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Resource ADV OU Set and Team Sharing

vapicuno said:
Shouldn't linear be the third?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse...
When I first started working on this back in July, I opted to exclude Linear's teams since they were already readily accessible and uploaded to Pastebin. It's also worth mentioning that I've yet to include anything posted since around the start of August. I'd intended to include those too, only to hit that pesky 65,000-character limit (I've also just realised that I missed Halbert Simpson's dump (sorry, my friend!)).

I'll work on whittling down the character count whenever I can and incorporating any contributors I've missed. I'll have to DM an admin or someone in the know about possibly automating spo.ink links, since doing it manually is painfully tedious, but I wouldn't dream of doing so without first getting the green light. I figured I may as well share it now in its current state so others can use it while I continue refining it. That said, you're absolutely right that Linear ought to have been recognised alongside the other contributors, and I'll correct the record when I can.

As an aside, if anyone spots any other errors or omissions, do let me know so I can address them. Thanks!
 
Hello there!
pikachu_waving.png


Much love for all your kind words about my archival post the other week, particularly the generous glazing in the DMs. The eagle-eyed among you may have already spotted it pinned in the archive or the Info Hub, but I'm delighted to announce the ADV Team Index Project. Its first of hopefully many updates went live yesterday, this latest batch adding 76 teams courtesy of Endill, 50 from Johnald, and 41 from the one and only Halbert Simpson (forgive me for the initial oversight XD). I'll post here whenever the Index receives significant additions, but smaller updates should be more frequent, so feel free to consult the changelog should you so please. Anyhoo, here's a big, shiny link that'll whisk you away to the Index:


 
Seeing as there is a huge archiving effort, I decided to write this to catalogue all my publicly released teams. Personally, I learnt a lot of my ADV and developed many innovations from browsing teams from ages ago, and apart from this being a personal archive, perhaps it could inspire some new ideas. Tagging jimmy the card to update.

The teams are arranged in 6 categories
1) The teams had metagame impact
2) Sets on the teams had metagame impact
3) Novel ideas that I think inspired new ways of building
4) Popular and reusable teams
5) Fun teams
6) Banned teams

No AI was used in writing this post.

Category 1: Teams with metagame influence
These are teams that I am quite certain have had an impact on the metagame.

Chud 5 Armaldo (2024/11)
:dugtrio::zapdos::armaldo::blissey::claydol::suicune:

This is the first use of Chud 5, i.e. SubPassRest Zap (EvilZap variant) on the Cune/Dug/Dol/Bliss core.

Half a year earlier, I had created EvilZap (SubToxRest), and watermess, reading my post, proposed using BP over Toxic. While he took a BP to Focus Punch Gengar angle, I reasoned that it would be good to take a stall angle where the recipient could benefit from free entry in a long game (an unusual ask - free entry is usually for glass cannons in offense). The choice I settled on was a Knock Off user. I preferred Armaldo over Hariyama due to its (1) ability to remove Leftovers on Blissey (important for Boldcune, which cannot 2HKO) by deterring Starmie (useless vs Spikeless stall) and Celebi (dug-able), and (2) highly valued Normal-resist on stall.

This team was an instant success, requiring no revisions for me to top ladder and inspiring a bunch of variants over Armaldo, notably Johnald's Dusclops version (very smart). I also liked Rain Dance Pursuit Tar over Armaldo quite a lot.

EvilZap detailed description here.

Credits:
watermess for modifying EvilZap with BP over Toxic
ABR for pioneering lead dug
Hclat for initial discussions on using EvilZap on v5
Johnald for popularizing this core, notably with Dusclops.

BeatUp Dug + Raikou (2020/04)
:raikou::dugtrio::zapdos::porygon2::tyranitar::jirachi:

This is the team that introduced Beat Up Dug to the community. (though I was told by M Dragon that the Spanish community used it ca. 2007).
While the conventional of Beat Up (bypasses Counter, not requiring Adamant, retains speed) are now well-known, my original desire was to use it alongside high base Atk mons so that even if Dugtrio dies from a single Ice Beam, it would have left Blissey so low that special mons could have picked it off. To reliably induce this game state, Toxic was needed (thus double Toxic, high base Atk electrics), and Sand was also needed to keep Blissey from recovering.

