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Tournament NDCL I - Commencement Thread
- Thread starter Murphy Lawden
- Start date
Go easy on me when you hit me, I can give you a guide to Genshin Impact.
Last edited:
New week? New usage analysis! Let's get to it!
Nobody did any weird BO3s this week so we're back to 16 games/32 teams.
Most Used Pokemon:
Well, Zamazenta didn't get dethroned from the top usage spot necessarily, but some others did at least match it. Landorus-T and Gholdengo both joined Zamazenta at the top spot, with all three coming in at 9 uses apiece. It is also worth noting that Zamazenta had achieved 13 or 14 usages in the last three weeks, so this is a marked decrease in usage for Zamazenta overall. Gholdengo was also used less this week in comparison to last week. Landorus-T continues the turnaround of the century; it had a grand total of 4 uses in the first two weeks, but it has a whopping 18 over the last two. All three also saw great variety in their sets. Z-Move variants for all three of the above were used, as were various Choice Scarf and Defensive sets. The flexibility that all three of these Pokemon show is no doubt part of why they are being used so much. Not a lot changed there from last week, although nobody ran Dual Screens Zamazenta as HO saw comparatively much less usage this week. All three of these also won more than 50% of their games.
Other High Usage Pokemon to Highlight
Kingambit had seen relatively modest usage up until this point, but it greatly improved its standing this week with 8 usages, coming in just behind the three leaders. The way that these Kingambit were used is also of some interest; only one of them ever got the opportunity to even click Swords Dance, as players preferred to use their Kingambits as early game Knock Off support and offensive checks to common Pokemon like Gholdengo and Mega Latios with Sucker Punch. It is also possible that some of these Kingambit were running the less common Pursuit support set, although its hard to know for sure as none of them used Pursuit. All of Leftovers, Black Glasses, and Air Balloon were used at various times by these Gambits.
Tapu Lele, Terapagos, Zapdos, and Great Tusk were all used 7 times apiece, which is a significant improvement for the latter three compared to previous weeks. Tapu Lele lost all 7 games it appeared in.
Pecharunt led the way for the B ranks with a solid 5 usages, which tied with Glowking and was more than Toxapex. Players clearly value Pecharunt's ability to switch into most of the tier's Fighting-types and keep up momentum with Parting Shot, although we did see the first appearance of the much less common Nasty Plot+Ghostium Z variant. Clefable checked in next with a solid 4 usages. All appearances for Clef this week were utility sets, highlighting the sheer value of its movepool and typing even in spite of its slightly lower standing this gen.
Kartana and Ogerpon-Cornerstone led the way for the C ranks with 2 uses apiece, as players explored the merit of these fringy but occasionally dangerous offensive Grasses. Hydrapple, Excadrill, Tapu Fini, Hoopa Unbound, and Enamorous were all used once.
Highest Ranked Pokemon to not be used:
It has not been a good tournament for Mega Charizard Y, but this was a new low. Even the high upside of sun bolstering threats like Raging Bolt and Great Tusk couldn't bring this sun boosted nuke into play, probably because this nuke simply isn't good enough at nuking stuff anymore. Checks to this are easy to fit on just about everything, as bulky Dragons like Mega Latios, Garchomp, and Dragonite are as popular as ever. Not to mention the proliferation of other options that teams can use to check this, like Moltres, Toxapex, and AV Alomomola. Even matchups where Yard is theoretically hard to switch into aren't easy, as resists to its moves are common and it often has to predict well to make progress. A middling speed tier and the hyper specific support needed to keep Stealth Rock off are simply hard to justify working around when so many teams can switch into this pretty easily, even if its sun boosted teammates can still be dangerous. The worst part? Mega Charizard X, almost unanimously considered the inferior of the two, was used this week, and it was responsible for winning its game. Ouch.
Other low usage Pokemon to highlight
Zard Y was the only A subranker to not get used once this week, but several others had poor showings. Slowbro, Cinderace, and Tapu Koko continued their trends of disappointing usage, but all three at least appeared this week. A surprising entrant to this club was Volcarona, who only appeared once, ironically less than Iron Moth in addition to several other Pokemon it is generally considered superior to. Tornadus-T also had its first terrible week of the tournament, with only 2 usages.
Iron Treads had its worst week yet with 3 usages. Raging Bolt also had a poor week with 1, which is probably to be expected in a week where nobody brought Zard Y. Moltres also only appeared twice, while Iron Valiant was used once. At least they got used though, as their B+ compatriots Hatterene and Mega Scizor weren't used at all.
