Tournament RU Snake Draft Sets/Team Dump

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Kyou Fujibayashi (Bewear) @ Normalium Z
Ability: Fluffy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Double-Edge
- Hammer Arm
- Earthquake

Haruhi Suzumiya (Dragalge) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 204 SpD / 52 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Sludge Wave
- Toxic Spikes
- Protect

Kyouko Hori (Sharpedo) @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Crunch
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Protect

Yukino Yukinoshita (Gligar) @ Eviolite
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spe
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Kirino Kousaka (Cresselia) @ Fairium Z
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind
- Moonlight
- Psyshock

Sylvie Lynneheym (Durant) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- X-Scissor
- Rock Slide
- Superpower




WEEEEDUH (Machamp) @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Facade
- Bullet Punch

CURRRRACKKK (Cresselia) @ Fairium Z
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Lunar Dance
- Moonlight
- Psyshock

so BLASPHEMOUS (Doublade) @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Shadow Claw
- Shadow Sneak

would you STOP it (Nidoqueen) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock

DONT YOU DARE BE DISRESPECTFUL (Rotom-Mow) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Trick

lonzo yes not LAVAR (Porygon2) @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 88 SpD / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tri Attack
- Foul Play
- Recover
- Toxic


will edit descriptions later maybe. not much to say about these teams tho.
 

esche

Frust kommt auf, denn der Bus kommt nicht
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Hi.

Phase 1:


https://pokepast.es/53250803cd43c7c8
This team reflects my mindset going into this tournament pretty well: I wanted to be prepared for everything. I'm positive this was one of the first teams I had built after the tier shift, which graced the tier with many new powerhouses namely Nidoqueen, Decidueye, M-Camerupt & M-Abomasnow. I felt like I had to be able respond to these threats, so the team took a balanced approach. The defensive backbone consisted of Registeel, physically defensive Umbreon, AV Slowking and defensive Defog Moltres, with Scarf Flygon for revenge killing and speed control purposes, and Sub SD Z-Grass Decidueye for breaking stall. Looking back it it, the team probably wasn't the right choice versus this opponent, since it forced me to play reactionary which esteemed player soulgazer was able to capitalize on. SD Superpower Feraligatr simply went in with physically defensive Umbreon being the dedicated check to attack boosting sweepers, and it got me by surprise.


http://pokepast.es/04923ac00cb8fccc
SpikeStack + Sharpedo with Taunt+Toxic Gligar and CM Fairium Z Espeon to soften up the opposing team. P2, Gligar and Registeel form a solid defensive backbone supported by Magic Bounce in the back discouraging hazard setters, while Choice Scarf Roserade offers Spikes support and some speed control. This was not actually aimed to do specifically well vs. col, but instead was the team I felt most comfortable with during that time and it remains my favourite team from Shark meta. It ended up being a close game, although I misplayed quite a bit in that game, for example not breaking Sigilyph's Focus Sash when I had the opportunity to (I was aware of the Colbur Berry on Mismagius; Focus Sash on Sigilyph however didn't cross my mind) or recklessly switching in Espeon on Rhyperior. One of my favourite games, nonetheless.


http://pokepast.es/b45d45863b42433c
The one thing I knew going up vs Silent Verse was that I wanted to be prepared for stall. NP Firium Salazzle with HP Grass dicks that playstyle, and paired with Zoroark it would make for even more mindgames. I don't remember much from the teambuilding process, but I do remember slapping PapaLax on there as a Shark check because the team was so weak to it. Ended up facing offense again, so my preparation for stall was unfortunately useless in this instance. The replay somehow went missing (it links to my battle with col instead in the replay & logs thread) but If I recall correctly it was the game where PS' Zoroark mechanics fucked me over. I was in a decent position setting up with Snorlax, when my opponent's Bewear (displayed as fainted on PS) came back from the dead to haunt me, which messed with my assessment of the game's progression. Entirely my fault for not keeping proper track of that, though.

Phase 2:


https://pokepast.es/068c01e692ec9f74
Going into phase 2 I felt the need to shake things up, going 0-3 in phase 1, so I focused on building more offensive teams. Mael was hard to prepare for I felt, because he brought some weird stuff (which worked though!) so I scrapped the idea of extensively preparing for standard threats, but instead decided to build around an underappreciated breaker myself: Specs Ninetales. He ended up using some stall variant, and I can't exactly tell you how Whimsicott managed to prevail but it did.


https://pokepast.es/9b5b5267dee811da
I knew Ajna was considering Webs to be an unarchetype in the meta, so I guess I wanted to prove him wrong? The team did exceptionally well in testing, which is why I gave it a shot (Webs + BandTrum can be deadly and the double D-Bond strategy also had a good amount of surprise value which I reckoned could catch my opponent off guard). Unfortunately, I had neglected my match-up vs. physical Sharpedo (special was used much more at the time), and facing a dedicated lead like Archeops also didn't help my chances of setting up webs. However, the only play I really regret in this game is doubling into Galvantula on the Sharpedo instead of removing it immediately with my own (I think in my mind it wasn't worth it for him to sacrifice it just yet since it clean swept me once my Sharpedo had taken some more damage, which is why I was sure Chesnaught would be the switch-in; granting me an opportunity to set up webs - alas, I was wrong).


https://pokepast.es/20a51451bad51135
Most of what CS had been using was some sort of Sharpedo Spikes Balance, so I decided to use Hoopa as a breaker, with Toxicroak and Porygon2 in the back as checks for Sharpedo, as well as SubLeech Shaymin to annoy and chip away at the defensive core. In the end, I prepared correctly, played it well (I think) but didn't get rewared. Happens. (Toxic Snorlax was a cool tech though, I'll give you that!)


Phase 3:


https://pokepast.es/a20af8be1050a2f7
Wasn't too concerned going out of phase 2 because I finally felt more confident both in my playing and building ability after 4 weeks of testing. Additionally, Sharpedo was banned so I could give all the teams that I scrapped because they were too weak to the shark a shot again. This was one of those teams, although I made some adjustments to the original version. One major thing that I learned throughout this tour is that hazards are the devil. Dhelmise is actually the only decent hazard removal in RU at the moment (I think), because it not only comes in and spins on but also beats most setters 1v1 (people are aware by now to not let their Registeel get trapped by it, though). Anyhow, it is rather lackluster in every other regard but being more concerned about hazard control I resorted to using it twice, actually, in phase 3. Qwilfish and Bronzong have amazing synergy defensively while forming a hazard stacking core, while Espeon and Dhelmise are tasked with removing and preventing hazards. Aerodactyl is tasked with removing troublesome Psychic types like Meloetta and other threats like Salazzle with Pursuit, while Specs Kommo-O acts as a breaker mainly. I was most confident with this team but couldn't edge out a win with it, I definitely need to work on time management during my games.


https://pokepast.es/6055c06b9822fc5f
llamas gave me the idea to build around CM 2 attacks Sigilyph and I came to like it so much that I actually brought it to two games of phase 3. Bewear was something that I hadn't used at all during Snake so far, and the Normalium SD set paired well with Sigilyph as a Knock Off absorber. Seismitoad, Dhelmise and Umbreon make up the defensive core of the team, providing hazard control, Wish/Cleric support and a bunch of useful immunities, while Scarf Salazzle improves the teams otherwise lackluster overall speed tier. This was the only game of Snake that I am thouroughly content with how I played it.


https://pokepast.es/39cf913347c4a0f6 (Megahorn> Drill Run)
Definitely the most heartbreaking games of them all, Sneasel basically robbed me of two of my teams members with a flinch and a crit, which made me struggle in the endgame since I was out of Pokémon to sacrifice. Another great letdown (this one's entirely on me though) was changing Escavalier's set from Drill Run/Iron Head/Protect/SD to Megahorn/Iron Head/Protect/SD last minute, when Drill Run would've helped immensely versus Doublade and could've actually won me the game. The team itself was derived from a team Pohjis used in his GS playoffs game vs dodmen. I hadn't used Hail nor Sand so far and since Miyoka had brought Sun before, I knew I wanted to have options against that. Made some edits and although I hate Defog Glligar with a passion, this team turned out rather well, I like to believe.


---------------------------------------------------

Ultimately, it seems I wasn't able to live up to my reputation from RUPL. I blame nobody but myself for that, I put myself under a lot of pressure, especially during the games of the first phase, which is natural I guess, since it was my debut in the big tour scene. The Leviathans were the best team mates I could have possibly hoped for and I'm devastated I couldn't perform better for their sake. However, I still had lots of fun and I'm glad I got to know you all better <3 Peace!
 
