Metagame SCL II UU Discussion

pdt

is a Past SCL Champion
PUPL Champion
[FOX] watashi vs LNumbers [BRE] - watashi has looked good in his first two games in UU, given he did have favorable luck in his first win (he also played well) and in his second win (good matchup but still played correctly). I prefer the builds that watashi has been given to the builds that clark has been using, but I think that clark knows the metagame a bit better. I think this will come down to who draws the better matchup, but I favor the Foxes' UU support in that sense.

[SPA] Lily vs TDK [PLA] - TDK seemingly ignored the broken CM Primarina in his last matchup although it's hard to call his team bad. Lily also ran into a disadvantageous matchup against pif, but given both records and play of this tournament I favor TDK here. I think that TDK still has brought some sketchy builds, but I think the same could be said for Lily, although I rate her builds a bit better than TDK's atm. I think that TDK's play outweighs the negatives of his builds compared to Lily's, so I'm picking him here. Lily can definitely take this match but she needs to build meticulously and play very confidently.
[GIB] Santu vs pokemonisfun [TMS] - I think that pif has more experience in Gen8UU than the rest of the pool (besides me :blobpex: ), but I rate Santu's UU support quite highly. I also think that as a player Santu's playstyle matches up well against pif's calculated approach to the game. Definitely the game will come down to matchup because I trust both players to play efficiently in-game, but I'm favoring Santu here due to his ability to make aggressive plays more frequently as well as his ample support. I think pif can win this game if he brings something out of his comfort zone and plays well with it, but throughout the tour I've seen mostly fishy or comfort picks.

[DYN] KSt3ve vs crying [SHO] - To be blunt I rate crying as a player higher than Steve, but I think that Steve knows the UU metagame better. The issue is that crying has no regard for the current meta of UU, and she will bring whatever she feels is good. In that sense, I think that Steve will have a tough time dealing with crying's creativity and playing ability, as long as she doesn't nerf herself in the builder. Steve can win this matchup with superior metagame knowledge and accounting for vague tendencies in crying's preferences (not necessarily in UU but across the board). Definitely going to be an interesting game to watch in my opinion.
 
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pokemonisfun

Banned deucer.
My week 7 game vs Lily (6th game overall, I stepped out on week 5): https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8uu-656701

I plan to go over this live tonight on my Twitch as usual - 9PM GMT-4 - follows appreciated :)

This was the first time since week 3 I believe that neither side had hyper offense in my game so I'm happy to be able to be able to go over some more strategic/long term concepts in this game instead of super turn specific play constantly.

Match Up and Lead
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I'm pretty happy with the match up if all of Lily's sets are standard - I get almost exactly what I was hoping for - Thundurus outspeeding and obliterating her defensive core + none of her offensive threats being able to make progress by themselves against my walls. Nihilego could with Gknot but she reveals it's likely not + normally I'd want Thundy to outspeed at least one of her offensive mons but she reveals an unexpected nonscarf Diggersby.

The other notable thing of course is her Volt Immunity, Diggersby, can get chipped by Regieleki - I find that Zygarde and Diggersby are the best grounds for Regieleki as Regieleki can slowly chip them through a long game supported by my fat balance. Nidoqueen with Life orb is chippable too but quite dangerous for my team and bulkier, exca/krook is barely chippable and hippo is basically impossible. Notice though, the grounds that Regieleki struggles most with, Thundy does best versus, and vice versa.

Anyways, I lead with Hippo to get Rocks early because I notice she likely has no hazard control + it's very likely she leads with Amoong since I have no Spore Absorber and Hippo can pretty easily take a Spore since it generally forces out Amoong or can at least burn 1 sleep turn anyways.

Turns 1-15 - Thundurus Crescendo

Basically I consider the first 14 turns as all preparation into an attack I launch with Thundurus.

Turn 1 I explained earlier - basically I figure Amoong is likely and can get rocks soon bc no hazard control. This is an important tactical sequence that happens in gen8uu though - basically, if you can force Amoong to Spore on something that is forced out by Amoong (like Cobalion) AND your opponent has no horrifying breaker that crushes your team with a free switch in, it's often good to let that mon get Spored because you can still do what you need to do (get rocks since you outspeed Amoong) + you activate sleep clause (ramoment is illegal) + you burn 1 turn of sleep since you force out Amoong. i go for this here although it doesn't work obviously, (she reveals no Spore later) but still conceptually it could have worked here and I'm fine by forcing out Amoong anyways.

Turn 2 - no reason for me to switch out really, giga is going to hurt but hippo can still heal later and the poison damage alone prevents me from being an adequate diggersby counter anyways

Turn 3 - after I see stun spore, i realize grass stab is rather unlikely

Turn 4 - knowing from turn 3, hippo should beat amoong 1v1

Turn 5 - milo is super safe into celesteela, dont want to prematurely use Thundurus which is a strong win con and there's a chance she's meteor beam still - this might be useful for beginners - don't fall into dogma, just because she is not using HO does not mean she isn't Meteor Beam. It's entirely possible to use HO sets on non HO teams, this is common for Salamence and Gyarados too

Turn 6 - This is a bit weird and I'm not sure it was right from me - I figure at this point there's a decent chance for me to use sylveon to heal the poison off Hippo which makes me much safer into Diggersby and my spdef Sylveon takes little from Sludge Bomb anyways. Still, Sylveon is so important here for Keldeo and Noivern that I probably shouldn't have done this - could have been in some trouble if she got the poison or if she Spored me on turn 7. Luckily she has no spore, which I thought was possible, but not certain at this point

Turn 7 - i heal hippo as intended

Turn 8 - So I have a few counters to Nihilego - how do I know to go Scizor? There are a lot of factors here but this is a relatively easy decision for me because two factors point to Scizor - it's the safest vs Nihilego (Milo and Hippo hate sludge bomb poison and Gknot) and because Scizor in general can make the most progress anyways vs Nihilego (Hippo lets Cele come back in, Milo cant do anything guaranteed vs Amoong), Scizor can crucially knock something.

Turn 9 - knock is obvious

Turn 10 - U-turn is obvious, I wasn't sure who i'd go to on Amoong but luckily she goes Noivern anyways putting it closer in Thundy range

Turn 11 - expert protect for leftovers uturn is super obvious and this also makes her more hesitant to uturn later in the game on sylveon

Turn 12 - so wish has a lot of uses, normally it's used to heal an injured mon, here I use it to anticipate Nihilego so I get a free switch to Scizor on it, it isn't hurt, but Power Gem annoys me so I want to be healthy to safely spam non Bullet punch moves

Turn 13 - scizor as intended

Turn 14 - Uturn into something here...Thundurus. Why not Hippo? Well Celesteela blocks Hippo obviously. Thundurus is the most dangerous mon

Turn 15 - I easily could have Tbolted as the Psychic is telegraphed as heck but I figure my position is comfortable enough for me to not need to make such a play

Snekky Snek Turn 16 - 35

Turn 16 - My Thundurus is NP although even if I had Volt I would be a bit hesitant to use it since I like myself healthy for Celesteela

Turn 17 - Trying the same sequence as turn 12

Turn 18 - Okay why heal Hippo? I wanted to be at nearly full health to take 2 EQs from Diggersby - that's all

Turn 19 - Same idea as turn 5 (not sure about her double here)

Turn 20 - Sword does 2hko me so Recover is super safe, probably should have Toxiced here though as it would have been worth getting sworded on as I can heal Milo on a bunch of stuff anyways later

Turn 21 - 31 - we live in a society, although it is important to note here I pretty much confirm her Amoong set - no Spore

Turn 32-34 - quite a lucky burn on Celesteela, I doubt she stays in to risk a burn after turn 32 if I didn't get it on turn 32

Turn 35 - similar to turn 14 I want to launch another attack but this time Thundy can't come in for free. I considered Sylveon here too to use it as a Wish launchind pad again as burned Celesteela shouldn't 2HKO me (i thought). Just wanted to be more aggressive here

Turn 36 to end - progress

Turn 36 - this is important, why tbolt here? well for one, she doesn't know I'm tbolt yet, she might have thought I'd volt for a bit less

Turn 37 - I talked about this last week in my watashi analysis - sometimes "free protects" aren't that free - they are a bit telegraphed and give the opportunity time to switch on them. So i did that here.

Turn 38 - spin as switch is obvious, not a perma off, but forcing her to waste more time later to set up again

Turn 39 - play it safe

Turn 40 - heal is obvious

Turn 41 - milo is very safe with marvel scale

Turn 42 - Sylveon is safe and not risking the full para, Hippo was an option

Turn 43 - heal is obvious

Turn 44 - must protect to heal

Turn 45 - this is a bit interesting - why risk sylveons health here? Well even if I predict wrong and she sludges, I can wish it off to heal all the damage unless she poisons. I want the safe scizor sequence again like turn 17 and 12 and know she has to predict a lot now bc she is having a very poor position by now

Turn 46 - except scizor is too obvious and might as well use milo now and heal her up

Turn 47 - free scald

Turn 48 - regieleki is fairly free and i dont need health on it really

Turn 49 - i didnt know what she was going to do here but i thought spin was fine, thought she'd protect most likely but i felt very ahead enough to allow that anyways

Turn 50 - spikes surprises me but i still think she's scarf

Turn 51 - the body slam shocks me - she likely expected a switch from me here to abuse the choice locked spikes, i was just playing it super safe knowing if celesteela came in for free, it doesnt matter that much as it's still super weak. I think after the toxic hits, I probably should have a dynamic 100% win (100% win that depends on what opp does) - not much to say after this


Conclusion

It was a bitter sweet day for me - happy I won but very sad to have lost UU swiss finals later that day + also losing Slip's tour. I also decided by this day and announced the next day I would be transferring the discord I own and use for UU things, pia, to totomon and haxlolo who are more than worthy of leading it.

That said, this was probably my smoothest game since week 1 in terms of maintaining the advantage throughout, discounting by HO on HO match up in week 4. It's a bit odd to think that I believe I've lost 2 games still despite having pretty much favorable MUs every game so far which is a blessing I couldn't have asked for more.

It was also very nice to win for my team though as we finally won a week, not having done so since week 1. Since we got a bunch of ties we are still firmly in contention for PO which is great for us obviously. Thanks for all support.
 

Lily

wouldn't that be fine, dear
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UU Leader
[FOX] watashi vs LNumbers [BRE] - clark's finding his groove but watashi does not give a fuck while clark gives too many so i think watashi will win

[TER] Meru vs pdt [ISL] - i think pdt is stronger rn but i know meru's gonna be itching for a win

[GIB] Santu vs pokemonisfun [TMS] - just can't bold against pif even tho i'm very high on santu. very very hyped to watch this tho

[DYN] KSt3ve vs crying [SHO] - these have both been bringing kinda bad stuff i feel but crying's has been pretty batshit insane and st3ve's is a lil more in the realm of viability, gonna be a really fun game for spectators tho no doubt
 

KM

slayification
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[FOX] watashi vs LNumbers [BRE] :)

[TER] Meru vs pdt [ISL] - meru is more hungry to fix his record so he can keep boasting about his sheet

[GIB] Santu vs pokemonisfun [TMS] - pif just lost swiss which means he'll either revenge tryhard or get depressed and stop trying. i think it's the first

[DYN] KSt3ve vs crying [SHO] - have literally zero idea i want to watch this game but also don't

[SPA] Lily vs TDK [PLA] - lily will build a team that loses to an s tier threat and miraculously dodge it and use the win to further reinforce her warped personal view of the meta
 

pokemonisfun

Banned deucer.
My week 8 game vs santu (7th game overall, subbed out week 5) - will go over live on Tuesday.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8uu-657716



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Match up -

Yeah I think I have a good one although it's not nearly as good as I thought mainly because I was not expecting Twave on Slowking and most importantly NP nor Encore on Salazzle which posed issues for Necrozma. Bar these two things, I was nearly assured a Necrozma sweep but my opponent did prepare well for these stupid slow boosters so well done to them.

Overall, I still like my MU as Prim is tough for my opponent and my Necrozma set is still super dangerous, my spdef Rotom should be able to handle Salazzle and Salamence (he lacked Toxic it seems which is very lucky for me). Anyways, this is probably my worst MU all tournament which really says something - I feel like I've had the easier side 7 out of 7 games.

Turn 1 - My opponent doesn't have a clear Tang switch in so why not lead with it? I Knock off the Salamence and luckily avoid Hurricane which would have done like 60% I suppose but Knock off is great. There is a case to be made I should have Sludge Bombed (not a strong one though) because getting rid of boots doesn't help much since my Coba set (SD Iron Head) can't keep rocks up that easily anyways. Still, I think Knocking is good because Cobalion can theoretically flinch mence to keep rocks up + foricng defogs gives Necrozma and Prim switch in opportunities.