Lowest Ranked Pokemon to receive use:
Sinistcha wasn't the only UR Pokemon to see use this week, but it was once again the only UR Pokemon to receive multiple usages. Both Clawed Winter and Ryuji brought it as a spinblocker on teams that aimed to stack Spikes. Clawed Winter's Sinistcha was a Nasty Plot variant, while Ryuji's was a bit more mysterious but was notably running Shadow Ball instead of Hex. This brings Sinistcha up to 5 total usages for the tournament, far more than most UR Pokemon or even C rankers. Impressive stuff so far!
The other UR Pokemon putting together quite the tournament is Cresselia, who keeps appearing and keeps winning. The popular set seems to be a Thunder Wave utility Pokemon that takes neutral hits well and can force out many Ground-types with Ice Beam, therefore making it quite good at spreading TWave. Mega Gallade and Seismitoad also made appearances.
Speaking of...
Some Cool Sets that I wanted to Highlight
Most of the interesting stuff this week came from small moveset edits, such as Ch0ppas running Substitute+CM Raging Bolt without Thunderclap, veti's Howl+Dark Z Zamazenta, and LBN running a Dragon Tail Dragonite. I wanted to highlight some of the UR mons this week, however, so...
Sealoo's Seismitoad
One of many resident derpy Water/Grounds that stuck around in the OU viability ranks for a while, Seismitoad has largely fallen out of usage this gen as powercreep has caught up to it. Seismitoad does still have some cool tools though, most notably Refresh. With Water Absorb and Refresh, this freakish frog completely shuts down Alomomola and had a positive matchup into Galarian Slowking while doing a good job of keeping Stealth Rock up into Iron Treads and Great Tusk. A very cool find indeed. Thanks Sealoo for the information!
clawed winter's Nasty Plot Sinistcha
In fairness, this is not the first time this set has been run this tournament, but I only briefly mentioned it last time. Sinistcha's Grass/Ghost STAB is surprisingly potent, and clawed ran Nasty Plot+Strength Sap to create a bulky sweeper that can seriously irritate bulky teams that rely on offensive pressure from Fightings or Waters that Sinistcha deals with, all while blocking Rapid Spin from Great Tusk to facilitate the Spikes that were also on clawed's team. This sadly ran into a terrible matchup with U-turn Ogerpon-W combined with multiple powerful special attackers and the aforementioned Dark Z Zamazenta, but players clearly see the potential in the matcha cup, and I definitely see the vision with this.
See you all next week!
Nobody did any weird BO3s this week so we're back to 16 games/32 teams.
Most Used Pokemon:
Well, Zamazenta didn't get dethroned from the top usage spot necessarily, but some others did at least match it. Landorus-T and Gholdengo both joined Zamazenta at the top spot, with all three coming in at 9 uses apiece. It is also worth noting that Zamazenta had achieved 13 or 14 usages in the last three weeks, so this is a marked decrease in usage for Zamazenta overall. Gholdengo was also used less this week in comparison to last week. Landorus-T continues the turnaround of the century; it had a grand total of 4 uses in the first two weeks, but it has a whopping 18 over the last two. All three also saw great variety in their sets. Z-Move variants for all three of the above were used, as were various Choice Scarf and Defensive sets. The flexibility that all three of these Pokemon show is no doubt part of why they are being used so much. Not a lot changed there from last week, although nobody ran Dual Screens Zamazenta as HO saw comparatively much less usage this week. All three of these also won more than 50% of their games.
Other High Usage Pokemon to Highlight
Kingambit had seen relatively modest usage up until this point, but it greatly improved its standing this week with 8 usages, coming in just behind the three leaders. The way that these Kingambit were used is also of some interest; only one of them ever got the opportunity to even click Swords Dance, as players preferred to use their Kingambits as early game Knock Off support and offensive checks to common Pokemon like Gholdengo and Mega Latios with Sucker Punch. It is also possible that some of these Kingambit were running the less common Pursuit support set, although its hard to know for sure as none of them used Pursuit. All of Leftovers, Black Glasses, and Air Balloon were used at various times by these Gambits.
Tapu Lele, Terapagos, Zapdos, and Great Tusk were all used 7 times apiece, which is a significant improvement for the latter three compared to previous weeks. Tapu Lele lost all 7 games it appeared in.
Pecharunt led the way for the B ranks with a solid 5 usages, which tied with Glowking and was more than Toxapex. Players clearly value Pecharunt's ability to switch into most of the tier's Fighting-types and keep up momentum with Parting Shot, although we did see the first appearance of the much less common Nasty Plot+Ghostium Z variant. Clefable checked in next with a solid 4 usages. All appearances for Clef this week were utility sets, highlighting the sheer value of its movepool and typing even in spite of its slightly lower standing this gen.
