Battle Spot Video Discussion thread

[Age of Kings]

Use this thread to discuss Battle Spot videos, whether your own or a high-rated player's. Please do not post 3-0 pubstomps, make sure your video is interesting and demonstrates competitive skill. You don't need to be 1900+ rating to post your own videos, just make sure you are submitting something that can be valuable or interesting to everyone else.

Rules:
1. No posting Battle Video codes without an accompanying paragraph. Explain what happened because not everyone owns a cartridge or has the patience to go back and watch your replay. Also, having a good explanation facilitates discussion.

2. Simulator replays are allowed to be posted, but please remember they are not the best representation of Battle Spot play.

3. No Youtube or any other form of video is allowed.

4. Don't forget to include the tier the video is for and the player's name.

I'll start us off with a few examples to show what kind of posts should be made:

Player: でぃーちょ (daiicho), JPN, #10 world
Tier: Singles
Code: DACW-WWWW-WWW8-SZZP

Explanation: While the play was nothing terribly special, I found some of the sets used to be fairly interesting. daiicho's opponent led with a Trace Gardevoir which worked to cripple his/her Mawile lead. The opponent then switched to Aegislash, which has a more even matchup against Mawile due to resisting both of its STABs. However, Mawile surprised the opponent by staying in and using Knock Off to remove Leftovers, greatly crippling Aegislash and outmaneuvering it with Swords Dance. The opponent was not one to stay down and crafted a Kanga set to go toe-to-toe with Rocky Helmet Cress, one of its best checks. While Rocky Helmet injured the enemy Kanga after the Power-Up Punch, it used Rock Slide to damage Cresselia (avoiding the Rocky Helmet) and flinch it until it got low. One Thunder Wave turned the tide of that engagement so Cress was able to heal.

Another example, courtesy of @EnGarde:

Anyways, just popping in quickly to say I looked up some of the profile pages of the top triples players right now. #4, Mikado, had a public battle profile and a few public battle codes, so I viewed one. 7HXW-WWWW-WWW8-TVTH

I learned that brave bird can apparently hit across the field, regardless of where talonflame is. (left position talonflame can hit opponent's right position pokemon)

Here's some info of the teams that I could see: (team put in hide tags due to length)

Hide

Winning #4 team:
Mega Ampharos
- Volt Switch
- Earth Power

Hitmontop
- Fake Out
- Close Combat

Chandelure
- Shadow Ball

Talonflame @ Possibly choice locked
- Brave Bird

Gastrodon
- Scald

Aegislash
- Iron Head
- Shadow Claw
(Played very aggressively: left in blade form for many turns)

---

Losing Opponent's team:

Slowking
- Trick Room

Hariyama

Mega Ampharos
- Dragon pulse
- Protect

Amoonguss @ Rocky helmet
- Spore
- Giga Drain

Aegislash
- Shadow Claw
- King's shield

Talonflame
- Brave Bird

---

I'll admit, mega ampharos wasn't even on my radar, but it does counter rain pretty well.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Here's one:

Played Against: Terry, USA, #2 (world), #1 (USA), Season 5
Tier (Shouldn't this be "format"?): Rotation
Code: AJFW-WWWW-WWW8-RW3F

This is from a few weeks back when Terry and I were switching off for #1 and #2 in the U.S., both in the 1700s. Consequently this was really exciting for me. I took a huge hit after that, stopped playing for a bit as I bred for doubles (and moved), and have started working my way back up through the 1600s.

Going in it was fairly obvious at least part of Terry's team relied on Trick Room. I was able to predict Chandelure rotating in to set it up on turn 6, as it was the only chance he had against Dragon Danced Charizard at that point. I was hoping to KO it Dragon Claw (correctly assuming it was holding Air Balloon, as most Chandelures do in Rotation since it's not announced in non-active positions), but fell just short.

Turn 7 was the big turning point for this match. In rotation, a lot of plays come down to finding your safest option. I didn't really have one here; nothing on my team wanted to take a Shadow Ball from Chandelure, and even if Charizard survived it, I knew he had Mawile from team preview and couldn't afford to let it fall into KO range from Sucker Punch. I could Ice Shard with Cloyster, but that ran the risk of either of his other Pokemon rotating in for the KO. What made the decision for me was assessing that leaving Chandelure in was also his safest option. A Thunderbolt from Thundurus risked not doing enough damage to Charizard (especially with Light Screen and the possibility he might not be running a max Special Attack variant, based on it running Substitute). Terrakion risked missing with Stone Edge, which would net me a free KO and put me at a huge advantage. Banking on that, I was able to rotate in Cloyster and pop off an Ice Shard, leaving Charizard at nearly full HP.

