In the past CAP Snake Draft I was drafted and had the pleasure to play for SHSP during a very quickly changing meta (CAP is literally OU except Equilibra, Tomohawk, and Astrolotl exist), with the tournament starting with Pheromosa legal, and the tournament ending with Urshifu banned. This team was something I cooked up week 1, in peak Mosa and Shifu meta, with Pex being there to really just kill the Mosa (sorta), spread even more status than you'd ever need, and just do Pex stuff. The team itself proved to be well, incredibly BS with how it could cheese through games as its half Paraspam, and half Horse doing horse things, but despite having that sheer level of unfairness implicit, it actually was able to show itself as fairly consistent, even making it onto samples for a bit. Lets get into the sets themselves:
Team Description
Dragapult @ Leftovers
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 104 Atk / 152 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Substitute
- Hex
- Thunder Wave / Will-o-Wisp
- Dragon Darts
One half of the BS core of this team, this mon is really on here to draw in, paralyze, and potentially cheese through the tier's main Dark types at the time, Mandibuzz and Tyranitar. Substitute lets the Dragapult user really cover a lot of possibilities in one slot, and is great at forcing the opponent to play aggressive into it, with the aforementioned Dark types. Dragon Darts is really here to cover the possibility of Blissey, as it lets you deal with the blob marginally more efficiently than Draco Meteor does, but Draco Meteor ended up being a better choice as the format evolved.
Spectrier @ Leftovers
Ability: Grim Neigh
EVs: 112 HP / 20 Def / 172 SpA / 20 SpD / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Hex
- Calm Mind
- Dark Pulse
I like, really have no idea what this EV spread even does, but I am told it does something. This is really the focal point of the team, and everything here is entirely designed to just let it excel. Being able to use Hex without having to actually dedicate a slot to setting WoW is legitimately insane, and Sub CM horse with Para support lets you cheese through stuff it has literally no right to be able to. Like, if you get a para at the right time, this mon can legtimately just break Mandibuzz with shockingly little effort. Dark Pulse again is because at the time CAP players were really loving Blissey on like, every single team, and being able to break through Blissey is worth so much.
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 216 SpD / 40 Spe
Careful Nature
- Rock Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Superpower
You may be seeing a theme with this team so far, but here's another mon that exists to spam yet more Status to enable Spectrier even harder. As it was Spectrier meta, having a mon to just completely nullify some horses was super useful, Rocks is worth literally everything, and Superpower over EQ means that you can nail Equilibra for roughly 50%.
Equilibra @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 32 SpA / 144 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Doom Desire
- Earth Power
- Rapid Spin
- Aura Sphere
Equilibra is here to provide the goods, by the goods I mean Doom Desire is a legitimately stupid move when you can spam it this easily, and honestly, if you're playing SS without having a really solid Delayed Move user, are ya really playing SS? Also this means that this team is a CAP team, and not just an OU team that's used in CAP, so that's nice. Aura Sphere is here because there is literally no better check to Equilibra than an opposing Equilibra that has Aura Sphere last. Overall this is a ridiculously easy mon to use, helped me check both Melmetal and Magearna, and honestly its been S rank in CAP for a lot of its existence for a very good reason. For any non-cap Players, imagine if Excadrill was just way bulkier on both sides, immune to Earthquake, and could set up a free kill in almost any match, and you have a sorta good idea.
Toxapex @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Recover
- Haze
- Toxic Spikes
This was the peak of CB Urshifu meta, and as such I needed a mon to compress Shifu, give me a better chance against Rain (well, the team is actually really good with Sub Pult), and honestly I wanted another source of status to further enable Spectrier. Pex, as we all know, is among the easier mons to just shove on a team, and really checks all those boxes, although its sorta a bad Urshifu check, especially if they're a build like Metronome/BU or they have Future Sight Support, which honesty this team allows more often than it should. That said, Pex is still really easy to use, and shuts down a load of gameplans, so it really earns its place here. It also synergizes amazingly with TTar to just wear down stuff super fast with RH + Sand.
Rillaboom
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Grassy Glide
- Knock Off
- Acrobatics
Rillaboom here really just gives me a secondary source of revenge killing aside from hoping they let me Paralyze their sweeper, gives me a way to sorta muscle past CM sweepers like Clefable, and, crucially for this team, is very reliable when it comes to forcing a Knock on Mandibuzz, which is another way to let Spectrier force a win, as a Knocked Mandibuzz dies shockingly fast. Itemless Acrobatics is because CAP players love a mon known as Tomohawk, which is the cursed child of Zapdos and Landorus-T, and if you run Grassy Seed it really telegraphs that you're running Acrobatics. Its not the best choice last, but SD Rillaboom is amazing when it comes to cleaning through teams it shouldn't, and I value offensive presence a lot.
