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Tournament NUPL Team Dump
- Thread starter Rabia
- Start date
Because I don't want to get hit with Rabia Ragetm, here are some SS builds I put together from this tour. I was really surprised by what I put together (a notable lack of eeveelutions), but I mostly liked my builds, even though I didn't find them perfect.
Encore Lazzle + LO Eggy
This is a pretty basic concept that I brought week 1 against damien, but here's a MUCH updated paste. I really like this team, especially if you're new to the tier. It's super easy to pilot and it's based around the basic concept of "spam brokens", so that's what I did. Encore Salazzle is so awesome, especially if you know when to play aggro with it, and you're almost always guaranteed to have an out with these mons, even in a lost position.
NP Croak Stuff
The first time I brought this team, I was happy with it because it was a TC c team. The second time against twinkay, I was supposed to be a different team which ofc had a much better mu. Anyways, if there was one thing I learnt from this tour, it's that NP Croak is a really cool set and alternative to SD that I had barely explored before this, especially if your goal is to overwhelm Ground-types. This team just lacked a certain element of breaking power and speed that I wanted and Focus Blast sucks, but it was a fun concept. I built this other G-Vally version as well, which I think is probably much better into most matchups and is more offense in nature.
RP Golurk + Goss
Of all my teams I built this tour, I think I found this one to be the coolest of them all. The idea started when I noticed Golurk looked really good into the scout and Danny was on my ass about using a mon like Eldegoss, so this was born. Sadly, I misclicked and then played awfully in the end game, but Golurk did look good! Just play it a bit more smartly. Stun Spore Goss is super cool if you can catch a Talon or Lazzle. Aromatherapy can also be replaced for Leech, which would have helped a lot my game, but that's mons.
LO DD Aero + NP Mow
This team has a fun backstory. Week 1, I built a DD Aero team, but we found it super mediocre as a mon and a build, so we scrapped it. Every week we joked it was the DD Aero week, and it was only in finals that we decided to bring it. This team is hard to pilot, but if you can do it well and get some reps in, I think it's pretty awesome. Thank you etern, Parpar, and OranBerryBlissey10 for all the late night tests with this one. Encore Salazzle is, once again, broken af. I wish this team got used into a balance mu because I wanted to show it off a bit more, but I'll just run that another time :)
Bonus: JYNX
I never tested or used this team, but surely it's good. It has a Vaporeon. Jynx seems kind of funny because you're a Vap/Mantine answer that can also beat Plume but isnt named Croak. You're also a way to pressure Eggy-A stuff etc. You can probably run Kiss over Sub, but if you face a Vap and get a sub up...
Encore Lazzle + LO Eggy
This is a pretty basic concept that I brought week 1 against damien, but here's a MUCH updated paste. I really like this team, especially if you're new to the tier. It's super easy to pilot and it's based around the basic concept of "spam brokens", so that's what I did. Encore Salazzle is so awesome, especially if you know when to play aggro with it, and you're almost always guaranteed to have an out with these mons, even in a lost position.
NP Croak Stuff
The first time I brought this team, I was happy with it because it was a TC c team. The second time against twinkay, I was supposed to be a different team which ofc had a much better mu. Anyways, if there was one thing I learnt from this tour, it's that NP Croak is a really cool set and alternative to SD that I had barely explored before this, especially if your goal is to overwhelm Ground-types. This team just lacked a certain element of breaking power and speed that I wanted and Focus Blast sucks, but it was a fun concept. I built this other G-Vally version as well, which I think is probably much better into most matchups and is more offense in nature.
RP Golurk + Goss
Of all my teams I built this tour, I think I found this one to be the coolest of them all. The idea started when I noticed Golurk looked really good into the scout and Danny was on my ass about using a mon like Eldegoss, so this was born. Sadly, I misclicked and then played awfully in the end game, but Golurk did look good! Just play it a bit more smartly. Stun Spore Goss is super cool if you can catch a Talon or Lazzle. Aromatherapy can also be replaced for Leech, which would have helped a lot my game, but that's mons.
LO DD Aero + NP Mow
This team has a fun backstory. Week 1, I built a DD Aero team, but we found it super mediocre as a mon and a build, so we scrapped it. Every week we joked it was the DD Aero week, and it was only in finals that we decided to bring it. This team is hard to pilot, but if you can do it well and get some reps in, I think it's pretty awesome. Thank you etern, Parpar, and OranBerryBlissey10 for all the late night tests with this one. Encore Salazzle is, once again, broken af. I wish this team got used into a balance mu because I wanted to show it off a bit more, but I'll just run that another time :)
Bonus: JYNX
I never tested or used this team, but surely it's good. It has a Vaporeon. Jynx seems kind of funny because you're a Vap/Mantine answer that can also beat Plume but isnt named Croak. You're also a way to pressure Eggy-A stuff etc. You can probably run Kiss over Sub, but if you face a Vap and get a sub up...
I like to share the gold so here are many teams I build for the Cubones that were used.
Although it didn't translated to week wins the score with those teams is 5-3 something like that, and 2 of those loss were ridiculous throws so in the end I'm happy with that performance.
Specs Zone Balance
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Sun Brute Cleanup
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Manual Rain
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TR Offense
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Toxic Spam
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Mirror Herb Thundy+Hera
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Although it didn't translated to week wins the score with those teams is 5-3 something like that, and 2 of those loss were ridiculous throws so in the end I'm happy with that performance.
