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Tournament NUCL II - Team Dump
- Thread starter Rabia
- Start date
- Status
BW Butterfree Gaming
Highest BST mon Cacturne + zero S ranks (for now until/unless Duosion goes S) = straight up wacky team, but it works.
I was called into service to help Dittos with their BW slot for semis since they'd been struggling throughout the season and unsurprisingly had it picked into them by the Starabias. Haunter Duosion looked good into Neomon/Starabias' BW scout so that was one of the possible starting points I saw. The reason I picked it in particular among several options I was considering is that I wanted to pass Tenebricite something very easy to pilot with clear lines and wincons so that I didn't have to spend much additional time on general tier knowledge or flowcharts for how to play the team I was going to pass. This goal was to provide a team that would get a lot of good matchups and could mostly be clicked in game.
I wasn't comfortable passing spikesless to someone pretty unfamiliar with the tier, and spikes are basically broken when paired with Duosion, so it was definitely gonna come on the team... but standard Garbs don't really provide a natural pairing to Haunter Duosion in terms of defensive synergy or pacing. So Cacturne was the choice and TrickScarf fits the premise well of lures to support a Duosion endgame. Zweilous is then a natural fit for an additional wincon that loves spikes and a general bulky mon with good resistances that the team so far was lacking. Duosion+Haunter of course handles fightings for Zweilous and Cacturne well.
Dedicated Sleep Lead Butterfree was also something I'd been considering from first principles before I'd landed on Haunter+Duosion, and ultimately I decided I could fit the two together here, really just focusing on having clear lines in that it would provide support for Duosion by abusing broken BW sleep to take something out of the game turn 1. Rocker was the last slot chosen to fill out the team and I ultimately decided it had to be Pilo to manage Rotom-Frost and Rotom-Fan.
Possible changes: A different move over spear is probably better since without roar, stone edge, toxic, or superpower, pilo doesn't really beat frostom 1v1 too well, but I ultimately left it as is. In hindsight, Crunch Zweilous would also probably be better here than double phazer. I'm not fully sold on haunter moveset/item either. All that said, I like the structure of this team overall and would consider bringing it to games even not against the scout it was built for.
Might come back and post other things for ADV later idk
Highest BST mon Cacturne + zero S ranks (for now until/unless Duosion goes S) = straight up wacky team, but it works.
I was called into service to help Dittos with their BW slot for semis since they'd been struggling throughout the season and unsurprisingly had it picked into them by the Starabias. Haunter Duosion looked good into Neomon/Starabias' BW scout so that was one of the possible starting points I saw. The reason I picked it in particular among several options I was considering is that I wanted to pass Tenebricite something very easy to pilot with clear lines and wincons so that I didn't have to spend much additional time on general tier knowledge or flowcharts for how to play the team I was going to pass. This goal was to provide a team that would get a lot of good matchups and could mostly be clicked in game.
I wasn't comfortable passing spikesless to someone pretty unfamiliar with the tier, and spikes are basically broken when paired with Duosion, so it was definitely gonna come on the team... but standard Garbs don't really provide a natural pairing to Haunter Duosion in terms of defensive synergy or pacing. So Cacturne was the choice and TrickScarf fits the premise well of lures to support a Duosion endgame. Zweilous is then a natural fit for an additional wincon that loves spikes and a general bulky mon with good resistances that the team so far was lacking. Duosion+Haunter of course handles fightings for Zweilous and Cacturne well.
Dedicated Sleep Lead Butterfree was also something I'd been considering from first principles before I'd landed on Haunter+Duosion, and ultimately I decided I could fit the two together here, really just focusing on having clear lines in that it would provide support for Duosion by abusing broken BW sleep to take something out of the game turn 1. Rocker was the last slot chosen to fill out the team and I ultimately decided it had to be Pilo to manage Rotom-Frost and Rotom-Fan.
Possible changes: A different move over spear is probably better since without roar, stone edge, toxic, or superpower, pilo doesn't really beat frostom 1v1 too well, but I ultimately left it as is. In hindsight, Crunch Zweilous would also probably be better here than double phazer. I'm not fully sold on haunter moveset/item either. All that said, I like the structure of this team overall and would consider bringing it to games even not against the scout it was built for.
Might come back and post other things for ADV later idk
So I may have gone winless in NUCL but I do think some of the teams were cool, honesty was battling some of the tour nerves and I didn’t click as well as I should have a lot of times. Is what it is but I still though some of the teams were worth sharing anyways!
Sub CM Melo HO vs Elias
Fairly standard cinc HO with a side of special overwhelm and fly spam. Kilo (the good set lol) + scream + melo all put on a lot of pressure together. Sub cm melo looked good into a the fatter teams he brings. Besides special overwhelm the idea here was eject pack tauros to give melo a chance to get in and get behind a sub as it was EV’d have sub always live a hit from vapo/gastro. Terablast fighting over ground because i wanted to maintain that water neutrality. With ninetales-alola in the tier now you probably want raging bull > wave crash now.
Double Scarf Fake Balance vs Shen
I was thinking shen would bring something on the offensive/BO side. I thought the double scarfers would be nice to grab a suprise KO but also let me trick away a scarf much more freely early game. I say fake balance because its more offensive than it appears on preview. Sub CM vapo is a really cool set, great vs balance and the water immunity is always nice. I really thought shen was going to bring diancie since he had been hyping it up which was a big part of why vapo was so fast (was thinking he was going to try and bring a fast cm encore diancie.) Unfortunately he brought screens (for the second week in a row) and i messed up vs the toxtricty/didn't click well. Wasn't the best matchup on preview either but i still think this is a really cool team overall. Shao was still legal at this point so i was hoping to grab a suprise shao KO with the florg but it didnt work out that way.
Partial TR vs Rik
This is probably my favorite team i used in NUCL! Unfortunately timed out this game but I think the team is still fun/solid. So this is the point where we got ninetales-a and cetitan was big in the meta. I thought a partial trick room would be anti-meta into more of the offensive teams that had been doing so well. Cinccino keeps hazards off for glast and frees it up to use custap for a potential extra KO. Glast has heavy slam for opposing Diancie and to bop ninetales-a. Diancie is our TR setter and primary abuser. Torn here is rocking a really cool set, mixed BU with heat wave. I really like BU torn on these sorts of teams, but heat wave lets it lure avalugg and orthworm for glastrier (both of which i figured would be common for cetitan.) Scream tail is a great cleaner/revenge killer/speed control for HO but it also pressures a lot of diancie's checks. Redbull sures up some of the team's matchups and was out cetitan insurance. In the battle I had eq > stone edge but made the alteration for this because I like being able to hit altaria with it too.
Sub CM Vapo vs Lax
I thought sub cm vapo looked good into Lax's scout so i built around it (not showcasing it in the week vs shen earlier.) Honestly struggled a lot this week and wasn't happy with this build and got stomped by yama + curse talk registeel. Similar idea to week 1 with fire bull eject packing into vapo on a water type coming in. Unfortunately tried wisp this time over BU and wound up wanting BU for the registeel. Not a pretty game and this team is a bit boring/not amazing. Really only sharing this for the sake of completeness.
Snow HO vs Eifo
We were out at this point, so i went with a more matchup-y team with the broken trio (also was busy irl and didn't want to spend too much time on prep.) Elias brought almost exactly the same team, but he had diancie as the fairy over scream and had to spend too many recources on taking it out. If you want to make a currently legal version of this you can try beartic or aloslash (or just another HO mon tbh) over cetitan. The remaining slush rush mons are slower than the fast scarfers under snow, I'd rather use the bear and actually do damage. Thats just me though lol
Overall I had a great time participating in NUCL! Not happy with my performance of course, but I felt like I learned a lot and had a bit of the tour nerves that I didn't realize would be such an issue. I probably could have varied the teams a bit more as well. I just gotta spend some more time training in the mountains xd
Sub CM Melo HO vs Elias
Fairly standard cinc HO with a side of special overwhelm and fly spam. Kilo (the good set lol) + scream + melo all put on a lot of pressure together. Sub cm melo looked good into a the fatter teams he brings. Besides special overwhelm the idea here was eject pack tauros to give melo a chance to get in and get behind a sub as it was EV’d have sub always live a hit from vapo/gastro. Terablast fighting over ground because i wanted to maintain that water neutrality. With ninetales-alola in the tier now you probably want raging bull > wave crash now.
