So, here ends what was probably my last Wcop (due to the likely stupid rules change that is about to happen). 3-2 is not my best Wcop record, but not the worst one either. Time to show the Eeveetechnology one last time:
Vs Mncmt:
https://pokepast.es/26a8de4f54ad7f63
Mncmt was the opponent I considered to be the strongest, so I tried to schedule with him for the last week and scheduled with Dugza to play on second week. However, I read wrongly what Mncmt wrote on my profile and accidentally scheduled with him for second week too. At the same time, Dugza dodged me and escaped to the 3rd week, so I was forced to play Mncmt first. I realized this with the second week started and I also realized at the time that none of my good teams matched well vs Mncmt's scout (which consisted of a lot of Gliscors, Gholdengos and Garganacls, among other things). Since Mncmt was the most dangerous opponent in groups, I need to have an advantage in the builder, not in the actual match. So, I thought about what could abuse Gliscor, Gholdengo and Garganacl at the same time and came up with Sub BU Galarian Zapdos. Sure, the match-up vs Gholdengo isn,t that good, but with Substitute it easily boosts on Gliscor and Garganacl. Tera Fire means that Fairy types can be set-up fodder too, just like Moltres. Overall, this Zapdos is a very good asset vs bulkier teams.
Still, since I don,t want Zapdos to Tera any time I see a Fairy, I put 2 Fairy killers in Iron Crown and Glowking, both check Kyurem and other special Mons too. This might be the only time I used 2 Psychic Mons succesfully. Gapdos likes hazard support, so Gliscor entered as the Rocker (that most of the time beats Tusk) and Samurott as a Spiker that sometimes can clean. At this point the main weaknesses were Roaring Moon and Waterpon, so I added a Restalk Pdef Kyurem as a shaky check to both.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-772992 < Generally, I don,t trust the scout and don,t even use it at all. This is the right thing to do, because the scout failed hard, I didn,t expect the team Mncmt used. I still won, with a Samurott crit helping a lot for that. Zapdos didn,t do much though, and Kyurem failed to stop what he was supposed to stop.
Vs Dugza.
https://pokepast.es/efc62f58939aaffb
I consider this the best team I used during the tournament. When I build with the idea of not autolosing to any Mon, Sdef Corvi + Tusk + Dondozo + bulky poison (Clodsire or Glowking) + 2 breakers (one of them Dark type to not collapse to Ghosts) is what has been working best. I built this team during the Gouging Fire Suspect and only lost 1 battle (to Screens + Latias) during it. Then I used it several times in Stour, where it won almost all battles too. Originally vs Dugza I planned to use the team I ended up using in Quarters, but during the extra week in tests this team worked better than any other, so despite the opponent potentially knowing it, I felt secure enough to bring it.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-774514 < Unfortunately for me, Dugza did prepare specifically for my cores to the point of bringing Psyshock + Rocky Helmet Gholdengo (Psyshock is not rare to see, but I literally never have seen Rocky Helmet Gholdengo prior to this battle) and Psychic Noise Latios. Another weakness of the team (which I didn,t encounter in ladder or tests) was Curse Tera Water Garganacl, also present here. I focused to eliminate that Garganacl as soon as possible, which led to missing 2 Focus Blasts with Typhlosion and losing the game as a consequence to that. If I had used Tera + Eruption, Garganacl would be dead, though the battle would have still been hard after that. Dugza's preparation for the battle paid off, after all, he ended up placing 1st in our group. After this battle, I didn,t built anything else with neither Corviknight nor Dondozo, while very rarely building with Clodsire. If I can be counterteamed, I need to adapt and use different things.
Vs VK.
https://pokepast.es/4ed25c48f7961b83
One day,
We Three Kings challenged me to build a team with all 6 Mons being OU and having standard sets (therefore, no Band Weavile for example). I looked in my builder, and saw that I already had a team with 6 OU Mons built at the beginning of DLC2, so just edited some sets. Originally Darkrai had Wide Lens as item and all of Hypnosis, Thunder Wave and Will-o-Wisp. If an opponent wasn,t annoyed by one status, it would be annoyed by another and no one would expect all 3. Then sleep got banned, so I saw no point in keeping the less broken status and just put Life Orb on the Darkrai. Weavile originally had Focus Sash and I changed it to Boots. The plan of this team is to overload the opponent with hazards and destroy him with powerful Dark moves. Both Clodsire and Gholdengo happen to resist every single weakness Dark types have, so they are the supporters of the team.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-774958 < I came to the battle very unmotivated and expected to lose it. However, when I saw VK wanted to humillate me with the very same team Dugza used the day before, I got angry and focused on the battle hard, predicting almost every play VK did and breaking his team with Weavile and Darkrai. Poor Kingambit didn,t even have to battle this time.
