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Tournament NDCL I - Commencement Thread

1yr said:
won vs logice gg https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-2506405193-8yfgo117br65wncgy4lfhqge7n42l6ypw

Boomenheimer Watch your mouth you gerbert. You got a good job and left your day 1s and your mother in the trenches of Bangladesh. You’d rather spend time playing Pokémon and baking cakes than calling your family back home and wishing them a Merry Christmas. You’re a pack, and you sicken me.

As for Thing 2 our wager still stands, if my team loses this week i will never listen to drake ever again. If your team loses you will never be able to listen to ironmouse ever again in your life. Sign the contract.

I never believed in magic till my dawg turned to a snake.
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wtf happened to Christmas spirit

Edit: that magic bar was lowkey fire props to you 1yr
 
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OFFICIAL NDCL BINGO
 
Hello everyone! We've finally compiled the numerical power rankings for NDCL I.

Note:
  • These lists include only players from the starting lineups. If your name isn’t present, it means you hadn’t started in Week 1. Similarly, substitutes for Week 1 are not included.
  • These were calculated based on rankings submitted by each team’s managers. Players were ranked from 1 to X within each team, then those ranks were averaged across teams. The averages were used to determine the individual rankings.
  • The overall rankings were calculated by adding the individual player ranks. The team with the lowest total was assigned rank 1, and so on.
  • The individual manager rankings and calculations can be found here. (s/o to Neko for original sheet and omar for helping me compile the inputs.)
  • If any team or player isn’t happy with their rank, please blame the opposing managers, not me. Thanks!
  • Please remember, these rankings are completely hypothetical, don’t carry any real meaning, and are just for fun.
Overall rankings

1. :weavile: Wagging Weaviles :weavile: - 45
2. :thundurus-therian: WildBolt Chargers :thundurus-therian: - 55
3. :kyurem: Sub-Zero Kyurems :kyurem: - 59
4. :dragonite: DB Dragonite's Patty Patrol :dragonite: - 62
5. :bonsly: Derpy Bonslys :bonsly: - 65
6. :salamence-mega: Boyz II Mence :salamence-mega: - 72
6. :spectrier: Spectacular Spectriers :spectrier: - 72
8. :inteleon: Central Inteleon Agency :inteleon: - 82

