I'll make this pretty short since I didn't save any replays, but now that the season has ended for everyone else also (I had to drop the last week due to a death in the family, starting a new job, and a surprise visit from one of my absolute closest friends from Beijing, who I hadn't seen in about 5 years [pre-pandemic, of course], all happening at once.), I wanted to do a quick reflection just in case I end up playing again, or maybe someone randomly stumbles upon this and finds it useful.
First a quick look at my team(s):
Week 1: vs Termnal and the Worcester Woobatsox
My whole goal was to win a single game this season because I knew there'd be a learning curve, and this one, being the first, was definitely embarrassing. He ended up bringing Darkrai, Skeledirge, Zapdos-G, Kyurem, Forretress, and Porygon-Z. Matchup-wise, I feel this was my second worst; he had a lot of offense to pressure me from Darkrai, Necrozma, Kyurem, Ogerpon, P-Z, and Z-G, and Skeledirge was a big enough problem for me that defensively he was hard to break also. In hindsight, I should have brought Garganacl to help with this, and I never got to use him anyway, which was a regret on my part. I'll say this though: from a teambuilding perspective in draft, I think he has to be a tera captain to really be useful since rock is not a great defensive type for a defensive mon :/ Still, in the infamous "forgetting Tera existed" moment, I forgot to tera a set-up Iron Crown and died to a Hex from Skeledirge; my calcs after the game showed Tera Steel living the hit reasonably comfortably, so had I remembered, I would have lived and won 5-0 outright since he had no Focus Sash users, Ferro's sturdy had broken (may not have mattered because Tachyon Cutter hits twice anyway and my bulk investment lived a crit body press at his theoretical health after the Hex--crit hex + crit body press would have killed, I believe), and I didn't even need super effective moves to clean. I was so mad I forgot and managed to salvage an 0-4 loss with Sylveon picking up my only two KOs. Like I said, rough start.
I do want to add that I had a really fun Scope Lens Salamence I brought to this, but misclicked a Tailwind (I needed tailwind for certain Ogerpon-W sets, which he didn't bring, so it was a useless move this match) when I meant to attack, missing out on 55.7-65.6%. In prep I knew I'd lose this exchange, but it would have been worth it to weaken the Skeledirge as I had revenge options (or a set up opportunity if he chose to heal in front of Iron Crown, for instance). I'll probably make it a priority to draft that thing next time, because it not only suits my playstyle (and was my starter lol), but I think it's actually very underrated in the format, presumably due to the need to be a Tera captain.
I do want to add that I had a really fun Scope Lens Salamence I brought to this, but misclicked a Tailwind (I needed tailwind for certain Ogerpon-W sets, which he didn't bring, so it was a useless move this match) when I meant to attack, missing out on 55.7-65.6%. In prep I knew I'd lose this exchange, but it would have been worth it to weaken the Skeledirge as I had revenge options (or a set up opportunity if he chose to heal in front of Iron Crown, for instance). I'll probably make it a priority to draft that thing next time, because it not only suits my playstyle (and was my starter lol), but I think it's actually very underrated in the format, presumably due to the need to be a Tera captain.
One more thing: I thought Z-G was actually a really sweet bring on his part. I felt pretty well-prepared for it but that thing was much stronger than I anticipated and really put a lot of pressure on the the team that I brought. It's a little pricey, so I'm sort of on the fence on whether or not I'd draft it, particularly since it's fairly one-dimensional, but it's so good in that dimension that it would be worth considering if one was in a scenario where they're a bit later in the draft, have budgeted well, and covered the other roles they're looking for.
Week 2: vs Niko and the Saffron Solrocks
I don't know why the center-align isn't working so sorry for the inconsistency haha. Anyway, we have yet another very intimidating team, but I felt it was a winnable matchup and was determined not to lose two-in-a-row, something I don't think I've ever done before. Immediately, my biggest concerns are his Sneasler, Enamorus, Blastoise, Snorlax (CIL OG's know how much I love this mon after it basically won an entire season for me, and one of my 3 draft league titles), Polteageist... should I just read the whole roster? Defensive Mence had a great matchup here and I chose to support it with Muk-A and Milotic for my defensive core, as those three did a really good job of either walling his offensive threats, or the latter two being able to stop the plethora of setup options he had with Clear Smog and Haze respectively. Offensively, I felt Spectrier could shine once Lax was dealt with, so Great Tusk was a must, and Regieleki was my best option to deal with all of his speed, except Unburden Sneasler, who Mence was primarily tailored for. Surprisingly, it even outruns scarf Latios, which I thought could be really good vs me, especially with Trick to cripple my defensive mons.
