Gonna do a big monothreat post here, describing my teams and stuff:
Week 1 I was traveling for the latter half of the week meaning I had no time to help with prep, but Nex got the W.
Week 2 vs WhiteQueen:
Going into this week, I had never played grass threat in Natdex before, so I made around 5 different teams with different cores and ideas. Eventually I narrowed it down to an offensive team originally using physical abomasnow, scarf roserade, and tsareena. Having a scarfer in grass threat is very useful since it's a more offensive type. After more tests, I decided to opt for a standard scarf abomasnow over the physical version, as it was just more useful overall. Tsareena is a strong wallbreaker in the type, and it can always outspeed decidueye which is very handy. The HP EVs on Tsareena let it survive the 2hko from celebi psychic.
The team:
https://pokepast.es/dd285b575c7d0aed
The game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldexmonotype-1612441359
During the game, the Tsareena set came in very handy, getting rid of webs and outspeeding what was likely a scarf decidueye and doing serious damage to the enemy team, and from there it was weak enough that the rest of my team could clean up. Overall, I think this grass team is probably the best one I made all tournament, it did very well in tests and in the game.
Week 3 vs anique: Normal is one of my less favorite types, but I had to make do with what I got. Obstagoon is a very strong but underutilized mon that can check psychic threats like indeedee and meloetta, so I decided to make a team around him. Braviary can often be used as a setup mon, so I decided to have braviary be my scarfer for the type, as it also can hit very hard. Besides goon, the rest of the team was fairly standard, I used defensive bewear and staraptor, and a cool defensive meloetta set with perish song to stop any setup sweepers. The meloetta EVs always outspeed bewear and ohko it with psychic.
The team:
https://pokepast.es/01b4027be6d62716
The game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...-1619574063-150fpnjsv56ov04hpqlx3zb7nqbcq8ypw
When the game started, I put myself in a good position but then I sacked goon like an idiot, which set me farther behind, but the knock off on meloetta put me back in a good position. After the lopunny crit my bewear, I decided to drain predicting the switch to his bewear, but he had the Z move which then put me on the back foot again. I somehow after that managed to pilot that endgame to a victory. Very handy that without mega evolving, lopunny will always live a brave bird from braviary.
Week 4 vs pas_touchao: Rock is one of my favorite types. Its interesting in that scarf terrakion is a very standard set ran on 90% of teams, and the benefits from running a more unpredictable set are so slim that almost all teams opt to run it. I built a lot of different teams for this, but eventually I decided to bring a standard team, with chople omastar as the lead to live a hit from terrak, defensive carracosta, and modest cradily. I debated about bringing webs, as I had a cool shuckle set with max attack adamant steelum Z that ohkos opposing diancies, but I just decided webs had too many questionable matchups and pokemon it was weak to, and I couldn't find a way to build it the way I wanted. Modest vradily is very nice because it will always break the substitue of opposing cradilys. The terrakion EVs always live a +2 aqua jet from max attack carracosta from full. The Carracosta EVs maximize defense while having a very good chance to 2hko nihilego with aqua jet. The speed on regirock and cradily is to hit what I thought was a relatively good benchmark in the speed game, as a lot of the rock threat pokemon can run a variety of speeds, so it's a game of trying to outspeed the body press users and cradilys.
The team:
https://pokepast.es/a6fb856279a8a70b
The game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...-1624187666-6j82y1rdd9feifk1splsediea9kjo2epw
Modest omastar always kills aero, so this lead was perfect for me. The game then went on with both of us trading our mons, him sacking his terrak early to get nihilego in, and me sacking mine to neutralize it. Then my modest cradily allowed me to win the cradily wars, while my speed also helped me outspeed his cradily, while keeping mine healthy. Since he could never get cradily in range of offensive moves, I managed to win the game.
Week 5 vs TeamCharm: Fire threat is another fun offensive type, and I had a lot of ideas to test. I made around 6 teams initially, and I had some cool plans, but I decided to settle for a very standard team. Cinderace can run a frankly stupid amount of different sets, I opted for court change for my hazard control, as well as I expected screens. Z infernape is very good at breaking unsuspecting rotoms or zard-X sets, scarf blace is a great threat, and heatran helps check mons and get me into good positions to potentially threaten a sweep with Zard-X. To this date, Ticken gave me the Zard-X EVs, they are from SM threat and neither of us can remember what they do, but they seem to work out. Bulky Zard-X is very good, as being able to survive opposing hits helps set up for an easier sweep rather than going for max speed or max attack. Heatran EVs outspeed volcanion while maximizing special and overall bulk. Infernape EVs always live an HJK from cinderace.
The team:
https://pokepast.es/3eee2caccbe0f51c
The game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldexmonotype-1626674144
In this game, non-lead infernape baited out a taunt wasting a turn, and defensive heatran did a very good job of mitigating any threat from talonflame. Bulky zard came in very handy, as offensive could have died to victini, while my set was able to put it in range for scarf blace to come in, and since his team was weak to blace, it was able to come in and clean up.
Finals vs anique: Ground threat is a very strange meta, where winning 50/50s and positioning are key to victory. One good read can make or break a game. I tried a lot of different ideas, but eventually I settled on a specs chomp team, as its unpredictable and draco meteor can almost ohko the whole tier. Scarf seis is handy in cleaning up threats, swampert is a good tanky momentum builder, piloswine is a great defensive mon, and mamo/lando need no explanation. My seis EVs maximize bulk while outspeeding garchomp.
The team:
https://pokepast.es/9cba3b603a00e412
The game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...-1644111762-ygz8xain9pxsou8tsng8wxsuhegqga8pw
The game was going well at first, me killing his swinub, then us trading a few mons and eventually, my specs chomp takes his lando by suprise, abd mamoswine comes on garchomp. Unless mamoswine is adamant life orb or scarf, garchomp will always live so I stayed in, but unfortunately the risk did not pay off, and from there my team got swept by a faster scarf seismitoad which was a set I did not expect, leading anique to a guaranteed win barring a power whip miss.
Overall, monothreat is one of my favorite formats to play on this site, It's very unique and rewards creative building, so I had a blast playing it this tour! National Dex is the best version of monothreat, as it has the greatest variety of sets. Each time a new generation comes out, it adds a new fun twist to each type, so I'm excited to see what Gen 9 brings, and hopeful for the future of threat so that it may grow!