Tournament Smogon Premier League XII: SS OU Discussion


Hello and welcome to SPL XII's discussion thread for SS OU!

It's the SPL season again and ten teams will be battling it out for the trophy! Every team has to play 3 games of SS OU every week, so there will be plenty games played and to discuss! In this thread you can expect to see interesting discussions, constructive analyses on metagame trends, and analyses of games. The schedule can be found here.

Here's every team's draft:


The SS OU players of each team, including support slots and substitutes looks as follows:
:entei: Alpha Ruiners: mncmt, Empo, Gondra, Separation, Will Of Fire, Ox the Fox, Raichy, Aurella
:gardevoir-mega: Congregation of the Classiest: lax, Luthier, Garay oak, London Beats, Jytcampbell
:tyrantrum: Dragonspiral Tyrants: John W, Eo Ut Mortus, Sabella, 100percentpureheat, Rumor, sugarhigh
:suicune: Cryonicles: Finchinator, z0mog, bro fist, Sjneider, xtra$hine, Leo, Serene Grace, Lusa, [K-12] The Madchine
:lycanroc: Wi-Fi Wolfpack: Star, Tace, ABR, talah, Bloody Alfa, Quaze, TPP, Leru
:marowak-alola: Team Raiders: FlamingVictini, BIHI, Eeveeto, frisoeva, Samqian, Ajna
:garchomp: Stark Sharks: xray, 1 True Lycan, MAX UND MAX, Ruft, Luispeikou, reiku, Genesis7
:snorlax: Ever Grande BIGs: ima, Eternal Spirit, Insult, FMG, devin, Vulpix03, Storm Zone
:alakazam-mega: Indie Scooters: Sacri', Gefährlicher Random, Corazan, false, Niko, Chaitanya
:raikou: Circus Maximus Tigers: watashi, BK, beatiful, robjr, Bushtush, CBU, Jordy

Useful Links:

Power Rankings: up
Replays Thread: up
SPL XII Spreadsheet: up
 
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Beating Blissey with Nidoking

When Landorus-Incarnate was banned, a new Sheer Force user rose to take its place: one with even better coverage to devastate the Corv/Pex/Clef balance cores that rose to prominence before the DLC drop. Unfortunately, unlike Landorus-I, because Nidoking has to work with a measly 85 base Special Attack, standard Nidoking is walled by Blissey.

Enter Focus Punch Nidoking. On turn 15 in his game against Eo, Lax revealed Focus Punch on his Nidoking. Once the Blissey took Focus Punch, the game was effectively over. The benefits of Focus Punch or Superpower are obvious: On most teams using Blissey, it acts as the only defensive answer to Nidoking, allowing it to pose a greatly increased threat; the advantage compounds if you have a team that appreciates the neutering of Blissey.

Focus Punch and Superpower are not the only ways for Nidoking to beat Blissey. Some players like craing;_; have made teams with Taunt Nidoking to stop Blissey from using crucial status moves like Softboiled. These strategies all work because Nidoking only needs three moves: Sludge Wave, Earth Power, and Flamethrower. This leaves the last slot open to experimentation: Ice Beam, Stealth Rock, or any of the aforementioned options have their uses.

There are drawbacks to using a Blissey-beating move, the most obvious being: what if there's no Blissey? If you happen to face a team that has a different way of defensively checking Nidoking, like a bulky specially defensive Ground type—for example Gastrodon or SpDef Lando-T—your tech is useless and your Nidoking is walled.
 

AM

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Pretty lackluster SS OU games this weekend imo with the exceptions of some games in certain parts, nothing exciting, nothing much to analyze and Focus Punch Nido above was a bunch of haha, hehe, "LOOOL" when that happened on smogtours but based on team preview Nido was obviously running a physical move of sort cause team was walled by Blissey otherwise. No attack Blissey :blobstop:.

In light of some of the other threads I've seen and so that this thread isn't absolutely dead during the season (ty zedhatool above) until all the players do team dumps feel free to post predictions or thoughts.

Here are Week 2 line ups if you want to just copy/paste below.

Raiders v Ruiners

SS OU: FlamingVictini vs mncmt
SS OU: Samqian vs Separation
SS OU: Eeveeto vs Ox the Fox

Classiest v Wolfpack

SS OU: Garay oak vs Tace
SS OU: Luthier vs Bloody alfa
SS OU: lax vs talah

Scooters v Sharks

SS OU: Gefährlicher Random vs 1 True Lycan
SS OU: Niko vs xray
SS OU: Sacri' vs reiku

Bigs v Cryonicles

SS OU: Storm Zone vs Lusa
SS OU: ima vs bro fist
SS OU: FMG vs Leo

Tigers v Tyrants

SS OU: Bushtush vs Eo Ut Mortus
SS OU: beatiful vs John W
SS OU: watashi vs 100percentpureheat
 

Finchinator

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Some takeaways from week 1:
  • :Slowbro: :Slowking-Galar: both were phenomenal. Be it on the same team -- which happened quite a few times -- or individually, each were able to provide a great defensive presence as pivots while not being passive at all. The combination of Teleport and Regenerator that was hyped up a lot upon Slowbro's release in DLC1 has finally hit what may be its peak. It is clearly one of the best strategies to integrate onto balance teams that can help enable offensive options that otherwise would struggle to find openings. I am interested to see if their usage will continue to increase (which may be hard seeing how common they already are) or if there will be metagame evolutions that take advantage of this concept.
  • :Tornadus-Therian: following the trend of Regenerator pivots reigning supreme, Tornadus-Therian has managed to make quite a few appearances this week, having a lot of impact in almost all of them. I feel like the big thing with Tornadus-Therian is that it never dies, especially if it is able to avoid taking a Knock Off. Speaking of Knock Off, Tornadus-Therian is amazing at scoring timely knocks on opposing Pokemon, opening the door for teammates. This coupled with the fact that it has U-turn and Hurricane means that it is hard for people to be safe against Tornadus-Therian in the long haul just given the sheer amount of utility it has coupled with a strong, potentially crippling STAB move. We've seen both Nasty Plot and utility pivot sets, too, which offers it a nice little set mix for the time being.
  • :Obstagoon: :Hydreigon: :Zarude: :Mandibuzz: :Tyranitar: perhaps unsurprising, but with Urshifu getting banned, there is still no shortage of Dark types. I do feel this ban opened up teambuilding a bit as we saw a nice variety of Dark types, some that absolutely would not have been as likely to come out if Urshifu was still in the tier. I am interested to see if this versatility opens up new potential structures and strategies moving forward!
  • :Cinderace: :Magearna: :Spectrier: arguably the 3 most potent offensive presences in the metagame all made quite the impact in week 1!
    • :Cinderace: was pivoting throughout what seemed like every other game. It is such a smooth Pokemon to have your gameplan run through. Much like in WCoP meta, it feels like the rogue soccer player never dies while it chips away at everything in its path, especially when paired with Future Sight. We have seen some Rocky Helmet Slowbro sightings and likely will see some on Toxapex, Garchomp, and even Landorus-T moving forward to punish U-turn spam.
    • :Magearna: is obviously great. We did not see the set-up sets pop up too many times here admiteddly, but the Choice Specs set was phenomenal, forcing lots of progress in some games while crippling things with Trick in others. I love how much you can do with this thing, but it is also arguably one of the hardest Pokemon to face off against.
    • :Spectrier: the one appearance that really stood out to me was talah making great use of it against xray. Both played fairly well, but the right Spectrier set was a huge difference maker. I bet it will be making even more noise in future weeks, so players may have to find ways to be even more careful in preparing for it, which is going to be a huge challenge.
  • :Clefable: :Melmetal: despite being considered top Pokemon at points since the release of DLC2, these two were pretty quiet. Melmetal settled down in weeks prior at least, but it seems the ban of Urshifu has limited Clefale quite a bit. I imagine it will still settle into being one of the more common picks, but it is still not as common as it was at its peak -- or even close.
I know there were some pretty drawn out games and arguably some inexplicable sequences throughout the week, but there were some very cool teams and plays made as well. I know it is easy to be negative about the metagame and certain games from afar, but I personally am very excited to see what all of the players come up with and how the games go.
 

Zneon

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Hi guys, hope you are all having a great day! I want to bring you guys the Week 1 Usage Stats for SS OU real quick and I want to touch on some trends that haven't already been brought up that I've been seeing more in SPL that have not seen usage in the ladder.

Week 1

Code:
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Landorus-Therian   |   15 |  50.00% |  66.67% |
| 2    | Magearna           |   13 |  43.33% |  53.85% |
| 3    | Tornadus-Therian   |   12 |  40.00% |  33.33% |
| 4    | Slowbro            |   11 |  36.67% |  45.45% |
| 5    | Garchomp           |   10 |  33.33% |  30.00% |
| 6    | Cinderace          |    9 |  30.00% |  55.56% |
| 6    | Hydreigon          |    9 |  30.00% |  55.56% |
| 8    | Slowking-Galar     |    8 |  26.67% |  62.50% |
| 9    | Corviknight        |    7 |  23.33% |  42.86% |
| 10   | Heatran            |    6 |  20.00% |  66.67% |
| 10   | Dragapult          |    6 |  20.00% |  33.33% |
| 10   | Toxapex            |    6 |  20.00% |  33.33% |
| 10   | Blissey            |    6 |  20.00% |  33.33% |
| 14   | Tyranitar          |    5 |  16.67% |  60.00% |
| 15   | Kartana            |    4 |  13.33% | 100.00% |
| 15   | Clefable           |    4 |  13.33% |  75.00% |
| 15   | Zapdos             |    4 |  13.33% |  75.00% |
| 15   | Rillaboom          |    4 |  13.33% |  50.00% |
| 15   | Excadrill          |    4 |  13.33% |  25.00% |
| 20   | Spectrier          |    3 |  10.00% | 100.00% |
| 20   | Hippowdon          |    3 |  10.00% |  66.67% |
| 20   | Tapu Koko          |    3 |  10.00% |  33.33% |
| 20   | Ferrothorn         |    3 |  10.00% |  33.33% |
| 20   | Mandibuzz          |    3 |  10.00% |  33.33% |
| 25   | Nidoking           |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 25   | Swampert           |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 25   | Obstagoon          |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 25   | Rotom-Wash         |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 29   | Zarude             |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 29   | Slowking           |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 29   | Zeraora            |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 29   | Skarmory           |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 29   | Zarude-Dada        |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 29   | Keldeo             |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 29   | Tangrowth          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 29   | Kyurem             |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 29   | Raichu-Alola       |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 29   | Regidrago          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 29   | Exploud            |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 29   | Scizor             |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 29   | Reuniclus          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 29   | Magnezone          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |

Nasty Plot Tornadus-T

Tornadus-T saw the 3rd most usage the fact that it's higher than stuff like Cinderace and Heatran is insane to say the least. Anyway, Tornadus-T has been seeing a lot of Nasty Plot this time around on balance and bulky offense right now, like Finch said, it's mixing between utility and Nasty Plot but its interesting seeing how before this NP Tornadus-T saw less usage on these types on teams, instead mostly being used on rain teams. It's been seeing a lot of moves, ranging from Focus Blast to Knock Off. This is pretty interesting to say the least and I cannot wait to see more of this in future weeks.



Rocky Helmet Slowbro

Rocky Helmet Slowbro also saw just as much usage or possibly more than Heavy-Duty Boots, which makes sense; being able to chip down one of the most potent Pokemon in the meta in Cinderace is very valuable and without Gunk Shot it cannot really overwhelm Slowbro, instead being forced to U-turn or double switch, the first gets it chipped by Rocky Helmet whilst the second option is much more risky.


Really excited what I'm going to see more of in the future.
 
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I’m not a great player of anything but I want to share my observations of Week 1.

3CDCD812-4BA3-45D4-9630-6885C797A668.png

The abundance of RH Slowbro/Lando as well as Chomp during Week 1 of SPL is a testament to how threatening (and broken) Cinderace is in the current meta. It’s one of the most easily splashable offensive threats in the metagame being so damn hard to kill cause of boots, high speed, and busted dmg output especially with Future Sight support from the slowtwins.

