There was a VGC tournament today, and I did better than expected (4 wins, 2 losses, overall 9th). Top cut was 8 people, unfortunately, so I didn't get in. It was a really fun event, and I also got to meet Pasonia who was also participating.
Battle 1447G-WWWW-WWW4-G8Y2 - Win
Admittedly, I still wasn't too focused in this battle. I managed to get very lucky with Thunderbolt paralyzing Aegislash, and then getting a full paralysis next turn, which let my Lucario survive. If it had went down, I wouldn't have been able to take out Rotom as well and it might have cost me the match.
Battle 2ZLSG-WWWW-WWW4-G8YT - Win
I managed to get an early lead thanks to my Mamoswine, and once again, I get lucky with a burn on Meowstic and severely shortening its lifespan. It becomes more critical late game to avoid facing down two god damn Swagger-Foul Play Pranksters
Battle 3HJ4W-WWWW-WWW4-G8J9 - Loss
I thought I was facing down a Trick Room team, but he decided not to use it, I guess. I was insanely scared of Mawile when it appeared. I then misjudged the threat that Talonflame and Scrafty posed to Lucario. My plan was to redirect Talonflame's faster Flare Blitz away from Lucario, giving it the time to take out Talonflame and then outspeed Scrafty next turn. However, he went for Brave Bird, and then Scrafty OHKO'd Lucario. I don't know what he was holding, but the possibility of an unboosted OHKO was 6%. The odds went in his favour big time.
After the battle, I realized I could have Protected on Amoonguss instead of Rage Powder and took out Talonflame, because Lucario can't be OHKO'd by Brave Bird and Scrafty can not beat Amoonguss 1v1. Hindsight 20/20 and all that.
Battle 4KNSW-WWWW-WWW4-G8KW - Win
This guy threw me in for a loop. I thought it was a DrizzleSwim combo, but then Kingdra used Focus Energy so I thought it was Sniper. And THEN it outsped and it turns out it was Swift Swim the whole time, but still having 100% 1.5x crits. Of course, priority still beats speed and I also got lucky by Critting it with Talonflame. And then the bane of Rain teams, Amoonguss, appears and shuts down his team while Lucario cleaned up.
Battle 5KJRG-WWWW-WWW4-G8LH - Win
Espeon was a really weird choice, and Aegislash also chose not to go back into King's Shield for some reason, allowing me to take both out without them ever threatening the team much. I knew his Talonflame was a larger threat to Lucario than Kangaskhan, but I didn't want to give them a free turn so I made Mamoswine, who couldn't threatenhis Talonflame at all, stay in, though I could probably have gotten Rotom-W in while Quick Guarding the obvious Fake Out and Brave Bird. I have no idea why he tried to Sucker Punch my faster Talonflame. He rightly considered Lucario a greater threat than Rotom-W, but that just let my Rotom-W get a free kill on his Talonflame while Lucario protected.
Battle 6No battle video. - Loss
(My) Talonflame, Mamoswine, Rotom-W, Amoonguss v.s. (His) Rotom-H, Azumarill, Dragonite, Trevanant
Oh man, this match. I was obviously in a worse situation to start with, but I chose to stay in and try to beat Rotom-H, the largest threat (or so I thought) to Amoonguss. I set up Tailwind and started spamming Brave Birds and Rock Slides. Eventually, Talonflame and Rotom-H died, Dragonite switched in, and I got my 45% HP Mamoswine to bail, switching in Rotom-W and Amoonguss. Took out Azumarill next, and I realised that Mamoswine was critical to beating Dragonite and Trevenant. He took out Rotom-W, and I somehow disconnected.
The judge looked at my Scarfed Mamoswine and his team, and judged that the battle still did not have a clearwinner since I could outspeed and KO both pokemon, as long as Amoonguss provided the right support, while he could predict me properly and stall out my burned Amoonguss, leaving Mamo with no support. A draw wasn't a choice, because this was the last round of battles to decide the Top Cut. We then battled again, but we had to use the exact same 4 pokemon.
Obviously, now I knew Azumarill would start with an Aqua Jet and he knew Mamoswine was the largest threat to his team, so I got Talonflame to Quick Guard, buying Mamoswine a turn. I made Talonflame attack next turn, and everything went wrong here. Azumarill crit Aqua Jet and OHKO'd my Mamoswine, and basically destroyed any chance I had to win. After that turn, I realised that Azumarill was Choice Banded, meaning I could have avoided Mamoswine's death by spamming Quick Guard! It was too late then, and the last 2 Pokemon was my Rotom-W against his Trevenant. It went as well as you'd expect. After the match, he went to report the results before I was even asked to save a battle video, so that's why there wasn't one.
The tourney used the Swiss system, and I was considered the highest rated 4win player as my first loss was to a player who would proceed to 5win. However, I didn't make 8th because 8th had
4.5 wins. As it turns out, on the first round, two players ended up in an Black Sludge Amoonguss mirror match where neither could deal enough damage to KO the other, and they called it a draw, causing both to get 0.5 points.