Tournament NUCL I - Commencement

etern

is a Community Leaderis a Metagame Resource Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a defending SCL Championis a Former Smogon Metagame Tournament Circuit Champion
NU Leader
QjOCiVj.png
[

COMMENCE THE RAGGING AND TAGGING.​
 
:clefable::xatu::haunter::slowking::alomomola::vileplume::incineroar::rotom-mow::wo-chien:
Neverused Champions League I - Power Rankings
Written by Meri Berry
This power rankings was voted on by representatives of each team, with each team having 1 vote per generation. For SV, they were ranked 1-20 for players that weren't on the voting team, and for every other tier they were ranked 1-5. Also, ties in voting were counted as ties in the overall team rankings, but they were tiebroken by me for the purposes of the individual PRs. Thank you everyone who contributed to voting!

#1: :absol: Full Moon Absols: :absol:

SV: Nunes
SV: ZeeLitium
SV: OBB10
SV: Leni
SS: Xiri
SM: LpZ
ORAS: robjr
BW: Finch
DPP: Banb4doro
ADV: Gorex
GSC: Beeorsomething
RBY: Teh
Subs: mj, siras, zeeLitium​

The Full Moon Absols are an oldgens powerhouse, holding many of the strongest players in the pool. This includes Xiri in SS and robjr in ORAS, which are clear favourites in their respective pools. Finchinator finds himself tied for second in a very tough BW pool, but he carries a lot of skill and prior tournament experience that will be necessary for the level of competition. BeeOrSomething is a very good GSC NU player, having found themselves in the finals of ALT PL I and shared a joint first seed in the pool. Even though their oldgens is their strength in this pool, their SV can still carry its own weight, with Thiago Nunes having a large part to play in their potential as both a builder and a player. Leru, Leni, and OranBerryBlissey10 are all experienced and competent players, and when paired with the support of Thiago Nunes, their potential for success is still high. Their other oldgens picks round out their team well, starting with their SM slot LpZ who is a great player looking to make a good impression in a new tier, along with Banbadoro is a newer player who is slotting into DPP looking to make a breakout performance. gorex is an experienced swiss army knife with past ADV experience, but he finds himself in a competitive pool. Last but not least, we have Teh, who is a strong RBY player and a RBY community mainstay. Their subs mj, siras, and zeeLitium round out their bench, which will give them flexibility for if something doesn't work out, particularly in SV. The Absols are a team with many peaks and very few valleys, making them the favourite to win the tournament.

#2: :decidueye: Dappled Decidueyes :decidueye:

SV: DugZa
SV: mncmt
SV: Floss
SV: outbackrabbit
SS: Lilo
SM: 3d
ORAS: quziel
BW: watashi
DPP: Heysup
ADV: Colteor
GSC: Real FV13
RBY: Tree69420
Subs: Cielau, Raahel, LustfulLice​

The Dappled Decidueyes find themselves as a clear favourite in SV, with both of the managers starting in the generation. Their core of DugZa, Floss, and mncmt carries a tremendous amount of tournament experience in official tournaments and subforum tournaments alike, with outbackrabbit coming into this tournament with less experience, but a reputation for being an innovative builder and a ladder monster. They also carry some of the most familiar faces in NU. watashi sits alone at the top of the NU Hall of Fame, starting in the extremely stacked BW pool as the first seed. Heysup is a NU oldgens legend, somehow getting a positive record out of any generation in almost any tournament, and sits as the joint top spot on top of DPP. In GSC we have Real FV13, who is a contender in any NU slot and has a strong history in GSC UU. quziel is one of the strongest and most consistent ORAS players over the past couple years, being a mainstay in any tournament that has the tier. However, this team is a bit top heavy, with riskier picks rounding out their last oldgens. Lilo has been around the community for a while and was a good player during the current gen of SS, but he will need to impress to do well in this top heavy pool. There's also 3d in SM, who has been playing in Smogon tournaments for some time but has not participated in NU much. Colteor is a player with past ADV tournament experience, but will need a performance to do well in the pool. Finally, we have Tree69420 is a strong RBY player, but they find themselves relatively unproven in NU compared to the top players. Their bench is rounded out with Cielau, Raahel, and LustfulLice, giving them good oldgen flexibility if they find themselves in trouble. The Decidueyes are a team that are seriously competitive, and as long as their threats perform as well as expected, they'll be impossible to beat.

