Resource Trainer Academy Workshops

BDSP OU Workshop 01/02/2022

This time, our workshop was for BDSP OU. Shoutouts to adem and Lalaya for organizing, writing descriptions, and hosting. They even made time to complete three separate teams!

Scizor + Weavile Offense
:scizor::weavile::garchomp::magnezone::starmie::rotom-mow:
This is a team built around a core of fairly standard Pokémon in the BDSP OU Metagame, Weavile and Scizor. The former's phenomenal offensive presence is well complemented by the latter's defensive profile, not to mention Scizor's ability to pivot Weavile safely in. This core struggles against Heatran and other steels, and thanks to the presence of Assurance Band Weavile the next step was to add hazards and something dealing with said Steels; Stealth Rock SD Garchomp was the first answer, with Yache Berry helping up keeping hazards up against Starmie, and Magnezone was the best tool complementing Scizor's presence and giving us the ability to get rid of Skarmory. Next up, noticing we're very weak against hazards, hurting all of our Pokémon's staying power - especially Weavile's -, we added Starmie, the best Rapid Spin user a offense can have, giving us another Heatran switch-in that lasts as well as the usual bulky water. Finally, we were weak to Stall, we lacked a Breloom answer, and a way to deal with any kind of Manaphy; a Pokémon that covered all these weakness was the unusual Rotom-Mow, here in Scarf fashion with TrickPlot.
Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8bdspou-1484031880

Double Dance Torterra Screens HO
:torterra::azelf::garchomp::azumarill::latias::alakazam:
This team is a Dual Screens Hyper Offense centered around Double Dance Torterra, and we picked the best Screens lead in Azelf, and gave Yache Berry to Torterra to allow it to get many more setup opportunities on stuff like Latias and Starmie, and deny revenge killing from the likes of Weavile. Next, we added Life Orb MixChomp as it lures and breaks 2 common Torterra stopgaps in Skarmory and Tangrowth, and pressures Unaware Clefable, while breaking holes in teams for Torterra to clean. Then, we added Azumarill which we made into Mystic Water since it helped us basically secure the Stall MU (which Tort struggles in) as well as break down the opposing team for Tort, while also being able to clean late game as well. Haban Berry Support Tias is a really nice binding piece on HO’s, as it offers Healing Wish which is extremely useful for both Garchomp and Azu as they tend to get worn down easily, as well as function as a secondary check for Garchomp. Lastly, Sash Zam gives us a neat revenge killer vs stuff like Gengar and opposing Zam which can be troublesome.
Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8bdspou-1484035216

Double Dance Torterra Hazard Stack
:torterra::magnezone::qwilfish::latios::mamoswine::feraligatr:
This is an alternate route we went with our Torterra, a hazard stack team, and we went with an interesting lead combo with double Sash Qwilfish and Mamoswine, as TSpikes is extremely useful for putting UnaClef into Tort range, as well as potentially taking down a key mon with Destiny bond. Mamo is also a great anti lead, as it is immune to Taunt and can force out stuff like Garchomp and Lati, and functions as a solid breaker in its own right on teams lacking hard counters. CM Latios is a great breaker, and in conjunction with the great hazard support can easily break / wear down opposing teams for Tort. Magnezone is a key member of the team, easily removing opposing Skarm (frees up Tort and Mamo), and Sciz (frees up Tort and Latios), and Specs boosted attacks make it scary in its own right. Lastly, Feraligatr gives us another breaker for the team as easily cleaves through them once weakened, and it synergises especially well with TSpikes poisoning Clefable, Quagsire, and Tangrowth, letting it break past them much easier.

Full Chatlog

Thanks for reading!
 
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National Dex OU Workshop 01/30/2022

This was our first workshop for Natdex, and a long time coming. Lots of our auth pitched in for this, including adem, Crunchman, omi, and Typhlosion4! Credits to omi for descriptions.