Double Scarf Fake Balance vs Shen
I was thinking shen would bring something on the offensive/BO side. I thought the double scarfers would be nice to grab a suprise KO but also let me trick away a scarf much more freely early game. I say fake balance because its more offensive than it appears on preview. Sub CM vapo is a really cool set, great vs balance and the water immunity is always nice. I really thought shen was going to bring diancie since he had been hyping it up which was a big part of why vapo was so fast (was thinking he was going to try and bring a fast cm encore diancie.) Unfortunately he brought screens (for the second week in a row) and i messed up vs the toxtricty/didn't click well. Wasn't the best matchup on preview either but i still think this is a really cool team overall. Shao was still legal at this point so i was hoping to grab a suprise shao KO with the florg but it didnt work out that way.
Partial TR vs Rik
This is probably my favorite team i used in NUCL! Unfortunately timed out this game but I think the team is still fun/solid. So this is the point where we got ninetales-a and cetitan was big in the meta. I thought a partial trick room would be anti-meta into more of the offensive teams that had been doing so well. Cinccino keeps hazards off for glast and frees it up to use custap for a potential extra KO. Glast has heavy slam for opposing Diancie and to bop ninetales-a. Diancie is our TR setter and primary abuser. Torn here is rocking a really cool set, mixed BU with heat wave. I really like BU torn on these sorts of teams, but heat wave lets it lure avalugg and orthworm for glastrier (both of which i figured would be common for cetitan.) Scream tail is a great cleaner/revenge killer/speed control for HO but it also pressures a lot of diancie's checks. Redbull sures up some of the team's matchups and was out cetitan insurance. In the battle I had eq > stone edge but made the alteration for this because I like being able to hit altaria with it too.
Sub CM Vapo vs Lax
I thought sub cm vapo looked good into Lax's scout so i built around it (not showcasing it in the week vs shen earlier.) Honestly struggled a lot this week and wasn't happy with this build and got stomped by yama + curse talk registeel. Similar idea to week 1 with fire bull eject packing into vapo on a water type coming in. Unfortunately tried wisp this time over BU and wound up wanting BU for the registeel. Not a pretty game and this team is a bit boring/not amazing. Really only sharing this for the sake of completeness.
Snow HO vs Eifo
We were out at this point, so i went with a more matchup-y team with the broken trio (also was busy irl and didn't want to spend too much time on prep.) Elias brought almost exactly the same team, but he had diancie as the fairy over scream and had to spend too many recources on taking it out. If you want to make a currently legal version of this you can try beartic or aloslash (or just another HO mon tbh) over cetitan. The remaining slush rush mons are slower than the fast scarfers under snow, I'd rather use the bear and actually do damage. Thats just me though lol
Overall I had a great time participating in NUCL! Not happy with my performance of course, but I felt like I learned a lot and had a bit of the tour nerves that I didn't realize would be such an issue. I probably could have varied the teams a bit more as well. I just gotta spend some more time training in the mountains xd
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hey i built a good bit for like every gen, not gonna write explanations. mostly reused for a lot of slots. ty to my team and the hosts for this tournament, sorry it didn't work out Flygons
sv
https://pokepast.es/34a5b07a374f531f ori psychic grassy
https://pokepast.es/0444031f6e1448bf specs infernape
https://pokepast.es/a045b406f6aad30f av amoonguss
ss
https://pokepast.es/8aefbec14296fee0 klinklang
sm
https://pokepast.es/2edee92bde1249d7 pyroar
https://pokepast.es/580abfc2cdbb4945 gknot comfey
bw
https://pokepast.es/2dde9ab8417b44d4 eggy ebuzz spikes
https://pokepast.es/8b291c5297f12b25 hp ice missy
https://pokepast.es/d562ced94db8c1d2 restchesto rotom-f
https://pokepast.es/c8a3be5d0b89879c plot golbat (shoutouts shiloh)
https://pokepast.es/c58c785303b7c1b1 eel brav volturn
dpp
https://pokepast.es/d3260be4a621f6eb lead amphy spikes
https://pokepast.es/d8989d11cb6cdf95 linoone HO
https://pokepast.es/1bbd1dc9fa11a339 floatzel pass
adv
https://pokepast.es/3d82aefd6098df5c skill swap haunter
https://pokepast.es/dc227798437fff1d doubles spikes offense
sv
https://pokepast.es/34a5b07a374f531f ori psychic grassy
https://pokepast.es/0444031f6e1448bf specs infernape
https://pokepast.es/a045b406f6aad30f av amoonguss
ss
https://pokepast.es/8aefbec14296fee0 klinklang
sm
https://pokepast.es/2edee92bde1249d7 pyroar
https://pokepast.es/580abfc2cdbb4945 gknot comfey
bw
https://pokepast.es/2dde9ab8417b44d4 eggy ebuzz spikes
https://pokepast.es/8b291c5297f12b25 hp ice missy
https://pokepast.es/d562ced94db8c1d2 restchesto rotom-f
https://pokepast.es/c8a3be5d0b89879c plot golbat (shoutouts shiloh)
https://pokepast.es/c58c785303b7c1b1 eel brav volturn
dpp
https://pokepast.es/d3260be4a621f6eb lead amphy spikes
https://pokepast.es/d8989d11cb6cdf95 linoone HO
https://pokepast.es/1bbd1dc9fa11a339 floatzel pass
adv
https://pokepast.es/3d82aefd6098df5c skill swap haunter
https://pokepast.es/dc227798437fff1d doubles spikes offense
hey heres my oras team https://pokepast.es/4be0df140361b2a4 if you want to squeeze it between the sm and bw section. just need rby and gsc to complete the flygon collection n_n
Although i havent played alot this tour heres some teams i wanna share that i used with some explanation to what those mons does All related to gsc nu
Week 6 https://pokepast.es/402435f7e065e1dd . Ninetales and magmar were my checks to xatu/weezing/grasses and overall they just hit things very hard to anything that doesnt resist specially in sun and magmar can 1v1 waters depending of circumstances . Omanyte was simply the curse normal big wall , pidgeot checks non curse stantler . Gloom checks primeape and all other fighters aswell as grounds , octillery if no ice beam and overall can be used as set up on the right condition. this team doesnt really need spikes to work well and instead focuses on more longevity which hitmontop is the best spinner of the tier while also helps to check grounds and dewgong.
Week 7 https://pokepast.es/db2efb0fbdf3546d . Flareon can bp on xatu if healthy , ninetales though your likely only getting a chance to bp once depending of mu , etc so its pretty hard to pilot overall . Pupitar should prob be replaced to dewgong atp bc this team is cleary more offensively oriented . Gastly i thought was a cool pick specially with sub bc means you can block twave pory , you get free turn to click thunder on xatu altho you may miss , overall gastly can do alot of dmg even though it kinda sucks vs fires as it doesnt have enough power to break through them due to lack of good stab . Xatu and Weezing also a great bp reciever as gets very powerful after a single boost , ofc weezing runs hp water on this so isnt blanked by grounds . Porygon Although curse pory is likely better here i thought would be interesting to try out boltbeam porygon.
Semifinals https://pokepast.es/ce42ea630975ccf9 . Weezing with no thunder thought would be pretty cool since i have enough eletric coverage with xatu and chinchou , fireblast is just great overall vs grasses , pineco also weezing is a key mon here to check primeape as nothing here enjoys switching into it. Xatu is usually only good on spikes team so kind of auto include though id like to mention that it helps vs stantler rest talk variants as is usually safe to switch into it , overall just a solid mon on spikes checking fighters , poisons of the tier. Pineco best spiker. Hitmontop overall a solid check to normals of the tier. Octillery although hp electric is usually more common on this mon due to hitting dewgong and itself , ice beam is better overall imo as it hits harder xatu , you arent walled by grasses and you dont lose bulk like you do with hp eletric which is notable specially agaisnt fires as they often run double edge/thunderpunch to hit you for solid damage. Chinchou due to me needing another water check chinchou felt like a perfect pick for it as can check both waters of the tier , thunder + spikes is pretty scary to switch into on the tier
Finals https://pokepast.es/740ccb27e0d3d33e. Originally i thought on using porygon over stantler on this team which also works but both has its pros and cons (mainly porygon making you better versus xatu and wigglytuff meanwhile stantler is a nice second check to waters + weezing , as porygon is prone to get crit/frozen and it overall makes mu into fires a bit worse id say as checking rapidash/flareon/magmar isnt that easy without a rock mon due to not using rest talk like wiggly) Octillery its a pretty good lead as you already scare off pineco and fires leads and i choose to use hp eletric here mainly bc another check to waters is still nice overall as stantler could easily die during the game with weezing for example. Stantler rest talk 2 atks deer is pretty much best set atm bc curse sets are usually outclassed by wiggly since stantler bulk is weird and its speed is one of their best traits aswell acess to earthquake. Rapidash overall great speed control mon , nice check to xatu/weezing/primeape and other fires aswell grasses , pineco ofc and can check waters depending if they are in range of a double edge. Pineco spikes is awesome with those offensive powerhouses as the team is quite fast. Primeape overall can straight up kill normals if it lands the cross chops and high crit is also very cool incase you need 1 to break through even after curse , yea thunder is pretty much best move to use alongside cc on rest talk sets since you punish any switchins due to paralysis being so great on the tier notabily makes xatu and pidgeot a not safe switching into primeape. Xatu it can do some serious damage alongside spikes as there isnt many resists though fire types usually handle it pretty well due to having good speed/bulk (like ninetales,rapidash,magmar,flareon).
