Project Post NDPL Set and Team Dump

[Sputnik]

art by Dharma/approved by Jho/mostly inspired by 5gen with the ZUPL team dump
​

Welcome to the NDPL Team Dump! It's pretty self explanatory, post teams you used in the NDPL here!

Rules

• This is for teams used in, or heavily considered for use, in NDPL ONLY.
• OU, UU, and AG teams can be posted.
• A Pokepaste would be preferred in terms of formatting. Sprites would also be a helpful addition.
• Descriptions/stories about the teams are allowed (encouraged, even) but consider using a spoiler tag if they end up being very long.

And that's it! Happy posting, and good luck to the teams in the playoffs!

 

[Niadev]

Oh whoops if I knew this was coming I'd have waited :/ I'll throw in a bonus team that I almost used in week 4 I guess

All teams are for NDUU

If you want full descriptions for the teams I actually used, check out the post I made in the NDUU discussion thread. https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...game-discussion-bans-224.3660920/post-8630525

Week 1:
https://pokepast.es/e0005a645d56f37b

Week 2:
https://pokepast.es/64abbf72f66935d5

Week 3:
https://pokepast.es/510d9b5e6775a6f2

Week 4:
https://pokepast.es/d9278f351ff9c956

Week 5:
https://pokepast.es/afee0f9590506251

BONUS TEAM:

https://pokepast.es/e0e69d98359801f5

Description

I considered quite heavily bringing this to Week 4 over the Alolan Marowak team, but ultimately decided in favour of the Alolan Marowak team as it had more longevity which is key in a balance vs balance game, the fact that Alolawak has a much better time vs the returning Skarmory, and Alolawak isn't just effortlessly RKd by Sciz. SD Terrak is still the scariest wallbreaker we have (post Diggersby), as +2 Z Move breaks kills most, if not all of its defensive checks bar Buzzwole and Physdef Skarm, while still having a solid speed tier, so I decided to build around it for what I predicted to be a Balance MU. I know what you're thinking - double Z? Z move is pretty much only to reduce damage from Weavile Knock Off, and the Z is marginally better than itemless on Scizor (every single Poltergeist user beats Scizor even without Poltergeist), and you're almost never clicking Z with sciz anyways. Could go with 16 atk Ada to kill Amoonguss at +2 with Savage Spinout but frankly the spdef is more useful so you have more leeway vs Electrium Latias, as you can't ensure Altaria will have megad by then.

Aside from that it's fairly standard volt turn BO, FuturePort Slowking + strong phys breaker that doesn't like Buzzwole/Amoonguss/Hippowdon, UrshiHeattom, etc. The speed on MAlt is for outspeeding MDia at +1, with the rest dumped in Def as this team already has a pretty solid Moltres switchin in Slowking and Moltres is punished pretty hard by Terrakion. You can run Heal Bell over Refresh but on this team MAlt is mostly a win con that checks stuff, so you want to be able to heal your own status more than teammates (Heattom and Slowking are rarely in long enough to accrue significant Toxic chip, its rare for Urshi to be statused by anything bar scald burns, but you don't break man Scald users bar Empoleon so why would you switch in), and the higher PP can be more useful for setting up vs stuff with status.

Oh yeah for peeps wondering why it's Iron Head on Urshifu-R, it's just marginally better than Poison Jab or Ice Punch as the flinch chance gives you a chance to revenge kill a Mega Altaria at full in a pinch, and DDD MAlt sweeps otherwise (this team's sciz does 40% max to 152+ def MAlt with BP) so that is appreciated.

DOUBLE BONUS:

Set dump time

Defensive MAlt

Altaria-Mega @ Altarianite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD
Impish Nature
- Body Slam / Return
- Defog / Dragon Dance
- Roost
- Heal Bell / Refresh

The Spdef is to avoid Defensive Moltres' Hurricane 2hkoing after Rocks, the rest is dumped in physical bulk. Body Slam lets you spread paras for stuff like Terrakion and also just to bullshit past stuff trying to check you.

If you're only using Defensive MAlt to DD you can use this set instead

Dedicated DDD MAlt

Altaria-Mega @ Altarianite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 152 Spe
Impish Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Body Slam / Return
- Roost
- Refresh / Heal Bell

Speed is for outspeeding MDia at +1, rest is in phys bulk (you can run 56 SpD for Moltres if you need it). Refresh is preferable on dedicated due to the much higher PP but Heal Bell is useful if you need clericing.

Bulky SD Bulu

Tapu Bulu @ Life Orb
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 152 HP / 136 Atk / 220 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Horn Leech
- Superpower / Stone Edge
- Zen Headbutt

Attack is enough to OHKO Mega Slowbro after an SD with Horn Leech while still being insanely strong, speed is for timid Primarina, and rest is in HP for bulk. Useful if you're more worried about Urshifu-RS. Almost used this on the Week 2 team but was slightly concerned about Mega Steelix and I already had a really solid Urshi-R answer anyways.

