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gm, I rly liked the teams i've used this season and since idt i'll be playing nu competitively for a couple of months after this tour, I'll be sharing them for everyone to use or hate on. with that out of the way, let's get to the teams.
watashi is someone I knew fairly well as I was supporting him last year, and I knew at the end of the day that I'd need as solid and proactive of a team as I could get vs a player of his caliber in order to not let him express his play as freely as he'd like, I also was lucky to face off against him week 1 because the knowledge gap between us was still pretty big at that point of the competition. this team is just your standard max boots spikes stack but i'll just mention a tech I rly liked that was proposed to me by mind gaming in imprison bronzong. on top of denying bronzong setup completely, it also denies up since my bronzong had enough evs to outcrip pretty much any non dd bronzong and denying up with a team that has no hazard control is p big all things considered. not much to say outside of that, just that i terribly miss quagsire :(.
danny, danny, danny. probably the person I had the hardest time prepping for outside of roro but i'll get back to that later, he can use anything and knows me like the back of his hand, which made the task just difficult asf. to be honest, i just brought webs because i thought he wouldn't expect it from me and i was expecting him to bring offense against me like he has done multiple times in the past. h-brav is a super cool mon, it had a great mu into the meta in general at the time and had nice check overlaps with chandelure and munki, and thorns was just broken. I liked this team, but didn't end up pulling the mu i was looking for and this game started an unfortunate streak of many ls.
probably the game that has the biggest impact on me in the tour, but i won't rly elaborate on it, funny bird did funny bird things and it just ran away with the game. but frankly this team was p bad, but had a couple of nice ideas, esp 1 that will end up coming again later. bulky dd flygon is broken, this ones move choice was to make sure i'd get free set-up on bronzong no matter what the variant ended up being, but unfortunately i loaded 3 garbage mons in orthworm umbreon and tsareena on the same team and they ended up being useless. but it's fine, bulky flygon had its revenge later in the season.
nunes trauma part 2, honestly this team is p terrible but after getting rolled over by the funny bird and pulling tier as my next opponent, i honestly had immense ptsd which led to me loading this bs. i won't elaborate much, this team is bad there's nothing to see.
i was 1-3 at this point, and my managers just completely banned me from using offense (thanks a lot for that btw blunder and lax it was probably the best decision of the entire tour LOL) so i went back to what I knew best, bulky offense / balance and i stuck to it for the remainder of the tour. anyway more on the team, cb decid + raikou make a pretty amazing breaking core, and flygon complements them well as a scarfer. cresselia acted as the primary wincon, registeel + tenta + cress was a p good defensive core at the time. honestly this team has a super standard structure with a couple of nice techs like extransensory raikou to catch people offguard, ended up loading into rain and won p easily all things considered. i rly like this team but since it has a banned mon it's not usable anymore, which i just realized applies to literally all of my first 5 teams LOL. but thankfully all the others are very much legal so at least this team dump will not be for nothing.
oricorio trauma part 3, this registeel's sole purpose is 1v1ing oricorio (i'm very much serious). but this team has a lot of cool elements that unfortunately ended up being unrevealed because of registeel and milotic going stupid in the game. sub cm meloetta is insanely good into balance rn (which is what i was expecting from frankjosh) i toyed with spreads a lot during the week and i ended up deciding on this at the end of the day. normal + ghost is completely busted in this tier and meloetta is deceiptively bulky making its sub insanely hard to break, and it can beat pretty much any attacker 1v1 and trade 2 for 1 almost as easily as cresselia did prior to its ban vs balance at least. altaria is a rly good pokemon rn, having a great defensive typing and access to the rare defog on top of being a very great status absorber with a good to great mu into every single hazard setter in the tier, it should frankly be used more.
oricorio trauma part 4 and final part. yeah that week 3 game shaped pretty much what i used for the next 4 weeks LOL f that bird. anyway, dudunsparce was obviously there for corio but it's a deceiptively good pokemon, and I used here a set that i'd end up bringing a bunch of times in magician keys. magician air ballons keys is a super fun pokemon to use in a meta with a lot of max boots teams (which mine was also one) and has the added benefit of being able to actually paralyze incineroar and other dark types (but the others are slightly less relevant) on top of being an amazing knock off absorber itself. the star of the show tho was sub dd bulky flygon, and frankly if you asked me today what the evs do i have absolutely no idea outside of the speed but here it is. that mon would've completely wrapped the game if not for bj freezing it and i think that the boundaries are extremely easy to push with flygon, evs/tera/moves are extremely customizable and you're basically picking what beats you, which i feel like is an extremely unheatlhy element but since flygon has so many great qualities i guess it can stay for now.
god what a nightmare it was to prep for roro. especially this late into the tour, he had been using a variation of ho, stall for the entirety of the tour in a alternating pattern that was recognizable until week 7 where he decided to break the pattern and stall again, which left me completely in the dark going into the week. I wanted to stack as many anti bs measures as I could, so i went with trapper alt which just destroys stall on its own on top of having hazard stack + a decent spinblocker in oricorio-sensu. and then I figured yeah let's have a good knock off user because roro has been weak to hazard stack + knock off, but every single rendition of this team with a knocker ended up being terrible into standard stuff which i was worried roro might end up bringing. so i just yoloed with my only "knock off" user as magician klefki and decided to have my other 3 mons be good into bulky offense / balance on top of bringing value into stall ho. encore toxic toxtricity did that perfectly and absorbed tspikes on top of being a rly solid breaker and disrupter in general. first impression flygon was great for ho, and wetbull is just a great anti-bullshit mon in general with strong priority decent physical bulk and intimidate access. overall i'd say this was my favorite team of the entire tour, and i'm glad it payed off with a win against the strongest player of the pool too.
welp, week 9, we were out by this point so i thought i'd have some fun and bring berry spam ho, nothing to say except the team is rly fun to use and has a lot of cools picks in kee berry sensu (which was a pompom in a the og paste) + double custap berry. this was for you OranBerryBlissey10 .
overall, i'm glad of how I bounced back this season, and I had a ton of fun playing this tier despite the pompom trauma. see you next scl
Let's do a W9 roundup. With very little of these games having much riding on them, it's hard to gauge how much of these teams are legitimate reflections of the metagame, or attempts by builders at having some fun. With that in mind, we see 3 Cinccino HOs, Poliwrath Rain, 2 Braviary-H teams, and the elusive Chimecho. I'm assuming the playoff teams will revert to a little more safe builds, but lets see what happens.
Team rankings
1. zS
zS is back again with another number 1 ranking. This time it's a variation on Cinccino / Eviolite Scyther HO which has been popular in the last few weeks. zS opts to include multiple ghosts alongside the initial core, with Custap Destiny Bond Hoopa presumably taking out Dark types to allow Kee Berry Oricorio to sweep more easily. A second Custap Destiny Bond user in Overqwil is certainly a choice, and makes this team seem like it would a lot of fun to play. Bulk Up Tauros is always dangerous and gives this team a very useful Intimidate as well. This is a fun take on a standard HO structure with multiple cool techs, and a nice way for zS to end the season.
