Tournament Post-NFEPL VIII Thread

[Zpice]

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Post copied from post-AGPL VII Thread

Welcome to the post-NFEPL VIII thread! As this tournament has reached its conclusion, this thread has been released to give players, managers, and spectators to dump teams, make shoutouts, comment on metagame trends, and generally meme and poke a bit of fun. This post will also link week threads and other important threads for easier navigation in the future.

Links
- Important Threads -
Admin Thread | Roster | Schedule | Spreadsheet | Replays
- Week Threads -
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Semifinals | Finals​

 

[Shadow079]

trumbeaks will rise again guys, i promise, we nearly had it

 

[maybca]

ss team dump speed run + s/o
Every teams are not old team i lost my builder before nfe pl so i had to re build everything
https://pokepast.es/7ef1794a45fb74cb week 1 against letpon ( W)
lepton didn't play since 2022 jeza told me so i wanted to play lampent ( lampent legion brrrrr) and otherwise i built every week with my feeling and i liked this team when i built it so i brought it gg wp.

Week 2 vs fragments maybe one of the player i didn't want to face because i didn't know what they could have bring after their week 1 team so i decided to play a mon i love ( roselia) but this time i wanted to play spa i lost the team sadly.
after watching replays i think it's something like that https://pokepast.es/00ed7ce111ff4357 ( W)

Week 3 vs sleid https://pokepast.es/1b443283a1a406ec ( W)
i really like this team.

Week 4 vs panda https://pokepast.es/9cb147edde068652 ( W )
i wanted to copy panda's sample with lampent and thwackey and edit a bit, this past is the original with sticky barb clef who would have been so helpful but i decided to make some last minute edit so i don't know if it's the past i used during the game

Week 5 vs Strap https://pokepast.es/f15517e75402be80 ( L )
well sadly https://pokepast.es/128870973ec6b8a2 during this tournament i always sent past with set in name because i was kinda lazy and i wanted to send my teams to m8 so Jeza.p don't ping me :), i reserved demon gorsola the whole season for either panda or strap and i decided to use it against strap sadly i faced taunt vulla + forgot to remove my vullaby name but i don't think that matters at all.

semi vs hax and momola ( W ) i'm not sending this team i want to use it in umpl whenever i don't have enough inspiration.

time to s/o

Jeza.p thank you for the nice tournamend and every advice you gave me it was fun to manage with you i hope to manage an other tournament with you asap.
5Dots great season, great person thank you for all o7.
Horii sadly you didn't put a lot of energy in this tour but it's understanble thanks for the win you had who were clutch
zastra i'm not gonna lie i thought you wouldn’t have put so much effort but you were an incredible cheap player i loved how you did your prep and to all manager i'm recommanding you, you are a great person.
MethMaster4546 you worked in the shadow and was a clutch gamer for the team thank you for being active every week even after some loses. If some managers in umpl see this post. I vouch this player he is the goat and i can confirm you want him to play/support for cheap.
JeoZ incredible player clutch win ty for all.
Kabilapok i think you could have done better, but game is game i hope to see you around.
WMAR even if the prep was something we still believed in you and i'm happy to had you in the team
One Last Kiss incredible player who does his prep every week in time. i really want to play a team tour with you soon
a fairy sad record, we still were happy to have you because you were still here week by week to chear for the team, thank you so much !
it's cool nfepl is during my summer vacantion so i say to all see you next year, after going to see a marabout for my semi-final curse.

 

[AM]

The two teams I used for SV first two weeks of the tour.

https://pokepast.es/07bebd4d711daa35
https://pokepast.es/8a88d4c0df1bac83

Other ideas I worked with.

Tough break for the trumbreaks, everyone was good vibes just a really unlucky season where things didn't go our way but is what it is.

Quaxwell is still awful post Missy ban which is why after Week 1 you see me not even trying to use it in the builder. Mon is borderline unviable but its usage would make you think it's like the second best mon in the tier lol. Im convinced the Missy meta was better than what we have currently maybe minus Vigoroth, debatable if Buzz meta was better than what we have now but being winless unfortunately doesn't help my case lol. Another thanks to Lyna and RL for drafting and all the peeps.

ORAS seemed cool for what I saw but not knowing the inner workings of it couldn't help or say much else about it.

 

[Celeste]

You didn't think just because this wasn't ubers uu I wouldn't make an over the top teamdump? Silly NFE players! You have to read now! This will be a mix of teams I used and Frito used, as she graciously let me build her some teams this season.

Week 1
​

Very early on I felt that Drakloak was in a super good spot in the meta, and wanted to take advantage of it's power when used with Specs due to its' elite speed control capabilities, as long as a team is able to manage Piloswine. While unusual, my chosen direction to do this while putting Quaxwell on a timer was to use T-Spikes on Frogadier, to make sure they were able to be set up as fast as possible. Scarf Monferno ended up being a season long favourite of mine, and its ability to threaten darks and punch holes in Tinkatuff to enable an endgame for IDCM Duosion was incredibly valuable. Ivysaur was the last piece of insurance needed to make sure that Thwackey and other grasses were not an issue.

​

Scarf Krokorok was something I picked up from UMBD due to its ability to be a knocker that threatens out Tinkatuff allowing its item removal to be much more impactful in certain matchups. Obligatory Ivysaur + this time a Sliggoo to help bulk up the team vs Thwackey, with Quaxwell and SD Monferno giving forms of counterplay to Piloswine. Simple build, not really sure how strongly I'd stand by it today but it got the ob done.