Turn 2 - Rotom w is obviously my mence switch in, no need to anticipate a double yet

Turn 3 - volt is obvious but necro isn't - Zygarde and Prim were other options. My Prim set can't make that much progress yet with healthy slowking and tang and Zygarde wants to be healthy for Salazzle so I choose Necrozma to force him to show his hand. It's a pretty underrated strat imo - get in your huge threat early on to force your opponent to reveal what their counterplay is so you can make a plan around that later

Turn 4 - cm obvious

Turn 5- heal pretty obvious

Turn 6 - cm pretty obvious, i considered photon here to anticipate teleport into encore salazzle but eh again, turn 3's logic wasnt that i sweep right away, merely have them reveal counter play

Turn 7 - duh - my opponent at this point successfully fools me into thinking i auto win and they dont have encore, as the switch out to me is good news

Turn 8 - thus on turn 8, i feel ready to collect my free win and cm again to break through slowking. i could have played it ULTRA SAFE and antiicpate encore still, but yeah santu tricked me by the turn 7 thing and I didn't want to waste photons. If I photoned here though I got a free KO bar omega hax

Turn 9 - I photon but encore turns it into CM which sucks for me! but i finally achieve (some of) turns 3 logic - i know his counterplay although twave slowking is still a surprise

Turn 10 - I figured he might toxic here but that's dumb, NP is most likely last move with encore, I didn't even think he could be NP until he sweeps me with it which is quite pathetic of me. scl players suck! anyways, zygarde isn't wrong here exactly anyways

Turn 11 - toxic as salazzle is too valuable and tangrowth is too obvious

t12 - i don't have a great tang counter either tbh but at least his is toxiced

t13 - yay rocks, trying to force mence to defog to get free prim entry now that tang is toxiced

t14 - the logic of turn 13 although im surprised he didnt defog, his main mons were boots though so it makes sense

t15 - great salazzle by my opponent, i suspect he was scared im some weird prim set that could hurt slowking badly (leftovers generally cant immediately threaten it so he might have thought eball or just wanted huge pressure with salazzle) - anyways it works nicely for them

t16 - my rotom w is very spdef so i figure it's pretty safe here as zygarde is spent now from the poison, the poison damages my chances later on for a few reasons, but it's a self inflicted reason...

t17 - obv heal

t18 - volt was a bit obvious so he goes to diggersby but that can't really force me out yet as i believe his bunny looks scarfed

t19 - psplit is extremely safe and gets me to very high health again plus it hurts slowking

t20 volt is obv and importantly keeps slowking low for necro to break more easily

t21 - the one turn i'm happy with in this game - a double switch as he pretty much cannot lose slowking (he needs the teleport + encore combo to beat necro) so i figure whatever he switches into will hate necro

t22 - cm he can't risk salazzles instant death

t23 - cm again as i want to 2hko slowking to prevent it from teleporting out

t24 - go for the very ambitious photon which wins if he twaves again and doesnt get full para, he slacks though correctly

t25 - he's still in a potential 2hko range so i thought he might slack, anyways, cm is fine here as he didn't tport - cm is basically always good if he doesnt port

t26 - i learn from his turn 24, i now know he knows not to tport when he's in 2hko range so i figure he wont tport here as he is very much in range and just get another cm

t27 - i change it up again, he still follows turn 24/26 logic correctly

t28 - i change it up again and try to get even stronger and not waste photons. heat wave was immensely better as he's still in photon range if he doesn't slack plus this saves photon pp and salazzle can't take +4 heat waves. probably my worst play here is to cm which sets up another terrible turn...

t29 - i heat wave here to conserve pp and put him in photon range if he doesn't slack which is really all i need to have a very very high chance of winning bar para, he does get the para though and of course he goes salazzle on the teleport - para was important because if i got to attack here, he had no switch ins and obviously salazzle doesnt take +5 heat wave well

t30 - i stay in hoping to waste an encore here although i am aware of the mechanics that i am still locked into cm despite full para on previous turn

t31 - amazingly huge mistake to stay in, rotom wash kept the game going (although santu's position is already very good as of turn 30) - i completely forgot nasty plot was likely on encore salazzle and now he just sweeps me. this is where the poison on rotom w hurts, 100% health rotom had a chance to live +4 salazzle

t32 - hope he doesnt np again and just kills something (cobalion already set up rocks so why not) but of course he correctly does np

t33 - obviously im about to lose but instead of sacking my whole team first and hoping for false hope, i go for zygarde crit first - important concept, if you're about to lose, play your best outs first. if i sacked rotom-w first and then got the espeed crit for example, it would still be a horrendous position for me

Conclusion

I had a small breakdown in my SCL teams discord after this. It's just inexcusably poor to forget about Nasty Plot Salazzle when it was so telegraphed by Encore. I'm not even sure what I expected turn 31 but it wasn't NP. And I never realized how bad turn 28 was until someone on my team pointed it out which is just pathetic.

I was quite impressed by Santu's initial bluff of his Salazzle and Slowking set + his play on turn 15 to get Salazzle in relatively safely.

This is an important week for my team still as we are still very much in contention and our fate is in our own hands so to speak (we will be in if we win the final weeks) but it's out of my hands now.

Anyhow...hope to have better news to report next time! Thanks Adaam et al. for the support!
 

Meru

ate them up
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Week 8 Analysis vs PDT (replay)

vs.


Preview
At preview, the two scariest threats he has are Salamence and Rotom-Wash. Salamence with Flamethrower and Toxic walls both my Dhelmise and my Cobalion while being able to 2HKO Skarm and Dhelm as well as Toxic Togekiss and Rhyperior, essentially giving it progress vs almost everything with relatively little prediction. Rotom-Wash is able to check everything on my team except Dhelmise. Between Volt Switch, Sandstorm, and potential WoW from Rotom, it's very likely for Dhelmise to be overwhelmed prior to getting Rotom into a range that lets Salazzle and Cobalion more freely revenge kill it. Due to this threat, I decide that denying Rotom easy progress is more worth letting in Salamence for free as his Salamence has some burden of clicking correctly and my Dhelmise checks most everything else and can progress by fishing for crits that break through Salamence's Intimidate with a potential crit. Luckily I have Skarmory for Excadrill/Cobalion and Salazzle to rk both outside of Sand, so Dhelm is able to make holding off Rotom its primary focus but I also want it to outlast Rotom in case Glowbro spirals out of control a bit.


T1 to T9: Holding off the Rotom Vortex
T1: Luckily I get a good turn 1 match-up. He opts for an anti-Rhyperior lead as Toxic and SR are both relatively free and good progress vs most of the rest of his team. Figuring he'll go Salamence on my Dhelmise, I opt to Polt instead of Whip. Based off calcs, Whip did about ~55 after being burned. While I could fish for a WoW miss and hit Whip, I figure it's better to A) do more to Mence to force it to Roost more and B) Do less to Rotom through the burn to minimize Pain Split chip in response.

T2: He goes Mence and reveals no Intimidate, telegraphing some sort of DD set. Unfortunately my Polt misses when it does about 60% to 0/0 Mence, but since my match-up vs. DD is a lot better with Rhyp + TWave Toge + RH ID Skarm, I'm pleased enough with this turn. I elect to go Togekiss over Rhyperior and Skarmory because T-Wave feels the sturdiest in neutering DD Mence if it tries to progress. I half expect a double back to Rotom because it can mess with all three of Skarm/Rhyp/Kiss but didn't pull the trigger due to how important Dhelm was for holding off Rotom

T3: He doubles to Rotom on my Togekiss. I could go back to Dhelm but I figure it's worthwhile to use this turn to Roost to check if I'm slower or faster than Rotom, something that'll provide helpful mid-late game.

T4: I end up getting tricked Choice Specs, something I really did not account for. It also showed Rotom was slower. Given that his Flying resists were a slower non lefties Rotom and an Excadrill subject to chip from RH Skarm + Spikes chip that Dhelm could potentially spinblock, I'm okay with this trade. I have to be a bit more careful about letting Rocks get up and/or spinning them away now that my Boots are gone though. I decide to go back to Dhelm because I figure I can catch Rotom on the switch in with Air Slashes later, and being full health it can check pdt's team fairly well

T5: He Volt Switches on my Dhelm and brings in Mence again. I can go Rhyperior or Skarmory again but I'm falling into a vortex territory at this point. I elect to go to Skarmory to at least be able to Roost through a Volt Switch with Sturdy and potentially make progress from there.

T6: He doubles to Glowbro instead of Rotom - not sure why. It could have maybe been seen as safer if I chose to Whip that turn I suppose. With Skarm in, I decide that getting up Spikes to start chip on Hippo/Exca/Glowbro/Coba is worth it, since Skarm gets free turns on Hippo and Exca to roost comfortably.

T7: He Future Sights with Glowbro and I assume AV. I'm not in a great spot because I don't have good Future Sight pivots and his Glowbro has some relatively free clicks. I decide to go Togekiss and risk some of its bulk that I've been conserving to potentially flinch through any strong double hit combos that could result from Future Sight. I considered that he may not Sludge Bomb into Skarmory or Rhyperior, but even if he did, I figured it was a risk I had to take to not fold my midgame

T8: He goes Hippowdon, I guess expecting Rhyp on Glowbro and potentially signaling that Glowbro can't touch Rhyp. I actually consider this a good thing I'd been waiting for because the SpDef boost lets Rhyperior potentially cheese past Rotom, at the very least landing Toxic on it to get it into Salazzle/Coba range and to make Air Slash flinches more potent. I didn't have a good read as to whether he would Tox, Rocks, or switch, so I decide to go to Skarmory as it also has the benefit of tanking Future Sight the best on my team.

T9: He goes Rotom, which makes sense on Togekiss, but also would have been good chip if I'd just gone for Air Slash flinching. It puts my Skarmory in a bit of a bad position because now I don't have Sturdy and I'm being vortexed with Sand up and Dhelm relatively low. I went Rhyp out of a bit of desperation. Looking back, I think this turn, pdt had a free Hydro Pump but didn't take it.


T9 to T12: Rhyperior Breaks Through
T9: I don't think I could have asked for more this turn. Rhyperior getting in for free on Volt Switch with Sand SpDef boost up. This turn is a pretty free Toxic, as all three of pdt's Tox immunes don't want to switch into Rhyperior, and a Toxic'd Rotom is huge for me. If the Hydro Pump misses, even better. While Toxic can miss too, I have to go for it here as it's looking to be my first big break through

T10: Rotom gets Toxic'd while Rhyp is left with 30%. It's still able to do a handful of things at this range: Check Glowbro, Live Hippo EQ/Coba IH and Tox/EQ back, or force CC from Coba which lets my Coba force his Coba out. While I could switch out and preserve these qualities, I also have the opportunity to force Rotom to A) Hit Hydro Pump, B) Be kept at (77 - 12 - 6) = 59% which gets it closer to Salazzle/Coba range and means less Togekiss or C) Switch out and give Rhyperior a free turn. While I could have gone for Rocks here, I also think a (20% miss chance * (90% hit chance) = 18% chance to land even more damage on Rotom is too good to pass up so I opt for Rock Blast instead.

T11: pdt gets a bit greedy here and Volt Switches, meaning my gamble paid off. At this point, Rotom is at 20% with Sand and Toxic killing it next turn. At this point, I figure his options are going for a Hydro Pump hit that'll secure me a dead Rotom or switching to preserve. The only switch in that really makes sense was Hippowdon. While I could SR here again, securing one of A) Dead Rotom B) Toxic'd Hippo or C) Some worse switch-in was the better route, especially with Rotom holding Boots, as it would be the main target of SR at this point.

T12: Hippo switches in, meaning another successful "gamble" paid off. At this point I can trade Rocks, go to Dhelm, go Skarm, go Kiss, or go Coba.
  • Dhelm would be bad if he Toxic'd which was somewhat possible (although kinda bad) but would put me in too many possibilities the next turn as to whether to spin or attack that ultimately could bite me in the ass.
  • Skarmory getting up a 2nd spike wasn't as useful at this point and I didn't want to keep letting Glowbro in for free.
  • Togekiss was not a bad option but was also something I did not want to get Toxic'd or get Sand chip on
Ultimately I go Cobalion knowing I can potentially bait Substitute to fish for more Toxic chip on Hippowdon, which also puts Sand on more of a timer for Excadrill.

T13-T17: Cobalion Breaks, Scouts, and Retreats

T13: Cobalion gets in for free on SR and is free to start Substitute fishing.

T14: Substitute works and keeps Hippowdon low. At this point, it would be too low for him to even keep in, as he needs Sand for Excadrill to rk Salazzle. I decide to SD again, as if he EQ's once more, I'm in a good position. Slack from him would be bad as it would only guarantee more chip on Hippowdon or a completely free turn for Cobalion.

T15: He goes Glowbro on +2 Cobalion. I can 2HKO as well as OHKO crit or fish for a 30% flinch chance, all of which gave me great odds.

T16: I get burned from Flamethrower through a flinch chance, unexpected but not the end of the world. I'm still considering AV Glowbro because it's the biggest threat long term to Salazzle. I decide to CC instead because it denies a free Regen by hitting every switch in hard enough.

T17: Slack from non-AV Glowbro was completely unexpected, but also a good thing for me because it means Glowbro has less coverage and will be easier to overwhelm endgame with Salazzle. At this point I cut my losses and go Rhyperior conserve Cobalion for Future Sight fodder.


T18 to T21: Rhyperior Does Overtime
T18: He goes for Future Sight, possibly further confirming he doesn't have Scald for Rhyperior. At this point I want SR up so that Glowbro can't pivot in and Regen off hits as easily

T19: He goes Mence which is a bit weird here. EQ didn't KO and given that I have Dhelm + Salazzle to break Glowbro, I figure the trade to Rock Blast was worth it. I couldn't go Skarmory either because SR + Future Sight would have put me in +1 Fire Fang/Fire Blast range.

T20: I get a bit lucky with a 4 hit Rock Blast, but I had to fodder Rhyperior anyway due to the Future Sight threat. If I missed or 2 hit, I think I was pretty screwed. If I 3 hit, I would have had to likely use RH chip from Skarmory to finish the job, leaving me much more open to Excadrill and Cobalion. After Mence dies, he goes Excadrill. I don't want to go Dhelm because IH into Rhyp is very possible and puts it in a bad position for nothing. If he kills Rhyperior, I can RK with Salazzle. If he spins, I can kill him, so I go for EQ.

T21: He lets Excadrill die to Spin, which I think was a big mistake. I'm not sure what might have been the best route for RKing Rhyperior. Maybe Cobalion and then saccing Hippo to the Fire Blast Salazzle RK and then trying to Spin with a Sand Rushed Excadrill when it RK's Salazzle. While he's able to play with hazards off, he only has two functional Pokemon left in Cobalion and Glowbro, meaning Salazzle feasts endgame. He chooses to RK with Cobalion. While I could sac my own Cobalion here, as Rhyperior is a bit more useful vs Glowbro, I open myself up to some kind of Substitute Cobalion endgame that I'd rather avoid entirely, so I decide to EQ.


T22 to T37: Salazzle Cleans Up
T22: Rhyperior dies to CC and I send out Salazzle to RK. At this point, he has to sac something to Fire Blast or go Glowbro, which I can feel safe enough to NP on since Scald wasn't revealed. I could NP here but did not want to risk Edge and if it's not Edge, then I can afford to miss a Fire Blast vs Coba and still have odds for a second one to hit.

T23: He goes Glowbro, I feel relatively safe to NP again since Scald would have been revealed during the Rhyp/Coba exchanges

T24: He uses Future Sight on my NP. At this point I can at least throw out one good hit.

T25: He sacs Rotom to Fire Blast and goes Hippowdon. While I can stay in to KO Hippowdon, it's not worth it with Future Sight up when I can retreat and repeat the sequence. I decide to sac Cobalion here to see what exactly he chooses to do. If he recovers with Hippowdon, I have follow-up options in all of Togekiss, Skarmory, and Dhelmise. I probably would have chosen Togekiss at that point in the game.

T26: He doubles back to Glowbro knowing I have to pick a Future Sight fodder. Coba dies which lets me get Dhelmise in, with Polt either KOing Hippo/Glowbro or doing half to Cobalion. I could spin here but Polt does too much progress to forgo

T27: He goes Hippowdon and eats a Polt, leaving him in range of a spin kill. I figure he won't go Cobalion here so I go for it. The spin kill helps Skarmory go a bit further vs. Cobalion while also preventing potential weird Glowbro doubles. After the spin kill he brings out Cobalion. Skarmory switches in here being able to guarantee a minimum of BPress + RH, which is enough chip to put it in future Polt range.

