Resource SPL XVI SM Discussion

[z0mOG]

SM Cores (Starters in Bold, managers in Italics):
Alpha Ruiners: Punny ChrisPBacon umbry Gondra
Congregation of the Classiest: Tace LpZ
Dragonspiral Tyrants: Luigi Soulwind reyscarface blunder
Cryonicles: ima Finchinator Sacri' Dj Breloominati
Wi-Fi Wolfpack: fade Ewin GeniusX Isza
Team Raiders: Skypenguin Eternal Spirit Tricking
Sharks: Drachenkeule TDNT Ahy Wddicted Star Giannis Antetokommo-o
Ever Grande BIGs: Charmflash Santu Hayburner ABR
Indie Scooters: robjr Garay Oak Separation Chiharu
Circus Maximus Tigers: c0mp Devin z0mog trosko

Power Rankings and Spreadsheet: tbd​

 

[Fdmw]

Mr zomog u missed out on Ahy Wddicted

 

[z0mOG]

I did a PR in the discussion thread last year ( https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/spl-xv-sm-discussion.3734122/post-9927686 ) and it stacked up decently to the final results. I correctly called Skype/welli0u at the top, qwily in the middle, Zaza near the bottom. Incorrectly called charm/geniusx near the bottom and Poek near the middle. A lot of teams' players (mine included) did not play a full season (and some did not play SM at all like TDNT) so it was hard to be super accurate in judging how well my rankings stacked up to the results.

Gonna try again so... my personal power rankings going into the season:

1) Skypenguin (Raiders)-- The most active and passionate mind for SM OU around right now. Skype went 7-2 last year and 9-3 the year before -- he clearly has this SPL shit figured out better than most. Just from discussing teams with him every so often for masters or SPL I can really grasp just how strong his metagame and tier understanding is for SM OU, something many people seem to believe they have but do not -- at least at the level of Skype's. His playing is great too, as shown with a recent trip to playoffs in Masters before an unfortunate elimination to a matchup gimmick team. He is as hungry as ever and there is no reason to assume he does not have another 7-2 or better season in him.
2) Punny (Ruiners)-- I had no idea how insane Punny's sheet record was until yesterday when I was looking through it and noticed there was someone with a +28!!! Just crazy consistency in team tournaments from this guy, and SM OU is generally his most played tier at that. His last SPL was nothing too extraordinary and it has been a quiet year for him in terms of SM OU results specifically, so I think a number two placement is very fair. He is skilled and experienced enough to be an uphill battle for anyone except potentially Skype in my eyes. To say one thing negative to help justify the placement, I do think Punny can be slightly typecast into archetypes he prefers to bring (Latias fat is a big one), so that may be the only weakness the lower ranked players can try to take advantage of if they wanna take down the teamsheet titan.
3) Tace (Classiest)-- Someone recently quoted Tace's all time SM record versus his combined other tiers record and the difference was staggering... something along the lines of +10 SM and -15 other tiers lol. Goes to show just how deep his metagame and format understanding is. A really strong 6-1 in WCOP with some playoff wins proves he can match anyone at a high level. Minus some points for a middling OUPL and a couple Masters playoffs in a row whiffed, but nonetheless, there is reason to believe Tace on balance is a force to be reckoned with in this format, and I think a record of 6-3 or 5-4 is pretty realistic.
4) ima (Cryonicles)-- Another true SM main, ima looks to make his return after a year long break from SPL SM. His last SPL was not the greatest showing but ima has been nonetheless active in tournaments and winning in various tiers, mostly SV OU, to demonstrate that he still has what it takes. ima lacks no creativity in SM OU almost to a fault at times, often willing to experiment with unconventional picks like Mantine. If he can reel in his creativity in a positive way, he could find himself in a good position to knock down the people I have ranked higher than him. The playing ability is definitely around there.
5) Charmflash (BIGs)-- Speaking of building creativity, next up I have ranked the Silvally'er. Charmflash really went off the deep end with some of his team choices last year. Some impressed me, like the Pyukumuku stall, some teams were just too crazy, featuring picks like Silvally-Ground or Lycanroc. Regardless of whether I was impressed or not, Charmflash finished with the strongest record of any full season player. There is reason to believe he could do so again if these creative team picks keep working out to his favor. I don't quite rate his playing ability as highly as those above him but it is still unquestionably SPL starter level, so I think I will expect a pretty median result here. It depends a lot on how well the other players are able to adapt to such an unpredictable teambuilder, especially when he has other great builders to collaborate with this time around in ABR, Tony, and even hayburner/lax.
6) Luigi (Tyrants)-- The forever underrated Brazilian Luigi is once again going to be pretty underrated, falling at 6th on my list. Is this an underrating or a fair rating? Gonna have to wait and see. On the negative side, Luigi boasts an overall pretty poor sheet record of -12, and he had a quiet SPL last year with a 3-3 in SS. On the positive side, Luigi had a solid masters run to Round 2 of top cut, including wins over W*lli0u, clean, Thiago, and some others. Luigi also is no stranger to SM OU, with a Smogon Tournament trophy to show for it. At his peak, he can punch up pretty hard in this tier I believe. The player pool is strong though, and I am going to ere on the side of him not reaching any new peaks this
tournament, while also not utterly flopping. I think a record of 4-5/3-6 is likely over a 9 game session.
7) Drachenkeule (Sharks)-- The only rookie to SPL this season in SM finds himself ranked 7th on my list. I really only have had one tournament to witness anything from this player -- fortunately for Drachenkeule, that one tournament had him making a top 4 run to Masters with a lot of SM wins along the way. Most of his opponents have not been huge world-beaters, with only a few even being SPL SM players, but he has been playing really good looking games and has a diverse enough team looking scout for me to take a gamble on ranking him higher than two more traditional players. I think the support cast of star, obii, Giannis, and TDNT could be what it takes to mold Drach into a household name in this tier, if he can defeat the nerves of this being his first SPL.
8) fade (Wolfpack)-- It feels a little weird putting fade this low, given that he has had some pretty high highs on this site including being chosen to play a finals tiebreaker in SPL 14 and a 5-1 showing in the most recent WCOP. There are a number of reasons I feel an 8th place ranking are fair though. For starters, besides the fantastic WCOP showing, the rest of fade's 2024 was pretty poor, a combined 6-12 across SPL/SCL with those final 5 SCL games all being losses in a row. There are also self-admitted claims to low motivation -- whether or not they are true or more of a pricefix tactic. Lastly, most of fade's highs on Smogon have been in other tiers, primarily ORAS. That is to say I do not have much of a read on his SM OU ability at all and can only judge what I know of him in other tiers and from the past year, hence why I have him ranked pretty low following SCL. There is good SM specific support on this team so maybe he can find a new life in this tier with the help of GeniusX and Isza, but for now I think it is fair to have fade pretty low amongst a pool of far more SM-maining players.
9) robjr (Scooters)-- Unfortunately someone always has to be last. In this case, I am ranking robjr last. While he has earned a few SM wins in prior SPLs, and also had clutch moments in other tiers in various editions of this tournament also WCOP, I do notice the losses a lot more. To give some reasons for why I think robjr should take up the last place ranking: robjr sits at -12 all time on the sheet, he finished last SPL 3-6 despite being a pretty active ADV mainer at the time, I have not seen any recent SM OU results to have him fresh in my mind right now, and the supporting cast on the Scooters does not have much in terms of any true SM mainers for me to feel like he will walk into most games with a teambuilding edge. Still, there is some upside. robjr shouldn't struggle at all with nerves, and he has the playing ability at his peak to win games vs anyone. I will still leave him here with the bottom rank as I believe this is a strong pool of players and there is just not enough positive to speak of here compared to the rest of the pool.


