Tournament The Official OLT VIII Discussion Thread

ausma

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Welcome to the official OLT VIII Discussion Thread, dedicated to OLT VIII. Over the next couple of weeks, players will play on the OU ladder to qualify for the OLT playoffs, and ultimately compete for their very own trophy. An overview will be written after every cycle that will detail qualifiers, interesting developments, and noteworthy teams. This thread will serve as a place to share teams, trends, etc as a discussion thread dedicated to the tournament and the developments that may arise from it.

If you are interested in signing up for Cycle 1, please follow the instructions outlined in the OP and post here.

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AM

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LCPL Champion
So this thread isnt dead until the winner of OLT is determined figured I'd try to throw some general thoughts of things I've been seeing spectating lot of the games being played while I'm "working". With respect to the players participating I wont be showing teams or replays, they already have it hard enough trying to make cutoff hiding all their replays switching teams lol.

Funnily enough hard-stall isn't that rampant at least in comparison to the bulkier archetypes I've seen with similar Fini/Corv/Heatran type builds. I've seen a couple of people run fatter teams with like 4 fat mons a Torn and Kyurem but it's not like Gen6Ou where stall was more of a staple in its current gen. Think a lot of that has to due with the combination of Heatran, Magnezone, etc. making it difficult for some of these more defensive teams to function and possibly the fact people don't want to continuously ladder and play 400+ turn games every game. Definitely the most dreadful part of this gen for sure.

Weavile/Ursh continue to maintain their dominance it seems, with more techs on Ursh like Ice Punch to bypass traditional checks like Dragonite and SD Weaviles access to free Knock and Triple Axel making most defensive answers tread carefully. A strong offensive staple in the current timeline of this generation. The ban of Magearna definitely opened the floodgates it seems to Weaviles dominance in particular, among other things like busted Kyurem.

A lot of various hyper offenses floating around which shows the amount of creativity you can pull off in the current gen ranging from A-Ninetales screens, Magnezone paired with tons of physical fighters to overload each others checks, and even the Helix Lord himself Omastar making a few appearances on one rain squad and some offensive teams being used. Lots of variety being explored, with trends changing quickly to counteract or get the one up on opponents and the norm.

Granted there's not a whole lot of new things floating around, mostly rehashes of old concepts or revived from the dead in older gens but a good increase in things like Mew, Cloyster Spam, and Whirlpool Fini is interesting to watch as well. Things like Rillaboom decreasing in popularity we probably saw coming for awhile but it's actually here in our face.

Gl to the people qualifying and participating.
 
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TPP

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Head TD
Cycle 1 Qualifiers


Rank #1 | ELO: 2150 | GXE: 86.1% | Record: (reset)
Rank #2 | ELO: 2148 | GXE: 86.2% | Record: 77-48
Rank #3 | ELO: 2147 | GXE: 84.1% | Record: (reset)
Rank #4 | ELO: 2142 | GXE: 86.3% | Record: 153-80
Rank #5 | ELO: 2141 | GXE: 81.8% | Record: (reset)
Rank #6 | ELO: 2139 | GXE: 89.3% | Record: 95-23
Rank #7 | ELO: 2137 | GXE: 87.3% | Record: 76-19
Rank #8 | ELO: 2136 | GXE: 84.9% | Record: (reset)​

Congrats to those that qualified! Everyone is free to share your experiences.
 
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John W

Banned deucer.
Sup everybody, I hope the people who qualified this cycle share the teams they used along with a description, even if its just a brief one. OLT ladder is my favorite part of any tour on smogon considering it's always fun to try and solve. Personally, I'm not the most happy with my ladder run since I didn't feel the consistency as I did last year with the teams I used but that's more on the higher amount of threats that exist now because a lot of other players were also struggling with this.

Anyway, I maintain a similar position as I did last year with games being public to everyone as a bad thing for the people trying to qualify. Obviously its a great feature for the spectators to see their favorite players compete but the creativity / building aspect of the tour isn't as important since you should expect every opponent in the high ladder to know ur team, or even worse someone stealing ur team.

