PFA Regular Season 3 Week 9: Vs The Bolts Strike Bisharps

(Artist: AnnaK1332 )

Preview

Just a brief spoiler, there might be a slight delay between the time I post this Week 9 review until the next one, however that's mostly things that came up lately. Either way, we are definitely in playoff contention and likely secured the top seed in our division. Possibly the only other update to mention is how the last few post of CIL will be. Obviously we have this one for the Bolt Strike Bisharp (I'll get into that shortly), then my "future" battle with ItalianG62, then afterward, there might be only 2-3 more posts depending on how far we make it into playoffs. The past CIL post I'll do is for ItalianG62, then afterward I'm going to publish the playoff battles after we either finish round 1 and / or finals which should be around Mid-Late September. Of course, the end goal for this series will be to have a wrap up post about CIL which will only be about how I felt about my performance, preparation, and the battles overall. Maybe I'm getting a bit far ahead of myself lately, but its better to mention this now so I'll always have a mental check...sorta.

Week 9: VS The Bolt Strike Bisharps

 My Team: Charizard X, Latias, Suicune, Weavile, Sylveon, Doublade, Nidoking, Galvantula, Chesnaught, Empoleon, Gliscor

Iceolate's Team: Mega Lopunny, Zapdos, Azumarill, Reuniclus, Goodra, Heliolisk, Registeel, Cofagrigus, Rhyperior, Liepard, Archeops.


Looking at Iceolate's team, he's definitely surrounded his main Mega Evolution in Mega Lopunny with some capable defensive Pokemon. If anything, Mega Lopunny, Heliolisk, and the Archeops are the fast offensive threats who can easily outspeed most of my team and get some good chip damage against, or possibly attempt  to sweep. Zapdos was a major threat to the team as it can potentially Volt Turn against my checks to it, status my Pokemon with T-wave / Toxic, Defog any hazards I setup, and potentially be offensive itself to overwhelm my own walls. Next are the slow Pokemon on his team, yet pack a punch: Azumarill, Reuniclus, Goodra, and Rhyperior. Azumarill kinda stood out like a soar thumb as I felt confident he'll bring just given the matchup alone. In fact, most of the team built below was taken in response to possibly most Azumarill sets. Same goes for Reuniclus, who can try to Calm Mind sweep me, or run a LO Trick Room similar to what I faced back in PFA S3. Next are Icolate's potential wall core in Goodra, Rhyperior, Cofagrigus, and Registeel. Both Goodra and Rhyperior were mention before since either have strong offensive pressure / coverage moves with a crap ton of  special and physical bulk to tank most of my team's attacks. Cofagrigus kinda functions similar to Reuniclus, except it can also setup Toxic Spikes, and use the Mummy ability to cancel all my abilities, if my team makes contact with the coffin. Registeel was another defensive Pokemon which can block out most of my heavy special sweepers (Sylveon / Latias), however doesn't have a reliable attack stats to abuse.  Finally Liepard rounds up his team as its mostly there for prankster support like Priority Thunder Wave, Encore, etc so we'll keep this in mind. 

Looking at Iceolate's team, Mega Lopunny, Azumarill, and Zapdos were the likely to brought since all three matchup well against me, and has been brought in almost every game. As mention before, Azumarill was the most threatening as a potential Choice Band Set straight up kills almost anything on my team with the right coverage. Zapdos was the most capable pivot since it actually can stand a chance against my own wall core and has its way against my team if used well. Mega Lopunny outspeeds everything on my team and can get some powerful STAB Returns / High Jump Kicks off. If anything, I have to hope we can get rid of Lopunny via tank one of its own hits while retaliating with a SE attack,  or more likely wearing it down over the course of the battle. The last three Pokemon IMO were going to be things that can possibly wall my team, like the Reuniclus, Registeel, and Rhyperior. Again Reuniclus can be annoying to deal with, but hopefully we can pressure it enough with the team I'm bringing. Registeel might only be brought for Sylveon / Latias since both actually threaten a decent portion of Icolate's team yet as long as Registeel doesn't setup (likely the Curse set), we should be fine. lastly Rhyperior is a good response to Charizard X, but that's about it. Anything else on my team can threaten it with powerful Super Effective attacks or STAB special moves, or maybe both.  

Now even though I made playoffs not too long ago, I'm still going to take the battle as serious, or better yet I'm not going to underestimate my opponent like I've done before. With that said, here's the team I brought for the battle.


Forge (Charizard-Mega-X) @ Charizardite X  
Ability: Tough Claws  
- Flare Blitz  
- Will-O-Wisp  
- Roost  
- Dragon Dance  

I've made multiple attempts to use a defensive Charizard X set, however the end result was a bulky set with a moderate attack. speed, and mostly HP investment. Kinda thought about using some kinda of Tailwind / Sword Dance set to wall break against Iceolate's team, yet the potential Rhyperior and random Thunder Wave users prevent me from doing so. To explain this set, I only wanted Flare Blitz since it hits everything on Ice's team hard, except for Rhyperior and Azumarill, yet still take some chip damage. For those two, Will-O-Wisp was opted to potentially burn both after-mentioned Pokemon as well as other walls for residual. Dragon Dance plus the speed investment allows me to outspeed Mega Lopunny at +1, and everything else after further boost to potentially sweep. The best chance I have to setup is against the Zapdos late game as any remaining members on Iceolate's team will likely be weaken to where + 1 Flare Blitz can easily OHKO.


Stitches (Nidoking) @ Passho Berry  
Ability: Sheer Force  
- Earth Power  
- Sludge Wave  
- Ice Beam  
- Toxic Spikes  

Our mascot Nidoking returns for another fight! Probably this was the one Pokemon I wanted to use more than anyone else as it kinda has a field day against Iceolate's team thanks to its Sheer Force-boosted special hits. Part of me wanted to run Life Orb to straight out 2HKO certain Pokemon on his team with even considering Shadow Ball as an option for Reuniclus and Cofagrigus. Then I realized one problem: Azumarill. This thing will likely switch in on a fallen teammate to revenge kill Nidoking with a likely Banded Aqua Jet. After some thought and debate, it became more clear to me that Nidoking needed the Passho Berry to reduce the damage of the Aqua Jet to the point where Nidoking can live the attack, and hopefully faint the Azumarill with Sludge Wave. The last move on the list was Toxic Spikes as a last ditch move to weaken his team more, however I feel can work well if we either time it right, or if Zapdos isn't there 


Nui Harime (Sylveon) (F) @ Leftovers  
Ability: Pixilate  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Hyper Voice  
- Wish  
- Heal Bell  
- Calm Mind  

After having a great week 8 performance, Sylveon was brought to the matchup as the primary special wall for Zapdos, Reuniclus, and Heliolisk. Could have gone with the same set as last week, but the EV's are more defensively oriented to take on Mega Lopunny as the special attackers aren't concerning. Didn't opt to run a coverage move for Registeel as Wish / Heal Bell offered superior support, and if Ice doesn't bring Registeel, Calm Mind can handle his team decently. The way I'd envision this battle, Registeel will get worn down anyways with the combination of hazards (see Chesnaught below), residual damage from resisted hits, and potential a burn status, which would be helpful for Sylveon Calm Mind Setup, assuming no Curse setup for Iron Head


Reed (Chesnaught) @ Leftovers  
Ability: Bulletproof  
- Wood Hammer  
- Super Fang  
- Spikes  
- Synthesis  

Well given the most offensive threats to his team are kinda checked by this guy, and the idea of not bringing Chesnaught for one more game sounded weird. Well Chesnaught is here. During the teambuilding phase, I realized Azumarill was almost always going to be a threat to my team, especially one which speed creep my Chesnaught.  So to combat this, Chesnaught for this battle had enough EVs to speed creep Azu and OHKO it immediately with Wood Hammer after some Rocks damage. Aside taking out Azumarill quietly, don't have much for Chesnaught aside to spam Spikes, Super Fang targets on the switch, and recover up when necessary. 


Rogue (Suicune) @ Leftovers  
Ability: Pressure  
- Scald  
- Snarl  
- Roar  
- Rest  

Kinda a weird Suicune set for this week as I'm kinda worried about any potential setup options from either the Cofag or Reuniclus. Thought about giving Suicune Rocky Helmet for this battle to chip at Lopunny / Azu for a bit, but felt the residual HP recovery from Leftovers was better. Snarl is there mostly to hit some of his special attackers on the switch and reduce their damage output. Kinda liked Calm Mind here but Heliolisk is one of the best answers to Mono-attacking Suicune. 