If I ranked you low, I hope you can prove me wrong. If I ranked you high, I also hope you can prove me wrong (by losing to my team). Good luck and have fun everyone!

 

[zinnias]

graphics by Maktyum

SPL WEEK 1 RECAP (links in images)








Highlighted matchup: Skypenguin vs robjr

Spoiler

This week one of SPL had some exciting matches that didn't disappoint. We saw fade's teched-out Psyspam face off against ima's creative build, Drachenkeule performing on his SPL debut, and more experimentation from Charmflash carrying on from last season, though I'm sure we all weren't expecting the outcome of this highlighted matchup. We're talking about an in-form Skypenguin, a player considered to only be rivalled by the likes of Empo in SM that's fresh off of annihilating the circuit, vs robjr, who has always been a solid pilot, but simply hasn't put up similar numbers in recent years, leading to his bottom ranking (in quite a stacked pool) and many people including me predicting Skypenguin to breeze through. On lead matchup, we see a somewhat unorthodox sand build from Skypenguin against a very modern-looking offense from robjr; it's hard to say which team has the edge in this matchup, but the game was going fine enough for both parties until robjr's Garchomp dodged Hydro Pump at a very opportune time, allowing it to set up and actually pose a threat. The following mindgame at play was whether Garchomp would use Substitute again or if it would rip the Z-move straight away to punish the Rotom-W for trying to break its Substitute. There isn't really any reason not to try your luck with extra Substitutes to catch an extra miss / switch, so its reasonable to stay in with Rotom-W rather than trying to waste the Z-move. With Rotom-W out of the picture, robjr's Mega Charizard X is free to break through more important targets like Mega Tyranitar and Scarf Landorus-T. robjr makes a great read to catch Tyranitar with Earthquake, that switch in does make sense to both punish Flare Blitz by threatening to Pursuit trap/KO and also cover Dragon Dance. Once he's able to get Garchomp in on Landorus-T locked into Stone Edge, it's very much a free kill into the Ground-weak remainder of the opposing team; the chip on Kartana from turn one ended up being quite valuable. The game was pretty much finished at this point, though Skypenguin did show his class and go for his outs with Iron Head flinches, making it as difficult as possible, but Iapapa Berry Landorus-T showed to be too resilient and robjr was able to capitalise on his early damage to close this game out.

 

[Expulso]

WOW that is cool well done zinnias Maktyum

 

[GOATED im_m0rtal.]

Maktyum Great Graphics!
zinnias Great writeup!

