Week one of NDPL is in the books! Let's get right to it with our first usage analysis post!
I know this one is a little later than normal but I had basically no time over the weekend. I have similar irl scenarios during week three and week five, so those posts will also likely come out later in the week.
With only twelve games, and 24 separate teams, this is the smallest dataset that I've had to work with outside of playoff scenarios. It's honestly almost
too small, and makes it hard to glean much from low rates of usage in particular. I'm still going to point out low usage trends that I find interesting, but take them with a grain of salt unless the trends persist for multiple weeks.
Most Used Pokemon 
Well, some things never change, and apparently me having to find new ways to say that Zamazenta is the most used Pokemon of the week is going to be a trend that persists into this tournament. With nine appearances, or 38% usage, it was largely business as usual for our canine companion. It appears that seven of these were some variation of the standard 4a set that has become a staple of all levels of National Dex play. As usual, not all items were made apparent, but we had two appearances of Fightinium Z, one of Heavy-Duty Boots, and one of Life Orb. Meanwhile, an IDPress Zamazenta also made an appearance, while the much rarer Howl variant also showed up. This Howl set utilized Darkinium Z with Crunch, presumably to immediately break through bulky Ghost- and Psychic-types like Slowbro and Pecharunt. All in all, however, there wasn't much new going on with Zamazenta, whose trophy case in terms of being the most used Pokemon is starting to look like prime Jordan's.
Other Pokemon with High Usage
There was a six way tie for next highest usage, with Garchomp, Terapagos, Ogerpon-Wellspring, Tapu Koko, Ting-Lu, and Gholdengo all receiving 5 uses, which amounted to 21% usage. Of these, the most surprising by far is Tapu Koko, who has not been popular in previous team tours I've written about. Three of the Tapu Koko's were used to facilitate Quark Drive equipped teammates, although interestingly Iron Moth was more popular for this role than Iron Valiant was. One of the Tapu Koko's operated in a standalone fashion, while the last one was a Dual Screen setter. It's hard to discern the exact items on these, but at least two of them carried Volt Switch, which could give creedence to a Specs set. While Koko has been bogged down by some of its terrible matchups, such as Iron Treads, Ferrothorn, and Galarian Slowking, being popular. However, Koko can also be a real headache for teams running Ground-types that are wary of Hidden Power Ice, and players clearly looked to exploit this niche while unlocking the potentially devastating Quark Drive speed boost. While most of the others haven't seen much specific innovations, we did see a huge upswing in Scale Shot Garchomp usage in comparison to previous tournaments. Players also experimented with different Scale Shot Chomp movesets, with Scale Shot+Stealth Rock and Substitute sets all seeing appearances as players looked to take advantage of this dangerous sweeper. Also one of the Terapagos ran Stealth Rock, which I hadn't seen in one of these tournaments previously.
Highest Ranked Pokemon to not be Used 
Well, if Zamazenta is stacking up victories like Prime Jordan, then Zard Y continues to have a trophy case more resembling that of the Columbus Blue Jackets. As the only A subranker not to be used, Zard Y continues to be somewhat of a usage anomaly, at least on the surface. On one hand, Zard Y's placement in the A subranks has not been contested by many players, as its upsides are simply too great to justify dropping further, at least in my opinion. Yard facilitates an entire playstyle, and while said playstyle can be finicky, its overall an effective one and has seen successful usage in every tournament I've written about. It's just...not very common. Building around Zard Y can feel somewhat formulaic, as multiple forms of hazard control and coverage for certain problematic matchups are required on every Yard team. Even if you do prepare for these bad matchups, Pokemon such as Garchomp, Toxapex, and Mega Latios can give the playstyle problems. It's a great bring into the right scout, but it can also feel like an ineffective choice into the wrong matchup, and that makes it a risky bring unless you are confident that you have a download on your opponent. The upswing in Garchomp usage definitely doesn't help either.
Other Pokemon to Recieve Low Usage
Several previously very common Pokemon were not used much at all, although most were used at least a couple of times. Of note, Corviknight, Zapdos, and Hatterene were all only used once, while Mega Diancie, Ferrothorn, Mega Latios, Gliscor, Volcarona, Galarian Slowking, Dragonite, and Alomomola were all only used twice. My guess is that most of these are due to the small sample size more than anything, so I'm not going to speculate as to why this happened. However, keep these Pokemon in mind in case these trends continue, in which case I will start looking into why that might be.
The UR Pokemon 
Two UR Pokemon were used this week, although one of them was actually used twice. Mega Aerodactyl's excellent speed jumps off the page immediately, and there are a few other traits that are of interest for folks that want to try out this menacing Mega. With its excellent speed and cool STAB combo, Mega Aerodactyl checks threats such as Zamazenta, Ogerpon-W, and Great Tusk, and it also switches into Tornadus-T far better than most of the alternatives. It's access to Dragon Dance also allows it to apply pressure with boosted moves should it find an opportunity to set up. Speaking of Dragon Dance, base Gyarados also made an appearance, running a Flyinium Z set that lets it break through bulky threats and potentially sweep in spite of its mediocre speed tier. Interestingly, this Gyarados used Intimidate as its ability rather than Moxie. Also, Jirachi was used, and speaking of...
Some Cool Sets I Want to Highlight
Separation's Z-Happy Hour Jirachi
Iron Crown has largely taken over the admittedly not large niche for cheesy setup Steel/Psychic type, but Separation's creativity led to placing a Z Happy Hour Jirachi set behind screens and letting it rip. With Stored Power and Aura Sphere as coverage, this set can theoretically become a threat to teams that are not prepared for speedy boosted Psychic-STAB, and with the bulk boosts it could also theoretically beat threats like Kingambit with screens up. Jirachi's colorful movepool could also let that last move be unpredictable. This didn't end up working out as a Sucker Punch Cinderace combined with a Gambit in the back halted the sweep, but general kudos to Separation for their continued creativity!
Darkness's Z Wild Charge Iron Hands 
Iron Hands has seen sporadic usage throughout my time doing this, usually as a bulky trade machine for offense teams. However, Darkness used Hands' low speed to his advantage, as he brought this unconventional Hands set on a trick room team. With Gigavolt Havoc, Hands can bring the pain with a boosted Z Move off of Wild Charge. In fact, Hands was arguably the MVP, starting the game out with a bang after OLK tried to trick it a Choice Scarf while it set up, before the Handy Man started blasting. While Wild Charge is slightly unconventional as a choice of Electric STAB, it does have more consistency than Supercell Slam while being more powerful than Thunder Punch, making it a surprisingly solid choice as Darkness piloted this niche playstyle to a win.
Ok see you all next week!