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mael

not the same but equal
is a Community Contributorwon the 14th Official Smogon Tournamentis a Past SPL Champion
UUPL Champion
i'll drop a few sets i used. my teams as a whole prob weren't that good but i think i came up with some neat techs.

my fav one is the toxic curse lax that was used by both chillshadow and me (my idea though, GIVE ME CREDIT!). it sorta covers p much everything that wants to beat it, because many teams rely on like chesnaught and bewear coming in on a hit or even better a curse and then force it out but wth toxic you can p much reliable put them on a timer, without having to think about how to hit them on the switch in more than once. like you don't mind staying rested once you get ches / bewear w.e because you get chip whenever they switch in, not just when you're awake and attacking. it's also easier to make use of this set early to midgame without being forced to click curse and waste a turn. ev's are to tank z sludge wave from salazzle, be faster than other curselax and slowking (prior to curse), 92 atks catches something but i forgot what and the rest i just dumped into def. this set needs some support though (pursuit and defog mainly) and it appreciates heal bell. sure af needs to run good fighting counters too. frankly speaking prob the best lax set atm unless you don't have room to fit a pursuit trapper (but with xatu on every balanced and doublade on every offensive team it's sorta worth it anyway).
through ceilings (Snorlax) @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 128 HP / 92 Atk / 96 Def / 176 SpD / 16 Spe
Careful Nature
- Curse
- Toxic
- Return
- Rest


when i used the audino / toxicroak / cress stall vs hsa my initial variant had comfey > toxicroak and that meant that i was super weak to spider (broken as hell), so i had to find a tech to cover that fker and turns out haze + refresh milo does it quiet nicely (if safely pp stalling it qualifies as "quiet nicely") with a minor tweak to its standard set. running refresh on milo is stupidly good because suddenly you turn the tables vs protect + toxic steels and force them out by threatening the burn instead of them being a switch in and threatening the toxic. haze on milo is sick because you get to wall spider through def drops, you have a back up tech vs cm sweepers and you don't end up as bait for set up savages which is super important on stall. evs are specifically to survive 2 spider hits at -1. milo with refresh is so much better than milo without it.

what you're told (Milotic) @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 248 HP / 148 Def / 56 SpD / 56 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Scald
- Haze
- Refresh


another quite amazing set, which came in clutch vs natalie, is sd sr ice punch rhyperior. i sorta developed this set when trying to think of a rocks setter that heavily punishes gligar and can mess with fat teams if utilized well and rhyperior with ice punch does just that (stuff like this is btw, why i think defog gligar is p bad). this set has never not performed well in battle. the only issue is that you're sometimes forced into situations where you gotta decide do you wanna sd/eq and potentially waste a turn or sr and invite their check in without punishing it. that's obv the case with most sr setters but rhyp gets less openings than lets say registeel, nido or zong so it's a bit more of a problem. the evs are quite random. i just had 60 atk evs for something vs gligar and put the rest into sdef and hp (obligatory 8 speed evs bc other ppl put 4 XD)

break a leg (Rhyperior) @ Leftovers
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 192 HP / 60 Atk / 248 SpD / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock



i think that's it as far as my creativity with the invention of sick sets goes. i did use a few things which are cool but not that outstanding. taunt tbolt nidoqueen for one came in very handy in my game v shake it up. you really only need epower and ice beam on nidoqueen so you can toy around much with the remaining 2 slots if you got sr on something else. i used a bunch of tangela and qwilfish sets (including rest qwilfish which is sick on stall btw) but they're nowhere close to being the best sets or something very creative. just good mons which can easily adapt to your needs. i used synth + wish florges which imo is by far the better option that wish + tect (on umb too), considering how hard giving turns away is (for example fkin durant coming in on a wish and you having to protect). synth alone prob isn't enough especially not on defensively inclined teams bc you lack pp and sand sorta does exist (though iirc i was the only one using giga, but it's amazing!). waterium cm toxic slowking is another neat set that works similarily to curse tox lax except for the fact that it works in quite a faster pace thanks to waterium + slack off, so you need less turns with it, but it def needs heal bell support. one team that i had ready but decided against had knock off venusaur with leftovers, which works in a similar fashion to oras venu (fkin broken as hell, killed the tier for me), where you play the long game vs teams with registeel and similar pkmn that are supposed to wall it, by just getting rid of their lefties and slowly chipping. it's way less useful in this gen because umbreon exists and it gets less openings due to the lack off alomomola.

lots of weird stuff in ru that could be explored, tier feels like uncharted territory and considering that it constantly changes with tier shifts and bans it sorta is impossible for the meta to settle so all kinds of weird shit can work.
 
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i'm back pals!! this tour was fairly good to me; i had a lot of fun in spite of my rather lackluster final stretch, and got to experiment with a lot of nifty stuff thanks to some reasonable open-mindedness from tdk-kun. outside of a key misplay v.ajna and chillshadow apiece, i'm happy i could actually get out of the builder-only mindset, actually play some optimal games too. ig i should thank my opponents for that though, playing against dudes like this that i'm confident will make informed and dynamic plays really makes my process a whole lot better from what i've experienced touring to this point. i do somewhat regret not bringing any kind of hard stalls, honestly, because for as much as i love messing w/fun concepts (probably the biggest reason i tour, honestly), there were so many times where i figured i could just bring a quag and nobody would no what to do, more as a statement to my usual prep work than to my opponents ofc. hyper offense too, as it stays my fave playstyle but this tier makes that impossible, which is a dang shame.

anyway, i'll share my teams and touch on them in brief here, as well as some other sets i'd be considering but never really found a home b.c i think a lot of 'mons are being under appreciated rn. i should go ahead and say that a.some of these aged pretty poorly in the brief time they were around given how quickly a ban-heavy meta period this was (and i'll do my best to touch on some edits that can help a bit in adapting them, but as a whole i don't encourage these for ladder play or anything to that effect) and b.next to none of these even really work on ladder. i was feeling the waters for rult and EWW, but also i feel like these teams target almost a different meta, ladder is crazy man. just my warning to the reader ig, moving on.


Araquanid @ Splash Plate
Ability: Water Bubble
EVs: 96 HP / 216 Atk / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Spider Web
- Rest
- Toxic

Xatu @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 4 SpA / 64 Spe
Bold Nature
- Roost
- Night Shade
- Psychic
- U-turn

Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 96 SpD / 12 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Protect
- Seismic Toss

Bewear @ Normalium Z
Ability: Fluffy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Double-Edge
- Superpower
- Earthquake

Goodra @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 136 HP / 4 Def / 144 SpA / 224 Spe
Modest Nature
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail

Zoroark @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Foul Play
- U-turn
- Trick


mael was in a way the weirdest player to prep for, in that his sample set within this tier was so narrow. however, i had a slight advantage of knowing his past gen work and how he tends to play, so going off what he showed in the first two games of his phase, i was able to glean basically what he was going to build with. araquanid was the pokemon i felt almost necessary to use here, but the outlet for it was tough given what he'd shown doesn't actively promote what i'd consider to be typical complementary cleaners, in addition to punishing the hell out of defog gligars (and i remain super resistant to running sr weaks w/o removal unless there's a really good reason). ultimately i decided upon something a little looser in concept, utilizing araquanid more as a tool to remove bulky waters as provide leniency to bewear and goodra, who served more as dangerous aoa's than conducive sweepers. the concept of this was somewhat loose and mandated more long-term assessment than i think is generally liked of these types of balances, but it's nice for what it is. high focus on momentum, being able to conceal items and regulate hazards maximizes the value of zoroark bluffs, fun team.

mind you, zydog was banned by this point, which is why it wins in theory. decidueye felt off the table for our game, but its absolutely a threat here and if you really felt keen on bringing this team, i'd be giving consideration to timid goodra and shadow claw bewear.


