SoloPL III was an interesting experience for me. It was my first ever Smogon tournament outside of anything the Draft circuit hosted, so everything about the structure and preparation process was quite new to me. I had picked up MHOU in November 2025 after my friend
Ethanol_Crab kept spamming my DMs with replays from the format so I decided to check it out, and ended up being one of the format's most dedicated players. I signed up to try to shoot for a custom avatar while just having fun playing MHOU, but ended up going for a whopping 15k in the auction. For context, I was a 3.5 and 4.5k player in the two major Draft tournaments that I was fortunate enough to get picked up in. (Rather unfortunately,) I was drafted by the Slugs, which did not have a good reputation for providing support to their players, so it was my turn to drag Ethanol to my hellhole as he was the only player I did tests with and passed ideas to consistently across the tournament. So once again, a huge shoutout to him - my run would have been a lot worse without you.
W1 vs igiveuponaname (L)
Before the tournament I have been thinking about anti-meta Monsters, and Namielle was a standout idea that looked great into the scout. The ladder meta prior to the tournament, which I (mistakenly) have based much of my preparation on, was mainly balance with fat cores consisting of Nu Udra, Amatsu, Kushala Daora, and Almudron. Coincidentally, Namielle not only offensively threatens all of these with its STAB combination, it can use them to farm momentum with its unblockable Volt Switch to set up my other partners, while switch-ins have to contend with the nasty 30% paralysis chance from Wretched Water, making it incredibly hard to guard against. It also came with the benefit of Water Absorb nullfying Almudron and Ceadeus's Flip Turn, making them incredibly telegraphed and easy to react to, while also being a great answer to Dire Miralis which I was well aware igive loved. DD Alatreon was bar none the best sweeper in the format at the time, and with paralysis and positioning support from Namielle, it made for a solid core to build around. Afterwards I just added a comfort balance core: Helmet Kushala helped me against CB Valstrax which my core was incredibly weak to, Jhen Mohran offered a status immunity, a second soft check to Grounds, Rocks, and further pivoting, and Nu Udra gave me an Ice resist while offering Alatreon and Namielle more opportunities to enter the field with Parting Shot. Lastly, I added Scarf Lucacuga to deny any setup sweepers that my balance core may struggle against, while offering great speed control and another general offensive presence as igive does not seem to like loading Ghost resists.
Unfortunately, igive did a good job self scouting and his team matched up very well into mine. AV Gaismagorm was able to force a Knock Off on Nu Udra early, rendering it unable to properly pivot into the Jin Dahaad that would go on to sweep me. In addition, his Magmadron was the one Monster that my Alatreon could not hit at all, rendering it basically useless as a wincon. Once Namielle failed to land the Wretched Water paralysis on Jin Dahaad, I knew the game was all but over. Tough start, but igive was probably the best MHOU player in the pool, so no real shame there.
Addendum: I later repurposed this team as I felt like Namielle pivot spam had great potential into the ladder metagame, so I made a few tweaks to the team. This was after the great setup redistribution so Alatreon no longer had Dragon Dance, but I felt like SD + Agility with Lum Berry was as much as an auto-win button as it once was, although not as easy to set up anymore. This team ended up winning me quite a lot of games, especially in the weekly roomtours.
As it turns out, unblockable pivot spam with the unguardable SD Nargacuga + CB Whiteblos was good. Who would've thought?
*This team is now outdated due to all of Whiteblos, Nu Udra and Nargacuga receving pretty big nerfs, but Namielle pivot spam has been ingrained as a fantastic style of offence or bulky offence alike.
