Tournament AG Snake Draft I - Commencement Thread

[Junaa]

Hi so I guess my team won my first team tour so now im gonna go do some shoutouts.
s/o Jho for trusting me enough to play, im rlly glad that I could be on your team and help out with the victories, still shocked that you chose me to play in the finals instead of Monsareeasy
s/o Dockiva~~ for being an amazing helper to me, you built my week 5 team v truenora and helped me test all of the teams that I used, thank you so much, also ur criminally underrated and should have gone much earlier.
s/o Nevelle for drafting me, even if you threw me away immediately after for orch ( though he did do absolutely amazing and if im being honest is much better than me)

and ofc, s/o PinkDragonTamer, aesf, Monsareeasy , Chloe, xavgb for being awesome teammates and Rabia and Jordy for carrying the team

edit: Oh, and because im stupid and forgot, thanks to Guard for joining after regular season and helping

 

[Rabia]

thanks to Rabia for being a great shadow manager with his key contributions

thanks rabia

View attachment 317738

without these messages our team morale would have been far too low to win

 

[Guard]

Hi so I guess my team won my first team tour so now im gonna go do some shoutouts.
s/o Jho for trusting me enough to play, im rlly glad that I could be on your team and help out with the victories, still shocked that you chose me to play in the finals instead of Monsareeasy
s/o Dockiva~~ for being an amazing helper to me, you built my week 5 team v truenora and helped me test all of the teams that I used, thank you so much, also ur criminally underrated and should have gone much earlier.
s/o Nevelle for drafting me, even if you threw me away immediately after for orch ( though he did do absolutely amazing and if im being honest is much better than me)

and ofc, s/o PinkDragonTamer, aesf, Monsareeasy , Chloe, xavgb for being awesome teammates and Rabia and Jordy for carrying the team

edit: Oh, and because im stupid and forgot, thanks to Guard for joining after regular season and helping

Wanted to put this post in the spotlights some more, can we please take a moment to marvel at how incredibly humble this is? Jerry went undefeated in his first ever team tour and beat some incredible players along the way, yet this entire post is revolving around praising his teammates, giving them credits for his own achievements, and talking himself down. Mad respect man, we need more of these players

 

[Icemaster]

this tour was really fun, in part to the Shadow Riders and Mandibuzzes keeping it extremely tense right until the end, and my teammates for being really cool. I'd like to talk about some of the teams I made:

Galar AG:
I didn't actually get to play any Galar AG unfortunately though I'd have prob played it in event of a tiebreaker, but I did contribute to teambuilding, these are the teams I built:
W1 Royal vs aesf
This is just my Sample Webs, but they are really OP imo, they're easy to pilot and win vs most teams, having a doable MU vs even ditto teams (as seen in the replay), though it lost after a close game due to a miss
W1 Lotiasite vs Monsareeasy
At the time, the other playstyle I thought was best was Knock Spamming Hazard Stack, so I passed this team to Lotias. I think it had a pretty decent matchup here, but Mons just played well and got the win. Assurance Zacian is as broken as ever, and you can easily whittle down their Necrozma-DM with Spikes + Rain from bulky Calm Mind Kyogre, which makes any kind of long game for them extremely difficult. I don't think this particular team has aged that well though - it's pretty weak to HO.

Most of the teams w2-w6 I did chip in and help build, but fardin, royal and shivam built mainly so I don't want to post them myself.

W6 Royal vs orch
When going through Orch's replays, I noticed that he never brought Eternatus. This made his teams TSpikes Eternatus food, and with his main fogger being Yveltal, a Choiced Calyrex could trick it early game and just ensure TSpikes stay up, meaning Zygardes, Zekroms, Xerneas and Calyrexes are far less effective. I also noticed that nearly all his winconditions (zac, xern, CShadow) were all very weak to a Ditto reverse sweep. And he relied on Kyurem-White mainly to check CM ogre, so with Substitute you completely blank Ditto and Sheer Cold Kyurems. Taunt Koff yveltal covers Ferrothorn
W7 Royal vs Jerryl
We knew HO was coming so we brought Specs Trick Calyrex, Ditto, Defensive Zyg, Taunt Yveltal and Tspikes Etern - a really HO proofed team. Unfortunate crit however lead to NDM sweeping through.
W7 Shivam vs aesf
Coil Zygarde managed to pull through big time, If I remember correctly our plan here was just bulky setup sweepers and normal NP calyrex, which are all slightly hard for a ditto balance to handle - which we were expecting to come.

National Dex AG:
W1 vs xavgb W
I knew BP Calyrex was broken so I wanted to abuse it in a game. In DLC 1 meta EK was a very underrated pick, and in DLC 2 it just got better since SD arcs in general prey on Calyrex counterplay, and EKiller can take hits from Calyrex decently well. TSpikes are nice in general as it heavily limits some of the more OP threats - Calyrex-S, Xern, Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre. In the end, I won due to BP Calyrex, totally balanced mon.