Virizion @ Grassium Z
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Leaf Blade
- Stone Edge

Qwilfish @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 144 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Waterfall
- Explosion

Rhyperior @ Leftovers
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 184 HP / 16 Atk / 204 SpD / 104 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Ice Punch

Sigilyph @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Heat Wave
- Toxic

Sharpedo @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Psychic Fangs

Mismagius @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 8 HP / 40 Def / 208 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Shadow Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
- Mystical Fire


throughout the tour i was trying to remain fairly cognizant of what both myself and my opponent had been bringing in an effort to stay on that "high ground" of prep work, and having managed esche for rupl i kind of got a decent view into things from the get-go. i felt it best to increase the pace of my team this game and keep myself efficient v.zoroark, which i know he's a big fan of, and this was the resulting team. pretty straightforward spike-stack sharpedo premise with a couple minor twists. I'll go ahead and take credit for qwilfish because he's really good and should be far more common; while i recognize the validity of the z-haze set ajna utilized in the following phase (and it seems pretty killer on, say, a spdef cress type team), i feel the value ceiling for an rh set is slightly higher for all the traction you get through chipping dudes. plus, as much as i've loved scald on it in the past, it sorta lets machamp and others beat for free, and boom catching mons like shaymin and croak + actively pressuring the gatr has so much value for me. otherwise the only other big one was the sash toxic sigilyph, which did everything i coulda wanted from it this game but in general i felt it was a decent play on expectations, as it both lured mons like sharpedo effectively but also landed toxics on key members, as the bulky lo roost set feeds on steels and modest sash replicates minimally invested timid lo damage pretty nicely.

needless to say, now without value in light of sharpedo's ban, though i would encourage further virizion and qwilfish usage to be sure.


Escavalier @ Choice Band
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 184 HP / 204 Atk / 12 SpD / 108 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Megahorn
- Pursuit
- Iron Head
- Knock Off

Nidoqueen @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 120 HP / 8 Def / 164 SpA / 216 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Sludge Wave

Slowking @ Waterium Z
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 12 SpA / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Block
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Scald

Umbreon @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 220 SpD / 36 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Foul Play
- Heal Bell

Gligar @ Eviolite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 212 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
- Defog
- Roost
- U-turn
- Earthquake

Noivern @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 32 HP / 20 Def / 248 SpA / 208 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Dragon Pulse
- Switcheroo
- Flamethrower


maybe one of my favourites, which made sv ripping the concept wholesale and stripping of the cool bits to play me phase 3 all the more heartbreaking. jokes tho, this conceptually played quite similarly to the team i prepped for mael, with a lesser focus on momentum in favour of heavier control and breaking elements. block cm king was something i was confident would pay dividends in a meta so ready to panic in light of queen / camel drops, provided the assault vest set would be on everyone's minds. sure enough, i was able to remove a bronzong right out of the gate, proceeding to net out of the complementing beaters of the team, specs noivern (cool mon, fast and decently strong, lives [+]2 spirit shackles from decidueye w/the given spread) and cb escavalier, the latter of which i anticipated shake being acutely weak to. lots of fun to play, probably the most accessible of the teams i used, and it's aged decently too.


Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 144 HP / 216 Def / 136 SpD / 12 Spe
Careful Nature
- Curse
- Rest
- Return
- Sleep Talk

Cresselia @ Fairium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Def / 20 SpD / 144 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonlight
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Toxic

Chesnaught @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 248 HP / 240 Def / 20 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Synthesis
- Wood Hammer
- Roar

Jellicent @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 96 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Recover
- Scald

Piloswine @ Eviolite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Atk / 56 SpD / 40 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Crash

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Atk / 40 SpD / 32 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Sneak
- Iron Head
- Shadow Claw


probably my dullest team, but nonetheless one i felt it worth building upon. it seemed to me that a curse lax, if backed by pokemon capable of withstanding against the physical beaters that'll try to bludgeon through it once it's asleep, would be really devastating against natalie, so i made a shot at that. in concept, very uncreative, though i suppose neither jellicent nor piloswine were seeing much love to this point. they're both not at all bad, bug and poison resists do loads for jellicent as a bulky water in combatting prominent beaters (and of course sd gatr, though i don't like to run the risk b.c i feel sd superpower jet is something of a quickly passing fad, it loses its luster when people no longer are surprised by it), and piloswine keeps up sr rather nicely and throws a wrench in zydog offenses usual "catch chesnaught with the tox the first time, then just string you along in its momentum for the remainder" type sequences. otherwise i suppose fast cress and non-fast chesnaught (who i do intentionally run overgrow on, being able to spring a strong hammer on something vastly out-values the time i'll never hard switch this into rose's sludge bomb) are reasonably different, and i have taken far more to the former in a metagame so willing to concede so much bulk on a pokemon just to taunt a defogger people despise resorting and usually creep themselves for that exact reason anyway. i can guarantee you will notice how much beefier this pokemon is when maxed out, it is a beautiful thing.

the most malleable element of this team is probably doublade's shadow claw slot, which doesn't really need to be doing what its doing here. toxic and pursuit are the usual go-to's for situations such as this, though i've actually taken quite a bit to aerial ace, as there is a nice little sequence that the team can get going by forcing chesnaught to take damage through doublade as to get traction with snorlax, and aerial ace is the most consistent method of doing so.



Bouffalant @ Leftovers
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Atk / 76 Def / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Head Charge
- Earthquake
- Substitute

Dragalge @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 224 HP / 48 Def / 184 SpA / 52 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic Spikes
- Draco Meteor
- Sludge Wave
- Scald

Gligar @ Eviolite
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 212 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
- Earthquake
- U-turn

Durant @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 196 Atk / 60 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- X-Scissor

Shaymin @ Grassium Z
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Synthesis
- Seed Flare
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Haze
- Scald
- Ice Beam


looking to run counter to my usual slew of picks to this point, i felt like dragalgae would be a really strong pick v.ajna this game, provided my usual loose handle on salazzle and his own general susceptibility to toxic spikes (usually running xatu to no hazard control and a poison that dragalgae sits on 1v1). i ended up supplementing it with bouffalant, which was a bit left-field to be sure but i felt it had a pretty significant niche (and still does!) for just how potent all the offensive grasses are at this time, not to mention that the primary physical wall just taunts you. it's even bulky to the point where gligar eq fails to break the sub, which makes it fairly consistent on the whole. the shuca tech on dragalgae was a neat one i felt was worthwhile in its ability to 1-up a rhyperior or gligar, both of which he had exhibited an affinity for in past games. beyond that, i was a pretty big fan of presenting a build that would suggest and successfully bluff scarf shaymin + hc durant, which it did!

the most obvious standout to deviate from here is the hp fire ant, which i feel is at least mildly significant for a team such as this that will struggle to a moderate extent with opposing hc ant otherwise, but needless to say a traditional hustle variant is a more potent cleaner. another reasonable one would be to buff out the defense investment on gligar, the team certainly appreciates the leniency with which it pivots cress and that ilk but realistically supplementing a merely so-so handle on fighters and zydog is worth i would say ~152 def evs (which i say from the perspective of someone that ran the calcs before but do not currently have them on hand to back it up now, so you will have to believe me when i say that benchmark is valid). lastly, and i gave this one quite a bit of consideration before going into the game, psychic > earth power on shaymin does a lot for the team in freeing up the team in freeing things up vs.toxicroak and kommo-o, as well as generally providing that higher pp, accurate means of targeting mid-speed fighters that shaymin will oft be looking to pick off.


Salazzle @ Poisonium Z
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 16 Def / 240 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Sludge Wave
- Substitute

Snorlax @ Choice Band
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 244 Atk / 56 Def / 196 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Facade

Uxie @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 56 SpD / 204 Spe
Calm Nature
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Psychic
- Heal Bell

Gligar @ Eviolite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spe
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Earthquake
- U-turn

Whimsicott @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 200 HP / 56 Def / 44 SpA / 208 Spe
Timid Nature
- Encore
- U-turn
- Moonblast
- Knock Off

Tyrantrum @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Head Smash
- Earthquake
- Superpower
- Toxic


unfortunately i didn't get to play this one out, so my team ended up running with a non-quite fleshed out version of this same team, but it ended up doing the job just fine and i was generally satisfied with it. a similarly momentum-heavy balance, with this particular variant honing in on a nifty offensive battery of cblax + sub np salazzle. the two are rather consistent in their ability to wear away at one another's checks, targeting the usual rock-types as well as potentially inciting a haze milotic to get pushed around by the surprise beefy hit from lax. on the whole, cb lax is super under-appreciated for just how consistently it punishes a looser queen bo, prompts a gligar to get railed w/the ice punch, etc., and i found sg's generally looser handle on strong normals worth exploiting in this fashion. ultimately i decided facade was mildly more useful than pursuit here for the team in spite of the utility presented by chipping scarf garde and the like, shame analytic didn't predict the tox and expedite any need for a crit but i digress. it was a fun build that showcased some cool sets and mons that i had yet to find context for, plus the sub tech in particular net some really nice value in the game which was nice to see.

the most admissible change here i feel would be in uxie's utility slot, since frankly i abhor heal bell on it (only using it b.c i felt the looseness of my scald responses in proportion to the pace of the team was off), and deemed knock redundant with the cott slot. options there include status, imprison (fun for keeping sr off and stopping a gligar from using you as pivot food), and opting in knock and messing around with hp fire on cott, allowing you to substantiate the durant handle a bit more.


