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Tournament SCL IV PU Discussion Thread

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Welcome to the Smogon Champions League 4 Discussion Thread -- PU edition! This thread will be used to discuss PU in SCL IV related topics, whether it’s about the players, general metagame trends, matches, predictions and so on.

Commencement Thread
Schedule
Power Rankings

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PU Player Cores
Managers in italics
Starters in bold

:gible: Studio Gible - S1nn0hC0nfirm3d, Seraphz, tier
:exeggutor-alola: Orange Islanders - MichaelderBeste2, sufys, pdt
:falinks: Indigo Platoon - LpZ, abriel, Taka
:gyarados: Uncharted Terrors - GXE, Ampha, Baloor
:mew: Technical Machines - fish anemometer, Bouff, Stories, avarice
:ninetales: Mt. Silver Foxes - MZ, Danny, Suzuya
:zapdos-galar: Power Plant Dynamos - Larry, Excal, spell
:toxapex: Showdown Shoguns - mind gaming, zS
:melmetal: Circuit Breakers - eifo, 3d
:aegislash: Arena Spartans - SoulWind, DugZa, ishtar, Thiago Nunes

Some of this info is subject to change, as starting lineups have not yet been released. Please let me know if you have knowledge of some of the starting slots in the less clear teams! I'll update as soon as I can.

~

Good luck to everyone participating this year, let's make this another fun year!​
 
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The official PRs will be linked when they are published, but for now I'll give my ranking of the PU cores.

1. Arena Spartans - SoulWind, DugZa, ishtar, Thiago Nunes
2. Studio Gible - S1nn0hC0nfirm3d, Seraphz, tier

You could swap the two teams here and still have a reasonable top 2, but SoulWind of all players backed by none other than DugZa and ishtar feels too good not to rank first. SW picked up some nice wins towards the end of PU Open and even won the entire tour with all public/reused teams, which is an impressive display of skill to say the least. The thought of him with extensive support from DugZa and ishtar is a bit scary and ensures that we can expect nothing less than the best from the Spartans in PU. Of course, SCL III champ Ho3n doesn't need much, if any, support from others to perform. The 11-1 record from last year speaks for itself, and his regular engagement with the tier since then and willingness to think outside the box both give him a massive edge in the builder alone. Seraphz and tier are also both strong players and can surely help fine-tune some of the wilder ideas, which is always nice, but Ho3n will very likely excel either way.

3. Mt. Silver Foxes - MZ, Danny, Suzuya

MZ is tied with Larry for having the best SV record in PUPL X, which speaks to a level of skill and consistency that might prove difficult for the other starters to match. I know that he enjoys the tier a lot and is also very willing to experiment, and he's definitely seasoned as far as tournaments go, so I'm looking forward to see how his games go. Danny is great support to have, has plenty of experience with PU, and is a solid tester and overall player, and the same can be said about Suzuya.

4. Technical Machines - fish anemometer, Bouff, Stories, avarice
5. Uncharted Terrors - GXE, Ampha, Baloor

These two slots also feel pretty close to me, though I slightly favor fish and the Machines. While fish has been vocal about his disdain for the current meta, the PU circuit champion is impossible to count out when it comes to discussing the upper echelon. His teams and his play are equally strong, and I rate his support highly. Stories went undefeated in SV during PUPL and has that Magmortars synergy going on with fish, while Bouff is a good voice of reason to have on your side and fully capable of helping fish out. On the other hand, GXE is incredible across the board and did really well in SCL III despite the Spartans ending up in last. I only rank the Terrors a bit lower because of GXE being less experienced in PU than fish and the other starters so far. Ampha and Baloor will definitely support him well and persistently, and I'm sure he'll do well if it all clicks, so I wouldn't be surprised if he does better than I'm giving him credit.

6. Circuit Breakers - eifo, 3d

eifo is solid, pretty self-sufficient, and likes PU; all good signs. I think he's a bit too safe compared to everyone above him, but that's not always a big deal and being safe led him to the finals of PU Open. I also worry a little about how supporting this slot will go for the Breakers, especially if things don't go super well.

7. Orange Islanders - MichaelderBeste2, sufys, pdt

The skill is 100% there for MDB2, just a bit worried as far as support goes. This isn't to say sufys is bad support, especially since he helped LpZ to his Grand Slam victory, which is huge. It's just that a lot of sufys's teams are a bit too standard/honest or include sets like non-CC Redbull, which could easily end up working against the Islanders.

8. Showdown Shoguns - mind gaming, zS

zS is great support in PU, especially for a strong player like mind gaming. My main concerns here are mind's inexperience with PU and how often zS will overcook in the builder. zS is self-sufficient and fully capable of slotting in if things go wrong, but oversight would become a bit harder to offer this way.

9. Indigo Platoon - LpZ, abriel, Taka
10. Power Plant Dynamos - Larry, Excal, spell

Neither of these teams have mainers in their corner, which I think is a huge deal. LpZ won Grand Slam, getting some big PU wins in both playoffs and our open. Still, a lot of his support in PU ended up on other teams, which mainly leaves Taka to help out. abriel has experience with the tier too from Slam, so I could see her potentially trading places with LpZ. Some of her playoffs games were closer than they needed to be, though, which leaves room for doubt if they do need to switch. Larry is also great and tied with MZ for best SV record in PUPL X, but his support doesn't look as thorough as it was in PUPL. Taka, Excal, and spell are all good support (and pilots) and will definitely give it their all, but it may end up taking longer for these teams to get started than is ideal.

