Viridian Victreebels PU Retrospective
I had the honor of playing for the Viridian Victreebels for PL, which I'm grateful for the opportunity to participate in, let alone start. This is just going to be all the teams I've built and subsequently used for each week, including unplayed Game 3s (although I've unfortunately misplaced the Game 3 teams for W1 and W2 because that's around the same time smogtours builder reset). There's a lot more teams created that didn't find their ways into the tour, but these were either minor changes, risky or fun builds, or shower thought teams. This will also act as a post to share some of my thoughts on the metagame since I'm pretty fond of using just about anything as long as there's a reason with weight behind it.
Week 1 vs Cake (Washed Wartortles)
I had very little to work off for Cake, so I decided to load up a Mon I hardly ever used in Drowzee. Also tried to make use of "double flier" team with Scyther in Game 2, but unfortunately wasn't able to make it work.
Game 1:
Game 2:
Week 2 vs TehTayTeh (Glacial Articunos)
I noticed immediately how the lead metagame was already super centralized around Arcanine or Nidoqueen, so I wanted to experiment with lead Seaking to beat both of these. This is the same line of reasoning for the Machamp lead in Game 2; the goal of Machamp in the lead slot is to preserve the health of my own Nidoqueen and Arcanine while removing or heavily weakening either of the opponent's.
Game 1:
Game 2:
Week 3 vs gastlies (Pampu Primeapes)
There was one thing I had in my mind when prepping for gastlies and that was lead Magmar (or Magmar in general lol), as gastlies was the most vocal about it. Assuming I would see one, I was intent on using Substitute Arcanine to stuff it. This ended up working out as the Arc mirror G1 was Reflect, non-Hyper Beam. This meant that gastlies's Arc was unable to break my own Arc's sub, which provided me with leeway in the opening turns.
Game 1:
Game 2:

Game 3 (not played):
Week 4 vs stunner047 (Ding Dang Dewgongs)
When I first checked the teams Stunner had used up to this point, I noticed a couple things: Zero Graveler (or non-Queen grounds) and a sole Vileplume usage. In contrast, there was a very high number of Staryu, Fearow, and Omanyte builds. I also noted that Arcanine and Rapidash were not nearly as used compared to most people; Pokémon like Pinsir or Machamp were also fairly common. This led me to also load up specific Mons to abuse this: Magneton's pure power and Abra's speed against the slew of Water-type builds (the latter came with an intent to force Fearow to RK, and then following up with Agility users). In other news, I was unable to make Scyther or Drowzee work.
Game 1:
Game 2:
Game 3:
Week 5 vs Hayburner (Hipster Hypnos)
The first and last time I'll be using a Porygon set like this. The intention was to Twave incoming sleepers, worsening their chances. This Porygon came equipped with the quickest way to remove Drowzee (Double-Edge -> Hyper Beam KO) and Psychic to beat down Gastly or Vileplume. G2 was kinda one-sided horseshit from what I remember so I don't think I can add anything about it.
Game 1:
Game 2:

Game 3 (not played): Planned on using the same Game 3 from last week since the team's strategy and roster wasn't fully revealed. Never came to this though.
Week 6 vs TehTayTeh (GA - rematch)
Tried out lead Slowpoke because Teh uses lead Arc 90% of the time and I didn't want to engage in that with my own Arc. Poke still spreads Twave and can throw out some nice Psychics and Surfs. Scyther is pretty cool in the right conditions; while initially lacking in KO power due to no STAB on Hyper Beam, Swords Dance gives Scyther the ability to achieve OHKOs against some of the frailer Pokemon and requires way opposing Pokemon to be at way less HP thresholds to secure KOs. Pokemon like Fearow, Porygon, and Dragonair are all at the mercy of rolls in the best condition, not something you can really guarantee given how they operate. The bulkier mons like Arcanine and Nidoqueen are usually taking damage at lead or midgame respectively, hopefully providing you with the necessary chip for +2 Beam.
In my opinion, Abra is pretty neat with Omanyte support as the latter shores up some of the shortcomings of the former; All of Arcanine, Rapidash, Fearow, and Scyther are checked relatively well by Omanyte which at least prevents Abra from just risking immediate death. Abra, on the other hand, has nice benefits like outspeeding and threatening Staryu, Gastly, and Nidoqueen.
Game 1:
Game 2:
Game 3:
Week 7 vs Volkner (DDD) (The series was already decided by this point, so these games had no impact)
Brought mons I wanted to use for fun, can't hide the Marowak 100% WR no matter how hard you try. Horsea is unironically a fun mon after seeing how strong Seaking can be. Would need to secure Staryu KO to make this doable though. Arbok is just niche Wrap mon, but with less people valuing Queen, then Arbok loses some of the little value it has too. It's still a Wrap user that can threaten Gastly way more feasibly than Dragonair and has a few better kill-confirms against the fires.
Game 1:
Game 2:
Game 3:
Week 8 vs Hayburner (HH - rematch)
magmar is cool, hope more people use it. magneton can def work with partners supporting it, especially since it's naturally faster than seaking. i can't pilot drowzee.
Game 1:
Game 2:
Game 3:
Week 9 vs TehTayTeh (GA - Finals rematch)
The only thing different from the standard quo was the Dragonair set in G2, going with Surf/Twave/Agil/Wrap. The only intent here was to spread Para and damage as much as possible. Without Twave, Dragonair has no real way to really punish Gastly so I slotted that over Tbolt, which I've noticed hardly, if ever, gets clicked when leading Dnair.
Game 1:
Game 2:
Game 3:
Little tour retrospective over! Tier list time!
My tier list may differ heavily from others, but at the end of the day I can only speak from my opinion foremost and what I see from others second. A lot of the top Mons have more than enough said about them from general discussion, so I'll be brief on them.