D63D8C4F-16D6-44FB-B71F-E8390331097C.png
44FD751E-3E78-484C-A748-A7B624E4C000.png
A899E8DE-4F93-49CF-8C01-7AF378A74ACB.png

These three regen pivots have seen high usage during that week. Some believed Slowbro would’ve dropped in usage with Urshifu gone but it has the inverse effect imo. Slowbro is not only great support but it’s proven to be the fat physical wall/pivot it’s always been. Glowking is probably the most impressive of the three, seeing top ten usage and having a winrate over 60% which is only beaten by Lando and Tran in the top ten. Glowking has appeared on teams to absorb tspikes, sponge hits from strong special breakers like Specs Kyurem and Mag, as well as being a pain in the ass for teams to switch into. Torn is proving once again to be a top tier threat with it’s brand new tools (Boots and Nasty Plot.). The NP set with Hurricane, Knock, and Heat Wave/Focus Blast lets Torn bluff Defog sets while being a great breaker due to how difficult it is to wear down. One thing about Torn that I noticed is how it can be used to scout out against offensive threats due to it’s high speed and longevity.

747BE796-530A-4090-AD34-215EE78A501C.png

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-537195
This battle between Sacri and Bea is a good example of Zeraora’s unexplored strengths.

Turn 10-12: Bea brings in Zeraora which scares out Glowking. Because Sacri seemed to not want to let Lando get crippled even more by Knock Off, Sacri went to Hydreigon in order to keep Lando as healthy as possible. Sacri however didn’t see Close Combat coming or predicted a Volt Switch/Knock Off and lost Hydreigon in the process which opens up Bea’s Heatran.

Turn 26: Bea’s Zeraora cripples Lando with Knock Off along with a lucky crit which makes it unable to switch into Zeraora again.

Turn 39: The team is weakened to the point where Zeraora can clean up and secure a win for Bea.

One thing that the match didn’t showcase or showcased well was Zeraora’s defensive utility. Being able to outspeed the entire unboosted metagame, check the rising NP Torn for bulkier teams, crippling mons with either Knock, Toxic, or coverage moves, and walling out Hurricane Zapdos while creating momentum. I would really love to see if Zeraora will be further explored or not.
 
I missed doing these last SPL and wanted to bring this back, as I thought they added a lot to the thread, so here it is!



talah's team is an interesting take on sand teams with Tyranitar + Sand Veil Garchomp. It features a very strong defensive core in Tyranitar + Slowbro + Galarian Slowking, which is one of the best defensive cores against common Volt Switch + U-turn cores like Cinderace + Magearna + Dragapult.

xray's team features a pretty cool combination of Spikes with Pokemon that can force plenty of switches and take advantage of them with Volt Switch + U-turn. Dragapult oftentimes baits in Pokemon like Tyranitar and Mandibuzz, which Choice Specs Magearna can easily take advantage of. Even his defensive pivots in Rotom-W and Mandibuzz can become quite annoying to switch into long-term with Spikes on the field.

Looking at the specific matchup, talah looks to be much more favored than xray. talah's team has strong Regenerator pivots and Tyranitar, which can easily cover xray's wallbreakers. Spectrier could also be a real annoyance depending on the set; if its Choice Specs, xray can definitely check it, but Hex sets can be very annoying as Mandibuzz struggles to deal with it depending on Spectrier's EV spread. Even talah's Garchomp, which is very likely running Substitute + Swords Dance with Sand Veil can be really, really hard to deal with if xray's Mandibuzz gets burned, misses a Foul Play in sand, or blatantly loses to Spectrier. xray will have to try really hard to keep Spikes up in this game to pressure talah's team, but with talah's Corviknight, keeping multiple layers up at once is likely going to be really hard.

As the game goes on, xray is really struggling to break down talah's team due to its great defensive matchup; he's trying to keep up Spikes but can't really. talah finally manages to switch Spectrier in at turn 45. Spectrier reveals Leftovers so xray knows that it is likely running a Substitute set. Knowing that Ferrothorn cannot be OHKOed by Spectrier from this range and trying to get a better read on Spectrier's potential EV spread, xray decides to use Knock Off. However, talah's Spectrier is very physically bulky and Ferrothorn's Knock Off fails to break its Substitute. talah's Spectrier also reveals Calm Mind, meaning that xray's Dragapult, which is confirmed to be Choice Specs, will likely struggle to break it. In an attempt to get Spectrier into Dragapult's range, xray hopes to break Spectrier's Substitute with a Choice Specs-boosted Volt Switch from Magearna. While that breaks the Substitute, it is not quite enough damage for Dragapult to KO it, so he switches into Mandibuzz.

The perks of this Spectrier set are showcased very well here. Knowing that they do not necessarily need to win with Spectrier and can definitely win the game with Garchomp once Mandibuzz goes down, talah decides to just 1v1 the Mandibuzz, which works out quite favorably. Their Spectrier is not dead yet and could probably force another KO at a later point in the game, if necessary, too.

Spectrier is finally in range of Dragapult, and xray doesn't really have any other options, so he is forced to switch into it. He gets a Special Defense drop as talah switches in his Tyranitar and given the state of the game, he decides to go for the potential KO. talah figures out xray's options and decides to use Thunder Wave with Tyranitar; if xray switches into Magearna, it gets crippled, if xray stays in, he can't really do anything against Garchomp or Spectrier anymore. Any other switch from xray's part is very likely to open him up to Garchomp or Spectrier.

Now that Dragapult is paralyzed, talah has the perfect opportunity to switch into Garchomp. Because Ferrothorn is burned, it can't even break Garchomp's Substitute, so xray's only option at this point is having good luck with Scale Shot hits and misses against Rotom-W on multiple occasions. On turn 64, he does manage to dodge a Scale Shot, but Hydro Pump also misses and the game is wrapped by this point.
 

Zneon

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[Week 2 games & thoughts]

  • : Zeraora has been making waves this week, I think its effectiveness especially shows in the samqian v Separation game where its ability to act as a disruptive offensive pivot is being used at full force despite the Ground-types. Even then, Toxic support to wear down Landorus-T and Garchomp in combination with Knock Off to remove their Leftovers or Rocky Helmet in case they switch into Zeraora can be huge for it in the long run. Combined with the fact that it's able to outspeed very important Pokemon like Tapu Koko, Dragapult and Spectrier is invaluable. Zeraora may not be a top threat or anything but its definitely on the rise and I'm looking forward to its performance in the upcoming weeks.
  • : Dragapult has been one of the more quieter OU threats for a while now but recently it's been taking an increase in usage. It's mostly paired with Mandibuzz because of how it can take on Sub Spectrier to slightly make up for Mandibuzz's inconsistency in checking it well, mostly using the same set it did pre-DLC 2 which is WispHex and it's proven to be quite effective in the metagame still, being in a very solid spot with how much of a nuisance Spectrier really is.
  • : Hydreigon is the second most used Pokemon outside of Landorus-T, mainly on the basis of its SpDef Defog set, however offensive sets saw use as well. I think the most interesting one I've seen thus far is probably Snarl despite it only being used once this week, which makes sense given the fact that SubCM is Spectrier's best set by far, and having something to handle it well is pretty important, however Snarl is a very specific move and its pretty clear that Dark Pulse is much better on Hydreigon for multiple reasons.
  • : Regenerator pivots in general has been used on at least one team and they've been insanely common last week too, and these 3 especially have been seeing amazing usage, all 3 of them being tied for 4th most used Pokemon this week overall and it's not hard to see why, they all add a ton of utility to teams defensively and in Tornadus' case, offensively. In general to adding outstanding utility in their own ways, they are generally very risk free and are just very easy Pokemon to fit onto your team depending on what your team wants. They are pretty straightforward so I won't go too much in detail but Regenerator pivots are surging in effectiveness and usage right now and I cannot see them decreasing anytime soon.
Forgot to add the usage stats so here you go:
Week 2 Usage Stats

Code:
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Landorus-Therian   |   16 |  53.33% |  43.75% |
| 2    | Hydreigon          |   10 |  33.33% |  50.00% |
| 3    | Mandibuzz          |    9 |  30.00% |  55.56% |
| 4    | Toxapex            |    8 |  26.67% |  75.00% |
| 4    | Tornadus-Therian   |    8 |  26.67% |  37.50% |
| 4    | Slowking-Galar     |    8 |  26.67% |  37.50% |
| 7    | Heatran            |    7 |  23.33% |  57.14% |
| 7    | Magearna           |    7 |  23.33% |  57.14% |
| 9    | Garchomp           |    6 |  20.00% |  66.67% |
| 9    | Clefable           |    6 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 9    | Dragapult          |    6 |  20.00% |  50.00% |
| 9    | Ferrothorn         |    6 |  20.00% |  33.33% |
| 13   | Excadrill          |    5 |  16.67% |  60.00% |
| 13   | Tyranitar          |    5 |  16.67% |  60.00% |
| 13   | Slowking           |    5 |  16.67% |  40.00% |
| 13   | Cinderace          |    5 |  16.67% |  20.00% |
| 17   | Corviknight        |    4 |  13.33% |  75.00% |
| 17   | Zeraora            |    4 |  13.33% |  50.00% |
| 17   | Slowbro            |    4 |  13.33% |  50.00% |
| 17   | Kartana            |    4 |  13.33% |  25.00% |
| 21   | Tapu Koko          |    3 |  10.00% |  66.67% |
| 21   | Zapdos             |    3 |  10.00% |  33.33% |
| 23   | Tapu Fini          |    2 |   6.67% | 100.00% |
| 23   | Skarmory           |    2 |   6.67% | 100.00% |
| 23   | Hippowdon          |    2 |   6.67% | 100.00% |
| 23   | Swampert           |    2 |   6.67% | 100.00% |
| 23   | Kyurem             |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 23   | Magnezone          |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 23   | Rillaboom          |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 23   | Spectrier          |    2 |   6.67% |  50.00% |
| 23   | Tangrowth          |    2 |   6.67% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Keldeo             |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Togekiss           |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Latias             |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Scizor             |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Dracozolt          |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Blissey            |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Terrakion          |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Zarude             |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Dragonite          |    1 |   3.33% | 100.00% |
| 32   | Melmetal           |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Suicune            |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Glastrier          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Pelipper           |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Thundurus-Therian  |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Kingdra            |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Crawdaunt          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Snorlax            |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Gastrodon          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Nidoking           |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Azumarill          |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Bisharp            |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Victini            |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
| 32   | Rotom-Wash         |    1 |   3.33% |   0.00% |
 

Finchinator

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:Slowking: picking up a lot in usage was pretty surprise to me. It does have a better match-up against some special attackers like Heatran, Nidoking, and the rare Latios, but it struggles against the physical Ground types and Cinderace when compared to Slowbro. I wonder if the abundance of physically bulky Defog users and Landorus-Therian in the metagame are making it so that players are trying to integrate Slowking as their Future Sight pivot as opposed to Slowbro. And if so, it will be interesting to see if they continue to operate in this way as Slowking saw 17% usage during W2, even eclipsing Slowbro at 13% (although this was a very small sample size ofc).

:Skarmory: making a couple of appearances is pretty great. Spikes are underrated in the metagame, with many people running teams with 3-4 Pokemon susceptible and Defog users vulnerable to Toxic Skarmory or Leech Seed Ferrothorn. :Ferrothorn:, by the way, cracked top 10 in the usage stats after being less present during week 1. I reckon more players are capitalizing on both the defensive presences of these two and the capabilities of Spikes in the tier.

As Zneon pointed out in his great post above, old metagame staples :Zeraora: and :Dragapult: are unsurprisingly beginning to resurface at impressive rates. Zeraora with Knock Off is a superb Pokemon right now, crippling things without any problem earlier on and even letting itself clean up later game as a result of this. A simple Knock Off on a Landorus-Therian or Ferrothorn can go such a long way towards their health bleeding out as turns go by. Dragapult's fast Hex sets allow it to both abuse Hex and be a great form of speed control, especially thanks to Infiltrator. I see it being a great option in the metagame moving forward, especially if and when Spectrier is banned.