I don't necessarily think there are huge gaps between the teams this year, and every starter is broken, so it should be lots of fun to watch all the PU games. I also don't know how to end posts!
 
puval pat pu power rankings (revised)

1. S1nn0hC0nfirm3d - 11-1 last year
2. mind gaming - the best player overall in the pool
3. GXE - solid lower tier builder + player, always does well in scl
4. SoulWind - won pu open but never pops off that hard in scl, doesn't build much
5. MichaelderBeste2 - heute
6. LpZ - slam run shows he can beat anyone on the big stage

- dropoff -

7. eifo
8. fish anemometer
9. MZ

- dropoff -

10. Larry - Larry's fucked
 
LpZ vs mind gaming imo this is the closest matchup of the week since lpz did go on a tear in slam playoffs and mind is still one of the "veteran" players in this pool who has great support in zs. i favor lpz slightly since he has had more time spent actively playing the tier due to slam but it could really go either way.
MichaelderBeste2 vs eifo even if eifo is a sweat by nature michael is just an overall solid player and i lean towards him slightly in game, building diff only goes so far and "mainer" diff isn't as huge a deal in this tier since most interactions and sets are fairly straightforward and not really bad to pick up. as long as michael doesn't put up a similar performance to tiebreak last year it should work out alright.
Larry vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d even if larry had a great pl season i favor hoen more due to his performance and outright dominance last year and larry's wins were not all as impressive as a 10 to 11 win season in scl.
GXE vs SoulWind prob hl of the week for me or at least tied with lpz mind. sw obviously won pu open and is a decorated player, his support is also pretty deep, so as long as there aren't too many cooks in the kitchen it could be a demonic combo. gxe is a player that i do enjoy watching a lot and i think his creativity shown in other tiers like ou could translate well which could shake up the solid foundation that spartans have set up.
MZ vs fish anemometer mainer fight omg :0, i think fish has altogether been more unpredictable throughout recent pu tours so i give him the edge here. mz is also great but a lot of his builds have had noticeable trends/patterns at least during pl which can lead to a lot of openings both during game and just looking at teams side by side.

altogether this pool is strong as hell and this tour should give us some good games, gl to everyone :heart:
 
LpZ vs mind gaming
Grand slam winner, brazilian phenom, and member of the exclusive three letter gang, I have faith that lpz will be clutching up this week for the platoon. Being fresh off his grand slam run, I think lpz definitely will be more familiar with the playing the meta, and as per his involvement with pupl, will be a bit more personally aware how meta has been trending as of late. mind gaming, while an undoubtly strong player, does not have this same level of personal investment with PU that lpz does and in addition his support will be off the back of zS who is prone to leaning into his own conceptions ab meta and perhaps might not be the BEST barometer for someone new to the tier. That being said, those in the pu community have also seen first hand how some of the more eccentric creations from zS have shown out when the lights get bright, so if mind gaming can really make whatever tech gets brough to the table pop, I would not be surprised to see him walk with the W.

MichaelderBeste2 vs eifo
love you eifo, an ru brother, caster for rutube, all around a good dude BUT.
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THREE of these apart of the 93+ club btw, i mean there actually are no words
like i mean just cmon now. mdb is one of the most gifted clickers this site may have literally ever seen, and with support coming from sufys who I have personally seen working his magic in the past, I know the team mdb brings will be solid. Speaking of support, I am not entirely sold on eifo's pu support specifically which includes, as far as whats listed here, primarily 3d? 3d is a great clicker but as far as providing insight into the tier and being another voice to help eifo in the kitchen, I am unsure if he will be able to step up. Now obviously there could be some outside help called in to help eifo in the lab but until I see some tangible results here I've gotta lean towards mdb.

Larry vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
I personally was able to see ho3n in action this year as a member of his pupl team and he was definitely a character. For the majority of the tour he would pop in on game day, sometimes drop the paste, and send it, to decent results as well as passing squads and providing some input to the other sv slots during the tour. All that being said to say that he is a self-sufficient builder who is more than capable of building for himself and has his own set of guys+ladder he likes to test against. Comparatively we have Larry who from my knowledge, is being supplied a paste of teams that he will be picking from based on vibes. I will comfortably lean ho3n here. The strength of larry's pupl szn is not smth to be underestimated but in terms of actual investment into this tour and level of prep, I think ho3n has him beat and by quite a large margin at that.

GXE vs SoulWind
listen 30k is 30k. This is one of the highlight matches for this week for sure, gxe the highest paid player in the pool vs soulwind the reigning pu open champion. its a stacked deck against gxe im ngl. SoulWind has very strong recent results in the tier and his support pool is far and away superior to GXE (sry ampha and loor but SoulWind has maybe the strongest pu support core of all time backing him up, they are the PU avengers). But with all that being said I am still going to bold gxe, and i will not lie, a lot of that has to do with the pricetag. GXE was definitely an odd name to see show up in the PU pool at least from my perspective, especially considering his price tag as a 30k investment. I don't know if he's been grinding the tier on the low but I will say this, just coming into this tour as expensive as gxe is, already kinda starts a narrative in my mind, and thats that you can't just be good, you need to be dominant. We'll see whether or not that narrative holds up over the next couple weeks but for now, I expect great things from gxe and all that to be kicked off with a 1-0.

MZ vs fish anemometer
This is a tough matchup to negotiate. I have more confidence in fish as a standalone player and its been an incredible year for him with strong showings all throughout sv in 2024, which is why I will be giving him the bold. That is not to say MZ has been slouching in any regard either, with his fantastic pupl performance finishing the szn with a tournamnt leading 6-1. But I will say the strength of MZ's pool was maybe not as impressive as the strength of the pool we have here, and I am skeptical at this point if we can see the same results from him. I will add, I think both sides have some pretty strong support. I think Bouff for fish and Danny for MZ are both great adds to help quality control whatever teams may be brought so in that regard both these guys are looking solid. Great match to be sure
 
Week 2!
:mew: fish anemometer vs MichaelderBeste2 :exeggutor-alola:
:aegislash: SoulWind vs LpZ :falinks:
:gible: S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs GXE :gyarados:
:melmetal: eifo vs Larry :zapdos-galar:
:kingambit: mind gaming vs MZ :ninetales-alola:
​
There were some pretty interesting PU games last week, and this week looks like it will follow suit. Post your predictions below!

fish anemometer vs MichaelderBeste2
SoulWind vs LpZ
S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs GXE
eifo vs Larry
mind gaming vs MZ
 
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fish anemometer vs MichaelderBeste2
Fish should win in the builder. It’s plausible his opponent will learn from his mistakes from last game, and fish could surely slip as well.