 

[NuttyRabbit]

I was hoping we could make it to finals, but alas, cursed teams and hax saw to it that the Krooks season ended when it did. Still, I had a ton of fun, and I built a ton of teams for it, and since most of em never got used (and probably won't ever get used due to the somewhat new meta and looming suspect tests), I figured I might as well post them here


https://pokepast.es/bffb47e44b109b74 - This was the first team I built for the tour, and this was built during what I'd like to call a "team bender", AKA a brief period where I just crank out team after team, building off pure gut instinct. This was the first of those, and it's a very basic, but fun Toxtricity Bulky Offense. The Attack EVs on Tox give it a 75% chance to OHKO Dragapult from full at +1.


https://pokepast.es/c66a133509aa2ee4 - The second team from that "team bender". I really just wanted to build around Medicham+ Weavile


https://pokepast.es/2fbcf61437ecadf3 - The third team from that "bender", and I built this solely to cheese out AceVish MUs and fat MUs in general. Team could definitely be improved but I loved the feel of it


https://pokepast.es/8bca95d479534a6e - The final team from that "bender", and the one I'm the most sad never got to get used. I really wanted to build around Melmetal, and what I ended up with was something really janky, but worked really well in practice.


https://pokepast.es/40d9ea07b1754c76 - Something I'd been working on prior to the tour, but I'd refined during it. It's built around Sub Bulk Up Corviknight and Calm Mind Clef winning in the long term thanks to breaker Chomp and Toxic Pex. There's a lot you can fiddle with on the team, such as going M-Latias>Latios or going physdef on Pex, but the team as is is quite solid, though Fini and Ace can be annoying.



https://pokepast.es/c38095cbf0ce0e26 - If you've seen the Teambuilding comp, you've seen this team, as I submitted it for Blissey week. However, the last slot is an interesting pick in Suicune, a mon that I discovered ~week 1 or so and by week 2 I was swearing up, down, and sideways that THIS was the AceVish counter (and to its credit, this set does beat every variant of Cinderace). The Suicune EVs let it outspeed Band Vish while maximizing its physical bulk, Calm Mind lets it be a wincon, Roar lets it shuffle stuff around and phaze out Bulk Up Ace, and Rest gives it recovery Still really sad I never got to actually use this/show it off


https://pokepast.es/d23671d7ee0d90cd - This was my first (and only) attempt at making a team around Suicune and it's vvery much a fat spikestack kinda team, since I figured that's where it'd work best. It's a bit janky and I never figured out how to improve on it


https://pokepast.es/1497e788f5c13135 - This was the team I ultimately brought vs DNNP in our game. It's built around the core of AceVishBro with a backbone of Zor/Kommo-o/Zapdos (which was one of my favorite defensive cores at the time). Psychium Bro was something I stumbled upon during the building process and I immediately latched onto it since it OHKOs Ace from full and can OHKO Vish after 2 rounds of rocks. Sadly I got a terrible, terrible matchup and played badly so this team didn't get to shine


https://pokepast.es/3a48c7537b7977e0 - It's Sand, what else can I say? I just really wanted to try building Sand for a week. Don't think it came out great tho


https://pokepast.es/d176371714861dad - Aurodian asked me to build around P-Z and by god I did it. Really fun team


https://pokepast.es/224131bc4b22bdd8 - Krooks cord (mainly Sevelon and Solaros & Lunaris ) developed a demonic Xurkitree set and I really wanted to build around it, resulting in a pretty neat offense team


https://pokepast.es/170b9dd018baa927 - The last team I built was built for the Natdex cord but I decided to tweak it a bit and give it to Alice for her BO3 series--where it got haxed at the last minute and lost. RIP. Very basic team structure of ChompGrenAce + defensive backbone of Fini/Zor/Zapdos

BONUS TEAM

https://pokepast.es/40ec225a18290612- This was something concocted by me and Solaros & Lunaris in DMs. Lopunny+ Banded Diggersby just rips through teams like butter, and with Fini and Bro support, it's pretty damn hard to deal with. It's in a bonus section because while I built it during the tour, I didn't built it for the tour.

Like I said before, while I'm sad we didn't make it to Finals and sad I lost the only game I played, I still had a ton of fun during the tour.

Shoutouts to everyone in the Krooks Discord, especially Sevelon , Aurodian , !!11!1!! , and Kaitlyn for making the season so fun and providing some...interesting conversations! We'll get it next year Gaygents!

