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Yo, what's up, PO, it is ThatIsWhatSheSaid here, bringing you a match between ZoroDark and Thatsjustpeachy,
facing off in what was actually the round of sixteen of the Offical Smogon Tournament.
The battle was held in the post-Genesect ban, BW2 OU metagame, and it was game three of a series tied at one game a piece.
It's a really well played battle featuring some really cool sets and absolutely comes down to the wire so you guys are in for a treat.
Let's take a look at the team preview, here.
ZoroDark is using Hail offense comprised of Landorus-Therian, Kyurem, Starmie Abomasnow, Latias, and Heatran.
Peachy, on the other hand, is using a team of Celebi, Tyranitar, Scizor, Landorus,
Keldeo, and Latias which at least at first glance appears to be a fairly standard balanced Sand team,
but as you'll see, she uses several unconventional sets to great effectiveness here.
For ZoroDark, the key appears to be breaking through with his dragons, Kyurem and Latias,
since Peachy's only Steel, Scizor, can easily be worn down because it has no reliable recovery.
Peachy, on the other hand, will need to win the hazard battle.
She's got two potential Pursuit trappers in Scizor and Tyranitar
so if she can get ZoroDark's spinner Starmie out of the way, she'll be able to keep rocks up
which will greatly hinder ZoroDark weather inducer and abuser, Abomasnow and Kyurem, both of whom are Stealth Rock weak.
So let's get on into it, shall we?
ZoroDark is going to lead off with his Landorus-Therian probably trying to get up rocks ASAP since
Peachy doesn't have a spinner
but Peachy is going to go ahead and lead off with Tyranitar
and get up that Sandstorm
Now, ZoroDark, not wanting to risk the Ice Beam, is going to scout for it and
go out into Heatran
but unfortunately for ZoroDark, Peachy lands a freeze on that Heatran
which is really going to inhibit its ability
to switch in throughout this match.
Next turn, Peachy goes for the Superpower and hits Heatran for some decent damage
and then switches out into Keldeo which is going to force this Heatran out,
since ZoroDark won't want to let a Calm Mind variant set up all over his frozen Heatran.
Peachy, predicting a switch into either
Latias or Starmie,
is going to double switch out into Scizor
and this next turn is pretty important. ZoroDark is going to stay in predicting probably a Banded
Pursuit
as Peachy shows that it
is - her Scizor is a Scarf variant and hits Starmie for some hefty damage
as
Peachy U-Turns out into Celebi to take the Scald.
Zoro's going to have chance a Recover in on Celebi to get Starmie back to
reasonable health
but Peachy just goes right back out into her Scarf Scizor
and then showing some more impeccable prediction, Peachy goes for the Pursuit, as Zoro switches out
landing a crit that may have mattered, depending on the damage roll
but knocking out Starmie for a 6-5 lead
and now without his spinner, Zoro's going to have to be careful
because if he lets Peachy get rocks up,
Abomasnow and Kyurem are both going to be taking significant damage every time they switch in.
Now ZoroDark's luck is going to turn around a little bit as Heatran does thaw out
and nails Tyranitar with a burn on the switch
Peachy, predicting the Earth Power, is going to go out into Landorus
and Zoro's going to bring out
his Latias, which is a pretty solid counter to the Sheer Force variant of Landorus.
Peachy is going to go out into her
Scizor, which is probably her best check for
Latias at the moment, but
ZoroDark shows it is the Calm Mind variant which is a pretty big threat to Peachy's team, now that
Tyranitar is burned.
Peachy goes for the obvious U-turn with Scarf
Scizor as ZoroDark just recovers back up to full health
and Peachy's going to show yet another unconventional set
in Flame Orb Latias
which is going to go for the Draco Meteor as
Zoro recovers again
so Peachy is looking to be in a bit of a hole against this Latias
but she's able to Trick the
Flame Orb onto that Latias
to get some more passive damage which, coupled with Sandstorm and Scizor's U-turn,
should be enough to prevent a sweep.
