Resource Smogon Snake Draft II: NU Set/Team Dump

[shiloh]

Since only one game is left for the second snake draft, making this thread now so everyone can post sets/teams they used or came up with during the tournament.

Eternally Kushalos lax Realistic Waters Tangelo elodin Rodriblutar HANTSUKI Hootie FLCL Nintendi Jytcampbell Stone_Cold

ill start off with a set i came up with that picked up quite a bit of steam through the tour, might post a bit more later but i just wanted to get this one out of my system first.

Incineroar @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off
- Earthquake

this is a cool take on sd incineroar w/o having to use up your z move. Eternally used this quite a few times and its just a way for incineroar to be played a much more sustainable manner throughout the game as you arent taking permanent chip via stealth rock/flare blitz recoil.

 

[etern]

I'm gonna dump my favorite sets here but before I do, just wanna briefly shoutout Finchinator for being one of the best teammates you could ever ask for in ever aspect, whether it be going through my 15 team pokepastes or testing a bunch with me, you were a huge part of what made my experience on the Leviathans one of my most memorable and fun experiences so far. Had a fantastic time on this team, and I don't have a bad thing to say about anybody on the team, Genesis and Evan were awesome and I thank them both for giving me the chance to redeem myself after a disappointing spl, and thanks to all the wonderful friends I've made on the team, hope to team with you all again in the future! Also special shotouts to my great friends rozes (stop stealing my sets bitch) and Hootie for supporting me and helping me test whenever I needed it. I won't drag this out for too much but this was a super cool tour and I'm really happy to have finished 8-2 and gotten back into the swing of things, looking forward to SPL and happy to see that we've got one of the strongest lower tier pools around. Anyway, I'm gonna drop some of the cooler sets I came up with during my run:

Incineroar @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off
- Earthquake

MY set, not rozes. I decided to try this out initially against realistic waters in our first match of stage 1 phase 2. This is probably my favorite Incineroar set atm and one that I've ended up using in another 3 snake matches following this one. It basically combines the good qualities of Berry Pivot with the offensive pressure of SD, and has very few bad matchups. Checks Vanilluxe / Life Orb Whimsicott / and Comfey fairly reliably, which is insane for a wallbreaker like Incineroar to be able to boast and far more threatening to deal with than pivot or the awful AV set which should never be used.

Seismitoad @ Salac Berry
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Endeavor
- Scald
- Earth Power

Brought this out Week 5 of stage 2, with the idea being it could punish fat waters like CM Slowbro / Vaporeon and Blastoise, and take advantage of stuff that countered Scyther. Pretty cool set, a little difficult to fit onto teams, it worked on mine specifically because Probopass was the rocker, but if you can make it work, it's super fun and can make for some unique structures.

Comfey @ Life Orb
Ability: Triage
EVs: 232 HP / 252 SpA / 24 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Draining Kiss
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Also brought this set Week 5 of stage 2 after using HP Fire Comfey a couple times. My idea was pairing it with something that can lure Golbat and knock off its eviolite (scarf scyther on this team), because +1 HP Ice OHKO's Golbat after rocks if it's been knocked off (+1 HP Ice into Draining Kiss also KO's Golbat if it happens to be at 100% with no rocks up). Also neat for luring Torterra which gained a ton of notoriety during this tour, without sacrificing the ability to hit Vileplume. Pretty cool set and a nice way to show that Comfey isn't super one dimensional and can get past some of its counters with some creative building.

Rhydon @ Eviolite
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance

Came up with this set during phase 1 but didn't get to use it until Week 1 of stage 2 against Hantsuki. Unfortunately I didn't get to reveal the tech, but basically the speed lets you creep SpD Torterra and OHKO it with a +2 Ice Punch (if fsr it's running a ton of speed, the defense and impish nature lets you stomach a wood hammer after hazards as well as other cool stuff like dodging the 2hko from scarf passimian's close combat). Partners nicely with HP Fire Comfey, Specs Heliolisk, and other mons that like Torterra lured.

Torterra @ Grassium Z
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Polish
- Wood Hammer
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Brought this against Tangy during stage 2, RP Torterra is super dangerous for a lot of teams without Sneasel / Exeggutor-A / Weezing. Z-Wood Hammer nukes Passimian (and you outspeed it at +2 with a Jolly nature) as well as doing great damage to frail Grass-types like Sceptile / Whims / Decidueye.

