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Hello and welcome to the post-HPL I thread! As the tour reaches its conclusion, this thread has been released to give players, managers, and spectators to dump teams, make shoutouts, comment on metagame trends, and generally meme and poke a bit of fun. This post will also link week threads and some other important threads for easier navigation in the future.
Well, it was fun while it lasted. I honestly went into hpl thinking I’d just sign up as a player and maybe get drafted as a sub but I ended up managing lol.
Fish Gaming: When you were asking people to manage with you, at first I was hesitant as I had never managed before but ultimately I’m glad I did. You were great to manage with and I appreciated having you on the team.
Big Tony: you always brought such a positive spirit to the team and were such a goated player. Really glad we drafted you.
Teamo:
Tea Guzzler: I was so hyped when I learned we drafted you. Was really fun seeing you play.
Onyx: you have been such a goat this whole tour and helped me out so much, your efforts have been very appreciated and I was grateful to have you on the team.
CSCL: Man, I didn’t think I’d be so hyped to watch ph games but every game you’ve played has been my favorite. Your team building style as well as play style always made me so hyped, thank you for being a goat.
Ransei: Was so hyped to draft this goat. Thank you for helping out so much in the ph slots.
CaoJie: made some good efforts and were a cool addiction to the team.
Sheep: always a positive force, glad to have had you on the team.
Tack: you were always a good cheer leader and a force for good. I gave you a team and you did your best with it, despite my mess up with it. Really loved having you on the team.
Binary Search: another really amazing cheer leader. You did amazingly with the team I passed you. Thank you for being another positive force on the team.
Mathy: you were killing it this tour! Always so positive and such a goated SS hc player, thank you for being amazing.
Poat the Goat: You were an amazing sv hc player and I was happy to have you on the team. You really proved to be a stellar member.
Overall I loved this tour and loved managing with this team. Thank you Rex and BoingK for being amazing host.
here's most of the funny and probably out of context screenshots (i took out the ones that aren't funny or will probably get me infracted easier than the ones in here) about hpl i've gathered since the very start of the tour. be warned that there are a lotof them. and they are not in order.
teamdump coming soon-ish in bazaar and shouts will come after the tour actually ends.
GhastlyPixie: I was nervous I wouldn't get a manager partner, but you showed up. You were amazing to manage with, and I would gladly manage with you again.
Big Tony: Goat, all around. That 4k didn't go to waste, you were easily one of the MVPs of the tour.
Teamo: You existed.
Tea Guzzler: I was so hyped when I learned we drafted you. Was really fun seeing you play. Worth
Onyx: Even with the value we got from Big Tony, you were easily THE MVP of the tour. Carrying multiple slots isn't easy.
CSCL: Didn't know who you were at first, but now I know. You are a goat.
Ransei: Easy PH carry. Good job.
CaoJie: You did good when you did play.
Sheep: always a positive force, glad to have had you on the team.
Tack: you were always a good cheer leader and a force for good. Really loved having you on the team.
Binary Search: although you didnt do much, you did great when you did
Mathy: goated with the sauce
Poat the Goat: we didn't give you the name "poat the goat" for nothing. good job
This was a good experience for my first time ever managing a tour team. Thank you Rex and BoingK for hosting this tour.
(ignore the fact i forgot to change tack and sheep's post, you two are both still appreciated)
Arena Trap
Comatose
Contrary
Gorilla Tactics
Hadron Engine
Huge Power
Illusion
Innards Out
Libero
Liquid Ooze
Magnet Pull
Moody
Neutralizing Gas
Orichalcum Pulse
Parental Bond
Poison Heal
Protean
Pure Power
Shadow Tag
Stakeout
Water Bubble
Wonder Guard
+
Sand Veil
Snow Cloak
Baton Pass
Belly Drum
Ceaseless Edge
Dire Claw
Electro Shot
Fillet Away
Imprison
Last Respects
Lumina Crash
Photon Geyser
Quiver Dance
Rage Fist
Revival Blessing
Shed Tail
Shell Smash
Substitute
Tail Glow
+
Spore
Double Team
Minimize
Guillotine
Sheer Cold
Fissure
Dark Void
Sing
Clauses
HP Percentage Mod: HP is shown in percentages
Sleep Moves Clause: Sleep-inducing moves are banned. This excludes self-inflicted sleep.
Endless Battle Clause: Forcing endless battles is banned
Reveal Clause: Pokemon have the correct sprites in battle and on the UI.
The final frontier of competitive battling. With everything but ONLY THE BEST OF THE BEST allowed, there will be no Luck-Based-Strategies™.
With all the tools you could ever need, Banned Hackmons is the apex of the Gen 9 Hackmons competitive format. A true test of skill it is to face off with another on truly even footing.
I really enjoyed this HPL and I performed better than expected, pulling out some great sets against some players I respect a ton. I'd like to go through the teams I used over the course of the tour and how they came to be, including some of the shifting metagame trends that Iguana and I observed leading to the archetypes we used.
Week 1 vs Eyeos
I took an act win, but I played an exhibition match against lagbad with the team: replay
I had a rather open mind going into the first week of this tournament, deciding to run a rather safe tri-wg setup and hoping to make slow progress through a non-boosting mold breaker and trickscarfing an essential defensive pokemon. The major issue I see with this team upon shaking my oras ph rust later in the tour is the lack of gastro acid on the no guard deo, leaving very light hazard pressure and a scarf mold to deal with wgs in their entirety. Prankster groudon is a recycling of an old idea that can potentially catch some boosting mold breakers off guard, therefore removing much of an opponent's offensive pressure and winning with tri-wg and strong hazard removal, but the idea isn't very thorough and it's quite a narrow wincond. This team is definitely not great, and I think the idea could be improved upon without having to rely too much on the scare factor of twin deoxys and the opponent not having to outwardly risk their non-wgs. This team earns an unfortunate F ranking and I would rank it as one of the worst teams I prepped during the tour. I think the idea could easily be made better by using stronger hazard setting to rack up pressure on opposing defensive pokemon through the looming deoxys threat.