BeatUp Dug detailed description here.
Youtube narration featuring the team (but Beat Up was not revealed)

Credits:
McMeghan for proposing lead Raikou, whose high attack complemented Beat Up Dug. Interestingly, after I told Astamatitos about Beat Up Dug, he also came to the same conclusion of using lead Raikou independently.
M Dragon/BKC for initially using and promoting bulky dug, leading to the combination that has become a staple on special offense

CBMeta Mag Triple DD (2021/03)
:metagross::magneton::celebi::tyranitar::salamence::gyarados:

This team was developed at a time when Mag and DDMence usage was at an all-time low (only 1-2 DDMence used in CI3), which in my estimation, helped to redeem both mons.

Previous Mag offenses were limited in that they (1) lacked the ability to hide the presence of Magneton and (2) had insufficient coverage of sweeper(s) to deal with a variety of matchups.

This team overcame (1) by using CB Meta in conjunction with Mag, instead of the prevailing opinion in that time period of using only one at a time. The underlying reasons for (2) was that past Mag offenses either had additional defensive support from Swampert/Snorlax/Claydol and had to give up one of Mence/Gyara, or had both but with overlapping coverage, which made some matchups hard to handle. The breakthrough came after Astamatitos invented HP Ghost Gyara, which I soon realized complemented DDMence perfectly. Together, HP Ghost and Rock Slide cover almost all fast Pokemon, making it possible to use the bird with the wrong coverage to break and the right one to sweep.

These two changes added a lot of offense but made the defensive backbone weak. Therein lies another innovation of the team - SubSeed Psychic Celebi, which is excellent at maintaining momentum by subpassing to one of the offenses and chipping opposing birds.

It was a great ladder team, but I think it became too well known at that time to work in main tours in its original form. Nevertheless, Astamatitos at one point simultaneously held the top1 and 2 spot on ladder with this team and scored two wins in POWC with replays unfortunately lost in the great purge. I believe Roro also won a game with a variant I made - TWave Pursuit Tar.

Credits:
Astamatitos for inventing HP Ghost Gyarados

Category 2: Sets with metagame influence
These are teams that may not be of note themselves, but with sets that I believe have influenced the metagame.

Roselia + Curse OffPert + Agility Rock Slide Metagross (2022/07)
:zapdos::tyranitar::roselia::swampert::gengar::metagross:

(1) First known use of Curse OffPert.
(2) Popularized Agility Rock Slide Metagross

While it isn't the most serious team around, I believe that the aforementioned techs took off on Spikes teams (such as Fruhdazi's) shortly after.
(1) Before Curse was introduced, I noticed that standard OffPert was usually the only thing on offense that would easily let Starmie spin and Suicune set up. Adding Curse mitigated this threat while also providing extra pressure against Blissey that Focus Punch had given.
(2) Agility Rock Slide Metagross had been a known set among casual ladderers, but I had noticed its potential as a cleaner due to its immunity to Intimidate, ability to 1v1 Skarm without PP concerns, Mash raise past Milo/Cune, and flinch as a get-out-of-jail card.

This team also features an interesting use of Taunt Gar: while offense teams generally prefer Explosion, Taunt provides an excellent way of setting up Agiligross on Blissey, Zapdos, and perhaps even opposing Gengar.

Detailed exposition on Curse OffPert and Agility Rock Slide Metagross here.

SEA managed to use all the techs in this team to win a game in CI6 - I recommend a watch!

Credits:
thelinearcurve for experimenting with Roselia earlier and inspiring my use of it.
SEA for an excellent display of all the techs in this team.

Salacvapi (2019/08)
:vaporeon::charizard::breloom::snorlax::dugtrio::jirachi:

It is a proud moment when you make a tech after your own name :) The first idea for Salac Vaporeon came to me during the era of bulkless Zapdos. Ice Beam 2HKOed, and Max SpA Thunderbolt activated Salac. That made Vaporeon the only Pokemon that had an advantage over all major leads - Ttar, Mence, Skarm, Meta, and now Zap.

