Resource Post-ZUPL IV Set and Team Dump

Tuthur

formerly 0-7 in FCL
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Art by Clementine | Mostly copied from Ho3nConfirm3d's thread from two years ago

With the regular season over and ZUPL IV now in playoffs, here is a thread where players may share the teams and sets they used sometime throughout the tournament. These teams are divided into the SS, SM, ORAS, BW, and DPP tiers that were played in ZUPL. Tour players, feel free to share your thoughts and potential match up fishing when creating the team!

Rules
  • All teams/sets must have seen use in an official ZUPL game. While replays are not needed, an official replay should exist here (or in the tiebreaker, playoffs, and finals threads until the replay thread is updated).
    • While this rule says that all teams/sets must have seen official use, I won't penalize those that post sets or teams they heavily considered bringing. After all, it is a part of preparation and may influence what you brought or built in a specific week.*
  • Title your post (or team if your post has multiple teams) with one of the corresponding generational tags: [DPP], [BW], [ORAS], [SM], or [SS].
  • Post an importable of the team/set, preferably with pokepaste.
  • Use sprites to have a visual of the team: try using sprites dragged from here.
  • Post a description inside a spoiler as to save space.
*My own change to this rule

And that's it! Thank you in advance for participating in the fourth ZUPL and sharing your thoughts on the teambuilding aspect of it.
 
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Tuthur

formerly 0-7 in FCL
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Just like during the past ZUPL, I have build all my teams every week and also some for teammates, mainly in SS. I won't share them all since I plan on reusing a lot during Seasonal and Majors, but I wanted to share some fun builds I made for SS.

SS - Week 1; jonfilch vs Hervalt (W)
:accelgor::articuno::poliwrath::rapidash::sableye::stunfisk-galar:
In the first weeks, I wanted to build something different as I usually use, as I was scared of getting counter teamed. So I avoided Alcremie and Miltank, that I spammed a lot in June, and started building around Sableye + Articuno, as I could really see Herv bringing cheese and this core does quite well against both Sun and Electric Terrain. I rounded up the defensive core with Poliwrath and Galarian Stunfisk that are defensive Pokémon I had almost never used prior. Accelgor and Rapidash were added for Speed control and making progress with Spikes + Knock Off and Swords Dance, respectively. The team is fun, but not very functional; it's a balance that lacks Heal Bell making it quite unviable, and it has some wack matchups like Double Dance Alcremie, that we fortunately didn't face.

SS - Week 1; Tuthur vs clean (W)
:altaria::clefairy::kangaskhan::palossand::sawk::silvally-dark:
I expected Drud to build for this slot, so I was preparing hard on Miltank as Drud had been a huge cow spammer. That's how I ended up bringing Teleport Clefairy and Trapper Kangaskhan, that doesn't trap Miltank as reliably as I could have thought. Just like jonfilch's team, I don't think the team is great, namely due to the SubToxic Klinklang weakness, and I got outprepared in the builder, with Swords Dance Qwilfish completely destroying the defensive core. Meta was just new with Palossand dropping and Malamar being banned, so I still had to figure out what was good or not.

SS - Week 2; Tuthur vs TheFranklin (L)
:dugtrio::lilligant::silvally::skuntank::whiscash::klinklang:
I was scared of btboy's tryhard prep, because I knew he would find a way to abuse my standard balance, and that I probably wouldn't be able to outplay TheFranklin. That's how I decided to bring Hyper Offense, which is a playstyle I almost never use, expect for Sun teams. Not much to say in the details of the team, it is mostly a lot of powerful breakers in the tier (bar Whiscash) and it did quite well in tests. TheFranklin ended up using a team that looked to have beend designed to abuse my standard balances, so I think I made the right call bringing this team, even if I ended up losing. TheFranklin played better and that's it.

