After a very long time without really playing tournaments seriously (the only smogon tournament I was really playing was wcop), last year I made the decision of joining SCL to play ubers, a tier I had always enjoyed and after having a lot of fun laddering and playing the SCL games, where I ended with a really good record, so I decided that I was going to stop managing SPL and play either GSC or ADV. When FV drafted me to play ADV, I decided to start laddering, because I was feeling I was far from my best level in both gens.
Ladder 1: December 2021
In this perior of time I created a couple of ladder alts to play ADV before SPL started.
At this time, I wasnt doing too well in tests, so I went to ladder to get more used to current trends
I obviously used a lot of different teams and playstyles here. These were some of my favourite ones:
Big 5 Aero TSS and variations:
my classic version with double cb rocks
mixed lure ttar version with Psychic Meta
mixmence variation with no spin block and crunch purs ttar
Aero TSS has always been a very consistent playstyle that can win against nearly anything, although it has some nearly unwinnable MUs.
The first variation is my classic version. It is probably weaker now than what it used to be because of how common Bulky Tect Metagross was (and still is), but it is still an agressive fast team that is hard to stop.
The second variation features a mixed ttar with RS + BB + Fire Blast + HP Grass, allowing me to surprise common Aero counters such as metagross or swampert.
The third variation has no Ggar to block spin, but it has Mixmence for better pressure against other TSS teams.
Basically set up spikes and be agressive with your offensive threats.
ZapDug Balance:
Bulky BP Zapdos + Dugtrio, and CbTtar + wishbliss gives me a lot of offensive pressure, while still having a very solid defensive structure.
I really liked using this team, and it was one of my main options when I was struggling in the ladder or in a bad streak.
Double Trap:
Double trap with Spikes featuring bulky CMcune and Curse rest lax with Heal Bell support.
Another of my favourite playstyles was using bulky set uppers with support. This kind of team is usually effective and can easily win against a lot of common teams. However, it also has the problem of being a hax magnet: crits to bulky set uppers are relatively common.
Forry Starm by Dice:
This team was probably my most succesful one in this perior of time, getting an alt to #1 using this team nearly exclusively.
This team features a concept I had really never tried before, which is using non spin forry and a spinner in the back (starmie in this case), which allows Forry to use HP Bug, EQ and boom at the same time AND allows ttar to use a more threatening set, such as DDttar, which is also a surprise for the opponent because typically forry mandates pursuit ttar.
This team also has some cool techs such as toxic + snatch blissey preventing rests and recovers.
SPL Weeks 1-2
In the week before the start of SPL I started building a lot with some ideas we had, and in fact, 2 of the teams I created at this time would eventually become my 2 "main" teams in my 2 1800+ ladder runs.
Week 1 was against Teclis, who I knew was going to have Astamatitos and Callous support. I wanted to use something solid I would be comfortable with, and at the same time I didnt want to be weak to Zap + Beat Up Dug strategies, something Teclis had been using in the past and that is generally strong against my standard skarmbliss teams. For that reason I decided I wanted to use a Forry lead team, so I could easily spike against Zapdos leads allowing Bliss to kill most Dugtrios. I also wanted to add a cool tech in the team, so I added Zapdos with Agility, Drill Peck and HP Grass, a pokemon that could get some surprise kills against Celebis or Swamperts, especially with Spikes support (when they see I have Drill Peck they rarely expect HP Grass, and when they see HP Grass they dont expect Drill Peck)
SPL Week 1 vs Teclis (L):
https://pokepast.es/ea12f7750fba2152
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-601798
Similar team than the Dice team I used to peak ladder with, but with the Zapdos set I mentioned earlier and an interesting Crunch TTar set I thought about without Pursuit (which I dont need in this team). The idea of this TTar is hitting Starmie/Claydol with Crunch to help me keep spikes against them (HP Bug Forry can force them out
My turn 1 was terrible. I knew that Asta likes HP Fire Metagross and that he was helping him and I still stayed with Forry to Spike once, which was useless because shortly after he revealed a bulky Starmie. The correct move was always going to Starmie, because I was always going to have a lot of chances to spike later in the game.
I made some good plays after that, slowly getting into a better position, but in the end he got my pert with HP Grass, flinched my Bliss and the game ended there.
Starting SPL with L is never the ideal thing, but I felt that excluding that terrible turn 1 I made some good plays and I could have won.