Z Kyurem Lopunny Offense
:tapu-lele::kartana::landorus-therian::heatran::kyurem::lopunny-mega:
The main premise of this team is to shut down defensive teams with Specs Tapu Lele + 3a Kyurem in order to clear the path for a safer Lopunny/Kartana or even Heatran endgame. The defensive backbone is simple: Helmet Landorus deals with strong physical threats like opposing Mega Lopunny and also acts as an Electric/Ground immunity, pivoting safely into Tapu Koko's Thunderbolts which otherwise overwhelm this team. Defog lets it remove annoying hazards which could be detrimental to this team. Heatran serves as the main defensive Steel-type and allows you to have a soft pivot into Scarf Lele and a hard switch-in to defensive mons like Toxapex (doesnt threaten spdef tran much if at all) and Ferrothorn, preventing them from setting up hazards or pestering the attackers this team carries. Offense teams often also get cleaned by Kartana alone, with assistance from Lele.
Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldex-1501528628-jny8jlug91keuh2hrnct7iwgsee5tnspw

SpDef Lando Bulk Up Corvi Balance
:landorus-therian::corviknight::tapu-koko::clefable::volcarona::rotom-wash:
The main wincon, surprisingly, is not Volcarona with this team. It's Bulk Up Corviknight! Although depending on the matchup, this can change quite easily. BU Corv is a sleeper threat in the current metagame and finds an easy time setting up on more common BO structures such as Lele + Lop + Fini + others with minimal assistance from its teammates. But, to support it, pokemon like Rotom-W exist to pressure out mons like Heatran which Corviknight cannot pressure stall reliably. Specs Koko provides more of an immediate offensive presence and gives Volcarona more breathing room to set-up and sweep as well. Volcarona runs a defensive spread here to best capitalise on its ability in Flame Body to try and punish U-turns from Lopunny/landorus by burning them, which can let Volc use them as a setup chance later on down the road. Thunder Wave Clefable obviously is just there to further support Corviknight by setting rocks and paralysing everything. Landorus also supports it by knocking off opposing Corviknights Leftovers, Zapdos' boots, Rotom-W's leftovers, among other stuff.
Replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nationaldex-1501532758

Full Chatlog

Until next time.
 
VGC 2022 Workshop 02/12/2022

A new VGC season, and a new workshop! This season, players are allowed to bring two restricted Pokemon, making Zacian an even more centralized threat to address. Thanks to yuki, InkVGC, and Borghi for helping out! Descriptions by yuki.

Zacian Dialga Offense
:Dialga::zacian-crowned::Rillaboom-gmax::grimmsnarl::Urshifu::ditto:
This team aims to utilise the massive potential damage output of the big Steel restricted Pokemon. Dialga wants to Dynamax frequently, making its high Special Attack and great coverage an absolute boon. Zacian-C ends up being a great partner for this thanks to not needing Dynamax to deal major damage. With 2 big Steel-types on the team, Ground-types like Groudon, Seismitoad and Gastrodon could otherwise be somewhat of a problem, making Rillaboom a necessity. Grimmsnarl is used to enable the rest of the team, with a fully support oriented set. With a lack of diversity in the restricted Pokemon, Ditto helps to flex as a really potent attacker for the team, often copying opposing restricteds like Calyrex-Shadow. Urshifu follows the same logic as Zacian-C, able to dish out plenty of damage without the need for Dynamax.
Ice Rider Kyogre Trick Room
:calyrex-ice::kyogre::mimikyu::incineroar::amoonguss::stakataka:
This team is primarily focused on getting Trick Room up with one of the various setters to gain a speed control advantage. Mimikyu is capable of consistently achieving this with the combination of a Fake Out immunity, Mental Herb to stave off Taunt, and Disguise allowing it to take at least one hit. Calyrex-I and Stakataka are great attackers in Trick Room, both excellent at Dynamaxing and threatening much of the meta. Amoonguss is also great at utilising Trick Room turns, with its low Speed and access to Spore being a nuisance to several teams. Incineroar provides Fake Out and helps keep the likes of Zacian-C in check, which could otherwise be problematic. Kyogre functions as a means to beat opposing Incineroar while providing a long term wincon.
Full Chatlog

Seeya next time!
 
SS NU Workshop 04/23/2022

Welcome back, workshoppers! This time, we had a bunch of NU room folks come build a ton of teams and variants. Shoutouts to our own quziel for hosting, as well as Ninja, Togkey, Aawin, and zS for their help. Descriptions by S1nn0hC0nfirm3d.

