approved by [[Hyperlink Blocked]]
Week 1 vs Snowpoint City Cold Crew
Lemurro Vs Ninja (L)
Team Ideas
The main things I noticed from the Ninja scout were the low semiroom usage (Porygon2 was used on one team and diancie was used on 4), low Heatran usage (only being used on 4 teams) and generally favoring more bulky teams with low usage of Whimsicott offense (Whimsicott was only used once). Another thing to keep in mind was that SMB was almost definitely going to be building for Ninja, as Ninja doesn't generally build and the other main SS players on the Cold Crew roster generally stick to the same few teams without building much outside of that. Because of this, I also tried to keep SMB's building habits in mind, but this ultimately didn't change all that much in terms of what we considered bringing
My mind immediately went to a Whimsicott Psyspam team. Whimsicott Psyspam had seen fringe usage at tournament level before this, but I thought it could be pretty strong here, as they had low semiroom usage and Helping Hand boosted spread moves seemed extremely effective at smashing though the bulkier teams Ninja and SMB seemed to enjoy. The six was fairly standard with some tech thrown in to make it more interesting (Skitter Smack and Dragon Tail on Zygarde, Bulky Poison Jab Urshifu for Tapu Fini, Weakness Policy Necrozma with U-turn Whimsicott and Eject Button Tapu Lele). I thought the six was solid enough, but Lemurro was worried about the Tailwind mirror, so we tabled this idea for a while. It would return later on, but with some changes.
I suggested Galarian Zapdos as a solid bring, as both Ninja and SMB seemed to love Incineroar, and they sent a Zapdos-G + Whimsicott team. I thought the idea was interesting, but i wasn't too confident about the team's matchup spread, so I made some edits. I swapped Volcanion and Rillaboom for Tapu Fini and Incineroar, and made the Scarf Naganadel a Landorus. The Zapdos also ended up getting cut for Choice Band Pheromosa. Snarl + Will-o-Wisp Spectrier was something I had tried previously on Whimsicott offense, and I thought it was really strong, so i kept that part intact. Eject Button Whimsicott is another set I think is really strong, so I used it here. I considered a Cotton Spore Whimsicott with Nature Power, but Nature Power seemed unnecessary here and pretty inconsistent. They also had non-negligible Tapu Koko usage, which meant that Whimsicott could potentially get Thunderbolt from it which I didn't want. Lemurro wanted to keep Encore, so I didn't change that either.
The last team I considered was an Iron Defense Ferrothorn team. The idea here was to exploit the low usage of semiroom and Heatran and just attempt to outplay Ninja with a more balanced and honest team. Choice Scarf Tapu Fini seemed like a solid bring as they used a lot of fast, frail pokemon that were weak to Moonblast, and I didn't really expect them to prep for Ferrothorn because Lemurro had never used it. This wasn't something we considered for very long, but I think the team itself is quite solid.
Lemurro eventually decided on the Whimsicott Psyspam idea after we did a self scout, but made a few edits to the team I posted. They changed the Urshifu to Pheromosa and opted for Sitrus Berry Tapu Lele. Pheromosa is an interesting change, as there are benefits and downsides to both Urshifu and Pheromosa on this team: Urshifu ignores Intimidate and hits through Protect. It also has more defensive utility with a better defensive typing and bulk, meaning you can get it in safely more often than Pheromosa. Pheromosa, however, has better coverage, is faster which is relevant in the Tailwind mirror, and beats Ground-types like Zygarde and Landorus offensively. You can't get it in safely as often, but when you get it in, something is probably dying to it, making it an unforgiving but ultimately great late game cleaner. I don't think using one over the other was inherently better or worse, and was fine with the change overall. I disagree with the Eject Button change slightly, I think you need Eject Button to deal with dual terrain teams which I could definitely see Ninja bringing, but it's ultimately pretty minor so I didn't say anything. Unfortunately, Lemurro got a pretty bad matchup with Ninja bringing dual terrain Tapu Fini balance, and he ended up taking off Fire Blast on Heatran which would have won in the endgame. We lost the SS DOU game of week 1, but there were still many more SS games to be played, so I wasn't too worried.
yesterday (Whimsicott) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 76 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 172 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tailwind
- Moonblast
- U-turn
- Helping Hand
Whimsicott provides an immediate speed advantage with Prankster Tailwind, and U-Turn allows you to self proc Necrozma's Weakness Policy. Helping Hand can actually end up being better than Fake Tears in some situations due to the amount of spread attacks on this team. You don't even really need to self proc Weakness Policy every game, you can just use U-Turn as a way to get Whimsicott off the field and into one of its more immediately threatening teammates. The EVs allow you to outspeed Modest Naganadel and maximize your Special Attack with the rest invested in bulk. The bulk doesn't do anything but the EVs look nice.
amorphous (Zygarde) @ Choice Band
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 144 HP / 252 Atk / 112 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Skitter Smack
- Superpower
- Dragon Tail
Zygarde is mostly here to just do big spread damage with Thousand Arrows, you'll click the other 3 moves maybe once every 50 games or so. Dragon Tail is nice as an anti-cheese measure, Superpower is nice for picking off a chipped Porygon2 for example, and Skitter Smack isnt especially relevant, but it gives you a move to hit Rillaboom in a pinch, and lowering Special Attack is probably useful sometimes. The EVs outspeed Modest Heatran with an HP dump
Rain of Amethyst (Tapu Lele) @ Eject Button
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 104 SpA / 152 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Protect
Tapu Lele is mandatory here for Psychic Terrain. Eject Button is nice for momentum and helps the matchup into dual terrain teams. Taunt lets you deny Trick Room and setup and Psyshock is marginally better than Psychic here because Necrozma already has Expanding Force to hit things specially and Psyshock hits things like Tapu Fini and Amoonguss harder.
Light It Up (Necrozma) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 184 HP / 252 SpA / 72 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Expanding Force
- Trick Room
- Earth Power
- Protect
This can be played as a normal Necrozma by just spamming Expanding Force, but Weakness Policy can threaten an instant win against a ton of teams, as not much in the tier can safely take attacks from +2 Special Attack Necrozma, especially with Helping Hand support. Trick Room also adds another dimension to the team and gives you flexibility with your speed control options. The EVs allow you to outpseed Jolly Zeraora in Tailwind with the rest going to HP.
liquated (Urshifu-Rapid-Strike) @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 32 HP / 132 Atk / 104 SpD / 240 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Surging Strikes
- Poison Jab
- U-turn
Bulky Urshifu isn't a huge optimization, but there's no real reason not to run it. The EVs allow you to live Tapu Fini's 144 Special Attack Moonblast, 252 Attack Zeraora Plasma Fists, and OHKO Porygon2 with Close Combat while maintaining a higher speed tier than Jolly Kyurem-Black and Tapu Lele. Poison Jab is used because Psychic Terrain would block Aqua Jet and Ice Punch isn't really needed. Poison Jab lets you hit opposing Whimsicott and Tapu Fini, as well as hit Rillaboom marginally harder than if you had used Ice Punch or U-Turn.
NUCLEAR STAR (Heatran) @ Charcoal
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 4 Def / 124 SpA / 4 SpD / 128 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Eruption
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Protect
Fat Eruption Heatran is also really good. Taking less damage means your Eruption won't be decreasing in base power as quickly from getting hit. The EVs allow you to outspeed Modest Celesteela with the rest of the EVs going to bulk. Fire Blast was used to get around potential Wide Guard Celesteelas and have a strong single target nuke once Eruption's base power begins decreasing.
Week 2 vs Paldea Cratermakers
Lemurro vs Animus (L)
Team Ideas
In Animus' scouts, I noticed they used mostly public teams with small edits for some surprise factor. They seemed to use mostly Whimsicott/Naganadel Tailwind Offense as well as a good amount of Balance. Once again, we got an opponent with low semiroom usage with only one use of Diancie. Low psyspam usage was also notable.
My initial thoughts were Lurantis, Galarian Zapdos and AV Genesect all seemed like good brings. Lurantis and Galarian Zapdos are very good at punishing Intimidate (namely Incineroar). Lurantis in particular looked very strong into a lot of their teams, including the team they usedand Genesect punishes the high Rillaboom usage and is good into Whimsicott offense. AV Genesect is the most consistent Rillaboom check in the tier and is good into Whimsicott offense as well. My last idea was a Toxic Spikes team which was generally good into the more balanced teams Animus seemed to use.
I sent the teams to Lemurro, and they liked the idea of Diancie semiroom but wanted to try Hail Toxic Spikes. I stole the team from Nails so I won't talk too much about it, but I thought the team was fine and matched up well into Animus. Lemurro didn't end up liking the team though, and decided to go with the Mew Semiroom idea, but without Lurantis. They wanted to use a hazard stack semiroom team, which I also thought was a good call. In the game, we got a pretty good matchup, but not getting Trick Room up in turns 6 and 7 made the game extremely difficult, and we ended up losing to Sunny Day Whimsicott + Heatran in the endgame.
Duckpond vs jonas (L)
Team Ideas
Due to scheduling conflicts, duckpond had to play early, so I decided to help prep. Looking at jonas' scout, I thought Walking Wake sun would match up really well. Because the game was going to be played so soon, we just looked at replays where people used Walking Wake and recreated the teams with edited sets. Duckpond ended up using a manual sun team with Eject Button Torkoal. The matchup was terrible though, the team had no way of stopping Indeedee-F from setting Trick Room and no way to stall out the turns either. This weakness is something that probably would have been caught and fixed if we had done more testing, but testing takes time, which is something we unfortunately didn't have much of. Losing the first game of the week sucks, but we still had 7 games left to play (which were all scheduled at a much later date thankfully), so we had plenty of time to turn the week around.
kaori vs Tman (L)
Team Ideas
I decided to help prep in SM too because kaori was busy this week (most people don't know this, but I'm not half bad at oldgens actually). My first team was a Tapu Fini balance team with Mega Metagross which I thought was really strong. Kyurem-B + Tapu Koko is a really strong offensive core to provide some immediate damage and speed control, and double Intimidate rounds out the teams defensive backbone. I made two versions with different Kyurem and Tapu Koko sets, but I think the AV Kyurem-B + Electrium Tapu Koko version is the best one, as AV Kyurem-B allows for a better Rain matchup and gives the team more bulk overall. I'm also just generally fond of Electrium Z Koko, it's straight up a delete button.
I also suggested a Kommo-o Rain team, similar to the one we lost to last week, as it looked very good into Tman's scout and was proven to be a good team already. We didn't consider this for very long, I never even filled in the sets actually.