I got ultrastomped in this game and completely had no taunt counterplay. I think this team is completely serviceable if I chose a better Sableye set, preferrably one that utilized magic coat. Not much to say otherwise, scarf MMY or MMX could also make this team a whole lot better with some better speed control that can pressure fast WGs. Will give this team a C ranking since I think it can be improved to be great, just I didn't bother to do the work when I was actually loading it.
I was feeling super lost after the last game and looking through my options of prepared teams and settled on just using aerobee's moldy diancie sample. I got a pretty bad MU into opposing mold diancie and got punished for using a team that didn't fit into my comfort zone.
This team is absolutely the spiritual successor to the first jb team. Coming into mid-season I started valuing Magic Bounce super highly because of ongoing taunt shenanigans and placed much more emphasis on speed control and reliable winconds. This is also the only time I used imposter in the entire tournament which was pretty surprising to me- I originally rated it pretty highly on my mental pre-tour tier list, but I struggled intensely to actually fit it on any team I was building. My match vs ransei was the most excited I was all season to build and play, as I knew I could lean into slightly less traditional builds and pull out some unexpected surprises. My actual g1 vs ransei was super awesome and probably one of my favorite matches I played in the entire tour with very aggressive and explosive plays coming from the both of us. I came out on top due to MMY's insane speed and Ransei not wanting to risk a quick wakeup, but the entire match was down to the wire. I'll give this team a more solid B rating due to its direct improvement upon last week's prepped team and the fact that it plays much cleaner and more within my comfort zone than its previous iteration.
Thank you to lag=bad for building this team for me. This is what I was talking about when I said I felt more liberty to bring stranger team choices in the tour, especially against someone like ransei who is very familiar with my anti-spam sentiment (thanks to NtotheN for digging up this old post that I still kind of agree with to this day. I don't have much to say outside of the fact that this team is awesome and the fact that I used it speaks to how much I appreciate the tournament side of oras, with teams that can be more specifically tailored to beating opponents or throwing opponents off guard. Absolute A ranking of a team because it's so fun to play and it's the first (and only) time I've ever bothered to use a team like it.
Absolutely awesome semistall team that I prepped for the week prior, but I was super happy with the game that I played with it against Ransei. One of the biggest splashes that this team made was the Arceus set which caused some discussion in the hpl server as to whether this set was actually good or complete dogshit. The goal of this team and the arceus set is to specifically knock off any goggles or lum berries that the opponent may be holding and spread spore with prankster slowbro, leading to a sweep with either Kyurem or Gengar against sleeping opponents. Idea-wise it lines up pretty well, but in practice it gets gastro-pursuited to death. I have a lot more to say about this specific arceus set that probably warrants its own post in the hackmons thread, so this isn't the last time I'll be talking about this team. Another B rating because it's a rather incomplete idea and slightly sitting outside of my comfort zone, despite using extremely strange and afaik previously unseen ideas.
Banger stag shred offense at the complete apex of my comfort zone and teambuilding. At this point in the tour, i was confident bringing stag shred because of the reduction in shed shell was pretty drastic in favor of lefties or goggles. My favorite part of this team is the giratina set, and it's settled into my favorite prankster set to use- taunt and willowisp shut down so many defensive wonder guard users, as well as opposing prankster giratina that's able to get massively chipped. In addition, I think this team really showcases how necessary it is to run an offensive move on midrange wgs, since absolutely any chatter or scald chip is central to letting a stag remove your opponent's non-wgs. In general, this team performed exactly as expected and really slams players that aren't used to stag shred's intense momentum. A rating because I felt like I was finally getting rolling with my building, as well as this being my absolute favorite archetype of team to play right now.
Another awesome team that I felt super confident with, I prepped this against manu because I felt I would struggle against his extremely solid hazard play. Iguana cooked up this awesome stag metagross set going into the week and I was super into it, so I combined it with my previously mentioned favorite prankster set, now put on venusaur to try and better match up into Diancie and Gyarados, alongside a magic bounce giratina. Due to a first turn misplay on Manu's side I was able to capitalize on removing his own shadow tag user, which would've shredded through my defensive core, and neutralize his poison heal user with my magic bouncer. Funnily enough manu brought dual shell to try and avoid my own stag, which was a great call on his part watching my past handful of games. Latios as a mold breaker was a bit of an odd choice and I'm not sold on it completely, I think I was mostly trying to use it for some nostalgia purposes and because I think oblivion wing latios is a super effective mold into more midrange wonder guard users. I think this is the best team I built all tournament with a ton of little techs and great counterplay against many styles of both offense and balance, earning another A rating.
Thank you to the groudons for carrying me to the playoffs, I had a lot of fun with this tour and it lit a bit of a fire under me to play some more oras ph. I'll be looking forward to the next iteration of this tour and the insight-gleaning posts that other players are bound to post soon.
Shoutout Iguana for being my primary testing partner and giving me great building ideas and insight, Ransei for being an amazing long-time player and friend, Test Rex for organizing this tour and reaching out to me months ago asking if i'd play, and NToTheN for awesome oras ph commentaries that I hope will continue. Shoutout to the rest of the red groudons, super great team and one of the strongest teamtour teams i've been a part of in a while. Curse of the #1 seed strikes again.