Anne (Latias) @ Choice Scarf  
Ability: Levitate  
- Psyshock  
- Thunderbolt  
- Healing Wish  

- Trick  

Based on Iceolate's team, this Latias is fast enough to outspeed both Jolly Mega Lopunny and Scarf Goodra (something that he has used before). Psyshock is Latias main STAB option as it hits most things for some decent damage, including the Goodra. Thunderbolt was there mostly to hit Azumarill, in case it was for some reason a Sap Sipper Belly Drum set, which I've seen before. Last two slots are mostly utility, with Healing Wish as an option to recover my main attackers/walls, while Trick to "force" one of his walls, or CM user to use one attack. 

The Battle: Pile of Stuff

So based on team preview alone, no Zapdos means 1st thing to do is to setup as many hazards as we can, before Mega Lopunny or Azumarill show up. Given Nidoking has a decent matchup on most his mons, I decided to lead off with it,  just to prevent Stealth Rocks on my side of the field. As Iceolate leads Rhyperior against Nidoking, I'm in a good spot to already make a call here, however getting "damage" on something was the better play. Goodra switches in for Rhyperior, literally slurps the Earth Power to the point I knew it was Assault Vest. Here I didn't know what to do here, as most of my team is fairly weak or can't switch into Goodra. After some further observation, 5/6th of Iceolate's mons are weak to Toxic Spikes, which lead me to stay with my Nidoking to setup the hazards. This turn works out great as I'm able to get my Toxic Spikes, and Nidoking takes little damage from a resist Sludge Bomb, possibly as a prediction to Sylveon. Again since I can't switch into anything, kinda to forced to keep attacking the Goodra with Ice Beams, which in retaliation the slim dragon hits Nidoking with a Draco Meteor, almost fainting it. Since Goodra is now at -2, I felt confident to switch into Chesnaught as it can tank the Sludge Bomb with Bulletproof, and to possibly scare Goodra out. Instead, Goodra goes for a Dragon Tail on my switch, and to my luck, Sylveon is sent out. 

Once again, I sorta have momentum for this battle, but there's no reason not to call forth Registeel at this junction in the battle to maybe setup Stealth Rocks. In response, I make a prediction by double switching back into Chesnaught on the incoming Registeel, and now one layer Spikes is almost guaranteed. Iceolate is forced to switch into Cofagrigus as we get the crucial Spike for the battlefield. Here I debated about going to Sylveon to take the incoming Will O Wisp, Heal Bell to cure the burn, and get a Hyper Voice off, yet Suicune was another decent option to maintain some pressure. As Suicune is swapped out, Iceolate reveals the Magic Coat on the Cofagrigus, which results in a free turn as thankfully I didn't setup hazards there. Having revealed the Magic Coat tech made me realized that Cofagirgus might not have Calm Mind or maybe Wisp, so I go for the safe Snarl to prevent it from potentially setting up. Upon attacking with Snarl, Cofag reveals the Colbur Berry, an item to reduce Dark-type attacks possibly meant for Weavile, as Cofargrigus does indeed burn Suicune, which isn't a concern. 

Then I realized given that Cofag doesn't carry Leftovers,3 turns of Toxic Spikes poison + Snarl have done almost half to the Ghost type, therefore a potential Pain Split is incoming. Immediately I hard switch to Nidoking on the Pain Split, which funny enough "heals" me and further weakens the Cofagrigus. This was also sorta meant as a potential sack, in case Cofag was going to attack me, but staying alive for a couple more turns is appreciated. With Cofag weaken, Nidoking immediately goes for the Sheer Force Earth Power to OHKO it, not even considering going for another layer of T-Spikes since the first layer is enough (no annoying walls), and getting rid of Cofag is best for the rest of my team. Azumarill comes in and here comes a exceptionally important turning point. I do a quick damage calculation with my Nidoking EV Spread to see that a potential Aqua Jet from a "non-boosted" variant (Choice Band, Splash Plate, Muscle Band, whatever) can OHKO me, and just an max attack Adamant set, barely doesn't OHKO. Likewise I leave Nidoking to avoid any set, Azumarill uses Aqua Jet, no crit, the Passho Berry activates, and Nidoking lives on seven percent HP!

In a matter of a few turns alone, a potential sack in Nidoking just killed two important Pokemon who could have gave me some headaches during the battle and possible gave us a favorable chance to win the game, though that end result isn't guaranteed yet. Mega Lopunny is sent out to kill Nidoking with Fake Out, however doing so resulted in 24% HP from Spikes and Toxic Spikes damage. Chesnaught is switched out and I waste no time to go for the Super Fang to further weaken one of his remaining walls, which is the Goodra. With Goodra now at 13%, I kinda felt confident to stay in and setup more Spikes, as maybe Iceolate might overpredict again, which he does going for the Thunder to hit Suicune. Once Goodra was at 1%, I went for Super Fang knowing that any Pokemon at literally 1 HP will always die to a Super Fang doing exactly the one damage needed, however had Goodra not been that exact number, I would have setup the final layer of Spikes.  Now at this point in the game, I have 5 decent mons to deal with Registeel, Mega Lopunny, and Rhyperior, who all three will have to deal with Spikes + Toxic Spikes. 

When Registeel was sent out, I kinda wanted to send in Char X to finally get the Mega Evolution off, and to prevent my Mega from getting like 50% damage done to itself. As Char X is sent out, Registeel goes for the Rock Polish, and then suddenly I realized this Registeel might have "something" to use as a setup, possibly a Weakness Policy. However with our defensive Zard X on the field, Will O Wisp was the natural play as we are able to tank the incoming EQ. Following turn Rhyperior is sent out, as I roost off the damage, I realized that my opponent's Pokemon are now on a timer of sorts, so basically we have to kinda semi stall Iceolate to win the game. A couple turns of Rhyperior roaring my Pokemon later, Suicune is finally brought out. Here Iceolate sacks the Registeel to the Suicune as two Scalds + one burn damage results in a kill. Mega Lopunny is brought out for the last time, taking full Spikes damage (at 51%), and essentially it can't mount a comeback without some ridiculous hax or chokes on my end. Chesnaught is sent out on the incoming Fake Out to take easily, and retaliate with a Wood Hammer upon taking an last ditch Ice Punch for the potential freeze. No blue magic means Chesnaught faints the Lopunny, and eventually the quad super effective low HP Rhyperior, resulting in a strong 5-0 finish. 

Afterthoughts

After the match, Iceolate mention how he wasn't as confident about the matchup, so he brought some sets that where there to mostly throw me off. I did mention that the lack of any hazard removal, aka Zapdos made this game easier for my side to slowly chip at his team and get OHKOs without random damage rolls. If Zapdos was brought, I think this would have been a vastly different battle to the point I don't know how exactly Iceolate would have responded. Honestly any one of my Pokemon could have performed well here just with the hazards alone makes their walling jobs far easier. To be honest, almost everyone did some kinda of work in this battle, even Latias at the end could have slowly picked off Icolate's team in the end. Kinda wish Charizard X might have gotten a kill here, or maybe a sweep, but that's kinda wishful thinking when Iceolate brought things which definitely check my Zard.

Perhaps the biggest turning point in this battle was actually not the setting up the hazards at all, rather Nidoking netting two critical OHKOs on the Cofagrigus and the Azumarill while low HP. Cofagrigus might have helped Ice via spamming  Pain Split and reducing my walls to here where Mega Lopunny actually kills them off one by one. Heck a random Magic Coat on my Nidoking's Toxic Spike could have made this battle more I'd say tedious, but thankfully that scenario never happen. Funny enough, I actually changed the Nidoking set from a mixed Life Orb set to this Passho Berry because at the time team building, Azumarill was a concern. I was kinda forced to think out of the box, well not much. Didn't take long for me to consider doing the same thing I did to against Blue with the Shuca Berry Nidoking to bait the EQ, which in turn removed a huge threat. 

Definitely Nidoking deserves the title for MVP of the game for setting up Toxic Spike, and OHKOing two vital threats in the process. An honorable mention goes to Chesnaught for once again, being the main defensive anchor of the team. Even though Chesnaught didn't get the defensive MVP award, the fact both it and Weavile have eight kills and one / zero deaths respectively is kinda ridiculous to me. Honestly Chesnaught could have been the MVP here if it killed Azu as well, however Nidoking did that job, so I kinda have to reward it to my mascot since it shifted the battle to my favor immensely. The rest of my team was fairly decent: Char X did a good job burning the Registeel to render it useless, Suicune / Sylveon assisting Chesnaught in the team defense, and Latias, while not doing anything in particular, was there to revenge kill anything. 

CIL Standing Situation

Now for standing updates. As of right now, the Nidokings are 9-0 (best record / no losses) with a huge differential of about +36 points.  After some calculations, or basic math,  we have the best record in the league by default, as we have a higher differential (+36), compared to CBran's Blastoise team having a final result of 9-1 (+22 differential). Essentially at this point, but me and Chase have clinched our respective top seeds of playoff conferences and I feel great we've managed to do this well in the league. Next week, I'm going to battle arguable my notable rival in any Pokemon thing, the guy who has beaten us many time in Doubles, and we've been beaten a couple of times in this format: Italian. 