W2 vs Andyboy W (No Caly agreement)
in this game I brought a comfortable team with Kyogre Primal + Zacian-C + Zygarde-C. It's insanely broken, since Zygarde-C will switch into Don and MRay decently well, Zacian is decent speed control and forces in NDM which Kyogre easily switches into and lowers the recovery of. Zac + Kyogre really puts the pressure on for Groudon Primal, which lets waterceus potentially win the endgame. Zygarde helps paralyze everything which makes Kyogre much more effective. Kyogre has rest to help sit on SupportCeus - especially perishpoolers. Waterceus has Ice Beam as a last-ditch defensive Dynamax vs Rayquaza, should it get to that. In this game, I swapped to Assurance Zacian rather than Rest as Andy doesn't use perish darkceus that much afaik, and I swapped to darkceus over fairy. Luckily, andy brought an extremely similar team to the one bacon did in circuit finals, where I also used this team, so I pretty much made the same plays.
W3 vs Staxi W (No Caly agreement)
I expected balance and so brought SD groundy, as his teams in the past had been quite weak to it. Luckily, Zac+MRay still managed to do well vs HO, and luckily I had DD on NDM to cover for the sack Zacian into Smeargle strategy (which is extremely underrated)

W4 vs DNNP L
Got outplayed at the begining with his Groudon, (should've really just Ascented with Band Ray turn 1 but expected Bulky Xerneas), which really softened my team up for his CM Groundceus to just run through me. Didn't really have any expectations of what he would bring as I think this was his first AG game so I loaded on Caly/HO counterplay and unfortunately neglected a lot of other MUs, like Primal Groudon which showed.
W5 vs WSun1 L
Don't bring this team I simply brought it bc my team had made Playoffs
W6 vs DNNP L
I think this team was a great pick for vs DNNP, it completely prevents Primal Groudon putting Rocks up and statusing half my team (which is what costed me the game last time), while maintaining my own rocks. I think if you can ensure that they have rocks on their side of the field without having any on yours, it gets 100x easier to win any natdex AG game as some of the most dangerous threats such as Rayquaza and Yveltal get neutered. SD and CM ground nuke balance, so does MRay and nothing on the team lets Shadow Caly in with ease except NDM, which I won't be going into much at all hopefully, given that Zacian doesn't come in on my team that easily and Rocks are on Groundceus. Support EKiller is very underrated. Unfortunately, some endgame missplays on my end and crits caused me to lose.
W7 vs PDT W (No caly agreement)
This was a really good bring vs PDT, with sd ground and Ho-Oh being huge pests to his team. However, he just outplayed me in the early game - every single prediction I made was heavily punished (t1 zac, and precip on my hooh switching to NDM were key). With luck and some good endgame plays, I managed to get the rather underserved win

Overall, I had a lot of fun playing non Calyrex Natdex AG, but not so much fun playing DLC 2 unfortunately

 

[xavgb]

Since I've been involved in NDAG for 3 (going on 4) team tours now, I figured I might as well drop what I came up with this tour.

W1 vs Ice (L)

One of the first things I wanted to try out was Regieleki in a meta with Dmax, because of its speed and insane damage output vs non Grounds with Max Lightning (sometimes under terrain). I decided on running special eleki over physical, trading in damage output vs Caly for better damage on Don and the ability to spam Volt Switch on things. Unfortunately for Eleki it really does need Ground types out of the way which constricts how you can build around it a lot, so in the end I settled on Dbond Gar + HP Ice Pdon. NDM and Dark type are p much mandatory and I wanted to use Zac-C here as well because the team felt a bit slow for something looking to take advantage of trapping, especially with the general lack of defensive utility from the likes of offensive Don.

The game is probably not something I should have lost, and honestly I didnt consider Sucker Yvel at all throughout the game as well as forgetting about BP Caly right at the end, with that in mind I should have clicked Tbolt on the DM kill followed by Volt Switch on whatever comes out next so Darkceus wins from there, and that way the only variant of Yvel I would be in trouble vs would be Timid Taunt, but yeah I hadnt really played DLC 2 much at that point so I messed up.


In week 2 I brought PDT GothOgre cause matchup wins yay, I didnt run into any of the more problematic stuff for that archetype so the game was p straightforward which I needed after Week 1.

