UPL XI Journal – LouisIX / Manly Melmetal

[神奇名字]

IX你怎么知道Kekkkker在比赛时想什么？你以为你是他吗？！

[Nihilslave]

IX你怎么知道Kekkkker在比赛时想什么？你以为你是他吗？！

[Hans]

“但可能他的隊伍已經早早出局了TPP也無心戀戰了，就成全了我空間隊”破案了，kekkker竟然就是LouisIX

[神奇名字]

@Hans 不准诋毁我的偶像kekkker大人！

[绯绯殿下]

恭喜夺冠，Lazy old man

[LouisIX]

W7 vs Alolan Mukkers
Entrocefalo vs Terra the creator (Terracotta)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-706061

這周相當關鍵，因為總排名第二的我們居然還是不能輸，一輸就進不了半決賽了，同時我又剛剛新冠康復，於是我跟entro就在瘋狂備戰，剛好對手又是entro比較熟的知道他很喜歡玩針對。上周的時侯entro同時打了ubers公開個人賽的決賽，也因此出了名因為他經常玩一些神奇的地創配置直接1V6(對，什麼重力地創和拉特攻的冰光龍舞地創那都是我給他的)。我們因此預期Tera會用草創或者水創，加上entro很少用破受的朱，我們也試了很多不同配置的朱，最後我們二選一: 斷尾摩托蜥破受，或者冰馬戲法做球給朱，我們選了冰馬，然後效果如下圖:
This week was quite a critical week as if we lost we may not get to finals. I was also recovered from COVID as well so we did quite an extensive preparation against tera, who was known as a super cteaming addiction. As around week 6 entro just finished his ubers open finals where he was famed about spamming groundy a lot (yes my fault), we were expecting a grassceus and as entro low usage on breaker koraidon, we were also trying out possibilities on koraidon sets as well, and we finally come up with a idea of either 1. cyclizar stall breaker or 2. Surprise caly I trick breaker and we finally chose the second idea, and here is what happened:

I mean by preview the MU looks absolutely fine to tera as mane looks good late game and grassceus on groundy pex on korai caly as well, but that trick basically sets the tone of the game where tera had close to zero chance to win if entro played carefully. Too many way for entro to win with toxapex get tricked, but entro was not focusing so he played a bit risky, and end up in a CM war on both ceus, which entro freezed grassceus and cleaned the rest. The prep went way too perfect which left nothing to say about the game lol.
基本上這把冰馬頭巾一套就結束了，太多方法可以贏加上entro他打的時侯不是很專心，最後變成了冥想大戰然後entro一個冰凍結束了戰斗。我覺得我們這把備戰實在太過完美導致對局本身完全沒有什麼營養所以這把就短一點吧。

Shuwri vs Xrn
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-706126

Grassceus balance again from mukkers. Shuwri was using a zero zacian resist and xrn was using ekiller/gambit weak team as well, but luckily they did not meet what they were weak for. And both team did not switch into band chien pao as well so basically the game would be foreseeably a race on pace, but in general xrn will be a little bit better because of corviknight pivoting fairyceus better than shuwri pivoting grassknot.
Though being said, xrn seems to be not very consistent on the positioning and put skeledirge too early in front of fairyceus, allowing rocks and inviting an early orge+pao combo from shuwri side, invalidating corviknight, the mu advantage of xrn, in very early game, and was somehow forced to trade hp and hazard with ting-lu, which open up shuwri’s miraidon in late game. As you can see, a mistake from xrn really tune the game heavily against him within the first 5 turns. What he could do better is to play in a utilitarianism way. Yes skeledirge can pivot fairyceus most of the time, but what you want to pivot it is to minimize the damage it could make, and while skeledirge can stop fairyceus it can’t really do much back to shuwri by the mu, especially in a early game, you don’t really want to be conservative given the mu is heavily based on chien-pao performance of both side. Anyway, xrn gave up his hazard controller and hazard setter as well, and xrn paid so many price but he couldn’t save a layer of spikes by the turn he switched out ting, and again xrn did not trying to revive corviknight on fairyceus switch into grassceus basically set the game as now shuwri would win chienpao trading war as he set rocks and it was basically impossible for xrn to defog from the moment, and the game was pretty much done by the moment xrn allowed free rocks.
SV is a relatively heavy hazard environment that is very close to BW imo. Yes both meta has hazard removal options but that’s with a huge price of losing a lot of rhythm and the game often down to rhythm control assuming hazards is unremovable, so xrn paid his price on this game to be way too conservative in the early stage.

