OMCL Wrap Up
OMCL was the first team tournament in a long time to feature Shared Power. Finals are ongoing, and with no Shared Power picked, all SP games have been played. I'm going to post my teams here and comment on the games. I am a big bad tournament player now, and as such am obligated to say stuff like "that works on ladder but would never work in tournament play". Just kidding. This was a pretty weird tournament since everyone I played was a novice at SP. The best players are definitely still the people at the top of the ladder. Nevertheless, six games against thoughtful people with fresh perspectives was exciting.
Thanks a lot to Goldbanker27 for helping me prep. Your insights were fantastic, and my record would be much worse without you. I think you have some of the deepest understanding of anyone of this meta and are one of the few people that can build teams of any style. If there's ever another SP tournament, I would not be surprised at all to see you make a big run. Also, thank you to Potatochan for bringing fresh eyes and ideas to our team's prep. Finally, thank you to prunyy and Lightniong for slotting me six times, and the rest of the Machamps for playing a fun season. Next year is our year. Now without further ado, let's get into the games!
Week 1
vs 
My team - The replay
Week 2
vs 
My team - The replay
I had never played in a tournament before this one, and it showed in my approach to prep for this week. Axzel had been pretty conservative, picking a proven team with a linear playstyle. I saw no reason why tbp24 should do differently. Both players are experience tour grinders, and I thought they'd both have no problem receiving teams from other people. With that mentality in mind, I circled a few teams in this thread that I wanted to beat: both stall samples, the long reach Maushold sample, and both of my Terapagos sash spams. The end result was a team that was pretty shaky on the ladder but would do the job that I believed it needed to do. In retrospect, this approach is pure matchup fishing, and I completely misunderstood how tbp24 would prepare.
Mea culpas aside, the team here is a basic Hustle build with a Moxie lead wrinkle. I've posted before about how I like Moxie leads since they allow a team to capitalize on every KO in the game. In a trade-heavy meta like this, having that 1.5 threat on the board immediately is far more valuable than activating it late game. Houndstone is on the team to ease Agility setups for Solgaleo. Solgaleo is the heart of the team and is supposed to leverage its bulk to beat offensive threats that would otherwise run over the frail rest of the team. The team's speed control relies on Solgaleo outspeeding most stuff at +2, which came back to bite me in the game.
Tbp24 was kind enough to provide the paste for their team, which you can see by clicking the sprites. Tbp24 understands that the ethos of Shared Power is to go fast and hit hard. Tailwind is good traditional speed control, and there's a smattering of priority and bulk here. The offensive potential is high, with Wind Rider giving an immediate 1.5x boost and Cloyster enabling some high-BP moves. The abusers in Baxcalibur and Roaring Moon are generally bulky enough to avoid OHKOs from neutral priority. Whimsicott is an innovation and reliably sets Tailwind for the abusers. This kind of set is exactly what I was hoping to see by joining OMCL: something that is new and pushes the meta forwards. The only thing I don't like is that Whimsicott doesn't have Encore. I think this team is really good at running over bulky offenses and breaking ability-based stalls that lack steels. Where it falls short, in my opinion, is against priority-heavy Comfey/Lokix HOs and against Tera Steel users. That second one sounds like a nitpick, but this is Shared Power. You WILL face a Steel IDBP set, be it the Heatran I brought in week 1, the Garganacl that I brought in week 4, or the Arceus that DripLegend brought in week 6. In general, this team lacks a way to beat the "BS factor", like fat Arceus setups, Steels with berries, Heatran with a bunch of immunities, Lokix, Unaware Dondozo with all the extra abilities, just all the stuff that makes you throw up your hands and say "Why is that legal?". Encore on Whimsicott would solve so, so many of these issues.
All that said, these six mons form a fearsome engine that were more than enough to beat me. In the game, I knew from preview that I had misunderstood how to prep and faced long odds here. I brought Levitate, Flutter Mane, and IDBP Heatran last week! Why was I looking at Toxic Spikes Shiftry, and Cloyster, and Baxcalibur, and Roaring Moon??? Cloyster did big damage right away. I blew Houndstone's Memento for nothing. The game quickly spiraled out of control. Whimsicott loomed in the back, presumably with Encore, which would squash any attempts to set up enough Agilities or Victory Dances to outspeed Tailwind. I started taking kills with Solgaleo, playing for a desperate endgame where Tera Fairy Lilligant could hopefully catch a Scale Shot and land an Encore of my own. Tbp24 wisely picked up the final kill with Icicle Spear instead, and that was that.
Set of the Week
Roaring Moon @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 32 HP / 220 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Scale Shot
- Dragon Dance
- Iron Head
- Tailwind
Tailwind Booster Speed Roaring Moon is a cool way to go ridiculously fast. At the cost of a free turn, it outspeeds even the very upper echelons of the speed tiers. Tailwind and Dragon Dance on the same set is a little greedy, and Taunt over either one would probably be better. Tera Steel is a good catch-all type to get an extra setup opportunity.
vs 
The replay
Week 3
vs 
My team - The replay
After the last week's loss, I realized a couple of things. First, I remembered that I was the best SP player in the tour pool, and I didn't need to cteam anyone. Secondly, none of the teams brought so far had great breaking tools. I dusted off my old Toedscruel stall and discovered that it really needed Zamazenta to cover Hustle and other immediate boosts that couldn't be phazed away. This stall is a polished up version of a similar concept, where I try to limit opposing boosts with phazing. Meanwhile, we limit boosting abilities with Wo-Chien and general bulk on both sides of the spectrum. Pressure shortens the lifespan of breakers that we can't limit long term while also providing a wincon against opposing fat stuff. Since I added Pressure, I wanted Leftovers over boots most of the time. That way I could heal without burning pp in long games. I chose Corviknight as the Defogger and Pressure donor over Giratina since Corv is immune to Spikes. Ball knowers have already realized, but this team was heavily influenced by finnaggann / Mhie Mhie's work on stall, as well as InkyDarkBird's double regen stall. I added Archaludon and Shed Shell Pex to their ideas. Arch is great for bursting its defense to great heights. I think Wo-Chien's biggest limitation is that it's rather easy to outboost a .75 multiplier. As such, Wo-Chien appreciates a teammate that can boost side by side with the opponent. Zamazenta used to fill this role well, but since the ban, I have used Archaludon to similar effect in this narrow role. Shed Shell Pex lets me burn Magma Storm PP to ease the matchup with Taunt Heatran. I like Infestation on Pressure stalls since it forces the opponent to stay in and burn PP. The biggest weakness of this team is that we don't have hazards, so a way to keep the opponent from switching forever is appreciated. That's also the reason why so many of these mons have a setup move, like the weirdly aggressive Blissey moveset. I really like this stall, and I'd recommend it for a sample except that we already have two stall samples.
I LOVE THIS TEAM. Very cool team, probably my favorite of all my opponents' teams. I've said it before but I think that IDBP Heatran occupies a privileged seat in the meta and answers so many styles. Tran/Houndstone/Ting-Lu is tried and true, but what is really exciting to me is the Azumarill slot. These first five mons have a huge weakness to Lilligant-H with Triple Axel plus stabs. Belly Drum Azumarill is an awesome way to cover the weakness without being overly passive. The Dragonite set also threads a needle, being offensively threatening and defensively helpful. If I were going to change anything on the team, I would drop Roost on Dragonite for Encore, or I would drop Flash Cannon on Heatran for Taunt. Either way, it could use a little X factor. Beyond that, though, this is a really solid build that has lots of flexibility and puts the game in the player's hands. Ballfire helped with prep, which I'm sure influenced the solidity of the defensive core.
