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]

The Official Drafting Guide for BW Draft

Disclaimer:
I am not a part of the BW Draft Council. 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 ). This guide is endorsed by the BW Draft Council.

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. Paralysis is it's strongest state ever, as it quarters speed instead of halving it and Thunder Wave works on Electric types.

Round 1:s

All of the Pokemon in the 18 to 16 tiers have their reasons to be drafted in Round 1. Most of them can play on every single major play style, outside of Tyranitar and Politoed due to their weather setting abilities. Garchomp , Jirachi and Landorus-Therian provide excellent glues to drafts, with their good movepools and large set varieties. Terrakion , Thundurus-Therian and Kyurem-Black as examples instead provide massive raw power and serve as strong win conditions and/or breakers in a draft. Starmie and Excadrill provide massive utility with their Rapid Spin capabilities while being extremely good offensive mons in their own terms. Lastly, Dragonite and Salamence with their Dragon Dancing capabilities are extremely good win conditions, while having a large set variety outside of Dragon Dance with good movepools and offensive stats.

For explanations about the Round 1s themselfs, see Monai's introduction post.

Round 2 onwards

Your Round 2 pick largely determines your draft plan and sets in stone for what play style you wish to play. Weather based cores should often either get their weather setter or one of their abusers in this round. Rain for example massively benefits from getting Tentacruel on this round, Sand likes it's Excadrill + Tyranitar pairing. Often it is best to either grab a Pokemon that enables your win condition via either Rapid Spin or offensive synergy. As an example, Terrakion paired with a Hydreigon makes for a great offensive pairing, as Terrakion is able to beat many specially defensive Pokemon like Ferrothorn and Heatran, while Hydreigon gives a good resist profile with it's typing + ability and it naturally beats Ghost types for Terrakion. Other such pairings include Kyurem-Black + Starmie , Jirachi + Dragonite and Garchomp + Zapdos .

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

Like every tier, BW Draft has it's own set of benchmarks when it comes to Speed. Drafting at least 1 from each tier helps a lot with preparing for games, as you are less insentivised into Choice Scarf focused gameplans.

BW Drafts major speed tiers start at 80, which importantly has the tier staple Dragonite . Good Pokemon above this speed tier include mons like Rotom and it's appliances, Excadrill and Krookodile .

The second major speed tier is 100, as it includes a lot of threatening setup mons like Volcarona and Salamence or otherwise important mons like Jirachi or Victini . Good Pokemons above this speed tier are Garchomp , Thundurus-Therian , Mienshao and Virizion .

The final important speed tier is 108+, as that holds the tier titan Terrakion . A draft should have at least 1 Pokemon above this speed tier. Good examples include Pokemon like Starmie :starmie;, Alakazam , Azelf and Raikou .

Pivoting

Pivoting

BW Draft has a ton of power in it, making pivoting an important component of all drafts as they enable you get your offensive or defensive pieces in while chipping your opponents Pokemon.

The best pivots in the tier are mons that want to actually click the move commonly. They for example don't rely on setting up to deal most of their damage and are either fast or bulky enough to outspeed the opponent, or able to tank the opponents move on the switch.

Some of the best offensive pivots include Pokemon like Scizor , Infernape and Azelf . Scizor is resilient due to it's natural typing and hits hard with it's Stab U-Turn. Infernape and Azelf are both fast and strong offensive threats and are thus able to force switches from their opponents.

On the other hand, some of the best bulky pivots include Pokemon like Landorus-Therian , Rotom-Wash and Uxie . All of the mentioned are bulky Ground immune Pokemon that are able to take hits from their opponents and then pivot into their offensive partners.

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.

Outside of Ghosts, Pursuit is vital in providing consistent damage in games. Punishing pivoting is vital in the format in addition of hazards and Pursuit forces progress over longer games. Pursuit is vital in dealing with the Psychic types in the format, as many of them are very frail and able to be taken out in 1 go. Examples of Pokemon like these include Alakazam and Victini

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

Ground Immune

Ground immune Pokemon have important defensive roles in the metagame, as Ground is one of the best offensive typings in the meta. Ground immune Pokemon also gain immunity to Spikes and Toxic Spikes, which are vital on especially those which have important defensive roles. Drafting these helps a lot with planning gameplans against strong hazarding cores and are the most common way to halt offensive Ground types. Commonly teams are able to draft 2 to 3 of these Pokemon.

Some of the best Ground immune Pokemon are Skarmory , Bronzong , Rotom-Mow and Cresselia . All of these benefit a ton from their Stealth Rock neutrality / resistance and are able to take on most of the offensive Ground types in the metagame.

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 , 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. Good screens users like Espeon and Mesprit go a long way with enabling the setup Pokemon this style looks to add.

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. This makes both Excadrill and Landorus-Incarnate extremely threatening. It is not uncommon for a Sand to pick both of these Pokemon up, as they target similar things thus put a lot of pressure on opposing defensive cores. Magic Guard users like Alakazam and Reuniclus make for fantastic Pokemon on this style, as they gain a full immunity to Sand chip. Alakazam deserves it's own special mention, as it's unique traits of being one of the fastest Pokemon in the format allow it to use the chip of Sand to open up it's set variety and item choices.

