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NDCL I Set & Team Dump is here to serve as an opportunity to post whatever anyone has used so far! It's pretty self explanatory, post teams you used or built in NDCL I here!
Rules
This is for teams used in, or heavily considered for use, in NDCL I ONLY.
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! Happy posting, and good luck to the teams in the playoffs!
Hey, wanted to do a team dump since NDPL ended but laziness kicked in so I never got to do it kek. Hope that these teams can help anyone who's interested in playing the tier, had a fun time playing in this tour. shoutouts to BallfireInterlinkedAnchor9GigaBytes7 for the support
NDCL I Week 1 vs Squeeby
Pretty straightforward team, Specs Etern is a very good wallbreaker while Scarf Yvel + Marshadow more than make up for the hyper offense matchup. In the game I almost lost to Calm Mind Tera Poison Arceus-Fairy, as it kinda requires you have Ho-Oh at full health or otherwise you have to play aggressively with Tera Ghost Marshadow to prevent it from winning right away.
Week 2 vs Kunvirgo
This was modified from the team against Bumboclaat in NDPL, with Glare Zygarde > Toxic and IDBP Garganacl over Protect + SR. Hazards had me in the backfoot for the entire game, but Zacian-C did Zacian-C things and clinched win victory.
Week 3 vs Ballfire
Ballfire basically had access to all my teams so I wanted to get creative this week and use something that he wouldn't see coming, and what came to my mind was SR Groundy lead HO. Probably my favourite team I've built ever, doesn't outright have any bad mus and you can outplay almost everything. Stall was one of the last things I expected, but thankfully Ultra Necrozma + a bunch of predicts made it quite easy.
Week 4 vs Sami
I wasn't very familiar with the stuff Sami uses and was burnt out of ideas, so I threw this stuff quickly a couple hours before the game. This was inspired by Splendid Silver Star's famous Clef Ferro Ditto team, and Bumbo (or someone else idr) betting about Arceus-Water. I fucked up by misclicking delete on Zygarde while Sami had challenged me, but Ditto carried the hell to a scuffed win.
Week 7 vs MirrorSaMa
Not much to say here, Ballfire passed me a HO and I did some modifications to it. Sub Groundy got the mu it hoped for and cleaned the game.
NDPL VI teams: https://pokepast.es/07ad47a5ab72248f
Won't elaborate on the teams but credits to Ballfire and Anchor for building most of these, I modified them to my liking.
Overall I enjoyed playing in both these tours, looking forward to play in future. And all the best to Ballfire and his team in NDCL, he's been carrying my prep and I wouldn't have gotten the same performance without his support.
It was a fun teamtours! Thanks to the captain for choosing me, and thanks to my teammates for their support! It's just a pity we didn't make it to the playoffs.And I didn't play very well either, haha (I hate hax).
Because the matches were scheduled during my final exams and the Lunar New Year period, I could only choose a team to play with about five minutes before the start of each week, leaving little time for interaction. I apologize for this and thank everyone for their understanding and patience.
To let more people will pay attention to and play ndub! I'd like to share some of my thoughts and experiences from the past few weeks. It will mainly propose some special single-unit setups.My English isn't very good either, so please forgive me if there are any problems or if I offend anyone.Thanks to the boss bumboclaat for his continued support.The team's sharing has been authorized from him.
W1 vs KunVirgo Won
Kunvirgo is a good friend of mine. He's very strong, but to be honest, I didn't know he played ndub. I know ssstar supports him.So we almost regarded him as SSStar.
https://pokepast.es/a2da318ff8998503
A very standard HO
The main strategy is to overwork the opponent's Arc and Zyg, then destroy everything. Nothing much to say.
Salamence-Mega needs Facade, which is better for dealing with Ho-Oh.
Rock Tomb Groundon is allowed to anticipate the opponent's entry and slow down, allowing him to outspeed the opponent. Simultaneously, he attacks Hooh.