Originally I was going to battle Hank the Pidgey, however due to IRL stuff on his end, he wasn't able to continue the league so it was basically our job as a league to find a suitable replacement. Eventually we decided to have someone from the PFA league, so Kyle was chosen as one of three replacements. This actually might be an important game for Kyle as he as to win one game at least to make a playoff run, and I have already secured almost the everything, except the top record, or the the 10- 0 season record. To be honest, I'm going to give it my best to win the last battle, and possibly end the regular season on a high note. 

As I'm also entrenched in the middle of PFA S4, I'm going to say this September is going to be the month where we might have playoffs for CIL, and possibly we might only do just one / two battles depending how well we matchup. Honestly being part of the CIL League for nearly 5 months is amazing, and the chance to win a title is a great way to end the season. Of course we still have to battle Kyle, then one person from the X Conference, then possibly get to finals. Regardless of the outcome, I'll do my best. 

PFA S2 Weeks 10 - 15

PFA S2 Weeks 10 - 15

So with part of of the regular season, I want to reiterate the same points mentioned in the  previous post. These battles there from a few months ago and I'm not going to list down every play as detailed. At the same time, I've decided not to do a draft review given how many changes and transactions we've made. If I do happen to list down the team itself by the end of the season, I feel people will get the idea how powerful it especially from picking up strong Free Agent Pokemon. At the time, the people in the league decided no transaction limitations so of course many teams were drastically different from the draft day to eventually the end of the season itself, including mine. Several people did take advantage this to improve upon the teams and keep retention as high as possible. With that out of the way, here's part 2.

Bouncing Back (Thoughts On RNG)

After losing to Alec, I kinda had a shit day the following hours after the battle, possibly to the point of  doubting whether I'd stay in the league. A ton of "life happens" thing occurred and I kinda felt overwhelm going into the latter weeks despite having one of the "easier" schedules in this league. With all this stuff occurring, I still had over two weeks to recover from this loss given how early we battled, and review what our mistakes were at the time. If anything, part of the reason I feel I'd lost the match against Alec was mostly because I didn't prepare adequately enough, especially when I exactly called out one situation about potentially facing stall, which I didn't prepare for. From that point on, every battle I always put two hours into preparation per day, meaning I had always reviewed my team before going into the battle. Guess one can say, the more "time" I had, the better the result will be. One last thing I did to improve my matchups was to always test the team on showdown on various alts to see whether certain situations can work out in my favor, or just play test the battle with trusted people I know before being in the league. 

Eventually after a week, one of my ACs did told me eventually I'm going to lose at one point and I have to make the best out of learning from that loss. Honestly, he was right. To be  frank, I should have lost to Epiclolz during Week 7, but my Greninja was able to tank an +1 Earthquake. Against Kyle, had he stayed on on Rhyperior, the battle would have been his since Manaphy can't OHKO it from that range and scarf Sceptile beats my scarf  Cobalion. Finally against Marc, one false mishap and possibly the Mega Sharpedo would have swept my team. Even as I'm writing this piece, I'll admit missing a 95% accurate move sucks, but whats worse is  complaining about losing luck or RNG. 

Everyone's who has played Pokemon at a high level knows how it feels to lose a game off of a potential chance like losing against a crit, no Scald burns, consecutive paralysis, and all the shit ton of chances effects in the game. IMO, the best way to deal with RNG or losses with RNG is not to complain about it all the time to the point where it hides the mistakes YOU, the player made. After reviewing the battle, I realized there where multiple opportunities where I could have just KOed a Pokemon, setup with Manaphy against Tentacruel despite fearing Haze, or get into a better position where the battle was favorable. Instead I was too passive and failed to capitalize on key plays or turning points in the battle. One Sacred Fire miss, while it can change the game completely, wasn't the end all be all. In short, there were other things I should have done to improve my chances of winning. 

If anything, use hax and other "chance" effects more so to "supplement" win cons, rather than to rely on it. It might sound the same to some, moreso like to rely on a percentage to win, yet if going for Stone Edge, or even Sacred Fire is the only play to make, then that still not a reliable win con. Basically don't give the opposing players any "outs" since they will abuse it the minute they figure out that's a win con, even if its based on chance.  Essentially put yourself into a position where  hax can be mitigated while at the same time, if you receive any, take full advantage and use it as a win con. This might sound contradictory to every I mention, but that's being "competitive" in Pokemon is really. Then again, relying on a 10% chance is still rather relatively small instead of positioning oneself to better win scenarios  What I'm basically trying to mention, one needs to have multiple outs and win cons in the battle to win, instead of relying on certain scenarios where RNG might play a role. Those thing will occur in do time, yet its how one gets there that will directly impact the battle. 

Consistency is basically what I'm looking for per every battle. This might be whether I bring the same sets, or some radically different sets one might not think of, however if I'm getting far more wins, and few less losses knowing small mistakes here and there, then that's consistency for me. This means I can't go about "predicting" my opponent every turn as this might result in me losing or reducing vital win cons. Even so, I do make a couple every so often just to throw off my opponent, or if I know I'm in sorta a low risk, high reward position or vice versa. 

Then again I am talking about an 0-1 loss, which still a loss, isn't bad.

Last Regular Season Battles

WEEK 10 VS RHODE ISLAND RHYPERIORS (UNIT501)

My Team: Hazards Roserade, Rotom-H, Scarf Cobalion, Rain CM Manaphy, DDD M-Altaria, Defensive Bronzong.

Opponent's Team: Rotom-W, Jellicent, Infernape, Bisharp Forretress, Mienshao

Despite facing one of the low-performing teams in the PFA, I didn't want to lose to Unit and continue where I started. Roserade was quite effective in this battle for setting up Toxic Spikes, fainting the Forretress on an incoming switch via HP Fire, and just weakening most of Unit's team here and there. Most of the battle I tried to find a situation where Mega Altaria can effectively sweep Unit with 2 Dragon Dances, especially after Forretress was gone but I had to play around the Rotom-W, Jellicent, and the Bisharp since I didn't have Heal Bell. Perhaps the one Pokemon that I underestimated in this battle was the Mienshao. Despite the heavy damage Mienshao received, thanks to the Regenerator ability it was able to come back at higher HP every time it switched out. The volt turn combination of Infernape, Mienshao, and Rotom-W became a bit annoying and eventually I made a ballsy move to switch directly into the Mienshao with Cobalion as it switched out. This could have turned out really bad if Unit clicked High Jump Kick, but I predicted him to switch out with U-Turn anyways. 

At one point, I'm finally able to get in Manaphy and weaken both the Rotom-W, and the Jellicent, though losing a bit of momentum on my end. One point in the battle, figured that Mega Altaria can setup to +2 against the Mienshao....before it went with a crit Poison Jab and poisons my Mega. As I was about to let Altaria go down, Unit decides to save Mienshao, possibly fearing that Altaria outspeeds and goes to Jellicent to sack it. Instead, Mega Altaria heals itself up with Roost and gets a kill against Jellicent...only for Cursed Body to activate.  I don't recall how the end game scenario was, but I do sack Rotom-H to Infernape and attempt to poison stall Unit a bit to get more residual damage on Infernape. Eventually Cobalion was able to come in and just sweep the rest of Unit's team with Close Combat to win us the game 5-0, despite nearly all of them being at half HP or below. ( 5 - 0 Win / Record 9 - 1 )



WEEK 11: VS TRENTON THUNDURUS (IMPROVED METAKNIGHT)

My Team: Defensive Bronzong, Special M-Altaria, Rotom-H, Focus Sash Gengar, Scarf Flygon, TG Manaphy
His Team: M-Garchomp, Thundurus-T, Gallade, Dugtrio, Empoleon, Qwilfish

First game our new transaction Gengar participates in this game, and boy do I need it. There are several Pokemon on Metaknight's team that are quiet worrisome, especially the Scolipede which he didn't bring. This battle was rather hyper offensive and quick just like the battle against YugiohTrav. Bronzong was able to get a quick KO against the Qwilfish, however gets one layer of Toxic Spikes. Meta predicts my switch out from Bronzong and setups a +2 Sword Dance boosted Gallade. Fortunately for me, my physically defensive M-Altaria takes a +2 Zen Headbutt and faints the Gallade with a Pixilate Hyper Voice. Dugtrio is sent out to revenge kill my mega, yet surprisingly enough Mega Altaria lives the hit and gets a Roost off. After a couple of turns repeating this, Dugtrio goes for the Memento and Meta switches to Mega Garchomp. Thought about sacking Altaria here, but I decided to get off one last chip damage with Hyper Voice in case he setups. Mega Chomp is brought to around half and at this point I sack Bronzong instead of Mega Altaria to get in Gengar safely. Having setup Stealth Rocks at the cost of Bronzong, Gengar is able to make quick work of the rest of Meta's team by knocking out M-Garchomp, Thundurus-T, and Empoleon. Funny enough, we kinda played around Destiny Bond shenanigans in the end, which kinda helped me in terms of differential. Good game to Meta as we improve our record into the double digits for the first time.  ( 5 - 0 Win / Record 10 - 1 )

