I will use this post to log my teams, creative sets, and experience playing SV OU in this SCL! Note that I paid extra attention to the games themselves for playoffs (as opposed to just teams/prep) as they were more recent and replays were accessible when I began crafting this post (more replays are showing now by the time I am posting). I still go in-depth on teams and preparation for other weeks though.
Winning 8 games made this season very exciting for me. My 3 losses were against awesome players (8-2 fogbound lake, 8-3 mind gaming, and 5-2 BIHI all were top 8 in OU record) and I had wins against some strong opponents as well, so it was a real treat to perform with this degree of success at this level of competition. Losing the tiebreak decider in semifinals was definitely a heartbreaker and I wish some parts of it went differently, but mind is an amazing player as many have seen in recent years and the Gibles are a great, deserving team as many have seen this tournament.
In this post I will show every single team I have used and whenever there is something I feel like explaining (i.e: cool set, thought-provoking part of the game, etc.), I will try to provide some insight as well. DLC1 OU was a rollercoaster, but I actually enjoyed the majority of the SCL OU metagame. I think there was a ton of room for new Pokemon/cores to be used, various archetypes to succeed, and the better player to win far more often than not.
I was definitely on the grind this tournament as I played 50-100 ladder games per week across various accounts, frequently mapping out my lead/early game lines into specific archetypes ahead of time and hypothesizing what opponents would use into me. This type of game theory and practice I really enjoy, so I enjoyed the extracurricular components of my 8-3 run almost as much as the 11 games themselves. I want to extend a special thank you to my teammates who tolerated my constant tags, questions, and ramblings, too. These type of interactions are what make these tournaments special to me and we had a motivated and talented group around me.
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paste, L vs mind gaming
mind is quite an offensive player by nature, gaining this reputation from his days spamming hitters with Beat Up and other cool aggressive schemes last generation. He is capable of using any playstyle though and I really respect this about him as we have seen fat on a few scattered occasions, but he just fell short against me with an Alomomola balance team in semi-finals, so I expected an offense more in-line with 7 of the teams from his regular season scout as well as his historic trends.
Right from the jump I had just played and prepared for him the prior week, so there was a bit of an awkward dynamic that I did not want to repeat too much while still making sure I was comfortable as this would be a big game. Ultimately, my first progressions lead me to wanting to use a bulkier team with Unaware Clodsire or SDef Slowking + Iron Defense Corviknight (
paste, but I soon pivoted to my final team, which was less passive and more balanced, granting me more outplaying potential in a wider array of match-ups.
The premise was super cool as it had Future Sight + Chilly Reception Slowking-Galar + Roar Zamazenta, which can link together to force in some fragile Future Sight targets. This brings me to my creative set of the game:
Zamazenta @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Dauntless Shield
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 88 HP / 252 Atk / 168 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
-
Roar
Roar is mainly worth using on teams with Future Sight Slowking/Slowking-Galar that also have another means of dealing with Clefable. I do not mind missing out on Iron Valiant as Tera Fighting Close Combat can 2HKO it, which I was running here after using and revealing a defensive Tera Fire type on Zamazenta vs mind last round. With this said, you can justify using Tera Dark, Fire, Steel, and various others on this or other variants. I liked this set a bit more with the support of Knock Off and Spikes, but mind in particular was not a frequent Heavy-Duty Boots spammer like myself and I found Spikes to not be worth overly-compressing Ting Lu on this build, so I went with it nonetheless.
In the game, Roar was able to be used as Kingambit used its Tera Fairy and clicked Swords Dance, giving me some breathing room earlier in the match.
