Resource RBY Cup X - Teamdump, Game Overview & Analysis, Viability Rankings

RBY CUP X - TEAMDUMP

I. Path to Finals
II. Finals - Set 1
III. Finals - Set 2​
I. Path to Finals:

Team 1: Big6 - Counter Lax
:alakazam: :starmie: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:

Big6 is my favorite team to use in RBY over the past several years. As of writing this, I have a record with a couple different variants of 14-0 in RBY Invitational, which is pretty crazy. To me this speaks to this team's overall consistency. I won't go over the nuances of big 6 much because they should be known at this point, but I feel this team can outplay and win vs legit any matchup it encounters. While it may not always have a matchup edge, it will be playable at worst, especially if you make sure to account for the team's biggest on-paper weakness (Zapdos). It has other weaknesses of course, but that's the most known and significant one. This variation is what I leaned on a lot before finals. I'm a huge fan of Mega Drain on Exeggutor, as it's a highly versatile move that has many uses, one of which gives Alakazam more to do in openings against Starmie (paralyzing it, as Mega Drain allows you to break paralyzed Starmie and hopefully force sleep on something else). As I fine-tuned this variant during RBYWC/Invitational, I felt at the time I wanted Counter on either Chansey or Snorlax due to having no normal resist. I wanted SingToss Chansey for Jynx, so that left Snorlax being an offensive Counter variant. Blizzard on Tauros is flexible, but I liked these set choices to swing Rhydon matchups more harsly in my favor. I think Snorlax needs boom on this team or else you're much weaker to Zapdos. I never liked Reflect + Hyper Beam and especially not Reflect + EQ on this team. That's asking to lose to Zapdos and Tauros, imo. I also originally had SurfBolt Starmie, but eventually favored PsyBlizz due to Exeggutor's popularity rising and the better matchup into Zapdos.

Team 2: MieEggDon - Rest Egg
:starmie: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:

My favorite Rhydon team, and my most used team in RBY Cup. Over several years I never had much success with this 6, but as I created what I consider my own variant with my favorite sets, the team clicked a lot more with my playstyle. You have flexibility with this 6 in many ways, such as with the lead, Starmie, Snorlax, Exeggutor, and Tauros sets. As this team's already good against Zapdos and features Rest Exeggutor for more longevity against opposing Exeggutor, I liked SurfBolt Starmie here. This set works well over a longer game, has great coverage and synergy with this team, the strongest hit against Tauros, and notably hits Slowbro and opposing Starmie. With this Exeggutor set (no Mega Drain or Explosion), you need Starmie to hit opposing Water/Psychic types. Rest Egg is what makes this team click for me, as it gives you significant favor in other MieEggDon mirrors where your opponent's Egg lacks the same longevity. It helps your matchup against Alakazam, opposing Surf Starmie, and makes Egg much more flexible to use. While you lack Explosion, I feel that the most important targets for this move are Zapdos, Chansey, and opposing Exeggutor, which means pairing Rhydon with Exeggutor makes Explosion quite droppable. Another key set is my favorite Reflect Snorlax set (RefBoom), as this one is the most consistent and flexible in a longer game, notably packing boom to hit Tauros, which is important because this team is structurally Tauros weak, with Rhydon being slower and more susceptible to it than other fillers like Zapdos and Alakazam. Tauros is Rest to give it more longevity during a game, support it in pressuring Starmie for Rhydon, and assist in breaking Snorlax, especially RefEQ variants which can give Rhydon teams some more trouble.

Since cup ended, this team has had a lot of success in classic playoffs, including from Fakes, Zokuru, Luthier, among others.

Team 3: BroDon - Laxless
:chansey: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :alakazam: :slowbro: :tauros:

The best Slowbro team currently, in my opinion. I've always liked the BroDon core, as it has great synergy and maximizes Slowbro's flexibility and output, but I've always hated the teams people have used them on. Notably, MieBroDon + Normals was something that has seen use in the past. This team has Sing Chansey as its only sleeper, has high type redundancies, and is extremely slow, featuring all of Slowbro, Rhydon, and Snorlax. I don't think you can use those three Pokemon together feasibly on one team. I decided to take advantage of Slowbro's typing and bulk, and use it in combination with Rhydon and drop Snorlax. This team was inspired by ABR's CloyDon Laxless in invitational. Slowbro > Cloyster retains similar physical bulk, but allows you to lead Chansey much more easily because Slowbro punishes Jynx pretty well, provided it doesn't get instantly frozen. BackZam has great synergy with Slowbro, giving a nice answer to BoltBeam Chansey and giving a nice speed control, outspeeding Starmie and Tauros. I opt for Mega Drain > Rest on Exeggutor to hit Starmie, and Slowbro already provides the defensive utility against Alakazam. Really cool team imo, but you really need to know what you're doing to pilot it well compared to more standard teams.

Team 4: Double Electric Double Grass
:jolteon: :zapdos: :exeggutor: :victreebel: :snorlax: :tauros:

I used this team only once this cup, against Oligen1 in round 6. You can afford a more ice weak team with Jolteon lead, as it denies early momentum from PsyBlizz Starmie and can even do well against Jynx. To synergize offensively with both Jolteon and Zapdos, I went with Exeggutor and Victreebel, which both have Grass STABs to punish ground types heavily while breaking MieDon defensive cores. Victreebel is one of the most underrated Pokemon in the meta imo. It functions easily as solo sleep, spreads para, and has a very powerful Razor Leaf. Both the elecs and the grasses have strong synergy with one another offensively. Two other games where this team was featured is RBYWC finals, where I used it against Ultinooba, and Luthier vs SoulWind in RBY Cup Round 4 Game 2. Really fun team, but also one that takes a lot of skill to use, imo. It's suited for my playstyle and I'm not sure how others would enjoy using it, which is why most high profile RBYers have not touched it.

These are the only teams I used in RBY cup up until finals. However, with finals being a round robin, I decided I needed to make adjustments to my approach and new tweaks/teams were made.

II. Finals - Set 1:

Team 1: MieEggZap - RefSDLax
:starmie: :zapdos: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:

In finals, I shifted away from offensive Snorlax sets and gravitated towards more balanced ones for my more balanced teams. I never liked MieEggZap much and struggled to find a variant that I vibed with, but decided by using this Snorlax set it ticked for me much better. PsyBlizz Mie + Mega Drain Egg targets both the Rhydon defensive cores (MieDon and EggDon, respectively) depending on what's sleep sacked. I usually like to sleep sack Chansey on this team but it really depends what you face and what your gameplan is. By opting for this Snorlax set, you have a better matchup into opposing Zapdos, Jolteon, Tauros (you have no normal resist), Chansey (long term switchin), among other threats. While Gengar walls you, Zapdos teams usually do very well into Gengar teams and while Rhydon "walls" you, Self-Destruct breaks their subs, so they can't get a free sub unlike against Hyper Beam. The team can move as fast paced or longer term as you want to play it. I think this take on MieEggZap is very solid and I liked it a lot, as I used it vs Isza once in each finals set. Luthier also used this team against Zokuru in classic playoffs.

Team 2: Big6 - RefSDLax
:alakazam: :starmie: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:

Seeing a theme here? I didn't feel as confident using Counter Snorlax on this team anymore, and decided if I'm not going to use Counter, I wanted this Snorlax set. Self-Destruct is featured for similar reasons to MieEggZap: improves your matchup against Zapdos, Tauros, doesn't give a sub to Rhydon, and can blow up Chansey in a pinch for a Psychic sweep. The sets I have here continue to give me options for more offensive opening lines while giving me flexibility to play a longer game. I used this team vs Isza in game 2 and twice against Eeveeto.

These are the only two teams I brought to set 1.

III. Finals - Set 2:

While I did not bring any new teams against Isza, I knew I had to change my approach vs Eeveeto based on our first set. I decided I wanted to make new teams to account for his unique approach to the tier. While building new teams, I started to bounce my ideas off ABR and chuva, especially the former for Team 1, as he used the exact same 6 last year in RBY cup finals, and the latter for Team 2.

Team 1: ZamMieVicNite
:alakazam: :starmie: :dragonite: :victreebel: :snorlax: :tauros:

VicNite is a potent offensive wrap core that can punish some of the most standard teams in the tier. However, I wanted to punish the least standard teams by bringing this (more on that later). ZamMie opening can bluff your team being more normal before revealing your wrappers, but it also helps streamline your openings, especially against Jynx. Starmie is SurfPsy here, which is a very uncommon set these days, because I wanted Surf for Jynx and Psychic for drops to support the wrappers and offensively pressure Chansey. The rest of the sets are standard. You definitely want double EQ normals when you have both Victreebel and Dragonite, which can still cripple/wear down Gengar but not short term. This is also the only team I brought with no Exeggutor, as the VicNite core is already quite strong into Rhydon and Vic takes a lot of Exeggutor's defensive utility, aside from the Psychics (unless your opponent has SurfBolt Mie).

Team 2: ZamEgg + GarCuno
:alakazam: :articuno: :exeggutor: :gengar: :snorlax: :tauros:

This was my best attempt at a modern day Articuno offense. Gengar and Articuno have strong offensive synergy, as they can pivot well around Tauros (Gar on Slam, Cuno on EQ), and they individually break the main Rhydon defensive cores. PsyBolt Gar pressures MieDon core and Articuno destroys EggDon cores. The unique thing about Articuno is that once it's set up for, it is the most lethal Pokemon in RBY, easily able to run over a full team. However, setting up for it is difficult, especially doing so in the teambuilder. Alakazam gives a strong neutral and offensive opening. Exeggutor (sleepless) maximizes Starmie pressure while packing Explosion to remove Starmie/Chansey. Gengar is the only sleeper because you open with this team super aggressively and don't mind spreading paras early to put pressure; sleep can come later. Gengar also packs Explosion to remove Chansey and it has strong offensive synergy with Articuno. Snorlax and Tauros are teched to put heavy pressure on Cloyster, who most often is switching in to check these Pokemon. Hyper Beam Snorlax is the best option to break Cloyster, and Thunderbolt Tauros puts heavy pressure not only on Cloyster but the CloyJolt core, which can be troublesome for this structure. It also gets higher rolls against Starmie once it's paralyzed. Overall, I love this team. It's so much fun to use and it's quite unexpected what's coming in the back.

