Tournament NDBD I - Team & Set Dump

Runo

deserved taste
is a Community Leaderis a Top Community Contributoris a Metagame Resource Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Dedicated Tournament Host
National Dex Leader
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Guidelines
  • This is for teams used in, or considered for use, in NDBD ONLY.
  • Teams from any of the metagames featured in NDBD can be posted.
  • A Pokepaste would be preferred in terms of formatting. Sprites would also be a helpful addition.
  • Descriptions/stories about the teams are allowed (encouraged, even) but consider using a spoiler tag if they end up being very long.
  • These teams may be considered to be used as Sample Teams so no need to post in the bazaar as well.
And that's it....post away!
 

national dex DOU


:Rillaboom::Diancie::Charizard::Raging Bolt::Chien-Pao::Ogerpon-Hearthflame: loose

:Archaludon::Pelipper::Swampert-Mega::Kyurem-Black::Gothitelle::Rillaboom: loose

this tier is really incredible despite being a beginner I learned a lot during this tour I would like to particularly thank Terekusai and Sunrose for all their help and my managers for letting me play despite my recent experience

National DEX ou

:Weavile::Landorus-Therian::Terapagos::Zamazenta::Raging Bolt::Heatran: win

:Tapu Fini::Landorus-Therian::Melmetal::Dragapult::Terapagos::Okidogi: win

:Xurkitree::Araquanid::Gholdengo::Ogerpon-Wellspring::Kingambit::Iron Valiant: win


i still don't like teraless ndex ou....


I would like to thank all the people who helped me, they will recognize each other
 
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I spent this tournament supporting the Sharpedos. We may be eliminated but it was a really fun time and I appreciate Oculars and Runo for creating a really fun team environment to be a part of, and my goats feen, Dorron, and Oculars again for being goated pilots and doing way better with these teams than I could have. Here is some stuff that I built for the tournament; I'll start with the stuff that was used, and then move on to other teams that I built for the tournament that didn't end up getting used.

Teams that got used in the tournament

:ninetales-alola::arctozolt::dragonite::alomomola::diancie-mega::landorus-therian: Extremely fishy snow team that Feen won with in week two, this gets eviscerated by fairies and psychics but it ended up working out as Feen rolled into an insanely good matchup. I made a version that I consider much better later on in the tournament but it didn't end up getting used.

:charizard-mega-y::great tusk::heatran::kingambit::latias::rillaboom: Oculars wanted to try out some unconventional sun for Week Three, and this is what we ended up with. Heatran+Zard Y ended up being very weird to build around, and in hindsight I would have changed up the Rillaboom and Great Tusk sets as they struggled to break as well as they could have, but its a fun, if a little offbeat, sun offense. I still believe OffTran to be extremely underrated as well, so hopefully more people end up running it.

:melmetal::great tusk::dragapult::toxapex::zapdos::tyranitar-mega: Sample Submission This team was designed around Double Status Melm, Toxapex, and WispHex Drag Z Pult in order to spread as many different statuses as possible depending on the needed game state, something that was further assisted by Zapdos. Feen ended up loading into a Veil HO with this and managed to take it down. Status spam balance teams are really fun in my opinion, and that specific Pult set is very fun to use.

:slowbro::great tusk::latios-mega::kingambit::heatran::landorus-therian: Sample Submission This is my single favorite team that I ended up building. We scouted a lot of Mega Medicham+Pursuit going into this one, so Colbur Slowbro with Body Press presented itself as a choice option. This combined with Steel Z Tran, Great Tusk, and Mega Latios to create a brutal offensive core. In the end we loaded right into the matchup it was designed to beat, and Feen played it very well to seal the deal. I really think this team is excellent and it is huge fun to pilot, give it a try.

:ogerpon-wellspring::clefable::kingambit::landorus-therian::kommo-o::ferrothorn: A lot of teams that were being run at this point in the tournament were relying on revenge killing Waterpon rather than actually being able to take it on defensively, and this team was designed to take advantage of that. The main idea was letting Waterpon crack holes and then use attempted revenge kills as an opportunity to either get Lum Gambit in a position to pursuit trap Pult or the Latis, or just win with Kommo-o. I should have made Clefable Helmet here in retrospect to really support that goal and rack up damage, but hindsight is 20/20. This ended up loading into a horrible matchup as Protective Pads Melmetal+Tapu Fini completely shut down most of the original gameplan, but Dorron piloted this like an absolute madman and made the most of Waterpon's brokenness to win anyway.

:blacephalon::alomomola::landorus-therian::samurott-hisui::kommo-o::melmetal: I built this for Feen after we noticed that there was very little pursuit trapping in the scout, with the main idea being letting Blacephalon go absolutely ham with Choice Specs. In the end it didn't work out as the team relies too much on Blacephalon having an amazing matchup, but its a fun team to use.

:heracross-mega::slowbro::landorus-therian::moltres::terapagos::dragapult:I'm ngl I didn't realize this was being used until the last second, but we were already eliminated atp so it is what it is. Didn't end up working out and I think this needs more refinement but Mega Heracross is a very interesting breaker that deserves more exploration.

Teams that didn't end up getting used

:ninetales-alola::arctozolt::kyurem::alomomola::diancie-mega::landorus-therian:
:ninetales-alola::arctozolt::dragonite::diancie-mega::iron treads::victini: Two more variations of snow, its a good thing we didn't end up using the Kyurem one since thats even more of a matchup fish, the second one utilizes Iron Treads and Victini in order to give more resistances and more opportunities for Zolt to go wild, I believe this one to be far superior than the other two but we didn't end up using snow again.

:gliscor::skarmory::latios-mega::urshifu-rapid-strike::kingambit::tornadus-therian: This was originally an attempt to get HippoSkarm to work but I realized that Hippo is extremely mid, so I replaced it with Gliscor. Odd balance team to pilot but its quite hard for many offenses to break right now. Skarmory deserves more exploration as well, very interesting if you find a team that is in need of its talents.

:slowbro::zamazenta::latios-mega::kingambit::heatran::landorus-therian: Zamazenta variation of the above team Colbur Bro team, this was actually the original plan for week four but we ended up liking the Great Tusk version better.

:dragapult::magnezone::latios-mega::great tusk::muk-alola::kartana: Many of yall may have seen me talk up Alolan Muk recently, but it got started because we were theorycrafting Pursuit trappers that beat Lele consistently in SharpedoCord. It ended up evolving into this double trap DragMag-ish team. We didn't end up using this but I spammed the daylights out of this trying to get replays and Amuk has done well in some individual tournament games at this point. Farmed by DD Pult but good into most other things, more importantly this is just extremely fun to pilot.

:lopunny-mega::alomomola::gholdengo::great tusk::dragonite::tinkaton: We had scouted a large amount of offense here, so I built this to try and turn the tables on specific offensive builds with Fake Out+Quick Attack Mega Lopunny and bulky Ghost Z Gholdengo. Tinkaton is underexplored as a decent enough defensive midground, and it's quite annoying in a core with Mola. Didn't end up getting used but I like the team a lot.

This was a really fun team tour to be a part of and I had a great time building for these weeks. Good luck to the rest of the teams in the tournament!
 
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OU

:Sableye-Mega::Clefable::Clodsire::Toxapex::Corviknight::Chansey:
:Chansey::Clodsire::Dondozo::Sableye-Mega::Corviknight::Dragonite:
:Iron Moth::Tapu Koko::Garchomp::Melmetal::Ogerpon-Wellspring::Tornadus-Therian:
:Great Tusk::Weavile::Charizard-Mega-Y::Slowbro::Raging Bolt::Heatran:
:Scizor-Mega::Magnezone::Slowbro::Dragapult::Ting-Lu::Tornadus-Therian:
:Ogerpon-Wellspring::Garchomp::Kingambit::Toxapex::Tornadus-Therian::Corviknight:
:Terapagos-Terastal::Alomomola::Charizard-Mega-X::Landorus-Therian::Ferrothorn::Zamazenta:

One of the worst tiers I've ever had the pleasure of building and it's a pretty big reason why I'm quitting managing. Feels like a massive disconnect between my experience and what others have thought of tier but the variance is frankly daunting even without Tera. Better than the Tera metagame still but like landfill -> trashcan energy. Roaring Moon doesn't help this problem at all, Pult is a nuisance and should be banned yes but I don't really see how building gets more consistent in its absence. Maybe I just loaded junk idk but it was a chore to build for ultimately. Sputnik our OU slots would've been dead if not for your help, thank you king. Two favorite teams by far are the ScizorZone Balance and the Clefable Stall. Not a lot of atrocious matchups from those two teams if you play them right.

UU

:Slowking::Chansey::Skarmory::Jirachi::Sableye-Mega::Clefable:
:Celesteela::Chansey::Hydrapple::Slowbro::Excadrill::Aerodactyl-Mega:
:Serperior::Ursaluna::Aegislash::Quaquaval::Mew::Iron Boulder:
:Lokix::Swampert::Aerodactyl-Mega::Aegislash::Hawlucha::Tapu Bulu:
:Volcanion::Tyranitar::Excadrill::Amoonguss::Celesteela::Gallade-Mega:

Always a fan of this tier and I liked the metagame this season but it would've been nice to have some more options to work with in the defense department + I was sorta creatively dead here after I figured out how to break Mew HO. Use the HO it's broken as shit. Every other team is something I would prob never load again bar Volcanion Sand.

RU

:Doublade::Absol-Mega::Latias::Rhyperior::Volcanion::Crobat:
:Nidoking::Lokix::Flamigo::Tapu Bulu::Tinkaton::Rotom-Heat:
:Obstagoon::Amoonguss::Rhyperior::Volcanion::Latias::Pidgeot-Mega:
:Shuckle::Sharpedo::Diggersby::Thundurus::Nihilego::Mimikyu:
:Aggron::Mandibuzz::Cyclizar::Quagsire::Amoonguss::Blissey:
:Sigilyph::Krookodile::Aggron-Mega::Cyclizar::Primarina::Roserade:
:Rhyperior::Manectric-Mega::Sigilyph::Amoonguss::Cobalion::Primarina:
:Tangrowth::Bronzong::Slowbro-Galar::Gligar::Blissey::Quagsire:
:Steelix-Mega::Arctozolt::Ninetales-Alola::Basculegion-F::Cyclizar::Crobat:
:Lokix::Pidgeot-Mega::Swampert::Cyclizar::Metagross::Talonflame:

Clearly we can see where the prep time went into. Zero hateposts on this tier rn, I can kinda build whatever I'd like and with relative consistency. Love this a lot. Favorite team is Sigilyph + Calm Mind Primarina, the Full snow team is also pretty strong. The reliability on these teams are fairly good regardless of matchup imo.



SapoDaG30 It's always cool talking lower tiers with you, thanks for being here since day 1 and even staying on board when you had the chance to jump ship and join the Pidoves. Appreciate that kind of loyalty.

Flames Of Elixir Zrp200 Thank you for making sure Pannu didn't completely spiral.

nongyboii5000 Chilli Dewd Medasus Interactions were limited but positive nonetheless. Hoping to see more from y'all in the future, thanks for helping out.

Sputnik again this team died without your help.