Druddigon @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 76 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Protect
- Toxic

Credit to ABR for convincing me to try out Drudd + Ferroseed since it worked awesomely. We came up with this pretty cool mixed defenses set with enough SpD to dodge the 2HKO from Life Orb Sceptile's Hidden Power Ice as well as live a +2 Malicious Moonsault (through Protect) into +2 Darkest Lariat from Jolly Incineroar. Protect is really nice for racking up Toxic on stuff, getting passive recovery, and scouting stuff like Heliolisk / Specs Whimsicott / Passimian, and it works great on hazard stacking builds and teams with lots of Protect mons like my semifinal team.

Made a quick visual of the teams I used throughout this tour in chronological order:

Overall, had a ton of fun building and playing during this tour, looking forward to many more like this and I hope people enjoyed watching the games!

 

[Realistic Waters]

Hey friends, guess i'll post...

taskr (Steelix) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 68 HP / 252 SpA / 188 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power
- Taunt

Love special lix hehe, you beat xatu and almost every boring stealth rocker. Managed to lure out and kill defensive Vileplume in my game. Dark pulse is probably better but I had taunt in my game. :P

Magmortar @ Choice Specs
Ability: Vital Spirit
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Steel]

Crazy wall breaker with very little checks since Incineroar gets destroyed by focus blast. o_o With rocks up, it 2HKO's standard slowbro. make this nu :v

Braviary @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- Defog
- Superpower

Fun meme I used vs Eternally which put in work and it was a something different for some hazard control. :v Z Superpower does a lot to Steelix and it's nice to bluff choice scarf.

Sceptile @ Life Orb
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Work Up
- Giga Drain
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power Ice

Sceptile almost always does well vs balance with its coverage + speed but since it can force a few things out you can get a chance to set up w/ work up. In my game vs Rodri, I managed to ohko his entire team with a sceptile sweep o_o

BAgs of money (Sneasel) @ Choice Band
Ability: Pickpocket
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Icicle Crash
- Low Kick
- Pursuit

CB Low Kick means you're not giving Incineroar a free switch in. also comes in handy for Steelix, Steelvally, Hariyama, Houndoom and knocked out Probopass in our match o_o

cuter than u (Oricorio) (M) @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Dancer
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 184 Def / 76 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Roost
- Calm Mind
- Taunt

Fun mon I used vs Kush and it worked :D this set gives it a niche over charizard and makes it decent check to fighting types.

Diancie @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Moonblast
- Power Gem

Seen as how Xatu was really popular in snake, I switched up to Diancie a couple of games for a better match up. Power Gem OHKO's and the cute coverage is nice for a bulky offensive rocker.

Slowbro (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Future Sight
- Flamethrower
- Zap Cannon
- Scald

Don't bully me, I'm new to NU but I used this in my first match v elodin. It beat Specs long neck meme since draco was only doing about 50% so it must be good. xd

 

[lax]

these are the teams i used in order from bottom being g1 to top being g4

going over my g1 team, it was honestly a mess.

bam

Sawk @ Icium Z
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake

Accelgor @ Insect Plate
Ability: Sticky Hold
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Bug Buzz
- Focus Blast
- Toxic Spikes
- Encore

Decidueye @ Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 232 SpD / 24 Spe
Calm Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Roost
- U-turn
- Protect

Aerodactyl @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 84 Atk / 176 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Protect

these are the more interesting sets I used on the team. the idea of this team was centered around Z Icium Sawk, which is a really cool set imo. sawk looks like the obvious scarfer on this team, so if the opponent is convinced i'm locked into knock off or cc vs golbat, xatu, vileplume etc, i can just nuke them right after. sawk has a really nice speed tier too because mons like golbat are creeping base 80s usually so it basically always outspeeds them. it can also revenge decidueye which is really nice.

anyways, this set is clearly countered by slowbro so that is where the rest of my team comes into play. the rest of the team plays off of toxic + tect spam. i've been using this accelgor set for ages and finally got to bring it on the big playing field. it compliments sawk a lot too because golbats (which were popular at the time) assume they can counter both so if sawk nukes the bat then accelgor goes in. it's also really nice to encore things like silvally on the defog then basically guaranteeing you get a tspike up.