W2 vs BenjiTho (W)
From the W1 loss, I was now very aware that I could not load passive, do-nothing mons, especially this week - BenjiTho loves Goss Harag, which is completely unguardable if you do not have an Uth Duna. He also liked Webs a lot, with one of my earlier test games with him devolving into him shattering one of my balance teams with a Kulve Taroth with Webs support. With that in mind, I settled on some offence led by the resident brokemon Nargacuga. With Covert Cloak, I was able to ignore Creepy Noise from Rakna-Kadaki and set up in its face, while laying hazards with Ceaseless Edge, further enabling my offence down the line. CB Whiteblos gave me fantastic priority into opposing offence which Benji usually likes loading, while being generally impossible to switch into as well. Kirin-Emperor offered great speed control, and the Spikes that Nargacuga set made things a lot more prone of being chipped into range. Amatsu was my Goss "check", with it EVed to outspeed Adamant Goss Harag and revenging it with Aeroblast. Rounding out the backbone was Najarala, which had a fantastic matchup into Rakna-Kadaki due to Soundproof and Torch Song, making it a very threatening spinner that can remove Webs quite easily if he decided to bring that. Lastly, Boots Lunagaron didn't care about Webs, provided Knock Off support, and could Pursuit Ghosts that Najarala may struggle with. Since I had Whiteblos, I decided to drop Ice Shard for Low Kick, which cleanly OHKOs Goss Harag and Nu Udra. The team's plan was to get up hazards early, and with every mon on the team being able to trade favourably with Goss Harag, I could limit its opportunities to enter the field.
Then I see a freaking
on team preview. Oh my god bruh.
Thankfully, I was able to use my Najarala and Whiteblos to provide momentum for Nargacuga to cleanly OHKO Amatsu and Tetsucabra early, and with a hazard and sack advantage in the endgame, my Whiteblos was able to barely survive the Secret Sword Kirin-Emperor and get the win. Close game, but that is to be expected with how volatile offence vs offence matchups could get, and Benji is a good player. Kirin-Emperor also formally entered the list of Monsters that every team of mine
had to be able to beat.
W3 vs about15gals (W)
Going into W3, I had realised the insane synergy between resident brokemon 1 and 2 Kirin-Emperor and Nargacuga, so I saw no reason to deviate from those two - they're good enough to where even if you prep for them, they will still be effective. The scout suggested fatter teams, so no reason to not pull out Goss Harag for this one. I opted for Never-Melt Ice over Life Orb because my team (spoiler alert) has no removal, so I didn't want Goss to be worn down even faster in the balance matchup. Here is where I discover another superstar, Landgiacrus. With its solid stats and typing, Rocks, Wretched Water for speed control, Volt Switch for momentum and chunking Amatsu, and its amazing ability Centrifuge making it one of the best Ground resists in the tier, it checked every box that I was struggling to fill with the rest of the team in one slot. It also paired very well with Nu Udra, which added more pivoting opportunities to bring Goss Harag in. Lastly I needed a reliable wincon, so I decided to pick up Starvinjho for the first time. The scout had 0 Ghost resists and Starvinjho's Devil Jaw looked great as well, especially into Shagaru Magala.
I was astonished on team preview. W1 Kushala, W2 Najarala, and they STILL had the nerve to load Rakna into me. The stressful part is that I was caught with no removal, so once those webs were up, they were to stay. Oh well. Kirin was able to quickly eliminate the Rakna, crucially gaining a special attack boost in the process, allowing me to revenge the Malzeno with Nu Udra's Blaze Ball post Volt Switch chip. It was all downhill from here for my opponent - my Landgiacrus proved why it's the goat by absolutely stomaching Rajang-Furious's Dragon Hammer, and as I didn't want to be caught with Landgiacrus on Arkveld, I elected to Volt into Goss to revenge it with Ice Shard instead. It was smooth sailing after, with Nargacuga sweeping the endgame (did I mention Nargacuga is broken?), ending in a quite anti-climatic 6-0. I needed that morale booster though, so I'll gladly take it.
W4 vs anaconja (W?)
At this point in time my stall team was steamrolling roomtour after roomtour, even through annoyances such as CM GaG Goldeus and SD Brachydios-Raging. I also received information that anaconja likes to load either hard stall or screens HO. With that in mind, I decided to load stall, but with a twist. The cornerstone of my usual stall team is Flaminas, as it is able to sit in front of half the meta, spread Toxic, and is unbothered by status and Knock Off. However, as the stall mirror would likely devolve into a tie if I brought the same 6, I decided to load Fatalis instead. It keeps the same item removal and status-ignoring aspect of Flaminas, but with Bulk Up, it was able to function as a powerful stallbreaker. I elected to not run Dragon STAB as I favoured Facade for Shagaru Magala, which would be problematic to break past otherwise. To replace Flaminas was its regular cousin, as its Unaware allowed it to easily beat setup Fairy-types such as Shagaru Magala as well as providing me insurance against Lagiacrus + Astalos-Boltreaver on either Electric Terrain or Rain. The rest were directly copy and pasted from my existing stall team, so I knew it was going to be comfortable to pilot.
