Tournament CAPPL VII Commencement Thread

SHSP

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Lemme further explain why the Mantas will win with my pretty lack luster knowledge on the players of the team.

Snakerattler: I've seen snake play on multiple occasions and he's either washed now which I doubt because I think we're around the same age, or he's still really good.

Voltage: I've seen Voltage play multiple times as well. He was great in NFEPL last summer which wasn't even his main tier iirc. Idk what he plays here in CAP but the dudes great.

Maroon: names familiar pretty sure they're good

Neomon: incredible player. They continously have good showings in a plethora of Team tours and individual tours.

AM: He's amazing as long as he isn't washed. I doubt he's washed as he's always been a top player back in the day.

Cbrevan: dude it's CBrevan. I remember being 15 and this man was great.

Can't have shit in detroit: He did well last year iirc. I thought he mailed LC or BW and if thats in this PL I would assume he'd do very well.

Velvet: I think Velvet played for me in NFEPL I can't really remember but she's mediocre if not good. I can see her squeezing out some wins in the tour.

Everyone else I don't know or can't remember.

EDIT: I can see them struggling with the Caribolts but other than that I think they'll squeak out wins.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7cap-791493605
 

MrDollSteak

CAP 1v1 me IRL
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BAD PRS WOOO!!

#2 Ol' Reliable Chromeras
God I'm going to get flamed for this take. This draft has an insane amount of depth I think; Darek and crying are both some of the best SS CAP players currently, Nalo just made the finals of his first CAP ssnl, Luirro and Max are both extremely convincing pilots, againa's probably one of the best options for the Bo3 slot in the entire draft pool, and they've got both Spitfire and Brambane on top of that. Of course there's a ton of ifs with this draft, considering both Nalo and crying are relatively inconsistent players, and the chat environment might suffer from the sheer number of players that probably have little to no chemistry, but I think the height of the ceiling makes up for that.​
Not #1 ???
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dex

Hard as Vince Carter’s knee cartilage is
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Time for a big ol team dump of the hot garbage I made!

GEN 8:

Metro Lele
The idea behind this team is that metronome Lele breaks through a lot of stuff it really should not be breaking through, including stuff like Scizor and chipped Heatran. Magnezone was around to trap stuff like Ferrothorn and Corviknight for an eventual Weavile sweep, while Argho is on the team to prevent that from happening back. Zone also has the added benefit of checking +2 Weavile given it hasn't been too chipped. SR SD Chomp had a place for breaking things open for lele while also adding rocks to the spike stack, something lele really appreciates. Torn was the Cawm check and secondary speed control. Credit to AM for the Lele and Zone sets.

CM Koko
Maroon and I entered a partnership this CAPPL, where I provided trash teams and he somehow won with them. Everything on this team is pretty standard, however. I became pretty fond of the Corvi/Lando core as just saying "I am immune to every attack".

Chinese Clefable, the GOAT
Now this team is absolute heat. This team occurred from Voltage allowing me to just say fuck it, we're out of playoffs and I wanted to see what the Chinese PSim server had to say about the current OU meta. The team is HO through and through, with lead Azelf, a spicy Agility/Meteor Beam Astrolotl which straight up beats Sun, the goated ladder sets of double dance Miasmaw and ggWP Aurumoth, and the impossibly broken Blunder Policy Sing/Belly Drum Clefable. Since a lot of HO can end up losing to Dragapult, I developed a hilarious Malaconda spread to counter the stupid dragon. Tanga Berry makes U-turn do less than Half, and you can Harvest it back!

Chinese Clefable, but less goated
This team went through quite a few iterations. I toyed around with Specs Toxapex, AV Heatran, and Spite Corviknight, alongside perhaps my favorite Chinese set, Sub/DD/Disable/Last Resort Dragapult. However, I landed on this team, which felt surprisingly solid in prep though it lost pretty quickly in the bo3 vs. crying. I've learned that if you use chinese sets, you gotta go the full mile. The Landorus set is particularly funny if you look at the item and the nature together. In tests, it Sludge Bombed a Tapu Bulu trying to switch in on EQ and just blew it out of the water. I will say that Protect Corviknight felt surprisingly good in tests as a way of scouting ghosts plus being able to Pressure stall stuff like Heatran's Magma Storm more effectively. It's definitely something to look into. Additionally, Kee Berry Clef is the new wave (it activates on the first hit of Triple Axel, meaning you can Moonblast +2 Weavile safely lmao).