this decidueye set is what i consider the hard slowbro count. almost max spdef allows it to switch effortlessly into the av bro spam and i have heal bell vaporeon for toxic. this set walls huge threats like heliolisk and even whimsicott/sceptile pretty handily too. tect is basically only for sneasel and to scout scarf mons because i found that more useful than grass stab for this particular team. this also contributes to the toxic/tspike + tect spam idea i got going on. really cool set that i dig

final thing i'd like to look over on this team is the weird ass aerodactyl set. gonna chalk it up to rusty teambuilding but i literally did not know this team had no rocks until the day of the game when i decided i wanted to use this. the original aero was sub tox tect, a set i really enjoy using tbh. i just improvised a little and made it rocks over sub and while it didn't really do anything but get up rocks, it still seemed pretty cool. btw sub tect rock slide eq or smth beats steelix's 1v1 lul.

team 2 i already went over in my rmt

wam

slithery snake (Steelix) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Ice Fang
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Crunch

THE BROKEN ASS LIZARD (Heliolisk) @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Focus Blast
- Thunderbolt

alright this team was soooo fucking fun to play honestly. zom is a cheery manager who is always popping into team chans with ideas and this one paid huge dividends. this steelix set is honestly fucking nuts. the original idea for this team was this lix + z celebrate raichu (which gets fucked by tort) so steelix lures the torterra and then raichu can go in. but after playing a game with a scarf delphox living a tbolt after rocks then killing me i said fuck that and switched to the broken ass lizard. so the steelix set has really incredible coverage. it is able to lure ferroseed, torterra, and even 2ohko bro (after rocks) and xatu and does huge damage in general. ice fang is like a 94% chance to ohko tort i believe and while my hard switch into it vs tort seemed kinda shady, who the fuck would expect that? steelix did exactly what it was meant to do and looked dope while doing so

i went over this heliolisk last spl, but i slightly edited it. this entire team screams fuck torterra because of ice fang and hp ice. i really like fightinium z heliolisk because on certain teams it is able to bait scarf then z the opponent. this paired with an unexpected scarfer like decidueye is a combo going in.

i'm pretty proud of this final team i made but not really with how i played it vs kush

dam

THE DAY (Weezing) @ Electrium Z
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 196 HP / 252 SpA / 60 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Fire Blast
- Thunderbolt
- Toxic Spikes

ONE DROP IMPACT (Delphox) @ Leftovers
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 248 HP / 108 SpD / 152 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Protect
- Flamethrower
- Toxic

KANA-BOON (Silvally-Steel) @ Steel Memory
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 248 HP / 204 SpD / 56 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Parting Shot
- Defog
- Flamethrower

so since the beginning of snake, i've been experimenting with toxic tect spam + tspike users. i know people have been using weezing, but nobody has really been using OFFENSIVE weezing. i looked through its movepool and its actually kinda ridiculous. sludge bomb for strong poison spreading stab, fire blast for steels and ferroseed etc, and z tbolt just nukes any xatus, golbats, or slowbros vaporeons whatever you feel. tspikes as the final move because this was also a toxic spam team. weezing used offensively is seriously underrated and able to put in massive damage vs a lot of teams.

this delphox set is another thing i grew to love using. it's amazing in the incineroar meta because if you have phox vs something it threatens out, you just click sub. then you toxic incin then tect and can sub or switch out. it chips incineroar so easily it's not even funny. not even just incineroar, it does the same for slowbros and whatever else too. the ev spread outspeeds rotoms and i chose to put the rest into spdef to help more with whimsicott/vanilluxe/heliolisk even.

the final set isn't exactly unique but it played a huge part in my victory vs kush. ice beam was solely because druddigon was a major issue to this team with the standard parting shot and defog. i chose flamethrower as my last move on a whim. i figured with all the toxic spam on my team that i could use flamethrower for the unexpected coverage instead. people usually see one move by silvally and assume that is the only attack its carrying because the standard set is PS, defog, and toxic + ur attacking move. i was able to bring the game down to a 50/50 because kush believed ice beam was my only attack and i flamethrowered his ferroseed.

this team does not have a water resist so it would get decimated by things like special samurott and struggle vs bro, but there is still available counterplay. a lot of the team lures bro through z electric, toxic spam, and torterra being a somewhat answer to bro. this is definitely a flaw but the overall structure of the team is balanced.

some final thoughts on nu snake in general: at the beginning of the season i mentioned how people would underestimate the player pool and i was completely right. eternally and rw came back in dominating the scene along with kush. some very cool games (except ones that end in a comfey victory lol.) and the final match of elodin vs kush is gonna be hype as fuck. i don't really know how i stand on this match, but i think kush is top 3 nu if not the best but elodin has had his fire reignite in the past few weeks. will be a great match for sure

 

[Finchinator]

Love what I am seeing in some of these posts; I think Snake NU has been a success overall! I have only one set to share sadly as I was busy being an OU player, but it's still kinda cool and I need to assert my creative dominance over corrupt NUTL Eternally, so...