Individual rankings
1. MirrorSaMa (Boyz II Mence)
2. Swas (Sub-Zero Kyurems)
3. xinnobu (Spectacular Spectriers)
4. Ballfire (Wagging Weaviles)
5. Iride (Central Inteleon Agency)
6. Kunvirgo (Derpy Bonslys)
7. Cow (DB Dragonite's Patty Patrol)
8. mipc (WildBolt Chargers)
1. Isza (Wagging Weaviles)
2. Xurkiyee (WildBolt Chargers)
3. Mollymiltoast (DB Dragonite's Patty Patrol)
4. ezra (Spectacular Spectriers)
5. Darkness 789 (WildBolt Chargers)
6. Metallica126 (Derpy Bonslys)
7. NoName6293 (Wagging Weaviles)
8. Ryuji (Wagging Weaviles)
9. Kayzn (Sub-Zero Kyurems)
10. Tempo di anguria (Sub-Zero Kyurems)
11. Leroipolux (DB Dragonite's Patty Patrol)
12. LBN (Derpy Bonslys)
13. Tuthur (Sub-Zero Kyurems)
14. Ineros (Central Inteleon Agency)
15. Taka (Derpy Bonslys)
16. Airi (Boyz II Mence)
17. Stories (Boyz II Mence)
18. Fleance (DB Dragonite's Patty Patrol)
19. Lostmemories (Spectacular Spectriers)
20. benladil (Boyz II Mence)
21. Slikkles (Central Inteleon Agency)
22. I Feel Stabby (Central Inteleon Agency)
23. stratdkt (WildBolt Chargers)
24. Vlarcheops (Spectacular Spectriers)
1. Danbear02 (Boyz II Mence)
2. R1C3M4N (Sub-Zero Kyurems)
3. MGdos16 (Wagging Weaviles)
4. Rasche (WildBolt Chargers)
5. 3MoreMinutes (Spectacular Spectriers)
6. Sagazinha (Derpy Bonslys)
7. SapoDaG30 (Central Inteleon Agency)
8. Dabman1069 (DB Dragonite's Patty Patrol)
1. jawabarat (WildBolt Chargers)
2. Kingler (Derpy Bonslys)
3. mrfraud (Central Inteleon Agency)
4. LB (DB Dragonite's Patty Patrol)
5. seed (Wagging Weaviles)
6. Rafadude (Boyz II Mence)
7. THE_CHUNGLER (Spectacular Spectriers)
8. spoo (Sub-Zero Kyurems)
1. eragon (Spectacular Spectriers)
2. Schister (DB Dragonite's Patty Patrol)
3. Kunal (Central Inteleon Agency)
4. Terekusai (Derpy Bonslys)
4. Voltix (WildBolt Chargers)
6. Code (Wagging Weaviles)
7. Enzonana. (Sub-Zero Kyurems)
8. christianfinity (Boyz II Mence)
1. crash (Sub-Zero Kyurems)
2. feen (Boyz II Mence)
3. Dorron (Spectacular Spectriers)
4. Fixzation (WildBolt Chargers)
5. King Choco (Central Inteleon Agency)
5. TTK (DB Dragonite's Patty Patrol)
7. MemphisDepay (Derpy Bonslys)
8. shieldpoke (Wagging Weaviles)
1. lax (Boyz II Mence)
2. jscurf (Central Inteleon Agency)
3. ~Undead~ (Wagging Weaviles)
4. Hacker (DB Dragonite's Patty Patrol)
4. sablolol (WildBolt Chargers)
6. ChrisPBacon (Spectacular Spectriers)
7. 64 Squares (Sub-Zero Kyurems)
8. TheRageSmogon (Derpy Bonslys)
1. sealoo (Wagging Weaviles)
2. Micaiah (Spectacular Spectriers)
3. devin (Boyz II Mence)
4. salmonelephant (DB Dragonite's Patty Patrol)
4. skimmythegod (Derpy Bonslys)
6. Runo (WildBolt Chargers)
7. seraphz (Central Inteleon Agency)
7. Leni (Sub-Zero Kyurems)

I hope you enjoy these rankings. If anyone finds any mistakes or has any questions or wants to use this data for further tea (i.e. writeups), feel free to contact me to get more context on some of these rankings!
 
I actually am crashing out right now. this entire god damn website just assumes everyone knows everything. You've never been in a draft before? too bad, we're not telling you how to find out if you even qualified. no, we're not going to put it in an accessible place where it makes sense people would actually see, follow the admin thread or just keep checking in on the entire fucking subforum every day until you see it. Oh, you assumed we'd put it somewhere that's easy to see so even if its their first time people know when the round starts and they haven't been drafted? FUCK YOU, WE'RE GOING TO LEAVE YOU HANGING FOREVER UNTIL YOU FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF
 
Anyways imo the rankings for NDUbers are:
MirrorSama (Boyz II Mence)
> Kunvirgo (Derpy Bonsly)
> Squeeby (Deeby Dragonite's Patty Patrol)
> mipc (WildBolt Chargers)
>> xinnobu (Spectacular Spectriers)

The emphasis on xinnobu being lower is not because they are a bad player, it's just that everyone else I mentioned has better tournament results and made it into the top 16 exclusive Circuit Playoffs. TBH, they didn't actually do a whole lot worse than them, still having good results in tournaments and only being like 10 places and 50 points behind mipc (if you don't know what that means, check my first post in this thread).

As for the three I didn't mention, as far as I can tell Iride and Swas don't really have much tournament results (though if we're counting, Iride does have slightly more points than Swas, however Swas actually scored points in two tournaments where Iride only scored in one), and, again as far as I can tell, Ballfire has no results at all.

Edit: Oh fuck its Bo1, now I'm kinda glad I wasn't drafted. This shit's a lawless wasteland, disregard the prior rankings you're on your own.
 
Cancel cult said:
I actually am crashing out right now. this entire god damn website just assumes everyone knows everything. You've never been in a draft before? too bad, we're not telling you how to find out if you even qualified. no, we're not going to put it in an accessible place where it makes sense people would actually see, follow the admin thread or just keep checking in on the entire fucking subforum every day until you see it. Oh, you assumed we'd put it somewhere that's easy to see so even if its their first time people know when the round starts and they haven't been drafted? FUCK YOU, WE'RE GOING TO LEAVE YOU HANGING FOREVER UNTIL YOU FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF
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I completely agree and its genuinely sad that sealoo and omar are constantly leaving the casual playerbase out to dry.