24 combined uses of :Hydreigon: :Mandibuzz: and :Tyranitar: show that people are going very far out of their way to minimize Spectrier. It looks like it worked based off of the games this week, too, but it shows how much of a strain it has on teambuilding, too. It will be interesting to see if people loosen up a bit this week seeing as it did not do as much or if they continue to stress over the Ghost horse moving forward. Personally, my guess would be the latter until it gets banned, but we shall see.

Finally, :Melmetal: is nowhere near where people expected it to be. It is challenging to use this Pokemon and many wonder if it will even be considered a standard option as it continues to decline in usage and viability. It is very strong and bulky, but there are many fellow Steel types with great niches that fit onto teams well. The competition is strong and its own niche is pretty limited in all honesty.
 
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We’ve seen a surge in Regenerator pivots since week 1. In this week Pex has been the most impressive out of them all with a whopping 75% winrate. Torn is still rocking the Defog or NP sets since Week 1. Slowking is probably the most surprising out of them all, beating out Slowbro in usage probably in response to rising threats like NP Torn, Specs Magearna, and having a better mu vs the rising Dragapult. Glowking hasn’t changed much in terms of usage, but is has been opting to drop Flamethrower for Psychic to directly hit Pex, Lando, Chomp, and Nidoking. Tang hasn’t seen much play, but it’d be interesting to see if Tang will rise or fall. Tang boosts great utility in Knock + Sleep Power/Stun Spore, a customizable movepool, and insanely high physD not being OHKOd by even Ace.

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https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-538843

This game is a perfect example of Koko’s strengths even when one of the best counters to it A.K.A Excadrill is on the opposing team. In this game Alfa constantly gains momentum from Luthier’s team with Koko continuously pivoting onto Drill forcing Luthier to make risky plays like staying in on Koko with Torn in order to avoid Drill taking more chip. Eventually the Drill dies and Koko cleans lategame. Koko has been a sleeper threat throughout early Crown Tundra, now that Mosa and Urshifu are banned, more players including myself are starting to fall in love with it’s strengths again outside of screens. It’s not only great offensively but also defensively, being able to switch into Zapdos, Torn, Mandibuzz, and Hydreigon once to create momentum.

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The insanely high usage for Hydreigon, and Mandi followed by a lack of Spectrier usage is very reminiscent to last years SPL where Toad saw skyhigh usage while Dracovish saw a lack of usage. It’s a sign that Spectrier is likely problematic for the tier having to force Hydreigon, Mandi, and Ttar on teams in order to not get 6-0d by it with Mandibuzz having to be ran with checks to Spect like Pult, Rilla, or Tran. If Spect receives the ban hammer it’s likely that these three will decrease in usage.

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The two previous speed demons of OU’s past are making a comeback. Being able to outspeed Spectrier is highly valuable rn among other things. Hex Pult is a great set for crippling teams and cleaning late game. We’ve even seen Specs Hydro Pump tech to 2HKO SpD Tran and guarantee an OHKO on Lando and Drill after rocks in a pinch. I predicted Zera to be further explored after Week 1 and I was right. Zera might be repeating history again taking the role as a fast pivot that cripples teams with Knock Off and Toxic. It’s main counters in Lando, Chomp, Pert, and Hippo are crippled by Toxic or crippled late game thx to Knock Off. Zera has finally found a legitimate niche in the OU tier after it’s absence throughout Crowd Tundra.

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Forgotten but not gone (except Buzzwole). None of these except for a few aren’t bad at all but they all have one thing in common. They never got used at all in SPL as of now. Moltres’ loss in usage was something we all see coming after Mosa and Urshifu got banned. It’s too easily crippled by Knock/status, and is outclassed by better defoggers (Corv, Zapdos, Torn). Lele is good but is facing competition from Magearna (same story as Latios). Buzzwole is dead at this point after Urshifu disappeared. Regieleki and Gapdos only rose due to players abusing HO during the Urshifu suspect test.
 

Zneon

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Hi everyone, Jordy wanted someone to analyse a replay since he's really busy and might not have time to do it, so I figured to do it for him.


[click for replay]^

Looking from team preview, samqian has a pretty interesting bulky offensive team since it uses two Pokemon that haven't seen much use ever since IoA, Zeraora and Togekiss, the rest of his team is a fairly straightforward defensive core of Hydreigon, Slowbro, Heatran and Landorus-T. Zeraora especially is pretty well supported, there are 3 ground immunes and a Slowbro so Zeraora isn't really in too much danger.

Separation's team is a more straightforward team, having a pretty nice offensive core of Magnezone + Kartana and the other four being common defensive picks.

So from the get go I'd have to say samqian has the edge here, Plasma Fist + Close Combat from Zeraora is able to beat every Pokemon on Separation's team other than Landorus-T, however since he has a Slowbro on his team he has a Slowbro on his team and other multiple switch ins into it, Landorus-T is not going to make that much progress and the rocks damage is going to rack up especially if it gets Knocked Off due to its lack of recovery, and combined with the fact that he has stuff like Heatran, Togekiss and Hydreigon to stuff out what should be the most threatening Pokemon to his team in Heatran and Kartana depending on the set is pretty huge. Separation though has a very good shot depending on the Kartana set, Swords Dance if positioned right is incredibly threatening to samqian's team and even has the potential to win the game if its out of Close Combat range or if the Zeraora gets removed. So Separation will really have to try and get the Zeraora removed or at least keep the Landorus-T healthy enough to stuff it out since its such a gigantic threat to Separation's team.

Turn 5 is a very important turn since even as early as turn 5, Zeraora has been put in a very advantageous matchup if it wasn't already. While Separation's Landorus-T is revealed to be Toxic, so is Samqian's Landorus-T, this is absolutely huge because given the fact that Zeraora is such a disadvantageous matchup for Separation's team as I keep on stating and the fact that Samqian was able to successfully get it of on the Landorus-T given the fact that it is on 75% by the end of turn 5 is a complete boon for him. Not only this, but when Slowbro comes in, Zeraora is guaranteed to come in freely and if Landorus-T comes in its in even more danger if it gets its Leftovers removed by Knock Off. Another important turn I'd have to say is turn 19, since Kartana, which would be a absolute nightmare for Samqian's team is rendered much less threatening and even somewhat deadweight as his Heatran reveals to be Flame Body instead of Flash Fire and ends up getting the burn. This is a very unfortunate since Kartana, which could have been a menace even though the set isn't revealed but unfortunately Kartana ends up doing nothing.

So as the game goes on, Separation struggles more and more with breaking through Samqian's defensive structure and a pivotal turn occurs in turn 40, predicting that Separation would not go for EQ in risk of being stuffed out by Samqian's multiple Landorus-T answers, he goes for Magma Storm with his Heatran and Landorus-T is taken out. This is a huge boon since at this point, Zeraora can just win the game with Plasma Fist + Close Combat alone, and it shows. He doesn't need to Plasma Fist with Zeraora since Slowking got removed by Heatran, so Zeraora can simply spam Close Combat and win the game at this point. So as the game continues, Separation tries to find opportunities to cripple Samqian's Pokemon with Toxic Magnezone since at this point he's struggling to break through his team with the Pokemon he has right now, and unfortunately Togekiss reveals to be Heal Bell so making progress is being more and more of a hassle. On turn 57, Landorus-T comes in on the Body Press and Separation goes into Hydreigon predicting the Earthquake, but Samqian instead goes for U-turn and brings in the Zeraora, at this point Separation is basically forced to sack something here and that something ends up being the Kartana. So after Hydreigon gets removed on turn 69, the Heatran comes in and goes for Eruption and Slowbro goes for Scald and that puts Heatran in range of Close Combat, Samqian just ends up sacking off the Togekiss and from there the game is over at that point.
 
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I had a collection of SPL replays of Torn-T doing Torn-T things, so I'm dumping it here.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-537145
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-537149
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-537195
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-537428
I think the biggest lesson we can learn about NP Torn-T so far is it's not a breaker you can just slap on a team in the way you can slap regular Torn-T onto any old build. Without Z-moves to nuke its checks, it requires a sturdy backbone that can outlast the Torn-T checks, giving Torn-T time to Knock Off answers, have several attempts with Focus Miss and Hurricane accuracy, and finally force concessions.

And two replays I found funny.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-537241
FMG's first move used: Turn 3
FMG's first damage dealt: Turn 5
FMG's first damage done that wasn't to a Substitute or below Regenerator range: Turn 12
FMG's First KO: Turn 22
FMG wins: Turn 32.
There's always time for a comeback.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-536707
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: the logical conclusion of SS OU. FuturePort VS WishPort.
 

Finchinator

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Some quick thoughts

:Magearna: has made a lot of out of its recent showings. It is no surprise that this Pokemon is on the radar of many players and I am interested to see what sets pop up as we move forward. Niko made use of a cool double dance set this week in particular that deserves a lot of recognition.

:Tapu Koko: is becoming one of the stronger pivots in the metagame. It gives an alternative to Dragapult and Zeraora as fast pivots, it is a reliable answer to Tornadus-Therian -- which virtually nothing else can do besides Zapdos, and it offers great synergy to other offensive Pokemon using Electric moves such as Electro Ball Cinderace.

:Clefable: has fallen from being the clear top Pokemon to being very average, if even, due to the stiff competition from the other Fairy types we are seeing lots of -- see: the first two Points as examples of these other Fairy types.

:Hydreigon: is locked-in as a borderline metagame staple so long as we have Spectrier still in the metagame. It is cool we saw a variety of sets on it over the last couple of weeks. I feel the Defog set is fine, but it is never doing much in terms of productivity on the offensive end. Tace's execution with it against Ox was a great example of timely Hydreigon usage on the offensive end.

Finally, some intriguing fringe Pokemon have surfaced as well such as :Exploud: :Snorlax: :Regigigas: (never will understand this one personally) and :Crawdaunt: and it is always cool to see less used Pokemon pop up in big tournaments. It will be interesting to see if any of them see any more usage, especially in Exploud's case if it is not being used by Storm Zone.
 

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With :Spectrier: being banned, it looks like the end of the era of slapping on random fringe Normal types that can be justified due to their ability to check Spectrier. A moment of silence for :Porygon-Z: :Exploud: :Snorlax: and :Regigigas: seems necessary.

:Tangrowth:

Tang has been making a nice comeback of sorts in the tier. Gef random made use of a surprise Choice Specs set, which absolutely balled out. That aside though, the Rocky Helmet set is gaining some nice traction. This is likely due to how well Kartana and physical Ground types are doing now, so it will be interesting to see how this trend manages once people change up their structures with Spectrier getting banned. I do not see any direct correlation, but if we see different breakers surfacing, it could be a less kind environment for Tangrowth.

:Tapu Bulu:

Speaking of Grasses, everyone's favorite Baron popped off with a surprise Tapu Bulu. With coverage to hit a lot of Flying types (Stone Edge) and the normal Grass+Fighting duo, it actually proved to be a massive threat with Grassy Terrain support. I think there is some untapped potential here and it will be interesting to see if it can gain anymore SPL traction. Massive props to 1TL for the decision to bring this bad boy here.

:Clefable: / :Blissey: / :Magearna:

Not shown a ton this week specifically, but Heal Bell and Aromatherapy are surfacing more and more in the metagame, oftentimes off of Stall teams. They are great ways to turn the Toxic handshake of earlygames into a favorable interaction instead of a neutral one. This also helps combat the abundance of status in the current metagame, especially on teams reliant on Hex users like Dragapult.

:Dracozolt:

After being meme tier for part of the generation, Sand Rush Dracozolt is seeing legitimate usage. It has great offensive potential due to Bolt Beak and strong coverage. The bulk is not great, nor is the defensive typing, but it can work offensively with the right support, in Sand. I believe it will rival Excadrill a bit, even if Excadrill is the stronger overall Pokemon that will continue to see a bit more usage due to utility options like the Steel typing and Rapid Spin.