W2 vs Ballfire Won
I used to play on 8ag with ballfire, but honestly I didn't know ballfire could play ndub. My teammates told me he could play swas teams, so we practically treated Ballfire like swas.
https://pokepast.es/61d008b97b8a34fa
Double Dragon Dance Team
The key to breaking the deadlock lies in the Z carried by NDM, which, as shown in the replay, can eliminate ArcDark or something after ATK+1.
Kyg will always draw Groudon into the game, then weaken him, forcing Arc into a fight.
The biggest obstacle for dd zyg is often coil zyg, which kyg fills in perfectly.
W3 vs Ruon Won
I know runo plays NDUB. I've read some of his analysis posts.I guess he'll play some defensive teams.
https://pokepast.es/180efc03de40ab5d
hp-ice Groudon is a very powerful shield breaker.He can usually tear a gap in the opponent's defense, enough for you to find an opening.He can force any Pokémon that can't instantly kill him to trade health with him, and he's not afraid of Zyg.Use this to weaken your opponent's shield during the match, and then see who you win with.
W4 vs Iride Won
I think I've heard of Iride playing ndub.
https://pokepast.es/3a4ef163aae2d919
Iceclax is a very niche character. Like the previously mentioned HPICE Groudon, he's a turret that forces you to trade health with him.At the same time, it is a powerful weapon against HO.Cb Marshadow is a very useful balanced team turret, but its power is a bit low. It's also a good way to confrontation HO.
W5 vs Xinnobu Lost
In my memory, xinnobu is a Ho player.
https://pokepast.es/116252b5e272de09
The opposing Zamazenta used Iron Defense!
The opposing Zamazenta's Defense rose sharply!
The Fugative is paralyzed! It can't move!
As you can see, I was treated inhumanely uhhh.
Mu was terrible in this game, and I was paralyzed right at the most crucial round, leaving me helpless.
Glimmora's biggest advantage over dex-s is Mortal Spin and Toxic Debris, giving it a greater advantage against HO targets. However, it cannot overcome special configurations such as sub-arcs, a point that became apparent in week seven.
Outrage NDM rejected Zyg's attempt to stop him without Tera, while simultaneously having a surprising destructive effect on Def Yve and Arcdark. However, the consequence of not having Stone Edge is that he may not be able to defeat Hooh.
W6 vs Liliou Lost
I just followed my teammates' instructions.
https://pokepast.es/dec6106eaa3a096d
The opposing Chi-Yu used Dark Pulse!
A critical hit!
(Groudon lost 50% of its health!)
Groudon fainted!
The extremely harsh sunlight faded.
liliou won the battle!
Man what can I say？
After weakening opp team sufficiently, Arc-ground will DD and then destroy everything.
W7 vs swas Lost
Since the teams were already eliminated, we just played casually. Five minutes into the game, I picked a team I'd used before（W5）, and then I was instantly defeated by an great Mu ah.
Ok,there's not much more to say.My journey has come to an end, but others have to continue. The battle has not yet ended. Best of luck to you all!
Was really fun managing for the first time! I enjoyed this tour a lot and look forward to more such tours! Unfortunately our season ended the way it did, but that's the game we play. First of all, s/o to all of the other teams for creating such a competitive environment and being great opponents in general.
Teamdump -
Since we had support for most tiers, I mainly helped prep / built for bo3 and lower tiers.
