Tournament The Official OLT XI Discussion Thread

shittt unlike last year's low game count i qualified with 309 total this time, 200+ games i played last night alone. 10pm sleep deprived gaming session until i knock'd out at like 3am lmfao. i rotated thru about 50 different teams built by friends until i sketched something that clicked and got me out of 1900s purgatory:

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https://pokepast.es/edca97c8f3202253

manaphy owns since tail glow is busted + it has ice beam access for gliscor. frees up a slot on darkrai to fit focus blast for dumbass gambit too. 200 special 2hko's gking w/ surf. covert cloak helps vs broken garg & random effects. overall underexplored 'mon, surprised it's rubl. lando x ghold needs no explanation; goat offensive backbone. wanted some priority after and a check to weather teams so picked raging bolt. tera-bug seems odd but a lot of people are using double ground cores right now. bug smokes that shit unlike tera-flying dying to weav kyu opposing bolt afterwards. team is still pretty slow so slapped valiant last. hard for balance to deal with this combination of moves after stealth rock goes up. destiny bond > thunderbolt / close combat is probably better for offense tbh. i'm just paranoid of pussy fat shit

appreciate my fans sending kind messages while i was laddering. will keep exploring sv ou and hopefully win olt this time around. God's will end of the day.
 
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Cycle 2 Qualifiers
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Rank #1 | ELO: 2118 | GXE: 90.6% | Record: 76-15
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Rank #2 | ELO: 2107 | GXE: 82.2 | Record: 113-54
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Rank #3 | ELO: 2088 | GXE: 86.3% | Record: 84-26
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Rank #4 | ELO: 2083 | GXE: 83.5% | Record: 336-211
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Rank #5 | ELO: 2073 | GXE: 81.3% | Record: 174-111
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Rank #6 | ELO: 2072 | GXE: 88.7% | Record: 59-8
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Rank #7 | ELO: 2071 | GXE: 85.4% | Record: 203-106
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Rank #8 | ELO: 2042 | GXE: 85.6% | Record: 84-30

Art credit goes to Clementine
 
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I really enjoyed reading breakdowns from last year's OLT qualifiers on their team choices/the metagame as a whole, so I thought I'd do the same here.

I only used two teams over the course of the cycle. The first is a balance featuring band pult that I used to climb from the bottom of the ladder to around 1900:
View attachment 654968
https://pokepast.es/dcaa8a98d52c4771

This team was pretty fun for me to use, as it's not something I would typically gravitate towards for a tournament. It was especially effective near mid ladder, where it seemed like I loaded into webs 15 games in a row. Clear body band pult + boots tusk + fat mons makes this mu nearly unloseable. However, once I got high up on the ladder, the flaws of this team became pretty apparent. Losing your only water resist when you tera pult is pretty unideal, and games where tusk has trouble getting off rapid spins are incredibly uphill as well. In all honestly I wouldn't suggest using this team if you're trying to qualify, but it was good enough to at least get me in position to make a run on the last day of the cycle.

After treading water for most of Friday around 1900s, I decided to make something more offensive that would help me gain points quickly on the last day of the cycle. It ended up having a lot of success on the last day of the cycle, carrying me from 1930ish to 2109 without dropping a game. This is what I came up with:
View attachment 654970
https://pokepast.es/404d7105ec4925d5

I'm hardly the first person to use the combination of gouging fire, kingambit, and roaring moon, but I think the way the sets synergize on this team is pretty cool. First off, I opted for tera dragon outrage on gouging fire. Tera dragon is able to pick up some impressive OHKOs at +1:

+1 252+ Atk Protosynthesis Tera Dragon Gouging Fire Outrage vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 404-476 (108.8 - 128.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ Atk Protosynthesis Tera Dragon Gouging Fire Outrage vs. 244 HP / 252+ Def Gliscor: 316-374 (89.7 - 106.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

I figured this would be a great set to pair with moon and gambit because of this. Another cool synergy that this team has is that gouging and gambit's ability to force chip/kos on tusk, zamazenta, and gliscor allows you to drop acrobatics on moon in favor of a utility move. Here, I decided on sub so I can block status, sub on sucker punches from opposing gambit and samurott, and set up on rocks + protect garganacl with tera ground + sub. Tera ground letting you become immune to thunderclap gives you extra security vs raging bolt as well.