#3: :sandshrew-alola: Free Snowshrew :sandshrew-alola:

SV: snaga
SV: Dr. Phd. BJ
SV: skierdude101
SV: Taka
SS: S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
SM: ishtar
ORAS: ManofMany
BW: shiloh
DPP: Drud
ADV: Jisoo
GSC: dawnbuster
RBY: Sabelette
Subs: spell, Splash, SANKE CARP, Soucou​

The Free Snowshrews are proof that current gens are overrated, having a strong oldgens core to nullify having the worst SV out of every team in the tournament. They have highlight players of Jisoo and Sabelette, two players who are the clear favourites of their respective pools. Alongside these players are two major standouts in S1nn0hC0nfirm3d, who is off of a 11-1 record in SV PU in SCL and is a decorated NU player, and shiloh has a 20-3 record in the past 4 or 5 tours. GSC and SM have dawnbuster and ishtar respectively, who are both players that are experienced and have proven themselves in these tiers with positive records in their last showings. Drud was ranked lower than he deserves, mostly due to a stacked DPP pool that he will stay competitive with. ManOfMany in ORAS is their most unproven old gen player, but he has had success in ORAS PU and is looking to bring that to NU. Their SV is not offensively bad, but there is no singular standout player that every other team seems to have. skierdude101 is the most fitting for this title, with his recent success and overall teambuilding prowess transforming him into a fierce competitor, but a pressure to carry his SV core may come too early. snaga is a player with high peaks but some inconsistency, making him a scary player in the pool but hard to rank. Dr. PhD. Bj is an SCL player that is relatively new to NU, and Taka has tournament experience but has yet to prove himself in SV. On their bench they have Splash and SANKE CARP as oldgen support, in addition to spell and Soucou which will be their backup plan if they need a new plan for SV. The Snowshrews are already a competitor, but if their SV performs better than expected, they'll be a serious threat.

#4: :rotom-mow: Rag-n-Tag Rotoms :rotom-mow:

SV: zs
SV: Bouff
SV: avarice
SV: feen
SS: Attribute
SM: Meru
ORAS: col49
BW: Aislinn
DPP: fatty
ADV: ima
GSC: Estarossa
RBY: Sirwings
Subs: tier, Links, asa​

It feels absurd to rank a zS + Aawin team 4th, given that the two have been synonymous with 1st for a while. Their star players this time around are zS himself in SV, a consistent threat and tournament winner across any NU tournament, as well as fatty in DPP to stand atop the competitive pool. Meru in SM and ima in ADV are also successful players, consistently appearing in these tournaments with winning records. The rest of their SV has avarice who is off of a good performance in SCL, as well as Bouff and feen which are good pilots that will benefit from Aawin's building support, even if feen is not as experienced in NU. Estarossa is coming in as an underrated veteran for this tournament, being ranked 4th despite having consistent winning records in GSC NU. Aislinn is a great player as well, but they find themselves the underdog in a pool filled with experienced competitors. They have Attribute in SS, col49 in ORAS, and Sirwings in RBY to round out their lineup, and although they are all good and flexible players, they come into these pools less experienced than their competiton. On the bench we have Links as oldgens support, as well as tier and asa to help supplement their SV. The Rotoms have a lot of inexperience, but they could be a couple breakout performances away from another trophy.

#5: :rabsca: Rabiascas :rabsca:

SV: Danny
SV: Phantomistix
SV: Ac1d_13
SV: The Strap
SS: Pokeslice
SM: etern
ORAS: SEA
BW: Bughouse
DPP: Monai
ADV: Stockings
GSC: Medeia
RBY: nicole7735
Subs: BigFatMantis, phoopes, Corthius, Lucario, Sawkasm​

Rabia has teamed up with etern to make one of the worst team names ever, and also to manage a NUCL team together. They have 2 star players that shine above the rest; Danny is the unanimous top threat in SV, largely due to his incredible tournament success throughout the past year and his teambuilding prowess. etern is also the unanimous top threat in his tier SM, with his old man experience putting him well above his competition. They also have nicole7735, one of the most seasoned RBY players in the pool, as well as Stockings with Rabia support to make their ADV a real threat. Pokeslice is a very solid SS pick, having success in the tier while it was current gen and recently having an amazing run in NU Seasonal. Bughouse would usually be among the best players in BW, but finding himself in the hardest pool in the tournament, he'll be pushed to need his best performance more than usual. Being ranked second to last, they have a fair few players that will need to prove themselves in this tournament. Monai has already proven himself at the top level in SPL, but starting in DPP NU against such a tough pool will still be difficult. They also have SuperEpicAmpharos, who is starting in an unfamiliar slot in ORAS but backed by the generous suport of etern, and Medeia who is relatively unproven in their pool of GSC. Finally, they have the rest of their SV pool, which makes their overall SV rank go down despite having the best player in the pool. Phantomistix and Ac1d_13 are community mainstays that are looking to prove themselves with a good starting performance, and The Strap is a competent player that will do well with support, but is an unfamiliar place in current gen NU. They have a relatively large bench, with BigFatMantis and phoopes as oldgen support, and Corthius, Lucario, and Sawkasm as quality active support for their team. The Rabiascas (ugh) will need to punch above their weight to have much of a chance, but they have themselves set up to impress if a couple of their slots surprise their competition.