The other thing I wanna preface before going into my teams is sniping on high ladder. For those who complain / malded about this being
"uncompetitive" and harassed me on showdown dm's for doing this strategy a couple times towards the end of my ladder run have to realize that getting sniped on high ladder is solely the opposing players fault. Like seriously, what do you expect if you spam game after game consecutively with the same team when ur in the top end of ladder. The simplest way to avoid being sniped is either switch up ur teams or wait a little bit before searching again. Whenever beatiful and Storm Zone spammed a bunch of games, they always rotated so sniping them wasnt as cut n dry as loading stall into HO.

I didn't build much this OLT as I didn't see the point with everything being public so I just wanted to use something that didn't have a surprise factor.

1625798027704.png

Team

This is what I came up with early on this cycle and played 80% of my OLT games with since I really liked hazard stack + heatran + double regen vs fatter teams and bulky offense. I found a lot of success with this team vs those archetypes, but the issue was the hyper offensive teams I kept fighting in the 1800 - 2000 range since you basically have to outplay and keep hazards off the field to give yourself a chance as long as you aren't playing an SD bisharp. I switched between iron head and bpress a few times but cm thunder clef with no ih ferro is very tough to handle and its not like bpress ferro is reliable as a sole sd bisharp answer. If you decide to play this team in future cycles, be careful of SD weavile since you will have to outplay that most games. Nonetheless, I'm a huge fan of this team since a lot of stall mu's were essentially auto wins as long as you played patient which is a pretty nice thing to ensure. Some others threats to watch out for are NP focus blast tornadus t, nasty plot rotom h, and cm p def reuniclus

This is the other team I made that made up the smaller part of my ladder run

1625798927151.png

Team

I didn't like this one that much since stall can be very hard to break if they can get around np slowking and HO can still be very annoying to face especially teams with dd eq dnite or specs kyurem but I still had moderate success with this team. I don't think this team is consistent enough to use in high ladder but it kept the same idea of what I wanted with the first team of hazard stack + double regen. I made a couple more teams but didn't use it on the ladder with my OLT account.

Also ban kings rock...
Ban kings rock

Best of luck to everyone competing in the upcoming cycles
 
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ausma

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Hello everyone! Cycle 1 has now come to a close, and with it, we've seen quite a lot of innovation thus far, with some expected uprisings and even some surprises. Given the nature of the tournament, these are innovations that may stick or may fade as the tournament proceeds. Here are some noteworthy trends that we've seen:

Offenses

Screens



Hyper Offense has wildly surged in use in Cycle 1, mainly with the use of dual Screens or Aurora Veil. However, more notably: Heavy-Duty Boots have made Stealth Rock far lower value for these kinds of teams that aim to overwhelm and waste no time, which has led to the 5th slot being opened for another dual Screens abuser. Given how powerful and versatile many rising options such as Galarian Moltres and Cloyster are, it's fairly easy to justify and often leads to even cleaner endgames with more breathing room for these types of cores.

Interestingly, Ninetales-Alola is an option as a Screens setter that has also surged in use, between being able to set Hail for Arctozolt and providing fast, simultaneous Screens. Its Hail, moreover, can double as an option to provide the potential chip damage that Stealth Rock would have otherwise gave teams. It provides quite a lot of very convenient support that has made it a premier pick for these types of teams once again.

King's Rock remaining in the tier has been exploited to great effect by quite a few OLT participants, including several qualifiers. In fact, it's because of King's Rock's startling reliability with dual Screens that Cloyster is given very sizeable odds to cleave past many Pokemon that could put a stop to it otherwise, such as Urshifu-R, Toxapex, healthy Tapu Fini, and Melmetal. Some examples of this can be found here, here, and here.

Togekiss is also a Pokemon that has seen an uptick in use for its ability to artificially beat supposed checks with flinches and has seen usage on hyper offenses alongside Cloyster. Its typing, natural bulk, access to longevity, and Nasty Plot make it particularly good as an offensive check to Pokemon like Garchomp and Dragapult which Hyper Offenses can struggle to answer consistently. Galarian Moltres also performs as an offensive check to Dragapult with its Dark-type and natural bulk reinforced by dual Screens giving it the ability to set up Agility and Nasty Plot surprisingly well in spite of its lack of recovery.

Weather



Outside of Alolan Ninetales' incredible role compression as a form of offensive support with Aurora Veil and Hail for Arctozolt, other forms of weather are an incredibly common sight at the higher ladder as offense archetypes that play heavily, quickly, and efficiently into overload. Rain and Sun are not rare to see, and neither are their best abusers.

