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Tournament NDWC VI - Commencement Thread
- Thread starter Murphy Lawden
- Start date
This thread may be used for tournament discussions related to NDWC VI. Please remain respectful and courteous to others when posting in this thread. Memes are fine, but use common sense to determine which ones are appropriate. Enjoy!!!
Him getting snubbed might be the biggest heist this year
I'm second then
Alright, we're back with a usage analysis, this time for NDWC! Let's get right into it.
The sample size for this tournament is significantly larger due to 12 teams being in the running at first as opposed to eight. On one hand, this is great for data, as it gives a larger sample size from which to pull from. On the other hand, its much worse for my sanity as I now have eight additional games that I have to comb through to figure out what people were running. Yay. As for exact numbers, there are now 24 games/48 teams per week, assuming no one deadgames/decides to play a Bo3.
Most Used Pokemon:
This should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been keeping up with the current meta. Zamazenta has been the most splashable Pokemon in the tier for a while now, and it doesn't appear that much of anything has changed in WC. If anything, Zamazenta has proven itself to be even more splashable, with a whopping 44% usage. That's 21 appearances. Our standard bearer sets were largely represented. 4a variants continued to be by far the most popular, although item identification proves challenging for many of them due to folks saving their Zamazenta's for late game scenarios where they only got to fire off a couple of attacks at most. I believe most of them were Heavy-Duty Boots, but there were appearances by Darkinium Z, Fightinium Z, and Life Orb as well. Dual Screens sets also saw a couple of appearances, while Ryuji proved himself as IDPress Zamazenta's strongest soldier by winning with it once again. And yet, even amongst all this normalcy, we did have a unique innovation. Xurkiyee dove into Zamazenta's movepool and pulled Moonblast out of the hat, showing off Mixed Life Orb Zamazenta for the first time. Moonblast presumably lets Zamazenta chunk Dragon- and Fighting-types that it often has to revenge kill without resorting to Close Combat defense drops to do the job, therefore making the already longevity limited Life Orb set a bit sturdier overtime. Cool innovation!
Other Pokemon that saw high usage
Gholdengo was the second most used Pokemon at 14 uses/29%. It was largely your standard fare of Ghold sets this week, with Nasty Plot wallbreakers (with Ghost and Steel Z both seeing play), TWave+Hex sets, and Scarf all seeing appearances. Following close behind Ghold were Alomomola and Tornadus-T, with 13 uses/27% usage. Alomomola's didn't see much mixing and matching itself, as the standard WishTect+AV sets were the standouts. The vast majority of Tornadus-T sets appear to be pivoting sets, although a large amount of them went with unrevealed moves, making it challenging to deduce what exactly they were used for. Looking at team structure, however, it appears that most of them weren't Defoggers, as these pivot sets were commonly paired with another form of hazard removal. (I could only find one that revealed Defog) There was also at least one Assault Vest and one Nasty Plot set, although the aforementioned unrevealed sets means there could have been more of these, it's just hard to know for sure.
The next two most used Pokemon were a bit surprising to me. It's not that Pecharunt and Kingambit are bad of course, but 10 uses/21% usage is very impressive by their standards. Kingambit saw inconsistent usage in CL, as teams wavered on banking on a Pokemon that, while still very dangerous late game, is also checked by many common Pokemon, including the most common Pokemon. That didn't stop it from having a great week, however, as several Kingambit's actually ended up cleaning up late game, something we didn't see much of in CL, where they were largely used as early game wallbreakers/Knock Off support. Both Leftovers and Black Glasses sets were used frequently, with one appearance by an Air Balloon set. Meanwhile Pecharunt continues to improve as the metagame progresses. Being a fast pivot that switches into most Fighting-types and also helps check physical attackers like Ogerpon-W continues to be invaluable utility, although a Nasty Plot Z set did also make an appearance.
Clefable, Corviknight, and Iron Valiant led the way for the B rankers with 4 uses apiece. Darkness Rain also gave Overqwil, Pelipper, Mega Swampert, and Archaludon 3 appearances, although the team lost every game it appeared in.
The most used C ranker was a tie between two very different Pokemon, those being Clodsire and Venusaur. Sun saw two appearances this week, and you might be wondering, "well, if Venusaur was used twice, where's Torkoal?" Well, we'll get there in time. Meanwhile, stall saw two appearances, albeit with two very different structures. The only constant between the two stalls were Corviknight and Clodsire. Clod continues to be heavily used on stall teams as a catch all special wall that specifically handles Gholdengo, being arguably the only true switch in to every single popular Gholdengo set. Also of note is Tangrowth seeing use, which is notable considering it wasn't used at all in CL.