SS - Week 4; Tuthur vs Lily (W)
:alcremie::articuno::miltank::sawk::silvally::stunfisk-galar:
I wanted to take advantage of OBB's particular choice of Grass-types, always avoiding Tangela, Gourgeist, and Thwackey, with Swords Dance Silvally-Water with Bug and Psychic coverage that would let it easily beat Roselia and Appletun. I paired it with a quite solid defensive core, featuring Body Press Miltank as Roselia + Pawniard had been claiming on this kind of builds and I wanted to be safe, especially since it's one of OBB's favorite teamstyle. The prep ended up being super bad; Thwackey meant Silvally-Water was much more limited and Galarian Stunfisk wouldn't be able to wall Skuntank, which looked super good into my team. Fortunately, Lily was still unexperimented with the tier and I clutched the game.

I didn't really know what to do for my 2000th post, and sharing fun teams that aren't the most standards sounded like a good idea. I am thankful to the friends I have made, mostly in the ZU and french communities, I have fun every day with you guys, even in the hardest moments. I am really not good at writing much and I don't want to repeat what I said in my 1000th, so I will just wish I can keep you arround for my 3000th post!
 

BaitWiz

free adv zu
is a Pre-Contributor
Heya, I ended up working with Butterfrees a ton over the course of ZUPL, including a couple of teams I'm really proud of. Thank you Jett for putting up with my weird ideas that didn't make the final cut, lol.

SS Week 6; Prodigezz vs OBB (W)

1663614776713.png1663614790525.png1663614802869.png1663614816589.png1663614827744.png1663614841551.png

For week 6 Mimi initially brought up the idea of using Crustle, as he felt it was quite powerful in the matchup. This led myself, Mimi, and Jett to look at building teams with it, with my team ending up making the final cut and winning the game. Crustle is the obvious star of the show, with Power Herb Solar Blade providing a one time opportunity to blow past a resist to its stabs. Sadly, this ended up not being too relevant as it just picked up the KO on Silvally Water that an X-Scissor might've grabbed anyway, but would've been phenomenal to have against the likes of Rhydon, Palossand, and Gunfisk. Our Silvally Water was slotted in as a special attacker that still provided defensive utility, something that the Jynx we were initially considering didn't do as well. The rest of the team is pretty standard, and Prod piloted it phenomenally to a win.

1663614870600.png1663614879700.png1663614902007.png1663614917698.png1663614943207.png1663614953873.png

I helped out Xayah where I could during the early weeks of the tournament, which helped me better understand SM ZU overall. This particular team, while it didn't end up being used at the end of the day, was one we considered using for finals that we just didn't have time to properly test. With Trevenant to absorb status + break, an offensive Camerupt, a Silvally Dark, and fairly standard mons to provide necessary support, the team was designed to abuse the bulkier teams that PIF had been bringing, especially teams without solid dark resists. This is (imo) one of the coolest teams that I've ever built and I'm sad we weren't able to show it off proper in the tournament.
 
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So my plan this tour was to not build as much as I usually do cause of time constraints. Ended up building a fair bit more than I planned though and most was 5 min crafts that I didn't have time to test. Was still thrilling to see my team mates actually kill it with the teams though!

Gonna drop off all the teams I built that were used this tour. Not super detailed description of all of them. If you have any questions feel free to hit me up.
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Hoping that more people post their teams here! Always a fun read!
 
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Jett

gm gobodachis
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4pm Jett here just dropping some of my teams here since the tour is over and I don't see myself playing much SS any more.

W1 - Jett vs Louna (W)
:sawk: :tangela: :stunfisk: :lycanroc-midnight: :altaria: :klinklang:

Funnily enough, this was the only Klinklang team I brought all tournament (and many of the later weeks featured 0 Klinklangs in any of our SS slots). Pretty standard team built around Lycanroc and the aim was to overwhelm physical walls such as Tangela and Palossand with Knock Off and Toxic. Early weeks I was using a lot of the Tangela + Stunfisk + Altaria defensive core since it covered most things bar Ice-types. Klinklang could cover the Articuno weakness while people didn't commonly use Jynx or Froslass at the time given they were relatively high risk Pokemon (and to be honest, the latter is still heavily underutilised and underrated). This was probably the cleanest game I played this whole tournament.