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. Options like Mienshao and Breloom use their good recovering abilities to withstand Sands chip damage and fire back hard. Guts users like Conkeldurr and Heracross should be avoided, as they aren't resilient enough when combined with a Burn/Toxic.

Rain

Rain

Rain looks to utilize Drizzle provided by Politoed for strong water typed attacks and longevity. Rain makes every Water type attack 50% stronger, effectively adding a weakness on neutral targets. In addition, it makes Thunder and Hurricane not be able to miss, allowing for more coverage options in many Pokemon.

Rain commonly stacks many Water typed Pokemon to create a hard to respond spam core, as many structures aren't able to take on Water spam over the game. Rain makes great use of the 3 Water typed Rapid Spin users of Starmie , Tentacruel and Blastoise . Starmie gains massive power from the 50% to it's Water STAB, making it a deadly breaker with it's speed tier. Tentacruel and Blastoise unlock their Rain Dish ability, providing them with great recovery along with their surprisingly good offensive stats powered by Rain. Other good Water typed abusers include Gyarados and Sharpedo , as they are able to power up their Waterfall in Rain and snowball into strong sweepers with their access to speed boosting moves / abilities.

Rain benefits Steel and Grass typed typed Pokemon in a large way by cutting the power of Fire typed moves by half. Scizor and Ferrothorn as examples lose their 4x weakness and are more easily able to take on Dragons for example, as they come packed with Fire typed coverage in many cases. On the other hand, Grass typed Pokemon such as Breloom and Rotom-Mow appreciate a Fire neutrality and make for great Pokemon on this play style.

Rain Dish, Dry Skin and Hydration are all abilities that provide utility in Rain and thus all Pokemon with said abilities have synergy in it. A lot of these Pokemon aren't as obvious on first look. Wishcash as an example can become a very threatening Dragon Dance sweeper, as Hydration takes out Burns for it and it is able to gain a full heal in 1 turn using Rest.

Lastly, examples like Dragonite and Tornadus-Incarnate appreciate having 100% accurate Hurricanes in their arsenal. Tornadus especially gains massive benefit, gaining a 45 bp bump in it's special Flying stab, making it much more reliable and threatening during a game.

Example drafts

Disclaimer : Depending on when reading this guide, there sample drafts might be out of date. Latest update is January 2026. Every single Round 1 has 2 drafts which have seen success in tour play / are objectively good drafts on paper. These drafts are meant to showcase potential directions for each Round 1 pick.

Garchomp

Garchomp

The first draft here is done by EntryHazardous , and it managed claim a respectable 2nd place in BW Swiss 1. At first glance, the team looks odd with a Hail core in Abomasnow. However, this team makes great use of the synergy between Garchomp, Alakazam and Raikou respectively. Forretress, Jellicent and Qwilfish for a strong hazarding core, putting even more pressure in combination of Hail on defensive backlines. Raikou itself can utilize Weather Ball, opening up it's Hidden Power slot and thus making it much more threatening in the long term. Walrein is one of the few abusers of Hail, but with Protect, Leftovers and Ice Body it gains 24% of it's HP in 2 turns.

The second one here is done by Wifike2, and it managed to claim a respectable Top 8 finish in Swiss. The team is very balanced, it makes great use of the defensive synergy between Blastoise, Zapdos, Rotom and Registeel to form a hard to beat defensive backline. Zapdos functions as an offensive threat combined with Garchomp, Victini, Sawk and Accelgor. Noteworthy is Wifis great use of Final Gambit, as she was continually able to take out key targets in the early game, allowing her threatening offensive threats to go to town. Sawk was often used as the lead, as with Sturdy is can absorb a hit easily and fire back with a massive blow.

Jirachi

Jirachi
In this first team made by the Silly Goobers in MPL. Jirachi is paired up with it's natural partner Salamence. The team aims to play fast, it has a ton of offensive power with Mamoswine, Sceptile and Drapion while not lacking in defense with Cofagrigus and Blastoise. Jirachi is allowed to be a lot of different roles on this team and can be tailored to each matchups needs.

The second draft here is done by SDJgettingMachampRecs and brranden. Jirachi interestingly enough becomes a good partner for Rain, as gaining 100% accurate Thunders along with Serene Grace give Jirachi a reliable disruptive move, that is much stronger than Body Slam. Along with it, SDJ picked up 3 Water types as is standard for Rain, all 3 of them with different roles. Jolteon gives the fast Electric type Rain loves. Kyurem works perfectly as a strong mixed breaker. Then lastly, Ferrothorn gives a much needed second Rocker along with being a secondary Steel, opening this Jirachi even further.

Kyurem-Black

Kyurem-Black

The team below was drafted by Hyperstall in MPL. It pairs Kyurem-Black with one of it's best friends Excadrill to form a good physically offensive pairing. Drill provides the much needed Spinner for this team. Outside of that, the team picked up 2 good pivots in Zapdos and Azelf. The top 4 itself provides a hard mixed offense. Then Jellicent and Scolipede form a good hazards core. Lastly but not least, Sharpedo gives this team a much needed Dark type while being a scary cleaner in itself, and Electabuzz helps a lot with mons like Thundurus.