T29: He SD's with Cobalion. Lyss pointed out after the game that ID was good here, which is true. BPress could lose to DoubleDance WP, but ID could also lose there if he RP's then crits, although looking back it is definitely the safer move.

T30: He SD's again, which allows him to OHKO Salazzle with CC instead of risking Edge. If I had ID'd, I would have been able to OHKO Cobalion but unfortunately, I actually did not see that play (or maybe I did but just didn't want to get crit and/or secure chip for Polt/Air Slash KO, unsure)

T31: He KO's but with RH + BP he's left at 28%. Only play is to go Salazzle and unfortunately I let Umbry convince me to run Fire Blast over Flamethrower ..

T32: Fire Blast hits, leaving the only threat left to be Glowbro. Given that Salazzle + Dhelm + Toge could all break it, I felt pretty safe. I Fire Blast the Glowbro, not entirely certain why. Looking back I would have just fished for Sludge Bomb Corrosions. I thought maybe some kind of wacky 4th could do enough here where I wanted to keep it below 100 for Togekiss and Dhelm

T33: Fire Blast doesn't do enough and Future Sight is up. I still have a free turn to fish for something with Salazzle and I realize now is the chance to go for Corrosion Sludge Bombs.

T34: Successfully fished for a Poison while he slacks. I could hit him again but it's becoming painfully clear Future Sight is his only way to hit Salazzle. I go Togekiss because it's the least reliable/durable of the 3 that can break Glowbro I suppose but doesn't matter too much.

T35 to T37: Glowbro keeps Slacking while Kiss eats a Future Sight with ease. At this point, Air Slash cleans up with close enough 100% odds
 
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Week 8

Code:
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Cobalion           |    8 |  80.00% |  50.00% |
| 2    | Salamence          |    4 |  40.00% |  50.00% |
| 2    | Tangrowth          |    4 |  40.00% |  50.00% |
| 2    | Rotom-Wash         |    4 |  40.00% |   0.00% |
| 5    | Slowking           |    3 |  30.00% | 100.00% |
| 6    | Nidoqueen          |    2 |  20.00% | 100.00% |
| 6    | Skarmory           |    2 |  20.00% | 100.00% |
| 6    | Salazzle           |    2 |  20.00% | 100.00% |
| 6    | Hatterene          |    2 |  20.00% | 100.00% |
| 6    | Scizor             |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 6    | Hydreigon          |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 6    | Chansey            |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 6    | Hippowdon          |    2 |  20.00% |   0.00% |
| 6    | Primarina          |    2 |  20.00% |   0.00% |
| 6    | Slowbro-Galar      |    2 |  20.00% |   0.00% |
| 6    | Excadrill          |    2 |  20.00% |   0.00% |
| 17   | Zarude-Dada        |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Dhelmise           |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Togekiss           |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Rhyperior          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Tapu Bulu          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Diggersby          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Suicune            |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Cofagrigus         |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 17   | Nihilego           |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 17   | Vanilluxe          |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 17   | Amoonguss          |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 17   | Necrozma           |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 17   | Zygarde-10%        |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 17   | Umbreon            |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 17   | Quagsire           |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
Overall Usage

Code:
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Cobalion           |   37 |  46.25% |  59.46% |
| 2    | Salamence          |   28 |  35.00% |  42.86% |
| 3    | Scizor             |   20 |  25.00% |  45.00% |
| 4    | Amoonguss          |   19 |  23.75% |  47.37% |
| 5    | Hydreigon          |   18 |  22.50% |  61.11% |
| 5    | Tangrowth          |   18 |  22.50% |  55.56% |
| 7    | Excadrill          |   16 |  20.00% |  56.25% |
| 7    | Nihilego           |   16 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 7    | Primarina          |   16 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 10   | Rotom-Wash         |   15 |  18.75% |  53.33% |
| 10   | Diggersby          |   15 |  18.75% |  40.00% |
| 12   | Slowking           |   13 |  16.25% |  46.15% |
| 12   | Chansey            |   13 |  16.25% |  38.46% |
| 14   | Azelf              |   12 |  15.00% |  58.33% |
| 15   | Celesteela         |   11 |  13.75% |  54.55% |
| 15   | Skarmory           |   11 |  13.75% |  45.45% |
| 17   | Thundurus-Therian  |   10 |  12.50% |  50.00% |
| 17   | Zygarde-10%        |   10 |  12.50% |  40.00% |
| 17   | Hippowdon          |   10 |  12.50% |  30.00% |
| 20   | Gyarados           |    9 |  11.25% |  55.56% |
| 20   | Necrozma           |    9 |  11.25% |  44.44% |
| 22   | Slowbro-Galar      |    8 |  10.00% |  37.50% |
| 23   | Nidoqueen          |    7 |   8.75% | 100.00% |
| 23   | Togekiss           |    7 |   8.75% |  85.71% |
| 25   | Lycanroc-Dusk      |    6 |   7.50% |  50.00% |
| 25   | Dhelmise           |    6 |   7.50% |  33.33% |
| 27   | Hatterene          |    5 |   6.25% |  80.00% |
| 27   | Conkeldurr         |    5 |   6.25% |  80.00% |
| 27   | Keldeo             |    5 |   6.25% |  60.00% |
| 27   | Mamoswine          |    5 |   6.25% |  60.00% |
| 27   | Reuniclus          |    5 |   6.25% |  60.00% |
| 27   | Zarude             |    5 |   6.25% |  40.00% |
| 27   | Crobat             |    5 |   6.25% |  40.00% |
| 34   | Zarude-Dada        |    4 |   5.00% |  75.00% |
| 34   | Tapu Bulu          |    4 |   5.00% |  50.00% |
| 34   | Jirachi            |    4 |   5.00% |  50.00% |
| 34   | Quagsire           |    4 |   5.00% |  25.00% |
| 38   | Salazzle           |    3 |   3.75% |  66.67% |
| 38   | Rhyperior          |    3 |   3.75% |  66.67% |
| 38   | Mandibuzz          |    3 |   3.75% |  66.67% |
| 38   | Seismitoad         |    3 |   3.75% |  66.67% |
| 38   | Suicune            |    3 |   3.75% |  33.33% |
| 38   | Krookodile         |    3 |   3.75% |  33.33% |
| 38   | Azumarill          |    3 |   3.75% |  33.33% |
| 38   | Umbreon            |    3 |   3.75% |   0.00% |
| 46   | Milotic            |    2 |   2.50% | 100.00% |
| 46   | Vanilluxe          |    2 |   2.50% |  50.00% |
| 46   | Scolipede          |    2 |   2.50% |  50.00% |
| 46   | Chandelure         |    2 |   2.50% |  50.00% |
| 46   | Polteageist        |    2 |   2.50% |  50.00% |
| 46   | Weezing-Galar      |    2 |   2.50% |  50.00% |
| 46   | Swampert           |    2 |   2.50% |   0.00% |
| 46   | Starmie            |    2 |   2.50% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Cofagrigus         |    1 |   1.25% | 100.00% |
| 54   | Regieleki          |    1 |   1.25% | 100.00% |
| 54   | Sylveon            |    1 |   1.25% | 100.00% |
| 54   | Golisopod          |    1 |   1.25% | 100.00% |
| 54   | Toxtricity         |    1 |   1.25% | 100.00% |
| 54   | Cloyster           |    1 |   1.25% | 100.00% |
| 54   | Moltres            |    1 |   1.25% | 100.00% |
| 54   | Mantine            |    1 |   1.25% | 100.00% |
| 54   | Raikou             |    1 |   1.25% | 100.00% |
| 54   | Golurk             |    1 |   1.25% | 100.00% |
| 54   | Ditto              |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Noivern            |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Politoed           |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Tornadus           |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Kingdra            |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Mesprit            |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Marowak-Alola      |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Porygon2           |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Cresselia          |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Torkoal            |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Darmanitan         |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Venusaur           |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Heracross          |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Froslass           |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Centiskorch        |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Gastrodon          |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Xurkitree          |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Haxorus            |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |
| 54   | Crawdaunt          |    1 |   1.25% |   0.00% |

Was a pretty normal week in SCL so not too much to write this time.
made a good showing this week, appearing twice and winning both games. In pif vs Santu, we see a combo of Encore Salazzle + Slowking, the latter luring in bulky sweepers like pif's Necrozma to boost for the former to trap with Encore and freely set up Nasty Plot. This worked amazingly and ended up with a Salazzle sweep. Meanwhile, in Meru vs pdt, we saw Salazzle exert solid offensive pressure on pdt's Cobalion and Galarian slowbro and appreciated solid support from the more niche Rhyperior to cripple Hippowdon with Toxic, allowing Salazzle to get by it easier. Speaking of
, it did a lot of work in that game, taking out Dragon Dance Salamence and crippling Rotom-W and Hippowdon with Toxic for the team. Encore
was another cool idea used by clark in his match vs watashi, where it locked Cobalion into Swords Dance to take advantage of it with Nidoqueen. Lastly,
had a staggering 80% usage this week which reinforces its dominance as the best Pokemon in the tier.

Current predicts record is 18/35, just barely scraping above 50%.

[PLA] TDK vs Santu [GIB]- close match, Santu played really well in his game vs pif to set up a Salazzle sweep. TDK has been dominant all tour so will be bolding him but a close game and good watch for sure.
[TMS] pokemonisfun vs KSt3ve [DYN]- not much to say pif has been the better player and builder to me.
[ISL] pdt vs crying [SHO]- yeah.
[BRE] LNumbers vs Lily [SPA] - a few weeks ago I would've said this game would be a lot lesser closer based on performances but now it's fairly evenly matched, clark has been having a strong comeback which increases my confidence. I think Lily has done better so bolding her but close match either can take it.
[TER] Meru vs KM [FOX]- Meru had a strong win against pdt, while KM is potent and unpredictable in the builder. I think Meru might take this but like some other games it'll be really cool to see.
 

Lily

wouldn't that be fine, dear
is a Tutoris a Site Content Manageris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Smogon Media Contributoris a member of the Battle Simulator Staffis a Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Senior Staff Member Alumnus
UU Leader
[PLA] TDK vs Santu [GIB] - bolding against carson is sinful but im doing it because he had the hubris to pm me after lucking me about how he lucked me

[TMS] pokemonisfun vs KSt3ve [DYN] - dunno what to say really rip pif's just been way more dominant

[ISL] pdt vs crying [SHO ]- already happened but i def would've bolded pdt so no point acting like i wouldn't

[TER] Meru vs KM [FOX] - also already happened but i would've bolded meru here, love km but his team's out & he has no reason to give a fuck so loading up some absurd bullshit was expected and predictably did not work out much rip
 

pokemonisfun

Banned deucer.
Congratulations to Lyss, Meru, and pdt for their teams making playoffs. Special congratulations to TDK for having the best score so far and making playoffs - although I'm sure the others will try to dent your achievement :)

I'm writing this not knowing who the last team to make PO will be but I do know it won't be my team. Therefore I'd like to shoutout the people who assisted me and also congratulate DugZa for his strong victory when he subbed over me week 5.

Camarade Papadov - aka pitfall/Z-wrap helped carry our gen8uu in UUSD and now carried me again in SCL with essentially the best possible prep, giving our UU a good match up every single time you built (which was a majority of the weeks) and correctly anticipating what the opponent would bring whenever we asked. You are the goat of prep. Perhaps the biggest thank you is to you not just for your help, but for deciding not to play in tours and crush me everytime as you doubtless could...

DugZa and -Howkings - thank you my teammates for quite frequent and helpful tests and building advice. To Howkings and Amaranth thank you for drafting me when you had other excellent options and trusting me to play whenever I wanted to. You both are very capable managers and can be leaders in whatever you choose.

Aqua Jet, avarice, bb skarm, KM, Lily, Sulo, tomatosoup110 and Totomon - all tested with me one or more games - thanks for your help. Testing is important to me and I'm grateful for your time and keeping games private.

Adaam - you didn't help me substantively but your posts cheering me on were very kind and motivating. Good luck when you hopefully return for champs soon.


My week 9 game https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8uu-659601 - I will try to analyze this live with KSt3ve tomorrow live in pia (uu focused discord) voice channel at 5:30 PM GMT-1 - feel free to join here
https://discord.gg/7rJNVtVdge


1667782118524.png


Match up and Lead

You might think the match up looks attrocious but I'd say it's only "bad" - perhaps my first and only bad MU after 8 games total this tournament. The obvious thing here is that I have absolutely no good Zygarde switch in. It looks like I also have no Reuniclus counter but I did have Teleport Chansey into Encore Primarina so that wasn't the biggest issue. Zygarde + my Defogger's inability to beat his Spike setter (Defog Skarm couldn't take on Spikes Skarm funnily enough because PP) were the obvious things giving me a poor MU. That said, Conk and Zygarde can ravage my opponent's team obviously especially because my Jirachi was likely to paralyze his Skarmory - he was likely to risk this since throughout the past few months I've been spamming U-Turn Wish Jirachi which normally can't para things.

So why is my MU bad given it sounds like we both have huge threats? Dhelmise, which I dubbed the assiest grassiest, completely walls Skarmory and Chansey (no status) so he is absolutely going to win the hazard war and probably Knock Off multiple Pokemon. That's clearly to me the deciding factor, although again, it's far from hopeless.

I decide to lead with Chansey, hoping to get SR early and that I could at least bluff Toxic for a bit to scare off Dhelmisse. It also stopped Zygarde from spamming Arrows immediately.

Not the assiest grassiest

T1 - I do get SR as intended although perhaps I could have swapped right away to Conk and Knock something off. In retrospect, that was better as he was surely getting rocks there and I can't really keep em up anyways. Note - it would be better to hard switch turn one instead of Teleport because it keeps Teleport hidden and it stops me from taking unnecessary hazard damage, this is an interaction that newbies often miss I feel.

T2/3 - It's important to know what I want paralyzed - Reuniclus likely can't beat Jirachi and Encore Prim anyways even if it's not para'd. I do want to try and lure Skarm for the para (he thinks I'm free spikes) since it makes Conk much scarier.

T4 - very fortunate to get the para as I planned

T7 - the assiest grassiest comes in and asks a big question - who do I want Knocked? I figure he's most likely Knock on this as he lacks Knock on everything else bar Reun but he seems likely to bring CM reun vs me. If he's Knock he's also probably not Polt which means Jirachi to some extent can wall it. I probably should have kept my helmet and go Jirachi here but it's just so hard to let Jirachi take that huge hit. Still an error from me

T8-12 - I probably should have swapped in Jirachi earlier, oh well.

