Metagame BW Draft

[Monai]

with permission from Hacker, format copied from fortunate sun

BW Draft: An Introduction

Artwork by the homie nchmax ​

With BW Draft finally getting a tournament this summer and filling in the hole between the old gens of draft, me and Gypsy wanted to provide a one-stop-shop for beginners of this very fun and unique meta.

The biggest trait to set BW Draft apart is of course the permanent weather wars, with regularly 4-5 teams in a pool opting for one of Sand Stream, Drizzle, Snow Warning, and the occasional Drought. Even teams without an automatic weather setter may keep manual weather setting in mind in order to disrupt their opponents weather-based composition. The permanent chip damage of Sand and Hail and the boosting properties of Rain and Sun would already grant the tier an offensive slant, but two other crucial mechanics help contribute to the fast pace. The first is a lack of Defog alongside many great Spikers, Ghost-types, and Rocky Helmet, which leads to hazard stacking being very prominent, necessitating every team draft a solid Rapid Spin user or have a robust hazard plan. The second is a lack of Fairy-types in a metagame with amazing Dragon-types compared to DPP, with Garchomp, Hydreigon, Haxorus, and Kyurem destroying teams unprepared for a Dragon-filled metagame. All these traits place a pretty heavy emphasis on either outgunning the opponent faster, or using hazards and status to shut down explosive threats.

Weather Complex

Similar to BW OU, BW Draft makes use of a complex on weather-based Speed-boosting abilities with their respective weather, which bans Swift Swim alongside Drizzle, Chlorophyll alongside Drought, and Sand Rush alongside Sand Stream. This complex permits manual weather such as Rain Dance alongside Swift Swim.

In addition,

• Baton Pass can only be used for momentum, stats may not be passed (Dry Pass only)
• Excadrill may not have the ability Sand Rush
• Landorus-I may not have the ability Sheer Force

Draft Rules

• You have up to 90 points with which to draft 8 Pokémon. Costs are listed on your pool’s tab on the drafting spreadsheet.
• If a Pokémon is picked by someone else, you may not pick it.
• For the first round, there is a 12 hour timer. After the first round ends, there will be a continuous 6 hour timer within which you must pick, or you will be skipped, and will be required to make-up your pick when you are next online. All timers are off between 10pm-7am local time (check your pool's pinned message for local time).
• Your timer will halve every time you are skipped. It is recommended to leave picks (with backups) with your pool moderator to avoid this.
• The abilities Drizzle and Swift Swim may not appear on the same team
• The abilities Drought and Chlorophyll may not appear on the same team
• The abilities Sand Stream and Sand Rush may not appear on the same team
• The following Pokémon have access to all of their forms (although you may only bring up to 1 to each battle):
  - Wormadam
  - Basculin
• Smogon’s Species Clause applies to your draft.

Battle Rules

• All games must be played in the [Gen 5] Draft tier on smogtours.psim.us or psim.us. Be aware that each game on smogtours starts a timer automatically and cannot be turned off.
• BW cartridge win conditions are in place; there are no ties.
• Each set is a best-of-one set.
• The following clauses apply:
  • Sand Veil is banned
  • Snow Cloak is banned
  • Baton Pass can only be used for momentum, stats may not be passed (Dry Pass only)
  • Excadrill may not have the ability Sand Rush
  • Landorus-I may not have the ability Sheer Force
  • The abilities Drizzle and Swift Swim may not appear on the same team
  • The abilities Drought and Chlorophyll may not appear on the same team
  • The abilities Sand Stream and Sand Rush may not appear on the same team
  • ALL Gems are banned
  • Quick Claw, King's Rock, Razor Fang and Bright Powder are banned
• Any items unreleased in BW are banned.

Round 1's

Garchomp - Commonly agreed #1 in the tier, Garchomp's already top tier stats, typing, and movepool are made even more excellent by the absence of checks such as the Lati Twins and Keldeo. Between the numerous options Garchomp has, most notably Choice Scarf, Stealth Rock, Swords Dance, and Mixed, and the difficulty in removing it thanks to its great bulk and Speed, Garchomp has the flexibility and effectiveness to excel in any matchup. Dragon is the best type prior to Fairy, and a complimentary Ground-typing alongside its great bulk lets Garchomp hit the field more effectively and hits the one resistance to Dragons in Steel. This amazing offensive flexibility and reliability makes Garchomp the go-to first pick that is impossible to go wrong with.

Common Items: Yache Berry, Choice Scarf, Life Orb, Haban Berry, Salac Berry


Jirachi - Wielding arguably the best typing pre-XY, a stellar movepool, and an ability that induces frustration on the best of days, Jirachi is another versatile top tier that can fulfill virtually any role a team could possibly wish for. While not the most immediately powerful attacker as a result of its middling 100 attacking stats, Jirachi's wealth of coverage can chunk nearly any swap and the imminent threat of Serene Grace flinches and paralysis make it all the more volatile to answer. This is just considering one of its many sets as well; Jirachi makes an excellent Choice Scarf user with an even faster Iron Head and suite of utility, it can become a hugely threatening stallbreaker with SubCM, contribute to the hazard game with Stealth Rock, and even wall effectively with Wish while dealing out Paralysis and pivoting with U-Turn. Jirachi can truly do it all, and it can improve any single draft considering it, even more reliably than Garchomp and other top tier picks.