2. etern
etern gets the high ranking here on the Bastiodon bring alone. While it appears to be a shitmon, with Soundproof it can be a valuable check to Toxtricity, Galarticuno, Sylveon, Scream Tail, and Uxie, while also giving a very useful 4x Normal resist. With Tera Ghost you can also wall the usual Bronzong sets, and with Idef + Body Press it can at least be somewhat threatening. Avalugg is used here as the Flygon check as Bastiodon cannot do that. Scarf Toxicroak is another cool choice here, gaining a niche over Mienshao by being immune to Scald. I'm sure there is more creativity hidden in this team but it doesn't get a chance to reveal all its sets, as it rolls a good matchup and wins earlier than that. A nice win for etern and some really creative teambuilding on display.
3. McMeghan
Another alternative offense from McMeghan, making use of underrated Rain threats Poliwrath and Drednaw. Encore Mesprit is a nice choice to give free setup turns for these mons, while Klefki and Basculegion is almost mandatory on Rain. Pawmot is presumably here for Revival Blessing shenanigans. The viability of a team like this indicates to me that Rain is not limited to a single set of abusers (Kingdra / Ludicolo / Overqwil are not present here) and that any action if needed should focus on Damp Rock instead. As always it's nice to see the alternative choices McMeghan brings and looking forward to seeing what he cooks up in playoffs.
4. Elias PSY
The second Scyther Cinccino HO of the week, Elias opting for double Psychic rather than double Ghost like zS. The Clear Amulet Flygon is a cool tech as a lot of teams are relying on at least one if not two Intimidate users to check it, and we see in this game how dangerous it can be. The double Psychic Noise users would also be really painful for fatter teams relying on Wish to deal with. Again its cool to see new takes on the known structures, unfortunately for Elias it wasn't quite the matchup this team would have performed better in.
5. 3d
There isn't much to say about this team, as I feel like we've seen almost exactly this 6 at some point recently, hence the middling ranking. Still though, I've been a big fan of Diance for months now and think it's underutilised. Flygon and Munki put a lot of pressure on Bronzong which is Diances biggest opp, so I like this team structure. Vaporeon / Bronzong is a typical defensive core and LO Shao is one of the best pokemon in the tier. A standard but good team.
6. Stories
An interesting take on Spikes from stories, with Magician Klefki getting even more use. Maybe this is the better set than Prankster now? Tentacruel continues to be the most on paper mon of all time, doing nothing in this game other than clicking Tera and dying. KiloShao and Spikes is always going to be dangerous though, and Braviary-H is a monster into a lot of team structures. I don't think it necessarily needs Spikes to get its job done however, and maybe this leads to the team being a bit over ambitious. Still, a nice direction for Spikes / VoltTurn teams, and Braviary is very cool.
7. Dr. Phd. BJ
At first glance this looked like a Sun or semi-sun team to me, and I suppose there's a chance it still could be with several sets not fully revealed. This take on Cinccino HO makes use of the almost guaranteed hazard removal to run Focus Sash on both Salazzle and Pawmot. These frail mons can both trade extremely well with Sash, while Agility Pawmot is going to clean a lot of games barring priority. The Paradox Booster core of Scream Tail and Brute Bonnet can put in a lot of work together, Stomping Tantrum Bonnet ideally sniping some Steel types for Scream Tail to clean up. It's an interesting take on HO but not one that seems to have been successful as other efforts this week.
8. watashi
This might be the only sheet game to ever feature a Chimecho, but I can't in good faith rank this any higher given the lack of a niche for that mon. In theory Heal Bell is a useful move, and with Rest Muk it probably can be useful? But I just don't think the stats are there to back it up. Other than that, we see more Spike Stack with KiloShao, a pretty standard structure at this point. Gastrodon getting more useful is interesting, as it Spikes for free on the other water types, and doesn't give away quite as many free turns.
9. pokeslice
I don't think we need any further explanation on why this is the lowest ranked teambuilding this week.
Clicking rankings 1. 3d
2. zS
3. etern
4. watashi
5. Elias PSY
6. stories
7. Dr. Phd. BJ
8. pokeslice
9. McMeghan
The Beauty and Power of This Team: A Pageant of Grace and Strength!
Hello everyone!
Today, I present to you the ultimate beauty pageant team—one that combines elegance, power, and strategy in a stunning display of competitive prowess. Welcome to the show, where grace meets battle-ready strength: H-Braviary, Flygon, Tentacruel, Incineroar, Mienshao, and Registeel! These gorgeous Pokémon aren't just looking good—they're here to take over the competition!
H-Braviary - The Majestic Leader
First up, we have the stunning Hisuian Braviary, a Pokémon that has evolved to match the rugged beauty of the Hisui region. With its striking red-and-white feathers and noble presence, it’s a bird that commands attention. Hisuian Braviary may have left behind the usual Flying-type moves for its Psychic/Flying dual typing, but it hasn’t lost any of its fierceness. With moves like Psychic and Hurricane, Hisuian Braviary can handle opponents with grace and power. Add in Sheer Force, which boosts its power to new heights, and you’ve got a true powerhouse who looks as good as it fights.
Flygon - The Earthy Enigma
Next, we have Flygon, the dragonfly-inspired Pokémon that oozes mystery and grace. This Ground/Dragon-type carries the power of the earth beneath its wings, with moves like Earthquake and Dragon Dance that can shake up any competition. It’s not just the strong, silent type—it’s got that cool factor that steals hearts and victories alike. With its speed and versatility, Flygon’s a perfect addition to any team.
Tentacruel - The Fluid Beauty
A true beauty with brains, Tentacruel is the embodiment of elegance in motion. With its long, flowing tentacles and incredible resistance to special moves, Tentacruel is a formidable defensive powerhouse that still knows how to pack a punch. Rapid Spin, Sludge Bomb, and Liquid Ooze make this beauty not just a pretty face, but a strategic gem in your team—ensuring your opponents feel the sting of its cunning tactics.
Incineroar - The Fierce Charmer
Now, meet the dazzling Incineroar—an absolute force in battle and a true charismatic superstar. This Fire/Dark-type is a master of intimidation, sporting an impeccable balance of offensive and defensive moves. Intimidate lowers opponents' attack, while its access to Knock Off and Flare Blitz makes it a true crowd-pleaser. You’ll never underestimate Incineroar, who brings both drama and dominance to the stage.
Mienshao - The Graceful Fighter
Stepping into the ring next is Mienshao, a pure Fighting-type powerhouse with elegance to spare. With its sleek, feline figure and speedy moves, Mienshao is a swift and graceful attacker. Its ability Regenerator keeps it in top form, and moves like Close Combat and U-turn bring all the intensity and precision of a true champion. It’s not just a pretty face—it’s the real deal when it comes to maneuvering around and striking fast!
Registeel - The Strong, Silent Type
Finally, let’s crown our team’s defensive darling, Registeel. With its otherworldly, steel-like beauty, Registeel might be the quiet one, but make no mistake—this Pokémon is a powerhouse of resilience and durability. Thanks to its incredible defensive stats and access to moves like Iron Head and Stealth Rock, Registeel provides both solid support and a defensive backbone to your team. This Pokémon will take hit after hit, showing off its stoic elegance while the opponents crumble.
