How many of you have any idea what Camomons is all about? How many of you are simply lurking in this thread for a new post to happen?
Thank you, and good day, everyone. This is your former Camomons meteorologist, Euphonos, and welcome to my team dump from the Other Metagames Premier League and my insight essay post-tour. I would like to thank first Ransei and Racool for welcoming me into the Five-Star Jolteons family, and to the fellow teammates Quantum Tesseract, beauts, PA, motherlove, The Immortal, Pigeons, S1nn0hC0nfirm3d, Greybaum, damflame 3, Smove_$wag, and SparksBlade for bearing with my teambuilding madness I've done in the room, and I had lots of fun interacting with you. Also, I would like to thank newly-appointed metagame leaders a loser and Chazm, and council member The Number Man, for indulging me into this two-part post, and I would like to thank those who are about to read this lengthy post. Since I haven’t been contributing this much after my preparations from that tournament, it’s time for me to pay forward.
So, first, you may have noticed that I’m not part of the council anymore. Unfortunate as it is, I would like to share the story that apparent irreconcilable differences between me and the former Camomons leader ultimately got me booted out of the council before he himself stepped down. To be blunt about it: I still am not at peace with that decision because it’s just part of the problem OM leaders -- including that person whom I refer to -- don’t realize.
And this became fuel for working on something that I myself envisioned in this community and the metagame. As such, I am going to share what I have learned throughout this season because I am here to help curious Pokemon Showdown players go from not having an idea what Camomons is all about to becoming proficient in this metagame, and I am currently building a side Discord server that focuses on Camomons-focused projects and tournaments. With that, here are my nine teams that I have built all throughout this ninth OMPL season. Feel free to click the strips for the team paste.
Being the very first week in the league, I had lots of ideas worth using in my head against Sylveon., such as Tornadus-Therian, Kommo-o, and Volcarona. I was all over the place whenever I was experimenting with lots of stuff in the Camomons metagame, given geerat’s lack of activity since the last OMPL season, until my teammates Greybaum, Poison Adhesive, and Quantum Tesseract helped me narrow down my choices into using Volcarona and Garchomp. Speaking of those two Pokemon, as I got off fresh from the inaugural Camomons Draft League I hosted, it is definitely a fortunate sight to see both Poison Adhesive and Quantum Tesseract, two of my co-division rivals, as my teammates in this season’s OMPL. As such, the ideas I got for this team came mostly from Quantum Tesseract’s Draft League composition featuring those two Pokemon.
My Garchomp spread is meant to deal as much damage as possible with its Adamant nature while still outpacing neutral Base 100’s without a Scale Shot boost and +Spe Pheromosa after such. With that in mind, I have to find ideas on how to deal with Hydreigon, and this is where three Pokemon came into mind: Choice Scarf Landorus-Therian as a revenge attacker, Assault Vest Slowking as a tank from boosted Draco Meteors, and Articuno as a sponge against Hydreigon’s usual Water shenanigans. Finally, Steel/Ghost Kommo-o served as a general Special wall capable of setting up Stealth Rock and blocking key attacks coupled with Bulletproof.
I eventually noticed how geerat’s Ice/Fighting Pheromosa with Shock Wave and Drill Run managed to run over my defenses, and given Shock Wave being a rather weak attack and managed to lure unsuspecting Water/Flying shenanigans is good preparation on geerat’s part, so mad props to him. Over the course of this battle, one of the key turns included geerat’s Calm Mind Necrozma putting up a war against my Grass/Psychic Volcarona. As my Volcarona eventually lost the Calm Mind war, this is one of the instances wherein some key moves would’ve been game-changing against him, like placing Flamethrower/Fiery Dance on Volcarona’s last slot over Substitute, or Haze over U-turn on my Articuno to avoid such Calm Mind wars from happening. This is the same instance where one move would’ve sealed the deal against him but I didn’t manage to trust my guts and take advantage of those moves (such as putting Memento over Endure on Polteageist during my last season in OMPL against him).
Fun fact: Based on the Week 1 usage stats, there were seven people who used Tornadus-Therian over the course of that week. I’m very sure that, by now, you know who that one person was who shied away from using that Pokemon. Hihi!
My loss from the first week made me want to use Victini given its wall-breaking capability with Choice Band-boosted V-creates. However, before ending up with Victini, I ended up taking advantage of a Pokemon with a Poison/Fighting combination that I am longing to use. Usually, my Poison/Fighting type combination takes advantage of Body Press, but I’m going to break that stereotype by virtue of Toxic + Aura Sphere Latias.
This is one of those teams which uses my formula featuring a Pokemon with a Poison/Fighting combination. I usually pair it with a Dark/Dragon one; this time keeping Garchomp from last week - this time with Crunch as STAB, and with Poison Jab to lure in Fairy-types. While I was gunning for a Steel/Flying per my formula, I just simply found Steel/Psychic Reuniclus one of the nice additions to the team for added offensive pressure and some specially defensive footing. Also, I find this offensive Salamence quite an interesting fit to the team as it is capable of running both high-octane Hydro Pump and Hurricane and is capable of removing hazards handily. With that, I finally get Victini to fit into the team, but this time using Heavy-Duty Boots and Toxic to deal with defensive Pokemon nicely, and then I finally decide on Clefable’s typing to be a deceptively Physically defensive Grass/Fairy with Grass Knot.