GEN 7:

the most basic SM team you've ever seen
This team sort of shows why I don't like this tier. The four mons outside of Weavile and Alakazam feel almost like must-picks. Accordingly, there isn't a whole lot that's special about the team. Jumbao+Equilibra breaks open opposing teams to setup for MegaZam or Weavile to clean late game. Toxapex and Tornadus provide the team with solid Bao and Gren answers. All in all, it's your average SM team.

would you look at that it's the four mons again
Again, I feel like in order to be a competent SM team, you need the four aforementioned mons (Jumbao, Equilibra, Toxapex, and Tornadus-T). This team spawned from DLC's request to bring Lele in his SM slot. Outside of that, it operates pretty similarly to the above team, though I do admit it should have better speed control.

(Rain) finally not a jumbao team
My brain was so dead from running Bao/Pex that I just said fuck it, we're bringing rain and no one is gonna stop me. The team is pretty basic SM OU Rain, with Flyinium Lando-T there in order to punish the opponent for bringing something like Koko or Jumbao. One combo I found out of this team that was particularly strong was Healing Wish Prankster Tomohawk and Substitute MegaPert. If you go back and watch this game (week 5 vs. crying), you'll notice that once the Fini and Torn get chipped, I've essentially won because the HWish is coming onto Pert and there's nothing my opponent can do to stop it. HWish allows you to play much more aggressively with substitutes on MegaPert, forcing damage on the opponent which in turn allows Gren to sweep late game. Tomohawk has the added benefits of checking Tangrowth while doing 64(!) min to Tornadus-T with Hurricane (it also can be an emergency rain setter).

GEN 6:

sad sand
Sadly, this team does not have a Fidgit on it, but yet again, Sand proves to be an incredibly strong archetype in ORAS. The core of Char-Y, Rotom-W, and SubGlare Serp complement Sand really well, and I think this team matches up very strongly into a lot of what gets spammed in ORAS.

sad sand with a worse char
This team did not feel as good as the last one. It came out of my attempts to mixup my opponent by bringing Char-X, potentially allowing it to have an extra turn of setup and truly just sweep. That's not exactly how it played out, but the team itself is solid and probably just needed to be played better. The original idea behind Screens Serp was to allow Char to setup more easily, but I think it probably should just be Sub/Glare anyways.

bird spam
This team needs no introduction. It was one of the strongest, stupidest teams in XY OU, and remains stupidly good. I won't explain the team (obviously, it's not mine), but even with Crucibelle in the tier, bird spam is a potent option.
 
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AM

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LCPL Champion
Season over for us but it was pretty fun. Would like to give a big thanks to Voltage for drafting me when he didn't have to and was glad I can take home a win in our last week. We were out anyways but we were still active shooting around ideas to secure those wins to try and take the week.

Voltage, I know things didn't go your way this tour as a manager all the time but I wouldn't let that discourage you from managing again cause you were still a great manager providing input where needed and having total confidence in myself and others. Would definitely play for you again if needed just let me know.

Want to thank everyone on the team for the support in various aspects but special shoutout to Dlc for running tests game with me often. I know a lot of my interactions was with you and dex thinking through concepts and hopefully I was able to provide some good feedback throughout our season.

Ban Cawmodore in SS Cap though and the Clown
 

Voltage

OTTN5
is a Pre-Contributor
Mantas are out, but that means, like Dex I've got some fun stuff to post!

First of all, incredibly big shoutouts to all the members on the Mantas who were active and present and who gave it their all week to week. Special thanks to a couple people in particular:
  • snake_rattler - For being the assman and assisting with the draft plan
  • dex - For being a consistent presence enough essentially be another assman in the server. You were willing to do a bunch of different things,m and never hesitated to say "yes"
  • DetroitLolcat - For always being down for tests and willing to bite the bullet at times for the sake of the team
  • AM - For being a regular and constant team presence, being there to critique teams and play so that we as a team might have a better shot winning on a regular basis.
  • maroon - For being very handsome
  • Zephyri - For the incredibly cool logo

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Now then, some of the teams that I made. Note that I was basically on Bo3 duty every week to help test and prep my players.