WEEK 12 VS INDY LATIS (EPICLOLZ53)

My Team: Special M-Altaria, Defensive Rain Manaphy, Defensive Bronzong, Hazards Roserade, Pivot Rotom-H, Scarf Flygon

Opponent's Team: Galvantula, Tyrantrum, Latias, M-Camerupt, Kecleon, Porygon2

If there was one opponent who can potentially hand me another loss this late into the season, it was certainly Epic after that rather close survival from the +1 Dragon Danced boosted Tyrantrum. As a result, I made sure to bring Scarf Flygon, Grass Knot Roserade, physically defensive Manaphy, Thunder Wave Rotom-H, and even a Trick Room Bronzong to counteract not only the Tyranturm but most threats such as Terrakion, Latias, Galvantula, etc. Early in the battle, Roserade manages to get 2 layers of Spikes against the Porygon2 and get some crucial chip damage against his team. However Epic manages to take the opportunity to get Mega Camerupt in to setup a Substitute as I had nothing for Mega Camerupt. Rotom-H is sent out and here its a bit of a struggle as M-Camerupt continuously fires Flamethrowers as Hex can't break the sub. Eventually Rotom-H destroys the sub, but now I'm left is a weird spot to send in Manaphy early, or risk repeating the same turns again. Manaphy is sent out, however it takes a crit Flamethrower which almost does about half to its HP. Epic stays in predicting a Tail Glow / Sub, but I fire a Scald at Camerupt and thus removing a huge threat off the field. 

Still Galvantula is sent out and once again I'm faced with the potential Sticky Webs being setup. Judging Manaphy's importance later in this battle, it is saved for Mega Altaria to take whatever Galvantula hits. Unfortunately for Mega Altaria, it is paralyzed and I'm forced to attack whatever switches out. Strangely enough, Epic misplays and attacks my mega again instead which then results to removing Galvantula from play, and no Sticky Webs on the field which is amazing. Rotom-H and Roserade is able to wall most of Porygon2's attacks, and eventually gets paralyzed off Rotom-H's Thunder Wave. Epic tries to save the Porygon2 (at half HP), and sends in the Kecleon, but here I Volt Switch out to Flygon, and subsequently get a kill against his Protean user. The next few turns become instrumental as Flygon and Rotom-H are both able to Volt Turn around Epic's team, almost wearing down both the Porygon2 to near death and always netting a kill. Mega Altaria is lost in the process, however this was the momentum I needed to win the battle. Soon Porygon2 drops to a Sludge Bomb from Roserade after taking constant Spikes + Volt - Turn damage.

Tyrantrum is finally sent out to attempt to sweep, however I actually played the fact Roserade had Grass Knot the whole time and waited for this very situation. As Tyranturm sets up a Dragon Dance, Roserade goes for the STAB Grass Knot and with the previous Spikes damage before, the Dragon/Rock-type faints. Once Latias was sent out, I realized Epic had lost every Pokemon while I still had five move leftover, especialy a Bronzong to take both its STABS. A couple of turn later with Gyro Balls included, I'm able to win 5-0 in a commanding fashion. Personally, what made the game incredibly close was the fact that Epic didn't setup Sticky Webs at all, though I figured the combination of Rotom-H and Roserade pulled through this battle. Despite this loss, Epic eventually goes on a small win streak to finish the season 10 - 5 with the 4th best record in the league, which is a great improvement from him. ( 5 - 0 Win / Record 11 - 1 )

WEEK 13: VS NEW YORK ISLANDORUS ( DRUB87)

My Team: Offensive Support M-Altaria, CM Rain Manaphy, Sunny Day Victini, Defensive Bronzong, Hazards Roserade, Defensive Zapdos

His Team: Garchomp, Stunktank, Chansey, Clefable, Pinsir, M-Sableye

This battle was rather strange since it felt like battling another person since Drub started to take note of some of the "competitive singles players" on YouTube. Drub did mention to me he was going to bring "Heat" so I figured why not bring bring some of our own and might as well test out the Zapdos. The only Pokemon I was concern about was the Clefable, yet I felt kinda comfortable with the team I brought to this team was able to do some heavy damage, even on the switch ins. Turn 1....Turn 1 Mega Altaria gets rid of Mega Sableye with a Max Attack Double Edge as Drub tried to "style" on me and replace my ability with Role Play. Unfortunate for him, that's not how the move works (shout outs to Giam for teaching me about this back early VGC 16). Clefable is sent out and I switch out to my leftovers Sub Victini to take the Moonblast easily. Here I predict the switch out and setup a sub on the incoming Chansey, and now he has to take 2 turns of Seismic Tosses thanks to my HP investment to break. During this time, I setup Sunny Day and launch a powerful V-Create to OHKO Chansey...with a crit. Here Drub switches to Garchomp to attempt to break the Sub, yet he goes for Stone Edge and misses as I get off a clean 50% damage. While I admit the crit on Chansey did put Drub on tilt, he shouldn't have risk the Stone Edge miss when he had EQ to hit the Sub. As a result of this play, I kill Garchomp with another V-Create and its already 6-3 in my favor in just a short span. 

The only Pokemon that puts a sizable resistance to my team was the Clefable and I tried to play around it for a bit. It only took me like 7-9 turns after the Garchomp KO (not the Moonblast on Victini earlier) to realize the Clefable was in fact Life Orb. After losing Zapdos in a rather dumb turn, I'm forced to sack Manaphy so it can do about 50% to Clefable with Rain Dance Scald, and hope he wasn't CM. Strangely enough as Manaphy setups the Rain, it gets bopped with a Thunderbolt and now I'm starting to think this Clefable doesn't have either CM or Soft Boil. Regardless, I sack Manaphy to the Clefable, doing as expected 50% damage as Roserade is able to revenge kill the Clef with Venoshock. At this point, the game is suddenly dependent on whether Stunktank has the right movepool to combat most of my team, which have all taken some punishment after "scouting" the Clefable set. Once Stunktank got to 25% HP, it activated the Custap Berry and Exploded on Roserade's face. Now it is a weaken Choice Scarf Pinsir versus my health Mega Altaria as it finishes the battle with a Double Edge.

It was rather unfortunate for Drub to get the crit Sunny Day V-Create and the Stone Edge miss, though the latter was kinda strange as he should have used EQ to remove the Sub no matter what. Strangely, this was potentially a lose if Stuntank were to have had Sucker Punch, Pursuit, and Poison Jab with some moderate investment, yet Drub didn't carry any of those attacks aside Pursuit. Still it was fun match no disrespect to my opponent. Good game to Drub as we attempt to finish the season on a high note in the last two games. ( 3 - 0 Win / Record 12 - 1 )

WEEK 14: VS LOS ANGELES LUCARIOS (CHIMCHARRED7)

My Team: Hazards Roserade, Pivot Zapdos, DDD M-Altaria, Defensive Rain Manaphy, Curse Miltank, Scarf Special Victini

Opponent's Team: Doublade, Raikou, Malamar, Mamoswine, Emboar, Feraligatr

Here this is where I'll admit I kinda wanted to take the battle less seriously, yet Vinny's entire team was pure setup. To be honest, there was no way in hell I'll wanted to get swept by any of Vinny's Pokemon and most of my Pokemon sets were based on this. If there was one questionable call for this battle, it was the decision to not bring Stealth Rocks on Miltank, rather a Curse set with Earthquake and Rock Tomb. At the time, I felt with both Spikes and Toxic Spikes on Roserade would be enough to kinda semi stall Vinny's Pokemon team.  Funny enough, that was the case as not only did Miltank literally "tank" almost every hit thrown at her, but this allowed my team to hold its own against some of Vinny's setup Pokemon. There were some moments where I almost could have been in a worse position, but Milktank and the Toxic Spikes essentially won me the game alone.  Apparently both Mamoswine and Emboar were Choice Scarfed which allowed Miltank to switch in almost every time. Doublade got worn down from a super effective HP Fire from Roserade, while it didn't kill, forced Vinny to save his Ghost/Steel type for later. One of Vinny's last ditch moves was to setup Dragon Dances with Feraligatr, though with the Toxic Spike damage and constant attack from Miltank, Gator goes down rather quick. Scarf Victini in the end was able to clean up, though it missed one Blue Flare which almost ruined the 5-0 and possibly gave Vinny at least something to salvage. At this point in the game, continuous Blue Flares allowed Victini to kinda sweep his team and earn ourselves a 5-0.  ( 5 - 0 Win / Record 13 - 1 )

WEEK 15 VS RHODE ISLAND RHYPERIORS (UNIT501)

My Team: Hazards Roserade, Zapdos, Scarf Special Victini, CM Manaphy, DDD M-Altaria, Defensive Bronzong.

