Tournaments 2025 SS OU SPL Discussion Thread

[Slowpoke Fan]

2025 Auction results:

SS cores (managers in italics)

Alpha Ruiners: Gondra, ChrisPBacon, watashi, Punny, London Beats
Congregation of the Classiest: Expulso, damien the genius, LpZ, pj, Tace
Dragonspiral Tyrants: blunder, gilbert arenas, Luigi, Luthier, LuisPeikou, Fusien, Rubyblood, Mada
Cryonicles: piyu, dj breloominati, TPP, Finchinator, Sacri', Crying
Wi-Fi Wolfpack: d4 repertoire, zioziotrip, clean, Gtcha, Ewin, Stareal, One Last Kiss
Team Raiders: Raiza, tricking, spookyz, Michaelderbeste2, Suzuya, Eternal Spirit, Mimikyu Stardust
Sharks: Giannis Antetokommo-o, Starmaster, Attribute, TDNT, Jytcampbell, Fc, Zokuru
Ever Grande BIGs: ABR, Santu, We Three Kings, emforbes, JustFranco, Hayburner, Ruft
Indie Scooters: xavgb, Garay Oak, Gefahrlicher Random, robjr, Separation, RaiZen1704
Circus Maximus Tigers: z0mog, Ox the Fox, devin, 3d, JJ09LIE, Storm Zone

 

[pulsar512b]

at least everyone drafted someone for ss this time

 

[MANNAT]

Week 1 Starters:
ChrisPBacon, damien, Luigi, Sacri, Gtcha, spookyz, TDNT, Hayburner, RaiZen1704, Ox the Fox

 

[igiveuponaname]

kinda bummed to see players like yone, lolebruh, entro, baddy, as well as the two awesome ss forum mods not make the cut this year. all of them are great players who i would have loved to watch play in spl. hopefully they can all make it next year!

 

[Leavers]

Got some free time so heres some predictions with thoughts

[WOL] Gtcha vs Sacri [CRY] - I know sacri made a solid masters run but Gtcha is one of the best players in this pool, we will see what kind of form he is in.

[SHA] TDNT vs Metallica126 [TYR] - TDNT has been a solid SPL starter for a while now, putting up strong positive records. As for Metallica, I've never of heard them. I did a quick investigation and he started a SSLT account which went 9-3 before either giving up or getting busy, so i don't have much faith in him. It seems he is the poor soul fed to the sharks due to luthiers absence, hopefully he surprises me.

[RAI] SpookyZ vs RaiZen1704 [SCO] - highlight match, both players are super fun to play and watch. This is a toss up match up but I am going to give it to spooky, even though raizen just won the SS ribbon. I think that spooky is better when he's try harding but is also prone to choking. I'm certainly expecting these guys to outperform their low rank on the power rankings.

[RUI] ChrisPBacon vs Hayburner [BIG] - Chris has been one of the most underrated players on this site for ages now quietly putting up solid wins and good tour runs, whereas I think hayburner is an average player (in SS at least I cant speak for other gens). I havent watched any of his SS games recently, but he went 1-5 in the OUPL SS pool, although tbf no one tryhards in oupl so he will prolly do fine this sz.

[CLA] damien the genius vs Ox the Fox [TIG] - rooting for damien but i gotta keep it unbiased, ox is maybe the most accomplished SS player on the site and he seems to be in good form, he is allegedly rank 1 on the the SS ladder rn with a fresh team so he has most likely washed away any building and playing cobwebs. Another highlight match for sure.

Solid pool of SS players this year, I am very excited for all these matches. Good luck to all

 

[Leavers]

back again with quick thoughts. I went 2/5 last week, so dont trust me

TIG] Ox the Fox vs TDNT [SHA] - ox lost last week but he didnt lose to his own misplays, whereas TDNT won but nearly choked last week so imma give it to Ox with a 60/40 split
[BIG] Hayburner vs Gtcha [WOL] - Hayburner should have won last week vs chrispbacon as he pulled a pretty good match up with specs blace but thats mons. If im completely honest i still dont trust his ability to beat opponents like gtcha yet as it was a pretty easy match up to navigate but we will see as the sz develops. Gtcha got owned last week by sacris massive balls but he also misplayed slightly to be in that position, besides this i think that i cant really ignore his previous records so im bolding him.
[SCO] RaiZen1704 vs ChrisPBacon [RUI] - both made some obvious misplays last week and still stole the win, so not alot to talk about. I'm gonna back chris but i think this match up is a 50/50
[TYR] Metallica126 vs SpookyZ [RAI] - metallica looked alright vs TDNT last week but spooky is clearly better
[CRY] Sacri vs damien the genius [CLA] - Sacri got a nice win last week by capitalising on his opponents misplays. I think Damien wins this as in the ox game, he wasnt capitalising on misplays he was outplaying ox who made arguably one misplay imo.

 

[IPF]

Bit late but thought I'll try to do some form of weekly analysis for SS games this SPL, as a personal exercise for myself but also to maybe encourage some more discussion on team picks and metagame trends as the season progresses. If you don't know me, I've played in a few SPL editions and multiple WCoPs when SS was still current gen, but I am by no means an expert and am happy to discuss games further if you want to hit me up later.

Gtcha vs Sacri was an awesome game this week as a spectator, but I think damien vs Ox was just as interesting and maybe had a bit less coverage, so that's my pick.

​

Looking at teams, the matchup seems fairly interesting. Urshifu and Zapdos are the main ways of forcing progress for damien, Zap in particular is incredible especially if its carrying Volt Switch. Not the best matchup for Glowking but Chomp covers some threats and can function as a one time pivot/eat a hit and force a switch. Weavile looks great as a cleanup option once Ferro and TTar are chipped. For Ox, Blacephalon is by far his most threatening option if he can get it in often and click buttons via the regen core. The team is otherwise a bit passive imo, especially since its revealed to be Lefties TTar, which leaves him pretty open to Urshifu coming in and clicking whatever it feels like really. Excadrill can be a solid lategame option but needs some setup for it to be in position to muscle through Ferro, Zap, and Chomp. Overall, I would say damien has more options to work with, but still needs to play aggressively to not lose steam and allow Blace to claim kills for free.