又一個草創平衡。我親愛的shuwri使用了一隊沒人擋大劍的隊伍，而xrn則用一隊被普創或者大將輕鬆清場的隊伍然後兩邊都沒有見到各自的弱點。(普創劍狗自不多論，大將也已經重新迎回home前榮光)
看preview可以看到雙方對頭巾劍豹都沒什麼抗性，所以也可以預見這把將會很著重於雙方對於劍豹出場時機的管理，也就是兩邊爭節奏。Shuwri這邊多一個潛在的專圍使用者和海皇天然的mu限制，而xrn這邊草創mu雖然看上去不錯但還是被海皇限制出場，加上鼎鹿對鬼龍出釘，鋼鴉應對仙創土王都屬於不錯的優勢，光看mu應該是個55開shuwri略有主動的局面。不過很明顯xrn沒有分析的那麼細，開場首發紫見到仙創沒有直接打也沒有直接上鋼鴉而是上火主就是明顯的緩手，shuwri這邊直接一套釘子+海皇+劍豹的組合拳就把xrn打的鋼鴉直接進入白給寸前，早早的丟了釘子控制，而為了限制對手劍豹又強賣鼎鹿血量去撒釘和換鬼龍的血，而到頭來釘子留不住鼎鹿換血換了個寂寞。最後草創打草結威脅逼shuwri上仙創又沒有馬上上鋼鴉回復，強行讀土王讀到個圍巾海讓劍豹白踩了一嘴岩釘，之後就相當例行公事了，圍巾海換了兩個人頭，xrn不得已太晶草創去接劍豹還沒打死劍豹，一個冰光CT不幸地加速了shuwri這邊劍豹開換的節奏，草創一死xrn全隊沒有仙創換入，被高移紫推隊也是板上定釘之事了。

[LouisIX]

Kekkker vs Manaphy
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-706252

by smogon user Mr. Manaphy
Me after reading: 100% TRIGGERRED

Yes this is basically Giannis HO he mainly using during opens final. I know manaphy loves fat besides his HO usage during upl, and I also know how I am rated as a player so I am 100% sure manaphy would just play fat team as that’s fitting the most of his style. I started band korai as Giannis always did, dclawing scarf lando for 71% for rocks was absolutely fine as I really don’t care about rocks against a passive team like this, and then I just confidently switched to ek and forced him to trade hp with me from Turn 3, and I successfully shut down his skeledirge completely which open up my tera flying zacian chance. The mid game flareblitz was a roll depends on his eternatus evs so I will take the roll anyway as I am playing zacy sweep if not then kingambit sweep already at this stage. I played wrong by keeping lando off the field on turn 15, which ALMOST costed me the game because manaphy’s fairyceus is a 307 speed one which means this is super bulky ceus, and my miraidon wouldn’t be able to go pass it as the tera type of it didn’t resist judgment. So I go for the only route to win which was zacian outsmart him completely by teraflying dodging both earth power and tera steel from fairyceus, behemoth first then wildcharge to prevent recoil damage and maximize damage output, and then forced his miraidon on field clicking either draco or overheat, and my kingambit just sweep the entire team of his with a very favourable roll to me on ting lu.
Again the prep was pretty perfect but I could have done better to win the game much more cleaner. This is my issue on game play and you will see it again in my semi vs ox as well.

大家都知道kekkker其實不太喜歡manaphy，於是kekkker看見這人居然把大將盾狗排到D之後就下定決心一定要大將他
事實上kekkker也真的大將死他了
這隊基本上是抄自entro公開賽決賽的對手giannis，雖然kekkker的對手upl期間用了兩三次HO，但kekkker估計也是深知他這種人打kekkker這種名不經傳的典型娛樂玩家肯定只會用他最順手的平衡受，而giannis這隊HO打平衡受就我自己個人感受而言也是相當主動乃至運氣正常甚至輸不了平衡受的程度。Kekkker開場就一個頭巾朱龍爪把圍巾土貓拍成殘廢，代價只是一把岩釘，而你也看到kekkker這隊是根本不鳥岩釘的所以第一回合就血賺了，然後kekkker用普創通過一系列讀心很快成功地把manaphy的火主壓成17%血量的廢物， 兩下頭巾火推推死毒龍再推殘紫，這時不論大劍或者大將都已經非常推隊了，不過kekkker這裡緩了一手選擇讓土貓留在場下讓紫收掉火主這一點非常值得商榷，事實上他的土云在對方土云已經是個死人的情況下基本沒用，全速推節奏其實早就贏了，結果對方仙創是個超級硬的307速創讓kekkker有點措手不及，但他及時換下紫和交大劍太晶壓殘對方太鋼仙創也實在是令人拍案叫絕。之後土貓威脅鼎鹿同時逼迫manaphy用降特攻的技能收掉土貓之後，大將通過一個非常有利於他的隨機數收掉了78%血鼎鹿，突襲騙飯撐過大地力斬殺線之後成功推隊。可喜可賀可喜可賀。
Kekkker這把針對非常好，不過也能看出來他操作上有些硬傷，這在他半決賽對陣ox04的時侯也能體現出來，我們下回再細析。

