%) -- 53.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

...49% or lower.

to achieve this goal, all you need to do is healing wish to azumarill and click waterfall. two scenarios:

1. if he brings in chesnaught, switch into heatran and sac it to drain punch or leech seed or whatever. it doesn't matter. at this point, you get a free diancie switch-in where he is forced to sac his chesnaught to get hippowdon in safely. then you can sac diancie and let azumarill finish off the hippowdon. game over.

the only way you can possibly lose here is if, in the process of sacking heatran, he gets his hippowdon in safely and out of diancie kill range. this would likely come from a leech seed and then some creative stalling/switching. even here, the odds are stacked against your opponent, as any spiky shield is risking a diancie switch-in.

2. he sacs the hippowdon. diancie wins.

here, just by thinking turns ahead and knowing what you can sac, you can plan out a very strong victory plan. sacking diancie killed off your best win condition.

turn 51: no reason to switch, just pound it with play rough. if it has wood hammer than heatran wins, as wood hammer recoil + lava plume will kill it:

0 SpA Heatran Lava Plume vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Chesnaught: 272-324 (71.5 - 85.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

more importantly, it's just important to remember that azumarill will never be in a better position against the chesnaught. chesnaught is faster and will remain so, so you might as well get good damage in. this was a needless risk when the death of hippowdon morphed heatran into your win condition.


...so yeah. you actually played very well early and did wonderfully getting out to the lead you did. you just gave it away at the end. luckily your advantage was sizable and you secured it in the end. no need for the nail biter though! once you get into position to go for the kill, recognize when mid game shifts to end game and you can plan out a path to victory.

 

[KorpiklaaniVodka]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-227263350

Lucky Focus Blast never missed.

 

[Charcoal Embers]

I have two. The second one, I know where my BIG mistake was. But everything else...

DC7W-WWWW-WWXU-WGJ4

25WW-WWWW-WWXU-WU69

 

[skyburial]

I have two. The second one, I know where my BIG mistake was. But everything else...

DC7W-WWWW-WWXU-WGJ4

Aaaaaaaalrighty so my feedback on this one. The substitute on Bisharp was no the most common thing to see, but you handled it in stride. Well done on taking out Bisharp.

However, the Sucker Punch play was pretty obvious after a swords dance and you would have done well to set up your rocks in turn 3 rather than turn 4 (when the Haxorus was setting up). Good call getting rocks up, just a timing issue. You can count on Haxorus to have either EQ or Close Combat, and either Dragon Dance or Swords Dance. In other words, if you have Ice Punch on your Aggron, you had less to lose by gambling on a turn of set up and taking the Hax out early, imo. Usually Haxorus will set up on the first turn.

I would not have Belly Drummed on that first turn with Slurpuff. I know the Unburden makes it quicker, but going straight for a Play Rough would have given you a chance to take it out:

252+ Atk Slurpuff Play Rough vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Haxorus: 134-162 (88.1 - 106.5%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO

Otherwise, RNG kinda screwed you in those last few turns. Not sure how many of those crits counted, but yeah. GJ.

25WW-WWWW-WWXU-WU69

I hope that this was a no rules battle, because Minimize and Mega Lucario are both banned by Smogon rules (which we follow in the Prism League). I would not have left Drifloon in on Nidoking, personally. Most of them run either Thunderbolt or Ice Beam, with Sheer Force. Sableye or Malamar would have been decent switch-ins, or perhaps Mega Lucario if it has Flash Cannon.

I'm not sure why you brought your Metagross and Malamar in on a Volcarona. Malamar is 4X weak to one of its STABs and Metagross is naturally checked by it. You might want to run an Assault Vest or Weakness Policy on your Metagross instead of Focus Sash, which is better suited to frail Pokemon. That flinch was unfortunate, though.

There were a lot of common weaknesses on your team, I personally would have used a Fairy type in place of Drifblim, but maybe that's just me. Malamar and Aurorus both appreciate Fairy team mates.

 

[Charcoal Embers]

Aaaaaaaalrighty so my feedback on this one. The substitute on Bisharp was no the most common thing to see, but you handled it in stride. Well done on taking out Bisharp.