The additions of lando and iron moth are pretty self explanatory, the former being a great role compression mon for offense and the latter being great speed control, a potential wincon, and a tspike absorber. For my last slot, I decided av primarina would be a good choice because of its ability to help the matchups vs sun and dragapult. The sun mu is especially important as sun was being spammed frequently throughout the cycle. primarina is also very useful for pivoting out on gking with flip turn to give free setup to your physical attackers.

This was honestly a more fun experience than I expected it would be. There was a lot of team diversity among those competing, with cool builds like hydrapple bo/balance and diancie trick room making appearances in addition to the sun, stall, webs, and general offense that I expected. It's still pretty difficult to be consistent at this metagame with so many threats to account for, and overall I still enjoyed the OLT meta of last year more, but I still wouldn't say the current meta is terrible or anything. If I had to give any advice to those trying to qualify, I would definitely recommend sticking with one team at a time rather than switching every one or two games. I find that my play is much better when I'm able to stay in the headspace of piloting one team. To avoid getting sniped, simply be selective with when you load games. On that same topic, if you lose multiple games in a row, don't spam more games to try and regain your points. More than likely, you'll just tilt further.

I'm super happy and relieved to qualify after coming so close in cycles 3 and 4 last year. I'll definitely enjoy the time between now and the start of swiss, and I look forward to watching the remaining cycles. Good luck to all trying to qualify and ggs to the others who made it this cycle.
just curious why clef with sticky barb?
 
ggs everyone,

i used 2 teams almost exclusively this cycle, with subtect kyurem on both. started off with a team i made during wcop that ended up not being used for low-mid ladder. the team doesn't work as well on high ladder where the surprise factor of some sets isn't as effective. AV tusk is used to have better outs vs bolt and moth. https://pokepast.es/75dc54a693b5e356

for high ladder i used a team CTC used in SPL that still works well 6 months later. i decided to change specs kyurem to subtect because its a lovely set and solos a lot of balances. the team has good odds vs most standard offense including weather but loses to stall, so it's a good idea to avoid certain players while climbing. https://pokepast.es/37f7138e829be9c2

also a 29 point drop from 7th to 8th is funny but Sachumberto suffered the same fate as Bloody alfa did last cycle and got timer stalled at the deadline while i myself failed at time stalling my opponent, dropping from 2068 with about a minute left. this will certainly mess up your cutoff prediction sheet, you're welcome Quite Quiet
 
also a 29 point drop from 7th to 8th is funny but Sachumberto suffered the same fate as Bloody alfa did last cycle and got timer stalled at the deadline while i myself failed at time stalling my opponent, dropping from 2068 with about a minute left. this will certainly mess up your cutoff prediction sheet, you're welcome Quite Quiet

gg for qual, sad end but I'm going to get my ticket for PO this cycle
 
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Cycle 3 Qualifiers
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Rank #1 | ELO: 2074 | GXE: 85.2% | Record: 97-42
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Rank #2 | ELO: 2069 | GXE: 87.9% | Record: 124-45
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Rank #3 | ELO: 2069 | GXE: 84.7% | Record: 98-40
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Rank #4 | ELO: 2063 | GXE: 89.8% | Record: 98-23
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Rank #5 | ELO: 2061 | GXE: 88.1% | Record: 76-19
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Rank #6 | ELO: 2060 | GXE: 83.9% | Record: 82-29
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Rank #7 | ELO: 2057 | GXE: 83.8% | Record: 104-43
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Rank #8 | ELO: 2056 | GXE: 85.4% | Record: 100-44

Art credit goes to Clementine
 
It feels really good to qualify for OLT again after struggling with SV quite a bit last year. Like many have done previously - I will detail my experiences from this week.


As someone who started playing in SS, the adjustment to SV was not kind to me initially. I had quite a bit of trouble adapting to what felt like a completely different game in some respects. I spent the first half of the week trying to readjust to a meta I haven't played in a while - losing around 10 games below 1700 on ladder. You hear all the time from various people that to be successful in SV, you have to ladder - and I can confidently say after this week that they are completely right. Once I had about 60-70 games under my belt I felt relatively acclimated and was able to start really climbing.