Team 3: JoltEggZam
:jolteon: :alakazam: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:

ABR notably used this 6 in SPL vs Felix and Isza has been having success with it in cup and invitational. I know ABR used Double-Edge Egg and maybe some other sets, and I'm pretty sure Isza used the same variant ABR did. I decided to go with my own spin on it, which probably ends almost identically to ABR's. The main change I made is Rest + Explosion Exeggutor, to help compensate for the Rhydon weakness Jolteon exacerbates and to blow up Exeggutor/Chansey/Zapdos to support Alakazam and Jolteon. The rest is pretty straightforward and each set has reasons that were already explained for earlier teams.

RBY Cup X Teams - Visualized

:alakazam: :starmie: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
:starmie: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
:chansey: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :alakazam: :slowbro: :tauros:
:jolteon: :zapdos: :exeggutor: :victreebel: :snorlax: :tauros:
:starmie: :zapdos: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
:alakazam: :starmie: :dragonite: :victreebel: :snorlax: :tauros:
:alakazam: :articuno: :exeggutor: :gengar: :snorlax: :tauros:
:jolteon: :alakazam: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
Overall, I used more unique teams in finals than I did the entire way leading up to it. Especially against Eeveeto, I needed to change my approach. But apart from that, I went with using consistent teams that I arranged to my liking and specific preferences and trusted my ability to outplay my opponents with good teams. And even vs Eeveeto, I think the teams for the most part fall under that blanket: good, consistent, gives me lots of options to outplay.

Interestingly, I didn't use Jynx or Cloyster this cup: two Pokemon I really like. I guess in finals, neither seemed particularly appealing against my opponents. The most notable part of my usage is probably my willingness to use Victreebel compared to other top players, and that once in a while I'll go wild and use something crazy offensive. I also used no Gengar lead because I think it's terrible, generally. More on that in my VR. You will very rarely catch me using lead Gengar. My last public usage of it was vs Troller in RBYWC. I also did not opt for the trendy Zapdos lead, which I also find underwhelming and its usage gives off a bit of new toy syndrome. Viable certainly, but not as great as people are saying. Zapdos is so much more threatening in the back. Anyway, thank you for reading my teamdump! I hope you enjoyed it.
 
RBY CUP X - Game Overview & Analysis
Going into this tournament, I had no desire to play classic, but I couldn't resist signing up just to play RBY. I'd been having a lot of fun building and playing this tier over the year, and maybe I had the slightest bit of fomo after my classic run last year. I don't have the time I used to in terms of prepping, nor do I want to put that kind of time in. It's excessive; and I learned the hard way in classic last year that prep can easily screw you over. I wanted to use teams I really liked that were consistent and barely did any prep for most of this tournament. That said, I still did my due diligence -- looked at my opponent's games and made conscious decisions for what to load each game rather than doing it randomly. I will write my thoughts going into each round and afterwards very honestly. Sorry if it offends anyone, but I don't think it should. In round 1, I was given the win, so this tournament started for me at round 2.

Round 2 - vs Texas Cloverleaf:
Texas Cloverleaf is not a random, as according to Roro he was the #1 seed in the first Smogon Classic, but I had never seen him play RBY and replays weren't public at this point. I just assumed I'd do fine loading consistent teams that I liked. Overall, the set was uneventful, but had an interesting game 3. I did what I needed to do against someone with less RBY proficiency/experience and moved on in the tournament.

Game 1: :alakazam: :starmie: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :gengar: :cloyster: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
I played well early and had a strong opening, but my opponent's Cloyster became dangerous after he immediately crit Chansey T12. In response, I pivoted to my Counter Snorlax on Hyper Beam and then swapped Chansey in to take the Self-Destruct. He also crit my Snorlax as I tried to boom on Tauros and froze Starmie on the second Blizzard aimed at it. Feel like I couldn't do too much differently. Circumstantially, it was tough, and my opponent got a lot of breaks and did what he needed to do to win the first match.
Game 2: :alakazam: :starmie: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :jynx: :starmie: :rhydon: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
Not much to say about this game. My opponent instawoke with lax after forgetting about sing and then conceded his Starmie to sleep immediately. I kept momentum the whole game and he couldn't get much going.
Game 3: :starmie: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :gengar: :slowbro: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
My opponent brings a pretty bad, slow team consisting of Slowbro, Exeggutor, and Snorlax. However, the matchup is definitely playable for him, as Slowbro is a threat to MieEggDon. After using Big6 twice in a row, I wanted to make sure I was good against Zapdos in the third game, so I loaded this as my comfort team. I go for the Egg T1 into Gar Lead line hoping to catch Chansey, but he hypnos and I don't mind too much, as Gengar lead indicates that there's a high likelihood of no Rhydon. Trying to Thunder Wave the Gengar, I end up landing it on Chansey instead, which seems tough but isn't much of an issue given I can heavily pressure it with Snorlax and my own Rhydon. He lets it take a Body Slam while paralyzed and I get a fortunate Crit-Para. I then crit Snorlax with the next slam as he counters me, which almost knocks out my lax and comes as a bit of a surprise, seeing as Gar Lead + Counter Lax is very rare. Now I know I'm facing something weird. I EQ in case he doesn't have Exeggutor and then start to engage with Chansey. I keep throwing aggressive Seismic Tosses to dissuade his Chansey from coming in safely to heal. I manage to sleep the Egg which is really good for Rhydon, and I throw another stoss and catch his Chansey coming in. He then pivots into Gengar on my weakened Chansey and I read the Explosion by swapping to Rhydon.

Slowbro comes in, and instead of engaging with it with Starmie, I opt to first use Chansey. I don't want Starmie taking a paralysis, especially using this slower team, as I want to preserve its ability to outspeed Tauros. He ends up going to his 3% Snorlax and I decide to swap into Rhydon to take another potential boom. He hyper beams and reveals Body Slam, Counter, and Hyper Beam, leading me to believe he's boom, so I decide to heal Rhydon with Rest. However, he turns out to have EQ filler, which is a bizarre set, and double crits my sleeping Rhydon to death. Starmie is a free followup and he sacks Chansey. Slowbro comes in, and I feel like many players would stay in and tbolt, but I decided it would be better to not take the Thunder Wave still, and I went Chansey instead. I manage to stoss him down to a low percent, and swap my 3% Snorlax as he rests. This gives me a free Self-Destruct. Either I mess Slowbro up or I deny him from burning sleep turns; either outcome is good for me. Tauroses trade down and I sack Chansey finally, and now Starmie is in and outspeeding Tauros comes in handy. The game ends with Starmie and Tauros cleaning house.

This game is a good exercise on how to deal with Slowbro ingame. Especially with MieEggDon which can be weak to Slowbro.

Round 3 - vs Zokuru:
Zokuru is someone I know very well. He's a very good, all-around player and was doing really well in Classic's early stages. He's made Classic Playoffs before, and recently came off a solid SPL and a deep Masters run. That said, in my opinion, RBY was his weakest old gen; and while we haven't played in tournament that often, I have a good track record against him and stylistically I do well into players like him. It definitely helps that we're friends and I'm very aware of his preferences overall. I looked briefly at what he ran and I saw some outdated teams. Figured as much. I wrote this down quickly:
zok g1 vs monai: mie lead (eggzam) (bb chans) (boomlax)zok g2 and g3 vs monai: jynx mie don (psyblizz) (bb chans)
zok g2 and g3 vs monai: jynx mie don (psyblizz) (bb chans)
looking like backzam is gonna do well
Despite these very brief notes, MieEggDon looked quite safe into him. I was confident I'd beat him if he loaded Big6, especially if he was using outdated versions, and MieEggDon, especially my variant, works well into JynxMieDon, imo. In game 2, after using Rhydon g1, I had a gut feeling he would load Zapdos, so that was my time to debut my BroDon Laxless team which featured BackZam, something I noted would do well against him. Overall, I thought I had a solid showing this set. I was more patient than my opponent in the games and I got a lot of calls right against him ingame.

Game 1: :starmie: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :alakazam: :starmie: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
He gets the opening advantage with Egg as I go Chansey, and I decide to sleep sack my own Egg, assuming with Zam lead he doesn't have Rhydon. I sleep Zam and go for an aggro Slam on his Egg as he tries to swap it in on my resting Lax. He decides to instaboom his Egg on my Chansey -- great for my Rhydon and Starmie. This was a really bad boom from him, especially considering he had a Snorlax at 100% and unstatused. He tries to swap Tauros in on my sleeping Egg but I double Starmie to catch him. I then twave his Chansey coming in and go for an aggro Surf to cover his options. If he doubles Tauros, I can do major damage. If he stays in with Chansey, I'm still getting chip. It was a bit risky but I felt confident in making the read. I didn't feel the need to para Tauros especially if he was Rest for some reason; I wanted damage for my endgame plan. We trade paras with Starmie and now my plan comes into fruition -- my Tauros is advantaged in the mirror. I start pressuring his Snorlax with Tauros and heal off the damage with Rest. I manage to come out on top of the Snorlax mirror, and I give his Zam no opportunitity to snowball -- I just boom it immediately. I end the game with my Tauros, which was favored against his.