Here in a team drafted by the Landot Lungmen in MPL, Kyurem-Black is instead paired with a very fast playing Volt-Turn core. The team together makes great used of Scizor, Victini, Mienshao, Accelgor and Rotom-Fan to build an offensive ball. This lets Kyurem-Black to enter commonly into the game and release it's offensive assault. Golurk functions as a reliable Fighting answer, something this team otherwise lacks. Noteworthy is Blastoise, which with it's typing and Rapid Spin makes this team function well together.

Terrakion

Terrakion
The first team here is done by Landot Lungmen in MPL. The team is complete Hyper Offense, looking to use one breaker after another. The team has Claydol to provide an emergency spinner and a functional ground resist against some targets. The rest of the team is clear, it has strong pivoting in Scizor, Raikou and Darmanitan to get these breakers / setup mons in reliably. Roserade works well as a hazard mon and status spreader.

The second team was drafted by the Random Finizens in DWL, and is a good example of the second direction a Terrakion draft can go to. Instead of focusing heavily on pivoting, it opts to draft 2 strong special attackers in Alakazam and Volcarona which look to overwhelm opposing defensive cores. Donphan, Shaymin and Empoleon form a good offensive defense core for this team. Rotom provides much appreciated disruption with status and a good Screens mon.

Landorus-Therian

Landorus-Therian

The first team here was drafted by Hyperstall in MPL. It forms a strong pivoting core with Lando-T, Hydreigon and Mienshao which really enable this Alakazam to go to town. Ferrothorn and Dusknoir got drafted to form a strong hazarding core with Spikes, which allows this team to go for fast paced tempo based games. Kabutops provides an emergency spinner and a potential sweeper in itself by setting Rain Dance into endgame positions.

The second team here was drafted by muiboy , and it's a very interesting take on BW Draft drafting. The team forms a hard to beat defensive backline with Cofagrigus, Tentacruel and Blissey, aiming to play for longer games. Lando-T, Infernape and Rotom-Mow function as this teams main offense and synergize well together offensively, targeting each others weakpoints. Interestingly an option this team has is going for Trick Room when on the offensive, being able to make good use of offensive Cofagrigus, Escavalier and Scrafty to break open opposing defenses.

Thundurus-Therian

Thundurus-Therian
The first team here was drafted by the Frogs in MPL, and is a very experimental take on the Thundurus teams Meesm popularized. Thundy pairs nicely with Hydreigon to form a very strong breaking core. Uxie, Tentacruel and Golurk together form a strong defensive core, which covers mostly everything with notably a good defensive profile against Figting types. Ambipom provides a much needed top speed option. Lastly, Abomasnow and Heatran provide good chip damage with Hail + Burn support. Heatran is a big help against Dragons being a Steel type, and Abomasnow helps with dealing with bulky water types offensively.

The second team here was done by the Espadas in DWL. Thundurus is used here as a Rain abuser, unlocking it's powerful Thunders. The draft picked up 3 water types, with Sharpedo being the main sweeping one out of the 3. Moltres interestingly enough is a potent Rain sweeper in Generation 5, as it gains access to 100% accurate Hurricanes, something that is rare. Ferro lessening it's 4x Fire weakness in Rain makes it a nice fit for these kinds of teams. Espeon provides much needed Screens, a top speed and is nice utility with it's ability of Magic Bounce.

Dragonite

Dragonite

The first draft here is done by the Random Finizens in DWL, and while it gained a legendary status with it's Round 3 Jolteon, the team still turned out nicely. Excadrill and Dragonite form a terrifying physical offense pairing with an additional benefit of Drills Rapid Spin. Suicune generally makes a fantastic pairing on Dragonite teams, as with it's bulk it's able to hold of many of Dragonites biggest enemies like opposing Dragons and Alakazam. The team drafted an extremely good hazarding core in Roserade, Cofagrigus and Uxie. Jolteon is a good high end speed option for this team, as it outspeeds a lot of the key targets this team need taken care of like Starmie and Terrakion.

In the second team here, Dragonite is put into a Hyper Offense team drafted by the Landot-Lungmen. The team stacked a lot of threatening setup sweepers in Dragonite, Cloyster, Scizor and Scrafty to form an expeptionally good offense. The team supports itself well, it was good and reliable top speed options in Aerodactyl and Espeon, both providing much needed utility in Rocks and Screens. Nidoking itself is a very nice breaker for this team, especially helping with Steel types. Ludicolo is no slouch offensively either, as it can sweep a lot endgames with Rain Dance sets.

Starmie

Starmie

The first team here was drafted by Silly Goobers in MPL. Offensively, the team combines the strong offensive pressure of Starmie, Dragonite and Krookodile to break and maul over teams. It makes great use of the defensive pairing of Cofagrigus and Snorlax, as while the other handles the physical types, the other handles the special types. Cobalion is allowed to do a lot of different roles on this team, be it defensive or offensive depending on the game. The draft is closed out by Eelektross and Roselia which provide great disruption and much needed utility with their movesets and typings.