Specs Zone Balance
- - - - - Sun Brute Cleanup
- - - - - Manual Rain
- - - - - TR Offense
- - - - - Toxic Spam
- - - - - Mirror Herb Thundy+Hera
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Last edited:
Week 1: 
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- (W vs rom1x)
Week 1 was a fresh start vs a relatively inexperienced opponent, so apart from making sure to not bring a stereotypical vapo balance I didn't put too much stock in either scout. Banded Scrafty was something that caught my eye since it can be very effective and also has more immediate breaking power, specifically vs fairy builds. Weezing and Copperajah both have sets that I would usually consider inferior to others but work nicely in tandem. Diancie abuses Talonflame and the rest of the team ties up the loose ends. Something to note is that Scrafty is Shed Skin here to not give away the set immediately and is still useful in multiple scenarios. I would like to tell you how I crazily outplayed this game with my sick build, but in reality Scrafty was meh and the opposing team moreso outplayed themselves in the builder, by bringing Inteleon vs the vapo spammer and Klinklang vs the ZU RO. After some unclean plays from both sides in the midgame, the opposing team pretty much falls apart and even the significant luck they were blessed with is not enough to get my opponent back in the game.
Week 2:
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(W vs fadedcharm)
I'll be honest, this team is flawed. It gets pounded by eggy and has no way to immediately pressure vapo. However, it isn't as bad as the haters would have you believe, partially bc neither of those two was very common in nupl while Ferroseed is absolutely an underrated pick. Most teams in SSNU have a mild respect for hazards at best, and either
1. slap Defog on scarf mow
2. use Xatu
3. accept the double up and move on
These options are considered acceptable bc the spikers are not common at all since apart from HO leads like Froslass, both of the reasonable spiker options in Ferroseed and Garbodor have severe flaws. This team aims to compensate for those flaws and exploit lax teambuilding. Aerodactyl covers multiple weaknesses and also prevents the entire team concept from getting trolled by Xatu, while the Vaporeon core is there to keep big seeds healthy. Either Weezing or Xatu has to be itemless here to prevent Golurk from taking a big fat dump on said team and I preferred keeping helmet on Xatu to ease Copperajah counterplay. In the actual game, my early game could only be described as something less than good, to put it gently. My pinky toe tells me the Exploud doubles are happening but I don't listen to it bc this is the guy that brought Parting Shot Swords Dance groundvally week 1, which naturally dims my faith in my opponent. After the rocky start however, Ferroseed ends up doing the exact thing I hoped it would and slowly pricks away at my opponent's removal and defensive core, while said opponent goes out of their way to remove my Weezing's nonexistent item. A lucky U-turn crit ends a doomed mowtom's suffering and secures permanent spikes. Vaporeon has been the only thing barely holding the what I can only assume atp is Modest Substitute Silk Scarf Exploud at bay, but with time in my favor my opponent goes for a desperation fairyvally sweep, which does not end up getting the needed high rolls/poison dodges to beat Weezing (entirely irrelevant bc it dies to Iron Barbs atp anyway). It may be cringe to say my opponent played better and that the ferro diff is simply too good, but it's the story I'm sticking with.
Week 3:-
---- (W vs damien)
My general building strategy has been to mostly focus on my own variety, especially vs opponents that are most likely just getting passed/using old teams, and try to bring something cool/interesting every week. In retrospect, this held up pretty well. In contrast, this is the third Weezing team in a row, and one that did poorly in tests at that. I struggled a bit to find a team I liked, but since we won the week anyway in time for my game I decide to stick with my gut and load this particular team. The concept is fairly simple: rindo lurk lures lead mow so offmie can go ham, the defensive backbone is just questionable. At preview I see a matchup that would make Mazar himself jealous while also wondering while the foxes gave their broken player a mid cheese. Damien presumably assumes the Golurk is banded, then av after Xatu is deleted, and afterwards plays to his outs best he can by winning the otr staka 50/50 and making it closer than it should have been (the last missed focus never killed copper unless crit tho).
Week 4:-----
(W vs TDNT)
Off the bat, I really really like this team. It's wacky and original, yet simple and effective with tight synergy holding it together. It's hard for me to put my appreciation or the building process into words but you get the idea. Low Kick Exeggutor-Alola (s/o turtdog) lures and kills the steels that Flamethrower doesn't roast while also reducing the prediction element. Out of the 20 million mons that appreciate steel types being removed, I have no clue why I went with the raw fuck it we ball specs Espeon energy. This could very easily be a specs Sylveon but that kinda lures steels on its own anyway and then you can't use wish sylv to support the team. Speaking of, after the offensive core is established, sylv staka gastro is a tried and true core. Last pick Braviary fits so so nicely bc it provides speed control, power, a ground immunity, another way to ratio plume (and random pshots/defogs) while ALSO appreciating steels being removed. The cherry on top is the fact that Espeon deterring hazards mitigates scarf Braviary's biggest weakness. Do not let the fact that Espeon did nothing in the game distract you from its nutty calcs btw. Speaking of the game, it was an interesting one. Funny for multiple reasons; I already mentioned the Espeon showcase flopping but in the end it might as well have been an eggy duel bc he absolutely stole the show. If it was gsc ou, he would be Snorlax. If it was chess, he would be both the queen and the king. If it was FE8 he would be Seth. TDNT also realizes this and tricks mine with Rotom-Mow but due to a combination of slice suggesting/giving him the team, slice preferring the INFERIOR modest eggy and thus TDNT seeing 189 speed eggy on his screen, and TDNT not being too experienced with the tier, he presumably assumes mine is also modest and the latter ends up dying to its newly acquired lo after flame damage. I actually don't like my odds midgame, especially after seeing eggy damage against Mantine, but a series of aggressive plays brings the game back. Regardless, due to Escavalier being the steel of choice from my opponent, eggy never ends up revealing the titular Low Kick even if a keen observer may have noticed that Giga Drain + Synthesis makes no sense, especially with a wishpasser. (could still easily be Teleport in theory or w/e) Did I mention I like this team?
