ZUPL IV Coverage

By Tuthur. Released: 2022/10/14.

Introduction

ZeroUsed Premier League is the ZU forum's annual official team tournament. For the first time, eight teams have competed, as opposed to six teams like the past iterations, in the ZU generations from SS to DPP. This tournament also introduced retains for the first time as well as going back to ZUPL II's format of 3 SS / 2 SM / 1 ORAS / 1 BW / 1 DPP.

Teams

8th - Sacred Sakuras

After starting for two years, yours truly managed for the first time in ZUPL alongside SCL champion manager Staxi to make up for his lack of managerial experience; however, this didn't go well for the team. Despite their SS core living up to the Power Rankings' expectations by getting the best record in the regular season, the rest of their slots had a lackluster campaign. The SS Frenchmen core composed of Louna, PandaDoux, and Tuthur worked extremely well supporting themselves and jonfilch, but this wasn't enough to make up for the disaster that were the old generations. While JabbaTheGriffin made a decent debut in DPP with a middling 3-4 score, things went far worse in the other generations; despite drafting two of the top eight players in ZU BreadWinners in crying and Éric, the team didn't get any win in BW during the whole tournament. The SM core also fell as hard as expected with a lack of support, while innovamania had a very rough debut in ZUPL with a lackluster 1-5 record in ORAS.

7th - Befuddling Beheeyems

5Dots also made his debut as a manager in this ZUPL, with Aaronboyer co-managing after skipping two ZUPLs as a manager. Their draft was ranked the lowest on the Power Rankings, as all of their starters got ranked in the second half of the pool except for their ORAS one, who got 4th. ORAS didn't even end up being their strongest slot, as it matched expectations with their starter, Shaneghoul, going even there. Despite their 7th ranking in SS, the Beheeyems ended up having the second strongest SS core in the tournament, thanks to Ninja, who broke out for a crazy 5-1 record. The other slots, however, met the expectations of the Power Rankings, as voters thought the teams relied too much on new faces of ZU, who were motivated but lacked experience, with most of their starters including Corthius, wooper, and 5Dots making their debuts as full ZUPL starters.

6th - Morpeek-A-Boos

Toto and btboy made their return in ZUPL with the Morpekos, and just like how they originally just missed getting a spot, they also just missed playoffs after an unlucky seventh week against Stunkys. Both managers complement each other well, with Toto having great results in both ORAS and SS, while btboy is known for being a prolific builder, especially in BW and DPP, and they made the expensive acquisition of 85percent to help in the last remaining generation in SM. They drafted several non-mainers that they supported like Mac3, Lunala, and gum, who sported great records, as well as their retain TheFranklin, who is considered to be one of the best SS ZU players. However, ORAS and BW didn't go as smoothly as Morpekos would have expected. Despite Toto's great support in ORAS and them drafting two players who had great results in the latest ORAS tournament, they only got one win in this slot during the whole tournament. Furthermore, while their BW slot was ranked first in Power Rankings, with august just winning BW Cup and sporting great results in BreadWinners, they went negative here, which hurt Morpekos a lot. Overall, Morpekos had the caliber of a playoff team but got quite unlucky in regular seasons and missed out on playoffs.

5th - Fiery Flamencos

Although Fiery Flamencos were ranked first on the Power Rankings, just like last year, where they won, they almost made playoffs in a tiebreaker against the Stunkys. They had drafted four star players in 5gen, Danny, Greybaum, and Heysup with the bulk of their stocks, leaving the rest of their slots to players less experienced with ZU that got great support from both managers, DurzaOffTopic and yovan33321, and aforementioned star players. This went smoothly for three of them, but not Heysup, who surprisingly started the tournament 0-3 after a clear dominance last ZUPL with a 6-0 record. Eventually, their DPP player, who was originally ranked first in Power Rankings, went 4-4. While both Ren-chon and ayevon succeeded to pull a respectable 3-3 record in BW and SM, respectively, the SS starters had an harder time learning the tier, and none of them went positive. Overall, some expectations were not met by the team, and Flamencos missed playoffs for the first time since ZUPL's creation.