#6: :arbok: Globogym Purple Cobras :arbok:

SV: Elias PSY
SV: Beraldo
SV: Kiyo
SV: Felines
SS: rom1x38
SM: poh
ORAS: Chaitanya
BW: roxie
DPP: vivalospride
ADV: innovamania
GSC: Oathkeeper
RBY: Suspensse
Subs: plznostep, Seraphz, Shagg51, Shengineer
The Cobras come into this tour with a strong SV core, but their oldgens lets them down comparatively. Starting with their highlight SV core we have Elias PSY, who is off a 5-4 record start in NU SCL this year. Kiyo and Beraldo are incredibly strong NU players that normally feature in oldgens in these tournaments, but are also proven threat in the current generation as well. Their final SV player is an unproven face in Felines, but with the SV support they have between their starters and roxie, they have a chance to stand out. Leading their oldgens is a familiar face of Chaitanya in ORAS, who has done well in the tier in past tournaments, as well as poh in SM and vivalospride in DPP who are comfortable pilots and expected to do well. innovamania is a proven player in ADV overall, and finds himself just below the players with more experience in the pool. However, none of these players are particularly stars, and it goes downhill from there. roxie in BW is unlucky in that they find themselves in undebatably the hardest pool in the tournament, but they will need to perform very well to have a chance against the competition. Oathkeeper is a player that has done well in GSC, but he's also competing against tough competition. Their final two oldgens players are rom1x38, who has played other tiers to moderate success but is relatively unproven in SS, and Suspensse, who doesn't have a lot of RBY experience surrounded by a pool of experienced RBYers. Their bench has another good SV option in plznostep, as well as Seraphz, Shagg51, and Shengineer (first pick) to round out their bench. If their SV doesn't go 4-0 every week, their other gens will have to step up to make sure this team stays competitive.

Overall Power Rankings
1704346106436.png


SV Overall Team Rankings are normalized to be similar to other tiers (1-6).

SV Team Rankings:
#1: Dappled Decidueyes :decidueye: (2.375 average)
#2: Globogym Purple Cobras :arbok: (2.75 average)
#3: Rag-n-Tag Rotoms :rotom-mow: (3 average)
#4: Full Moon Absols :absol: (3.0625 average)
#5: Rabiascas :rabsca: (3.625 average)
#6: Free Snowshrew :sandslash-alola: (3.9375 average)

SV Individual Rankings:
#1: Danny :rabsca: (1 average)
#2: zS :rotom-mow: (2.6 average)
#3: Elias PSY :arbok: (2.8 average)
#4: mncmt :decidueye: (3.2 average)
#5: Thiago Nunes :absol: (4.4 average)
#6: DugZa :decidueye: (6 average)
#7: Floss :decidueye: (6.6 average)
#8: Kiyo :arbok: (7.8 average)
#9: Beraldo :arbok: (8 average)
#10: avarice :rotom-mow: (10 average)
#11: skierdude101 :sandshrew-alola: (10.2 average)
#12: Leru :absol: (11.2 average)
#13: Dr. PhD. Bj :sandshrew-alola: (11.8 average)
#14: Bouff :rotom-mow: (12 average)
#15: Leni :absol: (12.4 average)
#16: snaga :sandshrew-alola: (12.8 average)
#17: OranBerryBlissey10 :absol: (13.4 average)
#18: Phantomistix :rabsca: (15.2 average)
#19: The Strap :rabsca: (15.4 average)
#20: Ac1d_13 :rabsca: (15.8 average)
#21: outbackrabbit :decidueye: (16 average)
#22: feen :rotom-mow: (16.6 average)
#23: Taka :sandshrew-alola: (17.4 average)
#24: Felines :arbok: (19.4 average)
#1: Xiri :absol: (1.2 average)
#2: S1nn0hC0nfirm3d :sandshrew-alola: (2.2 average)
#3: Pokeslice :rabsca: (2.4 average)
#4: Lilo :decidueye: (3.2 average)
#5: Attribute :rotom-mow: (4 average)
#6: rom1x38 :arbok: (5 average)
#1: etern :rabsca: (1 average)
#2: Meru :rotom-mow: (2.2 average)
#3: LpZ :absol: (tied 3.2 average)
#4: ishtar :sandshrew-alola: (tied 3.2 average)
#5: poh :arbok: (tied 3.2 average)
#6: 3d :decidueye: (5 average)
#1: robjr :absol: (1.4 average)
#2: Chaitanya :arbok: (2 average)
#3: quziel :decidueye: (2.4 average)
#4: col49 :rotom-mow: (3 average)
#5: SuperEpicAmpharos :rabsca: (tied 4.6 average)
#6: ManOfMany :sandshrew-alola: (tied 4.6 average)
#1: watashi :decidueye: (1.6 average)
#2: shiloh :sandshrew-alola: (tied 2 average)
#3: Finchinator :absol: (tied 2 average)
#4: Bughouse :rabsca: (3.6 average)
#5: Aislinn :rotom-mow: (4 average)
#6: roxie :arbok: (4.8 average)
#1: fatty :rotom-mow: (tied 1.4 average)
#2: Heysup :decidueye: (tied 1.4 average)
#3: vivalospride :arbok: (3 average)
#4: Monai :rabsca: (3.2 average)
#5: Drud :sandshrew-alola: (4.4 average)
#6: Banbadoro :absol: (4.6 average)
#1: Jisoo :sandshrew-alola: (1.4 average)
#2: ima :rotom-mow: (2 average)
#3: Stockings :rabsca: (2.4 average)
#4: innovamania :arbok: (3.2 average)
#5: gorex :absol: (4.2 average)
#6: Colteor :decidueye: (4.8 average)
#1: Real FV13 :decidueye: (tied 1.8 average)
#2: BeeOrSomething :absol: (tied 1.8 average)
#3: dawnbuster :sandshrew-alola: (2.6 average)
#4: Estarossa :rotom-mow: (2.8 average)
#5: Oathkeeper :arbok: (4 average)
#6: Medeia :rabsca: (5 average)
#1: Sabelette :sandshrew-alola: (1.4 average)
#2: nicole7735 :rabsca: (1.6 average)
#3: Teh :absol: (3 average)
#4: Tree69420 :decidueye: (3.4 average)
#5: Sirwings :rotom-mow: (3.8 average)
#6: Susspense :arbok: (4.8 average)
 