----
Threats:
Urshifu-SS: This is probably the most immediately threatening issue with the team. While there definitely is counterplay, thanks to Pex being able to take a hit at least once, no matter what really, its not really good counterplay at all. Metronome, Black Glasses, and Bulk Up sets in general have the potential to just run through this team, as there's no Fairy type at all here, so in practice the team had to force status on it, and then cycle Toxapex until Spect's Hex could KO, aka about 50%.
Cawmodore: This is like, the most infamous CAP in terms of just running through unprepared teams, and the team, as it is above, is really unprepared. Frankly, the gameplan vs Cawmodore is to just outtempo it, and never get a KO with Rillaboom. A subsequent version of the team with Will-o-Wisp and Heavy-Duty Boots on Dragapult had a lot more counterplay against Cawmodore, but it would never really be a good matchup. As for fixes the Rillaboom slot is probably where you'd touch, although you'd have issues with losing some offensive tempo.
Astrolotl: At the time Astrolotl was near its peak strength, with its ability to force up Spikes in every single matchup being super intense. You definitely have counterplay against it with Tyranitar not really caring about its actual damage (although losing Lefties is death), but barring Ttar and Dragapult the team really struggles to prevent it from just setting up spikes forever.
Pheromosa: This was in mosa meta, mixed defenses Toxapex is good against mosa, but it can loose, and well, mosa does mosa things.
Rillaboom: The grass resists are Dragapult and Rillaboom itself, you definitely do have room to play around it, using Acrobatics Rillaboom yourself, and potentially forcing status on it with one of the many routes this team has available, but the team really doesn't like taking repeated CB Wood Hammers. CAP luckily wasn't spamming CB Rilla that hard at the time thanks to the prominence of Tomohawk, but if you ever queued into it, it was rough.
----
Replays:
CAP Snake Draft W1: Pepsi Plunge vs Carbink Deoxide:
CAP Winter Seasonal R1: Lasen vs Dneon
CAP Winter Seasonal R1: 2spoopy4u vs zioziotrip
CAP Winter Seasonal R2: Pepsi Plunge vs Lasen
----
Thank you to everyone who has helped me get where I am, from old NUers really helping me get my start, the original CT really helping me branch out of NU as a whole, CAP for accepting me and letting me participate and help shape the metagame, and PS as a whole, including The Cafe and Scholastic rooms.
----
Team Description
Dragapult @ Leftovers
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 104 Atk / 152 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Substitute
- Hex
- Thunder Wave / Will-o-Wisp
- Dragon Darts
One half of the BS core of this team, this mon is really on here to draw in, paralyze, and potentially cheese through the tier's main Dark types at the time, Mandibuzz and Tyranitar. Substitute lets the Dragapult user really cover a lot of possibilities in one slot, and is great at forcing the opponent to play aggressive into it, with the aforementioned Dark types. Dragon Darts is really here to cover the possibility of Blissey, as it lets you deal with the blob marginally more efficiently than Draco Meteor does, but Draco Meteor ended up being a better choice as the format evolved.
Spectrier @ Leftovers
Ability: Grim Neigh
EVs: 112 HP / 20 Def / 172 SpA / 20 SpD / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Hex
- Calm Mind
- Dark Pulse
I like, really have no idea what this EV spread even does, but I am told it does something. This is really the focal point of the team, and everything here is entirely designed to just let it excel. Being able to use Hex without having to actually dedicate a slot to setting WoW is legitimately insane, and Sub CM horse with Para support lets you cheese through stuff it has literally no right to be able to. Like, if you get a para at the right time, this mon can legtimately just break Mandibuzz with shockingly little effort. Dark Pulse again is because at the time CAP players were really loving Blissey on like, every single team, and being able to break through Blissey is worth so much.
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 216 SpD / 40 Spe
Careful Nature
- Rock Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Superpower
You may be seeing a theme with this team so far, but here's another mon that exists to spam yet more Status to enable Spectrier even harder. As it was Spectrier meta, having a mon to just completely nullify some horses was super useful, Rocks is worth literally everything, and Superpower over EQ means that you can nail Equilibra for roughly 50%.
Equilibra @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 32 SpA / 144 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Doom Desire
- Earth Power
- Rapid Spin
- Aura Sphere
Equilibra is here to provide the goods, by the goods I mean Doom Desire is a legitimately stupid move when you can spam it this easily, and honestly, if you're playing SS without having a really solid Delayed Move user, are ya really playing SS? Also this means that this team is a CAP team, and not just an OU team that's used in CAP, so that's nice. Aura Sphere is here because there is literally no better check to Equilibra than an opposing Equilibra that has Aura Sphere last. Overall this is a ridiculously easy mon to use, helped me check both Melmetal and Magearna, and honestly its been S rank in CAP for a lot of its existence for a very good reason. For any non-cap Players, imagine if Excadrill was just way bulkier on both sides, immune to Earthquake, and could set up a free kill in almost any match, and you have a sorta good idea.