The second draft takes a much more offensive take on the Starmie + Dragon formula, and was drafted by Trick of Eye in DWL. The team stacks 3 menacing special breakers with Starmie, Gengar and Raikou into 1 team, breaking teams open for each other. Combine that with the mixed assault of Salamence, and the team becomes practically impossible to wall effectively. Bronzong and Piloswine give this team a much needed defensive backbone. Scrafty is allowed to be a lot of different roles on this specific team, like setting up with Bulk Up or being a defensive check with Intimidate.

Tyranitar

Tyranitar
The first team here was drafted by the Chillaxers in MPL. It drafted 2 very natural Sand abusers in Alakazam and Landorus-I to form a formidable offensive core along with Metagross. The team is very strong defensively, as Slowbro and Tangrowth with their Regenerator abilities are able to take on a lot of offense this team needs taken care of. With having 2 Regen mons and a Magic Guard mon, the team affords to run a weaker spinners and it picked up Torkoal for it's matchups against the common spikers. Lastly, Sawk provides a good and cheap Fighting type that is able nuke many different Pokemons.

The second team here drafted by Landot Lungmen follows much of the same formula, but instead opts for Excadrill and Reuniclus as the abusers. The team has an extremely strong hazarding core with Skarmory + Jellicent. Aero provides a good top Speed option, while becoming bulkier with Sand being up. Whimsicott provides very potent disruption for it's price, and allows this team to use Tailwind effectively. Combine that with Emboars high dmg output, the team is a very bulky but strong one.

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.

Edit 17.8.2025, added information under Pursuit section.
Edit 27.9.2025 ; Rain section rewamped, Thundurus sample updated, Round 1:s section redone, new Round 2 onwards section added
Edit 26.1.2026. ; Guide mostly revamped and updated to the newest meta developments, samples completely redone. Massive thanks to Mokratha with helping me with this update!
Edit 27.1.2026 ; Made the Official guide for BW Draft

 

[Aleksanteri]

Good (insert time of day) everyone. I have taken the grand luxury of doing a write up on the new tiering changes for BW Draft. As could be expected, the first major tournament for a format shows what the meta defining threats are, what originally went under the radar and what was overpriced. The new tiers can be found here!

What we learned in Smogon BW 1 is that Offense is the defining play style in the meta. Stalls and Fats had pitiful pick and win rates when compared to the more faster paced styles. Pokemon which enable these teams best had excellent win and pick rates rates. However, traditional Hyper Offense threats also struggled. This might have been due to how fast the game played, there wasn't much room to setup and close the game that way. Many of these setup threats are also heavily weak to Stealth Rocks, which have had a large part in the meta due to lack of hazard removal and the low commitment of the move. Standards for the top Pokemon were extremely high, which shows in the amount of points reductions in this tiering update.

Rises

Terrakion has proved itself to be one of the most defining figures of BW Draft. It was by far the most successful Pokemon from the 17 pts bracket, appearing on 3 out of the 8 teams in Smogon BW Quarters. With it's format defining speed tier, close to unresisted STAB typing coming from a 129 base attack stat, the council felt it should move to the 18 points bracket with Garchomp.

Starmie has established itself as one the best speed mons in the format and as the best Rapid Spin user around. Starmie has became one of the strongest enablers for a ton of teams and thus a good mid round 1 pick, as it provides a ton of safety when drafted. It is extremely good offensively in it's own right, with Analytic punishing switches hard. For these reasons, the council felt it deserved a spot in the 17 points tier.

Kyurem was initially overlooked when the tiering happened for Smogon BW 1. It has good traits as a Pokemon, being a strong mixed Dragon typed Pokemon with a relatively good speed tier of 95. It is very bulky and has Roost in this generation. It has both Outrage and Draco Meteor to make use of it's offensive stats, making it a strong threat when faced. The council felt it was very cheap while comparing to the other big dragons in the tier, so a prize bump to 15 was deemed fit.

Cobalion behaves in a very similar way to Iron Treads in BW Draft. It has some very good traits ; a speed tier of 108, good all around bulk with 129 defense being the shining stat, Volt Switch and a very good defensive profile with it's Steel Fighting type. It is no slouch offensively with access to both Sword Dance and Calm Mind, making it a threatening Pokemon when faced. Cobalion was put into the 13 points bracket, making it only 1 point cheaper than Metagross .

Blastoise having access to Rapid Spin in a format that desperately needs it will always make it high demand. Blastoise has overall good bulk with 100s in both defense stats. Pure Water typing is also a very good typing in this format, being able to shrug off Water typed attacks themselves while having a vital resist to Ice. A Pokemon Blastoise gets a ton of comparison to is Tentacruel , with both of them being Rain Dish Water typed spinners. The council didn't feel like they should have a prize difference, so Blastoise moved to 13 points.