Common Items: Leftovers, Choice Scarf, Expert Belt, Shuca Berry


Kyurem-Black - It's absolutely no surprise to see Kyurem-B is coveted as one of the most threatening wallbreakers available. Kyurem-B dwarfs the average statline, wielding a titanic base state total of 700 and 170 base attack, it is no surprise that it is the most powerful and straightforward wallbreaker in the tier. A very common option is Choice Band, whose simplicity does not hold it back in its effectiveness. Clicking Outrage with 723 Attack will net a 2HKO at minimum versus even most Steel-types, and with no Fairy-types around to soak up the hit, this will almost always result in at least a neutral trade, if not Kyurem-B wrecking two Pokemon back-to-back as they fail to KO it through its colossal bulk. Despite this, Kyurem-B is no one-trick pony. Kyurem-B can leverage the threat of a nigh guaranteed KO with Choice Band to set up a Substitute as the opponent sacks a weakened Pokemon, now being forced to give up multiple Pokemon since very few Pokemon can both break the Substitute, survive Kyurem-B's retaliation, and KO it afterwards. While Kyurem-B's Ice-typing and seeming lack of physical STAB for it is at times a hinderance, requiring good hazard control to make the most of it, a great base 120 Special Attack is a viable way to make use of Ice Beam, and Power Herb can utilize an extremely powerful Freeze Shock once. These overwhelming offensive traits make outoffensing Kyurem-B the go-to solution for many players, but a base 95 Speed stat is quite solid as well, allowing Choice Scarf Kyurem-B to flip the script on very offensive compositions and clean up mid- to late-game with a spammable Outrage once the Steel-type has been weakened. Despite the seemingly limited toolkit, Kyurem-B is truly one of the most unpredictable and threatening Pokemon in the tier.

Common Items: Choice Band, Choice Scarf, Life Orb, Choice Specs, Leftovers, Power Herb



Landorus-Therian - Unsurprisingly, the genie of healthy meta rules BW Draft just as he does any other format. Landorus-T's gigantic base attack, balanced stats, and amazing ability are iconic and allows it to fill numerous different roles, often at the same time. Choice Scarf is perhaps the most famous and emblematic of Landorus's versatility, easily pivoting in with its great defensive traits and launching either a huge Earthquake or keeping the momentum with U-Turn. Landorus can also use its aforementioned defensive traits in a much more obvious way. By donning Leftovers and defensive investment, it can use its resistances and Intimidate to check physical attackers while setting Stealth Rock and generating momentum, which it can do multiple times a game thanks to its Spikes-immunity providing great longevity in a hazard-filled metagame. While Landorus is arguably more famous for its utility and defensive roles, its base 145 Attack is still one of the highest in the metagame and Landorus has great tools to use it. Landorus has near perfect coverage with either Stone Edge or Rock Slide alongside Earthquake, which pairs with Swords Dance and Rock Polish for a very dangerous Dual Dance sweeper. Since Landorus is so adept at switching in it can regularly attain both boosts, or it can use a Swords Dance to break down the opponents team early game, before cleaning through their weakened Pokemon late game with Rock Polish. These are the most commonly effective sets, but Landorus's great stats and deep movepool allow it to effectively fulfill many other niche roles such as a Calm Mind or mixed attacker, suicide lead, and Choice Band user. Landorus-T is perhaps the most consistent Pokemon of all time, and the players who draft it will appreciate its stellar performance in nearly any matchup.

Common Items: Choice Scarf, Leftovers, Soft Sand, Yache Berry, Passho Berry, Focus Sash



Terrakion - 129 Attack and 108 Speed alongside a crushing STAB combination makes Terrakion one of the most brutal Pokemon to play around, as it easily justifies its lack of utility with power and speed. Despite the typing's mediocrity on defense, partners sporting U-Turn or Volt Switch can get Terrakion in on opposing walls quickly and reliably, and very few Pokemon are more feared than Terrakion from that position. A Choice Band set is perhaps the best in class immediate threat, OHKOing virtually anything with a correct prediction and taking away over 50% from even resisted hits on faster checks, such as Max HP Starmie switching into Close Combat. Even if you were one of the lucky few to draft a Pokemon able to take on both of its STAB attacks, Terrakion has a perfect moveset to circumvent otherwise solid answers; Earthquake dispatches of the Nidos, X-Scissor tears apart Claydol, and Hidden Power Ice can snipe Landorus-T and Gliscor. I use such specific examples to illustrate how few Pokemon can take on Terrakion, even on paper. In practice, a Swords Dance on the switch or a correctly predicted attack makes Terrakion impossible to reliably check. Terrakion's STAB attacks are so perfectly complimentary, that it can often fit setup or disruption moves alongside coverage. In addition to Swords Dance nigh OHKOing the entire Pokedex, Terrakion's immediacy often allows it to set up a Substitute or Rock Polish as the opponent planned to sacrifice a weakened Pokemon, suddenly exposing their team to another KO or even a sweep. As a cherry on top, Terrakion is a solid cleanup artist with Choice Scarf, as very few late game sweepers outrun it with the Scarf and its strong STABs make revenge killing quite reliable. While not the most versatile of the top dogs, its sheer competency at taking KOs makes for exciting and powerful drafts.