GEN 8:

A GOOD number of the teams the Mantas used this season were from outside sources. This includes lifting teams from OU team dumps and making a few changes, having connections with OLT friends, or using teams lended to me that ultimately led to a BoftheW. By the third week,the team and I kind of came to the conclusion that reliable OU teams would be more likely to win these SS matches over CAP creativity most of the time, and given the coincidence of OLT, there were a lot of things we could lift and then use to our advantage. Therefore, there may be fewer of these teams I post on here since they're not necessarily MINE,. That said, you can absolutely find the rain team I used in my Bo3 vs. SHSP on the OU OLT team dump threads somewhere (Rain L2P). With that said, here you are!


:kyurem: :urshifu-rapid-strike: :weavile: :slowking-galar: :landorus-therian: :tornadus-therian: - Double Frosties

We workshopped something with Kyurem + Urshifu for a little while and I had variations on the team that had things varying from Dragonite to Kerfluffle. I nearly brought the Dnite team, but the momentum sap was petty significant. I think ultimately there's something wrong with the team, unless I've just used it wrong since I haven't been able to get any big wins with it. It feels like a very standard team otherwise though. I do like it though because I like the synchronicity of the cores with Kyurem + Urshifu-R and Double Ice Spam, so that's fun. Perhaps the team's a little slow overall, but otherwise, it's fun.


:colossoil: :toxapex: :kyurem: :skarmory: :heatran: :dragapult: - GeeWeez Semistall but with Colo

So Esta wanted something fat for when they played, and I am a big fan of Kyurem so naturally I went scouring. Initially I wanted to work with this Cresselia Kyurem semistall which user airfare made, which was really cool but I wanted to try something of my own. as the name implies, Galarian Weezing was in the initial place of the Colossoil, but ultimately I needed better hazard control and an electric immunity. Also this really isn't SEMISTALL, more like really fat balance. Sub DD Kyurem is a really cool win condition here once tran and Skarm can get removed, and a +1 kyurem is really really powerful. I also really enjoy that you can bluff subroost before DDing here. IDBP Skarm is a cool secondary wincon if you manage to remove pult. I wanted to make Colo sucker punch initially to help with the pult matchup, but Rapid Spin was required on this team. Furthermore,since esta was playing jordy and I know the jordy enjoys making solid midground plays with U-turn, Flame Body tran felt like a really cool idea to: 1. spread status, 2: neuter things like Landorus-Therian. This set accomplished both! Lastly with this pult set, with Tspikes on Pex, and Flame Body Tran, it made sense to have a Pult that takes advantage of that. However, I didn't like how Specs limited Pult action, and I figured that if I could slow things down with TWave, while still bluffing with U-turn usage. It's a cute little thing especially since I'm not looking to break things with Pult if I could help it.


:ninetales-alola: :arctozolt: :tornadus-therian: :heatran: :sandslash-alola: :landorus-therian: - Hail for Pannu

Didn't bring this, but it was always in the back around the later weeks. When we figured out we were out of the playoffs, we basically just went for broke and made weird shit. I have to admit that mindset probably should've been the main for the first three weeks since I think then we probably would've had more momentum, but I digress. Wanted to make hail and abuse it with stuff. There was a beartic here originally, but AM advised me that Alolan Sandslash would be a better pick removing a rock weakness. I like the way it just goes to town under hail, and I'd be interested in seeing it in action sometime. Of course, since it's kinda heaty, I don't see myself using it in the immediate future. Maybe you can though!


There's also a stallbreak Mera team I whipped together, but I might just hold onto that one for a little bit.


GEN 7:

SM CAP is a metagame that I've come to really generally dislike. It's not that it doesn't create high level of play, but I think AM said it best oin our team's server: "broken checking broken". You got Jumbao, and because Jumbao is good, Toxapex and Tornadus are good. And because they're good, Reunitar is good paired with Jumbao. Then from there, there's minimal variation since you need hazard control and rocks, as well as a Libra check. Ultimately it's just a really unfun metagame that boils down to knowing how to use your two "non-essential" mons to beat the other ones. I really don't seem myself playing much more of this meta unless I have to.