Imo, he gave this game away with the early boom on Egg. I got more turns right overall and didn't let him get much started. My endgame, even if I didn't crit his Lax with my own, was favored against his.
Game 2: :chansey: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :alakazam: :slowbro: :tauros: vs :jynx: :zapdos: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
Slowbro gets a strong opening by setting up on Jynx and crippling Chansey. Zapdos reveals itself early and gives a free Rhydon entry. Fast forward, once he's revealed his whole team, I notice his tendency to always hard Tauros on a sleeping Pokemon. I pivot my slept Chansey into an Ice Beam, then immediately go to Alakazam as he goes to Tauros. I repeat the same sequence again: pivot Chansey, double Zam on his Tauros. He blows up prematurely on my Exeggutor with his, which is also good for me -- he removes an extra time pivoting into Rhydon for not too much gain, but it's not like the game 1 boom. It's fine but suboptimal, probably. I pivot around his Tauros by going into Rhydon on Slam and Zam on Blizzard. I catch him going to Tauros on my Chansey pivot for the third time but he wins the bull tie. I went bull to cover the option of him staying with Chansey and him going bull. He swaps Jynx into Zam and I use this opportunity to heal Slowbro. I pivot into Zam on Blizzard once again, and he sacks his Jynx into Zam. He hards chansey and tries to double Snorlax, expecting my Chansey to pivot once again probably, but I don't let him do it and I Psychic the Lax for major damage. I take the para on Zam to get a special drop on Chansey so I can get Slowbro in. Rhydon comes in on Zapdos again and I claim another kill on his Chansey. He then decides it's all or nothing to break Slowbro with Tauros, and he doesn't get the luck he needs and I close out the game.

I think he could have done more and didn't need to expend Tauros at that point. He had a full HP Zapdos and he could have played more mindgames and doubled in Tauros. I think he lost patience here and tunneled.

Round 4 - vs Samu77:
After facing two names I had heard of before -- Texas Cloverleaf and Zokuru -- I now faced one I had never heard of. He had only played two public games with old versions of big6. Didn't think about this one at all. Just decided to load comfort, which meant big6 twice. Set was uneventful overall.

Game 1: :alakazam: :starmie: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :starmie: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
I read his Explosion by going into my slept Zam. I miss sings with Chansey and my Egg is low due to two crits on it. After he tries to sleep sack Rhydon, I decide to Mega Drain to punish the stay and heal a ton. I Sleep Powder again in case he decides to preserve it. I Psychic turn 20 trying to catch the Rhydon on the boom but he goes Chansey. Game comes down to Chansey Starmie Tauros vs Chansey Starmie Tauros endgame. His Tauros is parad and my Chansey is parad. I catch his Tauros trying to double and sleep his Starmie with Chansey and the game ends.
Game 2: :alakazam: :starmie: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :alakazam: :starmie: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
I hard my 50% egg (chipped while trying to sleep Zam) onto Chansey in case he sings and I get crit with Ice Beam. My Zam gets an early wake and wears down Egg and Chansey. I KO his Lax by harding my own into Tauros Slam and countering. He crits my Lax with Tauros as he doubles it into my sleeping Zam and KOs it. I get a para on his chipped Starmie as it tries to Surf my bull. I read his Explosion by sacking my sleeping Zam. T66 I'm in trouble with Zam vs Chansey and fish + land a crucial Sing after his wake. He crits my full hp Starmie with Hyper Beam. He goes for a roll on my Chansey with his Tauros and I live at 1% HP and take it out. Game comes down to my Tauros at 44% vs his paralyzed 88% hp Starmie. I get the para and win the game in a close one. This game was kinda a haxfest. My opponent did decently but got the better end of the luck here.

Round 5 - vs Mimikyu Stardust:
Mimikyu Stardust is a known current gen player who made OLT playoffs a couple times and went even-ish in some tournament showings like WCoP, SPL, SCL? I think? Won't bother spot checking it, but I knew who he was. Additionally, he eliminated ABR in round 1 using a Kadabra. I knew he was a bit unhinged with his teams, but beyond that he's a decent player -- very aggressive. He wasn't that knowledge about the tier though. I knew he wouldn't be prepping and he was willing to play me super early, so after taking a quick look at his teams I determined my MieEggDon was very solid into him. If he brought it, I would certainly win the mirror with my sets and higher tier familiarity. During the set, I felt confident in it for every game, so I loaded it 3x. Overall my opponent made good, aggressive plays, but was held back by his inexperience in the tier. With more time investment in RBY he could be a threat.

Game 1: :starmie: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :chansey: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :starmie: :snorlax: :tauros:
He instawakes with his slept Chansey and dodges a Sing through para with his Exeggutor before immediately blowing up my Chansey. Once again, looking nice for my Starmie and Rhydon. I sleep his Chansey a second time before going to Tauros as he instantly wakes up again. Then, to not lose momentum, I decide to Body Slam his Chansey hoping for a crit/sing miss. He sings and lands it. Might be getting annoyed at this point. I sleep Chansey for the third time and then he swaps to Starmie who he lets take a para -- looking even better for Rhydon now. Instead of engaging with his 100% HP Snorlax, he decides to try to engage my Snorlax with his paralyzed Starmie, which gets parad a couple of times and gets KOed. Then we engage in a Reflect Lax mirror where he reveals Hyper Beam, even better once again for my Rhydon and eventually swaps to his Rhydon on my sleeping Snorlax. I go to Egg to deal with his Rhydon, but he Tail Whips me and I get parad trying to break his sub, which is a big threat. I swap back to my Snorlax then pivot back into Exeggutor trying to heal with Rest. I do the swap again and I break Rhydon's sub but my Egg is at 5%, but he goes to Chansey so I can heal again. I burn a turn of sleep with Egg and sack my Snorlax to his Tauros. He sends in his low Chansey with only one turn burned, and he wakes up early a third time. I go to Exeggutor because I have no other switchin and I want to paralyze Chansey (stoss not yet revealed). He sleep sacks his Snorlax and instawakes for the fourth time as I Psychic it; then, he crits Body Slam as I Psychic to finish it off. He revenge kills me with Tauros.

Endgame now is Starmie, Slept Tauros, and Rhydon against Chansey, Rhydon, and Tauros. I finally paralyze his Chansey and start to pressure him with Rhydon. He aggro doubles back to Rhydon against mine once and tries to do it again but I call him out on it and Surf him. He then doubles Tauros into my Rhydon and I double back to Starmie. I Recover on a para and he tries to double Tauros on Rhydon again but I call it out a second time and paralyze him. I'm looking more favored now. He tries to double Tauros for a third time and I call it out again, hitting him with Surf. The game is over at this point. A huge rng fest but I managed to pull through.
Game 2: :starmie: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :alakazam: :gengar: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
Chansey parad turn 1 and I land Sing on his Chansey -- good start. He pressures me with Exeggutor and lands a good double on my Rhydon. He tries to double Tauros into my Chansey but I midground with Exeggutor to reverse the momentum. I hit his Snorlax with Psychic and swap to Rhydon to catch the boom, which succeeds. I paralyze his Exeggutor which he trades with my para'd, crippled Chansey -- good trade for me. He goes Gar I go Egg on the double down. I hard into my weakened, parad Rhydon as he tries to Hypnosis and get paralyzed as I try to rest. He goes into his sleeping Chansey and I learned from last game I can't let it burn any turns. So I go to Tauros to try to pressure it while it burns sleep turns. I EQ the incoming Gengar and pivot to Rhydon as he tries to Hypnosis.

I'm getting a lot of these midgame plays correct, which is keeping me in the game. He Night Shades as I try to heal my Rhydon and I get parad for the third time. In response, I pivot to my Starmie on the next Night Shade and force him out. I double Egg but he ends up exploding, which takes me out. Zam and Starmie trade paras and he gets two more paras as I try to Recover and he pivots Tauros. I go to my 19% Rhydon on his Hyper Beam but he misses, so I can't punish it. We get into a Tauros mirror and his Tauros is down to 16% so I sack my paralyzed, crippled Starmie. My Snorlax and Tauros are looking good into his paralyzed Alakazam, his 16% Tauros, and his slept Chansey. He wakes up early with his Chansey at 16% and paralyzes my Snorlax as I get parahaxed again. He then crits Ice Beam on my Snorlax as I slam him and the game comes down to Tauros vs parad 100% Zam and 16% Tauros vs my 41% Tauros. I don't get the para I need and he wins the game.

Ngl, I got hella unlucky this game LOL. Feel like I did the best I could play-wise and didn't get any of the breaks I needed. My opponent didn't play badly at all. I just felt like I played better and got unlucky, but props to him for fishing where he needed to.
Game 3: :starmie: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :starmie: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
My opening is strong and I play this game carefully to avoid getting haxed. I Stun Spore his Rhydon through sub after landing a Sing on his Exeggutor, and I Stun Spore again on his double into Starmie. His Starmie and Rhydon are parad and his Exeggutor is asleep, which is an amazing early game situation. He swaps to Starmie on my Reflect then goes back to Snorlax and gets Body Slammed. Maybe he expected me to go Chansey on Starmie? I get a crit on his Snorlax and swap to Starmie to punish the Rest, but he Body Slams and paralyzes me -- fair game. I swap to Rhydon to punish the Hyper Beam but he misses, so I can't confirm the KO. Still, he's Reflect HB Snorlax, which is easy to exploit. I use his sleeping Snorlax to heal my Starmie and I paralyze it on the wake. I Surf it down while I'm full and force it to Rest early. I force it out and he goes to his Starmie which revealed Blizzard, but I'm not risking tbolt so I go Chansey to scout it. I start to go more aggro with Rhydon and force his sleeping Egg in, which I punish with Tauros, and he pivots to Starmie but I crit as it comes in and finish it with another slam.

