-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
-
The moderators of this forum are vivalospride, Estarossa, Monky25, Mossy Sandwich, and ThatOneApple.
Tournament UUPL XIII Team and Set Dump
- Thread starter Estarossa
- Start date
Hello, I've been playing oras uu for about 10 years now and it's one of my favorite tiers. I think despite it being so old and somewhat "solved" and exhausted (by pak), there's still room for creativity as metagames incur trends and shifts. Particularly, I think the setting of bo1 is the perfect place since you're less pressed to make a team that's good in general and more so a team that will give you the best odds at winning 1 game vs a specific opponent. With this in mind, I mostly did the prep and teambuilding alongside pdt with some input (minimal and mostly useless) from the strap. Here's what we used each week:
Week 1:
I had the idea to use a set-up water type, either DD Gyarados or CM Tox Cune (paired with Florges for wish and aroma support). Funnily enough, I had 0 time to actually build a team and picked what I used from a team dump that pdt posted early on. I just picked it because it looked cool and hadn't seen an Entei in a very long time. Unfortunately Alomomola walled my entire team and the game was only looked somewhat close because I got a crit.
Week 2:
Orb Hydrei looked pretty good this week so that's what I wanted to build around. The main issues with Orb Hydrei is its longevity and increased susceptibility to scald burns so I wanted to pair it with Florges. MPert / Empo / Bat were natural adds; the latter 2 alongside check most of the meta pretty efficiently while MPert provided some offensive options against stuff like MAggron / MLix. For the last slot we needed some extra speed so scarf Hera fit the bill perfectly since it not only is a nice cleaner with moxie, but also synergizes well with Hydrei since they tend to overload on fairies together. There was a good degree of moveset flexibility since we could put SR on either Pert or Empo, defog on Empo or Bat, etc. We decided on SR Pert, fog Empo, and taunt Bat since we wanted to limit the amount of turns Bat has to click defog instead of just uturning out on stuff. Plus, Pert is a way better SR setter than Empo. Anyway, the reason Pert clicks stone edge in the actual game is cus... we forgot to put waterfall on it.
Some alternative options I made that week are:
I quite like this 6 since Nido / Escav with wish support is pretty strong and escav is pretty damn hard to switch into. Fairly similar to hera in that regard except you're even less worried about fairies (but the tradeoff is the speed and being worse into scald).
I also like how this looks quite a bit. The job of wishing and and curing any status ailments diverge from the singular Florges to Mola and Cress, whereas Escav guarantees removing Celebi for Pert. This one was way too weak to waters for my taste though (a single suicune would be troublesome, for example) so we shelved the idea but I kinda fell in love with Cresselia as a random 6th on most teams.
Week 3:
We noticed that our opponent tends to use pretty "cheesy" / unconventional stuff and is also very soft into a basic specs Sylv. My go-to thought when facing opponents like this is to use something very proactive so they have less breathing room for their surprises to take effect. Enter: Specs Sylveon HO. The structure is pretty straightforward - Lass sets up spikes which helps Shark immensely; Krook / Doublade / Bat pressure physical tanks while the latter 2 offset the fighting weakness. Sylveon is mainly a trade machine here, since it's naturally bulky enough to actually eat hits while destroying most of the tier. In the actual game, we didn't even face a steel or a pokemon that can outspeed and reliably 2hko Sylv without getting ohko'd in return so the pick worked out very nicely.
Some alternatives we looked into this week were:
No removal and Bliss / Florg are somewhat redundant (especially on this 6) but I liked the idea of some sort of Ditto balance. Couldn't find a 6 we liked with it though.
Week 4:
I quite liked this team so it's a shame that it was so weak to sub 3a Empo (that set wasn't at all on my radar). The idea here was just to use a fairly reliable balance breaker / trade machine kinda mon so we started with the idea of Nido + TWave Hydrei (to lure av Mienshao). Mola / Aggron / Bat were natural fits and we preferred Mola as the water type here since Aggron and Nido appreciate the wish support (it is hard to pass a wish to Nido but easier in games vs. bulky teams). AV Shao provided a special sponge without using something as passive as Florges / Empo and is pretty nice vs. Celebi and also just helps to bring Nido in.
Some alternatives for this week were:
The idea here was just to use strong dudes like Ape / Rose while Klefki can spike, allowing Rose an extra slot for an attack and/or synthesis (I find synthesis to be really strong on it). Ultimately, I felt this 6 doesn't support nor appreciate Klefki enough and Empo has way too much of an easy time removing.
We wanted to abuse the potency of bulky SD Hera and its ability to remove Florges so partners that came to mind were dragons like MScep and Hydrei. Also put this together:
which is a fairly normal Aboma team with a random Cresselia (I became pretty addicted). Another idea we looked into is SD Coba since I figured it doesn't really have the same checks as other fighters - it has an easier time getting past crobat and naturally pressures fairies. Some 6s I put together were
where Mamo was chosen as a partner to pressure stuff like Doublade and bulky waters that Coba has traditionally struggled with.
Week 5:
We wanted to use Aboma + Pursuit this week since the opponent was pretty weak to it and this is a pretty straightforward Aboma structure (just a revamp of the idea from last week but more standard aka dropping Cress for Sylv and swapping Hydrei for Krook). Pursuit alleviated stuff like Metagross (who I forgot was in the tier until this week) and allowed Aboma to more freely click against teams w bulky steel types.
Week 6:
I became kind of obsessed with that sub 3a Empo so I wanted to try building with it. I liked the idea of CB Ape + sub 3a Empo since Ape can weaken or uturn on waters like Mola / Slowking / Cune which allows Empo a free sub. The 6 we came up with didn't have removal and we figured there's enough offensive options between Hydrei / NP Celebi so we just went with a standard fog Empo. One choice I'd like to highlight here is that the last on Celebi was U-Turn, instead of a 3rd attack or Recover. The reasoning for U-Turn was that Celebi struggles to break past Empo without EP but NP -> EP allows for some very easy midgrounds, so it tends to be hard to make progress anyway despite actually being able to hit it. Celebi also just isn't that strong even at +2. U-Turn prevents all that midground nonsense and just maintains the momentum which was preferrable for this team. In retrospect, I don't think this 6 was great though and definitely my least fav thing we brought.
Some alternative 6's we looked at were:
which... was built on the premise that Hydrei learns defog
Week 7:
After getting throttled by Hera / Gatr last week, we wanted to switch up our structures since there's been some repetition in the bulky fairy + steel archetype from us. Pert / Doublade / Bat was a good way to be strong into fighters without reusing fairies like Florg or even Sylv so we had that core in mind, especially since Doublade is a pretty strong pick in general and we also hadn't used it yet. Strap suggested an off-meta pick in Specs Coba which turned out to be a nice pick to lure physical tanks for Doublade and Pert. Hydrei here was taunt + roost (with lum) so we have an out vs bulky waters and scarf Garde provided a second out with trick (and also HWish support). This is prob my favorite of the season since it finally felt like I stumbled upon a unique flavor not only in surprise sets but also in composition and structure.
Some alternatives we looked at were:
Specs Coba paired with CB Krook to suit ghost types but this 6 was deemed to be too weak into opposing fighters. The import has scarf Hera but it could also be lefties.
I don't really have general metagame commentary since the way I think about mons tends to be "everything has a purpose on the right team / vs. the right opponent" especially in a BO1 setting like this. I do think that, in my limited knowledge, Cresselia offenses are a bit underexplored and there's also tons of room for exploration on different Cress sets in terms of last moves and items.
Thanks to pdt and strap for talking ORAS with me (despite me yapping more than playing) and thanks to Pak as well for the help and feedback! Our team chat was fun despite there being no sheist uu players of the northeastern region. Will hopefully see you guys in the next one
Week 1:
I had the idea to use a set-up water type, either DD Gyarados or CM Tox Cune (paired with Florges for wish and aroma support). Funnily enough, I had 0 time to actually build a team and picked what I used from a team dump that pdt posted early on. I just picked it because it looked cool and hadn't seen an Entei in a very long time. Unfortunately Alomomola walled my entire team and the game was only looked somewhat close because I got a crit.
Week 2:
Orb Hydrei looked pretty good this week so that's what I wanted to build around. The main issues with Orb Hydrei is its longevity and increased susceptibility to scald burns so I wanted to pair it with Florges. MPert / Empo / Bat were natural adds; the latter 2 alongside check most of the meta pretty efficiently while MPert provided some offensive options against stuff like MAggron / MLix. For the last slot we needed some extra speed so scarf Hera fit the bill perfectly since it not only is a nice cleaner with moxie, but also synergizes well with Hydrei since they tend to overload on fairies together. There was a good degree of moveset flexibility since we could put SR on either Pert or Empo, defog on Empo or Bat, etc. We decided on SR Pert, fog Empo, and taunt Bat since we wanted to limit the amount of turns Bat has to click defog instead of just uturning out on stuff. Plus, Pert is a way better SR setter than Empo. Anyway, the reason Pert clicks stone edge in the actual game is cus... we forgot to put waterfall on it.
Some alternative options I made that week are:
I quite like this 6 since Nido / Escav with wish support is pretty strong and escav is pretty damn hard to switch into. Fairly similar to hera in that regard except you're even less worried about fairies (but the tradeoff is the speed and being worse into scald).
I also like how this looks quite a bit. The job of wishing and and curing any status ailments diverge from the singular Florges to Mola and Cress, whereas Escav guarantees removing Celebi for Pert. This one was way too weak to waters for my taste though (a single suicune would be troublesome, for example) so we shelved the idea but I kinda fell in love with Cresselia as a random 6th on most teams.
Week 3:
We noticed that our opponent tends to use pretty "cheesy" / unconventional stuff and is also very soft into a basic specs Sylv. My go-to thought when facing opponents like this is to use something very proactive so they have less breathing room for their surprises to take effect. Enter: Specs Sylveon HO. The structure is pretty straightforward - Lass sets up spikes which helps Shark immensely; Krook / Doublade / Bat pressure physical tanks while the latter 2 offset the fighting weakness. Sylveon is mainly a trade machine here, since it's naturally bulky enough to actually eat hits while destroying most of the tier. In the actual game, we didn't even face a steel or a pokemon that can outspeed and reliably 2hko Sylv without getting ohko'd in return so the pick worked out very nicely.
Some alternatives we looked into this week were:
No removal and Bliss / Florg are somewhat redundant (especially on this 6) but I liked the idea of some sort of Ditto balance. Couldn't find a 6 we liked with it though.
Week 4:
I quite liked this team so it's a shame that it was so weak to sub 3a Empo (that set wasn't at all on my radar). The idea here was just to use a fairly reliable balance breaker / trade machine kinda mon so we started with the idea of Nido + TWave Hydrei (to lure av Mienshao). Mola / Aggron / Bat were natural fits and we preferred Mola as the water type here since Aggron and Nido appreciate the wish support (it is hard to pass a wish to Nido but easier in games vs. bulky teams). AV Shao provided a special sponge without using something as passive as Florges / Empo and is pretty nice vs. Celebi and also just helps to bring Nido in.
Some alternatives for this week were:
The idea here was just to use strong dudes like Ape / Rose while Klefki can spike, allowing Rose an extra slot for an attack and/or synthesis (I find synthesis to be really strong on it). Ultimately, I felt this 6 doesn't support nor appreciate Klefki enough and Empo has way too much of an easy time removing.
We wanted to abuse the potency of bulky SD Hera and its ability to remove Florges so partners that came to mind were dragons like MScep and Hydrei. Also put this together:
which is a fairly normal Aboma team with a random Cresselia (I became pretty addicted). Another idea we looked into is SD Coba since I figured it doesn't really have the same checks as other fighters - it has an easier time getting past crobat and naturally pressures fairies. Some 6s I put together were
where Mamo was chosen as a partner to pressure stuff like Doublade and bulky waters that Coba has traditionally struggled with.
Week 5:
We wanted to use Aboma + Pursuit this week since the opponent was pretty weak to it and this is a pretty straightforward Aboma structure (just a revamp of the idea from last week but more standard aka dropping Cress for Sylv and swapping Hydrei for Krook). Pursuit alleviated stuff like Metagross (who I forgot was in the tier until this week) and allowed Aboma to more freely click against teams w bulky steel types.
Week 6:
I became kind of obsessed with that sub 3a Empo so I wanted to try building with it. I liked the idea of CB Ape + sub 3a Empo since Ape can weaken or uturn on waters like Mola / Slowking / Cune which allows Empo a free sub. The 6 we came up with didn't have removal and we figured there's enough offensive options between Hydrei / NP Celebi so we just went with a standard fog Empo. One choice I'd like to highlight here is that the last on Celebi was U-Turn, instead of a 3rd attack or Recover. The reasoning for U-Turn was that Celebi struggles to break past Empo without EP but NP -> EP allows for some very easy midgrounds, so it tends to be hard to make progress anyway despite actually being able to hit it. Celebi also just isn't that strong even at +2. U-Turn prevents all that midground nonsense and just maintains the momentum which was preferrable for this team. In retrospect, I don't think this 6 was great though and definitely my least fav thing we brought.
Some alternative 6's we looked at were:
which... was built on the premise that Hydrei learns defog
Week 7:
After getting throttled by Hera / Gatr last week, we wanted to switch up our structures since there's been some repetition in the bulky fairy + steel archetype from us. Pert / Doublade / Bat was a good way to be strong into fighters without reusing fairies like Florg or even Sylv so we had that core in mind, especially since Doublade is a pretty strong pick in general and we also hadn't used it yet. Strap suggested an off-meta pick in Specs Coba which turned out to be a nice pick to lure physical tanks for Doublade and Pert. Hydrei here was taunt + roost (with lum) so we have an out vs bulky waters and scarf Garde provided a second out with trick (and also HWish support). This is prob my favorite of the season since it finally felt like I stumbled upon a unique flavor not only in surprise sets but also in composition and structure.
Some alternatives we looked at were:
Specs Coba paired with CB Krook to suit ghost types but this 6 was deemed to be too weak into opposing fighters. The import has scarf Hera but it could also be lefties.
I don't really have general metagame commentary since the way I think about mons tends to be "everything has a purpose on the right team / vs. the right opponent" especially in a BO1 setting like this. I do think that, in my limited knowledge, Cresselia offenses are a bit underexplored and there's also tons of room for exploration on different Cress sets in terms of last moves and items.
Thanks to pdt and strap for talking ORAS with me (despite me yapping more than playing) and thanks to Pak as well for the help and feedback! Our team chat was fun despite there being no sheist uu players of the northeastern region. Will hopefully see you guys in the next one
Last edited:
SS UU
metang double (Metagross) @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Atk / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Toxic
Credit to Lily for suggesting this over what was originally a Jirachi. Metagross is a cool mon that can maintain rocks against Excadrill, even if it deicides to hard switch in on the rocks (you live EQ and KO back). Metagross is also a pinch Cobalion check since it lives +2 CC. Obviously it thumps into Scizor, but for teams that wanna maintain rocks and offensive pressure I found it to be a very good mon and hard to take out.
Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Acid Armor
- Stored Power
- Recover
Slowbro-Galar @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Sludge Bomb
- Scald
- Slack Off
A double CM Psychic core with the intent of punishing users who forego Dark-types a lot. The idea is even if you face a Hydreigon or Zarude, Slowbro-G is the best mon at luring them in and forcing them to click Dark-type STAB. You bust through them, then win with Reuniclus. I ended up facing HO with this team, which typically lacks Dark-types, and the result was what you'd expect.
deino triple (Hydreigon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 144 SpD / 112 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Roost
NP Drei is not used much but can be brutal to face if you're lacking Primarina/Azumarill/Chansey. Pretty good mons, to be fair, but the SpDef on this mon makes it much harder to take out. Thundy Focus Blast bounces, you wall Autotomize Celesteela, and even stuff like Togekiss can't really check you without TWave. You can run Chople Berry too to lure Cobalions
Azumarill @ Leftovers
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Play Rough
- Knock Off
- Aqua Jet
I really like Azumarill with the decrease in Amoonguss usage. Even then, knocking it is nice. Being able to switch moves means you aren't forced out by things you're supposed to counter like Hydreigon/Salamence too. Skarmory isn't that good a counter either since it needs to spend a turn clicking Iron Defense and finds itself Roost spamming when it comes into Azu. The main reason I like Azu is a Drei check that punishes Chansey/Slowking teams since most people slap them on and think they are okay into the other Water/Fairy type.
I brought Azu into a team with no Water-type resist and lost though. Sad yoshi
SM UU
Cobalion @ Steelium Z
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Rock Polish
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
A very underused threat in current SM. A mon that can set up against even a boosted Scizor (barring Superpower) is invaluable, and the Z-move turns teams that rely on a Lati to check Cobalion into mush. Doublade is rare nowadays, so the only common-ish mon this thumps into is Slowbro. Cobalion also dominates the HO matchup, though we didn't see much of that archtype this tournament.
Infernape @ Choice Band
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fire Punch
- U-turn
- Close Combat
- Gunk Shot
Another not-new set but I don't really like Terrakion since it can't check Bullet Punch. I just wanted to emphasize how much of a menance Infernape is now that people stopped using NP sets. Nothing switches into this set besides Gligar, and though I think Gligar is horrific, it's usage is picking up this tournament. CB U-Turn is such a threat that you are way more free to click CC than you were if using CB Terrakion since Lati coming into take a U-Turn ends it right then and there and most players know that.
metang double (Metagross) @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Atk / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Toxic
Credit to Lily for suggesting this over what was originally a Jirachi. Metagross is a cool mon that can maintain rocks against Excadrill, even if it deicides to hard switch in on the rocks (you live EQ and KO back). Metagross is also a pinch Cobalion check since it lives +2 CC. Obviously it thumps into Scizor, but for teams that wanna maintain rocks and offensive pressure I found it to be a very good mon and hard to take out.
Reuniclus @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Acid Armor
- Stored Power
- Recover
Slowbro-Galar @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Sludge Bomb
- Scald
- Slack Off
A double CM Psychic core with the intent of punishing users who forego Dark-types a lot. The idea is even if you face a Hydreigon or Zarude, Slowbro-G is the best mon at luring them in and forcing them to click Dark-type STAB. You bust through them, then win with Reuniclus. I ended up facing HO with this team, which typically lacks Dark-types, and the result was what you'd expect.
deino triple (Hydreigon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 144 SpD / 112 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Roost
NP Drei is not used much but can be brutal to face if you're lacking Primarina/Azumarill/Chansey. Pretty good mons, to be fair, but the SpDef on this mon makes it much harder to take out. Thundy Focus Blast bounces, you wall Autotomize Celesteela, and even stuff like Togekiss can't really check you without TWave. You can run Chople Berry too to lure Cobalions
Azumarill @ Leftovers
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Play Rough
- Knock Off
- Aqua Jet
I really like Azumarill with the decrease in Amoonguss usage. Even then, knocking it is nice. Being able to switch moves means you aren't forced out by things you're supposed to counter like Hydreigon/Salamence too. Skarmory isn't that good a counter either since it needs to spend a turn clicking Iron Defense and finds itself Roost spamming when it comes into Azu. The main reason I like Azu is a Drei check that punishes Chansey/Slowking teams since most people slap them on and think they are okay into the other Water/Fairy type.
I brought Azu into a team with no Water-type resist and lost though. Sad yoshi
SM UU
Cobalion @ Steelium Z
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Rock Polish
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
A very underused threat in current SM. A mon that can set up against even a boosted Scizor (barring Superpower) is invaluable, and the Z-move turns teams that rely on a Lati to check Cobalion into mush. Doublade is rare nowadays, so the only common-ish mon this thumps into is Slowbro. Cobalion also dominates the HO matchup, though we didn't see much of that archtype this tournament.
Infernape @ Choice Band
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fire Punch
- U-turn
- Close Combat
- Gunk Shot
Another not-new set but I don't really like Terrakion since it can't check Bullet Punch. I just wanted to emphasize how much of a menance Infernape is now that people stopped using NP sets. Nothing switches into this set besides Gligar, and though I think Gligar is horrific, it's usage is picking up this tournament. CB U-Turn is such a threat that you are way more free to click CC than you were if using CB Terrakion since Lati coming into take a U-Turn ends it right then and there and most players know that.
Last edited:
Going into this tour I really didn't want or expect to start ADV again. I signed up with a preference for SS looking to play something new, but after a few teams talked to me it seemed like I'd be playing SM/ORAS which was chill. Unexpectedly the Idols still wanted to retain me for non-ADV and I somewhat reluctantly accepted. I didn't really think I was worth 16k for non-ADV and part of me did want to experience a different franchise, but Lily & Pak are great and it guaranteed I'd have good support so I figured it was safer than trying my luck in auction. We planned with me in ORAS but the draft wasn't going quite as expected so at some point I said I'd suck it up and ADV. To keep myself interested I decided I'd try to build for myself as much as I could this tour after relying on tweaking other people's teams for the vast majority of UUSD IV/UUPL XII. Here are the results:
Week 1 vs Charmriah (W) https://pokepast.es/2db2aaa5400d3c7c
Charm used lots of weird shit in UUBD with pretty noticeable defensive holes so I wanted to bring something aggressive that targets those weaknesses. Strong EQ and fast TBolt stood out to me as strong picks so I started with Gligar/EBuzz/Kang. I chose SBall Kang because of his high Misdreavus usage and to limit CB Solrock. Oma was a natural add as the spiker since I didn't want to go full HO here, Rain Dance so that it can still be a threat itself in specific scenarios and to pressure Kang a little better. Offensive Slowking was another idea I had after seeing it had a pretty good matchup spread into his own leads and it felt like a solid fit here to help check waters/fighters/Arc/EQ while still exerting pressure. I needed priority and was still a bit soft into Arcanine, so my own Flash Fire Arc rounded out the team pretty nicely. No spin or cleric is problematic in long games but it's meant to be an offensive team that wails into spinners until I can maintain spikes, at which point one of Arc/Glig/Buzz should be able to win.
Week 2 vs Amukamara (W) https://pokepast.es/4347400d0712fce7
Liam had insanely high water usage across the board which is fairly normal for this tier but it wasn't rare at all for him to have 3 per team. Early ideas to abuse that included Quagsire and... Poliwrath? But after a talk with Bouff I decided to build with Leech Plume. Kang/Oma/Toise are all simple adds to form a boring balance core. CB Scyther because he's broken and I needed something that blows back CMers. I think I originally ended the team with Flash Fire Arcanine again for offensive pressure and help against opposing Arc, but I kinda liked psychics into him so I went with Thief Grumpig which could still fill Arc's main rolls here.
Week 3 vs Heysup (L) https://pokepast.es/garayoakbuiltitsoiwontsharesorry
I was playing Heysup so I had less time than usual to figure out a team and ended up loading an old Garay team I had sitting in my builder. I wanted to use CB Fearow because it blows up some of his less defensively sound structures and psychics once again looked good so the team having Lunatone was a nice bonus.
Week 4 vs Parpar (W) https://pokepast.es/33ea2da999ccf659
Parpar spammed ground weak leads so I wanted to try to target that and offensive Quag is a cool trendy set that I hadn't gotten to use before. Rose is the best spiker with it and Aroma support is always highly appreciated in this tier. Scyther isnt necessarily the greatest fit as I know its going to make the team awkard defensively, but it shreds nonsense builds that Parpar oftentimes ends up using. Kang/Arc/Toise are natural adds from there, and I want to note Toise is especially necessary here as the spinner here to help check rocks/grounds/Arc while also being able to pressure Kang. A somewhat bulky Intim Arc is meant to help limit Scyther/normals and should honestly have been even bulkier. Normal types can be very spooky but I figured Intim Arc + triple Focus Punch would be enough as long as I played well.
Week 5 vs shiloh (W) https://pokepast.es/50a859bcc84ef320
Shiloh was mostly just loading up fatty teams so my prep was tailored towards him. SD Gatr is a massive threat for the more traditional balance teams that fatty tends to lean towards and also matched up nicely against his most common leads Arcanine/Solrock. SBall Kang makes a return here due to crazy Solrock usage. Roselia was my spiker of choice once again to be better into Toise/Tenta and help against electrics. I didn't want to be as weak to physical attackers as I was last week so I added a super bulky Granbull which also took cleric duties from Roselia. Team was looking a little slow but Tenta fit pretty nicely as the spinner here, I have Gatr to help with the Arc variants Tenta doesn't want to see and solid ways to punish Kang. CB Scyther last as my priority user because he is broken (and I needed more pressure against CMers).
Week 6 vs mielke (W) https://pokepast.es/93a840211cb560c9
Wasn't feeling super inspired this week, I wanted to use Slowking but wasn't in love with what I came up with so defaulted to my "old reliable". I didn't really build this one but I've edited it enough each time I've used it over the past couple years that I can't even remember what the original sets were when I first yoinked it. The team has its weaknesses but its a very solid 6 that can win against pretty much anything and has solid set flexibility. Oma was solid into most of his leads so I decided to make it Thief and throw it at lead, best case scenario catching a water so Charcoal Arcanine can pop off later.
Week 7 vs BlackKnight_Gawain (W) https://pokepast.es/31bc2602456d86e0
I posted a poll in general chat asking if I should stall and it was like 10 yes to 1 no. Stall has a long list of potential issues in this tier but I kinda wanted to try my hand at building it and against someone unfamiliar with the tier I just figured it'd work. I built several variants of Kang + Altaria + Spikes + Spin + Ghost + Wincon before landing on this. Altaria is like 80% of the reason to use stall to me because its lowkey broken in some matchups just spamming Roar and is by far the most consistent answer to Arcanine. I despise Hitmontop but wanted to try it here because having a real way of switching into CB Solrock is massive for stall and Intim can be randomly nice against guys like Granbull or even Gatr. Not being great into Omastar blows though. And speaking of Omastar it is simply the best spiker on stall although I did try to make others work. Misdreavus was my ghost of choice over Sableye because its better at spinblocking Tenta/Toise and Perish Song can be pretty massive. 3atk Kang can be an issue without Sab but I have Top which really helps with that. SD Plume occupies the wincon slot here, not being as deadly as other options (CM King/Curse Quag/Curse Muk/Curse Lap) but is less committal than the others due to not relying on Rest and has some nice defensive utility checking electrics/waters.
Semis vs Charmriah (W) https://pokepast.es/b7ed111f4e2c2fab
By this point Charm's scout was pretty clearly defined by two things: HO and Misdreavus. Despite that I didn't really think I'd be seeing either and just expected him to load some insanely weird shit like he did against me W1. CM TWave Slowking is pretty good at stomping out nonsense by spreading para and forcing awkward trades even if its not winning outright, and his low Scyther usage made it even more appealing. I also knew I would be using my own Scyther, because he is still broken and good at beating nonsense. I started looking at the hazard game next and with King already being a sturdy water I felt good running Tenta here for the extra speed. Spikes felt too awkward to fit so I decided to drop them here, which just means my lasts need to be able to effectively pressure Kang on their own. I also still need a cleric for my Rest King which resulted in Granbull's inclusion, serving as my initial check to most physicals. I thought Golem fit nicely in the last slot as a strong guy that benefits from TWave/BSlam spam while providing some nice defensive utility as a backup check to normals/electrics/Scyther. Plus Explosion is a great tool to have against someone that can bring Anything.
Semis TB vs Attribute (L) https://pokepast.es/f626122b8d0e03cd
I was pretty out of ideas this week. I had been building and deleting teams for 2 months non-stop by this point and I was up against somebody with zero history in the tier. You'd think the knowledge gap is pretty huge here but Attribute is a talented player and this is a pretty simple tier so it was bound to be one of my harder ADV UU games ever. After not being able to build anything I was happy with I ended up using a team I had built the week prior. CB Solrock is a fantastic progress maker I somehow didn't load all season with the rest of the team beinv built to try to maintain pressure and just win fast. Kang special check & Bull physical check. Tenta checks Arc & spins, my own Arc gives me a special breaker, and those two plus Solrock break down waters for each other. Scyther to clean up, probably should've been SD here. Not too happy with this one which is shitty in tiebreak but I don't hate myself for loading it.
Feels bad to lose another tiebreak for my team, especially with it being in my own tier this time, but life goes on. At least I can cope by telling myself I basically won 7 tiebreaks prior to keep us alive...! I think my tiebreak game could've been really interesting without Granbull getting crit on turn 3, but that's the risk you take loading up teams that walk on a tightrope. The game gave me some good RNG afterwards to keep me in it at least, I just failed to make the most of those extra opportunities. While it's a disappointing end to my time with the tier I can at least look back at my track record and be happy with 7-2 -> 5-3 -> 7-2. Thank you to Lily for being the main one who tried to exist in my channel and for sticking with me over the past 3 years on the Idols (sounds kinda fucking insane its been 3 years now that im typing it out??) and Bouff for giving me a bit of help whenever I needed it. Finchinator hellom maybe one day I'll be able to win a goddamn tiebreak with one of you, sorry it wasn't today.
hopefully be back next year, hopefully in a different tier. I actually really do like ADV UU and wish more people would give it a try in the future but I need a change of scenery. cya!
Week 1 vs Charmriah (W) https://pokepast.es/2db2aaa5400d3c7c
Charm used lots of weird shit in UUBD with pretty noticeable defensive holes so I wanted to bring something aggressive that targets those weaknesses. Strong EQ and fast TBolt stood out to me as strong picks so I started with Gligar/EBuzz/Kang. I chose SBall Kang because of his high Misdreavus usage and to limit CB Solrock. Oma was a natural add as the spiker since I didn't want to go full HO here, Rain Dance so that it can still be a threat itself in specific scenarios and to pressure Kang a little better. Offensive Slowking was another idea I had after seeing it had a pretty good matchup spread into his own leads and it felt like a solid fit here to help check waters/fighters/Arc/EQ while still exerting pressure. I needed priority and was still a bit soft into Arcanine, so my own Flash Fire Arc rounded out the team pretty nicely. No spin or cleric is problematic in long games but it's meant to be an offensive team that wails into spinners until I can maintain spikes, at which point one of Arc/Glig/Buzz should be able to win.
