Welcome back to another episode of our Pokemon VGC 2019 battle series We are back here again today Thursday and kicking off again with this Raikou team that we played on Monday and Tuesday this week I had a bit of a fun episode yesterday where we introduced Tarana Tart to this call and see how it got on And it was an incredible episode if you've missed yesterday's episode definitely go back up there I'll put a card in you can check that out But we're gonna get back into it today with the Raikou that's been doing so well from the start of the week And hopefully you're looking forward to it as much as I am But before we get into it just to remind you guys if you enjoy this sort of content Make sure you do drop a like on the video make sure you subscribe to the channel So you don't miss any of these daily battle series that we have out our guide series A flinch wood circuit and a stream of plots and all sorts of other stuff that we have coming out But we'll get straight into it hop on to the battle spot letter. Hopefully it doesn't take too long to find an opponent We'll get some music on There we go, that's right. It's right and we'll pick a track And we had an incredible match against Juan yesterday from Spain at the end the episode on so I'd highly recommend going to watch that Really solid team really high high level play from Juan so and Just shut down our options super super well and made it very difficult for us to kind of pilot the Pokemon that we brought Hindsight we could have brought different Pokemon, but you know hindsight is a beautiful thing And you can't go back We are searching for our first opponent if it does take a little bit too long I will cut this and we'll come straight back to when we find our first opponent of the day So we've got our first opponent of the episode and it's gonna be ZG and they are playing a team of let's get into team preview You guys we are gonna see the Zornius incinero among us lunala tapu lele and the katana So a really nice test for our team today going up against us and the Zornala team are loons There's not another way to say it is there, but yeah We know what this is all about the Zornius gonna be trying to set up the lunala supporting with it's just crazy Powerful potential Z move that it's got there And then potentially psych up as well You've got the support options there with your moongus with the three direction Spore support you've got the incinero with its intimidate fake out support the tapu lele Gonna prevent fake out support and really support a lunala as well with its psychic type attacks And then the katana around and things off there for my product, but you're giving them a steel type to utilize as well Questions questions questions that we've got and incinero is gonna be super good for us here Just because of the lunala the katana intimidate there is gonna be very useful as well I'm gonna bring Raikou because it's it's built for this sort of matchup a hundred percent. I'm gonna bring so go Leo and I think taboo Finney here will bench the zygote for this one and they will rely on these four So we'll get into it and we'll just wait for my opponent to make their selections here I think so go Leo in this match is gonna be really important for us Especially with that psychic terrain Potentially the tapu lele come to this match to support the so go Leo at least with Raikou as well If we go for that combination and have snarl and then does he move into the lunala? We'll be able to handle it pretty pretty well And but it's gonna be all about making sure that we're preserving So go Leo for that late game when the zonius is likely gonna be set up We've got the snarl early game that we can make use of with that Raikou And we are gonna see the katana lunala lead off for my opponent So we've got that we've got that pretty free turn now just to snarl with the Raikou go for the fake out into the Katana or probably see the lunala protect the incinerole come in for my opponent on the katana side It makes me want to switch out Incinerole here at least you turn into the katana and not go for a fake out and just go for that snarl with our Raikou Because I totally expect my opponent just to protect the lunala here And then yeah, like I say switching the the incinerole on the katana slot So they've got the intimidate there They've got the fake out support going into the next turn to let and give that lunala a little bit more room to operate So we're seeing katana switch out tabu lele gonna come in gonna try and actually avoid any fake out Support here. So we might see the lunala protect again, but Yeah, we do. Okay, that's fine. We'll get the snarl onto the tabu lele, which I mean is is perfectly Exactly what we want to be doing we keep the incinerole in the back as well We'll get some a little bit of chip onto the lele, which is always useful here We'll get the u-turn into that tabu lele We've got the option now to bring in soga leo or we can just change the terrain Which I feel more inclined to do and because then we've got the icy wind support We take away the psychic terrain as well, which is weakening the lunala even further We'll probably see the lunala switch out this next turn as well You've got to imagine Probably wanting to avoid any snarl damage From this riku that we're going to throw out this turn because we're just going to go straight for it again I think another icy wind from Teppofini here and we'll just go for another snarl