Linear won with this team in CI3 without revealing Salac, sadly - Replay here.

This team also had HP Grass Loom, which came from an interesting observation that after flyers are chipped, the safest switch-in to Loom was Pert.

Salac Vaporeon detailed description here.

Credits:
thelinearcurve for believing in my teams.
Astamatitos, whom I shared the idea with, and we had initial discussions that quickly led to his Salac Vaporeon offense (which was cooler and more viable than mine)

CBGar Leech3Atk Celebi Speedpass (2021/06)
:gengar::tyranitar::metagross::celebi::zapdos::suicune:

I made this team to ladder for the speedpass suspect test, because I firmly believed that it would be responsible for me to vote on something only if I had an adequate understanding. It turned out to be one of the more novel teams I’ve created. If I’m allowed to take credit for it, I believe that this team also inspired Fruhdazi’s later attempts to build with Leech 3-Atk Celebi. It is a set that has been used before (the latest use I’ve seen was by Kevin Garett many years back), but I refuse to believe that the timing of Fruhdazi’s builds soon after my video was a coincidence ;)

This team had many novel ideas:
  1. CBGar could quite easily force a 5v5 at lead since nobody really knows what to expect from an unusual lead with a billion possible movesets.
  2. EQ FPunch Ice Beam HP Grass Lum Tar to pressure grounds and still have two remaining moves to pressure SkarmBliss. Especially deadly with Speedpass.
  3. RestOffCune with Speedpass, which eliminates the danger of Dug Trap and CBers coming in on Rest.
  4. Leech 3-Atk Celebi on Spikeless, which was a really good glue that provided my offenses with free switch-ins.
Youtube video for details here.

Credits:
Everyone who complained about speedpass, forcing me to really understand the archetype and build a new range of sets.

Category 3: Novel teams
These are teams that had novel ideas. While they individually may not have had clear metagame impact, I believe they inspired new ways of building.

Mag CM Spam (2019/10)
:zapdos::magneton::porygon2::celebi::swampert::jirachi:
If you were to ask me to choose a team that I am most proud of having built, it would be this one. McMeghan’s 6-0 win in SPL sealed it for me.

In 2019, it was unfathomable that for a special offense to succeed, one would rather remove Skarmory than Blissey. However, I also noticed that CM spam mons cannot substantially damage Skarmory before boosting, exposing the team to phaze and chip. I thought, ironically, that it might be easier for these mons to beat Blissey with Leech Seed and 101 HP Subs. Impressively, this is an offense team with only one physical move - a hidden power on a mon with a terrible Atk stat. The team also had a crazy wide array of other synergies: (1) The opponent doesn’t attempt to maneuver Skarm around Mag when faced with a special offense; (2) Leech Seed + Magneton destroys Steels, helping the pixies; (3) CM Pass Celebi to Roar Zapdos turns the table on any CM war attempts; (4) Ice Beam on P2 frees up space for Roar on Endpert, while HP Fight allows P2+Endpert to check DDTar reliably. Many of these synergies were only possible because Magneton freed up a moveslot on P2, Celebi, and Jirachi.

Detailed exposition of team here.

Replay of McMeghan’s 6-0 SPL win here.

Credits:
McMeghan for willingly and successfully trying out a radical idea in SPL from a guy you barely knew back then.

I don't respect Skarm (2021/07)
:venusaur::charizard::salamence::metagross::gyarados::jirachi:

This team defied the 2020 framework of mixed offense, namely that you had to have a move to hit Skarmory hard on every mon or risk getting Spiked to death. Although it sounded like a death sentence against Skamory, with standard DDGyara, DDMence, Physical GrassMeta and Venusaur without HP Fire, it worked a lot better in practice. I topped the ladder with it; SEA tested it quite a lot and remarked that it really changed the way she thought about offense in ADV, though she caught an unlucky freeze while using it in the Callous Invitational. I believe mikmer was also successful in using it but I do not remember where.

