Project CAPPL X Team / Set Dump Thread

[Brigtel]

Share your teams!

 

[Mada]

Dump thread of all SV stuff I've built during the tour with some quick explanation.

W1 vs Potato (W)

Pretty standard BO that I had used prior to CAPPL too. Argho+Glowking+Gliscor is an amazing core that deals with pretty much everything in the tier, so they are followed by a Specs Darkrai that can help breaking fat/opposing balance with Glowking pivot, and Dengo+Ghost help with fat and offense, while having a status spam core along with Gliscor and Glowking too. Very solid team that we reused later on too.

W1 vs Kaif (L)

Pretty wack HO, Glimm lead is kinda ass so I regret using it but for the rest it's just some broken stuff together. Kyurem set I've been spamming in ou and it just annihilates balance by itself, so we then follow up with treads which is helpful spinner and a very hard mon to switch-in into, followed by a Valiant+Goblin core to help with speed against offensive teams while Valiant teams up well with Treads and Kyurem. Manaphy was a funny load as it's very overrated mon, and I felt it could destroy eventual Unaware spam that was a possible bring against me.

W1 vs zioziotrip (W)

To no one surprise, here is my CAPCL stall. Imo an amazing stall that can beat everything, I already explained this in CAPCL Dump and overall I think Stall is amazing: Balance struggles to hold up to the tens of threats but Stall can do it pretty reliably, although of course it was hard for me to stall since I feel people overpreps it against me. I don't think there are major weaknesses here, mixed kyu is always a beast against Stall but all the rest is outplayable.

W2 vs avarice (W)

Some Anti Offense team with AV Glowking as people was spamming Chugga a lot, and our oppos seemed to love the idea of just stacking up broken threats and the glowking actually got a decent mu, team is very solid and I ended up having Glowking+Argho+Gliscor again without noticing it, as I feel that core is just very strong. Libra also can join the core or replace Gliscor and make up for a very strong defensive backbone.

W2 vs Tempo di Anguria (L)

As I was preparing for Offense, Webs can also be very lethal while still covering other options. Just webs with broken abusers and fairy spam to break through annoying stuff like Venomicon. I also wanted to try Stratagem as imo that mon has a lot of potential, but after losing W2 I kinda got scared from testing it in later weeks.

W2 vs avarice (L)

I was planning to stack up Offense in my selfscout during early and later weeks to have an advantage later on, so I just went for this option with Boulder which is very strong against opposing offense, and a fishy Clef set that can 6-0 most of offensive teams. Waterpon and Darkrai are strong fast mons that can force trades and are very good against Balance, whereas Moth is kinda needed to help with Speed and is not weak to Goblin, which is one of HO's biggest problems.

W3 vs Miyoko (W)

With the Chugga spam I wanted to load Tinglu, as it's a very strong wall and it makes a great core with Pex+Skarm. Pex is also a very nice mon that is really underrated and annoys so much stuff and it also softchecks Waterpon which is very important on such teams, whereas I just filled with Dpult+Goblin again for speed, Caribolt to help a bit the Gacl mu while having a fast wincon that could also spin if really needed.

W3 vs Sificon (W)
W4 vs Joesh (L)

I was trying to not use Stall for as long as possible but we had 1pt after 2 weeks and it was time to do serious stuff so here we are with some Stall Technology. The hardest challenge for Stall is Kyurem, where both specs, mixed, sub can be very strong. PDef Libra + Arghonaut should be able to deal with it with correct play, whereas Blissey is usually fine with Specs stuff, and against SubRoost u just waste some pp's around and pivot a bit with Gacl/Libra/Blissey. Jumbao is the star of the team, as #3 stall threat Waterpon, #4 stall threat Miasmaw, #5 stall threat Caribolt are all checked by this amazing mon. #7 Ursaluna threat can also be handled with Jumbao and #8 Stall threat Heatran is also perma walled, and do we hit it at all? no, but we have double recovery and a lot of pp's so who cares.
Another annoying mon Jumbao can check is Garganacl. Grass Knot>Giga Drain is better for that, and I loaded it next week as 32pp's is huge and you just take 0. Stuff like Great Tusk also is greatly checked, as people can always run stuff like band or Taunt to break stall. Wish pass is also always very nice, especially with Equilibra in the team. I unfortunately lost to Hoopa+Mola, where I think I was a bit unlucky with Circle Throw odds and also played the absolute worst set being Tera Poison Hoopa without Gunk Shot (??) but overall I think this Stall can beat anything and it's very very good, and even in probably the worst mu? I still brought it very close, so yeah I don't think this team would ever struggle unless oppo specifically preps for it, and even then the game can be playable.

W3 vs frankjosh (W)

Some great sun here, I think probably one of the best comps right now. Pretty simple build, Malaconda as main sun as it can pivot and spins, followed by Gouging + Wake to abuse their stabs and create holes, so that they can be HWish'd later on. Lilligant covers well Tera waters as well while it's also a decent rkiller for stuff, handles Gacl and it still has strong stabs with chlorophyll speedd boost. Chugga can setup on Goblin Rkilling the Weak mons while having a decent bulk to avoid many 2hkoes thanks to Lefties. Goblin is always helpful since Balanced stuff should be more than covered, so goblin dealing with offense is very nice and boom lo allows it not to be chugga fodder as u can ohko it (as happened in game)

W4 vs Habaduh (W)

Balance was keeping working so why stop using it? I actually made this team for natdex invitational and then adapted it to CAP by putting Cresceidon, an amazing mon that had seen almost no usage up until that point. Mola+Tran+Dnite+Tinglu are p much impossible to break, without considering glowking and cresceidon. Slow progress with status, strong rkillers and annoying walls to get secure wins has been working for all the tour.

W5 vs autumn (W)

Our oppos were fishing throught the whole tour so it was time to try and use some new mons on balance. So I came up with Mollux as it's one of the few Cresceidon switch-ins that doesn't get crippled, together with Moltres. The call was pretty great as we loaded against a Kyurem, and we also had Cresceidon for a random Hoopa that we faced. Gliscor set can be crazy good against offense, although with a couple of mons being immune to it like Libra or Venomicon, it risks doing nothing, but that's also why Moltres + Gacl are there, as they help with said mons. Whereas Steels should have an hard time overall.

W5 vs Fc (L)

People that knows me knows that I struggle to prep for myself as I struggle to focus/care as I am more busy caring for others and supporting the rest of the team. There is this LBP2 tech with Quick Claw Primarina that I thought it would have been very funny to use so I just slapped it in an offense, with standard breakers that aren't weak to Goblino. I chokked this game by not dancing twice on possible Deoxys miss so that was a bad game by me, but overall the team can definetely work as stacking threats can surely win some games.

W5 vs Ina Fable (L)

Grassy is a good antifish, and I remember last year I built a lot on Gholdengo sets as it can run whatever, and also on GSeed Volc which is now banned, but yeah idea was just abusing Rilla+Hawlucha Speed to beat offense, while trading mons with Deo+Raging Bolt and having Dengo and Gouging as crazy setup sweepers. The dengo really had a pretty 6-0 matchup but unfortunately we didn't use it at his best.

W7 vs Achimoo (W)

Variation of my Specs Rai team with Serperior over it. Still pretty solid and strong mon that adds up to the status spam.

Semis vs RoFnA (W)

As for in Regular Season, I knew we had to use some new mons that we hadn't used as they were going to just cteam those cores. I also had a feeling they were going to use slow teams, so I slapped on fast threats like torn, waterpon and krilowat. NP Torn is crazy against slow teams and pretty much always wins, Waterpon had Stomping Tantrum over Encore to hit Mollux and for the rest it's always annoying and doesn't have many switch-ins, whereas Krilowatt is easy to add since it doesn't take hazards damage and pivots well with lando and Torn. Arghonaut is Roar>Circle Throw cause I knew some Ghost was coming to abuse Argho, whereas Tera Blast Fairy is nice to hit Fightings and Dragons while getting Sucker resist.