As for the remainder of the team, I really wanted to use one or two Pokemon durable on the special end as I was worried about dynamic special attackers mind liked such as Enamorus and Walking Wake, so fitting Slowking-Galar for that and keeping tempo up was a great add. I was not worried about reusing it either as I think people were a tad behind just how good it (and regular Slowking) are in this metagame as they do not hard counter a ton, but serve as very practical pieces nonetheless. Dragapult I typically find hard to fit onto Zamazenta builds as they both serve as great speed control, but it is so good that it is hard to avoid sometimes right now and extra speed into offense is always a plus. I will dive more into Tera Dragon Draco Meteor Dragapult later as, in my opinion, it is easily the best set and it helped me win multiple games during the season, but that set was an easy fit here. Rounding things out were three of the best Pokemon: Tera Fairy Kingambit, Ting Lu, and Zapdos. I do not think these need any explanation.
The game itself was very tight and fun -- mind is great and it being a close game is no shock to me, but also a bit awkward at points as there is a lot of "what if" to it. I got up early due to Zamazenta, but a clutch Hatterene set, which was a great tech from him, and Banded Dragonite being able to capitalize on Ting Lu being put in 2HKO range by the Draco Meteor critical hit put us back to even. From there, he was able to just edge it out in a dicey late game; I have another "what if" moment as to if he did not get the paralysis since it could have been very winnable without it, but that is the game and I could have minimized risk earlier (more on this later), so I cannot complain. I was pretty content with how I played the end game given how much information was revealed and talked it out with my team at length later, too, to not arrive with many regrets there that would have changed the outcome given what I had seen and knew throughout the game (you could argue for a slightly different fodder sequence, but nothing would have definitively changed anything). I do really regret turn 9 as I overpredicted and let myself take unnecessary chip damage and because of that I cannot complain all too much despite thinking I had a advantage in a cleaner game. In the end, if you make a misplay, then you need to look at yourself before the game or anything else and that was the case here, so I dug my own grave in this one despite using a pretty solid team and making some other good plays. Against the best players in a game like this with different surprises and luck involved, the smallest error can trickle in certain ways or even not making an error and just getting outplayed on a turn or two can at the end of the day.
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paste, W vs mind gaming
A bit less insight into the team here and more focus on the game later, but I do want to give the team some words. I did not have any big techs or surprise plans like the Roar Zamazenta in the tiebreak here, but I knew that my opponents would be cognizant of my scout and I knew they had a history with me as I lost to mind in WCoP and lost to Fog W1. Neither of them used hard offense against me with mind debuting the German big 6 (Enam GKing Gambit Tusk Bax Cind) in WCoP and Fog using anti-meta balance W1, so I kind of expected them to pivot back to bulkier teams rather than using another offense after frequenting it in the regular season.
Enter Ogerpon-Wellspring, which I had never used across SCL and other tournaments prior to this game. And my goodness, it caught an Alomomola and was able to put in good work. I paired it with a bulky-offensive cast that I felt was still able to function into offensive styles like Sticky Web thanks to Court Change or weather thanks to Tera Water Chilly Slack Off + Reception Slowking-Galar, but also break with Future Sight into Libero Cinderace, Ogerpon-Wellspring, and Kingambit. This team lowkey is one of my favorite styles as it has 3 pivots with Cind, LandoT, and GKing, but also 3 win conditions that can hit hard with Zama, who I really liked into mind's offenses in case he decided to load that, Kingambit, and the aforementioned Ogerpon-Wellspring.
As for the game, I got my ass kicked a bit early by mind playing nicely and forgetting a Future Sight, which is entirely unacceptable. Thankfully Cinderace was not too useful and I was able to kick it into gear. On turn 43, I made a very risky play as I clicked Swords Dance with Ogerpon-W into Zama, which could do a ton of damage to me and probably checkmate me in the long-term. He switched since his Zama was in range of Rocky Helmet and anticipated a switch, but I called that and clicked Swords Dance, allowing me to trade with Corviknight. Trading with Corviknight also allowed me to use Landorus-T to make some actual progress, taking out the Great Tusk and getting up Stealth Rock to eventually open the door for my own Zamazenta and a crazy endgame sequence where I was able to barely hang on. I think I could have clicked Body Press sooner and had I gotten unlucky in the endgame, this would have likely been my fault, but I had a big enough advantage to where it thankfully worked out.