Highest Ranked Pokemon to not be used:
Listen, I know I wrote a piece about how both Semisun and Eterrain teams had been really struggling in the meta as of late, but given the larger sample size of this tournament I was expecting somebody to use Zard Y, if not multiple people. And yet, confidence in this fiery fiend remains at an all time low. Switch ins to Mega Charizard Y remain extremely common. In fact, I ran through every team to figure out whether or not they had Yard switch ins, and almost every single one that wasn't some form of hyper offense had a consistent way to sponge Yard's attacks. It's simply too easy to prepare for, and too hard to facilitate given its extreme Stealth Rock weakness which has always required careful building. I wasn't expecting high usage or anything, but no usage at all from a sample size this big is pretty damning.
Other Pokemon to receive low use
Zard Y was the only A subranker to not see any use, although plenty saw low usage. Terapagos, Hisuian Samurott, and Hatterene all saw three uses, while Tapu Koko only saw two and Slowbro had a measly one. The trends for Koko and Slowbro are nothing new, and Hatterene and Hisuian Samurott had very inconsistent usage throughout CL. The lack of Terapagos is mildly surprising, although it has been on the downswing somewhat as of late as very bulky pivoting special walls like AV Alomomola and Galarian Slowking remain as popular as ever and prevent Pagos from making much progress on its own outside of removing hazards, which not every team is in great need of thanks to a large amount of Heavy-Duty Boots everywhere. Great Tusk was also a far more popular spinner thanks to its increased role compression.
Ceruledge and Raging Bolt were the only B+ rankers to not see use. Ceruledge took the world by storm in late 2025 but it underperformed some in CL and went completely unused here. Hyper Offense really wasn't all that common this week, and those that were run went with different physical sweepers and wallbreakers, such as Ogerpon-W and Dragonite. Meanwhile, Raging Bolt's lack of usage was somewhat surprising given the appearance of two different sun teams, where Raging Bolt is usually a staple. However, both sun teams spurned it in favor of an offensive core featuring Mega Diancie, Great Tusk, Venusaur, and Dragonite.
Speaking of Sun...
The UR Pokemon:
Three UR Pokemon saw use this week, with the only one being used more than once being Ninetales. Isza and Kayzn both chose to run Ninetales over the more popular Torkoal. Ninetales offers a different set of utility when compared to Torkoal, as it gets neat tools such as Encore, Hypnosis, and Healing Wish. It is also faster than Torkoal, which can be situationally useful. Since Ninetales doesn't have Stealth Rock or Rapid Spin, both Isza and Kayzn packed both Mega Diancie and Great Tusk on their teams to function as hazard control and hazard layers.
Additionally, Cresselia and Mega Aerodactyl were both brought. Unfortunately, Darkness didn't bring out his Mega Aerodactyl at all. As for the Cresselia...
Some cool sets that I want to highlight
Isza's Ejector Pokemon:
Giving your sun wallbreakers as many free turns and switches as possible is critical for sun teams to see success, but that concept is rarely taken to the extreme that Isza took it to. Cresselia has recently been seeing some use on Sun teams as glue that blanket checks many physical attackers while spreading Thunder Wave and getting increased healing with Moonlight or supporting with Lunar Dance, but the Eject Button variant that Isza ran took that support to the next level by using that bulk to pivot out to his other sun wallbreakers in Venusaur, Dragonium Z Dragonite, and Great Tusk. But wait, there's more, because the Great Tusk was also a pivot! How, you may ask? Well, Isza made use of the seldom seen Eject Pack item, which let Great Tusk fire off a powerful, Protosynthesis boosted STAB move and then pivot out thanks to the defense drops that Tusk's primary STAB moves give. Very cool innovations that let Isza keep up the pressure and shine his way to victory.
YouanMingxue's Sub+Bulk Up Corviknight:
Corviknight has seen increased usage as the post-tera meta has developed largely thanks to its potency as a defensive pivot, but sweeper sets had been largely forgotten up until this point. With Substitute, Bulk Up, and Roost on top of Pressure, this Corviknight set can be very hard for certain offenses to stop and has the tools to take advantage of bulky teams once certain hardwalls such as Gholdengo and Zapdos are removed. This is especially potent considering how most folks would not expect needing to save their Zapdos or Gholdengo to defensively check Corviknight. This is exactly what happened, as YouanMingxue dispatched sequoia's Zapdos and ran through the rest of the team with boosted Brave Birds that sequoia simply didn't have the tools to combat.