Zoroark @ Choice Specs
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Trick
- Flamethrower
- Extrasensory

Feraligatr @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Superpower

Gligar @ Eviolite
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 152 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 30 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Roost
- Earthquake
- U-turn

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Roserade @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Technician
EVs: 8 Def / 248 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Spikes
- Sludge Bomb

Tyrantrum @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 236 Atk / 64 SpA / 24 SpD / 184 Spe
Naive Nature
- Rock Polish
- Head Smash
- Earthquake
- Draco Meteor


probably the game i felt most at odds with going out, given i spent way more time than i'd have liked fretting on this and that, shifting different moves around only to come across the worst possible match-up for what i ended on. i had mentioned the notion of sd superpower gatr being a phase of sorts earlier and had to that end been wanting so badly to just opt for crunch, eventually convincing myself otherwise only to run into a jellicent. i had been giving strong consideration to knock on gligar but ultimately decided that it would only come into play if he brought bronzong, so he did. kinda just tucked toxicroak under the table for this game, i was overcome w/woe at match-up haha. still, i thought the team at its core was pretty nifty, a decent splash of breaking power with a decent endgame and some flexibility in how it plays the mid. z draco tyrantrum was a concept i was really enamored with in phase 2, effective for 2hkoing both chesnaught and quagsire w/o committing to outrage, in addition to being able to punch through a bewear or what have you in a pinch. on the whole, a team not without its flaws, but a concept i enjoy quite a bit.

as for changes, there is a lot of potential deviation here. zoroark can make room for focus blast, feraligatr can really get away with crunch > superpower as needed, gligar can run either knock or u-turn (though i find the former a bit below par on this team in particular), and porygon can run everything from alt status to tbolt / discharge / foul play / psychic in what is now the hp fire slot justifiably, too what end i can always elaborate if anybody is innately curious. swapping up rose and tyrantrum's roles, opting for the scarf rex and a z grass set @ spikes / leaf storm / hp fire / sleep powder is also quite valid, downplaying a physical breaker angle and a slightly better handle on shaymin in favor of stronger hazard presence and a better work-around for sucker punch users like zoroark and toxicroak.


Cofagrigus @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Mummy
EVs: 248 HP / 184 Def / 72 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Block
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Hex

Bewear @ Choice Band
Ability: Fluffy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Return
- Superpower
- Ice Punch
- Shadow Claw

Shaymin @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Seed Flare
- Dazzling Gleam

Flygon @ Earth Plate
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 228 HP / 108 Atk / 108 SpD / 64 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 140 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Psywave
- Protect

Moltres @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Flamethrower


a real return to form for me, pulling back to my phase 1 with the "trapper feasibly masquerading as a conventional set in order to set up cleaner x / beater y" ideology. z cofagrigus seemed like a stellar means to not only isolate a lot of the defensive pivots chillshadow stood on, but also squelch potential machamp and glalie picks, as in my past weeks i have remained at least slightly neglectful of them. ultimately this particular tech ended up working out perfectly, though an unexpected hp ice salazzle ended up toppling me in spite of the speedy 5-3 advantage the cofagrigus managed to net me (good counterpick from i believe arifeen though, credit where it's due i was certainly susceptible to that combination of coverage hidden power + z move choice given what information i had provided thus far). in retrospect, i think that my better play upon yielding that xatu v.moltres match-up was to commit to hurricane as a means to deter salazzle, and from there at worst instigating a situation wherein i could pressure him to make doubles (he goes doublade, and now his feet are to the fire to double salazzle in order to avoid me freely going shaymin and getting the chip necessary to end-game comfortably w/bewear + moltres), but such is the nature of timered competitive play. did not even consider at the time the validity of committing to 2-3 consecutive, 70% accurate moves against what was assuredly a death fodder, learn from me famm-o haha. beyond that, flygon i felt was a pretty strong counterpick in spite of some xatu frequency from him (bummer!), given it was by far the best hazard control to go toe-to-toe with his mainstay queen picks and beat the majority of salazzle consistently, with this spread in particular always living +2 inferno overdrive after sr. gleam shaymin i felt was also somewhat nifty, responding promptly to kommo-o while still targeting the major leech seed blocker in chesnaught AND helping to weather away umbreon w/o restricting itself to the low pp of seed flare. really fun team and game, and a suitable end to my run of partial trapping, since i feel if there's any takeaway to be had of my run here it's that folks should absolutely be fucking around w/different stuff in this tier cuz there's way too much that's been left unexplored.



Kommo-o @ Choice Specs
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Clanging Scales
- Focus Blast
- Flamethrower
- Draco Meteor

Cloyster @ Focus Sash
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Explosion

Gligar @ Eviolite
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 32 SpD / 144 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Roost
- Knock Off

Durant @ Steelium Z
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Iron Head
- Superpower
- Crunch

Slowking @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Def / 116 SpA / 96 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Future Sight
- Dragon Tail
- Fire Blast

Honchkrow @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 188 Atk / 68 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Pursuit
- Brave Bird
- Sucker Punch
- Taunt


the game that never came to be cuz meru johned me twice, lmk he would pm me when he was ready to play, never did, and then covertly nabbed the act win and then didn't even use it to propel his team into play-offs, what the heck dummie???!? i do kid ofc, i'd have loved to play but it's important to always respect the hustle, plus i zonked out on nyquil ~10:30 anyway, maybe took too much idk. notwithstanding, i had planned on closing out on some real interesting ones, so i feel it only fair i share. lots of firsts for me on this, including ones that i'd have never expected me to take nine games to use for how fantastic they are (hc ant and specs kommo-o). the lead cloyster set is one i've alluded on occasion and yeah, its a very cool pokemon for these bulky offenses given how it can play in so many different ways, either forcing spikes up on the opp's milotic, registeel, etc. as they cannot go to their hazard control, being conserved for the midgame to counterplay a non-superpower gatr, or simply trading it for a shaymin outright. the team as a whole is fairly conscious of regulating hazards, with the flexibility to generally deter opposing sr and keep pressure on hazard control should either situation warrant (with z steel durant serving as both a tool to punish gligar on the spot and allow consistent removal of fighters that pressure this team in particular). sitrus honchkrow was a pokemon i fancied for its ability to not only iron out issues it experiences with burning out too quickly, but also for reinforcing its ability to pursue scarf grasses, with the spdef investment ensuring scarf rose's hp fire fails to 2hko (after sr when accounting for sr and from full when not), opening up pretty significant leeway for the remainder of the team. a level of strong-arming bulky waters is necessary for the team to succeed (with the process often involving either baiting with cloyster, bashing into them w/kommo-o, or throwing up a future sight and dtailing them out w/slowking), but on the whole the team maintains the tools to succeed in most mu's provided some long-term thinking.


lastly, given i can only fit so much into my teams feasibly, here's a handful of sets and 'mons i felt deserve some attention that i wanted to use, but never quite got to click.


Tsareena
Ability: Queenly Majesty
EVs: 248 HP / 28 Atk / 148 Def / 84 Spe
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Synthesis
- Trop Kick
- Acrobatics

come on guys. at some point we gotta recognize that we're working with 1 defogger, 1 [moderately consistent] bouncer and an sr-weak spinner that only beats 2 sr setters and sorta one spiker 1v1, we should not be so quick to dismiss a hazards-neutral spinner w/recovery. i feel acro best substantiates tsareena's niche, allowing it to beat chesnaught and non-tox gligar while granting it defensive utility as an sd grass check, most significantly in regards to decidueye and abomasnow. to be sure it needs a handle maneuvering around registeel, but so does every other non-xatu control in the tier.



Sableye @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 180 Def / 80 SpD
Impish Nature
- Taunt
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Knock Off

another pokemon that i feel gets a super undeservedly bad rap. there are so many fantastic fighting types that this pokemon hard walls, loads of teams that get steadily ravaged by its ability to neutralize lefties and chip away, yet its unusable because two-three (honchkrow could stand for more usage, but for now i put it on the fringe) good darks can sit on it? even then having umbreon lose its lefties to do nothing immediately threatening back isn't a huge deal if you're mindful and back it w/phasing to prevent ideal wish-passing. really useful 'mon, should be given more heed at this time.



Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 136 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Psywave
- Heal Block

more born of context than anything, but a real nifty tool for your vanilla balance / semi-stalls to avoid overexposing a curselax weakness. also good for preventing pokemon like umbreon from feeding on this for turns, among other utility applications.



