Metagame SV Draft League General Discussion

[Celeste]

There is nothing complex about banning specific moves outright. Regardless, complex bans are common place in draft, and even in Smogon even if they argue that they don’t like complex bans. Freeze Clause Mod in gen 1 and Sleep Clause Mods across gens are complex bans already.

I do heavily oppose banning cut moves in natdex formats for accessibility and interface purposes, but a ban on specific moves such as Hypnosis are very simple bans that outline uncompetitive and unhealthy moves. Powder moves have safety goggles as well which you didn’t mention and are heavily accessible. I just don’t see your point or why you would ever want this, can you elaborate on why you view this as complex in any way?

Sleep moves also can easily midground swap ins, they are only “inconsistent for the user” if you run them for luck.

freeze mod and sleep clause mod arent complex bans and are instead the changing of game mechanics deemed fundamentally uncompetitive after very long periods of discussion. These are not complex bans and you will rarely find them outside of gen 5 ou, a famously unbalanced metagame.

Banning select sleep moves is more complex and also goes against the precendents set in smogons history for how to take action on mechanics like status conditions, weather, etc. This may be draft league, but i believe that draft league under smogon should adhere more closely to smogon policy whenever possible. When we have precedent for modding the game to remove/alter mechanics deemed unhealthy and largely have none for limiting them via more specific bans, again outside of gen 5 ou which shouldnt really be used as a guideline for any tier. That is why i view it as an effective complex ban. Precedent and policy indicates the best way is just to go all or nothing, even if only specific sleep moves are having the MOST unhealthy impact on the game, I believe that still means it is the mechanic as a whole that is the issue and therefore that implementing the sleep moves mod is the best option if action is to be taken beyond sleep clause.

Just because some ways to trigger sleep have more counterplay doesnt make a fair argument for managing something as impactful as sleep, because by that logic lum berry, taunt, sub, mons like Gholdengo and Garganacl are real arguments for keeping hypnosis and sing. You can see how this leads to a lot of arguing about counterplay for the mechanic and delving away from if the mechanic is uncompetative or not, which is what the conversation should be focused on. With a recent example, moody didn't stay legal in Ubers because something like Bidoof was "more competative with more counterplay", it got banned because the variance was too much across the board and deemed uncompetative. That is how things like abilities, weather conditions, etc should be handled, and when we have the precedent for a sleep moves mod needlessly complicating it when the mechanic of sleep itself is fundamentally the issue, is counterintuitive.

D.) Complex bans proposals must provide additional information into why the simpler bans are not sufficient.

I also just want to add this from the lengthy OU tiering policy post that most of the tiering policy on the site is based on (save for like, ubers and thats just for defining the level of uncompetativeness required for a mon/ability etc to be considered bannable). If sleep is going to be banned in any capacity other then full I think an argument needs to be made for why the remaining sleep moves *arent* uncompetitive, and when paytons post clearly highlights the issues with sleep as a status more then hypnosis or sing as a move I think a full sleep ban is the very clear option if action is to be taken, and thats something i support. Sleep as a status is uncompetitive due to the high level of variance it forces into play that can often disrupt the target outcome of "the more skilled player can consistently win". While some sleep moves have more counterplay then others there is not a good justification for trying to keep it in the format based on the "merits" of being able to "play around the luck" per se.

 

[The Diabolic Gift]

freeze mod and sleep clause mod arent complex bans and are instead the changing of game mechanics deemed fundamentally uncompetitive after very long periods of discussion. These are not complex bans and you will rarely find them outside of gen 5 ou, a famously unbalanced metagame.

Banning select sleep moves is more complex and also goes against the precendents set in smogons history for how to take action on mechanics like status conditions, weather, etc. This may be draft league, but i believe that draft league under smogon should adhere more closely to smogon policy whenever possible. When we have precedent for modding the game to remove/alter mechanics deemed unhealthy and largely have none for limiting them via more specific bans, again outside of gen 5 ou which shouldnt really be used as a guideline for any tier. That is why i view it as an effective complex ban. Precedent and policy indicates the best way is just to go all or nothing, even if only specific sleep moves are having the MOST unhealthy impact on the game, I believe that still means it is the mechanic as a whole that is the issue and therefore that implementing the sleep moves mod is the best option if action is to be taken beyond sleep clause.

Just because some ways to trigger sleep have more counterplay doesnt make a fair argument for managing something as impactful as sleep, because by that logic lum berry, taunt, sub, mons like Gholdengo and Garganacl are real arguments for keeping hypnosis and sing. You can see how this leads to a lot of arguing about counterplay for the mechanic and delving away from if the mechanic is uncompetative or not, which is what the conversation should be focused on. With a recent example, moody didn't stay legal in Ubers because something like Bidoof was "more competative with more counterplay", it got banned because the variance was too much across the board and deemed uncompetative. That is how things like abilities, weather conditions, etc should be handled, and when we have the precedent for a sleep moves mod needlessly complicating it when the mechanic of sleep itself is fundamentally the issue, is counterintuitive.


I also just want to add this from the lengthy OU tiering policy post that most of the tiering policy on the site is based on (save for like, ubers and thats just for defining the level of uncompetativeness required for a mon/ability etc to be considered bannable). If sleep is going to be banned in any capacity other then full I think an argument needs to be made for why the remaining sleep moves *arent* uncompetitive, and when paytons post clearly highlights the issues with sleep as a status more then hypnosis or sing as a move I think a full sleep ban is the very clear option if action is to be taken, and thats something i support. Sleep as a status is uncompetitive due to the high level of variance it forces into play that can often disrupt the target outcome of "the more skilled player can consistently win". While some sleep moves have more counterplay then others there is not a good justification for trying to keep it in the format based on the "merits" of being able to "play around the luck" per se.

Yes, lum, taunt, sub, Gholdengo and Garganacl, etc would be considerations, but all are absolutely not good enough, call them considered and denied on my end, the mons are extremely limited in quantity and don't even respond to some of the most common sleep users effectively. Also, you can't switch in with Lum Berry and avoid sleep from a faster user, and sub is insane committal and still fails on faster sleep users. These moves are fundamentally entirely different. Spore and Sleep Powder are sleep moves that can be negated endlessly in repositioning phases with the proper tools (on literally every single Pokemon in the game tmk except Tera Ogerpon-Wellspring and Tera Ogerpon-Cornerstone), this is a critical difference and completely changes the dynamic of the mechanic. Even if we had a 150 speed Pokemon with Spore and just a few checks I could switch into a Safety Goggles check that does exist, with other sleep moves you just don't have any good plays to make; You can just be put to sleep the following turn. In cases of slow Pokemon using Hypnosis, Lum is still bad because let's say you swap into a Hypnosis from like a Bronzong, pop a lum, but can't outright one shot it, then you are dedicating a Lum Berry and still risk being put to sleep the following turn, leading to an excessive amount of work to actually avoid the process even in this instance.


edit: The mechanic of sleep is not inherently unhealthy, obviously there is a lot of variances in what can happen like in Payton's post, variance is normal in Pokémon. The usefulness of sleep for the actual user of sleep has some clear applications regardless of how long you can put a Pokémon to sleep, it can safely bring in allies with a slower sleep user, act as a strong middle ground with just a single turn of sleep, etc. The basic mechanic of sleep is to take out the opposing Pokémon for at least a singular turn. This isn't broken, the odds of this being longer aren't absurd, the problem is having this swing where the opponent has no options to actually prevent losing up to 3 turns on relatively high odds.

I'm going to give an extremely stupid analogy, an OHKO move is broken because it just kills you, there's no counterplay, Ice Beam is really strong but you can outplay it and go into a resistance, not all damaging moves are broken because we don't like OHKO moves, one can barely be outplayed or answered and the other can (but you need to do certain things), then you we assess whether or not those things are reasonable. This is even true although Ice Beam can still obtain OHKOs, wow! It's almost like one-shotting your opponent isn't inherently unhealthy either.

These are genuinely similar arguments:
- Sheer Cold vs Ice Beam, both can OHKO u, OHKO is broken ban Ice Beam
- Spore vs. Hypnosis, both can Sleep u, Sleep is broken ban Spore

A 20% chance at a 3-turn swing is really strong, but if there is counterplay to prevent 3 turns swinging and the counterplay is sufficient then we should acknowledge that counterplay. Also modifying the game to work in a way that doesn't outright ban a mechanic to neuter it is simply a complex ban with dev work involved, regardless of semantics, if you want to say we should treat it different in precedent, I don't see why that's true intuitively. The broken mechanic isn't sleep; it's the complete lack of reasonable counterplay to it in forms of Hypnosis, Sing and Dark Void. I will not support a ban on something I don't consider unhealthy, and the reality is I don't think I would vote to ban on the basis of sleep itself being unhealthy as a mechanic (at least inherently).

 

[Celeste]

Yes, lum, taunt, sub, Gholdengo and Garganacl, etc would be considerations, but all are absolutely not good enough, call them considered and denied on my end, the mons are extremely limited in quantity and don't even respond to some of the most common sleep users effectively. Also, you can't switch in with Lum Berry and avoid sleep from a faster user, and sub is insane committal and still fails on faster sleep users. These moves are fundamentally entirely different. Spore and Sleep Powder are sleep moves that can be negated endlessly in repositioning phases with the proper tools, this is a critical difference and completely changes the dynamic of the mechanic. Even if we had a 150 speed Pokemon with Spore and just a few checks I could switch into a Safety Goggles check that does exist, with other sleep moves you just don't have any good plays to make; You can just be put to sleep the following turn. In cases of slow Pokemon using Hypnosis, Lum is still bad because let's say you swap into a Hypnosis from like a Bronzong, pop a lum, but can't outright one shot it, then you are dedicating a Lum Berry and still risk being put to sleep the following turn, leading to an excessive amount of work to actually avoid the process even in this instance.

my point there was not to say they aren't valid counterplay, just more to show how i dont see how talking about the counterplay for stopping sleep in the first place is given:

edit: The mechanic of sleep is not inherently unhealthy

We disagree on this point. I believe that sleep is an uncompetitive part of the meta, since that level of variance it adds that has little to no consistent counterplay when it lands and puts a lot entirely on luck harms the competitive integrity of a given tier. Please give this post a read, because to me your post makes it clear that you are sidestepping my argument about the policy side of banning sleep and how that works and instead just trying to justify your own personal opinion of the benefits of sleep, which is fine, just not what I'm talking about give you originally asked me about complex bans, a policy thing.

I'm going to give an extremely stupid analogy, an OHKO move is broken because it just kills you, there's no counterplay, Ice Beam is really strong but you can outplay it and go into a resistance, not all damaging moves are broken because we don't like OHKO moves, one can barely be outplayed or answered and the other can (but you need to do certain things), then you we assess whether or not those things are reasonable. This is even true although Ice Beam can still obtain OHKOs, wow! It's almost like one-shotting your opponent isn't inherently unhealthy either.

even if this is just a stupid analogy, its also just bad faith and im not going to engage with it as a genuine point as such. The arguments you presented here are not remotely similar and are just falsely comparing two things that have no real connection to each other, and neither truly support the other argument.

These are genuinely similar arguments:
- Sheer Cold vs Ice Beam, both can OHKO u, OHKO is broken ban Ice Beam
- Spore vs. Hypnosis, both can Sleep u, Sleep is broken ban Spore

because both of these are just entirely devoid of the nuance that has lead to the again extremely thought out mods to the game mechanics that sleep caused, which is because regardless of your personal opinion enough people decided that sleep was uncompetitive enough it needed restriction outside of simply banning moves. If you do not believe sleep as a mechanic is strong enough to ban, don't restrict it. If you think that sleep is uncompetitive enough based on the guidelines of the post i sent above regardless of if it applies to all sleep moves, as i said policy and precedent both say that banning all of sleep is the most logical option to move forwards.

I almost didn't respond to this tbh cause it felt really ragebaity but I wanted to give an actual explanation as to why I hold the thoughts I do, because they are based again in the policy of tiering on this site and the precedent of past decisions made from a similar dilemma. Sleep mod was implemented after hypnosis darkrai and hypnosis iron valiant (among other things but from my experience mainly those two) started causing issues and it lead to the decision that sleep as a mechanic was uncompetitive. We have such a robust framework for tiering policy on smogon, and while i understand draft league as a whole functions outside of that I think it is largely irresponsible for smogon draft to function outside of it as well.

 

[The Diabolic Gift]

my point there was not to say they aren't valid counterplay, just more to show how i dont see how talking about the counterplay for stopping sleep in the first place is given:

We disagree on this point. I believe that sleep is an uncompetitive part of the meta, since that level of variance it adds that has little to no consistent counterplay when it lands and puts a lot entirely on luck harms the competitive integrity of a given tier. Please give this post a read, because to me your post makes it clear that you are sidestepping my argument about the policy side of banning sleep and how that works and instead just trying to justify your own personal opinion of the benefits of sleep, which is fine, just not what I'm talking about give you originally asked me about complex bans, a policy thing.

even if this is just a stupid analogy, its also just bad faith and im not going to engage with it as a genuine point as such. The arguments you presented here are not remotely similar and are just falsely comparing two things that have no real connection to each other, and neither truly support the other argument.

because both of these are just entirely devoid of the nuance that has lead to the again extremely thought out mods to the game mechanics that sleep caused, which is because regardless of your personal opinion enough people decided that sleep was uncompetitive enough it needed restriction outside of simply banning moves. If you do not believe sleep as a mechanic is strong enough to ban, don't restrict it. If you think that sleep is uncompetitive enough based on the guidelines of the post i sent above regardless of if it applies to all sleep moves, as i said policy and precedent both say that banning all of sleep is the most logical option to move forwards.

I almost didn't respond to this tbh cause it felt really ragebaity but I wanted to give an actual explanation as to why I hold the thoughts I do, because they are based again in the policy of tiering on this site and the precedent of past decisions made from a similar dilemma. Sleep mod was implemented after hypnosis darkrai and hypnosis iron valiant (among other things but from my experience mainly those two) started causing issues and it lead to the decision that sleep as a mechanic was uncompetitive. We have such a robust framework for tiering policy on smogon, and while i understand draft league as a whole functions outside of that I think it is largely irresponsible for smogon draft to function outside of it as well.

Uncompetitive - "elements that reduce the effect of player choice / interaction on the end result to an extreme degree, such that "more skillful play" is almost always rendered irrelevant."