However, the Sucker Punch play was pretty obvious after a swords dance and you would have done well to set up your rocks in turn 3 rather than turn 4 (when the Haxorus was setting up). Good call getting rocks up, just a timing issue. You can count on Haxorus to have either EQ or Close Combat, and either Dragon Dance or Swords Dance. In other words, if you have Ice Punch on your Aggron, you had less to lose by gambling on a turn of set up and taking the Hax out early, imo. Usually Haxorus will set up on the first turn.

I would not have Belly Drummed on that first turn with Slurpuff. I know the Unburden makes it quicker, but going straight for a Play Rough would have given you a chance to take it out:

252+ Atk Slurpuff Play Rough vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Haxorus: 134-162 (88.1 - 106.5%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO

Otherwise, RNG kinda screwed you in those last few turns. Not sure how many of those crits counted, but yeah. GJ.



I hope that this was a no rules battle, because Minimize and Mega Lucario are both banned by Smogon rules (which we follow in the Prism League). I would not have left Drifloon in on Nidoking, personally. Most of them run either Thunderbolt or Ice Beam, with Sheer Force. Sableye or Malamar would have been decent switch-ins, or perhaps Mega Lucario if it has Flash Cannon.

I'm not sure why you brought your Metagross and Malamar in on a Volcarona. Malamar is 4X weak to one of its STABs and Metagross is naturally checked by it. You might want to run an Assault Vest or Weakness Policy on your Metagross instead of Focus Sash, which is better suited to frail Pokemon. That flinch was unfortunate, though.

There were a lot of common weaknesses on your team, I personally would have used a Fairy type in place of Drifblim, but maybe that's just me. Malamar and Aurorus both appreciate Fairy team mates.

All I can say is, I was running Weakness Policy on Metagross. The flinch was the only thing that really made me screwed over with that. And since it would have had to have been running a flinch item, that was a 10 percent chance... And the Malamar, I just wasn't thinking at that point. And I forgot that Houdoom was still there.

I know that the Prism League is going with Smogon rules. But unless there is that or someone that specifically said that they really want Smogon rules, I just use whatever pokemon I have. Because clearly, it doesn't matter what I use, I still screw up anyway.

 

[Etherion]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-227858694

Won, but I wish I played it better :\

 

[Nah]

I got another one. This time it's an Ubers battle:

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ubers-229933344

 

[Charcoal Embers]

These two are my recent battles against the last Prism League gym leader I need to beat. Unfortunately, I am a huge doubles noob. And have very little idea how to make a team around it. So... I don't know if this team will ever be doubles viable.

C35G WWWW WW2W DRZ7
C35G WWWW WW2W DRZ7

 

[Anti]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-227263350

Lucky Focus Blast never missed.

yeah i have more issues with how your opponent played than how you did, he had two mons you really struggled to handle (rotom-w and zard x who thankfully wasn't dd) and didn't press his advantage very well. the excadrill sequence in particular was pretty silly.

wasn't really digging the team, struggled to keep momentum. anyway, not really any glaring misplays on your part, nice job, and crippling the chansey was very important for you.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-227858694

Won, but I wish I played it better :\

yeah, your opponent made some bigtime chokes here, but even so, i have plenty of advice. will go turn by turn.

turn 2: the turn 1 stone edge roll was really low (crits ignore stat modifiers), and on top of that there was leftovers recovery, so this is a defensive stealth rock land-t. here you stay in for chip damage i guess, but it isn't really accomplishing anything and is giving your opponent free stealth rocks. switching a turn late also ceded momentum to your opponent. instead, switching to keldeo is a very low-risk play here: landorus-t is almost certain setting sr, but even if it doesn't, keld resists all three of land-t's coverage moves. keldeo puts a lot of pressure on his team as well, so getting it in asap will do good things for you.

turn 3: no misplay here, but that uturn roll on clefable was quite high. it made me think that your clefable wasn't optimally ev'd (or the land-t is more offensive than i thought). just pointing this out.