I really appreciate y'all reading this. My irl has been very hard as of late and Pokemon has given me a place to distract myself for the moments when I'm not extremely busy with hard stuff. Seeing the support and excitement that you all have for these posts is extremely meaningful and I'm very grateful. I will see you all next week.
The sample size for this tournament is significantly larger due to 12 teams being in the running at first as opposed to eight. On one hand, this is great for data, as it gives a larger sample size from which to pull from. On the other hand, its much worse for my sanity as I now have eight additional games that I have to comb through to figure out what people were running. Yay. As for exact numbers, there are now 24 games/48 teams per week, assuming no one deadgames/decides to play a Bo3.
Most Used Pokemon:
This should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been keeping up with the current meta. Zamazenta has been the most splashable Pokemon in the tier for a while now, and it doesn't appear that much of anything has changed in WC. If anything, Zamazenta has proven itself to be even more splashable, with a whopping 44% usage. That's 21 appearances. Our standard bearer sets were largely represented. 4a variants continued to be by far the most popular, although item identification proves challenging for many of them due to folks saving their Zamazenta's for late game scenarios where they only got to fire off a couple of attacks at most. I believe most of them were Heavy-Duty Boots, but there were appearances by Darkinium Z, Fightinium Z, and Life Orb as well. Dual Screens sets also saw a couple of appearances, while Ryuji proved himself as IDPress Zamazenta's strongest soldier by winning with it once again. And yet, even amongst all this normalcy, we did have a unique innovation. Xurkiyee dove into Zamazenta's movepool and pulled Moonblast out of the hat, showing off Mixed Life Orb Zamazenta for the first time. Moonblast presumably lets Zamazenta chunk Dragon- and Fighting-types that it often has to revenge kill without resorting to Close Combat defense drops to do the job, therefore making the already longevity limited Life Orb set a bit sturdier overtime. Cool innovation!
Other Pokemon that saw high usage
Gholdengo was the second most used Pokemon at 14 uses/29%. It was largely your standard fare of Ghold sets this week, with Nasty Plot wallbreakers (with Ghost and Steel Z both seeing play), TWave+Hex sets, and Scarf all seeing appearances. Following close behind Ghold were Alomomola and Tornadus-T, with 13 uses/27% usage. Alomomola's didn't see much mixing and matching itself, as the standard WishTect+AV sets were the standouts. The vast majority of Tornadus-T sets appear to be pivoting sets, although a large amount of them went with unrevealed moves, making it challenging to deduce what exactly they were used for. Looking at team structure, however, it appears that most of them weren't Defoggers, as these pivot sets were commonly paired with another form of hazard removal. (I could only find one that revealed Defog) There was also at least one Assault Vest and one Nasty Plot set, although the aforementioned unrevealed sets means there could have been more of these, it's just hard to know for sure.
The next two most used Pokemon were a bit surprising to me. It's not that Pecharunt and Kingambit are bad of course, but 10 uses/21% usage is very impressive by their standards. Kingambit saw inconsistent usage in CL, as teams wavered on banking on a Pokemon that, while still very dangerous late game, is also checked by many common Pokemon, including the most common Pokemon. That didn't stop it from having a great week, however, as several Kingambit's actually ended up cleaning up late game, something we didn't see much of in CL, where they were largely used as early game wallbreakers/Knock Off support. Both Leftovers and Black Glasses sets were used frequently, with one appearance by an Air Balloon set. Meanwhile Pecharunt continues to improve as the metagame progresses. Being a fast pivot that switches into most Fighting-types and also helps check physical attackers like Ogerpon-W continues to be invaluable utility, although a Nasty Plot Z set did also make an appearance.
Clefable, Corviknight, and Iron Valiant led the way for the B rankers with 4 uses apiece. Darkness Rain also gave Overqwil, Pelipper, Mega Swampert, and Archaludon 3 appearances, although the team lost every game it appeared in.
The most used C ranker was a tie between two very different Pokemon, those being Clodsire and Venusaur. Sun saw two appearances this week, and you might be wondering, "well, if Venusaur was used twice, where's Torkoal?" Well, we'll get there in time. Meanwhile, stall saw two appearances, albeit with two very different structures. The only constant between the two stalls were Corviknight and Clodsire. Clod continues to be heavily used on stall teams as a catch all special wall that specifically handles Gholdengo, being arguably the only true switch in to every single popular Gholdengo set. Also of note is Tangrowth seeing use, which is notable considering it wasn't used at all in CL.