Week 2
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This week my goal was to take advantage of how strong I felt Thwackey was in the meta, with some extra pieces there to help deal this time with fast threats like Drakloak that Thwackey can't handle nearly as well. Fletchinder was appealing due to its Ground Immunity helping make sure that Tink was able to play a bit safer around Piloswines, with Dunsparce to help enable longer games with a bulkier toxic set.

​

Cool Webs idea in concept, I dont think much of the tier really likes handling a Fletchinder with spikes support, and the Dual Lead style stolen from my time in Ubers UU helped make sure this team wouldn't get screwed by hazards, with an emergency out in Spin Wartortle. Shame it didn't work, but things happen. Would love to see people make this kind of team work more!

Week 3
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Let it be known bird, I did not know that you had gotten T-Spiked for like 4 weeks in a row this week, and granted had I remembered that T-Spikes could be set in front of Hattrem with Koffing this team would have been incredibly successful in game, not just in practice. Specs Sliggoo is a bit of a left field breaker that can put a surprising amount of immediate pressure on Tink and Quaxwell while still threatening some of the things your defensive Sliggoo is important to check like Frogadier and Thwackey. Eelektrik was a good ground immune with consistent chip damage, and at this point I think most of the tour had realized how powerful Koffing T-Spikes teams were. This Pignite was what my team reffered to as my "Demon Spread", which was able to outspeed drakloak at +2, maaking up for the lack of an adamant nature in much stronger cleaning potential. Sadly it never made an appearance again this tour, but it is 100% my favourite set I have made for this tier so far.

​

This would have been a much less interesting week if the Ice Shard wasn't erased from Beav's memory (sad!) but the concept here was based on a pivot core of Pikachu Quax, Drakloak and Monferno to set up Pikachu and Piloswine to hit the field as much as possible to get big damage off. The brokens in this being everything minus the Pikachu (fire fightings are busted)! Support Drakloak felt super nice here in its ability to exert extra chip damage on Quaxwell, TInkatuff, or the potential Dunsparce/Girafarig.

Week 4
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What do you do when your team says you make teams to weak to Piloswine? Make it worse! I think this team was in theory a cool spin on what could have been an offensive team with the dual choiced mons in Girafarig and Piloswine with Raboot and Wartortle being good cleaners, but in the end they never were able to make enough momentum to fully work out. Ivysaur should have probably been a tspiker here. I done fucked up...

Week 5
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Explicit shoutout to Frito with whom I made this team, who tells me one day "is there a way to trap Tinkatuff? I want to win with DD Dragonair", a idea i gladly ran with purely on how stupid it sounded. After about 30 minutes of brainstorming spreads in call, we eventually came up with this. Servine is most often able to trap a tinkatuff (or any non grass type that cant break it's sub/pivot out) which is huge in helping enable the Dragonair this team aims to win with. Wartortle and Pignite serve as good midgame progress makers, especially to force out Piloswine and other Fire Fightings to allow this Dragonair the best chances to get 1, prefferably 2 dds (using breaking swipe to help try and guaruntee a second if played right). The Sliggoo is here as a way to force out Thwackey more consistently due to Servine's lack of running any real moves to handle it, and if you get that 1 crucial iron head flinch the game is yours!

Semis
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This team is probably my proudest creation of the season, with huge shoutouts to my teams experimentation with Banded Raboot + Hattrem structures that I felt would be able to properly take on 5Dot's undefeated run through the main season. The goal was to enable Raboot as the main progress maker/breaker to set you up for a longer drawn out endgame with double rest/talk with Leech Seed and Status allowing for lots of chip damage to make up for the lack of hazards that this team wields. Which was a choice that got questioned, but the more we worked on this the more we realized that this initial build would still be able to pull things out, especially when the Hattrem + Quaxwell makes the opponent maintaining hazard control very difficult. The last piece of the puzzle was a Girafarig, running a Trick + Nasty Plot set to be able to stave off opposing speedy mons while being able to pivot to a Breaker/Sweeper in the endgame if needed, which gave this team a surprising amount of offensive versatility. Sadly, the luck was not going Mia's way in this game leading to a narrow loss, but I'm very happy with this result nonetheless.

Finals
​

Before I get proper started on this, huge shoutout to Shing who's paste is the one linked above. He took the main structure of my original idea and made some tweaks that gave this team a huge edge in what ended up being the tournament winning game of finals! The first thing we saw when looking at the scout for this week was insane matchups for Specs Girafarig and Piloswine in general, this core is really effective at punishing teams that over-rely on Tinkatuff and Quaxwell defensive cores and how they can often be chipped down into losing positions when paired with a good spinblocker (and warm take Dusclops is prob the best one rn in terms of longevity). Scarf Monferno makes a triumphant return when it mattered the most as powerful speed option that could always make progress against common defensive picks like Fletchingder, Ivysaur, and the staple Quaxwell Tinkatuff core. The Dusclops was Shing's brainchild, and allowed for it to be a good spinblocker while also playing more aggresive into most of what it would have to come in on, which was a huge difference maker in this game.

