Hosted By: Ineros
Approved by Forum Mods
OP stolen from here
Art coming soon
Hello everyone and welcome to Magic Matchmaking—the project in which we aim to create magic pairings that help to pull out a Pokémon's full potential and explore all the creative cores and options National Dex has to offer!
Every week, the host (me) will nominate a Pokémon and set, and you then need to post a partner along with a brief explanation of what makes them a solid teammate for the nominated Pokémon. At the end of each submission phase, I will archive the partners that I think are the best and will highlight any posts that I found to be particularly good before moving onto public voting for the best.
Rules and Notes
I recommend using the following format when posting:
Example

Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly / Adamant Nature
- High Horsepower / Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Rapid Spin
Excadrill is an excellent partner for Hippowdon and Tyranitar as it can take advantage of Sand Stream with Sand Rush. It can also threaten Pokémon like Kyurem that can take advantage of Hippowdon's passivity and lacking special bulk. In exchange, Hippowdon acts as a hard response to Cinderace and Zeraora if Sandstorm expires while Excadrill is active. It's worth noting, however, that this core is largely shut down by Rotom-A, Corviknight, Skarmory, Tangrowth, and Slowbro, so I recommend pairing it with attackers that can take advantage of such Pokémon, such as Rotom-A, Keldeo, Hydreigon, and/or Kyurem.
(this explanation is only relevant to some regular OU formats and not NDOU, but an explanation should be formatted similar to this.)
No specific types of detail are mandatory, but things that are worth considering when writing your explanation include:
If you want to remove colour formatting, please use the eraser icon in the top left of the rich text editor or in the bottom right of the colour picker instead of changing the text colour to black. This is to ensure that it's readable for people using dark mode.
If you have ideas for a certain Pokemon to be featured in a week, feel free to DM me and I’ll credit you! Week 1 starts this Wednesday!
Approved by Forum Mods
OP stolen from here
Art coming soon
Hello everyone and welcome to Magic Matchmaking—the project in which we aim to create magic pairings that help to pull out a Pokémon's full potential and explore all the creative cores and options National Dex has to offer!
Every week, the host (me) will nominate a Pokémon and set, and you then need to post a partner along with a brief explanation of what makes them a solid teammate for the nominated Pokémon. At the end of each submission phase, I will archive the partners that I think are the best and will highlight any posts that I found to be particularly good before moving onto public voting for the best.
Rules and Notes
- Submissions phases will last 5 days and voting will last 2 days. Feel free to DM me if I've not posted the next phase in time.
- When you reserve a Pokémon, please state what set you are reserving.
- Reservations expire 24 hours after they're posted. If you do not post in that time frame, someone else may take it. I'd delete expired nominations but I'm not an NDOU forum mod so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (if you are a mod and you see an expired reservation feel free to delete it in my stead if you feel like it )
- Please only nominate OU viable Pokémon. This generally means Pokémon on the viability rankings, although I will make exceptions if an unranked Pokémon is well explained. Some Pokemon can work best with more niche options and that is fine, just give good reasoning as to what, but please make it so the partner Pokemon has a niche in NDOU.
- An explanation is mandatory. It doesn't need to be very long—two or three concise sentences should suffice—but make sure it's there.
- You may nominate a different set for a Pokémon that has already been submitted. However, it's important that the set is distinct from the other submission—I won't accept submissions where the only difference is something simple like 1 move or an EV spread unless the change substantially alters how the core functions.
- I understand that a little theorymonning is inevitable in a project like this, but please try to post based on your experience using and/or facing the Pokémon in question rather than just listing something you have no experience using and/or facing.
- It's completely fine (encouraged, in fact) to give feedback on other people's submissions, but please be nice!
- During voting phase, you CANNOT vote for yourself.
I recommend using the following format when posting:
Example

Excadrill @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly / Adamant Nature
- High Horsepower / Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Rapid Spin
Excadrill is an excellent partner for Hippowdon and Tyranitar as it can take advantage of Sand Stream with Sand Rush. It can also threaten Pokémon like Kyurem that can take advantage of Hippowdon's passivity and lacking special bulk. In exchange, Hippowdon acts as a hard response to Cinderace and Zeraora if Sandstorm expires while Excadrill is active. It's worth noting, however, that this core is largely shut down by Rotom-A, Corviknight, Skarmory, Tangrowth, and Slowbro, so I recommend pairing it with attackers that can take advantage of such Pokémon, such as Rotom-A, Keldeo, Hydreigon, and/or Kyurem.
(this explanation is only relevant to some regular OU formats and not NDOU, but an explanation should be formatted similar to this.)
No specific types of detail are mandatory, but things that are worth considering when writing your explanation include:
- How the Pokémon listed is useful to the nominated partner and vice versa
- Why the set listed is chosen over other variants, if applicable
- Strengths and/or weaknesses of the core in question
- Potential options for additional partners when using the core
- Replays that show off the core in full force (not mandatory but is definitely good to have
If you want to remove colour formatting, please use the eraser icon in the top left of the rich text editor or in the bottom right of the colour picker instead of changing the text colour to black. This is to ensure that it's readable for people using dark mode.
If you have ideas for a certain Pokemon to be featured in a week, feel free to DM me and I’ll credit you! Week 1 starts this Wednesday!
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