Semis vs Ina Fable (L)

This was the team that we prepared for Finals, a Stall with some new technology. Unfortunately we didn't load it cause Max got forced to play on mobile so he decided to opt for a different team, which was pretty unfortunate as we could have 5-0d with ease in Semis getting a crazy momentum for Finals, but stuff happens. Skele is very underrated but very good, again Roar here to not be passive against stuff like Chugga. Astro to help against stuff like Kyurem, Manaphy and Waterpon, with Life Dew on it and Blissey to still help recovery, as Blissey can struggle with pp's against Tera Ice Specs Kyurem, so Life Dew can be very nice for that. Astro also can help against Caribolt and Miasmaw so that's nice too. Umbreon is mainly the Dragapult check, as on any stall you need to have it, and it's a funny way to just limit it. Imo team is very solid and I am sad we didn't use it this season as I think it has a lot of potential.
We ended up using a variation of Sylveon's W3 team with Pex+Clef+Venomicon. We never had used that variation and those mons so I felt they were fine, but unfortunately we got an unlucky crit on Clef which pretty much killed it and it couldn't keep annoying the team, whereas for the rest it's a pretty standard build.

Semis vs Fc (W)

This is a 2nd version I had given Sylveon, but decided to load it myself cause I just wanted to get a playable mu, we used Lando as I love and mainly use Gliscor as my Ground mon (koff+status absorber+setupper) whereas Lando is still a crazy mon, Lando+Libra+Glowking+Torn gives you enough space to play around most of defensive cores while being active and pivoting with fast stuff. Zama can destroy teams that don't prepare for it as Venomicon wasn't common in oppo's scout, whereas Waterpon is always strong to have and I was expecting some setupper like Manaphy/Kyurem.

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In Finals we reused the sun I had made priorly, with +Speed Wake instead of +SpAtk. but I will still share the ideas and builds:
Playoff Builds/Ideas:

Specs Dengo BO:

First days of Finals I was considering to use Specs Dengo as I was really expecting some fat stuf with breakers like Hoopa or Manaphy coming (yeah I kept having Manaphy complex for the whole tour) but I also wanted to keep using new mons that we hadn't used, like Skele+Zapdos which are of course very strong against offense. Pivoting into Specs Dengo is basically picking a kill against 95% of the teams, whereas Dpult+Cor can help it breaking through more annoying cores. Mollux is amazing to both Spin and Put them UP while having a crazy water immunity for Skele.

I hadn't prepped a 100% team for me but I was most likely going to use something around Cinderace as I was scared of Screens. That mon is crazy and I was exploring some SD Zen Headbutt set with Pyro and Gunk Shot, which would mean to renounce at CC, so I was most likely going to go for Pyro Ball/Low Kick/Gunk/CC. Low Kick is good for stuff like Heatran and Bulletproof Libra, but I am sure Zen Headbutt has some potential too seeing that it hits the most important CAPs.

Kyurem Offense:

If it wasn't for the fact that I used this in CAP Seasonal like twice, I would have 100% loaded it in Finals. Very nasty team, some OU set stolen by my italian mates with a Cinderace for random HO's or Screens, whereas Kyurem destroys fat. Lu+Darkrai forcing trades into the broken prio's of Goblin and Caribolt is great against Offense too.

Broken Stall:

If not Cinderace BO, I would have used this. Imo pretty unbreakable stall with some helpful techs. First of all, it's a GWeezing Stall which just means u can always defog, but you also have to run Mola. What better add-in than Libra? Still not sure if it should be Levitate or not, probably it should, but with Mola support it can almost always Spin most of games, so hazards should never get up. The benefit of keeping the hazards off is not being limited to spam boots, which means Dondozo can run Ability Shield so it permachecks Miasmaw trying to abuse Neutralizing Gas. Clefable has Psych Up so it could copy a potential Manaphy, but also other stuff like Chugga, mixed Kyurem. Mola with Red Card Acro is prolly the best fit-in here to annoying Waterpon, whereas Lefties Blissey can help against Specs Kyurem. Dragapult and Libra are pretty annoying here so it requires to play quite well, but there isn't real any mon that DPult can start statusing if not Blissey whereas Libra doesn't do that much against Blissey but it can be annoying I guess.

Hoodra-Mola teams:


Both teams have the idea of going for Hoodra+Mola+Strong Flying. AV Hoodra can fuck up random Chuggas and Manaphy (yeah I HATE Manaphy) but with Mola teams tend to be very slow so Zamazenta is great on both as Wish still helps it and it can check stuff like Caribolt, Miasmaw and Waterpon while checking Darks like Kingambit and Darkrai. Cresceidon switch-in is needed so hence why Clodsire/Mollux on the teams, whereas Gliscor is the koff-switchin that helps making progress. I made those teams mainly for Semis during Week 7 but I still considered to the first one for my Finals game.

Miasmaw BO:

This was for Max, he really wanted to use Miasmaw despite our standard idea was for him to stall as he kept using fishy HO (and only won with it) so I thought that oppos wouldn't expect stall, and imo my stalls won't lose unless very specific csets that still can lose. I don't want to force someone to play something he doesn't though, so I still tried to pop up with some Ideas while he was building some other stuff, this type of team I think does okay although the main issue is losing to pretty much everything. I really expected Garganacl so PDef Glowking using chilly into Encore-User is a way to deal with it, whereas SamuH + Miasmaw can destroy Balance, Val helps Miasmaw breaking stall by tricking the scarf and it's pretty decent against Offense, whereas the walls just do their standard stuff and get good trades against more offensive teams.
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Other teams built during the season:

This was for an individual probably right before CAPPL. Broken setuppers with speed control + for prio, goated roseli berry darkrai to destroy balance that rely on goblin as main rkiller of stuff.


Grassy terrain with Gouging and Chugga as abuser. Grassy is very strong and underrated, and so is Gouging. Chugga with Terrain and lefties is hella bulky, now it lost Dkiss so it would have to run like surf + flame as last coverage but yeah all mons here are huge threats and can win, Memento Glimmora to try and go for early setup.


Not sure if this was during CAPCL or CAPPL so imma slap it in here. A random fat I was trying, kerfluffle is there cause Wish+Tusk etc. switch-in and more importantly, it's a Dpult check. Idr what I was cooking cause this looks p bad with that Gouging set but you only get better if you keep trying.


OG version of the Sun we used twice. No Goblin here but Wake+Moth, I really think this team is amazing and has crazy offensive potential that will just make your oppo lose by just spamming the broken stabs. Goblin is always broken for sure, so we could still add that, and 252spatk throat spray chugga can always be ran.


I am so sad we didn't get to use broken RAIN team, I think this team has some fishy potential to just beat offense thanks to skewda+argho and to cook balance with Krilo+Broken Manaphy.


I stole this OU idea to try and abuse Cresselia. I didn't test it furthermore but it can definetely work against the right opponents, cress is always a broken setupper and if Dengo tricks the right mon like SpDef Argho, along with Veno you can easily win a lot of games.


In WCOP I used Pelipper with Specs Raging Bolt so I wanted to try a similar idea here with Glowking+Specs Bolt and just added a Specs Keldeo cause it seemed funny, rest of the mons just pivots around, as always glowking+gliscor+libra to save the day and a funny Astro to help with Caribolt and Waterpon.


I think I made this for Seasonal Finals? I don't remember. I really like Revenankh so I wanted to make something with him, trying to put mons that force trades like Deo and LO Goblin to try and open him a route.

Meta quick thoughts

I think the meta is a bit of a mess, not cause of CAP but cause of OU as a whole. Balance and BO is what people seems to prefer, but they really are so fragile as there are tens of mons you have to check, you cannot lose to the Darks like Kingambit, Darkrai and SamuH, you need something to switch-in on Argho, Libra, cover all the Venomicon sets, not losing to Kyurem, Miasmaw or Caribolt, having something to deal with Chugga and Revenankh, a switch-in to Deoxys and Garganacl, not being weak to Dragapult and Waterpon. Other mons that will make you have an hard time are Cresceidon, Gholdengo, SD Gliscor/Snaelstrom and Hemogoblin. So yeah I think building solid balances is really hard; people spams Libra+Argho type of teams which are for sure broken mons but I personally think just building hard stall is better at that point.