Highest Ranked Pokemon to not be used:
Listen, I know I wrote a piece about how both Semisun and Eterrain teams had been really struggling in the meta as of late, but given the larger sample size of this tournament I was expecting somebody to use Zard Y, if not multiple people. And yet, confidence in this fiery fiend remains at an all time low. Switch ins to Mega Charizard Y remain extremely common. In fact, I ran through every team to figure out whether or not they had Yard switch ins, and almost every single one that wasn't some form of hyper offense had a consistent way to sponge Yard's attacks. It's simply too easy to prepare for, and too hard to facilitate given its extreme Stealth Rock weakness which has always required careful building. I wasn't expecting high usage or anything, but no usage at all from a sample size this big is pretty damning.
Other Pokemon to receive low use
Zard Y was the only A subranker to not see any use, although plenty saw low usage. Terapagos, Hisuian Samurott, and Hatterene all saw three uses, while Tapu Koko only saw two and Slowbro had a measly one. The trends for Koko and Slowbro are nothing new, and Hatterene and Hisuian Samurott had very inconsistent usage throughout CL. The lack of Terapagos is mildly surprising, although it has been on the downswing somewhat as of late as very bulky pivoting special walls like AV Alomomola and Galarian Slowking remain as popular as ever and prevent Pagos from making much progress on its own outside of removing hazards, which not every team is in great need of thanks to a large amount of Heavy-Duty Boots everywhere. Great Tusk was also a far more popular spinner thanks to its increased role compression.
Ceruledge and Raging Bolt were the only B+ rankers to not see use. Ceruledge took the world by storm in late 2025 but it underperformed some in CL and went completely unused here. Hyper Offense really wasn't all that common this week, and those that were run went with different physical sweepers and wallbreakers, such as Ogerpon-W and Dragonite. Meanwhile, Raging Bolt's lack of usage was somewhat surprising given the appearance of two different sun teams, where Raging Bolt is usually a staple. However, both sun teams spurned it in favor of an offensive core featuring Mega Diancie, Great Tusk, Venusaur, and Dragonite.
Speaking of Sun...
The UR Pokemon:
Three UR Pokemon saw use this week, with the only one being used more than once being Ninetales. Isza and Kayzn both chose to run Ninetales over the more popular Torkoal. Ninetales offers a different set of utility when compared to Torkoal, as it gets neat tools such as Encore, Hypnosis, and Healing Wish. It is also faster than Torkoal, which can be situationally useful. Since Ninetales doesn't have Stealth Rock or Rapid Spin, both Isza and Kayzn packed both Mega Diancie and Great Tusk on their teams to function as hazard control and hazard layers.
Additionally, Cresselia and Mega Aerodactyl were both brought. Unfortunately, Darkness didn't bring out his Mega Aerodactyl at all. As for the Cresselia...
Some cool sets that I want to highlight
Isza's Ejector Pokemon:
Giving your sun wallbreakers as many free turns and switches as possible is critical for sun teams to see success, but that concept is rarely taken to the extreme that Isza took it to. Cresselia has recently been seeing some use on Sun teams as glue that blanket checks many physical attackers while spreading Thunder Wave and getting increased healing with Moonlight or supporting with Lunar Dance, but the Eject Button variant that Isza ran took that support to the next level by using that bulk to pivot out to his other sun wallbreakers in Venusaur, Dragonium Z Dragonite, and Great Tusk. But wait, there's more, because the Great Tusk was also a pivot! How, you may ask? Well, Isza made use of the seldom seen Eject Pack item, which let Great Tusk fire off a powerful, Protosynthesis boosted STAB move and then pivot out thanks to the defense drops that Tusk's primary STAB moves give. Very cool innovations that let Isza keep up the pressure and shine his way to victory.
YouanMingxue's Sub+Bulk Up Corviknight:
Corviknight has seen increased usage as the post-tera meta has developed largely thanks to its potency as a defensive pivot, but sweeper sets had been largely forgotten up until this point. With Substitute, Bulk Up, and Roost on top of Pressure, this Corviknight set can be very hard for certain offenses to stop and has the tools to take advantage of bulky teams once certain hardwalls such as Gholdengo and Zapdos are removed. This is especially potent considering how most folks would not expect needing to save their Zapdos or Gholdengo to defensively check Corviknight. This is exactly what happened, as YouanMingxue dispatched sequoia's Zapdos and ran through the rest of the team with boosted Brave Birds that sequoia simply didn't have the tools to combat.