3rd - Shiiny Shiinotics

OranBerryBlissey10 and Mirbro can be proud of their debuts as ZUPL managers thanks to them reaching playoffs quite easily, despite a rough start with a 0-8 record week 1. While their overall ranking matches the Power Rankings, they proved individual rankings wrong. Their SS core, composed of OranBerryBlissey10, Lily, and pichus, was ranked second; OranBerryBlissey10 had great success in this year's individual, notably making finals of spring seasonal, while Lily and pichus had proven themselves to be competent players that should pick up ZU fairly easily. This SS core was also supported by other ZU mainers in Albi and Mirbro. However, the core didn't perform as well as expected, and its record ended up being one of the worst in the whole tournament. However, their predicted main weakness, BW, proved to be one of their biggest asset, with Monai getting the third best BW record. Moreover, while their SM slots were already ranked among the best, MZ completely broke out with his 6-1 record.

3rd - Lucky Stunkys

S1nn0hC0nfirm3d, aka Ho3nConfirm3d, and his Stunkys make their comeback in ZUPL playoffs after a lackluster season last iteration. Ho3n surprised everyone with a dual unorthodox strategy; first, he didn't pick a co-manager before auctions, meaning his team got less support options, and second, he spent 75% of his stocks on four players: Quagg, EviGaro, TJ, and himself. This means the draft was rounded up with players that were ranked quite low in Power Rankings, explaining the Stunkys' seventh place on them. However, all players drafted for more than 3k got a respectable record, with only TJ going slightly negative at 3-4, except for Ho3n, who went berserk and finished the season undefeated, with a 9-0 record in ORAS. This allowed the team to prove people wrong on its ranking and reach playoffs by eliminating Flamencos 2-0 in a tiebreaker.

2nd - Cursed Trevenants

czim and a fruitshop owner make their return as ZUPL managers after skipping ZUPL III. They not only succeeded in drafting the team with the most players but also led them to finals. After an amazing regular season, starting with a 8-0 record in week 1 and only losing in the last week after they had already easily secured the first seed for playoffs, they seemed to be unstoppable. Numbers were not their sole strength, since they also had some unexpected star players; pokemonisfun, TPP, and avarice got some of the best records of the season with a combined 19-2 record despite being ranked slightly above average in power rankings. The team went positive in every tier except for ORAS, where they went 4-4, which shows how dominant they have been through ZUPL IV. Unfortunately for them, they lost in finals to the same sole team that managed to beat them in the regular season.

1st - To Pimp A Butterfree

Drud and his Butterfrees learned from their past season's mistakes to win the tournament. He was joined by TWiTT, who brought the same old generation success to Butterfrees as he did to Flamencos during ZUPL III; their ORAS slot, Raichy, tied for the second best record of the whole tournament with 7-1, only losing to Ho3n; Beraldinho got the best DPP record; and SoulWind, with the support of SuperEpicAmpharos, got a great 5-3 record in BW. For SS, the team made the gamble to only draft one ZU mainer, Jett, and round off their lineup with some new faces of the tournament scene in Herv, clean, and Mimikyu Stardust; while they had a rough start picking up ZU and diversifying their builds, with a 1-5 record after week 2, the core ended up going positive, notably thanks to ProDigeZz joining the team mid-season to go 5-0. Just like with the Trevenants, only one of their tiers ended up not going positive with their SM going even, which was filled by former SM ZU Tier Leader Xayah and Finchinator, who had already experience with SM ZU in other team tournaments. After fixing their issue in SS, the team was unstoppable, and while it didn't get scores as impressive as Trevenants during regular seasons, no team was close to beating them in playoffs, and their trophy is well deserved.

Metagame Trends

SS

With tier shifts bringing Palossand into the tier and Malamar having only been banned for a few weeks, SS ZU players still had to figure out the new metagame. While losing a Pokémon and gaining another can seem like a minimal change, it actually meant a lot for the balance builds. Palossand makes for a Ground-type with reliable recovery, unlike both Stunfisk formes, which solely rely on Leftovers, while also being a consistent switch-in to top threats such as Sawk, Rapidash, and Klinklang. This allowed the balance archetype to shift from Stunfisk + Alcremie + Miltank cores to Palossand + Miltank + Articuno-based builds. This core ended up being the second most used three-Pokémon core, while the three couples Articuno + Miltank, Palossand + Miltank, and Articuno + Miltank were the three most common two-Pokémon cores, with over 10% usage each. This shows how prominent these builds were, and strategies to exploit them emerged as a result. For instance, Nasty Plot Skuntank and Rotom, which had been falling out of favor, have been on the rise due to matching positively against these new balance builds. That said, Stunfisk formes still saw use in this archetype for their great matchup against Skuntank and Rotom.