This game was 167 turns long, and I won in the end with Pressure stall. I'm going to skim the replay but not recap everything. Bulk Up Corviknight proved to be a wise choice, as it allowed me to Defog and Roost even in the face of Ting-Lu's Earthquake. Basculegion exposed my lack of hazards early, forcing in Blissey and chunking it with Flip Turn. I was eventually able to claim a kill on Basuclegion with a +5 Ho-oh, which was the beginning of the end for The Hisui Region. I had an answer for everything except Basculegion: Corviknight answered Ting-Lu, Ho-oh answered Houndstone, and Toxapex answered Dragonite. It was all smooth sailing until Azumarill popped off with Belly Drum and gave me a heart attack. After many calculations, I hazed with Pex and all was back to normal. On turn 132, I took a dumb chance and tried to pick up a Hurricane kill on Azumarill. Ho-oh missed and lost its boots. Why did I do that? Well, we had been playing for over 30 minutes and my butt was getting numb since I had sat down to prep much earlier. I was able to boost Ho-Oh up several times this game, but I feared Scarf Trick Houndstone and frustratingly had to switch out every time it came in. Houndstone was Toxic'd, though, so the interaction favored me over time. In the end, I was able to chip THR's team enough to punish infinite switching and force PP usage. Long game but my team did the job it was designed to do. Outside of the Knock turn, I think this was my best-played game.
Set of the Week
Ho-Oh @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Hurricane
- Whirlwind
- Recover
Physically defensive CM Ho-oh is the cousin of my Heatran set in week 1. Fire is such a nice typing that checks Steel spammers and Ogerpon. This set sits on pretty much every Flutter Mane set, even Psyshock. Physically defensive Ho-oh is not common in our meta, despite being commonly seen in stuff like MnM and GG. This set carries Whirlwind to give me the board control that is crucial to this team. Mono Hurricane is wacky, but CM is important to give a backup special check to keep Blissey from getting overloaded. Tera Ghost lets me escape from Taunt Heatran. Paired with Toxapex, Taunt Heatran is not a threat to this team, despite not carrying a Flash Fire of my own.
Week 4
vs 
My team - The replay
This team needs no introduction. I did not build it, finnaggann did, so I am free to lavish praise upon it. Nosepass looks like a meme, but this team is genuinely the most consistent build of 2025. The Educated Fool used it to nearly achieve a 90% GXE, which is unheard of in this metagame. I have never seen another team that managed to integrate double hazard removal. DOUBLE HAZARD REMOVAL. D-O-U-B-L-E. Insanity. It's hard enough to fit one spinner usually. This team is a Pressure stall with FEAR characteristics, as the other five members of the team are a formidable stall core in their own right. Nosepass often plays more like Shedinja in OU, walling certain threats that are otherwise unreasonable to wall. Given hazard removal, Nosepass can wall every single special move (outside of Photon Geyser lol). With that expansive blanket check in mind, I shifted Giratina's EVs away from the SpD of the original version over to physical defense. I also switched Destiny Bond Trevenant to Knock Off, which turned out to be pivotal. Nosepass should really have Gravity over Smack Down, which came back to haunt me in the game.
I kept this team in my back pocket all season until Week 4 as a get out of jail free card. My original plan was to bring this funky Ganlon Berry Volcarona team with Ripen. FlamPoke is a Real Tournament Player who would never leave home without Stealth Rock. I was actually expecting to play against an offense this week. The plan was to switch Volc into rocks, get an instant +2, and win the game from there with Quiver Dance. Playtesting indicated a stall weakness, though, so I scrapped the team the day of the game and loaded up the Nosepass Pressure stall instead.
FlamPoke had a week to learn the metagame and opted to build an original stall. Gotta admire the chutzpah. This stall has a few things I like and a few things I don't like. First, the good:
- Iron Defense Klefki is neat. A fundamental question for stall is "how do I boost my defense before getting hit by this Adaptability Tough Claws Hustle Close Combat?". Prankster ID is an effective way to deliver defense without incorporating awkward stuff like Gogoat.
- Dondozo is generally rising, and its inclusion is a heads-up move. A lot of new builders would opt for Wo-Chien here, which would be good too, but Dondozo checks a few things that Wo-Chien does not like Cloyster, Solgaleo, and physical Download abusers.
- Levitate + Klefki + Ting-Lu is an efficient way to create infinite switchability.
- Ting-Lu has a fine set. Spikes are up right now.
Now the stuff I don't like:
- This Giratina set is not good. It would have been good a year ago, but WispHex gets its lunch eaten by Garganacl so badly. It turns Gira into a complete momentum sink against fat. Offenses generally aren't that afraid of Wisp Gira either, as Gira often has to burn tera to actually get that Wisp off.
- Draining Kiss Klefki and Avalanche Dondozo in a meta with Fluffy Heatran is a bold choice. This whole team is Taunt Heatran bait, and these two movesets did nothing to help. Stored Power over Rest would be far more threatening. I think that players new to SP often try to over-synergize and incorporate shared abilities at every opportunity.
- Coupled with those two sets, the no-attacks Blissey completes the team's tendency to do nothing and hope the opponent runs out of gas. PP stall is good right now, but this team left Pressure at home. Regular Giratina would have been better over Gira-O. Unfortunately it seems like FlamPoke did not keep up with the recent literature about stall's relationship with Levitate.
- In general, this team has no wincons. You can call Dondozo and Klefki wincons if you want, but the counterplay to those two is common outside of very linear offenses. The team is chock full of crit-me-nots that seemingly want to boost and stay on the field, but using Natural Cure requires switching. I feel like this team should have picked one of Shell Armor or Pressure and then changed some sets accordingly.
- This Houndstone set of Wisp/Night Shade/Protect/Rest is just way, way too passive.
Overall, this team is internally inconsistent, and I do not think it is a good team. FlamPoke threw a little fit after the game in OMcord about SP. But when you bring a team as out of tune with the meta as this one, there are no valuable insights to be had.
I did not watch this replay, and you shouldn't either. The game went for 655 turns and ended in a 6-4 forfeit. Speaking in broad strokes, here's what I think were the key points of the game:
- Pressure won me the hazards war. I was a little worried that FlamPoke might try to only set hazards after I had set rocks. I was prepared for that scenario, as berries would allow me to more comfortably weather hazards than FlamPoke's lefties mons. But FlamPoke decided to use hazards at will, allowing me to drain all of their PP. Pressure also took away all of Gira-O's Defogs, letting me keep rocks up. Rocks and Pressure were clearly my wincon, and I just had to do enough chip to keep Dondozo and Klefki from setting up too much. I thought that Klefki was Stored Power for most of the game, leading to me playing pretty aggresively against it.
- My goal for most of the game was to land Knock Off with Trevenant on as many Pokemon as possible. The two that really mattered were Ting-Lu and Klefki since they could otherwise switch infinitely. I burned a lot of Curse PP early trying to get Houndstone and Giratina to burn their Rests. They effectively blocked Knock for a long time but eventually succumbed. I played way too aggressively early with Knock Off's PP, and Trevenant was down to one PP at the end. I do not really know why my opponent allowed Ting-Lu to take a knock, but losing infinite switchability effectively ended the game. After I knocked Ting-Lu, my biggest worries were Stored Power Klefki and the thought that FlamPoke could possibly push the game to a 1000 turn tie. A final Knock Off on Klefki put my fears to rest.