T1 fish for poison pays off for damien, and he reveals Zap to be Toxic Volt, which is pretty much worst case scenario for Ox. damien can start Volt-Turning very easily this game, but Ox pulls a nice aggro switch into Blace on Zapdos' Roost, forcing a kill early. T13 for me is play of the game, damien double Surging Strikes to catch Torn on the switch. I've got huge respect for this play, clicking U-Turn there is so easy and is generally zero downside but playing aggressively ends up putting damien in a hugely advantageous position.

At this point I think Ox's best way to win is get slow pivots into Blace with Slowbro or just try to get it in aggressively, but losing the only mon that can revenge kill Urshifu makes the game difficult. Slowbro can come in on Chomp, Ferro, or Urshifu if it can tank a U-Turn, and get off a Teleport, but damien has options for this. Chomp can eat any hit once, Weavile prevents Blace from coming in (but risks catching a Scald) and can allow Ursh to come in on whatever Ox wants to switch in, giving him momentum again. We get the Chomp midground scenario as Ox clicks Overheat, and then damien fortunately gets 5 hits with Scale Shot to kill Slowbro, which cements the game. From here hazards go up and Urshifu and Weavile clean up easily.

Few thought exercises here. 1. If Shadow Ball was clicked instead it does become a bit more interesting, I think the best play is to sack Chomp and bring in Weav since going hard into it makes playing around Barbs and sand much more frustrating. Going down in sacks does mean that Ox then gets to play more aggressively and maybe get into a winning position from there. 2. If Scale Shot does not hit 5 times, Ox keeps the mon that is basically functioning as his win condition at this point, gets a port into Blace and a kill is picked up that way instead, and you essentially get the first scenario but with better odds since you don't need to risk Ferro staying in and clicking Knock. This position is very awkward for damien and depending on how the next Slowbro interaction plays out changes the outcome of the game. 3. More of a speculative line, going Ferro on Scale Shot and making a double to Blace, but this is extremely risky since damien can just click EQ fairly safely. Urshifu's last move also needs to be considered, since damien didn't click Taunt on T15 I feel like he may have been Jet, but it could've been either which changes how the endgame plays out.

All in all, this game was much closer than it looked at first glance skipping through the replay. damien got a healthy amount of luck, but pulled some aggressive plays to capitalise on them. Ox played a solid game and was close to snatching the win, but I'd like to see a more proactive team from him this week.

Once again reiterating that I am not an expert or criticising the players, this is an attempt to look at high quality games more in depth and learn something, rather than just the usual skimming through replays every week without really digesting what happened during the game. Looking forward to both of their games this week, Sacri vs damien looks like a banger. Thanks for reading!

 

[cyberacc]

Thought I'd do writeups on some games I've liked so far from the last weeks.


Damien vs Ox, week one

vs.

As IPF said above this is one of the most interesting match ups from week one.
An aggressive spikestack faces off against a Sand spikestack, and funnily enough max hazards aren't what end up winning the game. Zapdos with Moves past Defog was the chieftain of this game claiming a fuckload of offensive and defensive pressure for Damien, but this was counteracted by Blacephalon almost ripping a kill every time it got sent in. Both players played this great imo; Ox ate some unfortunate luck on multiple turns (Sludge Bomb poisoning Torn immediately, Shifu highrolling U-turn early on leading to a forced Torn T sack later on as examples) but with how Damien was choosing to play the match up it was very difficult for Ox's team to get any mojo back in the game. Utility Ttar was definitely a let down; Past getting rocks it did nothing into Damiens team past setting weather. I was thinking through how the game might've been different should Ox have chosen to run Choice Band -> Util but the team can't realistically get Spikes Ferrothorn with that configuration which sucks ass. I think Damiens bring was innovative and Ox's team was rock solid (hark); Trading away a flimsy matchup into Specs Ghosts and Volcanion to fit a rigid voltturn core in Shifu and Zapdos, Fsight, an SD Garchomp and an SD Weavile ended up paying due dividends into Ox's team.

Hayburner vs Gtcha, week two

vs

Gking Fsight + physical breakers faces off against a double-steel spikestack featuring Buzzwole and Slowbro as the defensive heat-sinks (ice/dark/fighting/water sinks? I guess a heat-sink checks cold, wet and dark stuff. Not someone bashing it in with their fists. Whatever.)
This replay highlights some interesting innovations in recent years when it comes to the standard building principle of Corviknight as the token defog U-turn bot to allow you to fire off amazing moves with the breaking core of Gking + Shifu + Weavile. Eject Button Toxapex allows for a rigid sponge to offset Gkings defensive burdens and also tempo-checks Heatran trapping it with Magma-Storm. Sadly Toxapex had to immediately have it's tech neutered after Hayburner takes knock tax, but he does an aggressive play on turn 4 to salvage it and fires off a Body Press into Gtcha's Heatran. A game of Fsight and pivoting loops ensues with Gtcha not getting an opportunity to leverage his Ferrothorn what so ever in the early turns. After some brutal knock-taxing from Weavile and Toxapex Gtcha has to chew two burns to get the first spike of the game which ends up paying off; As Hayburner overcommits with his Gking he triggers Heatrans Flash-Fire forcing an immediate sack of Lando which then immediately becomes a trade as Hayburner sends in his Shifu as Gtcha has to sack his Landorus to get his Slowbros health back up. Hayburner leverages a beautiful predict on Gtcha's Heatran on turn 43 expecting Hayburner to Roost which KOes it, allowing Hayburner defensive control of the game barring Future Sight critting something. Hayburner then proceeds to eat a fat Scald-fish to the dome from Gtcha, getting his Weavile burnt. This to the dismay of the Wolf-Pack ends up not mattering; Toxapex + Corviknight + Slowking Galar slowly wither down Gtcha's last bits of offensive pressure ending the game.
I chose to highlight this game mostly due to how most of these Corviknight teams are currently operating. Corviknight is an immensely passive Pokemon outside of baller Body Press predicts but it pairs well with Slowking Galar and Future Sight abusers such as Urshifu and Weavile allowing a persistent Fsight loop that isn't going to crumple to their offensive pressure. Eject Button Toxapex as previously stated temp-checks Heatran and should the match up not require it you still get the arguably best Knock Off absorber in SS not named Clefable, notably pairing well with offensive Ground-types such as Landorus and Garchomp. I think Hayburner played this well and Gtcha as always puts up a good display of modern SS balance.

