Although I didn't personally have the best record for my first ZUPL, I still felt like sharing some of the teams I'd built for the current SS ZU. But, first and foremost: shout-outs. MASSIVE shout-outs to
5gen and
SBPC for picking me up for this tour. ZU isn't necessarily my forte, but with the sheer amount of effort you two put in throughout each and every week, and showing me the tier more and more has shined a new light for me here. Also,
275p, this man came in clutch SO MANY TIMES with the incredible, innovative ideas regarding each generation of ZU, as well was always there to test, build, or bounce ideas off of whenever I was available, so thank you!
ManOfMany zugubu royale tlenit and
OranBerryBlissey10 were also amazing in this department as well, when it came to dropping some innovation or some tests whenever possible, so that was always clutch. But in reality, shout-out to all the Pay Day Persians. Every person there put in the finest effort so going out strong like this is something we should hold our heads high for. We did great. Nothing to be ashamed of.
With that being said, here were the teams.
vs CashKP
Let's be honest lol, this was not a game I was supposed to realistically have a chance in. I had a Cosmo Goth T-spikes team vs a team full of mons with rest, a Bronzor AND a Zweilous. So, good prep on Cash's part for bringing those respective picks even though not having any replays to scout in order to establish common trends or anything. I think his idea for the team was more so to just cover the entirety of the meta or be able to most reliably check Swoobat as best as possible because Swoobat is the easiest mon for someone "new" to the tier to pick up and cheese a win from their opponent. I however, took a defensive approach for my first game because I felt very strongly about this team as a whole. It didn't seem to have any blatantly obvious weaknesses at the time (outside of the ultimate Bronzor + Zweilous) and through testing I won with this quite effortlessly vs several different styles of teams.
So even though this game was looking like it was over on preview just based on the team Cash brought, he actually gave me several chances that game in which I could've pulled the game back and won late-game with Goth + Vespiquen. I never let my Vespiquen take a Toxic, which would be critical for being able to always pivot on Zweilous and other things assuming I never lost my Boots. However I think the biggest misplay for me that game was ultimately not risking the +2 and confused Grapploct turn 3 of the game, vs Cash's Machoke. This was a risk I absolutely had to go for because Cash should have never risked his Machoke, but during the match I never expected him to ever give me this chance. Had I taken this, and had I killed Machoke by turn 3, ultimately Vespi's infinite pivoting on Zweilous was inevitable, meaning eventually Gothitelle would do it or force Eiscue to belly drum in order to win, which meant I could easily revenge-kill with Scarf Raichu since he'd never be able to get his Salac berry. There were other misplays made by Cash that game as well, such as risking his Bronzor vs my Grapploct when I could have easily Brutal Swing'd when it was really low, but again; I never expected him to give me these opportunities. Had I taken them, this game could have gone an entirely different path. I made some key mistakes that game as well, such as not taking my additional chip damage with Volt Switch from Raichu (forgot Pikachu was Static due to event) and U-turn from Vespi as well as not risking my Grapploct a bit more early on in the game. But once again, had I taken some more risks with Grapploct (even though I should have never theoretically been given the opportunity), this game could have gone my way, albeit an extremely tough MU since my main wincon of the team is inevitably useless for a vast majority of the game.