Specs Dragalge VoltTurn
:dragalge::heliolisk::stakataka::quagsire::talonflame::tsareena:
:dragalge::rotom-mow::copperajah::quagsire::talonflame::sylveon:
VoltTurn in NU works well because pivots are plentiful and wallbreakers are hard to handle. Look no further than Choice Specs Dragalge, a wallbreaker with STAB attacks boosted by Adaptability and coverage to beat virtually all walls, if not at least pivot out versus them thanks to Flip Turn. To facilitate wallbreaking opportunities, most of Dragalge’s teammates like Heliolisk, Talonflame, and Tsareena are all pivots as well. They also provide support with Talonflame’s Swords Dance and Tsareena’s Knock Off to break through or wear down troublesome walls; Protect users like Sylveon and Vaporeon scout and deter Dragalge, so setting up versus them or removing their Leftovers mitigates this issue. Stakataka and Quagsire function as a two-part defensive core that check most attackers well enough to provide safety turns for the rest of the offensive support. Where they may fall short, like against Blastoise and Starmie, they can at least pivot into weaker attacks and double into Heliolisk to regain momentum.

Sometimes on VoltTurn, less is more, so attackers like Choice Specs Dragalge may benefit more from a solid defensive core with clerics rather than piling on pivots. Sylveon itself is a defensive staple that creates switch-ins not through pivoting moves, but through passing Wish. This support along with Heal Bell is vital to keep the rest of the defensive core healthy. Quagsire is supported by another Steel-type, this time Copperajah, for the duo to cover most offensive threats; Chople Berry is great so Copperaja nets a safe switch-in versus special wallbreakers with Focus Blast like Dragalge and Exploud. VoltTurn elements remain with Rotom-C and Talonflame both working to bring in Dragalge as much as possible. They also wear down its checks like Escavalier and Snorlax through their pivoting and status spreading.
Silvally-Dark VoltTurn
:silvally-dark::copperajah::mudsdale::tsareena::starmie::talonflame:
:silvally-dark::escavalier::stunfisk::tsareena::mantine::sylveon:
:silvally-dark::escavalier::palossand::rotom-mow::mantine::dragalge:
Silvally formes are notable in low tiers for their extra strong Multi-Attack and good coverage. While Silvally-Ground is usually the go-to, another forme like Silvally-Dark can work as well. Silvally-Dark punishes some attackers like Indeedee-F and Decidueye while breaking through Diancie thanks to Iron Head. Its U-turn supports the team by bringing in other attackers like Copperajah versus Sylveon and Tsareena versus Quagsire. Swords Dance Talonflame and Choice Scarf Starmie are additional pivots to complement this VoltTurn team and are capable of cleaning after Silvally-Dark breaks open crucial walls. Mudsdale and Copperajah are the defensive backbone of the team. Mudsdale also provides Stealth Rock and appreciates Silvally-Dark beating Xatu for it.

There are a lot of other VoltTurn teammates that can support Silvally-Dark. Dragalge and Choice Scarf Rotom-C are two great specially offensive pivots that work together with Silvally-Dark and punish some of the physical walls it fails to deter. Silvally-Dark also makes a Swords Dance duo with Escavalier, as the two share coverage and boosting capabilities to wear down shared checks like Quagsire, Talonflame, and Mudsdale to allow the other to sweep. Escavalier is also a necessary special wall for the defensive core to take Dragon and Fairy-type attacks from the likes of Dragalge and Sylveon, with Pallosand and Mantine functioning as physically defensive support.
Agility Braviary Hazard Stack
:braviary::togedemaru::froslass::starmie::diancie::rhydon:
:braviary::rotom-mow::ferroseed::starmie::diancie::silvally-ground:
Hazard-stack offense needs a way to punish Defoggers, so why not try Defiant Braviary with Agility to turn a Defog into a potential cleaning opportunity? Braviary’s Flying / Fighting coverage is already very strong, and it utilizes its Normal STAB attack Facade so that it may still sweep versus burn spreaders like Talonflame, Vaporeon, and Weezing. Frosslass and Rhydon provide the Spikes, Stealth Rock, and spinblocking support necessary for this playstyle to function. The main sweepers are two Meteor Beam users in Starmie and Diancie. Meteor Beam allows the duo to both boost and attack in the same turn, preserving as much offensive momentum as possible. Choice Scarf Togedamuro preserves momentum as well thanks to blocking Volt Switch, and the fast U-turn + Nuzzle is beneficial for positioning the sweepers and creating setup opportunities.