The rest of the match is me doing everything I can to stall out Trick Room and end with an over-75% HP Charizard versus his Mawile, which, barring a critical hit from Sucker Punch (maybe), would win me the game. You'll see me needlessly lose Thundurus at the end, but I was just playing extra cautiously. Again, I wasn't sure if a critical hit from Sucker Punch might still KO and thought as long as there was a chance he would go for Play Rough that turn, I should take it.

All in all, I think it was a pretty well- (though not perfectly) played match on both sides. It was also a little close for comfort. Obviously Terry's a great player based on how he's continued to rank, and I don't know how a best of three would have gone with those teams. In the meantime, I'm looking at some bulkier Charizards.

I learned that brave bird can apparently hit across the field, regardless of where talonflame is. (left position talonflame can hit opponent's right position pokemon)

This has probably been covered over in the Create-a-Team Triples thread, but all Flying moves are capable of doing this. Talonflame is a great Pokemon to have on one of the edges for this reason.

 

[DrZoidburglar]

Just a suggestion, but maybe the spreadsheet that Campaign adopted from the google doc I posted in the RMT thread could go in the OP? It's right here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14pzabhWInPp1pNBD8KSy75ibKDWeakasXMwV_qBZkRI/edit?usp=sharing

That way people can keep adding their videos to the doc, and eventually it might be quite comprehensive and easier the read through than the entire thread if people are looking for a specific video.

 

[EnGarde]

Just a suggestion, but maybe the spreadsheet that Campaign adopted from the google doc I posted in the RMT thread could go in the OP? It's right here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14pzabhWInPp1pNBD8KSy75ibKDWeakasXMwV_qBZkRI/edit?usp=sharing

That way people can keep adding their videos to the doc, and eventually it might be quite comprehensive and easier the read through than the entire thread if people are looking for a specific video.

If I may make a recommendation to whomever is maintaining that spreadsheet (Campaign, maybe?), I would recommend putting a date on each team, simply because it could fill up with out-dated information as people and the metagame adjust to new teams.

EDIT: Whiskey Tango Watched your video: very interesting look into rotation battles. :)

I wonder what the mindset of your opponent was on turn 8, when they switched thundurus into your cloyster to get obliterated by icicle spear. It made sense for you to keep cloyster in, since it was your fastest pokemon under trick room, but if they had just left mega mawile in, they could've obliterated cloyster while taking minimal damage from any of cloyster's attacks, especially with the attack drop, and had an extra turn of trick room. Were they fearing the charizard x switch in, or what?

 

[Age of Kings]

Only thing I have against an open Google Doc is the threat of vandalism. It happened in the Masuda Method thread and I know this is less traveled but I'd rather not run the same risk. I feel that the thread alone does a great job of archiving until this goes 5-10 pages.

Whiskey Tango very interesting match! You really had some perfect predictions there and made the right calls playing around Trick Room. It really exhibits how Rotation goes down to making the correct predictions in switch-ins. You should play Rotations more imo :)

 

[Whiskey Tango]

I wonder what the mindset of your opponent was on turn 8, when they switched thundurus into your cloyster to get obliterated by icicle spear. It made sense for you to keep cloyster in, since it was your fastest pokemon under trick room, but if they had just left mega mawile in, they could've obliterated cloyster while taking minimal damage from any of cloyster's attacks, especially with the attack drop, and had an extra turn of trick room. Were they fearing the charizard x switch in, or what?

I honestly have no idea. It struck me as something of a misplay. Maybe he was hoping to catch Charizard and get it into Sucker Punch range?

Had it gone another way, though, I thiiiiink (without rewatching the video), I still would've been in a good position. I don't think Cloyster was an OHKO for Mawile under any circumstance, so I could have waited out Trick Room regardless, or sacrificed my Thundurus for it. His Thundurus wouldn't have made a difference at that point as it could still be taken down in one Dragon Claw before attacking. My prediction game would have been a lot more difficult, though. It's possible it could have forced me into Flare Blitzing, which I really didn't want to do as it could be a losing scenario for me if I took too much recoil damage against Thundurus.