Rotom-Mow and Mesprit share a similar role in the metagame. Both are pivoting Levitate mons with good utility. Rotom-Mow shines with it's typing and ability ; it is able to check every single ground type in the meta game as it is neutral to ground even with it's Levitate ability is disrupted. This makes it a great all around Pokemon on both offense and balance teams, as with it's even stat distribution between Defense, Special Attack and Special Defense. Mesprit instead trades off from it's typing and leans more heavily into it's movepool. Being a Lake Trio member, it has Stealth Rocks which is rare of a pokemon of it's profile. It's most defining feature is the ever rare Healing Wish, making it an asset on especially more offensive leaning teams. For these reasons, both Pokemon rose from the 9 points bracket to 10.

Cofagrigus rose into the meta as one of the best bulky mons due to it's traits as a defensive Ghost type. It is one of the better checks to Terrakion, being immune to Fighting and neutral to Rock. It is fairly hard to kill, with a very good 145 base Defense stat and a respectable Special Defense stat of 105. It is one of the best spin blockers in the meta, as it can take a Pursuit fairly well from most users or burn them in their attempt with Will-O-Wisp. Cofagrigus has proven itself as an integral figure on Balance, and thus rose from 8 to 9 points.

all got 1 point prize bumps to reflect their utility and power in the meta game better. All of these either have good Speed tiers for the meta or provide good support with their defensive profiles and utility

Falls

Politoed and Rain for that matter performed worse than expected in Smogon BW 1. The style suffers from an identity crisis as it's moving on from Thundurus based structures into something new. Politoed itself is a very good showing of it, as it doesn't have a clearly defined set that works best on it. This would be fine, but the momentum based meta in BW 1 it struggles to get the most of itself outside of setting the Rain for it's team. For these reasons, Politoed was put down to 15.

Gliscor really struggles with being option locked. Gliscor naturally wants to use it's Poison Heal ability, forcing it to be locked into Toxic Orb. It also has severe 4mms, as it has a ton of coverage options while needing many of them at once. It is not uncommon for a Gliscor user to slot in Protect, Stealth Rocks and Earthquake and then run out of move options. The meta has not been kind to it either as fast special attacking threats are able to take it out with Hidden Power Ice. It is also the weakest in power out of the 3 Flying Grounds, with a meager 95 base attack stat. It went down to 14 to give it a better chance to shine.

Hyper Offense duo Cloyster and Volcarona had surprisingly bad pick rates in BW 1, with Cloyster being drafted only 13 times and Volcarona 12 times respectively. Neither performed particularly well, as only 2 Cloysters made it out to Round 1 and 3 Volcaronas. These statistics indicate that they were either overpriced or the meta wasn't suiting them well. They suffer heavily from the wide use of Stealth Rocks. On top of that, they don't get as many openings as they would like, as generally both Pokemon tend to get 1 chance of setting up in a game. Thus they got a prize cut, going from 15 to 14 points.

Heatran stands out as a very middling Steel type in the meta. For a Steel, it isn't particularly bulky on the physical side. It is 4x weak to Grounds, making it difficult to take on many of the threats it wants to. Water typed attacks are flying around everywhere. The tldr: it is really being help back by it's Fire typing for it's defensive use. This makes it difficult to use, as it's it's strong offensive capabilities are locked behind a middling speed tier of 77. Heatran isn't a bad Pokemon in any means though, it is one of the better checks to specially offensive Psychics and it has the unique trait of being able to take advantage of opposing Steels, making it a good partner to many of the Dragon Dancing Dragons in the tier. However, it had it's prizing cut to allow more pick ups on it, going from 15 to 14.

Mamoswine down to 12 points? It got drafted a total of 9 times in BW 1, and had a winrate of 33% in pools. Mamoswine has the problem of having the wrong strengths at the wrong time. Mamoswine has a speed tier of 80, which while not bad is lacking for an offensive mon in this meta. It hates it's Ice typing defensively, as it is unable to switch into much of anything and thus relies fully on it's raw offensive power to succeed. This brings another issue ; Ice isn't a hard typing to switch into with many teams, as a reliable bulky Water type is common on most teams. Mamoswine despises the fact that Rotom-Wash is the most successful Pokemon in the format, who it blanks totally into. It just doesn't fit into the meta as a Ground type in it's current prize bracket. The hefty cut looks to bring it into being a strong offensive part in more teams.

Suicune suffers from fierce competition from other Water types of it's profile. When comparing to other bulky waters, Rotom-Wash has a better defensive profile and Volt Switch, Tentacruel and Blastoise have Rapid Spin and cheaper options like Alomomola and Vaporeon do similar things of being a fat water while being far cheaper in prizing. It just has a ton of competition for their role in a team, and thus only got 6 pick ups during BW 1. As such, a prize cut from 13 to 12 was deemed fit.

Jellicent unlike Suicune got a ton of pick ups with 19 picks in pools. However, it came out of pools with an abysmal 16% win rate . Jellicent doesn't have a massive bulk, with only a 70 base defense and thus making it frail to Pursuit. It isn't able to come in on many physical attackers outside of Fighters, and thus keeping off hazards over a longer game gets increasingly harder. It just didn't match the high expectations set for it, and thus it got a prize cut from 13 to 12.

Abomasnow only got 1 single use in BW 1, and unfortunately the team didn't make it trough in pools, giving it a 0% winrate. As a permanent weather setter, one would expect that it should see some use. Hail just like in OU remains difficult to build around, and the player base decided it was not worth trying. As such a prize cut from 11 to 10 hopes to give it some more light.