Metallica vs ChrisPBacon, week 3

vs

Another Corviknight + Gking Fsight team with a novelty "what the hell is this checklist" mon in NP Rotom-Heat but this time it gets absolutely annihilated by a Blaziken click-shit offense. After some good early turns from Metallica getting knocktax on Chris's Rotom-W and an Fsight set up he unfortunately gets paralyzed from Chris's Melmetal firing off a meaty Thunder Punch. What follows is some of the most brutal Lele turns you can see in SS; Lele entries on Rotom-Heat Nasty-Plotting, Metallica sends in his Slowking-Galar and gets mangled by a crit Psyshock, he hard calls that the Lele is Choice-Scarf and item locked but Chris hard predicts it, showing itself to be an unchoiced set and nails Metallica's Weavile. With Metallica's Weavile gone there is nothing appropriately stopping Lele from mashing hits every time it entries, and after Overheating the Lele at +2 it reveals itself to be some sort of Assault Vest set living the interaction and KOing the Rotom. Metallica tries his best to salvage the situation but sadly the game is refusing to give him hope, with his Corviknight getting full para'd in front of Chris's Melmetal ending in a forfeit.
This match showcases one of SS's branching archetypes that has been developing silently as the stereotype of "regen simulator" wanes; Extremely aggressive offensive with bare bones defensive properties to fit as many dangerous buttons as possible. I feel like Metallica's match up into this team was already flimsy as Blaziken with the potential threat of Future Sight hovering from a Tapu Lele setting it is legitimately non-feasible to survive for him, and it didn't even need to come into effect going by the Lele being unchoiced. I think Chris's team is just gnarly, the amount of offensive strata is absurd in how many buttons it can mash at any given turn of the game even if it forfeits multiple defensive attributes to fit this pressure. Cool teams and cool showcasing from Chris and Metallica.

Raizen vs Sacri', week four

vs

A RillaBlaziken click-shit offense with a potent Terrain abuser in Hawlucha faces off against an archetype that has, like itself, slowly risen in popularity after SS quit being CG; Magic Guard + Spikes + Koko fat.
The match up for Raizen is horrendous if I can be entirely honest; His team is going to have multiple issues trying to manage Sacri from getting what he wants which is hazards, sand and a Koko trying to wipe. Its' doable but difficult. After trading rocks for status on t1 Raizen ends up getting his Rillaboom in and forces knocktax on Sacri's Skarmory, pivoting in Dragapult right after. Sacri sends in his Hippowdon on Raizen's Pult as Raizen commits with his Melmetal fearing Toxic, but Sacri heals up his Hippowdon. What follows on turn 7 is something that I didn't expect what so ever;
Hippowdon stays in, outspeeds a Melmetal (which for context is almost always going to be speed creeping it and other sub-50 speed tanks), EQs it and eats up Raizen's Thunder Punch expecting Sacri to switch to Skarmory. Raizen immediately sends in his Rillaboom as an exchange of pivoting and sponging ensues between both combatants. Sacri makes a couple of very good turns here from turn 11 through turn 13; He immediately decides to take Knock tax on Raizen over healing his Toxapex, pivots in his Hippo on Raizen's Tpunch again and gets his Skarmory in on Raizens Rillaboom on turn 13 getting a Spike putting even more pressure on Raizen's low longevity lineup. The interaction on t18 is critical; Raizen swings back into the game with some luck burning Sacris Toxapex with Flare Blitz at +2 as Sacri has to Haze then sack Toxapex bringing in his Reun. Reun fires off a Psyshock as Raizens Melmetal comes in soaking it, as Sacri goes Skarmory on Melmetal. Pult gets sent in on a Body Press from Sacri and Sacri sends in his Hippowdon eating a Special Defense drop in the process; He has to sack Hippowdon and goes Reuniclus as Raizens Melmetal comes in one final time and spitefully Superpowers the Skarmory roosting. Sacri does a bold decision with his Skarmory that seals death on two of Raizens members, eating a Shadow Ball but Phasing out Raizen's Dragapult meaning it and Melmetal are now completely out of the game. Skarm switches out of Hawlucha as Sacri sends out his Clefable. Raizen immediately sends in his Landorus-Therian as Sacri Softboils and proceeds to fire off a Normal Gem Explosion into Sacri's Clefable clicking Moonblast. Blaziken comes in and claims Clefable but it has to be sacked for damage on Reuniclus as Sacri psyshocks. Reun gets sacked as the game is coming down to hopes and dreams for Raizen, Rillaboom is dead to the layers as he U-turns and he goes Hawlucha. Stone Edge smacks the Tapu Koko but it does not crit, as Koko takes out the Hawlucha.
This match was a good watch. Raizen put up a great effort in a hard match up and Sacri made some excellent decisions to force hazards to pile up on Raizen's team, and the replay is showcasing two concepts in teambuilding that existed but weren't popular in CG SS. RillaBlaziken + Melmetal as a high octane physically overpowering force was already showcased on some Bulky Offenses but in recent years these styles of teams are becoming evermore aggressive in their repetoire slotting next to no defensive utility all to leverage immense amounts of damage. Sacri's team is meanwhile highlighting the defensive aspects of SS teambuilding and how potent Skarm and Hippo can be in forcing hazards into these styles of aggressive offenses while still having critical defensive back bones in the core of Spdef Ground + Clef + Toxapex and the speed control coming off of Tapu Koko. The final bit to highlight is that one of two things transpired on turn 7; Either that Melmetal had next to no speed investment or that Hippowdon is invested in speed. Both routes are funny to reflect on.

I might do a proper writeup on week 5 later on during the week but I'll close it off with a thought regarding all of SPL;

I like the teams showcased. SPL 2024 Felt like the pastes where going through the motions but I think most if not all teams so far have been showcasing a bevy of team styles and choices in SS, where the only points of contention from my end came from the two stall teams so far from Gtcha and Ox. I am pleased with the brings and I feel like teambuilding is more precise than last year. I am actually excited to see what is being brought into these high stakes games and I hope this continues as we move towards week six.

Thank you for reading and let me know if I missed something noteworthy in the highlighted replays.