Stall is very underrated and I've only seen like Goblins loading a ditto stall Week 2? I've shared 4 whole different versions in here, I really think Stall is the best archetype as Offense is probably better but you really need to spam tests to build a very good Offense and to get familiar to it, which hasn't been very easy for me or other managers/players during the tour. There being so many threats is of course a problem for stall but I think there are different comps that can handle them all, although of course in the actual game your mons get chipped and some hax can happen so it's always done on paper than in the actual game.

Offense has a crazy potential, with so many broken stuff, but to play Offense at his best you really need to spam tests. There are a lot of possible techs usable, especially in a meta with Tera, and mons like Argho and Equilibra are easily abusable by using sub sets, or unexpect coverage, or a tera like people using Ghost Tera's for it. Chugga is an important addition, I personally think is just a fishy setupper exactly like DD Dpult could be, or CM Cresselia, but of course if played correctly it can snowball way more easily than most of other setuppers, just like mons like Kommo-O and Gouging can do. Overall I think it's pretty fine at the moment, the coverage is insane though, removing even 1 between Surf or Flamethrower would really help cause for example if u use spdef ww skarm then u kinda take 0 from Surf, with spdef u can still easily take flame from non-throat spray but yeah it's still crazy.

HO as a whole is also pretty ok, I really like Sun and Screens and I am sad to see that Screens wasn't really explored this tour. Goblin is broken against HO, especially since most of the strongest abusers are weak to Fairy, which is kinda a problem, but with tera and mons like Moth, Miasmaw, Waterpon.

Cresceidon rising in the later weeks has been great since people somehow forgot? about that mon, and it's really really strong and very hard to switch into since even stuff like Glowking doesn't wanna get para'd or burned. Exploring Rough Skin would also be great, having Multiscale makes you also play differently not to get koffed, and also in the builder u need another slot for a koff absorber which u can just avoid by using rough skin with another item.

Argho is probably the reason Balance is even playable, as it still stops Darks without having to go on Goblin which can still die from Darkrai's Sludge Bomb, Samu's Aqua Cutter or take a lot from Gambit. Equilibra is of course incredible too, amazing spdef wall with plenty of resistances and immunities that also spins while not being scared at all of Gholdengo. Overall the meta I think it's pretty fishy but it has been for sure funny to challenge myself to use new mons every week, and it's still a tier I really enjoy playing

Shoutouts

Doing shoutouts for my players as they all were incredible this season.

Micaiah you are an absolute goat, I jokingly mentioned something about us signing up as manager for CAPPL and shortly after you PM'med me to actually manage and so we decided to signup. I managed for the first team together with you in Teamballo, so I am very happy to win this PL with you. Best DPP-BW-ORAS builder and player and your support is unbelievable, let alone you starting in ORAS and farming the pool very easily. You got unlucky in BW the first weeks but that didn't stop you from rotating to ORAS and just going on a crazy 5-1 streak. My selfbuy wasn't as great and you might remember that I felt unsure about selfbuying since I can't focus as much as just being a regular player, but I still managed to get a very important win in semis and I think my play was pretty decent besides that regular season game throw against Fc, but I feel it would have been a waste not to selfbuy since on paper I still have very good results in the tier, and I would have done my absolute best to win in playoffs. Thanks for trusting me on that and on doing the auction, everything went exactly as we planned and we really deserve this win <3

Sylveon used calm mind the GOAT Sylveon, deprived of your deserved 9-0 for some hax in the last game, but you played amazingly and despite me malding during W1 game, you really went on and made some of the best plays during the tour, while providing very solid games in playoffs. I couldn't get you to load stall but thanks for trusting all my builds

ChrisPBacon Crazy 7-2 score in a tier you had never played before, I genuinely was unaware you wanted to play SS so sorry for that, but you smashed everyone in SM so I am very happy to have picked you as I knew you would have done very well and I think you were the best in your pool since before your amazing run. Good luck in NDPL and might one of us win that too :P

Fogbound Lake our priority in the draft was getting you or clean, so I am happy I got you early on without overpaying for you. A very good season despite you being more familar with incredibly x-0 runs, but you clutched both games in playoffs although I got a bit mad when I saw a FIDGIT in Finals since you hadn't shared the team, but you won so nobody can blame you! I am happy to win this tour back-to-back but you won it thrice in a row which is impressive...I will make sure to buy you again so you keep carrying me

Laurel I 100% knew I had to buy you when I saw your signup. Best DPP player in the tour and with Micaiah's support I knew you were going to smash people. After ADPL you were pretty disappointed in the team so I wanted to show you how my usual teams really are. Thanks for cooking in Finals and putting effort when we needed it the most!

Maxouille the Maxillus, not the best score but still a very strong player that I was very happy to get for so cheap. Wish you trusted me more with both starting in SV right away and with just loading my teams, but when you are a great player/builder yourself it's normal to discuss it more, so I am happy we exchanged our opinions often and that I still had someone to talk to about the meta

Chomp29 Goatilus Chomp, you smashed everyone in ADPL and as I said for Laurel, I wanted to really show you how teams I manage usually are, so I knew I had to pick you. 3k is also an absolute steal, you are a crazy bw tryharder and I knew again that Micaiah's prep would have made wonders with a good pilot as you, I really wish you the best of luck to get into more tours as you absolutely deserve it.

Fantos13 justdrew FFK You guys were mostly benching but I am happy to have given everyone at least 1 game. As I said in the server, if I drafted you is because I believe you all are capable players and good subs for most of the slots. You guys tried to help here and there so I definetely appreciate that :)

pannu, Cryolite, exithe, Lazuli, clean, Steam Buns for joining our server and eventually helping

And as always, thank you to all my friends like fran17, tier, Aurella, Trichotomy, JUST ONE GALATINA, Niko, the people from Filo/PT/JF and everyone else for making my experience on the site worth it

 

[Taka]

w1 v frankjosh - chug deo sub hatt HO

pre nerf chug did pre nerf chug things lol

w2 v joeshh - double fairy BO

idk what my thoughts were for this team but i wanted to use val + bu ground hemo i believe.

w3 v xvii - tailwind

broken ahh tailwind ursaluna

w4 v elfuseon - specs dengo double ghost

wanted to use specs dengo and just throw out MiRs all game. loaded into sun and had some misplays w Hemo

w5 v avarice - kerf maw

natcure rest kerf seemed crazy strong so i built a team to mess w cres for it. the rest of the team had god tier mu so i never got to show off kerf tho

w7 v fantos17 - cb pult eject doom desire

yea i generationally threw a god tier mu after winning it twice LOL but this team is fire

semis v kaif - scratchet HO

this team is cool and scratchet is nice into libra and dengo but the team really struggles into twave + encore cresceidon (one of them is manageable). has some HO techs like zen psy hemo for chug and venom, 4a LO rai to break ting early, subpsn moon for hemo + twave cres, and cress ev'd for chug.

finals v mada - kyu + psyshock dengo

game never happened but i wouldve loaded this. cool build w encore val + boom hemo as chug cope. ghost dengo has good mu into libra and trades well w offense, mix kyu also pressures fat which can open up val in conjunction with boom hemo.

v fun tour, appreciate all on hemos this year.

edit: forgot meta thoughts
meta thoughts: remove surf or flame from chugg pls this shit too broken man

 

[Micaiah]

Gm fellow cap enthusiasts, feels good to win one of these after coming up short a bunch of times, big shoutouts to everyone on the team for their efforts this season.

Now, as I'm typing this on phone while on a train to Osaka, I don't have all the teams with me and I will likely add them later, so I will just focus on my thoughts behind the oldgen games.

