BW ZU's Hour of Glory

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Introduction

You may think BW ZU is a niche metagame with a tiny playerbase composed of an handful of players. You wouldn't have been wrong several months ago, but with an initiative from the community, the tier attracted a huge following. The BW ZU BreadWinners tournament gathered players who you wouldn't have ever expected to see play this format, arguably becoming one of the most memorable events hosted on Smogon.

I - BW ZU History and BW ZU BreadWinners background

BW ZU was created in 2019 following the development of BW PU. If you look at the initial Viability Rankings, you can see that the tier used to be quite different, even if familiar names like Simisear, Emolga, and Dragonair were quickly identified as top tier threats. During the first BW Cup, Regigigas was quickbanned due to its ability to effectively stall out Slow Start turns and become an unstoppable beast. Thanks to its excellent bulk, Regigigas could create nigh unbreakable Substitutes against walls and proceed to subvert its offensive counterplay with Confuse Ray and Thunder Wave shenanigans. The first two ZUPLs allowed for even more development; Purugly and Krokorok rose from the bottom of the Viability Rankings to some of the best Pokémon in the metagame. Just like in other BW tiers, sleep proved to be an uncompetitive mechanic even with Sleep Clause Mod, and was quickbanned. Emolga also established itself as the best Pokémon in the tier by a large margin thanks to its great support movepool, powerful Acrobatics, and blazing Speed.

However, shortly before third Classic, BW ZU was struck with huge tier shifts, losing top threats in Scraggy, Purugly, Sneasel, and Krokorok. While PU sent down thirteen Pokémon in exchange, not all of these newcomers were welcome additions to the tier. Duosion and Huntail, for example, had very short lifespans and were quickbanned before they managed to compromise any tournaments. Marowak wasn't too far behind them, and joined its former PU brethren in ZUBL just a few weeks prior to the third BW ZU Cup. Even its unboosted STAB attacks could demolish most walls, and Double-Edge and Stone Edge took care of the rest like Leafeon and Emolga. Then, in the last rounds of this BW Cup, Machoke was deemed uncompetitive and unanimously banned through a council vote. Just like Regigigas, Machoke took advantage of confusion with No Guard Dynamic Punch while already being a strong Pokémon with excellent bulk and great offensive presence.

Then came ZUPL, arguably the most competitive BW ZU tournament, where the metagame gets pushed by the tier's top players. Due to these shifts, the players had to completely reinvent the tier. Notably, Meganium and Whiscash, which were unranked and had never seen use, proved to be some of the best Pokémon; Meganium is extremely bulky and hard to take out while having great support in Dragon Tail and Aromatherapy, whereas Whiscash is a terrifying cleaner with its Dragon Dance sets. That said, the true winner was Spikes. Spinning in BW ZU is hard due to the spinners being mediocre LC Pokémon that struggle to break Frillish in the short run, namely Drilbur, Staryu, and Sandshrew. Entry hazards were overcentralizing all throughout ZUPL, causing much criticism of the tier. After ZUPL, the two most prominent Spikes setters, Trubbish and Glalie, were quickbanned. Spikes were still deemed problematic afterwards, leading to a Frillish suspect test. Frillish remained in the tier, as voters felt like the problem in the tier wasn't spinblocking but Spikes as a whole. As a result, two more Spikes setters were banned in Omanyte and Whirlipede. Therefore, the only remaining Spikes setters were LC Pokémon like Shelmet, Pineco, and Venipede.

In order to increase interest in BW ZU, council members btboy and Mirbro planned to host a cash prize tournament similar to the SS ZU one from several months prior. The BW ZU tournament was scheduled to happen right after the last ZU forum tournament, and signups opened a couple days before OST signups. As a joke, the host, btboy, decided to invest a bit more in the tournament so the cash prize was higher than for OST. This brought significant attention to the tournament, and a lot of players from the Smogon Tournaments Discord started signing up. Even after OST increased its prize pool, BW ZU BreadWinners responded with even more prize money, a banner, and a custom avatar, generating even more interest. As of now, OST's cash prize exceeds BW ZU BreadWinners's, but it remains one of the biggest cash prizes on Smogon and has gathered the most signups of any ZU tournament with over five hundred players.