However things werent going to be easy, because now I had to face the 2 most dangerous players in the pool in a row: ABR and Ojama.
Against ABR my plan was simple: using a spikes anti spikes team, with magdol to counter his high spikes usage, and also with a hard hitter and a bulky set upper to punish his bulky builds, especially with spikes support.
SPL Week 2 vs ABR (L):
https://pokepast.es/f200517a14ab6ef4
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-602910
This was a very interesting MU and a very interesting game. This was a game without sand, something that benefited my CBMence and my CMCune, but also his sleep talk roar Zapdos, a pokemon that was very annoying for my team to face.
We both play the early game very well in my opinion. The key turn is the turn 65, when his gengar sacrifices itself to take down my Claydol, leaving a spike in the field and no electric immunity. At that time I thought that even if Dbond was very likely, removing his gengar was more positive to me because otherwise it would have been a huge threat for my team, especially with wish support. Zap with 1 layer of spike was going to be a pain, but it also gave me a lot of opportunities to kill things with CBmence in predicted rest turns, giving me the upper hand, and it worked especially when I managed to hit his jirachi with EQ. However, me getting impatient with suicune when I didnt have to and then miscounting sleep turns, and him getting a lucky tbolt para ended up giving him the win in this game.
It was an interesting game, but I lost it and I was 0-2 in my return to SPL.
SPL Weeks 3-6
My third opponent was Ojama. I have played Ojama in tournament games a lot of times in the last decade, and I always liked his teambuilding style. This was not going to be an easy game for any of us.
The first thing I thought was that I wanted to change my style in the third week, because my spikes style wasn't working as shown by my 0-2.
I noticed that a lot of times Ojama teams focus in special bulky set uppers such as Jirachi/Celebi or DDTTar. For that reason, I decided I wanted to use CB flygon against him, because it is a really good mon against those threats, and it is one of my favourite mons to use in the tier, especially when its not expected
SPL Week 3 vs Ojama (W):
https://pokepast.es/1f55198cbc783746
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-604758
Black glasses Pursuit TTar and Magne remove GGar and Skarm from the game, helping Flygod to sweep teams as well as the backup win condition of the team: Thanos the Snorlax. One interesting thing about this team is how Cele has 27 speed ivs to always underspeed other Celebis, so I have a slower Baton Pass and I can send Flygon safely.
Note: the team is hera weak, but I wasnt expecting Hera in this game
The game started badly for me, with my Milo missing Hypnosis allowing his Meta to boom on it starting the game 5-5. However, I had a good MU with Flygod as expected, especially with BP celebi giving it free turns and walling nearly everything he had. Eventually, Ojama decided that his best path to win was BPing a CM boost to his Ggar, which didnt work for him because my TTar had Black Glasses, allowing it to kill the +1 Ggar with the small previous chip from HP Bug.
After that I played my cards well to win the game
My third opponent was Altina, someone who has been in the ADV community for some years already and who was coming from a good year in adv tournaments. In this week I didnt have much time, so I decided to use a Fakes team featuring with a pokemon I wanted to use: Sub CMCune. The team also featured an offensive combo of the 3 titans of ADV OU: DDmence + Metagross + TTar, with sub seed celebi to give me free set ups, and Magne to remove Skarm
SPL Week 4 vs Altina (team by Fakes) (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-605724
SubCMCune started the game being very threatening. Perhaps I should have spammed CM against Ludi instead of using Ice Beam. Then there was luck everywhere. I don't know if my miss mattered, it depends on his DDmence spread, but then my own DDmence lucked him and won me the game.
After getting my second SPL win, I was facing now a more unknown opponent for me: Pheo'. However he was 3-0 at that point, so I knew it was not going to be an easy game.
Since I had won my week 3 game with one of my signature styles (cbgon based teams), I decided to go this week with another one: Aero + Dug, a combo that should give me a good MU against the kind of teams Pheo was using
SPL Week 5 vs Pheo' (W):
https://pokepast.es/d9c3329fd9898409
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-607482
A lure ttar lead that tries to weaken or kill common aero answers such as Pert or Meta (note that if lead Meta is faster, then it should die to adamant dug). Adamant Dug is key for this teams success, because it traps and removes pokemons that are annoying to Aero (Metagross, Jirachi, TTar...) and to my special threats (Blissey, Celebi, etc). This team has 2 different late game strategies, depending on what the other player has and how the game played: it could try to win the late game with Aero or with one of the special sweepers.