:Zeraora: :Tapu Koko:

Speaking of Electric types, these two are surfacing more and more as the "fastmon" on many teams. They are good pivots that can check Tornadus-Therian and provide a great deal of speed and momentum. Perhaps not immediately threatening, but late-game set-ups are oftentimes great situations for them, too, given how durable they can be with HDB relative to their common checks/counters.

Finally,
big danger is on rampage. Watch out y'all
 
Unfortunately we didn't manage to cover a game last week, but we're back for this week! This time we're covering one of the highlight matchups from week 4: John W vs Tace.



John W's team is a cool bulky offense team that features a very strong wallbreaker in Life Orb Hydreigon. This Pokemon is supported by Heal Bell Magearna, which is very valuable because Hydreigon has a tendency to get crippled by Toxic or Scald. Heal Bell Magearna enables Rest Landorus-T as is showcased in this replay too. The team is further backed by a solid defensive core of Toxapex + Corviknight and speed control in Dragapult.

Meanwhile, Tace's team is a fairly standard take on the Slowking / Slowbro balance teams we've seen a lot of so far. However, it features Melmetal which has had a very lacking presence in SPL so far, despite what its current rank on the VR may suggest. Melmetal is a fairly good abuser of Future Sight as forcing the extra bit of damage onto Toxapex, Corviknight, and Slowbro can be the difference between netting a KO or not.

The actual matchup seem favored towards Tace, as he can very easily force significant progress against John W's team with the simple combination of Future Sight + Cinderace, Tapu Koko, or Melmetal. However, if John W is capable of limiting the amount of Future Sights that Tace is able to use, combined with a lot of right predictions, he might be able to overwhelm Tace's team with Hydreigon.

The first couple of turns in the early-game are spent trading Stealth Rock. John W manages to land a Toxic onto Tace's Landorus-T, which can be very annoying to deal with over the long-term. Landorus-T may quickly start to struggle to switch into Magearna to block its Volt Switch because it's poisoned. On turn 10 Tace gets to use Toxic on John W's Landorus-T which can make breaking his team down with Cinderace and Tapu Koko significantly easier. Lacking a natural switchin to Hydreigon, Tace baits a Draco Meteor from it with Landorus-T and switches into Slowking to absorb it. Following that, Tace uses Teleport and switches into Cinderace on Magearna. Magearna's HP does not matter too much in this game; it won't really be checking anything that well anyway and it could possibly heal up against Mandibuzz if necessary, so John W uses this turn to grab back momentum with Volt Switch. John W switches into Dragapult and gets to paralyze Mandibuzz, which will actually come back to bite him later. Unfortunately for John W, Tace is able to deny Magearna's recovery a couple turns later because Melmetal is quite low too, ultimately losing him a lot of momentum.

Tace trades a lot of HP on his Landorus-T for John W's Hydreigon, which is a worthwhile trade that ultimately gives him a very significant edge in this game. John W's main way of denying easy progress from Slowking was with Hydreigon, and with it out of the way Slowking and the wallbreakers can have plenty of opportunities to overwhelm John W's team, especially with Corviknight and Magearna being quite low on HP. John W's Toxapex can very easily eat a Thunderbolt from Tapu Koko, so he decides to trade a Scald with it in hopes of burning it. He then switches into Landorus-T and reveals Rest. However, Tace manages to catch John W out on this turn very well and switches into Melmetal. With Landorus-T asleep and both Toxapex and Corviknight very low, John W is forced to sack a Pokemon; he picks Corviknight as it is the least defensively relevant in this matchup. John W still has no Pokemon to KO Melmetal with after this sack, so he's also forced to sack Magearna in order to wake his Landorus-T with Heal Bell.

Because Toxapex was the only Pokemon with Knock Off, which Tace could easily switch into with Slowking, John W could never remove Mandibuzz's Heavy-Duty Boots. This in combination with the fact that it's paralyzed, meaning he cannot cripple it with Toxic from Landorus-T, made it ridiculously hard to overwhelm Mandibuzz from this point onwards. John W has already fallen too far behind Tace at this point. The game ends up with John W getting overwhelmed by Tace's combination of Future Sight and wallbreakers.
 

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:Nidoking: seems to be back in business after dipping for a month or so. My theory is that the loss of Spectrier directly and indirectly provoked this trend. Spectrier being removed means there is more room for other dynamic special attackers, but also Hydreigon dipping in usage, being a premier Spectrier check that is not passive, helps Nidoking be a bit less prediction reliant AND it means there's also another prominent special attacker that is slightly less common at least.

:Zapdos: is emerging as a trendy Defogger as well with Hydreigon and Mandibuzz being less forced on to structures to check Spectrier. It is able to handle Grass types and select Ground types, especially when paired with a Heal Beller or Toxic soaker. In addition, it has an underrated offensive presence and Static, which makes playing around it quite awkward for many bulky-offensive builds.

:Dragapult: is quickly returning to DLC1 status. It was already seeing usage increases as we alluded to in prior weeks, but now the flood gates are broken wide open. I expect it to be one of the top 5-10 Pokemon moving forward.

:Cinderace: :Volcarona: :Heatran: offensive Fires are underrated right now. While a number of bulky Water types are strong right now, this does not stop any of these three from having strong offensive presences right now. Volcarona saw multiple uses this week and the other two are among the top Pokemon as well.

:Slowking: is starting to cut in to the usage of both Slowbro and Galarian-Slowking, seeing 5 uses this week alone. It is able to help handle things like Heatran, Nidoking, and even Tornadus-Therian better. You lose out on some physical bulk for Cinderace and Ground types, but on the right team, that is alright.

:Kartana: has proven to be a pretty consistent physical breaker in this metagame after being pretty low in terms of usage going into the tour. I believe it saw 6 uses during the week and we saw Choice Scarf, Choice Band, and Life Orb at points. It will be interesting to see which set pops up -- I imagine Choice Scarf will be limited to a specific handful of builds, but the breaking sets all seem strong now to me.

I think Spectrier's ban opened up the tier a bit, but Cinderace is pretty ridiculous and Magearna can be overwhelming as well. The council is working on a playerbase survey for the near future, so stay tuned for that.
 
A few things I wanted to talk about

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(
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,
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)
Voltturn since the Shifu ban has quickly became a prominent playstyle. During Week 5, voltturn’s effectiveness is starting to show its true strength, with nearly a majority of the winning players, won with voltturn. We were gifted multiple great pivots in SS and Crown Tundra from Ace, to the Port Slowtwins, to Mag, and Lando. The Ace/Slowtwin/Lando/Electric core has popped up the most. We have even seen Washtom. The question is, will voltturn gonna continue thriving, and how will players counteract it?

85B65E32-13F0-44AF-BD1A-4DC7E8003426.png

Clef is slowly returning to it’s glory after the Shifu ban. It may not be necessary, but the utility it provides will always be noticed. A set that has not been seen much for a while is Sticky Barb Trick Clef which has popped up to cripple Tran, Pex, and potentially Drill. It is being able to deal with NP Hydrei, and provide aromatherapy support in a meta where Toxic Lando dittos are frequent.

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Nidoking is making a comeback after Spect’s ban enabled the use of previously foreshadowed special breakers. Nido offers a Volt Switch immunity, breaker, rocker, and tspike absorber in one. We’ve seen Nido has been utilized in the same voltturn teams previously mentioned. The lack of Blissey usage seems to contribute a bit to it’s sucess. Will there be an influx of Blissey usage if Nido starts to win in more games

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These two classic OU staples are underrated imo and Week 5 showed their effectiveness. Washtom was on two winning teams, providing an excellent pivot that can check the likes of Tran, Lando, Ace, Slowbro, and more. We have seen the use of a SD LO Scizor in one of the last games which earned Garay oak a victory. Scizor potentially has a niche on offensive teams being able to check Kyurem, Rilla, Mag, while offering priority.

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Even after the Shifu ban, Bisharp never really got much recognition. However in this game, Lax showed the capabilities and breaking power of Bisharp.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-542280
Here, Lax brought was looks to be a Choice Band Bisharp judging by the calcs vs Ox’s Tankchomp. Lax was able to constantly bring in Bisharp and break open a hole or cripple the team. Another quality that wasn’t showcased in this game was Bisharp’s ability to force mindgames on defoggers, thus keeping rocks up. If Bisharp switches into a defog, you either lose a mon or even the game. Bisharp isn’t amazing. It lacks speed and bulk, having to rely on Sucker Punch 50/50s to rkill faster threats. Overall, it’s a decent/solid pick.

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The hype for Glowking that was heightened during the first few weeks of SPL is gone. We’ve seen only one use and no wins in both week 4 and 5. It might have to do with it sometimes halting momentum which mons like it’s Kantonian counterpart don’t really do. I’ve noticed a trend of momentum killers leaving and mons with pivot moves coming in. It’s nothing new but with voltturn teams starting to dominate the tier, it has become more apparent. I believe it is still good but it’s nowhere near the same level it was in say, week 1. I believe Glowking needs to adapt somehow in order to see more usage and wins in SPL. Maybe we could see more offensive variants like CM or NP, or Shuca variants to deal with the influx of Lando.

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The most surprising thing in SPL besides Court Change being used in high level play is the lack of any Blissey usage. It might have to do with how easy it is to chip and pressure it from healing itself up. In comparison to Slowking who can recover off the dmg with Regen and take more hits. Is Blissey gonna see the same or similar results for this week, or will there be an influx of Blissey to counteract the NP Hydrei spam.
 

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OU Leader
With Cinderace and Magearna going, the metagame will be shifting drastically of course.

However, one trend we saw this week that is likely to enjoy these bans was :Kyurem: -- it felt like we saw one in every other game almost over the weekend. Both Specs and Substitute variants, too. It will be interesting to see where it goes.

As for speculating on other matters, it is too hard to hypothesize what specifically will be next beyond knowing Clefable will surge to the top of the usage statistics alongside Landorus-T in the near future. Excited for the metagame to be a bit less restricted and a bit more open to creativity.
 

Finchinator

-OUTL
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OU Leader
It is very early in the new metagame, so I will keep this one brief, but there are a few cool trends we noticed this week!

:Melmetal: shot up in usage, perhaps as a direct reaction to the ban of fellow Steel type Magearna and strong Fire type Cinderace. We saw 7 Melmetal across 15 games, which is far more than we have seen during any other week. We saw CB, Iron Defense, AV, and other sets, too. Melmetal is great at 1v1ing things in my experience, but it does not provide a huge defensive role in terms of outright checking or countering things besides Clefable. Due to this, it has always been hard to fit in a metagame that had many teambuilding restrictions. Perhaps we are now reaching an age where Melmetal is more accessible due to there being less broken Pokemon in the tier.

:Weavile: is a sneaky sleeper pick as well. It saw 4 uses, which is a huge upgrade from being virtually unseen during prior weeks. Many thought the lack of Pursuit would doom Weavile, especially the CB set. However, this is far from the case as it has an impressive dual STAB and a great speed tier. This allows for newer team structures to function with it in the post-Cinderace and Magearn metagame. I feel that Eeveeto made a particularly good use of it with his Flip Turn RestTalk Swampert to help it get in safely!

:Kyurem: :Tapu Lele: :Magnezone: and :Dragonite: also seem to be on the rise, but this has arguably been the case for a few weeks prior to this one, especially in the case of Dragonite, who also did well when Cinderace was in the metagame. I think they will continue to see consistent play moving forward.
 

freezai

Live for the Applause
is a Tiering Contributor
Hi, my team is out of SPL so I thought I would post some of my stuff here. These were the teams I used in SPL and I made a youtube video about my favorite team: the team I used vs Garay Oak in Week 7 which was built around Specs Kyurem and Sand (team in description.) In the future, I might make some more videos about the other teams I've used as well.

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Ruft

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OU Leader
Figured I'd share and comment on the two teams I used in SPL as well. Both were built for the Cinderace & Magearna metagame though, so I wouldn't really recommend using them now. You can click the sprites for the pastes.