Shoutouts ​

First off, huge shoutout to my captains Lyna and RL for picking me up! Getting to play in this tour was so much fun and despite my record I really enjoyed my time here. Shoutouts as well to Shadow079, AM, and Ineros for all the test games and support! You were fun to team with and I hope I get to do so again in the future. Thank you to Frito as per usual for being an amazing friend and for helping me out with tests and builds, as well as letting me make teams for you! It's always fun to work with you even when we are on opposing sides, but at least I didn't get sat down by you in this tourney :P

Huge congrats to the Huntails and thanks to IoSonoNeon and Quagg for inviting me into the server for playoffs and for letting me support your team, its a huge risk to take on a builder who is new to the tier and I'm glad it paid off in the end. It was great to still be able to have a nice way to close off my season, shoutouts as well to Stareal and Shing for getting me engaged and giving a lot of super valuable feedback on my building!

I can't wait to play more of this tier, but will probably be stuck in Ubers UU purgatory during UMPL. So time to pray i make it to circuit so I can play one of my new fav formats at high stakes!! Thanks again everyone, and thanks for reading!

 

[Finchely]

Bird Brained: A Finch's NFEPL Reflections

(and for the record I've been a bird-themed Teto fan way before JamieP released the titular song)​

Well, that's that. I won't pretend like it was all sunshine/rainbows and necessarily play the part of the gracious loser. But at the same time, I think there's quite a lot for me to learn from this experience.

But first, I want to begin with some of the story leading up to the regular season, as it's actually kind of funny. I went from not having thought about NFE for months, all the way to becoming incredibly invested in the tier's flagship tournament, on top of learning SM NFE from scratch 1 week prior to the auction haha.

The cancelation of NFE Olympiad killed off basically all of my motivation for NFE, and I basically stopped thinking about the tier soon afterwards. It was only until I got a Smogon ping that there was a ban slate for Missy/Giraf/Tink that I remembered this tier, and on a whim left a reply in the metagame discussion thread. Not too long afterwards, I got a DM from my now-good friend PD for the first time in 4 months, asking if I wanted to manage for NFEPL. I was frankly bewildered that he considered me even viable as a co haha. I didn't want to be rude however, especially since originally I was the one who asked to manage with PD for Olympiad, so I accepted. I wasn't even planning to join No Johns until PD dm'ed me to let me know about its existence, after which I felt compelled to join and somehow ended up in semis lol.

As PD and I began discussing more and more, I really began to get back into the flow of things. There was one issue however: we were totally unsure as to what to do with SM NFE. It was the one tier PD had no experience in, and we were a little averse to all the available SM signups for one reason or another. What I ended up proposing was that since PD was quite capable of supporting our SV slots even without my help, I could just pick up SM myself. In hindsight, was this the best decision? No. But I also don't think it was nearly as abhorrent as the spreadsheet might initially suggest. I adapted pretty quickly on the builder side of things, but unfortunately didn't have enough quality tests to really figure out how to play the tier that well. That, and also I think I would've gone positive if not for having gotten frozen turn 5 week 4.

But with SM out of the way, I think the real elephant in the room that I must address is my inexperience with and failure to put together a reliable enough team. Going into this tournament, I thought that I'd really have my hands busy prepping SM, and wouldn't be able to help with SV as much. Furthermore, I also didn't realize how good I'd end up getting at SV after getting enough practice. As such, I prioritized players who were not necessarily the strongest in-game, but rather would be able to build for themselves. The reality however was that PD was enough by himself to cover nearly all 5 SV slots - slots which I also ended up helping prep quite a bit as some of my players can certainly attest to haha. There's also the fact that a lot of the better-performing names on the spreadsheet are those which I was rather unfamiliar with, which I think is a result of my complacency in regards to the lack of player research I did. Ultimately, I think the issue was that I had too narrow a vision of which players I considered as viable picks. Going forward, I'll definitely put more time and effort into understanding a community, while also understanding my capabilities better and subsequently drafting better around them.

With the waffling out of the way, on to the team dump!

DBD week 3 - KnockKrok Balance

Tournament Post in thread 'NFEPL VIII - Week 3'

Aug 1, 2025

won gg
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nfe-860917?p2

SV: Ineros vs benladil - Ineros is still bouncing around tiers to find something that will stick; I think while Celeste and Lyna might cook up something worthwhile, benladil is coming with PD and DBD support.

i didn't even build my own team this week

• Dead by Daylight

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• 
• 

Notably, DBD used banded Pignite over Boots Raboot, which I did not approve of. He got the win regardless tho so it's w/e.

Part of my building philosophy in this tier is that a majority of competent teams (asides from fat and hyper offense) should have an offensive Ground-type. This is because of how valuable I think it is to be able to switch into Tinkatuff and force progress. The classic example is harding Piloswine in on Tink, but I've never been a particularly huge fan of that practice. Eviolite Pilo can't easily beat Quaxwell, and BandPilo risks losing its choice band by harding into Tink. Gabite is also something I've thought considered, given its speed, strength, and its ability to set up with Swords Dance. I've had reservations about SD Gabite as well however because of its consistency issues. Perfect for a more offensive team, but not necessarily something I'd want to put on balance.

waffling about gabite

SD Gabite is a pretty crazy breaker, but is not without its flaws. It needs to click SD to deal meaningful damage, which means that it can be taken advantage of by particularly crazy Tink players. It also can't reliably force Quax all the way to death. Outrage into Taxel is a kill, but surf variants can flip turn out to a revenge killer. Scale Shotting into Quax to prevent flip into revenge is also unreliable because of the nature of Scale Shot, and you're also risking getting taxel'ed on an unrevealed Quax. Furthermore, it's also reasonable that an opponent doesn't switch to Quaxwell at all, and instead hard ins Thwackey - a much better trade in most situations. Lastly, Outrage-locked Gabite gets trapped and revenged by Piloswine, which prevents Gabite from having sustained value throughout a game. Once again, Gabite certainly has its merits, and can even be ran on this team instead of Krokorok to decent success, but is not optimal on a slower-paced balance team.