Opponent's Team: Rotom-W, Mega Diancie, Archeops, Bisharp Forretress, Mienshao

Despite being the last battle of the season and having the best record, I still took this matchup somewhat seriously given the fact I wanted to get Mega Altaria with a good amount of OHKOs. Most of this battle was basically getting into a better position in ever turn, while doing some chip damage against Unit's team with both hazards and regular attacks. Unit was able to maintain a Volt Turn core with the Archeops, Rotom-W, and the Mienshao, however this was broken from an unfortunate Stone Edge miss against a weaken Bronzong from Archeops. From the HP Bronzong was at, it was a possible damage roll to kill, but it was still unfortunate to get that. Eventually Zapdos is able to slow pivot around Unit's team and gain some momentum for myself. Another huge turning point was when Victini manages to burn the incoming Diancie with a Searing Shot burn, which kinda sealed the game from there. Eventually Manaphy is able to come in, setup a couple of Calm Minds, and slow win the last game.  Mega Altaria wasn't able to get any kills, but the fact it was able to maintain offensive momentum and heal any status options with Heal Bell was enough to keep the team healthy. Would have liked to see Mega Altaria get a sweep even from these 6 games it played, but most of the team was consistent enough to where we managed get literally five  5-0 wins. Guess we found something consistency after all right? ( 5 - 0 Win / Record 14 - 1 ).

Final Thoughts

Well that concludes our regular season run as we manage to win 14 battles and lose 1 game to Mudkiplegend, which is still a good record to carry over. By the time I finished my battle with Unit, there were still some matches to be determine as well as how exactly playoffs will be structured. Chances were highly likely it would remain the same as before, except now every battle is a best of three series. Even before I battled Unit for week 15 of playoffs, I kinda suspected the two main opponents to face were either going to be Marcusube or possibly Zigzagger456 in round 1. Either opponent were going to be challenging given both attempted to secure their playoffs positioning and were on their A game. If I had to chose which opponent to battle, Marcusube was the least threatening team, however he knows how to use his Pokemon and can play well. Zig was the only 3 people in the league I never battled and I kinda didn't want to face him just because the matchup wasn't in my favor, however he kinda makes questionable plays which has costed him games beforehand. Both opponents were going to be difficult in the upcoming battles so we'll see later in the next post. 

By the end of the season, both Mega Altaria and Victini lead the team with the most kills with 20 kills 4 deaths, and 15 kills 1 death respectively. Manaphy didn't have a good performance in the regular season, but it sure carried the team with its impressive defense and was clutch against some of my other opponents. Other stars of the team included Roserade who netted a decent 8 kills 2 deaths, Cobalion with 10 kills 0 deaths in our tenure, and Bronzong for being one of the main defensive anchors of the team. Regardless of stats, this doesn't matter too much anymore as we are now in a point of where every battle is an elimination game. Despite the challenges that lie ahead with our squad, the goal was simple, win another championship for the Nidokings! (Spoilers I know the results :P )

PS: Stats of the PFA S3 Teams (for those who like to see)

PFA Regular Season 3 Summary: Weeks 1 - 9

PFA Regular Season Summary

Preview

Just going to throw this out there, this is not going to be as detailed or potentially as "in-depth" compared to last season 2 given a couple of things. First off, most of the battles are as far back as late February to April, and I didn't have as much time and commitment as I do now to "review the battles". Some of these battles I still have a good memory about my thought process turn-by-turn, however for the sake keeping this post short, only the most relevant information (at least to me) will be discussed. There will be a brief section regarding my original S3 Draft, but however given the transactions and "eventful" circumstances, the team is vastly different in terms of "support" roles. Again, I'm only going to review the initial team briefly, go on about changes I've made up to Week 9, and finally discuss all the Week 1-9 battles in summation. 

 Draft Rules and Transactions

Going into the Smogon Tier-based draft, basically every team had to select 1 Mega, and 3 Pokemon from either these following tiers (OU/UU/RU/NU) with a total of 13. Before the actual draft started, coaches got the chance to "franchise" either a Pokemon from their own team, or gamble for the higher 1st round pickups. New coaches had the option to franchise any free agents, however the older coaches had sorta "seniority", or better yet priority over any Pokemon "within" their team. Once an older team selected their Franchise (or not), the rest of the team is open to franchising from the other newer coaches. One last "consequence" for franchising a Pokemon was it has to be selected as the "1st" pick of  a tier. Since I had gotten Manaphy for the second time this season, I had to wait my turn as a resort of getting a powerful OU mon and potentially risk losing out viable OU partners for my franchise. Either way, keeping Manaphy for another season was a risk I wanted to take given its probably the best Water-type in league format. but I won't go too far into this simple fact.

The way the draft was organized was a snake-style format, with franchise picks acting as the team's overall "1st rounds" for the respective tiers. Teams who didn't select a franchise got to chose  higher tier picks from the available draft poll so at least most of the teams benefit in some fashion.  Given the Los Angeles Nidokings were in the middle of the draft, we had to wait until most of the teams were ready to pick their Pokemon, even though most were franchise picks. Transactions didn't start until Week 3 and continued by Week 12. Free Agency was basically another "draft" were teams can select up to 4 potential Pokemon they want to drop and add to their teams from the FA pool. Each FA occurred every 4 weeks: Week 4, Week 8, Week 12 (Week 11 was when we actually had it), and a final FA (select/drop/add 1 only) for Playoffs teams. On a final note, the league did vote to have unrestricted trades and transactions so basically a team can change their entire draft, assuming they wish to. 

LA Nidokings Early / Current Teams Important Transactions

LA Nidokings Team Season 3 Original Draft: Manaphy (Franchised), Mega Altaria, Victini, Shaymin, Cobalion, Krookodile, Flygon, Bronzong, Drapion, Mesprit, Rotom-Regular, & Articuno. 

Current LA Nidokings Season 3 Team: Manaphy, Mega Altaria, Victini, Gengar (New Roster "Addition"), Zapdos, Roserade, Gyarados, Flygon, Bronzong, Aerodactyl, Mesprit, Miltank, Articuno.  

In the PFA, its possible for coaches to change their teams around completely through the FA sessions or trades since we voted again for no limitations. This season, FA was now essentially whenever we set the time period as so like from late Friday to early Monday, people can make their transactions. If there's a long line, the person with the lowest-performing record goes first to get the best available Pokemon. There were a couple instances where people did drop out and those Pokemon became free agents. Eventually, the majority of the league decided to "loot" or add another slot to every team to receive any one free Pokemon that available via another mini draft. From this, we got Greninja with the Torrent restriction, then I'd changed it for Zygarde just for kicks, and finally got a Gengar after someone deciding to drop the Ghost/Poison -type. Even though I've used each of those three Pokemon exactly 3 times total (one per battle), all of them did work or helped ensure a lower loss. 

Given that the season was going to be far longer than S2 was with 15 Weeks, this essentially gave me enough time to test out certain Pokemon for a couple battles, see what other Pokemon are available, and eventually finalized the team for playoffs. This was my general strategy of the regular season, figure out which team partners could work well with each other (so synergy was extremely essential) and improve upon them by removing weaker links of the team (especially if they don't do much), improving certain matchups for potential playoffs, or receiving a stronger or viable Pokemon for my team. 

Now...I'm not going to explain why I drafted certain Pokemon and all that stuff since it would take too long and only about have of the team stayed as is. These changes were so significant to the point where it probably be better to explain how the whole season went for me, which again I don't recall much or don't have the time to do so. The only Pokemon that stayed all season were Mega Altaria, Victini, Manaphy, Flygon, Mesprit, and Articuno. Both Miltank and Roserade became part of the team again in Week 3/4 after some transactions I've made and played throughout the remainder of the season. Other transactions were made more so to get a certain Pokemon from another team, then kept making trades until I felt satisfied for our playoff run.  

 During the middle stages of the PFA Regular Season, I kept changing my UU slots since  the team didn't feel "comfortable" with either Krookodile (yes and was drafted by me), Entei, Shaymin, and eventually one of better performing Pokemon of the team, Cobalion. All those 4 Pokemon were ok, but I didn't like the synergy between them they could offer for my other vital team members. Shaymin was probably the most tradeback Pokemon throughout the season as it went to three teams in a span of 6 weeks since trades began. Here's a long ...complicated trade process to explain: Krookdile was traded to Crobat from the Mesa Macargos, which then I traded Shaymin for Roserade  (from the Indianapolis Jolts), then got back Shaymin Week 6 in exchange for Crobat, then finally traded Shaymin to the Transylvania T-Tars for Entei.