The game went exactly as planned: I killed his Pert thanks to my HP Grass TTar and then I trapped his Jira with my Dug, leaving him very vulnerable to late game Aero, which ended up sweeping.
At this point I was feeling very confident and had a positive record after starting 0-2, and what is more interesting: my record with spikes was 0-2 and without spikes 3-0, and I felt I was playing with non spikes agressive team very well, so I was planning to repeat in week 6.
My opponent in week 6 was Star, a very good ADV player that was struggling in this SPL. Against Star I went with a very similar route, but this time with a CB Metagross. In fact, I went with a crazier idea: 2 support pokemon, CB Dug and 3 CB heavy hitters (so 4 CBers in total)
SPL Week 6 vs Star (W):
https://pokepast.es/1cf95a9c90c57651
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-608582
Similar team than the previous one (in fact it has 5/6 mons), but it is played in a different way, pressuring with the physical heavy hitters, and again my Aero + Dug combo. The idea was that CB Meta would remove one of Skarm, Pert or Starm, while Dug removes Meta and Jira from the game, making my rock spam strategy much more dangerous.
The game started well for me, with Meta removing one of his 2 Natural Cure mons, avoiding him to stall my Toxic Refresh Pert by switching between those 2 mons, and between Zapdos and Dugtrio, I was able to remove his 2 HP Grass users (Meta and TTar), so while his team wasn't weak to Toxic Pert, in this game he couldn't stop it. Also, with Dug having removed both TTar and Meta, he had nothing to stop Aeros DEs from killing everything
Ladder 2: Getting 1800s for the first time
While playing in SPL, I never stopped laddering. I had different alt accounts high ladder, but I had one alt (eofires) that I consistently had in the high 1600s and low 1700s, and when Fakes tried to get to 1800 with his alt, I decided to try it as well. The other reason was the creation of the ladder record thread.
This is a compilation of some of my fav teams I used in this run:
https://pokepast.es/718a05683e147fce
Following the style that was working very well for me, but this time with Boom GGar + Off Starmie. This team has a similar architecture than my last 2 SPL teams: 2 support mons and 4 threats. This particular combination of 6 mons has a lot of viable options: such as going with Agility Meta, DD TTar, etc and all of them are good.
Depending on what Im expecting, sometimes I boom with CBMeta early to remove something, and sometimes I keep it to spam MMs. Bliss is very good at annoying the other team with twaves and keeps the team healthy with wish, and Explosion GGar + Off Starm is a very powerful combo against a lot of the current meta, especially if I can remove Bliss with Gengar.
This is a fun and fast team that I liked using a lot especially in the high 1600s and low 1700s.
https://pokepast.es/c63217dc8224ec6e
This team is actually a bit old, and I used it originally against Asta in the first Callous Invitational, and this combination of 6 mons has been historically been used by people like Ojama or Tamahome in the past. The idea is countering all those Skarm teams in the ladder with Magdol, and abusing double pressure and CMCune with Heal Bell Support.
I sometimes used different variations, like Rest Snorlax, or Meta somewhere, or Mence instead of Zapdos. I didn't use this team that much, but I decided to include it because it gave me a lot of teams by beating Fakes TSS a couple of times with it (or a variation of it).
https://pokepast.es/9bdf9fe6eaa1f102
One of my fav teams to use at this time. This team features double dogs (Raikou + Suicune), with Heal Bell support and P2 to trap Dugtrios.
Bold Kou is very bulky, being able to survive nearly any EQ, including CB Meta EQ, and not many teams are prepared for it. I have won some games because it survived things like eq from a cb aero or from a +1 gyara and then it swept all the team.
Something I have been considering in this team is using HP Fighting P2 to help with my physical ttar MU
https://pokepast.es/8a56e6e0e1072056
Possibly my main ladder team at this time. Skarmdug is a very poweful combo. With Spikes, Dug can easily remove pokemons that wouldnt be KOd such as Metagross, Jirachi or Tyranitar, which helps CMbliss, the main win condition of the team. Dugtrio can also trap Magneton before it can kill Skarm, and when this happens, the game is usually already over.