My OUs feen Scarfire Kyo Dorron sorry I couldn't be more help this season. Dorron mb for trolling you last week by leaking prep, one of the worst blunders I've ever made as a manager kek. Scarfire I know you felt similar frustrations as I did with OU, hopefully it gets better or we figure this building thing at least. Feen you were a good investment and did well even when you were fairly new at the post-tera tier, no words of encouragement except for like "be on a stronger team next time" idk lol thanks for being a #winner. Kyo your winrate could've been better but you got robbed in like half your games, nothing you could really do about that. Enjoy retirement king.

R1C3M4N Ursa metagame I think resulted in you making weird choices in the builder because of your frustrations with it but they were still fine teams and you did fine this season in game barring the occasional hax/misplay. Better luck next time I hope.

jawabarat One pool farmer while the rest of the team is suffering, iconic Runo manager strat. Enjoyed entertaining a lot of your ideas. Tragically I can't move to the United Kingdom this WC so you will have to fend for yourself now :(

pannu Thank you for not cancering when you hated being in Ubers. I hate it too king.

Smudge I appreciate you as a builder and fellow NDOT staff member, sorry I don't have more to say on this I barely looked at the DOU slot.

Schister and Schister discord alt #2 was uncertain on your ability going in but you put in the work in-game, thanks a ton.

Jho Thank you for being the oldhead ever, we got you as a sub and you were always up for it whenever the time came.
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Oculars I loved your draft ideas and it was a pleasure working with a friend as a Co-man.

hidin I #know
 
Hello its me breezai from "National Dex Ubers". Overall very happy with my results. A positive 4-3 record with my only losses being very strong players bumboclaat, mirror and bobsican, and getting W's vs pannu, sagis, sami and especially entro is something to be proud of. I already posted a thank you message in the priv discord but I wanted to thank dahness and mmx again with testing and teambuilding, and also grand cayman for team help and sami for keeping me braindamaged. I also again want to thank dead by daylight and redgoop for drafting me and everyone else in the team for cheering me on whenever I was cooking the most vile bullshit ever.

So uhh teams:gothitelle:

Week 1 (vs pannu):
:ho-oh::arceus-dark::eternatus::giratina::dondozo::chansey:
Wanted to run it to stall week 1 for no particular reason other than the fact it would be incredibly funny tbh. Combined the team with the standard version and a version I got from mmx since I didn't think the team piloted fully well.

Week 2 (vs bumboclaat):
:lunala::groudon-primal::marshadow::arceus-fairy::necrozma-dusk-mane::eternatus:
Admittedly this team is kinda stupid but I thought ynow scarf marsh outspeeds dd zyg at +2 and turns into a sweep and I thought he would bring it vs me cuz I use gothitelle way too fucking much. But instead he brought offensive Ho-Oh so that didn't pan out and I got pressure stalled vs his etern lmfaoo.

Week 3 (vs lord sagis):
:lunala::groudon-primal::necrozma-dusk-mane::gothitelle::zacian-crowned::yveltal:
This team I just wanted to bring at some point lol, its the team I am the most familiar with and I have played it to death. Since I didn't really know what lord sagis would bring I thought I'd roll it to something I am super familiar with and then it can only go well. Gothitelle + Zacian is just a super nasty combo and Bulky CM lunala, Overheatdon and scarf yveltal just covers for so much bullshit.

Week 4 (vs entrocefalo):
:basculegion::groudon-primal::marshadow::ho-oh::arceus-dark::zygarde:
How did I win this lol. Maybe not the match I am most proud of, but definitely the win I am most proud of. Had no idea what entro would bring, since he is so good at utilizing so much different shit. Went with a bulky offense basculegion in the end, trying to cover for it's weaknesses with Tera Dark for priority, HP ice marsh to bait in zygarde, and coilzyg to para fast switchins (especially zacian).

Week 5 (vs MirrorSaMa)
:ferrothorn::groudon-primal::zygarde::ho-oh::arceus-fairy::ditto:
Used a sample team that I edited a bit so it would be strong into HO, but in the end I got goobed by a Toxic Zygarde I didnt see coming at all. In the end I think I shouldve just built my own team since now that I look at it I dont really think it is my style at all, but that is for another tournament.

Week 6 (vs Bobsican)
:calyrex-ice::groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-dark::zygarde::necrozma-dusk-mane:
Holeh moleh I got goobed by fez. I kinda expected some kinda fat balance pivotspam from bobsican but he doesn't usually use 2 big guys on the same team, but that deoa+chienpao combo is nasty as hell. Grand Cayman said that dd zyg would be good into bob, but the deoa meant that he had something that outsped me even at +1 so I couldnt make much use out of it.

Week 7 (vs Sami)
:mewtwo-mega-x::groudon-primal::marshadow::arceus-fairy::zygarde::ho-oh:
MEGA MEWTWO TWITTER FOR S+ HOLY SHIT. I cannot believe it actually worked. Our team was guaranteed to not make top cut and I kinda wanted to bring something silly to end the tournament with for myself, especially vs sami, who I goob with a lot. I thought, if I lose the match, it wont matter and if I win, I will have the most legendary MMX W ever. So I brought it, and scenario 2 ended up happening. Now sami wants to ban mmx. Rip bozo.

Alr that was it bye
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So I got offered to help with the Valiant Victinis as a support and here's some of the teams me and Dabman whipped up. I only started on Week 4 so that's where we'll start, Dabman will be dropping the pre-Week 4 teams. All teams are National Dex UU, but the NDOU Niadev Teambuilding Arc is soon, trust (maybe).

The Teams:
Were used:

:tapu fini::hawlucha::scizor::latias-mega::bisharp::hippowdon: - FiniLucha BO [Week 4] (Post week tweaked version)
:hydreigon::scizor::aerodactyl-mega::rotom-wash::hippowdon::iron moth: - Specs Hydreigon BO [Week 5]
:latias-mega::celesteela::clefable::tangrowth::suicune::excadrill: - Modified Fat [Week 5]
:zoroark-hisui::mienshao::rotom-wash::excadrill::venusaur-mega::iron boulder: - Zoroark-Hisui BO [Week 6]
:mandibuzz::ting lu::gallade-mega::clefable::celesteela::iron moth: - Mandibuzz Balance (Mega Gallade Version) [Week 7]

Did not get used but were considered:
:tapu fini::venusaur-mega::excadrill::rotom-heat::archaludon::hawlucha: - FiniLucha BO Alternate [Week 4]
:mandibuzz::hippowdon::altaria-mega::buzzwole::enamorus::excadrill: - Mandibuzz Balance (Buzzwole version) ft. Mega Altaria [Week 7]

Week 4:
:tapu fini::hawlucha::scizor::latias-mega::bisharp::hippowdon:
(nicknames removed because holy those were cheeks)

Alternate:
:tapu fini::venusaur-mega::excadrill::rotom-heat::archaludon::hawlucha:

There wasn't much to go off of from scouting since the opp's previous replays were from metas with banned stuff, but they liked BO, and since Lucha generally does well into that sort of team, we wanted to build around Lucha. They ultimately brought HO instead and Lucha did nothing (bit frustrating since we made like 10 drafts just trying to get Hawlucha to work) since scarf Fini kinda sucks and it losing to GarbGarbval (EDIT: maybe not garbgarb after all :worrywhirl:) is proof.

Ultimately we settled on this:
:tapu fini::hawlucha::scizor::latias-mega::bisharp::hippowdon:

The main core here is Fini+Lucha with Bisharp to trap Aegislash. Some drafts for this had TTar over Bish, but we lacked a way to reliably break Clefable, so we went Bisharp, especially since Flamethrower Clef is kind of rare and MB drops can potentially activate Defiant, not that we want to come in on it directly anyways. It also gave us a more reliable out vs Iron Boulder since our speed control, Scarf Fini and Scizor, doesn't reliably kill individually. Scizor stops Hydrapple eating us alive (ban apple) and pivots for the team with it also potentially being a second wincon, Mega Latias gave us a secondary check to Mienshao and some offensive presence, as well as being one of the hardest stops to Iron Moth short of Tyranitar since we scrapped it fairly early. Psychic might be better on it, but the Mist Ball spa drop chance could come in handy vs a calm minding Clefable or Tapu Fini, and it keeps it healthier while beating MVenu. Hippo's spread here is a precursor to the Cursed Spread in later weeks, EVd such that CB Ada TTar never 2HKOs from full with Low Kick or Crunch (a legit option rn imo since most sciz are Bulky Z for Apple), the mon acting as our volt immune and sand answer. That said, in later weeks we found that Knock twice potentially 2hkod rarely (or it might have been crunch actually), hence the Cursed Spread. Backup soft checks to Iron Moth also never hurt. We went Sand Stream since we wanted to chip stuff for Lucha and Sciz, as well as to help put stuff like Speed Boost moth in range of Lucha.

Something to note is that last mon Bulky Sciz causes the team a bit of a problem, but until then we can phase it out with Hippowdon. I'd probably make MTias Mystical Fire over Draco. Worst comes to worst, you can get into a Sciz mirror. Offensive Sciz is fine, though, since it doesn't usually have roost and Bish outspeeds and Knocks to pulverise it unless it's the only Fightinium Off Sciz on the planet, and at that point you probably won't struggle much with it. AB sand rush exca can be a problem but sciz eats any +0 hit and can BP it to pop, and Bish Sucker can KO from fairly high.

(I also made a tweaked version of this team post tour, if you want to see it click here)

We also made an alternate version since we wanted to use MVenu and more pivoting options, but while we were fairly happy with it, it wasn't quite there, so we went with the first one.
:tapu fini::venusaur-mega::excadrill::rotom-heat::archaludon::hawlucha:

Same core as before, but with Mega Venusaur instead. This time, we went with Excadrill since we knew we'd need role compression, but we needed a sand check + moth check in the same slot. Everything that maybe fulfilled that type stacked with Fini, so we dug into the depths of RU and turned on the oven to cook, and fittingly decided on SpDef Rotom-Heat. Rock Slide Exca was an endangered species at the time of building, so we figured this would be good enough exca counterplay. However, we were down bad for a wallbreaker and our MAero and Boulder MUs were lacking to say the least. We came down to a choice between Aegi and Archa since we needed a real steel:tm: to support Exca, and settled on Archa since it can kill the two more reliably with Flash Cannon. Plus, it offered a secondary Washtom answer to take the pressure off of Mega Venu. We strapped a Dragonium on it to have a nuke and because we had a Z free, but maybe Shuca would be better in the long term. Archa spread can probs be optimised though.

Week 5:
:hydreigon::scizor::aerodactyl-mega::rotom-wash::hippowdon::iron moth:

The opp liked a certain TR team and Zoroark-Hisui, so Hydreigon seemed like a good pick to build around. We ultimately settled on Specs because we need Bug Z Scizor so Hydrapple doesn't eat us alive (ban apple) and our other attempt at NP Hydreigon had no wincon. Sadly no real heat this week, fairly standard BO otherwise. We also lost to the opp bringing the one counter to our entire team, DD Facade MAlt, which was apparently Cotton Guard too so Sciz couldn't RK it reliably. Maybe MAlt isn't entirely fraudulent this gen? Subtle foreshadowing

Now, I'm sure you're looking at the Hippowdon spread and thinking "did they make it Impish by mistake?", but the answer is actually no - We wanted to EV Hippowdon to take two Knock Offs or Low Kicks (and the occasional crunch) and it turned out that making it Impish and going max spdef was more EV efficient, so you get this cursed monstrosity of a spread. It looks like and might well have been something I ran all the way back in gen 6 when I was new to mons and didn't know how good EV spreads worked, but it works in this specific tier.