here and just keep that pressure on my opponent's side of the field Make them and force them out and force them to switch things in to get hit by icy winds So we're taking advantage of it. We're going to see a thunderbolt though come out from the tabu lele Not something you see too often here is revealing its scarf But we're going to be able to reduce its attack down break that shadow shield on the lunala And reduce further reduce that tabu lele special attack again So it really helps us set up that next board the next turn board position wise We're going to see the z move come out from this lunala Where is it going to be into but again, we're going to have to cut this scene guys So we'll be back when it does make contact with its target It is going to be into the tabufini here We should be able to take it with the snarl. This should just proc a berry for us Yep, just putting this in that berry range Lovely and we're in a nice position to get this icy wind off this next turn And really start making some progress in this battle because we know the cartanas in the back If the cartana switches in takes a snarl it takes an icy wind It's going to be in a real awkward position going into the next turn If the zernia switches in it's going to take an icy wind a snarl And then it'll take a double snarl before I can get a geomancy off And we can just continually do this until we really wear down this team And make an opening for suga leo to come in once that lunala is gone suga leo can come in and just really quite easily clean this game up for us today So um once again ryku doing so much work for us already in this game Game's not over by any means, but we we've got to feel quite good about where we are and position wise right now. So See what my opponent does the switching the lunala out Which a lot of sense cotana coming back in I can say what's happening though is we're gonna get this Icy wind off this snarl off bake a potential sash on the cotana reveal that it's not a salt vest as well So it probably is sash it's going to be slower than our ryku going into this next turn another thunderbolt coming out from the tapu Lele um as we get this icy wind now And do some nice damage and that cotana should be in snarl range Probably not um thunderbolt range um going into this next turn But again, we can just go for another icy wind And we don't really worry too much about this tapu lele here And we'll just go for a thunderbolt into the cotana that will pick up the knockout there does give my opponent free switching to potentially a zernius here Um But again, we've got the snarl that we can really make it take advantage of and we've got a great switch into Sogaleo if we want to at any point and because tapu finish out on the field now We won't take the tapu lele. Oh, we do take the tapu lele down very nice Single target icy wind very strong very strong. Okay, uh, lunala is going to come back in a shadow shield broken Um, the zernius is going to come probably in pairing up alongside that There's always the side cup. We've got to be a little bit wary of um But if we can icy wind snarl it and just keep this pressure up on my opponent It makes it a lot easier for when sogaleo comes onto the field to really deal with that zernius that it's there to do in this team So again, we'll go for the icy wind and this turn we will go for another snarl Means the zernius is only on plus one plus one going into this next turn Um, and like I say Raiku can take a plus one moonblast from a boosted zernius So, uh, it's just about getting this snarl off onto these two pokemon There's a snarl that doesn't miss that's so important. We get nice damage onto this lunala Reduce the special attack on both targets. Um, I wonder if they just chase down attack-wise I would say I'd go for the jamancy here though. Yeah, we might see the side cup Which wouldn't be great for us at all. Um, I really wouldn't Because it does cause a few issues But we still have incinerole. We still have incinerole. So it's not the end of the world Moonguest beam not going to see the side cup. This is fine. Where's this into tapu finny or Raiku? Yeah, into that Raiku. It's all threatening. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense And we'll get the icy wind. So while out speed the lunala going into this next turn, which is nice, um We have to be a bit careful around the zernius though. That's the other that's the big problem Um, I think what I'll do is just protect Raiku here And go for another icy wind because if we can get another icy wind onto this zernius It means Raiku out speeds at the next turn then we can snarl it Definitely take an attack from this zernius. Um, and we probably now have the lunala as well If we can get just the icy wind off with the tapu finny here, so we'll protect Raiku Hopefully the zernius chases it down. We can blast into that slot. Perfect Like I say, we're gonna get this icy wind off even if that lunala goes for the side cup now It's not gonna really gain anything because we'll out speed it with our Raiku Be able to potentially take it down the next turn potentially I don't know. There's just a moon guys beam into that slot chasing the Raiku down and Raiku is running the show um I mean what we'll do as well We'll go for a heal pulse into our Raiku just to heal off any any damage from this This zernius here. We'll go for another snarl and like I say this this resets the geomancy boosts and um We couldn't