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II - Old Staples Development

Dragonair and Shelgon

Click on the sprites to reveal the set(s)!

Before the beginning of the tournament, Dragonair was known in BW ZU for its RestTalk sets and being one of the two viable Dragon-types alongside Shelgon. While these sets were strong, they struggled with offensive Steel-types like Lairon and Pawniard, as well as getting revenge killed by priority moves and faster attackers. Before the tournament, it was often paired with Magnemite to circumvent these problems, and there already were talks on it being broken. ZU BreadWinners didn't even need one round for players to optimize Dragonair, as they began running more offensive sets with Hidden Power Fighting and Extreme Speed, allowing Dragonair to easily take on Steel-types and most forms of revenge killing. It also largely contributed to the success of dual screen offense. Both sets were terrifying, with limited counterplay available and almost no overlap; guessing the set wrong could easily lead to outright losing the game. Therefore, the BW ZU council decided to quickban Dragonair at the end of the first round. Dual screens fell out of favor and Shelgon rose as a replacement, with quite some success; however, it is overall far less effective due to its low Speed tier, lack of priority move, and useless abilities.

Here are some replays showcasing Dragonair:

• Round 1: ABR vs VigilanteVigoroth
• Round 1: confide vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
• Round 1: Expulso vs The Strap
• Round 1: Lunala vs Omfuga

Here are some Shelgon replays:

• Round 6: shiloh vs TheAprilFool
• Round 7: czim vs frisoeva
• Semis: Bouff vs frisoeva

Staryu

Physically Defensive

• Staryu @ Eviolite
• Ability: Natural Cure
• EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spe
• Bold Nature
• - Rapid Spin
• - Toxic / Thunderbolt
• - Scald
• - Recover

Staryu had always been a very popular choice due to being of the few spinners. However, it had never seen such high usage, becoming the most used Pokémon in the cash prize rounds with over 60% usage and win rate. One of the main reasons for its success was players shifting to physically defensive sets that handle Stealth Rock setters like Graveler and Lairon more efficiently. It had good matchups against most entry hazard setters, including Hippopotas and Solrock, and could defeat spinblockers like Frillish and Gastly in the long run. As a result, it provided unmatched utility in nearly guaranteeing hazard removal and switching into crucial threats like Simisear and Graveler. Some teams tried to punish Staryu being the most popular Water-type by running SubToxic Walrein, taking advantage of Staryu's weak Scald; however, some Staryu started running Thunderbolt or even Thunder to break its Substitute while still pressuring Frillish and opposing Staryu.

Here are some Staryu replays:

• Round 6: Confide vs Eonito
• Round 6: Garay oak vs Lyss
• Round 7: Garay oak vs TheAprilFool
• Semis: Bouff vs frisoeva

Meganium

Click on the sprites to reveal the set(s)!

Prior to the tour, Meganium had already solidified its place at the top of the BW ZU Viability Rankings. Meganium is widely known to be the worst starter due to its terrible movepool, but it is actually quite good for ZU standards due to its excellent stats! Most notably, some players started using offensively oriented Meganium. While its standard defensive sets with Giga Drain, Synthesis, Dragon Tail, and Aromatherapy remained the most commonly used, players innovated. It has strong STAB moves in Leaf Storm and Giga Drain, especially if put in Overgrow range, and its coverage options like Earthquake, Nature Power, Hidden Power Fire, Hidden Power Ice, and Ancient Power let it target common checks like Muk, Wormadam-S, Emolga, and Articuno, and were quite efficient when boosted by items like Choice Specs, Life Orb, and Gems. Defensive sets allowed for shenanigans like Counter, which could be very useful at punishing strong U-turn from attackers like Persian and Mienfoo or just trading HP with threats like Lairon and Emolga.