Post-HPL player feedback survey. Please fulfill the survey so I know ur thoughts about this tour. It would be very helpful
Survey here: https://forms.gle/yuGJEaPr7RzQ2tLc7
(I know HPL hasnt ended yet cuz we are going through tiebreakers, but these shouldnt affect survey results)
Post-HPL player feedback survey. Please fulfill the survey so I know ur thoughts about this tour. It would be very helpful
Survey here: https://forms.gle/yuGJEaPr7RzQ2tLc7
(I know HPL hasnt ended yet cuz we are going through tiebreakers, but these shouldnt affect survey results)
GhastlyPixie: I was nervous I wouldn't get a manager partner, but you showed up. You were amazing to manage with, and I would gladly manage with you again.
Big Tony: Goat, all around. That 4k didn't go to waste, you were easily one of the MVPs of the tour.
Teamo: You existed.
Tea Guzzler: I was so hyped when I learned we drafted you. Was really fun seeing you play. Worth
Onyx: Even with the value we got from Big Tony, you were easily THE MVP of the tour. Carrying multiple slots isn't easy.
CSCL: Didn't know who you were at first, but now I know. You are a goat.
Ransei: Easy PH carry. Good job.
CaoJie: You did good when you did play.
Sheep: always a positive force, glad to have had you on the team.
Tack: you were always a good cheer leader and a force for good. Really loved having you on the team.
Binary Search: although you didnt do much, you did great when you did
Mathy: goated with the sauce
Poat the Goat: we didn't give you the name "poat the goat" for nothing. good job
This was a good experience for my first time ever managing a tour team. Thank you Rex and BoingK for hosting this tour.
(ignore the fact i forgot to change tack and sheep's post, you two are both still appreciated)
hey all, mamp here. bh has been a big part of my life for the past 10 or so years, so it was disappointing to me when i wasn't able to connect with the current gen metagame. for that reason i was initially very keen for this tournament, a chance to get back into bh and play some sword and shield, imo the best that bh has ever been.
unfortunately i wasn't able to put my all into it for the first few weeks of this tournament. i've had a lot going on in my personal life these past few months, including breaking up with my long-term girlfriend and moving to a new city. i didn't do much testing or warmup at all, and it showed in my play all tournament. i was hella rusty and didn't quite shake it off even by the end. so it goes. i had expected to get right into building new teams, but it's been so long since i was doing it regularly that i found it quite difficult to even begin. teambuilding is a craft, and like all crafts it is like a muscle. my ss bh teambuilding muscle is limp and atrophied. the only fix for this, of course, is to build again and again and to test and test and eventually regain that fluidity and tap back into the old flow of ideas. but i didn't have that in me.
the single blessing of the replays going down is that nobody could scout me. every team i brought was reused, and most of them were public, in post-ompl/omwc teamdumps or just posted in the thread. most replays lost in the replay purge were recovered, but those that are still missing are largely from between late 2020 and early 2023. ie, basically the entire history of crown tundra bh is lost. to me that's a profound tragedy. tournaments like this one help to restore that history, in a way, so i'm thankful for that. i've also found myself being thankful for loser, tea guzzler, and chessking's old ompl/omwc game reviews. at the time, i always wished that these focused more on analysis and providing insight and less on recounting the events of the match, but now that the replays are gone these text recaps are all we have left.
in the last few weeks of the tournament i was able to lock back in and put up a performance i could be prouder of. i was very annoyed at losing to hayedenn and found some tranquility in my day-to-day life, so i had a lot of motivation and energy to devote to bh. while i feel that my play was still sloppy, i'm happy to have not finished with a losing record, and particularly to have won both of my finals matches. my team was great too: i didn't chat much, but all the regis were chill, supportive, and excellent at hackmons. couldn't have asked for a better squad. however the tiebreak turns out, i'm really happy with how this tournament went and proud of my team. as long as ss bh is still on the lineup, i will be here again for the next one. adios
ps: here is a pokepaste of my entire gen 8 bh builder https://pokepast.es/d17b88f635189a35 making this public so i'm forced to actually build teams next time
pps: i didn't want to complain about it at the time bc complaining about luck in pokemon is for babies but maaaaaan vs andyboy if i got the roll with magearna vs gigas (+1 modest pixie plate boomburst is like 70% to ohko) i probs won that game on the spot fuck
ppps: dm me on discord @m4mp if u ever want to play ss bh or if poison heal gets unbanned
Well we didn't quite manage to pull off the win, but I'm still really happy with how well we did this tour.
I'll write more on my thoughts on SVBH + teamdump later and maybe some more about the tour. But I'm really looking forward to doing it again next year, HPL was a big success.
Massive shoutouts to my team as a whole, we did amazing for how chaotic the drafting process and how stacked some of the opposition were.
pannu big shoutouts for being a great player and it being a lot of fun to build with you. You brought a ton of energy to the team. As for your role as a co-manager...
cityscapes massive shoutouts for helping me manage for the tour and just generally absolutely pulling your weight for the expensive draft price. Also just being a cool person to talk to about BH and about anything else.
Ballfire I'm so glad I drafted you because your PH knowledge helped carry us in the draft and during the tour. manu 11 and sussyamongusdrip you three together kept our PH channels incredibly active and enthusiastic, which from what I've heard from the other teams was pretty special. I'm not too well versed in the tier but I'm glad I was able to engage a little at the end because watching you guys really made me wanna learn the tier.
BugGoBrrrrrr Glad I scouted you as someone who would pop off in BH. You were a great player and brought a bunch of cool ideas. It's a shame you had to be subbed out a couple times because seeing you play was always cool.
MAMP sorry to hear that IRL got in the way of your investment in the tour, but you did amazingly well in spite of that and I'm glad you were on the team.