Other archetypes were still viable such as Tangela-based bulky offense, Uxie-based VoltTurn, sun-based hyper offense, Electric Terrain-based hyper offense teams, and Froslass Spikes, and one new one even emerged: Roselia + Pawniard entry hazard stack balance. The archetype wasn't brand new, as OranBerryBlissey10 had been using it across the last individual tournaments; however, more players tried the archetype out with ZUPL. On the one hand, Roselia takes advantage of common threats like Thwackey, Sawk, Stunfisk, and Tangela and can make progress through poison from Poison Point and Sludge Bomb and chip damage from Spikes. On the other hand, Pawniard is very effective at deterring Defog from the main two Defog users in the tier in Articuno and non-Flamethrower Altaria and can be a huge threat with a Defiant or Swords Dance boost. These two were also often paired with Cryogonal, a Pokémon that saw close to no use prior to the tournament but reached a great winrate in ZUPL of over 70% and cemented itself as a viable option over Articuno. Knock Off lets it threaten premier Articuno switch-ins like Klinklang, Articuno, and Rapidash, and it fits better in Spikes-based teams thanks to Rapid Spin.

Furthermore, the metagame proved to be quite centralized, especially around Klinklang. Its Substitute + Toxic set proved to be extremely potent in the metagame as an incredible threat, tearing through teams with Gear Grind after a Shift Gear and forcing progress with Toxic on its most common checks such as Palossand, Rapidash, and Stunfisk. While Klinklang wasn't that successful in ZUPL, with an above average 43% winrate, its centralization was certain, as most teams opted to pair these answers with a cleric, often Miltank, Articuno, or Alcremie. Klinklang was even suspect tested, as many people complained about its centralization, though it was voted to remain in the tier.

Showcasing games

SM

Coming fresh off March's Exeggutor ban (which was the first time in ZU history that the same Pokémon had been banned twice within the same generation), players became far less constrained in the teambuilder and could finally deviate beyond using just Bronzor as their Stealth Rock user and using Pursuit users like Silvally-Dark and Alolan Grimer. Obviously, that's a bit of an exaggeration, and yet team variety soared in SM this ZUPL, seeing more unique Pokémon than even SS ZU despite being played in one less slot per week. This was the result of an entirely different problem that the Exeggutor ban actually exacerbated: the inability to cover every foe, which players exploited very early on in the tournament with Pokémon like Z-Celebrate Leafeon and Z-Me First Pinsir. As the weeks progressed on, teams began to standardize a bit more, no longer praying for a good matchup with their niche wincons.

Wishiwashi's usage skyrocketed with this ZUPL. It went from the bottom of the usage last ZUPL to being the fifth most used Pokémon this iteration. It is one of the most consistent answers to Swanna and a very reliable pivot that is able to bring in frail wallbreakers safely via slow U-turn. With Exeggutor's ban, a lot of other Grass-type wallbreakers rose in popularity, mainly Simisage, which has been pretty customizable with a good variety of sets between mixed sets, Nasty Plot sets, and even some Synthesis + 3 attacks sets. Servine and Cacturne also saw some usage and success. The former can snowball against teams that don't have sturdy Grass-resistant Pokémon and has great Eviolite-boosted bulk that lets it survive some super effective hits like Rotom-S's Air Slash, while the latter is frailer but has more initial power. Cacturne can also easily take advantage of standard walls like Mareanie, Bronzor, and Golem to fire off powerful STAB moves and can even threaten faster attackers with Sucker Punch.