Shaymin was the one Pokemon I was completely unsure about throughout the season since it had only a couple good sets, but the movepool to me was atrocious. Yes, Shaymin can beat its counters with the Seed Flare special defense drops, but in the end, Roserade was kinda the one Grass-type which felt the most reliable, especially with access to hazards. One of the things my team was missing early on was both Spikes and Toxic Spikes, which almost every team now started using after watching my play-style in the finals. Roserade was a better safety net than Shaymin, but strangely I never used it over Shaymin strangely and only thought about power. Eventually Roserade became one of the focal points for the later half of the season, and during my playoff run. 

In one event, we were able to acquire Zapdos after another player dropped from the league. Once the player dropped, people were allowed to get one potential leftover Pokemon from the former team and swap only one Pokemon. At the time, I'd just traded Entei (only got 1 week lol) for Rotom-H and suddenly there was a powerful Electric-type Pokemon which can act as a decent tank and Defog user.  While Rotom-H did get a solid three good weeks of battles, Zapdos was the superior option to have since the team needed another tanky Pokemon who can alleviate the stress my defensive wall core in Mega Altaria, Bronzong, Roserade, and sometimes Manaphy. 

For the RUs, the last slot I kept changing during the free agency period. From the start, I got Drapion who I originally thought was going to be part of the team, but after obtaining Roserade, just became sorta left out. During the PFA FA 1, Drapion was eventually dropped for Typlosion, which honestly was the worse transaction pick for the entire season since Victini was the main Fire-type of the season. The following FA, Typlosion was later changed to Spiritomb, which should have been on the final version of the team, but after looking at matchups, it was again dropped for Aerodactyl in the last FA. As a result of these drops, the last RU slot was never used at all, which I kinda find funny in of itself. Then again Aerodactyl was strongly considered since it was a fast Rock/Flying-type with access to Defog...but no Brave Bird or Head Smash. Yeah the lack of reliable strong STABs was a pain in the ass, but I just settled with my last RU after Week 12. 

During the last week of the PFA transaction period, many players, including myself, scrambled to get the best available Pokemon for their teams as possible. From this, the decision was made to trade off Cobalion to the Indianapolis Jolts (Mudkiplegend), in exchange for Crobat (for the second time). Now that the LA Nidokings had 4 Defogs users, there wasn't any need to get any more transactions. Cobalion had like 9 kills and 1 death, but most of those kills were kinda against Pokemon that were weaken, or just got "lucky" against. By the end of the season, we did make one last swap, and funny enough, Crobat was dropped in exchange for Gyarados since 1) there was one team I needed Gyarados for (which I never faced), 2) it offensive / defensive potential with Intimidate, and 3) it was one of several Pokemon leftover from the undrafted list that can sweep my team if possible. 

By the end of the season, I've made a whooping 13 transactions total, which people can effectively boo at me for not keeping my picks or my additions/drops reasonably so. At the end of the day, I wanted to test out as many Pokemon as possible in the season, while improve the matchups later on. Of course most teams did make similar heavy transactions totals, but the Nidokings were made the most amount. From communicating with the other people, not many people didn't complain about the transaction totals, or just didn't care enough to make a statement. Eventually after the season was over, most of the players, including myself decided to give ourselves a transaction limit of around 7 Pokemon trades/adds/drops so people don't completely change their teams. As long as no one complained directly to me about the team, I just kept quiet for the time being to prepare for my matches... speaking of which...

PFA Regular Season

Early in the season, I told myself to try to shoot for another 1st place, or the best record in the league. Based on my schedule, the season would be moderately ok, the start to pick up with strong opponents leading up to Alec (Mudkiplegend) Week 9, then rematch a couple of teams, and end the season with semi-decent opponents. Again this post will not have all the teams and sets since there was a serious laptop failure awhile ago which resulted in my losing a ton of infomation, including my teams. Will try my best to get "briefly" summarize the battles, but again not every detail will be discuss since these matches happen literally from as far back as four and half months ago. What I'll try to do is have the team I brought and the teams they brought since the matches were saved on my 3DS still. 

WEEK 1: VS NEW YORK ISLANDORUS (Drub87 Battle 1)** - we rematch again Week 13.

My Team: Special Mega Altaria, Mixed Victini, LO Shaymin, Pivot Cobalion, Scarf Krookodile, Defog LO Flygon

Opponent's Team: Mega Ampharos, Garchomp, Ferrothorn, Alomomola, Skuntank, Exploud

Starting off the season we battled the new guy of the group, Drub87 or Danny. Didn't want to overestimate myself this week, but based on his draft, I can sorta tell he's watched other competitive players so just had to play based on how the battle flows (though not reactionary). To be honest, don't really recall much, except for the fact Shaymin probably placed a huge dent on his team with the Seed Flare special defense drops. With those drops, I did play around that and called his switches to certain Pokemon correctly at times. Despite Drub losing M-Ampharos and getting most of his team weaken from this, he still had a decent shot at winning. I still couldn't break his wall core of Ferrothorn and Alomomola at the time, but a huge turning point occurred when Exploud missed a Fire Blast against my Cobalion switch. Drub switches to Garchomp as I get off  a good Close Combat damage to the point where HP Ice can knock out his best sweeper. Once the Dragon/Ground-type fell, basically I was able to maneuver around his team with Victini and slowly pick certain Pokemon off. In like 5-7 turns, Drub only had a Toxic Alomomola and a half HP Exploud against the rest of my teammates leftover. 

Unfortunately there was a DC, which prompted us to review what were we going to do to settle the match. After awhile, we decided that the match would be recorded a 3-0 in my favor since I still had threat which can effectively stall or sweep his team, and the proper sacks could result in a win in the Nidokings favor. Didn't like how the battle was really hax filled with Shaymin just getting Seed Flare and Earth Power drops, but it weaken Drub's team to the point where my other Pokemon can cleanup in the end. Well I do have to rematch Drub later on, so that was something to look forward to. RESULT (5-2 WIN ; 3-0 "technicality" / Record 1-0) 

WEEK 2: VS KENTUCKY KRICKETUNES (SQUEAB)

My Team: DD Mega Altaria, AV Victini, Safety Goggles Bronzong, Chople Berry Cobalion, Scarf Flygon, Lum Berry Krookodile

Opponent's Team: Mega Char Y, Kingdra, Breloom, Mew, Florges, Sandslash

Don't recall much in this battle, though I remember immediately calling out Mew, Breloom, and the Kingdra as potential threats. Fortunately for me, Victini was able to outmaneuver Squeab's entire team and  made short work of them, even the Char Y. Well going into this battle, Victini was going to be the best switch in to Char Y's boosted Fire-type attacks, so I slapped an AV and some SpDef investment. Would like to point out V-Create in the Sun hits stupid hard, so didn't feel like using a Life Orb or Band. The only notable Pokemon that gave me issues was Breloom and Kingdra. Breloom was a Sword Dance variant, but was neutralized after finding out it was Life Orb. As for Kingdra, the way Squeab kept playing Kingdra meant it was a likely Scarfer, so I had to somehow revenge kill the Water/Dragon-type while the Drought was in effect. Again fortunately to me, Drought-boosted V-create was too much for Squeab's team to handle and won off of spamming this move. RESULT (4-0 WIN / Record 2-0 )

WEEK 3: VS MORGONTOWN MILOTICS (MARSXVENOM)

My Team: Special M-Altaria, LO Sub Victini, Manaphy, CM Mesprit, Screens Bronzong, Defog Articuno

His Team: M-Venusuar, Zapdos, Jynx, Metagross, Keldeo, Hippodown 

This was the first time I ever brought Duel Screens in any battle of sorts, but based on Mars's team, it might stop his offense while give me time to setup with some of my Pokemon. Initially, thought that I can be cheeky and setup CMs to hit Hippowdon and Zapdos with boosted Ice Beams, then Mars kept wearing down my Mesprit, and eventually Bronzong. The stalement was broken as soon as Mega Altaria entered the field and managed to Toxic the Zapdos while KO the Hippowdon. Metagross became an issue but Victini was able to setup a Sub and just OHKO both it and Zapdos in consecutive turns. Once Zapdos and Metagross were gone, Articuno became a clear win condition for the matchup. Unfortunately for Mars, he didn't bring the Mega Stone for Venusuar which complicated the battle for a bit. He eventually decided to play the match as is since it was his error for not having the item in place. Regardless, we both acknowledge the outcome would have been similar to how it played out. Articuno basically runs though Venusaur with Hurricane, hits Keldeo with Hurricane/Freeze Dry, and at the very least damage the Jynx to break the Focus Sash.  At the end of the battle, Articuno gets three kills, though the real contributor was Victini who wall breaked most of Mars's weaken team. It sucks that my opponent didn't have the item, but what can you do when the battle is already to deep in aside replaying it, which we both didn't have time for. Despite that mega stone situation, the battle was overall good and hard fought.  RESULT (4-0 WIN / Record 3-0)  