The last team I built for SM this week was a Zapdos + Tapu Lele team. The idea is that Zapdos' Metal Sound enables the many special attackers to run through the opponent's team. The team started with Porygon2 and Amoonguss, which looked like a strong core into Tman's scout. Tapu Lele and Zapdos were added as a strong offensive core to function outside of Trick Room. Amoonguss appreciates Psychic Terrain blocking priority for it under Trick Room, and Substitute Tapu Lele appreciates the Rage Powder redirection from Amoonguss. Landorus-Therian was added as a strong defensive piece for Stealth Rock, and Charizard-Y is a strong special attacker that owns Steel-types for Tapu Lele. Lele in return kills threats like Kyurem-Black and Diancie with Moonblast and Z Psychic respectively after a Metal Sound. Focus Blast Charizard allows you to kill Incineroar and Tyranitar after a Metal Sound as well. This is a really interesting structure and I enjoy it a lot, but we didn't end up bringing it because Zapdos sucks.
Kaori settled on a Camerupt Fullroom team that I unfortunately don't have the paste for (ask kaori for it if you're really curious), but I thought it was solid. Tman actually brought almost the exact same team with an Araquanid. Go figure! We ended up losing because of a Diamond Storm miss on Araquanid, which is beyond dumb (we've been getting haxed in every game it feels like), but that's just pokemon sometimes. It is what it is.
Week 3 vs Spikemuth Spectral Thieves
Noelle vs emma (L)
Team Ideas
I was REALLY excited for this matchup. I was so excited I started prepping days before it was even confirmed I was going to play. Almost immediately, I wanted to use Lurantis. Lurantis is currently ranked at Tier 5 on the viability rankings at the time of writing, and I didn't really agree. I think Lurantis is really strong right now, and I wanted to bring it. The six I came up with was just zoe's Lurantis team, but with Mew instead of Porygon2 and some changes to the sets (AV Volcanion, Bulky Dragapult, Substitute Lurantis). The Mew originally had Pollen Puff, but after testing against Nido-Rus the team felt too weak to Zygarde, so I changed it to Ice Beam. The team felt fine, but I decided against it because it still fell into the catagory of the teams I typically use (bulky semiroom/durdle balance). Emma is notoriously good at countering people's building styles, so if I wanted to win, I needed to bring something out of my comfort zone.
My next team was a Dracozolt Whimsicott Offense team. Dracozolt + Celesteela seemed like a really strong core and I wanted to use it. The team did a good job of sticking to what I'm used to (notably the Fini/Incineroar/Tyranitar core) while mixing things up (Whimsicott, Dracozolt). I made some changes to the team after testing against Yellow Paint, and felt pretty confident in my team. Eject Button Whimsicott makes the team feel very nice to pilot, and it wasn't too far out of my comfort zone. The team's matchup into semiroom felt a little subpar and too reliant on getting every turn correct, but with Whimsicott Offense that's just something you kind of have to accept. I considered other teams, like a Tyranitar + Spectrier team and some edited versions of already public teams, but these weren't considered for very long, so I won't dwell too long on them.
Going into the game, I felt very nervous. My team was 3-3 at the time, and I needed to win to guarantee my team going at least 4-4. On preview, my matchup felt good, so I wasn't too worried, but some off-beat sets (AV Poison Jab Urshifu caught me off guard as well as the Leftovers Spectrier) as well as some unlucky turns (Turn 8 basically sealed the game, The SpDef drop from Shadow Ball and the low Muddy Water roll meant I couldn't stay in on the second Shadow Ball without dying) ended up losing me the game. Emma played very well and I don't want to discredit her at all, but losing to a Shadow Ball SpDef drop in an otherwise amazing game was quite frustrating, and I felt even worse because my team was no longer guaranteed to tie. Thankfully, big pichu won their game and we finished 4-4 anyway. Despite losing this week, I somehow felt more confident going into my next game, and decided to channel my mild frustration into my prep against Shadowmonstr7.
Week 4 vs Santalune Storms
Noelle vs Shadowmonstr7 (L)
Team Ideas
Against Shadowmonstr, the main thing I noticed is the high Urshifu-R usage. They only seemed to bring 3 team styles: setup balance, Trick Room teams (usually with Stakataka), and Whismicott Offense. A lot of these teams were edited versions of already public teams as well. My first idea was to just reuse Whimsicott Psyspam from the first week. I knew the team was good and had been using it on my own time and really enjoyed it. I thought Whimsicott Psyspam was a really strong archetype at the time, but I ended up deciding against it because we had already used Whimsicott twice in 3 weeks.
My next ideas were teams with the Ghosts, Spectrier and Dragapult. I thought emma's triple Assault Vest team from last week was a really cool idea, so I decided to try out some edited versions of the team. They didn't end up doing very well in tests though, so I scrapped them. I considered a similar team with Toxic Spikes and Hex Dragapult as well, but Shadowmonstr had high Nihilego and Naganadel usage, so I decided against that as well. I also tried a Spectrier Hazard Stack team with Assault Vest Urshifu which I thought was really strong at the time. I didn't really have a reason for not bringing this team, I just liked another option better.
The team I ended up bringing was an Assault Vest Genesect team with Calm Mind Tapu Fini. I had used versions of this team before and knew it was a very strong team. AV Genesect is a consistent counter to most of Tapu Fini's checks, with Landorus providing some much needed immediate damage to the team. I changed around some items, like trying out Chople Berry Incineroar for better lines into Pheromosa, but ultimately just went with an unedited version because I didn't feel like any of the sets needed major changes. The team felt really good in tests, and I was confident in my ability to play well enough to win.
Unfortunately, the team got a terrible matchup, as I had no real way of breaking through Cosmic Power Metagross without some insane predictions on my part and/or getting lucky with critical hits. In hindsight, Chople Berry Incineroar may actually be better than Heavy-Duty Boots on this team for the Metagross/Pheromosa matchup, especially with Pollen Puff to heal off the damage from Stealth Rock, but Heavy-Duty Boots is the more consistent item, so I don't regret my choice. Due to being 0-2, I was subbed out for duckpond in week 5. I completely understand this decision and I was honestly kind of happy about it. Tournaments are extremely stressful for me. I put a ton of pressure on myself to win and am really hard on myself when I lose. It does kind of suck that I went 0-2 in 2 games where there really wasn't much I could have done, but I think I played pretty well in both games despite losing, and I was more than happy to take a break from playing for a while.
Level 51 vs GenOne (W)
Team Ideas
I don't really remember much of this week's SM prep due to being pretty out of it for personal reasons, but I built some teams for it so I'll include it. Looking at GenOne's scout I thought Mega Venusaur looked good into it. I added Genesect for the high Psychic-type usage and I thought Kommo-o with Skill Swap Gothitelle could be pretty cool, but I ended up just using Toxic on Gothitelle instead as it was more consistently useful. Nails used Venusaur into GenOne the week prior though, so we didn't end up using it
The next team I built was a Whimsicott + Terrakion team. Mega Charizard and Tapu Koko appreciate Fake Tears support allowing them to delete things, and Terrakion can act as a late game win condition and Incineroar remover. Landorus-Therian was added because I am physically incapable of building teams without Landorus-Therian and Life Orb Kyurem-Black seemed like the most logical last slot. I considered Tapu Fini as well but Charizard's Drought weakening Muddy Water didn't sound appealing. We didn't end up bringing this either, but I think the team is cool.
Level 51 ended up bring Tapu Fini balance with Reflect Raikou. I suggested Tapu Koko > Raikou, but they ultimately ende dup using Raikou for the extra bulk and Inner Focus. This is the first prep I've been involved in that resulted in a win all season. Despite my minimal role in the prep for this game, I'm still considering this a W.
Week 5 vs Slateport City Sp_ndas
Duckpond vs Star (L)
Team Ideas
Looking at Star's DPL replays, some kind of semiroom team seemed like the strongest option. My initial idea was Lurantis. Lurantis is really strong right now, and it matched up well into the teams Star used as well as the teams our opponents have been using. There's not much to say here, this team is just recycled from week 3.
I also thought Stakataka could be really good. Duckpond had experience with the archetype already and Stakataka has ways to ignore Intimidate via Body Press. I wanted to pair it with Spectrier, as Spectrier is immune to fighting and has decent matchups into Landorus and Zygarde with Snarl and Will-O-Wisp respectively. I used Mew instead of Cresselia because I wanted Fake Out and I also just think Mew is more fun than Cresselia, and the rest of the team is pretty standard Trick Room stuff. I made a few variants of the team, like Blastoise > Landorus with Nasty Plot Spectrier, or Leftovers Calm Mind Spectrier with Landorus-Therian, but the first version of the team just felt better than all of the variants I came up with. The nicknames are Genshin Impact references. The matchup was fine, but we ended up losing to Fire Blast and Heat Wave misses, as well as losing Mew early.
Week 6 vs Tohjo Tramplers
Noelle vs tyo (L)
Team Ideas
This is the most unfortunate week this season. I knew tyo loved offense, so I wanted to bring some kind of Trick Room. My original idea was a Diancie semiroom team with Assault Vest Urshifu-R and Coaching, but the team felt too awkward and the psyspam matchup was subpar. I then just decided to use Lurantis because I was already comfortable with the team and knew it was good into more traditional offense teams. I did pretty minimal testing because I was busy with school and already had a pretty decent grasp on the team anyway. I had a pretty good feeling that I could outplay in ideal playing conditions. Unfortunately, I did not get to play in ideal playing conditions.
I was going to New York this week, and due to scheduling issues, I had to play my game while on the very crowded and noisy train. I respond very poorly to noise when trying to focus on something, and it's quite difficult to get into the headspace to play Pokémon when there are people screaming and kicking your seat the entire time. I played extremely poorly, and lost this game. It really sucks that I went 0-3 this season when none of the losses were due to anything in my control, but that's just Pokemon sometimes. Its an extremely high variance game, and even the best players have bad tournament performances every so often for whatever reason. I do regret that I wasn't able to play in ideal playing conditions, it was definitely a winnable matchup, but we were most likely out of the tournament whether I won or not, and I was really just playing for a better record (and to have fun obviously)
Week 7 vs Browbeat Lands
Noelle vs Voltix (L)
Team Ideas
I won't write too much about this game because it didn't matter. I had been building this team all season and decided to bring it because it looked good into meminger's scout and what I knew about their teambuilding preferences. I didn't end up playing against Meminger, but I brought the team anyway because it's really good and I didnt feel like doing any prep when it didn't even matter if I won
Missing Muddy Water on Urshifu and Metagross getting high roll crit lost me the game (as well as Volcanion just being really annoying for my team), but I don't really care because the game didn't matter anyway. Despite the loss, I really enjoy this team. Coaching is an insanely good move and this is probably the first team I've enjoyed using Metagross on since DLT (which is... over a year ago now).
Week 1: I really like this team, Whimsicott Psyspam is pretty strong. It's an really fun team to use, and having flexibility with your speed control options is really nice
Week 2: We just brought a sample, not much to say.