Why This Team Works
Not only do these Pokémon have style and flair, but they also work together in perfect harmony. From Registeel’s solid defense and Tentacruel’s status moves, to Flygon’s speed and Mienshao’s fighting prowess, this team strikes a beautiful balance between offense, defense, and support. The synergy is undeniable, and together they will not just captivate your audience—they’ll leave your opponents in awe.
Takeaway:
The real magic of this team isn't just in their looks; it’s in how they bring everything to the table—beauty, strength, and intelligence all wrapped in one perfect package. Whether you’re looking for strategic depth or sheer power, this team knows how to perform. They’ve got the moves, the charm, and the determination to win the pageant, and they’re ready to bring home the crown.
Stay fabulous, battle on, and may your Pokémon always shine in the spotlight!
— Your friendly neighborhood strategist me/chatgpt
Btw I rank the team as 3th and for clicking 3th too.
I've been meaning to write up a team dump for a week or two now, and now that the tour is done and poh reminded me, here it is! I had a really great time this SCL, especially when compared to last years tour. Despite the way our team ended up crashing and burning, there was great energy up until the very end, even when I loaded Limber Ditto..., and I feel as if our NU slot was able to perform a few wins better than what was expected of us on draft day. Our prep felt on point (almost) every week and most losses were things entirely within our control and play, so I can't be more than happy on how it all went.
Thank you to Floss and DugZa for picking me up to support the Spartans this tour. It was an awesome time and you guys are great managers. Also, a HUGE shoutout to Meri Berry for being an absolute powerhouse in prep with us, especially during the awkward holiday weeks that I had across October. You carried heavy and it was a pleasure to work with you. Sorry for embarrassing you the last week
For our first week, you can tell that I was very SS coded. After having not played since January, going for a classic SS style, Slice style, Voltturn balance with clickers and a set up guy was an obvious bring I think on our part, but it had much more thought behind it. Despite Elias going on to have one of, if not the, best record in the tour, this was my ideal week 1 matchup for our team to get going on because of how Elias tends to build, especially in NUPL. He was bringing a mixture of classic Elias semi fat builds with Avalugg with a random mix up of HO all throughout that tour and there was no reason to assume he would change it up here.
The idea was to abuse those fatter teams through Scrafty + strong breaker because of Elias' weakness to fat set up on those builds in the past. The breaker (Specs Tox) was to help handle fatter teams as well. A general Vap core that was semi trendy for the first two weeks of SCL helped round out the team to help handle any sort of offensive teams by providing a sturdy backbone. All in all, I was super happy with how this week went prep wise. We loaded into rain, threw, Elias threw back, and started off our tour on a high note.
I wasn't such a fan of our team for this week. We had struggled to lock in something that we liked and in the last few hours I had sent a bunch of Toxicroak concepts, ultimately leading to nunes to pick this team. The build is pretty straightforward. It's a momentum heavy sort of BO with Specs Intel + Croak as the main source of offensive pressure. The idea into watashi was that watashi had loved Vap cores for a bit now in NU, including in the previous week, and Toxicroak felt like a good way to pressure Vap teams while using an underrated threat. In theory, this is accurate and our prep was on point...
The team ended up loading into a LO Shao, something that existed, but was relatively rare at that point for some reason, and we got steamrolled. In truth, Croak should have won this game, but we didn't Tera Ghost on the turn we needed to with Incin at the beginning of the game which would have deleted Shao and ended up losing. If we click that button, I think we end up winning this game with relative ease, but it didn't happen. This was a good lesson in realizing that Tera isn't the same as immediate counterplay.
Ah what a game. After how the last two weeks had went, we wanted to load up something a bit more brainless. Meri suggested that we load the cringe bird because it was broken and boom, it was. Shocker! Taunt Ori had a fantastic mu into the type of stuff zS likes to load (frail fat) and into his SCL scout. Beyond that, this team was relatively straight forward for a terrain at the time. I was a massive fan in tests of the supremely under used Tera Ghost on Thorns for its ability to blank Fighting-types for set up opportunities, but Grass and Fairy were also considered. Ghost just had that swag factor.
This game was a rollercoaster. Our team had been thoroughly tested against Toxic Umbreon, but we saw Roar Umbreon , a disaster mu without Taunt Ori. zS gives the mon an extra turn to see if it was Taunt by going into Umbreon, leading to the situation that we end up with. Imo, Taunt was super free because the only out was to Trick, but a flinch did the job as well. Fantastic idea and prep on Meri's part for this week. No we didn't feel dirty. Yes we would do it again.
Against Danny, we decided to mix up the style of team a bit. Meri smartly pointed out that Danny seemed to favor slower, fatter teams that struggled into certain speed tiers, such as non-choiced Shao and Scarf Toxtricity. Against Danny this week, we decided to try out that route, featuring those two mons on a spike stack BO. Looking back at this week, the concept was there, but probably could have been executed better by us. Bramble is really an awful mon that we used for the compression and we used no Steel. I'm going to revisit this concept using Klefki one day soon for sure. The idea was entirely there.
We loaded into a pretty awful mu for us. Scarf Tox into Scarf Basc is far from ideal, same with Water resist Bramble. We ended up being caught as well by an unexpected Rock Slide Copper + a few other things, and this never felt so close. We definitely had opportunities with Shao, which looked and did pretty great here, but it just didn't go our way. Overall, an annoying week but one with a lot of upside I'd say if that makes any sense.
Another bad week before hand, another time that we decided to go a bit brainless. Overqwil had just dropped, so Rain was on our minds, and Etern was extremely tilted and demotivated, so we expected it to 1) tilt him a bit and 2) maybe he wouldn't prep so hard for the new toys. To this day, this has been by far my favorite Rain team that I've seen or used in NU, despite what the Django ranking will try and tell you. SD Muscle Band OHKOs Croak without the need to run LO and Encore Ludi was a fun tech I stole from Stories. Everything else is pretty straightforward.
Etern is a lucky U.S. Westie and should have lost this. That is my game analysis. That is all.
This week nunes asked to be subbed out, so Eeeveeto got the nod because I thought I was busy (turned out I could have subbed in but it's fine). Eeeveeto is a wild player and will load anything. The first paste I saw from him was a leppa berry Pawmot Scarf Final Gambit offense with Scarf Migo and Staraptor....Hail felt like a pretty obvious more viable followup that we could all get behind. Nothing really spectacular here, but it's worth noting that we went Tera Ghost on Cetitan and Ice Shard over Knock Off because you beat Zong easily anyways.
Eeeveeto cooked this week. At first it seemed like a mediocre match up, but Eeeveeto had literally got 100 test games in against similar builds and clearly knew the lines. 10/10 performance and the first clean win of the season for us.
