OU Teams
Player Index -
yonmd
Xurkiyee
SHSP
Week 2 -
vs Sputnik (W) (
)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nationaldex-848257
Xurkiyee was pretty cool for suggesting this one, Sput was well known for bringing offenses leaning towards the voltturn style throughout the gen, so a demon deo-d build with the addon of dual ground + hazards to shut down any attempts at volt switch answered this pretty nicely. Rest of the team was built around having as many potential outs to setup sweepers in conjunction with the hazards and worked despite looking strange.
vs Pannu (W)
(
)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nationaldex-847776
Pannu had just been swapped in as a sub last minute so we weren't quite sure on what to go with ngl. Ultimately wanted to go with a future sight core with slowking with a fast cleaner like urshifu to tear through offense, and the team worked with some smart use of koko bailing us out against the potentially disastrous cm fini. I believe heatran > ferrothorn during the game was to better MU into non hp volcarona though I did eventually switch it to ferro to even an otherwise bad rain MU while considering it for other tours.
Week 3 -
vs Jojen (W) (
)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldex-2385264136-vlf2s3agq8saxdxr35wx2uisuu0mneypw
This was an interesting one, our oppo wasn't known as a tier main in particular though a pattern for breakers such as lele and prot gren gave me the idea to run aegislash, a mon I have constantly attempted to ride the hype train for but to no avail. also really liked how diancie fits on these types of balance/semistall builds in particular, probably the most dynamic breaker in this tier and really helped to make the otherwise lengthy pilot much less boring.
Week 4 -
vs HoodedZack (W) (
)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldex-2389377028-yeur5pw45f8ov1b7ahw45e3s6qes6k1pw
Hm Stall bruh — 17/6/2025, Nvm thats boring, Zobris rain famous last words on discord before we decided to lock in what I think is a pretty interesting take on rain. with scolipede being here to take advantage of frequent gliscor / clefable / ferro usage, check annoying grasses like rilla and kart lategame, while abusing rain and water z to overwhelm some of its steel counters more easily. game itself was fairly contentious at the start with a troublesome MU into band weav, but Xurk definitely read my mind and pulling through by abusing fini every turn and sweeping.
vs Lameflame (L) (
)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldex-2389619864-4sybdf7ve9nfqmovnhr0f44aciws6ojpw
Highlight oppo for sure, LF was pretty well known across the community, and their creativity with several offense builds despite being more of a balance player was certainly inspiring. ended up recreating a seth team with band weavile > woger and the accompanying ferrogliscpex also being a g9 favourite, working out nicely to ensure we could safely scout most of the tier's breakers in that regard. I believe yonmd's endgame of stalling out terrain and going into weavile is played correctly, but unfortunately we came up just short due to the 50% ice shard roll against the unexpected mchomp. overall an exciting watch.
Week 5 -
vs Starreal (L) (
)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nationaldex-852465
Flames wanted to build off zapdos, I wanted to build hoopa, we put the two ideas together and landed on the above. Unfortunately rolled into magnet pull offense but would've probably been a lot closer if not for the shoddy early-game with zap ngl. Spdef lefties chomper is god.
Week 6 -
vs Ky (DG) (
)
An old timer and one of my friends from another timeline in adem gave me the idea to run 4a mtar, a breaker which I think is rather underexplored for its interesting defensive traits into most of the tier's psychics, terrain support also went a long way in allowing it to trade in spite of its biggest hindrance to statuses vs defensive pokes like toxapex and clefable. then on top of this is the evil serp set.
vs kjdaas (DG) (
)
2nd time in the same week where we rolled into another oppo who hadn't previously played but if there was one thing I knew for sure it was that one of my idols in Kate was likely to be behind the build if played. Wanted to try out volcanion due to its similar blend of defensive traits turned defensive potential, despite not getting taunt this gen (given, toxic was still a decent substitute) I found the trapper set appealing for its stabs and ability to invite in and easily wear down common defensive pivots ie: fini toxapex latias and clefable. z dragonite also felt like such a smash hit in this regard due to the aggressive nature of this team preventing hazards and its innate ability to completely roll through offense once the defensive backbone was worn down enough, although I think espeed > fire punch was probably better for opposing weavile since the opposing corvs and ferros were easily overwhelmed to begin with. unfortunately all this theorising and enthiusiasm ended with another dg though :|.