I really appreciate y'all reading this. My irl has been very hard as of late and Pokemon has given me a place to distract myself for the moments when I'm not extremely busy with hard stuff. Seeing the support and excitement that you all have for these posts is extremely meaningful and I'm very grateful. I will see you all next week.
Week Two has wrapped up, which means another usage analysis! Let's get right into it.
There was one deadgame this week, bringing the total down to 23 games/46 different teams.
Most Used Pokemon:
At this point its surprising if Zamazenta isn't the most used Pokemon of the week. The dashing dog continues to reaffirm itself as the most splashable Pokemon in the metagame with its best week since I've started doing these. With an eye watering 26 uses, Zamazenta becomes the first Pokemon I've written about to achieve over 50% usage, coming in at 57%. Any given team that was run last week was statistically more likely to have Zamazenta on it than not. And it did it in classic fashion too, with at least five different items on the classic 4 Attack set. We saw Heavy-Duty Boots, Fightinium Z, Darkinium Z, Rockium Z, Assault Vest, and Choice Band, alongside a couple of other unrevealed items. Zamazenta was also the dual screener of choice once again, and IDPress made another appearance. There isn't much more that I can say about Zamazenta that I haven't said in previous weeks. It continues to be the dominant presence of National Dex, and it doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon.
Other Pokemon that saw high usage
Ogerpon-Wellspring and Gholdengo tied for the next highest usage rate at 14 uses apiece, or 30% usage. This was one of Ogerpon-W's best weeks in terms of usage, although its winrate was rather poor. An interesting addition to Ogerpon-W sets was the frequency with which Knock Off was used. Knock was never a bad option, of course, but Ogerpon-W's generally preferred a different coverage move to either hit Ferrothorn or the Dragons in earlier times. However, Knock Off has proven to be a nice choice that messes with a lot of common Ogerpon-W checks, such as Zapdos and Dragonite, potentially letting Waterpon break through them with Stealth Rock over time. It also lets Ogerpon contribute in matchups where it may struggle to find space to Swords Dance. U-turn sets were somewhat common but Swords Dancers were still the default. Gholdengo, meanwhile, had its mostly default sets, where we saw Twave, Bulky Plot, Offensive Plot, and Scarf sets. The somewhat uncommon Shuca Berry did appear once, however.
Landorus-T showcased its flexibility with 13 uses this week, as Defensive sets, Offensive Z move, lead, and Choice Scarf sets were all seen. Players really mixed and matched as well, with options such as Leftovers and U-turn+Flyinium Z being explored. Galarian Slowking checked in with the next highest at 11 uses, with players once again crafting specific innovations to catch their opponents off guard. Special shoutout to Ikaishi, who used a Black Sludge+Trick Galarian Slowking to restrict Sagazinha's potentially threatening Swords Dance Gliscor by effectively removing Poison Heal from it.
The highest used B rank Pokemon was Clefable, who checked in with a solid eight uses, albeit only getting a paltry two wins. Clef finds its way as a sturdy Fighting-resist that has access to great utility moves in Stealth Rock, Thunder Wave, and Knock Off. However, a couple of players instead tried investing in Special Defense to let Clefable better sponge attacks from the likes of Mega Diancie, Mega Latios, and Kyurem. This makes Clefable worse into some prominent physical attackers, but it can be worth it considering how dangerous the aforementioned special wallbreakers are.
The C rankers is where things get a little bit interesting. Venusaur was once again used twice this week, this time accompanied by the more standard Torkoal as opposed to the Ninetales that was brought in Week One. Sun is putting together an argument for being the best full weather playstyle right now, as rain remains inconsistent and players continue to innovate new ways to get the most out of their sun sweepers. A little bit of an odd one, Mega Gyarados received two surprising uses on hyper offense. Mega Gyarados had somewhat fallen by the wayside thanks to stiff competition from other Dragon Dancers, its pedestrian speed tier, and good-but-not-great matchup versus common fat structures, which was previously its biggest strong suit. However, both HOs it appeared on won, and one of them was won by Mega Gyarados, so maybe there is a bit more in the tank for the cranky koi fish. Enamorus, Skarmory, Clodsire, Primarina, Mega Gardevoir, Glimmora, Sinistcha, Iron Crown, and, most notably, Blaziken were all used this week, with Blaziken getting its first team tour usage since PL.