I remember myself when I was a young Pokélad, just trying to watch my idols play (Xurkiyee and Aso). I had joined a room to watch a live tour game, when I saw Xurkiyee bring a really cool team, with the unique combination of a Galar Slowking and Urshifu. All I did was ask him if I could get the pokepaste, when omar banned me from the room, muted me for 14 days, and then assaulted me in my dms. I cried that night.

The next morning, I woke up to see a notification in my discord DMS from sealoo. Surprised and hopeful, I clicked to open the chat box, thinking I would see an apology for his co-leader's vulgar behaviour. Instead of a nice apology, he continued omar's verbal assault against me, then told me I would have to play for PRC NDFL to pay off my dues. I have been in indentured servitude to PRC for over a year now, playing in two NDFLs, with no trophy to show for it. I'm also not allowed to apply for NDPL, or sealoo will ban me...

I can understand your frustration, how can you find the NDCL Week 1 post, when our 'qualified' tier leader managed to delete the entire forum on accident! Is he larping as a college student? How does he not know how to manage a computer.

Enough on sealoo. Let's move on to Anchor9.
Anchor9 said:
Think for a moment, why is your name on that list?
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Did this passive-aggressive response make you feel big? Do you feel better about yourself, now that you've belittled someone with a genuine inquiry, rather than offering help? I'll do it for you. The screenshot you posted was from a mock draft, not the real draft. I'm sorry to disappoint, but you weren't drafted this year. It isn't too bad thought, the custom avatar for the tournament is only attainable next year, so you aren't missing out on too much.

This isn’t about being drafted or not drafted, or about one missed post buried in a broken forum. It’s about a culture that treats confusion as incompetence and curiosity as an easy joke. When systems are opaque and leaders respond with sarcasm instead of clarity, the message to new or casual players is simple: you don’t belong here unless you already know everything. That doesn’t build competition, community, or respect, it just narrows the room until only insiders remain. All Cancel cult asked for was a straight answer. That shouldn’t require a social connections for an answer. If this community wants to grow, it needs to stop gatekeeping and start recognizing that basic transparency and decency are not favors, they’re the minimum.


And if any troll want to come out and say that this is fake activism, like some Kendrick Lamar stunt, i'd like to direct you to the following screenshot. I put time and effort into this post, and I won't appreciate anyone discrediting it.
Screenshot 2026-01-05 at 2.09.44 PM.png
 
Fleance said:
I completely agree and its genuinely sad that sealoo and omar are constantly leaving the casual playerbase out to dry.

I remember myself when I was a young Pokélad, just trying to watch my idols play (Xurkiyee and Aso). I had joined a room to watch a live tour game, when I saw Xurkiyee bring a really cool team, with the unique combination of a Galar Slowking and Urshifu. All I did was ask him if I could get the pokepaste, when omar banned me from the room, muted me for 14 days, and then assaulted me in my dms. I cried that night.

The next morning, I woke up to see a notification in my discord DMS from sealoo. Surprised and hopeful, I clicked to open the chat box, thinking I would see an apology for his co-leader's vulgar behaviour. Instead of a nice apology, he continued omar's verbal assault against me, then told me I would have to play for PRC NDFL to pay off my dues. I have been in indentured servitude to PRC for over a year now, playing in two NDFLs, with no trophy to show for it. I'm also not allowed to apply for NDPL, or sealoo will ban me...

I can understand your frustration, how can you find the NDCL Week 1 post, when our 'qualified' tier leader managed to delete the entire forum on accident! Is he larping as a college student? How does he not know how to manage a computer.

Enough on sealoo. Let's move on to Anchor9.

Did this passive-aggressive response make you feel big? Do you feel better about yourself, now that you've belittled someone with a genuine inquiry, rather than offering help? I'll do it for you. The screenshot you posted was from a mock draft, not the real draft. I'm sorry to disappoint, but you weren't drafted this year. It isn't too bad thought, the custom avatar for the tournament is only attainable next year, so you aren't missing out on too much.