He goes Chansey to try to paralyze me but I go to my own and deny him the momentum. He stays in and I paralyze him. I continue to use Rhydon to pressure his Chansey as he gets into Soft-Boiled range. He swaps to sleeping Egg and wakes up as I Body Slam it with Tauros. He goes to his Lax and my Hyper Beam misses, which isn't that consequential imo. He rests as my Rhydon comes in and I force him out to his Egg, which I put at 11%. He tries to Sleep Powder but I go to Chansey and he saves the 11% Egg as I stoss into Rhydon. He tries to engage with my Egg, probably fishing for a para, but I land a Psychic on Rhydon and he's at 7% and paralyzed. He Tail Whips and almost KOs my Egg but I Rest to heal and eventually finish him off. I don't want Tauros to hit me while I'm at -1 Def, so I go into Starmie, which he crits and it dies. We engage in a Tauros mirror, where he tries to Blizzard and misses. He then Hyper Beams, but I live and finish him off. At this point, the game is over and he can't beat Rhydon, which walls his Snorlax and owns his Chansey.

Round 6 - vs oligen1:

This deep in the tour, most people are competent and threatening players. Oligen1 is a name I had never heard, but chuva informed me that he's a ladderer who is the nicest guy ever. I looked and he was using unique teams that were his own; namely, a Zapdos lead offense with Lapras in the back. He had a bunch of quirky Chansey-less teams. I hadn't used Zapdos once this cup and figured this would be a good time to load it. I apparently had a Jynx team in my back pocket, but I'm not sure if I was gonna use it if the set went to game 3. Backzam once again looked solid into his BB Chanseys and quirky stuff, and he had a tendency to use electrics, so I had the BroDon in my back pocket. The team I made from RBYWC with lead Jolteon, Victreebel, and Zapdos looked very nice into him and I decided because I really liked that one to go with it for game 1. I wanted to catch him off guard because I suspected he might look at my usage, which at this point had been 3 teams. I liked Jolteon lead into the Zapdos lead stuff and he wasn't really using Rhydon. Whether he used Rhydon or not, Victreebel was strong into the Lapras stuff, so this bring was a no-brainer for me. This was an interesting set. Think my opponent unfortunately made some misplays in both the games which gave me greater chances, but I think his teams are really interesting and it was a strong first tournament on the webite for him!

Game 1: :jolteon: :zapdos: :exeggutor: :victreebel: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :exeggutor: :starmie: :lapras: :alakazam: :snorlax: :tauros:
Jolteon vs Exeggutor lead. Weird matchup. I just go for the paralysis as he sleeps me. I go to my own Exeggutor then swap back to Jolteon in case he tries to explode. He's paralyzed so I start to pressure it, which eventually forces him out into Lapras. I sack Jolteon to Lapras and start to get momentum with Victreebel. I miss Wrap on Alakazam and to my surprise, he switches. While I think he should have pressured with Zam, he ended up going for Exeggutor probably to try to heal it, which I can understand. Or maybe he didn't see that I missed; who knows. He rests with Egg and I go back to Victreebel to get a sleep. He sleep sacks Starmie (probably Surf), and I Stun Spore on the switch into his Egg. I Wrap him a couple times and call out the switch into his Starmie by going Lax. I try to Counter but he Ice Beams. I go to Egg who lives any hit from IceLax and I Psychic as he goes to Egg. I thought he might try to eat Explosion with his slept Starmie, so I Mega Drain, but Lapras comes in and finishes me off -- still fine, I got some chip.

Now, Lapras is in Zapdos range and it's time for Zap to go in. I get a nice crit on Zam and swap out to Lax, which covers an aggressive twave. I finish off Lapras after he tries to confuse me, but his Zam takes advantage and finishes me off with a timely crit and confusion hurt. I trade a para on Zap to finish his Zam, then I Agility with Zap and finish his Snorlax which is just in range of two tbolts. Rather than Hyper Beaming, my opponent clicks Blizzard lets my Zapdos para and chip Tauros. Victreebel suddenly looks unstoppable. I Wrap his Exeggutor and swap Tauros to punish the Starmie switchin and it finishes the game on its own. I'm pretty happy with how I played this game.
Game 2: :chansey: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :alakazam: :slowbro: :tauros: vs :zapdos: :starmie: :exeggutor: :alakazam: :snorlax: :tauros:
Zapdos lead vs Chansey. I decide to go for Sing in case he's packing Chansey and I don't mind sleeping it anyway bc I don't have Rock Slide on Rhydon. Seeing Zapdos lead, I decide to keep my Chansey awake and sleep sack my Exeggutor instead. I try to catch his aggro Explosion but fail, and he booms on my Chansey, which is still fine because I have Slowbro and Rhydon in the back. I go to Zam as he goes Starmie on the double down and it gives me a free Thunder Wave. Alakazam comes in which gives me a free Slowbro, which forces him to take paralysis on Starmie. I try to heal on his paralysis but decide ultimately to preserve it by going to Zam -- probably should have switched to Zam straight up. Against all odds, he 1v1s my Alakazam quickly with his Starmie. Not how that usually goes, but what can you do. I have no choice now but to fish with Exeggutor and hope for a wake, which I fortunately get as he goes Tauros. I hard Rhydon onto his chipped Zam to cover twave and Recover. Expecting Tauros, I go straight for EQ and then sack my Slowbro.

Game is looking more doable since he's Surf mie. I Slam as he switches Snorlax and I EQ in case he tries to Counter. I slam and then get the call right and Hyper Beam him to death. I swap to Egg on Starmie and try to Mega Drain it after a drop, but Zam comes in. Now, I directly call the Recover out and hard Tauros. I Body Slam as Zapdos comes in to take Hyper Beam, and slam it down to 9%. At this point, I decide this is a good time to heal my Tauros, who took chip from Lax, and I Rest. He wakes up as I do this. I then call out his Tauros double and instead of going to Rhydon to take a tbolt, I stay in with my Tauros. His Tauros got chipped by Rhydon, so I can just burn the sleep turn. Now both our Tauros are in Hyper Beam range and he tries to Body Slam to call out my switch, but I just finish him off and go for the tie. I get a psy drop on Zam as it comes into Egg and I swap to Rhydon and clean house.

He unfortunately didn't play how he needed to in the mid and endgame and gave me several opportunities to come back into the game after Zam died, but I can understand his thought process behind his moves. Just came down to me getting the calls correct.

Semifinals - vs elodin
Finally things get a bit more serious. I'm in semis of a cup for the first time and I'm facing an established player. elodin had been on a tear, taking down Kristyl, chuva, and Amaranth on his run to semis. I looked at his teams, though, and still came to the same conclusion. He wasn't going to prep for me and my usual stuff would do well against his. I went for MieEggDon in game 1 and faced a tough matchup in ZamCloyEgg, so I switched it up to big 6 for game 2. Then, in game 3, I expected him to expect me to recycle big6 again since it just won and my Rhydon team lost game 1, so I thought he'd load Zapdos so I went Rhydon again. He could have also recycled his Cloyster team, but I felt like I would win if it came down to game 3 -- I would have modified my approach ingame. It was a good set. Game 1 I misplayed and he played well in a decent mu. Got some breaks but deserved his win -- he was better. Game 2 he brought trash and didn't play a great opening which had the game snowballing in my favor. And game 3 I got a good mu, executed how I needed to, and edged out the win. Wp to my opponent, especially considering how good his run was relative to his lack of interest in RBY beforehand. Again, another player who could be a threat in this tier if he played it more and had more experience.

Game 1: :starmie: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :alakazam: :cloyster: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
I hard Egg as he goes Chansey and I sleep Zam and hard Tauros on his first sleep turn. He goes Cloyster to answer my Tauros. I go Chansey to force a Clamp and then pivot Starmie on the Clamp. I paralyze his Chansey coming in and go to my own Chansey as he Ice Beams -- I went to Chansey in case he clicked Sing. I Seismic Toss once and unfortunately get frozen on the second attempt. This should nerf Cloyster for the time being, though, as it can't freeze Starmie anymore. Snorlax is free into Chansey and he lets me Body Slam for a twave trade. Unfortunately, he heals as I get parad so he comes out unscathed. I get parad again as Cloyster comes in and go Starmie. He misses Clamp and I double to Snorlax on his Chansey to make progress. I go to Chansey on the Cloyster, probably in case he used Explosion, but this wasn't a good play. I should have gone Starmie. This allows him to burn a turn of sleep for free. I Psychic and hit his Egg, getting a special drop. I go Lax to prevent him from paralyzing me. I double back to Egg but he makes a good midground and goes Lax. I Psychic on the slam and he goes back to Egg on the second Psychic. I get to paralyze his Egg as he Psychics me. I Rest as he goes Chansey and double to Lax as he goes to Cloyster to wake it up -- good play by him. Cloy wakes up and I double to Lax on Chansey again. I force his Chansey out by slamming and Cloy gets parad as it comes in. I now double to Starmie, but this also isn't the best play because it's not going to make much progress. He also does well to double to Chansey on my Starmie. He heals Cloy as I go Starmie and I double Lax again. I use his sleeping Cloy to burn a turn with Egg then swap to Starmie on Blizzard. I eventually go to Egg as his Cloy is forced to rest and I wake it. He stuns and booms my Egg and starts to Clamp my Starmie recovering.

