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Another Monotype Winter Premier has come and gone. Congratulations to the Circhester Centiskorchers!
This thread is for any MWP participant who wants to share any of their successful teams, standards builds and new tech that they cooked up during the tour. I'm definitely looking forward to stealing seeing the teams posted here!
At the time, I had no clue what to use against Isza and DugZa brought up the idea of webs water, so I went along with it and I really liked the outcome. The immediate things that pop up when you see this team is that there is no electric immune, and the following question arises: why not just use rain?
In regards to the no electric immune, I have noticed that all of the electrics used in the tier often carry grass coverage of some sort (see Thundurus-T) so you're not really switching into them anyways and none of them really ran scarf (Thundurus-T was mostly boots or leftovers at that point). Electric in my opinion is always bound to have around one or two users with grass coverage or a SubTox set of some sort on something random so that match up was always going to be an uphill battle. As for the whole why not use rain thing, I believe the typical rain team and webs both have similar match ups but the thing that stood out the most is the fact that, despite the electric match up being pretty terrible, the fairy match up was pretty great for webs water (fairy doesn't really run removal, as does other types), something I really valued at the time. As for the team itself, I didn't want the Araquanid to be totally useless against flying so I decided to make it SubTox so Celesteela doesn't take advantage of it. Since I lacked an electric immunity, I need something reliable vs flying, and Sub DD Gyarados does just that. Keldeo in my eyes is pretty slept on (still the best Water/Fighting on water imo) especially with the amount of Zarudes running around so it seemed more necessary than what Urshifu-RS had to offer.
I have seen many sets revolving around this Kommo-o, but I am with the impression that the best variation of this set is ID / BP / EQ / Sub with Leftovers. If you think about it, it is a lot easier find something to deal with steel than it is to find something to deal with dark on dragon, making BU Drain Punch sets a lot less necessary. ID Sub sets make what should be a pretty tough match up against dark pretty doable since you're able to Sub up on at least half of the team. I believe there are many different EV spreads that you can use with this set so it is up to you to determine what to EV this for.
Unfortunately this team didn't get used outside of test games, which is a shame because I felt like it had a lot of potential. The main set on the team is the Zeraora. Due to the lack of hidden power, it is generally hard for electric to break past flying due to the many threats there are (Landorus-T, Dragonite to name a few), making the match up pretty complicated. The cool thing about Zeraora is that they usually switch in their Landorus-T first which should lead to a situation in your favor due to magnet rise (defensive variants didn't run toxic throughout the tour), and the best part is that Aerodactyl cannot revenge kill you, something that many of the electric team's flying breakers had an issue with. The rest of the team was filled out to try and cover the things power liked to use, so this team can definitely be improved. Perhaps there is a better Zeraora spread than max max too. For now, though, I do think that Magnet Rise + Bulk Up is definitely the best Zeraora set you can use on electric. Note: Play Rough can probably be replaced, as long as the replacement move is able to do more than half to defensive variants of Landorus-T.
Props to the Centi's, you guys had a great season. Now let's have a great BLT & MWCOP!
I'm pretty sure these are the teams I used...I made like a dozen versions of each team and I don't label anything. If people want, I can edit in my thought processes for the teams. Shout outs to Havens , Quantum Tesseract , and Trichotomy . I probably wouldn't have done as well as I did without your help.
maroon and i made this rain team and our team used it a bunch. gorex, maroon, and i both used it once throughout week 1, 2, and 3. I ended up bringing this vs Choco. This team's more outdated but i decided to post it here because i really like it and i still think it can do decent in the current metagame despite there being more updated rains with keldeo/pex going around. tpunch shifu for water/flying, peli speed ivs and relaxed are for underspeeding hippowdon, letting u set rain after sand comes up. peli is the defogger bc fini being the defogger and dying to t spikes is no bueno. Jolly barraskewda is the superior nature because of tapu koko/spectrier and how outspeeding them outside of rain is great in those specific matchups for leading the fish.