Kartana and Ogerpon-Cornerstone led the way for the C ranks with 2 uses apiece, as players explored the merit of these fringy but occasionally dangerous offensive Grasses. Hydrapple, Excadrill, Tapu Fini, Hoopa Unbound, and Enamorous were all used once.
Highest Ranked Pokemon to not be used:
It has not been a good tournament for Mega Charizard Y, but this was a new low. Even the high upside of sun bolstering threats like Raging Bolt and Great Tusk couldn't bring this sun boosted nuke into play, probably because this nuke simply isn't good enough at nuking stuff anymore. Checks to this are easy to fit on just about everything, as bulky Dragons like Mega Latios, Garchomp, and Dragonite are as popular as ever. Not to mention the proliferation of other options that teams can use to check this, like Moltres, Toxapex, and AV Alomomola. Even matchups where Yard is theoretically hard to switch into aren't easy, as resists to its moves are common and it often has to predict well to make progress. A middling speed tier and the hyper specific support needed to keep Stealth Rock off are simply hard to justify working around when so many teams can switch into this pretty easily, even if its sun boosted teammates can still be dangerous. The worst part? Mega Charizard X, almost unanimously considered the inferior of the two, was used this week, and it was responsible for winning its game. Ouch.
Other low usage Pokemon to highlight
Zard Y was the only A subranker to not get used once this week, but several others had poor showings. Slowbro, Cinderace, and Tapu Koko continued their trends of disappointing usage, but all three at least appeared this week. A surprising entrant to this club was Volcarona, who only appeared once, ironically less than Iron Moth in addition to several other Pokemon it is generally considered superior to. Tornadus-T also had its first terrible week of the tournament, with only 2 usages.
Iron Treads had its worst week yet with 3 usages. Raging Bolt also had a poor week with 1, which is probably to be expected in a week where nobody brought Zard Y. Moltres also only appeared twice, while Iron Valiant was used once. At least they got used though, as their B+ compatriots Hatterene and Mega Scizor weren't used at all.
Lowest Ranked Pokemon to receive use:
Sinistcha wasn't the only UR Pokemon to see use this week, but it was once again the only UR Pokemon to receive multiple usages. Both Clawed Winter and Ryuji brought it as a spinblocker on teams that aimed to stack Spikes. Clawed Winter's Sinistcha was a Nasty Plot variant, while Ryuji's was a bit more mysterious but was notably running Shadow Ball instead of Hex. This brings Sinistcha up to 5 total usages for the tournament, far more than most UR Pokemon or even C rankers. Impressive stuff so far!
The other UR Pokemon putting together quite the tournament is Cresselia, who keeps appearing and keeps winning. The popular set seems to be a Thunder Wave utility Pokemon that takes neutral hits well and can force out many Ground-types with Ice Beam, therefore making it quite good at spreading TWave. Mega Gallade and Seismitoad also made appearances.
Speaking of...
Some Cool Sets that I wanted to Highlight
Most of the interesting stuff this week came from small moveset edits, such as Ch0ppas running Substitute+CM Raging Bolt without Thunderclap, veti's Howl+Dark Z Zamazenta, and LBN running a Dragon Tail Dragonite. I wanted to highlight some of the UR mons this week, however, so...
Sealoo's Seismitoad
One of many resident derpy Water/Grounds that stuck around in the OU viability ranks for a while, Seismitoad has largely fallen out of usage this gen as powercreep has caught up to it. Seismitoad does still have some cool tools though, most notably Refresh. With Water Absorb and Refresh, this freakish frog completely shuts down Alomomola and had a positive matchup into Galarian Slowking while doing a good job of keeping Stealth Rock up into Iron Treads and Great Tusk. A very cool find indeed. Thanks Sealoo for the information!
clawed winter's Nasty Plot Sinistcha
In fairness, this is not the first time this set has been run this tournament, but I only briefly mentioned it last time. Sinistcha's Grass/Ghost STAB is surprisingly potent, and clawed ran Nasty Plot+Strength Sap to create a bulky sweeper that can seriously irritate bulky teams that rely on offensive pressure from Fightings or Waters that Sinistcha deals with, all while blocking Rapid Spin from Great Tusk to facilitate the Spikes that were also on clawed's team. This sadly ran into a terrible matchup with U-turn Ogerpon-W combined with multiple powerful special attackers and the aforementioned Dark Z Zamazenta, but players clearly see the potential in the matcha cup, and I definitely see the vision with this.
See you all next week!