Vs Mister McLovin (Quarters).
https://pokepast.es/00473859694f6b74
2 months ago, in my failed Grand Slam campaign, I built a cool UU team around Band Ogerpon in Grassy terrain. The team had Ogerpon, Thwackey, Excadrill, Hawlucha, Rotom-W and Slither Wing. The team was very good on ladder, since Adamant Ogerpon in Grassy Terrain 2HKOd every single Mon except the x4 resist ones or the few Sap Sippers, this while outspeeding . I lost the UU Open in R2 but the team won vs a strong player and would have won if I used it in all 3 games of the set instead of just one. In Wcop, our UU player
Kushalos took this team and made some changes (for example, there was no Slither Wing anymore). Persoanlly I liked my version of the UU team more, but Kushalos still won the game he used his version in.
So, at some point I wanted to replicate the UU team in OU and it worked very well on ladder, even reaching 2000 Elo. I even originally wanted to use this vs Dugza and really should have, since he didn,t have a x4 resist to Grass, so a well played Ogerpon 2HKOd everything. McLovin also was low on Grass resists in the scout, so I decided to use the team vs him in Quarters. The team has 5 Volturn users to find a good moment for Ogerpon to come in and start killing everything. Ogerpon is the Tera Mon in the majority of the battles. Apart from the x4 resists, main weakness of the team is Raging Bolt, which is the reason the Scarf Iron Crown has Tera Ground Blast.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-777750 < McLovin decided to load a x4 Grass resist in this game, so it was always going to be a hard battle. Due to some luck, I managed to survive way longer than I should have, but it compensated when Wow missed vs Kingambit at the end of the game. McLovin prepared and played well, this was the last time I trusted the scout.
Vs Oldspicemike (Semis)
https://pokepast.es/5c944ba60986fb6e
Sometimes using 6 legendaries is the best idea. This might be very well the team with the highest average BST of the whole tournament. So, this team is built around Tera Steel Modest Latios. First, the Tera Steel + Levitate. Defensively it invalidates (or makes a lot worse):
-Gliscor.
-Kyurem.
-Landorus.
-Glimmora.
-Enamorus (well, you are weak to Mystical Fire, but its the least clickable move).
-Most Great Tusk (few use CC or Temper Flare).
-Some Glowkings.
-Some Dragonites.
-Clodsire.
-Some Clefables.
Which is a lot. Now, the Modest Latios is specifically to always 2HKO Glowking with Psyshock, Timid doesn,t do that. Latios handily outspeeds both Kyurem and Gliscor even with Modest nature. This Latios is a very competent balance breaker, with the only common Mons that stop it in long battles being Gholdengo and Corviknight. Over the course of a match, Latios can wear down everything else.
The defensive part of the team are 2 birds that with (pretty) slow U-Turns bring Latios or another big threat in. Everyone knows what Zapdos does, so won,t explain it, but Fezandipiti is a poison spreader with Beat Up. Of course, every single poison immune Pokemon walls Fezandipiti hard, but then it U-Turns out to some big threat. Fezandipiti despite having great defensive Stats is not supposed to be used on defensive teams, but on bulky offense like this one. It needs offensive support to work best. Defensively it offers a great Darkrai, Raging Bolt, Waking Wake (with Tera Water), Zamazenta and Enamorus check, among others. Very underrated Mon that
Ruft didn,t trust at all until I used it. Originally it had min Speed and Air Balloon, but
Savouras and
Alhen suggested changing that set to prevent Rocks damage and outspeed Raging Bolt.
Gholdengo (and to a lesser extent Corviknight) is the biggest threat for both Latios and Fezandipiti. Therefore, Steel killer Heatran comes in, with a Modest nature to hit as hard as possible, just like Latios. Very good Mon to trade vs problematic foes and to keep hazards up, Corviknight needs to spend the Tera if he wants to Defog on this. Tera Fairy means no Gouging Fire will ever beat me and Air Balloon means that Iron Moth isn,t beating me either unless it manages to hit me before.