I don't believe Sleep is uncompetitive, I do believe that a subset of sleep moves are in this section, but as a mechanic I think it is not. In draft where you have control over your teambuilding options and can cater to the metagame with counterplay, skill remains relevant in various circumstances when you can actually cater to sleep. There are a specific subsection of sleep inducing moves of which no level of skill can cater to. I believe Sheer Cold is an uncompetitive move because skill does not matter and Ice Beam is a competitive move. It's not really about the actual status condition but the inability to apply skill to avoid being put into the situations altogether. I think Sleep can at best be considered unhealthy. Part of skill includes the preparation process. This is a ban on Sleep-Inducing Moves right? Not sleep, that would ban moves like Rest. Sleep-Inducing moves aren't uncompetitive in a general sense.

 

[Celeste]

Uncompetitive - "elements that reduce the effect of player choice / interaction on the end result to an extreme degree, such that "more skillful play" is almost always rendered irrelevant."

I don't believe Sleep is uncompetitive, I do believe the subset of sleep moves are in this section, but as a mechanic I think it is not. In draft where you have control over your teambuilding options and can cater to the metagame with counterplay, skill remains relevant in various circumstances when you can actually cater to sleep. There are a specific subsection of sleep inducing moves of which no level of skill can cater to. I believe Sheer Cold is an uncompetitive move because skill does not matter and Ice Beam is a competitive move. It's not really about the actual status condition but the inability to apply skill to avoid being put into the situations altogether. I think Sleep can at best be considered unhealthy.

The moves are status moves, sleep is the status. If you are trying to tell me with a straight face that sleep is not the core factor of why hypnosis is uncompetative (but still claim hypnosis to be uncompetitive) i think you just have a fundamental misinterpretation of how tiering anything outside of individual moves or pokemon is handled. I have made it clear that i am arguing under the assumption that we are adhereing to tiering policy and the precedent the site has for handling scenarios like this since you asked me about a complex ban, and if you arent going to engage with my arguments from that perspective and instead focus on making the same point over and over again im not going to continue to engage with that. I understand that you do not think sleep as a mechanic is worth banning, and my answer to that is and always will be "then nothing will come of it" because thats how the site works.

 

[Paying Attenton]

freeze mod and sleep clause mod arent complex bans and are instead the changing of game mechanics deemed fundamentally uncompetitive after very long periods of discussion. These are not complex bans and you will rarely find them outside of gen 5 ou, a famously unbalanced metagame.

Banning select sleep moves is more complex and also goes against the precendents set in smogons history for how to take action on mechanics like status conditions, weather, etc. This may be draft league, but i believe that draft league under smogon should adhere more closely to smogon policy whenever possible. When we have precedent for modding the game to remove/alter mechanics deemed unhealthy and largely have none for limiting them via more specific bans, again outside of gen 5 ou which shouldnt really be used as a guideline for any tier. That is why i view it as an effective complex ban. Precedent and policy indicates the best way is just to go all or nothing, even if only specific sleep moves are having the MOST unhealthy impact on the game, I believe that still means it is the mechanic as a whole that is the issue and therefore that implementing the sleep moves mod is the best option if action is to be taken beyond sleep clause.

Just because some ways to trigger sleep have more counterplay doesnt make a fair argument for managing something as impactful as sleep, because by that logic lum berry, taunt, sub, mons like Gholdengo and Garganacl are real arguments for keeping hypnosis and sing. You can see how this leads to a lot of arguing about counterplay for the mechanic and delving away from if the mechanic is uncompetative or not, which is what the conversation should be focused on. With a recent example, moody didn't stay legal in Ubers because something like Bidoof was "more competative with more counterplay", it got banned because the variance was too much across the board and deemed uncompetative. That is how things like abilities, weather conditions, etc should be handled, and when we have the precedent for a sleep moves mod needlessly complicating it when the mechanic of sleep itself is fundamentally the issue, is counterintuitive.


I also just want to add this from the lengthy OU tiering policy post that most of the tiering policy on the site is based on (save for like, ubers and thats just for defining the level of uncompetativeness required for a mon/ability etc to be considered bannable). If sleep is going to be banned in any capacity other then full I think an argument needs to be made for why the remaining sleep moves *arent* uncompetitive, and when paytons post clearly highlights the issues with sleep as a status more then hypnosis or sing as a move I think a full sleep ban is the very clear option if action is to be taken, and thats something i support. Sleep as a status is uncompetitive due to the high level of variance it forces into play that can often disrupt the target outcome of "the more skilled player can consistently win". While some sleep moves have more counterplay then others there is not a good justification for trying to keep it in the format based on the "merits" of being able to "play around the luck" per se.

Quite a few of these points are just wrong and are giving Smogon in general too much credit.

1) Sleep clause isn't some complex mod that was made by Smogon. It was made by the development team of Pokemon Stadium, because somehow sleep was more broken in earlier generations. A lot of the functionalities of sleep clause (outside I believe how it interacts with abilities) is directly taken from these games. It is not some original idea that some top players got together and thought through. It is an outdated clause and feature taken from a game developed nearly 30 years ago.
2) Precedent arguments are always stupid. For starters, we already actively go against Smogon "precedent" because it actively makes the game better. Take both Greninja in ORAS/USUM and Cinderace in SWSH as examples. Both of these Pokémon are incredibly valued for the speed they provide their respective tiers and are pretty much impossible to replace in those respective metagames, however, both require complex bans to even be legal. Darkrai should be viewed in a similar lens; where it is an incredibly healthy addition to the metagame outside of its potential to use sleep moves. Also, to further dive into this point, you should actually consider why "precedents" exist in Smogon in the first place - to prevent tier leaders from going rogue and destroying their tier. It is actively unhealthy to use that same mindset to a completely different game that Draft League is. We have completely different players to help with making sure the tier is healthy and do not need to rely on silly little precedents to ensure that reality.
3) If I was given the choice between banning sleep entirely or not at all I would obviously ban sleep entirely. However, that is not what most players want, and in respect to everyone's opinions on sleep, most people would agree that Hypnosis and inevitably Dark Void are unhealthy moves on Darkrai and should be banned. Call it controversial, but I think making any amount of progress in improving the game is better than making literally none because we are being stubborn about precedent.

 

[Celeste]

1) Sleep clause isn't some complex mod that was made by Smogon. It was made by the development team of Pokemon Stadium, because somehow sleep was more broken in earlier generations. A lot of the functionalities of sleep clause (outside I believe how it interacts with abilities) is directly taken from these games. It is not some original idea that some top players got together and thought through. It is an outdated clause and feature taken from a game developed nearly 30 years ago.

thats fair and thats why i think it was replaced with sleep moves mod, something i like a lot more personally and its why i advocate for it

Take both Greninja in ORAS/USUM and Cinderace in SWSH as examples. Both of these Pokémon are incredibly valued for the speed they provide their respective tiers and are pretty much impossible to replace in those respective metagames, however, both require complex bans to even be legal.

Im aware i am a stickler for policy but there is also clear stuff written in that if a complex ban is more beneficial then an outright ban it can and should be presented, draft players generally agreeing on those two for example does not go against policy or precedent, as it sits in line with how i said I think complexes should be handled (avoided unless then have a demonstrably positive effect on the meta)

3) If I was given the choice between banning sleep entirely or not at all I would obviously ban sleep entirely. However, that is not what most players want, and in respect to everyone's opinions on sleep, most people would agree that Hypnosis and inevitably Dark Void are unhealthy moves on Darkrai and should be banned. Call it controversial, but I think making any amount of progress in improving the game is better than making literally none because we are being stubborn about precedent.

again fair, i just have a different perspective on how this should be handled and think that sleep mod is a much better approach and a much more feasible one to implement. If your proposal gets enough support behind it to go through i wouldnt complain but i really do think that sleep mod is a flat out better option both from a player and policy perspective, as I think I've made it clear enough that I do also like your suggestion, just for me as a midway point to and endgoal and not an endgoal itself.

but while I agree with Payton's post to an extent I'm much more in favour of at the very least SV Regional Dex tours adopting a total sleep ban as opposed to just banning a few moves.

just putting that as confirmation lol, I'm very interested to see where this discussion ends up in the long run cause i think more action on sleep then already exists is long overdue in draft.

 

[Princess Autumn]

Not commenting on anything else but

Take both Greninja in ORAS/USUM and Cinderace in SWSH as examples. Both of these Pokémon are incredibly valued for the speed they provide their respective tiers and are pretty much impossible to replace in those respective metagames, however, both require complex bans to even be legal.

FYI these are grandfathered in, as is Blaze Blaziken and No Seismic Toss Mega Kangaskhan (which will be returning to the SM board for DCL after internal discussion). We have 0 interest in undoing years of metagame development in old gens for the sake of fitting within the rules - they should not be seen as the gold standard for any future tiering decisions. Precedent from old gens is inherently going to be flawed for draft in the same way that it is for ADV OU within Smogon's tiering architecture and just because complex bans are common place in old gens (I'm aware you're not arguing for a Hypnosis on Darkrai ban), using similar logic shouldn't be true in SV.

 

[Roller K]

Smogon Discord Draft League II Champion - Victory Post

Not sure who to credit for the art unfortunately, "II" added by me
​

In June 2023, I found out about the Smogon Discord Draft League, a Smogon-adjacent tournament run via the Smogon Discord server. This was my first ever draft tournament and fourth ever tournament. I had watched draft content for many years, and it seemed like a fun format to try out given my natural affinity for teambuilding.

After my best tournament record to date with a 12-0 in the first edition of this tournament and my first tournament victory, I could not get enough of draft, and I was scouted by apologies and gorex to play in the Teal Mask Trios tour. We won the tournament with a personal record of 7-1.

This April, I saw that the second edition of this tournament was starting up, but I was pretty on the fence for signing up since I had progressed so much in two years and was no longer a newbie in draft. I had three motivators pushing me to sign up: (1) Prove my skill in the tier after not getting drafted for DPL, (2) Defend the crown, and mostly (3) Not signing up soon enough for Spring Seasonal and wanting to get my reps in.

Tournament Structure
​

The tournament started off with pools, where anyone with a 2-1 or 3-0 record would move on to the next round. From there, it was single elimination. There were 96 people participating in the tournament. While less than the 128 people in the previous edition, it had stronger players participating with a more balanced pricing system. You have 125 points to draft 8 Pokemon, and 28 points for 2-3 Tera captains.

My Draft
​

Points​	Sprite​	Pokemon​	Usage (of 9 games)​
18​	​	Palafin​	9​
19​	​	Raging Bolt (T)​	9​
10​	​	Corviknight​	8​
13​	​	Weavile​	9​
7​	​	Amoonguss​	5​
9​	​	Infernape (T)​	6​
5​	​	Mudsdale​	2​
9​	​	Gardevoir​	6​

I will go over why I chose each of these Pokemon in order (I was 7th pick of a pool of 8 players):

I won this tournament last year with Palafin, and I thought it would be fun to pick it up again. Bulky Water with phenomenal revenge killing, wallbreaking, and setup, plus I am really good at using the dolphin so I wanted to show it off. I considered waiting round 2 for it in place of Tera Tornadus-Therian to form a safe Regenerator pivot and speed control, but surely it will fall with only two picks on the wheel...

8th person picked up Tornadus. RIP. But Torn is a Pokemon I have already used in draft, whereas Raging Bolt is not, so I wanted to try out the hard-hitting priority combo. Tera Raging Bolt is a nightmare to prepare for, and these two picks work well to form both a priority and a Volt-Turn core.

After planning out my draft, I knew the next two Pokemon I wanted, and Corviknight was more likely to be sniped, so I picked it up first. Corviknight covers the team's need for hazard removal and a sturdy Ground immunity for Bolt. I usually avoid Corviknight in draft due to its one-dimensionality and relatively passive role, but the typing and bulk make it a key resistance to many of the tier's threats, and it provided me with a safe form of slow pivoting.

Weavile was the next pick for me, and it felt like the best pick I made. Amazing speed control, item removal, priority, and Ice attacks to punish/deter Tera Grass that opponents would use into Palafin + Bolt. At the time, I really enjoyed using Weavile + Bolt in OU, and it translated over well here too. While Weavile and Corviknight are both pretty one-dimensional, I did not mind it with Weavile because its kit is perfect and it looked incredible into every matchup without Alomomola or some other super physically bulky wall. Part of it was also for fun since I now had a triple priority core.

I needed a grounded Poison, and I am a strong proponent of the idea that Palafin should be paired with a Regenerator user to make Hero activation feel seamless. Grass/Poison is a nice defensive typing for the ogers, and it would slightly punish the common Water and Grass Teras.

Infernape is pretty weak, but it filled roles the team needed. I am currently lacking any hazards which is terrible, and Infernape plus another rocker makes it bearable. It hit 9 points, making it a viable secondary Tera captain. It bridged the speed gap between Weavile and Palafin, the latter of which often does not go Jolly most of the time. It completed the FWG core, and it gave me a fast pivot and a potential scarf user. Most importantly, it gave my team aura with the quad priority.

Mudsdale gave me an Electric immunity, though in hindsight it was not too necessary given Raging Bolt and Amoonguss are strong enough against Electric-types and I can beat an opposing Volt-Turn core. However, it was important as a solid second rocker for when hazards felt necessary, and its natural bulk was very appreciated in some matchups.

Last but not least, Gardevoir gave the team a mid-speed threat between Palafin and Bolt. Its strong STAB Moonblast and wide movepool let it function in a variety of ways, and it rounded out the team nicely.

Weekly Matchups & My Sets​

I did my best to provide as much insight about my teambuilding process and gameplay; if you are curious, feel free to read them!

Round 1 - Pools

Game 1: vs. SandanLP

Pokepaste || Replay

In an ideal world, Calm Mind Raging Bolt and Bulk Up + Taunt Palafin just sweep the team, but Tera Scream Tail can easily come in, sponge the hit, and Encore me. I decide to combat this with Discharge Raging Bolt and Mental Herb Palafin, the former of which can play the slow game and fish for paras until Scream Tail get paralyzed then 1v1, and the latter which can bail me out one time and get an extra Bulk Up if necessary. Urshifu could also overwhelm Amoonguss and be a threat to my team if he exhausts Tera, so I went with double Rocky Helmet physical walls to handle Urshifu and Baxcalibur. I knew I wanted to bring the top 5, and I went with Infernape last since it checks Volcarona once to put it in range or revenge killing, gives me Stealth Rock against his team without removal, and Fire + Electric hits everything for significant damage. Tera Water was my choice on Raging Bolt as it helps against Volcarona, Baxcalibur, and Urshifu, and Leftovers give me great longevity against his bulky team.

I played the game slow to scout his sets and spreads. I eventually got the paralysis on Scream Tail, and feeling pressured by the +1 Raging Bolt, he decided to use Tera. This plus finding out his Alomomola didn't have Scald allowed me to play for the Palafin sweep, and it worked out well.

