 Hello friends, welcome back to another episode here on the channel. I hope you're all doing great and for anyone new to the channel, my name is Lee. In today's episode, we're going to be kicking off our VGC Series 9 content. So the rules updated on the 1st of May. We saw the rules change from Series 8 with all those restrictives like Kyogre Groudon. We said goodbye to those and now we're moving into Series 9 which is reverting back to a Series 7 rule set that we've already played, already quite familiar with. Now if you need a refresher on the rules update, I did a video on Friday last week just kind of overviewing the new rule set for Series 9 and kind of overviewing the format that met again going into it because obviously it's a format that we've played before and I ended up with a bunch of I think five rental teams in that video to help everyone get a head start. Now that'll be linked down in the description if you do need that refresher or just want to grab some of those rental teams that we've already got up on the channel then be my guest to check that out. Hopefully it is helpful but today we're going to be kicking off with probably one of the most stronger teams from Series 7 at least in my opinion especially from a probably one of the best Japanese players that we've had in the last year or so. So all their socials are going to be linked down in the description below. This team obviously there's a rental code. We'll have a couple of games with the team today. Very exciting obviously going back to a format without restrictives. It kind of opens things up a little bit more. We've got some nice options on this team. We'll have a couple of games with the team and end up with the rental code. So hopefully you enjoy this one today. We've got a nice mixture of Pokemon to hopefully kick us off into this format in good fashion. Hope you're enjoying the new format as well. Do let me know your thoughts down below in the comment section. Let me know what you're thinking about Series 9, how you're finding it and what changes you like compared to Series 8. If you do like it at all I do really like to hear how players are kind of adapting and enjoying new formats but without further ado friends let's get into our first match of today. First up today we have a team of Reggie Alecki, Glastria, Cinderace, Togokiss, Rillaboom and Ferromosa. It's kind of weird going into Series 9 now. This is literally my first game in Series 9, going back without those restrictives. But what's going on in this team? Okay you've got some really fast defensive Pokemon straight off the bat. You know the Ferromosa and the Reggie Alecki are going to have to be pretty much everything on our team. But we've got screen support on Grimstone we can utilize and we've got ways to kind of get around those particular Pokemon and hit them for decent damage. Things like Moltres, obviously the Cinderace is a little bit of an issue because it can threaten our spectra pretty hard. But we do have Tappukini to kind of give us a little bit of a leg up there but we've got to watch out for that Rillaboom which is going to be a bit awkward for us to deal with. One of the things we could potentially do here is go Silvian. It gives us access to Jorn so we can really disrupt and also with the Hyper Voice as well we can put that spread damage onto the field pretty quickly and not worry so much about a lot of the other Pokemon that are going to be popping up. Let's just kind of give ourselves a refresh of this Grimstone. See what support options we've got. And Thunder Web Lights Greens, yeah so it's a kind of standard set. I think we'll need with Grimstone always a nice option here. It's whether or not we want to go with something like Moltres because it's a decent option. But I think Metagross is probably the one that we want. I'm going to go with Silvian, Metagross and I think we'll go Finny as well. Okay, double fairies for this first one today. So here we get on in this first one. It's always nervy kind of going into your first match in a new series always. Doesn't matter what you're doing. I mean I've pledged on Showdown quite a bit so I can't say it's my first match of course. But on cart on the ladder here we go. We're premiering our series nine right here. So going up against Feremosa and Glastria. And you can know what's coming. The speed swap onto Glastria straight off the bat is what we're going to see. So I think we have to be probably go for a reflect because I'm worried about Max Steel Spike and I think we go for a yawn into the Glastria because there's a good chance that it will potentially Max here especially after the speed swap. And you can see that's kind of what my opponent's probably going to go for in this turn. I mean it kind of screams that doesn't it. So I'll be very surprised if it's anything other than that. But that feels like what we're probably going to see. And we do have Metagross that we can bring in. But the problem with the Metagross in this team is it's weakness policy. So we haven't got that kind of instantaneous kind of attack buff to really put some damage on the Glastria. If we can put it to sleep though that makes things a lot easier for us going forward. Of course we can waste some of those Max turns and then you know it might not be as effective. Yeah there's a Steel Spike. But the Bibi Riberi the reflect is going to help us out a bunch here. And the big thing is just being able to get this yawn onto. Wow. I mean we take that pretty well don't we. So that's nice. That's nice. Very nice. Very nice. The Steel Spike not ideal because obviously we're kind of planning if we're going to use Metagross in this match to kind of hit