Personally, I find it exhausting to play a lot of ladder games in one session (especially for OLT). I ladder incredibly slowly and with a lot of patience. It's not for everyone, but it worked for me now and in 2022. One of the main benefits of being patient is dodging snipe attempts. Once you reach a certain elo - every single player hovering around 2k is looking for somebody to snipe. I did the same multiple times in the final hours of my run to individuals just instaloading after every game. The best piece of advice I can give you for making that final push is to look for snipe targets and make yourself impossible to snipe.


As for teams:

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I wanted something easy to pilot and with a cheap wincon to get out of low ladder - so I opted for this. Subtect kyurem is pretty hilarious and just farmed low ladder for the most part despite my own best efforts early in the cycle. It can be a bit passive at times and overly relies on kyurem to win games. It also doesn't have hazards which complicates more than a few matchups. I wouldn't recommend above 1900 probably, but you could certainly make it work if you really wanted to.

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I used this boots spam (made by Vert I think?) in the 1800s and 1900s mid week. SD ogerpon is a pretty cool wincon that a catches a lot of people off guard and can steal games. This team has a huge issues with opposing SD gliscor and sub tect kyurem, which can run through your team with a couple rotations of sub/protect/freezedry nonsense. The weakness to kyurem is why I couldn't bring myself to keep using this - but it was overall pretty solid.


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xavgb was kind enough to pass a few teams midway through the cycle when I was struggling to find something consistent enough to win on high ladder. The top team was what I ended up using in the final hours to climb from about 1980 to 2057. I was extremely patient and sniped multiple sash samurott offenses which was a very rudimentary matchup. It's still slightly weak to kyurem, but with scarf ghold and friends you have a decent amount of breathing room before it gets completely out of hand. The bottom team felt slightly more inconsistent with rocks and removal being on glimmora, but gouging fire is broken as hell so no game is unwinnable.


As for my thoughts on the meta:

- Gouging Fire is insanely broken. It can run 10 different sets and 5 different tera types, all of which have varying methods of counterplay. There is nothing scarier than facing down a full HP Gouging Fire with tera still intact. Needs to be the next suspect 100%.

- Kyurem is pretty borderline to me. It's broken for similar reasons that it was in SS - but now it has much less defined counterplay due to tera and the emergence of subtect. Freeze is also a bullshit mechanic. Suspect it again after we hopefully ban Gouging Fire.

- I'm not sure if this is a hot take anymore - but I found Darkrai to be very not broken and actually a positive balancing force during my time laddering. Utility Darkrai especially is a very nice glue for balance teams - being able to spread wisp/knock and threaten gliscor with ice beam if you want. It can do a lot and I didn't find it overwhelming.


Overall I would say this meta is a bit chaotic and definitely needs some patchwork. I probably wouldn't see myself playing much of it, if any, outside of OLT. A Gouging Fire suspect would be a great start to improving a meta with a lot of potential.

Shoutouts to The Gs for all the companionship during the cycle/shitposting and to Fardin for letting me steal your name.

Thanks for reading.
 
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pretty happy with how things went this year. started off w a smoove 50-3 record so i was pretty certain id qualify the entire run up to that point but god damn that shit changed quick. in my game to hit 2k i had the game won and got crit last turn to lose… most normal people would just chalk it up as a normal loss / take a break / whatever else but i was tight so i kept loading and tilted to 1860.

i got a few more games and went like 3-1 so i finished at 1900 on the night but that shit was still annoying as shit and i was for sure mentally checked out of the tour. all i really did was complain about it for a bit and i was like damn i really sound like a bitch rn and got back to laddering the next day.

a big part of my goob tilt was cuz i didn’t approach my games w the same mindset i did to go 50-3 in the first place. i really just sat there and legit just tried to think about my games a lot more and i started to win (who coulda guessed.) i went on a run from 1900-2060 and im pretty sure i didn’t drop a game after stagnating a bit at 1880-1900.

the main point of me typing all this shit was to tell u guys that u really just gotta take it slow. 1900 is easy to get and 2050 is probably gonna qualify this cycle, and the gap between these 2 elos is like what 10 games at most? if u can get to 1900 decently early (like 3-4 days to go) just take ur fucking time for the last few games. if u aren’t good enough then u aren’t but at least ull get better by practicing in high stress situations vs real competent players instead of the guys tryna test out what zu mon can peak the ou ladder in june.

also, time spent having fun isnt time wasted. above all else make sure ur trying ur best to enjoy the run, and in doing so ull prob raise the likelihood that u qualify cuz ur gonna be in a much better state of mind to play well and as long as u don’t overload ur brainpiece by trying to play 20 games in one sitting, ull prob enjoy it too, or at least enjoy it more.

olt really doesn’t have to be a annoying draining grind sesh. take your time, try as hard as u can in a few games at a time, analyze ur losses and the worst case that can happen is that u improve.