turn 4: can't switch an intimidate poke into bisharp, i would have gone hydreigon here since it's less important long term than keld and gets a free attack to launch unless it iron heads (and it did, but i didn't love this play from your opponent since he passed up a good shot at crippiling keld, who is a bit of a problem for him).

turn 7: i usually like to double switch out of choice-locked 2hko situations, but i think the play you made was fine too since the only poke he can really switch into that (lati) is handily walled by your clef + meta, making it a low-risk play to stay in even though you forfeit some momentum.

turn 11: for me, this got too cute. assuming hp bug, i found this to be a high risk, low reward play. i thought secret sword was the play to make here, since it actually hits lati decently hard while also taking no chances against bisharp. again, since you have so much protection against lati anyway (and it coming in would just be inviting a metagross switch-in), i thought this was a needless risk and you got bailed out a bit by your opponent strangely sacking his bisharp.

turn 13: ballsy play, i might have sacked the keld just because giving zard x a free set-up doesn't matter--that ship has sailed no matter what you do--so you might as well assume it's y and preserve the only poke you have that checks it. had he fire blasted there, you would have been toast, though it did work out and you read your opponent correctly. (this is more just giving you an idea of the considerations to make with plays like this.)

turn 14: i might have volt switched here because i think he was dumb to keep his zard in, but more importantly, he chokes on the next turn. with raikou dead, you have nothing that can even force zard out...it just straight-up sweeps the team. you have to volt switch to hydreigon, forcing him to kill it instead of spamming roost (since otherwise draco will run it over) so that it's in range for the raikou.

turn 15: yeah, not a lot you could do here, but hydreigon is a better switch-in that clef so you can fish for a focus blast miss. in any case, i just wanted to point out that your opponent probably should have roosted here since thunder wave is extremely unlikely on your clef when you've already revealed stealth rock. you can learn from his misplays too. :x

endgame: you actually played this really cleanly, once your opponent gave you life, you strangled him. this is important to do. in pokemon, you're going to lose games you should have won but also win games you should have lost. it will even out over time, but if someone gifts you a win, take it. X)

i might fix the zard weak (both of them) on your team though.

hope this was helpful, feel free to ask questions etc.

I got another one. This time it's an Ubers battle:

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ubers-229933344

i can't say i know much about ubers, so this will be truncated, but the t1 play of setting rocks did seem a little weird when its your only xern check (i think?) and letting it get weakened early hurt you a bit, though usually the opponent will have a similar approach to risk and will switch out so i must admit that i'm surprised he stayed in. more generally, i guess i was just struct by how much you seemed to be reacting. what was your strategy from team preview going into that game? it might help being more proactive with that.

sorry for the short 'analysis' but sweep would probably be a good person to ask for much more in depth coverage of your match.

Ok so I have this one here (this was my last PCL match) and I feel I lost momentum and I am just looking to see if there is a general weakness when I'm battling so I can stop that...

remind me to reply to this if i haven't within the week.

 

[srinator]

sup! so uh i have this battle, which i won but barely. i would like advice as to what i could have done better
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokecommunity-ou-170628

 

[Anti]

Ok so I have this one here (this was my last PCL match) and I feel I lost momentum and I am just looking to see if there is a general weakness when I'm battling so I can stop that...

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokecommunity-ou-168195

team preview: brutal matchup for you, i have no idea how this game was as close as it was when you can barely switch into gengar or mmeta, nothing wants to take a burn, and ferro walls the whole team except your heatran. your best bet in this game is thus knocking off the ferro with azumarill or thund so it's easier to wear down (utilizing venu so it can't get leech seed recovery) and trying to get mmeta and gengar out of the battle, especially the gar since your scarf landorus can't hit it.

turn 1: i actually thought your lead choice was pretty good. not a lot of good plays here since you can't switch into metagross at all, so effectively sacking the azumarill to kill wasn't so bad.