W4 - Jett vs Krystyl (W)
W7 - clean vs viet noa (W)
:exeggutor: :articuno: :stunfisk: :silvally-poison: :gurdurr: :kabutops:

By Week 4, it was clear that people were just gonna spam these physical counters against me so I decided to switch it up with one of the strongest special attackers in the tier. I went with Timid over Modest, a tech first use by Toto in LT playoffs in order to get the advantage against Aritcuno not running much creep so that Psyshock could 2HKO it before it got to respond. The rest of the team was just a bunch of pivots aimed to get Eggy in and deal as much damage as possible or weaken stuff so that Silvally-Poison/Kabutops could clean the game. This team won twice and TWiTT helped me with it so it must be good, right...

W4 - SEA vs TheFranklin (L)
:rapidash: :articuno: :miltank: :palossand: :lilligant: :skuntank:

TWiTT made a really cool Lilligant set which not only could act as a one time pivot with the Leaf Storm Eject Button combo, but could also remove Articuno's or Rapidash Heavy-Duty Boots with Covet afterwards. It also got access to Healing Wish and I decided this would have been a great opportunity to use SD 3 Attacks Rapidash as it looked great into Franklin's scout at the time. Skuntank was another breaker that could appreciate the healing and the rest of the team was a pretty standard defensive core. Unfortunately, we ran into a really cool team from Franklin and ended up losing to Falinks but I think a lot of the ideas here were pretty cool and probably just needed a little refining. (Either that or the matchup was just bad, who knows).

W5 - Jett vs Danny (L)
:flapple: :silvally-electric: :rapidash: :rhydon: :uxie: :persian-alola:

Danny is someone who always beats me, and in particular is much better than me when it comes to playing longer games. Therefore I decided for Week 5, I'd bring quite an offensive team with 2 Pokemon I'd never used before. Silvally-Electric is a great Ground-type lure which can pivot in Flapple. My luck + Flapple is definitely an unusual combination, but to be honest it went rather well in tests (except for when I played Corthius). Rest of the team is fairly standard supportive mons you'd see on an offensive team. Jolly Rhydon with Megahorn is a decent lure for Tangela, but realistically you'd need to Knock it beforehand to be effective. Game was close, but I think my matchup was ass, Silvally-Electric was doing nothing because of double Electric and Flapple struggled vs the Articuno Tang core, and the Tangela was a weird spread I couldn't figure out but I think I should have gone for Megahorn more. Questionable Tangela matchup ngl but the team's fun at the very least.

W5 - clean vs ojr (W)
:qwilfish: :froslass: :pawniard: :stunfisk: :tangela: :clefairy:

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. After being enlightened by TheFranklin's usage of Froslass 3 weeks in a row, clean and I decided to bring one of our own. Pawniard was pretty much required in order to deter any Defog attempts and was also a decent setup sweeper, albeit pretty inconsistent. Offensive Tangela benefitted greatly from Spikes, and SD Qwil gave the team a much needed Rapidash answer but also posed as a big threat itself. Not the biggest fan of Clefairy but were were quite concerned of Thievul given our low usage of Fairy-types and its T Wave support was super beneficial given our breakers weren't the fastest.

W6 - Jett vs pichus (W)
:uxie: :coalossal: :dugtrio-alola: :tangela: :gurdurr: :skuntank:

I didn't really know what to run by the 6th week so ended up with a fairly standard Uxie Coal Alolan Dugtrio team. Scarf Trick Uxie is fairly known but not really used often and more disruption is always nice into bulkier teams, but you definitely do have to be careful to not Knock the mon you tricked. Not an insane team by any means but it played well so thought I'd leave it here.

W7 - Herv vs avarice (L)
:sawk: :rhydon: :shiftry: :rapidash: :alcremie: :cramorant:

This was probably my favourite teams of the whole tour. HO was pretty unviable for the most part unless you opted for cheese like Sun or Electric Terrain. Given we were already through this week and my players constantly wanted something more offensive, I decided to revamp my old version of Shiftry HO. Explosion Shiftry was first used by kay who I forgor to give a shoutout in my other post and the person who basically got me up to speed in ZU and building when I first got into the tier. The idea is that Shiftry explodes on something like Altaria or another physical wall that threats like Rapidash and Sawk would have trouble breaking. I found non-cheese offenses typically struggles with Klinklang and Scarf Sawk so Rapidash was pretty mandatory and DD Alcremie as a final wincon could help turn the tide against those threats respectively. In the game this worked perfectly, Rhydon traded for Palossand and Shiftry managed to boom on Altaria so Rapidash had a pretty free winpath. Unfortunately, the rest of the game didn't go as planned but I really do think this team is really solid despite the results.