Barraskewda remains as potent as ever, but options like Tornadus-T, Thundurus-T, the incredible Urshifu-R, Seismitoad, and even Keldeo are popping up quite commonly, even foregoing Barraskewda outright sometimes. Sun utilizes Venusaur but also makes heavy use of Heatran and Victini as nuclear Sun abusers with neat defensive attributes to keep the tides in their favor and to give breathing room for aggression. While Hippowdon isn't really as common, it contests weather itself and can enable Pokemon such as Excadrill and Dracozolt to a solid effect.

You can see some good examples of their performances here, here, and here.

Trick Room



Once thought to be a fringe archetype, Trick Room has seen a shocking amount of high-level use, and even more shockingly has worked to a solid effect due to the wide amount of options for wallbreakers and setters as well as being incredibly anti-meta against offense. Hatterene and Cresselia are extremely common setters; Hatterene has access to Magic Bounce to block Taunt and hazards making it a great lead setter and even a good abuser in of itself with high Special Attack and its near-perfect neutral coverage. Cresselia is extremely bulky, immune to Earthquake, and boasts access to coverage and Lunar Dance to prevent it from being taken advantage of and also providing invaluable support to tankier wallbreakers to give them more breathing room and breaking opportunities respectively.

You can see some good examples of performances here, here, and here.

Other Pokemon



Tapu Fini's incredible matchup in the current landscape of the metagame has hit the ladder full time, and it's as fantastic of a pick as WCoP outed it to be. Between its amazing variety in set combinations between Choice Scarf, Whirlpool, and Calm Mind and its superb bulk and defensive typing, it takes on a lot of the metagame and can be slotted onto a variety of offenses and have even seen usage on Hyper Offenses.

Kartana is one of the best proponents to overload in the tier, and in Cycle 1 it's no different as an amazing dual Screens abuser and versatile breaker on balanced offenses. It abuses Magnezone's trapping abilities quite well, too, and is startlingly easy to enable with pivoting support and its natural physical bulk.

Mew is truly a jack of all trades, and its insane movepool has proven to make it a Pokemon of many roles in Cycle 1, between access to status, utility, boosting, and having the natural bulk to take on some dangerous targets. It sees use on a variety of archetypes between offenses with its classic lead variant with spliced moves, with Spikes, and a wide range of Cosmic Power setup variants.

Magnezone forces progress by deleting Steel-type walls for Pokemon like Weavile and Kartana, and in particular has even served some defensive purposes thanks to Iron Defense and its defensive typing providing options against Weavile, Cloyster, and Tapu Koko.
___________________________________

Balances/Stalls



Although more pure balances are a bit rarer to come by, Toxapex's utility is quite the opposite. Its ability to blanket check a vast majority of the metagame with its amazing typing, bulk, and access to Haze make it a phenomenal pick to keep setup and the spiked use of weather at bay. It's because of this that it has almost entirely superseded the use of the Slowtwins as a fat Water-type with absurd longevity on these types of teams. Seeing Toxapex on more balanced and defensive teams is almost a guarantee given that it provides a very reliable way to wall common wallbreakers and displace hyper offense with its mere presence. Regenerator cores are also a dime a dozen with their premium ability to provide recovery without wasting turns to heal, making it even easier to force progress. More often than not, Toxapex is a feature of them.

Kyurem is a Pokemon with a rough history, but as a Pressure abuser, it is considered to be among the best. Kyurem usage has spiked in Cycle 1 and has once more proven itself to be an incredibly potent PP staller with access to longevity, perfect neutral coverage, and its incredibly well-rounded stat spread, letting it fit quite snuggly into an assortment of balances and stalls. This also does not consider Choice sets which are exceedingly difficult to switch into as conventional defensive counterplay is far more difficult to naturally pad into teams in such an aggressive environment. If caught in a poor position, Kyurem can easily force a sack if opponents attempt to play around SubRoost prior.