Here are some Meganium replays:

• Round 3: ABR vs August
• Round 4: quziel vs watashi
• Round 4: EviGaro vs TheAprilFool
• Round 7: Bouff vs crying

Emolga, Grumpig, Muk, and Simisear

Click on the sprites to reveal the set(s)!

These four Pokémon were already considered as some of the best Pokémon in the tier and confirmed this sentiment during the tournament. Emolga is a long-standing S-rank, and proved its versatility with special sets and uncommon support moves like Encore and Knock Off letting it take advantage of traditional checks like Lairon, Solrock, and Graveler. Grumpig was the least common before the tournament, being overlooked mainly for Mr. Mime's higher Speed tier. However, Grumpig proved to be one of the deadliest wallbreakers with its Calm Mind sets; its excellent bulk let it easily get several boosts, while Focus Blast took on most Psychic-resistant Pokémon like Pawniard, Solrock, and Lairon. Its dominance as the premier Psychic-type even led players to run Psyshock for an edge against opposing Grumpig. Muk's combination of bulk, resistances, and Toxic immunity made it one of the hardest Pokémon to take down. It also hit quite hard and could easily spread poison with Poison Jab and Poison Touch. The use of Protect on Muk greatly improved its viability, allowing it to scout for Choice-locked attackers (especially Slaking), play around Fake Out, get more Black Sludge recovery, and rack up more poison damage. With Dragonair's ban, Simisear ended up even more threatening than it already was. It started running Crunch more often to beat its most common checks in Frillish and Grumpig, and also ran utility moves like Will-O-Wisp and Knock Off to beat Muk and Staryu in the long run. On the other hand, some formerly common sets like Choice Scarf and Nasty Plot proved to be less effective and received low usage.

Here are some replays of these staples:

• Round 6: frisoeva vs TPP
• Round 7: Eonito vs TheFranklin
• Finals: frisoeva vs Garay oak

Frillish and Munchlax

Click on the sprites to reveal the set(s)!

I earlier said Frillish was one of the most controversial Pokémon in the tier for its spinblocking capabilities; Munchlax and it were deemed as S-rank threats in the metagame. However, they fell out of favor in the current metagame due to the banning of reliable Spikes setters like Trubbish and Glalie. Despite Frillish being able to answer some prominent threats like Simisear, Slaking, and Kingler, it is held back by its passivity, offering free switch-in opportunities to threats like Meganium and most notably struggling to spinblock Staryu in the long run without resorting to Rest. Munchlax also suffers from passivity; it rarely finds opportunities to sweep and relies heavily on Rest, whereas its Whirlwind sets aren't as valuable without Spikes support. A certain pink Pokémon emerged as a less needy replacement and is the topic of a later section. At the end of the day, both Pokémon still found uses, mainly in hazard stack balance, but they are far less prominent than they used to be.

Here are some replays of these fallen legends:

• Round 5: Bouff vs MetalGro$
• Round 5: czim vs Lambovino
• Round 6: August vs crying

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III - Emerging Staples

Slaking

Choice Band

• Slaking @ Choice Band
• Ability: Truant
• EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
• Jolly Nature
• - Return / Double-Edge
• - Earthquake
• - Night Slash / Sucker Punch
• - Pursuit

During ZUPL III, Slaking was only used once, and in a loss too. Historically, offensive Normal-types have been some of the best attackers in the tier. Purugly and then Persian were amazing revenge killers thanks to their blistering Speed and strong priority moves and could easily keep momentum thanks to U-turn. On the other hand, Exploud and Raticate were extremely hard to switch into thanks to amazing coverage or Guts Facade. However, despite compition from all the other Normal-types, Slaking managed to carve a niche anyway. It sported perks over Persian such as having the power and coverage to OHKO most of the tier, and its huge bulk let it avoid 2HKOs from many common threats. Slaking also proved to be the most reliable Pursuit user. Although it doesn't get STAB on Pursuit, its great Speed tier lets it trap the likes of Grumpig, Mr. Mime, and Gastly better than the slower Pawniard, which has to play around Fighting coverage. Do not get the wrong idea; Slaking still has its crippling ability, meaning it is forced out after every move and can't constantly pressure as well as Raticate and Exploud. It can't completely outclass Persian either given its lower Speed, leaving it outspeed by big threats in Emolga and Simisear. Furthermore, due to its rising popularity, some Pokémon even started running Protect to play around Slaking.