Week 1 Leni vs Salmonelephant (L)-
OU -
UU -
RU -
Week 2 Leni vs Skimmythegod / Envy (L)-
OU -
UU - - [By R1C3M4N + TBIC106]
RU -
Week 3 Leni vs Sealoo (W)-
OU - - [By Xurkiyee; recreated by Kayzn]
UU -
RU -
Week 4 Leni vs Ezra (L)-
OU - : - [By Sealoo]
UU -
RU -
Week 5 Leni vs Seraphz (W)-
OU - - [By Kayzn]
UU -
RU -
Week 6 Leni vs Micaiah (L)-
OU - - [Original Build by Darkness; Darkinium Z > Waterium Z]
UU -
RU -
Week 7 Leni vs devin (W)-
OU - - [Original build by Sealoo; Edited by myself]
UU -
RU -
OU [All Sample submissions] - - KyuLop + QD Volc - Specs Lele + 3a Pivot Ace - Rockium Excadrill + CM Fini Sand w/ Hippowdon - AV Zamazenta + SD Synth Pon - Ground Z Kyurem BO
UU - - Poison Z Dogi Sand
Only really built 1 team the entire tour; and if dogi somehow doesn't get banned, this is a sample submission
RU [All Sample Submissions except pre-shifts] - - Double Dragon + Band Slither BO - [By Spoo and myself] - Double SD + Scarf Hwish Latias BO - SD + Sub Steelium Cobal + Mega Pidgeot BO - Sceptile + Diggsby BO - [By Spoo and myself] - Nidoking + Fight Z Zeraora BO
Pre-shifts: - Band Slither + Special Steelium Cobal BO
Shoutouts [In no order]-
Velcroc Thank you so much for managing with me for my first time and helping me both with building and managerial stuff. It was great to have you around and the help you provided for lower tiers was pretty insightful, while also keeping my wild ideas in check lol. Knowing you from a long time, I always wanted to manage with you, and here it was. I would love to manage more tours with you again!
Enzonana. MOMAZOOOOOOOOOS. It was great having you around as well, since a manager whose a doubles player is rarely ever found. The tour didn't really go as you wanted, but you managed to get some great games in even with IRL stuff. having you in chat was also pretty nice since you were alwyas active and brought good vibes to the chat.
Kayzn Puggod. Spending 17.5k on you was definitely worth, even after your season in NDPL. This was definitely a 7-0 run for you, but a couple misplays didn't let that happn unfortunately. You got some great games in, as well as helped with prep in almost every OU slot, while being our sole OU support besides slopcat. It was a pleasure having you around, and we all know that you can do much better in your future endeavours!
Tempo di anguria Unfortunately the games didn't go your way, but it was good to have you in terms of both chat presence, as well as games.
Always good to have you on the team and hope we can pair for future tours as well.
slopcat I'm ngl we didn't plan on drafting you but looking at the OU pool and because of a 'misbid' we ended up getting you. It was good to have you in hindsight since we barely had any OU support and burning out 2 builders was really bad for the team. 4-0 is a good score, and you can do well in your future tours.
Tuthur Your games didn't go great unfortunately, and we know that you're not happy about it. You're a great player, but stuff like this happens to everybody. Obviously, it was useful having you since you were down to sub in for anybody who had scheduling issues. Hope we can pair up for future tours as well.
Bobsican Pretty much same as the above, you're a great player and builder and it was good to have you with your valuable insights on teams and ideas for both Swas and yourself.
Swas Ubers Goat. It was nice having you around and seeing your creativity bloom in the tour. You kinda helped me open up a lot more in the tier, making building much less straining. 5-0 and undefeated in such a tough pool is no easy feat. See you next in NDUBPL and keep up the good work.
R1C3M4N UU Goat. From what I remember, your last few ND team tours weren't that great, but you surprised everyone in this tour. Being active for prep in draft, leni's slot as well as your own slot is something we could always like. Discussing ideas was also pretty fun with you since you a pretty creative lol. Keep up the cooks.
TBIC106 I'm worry we couldn't give you a chance to play. During the draft, we were kinda tensed about our RU slots / support and decided to get you. It was never a bad decision; you were pleasant to have and helped prep for all the UU and RU slots.
spoo Again, we were tensed about our RU slot, and we decided to pick you up. It definitely good having you around. You pretty quickly learned the tier and got some good wins in. Talking to you about ideas was also cool! 4-3 is not a bad record, and you did well in your games, as well as were a good presence in the cord.
Glimmer Thank you for building teams for Enzonana every week on your own. Sorry we couldn't let you play more but the games you played were good watches, despite the rough MU vs eragon. Hope you do well in your other tours!
crash Best NDM player. 15k for you was never regretful, since you were always guaranteed to go positive and got quite a few good games in. It was nice having you around since you brought vibes, as well as handles your slot on your own along with style.