Stall hasn't seen as meteoric of use as initially projected, however, that's not to say it hasn't been used at all! In fact, to call it bad or irrelevant would be quite dismissive. However, many Stalls have opted to adapt some options to force pressure directly with several win conditions, even utilizing options like Dragapult which tends to find itself leaning more toward offense. Reuniclus has also seen an uptick of use as a win condition that can soak Toxic without breaking a sweat while finding many Pokemon to reliably boost against, however, it's not uncommon to see it playing a similar role on balances, too.
___________________________________

The OU Moderation team hopes that you are all enjoying OLT and the developments it's been bringing to the table. We wish you all the best of luck in Cycle 2; see you then!
 
I want to say thanks to the people running this thread as well as all the qualifiers posting, it makes for an interesting read every year. As for my teams I'll post the two main ones I used as well as their respective replays.

~

:hatterene::cresselia::porygon2::golurk::marowak-alola::melmetal:
https://pokepast.es/bd84ea98e66c8640

I used a random assortment of WCoP teams to get to around 1700 or so. At this point I was tired of running balance and I wanted to explore something more offensive. I didn't like veil or anything similar though so I thought to look into Trick Room. Trick Room seemed fairly solved though, with the 3 optimal setters (hat cress p2) + 3 breakers (traditionally craw wak mel). However, craw seemed really mediocre with all the fini and shifu so I wanted to replace that slot. Trick Room only offers a limited numbers of turns so I wanted something truly spammable and instant, Golurk provided this while also offering an immunity to electric. You pretty much always lead the hat unless you face mel, choose whether u prefer misty chip or a saved up healing wish. Wak is by far the most potent part of the team and larger style and games should pretty much be centered around it killing stuff asap. SD into its stabs kills everything besides tar and you can run low kick for that if you really want. I went for shadow bone because missing poltergeist sucks but eq and even belly drum (intimidate cycling no longer matters) are valid options. This isn't the most consistent team out there but it won a fair bit and depending on meta trends at a given time it can do really well.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1371781627
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1371889961
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1371897652
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1371900515

~

:scizor::toxapex::clefable::hippowdon::skarmory::tapu-koko:
https://pokepast.es/bd9d795ee8b3eb58

When I got tired of missing poltergeist I moved onto the classic boys. Apparently this 6 was made during WCoP but nonetheless I made it from start to finish for my own sake. Using balance in the past it was always useful to have something like zera revenge kill and potentially pivot to regain momentum, but I often found it frustrating that I couldn't uturn on grounds or actually hit them outside of toxic. So, I wanted to make a balance centered around koko with a minor set twist. Traditionally people run tbolt / gleam / uturn / roost but I wanted volt to force long term chip cycles on pex type stuff and also chip tran to a greater degree in the short term. Roost isn't really needed imo, you just come in on forced recovery or a uturn and preserve your health wisely. So I added pex + clef as the balance staples and had 3 slots remaining. I noticed there was a ton of veil offense but also a ton of chomp and rillaboom running around so skarm + spikes seemed like an amazing combo to go for. Hippo totally messes with tales and in general is a fantastic wall in this meta. Scizor simply rounded out the team by helping vs lele, kyurem, and stuff like grasses or weavile if skarm gets overwhelmed. I used this team from around 1841 all the way until 2137, only losing a single game in the process. Needless to say the consistency far exceeded my expectations and I had a very smooth ride qualifying thanks to this team.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1372410083
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1372433576
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1372412996
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1372426394
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1372438356
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1372459380
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1372533703
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1372551469
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1372526509-ids6ci9jttv92bs3eza11wes7oqg8lppw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1372542192-9g5rowbjnfj88yacmdoj3bsn3ao6n15pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1372599269-ctlmn5oreangb5wx34r1wmav575knu1pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1372620968-hb0wtdei7ifl9q779jekbkz98g9kor8pw

~

Sincerely,
Breezy
 

INSULT

and every day the paper boy brings more
is a Tiering Contributoris a Past SCL Champion
olt8stuff.PNG