Hide

Incineroar @ Firium Z
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off
- Earthquake

252 Atk Incineroar Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Passimian: 312-367 (91.4 - 107.6%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Incineroar Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Steelix: 308-366 (87.2 - 103.6%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
+2 252 Atk Incineroar Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Weezing: 361-426 (108 - 127.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Black Sludge recovery
252 Atk Incineroar Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Vileplume: 456-536 (128.8 - 151.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Black Sludge recovery
252 Atk Incineroar Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Garbodor: 334-394 (110.9 - 130.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252 Atk Incineroar Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Guzzlord: 471-555 (80.2 - 94.5%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Incineroar Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Comfey: 312-367 (102.2 - 120.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Incineroar Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Exeggutor-Alola: 325-384 (98.1 - 116%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Incineroar Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Scrafty: 253-298 (93.3 - 109.9%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO

big heat

 

[Kushalos]

how r you gonna post a 2017 set n then claim it as your own lmao only finchinator

 

[elodin]

SNAKE DRAFT TEAMS
https://pokepast.es/de6ad5645f1bac3c

https://pokepast.es/eb020a4b01b90287

https://pokepast.es/7d6ac3b9969299c7

https://pokepast.es/49b4585ab3f1d56e

https://pokepast.es/5753fba29a2384f4

GRAND SLAM TEAMS
https://pokepast.es/b15b324756c7e47b
https://pokepast.es/de6f65a8be55c886
https://pokepast.es/86bd7b3de3718fb0

Decided to make a post to assemble all the NU teams I used in the past few months and also discuss a little bit on the meta and some creative trends I've noticed more recently. I'll try not to make this too extensive so I won't be analyzing every single matchup and how I prepared for each of them, I'll just try to give an overall idea on my interpretation of the meta at the time and why I chose these teams.

NU right now is in kind of an unhealthy state, in my opinion, because it's very easy to default to the most standard archetype possible and obtain good results. My attempts throughout most of Snake Draft / Grand Slam were finding alternatives that deviated from the status quo and were successful against it. What I mean by that is that it's very easy to bring a team of Steelix / Incineroar / Passimian / Slowbro / Xatu / Filler and have a great matchup vs almost everything, so you'll notice that my teams tend to stray away from this archetype. Nonetheless I sometimes ended up with builds that are very similar to it depending on my opponents (like the first team vs Realistic Waters and the team vs HT).

The 2 first teams I used were both built by Tangelo and I lost both games. Coincidence? Jk, in all seriousness I don't think it's fair to blame those losses on matchup because I definitely could've played both games better, but it was rather unfortunate to face certain Pokémon with the sets I had at the time. Like using Comfey for the first time and facing Golbat right away. Despite thinking these 2 builds might be improved (especially considering they're pretty old by now) I really like some concepts in them. The first team has Exeggutor-Alola and Comfey, two Pokémon that by the beginning of Snake were very underrated compared to now. Comfey has the potential to 6-0 teams from preview if they lack a Poison / Steel-type, and Exeggutor-Alola is one of the strongest breakers in the tier that is excellent at finding opportunities vs slow, defensive Pokémon to find KOs. Grass-types are quite broken in NU and this one is definitely a cool option if you want to try it out. The second team has SD Synthesis Torterra, which is also another set that back then was quite unheard of and has the potential to destroy some bulkier builds. Remember the super standard team I referred to? Torterra with enough Speed investment and Pursuit support from Sneasel and guaranteed Stealth Rocks from Druddigon basically 6-0s that team. Specs Rotom is also quite nice if you're expecting your opponent to not bring Sneasel.