Week 1

Spoiler

DPP: Laurel vs Nuxl

I didn't know anything about the opponent, so I assumed it was fairly likely he was gonna load some clef fat, which is why we brought Mag + Rev + 3 atk Arghonaut. Revenakh was Toxic Super Knock, to ensure progress against any type of fat team as well as knocking off the shed shell for Magnezone, with my favourite mon Scarf Colossoil trapping Psychics for this set. The game itself was somewhat made difficult by a Toxic on Argh from Suicune but in the end the mu played out as expected.

BW: Micaiah vs RADU

I was fairly certain radu would try to HO me, so i brought a fairly ambitious mono eq Arghonaut set that kind of backfired, but CBTar and Clef put in some hard work until the latter ate a Tbolt para which made the endgame a bit wonky. W.e

ORAS: Maxouille vs tears

Max did things on his own here so I'll let him elaborate if he wants

Week 2

Spoiler

DPP: Laurel vs TyCarter

I made a MixGon team for Laurel here but he brought his own thing, he ended up facing a rogue Pyroak which went ham, not much to say but this game did highlight Roaks potential to me, as a lead at least.

BW: Micaiah vs Monai

I did get a bit cute here, building around Coil Sneak Edge Necturna, that paired with Magnezone should actually go to town on most teams, if Tomohawl didn't exist, that is. In the edne though, I didn't pull the trigger on Ferrothorn early enough so I ended up sacking KyuB to kill it when it had amazing MU. This also the first albeit terrible appearence of Modest Krilowatt, a set that I've been fond of outside BW.

ORAS: Maxouille vs Gorex

https://pokepast.es/17ccea353f98b6b9

Gorex is like the Pinsir guy so i definitely wanted to load a Zap team, and it ended up being this stall that I tweaked from last CAPCL. Had pretty strong MU and Max outplayed the only out gorex had in Weavile so yeah.

Week 3

Spoiler

DPP: Laurel vs. Lialiabeast

https://pokepast.es/d2ef29db06c9e9bf

With many people relying on Revenakh and very few Fidgits I thought TSpikes with Zapdos would be a good way to punish that, tspikes did indeed go crazy but unfortunately the GOD BALL got lucked by a tbolt para which delayed tspikes making HP Fly Zapdos lose to Rev. Happens.

BW: Chomp29 vs. Nalorium

So for chomp's admittedly not easy debut we took one of Brigtel's teams and tweaked it to our liking, this kind of rain offense became basically our bread and butter in BW as it suited him well. In this game though, after a strong start with TWave Krilowatt catching Kyurem, a couple of unlucky breaks and a missplay with Colo set Chomp fairly behind and he couldn't recover.

ORAS: Micaiah vs Lasen

After going winless in BW I decided to change things up since we had an open slot in SV give Drew was gone for the week, in hindsight obviously this worked out pretty well but Lasen was not exactly cannon fodder for me to break my losing streak. I decided to load comfort in Mega Crucibelle and Krilowatt, two of my favourite CAPs. The MU here was actually god awful as my torn was undersped and didn't tie Syclant and everything else just kind of died to it, which prompted me to switch ScarfZone with ScarfMagneton, but Lasen kind of outplayed himself? In the endgame, trying to catch a switch that was never gonna come, instead of risking gunk poison I guess. Either way, a much needed win here.

Week 4

Spoiler

DPP: Laurel vs. Ainzcrad

https://pokepast.es/fb96ed31ea9daf85

Nothing too fancy here, just plain good old spikestack sand. Wish Clef is just amazing with bulky Krilo and Kitsunoh.

BW: Chomp29 vs Dj Breelominati

https://pokepast.es/03bb636635a3987a

Straightforward team here as well, with twave Krilo helping in the mirror since we have Skarm, I thought this game was over when Krilo got tricked but the power of Latios into no steel was enough.


ORAS: Micaiah vs Steam buns

https://pokepast.es/cad6df2e29e24c6f

Again a team from last CAPCL, it has many elements that make a team cheese resistant like double Unaware, tspikes, Zapdos and MegaBro, and steam is a certified cheeser in my books so this was a no brainer for me. Double crit by Sylveon made this harder than it needed to be but the matchup was so perfect it worked out anyways

Week 5

Spoiler

DPP: Laurel vs BinPin

https://pokepast.es/b40133eaec4c63c2

I thought the only way Laurel would lose to BinPin was if he got stalled, so i built smth with MixNite, originally it was Outrage + Meteor to deter setup from Revenakh but Extremespeed was very valuable in other MUs. Roserade is a cute option for Tspikes that also somewhat checks Krilowatt for a short time.

BW: Chomp29 vs tier

We brought Focus Punch Syclant and somehow it wasn't the worst thing in the match, idk what happened here for Cyclohm to appear but yeah, pretty easy win for Chomp with tier throwing in the builder, the team was basically a very similar structure to the rain of week 3 but with a different ground.

ORAS: Micaiah vs Spammernoob

I was expecting HO of some kind to appear so i brought strong anti cheese options in Tspikes and twave stored power Mega Latias, in the end though it basically did nothing as Clef + Colossoil trapping Excadrill ran through Spammers 6.

Week 6

Spoiler

DPP: Laurel vs Innovamania

https://pokepast.es/b5fadd77444e072a

Activity win but this was the intended team, Syclant + SpecsTran was a core i had in mind since last yr, seemed nice into a Bronzong enthusiast.

BW: Chomp29 vs TGA

Wasn't played but the team was similar to thr previous week

ORAS: Micaiah vs a plague doc

https://pokepast.es/fda2ecf89d91c881

I digged the spdef Crucibelle from last week so i brought it again, this time with a SandCore and hazardstack to boot, but in the end Modest Krilo was the star of the show, 2HKOing an otherwise impossibly bulky Mdga Crucibelle in Sand.

Week 7

Spoiler

DPP: Laurel vs Sheik
It was either dg or Clamperl TR

BW: Maxouille vs Brigtel

Max brought a Thundurus + Tomohawk double specs core that Chomp had been cooking up in the previous weeks. Specs Toml in particulatr is just a beast, OHKOing nearly everything between Focus Blast and Hurricane and havinh insane amount of opportunities to come in.

ORAS: Micaiah vs L0stmemories

I had LM pegged as a Mollux user since last CAPCL, so i decided to bring an old team with epower Volcanion, the tech worked but I ended up losing anyway.

Semis

Spoiler

DPP: Laurel vs Piyu

This was my take on a Pyroak team, flare sd eq is nearly perfect coverage and WoW nails Gyarados, Dragonite and Arghonaut for Jirachi to go ham. Copycat Kril works amazingly here as it can abuse opposing Skarmory to put layers for Clef and Jira, as well as stifling opposing Clefs while preserving your owb, with Skarm being useless Gliscor has a field day and is the best stop to Revenakh, and then Scarf Ttar provides a way to trapkill Latias who would be annoying for Krilo, sets sand etc.

BW: Chomp29 vs tier

We were expecting HO from tier so we decided to go with rain again, this time with a specs Keldeo who honestly had a fair MU but the lack of a steel type against SpecsLatios as we sacked our scarfer to trap it.

ORAS: Micaiah vs Spammernoob

I was expecting either HO or something really fat, so i went with dual prio Lopunny, LO Taunt Torn and Copycat Krilo to abuse passive, hazard setting mons with it, backed by a standard regencore. In the end Krilowatt was the MVP, taking out a really annoying MVenusaur with a copycatted Hurricane

Finals

Spoiler

DPP: Laurel vs Sheik

Will let Laurel chime in on this since he made the team himself

BW: Chomp29 vs Brigtel

This was one of my favourite teams overall, between Krilo, Tomo and Latios BW CAP has a very specially oriented dmg profile, so I knew the blobs had a place in the meta just like reg BW. I made Luck bring Blissey sand last yr as well as built a Blissey rain, but this Sun is certainly the most effective as it can afford Xatu in tandem with Argho, which makes most teams unable to break the defensive backbone w.o Spikes up. Malaconda is pretty bonkers as well but honestly any pursuiter would have been fine, just needs to protect Chansey from Latios' Trick.
Chomp piloted greatly into a somewhat irky MU in unchoiced Keldeo, but it was always very hard for Britgel to do anything with rain.