Common Items: Choice Band, Choice Scarf, Life Orb, Lum Berry, Expert Belt, Focus Sash



Excadrill -Excadrill establishes itself in BW Draft not only as a threatening physical wallbreaker, but also a utility champion, often at the same time. Excadrill's base 135 Attack, access to Swords Dance and Rapid Spin, as well as an amazing typing and customizable bulk makes it not only immensely threatening but BW Draft's most consistent weapon against the omnipresent Spikes. Despite its seemingly limited movepool, it can very easily tweak the great options it does have alongside EVs and its item to become deceptively unpredictable. A standard Swords Dance + Rapid Spin set is ever consistent, but Mold Breaker to bypass Levitate and Choice Band Earthquake can put opponents in lethal guessing games very quickly, while Choice Scarf combines a great late game cleaner with early game hazard removal. Excadrill can even make use of its numerous resistances and high HP to run an effective defensive set, packed with hazard removal, Stealth Rock of its own, and still decent damage output. Despite already being a top pick on weatherless drafts, If a team is lucky enough to pick up Tyranitar or Hippowdon, Excadrill's threat potential skyrockets in sand. Sand Force and permanent sand chip elevates Excadrill to obscene levels of power, turning its Swords Dance sets into OHKO machines and accelerating the timer Substitute or Protect + Toxic puts the opponent on. The many types Excadrill resists and Pokemon it threatens to revenge kill makes a Substitute set very potent as well. Toxic can be employed to cripple bulky checks, but if they lack a good answer, Substitute can often force its opponent to sack either an additional Pokemon to handle Excadrill or give it a free Rapid Spin. A long time controversial presence in BW OU, it is no surprise how excellent Excadrill is in BW Draft.

Common Items: Leftovers, Air Balloon, Choice Scarf, Choice Band



Thundurus-Therian - Thundurus-T is in contention for the most lethal Pokemon in the tier thanks to its reliability and unpredictability. Thundurus-T rocks the highest Special Attack in BW Draft, which alongside its great 101 Speed, huge coverage, and setup tools, makes it a ticking time bomb in team preview. The most obvious set to use is Agility, allowing Thundurus-T to use a Modest nature and its immediate power to punch holes in defensive checks for a sweep down the line. Against bulky teams featuring long-term checks to Thundurus-T, it can make use of its many stallbreaking options; Nasty Plot turns Thundurus-T into an OHKO machine and can be paired with Agility for a game ending combination, Taunt shuts down attempts to status it in particular, and U-Turn provides useful chip on its counters while maintaining momentum. This is just scratching the surface of Thundurus-T's options as well, its many viable item choices provide lots of offensive depth, as all of Choice Scarf, Choice Specs, Leftovers, and resist berries are commonly used to circumvent its checks. The sky is the limit with how Thundurus-T can mix and match its options, making it an excellent option for creative and aggressive players.

Common Items: Leftovers, Choice Scarf, Expert Belt, Yache Berry, Sitrus Berry, Lum Berry, Choice Specs, Life Orb



Politoed - The mascot of BW OU and its defining Drizzle makes a splash in BW Draft as the highest value weather condition in the famous weather wars. While Politoed's stats aren't impressive and a mono Water-type isn't unique, the permanent rain it brings is unparalleled support. Whether the payoff is offensive behemoths such as Tornadus and Starmie, unkillable tanks such as Tentacruel and Ferrothorn, or even occasional hybrids such as Toxicroak and Zapdos, Rain has incredible versatility uncharacteristic of its hyper offensive status in later generations. Even Politoed itself is emblematic of this, as it can either run solid supporting sets with Scald, disruption moves such as Encore, and regularly Ice Beam for the dangerous Dragons, or it can directly abuse its own Rain with items such as Choice Specs and Choice Scarf. Rain is perhaps the most punishing team style to run into if ill-prepared, and Politoed is an important piece for not just bringing Drizzle, but providing valuable support and versatility along the way.

Common Items: Leftovers, Chesto Berry, Choice Scarf, Choice Specs



Tyranitar - Every Pokemon player should be familiar with Tyranitar's incredible status across every generation, and BW Draft is only different because its permanent sand is even more impressive than usual. A permanent 1/16th damage every turn to affected Pokemon adds up incredibly quickly, and sand teams are regularly equipped to go the distance with several immunities and lots of longevity. Despite sand teams often leaning into a much more balanced style, Tyranitar is no slouch offensively compared to its fellow sand setter, Hippowdon. Tyranitar has an impressive Attack stat with amazing coverage, bolstered further by solid mixed attacking options and even Taunt and Dragon Dance, allowing Tyranitar to be tailored to each individual matchup and strike at teams from multiple possible angles. Its defensive tools are equally famous, as its already huge bulk becomes legendarily special resilience in its Sand Stream, allowing it to check nearly any special attacker in the game with its natural power and Thunder Wave paralysis while picking them off as they try to flee with Pursuit. Tyranitar's sand even brings direct offensive benefits. While Rain is the first thing that comes to the average player's mind when talking about weather abuse, Sand Force attackers such as Landorus-I and Excadrill are near unwallable in sand, and between the aforementioned sand chip and the Spikes BW is famous for, fast cleaners are very quickly primed for success. For players wanting to control the pace of play and have tools for nearly any situation, very few Pokemon are better suited than Tyranitar.