 

[Ox the Fox]

Just wanna share the teams I used this season, not gonna write a ton for each week but will give some of my overall thoughts on the matchup/teams. Overall, I'm very happy with how this season went. This was my first serious attempt at SS in an official team tour in over 2 years, and although I had a very poor 1-4 start, I was able to turn around the second half of my season with a 6-1 record, being picked for finals tiebreaker, and ending up first in the SS pool. Probably the biggest lesson I learned that allowed me to turn my season around was to just trust my gut. Early on I had so many gut plays that would've worked out, I just didn't want to take the risk as I thought everything had to be perfectly "calculated". There's no objective correct way to play this game and risks are necessary to win consistently. I also was bringing teams I wasn't super sure about for the most part, as I was trying to strike that balance between bringing something new and innovative and also being able to win. After winning with gking shifu 3 weeks in a row during the mid season I realized you just have to play teams that u feel comfy with.

Week 1 vs Damien (L)
https://pokepast.es/48c25e31b8c58bd0 - Specs Blace Sand
Pretty standard sand build with specs blace slotted in as an interesting tech. Matchup was even, damien had a nice read on my torn double and then got 5 hits with scale shot which in my head secured my loss. In hindsight, this game was definitely winnable even after the 5 hits especially as it turned out he wasn't aqua jet on urshifu. Poorly played endgame with me. This was a common mindset error I had early on in the season, where I would get a small bit of luck against me, and then go autopilot for the rest of the game in a self-defeating way.

Week 2 vs TDNT (W)
https://pokepast.es/d3b6641bd0c75a2e - NO BAD MATCHUPS
Decided to bring the greatest team of all time vs the SS player who was the best on the site at that time. Very happy with my game overall. I made an aggressive play early on, clicking knock off vs tapu koko as I had weavile in, and managed to catch a corviknight double which shifted all the momentum in my favor. I almost threw the game later on by chucking my melm into what ended up being a speed tie on hippo. Luckily, I still managed pulled through in the end in what was a very tight endgame.

Week 3 vs Spooky (L)
https://pokepast.es/90b41111843162ae - Sd Chomp Weav
Bad prep, bad play. I got tilted early on by NM missing, steam not burning, and him hitting every hydro pump. Simple fact of the matter is I just played and prepped this terrible and the "hax" against me is no excuse.

Week 4 vs Bacon (L)
https://pokepast.es/367550f56177a2c0 - Hippo Pex Fat
Another week of bad prep and bad play. I wasn't in the best mental going in this game and got pretty disheartened seeing ferro + tran + futureport into buzzwole at matchup. Game ended up being pretty close, and in hindsight it was winnable from me if I didn't greed rocks w hippo early on which allowed my blissey to get trapped.

Week 5 vs Gtcha (L)
https://pokepast.es/5da561210f1c17ff - Classic Hail
After this week I decided I was going to stop looking at people's scouts and just bring something that I think is good vs most shit. I saw in Gtcha's scout that his lando + tran usage was extremely high across tours, so I thought hail would be a great call into him. I ended up getting a botted mu where the only chance you have to win is burning rotom with volcanion early on, which I didn't get. Another game I'm sure I could've played better with volcanion, but I got disheartened at matchup once again.

Week 6 vs Sacri (W)
https://pokepast.es/7ac6efaf5dc699e3 - Koko Shifu Mandi
Like I mentioned, this week I just wanted to bring something comfy so I brought this koko shifu mandi team which ended up being my favorite team that came out of this SPL. I had originally built this 6 with slowbro > gking a few months ago after seeing my old YouTube video randomly pop up

and I thought the structure looked pretty good if I slotted urshifu > cinderace. That version won a lot and I (as well as Sacri) used it to win in Masters, but I always had trouble actually killing clef with that 6. Decided to try out gking > slowbro and we get this new version which ended up getting 4/4 wins in SPL, and 70% winrate in SS OU Stour week 1, while being the 3rd most used team. The matchup vs Sacri was extremely easy and I thought I played well. I did get a good amount of hax, but I genuinely don't think it mattered at all as the matchup was just completely dominating for me. Of course, the eq crit early on made things speed up a lot, but this game was just over turn 7 when I got the spike up.

Week 7 vs Hayburner (W)
https://pokepast.es/9bb9ccd7f5fed46c - NBM w/ clef
Brought NBM w a clef as I thought it was going to be pretty good into the slower build Hay loves to spam. Ended up matching up into zone, which isn't the best matchup, but very winnable as you can see. Setting up future sight and foddering clef to knock off melm was a very heads up play by me which made this matchup go from hard, to winnable in just one turn. My only mistake this game was not toxicing lando-t with chomp as it allowed me to get vortexed for a few turns. Overall very happy w my play here.

Week 8 vs Raizen (W)
https://pokepast.es/7ac6efaf5dc699e3 - Koko Shifu Mandi
Brought the broken team again and made some great doubles early on to get the momentum. Pretty easy win.

Week 9 vs Luthier (W)
https://pokepast.es/6723fc4620b79d5a - Rotomw Sand
I really wanted rotom-w into Luthier, as I expected him to bring either volcanion or offensive tran, both of which tend to do well into my scout. I also thought cm knock clef + hazards would do well into him long-term, as he typically brings BO teams with shaky hazard control. Matchup was pretty solid overall, although I had to be careful of sd chomp + sd weavile getting out of hand. I played this game with the long-term plan of cm clef winning, which is why I kept going into torn-t vs garchomp as I wanted clef healthy. Gameplan ended up going perfectly and I managed to win this game before cm clef even had to come out.

Semifinals vs Gtcha (L)
https://pokepast.es/72e3beab35f67956 - Band Kart + Specs Pult
My first loss in 4 weeks. Kudos to Gtcha for the prep, as the team matched up great into what I ended up bringing. The only play I truly regret is turn 6 going kartana over dragapult. I thought going kart would allow me to bluff aerial ace, but instead sacred sword heatran for a straight OHKO. This was just a lost in the sauce play as pult would've been able to click the most free shadow ball of all time there. Game was still relatively close, but the RNG wasn't favorable for me and weav/blazi were always going to be tough long-term. Not too disappointed with this game overall as losing to HO is gonna happen, and is just something I need to be better prepped for.