- Simply put, I cannot see myself going without Nidoqueen. It hits hard, takes hits well, and is in general one of the most reliable Pokemon in the tier. While its Speed can be a shortcoming, having the jump on Seaking (and less notably Dragonair) is enough for me to consider it fast
enough.

- This thing has like 95% lead usage, it is insane. Outside of Omanyte, nothing wants to switch into Arcanine. With a really good crit rate, its very respectable bulk, and two moves that inflict 30% status, it's a dicey proposition to play around.

- De facto cleaner, 2 rocks are the only thing that can really punish you from loading this, since Gastly can get bopped by Dpeck crit. The main issue I find with Fearow compared to its fellow S rankers is its lacking bulk. In addition, some of the Mons it farms most are becoming far less common in the tier, like Machamp, Pinsir, or Abra.

- Def the most dangerous Agil sweeper imo. I really don't see the reasoning for Dedge compared to the versatility of Blizzard. Combined with STAB Surf, only Water-types exist as a secure defensive answer. Dropping Blizzard only leaves you open to stuff like Vileplume, Dragonair, and even the Fliers which I'm not fond of.

- This will be an outlier for most. I'm still really fond of Rapidash because I highly value its speed; Fearow becomes less of a scare in the endgame and many things can be chipped into range of Hyper Beam like Star. Arcanine's presence as a lead also means it'd likely be out of action by the time Rapidash is hitting the field, which is one less Mon which can be a nuisance. If you're intent on using all of Queen, Arc, and Fearow, then Rapidash can leave you very weak to Seaking; you will have to play around/patch up said weakness elsewhere or forgo one of the aforementioned Pokemon.

- annoying fuck (they always hit hypnosis)

- main reason seaking isn't completely unhinged. Having the jump on both Nidoqueen and Gastly is extremely nice, letting you 2HKO the former and secure paralysis against the latter.

- don't take my word for it because I really could not make this thing work in my favor, it at best did the bare minimum that you'd expect. I don't like Gastly that much because of Hypnosis accuracy, but that's at least fast enough to mitigate a miss to try for a second.

- Similar to Drowzee, it doesn't fit the pace I like to play at, so I usually didn't load it as much. Very flexible as either an offensive or defensive tool. I'm more inclined to use Agility sets since those mitigate crits better.

- A fairly high rank for it, but Waters being very common you can find Sleep pretty often. I usually fill out its remaining moves based on team needs, but sometimes I wish I had that extra fifth moveslot. SD + HBeam chunks most things into range for something to pick off, but you run the risk of Gastly existing. Gastly still fears either Powder, but it's prob coming in after your sleep and most Plume's cannot fit Stun Spore unless they give up on something else of import.

- google the phrase "
Fleet in being"

- Honestly this could become more negative as time goes on, but I think Machamp has a few positives that keep it above C, albeit not exactly solid. Very strong and wide movepool, just faster than stuff like Plume, Drowzee, or Porygon, and good bulk in specific MUs. Can somewhat simulate Nidoqueen, therefore not expending Queen's HP too early if not necessary.

- Think it's overall better than Graveler as a defensive Pokemon since you eat the Fire-types alive while Fearow/Scyther are still kept at bay long enough for the average PU game length. Graveler is harder to switch into and has higher peaks imo, which puts it above Oma.

