i built the ubers teams for us, proud of what shieldpoke has done w them and it has been a crazy fun experience teaming w him and r8
w1 vs Eledyr (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexubers-789949
This week we were prepping with not only Eledyr but also Runo, Bumbo, and Sami in mind since we knew they all possibly had input on the team. We assumed they would prep for some HO in this slot considering shieldpoke’s inexperience or something like Sub DD Zyg since they are all quite high on it. Overall I wanted to go with something relatively standard here. Nothing really special here, but offensive Ho-oh is not something I use much but was a fun bring in tests, so.
w2 vs Fogbound (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexubers-790927
Fogbound loaded a sample w1 and I know he always loads absolutely random shit and somehow wins so, not much to go off prep. We assumed Kate was also helping prep but she doesnt have much of a scout either so we decided to just go with the comfy pick. Shieldpoke wanted to use OTR Z Caly, and I spent ages trying to build that but just had a major block, so we settled on Band Caly. Herb Etern felt like a nice pairing with it and the rest are relatively standard. This is an Arc-less team so I felt a bit weird about it but it looked cool and it worked out in the end (even if Caly didnt come out lol).
w3 vs emoxu9 (L)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexubers-791887
This week was a headache to prep because emoxu seems to have a good grasp on almost everything and plays whatever looks good in that week, so honestly we didnt have a set idea on what to use / prep for. They loaded Trick Room in the first week, and loaded it a few times in the open, so we kept that in mind, but felt that Webs would do best into the HO/Offenses they have loaded thus far, alongside Trick Room on our own Smeargle to beat their Trick Room lol. Unfortunately we kinda got owned by TBlast Ground Zacian, and I didnt properly think of that. Not too upset at this weeks loss, was definitely one of the hardest to prep for, and based on their record so far they have been owning the tour so meh. If you guys plan to use this, I would probably make Smeargle Rapid Spin > Mortal Spin, and then I think its fine-ish. Opposing Webs with TBlast Zac was probably the worst matchup we coulda asked for, but thats how the game goes.
w4 vs Entro (L)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexubers-793164
This was a fun week to prep, and probably one of my favourite teams I built. This week really started me on my Eternatus is broken arc, and im ngl that mon is amazing. Anyways, based on my scout of him from PL and the open, he did not use Etern much (like 1 bring in his entire scout lolz), and loaded overall very TSpike weak teams, so Etern was the start. Drag Z TSpikesEtern was the initial idea, since it hella clicked into a lot of BOs while also not being useless vs opposing Eternatus HO if he brought that. He didnt bring much Ho-oh at all (1 bring too if i remember correctly) so we felt that could work. We initially went a Marsh direction but team wanted a Steel, and eventually got to this version of the team but with some slightly different sets, but felt that Tera Fairy Zyg was mad annoying, until I got to this genius revelation:
View attachment 680142
and I'm ngl this completely changed my worldview on Etern and building in this tier, and was definitely one of the best moments building in this tier. We also went for Mental Herb Alo which was for all Taunt Arc forms, especially like EKiller and Arc Ground. Yvel Tera type was mainly for Arc Ground since we were a tad bit weak to it if Alo is chipped or if its like Sub or whatnot. Very fun team, not the *easiest* to use but I love it. The team lost in the end although it was due to a choke, but honestly I'm just happy I came up with this.
w5 vs Skyiew (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexubers-796043
This was an interesting week to prep for, Bob is known for a lot of fatter structures, but Sky has been playing last few weeks and has loaded a lot of offense-y stuff, with like 2 MMY usages so we focused more on that. We haven't loaded Marshadow at all so we decided this was finally the week! We just basically stacked up all the broken shit and got a team together, and tested it and did decent! (
https://pokepast.es/dd630174e1c709b5 first version) However last minute after some testing we felt the team we felt that getting rid of TSpikes was annoying with Balloon and we didn't really have much CPlay into grounds since Zyg was DD, and Ho-oh needed to tera to properly deal with them so we decided to shift to Drag Z Etern since that went crazy last week and Defensive Zyg C, which paid off in the end! Another fun team this week, liked this squad a lot. If your worried about DD Zyg C (or just Zyg C in general), then you can go Tera Fairy on Zyg C and Tera Water on Arc Fairy. Both versions are fine, its preference.
w6 vs zuzhouwawa (L)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexubers-797956
Okay so going into this week I was SICK AS FUCKKKKKK and genuinely could not think when prepping. Fortunately and unfortunately zuzhou has been using emoxu teams in the past, which are random as fuck but that means prep also means nothing, so we decided to just go with the comfy pick here. Shieldpoke has been raving about offensive Yvel since like week 2 so I decided to whip up something quick with it and he loved it. Tera Flying Yvel is not something I use often, or even offensive Yvel honestly but I really Fw this team. Unfortunately Shieldpoke got bamboozled by special UNec and it cooked us, but was a close match and Yvel woulda put in tremendous work in another universe in this matchup. Otherwise standardish stuff, TSpikes + LO Yvel is broken, feel free to mess around with Etern item and Teras, but I hella Fw this structure.