EDIT: Ran the calcs on the Cloyster match-up. As I thought, none of Mawile's attacks could OHKO it, so Trick Room would have been stalled out regardless. I just would've lost my Thundurus along the way:

252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Play Rough vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Cloyster: 166-196 (68.5 - 80.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

You should play Rotations more imo :)

I do. It's my favorite format. I have two main teams for it: that one, which is centered around supporting a Cloyster/Charizard sweep, and a general "goodstuffs" one. Uxie's a key member of both, though it didn't get to showcase itself much in that match.

 

[DrZoidburglar]

Only thing I have against an open Google Doc is the threat of vandalism. It happened in the Masuda Method thread and I know this is less traveled but I'd rather not run the same risk. I feel that the thread alone does a great job of archiving until this goes 5-10 pages.

Whiskey Tango very interesting match! You really had some perfect predictions there and made the right calls playing around Trick Room. It really exhibits how Rotation goes down to making the correct predictions in switch-ins. You should play Rotations more imo :)

That's a depressing reality. Makes sense though, oh well. If I wasn't travelling until the end of October I'd offer to keep a version that's viewable but not editable updated. Maybe after I get home I could do that? This isn't a very high-traffic subforum, it would probably be quite easy.

 

[Age of Kings]

That's a depressing reality. Makes sense though, oh well. If I wasn't travelling until the end of October I'd offer to keep a version that's viewable but not editable updated. Maybe after I get home I could do that? This isn't a very high-traffic subforum, it would probably be quite easy.

Let's wait until the thread gets some more submissions and then I'll consider it. :)

I do. It's my favorite format. I have two main teams for it: that one, which is centered around supporting a Cloyster/Charizard sweep, and a general "goodstuffs" one. Uxie's a key member of both, though it didn't get to showcase itself much in that match.

Interesting. I'm assuming you're using something that Uxie does better than Cress.....Foul Play? Taunt? Knock Off?

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Interesting. I'm assuming you're using something that Uxie does better than Cress.....Foul Play? Taunt? Knock Off?

Yawn.

 

[Campaign]

If I may make a recommendation to whomever is maintaining that spreadsheet (Campaign, maybe?), I would recommend putting a date on each team, simply because it could fill up with out-dated information as people and the metagame adjust to new teams.

No, I'm not maintaining it as most of the teams are at-least a few months old. Not much point building a database of teams that are being run in an out of date meta. It can take hours to map an entire team, let alone scrolling through the horrendous interface that's constantly reverting to the first page whenever you click a button to find somebody with an open profile and I therefore don't have a lot of interest in maintaining such a compilation personally. I just wanted to clean up the supplied document a little. I'll happily contribute to it for particular players, namely the ones I follow on a continuous basis but constantly keeping track of every player listed and all their team changes regularly doesn't sound like a good time.

Given that, I recommend that somebody more reliable - Perhaps one of the moderators, create either a public document and back it up daily or alternatively, a document that only they can edit and have the forum posters update it through a format in a thread such as the following:

Player
Pokemon / Details
Replay number.

Any amount of details could be included and over time you'll get a full picture of a team as it stands and as it evolves. In addition, the replay number provides proof and if a person inputs false data, it can be noted, removed and any further input from that person can be disregarded.

 

[EnGarde]

No, I'm not maintaining it as most of the teams are at-least a few months old. Not much point building a database of teams that are being run in an out of date meta. It can take hours to map an entire team, let alone scrolling through the horrendous interface that's constantly reverting to the first page whenever you click a button to find somebody with an open profile and I therefore don't have a lot of interest in maintaining such a compilation personally. I just wanted to clean up the supplied document a little. I'll happily contribute to it for particular players, namely the ones I follow on a continuous basis but constantly keeping track of every player listed and all their team changes regularly doesn't sound like a good time.

Given that, I recommend that somebody more reliable - Perhaps one of the moderators, create either a public document and back it up daily or alternatively, a document that only they can edit and have the forum posters update it through a format in a thread such as the following:

Player
Pokemon / Details
Replay number.

Any amount of details could be included and over time you'll get a full picture of a team as it stands and as it evolves. In addition, the replay number provides proof and if a person inputs false data, it can be noted, removed and any further input from that person can be disregarded.