ORAS
Skimmy vs szns (Seasons)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen6ubers-705848
I feel like this is a typical outplay by skimmy because the whole game just looked like an experienced player outplaying a newcomer to the tier lol. And you can see in this game again how important of the hp of klefki is in ORAS, as skimmy just read one EQ correctly and Seasons completely lost his momentum of the game which is basically lethal to a ORAS HO team user. The game is basically over when Seasons allowed rocks and did not kill ferrothorn immediately (no one knows why he clicked psyshock on T17), and the dark voiding xerneas eventually makes harm to him as Xerneas has a landed two moonblast safely without cost and at the end because of the sleep Seasons is not able to paralyse scarf xerneas and be sweeped as well.

我覺得這把就是老手暴打新人…
這把你也能看出鑰匙的血量在ORAS是多麼的重要，skimmy只是讀中一次地震Season那邊已經幾乎完全打不了，因為在ORAS用HO一丟節奏就是致命的，之後Seasons為了推節奏無奈用地釘換岩釘，然後又沒有立刻打死草鋼 (T17我不知道為什麼他點了精沖)，導致局面瞬間崩壞，skimmy這邊的圍巾X又足夠好運睡夠兩回合兩夢話打死古拉，之後也因為這個睡眠導致Seasons的鑰匙麻不住圍巾X被X推隊。
你看這不是暴打什麼是暴打.jpg

[LouisIX]

Semi vs gambler suqard
Kekkker vs ox04
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-707671
Overall, ox style is pretty much very predictable. His team often run unnecessary amount of scarfer mon, that’s why by preview I am almost certain this is scarf eternatus and he will most likely lead it. The mu is not bad too. Besides Ox bringing too much speed control, my tusk and gambit are both in good shape against his physical overloading, and support groundy may also clean the late game as well. Based on that, I lead koraidon purposely for two reasons. One, is to counter lead possible samu (just for safe measure). Second is, I can “scout” immediately his eternatus item and give ox hints “this is a slow koraidon” if he lead eternatus, then I can do outsmart things, and that’s how turn 1 goes:

The game is pretty much settled from this turn. Ox is doing all these early prediction because he has this habit to abuse others habit on playing “safe” on the early stage. But again, habit is always harmful as I said before especially against player knowing you very very well. Reasonably speaking, when you know a lot of your opponent due to you played a lot against your opp before, it should be the same vice versa. But ox basically doesn’t show any so he paid his price for his disrespect on opponent preparation. But on the other hand, I played way too conservative after the huge start. I carelessly clicked 2nd judgment on turn 4 which missed me a free kill on his doubling lando if I click ice beam to take out samu. On turn 7, as my +spe great tusk with bulk up is very close to sweeping, I didn’t tera fire immediately against zacian and missed an early chance to settle the game because by great tusk can bulk up and ox will need at least 2 mons sacking against it and I just cant lose with scarf korai still alive. At the end, I make a prediction on switch on turn 15 as this is 0% a scarf korai, teraing and SD in front of lando, and was lucky enough to sweep ox with a high enough roll on Ox’s landorus. I could have play the game in a more professional way to win much cleaner but oh well habit is hard to overcome lol. Big advantage = play conservative is a habit we all have and will need to overcome lol.
Kekkker大神打ox04這把可能屬於是典型的拿捏局。開局明知朱比毒龍慢，一個反讀直接把ox的速控打死，就後面kekkker的配置來說基本上毒龍一死遊戲就結束了。不過也是能看到kekkker也有其他大神都有的通病，那就是大優勢容易打的太保守，導致ox04激進操作之下還是換到了一線生機。不過kekkker一個起草再配合太晶劍舞，隨機數也roll的足夠高+1玩脫殺掉79%血土貓就順利清場了。
就我的角度而言，Ox04這種超級激進的玩法其實只要你研究和做好準備了就沒什麼好怕的。因為無論是激進，還是穩建，一旦過度就容易養成習慣，而習慣是比賽最大的敵人。像Ox這種雖然反常態但其實還是很規律的操作，只要你有所準備，很容易就能模擬他的心態猜到他的操作，這把kekkker大神雖然中局打的保守，但關鍵的開局和殘局都幾乎拿死了Ox04，挺精彩的一把。