Yo little quick post about my teams, only gonna be dropping ports of the top 2 since the other 3 arent mine (creds in team name). Used first team/occasionally zone version from about 1400-2070. Built this team for wcop around dclaw dnite + triple steel. Offensive tran/kart are two of the best progress makers in the tier and along with knock sciz u can easily chip fairies and other stuff that would normally annoy dnite. A lot of people dont expect dclaw either which is super nice bc normally ppl can just hard switch in kyurem/chomp (ig icepunch is becoming more popular) without fearing the ohko. Other mentionable techs ig is wisp tran for grounds/bish and ace kart specifically for buzz lure but thats not rly a tech anymore. Very fun team if u love clicking buttons with kart and tran, and getting autowins vs alot of offenses with this dnite is always fun. Tran was originally modest and balloon but that was moreso for wcop bo1 kinda fish, its since been made timid lefties for ladder (jolly tomb sciz is a thing now ig??).

https://pokepast.es/6f30bec0aa6dc1f5

The bottom three I used from 2070-2140 since I'd been spamming the kart dnite squad and my sets were basically known. Not gonna go too in depth since they aren't mine but I do want to talk a little about that broken metal thing u can see in 2/3 of the teams. After laddering this cycle, imo melmetal is the BEST and most consistent breaker in the tier. Whether vs stall/balance/bo/ho this shit will always do work and will hardly have bad mus. Double iron bash is a glitch gamefreak forgot to fix and with this things stats, its basically un-revengable if kept even moderately healthy. When more top players start abusing this mon which ik they will, I can see this thing rising to A+/even S- in vr. Pots team was just stolen bc I saw that guy had like 90+ gxe rank 1 on ladder so I knew it was gonna be solid. Finally the nat team I also used in wcop and felt comfortable with. A lot of people still didnt know the band lando tech and also buzzwole/ursh are always gonna be good mons on ladder bc of offense spam.

Gl those trying for cycle 2, my tip is to abuse mel before ppl start adapting like they're starting to with weavile!!!

shouts Star Nat @potswhoeveruare
 

pulsar512b

ss ou fangirl
is a Pre-Contributor
View attachment 357514
Yo little quick post about my teams, only gonna be dropping ports of the top 2 since the other 3 arent mine (creds in team name). Used first team/occasionally zone version from about 1400-2070. Built this team for wcop around dclaw dnite + triple steel. Offensive tran/kart are two of the best progress makers in the tier and along with knock sciz u can easily chip fairies and other stuff that would normally annoy dnite. A lot of people dont expect dclaw either which is super nice bc normally ppl can just hard switch in kyurem/chomp (ig icepunch is becoming more popular) without fearing the ohko. Other mentionable techs ig is wisp tran for grounds/bish and ace kart specifically for buzz lure but thats not rly a tech anymore. Very fun team if u love clicking buttons with kart and tran, and getting autowins vs alot of offenses with this dnite is always fun. Tran was originally modest and balloon but that was moreso for wcop bo1 kinda fish, its since been made timid lefties for ladder (jolly tomb sciz is a thing now ig??).

https://pokepast.es/6f30bec0aa6dc1f5

The bottom three I used from 2070-2140 since I'd been spamming the kart dnite squad and my sets were basically known. Not gonna go too in depth since they aren't mine but I do want to talk a little about that broken metal thing u can see in 2/3 of the teams. After laddering this cycle, imo melmetal is the BEST and most consistent breaker in the tier. Whether vs stall/balance/bo/ho this shit will always do work and will hardly have bad mus. Double iron bash is a glitch gamefreak forgot to fix and with this things stats, its basically un-revengable if kept even moderately healthy. When more top players start abusing this mon which ik they will, I can see this thing rising to A+/even S- in vr. Pots team was just stolen bc I saw that guy had like 90+ gxe rank 1 on ladder so I knew it was gonna be solid. Finally the nat team I also used in wcop and felt comfortable with. A lot of people still didnt know the band lando tech and also buzzwole/ursh are always gonna be good mons on ladder bc of offense spam.

Gl those trying for cycle 2, my tip is to abuse mel before ppl start adapting like they're starting to with weavile!!!

shouts Star Nat @potswhoeveruare
Congrats on qualifying! Couple questions:
1) What are the 23 speed evs on Lando-T for?
2) Why did you run different spreads, but the same moveset on Heatran in the first two teams?
3) Why wisp on Heatran?
4) Why discharge/flash cannon instead of tbolt/substitute?
5) What melmetal set(s) would you recommend/think are best?
 