WEEK 4: VS VIRGINIA VIBRAVAS (MARCUSUBE)

My Team: DDD M-Altaria, Sub Lum Victini, CM Rain Manaphy, Defensive Cobalion, Screens Bronzong, Defog Articuno

Opponent's Team: Tornadus-T, Reuniclus, Abomasnow, M-Sharpedo, Hoopa-C, Talonflame

Of all the new people in the league, Marcusube was the only one who I felt could give me a run for my money given his unique playstyle and use of unorthodox sets. From what I recall, this battle could have gone either way if one of us made a fatal misplay. In order for me to win this battle, I had to fall to using "bait" sets to attempt to knock out key Pokemon on Marc's side to get as much momentum as possible. In this case I ran Explosion Bronzong to get heavy damage on something on his team, Substitute Lum Berry Victini to get Sub up against the Klefki while not getting paralyzed, Chople Berry Cobalion, and my favorite, Avalanche Articuno to kill Tornadus-T (also had Occa Berry for Talonflame with Ancient Power). In terms of how these strategies performed, only two of these sets worked out extremely well with Bronzong OHKOing a Reuniclus and Articuno OHKOing Tornadus-T with a boosted Avalanche. The battle did came down to a bit of RNG which Tornadus-T missed a crucial Focus Blast against my Cobalion, but the damage could have placed it where Waterfall from his last Pokemon Mega Sharpedo. Otherwise, the only way Marc could have won AT THAT POINT (I'm going to keep doing this) was to flinch or crit my defensive Cobalion, which didn't happen. 

The game itself was really back and forth where Marc attempt to setup Trick Room, though I setup screens to block most of his damage. Another key moment that happen was the Flame Body Talonflame "incident" which might have played a factor, but tbh, In this scenario, Mega Altaria got up to +1 Dragon Dance (again me over-predicting), as Talonflame goes for Brave Bird to leave it at low HP. Then I roosted again to attempt to predict another roost, but I was faster and the Brave Bird damage recoil at that point killed Talonflame because of the replenish HP I received. At that point, it was confirmed Talonflame was Flame Body, which was a misgen on my opponent's part. Had Talonflame killed Mega Altaria, I think the battle might have turned in my favor since unless he has roost, there's no way for Talonflame to recover the damage. Victini was still at full and has substitute so if Talonflame "faints itself" from recoil, I would go for Substitute to get into great position to OHKO the Mega Sharpedo and win the game. Only way this scenario backfires is if Talon does have Roost, Sword Dances (which he had), or crits Victini with Brave Bird.

Anyways, good game to Marc as this was surely a thrilling match, with both of us making attempting to get the edge over the other.   RESULT ( 3 - 0 WIN / RECORD 4-0)

WEEK 5: VS MESA MACARGOS (GINGERXPUG aka Ryan)

My Team: DDD M-Altaria, Scarf Victini, Tail Glow Rain Manaphy, Hazards Roserade, Defensive Cobalion, Curse Miltank

Opponent's Team: Suicune, Combusken, Togetic, Krookodile, M-Manetric, Weavile

To sum this battle up, Mega Altaria swept Ryan. Funny enough, Ryan predicted my lead of Roserade correctly with Weavile and got huge damage off with a Knock Off from my incoming Miltank switch. Then Ryan make a fatal misplay in using Rock Tomb as I go for my Rock Tomb attack (used to slow down his "fast team") and got some good chip damage with the added speed drop. I make a play with Cobalion by using Stealth Rocks on Weavile knowing he needs it for the late game, and now it had one more switch in / attack left with Life Orb. Krookodile is sent out to counteract Cobalion and immediately I think its scarf, so I make a direct switch to Mega Altaria to begin setup up Dragon Dances. From here, Combusken is sent out and as I kept going for Dragon Dance, it goes for Sub which means now I have to attack the Fire/Fighting type before it gets a ton of speed boosts. Strangely, Ryan never makes the Baton Pass play to Weavile to force out M-Altaria, but Combusken is taken out. As Suicune is sent out, he gets a Scald burn, but I realized Altaria can just keep Dragon Dancing as I carried the Heal Bell to recuperate my attack power. As soon as he switched into Krook to get another attack drop, I revealed Heal Bell, which meant now I just swept his team. Krookodile, M-Manetric, and even Weavile all fell in three consecutive turns to a boosted Pixilate Returns. Suicune didn't have Roar to take on Mega Altaria so at this point the game was effectively over, I setup a couple times to 2HKO Suicune, and soon the Togetic. 

This was a rough loss for Ryan as Mega Altaria effectively 6-0 swept him and we got a 5-0 win as a result. It was unfortunate for my opponent to not have a response for my Mega, but this victory to me felt reassuring for my preparations for my following opponent ItalianG62, who was the only undefeated left with a 5-0 record himself. Good game to Ryan as he eventually makes it to the playoffs later on.  RESULT ( 5 - 0 WIN / RECORD 5- 0)

WEEK 6: VS SCHENECTADY SCEPTILES ( ITALIANG62 aka Kyle)

My Team: DDD M-Altaria, Tail Glow Manaphy, Healing Wish Screens Mesprit, LO Growth Shaymin, Scarf Cobalion, Scarf Flygon 

Opponent's Team: M-Char X, Jirachi, Rhyperior, Cofagrigus, Starmie, Sceptile

From all my battles this season, this was the one I prepared for the most. At the time, Kyle (ItalianG62) was going on a win streak using a formidable hazard stack team which Charizard X as the lead Pokemon. I knew if for whatever reason, Charizard gets up a Dragon Dance of sorts, I'd lose the battle right there especially if he carried the appropriate coverage moves and support. However, I can say the same thing to me as both Manaphy and Mega Altaria can effectively sweep his team with the support options I had from Double Screens, Double Scarf, a wall breaker, and Healing Wish to replenish one either of the two. Turn 1 and 2 of the battle was ...kinda haxy again as Shaymin gets setup to +1 with Growth and nearly kills the Cofag with a crit Giga Drain. I attempt to go for HP Rock to catch the Charizard,  but no switch out as Cofag dies, though still setting up T-Spikes prior. Sceptile enters the battle and I want to start setting up Screen Support for my team while have Flygon Defog the T-Spikes. As I switch into Flygon (with a reflect up) against a Rock Sliding Rhyperior, it gets critted and loses a ton of HP. Flygon is able to get off the Defog, but later on as I attempt to revenge kill the Sceptile (after sacking Shaymin), it goes for a Dragon Pulse first... 

Now I have to deal with a Scarf Sceptile and lost probably me best revenge killer in Flygon for no reason. Funny enough, I manage to faint the Starmie the same way with a Scarf Volt Switch and now I initiate the plan. As I'm setting up the screens, I totally forget to give Mesprit Stealth Rocks, which comes to play later on. As Mega Altaria is able to setup to +1 while taking little damage from Rhyperior, Kyle immediately recalls for Jirachi as I for for another. At this point, I actually debated whether to switch out or not, but give I was +2 with Screens support, I had to go for the EQ and hope it kills Jirachi. To my relief, Jirachi goes down and for that moment I thought this was game, but this is where Stealth Rocks would have helped since Charizard X was still alive and healthy. I try to predict his Dragon Dance as Kyle does setups with Char X, though screens (reflect) runs out. At this time, I noted Charizard did not Mega Evolved (in this league, Megas can retain their base forms) to half the damage from my attack. To my shock, Charizard live the Return attack at a couple hit points and setups another Dragon Dance, which can outspeed my entire team, including my +3 Mega Altaria with the lack of speed investment. 

At the most critical junction of the match, Altaria lives the +2 EQ at a sliver of HP and I'm able to beat the Charizard with a follow-up attack. We aren't out of the woods yet, as Scarf Sceptile is able to outspeed and revenge kill Mega Altaria with Giga Drain. At this point, its just Manaphy, Mesprit, and Cobalion vs a Scarf Sceptile and Rhyperior. I make a rather dumb misplay and let Mesprit attack the Sceptile with Shadow Ball instead of setup a Light Screen, which then I could have live another hit to get a Reflect. Now I'm force into some 50/50 situations with Manaphy / Cobalion and Rhyperior / Sceptile. As Kyle switches Sceptile out into Rhyperior, Cobalion gets off a good chunk of damage with Close Combat, though not enough to kill the Ground/Rock-type with Ice Beam. As I switch into Manaphy, Rhyperior gets off huge damage to my now only win condition, but still lives the hit. Here I make a rather risky prediction, and predict the Sceptile to switch in and take the potential Surf, knowing well Ice beam won't KO Rhyperior. Manaphy goes for Ice Beam...and incomes the Sceptile to faint to the Super Effective attack, thus winning the 50/50, and the game as Surf knocks out Rhyperior. 