Finals vs Damien (W)
https://pokepast.es/b9fdcf1e80788c08 - Band Buzz + Specs Dreigon Offense
Going into this game I expected Damien to bring HO, as it's been winning a good amount in SPL and I just had my first loss to it. I wanted to bring pex + scarf lele as two general anti-HO mons, and then specs dreigon for the fire matchup. Got a pretty nice matchup, but it still ended up being a tough game as SD chomp can destroy lele if it gets the turn right. Fortunately, I soul read Damien making the aggressive plays trying to call out lele, and I was able to win the game without losing a single mon.

Finals Tiebreak vs BIHI (W)
https://pokepast.es/bf33467c65c0bf1d - Specs Pult + Melm
Going into tiebreak I was expecting some sort of cheese from BIHI - either veil, rain, or landotran offense.

Decided I wanted to bring shit mon dnite early in the week, as this is one of the rare dudes it would actually matchup well against. On top of that I wanted melmetal and pult as two mons that generally match up well into HO. In the actual game I pretty much got the exact matchup I expected, although moltres-g was obviously something that was going to be a huge threat. Very happy with my in-game play here. Got all hazards up and then found the right time to set up and win with dragonite. Toxic miss changed the game of course, but so did the clef spdf drop before tran spa drop, and the melmetal burn. I think I was still favored in the endgame even if toxic had hit the first time, although it would've been closer and I would have less leeway to make those roost plays.

 

[Incognition]

Just wanna share the teams I used this season, not gonna write a ton for each week but will give some of my overall thoughts on the matchup/teams. Overall, I'm very happy with how this season went. This was my first serious attempt at SS in an official team tour in over 2 years, and although I had a very poor 1-4 start, I was able to turn around the second half of my season with a 6-1 record, being picked for finals tiebreaker, and ending up first in the SS pool. Probably the biggest lesson I learned that allowed me to turn my season around was to just trust my gut. Early on I had so many gut plays that would've worked out, I just didn't want to take the risk as I thought everything had to be perfectly "calculated". There's no objective correct way to play this game and risks are necessary to win consistently. I also was bringing teams I wasn't super sure about for the most part, as I was trying to strike that balance between bringing something new and innovative and also being able to win. After winning with gking shifu 3 weeks in a row during the mid season I realized you just have to play teams that u feel comfy with.

Week 1 vs Damien (L)
https://pokepast.es/48c25e31b8c58bd0 - Specs Blace Sand
Pretty standard sand build with specs blace slotted in as an interesting tech. Matchup was even, damien had a nice read on my torn double and then got 5 hits with scale shot which in my head secured my loss. In hindsight, this game was definitely winnable even after the 5 hits especially as it turned out he wasn't aqua jet on urshifu. Poorly played endgame with me. This was a common mindset error I had early on in the season, where I would get a small bit of luck against me, and then go autopilot for the rest of the game in a self-defeating way.

Week 2 vs TDNT (W)
https://pokepast.es/d3b6641bd0c75a2e - NO BAD MATCHUPS
Decided to bring the greatest team of all time vs the SS player who was the best on the site at that time. Very happy with my game overall. I made an aggressive play early on, clicking knock off vs tapu koko as I had weavile in, and managed to catch a corviknight double which shifted all the momentum in my favor. I almost threw the game later on by chucking my melm into what ended up being a speed tie on hippo. Luckily, I still managed pulled through in the end in what was a very tight endgame.

Week 3 vs Spooky (L)
https://pokepast.es/90b41111843162ae - Sd Chomp Weav
Bad prep, bad play. I got tilted early on by NM missing, steam not burning, and him hitting every hydro pump. Simple fact of the matter is I just played and prepped this terrible and the "hax" against me is no excuse.

Week 4 vs Bacon (L)
https://pokepast.es/367550f56177a2c0 - Hippo Pex Fat
Another week of bad prep and bad play. I wasn't in the best mental going in this game and got pretty disheartened seeing ferro + tran + futureport into buzzwole at matchup. Game ended up being pretty close, and in hindsight it was winnable from me if I didn't greed rocks w hippo early on which allowed my blissey to get trapped.

Week 5 vs Gtcha (L)
https://pokepast.es/5da561210f1c17ff - Classic Hail
After this week I decided I was going to stop looking at people's scouts and just bring something that I think is good vs most shit. I saw in Gtcha's scout that his lando + tran usage was extremely high across tours, so I thought hail would be a great call into him. I ended up getting a botted mu where the only chance you have to win is burning rotom with volcanion early on, which I didn't get. Another game I'm sure I could've played better with volcanion, but I got disheartened at matchup once again.

Week 6 vs Sacri (W)
https://pokepast.es/7ac6efaf5dc699e3 - Koko Shifu Mandi
Like I mentioned, this week I just wanted to bring something comfy so I brought this koko shifu mandi team which ended up being my favorite team that came out of this SPL. I had originally built this 6 with slowbro > gking a few months ago after seeing my old YouTube video randomly pop up

and I thought the structure looked pretty good if I slotted urshifu > cinderace. That version won a lot and I (as well as Sacri) used it to win in Masters, but I always had trouble actually killing clef with that 6. Decided to try out gking > slowbro and we get this new version which ended up getting 4/4 wins in SPL, and 70% winrate in SS OU Stour week 1, while being the 3rd most used team. The matchup vs Sacri was extremely easy and I thought I played well. I did get a good amount of hax, but I genuinely don't think it mattered at all as the matchup was just completely dominating for me. Of course, the eq crit early on made things speed up a lot, but this game was just over turn 7 when I got the spike up.

Week 7 vs Hayburner (W)
https://pokepast.es/9bb9ccd7f5fed46c - NBM w/ clef
Brought NBM w a clef as I thought it was going to be pretty good into the slower build Hay loves to spam. Ended up matching up into zone, which isn't the best matchup, but very winnable as you can see. Setting up future sight and foddering clef to knock off melm was a very heads up play by me which made this matchup go from hard, to winnable in just one turn. My only mistake this game was not toxicing lando-t with chomp as it allowed me to get vortexed for a few turns. Overall very happy w my play here.

Week 8 vs Raizen (W)
https://pokepast.es/7ac6efaf5dc699e3 - Koko Shifu Mandi
Brought the broken team again and made some great doubles early on to get the momentum. Pretty easy win.

