Tournament OLT VII Discussion Thread

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Introduction

It's that time of year again! Over the next couple of weeks, players will play on the OU ladder to qualify for the OLT playoffs, and ultimately compete for their very own trophy. This thread will serve as a place to share teams, trends, etc. An overview will be written after every cycle that will detail qualifiers, interesting developments, and noteworthy teams.

Archive
 
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Luthier

Don’t get mad, get even.
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Two-Time Past SCL Champion
yahallo! After this being my second OU tour ever that I've really tried to put work into, I thought I might just lay myself out there and try to publicize what I used more than I already have. First and foremost, I have to get out the obligatory self-plug. I recorded as many videos of games as I could to show off what exactly I was thinking when I was raging and tilting playing. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDXG1gCCUm1nUl1fxq-6pRBrMyEVXwEKB.
Check out the playlist :3.

Anyways that all being said, I just wanted to show what exactly I was using through the cycle and at what ranges I was using them.

to 1500
Screen Shot 2020-08-13 at 9.16.10 PM.png
[made by 100p]

There's not really much to say about this team; it's super solid and doesn't have too many poor matchups. Obviously, without any hazard control, checking most of the spike stack skarm teams becomes a pretty large issue, but you can mostly play your way out of those annoying matchups.

1500-1900
Screen Shot 2020-08-13 at 9.23.49 PM.png
[made by 100p]

So this team got passed around a hell of a lot near the end of the cycle. Jyt primarily used it and had an absurdly high GXE all the way up to 2100. The reason I shifted into this team is because I started to see a lot more of the stall oriented builds around this area and that honestly put me into a position where I needed an omnipotent stall breaker that still created progress in normal balance games. Craig passed me this team and honestly with the combination of switcheroo and wishport clef, overloading the flying-steel birds becomes absurdly easy - especially when you can just fish for flinches with iron head without having to fear taking more too much from a burnt body press. This all being said, this team is stupidly weak to kyurem. I don't have an ice resist and I had to force myself to make the clef bold and physdef because I lost to the BoomerLucha core that started to run rampant around this ELO. It also gets marginally smashed by spike stack again. Obviously the only form of hazard control is spin drill. So if your opponent is carrying helmet skarm or some sort spin blocker through ghosts, you get put into a really weird position. Other than that, I def had a ton of success with this team.

1900+
Screen Shot 2020-08-13 at 9.30.32 PM.png
[made by punny]
This team is pretty interesting and I did an extensive amount of content on this team specifically because I really started recording around this ELO anyways. The Xatu is super powerful because it prevents any form of spike stacking and hazard stacking in general barring mold breaker rocks drill and the popular meteor beam necrozma. This became a prime team to use on ladder once everyone just started using HO. Ditto was one of the best mons to use in high ladder because of its insane mu vs HO. It also brutally smashes rain and anything that isn't really crawdaunt

I wasn't given permission to post the actual sets for any of the teams by the people that made them. However, there was a team on ladder that people started to spam absurdly near the end - https://pokepast.es/f2d2147bb4a8f65a
Screen Shot 2020-08-13 at 9.38.46 PM.png
[made by kanto]
This team was made by updated kanto and the sets speak of themselves. I did see some users changing quick attack on scizor to roost and the photon geyser to psyshock to deal with blissey. But other than that, the sets on this team across different users remained the same. Basically everything breaks for everything else and then as the classic out, you have the scarf togekiss to mess around and get lucky if need be. The team gets smashed by sun, but other than that, there aren't too many poor matchups.

I don't want to tag other users, but I heavily suggest to those who tried to qualify this cycle spread some information to the rest of the community with how their respective runs went. Anyways thanks for the opportunity w this tour and good luck to everyone!
 

TPP

is a Tournament Directoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Top Tutor Alumnusis a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Past SPL Championis a Past WCoP Champion
Head TD
Cycle 1 Qualifiers


Rank #1 | ELO: 2201 | GXE: 84.4% | Record: 204-116
Rank #2 | ELO: 2201 | GXE: 86.1% | Record: 132-63
Rank #3 | ELO: 2196 | GXE: 86.1% | Record: 115-43
Rank #4 | ELO: 2196 | GXE: 86.8% | Record: 113-43
Rank #5 | ELO: 2194 | GXE: 83.6% | Record: (reset)
Rank #6 | ELO: 2192 | GXE: 83.9% | Record: (reset)
Rank #7 | ELO: 2190 | GXE: 85.3% | Record: (reset)
Rank #8 | ELO: 2164 | GXE: 85.8% | Record: 305-178​
 
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OLT is very interesting; every cycle there are various trends. Because of the nature of the tournament, they oftentimes quickly come and go. Here is an overview of some interesting trends throughout the first cycle.