Scarf Latios was not what he brought though 😂 . Pretty much everything went according to plan and I found myself up 5-3, only losing Great Tusk (though Muk-A was near finished and burnt) and both my speedy Offensive threats could clean vs Blastoise, Latios, and Sneasler. So confident was I when Latios came in in front of my Muk, that I just clicked Shadow Sneak to get some chip damage before going down and to break a potential sash. The SMARTER play would have been to just spam clear smog, since the only shot I had at losing was, oh I don't know, maybe Agility + Weakness Policy Latios. Which was what he brought to reverse sweep me, leading to a 3-0 loss for me. Amazing bring on his part and he seized his opportunity, so bravo to Niko. I really thought I had it in the bag up until that point haha.
Another careless error on my part leading to the first back-to-back losses of my draft league career had me feeling a little bit down on myself. Maybe I was away for too long, maybe the learning curve was too steep... but I felt the prep was solid, I just wasn't playing well in my first two games back, so I resolved to slow down my usual pace because I was -determined- to get my one win.
Fuck it, right align it is. I hate how obnoxiously bad text editors can be with their formatting 😑
Of course as the pressure builds, I end up playing one of the best teams/ coaches in the league and when you look at his team, it's not hard to see why. Speed and power abounds complimented by powerful momentum and some devastating set-up mons like Archaludon, who I thought matched up great against me, but my opponent ultimately elected not to bring, choosing Meowscarada, Cinderace, Rotom, Jirachi, Thundurus, and Rhyperior. The Rhyperior set in particular was really cool to me; Tera Flying Lightning rod enabled him to deal with both Great Tusk and Regieleki exceedingly well, but he ultimately made it a utility mon when I felt it was most effective against me as a Weakness Policy sweeper. Maybe he saw what happened with me playing Latios the weak before and [correctly] assumed that I wouldn't make the same mistake twice.
For my offense, I thought Spectrier, Iron Crown, and Regieleki were the most effective brings on my part, Regieleki in particular does what so much of his team is great at, but better and faster at the cost of being one dimensional. I almost didn't bring it since Rhyperior is a perfectly reliable response and annoying for me because of that, but I knew if I cleared that, he was going to have some problems with it, which is exactly what ended up happening. Muk-A was a must again, as one of the only decent answers to Meowscarada, and of course I had to pack the Rocky Helmet since for some reason that thing has stupidly good coverage with Triple Axel. Seriously, if that thing didn't get that move, I think it'd be a couple points cheaper at least, but with it, it's very scary. Milotic and Great Tusk rounded out my defensive core and ultimately paved the way for the Regieleki sweep at the end, netting me my first win with a 3-0 margin. Against a coach of this caliber, I couldn't help but feel like I was starting to really come back to the level of play I was used to playing.
For my offense, I thought Spectrier, Iron Crown, and Regieleki were the most effective brings on my part, Regieleki in particular does what so much of his team is great at, but better and faster at the cost of being one dimensional. I almost didn't bring it since Rhyperior is a perfectly reliable response and annoying for me because of that, but I knew if I cleared that, he was going to have some problems with it, which is exactly what ended up happening. Muk-A was a must again, as one of the only decent answers to Meowscarada, and of course I had to pack the Rocky Helmet since for some reason that thing has stupidly good coverage with Triple Axel. Seriously, if that thing didn't get that move, I think it'd be a couple points cheaper at least, but with it, it's very scary. Milotic and Great Tusk rounded out my defensive core and ultimately paved the way for the Regieleki sweep at the end, netting me my first win with a 3-0 margin. Against a coach of this caliber, I couldn't help but feel like I was starting to really come back to the level of play I was used to playing.
Week 4: vs Rose and the Las Vegas Rotoms
Oh good. Center align now works again, just in time for another absolute powerhouse of an opponent :] At the time, Rose had a slightly different team and brought Ambipom, Landorus, Samurott, Orthoworm, Hawlucha, and Iron Boulder.