- Using Smack Down over Gravity on Nosepass was a big mistake on my part that greatly limited Nosepass's ability to make progress.
Set of the Week
Giratina @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Defog
- Will-O-Wisp
- Shadow Ball
- Dragon Tail
Physically defensive Giratina solves a lot of Nosepass's problems. It defogs and is a physical counterpart to Nosepass's special blanket checking. Tera Steel also lets Giratina check Lilligant's Triple Axel and Cloyster's Icicle spear, which are otherwise quite dangerous.
Week 5
No SP games this week. I was hosting family and knew I wouldn't have prep time, so I asked to ride the bench.
Week 6
vs 
My team - The replay
On a cold Sunday night, the center of the Shared Power universe was in Missouri, as I faced off with fellow Show-Me State resident DripLegend. Prepping for this week, I realized that SP is actually a VGC format. Offense is king, hazards aren't thaaaat important, and speed control is paramount to the point that you can build teams with a fast mode and a slow mode. This dragon spam is a mixed offense semi-Room offense with Scarf Dragapult providing the fast mode. Dialga is a self-sufficient OTR mon, with Clawitzer and Giratina as backup room abusers. I really like Dialga as a big stat ball and ability receiver. With all three boosts online, Dragon Pulse does 44% to Vessel of Ruin max SpD Blissey. The power easily takes kills against offense under Trick Room and also serves as a pretty good breaker. However, Dialga does have a hard damage ceiling since it can't boost. Giratina has Calm Mind to overpower opposing CM-boosting mons. Tera Blast also allows Giratina to go mixed, as the move will be phsyical if Giratina gets an Attack Download boost. Regidrago and Clawitzer have offensive sets to trade in the early game. I tried Eject Button on various mons but ultimately decided that staying on the field to make trade attempts was more valuable than pivoting. Dragapult provides alternative speed control and is very strong with an Attack boost from Download. Pult has a limited ability to go mixed itself with Tera Blast. Infiltrator is the ability here to take away Substitutes that can waste Trick Room turns. Porygon is a secondary Trick Room setter that also chips mid-speed offensive threats like Quaquaval and Basculegion. Overall I am quite please with this team. It took me from 1200 to 1600 without taking a loss, and it easily topped the ladder. There are a few holes, though, like against CM steels or Guts prio spams that can afford to bring Mach Punch.
Potatochan assisted with prep this week and helped test my dragon spam. They also helped DripLegend test teams before realizing that they were my opponent lol. Drip brought a team that Potatochan built. The squad is pretty standard, featuring solid defensive pieces around a final boss Arceus. TrickScarf Ribombee is an unusual choice, opting for Shield Dust over the usual Purifying Salt. It's a good move since Garg is probably more common at this point than Toxic. This team is a nightmare matchup for mine. Fat Arceus is the worst possible matchup since it can boost, can tera to resist my best moves, and has recovery to prevent getting chipped down. This team looked like a CM Arceus build, so Dragapult and Tera Gira were my plan to beat it down and hopefully force it to burn all of its recovery... oof, not a great plan. I was pretty sure this game was over at preview.
Things went my way in the early game. I got chip on Ting-Lu with Clawitzer, which to me was great since Ting-Lu could possibly chunk Dialga later, while my Clawitzer would be deadweight against the inevitable steel Arceus. I also landed the Explosion on Ribombee with Regidrago. By turn 6, two major threats were down, but it was kind of immaterial as Arceus still loomed. Dragapult's Download on turn 6 revealed that Heatran was specially defensive, which at the time seemed bad for me. After a U-turn and Ting-Lu sac, Porygon ended up against Heatran. I sac'd it for minor chip, just wanting it off the field. At this point my plan was to try and set up CM enough times with Gira against Heatran to blow past Arceus. However, Drip switched to Houndstone, foiling my plan. Here's another situation where Goldbanker's Week 1 suggestion to hit 230 speed paid off. Giratina outsped and KO'd Houndstone without taking a Poltergeist. Arceus came in, and I choked a bit by clicking Dragon Pulse against Tera Steel and doing a paltry 27%. What's worse is that Arceus revealed Cosmic Power. Hitting X was tempting as this team had nothing for Cosmic Power. I switched to Dialga to start fishing for Aura Sphere crits as Arceus reached +2. The next turn, Arceus switched out and Heatran took 47 percent. DripLegend later said that he thought Dialga would click Thunder Wave. I think this play makes sense, as Dialga runs twave in a lot of other metas and I hadn't yet revealed the OTR set. On the one hand, paralyzed Arceus probably wins still, but on the other hand, there's nothing I could really do to stop Arceus from getting to +2 again if he could trade against Dialga. Why risk para turns if you don't have to? Two things are true about this turn: DripLegend made a good play and did not choke, and I got massively bailed out. Heatran surviving the Aura Sphere allowed me to set up a Trick Room and clean the game from there, landing three KOs in three turns. Turned out lucky for me that Heatran was SpD after all.
Set of the Week
Porygon-Z @ Room Service
Ability: Download
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Trick Room
- Tera Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
Max Speed Room Service Porygon-Z let's goooo. I put a lot of value in the 306 speed tier since it matches all the base 90 Ubers and outspeeds common offensive pieces like Quaq, Basc, Regidrago, Kleavor, just a lot of stuff. Pory is supposed to be a secondary TR setter, but running max HP did not appreciably avoid KOs. The compromise was to run Room Service, allowing Porygon to operate under its own TR while still outspeeding those offensive donors. Unfortunately, I did not get to show this off during the game.
vs 
The replay
Week 7
vs 
My team - The replay
The Machamps were eliminated this week, so I got a little silly. This is my take on those goofy self-webs Eject Pack teams, which use Defiant and Competitive to put all of your abilities in play on one turn. Trick Room with this style is a twist that I haven't seen before outside of Farigiraf, which is kind of bad. Trick Room with real mons is neat, though, since you're already forcing yourself to take webs. Porygon2 is the straw that stirs the drink. Download is nice extra oomph and allows a bit of mixed offense. Dialga is using another OTR set here. I built the team since I like OTR Dialga a lot, but delivering boosts to it is difficult. This version is not as powerful as Dragon's Maw plus Mega Launcher, but it is close. Silly team overall, but I did manage to get to #2 on the ladder at 1550, so it's not terrible.
Chloe's team was also eliminated from playoff contention. This Serene Grace/Toxic Chain team is funny. As far as I know, Serene Grace doesn't actually boost the Toxic Chain chance, but there's still a lot of rng flying around. Buried under the meme is a cool idea, which is Toxic Chain plus Solgaleo. Sunsteel Strike ignores abilities, which means that Solgaleo can poison Garganacl teams that aren't prepared to clear status. I haven't built too much with that idea yet, but I really want to make it work.
I played pretty fast and loose with this game since Download Cinderace had such a crazy matchup. I was very lucky, taking almost no flinches and getting to set my webs up. We traded in the midgame a little bit as we both got abilities online. I got lucky again with an Air Slash miss against Cinderace, but it didn't matter in the end as Specs Comfey had enough oomph to pick up the remaining kills.
This post is super long at this point, so I'm stopping here. I'll make a post with some more opinions after the usage stats come out.