I thought noivern would be cool for compression. Infiltrator is a really nice ability since Flying has trouble w a lot of sub users (zapdos, spectrier, thundy, rotom forms) and tricking a scarf against those pokemon are huge in the long run. Toxic is for subtoxic zapdos mainly; as the opposing player would think theyre safe after u trick scarf onto something else, but toxic punishes zapdos as well. it's also nice for tapu fini, since mandibuzz can stall out turns with its u turn and draining kiss being really weak. I originally made this team for chaitanya bc he had a lot of aegislashless Steel replays and zapdos g shits all over those variants, but the ugly bird is also nice vs dark where you can ohko 2hko everything. I originally had SD + stealth rock lando t but it got slept by amoonguss and the team got mauled by poison in the first game when i played chait so I decided to change the lando t set and give up rocks when i used it vs isza. Honestly the team still isn't reliable vs poison since the lando t set is more of a surprise factor than anything. The spread means galarian weezings strange steam never breaks sub and it creeps adamant bisharp. Overall the team is nice outside of a few matchups like water and poison where galarian zapdos + lando t can pull through but can be unreliable.
I used this vs Chaitanya and vs Star. Originally really liked how Electric preformed in the Isza vs Leru game early on and I'm still a huge fan of it today because of how it can really take advantage of things with terrain + strong breakers as an offensive type. Knock + Encore Raichu is something I've been liking, as Knock is nice for Aegislash's Leftovers while Encore is cool for setup, mainly Volcarona and Aegislash subbing. Knock Off was something I originally put to help vs Slowking Galar since Electric vs Slowking + Amoonguss + Nidoking would otherwise be a 1-99 matchup, so knocking off AV was something I felt could be nice so Rising Voltage 2hkos. It's still kinda hard, but it makes the matchup doable especially since i felt poison was on the rise. I had a slow ass zapdos to help vs sd Excadrill more but after Kythr vs Peachyclouds we started running faster Zapdos spreads while mat even ran Specs in a game.
I built this originally in the week we faced the tsareenas and i ended up using it esp since it matchuped well with the stuff isza liked. Ended up using it twice vs yedla in week 7 too. i really like the base premise of it since Kyurem is one of the most dominating mons in ss monotype rn, being able to almost single handedly fuck up a majority of the top types: electric, dark, water, flying, poison, grass, especially with good support in spikes/t spikes. Defensive cloyster is something ive found to the best hazard removal on ice atm; i think it is miles better than avalugg. Both of them get walled by ghosts but Cloyster can at least double as a spiker to exert pressure and prevent it from being a loss of momentum against ghost mons switching in/ghost itself. t spikes are great vs types like dark (since many people have started to drop drapion), normal, and spikes are nice for pressuring everything bar flying and giving u a shot vs steel. Rocky helmet is primarily for melmetal as it takes 4 double iron bash hits to kill a cloyster from full hp, and you only need 1 double iron bash + 1 spike iirc? (too lazy to use calc as of rn) to put cb melmetal into range of kyurems epower. Since poison was getting a bit popular in the middle of the tour Glastrier was smthn i felt was a hidden gem as it essentially cteams poison to shit and is a nice wincon in other matchups with its good bulk. The speed makes u creep neutral natured defensive Celesteela/Ttar and you can get up a Substitute vs non Flamethrower Celesteela since Heavy Slam does like 20%. It also lets u creep gweezing, porygon2, etc to smash those types. Rest of team is pretty standard and chople Kyurem helps with both urshifus, g zapdos, barraskewda, and skarmory's body press.
Congrats to the centis; looking fw to a chill wcop/blt.
Pretty much your typical scarf Lando-T set on Flying, except I ran Outrage to help me deal with Dragon better. I ran this on all of my Lando-Ts in MWP, and even though I only got to show it off in one game, I honestly think it has much more utility than Stone Edge or Knock Off.
Feitan the steam kind of put me on to this set, but I haven't seen him talk about it so I'll put it here. HDB Tini is somewhat common, but with the addition of Toxic, this thing becomes a real menace. You can cripple things that would normally wall it on the switch, and then get some necessary chip off with U-turn. In this game, Attribute's Lando-T would have been able to switch in to my Victini many times (and get recovery on Victini or Jirachi) if I hadn't poisoned it on the switch, and it ultimately paved the path for my victory.