The unique feature of this team was that it had a myriad of ways to deal with Skarm. I once noticed, people commonly thought that Skarmory countered Metagross because Metagross couldn’t really hurt it, but the converse was not said: Leftovers Metagross countered Skarmory because Skarmory couldn’t really hurt it as well. It heals from Spikes damage, and can even put Skarmory on the back foot with Mash raises. For this argument to be convincing, Metagross’ damage had to stick on Skarm before it got Spiked to death, so HP Grass to deter Swampert was the perfect filler for that.

I was not naive to think that Leftovers Metagross would have been enough for Skarmory. I also divided the matchups: Taunt Gyarados would deal with Toxic Skarm and DDMence would be able to punch through DPeck Skarm. Furthermore, I had to dismantle the structures around Skarm. Sleep from Venusaur immediately put the opponent in an unstable position, reducing their capacity to scouting. This made deception was very effective: double HP Ice was very likely to hit Salamence or Flygon (happened many times!). Venusaur was naturally strong against monowater structures and Charizard against TSS (coincidentally, the revival of Beat Up the year before by my Raikou team provided an extra useful tool for Charizard to maintain momentum as well).

More details in my offense teambuilding guide here.

Credits:
The Nicest Asshole (TNA) inspired me with his willingness to try out-of-the-box structures that did surprisingly well against conventional TSS. I have always learnt a lot from ladder heroes, because a lot of good ideas originate from the pool of things that have been tried on ladder, and I’ve made several breakthroughs from distilling these ideas.

Every set is weird (2024/06)
:suicune::metagross::snorlax::salamence::claydol::raikou:

When Raikou was becoming popularized, I wanted to see how far I could stretch it unconventionally by not using trappers and Spikes. Of course, this is common with so-called slop today, but I don't think it was so easy to build back then.

With Raikou, getting Dugged was always a concern, and the dominant fast Dug style was V5 (Cune or Milo, Skarm, Bliss, Dug, Dol), so I had DD Refresh Brick Mence to deal with that matchup. To remove bulky physicals for Raikou, I had Counter Lax. As it was not yet customary at that time to run Blissey alongside Celebi, I had SubRainCune to divide the matchup of Non-Celebi Non-V5 Blissey teams. Employing all these mons to divide and conquer the matchups begged the question of what the progress maker was going to be. I decided on Mixed Meta, but if it was going to trade blows, it wasn’t going to have reliable defensive utility to face DDTar. For that, CBDol would provide the surprise defense, and for a team that otherwise forgoes Earthquake on every mon that could have had it, CBDol became a very important tool for checking CMRachi as well. For all its weirdness, this team did well enough to top ladder.

Youtube video for more details here.

Defmie Physoff Paraspam (2020/11)
:metagross::starmie::gyarados::snorlax::heracross::tyranitar:

The unique idea here is using DefMie on a team with 5 super offensive Pokemon, and then using Gyarados without Mag. DefMie does not do anything offensively, but it also does not let anything threatening in. In fact, because it lures Blissey in and can paralyze it for a potential free switch, it forms a very productive loop with CBMeta. Salac Hera is used because the offensive style of the team is quite trade-like once the CBMeta loop is exhausted. It also provides defensive counterplay against Rocks since CBMeta is the only Rock resist.

I left it lying unused for a while but brought it back out to top ladder for the ladder challenge.

Credits:
McMeghan: When McMeghan was using CM Spam a lot, I asked him why he thought that it was not a problem to CM T1 with Roar OffCune even if Blissey came in, and he remarked that Blissey was so passive that it wouldn’t be a huge momentum loss. I realized later that this principle could apply not just to offensive Waters but even a seemingly defensive Water.

Skarmdug Phys Offense (2021/07)
:tyranitar::dugtrio::skarmory::blissey::metagross::salamence:

This team turned three conventional ideas on its head:
  1. Skarmory + Blissey + Dugtrio was used almost exclusively on stall teams or more defensive TSS teams,
  2. Physical attackers are best used with Magneton or several Explosion users, and
  3. Every team needed a sturdy Rock-type check for Aerodactyl.
The first novel idea was DD Focus Punch Lum lead Tar with Dug. Lead DDTar or DD FPunch Tar alone were not new ideas, but when DD was used with FPunch, it was usually a modification of BKCTar (Bulky 4-Atk with Leftovers) that used DD opportunistically. Here, after the first FPunch on Skarm, Tyranitar can stay in to take Toxic with Lum or DD on Protect. With Dug, Ttar also has no qualms about making favorable trades (see below)