 

[Avery]

Considering I built for all of our OU players, I have quite a bit of content for everyone to sift through. I will be excluding Dracovish teams for reasons obvious.


https://pokepast.es/abd15c43472d1169 - used by Yami week 1, it was made because Zard Y + Lele is stupid effective, and it also has a pretty solid stall matchup. Yami took home the W vs stresh / xavgb. I don't know where I got these nicknames


https://pokepast.es/e8f6f0f5fc757525 - I used this and won vs SputnikGT week 2, and it's probably got my favorite techs of the whole tournament. Taunt Cinderace shuts down Gliscor's Roost stalling and especially Slowbro's Teleport. The goal with this team was to provoke the sequence of Taunting Slowbro, then Pursuiting Slowbro with Aegislash. This allows Medicham and Cinderace to go crazy. Unfortunately, I did not play against a Slowbro, but this core of Pursuit + Cinderace + Medicham was still extremely effective regardless. These nicknames are from Pretty Girls Like Trap Music by Young Thug.


https://pokepast.es/b888875bde0d45eb - I forget who used this and when because I was pinged while I was playing Minecraft and passed a few good teams, and this was the one that said player decided on using. Rillaboom Magnezone is a super effective core and is only really halted by opposing bulky grasses such as Tangrowth, but Cinderace ends those grasses. Nicknames courtesy of Amine's Limbo album.


https://pokepast.es/ed3292abd6df60c9 - I used this week 4 and won against Skysolo. Honestly, this is probably my favorite stall team of this generation. Refresh Latias + CB Weavile is so stupidly potent, and there's catch all wall Quagsire to handle the pesky Cinderace and Dragapult. I absolutely love this team's dynamic and what it accomplishes. Nicknames are from East Memphis Maniac by Xavier Wulf.


https://pokepast.es/925b8c9d6aa23af9 - Again, I don't recall when this was used but I think Sabella used it. As soon as I stopped writing when the team was used on the team title I lost track (dumb idiot sev). Anyway, I personally really enjoy CM Thunder Clefable, as pressuring Toxapex to enable teammates like Ashgren or Dragapult is essential. Hazard stacking is also one of my favorite things to build, since it adds another layer of pressure in game. These nicknames come straight from Astroworld by Travis Scott.


https://pokepast.es/4b6730a76947dd02 - Stareal used this one with some slight changes, but the Heracross spread is something people never expect. Outspeeding Heatran prior to Mega Evolving is seriously suprising, and catches a ton of people off guard. Also, this team exerts a ton of pressure onto opposing Heatran, which is great for Serperior and Volcarona. These nicknames are also from Amine's Limbo, its a damn good album.


https://pokepast.es/04a0f9493980c9ac - I forget who used this and when, honestly could have been Pannuracotta in Natdex Ladder Tour, but I know it was used at some point. Specs Magearna is stupid effective and Dark Z Cinderace appreciates all the holes that Specs Magearna punches. Nicknames are from Watch the Throne by Jay-Z.


https://pokepast.es/2641ed11156ed477 - I feel like Maki or Alice used this, but I could be wrong. Loppult is a fantastic offensive core that only gets stronger when hazard stack + Ashgren are added to the mix. This is what I consider to be one of the best bulky offenses I have build for NDPL. Nicknames here are from The Lost Boy by Cordae.


https://pokepast.es/534fa4f26ad9ecce - I used this against Trade, and that game is the perfect example why your sand teams should have a Clefable or Reuniclus, but I digress. The Magearna was originally Life Orb, but I found it getting worn down far too quickly and I found myself clicking one move over and over in the lategame, hence Metronome. I also have 0 clue how I got these nicknames, but the team is stupid fun and very effective regardless.


https://pokepast.es/361ec416e818acb7 - I was about to use this against Zneon and was talked out of it by Discord people, but I really regret not using this team. This Cinderace won on preview, as it does in most non-Hippowdon matchups. Also, Tangrowth + Fini + Hippowdon is such a great core and shuts down a vast portion of the metagame rather effectively. Hindsight is 20/20 though, and the team I brought for the semifinals can be found below. Nicknames on this team are from Beautiful Thugger Girls by Young Thug.


https://pokepast.es/c3d95a041f84532b - I used this in the semifinals against Zneon. Calm Mind Thunder Wave Clefable is one of my favorite Clefable sets, as Thunder Wave cripples so many of the common checks to Calm Mind Clefable, and that leaves them easy prey for either Rotom or Dragapult. Hex Dragapult is also great against opposing Clefables assuming I can status them. This set of nicknames is from Life's a Trip by Trippie Redd.


https://pokepast.es/7ae5ffa3fd3826b9 - The sole goal of this team was to prevent Defog at almost all costs. The only Pokemon that can safely remove hazards against this team is a full health HP Ice Zapdos. Hazard stack as a whole is pretty effective despite the presence of Boots and Magic Guard, and I feel this team exemplifies that dynamic. These nicknames come from FANTASY VXID by Scarlxrd.