My match with Terracotta happened to be the most intense I’ve gotten into, especially with my match-up being even, and with The Number Man recognizing my building capabilities and trying to break through my usual build. There are three things that happened over the course of the match: one is I did not get to use Latias because it got caught in the crossfires of opposing Reuniclus’s Future Sight. The other one is the one misplay I felt I made, which is letting my Garchomp use Crunch against Rocky Helmet Salamence when I realize Scale Shot is not a contact move. Finally, the one key turn that I believed pulled off a win is I let my Salamence use Roost that recovered to full health, which eventually forced Terracotta’s Spectrier to play Nasty Plot on the last turn.
MetaRiolu7 is one of the main Camomons players who has fallen under the radar after his stint in the last iteration of World Cup of Other Metagames, so running some of my specialty sets would deem threatening against him. As such, I’m going to run one of my double-edged specials: Poison/Flying (Toxic + Hurricane) Volcarona.
The idea of the team is to eliminate as many obstacles as possible, such as Dark/Poison Clefable, to pave the way for a Volcarona sweep; as such, I ended up using both Grass/Dark Rillaboom (with Swords Dance) and Fire/Fighting Cinderace (as an all-out attacker). While a Clefable of my own can sound cool in this team with its common Electric/Fairy variant, I was looking for a more offensive, momentum-bearing Pokemon with that same type combination, and there I managed to nab Xurkitree, one of the underrated gems in this metagame. With Grassy Terrain active courtesy of Rillaboom’s Grassy Surge, I get to use Specially Defensive Steel/Ground Heatran so that it gains more HP alongside Leftovers, boosting its longevity even more. Finally, I was torn on a defensive Water-type that can compress roles as a Defogger and momentum bringer easily, until I got to a rather unconventional Tornadus-Therian with Rain Dance and U-turn as its first two moves to acquire the Water/Bug typing.
This match didn’t get the signature Poison/Flying Volcarona to shine because Fire/Electric Victini and most especially Steel/Ghost Kommo-o were extremely annoying to deal with. However, Xurkitree became the team’s unsung hero and managed to rack six kills against MetaRiolu7’s team - something no one might realize until I reveal it here. It's not that explicit, though, because Xurkitree switched in on different occasions before it nabbed kills, like an Energy Ball on a Zygarde-10% switch, then a not-very-effective Thunderbolt chipping and eventually KO'ing Victini, and finally a Dazzling Gleam KO'ing Salamence, Kommo-o, Tornadus-Therian, and Mew.
After lots of contemplation, I ended up bringing one of the secret weapons against the likes of Water/Poison Latias and Electric/Fairy Clefable running rampant in the Camomons metagame before the wave of bans happened, and it is no other than the Grass/Steel (Power Whip + Iron Head) Gyarados. However, this one took me the most time testing and modifying especially with how promising this Pokemon can be.
I ended up pairing this Gyarados with the OG Dragapult with a Fire Blast to lure in Steel-types as they deem annoying for Gyarados to deal with. I formulated lots of defensive cores to pair well alongside this offensive core, and Heatran has consistently been part of the defensive backbone - this time, with a Specially defensive Fire/Ground type combination, and completing the core ends up being a Water/Fairy Mew, and here comes another formulaic approach to this team by putting up the standard Ice/Fighting Pheromosa with Rapid Spin - which makes Mew a Spikes setter as well - and eventually deciding to run another special of mine: SubPlot Dark/Poison (Dark Pulse + Sludge Wave) Naganadel.
In the match against Mossy Sandwich, some spectators say that Mossy Sandwich attempted to throw that match by staying Mew in on a Dragapult who can potentially have Fire Blast (which it eventually revealed and missed); among all other RNG elements he threw at me, this is where me getting annoyed at those elements got the best of me, and ended up misplaying my Pheromosa by not using Close Combat against Blissey (not to mention his Landorus fainted so I didn’t realize it) and eventually paralyzed my Pheromosa which actually lost the game for me. Despite this being one of toughest losses I ever had - especially luck not on my side, I felt satisfied with the output of Grass/Steel Gyarados because it can fill a niche no other set-up attacker can do.
Based on my ladder battles I had before OMPL, I know anaconja being one of those Camomons players who can build in par with me, putting up unusual themes in his teams, and this is where I get to put my creativity up a notch by pulling off one of my tricks up my sleeve: Zoroark. Among all possible Pokemon up for disguise, I actually got fond of a more unconventional version of Pheromosa, which is a Dragon/Fighting variant (I last used it in World Cup of Other Metagames IV - shoutout to Frrf for being the first witness) all thanks to Outrage being part of its learnset, and there I have a nasty idea.