OMCL was the first team tournament in a long time to feature Shared Power. Finals are ongoing, and with no Shared Power picked, all SP games have been played. I'm going to post my teams here and comment on the games. I am a big bad tournament player now, and as such am obligated to say stuff like "that works on ladder but would never work in tournament play". Just kidding. This was a pretty weird tournament since everyone I played was a novice at SP. The best players are definitely still the people at the top of the ladder. Nevertheless, six games against thoughtful people with fresh perspectives was exciting.
Thanks a lot to Goldbanker27 for helping me prep. Your insights were fantastic, and my record would be much worse without you. I think you have some of the deepest understanding of anyone of this meta and are one of the few people that can build teams of any style. If there's ever another SP tournament, I would not be surprised at all to see you make a big run. Also, thank you to Potatochan for bringing fresh eyes and ideas to our team's prep. Finally, thank you to prunyy and Lightniong for slotting me six times, and the rest of the Machamps for playing a fun season. Next year is our year. Now without further ado, let's get into the games!
Week 1
vs My team - The replay
Flutter Mane balance
The first thing that I did after getting drafted was ask Goldbanker27 to help me prep. We started out with this Shield Dust Flutter Mane team, which I had just used to hit #1 on the ladder. That success gave us a firm foundation to build off of, and we produced my most detailed team to date. Since Axzel had never played SP before, I was expecting them to load a linear playstyle. Steel spam, grassy spam, and stall were at the top of my list to prep for. Testing with Goldbanker revealed a big Heatran problem, as well as weaknesses to Basculegion-F and Lilligant-H. In light of those struggles and what I expected to see, adding my own Heatran was a no-brainer. Heatran's IDBP set provided a backstop against physical attackers that Houndstone can't handle, like Ogerpon, Cloyster, and Scale Shot Dragons. Specially defensive EVs with Iron Defense allowed Heatran to cover a lot of roles defensively. We still had a Lilligant-H problem, so we added Okidogi. Goldbanker came up with this EV spread for Okidogi, and I really like it. Hitting 230 speed is the new version of hitting 210. The speed tier gets right above some key ability donors in Crawdaunt and Golurk, both of which are threats to this team. Rocky Helmet, Drain Punch and defensive EVs ensure that even Triple Axel Encore Lilligant sets can't beat Okidogi. That insurance against Triple Axel freed me up to add Giratina, carrying another Goldbanker EV spread. This set outspeeds Basculegion-F and kills it with Poltergeist while threatening a KO on Porygon-Z with Draco Meteor. Porygon-Z was a big threat after dropping Frosmoth and Terapagos, so we ran with this funky set. Houndstone and Ting-Lu are pretty standard sets. I was pretty down on Houndstone at the time (still am) but thought it was good noob-crusher insurance in case Axzel tried bringing a basic Lyacanroc/Crawdaunt/Quaquaval ability-stacking offense. Ting-Lu carries Earthquake to beat Rocky Payload teams. I think Levitate usage in general is down, too. Overall, I think this team has a lot of progress-makers and offers flexible routes for winning games.
Axzel did indeed bring steel spam, loading a recently-posted team by Levy'sChair. The sets turned out to all be the same, but I was cautious about modifications and tried not to assume too much. This matchup was about as good as I could ask for. On turn 2, I made a pretty nice play by hitting Perrserker with Ruination. I could have KO'd with Earthquake, but I wanted to conceal that information. Solgaleo carried Close Combat most likely, so my best bet to kill it would be to bait a matchup against Ting-Lu and then snag a surprise KO with Earthquake. That Ruination was the last good play I made this game. What should have been a 6-0 came down to the wire. I blew Memento early with Houndstone, hoping to get some value before Solgaleo came out. Bringing Heatran out before Okidogi was a disaster and a total choke. I tried to 6-0 but only ended up beating the Samurott. I did get the Ting-Lu kill on Solgaleo later. Flutter Mane's Pain Split , CM, and Tera Electric were enough to close out the game against a scary Iron Crown... except I got crit and then could have lost if Houndstone had Poltergeist. Despite my nearly blowing it at every turn, I don't think Axzel could reasonably hope to win that matchup. If they did anything wrong, it was pivoting around early with Dragalge and Samurott. SP rewards damage and trading more than pivoting, in my opinion. Chunking me down might have prevented my Ting-Lu from trading with Solgaleo and Perrserker. That said, Axzel almost pulled off a win in an impossible matchup, so I can't criticize too much.
Set of the Week
Flutter Mane @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Calm Mind
- Pain Split
- Moonblast
I had laddered BH a little before the tournament started, and I was impressed by how effective Flutter Mane could be at beating Blissey with Pain Split. Special breakers that can beat Blissey obviously have huge value in this meta, too, so I started building around this set. What I like best about the set is that Flutter can enter the game at any point and get value. Flutter Mane carries lots of utility as a combo breaker, revenge killer, and setup sweeper. It can taunt hazard leads, it can revenge kill fast threats to the team like Iron Valiant, and it can set up in Iron Crown's face to win the endgame. So few mons in this meta are able to fill distinct roles at different parts of the game, so I value the flexibility that this set gives me. Moonblast is the STAB here since it has no immunities and has good power. Taunt allows Flutter to crush the kind of fat Arceus setup builds that I saw in week 6 along with most stalls. I had Tera Steel on the Shield Dust version, but Electric preserves a Steel resistance while also only taking 12.5% from Salt Cure.
The first thing that I did after getting drafted was ask Goldbanker27 to help me prep. We started out with this Shield Dust Flutter Mane team, which I had just used to hit #1 on the ladder. That success gave us a firm foundation to build off of, and we produced my most detailed team to date. Since Axzel had never played SP before, I was expecting them to load a linear playstyle. Steel spam, grassy spam, and stall were at the top of my list to prep for. Testing with Goldbanker revealed a big Heatran problem, as well as weaknesses to Basculegion-F and Lilligant-H. In light of those struggles and what I expected to see, adding my own Heatran was a no-brainer. Heatran's IDBP set provided a backstop against physical attackers that Houndstone can't handle, like Ogerpon, Cloyster, and Scale Shot Dragons. Specially defensive EVs with Iron Defense allowed Heatran to cover a lot of roles defensively. We still had a Lilligant-H problem, so we added Okidogi. Goldbanker came up with this EV spread for Okidogi, and I really like it. Hitting 230 speed is the new version of hitting 210. The speed tier gets right above some key ability donors in Crawdaunt and Golurk, both of which are threats to this team. Rocky Helmet, Drain Punch and defensive EVs ensure that even Triple Axel Encore Lilligant sets can't beat Okidogi. That insurance against Triple Axel freed me up to add Giratina, carrying another Goldbanker EV spread. This set outspeeds Basculegion-F and kills it with Poltergeist while threatening a KO on Porygon-Z with Draco Meteor. Porygon-Z was a big threat after dropping Frosmoth and Terapagos, so we ran with this funky set. Houndstone and Ting-Lu are pretty standard sets. I was pretty down on Houndstone at the time (still am) but thought it was good noob-crusher insurance in case Axzel tried bringing a basic Lyacanroc/Crawdaunt/Quaquaval ability-stacking offense. Ting-Lu carries Earthquake to beat Rocky Payload teams. I think Levitate usage in general is down, too. Overall, I think this team has a lot of progress-makers and offers flexible routes for winning games.