Diancie @ Normalium Z / Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 248 HP / 184 Def / 76 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Heal Bell
- Toxic
- Moonblast

a minor tech to be sure, but i've felt the old spdef spread lost a lot of luster when the premier fire could pack poison stab that can break w/light chip. running heavy on the pdef end not only allows it to comfortably check bewear, sd zoroark, and honchkrow, but allow it to take on extended sequences v.gligar in the same way registeel can, even allowing yourself enough bulk to stay in on and pop off zydog should the situation warrant. definitely my preferred diancie rn, works wonderfully w/av king and a solid ant check.


Golem-Alola @ Choice Band
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 104 HP / 228 Atk / 12 SpD / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wild Charge
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Explosion / Flamethrower

trapping is very good in this tier guys. i recognize that the tools are nowhere near as readily available as they once were, but i guarantee they pay dividends. golem's honestly a pretty solid beater even outside this, but the ability for it to remove regi / durant / escavalier is so huge for teams. explosion is a fair sight nicer for its ability to punch a hole in flygon / gligar / chesnaught for a partner, but uninvested flamethrower still gets the ohko on durant and if you're running something a bit more balanced that probably suits you better. bulk investment allows it to live a neutral (no boosting item, etc) superpower from ant and even a milotic scald after sr, since it's nice to get value out of that rare physical electric attribute to golem.


so, yeah, really fun tour, cool to level out my godawful spl6 half-run. ended up wearing thin on an old man like me tho, probably won't see me in spl though i figure i'll reassess at that point and maybe at mids, working behind the scenes has been good to me this past year and i'm not really hungry for a trophy in the same way i think someone in this position should be. still, this one definitely gave me enough reason to put in the effort, and i hope that those spectating and playing enjoyed my games as much as i enjoyed putting out for y'all.
 
initially i decided to be lazy about this but i have some time to kill so why not
Basically, going into the tournament, many people thought that i was gonna have difficulties because they thought i barely played sm ru prior to snake and that i was just getting picked up based off oras performance, and they were fucking right lmao, this was such a difficult tour for me and i was just trying to do what i do best, finding random ideas from what seemed to be broken mons for me and trying some ways for them to make them even more broken, and just giving some ideas to Arifeen and make him do the work. Having feen on the team was absolutely crucial and i would have done what many expecting me to do (have a mediocre, likely negative record) if it wasnt for his help. Also ppl not picking up arifeen and leaving him for us to take was such a crime, even if some people didnt like some of his builds or the way he plays, he was easily one of the most involved builders by the time the draft happened, and people took gambles on much less experienced players than him, regardless of whether or not they did well, that's besides the point.

I didnt build much so i will just show what i can take credit for:
upload_2017-10-29_1-4-50.png

Disclaimer: i only take credit for the pocket monsters inside the red rectangle!!!
Basically i realized early on how stupid zoro is because i knew how stupid it was from ORAS since i abused it way too much back then (at least in PO's RU)
So once i found out how stupid z moves are, i told feen to build me something around this because when this team was meant to face shake phase 1, and since he had made a stall (that was i think outdated by phase 1), i figured i would still try to attempt to "cteam" it since my mindset was, if he was too weak to this with stall, he's prolly gonna be weak to it in other teams anyway.
Virizion @ Psychium Z
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Zen Headbutt
- Leaf Blade

Zoroark @ Life Orb
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Low Kick
- Sucker Punch
It's pretty straightforward, be mindful of rocks, everything that SD viri doesnt beat loses to zoro, or is crippled beyond repair, i.e doublade, cresselia, whatever else i forgot, and i felt like since back then everyone was using rockium viri, i could try psychium cuz of toxicroak starting to becoming a thing (z-spite and offensive one). So after doing lots of calcs, i eventually decided that psychium was simply better than rockium, esp with zoro. In my actual game w/ shake however, i ended up disguising zoro as milo but zoro won cuz it's broken as dicks). And all viri failed to beat when dropping rockium was sigilyph and moltres, moltres died after rocks, and sigilyph had zoro for it.

upload_2017-10-29_1-15-12.png

I made all of this team actually but the last 4 mons are pretty boring rip offs of arifeen's archetypes so there's no point in mentioning them except the choice of mono normal lax and refresh milo which came out to be handy.
Zoroark @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Bounce

Tyrantrum @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Head Smash
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw

This is actually one of the few things im rly happy about creating, because it was the fruit of a lot of time spent looking at underrated mons and their "Usually useless moves" section, which i know rly well by now lol.
Anyway, this was not a core that was specifically intended to be used against soulgazer, however going into the phase i had several ideas in mind on what to use vs who. I figured Soulgazer was still "new" to SM RU and was really trying to get involved in trends of the tier, which he was and was doing a really good job at it, so i decided that there was no point trying to get info from his older replays, but to try to catch him off guard with something he simply wouldnt expect, and then just slapping some mons that i think are solid overall.
The idea was pretty much that since zoro was fucking broken, it was only natural that it could be even more broken with z moves. And looking at how zoro could overcome that, i was trying to figure out what kind of zoro could take on its would-be counters, special zoro came to mind often bc it had some cool options like flamethrower for bewear and ches etc, but then i was thinking that zoro's biggest weakness wasnt the fighting types etc, but it was its disguise being busted. So my mindset went like this: since zoro is not too hard for good players to discover, i just need it to reveal it myself by showing knock and then luring the mon while my opponent KNOWS it's zoro, them knowing it's zoro was the only way this would work. But i had to not make it too obvious that i wanted to lure things like that so i'd still have to play it safe. Z bounce ohkoes any and all fighting types without boosts without +Atk nature, including bewear, machamp, pangoro and chesnaught, and it also nets some random kills like honchkrow after rocks. So then my poor teambuilding came into effect: just slap 3 mons weak to fighting types that like them gone, snorlax milo tyrant, and then just slap a must-have nido/cress which i liked a lot.

the team i built vs ajna was awful, there's nothing to show about that, and the team i built vs mael was fun and all but it was also flawed, i still think it's a good team but i didnt play it well unfortunately. It's a mix of ways to deal with HO which i expected from Mael cuz i figured he wouldnt stall me, and some ways to break stall in sub np hoopa, however this was heavily flawed cuz it lost to a webs team that didnt set up webs so rofl, my conclusion to that was the team was mediocre and i played like shit.
here's the team anyway.

In conclusion: ppl should have picked up feen, and zoro is fucking broken and should be banned (9-0 wtf), zoroark is broken too.
 

mael

not the same but equal
is a Community Contributorwon the 14th Official Smogon Tournamentis a Past SPL Champion
UUPL Champion
actually i was going to stall you but didn't bc my team was already out and i didn't want to put in the effort to finish the team! (hitmontop stall lmao)

idt galvantula offense is bad, because ru is naturally rather slow so vs bulkier teams and balanced stuff you don't have to force the webs, but can use galv for momentum gaining (i've considered using a grass move instead of bug buzz) considering that many grounds don't like hp ice. the team was built to not need webs but exploit the hell out of them if i get them. i also put scarfgarde bc vs many offensive teams you can get into a trade kills type of situation and garde does super well. i also have sucker on zoro and ajet on gatr in case i'm about to be overrun. gatr + zoro is so fkin dominant. you don't even have to use ajet on gatr, if you want it purely for wallbreaking. webs + exploud is also a bit ridic bc you screw everything that doesn't have umb + steel, since vs steel only one goo predict can be enough. i think galv offense is worth being explored a little more, considering that it actually beats all hazard removal and it's not difficult to tech the team vs the few spin and defog mons. also many good abusers have decent speed anyway and are essentially just pushed over the edge by webs (gatr for example, or durant which is often dealt with rk with scarfers, but with webs up that's not an option anymore). i'll post a pb of my team as soon as i get to my laptop.

edit: here's the team. i reckon you can prob improve it a bit if you spend some time, this was my first draft and the one i used vs chillshadow.
 
Last edited:

lighthouses

Inordinary
is a Tiering Contributor
Ok so since im out i guess i might as well join in with some thoughts and teams and whatever the fuck.
I felt a lot of pressure when i was subbed in to play over soulgazer because i really wanted to show people i can actually do well here despite my reputation, so i put a lot of work into my teams despite being kinda busy and tried to focus as much as possible on my games(still some turns i wish i could have played better in those games but overall i think i did a solid enough job), and i think this tier has reached a point where i actually prefer it over oras which is saying something considering how much i love oras ru, so i had my fair share of fun(my team was amazing to be with too).