W2 - Jett vs LustfulLice (L)
Finals - clean vs beauts (W)
:silvally-dark: :rapidash: :rhydon: :tangela: :qwilfish: :rotom:

This wouldn't be a Jett team dump without at least 1 Silvally-Dark showing up. My opponent had an awful schedule and that forced me to play by Wednesday (and proceeded to disgustingly cteam me). Unfortunately, I also caught covid and would have to build and play while ill so I decided to revamp one of my Silvally-Dark teams that I had been spamming during LT. The previous version had issues with Ground-types but this one patched that problem but made opposing Tangela more of a nuisance to deal with instead. I still thought of this as an overall net positive so rolled with it. At the time I was pretty mad that I never did this team justice since my play was pretty poor that day. Fortunately, clean decided he would bring this team in finals, and even though Thievul was a massive threat, clean is a much better pilot than I am, so he still won out.

peepoSit.png
 

S1nn0hC0nfirm3d

aka Ho3nConfirm3d
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Oras Teamdump:

Week 1:
https://pokepast.es/7eed85d8dddb0112

Kicking things off, I kinda had a shakey start. You can see a lot of carry over from last PL with sets I was very comfortable with, like Thief Electabuzz and max Speed Lairion. In today's meta, I would not run this team at all. It's too weak to Wake-Up Slap Purrugly and lacks a lof of the teambuilding quirks that I adhere to later on. I got lucky this first week to get a dub with Electabuzz as a progress maker (which it should never really be on a better-built team).

Week 2:
https://pokepast.es/447197c5112c06fb

More familiar, Purrugly balance. No qualms here.

Week 3:

https://pokepast.es/47239ac614798fc8

Predictable defensive core with Black Glasses Banette as a pseudeo-Dark-type meant to Pursuit trap and revenge kill till Simipour can sweep.

Week 4:

https://pokepast.es/fc7e09dd43715e87

Fun VoltTurn. Sawsbuck as the wallbreaker for two defensive wincons in Pignite and Carbink that don't necessarily need to be setup sweepers if you'd rather use them as a wallbreaker or Normal-type counter, respectively.

Week 5:

https://pokepast.es/373181dc4f5b068c

My take on Purr spikes.

Week 6:

https://pokepast.es/7524e5509b0fb07a

Potentially the best team here. My teambuilder came into its own at this moment. Very confident with this build, getting things like the Politoad and Murkrow sets right finally.

Week 7:

https://pokepast.es/41efcb96f27619be

Roar + Future Sight. Mixed it up making Dustox a special wall instead of physical. Scarf Magmar is also a good cleaner.

Tiebreaker:

https://pokepast.es/f3cc3ca51f3c3967

Hyper Offense, finally. Return Klang is a threat.

Playoffs:

https://pokepast.es/4215d3c142f7b8a1

By the numbers, consider this team a variation of week 6.
 

5Dots

Chairs
is a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributor
Click the sprites to check out the teams!
Was going to do this right after the thread got posted. Not too late to share some teams, and while I was bummed out at some of the results of the games, I was quite happy with how I gave a shot at managing and trying to teambuild. Here’s some of the teams I used for ZUPL IV without further ado!