And id like to thank again MrSoup and BeeOrSomething , JensenDale for helping me learn gsc nu. All the way from altpl to here its truly been an awesome journey learning this tier and its fundamentals
Week 6 https://pokepast.es/402435f7e065e1dd . Ninetales and magmar were my checks to xatu/weezing/grasses and overall they just hit things very hard to anything that doesnt resist specially in sun and magmar can 1v1 waters depending of circumstances . Omanyte was simply the curse normal big wall , pidgeot checks non curse stantler . Gloom checks primeape and all other fighters aswell as grounds , octillery if no ice beam and overall can be used as set up on the right condition. this team doesnt really need spikes to work well and instead focuses on more longevity which hitmontop is the best spinner of the tier while also helps to check grounds and dewgong.
Week 7 https://pokepast.es/db2efb0fbdf3546d . Flareon can bp on xatu if healthy , ninetales though your likely only getting a chance to bp once depending of mu , etc so its pretty hard to pilot overall . Pupitar should prob be replaced to dewgong atp bc this team is cleary more offensively oriented . Gastly i thought was a cool pick specially with sub bc means you can block twave pory , you get free turn to click thunder on xatu altho you may miss , overall gastly can do alot of dmg even though it kinda sucks vs fires as it doesnt have enough power to break through them due to lack of good stab . Xatu and Weezing also a great bp reciever as gets very powerful after a single boost , ofc weezing runs hp water on this so isnt blanked by grounds . Porygon Although curse pory is likely better here i thought would be interesting to try out boltbeam porygon.
Semifinals https://pokepast.es/ce42ea630975ccf9 . Weezing with no thunder thought would be pretty cool since i have enough eletric coverage with xatu and chinchou , fireblast is just great overall vs grasses , pineco also weezing is a key mon here to check primeape as nothing here enjoys switching into it. Xatu is usually only good on spikes team so kind of auto include though id like to mention that it helps vs stantler rest talk variants as is usually safe to switch into it , overall just a solid mon on spikes checking fighters , poisons of the tier. Pineco best spiker. Hitmontop overall a solid check to normals of the tier. Octillery although hp electric is usually more common on this mon due to hitting dewgong and itself , ice beam is better overall imo as it hits harder xatu , you arent walled by grasses and you dont lose bulk like you do with hp eletric which is notable specially agaisnt fires as they often run double edge/thunderpunch to hit you for solid damage. Chinchou due to me needing another water check chinchou felt like a perfect pick for it as can check both waters of the tier , thunder + spikes is pretty scary to switch into on the tier
Finals https://pokepast.es/740ccb27e0d3d33e. Originally i thought on using porygon over stantler on this team which also works but both has its pros and cons (mainly porygon making you better versus xatu and wigglytuff meanwhile stantler is a nice second check to waters + weezing , as porygon is prone to get crit/frozen and it overall makes mu into fires a bit worse id say as checking rapidash/flareon/magmar isnt that easy without a rock mon due to not using rest talk like wiggly) Octillery its a pretty good lead as you already scare off pineco and fires leads and i choose to use hp eletric here mainly bc another check to waters is still nice overall as stantler could easily die during the game with weezing for example. Stantler rest talk 2 atks deer is pretty much best set atm bc curse sets are usually outclassed by wiggly since stantler bulk is weird and its speed is one of their best traits aswell acess to earthquake. Rapidash overall great speed control mon , nice check to xatu/weezing/primeape and other fires aswell grasses , pineco ofc and can check waters depending if they are in range of a double edge. Pineco spikes is awesome with those offensive powerhouses as the team is quite fast. Primeape overall can straight up kill normals if it lands the cross chops and high crit is also very cool incase you need 1 to break through even after curse , yea thunder is pretty much best move to use alongside cc on rest talk sets since you punish any switchins due to paralysis being so great on the tier notabily makes xatu and pidgeot a not safe switching into primeape. Xatu it can do some serious damage alongside spikes as there isnt many resists though fire types usually handle it pretty well due to having good speed/bulk (like ninetales,rapidash,magmar,flareon).
And id like to thank again MrSoup and BeeOrSomething , JensenDale for helping me learn gsc nu. All the way from altpl to here its truly been an awesome journey learning this tier and its fundamentals
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I'm not going to write a whole essay for each team but I'll happily share some pastes from my games:
this was a lie^
W1 vs Soucou (L): Klefki Screens v1
[
]
Wanted to try a screens HO team as the archetype hadn't really been seen for a while, and found Eject Button Klefki to be an excellent enabler. Pretty standard HO picks that use screens really well to get setup turns, with Clear Amulet Flygon + Scrafty working together very well to beat down Drednaw's checks. Lost to a Tera 50/50, oh well.
W2 vs LTTM (W): Klefki Screens v2
[
]
I thought my team from last weak was absolute fire, and figured the one thing my opponent wouldn't prepare for was a near identical team from the previous week. I was right. This version doesn't get absolutely fried by Toxic Spikes and leans more heavily on overwhelming via special attacks instead of physical.
W3 vs lax (L): Shao + PZ Balance
[ERROR]
Pretty sure I cast the paste of this team into the void, it was a balance that pretty much solely relied on a specs Porygon-Z to do the breaking. Matchup felt unwinnable (it was triple AV). That Hariyama still haunts my nightmares.
W4 vs Esteb4n (L): Sludge Munki Shenanigans
[
]
Unfortunate loss (timer incident), but team had cool ideas. This annoying ass Munkidori set cripples Steel-types with Black Sludge + Trick and spreads poisons for its defensive teammates to stall, hopefully opening up a Sylveon Calm Mind endgame. Special Hex Basculegion is sheist. Lost to that bird that I hate (and yet still defend? Curious.)
W5 vs Elias Psy (W): Scrafty Spikes
[
]
The win this week vs the strongest SV player in the pool was great for morale. Brought Scrafty since I think it's incredibly good with Mienshao out of the tier, I wanted to try out double dance (Amnesia makes you stupid tanky), and it does well into Elias's signature bulky ass builds. Elias did not bring a "bulky ass build". I won anyways. Thank god for Rotom-Heat.
W6 vs DugZa (W): SubCM Vaporeon
[]
I was struggling to cook this week so I reached into my bag of a million 'old' teams (like a month old) and found this gem. I built this team in parallel with LTTM's squad that turned out very similarly. Eject Pack Wetbull (its best set) brings in Vapo on bulky waters and other mons that it can surprise setup on like Amoonguss. Give this Vaporeon an inch and it'll take a mile, it often just outright won games in tests if the opponent was caught offguard by its set. Would love to build around this concept again and I've used even more CM Vapo since.
W7 vs Ren-Chon (L): Munkibull Fat Balance
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Not having learned my lesson from Week 3, I brought another balance with limited offensive potential. It was actually quite solid defensively, and Covert Cloak Florges was a pretty consistently useful tech. Unfortunately, I rolled the worst possible matchup for my Redbull set (mono-walled-by-Flash-Fire-Chandelure), and it pretty much felt like the game was lost on preview. Shame, Bulk Up + Wisp was performing really well in tests and I figured my team could handle the matchup with stuff like Porygon2 (it could not.)