Finally, I would like devote the rest of this post to thanking my fellow Chicago Krookodile for all the contributions they put in. All of you were absolutely instrumental to the team and made this NDPL experience so much more fun than it should have been. Every player was instrumental to the team at every facet, from building to playing to overall support. I had a blast and I'll surely be returning for NDPL II. That being said, special shoutouts have to go to:

Yami for being the GOAT and never dropping a series, as well as being a terrific presence.

!!11!1!! for bearing with me and hard carrying the entire UU division on the teambuilding front. Absolutely amazing.

Stareal Maki Kaitlyn martha Sabella god damn you all are fantastic players. Every time any one of you were slotted for the current week, you did not disappoint at all. You allwere absolutely worth the time investment and I would 100% draft you all again given the chance.

Thank you all for giving me the wonderful opportunity to manage the Chicago Krookodile for this edition of NDPL.

Till next time,
Sev

 

[Jordy]

I really liked teaming up with everyone on the Pogging Pexes and am pretty satisfied with my personal showing, going 5-2. I would like to share the teams I used throughout the season in this post. Click on the sprites for the importable.


Week 1 vs Avaritia GC

The premise of this team is perhaps my favorite of the entire tour. Spikes in general are incredibly strong in National Dex, especially when combined with bulky winconditions like Mega Scizor and Clefable. I would particularly like to highlight the synergies in this team, though. Superpower Mega Scizor can lure Magnezone for Ferrothorn and Corviknight, freeing them up massively. It can also lure bulky Heatran sets which is really neat. Meanwhile, it also rides off Thunder Clefable's ability to weaken Toxapex, as does Ash-Greninja. Beyond that, the combination of Toxic + Knock Off Ferrothorn and Mega Scizor make it really hard for Pokemon like Zapdos to consistently check the latter, especially because Gastrodon can easily sap its momentum.


Week 2 vs H.M.N.I.P

I made this hyper offense team to ladder during the Dracovish suspect test and was so convinced of its greatness that I decided to bring it to NDPL too, despite sharing the importable. Hyper Offense in this tier is honestly pretty consistent despite the elements of matchup. I don't really want to go ahead and write about all the intricacies of this team again, so I'll simply quote what I wrote up for Twitter and Facebook when the social media team was in need of a team for National Dex!

This team was built by me to quickly get reqs for the current Dracovish suspect test, I went 28-3 to attain reqs. Mew is the signature lead of hyper offensive teams, having access to both Stealth Rock and Spikes, while being able to shut down most entry hazard removers like Corviknight and Zapdos with Taunt. Misty Explosion is a pretty unheard of move on Mew, but it's preferable to Explosion because it does a lot more to Hydreigon in particular. This team features a pretty cool Kommo-o set that hasn't really seen any previous usage in National Dex. Substitute + Belly Drum Kommo-o holds nice defensive utility against Ash-Greninja and Heatran thanks to its defensive typing and can quickly snowball out of control, especially now that Clefable are running a lot of Special Defense investment. Mega Mawile is a pretty key component of this team with its access to Sucker Punch, turning it into a nice crutch against opposing sweepers like Dragapult. It's also one of the most fearsome wallbreakers all-around and will almost always leave a massive hole for the rest of the team to take advantage of, be it through a weakened Heatran, Corviknight, Toxapex, etc. Bulk Up Cinderace is next in line, previously being seen to run a lot more of Darkinium Z + Sucker Punch sets. Unfortunately, it suffers from some pretty severe 4 Move Slot Syndrome which generally holds its prowess as a wallbreaker back. That doesn't mean it isn't useful for hyper offensive teams, though. Cinderace provides a very useful Speed tier, notably outspeeding Kartana and Gengar. It can also be very annoying to deal with for teams that feature Toxapex as their bulky Water-type; a +1 Zen Headbutt has a solid chance to OHKO after damage from Stealth Rock and a layer of Spikes. Dragapult in general is pretty incredible; there's hardly Pokemon that outspeed it and at +1, almost nothing besides Mega Tyranitar can really take the combination of Dragon Darts and Never-Ending Nightmare. The Speed tier it provides here is pretty notable, outspeeding Mega Lopunny and some other Pokemon like Ash-Greninja and Alakazam. Lastly, Rillaboom is a very common crutch for hyper offensive teams like this. Grassy Glide is strong priority and often proves to be vital to teams like this; limiting Ash-Greninja and rain teams in general as much as possible is incredibly important. Not just that, but it also plays into the theme of wearing down Steel- and Fire-types together with Mega Mawile very well.