This isn’t about being drafted or not drafted, or about one missed post buried in a broken forum. It’s about a culture that treats confusion as incompetence and curiosity as an easy joke. When systems are opaque and leaders respond with sarcasm instead of clarity, the message to new or casual players is simple: you don’t belong here unless you already know everything. That doesn’t build competition, community, or respect, it just narrows the room until only insiders remain. All Cancel cult asked for was a straight answer. That shouldn’t require a social connections for an answer. If this community wants to grow, it needs to stop gatekeeping and start recognizing that basic transparency and decency are not favors, they’re the minimum.


And if any troll want to come out and say that this is fake activism, like some Kendrick Lamar stunt, i'd like to direct you to the following screenshot. I put time and effort into this post, and I won't appreciate anyone discrediting it.
View attachment 798711
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I understand if my response sounded snarky and passive-aggressive because tone doesn’t exist on the internet, but it wasn’t mean-spirited and more of a friendly “come on, let’s put the clues together here bro.” I thought he accidentally linked the mock and was unaware his name was on it. I wasn’t aware Cancel Cult didn’t even know that the tour began and actually believed he got drafted. I want to give a little perspective here. I’m not picking on a random user. This is Cancel Cult and everyone on the NDUbers Discord knows him well. I wouldn’t say we’re necessarily like friends or whatever but it’s pretty chill and no one’s intentionally trying to offend anyone. I wouldn’t respond like that to a user I don’t know. I don’t believe Cancel Cult really took any offense to the comment and if you did, sorry. If it makes you feel any better I didn’t get drafted either so whatever. This drama is dumb and this post I’m making is kinda dumb since I’m sure everyone in the NDUbers community realizes this was friendly but just giving a bit of explanation you know.

Edit: Also after re-reading your post if it turns out it was satire…. I hate the internet man…
 
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Hi guys, every week I'm gonna make a post highlighting some interesting usage trends and sets from each week. Let's dive into it!

Note: There were 16 games played this week including BO3, which means there were 32 different teams used.

Most Used Pokemon: :sv/zamazenta:

Used a whopping 40% of the time, Zamazenta was the most used Pokemon of week one by a comfortable margin. The most used variant was the general 4 Attack set with Boots, however the relatively new innovation that is the Fightinium Z set did also see a decent amount of play. This set has been gaining some traction, as Zamazenta appreciates the general nuke into bulkier neutral targets like Corviknight, Alomomola, and Garchomp, all while avoiding the contact punishing that has become a popular way for offenses to annoy Zamazenta. Zamazenta was also used by a couple of hyper offense teams to set dual screens. It sounds like a banner week for the dog on paper, but a closer look reveals that out of 13 usages, Zamazenta only took home four victories. In addition, three of those victories came in games where both players used Zamazenta, meaning that only one Zamazenta team (Taka's victory over benladil) faced down a team without another Zamazenta on it and won. A fascinating start to the tournament indeed. Will the high usage stats keep up for Zamazenta, and will it see more success when it is used? Only time will tell!

Other High Usage Pokemon to Highlight

Zapdos was the next highest Pokemon used with 9 usages, or 25%. Players clearly value Zapdos's defensive role compression highly, and it keeps up momentum to boot, although a Flyinium Z offensive set did also make an appearance. Base Garchomp and Tornadus-T were the next highest with 8 usages; Garchomp has been continuing to excel as of late, with the Rocky Helmet TankChomp set adding yet another excellent set to its list, while the surprisingly high usage of Tornadus-T likely attributes to its good speed tier, pivoting abilities, and key resistances. It was also the highest used Pokemon in the A- tier.

Iron Treads and Corviknight were the most used Pokemon in the B tiers, with both appearing five times, however both had a paltry 20% winrate. These two were both used more often than top threats like Ogerpon-W, Kingambit, and Urshifu-RS, however, which shows how much teams are valuing what these two offer defensively.

Not much of the C tiers were used, but two Pokemon in the C subranks were used twice. Meowscarada and Mega Gardevoir both made two appearances, although it is worth noting that both Mega Gardevoir's usages came from the same team being used by two different players. They also lost every game they appeared in. The C rank as a whole had an abhorrent 25% winrate, with only Volcanion, Hydrapple, Iron Crown, and Mega Gyarados taking home victories.