Week 3: Probably my favorite week prep wise. Eject Button Whimsicott makes the team feel much better to play, and Dracozolt adds a lot of dimension to the team and helps with the Whimsicott mirror. I'm not super satisfied with the semiroom matchup, but that's just kind of something you have to accept with Whimsicott offense
Week 4: It's a really solid team that I'm pretty comfortable with, but I don't really have much to say about it really. Pollen Puff is nice for longevity and Landorus provides a ton of offensive momentum to the team, but it's mostly just a standard balance team.
Week 5: I actually didn't really like this team when I built it, but it's grown on me a lot and is one of my favorite teams this season. Spectrier and Stakataka is a really good pairing, and Substitute Landorus is a really good secondary way of breaking teams. AV Volcanion is also really nice here, its super bulky and trades damage with a ton of things that threaten Stakataka.
Week 6: Lurantis is really strong right now, I'm surprised it doesn't get used more. This is an edited version of an existing team so there's not much to say, but I think all of the optimizations are really nice and make the team feel better to play
Week 7: Pretty solid balance team, but having two Water-types is pretty exploitable and Volcanion is super annoying. Still though, its a pretty cool team and I like it a lot.
Conclusion
In the end, my final record is 0-4 with the SS slot's record beign 0-7. I do think that all of my teams are solid and that I played well in most of my games, but it does suck that I wasn't able to win a game. The Bo1 format makes each set really high variance + this is my first DPL, so I'm not too upset about my record though. To be completely honest, I'm just happy that I got drafted in the first place and that I got to be on a team with some pretty cool people. kaori DaAwesomeDude1 big pichu ratpacker Nido-Rus Yellow Paint Lemurro duckpond Level 51 thank you all for making this DPL a great experience and being very cool people, this has been one of my best experiences playing in tournament and I can't thank you all enough for that. To anyone that read this entire post, I am both grateful and concerned for your sanity. Have a damn good day.
Week 1 vs Snowpoint City Cold Crew
Lemurro Vs Ninja (L)
Team Ideas
The main things I noticed from the Ninja scout were the low semiroom usage (Porygon2 was used on one team and diancie was used on 4), low Heatran usage (only being used on 4 teams) and generally favoring more bulky teams with low usage of Whimsicott offense (Whimsicott was only used once). Another thing to keep in mind was that SMB was almost definitely going to be building for Ninja, as Ninja doesn't generally build and the other main SS players on the Cold Crew roster generally stick to the same few teams without building much outside of that. Because of this, I also tried to keep SMB's building habits in mind, but this ultimately didn't change all that much in terms of what we considered bringing
My mind immediately went to a Whimsicott Psyspam team. Whimsicott Psyspam had seen fringe usage at tournament level before this, but I thought it could be pretty strong here, as they had low semiroom usage and Helping Hand boosted spread moves seemed extremely effective at smashing though the bulkier teams Ninja and SMB seemed to enjoy. The six was fairly standard with some tech thrown in to make it more interesting (Skitter Smack and Dragon Tail on Zygarde, Bulky Poison Jab Urshifu for Tapu Fini, Weakness Policy Necrozma with U-turn Whimsicott and Eject Button Tapu Lele). I thought the six was solid enough, but Lemurro was worried about the Tailwind mirror, so we tabled this idea for a while. It would return later on, but with some changes.
I suggested Galarian Zapdos as a solid bring, as both Ninja and SMB seemed to love Incineroar, and they sent a Zapdos-G + Whimsicott team. I thought the idea was interesting, but i wasn't too confident about the team's matchup spread, so I made some edits. I swapped Volcanion and Rillaboom for Tapu Fini and Incineroar, and made the Scarf Naganadel a Landorus. The Zapdos also ended up getting cut for Choice Band Pheromosa. Snarl + Will-o-Wisp Spectrier was something I had tried previously on Whimsicott offense, and I thought it was really strong, so i kept that part intact. Eject Button Whimsicott is another set I think is really strong, so I used it here. I considered a Cotton Spore Whimsicott with Nature Power, but Nature Power seemed unnecessary here and pretty inconsistent. They also had non-negligible Tapu Koko usage, which meant that Whimsicott could potentially get Thunderbolt from it which I didn't want. Lemurro wanted to keep Encore, so I didn't change that either.
The last team I considered was an Iron Defense Ferrothorn team. The idea here was to exploit the low usage of semiroom and Heatran and just attempt to outplay Ninja with a more balanced and honest team. Choice Scarf Tapu Fini seemed like a solid bring as they used a lot of fast, frail pokemon that were weak to Moonblast, and I didn't really expect them to prep for Ferrothorn because Lemurro had never used it. This wasn't something we considered for very long, but I think the team itself is quite solid.
Lemurro eventually decided on the Whimsicott Psyspam idea after we did a self scout, but made a few edits to the team I posted. They changed the Urshifu to Pheromosa and opted for Sitrus Berry Tapu Lele. Pheromosa is an interesting change, as there are benefits and downsides to both Urshifu and Pheromosa on this team: Urshifu ignores Intimidate and hits through Protect. It also has more defensive utility with a better defensive typing and bulk, meaning you can get it in safely more often than Pheromosa. Pheromosa, however, has better coverage, is faster which is relevant in the Tailwind mirror, and beats Ground-types like Zygarde and Landorus offensively. You can't get it in safely as often, but when you get it in, something is probably dying to it, making it an unforgiving but ultimately great late game cleaner. I don't think using one over the other was inherently better or worse, and was fine with the change overall. I disagree with the Eject Button change slightly, I think you need Eject Button to deal with dual terrain teams which I could definitely see Ninja bringing, but it's ultimately pretty minor so I didn't say anything. Unfortunately, Lemurro got a pretty bad matchup with Ninja bringing dual terrain Tapu Fini balance, and he ended up taking off Fire Blast on Heatran which would have won in the endgame. We lost the SS DOU game of week 1, but there were still many more SS games to be played, so I wasn't too worried.
yesterday (Whimsicott) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 76 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 172 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tailwind
- Moonblast
- U-turn
- Helping Hand
Whimsicott provides an immediate speed advantage with Prankster Tailwind, and U-Turn allows you to self proc Necrozma's Weakness Policy. Helping Hand can actually end up being better than Fake Tears in some situations due to the amount of spread attacks on this team. You don't even really need to self proc Weakness Policy every game, you can just use U-Turn as a way to get Whimsicott off the field and into one of its more immediately threatening teammates. The EVs allow you to outspeed Modest Naganadel and maximize your Special Attack with the rest invested in bulk. The bulk doesn't do anything but the EVs look nice.
amorphous (Zygarde) @ Choice Band
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 144 HP / 252 Atk / 112 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Skitter Smack
- Superpower
- Dragon Tail
Zygarde is mostly here to just do big spread damage with Thousand Arrows, you'll click the other 3 moves maybe once every 50 games or so. Dragon Tail is nice as an anti-cheese measure, Superpower is nice for picking off a chipped Porygon2 for example, and Skitter Smack isnt especially relevant, but it gives you a move to hit Rillaboom in a pinch, and lowering Special Attack is probably useful sometimes. The EVs outspeed Modest Heatran with an HP dump
Rain of Amethyst (Tapu Lele) @ Eject Button
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 104 SpA / 152 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Protect
Tapu Lele is mandatory here for Psychic Terrain. Eject Button is nice for momentum and helps the matchup into dual terrain teams. Taunt lets you deny Trick Room and setup and Psyshock is marginally better than Psychic here because Necrozma already has Expanding Force to hit things specially and Psyshock hits things like Tapu Fini and Amoonguss harder.
Light It Up (Necrozma) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 184 HP / 252 SpA / 72 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Expanding Force
- Trick Room
- Earth Power
- Protect
This can be played as a normal Necrozma by just spamming Expanding Force, but Weakness Policy can threaten an instant win against a ton of teams, as not much in the tier can safely take attacks from +2 Special Attack Necrozma, especially with Helping Hand support. Trick Room also adds another dimension to the team and gives you flexibility with your speed control options. The EVs allow you to outpseed Jolly Zeraora in Tailwind with the rest going to HP.
liquated (Urshifu-Rapid-Strike) @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 32 HP / 132 Atk / 104 SpD / 240 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Surging Strikes
- Poison Jab
- U-turn
Bulky Urshifu isn't a huge optimization, but there's no real reason not to run it. The EVs allow you to live Tapu Fini's 144 Special Attack Moonblast, 252 Attack Zeraora Plasma Fists, and OHKO Porygon2 with Close Combat while maintaining a higher speed tier than Jolly Kyurem-Black and Tapu Lele. Poison Jab is used because Psychic Terrain would block Aqua Jet and Ice Punch isn't really needed. Poison Jab lets you hit opposing Whimsicott and Tapu Fini, as well as hit Rillaboom marginally harder than if you had used Ice Punch or U-Turn.
NUCLEAR STAR (Heatran) @ Charcoal
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 4 Def / 124 SpA / 4 SpD / 128 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Eruption
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Protect
Fat Eruption Heatran is also really good. Taking less damage means your Eruption won't be decreasing in base power as quickly from getting hit. The EVs allow you to outspeed Modest Celesteela with the rest of the EVs going to bulk. Fire Blast was used to get around potential Wide Guard Celesteelas and have a strong single target nuke once Eruption's base power begins decreasing.
Week 2 vs Paldea Cratermakers
Lemurro vs Animus (L)
Team Ideas
In Animus' scouts, I noticed they used mostly public teams with small edits for some surprise factor. They seemed to use mostly Whimsicott/Naganadel Tailwind Offense as well as a good amount of Balance. Once again, we got an opponent with low semiroom usage with only one use of Diancie. Low psyspam usage was also notable.
My initial thoughts were Lurantis, Galarian Zapdos and AV Genesect all seemed like good brings. Lurantis and Galarian Zapdos are very good at punishing Intimidate (namely Incineroar). Lurantis in particular looked very strong into a lot of their teams, including the team they usedand Genesect punishes the high Rillaboom usage and is good into Whimsicott offense. AV Genesect is the most consistent Rillaboom check in the tier and is good into Whimsicott offense as well. My last idea was a Toxic Spikes team which was generally good into the more balanced teams Animus seemed to use.
I sent the teams to Lemurro, and they liked the idea of Diancie semiroom but wanted to try Hail Toxic Spikes. I stole the team from Nails so I won't talk too much about it, but I thought the team was fine and matched up well into Animus. Lemurro didn't end up liking the team though, and decided to go with the Mew Semiroom idea, but without Lurantis. They wanted to use a hazard stack semiroom team, which I also thought was a good call. In the game, we got a pretty good matchup, but not getting Trick Room up in turns 6 and 7 made the game extremely difficult, and we ended up losing to Sunny Day Whimsicott + Heatran in the endgame.