Axzel did indeed bring steel spam, loading a recently-posted team by Levy'sChair. The sets turned out to all be the same, but I was cautious about modifications and tried not to assume too much. This matchup was about as good as I could ask for. On turn 2, I made a pretty nice play by hitting Perrserker with Ruination. I could have KO'd with Earthquake, but I wanted to conceal that information. Solgaleo carried Close Combat most likely, so my best bet to kill it would be to bait a matchup against Ting-Lu and then snag a surprise KO with Earthquake. That Ruination was the last good play I made this game. What should have been a 6-0 came down to the wire. I blew Memento early with Houndstone, hoping to get some value before Solgaleo came out. Bringing Heatran out before Okidogi was a disaster and a total choke. I tried to 6-0 but only ended up beating the Samurott. I did get the Ting-Lu kill on Solgaleo later. Flutter Mane's Pain Split , CM, and Tera Electric were enough to close out the game against a scary Iron Crown... except I got crit and then could have lost if Houndstone had Poltergeist. Despite my nearly blowing it at every turn, I don't think Axzel could reasonably hope to win that matchup. If they did anything wrong, it was pivoting around early with Dragalge and Samurott. SP rewards damage and trading more than pivoting, in my opinion. Chunking me down might have prevented my Ting-Lu from trading with Solgaleo and Perrserker. That said, Axzel almost pulled off a win in an impossible matchup, so I can't criticize too much.
Set of the Week
Flutter Mane @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Calm Mind
- Pain Split
- Moonblast
I had laddered BH a little before the tournament started, and I was impressed by how effective Flutter Mane could be at beating Blissey with Pain Split. Special breakers that can beat Blissey obviously have huge value in this meta, too, so I started building around this set. What I like best about the set is that Flutter can enter the game at any point and get value. Flutter Mane carries lots of utility as a combo breaker, revenge killer, and setup sweeper. It can taunt hazard leads, it can revenge kill fast threats to the team like Iron Valiant, and it can set up in Iron Crown's face to win the endgame. So few mons in this meta are able to fill distinct roles at different parts of the game, so I value the flexibility that this set gives me. Moonblast is the STAB here since it has no immunities and has good power. Taunt allows Flutter to crush the kind of fat Arceus setup builds that I saw in week 6 along with most stalls. I had Tera Steel on the Shield Dust version, but Electric preserves a Steel resistance while also only taking 12.5% from Salt Cure.
Week 2
vs My team - The replay
I had never played in a tournament before this one, and it showed in my approach to prep for this week. Axzel had been pretty conservative, picking a proven team with a linear playstyle. I saw no reason why tbp24 should do differently. Both players are experience tour grinders, and I thought they'd both have no problem receiving teams from other people. With that mentality in mind, I circled a few teams in this thread that I wanted to beat: both stall samples, the long reach Maushold sample, and both of my Terapagos sash spams. The end result was a team that was pretty shaky on the ladder but would do the job that I believed it needed to do. In retrospect, this approach is pure matchup fishing, and I completely misunderstood how tbp24 would prepare.
Mea culpas aside, the team here is a basic Hustle build with a Moxie lead wrinkle. I've posted before about how I like Moxie leads since they allow a team to capitalize on every KO in the game. In a trade-heavy meta like this, having that 1.5 threat on the board immediately is far more valuable than activating it late game. Houndstone is on the team to ease Agility setups for Solgaleo. Solgaleo is the heart of the team and is supposed to leverage its bulk to beat offensive threats that would otherwise run over the frail rest of the team. The team's speed control relies on Solgaleo outspeeding most stuff at +2, which came back to bite me in the game.
Tbp24 was kind enough to provide the paste for their team, which you can see by clicking the sprites. Tbp24 understands that the ethos of Shared Power is to go fast and hit hard. Tailwind is good traditional speed control, and there's a smattering of priority and bulk here. The offensive potential is high, with Wind Rider giving an immediate 1.5x boost and Cloyster enabling some high-BP moves. The abusers in Baxcalibur and Roaring Moon are generally bulky enough to avoid OHKOs from neutral priority. Whimsicott is an innovation and reliably sets Tailwind for the abusers. This kind of set is exactly what I was hoping to see by joining OMCL: something that is new and pushes the meta forwards. The only thing I don't like is that Whimsicott doesn't have Encore. I think this team is really good at running over bulky offenses and breaking ability-based stalls that lack steels. Where it falls short, in my opinion, is against priority-heavy Comfey/Lokix HOs and against Tera Steel users. That second one sounds like a nitpick, but this is Shared Power. You WILL face a Steel IDBP set, be it the Heatran I brought in week 1, the Garganacl that I brought in week 4, or the Arceus that DripLegend brought in week 6. In general, this team lacks a way to beat the "BS factor", like fat Arceus setups, Steels with berries, Heatran with a bunch of immunities, Lokix, Unaware Dondozo with all the extra abilities, just all the stuff that makes you throw up your hands and say "Why is that legal?". Encore on Whimsicott would solve so, so many of these issues.
All that said, these six mons form a fearsome engine that were more than enough to beat me. In the game, I knew from preview that I had misunderstood how to prep and faced long odds here. I brought Levitate, Flutter Mane, and IDBP Heatran last week! Why was I looking at Toxic Spikes Shiftry, and Cloyster, and Baxcalibur, and Roaring Moon??? Cloyster did big damage right away. I blew Houndstone's Memento for nothing. The game quickly spiraled out of control. Whimsicott loomed in the back, presumably with Encore, which would squash any attempts to set up enough Agilities or Victory Dances to outspeed Tailwind. I started taking kills with Solgaleo, playing for a desperate endgame where Tera Fairy Lilligant could hopefully catch a Scale Shot and land an Encore of my own. Tbp24 wisely picked up the final kill with Icicle Spear instead, and that was that.
Set of the Week
Roaring Moon @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 32 HP / 220 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Scale Shot
- Dragon Dance
- Iron Head
- Tailwind
Tailwind Booster Speed Roaring Moon is a cool way to go ridiculously fast. At the cost of a free turn, it outspeeds even the very upper echelons of the speed tiers. Tailwind and Dragon Dance on the same set is a little greedy, and Taunt over either one would probably be better. Tera Steel is a good catch-all type to get an extra setup opportunity.
vs The replay
The first SP game that I wasn't involved in! Both teams opted for sun, with GlalieGoesBoom bringing a Proto spam and Electra102 carrying a Tough Claws build. I like GlalieGoesBoom's team and admire its restraint in packing only Adaptability as a shared boost. Ting-Lu plus special spam is a time-honored build to cancel out opposing Vessel of Ruin, but I was a little surprised to see it here in a non-mainer game since the synergy is not obvious. For Electra102's part, there are a few more moving pieces, with Libero powering up the Dark coverage on Lycanroc and Solgaleo. I like Libero Tough Claws Sucker Punch a lot, and I like coupling it with Solgaleo to beat Fluffy.
GlalieGoesBoom seized momentum early with Eject Button Groudon, pretty cool. Electra102 went all in by popping Tera on Comfey, but it did not do the kind of damage that was hoped for. Seems like Tough Claws alone was not enough of a boost. From the damage, Comfey was probably carrying Specs, so I understand going all-in there to beat a dangerous Walking Wake. Wake does pretty well against most of Electra's team barring Comfey and Flutter Mane. Without many pivots, I understand trying to nail the kill to prevent Wake from picking up a KO every time it came in. The counter-Tera won the day, though, keeping Wake alive and stealing a kill on Comfey. Both Solgaleo and Lycanroc had Focus Sash, which was neat paired with Court Change. I am a big fan of multi sash teams and it was nice to see someone confirm that preference. The final pivotal turn of this game was when Raging Bolt sniped Groudon with Solar Beam. SP does not see a lot of Solar Beam Raging Bolt, but maybe we will see more of it. Electra's Groudon had a pretty good position otherwise, so that was a big kill.