Finally freed, I knew that I wanted to bring Galarcuno. For literally 3 weeks, I had been sitting on Galarcuno ideas to use that we never got to. At the time, and lowkey even right now, it was the perfect anti meta mon because Zong + Incin cores were everywhere, aka set up fodder and a Dark-type that loses to Galarcuno, and Overqwil had just dropped. I really liked how this mon paired with Scarf Tera Dragon Flygon because it had an uncanny ability to eliminate the Steel-types to open up the Flygon endgame. For this game, I used max spa max speed, but opted in this paste for max HP, which I find more consistent. It super cooked as it was, but max HP instantly 6-0ed. Other things to point out here: Foul Play Magnet Rise Klefki I feel is underutilized, but it beats all Flygons bar a predicted Fire Punch and I went for Rocks Dudun with D-Tail for the cringe bird matchup. Haters will say this was a zS inspired team, but I didn't consciously know that he used a very similar build. I just thought the Dudun was cool knowing I had seen it before.
This game was a great showcase for Galarcuno and I was happy with my play. The combo of Galarcuno + Croak ended up crushing this game, and Galarcuno forced a lot of awkward interactions for frankjosh because he brought an Overqwil. SD Scale Shot Overqwil was very cool to see as well. Overall a fun game, a fun start to the sheet, and I was extremely happy with how much work Galarcuno put in.
A cool team spoiled by bad play sadly. I thought that offensive special Ghost-types like Chandy or a Basculegion looked fantastic into the stuff BJ had been bringing and I really wanted to mess with Scyther, so this team was born with Scyther + Flygon + Milo for momentum. Woch is pretty underrated and provided a Ground resist and a Dark-type for the team and Protect + Tera helps offset the potential Fighting weakness.
I'm really annoyed with this game. From t2, I played this incorrectly by forgetting about Encore Cincinno, and it only went downhill. I wanted to Tera and ko the Bull with Milo, but I didn't expect CB on Offense for some reason and thought I lived straight up. It's a shame because Tera Fairy Milo dominated this game. About halfway through this game, I woke up and found a really interesting and fun line with Trick, made an awful Tera, got a bunch of 50/50s right and wrong, somehow pulled it back when BJ choked, and then didn't click Protect and lost. lol. A disappointing second game but a fun team.
Week 9: Slice vs. McMeghan
The replay isn't needed here. Specs Tera Fairy D Kiss Sylv is extremely epic, especially into bad stalls. Ditto is extremely epic into HO. Curse Muk is very cool. That is all. Ditto can be Mienshao.
We don't need to unpack this again. Don't get too cocky kids and check your pastes.
Gonna go up the list here with each team I made, why I made it, and how I feel about its performance. I'd like to say firstly thank you so much to Expulso and mncmt for putting their faith in me for this SCL. I know the sheet doesn't tell the entire story but I'm still quite disappointed by my record this tour and was very happy to get carried to finals by all the Machines. This was by far my best SCL experience ever. Also huge thanks to ShengineerBe13costaDannyzSfrankjoshMcMeghanDiamonds_realmpohWadleyPokesliceeternDr. Phd. BJ and maybe some others I've forgot for test games / bouncing ideas / just being a presence for this community in any amount. You are all amazing.
basic premise here is: Specs Toxtricity for fat teams that Danny likes to use, and Dudunsparce as a cheese option that Danny traditionally struggles to play against long-term. Scarf Cresselia was probably my favorite thing to throw on teams, Trick dismantles a lot of BS and Healing Wish (Lunar Dance) is just the perfect move for my playstyle. This team does lack a Steel-type which Ac1D_13 exposed literally a week later by wrecking me with Specs Dragalge in Seasonal, so I wouldn't use this team ever again but the premise is there and it worked out vs Danny. In the game itself you see a lot of the tech of the team just not work lmao. Dragon Breath Milo, Mental Herb Dudunsparce, the game just came down to admittedly a pretty poor choke by Danny, letting me get the perfectly timed Flygon pivot to revenge a boosted Oricorio. Danny went on to tear this tournament up and I went on a losing streak, so he might be the real winner here, but I can at least flex the head-to-head vs this bum.
BJ's scout was SO SO weak to Scrafty and you can see in the game itself how amazing of a bring it was. While I can complain about the lack of Shed Skin activation (5 turns!!!!!!!), I failed to recognize that the Quagsire was Water Absorb, which could be figured by previous damage on it or even the team composition, and I could have taken a path to further ensure an auto-win (of course if Shed Skin allowed for this). After Scrafty didn't win the game for me, I had no way to deal with BJ's Bronzong and it just mowed me down. My team was far too passive outside of Scrafty vs setup sweepers, and I definitely learned from this in games going forward.
EVIL Terrain team combining a ton of ideas I loved into one team. Gale Wings Talonflame with Cincinno to keep hazards away, Grassy Glide Torterra in Terrain with Oricorio benefitting from everything here. An unlucky paralysis kinda cemented the pace of this entire game with such a volatile playstyle, and even after crawling the game back to a close position, mncmt told me to use Clear Amulet over Life Orb on Torterra, which changed the course of this game forever and made Torterra fail to pick up a crucial KO.
This Breloom is awesome and feels really unfair sometimes. The EVs let it OHKO Vileplume at +2 and the rest is to max out its bulk. Gligar outspeeds opposing Breloom which are quite difficult to deal with otherwise, I throw Acrobatics onto Gligar for this MU and because Gligar is my Knock switchin anyway. Bronzong gets a random Toxic Orb + Trick because I kept losing to bulky setup stuff and made the change pretty close to game time. Grafaiai felt like the perfect puzzle piece to finalize this team, as it gave a good pivot for the spooky Ghosts that annoyed Breloom and gave some more progress-making with Knock Off and Prankster to force switches. Ok this game broke me. I LOVED my team, it's still one of my favorites I've ever made. I think my matchup was good and I think I played super well. I don't even think I could say I would do anything differently without 100% hindsight. Double Air Slash Flinch, Crit on the final turn to steal the game. I will die on the hill that this game was a complete robbery, and after getting lucked by Eli last year I really needed a break to reset. GG Eli I will not lose to you next time.
Frankjosh vs Watashi and zS for some following weeks
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nu-800368 https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nu-798168
I built these two teams with FJ as he took my place while I crashed out n_n The bottom team is extremely similar to last week's team, but if it ain't broke don't fix it. FJ even changed the Registeel to a Bronzong and thank goodness he did because it kinda just won LOL. I don't have much to say about these teams because I was kinda checked out for them but these are what I helped make.
the top team I really wanted to use Offensive p2 against zS because he kept using broken Oricorio and Flygon which p2 checks super well. The team is really weird and I think me forcing FJ to use a weird flavor team resulted in the loss that week because he was out of his comfort zone, but I really like the team regardless.
FJ played Pokeslice and I had literally 0 input on this game or the team. Both teams in this game have like 3 PU mons each. Also Slice is a fraud.