Apologies, didn't mean to impose. Considering the difficulties in maintaining this, I think contributing individual battles here and descriptions + impressions of those is probably the best way to go. Less comprehensive, but less demanding on our time. :)

 

[Pyritie]

It also doesn't help that battle videos are regularly pruned since you can only have 10 uploaded at a time. Keeping a big archive of them isn't very useful if none of the videos work any more!

 

[Whiskey Tango]

All right, I'm starting to get my mojo back, so here's another decent Rotation video from last night:

Played Against: てつか (Tetsuka), JPN, #78 world (would have been around #38 at the time of this match)
Format: Rotation
Code: 5R6G-WWWW-WWW9-45M7

I hit a 1,700s player with my "goodstuffs" team, who was running a similar team because, guys, Aegislash is strong. The Pokemon they didn't bring included Rotom-Wash and Mawile, both of which I was glad not to see. I left behind Uxie and Thundurus.

I don't have a lot to say about it other than that the predictions here are pretty ridiculous from both sides. I knew that with a 1,700s player there was actually the possibility of them predicting my predictions, so deciding what level to go on without being absurd was a challenge. The only thing I really ended up kicking myself over the Dragon Clawing into King's Shield. I was just so sure Hydreigon would be coming in since he wouldn't want to give me a free turn to use my own King's Shield or get my Substitute back up (which I almost went for).

I did look up the critical hit I got on Hydreigon to see if it mattered. Unfortunately it did:

252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Return vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 139-166 (83.2 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

It's hard to say how the match would have gone otherwise, with the amount we were able to predict each other. It still could have been anyone's game.

Player: でぃーちょ (daiicho), JPN, #10 world
Tier: Singles
Code: DACW-WWWW-WWW8-SZZP

Finally watched this. Deiicho's (I think you got a letter wrong in that post) team is insane. That Knock-Off Mawile shutdown; just, jeez. She does a bit of rotation too, where she's in the top 60 with 21-7. Over in singles, though, have you seen her differential lately? It's something like 100-60. Really good.

 

[EnGarde]

Whiskey Tango Just watched your new vid. I couldn't always follow the predictions ahead of time, so definitely an interesting watch for me. Pretty ballsy move on turn 2, going for a sub on aegislash when all 3 of your opponent's pokemon carried a STAB SE move, but it paid off in that instance, since you were able to deal a large chunk of damage against garchomp the next turn. Anyways, thanks for sharing. :)

 

[Whiskey Tango]

I don't want to dominate this thread, but, whatever, I'll throw this out here just because of the player rank I encountered.

Was playing doubles last night and came across an 1815 (1820 as of today) player, which is well above what I should've been getting.

Played Against: Athena, JPN, #335 world, rank 1820
Format: Doubles
Code: 9C4G-WWWW-WWW9-DCKD

Somehow I managed to pull out a win with my crappy Smeargle team, evidently because they overpredicted my obvious play on turn three -- maybe thinking I would Protect until Charizard could come back in? In retrospect maybe that was the obvious play; I was worried about Scizor switching out, and Scald was a sure OHKO until Charizard returned. But I figured Scizor wasn't running Protect and was okay gambling on a one-for-one to trap Politoed in. I keep going for Sleep Powder at the end because Venusaur is holding Wide Lens since I'm too lazy to get a Coba Berry. This team isn't the greatest.

Either way, some interesting stuff here; mostly Feint Scizor, which isn't a move that appears in its top ten usage but gets mileage out of Technician while removing Protect. I don't remember what their sixth Pokemon was, but I believe their mega (which doesn't make an appearance here) was Blastoise. So it was a slightly unconventional rain team. I don't particularly know what Fire attacks Scizor's surviving even in the rain, but I'm guessing that's part of the rationale for including it.

 

[EnGarde]

Not my best match, not my worst. My team is still rough around the edges, and I'm using what little bit is left of this season to test it so I can try some hard laddering with it next season, and I think this displays some of my teammates in their best light. This team was built around mega tyranitar, who I really wanted to experiment with (I'd never seriously used ttar before).