All in all, I like both of these teams, and I thought they were pretty sophisticated. I especially admire the restraint that both players showed to only stack a couple of boosting abilities.
GlalieGoesBoom seized momentum early with Eject Button Groudon, pretty cool. Electra102 went all in by popping Tera on Comfey, but it did not do the kind of damage that was hoped for. Seems like Tough Claws alone was not enough of a boost. From the damage, Comfey was probably carrying Specs, so I understand going all-in there to beat a dangerous Walking Wake. Wake does pretty well against most of Electra's team barring Comfey and Flutter Mane. Without many pivots, I understand trying to nail the kill to prevent Wake from picking up a KO every time it came in. The counter-Tera won the day, though, keeping Wake alive and stealing a kill on Comfey. Both Solgaleo and Lycanroc had Focus Sash, which was neat paired with Court Change. I am a big fan of multi sash teams and it was nice to see someone confirm that preference. The final pivotal turn of this game was when Raging Bolt sniped Groudon with Solar Beam. SP does not see a lot of Solar Beam Raging Bolt, but maybe we will see more of it. Electra's Groudon had a pretty good position otherwise, so that was a big kill.
All in all, I like both of these teams, and I thought they were pretty sophisticated. I especially admire the restraint that both players showed to only stack a couple of boosting abilities.
Week 3
vs My team - The replay
After the last week's loss, I realized a couple of things. First, I remembered that I was the best SP player in the tour pool, and I didn't need to cteam anyone. Secondly, none of the teams brought so far had great breaking tools. I dusted off my old Toedscruel stall and discovered that it really needed Zamazenta to cover Hustle and other immediate boosts that couldn't be phazed away. This stall is a polished up version of a similar concept, where I try to limit opposing boosts with phazing. Meanwhile, we limit boosting abilities with Wo-Chien and general bulk on both sides of the spectrum. Pressure shortens the lifespan of breakers that we can't limit long term while also providing a wincon against opposing fat stuff. Since I added Pressure, I wanted Leftovers over boots most of the time. That way I could heal without burning pp in long games. I chose Corviknight as the Defogger and Pressure donor over Giratina since Corv is immune to Spikes. Ball knowers have already realized, but this team was heavily influenced by finnaggann / Mhie Mhie's work on stall, as well as InkyDarkBird's double regen stall. I added Archaludon and Shed Shell Pex to their ideas. Arch is great for bursting its defense to great heights. I think Wo-Chien's biggest limitation is that it's rather easy to outboost a .75 multiplier. As such, Wo-Chien appreciates a teammate that can boost side by side with the opponent. Zamazenta used to fill this role well, but since the ban, I have used Archaludon to similar effect in this narrow role. Shed Shell Pex lets me burn Magma Storm PP to ease the matchup with Taunt Heatran. I like Infestation on Pressure stalls since it forces the opponent to stay in and burn PP. The biggest weakness of this team is that we don't have hazards, so a way to keep the opponent from switching forever is appreciated. That's also the reason why so many of these mons have a setup move, like the weirdly aggressive Blissey moveset. I really like this stall, and I'd recommend it for a sample except that we already have two stall samples.
I LOVE THIS TEAM. Very cool team, probably my favorite of all my opponents' teams. I've said it before but I think that IDBP Heatran occupies a privileged seat in the meta and answers so many styles. Tran/Houndstone/Ting-Lu is tried and true, but what is really exciting to me is the Azumarill slot. These first five mons have a huge weakness to Lilligant-H with Triple Axel plus stabs. Belly Drum Azumarill is an awesome way to cover the weakness without being overly passive. The Dragonite set also threads a needle, being offensively threatening and defensively helpful. If I were going to change anything on the team, I would drop Roost on Dragonite for Encore, or I would drop Flash Cannon on Heatran for Taunt. Either way, it could use a little X factor. Beyond that, though, this is a really solid build that has lots of flexibility and puts the game in the player's hands. Ballfire helped with prep, which I'm sure influenced the solidity of the defensive core.
This game was 167 turns long, and I won in the end with Pressure stall. I'm going to skim the replay but not recap everything. Bulk Up Corviknight proved to be a wise choice, as it allowed me to Defog and Roost even in the face of Ting-Lu's Earthquake. Basculegion exposed my lack of hazards early, forcing in Blissey and chunking it with Flip Turn. I was eventually able to claim a kill on Basuclegion with a +5 Ho-oh, which was the beginning of the end for The Hisui Region. I had an answer for everything except Basculegion: Corviknight answered Ting-Lu, Ho-oh answered Houndstone, and Toxapex answered Dragonite. It was all smooth sailing until Azumarill popped off with Belly Drum and gave me a heart attack. After many calculations, I hazed with Pex and all was back to normal. On turn 132, I took a dumb chance and tried to pick up a Hurricane kill on Azumarill. Ho-oh missed and lost its boots. Why did I do that? Well, we had been playing for over 30 minutes and my butt was getting numb since I had sat down to prep much earlier. I was able to boost Ho-Oh up several times this game, but I feared Scarf Trick Houndstone and frustratingly had to switch out every time it came in. Houndstone was Toxic'd, though, so the interaction favored me over time. In the end, I was able to chip THR's team enough to punish infinite switching and force PP usage. Long game but my team did the job it was designed to do. Outside of the Knock turn, I think this was my best-played game.
Set of the Week
Ho-Oh @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Hurricane
- Whirlwind
- Recover
Physically defensive CM Ho-oh is the cousin of my Heatran set in week 1. Fire is such a nice typing that checks Steel spammers and Ogerpon. This set sits on pretty much every Flutter Mane set, even Psyshock. Physically defensive Ho-oh is not common in our meta, despite being commonly seen in stuff like MnM and GG. This set carries Whirlwind to give me the board control that is crucial to this team. Mono Hurricane is wacky, but CM is important to give a backup special check to keep Blissey from getting overloaded. Tera Ghost lets me escape from Taunt Heatran. Paired with Toxapex, Taunt Heatran is not a threat to this team, despite not carrying a Flash Fire of my own.
Week 4
vs My team - The replay
This team needs no introduction. I did not build it, finnaggann did, so I am free to lavish praise upon it. Nosepass looks like a meme, but this team is genuinely the most consistent build of 2025. The Educated Fool used it to nearly achieve a 90% GXE, which is unheard of in this metagame. I have never seen another team that managed to integrate double hazard removal. DOUBLE HAZARD REMOVAL. D-O-U-B-L-E. Insanity. It's hard enough to fit one spinner usually. This team is a Pressure stall with FEAR characteristics, as the other five members of the team are a formidable stall core in their own right. Nosepass often plays more like Shedinja in OU, walling certain threats that are otherwise unreasonable to wall. Given hazard removal, Nosepass can wall every single special move (outside of Photon Geyser lol). With that expansive blanket check in mind, I shifted Giratina's EVs away from the SpD of the original version over to physical defense. I also switched Destiny Bond Trevenant to Knock Off, which turned out to be pivotal. Nosepass should really have Gravity over Smack Down, which came back to haunt me in the game.