 

[Fdmw]

Charmflash smash w scolipede

 

[Maktyum]

Highlighted matchup written by DIYUSI and proofread by zinnias

SPL WEEK 2 RECAP (links in image)







Highlighted matchup: robjr vs Punny

Spoiler

Considering his last week's upset against Skypenguin, it is not absurd to expect robjr to score a second win against another powerhouse of the pool, Punny. In terms of teams, robjr loaded the famous Xtra$hine structure: a hyper offense team featuring the prominent offensive core of Mega Medicham, Tapu Koko, Kyurem-B, and Hawlucha, supported by the defensive core of Landorus-T and Magearna. On Punny's side, a very surprising pick of Mega Gallade paired with Kartana and Greninja, concluded with a classic defensive core for this kind of offense: Landorus-T, Magearna, and Rotom-W.
In terms of matchup, it is hard to guess a clear favorite since it is dependent on the sets of key Pokémon. For example, if robjr's Tapu Koko is Life Orb, it will have a much easier time forcing out Landorus-T, leading to Magearna taking significant damage and offering later opportunities to clean for itself or another teammate. In contrast, if Punny's Kartana is Choice Scarf, not only does the lack of Steel-resistant Pokémon allow Kartana to freely spam Smart Strike, but it also means robjr's team only has Hawlucha with Unburden or a potential (but uncommon) Choice Scarf on Tapu Koko to outspeed and revenge kill it. Despite this, the matchup is still very much dependent on which player can showcase a stronger ability to outplay and make progress faster than the opponent.
During the first turns, instead of firing off a Close Combat on Kyurem-B, Punny prefers to go to Magearna to threaten an OHKO on the obvious coming of Landorus-T, allowing him to keep the momentum instead of losing it with an awkward Mega Gallade at -1. Unfortunately for robjr, Punny's Magearna manages to land an early freeze on his own Magearna, greatly reducing his available tools to deal with the opposing Kartana and Greninja. Even after spending two more turns hoping for his Magearna to thaw, robjr is forced to switch his Kyurem-B in directly against Landorus-T. This small window was all Punny needed to capitalize with U-turn to get Mega Gallade onto the field. Keeping in mind the threat of a potential Choice Scarf Kartana, robjr preferred to keep his Landorus-T as healthy as possible and use Tapu Koko instead to eat Mega Gallade's Ice Punch. With the damage dealt, it could be possible that the Mega Gallade was not fully invested in Attack, meaning it would have more bulk than usual.
Tapu Koko's inability to OHKO Mega Gallade forces it to get some Volt Switch chip damage first, then switch to Landorus-T on an expected Close Combat or Zen Headbutt in order to put Mega Gallade in the range of Tapu Koko thanks to Rocky Helmet, and also intimidate it to offer Tapu Koko an opening to switch in again on Mega Gallade. However, Punny decides to follow up with a second Ice Punch, taking Landorus-T out of commission and potentially opening up his Choice Scarf Kartana later on.
Several turns later, after Mega Gallade is traded off and Kartana is in, robjr manages to cash in his one-time Kartana switch-in with Hawlucha before setting up and removing Rotom-W from the match (on a lot of offense teams, Rotom-W runs heavy Defense investment, so this OHKO could have been the result of a roll). However, Punny's Magearna has no issue coming onto the field, taking a hit, and revenge-killing Hawlucha. Now, once Hawlucha is out of the picture and Punny's Choice Scarf Kartana is bearing down on him like an oncoming train, robjr's last hope is to pray for his Magearna to thaw out, right at the death of the match. However, it does not happen. Punny takes the win.

 

[ima]

Reviewed every single SM game for week 2, also really cool art @ post above ^^
feat empo derek nagol dababy tj

SM OU: fade vs robjr
SM OU: Skypenguin vs c0mp
SM OU: Punny vs Luigi (nagol predicts Luigi)
SM OU: Tace vs Drachenkeule
SM OU: ima vs Charmflash (I did not predict this)

 

[CM Reuniclus]

Visuals by the talented Maktyum as always, highlighted matchup by yours truly

SPL WEEK 3 RECAP (links in image)





Highlighted matchup: Drachenkeule vs Tace

Spoiler

With a large amount of sand and Tyranitar running around, likely to combat the high Cresselia usage, we saw an interesting tech of Brick Break Mega-Charizard-x this week from Skypenguin, a tech which landed perfectly but was ultimately unable to bring him the win. We also saw the rare Sticky Webs from Fade being able to take down Robjr using Empo sand this week for his first win this SPL.

DISCLAIMER: All Tace glaze going forward is intentional as they used my team.

For this week's highlight matchup, we saw Drachenkeule face off against Tace, where they both brought teams featuring the ever popular Charizard-x and Cresselia. Tace loaded them on an spectacular hyper offense while we saw the pair featured on a bulkier team from Drachenkeule this week. Off of team preview it seemed Tace had a favourable matchup with Charizard and Taunt Gyarados looking like huge threats, although on Drachenkeules side his Charizard and Cresselia could pose issues depending on the sets. Overall, it looks like Drachens team is similar to the renowned Skypenguin team, almost identical other than a Magearna and Ditto instead of Skarmory and Clefable, whereas Tace’s incredibly built hyper offense is full of threats that can be brought back with the use of Lunar Dance.