With Dragon/Fighting Pheromosa being bait for Fairy-type Pokemon like Clefable, this is where Zoroark comes in as one of the most unconventional lures, all thanks to Sludge Bomb in its arsenal. Zoroark was initially Dark/Poison, but with Ghost-types being quite problematic to Pheromosa as well (especially the likes of Ghost/Fighting Slowbro), I ended up using Shadow Ball, making it Ghost/Poison, and running Focus Blast as Zoroark’s coverage to leave an impression that Pheromosa has Focus Blast making it a mixed attacker. Of course, for Zoroark, I have to run Expert Belt because I don’t want to make stuff obvious. As for its teammates, I elected for a defensive core with a Physically defensive Steel/Flying Volcanion and Specially defensive Water/Fairy Mew (both of them being quite unconventional in my book because they’re meant to be Specially and Physically defensive respectively). It is also coupled with Grass/Dark Rillaboom as a strong priority attacker by virtue of Grassy Terrain-boosted Grassy Glide, and I eventually end up using Hydreigon as a back-up illusory disguise for Zoroark, as a back-up Band Victini resist (hence its unusual EVs), and as a bulky Nasty Plot attacker before that Pokemon gets banned.
I feel like your minds got blown by the madness I’ve made with Zoroark + Pheromosa. It is definitely hands down one of my proudest - if not my proudest - moments in my entire OMPL journey, and Think would deem that Turn 2 being the best turn in OMPL history.
Sigh, I didn’t even get Latias and Hydreigon to work this OMPL before they get the ban hammer...
Siamato is definitely one of those players who acknowledge me as one of the most original builders in the metagame. While it is really ironic this is the one time that I haven't given any much thought regarding the story about this team, I believe there's one thing I wanted to showcase against Siamato, and it is no other than the defensive Dragon/Ghost Garchomp to take advantage of Rocky Helmet and Rough Skin. From there, I mapped out some ideas coming from past excerpts. I honestly cannot remember how I managed to build this team apart from starting with Dragon/Ghost Garchomp, but the idea around the team is another formulaic and balanced approach such as putting Pokemon with a priority move, a mandatory defogger and Stealth Rock user, and fast attackers.
I ended up with Zapdos and Azumarill, both with their original Electric/Flying and Water/Fairy type combinations respectively, as the most unique Pokemon ever showcased; it is all because they're capable of taking attacks from numerous threats. I also put in Bug/Fighting Cinderace with Protective Pads because the propensity of bringing a Pokemon with Rocky Helmet made me a bit paranoid especially with the lack of recovery. Heatran is included as one of the most reliable Specially Defensive Pokemon that can set up Stealth Rock with ease. Finally, a Fire/Dark Nasty Plot Naganadel is placed as a rather conventional late-game attacker.
At the end of my match against Siamato, I retrospectively thought I should've brought the Garchomp at Turn 1 after Cinderace U-turned because regardless of whatever move he would do next (apart from the conventional Taunt, or probable switching out), I would've wasted Siamato's efforts, and I could've saved that Azumarill in the first place. Then, late in that game, I thought Siamato would bring Close Combat on his Dark/Steel Lycanroc-Dusk, which could be tad scary on my Heatran; as such, I had to play a little bit more carefully (and it revealed that it had Crunch and Sucker Punch, meaning it lacked Close Combat). I would've survived a Crunch with some more turns of Leftovers recovery; sadly, I didn't play that endgame quite well especially with the potential Close Combat he brought, so huge props on Siamato for playing that well.
Initially, I was planning on bringing up some of the craziest strategies I pulled off in the past such as Magic Room shenanigans, Psychic Terrain + Polteageist, Final Gambit spam, or a meteorologist route (weather). This is all because I was against Bushtush, who, having literally zero idea what Camomons is, got baptized by fire (and actually managed to beat geerat among all other players in the Camomons pool), and whose team being unfortunately out of playoff contention. However, with our team’s playoff chances still at stake, Quantum Tesseract and Poison Adhesive warned me not to throw caution in the wind and keep our chances of winning high. As such, I’m going towards a more formulaic route but still bringing some hidden gems.
Given my looming paranoia to Rillaboom for some reason (especially because it’s one of the rising trends these days), I ended up formulating a Pokemon that would resist all of Rillaboom’s possible attacks. I got torn between Poison/Fairy Cresselia and Fighting/Flying Corviknight, and through inspiration from my friend superstrike66 who used Corviknight in his Camomons Draft League journey (and Cresselia’s rather pitiful damage output even after with Calm Mind boosts on), I ultimately chose the latter. With Corviknight serving as one of the physically defensive Pokemon, I ended up choosing Heatran as its teammate because they cover each other’s weaknesses fairly well. That consequently brought me to pair with Rillaboom based on the experience I had in Week 3, and it granted a much needed priority against Pheromosa and other faster Pokemon. Nasty Plot Naganadel returns one more time (which was initially a Modest Scarf set), but with the OG Dragon/Poison one to avoid Rillaboom from knocking it (especially when weakened) with Grassy Glide. Finally, I ended up choosing Victini as a back-up answer against Pheromosa with Choice Scarf, and then Starmie fills in the gap for an offensive Special Water/Fairy Pokemon thanks to Analytic.
Apparently, Bushtush, having no idea about the Camomons metagame, ended up using the same team he brought against geerat from the previous week, which is a Sun team featuring some typical abusers like Venusaur and Entei. Actually, my plan in this affair is to open the game strong with Analytic Starmie as it is capable of forcing switches, and as Turn 1 happened, I landed a critical hit and knocked Slowbro down (which I didn’t expect to do so if no critical hit happened). Two key misplays happened on Bushtush’s end by not letting his Venusaur use Earth Power on my Steel/Ground Heatran and by not letting his Entei use Sacred Fire against my Fighting/Flying Corviknight which had a good chance of burning, and with that I sealed the win for the Jolteons in a rather convincing fashion. I don’t blame Bushtush for not having any clues whatsoever about Camomons, but mad props to him for showing up and fighting valiantly.