Showcasing games

ORAS

With the Regigigas ban still fresh in people's minds, one might've expected to see a downward trend for Gourgeist and Carbink, two guaranteed switch-ins to the Sinnoh titan that suffered from overcompression of roles. This ended up being half true. Carbink and, to a lesser extent, Gigalith solidified their positions as top-tier Stealth Rock users due to teams now needing to compress a solid Normal-resistant Pokémon for Purugly, which saw the most usage of any Pokémon in ORAS ZU and had an above 50% winrate, into another slot. Carbink fits more on balance teams and is one of the best Knock Off absorbers, while Gigalith fits better on straight offense teams due to its base 135 Attack and decent mixed bulk to trade hits. Other Stealth Rock setters and Normal-resistant Pokémon began to fall out of favor such as Krokorok, Bronzor, and Klang due to their poor Purugly matchup and lack of reliable recovery. Both Gourgeist-S and Gourgeist-L fell out of favor too, despite being superb Purugly answers, due to their awkwardness to fit on teams and competition for the Grass-type slot that almost all teams have.

Servine rose to the occasion this ZUPL with a 77% winrate (after factoring out one week 1 game where it was used by both sides). Glare neutralized all of its offensive answers, while Knock Off removed the items, mostly Eviolites, of its defensive answers. Even Sticky Hold Poison-types such as Swalot and Trubbish could easily be put into range of a +0 followed by a +2 Leaf Storm due to their lack of reliable recovery options outside of Pain Split. Other Grass-type wallbreakers and stallbreakers such as Simisage and Ivysaur followed suit and took advantage of the uptick in Carbink, Gigalith, and Lairon usage caused by Purugly, leading to many offensive Normal + Grass cores. Dustox and Vibrava continued their trends from ZUPL III and saw plenty of usage as the only truly viable entry hazard remover options, with the former even doubling as a solid Grass check. Duosion went from one use with a 100% winrate to six uses with an 83% winrate, as people began to fully capitalize upon the potency of Future Sight and the lack of Psychic answers. Scraggy saw a lot of usage both with and without Duosion; it was by far the best Fighting-type to force Future Sight switches with and was even starting to run Iron Head as a tech for Carbink. Lastly, ORAS had many Pokémon making their debut in the ZUPL scene. Phione, Wormadam-S, and Wailord were just a handful of examples that showcased teambuilding creativity and surprise effectiveness.

Showcasing games

BW

With BW ZU BreadWinners earlier this year, the playerbase massively grew and its level increased as a result. This meant that this iteration, we had a mix of ZUPL regulars like Ren-chon, roxie, and JonAmon 25, as well as newcomers who had great results during BreadWinners such as august, crying, TPP, and Monai. That said, BW ZU had been hit by a significant metagame shift with Articuno's ban, since Articuno + Staryu balance used to be one of the most prominent team archetypes. Without Articuno, fatter teams' viability has plummeted; other staples of this archetype like Hippopotas and Clefairy sported atrocious winrates during the tournament (0% and 29%, respectively, despite many appearances).

Some trends continued from BreadWinners such as Persian cementing itself as the superior Normal-type over Slaking; Persian sits at the top of the usage stats with a positive winrate, while Slaking is at the bottom with one use and one loss. On the one hand, with Wormadam-S and Solrock being so common, as well as Protect and Substitute users remaining quite popular, notably Muk and Grumpig, it is very tedious to make progress with Slaking. On the other hand, Persian is versatile and well suited for this offensive metagame thanks to being the fastest viable Pokémon and having access to powerful priority. It only needs Fake Out, Return or Double-Edge, and U-turn to perform, meaning its last slot is customizable with several great options like Taunt, Knock Off, Water Pulse, Hidden Power, Icy Wind, and even Switcheroo. Lopunny also saw use as a viable replacement that, despite lacking Technician and being slightly slower, just missed out on tying with Persian, has slightly stronger Return and can run Klutz Switcheroo and Healing Wish.

I briefly mentioned that Solrock and Wormadam-S were very common this tournament; their great matchups against top threats like Simisear, Muk, and Emolga for Solrock and Grumpig, Arbok, and Leafeon for Wormadam-S make them extremely valuable for most teams and explain their high usage and great winrates. Checking Poison-types is in particular a great asset, as Arbok and Muk are some of the hardest Pokémon to beat in the tier; both have great coverage like Seed Bomb, Earthquake, Fire Punch, and Brick Break to hit common Poison-resistant Pokémon. Arbok can be very threatening with its access to Coil, Intimidate, and Sucker Punch, and Muk is extremely bulky and can be tedious to take out, especially if it carries Substitute or Protect. Most teams even used their own Poison-type to match opposing Poison-types. This need of Poison-type answers even allowed Wormadam-G to emerge as a viable counter to them with the added benefits of matching up well against Mienfoo and Grumpig, being able to threaten the latter with Sucker Punch.

