hey my nu help is no longer needed in spl, so i just wanna post this since ive been working on it since week 5 and just updating w/ every new week. for those who didnt know, i was helping the wolfpack nu slot this spl and made most of the teams used by earth and rodri. every week i usually tried my best to have 2-3 options for each of them in or at least have one build that they were happy with and that was tested a lot. usually these dumps are just the team that was used in the game, but i was overall pretty happy w/ the prep i put in and the teams i made so i decided to include the options that i had made during the week / what ended up being used at the end. i also already made a post on the teams from weeks 1/4 so i just cp'ed those from the discussion thread, with the addition of another team that for week 1. also sorry that this post is a bit long, originally was putting this together in parts, and it ended up being a lot longer than i imagined.
week 1 - vs snaga
the basic idea w/ this build was to go with either a strong flying type in order to take advantage of snagas low checks to them in his games from snake / open. the build is honestly pretty standard from there, a brolix defensive backbone to handle things like klinklang / emboar. mowtom aka best hazard control pre-drops in order to pressure all the rockers. sneasel + boar for the offensive presence, and ability to clean late game. (funnily enough teddeh 5/6 of these guys in his week 1 team as well). the spreads are fairly standard, curse lax bc the teams a bit brav weak, originally i had z hydro bro on here but earth was feeling a bit weak to mala so he made it bugz before the game. the viv spread is something i came up w/ when someone pointed out viv can be ev'd to live a few hits since you normally dont need that much spa anyway. this specific spread is to live both cb sneasels ice shard & scarf rotoms tbolt (at +1) so you can beat both of them. the teams a fairly standard take on balance pre-shifts, but i believe the team was fairly good and did what it needed to in the game.
this is the first build i came up w/ for the week when considering a viv build. the idea was that knock guzz was great at luring in things like null / other fat walls for viv to be able to clean late game. the evs here arent as polished. this build was fairly fun though, with things like roar silvally for goose. overall the reason we decided not to go with it was because it was just trying to do way to much with the few slots we had. there was a lot of pressure on audino mainly, and silvally being the only form of hazard control really sucked at times.
week 2 - vs eternally
now i cant claim any credit for this build, as that week i wasnt sure what direction to go with vs eternally, and the fact he knew / had access to just about every team i had made in the past ~6 months meant we couldnt try to recycle any old build either.
ABR took the charge instead, and decided to grace us w/ his nu building for the week. he decided to build w/ subtox doom, a set that might seem puzzling at first, but if you try it out its actually amazing (still is in the current meta). i played with this build a lot in order to optimize it after abr was done building it, and wrote up a
few notes for earth on how to play it / threats that the team faced. if you are planning on using a build similar to this / editing it for the current meta, it is worth a read and explains a lot of the sets / evs on the team.
week 3 - vs hootie
this is probably the week im most disapointed with in terms of prep, mainly because i didnt trust my gut when it came to what i expected hootie to bring and got punished hard because of that. this team was just an edit of something
Eternally had passed me earlier in the week and it honestly wasnt optimized as well as it could have been. the lack of a z move (should have been on venu) and just overall polishing should have been done, but it was something i scrambled to put together last minute because i ended up not trusting the team i had been putting together all week (the one below this). however this loss did lead me to trust my gut on matchups more, and led to more solid teams for the next few weeks.
this was the team i originally came up to use against hootie, and it was a really fun offense build that would have easily beaten the type of teams hootie had been using (and the one he brought). this was the build that pursuit don first showed up on, as i really wanted it to pair with zangoose (though the first public showing of suit don was week 5). the idea behind this build was just go all out offensive w/ a bd goose build since hootie relied on a lot of passive mons like altaria to finish off his teams. memento whims was an obvious partner (s/o 49 for taking this core from the wolfpack chat >:[ ), with grass z since there was a leftover z move and it pressures slowbro / slowking easier. the next two mons were just a solid offense core i ended up really liking in ebelt boar + scarf phox as they manage to beat a lot of each others checks. rotom was the last mon for some hazard removal as there were 5 grounded mons, and it also gives you a way to pressure bro-lix. sitrus was added to check slowbro / slowking easier as that was the toughest mu for this team to face.