Great Tusk does Great Tusk things, knocks, spins, checks King-Gambit late game, RKs Raging Bolt if Fezandipiti failed. Finally, Roaring Moon is a good Scarfer that sometimes cleans, especially vs opposing Sun teams. This team has no impossible match-ups in my opinion, if I played good enough, I could beat everything with it, therefore it was the obvious pick for Semis.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-778573 < This ended up being my last battle, but fortunately I won. Mike only used 1 Steel, though it was one that stopped Latios cold. Fortunately, he sacked it to Heatran, so Fezandipiti, Roaring Moon and Latios all started to do real damage. Tera Ice Weavile could have been a threat, but Roaring Moon with Scarf + Tera Dark ensured that it wasn,t KOing me until at least 3 rounds of Stealth Rock (and I didn,t allow Weavile to use SD 3 times).
Other stuff I didn,t get to use.
https://pokepast.es/d2703bc9df339de9
Hey, look, a typical Corviknight + Tusk + Glowking team! Except its not, there is a Rampardos. With Tera Grass, Sheer Force and Life Orb, almost anything can stop Rampardos, as long as it gets to move. Therefore lots of paralysis support is used, including Scarf Thunder Wave Hydreigon. Not a very good team, but a fun one for big numbers enjoyers.
https://pokepast.es/2599b596844ef397
I think this is the only team I have built during the tournament that can be called HO. Its a serious team, it got to 1900 and was considered to be used vs all 3 of my group opponents. So, lets explain Cramorant. Its a Mon with a broken ability, good defensive typing, decent movepool... and terrible Stats to compensate all that
However, its fairly useful vs opposing offensive teams, since it can cripple with paralysis everything, including Special (non Electric) Mons if it gets to use Surf under 50% HP. To do so, it has Endure + Custap Berry, so if opponent doesn,t pay attention, he will have a paralyzed Mon that I can abuse with the rest of my team.
Cramorant outspeeds min Speed Lando and Jolly Kingambit. The HP EVs ensure it will always live Power Gem Glimmora while going to Custap range. This is useful in lead match-ups vs Glimmora, which can go like this.
Scenario 1:
Turn 1: Glimmora uses Stealth Rock and gets hit by Surf.
Turn 2: Glimmora uses Power Gem and dies to the 25 % damage Gulp Missile does.
Turn 3: Cramorant either Defogs or uses Surf with Custap Berry to paralyze another Mon.
Scenario 2:
Turn 1: Glimmora attacks with Power Gem and gets hit by Surf.
Turn 2: Opponent doesn,t expect Custap Berry, therefore Glimmora dies without putting Rocks.
Turn 3: Now Cramorant uses Endure to take 25% out of the next Mon's HP and paralyze it, while still being alive to do another Surf to take another 25% with Gulp Missile and maybe parahaxing.
Cramorant can work vs several other leads like Darkrai, Torkoal, Pelipper or Enamorus. Cramorant uses the opponent not knowing what it does to its advantage. Cramorant of course doesn,t have to always be the lead, we have other 5 Mons.
Excadrill is the secondary spinner which can also sweep sometimes. It can enter into Raging Bolt and abuse EQ + Toxic (and no Knock) Gliscor or the SD + Facade Gliscor if it uses Tera Ghost. If an opposing Skarmory is Knocked, Tera Ghost Drill will abuse it too.
Raging Bolt hits hard (especially if Tera Dragon), paralyzes with Discharge and prevents bulky teams from healing with Taunt.
Heatran is another Taunt user that also puts Rocks and fucks Gouging Fire.
Roaring Moon is the main sweeper and if a Balloon Gambit thinks it can wall it, Brick Break is there to destroy it.