Nevertheless, I'm still proud of this team I made as well as the EV spreads designed I think were justifiable for this team. In fact, I believe the Vespi EV spread is vastly more significant than the current suggested EV spread. 48 Spe on Vespiquen allows it to outspeed all variants of Grapploct, especially considering since I had Air Slash in order to help bypass it and Machoke once it's severely weakened in order to effectively prevent a Knock Off. The Gothitelle EV spread is ironically enough something I had created for PUPL but ultimately never brought it - however, coincidentally the mons who I specifically designed it for dropped to ZU alongside Goth, so the spread was still practical lol. Timid nature alongside 108 EVs allows Gothitelle to always outspeed Adamant Trevenant, meaning you can actually Cosmic Power in front of Trev when it goes for Poltergeist. When that happens, Weakness Policy pops and then you are granted a free Rest since they have to switch (assume Choice Band). The 152 Def allows Goth to do two very specific things: the first, is to always take a CB Poltergeist at +1 defense from Adamant Trevenant. the second however, is much more practical: being able to not be 2HKOd from Choice Scarf Stonjourner's Stone Edge unless crit. I originally had Taunt over Sleep Talk, in order to 100% Vullaby and Bronzor funnily enough in testing, but Sleep Talk was much more dependable. However, Goth was not supposed to take the Poltergeist too early, so that's why defensive itemless Gourgeist-Large was here, paired with Toxic to further weaken T-Spikes immune mons such as Vespiquen (which did happen that game) as well as Vullaby. Carkol (shout-out my PUPL team) was actually kinda garbage lol. But it was really the only thing that could actually fit here: a spinner who could check Mr. Mime-Galar as well as a hazard setter to further chip away alongside Toxic Spikes. 32 SpA allows Carkol to always 2HKO Mr. Mime Galar with Flamethrower and Rock Blast was important for bypassing Sub Swoobat, hence the Sassy nature instead of a -Atk nature.
Even though I lost, this team was still great in testing and wouldn't ever take that away from the team because it just didn't have the match-up for what it was intended to do.
vs Procrastinasian
This game was a bit confusing tbh. Realistically I had the tools to win with Emolga and Stoutland, and Mr. Mime 1000% wins this game assuming I get rid of the Grookey and never sack my Emolga for his Mr. Mime-Galar respectively. So, on preview I have the tools to win. I even get the correct lead on Emolga vs any of the mons weak to Flying. However, this was not the case. Procrastinasian makes a crazy, insane, and arguably awful play Turn 1 vs Emolga by choosing to Bulk Up, fully disregarding Emolga (especially considering Specs Emolga is crazy strong) is the biggest fear to his team. +1 Sucker Punch doesn't even kill Emolga anyway, which meant he is forced to Ice Punch the following turn if he wishes to get the kill on Emolga. Because +1 Sucker doesn't kill, it is mind-blowing he decided to just try and win turn 1. But, it worked out for him in the end because I ended up getting 6-0'd off lead Grapploct because of this again- arguably awful decision. In hindsight, perhaps I could have considered using Choice Specs Emolga and just killing everything in my pathway or maybe I should have just Air Slashed turn 1, but again staying in to Bulk Up is not a smart play because that is a costly decision if the outcome fails. Hindsight's 20/20. So, it's actually hard to tell what happened here. Some may look at it as getting an incredibly picture-perfect scenario where overprediction costs me the game just after the first turn or the opponent makes the most insane prediction of his ZUPL career all tournament, but some also can look at it as poor decisions made by both players rewards one of them with essentially a free win. Perhaps it's a combination of all three scenarios. Regardless, I will not take the glory away from him and I will give him the benefit of the doubt and/or give credit where credit is due for making that play turn 1. GGs. :]
So, in further testing after this game; I decided to forego Toxic Spikes on Vespi and give it Air Slash with the same 48 Spe because this team ain't gonna get bopped by the damn octopus with boxing gloves ever again lol. EV spread is basically flipped from defensive to specially defensive, since Machoke handles most of the scary physical attackers with relative ease. 80 SpD on Machoke allows it to take even Choice Specs Raichu's Thunderbolts comfortably enough to avoid the 2HKO whilst still nullifying Stonjourner from doing anything. I felt Heavy-Duty Boots was necessary on Emolga because this team is rather weak to Stealth Rocks assuming Vespi doesn't get to Defog. Expert Belt or even Choice Specs could be used here with some tweaking to the team.
Despite the game, I am once again not really too depressed with the team because in testing it did exactly what it wanted to do: have Stoutland and Stonjourner blast through all the fat stuff so that way Mr. Mime-Galar can effortlessly sweep the opposing team and let Machoke deal with the absurdly powerful Klang. And ironically enough, if I had switched the order in which I brought these teams, THOSE actually were the ideal conditions for each of these teams to win more comfortably lol. Thank you for checking out these teams, and good luck to anyone who uses them!
Once again, thank you to 5gen and SBPC as well as all of the Persians for welcoming me to the tier, as I have not really dabbled in ZU since gen7.