Latias @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 156 HP / 160 SpA / 192 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Agility
- Stored Power
- Roost
Not really sure where I got the idea to make this demonic set, but it's honestly pretty good (2-0 in MWP). To be honest, I have no idea what I prepped for, but it was really solid in tests, and does well against stuff like Electric. In this game against Vodoom, Latias pretty much carries me to victory. (The other time it was used was in Shiba's game, for anyone curious.)
I really thought this Ninetales-Alola Fairy team was dogshit even after Floss obliterated me with it in week 3, but I decided to give it a go and see how it went. In the first trial run, I had Choco use it against Splash, and we somehow lost to Dark, so I deleted it from my builder. Then in finals, I was prepping for Dark and Dragon and decided to give it another go with Tapu Fini. To be honest, Tapu Fini has the potential to bail out any bad play you might make, and synergizes much better with the rest of the team than Azu (whose Aqua Jet gets neutralized by Lele's Psychic Surge). I gave the team to Shiba for finals and he had no problem 6-0ing Maki's Dark.
This is a pretty interesting Psychic team I made for Choco's finals match against Sabella, and it ended up working out beautifully (6-0ing Dark). I took some inspiration from someone's Bronzong + Galarian Slowking team (I think it was Maki and/or Decem), but ended up slapping Hatterene and Celebi on the team to help with the Dark and Water matchups, respectively. I think Hatterene is extremely underrated in the CT meta, probably because of the release (and unban) of Tapu Lele, and we forgot how good this mon was pre-DLC. It still favors better against Dark and Dragon than Lele, and Magic Bounce provides so much utility. Same with Celebi---this mon was used so much in SM and ORAS to deal with Water, but we've stopped using it for some reason.
I built this Ground team for Shiba's semifinals game, anticipating something along the lines of Psy/Ghost/Fly/Steel. The team's centered around Krookodile as a strong Knock Off spammer, but has some cool techs to win the aforementioned matchups. X-Scissor has been somewhat common on Band Excadrill, but it's worth mentioning here, as it has no switchins on Psychic. The Mamoswine set is meant to bluff Adamant Choice Band, but I enjoy the ability to switch moves on Mamoswine anyways, since its STAB coverage is unresisted and is super-effective against half of all types. One of the most interesting techs is Smack Down on Krookodile, which was suggested to me by Havens. It acts as an emergency check to Skarm/Corv/Celes---think Celes vs Krook + Hippo, or something along those lines.
I never did get to use this team, but it's pretty fun nonetheless and I wanted to share it. It's super matchup fish, which is why I didn't use it, but it's pretty much a free win against any team without a ground type.
We were already in playoffs by Week 7, so I gave gama Chait's SM Flying team (probably my favorite build from past gen) and made Torn-T Boots for his game against Gondra. The team is still really solid in NatDex, and has few bad matchups. Nothing much to say here.
This team takes inspiration from the one above, but I wanted a better matchup against Water and Mega Latias Psy, which Flying struggles with a lot. Toxic Torn-T can catch Mega Latias pretty easily since very little else on Psychic wants to switch into Torn. Originally I had Lando-T on the team over Gliscor, but I wanted to have a better matchup against Steel, so I slapped a Gliscor on there and called it a day. Aerodactyl is supposed to be the main offensive wallbreaker, and provide a wincon against Dragon (which is probably the worst matchup Flying can face). I honestly don't like this team very much, since I feel like it's too passive, and I quite honestly forgot that Z-moves even existed in NatDex, but it's a solid team nonetheless, as demonstrated by Skysolo's game against Attribute.
We toyed around with a bunch of different grass builds, but I like this one the most. Scarf Whimsi is pretty unexpected and cleans up well against stuff like Dark and Dragon. Celebi is incredible against Grass, Poison, and Steel, and I like SD Fightinium Rillaboom to take out big threats like Celesteela. Here's the team in action.
