Melbourne Battle Association: Week Three
Week Three vs New York Klefkis (Travis)
Hi guys,
As I got my battle done very early this week, it's time to update you with the results of my MBA Week 3 battle against another newcomer to the league, the New York Klefkis - you may recognise Travis from my Audition Battle to become a coach of the league. You can find the results both by scrolling through this post, or in the League's Google Doc.
Firstly, here is New York's squad.
| Scizor |
| Landorus-T |
| Latios |
| Darmanitan |
| Mandibuzz |
| Dragalge |
| Rotom-Mow |
| Sigilyph |
| Omastar |
| Mismagius |
| Volbeat |
| Xatu |
The first thing I noticed was the extremely strong offensive options combined with multiple good ways to clear hazards on this team. Darmanitan in particular had potential to be a good revenge killer and late game sweeper with its damage potential, so while hazards weren't too strong here, I still wanted ways to blunt Darmanitan's attack. Here were my notes:
Bisharp is nice. Latias has a few potential issues in Latios, Scizor, Lando-T, Dragalge – can get around scizor with hp fire.
Watch out for Psycho Shift on Sigilyph. Arcanine likes this team a bit if it can hang around. Mandibuzz pretty threatened by Bisharp when it comes to Defog, Latios even more so. Keldeo sort of ok if can switch in safely. Accelgod can pick off many dudes/significantly dent them, and can also lol @ Latios.
Keldeo's best two moves are Scald + Icy Wind - Secret Sword doesn't do a lot.
Not much weak to my web as either flying or already slow.
Malamar ok after some boosts.
The good thing about Landorus-T was that it could only run one set, and I know the advantages and disadvantages of its offensive and defensive sets. Additionally, Darmanitan could only run one of Life Orb or Choice Scarf, and I knew I could exploit that once I had scouted its set. Much of the opposing team was frail, particularly if Mandibuzz wasn't brought, and much was potentially weak to ice type coverage.
With that in mind, here was the team I brought (interesting points in bold):
Little Big Horn (Keldeo) @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Calm Mind
- Icy Wind
- ScaldSky Rocket (Latias) @ Latiasite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 104 SpA / 76 Spe
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Dragon PulseWebslinger (Galvantula) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Compound Eyes
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sticky Web
- Thunder
- Bug Buzz
- Volt Switchwowsuchdoge (Arcanine) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Flare Blitz
- Will-O-Wisp
- CrunchDark Knight (Bisharp) @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Taunt
- Stealth RockChuckles (Shuckle) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Encore
- Infestation
- Rest
Season Team Caps: 3 - Keldeo, Latias, Bisharp, Arcanine, Galvantula; 2 - Shuckle; 1 - Claydol
As mentioned before, due to the opposing weakness to ice moves, and relatively good ability to take fighting moves, I put Icy Wind on Keldeo. I still felt that the Sub+CM set was good, and that Icy Wind would be better than HP ice because of its ability to drop speed on fast threats, like Latios, enabling me to beat them from a stronger defensive position.
Latias ran HP Fire because I felt that it didn't really need psychic coverage, as there were no dragon resists on the opposing side, and I needed another good way to beat Scizor besides Arcanine. The Calm Mind+Recover set was otherwise kept because of its ability to stay around and clean up teams.
Galvantula had Volt Switch over something like Thunder Wave just because I didn't feel like I would be able to make use of Thunder Wave very well, with the option to pivot out probably better if Galvantula didn't have much to do.
Because of the amount of Psychic types on the opposing team, I put Crunch on Arcanine, but also decided to run a Leftovers set with Wil-O-Wisp as I needed good ways to slow down opposing physical attackers, with the exception of Darmanitan, which I felt confident of the 1v1 matchup against.
Bisharp was given Stealth Rocks and Taunt, as Dark Type coverage seemed enough, and I wanted a way to keep Rocks up to get switch pressure happening. I also wanted to stop set up or potential status infliction, so I figured I'd go for that. In hindsight, someting like Iron Head would have been fine too, and maybe Swords Dance, but I felt like it wouldn't be a big deal.
I put Shuckle in the last slot, and didn't opt for the full troll set, although I think I could have made that work. Again, Stealth Rocks were viewed as useful, and Encore was run for allowing Shuckle to annoy status setters and allow me safe switches out to set up potentially good field position for guys like Keldeo and Latias.
Key Moments:
What I thought to be a strange choice to switch Darmanitan in to Xatu allowed for my opponent to reflect back my Stealth Rocks, much to my chagrin, but Bisharp was able to come in and KO it quickly to help my case for hazards for the rest of the match, with Scizor and Latios the only other way of keeping hazards off New York's side of the field, but both needing to sacrifice an attacking turn to do so. Shuckle was unfortunately KO'd by Latios after getting rocks up, but Bisharp was again able to come in and KO this potential threat on a Sucker Punch prediction, giving me a 5-4 lead. Fortunately Latios had lost enough health, as well as having lackluster physical bulk, to allow Bisharp an easy KO through reflect, although it did land a critical hit for good measure.
With Scizor switching in on Bisharp, Arcanine scared away Scizor to force a double switch, and eventually took Landorus-T down with it thanks to a Wil-O-Wisp burn and New York's preference for using Toxic rather than landing the obvious Earthquake KO on Arcanine until it was too late. Knowing that Latias could still handle Scizor allowed me to not be too upset at trading Arcanine for Landorus-T, as that guy can be a bit of a bugger to take down otherwise. Galvantula was then sacrificed to find out that Darmanitan was indeed Choice Scarfed, letting me formulate a plan of attack against it. involving taking advantage of the move it would lock in to. Latias' Hidden Power Fire soon came in handy as Darmanitan switched out in to Scizor, but an Assault Vest on the opposing Dragalge meant that Latias couldn't pick up a KO at +1 after taking the time to use calm mind earlier. Rather than risk losing Latias to a critical hit, I allowed it to finish off Dragalge, then had to sacrifice it to Darmanitan to allow Bisharp to pick up the final KO of the battle with Sucker Punch and give me a solid 2-0 win.
Keldeo was disappointed to not have anything much to do this battle aside from needlessly switch in to a Flare Blitz, its second quiet week in a row, but this did mean I had a decent amount in reserve for the end game if need be as it still matched up well if it could earn a free switch in - sometimes the threat posed by a Pokemon is enough for it to be useful even if it isn't needed to actually win the battle.
Team Golden Fist
Week Three: 3 - Bisharp, 2 - Latias, 1 - Arcanine
Overall: 6 - Bisharp; 4- Keldeo, Arcanine; 2 - Latias; 1 - Shuckle
Team MVP Votes:
Week Three: 3 - Bisharp, 2 - Latias, 1 - Shuckle
Overall: 7 - Bisharp; 3 - Keldeo, Arcanine; 2- Latias, Shuckle; 1 - Claydol
Art by zerochan. Check out their work at http://www.zerochan.net/
Season Results:
Week 3: 2-0 WIN vs New York Klefkis (Replay)
Week 2: 4-0 WIN vs Blackburn (Replay)
Week 1: 3-0 WIN vs Wildwood (Replay)
Vs Tullamarine Auras (Ethan)
| Dragonite |
| Talonflame |
| Lopunny |
| Lucario |
| Sceptile |
| Forretress |
| Rhyperior |
| Eelektross |
| Medicham |
| Ludicolo |
| Skuntank |
| Torkoal |
While the Auras are 0-3 to start the season, their team is full of powerful threats that can get out of hand if given any room to set up, so in the between now and next week I will need to think long and hard about how to stop said threats and make good use of my own in order to keep up my good start to the season.