Week 3 vs Chazm

This is probably my least favorite team I brought. I figured Mega Charizard Y + Future Sight + Pursuit would be great against Chazm, but did not end up preparing enough for stall and ended up tilting, playing badly, and ultimately getting smashed by it in the game against Chazm.

Regardless, I do really think that the concept is potent. Mega Charizard Y doesn't really have a lot of checks that won't get overwhelmed by the combination of it + Future Sight, and those that don't can be Pursuit trapped pretty easily, like Mega Latios and Mega Latias. The only unfortunate thing about Mega Charizard Y in my experience is that it really forces Kommo-o because otherwise Cinderace runs through your team quite easily.


Week 4 vs SputnikGT

This team isn't well-rounded and probably should not have been brought. Regardless, I was (still am) on the hyper offense train and was having a lot of fun with Stored Power + Draining Kiss Magearna on the ladder. I ultimately didn't end up having some formidable idea for what to bring against SputnikGT, so I just decided to roll with it. I should not have won that game but so it goes.


Week 5 vs Finchinator

The combination of Dragon Dance Dragapult + Spikes is pretty ridiculous and I wanted to try it out here. This is a pretty generic Spikes + setup spam team. You once again see the combination of Toxic Ferrothorn + Mega Scizor, which is really potent. I don't think there's much more that needs to be said, other than that I really regret using specially defensive Clefable. I think the game will show you why.


Semifinals vs Stareal

I do not take credit for this team; it was built by Devin. After getting smashed by this team last week and running pretty low on ideas, I simply decided to use it myself, though I did make a couple tweaks to fit my preference. This team is really good and I love offense teams like this in the metagame.


Finals vs H.M.N.I.P

Didn't really prep with anything specific in mind here either, I just figured something on the fatter side was coming so I wanted to focus mostly on beating that, and that is what I did. This team is pretty solid, sporting a lot of potential winconditions like Mega Scizor, Dragon Dance Dragapult, and Calm Mind Clefable. Once again there's really not too much to talk about other than the Clefable set. I was pretty paranoid about Swords Dance Gliscor with this team and didn't want to fall into using Curse Mega Scizor yet again, so I decided to use Ice Beam Clefable instead. It's EVd to OHKO Gliscor with Ice Beam. I'm pretty happy it worked out as anticipated. One other thing to note is that this team is very weak to Taunt Heatran, but I was very confident that that wasn't coming given my previous teams so I rolled with it.

These teams are all still very usable in this metagame so I hope they prove useful to everyone!

 

[Fardin]

had fun building with geyser this tour and imo we ended up being a great team and built some cool squads

Week 1
https://pokepast.es/4dc13ac3084696e7 - this one was used vs 64 squares in the bo3 slot. probably one of my fav teams this tour. it was built by Geyser with the idea of mmy + yve exhausting the opponents dyna with ease and possible sweeping/punching some major holes in some really common defensive cores which would let double dance pdon just clean everything up late game. with a real basic ho-oh water arc dm defensive combo, it rounded out the team really well.

https://pokepast.es/2185214f91f4b831 - i brought this vs skysolo, it turned out well but its arguably the worst team I've brought this tour. kinda got out of hand with the "innovations" and altho the team does really well vs generic stuff, with rock ceus as a main piece, it doesn't have a fun time vs teams with more than 2 already broken physical breakers ;; i had bad mu here, but somehow won

Week 2

https://pokepast.es/534f093ce6999111 - was used vs stresh in the bo3 spot. similar team to what i brought last week myself with my def core featuring rock ceus. despite the weakness rock ceus usually brings with it, this time it looked really good vs them because stresh and wsun got some of their influence in ag from me, which i kinda reassured with the builds they brought last week. from preview this team had really really good mu, but then they pulled up with a once in a million chance of eq dd mray over vcreate which just kinda ended things. i wouldn't use this squad personally that much but its cool vs certain builds

https://pokepast.es/6a90d6438dc7e0ed - didn't have much time to prep this week sadly so i recycled another team from agpl, but got rid of msab for mray for additional power and something that annoys the primal bros. I was just trying to bring something consistent with a couple extras like sd ground and just normal poger with rest that annoy chloe's usual teams. She didn't end up bringing wat i was expecting but it still had great mu

Week 3

https://pokepast.es/0d67990a5526a959 - geyser played this week and it was vs kate. he aimed to use something more consistent and bulkier that would eventually allow xern to just sweep with some chips on the opposing side. its a great plan since kate is very fond of her bulky teams, but she managed to switch up a bit and focus more on breaking instead of just walling. sd ground was something the team wasn't ready for and things just went downhill from there.

https://pokepast.es/06a86e15c51aef8b - our opponent this week has been using some really unconventional stuff the previous weeks so I decided a an overall generic but consistent team should be able to do the job. LO toxic ete with zac and taunt yve with a solid balance to back it up beats just about every team imo in ag, but this time we were matched up against some meme para ho and we sadly got parad to death