:reuniclus: :tyranitar-mega: :kartana: :toxapex: :equilibra: :victini: - Reunitar + ZDark Kart

Made this for Week 1, didn't use it until Week 4. The Mantas were looking for effective means of beating Reunitar, and kart bubbled to the surface. A couple people suggested ZDark Kartana whi was a cool idea. Of course when I played against SHSP, I will not deny that i misplayed but not just clicking ZDark on that turn against Reuni, but all the same. Team is pretty much a standard SM CAP team at this point, though there's one major mon. Scarf Victini is really cool since there's a lot of things it can do over the course of the match. If it can stay healthy, it's a wonderful paniuc button vs. Reuniclus with Final Gambit, otherwise it can click V-Create and do a ton of damage to whatever comes in. Additionally, U-turn allows for a cool lead pivot, and Tricking a scarf onto something like a Toxapex or something fatter also works well. It's kind of amazing how purposeful each move is. But otherwise, Zdark on Kart needs some chip on Renny to ensure a kill, but by that time you can make them think it's ZNormal and then bait them into overconfidence. But ZMoves are stupid, and SM CAP is stupid.


:hoopa-unbound: :greninja: :equilibra: :tornadus-therian: :Jumbao: :heatran: - MHoopa Balance

We were also experimenting with Hoopa-U and I have to be honest, I wish we did more with it. Hoop-U is such a cool mon, especially with an Expert Belt acting as a lure, especially with the coverage it has. Getting spikes up and neededing speed control makes Scarf Gren a phenomenal partner for it, and then rom there it's, uh, more or less standard SM CAP. Libra, Torn, Jumb, and then Tran to road things out. This is pretty self-explanatory.


GEN 6:

Something about ORAS is funky. It's not that it's a fundamentally broken metagame, but between Mega Crucibelle and the effectiveness of Manaphy behind Screens, I find that this metagame is something that still needs work. I would really be interested in seeing a metagame where either Light Clay is banned, Crucibellite is banned, or both. I'm not saying that this has to be the norm or where the meta goes from here, but it would be a fun experiment along the lines of how we tried some matches without Cawmodore. I also think unbanning Cawmodore is the wrong direction for the metagame as well. But honestly? I had a ton of fun playing it, even if cbrevan gave me some of the haxxiest fucking matches of my life, dear god.


:kerfluffle: :metagross-mega: :colossoil: :zapdos: :kyurem-black: :heatran:

So we found a way to keep kerf healthy, with Rest over Parting Shot. I think the utility of Parting Shot ultimately makes it better, but Rest on Kerf is kind of really crazy. The idea is really simple, you spam Kerf like you normally would, but then when you get an opening, you rest andswitch out, and boom, healthy Kerf again. Thanks to Dex and cb for the idea. Otherwise, it's a cool Mega-Metagross team as well. I iwish I had playd this better vs. Lasen since I think this is a really neat team. Probably could use a few tweaks, but overall, very cool squad.


I have a screens team that never got used and has been one of the best ORAS teams I've made, so I'm gonna hold onto it, but if there's more ORAS development, I'll gladly use this squad down the line. I would've used it against SHSP g3 if I had to and I genuinely believe that it would've won.

_____________________________________________________________________________________


I want to thank everyone again for lettings me manage again this year. I couldn't have predicted the amount of weekend I'd find myself busy, so I want to thank all my players for being responsible teammates and great players. I may take a short break from managing for a bit to focus on other aspects of life, but I look forward to participating in more Team Tours down the line. Cheers to all, and May the best team win it!

 

D2TheW

Amadán
Total number of weeks in cap team tours: 15
Total number of weeks won in cap team tours: 0
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Honestly this is probably my punishment for unleashing demonpult on the world. Obviously this tour did not go as planned but that's mons and at least I actually got to enjoy myself this time.

SHSP I formerly apologise for telling you I was gonna use dd scrafty along with all the other dogshit I theorymonned. Fr tho I felt like we had good synergy as managers, we were usually on the same page and we got on well when I wasn't trying to load bd salac zard. Sorry about giving you my teamtour curse too loool that's my bad.

20210714_221856.jpg

Consider yourself reminded

@ the rest of the miasmaws, I've never teamed with an unluckier bunch of players lmao, really sorry you all had to put up with that shit all tour, especially SEA who had the double displeasure of having to play fucking oras and get haxed to shit while doing it. I don't have a bad word to say about any of ye, hopefully I can team with some of ye again on more fortunate squads.

spoo I'm gonna teamdump here because nobody cares about the team bazaar get fucked. I'm not gonna hyperlink them either, get ready for some dogshit formatting.