The second novel idea was that using Spikes and Dug to remove Tyranitar, Metagross, and Jirachi on a physical offense team led to a variety of advantages.
  1. Fire Blast DDMence was virtually unseen in a decade. Here, with Dug removing Ttar, Fire Blast could be used to hit Skarm and KO chipped Metagross or Jirachi that Dug could not remove.
  2. Metagross’ Explosion would also become much more potent with the Normal-resist removed.
  3. Finally, removing grounded physicals limited Skarmory’s exposure to physical attacks, allowing it to check Aerodactyl.
Due to Skarmory’s preservation, and DDMence’s ability to revenge-kill Aero, it became possible to use a more offensive Metagross set, EndSalac Meta. This especially reverses momentum from the potentially threatening MixMence, and always makes sure Metagross gets boom in before being revenge-killed itself.

While Claydol that has a way to remove status would seem to give the team trouble, the V5 core that it accompanies is dealt with by Toxic + Tbolt Blissey and DDMence.

Feature on Smogon Facebook

This inspired McMeghan to make a more balanced version that was quite popular, that I also believed revived interest in mixed DDMence, featured here.

Credits:
Watermess for discussing ideas leading up to this team.
McMeghan for multiple uses of this team and modifying it to make the Claydol > Dug version.

Double Spikes Smeargle Glalie Offense (2021/05)
:smeargle::glalie::tyranitar::gengar::swampert::aerodactyl:

The contradiction about Smeargle offense was that Spikes needs multiple switches to be effective but Smeargle games don’t last very long. To make things worse, Smeargle teams are rather linear and predictable. It would have be more convincing if we could lay three layers of Spikes on a Smeargle offense for maximum effect per switch-in.

I first tried to use Smeargle and Cloyster together, as it seemed like these were the two offensive Spikers. Triangles has recently used both with Jolteon, which is pretty smart. Back then though, it did not occur to me that Cloyster really behaved more like a balanced rather than offensive Spiker. Even though it had boom, it alone could not reverse momentum against the same mons that threaten Skarm (Electrics, Gengar, Starmie). One day, it suddenly dawned on me that the Spiker that I needed was Glalie, which did not have the same problems, and could nevertheless boom against the physicals that threatened it. Maintaining a rather standard Smeargle lineup otherwise, this team was instantly successful and I topped the ladder with it.

Youtube video for more details here.

Category 4: User friendly, reusable teams
These teams were quite popular and reusable, because they are intuitive to pilot.

dicerachi Molt Gon (2020)
:tyranitar::skarmory::jirachi::celebi::moltres::flygon:

Made in the early era of moving away from Spikes support (Gar, Dug, Mag, Spin) to using offensive pressure to spinblock, every Pokemon on this team could hit the two most common spinners hard. This team was made shortly after dice came up with the 101hp SubMixRachi set, which beautifully threatened Natural Curers with Sub, Dynamicpunch, and Thunder. Toxic on Celebi was used to pressure flyers due to the relatively weak defensive backbone. Protect OffGon in an era without DEdge DDTar gave the team just enough defense while providing another offensive option (apart Molt) for dealing with CMers and contributing to Toxic stalling. It proved to be one of my more popular teams, probably because of its ease of use as an offensive TSS.

Using offensive pressure to Spinblock can be seen in this 2021 ADV Global Championships Finals game between Fakes and watermess.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-571324

Credits:
dice, whose teambuilding ideas have always impressed me for being ahead of the times.

El Cloysico (2024/07)
:tyranitar::cloyster::swampert::zapdos::gengar::aerodactyl:

Originally developed as a quick retort to a ‘Cloy is bad’ conversation on discord, this set choices in this team were based on the following thought I had:

In the Skarm vs Cloy interaction, Skarm has the upper hand if it is healthy (Spikes, Toxic, Sand immunity), but the moment Skarm’s HP goes below half, no Spiker threatens it more than Cloyster does. The choice of lead SubPunch Tar ensures that facing the lead Tar mirror, barring CB Brick Break, my Ttar will almost always be able to stay in and get the upper hand, force Skarmory in, and fire off two FPunches before it gets roared out. Almost every other mon on the team is designed to stay in and force Skarm out, until the opportunity arises when Cloy comes in, and the Skarm vs Cloy matchup becomes favorable for me.