Entrocefalo vs Darkshion
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-708133

Counter Gren lead HO vs sunnyday balance
The counter gren is pretty much a known tech so entro just flamecharge T1 which if it doesn’t crit, +1 speed koraidon could probably just sweep the game. But all in all, darkshion still almost throw his lead completely and also make its only ground type down to fartable and he just did not have any sense of keeping it, which directly lead to getting outtraded by scarf miraidon in the late game. Nothing more to say, the lead situation basically set the tone of the game completely. Darkshion should be seriously consider counter lead this game, instead of leading regularly.
反擊忍蛙自殺釘其實是個挺明牌的配置，所以entro開局小雞沖鋒其實差不多能殺爆shion半隊了，但不幸地在不該CT的地方CT導致朱被反擊了72%血(本來應該只反48%血)，失去了對攻能力，不過shion這邊始終還是白給了一個首發還要再賣隊裡唯一地面系地創，導致後期換子完全換不贏圍巾紫，屬於沒什麼好說的白給局。這把起碼shion應該積極考慮counterlead才對，對面畢竟是entrocefalo, 你玩定式隊還走定式打法那是嫌死得不夠快嗎?

Inder vs Taka
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-707347

This is the game where inder has the biggest argue with me throughout the whole upl. Looking at the mu, boots orge and agility bascu are looking really good but early hazard is need to disable ting lu.
Inder again showed how good he is on play in the early turns, which basically demonished taka’s half team by just leading orge and clicking all the correct move. However, on turn 5 he get a super robbing freeze which just lifted all pressure of orge to taka’s team. Inder’s quickly change the plan to hazard stacking with ting and lando, but at the time inder decided to trying sweep with tera fairy enamorus which I was disagreeing with him. But ngl, inder’s plan to win with scarf enamorus was also reasonable because what he need is just a choice miraidon miraidon. If I am inder, I wont even kill fluttermane there. I will probably healing wish there and revive kyorge, and then basculegion with tera is still extremely winnable there as taka’s koraidon cant come back anymore. Again inder take a reasonable path to gamble and unfortunately he met the worse case scenario.

這把是我事後分析跟inder吵的最厲害的一把。MU來看，鞋子海和高移鬼魚看上去都很不錯，早期鋪鋪釘應該很快就能殺完
然後Inder再一次展示了他超凡的前期技巧，通過每回合都點對技能直接重創了taka半隊和最重要的反雨手段圍巾朱，但第五回合一個不講理的冰凍凍住海皇導致inder的選擇肢被砍掉了8成，本來是可以靠鞋子海穩扎穩打拿下的變成必須提速堆釘打推隊。當然他也很成功，通過賣掉土貓成功讓taka一把釘子出不來+直接堆滿4層釘。不過inder這裡選擇簡單太仙眷戀云試圖清場，因為只要taka的紫不是高移紫/鞋子紫，inder基本上就殺完了，而老實說這個確實看上去不像是高移紫的隊伍，這這麼賭也無可厚非，只是賭就會有賭輸，這把taka就是個高移紫，直接反推了inder. 換作是我，我肯定會眷戀云治癒願望拉起海皇，就靠海皇和鬼魚加釘子打了，而且這樣打還保留了太晶，高移鬼魚要推隊的機會還是非常大的。隊是好隊，可惜運氣不太好。

[LouisIX]

Finals vs Choice bandits
DAHLI vs Shuwri
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-710865

DAHLI wins with ease in this game by using superior and modern sets comparing to shuwri. Speedy taunt tinglu is a huge pain for shuwri’s team as his defogger is giratina-O, which I said in the past weeks it is never winning hazard war against ting. Besides, shuwri team is weak to calm mind fairyceus by the preview as well. Throughout the game dahli is just super free to setup as many hazard as he wanted and all sets including solarbeam mirai and taunt cm fairyceus just beat shuwri completely on the supposing mu. honestly speaking, at the point dahli entered miraidon the game should be long gone for shuwri if this is agility miraidon (which I think this should be the only way of using solar beam miraidon). Anyway this is basically a superior prep from Dahli side and shuwri just lose by default.