Week 1 vs Pitmore: https://pokepast.es/7ca7be25d532b26b
I really liked this team. CM Blast Clef is a really cool wincon if you can land the blasts and jumb breaks for it pretty nicely. SD rocks chomp is also pretty great for a team like this. The whole team had really nice survivability as evidenced by the fact that the game lasted 200 fucking turns without being overly passive. Cyclohm really ties it together, checking awkward stuff, getting paras (supposedly) and heal bell is incredibly useful. The less said about the game the better. I will note that Pitmore had a 0.028% chance of never proccing static over all those turns when he made contact, which didn't matter in the end but it's a wacky stat.

Second week vs Boat:
https://pokepast.es/b276f348ec99b672
Snaels didn't bring cawm answers week 1 so it was ho time baby. I loaded a team with a really good ho mu week 1 so I wasn't really expecting ho but that's what they loaded. Fun ho team that I really like, last slot is pretty flexible but I liked sash ant and it fulfilled the list of things I needed so I stuck with it.

3rd Week against Rabia- https://pokepast.es/11a81a9eb5ba50a7
I figured Rabia would load something with a pretty bad reun mu and I was right but focus blast did what focus blast does. Reun + Pult + Twave Clef (a shsp suggestion I really liked) is a pretty nasty core and honestly this team has a Mollux so it's automatically great, change my mind.

Vs Maroon week four; https://pokepast.es/1662b79470e1aa12
I have no explanation for this other than I wanted to use the clown + weav. I loaded into anti Weavile Glowking despite having used Weavile a grand total of 3 or so times and proceeded to play pretty appallingly so I'd rather just forget this game. Fun team tho.

And last but not least, the original version of the greatest team ever made:
https://pokepast.es/5f6d6125924fa0c4
This team singlehandedly got ou council to ban Kings Rock tbh, it was just too powerful.

Ban Mega Cruc in oras, peace.
 

SHSP

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Moderator
doublelift walks into viktor.gif

Sad season for the Miasmaws, but I still had a lot of fun with it despite the struggles. I'm really proud of the team for keeping going throughout it all and never saying die when everything about the games was saying it. I really hope yall stick around in CAP tours and get the success you guys 100% deserve.

Okay, the success everyone but D2 deserves.
 

pannu

THE GONG OF KNOCKOUT
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Really unfortunate loss on the end of the weathermen, we should've gone to finals. i haven't been as invested in a team tour in a hot minute and really enjoyed playing with my team, lots of fun personalities on it. Gonna dump some teams and whatnot i built here

but first, mandatory shoutouts!

Jordy s/o for the smcap building guide, unironically opened it like 5 times while building

Lasen i am really, really happy you drafted me, i wouldn't have been as invested or cared nearly as much about this tour but i feel as if you managed to bring out the best in me, as a builder and player. You provided stellar sm support and i probably wouldn't have won half the games i did if it wasn't for you. we'll get them next time.

Rabia you played genshin more than you talked in the chat, reliable weatherman won the games that mattered tho.

Terracotta the double cotta core prevailed, testing with you and getting advice from building was a large part to why my teams were as successful was they were and why i were as confident as i was

The Number Man you are one of the most reliable ss players atm, you went fucking insane in this tier. gj bro cant wait to smash you in tpp.

Scizivire fucking hilarious chat presence and really solid builder, loved having you around in the teamchat, you def created a really fun environment there.

arn.av136 i didn't know much about you before going into this tour but, i quickly learned that you're absolutely insane when it comes to building and an incredible pilot, cant wait to play more tours with you.

gorex l2p

Zephyri l2p

RaJ.Shoot daniYSB you guys are really good players and i wish you got more time to shine.

SiTuM this really wasn't your tour, i feel bad for all of the hax in your games, you should've had a way better record than what you did.


With that lame shit outta the way, teamdump time!

not posting my w1 team because i didn't built it, as i was hella rusty and not in touch with the meta, lasen built it.


1629058284359.png

As for w3, i felt more comfortable in my building, as such i built. Avery is a friend of mine and as such i have a close grasp on what kinds of teams she likes using, noteably, offense, fat, and Reuniclus. As such i wanted to build around Mega Lopunny and Hydreigon, as they destory Offense and Fat respectively, on preview. I added Toxapex and Tornadus-T because Jumbao is broken and i need atleast 2 switch-ins to feel safe against it, Jumbao because its broken and is able to overpower the likes of Toxapex and Tornadus-T when paired with Lop, Landorus is a main part of this team as it fuctions as the check to pokemon such as Tyranitar, Mega Lopunny, and Mega Mawile, while also setting up rocks and letting me pivot in Lop and Bao safely. While i did mention wanting to use Hydreigon, i was informed that my team kinda gets 6-0d by Weavile, i really struggled finding a Pokemon that is able to check both Weavile and Reuniclus, until i realized that Heart Swap Magearna does that, as such that was my last.