As using Cloy makes the team more offensive than standard Clasico popularized by Hclat and used originally by Ojama as far as I can tell, the following pace adjustments were made:
  1. Refresh 3-Atk Defensive Swampert was used instead of standard Refresh pert. This set (that had no precedent, I believe,) provides a way additionally to stop Blissey from taking the opportunity to recover on Swampert, while having the bulk to defend against physical threats. Its surprise value also allowed me to KO unsuspecting Blisseys that have made assumptions about its set based on only seen Surf and Refresh.
  2. Aerodactyl was changed to SubAero
  3. Gengar was given Hypnosis, which would also allow SubAero to exploit sac’s of sleeping mons.
Credits:
Hclat for El Clasico.

EvilZap V5 (2024/06)
:zapdos::dugtrio::blissey::skarmory::claydol::suicune:

When I initially proposed EvilZap (SubToxRest), Hclat and I discussed what team it would go best on, and we thought naturally that V5 would be a natural fit. EvilZap solves a good number of momentum issues on this team: it makes progress vs offenses and teams that solely rely on Blissey or Celebi for special walling with Toxic + Sub, and it helps Zapdos to Rest without taking chip on the Rest turn, for example.

Credit should go to Hclat for taking it very far and even holding the ladder record with it at one point.

Detailed exposition on EvilZap in this post.

Category 5: Fun teams
These teams were fun, non-serious ideas that actually worked better than expected.

Starf Swellow (2018)
:swellow::magneton::swampert::jolteon::heracross::suicune:

This team is special to me because it was the first team I made since returning to ADV in 2018. It was instantly successful: not much about the final version had changed from the initial, and 1500 on ladder was essentially a top 5 rating on ladder at that time. I had chosen Swellow simply because I noticed it while scouring around Smogon analyses to see what I could use, since I understood nothing about the contemporary metagame. Realizing its dual potential for stat passing and Endeavor, I loaded the team with mons that could benefit from any Starf boost (Suicune for SpA, SpD, Spe, and Def, Jolteon for SpA, Hera for Atk). Jolteon was key in providing a sweeping opportunity by itself or Wish-sacing to SubCune, while also flexibly passing boosts as needed. This team still works without Starf - it’s not used that much.

Youtube video for more details here.

Credits:
Actaeon for finally convincing me to use HP Fighting, when I had been worried about dealing with Gar

Linoone Gardevoir (2018)
:snorlax::metagross::heracross::magneton::gardevoir::linoone:

In the same vein of using some of the earliest Pokemon you could get in the main series, this is a fun team that wreaks havoc on unsuspecting people. FPunch Lax is there to lure Skarm and hide the presence of Mag. HP Ghost Heracross is there to lure and remove Gengar. From there, almost nothing could stop Gardevoir and Linoone. Teclis even used it to win a tour game once, I believe.

Youtube video for more details here.

CurseJolt Machamp (2018/12)
:tyranitar::jolteon::machamp::jirachi::milotic::salamence:

Jolteon is still faster than all bulky mons after a Curse, and if Blissey comes in and tries to status it on the pass to Machamp, the Guts+Curse boost basically destroys everything that comes in. Even if the Curse pass does not happen, it can nicely lure Pert that tries to pivot in on TBolt/BP mindgames. I used it in the finals of the ADV team tour in 2019.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-948211083

Credits:
Astamatitos for original ideas on Ursaring which led to me trying out CursePass Jolteon in the first place.

Miltank Rhydon (2019/07)
:zapdos::magneton::miltank::snorlax::gyarados::rhydon:

Fun Paraspam. Both TWave and Body Slam were used to convince the opponent that Gengar is a safe switch-in, as you can see in the following replay of the ADV team tour 2019.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-944680853

Credits:
maklistr for terrorizing the ladder with Miltank

Category 6: Banned teams
These teams were banned for better or for worse.