Okay so going into it i had no fucking clue as to what i should expect from miyoka, i originally intended to use this team versus mael seeing as how he generally prefers his teams to be on the fatter side of things, but then some folks on the team suggested i should use some sort of sub setup sweeper vs him and since i was done with this team pretty early on in the week i decided to just save it for miyoka and play early(i was hype as fuck).
Basically i wanted to use choice band durant + abomasnow seeing as how they cover eachothers checks and counters nicely with abomasnow getting a free switch in on pretty much anything that wants to pivot into durants hits(bar moltres) and durant heavily pressuring a lot of the fat neutral walls that would like to come in on abomasnow like p2/cress/zong and the like, the ability to hit gligar with an iron head forcing it to roost is also nice for giving abomasnow a free switch in, so that helps. The rest is just me patching up some obvious holes like rhyperior covering the offensive fires that might want to revenge kill durant and abomasnow as well as gardevoir providing healing wish support and a check to sun teams(as well as something that can revenge kill gatr and salazzle which helped a lot), something rhyperior cant handle. Zoroark can usually get some free setup turns disguised as gardevoir or get a crucial knock off disguised as durant, standard broken stuff.


Against Mael i thought that having a sub setup sweeper as my win con paired with a solid deffensive backbone that wouldnt fold to fat spike stacking strategies would work well enough, i was hilariously wrong.
The idea here was using diancie as support for my win con since thats basically the most reliable zoro answer i could think off, and the heal bell support is nice since it allows umbreon some more freedom in its moveslot to run toxic, which i feel makes it 2x more valuable as a pokemon seeing as how you can at least toxic chesg on a switch in or something so that i cant just spike for free on you. I knew i wanted to run flame body moltres alongside meloetta too since switching into durants/escavs trying to revenge kill and getting that 30% burn is so incredibly useful, a lot of times i can win the game just off of that. Scarf roserade obviously helps with gatr but it can also double as a nice salazzle revenge killer with hp ground, also removes tspikes which is very much appreciated for these kinds of teams, also i know running spikes + defog may sound weird but i think its definitely useful to be able to completely control the hazard game, i wouldnt want to have a shaymin instead when im playing a matchup that makes moltres completely useless.
Gligar is gligar lol i have a moltres what did you expect :pirate:


Natalie seemed very weak to offensive water types to me, usually relying exclusively on shaymin to beat it or just generally preferring spdef milotic, once again i was hilariously wrong.
The idea here was gatr + sd virizion with support from banded escavalier, whos able to pursuit trap a scarf gardevoir and the two grass scarfers which helps DD gatr a ton. I feel like virizion is a really cool choice in this metagame because of how fucking stupid zoroark is, people are only now begining to realize you should in fact prep for it, it also pressures a lot the most common deffensive cores i had been seeing on snake thus far(your usual milotic umbreon/p2 gligar cress sorta stuff), provided i can pursuit trap the cress, of course. Scarf flygon is the obvious choice here seeing as how salazzle looked very dangerous to the first 3 members and defog is a nice emergency button when the spike stacking from my opponent gets too out of hand. Fucking gligar as per usual because its impossible to build a good team w/o it in this metagame it seems(needed a ground immu/fighting resist/zydog check/rocker all on the same slot). Finally i feel like assault vest meloetta is a nice tech rn for its ability to check nidoqueen reliably, as well as all the special scarfers who had been so popular up until that point(gard/shaymin/rose) all of which can revenge kill gatr.


For snaga i had no idea what to expect team-wise or playing-wise as i wasnt familiar with him at all, thinking about that i decided that going heavily on the offensive with spikes was a good way to ensure i needed as little outplaying as possible on most mathcups, wrong once again.
The main idea on this one was sd gatr + z move aero with spike stacking, swords dance gatr w/o aqua jet is pretty much capable of powering through most things that would otherwise beat it(like those chesg + p2/umbreon cores), it only really struggles with haze milotic which is where aero comes into play, beeing able to heavily cripple milotic(or straight up ohko if its the spdef spread) while also beeing a solid ass win condition on its own provided i get spikes up. Aero also benefits from/supports doublade on this team with both of them heavily pressuring gligar, aero is also sometimes able to get a +1 z move off on umbreon which really helps out, doublade carries toxic for milotic/quagsire/umbreon which helps the other two team members a lot. Obvious scarf shaymin since dd gatr 6-0ed and shuca berry nidoqueen as my rocker since i am fairly weak to offensive ground types, and the ability to somewhat stand up to those while beating gligar 1v1 is helpful for a rocker in this team, which is something a uxie for example wouldnt be able to accomplish.


This is what i intended to use against Ajna on finals, upon scounting i thought that, despite the more than usual durant, he was generally vulnerable to glalie archetypes since hes shown a preference to those rhyperior + gligar bulky offense sort of teams. I wont get into too much detail with this one since im very sad my team is out, i was so looking foward to playing this game :pirate:


Ive also preppared a team for SilentVerse in the event that his team got to finals but so i guess i might as well just throw it in here, i guess?
Basically it seemed to me that his usual bronzong bulky offensive stuff would get beaten down pretty badly by life orb gardevoir when paired with cb durant, qwilfish is a seriously underated mon btw, despite me having my doubts at first.

So yea, thats that, idk how much value this post has but i enjoy reading what other ppl came up with so might as well share some of my insights.
Im still very much sad that a lot of good RU players were not picked up for this tournament but hopefully that changes in spl, if managers are willing to take the time and actually look into the community etc etc
Peace :toast:

https://hastebin.com/bokapoqipi.diff
 

FlamingVictini

FV - msg on discord FlamingVictini#3784
is a Top Tiering Contributorwon the 16th Official Smogon Tournamentis a Three-Time Past WCoP Champion
What up bois 'n girls


Espeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 248 HP / 176 SpD / 84 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Morning Sun
- Calm Mind

Yes, that is a specially defensive espeon. This bad boy is great at handling nidoqueen and is much less passive than cresselia, although it will still fall to a +2 z move from salazzle. The bulk makes a huge difference (enought to avoid the 2hko from Nidoqueen's epower and Umb's foul play most of the time) and the spread keeps enough speed to still outrun timid nidoqueen. While espy won't be able to stop rocks from rhyp consistently for example, the mind games from having magic bounce is super nice, and you can definitely block qwil and chesnaught from laying up spikes a few times, all while packing in a win condition that requires some degree of non-passive raw power to stop thanks to magic bounce. Void used this set to win vs Natalie, and you can also choose to go with an HP Fire + Toxic variant if you're more worried about steels than darks. I mostly like this espy when u need help with hazards and only need to fulfill some of cress's jobs, since I just hate how passive cress is. Our playerbase needs to get more creative about hazard control (tsareena!).


Drapion @ Choice Band
Ability: Sniper
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Poison Jab
- Pursuit
- Earthquake

Drapion is good! With its great typing, decent natural bulk, and a choice band, this thing is probably the best pursuiter the tier has to offer if you're looking to get rid of ghosts cleanly for something like big papa (mono curselax) (or get rid of stuff like xatu/espy blocking hazards). Drapion is also pretty good at breaking, and sniper crits frickin hurt. Try him out :D

Also, +1 to physdef z-bell tox diancie and heal block zong, as well as the zoro sets CS used. LO is so consistent and is just my favorite set all around, and that z-bounce zoro was absolutely lit.

Some stuff I can't believe other ppl haven't mentioned, so i'll post em just to make sure they get attention:


Feraligatr @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Superpower
- Ice Punch
- Swords Dance

This thing is just a beast at breaking. Superpower just rips stuff like P2, Umb, Milo, Regi, etc. apart at +2, while Ice Punch smacks chesnaught and rose/min on the switch. Gatr has a lot of natural bulk so you can still get a lot of value out of him vs more offensive teams, and the goal isn't really to sweep, so AJet isn't really missed. Really scary breaker especially when paired with zoro to help with stuff like jelly.


Toxicroak @ Darkinium Z
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Drain Punch
- Sucker Punch
- Ice Punch
- Swords Dance

Croak is fkin good, and the z-dark set is especially versatile when it comes to breaking/sweeping. While this doesn't have the sheer power of z-gunk shot or the overall strength of LO, being able to nuke stuff like Cress, Doublade, or Cofag while still keeping the most optimal coverage and versatility is just super nice. Croak's typing and dry skin also has a ton of defensive value that makes him easier to fit onto teams, and like gatr, this thing is scary with Zoro. I've also tried toying with a z-focus blast np set while shark was still around and vacuum wave had value, but with zoro leaving i'd say the appeal of that set is def going down, but no worries cuz SD Croak is really good.

