Gholdengo definitely has its niche of completely stuffing passive balances that overly rely on Ho-Oh and don't have multiple mons that threaten it. I'm not sure whether that niche is valuable enough to be ranked. Those teams seem to have become increasingly rare since Xerneas left and I'm not sure that they are common enough to justify Gholdengo's spot on the VR. I'll give it one more slate before voting it to D. I'd load a Gholdengo fat before Trick Room or screens, but that is not a ringing endorsement coming from me.
If anything, if we currently tend to see a lot of the fatter stuff Ghold feasts on it could move up to C. If you asked anyone what would be brought in the opening game of NDPL I doubt many would guess there was no Arceus or it would be Phero Fat v Ghold Balance.
Team Preview
There isn't anything that suggests a certain Wobb spread. Given the rest of the team Alo is likely to be phys def. Bob usually uses Rocky Helmet, so it is probably best to assume that it is until revealed otherwise as hazards will dig into the team. Pheromosa is a cool pick that should work well on a team like this, but it isn't as all encompassing of a breaker compared to mons such as Chien-Pao or Marshadow. Ditto fits well because it can usually revenge stuff that the main offensive mon can't. Ho-Oh is likely defensive though an offensive set could work on structures like this. Tera Dark defensive is also good on this team. This Eternatus is going to have Toxic Spikes, it could be Specs or Defensive at preview. Blissey is going to be Stealth Rock Teleport.
This Primal Groudon looks as though it should be a hazard setter, but can be more offensive due to the Mola support. Mola is probably mixed def. Yveltal is likely scarf for some speed control and emergency fog, especially v webs. Zygarde could be either set, though should be played around as though it is DD. This team is straight 6-0'd by CM Arceus-Dark, especially Refresh so that seems to fit best here and Coil shouldn't be much of a concern for Bob's team to handle defensively. The Ghold spread isn't obvious at preview though I didn't think of Balloon Hex. Etern is likely offensive, though the inclusion of Ghold suggests a strong possibility of Toxic Spikes.
Matchup [90-10 for Emoxu9]
Emoxu9 is heavily favouored at preview. Ghold is a risky bring, but if you're going to bring it at all Bob is someone you'd bring it against. Bob has been exlusively running fat semistalls / balances for the last couple of months and this is what Ghold feasts on. Unless Bob can force Ghold to tera with Ho-Oh it is going to be very hard to beat long-term. If Bob can force Ghold to tera maybe Pheromosa can break through. Yveltal can always come in to revenge kill it, but Alo + Blissey switch-in forever on that. There isn't really anything on Bob's team that Emoxu9 absolutely hates. Trapping wise Wobb is most likely to get a trap off on Yveltal or Eternatus if it is defensive. Pheromosa is threatening on paper, but realistically it has to click correctly every single single turn and force Gholdengo to tera to make consistent progress.
This is close to an unplayable matchup for Bob. This also isn't isn't a happy coincidence for Emoxu9. They have a reputation for very good prep and a lot of the matchup comes from that. It isn't surprising that the last time we saw Gholdengo at high level play is when R8 brought it v WeirdHamster in NDFL last year. What surprises me is that Emoxu9 has no switchin to Chien-Pao pre tera given that Bob has been spamming it nonstop. One of the last three mons is likely Tera Fairy, but thinking about it more, this team kind of banks on Bob not loading Chien-Pao so it is maybe a bit too fishy.
Game
The game starts with what will be a trend throughout this game. Bob opens with Pheromosa and Emoxu9 with Alomomola. Pheromosa U-turns and reveals that Alo is likely fully physically defensive. This is going to be a big issue for Pheromosa as U-turn cannot outdamage regenerator so it can be scouted endlessly and can be material for a Wish pass. If Pheromosa wants to make progress it is going to have to U-turn into something which keeps up the pressure. The issue is that there isn't much that can do it. Bob U-Turns to Eternatus which can apply some pressure, but with no Primal Groudon Emoxu9's Mola is free to Flip Turn and Primal Groudon is in for free and it scares out the Eternatus while getting up Stealth Rock and Toxicing Bob's Alo which will make it incredibly vulnerable to most of Emoxu9's team.