Common Items: Choice Band, Choice Scarf, Chople Berry, Passho Berry, Lum Berry, Custap Berry, Leftovers, Expert Belt

Example Drafts

"Sample Teams" for the format. Drafts are very context dependent on what's available, but here's some examples of solid drafts:

Hacker Landorus Skarmory Balance

Evakiyama Kyurem + Pivots Bulky Offense


Chris Jirachi Terrakion


zinc rain


SphealNuke Sand Semi Stall

 

[chimp]

Weather Complex

Similar to BW OU, BW Draft makes use of a complex on weather-based Speed-boosting abilities with their respective weather, which bans Swift Swim alongside Drizzle, Chlorophyll alongside Drought, and Sand Rush alongside Sand Stream. This complex permits manual weather such as Rain Dance alongside Swift Swim.

Is the weather complex ban for drafting or just for battles? Like, could I draft politoed and kingdra, but just not bring them to battle at the same time? (unless i use sniper but yknow what i mean). Or is drafting both against the rules?

 

[Monai]

Is the weather complex ban for drafting or just for battles? Like, could I draft politoed and kingdra, but just not bring them to battle at the same time? (unless i use sniper but yknow what i mean). Or is drafting both against the rules?

In battle, you're free to draft Politoed + Kingdra + Kabutops + Ludicolo, but none of them can have Swift Swim in a game with Politoed.

 

[Capitão General]

Just to be sure if I were to guess sleep is banned just like in standard BW OU, right?
I appreciate the introduction and pretty excited for the BW draft but I would love if it is not too much of a chore a list of budget picks that can check certain top tier threats (like for example, I would guess lanturn would check thundi specially well)

 

[Monai]

Just to be sure if I were to guess sleep is banned just like in standard BW OU, right?
I appreciate the introduction and pretty excited for the BW draft but I would love if it is not too much of a chore a list of budget picks that can check certain top tier threats (like for example, I would guess lanturn would check thundi specially well)

That's correct. Sleep is too broken of an element in BW, even when you know it's coming and from who. Budget picks would be a great idea, me and Meessm will give it some thought.

 

[Aleksanteri]

Unofficial Drafting Guide to Generation 5 Draft.

Disclaimer:
I am not a part of the BW Draft Council. The guide is an unofficial guide to the format. For tiering decisions, advice and official decisions, head over to the Official Smogon Draft Discord ( https://discord.gg/QxWuxz2mMJ ) or the Official Generation 5 Draft Discord ( https://discord.gg/DXPQhxeUEY )

Introduction

Generation 5 is the final generation before the revolution of Generation 6, with much of the old gen mechanics still in place. Hazards are extremely strong with the lack of good removal options alongside the lack of Heavy Duty Boots. The format has a lot of power in with, with strong Dragons and powerful breakers warping the tier. Noteworthy are the permanent Weather Conditions brought by the weather setting abilities not being nerfed before Generation 6. A ton of moves are in a more powerful state compared to their current gen counterparts, with examples including Hydro Pump, Fire Blast and Thunder having 10 more base power.

Round 1s
There is no clear agreed order on the 18 to 17 tiers outside of Garchomp being the default 1st pick and Dragonite being a later pick, as it demands a lot from the secondary pick of your draft. Garchomp should always be the 1st pick of every pool with no exceptions. Later in Round 1, what you generally look for are pairings. Good pairings include the weather combos, like Politoed +Thundurus-T and Tyranitar + Excadrill . On the other hand, great offensive pairings like Dragonite / Salamence + Starmie are very good too.

For explanations on the Round 1 picks themselves, see Monai's explanation in the introduction post.

(Writers note, while not agreed on by the player base due to lack of data, I personally think the order should be Chomp -> Rachi -> Kyurem-B -> Landorus-T/Terrakion. HOWEVER, THIS IS A ONE MANS OPINION)

Good stuff to have in a draft:

Rapid Spinner

Rapid Spinner

Generation 5 solely relies on Rapid Spin for hazard removal. Defog got changed to remove hazards from your own side in Generation 6, and other removal mechanics like Mortal Spin have came out later. Heavy Duty Boots became an item in Generation 8. For that reason it’s extremely important that you get yourself a reliable Rapid Spinner and deny your opponents hazards to be omnipotent on your side.

Some Rapid Spinners are clearly better than the others, with the best 2 being the Round 1 Starmie and Excadrill . Both are able to come to every single game in some way or form when drafted and provide strong offense alongside their reliable spinning capabilities. If these 2 are not open, options like Tentacruel , Blastoise and Donphan remain as reliable and good options in the meta game. Some notable lower end spinners include Claydol , Armaldo and Sandslash .

Some drafts can afford not running a Rapid Spinner, for example heavy Magic Guard spam cores and Hyper Offense. However, this comes at a high risk and is not something I would recommend.

Hazards

Hazards

Due to having Rapid Spin as the only way of hazard removal, hazards become extremely strong and a constant in the meta game.

The most common hazard in Stealth Rocks is easy to come by. Some of the best Stealth Rockers are Pokemon like Garchomp , Landorus-Therian , Hippowdon and Gliscor . All of these Pokemon can reliably fit Stealth Rock into their move set and are able to get Stealth Rocks more than once during a game. Stealth Rocks takes a valuable move slot from some Pokemon, so it is important to draft a secondary rocker with mons like Tyranitar , Jirachi , Terrakion and Ferrothorn to allow them to make use of their otherwise great move pools.