- Kyurem saw some pretty unique changes throughout this cycle of OLT. It was a prominent force throughout the entirety of it, but shifted sets pretty quickly. In the beginning of this cycle, we saw a big rise in double Ice STAB Kyurem, which is capable of picking apart many balance and stall teams that rely on Blissey to blanket check special attackers. Thanks to the combination of Substitute, Roost, and Pressure, it is able to PP stall Blissey and Icicle Spear puts a lot of pressure on it too. This set saw a lot of usage, but towards the end, we saw a lot of people shifting back towards Choice Specs Kyurem, as it can more easily click buttons against these balance teams, leading towards far shorter games, while still being able to overwhelm Blissey, provided it hits twice with Focus Blast.
- Spikes were a very prominent part of this cycle, supporting many potential winconditions such as Volcarona, Calm Mind Clefable, and Zeraora. With multiple layers of Spikes on the field, these Pokemon can overwhelm what are otherwise typical checks such as Toxapex, Ferrothorn, and Hippowdon with ease. Ferrothorn and Skarmory have been the main Spikes setters since the DLCs drop and not much has changed with regards to that; they're still most often used because of their significant defensive utility in the metagame.
- In order to counteract the aforementioned high usage of Spikes, we also saw a decent amount of Xatu, a Pokemon that has been rather obscure throughout previous iterations of the metagame. Xatu is excellent at keeping entry hazards off its side of the field; there is really only three Stealth Rock setters that can consistently set entry hazards against Xatu, those being Mold Breaker Excadrill, Rhyperior, and Necrozma. Other than that, Xatu has a very good time against Pokemon such as Ferrothorn, Skarmory, and Hippowdon.
- Speaking of, Necrozma saw a decent amount of usage throughout this cycle. It saw a notable amount of usage on hyper offensive teams, as there aren't a lot of entry hazard removers that can prevent Necrozma from setting up Stealth Rock. With Meteor Beam, Mandibuzz is quickly overwhelmed, and other Pokemon like Corviknight and Excadrill take far too much from a boosted Heat Wave too.
- Prior to OLT, Scizor has been on the downlow; it never saw a lot of usage, but was always kind of there. Now with this cycle of OLT, it saw a lot of usage, being used on a couple of the most prominent hyper offensive teams on the upper echelon of ladder. Scizor is a pretty interesting Pokemon for these teams, being able to take care of Kyurem and Choice Band Rillaboom pretty well, while also getting many opportunities to switch into play against Pokemon like Clefable and Reuniclus. Beyond that, the extra priority Scizor provides with Bullet Punch is very useful against faster wallbreakers such as Alakazam and Hydreigon which are typically a pain for hyper offensive teams to deal with.
- Seeing Ditto here should be no surprise to anyone whos actively paid attention to OLT over the past couple years. It's always the same story; a certain hyper offensive team starts to see a lot of usage, and Ditto rises in usage to counteract that. Beyond that, Ditto is very useful against the super fat balance and semi stall teams with Regenerator Pokemon like Toxapex, oftentimes even forcing a tie. I don't think there's much more that needs to be said, you know what Ditto does.

Here is a collection of various teams that were used by qualifiers and otherwise prominent contenders throughout the first cycle of OLT:




*






* implies Urshifu-R
 
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3D87F6CF-3D93-461A-ABDB-500A069AF859.jpeg

I used a lot of teams but these two were the ones that really help me to qualify (shoutouts kanto and storm zone). the meta is a bit crazy right now and still has a lot to improve, and this is why in the ladder everyone was using Ho or stall. balance is very difficult to play with because everyone was using ho, that's why I don't recommend balance for now.

GL to everybody trying to make it
 


Needed something for stall and got the idea of Goon from the team Luthier posted and wanted to make my own. Goon looked good because it cannot be Ditto'd and stays around long enough with Clef's help. Also does well against teams using Clef + Pex + Mandi cores for Urshifu. The stall match up can be tough if you do not time the Switcheroo vs Corv right though. So I used SD Rhyp with Heat Crash + Protect as a partner to pressure it more. Heat Crash is also sick because +2 one shots Skarm/Amoong. Protect stops Ditto from revenging you or forcing awkward 50/50s. This team does not have SR, but I never felt like I needed it in the match ups that I wanted to face with this build. I stopped using this team because HO and rain became too common and my match up is not too great.



Carried me to 2000+ and is something that I had in my builder before all of the bans. Toxtricity was just smashing so many of the teams that I was playing, doing well vs stall and offense. It also punches holes into things like Pult and Bliss to help my Volc sweep. NP + Heal Bell Toge was also clutch to help with stall even more and be annoying in general.

I dunno if anyone else is thinking the same thing, but I feel like I really have to go out of my way to break the fatter teams that are so common right now. Maybe I am just not the best builder or player, but to me it feels hard to make progress against these builds with what is currently available. It always feels like they have so much room to play around your threats (hopefully you have the right ones to match up well against them). The game often turns into a switching/PP war in the process. I am not sure what the problem is, but a combo of pieces like Pex/Regen, Boots, and Ditto to revenge your threats makes things more complicated than people may think in the long term when you are playing or building teams. I know that the meta is changing a lot and maybe people have not adapted fully yet, but I think that this is a discussion worth having for now.
 
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TPP

is a Tournament Directoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Top Tutor Alumnusis a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Past SPL Championis a Past WCoP Champion
Head TD
Cycle 2 Qualifiers


Rank #1 | ELO: 2142 | GXE: 89.9% | Record: 94-24
Rank #2 | ELO: 2135 | GXE: 86.8% | Record: [reset]
Rank #3 | ELO: 2129 | GXE: 83.5% | Record: [reset]
Rank #4 | ELO: 2115 | GXE: 81.8% | Record: 113-59
Rank #5 | ELO: 2109 | GXE: 83.7% | Record: 85-43
Rank #6 | ELO: 2107 | GXE: 82.5% | Record: (reset)
Rank #7 | ELO: 2107 | GXE: 83.6% | Record: (reset)
Rank #8 | ELO: 2106 | GXE: 84.4% | Record: (reset)​
 