SoulWind vs LpZ
After an unimpressive showing from both in r1, I’m expecting LpZ to bounce back better, but barely. Somewhere in this tour, I am certain SW will show his dominance, but that could be a mid- to late-tour occurrence.

eifo vs Larry
I expect Leru and his team will look at more current meta trends like last weeks’ games and draw something more inspirational than Tera Fairy CM Jolteon.

mind gaming vs MZ
 
Was gonna talk about W1 games too bc I'm caffeinated and had an hour to spare at first, but this took too long. Maybe next week...

fish anemometer vs MichaelderBeste2
MisderBeast2 is talented, but some mistakes in the endgame vs eifo lost him a still-winnable game. On the other hand, while fish had a much more straightforward matchup and game, his win was still incredibly strong and I also heavily favor him in the builder. MDB2's team wasn't bad, but fish should be very accustomed to builds like it and is fully capable of exploiting them. While I favor fish, though, MDB2 is likely more used to the pressure that can arise in bigstage games and probably better overall at getting out of bad situations. Definitely not open-and-shut at all despite what it might seem.

SoulWind vs LpZ
Not sure what to make of this matchup, but I feel more comfortable bolding SoulWind here. LpZ was in a pretty bad spot before mind gaming timed out while SW kept it a bit more competitive against GXE. LpZ's matchup was definitely worse than SW's, but the Platoon also banked on HO while the Spartans aimed for something more consistent. I don't think SW and the Spartans will change their approach either, while it may take the LpZ and the Platoon longer to nail something down as far as PU goes.

S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs GXE
100% the highlight of the week. I don't put winning past GXE, but it'll be tough to pull a fast one against Ho3n, especially if we see another somewhat-old looking team come from the Terrors. That said, GXE's win feels slightly more impressive considering his opponent didn't load Jolteon, and both are riding momentum after week 1. Either way, looking forward to see how this one turns out.

eifo vs Larry
eifo proved the haters (me) wrong with a frankly insane team. I think the Tera Dark turn with Toxtricity was overambitious and could've definitely cost him, but he was firmly in control for the entire game other than that. Larry didn't really get to play the game last week, and while I believe that Excal and him will pull something stronger together this time, I also believe that eifo will do that and then some.

mind gaming vs MZ
Had to think about it some, but I think MZ can bounce back if he gets a matchup any less bad than he did vs fish. mind gaming won't make this easy, but MZ will definitely go hard in the builder and do well to back it up with skill. Don't have a ton else to say because both had unfortunate opening games—for different reasons—but go MZ.
 
i didnt predict last week bc i wanted to see how the teams settled (i got every single one of them wrong in theory anyway.)

fish anemometer vs MichaelderBeste2 - as a player mdb is better but i think fish can win in builder similar to how eifo did. mdb's team looked incredibly boring and standard and for scl u cant rly be cooking that up
SoulWind vs LpZ - i think SoulWind has prob the best pu support this tour
S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs GXE - hl match but uhhh idk gut feeling
eifo vs Larry - Larry is better provided he gets a neutral mu, but i think eifo will likely win in builder and also am not doubting him as a player...for the sake of prediction though i still think larry is better
mind gaming vs MZ - I didn't like MZ's team in week 1, I think he'll pick up the pace week 2, though I still have to go with mind
 
went 4/5 last week lets gooo

fish anemometer vs MichaelderBeste2
I said last week that mdb might be one of the highest skill players we've seen on this site and I'll stand by that, but he still needs to be careful he doesn't beat himself in his own head. Last week vs eifo, I feel like there were times where it really was mdb vs mdb out there, him making reads he maybe didnt need to do, or getting maybe a little too caught in the moment by some of eifos stranger techs. It also doesn't help that this week he's up against fish, the mascot of PU tryharding. fish is carrying great momentum off a very convincing win against mz, another mainer, last week and has been shown to be more than capable of going off the beaten path to find the right sauce for his opponents. I think this will be a great test for fish to see if he can hang with the big dawgs as far as tour mainers go and am excited to see how he approaches the week. I think I rate the quality of the fish support as well higher than mdbs, although sufys+pdt is still nothing to sneeze at as far as support goes. Will be a great game to keep an eye on this week

SoulWind vs LpZ
I think soulwind played a pretty decent game all things considered last week, certainly couldve asked to do some things better and maybe make some plays differently, but there were no egregiously wrong mistakes to my eyes and he kept the game very competitive down to the last few turns. LpZ also had a decent game ig? mind gaming timed out on turn 8 after going up 6-4 on lpz on HO tho so its like very hard to tell what actually was going to happen their after the fact and for that reason I'm leaning more towards SoulWind who gave a more complete showing last week even if it ended in an L. Support wise, I think Soulwinds PU avengers got a wakeup call last week that they can't be comfortable just riding the wave of their reputation, they really have to lock in with the cooking in a PU pool THIS strong. LpZ also has decent support, although still not in the same league as SoulWind.