:kingambit::landorus-therian::raging-bolt::ogerpon-wellspring::slowking-galar::great-tusk:

this is the 6 i used in all of my games, prob the most broken team in sv rn. dead ass im pretty sure every mu is winnable besides some goob stall shit that supagmoney is gonna fuck u up with. thankfully not many stallbabies on the ladder so u can prob easily get away w it.
 
OLT has been a kinda fun experience for me but not really, forgot to post after cycle 1 but, i cant help but notice that the tour has been somewhat dead in cycle 3 and hopefully it comes to life in cycle 4, but there are some important things that i need to address metagame wise, the reason some people don't like this metagame is not the illusion of the broken sub kyurem, its one good set that shouldve had adaptation given the right circumstances happened and i'll get into that in a second.

Heres one of my most consistent teams i used to qualify: https://pokepast.es/3224b774360cbc49

I think its rather linear to think that ONE pokemon that stands out is the problem in a metagame, i promise you getting rid of kyurem is absolutely not going to bring more balance teams and make it less oppressive to use defensive stuff, there are many other dangerous wallbreakers, and i would like to point out that zamazenta is a healthy presence that is supposedly "keeping physical attackers in check" but yet still dies to terablast from goug, gambit, and random setup mons like dnite(the wcop team Latin america set (actually i think we got the set from a guy called reze , idr his name faced him in ourlt last year, but yeah the fairy blast set), the reason that every sweeper has so much snowball potential is not even the type change, its the 80bp free STAB coverage that you get to use at will, tera blast, that is the big problem with this meta and an extremely stupid fish move that shouldve went but lets pay attention to the volcarona ban, i am pointing out that we had a special healthy presence keeping the special attackers from snowballing, that was made broken by the move that has been rewarding and flipping matchups since day ONE.

My opinion has drastically changed on the move "tera blast" when i decided to really take a look at the tier, i realised that this move is not competitive and it feels like the more unpredictable player wins rather than the more skilled player. So ive decided to take the time to state a solution, which is banning the cancer that is tera blast, and freeing volcarona and eleki, eleki provides a great spinner and pivot, which can still tera normal espeed, volcarona without terablast is balanced and will stop the stuff people hate like darkrai and sub kyurem, with this solution kyurem becomes less of an issue because you force it to either drop sub or protect to run rock slide for volcarona, and if you really played youd notice the only problematic set, is really sub protect, mixed is almost broken, specs is punishable, scarf is non existent, and boots is just aite. I think we can all agree nobody would miss tera blast as a move, and losing it would really benefit this metagame, bringing back volcarona to tame kyurem, the main focus should be Tera blast, gliscor and gouging fire, not kyurem, those 3 are much more oppressive than kyurem.

Now let me dive into the pokemon i think are super crazy right now:

Gouging Fire: I hated this pokemon from day ONE, i voted a 5 on the survey it was on, and i made not one but two ban posts that you could actually go back and see that i was BEGGING that this shit would go, i cry about it in pms to most of my friends every day, i would vote a 10 if i had to, if this got tested in ubers i would ban it, a clean 2hko to physdef dondozo on a resisted physical stab hit even if its in sun is ridiculous, not to mention the ever-expanding 1000 booster sets that keep finding ways to adapt to each counter that has been crafted for it, im tired of finding niche counters for it, when it gets to the point im losing creative ways to beat it thats when you know its bad, ive been playing for 12 years, ive been a ladder / non tour player for 9 of those years, i build 10x more than i play, and ive never seen an offensive threat, even bloodmoon, even baxcalibur, even mega kangaskhan, where i couldnt find some super niche or creative way to beat it, as a pokemon you would have to be ag material for that to happen with me, it stayed the last time, and im still salty about that, even when everybody switched up their votes and tried to convince me to vote dnb, i couldnt bring myself to do it so i just didnt vote, my vote wouldve made no difference anyway the overwhelming change from ban to dnb was too much, to this day im hoping we get a retest on physical mega reshiram(yes its way stronger than zard x).