(Edit: So, I kinda messed this up because I didn't look at which teams had multiple C ranks on them, as two teams accounted for six Pokemon so there were only 10 teams with C rank Pokemon on them, and they won 4/10, so much better than whats shown above. The two teams that had multiple C rank Pokemon both lost.)
Highest Ranked Pokemon to not be used: :sv/tapu koko:

An influx of Iron Treads usage, combined with already challenging matchups in Ting-Lu, Ferrothorn, and Galarian Slowking remaining common, has led to a sad state for Tapu Koko. In fact, it was the only Pokemon anywhere in the A subranks to not be used once. Nobody attempted any sort of Electric Terrain shenanigans, and it is clear that, at least for this week, players were very cautious about bringing this. Still, there were many offenses anchored by Pokemon that Koko can matchup well against, like Garchomp and Corviknight, so maybe there is some potential here, if people are willing to overlook and build around the admittedly common bad matchups.

Other low usage Pokemon to highlight:

It was a shockingly poor week for our favorite Ground/Flying types, as both Gliscor and Landorus-T only appeared two times each. In fact, all of Garchomp, Ting-Lu, Great Tusk, and Iron Treads appeared more often than these two combined. It's hard to believe that these two will both carry usage stats this low for the entire tournament, but its clear that many players value the specific defensive utility that the secondary typings of Iron Treads, Garchomp, and Ting-Lu provide. Neither Gliscor won either, which means that Gliscor actually had a week where it had a 0% winrate in a National Dex tour. I don't have the stats on this, but I can't imagine that's happened very often.

Elsewhere in the A ranks, each of Toxapex, Slowbro, Cinderace, and Mega Charizard Y were only used twice, while Mega Latios was only used once. These Pokemon are undoubtedly still solid, but a clear preference for Alomomola and Glowking as the premier Regenerator anchors has hurt Toxapex and Slowbro, while Cinderace and Mega Charizard Y do not at all benefit from all the Garchomp and other bulky Dragons running around. Mega Latios having such low usage did surprise me, however, although even offenses are generally prepared to midground or at least trade with the Lati twin, while a high amount of Ting-Lu and Galarian Slowking usage certainly didn't help either.

Several Pokemon in the B subranks received comparatively low usage as well, as the B+ ranks saw Iron Valiant and Melmetal go without being used at all, as did several decent choices in the B and B- ranks. Melmetal has become very fickle to build with thanks to its lack of recovery, poor Special bulk, and its inability to fit every move it needs to to consistently threaten defensive cores, while Iron Valiant struggles to appreciably threaten everything it needs to with consistency thanks to a mild case of 4MSS; the Life Orb set that many people label as its most dangerous was also not used thanks to the lack of Tapu Koko to support it.

Lowest Ranked Pokemon to receive use: :sv/garchomp-mega:

The only UR pokemon to see use this week, Runo loaded a screens hyper offense featuring a Sub+Scale Shot Mega Garchomp. Sadly this ran into a Terapagos which cut its sweep short, and the UR mons will have to wait another week to try and get a win.

Some Cool Sets that I wanted to Highlight

Z Nature Power Heatran :sv/heatran:

Ryuji came out of the gate with a creative bang after loading Rillaboom+Z Nature Power Heatran, therefore giving Heatran a strong Bloom Doom that wasn't restricted by Solar Beam and could still give Heatran a Grass move to work with after the Z move is used (assuming terrain is still up of course). A very interesting innovation that let Ryuji's Heatran break through Xurkiyee's defensive Garchomp, although he couldn't quite bring home the victory in the end.

Assault Vest Toxapex :sv/toxapex:

As stated above, Toxapex was only used twice this week, and the only one to win a game was Stories' Assault Vest Toxapex. While generally overshadowed by Assault Vest Alomomola, Stories used this set well, as they packed Infestation to harrass switch ins, while Ice Beam was used to force out strong 4X weaknesses to the move. Sludge Bomb and Scald made this a status spreading machine, while Infestation+Ice Beam gives teams relying on Gliscor to switch into Toxapex some significant pause when they consider how to deal with it. And it still took care of Zamazenta even without Recover. Very cool stuff!

I'm hoping to do one of these every week. See you next Monday (or Tuesday idk)
 
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Sputnik said:
Hi guys, every week I'm gonna make a post highlighting some interesting usage trends and sets from each week. Let's dive into it!