He gets Tauros in on my sleeping Lax and crits it twice with Body Slam. I played correctly trying to boom it, but that's the name of the game. The game goes on for longer but there's not much of a point to analyze it further up until another turn I misplayed. Turn 100 I should go for a Surf crit but instead go to Rhydon, which doesn't make progress. This was a big misplay. I think I checked out mentally from the game at this point, assuming it was done, and missed this potentially huge opportunity. Probably my biggest messup of the tour. Overall, I didn't play great this game; I could have played much better. I made a string of suboptimal plays in a tough mu. My opp got decent fortune but also played really well and deserved the win. Probably my worst showing of the tour.
Game 2: :alakazam: :starmie: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :starmie: :jolteon: :porygon: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
There's not that much to say about this game. We exchange paras early, which is pretty bad for him since his only sleeper is Sing Chansey and I can push sleep through Starmie. He tries to call out my Chansey twaving by Hyper Beaming, but I heal instead and get a free Sing. This game quickly snowballs out of elodin's favor. I get some luck that idt is consequential to the outcome, but it quickens the game and he can't really do much. I think his team was bad and he didn't play the opening well and that was all that was needed to sink his fate.
Game 3: :starmie: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :jynx: :zapdos: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
As I mentioned, I expected to face Zapdos this game and that's what I got. Jynx lead can be a bit complicated when using MieEggDon. I decide that I'm fine to sleep Jynx because it could be a threat with Starmie asleep and I want the momentum to paralyze Chansey. Lax war ends with me correctly sending Egg as Snorlax rests. He pivots into Lax as I slam but then switches out to Egg. Not really sure why he did that, maybe he thought I could be Hyper Beam but idk. I get a nifty para on Egg and swap to Egg to trade down with it. He burns a turn of sleep on his Snorlax when it comes back in but seems to respect Hyper Beam and ends up sacking his Egg to two Body Slams. Zapdos comes in and I reveal Rhydon to counter it. I sub in case he chokes although I knew he'd go Tauros, so I should have just EQd. He lets me burn some turns on Starmie so he can try to wake Snorlax, but I'm fine with that because I'm just trying to sack it to Tauros. I don't Hyper Beam the Snorlax so I get some chip on Zapdos.

I knew he'd double to Tauros here but felt comfortable in my matchup and didn't wanna risk it. In hindsight I probably could have gone Egg to midground tbolt and bull. He doubles to Snorlax and heals it again but I just bring Tauros back in to pressure it. He sacks Jynx and gets the Tauros double right again -- I'm playing a bit passive in the comfort of my mu. I'm still trying to sack Starmie to Tauros but he blizzards me. I end up waking up as Snorlax comes in and I'm able to heal. He nails my Lax with a surprise counter, but I go to Rhydon to revenge kill it. It was a roll in my favor but I figured I could go for it relatively risk free, so I secure the KO. He managed to break thru my Exeggutor and Tauros with his but it's not enough, as Starmie is coming in and finishing the game. Chansey unparad means I can land a Sing on Snorlax to facilitate that.

Finals Set 1 - vs Isza
Isza has been on a tear recently in RBY. Having won RBYWC with him, I've observed his improvement since then, seeing him go on a deep run in invitational and making it all the way to RBY Cup finals. That said, I felt like I was coming into this set with more experience than he had and that he wasn't going to prep to own my standard stuff. I decided I wanted to adjust some of my standard teams, add a new one to throw him off, and try to outplay him with good stuff, as I had with all my previous opponents. I liked Zapdos into him; I didn't think he would go for Rhydon against me. I also felt I could beat him with Zapdos even if he went for Rhydon. That's when I built the updated MieEggZap, which I ended up really liking. I loaded it game 1 because he might believe he was facing MieEggDon again and it could surprise him. In game 2, I loaded my new big6 with RefSDLax. I went for the approach of "these teams are really good and I can play longer games with these", which I thought would go well with the more serous finals vibe. I found these quick notes I took after skimming some of his games:
vs isza:
  • uses a lot of gar egg mie, mie egg don (loses in the mie egg don mirror)
  • has some jynx but not much
good teams:
  • cloy don rest egg
  • zapdos
  • refboomlax big6
Isza didn't get much his way this set, but I feel that I played a stronger game 1 and used better teams than he did. Game 2 was a pretty awkward game but idt either of us played it badly. Both of us made good calls throughout the game and it ended how it ended.

Game 1: :starmie: :zapdos: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :gengar: :zapdos: :cloyster: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
I click Psychic instead of going to Egg because I had only used SurfMie lead in cup and I wanted to catch him tbolting or hypnoing t1. He goes Chansey, no biggie, I'm gonna swap to my Chansey on the predicted Sing. If it hits, no problem. He misses and I hit my next one but he instawakes. He doesn't want to sleep sack his Chansey (the perils of using Gar + Sing Chansey this style is so bad) so he decides to sleep sack Gar instead. I'd have probably gone for the flip there but I guess it's ok to do that. I know Chansey's coming back so I wanna get that parad. I start stossing him down and he has to try to hit Sings through para. Once he's low enough I try to pivot Snorlax on Soft-Boiled. It'd be a very dangerous game for him to try to Sing Snorlax through para so I know if I succeed he will be forced out. I dodge two Sings and get Snorlax in.

Here comes Cloy; I know my Zapdos is gonna go in this match. I go into Chansey to go for the force Clamp/Chansey switch line and I don't want Starmie frozen. I heal and once again he fails to Sing through para and I get Snorlax in on Soft-Boiled. He goes to Cloyster and I get a lucky crit, forcing him to Rest. I know I won't make much progress if I don't stay in and go for more slams, so I try that for a bit. He ends up going for a greedy Blizzard, which crits me, but I para him and he loses Cloyster. He should have probably rested and tried to stall more slams before eventually engaging me with Snorlax. Could have pivoted Gengar as well on a slam and tried to get momentum back. Realistically I had a lot of momentum and it probably put a lot of pressure on him. Now he goes to Snorlax with mine low and tries to Hyper Beam, but misses my full, unparad Chansey. He goes to his Chansey which gives me a good opportunity to go into my 38% Snorlax, which he doesn't punish and tries to Sing. If he hits at this point then it's a fine sleep sack, but he misses. I feel like he could have done better than clicking Sing there. Odds on that turn are that I can restore my Snorlax. I Rest as he goes Gar scouting the boom in case I don't have Rest, then he swaps to Tauros who gets a slam crit before I wake. Probably scouting boom again, he swaps to Gengar. He burns a sleep turn but I commit to slamming again to hit Lax. He tries to Sing yet again as my chipped Lax comes in, but unfortunately he misses again -- brutal.

Here I should just hard Tauros but I felt like he would double. Either way, he didn't and I let him burn more turns with Gengar than I needed to. I decided I can use the Gengar to heal Snorlax. It's probably not the worst idea. His Gengar burns its fifth turn of sleep as I bring Egg in. I start pressuring Chansey with Psychic and get Lax in on a free turn. Turn 42 I wake up and he Ice Beams with a special drop. That was probably a better Sing turn. He probably figured out that Gengar is free here and I go Tauros fishing for one more turn of sleep but I don't get it. Finally he lands sleep as I go Chansey to take it. He tries going Tauros to punish me burning a turn but I don't give him that initiative and go hard Egg to cover Gar staying in and Tauros coming in. I'm able to get more pressure on his Chansey with Egg and he goes Gar on lax; he definitely figured out I don't have EQ by now. I go Tauros fishing for Chansey to get parad but he softs, so I just go to Lax for free as he twaves. I know he's going Gar so I double to Egg to get more momentum and pressure Chansey more. Not gonna let Egg get chipped, so I decide to repeat the sequence again --> go Lax, double Egg on Gar, and it works. This time, I get a drop and his Chansey gets parad, so I'm able to get rid of Chansey. His Tauros comes in, and I decide to go for Sleep Powder and I hit.

Then, I make a bold prediction: I pivot to Lax on Zapdos Drill Peck and he can't KO me without a crit. Boom looks so free here for me. So I predict Gengar coming in and double to Egg in Zapdos's face and get it in on Gar. This is huge because he fishes for a para and doesn't get it, allowing me to deal major damage to Gar. I revenge kill it with Starmie and the game is looking convincing at this point. I'm not letting Zapdos get anything started so I twave it and I'm able to land two Blizzards on it before Starmie dies. My Snorlax and Zapdos clean house and finish the game.

Isza didn't get much going his way this game. But I feel like I made strong plays and never let him get anything started. Overall I'm happy with how I played this one. Isza made one or two small suboptimal plays but for the most part did what he could and didn't really do anything badly. I just outplayed him on a couple turns and kept my lead the whole game. This game also shows how bad Gar lead + Sing Chansey can be.
Game 2: :alakazam: :starmie: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :starmie: :alakazam: :jynx: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
Long game; I'll try to be more brief. Hard Jynx on Zam t1; he sleeps it. Hard Chansey as he goes Tauros. I hard Tauros as he rests with Jynx. I get the para on Starmie with Body Slam. Turn 16 I try to Sing him on the double but I get para'd. Turn 17 I'm a bit behind in momentum, so I decide to reset it by trading Snorlaxes. Tauros war; I go to Zam on Hyper Beam and he crits. Turn 23 there's a long pause where we're thinking about what to do. I know he's thinking I'll go Tauros as he burns a sleep turn, but doubling is risky for him. He could go Chansey as I Sleep Powder or he could go Starmie and be in trouble. With the time I burned, I figured he would burn a turn in the end and I was correct. Jynx KO secured. I pivot Egg on Psychic to get Chansey in safely as he goes Starmie.

T38 I think he will go Tauros again to punish my heal so I want to twave it, but I end up twaving Zam instead -- oof, that makes things more complicated for me. T49 I finally twave Tauros. T71 I missed a good opportunity to get Tauros in on Recover, which could have helped me progress the game more quickly. It was a better move for sure.

With PsyBlizz mie and no Snorlax, I'm starting to see that getting into the longer game makes Starmie and Alakazam more difficult to get rid of without having SurfBolt. I sneak Egg in as he gets parad at 39%. I decide now's the time to trade my Egg for Zam and quicken the game. He surprise Counters my Chansey after the Explosion but thankfully I survive. T97 I double Chansey as he goes to his own. T101 I call out his Tauros double and attack the unstatused Chansey. He gets it correct T103. He trades his Tauros to heal Starmie. Luckily, I freeze Chansey and wake up immediately. He burns his Surfs and Thunderbolts quickly, which is good for me. While I think he could have played the longer game here more optimally, his spot wasn't great and I don't blame him for wanting to break Chansey. That's the con of running SurfBolt: it's harder to break/force Chansey's hand. This game was weird. I narrowly edged him out but it was really awkward for both of us. Not much else to say. I think trading for Zam was the correct move for me at the time. Starmie was a big threat but it was uncertain what I could do with Egg because Chansey was still alive and well and Zam was probably going to block sleep anyway. I think Isza did pretty decently and made some good plays and was less fortunate. I could have done better overall.