Player: DaBoss, iirc low 1600's rated player
Format: Doubles
Code: C2WW-WWWW-WWW9-L4HE

I knew going into this match that gothitelle was going to be a big problem, which is why I double-targeted it turn 1. My lucario is running a very speculative set, so I knew it wouldn't be able to OHKO it; still, I think it did its job well, since I don't know what the defensive investment was on that goth (don't think ttar's crunch would've OHKO'd alone). Trollchomp got to troll and make some outstanding plays for me in the mid-game. I did make a pretty obvious misplay on turn 6, because of course charizard was going for turn 1 protect. :-/ Still, I thought that maybe rock slide would've finished off that scrafty. Lesson learned: don't underestimate the bulk of the assault vest set. Mega zard y got a lucky burn off heat wave on the last turn, but thankfully mega ttar was still able to bring home the win with rock slide. An interesting enough match, I think.

 

[freekhoorn]

Interesting match Engarde! Lol how you koed that gothitelle and how you avoided that fake out from scrafty! Awesome to see how important protective moves are in doubles! I play singles, and just had an frickin awesome match where i finally could show my full potential haha.

Player: Japanese guy, cant find his name yet
Format: Singles
Code: K9AG-WWWW-WWW9-M3VP

My team: Mega-Ampharos, Hippowdon, Avalugg
His team: Mega-Scizor, Garchomp, Zapdos

Started off with amphy, he with scizor, didnt wanted the uturn damage so switched to hippowdon. He switched to zapdos, i waited and he toxiced me while i noticed that rock slide wasnt doing anything so i switched out afterwards to amphy, I mega-evolved and used thunderbolt but he swapped for garchomp, wich was risky of him cause i could have gone for dragon pulse. Anyway, i had to switch out for avalugg, took the earthquake. I hoped he would switch in for zapdos, so i used toxic, but he went for scizor... I switched in to hippowdon who took a bullet punch so the sitrus berry effected. I have fire fang on mine so i used that, did 50% damage but he roosted it off. I went for too more of that hoping for a burn or crit, but that didnt happen so hippowdon died from toxic while his scizor was at half his health. I switched in amphy but he uturned to zapdos, wich got a lot of damage from dragon pulse. He voltswitched out to scizor and i used t-bolt so he died! Yay. Than came garchomp so i switched to my mighty avalugg, he went for outrage, so i made use of that and restored with recover untill almost full health, then used toxic cause i knew he would switch for zapdos, i switched for ampharos who got toxiced himself, zapdos died off toxic damage ampharos too and then it was avalugg vs garchomp so i avalanched him into defeat yay.

 

[vzxt]

Hi this is my first post in this subforum of smogon. Please excuse my english it is not my first language.

So recently got myself some new pokemon from EnGarde 's Battle Spot distribution. So I went ahead and tested out the pokemon I recieved...

Player: Sean, Low ranking 1600s
Format: Doubles
Code: T6EW-WWWW-WWW9-ZMM4

From the team preview I saw at least 3 priority users inluding M-Khanga, Infernape and Mamoswine, so this was the perfect opportunity to use the Meowstic I got from Engarde (it has Quick guard). Also my opponent's team was composed purely of physical attackers so I also chose Lando-T as my 2nd lead. Bringing Meowstic soon proved to be the right decision as I blocked two fakeouts in the first turn with quick guard. Also Lando-T managed to net some damage into M-Khanga and brought Infernape to its Sash with EQ. On the second turn Meowstic used charm on M-Khanga before getting KOed by Infernape's U-turn, thanks to the damage recieved from Landos EQ. My opponent's Mamoswine comes in and is welcomed by an EQ from Landorus. My charizard comes in, it Mevolves next turn and I used protect because at that point I didnt know if mamoswine was scarfed or not. My opponent probably predicted the protect and double targeted Landorus with sucker punch and ice shard, Landorus barely survives thanks to its Yache berry and is able to do some damage to Mamoswine and finally KO M-Khangaskhan. Ttar comes in changing the weather and threatening my Charizard. I switch out to Typhlosion. Ttar gets a double KO on lando and Typhlosion with rock slide. On the following turns I make some misplays but thankfully my opponent's pokemon are slower than my Charizard (yes including Infernape lol) and I secure the win with a Heatwave and Solar beam.

This was a close match, and this battle showcases why I'm so bad at Doubles. In this format you can go from winning to losing in a single turn and its hard for me to keep my cool in these situations. I make mistakes and forget things like Infernape carrying Fake out.