T13-14 - obviously heal

T15 - What I'm saying here is that with his Skarm para'd, I'll try to prevent him from setting Spikes and then try to go Jirachi to counter Dhelmisse, it's not really a tenable balance for me, eventually the Knock Offs outdamage my wishes or I run out of Defog. I'm kind of just settling into a sequence I know is bad for me, but not like immediately a death sentence for me, to see how my opponent reacts, hoping he makes some mistake

T16 - hoping to catch a double but also activating flame orb is nice so Chansey can't toxic me / I can switch into Dhelm Knock (i confirmed he was boots not colbur)

T17 - I regret not clicking Knock here although if he pressed me I'm not sure it's worth it

T18-31 - a lot of tickle, stopping spikes

T32-38 - more tickle, trying to time my conk entry

T39 - okay this was very stupid by me for non pokemon reasons - basically I had to get up here to check my phone and get some water to drink which cost me some timer. I assume ksteve thought I was thinking and planning to change up the sequence, which I wasn't trying to telegraph, I was just thirsty. But since I made the past like 6 moves quickly and took a minute on this turn, he interpreted that as a signal I would swap things up so yeah I lose health on Conk and my position is quite bad right now

T40 - salvaging what I can

T44 - want to heal jirachi and stop spikes

T46 - obvious double, keep repeating this sequence until like t55

T57 - i kind of change my mind and decide i dont want to have sr in exchange for his sr spikes, costs me some health on chansey

T62-63 - finally some life in the position, if I'm going to win, it's from conk so i need to heal it

T64 - regretting turn 17, I decide to knock now

Who let the dogs out

T67 - would not have been good if conk ate seismic so in comes skarm

T72 - position is actually the best I've had all game and I try to catch a double here which doesn't materialize

T75 - conk is my god, heal him to full

T77 - failed to catch chansey

T91 - okay I'm not happy that my only thousand arrow switch in is no more, but at least I get the first real attack going - he has no dog switch in (he probs should have just took the time to heal chansey) and he doesn't want to risk dhelm getting poisoned for obvious reasons so arrows feels free


That's a big conk

T94 - i calc knock OHKOs dhelm

t96 - tough but he had no switch ins, he probs had to sack reun on turn 95 i guess or even rotom

t97 - do i sack chansey or skarm? tough to say. but i feel like i dont need defog anymore and teleport/rocks still could be nice from me

t99 - i recall what he did on turn 77 and figured he might go for it again which is great for me, outrage is super obvious im a bit surprised he didn'tjust trick or hydro here or just sack reun. this is probably a turning point where it goes to a good position for me.

t100 - clearly an error from the opp given turn 101

t101 - they didnt need to waste all the health on dhelm

t103 - quite tough but i figure i almost definitely win if i dont get confused so i go for it. i'm not sure it's right. these turns are very seductive - a clear good position vs a murky possibly even better position, i took the clearly good one

t104 - think ksteve should have applied that logic in t103 from me, although his position isn't going to be good - idk but i think arrows was better here

t106 - why let conk eat the arrows? well the thing to sack would be chansey. if i sack chansey, then i go prim afterwards. it's still the same position basically - prim dies to crit and if it gets crit, i lose as fuck probably PLUS there's a chance he goes chansey and sets up rocks and hits prim too - then he might not even need a crit since conk dies to arrows after rocks. so i figure i just go for the 93% chance to win here and i just get it. Very obvious win from there with Encore Prim in the back as long as he isn't twave chansey.



Conclusion

As noted, this was probably the only bad MU I had in 8 games this tournament so I'm very happy I was able to win still. Especially so because apart from maybe in the PDT week 2 game, every single time I had a bad position in the tournament I didn't manage to defend it and I lost. This was probably the first time I was genuinely suffering in the position and still came back to win.

Despite this, my team is now out of the tournament as we had to in this last week and we can only tie it.

I did have fun in the tournament although frankly not sure it was worth it as the losses put me in a terrible mood, far worse than the happiness a win brought. It was exciting to compete though and from my perspective, the tournament was still a pretty poor result from me 5 wins, 3 losses - 2 of the losses had better positions from me (vs watashi and santu) before getting haxed, but I did play poorly to get in a position where I could get haxed anyways. The win against Lnumbers was just a cheap auto win and against PDT it was pretty poorly played by me and I had to rely on MU to basically get a ~50% chance to win, which I luckily did get.

That said, I am still pleased with how I played some of the games and at least I'm pretty sure I know where I messed up in all my games having written 8 very long posts for 8 games.

I wasn't really a team player at all in the tournament but at least the managers were fantastic about that, and fortunately, as always, my main motivation of winning as much as possible aligned perfectly with my team's goal even if it didn't work out.

Again, not having played an official in like 3 or 4 years I was extremely nervous the first 2 weeks and I really do relish that feeling. Maybe I will be unable to play for another 3 years so I can feel new again. Honestly, I do envy newbies as only they get to really learn the game from the start and feel the nerves. But I got a bit of that feeling this tournament and I'm grateful to all for the support, particularly those I shouted out above.
 
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Aqua Jet

Stardew
is a Contributor to Smogonis a Community Contributor Alumnus
Camarade Papadov - aka pitfall/Z-wrap helped carry our gen8uu in UUSD and now carried me again in SCL with essentially the best possible prep, giving our UU a good match up every single time you built (which was a majority of the weeks) and correctly anticipating what the opponent would bring whenever we asked. You are the goat of prep. Perhaps the biggest thank you is to you not just for your help, but for deciding not to play in tours and crush me everytime as you doubtless could...
1667786376092.jpeg
 

pokemonisfun

Banned deucer.
Congratulations to Lyss, Meru, and pdt for their teams making playoffs. Special congratulations to TDK for having the best score so far and making playoffs - although I'm sure the others will try to dent your achievement :)

I'm writing this not knowing who the last team to make PO will be but I do know it won't be my team. Therefore I'd like to shoutout the people who assisted me and also congratulate DugZa for his strong victory when he subbed over me week 5.

Camarade Papadov - aka pitfall/Z-wrap helped carry our gen8uu in UUSD and now carried me again in SCL with essentially the best possible prep, giving our UU a good match up every single time you built (which was a majority of the weeks) and correctly anticipating what the opponent would bring whenever we asked. You are the goat of prep. Perhaps the biggest thank you is to you not just for your help, but for deciding not to play in tours and crush me everytime as you doubtless could...

DugZa and -Howkings - thank you my teammates for quite frequent and helpful tests and building advice. To Howkings and Amaranth thank you for drafting me when you had other excellent options and trusting me to play whenever I wanted to. You both are very capable managers and can be leaders in whatever you choose.

Aqua Jet, avarice, bb skarm, KM, Lily, Sulo, tomatosoup110 and Totomon - all tested with me one or more games - thanks for your help. Testing is important to me and I'm grateful for your time and keeping games private.

Adaam - you didn't help me substantively but your posts cheering me on were very kind and motivating. Good luck when you hopefully return for champs soon.


My week 9 game https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8uu-659601 - I will try to analyze this live with KSt3ve tomorrow live in pia (uu focused discord) voice channel at 5:30 PM GMT-1 - feel free to join here
https://discord.gg/7rJNVtVdge


View attachment 462838

Match up and Lead

You might think the match up looks attrocious but I'd say it's only "bad" - perhaps my first and only bad MU after 8 games total this tournament. The obvious thing here is that I have absolutely no good Zygarde switch in. It looks like I also have no Reuniclus counter but I did have Teleport Chansey into Encore Primarina so that wasn't the biggest issue. Zygarde + my Defogger's inability to beat his Spike setter (Defog Skarm couldn't take on Spikes Skarm funnily enough because PP) were the obvious things giving me a poor MU. That said, Conk and Zygarde can ravage my opponent's team obviously especially because my Jirachi was likely to paralyze his Skarmory - he was likely to risk this since throughout the past few months I've been spamming U-Turn Wish Jirachi which normally can't para things.

So why is my MU bad given it sounds like we both have huge threats? Dhelmise, which I dubbed the assiest grassiest, completely walls Skarmory and Chansey (no status) so he is absolutely going to win the hazard war and probably Knock Off multiple Pokemon. That's clearly to me the deciding factor, although again, it's far from hopeless.

I decide to lead with Chansey, hoping to get SR early and that I could at least bluff Toxic for a bit to scare off Dhelmisse. It also stopped Zygarde from spamming Arrows immediately.

Not the assiest grassiest

T1 - I do get SR as intended although perhaps I could have swapped right away to Conk and Knock something off. In retrospect, that was better as he was surely getting rocks there and I can't really keep em up anyways. Note - it would be better to hard switch turn one instead of Teleport because it keeps Teleport hidden and it stops me from taking unnecessary hazard damage, this is an interaction that newbies often miss I feel.

T2/3 - It's important to know what I want paralyzed - Reuniclus likely can't beat Jirachi and Encore Prim anyways even if it's not para'd. I do want to try and lure Skarm for the para (he thinks I'm free spikes) since it makes Conk much scarier.

T4 - very fortunate to get the para as I planned

T7 - the assiest grassiest comes in and asks a big question - who do I want Knocked? I figure he's most likely Knock on this as he lacks Knock on everything else bar Reun but he seems likely to bring CM reun vs me. If he's Knock he's also probably not Polt which means Jirachi to some extent can wall it. I probably should have kept my helmet and go Jirachi here but it's just so hard to let Jirachi take that huge hit. Still an error from me

T8-12 - I probably should have swapped in Jirachi earlier, oh well.

T13-14 - obviously heal

T15 - What I'm saying here is that with his Skarm para'd, I'll try to prevent him from setting Spikes and then try to go Jirachi to counter Dhelmisse, it's not really a tenable balance for me, eventually the Knock Offs outdamage my wishes or I run out of Defog. I'm kind of just settling into a sequence I know is bad for me, but not like immediately a death sentence for me, to see how my opponent reacts, hoping he makes some mistake

T16 - hoping to catch a double but also activating flame orb is nice so Chansey can't toxic me / I can switch into Dhelm Knock (i confirmed he was boots not colbur)

T17 - I regret not clicking Knock here although if he pressed me I'm not sure it's worth it

T18-31 - a lot of tickle, stopping spikes

T32-38 - more tickle, trying to time my conk entry

T39 - okay this was very stupid by me for non pokemon reasons - basically I had to get up here to check my phone and get some water to drink which cost me some timer. I assume ksteve thought I was thinking and planning to change up the sequence, which I wasn't trying to telegraph, I was just thirsty. But since I made the past like 6 moves quickly and took a minute on this turn, he interpreted that as a signal I would swap things up so yeah I lose health on Conk and my position is quite bad right now

T40 - salvaging what I can

T44 - want to heal jirachi and stop spikes

T46 - obvious double, keep repeating this sequence until like t55

T57 - i kind of change my mind and decide i dont want to have sr in exchange for his sr spikes, costs me some health on chansey

T62-63 - finally some life in the position, if I'm going to win, it's from conk so i need to heal it

T64 - regretting turn 17, I decide to knock now

Who let the dogs out

T67 - would not have been good if conk ate seismic so in comes skarm

T72 - position is actually the best I've had all game and I try to catch a double here which doesn't materialize

T75 - conk is my god, heal him to full

T77 - failed to catch chansey

T91 - okay I'm not happy that my only thousand arrow switch in is no more, but at least I get the first real attack going - he has no dog switch in (he probs should have just took the time to heal chansey) and he doesn't want to risk dhelm getting poisoned for obvious reasons so arrows feels free


That's a big conk

T94 - i calc knock OHKOs dhelm

t96 - tough but he had no switch ins, he probs had to sack reun on turn 95 i guess or even rotom

t97 - do i sack chansey or skarm? tough to say. but i feel like i dont need defog anymore and teleport/rocks still could be nice from me

t99 - i recall what he did on turn 77 and figured he might go for it again which is great for me, outrage is super obvious im a bit surprised he didn'tjust trick or hydro here or just sack reun. this is probably a turning point where it goes to a good position for me.

t100 - clearly an error from the opp given turn 101

t101 - they didnt need to waste all the health on dhelm

t103 - quite tough but i figure i almost definitely win if i dont get confused so i go for it. i'm not sure it's right. these turns are very seductive - a clear good position vs a murky possibly even better position, i took the clearly good one

t104 - think ksteve should have applied that logic in t103 from me, although his position isn't going to be good - idk but i think arrows was better here

t106 - why let conk eat the arrows? well the thing to sack would be chansey. if i sack chansey, then i go prim afterwards. it's still the same position basically - prim dies to crit and if it gets crit, i lose as fuck probably PLUS there's a chance he goes chansey and sets up rocks and hits prim too - then he might not even need a crit since conk dies to arrows after rocks. so i figure i just go for the 93% chance to win here and i just get it. Very obvious win from there with Encore Prim in the back as long as he isn't twave chansey.



Conclusion

As noted, this was probably the only bad MU I had in 8 games this tournament so I'm very happy I was able to win still. Especially so because apart from maybe in the PDT week 2 game, every single time I had a bad position in the tournament I didn't manage to defend it and I lost. This was probably the first time I was genuinely suffering in the position and still came back to win.

Despite this, my team is now out of the tournament as we had to in this last week and we can only tie it.

I did have fun in the tournament although frankly not sure it was worth it as the losses put me in a terrible mood, far worse than the happiness a win brought. It was exciting to compete though and from my perspective, the tournament was still a pretty poor result from me 5 wins, 3 losses - 2 of the losses had winning positions from me (vs watashi and santu) before getting haxed, but I did play poorly to get in a position where I could get haxed anyways. The win against Lnumbers was just a cheap auto win and against PDT it was pretty poorly played by me and I had to rely on MU to basically get a ~50% chance to win, which I luckily did get.

That said, I am still pleased with how I played some of the games and at least I'm pretty sure I know where I messed up in all my games having written 8 very long posts for 8 games.

I wasn't really a team player at all in the tournament but at least the managers were fantastic about that, and fortunately, as always, my main motivation of winning as much as possible aligned perfectly with my team's goal even if it didn't work out.