Prior to the draft, I think Iron Boulder was a mon I underestimated all the way up until I had to calc for it and wow. I didn't realize it was so fast and the bulk is better than you'd think at 90/80/108. Not to mention Rock is actually one of the best offensive typings, so while Psychic isn't a particularly good compliment, it helped immensely vs my best response to it in Great Tusk. I knew SD murdered me, I knew there could easily be 1-2 rounds of Spikes up if I had to switch into Samurott-H, and I knew virtually nothing else on my team could handle it, so Payapa Berry Great Tusk felt like the only option, working exactly as planned, taking out the +2 threat in the mid-game with over half it's health remaining. You love to see it come together like that.
Half of Rose's team also didn't make a ton of sense to me, with Ambipom obviously needing to be scarfed to help deal with Spectrier, which it realistically doesn't do anyway, relying on Technician-boosted Astonish (it was also Tera Ghost), which wasn't especially strong vs anything else, so I could switch into it with ease. Plus I made my own Spectrier Scarf, partly as a troll, but I also felt it could more reliably sweep that way this week, even though I really wanted to launch some fat Specs hits off, outrunning her entire team naturally, bar a scarfer. Seeing she swapped Ambipom out for P2 seems VASTLY better to me (I may have a P2 bias--a mon I've always really wanted to draft in general, but especially with a Justified mon like Gallade or Cobalion or something). I'm still not sure why Orthoworm and Hawlucha over something like Hydrapple, Rotom-H, and Pecharunt, the latter of which also matched up really well against me both offensively and defensively. Seriously, after I think it's second entry (theoretically, of course), I could never lose more than one mon whenever it hit the field. I'd for sure need Tera Steel Iron Crown to have the poison immunity and at least be neutral to Ghost, but it could also be used for momentum and pressure my team that way too. I really wish she would have brought it, because I do want to see what it would have been like--another intriguing mon in any format but draft especially. As Umbreon is my favorite mon, I've wanted a defensive Gengar since Gen 2 for how well their typings complement each other and it's finally here :]. If I follow more draft and play more, I'll definitely have my eye on this thing, but because of the threat of it in this matchup, I have to lead Iron Crown. Unfortunately, I can't risk using my Tera early though because S-H also could be very threatening and her offensive pressure + speed really had me on the back foot right from prep and might need to Tera Sylveon.
The game played out pretty smoothly; the Iron Crown lead was favorable against Ambipom as it took minimal chip from Scarf Astonish, confirming my suspicions. I get flinched on my Volt Switch though, and decide not to risk it by going hard into Sylveon, the only mon I could afford to let take the hit with Great Tusk being needed for Iron Boulder/ Orthoworm, Mence being the only shot I have at not getting swept by Lando--oh yeah, one of the best fucking draft league mons ever is in this stacked-ass team, by the way. Yeah. Fuck me. However, with Hydro Pump Mence, I can -only- lose it, instead of the whole game, after Lando sets up (Nasty Plot and Calm Mind both made sense here, she went with CM), as long as I hit my move(s-if she tries to set up twice). It played out exactly as such, thankfully weakening it just enough for Milotic to revenge. Great Tusk ultimately played out exactly as planned against Iron Boulder also, and I'm starting to feel a little bit more like a Psychic type myself at this point as the Scarf Spectrier catches Ambipom off-guard and cruises us to our second-straight win.