Week after I call etern bad bc of his record and I only have the same record as him because I'm the only person in the world who gets unlucky (I'm awesome) However, I need to back up my words. I really wanted to use DD Flygon. I kept Tera Steel + Sub even with the developments of stuff like Tera Ghost + Throat Chop because the surprise factor kinda carried that set and now people know about it. Choice Scarf Raikou was an idea from zS and if I didn't take Scald off last second, I wouldn't have had to Crit / Flinch last turn (spoilers). I have Ice Punch + Knock Off on Toxicroak to lure EVERYTHING. Etern likes bulky Waters, he has used Rain before, and removing something like Gligar would be very useful for Flygon and Raikou. Bronzong checks so many boxes and I threw Trick Room on this because I was REALLY expecting some kind of cheese from Etern this week. Decid falls onto this "overwhelm physical walls" team and I was incredibly impressed by how Decid did in tests. You can see in the game vs etern like it just OHKO'd Kilowattrel from FULL at +2, it OHKO's a LOT and has the bulk to get SD reliably. Cincinno finds itself on all my offense teams. Free removal, insanely strong and fast, Knock Off on physical walls and Encore to deal with opposing setup too. Super flexible and one of my favorites this tour. Etern leads with Scarf p2? ok? Bronzong gets owned by it but I make some nice pivots into Croak and get lucky with speed ties to beat his own. After making a few more nice pivots I get a free setup with Decid and SHOULD just win from this point, but some poor plays by me and good plays by etern make me throw away a huge chunk of my team with hardly anything to show for it. I mess up my sequencing at the end, not resetting the intimidate on Decidueye which means Tauros is not in range of a Raikou attack. In my head I was praying for a Flinch but a crit ends up sealing the game for me anyway. I've really happy with my prep, unhappy with how I played this late game, etern is the unluckiest NU player.
I really hate this team a lot. It's super lazy and poorly made but I felt I just couldn't line up an idea or a substantial amount of test games this week. All I really knew is I wanted to use Javier whose damage output is on par with Toxtricity. My confidence really showed in this game as I made a brutal misclick turn 1 and 3d just never gave me a single turn of breathing room afterwards, giving him a really well-played and clean win. Normally I wouldn't feel too bad about a loss from a friend, especially if they played well, but I was really frustrated with my productivity this week and wish I got to put up a good game, but we were locked for playoffs anyway so shrug
I really LOVE this team a lot. I got the creative juices flowing and feel like I made a pretty stupid HO with a really fun PZ set. This PZ spread outpaces Choice Scarf Munkidori after an agility and can set up on Thunder Wave users like Klefki and Registeel with Tera Electric. Sitrus Berry lets it set up on quite a bit and its actually super bulky with max HP and some extra bulk, as you can see it take a big hit in the game here. Scream Tail and OTR Diancie cover both ends of speed control while overwhelming each others checks. I also have CB on Aqua Bull just to give some initial breaking power because the rest of the team is setup mons. Cetitan is kinda random but I wanted another mon to take advantage of Bombirdier's Memento and Cetitan felt like the most volatile (highest reward) if it could be pulled off. I considered a few other mons that never worked out as well. We didn't really get to see memento work out because BJ could have been Roar Swampert and ruined everything, so I just had to get my chip and go. PZ could have gotten more KO's this game but I got paranoid of tera and clicked Thunderbolt for some reason, idk. Poor play by me but if they tera ghosted I would have looked so good at the game! After Swampert went down, Diancie kinda just cleaned up since BJ also had a volatile HO team.
Didn't get to play vs roro (we lost finals before I even woke up sunday morning LOL)
ty to every machine for an amazing tour experience, genuinely so fun. thank you to everyone who helped me in games.
It was a fun season, better than the last one for sure. thx Gondra for drafting me despite the tough season I had a blast. I enjoyed seeing a lot of the meta-development and ideas coming out of our top players. Big shoutout to DjangoWadleyeternal ocean and Kushalos and OranBerryBlissey10 for bouncing ideas in the team chat and for lots of tests, without the constant flow of games I wouldn't have been able to get such a solid record. S/o StorieseternzSShengineerMcMeghanPokeslice and many others for the games and the ideas. One of my favorite parts of SCL and team tours in general is working with others to develop creative ways to win.
[FOX] Danny vs Stories [TMS]
This week's prep was a bit all over the place. I knew that I wanted to bring something good vs the offense Ash tends to use, but I also wanted some kind of coverage for balance. I wasn't feeling very comfortable with my options until Kush sent me this team. With a few edits and a lot of tests, it felt the best out of all of them. Broken bird and Broken Bull seemed like a great combo. This game was a wake-up call. Many turns should have gone differently. My biggest takeaway from this game is that I should calc more. Had I calced the damage from Ash's Flygon on my Incineroar, I would have realized it was not scarfed and not banded, it had to be something else. All this is hindsight, however, and despite this, I made quite a few blunders. Turn 17 I should have just attacked the Dudunsparce, and of course, the wacky lines with my Oricorio gave Ash the chance she needed to get a win. Still liked this team a lot, feel like it played very well and the combination of the broken setup options with healing wish is a strong idea for Bulky Offense. [SHO] zS vs Danny [FOX]
This week I felt like my prep was a lot more streamlined. I seriously expected a typical bulky offense and built my team to facilitate Muk-A taking advantage of those teams. This team is pretty simple, and still legal, however, if you plan on using it change the Flygon to a choice band or scarf. DD was mainly there to give me some sort of win condition besides ID bronzong, and it was also one of my favorite sets so I just went with it. I will explain the Kilo EVs. This spread was meant to live any move from scarfed Flygon, while also giving me the ability to safely beat opposing Kilo. I felt like I needed bulk because my fighting resist on this team was nonexistent. Needless to say, I was very surprised at the match-up to see a webs team. I was lucky that I opted for a boots balance, as the webs didn't matter at all. Muk put in a lot of work this game, my defensive core was really tough to break, and the offensive pressure from Tauros and Kilo volt switching kept pace with his offense. I was fortunate that because of my team composition, my Flygon looked like CB so much. Had ZS tera'd his Iron Thorns I would have lost. I felt good rebounding off of a loss with a pretty commanding win.