A bunch of double switches later Gholdengo is revealed to be Air Balloon. I don't know what it is aimed for, physical Giratina-O with Tera Fairy is the one that comes to mind while probably being alright into Dragon Dance Zygarde if it is phys def. It switches out and Bob's Ho-Oh takes a Toxic to Defog. Since this is likely defensive Ho-Oh Emoxu9 uses this to get Eternatus in and set a layer of Toxic Spikes, but Blissey teleports out and they're absorbed as Gholdengo comes back in. After some more switching and pivoting Bob decides to sacrifice most of Eternatus's health for a layer of Toxic Spikes against Primal Groudon which are absorbed a couple turns later. After some more positioning it is healed by Alomomola as it stares down Emoxu9's Dragon Dance Zygarde behind a sub. Eternatus breaks the sub as Zygarde gets a Dragon Dance and Tera Grounds into the Alomomola that takes the hit and Tera Grasses. It Flip Turns to Phero which scares it out. Once again there is the sequence of Phero U-turning into Mola which due to a burn takes a couple percent as it Flip Turns into the appropriate mon. Only this time Pheromosa goes for Triple Axel and misses the last so the small amount of progress is undone.
Eventually Emoxu9 positions Primal Groudon in front of Tera Grass Alomomola and fries it with Heat Crash. On Turn 52 Emoxu9 allows Bob's Eternatus to break the Air Balloon on Gholdengo to set up a Nasty Plot and get to work. It gets up to +6 on Blissey and OHKO's Eternatus and a forfeit comes on Turn 59. This felt inevitable from the beginning as Gholdengo outsped everything but the Eternatus which it paralyzed and can't be trapped by Wobb. Not much on Bob's team really threatened it unless Pheromosa had Drill Run. No Arceus from either side in this one.
Additional Thoughts
I am really happy to see Pheromosa used. It has a lot of quite nice traits in the metagame at the moment which is why it rose to C+ in the recent VR update. Being the naturally fastest mon in the metagame gives it a great matchup into stuff like Zacian-C, Deo-A lacking Extreme Speed, and some stuff like a locked CB Marshadow. The Speed + Triple Axel is also great for Dragon Dance Zygarde which is kind of silly right now and goes a long way towards managing it. Furthermore, pivots are at an all time high currently so getting it in is less of an issue than in previous metagames. However it is in C+ because it only fits on certain structures.
The Ghold made it impossible, though even if that slot was something else, likely an Arceus forme, it would be hard for Pheromosa to be the sole source of offensive pressure. I think a lot of the reason Bob's Chien-Pao semistall clicked as well as it did was because double priority Chien-Pao + Ditto is going to cover a lot of the offensive needs of such a fat team. With some tweaks to sets and replacing the Wobb with something else I do think you can make a good Pheromosa fat team. i.e. Making Ho-Oh offensive and Eternatus Choice Specs.
Regardless of whether Bob brings fat, it is something that has to be properly prepped for. Emoxu9 took a gamble with Gholdengo and it paid off brilliantly. At preview it seemed like Gholdengo would inevitably sweep at some point and could have done so earlier if Emoxu9 was willing to part with the Air Balloon. This is a decent team to bring v Bob for a BO1, but I'm not a fan of the team overall. Yes it worked, but I'm still not sure what the Air Balloon on Gholdengo was supposed to be for without Emoxu9. If I was betting on Bob bringing fat I think I'd rather have a Covert Cloak for any Garg + Ferro stuff or leftovers for passive healing and to negate the Sacred Fire burn it is likely to take.
More than that though, I'd rather a different mon. While Emoxu9 has fished, their teams rarely leave such a big opening for some serious threats. For example, looking at the team I think it is likely that at least one of Gholdengo or Eternatus are Tera Fairy given how weak this team is to Calm Mind Arceus-Dark otherwise. Deoxys-A also smokes this team. I'd like this team a fair bit if Gholdengo was some Taunt Arceus forme, probably Calm Mind Arceus-Dark or Fairy. I think going triple ground with Arceus-Ground might make offensive Primal Kyogre too much of an issue.
Team Preview
Fogbound Lake seemingly elected to bring a
sample team that might have some edits. Zacian-C is kind of annoying to teams like these and Play Rough + TB Ground is especially frustrating given that it will likely force Giratina-O to tera. The team is fine, though I'm not sold on Morning Sun.