Week 5: vs Onsie Banette and the Solihull Skarmoors
Despite my growing confidence, I know this matchup is all but un-winnable with how heavily it was stacked against me. Only one other time had I felt I was in such a stilted matchup, in the finals against my good friend in this game and Mount Rushmore-level draft league coach, Black117x. I'm very tempted to throw the game just to get intel because if I want a shot at everything, I can't rely on someone else eliminating him from playoffs. Important to note, not only is this my first week with roster changes, but his team is also different from what's depicted above, most notably missing from this rogues' gallery is Mamoswine, which completely obliterates my team as the Illumise that I thought got Reflect does not. It gets Light Screen, what the fuck, Game Freak?! Onesie felt it wasn't that great against me and I did calcs--I have no idea to this day how he came to that conclusion. You lead with that thing and you're effectively guaranteeing a turn one kill if I don't lead Milotic or have a sash. Plus I have 0 good switch ins. It can 2HKO anything on my team. Worst still, is the fucking Terapagos?! This was going to be my first pick overall if I could have gotten it, I felt it was the most broken thing on the board and shouldn't even fucking be unbanned honestly. The thing I have going for me is he's a little limited because while his "ace" is the perfect counter to my "ace", he has to build it specific ways to be able to withstand Spectrier, because certain sets CAN overwhelm it, and in the process, lead to tremendous set up. I actually felt this was my best path to victory, an epic Hail Mary to a Miracle on Ice kind of upset that would have been carefully crafted by yours truly, so I opted to bench that idea, but never got to use the sets I had in mind. Sub CM with some odd, very bulky EV spreads, beats both physical and special variants the most consistently, but I also found a Will-o-Wisp set was basically 100% against a physical Terapagos, which was the better option given that Sub CM was the most lethal. I can't recall how much, but it didn't need a lot of chip damage to all but guarantee beating it, which meant it would either be in a position to sweep the rest of the team, or, if a revenge killer popped in that it was in range of, it would still be healthy enough to be worth preserving to pressure the rest of his team throughout the game. I so wish I could have sprung this on him in the semifinals or something haha. And because I've gone absolutely mad, I also made a Curse set that would beat it over time, but the Sylveon Wish passes felt too tenuous to try and predict that specifically. I do think it could have been done, but I'd have to play near-perfect and I want to win just a little bit more than I want to get THAT creative with the set come playoff time, but at literally the last minute before this game, I was deciding between that version of the team and the one I ended up bringing.
Besides that, he also has Annihilape, one of the most feared mons in the game and, like Terapagos became banned to Ubers. Sweet. My matchup against this isn't great either, but I don't think anyone's really is as it has perfect STAB coverage and one of the best attacks ever made in Rage Fist. So how do you beat one of the best Fighting and Ghost types in the game? A goddamn Dudunsparce, that's how. I had built a reaaaally cool Coil set designed to set up on Mamo behind a Reflect, and Body Press + Dual Wingbeat could also sweep his team. The problem is, I can't get Reflect up on Mamoswine with anyone but motherfucking Air Balloon Regieleki. That's fucking right. Triple lures. My strategy hinges on capitalizing on the fact this is a bad matchup for me, that the plays and options are easy for him which would make him predictable. My weakness is my strength AND I'm doing it by using Pokemon that are designed to take advantage of their checks and counters. Draw him in. Snake charmer. Someone's gotta appreciate the poetry here besides me right?
Strangely, one of the most annoying menaces to my team was also Hatterene, who prevented me from getting hazards I desperately want in a matchup like this, provides good offensive pressure with or without set up, spread status, and deter/ slow set-up... just fucking annoying haha. I also think you could justify him bringing any fucking member of his team, but the top 4 in the picture, Mamoswine, and you-fucking-name-it was just so devastating against me, I couldn't fathom him not bringing those.
You can tell this was my favorite to prep for; love a challenge :]
Incredibly, I didn't see Mamo upon team preview, much to my confusion. I opted to lead new team member and favorite gen 9 mon, Clodsire (aka "Mudsy Bogs", a nickname I'm exceedingly fond of) against Terapagos, Salazzle, Jolteon, Annihilape, Lokix, and Haunter. What the fuck? Ok so he must have thought the same thing, this matchup could go sideways for him so save the big guns for playoffs. I'll only have to make minor adjustments but my ace is still up my sleeve too. Since I've blabbed so much about this matchup, I'm gonna speed through the game here: Tera Water Jolteon was the big surprise here, being threatening to Milotic, Great Tusk, and Clodsire, who was Unware because of Terapagos and Dragonite setup especially, but also thought Ice Jolteon was so much better because I could just have easily as ran Water Absorb and then you're absolute dead weight and put the momentum in my favor. Drat. It also now walled my Regieleki, meaning it suddenly had a favorable matchup against basically everything, but really destroyed 2/3 of the team with ease, and that's exactly how it went down.
Offensively, I had Booster Great Tusk, which actually outruns Jolteon by one point when you have no more than 4 EVs in Attack and Defense and still does good damage to his team, especially after a Bulk Up or two, which I felt I could set up in a couple scenarios under the assumption SOME of his stars were coming. Really impressed with the prep on his part, coming up with this very creative team, that also had an incredible matchup and stomped me 😂 . It forced the Jolteon out on a Salazzle sack, but double Ghost is very prepared for that, bravo. At this point, Jolteon has already done too much damage to the team and with my booster spent, we end up on the wrong end of a Scarf Rage Fist sweep. I do think that should probably be banned also, but I believe this league is very competitive and very experienced so they likely enjoy having more broken shit.