+ many more got cuts to their prizing to reflect their low useage stats. These changes look to give them a chance to shine in the meta!

Massive thanks to the council Monai and evakiyama! for tiering these!

 

[Aleksanteri]

Budget picks in BW Draft.

BW Draft has a ton of hidden gems in its lower points bracket with important niches that allow them to shine. This article aims to highlight a few of these Pokemon. All this article's Pokemon are 8 points and below.

Lanturn

Prize: 7 points.
Lanturn has a very unique combination of traits, making it an excellent later round pick for many teams. It has a great HP stat of 127, making it fairly bulky on both sides, though a base defense stat of 58 makes it frail against strong physical attackers. It is one of the best Thundurus-Therian answer in the format with its ability Volt Absorb making it a Water type immune to Electric type attacks. It was blessed with the pivoting move Volt Switch in Generation 5, making it a good slow, bulky pivot. While its supporting movepool is limited, it has the good utility of Heal Bell, supporting its team against status. Lanturn shines in cores with a good Grass type, as being a Water type that is weak to Ground limits it's defensive potential. Thus, puts in work especially on Sand structures, as Sand commonly packs Pokemon like Celebi and Virizion. It is also a great answer to Rain, having the secondary ability of Water Absorb making it completely immune to Water type attacks while gaining offensive power from a Rain-boosted Scald and a fully accurate Thunder. At 7 points, Lanturn is a great later round pick for many different cores.

Common items : Leftovers, Shuca Berry, Rindo Berry.

Sharpedo

Prize: 7 points.
Sharpedo at 7 points goes overlooked quite often, however it is a very dangerous offensive threat in the format. With Speed Boost, it can turn into a strong cleaner with the combination of Protect and Life Orb. It hits the Attack stat of 372 with Adamant, something it can run commonly due to its ability. Its typing of Water and Dark is a good one for the format, as Grass and Dragon types can be taken care off with Sharpedo having access to both Ice Fang and Ice Beam. Sharpedo is a good pick especially for Rain teams, as it makes its Waterfall and Hydro Pump do 50% more damage, causing it to become extremely threatening in the late game.

Common items : Life Orb, Expert Belt, Choice Band, Leftovers.

Scrafty

Prize: 8 points.

Scrafty has proven itself to be a very polarizing setup sweeper against bulky structures in BW Draft. It gains entry on Pokemon like Ferrothorn, Cofagrigus and Blastoise and can set up with either Bulk Up or Dragon Dance, with Bulk Up being the more common choice. Its access to Shed Skin make Rest a viable 4th move on it and with its natural bulk Scrafty is a fairly hard Pokemon to take down especially after it has set up. It lacks offensive power before it gains a boost but gaining that boost has proven fairly easy for it. However, Scrafty is not an easy pick up to make as it requires fairly good offensive power from a team to get the most out of it. It also struggles into hard special breakers like Hydreigon and Kyurem, as they are able to take it out even after it has setup due to how slow it is. It rewards the player willing to build around its strengths and thus make it a good later round win condition. It shines most on Weatherless Offense, as it can take full advantage of the raw offensive power of its team and it doesn't gain additional weaknesses from the weather it is in.

Common items : Leftovers, Chesto Berry, Lum Berry, Chople Berry.

Dusclops

Prize: 6 points
Dusclops at 6 points behaves very similarly to Cofagrigus. It is fairly bulky with base 130s in both its defensive stats, boosted even higher by Eviolite. It has access to a lot of disruption moves with Will-O-Wisp, Pain Split, Disable and Destiny Bond. With its bulk, it can come in on common Physical attackers like Garchomp, Terrakion and Excadrill and check them. It can break most Substitutes with both Seismic Toss and Night Shade. Dusclops is a great alternative to Cofagrigus on Weatherless Balance with its cheaper price and similar bulk. Its main problem comes from its reliance on Eviolite and its passivity, as it can give entry to Pokemon like Volcarona. Still, at 6 points it is a great budget pick.

Common items : Eviolite, Leftovers.

Armaldo

Prize: 5 points.
Armaldo at 5 points is a good Rapid Spin option for teams that don't require a strong one but want the option in the face of hard Hazard Stack. Armaldo has good traits, it has a good base attack stat of 125, it’s a Rock Type Pokemon not weak to Ground and has great ability options in Battle Armor and Swift Swim. It can become an offensive threat in itself with access to both Sword Dance and Rock Polish. Armaldo is mostly unable to come into stronger attacks and thus gets only 1 Spin off in most games, but for its price that's a great accomplishment, as many Spinners in its prize range are unable to provide that. Armaldo is a very good Round 7 onwards option for a team looking to cover their Rapin Spin needs and should not be overlooked.

Common items : Leftovers, Chople Berry, Passho Berry.