Week 5 Bonus:
:latias-mega::celesteela::clefable::tangrowth::suicune::excadrill:
Not really my team, I just took an existing fat squad that our BO3 player passed us and I updated/tweaked it. Main adjustments were Exca over Ting, PhysDef Tang over AV, and Air Slash on Celesteela. Exca was because, with Air Slash on steela and us needing Flame on it to not get decimated by Scizor, we had no way to beat Clef anymore. Does mean dropping Spikes, though. I don't recommend bringing fat in this meta (as the paste name implies), and I never build fat to begin with, so this is about the closest you're getting to me building fat.

Week 6:
:zoroark-hisui::mienshao::rotom-wash::excadrill::venusaur-mega::iron boulder:

We were out of playoffs this week so we figured it was time to use more fun stuff. Horoark looked good into their draft so we went with that plus a Mienshao to punish dark types like TTar. The rest is fairly standard BO though, so I don't think it needs too much elaboration, MVenu and Boulder for two soft Moth checks since the entire team pressures Moth silly. Yes, the Venu is the Scizor check - speed is for max speed neutral Scizor so we can HP Fire it before it can pull any nonsense. Sadly, we once again got swept by MAlt. If we had a nickel for every time this tour we got swept by a MAlt, we'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird it happened twice.

Week 7:

:mandibuzz::hippowdon::altaria-mega::buzzwole::enamorus::excadrill:

Our opp used a lot of Aegislash and other mons Mandibuzz did good into, so we built Mandibuzz balance this week since Mandi BO seemed like a horrible idea. That said, Dabman brought a slightly different Mandibuzz team with MGallade and Celesteela, but this one went hard into the opp's team if it was brought and honestly I personally feel like this is more solid into the meta at large. The Aegi was SubTox so Mandi didn't do much :blobshrug:

Core is Mandibuzz + Hippowdon since besides Ice types they compliment each other pretty well. Mandi is immune to Hippo's sandstorm and harasses grasses for Hippo while Hippo answers rock type like Boulder and TTar. We had a lot of trouble compressing key resists and a Hydrapple check among other things, so we used Mega Altaria. Ironic since it swept us in both prior weeks but if you can't beat em join em I guess. Honestly MAlt is surprisingly ok in this meta, though that might be because Apple is broken and MAlt happens to offer more role compression than the other checks and actually has recovery. Hippo sand also benefits it because it wears down Mega Venu for it, and Mandi walls Amoonguss. We needed a sand answer and a wall breaker in the same slot so we went with Buzzwole - between it and Hippo, we're generally fine into opposing Steelium sand Exca. Enam is the speed control both to give an actual special attacker, HW also lets us play a bit more aggressively with Excadrill. Rounding out as general offensive presence and a secondary wincon (because let's face it it's still pretty tough to get MAlt to win) is our own Exca.

No ice resists but we have zero relevant offensive ice types (we banned all the ones that dropped lmao), so really it just means MTias Ice Beam (which also rarely if ever gets run) has a free move, and Buzzwole walls tf out of Mamoswine in case the opp threw by bringing Mamo into someone who'd been running Washtom BO almost the entire tour.

:mandibuzz::ting lu::gallade-mega::clefable::celesteela::iron moth:

I sort of helped building this one so I'm including it, and Dabman said I could despite it mostly being his team, so here it is. It's similar to the other team, but instead of relying on Hippowdon + Excadrill to deal with Iron Moth, it runs Ting Lu instead. It also runs broken Mega Gallade as the breaker, with Celesteela as the sand check, instead of Buzzwole. Clef is to check Mega Gallade, with Helmet helping get it into range of Moonblast, and I believe Iron Moth is the Hydrapple check since Steela is explicitly Heavy Slam. Booster Iron Moth was run because we needed some speed control and something more offensive to avoid this being a passive snoozefest of a team. It has better odds vs MVenu than the other one, though, at the cost of a more questionable Apple MU.

Set Dump:
Cooked a little this tour, not that we used everything that came out of the oven. This is the team and set dump thread apparently, so take the ones that aren't standard, ranging from genuinely useful to slightly burnt (I'm not showing the garbo that didn't make the cut, I deadass suggested Mega Camerupt at one point. Luckily Dabman told me to turn the oven off).
1739823609030.png
:sv/hippowdon:
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Toxic/Whirlwind

Pretty much just standard SpDef Hippo but with Impish instead. It coincidentally is the exact most efficient spread to reliably come in on CB Ada TTar's Knock Off, Crunch (which is an option in the last slot rn because most sciz are bug z for Hydrapple and you generally want to spam Dark moves, plus it's more reliable into the bulky megas running around) and Low Kick as a 3HKO.

:sv/steelix-mega:
Steelix-Mega @ Steelixite
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- High Horsepower/Earthquake
- Heavy Slam
- Toxic

From a scrapped BuluLucha team, MegaLix has most of the same defensive properties as Excadrill, while being a much more consistent and reliable answer to Iron Boulder, Zeraora, and MAero, albeit at the cost of Mold Breaker, its utility of rapid spin and potential to SD. It also has High Horsepower, so it doesn't hit like a wet noodle in GTerrain. We ran High Horsepower on the original because this was a BuluLucha squad, but EQ is probably better otherwise. Turns out it needs no physdef investment to check what it needs to, go figure that a mon with 230 base defense doesn't need investment to be bulky. Probably a cool mon even outside of this, but it's very niche, missing out on most of Exca's role compression. I don't know if I'd rank it, and if I would, it would be no higher than C-.

:sv/rotom-heat:
Rotom-Heat @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 248 HP / 172 SpD / 88 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat
- Volt Switch
- Pain Split/Defog
- Will-O-Wisp/Thunder Wave

Exceptionally niche role compression, but it fits. It compresses an Iron Moth check (a la Slowking where it can't really 1v1 outright without TWave or just pivoting out) with a sand check, an Aegi check (not switchin) and a scizor check, since I've unironically seen more X-Scissor Excadrill in this tour than Rock Slide Excadrills. It runs enough speed for max speed neutral scizor, with the rest dumped in SpDef to actually check Iron Moth, and since it checks basically nothing besides exca physically anyways, which it doesn't need investment for. It also harasses Celesteela harder than just about anything, and it's fairly scary in its own right offensively. This is definitely my most niche heat mon here, but it fills the role it was meant to fill. I wouldn't call this mon good, though, and I certainly wouldn't rank it.

:sv/venusaur-mega:
Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 120 SpA / 136 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb/Giga Drain
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Synthesis

You were getting real comfy with Sciz as your MVenu check, weren't you? Oh, how the turn tables. This is literally just the standard offensive spread but with enough speed for max speed sciz and Hidden Power Fire. You eat +2 BP and kill back. Nothing else really to it. The team we were using it on got shredded by sciz and didn't have much space left, so we ran this instead to check it.

:sv/altaria-mega:
Altaria-Mega @ Altarianite
Ability: Natural Cure
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 132 Spe
Impish Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Return/Body Slam/Facade
- Roost
- Earthquake
Enough EVs to outsped Enamorus at +1, the rest in bulk to take on MGall a bit more adequately. Sadly, Facade doesn't let it 1v1 Hydrapple, so you have to go either Body Slam or Return/Frustration to actually win. It's probably alright if you have another Hydrapple check, but at that point, why are you using MAlt again? I guess that's not entirely fair, though, it does come in on Keldeo, Serperior, MAero (if rocks aren't up) and CM Mtias, while also soft checking Iron Boulder, Mega Gallade. If outspeeding Enam isn't your concern, you can probably put a few EVs in to survive offensive MTias Psychic as a 2HKO if rocks aren't up (don't quote me), but you need more for Mist Ball. Either way, you would run enough speed for Ada CB TTar, so you don't actually get all that many extra EVs.

:sv/mandibuzz:
Mandibuzz (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Overcoat
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 152 Def / 104 Spe
Impish Nature
- Foul Play/Knock Off
- U-turn
- Toxic/Brave Bird/Knock Off/Defog
- Roost

EVs are for outspeeding Adamant max speed TTar so you can U-turn first, rest dumped in bulk. Brave Bird lets you wear down MVenu (especially in sand) and 1v1 stuff like Buzzwole and Mega Gallade, while Knock Off lets you force progress. Foul Play, however, is preferred to let it actually kill SD Aegi (as it runs Z) and check SD Excadrill (post Steelium), and FP still lets it check SD MGall anyways. It's kind of a meh Defogger (you beat Ting and Exca but and lose to every single other rocker besides Toxless Hippo, which is still the most painful stalemate you'll ever see lmao) but you can run it if you need it.

Overall, it was pretty fun to build in this tour. I haven't really done much building for others in a tour setting (in fact I think this was my first team tour as a support), but might come back as a support for the next team tour, idk. I think there's some problem mons that we need to deal with in NDUU (Mega Gallade, Hydrapple and Aegi), but building is still pretty fun imo.

(also who brought Eeveelutions + Hydreigon to a team tour, and, more importantly, did they win)
 
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ND DOU TEAM DUMP:

Week 1 vs Xqiht:

:Ursaluna: :Cresselia: :Salamence-Mega: :Incineroar: :Tapu Fini: :Iron Hands:

Team kind of sucks, I think I stole the idea of Belly Drum Ursaluna + Cresselia from a DOU game I watched at some point, I think? Idea is to use Incineroar + Cresselia to get up an early Trick Room, allow Ursaluna to come in off a Parting Shot, set up a Belly Drum, and dent the opposing team for Mega Salamence to Dragon Dance and win when Trick Room ends. Cresselia has Covert Cloak to block Fake Out to make this easier. Tapu Fini + Iron Hands just felt pretty decent into Xqiht and I was pretty comfortable with it as a safe week one bring, but ultimatley team kind of folded to Xqiht's GrassPon.

Other Ideas:

:Ursaluna: :Cresselia: :Salamence-Mega: :Incineroar: :Chien-Pao: :Kartana:

In hindsight this feels like the better team. Main idea is the same, just went more in on supporting Ursaluna to do ridiculous damage after a Belly Drum rather than having secondary options.


Week 2 vs Eragon:

:Okidogi: :Rillaboom: :Tapu Fini: :Gouging Fire: :Chien-Pao: :Mew:

Probably my favorite team that I built all tour, but anyways, Okidogi looked mega fun into Eragon and I felt like building around it for a while, so I did. Idea was just a pretty standard Physical Offense with Okidogi, chose Mew since it looked like a nice compression option with Stealth Rocks, Tailwind, and Pollen Puff. Felt like Eragon was 100% going to bring Incineroar into me so I went with the worst lure possible and gave Chien-Pao Fighting Z which has like no other use case, and is pretty redundant on this team. Stuff like Mew's Earth Power and Chien-Pao's Z move are pretty flexible, something like Ice Beam Mew and Dark Z Chien-Pao are probably better by a mile.