week 4 - vs ict
i had been wanting to build w/ sd kabu since seis rose since its a really potent sweeper w/ weak armor (think slightly worse barb). the rest of the team is based around supporting it, i originally started with the idea of wanting to use dug this week since you can do sludge dug + sd kabu for some fun, but it ended up deviating from that quite a bit bc having two frail "sweepers" esp w/ dug as the rocker wasnt working out in testing, so i played around w/ diff options like don / pilo until i realized lix was just the best fit here. dual status rotom is hot rn imo, being able to get the para off on things like whims / boar / emboar, which are things that usually come in once you reveal its wisp / hex is so nice for a kabu sweep late game w/o having to worry about offensive venu / whims beating you w/o a speed boost. alt bc its the best hazard control w/ mowtom gone imo, whims because i wanted a pivot into bulky waters that wasnt rotom, and scarf phox just as a fast cleaner. regarding set choices, growth chloro whims was bc i was scared of the sun mu and i didnt feel you really needed a diff move, so growth just worked best. originally had giga > eball, but the power diff is just huge esp when you wanna use it vs lix and co. ice beam alt for winning the alt wars that are becoming super common atm, tho flame is a fine choice for this team as well. overall this teams fairly solid and has a good matchup vs a majority of the meta imo, and had good odds to win in a tricky endgame vs ict as well.
week 5 - vs zukushiku
coming off of mids i was a little burnt off on building / wasnt sure what to use 100%, but i made this build near the end of mids. i wasnt 100% sold on it myself, but i really wanted to go with a pursuit don + eject bro build bc raiders were big fans of spamming stuff like scarf phox / rotom so being able to trap them was nifty. there was also the cool mechanic where eject button stops uturn, so if they brought scyther (i was expecting scarf), you can still get the damage off on it w/ don, preventing it from just spamming u-turn like it can vs most balance builds. this ended up pairing rlly well w/ specs accelgor, the slot itself was originally a vika @ the start, but i realized w/ the slow duo of don + bro you want the speed that accel offers + the spike support. ice was bc alt was hot back then, but hp psychic is also another good tech for croak. cryo was added for a spinner bc this build 100% needed a way to remove sr / spikes, + accel has spikes of its own so defog wasnt looking like a hot pick for this team. knocks actually really good bc you can knock null / lix and break through them w/ accel fairly easily. scarf venu bc i needed speed control + was a nice tech since nobody else had really been running it. scrafty rounded off the team as scarf venu does have the potential to lure whims + its a solid mon w/ shed skin to set up on brolix cores which were expected.
overall this was probably one of my favorite teams that i built this tour, and i used it a lot after to ladder as well so i would def give it a try. didnt really have any other ideas / teams built for this week, so thats all you guys get.
week 6 - vs teddeh
vs teddeh there were a few ideas floating around, but rodri right from the start wanted to stall him. he already had a build + it was doing amazing in tests so he decided to just roll w/ it and it did get the mu he wanted which was nice. im not including the import bc it was his build + im not 100% sure he wants me to be the one to post it so ill leave that up to him. however there were a few other ideas i had for ted since i didnt want him to just have stall be his only option in case he had a last minute change of heart.
this was one of the first ideas i had after looking @ teddehs teams. z ground vika was a fun tech
Ban Manaphy showed me pre-season and i figured if there was anyone to bust it out vs it was going to be ted. the problem was i was never able to get a full build that i liked for it, as they all ended up having different weaknesses.
another options i came up w/ that week was this webs build that had some fun techs for most of teddehs normal stuff. if he decided to roll up w/ golbat fat again z rock scrafty under webs was a sick idea i had during snake, but never really built w/ it. z rock allows you to ohko whims at +1 so if you dd up w/ rocks up you can bust through it. also mauls golbat which was common removal for ted. the rest of the team is fairly standard webs stuff, scarf lisk is a fun tech ive been using on other builds as well just bc its in such a nice speed tier + volt switch for that momentum.