Week 7 -
vs Frixel (DG) (
)
The Pokerich week. think this take on weavileless sun could've cooked if we loaded into the standard of latias balance
Semifinals -
vs HoodedZack (L) (
)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nationaldex-858070
HoodedZack certainly has a style, as SHSP would say. Had to cycle through a few options beforehand but I ultimately settled on a stall build with a volcarona wincon as per SHSP's suggestion, we both felt the current hazard control was pretty solid as long as we didn't run into a dedicated stallbreaker like ice punch ttar or z heatran, so heavy speed investment and bug z was specifically used to let volc flip MUs into some of zack's offensive threats. av tang also may look pretty strange, but was used to guard vs potential rain and stuff overeliant on pursuitting down chansy to function. while we didn't get completely robbed here the game did eventually boil down to hax with a potential setup angle on both sides, only for the crit on clef to kick in at the worst timing possible... bitter end to an enjoyable season of building as a whole.
UU Teams
Always liked SS NDUU despite the relatively skewed nature of the meta rn, as can be seen with the tier having standardized voltturn and ho though not to the extent that other techs and exceptions haven't found success elsewhere. As for me, between prepping for OMPL and my finals throughout June into growing builder frustration upon the transition into tours as a whole I was sort of creatively dead after W2. hydreigon is very likely a root issue and should probably be addressed should natdex ever move into pastgens tiering policy, otherwise there's other elements such as meteor beam spam and salamence for sure that could honestly be cause for concern but don't personally find myself criticising too highly for now. wasn't the greatest season for me either with a pretty mediocre 4-4 record and some clear mistakes here and there, but special shoutouts to
mrfraud and
SapoDaG30 for tolerating the bullshit and being fun people to chat with regarding ideas throughout this tour.
Toxinalpaca My Coman. Despite not being around much, you were still always there when it mattered most. I could not count on anyone else less to draft
the team to get into playoffs and keep the streak going. Be sure to get into and win NDPL when it matters most boss!
Xurkiyee yonmd I think we may have been in it together all along, but learning to build SS NDOU was certainly a much more pleasant experience and I have you guys to appreciate for contributing to that experience. Keep on cooking with or without my builds as you wish.
Kayzn PugGod, sorry things didn't quite work out for you as much as you expected, but regardless it's clear you're very talented as a player and got around to some nice comebacks despite struggling in others. Those wins you had absolutely contributed to our playoffs spot and we couldn't have entrusted it to anyone else.
Uta The Clown I'll be honest when I say that your final record in Monotype does not reflect your overall potency whatsoever. You've clearly got an incredible mind for this tier and the upsets vs players like dorron and feen to back it up, and I'm sure you've only gotten positive reception from the tour as opposed to otherwise. Keep this up and you'll be at the top in no time.
salmonelephant I'm catching up on all RU prep I missed from your discord channel as I'm writing this; You and Sapo might be the most surprising RU duo I've seen in quite a while. Great job evening out your record from that 0-2 start, and being thus active in teambuilding is always a rare quality I enjoy. And also a special thanks for convincing me to keep going in UU when I was 1-3 aop during the tour :sob:
lotiasite ubers jesus holy shittttt. I won't lie here when I say me and Toxin were originally in shambles looking at this pool during the auction beforehand, so snagging someone we ended up paying less for than planned and watching you run tests day and night just to load the same triple cm arceus balance and win was amazing. tl;dr goat, probably our most valuable teamslot besides doubles. next time we draft you we'll be sure to not get mollywhopped while you're on the other side.
Akaru Kokuyo 29k Doublesman straight outta hell and 8-0 goat. Ngl Doubles is probably the most abstract format and absolutely something we needed someone foreign to decipher at all to have a chance, but you killed it this tour as you would across the entire site. Please, when possible, humble this dear thread with your innovations man.
SHSP Sorry for having you bench sit, but its clear to me that you would've been willing to put in just as much effort as anybody else to ensure we were on top of our game throughout the season. Appreciate that kind of loyalty, and nice work putting Zack on edge during the semis.
Flames Of Elixir You weren't on the original roster but special special thanks for coming along and supporting thoughout the tour regardless, it was especially felt in instances I wasn't around to support my teammates in NDOU, you got around to some pretty great teams and you and Kayzn certainly had a lot going together that I couldn't replicate at all as well. Your efforts were great and I hope to see you drafted in future teamtours :)