Week 4

https://pokepast.es/a06bcc4dff5e6d4a - this was used in the bo3 slot vs bacon. i knew coming into the week that I wanted to use an ho that just powers thru the usual defensive cores bacon runs. since he never ever runs ditto, i knew it would end up getting a good mu. it was first built by geyser but i changed a couple mons to make it better vs bacon. team is pretty straight forward, everything just sets each other up and either mray, steel or ground ceus just set each other up for a sweep. only mu i was worried about is CM dark ceus, because if mray is chipped, it would end up becoming a cm war so the key would be just to cm up before they can with the help of mray that forces it out or makes them dyna which would give u a couple free turns to cm up if mray were to die to it. it had great mu from preview and got a comfortable win

https://pokepast.es/17e67c81a5a27ad2 - this was probably the most fun game to play this tour. we both had generally even mu and they did a great prep with fast wisp ground ceus vs my own sd ground ceus which I've been spamming this tour. i had an idea they would opt for fast wisp, mainly stall2, but arc was great pick too. for that reason, i wanted a cleric in chansey, and with lugia as just a mon that comes in on everything, the plan was just to whirl out most threats and let my offensive core do its thing. mu was pretty even but i managed to came out at top in a really close and fun game

Week 5

https://pokepast.es/01602681c1e4ed17 - Geyser was coming into this week with a vengeance after week 3 vs his good buddy agl. he knew there is a good chance agl would bring webs and he turned out to be right. that exact reason is why he brought the mcoat deo ho from last week, but with his own really cool changes with LO yve over pdon and ekiller over cm ground which was a really cool idea from him as it turned out, ekiller and yve put in major work this game and won it for him.

Finals

https://pokepast.es/3ae3238f324996b7 - this was used in our bo3 slot. kinda realized that stresh wsun and chloe never gave their bo3 slot crazy teams like mgar + zekrom if it wasn't played by someone who is familiar with ag, so it made my prep really easy. I once again didn't want to be too outlandish with the builds so just gave him a 4 man attacking core in yve mray zac and lo ete, leaving only yve to let it abuse dyna. imo that offensive core is as good as it gets that lets a team just run thru generic balances without being bothered by ditto that much due to most of the core not being able to use dyna. it ended up getting a good mu, but some things didn't go our way so it didn't pull thru.

https://pokepast.es/1513567db5432064 - my team vs chloe. coming into the week, i was 100% expecting something cheesy with goth balance or smashpass so that always was in my mind when bringing this. goal of the team is to just put on initial pressure with band mray and as the game goes on and depending on their off/def cores, let mage come in and baton pass a quick shift gear to one of the abuser in pdon/mray or yve. as the rest of the playerbase, she stopped using hooh so i knew i could take advanateg of it, and with the def utility mage brings in, i knew it would still end up being useful and it was also a great bait for mray because it can just baton pass into it for any incoming mon like pdon, dm and etc. actual team is a bit different with the fillers, but chloe said thimo was involved in the building so i was prepping for some lo ditto + twave spam shenanigans

 

[Snoms]

I only played one round thanks to Chloe, but I still had an amazing time talking to everyone, so thus, here is the team I used, (credit to pichus.)

Pichu is used as a suicide lead, with low HP, Endeavor, Para, and Encore, Silas makes a suprisingly good suicide lead. The rest of the team is irrelevant, silas is most relevant.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldexag-1209392215-6adb76r89of0ibl2gapl8fnz91sj0n0pw
https://pokepast.es/4dfdd2badb6ebc37

 

[pannu]

i didnt rlly play lol but i still wanna drop these teams cus i liked em

when i played m00la i knew that even if i lost that week it wouldnt really matter, so i decided to bring absolute memeteam suicune tspikes
https://pokepast.es/405582d9e4cb3099

idea behind this is one i stole from baker, basically tspikes + suicune beats alot of teams in the meta rn and that with some amazing glue mons like malt and scarf urshi made a real solid balance imo, problem is i forgot to prep for slowbro,,, then i faced slowbro, nicknames are from aimer

for the semis (only other time i played)
https://pokepast.es/76d5153037024e5d

i wanted to bring glalie so that if i won i could say that it had a 100% winrate in ndpl, i went with a new team instead of my old glalie/pory-z team bcus i think its just fun to play with a completely untested team in semis like this. nicknames are from the boa album twilight (amazing album ftr go listen to it)

overall while i didnt really get to play i def got introduced to some cool people outside of the ndou community and overall just had a fun time, im really happy this was my first experience with a pl and i cant wait to actually play for ndpl 2 instead of just being a filler sub lol

 

[Ruft]

I had a good time playing and building in NDOU together with the other Pexes, who provided me with a lot of support for building and bouncing off ideas.