Note: There were 16 games played this week including BO3, which means there were 32 different teams used.

Most Used Pokemon: :sv/zamazenta:

Used a whopping 40% of the time, Zamazenta was the most used Pokemon of week one by a comfortable margin. The most used variant was the general 4 Attack set with Boots, however the relatively new innovation that is the Fightinium Z set did also see a decent amount of play. This set has been gaining some traction, as Zamazenta appreciates the general nuke into bulkier neutral targets like Corviknight, Alomomola, and Garchomp, all while avoiding the contact punishing that has become a popular way for offenses to annoy Zamazenta. Zamazenta was also used by a couple of hyper offense teams to set dual screens. It sounds like a banner week for the dog on paper, but a closer look reveals that out of 13 usages, Zamazenta only took home four victories. In addition, three of those victories came in games where both players used Zamazenta, meaning that only one Zamazenta team (Taka's victory over benladil) faced down a team without another Zamazenta on it and won. A fascinating start to the tournament indeed. Will the high usage stats keep up for Zamazenta, and will it see more success when it is used? Only time will tell!
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Week 2 is all wrapped up, and this means its time for another usage analysis! Let's dive right in.

(There were 32 different teams this week, again. The only reason it would be different is if the BO3 players decide not to start OU and then someone wins UU and RU without going to OU. I'm not gonna mention it again unless somebody does this.)

Most Used Pokemon: :sv/zamazenta:

The most used Pokemon this week was once again Zamazenta, and with a much more impressive performance than last week. If you didn't read last weeks (you should, its just above this post!), Zamazenta had the highest usage but a winrate of around 30%. This week, Zamazenta was actually used more, clocking it at 14 uses or about a 44% usage rate. This week, however, Zamazenta actually had a 50% winrate, which is far better. The most used set was once again the Heavy-Duty Boots variant, which has become common glue on many offenses and bulky offenses. There were no (revealed) Z sets this week, although Life Orb, Dual Screens, and IDPress variants all made appearances. Will anyone dethrone Zamazenta in the weeks to come? Nothing has been even close in usage so far, so it might be a tall order.

Other High Usage Pokemon to Highlight

The next most used Pokemon wasn't in the A subranks. You might assume Gholdengo, but you would be wrong. It was actually...Iron Treads? Our humble B+ elephant has become exceptionally popular thanks to its compression of roles and very useful defensive typing, which lets it be a great buffer for offense teams. With 9 usages, or 29% usage, Treads checked in with a reasonable winrate this week at 4 wins. Treads continues to put together a case for rising on the next VR update. Gholdengo checked in next with 8 usages, while Tornadus-T, Ferrothorn, and Ogerpon-W all clocking in at 7 usages. Tornadus-T's usage continues to be significantly higher than what I personally would have expected, and it won 5 of said games to boot.

As stated above, Iron Treads was by far the most used Pokemon in the B ranks, so the next highest was Hatterene, who clocked in at 4 uses. The select teams that it was on highly valued Magic Bounce helping with hazards while also disrupting many common defensive cores and forcing immediate responses from offensive teams. Pecharunt and Iron Valiant were both used three times, which is the next highest, but nobody could hold a candle to Iron Treads in this department.

Now we get into the C ranks, and things are about to get interesting. We had several C ranks get used twice, mostly off the back of the Darkness Overqwil rain team getting loaded twice, and the third time overall in the tournament. This is like an unofficial sample team for tournaments at this point. That covers Overqwil, Pelipper, Archaludon, and Mega Swampert all getting used more than once. Kartana, Hippowdon, and Tapu Fini were also all used twice. We'll go into some other, much better Pokemon that were used twice as well. The fact that Kartana and Hippowdon in particular were used this much is somewhat surprising, as many people do not think highly of their talents at the moment. Goes to show how creative some players are being with their selections. Speaking of creative...

Lowest Ranked Pokemon to receive use: :sv/sinistcha:

I'll get this slot out of the way now, because several UR Pokemon were used this week. I'm just highlighting Sinistcha, who was somehow used three different times. This thing had the same amount of usage as Great Tusk, Kingambit, Raging Bolt, and Hisuian Samurott. WTF. This also gave an UR Pokemon its first win of the tournament, with Isza taking it with a Strength Sap defensive set. benladil ran a similar set with Stun Spore, while Leroipolux did something completely different in running a Nasty Plot set on Webs. Checking a bunch of Fighting-types on top of Ogerpon-Wellspring and having Matcha Gotcha and Strength Sap is cool defensive coverage for some teams, but will this be a passing fad, or will Sinistcha stick around?