I also built the team Michaelder used vs fogbound as Michael was quite busy during this period if people want it. This was not my game and I think I will spiral into a "holy shit, we saw someone dare to bring Hustle Lilligant-H in playoffs" tangent if I discuss it more, but here is the team for the sake of logging:
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paste, W vs lax
My game against lax was one of my less inspiring performances and I needed some fortune to emerge victorious here. There was some tough luck early on, but it quickly flipped in my direction and multiplied many times over. lax is a great player and his run this SCL had some rough breaks, but you can see his amazing potential from other tournamens like OLT and I came into this game with a great respect for him. I mainly wanted to establish some new things before the playoff and remain confident in my play, so I opted to use Samurott-H for the first time all tournament while also using Gholdengo and Zapdos for the first time since week 3 as both are superb. This was partially to position myself well for playoffs by diversifying my scout, partially to potentially surprise lax, and partially to just feel more confident using anything possible as I previously struggled with some Gholdengo structures and I hated using Zapdos during Gliscor metagame. As for Samurott-H, it was mainly coincidence as to why I did not use it yet, but also Ceaseless Edge missing on ladder tilted me a few prior weeks when I tried to use it, so that contributed as well as I went with the hot hand most weeks.
As I am writing this, I do not think the replay is up due to the outage (EDIT: now it is, but I do not want to give every single of the 11 games a breakdown like the two playoff games as this will take eons), but in the game I did show Focus Blast over Make It Rain on Gholdengo and I want to note that this was part of a unique part of the team. I did not have a true counter to Kingambit, but every single Pokemon either was able to threaten/1v1 it or pivot out against it. Gholdengo did not fit into that trend, but giving it Focus Blast gave me huge leverage. The main issue with this was it made the team quite high variance as many Focus Blast teams/sets are, so I would not necessarily bank on something like this in a playoff. This was probably not my single favorite team, but I did like the dual Ghost + Spikes premise at least. I wanted to try something with Clodsire and Meowscarada, but did not have quite the time that week and wanted to stick with bringing Samurott-H to diversify my scout ultimately.
Similar to the prior week, I also built some stray teams and Michael ended up using one here. The team he used was actually revamped from Sneasler metagame and was built around an anti-offense Garganacl set, but with some edits from him and my teammate Potatochan. Sadly it ran into Walking Wake Sun, which was a very uphill match-up. I was not super fond of this team myself, but my teammates liked it on the ladder and Michael was busy, so ultimately it was picked.
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paste, L vs BIHI
This was probably my least favorite bring and it was entirely my fault as I did not manage my time well enough during the wek and got too set on premise that was never going to lead to an overly consistent team. On top of that, this week BIHI outplayed me on a few crucial turns when I did fine openings, so I fell short this week and it was one of two weeks this season where I definitely felt my performance needed to be at a higher level to match my expectation for myself.
With this in mind, it was a very fun premise and I had a lot of cool moments on the ladder grinding with this squad, so not all is lost and I am happy to share this in part because it is part of the journey and in part because maybe someone can come up with something even better in the future. The idea was I was not sure what to expect from BIHI, so I wanted to be speed/priority heavy into offense and breaker heavy into fat, but honestly I ended up facing a more center-meta team that had Tera Ghost Lu to form a core that was able to outplay Ursaluna, so I kinda got shredded. Just major props to my opponent here and on me for not being able to pull the trigger enough this week. I do have a couple of fun sets to share though!
(meant to be used with hard-hitters such as
, but also tried some variants with
and
)
Scizor @
Eject Pack
Ability: Technician
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 112 HP / 252 Atk / 144 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Close Combat
Scizor in general is super underrated as it has an insanely practical set of traits between its typing, priority, and coverage. I love using a defensive Tera on it like Fire or Dragon, too, as it can flip a 1v1 scenario in most offensive match-ups given this when needed. With this in mind, I tailored this team to a never before seen application of using Eject Pack + CC. You cannot really fit U-turn and taking LO damage sucks (not to mention HDB is not so needed with Cinderace on this team), so Eject Pack + CC allowd for a ton of midground turns to always flip my way earlier in games while acting as a psuedo U-turn into things like Zapdos or Great Tusk, which it commonly draws in. Eject Pack allowing free Ursaluna against Zapdos or other things is a huge boost for a team this offensive.