Spikes are not as widely distributed, but are even more deadly due to the possibility of 3 Layers, dealing 24% to a grounded Pokemon. The high budget options in Skarmory and Ferrothorn are able to spike reliably over the game with strong resistances across the board and good utility options, like Whirlwind on Skarmory and Knock Off on Ferrothrorn. Good lower tier Spikes user examples include Froslass , Forretress , Roserade and Qwilfish , to name a few.

Lastly, Toxic Spikes are a luxury in the format due to their small distribution. They however remain threatening due to the lack of grounded Poison types in the format. Good Toxic Spikes users include the Nidotwins , Roserade and Tentacruel , with examples like Drapion , Qwiflish and Scolipede remaining as budget friendly options.

Steel Types

Steel types

With Steel being the only type to resist Dragon in the format while packing resistances to common offensive types like Psychic, Dark and Ice, having a Steel type Pokemon becomes vital. Without a Steel type, drafts have to overly compensate for not having a resistance to Dragon types either in hard defensive measures or on the opposite side, hard offensive measures. Some Steel types trade of some of their defensive stats to instead be strong offensive threats in their own right. This is why it's not uncommon to see 2 Steel Types in a Draft.

More defensive options include top tiers Ferrothorn and Skarmory . Cheaper options include Bronzong , Forretress and Registeel .

In between options include the top tiers Jirachi and Excadrill . Cheaper options include examples like Heatran , Metagross and Cobalion .

Offensive options include Scizor and Magnezone , with cheaper options including the likes of Lucario , Bisharp and Durant .

Dragon Types

Dragon types

Due to the Steel type being the only resistance Dragon types have in the pre Gen 6 era, Dragon is the offensive type in Generation 5. Most Dragons come with ways to deal with Steel types, be it with Fire moves, Ground Moves, Fighting moves or some combination of all 3 of them. Dragons are above all else offensive behemoths, but still come with extremely useful resistances to Fire, Water, Grass and Electric.

There are 2 common play styles for Dragons in Generation 5. Physical sided Dragons commonly run Outrage to devastate the opposing side with repeated attacks. A common trait with Outrage spammers is the access to Dragon Dance. The Special sided Dragons instead use 140 BP Draco Meteors to take huge chunks at a time. Some Dragons are able to do both roles effectively, making them massive threats while preparing for them.

Strong Physical Dragons include the top tiers Garchomp , Kyurem-Black , Dragonite and Salamence . Cheaper Physical options include such as Haxorus and Flygon .

Strong Special Dragons include the top tier Hydreigon , with cheaper options in Kyurem and Kingdra .

Strong mixed Dragons include top tiers Garchomp , Salamence , Kyurem-B and Dragonite . Cheaper examples include Kingdra and Kyurem .

Speed Tiers

Speed tiers

There are 3 defining Speed Tiers in Generation 5 Draft. They are 80, 100 and 108.

The 80 benchmark includes the devastating Dragonite and Mamoswine and is the first speed tier when going up to consider.

The 100 speed mark includes Pokemon like Volcarona, Salamence, Zapdos and Jirachi. A team should have at least 1 mon at or above this speed tier. Examples include Landorus-Incarnate, Thunrudus-Therian and Garchomp.

Lastly, 108 is the speed tier of Terrakion, one of the most devastating breakers in the format. Having at least 1 Pokemon of this tier or above is generally greatly appreciated. Pokemon at or above this Speed Tier include Infernape, Gengar, Alakazam and Starmie.

Pivoting

Pivoting

Pivoting in Generation 5 Draft is vital to get the top tier mons into positions where they can wreak havoc. For example, out of the 13 Pokemon in the 18 to 16 tier, only 4 come with either U-Turn or Volt Switch (Those being Jirachi , Thudurus-Therian , Landorus-Therian and Hydreigon ). However, a lot of the pivots are generally on the lower end of the board and become more common in the 15 to 9 pts range. It is vital to plan around your teams pivots early on in the drafting.

Generally a good pivot offensive can punish the opponents defensive core by spamming the Pivoting move over and over again while threatening OHKO:s. Generally these Pokemon are fast and offensive or pack strong priority

I will now list out some good offensive pivots:

Thundurus-Therian , Infernape , Scizor , Landorus-Incarnate , Raikou , Azelf , Victini , Tornadus-Incarnate , Mienshao , Flygon and Crobat .

More defensive pivots generally can either live a hit and allow for a stronger offensive mon to come in safely OR threaten disruption, like status, to the opponent, making the exchange against the pivoter unfavourable. Their offensive power in cases can't go ignored either.

Good defensive/in between pivots include:

Landorus-Therian , Jirachi , Zapdos , Gliscor , Rotom-Wash , Celebi , Uxie , Magnezone and Cobalion .

As shown, there are many great pivots in the format. Planning around these pieces is fairly important, especially when fleshing out synergies.

Pursuit

Pursuit

Not as vital as the ones mentioned before, Pursuit is the most reliable way to remove opposing Ghosts to enable your Rapid Spinner to do it's job effectively. Good Pursuit users are able to threaten the opposing Ghost types with raw damage in case they decide to stay in and OHKO or 2HKO most opposing Ghost types when Colbur Berries are not included.

Good Pursuit users are for example Tyranitar , Scizor , Krookodile , Bisharp , Weavile , Honchkrow , Drapion and Spiritomb to name a few.