Again, not having played an official in like 3 or 4 years I was extremely nervous the first 2 weeks and I really do relish that feeling. Maybe I will be unable to play for another 3 years so I can feel new again. Honestly, I do envy newbies as only they get to really learn the game from the start and feel the nerves. But I got a bit of that feeling this tournament and I'm grateful to all for the support, particularly those I shouted out above.
and hariyana grande for tests of course sorry for leaving you out
 
Alright, so, thank you pokemonisfun for the kind message. It was a pleasure to help you and the technical machines. 6-3 overall in UU is more than decent tbh.
I don't know if I should write something considering I wasnt a team member but anyway, it was so fun building for you.
I think you did a fantastic job in picking among the 267 teams I was posting on a weekly basis, especially having the balls to go with this Polteageist/Cloyster team. We indeed got an absurb amount of good match ups, some preps were absolutly hilarious (predicting 5 mons out of 6 of pdt's team), or predicting St3ve to 100% have chansey, thus running Conk (and warning 600000 times about zydog.... "chansey is my zydog switch in"). You and DugZa were true machines !
Overall, I watched every UU game in this SCL and it was cool, congratulations to people making playoffs and good luck, I really hope we can get some spice. Also, GGs to pdt and tdk for the overall record. Thanks to Monky25 for the stats and keeping this thread alive (because I personnaly dont really care about predictions considering how people buried my man pif at the beginning lol) (adaam goat supporter)
 
unfortunately the gibles are out of scl now NOOOOOO!! i’ll do semis predicts though to at least try to keep this thread alive a bit longer

[PLA] TDK vs pdt [ISL] (55/45) - looking back at the last time these two played, pdt got pretty fortunate in the game. ig u could say it was bound to happen though given he was using a para spam team. anyways, both of these players have some pretty different takes on the metagame, with pdt falling back on his coba+mence/ scizor/nihil/grass etc kind of structures, while tdk has a love for slowking and coba+scarf hydra with friends (brought this 3 times in a row, but so did we lol i get it) and seems to attack the builder a bit more. with this being said, neither of these two are scared to bring something completely out of pocket and curveball u hard. overall i’d rate pdts builds higher for now just given that theres been less holes, while tdk had an oopsie in one match bringing something that auto lost to cm snore prim.

playing wise, i do rate tdk a bit higher right now. despite his loss vs pdt earlier on, his only other one was mentioned earlier, vs watashi where he really couldnt have done anything to stop the inevitable loss.
this could be said for pdts loss vs pif as well, but vs meru he just got outplayed. the crying game was also just unfortunate lol. hope these are nothing but a motivator rather than a tilt factor for pdt and we end up seeing a good one.

[TER] Lyss vs SoulWind [DYN] (60/40) - lyss is back in uu after a little break which i believe is what she needed to get back into form. honestly prob wouldve bolded meru here too if he was playing just bc he looked great in the games he played. im bolding against soulwind bc i just dont think hes as dominant in these lower tiers as he would be in something like OU where i’m sure he would farm. lyss with the combination of umbry seem to have great team building chemistry, as long as they dont use skarm dhelmise fillers part 400. soulwinds support is, unless they have some secret ssuu building titan, ksteve, which is fine. steve is known for his (sometimes too) creative builds, but he can also use more standard stuff which i feel like hes gravitated towards this tour. keeping his team building principals in line with the rails is prob what’ll help soulwind win, but who knows, he used palkia twice in ubers this season which im pretty sure isn’t too standard. maybe the ksteve sauce is what he needs to succeed here

soulwind better player of course, but lyss umbry/great ssuu experience >> ksteve support/little ssuu experience is what i believe gives lyss the edge

sry for shit formatting on phone lol
 

Adaam

إسمي جف
is a Community Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis the 8th Grand Slam Winner
Congratulations to Lyss, Meru, and pdt for their teams making playoffs. Special congratulations to TDK for having the best score so far and making playoffs - although I'm sure the others will try to dent your achievement :)

I'm writing this not knowing who the last team to make PO will be but I do know it won't be my team. Therefore I'd like to shoutout the people who assisted me and also congratulate DugZa for his strong victory when he subbed over me week 5.

Camarade Papadov - aka pitfall/Z-wrap helped carry our gen8uu in UUSD and now carried me again in SCL with essentially the best possible prep, giving our UU a good match up every single time you built (which was a majority of the weeks) and correctly anticipating what the opponent would bring whenever we asked. You are the goat of prep. Perhaps the biggest thank you is to you not just for your help, but for deciding not to play in tours and crush me everytime as you doubtless could...

DugZa and -Howkings - thank you my teammates for quite frequent and helpful tests and building advice. To Howkings and Amaranth thank you for drafting me when you had other excellent options and trusting me to play whenever I wanted to. You both are very capable managers and can be leaders in whatever you choose.

Aqua Jet, avarice, bb skarm, KM, Lily, Sulo, tomatosoup110 and Totomon - all tested with me one or more games - thanks for your help. Testing is important to me and I'm grateful for your time and keeping games private.

Adaam - you didn't help me substantively but your posts cheering me on were very kind and motivating. Good luck when you hopefully return for champs soon.


My week 9 game https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8uu-659601 - I will try to analyze this live with KSt3ve tomorrow live in pia (uu focused discord) voice channel at 5:30 PM GMT-1 - feel free to join here
https://discord.gg/7rJNVtVdge


View attachment 462838

Match up and Lead

You might think the match up looks attrocious but I'd say it's only "bad" - perhaps my first and only bad MU after 8 games total this tournament. The obvious thing here is that I have absolutely no good Zygarde switch in. It looks like I also have no Reuniclus counter but I did have Teleport Chansey into Encore Primarina so that wasn't the biggest issue. Zygarde + my Defogger's inability to beat his Spike setter (Defog Skarm couldn't take on Spikes Skarm funnily enough because PP) were the obvious things giving me a poor MU. That said, Conk and Zygarde can ravage my opponent's team obviously especially because my Jirachi was likely to paralyze his Skarmory - he was likely to risk this since throughout the past few months I've been spamming U-Turn Wish Jirachi which normally can't para things.

So why is my MU bad given it sounds like we both have huge threats? Dhelmise, which I dubbed the assiest grassiest, completely walls Skarmory and Chansey (no status) so he is absolutely going to win the hazard war and probably Knock Off multiple Pokemon. That's clearly to me the deciding factor, although again, it's far from hopeless.

I decide to lead with Chansey, hoping to get SR early and that I could at least bluff Toxic for a bit to scare off Dhelmisse. It also stopped Zygarde from spamming Arrows immediately.

Not the assiest grassiest

T1 - I do get SR as intended although perhaps I could have swapped right away to Conk and Knock something off. In retrospect, that was better as he was surely getting rocks there and I can't really keep em up anyways. Note - it would be better to hard switch turn one instead of Teleport because it keeps Teleport hidden and it stops me from taking unnecessary hazard damage, this is an interaction that newbies often miss I feel.

T2/3 - It's important to know what I want paralyzed - Reuniclus likely can't beat Jirachi and Encore Prim anyways even if it's not para'd. I do want to try and lure Skarm for the para (he thinks I'm free spikes) since it makes Conk much scarier.

T4 - very fortunate to get the para as I planned

T7 - the assiest grassiest comes in and asks a big question - who do I want Knocked? I figure he's most likely Knock on this as he lacks Knock on everything else bar Reun but he seems likely to bring CM reun vs me. If he's Knock he's also probably not Polt which means Jirachi to some extent can wall it. I probably should have kept my helmet and go Jirachi here but it's just so hard to let Jirachi take that huge hit. Still an error from me

T8-12 - I probably should have swapped in Jirachi earlier, oh well.

T13-14 - obviously heal

T15 - What I'm saying here is that with his Skarm para'd, I'll try to prevent him from setting Spikes and then try to go Jirachi to counter Dhelmisse, it's not really a tenable balance for me, eventually the Knock Offs outdamage my wishes or I run out of Defog. I'm kind of just settling into a sequence I know is bad for me, but not like immediately a death sentence for me, to see how my opponent reacts, hoping he makes some mistake

T16 - hoping to catch a double but also activating flame orb is nice so Chansey can't toxic me / I can switch into Dhelm Knock (i confirmed he was boots not colbur)

T17 - I regret not clicking Knock here although if he pressed me I'm not sure it's worth it

T18-31 - a lot of tickle, stopping spikes

T32-38 - more tickle, trying to time my conk entry

T39 - okay this was very stupid by me for non pokemon reasons - basically I had to get up here to check my phone and get some water to drink which cost me some timer. I assume ksteve thought I was thinking and planning to change up the sequence, which I wasn't trying to telegraph, I was just thirsty. But since I made the past like 6 moves quickly and took a minute on this turn, he interpreted that as a signal I would swap things up so yeah I lose health on Conk and my position is quite bad right now

T40 - salvaging what I can

T44 - want to heal jirachi and stop spikes

T46 - obvious double, keep repeating this sequence until like t55

T57 - i kind of change my mind and decide i dont want to have sr in exchange for his sr spikes, costs me some health on chansey

T62-63 - finally some life in the position, if I'm going to win, it's from conk so i need to heal it

T64 - regretting turn 17, I decide to knock now

Who let the dogs out

T67 - would not have been good if conk ate seismic so in comes skarm

T72 - position is actually the best I've had all game and I try to catch a double here which doesn't materialize

T75 - conk is my god, heal him to full

T77 - failed to catch chansey

T91 - okay I'm not happy that my only thousand arrow switch in is no more, but at least I get the first real attack going - he has no dog switch in (he probs should have just took the time to heal chansey) and he doesn't want to risk dhelm getting poisoned for obvious reasons so arrows feels free


That's a big conk

T94 - i calc knock OHKOs dhelm

t96 - tough but he had no switch ins, he probs had to sack reun on turn 95 i guess or even rotom

t97 - do i sack chansey or skarm? tough to say. but i feel like i dont need defog anymore and teleport/rocks still could be nice from me

t99 - i recall what he did on turn 77 and figured he might go for it again which is great for me, outrage is super obvious im a bit surprised he didn'tjust trick or hydro here or just sack reun. this is probably a turning point where it goes to a good position for me.

t100 - clearly an error from the opp given turn 101

t101 - they didnt need to waste all the health on dhelm

t103 - quite tough but i figure i almost definitely win if i dont get confused so i go for it. i'm not sure it's right. these turns are very seductive - a clear good position vs a murky possibly even better position, i took the clearly good one

t104 - think ksteve should have applied that logic in t103 from me, although his position isn't going to be good - idk but i think arrows was better here

t106 - why let conk eat the arrows? well the thing to sack would be chansey. if i sack chansey, then i go prim afterwards. it's still the same position basically - prim dies to crit and if it gets crit, i lose as fuck probably PLUS there's a chance he goes chansey and sets up rocks and hits prim too - then he might not even need a crit since conk dies to arrows after rocks. so i figure i just go for the 93% chance to win here and i just get it. Very obvious win from there with Encore Prim in the back as long as he isn't twave chansey.



Conclusion

As noted, this was probably the only bad MU I had in 8 games this tournament so I'm very happy I was able to win still. Especially so because apart from maybe in the PDT week 2 game, every single time I had a bad position in the tournament I didn't manage to defend it and I lost. This was probably the first time I was genuinely suffering in the position and still came back to win.

Despite this, my team is now out of the tournament as we had to in this last week and we can only tie it.

I did have fun in the tournament although frankly not sure it was worth it as the losses put me in a terrible mood, far worse than the happiness a win brought. It was exciting to compete though and from my perspective, the tournament was still a pretty poor result from me 5 wins, 3 losses - 2 of the losses had better positions from me (vs watashi and santu) before getting haxed, but I did play poorly to get in a position where I could get haxed anyways. The win against Lnumbers was just a cheap auto win and against PDT it was pretty poorly played by me and I had to rely on MU to basically get a ~50% chance to win, which I luckily did get.

That said, I am still pleased with how I played some of the games and at least I'm pretty sure I know where I messed up in all my games having written 8 very long posts for 8 games.

I wasn't really a team player at all in the tournament but at least the managers were fantastic about that, and fortunately, as always, my main motivation of winning as much as possible aligned perfectly with my team's goal even if it didn't work out.

Again, not having played an official in like 3 or 4 years I was extremely nervous the first 2 weeks and I really do relish that feeling. Maybe I will be unable to play for another 3 years so I can feel new again. Honestly, I do envy newbies as only they get to really learn the game from the start and feel the nerves. But I got a bit of that feeling this tournament and I'm grateful to all for the support, particularly those I shouted out above.
you did great this tournament! I knew you’d be a steal of the draft after 9 IDIOT managers let you go for 3k. I especially liked the electric stack team. Ladder matters always and forever!!!
 
Week 9

Code:
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Chansey            |    5 |  50.00% |  40.00% |
| 1    | Zygarde-10%        |    5 |  50.00% |  40.00% |
| 3    | Excadrill          |    4 |  40.00% |  50.00% |
| 4    | Celesteela         |    3 |  30.00% | 100.00% |
| 4    | Primarina          |    3 |  30.00% |  66.67% |
| 4    | Skarmory           |    3 |  30.00% |  33.33% |
| 7    | Jirachi            |    2 |  20.00% | 100.00% |
| 7    | Reuniclus          |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 7    | Slowking           |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 7    | Nihilego           |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 7    | Scizor             |    2 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 7    | Venusaur           |    2 |  20.00% |   0.00% |
| 7    | Xatu               |    2 |  20.00% |   0.00% |
| 7    | Togekiss           |    2 |  20.00% |   0.00% |
| 15   | Suicune            |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 15   | Rhyperior          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 15   | Cresselia          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 15   | Mandibuzz          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 15   | Conkeldurr         |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 15   | Chandelure         |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 15   | Cobalion           |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 15   | Salamence          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 15   | Thundurus-Therian  |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 15   | Keldeo             |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 15   | Hatterene          |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 15   | Zarude-Dada        |    1 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 15   | Torkoal            |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 15   | Darmanitan         |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 15   | Dhelmise           |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 15   | Rotom-Wash         |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 15   | Tangrowth          |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 15   | Amoonguss          |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 15   | Cloyster           |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 15   | Ninetales          |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
| 15   | Polteageist        |    1 |  10.00% |   0.00% |
Overall Usage