I also think my Dragonite set on this with Tera Fire Fire Punch and Jolly Dragon move (catches Dragapult at +1) can be worth noting, but I did not invent this set and while I maybe was the first to use this specific combo of item/tera/nature, I do not want to pretend like this was some innovation so much as just general offensive synergy patchwork. Finally, keep in mind this was Sneasler's last week, so Tera Poison on Ursaluna helped a lot with both that and Rillaboom. Finally, my Rillaboom dropped Knock Off as I had no SR and already had Knock Of on Scizor, which opened up for High Horsepower, which is actually super cool on AV to catch Iron Moth and Heatran, which cannot OHKO, while still owning Slowking-Galar and now hitting Kingambit.
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paste, W vs Wolf
This was one of the teams I was more proud of as it had a few uncommon components to it and was able to win a deciding game at 5-4 for the week against a really solid opponent in Wolf. I had previously been trying to use an Unaware Pokemon at sometime or another as set-up spam offenses are seen as good picks into me, especially with the notion that metagame extremes tend to be used into me a lot hanging over my head. I think Unaware Clefable is a pretty mediocre Pokemon, but I was able to make it work once I went pretty far out of my way.
Slowking is a cool Pokemon that is very underrated as it is super good into Sun, Rain, and other awkward to swap into offensive Pokemon like Heatran, Volcanion, Enamorus, Iron Moth, Specs Pelipper, and Walking Wake while providing momentum and Future Sight, which are super practical tools for teams strapped for progress options.
Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Future Sight
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Chilly Reception
This is a very standard variant of it, but the Pokemon was hardly used all tournament as it sat at 2% total usage during SCL and this was the only time it won a game in OU. I think that on the right teams, it is very useful and should be OU by usage honestly.
Speaking of forgotten friends, Meowscarada was only used twice all tour in OU, sitting under 1% usage, and I was very happy to be able to bring it out this time as being able to provide some speed, Knock Off, Spikes, and the ability to pivot is insanely practical if you can make up for its lack of defensive footprint, which this team did nicely. It is funny that this Pokemon that was pretty damn good earlier in the generation fell to complete irrelevancy and dropped to UU without even being close to OU tbh, I think more people could fit it on balances despite its niche as a lead on offense now being pretty bad.
Meowscarada @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Overgrow
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Flower Trick
- U-turn
Overall, I think that HDB Overgrow Meow is something that actually fits on a lot of teams with both Slowking and Slowking-Galar that opt to not use Ting-Lu -- it was better in Gliscor metagame for sure as now Ting-Lu is taking over a bit and fitting two Darks when one is Meow is a tough sell as I think Meow lends itself better to other structures and Ting-Lu teams prefer something else, but this felt great at the time, which was among Gliscor's last weeks being usable.
Finally, classic SDef Heatran has almost entirly died out as people are too paranoid of running Leftovers out in a Spikes heavy metagame without removal, specially with other Steel types eating up so much of the usage pie-chart over it. However, with Wish support from Clefable, Boots Heatran is insanely good into offense. Nothing likes switching into Magma + EP + Wisp besides Gliscor, which again was OU at the time, and Boots + Wish allowed it to function well into status Pult, Gholdengo, Iron Moth, and Skeledirge, which was trending at the time.
Heatran @
Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type:
Bug
EVs: 252 HP / 216 SpD / 40 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Will-O-Wisp
I find Boots Tran to be super underrated even up until this point although I prefer to pair it with Alomomola rather than Clefable usually. I also want to note that without Wish, I would not use it as it dies too quickly and probably would just prefer Leftovers and the help of a Great Tusk to Rapid Spin at that point. Finally, Tera Bug is almost never seen at high levels and I just want to note I used it on something (although sadly it was not my Tera click that game).