Week 1 vs Stareal

I thought Cinderace looked quite good vs Stareal, and coming into the tour I wanted to use it anyway since I definitely think it's a top tier threat. With Future Sight from Slowbro, there's really not much that can come in safely on Cinderace. I ended up using this team that was passed to me by Jordy. Ash-Greninja is another threat that is amplified with Future Sight up, while Blissey and Corviknight provide further safe pivoting. One thing I changed was making Slowbro Mega since the team didn't have a Mega yet, so it could withstand threats like Dracovish and Knock Off users better, which ended up coming in very useful in the game as it ate Knock Off from Weavile with ease.

Week 2 vs DNNP

Against DNNP I wanted to use something that would have a good matchup against both offense and fatter builds, since I knew he's not afraid to use either, so I put together this team. Sand provides the speed control and Dragapult countermeasure I wanted vs offense, while Reuniclus is able to tear apart many defensive builds. Spikes support from Skarmory works great here, as Reuniclus tends to force a lot of switches and Excadrill provides hazard removal if necessary. No Iron Head on Excadrill is a bit unorthodox, but I really wanted Z-Giga Impact to nail common checks like Zapdos, Slowbro, and Rotom-W/H.

Week 3 vs Roginald

I wanted to use Dracovish before it got banned and it looked good vs Roginald, and I also wanted to continue the success I had with the Cinderace + Slowbro combination from week 1. I ended up putting together this team, which is essentially Dracovish and five U-turn or Teleport users. Fun fact: it had Mega Manectric on it at some point, but Jordy vetoed it.

Week 4 vs temp

This is for sure the most creative and fun team I've built this tour. I'd been wanting to use Nidoking as I felt it had the potential to tear apart common balance builds, except for the rather common Blissey. Substitute is a common move on Nidoking, so I went with Focus Punch to lure in and punish it. To be able to run this, I dropped Sludge Wave, as Earth Power + Ice Beam is insanely good coverage as is and it can take advantage of most Clefable anyway thanks to Substitute. From there, I added the deadly Tapu Lele + Magnezone core, as really one of the few things that could pose a roadblock to this core is Blissey/Chansey, which Nidoking lures in. If Magnezone traps a Corviknight/Skarmory, Earth Power from Nidoking tends to be very free too. Furthermore, Alomomola checks Cinderace and Dracovish, Bronzong provides Stealth Rock and checks Kyurem, Mega Lati@s, Tapu Lele, and even Garchomp and Landorus-T, and Mega Altaria provides Defog and checks Ash-Greninja and non-Steelium Z Heatran. I ran into a fairly terrible matchup between Toxic Heatran and Mega Scizor that ate Hidden Power Fire from Magnezone, but despite looking like a UU team I can promise you from testing that the team can definitely work and is very fun to use.

Week 5 vs devin

My descent into madness continues. This week didn't matter much and I knew devin tends to use very offensive builds, so I figured Trick Room with behemoths like Melmetal would be a cool pick. This is the most solid full Trick Room build I could come up with and it worked out well.

Semifinals vs Sabella

There were two things I wanted to capitalize on after I scouted Sabella: he used Mega Latias multiple times and the only Ghost resist he'd used so far was Blissey. Tyranitar can beat down Latias, so I went with a sand build and I added Substitute Gengar to capitalize on sole Ghost resist Blissey. My team suggested I'd use Mega Latias, which is a great Pokemon I hadn't used yet, so I made Tyranitar Choice Band rather than Mega. I ended up changing it to Latios so it could directly threaten Heatran with Earthquake, and Jordy had a great idea of giving it Thunderbolt over Psychic as it works nicely with Excadrill. This prep kind of carried me this game as Gengar claimed a kill straight away against a team without any Ghost resists, and after Tyranitar Pursuit trapped Dragapult it was open season for BoltBeam EQ Mega Latios.

Finals vs zugubu royale

There were a couple of things that went through my mind before putting this team together. I did a self-scout and realized I hadn't used any Clefable, Dragapult, Heatran, or Landorus-T so far in this tour, which are things that could be capitalized on by my opponent. I also noticed zugubu likes to use sand builds similar to what I used in week 2. In my game that week vs DNNP, I had to use Mega Tyranitar to check Heatran and so I realized if it were Steelium Z I'd have been in a lot of trouble. I also quite liked the idea of Modest Heatran + Wish Clefable he used against me. That is why I ended up going with offensive Steelium Z Heatran with Wish support from Clefable. I added Mega Scizor with investment to eat +1 Z-Phantom Force from Dragapult and to always KO it back with Knock Off into Bullet Punch, and it had Curse to 1v1 Swords Dance Gliscor. Unfortunately, in the game itself, it lost that 1v1 due to taking a critical hit into an absolute max roll, but that's the game we play I suppose.