Other Ideas:

:Diancie: :Zapdos: :Gardevoir-Mega: :Indeedee-F: :Marshadow: :Landorus:

This team was horrible in practice, Psychic Seed Diancie was a cool idea in my head, but this sucked in practice.

:Okidogi: :Chien-Pao: :Entei: :Tapu Koko: :Iron Bundle: :Iron Hands:

Cool Electric Terrain idea I had, just wasn't really feeling it in the end.


Week 3 vs Voltix:

:Charizard-Mega-Y: :Flutter Mane: :Raging Bolt: :Stakataka: :Rillaboom: :Ogerpon-Hearthflame:

Didn't really know what to load into Voltix, so just went with Sun as a safe load. Team is kind of basic as far as Sun goes, Follow Me FirePon is a cool addition that helps out in a few matchups. Team has pretty bulky spreads, but Sun has a good enough output for it to not really matter.

Other Ideas:

:Tapu Fini: :Amoonguss: :Rillaboom: :Incineroar: :Salamence-Mega: :Stakataka:

Very standard six, nice matchup spread. Just felt like it might of been too predictable.


Week 4 vs Farfromani:

:Charizard-Mega-X: :Rillaboom: :Tapu Fini: :Landorus: :Iron Hands: :Flutter Mane:

Went for a Mega Charizard X balance, looked very nice into scout, since most of Farfromani's teams up until this point were mostly stuff used by Toxinalpaca in the past with slight edits. Team plays around Flutter Mane and Landorus getting on the field at some point and just breaking everything in the tier.

Other Ideas:

:Charizard-Mega-X: :Rillaboom: :Tapu Fini: :Landorus: :Chien-Pao: :Kartana:

Very similar idea, just went Chien-Pao and Kartana for more support for Mega Charizard X and being a generally strong pair.


Week 5 vs Schister:

:Iron Crown: :Indeedee-F: :Tyranitar-Mega: :Kommo-o: :Ogerpon-Hearthflame: :Tornadus:

Kind of just re-made ESM Sand in ND, team is solid, quite easy to just click with Kommo-o after Iron Crown removes Fairies and FirePon removes Gholdengo or other Steels.

Other Ideas:

:Jirachi: :Kommo-o: :Incineroar: :Tapu Fini: :Sinistcha: :Zapdos:

Never tested this, team is probably usable with some changes though, bulky Fire Water Grass core with Jirachi is probably good support for Z Kommo-o.


Week 6 vs Terekusai:

:Iron Hands: :Politoed: :Archaludon: :Landorus: :Basculegion: :Tapu Koko:

Very cool Rain team, idea was originally Assault Vest Tapu Koko, but chose to flesh it out into Rain since I really like the archetype. Logic is pretty simple, Politoed sets Rain then Archaludon and Basulegion become stupid strong, Tapu Koko sets Electric Terrain and lets Iron Hands set up to get stupid strong, and Landorus is just strong.

Other Ideas:

:Volcanion: :Jirachi: :Manectric-Mega: :Rillaboom: :Tornadus: :Landorus:

Really had an itch to use Volcanion towards the end of my run, Mega Manectric getting Lightning Rod Pre-Mega makes it a pretty solid partner for Tornadus and Volcanion, they can also break Grounds for it which is always nice.


Week 7 vs Jello:

:Salamence-Mega: :Diancie: :Amoonguss: :Kingambit: :Volcanion: :Gothitelle:

Knowing this could very well be the final week of Pidove's run, I decided to go pretty off from self-scout while still loading comfortable. Dragon Dance Mega Salamence on Trick Room teams will always be fun to me, so wanted to start with it to redeem it from my week 1 game as it's a nice option for when Trick Room ends or if there's a position where not having Trick Room is better. Rest is kind of just good Trick Room guys, Diancie, Amoongus, and Gothitelle are all really solid mons that fit so I decided to bring these as a nice backbone. Kingambit is pretty simple, Assault Vest lets it eat hits and Volcanion is a three attack set with Ground Z to break past Archaludon and Iron Hands after a Helping Hand boost from Gothitelle.

Other Ideas:

:Iron Crown: :Kyurem-Black: :Chi-Yu: :Tornadus: :Marshadow: :Indeedee-F:

Stacked strong mons, wanted to just do big damage, and win. In the end the team just felt too inconsistent for me to bring it.


Shoutout omarsgarciav and Darkness 789 for drafting me, Marss Barss for putting up with me for 8 weeks straight, and the rest of the Pidoves, you guys were super fun to hang around with.
 
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RU Team Dump

With a fairly mediocre 4-4 run, I can say that while I'm not ecstatic, I'm pretty proud of my run. Most of the prep I did was really solid, and only when I started straying away from my tried and true (due mainly to fears of cteaming) did I lose games, so I guess the moral of the story is load the same team 8 weeks in a row next time.

Most of these teams are fairly straightforward, so I'm just gonna drop them here. If you'd like more explanation feel free to DM.

If you'd like to see a UU teamdump I will drop my builder immediately following NDUU Winter Seasonal.

:Latias::Volcanion::Lokix::Amoonguss::aggron-mega::sandy shocks:
:Sylveon::Gastrodon::Mandibuzz::Aggron-Mega::Latias::Tangrowth:
:Slither Wing::Lokix::Dhelmise::Latias::Aggron-Mega::Sandy Shocks:
:Aggron-Mega::Blissey::Weezing-Galar::Dhelmise::Latias::Gastrodon:
:Krookodile::Tangrowth::Aggron-Mega::Blissey::Gligar::Basculegion-F:
:Arcanine-Hisui::Gligar::Amoonguss::Latias::Absol-Mega::Cobalion:

No week 7 team bc it was bad :ghorse:.

Shoutouts to Elvira and Toxinalpaca for being great managers and to sealoo, Iride, and about15gals for being great to work with in RU and UU. See y'all in future team tours.
 
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Spectriers are out so it's teamdump time.

To the team, it was a pleasure being able to work for you all, felt great and it's hard to believe we would ever fall behind, unsure as always if it's just what happens when you've got Sami versus the world, but I digress. Let's get into the fun stuff I did, below is all the techs I used with brief explanations, but feel free to scroll past and get straight down to the teams.



The Techs:

:tyranitar:
Fast Utility
Tyranitar @ Chople Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Low Kick
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock

Fast Utility Tyranitar is not technically my creation, with it having also seen uses back when its Mega counterpart was legal. However, the main thing that stands out about it is also the lack of Pursuit. Indeed, many people often forget that while TTar is quite known for trapping the tier's various Ghost and Psychics, its vast movepool also allows it to adjust to teams not reliant on this dynamic at all. Instead, this TTar variant aims to enable its team acting as a trade machine of sorts - getting the Sand and Rocks up for early-chip, but also leveraging its speed tier to nab a surprise Knock Off or chip against a potential wall like Ting-Lu and Washer, which can be huge for enabling its sweeping teammates. Chople Berry also works especially well with this set's more aggressive approach, allowing TTar to bulk out against the common Fighting coverage moves that are known for sniping the defensive variants.

:ting-lu:
Heavy Slam
Ting-Lu @ Leftovers
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
EVs: 244 HP / 48 Atk / 216 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Whirlwind
- Heavy Slam

UU has plenty of common sayings, anecdotally surmised by the community, but me personally - the more versatile Ting-Lu, the better. As a whole, I've always disliked the standard Max HP Max SpD sets, while that set is good at performing a traditional defensive role, it does feel a bit stale and generic relative to its surroundings, with not as many players having explored its other aspects and how they can potentially allow it to fit onto other teams. One such adaptation I've been using is Heavy Slam, as it turns out, Ting-Lu is pretty good as a stopgap to the omnipresent M-Aerodactyl when it's not constantly being invited in just to get chipped, allowing it to flip an otherwise troublesome MU for a lot of traditional BO and Offense teams. Its ability to hit M-Gardevoir and Clefable is also perhaps worth mentioning, even if the interactions aren't something to be relied on long-term, the immediate damage it dishes out vs both can be quite significant.

48 Atk Ting-Lu Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Aerodactyl-Mega: 226-266 (75 - 88.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
48 Atk Ting-Lu Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gardevoir-Mega: 278-328 (100.3 - 118.4%)
48 Atk Ting-Lu Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 172-204 (43.6 - 51.7%)

:ting-lu:
Fast Taunt
Ting-Lu @ Leftovers / Rocky Helmet / Custap Berry / Red Card
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
EVs: 184 HP / 200 SpD / 124 Spe OR 164 Spe OR 224 Spe (with Jolly)
Careful Nature
- Spikes / Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Ruination
- Taunt

IMO the more successful set variations of the two, while you no longer beat M-Aero 1v1 with Rocky Helmet, you still threaten to wear it down for its teammates to finish it off. In return, Speed EVs and Taunt allow Ting-Lu to function more proactively by forcibly chipping defensive walls such as Clef, Scizor, Steela it would otherwise invite in for free, which can potentially open up some huge offensive avenues in the teambuilder. Its speed tier is also quite flexible for such a role, though it’s worth noting that trying to outspeed Skarmory will require more effort with Ursaluna effectively rendering 0 Speed sets extinct.

:gallade-mega:
Bulky Swords Dance
Gallade-Mega (M) @ Galladite
Ability: Justified
EVs: 124 HP / 132 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Zen Headbutt
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Swords Dance

I've already gone into this set in detail in another post, but tl;dr is that bulk investment + Drain Punch helps make Gallade surprisingly self-sufficient and is a huge blow to a lot of BO and Sand teams previously reliant on it being worn down into KO range; low risk high reward button.

:aegislash:
Bulky Swords Dance
Aegislash @ Shuca Berry / Ghostium Z
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 120 HP / 136 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Claw
- Shadow Sneak
- Close Combat

Bulky SD Aegislash has been a thing for a while, making full use of Aegi's unprecedented profile and allowing it to live some absolutely absurd hits in Shield forme. However, one thing that constantly bothered me was the prevalence of Amoonguss, a mon quite effective at scouting nearly every set out there. Even if Aegislash could hypothetically take it out at +2, it wouldn't do so without the risk of sustaining heavy damage from Foul Play in return, thus leaving it unable to procure the sweeps that +4 Shadow Sneak was often notorious for.

However, this optimization in HP and Atk aims to fix that, letting Aegi take full advantage of its surprise factor into these teams by allowing it to survive a Foul Play at +4 Attack with minimal loss, which can be game breaking against weakened teams reliant on these stopgaps.

+4 136+ Atk Amoonguss Foul Play vs. 120 HP / 0 Def Aegislash-Shield: 242-286 (83.1 - 98.2%)
+2 136+ Atk Mandibuzz Foul Play vs. 120 HP / 0 Def Aegislash-Shield: 242-288 (83.1 - 98.9%)


UU Teams:

W1 vs Dunoks (W)
:serperior::tyranitar::keldeo::excadrill::clefable::celesteela:
Immediate thing that stood out here was where I was and who I was up against - dunoks was if not the greatest UU player in the pool, and someone I had at the very top of my "all-time" players list for the tier. Having come off an impressive 5-1 record in last year's NDPL with plenty of major Seasonal / Circuit wins in the back. Me and Dan brainstormed a bit seeing as I was also a little knocked out from the tier in practice, but seeing as Dan wanted to save said team for the bo3 slot, I ultimately decided to stick to my guns and load something consistent in BandTar Sand.