Nicks from Luv is Rage 2 because both Ave and i are avid uzi enjoyers.

1629058638565.png

Week 5 i was up against another good friend and person who i understand in terms of building and playing preferences, Lilburr. I went into this game knowing that she is A. Getting building support from 2 of the best SM CAP builders atm, Jordy and Jho, and B. am uch more experienced pilot then i am. Having scouted prior replays i noticed that alot of the teams the snaels have brought so far were weak to the Combination of Tyranitar and Kartana, which i happened to be fond of using, as such that was my inspiration for going into this week. I, However, ended up being really unhappy with what i had built, so i decided to take a National Dex team featuring the two which i had been fond of as of lately, and was comfortable piloting, edited to suit SMCAP, of course. The most notable changes were making Kartana Normalium Z with Giga Impact to better handle Tomohawk and Jumbao, as well as replacing Skarmory for an Arghonaut, as i needed a pokemon to check ground-types and Equilibra, and this team relies on its hazard stacking abilities to function.

Nicknames from Soul Eater, because i love that anime.

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at this point in the tour, i was really feeling myself after having finished the regular season 3-0, and going into Semis was the most scared i had been all tour, I knew jay was incredible at SM aswell as my least favourite kind of player to play, someone who brings non linear sets. After having scouted him, however, i noticed that the Fatter teams he had been bringing this season lost hard to Krillowatt + Something that takes advantage of Chansey, in this case that was a Mawile. I then ended up finishing the team with an AV Torn to Check bao, Landorus for Rocks aswell as checking opposing Libra, and Victini for speed controll and another way of checking Bao, as AV Torn loses to bao longterm, these pokemon also form a VoltTurn core with Krill to safely bring in Mawile. Lastly, equilibra spins away rocks for Victini and Tornadus.

Nicks from Sol-Fa by Asian Kung-Fu Generation, because they're the Best Album and Greatest Band ever, respectively.

1629059492683.png

Going into the Tiebreaker, lasen gave me the idea to bring Shift Gear Magearna, as more of his teams simply lost to it on the spot. i decided to go with a Team Style that would let it bluff being a more bulky magearna set, such as the Heart Swap set i ran previously in the tour or Calm Mind Z, as such i went with a Latias Balance, which is an archetype i am comfortable piloting, maybe a bit too comfortable however, since i got cteamed as fuck in this game. Albiet this team resulted into my only loss of the tour, i still really like it and think its good, bar the weakness to Mhera.

Nicknames from Wowakas album Unhappy Refrain, its a good album, nuff said.

Fun tour, im proud of my performence, cant wait to see yall in cap snake.
 
A bit of a bittersweet ending to the tour to be honest, I really thought (and still do) we had what it takes to get to the finals and take home the trophy. Unfort we got knocked out so I'm here writing this post lmao. Anyway, I enjoyed this tour a lot, which makes it the second CAP tour (after last year's snake) that was an immensely positive experience for me. I honestly never expected to do this well going into the tour. Part of it was the fact that I started on the back end of a rough personal OMPL season, which shook my confidence a bit, so I'm really glad I was able to do well here.

Massive thanks to Lasen (you were an amazing manager as always) and Rabia for drafting me, and creating such a great team in general. Getting to play with so many familiar faces was a big part of why this tour so enjoyable. I hope you guys consider picking me up in future CAP tours as well. The rest of the weathermen arn.av136 pannuracotta RaJ.Shoot Terracotta Scizivire Zephyri gorex SiTuM daniYSB you guys were great teammates, thanks for making our team environment so nice, playing your best and obviously offering tests whenever I asked for them.

1) Teams

Going into the tour I expected to get passed teams, do some tests and then show up and play, but for some reason building CAP really clicked for me this time around and was really enjoyable as well. I ended up building all my teams myself which worked really well.

W1 vs Estarossa: BIG NAVI https://pokepast.es/595750de44f98a9d
1629095524158.png


I knew esta likes fat teams and the meta looked not very prepped for DD/Slack off Navi, so I decided to try making that work. The team is honestly not that consistent, it has some bad MUs like Zera that you gotta do some dancing around on but in tests it was still winnable so i went with it. Ended up getting a pretty nice MU and winning, altho sadly big navi didn't get to shine.

