Alright, my run in ssnl is over, so time to dump out all the good, bad and burnt messes that came out of the showdown teambuilder kitchen throughout the tour! Teams that are no longer legal will be noted as such, but they may still provide some inspiration for other teams people may want to make.
Week 3
- Now illegal with Thundurus Therian banned
Week 5
Week 6
- Now illegal with Thundurus Therian banned
- Now illegal with Latios banned
Week 7
- Now illegal with Thundurus Therian banned
Week 8
Teams for the future
And that's everything I have in my builder that I used for the tournament. Some of these are better than others, and I've not shared some of the hot garbage that got discarded in the process, but hopefully these will be useful going forward for those making their own teams or just wanting to yoink someone else's.
Week 3
This team was made because one of my irl friends offhandedly said "Yo I think trick room is kinda cool, why don't you make one of those?" I thought that was hilarious, so I figured the best time to bring it was in the inevitable grudge match that was my rematch vs Amstan. Which hey would you look at that that happened quickly. Basic idea, lead with Hattrem to get a guaranteed trick room and prevent rocks sets into non-Excadrill leads. Healing wish to get Marowak in, blow some holes, re-set trick room with Cresselia, take some kills with either MCamerupt or Hands, use the healing wish on Cresselia for a third trick room, win with Glastrier and lunar danced Marowak-2-Electric-Boogaloo.
- Now illegal with Thundurus Therian bannedYeah we're back here again. If you want a detailed explanation check out this thread.
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...-cycle-11-read-post-116.3725961/post-10045351
Short explanation, Excadrill hazard lead, use Hands and Thundy to break, clean with any of Moth, Greninja or Greninja. Iron Head on Aegi makes it easier for this team to break unaware Clef.
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...-cycle-11-read-post-116.3725961/post-10045351
Short explanation, Excadrill hazard lead, use Hands and Thundy to break, clean with any of Moth, Greninja or Greninja. Iron Head on Aegi makes it easier for this team to break unaware Clef.
Week 5
I've been asked about this stall. So many times. Shout out jawabarat and Joeshh with this team, for helping with the building and the initial idea of dropping MSableye from stall teams. It's now a bit outdated, but still definitely functional. The Slowking was originally designed as a secondary Latios check while giving a double regen core for better handling Celesteela and other passive mons. Otherwise, Clef is EVed to be able to guaranteed survive a Goltres Z-Hurricane after stealth rocks damage, but that's the only specific tech.
Week 6
- Now illegal with Thundurus Therian bannedHi Runo Yeah so if it wasn't already obvious, I was feeding jawabarat teams for the entirety of the tour except for when they played against me. This was the only week I gave him specific prep for an opponent, though. This Custap berry Hands has been some of the funniest shit to use, and it's actually surprisingly effective as surprise factor into offensive teams that rely on revenging hands after chipping it down. Dazzling Gleam moth was also chosen because Runo hadn't been using anything that actually required psychic coverage on Moth, so this would allow it to do a large chunk of damage to a Latias.
- Now illegal with Latios bannedThis came from an idea that pretty much all of Runo's teams folded to future sight + Mega Tyranitar except for Ting-lu, and so low kick MTTar + Fsight was born. If you end up using a variant of this, I would recommend switching close combat for knock off on Zeraora. It wasn't initially because I didn't want MTTar's knocks to have less power, but the double knock is probably worth more.
Week 7
So, going into this match I was expecting mostly offence. I've played jawa a lot, and I figured he'd be getting teams from Runo, so I was expecting at least one stall, and then two offences of either the hyper or bulky variety. This was designed to prey on what felt like a semi-forced Celesteela core at the time, with firium-Z enamorus to nuke through it in the late game. Nidoking was present as an offensive Hands check and breaker into a stall with MTtar pursuit trapping a Chansey. S/o Lupla for the help with making this team as well, sorry for jumpscaring you with Nidoking right at the end lol.
This was half a meme, since jawa's main tier is UU where lokix spam is everywhere, and half a slightly offbeat choice based on discussion in the discord server. The idea was to start with a Lokix + Magnezone core to force in, trap, and remove a bug resist then win with eternal pivot pressure, making it particularly efficient into stall. Lokix also helps into a HO match up with priority spam, which was extremely helpful for the sake of teams I was mostly preparing for.
- Now illegal with Thundurus Therian bannedAnother slight meme, using Custap hands into the inventor of the tech, but this was a slightly sneaky approach. I'm very sure that both jawa and Runo had access to the paste of the original version of this team, since it hadn't really changed from when I was spamming it before. As such, I was trying to telegraph play into the standard sets before punishing it by removing key obstacles that otherwise wouldn't have died. The main perpetrator of this was the Z-focus blast Alakazam, designed to lure and remove a Ting-lu that would otherwise be a full counter to both it and Iron Moth. Dazzling Gleam Moth was once again employed to target what felt like a forced Mega Latias to guaranteed beat Thundurus Therian, though this ended up costing me the game. Run psychic. It's better.
Week 8
I've been playing around with fire spam a lot, since the tier is historically bad at standing up to it (see Cinderace and Ceruledge bans, as well as Iron Moth's win rate). This is my latest attempt at it. Since I was playing against one of the best players I've ever faced, I wanted to go with something slightly anti-meta rather than following the straight and narrow to try and exploit tier knowledge and surprise factor. With Latios now being banned, Z-Celebrate Victini has also gotten significantly better. With trying to snipe a Mega Latias using custap Hands or Azumarill, you could try and back Victini to sweep in most match ups.
This was very offbeat, and almost a regression of a team I was planning for post-boulder drop. Terrakion on Webs is incredibly difficult to deal with, though its purpose here was mostly to take a kill with Z-Stone Edge then set rocks before it dies. While I wasn't expecting it from Baddy, Mega Gardevoir is almost solely on this team to screw over a random stall, which is the only match up this team can really struggle into.
Teams for the future
Remember I said the Terrakion team was a regression? Here's what it was based off of. This team is meant to take advantage of the inherent speed of boulder by using webs to make it faster than everything in the game short of Mega Aerodactyl, Boots Zeraora and Scarf Zapdos-Galar. It also has just enough bulk to survive a few important hits, like the aforementioned Mega Aerodactyl's earthquake.
This was the first team I made with Boulder, since I was still figuring it out and I thought it was incredibly funny to run 3 iron mons on one team. Not much to say here that wasn't already said in the GeeGee team, only that booster boulder has such an insane speed tier that it can kind of blow past everything if it gets a boost, but it can struggle to secure KOs or break past checks in Aegislash and Skarmory, so it's going to struggle unless you can remove these first.
And that's everything I have in my builder that I used for the tournament. Some of these are better than others, and I've not shared some of the hot garbage that got discarded in the process, but hopefully these will be useful going forward for those making their own teams or just wanting to yoink someone else's.
specs keldeo to be exact, as you can't switch in on it unless you predict right.
Nothing walls Nasty Plot consistently, end statement.