S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs GXE
This is definitely the hardest match to negotiate this week for me. Both of these guys had really dominant performances week 1 and are coming off some quality Ws to start the season. Neither of these dudes brought anything super ground breaking or particularly innovative for their week 1 sets tho, just very regular looking squads which there isn't anything wrong with per se. However, I expect ho3n is more likely to pull off some cteamy cooking rather than gxe which I think will give him the edge here as well as just being in general more comfortable with meta. Support wise, I probably have more faith in GXE's support lineup but even then these aren't like, the craziest support groups in the tour so idk how much that will actually sway the results, especially since its ho3n staring GXE down this week.

eifo vs Larry
eifo showed out big time upsetting mdb last week. I will say mdbs play was a bit questionable at times but eifo was incredibly solid the entire match and at least to me, felt firmly in the drivers seat at all times. He came out with some interesting techs, klutz golurk and special arcanine were a treat to watch, that ended up paying out huge dividends and a creative build+poise behind the sticks is always a formula for success. In comparison, Larry struggled to continue his pupl success on the scl stage vs ho3n last week. Conversely to how in control eifo looked in his match, it really did feel like Larry was playing super reactive to ho3n which ultimately ended with a scream tail KO screen for ho3n. Considering larry's manager excal's comments on continuing taking from the "mega paste" of teams they allegedly have already prebuilt, I am doubtful on how effective Larry will be in this slot

mind gaming vs MZ
MZ i love you bro, but last weeks showing was NOT inspiring, burning tera turn 4 on the only flying resist you had on the team vs a specs tornadus you could only outspeed with one mon felt... confusing as a spectator. I thought the build was creative, scarf explosion skunk was a great bait and it did kinda get a lil bit of mileage chunking tornadus, but the play is really whats having me lean towards mind gaming this week. The nerves of being under the spotlight in an official are real, and I get that, but before I see just a really confident approach from MZ, I do have to give it to the vet mind gaming who all in all, played a decent game for 8 turns before LpZ got the feds to blow up his net.
 
fish anemometer vs MichaelderBeste2 after w1 it's hard to trust michael to put up the strong showing most expected him to, even if he didn't get botted with half the heat eifo loaded the team itself was just kinda basic, not a bad thing but it was something that was easily fishable/some trends kinda blew it over and it did indeed get fished. fish showed week 1 he's already taking the step outside the box/willing to experiment which has shown to be effective vs michael and i think fish overall cares more.
SoulWind vs LpZ kind of redemption for both but overall i lean lpz, mainly out of bias tbh he's my guy but the style of sw is not something hard to punish and i know lpz wants to show up more even if he did technically win last week. realistically even or favoring sw bias aside but i have faith in the lpz dub.
S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs GXE def my highlight for this week, bolding hoen for consistency's sake but a gxe upset is doable. both teams last week were really clean and im excited to see what both bring for sure. gxe is known to innovate a lot in other metas and now that he's been able to adjust fairly well i would say i'm excited to see what he decides to push forward in the future.
eifo vs Larry even if dynamos had a rude awakening last week i still think eifo is already ahead based on last week's game in a comfortable position. if he keeps his momentum here it could be huge, and i don't think he has any chance of stopping based on how dominant you could say the week 1 game was. he's already started pushing the common pokemon to their limits so as long as he doesn't completely lean innovation over viability/overly fishing that gets a bad matchup i expect him to show out again.
mind gaming vs MZ both have the tools to win but it's really hard to call it before series begins. just going off last week neither had the outcome they were looking for but both definitely have unique approaches (in minds case uniquely approaching a timer loss) but mind's position that game was undeniably looking like it was winning. i don't doubt mz's drive to fight back after his debut wasn't what he expected, and his team was pretty unique so it shouldn't be the curb stomp that some would think it is after last week at all.
overall should be another good week this pool is so strong LOL
 
Week 4!

:melmetal: eifo vs LpZ :falinks:
:gible: S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs mind gaming :kingambit:
:aegislash: SoulWind vs Kushalos :ninetales-alola:
:mew: fish anemometer vs GXE :gyarados:
:exeggutor-alola: MichaelderBeste2 vs Larry :zapdos-galar:
​
Whoever runs this thread got real lazy and skipped posting about week 3, but I'm here to do their job for them this week! Prediction format will be below as always, but I also wanna talk about some of the teams from last week I found interesting.

eifo vs LpZ
S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs mind gaming
SoulWind vs Kushalos
fish anemometer vs GXE
MichaelderBeste2 vs Larry
We've seen a few different takes on hyper offense so far, but it truly was a treat to see Grassy Terrain in PU for the first time since cycle 1 of PULT. What makes it more special is that it features Drifblim and Howl Arcanine over other Terrain sweepers like Hitmonlee, and I always have to root for someone using lead Scream Tail. mind gaming's team was fairly interesting too, continuing to spread the word of Cramorant while also showcasing lesser seen threats in Zoroark and Rhydon. That said, SoulWind's team is still my favorite from the week just because it was a complete departure from the Spartans' brings so far and unique for being HO. SoulWind unfortunately lost, but his team had plenty of ideas I thought were good, and he kept it as close as one can after Thwackey went down.

Absolutely disgusting team from the Dynamos last week, but it gets points for using Naclstack. Other than once in SCL III and again in PUWC, stall's never really been used in SV PU's tour scene, likely due to the high volume of threats and us lacking an Unaware user. I like how reliable Jytcampbell's team looks against the emerging threat Duraludon and well-known threats Wetbull and Decidueye. Being solid against Wetbull is important as a whole, but it's especially important against someone like fish, who's made it no secret how much he likes that mon. Speaking of fish, his team has two ZUs and gets my seal of approval. Calm Mind Dudunsparce is a fun pick and ended up putting in a lot of work for him despite coming up just short of winning. Endeavor Kilowattrel is also super fire and makes his Kilowattrel cooler than the other three that we happened to see this week.
Cool builds from both GXE and eifo here, and they each brought a ZU because they're awesome. Hazard stack is good and broken, and GXE brought some fun ways to capitalize on that in Tera Fire Hisuian Decidueye and (I assume) Competitive Kilowattrel. The stacked hazards also helped keep 3 of eifo's 4 main sources of damage low, giving GXE the long-term edge with how much longevity his team had. Muk + Arcanine was a cute combo from eifo, a lot of our physical walls/Fire-resists get trolled by Knock + PJab. I do think Muk + Gligar give hazard setters like Gastrodon and opposing Gligar more room to up than is ideal for a team w/o removal, but I respect the bring and the Mukanine core has boots to make up for that anyway.
 
