Pokemon Forever Association Season Update (Week 1)

Season Update

As of right now, I'm proud to announce that the Los Angeles Nidokings are 2-0 for the start of the season and currently have the highest differential of the league with +10.  This is mostly due to the amount of preparation the Nidokings have done in hopes of overcoming our opponents. Last week and this week we've battled both Unit of the Rhode Island Rhyperiors and Epiclolz of the Indiana Igglybuffs. This threat I'll discuss regarding the preparation and outcome from Week 1 against Unit and later on Epic in another thread. Both of the battles will be listed down below when I'm done with this thread so lets get down to some statistics and post conference responses.

Week 1 Vs Unit501

First off, I must say Unit's team was one of the most threatening drafts (I'd say Top 5) in the league and just by match up it would be extremely difficult if I let him have his way against my team. Prior before the Free Agency Pick Ups by the end of Week 2, his team consisted of a strong Steel-Dragon-Fairy core in Ferrothorn, Kyurem-B, and Mega Diancie who all three can easily have wall-break my cores, and picked off my Pokemon one by one if play well. Other threats I noted down were offensive threats like Renuniclus, Mienshao, Meloetta, and Golurk who can punch holes on my team and walls like Mandibuzz, Miltank, and the Ferrothorn who are extremely annoying to deal with. Overall I knew this was going to be a long drawn out battle in which it might come down to who keeps their win conditions available. For this battle I brought the following Pokemon:

• Leftovers Manaphy with both setup/anti-setup options of Scald, Dazzling Gleam, Tail Glow and Heart Swap with max HP, 224 Spe EVs to outspeed Kyurem-B, and some invest into SpA with a Timid nature. The movepool was semi-standard only except for Heart Swap which some might ask why when I have use something like HP Fire for Ferrothorn or if at worse I misclick...... Well I don't like setup. At the same time, I don't like it when an opposing team setups against me so if Unit had brought something like Bulk Up Gallade, Calm Mind Reuniclus/Mega Diance, Curse Miltank/Ferrothorn, or anything else. However notice how most of the potential setup Pokemon boost either their respective attacking stat and a defense stat which is calculated against for and against the opponent. Ok so if in case Unit had decided to setup with anyone of his Pokemon like get a +3 Attack / +3 Defense Miltank or vice versa, I can come in on Manaphy on a free switch, take those boosts away with Heart Swap as that Pokemon is reset to zero boost, potentially get a either a Def or SpD boost (either or doesn't matter) and counter setup with Tail Glow since the my augmented defensive boosts lets Manaphy use the other Pokemon as setup fodder. While this never happen, this was I'd say the "push the red button" scenario to avoid being swept while using the oppenent's own setup against them. In the end, this never happen but the HP investment definitely helped out in the long run. 
• Standard Mega Manetric with a standard movepool of Thunderbolt, Volt Switch, Flamethrower, and HP Grass for the Seismatoad, Mega Diance, and Golurk which I'd anticipate he'd bring. The EV spread for Manetric was enough to outspeed Mega Diance while it was Modest with max SpA and some investment in HP. Overall Mega Manetric's main job was to provide switch initiative and gain as much momentum as possible so that my other wall-breakers and setup mons can beat the opposing team. 
• Standard Choice Scarf Garchomp with an Adamant nature with investment mainly in Attack/Speed while the leftover EVs were in HP/Def/SpDef though small. The movepool Garchomp had was two Dragon STABS in Outrage/Dragon Claw with Earthquake and Fire Blast for Ferrothorn. Garchomp was my main sweeper and finisher once Mega Diance goes down as Garchomp go for either Dragon Claw/Earthquae for general damage, Fire Blast to caught Ferrothorn, and finally Outrage to clean up. 
• A semi-offensive support Black Sludge Crobat with Brave Bird, U-turn, Defog and a tech move Steel Wing so it can OHKO 4 HP Mega Diancie 100% of the time (bar it missing). The nature for Crobat was Adamant since it can already outspeed most of  Unit's team and allows for attack power for Steel Wing to get that OHKO on Mega Diance (which Crobat still outspeeds). Since Ferrothorn is a thing on Unit's team, I needed a Pokemon who can Defog any Stealth Rocks/Spikes away while it can help gain initiative for my team with U-Turn. 
• A support-based Leftovers Uxie with Stealth Rocks, Giga Drain, Foul Play, and U-turn with a Calm Nature and a balanced EVs spread with max HP, and spread-out investment in Def / SpDef. Uxie's main job was to take Seismatoad, Mega Diancie, and even Kyurem-B by dealing as much chip damage as possible. Giga Drain was a nice tech option I used to help Uxie regain HP aside from gradual Leftovers and Foul Play was for Kyurem-B so it can actually break a potential Substitute set. 
• Finally we have the setup Eviolite IRON FIST Gurdurr with Drain Punch, Mach Punch,  Knock Off, and Bulk Up with a Careful nature and near max HP/SpDef with a small investment in each stat. If anyone recalled what I said from my draft analysis, Eviolite Gurdurr in a League format is almost as if I'm using an AV Conkeldurr but with a 50% in Def/SpDef. Now add Bulk Up into the mix and we have ourselves a powerful setup Pokemon who can wall-break Unit's team and take on Ferrothorn/Kyurem-B well and even take a Moonblast from Mega Diance. Iron Fist was opted considering his team doesn't have as much Will-O-Wisp users and it give Gurdurr additional power in both Drain Punch and Mach Punch. 