I kept this team in my back pocket all season until Week 4 as a get out of jail free card. My original plan was to bring this funky Ganlon Berry Volcarona team with Ripen. FlamPoke is a Real Tournament Player who would never leave home without Stealth Rock. I was actually expecting to play against an offense this week. The plan was to switch Volc into rocks, get an instant +2, and win the game from there with Quiver Dance. Playtesting indicated a stall weakness, though, so I scrapped the team the day of the game and loaded up the Nosepass Pressure stall instead.
FlamPoke had a week to learn the metagame and opted to build an original stall. Gotta admire the chutzpah. This stall has a few things I like and a few things I don't like. First, the good:
- Iron Defense Klefki is neat. A fundamental question for stall is "how do I boost my defense before getting hit by this Adaptability Tough Claws Hustle Close Combat?". Prankster ID is an effective way to deliver defense without incorporating awkward stuff like Gogoat.
- Dondozo is generally rising, and its inclusion is a heads-up move. A lot of new builders would opt for Wo-Chien here, which would be good too, but Dondozo checks a few things that Wo-Chien does not like Cloyster, Solgaleo, and physical Download abusers.
- Levitate + Klefki + Ting-Lu is an efficient way to create infinite switchability.
- Ting-Lu has a fine set. Spikes are up right now.
Now the stuff I don't like:
- This Giratina set is not good. It would have been good a year ago, but WispHex gets its lunch eaten by Garganacl so badly. It turns Gira into a complete momentum sink against fat. Offenses generally aren't that afraid of Wisp Gira either, as Gira often has to burn tera to actually get that Wisp off.
- Draining Kiss Klefki and Avalanche Dondozo in a meta with Fluffy Heatran is a bold choice. This whole team is Taunt Heatran bait, and these two movesets did nothing to help. Stored Power over Rest would be far more threatening. I think that players new to SP often try to over-synergize and incorporate shared abilities at every opportunity.
- Coupled with those two sets, the no-attacks Blissey completes the team's tendency to do nothing and hope the opponent runs out of gas. PP stall is good right now, but this team left Pressure at home. Regular Giratina would have been better over Gira-O. Unfortunately it seems like FlamPoke did not keep up with the recent literature about stall's relationship with Levitate.
- In general, this team has no wincons. You can call Dondozo and Klefki wincons if you want, but the counterplay to those two is common outside of very linear offenses. The team is chock full of crit-me-nots that seemingly want to boost and stay on the field, but using Natural Cure requires switching. I feel like this team should have picked one of Shell Armor or Pressure and then changed some sets accordingly.
- This Houndstone set of Wisp/Night Shade/Protect/Rest is just way, way too passive.
Overall, this team is internally inconsistent, and I do not think it is a good team. FlamPoke threw a little fit after the game in OMcord about SP. But when you bring a team as out of tune with the meta as this one, there are no valuable insights to be had.
I did not watch this replay, and you shouldn't either. The game went for 655 turns and ended in a 6-4 forfeit. Speaking in broad strokes, here's what I think were the key points of the game:
- Pressure won me the hazards war. I was a little worried that FlamPoke might try to only set hazards after I had set rocks. I was prepared for that scenario, as berries would allow me to more comfortably weather hazards than FlamPoke's lefties mons. But FlamPoke decided to use hazards at will, allowing me to drain all of their PP. Pressure also took away all of Gira-O's Defogs, letting me keep rocks up. Rocks and Pressure were clearly my wincon, and I just had to do enough chip to keep Dondozo and Klefki from setting up too much. I thought that Klefki was Stored Power for most of the game, leading to me playing pretty aggresively against it.
- My goal for most of the game was to land Knock Off with Trevenant on as many Pokemon as possible. The two that really mattered were Ting-Lu and Klefki since they could otherwise switch infinitely. I burned a lot of Curse PP early trying to get Houndstone and Giratina to burn their Rests. They effectively blocked Knock for a long time but eventually succumbed. I played way too aggressively early with Knock Off's PP, and Trevenant was down to one PP at the end. I do not really know why my opponent allowed Ting-Lu to take a knock, but losing infinite switchability effectively ended the game. After I knocked Ting-Lu, my biggest worries were Stored Power Klefki and the thought that FlamPoke could possibly push the game to a 1000 turn tie. A final Knock Off on Klefki put my fears to rest.
- Using Smack Down over Gravity on Nosepass was a big mistake on my part that greatly limited Nosepass's ability to make progress.
Set of the Week
Giratina @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Defog
- Will-O-Wisp
- Shadow Ball
- Dragon Tail
Physically defensive Giratina solves a lot of Nosepass's problems. It defogs and is a physical counterpart to Nosepass's special blanket checking. Tera Steel also lets Giratina check Lilligant's Triple Axel and Cloyster's Icicle spear, which are otherwise quite dangerous.
Week 5
No SP games this week. I was hosting family and knew I wouldn't have prep time, so I asked to ride the bench.
Week 6
vs My team - The replay
On a cold Sunday night, the center of the Shared Power universe was in Missouri, as I faced off with fellow Show-Me State resident DripLegend. Prepping for this week, I realized that SP is actually a VGC format. Offense is king, hazards aren't thaaaat important, and speed control is paramount to the point that you can build teams with a fast mode and a slow mode. This dragon spam is a mixed offense semi-Room offense with Scarf Dragapult providing the fast mode. Dialga is a self-sufficient OTR mon, with Clawitzer and Giratina as backup room abusers. I really like Dialga as a big stat ball and ability receiver. With all three boosts online, Dragon Pulse does 44% to Vessel of Ruin max SpD Blissey. The power easily takes kills against offense under Trick Room and also serves as a pretty good breaker. However, Dialga does have a hard damage ceiling since it can't boost. Giratina has Calm Mind to overpower opposing CM-boosting mons. Tera Blast also allows Giratina to go mixed, as the move will be phsyical if Giratina gets an Attack Download boost. Regidrago and Clawitzer have offensive sets to trade in the early game. I tried Eject Button on various mons but ultimately decided that staying on the field to make trade attempts was more valuable than pivoting. Dragapult provides alternative speed control and is very strong with an Attack boost from Download. Pult has a limited ability to go mixed itself with Tera Blast. Infiltrator is the ability here to take away Substitutes that can waste Trick Room turns. Porygon is a secondary Trick Room setter that also chips mid-speed offensive threats like Quaquaval and Basculegion. Overall I am quite please with this team. It took me from 1200 to 1600 without taking a loss, and it easily topped the ladder. There are a few holes, though, like against CM steels or Guts prio spams that can afford to bring Mach Punch.
Potatochan assisted with prep this week and helped test my dragon spam. They also helped DripLegend test teams before realizing that they were my opponent lol. Drip brought a team that Potatochan built. The squad is pretty standard, featuring solid defensive pieces around a final boss Arceus. TrickScarf Ribombee is an unusual choice, opting for Shield Dust over the usual Purifying Salt. It's a good move since Garg is probably more common at this point than Toxic. This team is a nightmare matchup for mine. Fat Arceus is the worst possible matchup since it can boost, can tera to resist my best moves, and has recovery to prevent getting chipped down. This team looked like a CM Arceus build, so Dragapult and Tera Gira were my plan to beat it down and hopefully force it to burn all of its recovery... oof, not a great plan. I was pretty sure this game was over at preview.