Attachments

  • 1704346061241.png
    1704346061241.png
    48.3 KB · Views: 38
Last edited:
Teams I made and used for NUCL 2024 (click the images for pokepastes :wailord: )

Screenshot_6.png
replay
this is a team i made for gorex. my main goal for this squad was to build around petayaplusle+bello because my offensive bellossom usage was zero prior to this game so i definitely wanted to use it somewhere down the line LOL. the thought of +1 spatk under chlorophyll sounded really hard to deal with, and in general baton pass is just an amazing move to click in this meta rn. not even related to baton passing if you want to just pivot in and out of threats this is easily one of the best ways you can do it. sub liechi golbat because band didn't feel right on this so i doubled down for more substitute pressure. sball > ace can be ran on this as well. also i am a huge fan of sudowoodo lead in general. being able to prevent glalie spikes t1 and pressuring with an eq / rock move is very undervalued. lastly i want to talk about this whiscash set. he can sub on metang for free and start clicking buttons - you may be wondering why hpbug over ghost. i opted for hpbug mainly because it's able to 2hit bellossom after spikes and i'd be hitting the same targets i want to with bug (chimecho) u miss the KO on Haunter but rock slide still 2HKOs so i still see it as a win. the speed hits 201 which creeps most of the big mons (defensive chimecho,roselia,the mirror,metang) and allows more ways to be able to get the sub up.

the game was really close. honestly i thought i was fucked because of how bad the raticate insurance is for this team, but i was bailed out by silk scarf and no crits. it was a very fun game and easily my closest game this season

relevant whiscash calcs:
252+ Atk Whiscash Hidden Power Bug vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Bellossom: 137-162 (46.9 - 55.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after 1 layer of Spikes and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Whiscash Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Wailord: 239-282 (49.6 - 58.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after 1 layer of Spikes and Leftovers recovery
---------------------------
Screenshot_7.png
replay
honestly, this looks like a pretty basic team on paper. the sets are pretty unorthodox tho and i'll explain all of them. this week was up against Jisoo, who I respect a lot as an adv nu player as when I was learning this tier they were the ones killing it in NUPL and providing me tons and tons of ideas with the replays i watched. i even copied a shuckle team which i will explain later too. originally this team had a murkrow over golbat but i just get demolished by hitmonchan if i do that so i decided not to. sleep talk golbat is to make up for missing out on Insomnia and in general, should be able to switch into opposing bello's with no problem. now i really want to go over this Wailord set:

this is a set i've discovered mostly from Bughouse , we had a series and this was used, talked about it at the end but i forgot to save the OG spread so i made my own ;_;. anyways i really liked the idea of sub, fast wailord really lets you have room for this and is a great scouting method to figure out what water / grass they're using on switch-in. speed creeps most everything that you need to and defense eats an eq from def metang under sub. rest is just extra sdef and bulk to spare.