Finchinator

-OUTL
is a Tournament Directoris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past WCoP Championis the defending OU Circuit Championis a Two-Time Former Old Generation Tournament Circuit Champion
OU Leader
Another cycle in the books. Congratulations to those who qualified! Here are some Pokemon that saw an uptick in usage this cycle and explanations as to why:
  • :Aegislash: - Aegislash is finally back. While it is not as good as it once was, Choice Specs and Spell Tag mixed Aegislash sets do well against common defensive cores. Shadow Ball + Flash Cannon + Close Combat + Shadow Sneak allows you to hit a vast majority of opposing Pokemon and Shadow Ball is very strong, spammable STAB that is able to punish Pokemon like Toxapex and Corviknight, which commonly run physically defensive sets that are 2HKOd. In addition, the Steel/Ghost typing and great natural bulk go a long way towards assuring Aegislash's viability moving forward.
  • :Urshifu: (Rapid Strike) - Urshifu's Single Strike form has been one of the best OU Pokemon from day 1, but it is now Rapid Strike's time to shine. It was used repeatedly on a Rain team built by ox the fox and it was also used on the Sand team Empo used for a good portion of his first place run this cycle. Each time it was used with a Choice Band and paired with Pokemon that abused the presence of Toxapex and Amoonguss. On the Rain team, there was a Kyurem. On the Sand team, there was a Calm Mind + Thunderbolt Clefable and a Spikes Skarmory. Overall, it is support reliant and only functions on a limited number of structures, but Urshifu Rapid Strike can thrive in the OU metagame!
  • :Volcarona: - Volcarona has been a great Pokemon ever since it was released, but recently the versatility of Volcarona sets has been particularly impressive. This made it one of the better options for hyper offensive teams, where it saw consistent usage. Volcarona always runs Quiver Dance and a Fire attack such as Fire Blast, Fiery Dance, or Flamethrower, but it can also run: Roost + Psychic, Giga Drain + Psychic, Roost + Safeguard, Psychic + Bug Buzz, Psychic + Substitute, and potentially other combinations as well. These all have different checks and counters. For example, Toxic Blissey may cover most sets, but it will be useless against Safeguard variants. On the contrary, Toxapex will do well against the Safeguard variants, but if Volcarona runs Psychic, then it could be a problem. This logic applies to other checks and counters, too, such as Clear Smog Gastrodon struggling with Giga Drain variants of Volcarona. Overall, Volcarona's underspoken versatility goes a long way towards making it a common option on OLT team structures.
  • :Magnezone: - Magnezone's coming out party finally happened! After many nights in private discord chats spent theorizing about how it will impact the metagame, an initial lack of Magnezone usage surprised plenty of people, including myself. However, with Corviknight and Skarmory surging during the first cycle, it was finally the magnet's time to shine. Specs Analytic Magnezone was already a potent special attacker, punishing teams lacking Ground immunities with forced massive chip upon entry and dishing out deadly blows to balance teams. However, now people are pairing Magnet Pull variants with offensive options like Rillaboom, which makes for a very threatening combination. Overall, Magnezone is a great offensive presence and can offer a lot of utility as a trapper, too. It takes advantage of recent metagame trends nicely.
  • :Hatterene: - The rogue hat is finally back as a relevant OU Pokemon. After months of falling off, Hatterene's Calm Mind + 3 attacks set came back as a very annoying option. Draining Kiss makes it so that Hatterene virtually never dies unless you have a strong, boosted attack and Mystical Fire offers splendid coverage for Steel types like Excadrill and Corviknight. Hatterene is able to take advantage of common hazard setters and utility Pokemon like Ferrothorn, Skarmory, Toxapex, and Kommo-O to prevent them from making progress while also using them as set-up fodder to attempt to sweep opposing teams. Hatterene is able to sweep stall teams lacking Haze Quagsire, Jirachi, or one of another small handful of outs against it, too, which goes a long way towards achieving ladder success.
  • :Tyranitar: - Guess who's back? Back again...Tar's back, tell a friend! Leftovers Stealth Rock Tyranitar with Rock Blast, a coverage move, and a utility move took the ladder by (a sandy) storm later this cycle. Multiple qualifiers used it and for good reason: amazing defensive utility against common metagame threats and archetypes. Opposing weather teams, especially Sun, virtually fold to a well-played Tyranitar removing a necessary condition for them to function consistently. Togekiss, Volcarona -- which seldom uses Bug Buzz, and even Kyurem struggle to break Tyranitar while taking super effective damage from Rock Blast, too, and they are all quite common now. Finally, switching in to a versatile Pokemon like Tyranitar can be challenging for many teams, which allows for it to make progress and help support teammates.
  • :Primarina: - Primarina's Substitute + Calm Mind set was very successful later in the pre-DLC metagame, but the introduction of Blissey, Chansey, Amoonguss, and more Pokemon gave it some trouble. However, with some patience, Primarina enthusiasts found themselves pleasantly surprised over the last few days as it is now surging in usage. Many teams struggle to handle this Pokemon and it shows as Primarina gets in safely and oftentimes does not come out, clean sweeping unprepared opposing teams. Coverage that only struggles to touch Toxapex, which does not appreciate burns and boosted attacks causing it to waste all of its Recover PP, and a great defensive typing to help with Urshifu and Volcarona goes a long way, too.
Some teams we saw this cycle that qualifiers used on the upper ladder:
  • :Hippowdon: :Excadrill: :Clefable: :Skarmory: :Toxapex: :Urshifu: (Rapid Strike)
  • :Tyranitar: :Excadrill: :Hatterene: :Corviknight: :Toxapex: :Gengar:
  • :Hippowdon: :Ferrothorn: :Clefable: :Xatu: :Blissey: :Ditto:
  • :Blissey: :Jirachi: :Clefable: :Corviknight: :Toxapex: :Ditto:
  • :Kommo-O: :Aegislash: :Clefable: :Mantine: :Kyurem: :Zeraora:
  • :Blissey: :Excadrill: :Clefable: :Skarmory: :Toxapex: :Zeraora:
  • :Clefable: :Bisharp: :Primarina: :Skarmory: :Rotom-Heat: :Zeraora:
  • :Tyranitar: :Excadrill: :Hatterene: :Corviknight: :Amoonguss: :Togekiss:
  • :Pelipper: :Ferrothorn: :Clefable: :Kingdra: :Kyurem: :Urshifu: (Rapid Strike)
  • :Tyranitar: :Ferrothorn: :Clefable: :Mandibuzz: :Excadrill: :Conkeldurr:
  • :Mew: :Alakazam: :Toxtricity: :Rillaboom: :Kommo-O: :Dragapult:
  • :Necrozma: :Scizor: :Togekiss: :Rillaboom: :Crawdaunt: :Zeraora:
  • :Tyranitar: :Excadrill: :Clefable: :Chandelure: :Amoonguss: :Conkeldurr:
  • :Blissey: :Cobalion: :Clefable: :Corviknight: :Tangrowth: :Dragapult:
  • :Blissey: :Jirachi: :Tangrowth: :Mandibuzz: :Toxapex: :Dragapult:
  • :Blissey: :Excadrill: :Rillaboom: :Mandibuzz: :Hawlucha: :Dragapult:
  • :Tyranitar: :Quagsire: :Clefable: :Volcarona: :Tangrowth: :Dragapult:
  • :Blissey: :Skarmory: :Clefable: :Rotom-Heat: :Gastrodon: :Ditto:
  • :Rillaboom: :Excadrill: :Primarina: :Volcarona: :Toxtricity: :Urshifu: (Single Strike)
  • :Seismitoad: :Skarmory: :Clefable: :Togekiss: :Bisharp: :Dragapult:
  • :Rhyperior: :Aegislash: :Togekiss: :Tangrowth: :Toxapex: :Zeraora:
  • :Kommo-O: :Bisharp: :Azumarill: :Hydreigon::Mimikyu: :Dragapult:
  • :Chansey: :Corviknight: :Clefable: :Rotom-Heat: :Toxapex: :Ditto:
  • :Hippowdon: :Ferrothorn: :Clefable: :Mandibuzz: :Toxapex: :Excadrill:
  • :Ribombee: :Kommo-O: :Mimikyu: :Rillaboom: :Toxtricity: :Urshifu: (Rapid Strike)
  • :Blissey: :Magnezone: :Clefable: :Corviknight: :Amoonguss: :Tangrowth:
Be sure to leave your thoughts, too!
 