It's a mixed feeling that I get to face geerat once again in the Semifinals of this tournament, because, for one, I have yet to defeat one of the smartest players in the Camomons pool. However, given my high knowledge and wide arsenal of Pokemon by my side, I know that I have the capability to defeat geerat. I just needed some form of inspiration, thus getting to invite The Number Man into our server. He graciously imparted to me his powerful Melmetal set that he used to bring headaches against numerous players, which I myself can also attest. When he sent his team blueprint featuring Melmetal, the team that I crafted during the Spectrier suspect test struck me a chord because it's that one team that I didn't get any success, and with his Melmetal over Rhyperior that has been my stronghold for quite some time (sorry, DraconicLepus), I get to tweak that team once again.
One of Melmetal's greatest assets is its monstrous HP and Defense stat, that when invested, it is capable of standing its Substitute strong even against a super-effective Flip Turn from a defensive Water Mew. Another feature of the team is Poison/Flying Tornadus-Therian set, which is reminiscent of the Poison/Flying Volcarona I had, but with a more accessible Sludge Bomb, and there I greatly improved the team's effectiveness by bringing up Pheromosa once again as an offensive form of hazard control, and bringing Water/Ghost Mew over my former signature Slowbro set (which is about to be revealed in the next one) to bring additional pressure by virtue of Spikes. For the final time, I brought a more high-octane Nasty Plot Naganadel by virtue of its Fire + Dragon STAB moves dealing at least neutral damage to different Pokemon that only Steel/Ground Heatran, among all other possible Pokemon, can take its onslaught well, whilst most Water-types can potentially get caught by a Thunderbolt.
I got somehow terrified when geerat brought Scarf Dark/Poison Tornadus-Therian which heavily damaged my Pheromosa (good thing it didn't KO), and with that crucial information, I get to take advantage of Melmetal and foiling Water/Flying Mew's plans with Thunder Punch. From there, I've finally gotten the upper hand, and despite his Porygon-Z scoring a critical hit against Blissey, I managed to recover. I actually made a rather risky play when in retrospect there is a better way in circling around his team instead of sacking Naganadel through his Rillaboom, which in turn, could potentially lose the match especially with Tornadus-Therian's Hurricane having a propensity to miss. Fortunately enough, my Tornadus-Therian gets to connect that Hurricane on the last turn, and that finally secured my win against geerat and secured a pass to the Finals.
It's the Finals, and The Number Man imparted me with another idea worth using. However, when I tried it through test matches, I was so skeptical this time because of the not-so-impressive damage output and longevity issues. With that eventually sparked my mind: Assault Vest Jirachi, the one set I used from last season of OMPL. This time, I brought some ingenious strategies that could hopefully make this Jirachi and its eventual benefactor successful, and it's by virtue of my defensive core of Wish Blissey and Eject Button (+ Recycle) Slowbro. I ended up with Water/Flying Salamence and Dark/Dragon Garchomp, both of them coming from my Week 2 team against Terracotta that looked great with this build, and finally putting up Darmanitan for some sheer firepower.
In this Finals match against Mossy Sandwich, spectators say that I actually had one of the roughest match-ups, which is partly true especially with my build being more tryhard than I thought it would be. My plan of action there was to play aggressively with Garchomp; apparently, he played with his Pokemon quite well that I had difficulty breaking through his team. The critical hit against the Slowbro early in the game made it quite difficult for me to recover, not to mention the misses I've gotten from Salamence's Hydro Pumps and Hurricanes, which is all the more upsetting on my end; however, huge props to Mossy Sandwich for prepping well, especially with Colbur Reuniclus and Dragon/Flying Salamence with Earthquake (the latter which I actually anticipated) that further made it difficult for me to play around.
That concludes my team sharing for this post, and with that, I would like to ask the following people to share your teams / experiences in this metagame during this season of OMPL:
Spinda Wheels: Mossy Sandwich, Sabella, Zesty43
Zoomer Zeraoras: Sylveon., a loser, Karl Dude Guy
Temper Tyrantrums: anaconja, Chazm
Based Boomers: Havens, Betathunder, Terracotta, The Number Man
Wiggly Family: Meta
Fullmetal Alcremists: Siamato
Rozelias: Bushtush, shiloh, Alkione, K3ppr
Now that I have showcased all of the teams I have brought to the league, stay tuned for my next post regarding the insights I have observed during that tournament. Off I go - for now.
Thank you, and good day, everyone. This is your former Camomons meteorologist, Euphonos, and welcome to my team dump from the Other Metagames Premier League and my insight essay post-tour. I would like to thank first Ransei and Racool for welcoming me into the Five-Star Jolteons family, and to the fellow teammates Quantum Tesseract, beauts, PA, motherlove, The Immortal, Pigeons, S1nn0hC0nfirm3d, Greybaum, damflame 3, Smove_$wag, and SparksBlade for bearing with my teambuilding madness I've done in the room, and I had lots of fun interacting with you. Also, I would like to thank newly-appointed metagame leaders a loser and Chazm, and council member The Number Man, for indulging me into this two-part post, and I would like to thank those who are about to read this lengthy post. Since I haven’t been contributing this much after my preparations from that tournament, it’s time for me to pay forward.