Code:
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Cobalion           |   38 |  42.22% |  60.53% |
| 2    | Salamence          |   29 |  32.22% |  44.83% |
| 3    | Scizor             |   22 |  24.44% |  45.45% |
| 4    | Excadrill          |   20 |  22.22% |  55.00% |
| 4    | Amoonguss          |   20 |  22.22% |  45.00% |
| 6    | Primarina          |   19 |  21.11% |  52.63% |
| 6    | Tangrowth          |   19 |  21.11% |  52.63% |
| 8    | Hydreigon          |   18 |  20.00% |  61.11% |
| 8    | Nihilego           |   18 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 8    | Chansey            |   18 |  20.00% |  38.89% |
| 11   | Rotom-Wash         |   16 |  17.78% |  50.00% |
| 12   | Slowking           |   15 |  16.67% |  46.67% |
| 12   | Zygarde-10%        |   15 |  16.67% |  40.00% |
| 12   | Diggersby          |   15 |  16.67% |  40.00% |
| 15   | Celesteela         |   14 |  15.56% |  64.29% |
| 15   | Skarmory           |   14 |  15.56% |  42.86% |
| 17   | Azelf              |   12 |  13.33% |  58.33% |
| 18   | Thundurus-Therian  |   11 |  12.22% |  54.55% |
| 19   | Hippowdon          |   10 |  11.11% |  30.00% |
| 20   | Togekiss           |    9 |  10.00% |  66.67% |
| 20   | Gyarados           |    9 |  10.00% |  55.56% |
| 20   | Necrozma           |    9 |  10.00% |  44.44% |
| 23   | Slowbro-Galar      |    8 |   8.89% |  37.50% |
| 24   | Nidoqueen          |    7 |   7.78% | 100.00% |
| 24   | Reuniclus          |    7 |   7.78% |  57.14% |
| 24   | Dhelmise           |    7 |   7.78% |  28.57% |
| 27   | Conkeldurr         |    6 |   6.67% |  83.33% |
| 27   | Hatterene          |    6 |   6.67% |  83.33% |
| 27   | Jirachi            |    6 |   6.67% |  66.67% |
| 27   | Keldeo             |    6 |   6.67% |  66.67% |
| 27   | Lycanroc-Dusk      |    6 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 32   | Zarude-Dada        |    5 |   5.56% |  80.00% |
| 32   | Mamoswine          |    5 |   5.56% |  60.00% |
| 32   | Zarude             |    5 |   5.56% |  40.00% |
| 32   | Crobat             |    5 |   5.56% |  40.00% |
| 36   | Rhyperior          |    4 |   4.44% |  75.00% |
| 36   | Mandibuzz          |    4 |   4.44% |  75.00% |
| 36   | Suicune            |    4 |   4.44% |  50.00% |
| 36   | Tapu Bulu          |    4 |   4.44% |  50.00% |
| 36   | Quagsire           |    4 |   4.44% |  25.00% |
| 41   | Chandelure         |    3 |   3.33% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Salazzle           |    3 |   3.33% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Seismitoad         |    3 |   3.33% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Polteageist        |    3 |   3.33% |  33.33% |
| 41   | Krookodile         |    3 |   3.33% |  33.33% |
| 41   | Azumarill          |    3 |   3.33% |  33.33% |
| 41   | Venusaur           |    3 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 41   | Umbreon            |    3 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 49   | Milotic            |    2 |   2.22% | 100.00% |
| 49   | Cresselia          |    2 |   2.22% |  50.00% |
| 49   | Cloyster           |    2 |   2.22% |  50.00% |
| 49   | Vanilluxe          |    2 |   2.22% |  50.00% |
| 49   | Scolipede          |    2 |   2.22% |  50.00% |
| 49   | Weezing-Galar      |    2 |   2.22% |  50.00% |
| 49   | Torkoal            |    2 |   2.22% |   0.00% |
| 49   | Darmanitan         |    2 |   2.22% |   0.00% |
| 49   | Xatu               |    2 |   2.22% |   0.00% |
| 49   | Swampert           |    2 |   2.22% |   0.00% |
| 49   | Starmie            |    2 |   2.22% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Cofagrigus         |    1 |   1.11% | 100.00% |
| 60   | Regieleki          |    1 |   1.11% | 100.00% |
| 60   | Sylveon            |    1 |   1.11% | 100.00% |
| 60   | Golisopod          |    1 |   1.11% | 100.00% |
| 60   | Toxtricity         |    1 |   1.11% | 100.00% |
| 60   | Moltres            |    1 |   1.11% | 100.00% |
| 60   | Mantine            |    1 |   1.11% | 100.00% |
| 60   | Raikou             |    1 |   1.11% | 100.00% |
| 60   | Golurk             |    1 |   1.11% | 100.00% |
| 60   | Ninetales          |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Ditto              |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Noivern            |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Politoed           |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Tornadus           |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Kingdra            |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Mesprit            |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Marowak-Alola      |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Porygon2           |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Heracross          |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Froslass           |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Centiskorch        |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Gastrodon          |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Xurkitree          |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Haxorus            |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |
| 60   | Crawdaunt          |    1 |   1.11% |   0.00% |

Better late than never, won't comment too much on trends with regular season being over so these posts are more of just consistency to have week by week stats + for predictions. Current record is 22/40 and hoping to finish with a % greater than 50.

[PLA] TDK vs pdt [ISL] (51/49)- Super close matchup right now and probably the tournament highlight on the UU end. Both are great players that use a mix of standard and anti-meta teams, but pdt suffered back to back losses these last 2 weeks so leaning TDK based on firmer consistency. Great watch and game for sure.
[TER] Lyss vs SoulWind [DYN] (45/55)- I think this game comes down to how good the team SoulWind is passed tbh. Steve has brought fine teams for the most part but is more inexperienced as a player compared to others in the pool, which SoulWind makes up for. Lyss has much more expertise in the tier rn and better building support but also has fallen back on a lot of Skarmdhelm teams as well as high usage of Scizor, Amoonguss, and Chansey, compared to the more varied builds used earlier in the tour. I also think she's prone to tilt so it really depends on the matchup that is pulled and the playing ability of the two, and I think we could see an upset. Both are great players still so it'll be a really good and close game to see.
 

Lily

wouldn't that be fine, dear
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UU Leader
been wanting to do a team dump with the stuff i used in scl- i didnt really want to sign up much to begin with but i got convinced and figured itd be a good sendoff to the tier i essentially began with and to an extent grew up with lol, corny as that may be. for that reason i'm gonna be mimicking my first ever team dump near the start of the gen, which, now that i'm reading over it again, shows a lot of growth for me.

i'm not gonna go too in depth about my building process for most of these or anything but i'll add whatever snippets of info i think are interesting. also shoutout to anyone who recognises the nickname themes, i spend too long on those :D

without further ado, here are the teams!

Week 1 vs Lyss (L)


i wasn't really sure what i wanted to use at all going into this week since there wasn't a whole lot of data to go off with lyss and her takes are, to say the least, quite bizarre. i noted she was generally pretty weak to lycanroc and it was a mon i liked using and felt comfortable with, so i tried building a bit around it and ended up coming up with the same 6 as a team adaam had used a few months prior lol

It's not really a bad team but it hasn't aged well. It's great for anti-cheese; you pretty much can't lose to HO with this unless you really mess up, the only threat is like RP Coba. it doesn't do too poorly into other things but I'm just not a huge fan of skarm dhelm at all; I really did give it an honest try this tour but it just wasn't for me lol.

Week 2 vs Highways (W)


Indigo Plateau pmed me before this week started like "yo isn't dd reuni broken as shit" and i was like hold on you might be right, asked him to give me a team with it and i was like man this sucks (sorry ip) so i built my own instead and this was the result. this was the first iteration of the togekiss/amoonguss core that ended up getting spammed a bit later on so that's pretty cool, look at me being a trendsetter wow. anyway the idea here was that between togekiss and cobalion you can beat up and overwhelm every dark type, and seismitoad as the rocker was chosen because it could get a toxic off on jungle healing-less zarude/hydreigon while also pooping on rotoms for togekiss. hydreigon is p much the only speed control option that works in my experience, i tried noivern and crobat too but you really are so weak to azelf just clicking psychic without the threat of hydreigon punishing it. probably not as good as it was a couple months ago but i did like this team a lot

Week 3 vs pdt (L)


imo this is by far the worst team i brought all tour. i don't really remember what the thought process was, i knew pdt was weak to zydog which was a mon i never really used so i figured that made sense, but the rest of the team just does not work well. its very much reliant on zydog or gbro rolling an amazing matchup, and they didn't so i got trashed. not much more to say, do not use.

Week 4 vs bb skarm (L)


bb skarm was notorious for loading teams that would exclusively lose to hyper offense, but i was also aware that his support (hariyana) would know that so i didn't wanna load the classic ip ho that everyone else was using. that led me to building this, which did lose but i still think it was the most unique, creative and well-crafted team i brought all tour. there are many little things on this team that make me v happy and overall make it a reliable choice imo - i don't want to go as far as to say this is the "best" hyper offense or whatever but i do think it's very good.

there are a lot of little synergies here that im a big fan of - spell tag polteageist for example will always ohko hydreigon at +2 as long as it has taken a boosted aqua jet from azumarill beforehand (a common enough occurrence since azu is often in hydrei range after setup). as well as that, lycanroc fits nicely by not only letting you cleanly revenge kill cobalion no matter what, but also ensuring you always have the upper hand vs other hyper offense (esp ip ho which just hard loses to it). dd taunt gyara really puts skarmory teams in an awkward position and makes it so that lycanroc or azumarill will probably just win against them, and teapot sets up on skarm in worst case scenarios anyway.

i lost mostly off poor play; my team had already won the week and i think my motivation was already lacking fsr; if i pulled a couple of triggers like meteor beaming the turn i clicked sr it was pretty much an immediate win but oh well. you live and you learn after all

Week 5 vs KSt3ve (W)


this one was kind of a do or die week for me if i wanted to avoid the bench, so i tried my hardest to find something that matched up well vs kst3ve. i knew he liked conk / chansey teams, had a capacity to randomly cheese with an affinity for sun as well, so i knew taunt chandelure was the move. yes, it was supposed to be flash fire.

I like a lot of the little things on this team. eq mence as a nihi lure is pretty cute, it will very often come in on your defog to then immediately set rocks up again and you can just claim it when it does; even if it power gems you don't ever die to it so it's not a huge deal as long as you can roost later. this is also the one zarude team i felt pretty good about, which was nice since i hadn't been using grasses outside of regenerator goons and i figured this would add to the diversity of my scout a bit. beyond that it's just filled out with Good Mons, cm snore prim 1v1s chansey anyway but it appreciates how well this team pressures tang all the time and stuff, v good chandy partner in general. coba ups and diggs speed controls while providing vital typings. good team i recommend it, im glad i won and avoided the 1-4

Week 6 vs Poek (W)


poek was a serial cheeser going into this and wanted to play early so i had an inkling he'd cheese again. that led me to building around lycanroc spikes since that has a good to great mu into pretty much any cheese i could think of except rain and... trick room lol. to that end i didnt wanna give free turns to shit like specs keldeo in rain or alolan marowak, so i decided against skarmory and instead went with golisopod as my spiker - it also had a fantastic ho matchup, helped with the zydog issue a lot of lycanroc teams find themselves facing, and also had heat factor. due to the awkwardness these two mons can bring i needed a ground type that didnt autolose to scizor so that ruled out hippo, nido did a fine job and helped with pressuring grasses if necessary, while steela/guss/rotom was a fine defensive core to round out the team's weaknesses to various types. my main fear with these team was conkeldurr, i didn't have helmet on anything and my fighting resists were a far cry from conk checks... and then i had to face 3 conks in the same game. somehow still managed to pull it out though thanks to poek's marowak outspeeding my golisopod, which i think meant he crept it for hippo (i did not do this since i wasnt liquidation anyway). really fun game, possibly my fav of the season - i was really happy with how i played it.

Week 7 vs pokemonisfun (L)


I didn't really know what to expect from pif, nor did I know what pif would expect from me, so I decided to use something comfortable that wasn't similar to anything else I'd been using this tour. for that reason I went with Keldeo which was under the radar, and I wanted to pair it with spikes to make sure I'd actually get to break; unfortunately I ran into sylveon regieleki milotic so I don't know what I really could've done differently in prep to account for that lol

I do wanna talk a bit about the diggersby set because I felt it was quite cool. I really don't like skarmory much so spikes are often hard to fit, but chople diggs has a lot of applications; for one you lure coba amazingly, two you can lure stuff like hydreigon and azelf really well (people will often scout with slowking or amoonguss; click EQ on the switch and then body slam, they'll assume you're scarf and go into the flier), and three you get to click flex focus punch. this ohkos hydrei on the switch (i had poor hydrei counterplay) and also pops roosting skarmory while doing great damage to incoming celesteela/tangrowth.

i think this team is cool; it's very much a "me" team, and probably would not work for people that aren't me lol but by all means feel free to give it a try. i got some flak for it, ppl called it bad, i don't rly care; i liked it and thought it was effective even if it lost in the bo1 setting.

Week 8 vs TDK (L)


going into this game i knew i would need a matchup advantage bc carson is just better than me at pokemon and there was no point in acting like that wasn't the case for me; he was also the best record in the pool so yea. i knew he hated tang and hadnt used much skarm so i felt like sd drill was a great call, and i also wanted to use vanilluxe at some point in the tour; it felt like a pretty good time since he usually relied on coba for it on his chanseyless teams, and even chansey teams arent really safe. so i made a team with both and im really happy with it, i love how this team plays and i think i piloted it well; i probably won this game if i didn't miss the hydro pump on nidoqueen since at that point cobalion is really difficult for tdk to handle but that's pokemon at the end of the day. fuck u anyway carson

Week 9 vs LNumbers (W)


if i lost this game my team was straight up out so this was definitely the most high stakes team tour game i've played even if we were looking pretty doomed; by this point i was running out of steam and just figured i'd roll an autowin matchup with one of two broken setup sweepers and that's pretty much exactly what happened, reuniclus ran into no dark type again so gg lol

i do think this team's pretty fun though; wisp chand was better than toxic in my experience with this bc nihi was a bitch and the more physical attackers i burnt, the more likely a primarina win was (somehow i burnt a tang this game which meant prim won the second i got it on the field but that never ended up happening). scarf excadrill is also really cool, you you can spread status with it like toxic on tang and mence which makes various members of the team like prim and coba a lot more threatening. highly recommend trying the set & this team in general

---

i had a fun time with ss uu this gen and i hope others did too, it is far from a perfect tier but it's really fun imo and has a lot of unique and creative routes you can take even if the community goes into doomer mode about them pretty often. as excited as i am for sv uu, ss uu will always have a special place in my heart as my home tier, and i hope i was able to help make it as good an experience for everyone else as it was for me.

ty for reading, peace out o7

 
Just wanted to comment on the cumulative stats and usage during SCL

- Conkeldurr : 6 usages overall, 83% winrate.
This mon is a blessing. It's the definition of making progress. It always does something in a game.
I'm personnaly a big fan of Ice punch instead of Knock off on it just because, let's be real, everyone sends their mence on it. Literally anyone. It's so free to click ice punch, especially since the opponent is highly unlikely to anticipate it for some reason. I don't think knock is that needed on conk. For sure it's not bad because it's extremly free and riskless to click knock, but the only real advantage of knock is knocking Skarmory and Tang (especially physical tang with rocky helmet in the stall match up). You also knock Mence boots but ice punch would ohko it anyway.