Week 1: v. Terreitor (W) :Persian-Alola: :Sawk: :Uxie: :Qwilfish: :Rotom: :Rapidash:
I knew Liepard could run Nasty Plot sets better since it has Prankster + Copycat but I wanted to try Alolan Persian. It’s more or less the extra physical bulk, higher Speed tier, and larger variety of coverage that makes it reasonable. Alolan Persian typically was more of a utility Pokemon, so I valued the surprise factor as well. I chose Sawk and Rotom to create a guessing game on which was the Choice Scarfer - I ultimately prioritized Rotom’s Speed tier, as I didn’t want to run the risk of getting chipped down by opposing Scarf Rotoms and speed tying with Scarf Sawks. Uxie was nice for general Speed control with Thunder Wave, but i wanted to make it more offensive with max SpA, which makes it more reliable in favorable matchups. Qwilfish was the team’s Knock Off absorber and Spiker, even though it didn’t do much in the game. Rapidash would’ve been a breaker for A-Persian but chose to make it a late-game sweeper here.

I struggled hard with Musharna since none of my Pokemon could risk switching into Moonblast + Future sight well, and Altaria was also hugely annoying since it didn’t care about Spikes and all my Pokemon were prone to getting whittled down for nothing. A key flinch and a Taunt from Alolan Persian greatly helped turned the game around, though I wish I could’ve slotted Thunderbolt instead. The confusion from Rapidash was also worrisome towards the end, but it didn’t hurt itself. It was a really tight game, but I overall was satisfied with what I came up with!

Week 2: v. pichus (W) :Lycanroc-Midnight: :Rotom: :Miltank: :Exeggutor: :Fighting Memory: :Articuno:
While pichus didn’t have many ZU games from scouting, I nevertheless saw they went more with balance builds. Exeggutor + a Fighting-type felt like a good choice, as Future Sight cores are great against most slow builds without opposing bulky Psychic-types. I equipped Life Orb on Lycanroc as a wincon while also doubling as a pseudo Fighting-type. Rotom was once again great Speed control as I didn’t have good ways to deal with opposing Scarfers. Miltank helped in case I used Trick on Rotom. I actually went with Thick Fat on NASCAR cow as I wanted a good Fire and Ice-resist since my team would otherwise be quite vulnerable to them. While forgoing Heal Bell was not ideal, I needed a Stealth Rock setter for this build. Future Sight on Choice Specs Exeggutor might look funny, but it nukes everything that isn’t a Dark- or Psychic-type. I didn’t consider using bulky Harvest sets until around Week 4, but they may have had more leeway for error considering Exeggutor‘s bulk is only decent. Silvally-Fighting was great as a Future Sight abuser and pivot, and was great at handling Qwilfish and Altaria at the same time. Articuno provided necessary hazard control and a third pivot to the Future Sight core.

The game was once again quite close as I didn’t have a reliable way to handle Morpeko. I also didn’t expect Klinklang to be Jolly, considering the standard set enjoyed as much bulk and power as possible, and it outsped nearly everything in the meta anyways at +2 Speed. With smart pressuring with Miltank, Lycanroc-N, Articuno, and Exeggutor, Rotom helped finish the game off and survived the onslaught.

Week 3 v. clean (L) :Kangaskhan: :Sableye: :Klinklang: :Articuno: :Rhydon: :Water Memory:
This was a last-minute change since I played quite late and wasn’t confident on some earlier drafts I did. I wanted to pick this team on the first week but liked the NP Alolan Persian build better. I really liked Kangaskhan’s bulk alongside 101 HP Substitutes, so it could reliably tank weak hits like Scarf Rotom’s Volt Switch and Stunfisk’s Earth Power. The biggest problem is how it’s setup fodder for Klinklang and can’t really do much damage against Steel-types or Heal Bell Pokemon, as it will eventually run out of PP or will get Toxiced, which is never ideal. Sableye was a great check with Prankster Encore but needed to be wary of Toxic variants. I didn’t like my matchups with Water-types, so I slotted in Wild Charge as a way to better answer opposing Waters. Articuno was standard specially defensive Defog, and I went with Rhydon to make my team less passive overall. I threw in Silvally-Water as a secondary Klinklang check in case Sableye got KOed or crippled, and I found it interesting how fast it was for a Water-type (the fastest one, in fact).

I could’ve played the ending better, considering I didn’t need to have Klinklang be Tricked. I also was overwhelmed early on due to Rhydon being my Skuntank check and I didn’t expect clean’s Klinklang to be Wild Charge. Overall, while I could’ve played better and built more carefully, I feel SubToxic Kanga was nevertheless still fun to build and I got to learn more.