[FOX] Danny vs Dr. Phd. BJ [ISL]
To give some context to this week, I will share a bit about my prep style. Generally, early in the week, I show up with a couple of ideas, older teams, and replays that give me some ideas. I then refine my choices to about 5-10 teams and then begin testing. From there, I narrow it down to probably 1-3 teams and then choose from there based on what felt the best. WadleyShengineer and I were in VC one day looking for ideas to use for a video for Shengin. He put me onto Whimsicott which I fell in love with instantly. I don't remember who it was who came up with Tauros+Goodra, but it worked like a charm. Shengineer and I tested a lot that night and found this team to be surprisingly strong despite it looking like something you would find at 1300. The eve of our game came around and I decided to hell with it and chose this team. And it worked perfectly. This is probably one of my favorite games this season. I felt in control throughout the entirety of the game and the u turn spam between Whimsi, Flygon, and Talon ended up putting so much pressure. T1 was an interesting turn, but I will explain it like this: You see a +2 spA Milotic in front of a team with no water absorb and Ice Beam switch in Goodra and you want to hit it as hard as possible. Besides that, every other turn felt great. Whimsi was extra awesome because it was able to soft check Cresselia which was the running theme of this game. He definitely brought the threats and Flygon+Cress were super threatening until I got some crucial turns. Definitely still consider both Goodra and Whimsi in your team building, they both bring some nice utility to teams which might be lacking. [SPA] Thiago Nunes vs Danny [FOX]
I was feeling super hot piloting these bulky offenses, however at this point my inspiration was super lacking. I knew that I wanted to use Uxie, as it looked great into the basic Bronzong teams that Slice and Tnunes had been feeling comfortable with. I knew for a fact that they wouldn't HO again, seeing as I have brought a lot of countermeasures in Whimsicott, Intimidate spam, Goodra, and Muk. I didn't really know where to go from Uxie besides the fact that Toxicroak looked strong as always. Looking for Uxie ideas, I remembered this replay from xavgb and his NU Open finals game. I really liked the vibes of this team, and the edits I made were really small. I just fixed some EVs to my liking, replaced Cacturne with Toxicroak(direct upgrade now that Slowbro is gone) and changed a few sets like Rock Slide>Whirlwind on Copper. 4a Toxicroak put in massive work this game, and was something I was kind of proud of as I know that people didn't really expect or use Knock Off Croak, but when they did they generally didn't use Sucker as well. Game was really straight forward. With the early toxic on Swampert and the surprise Knock Off killing off Bramble, Basculegion just went to town. Would have loved to see Uxie do more, however it was useful as a defensive pivot this game. [FOX] Danny vs McMeghan [DYN]
This week the pressure was really on for me(in my head). I really wanted to beat Mcmeghan and was torn between like 80 teams. I had a lot of stalls prepped
sorry zs and ash and slice for annoying u with my doomer talk this week. glad I trusted my intuition and just loaded anything with ditto lol
. The big thing that I obviously wanted to use was ditto, and despite my efforts I couldn't come up with a stall that felt comfortable into all of Oricorio, Thorns, Grassy Terrain, and random choiced breakers like Chandelure. Ended upusing this team which is pretty cool, based on a team that eifo smoked me with in NULT . I wanted non choiced Tauros because it seemed really good into HO. Fat core of p2 and Slowbro was really appealing and specs Flygon was part of the OG team that seemed really nice to take advantage of physdef gastro and bronzong cores if he opts for that. Obviously game went about as well as it could on matchup due to roro bringing some cheese, am still unclear if that was because he wanted to continue the pattern or if it was because they already smoked my teammates lol. [GIB] etern vs Danny [FOX]
Etern and I have played each other numerous times throughout the past few years so there was a bit of mind gaming going on. I am vocal about how SHIT I am about piloting HO. etern knows this as he himself has witnessed me bin multiple times between NUPL and other tours using HO, along with listening to me complain about not wanting to use it. That being said, I knew that etern would not expect the playstyle, and if I could come up with a team whose pacing I understood well and one that could keep up the pressure I could catch him off guard. Once again my muses Shengineer and Wadley had come up with something super promising. We were in VC a different week and thought up Scyther HO in NU. After seeing gxe use it in PU to success, I recommended Eviolite to shengin as he once again came up with some super chef crack. We did this more than 3 weeks before my game vs etern, so I knew it would be great. I melded it with another offense I had made around week 1 but never came around to using, and it just worked like a charm. When I saw the rabia videa with a similar team I knew I had to try this team out. I was both peeved and grateful when rabia and shengin posted the Scyther video. I was super scared of etern seeing it and correlating it to me, but on the other hand the video served as proof that Evio scyther HO wasn't just a gimmick style so huge shoutout to Rabia. Without yapping too much, the combo of Cinc to knock steels and keep hazards off early, Scyther+Toxt+Diancie to try and overwhelm steels, and the two staples of Tauros and Flygon the team is super strong. Game went perfectly, I feel like there were some turns with the Flygon and Brambleghast where if I had played it better I could have just won there, however all is fine. My timer actually got really low because there was some expectation of etern going hard (I presumed scarfed)Munkidori on a Trailblaze and potentially ending the game with a poison or a Registeel living a Diancie move. Scyther got its win though. This team is definitely still very strong, I know that feen, Lucario, django, myself, and others have used it to recent success in NU Seasonal. I think it is the current strongest iteration of Scyther HO, although that can be proven wrong any day now. [FOX] Danny vs Elias PSY [TER]
In the sense of fairness I will paste the version I brought(worse version) and the edited one that seems a bit better. This week was hell. Eli is always tough to prep for but I think I did a good job all things considered. I knew I wanted to bring spikes fat, and lay on that pressure while trying to outlast his. In game it went as poorly as I could have asked. I disregarded gastrodon a lot in prep and the instant poison on Bombirdier coupled with some overzealous Brave Birds led me to be behind super early. Specs mienshao caught me so offguard that I didn't even know what set it was. had I loaded this version I think Slowbro would have just won from the position it was in, however my own hesitance to pull the tera button(Water probably would have done just as fine, except I could have gotten poisoned and forced out by Pawmot) and my own passive play put me in a position to be smoked by a meme. I still like this team, I feel like I can justify the Bombirdier with its defensive compression. Knock, Dark and Flying, and Sucker are definitely worth trying out on more teams, and teams like this just keep getting better the more the meta trends in this direction. I feel like this can be optimized with some mon changes and set optimization. Eli definitely smoked me tho and it was humbling to say the least after having a solid season. [BRE] Diamonds_realm vs Danny [FOX]
This week I did put a bit of effort trying to find the right team. After losing the week before I really didn't want to lose but at this point most of my motivation was for personal gain only. Our team was out and after finding this team, I asked shiloh if I could use it and just rolled with it. The game was interesting though. Sub BU Tauros caught me off guard and I wasn't really playing too well up until that point. I managed to get some crucial turns right with raikou and then from there Ditto+Bronzong were able to just weather the storm of fighting types. Diamonds is so unpredictable in the builder that once I saw the ditto on the paste I just HAD to bring it.
Some notes from my experience:
Flygon: So many underrated sets that are explored so little. I know AV cope was used a bit but it still has some niche. Bulky DD sets are great and help flip matchups on its head sometimes. Adamant DD on many teams is excellent as it is surprisingly strong and you can get 2 DDs or DD+scale shot off really easily. I actually used adamant vs etern and it was able to mucle past a Brambleghast and force a tera. Bulky pivot sets are also cool, the expert belt used in W8 is a nice touch on utility, along with the obviously awesome eject pack set that I used twice I think. Special flygon is sick. Band and scarf are both still great, however I think its strengths lie in DD the most.
Ditto: I used it twice, considered it almost every week. I am sure mcmeghan has a much more eloquent way to put it but it is just such a noobstopper. What I mean is that it's utility cannot be overstated and its uses are much more nuanced then just beating set up sweepers or strong breakers and forcing them out. It owns the fat matchup and has great balance match ups as seen in my game vs diamonds.