This team features the classic defensive trifecta of Skarm + Bliss + Claydol, with Milotic to deal with most mixed attackers that can beat the SkarmBlissDol combo, Dugtrio to RK threats and TTar to set up sand and threaten things.
The main difference of my version with other SkarmBlissMiloDolTrio versions is Taunt Toxic TTar, a very big threat to a lot of defensive teams, being able to toxic defensive grounds, and avoid spikes and status with taunt, as well as setting sand and negating leftovers.
https://pokepast.es/5e6b293e284d3377
The last team I am featuring is a Regice + Dugtrio team, another of my classics. This team also had a similar style than my last 2 SPL teams. Regice can easily tank nearly any special attack and do a lot of damage, especially if Dug has removed Meta or Jira from the field. Dugtrio is EVd to always survive an IB from Blissey. GGar features a weird lure set with HP Grass, Focus Punch and Explosion: when they see Focus Punch they usually don't expect HP Grass, luring Pert for the 4 atks physical TTar and the CB Meta.
These 5 teams are a good example of what I used in the ladder at this time. Overall it was very fun, having a lot of great battles against people like Fakes, Johnny, Altina, ABR, McM, etc. Hitting 1800s and going as high as 1824 breaking all the registered records (with the possible exception of Linears) was something I never expected to do, and definitely that fun rivalry with Fakes in the ladder made it possible. Otherwise I would have never went that high in the ladder.
SPL Weeks 7, 8 and Semifinals
Back in SPL, after repeating a similar structure with great success in the previous weeks, I decided to use something different, and against hclat I decided to go back to an idea I had before week 1, which was using a team with weather change + dugtrio + spikes with a bulky set upper to abuse no sand.
SPL Week 7 vs Hclat (L):
https://pokepast.es/84a12bf88147eefe
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-609061
Similar structure than my ladder skarmdug team, with the defensive trifecta and dugtrio to rk things, but this time with double pressure, weather change and bulky cm roar cune to clean in the late game. Another big chance is Aroma Bliss, which is key with rest zapdos and rest cmcune in the team, so I dont give my opponent too many free turns with them.
In this game I make 2 big mistakes: the first one is going to Skarm against TTar only to take a Fire Blast and lose a lot of health, something that would be very important in the late game because he had 2 fighters, and my skarm was too weak to beat them. The second mistake was not going to Bliss after I rested with cmcune to wake up both Zap and Cune, something that would have given me a huge advantage in the early game. After those early game mistakes, the game is decided by a roll that was in my favor, but black belt loom got the roll against claydol, I had to sac my dug and a hidden sd hera swept.
When I had to play my week 8 game, my team was already in POs, so I just decided to use the Raikou ladder team against my opponent Fear because it was a fun team to use.
SPL Week 8 vs Fear (L):
https://pokepast.es/9bdf9fe6eaa1f102
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-610636
Raikou survived an EQ from CB Meta and Jira survived the boom from that meta. I was never able to recover neither kou or jira, and sub seed celebi + booms + ddmence ended up winning the game for him.
I didn't play week 9 and I came back in Semifinals to play Hclat again. In this game I decided to go with spikes again, but this time with a more agressive style, featuring 2 mons I rarely use: moltres and mixmence, 2 mons that are also very good against what I expected hclat to bring in this game.
With the help of Dice, Watermess, Fakes and Fear who were in the team chat, I managed to polish the team to be one of my favourite teams I used in SPL.
SPL Semifinals vs Hclat: (W)
https://pokepast.es/602b68d71d95926f
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-613561
Skarm was the pokemons set I was most unsure, because it lookd like I needed all of Drill Peck (or Forry becomes very hard), Toxic (to weaken Starmie, hit set uppers, etc), Protect (I think Protect is skarms second best attack) and WW (to avoid set uppers and lucky metagross getting too annoying). In the end I decided to drop WW, and I think its the best option.
That TTar set is something I have been using in tss teams, because it can trap and kill starmie, it can threaten bliss with a 2hko with spikes and it can still pursuit ghosts.
So basically Skarm set up spikes while threatening spinners, TTar + Molt + Mixmence hit hard and can open holes especially with spikes up, wish bliss keeps everything healthy and pert is the defensive glue of the team.
Everything worked as planned in the game, fast mixmence + purs ttar + spikes had a very good MU, I played the game very well in my opinion and I got a couple of lucky breaks that made the win easier.