this was probably the first z celebrate + growth venu build, and i made it just for general use since i didnt think it would be that great vs ted just in case he did bring bat. this did have techs for that though, w/ 3 atks scyther + dual defog to support it. overall this is a really fun team imo, some solid volt turn w/ scyther + silv + rotom, and one of the best wincons in the tier in z celebrate venu. toxic pilo is also a fun mon to use since you can just tox bro on the switch in once and it has a hard time coming in again vs you.
week 7 - vs pohjis
this week i actually built quite a bit and ended up w/ 3 solid builds and i wasnt 100% sure which one to go with so i left the choice up to earthie :3. this is what he decided to run w/, and i think it was a cool idea in theory. coil eel was the focal point of this build. the idea was you pressure the hell out of bro lix cores as they have 0 way to touch you and you can just coil up into rest. ive been wanting to use eel for a while, and this was probably the best time i thought it would be able to be pulled off. fire punch was the coverage move of choice here, but honestly it can be quite a few things. i was toying w/ knock / drain / stalk during the week, and it really does just depend on the team / what you are expecting. in the end i told him to use fire punch on this vers as i didnt want to get overloaded vs a sd viriz as it was smth we had been weak to in previous weeks. this was my 6th? build that i built w/ eel so the mons kind of just fell in place as i was building. i also spent a lot of time trying to find the optimal croak that didnt lose vs palo + still pressure what it needed to. i originally thought z ice punch was going to be the way to go, then ghost z np before i finally settled on this one. the 44 spdef guarantees you live ep from 0 spa palo, modest means +2 z ghost kills slowbro + had good odds to ohko palo w/o having to boost. z fight vacuum may seem weird, but its the best way to still be able to pressure rhydon / steelix after having to give up focus blast.
the rest of the team was just support. this lass set was smth else ive been wanting to use for a while, the evs let it live pursuit -> tect -> burned suit from sneasel which lets you burn it + get up a layer which is dope. av king bc its hard as fuck to switch into, especially w/ spike support and dtail + future sight. lix bc good rocker, and scarf kabu may seem like an odd choice but it was def the best last for this team. there were 4 mons grounded + a serious lack of speed control, so having a solid scarfer that can remove if necessary w/o removing your own rocks + still pressure the entire unboosted meta is dope.
this was one of the other options i gave earth, and probably would have been the one i would have gone with if i was playing. the idea w/ this one was using an offensive garb set to get up spikes / tspikes + go in w/ sub whims / passimian / jellicent. sneasel + spikes is also really scary, and overall this team just function really well in terms of breaking down balance teams. this was prob one of my fav teams i built towards the later half of spl, as it was just so good at doing what it was supposed to do. sub end whims + spikes is also a dope concept bc you force a lot of switches @ first, and then people play around the endeavor or try to and end up losing 2-3 mons in the process. overall this teams really fun, and def smth i would give a shot to if you wanted to ladder / use some of these teams.
this was the final team and probably my least favorite out of them all, but that doesnt mean it was bad. this team was similar-ish to the first build, but without the spikes and the eel. it depended a lot more on croak basically being able to clean in a late game scenario, as there really was not a whole lot of offensive pressure. the whims set prob needs a bit of explaining, but i swr it works. metronome whims is dope bc you end up spamming moonblast a ton vs things like null / cryo / fat spdef mons that are forced to recover to keep checking whims. this lets you eventually just overpower them and win 1v1. tect was picked in the last slot bc it was a dope tech to mess w/ sneasel trying to get cheeky w/ knock or suit on the switch out of whims when they try to go for shard. honestly tect on an offensive mon is always dope and im not sure why ppl dont make use of it more, but w/e. this team prob could use a diff mon over xatu / cryo potentially as i went a bit overboard on the hazard control for this one more than likely. you prob do want smth more offensive to take advantage of the openings whims can break through, maybe smth like vanilluxe? honestly not sure but this team def had some fun techs and was worth consideration.