Tauros Paldea-Aqua: I used him a ton, he is really good. I believe there was an argument to be made during the middle stages of the tournament that he was better than Mienshao but now I definitely think he is still up there in the VR. im a huge fan of mons like him with stab priority, a useful ability, and strong attacks and strategies between scarf, band, BU, and eject pack.
Registeel: Underrated and only getting better. between the Twave utility, 3a sets that popped up a bit, and ID sets that I think should be rising in usage more nowadays, it is a great mon.
A lot of the other mons I talked about during this post are still great, stuff like Whimsicott, Goodra, Gligar, Scyther, and Basculegion. I encourage people to look back at the resources we can use during NUCL and NU Circuit for ideas. I find that a lot of my wins are because I was willing to look at other people's ideas and adapt them for my own use this tour, rather than sticking to echo chambers of my own head.
My NU run in SCL was short but very intense. I knew I would be playing the Tier the day before Week 6. That precise week, I had a travel, so I would be completely unavailable from Thursday midday to Sunday evening. Apart from that, I still had a 9 hour job and 2 hours Basque lessons on Monday and Wednesday. So, my availability was very low and the Tier was unknown to me.
On first day (still Sunday), I built a Final Gambit Spam, with Staraptor using the move and then Flamigo using Copycat (with Scrappy), supported by Restalk Pawmot and Lunar Dance Cresselia:
This team did quite well on ladder... on the few hours it could battle there, because the same day Cresselia was banned.
Well, that was unfortunate, but I did build a new version of the team without Cresselia:
This version had more win conditions than just the Final Gambit core, but it was overall worse on ladder. On test battles vs teammates, it was straight up bad, so I needed new ideas.
Week 6 started and I did manage to schedule for Sunday with 3d to play the game. I still needed a team in 3 days and a half though. I turned to the Hisuian starters and between Monday and Tuesday built 3 versions of the same team:
Typhlosion was obviously Specs, for power. Decidueye was a competent Defogger vs common rockers (hazard control in NU is terrible, lol) the rest of the team pivoted to get Typhlosion in, while checking some stuff.
This team was much better on ladder, but vs teammates such as PokesliceEnzonana. and Thiago Nunes neither version of the team was good enough.
On Wednesday I finally built the team I would be using:
Snow, my favorite weather both in Mons and IRL. Abomasnow has the standard set, it puts Veil if it can, but the Main goal is to put snow as many times as possible during the match. Other than that, it just hits hard and has a good coverage.
Cetitan also has pretty much the standard set, though I tweaked Speed EVs for my needs. If Cetitan gets to use Belly Drum, its usually game over if there are enough Snow turns left. Even Bronzong doesn,t reliably stop Cetitan, especially if I go Tera Ghost. If snow ends, Cetitan is still a threat for faster foes due to having Ice Shard.
Sandslash is the other Slush Rush Mon. Its goal is to spin. Therefore, it has Boots despite not being weak to Rocks, since the Web usage on ladder was enormous when I tested teams. Sandslash doesn,t need SD, the one set-up sweeper is Cetitan. Instead, Sandslash just attacks with Triple Axel or Knocks a ghost that wants to spinblock. Tera Electric is a nasty surprise for bulky waters that want to wall Sandslash, and forms the lethal STAB Boltbeam combo.
Swampert takes Fire, Steel and Rocks moves. It also Knocks and Flip Turns, allowing one of the faster Mons to switch-in for free.
Slowbro is another way for the sweepers to switch-in. It has Eject Button + Regenerator for that. A bulky Poison is always needed, in case some Toxic Spikes appears. Thunder Wave is additional measure to ease set-up for Cetitan, yellow magic is a thing.
Finally, in case Abomasnow dies, I have a Kilowattrell as a fast Mon that sometimes wins games. Its also the second Fight resist and Boltbeam bird. Tera Blast Ground is rarely clicked and could be something like Tbolt, Roost or even Tailwind, but in a few ladder games it did help vs Glowbro and Alolan Muk.
The team easily dominated ladder, in which I reached Top 1 without losing a single game. Vs teammates I did lose, but only once out of like... 7? 8? battles, vs Enzonana. With Pokeslice advices I built a second version of the team, while he built a third one (both with Bombirdier and Flygon instead of Swampert and Kilowattrell, but with different sets). However, in the end, the initial version of the team still looked the best.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nu-800714 < As expected, the battle went very smooth despite a Scald burn on Sandslash. Unfortunately, we still ended up losing the week and later the tournament too. At least, all Ice Mons of the team ended up having a 100% win rate in SCL (both Abomasnow and Cetitan had just my one game to show off, but Sandslash got used 3 times and won all the games).
If I stayed in NU Tier after week 6, I would have probably reused this team at least once, maybe more, since not every tech of it has been shown in the game vs 3d. Instead, I went on a rough LC journey, but thats a story for another day.
Gonna post the teams I've used this SCL. First I'll start by saying I think the tier is pretty good and it has tools for every playstyle without feeling overbearing towards one way or another. As you will see below, I tend to be a fan of extremes, I either go all out offense or use a very sturdy defensive core that all work towards the same goal. Keep also in mind those teams were made in the context of SCL, I know some of them aren't good or have one or two glaring weaknesses, but you only have to play one game with them. For the second part of the season, I'd ladder more often to test them so I'd say those teams are a bit more secure into "the meta" as a whole.
Whenever I use defensive teams, I always try to include something to play around Item disruption, one or two Knock Off users if my strategy relies around hazards and some kind of counterplay for fat setuppers (either Salt Cure, Leech Seed or Encore typically, but Haze can do the trick). I also tend to not use Defog because I dislike removing my own hazards. In that case, I will typically go for Spin or all Boots approach to avoid losing to hazards myself.
At this stage of the tournament I hadn't played any NU yet so when I finally got myself into prepping, I decided I wouldn't use Balance because I was too unfamiliar with the dynamics yet and settled on HO. I liked the look of Grassy Terrain especially as I remember using similar things in UU last year. The three main things here that I decided upon were having a dedicated lead in Sash Iron Thorns (which got its IVs fucked from importing to smogtours), using Drifblim and Scarf Breloom. Drifblim was something I experimented quite a bit in UU and even saw in OU a little bit before DLC and this Pokemon is just unfair in general and can win many games by itself. Tera Steel was used for Clear Smog Muk and Toxic in general. Scarf Loom was a recommendation from Luthier as I originally had Torterra. Having immediate Speed that isn't reliant on a one-time item adds a lot of flexibility to HO in general and I was all for it when he suggested it.
Realistically I think I coulda/shoulda gone for another CM on Misdreavus as I Tera and just clean house from there but to be honest the Baloon had enough damage by then for Loom to run away with the game pretty much.
For this one, the idea was simple, I wanted to have as many stops to HO as possible because that's Freezai's domain. Most of the Pokemons I wanted to use here however are extremely passive and my idea was to pair them with Toxic Spikes so most HO could die as I play passively and heal. Salazzle was included because it can not only lay fast TSpikes early but also take something down with it (pretty much) with Endeavor. Rest Porygon2 is my status absorber by the way.
Anyway he didn't have HO so I ended up having to work for the win.