Kabilapok shoutouts for being the team's only player who could sub into BH LOL, you ended up saving us despite not having that much BH experience.
mayonnaise. mayo. shoutouts for bringing a ton of energy and motivation to the tour to the point of it being a little exessive sometimes lol. Hope you stick around in the hackmons community.
Well we didn't quite manage to pull off the win, but I'm still really happy with how well we did this tour.
I'll write more on my thoughts on SVBH + teamdump later and maybe some more about the tour. But I'm really looking forward to doing it again next year, HPL was a big success.
Massive shoutouts to my team as a whole, we did amazing for how chaotic the drafting process and how stacked some of the opposition were.
pannu big shoutouts for being a great player and it being a lot of fun to build with you. You brought a ton of energy to the team. As for your role as a co-manager...
cityscapes massive shoutouts for helping me manage for the tour and just generally absolutely pulling your weight for the expensive draft price. Also just being a cool person to talk to about BH and about anything else.
Ballfire I'm so glad I drafted you because your PH knowledge helped carry us in the draft and during the tour. manu 11 and sussyamongusdrip you three together kept our PH channels incredibly active and enthusiastic, which from what I've heard from the other teams was pretty special. I'm not too well versed in the tier but I'm glad I was able to engage a little at the end because watching you guys really made me wanna learn the tier.
BugGoBrrrrrr Glad I scouted you as someone who would pop off in BH. You were a great player and brought a bunch of cool ideas. It's a shame you had to be subbed out a couple times because seeing you play was always cool.
MAMP sorry to hear that IRL got in the way of your investment in the tour, but you did amazingly well in spite of that and I'm glad you were on the team.
Kabilapok shoutouts for being the team's only player who could sub into BH LOL, you ended up saving us despite not having that much BH experience.
mayonnaise. mayo. shoutouts for bringing a ton of energy and motivation to the tour to the point of it being a little exessive sometimes lol. Hope you stick around in the hackmons community.
@mayonnaise. mayo. shoutouts for bringing a ton of energy and motivation to the tour to the point of it being a little exessive sometimes lol. Hope you stick around in the hackmons community.
well, that's finally the end of this tour. this was very fun and i would love to do this again next year
Yoko thanks for reaching out to me asking if i wanted to manage. i really was just looking to be a random player who went 2-3 again but being a manager was a totally different and chaotic but pretty eye opening experience. you also were a bunch of help with teambuilding and actually managing so thanks for that as well.
anaconja goated usum bh slot, you were (iirc) one of our top picks for that slot and i'm glad we got you, and your performance was certainly not bad if we ignore getting cheesed. also you somehow cheesed out a win in ph vs the ph guy which is hilarious lets do that again next year ok
TheCreatorOfBullsht fire usum ph'er, sorry i didn't talk to you more you cooked asf for all the games! if only we didn't get stolen too much games
Eyeos i would've preferred if you were more active but it is what it is, you tried your best
Stolen Identitydamflame 3Treeko928lemonstre1 you were all absolutely banger of svbh slots and it was incredibly fun theorizing up up wack ass shit with you. all great players too, man the hax really got to us didnt it
all of you were good synergy, glad i picked you up
Andyboy secret ssbh goat???? you cooked too hard for what i paid man gz sorry that i couldnt help you a lot
GloryRL bees bees bees bees. bees bees bees bees, bees bees bees
(you both were awesome also it was hilarious to shitpost with you to the point orasph-2-aka-nat-glory was literally just insanity)
platinumCheesecakeFragmentsPanty&Stockings i didn't really interact with hackmons cup players because i first thought it didn't require much skill, but after seeing you guys play i was like damn this format is fire
sorry for not really interacting with you but you all were fire asf
TDLoriatANinjaDude sorry you both didn't get to play a single time, all the weeks were tight as hell we couldn't make any space. you were still great at boosting mentals and tossing us ideas sometimes though, thanks
rightclicker you were so fraud man smh pull this shit back next year at least get to finals
ANinjaDude sorry you both didn't get to play a single time, all the weeks were tight as hell we couldn't make any space. you were still great at boosting mentals and tossing us ideas sometimes though, thanks
Congratulations to the Nefarious Necrozmas for winning OM's first Hackmons Premier League Tournament. This was a blast and I hope future Hackmons Premier League tournaments continue to turn out great. I'm here to post about the teams I've made throughout the tournament and what my general thoughts about them were. I've built a lot of teams, plenty of them were thought up quickly and several weeks ago, so my explanations behind them won't be too extensive.
Week 1: This was scheduled with a battle of 3 agreed upon well beforehand. I also felt I needed to support my teammates with a supply of teams, so the first week was when I built the most amount of teams.
G1: https://pokepast.es/b034ed2f991920ad
The goal with this team was to run an obscure Wonder Guard the opponent might not have as sufficient of prep for. I like Dusclops since it was bulky, a slow pivoter, and didn't have too severe of weaknesses. I also wanted Primal Groudon answers. A Primal Groudon without answers is the most broken Pokémon in the metagame, making Mega Gyarados a great fit for this team. I used Choice Band Primal Groudon thinking it would be great at breaking if Electra didn't have a check to it. Choice Band also let Primal Groudon punish opposing Giratina who try to halt it. Pixilate Diancie is great at pressuring teams with Mega Ray, Mega Gyarados, Giratina, standard stuff overall, and Xerneas was a subpasser for Primal Groudon to eventually sweep. Giratina is Giratina. Its main job is making sure sweepers don't overcome it.