Other than that, a week in and the game was mostly down to play. Ended up loading into balance so Keldeo + TTar ended up deconstructing things perfectly and kicking things off with a pretty convincing win.

W2 vs Saurav the great (W)
:ursaluna::mienshao::aerodactyl-mega::aegislash::swampert::hydrapple:
So Ursaluna just dropped, opinions on its place were initially mixed, to say the least, but one thing for certain was that me and Dan both wanted to experience some destruction. Decided to do a collab together, and I can only say the results have followed us both since. Here is a kickass offense team bound together by Swampert + Double Regen to ward off the majority of fast sweepers in the tier, Pert wasn't something I was initially convinced by until sealoo put me onto it, but held its own as a blanket which also compressed momentum + Rocks, something almost entirely unseen before in the Ting-Lu era. Then we added the combination of Choice Scarf Mienshao + Adamant Aerodactyl for a nearly infallible anti offense core that kept up the pressure itself and helped compliment Ursaluna's ability to bust open nearly everything early-game. Out of all the teams we've built, I'd say this is the best one for any tournament setting, team matches up excellently vs nearly every comfort archetype, only being weak to SD Knock Scizor which is outplayable between pressure from Ursaluna and fast Aegislash.

As for the game itself, not going to comment further other than that we had quite a matchup despite circumstances and we take those.

W3 vs HoodedZack (W)
:tapu fini::celesteela::excadrill::tyranitar::iron moth::hawlucha:
First 2 teams brought the yap, so now it was time for the trap. Banter aside, HoodedZack is a player who deserves all the respect to their name - their creativity with lesser used mons is always inspiring to see. Went with a reused, albeit unorthodox team that aims to bluff a typical BO composition between Fini + Sand + Celesteela, with 2 fast cleaners that I could rely on to clean late-game in case things went rough, giving me the potential edge in the anticipated offense mirror.

That said, game was mostly down to how I played Celesteela in the back, being very careful to not reveal its set early while trying to force the optimal line of sacks for it to sweep late-game. Early misplays from the very threatening Horoark and no Rocks aside, team went all according to plan.

W4 vs Marss Barss (W)
:aegislash::venusaur-mega::excadrill::iron moth::ting-lu::rotom-wash:
Marss was another player I knew I'd have a hard time scouting here, and I wanted to deviate from my traditional offense brings here as they were very known for stacking counterplay to those types of teams in particular. Decided to slot in a dual Poison offense core to try and overload common defensive lynchpins with an emphasis on resilience into opposing offense dominated by speedsters like Mienshao and Zeraora. Scarf Mold Breaker Excadrill isn't normally conventional, but I'm willing to fight for the vision seeing as a lot of offense teams are nominally reliant on using non-Flying checks (ie: Levitate mons) to check Grounds, which in turn could allow its surprise factor and shockingly strong STABs to take the fold in certain MUs, all while compressing hazard removal to help enable Pain Split + Status Washer.

W5 vs Rafadude (L)
:ting-lu::gallade-mega::zeraora::aegislash::hydrapple::salamence:
ngl I didn't have much time to refine this concept past its gaps, but very much wanted to try and overwhelm Rafa with Gallade + Aegislash while falling back on Ting's all-reliable, albeit underexplored movepool and defensive profile. Ended up getting crit by Scarf Mienshao during the game which ruined Gallade's chances, but said situation as a result of being chipped earlier was frankly avoidable in hindsight.

Was otherwise pretty burned out due to irls (hence the w6 absence) but still gotta hand it to Rafa for being a tough opponent and outprepping me here, so kudos to them for wiinning.

W7 vs Dabman1069 (W)
:okidogi::aegislash::rotom-wash::tangrowth::ting-lu::aerodactyl-mega:
Okidogi looked very strong into Dabman's more unconventional scout, but I'll admit I came to said conclusion a little too late to be building my own team with it, especially after deciding I didn't want to bring the more tech-focused build I initially had, so another reuse was the cue. Took an old ssnl build and replaced Scarf Gapdos with Aerodactyl, as well as opting for Z Poison > Fight on Oki to handle the increased Psychic and Venu usage.

Early sabotage aside, team felt solid; comfortable, satisfying to click with, and another I'd recommend for any sort of high level gameplay.

Semi-Finals vs Saurav the great (W)
:primarina::hippowdon::excadrill::rotom-wash::celesteela::gallade-mega:
Spectriers needed me here more than anything, but not as much as I needed to beat the Primarina allegations. Got into some fun mirror shenanigans between Gallade / Celesteela / Washer on both sides but ended up preserving and finishing pretty strong for the rematch.


Bo3 Teams

Decided to take the wheel here for UU at several points too, seeing as the team was struggling with certain choices and Dan was getting increasingly busy with RU prep, no write up here seeing as I dedicated a bit less to this section throughout the season.

:ursaluna::keldeo::aerodactyl::aegislash::hydrapple::swampert: (W3) (W)
:hippowdon::slowking::celesteela::iron boulder::excadrill::amoonguss: (W4) (L)
:lokix::serperior::magnezone::aerodactyl-mega::slowbro::excadrill: (W5) (W)
:mew::gallade-mega::iron boulder::blacephalon::aegislash::serperior: (W6) (Deadgamed)
:aerodactyl-mega::aegislash::mienshao::ting-lu::rotom-wash::thundurus: (Semis) (W)


Overall pretty happy with no regrets regarding the experience. Shame we couldn't make it after some bad run-ins during playoffs but I guess that's the game we play. s/os to Toxinalpaca and Elvira for drafting me and all the townsfolk in the teamcord, especially Danbear02 but also about15gals and devin for being fun and carrying bo3 respectively, as well as R1C3M4N and sealoo for some of the teams.

tl;dr 6-1 record in UU, probably too attached to this tier for one post to say it all, Aegislash and Runo remain my 2 favoured sons.
 
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Here's a dump of the teams I used before w4, with my friend Niadev already having posted the teams used/made after his arrival.

Used By Me:

W1- :Mienshao::Excadrill::Latias-Mega::Iron Boulder::Slowbro::Hydrapple: (W)

Having worked with riceman a little in ndpl and from having looked at the scout since then I just wanted a squad that was decent into weather and m-aero while also giving good entry to cb boulder to break.

Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexuu-812055

The game started off about as terribly as it could have, but some good clicks with boulder got me back into it. Ended with a 50-50 in the end against z aegi, this game was my highlight of the season.

W2- :Mienshao::Keldeo::Aegislash::Aerodactyl-Mega::Hydrapple::Excadrill: (L)

We didn't have much of a scout into awyp going into the game, and with drops in effect I noticed that none of the dropped mons really liked fighting coverage all that much, so attempted to build off of that.

Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexuu-813942

Got surprised by lead will o mew and whiffed a bit of the endgame vs aegi and enam lead to a pretty tame loss.

W3- :Pidgeot-Mega::Iron Moth::Hydrapple::Excadrill::Rotom-Wash::Scizor: (L)

Drawn in by Pidgeot putting in work against us last week in Bo3 and it seeming good into the scout, i decided to put it together with a familiar good VoltTurn core.

Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexuu-814325

The game went pretty terribly with me not having much of a matchup to go off with non knock sciz and a slow apple.

Used in BO3:
W1: :Mienshao::Rotom-Wash::Iron Boulder::Scizor::Enamorus::Ting-Lu: (L)

Just wanting to give a clicker squad, i decided to pass a VoltTurn squad that could make use of boulder as a late game cleaner after shao was done breaking.

W2: :Skarmory::Gallade-Mega::Slowking::Excadrill::Enamorus::Iron Moth: (L)

This squad was an attempt at providing future sight support to M-gallade and Moth to potentially allow both of them to break past their softer checks, with skarm thrown in for the ursa matchup.

W3: :Gallade-Mega::Rotom-Wash::Aegislash::Iron Moth::Ting-Lu::Zarude: (L)

A pretty clicker squad, this squad was just meant as an opportunity to let M-Gallade just get in and click as much as it could with some hazard and VoltTurn support. Zarude was used to help with aegi, M-lati and Washer in one slot.

While I did finish with an absolutely atrocius record of 2-5, this was a good learning experience, with learning to build with someone else, using newer mons and playstyles. A big thank you goes out to Dead by Daylight and Redgoop115 for drafting me, to thebestever543 and Ineros for testing, all my other teammates for the experience and especially to Niadev without whos help my record might've been even worse. I hope to take this tour in my stride and keep learning and doing better next time.
 
When NDBD was announced I was feeling slightly burnt out on mons in general, but felt obligated to sign up. I like building, I like yapping, I don't like playing that much. I'm not a great player and enjoy supporting better players than me. I mentioned as much in my signup post, hoping to be cheap support and play a game or two if needed. Obviously that didn't happen, but if I wasn't willing to play I would not sign up. At least when NDPL rolls around and the big names who play NDUbers once a year sign up I can hopefully support one of them.

It is great that the National Dex staff/leaders have made another tournament, especially one that seems to cater more to ND mains. I do think Ubers could easily support two slots as multiple people easily capable of starting went undrafted and a couple did not sign up. I was asleep during the draft, but woke up to find out I'd been drafted for 8k which was pretty surprising. I figured maybe someone would spend 4-5k on me or something, but I'm not worth spending a lot of money on, especially when I wouldn't be available for one week, maybe two. Either way, if I wasn't willing to put in an honest effort I wouldn't have signed up.

Going in I just wanted to have fun. I'm not a competitive person and didn't care if we came in first or last as long as the vibes were good and the people on the team were nice. Velcroc was the only person I knew as we were on the team in NDPL, but didn't really interact much with each other as I was pretty quiet during that tournament. At the beginning everyone was more or less just a name, some of which I recognized from liking their fourm posts discussing various metagames. Y'all are a great crowd and it was great getting to know you beyond some forum posts. I'd like to give a special shoutout to Squeeby. I was very surprised when he went undrafted and he has been absolutely amazing support and managers in NDPL should consider him for supporting their NDUbers slot. If Squeeby goes undrafted in NDPL he should be starting in NDFL. With the yapping out of the way, here is the teamdump. Click on the sprites for the paste and the hyperlink links to that weeks game. I'll make a metagame discussion point, but I did feel like going into a little bit of detail about the teambuilding process and the games.

Teams (5-3)​

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-dark::zygarde-complete::marshadow::necrozma-dusk-mane: [Marsh + DD Necrozma-DM BO] - W1 v Mirror (L)

After a disappointing NDPL I wanted to start things off on a good note. I don't like this team all that much, but I did like it for Mirror specifically. I would have been shocked if Mirror loaded anything besides HO and they loaded Deoxys-S Hstack. I was expecting webs, so this was nice to see at preview. The match was a bit unfortunate as the Sacred Fire miss T1 followed up by the full paralysis T2 allowed all three layers to go up. This enabled Primal Groudon to OHKO Zygarde and things went south from there. Losing like that always stings a bit, but Mirror did outplay me throughout the game so it doesn't feel as bad as it could have. Still, starting off my team tour career 0-3 was less than ideal. I'd hoped to be supporting someone rather than starting, but thems the breaks. I'm not really sure why I don't like this team that much, probably just my personal preference. I built this team for the last week of NDPL, but didn't bring it.