this bello set is meant to be a defensive backbone for any special 'mon in general outside of tork/flareon ofc. i've seen a lot of sets around with moonlight + sleep, but i liked the idea of seed + tect more due to the ability of being able to pivot around 'mons - seed into another pivot like metang, or in general just being able to force out stuff with seed and catching another pokemon with seed sounded like an amazing idea in my head. not only that but protect allows to bait out explosions from wailord, haunter, and potentially even glalie. hpgrass over giga lets you take down a haunter sub if needed, giga does not do that unfort. anyways this is my fav bello set i love it :3

glalie/metang set is pretty standard so i'll talk about my choosing of soft sand over lum and its honestly because i like the rolls way more w/ soft sand. for example you can OHKO hitmonchan after one DD with soft sand and no spikes, otherwise you wouldn't be able to. metang also has some sus rolls you can take advantage of. every time i bring pupitar tho i never even get to send it in but i still think its a threat with many underexplored sets.

this game was.. not really close. honestly my matchup was insane. i almost got goobed by rat the last week so i made sure to have insurance this week, and lo and behold a rat was brought again LOL. not to mention the hydro miss -> explosion allowed me to mask my bello spread and the explosion was surefire after that, so id consider myself lucky there. i still respect Jisoo regardless.

Relevant Pupitar calcs:
+1 252 Atk Soft Sand Pupitar Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hitmonchan: 244-288 (101.2 - 119.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
---------------------------
Screenshot_8.png
replay
well this explanation has a funny story. to be honest i was out of ideas of what to bring this week and decided to switch things up in prep so i told my mates feen and Attribute to pick two 'mons for me out of the viability ranking tier list thread. Feen chose haunter and Attribute chose Hitmonchan. well... i already have two of basically the best mons in the tier LOOL so i rng'd the third mon with a coinflip.

i flipped a coin on stours and I got 1. which basically means, i have to pick the 1st mon on the list (chimecho LOL). i was kinda mad cuz i wanted to use something more heat so i rerolled again but I also realized i'm dumb and i used !pick instead of !dice so that was a 50/50 instead of a dice roll. so i rolled again.


it rolled 1 again
Screenshot_9.png


so uh.. now i have no choice LMAO. we're rolling with hitmon + haunter + chimecho. i decided i needed to rng the 4th mon since these mons were too broken and thank god i got something good but also heat (39)

39th on list was minun and you have no idea how happy i was with minun. i can actually build something off of this.
5th mon needed to be spikes and 6th just needs to be bulky enough to tackle raticate because only haunter for rat was going to make me lose my mind if i fought another rat lol. so 5th = glalie and 6th i added metang because of steel typing + ability to be good on offense.

since i have minun i have to go for either a wish-pass route or a full out sub-pass berry route and just go full offense. the former i tried but oh my god that was way too hard to build with a haunter so i opted for subpass. liechi over salac/petaya because i really wanted to activate metang as much as possible. i truly believed +1 metang vs most of the tier would be a wash for metang and with agility idk how you stop it. i had refresh over ls originally but what the fuck am i clicking refresh on besides stun spore LOL so i optedfor light screen to have the ability to set up vs. special sweepers like :wailord: . the speed after agility creeps rat and i put the rest in hp (looking back at this though i really should have creeped more speed because i got outsped by a :wailord: and it stung pretty bad ingame)

black belt chan because i despise using cb but at the same time i wanted to mask having it. to catch the ghost is such a win in this tier, and the black belt rolls were very promising. it did not prove me wrong both games i brought it.

i opted for an offensive chimecho set here because of how the team is structured but i also wanted a bit of support so i have reflect with lum berry. lum berry so i can somewhat make up for the lack of heal bell and potentially surprise a sableye with it. the screens ingame proved to be very useful.
and glalie doesnt need much explanation, that's just the goat of spiking.

the game was honestly a very fun game. this would be my third time playing Stockings in an adv nu tour and it was a very good one. Stockings brought dual dark + vigoroth which is something i considered for nupl but overall its a very solid 6 and he had some cool options such as feint attack + hpgrass cacturne. my main goal this game was maximize spikes and try to pressure with metang/haunter. minun proved to be useful as it could pivot in and out of sableye and force the switches out into baton pass. i ended up winning vs last mon vigoroth by having the petaya activated and being fortunate with a crit, but i believe Stockings would have had to dodge a good number of para/crit odds to be able to slack to full, and i also have a minun in the back to threaten encore. overall i was really really happy my team worked lmao.
---------------------------
Screenshot_10.png
replay
tbh this isnt my 6 and i completely stole it from Jisoo from like 2 NUPLs ago but week 1 i really just wanted to use a shuckle LOL. usually i like sky uppercut on chan but brick break works here for offense and the team is bulky enough to outlast it.

tbh i think all the sets here arent too out of the ordinary but i can for sure explain the Wailord and Shuckle - this 6 is noticably weak to offensive wailord / back glalie and i didn't want many things to take the boom here so i thought of how :dondozo: is in SV and was like hmm.. what if i tect stalled with wailord and just said fuck sleep talk. i would have the ability to bait out booms from glalie/wailord so i figured it was a decent change, with the addition of roar to phaze under hazard support it should suffice. this shuckle is the final boss of walls and gives you a really decent option against breakers like flareon. encore is always a good move and so backed up with support i really liked the thought of wrap + toxic.