Week 6 vs Amstan and the Boston Beedrills
Amstan has a really interesting team to me because it was an idea some of us tossed around in the early days of draft; having a solid core repeated but with versatility, so for instance, you prepping for Clef, Skarm, Kommo-o would not only have the option of wearing down checks for things you might have used to deal with Pult, Tinkaton, and Revavroom. Personally, I never really wanted to try it because I do like having as many types as possible, but it's cool to see someone doing it, AAAND, he ended up being the champion of the league, so there's clearly some merit to it. Zoroark was my favorite gen 5 mon and they somehow topped it with it's Hisuian form (The Arceus game was terrific. Really made catching Pokemon fun again.) AND made it better with it's typing and improved Speed and Special Attack. I love the wrench he throws into decision making and he looks cool as fuck doing it. Hell yeah, Zoroark-H! Oh and he's got defensive stalwart and annoying mon to face in Slowking, a very reliable ground type and hazard control in the classic Donphan, and Qwilfish-H as only his one of two Spectrier responses.
I've also personally always had Dragapult in my top 3 any given draft, of course I think it's one of the coolest designs out there but I think it's so awesome and versatile from a competitive building standpoint that it's hard not to want for that, and to not have to face because what the figgity fuck do you do for that? Of course my decision to prioritize drafting a powerful, reliable Fairy type early is paying dividends because Sylveon is the perfect response to both Dragapult and Kommo-o. They have ways of denting her, sure, but she counters both and can stay reasonably healthy to deal with each. Plus Milotic, who the coach's had as my MVP for much of the season, probably up until this week reasonably handles both as well, and addresses or can be used to address Donphan, Tinkaton, Skarm, Revavroom, Samurott, Qwilfish-H, just about everything. Very hard for him to deal with lacking STAB super-effective coverage on it, so I toss Incineroar on their to help me deal with Zoroark and pivot around as I do and Clodsire, who also is very difficult for him to break too.
Offensively, I decide to start with Regieleki, since I think I so reliably deal with Donphan that it carving up that team is a very solid potential path to victory, and can reliably spin on Donphan unless he's Rocky Helmet til then. CM 3 attacks Iron Crown to sweep because it don't need nuffin' fancy to git da job done. I said in the team analysis and I'll say it again: Iron Crown is a beaaast and has definitely been underrated. I'm writing this like a month or so after the season and it feels like the majority of people are only just starting to catch on with it only arriving in OU as May's sole rise into it for Smogon. As for my game things went exactly as planned: the walls walled, and it was a little stall-y at first with Clefable, Qwilfish, and Donphan shuffling around against Clodsire and Milotic. There were some hazard stacks exchanged which I didn't have as good a handle on as I thought because it never really felt like a good time to go hard into Regieleki. If I had accounted for that better, this would have been more clean for me, but that's why we reflect :] ...pun not intended? Since Regieleki uses Reflect often in it's commonly used Dual Screens set--you know what? Let's just... keep it moving.
So after 36 turns, Z-H, poorly disguised as a healthy Dragapult when the real one was Paralyzed and damaged did snipe the first KO of the game on my Sylveon with Hyper Beam doing 84%. To a Sylveon. A neutral hit. That's STRONG. But that's also the opportunity for Iron Crown to Start getting up CM's and a Iron Defense before taking out the Donphan and getting Tricked a Specs because for some reason Trick didn't occur to me in the moment. I make a safe play into Incineroar and finally start getting momentum with Parting Shot to Pivot into freshly minted ~Specs~ Iron Crown who goes on to eventually pick off two more in Qwilfish and the game-winner, Dragapult. Clodsire and Milotic really held it down though; a bit like the offensive line in football, the unsung heros protecting the guys who are gonna score points, get lucrative commercial deals, and date pop stars, because the offensive potential we faced in Pult, Z-H, and Kommo-o could have swept us with ease if they weren't a couple of ol' reliables.