In an eventful first few turns, Tace makes good progress by chipping down the Seismitoad early with his Magearna, easily taking the upper hand. After a good double to Charizard on the Serperior from Drachen, we see an unusual item on Tace’s Cresselia, Eject Button, which allows him to pivot safely into Landorus-Therian giving him the option to keep up the momentum that will allow him to take this game. He chooses to click Stealth Rock, deciding that they were more useful than a potential double here which gives Drachen a chance to keep the hazard pressure up with a spike from Skarmory. After paralyzing the Skarmory with Serperior and getting a lucky Whirlwind into Cresselia, Tace is able to heal back up and land a Thunder Wave on Drachens Charizard, essentially neutralising the biggest threat. To top it off, Tace manages to get a defog off, freeing up his ability to switch around greatly, especially with Seismitoad being low, making it difficult for Drachen to get Stealth Rocks back up.

Eventually, after a lot of switching, Tace positions himself to claim both Seismitoad and Charizard in quick succession at the expense of his hazard setter. With both of these Pokemon out of the way, Tace’s Magearna looks to be in prime position to attempt closing out this game, the only potential wall being a possible Calm Mind Cresselia. Tace opts to fire off an unboosted Fleur Cannon at the Clefable instead of setting up while Drachen reveals Thunder to fish for a lucky paralysis on Magearna, signalling that it is likely Calm Mind with a Life Orb and not a utility set with Heal Bell. However, the yellow magic does not come through, and Clefable is left at low health and forced to switch out. Tace makes a good double into Serperior, although he does not click Glare, meaning Tornadus-Therian comes in safely on the Defog.

After a few turns, Charizard manages to find safe entry on a switch to Skarmory and uses Flare Blitz which bounces off the fat Cresselia. We find out that Drachen’s Cresselia is not the more common Calm Mind set, but instead is using Thunder Wave with Future Sight. Cresselia goes down to the Charizard after a Dragon Dance boost, but not before it is able to paralyze it and get a Future Sight off. Tornadus then comes into revenge, which Tace allows since it gives Magearna free entry to Calm Mind and finish the game off with Thunderbolt, leading to his second victory this SPL.

 

[ima]

Week 3/4 Recaps out now.

 

[Maktyum]

sorry I am late :( Here are the recaps of the last two weeks. Highlighted matchup written with the huge help of zinnias
SPL WEEK 4 RECAP (links in image)






Highlighted matchup: c0mp vs Punny

Spoiler

This week surprisingly presented similar team compositions, with both Skypenguin and Luigi playing rain, while robjr and c0mp piloted psyspam teams. It also marked the first appearance of Latias and Chansey, highlighting a total departure in playstyle and a shift in pace compared with last year's edition of SPL, where da blob boasted a huge 15.62% usage.

This week's highlighted matchup was one we were yearning to see z0mOG’s champion, c0mp, taking on the ever-consistent Punny. In fact, Punny entered this battle undefeated, proving their dominance so far, while c0mp faced a rough start this season, only coming on top by a slight margin in his face-off with Skypenguin. This match was the perfect time for the two players to prove what they can do: for Punny, a chance to continue to dominate the competition; for c0mp, an opportunity to show they could rivalise with both of the tournament’s favorites. Punny chose to follow the trend of Cresselia offense coupled with powerful breakers, but Punny with their usual twists went for a dark spam with an unexpected Crawdaunt. On the other side, c0mp kept the same approach as the first weeks in bringing tried-and-true teams with a psyspam that has seen a rise in usage lately, built by French goat Chafouuu and played by banned user Welli0u last year. At preview, Serperior and Kommo-o look to be annoying for Punny’s squad, while depending on the sets, the combination of dark spam with Magearna could end the game pretty quickly.

c0mp applies early pressure with Serperior while Punny trades health on Landorus to pivot into Greninja, suggesting a Protean set, which would be able to threaten out Serperior. c0mp responds by going into Tapu Lele as a mid ground first and then doubling right to Heatran, which Punny answers with Crawdaunt.

Preserving Heatran for Magearna, c0mp switches in Kommo-o and gets up Stealth Rock, while Punny makes the most of Crawdaunt’s limited time on the field by spamming Liquidation. c0mp is anticipating Aqua Jet to pick up the weakened Kommo-o goes into Tapu Lele to block it, but Punny is one step ahead and deletes it with Liquidation. However, after c0mp brings in Alakazam to revenge kill, it can trace Adaptability by Mega Evolving, making it a major threat, as seen when it deals 49% to Magearna with terrain-boosted Psychic. c0mp sacrifices their Kommo-o against Punny’s Magearna to get Mega Alakazam off, letting Landorus finish off Magearna cleanly. Punny, maybe fearing that c0mp would simply anticipate an incoming Cresselia by pivoting with U-turn and getting in Heatran with momentum, lets Magearna fall to Earthquake.

After that, Punny reveals to be a screens Cresselia setting Light Screen to support Gyarados and Greninja in the back while c0mp hassles Cresselia with Serperior. Greninja is sent in on a predicted Synthesis and c0mp leaves Serperior to die, then cutting his losses by forcing a Landorus sacrifice with Mega Alakazam. Gyarados gets its time in the limelight (screen joke (: ). Sadly for Gyarados, its moment is ruined by the repeated Intimidates from Landorus-T and Trace Mega Alakazam, and when it's lowered down to -1, c0mp can keep in Mega Alakazam, with it surviving a pre-Mega attack and covering an eventual Mega Evolution by spamming Focus Blast, which still deals decent damage regardless. Punny, rightfully resisting the temptation to Mega Evolve to cover Focus Blast and help against Landorus, clicks Dragon Dance, trying a last set up and attempting to place Gyarados under a Substitute. Unfortunately for Punny or thankfully for c0mp, none of the Focus Blasts went to the left, letting c0mp finish off Gyarados and Greninja without problems.

