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ADV OU Secret Santa 2025

https://pokepast.es/e6edfede6a448382

Loneling requested a team with raichu in it. At first glance the team seems like a regular jolteon spikes team with raichu swapped in, but what sets the electric mouse apart from jolteon is that it can kill itself really fast. Specifically, raichu has access to volt tackle which, thanks to its huge recoil effect, can deny the opponent a turn when raichu kills itself with recoil, thereby preserving the momentum on this offense team. Petaya is chosen so that once petaya procs raichu can guarantee to die to recoil against any non electric resist/immunity in the tier. Substitute helps with raichu’s gameplan by giving the player more control over raichu’s hp and also easing the need for prediction. Focus punch synergies well with substitute and punishes Blissey trying to recover to keep its health high, while also hitting tyranitar and the annoying jolteon. With focus punch raichu will never be set up bait for ddtar if you hit the focus punch roll to kill which is crucial for this team.

Here are some calcs for reference:

+1 252+ SpA 30 IVs Raichu Volt Tackle vs. 168 HP / 0 SpD Metagross: 273-322 (79.5 - 93.8%)

+1 252+ SpA 30 IVs Raichu Volt Tackle vs. 116 HP / 0 SpD 30 IVs Salamence: 303-357 (84.1 - 99.1%)

+1 252+ SpA 30 IVs Raichu Volt Tackle vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD 30 IVs Tyranitar: 252-297 (62.5 - 73.6%)

48 Atk 30 IVs Raichu Focus Punch vs. 0 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 377-444 (57.9 - 68.2%)

48 Atk 30 IVs Raichu Focus Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def 30 IVs Tyranitar: 387-456 (96 - 113.1%) -- 75% chance to OHKO

Merry Christmas and hope you enjoyed the team!
 
Merry Christmas OmBrArch!

You requested for a team with CB Ttar + Gyarados and this is my attempt at making the concept work: https://pokepast.es/76c0d6c6e76067e2

This was very obviously inspired by MDragon's sample team and it operates on similar principles, but tries to enable a DD sweep by Gyarados rather than Aerodactyl cleaning in the endgame. I hope you will enjoy this team!
 
HydreigontheChild requested sub lefties Heracross so I came up with this set:

Heracross @ Leftovers
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 204 Atk / 120 Def / 184 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Megahorn
- Rock Slide
- Sunny Day
- Substitute

I invested in Def to take less than 25% from defensive Swampert earthquake that way pert can't break sub in the sun (roar gets us). This also works against Milotic and defensive Flygon. The extra Def proved useful for checking dd tar as it allows Hera to live a +1 Adamant Double-edge or Rock slide after 1 layer of Spikes from full HP. Paralysis support from teammates also provides free sub opportunities.

https://pokepast.es/d54c8f4fd9a5b262

Here is a replay using the team this game has kinda wild rng but if you watch from turn 19 you can see the defgon can't OHKO the sub https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-2502346075
This is another one using a different iteration of the team that had Houndoom and defensive Metagross instead of pursuit tar and claydol
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-2499529820

I hope you like your gift merry christmas!!
 
Merry Christmas to Slowpoke Fan who requested Slowpoke Slowbro!

Melli (Slowbro) @ Leftovers
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Def / 32 SpA / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Fire Blast
- Thunder Wave
- Toxic

This is the set I built the team around, with the idea that Slowbro's main advantages over other bulky waters such as Milotic, Suicune, and Swampert is its access to Thunder Wave, and Fire Blast as a coverage option. Its a fairly decent check to Metagross with these options, though it struggles against common status-absorbing switch-ins such as Blissey and Celebi, necessitating Toxic to put some pressure on them (though Fire Blast can also serve as an option to chip Celebi switch-ins). The defensive investment guarantees that Slowbro can take two HP Bugs from +1 Jolly DDTar, or Double-Edge from the +1 252+ Atk Adamant Ttar which has been popular on ladder recently. 32 SpA is enough to guarantee 2-hits on bulky variants of Tyranitar and Metagross with Surf/Fire Blast respectively. 12 Speed gives Slowbro the jump on Paralyzed Jolteon or Aerodactyl