Team Styles

Weatherless Balance

Weatherless Balance
Weatherless Balance remains as a good and reliable choice in BW Draft. Weatherless balance looks to play off the power of a strong hazarding core alongside a strong win condtion like Terrakion , Dragonite and Salamence . Weatherless balance is really ''balanced'' with 3 to 5 strong offensive pieces and 3 to 5 bulky defensive mons. Most of the Round 1 pickups outside of the Weather setters are able to be played in this team style with special mentions going to Jirachi and Landorus-Therian for their good defensive and offensive profiles. Pokemon with large move pools and a large set variety are usually the best in this type.

A key component of Weatherless Balance is a good hazarding core. Spikes users like Ferrothorn , Roserade , Garbodor and Qwilfish make excellent candidates for these kinds of teams. A Rapid Spinner is a must on Balance, with high end Starmie and Excadrill making great options, along with good cheaper options like Tentacruel , Blastoise and Donphan . To close the hazarding core off, a good reliable spin blocker like Cofagrigus , Dusclops and Spiritomb are great additions to these teams.

Having a good Water type, like Starmie , Slowbro , Lanturn or Seismitoad is essential for resisting a ton of common attacking types like Ice and Water itself. A Steel type like Jirachi , Heatran or Bronzong make for excellent choices to cover the Dragon types. Pivots also vital, with the likes of Infernape , Zapdos , Uxie and Jolteon being great choices for this role.

Weatherless Offense

Weatherless Offense

Weatherless Offense looks to pressure the opposing team into submission by combining 2 to 3 win conditions with offensive synergies together. Unlike Hyper Offense, the team still appreciates defensive factors and draft Pokemon with the ability to do both when needed. Weatherless Offense is a great entry level play style due having good match ups into most other structures. The team style appreciates good fast and slow pivoting to get their win conditions in safely.

Strong win conditions, like Terrakion , Thundurus-Therian , Dragonite and Salamence are excellent centerpieces for Offense. Good offensive pivots for the play style includes the likes of Hydreigon , Infernape , Mienshao , Zapdos and Crobat . Great defensive pivots include the likes of Landorus-Therian , Rotom and it's forms, Celebi , Gliscor , Forretress and Cobalion . A lot of win conditions used in the team style are weak to hazards, so drafting a good Rapid Spin user like Starmie , Tentacruel , Donphan or Forretress is vital. And while not necessary, Spikes users like Scolipede :sccolipede:, Roserade and Qwilfish are good pickups.

Hyper Offense

Hyper Offense

Hyper offense gives up on the defensive core totally, looking to instead use setup sweepers and breakers to win games via brute force. The team style favors a player who is willing to take risks making reads and predictions during games, as a good prediction can swing the game totally to the HO users side. Hyper Offense loves setup sweepers like Volcarona , Cloyster and Dragonite . Good scarf users with strong outright power, like Hydreigon , Scizor and Krookodile make excellent Pokemon for these kinds of drafts. Having a good lead is essential for Hyper Offense to cause as much pressure as you can in the early game, generally with the use of hazards. Pokemon like Jirachi , Azelf , Aerodactyl and Scolipede make good candidates for this role.

A sub section of Hyper Offense that is common in Generation 5 Draft is Dragmag. In this style, the draft focuses on loading as much Dragon typed pressure as it can with 3 to 4 Dragons usually drafted. Those are combined with Magnezone , which looks to trap the opponents Steel Types with the use of Magnet Pull. Dragons like Garchomp , Kyurem-Black , Dragonite and Haxorus are excellent for this kind of play style

Sand

Sand

Permanent Sand brought by Tyranitar and Hippowdon is an omnipotent factor of Generation 5 Draft. Blocking Leftovers and chipping every non immune Pokemon for 6% of their HP every single turn which puts on large pressure on the long term to opposing defensive cores. Sands generally looks to abuse either Pokemon immune to sand or Pokemon with good recovery to punish the opposing side. Sand Force Pokemon getting a 30% boost to their Ground, Steel and Rock moves while Sand is up enable for extremely good damage output, especially when combined with STAB. Considerable is the 50% boost Rock types get to their special defense while in Sand, making Pokemon like Tyranitar , Terrakion and Rhyperior extremely bulky while Sand is up. Natural abusers of Sand include Excadrill , Landorus-Incarnate , Alakazam and Reuniclus . Something vital to Sand drafts is having a good Water resist, as they tend to stack on many Water weak Pokemon. Pokemon like Tangrowth , Jellicent , Shaymin and Milotic are excellent options for this role, along side Dragons like Hydreigon and Druddigon . All Sands love a good Rapid Spin user, with their default being Excadrill. If taken, Starmie , Tentacruel , Blastoise , Forretress and Claydol still making good candidates. All styles of Sand benefit a lot from good Fighting types due to their large use of Psychic type Pokemon and thus innate Dark weakness.

Sand Offense behaves similarly to it's weatherless counterpart. It generally drafts 2 to 3 strong abusers and looks to close out games quickly with raw power. It is the fastest out of the 3 play styles of Sand. Terrakion , Excadrill , Landorus-Incarnate and Alakazam make excellent abusers for Sand Offense. To get those Pokemon in, good pivots like Rotom-Wash , Celebi and Mienshao help a ton to keep weather control up against opposing weather setters and to get these strong win conditions in.