To preface, I was aware of the Black Flame + Facade bug - it was discovered the morning of my game. Knives acknowledged that it was fixed on his client (or something like that I don't entirely remember), however I did not know that meant the merge request has not gone through yet. My bad.
anaconja loaded stall, so I knew Fatalis was going to feast - the real challenge was bringing it in safely. I did so by forcing Amatsu to enter, then it took over the game. My prep worked out great, as I was able to consistently position Fatalis on Vaal Hazak while my walls ate away at anything ana's team threw at me. He made some plays around his Vaal / Amatsu to get Regenerator back and the Chameleos was annoying, but once I Knocked Off the Amatsu's Boots, it was curtains.
After the game, we discovered that the Black Flame + Facade bug was still present, and anaconja demanded a redo. Truthfully, I wasn't sure what the point of it was. The decision was made on Monday, after my team had lost the series, so it would only be for player record. Besides, we lost one of our BW games due to a bug related to Genesect's Download, and we were not offered a redo. But I'm not one to defy the tour host's ruling out of sheer defiance, so I decided to play anyway. anaconja did say that he liked his team, so I assumed that his main motive for the redo was to get a proper runback with the team. Hence, I just decided to load the same team again.
W4 Redo vs anaconja (L)
Imagine my surprise when I am face to face with a 6-mon counterteam to what I loaded. Rushala Daora was a known stallbreaker due to Rusted Gale's Sword of Ruin passive, and since Daimyo Hermitaur lost Iron Defense, it could not reliably beat it 1 on 1. Silverlos also proved problematic, as that meant my Daimyo had to check both it and Rushala, stretching Recover PP very thin. It didn't help that he brought Ceadeus and Nu Udra, which I could not properly make progress into. Tilted by the counterteam matchup on team preview, I made a crucial blunder of not adding +1 to the calc, letting my Fatalis die to Rushala's Mountain Gale. With no way of making progress remaining, the game was as good as over.
I was very bummed after the loss, knowing full well that if he brought the same team, the outcome would be the same as the original game, just more drawn out. To counterteam in basically a for fun match just left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't blame anaconja though, it was my bad in the first place not knowing that the Facade bug was not fixed yet.
W5 vs Akeras (L)
Kinda crazy how I can go lower from that loss.
As previously mentioned, I was bummed out for the entire week. I also lost in Draft Winter League the previous week and was basically expecting to be permabenched. So, I did not really pay attention to prep for this game until Sunday. I just kind of threw this team together with Chameleos as the centerpiece, as the scout suggested balance (yet again) and I wanted to ensure a positive matchup against all kinds of offence cheese, mainly Electric Terrain as Ethanol's Electric Terrain offence team was popping off at the time - Akeras even lost to it in a roomtour- and I would not be surprised if the Daves literally just stole that sample. Oltura + Akantor + Nargacuga was my balance breaking core, with NP Akantor providing a strong wincon into Kushala balance teams. Nu Udra + Amatsu provided the Regenerator backbone to position my aforementioned threats.
I load into the game and immediately realise that I lose to Diablos. What I presumed was a Mizutsune-Soulseer was also a problem. Nargacuga was too valuable to sack just to scout for a potential CB Head Smash on lead, so I went into Akantor, but it Megaed and went for Bulk Up. Uh oh. I traded Akantor for huge chip and (thankfully) a burn on the Diablos, allowing my Nargacuga to revenge it as I didn't want to risk my Amatsu not being able to Regen back Head Smash chip due to the massive recoil. I was able to throw off the Mizutsune as it set screens with my physical Chameleos, but the Agnaktor-EX burned my Amatsu in return when it was trying to stave it off. I was able to get Oltura in a winning position, but being unsure on why Shen Gaoren was sent out on Oltura instead of the Kulu-Ya-Ku, and the stress of the timer ticking down, I clicked the wrong move. Thunderbolt left Shen Gaoren at 1 HP, and it got a Shell Smash off. I had to then sack Oltura in case they Smashed again, and then went to Amatsu for the revenge. I had great odds to live, but then Darkest Lariat landed a critical hit. It was all over.
That was the most undignified loss of my entire career. I requested to be benched for the next week, but my manager said that nobody else on the team could play MHOU, so I had to play regardless. Oh well.