Since I expect zoro is gonna be banned, I want to post my favorite teams with him


Rhyperior @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 248 HP / 216 SpD / 44 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Swords Dance

Salazzle @ Poisonium Z
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 4 HP / 248 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Sludge Wave
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Nasty Plot

Feraligatr @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Superpower
- Ice Punch
- Swords Dance

Chesnaught @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 232 HP / 40 Def / 236 Spe
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Synthesis
- Wood Hammer

Zoroark @ Life Orb
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Low Kick
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance

Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Trick
- Healing Wish
This team basically just loads up on a bunch of scary threats, primarily centering around SD Wallbreaker Gatr + SD Zoro + NP Salazzle. I went with standard LO Zoro since I love the power it gives to sucker, and Salazzle is just much scarier with the z-move nuke. I decided to go with Poisinium since it's a bit more robust than Firium and helps with breaking waters, and scarf gard is rlly nice with a bunch of sweepers, especially when u can HWishing up Gatr after doing some breaking since it's so bulky. Rhyp and Ches get the hazards up while still pressuring fat teams a lot and giving me a decent defensive backbone. SD Ipunch lets rhyp beat xatu, gligar, curselax, and other stuff it'd normally beat with toxic while also getting more value out of rindo if u wanna sack it for damage on min or rose for gatr, and ches is super fast to get that taunt off, although I think running more defense may have more value in this meta for zyg and SD IPunch Feraligtr since people have mostly given up on defog gligar (and rightly so). BO isn't that common rn but I really like how this squad keeps the pressure turned up all the time, def one of my fave builds.


Omastar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Weak Armor
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Ice Beam

Bruxish @ Life Orb
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Psychic Fangs
- Crunch
- Aqua Jet
- Swords Dance

Virizion @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Close Combat
- Zen Headbutt
- Swords Dance

Flygon @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Iron Tail
- Dragon Dance

Zoroark @ Life Orb
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Low Kick
- Sucker Punch
- Swords Dance

Durant @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- X-Scissor
- Rock Slide
- Superpower
Ah, SD Spam. With Bruxish and Virizion to disguise as and every mon bar lead oma being physical, Zoro just becomes all the more dangerous. In Joey's RU Open finals game vs Ajna, he bluffed zoro as viri, got an SD while keeping up the guise and ohkoed durant + nearly ko'd rhyp, allowing him to surge ahead and eventually win the game. TSpikes Oma help with getting past quag stall and in general gets up hazards very nicely regardless of whether you lead with it or not, and he just meshes well with the physpam to get that initial pressure and momentum rolling. Swarm durant cuz nobody likes losing a game to missing, and lum viri to help with waters since gon is using the DD Dragonium set. This team is super fun and pretty straightforward to use, and is also very consistent for me even though it's a fabled HO team in a meta that supposedly doesn't allow for good HO... try it out and have some fun. :)
 
Last edited:

Ajna

i tell my ppl i don't need love but
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Two-Time Past SCL Champion
don't throw subliminals at me my guy, im not the one. anyways, snake was a cool ass tournament that i really enjoyed. i know a lot of people didn't like the format bc they had to prep for three people per phase, but i don't think it's really that bad if you don't leave all your games till the second weekend. every game mattering is a super cool concept and i feel that the tour is just getting some hate bc it's new/different, but in a few years i think it can be basically as prestigious as spl. since i've finished all my games imma go through some of my favorite sets that haven't already been mentioned (cb drap, toxic lax, 3 atks gatr, croak, trapper golem, and acro tsareena are all fire) and some of my teams.


Sigilyph @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Heat Wave
- Roost

my baby. this mon is criminally underrated; my win loss with it in officials is like 6-1, if not 6-0. in a meta where hazard stack vs hazard stack is super common magic guard is amazing, and sigi happens to be the only viable mon with it. balance teams have almost no answer for it besides umbreon or something to revenge it. i've had matches where this thing basically wins from preview (ru open game vs soulwind, snake game vs nat), so i dunno why it doesn't get more usage.


Qwilfish @ Black Sludge/Icium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 112 Def / 148 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Haze
- Spikes
- Pain Split/Taunt

this mon is really cool too. it's a great doublade/durant switch in and is an alternative spiker to the grasses that most teams rely on. icium z is better but annoying to waste a z move on, and the slash depends on what your team needs. if icium z it's easier to run taunt bc you can heal yourself once, but pain split is still usable on it. basically if you don't care about gligar defogging run split. speed is for bewear to haze if it sd's, but if you're not pain split you may as well just run less speed cuz neutral double edge does a fuck ton.


Meloetta @ Assault Vest
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 248 HP / 16 SpD / 244 Spe
Calm Nature
- Psychic
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Shadow Ball

dope set i made during my open run. it checks queen, salazzle, dragalge, moltres, and pretty much every other special attacker that bo can have trouble with. i didn't get to use it during snake, but my brother diogo did in this flames dub vs nat. it grabs momentum super well, bothers the other team with knock, and it's a good backup check to doublade as well. it's one of the few good utility mons we have, so i encourage you guys to try it out.


Tyrantrum @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Head Smash
- Outrage
- Toxic/Superpower/Dragon Claw (i guess?)/Aerial Ace/Pretty Much Anything
- Earthquake

i obviously didn't make this set, but please use this mon. it's crazy good as long as you can cover faster scarfers with something like p2 (or just say fuck it like i did once and make doublade your check for half the meta). it hits crazy hard for a scarfer and it can switch in to salazzle, what more do you need? also it can take a plus 2 zoro sucker punch after rocks which is dope.

honorable mentions:
-agility volt switch tbolt d pulse ampharos
-263 speed cress
-max speed milo (max hp and offensive z hydro pump w/ toxic)
-taunt dd kommo (z outrage and eq)
-sub salaazzle (better during shark meta)
-spikes sleep powder hp fire leaf storm roserade
-iron head registeel (speed for aboma)

alright, time for my teams. imma be pretty lazy with descriptions bc there's nothing too crazy going on, but i'll prob give thoughts on the games i played with em.

phase 1: game 1 (natalie.)

Rhyperior @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 132 HP / 16 Atk / 252 SpD / 108 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Toxic

Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Competitive
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 160 Atk / 96 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Shadow Claw
- Shadow Sneak

Roserade @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Spikes

Sigilyph @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Heat Wave
- Roost

Bewear @ Normalium Z
Ability: Fluffy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Brick Break

brick break bewear 'cuz veil, max speed milo for queen, and toxic ice punch rhyp for flygon and crippling stuff. in hindsight toxic + pivoting around would have been fine for gon especially since it isn't a super common mon, but rhyp gave me a pretty solid check to it. sigi is broken and would have won if it weren't for t wave p2 (i rlly dislike p2 not being able to toxic passive mons, but it worked out in this game), sd bewear came in big, and rose setting spikes was huge. overall this was a fun game and a solid way for me to start off snake.

phase 1: game 2 (meru)

Rhyperior @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 216 HP / 16 Atk / 252 SpD / 24 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Toxic

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 248 HP / 92 Def / 152 SpD / 16 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Toxic
- Ice Beam
- Foul Play

Sharpedo @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Protect
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Ice Beam

Chesnaught @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 248 HP / 72 Def / 188 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Wood Hammer
- Synthesis

Mismagius @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Shadow Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
- Taunt

Dragalge @ Black Sludge
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 176 HP / 252 SpA / 80 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Sludge Wave
- Focus Blast
- Toxic

one of my fav teams from the whole tournament, but unfortunately i played this game like ass after i missed the draco. if i hit it i was in a solid position, but what can you do, stuff happens. if i rlly focused up instead of dwelling on the fact that i missed i definitely coulda won, so in the end it's on me. only cool tech from this one is toxic dragalge which was to cripple p2, umbreon, and it worked which was cool. this one was less fun for me, but nonetheless was a good learning experience.

phase 1: game 3 (silentverse)

Rhyperior @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 208 HP / 16 Atk / 252 SpD / 32 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Toxic

Cresselia @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 32 SpD / 228 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Toxic
- Moonlight
- Moonblast

Durant @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Iron Head
- Superpower
- Crunch

Bewear @ Choice Band
Ability: Fluffy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Superpower
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake

Roserade @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Leaf Storm
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Sharpedo @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam

this game was kinda ruined for me bc of my rhyp set. idk why early on i was so paronoid of flygon, but it basically lost me this game (i would have rock blasted the yanmega but i had only had fkn ice punch). i mean i ended up winning but like sv threw pretty damn hard lol. i'm glad my boy finished with a decent record, but he definitely shoulda had this game in the bag. i was really disappointed in how i played at the end of phase 1 bc i very rarely play poorly two games in a row, but it gave me some extra motivation going into phase 2.