Duckpond vs jonas (L)
Team Ideas
Due to scheduling conflicts, duckpond had to play early, so I decided to help prep. Looking at jonas' scout, I thought Walking Wake sun would match up really well. Because the game was going to be played so soon, we just looked at replays where people used Walking Wake and recreated the teams with edited sets. Duckpond ended up using a manual sun team with Eject Button Torkoal. The matchup was terrible though, the team had no way of stopping Indeedee-F from setting Trick Room and no way to stall out the turns either. This weakness is something that probably would have been caught and fixed if we had done more testing, but testing takes time, which is something we unfortunately didn't have much of. Losing the first game of the week sucks, but we still had 7 games left to play (which were all scheduled at a much later date thankfully), so we had plenty of time to turn the week around.
kaori vs Tman (L)
Team Ideas
I decided to help prep in SM too because kaori was busy this week (most people don't know this, but I'm not half bad at oldgens actually). My first team was a Tapu Fini balance team with Mega Metagross which I thought was really strong. Kyurem-B + Tapu Koko is a really strong offensive core to provide some immediate damage and speed control, and double Intimidate rounds out the teams defensive backbone. I made two versions with different Kyurem and Tapu Koko sets, but I think the AV Kyurem-B + Electrium Tapu Koko version is the best one, as AV Kyurem-B allows for a better Rain matchup and gives the team more bulk overall. I'm also just generally fond of Electrium Z Koko, it's straight up a delete button.
I also suggested a Kommo-o Rain team, similar to the one we lost to last week, as it looked very good into Tman's scout and was proven to be a good team already. We didn't consider this for very long, I never even filled in the sets actually.
The last team I built for SM this week was a Zapdos + Tapu Lele team. The idea is that Zapdos' Metal Sound enables the many special attackers to run through the opponent's team. The team started with Porygon2 and Amoonguss, which looked like a strong core into Tman's scout. Tapu Lele and Zapdos were added as a strong offensive core to function outside of Trick Room. Amoonguss appreciates Psychic Terrain blocking priority for it under Trick Room, and Substitute Tapu Lele appreciates the Rage Powder redirection from Amoonguss. Landorus-Therian was added as a strong defensive piece for Stealth Rock, and Charizard-Y is a strong special attacker that owns Steel-types for Tapu Lele. Lele in return kills threats like Kyurem-Black and Diancie with Moonblast and Z Psychic respectively after a Metal Sound. Focus Blast Charizard allows you to kill Incineroar and Tyranitar after a Metal Sound as well. This is a really interesting structure and I enjoy it a lot, but we didn't end up bringing it because Zapdos sucks.
Kaori settled on a Camerupt Fullroom team that I unfortunately don't have the paste for (ask kaori for it if you're really curious), but I thought it was solid. Tman actually brought almost the exact same team with an Araquanid. Go figure! We ended up losing because of a Diamond Storm miss on Araquanid, which is beyond dumb (we've been getting haxed in every game it feels like), but that's just pokemon sometimes. It is what it is.
Week 3 vs Spikemuth Spectral Thieves
Noelle vs emma (L)
Team Ideas
Legend: [Pokémon: % of all Pokémon (288) | % of all teams (48)] Mew: 10.417% | 62.500% Genesect: 9.375% | 56.250% Tapu Fini: 9.375% | 56.250% Rillaboom: 7.639% | 45.833% Landorus: 7.292% | 43.750% Incineroar: 6.250% | 37.500% Urshifu-Rapid-Strike: 4.514% | 27.083% Zeraora: 4.514% | 27.083% Whimsicott: 4.514% | 27.083% Heatran: 3.819% | 22.917% Dragapult: 2.778% | 16.667% Kyurem-Black: 2.778% | 16.667% Tyranitar: 2.778% | 16.667% Volcanion: 2.431% | 14.583% Tsareena: 2.431% | 14.583% Diancie: 2.083% | 12.500% Nihilego: 2.083% | 12.500% Zygarde: 2.083% | 12.500% Naganadel: 1.736% | 10.417% Pheromosa: 1.042% | 6.250% Porygon2: 1.042% | 6.250% Spectrier: 0.694% | 4.167% Venusaur: 0.694% | 4.167% Torkoal: 0.694% | 4.167% Tapu Lele: 0.694% | 4.167% Necrozma: 0.694% | 4.167% Dracozolt: 0.694% | 4.167% Metagross: 0.694% | 4.167% Zapdos-Galar: 0.694% | 4.167% Latios: 0.347% | 2.083% Zapdos: 0.347% | 2.083% Amoonguss: 0.347% | 2.083% Regidrago: 0.347% | 2.083% Bronzong: 0.347% | 2.083% Tornadus: 0.347% | 2.083% Politoed: 0.347% | 2.083% Blastoise: 0.347% | 2.083% Stakataka: 0.347% | 2.083% Lurantis: 0.347% | 2.083%
I was REALLY excited for this matchup. I was so excited I started prepping days before it was even confirmed I was going to play. Almost immediately, I wanted to use Lurantis. Lurantis is currently ranked at Tier 5 on the viability rankings at the time of writing, and I didn't really agree. I think Lurantis is really strong right now, and I wanted to bring it. The six I came up with was just zoe's Lurantis team, but with Mew instead of Porygon2 and some changes to the sets (AV Volcanion, Bulky Dragapult, Substitute Lurantis). The Mew originally had Pollen Puff, but after testing against Nido-Rus the team felt too weak to Zygarde, so I changed it to Ice Beam. The team felt fine, but I decided against it because it still fell into the catagory of the teams I typically use (bulky semiroom/durdle balance). Emma is notoriously good at countering people's building styles, so if I wanted to win, I needed to bring something out of my comfort zone.
My next team was a Dracozolt Whimsicott Offense team. Dracozolt + Celesteela seemed like a really strong core and I wanted to use it. The team did a good job of sticking to what I'm used to (notably the Fini/Incineroar/Tyranitar core) while mixing things up (Whimsicott, Dracozolt). I made some changes to the team after testing against Yellow Paint, and felt pretty confident in my team. Eject Button Whimsicott makes the team feel very nice to pilot, and it wasn't too far out of my comfort zone. The team's matchup into semiroom felt a little subpar and too reliant on getting every turn correct, but with Whimsicott Offense that's just something you kind of have to accept. I considered other teams, like a Tyranitar + Spectrier team and some edited versions of already public teams, but these weren't considered for very long, so I won't dwell too long on them.
Going into the game, I felt very nervous. My team was 3-3 at the time, and I needed to win to guarantee my team going at least 4-4. On preview, my matchup felt good, so I wasn't too worried, but some off-beat sets (AV Poison Jab Urshifu caught me off guard as well as the Leftovers Spectrier) as well as some unlucky turns (Turn 8 basically sealed the game, The SpDef drop from Shadow Ball and the low Muddy Water roll meant I couldn't stay in on the second Shadow Ball without dying) ended up losing me the game. Emma played very well and I don't want to discredit her at all, but losing to a Shadow Ball SpDef drop in an otherwise amazing game was quite frustrating, and I felt even worse because my team was no longer guaranteed to tie. Thankfully, big pichu won their game and we finished 4-4 anyway. Despite losing this week, I somehow felt more confident going into my next game, and decided to channel my mild frustration into my prep against Shadowmonstr7.
Full Team Report
Teambuilding Process + Naming Theme Explanation
This team is built around the core of Celesteela and Dracozolt. There's a good amount of defensive synergy between them and it's a pretty offensive core, which I didn't think was something emma would prep for looking at my building tendencies. Tyranitar is literally mandatory because I needed Sandstorm and Hippowdon is TRASH!
Tapu Fini has further synergy with Celesteela and rounds out the defensive backbone of the team. So far I had Celesteela and Tapu Fini, a strong special attacking core, but Celesteela and Tyranitar are very slow and appreciate speed control. I was also worried about the team becoming too weak to Zygarde and/or Landorus. The most logical fit was Whimsicott. I am a known hater of Whimsicott offense and had never brought it before, but I thought it could be good here for that very reason. I planned to use the lack of Whimsicott in my building to my advantage to catch emma off guard (it did not work). Incineroar rounded out the team because it was just the most logical option (I wanted a Fire-type, Fake Out, and a way to get Dracozolt and Whimsicott in safely with a slow pivot move). With that, the team was done, and it felt really good.
The nicknames come from the PvZ soundtrack. I LOVE PvZ and was playing it when I built this team, so it seemed fitting. Reeds and Seeds is a fanmade album with jazz covers of all the songs from PvZ1's soundtrack (except Cerebrawl
).
Moongrains (Celesteela) @ Power Herb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 176 HP / 252 SpA / 80 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Meteor Beam
- Air Slash
- Flash Cannon
- Protect
Celesteela was added for its synergy with Dracozolt and Whimsicott. Celesteela removes Grass and Ground-types like Landorus and Rillaboom for Dracozolt, and Dracozolt in return beats Heatran, Volcanion, and Zygarde for Celesteela. This seemed like a really potent offensive core, and it's what the team is built around. Celesteela functions as a bulky win condition that can snowball very easily with support from Whimsicott and Incineroar. This Celesteela was originally Flamethrower, but Air Slash was chosen to hit Rillaboom harder and have better lines into Volcanion. The EVs allow Celesteela to outspeed Volcanion with 4 EVs in Speed. The nickname fits really well, actually. Celesteela is an alien and draws inspiration from Kaguya, both of which are related to the moon.
Rigor Mormist (Tyranitar) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 216 SpD / 44 Spe
Careful Nature
- Stone Edge
- Ice Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Dragon Tail
Tyranitar put in the least amount of work in testing, but it's required to be here because Dracozolt needs Sand. Tyranitar's role is basically just to click Stealth Rock and set Sand consistently. Anything extra it does is a bonus. Thankfully, it does do quite a bit extra. It gives the team better lines into Volcanion, is a soft Landorus and Zygarde check, and Dragon Tail can deny Trick Room attempts from Porygon2 and Cresselia. I originally was using Rock Slide to more effectively spread damage around, but ended up deciding on Stone Edge for higher single target damage output, as Rock Slide is pathetically weak into most neutral targets. The EVs allow you to take two Earth Powers from Landorus in Sand and outspeed Nihilego by 3 points in Tailwind, and 48 Speed Incineroar by 2 points. The nickname doesn't really relate to Tyranitar at all, it was just the best fit out of all the songs in the album, and Rigor Mormist is a pretty good track.
Loonboon (Dracozolt) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 112 Atk / 144 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Bolt Beak
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Protect
Dracozolt is a strong late game cleaner on Sand and I'm surprised it's not used more, it's a very good Pokémon. Bolt Beak decimates most neutral targets with rocks up, and it has pretty decent coverage options as well. Draco Meteor allows you to hit Zygarde while getting around Intimidate and Fire Blast lets you hit Genesect, Ferrothorn and Rillaboom for good damage. I was originally running High Horsepower for Zeraora, but changed it to Fire Blast because I wanted more to hit Rillaboom. The EVs allow you to OHKO Dragon Dance Kyurem Black and Zygarde with Draco Meteor, with the rest going to Attack to hit as hard as possible with Bolt Beak. Loonboon is a very high energy track, and it fits Dracozolt pretty well.