Sand Veil (2020)
:swampert::tyranitar::forretress::blissey::cacturne::gligar:

Most Sand Veil teams were made with Cacturne as the Spiker, but following Hclat’s lead, I thought that it would be better to have a separate Spiker and have Cacturne’s really good coverage together with SubSeed shine. This easily topped ladder, and Gacu infamously dodged cune with Gligar to win the 2020 PPL Semifinals tiebreaker.

Youtube video for more details here.

Credits:
Hclat for using a separate Spiker alongside Cacturne

Ninjask Salacvapi (2020/04)
:vaporeon::magneton::snorlax::tyranitar::ninjask::metagross:

After inventing Salac Vaporeon, I did not work further on the idea. One day though, Cowboy Dan presented the thought of using this exact 6 but with SDPass Celebi to me. I had not originally intended to build a Ninjask team, but when I saw the lineup, it became immediately clear to me that with Lax and TTar trading away the bulky physicals, Vaporeon and Magneton drew in the passives, opening a clear path for Ninjask to pass. This easily topped ladder as well.

Youtube video for more details here.

Credits:
Cowboy Dan for the inspiration of the 5 without Ninjask.

Mean Look Umbreon (2020/08)
:zapdos::umbreon::gengar::suicune::celebi::dugtrio:

No team I have built has gotten more hate from even my most loyal friends. That's enough said.

EndureSalac Zap helps against Aero. SubRestCune blocks all Status after setting up to +6. HP Ice Celebi makes splendid use of Dug's steel removal. This nearly topped ladder, which actually surprised me.

Youtube video for more details here.

If there are other teams I forgot to share that you would like to see, please let me know :)
 
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Times like these I wish the forums had a fire react <3 What a wonderful post, thank you for sharing vapicuno & I will get it into the next update. The question is what ought I do with the banned teams, thus far I've just wholesale excluded them, but perhaps that was too hasty a decision. A banned teams section perhaps?

#edit: vapicuno has been preserved in the archive
 
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I have been laddering a lot recently and thought I would do a larger teamdump. This is far from the sum total of everything I have, but I am hoping it's still a good amount. Everything below I am either sharing cause it performed very well in testing (1800+) and/or has a novel structure/idea/mon that is worth sharing.

Spikes Offence is pretty much my go-to style on ladder and so there is a fair amount of stuff I have tried here:

These are teams without Spikes that either aim to overwhelm the opponent quickly or beatdown spikers and Spin. Many of these are somewhat "old-school" compared to modern Slop style offences, but I honestly think Slop style Registeel-Pert-Tar stuff is better with Spikes.

These are just generally solid Spikes teams with good longevity. I have gone >1800 on ladder with pretty much all of these.
Out of all of these, I would highlight the Umbreon + Gengar team as being particularly worth attention. This thing felt completely busted in the current Meta - most teams just aren't set up to beat safe wish passing and so it completely kills the momentum of a lot of offences, whilst supporting Gar + Dug to break down a lot of defensive teams.

In general I am not a huge Spec-Off believer. The team structure I think works best for me is something like:
OffWater,
zapdos-NQQ5UHC7.png
,
regice.png.m.1771754000
,
metagross.png.m.1771754000
,
dugtrio.png.m.1771754000
,Spinner. A couple are teams in this format that have worked well for me are:
I generally find that teams that take a more hydrid/MixOff approach to Dug offence work better. Examples are:
Another thing I have found pretty useful is pairing bulky fighters with Dug with the aim of using Zap-Dug to trap bulky grounded mons like Celebi/Jirachi and help breaking:

Magneton is getting some flak right now and it's somewhat understandable due to the flaws of its traditional structures. Ideas with Mag I like are Mag with SandSpam and Mag with Setup-spam (partly inspired by the classic Vapi triple DD team).
The classic Blue Offence 6 is still a great team imo and can be adapted into the current Meta with the right tweaks (RestMag for Registeel to support Jolly HPGhost Hera, DD Brick Mence, HPGrass Meta). This is the paste I like to use - I have topped ladder with it a few times:
 
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