Finally, Primarina can sweep vs bulky teams, check Walking Wake and is another Custap Berry user.
https://pokepast.es/80b92a92eb063b87
A team with some cool sets, like Palossand to wall almost all Tusks and Garganacls, Tera Fight Glowking to lure Gambit or Bullet Seed Waterpon to anti-lead Sash Samurott. I realized very late that without Tera this team has no Fire resist, therefore it doesn,t work well.
https://pokepast.es/9d04934be4f6520f
Another team with some cool Mons that individualy work, but together didn,t work so well. Tatsugiri with AV does some trades, Spins and Counters by surprise (it also learns Mirror Coat, but no room for it). This Tusk can beat Alomomola and Dondozo if it predicts well. Finally, Glowbro has some use over Glowking by hitting way harder with Drain Punch and forcing CM Clef to Tera with Shell Side Arm.
https://pokepast.es/161bb5c6fa4c7c45
First version of Gapdos team, that failed. Sinitcha is the type of Mons that work for other people, but does 0 when I use it.
https://pokepast.es/0ea882b9e018dfe2
I tried several Rains and this is the best one I built during the tournament. As far as in Semis, it was an option to be used. Glowking, Kyurem and Waterpon are the Main 3 Mons that prevent Rain from being good. Offensive pressure of this team deals with Glowking. Regice fully walls any Kyurem that is not DD + Tera Blast or Scale Shot. Despite being Restalk, Regice hits hard with Boltbeam. Finally, Wo-Chien walls many physical threats, U-Turnless Waterpon among them. Basculegion has Adaptability to hit like a cannon (stolen set from that one Bellibolt Rain RMT) and Barraskewda has Tera Fight to be able to RK Gambit and work well even outside of Rain.
https://pokepast.es/54607b75b81bce52
After winning vs Mcnmt in Groups, I felt very well and expected to win vs Dugza with the Typhlosion team. Having won with a Samurott Hisui the first game and expecting to win with Typhlosion Hisui the second one, I decided to flex and built a team with Decidueye too. Decidueye has the niche of being a Scrappy Mon that has a broken Fight move that often crits and can also flinch. The type of Mons and moves I like. Unfortunately, Decidueye is very slow, so Zapdos and Glowking are here to provide para. Tera Fight + Band + Close Combat (which is still stronger than Triple Arrows when no crit) 2HKOs almost the whole Meta, with Gliscor being one of the few Mons that can long term check Decidueye. Therefore 2 Mons with ice moves are used, while Glowking has Tera Water Surf to hunt Gliscor. Dondozo and Zapdos check almost all physical Mons, while Treads and Glowking check the special ones, with Weavile being an alternative win condition.
Unfortunately, I lost vs Dugza so there was no point in bringing this team vs VK, despite hitting 1950 and Top 10 on ladder with it.
https://pokepast.es/57ccc9721a2f048d
https://pokepast.es/fa4188b3b39cc32b
There were like 7 teams I tried to built with this Gliscor set, which I consider to be the most dangerous one. These 2 were overall the best (except 1 I will post later), but still not good enough. Tauros is the best non Tera Blast Gambit counter in the game and has more interaction with the team than the usual Dondozo. Trick + Black Sludge Glowking can surprise some teams, just like Scarf Hoopa-U (which is a decent cleaner). Rotom-H is one of the many Tera Steel + Levitate Mons I tried (with the most succesfull one being the Latios I used in Semis),this one being notable for checking Kyurem and Enamorus without Tera and being a potential win condition.
https://pokepast.es/3b90190d07ecc13f
2 STAB Boltbeam Mons that enjoy hazards and the opponent being paralyzed. Also, I don,t know if this is a hot take or not, but Whirlwind Skarmory is 10 times better than Iron Defense.
https://pokepast.es/e98d03b081881e74
I like big numbers and few numbers are bigger than Tera Dragon Specs Modest Draco Meteor from Raging Bolt. The rest of the team supports it with Volturn, Status, etc. Oh, and there is a Mirror Herb Zamazenta that sometimes countersweeps with the item. This team was considered in both Quarters and Semis.
https://pokepast.es/104cad2aea0b413a
First version of the Latios team. Tinkaton resists 5 out of 6 Latios weaknesses, so it was a natural pick. Unfortunately, this team ended up being way too passive.
https://pokepast.es/9416bd17c15c34f4
A team built together with
Highv0ltag3 around Band Lycanroc. Has a lot of great HV input that i could have never come to by myself. Very close to be a good team, but has some glaring issues like the Stall match-up.