Ultimately, the answer I arrived at was Krokorok. STAB Knock Off + EQ is pretty insane to try and switch into. Knock absorbers in Tink and Koffing die to EQ, and EQ absorbers in Thwackey and Quaxwell despise getting knocked off. Fletch exists asw, but gets easily dispatched by Rock Slide. While Krokorok doesn't have nearly the same kind of ballistic power that other Ground-type wallbreakers do, its ability to more methodically make progress into an opponent is extremely powerful. And besides, Krokorok's lack of power is perfectly made up for once Koffing's tspikes are factored into the equation.

The rest of the defensive utility mons are pretty self-explanatory, and Raboot is a very good cleaner that can take advantage of Quaxwell getting knocked. And last but not least, Drakloak is an incredibly strong offensive utility mon that really helps round out the team by providing crucial additional speed control, and also being a special attacker that can lure Tink for Krok as well as nuke physical walls.

Drak can probably be made into either boots or specs, but I personally like Eviolite for the added security in being able to tank random hits like Girafarig Psychic and whatnot.

SM week 1 - Sample Mod

Tournament Post in thread 'NFEPL VIII - Week 1'

Jul 18, 2025

Celeste thought she get away with bolding me- wait

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ou-857158

• Finchely

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• 
• 

I was fooling around trying to make an offense team that optimized Kadabra, and accidentally ended up nearly recreating a sample team. Oops. The sample in question is this one. I think it's pretty good, but I'm not the biggest fan of Haunter here. Haunter is a great wallbreaker, but I feel like what this team needs is not another wallbreaker, but rather extra utility and reliability vs the faster threats in the tier. Which is how I came to Scarf Gabite. Not only is Scarf EQ/Outrage spam is a potent win condition, but also Scarf Gabite is one of the few Pokemon that can block Volt Switch while still threatening out Electabuzz. Most Ebuzz won't hesitate to volt first, HP second because they assume that they're faster and can ohko. Scarf Gabite flips the dynamic on its head however, which I find to be incredibly powerful. And then of course, the rest of the team is rather robust in enabling Kadabra, which I consider to be one of the strongest mons in the tier.

SM week 2 - Double Dragon HO

Tournament Post in thread 'NFEPL VIII - Week 2'

Jul 24, 2025

Won gg https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ou-858960

• MemphisDepay

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• 

I lost this week to a combinaiton of a crucial confusion turn, as well as some following bad plays. That said, I still think the team is quite good. I don't think there's too much to dissect on this team, although I do want to mention how good I think Fraxure is. It's incredibly potent as a mid-game trade bot that really opens up opposing walls for the rest of the team to break through. Once I started treating Fraxure as less of a sweeper to be set up, and more of a breaker to facilitate sweeping, I started having a lot more success in tests.

SM week 3 - Bad Balance

Tournament Post in thread 'NFEPL VIII - Week 3'

Aug 3, 2025

won gg https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ou-861868

• King Leo V

• 
• 

I think this team is in theory fine. It just has a crippling lack of bullshit overpowereds imo. I got thoroughly wrecked by KLV this week, which I attribute to trying to honestly outskill a mainer who's tier I don't have much experience in.

SM week 4 - Belly Drum Bonanza

Tournament Post in thread 'NFEPL VIII - Week 4'

Aug 10, 2025

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ou-863048 Won GG sorry for freeze

• WMAR

• 
• 

Back with the bullshit, belly drum Magmar is a pretty funny mon. Electabuzz is HP grass here to lure and KO marshtomp which it did indeed do, which is a shame since I got too impatient and tried to sweep before having set rocks, which meant that WMAR's Buzz was able to revenge kill. The lack of HP ice Magmar isn't really an issue, since Gabite struggles to beat physdef Vullaby, and even a Psychic from Buzz is enough to put Gabite into range of +6 Fire Punch.

SM week 5 - Swan Song

Tournament Post in thread 'NFEPL VIII - Week 5'

Aug 16, 2025

2-3, gatekept from going positive by a freeze, but overall a decent season considering I picked up the tier a week before the auction. I ain't done just yet tho, as I've got a fat post waiting in my sandbox for once the week is over.