Finchinator

-OUTL
is a Tournament Directoris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past WCoP Championis the defending OU Circuit Championis a Two-Time Former Old Generation Tournament Circuit Champion
OU Leader
Lol qualifying was easy thanks to the low asf cutoff. How does the first cycle 2 seed have a lower elo to qualify than the last seed for cycle 1 lol. Just spam ho and you are good. It beats most low iq individuals that use non stall teams and it smashes stall stick bundles easily.
To clarify, when I said leave your thoughts in my prior post, I did not mean be condescending to the playerbase and attack people or their teams. Let’s stay respectful in this thread please.
 
I did usage stats for the teams Finch posted "for fun".

Look:
Code:
Pokemon     | Uses  |
------------+-------+
Clefable    | 16/26 |
Excadrill   | 9/26  |
Blissey     | 8/26  |
Dragapult   | 7/26  |
Toxapex     | 7/26  |
Corviknight | 6/26  |
Rillaboom   | 5/26  |
Skarmory    | 5/26  |
Tangrowth   | 5/26  |
Tyranitar   | 5/26  |
Zeraora     | 5/26  |
Ditto       | 4/26  |
Ferrothorn  | 4/26  |
Kommo-o     | 4/26  |
Mandibuzz   | 4/26  |
Togekiss    | 4/26  |
Amoonguss   | 3/26  |
Bisharp     | 3/26  |
Hippowdon   | 3/26  |
Rotom-H     | 3/26  |
Toxtricity  | 3/26  |
Urshifu-RS  | 3/26  |
Aegislash   | 2/26  |
Conkeldurr  | 2/26  |
Hatterene   | 2/26  |
Jirachi     | 2/26  |
Kyurem      | 2/26  |
Mimikyu     | 2/26  |
Primarina   | 2/26  |
Volcarona   | 2/26  |
Alakazam    | 1/26  |
Azumarill   | 1/26  |
Chandelure  | 1/26  |
Chansey     | 1/26  |
Cobalion    | 1/26  |
Crawdaunt   | 1/26  |
Gastrodon   | 1/26  |
Gengar      | 1/26  |
Hawlucha    | 1/26  |
Hydreigon   | 1/26  |
Kingdra     | 1/26  |
Magnezone   | 1/26  |
Mantine     | 1/26  |
Mew         | 1/26  |
Necrozma    | 1/26  |
Pelipper    | 1/26  |
Quagsire    | 1/26  |
Rhyperior   | 1/26  |
Ribombee    | 1/26  |
Scizor      | 1/26  |
Seismitoad  | 1/26  |
Urshifu-SS  | 1/26  |
Xatu        | 1/26  |

Clefable usage is interesting (ofc sample size is too small to draw any meaningful conclusions).