Here are some games showcasing Slaking:

• Round 2: Adaam vs SoulWind
• Round 3: Accel vs Frisoeva
• Round 5: Aishia vs Confide

Protect users getting the edge over Slaking:

• Round 3: ABR vs august
• Round 3: Bouff vs Welli0u
• Semis: Garay oak vs TheFranklin

Articuno

Articuno used to see close to no usage in BW ZU. Its awesome stats were overshadowed by its Stealth Rock weakness forcing it to use Roost more often than not. However, with Staryu growing in popularity and hazard stack teams featuring Frillish and Munchlax falling out of favor, Stealth Rock would often stay off the field and Articuno is otherwise close to flawless; very few Pokémon can check it between it having the bulk and power to beat most attackers one-on-one and having Pressure, Roost, and often Substitute or Heal Bell to outlast walls. Steel-types like Lairon, Magnemite, and Pawniard weren't even safe answers, as Articuno could outspeed and nuke them with Hidden Power. Furthermore, their lack of recovery meant they could not repeatedly switch into Articuno even without Hidden Power. That said, some Pokémon like Muk and even Munchlax proved able to keep Articuno in check quite reliably. Despite this, Articuno + Staryu became one of the most popular and powerful cores in the latter stages of the tournament.

Here are some replays showcasing Articuno:

• Round 3: Accel vs frisoeva
• Round 4: CBB vs Toto
• Round 7: czim vs frisoeva
• Finals: frisoeva vs Garay oak

Clefairy

Clefairy used to be overlooked for the prominent Munchlax. The latter has superior stats and is one of the best defensive sweepers with its Curse sets. However, Clefairy's other qualities make it a better support for its team. The combination of Magic Guard and Soft-Boiled preventing chip damage more than makes up for its lower bulk. This is further bolstered by Clefairy's typing; while it only provides one immunity, Fighting is limited to Mienfoo and the scarce Pignite, meaning it can take on most physical attackers. Focus Blast, while not widespread, is run on common special attackers such as Mr. Mime, Grumpig, and Simisear, though specially defensive Clefairy can easily handle unboosted uses. This great sustainability lets Clefairy make use of its gargantuan support movepool of Stealth Rock, Knock Off, Thunder Wave, Encore, Wish, Aromatherapy, and Healing Wish. As a result, Clefairy cemented itself as one of the easiest Pokémon to fit in a team and a very sturdy physical or special wall.

Here are some replays showcasing Clefairy:

• Round 2: ABR vs CB Aaron Judge
• Round 3: ninjadog vs vani
• Round 5: august vs Pak
• Finals: frisoeva vs Garay oak

Pineco

Suicide Lead

• Pineco @ Custap Berry / Mental Herb
• Ability: Sturdy
• EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
• Adamant Nature
• - Stealth Rock
• - Spikes / Toxic Spikes
• - Rapid Spin
• - Explosion

Hyper offense had definitely not been a popular archetype in BW ZU post Glalie ban, but it proved to be effective with attackers like Pikachu, Shelgon, Pawniard, and Arbok supported by entry hazards. In the early rounds of the tournament, numerous suicide leads were tested from Bibarel to Onix, but only Pineco proved effective enough to continue seeing use. With the given set, Pineco can easily get up two hazard layers in most matchups while keeping hazards off its side. Gastly is a noteworthy partner that spinblocks and benefits from Spikes. Pineco also saw scarce uses in bulkier hazard stack teams featuring Frillish and Munchlax.