Semifinals vs Tuthur (W): Porygon-Z's Vengeance
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]
The last time I used Porygon-Z, it failed me. This was not due to the mon being flawed, but rather because I hadn't given it the support system that it needed to thrive. This team is a slightly modified version of an older team which I had brought to some other tournaments, where I replaced my emergency Defogger - which was previously a Scyther - with a Decidueye. This helped the matchup into Vaporeon and Bronzong, and resulted in a team that I still ladder with to this day. The plan is quite simple: physical pivot brings in physical wall, pivot brings in Download PZ, and PZ clicks its mega death ray. Tera Blast Ground obliterates Steel-Types and gives Diancie an easy cleanup. I also quite liked using Custap Copperajah as it not only did it make Tuthur mald, but also maximized its potential as an offensive Rocks setter, overcoming its terrible Speed.
Final Record: 4-4
I hoped my record would have been more reflective of the time and effort I put into this tour, and my self-percieved skills as a builder and player. You can't expect to bring a team that will win every matchup, but I also did blatantly disregard my opponents' scouts which ended up costing me some weeks - sorry about that Be13costa. Moving forward, I'll stick to what I enjoy using without burning the kitchen down too much, as ultimately I'm just here for the love of the game and the community we've built around it. Shengineer out.
BONUS PASTES! ADVGINEER!!!
The 'Bok (MZ brought this and won)
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Barrier Pass Huntail (MZ did not bring this and did not win...)
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]
this was a lie^
W1 vs Soucou (L): Klefki Screens v1
[
]Wanted to try a screens HO team as the archetype hadn't really been seen for a while, and found Eject Button Klefki to be an excellent enabler. Pretty standard HO picks that use screens really well to get setup turns, with Clear Amulet Flygon + Scrafty working together very well to beat down Drednaw's checks. Lost to a Tera 50/50, oh well.
W2 vs LTTM (W): Klefki Screens v2
[
]I thought my team from last weak was absolute fire, and figured the one thing my opponent wouldn't prepare for was a near identical team from the previous week. I was right. This version doesn't get absolutely fried by Toxic Spikes and leans more heavily on overwhelming via special attacks instead of physical.
W3 vs lax (L): Shao + PZ Balance
[ERROR]
Pretty sure I cast the paste of this team into the void, it was a balance that pretty much solely relied on a specs Porygon-Z to do the breaking. Matchup felt unwinnable (it was triple AV). That Hariyama still haunts my nightmares.
W4 vs Esteb4n (L): Sludge Munki Shenanigans
[
]Unfortunate loss (timer incident), but team had cool ideas. This annoying ass Munkidori set cripples Steel-types with Black Sludge + Trick and spreads poisons for its defensive teammates to stall, hopefully opening up a Sylveon Calm Mind endgame. Special Hex Basculegion is sheist. Lost to that bird that I hate (and yet still defend? Curious.)
W5 vs Elias Psy (W): Scrafty Spikes
[
]The win this week vs the strongest SV player in the pool was great for morale. Brought Scrafty since I think it's incredibly good with Mienshao out of the tier, I wanted to try out double dance (Amnesia makes you stupid tanky), and it does well into Elias's signature bulky ass builds. Elias did not bring a "bulky ass build". I won anyways. Thank god for Rotom-Heat.
W6 vs DugZa (W): SubCM Vaporeon
[
]I was struggling to cook this week so I reached into my bag of a million 'old' teams (like a month old) and found this gem. I built this team in parallel with LTTM's squad that turned out very similarly. Eject Pack Wetbull (its best set) brings in Vapo on bulky waters and other mons that it can surprise setup on like Amoonguss. Give this Vaporeon an inch and it'll take a mile, it often just outright won games in tests if the opponent was caught offguard by its set. Would love to build around this concept again and I've used even more CM Vapo since.
W7 vs Ren-Chon (L): Munkibull Fat Balance
[
]Not having learned my lesson from Week 3, I brought another balance with limited offensive potential. It was actually quite solid defensively, and Covert Cloak Florges was a pretty consistently useful tech. Unfortunately, I rolled the worst possible matchup for my Redbull set (mono-walled-by-Flash-Fire-Chandelure), and it pretty much felt like the game was lost on preview. Shame, Bulk Up + Wisp was performing really well in tests and I figured my team could handle the matchup with stuff like Porygon2 (it could not.)
Semifinals vs Tuthur (W): Porygon-Z's Vengeance
[
]The last time I used Porygon-Z, it failed me. This was not due to the mon being flawed, but rather because I hadn't given it the support system that it needed to thrive. This team is a slightly modified version of an older team which I had brought to some other tournaments, where I replaced my emergency Defogger - which was previously a Scyther - with a Decidueye. This helped the matchup into Vaporeon and Bronzong, and resulted in a team that I still ladder with to this day. The plan is quite simple: physical pivot brings in physical wall, pivot brings in Download PZ, and PZ clicks its mega death ray. Tera Blast Ground obliterates Steel-Types and gives Diancie an easy cleanup. I also quite liked using Custap Copperajah as it not only did it make Tuthur mald, but also maximized its potential as an offensive Rocks setter, overcoming its terrible Speed.
Final Record: 4-4
I hoped my record would have been more reflective of the time and effort I put into this tour, and my self-percieved skills as a builder and player. You can't expect to bring a team that will win every matchup, but I also did blatantly disregard my opponents' scouts which ended up costing me some weeks - sorry about that Be13costa. Moving forward, I'll stick to what I enjoy using without burning the kitchen down too much, as ultimately I'm just here for the love of the game and the community we've built around it. Shengineer out.
BONUS PASTES! ADVGINEER!!!
The 'Bok (MZ brought this and won)
[
]Barrier Pass Huntail (MZ did not bring this and did not win...)
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]
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Hiya. I ended up playing RBY in this tournament far more than i thought i would be able to, and i enjoyed playing and building for it inmensenly. I am feeling reasonably lazy so the amount of explanation ill give for the teams will vary wildly, and ill only dump teams i liked.
https://pokepast.es/4d3d51a5a46ef052 <- fire "spam"
https://pokepast.es/8307c78b477f2e30
https://pokepast.es/18913506129da920 <- mimeless
https://pokepast.es/f2c2998d4b64ff1c <- sandslash
https://pokepast.es/03c13374971018a0 <- fearow scyther
this has to be one of the best teams in execution . fearow easily removed kabutops in the game i used it, easily enabling scyther to win the game much later
https://pokepast.es/589682bf371fcc97 <- fearow graveler
https://pokepast.es/220872aaa869ab22 <- kabutops porygon
I'd like to thank Tree69420 for providing builder support especially on the weeks when i was in a rush and had to build last minute. I'd also like to thank my managers etern and Rabia for drafting me and trusting me to deliver wins every week that i was picked: i really wish i hadn't dropped the ball in finals when it mattered most, and i admit i did not bring my A-game. As RBY lowtiers go through tiering changes very frequently and are not quite established yet, i hope these teams are useful to people who would like a basis for their own teams and haven't played RBY NU before. Great team, may i end up playing for the rabias in the future once again
https://pokepast.es/4d3d51a5a46ef052 <- fire "spam"
https://pokepast.es/8307c78b477f2e30
https://pokepast.es/18913506129da920 <- mimeless
https://pokepast.es/f2c2998d4b64ff1c <- sandslash
https://pokepast.es/03c13374971018a0 <- fearow scyther
this has to be one of the best teams in execution . fearow easily removed kabutops in the game i used it, easily enabling scyther to win the game much later
https://pokepast.es/589682bf371fcc97 <- fearow graveler
https://pokepast.es/220872aaa869ab22 <- kabutops porygon
I'd like to thank Tree69420 for providing builder support especially on the weeks when i was in a rush and had to build last minute. I'd also like to thank my managers etern and Rabia for drafting me and trusting me to deliver wins every week that i was picked: i really wish i hadn't dropped the ball in finals when it mattered most, and i admit i did not bring my A-game. As RBY lowtiers go through tiering changes very frequently and are not quite established yet, i hope these teams are useful to people who would like a basis for their own teams and haven't played RBY NU before. Great team, may i end up playing for the rabias in the future once again
Hey! I had a really fun time this tour as the ditto party manager with Danny and I just wanted to dump my teams from this time around. Despite us crashing and burning at the end, I thought we had an extremely strong and interesting roster and I feel lucky to have teamed up with so many of the people that I did with this tour. I won't do individual shoutouts just because I don't want to accidentally forget anyone and this is a team dump post, but just know that I really appreciated so many of you guys, teammates and helpers alike. Next NUCL the Ditto CA is ours :)
Week 1: DPP vs. Sirwings (W)
Going into NUCL, I knew I really wanted to be a flex option for my team. I was a pretty big believer pre tour that the best lineups would be ones that could flex different tiers consistently, which was proven pretty well by us I'd say, and I thought that a self buy for me to SS, DPP, and SV in a pinch would go a long way. Lo and behold, week 1 I got thrown into DPP straight away, a favorite tier of mine. I forget why we prepped the way we did and I can't find the logs, but the idea is pretty straightforward. Custap Ampharos is an insane lead in this tier and looked especially strong into Sirwings who was using a lot of Zard and Water leads. After that, the only other real techs was a Scarf Skunk, a faster Petaya Blim in the back, and an interesting Nidoqueen spread. Shoutout vivalospride for coming up with a pretty killer ampha spread for me which we got to see put in real work. Overall, a really dominant game off of mu and a good start to the tour. I think this team was a little flawed but a strong "mu fish".