And finally, here's a usage based team for the memes:

:clefable::excadrill::blissey::dragapult::toxapex::corviknight:

(it actually looks like a real team lol)
 

John W

Banned deucer.
Hey everybody, I hope the people who qualified this cycle share the teams that they used along with a description, even if its just a brief one. I want to say that even though I did not qualify in cycle 1, I definitely had a better experience playing that cycle compared to this one because most teams I played just felt bland and boring to me when I was playing games in this cycle. Maybe that could be attributed to putting so much energy into cycle 1 when it came to building and trying to figure out what will give me the best chance to succeed. The hype was also down for this cycle and it really showed with the lack of creativity in teams since some people just tried to reuse cycle 1 teams (myself included). This lack of creativity could be a product of the mandatory public games which I don't like at all because it makes sniping a legit strategy while making any team get stolen by other contenders. As someone who has been building in this tier frequently, it becomes annoying to keep building for the OLT Ladder knowing that people will just steal the teams if the teams have any success. Enough of my complaining though, lets get into talking about some teams.

(1000-1900)
bc05b23f21a0af9ea6c7f3b94030b0a6.png


I basically just used some teams from cycle 1 to climb the early part of the ladder since I wanted to take things slow. I like using different teams because it makes the game more fun and refreshing especially when the low ladder can be annoying. Not much worth explaining about these teams itself because most of these teams are not that reliable in the higher parts of the ladder especially with the amount of HO being spammed by other OLT players. I won't be leaving pokepastes for the teams above but if you really wanna try one out then feel free to recreate it.

(1900 - 2135)
7cdcdb52e52ef31e4d908077c3f445d1.png

Gengar version
Comfey version

First, I want to give a shoutout to Sacri for inspiring me to recreate this team structure as it made my high ladder run very stress free. Although I didn't actually use the comfey version on my OLT account, I think its pretty good and more optimal than the gengar one since it gives you a way to revenge kill setup sweepers on HO like azumarill, hawlucha, urshifu, and rillaboom. Surprisingly Comfey was a pretty good win condition in many other matchups as well and in some cases you could just lead with comfey and sweep like vs the specs kyurem rain that people were using. I really wanted to use Tyranitar since I thought it had pretty good matchups vs HO by taking on the popular meteor beam necrozma, qd volcarona, and scarf togekiss. Usually when using sand, it is known that spikes can be an issue coz Excadrill can't really spin reliably vs Helmet Skarmory, but Hatterene + Defog Corviknight completely flip the matchup and make it very easy to deal with the hazards because you have rapid spin Exca with defog Corviknight and Magic Bounce Hatt to prevent the spikes and other hazards from even going up. The Amoonguss was needed since it helped beat Zeraora along with being the most important mon in longer games. The last slot needed to be something that could break stall as well as being good vs HO, initially I just wanted to get a great matchup vs stall so the sub np gengar was a no brainer because unless the opponent never lets toxapex get status'd or the opponent has teleport blissey with infiltrator dragapult then gengar will do a lot of work vs stall.

I don't want to include the ev spreads since I make my own for some mons and if I am giving the imports away then you guys can just make whatever spreads you want. Anyways good luck to everybody competing in cycle 3 + 4 and I hope you guys enjoy the ladder experience while using some cool new teams!
 
TEAMS OLT!.png

Let's have an overview of my teams

Hi everyone, as people are sharing their teams I wanted to share the teams I used during this cycle as well! (I used the empo LO Spam and The ABR Kyurem Stall in the low Ladder, then I used ''The Fun Path and the Stall below (it has block + taunt + rest mandibuzz don't ask me why) it's for medium ladder as well both toxic clef and np Slowking stalls and then I used my ribombee webs team (which has Urshifu-Rapid-Strike), my ''2000'' team which honestly it's pretty Good (you just have to play well against SpecsKyurem which is an actual threat to the team) and then the bisharp spikes, I like that team a lot cause a lot of times volcarona tried to set up a Quiver Dance in front of my seismitoad but I hit them with rock slide, then the trick room team which I used like 4 times and last but not least that team storm zone passed me, it's just really Good, I saw other people spamming it as well beacuse it's just amazing and after finally, after I saw storm zone's team I decided to make my own with primarina (with different spreads and psychic over draining Kiss which a lot of times was Good cause people threw in pex expecting it to be draining Kiss).

All in all I am very happy with my performance this cycle (although it could have done better to be honest) and I cheer everyone trying to qualify for the third cycle, just believe in yourselves and it could be posible!
 
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Eo Ut Mortus

Elodin Smells
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Didn't have the time or stamina to see myself qualify,
lol jk

This was my first serious OLT run, and my goal was to qualify using only my own teams. I was prepared with some others if I needed to avoid getting sniped and/or win a match in under 30 minutes, but thankfully, that didn't happen. I ended up using three stall-ish teams and one short-lived attempt at HO to qualify.

Screen Shot 2020-08-21 at 3.42.07 PM.png

https://pokepast.es/9f39b7b2c18e3453

This is the third team I built and the one I used for most of my games (1500-1800). It's pretty evident why I plateaued with it; it's extremely weak to fairies, especially Primarina, and I couldn't figure out how to fix those issues without scrapping the team entirely. Nonetheless, it was a fun team to grind low ladder with. The highlight of this team is the Volcarona set, which looks stupid but has logic. Offensive teams will usually have something like a Dragapult as their Volcarona check, and you just need to chip it into +1 Flamethrower range to sweep. Defensive teams will have Blissey / Pex / Ditto / whatever, so forget sweeping; just use Volc for hazard control.