That said, thx for the fun times y'all. I'm sad the gaming ends here, but this tour has certainly reignited my motivation for the tier, and I'll be sure to stick around even after the winning team has been crowned.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ou-863772

• Finchely

• 
• 

My second and last win. Sticky webs were something I had always wanted to try ever since the days of pre-auction, when I was begging everyone for tests. I had only used it once, but it seemed to have such an incredibly good matchup into anything lacking removal. It really does allow you to do some nasty things, such as Pawniard outspeeding Gabite, Adamant Monferno, nigh-impossible to revenge Haunter if you lack a grimer, etc. Speaking of Haunter, the silly nature and IVs are so that you die to even uninvested pursuit, allowing you to properly dbond Grimers. Moving onwards, Roselia is a bit of an odd choice here imo. Spikes are incredibly powerful at punishing spin and removal-less comps, but Rose kind of cannot afford to come out ever if the opponent has a Vullaby. Servine could probably be swapped here, trading weaker firepower and no spikes for a better matchup into defoggers and an actual ground resist. Just going by the mons themselves, the team certainly has a defog weakness, which is why I included 3 taunt users and a pawniard. Taunt Monferno I've found is also just generally useful for screwing with Pokemon like Mareanie. I originally used Thunder Punch, but to my shock, +2 adamant iron fist thunder punch couldn't OHKO even spdef Mandibuzz. Overall, I think the team is pretty great, and I'm glad that I was able to win with it.

With that out of the way, onto viability talks!

Personal Rankings

DISCLAIMER: I wrote these a while ago and had some takes I now realize were pretty bad. I didn't want to just delete the writing though so it's still here if y'all wanna see

the actual rankings

Let's go over some of the placements that might get me killed haha.

When your goat is surfed

Pilo? Outside of S rank? More likely than you'd think. Pilo is good don't get me wrong. It still has crazy damage output, amazing bulk, and valuable priority in Ice Shard. However, it faces minor consistency issues due to the omnipresence of Quaxwell, and even its ways of getting around Quaxwell have their own quirks which must be accounted for. Future Sight + Pilo is a core that sounds really strong on paper, but is not so easy in practice. It can be rather telegraphed from preview, after which pokemon such as Thwackey, Krokorok, and any Tspike setter can heavily interfere with getting the lines you need. CB Pilo is far more self-reliant at breaking, but cannot switch into Tinkatuff with abandon, and must also deal with the consequences of being Choice Locked. Now to be clear, these are not dealbreakers, their just minor problems that can be solved with good preparation and better play. But they are problems nonetheless, which is why I cannot say that Piloswine is deserving of its S-rank status any longer.

Hey who let this guy in

I already yapped a lot about Krok, so I'll keep the glazing short. Being able to switch into Tinkatuff, and click Knock into oncoming checks is insanely good. Furthermore, you can also do random things like bully defensive psychics, Switch into most Koffings, and be able to threaten Duskull from much higher percentages than others would normally be able to do. Its biggest flaw however, is its utter lack of bulk or defensive utility (asides from eating Psychic). It only exists to bully defensive cores, and gets blown to bits by most offensive Pokemon. Normally, I'd put such a Pokemon in B+, but I truly feel like Krokorok's strengths are so dominant that it deserves A-; Tink/Quax/Koff teams are in my opinion so incredibly meta, that Krokorok's ability to exploit them is what puts it a step above its peers.

When your goat is surfed (again)

Monferno just does not feel like it right now. Its speed tier is awkward in that it gets mogged by options such as Giraf and Gabite, while also having to deal with Drakloak being everywhere now. Furthermore, it also doesn't do enough damage, struggling to 2hko Quaxwell with CC even after Quaxwell gets knocked. Setup variants can't slot all of SD / Fire STAB / CC / priority / coverage, but their priority isn't strong enough to properly beat out revenge killers anyways (especially not Drakloak). Nasty Plot variants do not need coverage and exist to flip existing dynamics on their head, but must rely on Focus Blast to hit Quaxwell, and have even weaker priority than their physical counterparts. The rise in Fletchinder hasn't been kind to Monferno either. Scarf might be a pretty good set, but it still has issues breaking Koffing, all while now having to deal with choice lock. There's argument to be made that Monferno is a midground between Pignite and Raboot, for teams in need of that kind of compression, but I don't completely buy it since as I've established Monferno neither excels at breaking nor is it capable of acting as speed control (asides from scarf). Overall I wouldn't say Monferno is outright bad, but I think there's just more optimal ways of building offense right now.

It's actually kind of funny, I wrote the teamdump (with the exception of week 5) and VR first, and filled out the reflection and this closing paragraph last. I was still hopeful that the The Tinka Toughs had a pretty viable shot at playoffs if we locked in, only to check the week 5 thread and realize that Hauntails knocked us out of contention before the week was even halfway over. So I'm a little emotional at the time of writing this, since the shock of it is still fresh haha. By the time this goes out though it'll have been old news however. I really wish it could've ended differently, but I'm happy that it happened regardless.

Shoutouts

Dead by Daylight
You were probably the player I supported most closely throughout the tournament. While I'll never understand your obsession with wallbreakers whose only niche is 2hkoing Quaxwell through Eviolite, I still gotta hand it to you that you rarely disappointed in-game. You drove me a little crazy sometimes, but ultimately I'm very glad I drafted you. I hope our paths cross more in the future!

FishyRoads
I'm sorry that your season didn't pan out as well as we'd hoped, and I think I could've done more for you when it came to direct support as well submitting lineups. Despite it all, you always gave your best and still managed to do admirably versus a good deal of the tougher names in the pool. Overall I had a blast getting to interact with you outside of Ubers UU, and I hope you did too.

benladil
I didn't get to interact with you much, since it always seemed like you were PD's ward. Nevertheless, I always noticed how active you were, and how you'd always keep a positive attitude about things, which I greatly appreciated. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors, especially in any NFE related ones!