Leni You were robbed of quite a few games, but that's just the game, as you say. You played very well in the most competitive pool by far, and got good wins in. You were cool to have around, and you were pretty active despite saying the opposite. Hope we can pair up in other tours as well!
64 Squares Hope you enjoyed your stay with us. The draft order we got was pretty harsh, but you still managed to do decently good with little help. The tour didn't go your way, but that happens to everyone over time. Good luck to you in your other tours.
Fragments We didn't give you more chances to play, and sorry about that. On the other hand though, you managed to do well outside the tour and win the UM circuit and once again congrats on it. Never bad to have you and would love to pair with you in future tours.
Akaru Kokuyo Good to have you as usual, and having another person's insights on doubles was never too bad. You signed up for singles, which you got a game to play, and did good enough in the game. Of course we loved having you around and look forward to more such tours.
hi.naming is hard The games you played were good but pulled bad matchups. It was nice having you around with the occasional team advices and game discussion.
Giving my two cents now that this tournament is over, I know it's not much, but yeah.
I’m not sure who is currently responsible for tiering decisions in ND UU, but I strongly believe Okidogi deserves to be looked at
There isn’t a single Pokémon you feel comfortable switching into it. Its 128attack stat combined with 120 dual stabs and perfect coverage makes it incredibly difficult to handle defensively. On top of that, it can further amplify its threat level with bulk up and/or a Z-Move, giving it the extra breaking power it needs to push past typical answers in Pecharunt for example. Drain punch works well with bulkier sets and this alone gives way more opportunities (and versatility in general) to Okidogi long term.
Playing against it forces you into constant prediction wars, meaning you’re essentially playing on the back foot at all times. If you guess wrong once, good luck coming back... I also realized probably too late that most players are running bulkier variants when they’re not using a choice scarf set, and we were able to exploit that knowledge quite effectively last week. Even though none of our chefs in the kitchen believed my “trust, speed wins” -argument, I must thank for putting up with my stubbornness last week and letting me lock in that Okidogi. Would've been solid meme if it went south tbh.
Couple relevant calcs that made my life easier to decide why speedy Okidogi was good pick w. groundium Z
-252 Atk Okidogi Tectonic Rage (175 BP) vs. 76 HP / 0 Def Okidogi: 336-396 (100 - 117.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
-+1 252 Atk Okidogi Tectonic Rage (175 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Pecharunt: 374-440 (98.6 - 116%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
-252 Atk Okidogi Tectonic Rage (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Aegislash-Both: 282-334 (87 - 103%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
Extra calc that I found out during the last week game to be benefitting us as well:
+1 252 Atk Okidogi Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 120 Def Flygon: 304-358 (83.7 - 98.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Overall, Okidogi’s combination of raw power, good enough speed tier, typing, coverage, setup potential, and the strain it puts on builder makes it unhealthy for the tier and, in my opinion, worthy of a ban.
Also, huge thanks to everyone who helped me throughout the tournament, you guys were amazing. Cheers.
e: here is the set so I can say I'm in the right place
HI all, I would like to share the doubles teams I made & used in this tour and explain my experience. I doubt I'll be playing in one of these for a good while anyways
Week 2: https://pokepast.es/38c4397627ace455
Easy to use priority spam with Mega Blaziken, I am very fond of this team. I played vs Code this week, who is a good friend of mine. I tried to RFN before he could find something that cteamed my typical stuff too hard but he brought probably the worst match up for this team lool.
Week 5: https://pokepast.es/a8f1b92e66bbac95
I noticed my opponent's tendency to use relatively standard compositions, a lot of the time with 1 off mons (I also recognized this habit of him in VGC lol). I decided it'd be best to bring something consistent as to not get thrown off by his "surprise factor". I chose sash Flutter Mane to guarantee it gets value. It also pairs well with Charizard and Raging Bolt. Funnily enough, he brought one of the few mons that can OHKO sash flutter mane so it hardly made a difference HAHAHA
Fortunately the match up was good and I won with Ursaluna inside of Trick Room. This is my favorite team I used in this league
Week 6: https://pokepast.es/534e9d0cb25df26d
I was burnt out of playing the game around this time and felt like using something stupid. This team is heavily inspired by an acquaintance's team that he used to place top 8 @ a VGC regional. In hindsight, I could've made this team a lot better (less trolly really). I didn't test it as much as I should have, but I think that's evident given how whack the team is lol.