turn 2: here i might have taken a risk and gone to heatran to absorb the finishing blow and then mew or landorus on the hammer arm. understandable if you don't want to get ballsy so early, but azumarill still had a lot of utility to offer you: even at low health, keldeo is forced out by it on the rk, and aqua jet is very helpful against ttar, heatran, gengar, and potentially metagross. i would avoid sacks you might not need to make though i understand risk aversion early on as well. even so, if your opponent makes an *optimal* play, you will be safe.

turn 3: this is why the switchin for the rk has got to be thundurus. you got lucky that the gengar was running a suboptimal set (energy ball) because you gave it free momentum. choice scarfers are useful, but you don't want to play them unless you have to since they yield set-up opportunities and/or free switch-ins for opposing breakers. also, your thundurus puts a lot of pressure on his team, and you could have sent it in and gotten a free knock on something. be active trying to find opportunities for your wincons to do work and keep your opponent on the defensive and not you (aka momentum).

turn 8: call me overly aggressive, but i would have double switched right out of the ferro, probably into landorus. any team that runs heatran needs to have a strong keldeo switch-in. since both azumarill and venusaur hate burns, you are putting yourself in this situation not in battle but in the team building phase. since your opponent would be insane to get cute with ferro and leave it it (that's not "prediction," it's lunacy), i would take this opportunity to double switch into landorus, who can surprise kill keldeo with scarf psychic or press momentum against tyranitar with a scarf uturn. either way, a double switch here would have allowed you to maintain the gamestate which was in your favor instead of forcing you to sac the mew. then what happened on turn 11 could have happened a few turns earlier and with one fewer pokemon fainted on your side. (generally, i like more aggressive plays in shaky team match-ups as well.)

turn 13: this was a good play.

turn 14: might have been a risk/reward play here. while it is unlikely that he was running fast leftovers earth power heatran (as was the case), i might have considered switching to landorus just in case, though you still might have made the right play. just food for thought. but losing heatran really hurt you against the ferro and also makes your match-up with gengar a lot more difficult. i think landorus was less important to you at that time.

turn 17: this is too late for your most useful poke to be coming in, just to reinforce what i mentioned earlier about turn 3.

turn 20: i'm not sure it would have mattered, but i would have gone for the knock here. it has already shown both leech seed and protect, so getting rid of its passive recovery probably would have helped, though losing heatran really compromised your ability to handle this thing.

...so yeah. i think the biggest turns were turn 3 and turn 8 as they represented missed opportunities for you to dictate the game to your opponent, and you ultimately ended up doing a lot of reacting here. not terribly played actually, but hope this makes you do better next time. :)

sup! so uh i have this battle, which i won but barely. i would like advice as to what i could have done better
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokecommunity-ou-170628

turn 2: brutal sequence because your plays here are really dependent on how good your opponent is. turn 1 his thund was at not risk since you're clearly not scarf lando-t. why? what else is setting stealth rock? i can't read your opp's mind, but that might explain why he switched ttar into a poke that often spams scarf uturns, since he got you so early. in terms of avoiding that happening again, i actually don't know what to say - your opponent just made a really nice early game play here.

turn 3: get up them rox early son

turn 4: ok, i don't really like this play at all. you need to think about your opponent's perspective. you can't bluff cb bp when scizor is the only mega possibility on your team, and even if that wasn't the case, bullet punch easily fails to ohko and he has every reason to smack it with earth power since your whole team puts insane pressure on the land anyway. this needed to be a dragonite switch so that you could pressure his team early. even if the azumarill comes in, scizor is a fine switch-in for it, and you have thunderpunch for it.

turn 8: what just happened...

turn 9: raikou is an automatic sac since sr kills it anyway and spinning might not happen. lando-t at least has intimidate utility and can push momentum vs. the cbtar.

turn 11: again, just go to raikou. you're weakening your team for no reason. :( you do it a turn later, so you really just cost your starmie health for no reason. :(

turn 13: didn't love scizor coming in, but you were in a pretty tough spot. i would have sent in dragonite here. scizor still had utility, and i think trying to bait him into sending in the tar wouldn't have been a terrible idea to get your lucario a free sd. your play wasn't too bad though, just offering an alternative.

turn 19: this is where the turn 11 play hurts you. you could have gotten a free hit off on this otherwise. even if he sends in the tar, you can do massive damage, and he gives lucario a free set-up.

turn 20: this seemed like an autopilot play. use thunderpunch. the ttar is too weak to switch into it and make you regret it. at this point you have the game won, but you espeed and get bailed out by the crit. ;( you need to be extra focused with endgame execution.