Week 4: DPP vs. neomon (W)
I first played Kiyo, but I didn't make that team, and then I took a week hiatus for irl stuff and to let other people game only to come back to DPP against the rabias. Going into this week, we knew we wanted to double up into DPP on the rabias (who we ended up beating a whopping 4 times in DPP this tour) because of how strong our support and duos were in this tier. Looking at the scout, we saw a ton of Water leads, some fatter, some not, so we wanted to build around Poliwrath. By we, I mean myself and BeatsBlack who I think made this team this week? It was at the very least a joint effort for sure since I relied on BB a lot for my builds. I really enjoyed this team. It was my first time using Dusclops in a tour game with the idea that it can keep Rocks up which gives SD Meganium a lot more leeway to do things. I love Meganium in this tier, so this team seemed perfect. I had a really bad lead matchup, but ended up eeking out a win despite choking with an overall really well played game imo. I would highly recommend this team to beginners, but maybe make it Rest Talk Clops?
Week 6: SS vs. damien (L)
I've posted this team before, so I won't go into much detail here. I used it mostly as a joke to poke fun at something meri said about me, but I also think it's a team that can hunker down and win in 90% of games if needed. It just has a few awful mus. Aka Glast. I hate Glast. That is all.
I guess some usage tips into bad mus. Glast, X button. Plume, Vap Wishing into Croak. Scrafty, Vap into Croak. Basically everything Vap into Croak. Maybe run some speed creeping on Vap to Scald burn fish Glast (and still lose).
Week 7: DPP vs. Alice Kazumi (L)
This was a must-win game that ended up not being must-win and I should have put more prep in. BeatsBlack has a big thing for the bird, and when looking at the scout, we saw a distinct lack of Regirock, leading us to believe it could fit. The team also was based around the concept that Glalie is NOT broken. To be quite honest, this team wasn't it and just too frail. It also didn't help that I loaded into probably the worst possible Glalie matchup in Taunt Float. Oh well, I had other versions I liked more and I learnt a lot about how to build this tier in the process so it all worked out.
Semis: SS vs. DugZa (W)
Of every game this tour, this one was by FAR the most important one to me. As some of you guys might know, doug and I have had a long going sheet war for a while now, and perhaps no game we've played has been as important as this one. We both had had some rough tours, but I was still a game and a loss ahead of DugZa, and with a win here, I could give myself a massive lead going into the next tournament. Oh, and I guess it was the deciding game of semis too. That's secondary though. Looking at dougs teams, I noticed a lot of Audino (??) and generally old feeling teams and I knew he wasn't really feeling SS this tour. Generally, when I see that, I tend to lean into a lot of the mons that beat those types of builds such as Scrafty, which I barely use, so I decided to go with that. People like to taunt me for not using different mons and sticking to the same general style all the time, so I thought it would be fun to bring a Pokemon that I'm notoriously anti in the form of Xatu. I find most defensive Xatu sets to be kinda ass, but Scarf has always stood out to me as a much stronger set than most others. Trick + the speed tier + pivoting is pretty free, especially when you load into a Muds team like I did this time. Scarf Xatu also let me use a secondary Water-type abuser in NP Rotom-Mow which has great synergy with Scrafty if you can fit more speed. I was really happy with this team and I found it to be a bit more innovative of a build than what I usually bring. It has a bit of a weak Copper mu, but I accepted that and sent it. It was a pretty dominant showing for the team I felt and I was really happy with this team.
BONUS :)
Finals: DugZa vs. Meru
Baitwiz had asked me to help out the Milos after we were out, but I had already told the rabias I'd help, so I went from beating my biggest sheet enemy to saving him. You're welcome DugZa, looking forward to managing with you and etern this SCL! Anyways, Rabia had mentioned how he felt like Lazzle + Eggy or Lax felt kind of strong into the Milos scout which I definitely agreed with. It was very clear throughout this tour that they just didn't have any SS support and were pulling from old GXE SCL 1 meta teams instead of finding things that were more viable for the current meta. I happen to think their old teams were better choices than what many other teams were pulling out, but I knew that if we could make something new, it would do well. Neither doug or I wanted to build, so I passed him a LO Xatu team which he then told me to bin so I made this as a "here damn" joke, which worked out really well LOL. I originally had combined the Lazzle + Eggy + Lax idea onto this team, but I then went ahead and switched Lax to faster Scrafty to deal with a few matchups like Guzz, opposing Scrafty, and more. This was another team that was a clear departure from the type of stuff I had been building and I really enjoyed how this one came out. I'm weirdly convinced that removalless teams are the future of SS because you don't need the mandatory Scarf Defog Mowtom so you can use the slot to fix whatever hole your team has and this is a prime example of that concept.
In game, it became very clear that when I rejected Bait he went immediately to ask our friend OranBerryBlissey10 for some SS help, which was a wise decision. OBB always loads Timid Eggy though, something which was a pretty nightmare matchup for our team off of preview. Scrafty was eved for Modest, but still specifically had SpDef to beat out Eggy in the Timid interactions, so it wasn't lost, but it was dire for sure. Overall, it was pretty clear that DugZa's squad was really Eggy weak, but OBB's not fast enough Weezing was eved for no speed Scrafty and not my spreads leading to an endgame in which Scrafty just 6-0ed. In truth, it could have done it from T1, but the play wasn't made sadly. Another example of speedy Scrafty stealing games.
Week 1: DPP vs. Sirwings (W)
Going into NUCL, I knew I really wanted to be a flex option for my team. I was a pretty big believer pre tour that the best lineups would be ones that could flex different tiers consistently, which was proven pretty well by us I'd say, and I thought that a self buy for me to SS, DPP, and SV in a pinch would go a long way. Lo and behold, week 1 I got thrown into DPP straight away, a favorite tier of mine. I forget why we prepped the way we did and I can't find the logs, but the idea is pretty straightforward. Custap Ampharos is an insane lead in this tier and looked especially strong into Sirwings who was using a lot of Zard and Water leads. After that, the only other real techs was a Scarf Skunk, a faster Petaya Blim in the back, and an interesting Nidoqueen spread. Shoutout vivalospride for coming up with a pretty killer ampha spread for me which we got to see put in real work. Overall, a really dominant game off of mu and a good start to the tour. I think this team was a little flawed but a strong "mu fish".
Week 4: DPP vs. neomon (W)
I first played Kiyo, but I didn't make that team, and then I took a week hiatus for irl stuff and to let other people game only to come back to DPP against the rabias. Going into this week, we knew we wanted to double up into DPP on the rabias (who we ended up beating a whopping 4 times in DPP this tour) because of how strong our support and duos were in this tier. Looking at the scout, we saw a ton of Water leads, some fatter, some not, so we wanted to build around Poliwrath. By we, I mean myself and BeatsBlack who I think made this team this week? It was at the very least a joint effort for sure since I relied on BB a lot for my builds. I really enjoyed this team. It was my first time using Dusclops in a tour game with the idea that it can keep Rocks up which gives SD Meganium a lot more leeway to do things. I love Meganium in this tier, so this team seemed perfect. I had a really bad lead matchup, but ended up eeking out a win despite choking with an overall really well played game imo. I would highly recommend this team to beginners, but maybe make it Rest Talk Clops?