Week 4 vs Leo

I believe Ben Gay was the first to popularize the Electric spam core of Tapu Koko + Magnezone and my manager Trosko had been building with it as well leading up to this week. This core enables Synthesis Kartana very well, as aside from naturally trapping Corviknight and Skarmory, the power of electric terrain-boosted Rising Voltage allows even Timid Magnezone to trap and eliminate Magearna, slower Heatran, and chipped or non-Specially Defensive Ferrothorn (you can force safe chip with Volt Switch if necessary). Magnezone is Timid because the 219-240 Speed range includes 252 Speed EVs Modest Magearna, Adamant Bisharp, Adamant Scizor, and many Heatran. Magnezone is also important on this team to dissuade Magearna from mindlessly going for Fleur or Flash Cannon, as it can simply be picked off by Magnezone after. Additionally, Slowking has Flamethrower to nail and weaken Ferrothorn, which it outspeeds with the given IVs (and can also punish a Kartana switch-in). All this allows Kartana to drop Sacred Sword in favor of Synthesis, which grants it great longevity, especially with Protective Pads protecting it from Static and Rocky Helmet users, which were very common at the time due to Cinderace being in the tier. With this, Kartana is able to spam Knock Off in the early game with almost no associated risk. Protective Pads also grant you the ability to bluff a Choice item, which is very believable due to not showing Life Orb recoil and having Magnezone as a partner to trap Corviknight and Skarmory for such sets. Hippowdon is Sand Force as to not reduce the amount Synthesis heals with sand, and with Toxic it can actually keep up Stealth Rock quite well, since Magnezone traps Corviknight. Whirlwind on Mandibuzz is mainly for Spectrier.

You may notice this team has a very rough matchup vs Substitute + Swords Dance Landorus, so I'm happy I caught it with Toxic on the switch, as otherwise my SPL debut could've ended up disastrous. :psynervous:


Week 5 vs devin

This week I wanted to take a more defensive approach while still maintaining some solid speed control, so I ended up going with this very bulky Excadrill sand team. The idea while building this week was to create a defensive team that can hold its own vs your typical Cinderace & Magearna VoltTurn team. I wanted multiple Regenerator users and a lot of passive residual damage so that I could outlast whatever VoltTurn I faced. This residual damage took the form of Spikes, two Rocky Helmet users, and sand. Slowbro was the Cinderace answer of choice, as unlike Toxapex it's not weak to Future Sight. It has Thunder Wave for Speed control and to cripple Tornadus, which would be a big threat with Nasty Plot and Focus Blast, and Tyranitar has Speed investment to outrun paralyzed Tornadus. Spreading paralysis also makes it easier for the wincons, Swords Dance Excadrill and Nasty Plot Tornadus, to find setup opportunities and win the game. Slowbro has 28 Speed IVs to reduce the BP of Cinderace's Electro Ball from 150 to 120, since you'll likely paralyze opposing Slowbro with Thunder Wave anyway. Iron Defense allows Skarmory to match opposing physical setup threats with Defense boosts (bar Kartana due to Sacred Sword ignoring stat stage changes, but I have Tornadus and Amoonguss for that) and allows it to be a situational wincon of its own. It has Speed investment for Crawdaunt, which would be a massive threat to the team otherwise (I considered Speed for Magnezone as well, but it wasn't very common at the time and I figured it'd likely be Timid anyway). I went with the rather uncommon Amoonguss pick as it's a Regenerator pivot that can check all of Choice Specs Magearna, Zeraora, and Nidoking when equipped with an Assault Vest. It can also check Ghost-types that I'd rather not switch Tyranitar into, like Aegislash, Gengar, and U-turn Dragapult. Tyranitar has Superpower to hit Heatran and Hydreigon in one slot.

My fatal error in the builder was not accounting for the deadly combination of Choice Specs Magearna + Zeraora + Future Sight, as I had Amoonguss take a Trick from Magearna and subsequently die to a crit Future Sight later, as it was the sole switch-in to Zeraora. I figured letting it take a Trick was fine, as it shut down any future Trick attempts from Magearna thanks to Assault Vest, and either Zeraora would use Knock Off on it down the line, or Zeraora would never use Knock Off and I could keep items like Rocky Helmet on Slowbro which was crucial to chip Cinderace, but you can't prepare for everything I suppose. The main takeaway from this game was that I should've played more aggressively after that happened. I'm happy to have played a cool game vs a friend though.

Funnily enough, I actually had Counter over Thunder Wave on Slowbro on a previous iteration of this team, which would've killed Magearna with the countered Cinderace U-turn turn 1, probably winning the game right there. I had good reason to run Thunder Wave though, so I don't regret not bringing it too much. :bloblul:


I'd like to give shoutouts to all of my teammates and our helpers, but especially Trosko and Ewin for building and testing with me. :heart:
 

FlamingVictini

FV - msg on discord FlamingVictini#3784
is a Top Tiering Contributorwon the 16th Official Smogon Tournamentis a Three-Time Past WCoP Champion
Hey everyone! This was my first time back to playing SPL for a few years and I really enjoyed building new teams for the most of it. That being said, playing for nine weeks had me a bit burned out by the end, and as much as I wanted to go to poffs, I didn't feel like I had it in me to build new things in the current meta (which I think is ok but don't love). I was also itching to share all the teams I had built! I probably won't be playing in too many tours moving forward, so I'll go a little extra for this post and also give a breakdown of all the games I played. Gonna go in reverse chronological order, but start with the teams that are seeing some popularity with the playerbase. I also decided to take finch's approach and split this into two posts, as I had all of this written last weekend (all of these teams are legal in the current meta!) but lost steam to cover the rest, and I didn't want to leave this sitting in my editor for too long! Take it in chunks or jump around to the teams you're interested in if it's too much to read at once, though I do hope you eventually read all of it. Enjoy! :psyglad:

Before I get into the teams, I want to talk about my favorite mon in the meta since week 1: Garchomp.

Garchomp @ Leftovers
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Scale Shot
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Swords Dance

I think I used this set almost every week I played garchomp (bar one), and I played it almost every week as well. As much as I felt Magearna was broken, or cinderace worth suspect testing, I've always held chomper as the #1 pokemon in the metagame, because of this set. SD + Scale shot is arguably stronger than DD, as it gives Chomp immense breaking power, and the functionality to sweep without giving the opponent any free turns to attack. Leftovers is key to this set in my opinion, as it severely limits the use of passive damage to chip into Chomp's impressive natural bulk, which is actually one of its strongest points as a sweeper imo. For example, Garchomp can easily tank even LO moonblast from Clefable and slice through like knife through butter. Fire fang is my favorite coverage move because of its ability to hit corviknight and ohko ferrothorn, apart from denting grasses like rilla and kart harder, and hitting weakened fliers for more accuracy without dropping defenses. I've tried messing with a few other things, and in the spectrier meta I thought LO Edge was fair to ohko mandibuzz, but my personal take was to use rock slide with an EV spread that would avoid an ohko from FP (was roughly 48 HP / 204 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe). This allowed me a better neutral hit vs all fliers, the ability to still break corv/skarm esp. if paralyzed, and the ability to break mandy without sacrificing lefties for every other mu. LO Chomp is definitely very strong and improves a few other mus like clef, but I find lefties more consistent overall and far more splashable. I always pair chomp with a way to weaken things like lando-t, as that is the most frequent natural soft-check. As you'll see, chomp was the gamewinner in a few of my matches, and was a potent wincon in pretty much every other game as well.

Week 7: Clef Sand vs Talah

(importable) (replay)

Oh boy. This team has been seeing a ton of usage, and is definitely one of my favorites. I actually first built this team sometime around week 4, and was what I was considering using vs Eo. I realized that CM LO Clef was being heavily disrespected by a lot of players, even from me despite my love for it in OST last year. I ended up shelving this team that week for rain, the next team I will be talking about, and brought it back out again after the gear/cinderace ban. I was having an incredibly hard time building any good balance teams / avoiding formulaic bulky offs due to the immense pressure from pokemon like Kyurem, Specs Pult, Lele, and Spikes (Ferrothorn). As an aside, these are all Pokemon that I feel are incredibly strong and restricting in the current metagame, and the best counterplay is very limited, stifling flexibility with teams. One of the reasons I brought this team is that it has one of the best answers to several of these guys in Tyranitar. TTar is incredibly tanky and one of the most proactive kyurem answers, and is effective vs pult with the supporting cast. Lefties is key as without Rest, TTar has no recovery. The spread outruns hydreigon after para (Twave is also key for crippling pokemon like corv, cm clef, and reuni), and EQ lets u comfortably switch into tran and also 1v1 non-superpower Nidoking.

The main limitation with TTar is due to the passive damage it sets with sand, the ideal partners for it are rather limited. So even though TTar is incredibly good, there is not as much room to splash it across teams or get creative with it. While this is a limitation I find rather dissapointing for the whole meta, it was certainly a massive plus with mguard clef and how I started off when building this team. Drill was a natural choice, I ran some sdef for CM Clef and Toxic to cripple things like Lando for Garchomp / outstalling with Skarm. From here I decided to go for SkarmPex due to how effectively it covers so many threats to sand while not being bothered/affected by the chip damage. IDef Skarm is a key response to things like SD Lando, Chomp, Kartana, Rillaboom, Scizor, and Weavile. It also keeps up layer of spikes up vs non-idef corv, and can be a key wincon if the right opposing mon gets taken out. Helmet and Spikes pressure really add to the passive damage component that is central to bulky sand teams. At the time of building this team, full SDef Pex was key to have a reliable answer to Magearna (and even specs was capable of clobbering this lineup with the right predictions). Post-ban I was able to make it more mixed defensive, which makes it the best lead vs Lando-T as knocking him off is a top-priority that gives you significantly more room to punish your opponents plays later game. It also gave me room to drop haze, as Tyranitar + Chomp covers Volcarona and IDef Skarm covers all major physical set-up. I decided to go for Poison Jab for my match with Talah, as this gives reliable counterplay vs CM Taunt Fini, and can still fish for poisons vs a lot of pokemon. The fini mu is still playable without PJab due to knock + sand, but it still often requires getting many predictions right, and keeping both Drill + Chomp so that you can sack drill to RKO with chomp. I didn't want to go into any auto-negative mus, so PJab was the safest choice for me. Toxic and TSpikes have immense upside and should definitely be considered, especially as tox helps with fliers like NP Torn and Zap, and TSpikes is great for things like Rillaboom offense and rain. Bunker is another option that helps with offense and also Specs lele. Overall, the last moveslot on Pex is rather free for experimentation, though I think haze is very unecessary and a wasted opportunity. T-Spikes probably leads to the most straightforward wins when the MU is good and what I often play on ladder.

My major wincons of the team are my last slot, Chomp, and Clefable. I went with my normal Chomp set, as I feel fire fang coverage is too important to drop for substitute, which as an aside I often feel is played as a crutch and can cut into Chomp's amazing bulk. I also am not a fan of sand veil chomp, especially without smooth rock tar which would be a poor choice here, and chose to stick with rough skin for the chip damage. Pressure from Drill, Pex, and spikes, and twave is often enough to set-up Chomp to be a good wincon. However, it is very important to balance this with what you can sacrifice. Crippling a lefties lando-t early in the match can put you massively ahead, and I often play pex aggressively for this reason and have EV'd it for such scenarios. PDef Clef is great to buffer hits and still be a dangerous threat, and I've gone for enough speed for max mel (and then some for 0 corv) here, since Ajna's team has picked up some popularity. Thunder vs Flame is largely preference and the mu you might face, and I would recommend switching it up to keep your opponents guessing. Also, as I noted in the importable, you can definitely choose to run some speed creep on skarm. However, I would definitely not go crazy with this, as skarm needs a lot of its bulk in order to reliably counter dangerous threats like SD Chomp and Kartana. Jolly Skarm in particular is a rather terrible choice, as many magnezones will simply live a +2 Body Press anyway, and you won't be able to wall the most dangerous physical breakers like you need to. I think its better to simply accept that a fast specs zone might be somewhat difficult to face, but it can definitely be outplayed, especially if pex is played well.