TPP

is a Tournament Directoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Top Tutor Alumnusis a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Past SPL Championis a Past WCoP Champion
Head TD
Cycle 2 Qualifiers


Rank #1 | ELO: 2100 | GXE: 81.4% | Record: 166-99
Rank #2 | ELO: 2083 | GXE: 82.7% | Record: (reset)
Rank #3 | ELO: 2083 | GXE: 87.8% | Record: (reset)
Rank #4 | ELO: 2079 | GXE: 89.8% | Record: 96-29
Rank #5 | ELO: 2077 | GXE: 84.3% | Record: 207-121
Rank #6 | ELO: 2076 | GXE: 84.3% | Record: (reset)
Rank #7 | ELO: 2073 | GXE: 81.1% | Record: (reset)
Rank #8 | ELO: 2072 | GXE: 81.6% | Record: (reset)​
 
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I won’t be sharing my other teams but i spammed this to get to 1800 and it was indeed v fun to use. Give it a try: https://pokepast.es/e68b65a4bfb0e234 , the mence slot can be replaced by chomp/d nite or even haxorus if you’re feeling good. I had 4 versions of diff dragons with it myself. I liked this out of all the 4 tho. Also the zone can be chople too with different spreads, i had custap just to catch stuff offguard. Gl to all for cycle 3
 

INSULT

and every day the paper boy brings more
is a Tiering Contributoris a Past SCL Champion
Congrats on qualifying! Couple questions:
1) What are the 23 speed evs on Lando-T for?
2) Why did you run different spreads, but the same moveset on Heatran in the first two teams?
3) Why wisp on Heatran?
4) Why discharge/flash cannon instead of tbolt/substitute?
5) What melmetal set(s) would you recommend/think are best?
1.Slow uturn but faster than ada craw
2.one with zone needs sdef tran bc zone doesnt rly count as a steel defensively, still wanted wisp for grounds tho
3.grounds and bish, didnt feel like tox is needed
4. U can change zone to whatever u like tbh just need id and bpress, flash is nice for clef bc sometimes they just dont expect steel move + u dont let in lando chomp for totally free
5. Cant go wrong with band or pads, band is like 2 punches bash eq/sp and pads is twave bash + 2 of tpunch sp eq. I dont rly like the lefties tect toxic but it should be fine anyway.
 

Rubyblood

Obluda, kierá nemá své jméno
is a Tiering Contributoris a Past SCL Champion
World Defender
Hi, since I was on holiday from the end of the DL in cycle 1. I am only posting now what I played during my ladder session.
So , To begin with I think the offense is the best archetype to use for the ladder, as you can just beat the crap out of your opponent before he uses all his cheese and unconventional sets. Nevertheless we saw that the balance with the clefa cm, tornaT etc were just as strong.
1000 - 1500. I just used a random ho with the cloyster king rock.
1500-1800/1900
Screenshot_48.png

I built an offense around landorus gem with breakers that can benefit from the lure that lando brings. You destroy Pelipper with the explosion thanks to the adamant nature and you usually have already destroyed the important part of the rain which is always a difficult match up when you play offense. You can also lure things like Skarmory,Corvi,Buzzwhole etc that slow down Kartana. The gameplan of the team is quite simple in itself, you just have to beat the annoying answer of kartana, weaken the team in front and sweep with kartana scarf. I added AV Melmetal Rock Slide to avoid getting 6-0 by volcarona since I don't play CB jet Shifu but Pads with TPunch, in hindsight I think focus punch is much better.

I alternated with this team build by Mana the credit goes to him.
Screenshot_46.png

The 6 is pretty standard I guess, but the synergy thanks to the techs of each pokemon make this team really solid.

1900-2000
Screenshot_49.png

When I saw how strong the clefa cm was I wanted to go with it too by building my own team. I added it in a structure obviously fat. I put Hippo for the rocks, the immu elec, its global bulk which helps a lot and especially to destroy shedstall which can just auto win vs cm clefa balance. This also helps against Veil Offense which was played a lot in cycle 1. I added with this CM Tapu Fini Taunt ,simply because it is the best pokemon to counter urshifu and weavile at the same time. Then there is tornadus that I played koff heatwave toxic u turn. For me this set is so boring to play because you take the items, you weaken everything with toxic and heat wave allows you to destroy the steel that want to come on it. U turn obviously also to regain momentum since things like toxapex will always come on it. I put Heatran stantard spedef with Heavy Slam for Clefable. Corv iron defense defog because it can just 6-0 a lot of hyper offenses that aren't prepared for it. Coupled with tornadus you can usually hold your own against grass spam. I really like the team because it can beat a lot of stall variants while keeping its defensive structure.