I'm fairly sure Mashing has played a lot of SV Ubers and this team is quite influenced by it. I'm not sure what support Mashing has for NDUbers, but this team looks like there isn't much or it is aiming to fish. It doesn't love stall, it also doesn't love fat either. Ribombee was ranked recently due to its niche of prevent opposing Sticky Web setters from setting them. It is viable, but unless Mashing is expecting Fogbound Lake to load Sticky Webs this is a big fish and they'd be better off using Smeargle or Shuckle. Their ability to get up Stealth Rock up would have played a signifcant factor in this game. Primal Groudon is probably Eruption, but could be Double Dance or offensive support. Arceus-Ground will most likely be Dragon Dance, though the fourth moveslot will determine its role. The same applies to Zacian-C, but given Basculegion, Play Rough TB Ground helps remove the Arceus formes that are likely to be in its way. Yveltal's tera can also play a massive role as Fire, Flying, and Dark all help against different stuff. If it is Tera Flying it has a good chance to 6-0 with good positioning.
Matchup at Preview [80-20 for Mashing] [55-45 after Basculegion is revealed to not be Choice Scarf]
Given that Fogbound Lake's team is public, we can go off that rather than making assumptions. Webs should be tough to remove in this game and they are likely to play a role in Mashing's path to victory. Taunt and Yveltal and potentially the Arceus-Ground means that Giratina-O is going to have a tough time removing webs. The webs also let Arceus-Ground setup on Arceus-Fairy and Yveltal easily beat it if it is Tera Flying/Fire and prevent it from setting up. Yveltal outspeeding Marshadow will also be pretty big given how much of a threat it is to Mashing's team. If Arceus-Ground has Taunt it can cause a lot of trouble with Webs up, but if it is Healing Wish the second life might make a difference for something in the endgame. A Basculegion endgame is quite possible as Arceus-Ground and Zacian-C can break for it. Though this assumes it is Choice Scarf, which spoiler, it was not. Choice Scarf Basculegion would easily clean up the end game with tera available to live a Shadow Sneak.
Fogbound's path to victory is a bit different as it wholly depends on Mashing's sets and tera types. Yveltal is going to be incredibly tough to handle as long as Webs are up. Getting them off isn't going to be easy as the only mon Giratina-O can safely remove them on is Primal Groudon and Arceus-Ground if that isn't Taunt. A path to victory is likely going to heavily involve Marshadow and Garganacl. Marshadow can revenge every mon but Yveltal and if Garganacl gets on the field against the right mon it can claim a KO. Tera Water is important for limiting Zacian-C while Tera Ghost enables Marshadow to fairly easily pick everything off. Mashing will have to decide whether it is wothwhile to use Primal Groudon defensively against Zacian-C or to keep it in the back to survive and end-game Last Respects. Arceus-Fairy isn't doing much in this game though it can threaten Yveltal if webs are removed and it is Tera Dark.
Game
Ribombee lead is expected on Mashing's end while Fogbound elects to lead with Garganacl. This is a pretty good lead as Arceus-Fairy and Giratina-O don't want to risk a Stun Spore. Salt Cure isn't at risk of running out of PP and it lets Fogbound see how Mashing intends to deal with it. Then on Turn 2 Psychic Noise of all things is clicked. I'm not sure why Psychic Noise is even on this set, maybe it is a thing in SV Ubers. It 2HKOes Glimmora, but that really doesn't feel worth a moveslot. Ribombee has 2 slots and a half dozen moves that would make more sense.
After the Ribombee goes down, Mashing elects to go Baculegion which I find a bit puzzling. It is revealed to be Substitute, something it used in SV Ubers, but doesn't see much if any use in NDUbers. I'm not sure why this was the path chosen. If webs stay up Basculegion will probably find a turn to do this later and Last Respects would break through Garganacl. Garganacl ends up being Tera Water and is going to either KO this Basculegion or force it out and something will have to take Salt Cure chip. Instead Mashing opts to sack the Basculegion rather than attempting to predict a recover to bring out Yveltal.
It easily dispatches the Garganacl and stays in to Oblivion Wing and catches Arceus-Fairy as Marshadow fails to scare it out. Over the next couple turns Arceus-Fairy dispatches Yveltal, but shows why Arceus-Fairy is only really a soft check without some SpD as Oblivion Wing does 32/37/34 to the Arceus-Fairy before Fogbound accepts that it won't be healing back up. If at any point Taunt was clicked Arceus-Fairy is very easily picked off.