Deep down, I knew I had to salvage my negative record. Going for 15k and being negative is not a great sign. However, my team basically had no morale at this point - we just lost another week and are basically out. After calming down, I decided that I will prep with the same rigour that I had in the earlier weeks in order to go back to positive again. Besides, I've done it before. In the Draft Champions League, I started 0-2, both losses quite humilating, but I was able to claw back to 3-2 after the midseason, winning 3 games straight in USUM. (To be fair, I only got slotted those last 3 games because my team was basically out of playoffs contention (yes, again), but that narrative doesn't really matter.)
W6 vs TTTech_ (W)
Scout suggested a lot of balance, and generally not a lot of Ground resists. The old saying rings true, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." So I decided to invest in a Covert Cloak Rushala Daora of my own. Rushala gave me a fantastic wincon, as well as being a strong attacker into most balance structures. I decided to run Jolly over Adamant in order to outrun Valstrax after a Dragon Dance, which TTTech liked loading a lot. Kirin-Emperor shores up its relative weakness into Amatsu, while Landgiacrus gives me a Ground with actual role compression as well as a sorely needed Ground resist. Nu Udra makes another appearance as I just could not resist using the Parting Shot brokemon. Specially defensive Shagaru Magala gives my team removal, status cleansing, and most importantly a Water resist, as Lagiacrus was looking very broken into my first 4. Lastly, I decided to add Life Orb Qurupeco. My team was very very slow and needed another wincon, and Qurupeco provided great speed control with Triage Oblivion Wing and can instantly win versus weakened teams with Nasty Plot + Torch Song. Priority Roost is no small feat too. Besides, with my 2 Ground-types and Shagaru Magala, I felt comfortable enough into the many Flying resists to bring what would otherwise be a dead slot into them.
I have to say, the Qurupeco addition was a last minute change around 30 minutes before the game, but it sounded reasonable and funny enough that I was willing to try it (mainly because my team was out anyway).
On preview, I was surprised to see a wincon chain offence team, but no matter - I had good answers to all of their sweepers. Landgiacrus and Nu Udra got through the suicide lead Diablos and Najarala easily, although I was at a Rocks disadvantage. Landgiacrus was also able to chip the Brachydios-Raging into Qurupeco range, and Rushala 1v1ed the Nasty Plot Rey Dau with the help of a Hurricane dodge. Then, I got jumpscared by the Seltas Queen as it cleanly OHKOed my Shagaru Magala with +2 Moonblast and double crit 5 hit Water Shuriken to kill my Kirin-Emperor. The last minute Qurupeco addition ends up bailing my sorry ass out again as it was able to outpriority Water Shuriken, and after confirming that the Gogmazios was not Nasty Plot, Qurupeco finished the game off with a Nasty Plot. Clean (other than the Hurricane miss) win, and just what I needed mentally for the last week. This was probably the most impactful last minute change I have ever made, and I sure am glad that this silly bird got a chance to shine. It did end up losing Nasty Plot though (for good reason LOL).
W7 vs evakiyama! (W)
This week, Knives released the second SoloPL III balance patch in accordance with Beaf Cultist's list of changes, which meant that most of the existing brokemons got nerfs - Nu Udra lost Parting Shot and Toxic, Kirin-Emperor got reduced SpA and Astral Barrage's BP was lowered, Nargacuga lost Ceaseless Edge, Whiteblos lost Head Charge and U-turn, etc. Most players were working with a blank slate, but I had just the idea of what to load. Kushala Daora-Risen has been an idea on the back of my head, and after the setup redistribution, I saw that it got Calm Mind. With the power level being slightly toned down, especially as Kirin-Emperor was shot down a peg, and the scout suggesting a high chance of Diablos-Massacre, I felt comfortable enough to build around it. Max HP CM Kushala Daora-Risen is able of some truly heinous acts, being quite possibly the hardest Monster to revenge kill once it has Calm Minded once, never mind twice. Risen Burst's Dark resistance allows it to blank Diablos-Massacre's STABs, as well as the initial attack giving me more guaranteed chip on a target. It felt like a very strong and robust wincon that can play both the offensive and defensive game. I ended up pairing it with Chameleos for the tried-and-true Parting Shot into broken setup mon combination, and Landgiacrus because if you haven't noticed already, Landgiacrus = winning. lol. It also kept Volt Switch which it lost in the main format, so it was one last hurrah for my personal MVP of the tour. I rounded out the team with Xu Wu as the few answers to Kushala Daora-Risen did not appreciate Spikes, and Ambush Ceaseless Edge is a great revenge tool against Kirin-Emperor if I do run the misfortune to see it. The other part that completes the team is the unique addition of Greencuga - I was testing with Badman and got completely owned by Uth Duna with a prior version. I also realised how dire my Namielle matchup was, and that was not a Monster that I wanted to see on preview. SD Greencuga was actually quite potent into the scout as the meta actually did not have a lot of strong Grass resists, and those that do resist Grass lose to its teammates. It completely owns Uth Duna, even being able to directly switch into it to grab a SD and still win the 1v1, and helped me in the Namielle matchup in revenging it offensively. Tying the team together is specially defensive Ceadeus, a mon I have not run since December 2025, but I felt was great here. Chameleos and Greencuga greatly appreciate the Wish support that Ceadeus provides, allowing them to make trades that would otherwise be disadvantageous, and with my double Steel + Chameleos dissuading Fairies, Dracophage seemed like a natural fit.