Finals Set 1 - vs Eeveeto
15 minutes have passed since I beat Isza in a tiring set. I'm one set away from winning RBY cup. All I've done up until this point is use standard teams and edge out my opponents. Fuck it -- let's just play Eeveeto now and get it over with. Yeah, this was a mistake. I followed his cup run and saw crazy teams, but just kinda was like, yeah big6 should be fine. I'll share some quick notes I took on Eeveeto, similar to Isza:
vs eeveeto:
  • backgar = good
  • rhydon = not great, unless it's got faster mons
  • try to use twave lead that can para jynx
good teams:
  • zap lead backgar
  • weepinbell wrap
  • zap lead vicnite
  • mie egg gar/zam egg gar?
Yeah, I ignored these notes (and kinda ignored them for set 2 too I forgot I took them LOL) and said fuck it big6 we ball. Game 1 was pretty close -- it came down to a 75% chance for me to win, as I clicked stoss as Tauros came in, but I got para'd and lost. Game 2 I was tilted and exhausted and I got destroyed by Lickitung.

Game 1: :alakazam: :starmie: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :gengar: :jolteon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
Win tie vs Egg and sleep it. He sleeps my Egg. I start double Zam on his Gar as it comes in to answer Lax. His egg eventually instawakes. Jolteon haxes down Snorlax. I catch Gar tbolting Zam and Psychic it. He wakes Egg and doubles Chansey on mine to heal it -- nice play by him. He lands twave on Tauros with Chansey through para. I crit his Egg and take it out. He crits my Tauros and forces me to sack Egg. I Psychic him down with Zam and avoid a slam para. He sacks Gar to heal Chansey. He Hyper Beams Chansey and I get a free Sing. He gets a crucial slam on Starmie as I try to Recover. I mess up with my Starmie on Turn 118 and sack it to Jolteon. I get the Rest off on Tauros that I originally wanted while his Snorlax was in, but his Tauros breaks through mine. Game comes down to PP war and me hitting Tauros through para. Long story short, as I mentioned earlier, I click stoss as he swaps in but I get parad so I lose. Had some bad fortune and did what I could but I also don't think I played better than Eeveeto this game. Deserved win for him.
Game 2: :alakazam: :starmie: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :starmie: :jolteon: :lickitung: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
This game was a mess. Lots of random RNG and I was not sharp. Not really gonna analyze this one, but the moral of the story is I got smashed and Lickitung swept me. This was my first series loss this cup and it was deserved. Eeveeto was more on point this set and played really well. Despite his wacky teams, the dude knows how to play. I got punished for lazily recycling and being too eager to end this tournament and learned my lesson: if I ever have to play round robin again, I'm never doing two sets in a row again. That's way too much mental fatigue.

Finals Set 2 - vs Isza
Set 2 vs Isza. Same approach. Standard teams. I liked the MieEggZap so much game 1 I decided to bring it again. I suspected I would face Zapdos after game 1 and doubled down on MieEggDon in game 2 and 3. The set ended up being insane, a really good one. Isza leveled up since our set in the previous week and came more prepared for me. I'm lucky to have won this one. Let's get right into it.

Game 1: :starmie: :zapdos: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :gengar: :starmie: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
Isza finally busts GarEggMie out vs me. This is a team I know he likes, and it's very popular in general. I think this team is bad. Gar lead sucks, weak to PsyBlizz mie, very weak to Zapdos. Toothless team. But he has done well with it. Luckily I've got PsyBlizz mie lead and Zapdos for this matchup. I get the opening right by sleeping Gar with Egg and play a momentum-oriented game once again. I sleep sack Chansey and I don't let him get initiative with Tauros. I double twice to prevent him from getting Tauros on Chansey and get some good damage on his Egg because of it. I read him trying to catch Egg with Ice Beam and I paralyze his Chansey. He played himself in a weird position and has to engage my Lax with his Starmie and gets parad for it.

I get a free turn to bring Zapdos in, which puts heavy pressure on him. I try to get Starmie in as his Lax rests again but he calls it out and slams. I don't get parad and decide to trade damage on Lax for Starmie's life, keeping the momentum in my court. Either Zapdos or Tauros followup is fine but I decide to go for Tauros, which KOs his Gengar. Our bulls trade down and I click Hyper Beam for free on Starmie. He chooses to KO my Tauros but his Starmie is low so Zapdos is looking lethal. He sacks his own Snorlax but now my Zap + Lax are looking strong. I KO his Egg with Slam and then trade my Egg and his Starmie. Zapdos and Snorlax clean the game. I make sure not to let him KO my Lax by sending in my Chansey to die to his before blowing up. This was another strong showing of MieEggZap against a more balanced Gengar team.
Game 2: :starmie: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :jynx: :zapdos: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
MieEggDon vs JynxEggZap: a matchup I have played quite a bit. It's good for me...unless Jynx gets a freeze first try, which is what happens here. Isza hit Egg with wave which was a great play. I aggro Tauros as he goes Jynx. He nails a Counter on me and I'm quite behind now and I know exactly what I'm facing. I probably misplayed by going for tie to Reflect with Lax, as Rhydon was a free switch there to take the boom. Egg cripples me and he goes Jynx on my failed Sleep Powder. I boom his Tauros and maybe I can get something started. He crits my Egg, wins the Tauros tie, and the game is over. He got everything, but he played really well. The game is ofc totally different if he doesn't freeze Chansey immediately. Props to him nonetheless for a very well-played game.
Game 3: :starmie: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :snorlax: :zapdos: :exeggutor: :alakazam: :gengar: :tauros:
The final showdown vs Isza. Starmie vs Snorlax lead. This is tough for MieEggDon because risking Starmie paralysis early was not in the cards. I went to Chansey to wall Snorlax, but this gives a free Gengar. I think he should have gone Exeggutor instead if it had Sleep Powder, but if not Gar is correct. He hits Hypnosis anyway. I sleep the Gar after taking chip on Egg. I miss the first stun but hit the second one so Zam and Egg trade paras. I rest up but don't want to get hit by Blizzard after burning a sleep turn so I go Snorlax. He slams which is the correct play. I get some chip on Tauros and heal. I wake my Egg then go Chansey to pivot on Zam. Finally he catches on to my pivoting strategy with Chansey and Psychics the Lax coming in. I wake but luckily he's para'd. I Tauros as he burns a turn with Gar and catch his Zap with Body Slam.

He goes into Snorlax and says "Misclick". I'm immediately suspicious and I suspect Surf. I thought about it and decided even if he's Surf I can afford to trade down with him, and he might not even be Surf. In hindsight, this was a misplay. I should have gone Snorlax here and kept Rhydon healthy. We end up trading laxes and my Rhydon is crippled, which turned out badly for me. Now Zapdos is a big threat. I go Tauros and he goes Zam and I feel behind and fish for a para; I don't get it. He goes Gengar on my Body Slam and I decide to try to heal Rhydon on this turn. Doesn't work because he doubles and goes to Egg. He ends up sacrificing his Zam for damage on my Egg, which is my defensive counterplay for his Egg. I wonder if he had Recover or not. If he did, he should have clicked it.

Zapdos is in and I need to heal Rhydon, so I make a clever move by going Starmie on Drill Peck and Rhydon on Thunderbolt. Rhydon is saved and Zapdos can be dealt with, albeit very passively by me. He doubles Tauros as I go Egg. My position is really bad and all I can afford to do is stay in. He gets the Hyper Beam roll and Egg goes down. Horrible for me. I go into Starmie now and figure he's going Egg and I can at least heal so I can pivot into Tauros later. He stays in and fishes -- maybe he thought I could be PsyBlizz? I didn't reveal Surf yet, but every time I used this team it was Surf. Anyway, he lets Tauros take a para.

Now I think: is it better to try to KO Tauros here, or should I try to fish for more HP. I choose the latter because I feel behind and I feel like I need luck to win here. And if he crits me with Slam I'm screwed. Unfortunately he paras me and I can't find the luck I need. Zapdos comes in on Surf and takes chip. Turn 49 he stays in to tbolt Rhydon again predicting a double but I don't do it. Think that was pretty ambitious and a misplay -- Egg was free for him. But I get it, gotta go with your gut. His Egg comes in as I double Chansey. I figure if I can get an early wake with Chansey, I'm still in the game. It doesn't happen and Chansey goes down. He makes a great Egg double as I go Rhydon and forces Starmie to die.

The endgame is coming, and I'm almost certainly doomed. Our Tauroses trade down and he should click Hyper Beam here, but he tunnels and Body Slams, allowing me to Rest. He goes Egg and forgets he's faster in the moment and clicks Sleep Powder, allowing me to wake up at 100%. This reduces his chance of winning because now he can't just boom the Tauros. I sack Rhydon and go for my last ditch endgame with 100% HP Tauros. Is his best play to Sleep Powder? Psychic? I'd probably have clicked Sleep Powder in his position, but it's tough. I get the crit para and I'm freaking out. So much so that I type in battle chat, which is uncharacteristic of me. I hit the Hyper Beam and Egg goes down. It's just Gengar and his parad Tauros now. Gengar wakes up immediately after my EQ and I freak out again. I win the tie and the game is over.

This was one of the craziest games of Pokemon I've ever played. My opponent played an incredible game and had me on the thinnest of ropes. I got the lucky breaks I needed to in the end, but I feel I deserved my win. I kept my composure better than he did, but he also got lucky breaks in this game and especially game 2. Notably, the Hyper Beam roll on Egg was hugely impactful and I couldn't get the luck I needed with Starmie. In hindsight, both of us made mistakes this game. I shouldn't have let Rhydon take Surf; he shouldn't have let his Tauros take paralysis. And he messed up in the endgame. Regardless, Isza had a lot of peaks in this game as a player and he adapted to me well and got me on several turns. I think he evolved during our two sets and improved as a player and I did too. I learned a lot from this set. This game in particular was fantastic and I think both of us had great moments in it. Easily the best game played this tournament.