I don't really do shoutouts but big ups to the entire team. Shiba brought up the team tour compiler the other day so I checked and saw that we had the best SS, Bo3, STAB, LC, and NatDex records of all time, along with the second best AAA---Havens and In The Hills really built the Warriors up in this bitch. Sorry to everyone I trash talked and hope no one actually got their feelings hurt, it's just a game :D. Looking forward to a good BLT and WCoP!
This dual trapping core served as the basis for the team, using Scarf Final Gambit + First Impression to deal with threats for the rest of the team to win like Carvanha, Dewpider, Foongus, Lileep, and Porygon. Diglett is Choice Scarf to creep all other relevant +1 mons (it wasn't really switching moves anyways). Substitute on Trapinch was DugZa's idea for trapping and revenge killing Carvanha against Dark.
Wooper @ Eviolite
Ability: Water Absorb
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 236 Def / 156 SpD
Careful Nature
- Recover
- Curse
- Amnesia
- Body Slam
Dual setup Wooper does a decent job of sweeping the average Water team after Dewpider is dealt with. I decided to go with Body Slam as the attacking move to fish for paras and be useful in other match-ups while still hitting Wingull and breaking Mareanie at +6.
For Grass vs. Grass I decided on using itemless Acrobatics Zarude. I realized it was a nuke even without a boosting item and its speed and bulk make it very hard to revenge kill, too. Taunt helps with defensive boosters and status inducers like Ferrothorn, while Acrobatics is really all the coverage you need against opposing Grass-types, unsurprisingly. In this replay you can see Chait, a man that stole my sets and used them before I could in the same week... using the Acrobatics Zarude to great effect.
Mew @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 248 HP / 24 Atk / 72 Def / 60 SpD / 104 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bulk Up
- Leech Life
- Sucker Punch
- Safeguard
This demon was the centerpiece of my Psychic vs. Psychic team. The idea being that Safeguard not only protects it from getting paralyzed or poisoned by Slowbro, Slowking or Jirachi, but it also makes it a lot more likely for my opponent to use an attack to trigger Mew's Weakness Policy. As seen in my game against Toxanex, the idea worked perfectly and Mew broke through for Choice Band Victini to finish off the game.
+3 24 Atk Mew Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Victini: 258-304 (75.6 - 89.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Choice Band Victini V-create vs. 248 HP / 72 Def Mew: 340-402 (84.3 - 99.7%)
252 SpA Alakazam Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 60 SpD Mew: 170-200 (42.1 - 49.6%)
+2 252 SpA Alakazam Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 60 SpD Mew: 338-398 (83.8 - 98.7%)
The speed investment is for Necrozma and including base 80s as well. Dragon Dance Necrozma is very potent and this way, with Sticky Webs set up, you can switch Mew hard into Necrozma going for Dragon Dance and still be faster to Bulk Up before you get hit with a +1 Knock Off. Once Necrozma triggers Mew's Weakness Policy it loses the 1v1 handily.
These last three are all three sets I used in my finals game against Nailec. Since it was the finals of a team tournament I wanted to make sure I'd bring the type of sauce that gave me both sufficient defensive outs, as well as winning options offensively. Dark vs. Dark in particular is spectacularly offensively oriented, because Pokemon like Urshifu, Pangoro, Crawdaunt and Grimmsnarl, for example, can't really be stopped defensively.
The Drapion set might look ridiculous, but it played an important part both offensively and defensively. Defensively it absorbed Toxic Spikes from opposing Drapion, which look to shred the rest of my team otherwise, as well as being a Dark-type that doesn't have a Fairy-type weakness, which is essential in dealing with Grimmsnarl and even other Play Rough users like Skuntank and Liepard. Scope Lens + Cross Poison's high critical hit rate give Drapion a 50% chance to crit Cross Poison every time it's used, which in combination with Sniper becomes very potent. I liked this idea in particular because many of the elite Dark-types have access to Bulk Up, including Grimmsnarl and Zarude, two Pokemon you'd especially want Drapion to beat on your Dark-type team. Ignoring the Bulk Up defense boost(s) and cleanly netting the OHKO on both is great, plus Cross Poison is only 10 base power weaker than Poison Jab when you don't get the critical hit. Earthquake covers opposing Drapion, Tyranitar, Skuntank and Bisharp. I gave Drapion enough speed to outspeed Jolly Bisharp, which I actually ended up facing in my game, so I was glad I went with that benchmark.