Onto a review of the game, Talah brought an interesting Clef rain team. On preview my mu looked good, but I realized it would not be as positive as it seems due to Zapdos, the demon that it is. I have strong counterplay vs everything else on Talah's team (though I am still cautious of garchomp in rain), but with Zap I can't damage it with passive chip too effectively, and if we trade spikes (which is what I often must do with this team), my answers will get worn down very quickly. With this I realize it is important to weaken/cripple ferrothorn soon and try to maintain the weather/hazard war. I thought on preview that my Clefable + Chomp might be able to sweep outright, and I knew I could bluff flamethrower to scare out ferro. But Talah quickly revealed unaware clef, which meant I had to focus on the passive damage gameplan. I played very safely in this game because I knew I had MU advantage and most plays talah could make would still concede things from his side.



On Turn 18, I scald into a garchomp switch, and I notice it does not have lefties. I feel like lum is unlikely despite his brave switch, so at this point I am almost certain it is LO Aqua Tail. On this turn a double to Zapdos is very telegraphed, but it is extremely risky for me to stay in. I decide to make a midground to clefable, knowing that I can recover positionally from a LO Eq, and that if Talah stays in to SD, I can hard skarmory on EQ and win 1v1. When I catch the Zapdos, this is key for a few reasons. One is that I avoid taking rocks on my skarm, which would put me in range of a +2 LO Atail in rain if I take rocks again. The other is that I can now trade damage on Clef for a free switch on roost, which I manage to get through a hurricane confusion. I think this next turn, turn 20, is where I make perhaps my only objective misplay of the game, by switching to Tyranitar instead of Excadrill. In this moment I forgot that without rain drill walls zap, and this would give me a free opportunity to Spin and then Toxic the Pelipper, without taking hazards on my TTar. I already have rocks up so Tar doesn't accomplish much, even though chipping / crippling ferrothorn is nice for a later spin. Continuing on, I manage to 5-hit a scale onto zapdos, which puts it in range of rocks (and I've knocked it off with pex), so I decide to trade my skarm for rocks. I also reveal IDef here, allowing me to KO Peli and remove Talah's hazard control. I decide to save Skarm from TWave as the clef is unaware, but turn 44 should have set off some alarm bells. Talah sacks ferrothorn instead of Zapdos which would have denied my spin, and I thought this was just a misplay, but really it is an indication that Talah's Clef has healing wish.



When the Zap comes back, I am put in another difficult position and this is the next key moment of the game. I have enough tools to beat zapdos, but I must balance this with the fact that Talah's chomp might be able to clean me. I think there is an extremely low chance that Talah uses thunder since rain is about to run out, and there is a decent chance I decide to sack Pex or Roost on a weather ball. I decide to make a gutsy call here and set up one more spike on a roost, which KOs Skewda and spares me the situation of a toxic miss on a sack, sacking chomp for rough skin, or taking a liquidation drop on skarm. The downside of this move, despite the risk of needing to win a tie vs Chomp if I get this turn wrong, is also that Talah gains the ability to sack skewda to deny a scale shot or rapid spin. The main scenario I was scared of is if Talah switches zap out of toxic from drill after KOing pex, then going to garchomp and doubling back to zapdos on my skarmory. The extra spike here also barely puts chomp onto 1 LO turn instead of two in this scenario, which massively improves my winning chances. I'm not sure what the best decision is here and it was really tough for me, I'd love to hear what other people think. The spike ends up working, and I sack pex to bring drill. At this point I realize the Zapdos is modest (:facepalm:), which is both good and bad. Hurricane has a chance to 2hko my drill if it hits both, but at least I can't get insta-confused into a self-hit. I land the tox and decide to pivot with my skarm back to drill. My goal was to minimize the risk of a 2hit scale into wide lens zap ending the game, and I felt like even if Talah read me here and hit the third cane, I was probably safe to win the game between skarm and chomp. With that, zap is basically out and Skarmory can clean up, though Chomp does it instead. A very close game and well played by Talah, showing once again just how good Zapdos is. If I had toxic spikes on Pex this mu is much closer to unloseable, so that's definitely a consideration if you want to try this team out. Fun fact, this game continued my 100% winstreak against rain in team tours, but is the only time I didn't bring HO into rain. Go figure!

Week 5: Rain vs Eo

(importable) (replay)

Rain time! It seems I was having a weather fever in the middle of SPL, and this team is another one that has been picking up a lot of popularity. Like I mentioned, I was originally planning to use sand vs Eo, but during the actual week leading up to our match I had been playing much more with this team. Eeveeto was actually building a rain team this week as well, and I thought I wanted to try my hand at it as well. We ended up dominating that week and actually brought (and won with) rain in several other slots, so when Pietro subbed in for me bringing rain again was the perfect choice.

The origins of this team actually come from me wanting the most brainless team to ladder with. A lot of HOs and Bulky Offs are rather far from that, but one mon I always thought was extremely powerful (and what makes rain so good) is Zapdos. Even without any boosting item or nature, Zapdos has really nice 125 satk and is firing off incredibly high base power moves in Thunder, Hurricane, and STAB weather ball. Add in the additional effects with high trigger rates, and Zapdos can be extremely difficult to switch into. In the game Zapdos absolutely popped off, and I think this is where people started to really respect how powerful it is. My team was originally built in the Urshifu meta, and had Shifu > Craw and Skewda instead of Kingdra. I was also using lum SD OR chomp for its ability to reliably abuse pex and absolutely blast a lot of typical responses (Zapdos and Lando being some big ones) and really break things open for Shifu and Skewda. The EV spread tanks CB Wicked Blow and is a remnant of that time. I decided to keep that set, and replace Shifu with Craw despite it not being an actual ghost resist due to its amazing breaking synergy with Zapdos. After with talking with Eeveeto I decided to go for Kingdra as my swimmer and I've definitely not looked back. Kingdra has significantly better bulk and typing, which can often interchange with Skewdas insane speeed for checking certain offensive threats. It also doesn't take passive damage from its most spammable moves. The only downside is that Flip Turning generally involves some sort of prediction, but its really not hard to pull off and you can often Surf into switch to be safe anyway. Aside from the obvious peli (which I chose to run Hurricane on to put more pressure on Rillaboom among other things), ferrothorn is the last quintessential mon for rain in my opinion. My team is extremely offensive, so I chose to go with Chople Berry to be better at checking/trading with certain things, and Gyro ball as my coverage move to hit fairies, dragons, and fliers for maximum damage (was especially important when gear was still around). Personally I think if you can fit leech on ferrothorn you should always have it, as it can force significantly more telegraphed plays from the opponent and is a total pain in the ass to deal with for a lot of foggers. Ferro is easily one of the best mons in the tier and especially good on rain.

This team is extremely aggressive and is weak to a few things. Some of the biggest weaknesses are in Kyurem, CM Clef, and Hydreigon, and of course, you must always be careful of SD Chomp as well. When Pietro used this team a lot of these Pokemon were not as common (particularly Kyurem) and all were reasonably outplayable, so I didn't really consider these a problem. However, after the ace and gear bans, I wouldn't recommend using this team unless you're sure you won't face a kyurem. You could consider higher PP options on ferro, TWave, and Scale Shot chomp among other things, but I don't think they necessarily help that much and I think the movesets are already optimized for every other matchup. I actually really like Talah's rendition of rain with Unaware HWish clef. As much as I hate Unaware clef and think it is garbage, I do like the utility of TW HWish and think it can serve a valuable role on rain, especially freeing up options for ferrothorn. However, DO NOT USE MODEST ZAPDOS. Ugh. It disgusts me. Don't ruin this pokemon. Zapdos' speed tier is incredible, especially with how dangerous Kyurem and Lele are, and it has plenty of power as is. Use timid, Max max. No need to get fancy. As for the swimmer, I still think Kingdra is better but I can see the reason for Skewda without having a Craw. I really prefer the breaking power of my rendition with Craw + Kingdra + Zap but with the changes in the meta, concessions must be made. I think some factors just chalk up to personal preference, but Zapdos is what really makes rain shine atm.

Gonna keep the game review short as I didn't play this one. Some early misplays around the Nidoking, I really like leading Chomp vs a lot of teams and would have vs Eo's. It was all for the flex though as Pietro lands a critical Thunder para on scarf magearna, setting the stage for Zapdos to sweep. Eo's Ace ends up not having Gunk, which essentially ends the game as Zapdos claims 6. I told Pietro for the game that one of Zap or Daunt would 6-0, and Zapper really took that literally. Nice game and a good showcase of why you gotta respect Zap in the builder.

Week 8: Double Bug HO vs Garay

(importable) (replay) (bonus replay) (extra bonus replay)

This is easily one of my most favorite teams from this season. Everyone knows me, I always love myself a little bit of HO. This team continues a little bit of a streak of me using HO without hazards, and I want to talk a bit about why I do this sometimes. Obviously, heavy-duty-boots is one major component that significantly lessens the effectiveness of rocks. When I'm building an HO Team, my #1 consideration is how my sweepers will sequence to break for each other, and how they can force in Pokemon that another partner can take advantage of. Frequently, depending on my core selection of sweepers, this often means I will prioritize adding another breaker/sweeper in favor of a dedicated hazard leads. This really depends on how useful rocks are for achieving certain KOs, verses adding another corebreaker or sweeper. In WCoP, this translated to using a Nasty Plot mew instead of a suicide hazard lead, as it was a surprising and very dangerous core breaker that would rip open a lot of games for me, something much more important than some rocks and spikes. On my snake team however, rocks was crucial for some KOs with Azu among other things, and the opportunity cost was very little to fit it onto Rhyperior in this instance (in my OST, the opportunity cost was much higher and hence I dropped rocks in favor of corebreaking Hippo sands). In this case, I strongly valued increasing the quality of my Garchomp as a win-condition and breaker, as I felt rocks SD was trying for too much and would be far too innefective vs Corv among other things. Rocks is useful for certain KOs with Scizor, but I found it much more important for Chomp to take advantage of and break things with Fire Fang. Dropping rocks is not a decision I take lightly, and is something that I've found to only really be consistent on HO builds.

As for the build itself, I got the original idea from facing some Sash HO on the ladder. This is something that I haven't talked about yet, but I used the ladder A LOT during this tournament, much more than any other, and I really enjoyed it. It helped me maintain interest in the metagame, discover new ideas, and refine my teams. During the late stages of a serious tournament I take testing seriously and will often make myself play against worst-case matchups for the practice. I still did this occasionally (s/o Raiza), but I definitely don't have the playing drive in me these days and casual laddering was a nice way to get comfortable with my teams. This guy I faced had some really crazy ideas like non-boots volc and double sash, but one thing I really did love was how annoying sash Weavile is. It is extremely effective at preventing rocks early game and can take advantage of so many Pokemon, that it is almost certain to put in some good damage or weaken a key defensive piece.

On this team I almost always lead Weavile, though I will sometimes consider leading Rillaboom or Volcarona, mostly just to position Weavile better. Because of the backline pressure of things like Lucha and Chomp and Rilla, a lot of teams can be very hard pressed to avoid sending something like Clefable. Weav will scare out some faster offensive stuff and begin the process of dismantling the opponent's team for sweeping. The other key mon I really wanted to use on HO was Scizor. This thing is is crazily dangerous, and I really love the max atk LO sets. On HO you can go all out with coverage, and I decided to opt for Psycho Cut + Superpower. This gives me a lot of consistent damage and power as well as a non-contact option, though Knock Off + Sand Tomb is also very fair if you're not afraid of missing / don't want to bluff knock vs Slowbros. Magnezone is not an answer, and a lot of Heatrans will also be slower. More often than not though, with the right mon down or crippled, +2 LO BP is going to absolutely rip through your opponents team. Scizor is definitely one pokemon that really appreciates hazards, as the chip can help pick up KOs on Rillaboom and Chomp, or even pdef pex if you have spikes up too. I was toying with a Mew + Sciz + DD Pult HO, and I think this is also another cool avenue to explore as Sciz becomes even stronger. After this I mostly just started putting on some of the most robust sweepers that fit well and checked dangerous threats, like SD Rilla, Lucha, and Garchomp. I decided to fill the team with Volcarona due to the immense utility of Flame Body, sweeping synergy, and just the raw scare factor, which can often force opponents to play differently.