I ended up losing this week, not because the team matched up bad into my opponent (I had a decent match up as I had hoped) but because I played like dog butt (and panicked after whiffing Icy Wind on turn 1). It is what it is...
Week 7: https://pokepast.es/f550ce59b0992e72
This is a team I've had in my teambuilder forever. It's pretty simple to use, but I was not sure about having Flutter Mane + Charizard as the last 2 mons on this team. They worked fine in the end, but they could be substituted for other mons for sure.
I finished 3-2 overall, which I think is better than what people expected from me. I was ranked last in the PR at the beginning which irked me :(
Thx for hosting this tour and thx Boyz 2 Mence for believing in me and being awesome tmm8s
Also I forgot, but big shout out to Me Empty that guy is awesome, if anyone reading this needs a guy for testing and scouting, he's the best
Hello, unfortunately CIA are out of this tour. I'll do a s/o post tomorrow as it's galf past midnight but here's a team dump while waiting. I had a lot of fun building in this tier and I was happy to face less ho than ndfl.
Week 1 (W) >
I expected some fat team to be coming but also wanted to be prepared against some form of offense. The idea is simple: break with z lando (a fav set of mine) or pursuit trap the psychic type for medi to go crazy. Apple is here for oger and I think in general it's a very underrated mon. White Atoq brought a fat team so the mu was pretty good. It is not the most well round team as mons like diancie destroy it. Be aware of that. S/o ElectraineHeartIride for the details of this team to polish it.
Week 2 (L) >
Fleance used a lot of more offensive teams iirc so I built around an underrated mon as Fleance seemed to be quite weak to shadow ball in general. Blace was the perfect candidate for it some sun support to have some insane breaking power with zard y, z chomp and blace under sun, revenge killing options between blace and bolt with double hazard control with kart and hat. Unfortunately this team is weak to any diancie once again or even lele so it was a gamble and it didn't payed off as I was pretty much behind the whole game. Still a fun team but my weakest team this tour. S/o once again to ElectraineHeart and Iride for the polishing.
Week 4 (W) >
I missed week 3 because I got tz wrong so back straight to week 4 vs stories. I tended to overcook a bit so this time I was passed a team that's know and does well as band weavile + latios looked good into the scout. Stories didn't even get a chance to play with the hax so not much else to say. S/o Boomenheimer for the carry.
Week 5 (L) >
Kayzn was my next opp and he's my toughest opp yet. Kyurem in genral looked good into his more bo balance structures as well as my favourite combo. Np torn + hat. This is a team I won with in ndfl so a reuse but I know it's a good an solid team in general. Unfortunately, torn which had a crazy mu was blind and yeah that was that. S/o Elec and Iride in ndfl.
Weeks 6-7 (W-L) >
Week 6 I faced meta. His scout was so diverse that ngl I didn't know what to expect so I went with a team that fits my style made by Ch0ppas. We locked the team quite late but it cooked. Tysm Ch0ppas for the team.
Since we were in by week 7 and noname wanted to play early I just reused the team. I forgot that z move ceru was a thing and just lost because I'm bad.
Semies (W) >
For semies I was facing lost memories, the person who I converted tz wrong with on week 3. They seemed to bring a bit of everything but espacially some bulky offense. The goal was to be a good anti offense while also having some breaking power. Diancie was the idea and I wanted to build around this mon. This team barely changed since when I did the first sketch with the only difference being a tapu koko with u turn over zama. However, in testing the team was a bit too reliate on corv so Iride suggested a zama. Lando with rockium cooks teams that think the birds can defog safely while scarf good is a good anti offense as well as balance option with trick. Alo + corv give slow pivoting to bring in diancie more often. The team felt super nice in testing and was insane vs Dorron who subbed in for lost memories. This is my fav team that I used this tour and special s/o to Iride, Elec but also my testing partners in SapoDaG30Sputnik as well as Ch0ppas for the help with Aso and slopcat.
https://pokepast.es/9bb9904c29065823
W6 team sucks
pokemon sucks too
gl others and hope enjoy these team, i hate this game rn, i want enjoy the game but when i lose i will change be a red body clown.