Gliscor: Ive always hated that this pokemon always finds a way to warp the structure of my teams (and tbh, teams in general), around either having ice type gliscor lures, or steel birds, this is another pokemon that helps to snowball kyurem(pretty sure most people's reason to use kyurem is gliscor) and invalidate balance/stall/offense/BO/HO. And i do somewhat fear that after this goes we will be staring down a zapdos ting lu meta but honestly thats better than a pokemon that heavily restricts every playstyle, these sd sets are out of control, they sit on every balance , every stall, and just spam knock or facade, its a really unfair, unhealthy mon, good players with nice teams like 3d, mimilimi, empo, leng, bea, ive seen them all lose to atleast 1 sd gliscor(saw the fast one beat bea's sub kyurem team). And despite bea outplaying the shit out of their opponent, the gliscor still ends up winning? why is it fair? it forces extremely uninteractive gameplay that take away from the skill of the game, the better player is supposed to win by positioning, pivoting , attacking and defending, not gliscor > sd > protect > take every hit > kill back, thats what happens to all defensive comps vsing a well played sd gliscor, and the offensive comps, lose to the hazard stacking sets, spikes protect toxic, so not only does it restrict fat, but offense too, would like to formally request that this uncompetitive cancer gets added to the next survey.

The other 3 pokemon on this list may not be going anywhere but they are worth mentioning:

Kingambit: im pro kingambit, lets be honest we need it in the tier to keep MANY threats from spiraling, but i want to acknowledge that the 5050s it forces, paired with TERABLAST, and sometimes other sets like dark/flying, are extremely stupid sometimes, i do hate being reverse swept by kingambit, its the worst feeling, you outplay the whole game, it clicks sd and wins off a coinflip, this is a small part of the reason that i love raging bolt and that its healthy asf, it removes the fear of a kingambit reverse sweep(even with broken terablast). Theres no pokemon that stops all gambit sets, my tera fighting black belt lowkick set beats irondef zama/tusk/iron hands, my tera fire air balloon set beats valiant, my tera dark suckerpunch glasses set breaks dozo, etc, its a dumb mon that we sort of need, kind of like magearna in 7.

Zamazenta: Very healthy presence to keep all the physical threats at bay, would be better at checking some of them without terablast in the tier, but on the other hand, these iron defense sets are crazy, and roar beats sub kyurem, so does roar molt, which is another fire mon rn, but yeah sometimes these idef sets can become really stupid despite it benefitting the tier and i felt like that deserved to be pointed out.

Garganacl: This pokemon is absolutely crazy rn, with the amount of offense in the tier that you need to account for, you actually cannot really afford a covert cloak without the sacrifice of losing to something, hence all this thing's sets are crazy rn, i made a balance with glisc garg gweezing av hoopa zama and corv, that i sent in my wcop team dump months ago, (and i think it was in slainey doc) ewin used it to qualify, any garg team is crazy rn and i am very surprised it doesnt have more usage.

To Conclude this post i wanna state some really nice mons that i believe should get more usage:

Tinkaton: i was the first one using this mon day 1 of sv to check chien pao, and now and then youll still see me use it throughout the year on ladder, and some people had the genius idea to bring it back out to check stuff like glim HO and darkrai/valiant, like that sheist Vert team that was used in wcop.

Fezandipiti: vert put me on this, amazing mon, roost, toxic chain and pivot, walls zama, beats rbolt, poisons stuff, and walls darkrai.

Mandibuzz: i had a suicune sand with this in february, that peaked #1 was rly successful, sits on most physical based teams rn, with toxic fp idef or knock fp idef.

Suicune: on that same sand i got loads of sweeps with sub protect cm cune the classic, fire mon just needs to be paired with a wellspring lure.

Volcanion: ive been on this mons wave since swsh and dlc1 and its always been fire, every game it does something and threatens a hard hit.

Iron crown: this is already getting usage, my specs tera steel set was crazy in ost, and its crazy on any BO comp.

Weavile: its already getting some usage, i havent used weav much recently, but im starting to , its crazy af, i had a couple teams with it in march and i think i used it once in ost.