The rest of the team provides firepower (in the form of Machamp) to take advantage of paralysis spread by the combination of Slowbro + Snorlax/Jirachi, and healing (in the form of Wish/Leech Seed) to make up for Slowbro's (and Machamp's) lack of chip heal in sand which can limit it. Mixed Salamence presents the most immediate threat before paralysis can be spread around the opposing team, and can be used as a lead in place of Machamp.

https://pokepast.es/4f5b35b994009afd
 
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Merry Christmas giove97 who requested a team with Alakazam! What stood out to me about Alakazam was its amazing coverage and speed tier, allowing it to outspeed most mons (critically outspeeding starmie and the recently popular raikou) and hit basically everything in the tier super effectively with the right coverage. I wanted to capitalize on that amazing coverage, so I decided to run it on a CM Pass team, allowing it to drop CM in order to fit an extra slot of coverage.

Here is the final iteration of the team. The nicknames are from the album Techno Pop by Kraftwerk, but feel free to change them if you feel so inclined! https://pokepast.es/1f061925f6b8c20a

This is the Alakazam set I ended up on:
Techno Pop (Alakazam) @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Psychic
- Fire Punch
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Ice Punch

This set can be really great in end-game situations if it receives a CM pass or the opponent's team is whittled down. As a great bonus, it helps mitigate the team's DD Tar weakness by always outspeeding +1 Ttar and doing solid damage back with HP Grass. Hope you like the team! Merry Christmas!
 
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Allen "Bottles" Graham who asked for a Clefable team!

The only real niche that Clef has over Blissey is it's access to encore, cosmic power, and belly drum. I decided to build around encore Clef as it seemed the most solid. Here's the set:

Merry Clefmas! (Clefable) @ Leftovers
Ability: Cute Charm
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Encore
- Seismic Toss
- Thunder Wave
- Soft-Boiled

Max SpDef Clef allows you to pretty comfortably switch in on a lot of premier special threats like Zapdos and Suicune. The cool thing about Clef over Blissey is that certain sets that are designed to exploit Blissey, like 101 sub Suicune or Jirachi, have a much harder time dealing with encore Clef. In addition to this, Lum Dragon Dancers will often try to set up in front of Clef which you can also encore for a strong momentum shift.
The team is a slower-paced spikes balance with Forre + Pursuit Tar and Heal Bell Celebi to help support Clef. It has a bit of a learning curve, but I've had a lot of fun testing it out on ladder so I sincerely hope others can enjoy using it as well!

TEAM LINK: https://pokepast.es/206f93ba4fb1666d

Merry Clefmas!
 
Hi nchmax, Merry Christmas!
I had alot of fun building and playing clamperl, but i also lost a good amount of elo (and sanity)
Also, though I do enjoy what I built, I feel like clamperl has even more potential than what i've been able to tap into.
With all that out of the way, this is probably the best iteration i had: https://pokepast.es/9cefb716a54f9607

:clamperl:Clamperl:
Clamperl was suprisingly threatening lead, with 252 HP it can threaten out or kill Tyranitar and Salamence, and trade decently into Suicune and Metagross if you choose. Of course, zapdos is beating you turn 1, but if you catch it coming in or zapdos is para'd, you can one shot it with ice beam in most scenarios. Rain dance is a decent turn 1 click vs tar to clear weather for regice & gyara, but only if your opponent respects your 540 SpA stat which always 1hkos tar.

:gyarados:Gyarados:
This "mixed gyara" set is something I've been advocating for every time I get the opportunity. Here it's kinda the best mon you have against super fat teams, while still trading well into offense. The fast taunt helps deny suicune or even blissey healing (and spikers), hydro can 2 shot tyranitar & claydol unexpectedly, flying is the move for chipping water resists, and thunder wave is over the usual roar here to help enable your other threats, and help into things like rachi or incoming zapdos.

:regice: Regice:
Regice is your special wall on this team, which provides stab ice beam, consistent para and explosion. The main advantage here over lax is that you're able to threaten skarmory if need be.