Screen Shot 2020-08-21 at 3.39.42 PM.png

https://pokepast.es/d2cfca8657cc82d2

This is the first team I built, but I got bored using it around 1500 ELO and ditched it until 1800+. The idea was to abuse the Teleport Blissey + Dragapult core John W mentioned in his post to answer threats such as Substitute Gengar, Alakazam and Hydreigon, but I eventually had to drop Teleport for Heal Bell to get a better matchup vs. stall. It's nothing too flashy, but I made several less standard adaptations to compensate for its weaknesses, such as Stealth Rock / Wish Jirachi for role compression and fast Mandibuzz for Bisharp.

Screen Shot 2020-08-21 at 3.38.52 PM.png

https://pokepast.es/e82e8f010333081e

This is the second team I built, and it ended up being my favorite one. I also started using it in low ladder, but I ditched it until my final push because I didn't like how it felt at the time. My main gripe was that Unaware Clefable was a necessity on paper and a dead slot in practice; as it turns out, it gets a lot better at high ELO due to homogeneity of hyper offense teams. The star of the show is Cobalion, a Pokemon I've attempted to make work since the Pokemon Home release; its main role on this team is a Stealth Rocker and Bisharp counter, but its STABs, speed tier, and access to Volt Switch give it enough offensive presence to allay pressure from bulky boosters like Clefable and Hatterene, pressure opposing stalls in conjunction with Knock Off support, and revenge kill sweepers like Rillaboom, Crawdaunt, and Urshifu rather than having to incur unfavorable trades to eliminate them. I also managed to squeeze in the aforementioned Dragapult / Teleport Blissey combo on this one.

:ss/tangrowth:

I've already written about this set here, but I want to say a few more things. I used this Tangrowth set on all three of my teams (credits to ABR for itemless). Infestation is genuinely useful outside of the surprise sleep kills it can land, and with Knock and Giga Drain as Tangrowth's only two must-haves, it's a no-brainer to me to put Infestation in one of the last slots. Here are some other ways you can use it:

- Knock Off isolation: You can Infestation a switch-in and no longer have to risk Knocking a Ditto or a Tricked Scarf (or you can trap one of these Pokemon if they try to come in to absorb Knock).

- Pivot removal: Infestation prevents an opponent from double-switching out of Tangrowth, enabling you to switch in a response to common pivots such as Amoonguss and Toxapex and guarantee they'll remain there.

- PP stall: Trapping a Pokemon forces them to stay in and waste PP, and because Tangrowth tends to lure Amoonguss and Clefable, Corviknight is an ideal partner. Infestation's 32 PP count also offers an edge in these stall wars.

- Chip damage: An obvious use of Infestation, of course, but it bears mentioning. A scenario that came up a couple of times in my run was Infestation + two turns of Burn + Stealth Rock does 40% min and will outdamage Amoonguss's Regenerator. Sand chip may also be come into play; one of the most common OLT teams featured Tyranitar + Amoonguss, so it was relevant even without my own sand. Infestation's aforementioned 32 PP will ensure that Giga Drain recovery isn't a longterm solution.

Other options: I played a few games with Binding Band but found that I preferred additional Crawdaunt insurance. I also observed that sleep became less and less useful when I couldn't trap something; I think it was still the best choice for the kills it did get, but I might consider running something like Sludge Bomb in the last slot for Rillaboom and Clefable.


:ss/ditto:

There's been some talk about Ditto lately, and I wanted to touch on it a bit, since it's a popular stall feature, and none of the final versions of my teams ended up having it. I don't rate Ditto that highly as an anti-offense tool, especially in a meta where HO is perpetually refashioning itself to beat stall. The threats Ditto revenges can all generally be managed by some standard stall component, whereas Pokemon like Hatterene, Bisharp, and Sub Gengar are both resilient to Ditto revenge kills and call for more niche defensive answers. Instead of Ditto, I opted for Dragapult as speed control, who fares much better against the aforementioned Sub Gengar and (Sash) Alakazam while still offering an answer to sweepers like Toxtricity and Azumarill. I believe Ditto's real value is ensuring that you (should) never lose a stall vs. stall matchup, but it's more likely to translate it into a draw than a win, and I was confident in my ability to convert most stall mirrors into draws without it, even against opposing Ditto.
 

Dflo

SM lover
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Hey everyone! I would like to share the teams I used during my OLT run !

1000-1200:

1598112585583.png

I had no idea of which team I can use for low ladd, so I took the kanto’s HO and I played 15 games before being in 10-5 with a great 60% GXE (I’m not a good clicker). I stopped here and I watched some games of other OLT players to see what teams they played and find the perfect team that could beat anyone…

1200-2115:

1598111807536.png


I wanted to try Zarude, and seeing a lot of stall teams, I found the idea of an anti-stall team with Zarude. I played this team like 10 times, but I think that the core Azu trapper + Zarude is cool: Azu trap Tangrowth, Amoonguss, or Toxapex, and Zarude + Safeguard Volca destroy the game. (With Toge NP + Heal Bell who help Azu wake up tho).