Week 6: SS vs. damien (L)
I've posted this team before, so I won't go into much detail here. I used it mostly as a joke to poke fun at something meri said about me, but I also think it's a team that can hunker down and win in 90% of games if needed. It just has a few awful mus. Aka Glast. I hate Glast. That is all.
I guess some usage tips into bad mus. Glast, X button. Plume, Vap Wishing into Croak. Scrafty, Vap into Croak. Basically everything Vap into Croak. Maybe run some speed creeping on Vap to Scald burn fish Glast (and still lose).
Week 7: DPP vs. Alice Kazumi (L)
This was a must-win game that ended up not being must-win and I should have put more prep in. BeatsBlack has a big thing for the bird, and when looking at the scout, we saw a distinct lack of Regirock, leading us to believe it could fit. The team also was based around the concept that Glalie is NOT broken. To be quite honest, this team wasn't it and just too frail. It also didn't help that I loaded into probably the worst possible Glalie matchup in Taunt Float. Oh well, I had other versions I liked more and I learnt a lot about how to build this tier in the process so it all worked out.
Semis: SS vs. DugZa (W)
Of every game this tour, this one was by FAR the most important one to me. As some of you guys might know, doug and I have had a long going sheet war for a while now, and perhaps no game we've played has been as important as this one. We both had had some rough tours, but I was still a game and a loss ahead of DugZa, and with a win here, I could give myself a massive lead going into the next tournament. Oh, and I guess it was the deciding game of semis too. That's secondary though. Looking at dougs teams, I noticed a lot of Audino (??) and generally old feeling teams and I knew he wasn't really feeling SS this tour. Generally, when I see that, I tend to lean into a lot of the mons that beat those types of builds such as Scrafty, which I barely use, so I decided to go with that. People like to taunt me for not using different mons and sticking to the same general style all the time, so I thought it would be fun to bring a Pokemon that I'm notoriously anti in the form of Xatu. I find most defensive Xatu sets to be kinda ass, but Scarf has always stood out to me as a much stronger set than most others. Trick + the speed tier + pivoting is pretty free, especially when you load into a Muds team like I did this time. Scarf Xatu also let me use a secondary Water-type abuser in NP Rotom-Mow which has great synergy with Scrafty if you can fit more speed. I was really happy with this team and I found it to be a bit more innovative of a build than what I usually bring. It has a bit of a weak Copper mu, but I accepted that and sent it. It was a pretty dominant showing for the team I felt and I was really happy with this team.
BONUS :)
Finals: DugZa vs. Meru
Baitwiz had asked me to help out the Milos after we were out, but I had already told the rabias I'd help, so I went from beating my biggest sheet enemy to saving him. You're welcome DugZa, looking forward to managing with you and etern this SCL! Anyways, Rabia had mentioned how he felt like Lazzle + Eggy or Lax felt kind of strong into the Milos scout which I definitely agreed with. It was very clear throughout this tour that they just didn't have any SS support and were pulling from old GXE SCL 1 meta teams instead of finding things that were more viable for the current meta. I happen to think their old teams were better choices than what many other teams were pulling out, but I knew that if we could make something new, it would do well. Neither doug or I wanted to build, so I passed him a LO Xatu team which he then told me to bin so I made this as a "here damn" joke, which worked out really well LOL. I originally had combined the Lazzle + Eggy + Lax idea onto this team, but I then went ahead and switched Lax to faster Scrafty to deal with a few matchups like Guzz, opposing Scrafty, and more. This was another team that was a clear departure from the type of stuff I had been building and I really enjoyed how this one came out. I'm weirdly convinced that removalless teams are the future of SS because you don't need the mandatory Scarf Defog Mowtom so you can use the slot to fix whatever hole your team has and this is a prime example of that concept.
In game, it became very clear that when I rejected Bait he went immediately to ask our friend OranBerryBlissey10 for some SS help, which was a wise decision. OBB always loads Timid Eggy though, something which was a pretty nightmare matchup for our team off of preview. Scrafty was eved for Modest, but still specifically had SpDef to beat out Eggy in the Timid interactions, so it wasn't lost, but it was dire for sure. Overall, it was pretty clear that DugZa's squad was really Eggy weak, but OBB's not fast enough Weezing was eved for no speed Scrafty and not my spreads leading to an endgame in which Scrafty just 6-0ed. In truth, it could have done it from T1, but the play wasn't made sadly. Another example of speedy Scrafty stealing games.
I had a lot of fun this tour, and have to give a big thank you to etern and Rabia for drafting me, as well as a huge thank you to leoperi99 for being a great teammate for GSC. I have some teams below, some were used within my own run, some were planned out for matches that ended up not happening due to some circumstances during the season, and one was a team I made for someone else. Let's get started
GSC W1 vs. DiannieRatson (L) -> https://pokepast.es/9ebfe7419cd09b3a
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I made this team with the help of Juoea in my first week. I really wanted to put on a decent performance this week since my debut into GSC NU during GSCPL went pretty much as bad as it could have gone. In retrospect, I don't believe this team was optimal as I do have a final draft at the end of this post, however I still think it is a very good team for spikes. I think the Rapidash/Weezing/Primeape combo is very good mainly because each of them can pivot in between each other pretty well, they have defensive coverage for common threats but the biggest problem for this trio is that it needs to be played to make sure Octillery never gets a free switch. In this first iteration that is why I had Pineco as to add more pressure with spikes, as Pineco is the best spiker in the tier imo. Xatu was added since it very much benefits from spikes as well, and the first draft of this team actually had a Dragonair instead of a Dewgong. The Dragonair was meant to be a soft check to Octillery however it didn't have the longevity throughout a game to stay healthy, so I added Dewgong instead. In retrospect, I do think Dragonair could have a place on this team if I mix some of the pieces around and make it spikesless, however I am happy with how this team worked out even though it did take a loss.
GSC W3 SENTURIES vs. DiannieRatson (W) -> https://pokepast.es/99ca1321566b6884
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I am very close friends with SENTURIES and he asked me for some help in making a team for this week. I actually went to the GSC NU Discussion forum on the GSC section to look for inspiration, since I wanted to modify an existing team to fit it better for how he plays. I ended up making an edit of a mrsoup team (linked here https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/gsc-nu-discussion.3658394/post-10375674) which he used in W5 of GSCPL against a former teammate of mine. I ended up taking out the hitmontop and flareon and further modified the Stantler set, making it a spikes team in the process. The main idea behind this team is to mainly pave the way for a Stantler sweep. I think LS Stant is very strong, with the caveat that the player needs to account for less bulk with the exclusion of Rest and Sleep talk. Spikes helps this to put more pressure onto any mons that could cause problems for Stantler setting up, such as Dewgong or Pineco w Explosion. Octillery and Weezing both put pressure onto any Rocks or Grounds. I thought Dugtrio would be an issue for this team however upon testing Stantler was pretty solid at setting up on it, since Dugtrios attack is not that high, and it doesn't have any attacks that hit Stantler hard.
GSC W4 vs. Estarossa (L) -> https://pokepast.es/30f6ca1dcb757a46
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The idea of this team was to try to recreate what I had made in the prior week, however I don't feel that the structure works out with the intrinsic idea that I had for my buddy SENTURIES. The changes upon writing I would want to make would be to change the Stantler set to Rest/Sleep Talk and to add the Toxic set from Dewgong in place of Octillery. That's mainly since my Octillery was frozen for most of the match, however I also am untrusting on Hypnosis accuracy as well. I also don't think this team really dishes out as much damage as it can tank, and needs some more offensive pressure to the team, so even maybe taking out Stantler and putting in a Primeape would be overall better. Apologies for the small tangent whenever I look at these teams I think back to the mindset I was in when making them and wonder what was going on not just in the noggin, but also in my day to day life. I do think that IRL events can affect the way I build sometimes however if you agree/disagree feel free to message me on discord, would be happy to talk about the topic.