really ask for a better example of why Right the Raiku's in this team and what it's here to do because it's just doing it like absolutely flawlessly here Um, it really is the geomancy boosts gone from the zernius now. It's got that special defensive boost It's not got its speed boost. I'm gonna see the moon blast into it And um, we're just opening the door now for the soga layer to come in So you would take that pretty comfortably get a special attack drop a little bit unfortunate there Proc this berry that'll get all that nice juicy health back And then the heal pulse on top of that putting Raiku my opponent's probably cursing Raiku right now thinking What can I do to get rid of it? You need groudon my friend groudon does a pretty decent job against it. Um, but So now we can just bring in soga layer and um, I like I say we can just continually go for these snarls And just to keep pressuring this this zernius, but I feel like yeah, there's the forfeit It's a very good game to my opponent, but like I say What a beautiful way for us to feature that Raiku I mean if you talk about like one pokemon being there specifically for a certain matchup that we struggled with It's so hard before And it does it so well at least alleviate it. It's such a good answer for it. And it does so well Um, really great to just be able to feature this on the channel Honestly, um, it really is nice to feature this sort of thing when when it goes right It's perfect because so many times these these things that you test out go wrong And then you know, you're never able to actually put them into motion I like in an episode. So just being able to do it's really nice We will look for our next opponent and hopefully it doesn't take too long And it doesn't so we've got win more from the united states on 16 27 rating playing a team off Let's get into it. This might be a bit more difficult this one We've got lunala groudon incinero tapu finny stack attacker and serena So we got that kind of tagged on incinero serena And uh stack attacker core there. I'm pretty sure this is very similar to the team alex under here Ran at collinsville and came in second place with it. So it's going to be a really good test I Is it going to be trick room lunala to support the groudon? You've definitely got a trick room out there with the stack attacker could also be can't discount Maybe possible tailwind there. Um riku has a bit of a harder time in this match But zygote has a real good time in this match. I think incinero does really well We need to probably bring incinero for sure for the intimidate support And we can't fake out remember that the serena is there. So we can't be so willy nilly We're just throwing that around. Um, I think I will bring riku the the reflect support here is going to be really good Especially the the snarl support as well that we can offer from both incinero and riku But that reflect that we can get up really going to help us against the groudon the stack attacker And specifically that's serena. I'm going to go zygote and then tapu finny here and then um, I think we can lock in pretty safely So good luck to win more and he's got all these karma or gear on looking looking Dapper as you are my friend that karma or armor. I still love it. You know, I've seen it so many times, but I'm always like It's just it's it's a good outfit. It's a solid choice of outfit for your avatar Right, let's get into it riku. Can we do it once again lunala incinero Perfect, let's see where the intimidates Rock up see some speed tiers here for ourselves There's the pressure And that in two minutes so we can potentially we can potentially Fake out that opposing incinero But do we do it like they probably switch out Into groudon Which makes me want to you turn on it But if they don't and they fake out riku and we get z moved gg So we can't afford to allow that to happen. So we've got to fake out the incinero And just go for a snarl The groudon comes in will adjust next turn Okay, okay, that's fine. We don't we don't we stop that that's good We get the snarl off into the lunala get some nice damage onto it really stop pressuring it like we did in that last game critical hit A bit unfortunate, but we're gonna make too much difference. So what if we see z move here? And there's the trick room trick room, okay That's fine That's completely fine. We do not mind that at all the lunales feeling super pressured here um, what we're gonna do is get our reflect up to kind of Patch up any any weaknesses going into this next game. I'm gonna u turn as well with our incinero onto the opposing incinero Um, and I'm just gonna keep riku in just to get this reflect up It's gonna be really important if we see this groudon come in and these next couple of turns Lunala gonna switch out. We are going to see tap of finny hit the field It's exactly like what we're wanting to do, but we don't need to bring enough finny now. We can bring in as I got Just kind of interesting person incinero goes for the u turn. Where you going my friend? Where are you going? Into groudon, I'd imagine There's big bad groudon Okay This is all right. We'll get the reflect up in some point for us right now It really is I've got the u turn off get a bit of chip damage into this groudon, which is like I say super important for us And um, we'll get zygarde in Yeah, I mean we're just gonna do it pretty much and with the reflect With the misty sea boost, I mean We're sitting pretty