Bulky offense Spikes teams are another way to utilize Agility Braviary as a Defog deterrent. Ferroseed. Diancie’s strong, mixed coverage already forces out most Defoggers and makes for a great Stealth Rock user. For Spikes, there’s Ferroseed, which also punishes Rapid Spin users like Tsareena and Dhelmise with Iron Barbs + Knock Off. Entry hazard chip damage works great with Silvally-Ground and Choice Scarf Rotom-C as their pivoting attacks rack up extra chip damage on their checks. Meteor Beam Starmie consolidates the roles of a wallbreaker and Rapid Spinner so the team is more offensive while not succumbing to opposing entry hazard playstyles.
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Thanks for reading!
 
Tournament Prep Workshop 05/22/2022

This time, instead of focusing on a specific format, we talked more about preparing against tournament opponents in general. We went over scouting resources and how to plan for an opponent in both the teambuilder and the game. Thanks to quziel and Tysonslayer for helping out! Writeup by myself.

Prep vs. Ox the Fox
:volcanion::weavile::corviknight::slowbro::landorus-therian::tapu-koko:
unknown.png
For our prep example, we chose Ox the Fox, a prominent OU player. From our scout obtained through https://fulllifegames.com/Tools/ReplayScouter/, we noticed a few commonalities across Ox's recent teams. Defensively, we noticed he often brings physically bulky steels like Melmetal, as well as high usage of Tapu Fini. Offensively, we saw a lot of ground attackers like Garchomp and Landorus, often paired with Weavile or Heatran.

For our team, we started with Choice Specs Volcanion, as it is a wallbreaker with a strong matchup against both Melmetal and Fini. Weavile was chosen next to help punish HO and pair well with Volcanion, completing our main offensive core. For the defensive side, we first chose Corviknight as it's an extremely solid answer to Grounds and clears hazards for Specs Volcanion. Next, we added Slowbro to patch up our weakness to Urshifu. It's also a great help in pivoting our attackers in safely with Teleport. To reliably answer Heatran and add Electric immunity, we started with Garchomp, but switched to SpDef Lando to help fix the Koko matchup. Finally, we rounded out the team with a Koko of our own, who answers Toxapex and helps with pivoting even more.

Of course, keep in mind that scouting and counterteaming is not 100% accurate. You can never know for sure what an opponent can bring, but taking the time to study how they play and what they like to bring can give a big edge in high stakes tournaments. Just make sure you don't neglect other matchups!
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Cheers!
 
SS OU Workshop 11/06/2022

We missed the gen turning over by a little bit, but here's the last workshop for SS! Thanks to Coolcodename for hosting and 3d and Storm Zone for helping out. Shoutouts to 3d for the very thorough descriptions!

Rillaboom Melmetal Offense
:tapu-bulu::melmetal::latios::volcanion::landorus-therian::bisharp:
Melmetal in Grassy Terrain has seen an increase in usage in the last few months, mainly thanks to xray and his Rillaboom Melmetal core, but we decided to put a twist on that core using Tapu Bulu as our Grassy Terrain setter instead. We decided to use a Swords Dance Tapu Bulu set with Toxic to take advantage of Melmetal's Protect while proving to be a very good breaker in its own right, as the Flying-types that love to switch into Horn Leech / Close Combat coverage definitely do not appreciate taking a Toxic and getting stalled out later in the game. The EV spread is to ensure we live 2 Choice Band Urshifu Surging Strikes after Stealth Rocks at 100% HP. Melmetal does its usual job of abusing the Earthquake reduction in terrain while gaining 12% HP a turn, proving to be very troublesome to kill in Grassy Terrain.