overall i built a lot more for this week, but i think it would be near impossible to go over all of them right now so ill just leave it at these three.
week 8 - vs kushalos
ok this is probably my all time favorite build from this spl, at least in terms of what was used. there were a lot of really nice techs in here that all just worked so well together in order to make this team really nice and easy to use. this was kind of a mish-mash of a bunch of ideas i was having at the time, so ill go over the sets really quickly. the cryo might seem a bit odd, but kush was spamming sneasel quite a bit @ the time, and this set just aimed at taking advantage of that. 180 spa guarantees hp fighting will ohko sneasel every time, and the hp + def guarantees you eat a cb knock off from full. this set is def a really viable option on cryo imo, bc a lot of times ppl pivot around it w/ sneasel expecting to take advantage of it, just to get ohkod in the process. sr don + bro is standard as fuck so im not really going to go over them, sd don was chosen mainly bc bu brav was a worry + sd don also still is great vs bulkier builds as well. celebrate venu bc its one of, if not the best sweeper in the tier (at least at this time), and it worked really well w/ hp fighting cryo removing cb shard as an option to revenge it. scarf passimian bc its just the best scarfer post boar, eq to help vs garb / croak if needed. the last mon went to incineroar (if you are using this team now make it intimidate), but this was a set i really wanted to try w/ emboar leaving in terms of pivot incin. i always thought av was bad bc you lacked recovery + got chipped way to easily w/ rocks + switching in a lot on special moves. this was the remedy i had for that in iapapa, as it uses the chip to your advantage. fire blast bc flare blitz doesnt do that much to lix + you dont want to be taking recoil all the time, knock off because removing items is optimal, u-turn because pivoting is nice, and will-o-wisp was the best last move imo, as you are not confined to use smth like fake out due to av, and it lets you burn stuff like rhydon that expect to just be able to sit on you.
now this was the other team i made in prep for kush, mainly bc rodri wasnt the biggest fan of the above build and wanted to see if maybe guzz would be able to get a better mu. after building it, i realized how shit this team turned out to be and honestly i dont even want to bother going over it bc it really was a bad choice / build. while it seems nice on paper w/ phatphox + guzz working well together, but it really doesnt get that much back from wish and this team kind of just gets steamrolled by standard toxic balance since nothing really wants to come in on slowbro that much. maybe this could be good w/ some edits, but till then there a reason i deleted it from my builder as soon as the week was over.
week 9 - vs the goomy
mono viable rby mons bc tin wanted to be the idiot NUnja!
semifinals - vs lax
going into playoffs i wasnt that happy w/ the stuff i was putting out bc i felt i was getting really stale w/ my building and my re-use of a lot of similar cores + reliance on certain sets / mons. starting w/ semis one big thing i wanted to keep an eye out for was the re-use of a rhydon / lix as 7/9 teams used in regular season had one or the other. i had been having a bit of fun w/ tort in testing and bc i knew lax had a fondness for heliolisk i considered it a smart pick. this was version 2 of the team, im putting the other version in hide tags bc i still feel it was a viable pick, but there were a few issues w/ it that rodri wasnt as comfortable with. the team itself is fairly standard, with a few of the mon choices needing a little explanation. tort spread is to comfortably take 3 hyper voices from specs heliolisk, and the moves are standard. scarf passimian bc its the best pivot scarf for balance builds that dont want to overindulge in hazard control / more speed control options. defog rotom bc you need a way to keep spikes off w/ a team this grounded. av slowbro was a something i really liked used after flcl / zuku started using it more and more in spl, as it gives you the physical bulk of a slowbro in order to check more fighting types (as opposed to slowking), but it keeps the offensive presence expected from slowking as well so there isnt as much of a trade as expected. sd incin acts as a solid wincon vs bulkier teams, and while im not a big fan of the mon golbat fit here bc you want a toxic sponge + a way to check incineroar. the spread is to outspeed 252+ incineroar + 3hko it with brave bird, and the rest kept in defense.