Week 2 vs Amukamara (W) https://pokepast.es/4347400d0712fce7
Liam had insanely high water usage across the board which is fairly normal for this tier but it wasn't rare at all for him to have 3 per team. Early ideas to abuse that included Quagsire and... Poliwrath? But after a talk with Bouff I decided to build with Leech Plume. Kang/Oma/Toise are all simple adds to form a boring balance core. CB Scyther because he's broken and I needed something that blows back CMers. I think I originally ended the team with Flash Fire Arcanine again for offensive pressure and help against opposing Arc, but I kinda liked psychics into him so I went with Thief Grumpig which could still fill Arc's main rolls here.
Week 3 vs Heysup (L) https://pokepast.es/garayoakbuiltitsoiwontsharesorry
I was playing Heysup so I had less time than usual to figure out a team and ended up loading an old Garay team I had sitting in my builder. I wanted to use CB Fearow because it blows up some of his less defensively sound structures and psychics once again looked good so the team having Lunatone was a nice bonus.
Week 4 vs Parpar (W) https://pokepast.es/33ea2da999ccf659
Parpar spammed ground weak leads so I wanted to try to target that and offensive Quag is a cool trendy set that I hadn't gotten to use before. Rose is the best spiker with it and Aroma support is always highly appreciated in this tier. Scyther isnt necessarily the greatest fit as I know its going to make the team awkard defensively, but it shreds nonsense builds that Parpar oftentimes ends up using. Kang/Arc/Toise are natural adds from there, and I want to note Toise is especially necessary here as the spinner here to help check rocks/grounds/Arc while also being able to pressure Kang. A somewhat bulky Intim Arc is meant to help limit Scyther/normals and should honestly have been even bulkier. Normal types can be very spooky but I figured Intim Arc + triple Focus Punch would be enough as long as I played well.
Week 5 vs shiloh (W) https://pokepast.es/50a859bcc84ef320
Shiloh was mostly just loading up fatty teams so my prep was tailored towards him. SD Gatr is a massive threat for the more traditional balance teams that fatty tends to lean towards and also matched up nicely against his most common leads Arcanine/Solrock. SBall Kang makes a return here due to crazy Solrock usage. Roselia was my spiker of choice once again to be better into Toise/Tenta and help against electrics. I didn't want to be as weak to physical attackers as I was last week so I added a super bulky Granbull which also took cleric duties from Roselia. Team was looking a little slow but Tenta fit pretty nicely as the spinner here, I have Gatr to help with the Arc variants Tenta doesn't want to see and solid ways to punish Kang. CB Scyther last as my priority user because he is broken (and I needed more pressure against CMers).
Week 6 vs mielke (W) https://pokepast.es/93a840211cb560c9
Wasn't feeling super inspired this week, I wanted to use Slowking but wasn't in love with what I came up with so defaulted to my "old reliable". I didn't really build this one but I've edited it enough each time I've used it over the past couple years that I can't even remember what the original sets were when I first yoinked it. The team has its weaknesses but its a very solid 6 that can win against pretty much anything and has solid set flexibility. Oma was solid into most of his leads so I decided to make it Thief and throw it at lead, best case scenario catching a water so Charcoal Arcanine can pop off later.
Week 7 vs BlackKnight_Gawain (W) https://pokepast.es/31bc2602456d86e0
I posted a poll in general chat asking if I should stall and it was like 10 yes to 1 no. Stall has a long list of potential issues in this tier but I kinda wanted to try my hand at building it and against someone unfamiliar with the tier I just figured it'd work. I built several variants of Kang + Altaria + Spikes + Spin + Ghost + Wincon before landing on this. Altaria is like 80% of the reason to use stall to me because its lowkey broken in some matchups just spamming Roar and is by far the most consistent answer to Arcanine. I despise Hitmontop but wanted to try it here because having a real way of switching into CB Solrock is massive for stall and Intim can be randomly nice against guys like Granbull or even Gatr. Not being great into Omastar blows though. And speaking of Omastar it is simply the best spiker on stall although I did try to make others work. Misdreavus was my ghost of choice over Sableye because its better at spinblocking Tenta/Toise and Perish Song can be pretty massive. 3atk Kang can be an issue without Sab but I have Top which really helps with that. SD Plume occupies the wincon slot here, not being as deadly as other options (CM King/Curse Quag/Curse Muk/Curse Lap) but is less committal than the others due to not relying on Rest and has some nice defensive utility checking electrics/waters.
Semis vs Charmriah (W) https://pokepast.es/b7ed111f4e2c2fab
By this point Charm's scout was pretty clearly defined by two things: HO and Misdreavus. Despite that I didn't really think I'd be seeing either and just expected him to load some insanely weird shit like he did against me W1. CM TWave Slowking is pretty good at stomping out nonsense by spreading para and forcing awkward trades even if its not winning outright, and his low Scyther usage made it even more appealing. I also knew I would be using my own Scyther, because he is still broken and good at beating nonsense. I started looking at the hazard game next and with King already being a sturdy water I felt good running Tenta here for the extra speed. Spikes felt too awkward to fit so I decided to drop them here, which just means my lasts need to be able to effectively pressure Kang on their own. I also still need a cleric for my Rest King which resulted in Granbull's inclusion, serving as my initial check to most physicals. I thought Golem fit nicely in the last slot as a strong guy that benefits from TWave/BSlam spam while providing some nice defensive utility as a backup check to normals/electrics/Scyther. Plus Explosion is a great tool to have against someone that can bring Anything.
Semis TB vs Attribute (L) https://pokepast.es/f626122b8d0e03cd
I was pretty out of ideas this week. I had been building and deleting teams for 2 months non-stop by this point and I was up against somebody with zero history in the tier. You'd think the knowledge gap is pretty huge here but Attribute is a talented player and this is a pretty simple tier so it was bound to be one of my harder ADV UU games ever. After not being able to build anything I was happy with I ended up using a team I had built the week prior. CB Solrock is a fantastic progress maker I somehow didn't load all season with the rest of the team beinv built to try to maintain pressure and just win fast. Kang special check & Bull physical check. Tenta checks Arc & spins, my own Arc gives me a special breaker, and those two plus Solrock break down waters for each other. Scyther to clean up, probably should've been SD here. Not too happy with this one which is shitty in tiebreak but I don't hate myself for loading it.
Feels bad to lose another tiebreak for my team, especially with it being in my own tier this time, but life goes on. At least I can cope by telling myself I basically won 7 tiebreaks prior to keep us alive...! I think my tiebreak game could've been really interesting without Granbull getting crit on turn 3, but that's the risk you take loading up teams that walk on a tightrope. The game gave me some good RNG afterwards to keep me in it at least, I just failed to make the most of those extra opportunities. While it's a disappointing end to my time with the tier I can at least look back at my track record and be happy with 7-2 -> 5-3 -> 7-2. Thank you to Lily for being the main one who tried to exist in my channel and for sticking with me over the past 3 years on the Idols (sounds kinda fucking insane its been 3 years now that im typing it out??) and Bouff for giving me a bit of help whenever I needed it. Finchinator hellom maybe one day I'll be able to win a goddamn tiebreak with one of you, sorry it wasn't today.
hopefully be back next year, hopefully in a different tier. I actually really do like ADV UU and wish more people would give it a try in the future but I need a change of scenery. cya!
I haven't made a forum post in ages, but considering this is the one tournament a year I play (and potentially the last ever?), I figured making a post would be fitting of old times. I can't lie, this tournament was infuriating at times and reminded me why I absolutely hate playing Pokemon nowadays. You can spend so long prepping and testing to fit in one game during a packed week just to have some type of RNG ruin all that effort. This is accentuated by the fact that SM UU already has so many things that you need to check that corners need to be cut in the builder sometimes and one ounce of bad luck can turn a game around entirely. SM still holds a special place in my heart despite the headaches in the builder, and I was very happy to see what I felt like was a lot newer teams than in the past. This is one of the easier UU tiers to reuse teams and be successful in but it's always really satisfying to try out new things and have them actually work out.
Scizor @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Adamant Nature
- Bug Bite
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Roost / Swords Dance
Good old sdbp SM UU staple. To no one's surprise, this is one of the most flexible mons in the tier, and it was really surprising to me that no one had explored 3 attacks more outside of HO. It's not hard to fit Sciz alongside another Steel-type and this mon's ceiling is so much higher when you're not banking on it to check Latias for you (not a Latias check anyway lol). There are an egregious amount of teams nowadays that count on a core like Amoonguss + Cobalion to check Sciz and the whole premise of this set is to beat cores like those. I used SD + 3 attacks week 1 and was able to show this off late game exactly how I intended: find one turn to get a free SD, OHKO the Amoonguss with Bug Bite, Superpower the Mega Aggron that would normally check Sciz, win the game. The idea behind Roost > SD is pretty similar but a little more niche. Sciz is so strong that it doesn't always need an SD to make progress, and even against Rotom-H + Steel-type builds, you can eat the pinch berry and prevent the Steel-type from ever being a check while still having reliable recovery. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to publicly show off how good the Roost variant can be, but it put in so much work during tests. Broken mon stays broken.
Altaria-Mega @ Altarianite
Ability: Natural Cure
Relaxed Nature
- Return
- Fire Blast
- Roost
- Refresh
Mega Altaria has definitely fallen off from its old glory days and building with it can be a bit awkward, but it still remains one of the most customizable mons in this tier. This set can struggle to break past Poison-types like Nidoqueen and Tentacruel, but both of those mons can be pretty easy to pressure with appropriate team support.
Team structures like these have gotten increasingly popular during this era of SM. After killing Mamoswine, the Infernape revealed no Gunk Shot and Altaria was able to sit on the rest of the team. Its EVs are so customizable too that you can do silly stuff like avoiding Mega Aero from ever 2hkoing with Stone Edge while still 2hkoing Guss with Fire Blast. Although Refresh is by now means new on this mon, pairing it with 2 attacks is something that I hadn't tried before - I would've usually used Toxic or Heal Bell. Refresh lets you pressure and outlast a lot of things like Rotom-H, Hippowdon, and Empoleon that normally bank on Toxic to wear this down. My Latias matchup wasn't the best and I wanted to be able to OHKO it after a CM boost, but you can also consider Hyper Voice > Return on the right team and get a little more damage output. Sleeper pick if you're able to build around it well.
Klefki @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Foul Play
- Magnet Rise
- Toxic
Even if it's not true, I'm taking full credit for starting the Mega Shark + Klefki archetypes in this tier. Standard Klefki runs Fairy move + Thunder Wave which is still a very valid and good option, but Mega Shark teams can really struggle with Ground-types and Scizor, which is where the beauty of this set comes in. Toxic hits a lot of things that would be otherwise annoying: Hippowdon, Rotom-H, Mega Mane, Rhyperior, Primarina, etc. Foul Play is increasingly useful for the sole purpose of not letting Sciz come in and try to SD for free. You can customize the EVs pretty freely to almost always live a +2 LO BP from full while still being pretty specially bulky and do 80%+ back to Sciz which is a huge perk for Mega Shark teams. Keys already wants 6 moves in this tier but I'd encourage people to cater it to the team more than just slapping whatever is standard on it!
Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seismic Toss
- Toxic
- Soft-Boiled
- Wish
Shiba could not have rejoiced harder when he saw that I was finally bringing Blissey. I've been experimenting with bulkier builds for a while now in this tier, and it can be hard with how much this tier has to cover and how offensive it is in nature. Blissey is a mon that surprisingly fits on more archetypes that you would think though:
Bliss on Mane Sciz voltturn?? Granted it didn't put in as much work as I wanted it to because Togekiss is not a fair Pokemon, but it was still able to Wish pass efficiently and help scout for Latias sets very risk free. A lot of offenses like these struggle to pivot into things like Latias and can also have a pretty poor long term Scizor matchup if you let things like Mane and Nidoqueen take damage. Blissey's huge Wish is extremely useful for being able to even scout sets from threats like Infernape, Terrakion, and Sciz. It's also a huge late game threat because a lot of teams bank on a Fighting-type or Scizor to be able to break Blissey and a lot of people don't even account for it in the builder, making it an actual late game wincon if you're able to remove the aforementioned threats.
Some more Pokemon that I don't have the energy to write about but I think deserve some more usage:
And finally some that I think are absolute garbage and should never be used:
Already gave appropriate shoutouts to everyone who helped me in some capacity in my team chat but wanted to give special shoutouts to Adaam Accel Pak for always being willing to help in PMs despite us not teaming in ages. You three are my boys and make building and playing this tier more enjoyable than it would be otherwise. Until probably not? next year, -live love adam
Scizor @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Adamant Nature
- Bug Bite
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Roost / Swords Dance
Good old sdbp SM UU staple. To no one's surprise, this is one of the most flexible mons in the tier, and it was really surprising to me that no one had explored 3 attacks more outside of HO. It's not hard to fit Sciz alongside another Steel-type and this mon's ceiling is so much higher when you're not banking on it to check Latias for you (not a Latias check anyway lol). There are an egregious amount of teams nowadays that count on a core like Amoonguss + Cobalion to check Sciz and the whole premise of this set is to beat cores like those. I used SD + 3 attacks week 1 and was able to show this off late game exactly how I intended: find one turn to get a free SD, OHKO the Amoonguss with Bug Bite, Superpower the Mega Aggron that would normally check Sciz, win the game. The idea behind Roost > SD is pretty similar but a little more niche. Sciz is so strong that it doesn't always need an SD to make progress, and even against Rotom-H + Steel-type builds, you can eat the pinch berry and prevent the Steel-type from ever being a check while still having reliable recovery. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to publicly show off how good the Roost variant can be, but it put in so much work during tests. Broken mon stays broken.
Altaria-Mega @ Altarianite
Ability: Natural Cure
Relaxed Nature
- Return
- Fire Blast
- Roost
- Refresh
Mega Altaria has definitely fallen off from its old glory days and building with it can be a bit awkward, but it still remains one of the most customizable mons in this tier. This set can struggle to break past Poison-types like Nidoqueen and Tentacruel, but both of those mons can be pretty easy to pressure with appropriate team support.
Team structures like these have gotten increasingly popular during this era of SM. After killing Mamoswine, the Infernape revealed no Gunk Shot and Altaria was able to sit on the rest of the team. Its EVs are so customizable too that you can do silly stuff like avoiding Mega Aero from ever 2hkoing with Stone Edge while still 2hkoing Guss with Fire Blast. Although Refresh is by now means new on this mon, pairing it with 2 attacks is something that I hadn't tried before - I would've usually used Toxic or Heal Bell. Refresh lets you pressure and outlast a lot of things like Rotom-H, Hippowdon, and Empoleon that normally bank on Toxic to wear this down. My Latias matchup wasn't the best and I wanted to be able to OHKO it after a CM boost, but you can also consider Hyper Voice > Return on the right team and get a little more damage output. Sleeper pick if you're able to build around it well.