W3 vs Sputnik (W)

I was starting to realise just how busted Calyrex was and also realised that I was gonna have to stray away from simple concepts like trapping at some point, so this week was crunch time for me. The teams I used the last two weeks generally left both Baton Passing and Dmaxing as incredibly high reward options after Caly gets an NP, so I decided to use something that covers both options in one play which is Scarf Yveltal. Since AG has a tendency where Rocks are p much perma up on both sides I wasnt really sure how to go about using a non Boots Yveltal, in the end I settled on Ho-Oh for Defog and Assurance Zac to punish teams for trading Rocks. I wanted to use Recover Ekiller after realising how annoying it was to play against in Week 1 and Waterceus is there because it's Waterceus.

Sputnik brought something that looked a hell of a lot like HO but then actually wasnt (which Im guessing was intentional) and I had to adjust from figuring out how badly Smeargle would hurt me to figuring out how the hell I'm supposed to kill a Spdef Pdon (oops). Eventually I figured out that I could probably catch it with a Ho-Oh Toxic since I had already lost Boots which makes it super easy for any Edge Pdon to just kinda click Rocks after Defog and then click Edge the next turn if they stay in instead of scouting, and from there it was just about getting to an Ekiller endgame with Rocks up to prevent Smeargle shenanigans. I kinda mindlessly clicked Ice Beam on the Smeargle instead of Psong which opened up the possibility for an evasion raise into dodge but luckily it turned out fine.


W4 vs Staxi (L)

HO was on my list of things to bring mostly because nothing else was, I felt a great sense of despair trying to deal with Caly somewhat reliably at this point so going with HO seemed like a decent way around it. The main spin of this HO was that I opted out of using some of the brokens like Caly and Xern in favour of running some more underrated but also generally weaker threats that I hoped would have a more predictable output in terms of how much I could expect them to do. The other unusual thing here is the choice of Yveltal set, with the idea being that it could come in more often than other Yveltal variants, while still locking out some of the main switchins to a defensive Yveltal (such as Arcs) with Taunt and Spikes support.

While I do think there's some potential in the ideas here, the overall team probably relies too much on being matched up against the right structures (though these are admittedly very common). Etern + anything proved to be a huge problem that I kind of overlooked, and Im sure there's more similar matchups out there where this team doesnt provide enough auto-win potential to get through. Given that the Caly was Subpass with Z, it was v difficult to put together any convincing gameplan even with the knowledge of the sets as it basically comes down on Steelceus repeatedly getting free turns. I tried to Dmax at v low hp which looks incredibly weird, but the hope was to get off a Max Guard on Astral Barrage, followed by a Steelspike and then another Max Guard so that I could heal up Steelceus, this plan only really accounted for the main Caly set though so when it clicked Sub that was the whole game.

W5 vs ShionShadows (W)

This week I was basically looking to go back to an Ekiller team similar to what I used in Week 3, and I also really wanted to drop Darks cause I was tired of using them, so the main idea was Shadow Claw Ekiller with Xern to help me trade Dmaxes early game if needed. I felt it was worth going back to HP Fire Xern for the reliable Zac matchup and also the better DM matchup to help me trade maxes more reliably. Bringing back Scarf Ray was an epiphany I had for these types of teams to be slightly better vs things like Caly/Zac/post Dmax Yveltal (mainly Caly). The rest of the team was focused on keeping up the aggression, Etern is needed as a Tspike absorber so that I can skip Defog, rest is standard.

I dont have much to say about the game other than the fact that I almost lost to forgetting about Sucker Punch again... Max Guard was free on that turn.


Finals vs pichus (W)

Scarf Marsh and Chansey were two things I had been eyeing up for a few weeks but I just couldn't figure out a good way to build with either of them so when I figured out I could use them together I wanted to bring this. CM Refresh Fairy and Band Ray were there to try and ease the fat matchup as that's one of the things Chansey teams can sometimes struggle to adequately deal with. Lunala was a bit of a wild pick but I really needed ways to keep the game going vs Tspikes and also a Defogger that doesn't let DM in since that's p awkward to deal with. The team felt okay in tests though the ways to win are usually incredibly roundabout and slow mainly due to how the DM matchup plays out, but the tools are usually enough to be fine most of the time.

The matchup I ended up getting was super neat, with Chans + Fairyceus + Nala shutting out almost everything and the game was p straightforward from there, though I am publicly calling out Icemaster for telling the AG Discord to Morning Sun first vs +3 Zac-C cause you can die on a roll to Ada SD (or be forced to Dmax). Obviously in that particular scenario I should probably just Sunsteel with that in mind though.


I think Caly dropping kinda sucked hard for AG, but i'm p happy that I managed to come out with the joint best Natdex record without having to fall back on using the same thing every week like I kinda expected to. I was definitely pushed out of my comfort zone a few times and really should have practiced more, but overall I'm still mostly happy with my performance and the win so I'll take it.

P.S. here's a bonus team that I refuse to explain, hf!