SPL WEEK 5 RECAP (links in image)





​

 

[ima]

Didnt really prep most of my teams with an opponent in mind but wanted to teamdump anyway -- wont explain too much in-depth, i just would like to showcase all the things i built this spl, maybe in hopes that SM will stop being the land of re-using and spamming old Skype teams. the creativity and team choices are still at an all time high in this tier in my opinion -- dont think theres a single team that doesnt have a mon it gets 6-0d by, to be honest

initially i had the alt "megaaltaria69" but this team wasn't made until 2 weeks later haha but i ended up peaking pretty high with it anyways.
made this on the premise of shucamage + psyspam. mage is able to eat and sit on any ground while being an annoying menace -- you cant exactly tell what the last move will be with this set, so its very worth changing up. used against fade and it basically got a bot MU.

https://pokepast.es/144015d637b6a872

---
designed this off empo's finals 6 (which is basically just a sand from like 8 years ago revamped from what i heard) -- shuca mage again because at this point of spl it felt really good to use and i didnt even reveal it yet as well as my other moves (other than like volt and ice beam). subDDtar takes advantage of your average zardx // glisc // pex builds, your opponent has to respect whether you have ice punch or not re: gliscor, leading you to grab some surprise kos against 'mons like ferrothorn.

https://pokepast.es/ca9ac2e2c71abb4a

---

gren set can be changed upon, on ladder & tests gunk shot proved to be useful since my fairy resists are kinda dire for the most part, fini especially is annoying. the 4 moves worked well against charm too so I kept it. (it can be changed to taunt, tspikes, etc)
always wanted to bring this blace set out, the kyub did not do anything in-game but iron head actually does help against sand teams. mttar gets goobed.

https://pokepast.es/f369e7c68d10e0a8

---
obviously, my set in SPL with this team did not give this team justice, so id recommend you watch Ant's game with it instead, as I had built it for him, not as a complete c-team but as an all out anti-offense 6 with some techs. it will likely struggle against skarm shit.

https://pokepast.es/9890061fcab49979

---
the idea here was originally eject bulu + scarfserp + secret rachi but shit is too hard to cook with, the former 2 is a charmflash idea tho. ended up with this, worried of zardy/x i made it occa. +2 super also ko's sdef tran. overall i enjoyed using this and subserp is a menace but sad the result didnt turn out in my favor, obviously

https://pokepast.es/7456534f6500e44f

---

4koma's (shit i didnt bring but still built, whether it was ass or not. these teams can probably be revamped, the ideas are there)

fishy team but works somehow, very anti-fat. i didnt use it because honestly i was scared to. but it would have landed an insane mu against rob/comp lol
https://pokepast.es/7417a95651ed8b94

---

Shark attack, 6 originally by ben, I made garchomp endure tho and changed the ferro set. shark is surprisingly strong but just super hard to set up, still think it deserves a use though.
https://pokepast.es/70bdc64cb8cb2896

---

sand I made for ladder, it works well tbh, maybe could use a little edits such as koko could be elec z hpice. fast hippo for maw
https://pokepast.es/c4132169181269b4

---

love hate relationship with this team because it goobs well but 6-0d by tran zardy xd. mvenu slept on.
https://pokepast.es/84915bba34a45b81

---
kinda meh but salazzle is insane heat
https://pokepast.es/0e6c6feb9cca802f

---

final thoughts?

.

i had the freaking time of my life building my own shit and bringing them, especially my first three weeks. unfort some irl shit happened mid way and i just dont think i have the mental to play team tournaments in general anymore.
when i was winning team tours, i was making playoffs, i was in my zone, i was active and i was supporting all my teammates in every way i can. i dont feel like i can do that anymore without being in a manager position. on top of this, i just grew up and im not really a talkative guy anymore. i dont know, maybe it was just a lot of shit that happened along the way, but i just feel a bit different now -- i dont think the feeling of dread when losing and the high of winning in these tournaments is worth my mental. a lot of shit happened around the span of late 2022-early 2023 where my depression was really taking its toll on me, i remember shit like ghosting people in dms like Excal when he wanted to meet up or other ppl in general, this was around the time the Leru shit happened, i was not in a good headspace at all. ive gotten out of that slump but i still have things to prioritize. that being said if i ever ghosted you at all it was never on purpose lol. anyways, especially with the unfortunate shit that involved me the last year or 2 with TD decisions, i dont really care to talk to a lot of people anymore, i dont really care about STours or whatever fuck-shit drama is going on, i play this game still due to the amazing people i met during my time on smogon and thats what keeps me here today. vert, ant, lax, blund, ctc, empo TSS, tko West, storm, Fortnite group (i left because i never got on) shoutout CPG even tho i talk every other while the league days are never forgotten, and im forgetting a bunch of other ppl, yall keep the competitive spirit alive and thats what keeps me here. i dont think im done with mons, probably mostly team tours, i just likely need some time off to figure some shit out, and come back. ive always had this competitive spirit of wanting to win out, but i think theres obstacles in my personal life that is preventing me from fully flourishing that i really have to fight through.

so i also wanted to apologize to my SPL team because i just got insanely busy with life and couldnt even prep for a while -- too late to come back now, we're out. i appreciate all of you though so if you would like to reach out my dms are always there -- im a bad texter but yea

what does it mean for youtube? im still interested in making ladder videos maybe w/ some friends like Empo n blargh but i cant promise you guys when theyll be out rn. let me figure some shit out first. anyways thanks for reading the whole thing if you actually did. if you wanna reach out my discord is always here.

i end this saga with a gen9 peak at #1. see you guys around.