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-dark::zygarde-complete::eternatus::lunala: [Specs Lunala + SpD Zygarde BO] W2 v BananaTimeZ (W)

I really wanted to avoid starting off 0-4 and avoid a floobering. I brought this team a few times to Beers & Buds and Zrp200 has used it a couple of times as well. I think it is 5-0 in tournament now which is nice. I don't think I played all that well and Unfunny overcooked in the builder as the Marshadow was Choice Scarf for Dragon Dance Zygarde. Something like that is way too specific to bring imo. We know each other pretty well and Banana knows me well enough to know I'm probably not going to bring HO so I really don't see the reason for Choice Scarf Marshadow. The set is ass and isn't the worst fish against someone who primarily plays offense, but that really isn't me. I kind of feel that I'm one of the easiest people to prep against. I'm happy to build any playstyle, but when it comes to stuff I'll load myself it tends to be quite 'samey'. NDUbers is balanced without any one playstyle being overly dominant or outmatched with the exception of stall. Stall is ass.

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-dark::zygarde-complete::fezandipiti::calyrex-ice: [Umbrella Fezandipiti + Caly-I Balance] W3 v Rarh2 (W)

This is the team I'm most proud of. I've been glazing Fezandipiti so much that not bringing it at some point would feel wrong. The question was against who? I glazed it so much that Kinzo said I shouldn't bring Fezandipiti three weeks in a row without realizing that I had not brought it yet. I had a gut feeling that Rarh2 probably saw W1 and felt that some sort of HO would be the way to go without realizing that the game likely had a different outcome with even just two layers of Spikes. I milled over making Calyrex-I Tera Water, but felt that having backup Ekiller insurance was more important. Fezandipiti put in an absolute ton of work and showed why it was ranked on the VR with Utility Umbrella playing a pretty big role. The team is fairly weak to offensive Primal Kyogre without tera, so the Umbrella served a legitimate purpose and wasn't there just to fish. I do think I could have played slightly better as Caly-I should have been sacked to Yveltal instead of Primal Groudon, but the Origin Pulse miss was some justice for the first turn crit against the Calm Mind Arceus-Dark that would have swept. It still was not fun and seeing the Thunder paralysis made me forget that Primal Kyogre was going to drop to the Toxic damage anyways. I'd imagine Rarh2 would be very happy to never see this silly bird again. I ended up submitting the team to the teambuilding competition so if you're interested in some more details they can be found here.

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-dark::zygarde-complete::eternatus::calyrex-ice: [DD Zygarde + Tera Water Caly-I BO] W4 v Veti (W)

This was the first week I attempted to properly scout. I spend way too much of my free time on this tier and it isn't that big player wise. Consequently, I have a pretty good idea of what most mainers tend to prefer and just load stuff I like or feel like using with some tweaks for whoever I am facing. Veti is definitely an exception to this as far as I'm recall they have not played NDUbers before this tournament. So I had one replay to go off which was using Emoxu9's Chi-Yu + Lunala Webs team in W2. I look a look at what they were using in UUPL and it was a mish mash of pretty much everything. Part of why I enjoy playing balance and bulky offense is that they usually have a playable matchup into everything with a proper defensive core of Primal Groudon / Defogger / Arceus-Dark or Arceus-Fairy / Zygarde (or Eternatus) / +2. The variety in the last two plus the tweaks in the EV spreads of the first four keep things interesting enough for me.

I wouldn't say I had a plan going into this week except wanting to use some Dragon Dance Zygarde BO. In the first three weeks I'd used Coil Zygarde and felt like a more aggressive approach. Calyrex-I is one of my favourite Pokémon in the tier to use and I wanted to bring it. I didn't think that I'd be using Calyrex-I more than once in NDBD, yet alone twice in a row and three times total.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from Veti, but was leaning more towards some type of HO, BO, or maybe stall. I wasn't expecting balance and I really was not expecting Trick Room. Somebody said it was good into my builds which is questionable advice to say the least. This did end up being the most TR weak team I loaded, but TR is C/C- for a reason...if it isn't facing HO it tends to be an incredibly uphill battle if not an autoloss.

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-dark::zygarde-complete::marshadow::zacian-crowned: [Marshadow + Zacian-C BO - played by AWYP] W5 v Sami (W)

In my signup post I mentioned I would be unavailable this week due to having surgery on Monday and figured it was better to not have the obligation or pressure to play this week. The surgery was pretty successful and the recovery was significantly smoother than I was expecting. AWYP was scheduled to take the Ubers slot this week a bit in advance and sometime during week 2 I asked what Pokémon and playstyles he liked as I figured with a few weeks I'd be able to build something that he would like. He said he was happy to play with anything but really liked the idea of Mega Salamence HO or some Garganacl stuff. Over the next few weeks I spent a lot of time trying to make a Garganacl team and could not make one I was happy with. It is good mon, but apprarently beyond my building capabilities.

I tried a bit with Mega Salamence, but just really don't like it. In a vacuum its fine, but it needs the right moveset, doesn't have that many opportunities to safely Dragon Dance, and the main target, Overheat defensive Primal Groudon is often paired with Coil Zygarde anyways or something like Giratina-O which cripples it with Thunder Wave. It is also locked out of tera and both slower than and weak to both Eternatus and is near deadweight v HO if it can't setup. In short, if everything goes right it is great, but it faces enough roadblocks that I find it way too inconsistent.

After telling AWYP that I asked what sort of playstyles he liked and he again said anything, but after a bit of nudging mentioned HO or BO. I felt a bit uneasy about loading HO so figured it was best to build some BOs and whip up a HO afterwards if those didn't work out. I ended up making 8 teams and a couple were pretty adventurous - two didn't even have Arceus-Dark and one didn't have Ho-Oh! This was the one that AWYP liked the most and it is about as much of a counterteam as I'll probably ever make. There might be six good Pokémon, but I wouldn't consider this a great team due to its inability to beat stall. Stall is mediocre and Sami agrees and thinks less of stall than I do so it was a gamble I was willing to make.

AWYP came back with some suggestions and edits. A tiny bit of speed creeping on Arceus-Dark was fine, Light Screen on Ho-Oh not so much. After mulling it over I put a bit more bulk than the 140+ I'd previously been using as the team is kind of annoyed by Zacian-C despite being fine with it on paper. I spent a while making a team breakdown and ended up spending far more time on this week than the rest of the tournament combined. Game day came and well I was very surprised to see Zygarde Tera Fairy and did not know what other, if any, changes were made. I'm glad AWYP won, but that was not a fun game to watch.

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-dark::zygarde-complete::rayquaza::marshadow: [Scale Shot Rayquaza + CB Marsh BO] W6 v Entro (L)

I was and am very happy about how this team turned out. I had a very strong feeling that Entro would bring Webs as it is a very good playstyle that is quite scary to face, yet alone when wielded by someone as good as Entro. Intially I was going to bring Marshadow + Ditto, but settled on Scale Shot Rayquaza as I wanted a Coil Zygarde this week and felt the team needed something that could switch into Primal Groudon. I still find it funny how Dragon Dance Zygarde cannot switch into Primal Groudon safely. The game started off as well as it possibly could with Rayquaza denying Webs and then went pretty downhill from there. It was a very winnable matchup, but I just choked it. Against a player as good as Entro you can't give an inch as he will take a mile and beat you even when using a meme team. I just played it far too safely, assuming Arceus-Water was Earth Power when it was probably Refresh and not Taunting the Genesect. Even then switching the Primal Groudon out of the boom would have won the game, but at the same time, ngl I did not know Genesect even got boom. The better player won.


:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-dark::zygarde-complete::calyrex-ice::kyogre-primal: [Caly-I + Defensive Primal Kyogre Balance] W7 v Oculars (W)

Occulars stepped up after Pannu ragequit the tier (probably listening too much to Runo's propaganda) so big props for that. I was expecting a HO and given that... this team is probably not all that great into HO. Most stuff has an answer on paper, but I think it is likely that it could get overwhelmed quite quickly with the right Pokémon or sets as I can see multiple Pokémon needing tera. Apparently the HO bring was too obvious so a Ghold team was loaded. I do think Ghold is viable despite voting it to UR. It curbstomps fat passive teams, but I don't think that any archetype is desperate enough for this that Gholdengo should be ranked. I also wouldn't say my teams tend to be all that weak into Gholdengo either so seeing it was a surprise, though the Covert Cloak was cool.

This game felt largely won on matchup as nothing was really a big threat, but could have been with different sets. With Precipice Blades on Primal Groudon and an offensive Ho-Oh there is probably a way to offensively pressure enough to break through with the help of Spikes. However, with that was loaded it seems like Calm Mind Arceus-Dark would always find a way to win. This team feels like something Runo would have made about a year ago or right after the Xerneas ban. Either way, this put me positive on the sheet so I'm happy about that.

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-fairy::zygarde-complete::marshadow::zarude-dada: [Zarude Balance] SF v Mirror (L)

I feel beyond shit timing out and letting down my team. My internet went down and it went from a win to a timer loss. This feels infintely worse than getting boomed by Genesect. I really liked this team and Zarude did get to show off a bit of what it can do and I'll make a VR nom soon. Losing because my internet crashed has me a bit depressed and I don't really have much to say about this week. I'm happy to root for any of the other three people in the Ubers pool, but as much as I want to root for Entro that also means rooting for Seth so idk. Mirror and Sami are both great players and lovely people.

Teams Not Brought

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-fairy::zygarde-complete::rayquaza::zacian-crowned: Tera Dark Ho-Oh Double Dragon BO

:groudon-primal::giratina-origin::arceus-dark::zygarde-complete::zacian-crowned::ditto: Hazardless Disruption BO

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-dark::zygarde-complete::marshadow::zacian-crowned: Tera Dragon Zacian-C BO

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-dark::zygarde-complete::eternatus::kyogre-primal: Tera Flying Ho-Oh 'Good Stuff' BO

:groudon-primal::giratina-origin::arceus-ground::diancie-mega::marshadow::yveltal: Sub Mega Diancie + Tera Poison LO Yveltal Offense

:groudon-primal::giratina-origin::arceus-fairy::zygarde-complete::zacian-crowned::kyogre-primal: Maranga Berry Zygarde + Double Fairy BO

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-dark::zygarde-complete::garganacl::pheromosa: RP 3A Pdon Pheromosa Balance

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-dark::zygarde-complete::fezandipiti::kyogre-primal: Fezandipiti + Rest Offensive Pogre Balance

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-grass::zygarde-complete::fezandipiti::deoxys-attack: Tera Dark Ho-oh + Arceus-Grass Balance

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-dark::zygarde-complete::fezandipiti::garganacl: Tera Flying Ho-Oh +Thief Fezandipiti Fat Balance

:groudon-primal::ho-oh::arceus-ground::zygarde-complete::fezandipiti::gothitelle: Bulldoze Ho-Oh + SD Dragon Tail Arceus-Ground




Shoutouts

Thanks again to Kinzo and Velcroc for drafting me! You've both been fantastic managers and contributed to a great atmosphere while going above and beyond every week to help in every single slot. Its been a lot of fun being on the Iron Hands even if we didn't win. Whether that was watching LBN shamone with Mega Pidgeot or seeing what hyjinks would pull off each week. It was also a lot of fun working with AWYP on my week off and I'm glad he seems to enjoy NDUbers. I don't think I'd spoken to a single person before, but it was great getting to know y'all and I hope we can team up again and best of luck on your future endeavours! I'd also like to once again give a shoutout to Squeeby who has been amazing support throughout NDBD whether it was bouncing ideas or the odd test game. I was shocked that Squeeby was not drafted, but they really should have been and hopefully that changes in the future.
 