Overall, this tour was definitely a fun experience. I wasn't too familiar with the tier itself, but with background knowledge from SM and SS and teammates like Jordy, Jho, Pannuracotta, Zneon, and Guardsweeper to fill in the holes it all went smoothly and I'm happy we ended up winning the tour.
I can also proudly say I went positive without ever using broken Dragapult

 

[Lyssa]

Hi, I wanted to share the teams i used/some ideas i had during the tours cause i think that some of them were cool. First of all, thanks to my manager for getting me and to my team for being cool even tho i wish we could interact more with the non-itas but alas. In particular Fardin and Geysers were really cool, I didn't know them before the tour and made it fun. I'm happy to end up 4-1 but rlly down on how i played the last game, but i'll talk about it later. Now, onto the teams.

Week 1 - vs PDT (W)



PDT was probably the opponent that i was the most scared of, I didn't really have a good track record against him in SM UU(even tho we didn't play that much against each others). All i know is that he was for sure bringing volturn since i've always been weak to volturn during the SM days and didn't adapt that much when it became standard in the meta. Also, i was 100% sure i was gonna run into the amoonguss(which is the reason my latias was stalk and i tried to bait the spore out as much as i could) and that infernape+specs tias would've done a ton of job against his usual builds. I got caught off guard by the hp grass manec but still managed to win the game with a lucky roll (that I thought was less close than it was, as it was a 50% roll iirc in the end). Nicknames are from eYe's, japanese album by Myth & Roid

Week 2 - vs Drud (W)



Ok so I was rlly busy that week and didn't build the team until the morning before the game and i had no clue of what to use. G-bro was making a rise in cg UU at the same time and i thought it was rlly broken and could be here too, so i wanted to try it out. I paired it with primarina since they have a fairly decent types sinergy and future sight enables me to click a stab forever. Honestly, it wasn't that good of an idea but i realized it too late. Rest of the team is fairly standard outside of rock head head smash aggron that i put to flex LOL, i wanted to see if i could catch a molt/heattom with this old sm uu tech and i did so i'm happy. The mu was good for me and the game ended up being onesided after i got the lati mindgames correctly. Nicknames are from some of the best songs by the japanese group Man with a Mission.

Week 3 - vs Cold Apple Soda (W)



Last week with Venusaur in the tier (even tho i believe it was broken i also think it was needed to balance some stuff, but whatever) so I really expected to face it. I decided to use a cool core with monofairy Altaria+zStored Washtom, aaaand i didn't run into a venusaur. But the rotom had an incredible mu, and after i avoided the crit from the chandy it was pretty much over. Not much else to talk about here, nicknames are some of the best songs from Nano.

Week 4 - vs Niadev (W)



Ok uh as you can see i had a few versions here. I really wanted to offensive special m-alt for like the entire week but i was lazy and ended up building 1 hour before the game. Sooo i just used rachi ye. Every version of this has issues(the link only has the one i ended up using) and i honestly don't think this team is that great but i played i think the game ok? kind of after i really messed up the first turns. I think my opponent had a rlly bad rachi mu(not much you can do about it rlly), but had a huge shot that wasted for no reason(i was trying to get my urshifu to die from helmet for the entire game, so i was able to clean up with rachi). Came down to math and, even tho i initially didn't get the 80% flinch, i ended up getting them after and rachi cleaned up. I don't quite remember why i made the other versions but there were some unplayable mus for everyone of them, i believe the mimikyu one in the middle was the coolest(mimikyu bo is rlly fun to play with for me as you have something that deals with offensive threats if you fuck up once/greed) but breaking skarmory would've been painful. Nicknames are from Antithese, album by my first story(and one of my favorite ones for sure).

Finals - vs Drud (L)



I really really REALLY wanted to play vincune since it's my signature mon and always has been, but i wasn't able to build anything i liked. I don't like the result of this that much but i think its a fine mu fish, if you don't run into diancie/watershifu. I ran into diancie and from mu i was kinda annoyed. I still has a very good shot but yday wasn't really my day and I played the game as bad as i could after the first few turns where i was doing a fine job, and the game ended with a reverse dpp action. There isn't much to add to the team, It's like vincune+tspikes+field control with rachi as a second wincond if you can get it off. I had a zeraora over rachi initially but this is for sure better. Nicknames are from the album that came out recently by Bring me the Horizon!

Bonus: Me trying to build sharkspikes for myself for the entire tour, without any good result.

I want to thank again my team for being a good enviroment and my opponent for all being cool with scheduling and stuff. This tier is fun and was a nice throwback to the sm uu days, even tho I don't see me playing this actively. I hope i didn't mess up too much with links and that my english is readable.