Accelgor

Prize: 7 points.
Accelgor is the third fastest Pokemon in the format behind Ninjask and Electrode. It has a good supporting movepool with Spikes, Encore, Yawn and Knock Off. It has reliable recovery in Recover. Accelgor is no slouch offensively, with a base 100 Special Attack stat and access to Bug Buzz, Focus Blast and Giga Drain. Accelgors speed allow it to outspeed a Jolly + 1 Dragonite by 1 point, making it a good revenge killer in the format. It is the only Pokemon in BW Draft with access to Spikes + U-Turn. Accelgor is very unique, as it has a ton of traits that no other Pokemon has. It has drawbacks, as it's frail and weak to Stealth Rocks and thus strong priority destroy it quite easily. However at 7 points, it makes for a good later round pivoting and a fine high end speed tier option.

Common items : Life Orb, Sitrus Berry, Focus Sash.

Roselia

Prize: 4 points.
Roselia at it's prize point of 4 points has a ton of nice traits. Like it's evolution, it has access to both Spikes and Toxic Spikes along with a good disruption with the Powder Moves, Leech Seed and Toxic. When using Eviolite, it becomes fairly bulky on the Special side. It has access to Synthesis to stay alive longer and support in Aromatherapy, being able to take out status for it's team. Roselia makes for great later round hazard mon on all kinds of structures, and while it's not able to defend it's hazards effectively, it will cause havoc with status before going out.

Common items : Eviolite, Black Sludge, Focus Sash.

Ditto

Prize: 7 points.
Due to the heavy offensive nature of the format, Ditto makes for good budget revenge killer. It can take advantage of setup sweepers by using their boosts and turning the tides on them via the use of Choice Scarf. It is a good at scouting opposing sets which can be valuable in a format so defined by knowledge. Ditto is somewhat inconsistent, as not every game will have a perfect Pokemon to copy. Still at 7 points it can potentially change the tide of a battle by existing, and thus should be considered especially if ones match up against specific top tier picks is looking iffy.

Common items: Choice Scarf, Choice Specs, Choice Band, Focus Sash.

Piloswine

Prize : 6 points.
Piloswine is funnily enough almost as bulky without Eviolite as it's fully evolved counterpart. With a solid base 100 HP stat, it is able to take good advantage of Eviolite to become fairly bulky. Add the fact that it has access to Thick Fat, many Special attackers struggle to take it down. For example, it comfortably lives a Life Orb boosted Focus Blast from Alakazam and is able to take it out with Earthquake. It makes for a great candidate for a later round Ground type. It is able to use Stealth Rocks effectively and has strong priority with Ice Shard. Piloswine is not the flashiest mon, but it does get the job done.

Common items : Eviolite, Chople Berry, Leftovers, Lum Berry.

Floatzel

Prize: 4 points.
Floatzel has an amazing Speed stat of 115, being able out speed most targets in the format. It has a respectable base Attack stat of 105, further to be boosted by items like Choice Band and Life Orb. What makes Floatzel a good budget pick is the existence of Politoed and it's permanent Rain. Not only is it a great abuser for the style for it's prize even with just Water Veil, it is great against it as it can use it's broken Swift Swim ability. Ice Fang makes sure it can get past Grass and Dragon types. It also has access to both Low Kick and Brick Break, making it able to take on Steels with Super Effective coverage. The only problem it faces is the lack of U-Turn in it's arsenal, something it would like a lot. Even still, it is a great option for a later round Speed Control option.

Common items: Choice Band, Life Orb, Mystic Water, Choice Specs.

These are just a few examples of budget ballers in BW Draft. For draft help, head over to the official BW Draft Discord https://discord.gg/DXPQhxeUEY.

Massive thanks to toastrgophr and Phonytail on helping me with this article.

 

[Avacodoh]

standard aleks w'ing Scrafty on top

 

[Aleksanteri]

Tiering changes for DWL 1 (and Smogon BW 2)

Hiya, it's me once again. BW Draft has gone under some changes, and while these changes have been public for about a month at this point, I felt it was a good time to talk about them with DWL 1 being soon on the horizon.

Much of what this thread has will be repeat from my Swiss tiering changes post, as most people haven't kept up with the metagame at large after Smogon BW 1 concluded. However, I have a lot more to say about said rises after we have got a lot more data about them.

Rises (Swiss changes)

Terrakion (17->18)

This was probably the biggest tiering change in the Swiss changes. Terrakion in winrate was by far the best Round 1 pick in Smogon BW 1. In MPL, it was the default pick number 2 after Garchomp with only 1 pool changing this up. It's results in Swiss while not as great as in Smogon BW 1 still resulted in 3/8 Terrakion in Top Cut in the tournament. The change ended up gaining mostly positive reception (outside of Phonytail) and thus will be there for the upcoming tours.

Starmie (16->17)

Starmie had already set itself as the premier Rapid Spin user in BW Draft, and the more the meta evolved the earlier it started being picked up. Currently it is commonly the 6th to 7th Round 1 pick in BW Draft. Starmie provides a lot of options, it's offensive options combined with a good ability in Analytic make it a fearsome breaker in certain matchups. Alternatively, it avoids the strongest speed control in Thunder Wave with Natural Cure and is thus is always able to outspeed it's vital targets with a blistering 115 speed tier. Being a Terrakion outspeed is a major factor in it's viability, not to mention Pokemon like Garchomp, Thundurus-T and Infernape.