Week 5:
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(L vs teamcharm)
For this week I struggled quite a bit with team choice, which may show in my team choice. Looking back at my teamchat I considered both multiple Duraludon teams and Centiskorch teams. Duraludon is a great breaker that can lure steels similar to the eggy team from the week before and just has very few good answers. Centiskorch is not an established force at all, but it has great coverage and Fire Lash is a broken move, so it can pretty efficiently knock targets like staka or talon and brute force its way through waters. Doublade is solid and underrated as well (gxe uses it, no further proof is needed). The game itself pissed me off quite a bit; me and tc were competing for the hardest throw starting as soon as t1. He either assumes I won't be the usually bad scarf helio (even though I have to be looking at preview) or makes a hard call about me not wanting to tbolt into groundvally. Turn 3 he makes a high risk high reward play and gets away with it, leading me into an early disadvantage which is exploited even further by my middling groundvally counterplay (surely he won't bring it into the Weezing spammer right?). Turn 11 is a big one; he goes for a hard, unabridged, complete and mind-boggling throw, switching Xatu into Diancie. The closest thing resembling an excuse for this would involve him having a blind spot on the exact part of the screen my Mudsdale finds itself and assuming Diancie is the 2021 diamondpress set with rocks. If I click Rock Polish t12, I win, plain and simple. (even if I miss Meteor Beam and minroll every move) However, being well aware of tc's skill ceiling I mistakenly assume he knows what he's doing and cautiously assume the Xatu is scarf and going to trick my Diancie. He wises up the turn after, but his team is still very weak to it. A lot of kills happen and Diancie is unable to get past groundvally, but in return Doublade is staring down a battered team. Unfortunately I once again misread his intentions and since Shadow Sneak does not kill his Talonflame (y'know the one that coulda died t1) I presume he'll play into the sneak and go for multiple Flame Body chances, but he instead goes for damage on Doublade. What's funny however is that I still have a chance despite losing the 50/50, since Toxicroak presumable only has Sucker Punch to hit me with so I can Swords Dance ad infinitum lowering his odds to hit the right turn significantly, while even Guzzlord Knock Off is a roll at my current health. A chance that is promptly taken away by an instant Flame Body burn. In retrospect, maybe it was better to gamble a potential talon switchin, especially since there's a winpath even if I do get burned. My first loss this tour sucks but the reason this team lost is pretty much entirely due to player error and it's still solid in general.
Week 6:
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(W vs master chief)
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." - Sun Tzu. Indulge me for a second here. My opponent here was obviously mc, but also meri. Even before the tour she made it clear she would tightly hold her ss slot's reins, and she managed to get a strong pilot making a dangerous combo. Now I do not have access to the Diancies' teamchat, nor can I see into meri's head, but I have an educated idea of what went on. Two nupl's ago, she watched me, her new player, lose with vapo balance after vapo balance to a combination of bad luck and bad play. One nupl ago, Onarceus, then on the Heliolisks, brought a team clearly designed to counter vapo balance against me and got packed up by Meteor Beam Starmie for it. Skip ahead to week 6 of this nupl; my scout reveals 5 teams, only one of which contains a Vaporeon. My assumption, which can be completely off base, is that the opposing team, and particularly its manager, considered my vapo spamming ways nothing more than a stereotype and decided to load something better vs offense. Accounting for this, and also the fact I hadn't used any plume, steelvally or talon, I decided to use one of my prebuilt fat balances. Growth Vileplume is a menace, and with the support of a Vaporeon core it can slowly break down teams. Scarf Zoroark, apart from being a safety net, can brusquely break certain lines by tricking a key piece while disguised as something else. The game itself has a slow start, as neither of us makes immediate progress. But since my opponent has no wishpasser of their own and cannot effectively threaten Vaporeon, this is a pretty much a dream matchup as I can easily afford to take it slow. I gain as much info as I can while trying to waste plume aroma pp, a sequence I disrupt as outlined before by tricking the bulky Starmie a Choice Scarf. After definitively confirming the Starmie and Vileplume sets I see an opening and go for game with my own. Humorously, it gets crit by Tauros in the end and dies but the damage has been done, as the game ends on t94 despite the first mon dying on t82. Golurk could have been very threatening, but the safety net of Parting Shot on steelvally (better than U-turn) kept it at bay. Fun team and way to bounce back after a painful loss.