:charizard:Charizard:
The move toxic on zard is definetely one part of your plan to beat suicune, so make sure to use it if you suspect suicune is coming in. Otherwise, it exists to put massive pressure on skarmbliss as per. I ran HP ice through all the testing but just now i realized grass would be better probably.

:jirachi:Jirachi:
Mixed Jirachi is here to deny setup, spread para, provide additional special switchins to support regice, and additional rock switchins to allieviate metagross. Kind of a "glue" mon on this team.

:metagross:Metagross:
Meta can take advantage of para'd mons without setting up, but agil here gives you a nice sweeper that can crucially deal with dugtrio unlike Tyranitar. It also gives you more of a physical backbone, and is supported by gyara intim's and jira in this.

Other Considerations:
At first, I tried clamperl specoff and there might be some potential there. Clamperl can sacrifice itself to blissey and it bring it down to at least 70%, because of how much surf can do. It could do even more if you run speed to outspeed bliss, and get 2 hits on it. Same goes for chipping cele, and jira and all the special walls. This would allow dugtrio in to follow up, and ensure clean kills on all of the main special walls in the tier.

Also, I tried replacing Zard with dd brick fblast mence and meta with cbmeta, but it still was imperfect and struggled into suicune somewhat. i think a dd fblast mence version of this team could certainly work tho.

Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-2501168169-82h1smranqak9xinubuh5xuqxdr2yt6pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-2501963177-6c8x55wac25sabnqwdax9dtlt3lulndpw?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-2501178243-exknvgg3nb8cl3me44vb2iu0ud3uefupw?p2
 
Merry Christmas taurosLeadADV !

https://pokepast.es/f653aeb18f656f86

The original prompt was a p2 team to enable mons like heracross. No hera on this one, but I hope you'll find Santa's Lil Helper (Breloom) + Superrachi to be a worthy replacement!

I went with forre/loom/zard on the squad to try to cover p2's weakness to meta/tar. Max def p2 is a great pivot for mence and aero, but it hates letting in the bulky mons. Ada mach + any chip from the team revenge ddtar and forre helps round out the phys def backbone. Additionally, this forre packs a 96+ slide that can surprise OHKO an early game zard or chip gar into its teammates' range (tho this might be a cheesy play I must admit lol).

Finally, some mons to take advantage of dug being gone: recover Celebi for special checking and Jirachi for the cleanup sweep.

Hope you enjoy!
 
brranden Merry Christmas!

The request was a Sceptile team with Spikes, and this is what I came up with:

https://pokepast.es/700126d116b1b7c4
:tyranitar::skarmory::sceptile::swampert::gengar::aerodactyl:

To me, Sceptile's niche is mostly that it is incredibly fast and has access to Leech Seed and Endeavor. While this sounds good on paper, it is sadly hindered by poor damage output and even worse defensive utility. I think there is some experimenting to be done with Endeavor Sceptile on Slop, but on a Spikes build I think Endeavor is not as efficient, so I went with the standard Sub Leech set instead. This set plays like a mix of Leech 3A Celebi and Raikou – the logical fit for such a mon is Aero Spikes imo. The 6 I ended up using is essentially a mid ground between El Clasico and AeroBi, using Sceptile instead of Celebi / a fast electric.

Sceptile had glimpses where it was surprisingly efficient, where the team almost felt like an improvement on AeroBi. However, there are also matchups where its weaknesses become apparent. For instance, the team is likely too weak to fighting types after the change to be considered viable. As seen in this replay, even after getting some good luck and essentially the ideal line vs Machamp lead, the team still loses – though double fighter is a fishy archetype, to be sure. Other than that, the team struggles against similar things that El Clasico and AeroBi do, notably Moltres, Charizard, Jolteon, Raikou, and Zapdos. It is also quite hard to pilot against Mag Offense, as the team has no good switch-in after Mag eliminates the Skarm. I suggest just going Tar and accepting the chip damage, as eliminating Mag makes life a lot easier for Aero and Sceptile. On the other hand, the team is incredibly strong into opposing Spikes Offense, as Sceptile outspeeds most opposing mons and gets great value out of Spikes and Leech Seed. The combination of Leech Seed Sceptile and Taunt Gengar also means that Blissey isn't an issue. The team is arguably best against Big 5 structures. While Big 5 is no longer as popular, I still believe that this is a sign that the team is quite solid.