Watery Graves (Tapu Fini) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 24 HP / 244 SpA / 4 SpD / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Moonblast
- Ice Beam
- Muddy Water
Choice Specs Tapu Fini further synergizes with Celesteela and appreciates Whimsicott's Fake Tears and Prankster Tailwind support. Tapu Fini's good defensive typing and natural bulk when combined with the immediate power of Choice Specs makes Tapu Fini a potent breaker with good coverage. I almost ran Trick for more utility and an additional way to stop setup/Trick Room, but Ice beam is nice for Naganadel and Rillaboom. The EVs allow you to outspeed AV Kyurem Black by 1 point and hit 24HP/4SpD. I have no idea what this benchmark does, but Z Strats used it on his sample and I trust his spreads (it also just looks nice). It is named Watery Graves because Tapu Fini is a Water-type. That was my thought process, yes.
Grasswalk (Whimsicott) @ Eject Button
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 56 SpD / 8 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fake Tears
- Tailwind
- Encore
- Nature Power
Eject Button Whimsicott is one of my new favorite Pokemon. One of my least favorite things about Whimsicott Offense is it feels like Whimsicott can get stuck on the field sometimes, not really providing much, but it's also difficult to actually get it off the field. Eject Button solves this problem, and makes this team feel a lot better to pilot. Outside of that it just does normal Whimsicott things though. It was originally Helping Hand but Yellow Paint suggested Fake Tears, so I used it instead. Nature Power was chosen over Moonblast to make the Trick Room and opposing Tailwind matchups more manageable and to always break Volcanion's Substitute when calling Energy Ball from Nature Power. The EVs were stolen from Z Strats and I don't actually know what they do. The Speed lets you outspeed Timid Tapu Fini, The Special Defense avoids the 2HKO from Landorus' Earth Power, and the Defense is a dump I would imagine. Grasswalk is basically the same song as Moongrains, and I chose it because Whimsicott is a Grass-type. That was my thought process, yes.
Graze the Roof (Incineroar) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 224 HP / 68 Atk / 176 SpD / 40 Spe
Careful Nature
- Fake Out
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off
- Parting Shot
It is Incineroar. You don't need me to tell you what Incineroar does. There's really not much to talk about here, it's just a normal Incineroar, nothing to see here. I added it because I wanted Fake Out and didn't have a Fire-type yet, so Incineroar just seemed like the logical choice. The EVs let you outspeed Landorus in Tailwind and live Volcanion Steam Eruption while OHKOing Dragapult with Knock Off. Graze the Roof has no actual connection to Incineroar, I just tried nicknames until I found one I liked, and this is the one I liked.
Teambuilding Process + Naming Theme Explanation
This team is built around the core of Celesteela and Dracozolt. There's a good amount of defensive synergy between them and it's a pretty offensive core, which I didn't think was something emma would prep for looking at my building tendencies. Tyranitar is literally mandatory because I needed Sandstorm and Hippowdon is TRASH!
Tapu Fini has further synergy with Celesteela and rounds out the defensive backbone of the team. So far I had Celesteela and Tapu Fini, a strong special attacking core, but Celesteela and Tyranitar are very slow and appreciate speed control. I was also worried about the team becoming too weak to Zygarde and/or Landorus. The most logical fit was Whimsicott. I am a known hater of Whimsicott offense and had never brought it before, but I thought it could be good here for that very reason. I planned to use the lack of Whimsicott in my building to my advantage to catch emma off guard (it did not work). Incineroar rounded out the team because it was just the most logical option (I wanted a Fire-type, Fake Out, and a way to get Dracozolt and Whimsicott in safely with a slow pivot move). With that, the team was done, and it felt really good.
The nicknames come from the PvZ soundtrack. I LOVE PvZ and was playing it when I built this team, so it seemed fitting. Reeds and Seeds is a fanmade album with jazz covers of all the songs from PvZ1's soundtrack (except Cerebrawl
).Moongrains (Celesteela) @ Power Herb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 176 HP / 252 SpA / 80 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Meteor Beam
- Air Slash
- Flash Cannon
- Protect
Celesteela was added for its synergy with Dracozolt and Whimsicott. Celesteela removes Grass and Ground-types like Landorus and Rillaboom for Dracozolt, and Dracozolt in return beats Heatran, Volcanion, and Zygarde for Celesteela. This seemed like a really potent offensive core, and it's what the team is built around. Celesteela functions as a bulky win condition that can snowball very easily with support from Whimsicott and Incineroar. This Celesteela was originally Flamethrower, but Air Slash was chosen to hit Rillaboom harder and have better lines into Volcanion. The EVs allow Celesteela to outspeed Volcanion with 4 EVs in Speed. The nickname fits really well, actually. Celesteela is an alien and draws inspiration from Kaguya, both of which are related to the moon.
Rigor Mormist (Tyranitar) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 216 SpD / 44 Spe
Careful Nature
- Stone Edge
- Ice Punch
- Stealth Rock
- Dragon Tail
Tyranitar put in the least amount of work in testing, but it's required to be here because Dracozolt needs Sand. Tyranitar's role is basically just to click Stealth Rock and set Sand consistently. Anything extra it does is a bonus. Thankfully, it does do quite a bit extra. It gives the team better lines into Volcanion, is a soft Landorus and Zygarde check, and Dragon Tail can deny Trick Room attempts from Porygon2 and Cresselia. I originally was using Rock Slide to more effectively spread damage around, but ended up deciding on Stone Edge for higher single target damage output, as Rock Slide is pathetically weak into most neutral targets. The EVs allow you to take two Earth Powers from Landorus in Sand and outspeed Nihilego by 3 points in Tailwind, and 48 Speed Incineroar by 2 points. The nickname doesn't really relate to Tyranitar at all, it was just the best fit out of all the songs in the album, and Rigor Mormist is a pretty good track.
Loonboon (Dracozolt) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 112 Atk / 144 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Bolt Beak
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Protect
Dracozolt is a strong late game cleaner on Sand and I'm surprised it's not used more, it's a very good Pokémon. Bolt Beak decimates most neutral targets with rocks up, and it has pretty decent coverage options as well. Draco Meteor allows you to hit Zygarde while getting around Intimidate and Fire Blast lets you hit Genesect, Ferrothorn and Rillaboom for good damage. I was originally running High Horsepower for Zeraora, but changed it to Fire Blast because I wanted more to hit Rillaboom. The EVs allow you to OHKO Dragon Dance Kyurem Black and Zygarde with Draco Meteor, with the rest going to Attack to hit as hard as possible with Bolt Beak. Loonboon is a very high energy track, and it fits Dracozolt pretty well.
Watery Graves (Tapu Fini) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 24 HP / 244 SpA / 4 SpD / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Moonblast
- Ice Beam
- Muddy Water
Choice Specs Tapu Fini further synergizes with Celesteela and appreciates Whimsicott's Fake Tears and Prankster Tailwind support. Tapu Fini's good defensive typing and natural bulk when combined with the immediate power of Choice Specs makes Tapu Fini a potent breaker with good coverage. I almost ran Trick for more utility and an additional way to stop setup/Trick Room, but Ice beam is nice for Naganadel and Rillaboom. The EVs allow you to outspeed AV Kyurem Black by 1 point and hit 24HP/4SpD. I have no idea what this benchmark does, but Z Strats used it on his sample and I trust his spreads (it also just looks nice). It is named Watery Graves because Tapu Fini is a Water-type. That was my thought process, yes.
Grasswalk (Whimsicott) @ Eject Button
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 56 SpD / 8 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fake Tears
- Tailwind
- Encore
- Nature Power
Eject Button Whimsicott is one of my new favorite Pokemon. One of my least favorite things about Whimsicott Offense is it feels like Whimsicott can get stuck on the field sometimes, not really providing much, but it's also difficult to actually get it off the field. Eject Button solves this problem, and makes this team feel a lot better to pilot. Outside of that it just does normal Whimsicott things though. It was originally Helping Hand but Yellow Paint suggested Fake Tears, so I used it instead. Nature Power was chosen over Moonblast to make the Trick Room and opposing Tailwind matchups more manageable and to always break Volcanion's Substitute when calling Energy Ball from Nature Power. The EVs were stolen from Z Strats and I don't actually know what they do. The Speed lets you outspeed Timid Tapu Fini, The Special Defense avoids the 2HKO from Landorus' Earth Power, and the Defense is a dump I would imagine. Grasswalk is basically the same song as Moongrains, and I chose it because Whimsicott is a Grass-type. That was my thought process, yes.
Graze the Roof (Incineroar) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 224 HP / 68 Atk / 176 SpD / 40 Spe
Careful Nature
- Fake Out
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off
- Parting Shot
It is Incineroar. You don't need me to tell you what Incineroar does. There's really not much to talk about here, it's just a normal Incineroar, nothing to see here. I added it because I wanted Fake Out and didn't have a Fire-type yet, so Incineroar just seemed like the logical choice. The EVs let you outspeed Landorus in Tailwind and live Volcanion Steam Eruption while OHKOing Dragapult with Knock Off. Graze the Roof has no actual connection to Incineroar, I just tried nicknames until I found one I liked, and this is the one I liked.
Week 4 vs Santalune Storms
Noelle vs Shadowmonstr7 (L)
Team Ideas
Against Shadowmonstr, the main thing I noticed is the high Urshifu-R usage. They only seemed to bring 3 team styles: setup balance, Trick Room teams (usually with Stakataka), and Whismicott Offense. A lot of these teams were edited versions of already public teams as well. My first idea was to just reuse Whimsicott Psyspam from the first week. I knew the team was good and had been using it on my own time and really enjoyed it. I thought Whimsicott Psyspam was a really strong archetype at the time, but I ended up deciding against it because we had already used Whimsicott twice in 3 weeks.
My next ideas were teams with the Ghosts, Spectrier and Dragapult. I thought emma's triple Assault Vest team from last week was a really cool idea, so I decided to try out some edited versions of the team. They didn't end up doing very well in tests though, so I scrapped them. I considered a similar team with Toxic Spikes and Hex Dragapult as well, but Shadowmonstr had high Nihilego and Naganadel usage, so I decided against that as well. I also tried a Spectrier Hazard Stack team with Assault Vest Urshifu which I thought was really strong at the time. I didn't really have a reason for not bringing this team, I just liked another option better.
The team I ended up bringing was an Assault Vest Genesect team with Calm Mind Tapu Fini. I had used versions of this team before and knew it was a very strong team. AV Genesect is a consistent counter to most of Tapu Fini's checks, with Landorus providing some much needed immediate damage to the team. I changed around some items, like trying out Chople Berry Incineroar for better lines into Pheromosa, but ultimately just went with an unedited version because I didn't feel like any of the sets needed major changes. The team felt really good in tests, and I was confident in my ability to play well enough to win.