1

swerve in the whip

2114

83.4%

1805 ± 26

--

also shout out Alpha1013 they hate on you but one day you'll make it if you keep trying

 

[Charmflash]

Even though I didnt put up the best record I'll still post my teams this year as well since there is some cool stuff in there & I lost at least 2 games due to my poor choices ingame.

Week 1
https://pokepast.es/2af78d197dd98dc5
Good sun team mainly focused around abusing fat with Heatran. As per SM tradition some matchups are pretty ass like ttar and especially heatran can be incredibly hard to face but it matches pretty well into most other stuff. Early game takes some getting used to but overall I like this team a lot. It would have won too had I handled mega gyara differently but I had no time left to think things thru

Week 2
https://pokepast.es/2e23961a26fc3fcb
I liked the eject bulu set a lot and decided to make a standalone HO around grassy without the sun aspect. This team is also quite good, Scarf serp in terrain OHKO's koko like 90% of the time iirc and 2hko's incoming fat torn. Cress can also restore leaf PP, scoli is basically just there as the best offensive poison I could find to absorb tspikes.

Week 3
https://pokepast.es/4597e98bc8f8070b
This team is ass. I was convinced ima would bring megahera cause it matches well into fat AND grassy terrain teams plus he had brought him before but I ended up overcooking with doublade which is supposed to ohko pex at +2. Can be fun to play but especially with the doublade set being known this isnt a great team.

Week 4
https://pokepast.es/0da8f1f564d236f8
Pretty standard team, tspike immune besides krook who wont be staying in forever or coming in a lot. Being pdef Lati takes like 40 from +2 gliscor facade which makes it a very solid counter.

Week 5
https://pokepast.es/124687d50d978a41
Decent fat, its not the best against sturdy mons but good into landomag or rain type offenses. Had a horseshit matchup and even missed z-toxic on taunt hydreigon which resulted in a free L

Week 6
https://pokepast.es/f7d2d6d997921633
I came up with lunar dance cress + pressure cune and realized abr had already made a team with this core so I just brought it. Could have maybe won the lategame with volc if I kept subbing up gear and sacked it by using cm but ended up losing a close one. The team is pretty fun

Week 7
https://pokepast.es/c938e0840c27390b
Cress and mlati cover very different mons so my idea was to make a spike-resistant team that could win hazard wars. Its okay but comp had a very dangerous zam set, got a timely crit on gear which he kept low throughout the game with good play and ultimately ended up beating me down with the zam.

Week 8
https://pokepast.es/3f2e5049fcfbe95a
At this point I told abr to build for me because a lot of my teams had been missing and he came up with a variation of this which we then refined together. Fun little offense, I like the steela set a lot but there are definitely some bad matchups you can run into - we're playing sm after all.

Week 9
https://pokepast.es/f504589b8092ef94
Wanted to bring hippo for zardx/cress. ABR then built again for the same reason as week 8. Ended up a bit weak to heatran, especially magma+toxic. And yeah of course that is what we faced. Either way skype threw his heatran into the bin during the game but not to worry I threw my hippo away right after. The team is pretty decent

SM is in a very decentralized state at the moment and I havent enjoyed trying to cover all my weak spots because honestly, its not possible. Either way if you wanna try out anything on this list I would recommend the eject button bulu idea because it switches into both uturn and volt very well and then provides you with favourable terrain being set up for your sweeper coming in. Terrain is also very strong in SM so it makes sense to try and abuse that on HO. Serp is the most dangerous partner but weak to tspikes.

 

[GOATED im_m0rtal.]

Tysm dude, you're the most innovative builder I have seen so far lol, gl in the future!

Even though I didnt put up the best record I'll still post my teams this year as well since there is some cool stuff in there & I lost at least 2 games due to my poor choices ingame.

Week 1
https://pokepast.es/2af78d197dd98dc5
Good sun team mainly focused around abusing fat with Heatran. As per SM tradition some matchups are pretty ass like ttar and especially heatran can be incredibly hard to face but it matches pretty well into most other stuff. Early game takes some getting used to but overall I like this team a lot. It would have won too had I handled mega gyara differently but I had no time left to think things thru

Week 2
https://pokepast.es/2e23961a26fc3fcb
I liked the eject bulu set a lot and decided to make a standalone HO around grassy without the sun aspect. This team is also quite good, Scarf serp in terrain OHKO's koko like 90% of the time iirc and 2hko's incoming fat torn. Cress can also restore leaf PP, scoli is basically just there as the best offensive poison I could find to absorb tspikes.

Week 3
https://pokepast.es/4597e98bc8f8070b
This team is ass. I was convinced ima would bring megahera cause it matches well into fat AND grassy terrain teams plus he had brought him before but I ended up overcooking with doublade which is supposed to ohko pex at +2. Can be fun to play but especially with the doublade set being known this isnt a great team.