Highest Ranked Pokemon to not be used:
Well, we're now 47 games in, with almost 100 individual teams used in the tournament, and not a single one of them has used Mega Charizard Y. The embarrassment continues to flow in for Yard, which has just been left in the dust by the tournament community. Four full sun teams have been used in leiu of the once iconic Zard Y Semisun style. Heck, Mega Houndoom was used twice this week. People have more faith in that guy then one of the most iconic National Dex Pokemon. Insane. Anecdote's aside, its just too easy for teams to slap on Dragon-types that deal with Zard Y, although there were significantly more teams this week that had much shakier Yard matchups, as they relied on Pokemon like Heatran and AV Alomomola as their Fire resists. Maybe that could set the stage for Yard to have some success in future weeks, but there are still a ton of very solid defensive switch ins available, so it would remain a high risk pick.
Other Pokemon to receive low use
A couple of previously solid A rankers had relatively poor showings this week. Moltres, Urshifu-RS, Slowbro, and Ferrothorn all had three uses, Hatterene and Toxapex had two, while Tapu Koko had a measly one. Of these, Urshifu, Ferrothorn, and Toxapex are the most notable. Ferrothorn's passivity into Ghold as well as a couple of other problematic common matchups led to players spurning it in favor of other Steel-types, although it won all games we appeared in. Toxapex at two uses was somewhat surprising after it had a very solid week last week, but Galarian Slowking, Alomomola, and Pecharunt all give it competition on several different team structures. Toxapex is still great of course, but sometimes it falls through the cracks as the competition is so good. Finally, Urshifu was never going to have a good week of use when Zamazenta was used over 50% of the time, although the Choice Scarf sets access to U-turn led that set to seeing some use over Zama, while Swords Dance+Trailblaze was also employed.
Ceruledge once again went unused as players trended a different direction with their hyper offensive builds. Victini remains unused in my entire time of writing these, somehow.
The UR Pokemon:
This was a fun week for UR Pokemon, as players looked for new ways to get the leg up on their opponent. In an interesting twist, Mega Houndoom was the only UR Pokemon to see more than one use, being used twice. It appears that both Darkness and MemphisDepayy brought the same sun team that packed a Mega Houndoom as its mega wallbreaker. When compared to the Mega Charizards, Mega Houndoom notably offers a significantly increased speed tier, which lets it get the jump on Mega Latios, Mega Diancie, Ogerpon-W, and Garchomp, which can be very helpful for sun teams that often lack ways to respond if one of these faster wallbreakers get in, especially if its one that Venusaur can't immediately revenge kill. Mega Houndoom solves this issue, and it of course doesn't lack for power. Meanwhile, the recently unranked Tinkaton and Mega Latias each saw a use, while Cresselia was used once again. There were two more UR Pokemon used as well, that I'll go into below.
Some cool sets that I want to highlight
Isza's Choice Scarf Bisharp
Isza becomes the first person to get a highlight set in two consecutive weeks with this absolutely wild innovation (and, by extension, team) in using what was previously considered one of the most directly outclassed Pokemon we have. You know this was wild since Isza also had a Water Absorb Clodsire on his team, and I won't even be talking about that so I can focus on this. Kingambit has essentially completely taken away Bisharp's role as a late game cleaner fueled by Sucker Punch, while the chief Defog deterrent is now Gholdengo. Even Kingambit can run a Defiant set if it really wants to. Bisharp had no clear role left, but Isza utilized Bisharp's one advantage: its superior speed tier. While still not particularly fast, with a Choice Scarf equipped Bisharp hits a speed stat of 393, allowing it to outrun Mega Latios, Mega Diancie, Garchomp, fast Gholdengo, Ogerpon-W, and more. This lets the Scarf Bisharp catch several of these Pokemon by surprise and potentially revenge kill or pursuit trap them, which is not a role that its evolution can replicate in the same way. Well played to Isza for this extremely creative innovation!
Ryuji's Choice Band Hisuian Arcanine
Sometimes all we wanna do is click the funny button and watch a defensive Pokemon's health plummet. Ryuji leaned into that concept fully with the off the wall choice of Hisuian Arcanine. With an excellent Rock/Fire STAB combination backed up by the monstrous Head Smash, Hisuian Arcanine proves to be surprisingly challenging for many common structures to switch into, as Head Smash deals well over 50% to common defensive Pokemon like Alomomola, Slowbro, Gliscor, and Toxapex. Meanwhile, its secondary Fire STAB makes it risky for many Rock resists to pivot in. Seriously, this thing is strong; I had some fun in the calculator, and it 2HKOs specially defensive Garchomp after Spikes damage with Head Smash. This thing can bring the pain. And it did, as Ryuji used it to severely damage several of Micaiah's defensive Pokemon, although an untimely miss led to Micaiah's Regenerator core and Landorus-T surviving the onslaught, albeit not by much. Still, this thing looks really cool. I will be building with it.