Assault vest toxapex: i was pretty big on this in april, i got inspired watching old sv replays of home meta and dlc1, where they used av pex, such a fire mon rn, checks non shock darkrai.

Cresselia: i was a cress fanboy in dlc1, i qualified last olt using cress + enamorus therian, i just love how it sits on zama and tusk, and lando/glisc post tera, its underexplored, dont just try the cm stored set, try the boltbeam set, tera electric tbolt/ice beam.

Lokix: this pokemon is crazy rn with tinted lens, pivoting/unique priority, my crown lokix BO that was used for the pokeaim vid with pecharunt has popped off in olt, i even saw people using pult variants (which is not better you need fp tera dark pech not only for tspike absorb but wellspring/physical threats too).

Pecharunt: spook(not spookyz, the "me and the rza" guy), put me on this , i saw his webs and i was like that shit is cool , i had pech teams before that but he was the one who showed me that it got foul play which is a massive game changer.

Sinistcha: i did not discover this mon, HYper brought it up to me cuz he had to prep for shifu in oupl and used it as a counter, thought it was cool so i used it in ost finals it was such a fire spinblocker, setup sweeper, and can sap most threats, i love that its getting more usage but its not enough imo, yall use it more :p

Tornadus therian: i had a rain with specs torn and basculegion i believe i showed it to pinka awhile back, but it hits like a free train under rain.

Overqwil: ever since dlc1 ive been on the overqwil wave when i made my newest alt and got stomped by a 1300s dude using it around like september last year, ever since ive been spamming it , its a fire absorber for rain that can also be an abuser with sd, it gets aqua jet too so u can use band tera water jet.

Manaphy: i had a rain with this shit, tail glow rest surf alluring voice tera fairy, peli tinka tusk mana overqwil pult, and i was like o shit, its hard to build around this ig ill just stick to this rain whenever i wanna use it, till vert showed me that crazy fire set take heart + alluring voice acid armor, and i was like o shit id def build this more.

Scizor: another mon ive had crazy success with throughout the year, have loads of comps with it and yall should try the set i used in wcop vs yovan, tera flying wingbeat, leng also had a team with that set that did rly rly well, tera steel bp is fire too but sd lifeorb wingbeat tera flying on webs is insane.

Ursaluna: ive had a couple trick rooms with this mon including the gambit waterpon one, this mon very crazy, i encourage yall to try to build around it.

Iron hands: this pokemon checks alot of stuff rn especially booster energy with sd tera flying bulky(and the booster ghost set i used last olt) , just anti meta in general, and yall shud use it more.

Mamoswine: my friends have all called this shit but idc, its so fire, nothing really resists its stabs if u predict right, and can run thick fat for kyurem

Cornerstone: everybody is preparing for the water one, and im surprised nobody has used it more since i have been very successful with cornerpon teams throughout the year, maybe the u turn set i use atm, but sd cornerpon is fire, u can even run horn leech + counter to leech up to the sturdy and click counter.

deoxys defense: knock + twave + night shade spdef is pretty crazy vs special threats rn, you can even sit on darkrai if you tera.

Slither wing: i was a big slither fan back in dlc1 but what really made me see it as good was when i saw a friend (idk if he wants that alt known so i wont say) use defensive wisp, and the av slither sun, and i was like o shit that was kinda cool.

Okidogi: i tested this pokemon its great vs shockless darkrai and zama teams, with the ability guard dog, not only do you get a defiant boost on intimidate, you are immune to roar and whirlwind, so you actually wall and setup on zama and actually 1v1 all zama sets, also with tera flying you beat lando.

And last but certainly not least: ttar + drill, sand is good rn in every capacity, used it a fair amount this olt, and empo has been successful with it too.

Ive been trying to branch out and be more versatile, use more balance, Semistall, and some of these mons do help, so yall try them too, outside of that, loads of heavy nukes on standby for the playoffs.

But yeah use these mons, and ban what i said to ban, and the meta will be fine, its not a bad meta finch did a great job mostly in dlc2, they calling this the worst meta but they must of forgot how much they hated gen7 when it was cg, to the point abr stepped down as tier leader, and then as soon as it ended evryone called it goated, yall gonna miss gen9, its like they think they want something until its actually gone, and on that note, after my runs this olt/scl , ill mostly be gone too(or very inactive or afk most times) for irl reasons, and i will prolly be back full time around mid gen10 to learn the meta/enter some gen 10 tours.