Finals Set 2 - vs Eeveeto
After that set vs Isza which felt like I had plot armor, I wanted to win more than ever. I was super determined to beat Eeveeto after the beatdown from the weekend. After losing 0-2 with my standard teams, I decided it was time to make new stuff and prepare properly for Eeveeto -- something I hadn't really done for any other opponent this tournament.

Eeveeto has a lot of team diversity but doesn't have the same conventions as every other RBYer. He has his own view on the game, but stylistically he has exploitable flaws. Notably, he loves slow, bulky teams, and kind of ignores speed control's impact ingame. To abuse these slow teams, I wanted to use Victreebel and Dragonite. These two Pokemon gatekeep a lot of Eeveeto's slower unviable Pokemon. I was gonna turn up with Weepinbell but hesitated because I faced Gengar last set vs him and I thought it was probable enough to come again. I also really liked backgar against him because he liked a lot of Pokemon it exceled against, namely Persian, Venusaur, Victreebel of his own, etc. I also found Articuno to be very good against him. I love using Articuno; it's such a fun Pokemon to build around and play with. I wanted to embody that and tried to build a team around the Gengar + Articuno core. I noticed Isza had a similar idea in his series vs Eeveeto and ended up combining that team + a team chuva showed me a while ago to make my own version. I also noticed Isza used JoltEggZam against Eeveeto and it worked well. I liked this 6. Having Jolteon of my own would be nice into his Jolteon, which gave me a lot of trouble in the previous set. I also liked backzam vs him because he had a lot of BB Chansey and the power + speed control is good against the unviables. I didn't like using Rhydon or Zapdos vs him because he spammed Rhydon and Jolteon like crazy and I didn't like the idea of using slow teams. My preparation was complete and I was ready for the final set of RBY Cup.

Game 1: :alakazam: :starmie: :dragonite: :victreebel: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :tauros: :rhydon: :exeggutor: :chansey: :slowbro: :golem:
Alakazam vs Tauros lead. Golem turn 1. I assume he's gonna explode but I don't have anything to switch into it, so I let the trade happen. Good in hindsight because Alakazam wasn't worth that much in this game. I let Starmie go to sleep. SurfPsy Mie not worth that much against Egg Slowbro either. Pretty decent opening all things considered. With the drop I'm going Snorlax and he tries to punish me with Tauros but fails. He goes Slowbro on my Snorlax, which paralyzes me and rests the damage off. I didn't wanna mess around. I just wanted to get Victreebel in safely, who's looking menacing already.

I immediately miss Wrap into getting Stun Spored through para which is shitty given the matchup but Victreebel can still be useful. Chansey comes in and crits Snorlax, then I EQ as he goes into Rhydon, which I did to scout Counter but got lucky to hit that. Rhydon gives me a good opportunity to pivot Dragonite on EQ. I wrap for a while until Chansey, Rhydon, and Slowbro are all in Tauros range and I get Tauros in on Rhydon. We trade with our bulls and he gets into a position where I've burned 4 sleep turns and he gets a Rest off. I decide I don't want to give Tauros more momentum so I get Dragonite back in, who's unfortunately low on Wrap PP. He lets me paralyze Chansey and I use the opportunity to fish against it with my Tauros. I get paralyzed in the process, but I crit it and take it down.

Because his Tauros is Rest, it's not Blizzard, so it can't threaten Dragonite as well. I use Dragonite to paralyze it, chip it with my last Wrap, and finally sack Starmie. This next turn is tough, but I decide to go Victreebel because it should die to two Razor Leafs. I connect one but then I para multiple times and he finishes off Vic. My next play is to hope Snorlax breaks through para as I predict his Egg sack. Rhydon's in and I go to Dragonite to finish it off. I swap Tauros in first to maximize my fish chances against his Tauros and manage to win the tie and secure the game. I got pretty unlucky this game but it didn't matter in the end because my matchup was really good. I think both of us did what we needed to do.
Game 2: :alakazam: :articuno: :exeggutor: :gengar: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :jynx: :rhydon: :cloyster: :chansey: :venusaur: :tauros:
Zam vs Jynx. While I have to go Snorlax against Jynx because I have no Chansey or Starmie, the GarCuno core usually allows for that being fine enough. Unfortunately I get immediately frozen. He heals Jynx on my frozen Snorlax but I keep it and start to pressure with Tauros. I paralyze the Cloyster and try to sack my Snorlax, but once again he decides to Rest and lets me keep it. I go to Gengar and crit Jynx with tbolt so I'm starting to put pressure on him. I realize that he's very weak to Gengar. Rhydon comes in and I pivot Egg but get crit. I double to Tauros thinking he will go Jynx but he goes to Venusaur, which was a good play by him. I get a free Gengar, hit his Jynx with Psychic one more time, and he switches out to Chansey to keep Jynx. Seems like he's trying to play around Hypnosis. Despite how good Gengar looks here, and that I can try Hypnosis, I see that my Articuno is looking insane if Chansey takes Explosion, so I go for it to set up the Cuno sweep. Next, I know he will go Cloyster if I follow up with Tauros, so I set that up. His Cloyster is at 36% and I slam figuring he will either save it and go Venusaur, he will take slam and explode, or he will sack Jynx. No matter which path, it sets up for Cuno. He stays in and explodes, which surprises me but now Articuno is looking unstoppable. He revenge kills me with his Tauros, winning the tie, then uses his Tauros to KO my Egg, taking 46% from Psychic - just enough to guarantee the KO with Blizzard.

Articuno comes in and a sweep is perfectly set up. Everything is in range and nothing can contend with it. All I need to do is not get paralyzed. Then he paralyzes me. I still KO Tauros, but even through para I can still win. I just need to not be paralyzed when Chansey tries to heal. Unfortunately that happens too, Chansey heals, dodges freeze, and Articuno sweep is stopped and I lose the game.

This one was really frustrating. I set Articuno up perfectly and my opponent had every bit of hax go his way. Instantly freezing Snorlax and getting the very unlikely RNG to stop Articuno. I feel like my team worked perfectly and I'm sad that I didn't win this match, because it would have been awesome to finish the cup like that, but alas, I had to go to game 3.
Game 3: :jolteon: :alakazam: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros: vs :jolteon: :poliwrath: :exeggutor: :chansey: :snorlax: :tauros:
Jolt lead mirror and he goes Exeggutor as I twave. I get a 2 hit Pin Missile and he sleeps me. I swap Egg into his as he goes Tauros trying to catch me burning sleep. I try to catch his boom but fail, and he Rests. He goes Jolteon on my Psychic, perhaps trying to deny my boom/sleep. Chansey is free on Jolteon so I go to that, although I could have considered Snorlax too. I try to Sing the Egg but miss and he explodes on me, leaving me at 3%. I sack my Jolteon to his and bring Snorlax in. He goes Poliwrath on my Body Slam and I stay in scouting Hypnosis. I take chip from Submission and decide to go Zam once I figure he doesn't have Hypnosis. He freezes Snorlax as I switch it into Chansey. I pivot Egg as he goes Jolt and manage to sleep it, although I took a para and a 5 hit Pin Missile in the process. Luckily I have Rest too and heal as Jolt burns a turn.

Now starts the madness. He goes into Chansey and I proceed to get 5 drops in total and 4 in a row. I force more damage on Jolteon then I see a potential for Zam + Tauros to win the endgame on their own. I also see it could be very difficult to make progress on Chansey, so I go for Explosion to trade with it. I use my 3% Chansey to paralyze Snorlax and have only Zam and Tauros left to clean the endgame. Luckily, Zam goes crazy, 1v1ing Snorlax and Tauros, and cleaning his team. RBY cup ends and I come out the winner. I was stoked to win and take revenge for the first set, and finally come out on top.

I felt that ultimately, I came more prepared than Eeveeto did for the second set. I learned from my loss, prepared for him more properly, and found good ways to exploit his tendencies. He got a lot of RNG during our second set, but my effort paid off. Most times, I win that game 2 easily, but luckily game 3 went my way and I set up the Zam endgame well.

Epilogue

And with taking revenge vs Eeveeto, my RBY Cup run ended and I emerged the winner. Overall, I'd say my run was interesting. I didn't face too many RBY mainers, but I faced people who went on really great runs themselves. Opponents like Mimikyu, elodin, and Eeveeto took down recognizable RBY names like ABR, Amaranth, chuva, Sceptross, Raizen, among others. What helped me to win was using good teams and not going too far down the prep rabbit hole, as well as finding an approach and teams that worked for me and my style. I'd like to think that I have a unique approach and vision in this tier, which has allowed me to be competitive even against RBY's upper echelon. I encourage those interested in the tier to find their own vision and style, too.

Reminiscing to the last RBY tournament I won, RBY Invitational in 2021, I didn't expect this tier to become my favorite and one I would find further success in. Back then, I was a total outsider in the tier, having played it minimally before the tournament started. If you asked people back then who they'd predict to win the whole thing, I would have been in 0 predicts. A couple of those sets, namely the ones against Serpi and FOMG, were defining moments in shaping my view and enjoyment of this wonderful tier.

Thank you everyone for all the great sets in RBY and ggs to all my opponents. If you read all of this, I hope you got something out of it.
 