Week 4
https://pokepast.es/0da8f1f564d236f8
Pretty standard team, tspike immune besides krook who wont be staying in forever or coming in a lot. Being pdef Lati takes like 40 from +2 gliscor facade which makes it a very solid counter.

Week 5
https://pokepast.es/124687d50d978a41
Decent fat, its not the best against sturdy mons but good into landomag or rain type offenses. Had a horseshit matchup and even missed z-toxic on taunt hydreigon which resulted in a free L

Week 6
https://pokepast.es/f7d2d6d997921633
I came up with lunar dance cress + pressure cune and realized abr had already made a team with this core so I just brought it. Could have maybe won the lategame with volc if I kept subbing up gear and sacked it by using cm but ended up losing a close one. The team is pretty fun

Week 7
https://pokepast.es/c938e0840c27390b
Cress and mlati cover very different mons so my idea was to make a spike-resistant team that could win hazard wars. Its okay but comp had a very dangerous zam set, got a timely crit on gear which he kept low throughout the game with good play and ultimately ended up beating me down with the zam.

Week 8
https://pokepast.es/3f2e5049fcfbe95a
At this point I told abr to build for me because a lot of my teams had been missing and he came up with a variation of this which we then refined together. Fun little offense, I like the steela set a lot but there are definitely some bad matchups you can run into - we're playing sm after all.

Week 9
https://pokepast.es/f504589b8092ef94
Wanted to bring hippo for zardx/cress. ABR then built again for the same reason as week 8. Ended up a bit weak to heatran, especially magma+toxic. And yeah of course that is what we faced. Either way skype threw his heatran into the bin during the game but not to worry I threw my hippo away right after. The team is pretty decent

SM is in a very decentralized state at the moment and I havent enjoyed trying to cover all my weak spots because honestly, its not possible. Either way if you wanna try out anything on this list I would recommend the eject button bulu idea because it switches into both uturn and volt very well and then provides you with favourable terrain being set up for your sweeper coming in. Terrain is also very strong in SM so it makes sense to try and abuse that on HO. Serp is the most dangerous partner but weak to tspikes.

P.S. one question, why is there double rocks on team 2

 

[Charmflash]

Tysm dude, you're the most innovative builder I have seen so far lol, gl in the future!

P.S. one question, why is there double rocks on team 2

I used double rocks on a lot of teams just lets u set them up from different spots and also tricks your opponent into thinking theyd be perma off if x y or z happens. People use a lot of charizard kyurem etc. these days.

Edit: Also specifically for team 2, a lot of resists to serp bulu or scoli are weak to rocks so having them up is gonna be massive

 

[Skypenguin]

I realized I had this written so I'm just gonna post it - I didn't really proofread it so sorry if it comes off as salty lol

Week 1 vs robjr (replay)

Going into week 1 of SPL I was overly paranoid about getting matchup fished like I had been in wcop + masters, and ended up bringing a shit team. I especially didn't want to lose to a flawed ttar/bulu/tran team, and also figured rob would use some form of offense. I spent a ton of time testing stuff like Z Submission Drill, LO Volcarona, and Z Dragon Mence which I thought would all do well, but realized my teams were really bad a day before the game and went with this "safe" but weaker team. (it's really bad)

Rob ended up using my own team against me, and the threat of my techs were more powerful than the execution. I had to respect yache lando, fire fang chomp, berry serp, and a different magearna set, while he benefited from the changes he had made. The ingame was reminiscent of w1 vs geniusx last year but with less flashy moves and me getting thoroughly outplayed. My team was quite weak to a simple defensive lando and rob only made one real misplay (subbing with chomp in front of rotom to put me out of range of z dragon) meanwhile I sent ttar into zard. GG

Week 2 vs luigi (replay)

My prep this week was more straightforward; all of Luigi's teams were weak to subseed serp (what team isn't?) + a good breaker. I went insane testing a ton of teams again but Kustavan made a nice edit to one of the HOs I had built and made a very nice 6. It's essentially an improved version of what I used vs twixtry in stour way back when I debuted stallbreaker koko.

At preview I was honestly pretty upset that I had managed to give opposing chomp and serp a good matchup against me twice in a row. I had limited counterplay to these mons thanks to a lack of immediately powerful moves. Combining this with the fact that Mtar eats +1 waterfall from gyara, and it seemed like it would be a challenging game despite the threat of my mag and gyara. Turn 1 was crucial, as I purposefully led with ttar to trade against serp to open up the game. Luckily he traded damage, and wasn't a random scarf set paired with drill that could outspeed my koko. Unfortunately for Luigi, he either brought a scaldless pex or forgot my gyara didn't have EQ, and it got out of control quick. Ttar should've come in to counter the gyara imo, which is why I threw out a waterfall instead of setting up initially. He sent out his chomp afterwards, which I assumed was to bait the Z Bounce to skip sand veil accuracy checks, but he stayed in I guess since waterfall is a roll to KO at +3. I don't think pex had scald since he just gave up afterwards

Week 3 vs c0mp (replay)

This was a very cool team that I'm sad I wasted; it exploited a lot of issues in zom's teambuilding such as hazeless pex and ttar spam with sub keld + brick break zard, and had shuca mag to help vs the grounds I expected to face. I originally wanted to use something fast with fighting coverage like a random weavile set since zom also tends to cheat on speed control, but screens cress + these threats seemed too cool to pass up.