this is a bu scrafty build bc rodri wanted to see if there could be a cool build w/ this due to lax's balance's usually having problems w/ it. the first partner i wanted to use it w/ was plume due to the fact you dont always get lucky shed skins, a reason to use it over venu, and it can take on whims + fighting types that threaten scrafty as well. plume isnt the best whims check alone, so the next mon i wanted was smth that can pivot in + threaten whims, which is where scarf phox comes in. while the meta has been fairly unkind to scarf phox w/ suit don + doom popping up a lot more, it still does have some nice role compression here and is a great mon to rely on for checking a lot of fast paced threats. xatu bc i wanted smth to prevent how passive scrafty is early game, rotom for backup hazard control + a way to apply status around. pilo was the rocker of choice bc it can threaten xatu early game w/o having to use scrafty + shard is able to threaten whims. overall this team isnt the best, and in testing i found whims was still quite a problem to overcome since it can come in on 0 attack scrafty fairly easily, and by the time you've surmounted it, its usually too late in the game for scrafty to clean up anyway.
finals - vs zukushiku
going into finals i think i was a lot more confident in the direction of builds i wanted to use since zuku had a fairly clear pattern of builds the past few weeks. after putting together his builds from the previous weeks and just testing against them, one of the biggest weaknesses i saw was the ability for venusaur to punch a lot of holes in his team due to his high usage of slowbro (5/5 previous 5 weeks), along with lots of steelix. grass z was the first set i kind of thought of when it comes to breaking walls, as z celebrate is a great cleaner but z grass is much nicer early game. scyther was something i wanted to pair it with, as it works so well since a lot of things that like to switch into scythers uturn are forced out by venu. when i asked rodri about the core, he said he wanted two forms of removal w/ it since scyther gets beaten by rocks so easily. rotom was the obvious first choice for me, as similar to venu it can also come in on a lot of scythers checks to force them out, as well as keep momentum up with volt switch to pivot into scyther / venu. toise was the next choice for hazard control, and at first when it dropped i was convinced it wouldnt be that great. however after testing it out the previous few days on a few other builds, i realized its a lot better than i had given it credit for, as w/ refresh you cant really be worn down by things like steelix / slowbro. these two basically covered every hazard setter in the tier really well, and almost guaranteed that rocks wouldnt be up on our side of the field. pilo was the rocker of choice here since i knew 100% i didnt want a rocker that loses to xatu, as that may be the only form of hazard control on their side of the field, and pilo does a great job at pressuring it. the final mon was the pivot incineroar i came up w/ week 8, with eq > wisp. the main reason for incineroar here, and the pick of eq, was that the team was fairly week to houndoom and incineroar from the opps side of the field, and incin is a great pivot for both of them, with eq meaning you dont have to u-turn out and can instead just kill them.
overall i was really happy w/ how this build turned out as it was winning almost every test game, and its ability to pivot around almost every team w/ rotom incin and scyther, with the tools to keep rocks and spikes away was amazing. the game itself also got a great matchup, as zuku couldnt really keep up with the constant pressure that rodri was able to apply.