Week 7:
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--- (L vs slice)
On the sheet this may count as a win for slice, but I know the truth. A throwaway line informed me of the fact that Danny suggested Weezing, without which the Mudsdale gets weakened by Drapion as intended, allowing slice's 20 millionth no cleric muds offense this tour to get rolled by otr staka. Speaking of, that was the concept of the team. Drapion lures the grounds for otr staka, while both Snorlax and Palossand simultaneously provide defensive utility and profit from Trick Room. A bit of a wacky team and Palossand really is just bad horse with better matchups vs specific stuff, but the week not mattering made me stick with my gut once again (my gut was wrong, the xatu dd aero team woulda cooked). As I mentioned, slice's scout essentially looked like him copying his own homework but changing it ever so slightly, with the notable exception of the gterrain which prompted my manager to say "oh wait one of the replays isn't ss". A long list of clericless teams honestly has multiple weaknesses but I wanted to use otr staka and I'll be honest, didn't think he would bring Mudsdale again after he brought it literally every week he didn't use ho. My track record vs slice is notoriously abysmal and this game is no different; his plays pissed me off, my plays pissed me off, the crits pissed me off and were more relevant than the evil fiend would have you believe. t12 befuddled me and even t3 felt really greedy even if the latter makes sense in retrospect. t22 made sense in my head, since Mudsdale is very important here and therefore should not risk any funny business with Palossand, while also not wanting to use mowtom so I can keep it healthy enough for opposing mowtom. However since I am ev'd correctly to take minimal damage from opposing otr staka, his ground type is faster and just goes for it. Humongous misplay from my end, even if I do think he should never have risked that. At the time I was boiling and pretty much recite to myself on t30: "he should water move here and not risk it, so he's probably u-turning". t43 is peak comedy as he keeps using his otr staka answer for everything but the staka, while t54 is the cherry on top. Ironically, only significantly after the game do I find out his horse is in fact, poorly ev'd and his mowtom is Defog over Pain Split, making me see that endgame through a whole new lens. If I get Drapion in on even one Nasty Plot or do not get crit, that game is very winnable in perhaps the most me way possible, slowly beating down the opponents mowtom causing an endgame vapo solo carry. Tldr I suck but free Danny's point.
Week 8:----
- (W vs Floss)
We've covered player throws and teambuilding throws but this is a unique lineup throw. Put the raid boss in the tier with relatively few bullshit factors, simple. Not to discredit Floss; he played as well as he could given the matchup, but ur also asking for it if u spin a wheel to pick ur teams. GXE using whatever Doublade Aerodactyl bullshit he cooks up would absolutely knock me and this team out cold, but given how they handled their ss picks in the past I went with a prebuilt balance that had a solid mu into random strong breakers. For this week I once again had multiple options and sometimes I didn't like how the team played, but the people I tested with assured me they liked it. The fact that I hadn't used Escavalier at all yet was the tipping point that convinced me, and it couldn't have paid off more. The team's concept is fairly simple; vapo balance core, dedicated physical wall and special wall, and the three fat setup sweepers ideally overwhelm the opponent's steel type. In the actual game, I'm positively brimming with arrogance, even as early as turn 1, in no small feat thanks to the excellent matchup I have once again conjured against the foxes. t3 he offers me the vapo answer, which is very considerate and t11 I make a beautiful midground that covers both the likely double expecting fairyvally as well as the unlikely trick. I then decide to give him a third choiced mon against quad tect, and it's probably around here or somewhat later that I actually type "this is unlosable btw" in my teamchat. A bit of dancing around later I get the most irrelevant scald burn ever as vapo is sacked right after anyway, and as he reveals Rest on Escavalier I realise my hubris may have gotten the best of me. Fortunately he later reveals to not be the standard mono-Megahorn, allowing mowtom to switch in fairly freely and mop up his weakened team. Another classic Protect Snorlax win.
Here is also an assortment of various teams I considered and/or built during nupl, quality is not guaranteed in the slightest:
----- (W vs rom1x)Week 1 was a fresh start vs a relatively inexperienced opponent, so apart from making sure to not bring a stereotypical vapo balance I didn't put too much stock in either scout. Banded Scrafty was something that caught my eye since it can be very effective and also has more immediate breaking power, specifically vs fairy builds. Weezing and Copperajah both have sets that I would usually consider inferior to others but work nicely in tandem. Diancie abuses Talonflame and the rest of the team ties up the loose ends. Something to note is that Scrafty is Shed Skin here to not give away the set immediately and is still useful in multiple scenarios. I would like to tell you how I crazily outplayed this game with my sick build, but in reality Scrafty was meh and the opposing team moreso outplayed themselves in the builder, by bringing Inteleon vs the vapo spammer and Klinklang vs the ZU RO. After some unclean plays from both sides in the midgame, the opposing team pretty much falls apart and even the significant luck they were blessed with is not enough to get my opponent back in the game.