GSC W5 vs. RealFV13 (W) -> https://pokepast.es/ebae6efc5c1b3815
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I decided to return to the same structure for W1 in this team and take off the spikes. It was tricky since I was running Xatu and Rapidash, two of the best spikes abusers in the game, without spikes. However I felt comfortable with this tradeoff by adding a Graveler with explosion. The idea behind that was to lure in a Water and explode on it, which worked out very well in the match. If you're following you may be seeing that I am running Stab-less Weezing which is correct. I like to call it Avatar Weezing, and the reason why I run it is because it does pretty well into more defensive teams that I have seen. I think the combination of fire/electric/water coverage that Weezing can have added in with the speed tier it is in makes it a perfect poke to try this set out. Before this it came to my attention that FB and HP Water was not too common on Weezing together, and I feel like the combination of the two really help it. If you don't feel right without Sludge Bomb and want to use this team I highly encourage swapping out Thunder for it. I have received word that it is not optimal, however I'm still going to experiment with it none the less.
From this point on I was not able to play another match in GSC (I did sub in for ORAS W7 however that was a team I did not produce s/o quziel), huge shoutout to Leoperi99 for performing excellently and generally being an extremely motivated and supportive teammate throughout the whole season. I was hyped to be on the same team with Leo and it lived up to the hype. These are a couple teams I had planned out to use in the future.
Sudowoodo Triple Explo -> https://pokepast.es/fa18753a6c266f37
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I really wanted to use Sudowoodo at least once in this tour, I feel like I don't see the mon nearly as much as I should since it has so much utility. It has the benefit of having good defenses and a mono Rock typing, which allows for it to live one surf from Octillery barring a crit. This allows the player to Self-Destruct right on an Octillery, however does not outright take out Dewgong. Nevertheless, I found its utility interesting and made this triple explo team in order to utilize it. I also really wanted to build with Persian and found its Rest/Sleep Talk w Thunder set very interesting, especially into Xatu. Pory and Primeape are added for cleanup. Bee had a very good triple explosion and although I didn't recieve the paste, there is only a one mon difference between the two. Just wanted to note that.
Rapidash Spikesless Offense w Avatar Weezing -> https://pokepast.es/be92e318fd5151d5
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I know I've said this already but I really LOVE the combo of dash/weez/ape. This team was meant as a finale for the former two teams, so more cleaned up with the help of BeeOrSomething. It puts together all the ideas I wanted in the former teams, this time adding more offensive pressure in the form of Curse Wigglytuff. I tested this team a little bit with leo and I feel good using it into a variety of matchups. Even if it's a tad Octillery weak Graveler does such a job at luring Octillery in that I fully believe it can be worked around.
That's all I had, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns don't be a stranger and feel free to reach out to me via my Smogon wall or my discord. Thank you for reading!
GSC W1 vs. DiannieRatson (L) -> https://pokepast.es/9ebfe7419cd09b3a
[
]I made this team with the help of Juoea in my first week. I really wanted to put on a decent performance this week since my debut into GSC NU during GSCPL went pretty much as bad as it could have gone. In retrospect, I don't believe this team was optimal as I do have a final draft at the end of this post, however I still think it is a very good team for spikes. I think the Rapidash/Weezing/Primeape combo is very good mainly because each of them can pivot in between each other pretty well, they have defensive coverage for common threats but the biggest problem for this trio is that it needs to be played to make sure Octillery never gets a free switch. In this first iteration that is why I had Pineco as to add more pressure with spikes, as Pineco is the best spiker in the tier imo. Xatu was added since it very much benefits from spikes as well, and the first draft of this team actually had a Dragonair instead of a Dewgong. The Dragonair was meant to be a soft check to Octillery however it didn't have the longevity throughout a game to stay healthy, so I added Dewgong instead. In retrospect, I do think Dragonair could have a place on this team if I mix some of the pieces around and make it spikesless, however I am happy with how this team worked out even though it did take a loss.
GSC W3 SENTURIES vs. DiannieRatson (W) -> https://pokepast.es/99ca1321566b6884
[
]I am very close friends with SENTURIES and he asked me for some help in making a team for this week. I actually went to the GSC NU Discussion forum on the GSC section to look for inspiration, since I wanted to modify an existing team to fit it better for how he plays. I ended up making an edit of a mrsoup team (linked here https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/gsc-nu-discussion.3658394/post-10375674) which he used in W5 of GSCPL against a former teammate of mine. I ended up taking out the hitmontop and flareon and further modified the Stantler set, making it a spikes team in the process. The main idea behind this team is to mainly pave the way for a Stantler sweep. I think LS Stant is very strong, with the caveat that the player needs to account for less bulk with the exclusion of Rest and Sleep talk. Spikes helps this to put more pressure onto any mons that could cause problems for Stantler setting up, such as Dewgong or Pineco w Explosion. Octillery and Weezing both put pressure onto any Rocks or Grounds. I thought Dugtrio would be an issue for this team however upon testing Stantler was pretty solid at setting up on it, since Dugtrios attack is not that high, and it doesn't have any attacks that hit Stantler hard.
GSC W4 vs. Estarossa (L) -> https://pokepast.es/30f6ca1dcb757a46
[
] The idea of this team was to try to recreate what I had made in the prior week, however I don't feel that the structure works out with the intrinsic idea that I had for my buddy SENTURIES. The changes upon writing I would want to make would be to change the Stantler set to Rest/Sleep Talk and to add the Toxic set from Dewgong in place of Octillery. That's mainly since my Octillery was frozen for most of the match, however I also am untrusting on Hypnosis accuracy as well. I also don't think this team really dishes out as much damage as it can tank, and needs some more offensive pressure to the team, so even maybe taking out Stantler and putting in a Primeape would be overall better. Apologies for the small tangent whenever I look at these teams I think back to the mindset I was in when making them and wonder what was going on not just in the noggin, but also in my day to day life. I do think that IRL events can affect the way I build sometimes however if you agree/disagree feel free to message me on discord, would be happy to talk about the topic.
GSC W5 vs. RealFV13 (W) -> https://pokepast.es/ebae6efc5c1b3815
[
] I decided to return to the same structure for W1 in this team and take off the spikes. It was tricky since I was running Xatu and Rapidash, two of the best spikes abusers in the game, without spikes. However I felt comfortable with this tradeoff by adding a Graveler with explosion. The idea behind that was to lure in a Water and explode on it, which worked out very well in the match. If you're following you may be seeing that I am running Stab-less Weezing which is correct. I like to call it Avatar Weezing, and the reason why I run it is because it does pretty well into more defensive teams that I have seen. I think the combination of fire/electric/water coverage that Weezing can have added in with the speed tier it is in makes it a perfect poke to try this set out. Before this it came to my attention that FB and HP Water was not too common on Weezing together, and I feel like the combination of the two really help it. If you don't feel right without Sludge Bomb and want to use this team I highly encourage swapping out Thunder for it. I have received word that it is not optimal, however I'm still going to experiment with it none the less.
From this point on I was not able to play another match in GSC (I did sub in for ORAS W7 however that was a team I did not produce s/o quziel), huge shoutout to Leoperi99 for performing excellently and generally being an extremely motivated and supportive teammate throughout the whole season. I was hyped to be on the same team with Leo and it lived up to the hype. These are a couple teams I had planned out to use in the future.
Sudowoodo Triple Explo -> https://pokepast.es/fa18753a6c266f37
[
]I really wanted to use Sudowoodo at least once in this tour, I feel like I don't see the mon nearly as much as I should since it has so much utility. It has the benefit of having good defenses and a mono Rock typing, which allows for it to live one surf from Octillery barring a crit. This allows the player to Self-Destruct right on an Octillery, however does not outright take out Dewgong. Nevertheless, I found its utility interesting and made this triple explo team in order to utilize it. I also really wanted to build with Persian and found its Rest/Sleep Talk w Thunder set very interesting, especially into Xatu. Pory and Primeape are added for cleanup. Bee had a very good triple explosion and although I didn't recieve the paste, there is only a one mon difference between the two. Just wanted to note that.
Rapidash Spikesless Offense w Avatar Weezing -> https://pokepast.es/be92e318fd5151d5
[
]I know I've said this already but I really LOVE the combo of dash/weez/ape. This team was meant as a finale for the former two teams, so more cleaned up with the help of BeeOrSomething. It puts together all the ideas I wanted in the former teams, this time adding more offensive pressure in the form of Curse Wigglytuff. I tested this team a little bit with leo and I feel good using it into a variety of matchups. Even if it's a tad Octillery weak Graveler does such a job at luring Octillery in that I fully believe it can be worked around.
That's all I had, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns don't be a stranger and feel free to reach out to me via my Smogon wall or my discord. Thank you for reading!