Game 2: vs. Scizor Boladão

Pokepaste || Replay

This team has a mix of strong defense and strong wallbreakers. Urshifu Single Strike is a bit scarier since I cannot punish it as easily with Rocky Helmet, but that also means he is less likely to bring Protective Pads or Punching Glove, so double helmet still seemed pretty good here to punish Urshifu and pivot moves from Corviknight and Vaporeon. Fire-types are quite difficult to handle defensively for my team, as my main defensive Pokemon are Corviknight and Amoonguss, and with Tera I could easily fall apart to the right Iron Moth set. I expected Tera Fairy/Grass Moth and Tera Water Corviknight. Clefable can run Unaware here pretty easily due to my lack of hazards, making setup sweepers less viable. Vaporeon and Sinistcha take on Palafin really well, but I had one move to punish them both: Acrobatics. Paired with a Sitrus Berry, I could get a sweep once the team has been weakened and Tera has been exhausted. Adamant allows me to still break Unaware Clefable. I noticed that his Electric resist is Thundurus-Therian, meaning Tera Electric Raging Bolt farms his team once I use Draco Meteor on the Thundurus switch-in. Gardevoir felt great here as a disturber with Psychic Noise and Trick, while Mystical Fire hits Corviknight and weakens Iron Moth in a pinch. Trace also lets me pick up Volt Absorb from Thundurus or Water Absorb from Vaporeon, making it a decent check.

The opponent did not play too well to start, giving me a solid advantage. With that being said, turn 27 was a total misplay, as I should always use Acrobatics there since it does more damage to Clefable anyways and catches the Vaporeon switch. It made the game closer than it needed to be. Fortunately, the prep was good enough to offset this.

Game 3: vs. NateAim

Pokepaste || Replay

I have an extremely bad matchup into sun, as my only real answer for it is a well-played Raging Bolt. Palafin can eat hits, but Water moves won't hit hard enough to break or revenge kill. Gardevoir cannot even trace Protosynthesis, making prep pretty miserable. Since everything breaks Corviknight and Amoonguss checks Great Tusk well enough, I decide to bench it for the week. Specially defensive Palafin with Substitute + Bulk Up lets me scout for switch-ins and either go for damage or get a boost of some sort; either way, it can help stall a turn of sun and gives me some way of not auto losing to Walking Wake. Tera Fairy Raging Bolt was best here to remove most of my weaknesses and cause mind games with opposing Raging Bolt; Tera Blast was a good click into his team too. Rain Dance Amoonguss felt like my only bail against sun, and I had to think heavily about the lead game. I decided to lead Amoonguss and use Rain Dance if Torkoal leads, Sludge Bomb if Ogerpon leads since I can eat a non-crit Ivy Cudgel once, or Spore against any other lead. Screens HWish Gardevoir was an emergency check against threats if I got the opportunity to get them up. Tera Fighting Black Belt Infernape with Mach Punch was the cleaner in the late game if I got screens up, as there are no Fighting resists on his team. I had to play excellently to win this.

Honestly, I played the game extremely well for most of the game. I got my turns right, Amoonguss controlled the weather just long enough to take down Torkoal, and by Turn 25, I was up in sacks with only 1 turn of sun left. Unfortunately, I am an idiot and misread the tera types. I thought that Raging Bolt was Tera Water when it was actually Tera Grass, so I didn't bother double-checking given I was already locked for next round with 2-0. I should have sacked Raging Bolt, gone into Amoonguss like I did, Grass Knot on turn 26 like I did, click Sludge Bomb on turn 27, and spam Grass Knot until I died since Draco Meteor likely means no Calm Mind. Looking back now, this win path was a lot harder to find and pretty unlikely to succeed. Assuming he made the same play on turn 28, I would have favorable odds to win since Amoonguss would OHKO the incoming Great Tusk, and I can OHKO most Raging Bolt spreads with Adamant Weavile assuming I land all three Triple Axel hits. However, there was a 50-50 that turn; if I stay in on his Draco Meteor, he can Volt Switch the next turn on my Weavile which lets him always bring in Great Tusk safely since +2 Adamant Weavile Ice Shard has to get a high roll crit to take it out while Jolly HLR is a 93.8% chance to OHKO (and I would not be surprised if he was Adamant). Similarly, if I hard switch on a second Draco Meteor, I can eat the hit and immediately Triple Axel to OHKO either Pokemon. Even then, it's a 50-50, but he has a safer path. If he sacks Raging Bolt, I sack Weavile the next turn and win with Amoonguss barring crit. If he sacks Great Tusk, then there's another 50-50 with if he Thunderclaps or not on my Ice Shard or Triple Axel, as Ice Shard is a 2HKO unless he's really bulky.

Ok I am done analyzing this game, TL;DR his team was so good and even though I made a mistake in the end, my odds of winning were still really slim assuming he played well. Fun game analysis, only loss I have taken in both these seasons combined so props to NateAim.

Single-Elimination Rounds

Round 2: vs. Steven Stone 007

Pokepaste || Replay

After losing last game, I had no more wiggle room for error. Luckily, my matchup is excellent this game; I have Corviknight and Amoonguss for Iron Valiant, Raging Bolt and Amoonguss for Ogerpon, and Corviknight for Landorus defensively. Offensively, Palafin is pretty solid at breaking his team and revenge killing Iron Valiant, while Raging Bolt can be a pain if I can play around Landorus and Encore Jirachi. CB Palafin felt pretty solid here, as a well-timed Zen Headbutt can heavily chunk Ogerpon and OHKO Tentacruel while Jet Punch keeps Iron Valiant in check. I wasn't too sure on Raging Bolt's item, but I decided that Eject Pack would be a cool bring as a one-time free Draco Meteor; either I smack Landorus for heavy damage to enable a sweep later, or they predict it and tank the hit, but I keep momentum up. Amoonguss has Stomping Tantrum for Jirachi and Tentacruel, and Foul Play for SD Tera Ogerpon which can be tricky to revenge kill. Mixed Scarf Infernape seemed to be a good pivot that could chunk most of his Pokemon. Icicle Crash could be afforded on Weavile since there were no relevant calcs to prove Triple Axel to be better. Both Pokemon are Tera Grass since he struggles to punish it offensively.

While some things benefited me like Tera Poison Hoopa and passive plays with Iron Valiant, I still felt really good about my prep. Most of my techs hit, and I had a very solid victory.

Round 3: vs. Larrea_0

Pokepaste || Replay

Hazard stack and Gholdengo is not a combination this team enjoys seeing. With Corviknight's Defog as my only form of hazard removal, I have to be very proactive about delaying hazard setup as long as possible. Outside of hazards and Gholdengo, the matchup is pretty tolerable. My defensive core is able to handle the offensive Pokemon well, and my offensive core can break quite well. Much like with the previous Clefable, I went with a max attack Bulk Up set to handle Unaware. Punching Glove helps against Garchomp and Rocky Helmet users. I found Booster Energy Raging Bolt to finally be strong here for breaking Clefable, but I also put Taunt over Thunderclap. The only Pokemon I thought about being able to hit with Thunderclap were Gholdengo and Ogerpon, and they can both outplay with Recover and Nasty Plot or Encore and Swords Dance. Taunt also enabled me to comfortably 1v1 all Clefable sets even if booster is used up. Light Screen Corviknight was pretty solid here to more safely pivot around Gholdengo and allow for more setup opportunities. Gardevoir with its Psychic Noise was effective here for his defensive core as well as checking Pokemon like Thundurus. I got to bring Mudsdale off the bench this week, as Earthquake hits their team pretty hard and the coverage moves can handle its checks well. AV Mudsdale also handles Gholdengo decently well while not being passive. Tera Grass Raging Bolt is hard for the opponent to hit and flips the Ground weakness against Garchomp.

For some reason, Tauros completely slipped my mind when prepping, so I had to adapt on the fly with Gardevoir being the status absorber and tracing Intimidate to keep it at bay. Thunder Wave Gholdengo was pretty painful to deal with, but luckily I did not get unlucky and was able to handle it. I don't believe I played the game too well, but I had some good turns like turn 10 where I Heavy Slammed into the incoming Ogerpon for major damage or most of the turns with Gardevoir. Luckily, Raging Bolt was able to clean up in the endgame. I had fun managing him in another tournament, so this was a cool full-circle moment for me.

Round 4: vs. Amaske

Pokepaste || Replay

Tera Landorus was pretty good in this matchup as it could be an offensive threat with Tera Electric or a defensive rocker with Tera Water. Greninja can be a breaker or a late-game sweeper if he can chunk my Palafin and Raging Bolt. Ceruledge can break my defensive core and clean up in the endgame if he gets my Pokemon in range of +2 Shadow Sneak. Our defensive core is somewhat mirrored with Corviknight, Amoonguss, and Psychic/Fairy type, and Scream Tail can make sweeping with Raging Bolt difficult while healing the bulky teammates. Acrobatics Sitrus was good here to hit Amoonguss and Greninja in a pinch. AV Fairy Raging Bolt with max defense was a pretty cool bring by me, as it ensured I could handle Greninja while sponging hits and not worrying about Encore. Tera Blast enabled me to break a bulky Iron Hands, too. Safety Goggles Corviknight completely blanks Amoonguss, so that seemed like a strong bring here, similar to how SandanLP brought Safety Goggles Skarmory for my Amoonguss. LO Weavile was pretty cool here too, as the extra damage mattered in several calcs like Iron Hands, Scream Tail, and Corviknight. Lead Infernape with Air Balloon looked good to trade hazards with, as I felt like Stealth Rock would go a longer way for me than him. Tera Water is an emergency check to Greninja, but I never planned to use it.

This game was pretty straightforward, but there are some parts I want to highlight as good or bad. Turn 7 was a tough play for me, as I knew by coming back in that he was Custap and wanted to preserve health on Raging Bolt, but I could not risk going into Gardevoir because I would die from Supercell Slam. Turn 8-9 was strong by me, as I immediately denied the Scream Tail sweep from happening, knowing that my scarf was not needed for the others. Turn 21 I think I had a brainfart and forgot he was Choice Scarf for a second, as I should always Ice Shard to guarantee the win. The odds were still near 100%, as he had to crit burn Raging Bolt without Discharge para into crit Corviknight, but leaving that potential winpath available was a small mistake.

Quarterfinals: vs. GoldenCyber

Pokepaste || Replay

GoldenCyber's team is a nightmare. Tera Hydrapple is worth 13 points in this league, and when paired with Tera Gliscor, they are a huge pain. Hydrapple and Alomomola are also some of the best checks to Palafin in the game, so having both would prove challenging to overcome. Terapagos can always eat a hit and get healed back up by Wish from either Jirachi or Alomomola, making it a big threat. Luckily, specially defensive Corviknight is a solid check against most of his Pokemon. His big sweepers are both hit supereffectively by Fighting, so Vacuum Wave Infernape was a solid bring here to also circumvent the physical walls that are Hydrapple and Alomomola. Red Card Raging Bolt was a fun tech, as I can always safely click Thunderclap into Battle Bond Greninja to force it out as well as win the Calm Mind war against Terapagos. Palafin was really tough to decide the set, as I considered Sub BU sets but they never can take down Hydrapple. I have used Specs Palafin a couple times before, but even that did not feel too good here as no single move is particularly spammable. Throat Spray Palafin seemed like the best bring here to bait in and overwhelm the tanks on his team. Boomburst, Surf, and Ice Beam were all the coverage I needed, so I racked my brain with ideas until I settled on Focus Energy, which enables me to break specially defensive WishTect Jirachi while nearly guaranteeing the OHKO on Hydrapple if he decides to rotate in and out for Regenerator healing in a sack war end game. Substitute on Weavile was to defend against Scald Mola, since the sub can survive. I really struggled to decide my last bring, as I originally had Amoonguss with Worry Seed for the Gliscor and Red Card (which later transferred to Raging Bolt), but 4MSS hit hard and I could not find a way to avoid getting walled by something on his team. While I usually figure things out on my own, I consulted my friend UselessUmbreon, and he suggested specially defensive Gardevoir since it can trace Regenerator and stay healthy. While I steered pretty far from that path, double Regenerator was something I could abuse since I can take hits from his regen mons pretty well and threaten back hard. After some deliberation, I settled on Life Orb with Shadow Ball to hit specially defensive Jirachi (recoil doesn't matter since I can heal up with regen), Thunder Wave to slow down Jirachi and limit Encore opportunities later in the game, and Calm Mind to eat a special hit from a pivot and/or take it down after.

This was a fun, close game. I did not think Amoonguss would be Play Rough, so the early game was a bit scuffed since I did not get much mileage out of Weavile. However, I played Gardevoir very aggressively, which brought me back with an advantage; the special attack drop on Hydrapple sped the process up though, leaving me with less room to predict wrong. Palafin would have swept, but I got a low roll on Terapagos turn 27. Still, the damage was done, and Raging Bolt had the game locked up. Volt Switch luckily always killed at the end against Hydrapple. This was a pretty big win for me given how strong GoldenCyber's team was and how he is a competent draft player.

Semifinals: vs. Harv

Pokepaste || Replay

Only two games left to win the tournament at this point, and I get hit with another strong player in Harv. This matchup seemed somewhat in my favor, as his only Electric immunity is Gligar which is a bad bring into everything else on my team, and his Palafin resists aren't really apparent either. CB Palafin can break through and revenge kill everything, and choice-locked Electric Raging Bolt seemed extremely free. I originally leaned Choice Specs for added breaking power, but Choice Scarf felt better as a strong pivot against his whole team since Pecharunt can Parting Shot and neutralize my specs boost while other Pokemon would be able to attack first and break Bolt down. Clear Amulet Corviknight completely blanks standard Pecharunt, so he can only break with Nasty Plot or have to hard switch every time he anticipates me to bring the bird in. Since nothing on his team can freely run Safety Goggles, I decided that lead Amoonguss with Red Card Spore could be annoying into him most of the time. Scarf Infernape looked like a solid pivot as well as revenge killer for Terapagos and Scarf Tera Grass Delphox, which completely blows me away if Raging Bolt is weakened and had a real shot of coming imo. Tera Steel soft checks Tornadus, Terapagos, Pecharunt, and Ogerpon in a pinch.