Unfortunately, the team got a terrible matchup, as I had no real way of breaking through Cosmic Power Metagross without some insane predictions on my part and/or getting lucky with critical hits. In hindsight, Chople Berry Incineroar may actually be better than Heavy-Duty Boots on this team for the Metagross/Pheromosa matchup, especially with Pollen Puff to heal off the damage from Stealth Rock, but Heavy-Duty Boots is the more consistent item, so I don't regret my choice. Due to being 0-2, I was subbed out for duckpond in week 5. I completely understand this decision and I was honestly kind of happy about it. Tournaments are extremely stressful for me. I put a ton of pressure on myself to win and am really hard on myself when I lose. It does kind of suck that I went 0-2 in 2 games where there really wasn't much I could have done, but I think I played pretty well in both games despite losing, and I was more than happy to take a break from playing for a while.
Full Team Report
Teambuilding Process
AV Genesect + Tapu Fini is an extremely strong core in my opinion. Most of AV Genesect's checks are bad into Tapu Fini, and vise versa. AV Genesect also gives you a decently slow U-Turn, so even if your opponent switches, you can still keep up momentum without your switch in taking too much damage. This core lacks immediate damage though, and Volcanion is a huge problem.
Enter Landorus. Landorus does amazing damage to just about everything in the tier while improving the team's matchup into Volcanion. I was originally using Substitute Landorus on this team, but Calm Mind Tapu Fini teams really want hazards to turn switches into progress, so I went with Stealth Rock for the 4th move. It's not something you click every game, but it makes a ton of games a lot easier.
The rest of the team is basically just to support the defensive backbone of Genesect and Tapu Fini. Rillaboom and Incineroar are fairly standard, while Mew has Pollen Puff to improve the team's longevity. This is especially helpful for Incineroar and Genesect, as they're prone to getting worn down over the course of a game.
A CYBER'S WORLD? (Genesect) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Download
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 204 SpD / 52 Spe
Sassy Nature
- U-turn
- Flamethrower
- Iron Head
- Extreme Speed
AV Genesect is broken. AV Genesect is extremely hard to remove and beats all of Tapu Fini's checks. It still has pretty decent damage output with Download as well. Genesect removes Rillaboom for Tapu Fini and acts as a strong defensive switch in and pivot for the team. Extreme Speed also allows you to clean late game with Stealth Rock up more easily. The EVs allow Genesect to outspeed Modest Celesteela with the rest going to Special Defense to be as bulky as possible. The name is literally just because Genesect is a robot.
Pandora Palace (Tapu Fini) @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 144 SpA / 68 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Muddy Water
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind
- Protect
Tapu Fini acts as a defensive wincon after its checks have been removed by Assault Vest Genesect. Calm Mind Tapu Fini is generally pretty mid, but I think it's really strong here. Most of it's common checks are removed by Genesect, and it's defensive typing allows it to switch in on a lot of things. This, along with Misty Terrain allows it to function as a defensive asset even in games where it can't get set up. The EVs allow it to always OHKO Urshifu with Moonblast and outspeed AV Genesect by 1 point so you know which one is faster. I named it Pandora Palace bc Tapu Fini reminds me of Queen and Pandora Palace is the best Queen song (fight me). Also i linked the swing rhythm version bc it is simply better.
BIG SHOT (Landorus) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Sludge Bomb
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
Landorus provides some much needed offense to this team. Landorus is this team's main way of making progress into a lot of threats, and improves matchups like the Volcanion matchup, which Calm Mind Tapu Fini can struggle into and is one of the few checks that Genesect is also bad into. It can also use the many switches it forces to get Stealth Rock up. This punishes switches and allows you to more easily win endgames with Tapu Fini and/or Extreme Speed/Grassy Glide. It is named [BIG SHOT] because [Hyperlink Blocked]
The Legend (Rillaboom) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 236 Atk / 24 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- U-turn
It's Rillaboom. You know what Rillaboom does. I named it The Legend because it sort of looks like Ralsei's dark world design in chapter 1 before he takes off his hat.
Rude Buster (Incineroar) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Atk / 96 Def / 32 SpD / 60 Spe
Impish Nature
- Fake Out
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off
- Parting Shot
It's Incineroar. You know what Incineroar does. I considered Chople Berry for better lines into Pheromosa, but Heavy-Duty Boots is more consistent because you don't get worn down by hazards. The EVs allow you to take Ferrothorn's +2 Body Press, Lurantis' +1 Superpower, -1 Pheromosa Close Combat, Outspeed Modest Naganadel in Tailwind, and OHKO Dragapult with Knock Off. I was going to name it Scarlet Forest but Rude Buster is a better song.
Don't Forget (Mew) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tailwind
- Snarl
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pollen Puff
Pollen Puff Mew gives this team a lot of it's identity. Pollen Puff allows you to play AV Genesect less carefully because you don't have to preserve it's HP as much, and is nice for healing Tapu Fini and Incineroar as well. Snarl and Will-o-Wisp also just make everything bulkier which is nice, and Tailwind for speed control. I named it Don't Forget because I've had it stuck in my head for the past 2 weeks and I couldn't think of a better nickname for Mew that fit the text limit for nicknames.
I think this team is really good, it did well in tests and has a pretty decent matchup spread into like 95% of the meta. It's pretty unfortunate that I got such a bad matchup, but it is what it is.
AV Genesect + Tapu Fini is an extremely strong core in my opinion. Most of AV Genesect's checks are bad into Tapu Fini, and vise versa. AV Genesect also gives you a decently slow U-Turn, so even if your opponent switches, you can still keep up momentum without your switch in taking too much damage. This core lacks immediate damage though, and Volcanion is a huge problem.
Enter Landorus. Landorus does amazing damage to just about everything in the tier while improving the team's matchup into Volcanion. I was originally using Substitute Landorus on this team, but Calm Mind Tapu Fini teams really want hazards to turn switches into progress, so I went with Stealth Rock for the 4th move. It's not something you click every game, but it makes a ton of games a lot easier.
The rest of the team is basically just to support the defensive backbone of Genesect and Tapu Fini. Rillaboom and Incineroar are fairly standard, while Mew has Pollen Puff to improve the team's longevity. This is especially helpful for Incineroar and Genesect, as they're prone to getting worn down over the course of a game.
A CYBER'S WORLD? (Genesect) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Download
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 204 SpD / 52 Spe
Sassy Nature
- U-turn
- Flamethrower
- Iron Head
- Extreme Speed
AV Genesect is broken. AV Genesect is extremely hard to remove and beats all of Tapu Fini's checks. It still has pretty decent damage output with Download as well. Genesect removes Rillaboom for Tapu Fini and acts as a strong defensive switch in and pivot for the team. Extreme Speed also allows you to clean late game with Stealth Rock up more easily. The EVs allow Genesect to outspeed Modest Celesteela with the rest going to Special Defense to be as bulky as possible. The name is literally just because Genesect is a robot.
Pandora Palace (Tapu Fini) @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 144 SpA / 68 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Muddy Water
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind
- Protect
Tapu Fini acts as a defensive wincon after its checks have been removed by Assault Vest Genesect. Calm Mind Tapu Fini is generally pretty mid, but I think it's really strong here. Most of it's common checks are removed by Genesect, and it's defensive typing allows it to switch in on a lot of things. This, along with Misty Terrain allows it to function as a defensive asset even in games where it can't get set up. The EVs allow it to always OHKO Urshifu with Moonblast and outspeed AV Genesect by 1 point so you know which one is faster. I named it Pandora Palace bc Tapu Fini reminds me of Queen and Pandora Palace is the best Queen song (fight me). Also i linked the swing rhythm version bc it is simply better.
BIG SHOT (Landorus) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Sludge Bomb
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
Landorus provides some much needed offense to this team. Landorus is this team's main way of making progress into a lot of threats, and improves matchups like the Volcanion matchup, which Calm Mind Tapu Fini can struggle into and is one of the few checks that Genesect is also bad into. It can also use the many switches it forces to get Stealth Rock up. This punishes switches and allows you to more easily win endgames with Tapu Fini and/or Extreme Speed/Grassy Glide. It is named [BIG SHOT] because [Hyperlink Blocked]
The Legend (Rillaboom) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 236 Atk / 24 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- U-turn
It's Rillaboom. You know what Rillaboom does. I named it The Legend because it sort of looks like Ralsei's dark world design in chapter 1 before he takes off his hat.
Rude Buster (Incineroar) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Atk / 96 Def / 32 SpD / 60 Spe
Impish Nature
- Fake Out
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off
- Parting Shot
It's Incineroar. You know what Incineroar does. I considered Chople Berry for better lines into Pheromosa, but Heavy-Duty Boots is more consistent because you don't get worn down by hazards. The EVs allow you to take Ferrothorn's +2 Body Press, Lurantis' +1 Superpower, -1 Pheromosa Close Combat, Outspeed Modest Naganadel in Tailwind, and OHKO Dragapult with Knock Off. I was going to name it Scarlet Forest but Rude Buster is a better song.
Don't Forget (Mew) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tailwind
- Snarl
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pollen Puff
Pollen Puff Mew gives this team a lot of it's identity. Pollen Puff allows you to play AV Genesect less carefully because you don't have to preserve it's HP as much, and is nice for healing Tapu Fini and Incineroar as well. Snarl and Will-o-Wisp also just make everything bulkier which is nice, and Tailwind for speed control. I named it Don't Forget because I've had it stuck in my head for the past 2 weeks and I couldn't think of a better nickname for Mew that fit the text limit for nicknames.
I think this team is really good, it did well in tests and has a pretty decent matchup spread into like 95% of the meta. It's pretty unfortunate that I got such a bad matchup, but it is what it is.
Level 51 vs GenOne (W)
Team Ideas
I don't really remember much of this week's SM prep due to being pretty out of it for personal reasons, but I built some teams for it so I'll include it. Looking at GenOne's scout I thought Mega Venusaur looked good into it. I added Genesect for the high Psychic-type usage and I thought Kommo-o with Skill Swap Gothitelle could be pretty cool, but I ended up just using Toxic on Gothitelle instead as it was more consistently useful. Nails used Venusaur into GenOne the week prior though, so we didn't end up using it
The next team I built was a Whimsicott + Terrakion team. Mega Charizard and Tapu Koko appreciate Fake Tears support allowing them to delete things, and Terrakion can act as a late game win condition and Incineroar remover. Landorus-Therian was added because I am physically incapable of building teams without Landorus-Therian and Life Orb Kyurem-Black seemed like the most logical last slot. I considered Tapu Fini as well but Charizard's Drought weakening Muddy Water didn't sound appealing. We didn't end up bringing this either, but I think the team is cool.