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Viability Rankings - Post RBY Cup X
At a glance:
S: :tauros:
S-: :snorlax: :exeggutor:
A: :chansey: :starmie:
A-: :alakazam: :rhydon: :zapdos:
B: :jynx: :cloyster: :jolteon: :gengar: :victreebel: :dragonite:
B-: :slowbro: :articuno: :persian:
C: :moltres: :dragonair: :lapras: :weepinbell: :sandslash:

Tier descriptions:

S: The best Pokemon in the tier -- don't drop unless exceptional circumstance
S-: A step down from the best in the tier -- can be dropped but very rarely
A: Pokemon with good bulk, high longevity, and many attributes that help you complete teams
A-: Dynamic, powerful Pokemon that have strong breaking/cleaning power and operate with significant consistency
B: More volatile Pokemon that excel in specific matchups against standard/strong team comps
B-: Generally not great but can work with proper preparation/setup
C: Volatile Pokemon that can work well but are held back by either extreme niches or too much risk given their good attributes

Explanations:

:tauros: Speed control, revenge killer, great coverage, somewhat flexible filler, good power, can't be para'd by Body Slam. Tauros is in its own tier and is rarely ever droppable.

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:snorlax: Safest Tauros switch-in, good power, high moveset flexibility, strong boom, good against all Chansey sets. It fits on almost every team, altho it's way more droppable than Tauros. Laxless builds are unexplored and can work very well. Unlike Tauros, Snorlax is slow and can be checked more easily if it's using Reflect.

:exeggutor: I was torn between Egg and Lax for #2 and #3 but I have Lax edging it out just barely. Egg should almost never be dropped. I'd go as far as to say Snorlax will probably be more droppable with more exploration, but we're not there yet. Egg is the most consistent sleeper, has moveset variety in Rest, Stun Spore, Mega Drain, Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Explosion, Sleep Powder, etc. Best Rhydon check, especally when using Rest to check it more long term. Also makes it good against Alakazam and some Starmie variants. Typing is crucial and it's very strong, able to break through Chansey with momentum just by spamming Psychic. Universally useful and good.

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:chansey: Best Special wall in the tier. Forms the most consistent sleep game by combining SingToss Chansey + Exeggutor. Mono-ice is really bad. BoltBeam is overrated and not that easy to fit. Blanket checks a ton of the tier and has amazing longevity. A bit passive at times, but is both a strong para absorber to deny sleep and other status as well as a monster if left unparad for too long. Helps structures massively in fortifying vs all special attackers, especially Alakazam, Starmie, Exeggutor, and Jynx.

:starmie: Perfect typing, coverage, moveset flexibility, speed, 32 pp recover. Can switch into Tauros in a pinch. Can be notoriously difficult to KO. More consistent than Alakazam and outspeeding Tauros and having some staying power vs Lax and SingToss Chansey can be huge. PsyBlizz generally the best set but SurfBolt can be valuable as well. I like other sets like SurfBlizz, SurfPsy. I wouldn't bother with BoltBlizz as only coverage that's pretty awful. I used to hate on Starmie as a lead but it does the job well for some teams, scaring off Gengar and PsyBlizz lead keeps a lot of junk in check. There's potential with wacky sets like 3 atks + twave and 3 atks + recover. Great glue and speed control. Recover is broken.

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:alakazam: My favorite lead (bc I think it's the most consistent). Power and speed combined. Consistent typing and matchups against other pkmn. Revenge killing weakened Starmie is significant. Sometimes, lead Zam just destroys everything in its path. Other times, it forces a switch and/or paras something and it takes sleep. Great synergy with Starmie, Exeggutor, Cloyster, Slowbro, among most other pkmn in the tier. Great vs BB Chansey, PsyBlizz mie and pretty decent vs mie overall. Held back by being more frail against Lax and Tauros and lacking moveset flexibility/coverage overall. Counter Zam is unexplored and is pretty good at doing significant damage to Chansey and maybe even Exeggutor.

:rhydon: Best Zapdos check, powerful breaker in long games, good against monolax, gives room for outplaying against Tauros (swap on Hyper Beam/Body Slam for pivoting). The biggest reason Exeggutor is needed on most builds. Rhydon is a pkmn that rewards those with strong tier understanding and ability to play a longer game. It takes a lot of skill to use Rhydon properly, but this pkmn pays dividends and opens up interesting teambuilding possibilities. This pkmn is all about raw power, consistency, and good gameplanning. Held back by being weaker to Tauros compared to others, but still needs to be respected heavily or you'll get rolled over. Rest is the most consistent set but Rock Slide and Leer have value too. Unexplored on more offensive builds.

:zapdos: Broken breaker and cleaner. Keeps a lot of bs in check. Strongest weapon against big6 structures. Destroys most Gengar teams. Rhydon owns it but that can often not be enough depending on the opponent's team. Zapdos fits on a lot of structures. Good synergy with Gengar itself (although in the back, fuck lead Gengar). Lead with Rest is okay, quite overrated, but Agility can make it such a broken pkmn that I rarely ever drop it.

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:jynx: Most consistent lead sleeper. Strong synergy with Zapdos due to its disruption against Rhydon teams. Good tool for streamlining gameplans. Freeze immunity is quite nice. Generally not amazing but will always have a place in the metagame for its effectiveness as a lead/sleeper.

:cloyster: Strong vs Rhydon teams, especially when paired with Egg. Puts pressure on Starmie and Chansey. Great Snorlax and Tauros switchin. Can make heavy progress with para support. It's underprepped for and underrated although quite awkward to fit, as it mostly implies a Zapdos weakness and structures with Rhydon & Jolteon are quite awkward. I like Ice Beam > Blizzard on teams that play longer games. Explosion is great too to take out Starmie/Chansey.

:jolteon: Great speed. Offensively threatening with Pin Missile. Solid lead that can be disruptive against everything (worst mu probably Zam, or god forbid Rhydon lead if you're facing Larry). Checking Zapdos defensively is huge for some teams. It's held back by being frail on the physical side and lacking longevity. It's not quite powerful enough to be a top tier threat either, although the crit chance is nice.

:gengar: Normal immunity is huge for pivoting into Snorlax and Tauros. Good speed, sleeper that can push past paralyzed Starmie thanks to Thunderbolt. Night Shade pressures Egg. I find Gengar to be quite volatile, especally as a lead. I don't think Gengar and Chansey should be paired together very often, especially on teams like GarEggMie which get annihilated by Zapdos. It's a weird pkmn. Works best on offensive teams, esp when paired with a bird like Zapdos. Gar + Don structures are heavily antimeta although very rarely used. They come with a lot of flaws, of course. Gar lead can be used but it's quite niche and I think the way it's popularly used is not good. Stop using Gar + Sing Chansey teams they suck, and stop using GarEggMie that also sucks.

:victreebel: One of the most underrated pkmn in the meta. People are too scared of missing Wrap. It's lethal against Rhydon teams and universally threatening. Razor Leaf is such a good move, nailing both Starmie and Rhydon. Sleeps and paras. Decent speed tier relative to its kit, outspeeding Exeggutor. Held back by inconsistency with Wrap and being outsped and threatened by Psychics, Gengar, and Zapdos.

:dragonite: Good Speed tier, strongest Wrap, AgiliWrap, good coverage and versatility, Thunder Wave, EQ immune. Low key one of the few ways to drop Exeggutor with how hard it can punish Rhydon. Lethal wrap core with Victreebel. Very unexplored.

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:slowbro: Generally not good, but forms a strong core with Rhydon. Use it as a breaker rather than a sweeper. Good against Jynx and Alakazam. Not bad vs Lax and Tauros.

:articuno: If you set it up properly, it can destroy 6 pkmn, but it's a bit hard to pull off. Very weak to Starmie, Chansey, and Cloyster. Not that great vs Alakazam unless it's significantly weakened. Pretty decent against Snorlax and Tauros. Powerful and lethal with Agility + the strongest Blizzard in the tier.

:persian: Good vs Rhydon teams/slower teams. Can't be parad by Body Slam. Some cool set versatility with Growl, Thunderbolt, Hyper Beam, etc. Outspeeds Tauros. Kind of underwhelming otherwise and doesn't see much use because it provides almost no defensive utility.

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:moltres: High potential but too volatile due to inaccurate moves. Fire Blast PP is pretty low. In some games, no matter the matchup, Moltres can get everything going its way and mow teams down pretty easily. Some teams get destroyed by it. A weird crossover between Zapdos and Articuno, but ultimately worse than both.

:dragonair: Strong on Wrap-oriented teams with Victreebel and Dragonite. Unique typing; Electric resistance is crucial. 100% accurate Thunder Wave. Packs Agility and Blizzard too.

:lapras: Slow but has nice boltblizz coverage. Sing can work well but it's inconsistent. Can cheese with Confuse Ray. There aren't too many reasons to use Lapras, but it can put in work if Chansey is gone and if Starmie is crippled.

:weepinbell: Niche Wrap user, but can swing Rhydon mus to near autowin territory if paired on a team dedicated to spamming Wrap and paralysis. Lives Alakazam Psychic unlike something like Arbok. Has Razor Leaf to own Starmie and Rhydon. Sleeps Snorlax too.

:sandslash: Can work on teams with significant paralysis support. Has decent endgame sweeping potential. Works well on wrap as well to help against Zap/Gar + abuse all the paras. Unexplored overall.
 
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Excal, what kind of team runs Weepinbell? That wasn't even remotely on my radar as an NFE that might not be garbage. Victreebel is not the kind of pokemon I'd normally consider running a second shitty version of, given its flawed typing. I'll also note that I'm not sold on winning the Don matchup, since usually if you're spamming Wrap you've got plenty of pokemon that can deal with Don.
 
Excal, what kind of team runs Weepinbell? That wasn't even remotely on my radar as an NFE that might not be garbage. Victreebel is not the kind of pokemon I'd normally consider running a second shitty version of, given its flawed typing. I'll also note that I'm not sold on winning the Don matchup, since usually if you're spamming Wrap you've got plenty of pokemon that can deal with Don.
This is the most relevant example of Weepinbell working effectively. Usually run as a 4th wrapper and lets you play the odds with Victreebel's toolkit twice, which can make matchups like facing Rhydon more brainless (and any other strong Victreebel mu). I meant to say autowin* territory vs Rhydon teams so I edited that in my vr.
 
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