AV Torn was a cool bring by Harv as it made Raging Bolt less oppressive, though I think Tera Electric would have been better here to overwhelm Palafin and Corviknight while sponging hits from Raging Bolt. No Delphox was also a happy sight for me, since I was genuinely pretty worried about it. Sporing Pecharunt was really good for opening up Palafin and letting me switch freely in general. Even with AV protection, Raging Bolt was still able to out-damage Regenerator's healing and keep Torn a decent chunk below full health. Turn 30 was a pivotal turn, as the game was pretty close and I needed to figure out how to secure the win. Palafin cannot kill Terapagos with Jet Punch, and since his turtle is Modest, a high roll would kill me. I am then forced to bring in Infernape, and the game turns into a 50-50 on whether I use CC or Blitz into his Terapagos or Tornadus; Blitz is not safe since I die to the recoil damage and Terapagos can take down Corv. Luckily, I found a much higher odds winpath. Bringing in Infernape immediately seems like a 50-50 still on the surface, but Close Combat is always a safe click. Even when he brings in Tornadus, I clicked CC again. This allowed me to Wave Crash for pretty much freely since he never kills with his moves barring a crit, and Wave Crash can always kill Terapagos, plus I can switch out if he sacks Terapagos and always kill with Jet Punch thanks to the extra damage...is what I thought at the time. I only made the odds around double better, since I force a 50-50 with Jet Punch/Wave Crash, and he would have to land Bleakwind and speed drop me to win. Regardless, I think that was the best odds for me to win, and it worked out.

Finals: vs. SamueltheStrong

Pokepaste || Replay

Last but not least, I face SamueltheStrong in the finals. While not a known name, he had a 7-0 or 7-1 record by this point like me, and he had beaten Nashrock and their menacing team last round, so I couldn't take it lightly at all. Again, I am forced to face down Garchomp + Gholdengo, which made prep a little faster but also was still a pain to deal with, especially with Kleavor being pretty strong into most of my team and allowing Garchomp to be versatile in its role. Garchomp and Zapdos together encouraged me to bring Protective Pads Palafin, but I still liked the offensive investment and access to Wave Crash to break through the team and revenge kill Greninja and scarf users. Steel Bolt let me eat hits comfortably and gain more setup opportunities, and Shuca felt like the perfect pairing to catch Garchomp off guard and take it down while also preventing a sweep from dying right away. Amoonguss and Infernape seemed pretty trash here, but I still wanted Stealth Rock for his poor removal and a means to check Gholdengo and Zapdos, so I went with specially defensive Mudsdale with Smack Down to give me free Earthquakes, which hits his entire team hard. Gardevoir is critical here to get a Healing Wish off on Palafin or Raging Bolt while also chipping his team down and giving potential setup opportunities with Mystical Fire. Time to defend the crown.

Spidops over Kleavor surprised me, but after how painful Sticky Web was to maneuver around, I could see why he valued webs over rocks. While a difficult play to make, I think I should have always used Earthquake on Turn 4 instead of getting rocks up, as getting them up was not as beneficial as potentially knocking Gholdengo out or putting it in range of my priority moves. +1 Gholdengo was difficult to play around without sacking pieces, but I had an out in Raging Bolt who could set up a Calm Mind on Turn 6 and always live the Shadow Ball on Turn 7 while having a very high or guaranteed odds to OHKO with Thunderbolt depending on the defensive EVs. Unfortunately, he gets the critical hit and completely screws me, as I lost one of my best Pokemon for zero damage when I could have fully healed it up later with Gardevoir. Since I was so far behind, I had to play extremely aggressively and make assumptions. Turn 8, I had to hope he would be slower than 258 speed and click Shadow Ball to preserve, so I went for Mystical Fire, outsped, and lived Shadow Ball. Next turn, he brings in Blastoise which is completely fine since I knew going into the game that it would be my Palafin activation fodder. Other turns were fine until Turn 15 when he takes 40% on Greninja for no reason. I get another strong U-turn on Turn 18 since I knew I would always live Tera Blast with my full special defensive investment. In thirteen turns, I turned a near-unrecoverable 4v6 into a pretty favorable 4v3 thanks to aggressive plays from me, passive plays from him, and strong prep. I would have used Swords Dance on Greninja during Turn 19 and won in most cases, but his Blastoise was completely max defense, so I could not kill with +2 Knock Off and had to be careful. I actually still would have likely lost if he Flip Turned on my Gardevoir on Turn 20; I should always make the safer play there and pivot into Corviknight then U-turn or sack, but I liked being up in the sack war and I read him to Body Press that turn. Once I got the necessary damage on Blastoise with Moonblast, the game was pretty much over since Weavile cleans house. I had to fight hard for this win, and it paid off.

Final Thoughts
​

20-1 record across these two editions of the tournament. Back-to-back champion. 4-0 in finals, 4 chips to my name. The winning continues.

With that being said, I still vividly remember how ecstatic I felt after winning this tournament in 2023. It was my first draft tournament and fourth tournament I had participated in, and I was a complete underdog with many people assuming I was an alt for how well I had been performing given my short Smogon profile existence. Then I continued to win important games, improve my play, and earn my reputation as the "giant slayer" by beating Empo, Vert, mind gaming, JJ09LIE, and other highly regarded players. I have proven that I can consistently keep up with anybody in any tier, so now it's time to earn the accolades to show that I am just as good, if not better, than those players. This victory is yet another step in the right direction, and I am proud of my consistency.

Draft will always have a special place in my heart, and truthfully it's been the only thing keeping me invested in Pokemon lately. Thank you to everyone who was involved in this tournament as well as those I've played against and alongside throughout the past few years! God bless.

​

 

[Xand]

Hello, draft league experts! I have a tiny form to collect data from people more skilled than I on how mandatory each type is to a typical draft team. I know this can be dependent on a LOT of factors like Ghost-types being much more valuable on teams dependent on hazards, but I wanted to get a general opinion from the community.

The form is 1 'required' question and 4 short, optional questions on standard vs non-standard Pokemon of a type, elaboration on your reasoning, and your username IF you'd like to be included in video credits; email should NOT be required so no worries on collecting any personal information.

https://forms.gle/Rku63CvuMmmFyLAg8

Thank you in advance for your time, I appreciate your expertise!

 

[Techno]

Trick House just finished drafting for its 12th season, so I figured I'd throw together some draft stats :)

For those unaware, Trick House is a highly competitive league with three skill-based divisions (Gengar, Haunter, Gastly). This season, players drafted two 8-Pokemon teams and will pick one to use each team in an attempt to counter-team their opponent (similar to team tours). In total, 14 drafts were done.

While we used the Autumn Seasonal tiers as inspiration, we made a handful of changes to reflect recent metagame shifts. We also wanted to try allowing a couple Pokemon that we think would not be overwhelming and would shake up the metagame in a hopefully healthy way. Maybe we're totally wrong, but we shall see! You can view the tier list here.
View all the finished drafts here: Gengar Doc | Haunter Doc | Gastly Doc

Notable changes / unbans from Autumn Seasonal tiers
While this vote got shut down real quick in the tiering council, we wanted to give Zamazenta a true shot to see if it's really worth all the hype. With our "draft 2, pick 1" format, I anticipate there to be a lot of counterpicking against Zama teams. Within the 14 draft pools, Zamazenta was drafted first overall in 10 pools, with the other four taking it second overall.

My thoughts on Zamazenta

I think Zamazenta is a bit more underwhelming than people think it is; its offensive typing and stats are pretty average, its coverage is not great at all, it lacks viable setup and utility, and it struggles against many common metagame staples, especially Pecharunt and Landorus-T as well as other bulky Ghost-, Psychic-, Flying-, and Fairy-types and Tera Captains. While it has coverage for many of these types, it can't fit them all in one set, especially when it's hard to predict exactly which Tera Type is coming from the opponent. It's also underwhelming offensively and it kind of always wants to run Life Orb or Choice Band, both of which can hinder it in many ways. I think it will be a threat, especially as people learn what it does and how to counter it, but I do not think it is better than Iron Valiant.

Tera Regieleki is a highly divisive Pokemon, and it was almost allowed in Autumn Seasonal, but like Zamazenta, we wanted to give it a true shot to see if it's worth the hype or if it's as underwhelming as some think it is. We priced it at 17 points, two cheaper than Tornadus-T and Raging Bolt. That being said, it was drafted 7 of 14 times, with only 2 going in round 1.

My thoughts on Regieleki

Tera Regieleki has proven to be underwhelming in every league and tournament in which it has been allowed. It can be an excellent revenge killer, and it adds another spinner and speed option to the tier. However, it's limited due to its average offensive stats and limited coverage; even with Tera, it often cannot handle every foe it wants to with just Electric + an additional type. The prevalance of great defensive Pokemon, especially ones that resist Electric like Ting-Lu, Hydrapple, Iron Treads, etc, forces it to run Choice items to make any meaningful impact, and even then, it becomes very easy to take advantage of. It can run lots of bulk due to not needing much speed investment, but it's still underwhelming defensively & easily gets OHKOed or 2HKOed by many Pokemon that can take a hit, which is pretty much every Pokemon in the meta. That being said, it has matchups where it can be incredibly strong, but for the most part, similiarly-priced Tera Captains can offer more versatility and role compression.

Meowscarada's Tera Price was made 17 while its base price remains 19. While this sounds dumb, it is one of the few Pokemon that actually gets hindered by Terastallization, and with a Tera price cap of 28, players are left with only 11 more points to spend on other Tera Captains. Many teams rely on these top-tier Captains to succeed, so gaining two points to lose out on them is a worthy trade in my eyes. Not a single team chose to draft Tera Meowscarada despite this change.

Sleep moves are banned. Sleep moves are lame, simple as that. While this is another divisive topic, we felt that sleep is uncompetitive and cheesy, so we decided to not allow it.

Dry Baton Pass is allowed. This opens up pivoting options for many Pokemon that would otherwise be less desirable.

Other Notable Changes

(Format: Seasonal Price > Trick House Price)
16 > 17 - The fat cores that are built with Ting-Lu are as popular as ever, especially with Tornadus-T involved, so it was raised a point to reflect that.
16 > 17 - Roaring Moon is an incredibly strong and popular round 2 pick, so it was given a price bump by one point.
17 > 16 - Greninja has fallen out of favor and does not feel like it should be the same price as Darkrai and Roaring Moon.
15 > 16 - Dragonite exploded in popularity this past DCL/DFL. It was raised to 15 in the seasonal, and we bumped it up one more point to match what we think it should truly be valued.
16 > 15 - Palafin continues its quick descent down the tier list, as it struggles against many metagame staples and offers little role compression for its expensive price.
(Tera) 15 > 16 - Keldeo continues to dominate the metagame as an incredibly powerful wallbreaker, and it does not make sense for it to be cheaper than its Water/Fighting counterparts in Quaquaval & Urshifu-R, so it was given a price raise.
14 > 13 - These three once-popular picks have fallen out of favor, so they were dropped a point to incentivize picking them again.
12 > 13 (Tera 14 > 15) - Iron Moth gained popularity in DCL as well, and its price felt too cheap especially when it has a similar power level to more expensive Tera Captains.
11 > 13 (Tera 14 > 15) - This may have been a bit overkill, but Gliscor has been a popular role compression pick as of late.
10 > 12 - Similar to Gliscor, Tinkaton offers great role compression and still makes for a valuable pick at 12 points.
9 > 10 - While seasonal raised its price by two points, we bumped it up one more, as Cyclizar offers great role compression and Speed and continues to rise in popularity
12 > 13 - Weavile has become slightly more popular as a valuable Speed tier with great offensive power, and we felt like 12 points was a bit too cheap for it.
7 > 6 - Even though it's drafted frequently, 7 point Rotom felt very overkill to us and not worth the price, so we dropped it back down to 6.
2 > 3 - On the other hand, Swalot offers solid role compression for its price and can effectively counter some of the metagame staples. It's also drafted extremely frequently, so we gave it a small price increase.

Draft Stats

Times Drafted

14 Times:
13 Times:
12 Times:
11 Times:
10 Times:
9 Times:
8 Times:
7 Times:
6 Times:
5 Times:
4 Times:
3 Times:
2 Times:
1 Time:
0 Times (Excluding 1 pointers):

Notable Trends

Despite the 2 point price raise (3 for Cyclizar) since DCL, these Pokemon are still seeing lots of use, as they offer great role compression and utility along with occasional offensive power.
This one surprised me - everywhere I go, I hear people talking about how mediocre Fezandipiti is, yet it got drafted so frequently. I imagine part of it has to do with Zamazenta existing, but it also offers pretty good defensive utility and role compression at 8 points, and I am a firm believer that this poison chicken is a bit overhated in general.
Dragonite rose up to 16 this season, and it was still drafted very frequently in early rounds. I anticipate it to continue gaining traction in this meta.
Despite Mesprit now matching Uxie's price, it's still getting drafted much more frequently due to Healing Wish and its potential as a secondary Tera Captain. Maybe it's time for Uxie to drop to 9?
At 5 points, Braviary's gaining traction as a cheap Defogger and secondary Tera Captain, being drafted in half of the pools.
Even at 15 points, Palafin was only drafted 5 times. Poor guy.
Even at one point higher than Autumn Seasonal's tiers, Tera Slowbro is starting to gain traction and was drafted 5 times. I'm interested to see how well it does and if it lives up to the hype.
I was surprised to see Urshifu-Rapid only being drafted once after it seemingly gained popularity over the past few months. It definitely got outshadowed by Keldeo though.
No matter how far these Tera Captains drop, they still don't get drafted. It might be time to make them even cheaper.