asa said:
We've seen a few different takes on hyper offense so far, but it truly was a treat to see Grassy Terrain in PU for the first time since cycle 1 of PULT. What makes it more special is that it features Drifblim and Howl Arcanine over other Terrain sweepers like Hitmonlee, and I always have to root for someone using lead Scream Tail. mind gaming's team was fairly interesting too, continuing to spread the word of Cramorant while also showcasing lesser seen threats in Zoroark and Rhydon. That said, SoulWind's team is still my favorite from the week just because it was a complete departure from the Spartans' brings so far and unique for being HO. SoulWind unfortunately lost, but his team had plenty of ideas I thought were good, and he kept it as close as one can after Thwackey went down.
Click to expand...
grassy terrain is interesting in pu, although it's difficult to make work. compared to ss, thwackey is way worse, and setting/removing hazards means you end up wasting at least 2 slots on hazard control and terrain setting. the best way to abuse terrain is probably through ground-weak pokemon gaining passive health and removing their ground weakness, so howl arcanine is a decent abuser. pkmn like coalossal (set hazards, spin, gain hp) would be a decent fit. i remember using eject pack with overheat in scl1 for slow pivoting as well. food for thought.

as for this terrain, it's a team with many flaws. there's no counterplay for thunder wave, so sw had to sack his terrain setter immediately in trying to prevent twave spam. scream tail also is ineffective, as while it uses encore to stop other setup sweepers and denies stealth rock, it's not denying spikes, which cripples thwackey, alcremie, grafaiai, and maybe arcanine unless it has boots. additionally, alcremie is not bulky enough and too slow for pu's current metagame. with hazard stack, priority spam, and high octane offense being some of the most consistent styles, grassy terrain builds, esp w slow, grounded abusers like alcremie, have a lot working against them. this terrain is an example of one that lacks necessary output, hazard control, and defensive synergy between pokemon with scream tail + alcremie being redundant.

this is all to say that other teams not showcased here, like ho3n's venusaur + dura spikestack, mz's tera water kilo spikestack, mind's cram + rhydon offense, and heute's zoro + rotom h bo are more representative of current metagame trends. eifo's team was similar to ho3n's, but lacked the same synergies (no dark, no spikes, weaker to grounds). gxe's team with decid-h, wt scream tail, and sr + ww copperajah and spikes gastro looked very solid to me.

the more time i spend exploring this metagame, the more interesting it becomes. there are lots of different routes to take and we've only scratched the surface with optimized structures, so props to all for exploring unique ideas & pkmn and i'm looking forward to seeing further development with the tier shifts.
 
Week 5 (+1)

:gible: S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs MZ :ninetales-alola:
:melmetal: eifo vs SoulWind :aegislash:
:mew: fish anemometer vs mind gaming :kingambit:
:exeggutor-alola: MichaelderBeste2 vs LpZ :falinks:
:zapdos-galar: Jytcampbell vs GXE :gyarados:
​
Homework can wait, but this week's SCL PUost can't! Last week featured some of the first big stage games of our new, purple sea monster-less metagame, and all of them were interesting in their own ways to watch. Besides Duraludon and Flamigo dominating, we also saw more offensive teams pop up, which many were anticipating given the direction the tier seems to be going in. Perhaps they're a sign of things to come? Perhaps bulkier builds, in the absence of the stapler and the amigo, will adapt and continue to thrive? Tune in to this week's PerhapsUsed games to find out!
​
S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs MZ
eifo vs SoulWind
fish anemometer vs mind gaming
MichaelderBeste2 vs LpZ
Jytcampbell vs GXE
S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs MZ - MZ is back! Sadly though, he and the Foxes don't have a ton of momentum on their side right now. That's not always a deciding factor at all, but you'll need everything you can muster to pull one over on Ho3n, who's helping the Gibles ride their way back to the top of the sheet. Both players can be quite creative and bring some weirdo stuff, so we'll have to see if the time off was enough MZ to brainstorm something weird and fucked up.

eifo vs SoulWind - Both players here are coming off of a loss, though I think SoulWind, who came up just short against Ho3n, will bounce back better. eifo's a similar case to MZ in terms of combining solid play with oddball picks, so this definitely won't be a free win for SW. The Breakers also finally had a breakthrough last week, which may be what eifo needs to really get in gear.

fish anemometer vs mind gaming - Highlight of the week, could genuinely go either way. Both are coming off of a win and both have some really big Ws under their belts, but I think I'll give this to mind gaming, who should probably have the best record in the pool. mind gaming's brings have been good and he's been very commanding so far when not getting unfortunate'd. In dicier endgames, I think he's among the least likely here to fold. Still, fish is no slouch; if he cooks and plays the way he did against GXE and LpZ, he's got more than a chance. He also said he's gonna tryhard this week, so this really might be more of a vs bold than anything else. 100% looking forward to this.

MichaelderBeste2 vs LpZ - MDB2 is on a nice streak at the moment with some good wins, and the Islanders' PU prep has also been great lately. While LpZ isn't necessarily struggling, I worry that he and the Platoon won't be able to figure the current meta out as much as they had in the first couple weeks. I thought his team vs fish had some neat ideas, mainly Life Orb Synthesis Virizion, but the endgame could've definitely been closer. If LpZ settles on the right team and plays hard, then he could totally win here, but MDB2's silent consistency makes me favor him.

Jytcampbell vs GXE - The soup returns for more PU, though coming back to play GXE is tough. GXE is definitely looking to make up for his loss against MDB2, so Excal and company may once more need the gift of propechy to get a good read on him. The Terrors are also in better shape than the Foxes were, which may make this tougher.
 
