Won in 3 GGs vs Ticken, thanks for the fun games! Always an honour playing you, was so weird prepping for threat games without you helping me.
I pretty much got the BOTW spot through tagging memes, so next time threat shows up make sure you guys vote for Zukushiku/Sirskit/Torkool to play vs Ticken or each other!
(will edit later with my team pastes and explanations)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-819846254 (Elec)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-819850296 (Psychic)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-819852920 (Rock)
Explanation for team choices & plays:
I was pretty worried about this series because I had to play Ticken, who has always been my #1 resource for threat help and insight. In both MPL3 and MWP, he helped me immensely by giving tips, collaborating on builds, thinking up different sets and testing. So lacking his help, paired with him knowing my approach to threat very well as opposed to him being unpredictable, really pressured me in the preparation phase. Honestly don't remember agreeing to use, so bare that in mind for my reasonings.
Game 1: Electric
The prep:
As with all my threat building, my first idea revolved around a gimmick. I started off building a double gravity team that relied on Electivire and Golem-A running through his team. After thinking about it and testing it out, I decided that would be inconvenient because it can easily fire back. Also, I know Ticken likes his Electric threat teams bulkier generally from what I remember (looks like I ended up being very wrong).
The final version of the team:
https://pokepast.es/698d033f21076e9e
After a conversation with Torkool, I decided to use Zeroara because it can stop annoying Pokemon like Zapdos and Taunt Koko. Fake Out allowed me to do some scouting while getting some important chip damage. Taunt-Toxic was for the bulky threats. Another set I considered was Bulk Up Facade because of how prominent Toxic is in this threat. Also, I wanted to use Zeroara because of how new it is, making it more unpredictable. The rest of the team is rather standard. To keep my general idea, I added Scarf Electivire - Gravity Magneton core that would be able to clean late-game. I used Mental Herb so that I can set up on things like Koko. Naturally, Stalldos was used because of all the Toxic spam my team has.
The battle:
As expected, Ticken completely surprised me at team preview. Heliolisk was definitely not something I was planning on facing; I had no idea what set it could be. I was even more surprised when he revealed that it was a sun team. I lead off with Zeroara for a safe Fake Out turn. My original plan was to have his team be slowly weakened by Toxic, until it's safe for Gravity to be set and let Electivire loose. After seeing that all his Pokemon were offensive, it became obvious to me that Zapdos would easily beat the team bar the Encore Raichu. That made the rest of my play pretty straightforward, play safely with Zapdos and let it stall out his team. I made a pretty big mistake against the Rotom-F by not using Z-Nature Madness on it.
Game 2: Psychic
The prep:
I had a lot of trouble coming up with a team for Psychic because of how dull of a threat it is. Since I completely forgot about Ticken's love for moves like Psych Up and Heart Swap, I really wanted to use Z-Celebrate Meloetta. Shout out to
Waszap , he worked out most of the team with me. The team isn't very complicated, Screens + Healing Wish support is used to assist the two major threats of the team: Meloetta and Mega Gallade. Band Victini provides assistance with it's amazing breaking power and Alakazam helps prevents set up Pokemon from just sweeping. Pain Split of Mega Gallade gives it some longevity to easily sweep the opposing team. I had considered using Mew like Ticken mentioned, but I honestly didn't think it had a spot on the team.
The team:
https://pokepast.es/f1e03944a09624eb
The battle:
Not too much to say about this battle. I saw the Slowbro which made it obvious that his team is gonna be very defensive. That made it very simple for my set up sweepers to sweep as long as I taunt Slowbro before it sets up. I decided to lead Victini so that I can hurt the obvious Bronzong lead because I didn't really need it for anything besides that. After that, all I had to do was set screens and some hazards to bring in my sweepers and win.
Game 3: Rock
The prep:
While Rock is one of the more fun and diverse threat types, it was extremely hard to prep for because of how much I've discussed it with Ticken. It was a type played in both MPL3 and MWP, so we prepped for it together extensively. Especially during the later, where I think we had about a dozen distinct teams alongside Zuku and Misaka. I didn't want to recycle a team because that would be both boring and very predictable. That is why I opted for a Barbaracle team because it was rather neglected during the prep, for the more reliable Carracosta. I decided to use a special variant because Ticken likes using Passho Berry Rhyperior. Once again, I stuck to my roots and brought screens as my gimmick. The goal of it was to let Barbaracle set up. Also, I added some speed evs to Cradily to outpace what Ticken generally runs.
The team:
https://pokepast.es/7563406964474aed
The battle:
I originally wanted to get rocks up, but I had to weaken Aggron because it's actually a huge threat and would cause huge damage to my team if I don't break sturdy quickly. I didn't think Ticken would run Scarf Terrakion which is why I set up rather early. Also, I wanted to catch him off guard with the Cradily but made the mistake of not taking advantage of it right away, which ended up costing me the game.