my game was a mix of things that i need to do better but also i got some unfortunate series of events that would eventually lead up to an L. i think the game was going okay until the fire blast crit on shuckle, which kinda owned me LOL but i dont think i was fully out yet until my sableye died. there was one turn with sab vs metang and if it was 0 speed on metang it was a speed tie to either get tox'd or kill, and i ended up being tox'd which forced me to back out and try to heal bell with chimecho.. i definitely got some turns wrong tho. i did not realize my rose was faster than daunt, which is a huge misplay given the leftovers tells you in-game so that is completely my fault and ill just do better next time.

overall though the game was really fun and i had no regrets coming into it. good game!
---------------------------
Screenshot_11.png
replay
i asked my team again what to build LMAO and Bouff gave me 3 to choose and i chose torkoal - feen gave me cacturne but i decided it was IMPOSSIBLE to build with what i had in mind so i decided to rng the last mon (pikachu) and name it feen in honor of my failure... tbh i had a mawile>chimecho but i really didnt like the feel of no flying/levitate mons so i opted for yawn-phasers over bp. it gave me a good deal to work with considering i had torkoal lead. i didnt get to reveal this wailord set at all when i played so i decided to use it again and to also be a sponge for other waters. lastly i needed something for haunter and other berry sweepers so i decided on silk scarf raticate because fastest mon in the tier + shadow ball + potential surprise factor. now taunt is honestly an 'eh' option but i kinda needed it here because of pupitar - i kill something and it sets up in my face otherwise. with taunt i can at least not let it +1 and it actually worked out in my game LOL. glalie best mon.

this game honestly i fucked myself not realizing what kingler set this was on lead, last time i faced kingler it was a cb set but ive also seen surf so i didnt want to take a surf but idt that really exists anymore so its my fault. because i did that it was basically impossible to get up spikes which is a big deal here. i also didnt expect max modest dewgong but its a 33% roll if it is but i died anyway. my fault for even staying in tho. pikachu into minun is also ass LOL but my rat actually got some work done which is nice. honestly i think the game ended up needing to be able to dodge hypnosis to win. my matchup felt pretty bad but i think those were some of my only outs + crits. i think i could have made this team better but honestly i dont have regrets loading it. overall i still had fun cause me and fv built a lot during NUPL and it was very fun to fight a friend. ggs!
---------------------------
coming into this tour i asked shogun brother zS to pick me up and got to team with shogun brother feen as well - it was solid and very fun tour and i got to meet and team with friends again. yes we might have fumbled the bag sometimes but i still enjoyed watching a lot of our games & viewing game discussion, especially that one feen game where we crit everything and i was popping off in the chat LOOOL, yea we could have done better tho and its ok we win and lose as a team.

well, im writing this large ass post about adv nu so that should tell you how much i like this tier - it's a really fun meta and i enjoy building for it a lot. it was just a lot of fun building this time around but if i ever have the motivation to do this again after nupl or something i'll consider it for sure. i still have a ton of unused ideas and things i want to try so thats one of the big reasons why i sign up for this tier lol (started last advpl) so ya idk what else to say, shoutouts to my team fr
 
Teams I made and used for NUCL 2024 (click the images for pokepastes :wailord: )

View attachment 601537
replay
this is a team i made for gorex. my main goal for this squad was to build around petayaplusle+bello because my offensive bellossom usage was zero prior to this game so i definitely wanted to use it somewhere down the line LOL. the thought of +1 spatk under chlorophyll sounded really hard to deal with, and in general baton pass is just an amazing move to click in this meta rn. not even related to baton passing if you want to just pivot in and out of threats this is easily one of the best ways you can do it. sub liechi golbat because band didn't feel right on this so i doubled down for more substitute pressure. sball > ace can be ran on this as well. also i am a huge fan of sudowoodo lead in general. being able to prevent glalie spikes t1 and pressuring with an eq / rock move is very undervalued. lastly i want to talk about this whiscash set. he can sub on metang for free and start clicking buttons - you may be wondering why hpbug over ghost. i opted for hpbug mainly because it's able to 2hit bellossom after spikes and i'd be hitting the same targets i want to with bug (chimecho) u miss the KO on Haunter but rock slide still 2HKOs so i still see it as a win. the speed hits 201 which creeps most of the big mons (defensive chimecho,roselia,the mirror,metang) and allows more ways to be able to get the sub up.