2000+
Screenshot_50.png

Probably the best team I have built in ss ou. I made a lot of variants, there was blissey on dragapult before I played HW + Twave but I finally opted for the dragapult specs which is modest suggested by Gama.
You can use Scarf/Pads/CB Shifu
TwisteedSpoon / Specs / Scarf Lele

As for the functioning of the team nothing complicated,
you have LandorusT with spedef + koff to remove items and pivoting with uturn.
Fsight Lele is just too strong against fat because you can force switch in and fsight and then you can hard switch something like Bisharp , Urshifu and take a ko for free. I use Hydropump Dragapult here because with Tapu lele fsight + hydro pump you can already eliminate the Heatran opposite.

Magnezone Chopple, here to trap bulky steel like ferrothorn ,skarm and corvi. you can use probably any item. I already tried the specs timid and the expert belt . I like the chopple for kartana.

Sd Bisharp ,Which is my ghost resist but also a very solid win condition when you weaken the team in front, feel free to play aggressive to weaken all the answers to Bisharp as Corvi, Skarm or Urshifu

I wanted to make a quick post because I'm pretty lazy for that, I hope it will have helped to contribute for this very interesting thread. Good luck to all participants and congratulations to those who qualified. see you soon.
 
1.PNG2.PNG3.PNG4.PNG5.PNG7.PNG6.PNG8.PNG9.PNG10.PNG11.PNG12.PNG <- Make ur own Fini spread '-'13.PNG14.PNG15.PNG16.PNG17.PNG18.PNG19.PNG20.PNG21.PNG 22.PNG23.PNG24.PNG26.PNG27.PNG 28.PNG29.PNG
(Click on the image for the team)

I ended up stealing a lot of different teams while laddering on b1arhghlfargh1 for wcop/fun but since I won't really snipe/ladder in the last 2 cycles may as well just post the teams here. Also if you were kind enough to have had passed your team and didn't make me steal it I just replaced all your spreads with 252/252 spreads since the moves are already pretty well known from replays/live matches '-'. If you didn't get credited for a team you made I don't really care nor do I care if I stole it wrong so yeah...have fun ig!
 
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Finchinator

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Congratulations on qualifying during one of the first two cycles! I wish you all luck in the playoffs. Not to derail this thread, BUT if you have any personal investment in the tiering of the metagame moving forward, be sure to check out our newest tiering survey and leave your thoughts in response to it. This would be appreciated by the council and should only take a couple of minutes, thank you and have a good weekend.
 

Flex OKLM

Banned deucer.
Hey here is the FLEXMAN, the most handsome guy of the french's community which qualified without forcing his talent because he simply didn't need it

So I'm going to introduce you to the team I've been using since 1800 (from 1000 to 1800 I was using john w's teams.

1626546268662.png

https://pokepast.es/6868e874be4184e9

I wanted to play a team with a Pokemon that puts a lot of pressure and that would've do the job no matter the mu and surround that with a good defensive core. I went for Tornadus taunt, Nasty Plot simply because it's broken and it destroys most of the team archetypes that were spammed. then I focused on the defensive core and I started with something quite classic with double pressure with Kyurem and Corviknight, a ground type, Clefable Unaware, and Toxapex Poison Jab for Tapu Fini Calm Mind, with 19 ivs speed to outspeed Marowak under Trick Room. In short, a classic 6. The team is quite weak to kyurem but it wasn't a problem during the cycle 2 because there was almost no kyurem however there was a little more at the end of the cycle, personally I was lucky I haven't met any Kyurem. (And if you play this team, please play this version because Ewin know how to copy perfectly the team except the Corviknight which makes the team 6-0 by Scizor. :/) To finish I'd have only one thing to say, glhf for those who will try the qualification and congratulations to those who have qualified.

Oh and GL to Soulwind and Tace for the tb, match of anthology between Soulwind who may miss the qualification because he was sleeping and tace who may miss the qualification because he didn't have the balls to restart a game
 
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