Vnmmv has played against me more than any other SP player over the last year with a record of 60-82 with Vnmmv leading. I know Vnmmv is a better player so I decided to lean on my best teams. This was a terrible choice. As friends we discussed the meta game a lot, even during the tournament. Helping each other prep the previous weeks. Aura sphere Val/Pagos team came out of those discussions. Also sharing ev spreads, testing teams, and providing feedback to dial in teams. This match was terrible for me.
https://pokepast.es/170617989a7c32f2 Game 1: I decided to use a version of spem’s Darkrai dark pulse. Which is a really really good team. I made a few changes to suit my play style. Vnmmv leads a hard counter team that beats most of my teams that use a mix of priority and strong special attackers that nuke and take revenge kos with priority. Weak armor allowed him to outpace all my special attackers after getting hit by a priority move. Ting lu also decreased the effectiveness of my special attackers. Ogerpon was taken to nullify my favorite adaptability donor in basculegion and 1 of my 2 main priority users. With ceruledge there to deal with non scarf houndstone. After the matches we discussed some decisions. For example I thought I could calm mind on iron val and take out pagos even through tera shell as a non calm mind aura sphere should do about 70%. With the calm mind I thought val would live the star storm as it was not adaptability boosted. Going back now it was probably best to go darkrai first break the tera shell. This could have enabled Val to sweep with the only threat being ogerpon-wellspring using tera with that being a with ivy cudgel and the only way to guarantee the ko would have been sacking ceruledge but getting off a shadow sneak prior. Close match but clearly Vnmmv built the team to beat my tendencies.
https://pokepast.es/c91b0e72bba7d9eb Game 2: I wiped out the old reliable breaker val that I used in previous rounds. I needed something reliable and consistent. Vnmmv again runs a team that I was terrified of with sun and fire arceus. Not having a flash fire mon and running fluffy was backfiring. Thankfully I was able to leverage scarf porygon and houndstone to pick apart the team and use Lilligant's life orb and some priority to whittle it down to enable the vacuum wave clean up. Again this team pulled through in some of the worst match ups. This team is far from flashy but it uses what seems to be the consensus best abilities in the meta game: adaptability, download, vessel of ruin, and fluffy. Levitate is just really good, allowing you to only worry about stealth rocks for hazards and removing the earthquake threat that beats fluffy. Val is just an abuser of these abilities. This team is kind of the quintessential idea of shared power building a god like mon that sweeps.
https://pokepast.es/711e3452b761c42e Game 3: I decided to pick a favorite double dance team and that was a terrible choice. Pagos/Dialga/Arceus basically could all solo the team. I lost this one right off the bat. Running any other team here would have been more beneficial. Val team could at least pressure that team. I maybe should have pulled out something unconventional. The only take away for me was the red card turn 1. That will ruin some teams that rely on booster mons or the random snipe. I could see this being used more particularly verse leads that click flip turn or u turn. Paralysis is very under valued against fast offense and when it does proc you get a “free” turn. Not to mention halving speed. If you know the opponent has twave or a reliable way to spread the status condition it might be best to eat that move with a priority user. Double dance was a terrible choice throughout the tournament. Everybody was running hyper offense teams that nuke through anything not nearing stall like defenses. Double dance really likes bulky offense, and stall teams that do not hit like a freight train.
Overall this round was a learning experience that I need to break away from norms. Afterwards, we discussed the games. Vnmmv purposefully designed the teams to take away houndstone and basculegion-m as they are the backbone core of my teams. We also discussed what threw a wrench in his game plan and that was Iron Val, a pretty under rated mon imo, for the longest time with the only defensive check being a bulky poison type.Iron Val as a whole this tournament did extremely well and with a fairy/fighting combo it checks a lot of common threats like dragon spam particularly Dialga who gets wrecked by fighting stab and forced to use tera. It also matches up extremely well into ting lu with both stabs. Val also has an extremely rare special priority move in vacuum wave; this move alone allows for EV variation with the ability to not run a speed nature and take modest or adamant nature instead. It also is particularly good with download with great atk and spatk with a physical priority shadow sneak and close combat. A big reason I think it was overlooked for so long is due to flutter mane, which has obvious sun synergy, big spatk stat, and the fact flutter has ubers next to its name. Val is very under rated and should see more play as an ability abuser.
Shared Power Occasional Usage Stats 