So, first, you may have noticed that I’m not part of the council anymore. Unfortunate as it is, I would like to share the story that apparent irreconcilable differences between me and the former Camomons leader ultimately got me booted out of the council before he himself stepped down. To be blunt about it: I still am not at peace with that decision because it’s just part of the problem OM leaders -- including that person whom I refer to -- don’t realize.
And this became fuel for working on something that I myself envisioned in this community and the metagame. As such, I am going to share what I have learned throughout this season because I am here to help curious Pokemon Showdown players go from not having an idea what Camomons is all about to becoming proficient in this metagame, and I am currently building a side Discord server that focuses on Camomons-focused projects and tournaments. With that, here are my nine teams that I have built all throughout this ninth OMPL season. Feel free to click the strips for the team paste.
Being the very first week in the league, I had lots of ideas worth using in my head against Sylveon., such as Tornadus-Therian, Kommo-o, and Volcarona. I was all over the place whenever I was experimenting with lots of stuff in the Camomons metagame, given geerat’s lack of activity since the last OMPL season, until my teammates Greybaum, Poison Adhesive, and Quantum Tesseract helped me narrow down my choices into using Volcarona and Garchomp. Speaking of those two Pokemon, as I got off fresh from the inaugural Camomons Draft League I hosted, it is definitely a fortunate sight to see both Poison Adhesive and Quantum Tesseract, two of my co-division rivals, as my teammates in this season’s OMPL. As such, the ideas I got for this team came mostly from Quantum Tesseract’s Draft League composition featuring those two Pokemon.
My Garchomp spread is meant to deal as much damage as possible with its Adamant nature while still outpacing neutral Base 100’s without a Scale Shot boost and +Spe Pheromosa after such. With that in mind, I have to find ideas on how to deal with Hydreigon, and this is where three Pokemon came into mind: Choice Scarf Landorus-Therian as a revenge attacker, Assault Vest Slowking as a tank from boosted Draco Meteors, and Articuno as a sponge against Hydreigon’s usual Water shenanigans. Finally, Steel/Ghost Kommo-o served as a general Special wall capable of setting up Stealth Rock and blocking key attacks coupled with Bulletproof.
I eventually noticed how geerat’s Ice/Fighting Pheromosa with Shock Wave and Drill Run managed to run over my defenses, and given Shock Wave being a rather weak attack and managed to lure unsuspecting Water/Flying shenanigans is good preparation on geerat’s part, so mad props to him. Over the course of this battle, one of the key turns included geerat’s Calm Mind Necrozma putting up a war against my Grass/Psychic Volcarona. As my Volcarona eventually lost the Calm Mind war, this is one of the instances wherein some key moves would’ve been game-changing against him, like placing Flamethrower/Fiery Dance on Volcarona’s last slot over Substitute, or Haze over U-turn on my Articuno to avoid such Calm Mind wars from happening. This is the same instance where one move would’ve sealed the deal against him but I didn’t manage to trust my guts and take advantage of those moves (such as putting Memento over Endure on Polteageist during my last season in OMPL against him).
Fun fact: Based on the Week 1 usage stats, there were seven people who used Tornadus-Therian over the course of that week. I’m very sure that, by now, you know who that one person was who shied away from using that Pokemon. Hihi!
My loss from the first week made me want to use Victini given its wall-breaking capability with Choice Band-boosted V-creates. However, before ending up with Victini, I ended up taking advantage of a Pokemon with a Poison/Fighting combination that I am longing to use. Usually, my Poison/Fighting type combination takes advantage of Body Press, but I’m going to break that stereotype by virtue of Toxic + Aura Sphere Latias.
This is one of those teams which uses my formula featuring a Pokemon with a Poison/Fighting combination. I usually pair it with a Dark/Dragon one; this time keeping Garchomp from last week - this time with Crunch as STAB, and with Poison Jab to lure in Fairy-types. While I was gunning for a Steel/Flying per my formula, I just simply found Steel/Psychic Reuniclus one of the nice additions to the team for added offensive pressure and some specially defensive footing. Also, I find this offensive Salamence quite an interesting fit to the team as it is capable of running both high-octane Hydro Pump and Hurricane and is capable of removing hazards handily. With that, I finally get Victini to fit into the team, but this time using Heavy-Duty Boots and Toxic to deal with defensive Pokemon nicely, and then I finally decide on Clefable’s typing to be a deceptively Physically defensive Grass/Fairy with Grass Knot.
My match with Terracotta happened to be the most intense I’ve gotten into, especially with my match-up being even, and with The Number Man recognizing my building capabilities and trying to break through my usual build. There are three things that happened over the course of the match: one is I did not get to use Latias because it got caught in the crossfires of opposing Reuniclus’s Future Sight. The other one is the one misplay I felt I made, which is letting my Garchomp use Crunch against Rocky Helmet Salamence when I realize Scale Shot is not a contact move. Finally, the one key turn that I believed pulled off a win is I let my Salamence use Roost that recovered to full health, which eventually forced Terracotta’s Spectrier to play Nasty Plot on the last turn.