 

[Scribble]

Sorry for the wait! Autumn Seasonal usage stats are here! To make up for the delay, we thought it'd be fun to do a little write up about some usage trends and major differences from this year's Spring Seasonal 6 months ago. I won't go over everything since that would take way too long, but here's what I personally find to be the most interesting. If you just want the raw stats, here they are:


Draft Stats

Sprites

72 times:
71 times:
70 times:
69 times:
67 times:
65 times:
62 times:
61 times:
60 times:
54 times:
52 times:
47 times:
46 times:
45 times:
44 times:
43 times:
42 times:
41 times:
39 times:
38 times:
36 times:
33 times:
32 times:
30 times:
28 times:
27 times:
26 times:
25 times:
24 times:
23 times:
22 times:
21 times:
20 times:
19 times:
18 times:
17 times:
16 times:
15 times:
14 times:
13 times:
12 times:
11 times:
10 times:
9 times:
8 times:
7 times:
6 times:
5 times:
4 times:
3 times: :tauros-paldea:
2 times: :tauros-paldea-fire:
1 time:
0 times: :tauros-paldea-water:

Text

72 times: Iron Valiant, Meowscarada, Great Tusk, Iron Treads, Tornadus-Therian, Raging Bolt
71 times: Terapagos
70 times: Garchomp
69 times: Landorus-Therian, Zarude
67 times: Darkrai, Roaring Moon
65 times: Ting-Lu, Pecharunt
62 times: Greninja, Jirachi
61 times: Gliscor
60 times: Gholdengo, Corviknight
54 times: Deoxys-Speed, Ogerpon-Wellspring, Tinkaton
52 times: Galarian Slowking
47 times: Cyclizar
46 times: Keldeo, Iron Moth
45 times: Cinderace
44 times: Zapdos
43 times: Alomomola
42 times: Palafin
41 times: Fezandipiti
39 times: Landorus-Incarnate, Iron Crown, Primarina, Tentacruel
38 times: Gouging Fire, Ogerpon-Hearthflame, Blastoise
36 times: Enamorus-Incarnate, Galarian Weezing
33 times: Ogerpon-Cornerstone
32 times: Metagross
30 times: Sneasler, Mesprit, Ogerpon
28 times: Dragonite, Rotom-Heat
27 times: Hisuian Samurott
26 times: Latios, Weavile, Excadrill
25 times: Annihilape, Glimmora, Rillaboom, Rotom
24 times: Iron Bundle, Quaquaval, Clefable, Mandibuzz
23 times: Thundurus-Therian
22 times: Heatran, Sinistcha
21 times: Urshifu-Rapid-Strike, Scizor, Okidogi, Vikavolt
20 times: Chi-Yu, Kyurem, Carbink
19 times: Empoleon, Moltres
18 times: Rotom-Wash, Toxapex, Swalot
17 times: Skeledirge, Ampharos
16 times: Latias, Mew, Scream Tail, Thundurus-Incarnate, Donphan, Cresselia, Araquanid
15 times: Hydreigon, Serperior, Hisuian Avalugg
14 times: Hydrapple, Mismagius, Brambleghast, Tsareena
13 times: Urshifu-Single-Strike, Kingambit, Klefki, Swampert, Gengar, Skarmory, Mamoswine, Florges, Registeel
12 times: Uxie, Clodsire, Manaphy, Talonflame, Qwilfish, Bronzong, Forretress, Sableye
11 times: Archaludon, Ursaluna-Bloodmoon, Sylveon, Eelektross, Entei, Ribombee, Drifblim, Spidops
10 times: Iron Hands, Necrozma, Hisuian Arcanine, Overqwil, Slowking, Enamorus-Therian, Hoopa-Unbound, Infernape, Comfey, Kilowattrel, Alolan Muk, Hisuian Typhlosion
9 times: Baxcalibur, Iron Boulder, Hatterene, Sandy Shocks, Bellibolt, Slither Wing, Dusknoir, Lanturn, Crawdaunt, Grafaiai
8 times: Walking Wake, Basculegion, Salamence, Hisuian Zoroark, Ninetales, Whimsicott, Amoonguss, Salazzle, Muk, Tornadus-Incarnate, Vileplume, Granbull, Avalugg, Coalossal, Lapras, Pincurchin
7 times: Blaziken, Ceruledge, Krookodile, Diancie, Arcanine, Garganacl, Hisuian Qwilfish, Revavroom, Lokix, Incineroar, Cryogonal, Hitmontop, Houndstone, Skuntank
6 times: Deoxys-Defense, Mimikyu, Shaymin, Volcanion, Dragalge, Regieleki, Suicune, Chandelure, Munkidori, Bisharp, Ditto, Jolteon, Misdreavus, Smeargle, Trevenant, Alcremie, Appletun, Clefairy
5 times: Ursaluna, Cobalion, Galarian Zapdos, Galarian Moltres, Gothitelle, Kommo-o, Pelipper, Volcarona, Grimmsnarl, Torkoal, Mienshao, Milotic, Noivern, Rotom-Mow, Slowbro, Toxtricity, Decidueye, Galarian Slowbro, Galvantula, Gastrodon, Rotom-Fan, Weezing, Duraludon, Oricorio, Dachsbun, Orthworm, Ariados, Electivire
4 times: Hawlucha, Lycanroc-Dusk, Tyranitar, Raikou, Dudunsparce, Hisuian Goodra, Rhyperior, Gyarados, Braviary, Vaporeon, Feraligatr, Lucario, Magnezone, Porygon2, Wo-Chien, Arboliva, Blissey, Emboar, Froslass, Glastrier, Indeedee, Iron Leaves, Spiritomb, Tauros, Alolan Sandslash, Arbok, Hoopa, Minior, Raichu, Komala, Leafeon, Vulpix
3 times: Conkeldurr, Terrakion, Alolan Ninetales, Espathra, Iron Jugulis, Venusaur, Cetitan, Kleavor, Pawmot, Chesnaught, Maushold, Quagsire, Regidrago, Espeon, Rotom-Frost, Staraptor, Tatsugiri, Altaria, Farigiraf, Gothorita, Gurdurr, Illumise, Masquerain, Meganium, Regice, Rhydon, Typhlosion, Volbeat, Alolan Exeggutor, Chimecho, Dewpider, Morgrem, Paldean Tauros, Scovillain, Zangoose
2 times: Azumarill, Azelf, Hisuian Lilligant, Dugtrio, Armarouge, Dondozo, Meloetta, Reuniclus, Hippowdon, Paldean Tauros Blaze, Scrafty, Snorlax, Hisuian Electrode, Lycanroc-Midday, Umbreon, Articuno, Copperajah, Hisuian Decidueye, Magneton, Passimian, Poliwrath, Thwackey, Alolan Dugtrio, Alolan Golem, Crabominable, Dipplin, Eiscue, Glimmet, Hisuian Sneasel, Magmortar, Meowstic, Quilladin, Rabsca, Wigglytuff
1 time: Gardevoir, Goodra, Cloyster, Delphox, Heracross, Porygon-Z, Hisuian Braviary, Inteleon, Mudsdale, Politoed, Ursaring, Alolan Persian, Brute Bonnet, Chansey, Cinccino, Flygon, Golurk, Iron Thorns, Polteageist, Regirock, Scyther, Venomoth, Alolan Raichu, Ambipom, Bombirdier, Dunsparce, Flamigo, Gligar, Hitmonchan, Leavanny, Primeape, Toedscruel, Victreebel, Banette, Bayleef, Charjabug, Clawitzer, Cutiefly, Dewgong, Dodrio, Drilbur, Dusclops, Eelektrik, Electrode, Exeggutor, Falinks, Flareon, Frosmoth, Furret, Gogoat, Golem, Greedent, Hattrem, Haunter, Honchkrow, Kricketune, Lycanroc-Midnight, Naclstack, Noctowl, Perrserker, Pikachu, Probopass, Pyroar, Regigigas, Samurott, Sneasel, Swanna, Vespiquen, Vivillon, Zebstrika
0 times: Barraskewda, Abomasnow, Breloom, Haxorus, Gallade, Hariyama, Kingdra, Paldean Tauros Aqua, Torterra, Yanmega, Zoroark, Galarian Articuno, Hitmonlee, Medicham, Palossand, Piloswine, Bruxish, Charizard, Drednaw, Floatzel, Ludicolo, Sandaconda, Sceptile, Toxicroak, Virizion, Aipom, Alolan Diglett, Alolan Geodude, Alolan Graveler, Alolan Grimer, Alolan Meowth, Alolan Sandshrew, Alolan Vulpix, Applin, Arctibax, Arrokuda, Axew, Azurill, Bagon, Barboach, Basculin, Bastiodon, Beartic, Beldum, Bellossom, Bellsprout, Bergmite, Blitzle, Bonsly, Bounsweet, Braixen, Bramblin, Brionne, Bronzor, Buizel, Bulbasaur, Cacnea, Cacturne, Calyrex, Camerupt, Capsakid, Carkol, Cetoddle, Charcadet, Charmander, Charmeleon, Chespin, Chewtle, Chikorita, Chimchar, Chinchou, Chingling, Clauncher, Cleffa, Combee, Combusken, Corphish, Corvisquire, Cosmoem, Cosmog, Cottonee, Crabrawler, Cramorant, Cranidos, Croagunk, Crocalor, Croconaw, Cubchoo, Cufant, Cyndaquil, Dartrix, Dedenne, Deerling, Deino, Delibird, Dewott, Diglett, Doduo, Dolliv, Dragonair, Drakloak, Dratini, Dreepy, Drifloon, Drizzile, Drowzee, Ducklett, Duosion, Duskull, Eevee, Ekans, Electabuzz, Espurr, Exeggcute, Feebas, Fennekin, Fidough, Finizen, Finneon, Flaaffy, Flabébé, Flapple, Fletchinder, Fletchling, Flittle, Floette, Floragato, Fomantis, Foongus, Fraxure, Frigibax, Froakie, Frogadier, Fuecoco, Gabite, Galarian Meowth, Galarian Slowpoke, Gastly, Geodude, Gible, Gimmighoul, Girafarig, Glaceon, Glalie, Gloom, Golduck, Golett, Goomy, Gothita, Graveler, Greavard, Grimer, Grookey, Grotle, Grovyle, Growlithe, Grubbin, Grumpig, Gulpin, Gumshoos, Hakamo-o, Happiny, Hatenna, Hippopotas, Hisuian Growlithe, Hisuian Sliggoo, Hisuian Voltorb, Hisuian Zorua, Hoothoot, Hoppip, Houndoom, Houndour, Hypno, Igglybuff, Impidimp, Inkay, Ivysaur, Jangmo-o, Jigglypuff, Joltik, Jumpluff, Kirlia, Klawf, Koffing, Kricketot, Krokorok, Kubfu, Lampent, Larvesta, Larvitar, Lechonk, Lilligant, Litleo, Litten, Litwick, Lombre, Lotad, Lumineon, Lurantis, Luvdisc, Luxio, Luxray, Mabosstiff, Magcargo, Magikarp, Magmar, Magnemite, Makuhita, Malamar, Mankey, Mareanie, Mareep, Marill, Marshtomp, Maschiff, Meditite, Meowth, Metang, Mienfoo, Mightyena, Milcery, Minccino, Minun, Monferno, Morpeko, Mudbray, Mudkip, Munchlax, Murkrow, Nacli, Noibat, Nosepass, Numel, Nuzleaf, Nymble, Oddish, Oinkologne, Oranguru, Oshawott, Pachirisu, Paldean Wooper, Pawmi, Pawmo, Pawniard, Persian, Petilil, Phanpy, Phantump, Phione, Pichu, Pignite, Pikipek, Pineco, Piplup, Plusle, Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Poltchageist, Poochyena, Popplio, Porygon, Prinplup, Psyduck, Pupitar, Quaxly, Quaxwell, Quilava, Raboot, Ralts, Rampardos, Rellor, Rhyhorn, Riolu, Rockruff, Rolycoly, Rookidee, Rowlet, Rufflet, Salandit, Sandile, Sandshrew, Sandslash, Sandygast, Sawsbuck, Scatterbug, Scorbunny, Scraggy, Seedot, Seel, Sentret, Servine, Seviper, Sewaddle, Shelgon, Shellder, Shellos, Shieldon, Shiftry, Shinx, Shroodle, Shroomish, Shuppet, Silicobra, Sinistea, Skiddo, Skiploom, Skrelp, Skwovet, Slaking, Slakoth, Sliggoo, Slowpoke, Slugma, Smoliv, Snivy, Snom, Snorunt, Snover, Snubbull, Sobble, Solosis, Spewpa, Spinarak, Spoink, Sprigatito, Squawkabilly, Squirtle, Stantler, Staravia, Starly, Steenee, Stonjourner, Stunky, Sudowoodo, Sunflora, Sunkern, Surskit, Swablu, Swadloon, Swinub, Tadbulb, Tandemaus, Tarountula, Teddiursa, Tentacool, Tepig, Timburr, Tinkatink, Tinkatuff, Toedscool, Torchic, Torracat, Totodile, Toucannon, Toxel, Trapinch, Treecko, Tropius, Trumbeak, Turtwig, Tynamo, Tyrogue, Varoom, Veluza, Venonat, Vibrava, Vigoroth, Voltorb, Vullaby, Wartortle, Wattrel, Weepinbell, Whiscash, Wiglett, Wingull, Wooper, Wugtrio, Wyrdeer, Yanma, Yungoos, Zorua, Zweilous

Tera Captain Stats

Sprites

71 times:
69 times:
68 times:
41 times:
38 times:
27 times:
26 times:
24 times:
22 times:
20 times:
18 times:
17 times:
16 times:
15 times:
13 times:
12 times:
11 times:
10 times:
9 times:
8 times:
7 times:
6 times:
5 times:
4 times:
3 times: :tauros-paldea:
2 times:
1 time: :tauros-paldea-fire:
0 times: :tauros-paldea-water:

Text

71 times: Raging Bolt
69 times: Tornadus-Therian
68 times: Zarude
41 times: Keldeo
38 times: Ogerpon-Wellspring
27 times: Iron Moth
26 times: Gliscor
24 times: Enamorus-Incarnate
22 times: Greninja
20 times: Iron Crown
18 times: Urshifu-Rapid-Strike, Okidogi
17 times: Ogerpon-Cornerstone
16 times: Great Tusk
15 times: Thundurus-Therian
13 times: Chi-Yu, Pecharunt, Cyclizar, Cresselia, Skeledirge, Hisuian Avalugg
12 times: Hydreigon, Hydrapple, Ogerpon, Carbink
11 times: Blastoise
10 times: Landorus-Incarnate, Mew, Sinistcha, Vikavolt
9 times: Gholdengo, Annihilape, Necrozma, Mesprit, Manaphy, Mismagius, Comfey, Entei, Florges, Ampharos
8 times: Urshifu-Single-Strike, Kingambit, Excadrill, Enamorus-Therian, Hoopa-Unbound, Rotom-Heat, Drifblim, Avalugg
7 times: Archaludon, Ceruledge, Thundurus-Incarnate, Galarian Weezing, Bellibolt, Mamoswine, Coalossal
6 times: Landorus-Therian, Quaquaval, Blaziken, Iron Boulder, Heatran, Sandy Shocks, Fezandipiti, Gengar, Moltres, Slither Wing, Garganacl, Sylveon, Lokix, Hisuian Typhlosion, Crawdaunt, Swalot, Alcremie, Appletun, Spidops
5 times: Glimmora, Weavile, Salamence, Diancie, Infernape, Volcanion, Kilowattrel, Revavroom, Serperior, Slowbro, Munkidori, Tornadus-Incarnate, Cryogonal, Dusknoir, Granbull, Registeel
4 times: Galarian Slowking, Iron Hands, Primarina, Ursaluna, Basculegion, Gothitelle, Hisuian Arcanine, Kommo-o, Raikou, Talonflame, Shaymin, Arcanine, Noivern, Salazzle, Tsareena, Feraligatr, Bisharp, Emboar, Froslass, Jolteon, Smeargle, Trevenant, Clefairy, Electivire, Leafeon
3 times: Tinkaton, Galarian Moltres, Hawlucha, Terrakion, Espathra, Rhyperior, Amoonguss, Araquanid, Bronzong, Cetitan, Muk, Suicune, Toxtricity, Galarian Slowbro, Gastrodon, Incineroar, Lucario, Rotom-Fan, Weezing, Duraludon, Hitmontop, Houndstone, Lanturn, Oricorio, Alolan Sandslash, Farigiraf, Grafaiai, Hoopa, Minior, Misdreavus, Orthworm, Pincurchin, Raichu, Rhydon, Typhlosion, Alolan Exeggutor, Komala, Paldean Tauros, Scovillain
2 times: Zapdos, Walking Wake, Metagross, Scizor, Clefable, Galarian Zapdos, Rillaboom, Azelf, Deoxys-Defense, Lycanroc-Dusk, Clodsire, Empoleon, Hisuian Zoroark, Ninetales, Dudunsparce, Dugtrio, Hisuian Goodra, Iron Jugulis, Mienshao, Mimikyu, Toxapex, Venusaur, Gyarados, Milotic, Alolan Muk, Brambleghast, Eelektross, Rotom-Mow, Chandelure, Galvantula, Porygon2, Regidrago, Wo-Chien, Blissey, Indeedee, Iron Leaves, Skuntank, Tauros, Arbok, Dachsbun, Gothorita, Lapras, Passimian, Alolan Golem, Ariados, Crabominable, Dipplin, Eiscue, Meowstic, Quilladin, Vulpix
1 time: Meowscarada, Ting-Lu, Cinderace, Jirachi, Alomomola, Corviknight, Scream Tail, Azumarill, Krookodile, Uxie, Gardevoir, Hatterene, Klefki, Mandibuzz, Overqwil, Tyranitar, Conkeldurr, Grimmsnarl, Skarmory, Rotom, Armarouge, Dondozo, Hisuian Qwilfish, Meloetta, Reuniclus, Braviary, Cloyster, Forretress, Hippowdon, Paldean Tauros Blaze, Pawmot, Porygon-Z, Scrafty, Snorlax, Chesnaught, Decidueye, Hisuian Braviary, Hisuian Electrode, Inteleon, Magnezone, Maushold, Quagsire, Ursaring, Alolan Persian, Arboliva, Cinccino, Ditto, Espeon, Flygon, Glastrier, Iron Thorns, Polteageist, Regirock, Rotom-Frost, Scyther, Umbreon, Altaria, Articuno, Bombirdier, Copperajah, Dunsparce, Gligar, Gurdurr, Illumise, Magneton, Masquerain, Meganium, Primeape, Regice, Thwackey, Victreebel, Volbeat, Alolan Dugtrio, Bayleef, Charjabug, Clawitzer, Dewpider, Dodrio, Drilbur, Dusclops, Eelektrik, Electrode, Exeggutor, Falinks, Gogoat, Hattrem, Haunter, Kricketune, Magmortar, Noctowl, Perrserker, Pikachu, Probopass, Pyroar, Samurott, Sneasel, Swanna, Vespiquen, Vivillon, Wigglytuff, Zangoose, Zebstrika
0 times: Iron Treads, Hisuian Samurott, Rotom-Wash, Cobalion, Donphan, Hisuian Lilligant, Pelipper, Slowking, Swampert, Tentacruel, Torkoal, Alolan Ninetales, Barraskewda, Qwilfish, Whimsicott, Abomasnow, Breloom, Dragalge, Goodra, Haxorus, Delphox, Gallade, Hariyama, Heracross, Kingdra, Kleavor, Paldean Tauros Aqua, Ribombee, Sableye, Vaporeon, Mudsdale, Politoed, Torterra, Vileplume, Yanmega, Zoroark, Brute Bonnet, Chansey, Galarian Articuno, Golurk, Hitmonlee, Lycanroc-Midday, Medicham, Palossand, Piloswine, Spiritomb, Staraptor, Tatsugiri, Venomoth, Alolan Raichu, Ambipom, Bruxish, Charizard, Drednaw, Flamigo, Floatzel, Hisuian Decidueye, Hitmonchan, Leavanny, Ludicolo, Poliwrath, Sandaconda, Sceptile, Toedscruel, Toxicroak, Virizion, Aipom, Alolan Diglett, Alolan Geodude, Alolan Graveler, Alolan Grimer, Alolan Meowth, Alolan Sandshrew, Alolan Vulpix, Applin, Arctibax, Arrokuda, Axew, Azurill, Bagon, Banette, Barboach, Basculin, Bastiodon, Beartic, Beldum, Bellossom, Bellsprout, Bergmite, Blitzle, Bonsly, Bounsweet, Braixen, Bramblin, Brionne, Bronzor, Buizel, Bulbasaur, Cacnea, Cacturne, Calyrex, Camerupt, Capsakid, Carkol, Cetoddle, Charcadet, Charmander, Charmeleon, Chespin, Chewtle, Chikorita, Chimchar, Chimecho, Chinchou, Chingling, Clauncher, Cleffa, Combee, Combusken, Corphish, Corvisquire, Cosmoem, Cosmog, Cottonee, Crabrawler, Cramorant, Cranidos, Croagunk, Crocalor, Croconaw, Cubchoo, Cufant, Cutiefly, Cyndaquil, Dartrix, Dedenne, Deerling, Deino, Delibird, Dewgong, Dewott, Diglett, Doduo, Dolliv, Dragonair, Drakloak, Dratini, Dreepy, Drifloon, Drizzile, Drowzee, Ducklett, Duosion, Duskull, Eevee, Ekans, Electabuzz, Espurr, Exeggcute, Feebas, Fennekin, Fidough, Finizen, Finneon, Flaaffy, Flabébé, Flapple, Flareon, Fletchinder, Fletchling, Flittle, Floette, Floragato, Fomantis, Foongus, Fraxure, Frigibax, Froakie, Frogadier, Frosmoth, Fuecoco, Furret, Gabite, Galarian Meowth, Galarian Slowpoke, Gastly, Geodude, Gible, Gimmighoul, Girafarig, Glaceon, Glalie, Glimmet, Gloom, Golduck, Golem, Golett, Goomy, Gothita, Graveler, Greavard, Greedent, Grimer, Grookey, Grotle, Grovyle, Growlithe, Grubbin, Grumpig, Gulpin, Gumshoos, Hakamo-o, Happiny, Hatenna, Hippopotas, Hisuian Growlithe, Hisuian Sliggoo, Hisuian Sneasel, Hisuian Voltorb, Hisuian Zorua, Honchkrow, Hoothoot, Hoppip, Houndoom, Houndour, Hypno, Igglybuff, Impidimp, Inkay, Ivysaur, Jangmo-o, Jigglypuff, Joltik, Jumpluff, Kirlia, Klawf, Koffing, Kricketot, Krokorok, Kubfu, Lampent, Larvesta, Larvitar, Lechonk, Lilligant, Litleo, Litten, Litwick, Lombre, Lotad, Lumineon, Lurantis, Luvdisc, Luxio, Luxray, Lycanroc-Midnight, Mabosstiff, Magcargo, Magikarp, Magmar, Magnemite, Makuhita, Malamar, Mankey, Mareanie, Mareep, Marill, Marshtomp, Maschiff, Meditite, Meowth, Metang, Mienfoo, Mightyena, Milcery, Minccino, Minun, Monferno, Morgrem, Morpeko, Mudbray, Mudkip, Munchlax, Murkrow, Nacli, Naclstack, Noibat, Nosepass, Numel, Nuzleaf, Nymble, Oddish, Oinkologne, Oranguru, Oshawott, Pachirisu, Paldean Wooper, Pawmi, Pawmo, Pawniard, Persian, Petilil, Phanpy, Phantump, Phione, Pichu, Pignite, Pikipek, Pineco, Piplup, Plusle, Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Poltchageist, Poochyena, Popplio, Porygon, Prinplup, Psyduck, Pupitar, Quaxly, Quaxwell, Quilava, Raboot, Rabsca, Ralts, Rampardos, Regigigas, Rellor, Rhyhorn, Riolu, Rockruff, Rolycoly, Rookidee, Rowlet, Rufflet, Salandit, Sandile, Sandshrew, Sandslash, Sandygast, Sawsbuck, Scatterbug, Scorbunny, Scraggy, Seedot, Seel, Sentret, Servine, Seviper, Sewaddle, Shelgon, Shellder, Shellos, Shieldon, Shiftry, Shinx, Shroodle, Shroomish, Shuppet, Silicobra, Sinistea, Skiddo, Skiploom, Skrelp, Skwovet, Slaking, Slakoth, Sliggoo, Slowpoke, Slugma, Smoliv, Snivy, Snom, Snorunt, Snover, Snubbull, Sobble, Solosis, Spewpa, Spinarak, Spoink, Sprigatito, Squawkabilly, Squirtle, Stantler, Staravia, Starly, Steenee, Stonjourner, Stunky, Sudowoodo, Sunflora, Sunkern, Surskit, Swablu, Swadloon, Swinub, Tadbulb, Tandemaus, Tarountula, Teddiursa, Tentacool, Tepig, Timburr, Tinkatink, Tinkatuff, Toedscool, Torchic, Torracat, Totodile, Toucannon, Toxel, Trapinch, Treecko, Tropius, Trumbeak, Turtwig, Tynamo, Tyrogue, Varoom, Veluza, Venonat, Vibrava, Vigoroth, Voltorb, Vullaby, Wartortle, Wattrel, Weepinbell, Whiscash, Wiglett, Wingull, Wooper, Wugtrio, Wyrdeer, Yanma, Yungoos, Zorua, Zweilous

On the Rise


Spring Seasonal Usage: 38/64 (59%)
Autumn Seasonal Usage: 67/72 (93%)
Net Change: +34%

Roaring Moon used to be considered a "second tier" Speed option, since at 119 Speed it's short of outpacing the likes of Meowscarada, Darkrai, and Greninja. However, it's now completely overtaken Greninja in usage and is exactly tied with Darkrai, despite being cheaper than both of them. This is likely a result of Roaring Moon's raw power being far better than any of the other available options, which makes it stronger into the more defensive structures that have been cropping up as of late. A strong Knock Off always lets it contribute something even if it runs into one of the few Pokemon that can actually stonewall it such as Alomomola, but if worst comes to worst it can always U-turn. Its potential as a speed-boosting setup sweeper forces a certain amount of respect in the builder, which lets the Roaring Moon player capitalize off its inherent pressure and make progress in a way that the other main speed Pokemon can't.



Spring Seasonal Usage: 26/64 (40%)
Autumn Seasonal Usage: 47/72 (65%)
Net Change: +25%

Cyclizar saw massive success in both of 2025's biggest team tours (DPL9 and DCL3), so it's only natural that its usage among the wider playerbase would increase too as more people became aware of its strengths. It's got a great speed tier, great movepool, and Regenerator. Really the only thing it lacks is stats besides Speed, but the combination of its high base-power STAB moves and Regenerator letting it run Life Orb relatively freely makes up for them quite a lot. There's not much else to elaborate on here that I haven't said before in the tier shift post, but I thought it was worth mentioning that the usage swing was this large even though Cyclizar became 2 points more expensive since Spring Seasonal.



Spring Seasonal Usage: 18/64 (28%)
Autumn Seasonal Usage: 46/72 (64%)
Net Change: +36%

Paldea Dex draft has been dominated by Water-types all generation. Early on, it was Palafin and Iron Bundle. Later, it became Ogerpon-Wellspring and Greninja. Now, we're in the era of Keldeo and Urshifu-Rapid-Strike (except Keldeo is way more popular). The other Water-types all still see use, but Keldeo is splashable in a way that the others all aren't: it's a naturally strong + fast special attacker (surprisingly rare at the top end of the board). Its incredibly strong Vacuum Wave matches well into all the fast Dark-types in the meta, and its ability to target both defenses + Tera Blast makes it unwallable in a conventional way. Both forms of Keldeo saw an uptick in usage in the past, but now the trend has consolidated into Tera Keldeo, with 41 of the 46 Keldeos being Tera Captains this seasonal.



Spring Seasonal Usage: 5/64 (8%)
Autumn Seasonal Usage: 18/72 (25%)
Net Change: +17%

Toxapex had a phenomenal performance in DCL3. High usage, high win rate, and even carrying the winning team ZFG in playoffs to victory. Toxapex essentially acts as a reliable "roadblock" for many relevant Pokemon in the meta. Take Keldeo for example, which we just talked about as a big threat on the rise. It resists both Water and Fighting and has bulk on both sides to not care about Secret Sword's physical defense targeting. Keldeo is forced to commit a specific Tera type and at least one move slot, maybe more, to reliably get around Toxapex in any given matchup. It creates a lot of builder pressure, and it's not the easiest Pokemon to exploit. While Taunt shuts down most of its shenanigans, it still has a high base-power Gunk Shot that can dent the frail offensive Pokemon it likes to check, or it can just act as an Eject Button/Red Card merchant to get offensive threats out of position. All in all, it's really good value for its current price right now (7 points), so the usage naturally went up.



Spring Seasonal Usage: 21/64 (33%)
Autumn Seasonal Usage: 33/72 (46%)
Net Change: +13%


Spring Seasonal Usage: 14/64 (22%)
Autumn Seasonal Usage: 38/72 (53%)
Net Change: +31%

It's official: every masked Ogerpon is now more popular than the unmasked Ogerpon Teal. Tealpon's usage didn't actually change that significantly, the others just caught up and pushed ahead. Masked Ogerpons may be weak to hazards, but people are now looking past that and instead seeing the excellent utility these Pokemon can provide while still dealing very significant damage with their excellent STAB combinations and coverage. In particular, 110 base-Speed Encore is incredible in this meta. That places them above Zarude, Keldeo, and Enamorus-Incarnate, which otherwise get the better of the other popular Encore Pokemon. These two Ogerpon formes are worse defensively than their other two counterparts, but can reach comparable levels of strength/utility for a cheaper price without committing a Tera slot, which the community is valuing heavily right now.



Spring Seasonal Usage: 4/64 (6%)
Autumn Seasonal Usage: 11/72 (15%)
Net Change: +9%

It's a small change, but I wanted to acknowledge it anyway since I personally think Entei is one of the coolest low tier options on the board. Its price got slashed from ~7 points to 5, and now it's finally starting to see some decent usage. Invest in Entei stocks!