Since we are heading into the Semifinals, I thought I would revive this thread a bit.
Week 1
[PLA] LpZ vs mind gaming [SHO]
[ISL] MichaelderBeste2 vs eifo [BRE]
[DYN] Larry vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d [GIB]
[TER] GXE vs SoulWind [SPA]
[FOX] MZ vs fish anemometer [TMS]
Week 2
[TMS] fish anemometer vs MichaelderBeste2 [ISL]
[SPA] SoulWind vs LpZ [PLA]
[GIB] S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs GXE [TER]
[BRE] eifo vs Larry [DYN]
[SHO] mind gaming vs MZ [FOX]
Week 3
[PLA] LpZ vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d [GIB]
[DYN] Jytcampbell vs fish anemometer [TMS]
[TER] GXE vs eifo [BRE]
[FOX] MZ vs MichaelderBeste2 [ISL]
[SHO] mind gaming vs SoulWind [SPA]
Week 4
[BRE] eifo vs LpZ [PLA]
[GIB] S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs mind gaming [SHO]
[SPA] SoulWind vs Kushalos [FOX]
[TMS] fish anemometer vs GXE [TER]
[ISL] MichaelderBeste2 vs Larry [DYN]
Week 5
[TER] GXE vs MichaelderBeste2 [ISL]
[FOX] Kushalos vs Larry [DYN]
[PLA] LpZ vs fish anemometer [TMS]
[SHO] mind gaming vs eifo [BRE]
[SPA] SoulWind vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d [GIB]
Week 6
[GIB] S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs MZ [FOX]
[BRE] eifo vs SoulWind [SPA]
[TMS] fish anemometer vs mind gaming [SHO]
[ISL] MichaelderBeste2 vs LpZ [PLA]
[DYN] Jytcampbell vs GXE [TER]
Week 7
[FOX] MZ vs GXE [TER]
[PLA] LpZ vs Jytcampbell [DYN]
[SHO] mind gaming vs Andyboy [ISL]
[SPA] ishtar vs fish anemometer [TMS]
[GIB] S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs eifo [BRE]
Week 8
[TMS] fish anemometer vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d [GIB]
[BRE] Rabia vs MZ [FOX]
[ISL] MichaelderBeste2 vs ishtar [SPA]
[DYN] Larry vs mind gaming [SHO]
[TER] Ampha vs LpZ [PLA]
Week 9
[SPA] ishtar vs 691 [DYN]
[SHO] mind gaming vs Ampha [TER]
[FOX] MZ vs LpZ [PLA]
[GIB] S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs MichaelderBeste2 [ISL]
[BRE] eifo vs frankjosh [TMS]
Semfinals Matchups

:Mew: fish anemometer vs MichaelderBeste2 :Exeggutor-Alola:
:Gyarados: GXE vs Jytcampbell :Zapdos-Galar:

[TMS] fish anemometer vs MichaelderBeste2 [ISL]
[TER] GXE vs Jytcampbell [DYN]

Good luck to everyone in the Semifinals!​
 
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Lower quality and more rambling than most videos I put up but I did feel like trying to talk about SCL and my thoughts on the PU meta and how it's changed. Now here are some of the sets that I used or played around with during the tour that I think are fun enough to highlight.

:Copperajah:
Copperajah @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sheer Force
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 192 Atk / 192 SpD / 124 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Tera Blast

xd

:Kilowattrel:
Kilowattrel @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- Volt Switch
- Tera Blast
- Roost

Didn't think I'd miss Kilo but damn I really miss Kilo

:Wo-Chien:
Wo-Chien @ Leftovers
Ability: Tablets of Ruin
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Stun Spore
- Leech Seed
- Protect

I know Wo already has 80 moves people want to run but I remain convinced that Stun Spore is pretty underrated. It can even be useful for paralyzing slow, defensive switch-ins depending on your team composition (like running it with Dynamic Punch Golurk hehe)

:Skuntank:
Skuntank @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Aftermath
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Gunk Shot
- Sucker Punch
- Memento

Underrated scarfer, Explosion is fine and what I was using earlier on but Memento Scarfers can really be a nice swing depending on your abusers (also see: Tatsugiri)

:Hariyama:
Hariyama @ Assault Vest
Ability: Thick Fat / Guts
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 188 SpD / 68 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake

I find it very hard to fit on teams but also it's a really annoying threat that forces teams to keep most phys def mons relatively high health to consider switching in, except for Palossand unfortunately

:Floatzel:
Floatzel @ Choice Band
Ability: Water Veil
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wave Crash
- Flip Turn
- Ice Spinner / funny tera blast
- Aqua Jet

Don't have much to say aside from this thing is mad underrated and Tera Blast sets kinda suck but also kinda own

:Sneasel-Hisui:
Sneasel-Hisui @ Eviolite
Ability: Inner Focus
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Gunk Shot
- Trailblaze

Where Throat Chop actually provides useful coverage, Trailblaze lets you blow past Lazzle, Scarfers, even things like Tailwind in a pinch if they can't stop you getting it up twice. It's also been randomly useful more times than I can count, just a weirdly good move on something that should already function as a fast breaker

:Hariyama:
Hariyama @ Eject Pack
Ability: Guts / Thick Fat
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Bullet Punch
- Heavy Slam

Pretty much the same as AV Yama in that it's hard to fit but stupid threatening, but more offense geared. Cool mon! Dunno why I only used weird sets and not Sub BU which is still very good, but is what it is

:Salazzle:
Salazzle @ Salac Berry
Ability: Corrosion
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Sludge Bomb
- Fire Blast
- Endure

What if you lost to Gastrodon but the rest of the tier had to eat shit?