MetaRiolu7 is one of the main Camomons players who has fallen under the radar after his stint in the last iteration of World Cup of Other Metagames, so running some of my specialty sets would deem threatening against him. As such, I’m going to run one of my double-edged specials: Poison/Flying (Toxic + Hurricane) Volcarona.
The idea of the team is to eliminate as many obstacles as possible, such as Dark/Poison Clefable, to pave the way for a Volcarona sweep; as such, I ended up using both Grass/Dark Rillaboom (with Swords Dance) and Fire/Fighting Cinderace (as an all-out attacker). While a Clefable of my own can sound cool in this team with its common Electric/Fairy variant, I was looking for a more offensive, momentum-bearing Pokemon with that same type combination, and there I managed to nab Xurkitree, one of the underrated gems in this metagame. With Grassy Terrain active courtesy of Rillaboom’s Grassy Surge, I get to use Specially Defensive Steel/Ground Heatran so that it gains more HP alongside Leftovers, boosting its longevity even more. Finally, I was torn on a defensive Water-type that can compress roles as a Defogger and momentum bringer easily, until I got to a rather unconventional Tornadus-Therian with Rain Dance and U-turn as its first two moves to acquire the Water/Bug typing.
This match didn’t get the signature Poison/Flying Volcarona to shine because Fire/Electric Victini and most especially Steel/Ghost Kommo-o were extremely annoying to deal with. However, Xurkitree became the team’s unsung hero and managed to rack six kills against MetaRiolu7’s team - something no one might realize until I reveal it here. It's not that explicit, though, because Xurkitree switched in on different occasions before it nabbed kills, like an Energy Ball on a Zygarde-10% switch, then a not-very-effective Thunderbolt chipping and eventually KO'ing Victini, and finally a Dazzling Gleam KO'ing Salamence, Kommo-o, Tornadus-Therian, and Mew.
After lots of contemplation, I ended up bringing one of the secret weapons against the likes of Water/Poison Latias and Electric/Fairy Clefable running rampant in the Camomons metagame before the wave of bans happened, and it is no other than the Grass/Steel (Power Whip + Iron Head) Gyarados. However, this one took me the most time testing and modifying especially with how promising this Pokemon can be.
I ended up pairing this Gyarados with the OG Dragapult with a Fire Blast to lure in Steel-types as they deem annoying for Gyarados to deal with. I formulated lots of defensive cores to pair well alongside this offensive core, and Heatran has consistently been part of the defensive backbone - this time, with a Specially defensive Fire/Ground type combination, and completing the core ends up being a Water/Fairy Mew, and here comes another formulaic approach to this team by putting up the standard Ice/Fighting Pheromosa with Rapid Spin - which makes Mew a Spikes setter as well - and eventually deciding to run another special of mine: SubPlot Dark/Poison (Dark Pulse + Sludge Wave) Naganadel.
In the match against Mossy Sandwich, some spectators say that Mossy Sandwich attempted to throw that match by staying Mew in on a Dragapult who can potentially have Fire Blast (which it eventually revealed and missed); among all other RNG elements he threw at me, this is where me getting annoyed at those elements got the best of me, and ended up misplaying my Pheromosa by not using Close Combat against Blissey (not to mention his Landorus fainted so I didn’t realize it) and eventually paralyzed my Pheromosa which actually lost the game for me. Despite this being one of toughest losses I ever had - especially luck not on my side, I felt satisfied with the output of Grass/Steel Gyarados because it can fill a niche no other set-up attacker can do.
Based on my ladder battles I had before OMPL, I know anaconja being one of those Camomons players who can build in par with me, putting up unusual themes in his teams, and this is where I get to put my creativity up a notch by pulling off one of my tricks up my sleeve: Zoroark. Among all possible Pokemon up for disguise, I actually got fond of a more unconventional version of Pheromosa, which is a Dragon/Fighting variant (I last used it in World Cup of Other Metagames IV - shoutout to Frrf for being the first witness) all thanks to Outrage being part of its learnset, and there I have a nasty idea.
With Dragon/Fighting Pheromosa being bait for Fairy-type Pokemon like Clefable, this is where Zoroark comes in as one of the most unconventional lures, all thanks to Sludge Bomb in its arsenal. Zoroark was initially Dark/Poison, but with Ghost-types being quite problematic to Pheromosa as well (especially the likes of Ghost/Fighting Slowbro), I ended up using Shadow Ball, making it Ghost/Poison, and running Focus Blast as Zoroark’s coverage to leave an impression that Pheromosa has Focus Blast making it a mixed attacker. Of course, for Zoroark, I have to run Expert Belt because I don’t want to make stuff obvious. As for its teammates, I elected for a defensive core with a Physically defensive Steel/Flying Volcanion and Specially defensive Water/Fairy Mew (both of them being quite unconventional in my book because they’re meant to be Specially and Physically defensive respectively). It is also coupled with Grass/Dark Rillaboom as a strong priority attacker by virtue of Grassy Terrain-boosted Grassy Glide, and I eventually end up using Hydreigon as a back-up illusory disguise for Zoroark, as a back-up Band Victini resist (hence its unusual EVs), and as a bulky Nasty Plot attacker before that Pokemon gets banned.