Showcasing games

DPP

The DPP metagame saw the most drastic metagame shifts of any of the old generations between ZUPL III and IV. Gone were the days of Magmar's wallbreaking superiority and Solrock being the metagame's best Stealth Rock user, and behold the utter dominance of Lapras and Walrein. Boasting the second highest overall BST of any DPP ZU Pokémon, Lapras had the raw bulk to stomach a few super effective hits and dish back out strong attacks. Its wide set diversity including Dragon Dance, Choice Specs, and SubToxic or even extremely obscure sets like Curse and Zoom Lens made it somewhat difficult to determine what it was running: on paper. After only two weeks of gameplay, Lapras found itself with 81% usage and a positive winrate; however, it quickly forewent using any of its physical sets to utilize Thunderbolt in tandem with its fantastic near-unresisted STAB combination. Many games featured a Lapras trade where one person's Lapras would end up fainting after getting a couple of Thunderbolts off on the opposing Lapras. This exchange was favorable for both players, as not much else could adequately switch into a Lapras Surf or Ice Beam reliably. As a result, Lapras was unanimously quickbanned in the middle of Week 2, taking effect Week 3. It wasn't long before a new, yet familiar face took Lapras's place. Walrein saw 33 uses in the remaining seven weeks of ZUPL (tiebreaker included), averaging nearly 70% usage and yet again capitalizing on the metagame's lack of bulky Water-types bar itself that could reliably switch into its STAB attacks. However, due to Walrein's more limited movepool, Pokémon such as Dustox and Kecleon can check it. Walrein also has a harder time picking up multiple KOs due to the metagame's offensive nature, its own Stealth Rock weakness, and its fairly poor Speed stat, which, unlike Lapras, it could not bypass with Dragon Dance or Ice Shard. As the metagame continues to evolve, it's uncertain if Walrein will also require a suspect test and potentially meet the same icy fate as Lapras.

Yet, in spite of Lapras's and Walrein's overwhelming influence on DPP this ZUPL, Camerupt made waves of its own as a top-tier Stealth Rock user and offensive juggernaut. Great mixed bulk in tandem with Solid Rock lets Camerupt tank a super effective hit even without defensive investment, while the combination of Fire Blast or Lava Plume and Earth Power is difficult to switch into bar the uncommon Pelipper. Golbat also established itself as a fantastic stallbreaker and fast pivot, forming cores with Pokémon such as Probopass, Luxray, and Walrein. Not many of the remaining new Pokémon that came in the most recent set of drops made a substantial impact this ZUPL. Wormadam-S had an 80% winrate but was moreso used as an alternative to Mawile; it also was even more passive but had a key neutrality to Fighting and Ground attacks. Mawile isn't new but saw a ton of usage this ZUPL due to the popularization of multiple physical Normal-types, which Intimidate shuts down upon the switch. Swords Dance sets are extremely threatening and are difficult to revenge kill because of Sucker Punch. However, Mawile also commonly uses Baton Pass to pass Swords Dance or Iron Defense boosts to its teammates, even functioning sometimes purely as a slow pivot with dry Pass. Persian stood its ground as one of the best revenge killers, possessing the highest base Speed of any Pokémon in the entire metagame at 115. While Bite and Taunt used to be common to nail Banette and shut down opposing Stealth Rock leads, it began to run Hidden Power Ground as a tech by purposefully lowering its IVs to lower the power of Hidden Power in Technician range, effectively increasing its power and letting it nail Probopass, Lairon, and Mawile. Lastly, Kingler saw plenty of usage both as one of the most common revenge killers with its Choice Scarf set and as a wincon with Agility, Swords Dance, or both.