Hello, my name is Iride on discord aka Goniochromism on this site, and I had a great time playing in this tour, going 6-3 in Ubers + bo3. wanted to show off a few of the teams I built which I feel are most characteristic of my take on the tier. obvious elephant in the room is having 100% pdon usage outside stall as its by far the best mon in the tier, and I also took the initiative to challenge myself to use different building blocks each week in the regular season with things such as the variation within the coveted arceus slot, being ground, dark, arcless, ekiller, and fairy in said order, while also being inclusive to the usage of lesser mons such as ferrothorn, fez, and lando-t. Finally, special shoutouts to SapoDaG30 for randomly locking in and farming the UU pool during the regular season while being a great presence to just about everyone in the cord.
Click on the teams below for sets and teras excluding schizo evs, as well as the above for replays.
This is the only HO team I decided to bring this tour, and one of my few losses that I will cover in depth, obviously this means HO sucks and bumboclaat is right. In reality, I felt this type of team was overall fantastic for exerting a lot of pressure on a lot of the traditional offense to bo stuff mirror (someone who I respect a lot) tended to use. team felt great in many synergistic aspects with a lot of stuff naturally overlapping to beat a lot of the stuff like coil zyg that troubles setup teams such as these while being anti offense.
One of the highlights I wanted to get into was ekiller in particular; I think its super strong rn as a whole, a little bit challenging to build around compared to the average arceus since it can be lacking defensively but also gives insane upsides in matchups that otherwise force you to play reactively vs a lot of fast setup threats that use tera/ultra burst, probably the most pureless revenge killer in the tier as well.
In addressing the game itself I'd overall say that despite appearing unlucky and losing this game served a bit of general learning experience regarding how to manage odds in high pressure scenarios while keeping things close in good faith. Factoring in potential teras, the endgame i kept thinking about vs the marshadow involved 3 different paths I could have taken since it revealed band earlier and locked into it vs lunala.
1. Go ekiller on a choice locked shadow sneak, and try to callout zacian
2. Go zacian, click sd + trailblaze, potentially bait out a tera since its a roll in my favor to live regardless
3. Go groudon and click precipice blades to force a kill no matter what.
Out of these options, I decided on the 2nd to go zacian and try to immediately setup as I was yet to reveal the uncommon tblaze which would have avoided a speed tie, and thought this was the best way to circumvent potential offensive teras (ground or fighting) from their zacian. In hindsight, factoring in additional odds over multiple turns > one the 3rd option of going groudon was likely better, even if there was a tera to be saved for zacian or caly, I would have been better picking it off from that position and this would have allowed groudon to make more progress then it ended up doing in the game to setup the ekiller. bringing my odds up from the 70% I envisoned on my zacian (252 Atk Choice Band Technician Tera Ghost Marshadow Shadow Sneak vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Zacian-Crowned: 170-200 (52.3 - 61.5%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO) to a flat 85% as I would still force the same zacian vs zacian interaction where I win the tie regardless.
I think the general idea that lead to my team here was a lot more straightforward for someone in the builder as good as Swas, who I was originally meant to play. that meant having good lines vs setup zygarde balance while also having the ability to control the tempo vs zacian and other fast threats like eternatus and marsh, so I spent the week in particular mapping out ways to effectively build momentum vs these two archetypes. something I eventually came around to was rocks dialga, which ended up being the perfect role compression tool I needed, while still a generally power crept and outclassed mon in a vacuum, it ended up doing a few select roles extremely well to the point of allowing me to invest in this mentality to the benefit of an extremely confident bring. for those unfamiliar with said specific roles, dialga was great because it only needed to do the following:
- compress and maintain rocks vs ho oh and yveltal, 2hkoing both with thunder
- bait in and force chip against the grounds with shuca, notably groudon and zygarde on balance but also groundceus on ho.