I feel like your minds got blown by the madness I’ve made with Zoroark + Pheromosa. It is definitely hands down one of my proudest - if not my proudest - moments in my entire OMPL journey, and Think would deem that Turn 2 being the best turn in OMPL history.
Sigh, I didn’t even get Latias and Hydreigon to work this OMPL before they get the ban hammer...
Siamato is definitely one of those players who acknowledge me as one of the most original builders in the metagame. While it is really ironic this is the one time that I haven't given any much thought regarding the story about this team, I believe there's one thing I wanted to showcase against Siamato, and it is no other than the defensive Dragon/Ghost Garchomp to take advantage of Rocky Helmet and Rough Skin. From there, I mapped out some ideas coming from past excerpts. I honestly cannot remember how I managed to build this team apart from starting with Dragon/Ghost Garchomp, but the idea around the team is another formulaic and balanced approach such as putting Pokemon with a priority move, a mandatory defogger and Stealth Rock user, and fast attackers.
I ended up with Zapdos and Azumarill, both with their original Electric/Flying and Water/Fairy type combinations respectively, as the most unique Pokemon ever showcased; it is all because they're capable of taking attacks from numerous threats. I also put in Bug/Fighting Cinderace with Protective Pads because the propensity of bringing a Pokemon with Rocky Helmet made me a bit paranoid especially with the lack of recovery. Heatran is included as one of the most reliable Specially Defensive Pokemon that can set up Stealth Rock with ease. Finally, a Fire/Dark Nasty Plot Naganadel is placed as a rather conventional late-game attacker.
At the end of my match against Siamato, I retrospectively thought I should've brought the Garchomp at Turn 1 after Cinderace U-turned because regardless of whatever move he would do next (apart from the conventional Taunt, or probable switching out), I would've wasted Siamato's efforts, and I could've saved that Azumarill in the first place. Then, late in that game, I thought Siamato would bring Close Combat on his Dark/Steel Lycanroc-Dusk, which could be tad scary on my Heatran; as such, I had to play a little bit more carefully (and it revealed that it had Crunch and Sucker Punch, meaning it lacked Close Combat). I would've survived a Crunch with some more turns of Leftovers recovery; sadly, I didn't play that endgame quite well especially with the potential Close Combat he brought, so huge props on Siamato for playing that well.
Initially, I was planning on bringing up some of the craziest strategies I pulled off in the past such as Magic Room shenanigans, Psychic Terrain + Polteageist, Final Gambit spam, or a meteorologist route (weather). This is all because I was against Bushtush, who, having literally zero idea what Camomons is, got baptized by fire (and actually managed to beat geerat among all other players in the Camomons pool), and whose team being unfortunately out of playoff contention. However, with our team’s playoff chances still at stake, Quantum Tesseract and Poison Adhesive warned me not to throw caution in the wind and keep our chances of winning high. As such, I’m going towards a more formulaic route but still bringing some hidden gems.
Given my looming paranoia to Rillaboom for some reason (especially because it’s one of the rising trends these days), I ended up formulating a Pokemon that would resist all of Rillaboom’s possible attacks. I got torn between Poison/Fairy Cresselia and Fighting/Flying Corviknight, and through inspiration from my friend superstrike66 who used Corviknight in his Camomons Draft League journey (and Cresselia’s rather pitiful damage output even after with Calm Mind boosts on), I ultimately chose the latter. With Corviknight serving as one of the physically defensive Pokemon, I ended up choosing Heatran as its teammate because they cover each other’s weaknesses fairly well. That consequently brought me to pair with Rillaboom based on the experience I had in Week 3, and it granted a much needed priority against Pheromosa and other faster Pokemon. Nasty Plot Naganadel returns one more time (which was initially a Modest Scarf set), but with the OG Dragon/Poison one to avoid Rillaboom from knocking it (especially when weakened) with Grassy Glide. Finally, I ended up choosing Victini as a back-up answer against Pheromosa with Choice Scarf, and then Starmie fills in the gap for an offensive Special Water/Fairy Pokemon thanks to Analytic.
Apparently, Bushtush, having no idea about the Camomons metagame, ended up using the same team he brought against geerat from the previous week, which is a Sun team featuring some typical abusers like Venusaur and Entei. Actually, my plan in this affair is to open the game strong with Analytic Starmie as it is capable of forcing switches, and as Turn 1 happened, I landed a critical hit and knocked Slowbro down (which I didn’t expect to do so if no critical hit happened). Two key misplays happened on Bushtush’s end by not letting his Venusaur use Earth Power on my Steel/Ground Heatran and by not letting his Entei use Sacred Fire against my Fighting/Flying Corviknight which had a good chance of burning, and with that I sealed the win for the Jolteons in a rather convincing fashion. I don’t blame Bushtush for not having any clues whatsoever about Camomons, but mad props to him for showing up and fighting valiantly.