...so yeah, for next time, i would be more judicious with what pokes you sac. also, turn 20 almost broke you. unless you altered the team you used and took off tpunch, you almost gave away the game son!

will do archer's soon

 

[Nah]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-234208098

Alright, so what did I do wrong here?

Besides the T-Wave on turn 1, that was a misclick and I meant to hit Stealth Rock.

 

[KorpiklaaniVodka]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-234218193

Well, that Suicune proved to be crucial... or maybe not? (I'm the guy with Suicune and Crawdaunt)

 

[skyburial]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-234208098

Alright, so what did I do wrong here?

Besides the T-Wave on turn 1, that was a misclick and I meant to hit Stealth Rock.

I think the problem was setting up a team with 3 Psychic types. I imagine Bisharp, Gengar, or Hydreigon would have swept your team with relative ease as well.

Why not use a Dark or Fairy type in place of one of your Psychic types?

 

[Anti]

Well, I think somebody wanted to say something about this battle.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pokecommunity-ou-166467

Yeah, I requested that you post this because this to me is a good example of a game that was lost on the margins, which is to say that "the little things" are what did you in. Going into a fair amount of depth, so buckle up.

Team Preview: If his Mega Altaria gets a free switch-in and is any variant with Earthquake, you're toast, though Ice Shard helps a bit with DD Altaria. The tank gets a free kill every time it comes in. While his team is otherwise Keldeo weak, you can't afford to give Altaria a free set-up. The Alakazam is also a problem as well, though Weavile helps you play around it some. The strategy here has to be aggressively pressuring the Altaria. All he has to do is remove the Heatran, if that, and get a free DD on the Shaymin. You have to be very proactive about killing it. If Alakazam or Altaria dies, your path to victory becomes a lot clearer. If you have Icy Wind on the Keldeo (and you should with such an Altaria weak team), then that might be a good early game play.

Turn 1: I liked the lead choice, and the double switch seemed like a reasonable risk.

Turn 2: I do feel like the burn bailed you out a bit here. I definitely would have used Icy Wind if you had it since the worst-case scenario is that Skarmory Roost scouts you, and then you can go straight to Heatran and get to work anyway. That said, Scald wasn't a bad play here (and was the right play if you aren't carrying Icy Wind) since Altaria isn't going to want to risk setting up on a burn unless it has Heal Bell, in which case Heatran beats it anyway. So this is less a critique and more "here's another option," but yeah.

Turn 4: Early SR, good. This keeps the pressure on Altaria a lot with its burn. Even so early, you have gotten off to an excellent start.

Turn 5: Safe play, fair enough.

Turn 6: This worked out well for you since the Weavile (potentially with Pursuit) was too threatening for him to ignore. Solid play, especially since you're pretty Alakazam weak.

Turn 9: This was actually the proper play, though luckily the miss doesn't cost you. You actually did need the extra bit of power to move past it.

Turn 11: This was a very nice and secured the defeat of the most threatening Pokemon to your team, though Heal Bell reveals it wasn't a 6-0 waiting to happen. Even so, Keldeo gets a free kill every time it comes in now. You basically win this game in the early game (though Alakazam can still sweep you) and then you kind of give it away. I'll go into depth as to how.

Turn 14: You made the right play here. You can't let Manaphy get going, while Skarmory is far less threatening to you.

Turn 17: There is absolutely no reason to Hydro Pump here. You certainly do not need the extra power to mow down Skarmory:

252 SpA Choice Specs Keldeo Scald vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Skarmory: 177-208 (52.9 - 62.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

It is unlikely that the Skarmory is that invested in Special Defense, though in this case it doesn't even matter.