Showcasing games

Highlights

Danny vs TheFranklin

Danny and TheFranklin were ranked first and second, respectively, in the whole SS ZU pool. Everyone was expecting a great showing from both when they were paired together in week 1. Danny brought an interesting balance team around a defensive core that was very used early in the tournament in Tangela + Altaria + Stunfisk as well as an uncommon lure Ludicolo set to cripple Articuno with Knock Off, while TheFranklin most likely used the same team that his manager Toto used in ZULT finals, which was a very standard Alcremie balance at that time. As usual in SS ZU, the early-game stage mostly consisted of trading Toxic and Knock Off, resulting in both teams having hazards off and no more hazard setter by turn 40. TheFranklin has two very weakened Pokémon, while Danny's team seems to struggle on paper with breaking Alcremie + Rapidash, as only Klinklang can reliably force out Alcremie but risks getting burned by Rapidash's Flame Body, and Danny has neither Heal Bell support nor Toxic on Klinklang to help it break past Rapidash. However, thanks to smart double switches, Danny succeeds in positioning his Choice Scarf Sawk into weakening both Alcremie and Rapidash, opening the door for Wild Charge Klinklang to trade with Rapidash and let Sawk clean with Poison Jab. What's great with this game is how TheFranklin manages to position himself into a very good position in a long early-game stage and Danny still succeeds, albeit with some luck on Flame Body, in finding a winpath.

a fruitshop owner vs Quagg

Quagg and a fruitshop owner have been two staples of the SM ZU scene since it was the current generation. Quagg has always shined with his creativity and ability to exploit underrated strategies, while a fruitshop owner is considered to be one of the best SM ZU pilots. Quagg brought a bulky offense with a quite classic VoltTurn core of Wishiwashi + Rotom-S + Silvally-Ground, a slow wallbreaker in Toucannon, and two uncommon picks in Servine, a Pokémon that Quagg had been loving using recently, and a defensive Crustle, which is quite surprising given that it is almost always played either as Shell Smash sweeper or a suicide lead. On the other hand, a fruitshop owner's team was also a bulky offense, with VoltTurn support from Rotom-S and Silvally-Water, but more standard than Quagg's team, even if all-out attacker Machoke was an interesting niche pick. Quagg takes the upper hand early-game, with a fruitshop owner missing Will-O-Wisp on Crustle as his Rotom-F gets hit by Toxic. This let Quagg use his Crustle to beat a fruitshop owner's Torterra. a fruitshop owner manages, however, to weaken Quagg's team with the combination of Bronzor and Silvally-Water, trading 3 KOs for most of his Silvally-Water's health and his Bronzor. Then, Quagg and a fruitshop owner trade Silvally-Ground and Machoke, respectively. As we enter the late-game stage on turn 23, a fruitshop owner has his weakened and Toxic poisoned Rotom-S, Silvally-Water out of the field in range of hazards, and Mr. Mime, while Quagg has a full health Servine and a weakened Rotom-S. Depending on Mr. Mime's set, it seems like Quagg's Servine should be able to stall out Rotom-S through poison and weaken Mr. Mime enough for a Rotom-S's clean. However, a fruitshop owner reveals his Mr. Mime to have Healing Wish, fully healing Rotom-S and letting it clutch the game, as without poison, Servine was unable to beat it.

5gen vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d

If you remember correctly, this pairing was already a highlight last year. 5gen and Ho3nConfirm3d are two of the most skilled ZU mainers and deliver great showings in ORAS ZU. This game was the first game of the tiebreaker for a playoff spot between Fiery Flamencos and Lucky Stunkys, hyping it even more. 5gen brought a rather standard bulky offense with quite common threats, as only Emolga was quite uncommon, while Ho3n's offensive team was rather unconventional, with Graveler, Seviper, and Murkrow seeing quite low usage. Early-game, both players are able to set Stealth Rock and trade some damage. Then, they make two interesting trades, 5gen's Gigalith for Ho3n's Seviper and 5gen's Krokorok for Ho3n's Graveler. At this point, it's actually almost over, as 5gen just lost the two biggest obstacles to Klang's sweep. Ho3n sacrifices the rest of his team to remove as many threats as possible on 5gen's team and eventually cleans with Klang.

Final Thoughts

Despite a chaotic start, this ZUPL has been a great tournament and probably one of the most competitive ones due to the increased number of teams. As always, it has been a great opportunity to develop ZU metagames, especially SM, which hadn't received such attention since ZUPL II. Congratulations to To Pimp a Butterfree on winning ZUPL IV! This ZUPL was the final chapter of the SS era, as next year it will most likely only feature one slot with SV becoming the current gen.

HTML by Ryota Mitarai.

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