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paste, W vs mimilimi
This was a copy of xavgb's team, but with Kingambit over Roaring Moon and some set alterations to accomodate to this shift as Roaring Moon had just been banned. He deserves full credit for this team and helping champion this archetype at a time when it began to truly take over the tier. xavgb is a great player who I watched closely each week as his team selection was very impressive and this week I felt it was too good to pass up on an idea like his prior team. I do not want to steal the spotlight or take any credit for a concept/idea that was very much not my own and while I was happy I won the game, it is not really my place to expand a ton on the team like I did the others I built myself (which was every other team I brought).
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paste, W vs Joeshh
As we get deeper back into the tournament, my specific preparation recollections do start to fade a tad. This week I recall really wanting to use offensive Gliscor to capitalize on some structures and I wanted to mix it up a tad since I had yet to use Dragapult or Slowking-Galar, which both fit nicely on the pace of bulky-offense/balance I envisioned as best for this match-up.
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 244 HP /
80 Atk / 68 SpD /
116 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
-
Ice Fang
- Protect
This Gliscor absolutely shredded opposing Gliscor teams unless they were also SD and either faster and used their Tera or a turn ahead of me and used their Tera. The spread allows you to OHKO SDef Gliscor at +2 while outrunning it's most common opposing Gliscor spreads and things like modest Volcanion or Heatran. Tera Fairy can easily become Water or Steel, but Fairy just fit this team as I wanted extra back-up into Dark moves from Kingambit and Dragon moves. Earthquake damage also went up by a large margin here, which helped in my game and a ton in testing. This set should've seen a ton more usage and was one of the many reasons why I felt Gliscor's whole presence was broken rather than just the Spikes posterchild dynamic of it.
I was also able to debut a beauty that I feel was criminally underappreciated/underused going into this.
Dragapult @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type:
Dragon
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- U-turn
Tera Dragon was easily the best Tera type on pivot Hex Dragapult in this metagame. I used it thrice and never felt even close to using the standard Ghost or a resistant type that is common on it like Fairy. Both of those have merits for sure, but boosted Draco into balance is an enormus improvement for Dragapult. In addition, neutralizing things like Cinderace Sucker Punch while netting an OHKO, which happened in this specific match, or being able to tank a Shadow Ball from Gholdengo, Crunch from Zamazenta, or a Dark move from Kingambit can go a long way. The boosted damage is the biggest seller and it is insane as a cleaner later in games -- this is of course just a standard set with an uncommon Tera, but my god the Tera paid so many dividends and I think it was underappreciated. Also, an honorable mention to Tera Fire + Flamethrower on Slowking-Galar, which helped improve a few match-ups with this team for me and is not too common either.
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paste, W vs Sylveon used calm mind
I expected some semblance of offense here and rather than risk playing too passive here, I opted to go with a surprise and fight fire with fire, which I was hoping would no be expected. I also thought my offense was positioned nicely with BU Booster Tusk, two priority users, and some timely defensive Tera types like Ghost on Heatran and Steel on Hatterene, which we did not always see leading up to this. This team had nothing creative or remarkable besides dozens of games grinding on the ladder to get accustom to it and make edits, which led to me being well-practiced and particularly ready for the opposing offensive match-up. Thankfully I faced that and got ahead early only to never look back. I was content with this team and my execution, but it was nothing revolutionary or standout -- it was pretty standard offense if anything. Sometimes just using what is best and practical is enough when you have the right situation after all.
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paste, W vs Lily
I noticed my opponent never used Ting Lu and instantly I wanted to try both Specs Gholdengo and Gliscor lure Zapdos, which had Tera Blast Ice. Turns out both of them hit with Gholdengo nabbing a surprise OHKO on Rillaboom T1 and Zapdos later disposing of an otherwise worrisome Gliscor. These are the type of risks I am ok taking as both Pokemon can still function regardless -- i.e: Zapdos can just be a normal, offensive Zapdos and Gholdengo can still chip or Trick -- while potentially being plus given the lack of Ting Lu's presence.