- Togekiss : 9 usages overall, 66% winrate.
I love that mon too. It checks sooooo many things rn. It is able to beat the regecore, check conkeldurr, check hydreigon, check salamence, double fighting resistance for keldeo, can bait bulky scizor if you run flamethrower, can beat chansey, and the list goes on and on.
I don't know what spread people run, but I tend to love 248 hp, enough speed to hit 230, and the rest of the EVs in defense or in spD or both. You get a very very bulky Togekiss that can check some unexpected things like Choice Band Zygarde (you can see in the Dugza vs Lyss match in Week 5 that Dugza's togekiss was at 50ish% and it tanked zyg TA, resulting in Lyss losing another mon).
Sure Max Speed timid is cool for outspeeding mamoswine, modest nidoking, etc, but i'm sure the additionnal bulk on it is absolutly needed to come multiple times in a game.
An overall very very underated mon, that I almost never face on ladder for some reason.

- Reuniclus : 7 usages, 57% winrate.
Sure the winrate is less impressive. But this mon is soooo good. First, defensively speaking, it checks megahorn less Cobalion. Second, it can come on every single defensive pokemon in the tier and heal so a 30% hp reuniclus is still useful in a game.
I tend to go for the max hp max def with speed creep Colbur berry CM recover psyshock focus blast set, as i don't like the fishing aspect of the double dance set. This set beats every dark in the tier and only has one common counter, SD scizor, which can obviously be abused by other team members.

Shoutout to Dhelmise 7 usage 28% winrate I hate this mon it gets chipped so easily, it's a cool role compression but it ends up not checking what your grass type wants to.
 
Last edited:

kumiko

formerly TDK
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Four-Time Past WCoP Champion
hiya, with the tournament now over, i wanted to make a quick post about my experience with this meta and my teams. to start off, i'll be frank, i never ever felt like i clicked with this generation of uu and was bad at it all gen long. even during uu invitational, my friend KSt3ve just picked my teams and i played with them, not really knowing what was good or not. this tournament was a daunting task because I didn't really have a dedicated UU support and I felt quite unknowledgeable with the tier. I also really wanted support regardless of the tier I would end up in, but didn't really get it. Thankfully...





and from there, he did in fact test with my teams every week except the week vs watashi (coincidentally, got trounced). Star just wanted to say thanks for everything this tournament; while I was uh probably not the most easily helpable of players you've managed or teamed with, you were easily the most helpful to me LOL

as for the metagame, it was kinda crash course with uu invitational being a warm up. I didn't know what everything ran; I didn't really know what teams need to be good; I didn't really know how to make teams for this tier. The first week was very tough; I went through some TERRIBLE ideas which obviously never saw the light of day.













and after trial and error (mostly error), i was like ok im gonna step back and think of a big breaker, and just picked out golurk because it hard checks sd cc megahorn edge cobalion and seems like a good breaker. ultimately garay and i both built essentially the same team, but i opted to use his version instead of mine in the week 1 game, as his had cobalion and it just seemed Better overall, espc into like zarude and stuff.

anyway, point is it took a bit to get the tier, but i approached this tournament with some... probably? very unconventional takes and knowledge and put myself in positions to win.

---

Week 1 vs. KSt3ve - Team


:chansey: :salamence: :rotom-wash: :golurk: :cobalion: :zarude-dada:
vs.
:starmie: :zarude: :mamoswine: :chansey: :skarmory: :crobat:


Right off the bat I get the one person who supported me through UU Invitational. While this was admittedly extremely annoying, I honestly had more information on him than he did I. I didn't really try to make teams or offer many meta opinions, mostly because I didn't really have any, but I had plenty of his between his support there and teaming with him for both UUPL and UUSD this year. I didn't try hard to look into KSt3ve's tendencies or anything this week, I mostly was looking for a good breaker and making an overall good team, but I did have Star test against teams he made, so that's something.

As for the team I used, Garay made this team around CB Golurk which I ultimately decided was the move. It's honestly really hard to support it well; it's a Ground-type, but it doesn't stop any Electric-type, is slow, and doesn't come in on a ton of Pokemon. Rotom-W is basically an essential partner, as the regenners are basically the best thing to come in on. From there, I don't remember the exact process from here, but a pretty obvious way to fill it out from these two is Chansey / Fog Mence / Steel / Grass, and to be quite honest that can fill out most cores in this tier and be viable (as long as you have an Electric immunity.) Scarf Zarude was picked because it was far too slow for my comfort, and pretty much all the sets from there are obvious. The Salamence EVs are to outspeed Adamant Mamoswine, hit the highest PDef jump point, and rest into HP (you should take 4 evs out of HP and put them into speed instead btw to avoid more SR damage after knock).

Early game I realized things weren't great, and I had to double on Skarmory a few times with SR up to make progress, and that happened quite quickly and I avoided a crucial Scald burn to get the upperhand. After a terrible second CC from me I put myself behind again and had to counter his Zarude with my Chansey (don't try this at home). Eventually had to have my Rotom not get flinched by CB Mamo and did, which worked out for me. This also taught me to run faster Rotoms in the future, and I did from there. Late game was hella awkward for both of us and resulted in me hitting some Hurricanes against his Crobat at the very end to win. This game also really shows why I think statusless Chansey is garbage; Teleport gave him some nice position early game, but it gave me a big chance later. If he had a status move, I had no business winning this game I don't think.

Week 2 vs. Poek - Team


:slowbro-galar: :tapu bulu: :jirachi: :nihilego: :diggersby: :salamence:
vs.
:zygarde-10%: :scizor: :azelf: :azumarill: :zarude-dada: :haxorus:


i'll be honest i don't remember how i approached prep this week but I know it took me a while; poek wanted to play early and I wasn't ready so I never agreed to it and we ended up playing after the week was over. Ultimately I opted for a GBro + Terrain team which I think are crazy strong and dangerous. CM Galar Bro was a ton of fun to use in UU Invitational and it felt so good.

As for the team, it started with CM Galar Bro + Tapu Bulu. Diggersby felt like the only Ground-type that would fit with this core; all the physical ones cannot really afford to viably run High Horsepower, which I felt was necessary for them, and I didn't think Nidoqueen really fit. Diggersby can afford to use its filler slot on HHP which got around Terrain and still had Earthquake for reliable and accurate damage. Salamence and Nihilego were picked as the hazard core, Nihilego because I felt like it could abuse Grassy Terrain well, and Salamence because it just felt like the one that fit the best. Jirachi was kinda thrown on as the last; I felt really weak to Psychic-types and Fairy-types, so I didn't want to use Cobalion. I didn't want to use Celesteela or Skarmory because Thundurus also looked mighty threatening. I opted for AV Jirachi because I didn't need SR (not a big fan of Meteor Beam Nihilego and I think SR Jirachi is really bad), didn't want to make it the Scarf Pokemon, and felt like there wasn't really a better item. Expert Belt and resist berries obvivously are ones that jump out fast, but I found AV to be more overall sound and helped the team out with some annoying matchups. It still has the ability to bluff Choice Scarf and can reliably check things you need from a Steel type. It also can eat a Trick and smash the Trick user.

The Galar Bro EVs were initially just max PDef but I gave it some SDef because I was worried about switching into Primarina Scald. Bulu outspeeds Adamant Crawdaunt, sdef was for something i cba to figure out and rest pdef.

I'll be blunt the game was pretty free. As soon as the Azelf Ice Punched I realized it was mono CB and as long as I played smart I wasn't really ever at risk of losing. He was going to use the team he eventually used vs Lyss and KM, but opted for the mono CB team because the week was already over.

Week 3 vs. pokemonisfun - Team


:weezing-galar: :chansey: :quagsire: :mantine: :skarmory: :tangrowth:
vs.
:chansey: :tangrowth: :slowking: :mamoswine: :salamence: :cobalion:


This week I matched up against pif. I'll be honest, I played pif a TON on the SM UU ladder, and I pretty much always lost. I would lose stall vs stall, anything vs his stalls, and even stall vs his HOs. One of my immediate ideas was to use stall this week, just thinking about the ladder days and wanting to feel like I could say I beat him in a stall game. I had three teams I was picking from, and initially axed the stall and another team, and opted for the third, but realized the third team was straight up 6-0d by Keldeo, I opted to go back to the stall just because the other options weren't appealing.

The EVs on Galar Weezing were to outspeed a BD Azumarill but in hindsight idk why I made this change LOL i have a quagsire... but yeah it's faster than Conkeldurr above all. Opted for Aroma because I couldn't fit SR elsewhere and it needed all the moves it had. Chansey, Quagsire, and Tangrowth all had speed to ensure things like opposing Regenerator Pokemon and Chanseys couldn't have their abilities proc if I were to switch to Weezing. Mantine and Skarmory both outspeed Conkeldurr.

Going into the game, there were two things I didn't want to see: Azelf and Mamoswine. At preview I see Mamoswine alongside Slowking, which I really feared to be Future Sight at preview. I felt like if I didn't let Mamoswine collect the whole team, I had a very strong matchup. I'm not going to go in depth on this game because it's a very long game and I'd recommend you read pif's analysis of the game here and also me answering a couple of his questions about plays I made which can be found here.

Week 4 vs. pdt - Team


:weezing-galar: :chansey: :slowking: :heracross: :zygarde-10%: :celesteela:
vs.
:nihilego: :scizor: :zygarde-10%: :amoonguss: :gyarados: :hydreigon:


Prep for this week was pretty straightforward; I opted for some Pokemon that would be able to out offense the bulky offenses he always uses. I ultimately built around Zygarde-10% and Galarian Weezing, as he always relies on the Regen Grass-types to combat it, and I felt it was generally quite strong into him. Slowking was an easy addition to help Zygarde out, by getting FSights off and Teleporting around. With three slots picked, I had a lot I felt I needed to cover with the final 3. Rocks, Primarina switch that didn't get 2HKOd by a Specs Moonblast, Cobalion switch, Ground immunity, Thousand Arrows switchin, and a Steel-type. Chansey and Celesteela were selected to cover as much as I could of the aforementioned things into two slots, and I opted for Scarf Heracross to be the last slot and cover both Cobalion and Thousand Arrows. I think Scarf Heracross is extremely solid and a huge threat in this metagame; it has a great speed tier, comfortably OHKOs Cobalion, can come in to two of the most annoying Pokemon to defensively cover (Cobalion and Zygarde), and can revenge a lot of annoying other Pokemon.

The EVs here are pretty straightforward; the Celesteela I opted to make offensive because I was worried about the team being too passive without it and felt this set could be troubling for a lot of teams. Weezing outsped Conkeldurr. The Chansey and Slowking both have speed creep so I switch out first into my Galar Weezing to cancel opposing ones from activating their abilities upon switchout. Last two are 252 252.

Felt pretty good about the matchup, the biggest worry was Gyarados, as a Boots set could end up be really troubling. Beyond that, felt pretty good. On turn 4 and 5 we learn why Galar Weezing isn't really used; it doesn't even beat Amoonguss. This made me think to myself "hm ok maybe this wasn't a good idea." The Hydreign reveals to be Thunder Wave which caught me offguard, but then it worked out great for him as I full parad on his switch to Amoonguss when I had clicked Air Slash. Moving forward I get into a good spot by killing his Zygarde with Heracross for free, get his Scizor down low, and land a Toxic on his Hydreigon. Then things start to snowball; Celesteela gets fully paralyzed, and I no longer have a good way to beat the Scizor. Zygarde Extreme Speed is a roll to KO at best, so I opted to switch to Slowking, to cover a switch to Amoonguss and him Bullet Punching expecting to live. Then the Gyarados comes in and reveals it isn't Boots. I go to Heracross anticipating a free KO, but end up missing Stone Edge. From here it's desperation to not get swept by this Gyarados, stacking up Helmet damage and Future Sights to weaken it and threaten priority to take it out. I ultimately got out of it without getting swept and find out he was a bulky spread which did eat Stone Edge from Heracross. While it ate, this still turned a very easily winnable game to a very hard to win one. After the Gyarados went down, I see I can still win depending upon the Nihilego set. If it doesn't have Pain Split or Knock Off, it should be won, as neither can really kill Chansey. However, he ends up getting the first turn Sludge Bomb poison, which wins him the game. Given he ended with one Synthesis left, if he doesn't immediately Poison with Sludge Bomb, Chansey should have solo'd. It was very frustrating to lose this game as after the first three weeks, I felt very confident in myself in this pool and really wanted to finally do better than just 7 or 8 wins.

Week 5 vs. Fakee - Team


:nidoqueen: :crobat: :slowking: :scizor: :mandibuzz: :lycanroc-dusk:
vs.
:scizor: :slowking: :cobalion: :salamence: :diggersby: :thundurus-therian:


The Breakers UU was 0-4 at the time and just subbed Fakee in. I didn't really know anything about them, so I kind anticipated them to just pick a random HO that was used in the tournament and hope for a win. I looked into a bunch of different anti HO ideas and never really made a team I liked with any of them, so ultimately opted for a CB Lycanroc team, which actually is great into HO and a sick mon in general. Alongside Lycanroc, Slowking allows Lycanroc to drop Psychic Fangs, as Future Sight makes up for it and I don't need to hit Amoonguss or Keldeo as hard anymore. SD Scizor I almost feel like is only viable with Future Sight or Spikes when it isn't 3 Atks given how hard it is to break certain things. I picked SD U-turn because I thought I could Future Port into Scizor on Cobalion and U-turn. Nidoqueen was the rocker of choice because it was a Ground-type and hard checked SD Cobalion. Mandibuzz was the Defogger because I felt the team really needed the Dark and Ghost resist, and also a sturdy check to Zygarde. I opted for Crobat over a Scarf Pokemon because it is already quite fast, and I have two strong priority in the back to make up for the lack of speed there. Taunt + U-turn Crobat can also chip things for Scizor or Lycanroc and I felt they fit well together.

As for the EVs; the Nidoqueen is EV'd to always live Excadrill Earthquake and Boots Azelf Psychic from full. It outspeeds Primarina and the rest of the EVs are dumped into SpA to maximize odds of killing Excadrill. Crobat always eats a Cobalion Stone Edge after SR damage (Knocked into Roost). Slowking was +SDef because I felt shaky into Primarina. Scizor you'll just have to trust me on this one. Mandibuzz I'll be honest, it hit 200 Speed for Azumarill, and then I just picked a random Defense jump point and went with it.