Week 4 v. POAT (W) :Poliwrath: :Palossand: :Roselia: :Morpeko: :Articuno: :Klinklang:
Wrath is a lot easier to fit as a physical wall thanks to the role compression it offers, which was why I used it on my team. Regrettably, I chose an Impish rather than a Bold nature, as that would’ve helped me break Klinklang‘s Substitutes easier with Scald. Palossand was another nice backup option for a physical check and emergency Volt Switch and Spinblocker blocker (the defensive typing really sucked in separate cases though, especially with the low special defense). I went with Toxic to not get completely walled by Articuno, though Shadow Ball would’ve helped a lot against Rotoms switching in. Roselia helped with Spikes and allowed more breathing room against Grass-types, but also posed as a decent check to Rotom in a pinch. Normally, I wouldn’t pick Morpeko, but the offensive presence, Speed, alongside Aura Wheel made it just good enough to be used as an offensive Spinner. I would’ve now picked Cryogonal, but I found it hard to fit at the time given how weak it was to Ninetales. Miltank would’ve probably been a better pick, but I found Toxic + Heal Bell Articuno to be nasty, and it would’ve worked splendidly if I did face it. Klinklang was my wincon - rather than use Substitute and/or Wild Charge, I went with Toxic + Protect. Why spend 25% HP on predicting a move when you can do it without any cost? While it didn’t have the same Defog deterrence as Pawniard, it was still a menacing wincon and helped complete the SpikesStack build without much risk.

The part of the match that worried me the most was the Thwackey. If it knocked out my Articuno, I would’ve lost my cleric which would’ve made my team even more passive. Thankfully, Articuno was able to survive even without Boots for much of the game. After removing Rotom, one of the biggest nuisances, I was able to cripple down Stunfisk’s longevity, in contrast to the Wild Charge sets which wouldn’t have done so. Setting up Shift Gear was not a problem late-game, as Klinklang’s counters were all gone and too weak to effectively hit it.

Week 6 v. Danny (L) :Uxie: :Shiftry: :Ivysaur: :Liepard: :Rapidash: :Qwilfish:
While Froslass is usually the better pick as the lead thanks to its much higher Speed, I wanted to emphasize more on longevity. Intimidate + Rocky Helmet is quite annoying, and it has less weaknesses in the lead slot in comparison. I gave Thunder Wave for Speed control and Destiny Bond once a slower Pokemon wants to revenge kill it. Rapidash was Morning Sun for similar reasons - more longevity. Solar Blade and Play Rough were tempting options, but the former‘s coverage was already done by fellow Chlorophyll sweepers, and the latter (which would’ve been useful in the game) was a bit too specific. The sun team is standard yet simple, as while I scouting I noticed his builds were all bulkier, which Sun would’ve done well against.

I was bummed at the endgame part, as if I had use heat wave twice rather than alternate between knock off and heat wave, I may have won. I was otherwise satisfied with how things played out, and I feel sun should get credit for how it can take games without sufficent preparation.

Week 7 v. Tuthur (L) :Lurantis: :Sawk: :Persian-alola: :Stunfisk: :Cramorant::ClefairY:
My attempt at building a standard team. Lurantis has a sick utility movepool and I decided to go with Aroma to help it throughout the game as a cleric and wincon. Sawk was the primary wallbreaker and Stunfisk was the Klinklang, Skuntank, and Rotom answer. Alolan Persian was my Scarfer for Speed control; it also helped with Knock and outspeed other Scarfers like Rotom. Cramorant was my Defogger since I lacked a Fire resist.

This game was definitely my worst so far since I forgot Cherrim’s speed was not doubled, and also because I didn’t have reliable answers against Sun. It was a funny meme after ZUPL but it still hurts that I played really badly here in addition to having a HO team being used against me and winning.

Even though I feel I could’ve played better in a lot of my games, I was happy to beat my previous record (0-1) and I was glad to be able to manage. Thank you to all the Beheeyems that have stuck through the ZUPL IV with me!
 

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