ZUPL Coverage

By Aaronboyer, 5gen, BloodAce0107, and SBPC. Released: 2019/10/29.
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Art by Kaiju Bunny

Art by Kaiju Bunny.

Introduction

With a new Unofficial Metagames subforum and a growing community desiring a competitive team tournament, ZU players were excited and hyped for the first-ever ZUPL. There weren't a whole lot of expectations for the first ZUPL; after all, for many players and managers alike this would be their first experience with a Premier League format. How would ZU mains go up against big-name tournament players? And what kind of metagame development would we see from ZUPL? These questions and more would be answered as the most competitive ZU games of the entire generation took center stage to see which team would bring home the glory and the title of winning the first-ever ZUPL.

Teams

Dragon Dancing Delibirds Roster

Metagame Trends

SM

Z-Mirror Move Swanna overtook Z-Hurricane as the most popular and scariest Swanna set halfway through ZUPL's run. Utilizing its equally powerful Attack stat, Swanna was already able to force switches with its near-unresisted coverage and above average Speed tier, giving it plenty of opportunities to use Z-Mirror Move and get to +2 Attack. Seeing how revenge killing was one of the best countermeasures against Swanna, Aqua Jet also became a huge asset, stopping Rapidash cold while picking off weakened Choice Scarf users like Electivire and Silvally. Most dauntingly of all, Swanna's subsets of checks between its Z-Mirror Move and Z-Hurricane sets overlap very little, meaning one has to scout and preserve checks to both physical and special Swanna variants to not lose to the wrong Swanna set late-game. Z-Mirror Move Swanna's effect on the metagame has cemented Swanna into S rank and has caused the community post-ZUPL to question if it needs a suspect test.

Leafeon also saw an uptick in usage during ZUPL, especially early on. Forgoing the once-popular Z-Celebrate set, Leafeon began to run Swords Dance + Grassium Z, which took advantage of teams lacking true Grass-type answers at the time, previously only needing to really prepare for Shiftry's weaker Leaf Storms. Leafeon also happened to be a great Shiftry check that could absorb Knock Offs and restore its health with Synthesis.

ORAS

In ORAS ZU, Electabuzz has almost always been the most metagame-defining S-rank Pokemon. However, Electabuzz took a slight dip in viability during ZUPL despite its 70% winrate due to the rise of bulkier checks such as Servine and Klang. People even began getting creative with Pokemon like Hippopotas and sets like Assault Vest Luxray. Although Electabuzz can force certain checks into uncomfortable situations with Toxic or Focus Blast, it can rarely afford to run both of these moves. Therefore, Electabuzz's current main purpose is to act as glue and set the Speed benchmark for the rest of the metagame, including viable Choice Scarf users, something people also in a lot of ways expect out of Electivire in SM ZU. Whatever the future may hold for ORAS ZU though, Electabuzz's presence will always be welcome, perhaps just not as overcentralizing.

Krokorok also saw a tremendous amount of use during ZUPL, establishing itself as one of the, if not the best Stealth Rock user in the metagame. This is because of its decent bulk backed by Intimidate and the utility of Taunt shutting down most Defog users and Knock Off removing items such as Vibrava's Eviolite and Fearow's Choice Scarf. Krokorok also fits onto a variety of different offensive and balance teams, adding onto already existing Water / Grass cores like Servine + Simipour, Jumpluff + Huntail, and Simisage + Politoed.

BW

Arbok was criminally underrated going into ZUPL, only initially ranked at B+. Intimidate alongside Coil allowed Arbok to set up against a myriad of physical attackers like Leafeon and Thick Fat Purugly. Arbok also has a variety of coverage moves it could run alongside Gunk Shot. Aqua Tail saw the most use, as it was its strongest option versus opposing Rock- and Ground-types like Boldore, Krokorok, and Marowak. Seed Bomb was nearly as strong as Aqua Tail and was super effective against Corsola, Whiscash, and Palpitoad. Fire Fang could also be used to surprise physically defensive Wormadam-S, the metagame's most common Stealth Rock user. Lastly, Arbok had Sucker Punch to outprioritize foes faster than itself like Emolga and Simisear, although against the former, it had to be wary of Encore.

Originally thought to be outclassed by other Normal-types in the metagame, Purugly quickly found a place as a top-tier offensive pivot in the BW ZU metagame at the start of ZUPL thanks to its ability to outspeed and force out top threats, most notably Simisear, and gain momentum with U-turn. Purugly's influence on the metagame can be seen with the influx of Normal-type answers rising in popularity, including Pawniard, Wormadam-S, and Corsola.

Pawniard is another BW ZU Pokemon that initially flew under the radar and saw a huge rise in usage in ZUPL. Although Knock Off isn't as usable as it would be in future generations, Pawniard has cemented itself as one of BW ZU's most threatening sweepers. A Swords Dance-boosted Sucker Punch has little offensive checks due to BW ZU's lack of Fighting-types outside of niche options like Mienfoo and Pignite. Pawniard found itself exploiting metagame trends and using the likes of Purugly and Wormadam-S to find setup opportunities.