Built a good amount of teams across generations this tournament. Obviously, a lot of them are just ideas I wanted to flesh out, so they're not great; I'll try to keep the teams posted to ones I fuck with.
[
] (SS NU)
OTR Iron Ball Stakataka lacks real usage in SS NU because the utility sets are so good. This is a shame because I truly think utilizing how stupid strong Stakataka is is something more players should do. For example, Gyro Ball has almost coinflip odds to OHKO Silvally-Ground after Stealth Rock and can do over 40% to Mudsdale, even if they drop Speed IVs. The team is pretty straightforward: Nasty Plot Toxicroak works as a good lure to what OTR Stakataka wants removed, and Choice Band Decidueye has good synergy with the frog. Defensive pieces are pretty standard, though the Defog Talonflame is always going to hurt me some to use. The team can probably just forgo hazard control entirely and have Heavy-Duty Boots on more teammates.
[ ] (GSC NU)
In my attempt to learn more NU generations, I built a good amount of GSC NU this tournament. I've been testing against Estarossa for a good while now just because it's fun, and this team felt pretty good in the game/games I used it against him in. Stantler lead was pretty absent this tournament, but I still find our deer friend to be quite good in the slot. I really fuck with his Earthquake coverage right now given the rise of Graveler, Pupitar, and Rhyhorn in the metagame. It's very nice to not be fodder into the latter two especially and makes beating them later very simple. The other slots are just standard Pokemon, and although I'm not positive on the synergy of everything or the sets being perfect, the team feels good.
---
So, I built a lot of ADV NU while on my vacation early in the tournament. I'm gonna limit the teams I post to just a few that I think came out well because... some of the ideas were Choice Band Vigoroth.
[
] (ADV NU)
Venomoth was a Pokemon I wanted to build with because it's largely disappeared from the current metagame. I think sleep in general has good potential now (even on Haunter maybe) with fewer RestTalk Pokemon running around, and Venomoth anti-leads pretty well into Hitmonchan and even Glalie. Anyhow, felt like an offense was in order from here, and Baton Pass Venomoth with Diglett is a pretty tried and tested core that opens up the game for SunnyBeam Bellossom very nicely. Offensive Soft Sand Glalie was obvious to ensure the Fire-types are managed, and then I went with double Agility sweepers in Pelipper and Metang because they share good synergy with Glalie's Explosion.
[
] (ADV NU)
Arbok is actually good right now! Feasts against all the lead Hitmonchan spam, appreciates Metang dipping a little in usage as of late, and is fine into Glalie leads. It can also cheese poisons onto Sableye and chip away at Metang you do face, so fuck it, we Vigoroth. The EVs are probably not optimal, but trust me I do not care. From there, the team really is a lot of Pokemon I just "wanted to use," such as Salac Berry Cacturne. Heysup has used this set to great success, and it's another cool way to ensure Hitmonchan is compromised to a permanent end.
[
] (ADV NU)
Hey everyone, Sudowoodo gets Explosion in this generation... I'm almost positive I gaslit myself into thinking it didn't because of GSC, but I digress. Sudowoodo lead is something I've stanned a bit too hard for historically, but it's a solid way to prevent the lead Fire-types as well as Glalie from having good matchups early. From there, another idea I needed to manifest was specially defensive Glalie + physically defensive Sableye. Basically just reinventing the wheel here, but Calm Mind Sableye with Knock Off is a really cool with to pair with Spikes, and bulkmaxing Sableye really helps in the increasingly common Hitmonchan matchup. Raticate worked its way onto the team too because it's another great Spikes exploiter, and then Pelipper and Hitmonchan are just good Pokemon.
----
I want to thank everyone that signed up for the tournament! I'm really glad this format was enjoyed by so many of you; we'll definitely run it back next year. Special shoutouts to etern watashi vivalospride quziel Dangerous DugZa Ampha neomon Maris Bonibell Tree69420 Tsuki THE_CHUNGLER big tony 2014 JensenDale and leoperi for being absolute GOATs and helping bring home the title. Also shoutouts Pokeslice for helping our SS in finals :]
To Maris, leo, and Jensen, big thanks to you three in particular for putting up with all the questions I asked about the tiers and giving whatever feedback you did on teams I posted. My favorite part of teamtours has always been getting to see how slots prepare and learning metagames that I don't play, and y'all made this very pleasant and easy.
[
] (SS NU)OTR Iron Ball Stakataka lacks real usage in SS NU because the utility sets are so good. This is a shame because I truly think utilizing how stupid strong Stakataka is is something more players should do. For example, Gyro Ball has almost coinflip odds to OHKO Silvally-Ground after Stealth Rock and can do over 40% to Mudsdale, even if they drop Speed IVs. The team is pretty straightforward: Nasty Plot Toxicroak works as a good lure to what OTR Stakataka wants removed, and Choice Band Decidueye has good synergy with the frog. Defensive pieces are pretty standard, though the Defog Talonflame is always going to hurt me some to use. The team can probably just forgo hazard control entirely and have Heavy-Duty Boots on more teammates.
[
] (GSC NU)In my attempt to learn more NU generations, I built a good amount of GSC NU this tournament. I've been testing against Estarossa for a good while now just because it's fun, and this team felt pretty good in the game/games I used it against him in. Stantler lead was pretty absent this tournament, but I still find our deer friend to be quite good in the slot. I really fuck with his Earthquake coverage right now given the rise of Graveler, Pupitar, and Rhyhorn in the metagame. It's very nice to not be fodder into the latter two especially and makes beating them later very simple. The other slots are just standard Pokemon, and although I'm not positive on the synergy of everything or the sets being perfect, the team feels good.
---
So, I built a lot of ADV NU while on my vacation early in the tournament. I'm gonna limit the teams I post to just a few that I think came out well because... some of the ideas were Choice Band Vigoroth.
[
] (ADV NU)Venomoth was a Pokemon I wanted to build with because it's largely disappeared from the current metagame. I think sleep in general has good potential now (even on Haunter maybe) with fewer RestTalk Pokemon running around, and Venomoth anti-leads pretty well into Hitmonchan and even Glalie. Anyhow, felt like an offense was in order from here, and Baton Pass Venomoth with Diglett is a pretty tried and tested core that opens up the game for SunnyBeam Bellossom very nicely. Offensive Soft Sand Glalie was obvious to ensure the Fire-types are managed, and then I went with double Agility sweepers in Pelipper and Metang because they share good synergy with Glalie's Explosion.
[
] (ADV NU)Arbok is actually good right now! Feasts against all the lead Hitmonchan spam, appreciates Metang dipping a little in usage as of late, and is fine into Glalie leads. It can also cheese poisons onto Sableye and chip away at Metang you do face, so fuck it, we Vigoroth. The EVs are probably not optimal, but trust me I do not care. From there, the team really is a lot of Pokemon I just "wanted to use," such as Salac Berry Cacturne. Heysup has used this set to great success, and it's another cool way to ensure Hitmonchan is compromised to a permanent end.
[
] (ADV NU)Hey everyone, Sudowoodo gets Explosion in this generation... I'm almost positive I gaslit myself into thinking it didn't because of GSC, but I digress. Sudowoodo lead is something I've stanned a bit too hard for historically, but it's a solid way to prevent the lead Fire-types as well as Glalie from having good matchups early. From there, another idea I needed to manifest was specially defensive Glalie + physically defensive Sableye. Basically just reinventing the wheel here, but Calm Mind Sableye with Knock Off is a really cool with to pair with Spikes, and bulkmaxing Sableye really helps in the increasingly common Hitmonchan matchup. Raticate worked its way onto the team too because it's another great Spikes exploiter, and then Pelipper and Hitmonchan are just good Pokemon.
----
I want to thank everyone that signed up for the tournament! I'm really glad this format was enjoyed by so many of you; we'll definitely run it back next year. Special shoutouts to etern watashi vivalospride quziel Dangerous DugZa Ampha neomon Maris Bonibell Tree69420 Tsuki THE_CHUNGLER big tony 2014 JensenDale and leoperi for being absolute GOATs and helping bring home the title. Also shoutouts Pokeslice for helping our SS in finals :]
To Maris, leo, and Jensen, big thanks to you three in particular for putting up with all the questions I asked about the tiers and giving whatever feedback you did on teams I posted. My favorite part of teamtours has always been getting to see how slots prepare and learning metagames that I don't play, and y'all made this very pleasant and easy.
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