Thats about it, pce.
 
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Congrats to those that qualified and to those that played their asses off this cycle.

The playoffs have some absolute heavy hitters

bbeeaa SoulWind Vert Storm Zone hellom Santu Empo Tace mimilimi etc.

There’s no clear predictable winner in this bracket, but if I have to guess who, Empo is the likely candidate to take the trophy home. Empo has been on a roll lately. Carrying Italy to the finals in WCOP and their performance at Smogon Tour hammered in their title as one of the best players on Smogon.


I didn’t qualify, but I would like to dump some teams I laddered with.

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https://pokepast.es/e122cde551849270

Decided to play around with CTC’s classic Cinder/Ting/Corv/Gking/Dozo core but slapped a Hydrapple on it. LO +2 EP OHKOs Gking after Tera and it has enough EVs to outpace Blissey. Physdef Gking allows me to make plays like stay in on Samu, Cinderace, Ting-Lu, and Gliscor to get off chip. A lot of players were spamming Tera Dragon Gouging and Tera Fairy Dozo shits on them. I went full SpD on Corv cuz fuck Kyurem.

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https://pokepast.es/4e1f0bd58d38b1ae

Once I hit the 1600-1700 range, I decided to load up on HO cause I was running into unfavorable matchups with my Hydrapple Balance. (Vert’s Manaphy Offense, CC Tusk, Samu Spike Stacking, etc). Rockpon is a cool anti-meta pick that throws big damage before dying. Matches up well with a lot of those Balances spammed during Cycle 4. Helmet lead Deo has a goofy ahh spread specifically designed to snipe Samu lead HOs (assuming Focus Blast hits). Moon + Rockpon is a great core since the two pressure physical walls very nicely. T-Wave Ghold is the offense glue mon that makes sure you don’t blank to Mixed Val and Zama. Moth absorbs Tspikes and 6-0s Webs/Sun builds. Topping it all off is the most disgusting Zama set, Sub-ID Tera Fire. Had to sacrifice outspeeding Darkrai and other Zamas so we can Sub up in front of Landorus and Hex Ghold. This shit absolutely 6-0s some team comps.

Ran into hellom on the ladder while testing on an alt, resulting in this fair and balanced interaction.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2187103392-v0zyvgdf0dnejrlq7ohznj3f2equfqopw

SV OU is in a pretty good spot rn, but there could be changes done.

I already made a post on Tera Blast, but in short, I think its uncompetitive and turns the meta into a game of “gotcha” rather than the better player coming out on top.

:kyurem:
Kyurem is dumb as shit. When it was just Specs, Boots, and DD it was fine, but now we have the stupid Sub-Tect set that fishes for Freezes and requires specific checks to deal with. You need SpD Corv, CM Sball Bliss, Tera Steel Latios/Hydrei/Cress, or Crown to deal with this bs, and you have to pray it doesn’t get a freeze out of the 32 PP Freeze Dry has (seriously wtf Game Freak). Now you have this set in mind. Suddenly you run into a DD Kyurem that blitzes through your Sub-Tect checks with Tera Fire Blast Kyu and there’s nothing you can do about it. Kyurem is the same as Tera Blast to me, just stupidly unpredictable and uncompetitive. No need to keep this when we have perfectly good Ice move clickers like Darkrai, Weavile, and Deo.

The best of luck to the qualifiers.
 
The results from the final cycle are in: Ahsan-219, Giannis Antetokommo-o, hellom, xavgb, chansey and lulu, emforbes, xdRudi.exe, and bhkg have advanced to the Swiss stage, which is up as we speak. The final hour had a cool battle for the final spots as xavgb won last-minute to jump from out to 4th, DeeJ getting hit with DAHLI's Scarf Kyurem and missing a win-and-in, and SupaGmoney just missing out on 8th while a sleeping bhkg held on to their own spot. Shoutout to Giannis for the highest GXE of this cycle at 89.4%; he joins Storm Zone (91.2%), crying (90.6%), and Santu (89.8%) as the GXE masters of this tour.