The team went about 50 50 at around 1500 elo, so not terrible, but could definitely be better too. The issue is mostly that Sceptile is hard to pilot. Making a bad call usually means just straight up losing the Sceptile, although Substitute somewhat alleviates the issue. I think a good Aero Spikes user can pilot this team to decent success, while it might just not click for less experienced players whatsoever. I also think that there might be teams which highlight Sceptile's strengths better than this one. Unfortunately, sometimes winning means having to "sac the shitmon" which might go against the spirit of a Sceptile team. However, I don't believe this is bad, as Leech Seeding with a fast mon and thereby sacking it generates an insane amount of tempo. The team is also surprisingly good vs Stall, which Aero Spikes usually struggles against in my view. So while not perfect and definitely a bit fishy, I have been positively surprised by how potent this team is.

A few notes on teambuilding decisions:
  • Pursuit Tar is great here, because Gengar is an otherwise tough matchup. It also helps eliminate Claydol and Starmie, meaning Gengar isn't tasked with beating the opposing spinner all on its own. Given that the team has 2 incredibly fast mons, I like the gameplan of going all in on keeping up Spikes. Pursuit Tar in the lead slot also means that opposing Skarmory can't get the jump on setting up Spikes, as clicking Flamethrower into it T1 usually ends up with favourable lines. Counter is used to deal with opposing Metagross, which otherwise walls Sceptile, can eliminate Gengar, and prevents Aero from Sweeping. Clicking Counter T1 vs Meta lead is highly beneficial for the team's gameplan. Counter also helps with eliminating defensive Flygon, after which Superman gets torn to shreds by Aerodactyl.
  • Skarmory is as defensive as possible, mostly to also be able to deal with Metagross, and not getting hit as hard by special attackers. Drill Peck is necessary to somewhat keep fighting types in check. I went with Peck Tox to also put pressure on opposing rock resists, which Aero appreciates.
  • Monopert (and this Gar set, for that matter) is kinda necessary on Clasicoesque builds. I love the set, but it notably does not 1v1 Metagross as well. This is another reason for the choices above.
  • Aerodactyl needs HP Bug, otherwise the team loses to stat pass Celebi. HP Flying would somewhat improve the team's matchup against fighting types, hoewever. I decided to bite the bullet, as Pursuit Tar also incentivises HP Bug, as HP Flying isn't needed for the Gengar Swampert midground.

Proof of concept:

I hope you like the team! Let me know if you have any questions.
 
Merry Christmas, Joaf !

The request was either Bulk Up Recover Medicham or Mono Psychic Recover Celebi (no Leech Seed though). I explored both possibilities and I think I ended up with one team that's more viable and another that's more interesting, so I just decided to post both (Click the sprites for the paste).

First up, Mono Psychic Bi SDPass :celebi: :metagross: :magneton: :tyranitar: :salamence: :snorlax:.
This is, I'll admit, a very standard SDPass team but with Psychic on Celebi instead of the usual HP Rock. Enough speed to outspeed 252+ Molt and some special attack evs to have a pretty favorable roll to 2hko Medicham, as it's an annoying pokemon to switch into, also OHKOing offgar as a bonus. Lum Agilmeta is, obviously, an amazing SD recipient and uses Lum to get more Agility/BP-receiving opportunities in the face of status moves (mainly, Twave). Snorlax acts as the secondary special check, having FPunch to deny Dragon Dances to Tyranitar and, if things go south, hit Skarm, though EQ is probably just as good in that slot too. Mag is there for obvious reasons + weather clearing for lax can be neat. Not much to say about DDMence and DDTar there either other than you probably wanna deal with any potential Claydols/Flygons before going DDMence.