What else does Hydro Pump hit that Scald does not? It might help with Manaphy, but a Scald burn basically ruins it and you have multiple checks to it, so giving it a free set-up isn't such a big deal. You have to make safe plays when you can. A huge amount of hax is avoidable and the miss here was one such instance. You could have gotten a free burn on it given what Dave chose to do, and you would have maintained momentum no matter what. This was a big missed opportunity to punch a hole in either Skarmory or Manaphy.

Turn 19: Good to get his hazards away.

Turn 21: In this spot, his hazards are gone, so he can't WW you to death. I think you absolutely have to double switch here: the risk is very low and you can abuse more Pokemon with Keldeo. If you keep it in, there's no way he's sacking the Skarm this early, so I would at least Earth Power to hit both plausible switch-ins (Manaphy and his Heatran) for decent damage. Even so, not the worst play, just a very safe one.

Turn 22: Obviously the risk of your play is high, as you lose your Heatran. Are there lower risk plays available? He is probably maximum Speed since he's Balloon Tran, but Latias can sponge a hit and Defog SR away. Altaria can come in and force it out depending on how much Speed you're running. Either way, disaster can't strike like it did here. You only want to sac when you have to, and here, Speed tie or not, you didn't.

Turn 23: Hindsight is 20/20, but this would have been a great time to Secret Sword. Alakazam can't take that hit well at all either:

252 SpA Choice Specs Keldeo Secret Sword vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Alakazam: 192-226 (76.4 - 90%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

I think he would have been insane to switch his Landorus-T in.

Turn 27: Hehe, sometimes you just guess wrong.

Turn 29: I didn't love the Lati switch to begin with since it puts you in precisely this position. I would have recovered off health here though if you were going to stay in.

Turn 31: At this point, you have to put yourself in his shoes. He has no reason to risk his Heatran here when so many Altaria carry Earthquake. I would have double switched into Latias or Keldeo, probably the former to remove the hazards.

Turn 32: Either Iron Head or Whirlwind does you in here if you switch Lati in. You're already in a tough spot (which is why Turn 31 was important--you weren't thinking turns ahead there) and you guaranteed death by hazards here. Ruh roh.

Turn 33: There is *still* no reason not to Scald. Shaymin can still remove Manaphy, as can Weavile. The miss on the next turn...you kind of set yourself up for it.

Turn 36: I thought this was a low reward play and thought Seed Flare would have been better. If you want to hit Skarmory, hit it once it comes in, since it can't punish you much. You are just killing off your pokes now with overpredictions. :(

Turn 37: The crit bailed you out a bit here, since Scald would have wasted this thing and Knock doesn't OHKO.

Turn 40: It doesn't matter at this point, but the there is *STILL* no reason to risk the miss here.

Turn 41: Crit didn't matter since the Landorus-T cleans you anyway. :(

Conclusions: You have to minimize risk in Pokemon. I first watched this when gloom was visiting and she said something like, "wow, he really gave that away." Indeed. Your early game lead was excellent, but you kept giving him free turns with Hydro Pump misses. You don't always need to secure 2HKOs in the immediate term. The only thing Hydro Pump helped with was Manaphy, but you had an entire defensive backbone to remove it. Furthermore, Scald gets free damage on it (and can put it on a timer with a burn) which means that the next time it comes in, Keldeo can overpower it. You misused your wincon and it hurt you a lot. You legitimately would have been better off with a three-move Keldeo. ;(

For next time, think turns ahead. Minimize risk. Only use Hydro Pump when Scald could yield a game-altering set-up opportunity or recovery (like from a Slowbro or something).

Also, I perceived that your game began to slip once he started frustrating you mid game. The Altaria-Skarmory-Latias sequence was a sort of reversion to thinking one turn at a time instead of seeing the big picture.

Your early game was very good. If you apply pressure like that on your opponents, you will do well. Feel free to ask me any questions.

EDIT: Also, Shaymin is a pretty sub-optimal choice. ;(

 

[Charcoal Embers]

I honestly don't 100% know what went wrong with this battle. I used the exact same team against him when I fought a VERY similar team, and did a whole lot better.

QAYW WWWW WW22 86YT