I ended up getting an unlosable (lol) matchup. I led magearna to deal with torn lead, which was honestly a problem for my team with what should be 4 attacks heat wave, as well as a tspike pex lead. If I hit focus t2 I would've won within 15 turns, but I should've been able to overcome this. On turn 5 vs chomp I should've just clicked Glare instead of trying to sub on z outrage — it was never coming and even if he dropped it I would've won with a lunar danced mag behind screens. On turn 6 I don't really understand why he knocked instead of uturning, but I should've glared here as well since I also instawon if I did that. Turn 8 I get a bit unlucky again and get low rolled to stay out of berry range, and this causes me to make an absolutely horrible play later trying to proc berry on a uturn/heat wave from his torn when it's in vs my serp (which I didn't glare with again). Without lando, I can't defog the tspikes and with a cress misclick keld takes poison and I get owned.

Week 4 vs drachenkeule (replay)

This week I wanted to bring a gliscor, since I had brought 3 teams 6-0d by (unaware) clef and had faced tspikes twice in a row. I tried essentially every gliscor team in my builder + a few new ones but that mon is hardly viable. gonna drop it to A- in my VR; it's way too big of a defensive liability in a meta filled with zardx and other threats. You don't ever run into teams weak to gliscor anymore (thanks in part to my teams haha...) and even though latias is a counter, it was honestly easier to win with gliscor when people were using more passive ways of countering it like lati and skarm which are easily outmaneuvered by a superior player. With big threats now on HO and even BO, teams are a lot more noobproof vs glis. Anyway I almost settled on one gliscor team, but didn't like the matchup against special attackers like blace, which was lucky because I ended facing one lol. Tricking said he'd rather I use rain than glis when I was lost in prep, which was good enough for me since I definitely have the lowest rain% of all players bar empo.

The game itself was pretty straightforward due to some suboptimal sets on drachenkeule's part, and a lack of speed control. He led with Z victini, I'm assuming in an attempt to catch a bad gambit sack and to cheese a KO, but it might've been better used setting up when rain was going to expire since he could keep rocks off. Pro tip - always lead with pelipper vs weatherless teams (the only exception is vs kyub if you have like gyro ferro and no mag). Either way I get lucky I don't have to face a more threatening gambit trade t1. On turn 4, surf damage reveals max hp serp, which is nice since scarf would've outsped pert and gren later. My torn paras as I try to uturn on mag, leaving its set unrevealed, but I get rewarded with a dodge against +1 fleur. Luckily he had lefties mag, since shuca/wiki/custap all expose classic rain with only ferro as a steel. Also tbh the dodge isn't too lucky considering the free cm and the fact that it's either a roll for EQ to OHKO, or he has dropped enough spatk for pert to usually live. Rest of the game was straightforward braindead rain and trying not to choke vs gyara. I chose to go gren before torn vs serp, which I guess you could argue is incorrect, but I figured random synth was more likely than bulky scarf

Week 5 vs tace (replay)

Ok well I ended up using the only gliscor team I liked from the previous week because Tace only really uses standard/penguin teams, and I liked having a bulky wincon to just go play mons and outplay. This is an team I stole from j*hn w's youtube channel years back, and I edited it to stand up to the modern meta with a different pex set and double z so torn can help vs tar/drill/offensive tran. I also made the ferro double hazards which appears to have lost me the game...

The battle itself was pretty tragic. I got punished for using gliscor with an almost unplayable matchup, but got p much everything right only to fall to hax. The most crucial turn of the game was getting the lead right vs heatran - lead glis was an aggressive choice into medi/weav/glare/fini, but tace thought the same and saw how threatening rocks were on t1. I managed to get rocks up and keep serp low by turn 9 in exchange for a para on lati, crucially keeping torn out of danger which I was content with. I missed out on some chip vs medi with pex after getting flinched but luckily tace was scared of baneful and switched, leading to me getting a surprise KO vs heatran with torn, really opening up the game for magearna. On turn 21 I have no clue why he didn't uturn - clicking fleur with my magearna on a predicted non-EQ was a valid play if not for the uturn into fini line skewing the risk/reward. Anyway it works out and medi comes in as I finally reveal that I lack bunker. Then I miss some moves, he hits his moves, I lose because my ferro has no gyro. GG. The learning point here is that I kept torn out of pursuit range, and mag healthy to take hjk

Week 6 vs punny

yeah this is where I stopped writing these up lmao. I made the right call in prep here and got a nice matchup with the ladder noob toxic superpower pert, but what I do regret is my chat logs vs comp/tace/punny, sorry!

btw this is why I switched tran into hippo vs charm, ohkos careful gliscor in sun without sacrificing longevity (unless you decide you are killing your tran)

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Eruption
- Earth Power
- Toxic

Ended up losing more than 3 games for the first time, when I could've gone 6-3 with optimal play
I did have some interesting techs but they were mostly unrevealed and my teams were honestly boring for how much effort I put into this tour

you guys can steal my crazy teams from individuals and like adpl now but I'll leave spl to the bright minds of the future, peace