Things went my way in the early game. I got chip on Ting-Lu with Clawitzer, which to me was great since Ting-Lu could possibly chunk Dialga later, while my Clawitzer would be deadweight against the inevitable steel Arceus. I also landed the Explosion on Ribombee with Regidrago. By turn 6, two major threats were down, but it was kind of immaterial as Arceus still loomed. Dragapult's Download on turn 6 revealed that Heatran was specially defensive, which at the time seemed bad for me. After a U-turn and Ting-Lu sac, Porygon ended up against Heatran. I sac'd it for minor chip, just wanting it off the field. At this point my plan was to try and set up CM enough times with Gira against Heatran to blow past Arceus. However, Drip switched to Houndstone, foiling my plan. Here's another situation where Goldbanker's Week 1 suggestion to hit 230 speed paid off. Giratina outsped and KO'd Houndstone without taking a Poltergeist. Arceus came in, and I choked a bit by clicking Dragon Pulse against Tera Steel and doing a paltry 27%. What's worse is that Arceus revealed Cosmic Power. Hitting X was tempting as this team had nothing for Cosmic Power. I switched to Dialga to start fishing for Aura Sphere crits as Arceus reached +2. The next turn, Arceus switched out and Heatran took 47 percent. DripLegend later said that he thought Dialga would click Thunder Wave. I think this play makes sense, as Dialga runs twave in a lot of other metas and I hadn't yet revealed the OTR set. On the one hand, paralyzed Arceus probably wins still, but on the other hand, there's nothing I could really do to stop Arceus from getting to +2 again if he could trade against Dialga. Why risk para turns if you don't have to? Two things are true about this turn: DripLegend made a good play and did not choke, and I got massively bailed out. Heatran surviving the Aura Sphere allowed me to set up a Trick Room and clean the game from there, landing three KOs in three turns. Turned out lucky for me that Heatran was SpD after all.
Set of the Week
Porygon-Z @ Room Service
Ability: Download
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Trick Room
- Tera Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
Max Speed Room Service Porygon-Z let's goooo. I put a lot of value in the 306 speed tier since it matches all the base 90 Ubers and outspeeds common offensive pieces like Quaq, Basc, Regidrago, Kleavor, just a lot of stuff. Pory is supposed to be a secondary TR setter, but running max HP did not appreciably avoid KOs. The compromise was to run Room Service, allowing Porygon to operate under its own TR while still outspeeding those offensive donors. Unfortunately, I did not get to show this off during the game.
vs The replay
Electra102 elected to play SP again, woohoo! This matchup is a contrast in styles. At first glance, Blissey and Nosepass seem pretty strong here. Except for Dragon Darts, which is easily circumvented by Tera, Fissure's team is entirely without multi-hit moves. Special spam is exactly the kind of team that Nosepass should dunk on. I'm a little iffy on the rest of Electra's team, since the point of running Nosepass is that you don't have to run stuff like Blissey and Houndstone. Also, Nosepass with one remover will require Electra to be on point with the gameplay. All that said, loading Blissey plus Nosepass into special spam is certainly a good start. I do like non-Cheek Pouch berries a lot, too, since you theoretically can add more bulky stuff. I used to do it a lot with Zamazenta. The more I think about this team, the more I like it despite my first impression. Still not sold that it should be a Nosepass squad, but I see the vision. Meanwhile, Fissure's team is a very cool offensive structure. Nasty Plot Deoxys with Webs is something I've thought about before to maintain Deo's speed dominance while also cashing in on the breaking power. Levitate/Clear Body scarfers are threatening to Deoxys, so Fissure's own scarf Dragapult adds some speed insurance. Galvantula indicates that Deoxys is probably carrying Focus Blast, and Landorus might be, too. Really neat build with a lot of breaking power and speed control.
The game starts out with Taunt rocks Landorus, and Electra is immediately in trouble. As long as Lando is on the field, Nosepass can't enter and Blissey can't heal. Fissure chips Giratina and blocks Defog, but takes 65% cumulatively from Blissey and Giratina. On turn 6, Blissey gets nuked by Psyshock Indeedee, and suddenly the situation looks dire for Electra. Rocks are up so Nosepass can't come in, and the other special wall is down against a team with Deo lurking in the back. Electra burns tera to clear rocks, getting Nosepass back in the game theoretically. Electra stays in, probably trying to KO Lando with a Dragon Tail on the switch. If that worked, Electra's position is suddenly strong again. But Fissure stays in with Indeedee and reveals Encore, allowing Lando to come back in and set rocks. Those rocks pretty much seal the game. Giratina can't Defog on anything left on Fissure's team. Trevenant makes a spirited effort, but ultimately Deoxys cleans up. I think this game was closer than the final score indicates, and Fissure made some nice plays to pull out the win.
The game starts out with Taunt rocks Landorus, and Electra is immediately in trouble. As long as Lando is on the field, Nosepass can't enter and Blissey can't heal. Fissure chips Giratina and blocks Defog, but takes 65% cumulatively from Blissey and Giratina. On turn 6, Blissey gets nuked by Psyshock Indeedee, and suddenly the situation looks dire for Electra. Rocks are up so Nosepass can't come in, and the other special wall is down against a team with Deo lurking in the back. Electra burns tera to clear rocks, getting Nosepass back in the game theoretically. Electra stays in, probably trying to KO Lando with a Dragon Tail on the switch. If that worked, Electra's position is suddenly strong again. But Fissure stays in with Indeedee and reveals Encore, allowing Lando to come back in and set rocks. Those rocks pretty much seal the game. Giratina can't Defog on anything left on Fissure's team. Trevenant makes a spirited effort, but ultimately Deoxys cleans up. I think this game was closer than the final score indicates, and Fissure made some nice plays to pull out the win.
Week 7
vs My team - The replay
The Machamps were eliminated this week, so I got a little silly. This is my take on those goofy self-webs Eject Pack teams, which use Defiant and Competitive to put all of your abilities in play on one turn. Trick Room with this style is a twist that I haven't seen before outside of Farigiraf, which is kind of bad. Trick Room with real mons is neat, though, since you're already forcing yourself to take webs. Porygon2 is the straw that stirs the drink. Download is nice extra oomph and allows a bit of mixed offense. Dialga is using another OTR set here. I built the team since I like OTR Dialga a lot, but delivering boosts to it is difficult. This version is not as powerful as Dragon's Maw plus Mega Launcher, but it is close. Silly team overall, but I did manage to get to #2 on the ladder at 1550, so it's not terrible.
Chloe's team was also eliminated from playoff contention. This Serene Grace/Toxic Chain team is funny. As far as I know, Serene Grace doesn't actually boost the Toxic Chain chance, but there's still a lot of rng flying around. Buried under the meme is a cool idea, which is Toxic Chain plus Solgaleo. Sunsteel Strike ignores abilities, which means that Solgaleo can poison Garganacl teams that aren't prepared to clear status. I haven't built too much with that idea yet, but I really want to make it work.
I played pretty fast and loose with this game since Download Cinderace had such a crazy matchup. I was very lucky, taking almost no flinches and getting to set my webs up. We traded in the midgame a little bit as we both got abilities online. I got lucky again with an Air Slash miss against Cinderace, but it didn't matter in the end as Specs Comfey had enough oomph to pick up the remaining kills.
This post is super long at this point, so I'm stopping here. I'll make a post with some more opinions after the usage stats come out.
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