Week 9 vs Luthier (W)
https://pokepast.es/6723fc4620b79d5a - Rotomw Sand
I really wanted rotom-w into Luthier, as I expected him to bring either volcanion or offensive tran, both of which tend to do well into my scout. I also thought cm knock clef + hazards would do well into him long-term, as he typically brings BO teams with shaky hazard control. Matchup was pretty solid overall, although I had to be careful of sd chomp + sd weavile getting out of hand. I played this game with the long-term plan of cm clef winning, which is why I kept going into torn-t vs garchomp as I wanted clef healthy. Gameplan ended up going perfectly and I managed to win this game before cm clef even had to come out.

Semifinals vs Gtcha (L)
https://pokepast.es/72e3beab35f67956 - Band Kart + Specs Pult
My first loss in 4 weeks. Kudos to Gtcha for the prep, as the team matched up great into what I ended up bringing. The only play I truly regret is turn 6 going kartana over dragapult. I thought going kart would allow me to bluff aerial ace, but instead sacred sword heatran for a straight OHKO. This was just a lost in the sauce play as pult would've been able to click the most free shadow ball of all time there. Game was still relatively close, but the RNG wasn't favorable for me and weav/blazi were always going to be tough long-term. Not too disappointed with this game overall as losing to HO is gonna happen, and is just something I need to be better prepped for.

Finals vs Damien (W)
https://pokepast.es/0a02e96e56576b4a - Band Buzz + Specs Dreigon Offense
Going into this game I expected Damien to bring HO, as it's been winning a good amount in SPL and I just had my first loss to it. I wanted to bring pex + scarf lele as two general anti-HO mons, and then specs dreigon for the fire matchup. Got a pretty nice matchup, but it still ended up being a tough game as SD chomp can destroy lele if it gets the turn right. Fortunately, I soul read Damien making the aggressive plays trying to call out lele, and I was able to win the game without losing a single mon.

Finals Tiebreak vs BIHI (W)
https://pokepast.es/bf33467c65c0bf1d - Specs Pult + Melm
Going into tiebreak I was expecting some sort of cheese from BIHI - either veil, rain, or landotran offense.
View attachment 733222
Decided I wanted to bring shit mon dnite early in the week, as this is one of the rare dudes it would actually matchup well against. On top of that I wanted melmetal and pult as two mons that generally match up well into HO. In the actual game I pretty much got the exact matchup I expected, although moltres-g was obviously something that was going to be a huge threat. Very happy with my in-game play here. Got all hazards up and then found the right time to set up and win with dragonite. Toxic miss changed the game of course, but so did the clef spdf drop before tran spa drop, and the melmetal burn. I think I was still favored in the endgame even if toxic had hit the first time, although it would've been closer and I would have less leeway to make those roost plays.

Thanks for sharing and congratulations on your SPL win!

 

[ILoveGarchom]

Just wanna share the teams I used this season, not gonna write a ton for each week but will give some of my overall thoughts on the matchup/teams. Overall, I'm very happy with how this season went. This was my first serious attempt at SS in an official team tour in over 2 years, and although I had a very poor 1-4 start, I was able to turn around the second half of my season with a 6-1 record, being picked for finals tiebreaker, and ending up first in the SS pool. Probably the biggest lesson I learned that allowed me to turn my season around was to just trust my gut. Early on I had so many gut plays that would've worked out, I just didn't want to take the risk as I thought everything had to be perfectly "calculated". There's no objective correct way to play this game and risks are necessary to win consistently. I also was bringing teams I wasn't super sure about for the most part, as I was trying to strike that balance between bringing something new and innovative and also being able to win. After winning with gking shifu 3 weeks in a row during the mid season I realized you just have to play teams that u feel comfy with.

Week 1 vs Damien (L)
https://pokepast.es/48c25e31b8c58bd0 - Specs Blace Sand
Pretty standard sand build with specs blace slotted in as an interesting tech. Matchup was even, damien had a nice read on my torn double and then got 5 hits with scale shot which in my head secured my loss. In hindsight, this game was definitely winnable even after the 5 hits especially as it turned out he wasn't aqua jet on urshifu. Poorly played endgame with me. This was a common mindset error I had early on in the season, where I would get a small bit of luck against me, and then go autopilot for the rest of the game in a self-defeating way.

Week 2 vs TDNT (W)
https://pokepast.es/d3b6641bd0c75a2e - NO BAD MATCHUPS
Decided to bring the greatest team of all time vs the SS player who was the best on the site at that time. Very happy with my game overall. I made an aggressive play early on, clicking knock off vs tapu koko as I had weavile in, and managed to catch a corviknight double which shifted all the momentum in my favor. I almost threw the game later on by chucking my melm into what ended up being a speed tie on hippo. Luckily, I still managed pulled through in the end in what was a very tight endgame.

Week 3 vs Spooky (L)
https://pokepast.es/90b41111843162ae - Sd Chomp Weav
Bad prep, bad play. I got tilted early on by NM missing, steam not burning, and him hitting every hydro pump. Simple fact of the matter is I just played and prepped this terrible and the "hax" against me is no excuse.

Week 4 vs Bacon (L)
https://pokepast.es/367550f56177a2c0 - Hippo Pex Fat
Another week of bad prep and bad play. I wasn't in the best mental going in this game and got pretty disheartened seeing ferro + tran + futureport into buzzwole at matchup. Game ended up being pretty close, and in hindsight it was winnable from me if I didn't greed rocks w hippo early on which allowed my blissey to get trapped.

Week 5 vs Gtcha (L)
https://pokepast.es/5da561210f1c17ff - Classic Hail
After this week I decided I was going to stop looking at people's scouts and just bring something that I think is good vs most shit. I saw in Gtcha's scout that his lando + tran usage was extremely high across tours, so I thought hail would be a great call into him. I ended up getting a botted mu where the only chance you have to win is burning rotom with volcanion early on, which I didn't get. Another game I'm sure I could've played better with volcanion, but I got disheartened at matchup once again.