pretty nice right now We can get incinero in the next turn. So we've got the fake out pressure Um, and I think do I go coil on just a thousand hours? I think just get some damage off onto stuff. I think that is the way forward We'll get incinero back in right now We don't need to rely on incinero as much in this match because we've got the snarl on the riku They can deal quite nicely with that lunala late game once the trick room ended It's all about just supporting our as I got right now If the incinero decides to come in it's going to take a thousand hours. That's why I want to punish it And I see a gravity. Okay. Well, I don't mind that too much Unless this is like banded groudon, which could be a little bit awkward, but the reflect then will be really helping us out Uh, yeah, I mean, yeah, that does some big damage to incinero not so much to um a zygarde But we are able to get this thousand hours off, which is which is really nice Um and do some uh, not great damage. We need to get our finny and get swagger off Um, okay, let's get another thousand hours underway and let's get tapu finny in now We've got to worry about icy wind as well with the finny But I mean if it does start icy winding as I got We're just gonna be better in trick room. So I don't know if they're gonna do that I'm niches madness could definitely be the thing that comes out You never know. You might see a tapu finny. This could have moon blasts could have moon blasts. Definitely could Heal pulse that's fine because we're gonna start doing that ourselves, but we're gonna swagger first before we do anything else Uh, there's another prismus blades the gravity doing all the work here not gonna miss not gonna take any Chances, but this is perfect because we're gonna get a Complete form going into this next turn. We'll just keep chipping away with zygarde. We're not in any any well critical hit. Wow Critical hitting it does that much damage. That's ridiculous, isn't it? I mean it just shows the reliance on zygarde how reliant it is on the On the swagger boosting and the coils and stuff like that. It really really does depend on it quite heavily Um, we'll go for another thousand arrows and we'll go for a swagger here into the zygarde So it's got gravity It's got heel pulse. It's definitely got niches madness What else has got icy wind icy wind I would say maybe haze I don't know if you need haze in this team though. You got stack attacker to kind of deal. Oh, there it is. Wow Hokey dog There's the haze we're gonna get the thousand hours off Not proc the berry on the finny, which is nice Again the prismus blades this reflect here is gonna help us To no end There's the berry on the finny. Look at the swagger. It does hit. This is perfect Now if the dimensions seem back to normal that would be ideal Perfect here we go back in the game boys back in the game because we can take this finny down now We'll add speed everything we can heal pulse as zygarde and really start sweeping through and maybe get as zygarde sweep this game Which would be perfect because we haven't had a complete zygarde domination yet There we are plus two. I don't expect the plus two to take down this groudon But anything switching in here is going to take a massive chunk of damage from this plus two um thousand hours And like I say, we're going to be able to heal pulse first And we will be able to out speed this type of finny. So it's fine. I mean in senor coming in That's fine as well. It's going to take a massive chunk of damage. It's got obviously Intimidates above going to this next turn, but we've still got our in senor on the back And we still got our reflect up as well for at least one more turn. I believe The groudon actually out speeds as zygarde. He's taking some big damage there. We'll get at least a thousand hours off at least plus one Just missing the knockout on that in senor does proc the berry, of course And the sunlight does fade now reflect war off Okay There's a better to No, I think we need to keep our heal pulse if we can if we can keep the heal pulse. It would be very useful for us um Yeah, because yeah, I think this is the best thing. I think we get in senor in we probably lose in senor now um Does the opposing in senor go for you to know it's really risky doing it You're kind of banking on us protecting um Because we could just thousand hours. I think you've got a fake out and precipice blades here I really do But the end position that we want to try and get ourselves in if this groudon goes down is get Raikou next to this zygarde. So we've got that snarl support against the potential Lunalo and it comes back in So get the intimidate onto the groudon, which is the most important thing here We're gonna just protect zygarde avoiding any fake out support here Means the in senor staying in so if we do go down to a precipice blades, which we we probably will here I don't suspect from the original damage when we switched in we'll probably go down yeah and um I think what we'll do is get Raikou in right now Because we can reflect once again And I think both both targets now are in range to go down to A thousand hours plus one thousand hours. Yeah, we're gonna take groudon and in senor down one fell swoop One fell swoop So we'll go for that thousand hours although It's a little bit risky because we're sliding the groudon with zygarde, which is a little bit Awkward and we need Raikou to deal with the lunalo well enough. So I think