it on that physical side which is not ideal. Okay so we've got a what can we do here. I mean they're going to go Steel Spike again so we could bring in Metagross here. But one of the things I prefer to do honestly is probably just we could spirit break the pheromosa. The pheromosa is so slow though. So it's likely the pheromosa switches out here. The walk kind of comes in for the pheromosa. Maybe something like Toakies potentially. I think we're pretty safe going first spirit break here. We're probably going to take Max Steel Spike into Grimmsnall. They're probably going to they're probably going to predict us protecting Sylveon. I'd imagine and go after the Grimmsnall. Yeah it makes a lot of sense. And they think oh no they go after Sylveon again. But the thing is like we can't go from the Thunder Wave into the the Glastria because then it like nullifies the ability for us to put it to sleep which is such a waste of that first turn which is always tempting you know. Not to waste that first turn but tempting to kind of get that a Thunder Wave onto it especially after this this speed swap. So pheromosa taking a decent amount of damage there. They're going for the Poison Jab doubling up into the Sylveon and the Glastria. It's finally Slooping which is great. So that means we can Hyper Voice here. Probably switch into something like better to switch in Metagross at this point. I do worry about a weakness policy as well on the Glastria you know. I mean the other option is we've got Tapu Fini trying to get some calm mines under our belt and then kind of approach the match from that angle. I'm going to go Hyper Voice here. We should still outspeed the pheromosa pick up knock out there get some decent well we'll get some chip damage. Well it's not so decent damage because definitely not going to be decent damage onto the Glastria is it. But we don't have access to Yawn or Thunder Wave anymore which is a little bit of an issue of course unless they've got any floaty Pokemon which I doubt they do. Problem is with Tapu Fini we've got to kind of watch out for something like Regi Alecki which could enter the field now which we know my opponent's got and gives us a few issues of course. But we do have Mystic Fire that we can take advantage of with Silvian and now we know that the you know the Glastria is kind of just taking a nap. Glastria not max anymore which makes it slightly easier. Do we just max with Fini and go after the Cinderace? I do worry about a bounce here but like what are the options? What is the Cinderace going to do? I would like to get a calm mind up if I'm completely honest. I think getting a calm mind up might be a nice option. Then we just go for a Hyper Voice again. It's not really going to hit so hard but they could go poor. I mean we could switch in Metagross but it's so risky against something like Cinderace you know. We could just protect. It's so passive though but it kind of I guess catches the Cinderace out because max Steel Spark, well the Iron Head I guess is the best option you would imagine or bounce. The Glastria taking another Tennis Leap bounce yeah. So I didn't really want to attack into the Cinderace here because the bounce is like you know and obvious that they're going to go for that. We do get the calm mind which makes things a lot easier for us to kind of manage going forward because I think well we've got the option now where we can go after potentially the Cinderace this next turn. We can max go after the Cinderace, get the rain up and then we can go after the Glastria to turn after that which is probably the best way to approach this and maybe at the same time switch in Metagross because you can imagine a heavy slam coming out from the Glastria it'll help us preserve the Sylvian. Going into this next turn just give us a little bit of room and then probably switch back into Grimsnall the Fallen turn because we kind of want to keep Metagross as healthy as possible for an end game because of the Assault Vest it does give us a better way to get around things like Regilec which could be kind of sweeping around in the back. So Finny going to come out as our maximum like I say the reason for going into Cinderace here is because we're going to get a bit more power than the following turn on to the Glastria especially with the rain up so Glastria staying asleep again really turns asleep we get very fortunate there as a bounce comes out revealing the life orb which is probably quite a common item on something like Cinderace but we are going to get the guys we've got to keep in mind as well that you know the Glastria is 100% going to wake up this next turn and the only issue I could kind of foresee would be something like Regilec coming in now which would make things a little bit awkward but we could max guard potentially thinking that my opponents may be going to go for the double up into the Finny with the Glastria oh but it's not it's the it's the Tograkus okay well this is actually all right this is this is actually fine I think we stay in now and I think we just go full of punch and we go max guys are again because if they redirect then we get it onto the Tograkus and then it's pretty easy to kind of wrap up after that we get Grimstarling, Thunderwave and then go from there so very good game for my opponent we get fortunate with the three turn sleeps but it's how it goes sometimes isn't it so we'll take that and we'll jump straight into our next match of today except we have a well like kind of a rain team Polly Todd, Dracovish, Tog of Tomorrow, Mantine, Lola Mawak and Stack Attacker so lots of wide guard, lots of Lightning Rod and lots of rain that's pretty much wrapping this one up