Week 2:
----- (W vs fadedcharm)I'll be honest, this team is flawed. It gets pounded by eggy and has no way to immediately pressure vapo. However, it isn't as bad as the haters would have you believe, partially bc neither of those two was very common in nupl while Ferroseed is absolutely an underrated pick. Most teams in SSNU have a mild respect for hazards at best, and either
1. slap Defog on scarf mow
2. use Xatu
3. accept the double up and move on
These options are considered acceptable bc the spikers are not common at all since apart from HO leads like Froslass, both of the reasonable spiker options in Ferroseed and Garbodor have severe flaws. This team aims to compensate for those flaws and exploit lax teambuilding. Aerodactyl covers multiple weaknesses and also prevents the entire team concept from getting trolled by Xatu, while the Vaporeon core is there to keep big seeds healthy. Either Weezing or Xatu has to be itemless here to prevent Golurk from taking a big fat dump on said team and I preferred keeping helmet on Xatu to ease Copperajah counterplay. In the actual game, my early game could only be described as something less than good, to put it gently. My pinky toe tells me the Exploud doubles are happening but I don't listen to it bc this is the guy that brought Parting Shot Swords Dance groundvally week 1, which naturally dims my faith in my opponent. After the rocky start however, Ferroseed ends up doing the exact thing I hoped it would and slowly pricks away at my opponent's removal and defensive core, while said opponent goes out of their way to remove my Weezing's nonexistent item. A lucky U-turn crit ends a doomed mowtom's suffering and secures permanent spikes. Vaporeon has been the only thing barely holding the what I can only assume atp is Modest Substitute Silk Scarf Exploud at bay, but with time in my favor my opponent goes for a desperation fairyvally sweep, which does not end up getting the needed high rolls/poison dodges to beat Weezing (entirely irrelevant bc it dies to Iron Barbs atp anyway). It may be cringe to say my opponent played better and that the ferro diff is simply too good, but it's the story I'm sticking with.
Week 3:
----- (W vs damien)My general building strategy has been to mostly focus on my own variety, especially vs opponents that are most likely just getting passed/using old teams, and try to bring something cool/interesting every week. In retrospect, this held up pretty well. In contrast, this is the third Weezing team in a row, and one that did poorly in tests at that. I struggled a bit to find a team I liked, but since we won the week anyway in time for my game I decide to stick with my gut and load this particular team. The concept is fairly simple: rindo lurk lures lead mow so offmie can go ham, the defensive backbone is just questionable. At preview I see a matchup that would make Mazar himself jealous while also wondering while the foxes gave their broken player a mid cheese. Damien presumably assumes the Golurk is banded, then av after Xatu is deleted, and afterwards plays to his outs best he can by winning the otr staka 50/50 and making it closer than it should have been (the last missed focus never killed copper unless crit tho).
Week 4:
----- (W vs TDNT)Off the bat, I really really like this team. It's wacky and original, yet simple and effective with tight synergy holding it together. It's hard for me to put my appreciation or the building process into words but you get the idea. Low Kick Exeggutor-Alola (s/o turtdog) lures and kills the steels that Flamethrower doesn't roast while also reducing the prediction element. Out of the 20 million mons that appreciate steel types being removed, I have no clue why I went with the raw fuck it we ball specs Espeon energy. This could very easily be a specs Sylveon but that kinda lures steels on its own anyway and then you can't use wish sylv to support the team. Speaking of, after the offensive core is established, sylv staka gastro is a tried and true core. Last pick Braviary fits so so nicely bc it provides speed control, power, a ground immunity, another way to ratio plume (and random pshots/defogs) while ALSO appreciating steels being removed. The cherry on top is the fact that Espeon deterring hazards mitigates scarf Braviary's biggest weakness. Do not let the fact that Espeon did nothing in the game distract you from its nutty calcs btw. Speaking of the game, it was an interesting one. Funny for multiple reasons; I already mentioned the Espeon showcase flopping but in the end it might as well have been an eggy duel bc he absolutely stole the show. If it was gsc ou, he would be Snorlax. If it was chess, he would be both the queen and the king. If it was FE8 he would be Seth. TDNT also realizes this and tricks mine with Rotom-Mow but due to a combination of slice suggesting/giving him the team, slice preferring the INFERIOR modest eggy and thus TDNT seeing 189 speed eggy on his screen, and TDNT not being too experienced with the tier, he presumably assumes mine is also modest and the latter ends up dying to its newly acquired lo after flame damage. I actually don't like my odds midgame, especially after seeing eggy damage against Mantine, but a series of aggressive plays brings the game back. Regardless, due to Escavalier being the steel of choice from my opponent, eggy never ends up revealing the titular Low Kick even if a keen observer may have noticed that Giga Drain + Synthesis makes no sense, especially with a wishpasser. (could still easily be Teleport in theory or w/e) Did I mention I like this team?
Week 5:
----- (L vs teamcharm)For this week I struggled quite a bit with team choice, which may show in my team choice. Looking back at my teamchat I considered both multiple Duraludon teams and Centiskorch teams. Duraludon is a great breaker that can lure steels similar to the eggy team from the week before and just has very few good answers. Centiskorch is not an established force at all, but it has great coverage and Fire Lash is a broken move, so it can pretty efficiently knock targets like staka or talon and brute force its way through waters. Doublade is solid and underrated as well (gxe uses it, no further proof is needed). The game itself pissed me off quite a bit; me and tc were competing for the hardest throw starting as soon as t1. He either assumes I won't be the usually bad scarf helio (even though I have to be looking at preview) or makes a hard call about me not wanting to tbolt into groundvally. Turn 3 he makes a high risk high reward play and gets away with it, leading me into an early disadvantage which is exploited even further by my middling groundvally counterplay (surely he won't bring it into the Weezing spammer right?). Turn 11 is a big one; he goes for a hard, unabridged, complete and mind-boggling throw, switching Xatu into Diancie. The closest thing resembling an excuse for this would involve him having a blind spot on the exact part of the screen my Mudsdale finds itself and assuming Diancie is the 2021 diamondpress set with rocks. If I click Rock Polish t12, I win, plain and simple. (even if I miss Meteor Beam and minroll every move) However, being well aware of tc's skill ceiling I mistakenly assume he knows what he's doing and cautiously assume the Xatu is scarf and going to trick my Diancie. He wises up the turn after, but his team is still very weak to it. A lot of kills happen and Diancie is unable to get past groundvally, but in return Doublade is staring down a battered team. Unfortunately I once again misread his intentions and since Shadow Sneak does not kill his Talonflame (y'know the one that coulda died t1) I presume he'll play into the sneak and go for multiple Flame Body chances, but he instead goes for damage on Doublade. What's funny however is that I still have a chance despite losing the 50/50, since Toxicroak presumable only has Sucker Punch to hit me with so I can Swords Dance ad infinitum lowering his odds to hit the right turn significantly, while even Guzzlord Knock Off is a roll at my current health. A chance that is promptly taken away by an instant Flame Body burn. In retrospect, maybe it was better to gamble a potential talon switchin, especially since there's a winpath even if I do get burned. My first loss this tour sucks but the reason this team lost is pretty much entirely due to player error and it's still solid in general.