It's a dark day for the stall empire, as I don't believe anyone running full-time stall made it to playoffs, despite SupaGmoney's best efforts. The closest we got to a 100% staller was Santu, who used (checks notes) Ninetales-Alola stall for much of his run. mimilimi also exclusively used a very bulky Hydrapple balance (that still had an Enamorus and a mostly-offensive Hydrapple) to make it to the top. Despite the resurgence of the stall community, and the use of several bulky/fat teams to success, it seems that the full stall archetype is not in a particularly strong spot right now.

Twixtry vs Empo
bhkg vs Vert
Mako vs 3d
Giannis Antetokommo-o
vs clean
xavgb vs Rewer
Santu vs xdRudi.exe
oldspicemike vs yovan33321
Alhen vs SpookyZ
Tace vs crying
Ahsan-219
vs Ewin
Welli0u vs Storm Zone
INSULT
vs Dasmer
TDNT vs mimilimi
Skarpherim vs hellom
emforbes vs bbeeaa
chansey and lulu vs SoulWind
 
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It's a dark day for the stall empire, as I don't believe anyone running full-time stall made it to playoffs, despite SupaGmoney's best efforts. The closest we got to a 100% staller was Santu, who used (checks notes) Ninetales-Alola stall for much of his run. mimilimi also exclusively used a very bulky Hydrapple balance (that still had an Enamorus and a mostly-offensive Hydrapple) to make it to the top. Despite the resurgence of the stall community, and the use of several bulky/fat teams to success, it seems that the full stall archetype is not in a particularly strong spot right now.

Aged like milk LMAOOOO supagoatmoney
 
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Didn't qual yet again, but I had a lot going on this month so I'll give myself some grace there. Didn't really give it a fair shot except for the first 2 cycles.

Regardless, here are the 3 best teams I made during the tour.

:iron-valiant::zamazenta::scizor::glimmora::raging-bolt::samurott-hisui:

This was a team I got #3 with on ladder before the tour started, behind storm and insult if I remember correctly. The idea was to be able to run vacuum wave>encore on cm val because you avoid the thunderbolt prediction on Raging Bolt, fairy ground is also insane coverage and I paired it with another "offensive fairy" in band zama. Set that vert made if I remember, I like it a lot as a midground to hit darks without thudding into ghold/pult and it hits other zamas (which you outspeed most of them and 2hko w tera) as well as tusk. Rest of the team is fairly intuitive.

:zamazenta::ursaluna::gouging-fire::iron-moth::hatterene::iron-boulder:

This is a screens team inspired by that joltinjoe team, I think it's way better than that one though, and fun fact: I actually used screens zama way back in last scl when I built a team with it and salac gholdengo for goat ox the fox. Definitely also inspired by meandtherza's teams with LO hatt + ursa. This team put me on to the power of dragon gouging and sub gouging. sub lets you beat gambit without running the bulk necessary for morning sun and set up on garg/gliscor with tera/screens. shoutout ctc for telling me he really liked this one.

:hydreigon::moltres::alomomola::weezing-galar::ting-lu::zamazenta:

I'm not gonna hide this one anymore since giannis qualified largely with a hydreigon team that ctc made. Anyway, I came up with this idea of snarl tera steel hydreigon to hard ct kyurem. Turns out that snarl is (predictably) really bad and you don't need it to beat kyurem. Hydrei is obscenely strong into anything fat and isn't dead weight into offense either especially with tera. +2 Draco forcing Kingambit in is insanely helpful because then you don't have to deal with a full health tera gambit in the lategame.

Anyway, those are the teams. Wrote this really quickly between classes so I hope you enjoy these.

Edit: hid EVs bc someone requested I did. Sorry fam :/
 
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Cycle 4 Qualifiers
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Rank #1 | ELO: 2065 | GXE: 87.8% | Record: 110-38
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Rank #2 | ELO: 2062 | GXE: 89.4% | Record: 89-19
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Rank #3 | ELO: 2060 | GXE: 86.9% | Record: 82-23
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Rank #4 | ELO: 2057 | GXE: 85.5% | Record: 75-22
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Rank #5 | ELO: 2056 | GXE: 84.5% | Record: 134-64
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Rank #6 | ELO: 2056 | GXE: 85.2% | Record: 71-20
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Rank #7 | ELO: 2051 | GXE: 86.7% | Record: 79-20
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Rank #8 | ELO: 2024 | GXE: 84.5% | Record: 74-24

Art credit goes to Clementine
 
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