Scattered mind's OU Laddering Progress Journal: Laddering with the Red Arrow

Turn 14 I don't understand why the opponent didn't bring in Talonflame when he used Volt Switch against your Latios. It would've been a better play for them because priority Brave Bird would KO Latios at that point. It's not like you had SR up either to deter it.

I have to agree with Chaos on switching Crawdaunt in against Goodra. Zapdos couldn't dish out much damage, but neither could Goodra and you could stall with Roost.

Once you KO'd Goodra with Knock Off your opponent brought in Talonflame. A much better play would've been to switch to Heatran because Talonflame can't do a lot to Heatran.

Turn 21 I agree with Chaos Jackal.

Turn 26 at this point you still don't know what Mega Venusaur has beyond Giga Drain. It seems like switching out just took an extra turn since you don't know for sure if he would've gone for Sleep Powder. Considering you were faster and didn't need Scizor keeping it in and doing additional damage would have been preferable to taking a risk.
 
@Chaos Jackal -Right. I was surprised too when he chose to not go with BB.
Yeah I should have used Knock Off but I went for DD for the chance he might go for Synthesis or miss with Sleep Powder predicting me to switch since I didn't care to lose Crawdaunt anyway ( He lived longer than he should have ) and I had no fear from Mega Venusaur with Talonflame on my side. In which case I could do greater damage but again it didn't matter too much at that point of the game.
Thanks :] Fire Blast Timid Heatran pretty much proved himself in the match.
 
@King Arceus - About turn 26: Right but I think it was worth it- HP Fire would have triggered Flash Fire to do huge damage and had he went for Sleep Power it wouldn't matter as I had Talonflame and Zapdos to counter both Venusaur and Rotom-W with Mega Scizor to ease prediction between switches.
About the turn with Goodra - Got it, I didn't think about it but yeah his best move against Zapdos is Draco which cannot OHKO and lowers its special attack.
Although he could have Sludge Bomb which could toxic my Zapdos.
I should have switched for Talonflame but I didn't have any further use with Crawdaunt so I didn't think about that.
 
I know you wouldn't have a problem handling the Venusaur at that point, but I'm trying to teach you how to make the most of each play. This will help you get better. As you make proper plays you'll start doing them more often when you are in the same situation. Don't play sloppy just because you have a lead.
 
Battle #10 : http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-232921048

Turn 1-19: My opponent is wearing my Latios down with switches mainly between Rotom-W and Heatran. What do you think I should have done there?

Turn 20: I knew he is going to switch in Garchomp and I just didn't have anything better to do other than use Heat Wave. At this point I felt lost.

Turn 21: I should have sac'ed Crawdaunt or switch to something else other than Scizor. This was a mistake I am aware about. Scizor could come in later and roost. Now that I think about it I should have kept it and predict the HP Fire from Venusaur few turns before. Scizor could be the one to put a stop for Garchomp.

Turn 22: Another mistake I am aware about is going for DD with Crawdaunt against Garchomp.. The point was to hit hard with Aqua Jet but Mega Venusaur was in my opponent's back. And of course that he brought Venusaur and I had to switch out.

Turn 24: I went with Brave Bird against Mega Venusaur. The obvious switch was right in front of me.

Turn 26: Same here. I should have switched right on his switch to my Crawdaunt to predict Garchomp but I though he'll might predict me so I stayed in with Zapdos.

Turn 31: Once again I fail to learn my opponents playstyle and predict its Garchomp to stay in going for HP Ice. Had I went with Fire Blast I could have hit Rotom-W on the switch and knock it out.

In general - I should have used Talonflame against Garchomp. At certain point during the match Garchomp's hp was low enough for Talonflame to come in and OHKO it with BB. And that could not be so hard taking into account that Garchomp was Choice Scarfed.
Scizor should have switched out and I should have sac'ed Crawdaunt. During the match Crawdaunt didn't do well and Talonflame+Scizor could handle Garchomp much better.

Current rating: 1331
 
Turn 10 You used Fire Blast against his Heatran. I would have gone for Earth Power again because the worst that could happen is your opponent brings in Rotom-W and takes no damage. You still had your Air Balloon so you couldn't be hit by his Earth Power.

Turn 15 staying in against the Venusaur in this case was not a good choice because you still had use for Mega Scizor. It'd be able to hit Slowbro for a ton of damage and get rid of a potential Choice Band on your opponent's Scizor. That would have greatly decreased its power. Knock Off didn't get the boost because it doesn't against mega stones since those cannot be knocked off. Factoring in Stealth Rock, the next time you'd bring in Mega Scizor now you'd be at about 8% HP and can only guarantee move before his Slowbro to be able to Roost.