Klefki @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Foul Play
- Magnet Rise
- Toxic
Even if it's not true, I'm taking full credit for starting the Mega Shark + Klefki archetypes in this tier. Standard Klefki runs Fairy move + Thunder Wave which is still a very valid and good option, but Mega Shark teams can really struggle with Ground-types and Scizor, which is where the beauty of this set comes in. Toxic hits a lot of things that would be otherwise annoying: Hippowdon, Rotom-H, Mega Mane, Rhyperior, Primarina, etc. Foul Play is increasingly useful for the sole purpose of not letting Sciz come in and try to SD for free. You can customize the EVs pretty freely to almost always live a +2 LO BP from full while still being pretty specially bulky and do 80%+ back to Sciz which is a huge perk for Mega Shark teams. Keys already wants 6 moves in this tier but I'd encourage people to cater it to the team more than just slapping whatever is standard on it!
Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seismic Toss
- Toxic
- Soft-Boiled
- Wish
Shiba could not have rejoiced harder when he saw that I was finally bringing Blissey. I've been experimenting with bulkier builds for a while now in this tier, and it can be hard with how much this tier has to cover and how offensive it is in nature. Blissey is a mon that surprisingly fits on more archetypes that you would think though:
Bliss on Mane Sciz voltturn?? Granted it didn't put in as much work as I wanted it to because Togekiss is not a fair Pokemon, but it was still able to Wish pass efficiently and help scout for Latias sets very risk free. A lot of offenses like these struggle to pivot into things like Latias and can also have a pretty poor long term Scizor matchup if you let things like Mane and Nidoqueen take damage. Blissey's huge Wish is extremely useful for being able to even scout sets from threats like Infernape, Terrakion, and Sciz. It's also a huge late game threat because a lot of teams bank on a Fighting-type or Scizor to be able to break Blissey and a lot of people don't even account for it in the builder, making it an actual late game wincon if you're able to remove the aforementioned threats.
Some more Pokemon that I don't have the energy to write about but I think deserve some more usage:
And finally some that I think are absolute garbage and should never be used:
Already gave appropriate shoutouts to everyone who helped me in some capacity in my team chat but wanted to give special shoutouts to Adaam Accel Pak for always being willing to help in PMs despite us not teaming in ages. You three are my boys and make building and playing this tier more enjoyable than it would be otherwise. Until probably not? next year, -live love adam
aloha, finals exit isnt ideal but I had a blast with my team and honestly this experience is just another reason why you should always be a glass half full kinda person > glass half empty. In 2019 I was drafted to the first rendition Friend Safari Pokemon Trainers and vividly recall being pretty annoyed at that fact, having preferred going other places, and the friends clearly on paper being extremely weak. It ended up being the most aggressively positive experience I can recall in my time on this website, despite us missing playoffs. We surprised everybody, and beat teams with clearly more talent than us, and were an Icicle Crash flinch away from making playoffs.
Due to that experience, I have never been one to complain about the situation I find myself in for any tournament, I am grateful for the opportunity always. Something a now banned user used to say is, the nice thing about auction format is that the team who gets you inherently valued you more than everybody else, obviously there are some exceptions to this like failed upbids etc etc. But this is a driving factor for me to do whatever I can for my team to win, how can you let managers who believed in you more than everyone else did down? Willingly at that?
I pretty much ended up letting my managers down (they will say otherwise), but I still tried my best, especially in the tail end of the tournament. My individual performance was pretty heinous in that middle part of the tournament especially, I can pretty easily recall at least 2-3 games where I seemingly lost by choice, just throwing out of a window or simply blatantly playing the mu wrong from turn 1. It is what it is though, I am proud of my impact otherwise and leave this tour with no regrets, especially in regards to my team.
I am so proud of the ladies, I could ramble about this for a very long time, but I will instead start dropping a few of my contributions incase they inspire anyone.
SV
In SV im just gonna highlight the stuff I specifically recall being proud of, I have built many things and the meta has changed several times since the tournament has started, so I cannot reasonably post everything.
Finals vs Xiri
This team is pretty swag, I cannot lie I was simply trying to make something with Meow + Skeledirge as I felt this was borderline unpunishable, but I wanted to make smth with at least a little pizazz. This team has several pretty iffy mus such as Excadrill and Latios that some people would p much write the team off bc of, but honestly this is the difference between building for yourself and building for other people. I know these mus and tested them a lot, so I knew my outs and what I had to do, I felt the team could have iffy mus but basically everything was outplayable. Deoxys-Speed with Hwish is literally god btw lol, a key reason why everything felt outplayable.
This will unironically probably go down as my least favorite game to look back on in my whole time on the site but I do rly enjoy the team and am proud of it :)
(Bouff) Finals vs Petros
After seeing Finchinator's game in Semis TB, I really enjoyed that take on meow dirge. Considering it was a game against the tycoons whom we were also playing, I definitely wanted to invest some time into a Bellibolt structure. I ended up with this and am pretty happy with it, although it is literally 4/6 of Finch's team which wasn't intentional but probably mostly unavoidable. The goal was basically to have a team that was high floor and good into the generic meta, but with that said I am pretty sure if Petros ended up using something fishier, it couldve ended in a loss... not straight forward tho. Bouff edited this teams' sets as the week went on and made all the right calls for the mu, supporting them this tournament was very easy bc of how much effort they put into team optimization and testing.
(Bouff) Semis TB vs Passion
There was so much yapping this week for tb that I honestly dont even recall where this team stemmed from, but Bouff edited a team of mine into this and continued editing as the week went on. I think the team is good as there are clearly great pokemon here, high floor but definitely got basically a completely ideal mu pull to not tarnish the team's legacy. Again s/o to Bouff for putting so much effort into optimizing teams and narrowing down the options of what they absolutely feel best with. I believe the main edit from my original team was that the torn was originally a CM Lati.
Semis vs Passion
I played this game from the jump pretty poorly, I didnt get enough practice in with the team to rly nail down the early sequences. It isnt like this team has a suicide hazard lead of some sort, so it is really awkward to figure out whats happening t1 depending on the mu, especially if you are missing brain cells like myself. Regardless, this team is pretty good I think sun in general is not bad rn.
(Bouff) Semis vs Rasche
Nothing very exciting abt the team or the game it is mostly just the best pokemon from the last like 2 years of the tier existing put onto one team, the game itself was also a rough one to spectate, but regardless I think team is/was good.
Week 7 vs 691
This team I think could've had a higher mu floor vs some of the meta but I am still a big fan of, just looks nice and very vivalospride-y. Scizor I felt like had a semi low floor as a mon with the set I used but also was rly good at trading with free slow uturns in this current stage of the meta. I kinda CT'd terrain a little bit with dirge + FAT as fuck thund, however I did get a test with AnApple where he used tera poison Necrozma and I found that to be almost unbeatable, so when I saw the Necrozma on my opponents team in Finals I knew Punny was likely to blame bc I knew he'd know how to abuse my dirge usage the best.
Week 6 vs Rache
This game was all kinds of ass, and as you can see at this point I was just tryna simplify my teams and games to just try and get a grip of how to play Pokemon bc atp I had been playing pretty horribly. I'd say it kinda worked as I won this string of games and I also think my next losses were a bit less in my control than the losses I suffered earlier in the tournament, but point is this team is almost the same as the above lol. Which was not intentional. I don't even think this archetype is specifically incredible or anything but I do think dirge and meow are god.
weeks whatever - whatever
Ideally I pretend most of these games didnt happen, as I played pretty poorly in all of them. However I do believe these were not at fault of the teams, I think the top one was p cool. The bottom one is mid but that game was probably the most egregious throw by me of the bunch, the team did its job well enough and horoark was kinda sick. The Rotom-W one I got pretty aggressively outplayed by Finch but I do think that team at the time was genuinely quite strong. The team above that is a bit boring tho but is fine.
(Bouff) weeks whatever - whatever
The terrain started out as mine but Bouff edited/optimized it to such a large extent that I think they can objectively call it theirs, main things that stayed throughout were the rillaboom and lucha (obviously) and offensive dirge lol. Other two I dont even recall what the ideas were but ik after umbry's game w1 Bouff wanted to use Volcanion, and then I think for the other one Bouff just wanted to use the move: Thunder Wave, lol. Bouff was god this tournament.
Week 1 vs Fc
I heard rumblings that people thought this team was ass but it won very handily and felt like butter. I am personally a fan I feel like there's a ton of offensive overlap that equals a lot of wincon routes and a lot of outplay potential while maintaining a pretty high floor. s/o Punny for helping me finish this team I dont recall what I had originally but I know at least the mamo was his idea.
SS
(crying) I think Week 3 vs Gondra?
This team is surely not specifically good at all. One singular week crying was asking for teams so I made teams with random sets for the sake of crying continuing to be crying and I recalled Amane Misa using specs daunt during cg to some success. That is basically the end of it lol, and the team won so that's cool.
Since then I have done much more SS building, theorizing, and thinking, so I will post things in that discussion thread at some point once UUFPL ends :)
SM
Only posting things I actually built/put thought into and not random re-uses obvi lol
(odr) week whatever
Good pokemon put onto a team. I probably use AV mamo more than most people lol.
This team is NOT good. However, I think it is worthy to put in this thread bc one thing about it that WAS good was Zygarde. The dawg is legit menacing as hell with the right partners (reliable rocks and smth to status Hippo although it can status Hippo itself lol). This team is not good bc if you dont get the amount of turns with zyg that you'd like to, making progress is basically completely mu oriented and kinda out of your control. You pick between the good malt set that actually does things sometimes (mixed with whatever third move you want and some 10 stat ev spread) or complete sewage malt (dd, or any other malt). DD Malt is your only shot at having a wincon here that makes any sense, closing out games w this is impossible aside from praying for Thousand Arrows to clean. POINT IS, this isnt rly about the team but zyg is legit good so Im putting this here.
Zygarde-10% @ Choice Band
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed
- Toxic
Most other SM things I did throughout the tournament weren't specifically groundbreaking and regardless I plan on making a SM post in the discussion thread pretty soon.
ORAS
Was super good vibes in this slot and honestly was one of my fav aspects of the tour, me shiba and bouff had a great dynamic going.
(Shiba) Finals vs Spitifre
This was my original take on whatever the hell we were tryna go for, I think literally just burning things and Umbreon and good pokemon. Shiba made good edits with Rotom-M + Entei > the first two here, which I like a lot.
(Shiba) Week 6 vs dingbat
I felt like a genius when I put this together but when I sent it to Pak he sent back a screenshot of the same exact team but with Heracross > Mienshao.... regardless I am a big fan of this one. Basically dingbat had like 2 million Florges and literally ZERO empoleon so I just started with Roserade and went from there w the scout in mind. Hwish + Mpert seems to be rly consistent rn and Mienshao + anything that can sit on unboosted Florg abuses those structures really well. The mandi is p sick we went with bb > defog but didnt get to actually show :sob:
Absol-Mega @ Absolite
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Tail
- Knock Off
This set is not nearly as good as simply using wisp etc. But I do believe it to be situationally legit good and higher floor than you'd assume. +2 Iron Tail has rly good rolls vs everything neutrally such as Hydreigon, Virizion, Heracross, etc. And there is a reason some people drop tect for sucker in 2025 bc sucker is extremely strong prio and prio in general is pretty scarce in this tier. High value and has performed well when piloted well p consistently. Shiba used it Week 5 vs RealFV and it put a ton of work in in tests that week as well.
Similarly to SM, I plan to make a post on ORAS soon when UUFPL ends, and nothing else from the tournament that I specifically did is worth noting here instead of in that upcoming post.
To close it out, honestly this tour went by so fast. Was super fun and I am super grateful for it despite my very poor individual performance. There is no feasible way I could've put everything into one post that would accurately convey the experience and what I tried to accomplish in whatever slots, but I also wanna say thank you to the UU community for always being so kind to me :). Not to gloss over this but I am actually expecting a son soon, a lot of people already know but I haven't announced this "publicly" on this site lol. I am unsure of what I will be doing a year from now for the next UUPL in terms of playing pokemon but I am still enjoying it a lot so hopefully I can crank out some dubs in the near future and continue being a part of this community for as long as I can be :pray:
Due to that experience, I have never been one to complain about the situation I find myself in for any tournament, I am grateful for the opportunity always. Something a now banned user used to say is, the nice thing about auction format is that the team who gets you inherently valued you more than everybody else, obviously there are some exceptions to this like failed upbids etc etc. But this is a driving factor for me to do whatever I can for my team to win, how can you let managers who believed in you more than everyone else did down? Willingly at that?
I pretty much ended up letting my managers down (they will say otherwise), but I still tried my best, especially in the tail end of the tournament. My individual performance was pretty heinous in that middle part of the tournament especially, I can pretty easily recall at least 2-3 games where I seemingly lost by choice, just throwing out of a window or simply blatantly playing the mu wrong from turn 1. It is what it is though, I am proud of my impact otherwise and leave this tour with no regrets, especially in regards to my team.
I am so proud of the ladies, I could ramble about this for a very long time, but I will instead start dropping a few of my contributions incase they inspire anyone.
SV
In SV im just gonna highlight the stuff I specifically recall being proud of, I have built many things and the meta has changed several times since the tournament has started, so I cannot reasonably post everything.
Finals vs Xiri
This team is pretty swag, I cannot lie I was simply trying to make something with Meow + Skeledirge as I felt this was borderline unpunishable, but I wanted to make smth with at least a little pizazz. This team has several pretty iffy mus such as Excadrill and Latios that some people would p much write the team off bc of, but honestly this is the difference between building for yourself and building for other people. I know these mus and tested them a lot, so I knew my outs and what I had to do, I felt the team could have iffy mus but basically everything was outplayable. Deoxys-Speed with Hwish is literally god btw lol, a key reason why everything felt outplayable.
This will unironically probably go down as my least favorite game to look back on in my whole time on the site but I do rly enjoy the team and am proud of it :)
(Bouff) Finals vs Petros
After seeing Finchinator's game in Semis TB, I really enjoyed that take on meow dirge. Considering it was a game against the tycoons whom we were also playing, I definitely wanted to invest some time into a Bellibolt structure. I ended up with this and am pretty happy with it, although it is literally 4/6 of Finch's team which wasn't intentional but probably mostly unavoidable. The goal was basically to have a team that was high floor and good into the generic meta, but with that said I am pretty sure if Petros ended up using something fishier, it couldve ended in a loss... not straight forward tho. Bouff edited this teams' sets as the week went on and made all the right calls for the mu, supporting them this tournament was very easy bc of how much effort they put into team optimization and testing.
(Bouff) Semis TB vs Passion
There was so much yapping this week for tb that I honestly dont even recall where this team stemmed from, but Bouff edited a team of mine into this and continued editing as the week went on. I think the team is good as there are clearly great pokemon here, high floor but definitely got basically a completely ideal mu pull to not tarnish the team's legacy. Again s/o to Bouff for putting so much effort into optimizing teams and narrowing down the options of what they absolutely feel best with. I believe the main edit from my original team was that the torn was originally a CM Lati.