Lily had a tough match-up and I was able to capitalize on an early lead to maintain in control, so there was just not a ton she could do as I was fortunate to get the lead sequence and general match-up in my favor. Lily is an awesome player and, in my opinion, better in OU than UU or anything else, but I think my scout being less full helped me a lot this early in the season. I really loved this team when it was all said and done. Being able to nail this match-up without going too far outside of my comfort zone or the realm of consistent options definitely felt like I was starting to hit a groove as this game was my second straight win after a loss week one, too.
Zapdos @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Static
Tera Type:
Ice
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
-
Tera Blast
- Roost
- Volt Switch
This is just self-explanatory in a Gliscor metagame, and it is something you like to bluff earlier in games to lure them into security or potentially not even have to exhaust your Tera with Zapdos. Obviously less effective into Ting Lu or some other Pokemon, but really did not expect Ting Lu from Lily given her history.
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paste, W vs TPP
This was probably one of my favorite brings of the season and a build that I came to after a lot of discussion with my teammates and testing. TPP was a long-time friend of mine, but I really wanted to beat him since I knew how good he was in SPL (started 5-0 iirc) and proving that I could beat him to myself while getting on the board after a bad W1 was vital. I spent many, many hours on teams this week, cycling between a few that I ultimately deemed ineffective early in the week until a teammate made the suggestion about boots Ogerpon as glue and then refining the rest around the Gliscor + Ting Lu backbone I really wanted to try to vary it up from the HO I used W1. This team was later used by numerous others in the following weeks of the tournament and had some success there, too, so I was very glad that it caught on. Overall, a huge confidence boosting week for me as I was still getting my feet wet two weeks into the tournament. Major shoutout to Tony for making sure I did not settle on a lesser team and zio/Potato for all of the help this week as I was a mess for the most part. Lots of hours on my end of laddering and editing made this possible, too -- this was definitely the start of a trend of high-effort preps that helped position me well for the entire campaign.
As for the team specifically, forcing hazards with Lu into abusing them with the tempo and status/item removal from Gliscor and HDB Ogerpon while both were immune to opposing Spikes was huge. I felt like I could control games and then clean with Dragonite or Zamazenta after Gholdengo breaks it when given the right opening.
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paste, L vs fogbound
This team was close to the generic booster spam, but with Taunt on Roaring Moon, a "lead" Iron Valiant meant to trade with TauntDBond, and a surprise Iron Moth with Tera Blast Ice for Gliscor. I was still adjusting to the metagame as it was all very fresh and evolving rapidly. I should have won this game if I sequenced my Tera and Roaring Moon properly, but I did not and fogbound nailed the sequence while having Wisp Tran, which specifically derailed my sweep after I forced him to Tera with my Wake early. I was very upset with how I played this and vowed to be more considerate and forward-thinking in future weeks after this loss. Thankfully, that happened and I appreciate the impact this had on me, but I knew from the jump I was better than the product I put out this week and the team I used was subject to improvement and better personalization as well. I will show off the fun Iron Moth from the time though.
Iron Moth @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type:
Ice
EVs: 124 Def / 132 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fiery Dance
- Sludge Wave
-
Tera Blast
- Psychic
Obviously this only was worthwhile during the Gliscor era, but I thought that when pairing this with something vulnerable to Gliscor when it was so common, you can get some big returns out of this set. Losing Substitute for Kingambit Sucker Punch had some issues, but I had Low Kick max speed on my own and DBond Valiant + Sub Wake, so I felt ok with the trade-off. It was awesome to demolish Gliscor balances on the ladder that week at least.
And that is all. This is every team with some fun sets I used highlighted and some bonus info/teams in the mix, too. I hope my thoughts sum up my experience well enough and I hope others enjoyed this tournament as much as I did during the bulk of it. I really had a ton of fun with SV OU during the last few months and cannot wait to do it again during the upcoming SPL!
hyper offense, 
: "131 turns, 70 of them were just gliscors sitting in front of each other"