Here are some replays showcasing Pineco Hyper Offense:

• Round 3: Finchinator vs Haru
• Round 3: Spl4sh vs watashi
• Round 5: Acr1 vs Garay oak

Ivysaur

Physical Wall

• Ivysaur @ Eviolite
• Ability: Overgrow
• EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
• Bold Nature
• - Knock Off
• - Sludge Bomb
• - Synthesis
• - Giga Drain / Leech Seed

Knock Off had seen sporadic uses in BW ZU, mainly on mid-tier NFEs like Eelektrik, Sandshrew, and Mienfoo, but its usage completely skyrocketed with this tournament on Pokémon like Clefairy and Ivysaur. Gloom had been seen as superior to Ivysaur for its higher physical bulk and Special Attack, but Knock Off proved its worth. Item removal is especially good in BW ZU due to Pokémon like Grumpig, Wormadam-S, and Arbok relying on items for recovery and the high number of Eviolite users such as Frillish, Munchlax, and Lairon. Some more offensive Pokémon like Emolga, Leafeon, and Persian even started running Knock Off occasionally because crippling their checks makes progress for their partners. That said, there is strong counterplay to Knock Off, most notably Emolga and Muk. Once its Flying Gem has been consumed, Emolga can freely switch into Knock Off and threaten most users out, while Sticky Hold Muk has nothing to fear and beats Mienfoo and Ivysaur lacking Leech Seed.

Here are some replays where Knock Off made significant progress:

• Round 5: august vs Pak
• Round 5: Eonito vs Skypenguin

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IV - Interview with Garay oak

Hey Garay oak, congratulations for winning BW ZU BreadWinners. That was an impressive run. To get started, could you introduce yourself?

Hello and thanks! As some of you may know, I'm a regular tournament player here on smogon. I play most singles tiers, from old gens to new ones and from OU to (after this tour) ZU; OMs and Doubles formats are out of my reach, though. I don't post much but I like being involved at least somewhat in several communities, I think it's a cool aspect of playing here.

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This was indeed your first ZU tournament, just like a lot of other players. How did you end up finding BW ZU?

I'm in a server where some people sign up for tournaments in "alternative" tiers, and they linked the signup thread for the BW ZU tournament. I wasn't going to join originally, but well, I saw the prize pool and decided to give it a go.

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Did you enjoy playing and building in the tier?

I did! Some things were quite frustrating to figure out, like how to properly cover dragonair before it was banned or how to abuse staryu structures and check articuno later on in the tournament, but it was a really fun experience overall.

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Speaking of Articuno, it is one of the Pokémon you used the most during the tournament, especially in the latter rounds. The council has it under its radar. What do you think of it?

I think it's definitely a pokemon whose place in the tier needs to be properly questioned and discussed. It would be nowhere near this tier if it weren't x4 SR weak to begin with, and it has a great partner in staryu, who can get rid of hazards surprisingly consistently given its (in theory) poor bulk. It has pressure, stupidly high bulk, strong special attack stat coupled with great stab moves in hurricane and ice beam and a really good offensive typing for the tier, and to top it all off, reliable recovery in roost and support moves like heal bell. The only viable mon in the tier who can consistently switch into it is clefairy, and as seen in this very tournament, articuno gets multiple chances to get around it via freeze or confusion. I even considered using stuff like corsola or magcargo (which are definitely not good mons and that's why I ended up discarding them anyway) just so I could be "safe" against it. Of course, it suffers a bit more against very offensive teams that can keep rocks up during a very short game, but even at 50% it can check stuff that is used in them, so it won't be deadweight even in its worst matchups.

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The Staryu + Articuno core proved to be deadly. You and frisoeva have been using it a ton through the tournament and a lot of your games showed how strong the legendary bird can be. Some concerns on Slaking were also raised in the middle of the tournament, do you agree with this Pokémon being a problem?