Semis vs Passion
I played this game from the jump pretty poorly, I didnt get enough practice in with the team to rly nail down the early sequences. It isnt like this team has a suicide hazard lead of some sort, so it is really awkward to figure out whats happening t1 depending on the mu, especially if you are missing brain cells like myself. Regardless, this team is pretty good I think sun in general is not bad rn.
(Bouff) Semis vs Rasche
Nothing very exciting abt the team or the game it is mostly just the best pokemon from the last like 2 years of the tier existing put onto one team, the game itself was also a rough one to spectate, but regardless I think team is/was good.
Week 7 vs 691
This team I think could've had a higher mu floor vs some of the meta but I am still a big fan of, just looks nice and very vivalospride-y. Scizor I felt like had a semi low floor as a mon with the set I used but also was rly good at trading with free slow uturns in this current stage of the meta. I kinda CT'd terrain a little bit with dirge + FAT as fuck thund, however I did get a test with AnApple where he used tera poison Necrozma and I found that to be almost unbeatable, so when I saw the Necrozma on my opponents team in Finals I knew Punny was likely to blame bc I knew he'd know how to abuse my dirge usage the best.
Week 6 vs Rache
This game was all kinds of ass, and as you can see at this point I was just tryna simplify my teams and games to just try and get a grip of how to play Pokemon bc atp I had been playing pretty horribly. I'd say it kinda worked as I won this string of games and I also think my next losses were a bit less in my control than the losses I suffered earlier in the tournament, but point is this team is almost the same as the above lol. Which was not intentional. I don't even think this archetype is specifically incredible or anything but I do think dirge and meow are god.
weeks whatever - whatever
Ideally I pretend most of these games didnt happen, as I played pretty poorly in all of them. However I do believe these were not at fault of the teams, I think the top one was p cool. The bottom one is mid but that game was probably the most egregious throw by me of the bunch, the team did its job well enough and horoark was kinda sick. The Rotom-W one I got pretty aggressively outplayed by Finch but I do think that team at the time was genuinely quite strong. The team above that is a bit boring tho but is fine.
(Bouff) weeks whatever - whatever
The terrain started out as mine but Bouff edited/optimized it to such a large extent that I think they can objectively call it theirs, main things that stayed throughout were the rillaboom and lucha (obviously) and offensive dirge lol. Other two I dont even recall what the ideas were but ik after umbry's game w1 Bouff wanted to use Volcanion, and then I think for the other one Bouff just wanted to use the move: Thunder Wave, lol. Bouff was god this tournament.
Week 1 vs Fc
I heard rumblings that people thought this team was ass but it won very handily and felt like butter. I am personally a fan I feel like there's a ton of offensive overlap that equals a lot of wincon routes and a lot of outplay potential while maintaining a pretty high floor. s/o Punny for helping me finish this team I dont recall what I had originally but I know at least the mamo was his idea.
SS
(crying) I think Week 3 vs Gondra?
This team is surely not specifically good at all. One singular week crying was asking for teams so I made teams with random sets for the sake of crying continuing to be crying and I recalled Amane Misa using specs daunt during cg to some success. That is basically the end of it lol, and the team won so that's cool.
Since then I have done much more SS building, theorizing, and thinking, so I will post things in that discussion thread at some point once UUFPL ends :)
SM
Only posting things I actually built/put thought into and not random re-uses obvi lol
(odr) week whatever
Good pokemon put onto a team. I probably use AV mamo more than most people lol.
This team is NOT good. However, I think it is worthy to put in this thread bc one thing about it that WAS good was Zygarde. The dawg is legit menacing as hell with the right partners (reliable rocks and smth to status Hippo although it can status Hippo itself lol). This team is not good bc if you dont get the amount of turns with zyg that you'd like to, making progress is basically completely mu oriented and kinda out of your control. You pick between the good malt set that actually does things sometimes (mixed with whatever third move you want and some 10 stat ev spread) or complete sewage malt (dd, or any other malt). DD Malt is your only shot at having a wincon here that makes any sense, closing out games w this is impossible aside from praying for Thousand Arrows to clean. POINT IS, this isnt rly about the team but zyg is legit good so Im putting this here.
Zygarde-10% @ Choice Band
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Thousand Arrows
- Outrage
- Extreme Speed
- Toxic
Most other SM things I did throughout the tournament weren't specifically groundbreaking and regardless I plan on making a SM post in the discussion thread pretty soon.
ORAS
Was super good vibes in this slot and honestly was one of my fav aspects of the tour, me shiba and bouff had a great dynamic going.
(Shiba) Finals vs Spitifre
This was my original take on whatever the hell we were tryna go for, I think literally just burning things and Umbreon and good pokemon. Shiba made good edits with Rotom-M + Entei > the first two here, which I like a lot.
(Shiba) Week 6 vs dingbat
I felt like a genius when I put this together but when I sent it to Pak he sent back a screenshot of the same exact team but with Heracross > Mienshao.... regardless I am a big fan of this one. Basically dingbat had like 2 million Florges and literally ZERO empoleon so I just started with Roserade and went from there w the scout in mind. Hwish + Mpert seems to be rly consistent rn and Mienshao + anything that can sit on unboosted Florg abuses those structures really well. The mandi is p sick we went with bb > defog but didnt get to actually show :sob:
Absol-Mega @ Absolite
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Tail
- Knock Off
This set is not nearly as good as simply using wisp etc. But I do believe it to be situationally legit good and higher floor than you'd assume. +2 Iron Tail has rly good rolls vs everything neutrally such as Hydreigon, Virizion, Heracross, etc. And there is a reason some people drop tect for sucker in 2025 bc sucker is extremely strong prio and prio in general is pretty scarce in this tier. High value and has performed well when piloted well p consistently. Shiba used it Week 5 vs RealFV and it put a ton of work in in tests that week as well.
Similarly to SM, I plan to make a post on ORAS soon when UUFPL ends, and nothing else from the tournament that I specifically did is worth noting here instead of in that upcoming post.
To close it out, honestly this tour went by so fast. Was super fun and I am super grateful for it despite my very poor individual performance. There is no feasible way I could've put everything into one post that would accurately convey the experience and what I tried to accomplish in whatever slots, but I also wanna say thank you to the UU community for always being so kind to me :). Not to gloss over this but I am actually expecting a son soon, a lot of people already know but I haven't announced this "publicly" on this site lol. I am unsure of what I will be doing a year from now for the next UUPL in terms of playing pokemon but I am still enjoying it a lot so hopefully I can crank out some dubs in the near future and continue being a part of this community for as long as I can be :pray:
Hey yall i’m back with yet another team dump for adv UU! I had so much fun this season making unholy teams and really letting ideas flow. I know my teams may not be everyone’s cup of tea and that the way I do things others probably just wouldn’t. But I like to live life with no regrets and i’m not afraid to fail. Everyone can tell you I put a lot of effort into testing, building, and getting acquainted with whom i’m going against. I hope you enjoy the teams and I hope to see you all in more tours!
W1 vs xrn
https://pokepast.es/b8249a8f6e1be521
Ok so like it was week 1 and I didn’t really know too terribly much about xrn so I was like hmmm what do I feel like using. Then I think i took a nap earlier in the week and I saw like a bird flying around in my dream and I was like hmmm wait what if I use altaria. I then looked at my scout and I was like idk what i’d bring into me I feel like i just use whatever. I wanted to use a combination of mons I haven’t really touched before this (Amphros/Cradily/Altaria) that had this defensive profile that even earlier I hadn’t really use. Test games looked very promising and I felt like me and altaria were really vibing.
W2 vs Heysup
https://pokepast.es/b402b1c48f132d30
After W1 I was in that mode of like I kinda just wanna explode and delete whatever is on my screen. I was eating a cheeseburger during lunch and I thought of electrode. Then as i quenched my hunger I said lets explode but I want spikes. I hadn’t use the fish yet so I said lets put 2 + 2 together. I looked at the team and thought wow a ground type looks kinda ugly into me. I said lets get slowking up in here and call it a day. I was bouncing between golduck and the king but in the end I wanted tha king.
W3 vs Parpar
https://pokepast.es/d410ff696f07e1d6
I felt good clicking the boom button and I wanted to do it again. But i never really used scyther because I think its a flop. So i was like maybe I use it this time around then I think I went to check the mail and I saw this cute little dog then when I came back to my laptop, looked at parpar’s scout and thought hmmm what if i bring a granbull but like its choice banded. I didn’t even get to use this flop ass bug because glalie decided to freeze on command and grabull locked in.
W4 vs Shiloh
https://pokepast.es/a79b6240c9c4ec72
I kinda was feeling my black air force energy accumulating so I was like I wanna see what tentacruel can do. I wanted to explode yet again so I did. I saw quite the few weaker physical checks in their scout and I was like what if I do physical overload. Then I committed to having only 2 special attacking moves on my team and it ended up working out very well. My friend texted me after they caught my match and goes “ what the fuck are you doing in UU using swords dance tentacruel”.
W5 vs Mielke
https://pokepast.es/36f5f6ef2dfaf46d
Ok so like I looked what I could bring and was like hmmm I never bring any fighting mons and I kinda still want to explode a lot. I tested it out a bit and it had some meh results. I ended up going forward with it because the scout indicated that I would most likely not run into a scyther which if I don’t I should be fine. My positive manifestations were indeed wrong. But this week taught me a lot about not straying too too far from the fundamentals even if it looks good into your opp.
W6 vs gawin
https://pokepast.es/e4e28454b4b60ff4
We were already confirmed playoffs at this week so I pretty much decided to have a bit more fun with the build tho I didn’t stray too far as I wanted to use these next 2 weeks as testing grounds for whatever was to come in playoffs. My homegirl calls me up to talk about some drama with an old friend of mine and while we were gossiping I thought about missy and I was like I haven’t seen her in a while let me go run it with her. I used pretty much some of the previous builds of the weeks prior and added more defensive pieces around them to see what works and what doesn’t. The tests I did this week and actual match gave me a lot of information that I valued from this tier.
W7 vs QOB
I’ma be so real. I don’t know what happened to the team. I made it within the same 4 minutes i told QOB to get online. I actually wanted to deadgame (because that sunday they were out by like 3pm something my time) but they insisted on playing which I really didn't want to because I had been up 24+ hours atp and I was going through some irl stuff. So I think what i did was like during the ungodly hours of previous weeks I had made a special kang set for experimentation. I think i searched it up in my cord put it in a team, I was like let me put fearow up in here cause I never ran it. Then I just picked a color of assorted mons with different sets I had randomly in my channel put them in a team and loaded it. (Sorry I didn’t really make build/prep a team here this week) Everything i did in my channel was like preparation for playoffs.
Semifinals vs Xrn
https://pokepast.es/5b7690261f1a9e82
I loaded some weird shit this tour and I didn’t really change my style of weird what the fucks on my teams. I looked at their scout and realized that generally CM sweepers are great into them which I was right (tho I didn’t utilize the mons that won the game properly). Lanturn + xatu felt like a great pair to use against them (which it was but utilization of those mons didn’t happen the way I did in test games). Then I decided for one last time to give a fighting type a try, which with better use of the other mons would’ve went insane (unlike flop ass hitmonlee). I don’t really regret anything in life because you only live once and I was really happy that even though i did not play as well as I could/should’ve I did make some great decisions in the builder this week.
Finals vs Heysup
https://pokepast.es/5fc712e8f4d336d6
I once again felt the urge to blow up with a couple of mons. Then I wemt to combine the other HOs i used this tour and came up with this and I was really happy with the team in test games (tho i was using some funny mons getting up to here mystic water hidden power water haunter, CB Pinsir, Poliwrath, mr. mime). I ended up getting crit very early on in the game which sealed my fate since granbull had a 100-0 MU like the tests foresaw. Overall I really enjoyed making this team this week.
Overall yes my teams look weird and I’m ok with that because they are my little creation of things and ideas I like to have fun with.
W1 vs xrn
https://pokepast.es/b8249a8f6e1be521
Ok so like it was week 1 and I didn’t really know too terribly much about xrn so I was like hmmm what do I feel like using. Then I think i took a nap earlier in the week and I saw like a bird flying around in my dream and I was like hmmm wait what if I use altaria. I then looked at my scout and I was like idk what i’d bring into me I feel like i just use whatever. I wanted to use a combination of mons I haven’t really touched before this (Amphros/Cradily/Altaria) that had this defensive profile that even earlier I hadn’t really use. Test games looked very promising and I felt like me and altaria were really vibing.
W2 vs Heysup
https://pokepast.es/b402b1c48f132d30
After W1 I was in that mode of like I kinda just wanna explode and delete whatever is on my screen. I was eating a cheeseburger during lunch and I thought of electrode. Then as i quenched my hunger I said lets explode but I want spikes. I hadn’t use the fish yet so I said lets put 2 + 2 together. I looked at the team and thought wow a ground type looks kinda ugly into me. I said lets get slowking up in here and call it a day. I was bouncing between golduck and the king but in the end I wanted tha king.
W3 vs Parpar
https://pokepast.es/d410ff696f07e1d6
I felt good clicking the boom button and I wanted to do it again. But i never really used scyther because I think its a flop. So i was like maybe I use it this time around then I think I went to check the mail and I saw this cute little dog then when I came back to my laptop, looked at parpar’s scout and thought hmmm what if i bring a granbull but like its choice banded. I didn’t even get to use this flop ass bug because glalie decided to freeze on command and grabull locked in.
W4 vs Shiloh
https://pokepast.es/a79b6240c9c4ec72
I kinda was feeling my black air force energy accumulating so I was like I wanna see what tentacruel can do. I wanted to explode yet again so I did. I saw quite the few weaker physical checks in their scout and I was like what if I do physical overload. Then I committed to having only 2 special attacking moves on my team and it ended up working out very well. My friend texted me after they caught my match and goes “ what the fuck are you doing in UU using swords dance tentacruel”.
W5 vs Mielke
https://pokepast.es/36f5f6ef2dfaf46d
Ok so like I looked what I could bring and was like hmmm I never bring any fighting mons and I kinda still want to explode a lot. I tested it out a bit and it had some meh results. I ended up going forward with it because the scout indicated that I would most likely not run into a scyther which if I don’t I should be fine. My positive manifestations were indeed wrong. But this week taught me a lot about not straying too too far from the fundamentals even if it looks good into your opp.
W6 vs gawin
https://pokepast.es/e4e28454b4b60ff4
We were already confirmed playoffs at this week so I pretty much decided to have a bit more fun with the build tho I didn’t stray too far as I wanted to use these next 2 weeks as testing grounds for whatever was to come in playoffs. My homegirl calls me up to talk about some drama with an old friend of mine and while we were gossiping I thought about missy and I was like I haven’t seen her in a while let me go run it with her. I used pretty much some of the previous builds of the weeks prior and added more defensive pieces around them to see what works and what doesn’t. The tests I did this week and actual match gave me a lot of information that I valued from this tier.