ORAS: Micaiah vs Foolycl

I knew for finals there was a potential Volcarona waiting since i used Slowbro so much, so after much thinking i built this team, once again around Dual prio Lop adamant and Copycat Krilo. I got an insane advantage in the early turns of the game but I played like ass after bringing the game down to a 5050, shouldn't have happened tbh as the team had an insane MU but w.e.

Will edit later

 

[DIYUSI]

Hi, I was a helper in Golden Time Equilibras for the SM slot. I was mostly the one building/picking the teams. It was my first time with the tier and it didn't go well lol. Still, it was a fun experience and I hope I was useful for the team.
For this post, I will only provide the squads I created (thus, not the stuff I stolen from other teamdumps) with a bit of explanation.

(Click on the sprites for the pokepasts)

W3 (L):
Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7cap-2152780556-7w6csssf3i6vluxn8o7l85tqw64xvtppw
Random Volt-Turn BO with Weavile + Victini as the main breakers. I made two versions of the squad (one with Victini Scarf and one with Z-Celebrate Victini + Rotom-Wash Scarf). Unfortunately, the second version was a free win and the haxx didn't help the overall even MU of the first version. The dynamic between Weavile and Victini is good and Scizor act as a good endgame cleaner. However, I think that the team suffers a bit from this passive Z-Fly Landorus-Therian set. I think the ideal here would be Swords Dance over U-turn and, in that way, avoid other rockers to trade hazards with Landorus and deny the job of both Weavile and Victini.

W4 (L):
Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7cap-778670?p2
Random Hazards Stacks Balance with the combination of Spikes + Pajantom (with CM Latias-Mega + Weavile as the main abusers). While I was expecting some HO/Offense from Satanic Beast, in my mind, Unaware Arghonaut + Chansey + Equilibra Bulletproof was enough to cover most offensive bullshit. Obviously, I forget Kyurem-Black was a thing and that team had a terrible MU into that Will of Fire HO. I think an easy way to patch up that MU is to go Dmeteor Latias-Mega.

W6 (W):
Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7cap-781713
I wanted to build Sun because, in my mind, Zardy + Colossoil + Cresselia seemed like a funny core. Moreover, since we were facing Clementine, I was confident to load a natural offense/BO killer. To support this idea, Jumbao Scarf is here to cover any random ash-greninja and provide speed control + natural late cleaner. I think Rotom-Wash was near mandatory here since I was expecting our oppo to load again Fly-Spam with Pinsir-Mega. Heatran is an obvious fit here. I think the team would be better if u switch the cress set into something less slower like Hwish or FS + Twave.

W7 (L):
Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7cap-782305
Before the sub, our oppo's scout was quite empty, so I got more freedom to pick what to used this week. I dont know why, but I thought this week was the perfect time to load Tapu Bulu (despite I really dislike the pokemon lol). I tried different drafts (notably with Charizard-Mega-X and Diancie-Mega). I end up with this classic Maw Bulu Tran Rotom Lando BO-ish structure. I picked Panjantom to round up the team since its defensive profile + offensive potential seemed good with Mawile-Mega. Unfortunately, as I said, both of our team had to sub and we had to face Pannu instead. The MU was really unfun for Tapu Bulu and the haxx completely sealed the match.

Semi-Finals (L):
Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7cap-783769
I wanted to cheese Chris here tbh lol. In my mind, Zardx was the perfect candidate to randomly steal a game. However, instead of loading something solid like ABR HO or whatever skype zardx Balance, I thought webs was a better support for zardx since it could let us to pick SD over DD on it. Overall, this squad might be terrible but the idea was to pack lot of BS poke on one squad. Zardx + Necturna + Thundy was the main offensive core and, to complete it, I picked that random Naviathan. I liked the look of Imprison + Rock Tomb Landorus-therian into Chris and, in the case webs was useless, I made this Ribombee Scarf to act as both our Speed Control + another possible winco. For the match itself, Chris simply outprep me (in particular with that Custap Berry Landorus-Therian) and won with a solid in-game.

Hope you enjoyed the read and see you next time! (Sorry for the bad english, quick post lol)

 

[Spammernoob]

https://pokepast.es/7ad852ef2d8bb92b

Here were all my teams (in reverse order since that's how they are in my builder lol).

Honestly, I don't remember the thought process for most of these; halfway through, I basically just started ripping OU teams from ORAS tour replays (s/o RufflesPro).

MVenu is one of those mons that seems really good in ORAS CAP though, since it beats Kerf and Coloss to an extent. Sadly it got blown out by Copycat Kril the game I brought it...

 

[Maxouille]

SV teams:

https://pokepast.es/d75ed04572667875
https://pokepast.es/e2ddbf68704e5952
https://pokepast.es/a9d9861282e5626d
https://pokepast.es/1350cbd892853e9c

ORAS teams (revamped from week1):

https://pokepast.es/abcec5e158d490dd
https://pokepast.es/6685d0f4614d4dd5

 

[ChrisPBacon]

i built some teams this tour

W1 - L: v Satanic Beast
I didnt really know what to do when the tour started and my team didn't have too much support for SM cap so I threw on a quick cresselia structure inspired by a skypenguin build with arghonaut>keldeo. Although idt the build was bad I didn't account for caribolt well at all cuz I thought it would die by double edge recoil.

Wk 4 - W: v Pannu
I didn't really like any of my teams entering my game against pannu so instead I defaulted to a standard fat balance using and got a broken mu against a team with no ground immune. Wish clef supports krill and tran as bulky progress makers w/ no recovery, latias is surf so in the libra mu i have smth that immediately chunks it to compensate for clef not being able to knock it. Wanted Z tran here cuz I thought all his teams were weak to it, was originally gonna try grassium before learning that gets walled by jumbao.

Week 5 - W: v Adem
Against adem I knew I wanted to play mega lopunny to have a naturally easy mu into offense so I took the sm banded kart structure and modified it slightly for cap. Pajantom helps lure in physdef walls and toxic/z/ice punch into them for my breaking core like what happened in the game. Lando/Libra/Fini rounds the defensive core and covers mostly everything quite well, fini in particular is also trap to pressure chansey-based structures where Paj might struggle. Ended up getting a good mu and the offensive core played quite comfy.

Semis - W: v Gtcha
I literally never use mega medicham altho I don't hate the mon, I just never found a good opportunity so I decided to start now when it wldnt be expected. Medi/weav/bao is a v smooth breaking core as recommended to me by pannu, the former and latter come in on each others checks generally very well, and stuff like cress/av torn that handle both get trapped. Its slightly slow and cld risk getting run over by offense tho so the defensive core here doubles as a deterrent to offense through scarf wash and custap lando, latter mainly being for stuff like volca that cld roll me. Ended up facing ho which is not expected, but the defensive techs worked out and I got the upper hand.

Finals - W: v Seth
If it ain't broke don't fix it, after 8 weeks of sm cap opted to go with the classic load the 6 strongest pokemon in smou challenge. Seth scout was largely bo and frailer offenses so a team with a lot of speed between zam/kart/mage wld do well to run over and outpace those. Specific zam and lele sets were to have a good mu into stuff like libra/sciz, i was ok saccing reuni/cress mu since i knew those wouldn't come. Zam evs allow mguard bs w encore against latis. Av kyurem is slightly strange but v important here with the absence of av lele and mag, something had to take special hits from volc/gren. This team worked as intended and ended up steamrolling ingame w/ help from a throw by my opponent.