See you all next week!
There was one deadgame this week, bringing the total down to 23 games/46 different teams.
Most Used Pokemon:
At this point its surprising if Zamazenta isn't the most used Pokemon of the week. The dashing dog continues to reaffirm itself as the most splashable Pokemon in the metagame with its best week since I've started doing these. With an eye watering 26 uses, Zamazenta becomes the first Pokemon I've written about to achieve over 50% usage, coming in at 57%. Any given team that was run last week was statistically more likely to have Zamazenta on it than not. And it did it in classic fashion too, with at least five different items on the classic 4 Attack set. We saw Heavy-Duty Boots, Fightinium Z, Darkinium Z, Rockium Z, Assault Vest, and Choice Band, alongside a couple of other unrevealed items. Zamazenta was also the dual screener of choice once again, and IDPress made another appearance. There isn't much more that I can say about Zamazenta that I haven't said in previous weeks. It continues to be the dominant presence of National Dex, and it doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon.
Other Pokemon that saw high usage
Ogerpon-Wellspring and Gholdengo tied for the next highest usage rate at 14 uses apiece, or 30% usage. This was one of Ogerpon-W's best weeks in terms of usage, although its winrate was rather poor. An interesting addition to Ogerpon-W sets was the frequency with which Knock Off was used. Knock was never a bad option, of course, but Ogerpon-W's generally preferred a different coverage move to either hit Ferrothorn or the Dragons in earlier times. However, Knock Off has proven to be a nice choice that messes with a lot of common Ogerpon-W checks, such as Zapdos and Dragonite, potentially letting Waterpon break through them with Stealth Rock over time. It also lets Ogerpon contribute in matchups where it may struggle to find space to Swords Dance. U-turn sets were somewhat common but Swords Dancers were still the default. Gholdengo, meanwhile, had its mostly default sets, where we saw Twave, Bulky Plot, Offensive Plot, and Scarf sets. The somewhat uncommon Shuca Berry did appear once, however.
Landorus-T showcased its flexibility with 13 uses this week, as Defensive sets, Offensive Z move, lead, and Choice Scarf sets were all seen. Players really mixed and matched as well, with options such as Leftovers and U-turn+Flyinium Z being explored. Galarian Slowking checked in with the next highest at 11 uses, with players once again crafting specific innovations to catch their opponents off guard. Special shoutout to Ikaishi, who used a Black Sludge+Trick Galarian Slowking to restrict Sagazinha's potentially threatening Swords Dance Gliscor by effectively removing Poison Heal from it.
The highest used B rank Pokemon was Clefable, who checked in with a solid eight uses, albeit only getting a paltry two wins. Clef finds its way as a sturdy Fighting-resist that has access to great utility moves in Stealth Rock, Thunder Wave, and Knock Off. However, a couple of players instead tried investing in Special Defense to let Clefable better sponge attacks from the likes of Mega Diancie, Mega Latios, and Kyurem. This makes Clefable worse into some prominent physical attackers, but it can be worth it considering how dangerous the aforementioned special wallbreakers are.
The C rankers is where things get a little bit interesting. Venusaur was once again used twice this week, this time accompanied by the more standard Torkoal as opposed to the Ninetales that was brought in Week One. Sun is putting together an argument for being the best full weather playstyle right now, as rain remains inconsistent and players continue to innovate new ways to get the most out of their sun sweepers. A little bit of an odd one, Mega Gyarados received two surprising uses on hyper offense. Mega Gyarados had somewhat fallen by the wayside thanks to stiff competition from other Dragon Dancers, its pedestrian speed tier, and good-but-not-great matchup versus common fat structures, which was previously its biggest strong suit. However, both HOs it appeared on won, and one of them was won by Mega Gyarados, so maybe there is a bit more in the tank for the cranky koi fish. Enamorus, Skarmory, Clodsire, Primarina, Mega Gardevoir, Glimmora, Sinistcha, Iron Crown, and, most notably, Blaziken were all used this week, with Blaziken getting its first team tour usage since PL.