G2: https://pokepast.es/1c928b1f88cfcce9
I believe I built this as a more creative means to bait Primal Groudon but run Imposterproof for Manectric with Earth Plate Judgment, since Primal Groudon usually like switching in on Mega Manectric. Aside from that this team is pretty generic. Regigigas punished most sweepers while having Water Shuriken in case Primal Groudon somehow had its way. Mega Mewtwo X was designed to break common Wonder Guards like Xerneas/Mega Audino, Primal Kyogre, Mega Scizor, and Arceus, Mega Audino was Wonder Guard support, and Giratina was still around to Encore Shell Smashers out.
G3: https://pokepast.es/01a7d71fc6244499
Dual Mega Mewtwo X is cracked so I decided to make a team of it here, run a variety of coverage alongside King's Shield, then hope the Mewtwo had sufficient physical coverage. King's Shield was used for scouting and helping Mega Mewtwo X survive longer. A sweeper Xerneas was added because I felt it'd fit well into most matchups. Scald was given for Primal Groudon, Judgment was for Improofing Xerneas and defeating Mega Audino, and Moonblast is naturally able to clear the large plethora of fairy weak Pokemon in the metagame, but otherwise makes for a good attack move to chip opponents in general. I felt Imposter Chansey would be nice here in order to scout.
Sheep Liver: https://pokepast.es/4cd985aaff9298c0
This match was scheduled to be done much sooner than I hoped so I ended up slapping together something as quickly as I could. The goal here was to run obscure wonder guards and cheese hoping lag=bad wouldn't have strong answers to these. I wanted the team to be easy to use while being destructive and whipping out surprising tactics that'd likely throw lag=bad off. This is why Mold Breaker Moonblast Steam Eruption Kyogre is there. It deals with Primal Groudon, Giratina, Mega Gyarados, and Mega Rayquaza, always hits Wonder Guards, and could potentially sweep overall. STAG Scarf Mega Mewtwo X can trap and clear Pokemon it holds great matchups against, Specs Mega Rayquaza just breaks, and Prankster Arceus was added as a second Arceus to promote surprise tactics even more. With 2 Arceus, it'll be harder to tell which one is which. One is obviously Wonder Guard. The other could pretend to be Wonder Guard and click Destiny Bond to eliminate a sweeper who thought this was Wonder Guard Arceus. Subpass Arceus was to assist Primal Kyogre or Mega Rayquaza, allowing either to potentially sweep.
Week 2:
G1: https://pokepast.es/950364f81556b581
Will admit prior to this week I wanted to try out dual Gyarados, despite knowing the possible risks of it. Acknowledging aerobee's prediction in RL running scarier teams, I saw this as an opportunity. RL being more likely to run brokens meant they were more likely to run Primal Groudon, Giratina, and Mega Rayquaza, so of course, I figured this style could be harshly punished by two Mega Gyarados + a Mega Diancie. Band Mega Gyarados could ensure Giratina gets OHKOed while dismantling Wonder Guards with Trick, while the Lum Berry focuses on counteracting Dark Void and punishing off that. I felt Mold Breaker Mega Ray could be useful as a sweeper here, supported by subpass Kyogre and Mega Rayquaza's own Substitute. Moonblast Kyogre is an idea I came up on my own since it works similarly well to Xerneas, landing KOs against Giratina, Mega Rayquaza, and other Fairy weak Pokemon but out of nowhere this time since it's unexpected. I knew coming into this game that this team could've been risky to run, but determined I perhaps could make it work out.
Cao Jie: https://pokepast.es/494cdcb354b322a1
My mentality with this team was similar to the week 1 Sheep Liver team. I wanted to build a team that's easier to use while having obscure Wonder Guard Pokemon the opponent is less likely to prep for. This time the main difference was my decision to make this team more concrete and standard than the one on week 1. I also had various Pokemon used in consideration to what Cao Jie's opponent seemed likely to run.
Week 3:
G1: https://pokepast.es/f92afa080f085234
By this point I've gathered a general idea of what's gone big throughout the tournament. I decided I could no longer trust using Primal Groudon as preps for it were everywhere. Onyx thought up the idea of using Mega Garchomp and after some time I decided to try it out. For me the plan was to use it similarly to Primal Groudon, with Mental Herb to work around Encore, Ice Shard to tackle Ice Shard Mega Rayquaza, and of course Thousand Arrows being the main source of damage output. I did acknowledge that this set made the team vulnerable to Imposter ahead of time, but my thoughts about this were "Well, Imposter hasn't been very common and is not as influential in ORAS as it is in other generations, so I think it's unlikely that berry would run Imposter". I ran this team hoping berry wouldn't run Imposter, but to my luck ended up going through the ONLY game berry brought Imposter in throughout the ENTIRE tournament. SMH. Nevertheless I got lucky around Imposter and lost a really close fight I could've won. It was epic. For the rest of this team's details, Dialga and Registeel were designed to resist Mega Rayquaza's STABs while either defending or sweeping. The rest were standard Pokemon I would usually run to target common Pokemon or have as support.
G2: https://pokepast.es/0ae3efcf8495896c
I did not expect or prepare for a battle of 3 as it was requested last second, so I decided to whip out an old team from like 3-4 years ago. It's pretty outdated but can still work. Choice Band Mega Ray is not common but can be great at heavily breaking teams without a Pursuit targeting it.
G3: https://pokepast.es/ac4dbc962f5ae42f
This is the same as the final team I used in Week 1 except with Chansey replaced by Mega Gyarados because screw Primal Groudon. I just came out of barely winning a battle against Primal Groudon spam due to a V-Create miss and wanted to be a little more prepared for that in case I had to deal with it again.