w7 vs skimmy (DG)
Im ngl during prep this week we danced around with a ton of structures. Skimmy has been loading ho literally every single week, with 100% Zacian and PDon usage, and near 100% LO Yvel usage. After going through a bunch of structures, I thought of this Fire Z Etern jank build which lured NDM and Zacian. We felt that + Deoxys A would be really cool, and Sub on Deo A to further ease the matchup against LO Yveltal, which ended up with this build:
https://pokepast.es/c8a6d7fe566ad647 This build also featured the powerful no roost defensive Yveltal suggested by R8, which seems schizo but i can understand it on the same premise as the Etern in entros week. We stuck with it until around the weekend, where after 3 HOURS of test games we realised this was actually some hot ass, and really inconsistent and relied on perfect play to win. So going through my builder, I came across this old R8 team which looked nice into HO, but was hella outdated and ass. So I made some changes to the sets and some mons (yveltal -> etern), and shieldpoke tested it and liked it a ton. Toxic is what was initially on the zyg for opposing zyg and arc fairy, but dtail also works. Honestly there's a lot of minor changes you can do with this team to fit your preference and it will still work well, a good team that's quite consistent and relatively beginner friendly. Unfortunate we didn't get to see this game but its alright, shit happens.
Other teams that didn't make the cut:
https://pokepast.es/cd399595dff65e39
https://pokepast.es/ede4b694b3686109
https://pokepast.es/b9d2d507e54fbc72
https://pokepast.es/a57b89c5cda4e030
https://pokepast.es/fe359c7dcf6c1278
https://pokepast.es/c6f906fb512002e4
https://pokepast.es/32fc1e6ae4293249
https://pokepast.es/fe359c7dcf6c1278
https://pokepast.es/5062d76528b04958
https://pokepast.es/8c32cb1bdfa113ea
https://pokepast.es/21e5e1979e8db0aa
https://pokepast.es/63f7116b5f90ee8e
https://pokepast.es/92035c5d1cde2ac3
https://pokepast.es/db41849e8ba3eedc
https://pokepast.es/b80132e302cb44bf
These teams either didn't make the cut because I reached a roadblock with them and couldn't figure how to sort out the structure i envisioned in my head, or just from pure preference into the matchup. Not all of these teams have issues, and I emplore you to try them out yourself first and feel free to adjust in whatever way you see fit. Do let me know if you end up changing them and they succeed, id be happy to discuss them further as I feel there are quite a lot of good structures here that can work.
Overall very happy with my prep this tour, although the season didn't turn out how I wanted it to, prep was incredibly fun with
shieldpoke and
R8 , I thought I would just be feeding teams to you but I'm so glad you actively participated in the prep and was vocal in what you like/didnt like. R8 words cant describe how much u keep my building in check in this tier, our retirement will be spectacular. Was fun solving this tier with you both, couldn't have asked for better.
Eternatus is the best Pokemon in the tier.
other shoutouts:
sasha ur the best co anyone could ask for, extremely grateful for handling like 90% of the stuff this tour, and sorry I couldn't help more. You did amazing both in play and managing, and the main reason we got this far. thx for agreeing to manage after i bailed on u last year LOL, glad we got to run it, and thank you again for this lovely experience
Tenebricite Isza U both ruled the SS slots and was always nice to see you guys prep constantly in the chat, was fun teaming with you both, when sasha typed 40 i got a headache but it worked out in the end, and u did much more than i could ask for. Was a pleasure to team with you both, ur amazing and ur success this tour speaks for itself
LBN Mimikyu Stardust ezra you guys kept up the sv slots til the bitter end, we had high hopes, but unfortunately the season didn't go your ways the entire tour and there were a lot of hiccups in this slot, but you all are amazing players and will do well in the future
Seasons unfortunately this tour didn't go well for you, and I'm sorry we couldn't help you do better. your a great player though, and i hope you still enjoyed your time with us as much as we did
Scarfire ur Fat but Ily
laptops DaAwesomeDude1 u guys are the goats, every time i see 0 messages in the doubles channel except the scout, and then on Friday laptops sends a team with staka and u both discuss it then u win. wallah the best doubles core i could have bought, and considering how i don't know the pool that well I'm so happy i got you both.
DripLegend Shucklegigas Ainzcrad u guys didn't get to play much barring a few games and prep but was a nice experience having u guys in the cord, all lovely people
thank u to all the other people who helped us prep and test and just keep the vibes up in the tour honestly, you know who u r and are amazing