Good games to Kyle as he was the hardest opponent to date from this point on in Season 3 as he came very close to winning the battle. To be frank, I did result into using this rather hyper offensive team since I didn't have no other good options got come by, except overwhelming my opponent with setup. This also meant there were some stuff I kept secret for the remainder of the season like Healing Wish, which wouldn't be used until the playoffs. 
RESULT ( 2 -0 WIN  / 6 - 0 RECORD )

WEEK 7: VS INDY LATIS (EPICLOLZ53 aka Justin)  Battle 1 / rematch on Week 12

My Team: Special M-Altaria, TG Manaphy, Defensive Defog Flygon, Band Victini, Safety Goggles Mesprit, LO Greninja

Opponent's Team: Terrakion, Latias, Galvantula, Tyrantrum, Amoonguss, Mismagius

If there was an opponent...no a coach who everyone in this league totally underestimated, it was definitely Epiclolz, as Justin was by far the most improved coach going into this season using non-Smogon / VGC / Battle Spot / Heatah (sorry Joey) / Velis sets, rather his own. I know someone reading this can figure well how the fuck does Epic battles if he isn't even following any of these, well the answer is I don't know. Regardless, at first I thought was going to be an rather simple battle to where I can just overwhelm Epic with Choice Band Victini, except it wasn't. In all seriousness I totally didn't expect Epic to bring his offensive Pokemon and leave out his most defensive threat aside. This battle is all sort of weird as Epic tried to turn 1 flinch me with Iron Head with Mega Altaria, and I get critical hit. While Terrakion went down to a Hyper Voice, Mega Altaria was severely low to where it cannot beat most of Epic's team and I was force to sack it. Mismaguis give me more problems than usual, but it is taken down by my defensive Flygon, which then became useless. 

At this point I realized something, Epic can win by setting up once with Tyranturm and effectively sweeping my team with Head Smash / EQ since Galvantula can easily take out Flygon, and get up Sticky Webs. Mespirt is able to setup a Substitute and one Calm Mind, but Amoonguss has Foul Play to break the Sub. Once Amoonguss was gone, Latias is sent out...and freezes my Mesprit with Ice Beam to later faint the following turn. Luckily for me, Victini is able to OHKO Latias with a crit Choice Band U-Turn, as I send in Manaphy to take on Tyranturm. As Manaphy goes for the Ice Beam, Tyranitrum lives, and gets a Dragon Dance up which now can win Epic the game. Unfortunately for me, Epic gets the a high roll to OHKO Manaphy with the Head Smash, and now I have to hope he misses Head Smash with Victini or Greninja. Regardless of either scenario,  Greninja is sent first to maybe take an EQ from Tyranitrum since I gave it some defense EVs leftover. As Tyranitrum hits the +1 EQ, Greninja lives the attack and retaliates with Scald to end the game on the double down. 

Holy Crap. Epic sure gave me a run for my money as he almost swept me with a Dragon Dance Tyrantrum. Thankfully I always invest into some defensive investment into my Pokemon, especially since most of the time you only need some Speed Evs to creep on the fastest possible Pokemon on your Opponent's team. Good game to Epic as we eventually faceoff again in Week 12. RESULT ( 3 -0 WIN  / 7 - 0 RECORD )

WEEK 8: VS SYRACUSE SWELLOWS (YUGIOHTRAV12)

My Team: TG Manaphy, AV Special Victini, Defensive Bronzong, Hazards Roserade, Greninja

His Team: Latios, Swampert, Golbat, M-Heracross, Steelix, Celebi

This was the quickest battle I've had in any league in 16 turns as the battle was rather straight-forward. This might have been because I'd predicted Yugi's switch out of Steelix to Heracross and got a Toxic off. As M-Heracross went for Pin Missile, Bronzong manages to live a hit and get damage off with Psychic to where another Toxic round KOs for a double down. The only Pokemon that proved problematic was the Golbat as it was able to spam Super Fang and Toxic to both Mega Altaria and Manaphy. Going with my got, I go for the Tail Glow setup with the Manaphy, and strange enough, Yugi switches out to Latios as Manaphy goes for Ice Beam. In the chat, he told me he'd predicted I'd get greedy and go for another one which explains why Latios is sent out. Yugi tries to setup a Substitute with Swampert, but Manaphy gets a Crit Burn which not only takes out the Swampert, but gives me one extra turn to hit one of his own Pokemon with a boosted hit, which was the Steelix. With Manaphy effectively taking out 3 Pokemon before going down, only the Golbat and Celebi remained, which Victini easily handles. Yugi was a bit upset about  the Crit Burn on the Swampert, he eventually acknowledged hax didn't matter and made amends. Unfortunately this was his last game in the PFA league as he couldn't continue anymore due to some Real-Life stuff like moving and finding employment. Yugi is doing find as of this post and keeps up with us in the other chat so he's still there, just not taking part of battling anymore. Regardless, good game to Yugi as I now face a reinvigorated Jolts team.   RESULT ( 4 - 0 WIN  / 8 - 0 RECORD )

WEEK 9: VS INDIANAPOLIS JOLTS (MUDKIPLEGEND)

My Team: Sub Leftovers Victini, TG Manaphy, Defensive Cobalion, AV Entei, Scarf Flygon, Defensive Coil Zygarde

Opponent's Team: Hippowdon, Excadrill, M-Gyarados, Tentacruel, Rotom, Sylveon

Out of all the battles, this was the one battle where I should have done more preparations and waited it out since we had effectively two weeks to finish the battle. Even with me getting both an Entei and Zygarde on the team to fulfill my priority purposes, the fact remains that the team going into this battle was ill-prepared for some of his new recruits. This was rather a long cartridge-based game so unfortunately can't recall every play, but I know there were some really dumb mistakes I made in this battle. Early on, there was a bit of back and forth switches, and there was one point where the burnt Hippowdon was at about 55% as it swapped into a Scared Fire from Entei's Scared Fire....which missed. This was basically the game in my opinion as I worked to weaken the Hippowdon down to a low amount which Alec has to switch it in as fodder, and also to prevent Stealth Rocks. Following turn, Entei goes for a Sacred Fire as Hippowdon setups the rock, and for some reason I make another shitty move and not kill the Hippo right there. Not only would I've wasted another turn for the Hippowdon's Sand to go away (its not Smooth Rock btw), Hippo would be gone for good, but I let it live "predicting" Alec to save it for a final sand sweep for Excadrill, From this mistake, Alec capitalizes and regains HP from Hippowdon, effectively now back to square one.

The biggest turning point was where I "sack" Flygon to get off Outrage damage onto the then confirmed scarfed Rotom which wasn't worth it in the gran scheme of things. Fast forward a couple of turns following the Rotom and Flygon Double Down, at this point before Alec went for Toxic Spikes, I should have sent out the Manaphy and attempt to Tail Glow sweep. In my opinion, this was the best chance to win since Manaphy didn't take to much damage at the time and now didn't have to worry about the Rotom anymore. Instead I hesitate thinking Alec might have Haze on the Tentacruel set to effectively stop the sweep. Instead I let Manaphy get poisoned, and forced to use Heal Bell (remember Heal Bell won't stop T-Spikes upon reentry as the Pokemon get poisoned again). 

At this point, I realized  I was going to lose for the first time because of my own mistakes in the battle, but mostly from my indecisiveness in the battle. Trying to savage this game, I do get a Scald Crit Burn on the Sylveon and weaken the Tentacruel. Entei is able to kill the Hippowdon but it fails to pick up the KO on Tentacruel. Zygarde miraculously does the impossible and then nets 3 kills on the Sylveon, Tentacruel, and finally the Excadrill which was rather amazing, but didn't matter as Gyarados gets an intimidate off and lock my down with Ice Fangs against a 25% Cobalion (Alec told me his set was Ice Fang / Crunch / Sub / DD). If I'd had Volt Switch, or even attempted to para-flinch Alec down, I could have won like that, but decided just to Close Combat twice to end the battle. 
RESULT ( 0 - 1 Loss / RECORD  8 - 1 ) 

Wrapping Up 

For now, I'm going to end the first part of the regular season right here and start a new post from how I reacted to the loss (From week 9), to the final preparations for playoffs. Don't want this post to be as long as it already is, but at the same time I want to give myself time to review the battles from week 10 onwards before we get to Playoffs. Until then this is Black117 signing off (well for now).