1598112327949.png

Team

I almost only played this team during my run. I wanted to play Chandelure, cause this Pokémon stomps the most part of the defensive cores. Some examples:

184+ SpA Choice Specs Chandelure Flamethrower vs. 248 HP / 44 SpD Mandibuzz: 250-295 (59.1 - 69.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

184+ SpA Choice Specs Chandelure Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 165-195 (54.2 - 64.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

184+ SpA Choice Specs Chandelure Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 330-388 (78.5 - 92.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

184+ SpA Choice Specs Chandelure Overheat vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Clefable: 394-465 (100 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO

184+ SpA Choice Specs Chandelure Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Gastrodon: 262-309 (61.5 - 72.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

184+ SpA Choice Specs Chandelure Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 84+ SpD Rotom-Heat: 178-210 (58.7 - 69.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

However, Blissey and Tyranitar have good usages atm, which is why I put Conkeldurr, who can help against SpD Toxapex, or Mantine for example, so Chandelure can trick and get boots or lefties, which help him to maintain pressure without needing wish pass. The rest of the team is a classic sand core.
Chandelure’s spread is to have more chance of surviving fairly situational moves that I saw during this cycle, here are some examples:

252+ Atk Rillaboom High Horsepower vs. 72 HP / 0 Def Chandelure: 242-286 (86.7 - 102.5%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO (terrain seed)

252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 72 HP / 0 Def Chandelure in Grassy Terrain: 130-153 (46.5 - 54.8%) -- 10.9% chance to 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery (if gus is too low or K.O)

252+ SpA Life Orb Punk Rock Toxtricity Overdrive vs. 72 HP / 0 SpD Chandelure: 243-286 (87 - 102.5%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
(The shift gear drain punch set just 6-0 if another Pokémon is already sleeping)

I keep my other spreads for playoffs.

-Alakazam: Fortunately the few zam that I met were Dazzling Gleam so Tyranitar could check easily, but the only game I faced Nasty Plot Focus Blast zam I won on a dodge so...good luck !

252 SpA Alakazam Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 260-308 (64.3 - 76.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

-Crawdaunt / Azumarill: If they click Sword Dance or Belly Drum you lose, but they can't click it, except Azu on Clef, but with sand damages + moonblast on drum + protect spam you should be safe.

-Rillaboom Terrain Seed

-Excadrill:
as you can see there is no ground resist in this team, so I let you imagine what happened when I faced a Band Exca in sand...


Good luck to anyone who is going to try the next cycles !
 

Ox the Fox

is a Tiering Contributorwon the 8th Official Ladder Tournamentis a Past SCL Championis a Past WCoP Champion
Smogon Charity Bowl IV Winner
olt.PNG

https://pokepast.es/cf1fda36cda6f1f0

This is the main team that I used to qualify for OLT. It's a really solid sand balance team that has almost no bad matchups. Tyranitar + amoongus is amazing for shutting down almost every HO team that people are spamming on ladder. The clef set I got from ezwz and works for bluffing life orb when you calm mind and then you trick barbs onto whatever they think is going to counter it. Magnezone traps corvi and skarm for excadrill to sweep and in general is super annoying for opposing sand balances/stall teams. I think spike whirlwind skarmory is the best set rn and can be so hard for some teams to deal with. Finally, exca is jolly rock slide in order to hit rotom-h and also to kill modest volcarona/revenge kill +1 volcarona if it manages to overwhelm your tyranitar.

I also want to post the rain team I used to great success during cycles 1 and 2 even though I didn't use it this cycle. It's a super solid rain team but unfortunately with the rise of tyranitar, aegislash, and blissey it's gotten hard to win with and is extremely matchup based.
https://pokepast.es/652a0ec9ff4ef881

Good luck to everyone in cycle 4! I think a good strategy is to do /hidereplay because a lot of games I would win because I could scout my opponent's teams in replays and figure out the sets before the game even starts.
 
Cycle 3 Qualifiers


Rank #1 | ELO: 2115 | GXE: 81.4% | Record: [reset]
Rank #2 | ELO: 2104 | GXE: 89.7% | Record: 76-13
Rank #3 | ELO: 2102 | GXE: 85.9% | Record: [reset]
Rank #4 | ELO: 2100 | GXE: 88.6% | Record: 106-44
Rank #5 | ELO: 2099 | GXE: 80.8% | Record: 136-80
Rank #6 | ELO: 2097 | GXE: 83.5% | Record: [reset]
Rank #7 | ELO: 2092 | GXE: 82.7% | Record: 199-127
Rank #8 | ELO: 2090 | GXE: 82.5% | Record: 97-36​

Here's an overview of some interesting trends throughout this cycle.
- Amoonguss saw much more usage in this cycle compared to any other cycle. It is one of the premier checks to Rillaboom, which is still as prominent as it has been since the start of cycle 1, and some other winconditions such as Zeraora, Primarina, and Thunder Clefable.
- Alakazam is pretty notorious as an offense killer. It saw some pretty high usage on various teams in response to the many offensive teams dominating the upper part of ladder. With its Focus Sash always in tact, it can serve as a good check to just about any sweeper. Crawdaunt, Toxtricity, and Urshifu-S in particular have been seeing a lot of usage and really stand out as setup sweepers that it can effectively check.
- Speaking of, Bulk Up Urshifu-S is another set thats been quickly rising in usage. Many defensively oriented teams tend to rely on pivoting around Urshifu-S with cores like Toxapex + Clefable to effectively handle it. With Bulk Up, Urshifu-S does not have to lock into any 1 move and can completely circumvent this issue; it will often succeed in breaking down teams that depend on such counterplay very effectively, and will otherwise leave a massive hole in the opposition at the very least while they struggle to wear it down with Rocky Helmet + Life Orb chip damage from their pivots with Regenerator.
- Both Ferrothorn and Skarmory sem to have fallen in usage compared to prior cycles this OLT. It does make sense, though; people are using much stronger entry hazard removal and ways of overwhelming teams that these Pokemon commonly find themselves on. Hatterene has seen a pretty significant surge over cycle 2 and 3, and Corviknight remains to be very prominent. With Pokemon like Aegislash, Choice Specs Kyurem, and Bulk Up Urshifu-S seeing more usage, the teams that they find themselves on are also a lot more troubled.