Considering I was in the bo3 slot im just not writing / posting all my teams, especially since a chunk of them were just ok, but I'll post some personal highlights since NDOU's meta is new enough, and I'll also give some random tiering thoughts on the two below.

(Week 1 NDOU)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldex-812969
I saw potential in PZ immediately, namely for how solid boltbeam is with some assistance on the gambit front and I wasn't mistaken. This thing isn't some Kin+ak dogshit nom (like most of his VR noms but we can have that conversation another time). but has some actual value as an endgame cleaner. It did nicely in the game even though toxic glowking is NOT real but frankly nothing micaiah loaded damn near the entire tour should be considered real. The actual game was... shit, didn't deserve to win considering how bad I played but w/e considering my luck in the semis frankly I fucking earned that

(Week 2 NDUU)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexuu-813793?p2
Much like with PZ, I saw Mega Pidgeot and saw gold. I felt the same in NDRU but I had more fun shit to load down there (I'd get to him down there later) considering the resists to hurricane are often somewhat shaky, and stuff like Ttar aren't omnipresent I felt like Pidgeot was a sleeper breaker. And I was right; it mauled like the entire team because the flying resist was basically slowking. Its a somewhat awkward squad because the Gallade answers dont exist but you can out-offense it atleast.

(Week 3 NDUU)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexuu-814774
This time, I wanted to mess with Keldeo since that thing is incredibly fun and I never really use it. Flyinium CM felt like a no-brainer in Mega Venu land, and I wasn't wrong. I went with pairing it with mega alt with a keldeo lure, and then used Reuni as my venusaur counter w celest back-ending. The reuni is really nice, thing gargles sludge bombs for breakfast and is really good at forcing disruption in longer games. However, for UU this was starting to form a trend. A trend of deciding I'm above loading aerodactyl answers and I would get punished for my hubris in time. Heavily. As for the replay itself it was a keldeo showcase. Sadly it wasn't Altaria's day since it exploded to a CB boulder cleave which I didn't think was even a set lmao

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(Week 5 NDRU)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexru-2292357684-ayt88wgsagfur01y1bjft5pnr1a2x1opw?p2
This time I had a bunch of mons I wanted to use, namely the last 3. Machamp was a fun pick; Conkeldurr got banned for being broken as shit so machamp cant possibly be that bad! And it wasn't, I think its solid in its niche as a nuke fighting type. Absol was another mon I felt was disrespected, and spreading wisps was a fun utility on an offensive breaker. Metagross i wanted to use because I got this really cool metagross phone charger figure thing from this one merch store and bro its the coolest shit ever idc idc LMAOOO (I'll drop the store link and picture of the charger below as well cuz I feel like people will actually be interested in looking). Enough about that shit though the team was sheist. This was the only game I took off devin in our set (because that bit about skipping aerodactyl counters came to a head here lmao), but the game itself was really fun even if the displays from everybody that wasn't crobat and absol were relatively subpar.

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https://www.undefinedesign.com/ - online storefront (dw theres no ads on this site)

(Week 6 NDOU)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldex-818289?p2
This is just a team full of sets I find fun as hell. The Tank Dnite, AV Samu, Electrium Zama the standby lords. Though this time I had some flair. Defog Zard-Y was a set I remember seeing in an extremely obese SS NDOU dump and I wanted to try it and I think it fit nicely. More offensive version of molt with cleric support from dnite. Aegislash was something I also fancied, I believe the spread is like, 100% ohko on AV gambits w CC and some other stuff idr. I think it has value as a side-grade gholdengo that doesnt rely as heavily on Z-crystals for me to keep it in on Kingambits. That and the toxic utility was welcomed. Replay was pretty haxy on both sides but this was the game I won vs skimmy (a fucking rarity can i stop losing to you dawg :row:)

(Week 7 NDOU)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldex-819713?p2
Playing Runo in 3 games and he triple stalled me in each one that's crazy. But yknow I honestly don't mind it, stall to me is way more respectable than loading HO to me. That being said, this squad was fun. Originally I had the cleric dnite on the squad (god if i kept that shit this game would've been a Gardevoir masterclass) but alas. Honestly the team was fun, Mega Gardevoir has its niches that I mentioned in the meta thread at some point, and while i didnt win (I prolly would've without iirc the double protect idr) it was still actually pretty fun.

(Week 7 NDRU)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexru-81972
Now this time, I built with stall specifically in mind. I knew how good stall was in NDRU so I fully expected him to load some stall. Ironically, I didn't expect him to load in 3 fuckin times but hey. Refresh Pidgeot ragdolled him there's not much to say, you play it right and its an automatic win at preview. That said, there's a bit more to the lineup. If he didn't stall, Kinzo said he expected Queen or King since he called them dogshit and thought runo might fuck around, and since my scout had zero blissey I was either loading that or AV Reuni. Primarina's broken ass (I'll get to it later) was a threat but between AV reuni, A-Muk and Bulu it would probably be fine. But i scored my dream matchup and kicked his ribs in

I have some other stuff I liked but overall the season was fun. NDOU is in an infinitely better spot of enjoyability without tera, and NDRU remains quite fun when people dont load stupid shit like Runerigus or alolan raichu electric terrains. I'll get to shoutouts after but first I gotta say a couple things while I'm here. Highkey, I'd completely delete the NDUU ladder, by choice. I know its probably been said before but that ladder does absolute horrors for both it and the tier below for little discernable gain for how destitute is often is. Currently theres like... 6? D tiers and 3 of them were raised up by one singular dude. I really think gutting the ladder and doing VR based tiering for ND lower tiers is the way to go. While this has much more pedigree than something like LGPE and BDSP which go by usage based system; but I think if the goal is having superior metas keeping the ladder around for anything beyond the occasional ND rotation is doing more harm than it is good at the moment.

That aside, this part will be more rapidfire since I cant really be assed anymore but

Free drizzle, Donbozo and Kyurem in NDUU (Kyurem is slated to drop alongside Rillaboom, so rain even backed by pelipper might be acceptable, and if it isnt odds are Archalduon and Pelipper are why, and Politoed would certainly be fine). Gallade and Aerodactyl are p suspect worthy, same with Aegislash in a likely post ting-lu world. As for NDRU, if we can as a collective come up with a discernible niche for Iron leaves that makes it deserve its RUBL placing please let me know because I'm just not seeing it. (I also think both Primarina and maybe even mega pidgeot are worth giving a glare for being busted but mostly the former)

Finally some shoutouts, wont do everyone since this is way too long but shoutouts to Kinzo and the other teammates for the time I actually enjoyed bo3 slot quite a bit since I didn't actually expect to get put in there when I signed up.
 
good morning fellow natdexers, been a long season with many, many different teams, let's get into it

OU

Week 1
: :charizard-mega-y: :slowking-galar: :kingambit: :raging-bolt: :tornadus-therian: :great-tusk:

https://pokepast.es/86c0a8cef9981d4e

This was my first game in national dex ou after a long while so I kinda just bought into the charizard sun hype without thinking too much. scorching sand is a bad move and i didn't wanna run that, so i went with the future sight route for dealing pex and focus blast+hp ice for chomp/dnite, kingambit traps latios (sometimes) but especially dragapult, weather ball raging bolt smacks ferrothorn badly and tusk provides spin while dealing with kingambit. Eq/Toxic slowking helps out vs Heatran, cm Lati@s, Ting-Lu without rest, Volcarona, also can reset the weather for raging bolt to ice weather ball spdef Gliscor. Torn used to be weather ball as well but went with heat wave for more consistency against gholdengo, since it can block defog. Overall a pretty fun team although it can be pretty clunky to manage the weather turns and also loses badly to pex lu archetypes. The game went pretty smoothly for the most part as focus blast sniped a mega tyranitar and the surprise toxic helped dealing with z porygon.

Week 2: :latios-mega: :moltres: :ferrothorn: :weavile: :tapu-lele: :great-tusk:

I got passed a team by kdca, only thing i changed was making moltres toxic and mega latias an ice beam mega latios so not gonna post it. Game again was pretty smooth, latios had an insane matchup all things considered and grabbed like 3 kills in 3 turns, after that it was smooth sailing.

Week 3: :diancie-mega: :ogerpon-wellspring: :kingambit: :volcarona: :dragonite: :landorus-therian:

https://pokepast.es/d0f2f27ff6881fa0

Devin is very much an offense/bulky offense aficionado. So my idea was to bring trailblaze ogerpon, foregoing power whip. Not a very interesting team and overall very weak to zamazenta, as many offensive teams are when not running dragapult. But still, it got the job done as trailblaze ogerpon run circles around devin's team.

Week 4: :latios-mega: :tapu-lele: :magnezone: :kingambit: :landorus-therian: :alomomola:

https://pokepast.es/c8030ed11293b051

I was pretty hype about mega latios after its performance in w2, so i tried bringing it again. Of course, I could never use a latios without ice beam, so it meant that gholdengo had to be dealt with some other way, and ghostium lele seemed like almost a surefire way to do it. Magnezone completes the psy trio by removing kingambit for latios and ferrothorn for lele, while kingambit does the same to dragapult which looked to be faily menacing. spdef lando and alomomola round out the team, rock tomb again helps with Volcarona which is a giant annoyance, i couldn't find any other way to fit rocks other than on kingambit which almost backfired in the game vs cm clef, fortunately it was like 0 def so lando+lele still kind of dealt with it.

Week 5 :alomomola: :gholdengo: :venusaur-mega: :gliscor: :weavile: :great-tusk:

https://pokepast.es/a3ce5bdd87f7bc93

I tried to build something around alomomola+ av iron crown, a mon i thought could do well into all of the tapu leles. Unfortunately that version was too weak to medicham, so the crown became a gholdengo which does mostly the same things but better. Venusaur was beginning to be explored so i thought to give it a spin as well, with weavile to pursuit psychics and +spe stone edge great tusk to grab a surprise kill on charizard which would otherwise be annoying. The game started well and honestly I had all the tools to cruise to a win but i got caught off-guard by cb zama which honestly was kind of naive from me as arty had a lot offensive zamas in his replays. Venusaur almost brought it back but alas.