Second, we have Suittar BU Recover Medi Balance? Bulky Offense? I don't know. :tyranitar: :medicham: :blissey: :claydol: :swampert: :salamence: .
I think this is considerably more interesting than the previous team, however, it falls short at some points I'll mention later. I started with the Medicham, obviously, and realized I either ran STABless, which sounded ridiculous, ran STAB + Shadow Ball, which would mean most Flying Mons would switch in for relatively free, or STAB + Rock Slide, which would make Gengar very annoying for the team, but, since Gengar is trappable, I decided to go Suittar (with HP Grass to help break Swampert). Now, after some testing, I found it awkward to fit spikes with this Medi, so I'd be running spikeless offense and, after thinking for a brief moment about HP Fighting Porygon2 (the team was Tyranitar-weak at the time), I realized I needed DDMence to punish any Dug traps.
After that, I needed a special check and decided to go with Blissey, though Snorlax might be doable too? And a Claydol too, to provide Spin support (running Rock Slide, since I already have a Suittar for Gengar, also helping dol deal with opposing birds). I still found the team to be a bit physically weak (3 half checks means one poorly played turn or rockspam could break it apart), so I slapped a Defpert on the team.
Some problems I found is that MixMence can be a big pain, especially at lead, but it's playable if you hit it on the switch, since everyone can hit it for decent damage at least, and with careful switches. Another one is Celebi: the lack of Shadow Ball on Medi often means it'll struggle to hit Celebi well enough, Leech Celebi sits on Blissey for quite a bit and Mence can be worn down, especially since you have to hit it with Fire Blast pretty much.
Often, you'll find yourself trading Medicham to kill the birds/skarmory. Honestly, BU Recover Medi feels hard to pull off with how frail it is in the spdef side, but it feels great against fat!

Also, I'll admit I entertained the idea of doing both ideas in a single team, but that was way too hard lol
 
Merry (slightly late) Christmas L3W !!

https://pokepast.es/56a3a6a14ae21828

The request was for the grimiest stall imaginable without Dugtrio or Flygon, and so i bring to you Double spin, Triple Pressure stall.

I wanted to make it the least fishy i could cause you're a ladder main, and after testing many builds i landed on this one which felt like it could take on most of the metagame during tests. The only thing you really autolose to are fighters (I think you reallyy need mence to not lose to them but then you cant fit the evil stuff as well). Suittar can also be tough to deal with but if you can get a wisp off on it and spikes up you can dance around it pretty well until it dies.
Theres definitely stuff that could be improved (i never build stall so idk about the techs, benchmarks and whatnot). If you can find a way to fit a cmbliss answer while having stoss ice beam aroma bliss that would be nice, and the spreads could definitely be changed (I took both the forre and clops spread from other teams, idk what they do but they work well). However I think it mostly works pretty great, and pp stalling the opponent is very fun.

Enjoy!
 
Hi Bhol, here’s your Gen3 OU Secret Santa gift.

https://pokepast.es/e783a8116bb00c62

The request was to build with Linoone and not use Skarm/Bliss. I never lean towards spikes balance when I think Linoone, but wanted to have a strong core that could play out the game til Linoone could find an opportunity to clean up.

I think it plays pretty straightforward: break with the underrated CB Mence. Mag traps Skarm. Bulky Meta for physical pivots and boom. Ludicolo clears sand and is really annoying for teams to switch into. Umbreon sponges special hits and traps with pursuit, charm physical attackers, and can rest stall if need be. Linoone, the star of the show, presses belly drum and extreme speed.

Teambuilding thoughts:
I tried out other offense variations like Slop with Aggron and Linoone that was okay. One funny idea I tried was using Belly drum Zard and Linoone on the same team, but I didn’t think it was as consistent. I didn’t want to completely rehash the memento into belly drum combo. I also hate using sleep and feel like Mence is on every team if I use Breloom, so that approach was ruled out.

I hope you enjoy it and have a happy holiday/new year!
 