phase 2: game 1 (esche)

Archeops @ Focus Sash
Ability: Defeatist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Head Smash
- Taunt
- Endeavor

Chesnaught @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 248 HP / 72 Def / 188 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Wood Hammer
- Synthesis

Salazzle @ Salac Berry
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 12 HP / 244 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk -
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Grass]

Sharpedo @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Protect
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Ice Beam

Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 160 Atk / 92 SpD / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Toxic
- Shadow Sneak

Kommo-o @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Taunt

i originally built this for phase 1 vs sv, but after i ended up not using it i thought'd work well vs esche. esche brought some fat shit to phase one and didn't have much success, so i expected him to switch it up. the team kinda auto plays itself—just set up hazards and win with something. ik esche said he didn't get my play with shark, but it's cuz i didn't want him setting webs and if he did stay in i heavily weakened his shark, i got to set up a spike with ches, and i had a flinch chance (sounds dumb but genuinely went through my head lol). overall fun game i guess, but esche missplayed by not leading galv and going for thunder para.

phase 2: game 2

Nidoqueen @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Ice Beam

Abomasnow-Mega @ Abomasite
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Rash Nature
- Blizzard
- Focus Blast
- Giga Drain
- Ice Shard

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 248 HP / 92 Def / 152 SpD / 16 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Toxic
- Ice Beam
- Foul Play

Tyrantrum @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Head Smash
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Superpower

Qwilfish @ Icium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 120 Def / 140 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Haze
- Spikes
- Taunt

Xatu @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 248 HP / 40 Def / 220 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Heat Wave
- Roost

this one is still my favorite game (very closely rivaled by my meme game vs sv and finals vs fuga). i was shuca nido cuz iirc sg used nido twice and regi once for phase 1, so if he was nido i was leading with mine and killing that bitch to prevent rocks (if he clicked rocks as i ep'd i was up 6-5 so w/e), and if he was regi xatu prevented them the whole game. i brought aboma cuz my girl evi told me he had been weak to it, and the rest of the team just tried to fill the holes that having aboma on your team creates. qwilfish was a big part of this game for me along with fast xatu (mostly for gatr, helps vs queen ig). super fun game, thanks sg.

phase 2: game 3 (col49)

Gligar @ Eviolite
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 248 HP / 220 Def / 40 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Roost
- U-turn

Machamp @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Facade
- Bullet Punch

Durant @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- X-Scissor
- Superpower
- Crunch

Roserade @ Grassium Z
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sleep Powder
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Spikes

Slowking @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 72 SpA / 188 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Fire Blast
- Psychic
- Dragon Tail

Kommo-o @ Choice Specs
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Clanging Scales
- Focus Blast
- Toxic
- Flamethrower

this game got me tight as hell. col played great, but i had this game. he def got me with the bluff on shaymin, but i threw this early on by sacking kommo. kommo ripped his team and i just sacked it bc i thought he'd sub, but i really had no reason to keep glig. i kept it bc i was scared of durant sweeping me, but he turned out to be the dogshit swarm set so it was no issue at all. even if he was hustle i could have played around it, so i was pretty upset after the game. i finished all my games pretty early in the phase so i took a couple days off discord and smogon to clear my head and get ready for phase 3.

phase 3: g1 (chill shadow)

Registeel @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 248 HP / 164 SpD / 96 Spe
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Seismic Toss
- Toxic
- Iron Head

Chesnaught @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 248 HP / 72 Def / 188 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Wood Hammer
- Synthesis

Cresselia @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 32 SpD / 228 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Moonlight
- Lunar Dance

Sigilyph @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Heat Wave
- Roost

Toxicroak @ Darkinium Z
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch
- Sucker Punch

Flygon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Outrage
- Defog

my motivation was just not there for phase 3, so i asked my day 1 feli for a team. i thought it'd matchup great vs cs and it is just a solid ass team in general so i went with it. not too much to say about this game bc it was wack as fuck, but a dub is a dub i guess.

phase 3: game 2 (mael)

Nidoqueen @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Toxic
- Ice Beam

Cresselia @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 32 SpD / 228 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Toxic
- Moonlight
- Lunar Dance

Roserade @ Black Sludge
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sleep Powder

Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Haze
- Recover

Durant @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- X-Scissor
- Superpower
- Crunch

Bewear @ Normalium Z
Ability: Fluffy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Double-Edge
- Superpower
- Shadow Claw

as i already said my motivation was really low, but to add to that i mixed up my scheduled time for this game. so it's about 11:30 pm, i'm chilling in the dorms with my friends and then i realize, oh shit, i dunno if my game is tonight or tomorrow bc i scheduled at midnight. so i go on my phone to check when i play, and of course i play in 30 minutes. see this would normally be no problem, but on this particular night i had smoked about 20 minutes before. so i walk up to my dorm high as shit with more delusional confidence than imaginable expecting to beat mael with this average ass team. surprise surprise, i get bodybagged. im not gonna analyze my plays cuz i was just clicking buttons, but i killed 4 pokemon!

phase 3: game 3 (miyoka)

Archeops @ Focus Sash
Ability: Defeatist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Head Smash
- Taunt
- Endeavor

Chesnaught @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 248 HP / 72 Def / 188 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Wood Hammer
- Synthesis

Hoopa @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Magician
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Substitute

Durant @ Life Orb
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Iron Head
- Superpower
- Crunch

Tyrantrum @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Head Smash
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Superpower

Salazzle @ Black Sludge
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Fire Blast
- Sludge Wave
- Taunt

by this point i realized how rusty i was from playing a grand total of 2 matches in 3 weeks (didn't test once lol), so i had to build some heat. team is pretty simple, break shit with hoopa/ant and clean with salazzle/t-rex. taunt on salazzle for cresselia, umbreon, and ig snorlax? taunt is pretty bad i don't recommend it at all, but i do recommend hoopa bc that mon is flames. anyways i played this game flawlessly, despite the rust, up until the very end where i didn't sub vs cress. i was thinking of my nascar cress with toxic, but either way sub was the play, so this was just bad. i got through it though with the help of a bad venu set and expert pivots, so it didn't really matter in the end. this team is weak to a lot of not so common stuff like swellow though, so i wouldn't use this on ladder.

semifinals (silentverse)

you thought.

we agreed to bw mons only with jolly cb drud 'cuz my team had already won the week. i led drud, he led drud, i clicked d claw, his drud died. this game was fire all around, but i was sad that i had to change my amoongus out for vileplume, oh well.

finals (omfuga)

Gligar @ Eviolite
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 56 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Roost
- Knock Off

Durant @ Choice Band
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- X-Scissor
- Superpower
- Crunch

Roserade @ Grassium Z
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Sleep Powder

Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Trick
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 248 HP / 92 Def / 152 SpD / 16 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Toxic
- Ice Beam
- Foul Play

Jellicent @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 188 Def / 72 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Taunt
- Recover
- Toxic

i built this team in about 2 minutes the night before my game after scrapping a bunch of different ideas. i knew fuga wouldn't stall, so i stacked my team with balance breakers and a cleaner. this team is actually really solid, and im super glad i went with it bc durant ripped him apart, but i got rlly scared when i saw toxicroak. i changed jelli to toxic right before the game to help break down p2 and shit, but he brought nothing that it helped me with. thankfully he stayed in with his croak to sucker my ant, and it was honestly a fine play cuz i way pretty close to clicking x scissor, but you know what they say, don't mess around with threats. overall this win meant a lot to me cuz fuga is a crazy good player that's always been cool to me, so it was really dope to get to play him with a trophy on the line.

this is by far my longest post ever, but i wanted to share my thoughts, sets, and teams with you guys because this was a really fun experience. i've always loved team tours, but this is the first time i've done well in one so it meant a lot. thanks to everyone on my team for being amazing, you guys are the best. i know we're gonna bring home this trophy, so imma wait to do my shoutouts for you guys. imma just shoutout the people who helped me with testing and shit here, so shoutouts Feliburn, EviGaro, Natural Talent, Eternal Spirit, Chill Shadow, lighthouses, and star. feli and garo you guys helped me so much with the crazy amount of tests and looking over my teams, but thanks to all of you guys for giving me tests whenever i challed. this tour let me meet a lot of new dope people, it got me onto us west, and hopefully it lets me get a spot in this upcoming spl. i don't think im gonna forget this one, so thanks to every player, manager, and spectator who made it what it was.
 
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