Turn 29: I believe the best play would've been to go for Aqua Jet again because it would finish off Rotom-W.

Turn 31: I don't know if you realize this by this point, but the Garchomp is choiced. If you noticed, it switched out after it had used Stone Edge and normally Garchomp could've dealt with Crawdaunt and its not so spectacular defense. Using Stealth Rock would've been a more ideal play because his team is the Volt-Turn style meaning he switches often to gain momentum.

Turn 32: Switching Zapdos in was not the best choice here. This Rotom-W is choiced. You may or may not have been aware of it. Again, Stealth Rock would have been a better play. He wouldn't be able to do any damage with Pain Split since the HP remaining is the same.

Turn 38: Definitely should have gone for Aqua Jet if you were going to commit to losing Crawdaunt.

Turn 42: Thunder Wave was not the right choice here against Slowbro. You can dish out enough with Thunderbolt where he can't stall you. It ended up that he switched to Rotom-W anyway which made the Thunder Wave useless. The Rotom-W might have been put into KO range if you had done Thunderbolt.

Your homework is to study how Volt-Turn teams function and are built. I'm not saying you have to build one, but this way you can know how to play against them better.
 
Battle #11: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-233114689

Turn 1-2: I choose to lead with Crawdaunt predicting him to lead with Landorus-T. I use Aqua Jet to pressure him preventing him from going for Stealth Rock.
I somehow live its U-Turn and then I sac Crawdaunt versus its Talonflame. That way I mange to bring Heatran and gain a free turn to use my own Stealth Rock.

Turn 4-6: I predicted the Keldeo set to be the SubCM so predicting him to go for Sub I brought in my Zapdos which works as after I break its sub with Thunderbolt he switches out.

Turn 8-10: I brought Scizor to deal with Landorus-T - Taking its Knock Off without a problem and KO him with Scizor's Knock Off after mega evolving. The problem was that later he brought Magnezone which of course trapped my Scizor and OHKO it with HP Fire but I don't Know what else I should have done since no member on my team could afford taking a Knock Off from Landorus-T- The best option was to sac Latios but I thought I should keep it as my Defogger and my backup answer to Keldeo. This is the main turn of this battle that I'm focusing on and would like to hear your thoughts what do you think would be the best play?

Turn 12: I should have switched out for Latios. It was obvious that Keldeo had too low hp to go for sub. My bad.

Turn 19: I should have switched for Heatran against Thundurus. I kind of hated myself at that moment because I failed to understand that my Talonflame is Adamant and thus cannot outrun Timid Thundurus.. That was a very silly mistake which cost me the battle.

Anyway my main issue is Turn 8-10

Current rating: 1331 → 1311
 
Turn 1: It was too risky to keep in right away. You don't know what set it is running. It could easily be scarf for example. It isn't the end of the world if he would have got SR up because you can deal with it later if need be. Bringing in Zapdos would have been a more ideal play because there is no risk. He wouldn't have a good reason to Stone Edge which would be the only major damaging attack it could do to Zapdos. It would have been risky for him to go for Knock Off if he chose to stay in because of a potential hard hit back. You could have used the Crawdaunt later to finish off something.

Turn 6: I saw the switch coming right away. Opting for Roost or Heat Wave would have been a more ideal choice. Roost would have gotten you to full health while Heat Wave could've been used to deal at least neutral damage to the incoming Pokemon. It depends on your playstyle. The only reason Keldeo stayed in was because it had protection in the form of Substitute. It would have been reckless for your opponent to stay in because Keldeo was the only Pokemon that could reliably defeat your Heatran. Heatran has to take a hit before Landorus-T can beat it.

Turn 8: While there wasn't any exceptional play available this turn, I do think having Zapdos use Heat Wave would have been the proper play this turn because if that's a standard scarf Landorus-T, it's going to do at most just over 60% to Zapdos while you can get a guaranteed KO with Heat Wave. Even if it was Choice Band, you'd still survive. This would make it so you would not have had Scizor get trapped. Afterwards, you'd get a leftovers recovery on Zapdos and could potentially Roost when he would bring in his next Pokemon.

Turn 10: The critical hit did in fact matter in this situation. Realize though, you would not have been in this situation if you got the KO with Zapdos. I'm going to take a guess you went for Knock Off which would have been the best play.
 
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So since the OU Ladder is gone for the next 2 weeks because of the suspect test I won't be able to keep laddering. In the meantime I am going to build a new team and once the OU Ladder will return I will do a new laddering progress journal with my new team.
Thanks for all of you who have watched my replays and to everyone who've helped me during the laddering with the Red Arrow.
I feel really good with this team now and I hope I will be able to get higher on the ladder next time. :]
 
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