I didn't want to play this tier when i signed up but it was pr fun ig i don't regret it, thanks for having me ggs

 

[spoo]

SV

JJ W1
Lana W1
JJ W2
Lana W2
Eearly weeks we were mostly just abusing Chugg offense or trying to counter it since the mon was ridiculously broken. My favorite out of these teams is probably JJ's Week 1 squad. I don't think stall is typically amazing in this tier, but Blissey did have the distinction of being one of the only (maybe the only) viable Pokemon that could directly switch into Chuggalong and beat every set. Ditto is generally great for opposing HO and in the stall mirror; at the time, HO was everywhere, and I was expecting stall usage to rise as a direct result, so I thought it was a cool anti meta pick.

JJ W3
We took Taka's Week 2 team and edited some sets. Turns out we forgot about Water Garganacl but hey that's SV. Overall a cool team, with some edits for Garg I think it would still be fine.

Achimoo W3
Most of the building credits go to Achimoo here. This was the week that we ran into Mirror Herb Cresceidon (lol...) and decided to veto bringing Chuggalong across all slots for the forseeable future. I'm happy with how this build turned out though, it was fun building with Achim for the first time and I think this is a pretty solid choice if you feel like running webs for whatever reason.

JJ W4
JJ sent a team he liked in OU and I'm fairly sure we just replaced AV Tusk with Argh and called it a day. Maybe we made some other changes, honestly I don't remember, but it felt like a strong enough 6 for us to load a couple different iterations on it later in the tour.

Achimoo W4
Again most of the building creds go to Achimoo. Very standard Pult/Libra/Argh balance structure with a couple less common picks in Woger/Deo-S that we expected to be strong into his opponent. Nothing crazy going on here, solid build overall.

JJ W5
JJ's team the week prior seemed to work out well enough and I guess we were feeling a bit lazy with prep lol. I also remember really wanting to try out this Miasmaw set - it checks a lot of the same boxes as Raging Bolt between its pivoting, strong priority, and being a decent response to Oger-W. In hindsight I'd definitely try to fit Ice Beam on this Darkrai, and probably slot Grass Knot on Slowking since Water Garg (honestly fat Tera Water stuff in general) looks a bit annoying without Raging Bolt to properly threaten it.

Geko W5
Was planned for Achimoo to load but he had to sub out close to the game. We were mostly working with different Clefable builds this week, though I forget exactly why. I think this is a pretty good team and has a lot of options for customization between which of the last 4 mons you put hazards vs setup on. This sort of unpredictability from team preview is really valuable in Pokemon generally, but I think is especially great in a generation like SV.

JJ W6
I was kind of hesitant for JJ to load this team given no Water resist, but none of the other options I built this week were clicking, and really most of the scary Waters should be manageable between Skarm for stuff like Oger-W and having Tera Water Garg/Ting-Lu for the rest. I wouldn't say this is the most consistent team we passed JJ all tour, but I'd hardly call it bad, either; regardless, it won and that's what matters.

Achimoo W6
Rebuild of a team that Joeshh loaded a week or two prior. I thought it was a really interesting team, and we liked Hoopa + CB Dnite into a lot of the Argh balances that Potatochan had been loading. Cloak Zama definitely feels like an unwanted concession, but one that's probably necessary to feel okay into Garg. We loaded into a matchup that was a tad unfavored and Potatochan just did a good job at holding onto his advantage the whole game. Fun team though, shoutout Joeshh.

Lana W6
My take on some of the Ghold + Lando BO structures that were really common in OU at the time, notably the one South WCOP team that was getting spammed to death. Darkrai seriously has the freest moveset and item choices out of anything in OU and I think it's doing yourself a disservice to only ever run NP + Pulse/Sludge/Focus with Boots or Lefties; the mon has an incredible amount of depth and tech potential that I don't really see tapped into often in this tier, or at least not as often as I see people running random sets in OU. Wisp is great for crippling stuff like Zama/Gambit/Samurott, reliably statuses Argh without fishing for Sludge poisons, helps wear down Ting/Libra long term, handles Ogerpon-W better, spreads status for Hex partners, etc etc, in general it's just an unexpected move with a lot of practical use cases. Fling Lando is a cool tech that can catch Gliscor on the switch or turn 1, reliably status Libra for Hex Ghold to abuse, and is nice vs some other stuff like Cresceidon and random mons that try to set up in front of you like Tera'd Chuggalong and Roaring Moon.

JJ W7
I built this around Week 2 of the tour after noticing that Haze Tomohawk had a pretty decent matchup into Chuggalong, who was running the tier at the time. I don't think Tomohawk is all that bad, but definitely limited on the kinds of structures it fits on. I think this team is sort of perfect for it, though; you can get away with running both STABs, since Rocks and Spin are covered elsewhere, and its defensive profile vs stuff like Kingambit, Miasmaw, and SD Gliscor is really appreciated. We expected JJ's opponent to either stall or HO and I think this team has a solid matchup into both, though moreso stall than offense given how HO structures can vary so much.

Achimoo W7
We were looking at all the Gliscor/Slowking/Argh balances that Sylv had been loading and decided this stupid Aurumoth set did a pretty good job at killing fat. This team's honestly a lot of fun, though it's sort of leaning hard on Dragonite to carry the offense matchup. Auru is probably a bit underexplored in this tier, I think this set's genuinely great into a lot of fatter structures, and since no one really knows what it runs these days it's not unreasonable for opponents to respond incorrectly and give it the freedom it needs to get behind a sub and set up. I think the spread hits some benchmarks for Salt Cure and Pult's Draco, though I forget exactly what we EV'd it for.

JJ Semis
Very strong offense built around Stored Power Chuggalong. This was also the week I decided Chuggalong is probably still going to be broken after the Speed nerf. Modest Tera Psychic Stored Power with Flamethrower as coverage sorta just annihilates anything not named Ting Lu or Blissey, with a guaranteed roll to OHKO Argh, Garg after rocks, and Slowking-G after minor chip. Argh needs to Tera immediately to phaze you out, though this is obviously a hard click, considering that you beat the most common Chugg sets without needing to Tera at all. The mon is fundamentally impossible to scout for coverage which makes lure sets like these very effective. I think this Chuggalong is better than the standard Tera Water set in a lot of ways, though, so calling it a "lure" is sort of downplaying reality. The rest of the team here is just designed to overwhelm Ting-Lu.

Lana Semis
Sub Lefties Skeledirge was our mon of choice this week. It felt pretty limiting to build around, considering you need removal (9/10 times it's Libra), probably backup for Wisp Hex Pult since your bulky Fire loses to it (here it's Garg), and then you're left to fit a lot in the remaining three slots. We weren't able to fit priority on this version of the team, but all things considered it didn't feel like the worst sacrifice to make. I'm happy with how the team ended up - it kinda just stacks a bunch of stuff that's painful for most balances to face and it ended up working out well in the match, though it was nearly a thrown game.

JJ Finals
If we weren't forced to play on Thursday then we might've ended up taking a different direction, but given the time constraints, I think this was a fair bring. We loaded into a genuinely awful matchup, but somehow still won thanks to a strange Chuggalong set, some misplays from Sylv, and of course a lucky Earth Power drop. Definitely didn't expect to face Chuggalong sun though, so that's on us lol. I quite liked Snaelstrom into most of Sylv's scout, with the rest of this team being inspired by an OLT team floating around that JJ sent. I'm obviously glad that this won, although it's a shame that most of our prep calls ended up being wrong. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.

Geko Finals
The team that Lana would've loaded vs Max. We were expecting something very non-standard, so our goal was just to load some solid Argh balance and let Max do the work of losing for us. This is just the team JJ loaded W5 with Pult > Darkrai and some minor set changes.

Other stuff I built that we didn't load (ordered from start -> end of the tour). Some are bad, some are good, most are half-baked:






















I had a lot of fun building SV this tour. It was even hard sometimes to force myself help prep SS and ORAS because I was having way more fun labbing out SV teams. I've always enjoyed SV CAP though, even at the times when it was objectively pretty bad, so I guess take my enjoyment with a grain of salt. That said, I do think the meta is pretty great right now, aside from the occasional Chuggalongery. I'm really optimistic for what the end-of-gen meta will look like after CAP 35.