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ghostmalone. said:
Hi Bhol, here’s your Gen3 OU Secret Santa gift.

https://pokepast.es/04668cde4fc11ea8

The request was to build with Linoone and not use Skarm/Bliss. I never lean towards spikes balance when I think Linoone, but wanted to have a strong core that could play out the game til Linoone could find an opportunity to clean up.

I think it plays pretty straightforward: break with the underrated CB Mence. Mag traps Skarm. Bulky Meta for physical pivots and boom. Ludicolo clears sand and is really annoying for teams to switch into. Umbreon sponges special hits and has multiple functions: trap with pursuit or mean look, charm physical attackers, and slow pass into a potential Linoone set up. Linoone, the star of the show, presses belly drum and extreme speed.

Teambuilding thoughts:
I tried out other offense variations like Slop with Aggron and Linoone that was okay. One funny idea I tried was using Belly drum Zard and Linoone on the same team, but I didn’t think it was as consistent. I didn’t want to completely rehash the memento into belly drum combo. I also hate using sleep and feel like Mence is on every team if I use Breloom, so that approach was ruled out.

I hope you enjoy it and have a happy holiday/new year!
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Merry Christmas Msousa! https://pokepast.es/b21c85e0eb883cde

For those wondering the request was Smeargle with a specified set + spinblocker

As requested, I built a smeargle team with a spin blocker. The lineup looks standard but has some interesting sets like Tyraniboah and Liechi Aero to make it stand out from the other standard builds. I wanted to try other spinblockers like Missy or Dusclops but they are much too passive for the speed of a smeargle team really only leaving gengar as a good option. Basically with Tyraniboah being a slightly slower breaker, I wanted to center the rest of the team around fixing the speed issue that may arise from this problem of not having a DD Tar. You can always swap the sets around if you find there is something lacking defensively but the sets are designed around reducing prediction. Another alternative I thought about was doing like a 4 bands offense, but that could get really prediction heavy without a trapper. There is a lot of give in a smeargle team so I think you need to do interesting things with the sets in order to find good success, so overall I'm happy with the result and hope you are too. One last change you could maybe do that was pretty good in testing was like a fast mixed or special tar with taunt to help with keeping the spikes up!
 
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Merry (late) Christmas to Lord Ninjax who asked for a Double Dog team featuring Suicune and Raikou as CM users.
https://pokepast.es/39a10fc9c741e100

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I haven't had the time to sit down and seriously play ladder much this month so these are currently some pretty standard sets on everybody but I think this team looks like a lot of fun so I'll be taking it to ladder sometimes too for 2026. If I make any big changes that I think work a lot better I can DM you a 2.0.
 
merry christmas zmath

https://pokepast.es/cae9aaea91859f47

here's your breloom + guts subsalac hera team. tested a few different things over the month.

initially tried building with p2 to cover dug, but p2 felt way too passive + it felt difficult to fit a pursuit user with p2.
i've come to really like stun spore breloom though. it feels really good to paralyze incoming gengar or mence expecting focus punch after you spore something.
a pursuit user felt pretty necessary with double fighter, esp since the hera set you requested has no way to hit gengar. at first I avoided using pursuit tar because I didn't want sand to kill salac hera, but as I kept playing I realized that with no swarm and no rock move, hera usually came just short of sweeping anyway, so hera is basically there to function as a regular guts heracross with no lefties. we also still have rain dance mag if we do end up in a position where hera can sweep.
tar has ice beam so we don't autolose to mixmence and lax has HP bug so we don't autolose to psychic celebi.

https://pokepast.es/b9e5abbef2022a87

I also tried using houndoom out on this kind of team. the problem is having doom + loom + hera + mag gives you the defensive profile of wet paper. this one has thick fat curselax to help you deal with fire types a little more.

i have several versions of the team that did not work. I tried flygon over pert on the first team, which felt too weak to metagross, and suicune over swampert on the second, which had no room for a rock resist. since we have no flying type, this team is ironically pretty bad into enemy fighters.

i'd personally just use swarm hera on either of these teams, but of course I wanted to build as requested. I can't say the teams are super consistent, but I did have fun testing them them. hope you have fun with them.
 
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