If you can't tell that I was most proud of this team due to the sheer length of the team breakdown, I really was very satisfied with it. It also felt fitting that I started the tour loading the most bland Kushala Daora set and lost in a humilating fashion, and applied all the learnings that I gained all tour to load another Kushala Daora, but with a twist. A twist that my opponent hopefully did not see coming.
On preview, I was immediately vindicated. This was absolutely one of those matchups where once Kushala Daora-Risen got a Calm Mind, the game would immediately be over. I used that to my advantage early, chipping the Nu Udra early with it and forcing it to force me out with Blot Out, allowing me to make the chip damage permanent by sending in Chameleos to deny Regenerator. Then, Kushala Daora was able to trade with Chameleos (I learned that the Ice Beam crit actually mattered in post game as it was a max HP Chameleos, sorry!), and after Landgiacrus heavily dents the Amatsu with another crit, I was able to get Kushala Daora-Risen online as I finished the low HP Amatsu off with Risen Burst and used the deadturn to Roost back up. With Kushala healthy, I could Calm Mind for free on the Jin Dahaad and win the game from there. A little haxy, but a completely dominant win regardless. What a way to cap off the tour.
Addendum: I ended up making another Kushala Daora-Risen team more suited to the MHOU metagame, as Landgiacrus sadly does not have access to Volt Switch there anymore. This team was also very successful and netted me another roomtour win.
Tartaronis replaced Landgiacrus as the bulky Ground-type pivot, and Chaotic Gore replaced Xu Wu as the team gravited away from hazard stack. Frenzy Slam + Parting Shot into Kushala Daora-Risen was just unfair. Who could've known? Unfortunately with the latest balance patch Kushala Daora does not have Calm Mind anymore, so the team is largely useless, but it still stands as one of my favourite and most successful teams to date.
Overall, while my tournament experience was not the best, I still barely went positive going 4-3 and still enjoyed myself for the most part. I really do love Monster Hunter OU as a metagame as there are so many unique options that are still underexplored, waiting for the right time and user to pick it up and succeed with it. As a draft player, that's what makes a format exciting to me.
A huge thank you to:
KnivesTotality for making this possible, this has genuinely been the most fun I've had playing Pokemon outside of draft league. And also allowing me to make most of the meta's resources lol.
Ethanol_Crab for sticking with my insufferable ass til the end, even though your tests were cteamy at times I still got what I needed.
BenjiTho igiveuponaname Beaf Cultist and the other MHOU SoloPLers for developing this metagame, it has been so cool to see everyone else's ideas, even if they sometimes contrast with my own.
Ultrxviolet Crysite agentflane for
keeping me sane listening to me yap about MHOU stall or me winning another MHOU roomtour for the 271828th time.
And of course
Gekokeso and
Murphy Lawden for hosting.
In the meantime, I will be working on more meta resources for the tier, and will continue to push for an internalised MHS team tournament around the end of the year. Looking forward to that.
See you all next SoloPL! Maybe by then I'd have beaten Risebreak LOL
Monster Hunter Showdown!
I was running dogshit HO builds half the time so my records are kinda shit