Level 51 ended up bring Tapu Fini balance with Reflect Raikou. I suggested Tapu Koko > Raikou, but they ultimately ende dup using Raikou for the extra bulk and Inner Focus. This is the first prep I've been involved in that resulted in a win all season. Despite my minimal role in the prep for this game, I'm still considering this a W.
Week 5 vs Slateport City Sp_ndas
Duckpond vs Star (L)
Team Ideas
I also thought Stakataka could be really good. Duckpond had experience with the archetype already and Stakataka has ways to ignore Intimidate via Body Press. I wanted to pair it with Spectrier, as Spectrier is immune to fighting and has decent matchups into Landorus and Zygarde with Snarl and Will-O-Wisp respectively. I used Mew instead of Cresselia because I wanted Fake Out and I also just think Mew is more fun than Cresselia, and the rest of the team is pretty standard Trick Room stuff. I made a few variants of the team, like Blastoise > Landorus with Nasty Plot Spectrier, or Leftovers Calm Mind Spectrier with Landorus-Therian, but the first version of the team just felt better than all of the variants I came up with. The nicknames are Genshin Impact references. The matchup was fine, but we ended up losing to Fire Blast and Heat Wave misses, as well as losing Mew early.
Full Team Report
Teambuilding Process
Stakataka + Spectrier is a really strong pairing in my opinion. Spectrier threatens most of the things that threaten Stakataka and vise versa. I went for Will-O-Wisp + Snarl Spectrier because I wanted Substitute Landorus to be the focus of the non-Trick Room mode. As for why I picked Mew over Cresselia, there's no real reasoning other than I just wanted to
Landorus was added for damage outside of Trick Room. The idea is basically you have the option of using Landorus first and Stakataka late game or Stakataka first and Landorus late game. Both of them are capable of breaking for each other, and Substitute Landorus can often just autowin matchups. Volcanion and Rillaboom were just logical additions to round out the Trick Room mode
Rex Incognito (Stakataka) @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Stone Edge
- Trick Room
- Body Press
I don't particularly like Stakataka without Protect, but I think you need it here. Stakataka can either be used early-mid game to break through a team for Spectrier and Landorus to win late game, or you can do the opposite and sweep late game with Stakataka. Body Press is useful for getting around Intimidate and hitting Porygon2. I named it Rex Incognito because it is a Rock-type and Zhongli is the Geo archon.
Dream Aria (Mew) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 248 HP / 40 Def / 132 SpA / 88 SpD
Modest Nature
- Trick Room
- Fake Out
- Ice Beam
- Volt Switch
Mew is just a lot more fun than Cresselia on this team tbh. Fake Out is really nice utility and slow Volt Switch is really nice to gain momentum. The EVs allow you to live Spectrier's Life Orb Shadow Ball and Choice Band Genesect U-Turn after Stealth Rock, with the rest of the EVs being put into Special Attack with a Modest nature for as much damage as possible. Dream Aria is a pretty cool neutral name to just slap on something, and Mew seemed like a fine option
Rhymes of Vales (Rillaboom) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 84 Atk / 112 SpD / 64 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Grassy Glide
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Rillaboom. I named it Rhymes of Vales because Sumeru is the grass region and Rillaboom is Grass
Rapid as Wildfires (Volcanion) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 40 SpA / 216 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Steam Eruption
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
AV Volcanion lets you trade with a ton of things that would threaten your main attackers and gives you a pretty consistent switch in to most attacks. The drop in damage compared to standard Volcanion isn't really felt here, as this team has no shortage of ways of dealing damage immediately. It's a Fire-type, so I named it after the track that has fire in the name. Very deep thought process
Time to Shine (Landorus) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Sludge Bomb
- Substitute
- Protect
Landorus is the main focus of the fast mode. If you don't have Trick Room up, you should be positioning to get Landorus behind a Substitute and then clicking buttons from there. Landorus and Itto give me the same general vibe, so I named it after Itto's theme
Duel in Mist (Spectrier) @ Leftovers
Ability: Grim Neigh
EVs: 136 HP / 152 SpA / 220 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Snarl
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
Spectrier is a really strong defensive asset on this team. It threatens most things that would otherwise beat Stakataka, which lets you more efficiently work towards an endgame where it wins. Leftovers is really nice because, when paired with Grassy Terrain, you can play it pretty recklessly and still heal back up later due to the absurd amount of recovery. The EVs allow you to live Adamant Zeraora Knock Off while outspeeding Adamant Zeraora, with the remaining EVs going to Special Attack. I named it Duel in Mist because Spectrier looks like it's made of Mist/Fog.
Stakataka + Spectrier is a really strong pairing in my opinion. Spectrier threatens most of the things that threaten Stakataka and vise versa. I went for Will-O-Wisp + Snarl Spectrier because I wanted Substitute Landorus to be the focus of the non-Trick Room mode. As for why I picked Mew over Cresselia, there's no real reasoning other than I just wanted to
Landorus was added for damage outside of Trick Room. The idea is basically you have the option of using Landorus first and Stakataka late game or Stakataka first and Landorus late game. Both of them are capable of breaking for each other, and Substitute Landorus can often just autowin matchups. Volcanion and Rillaboom were just logical additions to round out the Trick Room mode
Rex Incognito (Stakataka) @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Stone Edge
- Trick Room
- Body Press
I don't particularly like Stakataka without Protect, but I think you need it here. Stakataka can either be used early-mid game to break through a team for Spectrier and Landorus to win late game, or you can do the opposite and sweep late game with Stakataka. Body Press is useful for getting around Intimidate and hitting Porygon2. I named it Rex Incognito because it is a Rock-type and Zhongli is the Geo archon.
Dream Aria (Mew) @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 248 HP / 40 Def / 132 SpA / 88 SpD
Modest Nature
- Trick Room
- Fake Out
- Ice Beam
- Volt Switch
Mew is just a lot more fun than Cresselia on this team tbh. Fake Out is really nice utility and slow Volt Switch is really nice to gain momentum. The EVs allow you to live Spectrier's Life Orb Shadow Ball and Choice Band Genesect U-Turn after Stealth Rock, with the rest of the EVs being put into Special Attack with a Modest nature for as much damage as possible. Dream Aria is a pretty cool neutral name to just slap on something, and Mew seemed like a fine option
Rhymes of Vales (Rillaboom) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 84 Atk / 112 SpD / 64 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Grassy Glide
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Rillaboom. I named it Rhymes of Vales because Sumeru is the grass region and Rillaboom is Grass
Rapid as Wildfires (Volcanion) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 40 SpA / 216 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Steam Eruption
- Heat Wave
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
AV Volcanion lets you trade with a ton of things that would threaten your main attackers and gives you a pretty consistent switch in to most attacks. The drop in damage compared to standard Volcanion isn't really felt here, as this team has no shortage of ways of dealing damage immediately. It's a Fire-type, so I named it after the track that has fire in the name. Very deep thought process
Time to Shine (Landorus) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Sludge Bomb
- Substitute
- Protect
Landorus is the main focus of the fast mode. If you don't have Trick Room up, you should be positioning to get Landorus behind a Substitute and then clicking buttons from there. Landorus and Itto give me the same general vibe, so I named it after Itto's theme
Duel in Mist (Spectrier) @ Leftovers
Ability: Grim Neigh
EVs: 136 HP / 152 SpA / 220 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Snarl
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
Spectrier is a really strong defensive asset on this team. It threatens most things that would otherwise beat Stakataka, which lets you more efficiently work towards an endgame where it wins. Leftovers is really nice because, when paired with Grassy Terrain, you can play it pretty recklessly and still heal back up later due to the absurd amount of recovery. The EVs allow you to live Adamant Zeraora Knock Off while outspeeding Adamant Zeraora, with the remaining EVs going to Special Attack. I named it Duel in Mist because Spectrier looks like it's made of Mist/Fog.
Noelle vs tyo (L)
Team Ideas
This is the most unfortunate week this season. I knew tyo loved offense, so I wanted to bring some kind of Trick Room. My original idea was a Diancie semiroom team with Assault Vest Urshifu-R and Coaching, but the team felt too awkward and the psyspam matchup was subpar. I then just decided to use Lurantis because I was already comfortable with the team and knew it was good into more traditional offense teams. I did pretty minimal testing because I was busy with school and already had a pretty decent grasp on the team anyway. I had a pretty good feeling that I could outplay in ideal playing conditions. Unfortunately, I did not get to play in ideal playing conditions.
I was going to New York this week, and due to scheduling issues, I had to play my game while on the very crowded and noisy train. I respond very poorly to noise when trying to focus on something, and it's quite difficult to get into the headspace to play Pokémon when there are people screaming and kicking your seat the entire time. I played extremely poorly, and lost this game. It really sucks that I went 0-3 this season when none of the losses were due to anything in my control, but that's just Pokemon sometimes. Its an extremely high variance game, and even the best players have bad tournament performances every so often for whatever reason. I do regret that I wasn't able to play in ideal playing conditions, it was definitely a winnable matchup, but we were most likely out of the tournament whether I won or not, and I was really just playing for a better record (and to have fun obviously)
Full Team Report
Teambuilding Process + Naming Explanation
This team is just an edited version of the Lurantis team zoe made. I thought Lurantis was extremely strong and wanted to optimize the structure as much as I could. I dropped Porgyon2 for Mew to avoid an Urshifu-R weakness and to make the Stakataka matchup easier. I also made some changes to the sets, the most notable being the Assault Vest Volcanion and Bulky Dragapult. I noticed that Dragapult doesn't actually need to run full speed investment due to its unique speed tier, and could instead afford to invest in bulk to live Landorus Earth Power. Substitute Lurantis is also a small optimization to avoid burns and stall out turns for positioning. As for the nicknames, they're all references to Indie Cross, which is an extremely high quality FNF mod that pretty much exists as a love letter to Indie games. The OST is amazing and has a ton of work put into it, and I couldn't think of another, better nickname scheme, so I just went with it
Knockout! (Lurantis) @ Leftovers
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Atk / 24 Def / 16 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Grassy Glide
- Superpower
- Substitute
- Protect
Lurantis is, in my opinion, an extremely strong Pokémon right now. It's great at punishing high Incineroar usage, similarly to Galarian Zapdos, but I actually think Lurantis is quite a bit better than Galarian Zapdos and can straight up autowin some matchups, which Galarian Zapdos never feels like it can do because it has to lock into a move and constantly damage itself, meaning it usually only trades 1 for 1. Grassy Glide allows you to pick things off after Trick Room ends, and Substitute allows you to position yourself better than if you just had Protect, as well as prevent Lurantis from getting burned by Mew. No real reason behind the nickname but Knockout is really good
Final Stretch (Diancie) @ Hard Stone
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Atk / 52 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Diamond Storm
- Body Press
- Trick Room
- Protect
Diancie is also extremely strong right now. Diancie's Clear Body and spread Diamond Storm means its also good into Incineroar and can output massive amounts of damage under Trick Room with Hard Stone. The EVs allow you to OHKO Heatran at +2 with Body Press, with the remaining EVs put into Attack with a Brave nature. Once again no real reasoning behind the nickname.