Some notes about the sets, Hawlucha is EV'd to live MBlast from Clef after rocks more often than not, which is very key to pressuring unaware variants via taunt. Volc is also psychic-less due to the rest of the team's ability to take advantage of Pex (especially with taunt lucha), and Giga Flame lets it perform better vs stuff like Gastro/Fini and also consistently breaks Una clef 1v1 due to the PP stall and recovery, even if Volc is paralyzed. With so many set-up sweepers, this can be very important vs such teams. Another note about playing this team vs Unaware is you should be willing to sacrifice something like Weavile for even just 35% on Clef, just so you can effectively use Swords Dance to punish the opponent. Once you remove the opponent's option to safely hard to Clef, every play you can make has much stronger leverage and really puts the opponent in a tough spot. Also, I definitely think the some of the movesets (Hawlucha, Volc, Sciz) are customizable for your match (for example, PJab Lucha often destroys koko teams, Psychic Volc is good vs pult/pex and no una clef / gastro / fini, Knock Tomb Sciz is better vs Slowbro, etc.) but these all have downsides, and I do think the movesets I have selected are the most consistent overall. If you change one, definitly try to adjust the others to match the resulting shift in dynamics.

Onto the game review - I will cover many more turns for this one, as every single one is crucial. This matchup looked pretty tough, as Volcarona + Specs Pult is quite annoying for me to sustain hits from and he's got several ways to isolate and individually check my sweepers. Volc can cover Rillaboom, Rotom / Clef + Sciz can cover Hawlucha, Sciz can cover Weavile, Rotom/Volc can cover Sciz, Pult covers Volc, and Lando covers Chomp. My first thought was that I wanted to get Volcarona in as much as possible, preferably with Grassy Terrain up, to pressure the dragapult and potentially set-up for a later sweep. I lead Weavile as usual to threaten out the Dragapult, and the early turns involve much of me trying to get flame body burns and land as many attacks with Volc as I can. On turn 5 Garay switches Lando into my Volcarona and takes 35%, revealing he is specially defensive. This threw me off quite hard and makes it rather unlikely Volcarona will sweep. It was at this point in the game that I knew my plan would be to weaken the Clefable (probably with Hawlucha) and then sweep with Garchomp. My biggest concern at this point was if I could prevent the Rotom from tanking my Hawlucha instead, but I realized that if I weakened Volcarona, then Garay wouldn't be able to afford this as then Scizor would probably sweep. This means I need to get some damage in with Rillaboom if I can, then set-up with Hawlucha.



I finally get my Rillaboom in. Garay chooses to EQ on this turn, and had he used rocks, moonblast becomes a roll to KO my Hawlucha spread (favorable for me but not by that much). It also means Weavile is dead, though its mostly sack fodder for me at this point anyway. This turn is the start of a critical juncture, where I must hold onto my momentum every turn to maximize progress. If I click Knock Off on a hard switch to Volcarona, this is huge for enabling my Hawlucha and Scizor as wincons. However, Knock on a Scizor swap would drain all my momentum. I choose to SD here as Garay goes Scizor. This brings another key turn, and what I feel is my one mistake of the game. In this situation Garay could stay in to U-Turn, or hard switch Pult predicting Superpower. When I had brought Rillaboom in on Landorus, my plan had always been to Knock off the Scizor instead of Superpowering, but in the heat of the moment I became a bit too "safe" and Superpowered a Pult switch. I think Knock Off was always better for a few reasons. One is that it is likely to succeed, as if Garay loses Sciz then he is in serious danger of being swept by Hawlucha. More importantly however, Knock Off gives me guaranteed damage, and I also live a U-Turn, so I don't lose that much from getting the play wrong. I was running damage calculations for Hawlucha on these few turns, and I'm not sure why but something in me decided I needed to clean KO the Scizor. I'm not sure why, but I definitely regretted this play. As is the nature of HO, it has a high skill cap but also must be played precisely in a difficult mu. This is a huge momentum drain, but I decide to sack my Weavile here. By forcing the draco this allows me to set-up with Hawlucha. Furthermore, the damage on Pult makes my Volcarona much more threatening (even though he has SDef Lando), which incentivizes Garay to maintain health on his Rotom. On preview I did not expect this Clefable to be Unaware, and I breathe a sigh of relief as I deal >80% with Acro and tank a moonblast to knock it out.

After fishing for another Flame Body, I decide to let my Volc get Paralyzed in order to weaken Garay's Rotom and get a safe switch back into Rillaboom. Garay shows he is Timid Rotom with a gutsy Volt, and I decide to trade my Rilla for damage on Pult. At this point my only way to force it out is with Scizor, so I have to put it in BP range. I go for a hard SD since I cannot afford to let the Volcarona Quiver Dance, especially as I need my Garchomp to use it to get an SD. This ends up working out with my Hawlucha sack, and Garay chooses to go Lando and EQ. I think had he made an aggressive hard switch to Dragapult, I definitely would have lost this game. After going Lando, my odds become much better, regardless of EQ/Tox, and this is only improved when I land the 3-hit scale to KO at +3. Lefties recovery is key here to keep me out of range of BP with defense drops, and a 3-hit on Rotom ends the game immediately, but unfortunately I miss as Garay lands a Hydro. This is still something I can afford however, and I manage to land the three hits to KO rotom on the next turn as well. At this point my out is a Flame Body burn, and finally on the 3rd opportunity I land it. I click setup moves with Volc and Sciz to prevent Garay's Volc from QD'ing, and land the final scale shot I need to close out the game. Really tight one that I thought I had lost till the very end. I think Knock Scizor would have beaten Fangless chomp, but as Garay just u-turned, two EQs would have closed it at the end.

Week 9: Blissey + Zone Offense vs 1TL

(importable) (replay) (bonus replay)

This team is definitely my spiciest and probably hardest to play well with. I am really big on CM Lefties Lele, and this was my stab at making a team with it. I originally suggested that set for Ajna's week 8 game and made this team for him to try, but he understandably found it tough to play and made another great rendition of Lele Bliss (that you should definitely post Ajna!). I found this team really fun to play for myself and was enjoying it a lot, so I decided to bring it vs the sharkies before the week had even started.

CM Lele is a very dangerous breaker due to its ability to boost and also switch up moves, but leftovers is really what makes the set click in my opinion. The passive recovery allows you to abuse defensive mons (especially stuff like Slowking) much more effectively, and often allows Lele to stay healthy enough to outtank the speediest mons on the oppos team and roll right through. Especially if it's something like Koko, Pult, Torn, etc. the CM boosts will also make a massive difference. I wanted to pair Lele with Blissey due to the coverage vs Pult and Kyurem, and to teleport into things like Pex, but one of the annoyances I was facing was dealing with mons subbing on Bliss, especially Pult (kyurem I could TP into lele or Zone depending on set if I wanted to be proactive, or just stall it). Enter Scarf Icicle Spear Mamoswine. I honestly put this set on as a joke at first, but it's actually incredibly good. Scarf mamo can threaten a lot of the tier, and Superpower gives it coverage to revenge things like Weavile. The set is very unpredictable so you can often bluff Ice Shard or non-choice early on, or pick up surprise KOs on something like a Koko u-turning out. At this point I put on DNite + Zone to patch up a lot of defensive holes and make my offensive synergy really shiny. Dnite can frequently bluff EQ, scaring out Taunt Heatran long enough to build an advantageous position, and just checks a whole lot of shit with its impressive bulk and multiscale. Zone traps many steels for all my breakers, and I decided to go with an incredibly bulky spread to reliably answer some more dangerous offensive ones like Bisharp and Kartana. One of the biggest dangers to this team on face value is strong knock off users, and Zone is the dedicated answer to those. With my spread I can tank +2 Low Kick from Weavile, sucessive CB Knocks from Bish, and from Kartana I can tank Knock into itemless knock into +2 Itemless knock to KO with BPress (which by extension, tanks +1 Knock into +1 vs +2 Itemless Knock). It's also bulky enough to tank a +2 bpress from speedy skarmorys, though most of these calcs rely on taking minimal chip damage beforehand. After running endless hours of calcs I finally emerged victorious, beads of sweat dripping from my forehead as I basked in the glory of my optimized zone spread, only to discover Ox the Fox had already made the same spread. Well. Apart from trapping, he also covers me vs icicle kyurem and other random physical attackers. Playing zone as a really defensive piece really helped me find more flexibility with him. To ease some of the pressure on zone I made my dragonite very bulky, with enough to tank two CB Smart Strikes from kart, Speed to outrun Latis at +1 (and pult/zera/the whole schabang at +2, the number of DDs you should aim for at minimum), and the Atk to pick up KOs at those ranges. As much as I really think EQ is valuable, Heal Bell is very tough to give up when it gives Lele and Kartana significantly more flexibility, and can also help DNite sit in on and sweep through things like Tox Lando and TW Bliss.

Finally at last, I needed something to pressure CM Clefable, Check +1 Sub DD Pult, pressure steels/defensive cores and remove shed shells, add some speed and power, etc. Band Kart was the perfect choice here, and I decided to compress even further by dropping Sacred for Defog. With this Kart could also act as a secondary emergency Knock Switch / fodder piece. Kartana is often the best early game breaker and will pave the road for DNite / Mamo in some way. It is also one of the key sources of pressure vs passive Unaware Clef team. Going back to the start of this team, one of the key choices in how to play this team is the debate of Psychic vs Psyshock on Lele. Psyshock hits Blissey and G-Slowking much harder, but Psychic is much more dangerous to Unaware Clef and Pex, as well as practically everything else. I decided to use Psyshock for my match, and recommended Luigi to use Psychic in his OST game, and I think both have their merits and it is very hard to pick one. This largely depends on the MU you expect to face. I also think Psychic is a fair choice (albeit worse imo) simply for how it simplifies game-planning, even if it might increase reliance on prediction, vs some teams you will have endless opportunity to call it right thanks to Blissey. Speakig of the evil blob, the idea of compressing rocks on Mamo and running TWave + Port is central to how this team plays. Blissey is extremely tanky, and with natural cure and port you almost always want to use it as a sponge for safe entry of your breakers, especially vs passive teams. For example, to protect Lele's lefties you would almost always want to go Blissey on Pex and port. TWave is very good at punishing a lot of switch-ins and punishing slow responses, and I decided to go with Ice Beam as my attacking move. This was mainly because of how threatening SD + Scale Shot chomp is to my team. IBeam makes me significantly less of a liability vs Chomp, and I can actually tank a +2 EQ from full and win a straight 1v1 if I need to. This is rather dangerous though, and it is best to leave Bliss as an emergency check or pull an Ice Shard bluff / deny chomp free set-up altogether. Most frequently you will make a trap with Zone and then play correctly around chomp once, and then it should be manageable. It also dents Lando and hits Pult's sub, which can be very convenient.

This team frequently plays on a lot of set bluffs and surprise factor in certain mus, and is definitely more geared to being a 1-game team for a tour like SPL. That being said its incredibly fun to play and still very strong, so I recommend trying it out and potentially shuffling sets like EQ DNite / Specs Lele to keep your oppo guessing. Fun story, BIHI accidentally brought this team to stour before I had even used it not realizing it was my team for the week, and to protect the set knowledge he bluffed EQ Nite so aggressively his opponent forfeited without even checking. Just goes to show you how important information can be in a game of mons.

Onto the game review. My MU looked pretty good, with Kart + Mamo + Zone as a major threat, and DDNite as the probable game finisher once corv was removed. My biggest concern was the opposing lele due to my difficulty of switching into it, and the opposing Garchomp in case it happened to be an offensive variant with Scale Shot, rather than a tanky rocker. My first 4 turns were incredibly good, I lead Kart as I can often bluff scarf and get off some really strong early hits, and this managed to allow me to remove Corv very early.