Spring Seasonal Usage: 3/64 (5%)
Autumn Seasonal Usage: 5/72 (7%)
Net Change: +2%

Okay, so, I wouldn't exactly say Slowbro is "on the rise" usage wise, but there is something a little interesting. Last seasonal, of the 3 Slowbros drafted, only 1 of them was declared a Tera Captain. This seasonal, all 5 of the Slowbros drafted are Tera Captains. There's been some community mumblings about Tera Slowbro being a potential hidden gem, and it looks like it's starting to be put to the test. If you look at Slowbro's stats, you'll find it's surprisingly similar to Hydrapple. It has a bit less HP and noticeably less Sp. Attack, but they're otherwise basically the same, and they both have Regenerator. Slowbro has a much wider movepool with stronger utility, but Hydrapple has far more raw power in its moveset. Slowbro definitely seems to have some things going for it on paper, so maybe we'll see an uptick of Slowbro usage in the future if these brave pioneers do well.


On the Fall
To my surprise, there's actually not many Pokemon that significantly fell off in usage. Of course there are plenty of Pokemon with less usage than before, but you still see the same general ordering of Pokemon in the meta, with the biggest disruptors to the order being the rises. Most of the decreases in usage don't have an obvious meta trend or tier shift to point toward either, so this section is going to be quite short because there's not much interesting to talk about here.



Spring Seasonal Usage: 4/64 (6%)
Autumn Seasonal Usage: 0/72 (0%)
Net Change: -100%

Poor Abomasnow...it was a top 10 kill leader in DCL2 and was drafted ridiculously early for its former price of 4 points, but it paid for its crimes by being increased to 6 points and has been there for over a year now. It still saw some usage, but nowhere near the levels previously. It's likely due to two factors: many other Pokemon on the board got slashed in price over the past year, which makes 6 point Abomasnow a lot less compelling than before. Additionally, Abomasnow had a nice niche of being a decent check to all the most relevant Water-types: Palafin and Ogerpon-Wellspring, but since Keldeo and Urshifu-Rapid have become mainstays, Abomasnow's Fighting weakness is a lot harder to overlook.



Spring Seasonal usage: 24/64 (38%)
Autumn Seasonal Usage: 13/72 (18%)
Net Change: -20%

Klefki is an interesting one. It's got a great typing and great utility, but it kind of doesn't really do anything for or against fatter teams. Its stats are too low to have longevity for longer battles, and fatter teams don't benefit as much from its screens support. People have been gravitating toward other options for Steel-types such as Corviknight and Jirachi that have more versatility.



Spring Seasonal Usage: 4/64 (6%)
Autumn Seasonal Usage: 0/72 (0%)
Net Change: -100%


Spring Seasonal Usage: 8/64 (13%)
Autumn Seasonal Usage: 5/72 (7%)
Net Change: -6%


Spring Seasonal Usage: 14/64 (22%)
Autumn Seasonal Usage: 11/72 (15%)
Net Change: -7%

This is more of a general "Rain" section since all of its main pieces saw at least a little drop in usage even with having a larger sample size. It's hard to build a consistent Rain team when not many of the top tiers particularly benefit from it, and even if they do, have much more reliable and tested paths to go down. Even worse, you can make a Sun team for a similar price, and plenty of top tiers love having Sun around. Rain probably needs a widespread discount to be a viable route at this point, so perhaps you'll see that in the future.

 

[Nozzermat]

Winning Draft Spring Seasonal with Gothitelle HO​

A few days ago I won the Smogon Draft 2026 Spring Seasonal, with a team that people often brand as “typical Nozzermat bullshit”. It was an incredibly tough run, with multiple weeks where I thought it was doomed. But I managed to come out on top, and so I wanted to showcase the run that I am so proud of, and more importantly, the thought process behind the typical Nozzermat bullshit.

My idea going into this tournament was to highlight Tera Gothitelle and Tera Polteageist which are both mons that I hold in very high regard, despite them not being typical mons you see used in the wider community. After using Goth extensively in SV Draft, I know exactly what I’m looking for in a draft such that I can enable it, and use it to enable the rest of the team. I dub this

Nozzermat’s Gothitelle Hyper Offence​

As such this was the draft:

With Teras on Quaquaval, Gothitelle, and Polteageist. Remaining points: 3/90
This draft is perfect, no, there were not any potential upgrades available with those 3 points, no further questions.

That's just one instance, but the key components of this archetype are:

1. Tera Gothitelle, obviously.

2. A good role compressing spinner, this is basically just Terapagos and Iron Treads, with the pick order determining my choice. Great Tusk might work as well and could be a potential tera pairing, but I’ve not tried it yet.

Role compression is critical because so many slots are dedicated to support. Meaning that good ‘catch-all’ mons are necessary in order to survive into more powerful drafts – e.g. Terap stops opposing sweeps with its shell, Treads can do this as well but to a lesser extent as it will typically live any physical hit and can prevent the reverse sweep.

3. A flexible tera setup sweeper. This is often the centre-piece of my Gothitelle drafts. The idea is that by having Goth on the draft, potential checks to your setup sweeper need to be wary of being trapped and thus leaving a hole in their team for the setup sweeper to setup and sweep through. Some examples of this are Quaquaval, Blaziken, Urshifus, Kommo-o, and Wellspring. This team slot needs to be flexible in their options as it means that sometimes you can alter that weak-point to a mon that might not be immediately apparent – meaning that your opponent might be more likely to fall into the trap. The mons I’ve listed are all strong tera captains on their own, which is important as a trapping game plan is not going to work every week, and so the team needs to be able to function with and without the Goth.

4. Layered item bait. If you have a pokemon on your draft that is countered by a particular item, your opponent needs to make a choice between running that item, or not. For example, into Sticky Webs or other hazard stackers, lots of mons will be inclined to run Heavy Duty Boots, this is perfect as once that mon comes out you immediately gain that information, meaning that you now know that they aren’t running the specific item that counters one of your other pokemon (i.e. Mirror Herb into Polteageist, or Rocky Helmet into Quaquaval, or Shed Shell into Gothitelle) which opens up unambiguous lines of play.

5. Screens, hazards, trickers.

Screens are really nice to have as they enable both the setup sweeper, and also the Goth into particular matchups, they can also help patch specific problematic matchups as HO can often just lose on the spot if a threat is given a free turn, so having up even one screen can enable certain lines of play while preventing situations where that threat comes in and reverse sweeps.
While hazards are important, it’s actually the threat of hazards that is important. Having multiple Stealth Rockers disincentivises opposing pokemon from running Focus Sash, which are often one of the best ways to prevent a sweep. Glimm is particularly good at this as it is able to get up hazards without actually using a move slot via Toxic Debris, but I’ll get into this in more detail later.

Trickers: being able to trick opposing pokemon choice items is a very useful tech that isn’t going to be brought every week, but can be used to guarantee outcomes, I.e being able to setup with a mon after sacking the tricker, or to prevent something like Zarude from using it’s coverage to trade into multiple mons at once.

6. A Ghost type to pair with the hazards, this is self explanatory. A Ghost-type is important because it forces opponents to respect hazards even when I rarely intend to stack them. This slot should also provide some other consistently bringable value to the team outside of just spin blocking, i.e. Polteageist threatens sweeps with Shell Smash, has screens, Memento, Trick, Weak Armor, the list goes on, Annihilape can act as utility, or a bulky cleaner. But something like Dusknoir, Golurk, or Spiritomb really don’t provide any flexibility – nor are they shiest so don’t use those.

7. Sticky webs, this was new to me in this tournament, but will definitely become a mainstay on this structure for me. Webs mean that mons with Boots or grounded scarfers are essentially locked at base speed, meaning my +1 sweeper usually controls Speed.

8. And finally this isn’t a role or type of mon but this is important: every mon needs to be bringable, not bringable once in 15 games, but at least 5 times in 15. This is because there are going to be matchups where particular components just aren’t bringable, Gothitelle simply won’t work in 35% of games, your setup sweeper might have multiple counters that aren’t feasible to get past, and then Sticky Webs might be into a Cinderace or a Hatterene, the list goes on. By having such a broad spectrum of possible paths to approach each game, your opponent is more likely to be caught off guard – which is where HO like this really takes over games.

The Pokemon that best demonstrated this philosophy were:​

Glimmora – GUARANTEED OUTCOMES. This concept is crucial to this style of HO, as the games are often decided in so few turns all of them need to count, and Glimm can essentially act twice in a single turn, making it so valuable. I can have it get up screens while forcing my opponent to bring in a poison type soon – ready to be exploited in the builder. I can have it threaten to punch holes with its great special attack, it can come in on physical attackers and force them to either put up a tspike on their side of field, or switch out and give it a free attack. It also gets Rock Polish which can eliminate the need to ever make a 50/50 read on the switch. And Memento. All while threatening opposing mons in the teambuilder to run Heavy Duty Boots as most people see it as a hazard bot (I had Stealth Rocks on 2 out of 12 sets, and only actually clicked it once, also 0 regular Spikes at all).


Polteageist – loses to Mirror Herb never draft this. (I did admittedly lose a game turn 2 to this exact interaction, but that was a mistake in the builder on my side, and is not reflective of the mon at all). This mon is really good, perhaps even insane for it’s price point, but it will not fit on every structure. This is another mon with GUARANTEED OUTCOMES, you can run Weak Armor which means that you will always get to use its 134 spA stat while preventing Rapid Spins. +2 to speed is also such a filthy mechanic, you barely ever need to run any investment to outspeed your opponents mons – often times I was near max hp max defence in order to always tank 1 hit. It also has a great movepool in Strength Sap, Will-o, screens, Memento, TR, and obviously Shell Smash, also don’t sleep on Cursed Body at all. On the Shell Smash – Mirror Herb scepticism, there are plenty of ways that you can manipulate this interaction, one is Endure + Red Card – this means that if something hard switches in to Mirror Herb, you can Endure and Red Card them out, leaving you open to sweep (Endure is also handy to have into opposing physical scarfers trying to outspeed you after you’re +2). You can also just not run Shell Smash and use the rest of its amazing sets like TR or Weak Armor attack spammer – wow – what a pokemon.


Ribombee– THIS MON WAS INSANE. 124 is an insane speed tier, meaning that you can outspeed basically anything. This thing also has a goated support movepool, meaning that a lot of the time you can invest heavily into defensive stats and prevent specific hits from killing you – i.e. a cheap 88Hp 88Def spread lives a Weavile Triple Axel from full, meaning that off lead you can force it’s sash to be broken by U-turn, or worst case you can reveal that it’s not sash at all as it kills with Never Melt Ice or Life Orb, meaning that other mons aren’t stopped in their sweeps.

This set I ran vs Geo was absolute perfection (and really epitomises the number of situations this mon can cover when you specifically tailor it)

Ribombee @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Shield Dust
EVs: 92 HP / 96 Atk / 88 Def / 60 SpA / 108 SpD / 64 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Moonblast
- Trick
- Light Screen

The goal of this set was to lead into opposing Ninetales sun and immediately Trick a scarf to enable up Goth sweeps later on. It features the Weavile Calc from earlier, but is also packing enough attack such that after a U-turn the Weavile always dies to 3 hits of Rocky Helmet should it go for Triple Axel. The defence and spdef combination is such that after taking a sun reduced Alomomola Flip Turn, it will live always live a timid LO Venusaur Weather Ball with a Light Screen up, meaning that It can be preserved as a sack against sun (which is incredibly important into such a high immediate power team). But none of that awesome tech got to play out, see the highlight games section for more on this.


Gothitelle – and finally the Heartbeat of this team. I love this mon, and the reason is that it can shift a lot of the agency into the teambuilder instead of the actual battle. I used to like making flashy plays but for every 50:50 you win you also lose one. Using this mon means that I can try and remove that chance from the battle (obviously a game is never guaranteed, and a lot of these Goth strats are liable to crits), and instead highlight meticulous planning and forward thinking.

There are lots of potential sets that you can run on Goth, and each of them is going to be hyper specific to the matchup and the very specific goals you want it to achieve. Goth's stats are mediocre and its movepool is surprisingly shallow. That means every set has to be hyper-specialised, and you rarely have enough EVs or moveslots to cover multiple jobs at once. For example, with a scarf or Salac set, the maximum speed you can hit is 376 (enough to outspeed Torn-T by 1 point), however, this means that you only have 256 Evs to spend elsewhere which might not be enough to tailor your defenses to cover multiple scenarios, or might mean that you don’t have enough spA to KO certain threats if you instead wanted to pivot the gameplan mid game to trap a threat and KO i.e. to KO a 0 investment Great Tusk with Psychic you need 172 spA Evs, which means you can’t EV yourself to live a sun/booster attack Rapid Spin into Headlong Rush – whereas you could alternatively run a max bulk set that would be able to take on this Tusk (yes people shouldn’t have Torn + Tusk, but it’s just an example to show that it struggle to cover many types of situations at once).

Highlight games​

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9draft-2600163941-sx1trdfdefnkjqs110956t2m8esyjhopw

This battle vs SinOfWrath was an epic game of back and forth action, Ribombee put in work, Polteagiest put up a huge performance with Red Card + Endure, and Gothitelle did a simple Trick Room last mon clean up.

---

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9draft-938361

This game vs Jscurf showcased the slight upside Quaquaval has over Blaziken – Quaquaval is able to snowball games by gaining speed and offence stats at the same time, while Blaziken could achieve this with protect and SD, it would be put in a 50:50 situation versus TornT - you could click Swords Dance on the Torn but what if he reads that and taunts you - meaning that you might not have the power to kill whatever is coming in next. Quaquaval is able to come in and guarantee that it will either be leaving that Torn interaction with +1 attack and at least +1 speed, or that if they are going to switch, whatever comes in needs to be able to avoid the 2hko or result in the same Moxie boost (i.e. if Alo comes in it will need to survive aqua step into Tera Blast electric – it would be able to live this from full, but can’t threaten back at all due to Covert Cloak, so Quaq would then get to ask the same question to whatever comes in next, until it gets its answer (a sweep)).

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https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9draft-943465

This game vs Yerdunc was pretty cool and very close. Gothitelle played a pure support role here allowing the Roaring moon to setup and kill the Great Tusk, while staying healthy enough for Weavile’s Ice Shard only have a 12.5% chance to kill at that hp(RIP). The endgame looks like a missplay from Yerdunc at the end with Palafin opting to not Jet Punch and kill the Ribombee, but had this happened then Quaquaval would’ve won anyway by clicking Aqua Step twice (if he hard switched into Bramble on the Quaq then he would need to dodge the 1st or 2nd hit of Triple Axel to win the game) - so I guess he was looking for me to choke with Stun Spore or something like that.

---

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9draft-946036

Quarter Finals vs Dr Geo.