Here is a collection of various teams that were used by qualifiers and otherwise strong competitors throughout this cycle:

(-S)


(-S)











 
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Hi everyone im here to post the teams i used to for olt, unfortunatley i wont do descriptions for the teams i used this cycle but i will post the teams i used to qualify. Im very happy with the result of laddering for these cycles, I hope i can go far in this tour.
:blobthumbsup:

1000-1900:
Screenshot 2020-08-29 at 14.45.07.png


1900-2050:
Screenshot 2020-08-29 at 14.47.04.png


2050-2097:
Screenshot 2020-08-29 at 14.47.09.png


Good luck to everyone in Cycle 4 and have fun laddering!
 

ShootingStarmie

Bulletproof
is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
something about time stalling doesn't sit right with me, seems like a really scummy way to prevent / make sure certain players qualify, in the last 20mins or so. hope this issue gets addressed either this olt or next olt. I think a proposal could be to just allow any games that start before the deadline to count, and for the last 30mins or so players are only allowed to get one game at a time. not sure how exactly this could be implemented, but there's something inherently wrong with using prankster sub protect teams to stall for time. no offense to the players using these strats, they're just using the meta to their advantage i guess
 
I used these teams for almost all of my run:


https://pokepast.es/24d6a925d8c53232
https://pokepast.es/7f27d77bd06a8f58

The ditto/pex/bliss/corv/moong combination is necessary for true stalling to be possible in my opinion. Because opposing boots pokemon won't chip themselves, you need to make sure you don't get passively chipped either. You can technically beat pokemon like zera without amoong but volt chip will slowly kill something like clef over time. Having two separate regen pokes also means that opposing ditto can't force progress on you, as pex + moong stalls out the ditto'd version of both. Blissey is the premier special wall + stealth rocker, and corv is just the best defogger alongside its many defensive capabilities. Ditto is an essential part of laddering to me, by revenge killing offensive pokemon and pp stalling defensive pokemon. It is the great gatekeeper of the extreme play styles. Regarding specific sets, they're all mostly straightforward. Both regen mons are helmet to help vs urshifu because my dark resist is ditto (which actually works out well alongside the pivots). Blissey was initially twave to help vs cm clef, so I could reset the boosts with pex/amoong and then hat 1v1s easily. I eventually made it toxic when heatom became more common. Corv is spdef invested with ihead to help vs hat, cm clef, and pp stalling kyurem + aegi. Ditto is spdef because in those sequences where I'm trying to make riskier doubles vs opposing ditto. Blissey evs guarantee that it eats +4 orb hydra.

In previous cycles I mostly played with quag over the hat/aegi slot but it was hard to force progress on opposing regen stalls and it was also very spike vulnerable. I had a lot of issues beating hat as well so I thought I'd give it a try myself. It was working great, and helped me beat the skarm and mew teams that were previously very dangerous. I had a very smooth run to about 2030 with the hat version and then dropped a little bit to like 1950. I started running into bad matchups vs conk, faster haze pex, ihead corv, spdef drill, togekiss, etc. I still wanted to stall because of its other consistent components though so I played with a lot of other 6ths. I tried gar, mew, shifu, kyurem. They were okay but still didn't feel right. I ran into those tar moong cores and still could not break them, eventually leading me to around 1900. I had the thought that aegi would be a huge threat to all the defensive teams floating around so I decided to build around that.

So, I started from wanting to build around sub 3atk aegi. The mix spell tag set was good but I wanted the longevity and eased prediction vs clef and regen cores. I wanted pex to help burn/knock other pex or tang so aegi could get free subs. I wanted corv for defog and drill was on basically every team. I didn't necessarily intend for it to be a stall, but the bliss moong ditto finish just made too much sense so I tried it out. The aegi set worked out far better than I expected, and I had a very smooth climb from 1900 - 2100 this time around.

Here are some replays showcasing its potency:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1177473545
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1177085694
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1177075754

Enjoy
 
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TPP

is a Tournament Directoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Top Tutor Alumnusis a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Past SPL Championis a Past WCoP Champion
Head TD
Cycle 4 Qualifiers


Rank #1 | ELO: 2099 | GXE: 82.3% | Record: 156-101
Rank #2 | ELO: 2098 | GXE: 84.2% | Record: 109-45
Rank #3 | ELO: 2097 | GXE: 90.5% | Record: 73-16
Rank #4 | ELO: 2096 | GXE: 85.3% | Record: [reset]
Rank #5 | ELO: 2095 | GXE: 88.3% | Record: 72-16
Rank #6 | ELO: 2094 | GXE: 84.1% | Record: 216-132
Rank #7 | ELO: 2092 | GXE: 79.4% | Record: [reset]
Rank #8 | ELO: 2083 | GXE: 85.8% | Record: 99-35​
 

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