DPP

While Grovyle was once an overlooked NFE Pokemon, its impressive Speed tier and decent offenses have allowed it to establish itself as a solid revenge killer with a Choice Scarf. Grovyle's Leaf Storm hits extremely hard, hitting both defensive walls in Quagsire, Sableye, and Lapras and frailer offensive threats like Diglett. Grovyle has access to coverage moves in Hidden Power Ice to hit Pokemon that resist Grass such as Tangela. Other sets such as SubSeed have gained notoriety, taking advantage of Grovyle's ability to force switches.

Life Orb mixed Banette is capable of nailing both defensive and offensive threats alike thanks to its coverage and access to priority. Banette is able to nail would-be answers with Hidden Power Fighting, 2HKOing Probopass. Banette has adapted to run Shadow Ball instead of Shadow Claw in order to pressure Tangela, which walls it otherwise. Access to dual priority in Shadow Sneak and Sucker Punch allows it to KO offensive threats such as Gastly and Girafarig.

Preparing for both of Lapras's sets has increasingly been seen as a challenge, with very few Pokemon being capable of dealing with both; many of the best checks to the Dragon Dance set, such as Tangela and Quagsire, get easily taken out by the Choice Specs set. Many players have been forced into bringing in their own Lapras to scout the opposing player's set.

Highlight Matches

Xayah vs 5gen (Week 2)

For the first time in any notable ZU tournament, the UM's two leaders got the chance to play against each other. 5gen brought bulky offense with the extremely rare physical Simisear as his chosen breaker, while Xayah utilized a Sticky Web offense team featuring an underutilized spinblocker in the shape of Gourgeist-S. After Xayah got a free opportunity to use Z-Mirror Move with his Swanna while 5gen's Silvally-Dark removed entry hazards, 5gen attempted to bluff having a Choice Scarf Sawsbuck. However, Xayah, wanting to sack Swanna to regain momentum, discovered 5gen's Sawsbuck was not Choice Scarf after all and blew through it as well as his Poliwrath. With Simisear and sleeping Golem in the back for 5gen, Xayah's Earthquake-using Electivire pulled out a victory for the Delibirds.

Teddeh vs TJ (Week 2)

After the Flamencos brought the same humdrum stall team in two SM slots against the Delibirds, with one of those games having been played by Teddeh, there was some sort of expectation to see stall being brought again in week 2. From Team Preview, TJ and his team may have thought they predicted right, having brought Nasty Plot + Taunt Simisear, Substitute + Swords Dance Bouffalant, and Shiftry to dismantle the Flamencos stall tactics. However, looks can be deceiving, and Teddeh's team turned out to actually be a bulky offense team made to look like stall. After Avalugg somehow 2HKOed TJ's Golem, it was blatantly revealed to be running a Choice Band. Teddeh was then able to trade Innards Out Pyukumuku for Simisear and utilize the key resistances of Mawile's Steel / Fairy typing and massive offensive presence to claim two KOs against Shiftry and Swanna. Lickilicky was then able to set up with Curse enough to break through Silvally-Poison and knock Bouffalant to below half health, allowing Avalugg to finish it off with a Choice Band-boosted Superpower.

LordST vs Tack (Week 2)

One of BW ZU's most anticipated matchups of the tournament happened early on, with Tack and LordST going head to head. Immediately from Team Preview, LordST appeared to have a major advantage, with Pawniard having setup opportunities versus Wormadam, Purugly, and even Emolga. In tandem with Whirlipede's Spikes and Tack's lack of entry hazard removal, Pawniard was a potential powerful wincon against Tack's team. However, LordST attempted an outright sweep with Pawniard on Turn 2 immediately after setting up Stealth Rock with Lunatone, allowing Meganium to cripple Pawniard and bring it into range for Purugly to eliminate. Following this, LST brought in Gastly, and Tack made an extremely bold play; instead of bringing in his specially defensive wall, he went straight into Emolga onto Gastly's Thunderbolt. With LST's primary wincons gone, Tack was able to clean up with Simisear and Emolga and secure a win versus BW ZU's most expensive player.