Week 6:
----- (W vs master chief)“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." - Sun Tzu. Indulge me for a second here. My opponent here was obviously mc, but also meri. Even before the tour she made it clear she would tightly hold her ss slot's reins, and she managed to get a strong pilot making a dangerous combo. Now I do not have access to the Diancies' teamchat, nor can I see into meri's head, but I have an educated idea of what went on. Two nupl's ago, she watched me, her new player, lose with vapo balance after vapo balance to a combination of bad luck and bad play. One nupl ago, Onarceus, then on the Heliolisks, brought a team clearly designed to counter vapo balance against me and got packed up by Meteor Beam Starmie for it. Skip ahead to week 6 of this nupl; my scout reveals 5 teams, only one of which contains a Vaporeon. My assumption, which can be completely off base, is that the opposing team, and particularly its manager, considered my vapo spamming ways nothing more than a stereotype and decided to load something better vs offense. Accounting for this, and also the fact I hadn't used any plume, steelvally or talon, I decided to use one of my prebuilt fat balances. Growth Vileplume is a menace, and with the support of a Vaporeon core it can slowly break down teams. Scarf Zoroark, apart from being a safety net, can brusquely break certain lines by tricking a key piece while disguised as something else. The game itself has a slow start, as neither of us makes immediate progress. But since my opponent has no wishpasser of their own and cannot effectively threaten Vaporeon, this is a pretty much a dream matchup as I can easily afford to take it slow. I gain as much info as I can while trying to waste plume aroma pp, a sequence I disrupt as outlined before by tricking the bulky Starmie a Choice Scarf. After definitively confirming the Starmie and Vileplume sets I see an opening and go for game with my own. Humorously, it gets crit by Tauros in the end and dies but the damage has been done, as the game ends on t94 despite the first mon dying on t82. Golurk could have been very threatening, but the safety net of Parting Shot on steelvally (better than U-turn) kept it at bay. Fun team and way to bounce back after a painful loss.
Week 7:
----- (L vs slice)On the sheet this may count as a win for slice, but I know the truth. A throwaway line informed me of the fact that Danny suggested Weezing, without which the Mudsdale gets weakened by Drapion as intended, allowing slice's 20 millionth no cleric muds offense this tour to get rolled by otr staka. Speaking of, that was the concept of the team. Drapion lures the grounds for otr staka, while both Snorlax and Palossand simultaneously provide defensive utility and profit from Trick Room. A bit of a wacky team and Palossand really is just bad horse with better matchups vs specific stuff, but the week not mattering made me stick with my gut once again (my gut was wrong, the xatu dd aero team woulda cooked). As I mentioned, slice's scout essentially looked like him copying his own homework but changing it ever so slightly, with the notable exception of the gterrain which prompted my manager to say "oh wait one of the replays isn't ss". A long list of clericless teams honestly has multiple weaknesses but I wanted to use otr staka and I'll be honest, didn't think he would bring Mudsdale again after he brought it literally every week he didn't use ho. My track record vs slice is notoriously abysmal and this game is no different; his plays pissed me off, my plays pissed me off, the crits pissed me off and were more relevant than the evil fiend would have you believe. t12 befuddled me and even t3 felt really greedy even if the latter makes sense in retrospect. t22 made sense in my head, since Mudsdale is very important here and therefore should not risk any funny business with Palossand, while also not wanting to use mowtom so I can keep it healthy enough for opposing mowtom. However since I am ev'd correctly to take minimal damage from opposing otr staka, his ground type is faster and just goes for it. Humongous misplay from my end, even if I do think he should never have risked that. At the time I was boiling and pretty much recite to myself on t30: "he should water move here and not risk it, so he's probably u-turning". t43 is peak comedy as he keeps using his otr staka answer for everything but the staka, while t54 is the cherry on top. Ironically, only significantly after the game do I find out his horse is in fact, poorly ev'd and his mowtom is Defog over Pain Split, making me see that endgame through a whole new lens. If I get Drapion in on even one Nasty Plot or do not get crit, that game is very winnable in perhaps the most me way possible, slowly beating down the opponents mowtom causing an endgame vapo solo carry. Tldr I suck but free Danny's point.