Trouser Snakes
In a similar vein to Benladil, your slot was always the domain of PD, and I hardly interacted with you. There was that one week however, week 3 I believe, where PD had to step away for a bit and I ended up helping you in his place. I hope I wasn't too overbearing, but I'd like to think it did pay off since you won that week. All in all, thanks for taking the time to play with us, especially since it was your first time playing ORAS NFE. You did an admirable job, and I'd love the chance to work with you again.

Zcarlett
I hope you didn't mind all my tags towards the end of the season. It was a bit of a stressful time for me, since the chance we had at playoffs was so precise. I apologize if it was too much. I saw the effort you put in though, and the times you would review and help prep other slots however. So thank you, for putting forth your best effort for our team.

crow crumbs
This wasn't your tour unfortunately. I know that you're capable of doing well, but I think the emerging meta was not kind to you. Idk if you'll play NFE in UMPL but if you give it a shot I think that you could do pretty good.

ThundergamesPT2
I'm sorry for not fielding you earlier, and for having dropped tests with you after we got knocked out. You're a great friend, as well as a pretty capable player to boot. NFEPL wasn't it, but let's get together another time and have some fun - maybe after I've gotten a little more experienced at managing haha.

CarTulo
You're a wonderful guy and I'm glad I listened to my players and 3k'd you at the end of the auction. You somehow ended up as our team's 4th portuguese-speaking player which was pretty funny, but it was a good time. I also really appreciated the SM tests you'd run with me. Your attitude in the teamcord was also a pleasure to have, and it was always great to see you pop in and say hi. Thanks for your time, and good luck running the daycare!

GUZOT
You somehow ended up as our team's... 5th portuguese-speaking player. You weren't initially a part of our draft plan, and we never fielded you, but you remained a positive presence anyways. We didn't really give you a chance, but you still made an effort to be a part of the team, for which I'm grateful for <3

Astro
Don't sweat it man. In fact I feel a little bit bad for not ever calling upon you or getting you involved in the cord either. Likewise, I also think that you seem like a cool person and I'd like to see you again asw.

And last but certainly not least my incredibly wonderful comanager PandaDoux for bearing with me through these 5 weeks. You were both an amazing friend to have, as well as a beast when it came to both playing your slot as well as prepping the entire team. I know it might seem at first as if you dragged me into this, but I really want to emphasize how much I enjoyed this experience. So once again, thank you PD, I hope we can partner again :)

With that all said and done, say it with me now one last time, GO TINKS

 

[TTK]

Another NFEPL finals lost and another finals of a team tour which I lose, I'm probably cursed atp to never win a tour but it's been a good one. I started this tour 0-2 and ended with a 3-3 record so I can't complain but I want to thank Mirbro and Michael Jordan for retaining me, ik you were probably shitting bricks when I was 0-2 but I managed to bring it back.

Coming back to SM NFE has been interesting, I won SM Open so I thought I would be on top of my game throughout this tour but it seems like my building philosophy was out of wack at the start of the tour, I wasn't taking risks like I used to in the past and I stuck with "safe" teams that didn't really fit the modern meta. The modern SM meta has a big emphasis on hazard stack and tbh, I should've just done that in finals but who knows? But I can tell myself from 2019 that hey, you're playing better than you were back in NFEPL 3.

I'm only going to talk about my teams from Week 3 because I genuinely think my first two teams were fucking garbage and did not reflect the change in my mindset of how to approach this tier.

Week 3 (W)


So in this position we're 2 weeks in with 0 wins and I can't trust myself with building rn so Mirbro just hands me this team and I can't complain. I manage to win vs MemphisDepay here and I think looking at Mirbro's team managed to give me a revelation on how to build for myself looking forward. I don't have much to say about the team because I didn't build it.

Week 4 (W)


I was very satisfied with this team in testing. Combusken is a sleeper pick in SM NFE and really does show its broken potential that would see it get banned in SV but it has CC in SV but hold no doubt it would be banned in this format if it had CC. In any case, hazard stack is the name of the game and I follow some guideline that assisted me in the builder. Fighting type + hazard setter/s + ground + dark mon + 2 filler. Some of these roles like hazard setter or filler can encompass removal, fighting check and speed control and I had Staravia to check Machoke and other physical threats in addition to removal and Frogadier was the fast attacker. One of the hardest mons to check in this metagame as you can see Clefairy coming into Frog thinking it can check SpA Frog but then Gunk Shot comes out and deletes it.