252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu Close Combat vs. 160 HP / 0 Def Drapion: 271-319 (84.4 - 99.3%)
252+ Atk Grimmsnarl Play Rough vs. 160 HP / 0 Def Drapion: 141-166 (43.9 - 51.7%) -- 9.8% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Weavile Triple Axel (40 BP) (3 hits) vs. 160 HP / 0 Def Drapion: 255-306 (79.4 - 95.3%)
252 Atk Choice Band Pangoro Close Combat vs. 160 HP / 0 Def Drapion: 262-309 (81.6 - 96.2%)
252 SpA Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 160 HP / 0 SpD Drapion: 262-309 (81.6 - 96.2%)
252 Atk Krookodile Earthquake vs. 160 HP / 0 Def Drapion: 282-332 (87.8 - 103.4%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
+2 252 Atk Scrafty Close Combat vs. 160 HP / 0 Def Drapion: 280-331 (87.2 - 103.1%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
192+ Atk Sniper Drapion Cross Poison vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Grimmsnarl on a critical hit: 594-702 (150.7 - 178.1%)
192+ Atk Sniper Drapion Cross Poison vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Zarude on a critical hit: 405-477 (115 - 135.5%)
192+ Atk Sniper Drapion Cross Poison vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Urshifu on a critical hit: 207-244 (60.7 - 71.5%)
192+ Atk Sniper Drapion Cross Poison vs. -1 0 HP / 4 Def Urshifu on a critical hit: 310-366 (90.9 - 107.3%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
192+ Atk Sniper Drapion Cross Poison vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Weavile on a critical hit: 297-351 (105.6 - 124.9%)
The biggest headache I had to deal with in making my team work defensively was Urshifu. The only two Dark-type Pokemon that avoid the 2HKO from its Choice Band or +1 (Bulk Up) Close Combat are Sableye and Spiritomb, and despite admittedly considering Sableye momentarily, I had to come to terms with the fact that neither of those Pokemon were viable options. The midground solution I came up with was Weak Armor Mandibuzz, as it allows you to switch into Close Combat, lower Urshifu's defense, chip its HP with Rocky Helmet and outspeed for the Brave Bird KO the following turn thanks to Weak Armor's speed boosts. The 32 attack EVs ensure that Brave Bird actually always kills -1 Urshifu after Rocky Helmet damage. I figure I can get my KO on Urshifu or at worst force it out without actually losing a Pokemon. From there I can Taunt to prevent getting set up on, while also having the option of a suicide Tailwind to get my own Urshifu going, for example. In the actual game I was able to trade my Mandibuzz for not only Urshifu, but over half of my opponent's Weavile's HP, too. The speed is for outspeeding Choice Scarf Urshifu at +2 and being faster than Jolly Tyranitar and anything slower to be able to Taunt them.
This last moveset was actually the last set I decided on in the entire tournament. I struggled quite a bit with finding the Urshifu moveset I liked the most, since Urshifu is essentially always incredible in Dark vs. Dark, so long as you actually run Fighting-type attacks. The reason I settled on Endure + Salac Berry + Reversal is because it had the most reliable "two for one" potential. In a metagame as offensive as Dark vs. Dark Monothreat I wanted to make sure I could somehow get an extra kill after my opponent was able to send out a Pokemon freely after I got a kill. Get ahead in the trading game and ride out my advantage from there. Urshifu doesn't need a Choice Band to get going with Close Combat, so I figured I could Endure on whatever faster Pokemon would try to take me out, such as a Hydreigon, and then Reversal anything for a clean nuke on anything not a Ghost-type. In the actual game that turned out to be a Choice Band Weavile, which worked out perfectly for Urshifu.
It'd be great if the other Monothreat players also posted their insights on the metagames and their approach on taking advantage of it.