Week 6 vs Sacri (W)
https://pokepast.es/7ac6efaf5dc699e3 - Koko Shifu Mandi
Like I mentioned, this week I just wanted to bring something comfy so I brought this koko shifu mandi team which ended up being my favorite team that came out of this SPL. I had originally built this 6 with slowbro > gking a few months ago after seeing my old YouTube video randomly pop up

and I thought the structure looked pretty good if I slotted urshifu > cinderace. That version won a lot and I (as well as Sacri) used it to win in Masters, but I always had trouble actually killing clef with that 6. Decided to try out gking > slowbro and we get this new version which ended up getting 4/4 wins in SPL, and 70% winrate in SS OU Stour week 1, while being the 3rd most used team. The matchup vs Sacri was extremely easy and I thought I played well. I did get a good amount of hax, but I genuinely don't think it mattered at all as the matchup was just completely dominating for me. Of course, the eq crit early on made things speed up a lot, but this game was just over turn 7 when I got the spike up.

Week 7 vs Hayburner (W)
https://pokepast.es/9bb9ccd7f5fed46c - NBM w/ clef
Brought NBM w a clef as I thought it was going to be pretty good into the slower build Hay loves to spam. Ended up matching up into zone, which isn't the best matchup, but very winnable as you can see. Setting up future sight and foddering clef to knock off melm was a very heads up play by me which made this matchup go from hard, to winnable in just one turn. My only mistake this game was not toxicing lando-t with chomp as it allowed me to get vortexed for a few turns. Overall very happy w my play here.

Week 8 vs Raizen (W)
https://pokepast.es/7ac6efaf5dc699e3 - Koko Shifu Mandi
Brought the broken team again and made some great doubles early on to get the momentum. Pretty easy win.

Week 9 vs Luthier (W)
https://pokepast.es/6723fc4620b79d5a - Rotomw Sand
I really wanted rotom-w into Luthier, as I expected him to bring either volcanion or offensive tran, both of which tend to do well into my scout. I also thought cm knock clef + hazards would do well into him long-term, as he typically brings BO teams with shaky hazard control. Matchup was pretty solid overall, although I had to be careful of sd chomp + sd weavile getting out of hand. I played this game with the long-term plan of cm clef winning, which is why I kept going into torn-t vs garchomp as I wanted clef healthy. Gameplan ended up going perfectly and I managed to win this game before cm clef even had to come out.

Semifinals vs Gtcha (L)
https://pokepast.es/72e3beab35f67956 - Band Kart + Specs Pult
My first loss in 4 weeks. Kudos to Gtcha for the prep, as the team matched up great into what I ended up bringing. The only play I truly regret is turn 6 going kartana over dragapult. I thought going kart would allow me to bluff aerial ace, but instead sacred sword heatran for a straight OHKO. This was just a lost in the sauce play as pult would've been able to click the most free shadow ball of all time there. Game was still relatively close, but the RNG wasn't favorable for me and weav/blazi were always going to be tough long-term. Not too disappointed with this game overall as losing to HO is gonna happen, and is just something I need to be better prepped for.

Finals vs Damien (W)
https://pokepast.es/0a02e96e56576b4a - Band Buzz + Specs Dreigon Offense
Going into this game I expected Damien to bring HO, as it's been winning a good amount in SPL and I just had my first loss to it. I wanted to bring pex + scarf lele as two general anti-HO mons, and then specs dreigon for the fire matchup. Got a pretty nice matchup, but it still ended up being a tough game as SD chomp can destroy lele if it gets the turn right. Fortunately, I soul read Damien making the aggressive plays trying to call out lele, and I was able to win the game without losing a single mon.

Finals Tiebreak vs BIHI (W)
https://pokepast.es/bf33467c65c0bf1d - Specs Pult + Melm
Going into tiebreak I was expecting some sort of cheese from BIHI - either veil, rain, or landotran offense.
View attachment 733222
Decided I wanted to bring shit mon dnite early in the week, as this is one of the rare dudes it would actually matchup well against. On top of that I wanted melmetal and pult as two mons that generally match up well into HO. In the actual game I pretty much got the exact matchup I expected, although moltres-g was obviously something that was going to be a huge threat. Very happy with my in-game play here. Got all hazards up and then found the right time to set up and win with dragonite. Toxic miss changed the game of course, but so did the clef spdf drop before tran spa drop, and the melmetal burn. I think I was still favored in the endgame even if toxic had hit the first time, although it would've been closer and I would have less leeway to make those roost plays.

You better believe I'm gonna be stealing all of these,also congrats on turning your season around after a rough start. the goat frfr

 

[Gaucho]

Just wanna share the teams I used this season, not gonna write a ton for each week but will give some of my overall thoughts on the matchup/teams. Overall, I'm very happy with how this season went. This was my first serious attempt at SS in an official team tour in over 2 years, and although I had a very poor 1-4 start, I was able to turn around the second half of my season with a 6-1 record, being picked for finals tiebreaker, and ending up first in the SS pool. Probably the biggest lesson I learned that allowed me to turn my season around was to just trust my gut. Early on I had so many gut plays that would've worked out, I just didn't want to take the risk as I thought everything had to be perfectly "calculated". There's no objective correct way to play this game and risks are necessary to win consistently. I also was bringing teams I wasn't super sure about for the most part, as I was trying to strike that balance between bringing something new and innovative and also being able to win. After winning with gking shifu 3 weeks in a row during the mid season I realized you just have to play teams that u feel comfy with.

Week 1 vs Damien (L)
https://pokepast.es/48c25e31b8c58bd0 - Specs Blace Sand
Pretty standard sand build with specs blace slotted in as an interesting tech. Matchup was even, damien had a nice read on my torn double and then got 5 hits with scale shot which in my head secured my loss. In hindsight, this game was definitely winnable even after the 5 hits especially as it turned out he wasn't aqua jet on urshifu. Poorly played endgame with me. This was a common mindset error I had early on in the season, where I would get a small bit of luck against me, and then go autopilot for the rest of the game in a self-defeating way.

Week 2 vs TDNT (W)
https://pokepast.es/d3b6641bd0c75a2e - NO BAD MATCHUPS
Decided to bring the greatest team of all time vs the SS player who was the best on the site at that time. Very happy with my game overall. I made an aggressive play early on, clicking knock off vs tapu koko as I had weavile in, and managed to catch a corviknight double which shifted all the momentum in my favor. I almost threw the game later on by chucking my melm into what ended up being a speed tie on hippo. Luckily, I still managed pulled through in the end in what was a very tight endgame.