W7 vs QOB
I’ma be so real. I don’t know what happened to the team. I made it within the same 4 minutes i told QOB to get online. I actually wanted to deadgame (because that sunday they were out by like 3pm something my time) but they insisted on playing which I really didn't want to because I had been up 24+ hours atp and I was going through some irl stuff. So I think what i did was like during the ungodly hours of previous weeks I had made a special kang set for experimentation. I think i searched it up in my cord put it in a team, I was like let me put fearow up in here cause I never ran it. Then I just picked a color of assorted mons with different sets I had randomly in my channel put them in a team and loaded it. (Sorry I didn’t really make build/prep a team here this week) Everything i did in my channel was like preparation for playoffs.
Semifinals vs Xrn
https://pokepast.es/5b7690261f1a9e82
I loaded some weird shit this tour and I didn’t really change my style of weird what the fucks on my teams. I looked at their scout and realized that generally CM sweepers are great into them which I was right (tho I didn’t utilize the mons that won the game properly). Lanturn + xatu felt like a great pair to use against them (which it was but utilization of those mons didn’t happen the way I did in test games). Then I decided for one last time to give a fighting type a try, which with better use of the other mons would’ve went insane (unlike flop ass hitmonlee). I don’t really regret anything in life because you only live once and I was really happy that even though i did not play as well as I could/should’ve I did make some great decisions in the builder this week.
Finals vs Heysup
https://pokepast.es/5fc712e8f4d336d6
I once again felt the urge to blow up with a couple of mons. Then I wemt to combine the other HOs i used this tour and came up with this and I was really happy with the team in test games (tho i was using some funny mons getting up to here mystic water hidden power water haunter, CB Pinsir, Poliwrath, mr. mime). I ended up getting crit very early on in the game which sealed my fate since granbull had a 100-0 MU like the tests foresaw. Overall I really enjoyed making this team this week.
Overall yes my teams look weird and I’m ok with that because they are my little creation of things and ideas I like to have fun with.
fun season guys wish we couldve made poffs esp w how close we were but its chill
im gonna post abt all the teams i built, minisprites = click for team
week 1 vs Kitoothe (L)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9uu-828521
this was like right after the end of my fez arc so i was big on fez, mana looked good into scout
i think my main misplay was not tera fairying on the fez to make it not break sub
week 2 vs Peum (L)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9uu-829753
i was kinda busy this week, lolo told me to use fat shit so i loaded this semi i had built before
instant 0/100 matchup gg go next
lock in time
week 3 vs Mada (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9uu-832222
houndstone was the counter to hawlucha i first cooked up, this hydreigon set is one of my favs, scarf meta was a pick i liked to throw cpon and torns and such off guard
RTM vs kimer (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9uu-2341806826-etyr3qp0vb880huivp74xtnxwvp0d3upw
cress was like the first guy i thought of when shifts were announced, cuz tink leave and gterrain
242 is the top end of heatran speed creep wars i wanted to be sure of, and cress is bulky as fuck so i could spare the evs
pretty standard gterrain abusers i feel
week 4 vs Hydreigon>Latias (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9uu-834824
wanted to use specs keld, thundy i was the other good lucha check i thought up who also served as a check to exca and stuff too
McLovin vs olivia (L)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9uu-2345553384-32bku1bvptv6r1kkouftvnxmnb368erpw
i noticed all good hazard control was made illegal so stall looked pretty good, as most teams would eventually lose to hazards
komala is a mon with a bunch of cool traits like having wish to heal up teammates, beatnig fsight slowking, OHKOing offensive tran and doing 80+ to defensive
paysa vs Accel (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-835717?p2
for tribute, cooked this OU sd scor fat with gknot gking (for garg not quag lmfao)
week 5 vs Scalescale (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9uu-838833
specs lati looked really clicky into his teams and trick would be good against HOs and fats
RTM vs yiyue (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9uu-2356635986-4emba2vsc4saij3b6qd6gdfum2b4xx0pw
same team
McLovin vs starbitstorm (DQ W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-839813
at first i built this team to take advantage of general anti sun guys
then after thinking it over, i thought that sbs would go super hard anti wake with like tera fairy clodsire stall, so i had zard to beat any stalls
ended up with him not reading the rules and loading wake and getting dqed oops
week 6 vs Career Ended (L)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexubers-840367
got put in district cuz mclovin was busy or something idk
when i saw we had koko, most people saw a eterrain enabler, but i saw a torn resistant defogger with recovery
BIG STALL TIME (also vocaloid nicknames)
not a fan of how i choked but honestly it took awhile of review to even realize where the mistake was so im not that mad
paysa vs TakingNotesKinda (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9uu-2360999280-ktc9qub8eh2g884bswyuiwx02kthit6pw
passed a slight edit of the scarf garde team ive been spamming cuz thundt + kix looked good
week 7 vs sealoo (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9uu-842358
specs zoroark looked really good into his lack of real ghost resists, threw on slither for ground resist + revenger + a lot of stuff switchin
vocaloid nicks again!
i also helped on a bunch of teams but these were the only ones id confidently call my work
lowkey i did not pay attention to rby at all so good job maris for going 6-1 and i will not comment on the state of the meta but it honestly looked fine
great season everyone gl to the ppl i want to win in playoffs
im gonna post abt all the teams i built, minisprites = click for team
week 1 vs Kitoothe (L)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9uu-828521
this was like right after the end of my fez arc so i was big on fez, mana looked good into scout
i think my main misplay was not tera fairying on the fez to make it not break sub
week 2 vs Peum (L)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9uu-829753
i was kinda busy this week, lolo told me to use fat shit so i loaded this semi i had built before
instant 0/100 matchup gg go next
lock in time
week 3 vs Mada (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9uu-832222
houndstone was the counter to hawlucha i first cooked up, this hydreigon set is one of my favs, scarf meta was a pick i liked to throw cpon and torns and such off guard
RTM vs kimer (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9uu-2341806826-etyr3qp0vb880huivp74xtnxwvp0d3upw
cress was like the first guy i thought of when shifts were announced, cuz tink leave and gterrain
242 is the top end of heatran speed creep wars i wanted to be sure of, and cress is bulky as fuck so i could spare the evs
pretty standard gterrain abusers i feel
week 4 vs Hydreigon>Latias (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9uu-834824
wanted to use specs keld, thundy i was the other good lucha check i thought up who also served as a check to exca and stuff too
McLovin vs olivia (L)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9uu-2345553384-32bku1bvptv6r1kkouftvnxmnb368erpw
i noticed all good hazard control was made illegal so stall looked pretty good, as most teams would eventually lose to hazards
komala is a mon with a bunch of cool traits like having wish to heal up teammates, beatnig fsight slowking, OHKOing offensive tran and doing 80+ to defensive
paysa vs Accel (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-835717?p2
for tribute, cooked this OU sd scor fat with gknot gking (for garg not quag lmfao)
week 5 vs Scalescale (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9uu-838833
specs lati looked really clicky into his teams and trick would be good against HOs and fats
RTM vs yiyue (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9uu-2356635986-4emba2vsc4saij3b6qd6gdfum2b4xx0pw
same team
McLovin vs starbitstorm (DQ W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-839813
at first i built this team to take advantage of general anti sun guys
then after thinking it over, i thought that sbs would go super hard anti wake with like tera fairy clodsire stall, so i had zard to beat any stalls
ended up with him not reading the rules and loading wake and getting dqed oops
week 6 vs Career Ended (L)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexubers-840367
got put in district cuz mclovin was busy or something idk
when i saw we had koko, most people saw a eterrain enabler, but i saw a torn resistant defogger with recovery
BIG STALL TIME (also vocaloid nicknames)
not a fan of how i choked but honestly it took awhile of review to even realize where the mistake was so im not that mad
paysa vs TakingNotesKinda (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9uu-2360999280-ktc9qub8eh2g884bswyuiwx02kthit6pw
passed a slight edit of the scarf garde team ive been spamming cuz thundt + kix looked good
week 7 vs sealoo (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9uu-842358
specs zoroark looked really good into his lack of real ghost resists, threw on slither for ground resist + revenger + a lot of stuff switchin
vocaloid nicks again!
i also helped on a bunch of teams but these were the only ones id confidently call my work
lowkey i did not pay attention to rby at all so good job maris for going 6-1 and i will not comment on the state of the meta but it honestly looked fine
great season everyone gl to the ppl i want to win in playoffs
Another (aka my second) team tour done and out of the way, and its really been an incredible experience! The chance to get to start against so many incredible players when I am comparatively really new to the tier, and challenge myself both in the builder to innovate in a rapidly changing meta while having to match that in my battling skills.
This will include write ups for all the teams I loaded in UUFPL and UMBD (since I am limited to the flex slot and not getting as many games for it), and teams I built for others for this tour. I see this as a resource for UUbers as the tier has undergone a lot of change recently and I felt giving an in depth description of what went into each of my teams will help provide a lot of helpful insight for other people in the tier, and maybe encourage some new innovations as we get closer and closer to the UUbers seasonal. Each write up will include a link to the paste (accessible by clicking the image with the team), who I played, the result of said game, and then if the team was loaded in any other tournaments (such as the currently ongoing SUUberbowl) to help show how successful any given build is. I put a lot of effort into this, so I hope you enjoy the read!
Teams and Drafts
vs Frito - LOSS
vs Medeia - WIN
Skyiew vs Dorron - WIN
vs Imperial - WIN
+ Loaded in SUUberbowl W1 - vs MKAP - WIN
+ Loaded in SUUberbowl W2 - vs Finchinator - WIN
vs Ewin - LOSS
Skyiew vs Medeia - WIN
UUFPL Break Week
Because even in break weeks a bitch cannot rest
UMBD Flex Slot vs Medeia - WIN
+ Loaded in SUUberbowl W1 - vs MKAP - WIN
UUFPL Week 5
vs Finchely - LOSS
Skyiew vs Shadow - WIN
Frito vs Ewin - LOSS
Shadow (recreation) vs Dead By Daylight - WIN (yes, shadow built a recreation of this and I'm taking credit)
UUFPL Week 6
vs Dorron - WIN
OceanicGamer vs Pinkacross - WIN
+ Loaded in SUUberbowl W5 vs Bazingatron - WIN
UMBD Flex Slot vs QBKing - WIN
vs Skyiew - WIN
+ Loaded in SUUberbowl W2 vs Finchinator - WIN
vs Shadow - WIN
+ Loaded in SUUberbowl W5 vs Bazingatron - WIN
vs Feen - LOSS
Closing it all out.
I lost the tiebreaker in UUFPL after using a modified version of the same team I loaded into shadow due to a Confusion proc not going my way, and decided not to play my game in UMBD as the series was already decided as for whatever reason my mental health kind of went into the gutter this weekend (take care of yourself everyone), so I'd rather use this section to reflect on my experiences in these two tours rather then lament my loses.
I never expected to get drafted in UUFPL. I never expected to get to play as many games as i did in UMBD, let alone be slotted in both semis and finals. I have had a lot of issues with being insecure about my own playing and my own ability, and I would be lying if I said some of those tendencies haven't been re-ignited a bit due to receiving a lot of doubt and criticism about my play and prep, from both people I didn't care about impressing and people I did alike. Going 7-5 across both these tours, with stacked pools (especially in uufpl) with 2 of my loses in UUFPL being to unfortunate rng was a huge turning point for me. I feel like I've finally gotten to prove that I'm not just a newcomer to the scene who is just a support, who has questionable ideas and doesn't understand the tier, I am someone who can start a slot and earn the trust of my managers as a minbid to slot me into a tiebreaker, one that I never lost a way out of even if RNG decided it wasn't my day to win. I have proven to myself that I can succeed, that I am a good player, and that hopefully this will translate into something more for me. Maybe this feels like a bit too much self glazing, but from my eyes I deserve it. I'll get back into shoutouts later, but truly thank you to jackuzzler, Slip, Frito, and crow crumbs for drafting me, for seeing something in me, and for continually giving me the chances to show everyone that I am more then someone who just sits on the backlines. If anyone is reading this and deals with those same overwhelming insecurities, remember that time and effort will pay off. I have been playing pokemon for 7 years come September, and this was the first time I have felt truly respected by the people I hold a lot of respect for, and it means the world to get here. I'm proud of my season, I'm proud of myself. Thank you all.
When you have to prepare a ton of teams for a team tour, you will naturally have a lot of ideas go unused. While the list of teams i put aside didn't reach the astronomically high levels of UUbersPL, there are still some interesting concepts here that some of you might be interested in! As with all the teams, feel free to take and tweak these as you please.
PRE APRIL SHIFTS TEAMS
(use at your own risk, as Mewtwo and Grimmsnarl weren't here yet)
Calm Mind Arceus Poison B/O
Pretty inoffensive and VERY bulky team focused on breaking with urshifu to let Arc clean up in the end, with the Celeste classic of AV prim, with this being the spread I ended up liking the most on AV sets as its a good balance of defensive while not being passive.
Tera Blast Pult Spike Stack
Look familiar? This was a refined version of a team I made during the first leg of the SUUberbowl ladder tour to absolutely dump on the shed tail people were running, with a more bulky direction to have consistent phasing and hazard stacking to apply long term pressure, and punish careless shed tail in the face of an infiltrator Pult!
POST APRIL SHIFTS TEAMS
Garchomp FC Style Balance
This was the new team I built for the tiebreaker, and while I do believe it has merit it was ultimately shadow's repetative scout and tendency to rebuild teams that lead me not to load it, as I felt that he would likely run some form of H/O, and with Lando and IDCM arcs being staples of H/O i didn't feel comfortable running this. While it ultimately may have worked, I'm Glad I loaded what I did in the long run even if it didn't work out.
Lead Terapagos Scizor H/O
This is what I would have loaded in UMBD finals! This team had a proclivity for running some very strange H/O teams, and I wanted to be ready with a team that could punish that, while still having an Arceus-Ice to hold a lot of other matchups together.
Cloyster H/O
This was the other UMBD finals candidate that I ended up really not liking in the end, but thought it would be incredibly funny to try and C-Team the team thats loaded cloyster with their own creation lol.
Scarf Chi Yu.. Something
This was just a desire to use something strange with Chi Yu, with an Okidogi chilling from when Arc Dark was an actual threat and not a B tier Arc form you rarely see. Dual Phasing and Hazard stack + Breaker Poisonceus and hopefully it works maybe.
I Don't Think Palafin is Very Good
If you read through everything up to this point you have heard my gripes with Palafin already, which is why it shouldn't be a surprise to see that I decided against using this. Nothing too crazy and it honestly could work pretty well esp with how well Palafin can work into a lot of H/O, but this felt terminally underwhelming.
T-Wave Spam with Pivot Roaring Moon
]Yes that is an Arc Psychic, no it isn't great but its like... fine? This team actually had some really interesting results in testing, and if you are reading this now that means that I eventually opted not to run it vs BaconEatingAssasin in SUUberbowl, however its something I'm heavily considering at the time of writing. TLDR? Roaring Moon is broken in any form.
Early Takes on Grimmsnarl Era H/O
While I think that my later iterations upon H/O that I loaded in tours were much more effectively done, this was a pretty good first dive into it, and LO shifu is something I would like to revisit again in the future!