As for the matchup, I felt pretty good as Lycanroc absolutely shredded him. But Thundurus also could potentially be devastating; midgame I was like wow this team is really Thundurus weak LOL. T1 was a clicko mode play that ended up working out. After this I played like shit and made my Scizor U-turn into Helmet repeatedly for funsies and put myself in a god awful spot and ended up getting punished by Scald burn. From here I just tried not to lose as I was playing completely from behind and was on the brink of disaster. Turn 59 I get owned and I'm thinking it's insanely dire. From there I end getting a lot of turns right and he ends up letting me kill his Cobalion for no reason. It becomes a close endgame and I teleported on Diggersby which was probably a massive misplay but in the moment felt it was pretty justified. However I got owned by a Body Slam para and now how to not only get every play right but also avoid a full para. Fortunately, that ends up happening. This was a really tense game and I was pretty pleased with myself for pulling it out.

Week 6 vs. Lyss - Team


:rhyperior: :azelf: :amoonguss: :hydreigon: :cobalion: :primarina:
vs.
:slowking: :scizor: :azelf: :celesteela: :cobalion: :diggersby:


This week against Lyss, who had a really strong showing up to this point. The main thing I noticed from this point was that whenever she used Amoonguss, it rarely had a Grass move. I thought about ways to abuse this and an immediate thought was SD Rhyperior; while it doesn't really "abuse" it because you OHKO at +2, I looked into it just as a general thing into her teams and found it to be quite strong due to a very low amount of Tangrowth and Hippowdon. From there, I looked for ways to gain momentum and bring it in, and opted for 3 Pokemon with the ability to grab momentum. Specs Primarina was added as a breaker and also because it made me not fear my Amoonguss dropping a Grass move. Draining Kiss was used as the last on Primarina for a few reasons. I didn't want to risk inaccurate moves when possible, so I didn't see my self ever really clicking Hydro Pump, so I opted for one Water STAB. Other coverage moves didn't seem necessary, and Primarina can now regain a lot of health vs threats that are easily KO'd. I found it to be devastating against offense, as you can just sit there and kiss away and they can't really do anything about it. Really good move. I changed Toxic to Taunt on Cobalion last second due to fear of HO and wanting to stop setup.

Rhyperior outspeeds 0 speed -Speed Celesteela, creeps on Tangrowth, Hippowdon, -Speed Swampert, and Chansey, and also always eats a Giga Drain from Tangrowth from full. Rest was dumped into attack. Cobalion was a struggle figuring out what the EVs were for...



Ultimately I made it so it always ate Diggersby Earthquake. Primarina I sinned and dropped a little bit of speed to get two really cool calcs; Nihilego Sludge Wave and +2 Cobalion Iron Head at 100% are both guaranteed now.

Was a very frustrating start, but after I missed the second Stun Spore I was like yooo Rhyperior walls Auto Celes. Went to Cobalion on Diggersby because I knew it always ate and couldn't risk anything else at that point. After Rhyperior SD'd, I calced and learnt it somehow isn't a guaranteed kill with two hits of Rock Blast, so I opted to just click EQ and hope she didn't go hard Azelf, to which she did. It didn't have Boots so I had to switch out of fear of Belt Grass move. I ended up Draco Meteoring because I felt she was quite behind and had to get something going, I also thought given she used Psychic on the switch to Hydreigon, it was very possible she had a Choice Specs, and could just Psychic on U-turn and do big damage to my own Azelf. She also, frankly, didn't have a sturdy Dragon resist. From there I just had to dance around her Cobalion and victory was pretty much secured.

Week 7 vs. watashi - Team


:slowking: :azelf: :amoonguss: :hydreigon: :cobalion: :diggersby:
vs.
:thundurus-therian: :excadrill: :primarina: :zarude: :reuniclus: :cobalion:


This week Star was busy IRL and I was forced against my will to test my own teams. I ended up testing with Lyss for like 15 games and lost almost every game and binned everything. I approached this game wanting to cover HO again because I was afraid of watashi just not caring and loading some random shit that KM passed. AV Slowking is ironically really strong into HO, as DTail kinda smokes everything. I also opted for Triple Taunt to minimize the amount of chances things could setup, and had Foul Play on Diggersby for DD sweepers. I opted for physical Azelf because I was thinking I definitely wanted U-turn, Knock, and a Psychic STAB. And at that point, why use Psychic instead? The biggest thing this change misses out on is Cobalion, but I felt confident in the change anyway. The EVs are really nothing special on this team so not gonna bother going over them. Slowking wants SpA for FSight damage, Hydreigon isn't max speed because why bother at that point.

As for before the game, I wasn't confident in this team at all. After I locked it in:



As for the actual game, I felt fine about the matchup but pretty worried about the Reuniclus and Primarina. Once his Primarina switched into Amoonguss and didn't Sleep Talk, I knew it was the CM Snore set, which was quite bad. I pivoted around and did as much progress as I could before it came in, but ultimately I misplayed on Turn 28 by not Taunting; there was really no reason not to. In the moment, my thinking was he didin't really lose much by clicking Moonblast here; I could SD or Taunt so he could knock me out and then rest later in the game, which he probably thinks I couldn't really stop. After I Volt Switch on Rest, it's just game over without any significant RNG. This was a really frustrating loss because I pretty much brought it upon myself with my team selection.

Week 8 vs. Lily - Team


:nidoqueen: :slowking: :hydreigon: :cobalion: :tapu bulu: :hatterene:
vs.
:vanilluxe: :hydreigon: :cobalion: :excadrill: :rotom-wash: :amoonguss:


Going into this week, I was again a bit worried about HO, but ultimately realized I should stop overprepping for it after the game vs. watashi. I made a batch of teams this week and pretty much eliminated all except the one I ended up using due to being too shit. Pretty sure I built around Hatterene + Tapu Bulu because Bulu could give Hatterene terrain. Sets are all pretty straight forward. Slowking +SDef again because Primarina scary. Bulu outspeeds Primarina, LO number in HP, and attack jump point. Hatterene hits the first jump point in PDef and rest dumped into speed.

As for preview, I saw the ice cream and thought I was fucked. Immediately had to trade 50% on Cobalion and sacrifice Hatterene to get Future Sight damage on it. I sacrificed Hatterene instead of going back to Slowking because I wanted to either do damage to a switch in or get Future Sight damage on it. I get them up on a Hydro dodge which was extremely crucial to the game and tide turning. Once she sacrifices Vanilluxe to Rocks on Turn 22, the game pretty much ended without luck, as she didn't really have good means to break my defensive core. This was a win, but didn't feel great because I got a big Hydro dodge which ruined the game for her.

Week 9 vs. Santu - Team


:suicune: :jirachi: :rhyperior: :cresselia: :mandibuzz: :celesteela:
vs.
:venusaur: :torkoal: :darmanitan: :chansey: :xatu: :excadrill:


I knew Santu had extremely high odds of cheesing, so I decided to outcheese his cheese. More seriously I knew cheese was likely and just felt like his teams were quite weak to Suicune, and given we were clinched I thought I could use something a bit more unique to diversify my scout. I made the team around Suicune + Cresselia, picked my hazard core and Celesteela because I saw hariyana grande use this set and it looked funny. Ultimately added Jirachi for a second HW.

I didn't say what any of my EVs were for cuz most were random tbh. Only the Celesteela had thought put into it but I'd be lying if I remembered what they did and I never said in the team chat so GL figuring it out if you care to.

Game was pretty straightforward. Only real questionable turns was letting Celesteela go (think it was optimal bc it wasn't really gonna get another chance to get going and got chip on darm), and Turn 33 -> 34. I initially thought I should Trick with Jirachi predicting Venusaur but opted against it because I thought he was better off going to Darmanitan on a potential Trick. Iron Heading again was probably smarter but I was a tad worried about him going to Darmanitan on that turn to keep Venusaur alive and try to sweep with it outside of Sun. Realistically switching out on Turn 34 risked a crit but it worked out so.

Semifinals vs. pdt - Team


:chansey: :salamence: :registeel: :rotom-wash: :conkeldurr: :diggersby:
vs.
:slowking: :scizor: :nihilego: :azelf: :thundurus-therian: :zarude:


Going into this game I looked over every team pdt had used this tournament and noticed a couple trends. For one, his only Scarf Pokemon has been Diggersby. His teams have generally been extremely slow and felt very abuseable. He also rarely covered the really bulky setup sweepers well; Chinese Registeel and DD Reuniclus both 6-0d him on many occasions throughout the season.

I knew I wanted to use Conkeldurr in either Semifinals or Finals, and I ultimately ended up being able to fit both Conkeldurr and Registeel on the same team. Registeel is honestly really good defensively because I find Chansey teams to have a bit of trouble killing CM Snore Primarina, and this provides you a great out vs. that. I opted for Wish Salamence because I just feel like Defog Salamence always switches into Knock and does nothing other than switch in and click roost and continue this cycle til it dies. Defog was also a really bad choice into pdt in particular because he uses Nihilego more than anyone else. Wish is really good alongide Salamence and made me feel better about not being able to make a team with Wish Chansey that I liked. Defog Rotom-W is honestly one of the better removers in the tier and I felt like it fit really well here as well. Scarf Diggersby is just the obvious last from here.

The Salamence EVs outspeed Excadrill and eat a +1 Adamant Gyarados Ice Fang. Max HP is used to get more HP healed via Wish. Rotom-W outspeeds Mamoswine w some creep onto 70s. Conkeldurr I decided didn't really need max speed because 1. most of pdt's Scizors were very offensively invested 2. Conk generally is going to have Pokemon faster switched in. The Conkeldurr spread ate a DWB from DD Mence at +0 and a Thundurus-Therian Psychic after Burn damage (93.4 max for both). Registeel is just some creep because I didn't find any relevant SDef benchmarks.

Big threats to the team included Zygarde-10, Azelf, and Thundurus-Therian. He had both Azelf and Thundurus-T at preview, so I was quite concerned, but Conkeldurr and Registeel both looked phenomonal into him. Getting Conkeldurr in on Slowking basically put me in the driver seat and he didn't really get a chance to recover. I clicked Facade again vs. the Scizor after some calcing to determine he was very invested in his PDef and was most definitely not DWB in that case. From there my Registeel ends up avoiding some Scald burns to clean the game up and wrap up the week for my team.

Finals vs. SoulWind - Team


:chansey: :slowking: :salamence: :excadrill: :hydreigon: :cobalion:
vs.
:suicune: :cresselia: :chansey: :nihilego: :mandibuzz: :excadrill:


This game didn't and won't be happening as the series is over, but SoulWind showed me the team he was going to use and OK'd me posting the six.

For finals, I locked in pretty early what I wanted to use. After testing with Lyss during previous weeks, I got completely farmed by Fire Spin + Taunt Hydreigon, and once I got matched up with SoulWind, I knew it was the perfect pick. I pretty much only spent this week figuring out what the best team selection would be and ended up with this.

This season, I felt most confident with Chansey and Slowking. These two Pokemon cover way too much in this tier and really just dominate the meta to me. I also felt Excadrill was perfect for this week; alongside Chansey, it justifies me using a less sturdy Ground and Steel-type. I also hadn't used it a single time this tour, despite thinking it was pretty good.

With this in mind, I ended up looking into ways to figure out the best two lasts. I also really wanted to avoid SR Chansey as that was the only one I had used all tournament and felt that could be abused somehow. So my last two had to be a Ground immunity, Zarude switch, and Stealth Rocker.

Chansey EVs are a bit funky, but given TWave + Teleport, I figured potentially outspeeding a paralyzed Jolly Bulu was more likely to come into play than Chansey Teleport speed ties. TWave + Teleport also is fine alongside Excadrill + Hydreigon, as they cover things like NP Rotom.

Slowking I had to use this moveset, because FSight opens up Hydreigon a lot against things like Nihilego, but the EV spread and Item were picked because I was scared of Zygarde. I was torn on Boots and Helmet, but ended up on Boots because I didn't want to be forced to spin at all times and it helped against Arrows the most.

Salamence spread is same as last week. Roar is used over Defog or Toxic because I wanted to cover Snore Primarina. Chansey TWave and Toss into TP to Salamence and Roar allows me to prevent it from winning before last Pokemon, which realistically shouldn't be able to win against SD Excadrill and co. Hurricane because Conkeldurr scary.

Excadrill EVs allow me to eat a Hippowdon Earthquake and Timid Hydreigon Fire Blast from 100%. Max speed and rest attack.

Hydreigon set I stole from tests with Lyss but was apparently made by none other than Lily, so thanks for that. EVs are to eat a Cobalion CC and speed is for Darmanitan.

Cobalion EVs are to eat Zygarde Arrows and Timid Hydreigon Fire Blast. Went for SD STABs because I felt like other coverage moves were just too unreliable.

Given his team, I think I had an extremely free matchup that was only contingent on him not stalling out my Hydreigon of PP with Suicune and company. Nihilego can force it out, but realistically I was incredibly advantaged in this matchup and don't think I'd have lost.

---


With that said, this tournament was a lot of fun. Between exploring this tier and actually feeling like I enjoyed it, to playing and enjoying myself as a player for the first time in ages, to having a really fun team chat, it was a great ride. Obviously things didn't work out the way I'd have hoped, but it is what it is.

I might end up making a UU VR post at some pt to go over my meta takes but some short takes with no explanation:

chansey broken
conkeldurr broken but stop using ice punch plz
hippowdon is TERRIBLE people are on some shit for thinking this was ever possibly s rank id put it like b- fully unironically. please show me a hippowdon team that doesn't autolose to primarina AND also doesnt sabotage itself with its own sand or run sand force
keldeo is GOD AWFUL i looked into this so many times bc it looked good but its just so garbage into slowking without using some terrible set this should honestly be ru
mamoswine is a catfish
primarina is overrated but also the most annoying thing in the teambuilder to ever exist
salamence is a terrible fogger
scizor is mid
skarmory is unviable
slowking is broken
tangrowth is GOD AWFUL av is so baddddd
thundurus i never used but it was solid just has to run focus blast to use viable sets (stop running no tbolt plz 4 atks volt is not good, volt defog not tbolt is fine tho)
zygarde is actually so obnoxious in the builder it makes building unfun, drill too cuz there are no good flying types really


Lastly, again, want to thank Star for testing my teams for me most weeks. Thanks to Garay oak, Finchinator and GXE for all the help and tests as well. Also would like to thank Lily, Reina, and umbry for the help whenever I asked them for help when I had no idea what to run even though I basically ignored all your suggestions and advice... but thanks anyway!

that's it for now, gonna be playing SV in game before touching anything competitively again for a while.
 
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