Apologies for the slight delay, but IRL matters coupled with other priorities on here delayed me by a day or two. Anyway, we have two more interesting battles to bring you guys from last week! And for those who do not follow the tournament actively, remember you can find all of the battles each week
here! Regardless of that, all of the Week 3 SM OU battles will be hyperlinked directly below!
[USM OU]
- click for replay
Sacri' vs
bro fist - In a classic clash of France and East, we find Sacri', 2-0, playing bro fist, 0-2. While both of these starts may be surprising, do not let the records fool you as this battle truly could go either way with bro fist playing well despite his early lack of success. Getting right into the swing of things, the punisher of plays himself seems to be packing a balanced team, making use of a flashier pick in Charizard as well as a more standardized backbone consisting of Ferrothorn, Rotom-Wash, and Tornadus-Therian. To round things out, bro fist also has the timeless duo of Tyranitar and Excadrill. The first thing you wonder when you see bro fist's team is what Charizard he will be; while the pairing with Tyranitar indicates that it my very well be Mega Charizard-Y, it is true that Mega Charizard-X is far more consistent, which is oftentimes a big factor in bro fist's teambuilding. From there, it seems fairly likely that one of the Excadrill or Tornadus-Therian are going to have the Z and the Tyranitar will either be Assault Vest or Chople Berry Stealth Rock. Overall, his team has the ability to pack a punch while taking a hit and potentially revenge killing opposing threats with the right conditions, which makes it quite well-rounded all things considered.
On the other side, Tiger Sacri' has a bit more of an unconventional balance, making use of lesser-seen Pokemon such as Jirachi, Mega Heracross, Gastrodon, Serperior, and even Zapdos, which has been falling out of favor on non-stall teams. Despite the slew of unorthodox picks, the crafty Frenchman came in poised to pick-up his third straight win to begin this SPL. Alongside the five aforementioned Pokemon was also a Greninja of which the set could be a number of things, which is also something to keep an eye on. Looking at the remaining Pokemon, it seemed clear that Jirachi had to be packing Stealth Rock, Zapdos was very likely to be carrying Defog, and the combination of Serperior and Mega Heracross would be used to make progress, breaking through even the bulkiest of cores if piloted with enough aggression and thought. While his team seemed to struggle with any variant of Charizard, which was found on the other side, it was also true that the Mega Heracross of Sacri''s was similarly threatening to bro fist, making this match-up one that emphasized aggressive pivoting and positioning earlier on in order to set the table for the big-hitters that would ultimately be clearing through.
Each side elected to lead with their Electric type, with Sacri' promptly retreating to his trusty Gastrodon, walling the opposing Rotom-Wash with ease, but eating a Will-O-Wisp on the switch-in, thus crippling it to some degree for the remainder of the battle. From there, Gastrodon fired off a safe Scald, hoping to land a valuable burn of his own. However, he gets fortunate in the wrong way, landing a critical on the Tornadus-Therian, but not burning it, as bro fist safely pivots in to the crippled slug. From there, a smart U-turn leads way for a Ferrothorn to safely come in on a Toxic, avoiding any damage or status thankfully. Likely predicting Mega Heracross, bro fist doubles back out to Tornadus-Therian, but Sacri' wisely goes through a catch-all middleground, pivoting into his Zapdos, giving him momentum for the time being. Finally, Sacri' lets the Zapdos eat a Will-O-Wisp after pivoting out of it turn 1, which happens after a series of Discharges are negated by a slower Pain Split. Trying to get back in control of the situation, Sacri' goes to Gastrodon on a later Pain Split, but his follow-up Toxic does no good as Ferrothorn comes in once more. Finding himself in a similar position, bro fist elects to, once again, double out to his Tornadus-Therian. This time, however, he is correct as the Heracross is found to be switching in on the opposing end. An aggressive U-turn on the predictable Zapdos pivot lets bro fist bring in his threatening Charizard, poised to get off a mega evolution and perhaps claim a kill against the opposing Pressure Zapdos. A surprisingly faster Discharge lands on the Charizard, which revealed itself to be Mega Charizard-x at the start of the turn, but it does a mere 23% while the slower Flare Blitz takes down the weakened Zapdos, leaving bro fist up 6-5.