This wasn't even the only UR Pokemon used. Cresselia, Alolan Ninetales, and Galarian Moltres all saw play, although the most unexpected was surely LBN's Basculegion-F. I'll take a somewhat deeper look into that later.

Highest Ranked Pokemon to not be used: :sv/cinderace:

The only A ranked Pokemon to not get used this week was Cinderace. It wasn't alone in the A subranks as the unused scapegoat as Tapu Koko was last time, but Slowbro (the other unused A subrank dweller) is ranked in A-, while Cinderace is A, so it gets the nod. A proliferation of very bulky Ground- and Water-types is not helpful at all, and many offenses are trending more towards Iron Treads as their hazard control of choice thanks to its far superior defensive role compression. Cinderace certainly isn't bad, but the meta so far shown in the tournament does not favor it in the slightest.

Other low usage Pokemon to highlight:
As mentioned above, Slowbro was the only A- Pokemon to not get used once. Slowbro still has good traits as a Fighting-type answer and general physical wall that can use the tried and true FuturePort combo to support its team, but teams simply preferred other Fighting-type answers, many of which also had utility in checking more Special Attackers than Slowbro does, a trait useful when trying to cover everything we have to in this high powered metagame.

Most A subrank Pokemon enjoyed at least modest usage this week. Only Landorus-T, Mega Charizard Y, and Mega Lopunny were used less than three times, with Zard Y and Lando getting used twice and Mega Lopunny only getting used once. A lot of the same walls that bug Cinderace are not the greatest matchup for Mega Lopunny, and teams clearly are trending towards Zamazenta and Urshifu-RS when they need speed control. Zard Y has low usage for the second week thanks to a very offensive metagame that simply doesn't consistently struggle to fit answers to it, while Landorus-T continues to lose out to its fellow Ground-types in usage, leading to its second poor week of usage in a row.

Zapdos, Great Tusk, and Garchomp all had much less usage than last week, with Chomp and Zapdos coming in at five usages and Tusk at three. Glowking was also used significantly less, at four uses. Corviknight dropped from five uses to one.

Every Pokemon in the B+ rank was used at least once this week. The unused B rank Pokemon were Mega Charizard X, Serperior, Mega Medicham, and Victini.

Some Cool Sets that I wanted to Highlight

There were several cool sets used this week, such as LBN's Choice Item Latios, Leroipolux's Nasty Plot offensive Sinistcha, and Jus's Darkinium Z Kartana, but below are the two that I wanted to talk about the most.

LBN's Basculegion-F :sv/basculegion-f:

This one was completely out of left field. The other four UR Pokemon used are usually somewhere on the periphery of viability, and some have been ranked in the past. Basculegion-F has traditionally not been thought of in OU. Basculegion-F does provide something interesting offensively, however, as its Adaptability STAB moves do hit quite hard, and, crucially, it is a Ghost-type that seriously threatens common Gholdengo checks in Moltres and Ting-Lu while severely denting Kingambit on the switch with STAB Surf. Sadly, Kayzn loaded Hisuian Samurott, which resists both of its STABs. Very sad, because I really wish this set had an opportunity to have its moment. Still, very commendable creativity!

Metallica's Growth Mega Venusaur :sv/venusaur-mega:

When you think of slow rolling setup sweepers, Mega Venusaur isn't usually the first thing that comes to mind. However, Metallica piloted this bulky booster well and facilitated a late game sweep. With Growth, Synthesis, Giga Drain and (I think) HP Fire, Metallica rolled through a statused Moltres and a Pecharunt to take the game versus Tuthur. With Tapu Lele out of the way, and Tuthur's Moltres not packing Flying-STAB or phazing, Metallica's Mega Venusaur became impossible to dispatch as it set up multiple Growths while keeping itself healthy with Giga Drain and Synthesis. Definitely not the Pokemon you would expect to sweep late game, but it goes to show how varied this game can be.

Ok see y'all next week.
 
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