I think this was the hardest matchup of the tournament. Quaq had 0 chance of doing anything into Great Tusk and Raging Bolt in the sun, and similarly Polteageist was up against too much priority to be able sweep with Shell Smash – something like bulky Trick Room might’ve been able to do something, but if he were to bring Calm Mind or Assault Vest Raging Bolt it wouldn’t be able to break a big enough of a hole to make up for the difference in mon quality across the rest of the team.

So my gameplan going into this was: force at least 3 kills with Gothitelle or lose.

To do this I was going to layer as many checkmate traps as I could. My first port of call would be to Trick a scarf with Ribombee turn 1, and depending on what that fell onto, I would have a completely different gameplan of how to capitalise on it. This took extensive preparation, and I essentially had this game drawn up as a flow chart.

Ribombee's Trick created four distinct game trees depending on where the scarf landed. I'd prepared all four in advance, but fortunately Geo immediately chose the Ninetales line, which let Goth come in and start setting up immediately. Clicking Trick Room into Tink on turn 9 looks weird but this was GENIUS. If the Tink was carrying encore, then if he clicks that on turn 10 then Goth is would come out of this exchange with a fresh Trick Room as the encore ends – meaning it could kill the rest of his team. If he wasn’t carrying it, then Goth gets the Trick Room back up the next turn and kills the rest anyway.

---

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9draft-948952

This semi finals game is an example of how quickly HO teams like this fall apart when things don’t go your way. My gameplan here revolved around using Glimmora into his 0 rock resist team (genius), unfortunately it misses a Meteor Beam and so I’m forced to give up 87% health on my Gothitelle just to stop myself from being 6-0 by Valiant – meaning that I become been hard walled by Iron defense Slowbro unless I’m able to summon a perfectly timed crit (skill diff).

---

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9draft-951538

And the finals. This was a game of trying not to lose to Zarude the second it comes out, this can either be done by having up a tspike, tricking it a choice item with Ribombee or Gothitelle meaning it’s limited to only killing a measly single pokemon every time it comes out(amazing value), or sacking off my whole Treads to click Scary Face and Metal Sound so that I can actually revenge it (yes he can just switch out, but that gives me more turns where I’m temporarily playing a game without Zarude). Luckily my opponent didn’t bring Pecharunt so that first option was fairly trivial, but there was still a big problem in that if Cinderace decided to sacrifice itself to Court Change that tspike back to me, I would probably lose – this was an exact scenario that I’d lost to in mocks vs Manou.

Glimm into Swampert Lead, Energy Balling into a rindo berry, and him Flip Turning out into Ace.

Now why would he bring out Ace here?

Ace realistically had three options here: Court Change, Scorching Sands or Zen Headbutt. Scorching Sands would require a very specific set that made less sense than Zen Headbutt, and produces a broadly worse outcome for him thank clicking court change.

So this interaction brings me to this Gothitelle set:

Gothtavo Fring (Gothitelle) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Shadow Tag
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 248 HP / 20 Def / 240 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick
- Foul Play
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic

Switching hard into Goth covers him Court Changing, as I can double back out to Glimm instantly on the U-turn to remove tspike from my side, and get up a fresh one on his side. This loses me some inituitive but not very much as I had good responses to him going into one of his flyers in Skarm(free Power Gem), Lati(Goth can come back in and give it a scarf, leading to easier Moon endgames), or Enamorus(either massive chip or he gives up tera) all while the tspike is still up.

But the best case scenario for me here, and one that appears to from the outside to be a very reasonable play for him here, is that he clicks Zen Headbutt, thinking that it is absolutely free as even if I go into Moon or Goth, he can just switch or U-turn out respectively.

But I had this all laid out. BOOM SCARF TERA DARK FOUL PLAY OHKOS THE CINDERACE. THE TSPIKE STAYS UP FOREVER.

After that it’s just a pretty cool game to watch, some funny turns of Iron Treads showing off its Scary Face, and Choice Specs Ribombee absolutely fucking shit up in a world with no fairy resist. The only thing I had to be cautious about was Agility Enamorus – as if it managed to click Agility twice through bulky investment + HDB or Sitrus it would’ve cleaned up – but he wasn’t that set anyway so I just won.

Outro and Thanks​

So that’s the rundown on my Spring Seasonal run. I did write a couple pages on whether Gothitelle should be banned or not (it shouldn’t) but that would’ve put this post even further past the point of needing a TL;DR.

Actually winning Seasonal was obviously the highlight, but it definitely wasn't something I did alone so huge shoutouts to:

Mishmeshseph – he is my day 1, mocks every week, beats me most times, the goat. (I know you won’t read all this)

Zetchupicus – I initially thought you might’ve been a Yerdunc spy, but instead you were giving multiple mocks every week – each with completely different builds – what a legend.

Berna – my Teapot brother – thank you for always falling into my Gothitelle traps to boost my confidence

Manou – the final boss each week, you owe me some caffeine for the number of nights I’ve lost sleep trying to come up with some stupid tech that’s just crazy enough to get past your builds.

Caffine Addict – always telling me my bullshit is cool instead of telling me it’s stupid– you’re a real one for that.

Minissou – thank you for all the high quality mocks and for also telling me my sets are cool.

 

[urban]

While I wasn't able to clinch victory in Seasonal finals, I still wanted to share some thoughts on my team and the SV metagame more broadly after my run. I ended up writing a ton, so I'm going to put most of this in spoiler tags. Wanted to thank all the people who mocked me in the later rounds of Swiss and Top Cut. Had a great time throughout the tour and was very happy with how my team turned out and performed. GGs to all my opponents and congrats to Nozzermat on his win.

The Draft

I was originally pick 6 in my draft pool, which put me in prime position to pick up R1 Tera Zarude. Zarude drafts can struggle with speed, so I knew my R2 pick had to be fast, and Cinderace felt like the natural best option if I didn't want to be stuck with Iron Bundle. From there, I started looking at Zarude/Cinderace builds and found two teams from DWL1/DPL9 that featured a Zarude/Cinderace/Latias core that seemed really good to me. My desired R3 was Gholdengo, but since it had been taken, I decided to pick up Pecharunt. While Pecharunt doesn't have the offensive presence of Gholdengo, it is (arguably) a better spin blocker and has some other neat tools like Parting Shot at its disposal; being a grounded Poison was also pretty nice for the team. Took the Latias R4, which provided some special offense and Healing Wish support for Zarude.

The remaining picks were mostly role filling. Skarmory is a super undervalued Steel at only 8 points - an excellent blanket physical wall with a great support move pool. Enamorus-T is a fairly strong secondary Tera captain who hits hard with great coverage and gives me a second Healing Wish user for Zarude. My choice of Grounds was pretty limited by R5, so I decided on Swampert then and knew I could delay it until the last round. Swampert is a very consistent Pokemon - only one weakness with great bulk and movepool plus a slow Flip Turn to enable everyone else. For the last slot, I considered some kind of cope hazard removal or an Electric type/Flying Resist, but the thought of having 4 Zarudes was too tempting, and I picked up Pawmot.

The Team's Performance

I think the team performed very well overall and mostly as intended. Zarude/Cinderace/Latias came every game. Skarmory/Enamorus-T/Swampert came to about the same number of games with a slight edge for Skarmory. Pecharunt/Pawmot came to the fewest games. Here's a quick run-down of how I would rank the performance of each Pokemon on the team:

1. (T) - The obvious star of the team and the best Pokemon in the tier. Consistently one or two turns away from sweeping most teams in the meta with the right set. The hard part (sometimes) is calling that set correctly.

2. - Performed above expectations and a really consistent Pokemon overall. Good natural bulk and typing make sweeper sets threatening to a lot of builds. Great support movepool when it doesn't want/need to sweep either.

3. - Performed at expectations, but still performed quite well overall. Strong fast pivot and my only form of hazard removal in Court Change, which actually went a long way in discouraging hazard stacking against me. Could pull off the occasional Scarf/SD set as well.

4. - Performed above expectations. Can wall pretty much any physical attacker, forcing switches while it gets up hazards. SpDef sets have some merit too, forcing Hydrapple to Tera to beat it. Taunt + Roost is amazing. Should definitely see a price increase for DCL/next Seasonal.

5. - Performed above expectations. Lefties/AV + Flip Turn is all this Pokemon needed to do something most of the time. Mirror Coat/Counter caught a fair number of KOs. Occasionally able to pull off offensive sets like Scarf and Band.

6. (T) - Performed at expectations. Was usually a lead if I didn't want to commit Tera to it. Tera'ed a few times over Zarude, some planned, some when I lost the Zarude too early. Probably needed more consistent Screens support to be fully effective.

7. - Performed at expectations, but they were pretty low to begin with. Would have been the bottom of my rankings before Playoffs, as I didn't bring it once in Swiss. However, I ran into back-to-back Iron Treads/Zapdos/Fast Dark teams in Playoffs, and Pawmot put in some work in those matchups.

8. - Performed below expectations, by a lot. I think part of the issue here may have been the rest of my draft, but, wow, did this thing not feel bringable way too many weeks for a 14 point Pokemon. As a spin blocker, it loses to the three best spinners in Great Tusk/Iron Treads/Terapagos. There are also a ton of Dark types that prevent it from doing much in a lot of matchups, especially when its attacking options are pretty pitiful outside of Malignant Chain. Dissuading Tera Fairy and fishing for Malignant Chain luck was all this thing could do.

Changes I would make

If I could only change one Pokemon, I would ditch the Pawmot for another Electric that got Screens, probably Sandy Shocks or a Rotom form. Latias is a good Screens Pokemon, but set up Latias is also an excellent beneficiary of Screens itself. Would have been nice to have another option.

If I could change more, I would keep Zarude/Cinderace/Latias/Skarmory and pick up Alomomola R3 instead of Pecharunt. Alomomola gives the team much better sustaining power overall, which I felt was an issue at times in longer battles. From there, it's hard to say exactly how the draft would shake out, but I think that top 5 would be excellent.

Fun Sets

Latias (F) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 216 HP / 208 Atk / 68 SpA / 16 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Stored Power
- Dragon Claw
- Reflect
- Dragon Dance

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9draft-949365

Ran this against Sage in Semifinals, and it worked exactly as I planned. Latias forces a switch into her Hoopa-U as I click Reflect. Through Reflect, I can live any non-Choiced attack from the Hoopa-U as I Dragon Dance and it clicks a Dark move, activating my Weakness Policy. With the Attack investment, a +3 Dragon Claw KOs both Meowscarada from full and 252 HP Hoopa-U after a layer of Spikes. The SpA investment was to kill a 252 HP non-AV Hydrapple from full.

Zarude @ Leftovers
Ability: Leaf Guard
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Atk / 24 Def / 100 SpD / 40 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Tera Blast
- Trailblaze
- Substitute
- Bulk Up

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9draft-2631927270-m50ns29llwnfyi3o685b6hpbrssmfbypw

Ran this against seajsea in Quarterfinals. He ended up benching it in this match, but the spread here was designed to prevent his Fezandipiti from breaking Sub with Moonblast/Play Rough/Beat Up + U-Turn. Needed to be at +1 Def for the Play Rough/Beat Up calcs. Despite not bringing the Fez, his team gets weakened to the point that giving Tera Ghost Zarude a single turn to click Bulk Up spells the end.

Pawmot @ Expert Belt
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Mach Punch
- Double Shock/Volt Switch
- Ice Punch
- Thunder Wave/Knock Off

Ran essentially the same set in both of the above matches since Sage and seajsea both had Iron Treads/Zapdos with Meowscarada and Weavile, respectively. Pawmot is actually able to 2HKO fully Physically Defensive Zapdos with Ice Punch most of the time. In both matches, Pawmot takes 70+ off each of their Zapdos and lands crucial chip on seajsea's Volbeat and destroys sage's Iron Treads. Not a bad pair of performances for a rat.

Zarude @ Maranga Berry
Ability: Leaf Guard
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 120 SpD / 140 Spe
Careful Nature
- Petal Blizzard
- Crunch
- Bulk Up
- Synthesis

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9draft-2594742756-lihjtay1mef2ae96swkkigtdgmuew31pw

And finally, a set from R6 of Swiss against TJ. Zarude enters the battle on Turn 8 as Raging Bolt uses Volt Switch, activating my Maranga Berry. 22 turns and six kills later, the battle is over, Zarude victorious. I chose Tera Steel here because I was certain Darkrai would not have a SE coverage move into it.

Current Thoughts on SV

I really enjoy SV. While I can understand the criticism that drafts are the same/stale, I still think there is a fair bit of room to innovate or try new ideas, especially in individual tours. If you want proof of that, just take a look at Nozzermat's team. I think my team also shows that more standard builds can fare well in the tier too. There's just a lot of variety, and it makes for a fresh and exciting tier. Tera is also a pretty great mechanic in Draft, allowing for all sorts of flexibility and creativity in drafting and team-building.

I would also point to how the meta has continued to evolve over the past couple years as evidence that tier is not stale. Zarude and Terapagos have gone from relative obscurity to consistent R1 picks. Iron Valiant, once the universally agreed upon number 1 pick, has fallen as far as pick 4 or 5 in some drafts. The Tornadus-T/Ting-Lu teams that were good for so long have fallen off hard. Gholdengo and Blaziken are poised to claim spots as top 5 Tera captains. The tier is quite dynamic overall, and I think it will be really interesting to see how the meta develops.

Banning Zarude and other Tiering Action

In the tiering survey, I rated Zarude a 2 and everything else a 1. Yes, Zarude is extremely good - I already called it the best Pokemon in the tier. However, I don't think it's particularly ban-worthy. Zarude's success and failure depends on the drafts, sets, and plays of both players. When you see a Zarude claim 5 or 6 kills in a match, it is rarely a lucky break on the part of the Zarude user. The success of a particular Zarude set requires careful planning before the match and appropriate set up and play during the match. For as many times as my Zarude cleared an opponent's entire team, there were just as many times where I picked a bad Tera type or the wrong set up move. It is very good, but doesn't need to be banned. Even if Zarude were to be banned, I don't think it would do much of anything for the tier as a whole. The remaining best Tera captains (Tornadus-T, Keldeo, Raging Bolt, Hydrapple, Blaziken, Gholdengo) would all still exist and be just as strong/oppressive.

If the community really wanted to shake up the tier, some kind of sweeping change would be needed. To me, there are two possible paths. The first would be banning the top 8-10 Tera captains by usage. This one does kinda feel like change for the sake of change, but it would definitely force some new builds with so many top tier choices being unavailable. The second, which feels a little more justifiable from tiering perspective to me, would be to take the Singles route and ban Tera Blast. Every single one of the top Tera captains uses Tera Blast to some extent, so I really don't know what the tier would look like on the other side. Either of these might be worth exploring but it's hard to say if they'd actually make the tier better.