Week 8:
----- (W vs Floss)Here is also an assortment of various teams I considered and/or built during nupl, quality is not guaranteed in the slightest:
https://pokepast.es/71898f0096b7841f (ignore plume and scraft existing rofl)
https://pokepast.es/168a3037ea808dcb (centipede 1)
https://pokepast.es/511733b0e083ab1b (centipede 2)
https://pokepast.es/7badb6a748808ba9 (bad aurorus team)
https://pokepast.es/0dcfcd7d778f42da (decid has to check like everything it does not work also no fairy resist)
https://pokepast.es/c71e913c5b01371b (honestly this team fucks but there is no longer a duraludon)
https://pokepast.es/dc6658548bba078b (if u lure a scarf mow 10/10, otherwise no)
https://pokepast.es/b05cb7fb23acd211 (aero has now been promoted to speed control)
https://pokepast.es/b5e480f9ea0a7403 (I changed the order of the mons to hide the fact that this is a re-use but there's actually a negative chance tc would have noticed)
https://pokepast.es/ceb74c2423704d48 (drap + dd aero 1)
https://pokepast.es/02a4bbbaed6781ae (drap + dd aero 2)
https://pokepast.es/8e0e6a9d6ccd83c9 (I'm not even gonna pretend this beats vaporeon)
https://pokepast.es/0d572aff7bd2538b (cb rk9)
https://pokepast.es/4d11c885bb06cbaa (calm mind virizion)
https://pokepast.es/f68b385f467600f0 (sd zen headbutt virizion)
https://pokepast.es/00fc0d6f1b46c9b3 (sd stone edge virizion)
https://pokepast.es/168a3037ea808dcb (centipede 1)
https://pokepast.es/511733b0e083ab1b (centipede 2)
https://pokepast.es/7badb6a748808ba9 (bad aurorus team)
https://pokepast.es/0dcfcd7d778f42da (decid has to check like everything it does not work also no fairy resist)
https://pokepast.es/c71e913c5b01371b (honestly this team fucks but there is no longer a duraludon)
https://pokepast.es/dc6658548bba078b (if u lure a scarf mow 10/10, otherwise no)
https://pokepast.es/b05cb7fb23acd211 (aero has now been promoted to speed control)
https://pokepast.es/b5e480f9ea0a7403 (I changed the order of the mons to hide the fact that this is a re-use but there's actually a negative chance tc would have noticed)
https://pokepast.es/ceb74c2423704d48 (drap + dd aero 1)
https://pokepast.es/02a4bbbaed6781ae (drap + dd aero 2)
https://pokepast.es/8e0e6a9d6ccd83c9 (I'm not even gonna pretend this beats vaporeon)
https://pokepast.es/0d572aff7bd2538b (cb rk9)
https://pokepast.es/4d11c885bb06cbaa (calm mind virizion)
https://pokepast.es/f68b385f467600f0 (sd zen headbutt virizion)
https://pokepast.es/00fc0d6f1b46c9b3 (sd stone edge virizion)
good mornings. i post sum teams 
w1 v danny (W): https://pokepast.es/75edc044445a405d was still getting the hang of the tier this week, i really did not know what was too good and what wasn't. Coming back from SCL after like 6 months meant there was a steeper learning curve. The tier reminded me of previous iterations of RU (which was a tier I did NOT like), so i wasn't too excited to build. the vortex felt super strong so i went heavy into it this week w bro g and pert, i was definitely higher on umbreon while others still had it like C tier in the VR. W1 of using flygon 7 more times, best mon in the tier. I was also high on intelleon which others had way lower, bc of slowbro???????? gallade was the primary breaker, i think i was one of the earlier people to be using the scope set but it is insane at smashing the common talon/bro/(and muk a at the time core).
w2 v stories (W): https://pokepast.es/1824676aeeab5596 sun was obv the dominant weather, playing on ladder i realized how ridiculous rain was too (i thought it was way more reliable myself at the time). eject flygon was cool, felt way better than physical sets here. i cant remember if it was uturn or first impression on my first variation. tground torn picked up a ridiculous amount of zones lol, basic structure tho. nm to say, timid ludi is needed for scarfers, qwil+basc r v v good sweepers with qwil adding valuable typing.
w3 v elias (W): https://pokepast.es/ee6a1731343e93d0 idrk why i brought webs, its really not a good mu into fatter stuff, but also i was still sick of building the tier so i kinda yolo'd. had a really good mu into a lot of offenses, sun included at the time. crunchless gatr was a meme but can 1v1 bro anyways so it turned out okish. mew shouldve been shock probably. w1 of discovering how great croak was. was UR at the time, thought process was (if cacturne can do this someone else can too). turns out croak did it really really well, hitting the whole tier really hard while forcing slowbro teams into impossible decisions.
w4 vs tnunes (W): https://pokepast.es/ff7aaed8a45692e5 one of the first BO builds i was truly happy with. combined a lot of what i liked at the time, (prio+gon+croak), av reuni etc. The team is obviously flawed, it almost hard loses to ori, but it was still decent for what it was.