this was an idea rodri had at the start of the week, with the idea being bulk up brav would potentially have a great matchup vs zukus normal teams. the fact that zuku had solely been using toxic tect steelix instead of curse or roar meant that it was actually set up fodder for brav, as with the evs it tanks a heavy slam behind a sub at +1. i wanted some form of cleric on this build, as you can mess up a lot with brav taking scalds / unwanted status and thats where this uxie came in. another trend from zuku had been the fact in his 9 games, he had brought 0 sneasel. i felt fairly confident in this uxie set bc of that, as it was a great pivot to get up rocks + heal bell came in clutch a lot in games since you can check a lot of stuff multiple times, and play cleric for cryo / gastro / brav, all of which are status sponges. mono knock is something i disliked in the past, but with this team covering fighting types fairly well i figured knock off would be fine, but i did dislike the yama matchup a little @ the end, so psychic / psyshock are fair choices there. cryo was the removal pick here, as i didnt really feel that confident w/ anything else. non freeze-dry was something 49 swore by and said that the power really made up for the loss of being able to threaten slowbro (you just toxic it anyway). gastro was a really nice fit for this team as you have a cleric in uxie + it is able to check things like croak / elecs / some fighting types on all its own. grass z venu was picked for the same reasons as it was on the other team, just something that i found broke a lot of zukus balance cores. scarf doom was the last mon bc i needed speed control, but also something that can deal with cm phox + rotom. this set was something else suggested by 49, as it checked cm phox a lot better. overall this team was fairly weak to quite a few things, mainly stemming from the lack of a normal or flying resist. overall it was really fun to build with and use bu brav tho so im still a fan of trying to get the build to work.
other teams
honestly this post is getting a bit long for my liking, and this is the part that i decided to include last. these are just other teams i came up with without any specific opp in mind, but still really liked how they turned out + had some fun ideas on them. i can explain these teams more if ppl are really interested in them (idk why), but in general were just teams w/ some fun ideas that may have been a bit out there for spl.
other sets
Gallade @ Buginium Z / Fightinium Z
Ability: Justified
EVs: 124 HP / 160 Atk / 224 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Drain Punch
- Shadow Sneak
- X-Scissor / Psycho Cut
an idea i had when trying to see what else gallade has to offer. this is something that kind of stood out to me, tho i feel it would have been better in the earlier spl meta. w/ the current meta climate and a sharp decrease in scarf phox / rotom there isnt as much traction to this set as it cant really offer that much more than a normal sd gallade can. however if there is a rise in those two again, this set is def worth a look. sneak @ +2 has the chance to ohko both with rocks, and is a great way to catch ppl off guard. however gallade can just tank their hits instead and hit back with a diff move, but this is an option just to avoid taking the additional damage.
Poliwrath @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Protect
- Refresh
this was a set i had in oras that i really liked towards the latter end of the meta, and i feel it still has a semi-niche in the current meta. being able to check incineroar mainly, but also being able to soft check slowbro is huge. refresh is also huge to remove toxics from switching into steelix / bro, and is just a great tool in general. tox + tect is also just really nice in general in just about every tier, and wrath is a great mon to do it with.
Sandslash-Alola @ Icium Z
Ability: Slush Rush
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 40 SpD / 216 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Icicle Crash
- Leech Life
came up w/ this one i think around week 5, when we had to play the raiders the first time around. bc i felt hail could be a cool pick. i wasnt a big fan of just running the flat out three attack set as it is fairly easy to switch around till hail ends, leaving slash w/ just one kill most of the time. sub was an option i considered bc it takes advantage of all of those switch ins fairly easily. ice z > bug z for the harder hit vs things like passimian, tho bug z can be used as well to get the straight ohko on bro (tho its never really needed). i shelved the idea then bc emboar was running around and it was to big of an issue for hail to overcome, but i think it does have potential in the current meta, even tho making a good hail team always eludes me.
honestly not that many other teams / sets to show off bc most of them ended up in spl one way or another so i dont really see the need to repost them here, and there are still a few i want to keep to myself.
conclusion
just want to end this w/ some quick shoutouts since this is the place for me to do that, though im going to keep it to nu shoutouts for the most part. thanks to tony / anti / abr for letting me into the wolfpack since before day 1 in order to help w/ the drafting, and letting me basically get who i wanted for nu and putting their confidence me week after week in terms of my building. shoutouts to earth / rodri for trusting my teams week after week, and bringing in all the wins. and also shoutouts to the ppl who helped me test just about every one of these teams eternally / disj / hootie / kay. couldnt have done it without you guys n_n