Closing Remarks and Shoutouts
Overall, I would like to thank jackuzzler and Slip for giving me a chance in this tour and to Fc for recommending me! This has been an incredibly oppourtunity and without people like you who are willing to take a chance on a newer player, people like me would never get the chance to play in something like this. Thank you Frito of course for being one of my biggest supports in building and tests, and an amazing friend through the stress a tour like this can cause. Without you I wouldn't be here without your support and guidance, and you really are to thank for almost all of my growth in the past few months. Thank you to Skyiew for using my teams and reaching out to me for more. I will never be able to forget the sheer shock and excitement I felt when I saw you loading a team I threw in UUberscord for fun, and how honored I was to be able to continue working with you throughout this and to see you have success with my teams. OceanicGamer, you may not be in this tour but your help in testing and for chatting so much about my builds! Just as much value has been gotten from me being able to walk you through my building process as I have gotten from building the teams themselves, and I can't wait to see where you go in the future.
I'd also like to give extra shoutouts to the team, ojr, Kaboom, TakingNotesKinda, Zcarlett, Rabia, LBN, Tbolt, Ainzcrad, Totomon, Career Ended, jam, and Tuthur for making our playoffs run happen! None of this would have went the way it did without the work from each and every one of you. You all made this a great environment and I couldn't be happier with my time on this team.
And lastly, thank you to the UUbers community and staff for the support I have gotten in the past few months, It has been such a pleasure to be a part of this tier and support it and I'm so glad I got the opportunity to represent this amazing community in a tour like this! I hope to be back in the future, and despite not clutching it out, I'm so happy to have been part of the Silicobras.
Final Word Count: 6509
This will include write ups for all the teams I loaded in UUFPL and UMBD (since I am limited to the flex slot and not getting as many games for it), and teams I built for others for this tour. I see this as a resource for UUbers as the tier has undergone a lot of change recently and I felt giving an in depth description of what went into each of my teams will help provide a lot of helpful insight for other people in the tier, and maybe encourage some new innovations as we get closer and closer to the UUbers seasonal. Each write up will include a link to the paste (accessible by clicking the image with the team), who I played, the result of said game, and then if the team was loaded in any other tournaments (such as the currently ongoing SUUberbowl) to help show how successful any given build is. I put a lot of effort into this, so I hope you enjoy the read!
Teams and DraftsUUFPL WEEK 1
vs Frito - LOSS
| A battle against a close friend + first game at the start of the tour means a lot of stress for me, which meant putting a lot of effort into making sure the team I made was something I was comfortable with. Lets preface this with the fact that I played like actual garbage this game, so instead of focusing on that i want to focus more on what went into making this team. Arc Ice is something I enjoy building around, and I wanted to try and catch Frito off guard with a unique set, so based on a ladder set of eleceus i saw ages ago i decided that Tera Ice agility would be an excellent wincon that wouldn't be expected, and the rest of the team was made to help enable it. I will admit I think I made a big mistake not running spikes on Magearna as that pairs really well with the Okidogi this team has. I mentioned it in an old forum post, but I believe Okidogi is valuable outside of just an Arc Dark check, as knock off is an invaluable tool into other Okidogi switch ins such as Magearna and Giratina (which would have been more valuable if i had ran spikes). It also is really excellent into the stall matchup, often being some form of a wincon on its own if managed right in that matchup, and while I had a non-existent scout for Frito i was confident her stalling me was a huge possibility. Iron Bundle was something i debated on for a bit, but it ultimately felt like a very natural piece of this team as role compression - speed, pivoting, disruption, and a second offensive ice type. While sacrificing the Life Orb damage can suck, on a team like this that ideally intends to play a little bit slower and cripple bulkier mons with status and hazard chip > a bit of extra power. Overall I really liked this build, and despite how the game went I still got off to a confident start with my building! |
UUFPL WEEK 2
vs Medeia - WIN
| Was pretty unsure of what I was going to run into this week, but as someone who doesn't often load any form of H/O I felt that using it early on in the tour would be really beneficial to both me as a player getting good experience with a teamstyle I don't use much, but also to throw off my own scout. However this was paired with the concern of getting H/O-ed myself, and deciding how to mitigate that. H/O in this tier can come down to a lot of 50/50s, what turn to tera, when to click it, what type you are if you do, making 1 singular difficult to predict play wrong can often throw off your game and leave you in an unwinnable position, as Medeia forced Ewin into the week prior. The structure of the team is pretty standard, Hisuian Samurott was without a doubt the best H/O lead at the time in my eyes, with shed tail based teams being inconsistent and Regieleki not being a good enough consistent screen setter that would provide long term support to a team. The standard Gouging Fire felt very strong here, especially partnered with an Arc Poison set geared at effectively being a second Gouging Fire, running its own Tera Fire Flare Blitz while having a lot of raw breaking power with the chance of gunk shot poisons. Spectrier is incredibly strong on HO as one of the best speed mons in the format, and tera being a huge way for it to win on the spot, though it is predictable. The roaring moon set here is stolen from one of Medeia's own games, as this is when I was really considering How I wanted to handle an opposing H/O mirror. Roaring Moon often opts to use a more offensive tera typing, but steel allows it to have defensive value to potentially set it up to shut down opposing Spectrier clicking D-Kiss, Gouging Fire locked into a dragon move, Arc Poison, etc. Plus, it would be an extra layer of surprise factor to run an unused set that Medeia was the only person I'd seen use into her. Finally, thee piece that held the H/O mirror together was Mimikyu. People who play ladder won't be remotely surprised by this as structures like this were pretty common leading into the Zacian Ban, but due to H/O's natural lack of bulk and reliance on Tera to flip game states, Mimikyu felt like the ultimate balancing act to maintain momentum if I start to lose grip on it, which it ended up doing quite well, securing the win after a Spectrier crit (justice for a missed ceaseless edge Imo). |
Skyiew vs Dorron - WIN
| Imagine my surprise when I hopped into a uubers game from this week and saw something I had built, because as it turns out Skyiew grabbed this team from uuberscord and decided to take it for a spin! This was one of my earlier creations from the post Zacian meta, so the intent behind it isn't as fresh but I'll give a stab at a quick explanation. Since the immediate post Zac metagame was much more special offense based, Dialga Origin felt like a really valuable part of a team with its tankyness and surprisingly large damage output, also being an excellent phaser into the ever popular shed tail on ladder. Arc electric felt very valuable as an E-Killer arceus due to the consistency of Supercell Slam as STAB, so with the Urshifu, Primarina, and Palkia being able to pressure Giratina into a range where it would die it ended up being very consistent. Scarf Urshi-S was a consistent way to apply pressure with the only other scarfer I found somewhat often being Landorus (which was ekiller fodder). Primarina is probably the most controversial pick here, but despite what some people claim I find prim to be just passable enough at what it does (being a pivot with disruptive/offensive capabilities, while absorbing Palkia stabs) to be worth adding here, with my own Palkia as breaking power. I certainly enjoyed it, and am really happy Skyiew not only used it, but pulled out a win no less! |
UUFPL WEEK 3
+ Mewtwo + Grimmsnarl - Hatterene - Dondozo
+ Mewtwo + Grimmsnarl - Hatterene - Dondozo
vs Imperial - WIN
+ Loaded in SUUberbowl W1 - vs MKAP - WIN
+ Loaded in SUUberbowl W2 - vs Finchinator - WIN
| As of writing this, Imperial had a habit of not really taking advantage of certain ways of revenging setup threats, namely the Roaring Moon set that Frito and I devised (mostly due to a notable lack of Ekillers loaded) - so its H/O time again baby! However if I was to H/O two weeks in a row, something was going to have to change in how it functioned to make sure the answers to it were different. While my team the week prior was going to likely struggle if I managed the opponents defensive Tera wrong, and required me to play really aggressive to keep a good pace, this team functioned by forcing my opponent to play reactive, as everything here has the tools to keep me in the drivers seat momentum wise. Grimmsnarl doesn't necessarily have to lead, and can be a safe reactive tool to force my opponent to play super aggressively and risky to prevent me from making too much progress. The lack of taunt and instead inclusion of parting shot on this set was very purposeful, as I simply didn't see much that taunt would be needed for me to answer on this team, and Grimmsnarl would then be more specialized to shut down a multitude of special attackers and physical setup threats alike with Spirit Break and Parting Shot, with S-Break allowing me to manage the darks that would otherwise provide an issue to Grimmsnarl (Hamurott and Darkceus mainly). The Terapagos is inspired by the variant that likes to pop up on Ubers Webs teams, providing me a mimikyu-esque form of disruption that itself is able to 1v1 things through toxic, and then help out with hazard control (and by extension hazard based HO Mirrors) via spin and its own rocks, all the while being threatening to Spectrier, especially a Spectrier that has chosen to tera. Fast SD Arceus is an excellent way to apply immediate pressure, and gouging fire is able to force teras, break, and mess up its own answers with Dragon Tail. The real star of this show was the Roaring Moon, an unconventional set that helps mitigate the ever so annoying H/O 50/50s through its hybrid defensive/offensive tera type, and the choice to include taunt. While ultimately it was just the tera type's own merit that turned this matchup on its head, when it comes to a pokemon as volatile (and arguably broken) as Roaring Moon that single element of surprise is all you need. While it wasn't relevant in this game, taunt tera fairy allows roaring moon to completely abuse Giratina and other tera fairy phasers, while abusing dragon type attackers in general and ultimately aiming to get as many free turns as possible to set up and win, and the one free turn it was allotted in this game proved the value this set brought. Overall an incredibly fun game, that was enjoyable to play and build for! |
UUFPL WEEK 4
vs Ewin - LOSS
| Mewtwo is such a fun mon, I've been really open about how I think it works well as a way to help fix up matchups, and boy does taunt + knock help shut down a lot of slower bulkier teams and more setup based teams alike (until it gets ohkoed by CB deoxys turn one, thus losing me the game instantly. Just ignore that for the rest of this!) Experimenting a bit with a bulkier Knock Taunt M2 set lead me to want to make a much bulkier team, especially with the increased viability in mons like Giratina and Garganacl, which itself is really annoying to deal with. The speed control was always going to be an issue for this team, so in an attempt to both maintain some extra defensive utility into opposing psychics/knock off clickers and keep that priority Ekiller Darkceus felt like a very intuitive choice here. Has enough bulk to get setup on mons this team was weaker to, (non encore Samurotts, Mandibuzz, etc). Lando is a very easy way to fit strong breaking power onto a team so it was no brainer, as well as a Zap Cannon Magearna to give me some insurance vs Darkceus, and allow for my Lando and own Darkceus to manage it more effectively due to how effortlessly CM Darkceus shuts down teams like this. Overall the game just went south immediately as I lost my main way of handling bulky teams turn 1, but CB deo is a fun bring so mad respect to Ewin for that one. A bit of a dip for my mental, but nothing that I thought I couldn't recover from, especially with how good Ewin is. |
Skyiew vs Medeia - WIN
| This was the week of "ladder teams i experimented with going into tour games", and where I failed Skyiew succeeded. This team focused mainly on using the strongest attackers I could with an incredibly infuriating defensive backbone made to shut down H/O teams with dual phasing and a lot of status. Alomomola was the main thing that made this team "click", being able to singlehandedly keep the rest of the team alive, especially useful when opting for a recover-less LO Mewtwo. The choice to run Tera Electric on it was very purposeful and one of its strongest aspects, and while it didn't come into play this game it is a very good tool in managing Magearna and a variety of other T-wave spamming mons which feel really popular right now. Arcless is... certainly a choice and not something I would generally recommend to anyone building this tier but for a team that wanted to have such a strong dichotomy between the defensive backbone and balls to the wall offense I couldn't find a way to make it work. Maybe you could fit an SD Poisonceus on to this team, but genuinely. What do you drop? I couldn't really figure that out, and this team still works so yeah, arcless meta i guess. |
UUFPL Break Week
Because even in break weeks a bitch cannot rest
UMBD Flex Slot vs Medeia - WIN
+ Loaded in SUUberbowl W1 - vs MKAP - WIN
| I would like to thank our opponents in UMBD for picking ubers so that I had to keep building and playing during my final week of exams, it was very fun and I would absolutely do it again. The idea for this team was one of two builds I made around this time with a more pivot based Roaring Moon, as I now firmly believe this mon is excellent even outside of H/O. Defensive Tera allows this set to be a stand in for Giratina as a Phaser, with better offensive tools with Knock Off to support the hazard stack nature of this team and U-Turn to position teammates. Beyond that, its just fairly standard in terms of the approach, with Solgaleo > Magearna as an extra form of knock off support that can also stay alive longer in the face of Mewtwo. I tested this team a fair amount with DD Rockceus, but that just never cut it so back to trusty E-Killer it was. "You will never catch me building with solg it's so dogshit" - Me |
UUFPL Week 5
vs Finchely - LOSS
| Gonna start this one off bluntly (with limited apologies to OceanicGamer), Mandibuzz fucking SUCKS oh my god. Its too passive and just lets in so much setup but doesnt even have the consistency to threaten the things it could slow down from setting up like Arceus Poison, or rlly anything with tera steel. If you use this, change the Mandibuzz for prob a Magearna, Terapagos, hell even Deo doesnt suck here. Beyond that though I did like this team a lot, it was a different direction based on a very similar team that Frito loaded where I wanted a more offensive Mewtwo, who's unfortunate miss of Focus Blast did cause me a loss but thats how it is sometimes. DD Rockceus is a seriously underrated mon, due to how well it can take advantage of opposing offensive mons like Arceus Poison or even scarfed Landorus to get some free setup turns, all while having an easy tera type that boosts its own offenses while bolstering you against T-Wave! Not too much else to say about this team as it is fairly standard besides please for the love of god don't use Mandibuzz. |
Skyiew vs Shadow - WIN
Frito vs Ewin - LOSS
Shadow (recreation) vs Dead By Daylight - WIN (yes, shadow built a recreation of this and I'm taking credit)
| I built this the morning both of these games occurred after a request from Skyiew for a "Mewtwo with knock + boots" team. While I had some lying around, I had some ideas I wanted try out and felt this would be a good oppourtunity to put it into motion. Aka, a hazard stack team that forgoes things I normally use on these teams in one of (or both) Landorus and Garganacl. An increased focus in status and speed control with scarf Samurott, Mewtwo itself, E-Killer Electric, and zap cannon Mag for Darkceus lets this team apply a lot more immediate offensive pressure even with just one spike. The dual phasing options of Terapagos and Giratina adds to this pressure, meaning H/O teams will still have to stay on their toes if they don't want to fall victim to Arceus. I know Skyiew might have made some edits to this, but the team i'm linking here is what i sent to Frito, and the choice for this Mewtwo allows it to be a mix of hard hitting speed control and a form of support with Will-o-wisp, mainly there to slow down Arceus and Roaring Moon. Quite proud of this one and admittedly kind of sad I made this after the team I used vs Ewin got admitted as a sample as I believe this is a bit better execution of a hazard stack team like this, and I think I need to tweak that more "fat" style more. |
UUFPL Week 6
vs Dorron - WIN
OceanicGamer vs Pinkacross - WIN
+ Loaded in SUUberbowl W5 vs Bazingatron - WIN