Zoro recovers back up to full health
as
Peachey switches out back into her Scarf Scizor, but
Zoro's going to realize here that
his Latias will be worn down soon enough due to the
U-turns and Flame Orb and Sandstorm damage, so.
Zoro goes for the Dragon Pulse as
Peachy goes out into her Latias, and Zoro is able to net a KO there.
So the game is tied at five apiece, but
Peachy is able to go back out into Scizor
and go for that guaranteed Pursuit KO for the 5-4 lead.
Zoro does get the switch advantage here and goes out into Landorus-Therian to finally
get up rocks
while Peachy goes back out into Tyranitar,
so we've got the same matchup that we did at the beginning of the game,
but this time ZoroDark is going to risk staying in, but
Peachy
breaks him
yet again and shows max Speed to outspeed the Landorus
and hit it with Ice Beam.
Landorus manages to just barely tank it and is able to KO Tyranitar in return but not
after losing a major chunk of health.
Peachy brings in her water pony
and Zoro really has no safe switch-ins for Keldeo so he just fodders
off Landorus
and goes out into Kyurem.
ZoroDark does show Scarf on Kyurem and is able to outspeed the Keldeo, firing
off a Draco Meteor
that Keldeo lives with
2% and is able to hit Kyurem with a
Secret Sword before dying to Sandstorm
which brings the Kyurem
down to 3% after Sandstorm damage.
Peachy goes out into Scarf Scizor again and predicting the switch yet
again, nails yet another Scizor KO
with Pursuit. ZoroDark does take the switch initiative here to go back out into Heatran
and then, probably predicting a switchout into Landorus,
is going to double switch out into Abomasnow but
Peachy instead goes out into Celebi, so depending on ZoroDark's
Abomasnow set, this could be a pretty favorable matchup for him
but he ends up showing a
lack of Blizzard as he just goes for the Ice Shard
which hits Celebi for 28% which isn't even enough to 2HKO
as Celebi just finally gets up the rocks which,
remember, that's going to greatly inhibit the
Abomasnow's ability to switch in. Now
Peachy's going to go for the Hidden Power Fire, but Zoro predicts this, brings out his Heatran and is able
to get a
Flash Fire boost.
Peachy really has no good switch-ins for the Flash Fire-boosted
Lava Plume so he just goes for Recover
with Celebi, but
Heatran
hits it for 61%, and Peachy realizes she's fighting a losing battle here
and just tries to get off as much damage as possible with Giga Drain before losing
Celebi.
So with two Pokémon each,
predictions are becoming more and more important,
but Peachy does have the switch advantage,
is able to bring in Landorus.
ZoroDark predicts the Earth Power, goes out into Abomasnow which threatens out
Landorus with Ice Shard
and then nails yet another prediction
and goes for Leech Seed
which hits Scizor on the switch.
So now we've got Abomasnow and Scizor, two Pokémon left each
and Abomasnow goes for the Protect as Scizor
goes for Superpower, and
here's where things get interesting.
ZoroDark's going to go for the double protect here and if he nails it,
Scizor will be at low enough health
where Zoro can fodder off Heatran, bring back in Abomasnow, Protect again
and finish off both Scizor and
Landorus with Ice Shard
but if the double Protect fails, Peachy will be able to finish
Zoro off, so
here's the Protect, the 50-50 that will determine the outcome of the game
and it fails, leaving Scizor to finish off Abomasnow
So now the game's
2-1 in Peachy's favor but it's pretty much a determined thing
so
Zoro goes back out into Heatran which is able to take a Superpower
from the Scizor and
knock out the Scizor in return, so
but this is all a formality at this point, because
Landorus will be able to come back in and clean up for a 1-0 victory for Peachy. So yeah,
great game on both ends. Both players played excellently.
As a player, I hate it when my matches come down to a 50-50, but as a fan of the game
it really makes for a riveting watch, so
I hope you enjoyed this battle as much as I did
I hope you enjoyed my narration. This was my first narration so constructive criticism is
more than welcome.
Go ahead and leave a comment, and if you liked it, like, comment, subscribe. That is it
for me. I am ThatIsWhatSheSaid and I am out of here. Peace.