w5 vs ninja (W): https://pokepast.es/900d107be952feb4 big fan of this HO. i felt like it combined a lot of what i thought was good at the time. shoutout tier/xav, the double tr combo on HO was absolutely insane into offense and bulkier structures alike. luc was a dumb mon, sub dd gon was insane, and thund was funny/decent speed control. thund could be pom or whatever but then it felt a bit slow. people were using lycan/lass leads at the time, i felt like both had meaningful drawbacks. (lycan shit into tsar), lass generally could be taken advantage of. This scream set felt like it positioned the team really well, and i felt like i was one of the first to use it in the tier. dont like buillding HO but this team played well
w6 v dr BJ (W): https://pokepast.es/387e5dc3646e2423 just a slightly better version of the earlier BO i liked. was honestly mostly done building at this point (burned out+WC) so just changed the incin team to an umb which i liked better, and slotted in intell. intell+croak r still broken a gen later. with sun gone umbreon shouldve been water tera, not muchhhh else to add i thought the team wasn't bad
w7 v fish (W): Same as w5
W8 V django (L): https://pokepast.es/851a676d6b4bec69 Sucks to lose my first game in finals but that's how it be sometimes. i hadnt used krook yet so this seemed like a decent time. i wanted the scale set but tpoison+gunk was better and almost saved me here. cact was cool, its a bit worse than croak but committing tera on this build was bad since i wanted to save for krook or others. game came down to a lot of rough RNG, but i was honestly too weak into some setup probably. that's a more general problem with the tier though, hard to fit trick mons imo so being weak to something is always in the cards. (ice punch regi for taunt ori embodies this principle). itemless bro was basically colbur but accounted for random tr mons like lurk. I think this was the gods way of punishing me for not using flygon
Overall happy with how the season went, cannot complain about 7-1. Will c everyone again in 6 months
games in order
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
w1 v danny (W): https://pokepast.es/75edc044445a405d was still getting the hang of the tier this week, i really did not know what was too good and what wasn't. Coming back from SCL after like 6 months meant there was a steeper learning curve. The tier reminded me of previous iterations of RU (which was a tier I did NOT like), so i wasn't too excited to build. the vortex felt super strong so i went heavy into it this week w bro g and pert, i was definitely higher on umbreon while others still had it like C tier in the VR. W1 of using flygon 7 more times, best mon in the tier. I was also high on intelleon which others had way lower, bc of slowbro???????? gallade was the primary breaker, i think i was one of the earlier people to be using the scope set but it is insane at smashing the common talon/bro/(and muk a at the time core).
w2 v stories (W): https://pokepast.es/1824676aeeab5596 sun was obv the dominant weather, playing on ladder i realized how ridiculous rain was too (i thought it was way more reliable myself at the time). eject flygon was cool, felt way better than physical sets here. i cant remember if it was uturn or first impression on my first variation. tground torn picked up a ridiculous amount of zones lol, basic structure tho. nm to say, timid ludi is needed for scarfers, qwil+basc r v v good sweepers with qwil adding valuable typing.
w3 v elias (W): https://pokepast.es/ee6a1731343e93d0 idrk why i brought webs, its really not a good mu into fatter stuff, but also i was still sick of building the tier so i kinda yolo'd. had a really good mu into a lot of offenses, sun included at the time. crunchless gatr was a meme but can 1v1 bro anyways so it turned out okish. mew shouldve been shock probably. w1 of discovering how great croak was. was UR at the time, thought process was (if cacturne can do this someone else can too). turns out croak did it really really well, hitting the whole tier really hard while forcing slowbro teams into impossible decisions.
w4 vs tnunes (W): https://pokepast.es/ff7aaed8a45692e5 one of the first BO builds i was truly happy with. combined a lot of what i liked at the time, (prio+gon+croak), av reuni etc. The team is obviously flawed, it almost hard loses to ori, but it was still decent for what it was.
w5 vs ninja (W): https://pokepast.es/900d107be952feb4 big fan of this HO. i felt like it combined a lot of what i thought was good at the time. shoutout tier/xav, the double tr combo on HO was absolutely insane into offense and bulkier structures alike. luc was a dumb mon, sub dd gon was insane, and thund was funny/decent speed control. thund could be pom or whatever but then it felt a bit slow. people were using lycan/lass leads at the time, i felt like both had meaningful drawbacks. (lycan shit into tsar), lass generally could be taken advantage of. This scream set felt like it positioned the team really well, and i felt like i was one of the first to use it in the tier. dont like buillding HO but this team played well
w6 v dr BJ (W): https://pokepast.es/387e5dc3646e2423 just a slightly better version of the earlier BO i liked. was honestly mostly done building at this point (burned out+WC) so just changed the incin team to an umb which i liked better, and slotted in intell. intell+croak r still broken a gen later. with sun gone umbreon shouldve been water tera, not muchhhh else to add i thought the team wasn't bad
w7 v fish (W): Same as w5
W8 V django (L): https://pokepast.es/851a676d6b4bec69 Sucks to lose my first game in finals but that's how it be sometimes. i hadnt used krook yet so this seemed like a decent time. i wanted the scale set but tpoison+gunk was better and almost saved me here. cact was cool, its a bit worse than croak but committing tera on this build was bad since i wanted to save for krook or others. game came down to a lot of rough RNG, but i was honestly too weak into some setup probably. that's a more general problem with the tier though, hard to fit trick mons imo so being weak to something is always in the cards. (ice punch regi for taunt ori embodies this principle). itemless bro was basically colbur but accounted for random tr mons like lurk. I think this was the gods way of punishing me for not using flygon
Overall happy with how the season went, cannot complain about 7-1. Will c everyone again in 6 months
games in order
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)
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