- punish significant tera fairy usage from setup mons such as zygarde and garganacl
- switch into primal kyogre, which is otherwise a massive pain for a lot of traditional builds - leads to linear lines regarding pdon being overloaded
- trade with ekiller, eternatus, and mega salamence in the HO matchup, all threats which scarf yveltal fails to cover.
All of this being a coincidence for my favorite uber of all time made it pretty appealing, so another thing I spent the week doing in testing was seeing the types of lines it could open up especially on my groudon and arceus. decided to lock it in for my characteristic dual primals offense, with groudon being 4a in absence and having a much better reach vs common ho-oh / groudon / arceus cores while still maintaining effective defensive utility vs the main physical threats I wanted to cover. the fairyceus set I settled on was originally a standard cm taunt itself to win the war vs arceus dark teams, but something just as effective I came around to was using perish trap in the event I faced eternatus stall that were common from teammates, didn't end up catching this vs the stuff Bobsican typically used upon notice of the sub but still managed to chip down the ho-oh lacking recover which ended up being convenient for a dialga endgame.
Overall I was extremely ecstatic as this was probably my favourite team I made all season, felt the closest to the trademark style of building that I tweaked and optimized throughout the earlier weeks, while also concealing specific techs that ended up working really well into the scout I had envisioned. both things I felt were important to have in a circumstance where I had something to prove while also not coming off as predictable.
I had my nerves clutched, but it ended up being a great one nonetheless. xinnobu was probably the opp with the most confident style of building and playing (as shown by their prowess in NDPL), and I wanted to make things up more than ever especially after the diabolical choke in W3. Broadly speaking, I wanted to cover the offensive heavy style of zacian / eternatus / offensive groudon / zygarde / arceus + filler slot, in this realization, I noticed a particular lack of cm taunt arceus, ho-oh, and defensive pdon, so I pivoted to finding ways to exploit this tendency.
Ultimately after experimenting with different versions of said style I settled on a hazard stack team I really liked with ferrothorn to cover any potential kyogres or necrozmas while also being able to leech seed vs zygarde, although it revealed to be trapper > defensive which I will elaborate a bit more on in discussing the game itself. earlier in the week I was also getting farmed in tests using these types of teams, often losing to setup threats such as the dd groundy (which funny enough, ended up being the main load) which I found extremely difficult to play reactively against, and I realized something I think is uniquely characteristic to ubers as a whole - can't expect the defensive pieces to cover everything in one piece due to how much variety said setup threats typically have, but rather, its more ideal to abuse the momentum forced by their ability to soft check things.
This effectively meant I had to change the way i viewed my defensive pieces in-game, can't expect them to stick around much and get multiple layers while still being healthy enough to check things later, so instead I became content with using the mere threat of hazards and status across one turn to simply get into better positions to wear everything down offensively, and I think mentally adjusting to this playstyle helped me a lot with the actual game.
Moving onto the game itself, I would say it was overall enjoyable in a way that highlights a few specific matchup intricacies. Earlier in the game I do get mentally overwhelmed a little bit with the lack of clarity on the lead (another characteristic trait of my opp's playstyle I really like, so credit to them for their efforts on it here), so I end up getting it wrong vs the aforementioned dd groundy. Fortunately I do manage to outmanuever the Z move and get my kyogre in safely vs it where I was comfortable trying to take advantage of my pdef investment to force an optimal trade, especially since I can try to rest later on the giratina or zygarde and continue to be annoying by clicking stabs over and over. in hindsight, going ferrothorn to scout the giratina in the midgame was better despite the risk of inviting fodder, I was just trying to catch a potential double into their fast offensive groudon or etern which would have appeared to be extremely inconvenient to face depending on sets.