We're probably better off protecting Raikou Yeah, at least one turn we need to keep the raikou. Let's not rush ourselves into this one Um, and yeah, my opponent's setting up the end game where they're potentially gonna try and get in senor in next to the lunalo But we've still as long as we've got one pokemon in the back We can switch out to reposition to get raikou back in and get around this fake out abuse that we're gonna see Potentially come now we're gonna see groudon throw out another precipice blades Critical hit that could have been so so bad for us like really bad for us We're not actually gonna get the groudon either, which is really frustrating Critical hit not good lunalo comes in now If lunalo comes in I don't mind this because we just snarl the groudon goes down to snarl It has to be the incinerole has to be It has to be And we can just double fit. We can't protect with with raikou though. That's the only issue It's gonna be lunalo. Okay This is fine So fine so fine um I mean we'll cover the groudon just in case the snarl misses and we'll go for that snarl Because the lunalo isn't isn't beating raikou. No chance My opponent knows we've got extreme speed as well. So it's likely they protect groudon here I'll withdraw it. I mean, yeah, keep it for later on. We're gonna see another trick room setup But again, if we get another snarl off Okay, that's fine. We don't see the trick room set up just yet So my opponent's gonna make a call next turn whether they want to see Okay, I mean my opponent's playing this really well to kind of keep themselves in it here The critical hit onto zygarde was not ideal at all There we've got finny in the back, which isn't really what we need especially to stop this trick room going up um It's a thousand hours And I think we need to really Prepare for for the late game with I mean if zygarde goes down here though Then we we pretty much lose against groudon So we need to protect zygarde more than anything else and try and get a reflect up Or a snarl It's really difficult. I think the reflect Overall is probably better for us We're not going to be able to stop this trick room now and the fake out probably comes into zygarde Now it's into raikou. We could have attacked. Ah hindsight. Yeah, there's a trick room Okay The problem is for my opponent they cannot they cannot just switch in groudon at any point right now um Weakened thousand hours Although incineroar probably ticks zygarde down That's the problem um Yeah, we should have went for the reflect I mean we did go for the reflect so we can only snarl here. We can only snarl The groudon switches in though Okay We'll get the groud this might be the time where the groudons like you have I think you have to you can't guarantee taking the raikou down Unless you've got the z move here Because we can't we can't we didn't snarl it It probably takes us down and this is really good game plan planning for my opponent like really good game planning Yeah, yeah, I mean you've got to just take your hat off to my opponent here. They've played it so well um The crit I will say Definitely didn't help. No. No, that's it. That's it. Yeah So the raikou going down That's the game for us. Unfortunately Because finny has not got Has not got protect so we cannot even stall out these turns and with how low health we are Um, it's just a little bit unfortunate Like I said though The one problem with this whole thing was really There was that crit from the p blades from the the minus one groudon I think it was still behind a reflect as well Um, which put zygode into a position. It should have never really been in but Besides the fact of that my opponent's played it so well Um, so we cannot we cannot have any qualms about how the games ended up Um, and it's just the the team's been piloted extremely well Um, so um, it's really nice seeing a team piloted so well. So very good game to my opponent We're going to see the moon guys beam into the tapu finny to take us down But what a great game for us to feature today guys. What a great game I hope you've all enjoyed it. It has been a fun one being intense one to play It has really has Um, but it's been a lot of fun all the same and very good game to my opponent win more good game my friend And uh, what a close game just that time. We're not going to complain about rng We're not going to complain It would have been nice to see without it But uh, because I think it wouldn't have I don't think it made the difference Like that crit obviously did make a big difference But I don't know how it would have ended up the game overall Um, you still have the z move on luna. So there's still a lot of things to kind of compensate for and deal with On my opponent's end of the field. So we can't just say oh if you did didn't crit us there We we would have won. It's not the case. It's really it really isn't I think like we need to think it would have been a lot closer than it was and it was close anyway So, um, anyway, we're not going to talk about the rng anymore. It was just really fun I hope you guys have enjoyed it. We're going to end it up there. Have a great day guys Whatever you're up to whatever time of day it is and I will see you all for a round up with this team tomorrow Which is a little bit sad, but we're going to finish up tomorrow with the team and say goodbye to our good old friend Saigon and so go there. It's been a really good ride. So until then take care of yourselves and Bye