Heysup vs Toy Time King (Week 5 Tiebreaker)

With the two top teams faced each other in week 5 and tying after the week's end, a three-game tiebreaker would settle the score with which team would have to additionally play semifinals and which team would go straight to finals. The Flamencos' choice of DPP would be the first game played off the tiebreaker, with DPP legend Heysup taking on DPP PU enthusiast Toy Time King (TTK). Heysup's anti-metagame lead choice in Bibarel proved to be a fantastic choice, as it was able to use Protect to avoid Persian's Fake Out and KO Quagsire with two Silk Scarf-boosted Double-Edges. Several turns later, the combatants would trade Earth Powers on each other's Probopass, with TTK's holding Shed Shell and making a key switch out to Gastly on the second Earth Power. Heysup's Choice Scarf Glaceon would later put a massive dent into both TTK's Persian and Exploud, and things at this point in the game looked relatively bleak for TTK. However, TTK's last Pokemon, a Choice Scarf Meditite, surprised everyone, as it outsped Heysup's Magmar. The game ended up relatively a tossup between whether or not Bibarel would use Protect on the Meditite staying in or use Waterfall against Gastly as it switches in on the predicted Protect. Heysup's Bibarel ended up using Protect as Gastly switched in and was sacked versus Heysup's Grovyle, allowing Meditite to clean up against Grovyle and Bibarel with Zen Headbutt, putting the Hakamo-os in a 1-0 lead versus the Flamencos in the tiebreaker.

Semifinal and Final Matches

Semifinals

(3) Sovereign Swannas vs Humilau Hakamo-os (5)
USUM ZU: TJ vs yovan33321
USUM ZU: Taskr vs RawMelon
USUM ZU: LPY vs czim
USUM ZU: 85percent vs Quantum Tesseract
USUM ZU: Catalystic vs love chants
ORAS ZU: Hamhamhamham vs Ninjadog13
BW ZU: DnB vs Tack :]
DPP ZU: Chokepic vs Toy Time King

After the week 5 tiebreaks, it was the Hakamo-os up against the Swannas. The Swannas came into the semifinals after they edged out the Delibirds and Spindas, while the Hakamo-os missed out on a finals spot with a tiebreak loss to the Flamencos. However, the Hakamo-os handily beat the Swannas 6-2 back in week one with the help of some luck, so the question heading into the semifinals was whether the Hakamo-os could do it again. Four games into the week, the score was tied 2-2, with TJ and 85percent of the Swannas picking up wins in SM for the Swannas and Toy Time King and czim grabbing wins in DPP and SM for the Hakamo-os. Then, Ninjadog13 and Tack :] would win their ORAS and BW games, which put the Hakamo-os up 4-2. On the brink of elimination, the Swannas turned to Taskr and Catalystic to force a tiebreak. However, with the help of a timely double Protect, RawMelon would defeat Taskr and seal a finals spot for the Hakamo-os. Catalystic would later beat love chants to bring the final score to 5-3.

Finals

(6) Fiery Flamencos vs Humilau Hakamo-os (2)
USUM ZU: Finchinator vs czim
USUM ZU: Teddeh vs Hys
USUM ZU: Sabella vs yovan33321
USUM ZU: DurzaOffTopic vs RawMelon
USUM ZU: Jarii vs Quantum Tesseract
ORAS ZU: snaga vs Graceclaw
BW ZU: Ren-chon vs Tack :]
DPP ZU: Heysup vs Toy Time King

Week 5 featured the Flamencos against the Hakamo-os, where the winner would take first place and a ticket to the finals. After week five ended in a tie and the Flamencos took the tiebreaker 2-1, the Hakamo-os managed to secure a finals spot with a victory in the semifinals. On paper, the Flamencos and Hakamo-os had a fairly similar record; however, the Flamencos lineup was filled with experienced tournament players and a team with arguably more skill. Conversely, the Hakamo-os featured more ZU mains and less overall tournament experience. The Flamencos would pick up the first victory thanks to Heysup's close win over Toy Time King in DPP. Next, RawMelon would even out the series 1-1 with a victory over DurzaOffTopic, the Flamencos' manager. Then, the Flamencos would pull away with three victories from Ren-chon in BW, and Jarii and Teddeh in SM. Down 4-1, yovan33321 of the Hakamo-s, who was 0-2 against the Flamencos up to this point, managed to beat Sabella in SM. While the Flamencos were in a prime position to secure the week and win all of ZUPL, a late double sub forced the Flamencos to sub in snaga over Kushalos and the Hakamo-os to sub in Graceclaw over Ninjadog13. This meant that the Flamencos lost their best player for someone with next to no exerience in ORAS ZU, and that the Hakamo-os were in a prime position to make a comeback. Unfortunately for the Hakamo-os, snaga would beat Graceclaw to win ZUPL. Subsequently, Finchinator would beat czim and bring the final score to 6-2.

Final Thoughts

Despite ZUPL being over and generation seven coming to a close, there is still a lot more metagame development coming in ZU's near future. Torterra's re-entrance is sure to make just as much of an impression as it did over a year ago, and the possibility of a suspect test for Shiftry or even Swanna could shake up the metagame even more. Whatever the case might be, the first ever ZUPL was a major success and brought all sorts of people from various different communities together to try out the ZU metagame, and we hope you'll do so as well. And once again, congratulations to the Fiery Flamencos for winning ZUPL!

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