Week 6: :kyurem: :diancie-mega: :terapagos-terastal::alomomola: :landorus-therian: :gholdengo:

https://pokepast.es/a684b181b504089e

Probably my favourite team of the tour, also the only one I tested extensively in ladder and used in Majors. ScarfKyurem is no new set of course, but it felt like such a smash hit with alomomola, checking its main issue in ogerpon and baiting it with insane consistency after it swords dance. In genera, kyurem is fucking insane with many teams opting into alomomola and gholdengo as their main ice resists, and then relying on like dragapult or diancie or lopunny to revenge kill it. rest of the team is very tried and true, spdef lando, alomomola and gholdengo form a very consistent defensive core capable of gaining insane momentum, terapagos keeps the field clean for scarfkyurem while also working very well with alomomola's wishes, and diancie is just borked. coverage to smack ferrothorn and other steels for a smoother kyu cleanup. In the game I freeze dry resist magnezone, so kyurem went in even though it had to play a little more careful against toxic spikes.

Week 7: :alomomola: :tyranitar-mega: :dragapult: :ferrothorn: :gholdengo: :gliscor:

https://pokepast.es/c656ea060779db89

Oh hey it's alomomola. Long time no see. I was not a fan of the twave gholdengo set, no nasty plotis just blargh. So i decided use np hex paired with dual status dragapult, which would twave moltres and wisp kingambit for dengo, while having ghostium z for a strong ghost hit even against unstatused targets. then we have hazard stack to take advantage of gholdengo's defog blocking abilities and sd gliscor, one of the best spikes abuser of all times. Chople ferrothorn to help with ogerpon and urshifu. In hindsight, physical draga with dragon darts and dual status would have been better, also the team relies pretty hard on gliscor beating other gliscors, which is why i changed tyranitar to ice punch 4 atks and ferrothorn to dual hazard. Either way, the team ended up facing electric spam with ferrothorn+gliscor, the gliscor especially didn't have much counterplay on adriyun's end.

Semis: :dragapult: :serperior: :gholdengo: :diancie-mega: :great-tusk: :landorus-therian:

https://pokepast.es/63a43c0726f57c19

I wanted to try serperior as one of the few alomomola punishers I could see working. This was also the first week with roaring moon playable, so i went with some pretty hard anti-dragon spam measures in scarf dragapult, taking a page out of mono sets. In the end, serperior did pretty much nothing and hp ice diancie just smacked everything by itself.

Finals: :celesteela: :dragapult: :toxapex: :landorus-therian: :ting-lu: :kyurem:

https://pokepast.es/a4e4caf389ce0a1e

Back to the old reliable for finals: boots subroost kyurem was a favourite of mine since ss nd and kyurem in general worked well for me even if with a different set, so why not give it a try. Celesteela is kind of a relic in Gholdengo age, but it did well into skimmy's scout since he brought lele like every week. The team is pretty defensively sound, I don't love toxapex in this meta but it did help into fini more than alomomola, dragapult burns steels for kyurem, ting checks gholdengo and ddpult for cele and has spikes.. nothing too groundbreaking beside celesteela. The team itself had like an ABSURD matchup because like, skimmy brought mono lose to spikes and venusaur+torn into steela. so yeah, it kind of piloted itself to a win.

UU
Week 1+2
: :slowking: :hydreigon: :hippowdon: :lokix: :iron-moth: :skarmory:

https://pokepast.es/ae23032983f240b3

Week 1 I brought a RU team to UU, so the week 1 team went to w2. I built this in greninja meta, where i was pretty high on first impressioners, hydreigon removes clefable for lokix and then its just hazard spam. In game hydreigon picked up a very fast kill on enamorus and honestly i should've closed the game out from that without too much issues but i fucked aroun the magnezone for absolutely no reason. Maybe the worst game I have played all season

Week 3: :ursaluna: :aerodactyl-mega: :enamorus: :hydrapple: :magnezone: :slowking:

https://pokepast.es/7ad595bea97b8f8a

Ursaluna was free starting this week so it was time to try ursazone. I decided to use a set i vaguely remember being used in sv uu, although admittedly i'm not very sure the payoff is enough. The game started fairly well but then nascar hydrapple exploded when the opposing ursaluna clicked facade

Week 4 :ursaluna: :cresselia: :marowak-alola: :abomasnow-mega: :porygon2: :hatenna:

Borrowed HoodedZack's tr for a change. Runo had been loading dishonest mew HO's so I initially thought to bring Unaware clef + sinistcha, but I couldn't build something that satisfied me (yet), so I opted into the Hatenna. in the end the matchup actually more difficult than what I thought because of Taunt Ursaluna, had to dance around flame orb burn for a few turn in order to bring the game down to a 5050.

Week 5: :slowking: :aerodactyl-mega: :tyranitar: :clefable: :skarmory: :excadrill:
https://pokepast.es/fadadc17e3430ca9

I was growing fond of cbtar in tests and seasonal, so I made a pretty basic but solid team with it. There's not much to note here besides Pursuit on Aerodactyl, which is just the icing on the cake that is this mon, probably the best mon in the tier imo, and Toxic on Slowking, to lure other slowkings as well as hydrapple. The game itself was pretty tense, loaded into a vincune which required pretty careful maneuvering with ttar to chip it down with sand and substitute usage, but once cune was down the game was pretty sealed.

Week 6: :hydrapple: :excadrill: :pecharunt: :tapu fini: :magnezone: :hippowdon:

https://pokepast.es/43f6df638639d2e0

Was trying to get pecharunt to work in ND OU, but since I didn't really manage to do it I decided to try it ou in RU, with sub magnezone to """"trap"""" bisharp. Tapu fini might not be its most ideal teammate due to misty terrain but I also thought it was an interesting wincon to try it out inslowking/hydrapple age. Overall it's a decent team, it has some glaring holes though like serperior. The game it was loaded in was pretty much unplayable for my opponent, hippowdon exploding to a z steel beam aimed at ursaluna in the builder was pretty funny though.

Week 7: :volcanion: :keldeo: :bisharp: :latias-mega: :celesteela: :excadrill:

Was impressed by Volcanion in seasonal, so I just stole the idea for myself. The team itself is basically a speed-build made when I got rfn'd, probably better that it never had to be loaded.

Semis: :scizor: :clefable: :ting-lu: :aerodactyl-mega: :sinistcha: :excadrill:

It's hard to use sinistcha when two of the best mons in the tier, tyranitar and mega aero, shit on it so badly, but still I wanted to try it. I thought scizor could help dealing with sand structures that sinistcha hates, as well as being a wincon that is not afraid of aerodactyl. Ft clef and ffang aero help out vs opposing scizor, rest is pretty standard. Never got loaded

Finals :aerodactyl-mega::lokix: :excadrill: :ting-lu: :celesteela: :slowbro:

Brought the same team twice basically, aero ting exca prio user. However Lokix is insane, real talk, it loaded into buzzwole and clefable and it was still kind of dismantling the enemy team by itself together with Slowbro and hazards. Ended up sacking the aero for no reason which coupled by some good tyranitar play from skimmy made this game go from unlosable to pretty dire.

RU
Week 1:
:okidogi: :sneasel: :palossand: :blissey: :aggron-mega: :cyclizar:

https://pokepast.es/d29625ad063caa04

Made this in finals of the ndpl but ended up using another version. So I recycled this one for w1 here. As you may have noticed, it does not have a ground resist.. usually aggron suffices just fine but this time there was a CB Krook on the other side. Could have probably have a shot at winning the game if I pulled the pursuit trigger on honedge early.

Week 2: :blissey: :cyclizar: :sinistcha: :runerigus: :iron-jugulis: :sandy-shocks:

https://pokepast.es/899673a1d681c2df

Bit of an uninspired week for RU.. this probably the worst load in the tour for me. Runerigus kind of stood out to me as a sturdy okidogi/slither wing check that could also set tspikes and antispin cyclizar. Mega Aggron is suprisingly absent from this build and I faced a Mega Sharpedo which I pretty much skipped over when building.. ended up costing the series.

Week 3: :aggron-mega: :articuno: :blissey: :cofagrigus: :lokix: :gligar:

https://pokepast.es/5a5865cc3ad8add8

First two weeks were a bit of an eye-opener in RU, so i went back to the lab. What I got out of was Articuno: nice check to many special mons that blissey can have difficulties with (primarina, sub cm sinistcha, slowbro-galar, reuniclus, togekiss), also can take on heal bell duties letting blissey use toxic. Gligar was also a mon that i had written off after ndpl, but after basically bricking into it week 2 I decided to give it another spin. This version of the team with cb lokix/psybeam cofag is a bit jank, it won the week pretty convincingly though so there's that.

Week 4: wasn't loaded but would have been the same team as week 4.

Week 5: :okidogi: :aggron-mega: :weezing-galar: :blissey: :gligar: :articuno:

https://pokepast.es/38c63a70ebdde019

Now this is a bit more sound version of week 3. Psybeam weezing galar still smacks okidogi together with Gligar, and 4 atk okidogi is just an insane breaker that works very wekk even standalone, let alone supported by wish and heal bell. In the game it got loaded into a Gligar and Primarina, so Articuno and IceKnock dogi got the spotlight pretty much.

Week 6-7: :slowbro-galar: :primarina: :cyclizar: :aggron-mega: :sinistcha: :lokix:

https://pokepast.es/94c0cba40ee00ffb

wasn't loaded w6 so I recycled in w7. It's just 3 special boosters that beat blissey and cyc/lokix to control the field. It's been surprisingly solid considering it was built in like 5 minutes, I guess owing to the fact that slowbro galar is actually pretty fucking good even if hardly anyone uses it.
Lokix is fire.

Semis: :rotom-heat: :okidogi: :slowking: :slither-wing: :togekiss: :gligar:

https://pokepast.es/26053414a743219e

Scarf slither wing was something that was on my mind as an offense killer. technically cb first impression does that as well, but it can be teched for with Protect plus, you know, the surprise factor can be nice, like killing things such as Mega Pidgeot, Manectric volt switching. Rest of the team doesn't really need much introduction, except maybe rotom-heat, which i brought because lbn had been on that pidgeot wave. I think the team is pretty solid, was piloted pretty mediocrely however and ended up having to luck what was a decent matchup.

Semis tiebreak: :articuno: :latias: :aggron-mega: :okidogi: :gligar: :blissey:
https://pokepast.es/51b1e4154e902330

Back to the goons.. a must win game requires a must win team. Most of these mons don't need introduction at this point, except maybe scarflatias on stall which looks pretty weird, but its a good hazard removal + sticky web immune fast mon for the HO matchup, as well as okidogi revenge killer. Fast cuno takes on togekiss without fearing flinches, and that's about it. Team got loaded into a gallade, but it died pretty quickly to freezedry + LO and spikes chip, after that okidogi cleaned up pretty easily.

Finals: :slowking: :nidoking: :aggron-mega: :lokix: :gligar: :cyclizar:

https://pokepast.es/80f0760454a6536d

skimmy had been using a fair amount of Blissey structures, so i thought to bring mixed Nidoking + a slowking set that would chip other slowkings and blisseys without letting them heal.. then we have a classical pivot core of glig-cyc-slowking, boots dual prio lokix deals with most HOs together with mega aggron, which also forces a toxic on opposing slowkings for Nidoking. The game.. started pretty awfully but I managed to bring it back to a close state, only to fuck it up by sacking lokix. Bitter end to a good season overall.


Glad we managed to comeback from last place, it's been a wild tour. Thanks to all my teammates, managers and helpers for making this possible, see ya
 
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