the game was really close. honestly i thought i was fucked because of how bad the raticate insurance is for this team, but i was bailed out by silk scarf and no crits. it was a very fun game and easily my closest game this season

relevant whiscash calcs:
252+ Atk Whiscash Hidden Power Bug vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Bellossom: 137-162 (46.9 - 55.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after 1 layer of Spikes and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Whiscash Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Wailord: 239-282 (49.6 - 58.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after 1 layer of Spikes and Leftovers recovery
---------------------------
View attachment 601536
replay
honestly, this looks like a pretty basic team on paper. the sets are pretty unorthodox tho and i'll explain all of them. this week was up against Jisoo, who I respect a lot as an adv nu player as when I was learning this tier they were the ones killing it in NUPL and providing me tons and tons of ideas with the replays i watched. i even copied a shuckle team which i will explain later too. originally this team had a murkrow over golbat but i just get demolished by hitmonchan if i do that so i decided not to. sleep talk golbat is to make up for missing out on Insomnia and in general, should be able to switch into opposing bello's with no problem. now i really want to go over this Wailord set:

this is a set i've discovered mostly from Bughouse , we had a series and this was used, talked about it at the end but i forgot to save the OG spread so i made my own ;_;. anyways i really liked the idea of sub, fast wailord really lets you have room for this and is a great scouting method to figure out what water / grass they're using on switch-in. speed creeps most everything that you need to and defense eats an eq from def metang under sub. rest is just extra sdef and bulk to spare.

this bello set is meant to be a defensive backbone for any special 'mon in general outside of tork/flareon ofc. i've seen a lot of sets around with moonlight + sleep, but i liked the idea of seed + tect more due to the ability of being able to pivot around 'mons - seed into another pivot like metang, or in general just being able to force out stuff with seed and catching another pokemon with seed sounded like an amazing idea in my head. not only that but protect allows to bait out explosions from wailord, haunter, and potentially even glalie. hpgrass over giga lets you take down a haunter sub if needed, giga does not do that unfort. anyways this is my fav bello set i love it :3

glalie/metang set is pretty standard so i'll talk about my choosing of soft sand over lum and its honestly because i like the rolls way more w/ soft sand. for example you can OHKO hitmonchan after one DD with soft sand and no spikes, otherwise you wouldn't be able to. metang also has some sus rolls you can take advantage of. every time i bring pupitar tho i never even get to send it in but i still think its a threat with many underexplored sets.

this game was.. not really close. honestly my matchup was insane. i almost got goobed by rat the last week so i made sure to have insurance this week, and lo and behold a rat was brought again LOL. not to mention the hydro miss -> explosion allowed me to mask my bello spread and the explosion was surefire after that, so id consider myself lucky there. i still respect Jisoo regardless.

Relevant Pupitar calcs:
+1 252 Atk Soft Sand Pupitar Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hitmonchan: 244-288 (101.2 - 119.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
---------------------------
View attachment 601535
replay
well this explanation has a funny story. to be honest i was out of ideas of what to bring this week and decided to switch things up in prep so i told my mates feen and Attribute to pick two 'mons for me out of the viability ranking tier list thread. Feen chose haunter and Attribute chose Hitmonchan. well... i already have two of basically the best mons in the tier LOOL so i rng'd the third mon with a coinflip.

i flipped a coin on stours and I got 1. which basically means, i have to pick the 1st mon on the list (chimecho LOL). i was kinda mad cuz i wanted to use something more heat so i rerolled again but I also realized i'm dumb and i used !pick instead of !dice so that was a 50/50 instead of a dice roll. so i rolled again.


it rolled 1 again
View attachment 601538

so uh.. now i have no choice LMAO. we're rolling with hitmon + haunter + chimecho. i decided i needed to rng the 4th mon since these mons were too broken and thank god i got something good but also heat (39)

39th on list was minun and you have no idea how happy i was with minun. i can actually build something off of this.
5th mon needed to be spikes and 6th just needs to be bulky enough to tackle raticate because only haunter for rat was going to make me lose my mind if i fought another rat lol. so 5th = glalie and 6th i added metang because of steel typing + ability to be good on offense.

since i have minun i have to go for either a wish-pass route or a full out sub-pass berry route and just go full offense. the former i tried but oh my god that was way too hard to build with a haunter so i opted for subpass. liechi over salac/petaya because i really wanted to activate metang as much as possible. i truly believed +1 metang vs most of the tier would be a wash for metang and with agility idk how you stop it. i had refresh over ls originally but what the fuck am i clicking refresh on besides stun spore LOL so i optedfor light screen to have the ability to set up vs. special sweepers like :wailord: . the speed after agility creeps rat and i put the rest in hp (looking back at this though i really should have creeped more speed because i got outsped by a :wailord: and it stung pretty bad ingame)

black belt chan because i despise using cb but at the same time i wanted to mask having it. to catch the ghost is such a win in this tier, and the black belt rolls were very promising. it did not prove me wrong both games i brought it.

i opted for an offensive chimecho set here because of how the team is structured but i also wanted a bit of support so i have reflect with lum berry. lum berry so i can somewhat make up for the lack of heal bell and potentially surprise a sableye with it. the screens ingame proved to be very useful.
and glalie doesnt need much explanation, that's just the goat of spiking.