After these 2 losses we decided it was best for me to take a break and let tangy start. He had some pretty crazy teams and fire games oml. While benched I was still playing in Grand Slam, so I'll talk about those teams next. I particularly don't like the team I used vs HT, I feel like it's very weak to stall and also fails to break through most standard builds given its lack of immediate firepower. This is the most standard team I ran and honestly the only reason I used it was because I was pretty in the dark regarding what I wanted to bring vs HT in NU. I liked the Iapapa Berry SD Incineroar set Eternally used and I decided to give it a try as well, but as it turns out this team had a pretty bad matchup and I needed a ton of luck to win my NU game in that series. The team I built for HarrisIsAwesome, however, is probably my favorite NU team ever. Tricking suggested that Diancie set to me and gave me a team with it. At first I thought this set would suck because Moonblast-less Diancie looked terrible to me on paper, but as it turns out this is by far the best Rocker in the tier at the moment. Diancie is great at checking a bunch of threats that easily 6-0 some teams (Vivillon, Braviary) while dishing out solid amounts of damage with Rock / Ground coverage and also setting up Rocks vs Xatu and Golbat, the 2 most common hazard control options in the tier. It also provides a cleric to any team in a tier where Toxic is very common. After testing this Diancie set I instantly fell in love with it, and as you'll see I ended up bringing it on my 2 following Snake games as well. The other very cool thing this team had was the combination of SD Protect Incineroar + Vivillon, also Tricking's idea :3. Like I said, most standard teams in NU carry Scarf Passimian, and this team makes sure it'll never be able to press Close Combat against you. As the most common check to SD Incineroar in the tier, having a way of punishing it if it ever clicks Close Combat (because that's free setup fodder for Vivillon) and having an easy way to punish aggressive U-turns (Protect) means facing Passimian is super nice for this team. I had everything I loved vs Harris on this team: solid Stealth Rock setter, broken Vivillon, solid hazard control options and decent speed control.

After that, I was subbed back in on Snake and I already knew I found the perfect way of "breaking the meta": Diancie + Garbodor. People rely way too much on Xatu / Golbat as their hazard control options and hazards are insanely hard to deal with in NU. Garbodor and Diancie work perfectly because they both beat Xatu and Diancie pressures Golbat for Garbodor. I was facing Realistic Waters again and I decided to build a team around SubBU Braviary in combination with these 2 because if Golbat or any other hazard control Pokémon ever pressed Defog I could get a free +2 Atk with Braviary and start wreaking havoc. Spread on Garbodor to outspeed and 2HKO standard Xatu from full with Gunk Shot + Acid Downpour. Blastoise + Audino-Mega was my way of building a solid defensive backbone vs physical / special sweepers while carrying Rapid Spin. Scarf Absol was added because I desperately needed Speed control and Pursuit and it felt like it carried very nice surprise value most games. Looking back on it this team is super wack but it did win and I'm pretty sure I won every test game with it as well. I remember star told me not to use this because I had no Electric resists and I said "it's fine dw", then I faced Specs Vikavolt and Rotom LMAO. Braviary and hazards are broken though so it was manageable. Team vs Nintendi had the same idea of abusing hazards because I knew the chances of him bringing a slower team / stall were pretty high. This team is basically the same team I used vs Harris in Slam with a different scarfer (Decidueye -> Passimian), different win condition (Vivillon -> Sceptile) and a different Poison-type (Vileplume -> Garbodor). This made my matchup into fairies harder but it gave me a lot more immediate offensive pressure.