We noticed a Fire-type weakness on this team, so we decided to go with another Pokemon that abuses terrain, Volcanion. Bulky Volcanion proves to be incredibly useful vs things like Volcarona and Heatran, and it also loves the Earthquake reduction scaring out things like Landorus-Therian when in Terrain. With a core of Tapu Bulu, Melmetal, and Volcanion, this team could be very susceptible to Hyper Offence, and even things like Choice Scarf Kartana could be very annoying for this team to deal with, so we went with Choice Scarf Latios. The Future Sight support Latios provides makes the Balance matchup very easy, and while it is weaker than Tapu Lele, the speed tier in outspeeding Choice Scarf, or Timid +1 Kartana is very important for this team. It is also very nice vs HO as it is not scared out by DD Dragapult, and can revenge kill things like +1 Garchomp if Tapu Bulu had previously fainted dealing with something else. As speed control is not an issue for us, and Grassy Terrain being on the team, Bisharp was chosen as the second Future Sight abuser. CB Bisharp is stronger than Weavile, and it serves as a secondary Steel-type that appreciates the Earthquake reduction in Grassy Terrain. It works very well against fatter teams in general, but against more offensive-oriented teams it will typically just try to get Sucker Punch damage off.

Finally, with a Ground-type and Stealth Rocker needed in the last slot, offensive Landorus-Therian was selected. Typically, Garchomp is common in this slot on Grassy Terrain teams, but we decided to go with Normal Gem Explosion Landorus-Therian to give this team a U-Turner which it previously lacked and a way to chip and guarantee Stealth Rocks vs things such as other defensive Landorus which can be annoying to deal with if we do not always have Terrain up, as it can hit 3 of our Pokemon super effectively with Earthquake and U-Turn out on Latios. Landorus feels free to Defog on opposing Landorus as well, so hitting it with Explosion as they try to do that is very useful. This team also plays very offensively, so understanding what is most important to win games is essential, but with Tapu Bulu, Volcanion, Landorus and Melmetal having very great complementary defensive typings, it is very easy to use those 3 as pivots while you try to get in a position to start breaking.
Blacephalon Aegislash Ghost-Spam
:blacephalon::aegislash::moltres-galar::urshifu-rapid-strike::kartana::landorus-therian:
Ghost-spam in OU has been one of the most experimented-with playstyles throughout the course of the generation, as with the small number of ghost resists in this tier, a lot of people have been attracted to this core. Our team is centered around the core of Choice Specs Blacephalon and SD Aegislash, which does an incredible job at abusing the lack of real switchins to ghost types. Choice Specs Blacephalon is the main breaker and is really typically clicking Shadow Ball or Flamethrower, but the Trick Taunt combination works very well when dealing with things like Blissey, which, when paired with Aegislash makes the stall matchup very easy. SD Aegislash is one of the most annoying Pokemon for stall to deal with, as it completely destroys Unaware Clefable, which is the most common Unaware user on stall. Against more offensive teams, Aegislash will typically serve as something that gets one strong STAB hit off and potentially a Shadow Sneak before dying.

Pivoting moves such as U-Turn are a must-have on Ghost-spam teams, as without them, it is almost impossible to create situations where your Ghost types can start breaking holes in the opposing teams. This team was oriented towards a more offensive playstyle as the nature of Ghost-spam is to be offensive, so instead of building a defensive core around these two Ghosts, strong pivots with great defensive typings for this team were preferred instead. Urshifu-Rapid-Strike and Landorus-Therian are two U-Turn users that are essential for this team. Urshifu's ability to resist Dark-type attacks makes things like Weavile, which would otherwise be extremely threatening menial to deal with. Our Ghosts also love coming in on things that Urshifu U-turns out of, including Slowbro, Clefable, Rillaboom, Skarmory and more. Landorus-Therian provides our team with the essential Ground-type for dealing with Electrics and a very solid Ground immunity which we were previously weak to, making it the perfect pivot for this team.

Galarian-Moltres fits the bill of abusing things that threaten this team, in this case, the idea was opposing Ghost types. Being able to set up on Ghost types locked into Ghost moves works wonders for this team, as even if one of our Ghosts gets revenge killed, we are still able to create an advantage out of it. Finally, Choice Scarf Kartana is another example of a good defensive typing on an offensive Pokemon working great as paired with a Choice Scarf makes Kartana very nice for cleaning late-games after our Ghost types have punched holes in teams. This team is not meant to be played defensively, so keeping up momentum is very important and playing aggressively to ensure the Ghost types can take advantage of any opportunity they can get is essential.
Full Chatlog

Seeya in SV!
 
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