So after 36 turns, Z-H, poorly disguised as a healthy Dragapult when the real one was Paralyzed and damaged did snipe the first KO of the game on my Sylveon with Hyper Beam doing 84%. To a Sylveon. A neutral hit. That's STRONG. But that's also the opportunity for Iron Crown to Start getting up CM's and a Iron Defense before taking out the Donphan and getting Tricked a Specs because for some reason Trick didn't occur to me in the moment. I make a safe play into Incineroar and finally start getting momentum with Parting Shot to Pivot into freshly minted ~Specs~ Iron Crown who goes on to eventually pick off two more in Qwilfish and the game-winner, Dragapult. Clodsire and Milotic really held it down though; a bit like the offensive line in football, the unsung heros protecting the guys who are gonna score points, get lucrative commercial deals, and date pop stars, because the offensive potential we faced in Pult, Z-H, and Kommo-o could have swept us with ease if they weren't a couple of ol' reliables.
Week 7: vs Joey and the LA Nidokings
I actually don't have a ton of in-depth stuff to say about the prep for this game as I feel I had a favorable match-up here, having multiple reliable ways of dealing with his ace in Gouging Fire. I swear it wasn't on purpose, as Gouging Fire was #2 on my pre-draft wish list, but there wasn't really much other offense I was too concerned with except for maybe some well-timed sweeps from stuff like SD Gliscor, the weird new Battle Bond Greninja, Stored Power Reuniclus, Grimm setup, Bulk Up Eviolite Primape, all of which I could handle thanks to Sylveon, Milotic, and Clodsire too. Clodsire really stifled a lot of this guy's team too, because Killowattrel could have had a really nice time without it, but all of my walls had overlaps and I feel very comfortable running bulkier, more defensive schemes. I did feel there was some trickiness with Gouging Fire and Gliscor as a potential Tera Water could be problematic, but I think the double pony pressure of Iron Crown and Spectrier, especially, is very hard for him to deal with at any point but especially in the late game, and Sylveon had Calm Mind to help break through it if needed. Oh and Clodsire was actually a special attacking set with Acid Spray and Earth Power because I felt Will-o-Wisp Weezing was inevitable; Mence could sweep him without it and it definitely helps him deal with Great Tusk, but I felt they weren't needed with this slower-pace team I cooked up; I felt I needed to commit to that archetype for it to work; balance left too many holes on one side and not enough power on the other and offense just isn't as comfortable to me as it was back in the day, which is a shame because it does feel to me like the predominant playstyle.
I'll say he took out my walls better than I thought thanks to a couple layers of Spikes, but ultimately it was my T-spike and the offensive pressure from Iron Crown and ultimately Daredevil himself, the Spectrier, cleaning up with Hex. I really feel like this is where the roster change dividends really showcased my adjustments to help Spectrier shine more, being able to pivot with Incineroar as a reliable partner and having T-Spikes to take advantage of Hex, which Spectrier definitely appreciates. The synergy was syngergygging. -g.
I'll say he took out my walls better than I thought thanks to a couple layers of Spikes, but ultimately it was my T-spike and the offensive pressure from Iron Crown and ultimately Daredevil himself, the Spectrier, cleaning up with Hex. I really feel like this is where the roster change dividends really showcased my adjustments to help Spectrier shine more, being able to pivot with Incineroar as a reliable partner and having T-Spikes to take advantage of Hex, which Spectrier definitely appreciates. The synergy was syngergygging. -g.
Week 8: vs Ashi and the Origin Strike Braviary
Ultimately, I'm extremely proud of not only the successes, but how I was able to bounce back from adversity early in the season and have nothing but strong performances once the rust was off. My one loss was to a finalist, and I did have a win over the eventual champion, Amstan, coach of the Boston Beedrills. I would have called that one of my more signature wins even if he hadn't gone on to win it not only for the strong showing I had, but the creativity in drafting that he had. I thought that was really cool and congratulations to him and all the participants on a successful season. It was an honor to be a part of it, and I'm happy to know that this Pokemon Master has still got it, and showed it against some of the most experienced coaches around. Especially once I picked up steam, I feel like I very much could have taken the title myself if I could get past or around Onsie and his goddamn super squad. If it was the last ride for me for draft league, it was a nice one, and I'm grateful for the chance to live my childhood dream of being a Master with such warm, welcoming fellow Masters on a journey of their very own yet shared by all...