Frito vs Inder
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-710547

Before the game I am strongly opposed to flutter mane. This mon is good against offense but generally not doing good against a make-sense balance. In SV ubers, when you decide to use a special attacker not named miraidon, you should have 100 solid reasons for that. You can see frito’s team is completely open for miraidon (especially electric seed DD or solar beam). I assume frito brought this team because inder really don’t like miraidon lol. The game was pretty expected: inder want to make use of his specs mane given frito whole team has no fairy resist but well… this is final man. You should be more careful and easily deduced that either kyogre or groudon will be spdef lmao, anyway he gave his mane on turn 2 for 70% of groudon’s hp. (calculate the damage of UT you should know this don bulk too.) same for frito, while also giving his mane on turn 5 just to chip steelceus. Though both flutter mane die in the first 5 turns of the game, I doubted that frito’s play is not very reasonable there. Your entire team is matchup steelceus supereffectively, why just waste flutter mane here? Moonblast is doing 19% (951.5/2 ~=70bp) so you can quickly workout mystical fire (752*1.5=225bp ~ 3 times of moonblast damage ~ 60% hp) damage is not killing there.
Given how frito team is so one-way orientated, inder’s scarf korai is likely to be sweeping. Unfortunately inder makes a mistake of clicking toxic on frito’s switch to rayquaza. If he calmly click recover then toxic, frito will have much less chance in this game, and the toxic caused inder to throw his toxapex too. Now the situation is very hard to inder on turn 9, where he has no dragon resist if not tera, and what frito needs to do is just putting koraidon as fast as possible and chip inder’s koraidon as fast as possible too. Frito makes an error on turn 10 where he clicked CM, (should just judgment /icebeam instead), and not going into koraidon immediately after inder switched into tinglu. Allowing inder to set up spikes means now frito loses the advantage on number of heads, and inder’s perfect rotation makes the game revert to his side after turn 17 where frito simply let groudon die (why not just hard groundy as you eventually need to do so to save groudon for later use??). Now frito has to aim for groundy cm trying to icebeam through a tera steel giratinaO before recover ran out, and inder’s crit eventually speed up the process and finally with inder’s extra evs on koraidon he lives a lowkick and revenge the standard jolly koraidon.
I am not very fine on the team choice of both side tbh. On frito side, he is using a groundy but no support to chip giratina or to make use of it besides flutter mane and he throw it at T5. No stealth rock as well in the team too. If I am frito, I would probably make use of orge (if this is a choice orge) at the beginning of the game instead of sending it in the very late game where he just lose hazard control after all his tinglu-threatening mon are gone.
On inder side, the toxic is really idk and I am sure he is awared of that too after the game. The fluttermane gift on turn 2 is basically unaware atall. Other than that, he played very very well in the late game and his play is the only reason he could win the disaster situation in late game. GG.

[LouisIX]

Entrocefalo vs guard
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-711247

Another entro out-preping opponent game lol. Guard using a traditional 3+3 team vs entro bulky offense. The mu is looking fine for both side but probably guard will face more pressure as entro possible triple physical overlord may outrun lando+steelceus quickly and kyorge generally mu well against most of guards team. btw guards team is ultra weak to ice beam / gravity groundy so I think this is also part of the strategy as they may bet entro wont bring the same trick again.
The lead is lando vs orge. Guard make a little choke there as by the ability time lando is faster so he should click UT. Anyway, he directly goes to koraidon and take a huge hit from ice beam. The damage probably gave guard an illusion on kyogre’s item as this is a full spa ice beam damage, so on turn 3 when both side doubles, guard thinks entro is impossible to bring two scarf, and stayed mirai infront of scarf lando. To this point entro is basically winning because all breaking mons from guard is down to fartable and not hazard control from guard side means eventually ekiller and orge will win the game. Guard thought he has chance and successfully set all layers of hazard but at the point entro reveals boots on orge the game is over. With the threat of scarf lando guard are forced to click outrage, but stealth rock makes its korai can only come once more and that means guard loses weather control. With entro keeping scarf lando for steelceus and tera fairy to lock koraidon, entro secure his win beautifully. Gg

Gondra vs Aberforth
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-711407

… no fairyceus switchin, are you serious aber you are one step away from getting 6-0 by cm stored power fairyceus
Notheless the typical ting vs gira happens again. But gondra is a super player he knows the mu is bad and go straight to tusk which is a very good play. Aber doesn’t have a spin blocker as well so at this point the situation is superhard for him and aber decided to make a gamble position with miraidon vs koraidon just clicked dclaw instead of going fairyceus. He succeed to click a CM and then tera grass solarbeam…
Again gondra is somehow aware of that and correctly sack giraO , what a god play there, and with aber did not aware of scarf tusk, mirai just die to scarf CC which pretty much set the tone of the game. Tbh , with gondra still have a toxapex, miraidon still has chances to do more instead of dying for a possible scarf but oh well I am commenting on a kibitzer aspect too so yeah won’t go too deep on the stay. Without tera, taunt cm fairyceus cant even outlast toxapex and with fairyceus+tusk+pex+katekeeper korai, aberforth can never breaks at the point miraidon is down, gg.