Sand Balance instead opts to focus on hazards and make a potent defensive core while still having at least one strong win condition. Sand Balance has the option to go for extremely long games if needed, but still can pack a ton of power and force games to end in 20 turns or less. Good abusers for this team style include Landorus-Incarnate , Excadrill and Reuniclus . The vital part of these drafts is a strong hazarding core, with Spikes users like Skarmory , Ferrothorn and Garbodor being main stays on the play style. Alongside that, Pokemon like Gengar and Mismagius make for excellent spin blockers with their good speed and disruption.

Sand Fat is the slowest out of all 3 of these play styles and looks to play for long games. Sand Fats always come packed with a Reuniclus , which with it's strong defensive stats, good move pool and Magic Guard looks to outlast opponents with Recover. Sand Fats generally prefer Hippowdon as their preferred Sand Stream user due to it's access to recovery in Slack Off. Gliscor and Clefable deserve special mentions in this play style due to their good bulk and excellent move pools providing a ton of utility with examples like Encore, Knock Off and Toxic. Sand Fats like balance, demand a strong hazarding core. However ,the selection of Spikes users is smaller due to wanting a longer lasting hazard user. Skarmory , Ferrothorn , Forretress , Qwilfish and Ferroseed make great candidates for this role. Sand Fats still usually come with at least 1 fast mon to answer opposing breakers in speed, which poses a massive threat for this play style. Alakazam , along with Dugtrio and Virizion are good examples of Pokemon for this role. Jellicent , Cofagrigus , Dusclops , Spiritomb and Sableye make for fine spin blocking options on Sand Fat. Lastly, pivots like Celebi , Rotom and it's forms, Uxie and Mesprit make for fantastic options on this style.

Rain

Rain

Rain provided by Politoed is one of the most defining features of Generation 5 Draft. Powering up Water type attacks by 50% and making Thunders and Hurricanes 100% accurate, the offense that Rain enables is deadly. Alongside that, the large amount of Rain Dish and Dry Skin Pokemon gaining 6% per turn makes examples like Tentacruel feel immortal, gaining 24% when equipped with Leftovers and using Protect every other turn. Rain Drafts should look to keep their weather up as long as they physically can. Natural offensive abusers of Rain include the likes of Thundurus-Therian , Tornadus-Incarnate , Starmie and Gyarados . All of these either gain well appreciated accuracy on their hard to hit moves in Thunder and Hurricane or use the 50% boost to Water type attacks to great effect. On the defensive side, Tentacruel , Blastoise , Toxicroak , Ferrothorn , Bronzong and Vaporeon make great use of Rain, via either the use of their abilities (Rain Dish, Dry Skin, Hydration) or gaining valuable help against Fire Type attacks. Like all team styles covered so far, Rain loves a reliable Rapid Spinner to enable longevity on Politoed due to lack of recovery outside of Leftovers. Perfect candidates for the role include Tentacruel , Starmie , Blastoise and Forretress .

Rain Offense looks to overwhelm the opponent with the combination of strong Water type attacks, Hurricane and Thunder. Pokemon like Thundurus-Therian , Gyarados and Tornadus-Incarnate are great examples of offensive abusers. Rain Offense makes great use of Steel type Pokemon to defend against Dragons which have resistances to both Water and Electric. Pokemon like Ferrothorn and Scizor make good candidates for this role.

Rain Balance trades off some offensive power and instead looks to build a strong defensive core with the help of Rain Dish and Dry Skin mons. Pokemon such as Tentacruel and Toxicroak are integral to the play style. Like Weatherless Balance, Rain Balance makes great use of Spikes. It's desired setter is Ferrothorn , but options like Forretress , Roserade , Garbodor and Ferroseed still work fantastically. Rain Balance is able to utilize both offensive and defensive spin blockers, with Gengar , Cofagrigus , Dusclops , Sableye , Rotom and Mismagius all making great candidates for the role. For win conditions, examples like Thundurus-Therian , Dragonite , Salamence and Gyarados are all able to work on this play style.

Example drafts

Garchomp

Garchomp

Garchomp has a ton of directions it can do effectively. The example here is a Weatherless Offense team built by LeBomboclats. Zapdos and Vaporeon look to open paths for Garchomp and Metagross to go to town with their strong physical attacks. It uses an offensive Spikes user in Glalie to put pressure on opposing Waters effectively, which the draft otherwise has issues into. Top speed Gengar helps out with some much needed disruption while gaining large benefit of the drafts ability to deal well with Steel types. Lastly, Hitmonlee provides the much needed spinner and an Unburden sweeper on it's own for late games.

Jirachi

Jirachi

Jirachi, like Garchomp, fits into a ton of different play styles. Here though it's used in an Weatherless Offense / Balance draft built by Infamous Creed and jeronis. The team looks to combine the strong pivoting of Jirachi and Rotom-Wash to get as much use of the Gengar, Kyurem and Aerodactyl. The Magneton is perfectly used here to shut down Steels of Kyurem and Aerodactyl to close out games. Roselia + Gengar provide an excellent hazarding core for the team . The team is able to utilize Jirachis move pool to an extremely potent level, making individual components extremely hard to prepare for.