Thankfully for Sacri', not all was lost. He was able to bring in Greninja and set-up a layer of Spikes as a Rotom-W switched in for bro fist. Knowing that it was likely locked in to Spikes and that his Rotom-Wash was walled by Gastrodon, bro fist quickly doubled out into Tornadus-Therian on the predicted Gastrodon, allowing him to get off a Knock Off and then U-turn consecutively. Unfortunately, the U-turn was met with a burning Scald on his Ferrothorn, crippling it permanently. Nevertheless, bro fist set up a Spike of his own as the opposing Jirachi came on in. Excadrill quickly came in, trying to remove the aforementioned Spike and the Stealth Rock that Jirachi set up on that same turn. bro fist was successful in doing just that with his Excadrill, only taking a mere 21% in return from an Iron head. From there, Excadrill was met with a Serperior, which seemed to check it for the time as it forced the Excadrill out into the Mega Charizard-X, which was immediately met with a timely Glare, proving to be a smart play from Sacri'. However, that was not enough to slow down the rampaging Dragon, which proceeded to Flare Blitz the Greninja for well over half health. The Greninja was not going down without a fight as Sacri' clicked Hydro Pump, doing a massive 80% to an incoming Tyranitar, likely predicting Dark Pulse and wanting to preserve Ferrothorn. Keeping up the good sequence, Sacri' went to his Serperior as the aforementioned Ferrothorn came on in to try and eat a Hydro Pump. Another Glare from Sacri', this time landing on the opposing Tornadus-Therian pivot, led to a free Recover from Gastrodon, which came in on a full paralysis on the Tornadus-Therian itself. From there, Ferrothorn came in to capitalize on the Gastrodon, but it was met with a Mega Heracross pivot on its first turn in, which it could not do much to besides Leech Seed on the switch. Playing with fire, bro fist pivoted his Tornadus-Therian on a Close Combat, which still did 50%. Pin Missle on the following turn connected with Rotom-Wash, which took over 70% before recovering from Leftovers and Leech Seed. It then died to the follow-up Pin Missle, however, evening the score at 5-5.
Excadrill came in as the follow-up from bro fist, taking out the opposing Gastrodon with two attacks, giving him the lead once more, but letting a threatening Serperior come in safely as the follow-up. Unfortunately, the threat was neutralized with a Leaf Storm miss on the incoming Tornadus-Therian. This escalated into a negative sequence for Sacri', who was forced to go to Jirachi on a U-turn, letting Excadrill in safely. This forced Sacri' to fodder his Greninja, quickly giving bro fist a 5-3 lead and making it seem challenging for the Tigers player to claw back into this game. A crafty Jirachi double into a timely Healing Wish at least helped get the Mega Heracross in healthily, but he was now down 3 Pokemon. This did become 2 when the Mega Heracross disposed of the opposing Tornadus-Therian with a Rock Blast. Surprisingly, bro fist went to Ferrothorn as his follow-up, but this actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it. The Ferrothorn is able to force Sacri' into a very awkward position between defense drops and Iron Barbs damage. Perhaps this is why Sacri' went to his Serperior on that turn. However, the Grass snake was meant with a sandy foe as Tyranitar also pivoted in. Sacri' fired off a final Glare on the Tyranitar and then Mega Heracross was brought in, left to try and take out the last three members of bro fist's team. With Sand being up, Excadrill being in tact, and its Z move not yet being used, this proved to be a futile effort as a Corkscrew Crash took it out, giving bro fist a close 2-0 victory and bringing his record up to 2-1.
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). That game actually was really exciting throughout, but I think the best place to look for analysis and insight on that game would be blunder's upload 