Week 4:
G1: https://pokepast.es/3f3f2e9b67765475
This team was heavily designed to counter jb291's normal builds, which usually involve Mega Scizor / Mega Beedrill + Mega Swampert. I was confident enough in the Protean Mega Latios and Shadow Tag Mega Mewtwo X builds to risk running a No Guard that could finalize jb291's team after their Wonder Guards have been taken down. Uh, problem - I did not anticipate running into an 0-6 matchup against jb291 with them running a team that wasn't theirs. rip me. I got 6-0ed on team preview but played pretending I didn't and got one Pokemon down anyway. I was offered a battle of 3 before this game but refused to accept it as this was a last second request and I only had this team in mind. The scheduling was also so late but this time I couldn't have been bothered to whip out two more teams all the sudden again.
[7:09 AM]
is quite impossible to fully scout I think because they are a really old player who just started playing seriously again with that HPL game from yesterday
Big Ransei 2014
[9:49 AM]
Everyone is running Water Shuriken, Oblivion Wing, and Chatter in order to stop sweepers. I was thinking Dialga but it does not have an easy time against Primal Kyogre
[9:50 AM]
You know who solves all of these?
[9:50 AM]
A Mold Breaker sweeper I thought sucked this whole time
[9:50 AM]
A Mold Breaker sweeper nobody has ever used in this tournament yet
[9:50 AM]
A Mold Breaker sweeper who might just break the mold for the tournament in this round
[9:50 AM]
I am talking Zekrom
[9:51 AM]
But can Spacial Rend do enough
[9:52 AM]
I'll have to calc to find out
[9:53 AM]
+2 252+ SpA Mold Breaker Zekrom Spacial Rend vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Giratina: 576-678 (114.5 - 134.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
[9:54 AM]
+2 252+ SpA Mold Breaker Zekrom Spacial Rend vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Mewtwo-Mega-X: 339-399 (96 - 113%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
[9:59 AM]
and there is no way they'll ever see us using Zekrom coming because iirc you've never ran Zekrom and I'm always talking how Zekrom sucks (edited)
[9:59 AM]
but now I see the opportunity
Big Ransei 2014
If Excaliju's team from last week is anything to go by, I think Zekrom would be much more effective against him than against jb, which is why I'm bringing it up here! It should pair with Mega Gyarados to solve potential issues with Giratina and Primal Groudon
[10:07 AM]
Gonna build a team with Gyarados being fast and having dread plate at some point
[10:07 AM]
Last week proved the Gyarados set I used against berry was :trash:
[10:09 AM]
+2 252+ SpA Mold Breaker Zekrom Spacial Rend vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Groudon-Primal: 370-436 (91.8 - 108.1%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
[10:10 AM]
Risky but another thing is that last week Excaliju's Primal Groudon was Wonder Guard
[10:10 AM]
and I'm thinking it probably had SpD EVs
[10:11 AM]
If he runs a Mold Breaker one this Calc is safe with some rocks up but if it doesn't appear to be Mold Breaker and there is no obvious 2nd Wonder Guard, Mega Gyarados is the best bet to deal with it
[10:12 AM]
for WG pdon might just randomly nuke Zekrom or smth (edited)
Big Ransei 2014
Also if Zekrom misses
[10:16 AM]
I think an Aromatherapy user would be nice. Maybe Arceus or Mega Swampert? Uh
[10:17 AM]
Arceus feels less safe with Mega Mewtwo X's uprising popularity especially with aerobee involved.
[10:51 AM] https://pokepast.es/84ea6569e62a89f3 made swampert physical bulk instead to make potentially pivoting to Mega Gyarados easier (edited)
[10:51 AM]
in case pdon wreaks havoc
Big Ransei 2014
I just did a test game with Lost Glory (using a team I used last week against berry) and I think it's safe to say Mental Herb does not suffice for sweepers. Playing around Encore Gira w/o mental herb is the only way, for the chances of getting hit by Spore and Dark Void are too costly
small ass liver lmao
What’s mega steelix for
Colossal Pix 2069
I’m assuming it is for dark void users that aren’t mold breaker
Big Ransei 2014
Imposterproofing Zekrom and otherwise answering Dark Void
Colossal Pix 2069
But zek is mold breaker so void doesn’t bounce
[11:58 AM]
Ig that’s what lum berry is for tho
Big Ransei 2014
I gtg but fair here are a few changes (ill add them to a pokepaste later)
[12:01 PM]
Spore > Dark Void on Zekrom
[12:01 PM]
Safety Goggles > Lum on Steelix
[12:02 PM]
Thousand Waves > Scald (maybe)
Colossal Pix 2069
I like those changes
This was the ORAS Pure Hackmons team I was most excited to build in the entire tournament since I felt it could potentially make some type of breakthrough. It lets Zekrom express the potential to shine in an environment where Mega Rayquaza was becoming a lot more dominant. I figured Swampert + Xerneas could make a decent core since they're both great Wonder Guards of different types of their own, with Mega Swampert in particular proving to be consistent at this point. I decided to try out building Dread Plate Mega Gyarados for the first time since my week 3 game 2 had Lum Berry Gyarados barely missing out on an OHKO against Giratina, which sucked. I figured more damage output would be nice for when more Giratina were fought. As aforementioned, Mega Steelix was to Imposterproof Zekrom but it also served as support for the team. I tried out Scald as it could potentially be useful for burns. Zekrom was relying on moves below 100% accuracy but I didn't care, reflecting on how Primal Groudon tend to get away with having Precipice Blades on most sets in Anything Goes. I was just wishing for the best here. I'm kinda proud of this team. This game was a battle of 3, but despite this, I only built one team due to not being notified of a battle of 3 ahead of time. I was also hoping this would not be a battle of 3 to be honest.