Not really, no. I used it a lot in the beginning but ended up opting out of it more and more as the tournament progressed. It's obviously a good mon because it has ridiculous stats (even moreso than articuno) but its ability does set it back a bit too much to be considered problematic now that people have learned to properly respect it. Protect is just a good move to have in general and some pokemon that don't need much coverage can easily afford it, which completely invalidates slaking, so many times you'd rather have something else as your revenge killer.

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Is there a Pokémon you find massively overrated or underrated in the tier?

I guess going back to the last question I would deem slaking to be overrated haha, but apart from that I think emolga is overrated too, since I find it useful to have on some teams but nowhere near the S rank it had on the VR when I last checked. As for underappreciated pokemon, I think hippopotas might be one of those. Its defensive capabilities are unique and very useful, so as long as you're not using it as your rocker (because staryu sits on you forever) you're good to go. And, well, I don't know if I should consider them underrated, but pokemon like articuno and vullaby seem criminally underused to me given how unkillable they can prove to be.

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One of the reason why Vullaby and Articuno are currently so low is because spinblocking used to be much more common as Spikes setters like Glalie and Trubbish were allowed. Moving a bit away from the tier to focus on the tournament. You played some really close bo3 in it. Which one is your favorite?

The ones against Lyss and Omfuga were probably my favorite. The one against Lyss had some decisive luck on both ends, which is kind of lame, but it also made for a nerve wracking set all around, and it was very close. The one against Omfuga is a personal favorite because I came back strong after getting smashed g1, and I had to use the same team all three times because I didn't have any more at the time (dragonair had recently gotten banned). I was also facing someone I respect a lot as a player and who usually owns me in these less known tiers, so it has some added value to it.

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I don't remember these battles much, except for Lyss's Gloom surviving to against Abra and Pikachu in a close g2, I will make sure to watch them again kek. Is there any team you would like to share here?

Importable

I was thinking about how to abuse staryu at the later stages of the tournament (pretty sure I used this in semifinals), and frillish had fallen from favor long ago because it was a spinblocker that lost to staryu clicking toxic against it, so I thought about an idea to circumvent that. Frisoeva had used budew+frillish the week before, so I thought about making frillish rest instead of taunt to completely invalidate staryu and keep hazards up the entire game. Spikes were quite unpopular outside of HO, against which taunt emolga has a field day, so there was very little chance I would have opposing full hazards on my side, thus giving me a very meaningful advantage against most teams, especially those who presumed to have a good hazard game and depended on being able to set them up or properly clear them off. The rest of the team is just having good defensive synergy, filling up holes and having a nuke in cb slaking to make easy progress in harder matchups. I couldn't really show the proper functioning of this team when I used it because emolga ended up pulling off a miraculous 1v5 sweep after articuno haxed through half of my team, so I wanted to showcase it here. My most successful team is obviously the one with all the brokens (articuno/staryu/clef/wormadam/hippo/muk), but similar structures had already been used before and I just optimized the style, so I will refrain from posting that one.

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I didn't even know Budew had Covet. I remember that haxy game versus Franklin, that was a very Pokémon moment kek. BW ZU Cup is in only a couple of weeks and ZUPL in a few months, do you think you will join these BW ZU tours?

Grand Slam is happening now along with some lower tier premier leagues so I really doubt I'll sign up for BW ZU cup, but I might partake in ZUPL, it would definitely be a fun experience if time permits!

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That would be cool to see you there! Good luck with your other tournaments! Is there anything you wanna say before closing this interview?

I wanna say to definitely give this tier a try. It's a really fun one some minor bullshit aside, which is unique considering how hated BW lower tiers are in general, and it's always great to see mons that don't get proper usage in any other tier be good here. Thanks for having me!

That was a really interesting interview. Thanks for your time!

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Conclusion

This tournament has been an unique occasion to push a metagame forward and let people discover it. The metagame evolved quickly from Dragonair being completely obnoxious, to Slaking wrecking the meta, and eventually to Articuno's teams dominating the metagame. The BW ZU council held a vote on Articuno shortly after the tournament and it has been banned as a result.

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