Lastly the teams I used vs Teddeh in Grand Slam and vs Kushalos in Snake Finals. That Slam team was built by FLCL because I was looking into some options with AV Slowking + Vanilluxe to bring vs Teddeh. I knew he loved his special Fires and there's no better check to those than Slowking. I originally wasn't going to go with this team because I ended up building something I liked more (https://pokepast.es/9d82311e78f48f50), but when you're in the middle of a series you sometimes have this gut feeling and I've learned to always trust it at this point in my Pokémon career. I had used Diancie + Garb for my past 4 games and I figured it would probably not have the same success as it did vs my previous opponents, so I opted to go with a team that deviated from my previous ones but that I felt would still have a good matchup into what Teddeh was bringing. Turns out I got pretty fucked by AV Slowbro + Specs Magmortar because Zap Cannon is actually a bitch to switch into and this team is super Scald weak with Rocks up and Slowking paralyzed. Teddeh played pretty well to get these win conditions going and I should've played more aggressively with such an offensive team to obtain success. My Snake Finals team was built by Finchinator and I absolutely love it. While discussing options in our team channel ABR mentioned how I was bringing Sceptile / Diancie / Garb / Birds a lot and thus Kushalos was obviously bringing Vileplume + a Rock-type, which meant Vanilluxe looked like a great pick into that. ABR and I originally tried building around Vanilluxe + Accelgor but we couldn't agree on a team because of our different opinions on hazard control options in the tier, so I asked Finch for help and he came up with that fire. Accelgor is a super underrated pick that sets up Spikes for the team while being faster than the most common scarfer and has Recover to check Sceptile and sustain itself through the match. The Vanilluxe set is super underrated, as it easily weakens its counters with Blizzard + Protect and it's very easy to find opportunities late game to set up an Autotomize and sweep, especially with hazards support from Accelgor. This Rotom set was something I tried using from the moment I saw it for the first time because it's very annoying to deal with, and Silvally + Vaporeon + Rhydon are just a super solid defensive backbone that this team needed to deal with most threats. As expected Kush did bring Vileplume + Rock-type and Vanilluxe did have a great matchup. The game would've been a lot closer had he scouted for Multi-Attack from my Sivally-Steel (which imo is 100% necessary for dealing with Comfey) because after that he couldn't set up Stealth Rocks anymore and lost a ton of pressure, but I still had very clear win conditions in setting up hazards and sweeping with Vanilluxe / Accelgor late game.

Overall I was quite disappointed with my performance this Snake and I wish I could've played all my games better. In team tournaments I always have this feeling that losses make you feel a lot worse than wins make you feel good, so even though I went positive overall I know I had a pretty bad tournament, maybe not "bad" but definitely a lot worse than I and my managers were expecting. The thing that gets me more excited about this edition of Snake, however, is that I got a lot more involved with the NU community and the NU meta and I'm very passionate about both right now. 1 year ago, despite having a much better record, I could've never imagined myself writing such an extensive post on teams I used, or even building my own teams in NU for any official game. Even if my performance wasn't good I still feel like I learned a lot and I hope to keep improving.

 

[Kushalos]

with a diverse performance of clobbering flcl with bu passimian and winning turn 15 with zard to getting 6-0d by comfey and vaporeon+silvally because i thought the steel type wouldnt have a steel move i think i can be pretty happy with a 7-4 record. now lets get to the fun bit where i release my new mixtape the ill mind of kushopsinalos 3 so i can be judged by the fantanos on the site.(earlier material was better 3/10)

Passimian @ Buginium Z
Ability: Receiver
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Bulk Up

Took advantage of fooly's slow shit n worked out real nicely. Hes like the only dude id bring it against though lmao

Heliolisk @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 32 HP / 252 SpA / 224 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt
- Hyper Beam

Memes passimian p dang hard by just ohkoing it straight up, unfort that its like a destiny bond.

Slowbro @ Psychium Z
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 148 Def / 96 SpA / 16 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Future Sight
- Yawn
- Slack Off

p dope with spike support. future sight on turn 1 into yawn on turn 2 is annoying af. psychium z to pop heliolisk cause he can just volt switch on yawns.

Rhydon @ Eviolite
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 240 Atk / 16 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Blast / Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch

the only rhydon set i run. pops torterra alola eggy vikavolt while getting rocks vs most dudes.

Whimsicott @ Leftovers / Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Energy Ball
- Defog
- Toxic

whimsi that beats torterra and can also prankster toxic passimians n stuff, v cool.

Charizard @ Normalium Z
Ability: Blaze
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 32 HP / 216 SpA / 32 SpD / 228 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast / Flamethrower
- Air Slash
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Hold Hands

yallready no i had to bring this kush classic back. the one and only mon thats comparable to the right hand+left hand+right leg+left leg+forbidden one. had to do it to them but changed it up a little with hp grass over roost cause we got toad n diancie now.

Gorebyss @ Icium Z
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Shadow Ball
- Shell Smash

looked real fucking good against eternallys earlier shit except he brings fucking ferro comfey vs this ifnbgsnthn. donks spdef vileplumen heliolisk guzzlord n seismitoad hard without having to run hp grass.

thats all folks, maybe youll see me again in spl nu if im not running off to the groundium z gligar tier. gbye l8er