Unit's Team: Kyurem-B / Mega Diancie / Ferrothorn / Reuniclus / Mandibuzz / Golurk

Alright with all that out of the way, here's a summary of the battle. The battle starts out with Uxie and his lead being Diance. Strangely he doesn't Mega Evolve as I go for the Giga Drain to get off some chip damage against his Mega. Unit switches out from Mandibuzz onto Mandibuzz as I eventually switch out to Manetric,  however it takes a considerable damage from both Stealth Rocks and a Brave Bird from Mandibuzz. I Mega Evolve Manetric to go for the Volt Switch as he switches out to Golurk whose prevents this due to it being part Ground-Type. I realized I can switch onto Gurdurr since Golurk was -1 Attack and setup with Bulk Up, so I initiate the plan however Unit goes for a Power-Up Punch to regain his attack back to normal. As Gurdur setups, Golurk goes for Fly, completel catches me off and I realized this thing had to be taken out ASAP with a Knock Off. Fortunately even with the Eviolite and the +1 in Atk/Def Gurdurr takes out Golurk but it sustains far too much health to take on Mega Diance or Kyurem-B.  

Mandibuzz is sent out and Crobat was switch in since Gurdurr might still help out against Ferrothorn and Kyurem-B if weaken enough to be taken out by Mach Punch. Then Mandibuzz reveals Tailwind which honestly scared the shit of me since Tailwind Kyurem-B or Mega Diance can sweep my team at this point if I'm cornered. As Mandibuzz switches out to Diance, Crobat immediately Defogs the Stealth Rocks away since it was going to hinder Mega Manetric in the later stages of the battle. Here I switch out since I felt Crobat cannot take a Diamond Storm from Mega Diancie (as its in Tailwind) and went back into Uxie as my opponent reads this and goes for Moonblast.  Here Unit switches out into the Reuniclus there's a standoff and as I attempt to weak it with Uxie (as it goes for Rocks), Manaphy, and Mega Manetric. I wanted to bait in Ferrothorn as I doubled Manaphy into Mega Manetric, however he stays in to go for Energy Ball and I take more unnecessary damage. 

Here's when the battle completely changes into my favor as Unit switches out Reuniclus for Mega Diance as I go for Volt Switch and get in Crobat safely for its intended purpose. Unit stays in and I get off the Steel Wing to faint Mega Diance which gives me complete momentum now at this point. There's another standoff between the Reuniclus/Mandibuzz but this time against Crobat, Garchomp, and Manaphy. At this point Reuniclus was weaken to the point Manaphy was able to OHKO with 2 Scald hits on both the switch in and follow up. Kyurem-B finally makes its appearance, so Manaphy is saved as I decide that Uxie was likely going to die and attempt to get Stealth Rocks up. The Kyurem-B freezes Uxie though doesn't matter as much since it was a clear 2HKO. However I realize this Kyurem-B is Life Orb so I can easily wear this thing down enough with Intimidate drops (while getting a crit Volt Switch in the process) and a Dazzling Gleam from Manaphy.  Ferrrothorn comes in place of the icy dragon and again I decide to fodder off another Pokemon, this time Gurdurr. Surprisingly enough, Gurdurr survives the Gyro Ball and manages to get a two Drain Punches from Mandibuzz on the switch along with when it goes for another Tailwind setup.  There's a slight exchanges between Manaphy/Garchomp against Ferrothorn/Mandibuzz and it there's wasn't much gained from it however...

...my Garchomp manages to land a burn on the Mandibuzz which I admit used to this advantage to get in Mega Manetric safe on Mandibuzz and start killing stuff since Foul Play (if Unit had it) is halved in damage. Now as I switch in my Mega Manetric, Mandibuzz reveals its last move Roost and now I'm free to fire a Thunderbolt since the combination of Thunderbolt + Flamethrower can surely OHKO the Kyurem-B from the range it was at as well as OHKO Ferrothorn/Mandibuzz. Unit decides to sack off Ferrothorn so he can get a free switch into Kyurem-B and hopefully kill of something. At this point, Garchomp can win this battle by using Outrage but I realized Kyurem-B can easily go for Ice Beam so in response I go into Manaphy. To my shock, Kyurem-B reveals Roost and we now have a interesting end game scenario now. The decision was made to "sack" Manaphy so Garchomp, Mega Manetric, and Crobat can easily clean out the battle. Manaphy outspeeds Kyurem-B as it goes for Dazzling Gleam, Kyurem-B survives and goes for a Life Orb Fusion Bolt...and Manaphy lives by 2 HP! With the additional LO damage, Manaphy can now clearly win the game from here by going for Dazzling Gleam repeated. Unit saves Kyurem-B as he sacks Mandibuzz, maybe going for Tailwind as a last ditch effort but he instead goes for Brave Bird (again it was burned by Garchomp earlier) and Manaphy lives by 2 HP again. At that point, Manaphy won me the game with repeated Dazzling Gleams and the LA NidoKings won by 5 - 0.

Opinions On Week 1

For sure this was one of the most exciting wi-fi singles battles I've played on  in a long time despite the score indicating maybe not so much. Early on, Unit was able to weaken some of my most important checks to things like Kyurem-B and Ferrothorn (Gurdurr/Garchomp/Uxie/Mega Manetric) and played out the battle well. If there's anything to critique, well I think the times I could have saved Mega Manetric from being inflicted with unnecessary damage. Scarf Garchomp was something a friend of mine told me to run in case Kyurem-B was Scarf itself. Unfortunately I wasn't running Jolly Scarf Chomp but rather Adamant Scarf so I should have used maybe a Sword Dance set to wall break his team. I guess the Heart Swap call wasn't too great of a call as it limited my coverage so Ferrothorn much more problematic than is should have.  Again there was a legitimate concern over opposing setup like Curse Miltank or Calm Mind Reuniclus so I had my reasons to a safety net against opposing setup. 

Overall the battle was rather fun and interesting at certain points but I need to learn to preserve my Pokemon at key moments of the battle. I'll have a my next battle report against Epiclolz shortly after releasing this to the public. Until then, have a great day.