W2 Raj vs Chromeras: Chomp + Pult https://pokepast.es/17a99952b6c0ddb9
1629095700877.png


The idea here was overwhelming Clef by stacking 2 mons its supposed to check and exploiting the increased SPD invest it started running w SD chomper. The rest is mainly just filling out the slots, Glowking is a way to gain momentum off clef + a koko check, argho is a weavile counter since the first 3 mons all lose to it, clef is clef and last i was missing a steel type and ground immunity so Corv.

W3 vs RSQ: BuluTran feat Bulk up Zera https://pokepast.es/87cb37164864e4c4
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I'd been playing a lot of AAA at this point and one of my favorite cores at the time was pairing Heatran w a Grassy Surge abuser, which made me rmb the glory days of BuluTran in SM OU, so I decided to revisit it in :cap: Tect tran made a lot of sense on grassy surge, since it lets you regain HP insanely fast while abusing Toxic + Magma to a ridiculous degree. Since Tran and Zera share a good number of checks, I thought that tecttran would clear the way very nicely for it. Skarm + Colo was my hazard core and Paj felt like a really good complementary breaker that abuses opposing tran very well.

W4 vs Quz: BuluTran feat CM Glowking https://pokepast.es/ebbe312ddc1989a9
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I was working on CM koko this week, but then I saw Maroon demolish D2 with a cm Glowking so I decided to use that instead. I liked the idea of Glowking + Grassy surge because Regenerators are mons you are incentivised to greed with and terrain lets Glowking get away with obscenely greedy plays. I added Colbur for even more greed potential. Libra was another pult check whereas Argho was my Weavile etc check.

W4 Dani vs someone: CM koko + arghocolotran https://pokepast.es/5c0c91ca090c1e26
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I was gonna use this team W5 but we needed the win to tie the week so I gave this team to dani after doing some tests before their game. The idea here is to just weaken Koko checks with NP Torn, Spikes and chip damage from Tran so it can eventually take over the game after CMing. Amoon is the check for opposing Koko, Zera, Rilla etc.

W5 vs Jordy: CM koko + Astro https://pokepast.es/a01e72cf48760902
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This is basically just an alternate version of the above team, the idea is p much the same except here there's also the plan of wisping ground so that Koko has an easier time 1v1ing them later. I honestly still don't know how I won this game so yeah not much to say here lmao.

Semis vs Spoo: Reunipult (actually Glowking) https://pokepast.es/4173345c1e7dc17d
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As the name suggests, I was initially working on building a Reuni + Pult balance, cause I felt they would have good offensive synergy in wearing down shared checks. But in testing I realised that the lack of regen on Reuni is really detrimental when it comes to cheese potential. In practice, reuni can usually cheese one mon, taking around 65% chip in the process which makes it useless for the rest of the game unless you have a ridiculously good matchup or can find an opening to heal it back up later. Glowking on the other hand can cheese one supposed check and just heal back up with regenerator to win the game later with no particular effort on the player's part. I ended up swapping reuni for Psyshock/Scald Glowking while keeping the rest of the team the same and it really paid off. Glowking put in massive work in the game, dealing 60%+ and burning Lando, forcing Blace to get sacked for Trick only to get knocked later and be back in a position to win the game.

2) Some thoughts on building CAP vs stealing OU teams

I really disagree with the notion (brought up a while ago in this thread) that using OU tournament teams is superior to building CAP teams. I get the idea that better players/builders will generally create more successful teams, but I feel like putting it in such a black and white manner misses some nuance. CAP is similar to OU, but its not the same as OU. There's a bunch of CAP additions that meaningfully change the meta such that just copying OU teams without adjusting them for the CAP meta is not necessarily gonna go over well.

:arghonaut: Argho is a prime example. IIRC adamant SD weavile is a rising trend in OU because it can OHKO pex with +2 Knock Off, but that mon is still never breaking Argho, which makes it significantly less powerful of a tech in CAP than OU.

:colossoil: :equilibra: :astrolotl: Second example. CAP actually has viable spinners, unlike OU which is limited to excadrill. This impacts teambuilding immensely imo. Viable spinners make spikestack much more attractive as an option, not to mention Argho + Astro as additional spikers over the usual Ferro, Skarm and occasional Mew. Colossoil is also significant because its an actually viable Ghost resist for teams that dont want to use the passive Blissey and Mandibuzz.

