Week 3: To tie the division

As of the time of posting this, I'm closer in time to my next match (likely to take place this Thursday) than I am to last week's match, which now took place four days ago. Better late than never, though.

My match with Pac has been public for a while, so I feel comfortable spoiling the outcome—Somehow, the Klinks managed to pull off the win. It felt good to win an upset match (especially given that the only thing that predicted I would win was a damn coin flip). It felt even better given the sheer amount of hours I spent preparing for the match. The night before, I was going over my game plan—what to do if Nidoking switches in, how to scout and handle Ferrothorn, and so forth. And somehow, I couldn't ditch that one thought. "If I lose this, it's going to have been a whole lot of effort for nothing."

Well, I'm certainly glad it wasn't all for nothing.

Pac posted a few pieces this weekend with small tidbits about our match, including a quick, early quip in his week 4 preshow's introduction. I expect he'll be out to win it when the second round of division play comes around. I'm sure it'll be a fantastic match. For now, I'm just happy to have drawn first blood against a division rival, and I'm particularly happy to have denied him the sweep of division play, keeping my playoff hopes afloat early in the season.

Now, for the details:

• Prep-wise, Pac and I had a sort of arms race scenario. Both of us packed substantial threats to each others' teams. Nidoking packed powerful coverage that hit many of my team members hard, whilst sitting in a speed tier that made it unreachable to Gyarados and Heatran. Between Lycanroc and Diancie, I had speedy Rock STAB moves that threatened Weavile and Charizard X, two of Pac's most potent offensive threats. Ferrothorn was a hard stop to well over half of my team, but in its absence, no member of his team (bar Charizard) could switch in on STAB Grassy Terrain boosted Wood Hammers from Tapu Bulu. Trying to be prepared for anything and everything was a nightmare.
• I was a bit humiliated in the early game to have gone for a Volt Switch on such an obvious switch to Electivire. When I led with Rotom-W, I told myself that I would click Hydro Pump if he led with Fini or Blastoise. All it took to get that thought out of my head was being one turn away from the game's start. It was a fantastic move by Pac, allowing him to scout my Rotom set early on. I'm just happy I came to the conclusion on turn 3 that Electivire really couldn't threaten Rotom all that much, and that he would probably be at least a bit afraid of a Hydro Pump or a Will-o-wisp.
• This game came down to a handful of plays in the early-mid game, which I'd like to address individually: 
• If Bulu had been burned on the switch in to Blastoise, one of my most central win-cons would have been jeopardized. I held my breath until I saw the recovery from Grassy Terrain.
• After Rotom-W's HP Fire did next to nothing, I had to do my best to bait it to stay in. If I had sent out Heatran to revenge kill, Ferrothorn wouldn't have stayed in. Sending out Lycanroc, which was a threat to Swords Dance and start punching holes, helped bait the Ferrothorn into staying in, allowing me to get damage on it with a Tough Claws boosted Fire Fang. Again, I held my breath that it would KO. If it hadn't KOed, I'd have been in a much tougher position. That said, if Ferrothorn had survived, it would have been on its last legs, giving Diancie and Bulu free reign to wreak havoc. It would have also left me without Lycanroc's Accelerock, my primary offensive check to Weavile.
• Wacan Berry on Gyarados was for one purpose and one purpose only: catch Nidoking off-guard as it Thunderbolts, then KO with Waterfall. After Pac switched in Nidoking on Lycanroc, I switched out, fearing the possibility of Choice Scarf. Getting Gyarados in on Nidoking with no prior damage guaranteed Gyarados' survival. If I didn't run Wacan Berry on Gyarados, the game becomes much more difficult to win.
• In the absence of Ferrothorn and Nidoking, I was convinced I had the game clinched. All I had to do was protect Bulu at any cost, switch it in whenever possible, and click Horn Leech or Wood Hammer. Foddering Gyarados to Electivire's Volt Switch was one such move, allowing me to safely bring in Bulu and begin the process. Pac and I discussed a few hypotheticals in this end game, but in my opinion, his options were incredibly limited in the late game, and the match was pretty firmly mine to lose, even at a score of 4-4.
• It's possible that I could have gone 4-0 by just staying in on Electivire with Bulu and taking the Ice Punch, then healing back up with Horn Leech. The switch to Heatran was me acting on my game plan of protecting Bulu at all costs, even though it ended up being unnecessary. I wasn't ready for the possibility that Horn Leech wouldn't KO, and if I'm honest, I was afraid that Electivire got some kind of physical Poison coverage that I'd forgotten about.

That's all I've got this morning. While I was happy about the win, I fairly quickly rolled into prep for the next week. I play the Atlanta Rowlets this week in my first cross-division matchup. I'm going to be looking to keep my momentum going with a win against a team that's undoubtedly hungry for their first victory. I'll be back with more analysis this weekend!

To everyone in week 4: good luck with your matches! Show the other division who's boss!