Devil's Gambit (Rillaboom) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 84 Atk / 112 SpD / 64 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Grassy Glide
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Rillaboom does Rillaboom things. I've also already explained this spread earlier in the post, so there's literally nothing to talk about here. No relation between Rillaboom and the nickname, but Devil's Gambit is a really cool song for a rhythm game as far as vocal tracks go, I just wish the charting was better (It has been recharted by multiple people though, which makes me happy)
BURNING IN HELL (Volcanion) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 40 SpA / 216 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Steam Eruption
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
AV Volcanion is a really strong set right now. It's really good at trading damage with a lot of key targets for semiroom and makes a ton of matchups much easier. Fire Blast is also nice for higher single target damage against Pokemon like Celesteela and AmoongussThe EVs allow you to always live Nihilego Meteor Beam with the rest of the EVs going to Special Attack to give you the best chance possible of OHKOing Landorus with Steam Eruption. I named it Burning in Hell because it is a Fire-type.
Freaky Machine (Mew) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 152 SpA / 88 SpD
Modest Nature
- Fake Out
- Ice Beam
- Trick Room
- Earth Power
Mew functions pretty similarly to Porygon2 except with additional utility in Fake Out as well as nice access to Earth Power allowing it to OHKO Stakataka, which is otherwise a massive problem for semiroom teams like this. This Mew originally had Pollen Puff, but Zygarde was too much of an issue without Ice Beam. The EVs allow you to always OHKO Stakataka with Earth Power and live Life Orb Spectrier Shadow Ball. No connection between Mew and the nickname, I just couldn't think of anything else
Last Reel (Dragapult) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 84 HP / 4 Def / 248 SpA / 12 SpD / 160 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast
- Hydro Pump
Bulky Dragapult isn't a huge optimization on paper, but it makes more of a difference than you would think in practice. Having rolls to live Incineroar Knock Off and guaranteeing living Landorus Earth Power is huge in practice and makes the team feel more consistent. I chose Fire Blast and Hydro Pump for the non-STAB options because they're the only options on Dragapult that are actually stronger than just clicking Draco Meteor, and hitting Heatran and Incineroar for huge damage is great. The EVs allow you to outspeed Spectrier and live Landorus Earth Power. Alternatively, you could go bulkier by only speed creeping 376 speed (Grassy Seed Spectrier's main Speed benchmark) to allow for a guaranteed Incineroar Knock Off survival, but I would not recommend this at all. The extra bulk doesnt feel necessary and the speed means you actually lose out on quite a few relevant benchmarks (max Speed Spectrier, Modest Dragapult, Adamant/Modest Tapu Koko, Adamant Zeraora, etc.) I named it Last Reel because Dragapult's general shape language and color palette reminds me a lot of old cartoons, which is what BATIM is based on.
This is another team that performed really well in tests and that I enjoy using a lot that I wasn't able to do justice in the actual game, but it is what it is.
Teambuilding Process + Naming Explanation
This team is just an edited version of the Lurantis team zoe made. I thought Lurantis was extremely strong and wanted to optimize the structure as much as I could. I dropped Porgyon2 for Mew to avoid an Urshifu-R weakness and to make the Stakataka matchup easier. I also made some changes to the sets, the most notable being the Assault Vest Volcanion and Bulky Dragapult. I noticed that Dragapult doesn't actually need to run full speed investment due to its unique speed tier, and could instead afford to invest in bulk to live Landorus Earth Power. Substitute Lurantis is also a small optimization to avoid burns and stall out turns for positioning. As for the nicknames, they're all references to Indie Cross, which is an extremely high quality FNF mod that pretty much exists as a love letter to Indie games. The OST is amazing and has a ton of work put into it, and I couldn't think of another, better nickname scheme, so I just went with it
Knockout! (Lurantis) @ Leftovers
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Atk / 24 Def / 16 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Grassy Glide
- Superpower
- Substitute
- Protect
Lurantis is, in my opinion, an extremely strong Pokémon right now. It's great at punishing high Incineroar usage, similarly to Galarian Zapdos, but I actually think Lurantis is quite a bit better than Galarian Zapdos and can straight up autowin some matchups, which Galarian Zapdos never feels like it can do because it has to lock into a move and constantly damage itself, meaning it usually only trades 1 for 1. Grassy Glide allows you to pick things off after Trick Room ends, and Substitute allows you to position yourself better than if you just had Protect, as well as prevent Lurantis from getting burned by Mew. No real reason behind the nickname but Knockout is really good
Final Stretch (Diancie) @ Hard Stone
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Atk / 52 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Diamond Storm
- Body Press
- Trick Room
- Protect
Diancie is also extremely strong right now. Diancie's Clear Body and spread Diamond Storm means its also good into Incineroar and can output massive amounts of damage under Trick Room with Hard Stone. The EVs allow you to OHKO Heatran at +2 with Body Press, with the remaining EVs put into Attack with a Brave nature. Once again no real reasoning behind the nickname.
Devil's Gambit (Rillaboom) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 248 HP / 84 Atk / 112 SpD / 64 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Grassy Glide
- Knock Off
- U-turn
Rillaboom does Rillaboom things. I've also already explained this spread earlier in the post, so there's literally nothing to talk about here. No relation between Rillaboom and the nickname, but Devil's Gambit is a really cool song for a rhythm game as far as vocal tracks go, I just wish the charting was better (It has been recharted by multiple people though, which makes me happy)
BURNING IN HELL (Volcanion) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 40 SpA / 216 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Steam Eruption
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
AV Volcanion is a really strong set right now. It's really good at trading damage with a lot of key targets for semiroom and makes a ton of matchups much easier. Fire Blast is also nice for higher single target damage against Pokemon like Celesteela and AmoongussThe EVs allow you to always live Nihilego Meteor Beam with the rest of the EVs going to Special Attack to give you the best chance possible of OHKOing Landorus with Steam Eruption. I named it Burning in Hell because it is a Fire-type.
Freaky Machine (Mew) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 152 SpA / 88 SpD
Modest Nature
- Fake Out
- Ice Beam
- Trick Room
- Earth Power
Mew functions pretty similarly to Porygon2 except with additional utility in Fake Out as well as nice access to Earth Power allowing it to OHKO Stakataka, which is otherwise a massive problem for semiroom teams like this. This Mew originally had Pollen Puff, but Zygarde was too much of an issue without Ice Beam. The EVs allow you to always OHKO Stakataka with Earth Power and live Life Orb Spectrier Shadow Ball. No connection between Mew and the nickname, I just couldn't think of anything else
Last Reel (Dragapult) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 84 HP / 4 Def / 248 SpA / 12 SpD / 160 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast
- Hydro Pump
Bulky Dragapult isn't a huge optimization on paper, but it makes more of a difference than you would think in practice. Having rolls to live Incineroar Knock Off and guaranteeing living Landorus Earth Power is huge in practice and makes the team feel more consistent. I chose Fire Blast and Hydro Pump for the non-STAB options because they're the only options on Dragapult that are actually stronger than just clicking Draco Meteor, and hitting Heatran and Incineroar for huge damage is great. The EVs allow you to outspeed Spectrier and live Landorus Earth Power. Alternatively, you could go bulkier by only speed creeping 376 speed (Grassy Seed Spectrier's main Speed benchmark) to allow for a guaranteed Incineroar Knock Off survival, but I would not recommend this at all. The extra bulk doesnt feel necessary and the speed means you actually lose out on quite a few relevant benchmarks (max Speed Spectrier, Modest Dragapult, Adamant/Modest Tapu Koko, Adamant Zeraora, etc.) I named it Last Reel because Dragapult's general shape language and color palette reminds me a lot of old cartoons, which is what BATIM is based on.
This is another team that performed really well in tests and that I enjoy using a lot that I wasn't able to do justice in the actual game, but it is what it is.
Week 7 vs Browbeat Lands
Noelle vs Voltix (L)
Team Ideas
I won't write too much about this game because it didn't matter. I had been building this team all season and decided to bring it because it looked good into meminger's scout and what I knew about their teambuilding preferences. I didn't end up playing against Meminger, but I brought the team anyway because it's really good and I didnt feel like doing any prep when it didn't even matter if I won
Missing Muddy Water on Urshifu and Metagross getting high roll crit lost me the game (as well as Volcanion just being really annoying for my team), but I don't really care because the game didn't matter anyway. Despite the loss, I really enjoy this team. Coaching is an insanely good move and this is probably the first team I've enjoyed using Metagross on since DLT (which is... over a year ago now).
Week 1: I really like this team, Whimsicott Psyspam is pretty strong. It's an really fun team to use, and having flexibility with your speed control options is really nice
Week 2: We just brought a sample, not much to say.
Week 3: Probably my favorite week prep wise. Eject Button Whimsicott makes the team feel much better to play, and Dracozolt adds a lot of dimension to the team and helps with the Whimsicott mirror. I'm not super satisfied with the semiroom matchup, but that's just kind of something you have to accept with Whimsicott offense
Week 4: It's a really solid team that I'm pretty comfortable with, but I don't really have much to say about it really. Pollen Puff is nice for longevity and Landorus provides a ton of offensive momentum to the team, but it's mostly just a standard balance team.
Week 5: I actually didn't really like this team when I built it, but it's grown on me a lot and is one of my favorite teams this season. Spectrier and Stakataka is a really good pairing, and Substitute Landorus is a really good secondary way of breaking teams. AV Volcanion is also really nice here, its super bulky and trades damage with a ton of things that threaten Stakataka.
Week 6: Lurantis is really strong right now, I'm surprised it doesn't get used more. This is an edited version of an existing team so there's not much to say, but I think all of the optimizations are really nice and make the team feel better to play
Week 7: Pretty solid balance team, but having two Water-types is pretty exploitable and Volcanion is super annoying. Still though, its a pretty cool team and I like it a lot.
Conclusion
In the end, my final record is 0-4 with the SS slot's record beign 0-7. I do think that all of my teams are solid and that I played well in most of my games, but it does suck that I wasn't able to win a game. The Bo1 format makes each set really high variance + this is my first DPL, so I'm not too upset about my record though. To be completely honest, I'm just happy that I got drafted in the first place and that I got to be on a team with some pretty cool people. kaori DaAwesomeDude1 big pichu ratpacker Nido-Rus Yellow Paint Lemurro duckpond Level 51 thank you all for making this DPL a great experience and being very cool people, this has been one of my best experiences playing in tournament and I can't thank you all enough for that. To anyone that read this entire post, I am both grateful and concerned for your sanity. Have a damn good day.
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