https://pokepast.es/c41df10414ea9917
Just like last year, our mascot was Ceruledge, so I had to try it at some point. With Dondozo existing, I think SD Ceruledge is a waste of time, so I opted to use Weak Armor + Life Orb instead to punch holes with Tera Ghost Poltergeist or use Destiny Bond vs something slower. The rest of the team lacks Knock Off, but supports Ceruledge with paralysis or Hazards and Clef can even give Sticky Barb to some Booster Energy Mon. The problem of Ceruledge ended up being the abundance of Booster Energy Mons and the fact that even without them, Poltergeist misses when you need it to hit the most.
https://pokepast.es/fbec957d656ae8bc
With Garganacl being very often a Tera Mon, in my opinion it should always be a win condition around which the team is built. Therefore, Rocks Garganacl = Bad, Curse, Iron Defense or Block Garganacl = Good. Garganacl needs huge Knock Off support to remove the Cover Cloaks that are used to stop him. Some teams might PP Stall Garganacl to win vs him, so there is a Lunar Dance Cresselia for that. AV Scizor is a great Kyurem counter and Special sponge, the rest of Mons are pretty standard.
This team managed to hit 1900, so it was in my list of viable teams. The weakness to Grass Mons (Waterpon, Rillaboom and Meowscarada) is notable, despite which the team was an option both in Quarters and Semis.
https://pokepast.es/dfe01b6017f4a0e4
Last year I built over 10 Suns, this year just 1. During Semis everyone on Team Europe was telling me that I didn,t use Booster Energy enough (in fact, among my viable teams only the Cramorant one uses the item), so I built this Sun with Iron Moth. Unfortunately, opposing Protosynthesis Mons are terrible match-up for this Sun and it did very poorly in tests.
https://pokepast.es/51401c3efbd14d68
Finally, the team with broken progress making Gliscor set that worked. I built this yesterday after coming back from holidays. Today I easily hit 1950 and top 9 on ladder, therefore this team was a very likely pick for the Finals that eventually didn,t happen.
Houndstone is an amazing spinblocker, walling every EQ-Less Tusk. It walls many physical threats, including some Dark ones:
252 Atk Choice Band Meowscarada Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Fluffy Houndstone: 153-180 (44 - 51.8%) -- 10.9% chance to 2HKO < A 2HKO that will never happen, since second hit will do less. In fact, Flower Trick does more, but that is easier to wall with Gouging Fire.
+1 252 Atk Protosynthesis Roaring Moon Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Fluffy Houndstone: 234-276 (67.4 - 79.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO < Eats.
+2 252 Atk Weavile Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Fluffy Houndstone: 216-255 (62.2 - 73.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO < Eats (and OHKOs with Body Press).
+2 252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 3 allies fainted Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Fluffy Houndstone: 295-348 (85 - 100.2%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO < Eats most of the time.
+2 252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 5 allies fainted Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Fluffy Houndstone: 337-397 (97.1 - 114.4%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO < The fact that this isn,t a 100% KO should give you an idea of Houndstone's bulk.
Zamazenta is fully walled by Houndstone as well, even after Crunch Defense drops. So, with the team built around Houndstone, we need hazards, which Clodsire and Samurott provide. Clodsire checks several special Mons like Raging Bolt and Walking Wake. There is also Sdef Gliscor that removes the Boots and does progress with its most broken set. Of course, such structure is weak to opposing Gliscor and Kyurem, but guess what, Latios makes its way into this team too! Lastly, Gouging Fire covers the Fire weakness, abuses hazards with Dragon Tail, and sometimes sweeps.
Roaring Moon and Deoxys are the main weaknesses of this team, but neither is impossible to beat if you use the right Tera and are able to predict what they will do. I am pretty sure this team would have had a good shot of winning the battle in finals.
So, this is how likely my Wcop career ends, but hopefully I can play other tours in the future. Have a nice Eeveening!
C+ - Brought by Bangladesh, tidied up once, won. 5/10
UR - Brought by Belgium, got up rocks, roar'd out a booster energy Raging Bolt, prevented spin with tera ghost, won 8/10
UR - Brought by UK, 1 kill vs a paralyzed Bolt, won 4/10
UR - brought by Chile, you know him you love him he did nothing and won 6/10
D - brought by Italy, 1v1'd a Glowking, won 9/10
covered above
B - Brought by Africa with no webs, swept 7/10 this mon is ass tho