| The main idea for this team popped into existence from a team Frito made (with some of my advice) for UMBD, and I liked it so much I decided to go my own direction with it (meaning 3 of the basically exact same sets, a slightly different Mewtwo set, and Gouging Fire + Dnite over Urshifu Roaring Moon). The end goal here was a team that can (as per usual) keep up webs while also being able to withstand opposing H/O teams, with boots Mewtwo and Dragonite being a huge part of ensuring a smooth Webs/Hazard Stack matchup. Mono Judgement Iceus will forever be a classic set, with agility allowing it to outpace setup based teams and break them down almost effortlessly in a good matchup (see Frito cooking with this set in UMBD). Bonus points on redeeming this set in my own game after it didn't work vs Frito week 1. The Araquanid was originally mental herb, but after testing I realized that it was setup fodder for wayyy too much of the tier and decided to follow suit from the og build and use red card instead, to help me regain momentum if anything went to shit. Classic plot timid Gholdengo to maintain some crucial speed benchmarks (Deoxys mainly), and boots Mewtwo to help keep webs MUs safe, with moves to hit all the common H/O staples. Slight variation with the Gouging with my choice to run D-Tail, but that could just as easily (and with this team honestly more effectively) be morning sun to keep it alive longer. Dragonite was the part of the team I was most excited for as I think this mon is a bit of a hidden gem in the uubers world, and going Lum to just maintain that raw brute force for as long as possible while attempting to force tera felt like a great addition to this team to aid Arceus in having an effective clean in the endgame. I feel like the future of webs is going to be really interesting in this tier, as with so many different ways to approach building them it leaves a lot of really cool opportunities for experimentation. Enjoyed this week, and after losing to a Focus Blast miss it was VERY refreshing to take a clean game to leave me at 3-3 going into the final week of the regular season (plus, being the series winning game is always exhilarating)! |
UMBD Flex Slot vs QBKing - WIN
| Straight up this is probably the team I stand by the least coming in this entire thing. The pressure Lugia, the lack of removal, the Palafin period, it was just not really my finest work, and I would not recommend using this team if you are coming here for resources. That being said, it still won so a dive into it is warranted a bit. I was really worried about getting cheesed by some gimmick H/O in this matchup, and while I was correct in what would be loaded there was a crucial error: this team was really bad into spike stacking. The amount of priority would let it handle things like Espathra and Volcarona just fine, but immediately there was an issue when this team had to face getting spiked. This is the main issue I have with teams that rely on Palafin as a main attacker, the thing is just so damn hazard weak, and then Giratina can't really make up for that with defog since Palafin is often so reliant on hazard chip itself to make progress that it becomes super awkward to build around. The urshifu was cool but just not really useful in this particular matchup, and the Samurott and E-Killer are staples of Hazard Stacking teams so no surprises there. The star of the show here was Lugia in the end, with the same set that beat me the week prior being the one i decided to pull up to shut down shed tail/random H/O teams as efficiently as possible, while also giving more balancey teams a hard time. Lugia's fast phasing is actually a really interesting tool in this tier, as it can completely shut down common forms of phasing in Giratina and Terapagos while it sets up and starts doing damage, and with the amount of bulk you can run you can still sit on a lot of physical breakers that could still threaten it later. This ended up being exactly what I needed to make the endgame of this match almost trivial, with the accidental pressure ending up to be incredibly useful as it stalled out Aeroblasts to reduce the risk of me losing to a stray crit. With luck however the quality of team will improve from here on out. |
UUFPL Week 7
vs Skyiew - WIN
+ Loaded in SUUberbowl W2 vs Finchinator - WIN
| Of all my teams this has had one of the more interesting ones trajectory wise, as DD Pult has been something I've been staring at since wayyy back in Week 1 vs Frito. Additionally this team was something I'd used before in SUUberbowl but ended up feeling like it would be an effective pick here as well. Dragapult wasn't the first thing to go on this team, as this was initially an attempt to build with CM Eleceus as a nearly non-existent part of my scout, but when time came to look for a physical breaker that could force tera on Giratina it became more apparent that Dragapult would end up being a really interesting things to structure the team around. Shoutout to FC for suggesting the T-Fire set, which rather unsurprisingly is really good in a tier where Magearna is really popular, and common checks to physical threats are mostly Will-o-Wisp Giratina. While this team incidentally was kind of a hazard stack-esque team, with LO Dragapult (needed for some rolls) and Arc Electric I felt that the more longevity focused nature of most hazard stack teams that spam boots and bulk wouldn't be very practical here, and decided to focus on a more offensive build. Deoxys provides a very effective layer of priority and natural speed that can blow things out of the water, breaking for or cleaning off of Dragapult. Magearna was a much needed slow pivot with Encore to enable more setup, with Lando being the perfect blend of Breaker and Rocker to help spread general defensive threats like Giratina as thin as possible, as it is often considered a blanket check for Lando and Arc Electric, while being pressured to Tera by the Pult that holds this all together. While I certainly think this is an unconventional approach to the typical Offense builds seen in this tier, stacking some of the tiers most threatening setup threats while they all simultaneously support each other creates a very uniquely threatening form of Offense compared to more standard H/O or B/O builds. |
UUFPL + UMBD SEMIFINALS
vs Shadow - WIN
+ Loaded in SUUberbowl W5 vs Bazingatron - WIN
| Half the scout was stall, I was NOT losing to it. Spectrier is already great at managing it, but the first mon on this team was the Taunt Tera Poison Iceus, cause I was never in a million years letting t-spikes go up, it was always the lead plan into Shadow's signature stall team (I think it's an edit of Ewins Zac Era stall, cool team). If not stall, I was expecting to run into any kind of H/O, but mainly Samu/Grimm lead teams. I was taking 2 things into account here, 1 the fact that 2 lead H/O styles don't really suck IMO and 2, how can I pressure both of those leads right off the bat in a single slot. This is where Archaludon came in. This was inspired by a Frito build from WAYYYY back in uuberspl, but this time it was meant to be a supplemental lead to the Samu into opposing HO as opposed to the main enabler. Draco after helmet chip always takes out Hamu, and Steel Beam takes out grimm while simultaneously getting Archaludon off the field as fast as possible. Dragon Tail lets it be a pocket answer to sweepers the way I've used Terapagos previously. Samu is pretty standard just opting to drop the standard sucker on H/O for Knock, just because i figured in the event of a stall MU it would be much more valuable, especially if I didn't need to use it to beat out the Samu mirror on H/O. Spectrier is pretty standard, you probably know this mon is broken by now (not bannable... I think) and the Iceus, while bulkier then normal on H/O still fits well, again it was more tooled for the Stall matchup, while still being an Iceus and therefore good into basically anything (except red card pex apparently? but thats a crazy bring). Acro Moon is an notable pick however, if you have been following billboards top 100 roaring moon sets this week (because honestly there are just that many) you will notice that Acrobatics probably falls short of that coveted top 5 position (Ground, Ghost, Dragon, Fairy for sure being better). This means however, that people aren't expecting it. That single bit of surprise factor was quite literally the only reason I loaded it. Dragonite was indirectly a suggestion of FC, who said i was too weak to webs so i threw this set that Frito used recently (that I've also seen in OU a bit) on and called it a day. Glad to see it all worked out, as from this point on getting to finals was out of my hands, though as I'm writing this 5-3 is FAR from a disappointing end to my season if it does end here. |
vs Feen - LOSS
| A bit of a crushing way to end my games in UMBD, but not something I'd really associate to a lack of trying. Despite knowing FC was building for him, I went into this really wanting to have a strong anti-cheese team that was also able to manage balance really well using offensive tools like Scarf Chi Yu, Deoxys, and the Demon Mag this team was centered around, featuring red card to give it some free setup turns. This is also notably the first Defog Giratina I think I have ever loaded in a tour game, and it makes sense here as Chi Yu REALLY needs the rocks of the field to give it a fighting chance at having long term impact. My downfall in this game was the fact that the matchup into Rockceus especially was always going to be difficult, and meant that managing my Magearna was going to be a lot harder then I anticipated, and this was furthered by my Landorus immediately getting poisoned by Sneasler, when it likely would have been able to claim 2 kills, or at least weaken far more of the team then it did. There were also some misplays around making sure I could ensure the Magearna got as much time as possible to set up in the endgame due to keeping the Giratina alive. Would still be left up to chance, but would ensure my best odds of being able to potentially clean up. Regardless this is a loss I'm not the most disappointed in, as Feen did play very well and the team was strong. |
Closing it all out.
I lost the tiebreaker in UUFPL after using a modified version of the same team I loaded into shadow due to a Confusion proc not going my way, and decided not to play my game in UMBD as the series was already decided as for whatever reason my mental health kind of went into the gutter this weekend (take care of yourself everyone), so I'd rather use this section to reflect on my experiences in these two tours rather then lament my loses.
I never expected to get drafted in UUFPL. I never expected to get to play as many games as i did in UMBD, let alone be slotted in both semis and finals. I have had a lot of issues with being insecure about my own playing and my own ability, and I would be lying if I said some of those tendencies haven't been re-ignited a bit due to receiving a lot of doubt and criticism about my play and prep, from both people I didn't care about impressing and people I did alike. Going 7-5 across both these tours, with stacked pools (especially in uufpl) with 2 of my loses in UUFPL being to unfortunate rng was a huge turning point for me. I feel like I've finally gotten to prove that I'm not just a newcomer to the scene who is just a support, who has questionable ideas and doesn't understand the tier, I am someone who can start a slot and earn the trust of my managers as a minbid to slot me into a tiebreaker, one that I never lost a way out of even if RNG decided it wasn't my day to win. I have proven to myself that I can succeed, that I am a good player, and that hopefully this will translate into something more for me. Maybe this feels like a bit too much self glazing, but from my eyes I deserve it. I'll get back into shoutouts later, but truly thank you to jackuzzler, Slip, Frito, and crow crumbs for drafting me, for seeing something in me, and for continually giving me the chances to show everyone that I am more then someone who just sits on the backlines. If anyone is reading this and deals with those same overwhelming insecurities, remember that time and effort will pay off. I have been playing pokemon for 7 years come September, and this was the first time I have felt truly respected by the people I hold a lot of respect for, and it means the world to get here. I'm proud of my season, I'm proud of myself. Thank you all.
Unused Teams
When you have to prepare a ton of teams for a team tour, you will naturally have a lot of ideas go unused. While the list of teams i put aside didn't reach the astronomically high levels of UUbersPL, there are still some interesting concepts here that some of you might be interested in! As with all the teams, feel free to take and tweak these as you please.
PRE APRIL SHIFTS TEAMS
(use at your own risk, as Mewtwo and Grimmsnarl weren't here yet)
Calm Mind Arceus Poison B/O
Pretty inoffensive and VERY bulky team focused on breaking with urshifu to let Arc clean up in the end, with the Celeste classic of AV prim, with this being the spread I ended up liking the most on AV sets as its a good balance of defensive while not being passive.
Tera Blast Pult Spike Stack
Look familiar? This was a refined version of a team I made during the first leg of the SUUberbowl ladder tour to absolutely dump on the shed tail people were running, with a more bulky direction to have consistent phasing and hazard stacking to apply long term pressure, and punish careless shed tail in the face of an infiltrator Pult!
POST APRIL SHIFTS TEAMS
Garchomp FC Style Balance
This was the new team I built for the tiebreaker, and while I do believe it has merit it was ultimately shadow's repetative scout and tendency to rebuild teams that lead me not to load it, as I felt that he would likely run some form of H/O, and with Lando and IDCM arcs being staples of H/O i didn't feel comfortable running this. While it ultimately may have worked, I'm Glad I loaded what I did in the long run even if it didn't work out.
Lead Terapagos Scizor H/O
This is what I would have loaded in UMBD finals! This team had a proclivity for running some very strange H/O teams, and I wanted to be ready with a team that could punish that, while still having an Arceus-Ice to hold a lot of other matchups together.
Cloyster H/O
This was the other UMBD finals candidate that I ended up really not liking in the end, but thought it would be incredibly funny to try and C-Team the team thats loaded cloyster with their own creation lol.
Scarf Chi Yu.. Something
This was just a desire to use something strange with Chi Yu, with an Okidogi chilling from when Arc Dark was an actual threat and not a B tier Arc form you rarely see. Dual Phasing and Hazard stack + Breaker Poisonceus and hopefully it works maybe.
I Don't Think Palafin is Very Good
If you read through everything up to this point you have heard my gripes with Palafin already, which is why it shouldn't be a surprise to see that I decided against using this. Nothing too crazy and it honestly could work pretty well esp with how well Palafin can work into a lot of H/O, but this felt terminally underwhelming.
T-Wave Spam with Pivot Roaring Moon
]Yes that is an Arc Psychic, no it isn't great but its like... fine? This team actually had some really interesting results in testing, and if you are reading this now that means that I eventually opted not to run it vs BaconEatingAssasin in SUUberbowl, however its something I'm heavily considering at the time of writing. TLDR? Roaring Moon is broken in any form.
Early Takes on Grimmsnarl Era H/O
While I think that my later iterations upon H/O that I loaded in tours were much more effectively done, this was a pretty good first dive into it, and LO shifu is something I would like to revisit again in the future!
Closing Remarks and Shoutouts Overall, I would like to thank jackuzzler and Slip for giving me a chance in this tour and to Fc for recommending me! This has been an incredibly oppourtunity and without people like you who are willing to take a chance on a newer player, people like me would never get the chance to play in something like this. Thank you Frito of course for being one of my biggest supports in building and tests, and an amazing friend through the stress a tour like this can cause. Without you I wouldn't be here without your support and guidance, and you really are to thank for almost all of my growth in the past few months. Thank you to Skyiew for using my teams and reaching out to me for more. I will never be able to forget the sheer shock and excitement I felt when I saw you loading a team I threw in UUberscord for fun, and how honored I was to be able to continue working with you throughout this and to see you have success with my teams. OceanicGamer, you may not be in this tour but your help in testing and for chatting so much about my builds! Just as much value has been gotten from me being able to walk you through my building process as I have gotten from building the teams themselves, and I can't wait to see where you go in the future.
I'd also like to give extra shoutouts to the team, ojr, Kaboom, TakingNotesKinda, Zcarlett, Rabia, LBN, Tbolt, Ainzcrad, Totomon, Career Ended, jam, and Tuthur for making our playoffs run happen! None of this would have went the way it did without the work from each and every one of you. You all made this a great environment and I couldn't be happier with my time on this team.
And lastly, thank you to the UUbers community and staff for the support I have gotten in the past few months, It has been such a pleasure to be a part of this tier and support it and I'm so glad I got the opportunity to represent this amazing community in a tour like this! I hope to be back in the future, and despite not clutching it out, I'm so happy to have been part of the Silicobras.
Final Word Count: 6509