After getting full para'd I figure the kyogre gameplan was a bit too difficult to invest in long-term, so instead I decide to shift my gameplan entirely to focus on a zacian endgame with my defensive core in the back for any zygarde shenanigans. I end up getting the trades I need vs their groudon while my kyogre completes the trade vs their groundy, and from here, i'm able to setup my zacian on etern. I do get slightly fortunate with the blast miss since it removes any benefit of a speed tie despite teraing that turn to live it, so after removing the etern I figure their best option was to tera the giratina to survive a +3 and get a twave off which would allow them to setup zygarde in theory. I try to catch the tera steel with a confident cc since the game kind of ends there and I realized sometime before that saving the groudon actually give me an effective safety net vs tera on zacian. Unfortunately, the read doesn't quite work out, but zacian is able to knock out giratina regardless and forces theirs to come in. from here, I have a backup plan with my ferrothorn and ground in case this happens - I'm able to succesfully get groudon in at full hp which is fortunate for me regardless of the set, as I click roar to bypass any tera setup which would be annoying to deal with from my position, and end up remain at full health, allowing me to take any +2 hit including a tb ground, giving me a turn to go for a blades which misses.
Given the miss, I realized I was in a bit of a concession since it became increasingly difficult to preserve ho-oh (252 Atk Zacian-Crowned Wild Charge vs. 248 HP / 20 Def Ho-Oh: 234-276 (56.3 - 66.5%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after toxic damage) which was how I was planning to deal with the zyg by sacred burns in case zacian got sacked, so I end up making a few specific calls to try and bait out a spot where I'm able to heal on the zygarde and win. As I already revealed roar earlier, I switch groudon for ferrothorn to catch the double back to zacian since I am twave, which appeared a bit unsafe due to a potential trap, but works in my favor nonetheness as I ended up catching their own predicted scale shot vs a direct ho-oh or groundy switch and I'm able to succesfully able to pivot to ho-oh without taking damage and get the conditions I needed for cm groundceus, revealing my max speed investment in the process since arcs typically sit at around 330 to 341 in this tier.
In hindsight, that endgame could have also appeared a lot cleaner, especially as said zacian interactions could likely be compressed in my favor since forcing a tera from giratina would have benefited my defensive core. I'll learn to optimize those turns, but I still felt pretty composed throughout and was satisfied with the learning process I took from both the game and the buildup leading into it.
Shoutouts to JumpheartR8 and bumboclaat for supporting my ideas and inviting me to chat about this tier, and ElectraineHeart and Boomenheimer for bringing me on board for another endeavour and trusting me with the slot I wanted to play, CIA was another really fun space to be around and your constant faith in me even when we were down played a big part in how I was able to do as well as I did. Really unfortunate to have to cut things short in playoffs, but it is what it is, only one team can win. Hope to continue playing in tours like these and putting up more great performances in the back with a thing or two to prove.
What up homies - semi retired Boomer here but still a proud father to 1yr for making it to finals after we bulldozed him W1.
Anyways just wanted to drop some squads that the streets should have. Building SS in 2026 is just not feasible and it made me realize how much I love Gholdengo. Hence why I built a ton of SV during the season and wanted to drop some of my fav builds:
Av hoopa swag
A must have for the streets. Seraphz loaded this vs Devin in BO3 and cooked. AV hoopa + diancie is money. AV hoopa would beat a billion lions AND the sun. AV hoopa is the key to this metagame. Stop using virgin Banded Hoopa he gets no bitches. Also I heard someone loaded scarf hoopa in CL I bet you have no swag.
Z hyper beam serp
Incognition loaded this in semis but the serp didn’t get to do anything cuz Urshifu clicked vs about15gals but the first 5 in the squad are a tried and true core and the last slot is flex and I’ve thrown anything from z Latios to z serp in it and this shit is absolutely money. Ttar serp is a classic from ORAS and u could tweak this team however u like in terms of running 4a ttar and rocks spin treads but either way this type of builds does it all.
Proud of the CIA for making it to semis. Tough to bow out at this stage but making playoffs is no small feat. Good luck to the remaining teams and look forward to taking it all in WC.