 

[Dockiva~~]

Hi everyone. since i'm a bit bored, i thought about sharing my teams that i built on this tour. To be honest, this tour was really interesting for me, since i started using HO (something that frankly, i never used before), i was the only usum main of my team, i tried to be more consistent and versatile as a player. Anyway, here are the teams!

Hyper offense

Description

well, my idea was to use something completely different from my typical balance. skarph was my manager in agpl 1 and 2, so could be really easy for him to prepare for a generic balance and win. so, from this point i started using HO. I had no experience at all with HO teams, so I really appreciate the support of PDT who helped me with testing. well, I started with Deo s, typical set but with Psycho Boost to allow to eliminate threats like Mgar and marsh that usually enter Deo S, in addition to allowing me some chip in Ray if use DD. The next addition is the god of AG, Mray DD there is not much to explain, we all know what an excellent wallbreaker that Mray is with a DD, maybe you can replace EQ with V-crate for more coverage for skarm or celes. after I wanted to use 2 ekillers, the first set with Chople Berry to be able to eliminate marsh and with Facade to take advantage of the typical supportceus sets with will-o-wisp and toxic and be able to hit more powerful. the next set is kind of weird, but it works as a surprise for mons like ferro and celes to try and stop the sweep. Overheat with LO really hits very hard on the mons mentioned above, and gives extra power to Extreme Speed and EQ which helps a lot. the next mon was flyceus, the cm + refresh set can sweep at the end of the game, not much to say, use cm and try to win. and lastly, Ultra necro. I was really thinking about the standard SD + Outrage set to try and hit everything. but i thought i would use x-scissor to hit darkceus, stall2, tytar. looking calcs, it's better to use outrage, but I didn't like the idea of allowing xer to enter on an outrage and using Geomancy.

Description

Continuing with my idea of using HO, I really thought to use 2 xernas, because xerneas with a Geo is really a threat for any team, and now 2 xerneas ...if you don't have a dusk mane (or bronzon but this mon sucks) then God help you. I saw the ORAS team that made thimo and thought about adapting it to usum. There is not much to explain, just change the set of deo s a bit to have t-wave and have a move that you do not expect to annoy some mons, you can use the normal set with Skill Swap if you prefer that set. I changed groundceus for an Ekiller LO to hit with priori and hit harder with Frustration. And the Pdon set for a mixed one with Fire Blast to hit everything.

Description

Everyone thought that i would prepare because its the finals of a team tour, who would not prepare? Well ... I didn't really prepare, I felt really sick and tired (due to covid, ye, i dont wanna talk about it) + the school really needed all my attention. So just try to build a webs team that could work. i started with Shuckle because i wanted to keep exploring the HO teams and I've never used Shuckle as a lead. the next addition was yvetal with taunt to avoid defog and stuff. after the typical DD Mega ray with V-create to try to kill celes and skarm. again i wanted to use 2 Ekillers, this time with Z Giga Impact. really a very powerful Z move that can kill almost anything that doesn't resist +2. and again the Chople Berry set to survive marsh and kill it. and with facade for more power of some status. And finally, xerneas geomancy its the best special set up sweeper in ag, there is nothing to explain.

Balance

Description

well, in the finals i didn't really prepare, just try to build something solid that could against the AG meta in general. I started with dusk mane sd + rocks, but in the end I decided to change sd for toxic. marsh + band mega ray is a very good offensive core with necro dusk support fairy types like fairyceus, scarf xerneas aren't a problem now. Darkceus with perish song check to ultra necro, lunala, arceus refresh + cm. Waterceus checks Mega ray, Marsh, Zyg-Complete, Pdon, groundceus. and finally fairyceus cm + refresh, fairyceus is able to check Yveltal, Marsh, Zyg-Complete, and Mega ray, although fairyceus cm is to try to win in late game.

Description

i didn't know what to use against jrdn, i was expecting some cata team. so i took a skarph team that Iihad a long time ago and edited it to have something against cata teams. i changed the DD set for a mix set, i wanted something that would hit everything on the meta, marsh can force some 50/50 with pursuit and kills things like Mgar, lunala, and revenge killing to Mray, steelceus, darkceus cm, etc. Scarf xerneas is a good speed control and have something against psyspam (if jrdn will use something like that), also can kill things like ultra necro, marsh, Mray, dark types, etc. and with aromatherapy heal the status. Then there are the supportceus, darkceus to have a check for ultra necro, deoxys. Poisonceus for fairy types like xerneas geo, fairyceus, etc. and finally changed waterceus for a defensive Pogre cm to try and win when Pogre cm's checks are out.

well, here are some teams that I built but didn't use and I don't want to explain them!! here. sorry if there are spelling errors and stuff like that.

edit: I forgot to put the pokepast of the team that I used against jrdn.