:Froslass:
Froslass @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cursed Body
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond
- Avalanche

If Icy Wind + Destiny Bond wasn't cancerous enough, I almost regret using this and seeing it get copied onto more PUWC teams. It's just the most annoying thing ever

:Zoroark:
Zoroark @ Expert Belt
Ability: Illusion
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Grass Knot
- Taunt / Flamethrower / Psychic / U-Turn / Filler

Look I won't pretend this is an amazing set, but Knock + Grass Knot beats Mudsdale switching in, heavily pressures Gastrodon, and is overall a funny double lure once they think the Zoroark is physical and you've already gotten Knock utility out of it. Yes it does suck to fight a Bellibolt

:Florges:
Florges @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Flower Veil
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 96 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Psychic Noise
- Synthesis

Severely fucks with a lot of stalls, not enough to win on its own vs better ones but really helps shore up the matchup. Although so does Wish Florg, Specs Florg, Copycat Florg, etc. Look I just like Cloak

:Hoopa:
Hoopa @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Magician
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Psychic Noise
- Fire Punch
- Thunderbolt / Knock Off

Fire Punch is good into Frosmoth and worthless vs everything else, but right now that's pretty valuable. Thunderbolt hits Bombirdier, Knock Off hits Meloetta, pick which one you'd rather pressure better

:Goodra:
Goodra @ Leftovers
Ability: Sap Sipper
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 120 HP / 252 SpA / 136 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower / Sludge Bomb
- Toxic
- Protect / Knock Off / Sludge Bomb

Obnoxious in every way, I do think Sludgeless is the best way to degen with this mon but man I do feel like this is the only Goodra set that hasn't been a complete letdown
 
hi! went undrafted this year and was feeling pretty down on my luck, but mz ended up hitting me up for support (until foxes tanked and i jumped ship to terrors for playoffs, sorry!), so here's the dump of everything i made/tested during the season :) also of course wanna give a huge shoutout to the foxes and terrors for having me, and especially MZ GXE Ampha Baloor for trusting me enough to help out with prep.

Sneasel Spikes BO
:sneasel: :gligar: :florges: :bronzong: :decidueye: :tauros-paldea-aqua:

Week 1 was vs fish, and since we were up against someone who was very involved with the tier and had the shiny ribbon to prove it, we immediately started cooking. This was around the time pre-shifts that I had gone on my massive Sneasel kick, and had managed to convince MZ that it would work out on a spikestack structure into the kind of things fish usually packed. Gligar and Bronzong gave the team some backbone while also providing a volt immune and a plethora of resists, but most importantly set up our hazard core. Grass Knot on Bronzong allowed it to actually be fairly threatening to Mudsdale, while also doing okay damage to Wetbull and other assorted nuisances. Decidueye was a complete no-brainer - best thing in the tier and we needed a Ghost to block Spin. I opted for Calm Mind Florges to add another setup threat and provide some special breaking power that the team desperately needed, as well as a Dragon immunity to take some weight off of Bronzong's shoulders on the "Don't Get 6-0'd By Goodra" front. The team ended up being fairly slow outside of Sneasel, which lead to Scarf Wetbull as a pretty natural choice. We opted not to bring this because MZ ended up feeling the other team on our testing rotation more, and it loaded into a matchup where this one would have won on preview. Tragic!

Band Floatzel
:tauros-paldea-blaze: :floatzel: :venusaur: :scyther: :mudsdale: :copperajah:

Got into a funk for a bit after shifts and couldn't really cook up much that I felt was SCL ready. Then I had the thought that Gastrodon wouldn't be running Storm Drain as much since all of the big Water-type attackers were gone. Pitched the idea and it led to several iterations of this team. The one in the header is probably the most sound version, but we also went through this one with Stealth Rock Golurk, DD Scrafty, and Articuno (no Flying resist) and this other one with Specs Duraludon over Copperajah (Dura got banned). I did actually end up running something like this in Swiss later on and got completely folded because my opponent's Gastrodon had Storm Drain and thus the fishing rod didn't get a bite. Probably tells you a lot about the nature of Floatzel's viability.

Gulchsnarl
:grimmsnarl: :arcanine: :pawmot: :venusaur: :meloetta: :gastrodon:

Unconventional breakers ended up being the game we played for a while, and that lead me to bring up the Grimmsnarl set I had cooked for Ampha in PUPL. At the time I really believed in it, but after seeing it in a lot more games I'm definitely less hype on it overall. The general idea is that Grimm's moves are super obnoxious to switch into, and all come with pretty nasty secondary effects that can ruin someone's day. Play Rough is also good at catching out Dark-types that are expecting to snuff your Prankster moves, and you have priority Trick to cripple things that you can't reliably hit or that are too fat for you to kill. Unfortunately, being an offensive Dark-type without Knock Off is pretty ass. This team never really saw play, and it's probably kinda ass right now since, again, no Flying resist. I was building teams that got ran through by Scyther before it was broken. How's that for visionary?

again, i wanna give a huge thank you to everyone that believed in me, and hopefully i'll be able to get on the sheet next year! got to meet some great people and get closer to others, and hang out with some longtime friends too. see y'all after us south wins puwc! gulch out :cubchoo:
 
SCL IV PU Teamdump
Screen Shot 2024-11-25 at 1.45.11 PM.png
Week 1 vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d (L):
:slowbro-galar::gastrodon::jolteon::decidueye::bombirdier::sandslash-alola:
0 specific prep for ho3n. This was just a build that I made within the first like 15 mins of learning the tier. Built more throughout the week but Larry loaded this and it caught the two biggest weaknesses on one team: Duraludon and Venusaur. Matchup wasn't total autolose. Larry needed to go alolaslash on the draco but it was really bad. The team was garbage, and was proof that I needed to ramp up more quickly.