:jumbao: Scarf Bao is a very nice piece of role compression that no OU mon can match. It offers speed control (particularly vs weather abusers) an emergency Heatran switchin , a Zeraora check and Healing Wish support.

This section wasnt intended to call anyone out or whatever, just trying to share my perspective. See you all around in CLT, snake and perhaps World CAP!?
 

Garrett

Banned deucer.
I won't lie at all, I think this tier is actually disgusting thanks to M-Crucibelle and building was not as enjoyable as it could've/should've been, which is sort of disappointing for a metagame meant to make building with new mons exciting. Here, Magic Guard Head Smash/Wood Hammer/Gunk Shot/U-Turn checks/counter are not determined by their capacity to fight back but by how long they can hold on passively (and if they're able to be productive while doing so--spinning with Drill, getting hazards up with Chomp/Ferro, etc.) so that other, pretty much only faster mons can beat everything else on the opposing team first. Also, I do think Screens are overrated in this tier, but not bad by any means. I wish I got a chance to try them out.
  • Week 1: BENCHED
  • Week 2: https://pokepast.es/45a8b9beb6055ed6 - I was learning the CAP mons still, and so I opted for a NatDex-ish team starring Mega Lopunny and a hazard stack, which I was already comfortable with. My team should have been Colbur Berry Slowking without a doubt (however I was Leftovers in the game, which, with correct play, I think means I shouldn't have been able to beat Weavile + M-Metagross without some serious aggression/luck.) I've since fixed that and now I think the team is alright.
  • Week 3: https://pokepast.es/58b42ecf59d27d5f - I was passed a team this time (and this week only--was busy) and all I did was change the Jirachi's EV's slightly. The team by inspection looks really ugly to me but the SD Gliscor decision had an incredible matchup, so there's that. I piloted this poorly, got haxed by a key flinch early, and then proceeded to throw the entire game which I was wrongly rewarded for via a Zen dodge.
  • Week 4: https://pokepast.es/8850bd23dd09daa6 - SiTuM sucks at ORAS CAP, and so I expertly predict cheese and load something very anti-Screens and anti-Webs, catching the latter.
  • Week 5: https://pokepast.es/0a55cc6939cf5d61 - M-Zard Screens were on the menu until I realized I'm pretty awful at piloting HO in a tier I'm new to, so we switched to a modified version of the crackhead sand paste in the next section. This was probably the best game of my season, despite the relative mirror matchup.
  • Semifinals: https://pokepast.es/14b1a07f756f5748 - I knew sort of from the get go that Lasen would not pass Gorex balance, but I was very torn between expecting offense or super fat (ex. CM Flame/Ice Clef semi-stall). In hopes of catching Rain or semi-stall, I brought Magma Tran + Tangrowth + M-Zam. I got birdspammed and the rest is history.
  • Semifinal Tiebreaker: BENCHED
  • Finals: https://pokepast.es/c10f2073f093776a - I built this over using my copied-over core several hours before the game, switching in the M-Mane idea with Medicham + Weavile as from the week 3 game I felt that I would be playing a rather fat team ("Againa doesn't HO" according to my teammates) or at least something that doesn't lose to SD Gliscor on preview. I had a near unlosable matchup once Kitsunoh was tossed (the Tornadus lead and Kitsunoh sac made zero sense to me), and never kicked a single mon. We did 6-0 for Ainzcrad, who fell asleep despite telling me he wanted to spectate, however.

Ideas that were put into full teams that I felt were comparatively worse than what is above and therefore were never used are below.
Structures I put together that I never finished teams for. Please expect these to be even worse than the last section.
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(week of no M-Cruci gentleman)
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(week of no M-Cruci gentleman)
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Thank you Wulfanator and spoo for drafting me, quziel, Chazm, kjnjkmjk1, and Heaven Jay for reviewing my teams at their respective points in these weeks, and Basedburner for pulling up last second for finals motivation.

Ainzcrad - Clown 100 stay up next time
Windingsss - Goat cheerleader
The rest of my teammates.
pannuracotta - L but I hope you win AGTT
StitChuu - Did not help us farm likes at fucking ALL and I'm sort of upset.
Lasen - For convincing me to sign up despite his certain, resultant regret in him doing so.
 

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