Kyurem (14->15)

At the time this change felt to me as a suggestive balance change. Kyurem objectively is monstrous, it is extremely bulky, strong and has a relatively good speed tier. After this change went live, it's draft rate went up from around 50% to a very respectable 75% in Swiss and 60% in MPL. People had kind of forgotten about it. It has had good success after this change, and while remaining a bit niche compared to the other dragons, at 15 it has a clear identity in the format

Cobalion (12->13)

Cobalion after the change has been explored a lot more, and it's offensive sets with Sword Dance and Calm Mind have become even more popular. A joke we have is that then in doubt, a set of Stealth Rocks, Volt Switch, Close Combat and Thunder Wave on Cobalion is always a good one. Now it has became one of the most common Round 3 pickups in BW Draft. It's flexibility in it's sets have proven integral to the drafts that use it. I personally believe that in the future Cobalion should rise further.

Blastoise (12->13)

Water types are integral in the format, and being a good Rapid Spin user on top of it meant Blastoise would always have an important role in the format. What I underestimated was it's access to Roar. This move has became a key component in it's arsenal and allowed it to take an even larger role in the hazard wars. It benefits a lot from the type resist berries (mostly Wacan) to punish Electric types with Mirror Coat. Extremely good mon.

Mesprit + Rotom-Mow (9->10)

I don't have much to add here other than this change hasn't had a large impact on the mons viabilities. They are being drafted commonly, though Mesprit has started facing competition from Cresselia and Uxie as a Ground Immune Psychic type after this change. Still both have important roles and fit a lot of teams nicely.

Cofagrigus (8->9)

During Swiss, Cofa's draft rate went down to 37.5% from it's massive 72% in Smogon BW 1. People were exploring many other ghosts for their spin block needs. By MPL, it was given more attention and was drafted in 4/5 pools. People have started to put less value in purely hazard stack and started looking at it's Fighting immunity and offensive move pool.

Lanturn (6->7)

A mon I chose to not go deeper into was Lanturn in the original post. Lanturn as highlighted in my budget picks post has extremely nice traits, like having a complete Electric immunity with Volt Absorb along with a great secondary ability in Water Absord, and thus being a Water type that beats Water types or is completely immune to their biggest offensive threat. Having access to slow Volt Switch has proven to be amazing for many different drafts.

Suicune adventures (13->12->13)

Suicune had a very interesting couple of months. At first, it was dropped due to useage based issues in Smogon BW 1. Now, it was risen back to 13 for winrate based success. It is a very specific pick, it doesn't have a secondary typing and it's movepool isn't large compared to many other Waters in the tier. What it does have is raw stats. 115s in both defenses make it a soft check to most things. It is for that reason allowed to spam Scald more freely, which while not unique to it is still a very good trait. It's base speed of 85 is a very good tool. For the teams that want it, it provides a lot and them some.

Notable drops (Swiss and DWL update)

Rain and it's Water Types (16->15), (14->13), (8->7->6), (7->6), (7->3->2)

Rain in general had a pretty awful winrate in Smogon BW 1. Politoed got experimented a lot more in Swiss, and 2 teams managed to make top cut with extremely unique ideas in their drafting. Many of the common abusers thus had bad draft rates and got dropped for the Swiss changes. In MPL, only 2 Politoeds got drafted. It remains to see how good this play style is really is.

Underused/underwhelming Ground types (15->13), (15->14->13), (11->10), (9->8->7) and many others!

The Ground in a BW Draft is a very competed spot, and when being compared to titans like Landorus (both forms), Excadrill, Garchomp and Donphan you have to very good at something specific to stand out. Many of the Grounds either excel in traits not in high demand in the meta or are too general with their statistics and toolkits. Thus, their draft rates weren't very good and were dropped to give them a chance to shine.

Volcarona and Cloyster (15->14)

While objectively absurd, the 2 have massive defensive shortcomings making them a liability if not drafted around. They had bad draft rates in Smogon BW 1, which transitioned into Swiss and MPL. Both however are still extremely powerful and should not be ignored.

Cheap Psychic types (13->12), (11->10), (10->9), (6->5)

Competition is extremely high for Psychic types in BW Draft with examples like Starmie, Alakazam, Azelf, Uxie, Slowbro and Cresselia being very common picks. It is hard to justify picking up these other options, so they were given price cuts to become more budget friendly options.

Fighting types (12->11), (10->8->7), (9->8->7), (7->6)

Being a cheap Fighting type is a hard task, as many of the strong ones like Conkeldurr already go undrafted commonly. There is also a ton of competition, with examples like Scrafty and Sawk getting drafted commonly. These Pokemon were given price cuts to better compete with the other cheap Fighters in the tier.

Alex's highlights

Over the past few months there have been a ton of price cuts and it would be impossible for me to list them all. I have put some noteworthy mons that I didn't write about but still thought deserved a mention in this post

(12->11), (11->10->9), (11->10), (10->9), (10->9), (8->7), (7->6)

Thank you massively for Monai and evakiyama! for tiering these, and to you for reading this. Lets have a fun DWL (and Smogon BW 2)!