It's a mixed feeling that I get to face geerat once again in the Semifinals of this tournament, because, for one, I have yet to defeat one of the smartest players in the Camomons pool. However, given my high knowledge and wide arsenal of Pokemon by my side, I know that I have the capability to defeat geerat. I just needed some form of inspiration, thus getting to invite The Number Man into our server. He graciously imparted to me his powerful Melmetal set that he used to bring headaches against numerous players, which I myself can also attest. When he sent his team blueprint featuring Melmetal, the team that I crafted during the Spectrier suspect test struck me a chord because it's that one team that I didn't get any success, and with his Melmetal over Rhyperior that has been my stronghold for quite some time (sorry, DraconicLepus), I get to tweak that team once again.
One of Melmetal's greatest assets is its monstrous HP and Defense stat, that when invested, it is capable of standing its Substitute strong even against a super-effective Flip Turn from a defensive Water Mew. Another feature of the team is Poison/Flying Tornadus-Therian set, which is reminiscent of the Poison/Flying Volcarona I had, but with a more accessible Sludge Bomb, and there I greatly improved the team's effectiveness by bringing up Pheromosa once again as an offensive form of hazard control, and bringing Water/Ghost Mew over my former signature Slowbro set (which is about to be revealed in the next one) to bring additional pressure by virtue of Spikes. For the final time, I brought a more high-octane Nasty Plot Naganadel by virtue of its Fire + Dragon STAB moves dealing at least neutral damage to different Pokemon that only Steel/Ground Heatran, among all other possible Pokemon, can take its onslaught well, whilst most Water-types can potentially get caught by a Thunderbolt.
I got somehow terrified when geerat brought Scarf Dark/Poison Tornadus-Therian which heavily damaged my Pheromosa (good thing it didn't KO), and with that crucial information, I get to take advantage of Melmetal and foiling Water/Flying Mew's plans with Thunder Punch. From there, I've finally gotten the upper hand, and despite his Porygon-Z scoring a critical hit against Blissey, I managed to recover. I actually made a rather risky play when in retrospect there is a better way in circling around his team instead of sacking Naganadel through his Rillaboom, which in turn, could potentially lose the match especially with Tornadus-Therian's Hurricane having a propensity to miss. Fortunately enough, my Tornadus-Therian gets to connect that Hurricane on the last turn, and that finally secured my win against geerat and secured a pass to the Finals.
It's the Finals, and The Number Man imparted me with another idea worth using. However, when I tried it through test matches, I was so skeptical this time because of the not-so-impressive damage output and longevity issues. With that eventually sparked my mind: Assault Vest Jirachi, the one set I used from last season of OMPL. This time, I brought some ingenious strategies that could hopefully make this Jirachi and its eventual benefactor successful, and it's by virtue of my defensive core of Wish Blissey and Eject Button (+ Recycle) Slowbro. I ended up with Water/Flying Salamence and Dark/Dragon Garchomp, both of them coming from my Week 2 team against Terracotta that looked great with this build, and finally putting up Darmanitan for some sheer firepower.
In this Finals match against Mossy Sandwich, spectators say that I actually had one of the roughest match-ups, which is partly true especially with my build being more tryhard than I thought it would be. My plan of action there was to play aggressively with Garchomp; apparently, he played with his Pokemon quite well that I had difficulty breaking through his team. The critical hit against the Slowbro early in the game made it quite difficult for me to recover, not to mention the misses I've gotten from Salamence's Hydro Pumps and Hurricanes, which is all the more upsetting on my end; however, huge props to Mossy Sandwich for prepping well, especially with Colbur Reuniclus and Dragon/Flying Salamence with Earthquake (the latter which I actually anticipated) that further made it difficult for me to play around.
That concludes my team sharing for this post, and with that, I would like to ask the following people to share your teams / experiences in this metagame during this season of OMPL:
Spinda Wheels: Mossy Sandwich, Sabella, Zesty43
Zoomer Zeraoras: Sylveon., a loser, Karl Dude Guy
Temper Tyrantrums: anaconja, Chazm
Based Boomers: Havens, Betathunder, Terracotta, The Number Man
Wiggly Family: Meta
Fullmetal Alcremists: Siamato
Rozelias: Bushtush, shiloh, Alkione, K3ppr
Now that I have showcased all of the teams I have brought to the league, stay tuned for my next post regarding the insights I have observed during that tournament. Off I go - for now.
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Pheromosa to be the only one of these four that is clearly too strong. Ice/Fighting sets can tear through walls with Choice Band or lure in walls with mixed sets running Ice Beam and coverage like Shock Wave even. IMO, 
Tornadus-T is the best mon of these four just thanks to its incredible ability in Regenerator and how it can play both offense and defense very effectively. Its typing choices also allow it to check threats like Spectrier and Rillaboom, along with many others, quite well. I've found that 
Naganadel can be somewhat hard to use as I never seem to find good setup opportunities due to its low bulk. Maybe I'm using it wrong, but I've yet to see why this mon is unhealthy for the meta at the moment. I voted not to ban 
Spectrier in the suspect test and still feel the same way about it. I think the mon is good but its limited movepool holds it back from being too strong still. 
Mew
Reuniclus
Volcarona
Siamato's feedback on the Camomons metagame 
(both)
), I come back (retired but Camomons) as your humble servitor to inform you about what is planned until the end of the gen.