um okay what are we looking at here we've got speed control potentially Nuzzel I would say 100% Nuzzel from the Tog of Tomorrow got to be careful around that for sure but we do have Tap of Finny's terrain to kind of help out with that a bit um wide guard I would say probably on Mantine um does it get tailwind I want to say yes I want to say yes but I'm not 100% sure um but regardless you've got kind of airstream as well and it's like fully protected from things like electric type attacks it would really kind of hinder it a little bit but we haven't got any so we don't need to worry about that in that respect and you've got a trick room switch with the Stack Attacker predominantly going to be supporting something like the Mawak you would imagine right well well well how do we best approach this I feel like Metagross is quite good here especially with screen support but it's not really got the offensive kind of um prior to that kind of want Sylvion's not bad um you know what I think we'll go Sylvia and Grim Snarl again I think it gives us a lot of options uh we probably want Tap of Finny for sure and I think Metagross again you know I do feel like Metagross is gonna be it's not really threatened too much you know like there's not really too much outside of the the Mawak which is you know if we're not in a trick room environment it's pretty easy to deal with with Tap of Finny especially if the rain's up you know so I think one of the big things it's jumped out to me um I was being quite surprised and like not surprising but it's being very noticeable for me is just uh how much it's like I've enjoyed kind of going back to something like Tap of Finny and really appreciating it it's uh as you use in this format I think it's just it's such a good pokemon you know um now what do we do here we just hyper voice do we zone do we protect uh I think getting damage onto the board is probably a good idea you know um I'm gonna just hyper voice and I'm worried about the tug of tomorrow going for something like Iron Head but the likelihood of it having Iron Head is is not I just can't see it we'll go for light screen it probably if anything's gonna max it's gonna be the man time but I can't oh well here we go it's gonna be the man time it's gonna go stop that airstream abuse I reckon um I can't see it going for max guys I just airstream I think makes more sense but I've not really come up against too many man time so I'm a little bit a little bit oh I know what they're doing they're gone weakness policy aren't they weakness policy into the man time volt switch there we go see it a bit too late and then the Dracovish comes in and then we we get nailed oh but the thing is right if it is Dracovish gonna take a heck of a lot of damage from a hyper voice from the sylvian um which which is all right which is all right it is not the end of the world and we got thunder wave as long as the tug of tomorrow kind of stays off oh it's going to be towed okay they're going for the geyser the rain boosted weakness policy boosted uh we need to put a yawn down onto that thing okay they're gonna have to grim snarl wow forget us wow okay well and we do absolutely zip like man time's uh special defenses phenomenal do we have room to calm mind because they're definitely going after sylvian this next turn I think we could get a yawn we could get a yawn calm mind um but the the yawn's gone now with the terrain of course could we do what can we do in this situation we can mystic fire but I don't really think that's gonna do too much change the rain that means max and sylvian on I'm not really that fond of that idea I think we did they just airstream finny here that's the the big question you know actually we can yawn we can yawn because they're flying right so we we yawn and we calm mind and we get something out of this turn so there's a protect which we don't mind we like to see that good old polytod the gun geyser into sylvian if we can take this this is huge for us I don't know if we're gonna be able to though yeah there we go sylvian taking it like a trooper trooper there we go that's perfect because now I'd still gonna be very difficult you know like extremely difficult I think the thing to keep in mind is that we really need to kind of try and keep sylvian active because as soon as we go down to one I like the two pokemon then something like polytod really becomes a problem with something like um perish song I think we go for we'll protect sylvian here don't know if it's worth it but you know we're so low health anyway and we'll hope that we can get the toad plus one max starfall if we can we remove the the perish song threat and it looks like it's gonna be kind of maybe a tapu finny show today but we'll see how we get on this opening for us it's not the best start we're not out of it by a long way we still got met across in the back I think the big thing to worry about first is definitely a perish song from the polytod so we get to protect off with sylvian you'll see the man time go for a geyser into sylvian it will probably pick up the knockout here and I would imagine we'll probably see a perish song if we miss the knockout onto polytod which could happen polytod's such a bulky pokemon but we've got to believe in finny that's so it's literally so close if they get the perish up here we're done we're done because I don't think metagross can can deal with this by itself they go for a skull though so maybe they don't have perish we'll take that all day long and now the man time will go to sleep the polytod will be um in a knockout position for metagross to come in so we're not sitting in the worst of spots in all honesty and they've not went for