Week 5 (W)


This was Clefairy's game 100%. It's crazy to me that Clefairy could just 1v4 and come out on top, one of the best if not wincons in the entire format and it really shines when there's no steels in the game. Physdef Roselia was something I decided to invest in because you can actually 1v1 mons like Gabite and Machoke which was key in testing. No Guard Machoke is also lowkey funny and after facing it in week 4, I decided to adopt it on this team just because ik Dynamic Punch could come in clutch. I had such complete confidence in this team that I verbatim said in the teamcord "I think we have another W"

Finals (L)

ON GOD I SHOULD'VE BROUGHT THIS TEAM TO FINALS but I couldn't find the paste anyway. The actual team I used is down below:



I think this team certainly had potential and ik that because of tests but there are a few things I would change, to be honest it's only one thing and that's Tangela. This mon is HELLA SHIT and idk why I decided to use it. I could've made this a hazard stack team with Roselia or even fucking Ferroseed. It's the worst Grass-type by far to use in this meta and this has been a learning experience to not use it anytime soon. It lures you in by thinking it actually is a great physical wall but it doesn't check anything effectively outside of Gabite. Pawniard just knocks it, Machoke knocks it, Grimer hits it super effectively, Monferno/Combusken, Staravia and God, is it the best mon at bringing in Roselia free of charge the majority of the time. Tangela just lacks real practical utility on a game-to-game basis and I think my game highlights this the most. Again, mono dragon above probably had a better shot at winning the finals game. One thing I can say is that Memphis and his team prepped accordingly and I have to respect that, I just wish I brought a better team in general lmao.

Anyway, see y'all in UMPL and be on the lookout for my SM VR noms

 

[Nashrock]

https://pokepast.es/d1766b5130f05112
https://pokepast.es/22fb8d6c2f2ed6c4
https://pokepast.es/efe0198ddb6d0374
https://pokepast.es/271c07cd6937dec5
https://pokepast.es/e53170a05440f9ee
https://pokepast.es/bb2bc12293cb8997
https://pokepast.es/4a25dff12be39256

Everything I made this tour. No team here was put into more than 1 actual game so use at your own cost. (I think most are solid enough though) This tier really needs a good answer to ground type at this point I think. I'll also nominate my lovely duo into a higher VR rank just because how good pdef works as a fighting type check

 

[Michael Jordan]

Mirbro Thank you for giving me the chance to manage alongside you and learn the ropes. You were great, I learned a lot from you and i think we worked well together, would love to do so again in the future.

Dragonillis you lead the team with a perfect record and felt like a third manager at times, ty for your hard work you are the goat.
Cammellia白山茶 first of many 3k demons who had an amazing record for the price, would love to work with u again. Don't let the final victory let you feel down, you smashed it.
DD Joe Another 3k demon, thank you for your effort bro.
PlayaBeavs don't let the record discourage you, was fun to team with you and I appreciate the effort you put in. I loved your vision to pick out underused mons and to cook with them.
Nakoruru_XD Another 3k demon who should have had a perfect record if not for hax. For people managing in UMPL I'd really recommend you pick up Nakoruru, they put in effort and their play is really good.
lemonstre1 Thank you for the effort you put in, not only in prepping for your own slots but for providing tests.
Theycallmephil You were willing to step in when needed and did get a big win in week 1.
Fragments I wish I could have supported you more in SS, but I'm sure you'll bounce back!
TTK you had a rough start, but well done for being able to turn it around! Looking forward to working with u in bdsppl
Shucklegigas Your slot was the one I paid the most attention with and it was good testing and working with you. I feel like alot of your Ls came from a rough match up or us trolling in the last week.

Apagogie I saw you mention only signing up out of solidarity but it was cool to have you help out with tests. Cool to work with you considering we didn't work together all those years ago.

KeshBa54 ExguardiaN Adhi Velcroc HATS Shout out to you guys for the vibes + being willing to sub in when needed.

Finally big shout out to sleid doom 5Dots BloodAce maybca for helping during finals, you helped us really polish teams and unfortunately it didn't give the result we wanted but the help was very much appreciated!

 

[hax and momola]

https://pokepast.es/fcb66b89cea5b20e
https://pokepast.es/658a9173fdb5553f
https://pokepast.es/dcb80f336a42c26b
https://pokepast.es/e217499942adf67c
https://pokepast.es/4b9c2db0749ac31b
https://pokepast.es/42d17ddc650de921
https://pokepast.es/25ffcc4ad84afedd

IoSonoNeon I didn't talk to you much during the tournament, without knowing why, lol, but I wanted to thank you and Quagg so much for buying me for this tour (my first PL). I hope you improve from the phase you're going through now.
Quagg I wanted to say the same thing I said to Iosono: if you hadn't bought me, I wouldn't even have the chance to play in this tournament. You helped me a lot during the tournament, motivating me, etc. Thank you very much!

I wanted to thank my teammates too; without you, none of this would be possible.

 

[Quagg]

Very happy to win another nfepl with an awesome team. This time not playing which was pretty interesting. Ill start from scratch.

Lots of great players got retained which meant we needed to get the big players left in the pool. Went with the core of Stareal, Ivar57 and The Strap which we knew all had nfe experience and would win most of their games(and they did). I was at the cabin in middle of the woods during draft so Iosono really carried. All went after plan. After getting the core with experience we had to go for the players we have watched and liked how they played the game. We went with Nashrock, Frito and MemphisDepay . Had to throw one into the Sm mines and we knew that would go well with my support since we had the skill in our player. This core of players also did very great and all clutched when we needed the most. After that i needed Havocknight in the team since we had great synergy after winning zu classic and zu olympiad with each others help. You picked up oras and did great. hax and momola and thompson1 is the brazilian youngstser core we went for. Only people that tried out and both beat me so i thought lets go for it, they play well so lets give them a chance. It paid off which i thought it would. Sorry for the internet thing thompson the week you got the chance. Last player we went for was natalia which we figured was a great pick to round it off.