Here is where I made a few misplays in the game that cost me a lot of flexibility and momentum. Seeing as how my zone was not so useful any more and a potential liability to Chomp, I decided to throw it in here instead of possibly eating a specs psyshock on blissey. However, I think this was a key error for two reasons. Not only did this play remove my ability to glean information about 1TL's Lele if he focus blasted me, which he did, but also it was very predictable. The next turn I got Scarf-Lele PTSD (check out my game vs Sacri'), and decided to go to my Lele instead of my Kartana. I absolutely wanted to go Kart here as Smart Strike/Leaf Blade was completely free vs Specs and was key to my gameplan as I wanted to weaken his chomp and get more info about its set for my DNite. Lele was absolutely a misplay, but I think had I played smarter the previous turn this could have been easily avoided. Also taking a specs psyshock on Blissey wasn't even terrible, as I could still preserve for Specs Pult, heal on opposing Blissey, or maintain a sack without desperately needing to keep him around. CM was furthermore a greedy move by me, I wanted to maximize damage on blissey or incentivize CB Rilla to Glide. However, Psyshock damage was enough to put Bliss in range of DNite and Rilla was always the best option anyway, as I forgot 1TL must also respect specs Lele from me as well. At this point I should've comitted to calling U-Turn which was definitely the safer option for 1TL, but it doesn't make much progress for me anyway. I end up taking some extra chip on Kart and lose the speedtie vs Lele, meaning I don't get any damage for my mamoswine and end up in the same situation with Kart down to 30, all for the information that Lele was indeed specs. Yikes, definitely a misjudgement by me.

Even so, however, I still felt rather confident of my chances to take this game. I played in this way to be ultra safe with my Kartana, which was able to trade for Garchomp, paving the way for DNite to sweep. Still, I would've ideally maintained more sacks and health on my mons, allowing me to lean into Mamo + Kart as a win condition more strongly and risk the least with dnite. I knew that Blissey into DNite would be able to always force a situation where my DNite could DD twice, and I expected 1TL to have twave blissey, so I played to make Heal Bell less obvious and to force my set-up on Lele or Rillaboom. The only way for 1TL to avoid this was attempting to PP Stall my Blissey, which would have opened other possibilities for me and was generally not worth it. I missed a chance to paralyze 1TL's Lele to a FP, but still got the scenario I wanted where I could get two DD's with DNite with multiscale still up. I decide to roost on the Lele switch out in case he decided to crit-fish, and DD on the anticipated TWave from Blissey.



This endgame is very tricky. At this point, 1TL doesn't know for sure I have Heal Bell but also must consider it. My nite has enough atk to ohko Pult, and enough speed to outrun if I am not paralyzed (I need 5 DDs to outrun with Para, and also guaranteed ohko bliss). With my multiscale intact I can also take any one hit. This puts things in my favor, but full para's will always be the game decider. I only need to be able to get one attack off here, and DD on this turn knowing 1TL will stoss to break my multi. I get paralyzed, but this is fine as I know teleport is coming next turn and if I heal bell, this allows me to pick up a KO and another DD on the Blissey return. At this point its clear why I should've played more aggressively in the midgame to get prior damage on this blissey or pick up more prior KOs, to minimize the amount of turns 1TL has for a double para. Had I gotten off my DD + Heal Bell here, I would've been able to land a KO and reach +4 vs blissey, making heal bell into non-twave / miss an instant game ender. That situation is still tricky, but it ends up not mattering as I get fully paralyzed for a second turn on the teleport, ending the game. Definitely a tough way to go out, but such is the game, and I think is rather fair considering I also needed to hit 3 DWBs. I don't think the odds were much better than 50-50 at this point. Had I played sharper in the middlegame I probably have an upwards of 80% chance to sweep and might not have even need to. Definitely wasn't happy with how I played this one but props to 1TL for playing a solid game.

Tldr; Garchomp is epic. If you give me a like I will feel better about writing a dissertation on Pokemon teams instead of going outside. Thanks for reading!
 
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talah

from the river to the sea
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Staff Alumnusis a Past SPL Champion
hey! i had a wonderful time this SPL, and i think it was also my best tour in terms of building. going into every team i used is a bit much, let alone every team i made, so figured id focus on a few of my favs from the tour, in order of my personal fondness (least to most) for them.

(click the sprites for importables)

w1 vs xray:
:tyranitar::slowbro::spectrier::garchomp::slowking-galar::corviknight:
(replay)

week 1 there wasn't really much to go off of; completely fresh meta (urshifu-s had just gotten banned) and i hadn't played a single tour game in dlc2. knowing neither side would prep much at all, instead prob using something solid, i tried to abuse spectrier as much as i could. logic for the team was just "subcm spectrier + subsd chomp destroy most meta teams, give them a solid backbone, sand veil chomp if i can fit it". i ended up w this 6, which saw a lot of usage during the spectrier meta and i think was great at the time. what gave the team its effectiveness was the defensive spectrier spread i used. i didn't begin with it, i kinda just came up w the idea of setting up on ferrothorn and mandi (most of the time, mandi knock was a 5/16 roll to break sub while burned) the night before my game and it was perfect for the team. it gave the horse many, many more setup opportunities, and the spatk was not at all necessary for this team to function. it ended up winning my game and spawning a wave of whirlwind mandibuzz the coming weeks.

w6 vs separation / week 7 tace vs ajna:
:tapu koko::ferrothorn::landorus-therian::cinderace::clefable::dragonite: / :victini::ferrothorn::dragonite::tapu koko::clefable::nidoking: (replay)
(replay)

grouping these 2 together because they're the same concept but executed in different metas. first one i made for my (2nd) game vs separation: i wanted to use heal bell dnite + spikes so i didn't have to fit defog somewhere. team is p simple from there, koko, cinderace and clef acted as the hazard abusers while allowing the team to play different modes, with each pokemon taking bigger importance vs different styles. the 2nd one i made the week right after, and i didn't intend to make it so similar. we were trying to build nido + koko and the style kinda worked. victini might seem like an odd fit here, but it has a lot of utility nothing else really offered. it switched into lele, beat volc, abused electric terrain, pivoted nido into the checks it can't break itself, etc. it also took the concept of playing in 2 modes that i mentioned to a larger extent. you can play with pretty much any level of hazards on the field and can adapt to whatever the opponent is using. such flexibility in-game is something i tend to really appreciate and this team is one of the better examples of that concept.

w4 vs eo:
:cinderace::melmetal::slowking::landorus-therian::mandibuzz::regieleki:
(replay)

my first loss of the tour, and very deserved for using regieleki, that mon ended up being really bad, and in hindsight i much prefer koko/zera over it. nevertheless, the focus of the team was the cinder + mel sets. that mel set was absolutely sick and extremely difficult to deal with for any team without slowbro/toxapex at the time. spread allows its sub to eat a lando eq at +2? iirc. i was also obsessed w using trapping moves at the time, and fire spin cinderace was something i had i was trying to make proper use of, which was perfect for mel. fire spin + eball reliably trapped slowbro and pdef toxapex (which was the standard at the time) since teams with them would always use them to deal with cinderace. the regieleki part was great in theory, horrible in practice. idea was that teams with both them and a defensive ground (lando, chomp), would be forced to use one of the ground/water to switch into cinderace, you'd trap it (in 2 entries vs the grounds, 1 vs the waters) and either mel or regi would then be free to go in. in practice regieleki is just ass as long as the ground isnt literally dead, so it was better off replaced w/ zera or something.

w3 vs separation:
:scizor::toxapex::landorus-therian::hydreigon::zapdos::spectrier:
(replay)

kind of a boring standard build, but scizor was nowhere near used at the time and it also featured a criminally underused horse set with specs. it was obnoxiously strong, doing things like 2hkoing hydreigon and pdef mandi after status, it 2hkod almost everything really. superpower hydra was the blissey pressure of choice that was necessary with that set. v fun team with strong hitters, good pivots, not much else to say, was just very fun to use.

semis vs lax / finals vs john w:
:zeraora::gastrodon::skarmory::clefable::heatran::slowking: / :hippowdon::moltres::zeraora::slowking::skarmory::clefable: (replay)
(replay)


again grouping them due to the concept being the same. the finals version is the version i prefer obviously, otherwise i'd have reused, but the semis team is good still. vs lax i knew i'd probably play against something offensive, and besides that i wanted to use zeraora + spikes. what immediately sticks out in the importable and replay alike is the jolly skarmory. i was fairly confident i'd play against either bisharp or magnezone, and this set covered both. it gave up advantages vs offensive grounds, especially garchomp, but i played vs them in tests and felt confident enough to outplay knowing the trade-off. as for finals, i felt good about using a spikes focused team again, but felt something was missing from the previous one; namely immediate offensive pressure, which that moltres set is v good at providing. it needs support to function properly, and CM knock clefable is probably the best support it can get. it forces a knock off against slowking/pex, allowing moltres to threaten them with spikes on the field. moltres also gives pressure, which allows you to play hazard games vs corviknight teams. there's a few variations i was trying, like tox hippo + ww skarm + twave slowking, but i think this is the most well rounded one.

a quick shout to the team i used in tiebreaker, which of course is FV's; here is my version of it. i changed most sets, namely spreads, CB > SD rilla, wide lens + triple axel weavile > sash and ofc safeguard volcarona. the rilla and weavile changes were more preference than anything, but i think safeguard volc is absolutely the best choice here. it destroys matchups the team doesn't otherwise have the best of times vs, and the buzz + giga set didn't feel like it added enough in comparison. it goes harder on matchups the team already functions well enough in, imo, so i think the advantages of safeguard far outweigh that of offensive. great 6, albeit a bit awkward to use.

tiebreaker, star vs eo:
:rotom-wash::dragapult::scizor::landorus-therian::kyurem::bisharp:
(replay)

my second fav team of the tour. it has a few clear weaknesses (like being destroyed by safeguard volcarona...) but almost all of them are very outplayable, and EVs are definitely easy to mess around with. despite that, it is extremely satisfying to use and has enough to outplay more or less everything. 3 pivots + 3 strong breakers can sometimes be difficult to work consistently and i think this team does it quite well. the main creative spin the team has is having no stealth rock. this team loves to play without any hazards on the field since it has a specs kyurem, and rocks ended up being a hinderance more than anything so we decided to drop them altogether in favor of double defog. this team flows extremely well and requires aggressive play to make the most out of it, but it is super rewarding. another cool thing is that it has no boots pokemon due to double defog, something very rare in today's SS.

w2 vs lax:
:scizor::slowking::landorus-therian::dracozolt::tyranitar::tornadus-therian:
(replay)

my absolute fav and probably one of the best teams i've made, certainly the best in DLC2. kinda outdated by now but surprisingly usable with the touchups i gave it (although very weak to cb bisharp). it's a sort of perfect storm of creative (at the time) ideas, though it looks standard now. scizor and slowking both saw no usage at that point, and while slowking is definitely better now it was still extremely good at the time. i'd wanna RMT it in the near future if i can, so i won't go into too much detail, but i was trying to make a good sand with toxic + protect excadrill work, which led to my discovery of how damn good scizor was and subsequently evolved into this. i recommend the version with toxic torn btw, and even air slash is usable with that, but i digress. featuring a sleuth of pivoting for zolt, 4 sand immunes + 2 regenerator mons enabling smooth rock tar, breaking support for the few stuff zolt won't tear through by way of sd sciz + future sight + np torn, excellent defensive synergy and a lot more, it's probably the most solid team i used and my clear personal favorite. almost forgot to give a shout to the dracozolt set, but during testing i realized the only way dracozolt didn't run over most teams was being pivoted around with immunities until sand was over, which fire spin completely eliminated. i also almost never clicked fire coverage except vs excadrill, which was fairly easy to wear down regardless. overall an excellent team and one i'm extremely proud of.

quick edit: i just realized i forgot to post my rain, i'll edit that in when i have some more time

thanks for reading if you did, hope you have fun if you're just here for the teams. i'm writing shoutouts for SPL atm so i don't want to do any distinct ones in this post except 2 quick ones to dice and suapah for helping me prep and build like every week
 
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