These turns really show the shortcoming of Ribombee when it doesn't have a webs mirror as the Stealth Rock set by Shuckle or Smeargle would have signficantly helped in wearing down the Arceus-Fairy and would potentially put Primal Groudon in range of +3 Tera Fighting Close Combat. Instead it OHKO's Necrozma-DM and leaves Primal Groudon at 13%. It is then picked off by Arceus-Ground, but I think this was the opportunity to maybe get a Dragon Dance and force Giratina-O in to weaken it for Primal Groudon. Arceus-Ground then misses a Stone Edge, but this game was over a while ago and Giratina-O easily finishes off Primal Groudon. This game was won very early on when Garganacl was allowed to KO two, functionally 3 mons before going down.
Additional Thoughts
From this team it seems like Mashing either needs support or better support. These 6 mons can work together, but the sets are reminiscent of a webs team from April or May. These sets are why it feels Mashing is being left out to dry a bit support wise. Most of them would fit in well on a standardish webs team just after Xerneas was banned, but the metagame including HO has undergone some development recently. A big one is the rise of Tina-O which this team ran into and had a very hard dealing with. Defog Imprison (I'm assuming) is a cool tech that might be work well into some Ho-Oh balances, but U-Turn, Skill Swap, Stun Spore or even a screen would help out a lot more against everything else. One of the very nice things about Choice Scarf Yveltal is that it can always Defog on Webs teams and most people loading Giratina-O into this team are not going to try trading Giratina-O for a low chance to remove webs given the Arceus-Ground + Primal Groudon.
The biggest thing that stands out is the Basculegion set. Substitute Basculegion was a thing in SV Ubers, but NDUbers is a much more hostile metagame where it has a very difficult time getting off both Substitute and Agility so Choice Scarf is the standard. Underspeeding Zacian-C if webs are removed sucks, but it really shouldn't be an issue for this team with Arceus-Ground, Primal Groudon, and Heat Wave on Yveltal if it is needed. Yveltal these days frequently runs Tera Flying or Fire on Webs. Tera Fire does essentially the same thing against defensive Ho-Oh that Ribombee is aiming to do with Imprison + Defog. Tera Flying is stupidly good into a team like this that relies a lot on Arceus-Fairy to handle Yveltal. It prevents setup and the tera boost enables Yveltal to heal off all the damage from Judgment.
It isn't super clear which STAB the Zacian-C has, but it is fine on this team with just about any moveset though Play Rough / Behemoth Blade or Wild Charge / Tera Blast Ground is probably the way to go here. Given that stall seems to be wholly ignored, this moveset means it can easily handle the Yveltal, Arceus-Dark, Arceus-Fairy, and Marshadow that want to get in the way of Basculegion's sweep. Wild Charge can be dropped if the team doesn't care about Ho-Oh or has the means to prevent it from fogging which this team does pretty well.
Primal Groudon could be a couple of different sets here and I'm not sure what would be best. Before watching the game my initial thought was SD + SR, but the last move wasn't revealed. Special based sets are common on webs, but these days you'll see Primal Kyogre more often than not which does help the issues this team has with Coil Zygarde. This team does look normal enough, if a bit outdated, at preview.
There isn't a ton to say about Fogbound's team given that it is likely a sample. However, it did end up touching on a couple of important things. First, Garganacl shows how much value it can provide by knocking out 2.5 mons. Part of this was Mashing misplaying, but there was always a pretty high likihood of Garganacl teraing to Salt Cure Zacian-C anyways. Tera Water also helps a lot against Primal Kyogre, which would usually be seen on these sorts of teams and would easily run over other options for that slot. The other main thing, mentioned above, is how poorly Arceus-Fairy switches into Yveltal. Getting the positioning right for Necrozma-DM to eliminate them can take a while and in the meantime Arceus-Fairy is going to need to switch-in which may not leave it with enough Recover PP to end games against non HO squads. Switching into Oblivion Wing = 1 Recover, especially with Stealth Rock set and that is going to eat into Recover very quickly. The team doesn't have any major issues, but this and the amount of damage Dragon Dance Zygarde can do if it gets a turn to boost are cause for concern.
Team Preview [55-45 for Entrocefalo]
Entro's team is very interesting and funnily enough consists of most of the Pokemon that were acknowledged to have a significant increase in viability in the recent slate. Figuring out what Pokemon has which entry hazard is not immediately apparent. The team could just as easily be a hazard stacking BO or a setup spam BO with just Stealth Rock and either would be fine. This makes it difficult to confidently make predictions, but here goes.