the game was honestly a very fun game. this would be my third time playing Stockings in an adv nu tour and it was a very good one. Stockings brought dual dark + vigoroth which is something i considered for nupl but overall its a very solid 6 and he had some cool options such as feint attack + hpgrass cacturne. my main goal this game was maximize spikes and try to pressure with metang/haunter. minun proved to be useful as it could pivot in and out of sableye and force the switches out into baton pass. i ended up winning vs last mon vigoroth by having the petaya activated and being fortunate with a crit, but i believe Stockings would have had to dodge a good number of para/crit odds to be able to slack to full, and i also have a minun in the back to threaten encore. overall i was really really happy my team worked lmao.
---------------------------
View attachment 601534
replay
tbh this isnt my 6 and i completely stole it from Jisoo from like 2 NUPLs ago but week 1 i really just wanted to use a shuckle LOL. usually i like sky uppercut on chan but brick break works here for offense and the team is bulky enough to outlast it.

tbh i think all the sets here arent too out of the ordinary but i can for sure explain the Wailord and Shuckle - this 6 is noticably weak to offensive wailord / back glalie and i didn't want many things to take the boom here so i thought of how :dondozo: is in SV and was like hmm.. what if i tect stalled with wailord and just said fuck sleep talk. i would have the ability to bait out booms from glalie/wailord so i figured it was a decent change, with the addition of roar to phaze under hazard support it should suffice. this shuckle is the final boss of walls and gives you a really decent option against breakers like flareon. encore is always a good move and so backed up with support i really liked the thought of wrap + toxic.

my game was a mix of things that i need to do better but also i got some unfortunate series of events that would eventually lead up to an L. i think the game was going okay until the fire blast crit on shuckle, which kinda owned me LOL but i dont think i was fully out yet until my sableye died. there was one turn with sab vs metang and if it was 0 speed on metang it was a speed tie to either get tox'd or kill, and i ended up being tox'd which forced me to back out and try to heal bell with chimecho.. i definitely got some turns wrong tho. i did not realize my rose was faster than daunt, which is a huge misplay given the leftovers tells you in-game so that is completely my fault and ill just do better next time.

overall though the game was really fun and i had no regrets coming into it. good game!
---------------------------
View attachment 601533
replay
i asked my team again what to build LMAO and Bouff gave me 3 to choose and i chose torkoal - feen gave me cacturne but i decided it was IMPOSSIBLE to build with what i had in mind so i decided to rng the last mon (pikachu) and name it feen in honor of my failure... tbh i had a mawile>chimecho but i really didnt like the feel of no flying/levitate mons so i opted for yawn-phasers over bp. it gave me a good deal to work with considering i had torkoal lead. i didnt get to reveal this wailord set at all when i played so i decided to use it again and to also be a sponge for other waters. lastly i needed something for haunter and other berry sweepers so i decided on silk scarf raticate because fastest mon in the tier + shadow ball + potential surprise factor. now taunt is honestly an 'eh' option but i kinda needed it here because of pupitar - i kill something and it sets up in my face otherwise. with taunt i can at least not let it +1 and it actually worked out in my game LOL. glalie best mon.

this game honestly i fucked myself not realizing what kingler set this was on lead, last time i faced kingler it was a cb set but ive also seen surf so i didnt want to take a surf but idt that really exists anymore so its my fault. because i did that it was basically impossible to get up spikes which is a big deal here. i also didnt expect max modest dewgong but its a 33% roll if it is but i died anyway. my fault for even staying in tho. pikachu into minun is also ass LOL but my rat actually got some work done which is nice. honestly i think the game ended up needing to be able to dodge hypnosis to win. my matchup felt pretty bad but i think those were some of my only outs + crits. i think i could have made this team better but honestly i dont have regrets loading it. overall i still had fun cause me and fv built a lot during NUPL and it was very fun to fight a friend. ggs!
---------------------------
coming into this tour i asked shogun brother zS to pick me up and got to team with shogun brother feen as well - it was solid and very fun tour and i got to meet and team with friends again. yes we might have fumbled the bag sometimes but i still enjoyed watching a lot of our games & viewing game discussion, especially that one feen game where we crit everything and i was popping off in the chat LOOOL, yea we could have done better tho and its ok we win and lose as a team.

well, im writing this large ass post about adv nu so that should tell you how much i like this tier - it's a really fun meta and i enjoy building for it a lot. it was just a lot of fun building this time around but if i ever have the motivation to do this again after nupl or something i'll consider it for sure. i still have a ton of unused ideas and things i want to try so thats one of the big reasons why i sign up for this tier lol (started last advpl) so ya idk what else to say, shoutouts to my team fr
Ggs ima it's clear that you're the top dog in this tier now both in play and builds, if only M Dragon played more and I could watch y'all play each other... :')
Glad you liked the Shuckle team !
 
Back
Top