Week 2 vs eifo (W):
:duraludon::arcanine::rhydon::decidueye::bombirdier::scream-tail:
In like all this guy's games he never loaded ground resists. Debut of Tera Poison Rhydon and Assault Vest Bombirdier.

Week 3 vs fish anemometer (W):
:slowbro-galar::gastrodon::wo-chien::naclstack::altaria::ditto:
Fish liked a bunch of weird Pokemon that weren't that viable at the time, so figured Ditto and a defensive team would be a good catch-all and match up well into their style. Naclstack started gaining more popularity at this time. First Ditto of the tournament, and one of the only ones. Not really sure why no one used Altaria but our team. That Pokemon is really good. Also that full SpD AV Galarbro was ungodly broken.

Week 4 vs MichaelderBeste2 (L):
:duraludon::gligar::coalossal::decidueye::scrafty::scream-tail:
They caught Larry slipping with not watching replays and Larry didn't see Tera Ground Salazzle coming. Play was to attack it on the plot because Specs wasn't revealed yet. Team was kinda cool but meh, shit Coalossal is there. Scream Tail set was pretty good at the time because Coal and Rhydon were very popular. Last pre-shifts game.

Week 5 vs Kushalos (W):
:toxtricity::arcanine::rhydon::cramorant::meloetta::decidueye-hisui:
Shifts happened so now we have an advantage. I expected HO so I assembled some broken mons together and put techs in for HO matchup. First appearance of Scarf Decidueye in the tournament (set credits go to mind tho). Think we originally had a less bulk invested Tera Poison Rhydon but changed to Flying (which is better overall imo esp on sr) in the end.

Week 6 vs GXE (W):
:hattrem::arcanine::rhydon::scyther::bombirdier::decidueye-hisui:
This team's sick imo. First Hattrem of the tournament. Wanted to explore Eviolite Scyther outside of traditional HO and this was the result. Established the Hattrem + Bombirdier + Scyther + Rhydon core that was used again later in the season and in other tournaments. Hattrem dissuades Toxic from Bellibolt and bounces it back, provides Healing Wish, Magic Bounce, and paralysis support. Pretty good in this metagame if you ask me. Loaded up on breakers and Assault Vest Bombirdier returned for a solid showing.

Week 7 vs LpZ (W):
:frosmoth::zoroark::bellibolt::naclstack::altaria::ditto:
LpZ is a really great player who, fortunately for us, was held back by using bad teams. Ditto returned once again to catch some weird Pokemon and Naclstack looked very strong into him. Our first Frosmoth and debuted Choice Band Zoroark with Trick + Encore to catch different setup sweepers and provide the team with Knock Off and speed control. Our first Bellibolt too, who is a premier threat in this metagame. The Naclstack SRing in the face of CB Decidueye was a sick play.

Week 8 vs mind gaming (L):
:toxtricity::lycanroc::salazzle::scyther::minior::pawmot:
My best attempt at counterteaming mind. Not suited for general use. Debut of Tera Fire Toxtricity to smash Frosmoth and Tera Ground + Tera Blast Scyther for Bellibolt (targeting Tera Poison Bellibolt). Tera Grass Minior subs on Bellibolt guaranteed. Pawmot Upper Hand used for Arcanine's Extreme Speed and improves Ditto matchup. On paper, if Larry knew mind's sets, this would have been a 6-0 matchup. Minior basically just wins on preview. But Persian-Alola made things less intuitive. I do think Larry should have known it was boots ditto since he had no removal, and upping vs the boots spam team instead of attacking Lazzle to put it in Pawmot range (who was lethal in the matchup too) was a misplay. Think we nailed the matchup but it was def awkward to pilot overall. Once again, you probably won't get consistent results with this team since it was a cteam by design.

Week 9 vs ishtar (W):
:frosmoth::gastrodon::bellibolt::scyther::meloetta::decidueye-hisui:
Recreated mind gaming's team with my own interpretation and some tweaks, like Tera Poison Gastrodon for the Salazzle matchup. Bullet Seed Decidueye-Hisui debuts to snipe Lycanroc. 691 got to sub in and collect a win.

Semifinals vs GXE (W):
:frosmoth::arcanine::abomasnow::florges::meloetta::sandslash-alola:
Mind built this team and I helped optimize it a little bit, so it won't be linked here bc it isn't mine. The goal was to bring something completely unexpected full of surprises. Very unintuitive what you'll face on preview. Landed a not so easy matchup bc fat was not expected and naclstack was a giga threat, but it pulled through in the end. Debuting mind's genius Copycat Florges, which we fell back on in finals, as well as Curse Flash Fire Will-O-Wisp Arcanine, Scarf Abomasnow, and QD + Fog Tera Ground Frosmoth.

Finals vs fish anemometer (W):
:rotom-heat::zoroark::rhydon::florges::altaria::ditto:
We wanted a bulkier build that had a lot of outs vs slow/bulkier setup and was unique. Ditto angle appealed because we were super paranoid of it being prepped for hard in playoffs but in semis they ignored it. Rhydon is really good and unexpected on fat but needs Wish support, so the Florges was a perfect pairing. First Rotom-Heat usage. I don't like this Pokemon but I expected Tornadus and it's also pretty good vs slow setup and opposing Rhydon thanks to Tera Steel. Managed to land a pretty good matchup with it this game. Also had Specs Zoroark with both Trick and Encore which was pretty cool imo. This is a new version with Jyt's own tweaks. I had stuff like Flame > Sludge on Zoro etc.

SCL 1 I topped regular season with 6-3 as the "unsurprisingly ranked last" PU player; SCL 2 I supported best record at 9-2; this SCL, having 0 SV experience period until day of draft, I supported best record (not reg ssn tho mind topped that) at 8-3 despite no one expecting me to be able to do it again. Really proud of my achievements in this tier up until this point, especially this year with how strong the pool was and how competent some of the PU community mainstays are these days. Thanks for reading and until next time.
 
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