Week 3 vs Spooky (L)
https://pokepast.es/90b41111843162ae - Sd Chomp Weav
Bad prep, bad play. I got tilted early on by NM missing, steam not burning, and him hitting every hydro pump. Simple fact of the matter is I just played and prepped this terrible and the "hax" against me is no excuse.

Week 4 vs Bacon (L)
https://pokepast.es/367550f56177a2c0 - Hippo Pex Fat
Another week of bad prep and bad play. I wasn't in the best mental going in this game and got pretty disheartened seeing ferro + tran + futureport into buzzwole at matchup. Game ended up being pretty close, and in hindsight it was winnable from me if I didn't greed rocks w hippo early on which allowed my blissey to get trapped.

Week 5 vs Gtcha (L)
https://pokepast.es/5da561210f1c17ff - Classic Hail
After this week I decided I was going to stop looking at people's scouts and just bring something that I think is good vs most shit. I saw in Gtcha's scout that his lando + tran usage was extremely high across tours, so I thought hail would be a great call into him. I ended up getting a botted mu where the only chance you have to win is burning rotom with volcanion early on, which I didn't get. Another game I'm sure I could've played better with volcanion, but I got disheartened at matchup once again.

Week 6 vs Sacri (W)
https://pokepast.es/7ac6efaf5dc699e3 - Koko Shifu Mandi
Like I mentioned, this week I just wanted to bring something comfy so I brought this koko shifu mandi team which ended up being my favorite team that came out of this SPL. I had originally built this 6 with slowbro > gking a few months ago after seeing my old YouTube video randomly pop up

and I thought the structure looked pretty good if I slotted urshifu > cinderace. That version won a lot and I (as well as Sacri) used it to win in Masters, but I always had trouble actually killing clef with that 6. Decided to try out gking > slowbro and we get this new version which ended up getting 4/4 wins in SPL, and 70% winrate in SS OU Stour week 1, while being the 3rd most used team. The matchup vs Sacri was extremely easy and I thought I played well. I did get a good amount of hax, but I genuinely don't think it mattered at all as the matchup was just completely dominating for me. Of course, the eq crit early on made things speed up a lot, but this game was just over turn 7 when I got the spike up.

Week 7 vs Hayburner (W)
https://pokepast.es/9bb9ccd7f5fed46c - NBM w/ clef
Brought NBM w a clef as I thought it was going to be pretty good into the slower build Hay loves to spam. Ended up matching up into zone, which isn't the best matchup, but very winnable as you can see. Setting up future sight and foddering clef to knock off melm was a very heads up play by me which made this matchup go from hard, to winnable in just one turn. My only mistake this game was not toxicing lando-t with chomp as it allowed me to get vortexed for a few turns. Overall very happy w my play here.

Week 8 vs Raizen (W)
https://pokepast.es/7ac6efaf5dc699e3 - Koko Shifu Mandi
Brought the broken team again and made some great doubles early on to get the momentum. Pretty easy win.

Week 9 vs Luthier (W)
https://pokepast.es/6723fc4620b79d5a - Rotomw Sand
I really wanted rotom-w into Luthier, as I expected him to bring either volcanion or offensive tran, both of which tend to do well into my scout. I also thought cm knock clef + hazards would do well into him long-term, as he typically brings BO teams with shaky hazard control. Matchup was pretty solid overall, although I had to be careful of sd chomp + sd weavile getting out of hand. I played this game with the long-term plan of cm clef winning, which is why I kept going into torn-t vs garchomp as I wanted clef healthy. Gameplan ended up going perfectly and I managed to win this game before cm clef even had to come out.

Semifinals vs Gtcha (L)
https://pokepast.es/72e3beab35f67956 - Band Kart + Specs Pult
My first loss in 4 weeks. Kudos to Gtcha for the prep, as the team matched up great into what I ended up bringing. The only play I truly regret is turn 6 going kartana over dragapult. I thought going kart would allow me to bluff aerial ace, but instead sacred sword heatran for a straight OHKO. This was just a lost in the sauce play as pult would've been able to click the most free shadow ball of all time there. Game was still relatively close, but the RNG wasn't favorable for me and weav/blazi were always going to be tough long-term. Not too disappointed with this game overall as losing to HO is gonna happen, and is just something I need to be better prepped for.

Finals vs Damien (W)
https://pokepast.es/0a02e96e56576b4a - Band Buzz + Specs Dreigon Offense
Going into this game I expected Damien to bring HO, as it's been winning a good amount in SPL and I just had my first loss to it. I wanted to bring pex + scarf lele as two general anti-HO mons, and then specs dreigon for the fire matchup. Got a pretty nice matchup, but it still ended up being a tough game as SD chomp can destroy lele if it gets the turn right. Fortunately, I soul read Damien making the aggressive plays trying to call out lele, and I was able to win the game without losing a single mon.

Finals Tiebreak vs BIHI (W)
https://pokepast.es/bf33467c65c0bf1d - Specs Pult + Melm
Going into tiebreak I was expecting some sort of cheese from BIHI - either veil, rain, or landotran offense.
View attachment 733222
Decided I wanted to bring shit mon dnite early in the week, as this is one of the rare dudes it would actually matchup well against. On top of that I wanted melmetal and pult as two mons that generally match up well into HO. In the actual game I pretty much got the exact matchup I expected, although moltres-g was obviously something that was going to be a huge threat. Very happy with my in-game play here. Got all hazards up and then found the right time to set up and win with dragonite. Toxic miss changed the game of course, but so did the clef spdf drop before tran spa drop, and the melmetal burn. I think I was still favored in the endgame even if toxic had hit the first time, although it would've been closer and I would have less leeway to make those roost plays.

I’ll add the same—thanks for sharing these teams and the insight behind these matches. Seems like you put in a ton of work into this season and it is evident how well it has paid off. Watching your games as well as the other Gen 8 competition has gotten me back into SS OU laddering and tournament-ing more seriously again recently. Losing in a tiebreak is brutal, I can imagine, especially when it is out of your control. But again, you should be very proud of your accomplishments. Thanks again, and well done!