TPP is over and I went 9-0 so teamdump/recap time woooo
(click on sprites for teams)
Pre-DLC:
Week 1 vs Yuki: (
replay)
Leading up to week 1 cress was looking pretty busted, and then I pulled #1 cress user yuki for my week 1 mu. This team was basically made to counterteam opposing cress setup fat, grimmsnarl donates imprison to basically win any mon mirrors. The rest of it was p standard cress setup fat stuff except for maybe the tran and ting set, ironpress tran was because I wanted iron press and better volcanion counterplay, ting-lu was more offensive so it can actually threaten things like ghold and cress. I ended up rolling basically the exact mu I wanted and it was just game over on preview.
Week 2 vs Smudge: (
replay)
Cress got banned so I looked for things that looked cool with no more cress, chomp seemed cool since levitate would no longer be everywhere, tera flying pao allowed chomp to spam eq and it did pao things with sword of ruin. Haze was there to annoy bulky teams and not autolose to tatsudozo. Torn was speed control and another eq immune, also has sunny day because rain mu was not fun, gambit dealt with intim and could be another eq immune. Ceru was there for the sun mu and bitter blade could be a cool move to pass, tsareena helped to not lose to priospam. In hindsight the chomp item was bad sitrus probably would've been better. Also probably important to mention that I was getting wrecked by instruct's sun during testing and this was the only team I built that beat it. (It's a pretty favorable mu) The mu I ended up rolling was at first a bit scary but no swift swim made things a bit easier to deal with, chomp pao just kinda stayed on the field forever and chunked everything.
Week 3 vs BlackKnight_Gawain: (
replay)
I was busy this week and my opponent was new to the meta so I reused the core with a few adjustments. Tusk was here to have a more advantageous priospam mu because I was sure I would play vs sun or priospam, I edited the tsar moveset to have more favorable mu vs sun. I ended up playing vs sun, I got scarf tusk and pao in under tw and proceeded to click eq and ice spinner for most the game. I almost choked in the endgame but I still won by getting a 50/50 right.
Week 4 vs Xrn: (
replay)
I was originally going to bring quick claw spam
with a similar core but decided against it, the team ended up evolving into a kingambit semiroom featuring mesprit. This team was heavily based on a pre-cress ban kingambit balance team that yuki showed me, kingambit iron hands chien pao is a pretty scary offensive balance core that discourages intim and has the bulk to take a few hits too, volcanion helps with sun and rain mus, haze really annoys bulky setup teams. Mesprit was picking up some popularity (ty yuki for introducing it to me) as a levitate mon with a similar role as cress, being a bulky setup mon that also provides a TR mode for gambit and hands, mystical power is a pretty cool move to pass to stuff like volcanion, and draining kiss helps with longevity and dark types. Diancie was slotted in as the sixth to have a rocker and a better mu vs priospam, it also discourages intim even further and it appreciates water absorb from volcanion. The game ended up going pretty smoothly, mesprit and kingambit both were able to boost up a lot in the early game and then kingambit under TR went ham.
Week 5 vs shadowmaster6789: (
replay)
I built around gastrodon this week since I thought it looked pretty cool into the meta (ty again yuki for introducing it to me). The lack of grass type moves in pre-dlc meta was really nice for gastro, it provides some very useful support with yawn, recovery, and a helpful water immunity in storm drain. Ice beam and earth power hit a lot of the meta, like iron hands, dragonite, gholdengo, kingambit, landorus, etc. The team ended up being a pretty fat bulky setup team, with a distinct lack of protect, in hindsight I definitely should've fit protect on more mons. Ghold was pretty standard, just too good and appreciates the support/moves that gastrodon provides. Volcarona was put here for quiver dance and rage powder, it also appreciates storm drain and the coverage from gastrodon. Ironpress iron hands was put here because I wanted more options vs physical teams so passing/using ironpress was very helpful for that, other than that it's a standard set. Ting-lu does ting-lu things, although I once again went for a more offensive set to have some immediate power, spikes was there to punish yawn switches. Mesprit slots in as the sixth to provide a much needed ground immunity, and adds another option for bulky setup. The game ended up being a bit of a rough one, TR was a bit of tricky mu since I had only 1 protect which made it hard to play from out of position. Of course, I proceeded to lead very badly so I got almost all of my mons heavily chipped trying to reposition. I did my best to play from behind and ended up getting a few crucial turns correct to get the win, with the help of a misplay in the endgame from my opponent.
Post DLC:
Week 6 vs hayedenn: (replay)
DLC came out and I was looking for broken stuff, I settled on making a serene grace sand team now that we had better serene grace options. Sand was what got serene grace banned last gen so I figured it would still be broken (turns out I was right eventually). I went with jirachi instead of shaymin-sky because jirachi is a better physical mon and has a nice typing to deal with things like iron hands and snow teams. I went with TR on jirachi to help against hyper offense, and zen headbutt+ice punch was used for coverage to hit important targets like iron hands, lando-t, and amoonguss. Tyranitar lycanroc forms the sand core with rock slide spam, tyranitar's new access to knock allows the team to get rid of annoying covert cloaks, twave adds more speed control and another form of hax. Tsar does the prio blocking things and provides another knock user. Lando-t beats iron hands and is another rock slide user, and of course, intim is always good for threats like ogerpon, pao, and rillaboom. I settled on hearthflame in the last slot, mold breaker deals with pesky inner focus, and redirection+setup support is very helpful for this team. I ended up having to run two clear amulets on the team due to the lack of an intim deterrent on an all physical team. I ended up rolling a pretty scary mu because wide guard pelipper is hard to kill and is a big nuisance, but I ended up getting a few crucial kills and some good flinches to get the win.
