hey figured id make a post now that my season is over. obviously wish it could have gone better, but ending even isnt the worst and its the first full season of spl ive played since spl7 so im happy with that. overall this season i did not use anything that wild or innovative, but i think i did a few things that were cool so ill just mention them in this post.
probably the only team i used this season that i feel was truly "unique" in terms of mon choice/set choice. going into semis i knew i wanted to shake it up a little because i felt i was in a funk with my sets/plays. i landed on wanting to use amnesia rest lax for a couple reasons, 1 being i hadnt really branched out in my snorlax set choices so far 2) being i was playing leru and figured he might have a hard time trying to play around this since he would not be as familiar with the set. this set is honestly fantastic and it was super fun to use in tests, while you still have to be worried about psychics critting you (though it isnt always the end of the world), you change the way your opponent is forced to play around reflect lax, while also being able to 1v1 chansey/opposing lax more easily. the biggest drawback to this set is the lack of reflect which means tauros can crit fish/lax can get more damage on it faster if you cant get up amnesias. to make up for this i decided to go with something else i hadnt used this spl in midgar. i feel midgar complimented this lax set perfectly, being able to punish monolax (which i figured was coming) as well as being able to at least make tauros second guess everytime it clicked a normal move, as well as checking tbolt/stomp bull. i added refchansey as a secondary lax check in case it was eq, as well as being good at spreading para's/sticking around. egg bc i wanted a secondary sleeper alongside gar, and it helped check rhydon which was looking a bit scary with no ice/eqlax+no ice on chansey+gengar. zam as the lead so i could go egg t1 on twavers, as well as so i wouldnt autolose to a zap as much as i would with starmie being the lead.
this team worked out great in the game and this lax set is honestly super fun to use so i would reccomend more people try it out. while you do lack a lot of immediate offense that something like boom/hbeam would be able to provide, and the comfort reflect gives you, its still a really viable snorlax set that could see more usage.
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not so much of a team here but something i did twice was using jynx in the back. while its been done before im probably the only person thats done it multiple times, and while i dont think its anything revolutionary/amazing its a cool alternative lead play that takes advantage of current meta trends. the current trend of leads pretty much sees them just attacking or switching back to egg/chans t1. jynx is great at taking advantage of both of these, while not seeing a huge downside to your opponent calling it and clicking twave t1 either. in an ideal situation you are able to catch the t1 chansey/egg and get a sleep off on the lead while not taking para yourself so its easier to fish with blizzard+use jynx as the sleepsack. vs opposing sleep leads you have good sleep fodders in zam/mie while having fast mons in the back as well so you arent super worried about them taking sleep since jynx isnt the most reliable mon once its slept something. with starmie clicking blizz t1 as well sometimes now you dont really lose a lot with the jynx t1 play as you arent able to be frozen and it just ends the normal lead mu with jynx having taken a bit more chip.

mainly talking about lead jolt here which i was probably one of the first to start spamming it recently. i started using it in rbypl and hay/kiichi both caught onto it then since i tested vs them/gave it to them to use in the tour. the idea behind it is basically to just use it to scare out the leads like starmie a bit harder than a psychic would, while also scaring a potential chansey/egg t1 due to the fear of twave+double kick/pin crits. you generally want to go to your sleeper t1 everytime with it, and its great vs ppl that use a lot of mie leads as none of them want to ice move it t1 so egg is very safe against it. i used it three times this spl, on three different builds. one was with the backjynx posted above, the other standard zam/jolt/cloy but with jolt as the lead, and the final with egg as the sleeper+mie in the back. it did some fun things like have nails go to rhydon t1 against it while i went egg etc.

Chansey (F)
Ability: none
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Soft-Boiled
- Sing
twaveless chansey is nothing new, and boltbeam counter has seen some use as well, but i used this set quite a few times this spl and figured i could also shine a spotlight on it. while dropping twave is not smart most of the time, this set compresses a lot of roles and can be a really effective chansey set. one problem with sing chansey is that it can have some trouble against jynx leads unless its seismic, and running seismic means you cant freeze fish/have a worse rhydon mu. tbolt is a good midground in that scenario as it lets you do enough to jynx to force it to rest so you can eventually get a sing off, while also letting you keep ice beam for the aforementioned reasons. tbolt also helps with just normal tbolt things in helping pressure starmie better, making you not useless vs lap/cloy, and just being another attack so you dont get pp stalled by rest mons as easily.
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thats pretty much all the creative stuff i did this spl, most of the other "creative" stuff was not that great / just grabbed from other people. s/o to
Kiichikos and
Hayburner for being my main test partners / rbypl goats, both had better records than me and i enjoy talking with both of you about the tier. kiichi in particular for having such a great season+still helping me out a ton when i was questioning team choices/how i was playing.
Amaranth for teaching me rby so long ago as well as still being a bouncing board for some of the more out there ideas. and s/o
emma for running probably one of the most active spl tier threads ive ever seen and having some great posts that were fun to read. similar to
Plague von Karma for all the stuff theyve been doing with the rby community recently as well. love seeing new contributors come in and revitalize a community that didnt have much aside from the tours side of things. see you guys in classic.