First weeks we tied alot. We needed to figure out what style to go for in sv which we understood after a while. Another reason for the ties is because i could have done better in terms of scouting more, supporting more etc so im sorry for that. Scouting is NOT my strong side team. After getting our first win something happened and everything felt so easy after that. Thats thanks to the amazing players. Me and Iosono could from time to time definetly have done more but u guys made it easy for us. Thank you.

We got some help too. Shing ,Celeste and Kingler joined and was amazing presence. Didnt know celeste before the tour, but great and very helpful person. Gave frito teams all tour. Shing carried latest weeks helping Strap and great sv/oras shouts. Helped scout too. Very thankful guys. Thank you. Helping like that just shows what kind of people you are.

Ill drop individual shoutouts to avoid potentially not treat you guys equal in the feedbacks. But know this: You guys were the best group of people to win this with.

I had alot of fun and hope you did too. Ill drop my sm thoughts later.

Gz to stareal,iosono and strap winning twice in a row. Kinda cool. Strap with 3rd nfepl win which makes them nfe veteran.

 

[Cammellia白山茶]

A belated short essay for my first time to sign smg pl except cnpl. Sorry that my English is not good. If there are some problem in the article plz tell me. Ty everyoneIts really like a dream i cant believe even if we didnt win in final.

At beginning i should say that it is my first time to play nfe. I just join the nfe open on a whim. Mirbro send a message ask me if want to sign up nfepl. It is really unbelievable. I think i just a beginner lol. I ll never forget that Mirbro says "u ll be the amazing 3k player". Maybe i made it ! At last i got 5-1 ! I really cant believe

W1 Vs LB (W)
https://pokepast.es/61c21a87fcaa0af1
Just like I said i didnt play nfe before. So i first refer to almost every pokemon set in nfe. And then i find something i really like. CB Pilo! It can really easy to break opps team. I also use the team in ssnl and it works really well. This team almost made by Mirbro and i just change a little. I think Tspike is really important. I almost put poison pm in every team i built.

W2 Vs methmaster (W)
https://pokepast.es/d7c220fa60c0959e
i wanted to play Monferno first ,but when i test it with my teammate and find the pm i think rank A+. PIGNITE! I still think that no one pm in nfe can counter it. It a really crazy pm. And i tried a maybe unusual set. SW Fletchinder. It is a great cleaner i think. In replay, Fletchinder works well down.

W3 Vs Hax and momola (W)
https://pokepast.es/f44650453efe1acd
Hattrem is really nice pm. It can lower Pickpocket Tinkatuff HP and then Girafarig can easy to be a cleaner. Raboot is highest speed line in team. And it can fight against other high speed pm like Drakloak.

W4 Vs THE_CHUNGLER (W)
https://pokepast.es/cbec816cff93af21
As u see that i use 3 week Quax lol. So im thinking to use defog in w4. The team looks like w1 LBs team. But i choose unusual pm Seadra. In fact, it works nice. Seadra can be under Quaxs speed line as 166. And use its Poison Point to make it into poison. Then it can easy to use Eviolite Pilo and raboot with Future Sight to breaking the opponent's defensive core.

W5 Vs Ineros (W)
Reuse W1 team
I decide to play wall HO this week in the beginning. After seeing opps scout, I found that team he use is afraid cb pilo. And we need to make sure win this week, so i give up the HO and choose to reuse. CB PILO !

Final Vs Ivar57 (L)
https://pokepast.es/5c12587c97eb63fc
This teams name comes from my friend zuzhouwawa because pms chinese name and I used a homophonic pun. After seeing final opps scout, i decide to try CS frog+Eviolite pignite attack. I found that opp like to use Thwackey. Soi add ivay to defence it. This team with a bit problem is the speed line. I use pignite just want a nice mu. I think it also can be changed to Monferno. I m thinking if use this team or choose another thought like sub Krokorok + defog. This team is afraid of spikes attack. Finally I choose this team and add Triple Axel to attack Drakloak. But in the battle i dont choose to use Sucker punch because i afraid of the possible Thunder Wave. In fact, in opps team there is a toxic Glimmet. It isnt possible to add thunder wave in Drakloak. I lose the chance to hit drakloak. And then it happens a miss really makes me no way to win.
0 Atk Quaxwell Triple Axel (120 BP) (3 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Drakloak: 264-314 (95.3 - 113.3%) -- approx. 75% chance to OHKO (264, 268, 270, 272, 278, 280, 282, 284, 290, 292, 296, 296, 302, 304, 308, 314)
Seems life :(

Really happy to sigh up nfepl and be drafted.
Ty for everyone in our teams! It really a nice team!
Mirbro THANK U FOR DRAFT ME!!! I really just a beginner. Ty for give me a chance to try nfe. Its really interesting tier. Hope i can be drafted by u next year! Maybe a little expensive instead of 3k lol.
Michael Jordan Thank u for ur scout and test with me! Really in a timely manner!
Dragonillis 5-0 GOAT! So strong player u r! Looking forward to fighting alongside you next time.
Nakoruru_XD lemonstre1 DD Joe Apagogie
Ty for so many tests! I really like ur nice thought and play with u! If possible, i would like to play with u in a lifetime!
Because of my study and work, i maybe leave one year and back next year. Hope to see u better and help me to sigh up pl lamo!

SEE U NEXT TIME!!!! GO Bayern Munchlax!!!