Week 7 vs zoe: (
replay)
I was expecting some kind of hyper offense from zoe so I settled on a balance team where I basically stole all the ideas from yuki (this is the last time I swear). I stole the pao hands lando-t teal mask core from yuki, teal mask is cool for defiant and redirection support, also passing knock off. I then slotted in volcanion and scarf glimmora in the last two slots, scarf glimmora I stole from yuki, it checks a lot of the big physical threats like ogerpon, dragonite, chien pao, etc., volcanion synergizes nicely with it, providing other coverage and water absorb in addition to shoring up the sun mu. Also I have no idea why I ran adamant pao I prob would not recommend lol. I ended up rolling a scary mu that I was not really expecting to face, other than sash chien pao and glimmora I didn't really have the tools to withstand or take down kommo-o, so of course, I immediately throw away my glimmora turn 1, I end up pivoting around and am able to put on some pressure with a defiant boosted teal mask, but all my kommo-o checks are gone which made it very scary. Kommo-o ends up getting a free turn to setup but I get lucky and win two fake out 50/50s with iron hands to pull off the win.
Semis vs Xrn: (
replay)
I was expecting serene grace snow to be the team so I built with that in mind, it's a pretty generic special offense team, cloak ghold+bundle handles snow pretty well and then torn+lando adds to the hyper offense core. I slotted encore on bundle since I had room for it with all the protects on the team. Heatran is the obligatory sun check, and then goltres adds some more bulk to the team and helps deal with psyspam and opposing ghold. Goltres also appreciates being passed bleakwind storm and sheer force, plus berserk is pretty nice on a mono special attacker team. In the game I end up facing not serene grace snow and I again throw turn 1 by not terastallizing my landorus which probably would've been game right there. Instead my torn dies so I lose my main speed control and source of flying stab. I try to put pressure on to stop kommo-o from setting up since I have very limited ways of dealing with if it does but kommo-o ends up getting the turn to setup and I can't really withstand the onslaught since I terastallized my gholdengo. I end up getting really lucky with a double burn from lava plume and a double protect and pull off the win. I ran some calcs and I think the odds were still in my favor even if I don't get the double protect since lando has very favorable odds to live boomburst and sandsear+2 lava plumes should in theory be enough to take out kommo-o, allowing lando to sweep the endgame, it does get much less safe tho due to accuracy and rolls so the double protect was for sure a big help.
Finals vs Chris Numbers: (
replay)
This was the team I wanted to bring for semis but it had a very iffy bundle snow mu that I wasn't very confident in. The main idea is to setup veil with alolatales and then setup sweepers go brrr. Bulky hearthflame does insane damage after an SD while living many attacks and healing with horn leech, also provides redirection support if needed. Roaring moon is the main sweeper, it's very bulky behind veil and does insane damage after a couple boosts, roost is nice to provide longevity for the whole team, okidogi is the intim deterrent on the team, it also provides another sweeper and passes gunk shot to help moon deal with fairies. The rest of the sets are pretty standard, lando is sitrus here so that it can potentially use acrobatics after a berry proc. In the game the mu on preview is interesting, a setup-focused team based around falinks. In a recurring theme, I make a bad play again t1, losing my veil setter without setting up veil, in hindsight I definitely should've swapped into my bulky hearthflame I just got too scared of it taking damage fsr, I also could've setup veil with pao since veil is super pivotal. Anyways, I play from behind for a while trying to find an opportunity to setup with moon but I just can't. The boosted landorus was very hard for me to deal with as pao had lost sash and alolatales was dead, I end up trading out both mons to setup an endgame with 1hp pao and dogi vs ghold dnite and hearthflame. It's pretty much a losing position since chien pao dies to espeed and then okidogi gets stone walled by ghold, sucker punch from okidogi does not do enough to ko ghold. I end up betting on my opponent misplaying/guessing my set incorrectly and I luckily get it right, netting me the win and an undefeated record.
Unfortunately, we did end up losing in finals, but I had a great time playing in TPP, shoutouts to all my teammates on the articunos for being cool people and great teammates, the team environment was very fun and y'all were very supportive, shoutouts to my managers
TDR and
Latias for believing in me and drafting me, very glad I got the opportunity to be on such a goated team :>
More shoutouts:
Instruct
Ty for being my main testing partner throughout the tour, goat builder, you helped me build, refine, and get comfortable with almost all of the teams I used in the tour, it was really fun to bounce ideas off of each other in testing and I'm glad you finally had a good showing in a teamtour.
yuki
I took a lot of ideas from our dms lol, another goat builder, ty for giving me so many ideas and being an alternative testing partner, unfortunate that your record didn't end up reflecting how cool your teams are.
Clas Frixel other people I tested with, ty for tests even if it was just a few games here and there
I'm very happy with how far this meta has come, I would've never imagined I'd get the opportunity to play PiC in a team tour, let alone have a permaladder, s/o to the rest of the pic council (
zoe jasprose YoBuddy) for helping us get to where we are now and obligatory second shoutout to
Instruct for reviving the meta and fixing all the bugs :>