Sadly, my team lost in the tiebreaker and my spl run ended there. It was a very fun tournament for me, where I had a lot of fun building and playing ADV. I would like to s/o Dice, Watermess and Fakes for their help and all the great ideas they had
Ladder 3: Breaking every record
After losing in my first ladder run, I stopped laddering with my eofires alt because I already had the elo and the gxe records and I wanted to try the other challenges. The first one I tried was the streak challenge, and after trying some teams in a couple of attempts I managed to get 28 wins in a row with the double pressure skarmdug I used against hclat in spl, and I realized that it was working very well in the ladder.
Then, some time later I saw that ABR was trying to beat my records, so I decided to have a second run and see if I could also beat my records. In the end I got 1848 ELO and 94 GXE, which is the record for both.
These are the main teams I used in this second run (note that I also used the teams of my first ladder run sometimes):
https://pokepast.es/84a12bf88147eefe
Probably the team I used the most in this run. Double pressure is a very powerful strat in ladder, especially against spikes teams (pressure works against spikes), and this team is solid enough to be able to beat most offensive threats you can find in ladder, especially with dug revenge killing threats.
CMcune is one of the best pokemons in the tier in my opinion, especially with sand removed and spikes support. Rest Zapdos is also really good without sand, being able to pp stall things like modest bliss, something it wouldnt be able to do with sand. A variation of this team could be using RD suicune or sunny day dugtrio so Zapdos can roar, but I think this is the best version of the team. Aroma bliss works really well with both, being able to quickly wake them up if needed.
https://pokepast.es/19b493dac305103b
Another skarmdug team I used a lot. This team is similar to the common skarmdug structure of skarm + bliss + clay + dug + water + filler, but this time Im using starmie instead of claydol and swampert as the rock resist and water of the team, with CMseed as the filler.
CMseed gives me a better MU against bulky set uppers like curselax and a better MU against zapdug teams that rely on dug trapping bliss, because I can send celebi instead of bliss against zap, and if it gets trapped, i trap it back with my dug and then bliss can safely switch in later in the game.
This team also has triple natural cure, which is great against all those teams that try to spam status.
https://pokepast.es/d35407d7c3d27053
Team based on one of Fakes ladder teams with sets changed by me, featuring ddmence + meta + spikes + trap core.
The basic idea of the team is trying to win with ddmence in the late game.
Metagross has Toxic instead of EQ, which is very annoying for mons like Swampert, Zapdos or Starmie, especially with Pursuit support in the case of Starm. This is a set that can surprise and win a lot of games because a surprise toxic or a surprise boom.
The TTar set is similar to the one I used in the SPL semifinals game, but since I have a Magneton, I have HP grass to help with the Pert MU. Physical 4 attacks also work and is the set Fakes used in ladder.
Bliss is twave in this version, but it could be toxic snatch, cm with flamethrower and hp grass, wish...
Another variation of the team has bulky starm (or more rarely Claydol) > mag and thief skarm, which loses the ability to trap skarm but is more solid defensively and thief skarm can steal useful items like other skarm lefties, or zapdos, starm, etc. This version also the had standard MM EQ tect boom Meta.
https://pokepast.es/82f135af9db7eabb
A similar team than the one I used in SPL semifinals, but with Forry instead of Skarm to have a better MU against typical tss teams, and with Gengar to block spin and to surprise boom if needed. Another difference is the Pert set, featuring Protect + Focus Punch to try to lure Blissey so Moltres can have an easier time. This team was originally built by Undisputed and it has worked really well in the ladder and in tournaments like ADV classic where it ended undefeated (3-0)
https://pokepast.es/66abcd799b70b05b
A variation of the team I used against Ojama, but with Skarm instead of Curselax, which gives me Spikes and a better MU against fighters in general. I started using Flygon lead after noticing how many people were leaving their TTars and Metagross against Flygon lead only to be KOd turn 1 by CB EQ.
This was one of my favourite teams to use in the ladder and has a very good MU against a lot of the teams people were spamming.
Closing Words
I have said this many times already, but in my opinion ADV OU is the best pokemon metagame and the reason why Im still playing this game after so many years.
I hadnt really played at a high level in adv in some years, and after this run in both tournaments and ladder I have had the chance to meet, talk and play against some players I had never even talked to before that really surprised me.
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