This team was a revamped idea of a SS RU team I had made in SCL2 that worked around the idea of Klefki Fairy Locking a Choiced Ground move into two turns of set up. In this case, Air Baloon Drednaw which should then be able to win any game at +4 +4. To compliment this, we have Cincinno to start the game vs anything while preventing Hazards to go up. Trick Chandelure since it's a ground move magnet and Toxtricity because only Scarf Ground moves can take it out, so I either dont face one and Tox sweeps or I do and that means I can play into the Drednaw angle. Stories was also a huge spammer of Flygon so that looked like a good time to pull it off. Tera Dark on Drednew is for the Crunch boost and Prankster protection, with Protect for FI Flygon.
I faced something completely different and had to scramble for a game path. I also clicked a very lazy Shell Smash vs Cinccino, in the hope that it wouldn't be Encore (as if anyone but me runs Encore-less). I got bailed here and Chandelure was able to pretty much claim the game for itself as a result.
This was another revamp of a SS RU team with the idea of just having proactive defensive Pokemons that can get hazards up and win little by little. Vs Offense where I need to be more aggro, all these Pokemons are not too passive either. Salazzle provides yet another layer of passive damage with a perfect Toxic and the ability to keep a bit of everything in check with fast Encore. Guno on the other hand is a pivot with an "offensive Taunt" as I like to see it in Psychic Noise. I like Protect on Muk-Alola because it racks up poison damage, scout choiced moves and is an extra heal. I think it's dope vs Offense while you have Rest for matchups where you want it to stick around more. In those, Sleep Talk is not a necessity to wake up anyway.
The game was rough on paper because I'm Sticky Gastro but I knew if I got my hazards up quickly I could suffocate Rain and also Bj would respect and play around Storm Gastro so I could use it as if it had it (or make plays based on this assumption on his end).
I had a few teams ready for this week but since the result of that game didn't count, I went with the riskiest one.
This was clearly my craziest team of the tour but it's honestly not as bad as it looks, it worked well in tests. The idea was to have an HO that could be disguised as a Sun. At any point, if someone tries to sack something to "Specs Charizard", then you can Belly Drum and win off that free turn. Sunny Day is there to further drive that point but also to boost Flame Charge to get certain kills (you really want to Belly Drum on a switch then get a OHKO with Flame Charge).
The game however went terribly. First of all, Ditto + P2 was already dire, but WaterRos was also the one priority I didn't want to see with Zard (not to mention the Intimidate factor). My turn 1 was poor there, I feared Triple Axel but realistically Shell Smash should have been clicked, especially with that poor of a match up. Not only that, it was probably my best shot at catching his Ditto as my Sash could have stayed concealed if I kill Flygon the next turn (however I doubt I'd have used my Tera already which was needed for the OHKO).
This team was made after I looked for Future Sight users with Regenerator in the builder, as that's always a potent combo. Mienshao was a perfect partner for this as it'd form a double Regen core but also because it's one of the best Future Sight partner. The rest of the team was designed around a strong defensive core with Spin support for the Regen 'mons. Future Sight is probably not mandatory here and the team could use a Ghost resist (lol).
The game went as well as it could, I def could have avoided to give away my Ditto's health in the midgame tho.
I had been meaning to try Vileplume for a while by then but I disliked how it gave Toxtricity free turns, so I was set on using Protect to scout it. Excal noticed that Naclstack was an amazing partner of Plume by pretty much switching into all its counters. Gligar was added to provide Knock/Spikes support. Originally I had Frosmoth over Avalugg but as I said early, I dislike Defog with my own hazards. On top of that, Sub Flygon completely owned me so I replaced it with Avalugg, and I also noticed that Special Attackers in general were kept in check between Naclstack/ AV Mienshao/Ditto anyway.
The game was under control up until the Qwilfish revealed to be all of bulky/tera fly/sub but once I got out of that commotion I was fine (Gunk was a roll on Avalugg there btw).
I don't remember exactly how I landed on this 6 but I think it started by me wanting to use Muk as it was a great counter to omnipresent Mienshao by then. By using such a 'mon, I knew I wanted a defensive structure and everything else fit into place naturally, with Sableye acting as a spinblocker but also Prankster Encore user for any kind of setup, both fast and slow one, allthewhile adding a Knock Off user to the team. I originally had something else on Incineroar but went with it to have an offensive Pivot and a good Ground resist.
As soon as I saw the matchup, I knew everything would be fine except for Oricorio which would require me to keep Sableye for the endgame. However I didn't quite expect the Trapper Altaria which was perfect to own me unless I'd use Sableye for it. Once Sableye was burned, the pressure was on me and I tried to catch zS by playing aggro but it ended up costing me the game. My mistake was also assuming the Oricorio set would be Taunt/Air Slash and that Bronzong would be able to pressure it and force some Roosts first.
This is one of my favorite team of the tournament and I had a lot of fun laddering with it. I wanted to try my hand at Rain and after many tweaks, this is what I landed on. The support crew is very streamlined between dual Rain, Healing Wish, Prankster TW and Revival Blessing on an electric immune user. Revival Blessing is often used for Klefki here so I can get a Prankster Rain Dance again. On the offensive side, Basculegion is the only member I had from the start. After many tries, I found Poliwrath and Drednew to be ideal as they have the "Offense Killer" aspect of being Swift Swimmers with Water stab to just blow through non-immunities, but also the ability to break through hard Rain counters like Vaporeon through Belly Drum and SD Head Smash respectively. Another option of Drednew is Tera Grass, which I was heavily considering.
As for the game, I owe one to God for this one. I knew it was over at preview when I saw Gastrodon AND Ditto but then (not to mention Curse Muk that immediately forces me to use Belly Drum)... history.
And finally, an edited variant of the team I used vs zS, this time with Vileplume as my main Mienshao punisher and AlolanMuk as my Dark type which had more durability than Incineroar. Plume > Muk also frees up the Gastrodon ability to be Sticky Hold so I had my Knock absorber there. The team was very solid in tests and despite being a very expected playstyle from me at that point, I ended up going with it.
As for the game, I think I played solid but slipped here and there in a complicated matchup. I def should have just hard switched on Basculegion once it clicked Shadow Ball on Plume switch in. Would have saved me Muk and give me a ton of momentum early. I also heavily considered staying with Gastro on Munkidori and trading Psy for EP which was probably a very strong path too. I was ahead at that point though and thought that Elias wouldnt play as aggro with Avalugg on Sableye, not to mention the move was susceptible to miss. In the position I was in however, I think I could have just used Knock/WoW immediately rather than trying to play too safe by Recovering (especially with Muk taking hazards by then and being down to like 50%). I got heavily punished by missing WoW after a crit when I finally decided to attack and the game was lost then.
https://pokepast.es/b648c6baff7a2073 - this paste includes every team I ended up keeping in my builder but didn't bring to a game, including the teams I was considering for the Final game (the first 5 to be precise), I'm probably not gonna play NU for a while so might as well post them.
H-Braviary - The Majestic Leader 
Registeel - The Strong, Silent Type 
:kilowattrell: 