- Agil and Wrap feel mandatory. Choose from whatever moves you want it to fulfill afterwards. Blizzard, Thunderbolt, Surf are all well off attacking options and Twave provides you a way to cripple, and potentially pivot off, Gastly.

I value Queen highly; therefore, I value Abra respectably. A pretty unique Speed tier for the tier and has a pretty spammable Psychic since Psychics aren't exactly common. Pokemon like Staryu and Gastly are also kinda scared by -- they can trade into it as well, but this can be nice for a teammate like Seaking by having one of its better checks removed. Obviously requires some degree of partnership to take advantage of the Mons that threaten it most.

- Like I've mentioned last time I made a post here, Scyther fulfills the role as a secondary Fearow, although I've sometimes forgone the latter due team compression. That said, Scyther's weaknesses are pretty detrimental in the tier's current state: lots of Gastly and Fires. Similar to Rapidash, it's quite troublesome to run Scyther with all of Nidoqueen, Arcanine, Fearow. While Seaking is still a threat, something like Graveler becomes a terror when it walls 1/3rd of your team and puts a charge into 2/3rd. Despite this, Swords Dance still gives Scyther a respectable role.

- I prefer it in lead because I can preserve my own Arc for later. I did end up using teams with lead Magmar and no Arc, but I viewed Magmar as a fairly nice Arcanine anti-lead while still matching up well into everything else. I usually run fblast, stoss, counter, and bslam just so I have multiple options for whatever the scenario calls for.

- I honestly think it's pretty poor and the good MUs it has aren't anything crazy. I only brought it once and that was on a gamble to catch a non-Fire Blast Nidoqueen (which it didn't). That said, being faster than Queen AND having and EQ resist/Blizzard neutrality is cool and unique.

- Was somewhat fond of Sandslash going into the tour when Porygon, Drowzee, and Rocks were still on people's mind. Hardly worth considering outside of very well positioning and Para support.

- I'd honestly sooner use this than Pinsir or Sandslash now. Queen stonewalls, but outside of that you can just click vs Fearow and Waters. Twave is nice to have against the Fires. You should hope you don't have to click anything else, barring maybe Substitute or Thunder.

- it was cool as an anti-lead, but something I can't see myself using too often.

- Niche fish. That said, it can potentially spread para or take advantage of its para-spreading teammates to Wrap stuff down. As mentioned, Earthquake lets Arbok threaten stuff Dragonair can't as effectively, like Gastly.

- a seahorse (Second Agility Water-type that seeks to work off of Seaking)
(anything in E realistically should never be brought in the current meta)

- マロワクわねつのもんばんです。

- Much worse now that Gastly and Arc are incredibly common. Scyther struggles into them as well, but you have actual ways to work past them. Arc outspeeds Pidgeot and Gastly eats you alive.
Bonus lead tier list

- I really don't like how this Mon just clicks vs anything and can just bullshit its way past, barring Omanyte (not a lead). One look at its usage is enough to see how ubiquitous it is. I believe anything that wants to be a lead must be able to threaten Arcanine in some meaningful way.

- Apparently the math says this Mon beats Arc 60-40 but it sure doesn't feel like it. I personally don't like giving up Queen's HP so early, but you'd imagine seeing more lead Nidoqueen if it was favored in the MU.

- It has the ability to threaten Arc via Counter and Body Slam para of its own, but it's not sure-fire. I don't use Confuse Ray, but it has merit ig. Magmar has the same calcs vs Nidoqueen as Arc and both are 2HKO'd by Earthquake. The difference is Magmar's bulk: Pending any crits, Magmar needs to burn with its first Fire Blast to beat Queen 1v1 while Arc can take non-burned Earthquake into burned Earthquake. Magmar has the positive of preserving your own Arcanine in the back for later use.

- Beats Arc and Queen 1v1 (pending crits ofcourse) and will draw out immediate info from your opponent pertaining to their defensive answers to Seaking (or Waters in general).

- Inherently risky, but earliest possible Sleep.

- AgilWrap to whittle away HP at the start of a game. Gastly can get Twaved and then pivoted on thru Wrap if available. Selection of coverage for whatever you want. Never Twave t1. Can also just get fucked over by a 30%

- To keep Arc and Queen healthy. Outside of crit rates I'm p sure it functions almost identical into Arc as Queen does.

- Fairly bulky, Fire-resist, and Twave. Throws out Surf or Psychics afterwards.

- I personally wouldn't use these, but there's history of these Mons with lead usage. Star was prob better when Arc wasn't being used basically all the time.