Highest Ranked Pokemon to not be used:
Well, we're now 47 games in, with almost 100 individual teams used in the tournament, and not a single one of them has used Mega Charizard Y. The embarrassment continues to flow in for Yard, which has just been left in the dust by the tournament community. Four full sun teams have been used in leiu of the once iconic Zard Y Semisun style. Heck, Mega Houndoom was used twice this week. People have more faith in that guy then one of the most iconic National Dex Pokemon. Insane. Anecdote's aside, its just too easy for teams to slap on Dragon-types that deal with Zard Y, although there were significantly more teams this week that had much shakier Yard matchups, as they relied on Pokemon like Heatran and AV Alomomola as their Fire resists. Maybe that could set the stage for Yard to have some success in future weeks, but there are still a ton of very solid defensive switch ins available, so it would remain a high risk pick.
Other Pokemon to receive low use
A couple of previously solid A rankers had relatively poor showings this week. Moltres, Urshifu-RS, Slowbro, and Ferrothorn all had three uses, Hatterene and Toxapex had two, while Tapu Koko had a measly one. Of these, Urshifu, Ferrothorn, and Toxapex are the most notable. Ferrothorn's passivity into Ghold as well as a couple of other problematic common matchups led to players spurning it in favor of other Steel-types, although it won all games we appeared in. Toxapex at two uses was somewhat surprising after it had a very solid week last week, but Galarian Slowking, Alomomola, and Pecharunt all give it competition on several different team structures. Toxapex is still great of course, but sometimes it falls through the cracks as the competition is so good. Finally, Urshifu was never going to have a good week of use when Zamazenta was used over 50% of the time, although the Choice Scarf sets access to U-turn led that set to seeing some use over Zama, while Swords Dance+Trailblaze was also employed.
Ceruledge once again went unused as players trended a different direction with their hyper offensive builds. Victini remains unused in my entire time of writing these, somehow.
The UR Pokemon:
This was a fun week for UR Pokemon, as players looked for new ways to get the leg up on their opponent. In an interesting twist, Mega Houndoom was the only UR Pokemon to see more than one use, being used twice. It appears that both Darkness and MemphisDepayy brought the same sun team that packed a Mega Houndoom as its mega wallbreaker. When compared to the Mega Charizards, Mega Houndoom notably offers a significantly increased speed tier, which lets it get the jump on Mega Latios, Mega Diancie, Ogerpon-W, and Garchomp, which can be very helpful for sun teams that often lack ways to respond if one of these faster wallbreakers get in, especially if its one that Venusaur can't immediately revenge kill. Mega Houndoom solves this issue, and it of course doesn't lack for power. Meanwhile, the recently unranked Tinkaton and Mega Latias each saw a use, while Cresselia was used once again. There were two more UR Pokemon used as well, that I'll go into below.
Some cool sets that I want to highlight
Isza's Choice Scarf Bisharp
Isza becomes the first person to get a highlight set in two consecutive weeks with this absolutely wild innovation (and, by extension, team) in using what was previously considered one of the most directly outclassed Pokemon we have. You know this was wild since Isza also had a Water Absorb Clodsire on his team, and I won't even be talking about that so I can focus on this. Kingambit has essentially completely taken away Bisharp's role as a late game cleaner fueled by Sucker Punch, while the chief Defog deterrent is now Gholdengo. Even Kingambit can run a Defiant set if it really wants to. Bisharp had no clear role left, but Isza utilized Bisharp's one advantage: its superior speed tier. While still not particularly fast, with a Choice Scarf equipped Bisharp hits a speed stat of 393, allowing it to outrun Mega Latios, Mega Diancie, Garchomp, fast Gholdengo, Ogerpon-W, and more. This lets the Scarf Bisharp catch several of these Pokemon by surprise and potentially revenge kill or pursuit trap them, which is not a role that its evolution can replicate in the same way. Well played to Isza for this extremely creative innovation!
Ryuji's Choice Band Hisuian Arcanine
Sometimes all we wanna do is click the funny button and watch a defensive Pokemon's health plummet. Ryuji leaned into that concept fully with the off the wall choice of Hisuian Arcanine. With an excellent Rock/Fire STAB combination backed up by the monstrous Head Smash, Hisuian Arcanine proves to be surprisingly challenging for many common structures to switch into, as Head Smash deals well over 50% to common defensive Pokemon like Alomomola, Slowbro, Gliscor, and Toxapex. Meanwhile, its secondary Fire STAB makes it risky for many Rock resists to pivot in. Seriously, this thing is strong; I had some fun in the calculator, and it 2HKOs specially defensive Garchomp after Spikes damage with Head Smash. This thing can bring the pain. And it did, as Ryuji used it to severely damage several of Micaiah's defensive Pokemon, although an untimely miss led to Micaiah's Regenerator core and Landorus-T surviving the onslaught, albeit not by much. Still, this thing looks really cool. I will be building with it.
See you all next week!