Week 5:
G1: https://pokepast.es/81d2838ca0dae739
I had almost no information about my opponent so I decided to run a combination of things that are more standard alongside two offensive Wonder Guards. Primal Kyogre was made to break through Primal Groudon and Mega Rayquaza while threatening other non Wonder Guards, while I felt confident that Mega Gengar could threaten plenty of potential Pokemon with Ghost + Fighting coverage alone despite not being a Wonder Guard. Sludge Wave was to answer common Wonder Guard Fairy-types as always. Mega Diancie was there to answer shell smash sweepers, as the predictions brought up this possibility, and Mold Breaker Mega Rayquaza was going strong in the tournament so I decided to bring it up here. The only thing I have to say here is that this team didn't work as well against Primal Groudon as I wanted but I definitely misused Primal Kyogre here, which factored into that. I won because Giratina woke up.
With all the hype going around about Mega Rayquaza, I decided to whip out two here feeling confident it could be of use. Gale Wings could've helped revenge kill stuff while the Mold Breaker set could sweep and even Taunt out opposing Giratina. I wasn't too sure on what Excaliju could bring but thought to run preparation in case he ran the same team jb291 did in week 4, from aerobee. I liked the Mega Gengar from Week 5, so I decided to try it out again. Excaliju requested a battle of 3, but I denied it as whether or not I could battle this week let alone have online consistent enough to not dq by timer midgame was a matter of question. The area I live in got hit by a hurricane so the power and internet were out for a couple days and otherwise inconsistent. Fortunately I still managed to make it into this fight but apparently Excaliju had to be substitute out last second. As for the team jb291 ran in week 4, made by aerobee, I unfortunately forgot the sets that team ran and still ended up in mostly disadvantageous matchup despite having perfect coverage on Mega Mewtwo X (as I was met against an opposing perfect coverage Huge Power Mega Mewtwo X with dual priority to revenge kill my MMX + outprioritize my Prankster Destiny Bond, they had Mega Gyarados to significantly hamper my own perfect coverage Mega Mewtwo X while I had to play a guessing game of which Mega Mewtwo X was which, and there was a Wonder Mega Mewtwo X who ended up OHKOing Mega Rayquaza with a critical hit, leaving me unable to tell it was Wonder Guard). I was also stacked with a few strings of bad RNG against me I didn't realize changed the tide of the game significantly (to the extent of which I would've otherwise won the game) until some time after the battle. This was not a good game and I hated playing it.
Outside ORAS, I've helped players test for Gen 7 Pure Hackmons plenty of times over and want to share some of the stuff I've used in them either because they're decent/good or they're funny.
Thanks to everyone who have participated in this tournament and for making this a relatively toxic-free environment from what I've seen. I enjoyed being in the tour overall, playing Gen 6 Hackmons and having many test games especially for Gen 7 Pure Hackmons. It was a good run and I hope to be able to enter again next year.
Also s/o to Celesteelas for being a welcoming team full of players who knew what they were doing throughout the tournament. I enjoyed being in this team.
If anyone has any questions or concerns regarding this post or any of these teams, feel free to address it.
well, that's finally the end of this tour. this was very fun and i would love to do this again next year
Yoko thanks for reaching out to me asking if i wanted to manage. i really was just looking to be a random player who went 2-3 again but being a manager was a totally different and chaotic but pretty eye opening experience. you also were a bunch of help with teambuilding and actually managing so thanks for that as well.
anaconja goated usum bh slot, you were (iirc) one of our top picks for that slot and i'm glad we got you, and your performance was certainly not bad if we ignore getting cheesed. also you somehow cheesed out a win in ph vs the ph guy which is hilarious lets do that again next year ok
TheCreatorOfBullsht fire usum ph'er, sorry i didn't talk to you more you cooked asf for all the games! if only we didn't get stolen too much games
Eyeos i would've preferred if you were more active but it is what it is, you tried your best
Stolen Identitydamflame 3Treeko928lemonstre1 you were all absolutely banger of svbh slots and it was incredibly fun theorizing up up wack ass shit with you. all great players too, man the hax really got to us didnt it
all of you were good synergy, glad i picked you up
Andyboy secret ssbh goat???? you cooked too hard for what i paid man gz sorry that i couldnt help you a lot
GloryRL bees bees bees bees. bees bees bees bees, bees bees bees
(you both were awesome also it was hilarious to shitpost with you to the point orasph-2-aka-nat-glory was literally just insanity)
platinumCheesecakeFragmentsPanty&Stockings i didn't really interact with hackmons cup players because i first thought it didn't require much skill, but after seeing you guys play i was like damn this format is fire
sorry for not really interacting with you but you all were fire asf
TDLoriatANinjaDude sorry you both didn't get to play a single time, all the weeks were tight as hell we couldn't make any space. you were still great at boosting mentals and tossing us ideas sometimes though, thanks
rightclicker you were so fraud man smh pull this shit back next year at least get to finals
To be honest, I was mulling over playing this tour at all due to my dwindling investment in Pure Hackmons, but I'm glad I did! This was my first time managing, and I have to say while it was hard work and not everything went according to plan it was a very informative experience that got myself to view Hackmons from different lenses – for instance, what teams I could build that would be easily pilot-able by my teammates – and gave me a solid overview of tiers I didn't specialize in through observing the teambuilding process and building test games. I didn't help that I wasn't particularly passionate about the tiers I played, though, since that led to me getting outprepped for in the later weeks of the season. In total, I played 0 ladder games and probably about as many USUM PH test games. I'm a little disappointed by my record, but not as much as I would be had this tour taken place a year or two ago. Teamdump/metagame discussion posts are separate, and linked right below.
I'm more or less done playing Hackmons for the time being, but I might return in future installments if I feel motivated enough to.