Kyurem-Black

Kyurem-Black

In this Weatherless Offense team by evakiyama!, Kyurem-Black has been paired with an excellent spinner in Excadrill. The 2 form a powerful breaking core for this balance team to get full advantage out of. Zapdos and Mienshao provide some good pivoting to the rest of the team. With strong defensive pairings in Bronzong and Slowking, the core is able to tank most hits in just the 2 mons. Mienshao has a large role on this team, being the top speed option and providing a much needed answer for Steel types to take pressure of the Excadrill. With Muk giving the disruption this team desires with Toxic Taunt and Disable to finish the team off, the Kyurem-Black is allowed a ton of freedom on this team.

Terrakion

Terrakion

In this Hyper Offense Draft done by tsukinomiko , Terrakion, Salamence and Metagross look to overwhelm opponents via hard Physical STAB attacks. Azelf is allowed a ton of options in the team, be it a Stealth Rocks lead, Nasty Plot sweeper or a Choice Band user depending on the matchup. Blastoise and Rotom-Mow provide good resistances to the team, while still being able to go on the offensive with strong attacks like Hydro Pump and Leaf Storm. Due to the existence of the 2, the draft is able to take a balanced approach if need be. Skuntank adds a much needed Pursuit user and a way to deal with opposing Psychic types.

Landorus-Therian

Landorus-Therian

In this Bulky Balance Draft by Hacker, the team looks to abuse strong attacks from the combination of Kyurem and Conkeldurr to open up wholes on the opposing team. Skarmory provides much appreciated Spikes to help in that process, while being able to tank Outrages effectively. Starmie once again proves it’s excellence with it’s extremely good speed tier and Rapid Spin capabilities. While normally Landorus-Therian is the one being the enabler, here the draft looks to open up the moveset on Lando. It can be a Choice Scarf mon, a Rock Polish sweeper or a defensive Intimidate pivot depending on the MU. Tangela and Drapion provide much needed defensive traits with a good Water resist and a way to deal with Ghost Types.

Thundurus-Therian

Thundurus-Therian

In this very traditional Rain Balance core by Naz-sama, Thundurus-Therian is behaving as the main breaker on the team. The draft has immense Water type power in Politoed, Blastoise and Seismitoad, all of which however good defensive profiles. Roserade provide some much needed Spikes to the team to help out Thundurus in it's effort to open teams apart. Both Bronzong and Cobalion gain a very appreciated Fire negation, making Bronzong have effectively 0 weaknesses when Rain is up. Tornadus is a strong Hurricane spammer and will mostly be looking to close out endgames on this team.

Dragonite

Dragonite

In this fairly standard Hyper Offense team by magialice, Dragonite is working as an additional breaker and setup sweeper. The teams idea is to throw setup sweepers one after the other to overwhelm defensive cores. Cloyster, Volcarona and Dragonite have great synergy together with Volc beating the Steel types, Cloyster beating the bulky Ground types and Dragonite having a good matchup into Bulky Waters. Starmie provides the much needed strong spinner for the core. Cresselia, along with being a Calm Mind sweeper in itself is able to save one of these big 3 setup mons with the use of Lunar Dance.

Politoed

Politoed

This Rain Balance team done by Gypsy looks to combine strong offenses between Dragonite and Tornadus-Incarnate to win games together. The team heavily relies on Scald Burns and Toxic to force progress. However, the team trades outright power for extremely good longevity with Wish from Blissey and Rain Dish on Tentacruel. The team makes good use of Cobalion as an offensive and defensive piece here with Volt Switch. The 2 bottom tiers are extremely well used here, where Piloswine gives some helpful priority and a ground type for this core. Raichu is able to make good use of it's Thunders here and gain boosts with Lighting Rod against opposing Electric types.

Tyranitar

Tyranitar

The Sand Fat here drafted by Cow is a by the book example of how to do an effective bulky Sand team. The team looks to combine the great bulk of Gliscor, Reuniclus, Skarmory and Gastrodon to play for longer games. Raikou provides the needed fast mon to out speed some vital targets like Terrakion and Garchomp and blast them with super effective coverage. Armaldo is a fine cheap Rapid Spinner for this team due to the amount of Spikes immunities. The draft is able to make full use of the talents of Reuniclus. Tyranitars role here is to provide some much needed physical offense with strong Rock typed attacks alongside the obvious Sand this core demands.

Some final notes

Be creative!

Draft is a wonderful place where team building and playing comes together in a way that no standard format can achieve. Don't let linear thinking eliminate creativity in the builder. Generation 5 Draft has one of the most skill expressive builders due to a ton of set variety on the top Pokemon, strong moves and mechanics that favor the one that is willing to put time and effort into making their own pastes.

Risk is built into this format, don't be scared of it.

Generation 5 Draft has a ton of inconsistencies built into it with stronger critical hits, status and strong attacks making airtight game plans almost impossible to come up with. Don't be scared if you have to pull of a risky double switch to get you into a good position or make a read allowing your Cloyster to setup. Be brave if the game state demands it.

Don't only look at your prep docs type chart.

While it is comfortable to look at the type chart in your preparation document and build your draft around that, certain play styles require crossing types more than once. Think about the real game situation too. As an example, can your Gengar + Azelf defend reliably against a Landorus-Incarnate, or would it potentially be wise to draft a hard ground resist/immunity, like Rotom-Mow for example?

Be reminded that there are no correct ways to go about drafting. Time and time again successful unconventional drafts keep popping up, and BW Draft is totally new as a draft format. Experiment, it's good!

Massive thanks to Monai, Gypsy, LeBomboclats and Lupla with helping me put this guide together.