Primal Groudon is likely to be SD Utility or Defensive. It needs to carry a decent amount of defensive investment on this team, but Dragon Tail or Roar could replace Toxic. Given the nature of this team and Entro's aggressive playstyle in general Rock Tomb seems more likely than Overheat. Giratina-O could be either physical or special, but given that Marshadow and Necrozma-DM can handle the Arceus formes between them a special set seems quite likely.
Garganacl and Arceus-Fairy are the two wild cards. They could both easily run setup or support sets on this team. A lot also depends on whether Garganacl is Tera Fairy or Water. Wisp Arceus-Fairy pairs better with setup Garganacl given the teams general annoyance with Zacian-C. Exactly set the Garganacl is running will be pivotal. Garganacl looks to be a massive threat into Skimmy, though the set is important. It really depends on the Zygarde and Zacian-C sets, but if played well Garganacl will cause Skimmy a lot of headaches. Necrozma-DM seems pretty likely to be Dragon Dance Solg Z, but Dragon Dance Ultra is possible as well. It will likely trade with something at some point, but it likely won't be getting that second Dragon Dance so it'll be revenged by Zacian-C or Marshadow after removing something. This team can afford Photon Geyser as Garganacl means it gives no fucks about Ho-Oh. I'm near certain Marshadow will be banded for the strong priority. At this stage Entro seems to have a lot of options.
Game
Entro Leads with Giratina-O while Skimmy leads with Arceus-Ground. Who is favoured depends on the Arceus-Ground set. Entro ends up scouting as Garganacl takes the revealed Ice Beam. After a switch back it is burnt and spends a few turns Dragon Tailing Ho-Oh & Zygarde while burn chip racks up. Primal Groudon is brought out and Poltergeist damage reveals that it is very offensive as it sets up Stealth Rock. Fire Punch comes out as Giratina-O fogs and slips under half health. This is something that shouldn't have made it into the game. Run Heat Crash or the offensive support set. It does no damage to Giratina-O and Heat Crash deletes a lot of tomfoolery.
Entro switches Giratina-O out into Primal Groudon and gets in for free because of Fire Punch. Skimmy then switches in Arceus-Ground and Entro decides to trade Primal Groudon for a Spike. Entro brings in Arceus-Fairy which reveals Calm Mind and Ho-Oh scares it out into Garganacl. It punishes the Defog attempt and Skimmy elects to sacrifice Primal Groudon as Entro sacrifices Giratina-O to Stealth Rock.
Entro sends out Necrozma-DM while Skimmy sends out Zygarde which switches out to Arceus-Fairy which catches a Thousand Waves before being scared out. Arceus-Fairy Taunts to prevent an incoming Zacian-C from using Swords Dance before going down to Behemoth Blade. Necrozma-DM scares out Zacian-C into Zygarde which Tera Waters traps and sets up to +2 before being scared about by Marshadow. Marshadow trades itself for most of Zacian-C's health who is then finished off by Tera Waer Garganacl. Skimmy's Marshadow reveals Bulk Up and the gamei is over.
Additional Thoughts
Going to point out the Fire Punch Primal Groudon again as I'm surprised that this and the Agility Basculegion would both come. Bulk Up Z Marshadow seems to be somewhat popular recently though I'm not the biggest fan of that set. This also notes all three Zygarde sets making an appearance in three games.
Week 2 Predicts (because Adem has been bugging me)
Fogbound Lake v
ShieldPoke [60-40] - The good support R8 can provide more than balances out Adem. Don't know either players though Fogbound Lake has a pretty good reputation, but I think ShieldPoke's support will help them win through the builder.
Emoxu9 v Mashing [60-40] - I don't know if Emoxu9 is a mainer, but they are at least familiar with the team and decent in the builder. Emoxu9 also does pretty good prep on top of playing very well in game.
Entro v VicBossMG [idk] - Would bold Entro against pretty much anyone in NDUbers.
Vice City Victinis (3) vs (7) Age of the Starmies 
Unrelenting Unmons (3) vs (7) Wired Weaviles 
Galarian Phoenix (6) vs (4) Always Midnight Absols 
Glaring Gengars (4) vs (6) Shiesty Shell Smashers 
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