Chessking345 If you didn't approach me and ask if I needed a co I probably wouldn't have been able to manage with someone so knowledgeable in the BH playerbase. After finishing our ridiculously broken draft I knew it'd be smooth sailing, at least until finals. 36-14 over weeks 1-4 and semis is insane
jb291realExcaliju After the draft I thought having to play USUM PH instead of ORAS would severely hamper our team, since I have a lot more experience in the modern ORAS meta. However, I was wrong. Y'all are actually broken LOL all I had to do was pass or review a few team ideas, and maybe play a few test games, and watch as you guys demolished the opposition in the actual games. I wouldn't have had it any other way
blahpy Sorry about your record, all your sets were really close but things just didn't turn out the way we wanted them to. Was nice to have you around though!
XxLazzerpenguinxX Legit one of the most enthusiastic and positive people I've ever teamed with, and that was definitely reflected in your BH building. Also loved discussing BH/PH games with you in PMs as they were going on. You were really fun to be around!
Along with Sevag y'all cooked hard enough that I barely felt like I needed to check the BH channel and offer my 2¢. Even as I bumbled through the later weeks I could rest assured that I'd get carried basically every week thanks to the BH squad farming basically everyone. SammyCe123 you deserve being @ the top of the sheet, incredibly determined and dependable builder
willdbeast ^ same as above, but it's incredible that someone who primarily signed up to sub could get slotted in + farm so many times with ease. Would've slotted you in more if our team weren't so unbelievably stacked
ghostlike Much like will, sadly didn't have the opportunity to slot you in too many times. Don't sweat your record, shit happens and I'm sure you'll get back into the groove of things if you decide to play again next year!
Nihilslave You're insanely good at the game. You were my go-to for finals tiebreaker USUM PH since after your semis game I was thoroughly convinced that you could pick up just about any Hackmons tier in such a short timeframe and perform, which was really close to happening. You'd definitely give the top PH players a run for their money if you gave the tier a serious try
Jqlove I have to admit, I found it very amusing how you could consistently predict what the opponent would bring, and subsequently farm. Glad to have had you!
E4 Flint It's a shame you were busy for most of the tour, you have insane aura. Was very impressed with just how quickly you got back to the groove of things, after having been inactive for so long. Gen 7 BH is actually pretty fun
cscl I have to single you out here because not only did you support me in finals, but you straight-up taught Nihilslave how to play USUM PH in the span of a week after I embarrassed myself multiple times in a row. Extremely goated stuff even if the plan didn't quite work out as intended.
also GOD WHY
Amaranth Weren't able to talk much, so I'll just say I'm glad I realized how goated you are before this tour took place (RBTT tryouts).
Nudepantsman Didn't talk much unfortunately, but I thoroughly enjoyed watch you crush the HC opposition nearly every week. Gl with your kid
Irpachuza Couldn't interact/play you very much, but you seem pretty chill. Hope we can team together again in the future
Hello! With HPL end I am very thankfull to all of you. I love what this tour became and the mood and vibe that we have had.
I am very glad to have hosted, as it has let me take part but still have a friendly schedule with my to-do(s) irl.
I have made this piece of art myself (not gonna lie, it took me like 6 hours) and I have to say, I know why I never do art lol. But I enjoyed a lot doing it, and it really didnt weight me down due to the amount of love I have for this tour and players.
I know it looks kinda goofy but I freehanded all this shit using showdown sprites as reference (went as well as it sounds) and I raw doged it till it looked presentable.
shoutouts time. i MIGHT do a team dump too.
Congratulations to Necrozmas, very well deserved and congrats to us for getting second place!
The PH SQUAD: sussyamongusdrip You really stepped up and outperformed. You're a really good builder and vc with you was fun, Also gave some input for oras so ty. Overall really good value pick and great teammate manu 11 Youre a cool dude and insane at the game. Way better pilot than me and probably one of the best ph players overall. You brought some absolutely abhorrent looking teams but somehow made them work (i have ptsd from tests). Your input was also really nice and I feel like you would have done even better if you didnt get sick so get well soon.
Glory you joined late but your help with teambuilding in finals was invaluable, especially against aerobee. You did a LOT of work on those teams, thank you lag=bad also part of our jolly little helper squad. you always had an idea or something to improve on teams and also helped test, so big thanks
Podra youre a cool dude and thanks for testing. even if you werent always super up to date getting you for 3k was very worth. mayonnaise. mayo. i liked that one registeel meme yep
Akira 153 you did a great job managing and building in bh. have nothing bad to say youre a cool person and great manager. You even figured out the optimal huge power coverage in tiebreakers which was really cool. pannu you did a terrible job managing but you played well so uh good job cityscapes was fun being on a team with you and you even played some ph with me which was awesome. unfortunate finals for the two of us but such is life BugGoBrrrrrr i just realized registeels was the team of maniacs who build the most unhinged teams. I liked your creative style and your plays MAMP You did your job in spite of IRL stuff. Hope everything goes well for you in that regard Kabilapok glad i told akira to pick you up because of your skills and hey you even won as a sub so good job! relevartemit very pleasant teammate, always willing to improve, sorry your run wasnt what you hoped for. A Cake Wearing A Hat we didnt interact much but you seem nice, sorry HC didnt go well for you. Fissure i dont think we talked at all but go us for getting second place yay team.
NToTheN i liked watching your videos especially the ones featuring the amazing ballfire aerobee thank you for introducing me to pure hackmons and giving me room voice way back when. Playing you in a bo5 was an honor, even if you cheesed the heck out of me >: 3
Calyrex-Shadow
Deoxys-Attack
Diancie-Mega
Gengar-Mega
Groudon-Primal
Kartana
Mewtwo-Mega-X
Mewtwo-Mega-Y
Rayquaza-Mega
Regigigas
Shedinja
Slaking