===

SS

W1
W2
W3
W4
W5
W6 (Taka sub)
Semis
Finals

I don't have as much to say about SS so I'll just dump everything at once. No team for W7 since we deadgamed and had nothing prepped. D2 and I split the work pretty evenly here, and entro was usually active with his own suggestions and edits too, which made this slot one of the easier ones to prep each week. I hadn't had to build SS in the past year since the tour started, which I think definitely showed in early weeks; we reused teams that we've brought in CAPPLs before, albeit with some minor changes, and of course we got punished for it. It took a couple weeks to feel good about building this tier again, but we definitely settled into a groove eventually and entro just started winning vs everyone lol. I wish that we loaded HO once or twice to mix up our scout, but offense in SS can feel truly impossible sometimes. Pult + Argh balance being the most consistent teamcomp in the tier really hurts offense as a whole. Not that HO is unviable, or even a bad playstyle - it's just definitely not as versatile or flexible as it wants to be. This tier is still great though, and I'm glad it's aged so well as a pastgen.

===

ORAS

Fooly W4
Fooly W5
Fooly W6
Fooly Semis
Fooly Finals

Out of my main tiers, this was probably the slot I contributed to the least, which is a bit of a shame. I really love ORAS and I wish I wasn't stretched quite as thin, otherwise I'm sure I would've been a little more hands-on with building in this slot. Both Fooly and Lost picked up the slack in a big way though - it was unfortunate having to rotate between the two of them throughout the tour, but having two great options for the same slot isn't exactly a bad problem to have, either. I've left out the teams from LM here, as I didn't contribute very much to the building process those weeks. I think these are fine teams for the most part, and even the ones that had glaring problems still ended up winning - like we definitely just forgot about Kerf's existence during semis LOL so thank god we didn't run into it... anyways, I'm happy that we were able to load some cool stuff like Gardevoir and Gallade, and it was very fun to watch this slot turn around the 0-4 start into a 4-5 finish.

 

[Steam Buns]

used this tour as an opportunity to experiment and I think I got a lot of great ideas out of it. As usual not doing a post just dropping everything in my builder from this season feel free to use anything and big thanks to Meta-Knight for all of the games and chats you made the tour very enjoyable
https://pokepast.es/6f9cd37acaa03c00

 

[Brigtel]

CAPPL was very fun this year, and the team environment was really nice too! Thanks again to spoo and d2 for drafting me, the hemos were really great, I hope to be in this kind of team in the future too. I went into this year wanting to really improve my consistency, especially in game, compared to some of the games during CL. And I ended up doing... uhhh the exact opposite of that! Oops. Yeah this record was unfortunate, hopefully I can do better than that in future tournaments, gonna have to rework some things. I'll be sharing my BW teams as well as the teams I built for or with Sheik in DPP. Sheik bro it was a blast playing dpp with you and I'm glad you had so much fun and success in this tier.

BW

Week 1

For the first week I wanted to make something with Syclant, I thought it could catch Nalo off guard as he had not played the tier a lot. However, in the process of building the team, it ended up turning into a hail that Syclant isn't all that great on anymore. There were some nice ideas here, with double magic guard in hail and all, especially since I expected sand, but Rachi and Argh were rather mediocre choices, they just helped cover a lot of options. In the end the hail ended up hurting me more than my opponent, I was weak to zam, and I didn't make the right plays, so I lost.

Week 2

I wanted to play good old Tail Glow Syclant with some spikes+Krilowatt, and saw a TGA team that had about the structure I wanted, so I took that as a base and modified it until I was happy. Gastrodon provides some of the defensive safety against Kril that the team really needs, Kitsunoh helps against HOs and tricks, otherwise this is a pretty normal sand team. I liked some of the plays I made during the game.

Week 3

This week I was matched against Tier, and thought there was a high likelyhood of him reusing the spammed HO, or maybe some other kind of HO. There were several options I considered, but in the end I figured I should just my old team that was designed specially to beat these kinds of HOs, with several layers of safety. I was also confident I could play to a win if he brought something different. Things ended up working exactly as planned.

Week 4

Finally I get to pull out the Rev! Its hard to use this mon but D2 saw the set and said "Kinda fire ngl" so I went for it. Its a hazard stacking Kril sand team, with a powerful specs Gem that can trick into stally matchups. Revenankh has some serious potential against a lot of unprepared teams, but it has a lot of issues dealing with Tomohawk. Also it spinblocks mollux, very nice! I think I played fine vs TGA, he pulled out a rather strange HO, the pascho berry on volc was obvious but I figured it was less risky to surf it anyway, I didn't think there was some kind of roost. I did get quite lucky, but with Rev in the back I was pretty safe, with drain punch and sneak it would be very difficult for that team to beat.

Week 5

Pretty simple concept: Krilowatt's most common check is Ferrothorn, so what if I just trap the Ferrothorn? Syclant as a fast threat helps me with speed control, cleaning, and also is pretty good for bringing in Ferro and Skarm with U-turn, and Syclant+Kril is just a good combo. I was really afraid of some kind of Tomo+Gastro/Seimitoad team, so I put HP Grass, I was also not scared of Mollux, I don't know if it was the right choice. I really wanted Ferro to be able to sustain here so I give it leech, it was a good call. Tomo can spin the hazards that trapped skarm and ferro are gonna put down, and its overall just good for the defensive solidity of the team. This set 2HKOs opposing Krilowatt most of the time and survives one hit from them, which worked out great here, even if Monai didn't clikc Thunderbolt. I put Magic Coat on Mag at the last minute instead of Flash Canon, thinking I could pull off some crazy stuff... it ended up costing me a kill on Hippowdon. The team is kinda reliant on Ferro to beat Syclant, which came back to hurt me when I got too scared to call out the superpower by switching in tomo. In the end I still would have won, but I choked it at the end! Very unfortunate, this wasn't a bad matchup too.

Week 6

I've loved Kitsunoh+Krilowatt, so now I was thinking Kitsunoh+Rotom Wash! I severely misplayed the early game there, Stratagem ended up close to sweeping but not quite in the right position. CopyKit is cool, I don't think I got to see the potential of this team. Not much I want to say about it.

Week 7

Once again a Krilowatt concept: the most common answer to Kril is Ferro, and on most teams the emergency switch to a Band Kyurem is gonna be Ferro or Skarm, so either you face a skarm team, which the rest of the team was prepared to face (almost used copycat on Kril) or you face a ferro team and it might just lose too much HP to tank Krilowatt further. Tomo is classic, Rachi is honestly mediocre (too much compression) and Lando does Lando things. I was really not expecting the turn 1 Modest Specs Focus Blast! In hindsight I don't think that was objectively the right play, because if I was jolly that turn would have gone disastrously, but with some luck it still ended up going my way.

Semifinals

Double Latis and Strata weakening Ttar together and overwhelming the opponent with fast power, that was the idea behind the team. Unfortunately uhhh Reuniclus exists! And I didn't put roar on my Latias! I think the fundamental concept was not bad, but I'm not sure how well it was executed, or even how it would be better executed. The luck didn't help either

Finals

For the finals, I got quite a bit worried about how my teambuilding seemed to backfire a lot, and my opponent did not seem to have a lot of surprises in the scout, so I went for some classic rain. I got matchuped hard! In hindsight with a few different moves on my mons, maybe refresh politoed, sludge bomb on mollux, ect... I would have had a solid chance, but they always come at a cost, and here the matchup would have required me to get perfect predictions and fine luck in too many turns in a row. It was a disapointing way to go out.