a single max airstream so we know the man time it's definitely 100% stay in a sleep this next turn uh we can max starfall into that and we can just get rid of this polytod the stomping tantrum just in case something like tug of the morrow comes in again we'll go for a starfall into the man time it might have been better on in all honesty kind of rock sliding here just to get rid of the man time because the threat of it it is quite it's quite a scary pokemon obviously with swift swim you know it's gonna be moving first still got the the weakness policy boost you know so it's still hitting like you saw how much damage it did to grim snow so it's still gonna dent anything it really hits our topic finish not in the worst spot here but yeah come on be tug of the morrow please tug of the morrow let it be oh it's marowak there we go we like to see that okay i think we can win this one from this point depends if we can pick up the knockout here like i said man time special defense is pretty good pretty good but we do have bullet punch that we can take advantage of the next turn just go for the guys that into the marowak because bullet punch should get the man time from this range right like a hundred percent it will 100 percent it's definitely getting it and i'm gonna go max guys that into marowak and then after that we've got tug of the morrow and polytod with a muddy water i'll be able to deal with with pretty much both of us i would imagine in the rain does the rain does the rain stop this turn i think i'll i switch oh dear oh dear forget about that forget about these these these moves okay well man time stay in the sleep again and the guys are going to be the thing that finishes it off okay so this kind of makes it a little bit you know it makes it a bit more tricky for um my opponent like if they bring in tug of the morrow here and if that marowak has got light and rod that's very tricky for my opponent to actually get any attacks off with them with tug of the morrow because they're not they only got single target like they don't have discharge right so yeah that's this is the thing you know polytod coming in yeah we're just a you know we're going to be able to just go muddy water and stomp and tantrum and that that should be enough to clear the field here again i feel a bit like rock slide could could also be a decent option but in marowak gonna protect i don't know why why why why you're protecting the marowak surely you want to protect the polytod over everything else you don't want tug of the morrow to kind of come in it's kind of weird okay the accuracy drop might help us that depends on the speeds but metacross gonna add speed and um yeah i mean i don't really surely out of everything there you want the the the marowak to kind of go away because now tug of the morrow tug of the morrow can come in for sure and just click the fake out button but we just double in like we just muddy water and stomp and tantrum into the marowak because it's the biggest threat to metacross right now um and they can only fake out one target so there's not really yeah i mean we do pick up the wins so two really convincing wins and tapu finny i will say has definitely been mvp of today's episode 100% very good game to our last opponent i hope you've enjoyed today's episodes we didn't really get to see the glarium altres and stuff like that but you know this team is so versatile it's kind of we've got that really solid core slowing things down and then you've got the the finny to come in and just clean up if you want and then metacross being the assault vest gives you a lot of stability there so we'll hop over now remind you all of the rental code for today's okay friends here is today's rental team like i say we've had a good couple of games with the team we've really seen tapu finny shine in this one a bit unfortunate that we didn't get to see the glarium altres really the spectra in today's episode which is a bit of a shame because they're two big hard hitters but it just kind of goes to show that the team can function super well without these pokemon in it and when the kind of the terrain or the the matchup kind of feels right then these pokemon can come in and do a really good job for you especially with the screen support and speed control support from the grim snarl which is likely you know i mentioned in that preview kind of video four series nine how predominant how good that is going to be as a support option going forward in in this meta game and having answers for it and ways around it like psychic fans like brick break things that get past it you know infiltrate our ability critical hits from crit case there are things to look at to try and get around grim snarl and prevent these screens going up and being able to kind of support team members so well but big shout out to um to the team it's been a lot of fun playing it hope if you do try it out you have a lot of fun with it let me know down the comment section as always i'm really looking forward to getting our teeth into series nine and kind of seeing how this format develops so we've got a long way to go before we stay another format kind of pop up but we should get some news on that and i'd say a month's time to see what the next series will be but in the meantime we've got a lot to kind of digest and play around with there's lots of different things that we can do in this format i've got a really spicy team that will be throwing up in our next episode so do keep an eye out for that one thanks as always for tuning in i hope you have a great rest of your day and i'll catch you all for another episode very soon something like friends take care of yourselves and bye bye