Toxapex @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Recover
- Haze
- Toxic Spikes
This was the peak of CB Urshifu meta, and as such I needed a mon to compress Shifu, give me a better chance against Rain (well, the team is actually really good with Sub Pult), and honestly I wanted another source of status to further enable Spectrier. Pex, as we all know, is among the easier mons to just shove on a team, and really checks all those boxes, although its sorta a bad Urshifu check, especially if they're a build like Metronome/BU or they have Future Sight Support, which honesty this team allows more often than it should. That said, Pex is still really easy to use, and shuts down a load of gameplans, so it really earns its place here. It also synergizes amazingly with TTar to just wear down stuff super fast with RH + Sand.
Rillaboom
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Grassy Glide
- Knock Off
- Acrobatics
Rillaboom here really just gives me a secondary source of revenge killing aside from hoping they let me Paralyze their sweeper, gives me a way to sorta muscle past CM sweepers like Clefable, and, crucially for this team, is very reliable when it comes to forcing a Knock on Mandibuzz, which is another way to let Spectrier force a win, as a Knocked Mandibuzz dies shockingly fast. Itemless Acrobatics is because CAP players love a mon known as Tomohawk, which is the cursed child of Zapdos and Landorus-T, and if you run Grassy Seed it really telegraphs that you're running Acrobatics. Its not the best choice last, but SD Rillaboom is amazing when it comes to cleaning through teams it shouldn't, and I value offensive presence a lot.
----
Threats:
Urshifu-SS: This is probably the most immediately threatening issue with the team. While there definitely is counterplay, thanks to Pex being able to take a hit at least once, no matter what really, its not really good counterplay at all. Metronome, Black Glasses, and Bulk Up sets in general have the potential to just run through this team, as there's no Fairy type at all here, so in practice the team had to force status on it, and then cycle Toxapex until Spect's Hex could KO, aka about 50%. Cawmodore: This is like, the most infamous CAP in terms of just running through unprepared teams, and the team, as it is above, is really unprepared. Frankly, the gameplan vs Cawmodore is to just outtempo it, and never get a KO with Rillaboom. A subsequent version of the team with Will-o-Wisp and Heavy-Duty Boots on Dragapult had a lot more counterplay against Cawmodore, but it would never really be a good matchup. As for fixes the Rillaboom slot is probably where you'd touch, although you'd have issues with losing some offensive tempo. Astrolotl: At the time Astrolotl was near its peak strength, with its ability to force up Spikes in every single matchup being super intense. You definitely have counterplay against it with Tyranitar not really caring about its actual damage (although losing Lefties is death), but barring Ttar and Dragapult the team really struggles to prevent it from just setting up spikes forever. Pheromosa: This was in mosa meta, mixed defenses Toxapex is good against mosa, but it can loose, and well, mosa does mosa things. Rillaboom: The grass resists are Dragapult and Rillaboom itself, you definitely do have room to play around it, using Acrobatics Rillaboom yourself, and potentially forcing status on it with one of the many routes this team has available, but the team really doesn't like taking repeated CB Wood Hammers. CAP luckily wasn't spamming CB Rilla that hard at the time thanks to the prominence of Tomohawk, but if you ever queued into it, it was rough.----
Replays:
CAP Snake Draft W1: Pepsi Plunge vs Carbink Deoxide:
CAP Winter Seasonal R1: Lasen vs Dneon
CAP Winter Seasonal R1: 2spoopy4u vs zioziotrip
CAP Winter Seasonal R2: Pepsi Plunge vs Lasen
----
Thank you to everyone who has helped me get where I am, from old NUers really helping me get my start, the original CT really helping me branch out of NU as a whole, CAP for accepting me and letting me participate and help shape the metagame, and PS as a whole, including The Cafe and Scholastic rooms.
----
Dragapult @ Leftovers
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 104 Atk / 152 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Substitute
- Hex
- Thunder Wave
- Dragon Darts
Spectrier @ Leftovers
Ability: Grim Neigh
EVs: 112 HP / 20 Def / 172 SpA / 20 SpD / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Hex
- Calm Mind
- Dark Pulse
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 216 SpD / 40 Spe
Careful Nature
- Rock Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Superpower
Equilibra @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 32 SpA / 144 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Doom Desire
- Earth Power
- Rapid Spin
- Aura Sphere
Toxapex @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Recover
- Haze
- Toxic Spikes
Rillaboom
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Grassy Glide
- Knock Off
- Acrobatics
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 104 Atk / 152 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Substitute
- Hex
- Thunder Wave
- Dragon Darts
Spectrier @ Leftovers
Ability: Grim Neigh
EVs: 112 HP / 20 Def / 172 SpA / 20 SpD / 184 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Hex
- Calm Mind
- Dark Pulse
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 216 SpD / 40 Spe
Careful Nature
- Rock Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Superpower
Equilibra @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 32 SpA / 144 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Doom Desire
- Earth Power
- Rapid Spin
- Aura Sphere
Toxapex @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Recover
- Haze
- Toxic Spikes
Rillaboom
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Grassy Glide
- Knock Off
- Acrobatics