DPP

Week 2 and 4

The goal here was to make the ultimate Stall, I think its quite a good playstyle in this tier. I played around with a few structures but it turns out the most "obvious" one was also the most satisfactory, the broken 4 (arguably 6), and you can see some convergent teambuilding when comparing it to Le Don's teams. Ttar is instant sand, early rocks in a good lead matchup, scarf of course to take care of gengar, starmie, specs latias, switching into trick, ect... Clefable is always an excellent mon, Knock+Toss is great for making progress in sand and here Heal Bell is the move of choice to allow the rest of the team to more comfortably make trades against status users. Skarm is insane defensively, especially in CAP, and of course we want spikes. I love fully defensive Rev, knock and toxic make a ton of progress and of course you can't switch into clef, though Sheik prefered bulk up here. The defensive role of Rev is obvious, providing more safety against special attackers and even many physical ones, being the best spinblocker in the game, taking care of strong fighting types, just a great neutral sponge in general. Arghonaut is the best answer to setup sweepers, to Syclant, to Revenankh, its just insane to be able to have this on a dpp stall team. Not as easy to fit as one might think! But it helps a lot. Knock off is really great to hurt switch ins like Krilowatt, or just to make more progress in sand, and waterfall is the move of choice of course, will beat Revenankh. Thunder Punch might seem odd, but there are a few reasons for it, one of the big ones being Taunt Gyarados who is otherwise quite scary. Of course with all this we need a spinner, so the best spinner in the tier Fidgit! Standard EP+Spin+Encore with enough speed to encore CM rachi in a pinch. I put toxic spikes here because I assumed, first, that we would have no problem dealing with Rev after encoring it, and second because it would allow us to win more easily against certain teams that also try to slow the game down and win with passive damage. However, it was probably too greedy, and Sheik almost paid the price once the other Rev checks were defeated. This team is also quite weak to LO flygon, I'm not sure what to do about it, maybe just a different argh spread. If anyone has ideas let me know. This is imo a pretty reusable team, we had other ideas for week 4 but they didn't end up working out so well.

Week 3 and 6

We were facing BinPin, we expected skarm fat with Fidgit as the spinner (spoiler: we were right), so the obvious idea is an offensive team with spikes that beats Fidgit and doesn't let it spin. Sub-Split Gengar is currently a great option, I have rarely seen fidgit use Shadow Ball and it just does wonders against fat teams that rely too much on clefable. Revenank provides the defensive utility it always does, which is especially important here for Krilowatt as it is very difficult to deal with otherwise. Utility Rev actually works better than standard bulk up here, despite the more offensive structure, and the defense EVs are especially helpful for switching into Colossoil and Syclant. Skarm-Zong-Mag is something you sometimes see in DPP OU, maybe with Jirachi instead of Zong, you get rocks, spikes, two great steel types and a magnezone that traps other magnezones/magnetons that just trapped your own steel. Heatran wasn't my biggest worry so I went for a normal hp fire custap zone, that would still have a very nice explosion to get rid of annoying mons especially against faster teams. Maybe explosion with no way of hitting Rev sucks though? tbolt does a good amount still. Skarm needed to be leftovers here, to have the longevity needed to come out on top if we ended up playing the long game, healing up after nasty rocks without having to roost, being able to damage Fidgit with brave bird without fearing being encored to death, coming in more comfortably against Rev, Syclant, ect... leftovers is really good but you need to be clever against opposing Mag teams. Expert Belt Syclant really shines here providing some great speed and wallbreaking potential with spikes, it can really turn around a game if your other mons aren't making enough progress, and of course it makes a nice Mag-Clant core if they don't play Shed Shell Skarm (or they do and you knock it off anyway, which is what we did!) Also Zong needs to be toxic here.
The team was made to beat fat teams, it was used twice into users of fat teams, worked out twice though with some help the second time. It does have weaknesses though, and isn't very defensively sound so you'll need to win fast if you face a big threat. Pyroak, Will-o-Wisp tran, gyarados, all very annoying.


Week 5

Oh I was excited for this one! While playing around with the calc, I noticed that a 20% boost in power would allow heatran to get some crucial 2HKOs against Clefable and most Revenankh, so CoalTran! I have no idea if this is a set that was ever popular in regular DPP, but I thought it was very cool and it inspired this team. Pyroak is a good stealth rocker and lead as always, and brings Will-o-wisp here to hurt Latias and defensive Zapdos, who becomes much easier for rachi to kill once burned. This Physical Rachi set with full coverage is really fun and destroys slower teams, like some of the ones in TyCarter's scout. Shuca helps with big ground threats like Flygon, though it may not have been necessary. Heatran is a big breaker as I explained earlier, with earth power as classic coverage and will-o-wisp to hit the Arghonauts and max spedef Rev, as well as defensive latias. Explosion is just a nice kill move, not much will survive it after a fire blast too, though I did consider stuff like HP grass and dragon pulse.
Flygon provides a lot of speed control and revenge killing potential, and is just very nice for Colossoil, it may not have been the most optimal choice here. Unfortunately theres no spikes here to go along with it, but it can rather easily bring in Tran on a U-turn on Skarm for example. Arghonaut is pretty obvious providing defensive utility against fire types, Syclant (especially band) and is a great safeguard against opposing BU Rev. This is rounded out by our own classic BU rev, tanks Krilowatt, can keep rocks up in the short term since Pyroak isnt coming back much, good wincon against offensive teams. Team is a bit too weak to Will-o+Superpower Kit

Semifinals

This was originally started for week 7, but it was a good idea for playoffs too. I wanted to see if I could make a really good team with a very classic core, Krilowatt+Ttar. I made this Ttar set with a spread that allows you to 2HKO Clefable with Krilowatt after a successful Pursuit on it. Leftovers seemed like the best item here as the added effective bulk is really nice to make up for the higher attack investment, I also wanted it to be more generally tanky than the standard tar, and the speed barely outruns the common 0 speed Rev, so you can hit it with a crunch on the switch and with either spikes or a drop you can even 2HKO it. Im pretty sure Sheik replaced Specs with Scarf on Latias, it works. Rev provides some useful defense, being good to avoid getting our more precious mons getting chipped by special hits, spinblocking to allow spikes to do their magic, being a wincon in the endgame, ect you know how it goes, it also fits well with the shrimp since often when you get walled its by fidgit/argh/skarm, its good to abuse those. Kril is Earth Power here because I figured it would be pretty nice to hit rachi, meta and cyclohm for much higher damage, especially since I could toxic latias and pursuit it. Lead rachi is pretty normal stuff as well, easy rocks, status spreader, hurts skarm and argh, keep it in the back for a rainy day. We didn't really face the stuff we were baiting/expecting, but the team was fine anyway, just the ending was scuffed and unfortunately ended in a loss.

Finals

Another Krilowatt+Pursuit team, but without Ttar! Colossoil is really nice to have. Roak is a good lead and sets up the rocks the rest of the team needs to break through, here it uses Synthesis to punish Sandless teams since my team does fine with sand and doesn't setup its own. Synthesis could have been devastating here for Laurel but unfortunately it was difficult not to sac it. Pyroak + Kril allows both of them to stack their check, notably latias, which then has to face Spedef Colossoil pursuiting it. I wanted to use Rebound to bounce back Latias' twave instead of just being immune, but guts ended up being too important for other matchups. Kril is Sub+Copycat, first because I wanted to bounce back skarm spikes, second because most of the time Laurel's answer to it was Clefable, this could really throw him off, and I figured defensive Latias wouldn't be too much of an issue thanks to ssoil rev and rachi, and it doesn't beat Kril without tbolt anyway. Can you tell I keep sniping Clefable and it never ends up working? I wanted a breaker Dragonite, which is part of why Colo has spin and not U-turn, I think it synergizes well offensively with the rest of the team but is a bit flimsy in terms of what it brings defensively. Rev is there for the same reasons as above, and also because Kril can't switch into Clef knock off. I think a different set would have been better here, probably sub punch. Same thing for the rachi, I went for something with Wish, defense, and that could be decent into Rev so Psychic, but I think a better set was needed here. Breloom ended up wrecking us, a disapointing finish for sure, I took my time a bit too much with the building of this one.