Project SV ZU Team Bazaar

[sleid]

artwork by sinnabyss
​

Welcome to the SV ZU team dump thread! Usually team bazaar or dump thread's act as an alternative to sample teams because of the volatile nature of DLCs and tier shifts this generation. The criteria I'll be using is simple: if it's a good team and easy to pilot, it'll most likely be archived. However, I want to emphasize that meme teams or objectively bad teams will be rejected and I might delete posts that are especially bad.

Rules

• Provide an import for your team(s)
• Write a description of your team(s), preferably a short and concise explanation of how the team in question functions and its weaknesses (replays are highly encouraged)
  • Specify the type of team it is: offense, balance, semi-stall, stall, weather, etc
• Must use sprites when showing a team rather than only having an import (for visual appeal and archive friendliness)
• Just because this thread is relaxed does not mean meme teams or bad teams will be accepted. This thread is not a rate my team hub, use the ZU room on PS! or ZU's Discord for help

 

[sleid]

Sure! I'll make the first post! Gonna drop a couple teams that I've built for UMPL/Seasonal (click on sprites for paste).

Quilladin Hazard Stack -

team description

This team has not been used in tournament play. I was looking for options for hazard stack. Our best defensive spikers at the moment are between Quilladin and Vespiquen, but I know I wanted to use Clefairy as my special wall so Quilladin ended up being the choice. They cover each others weaknesses quit nicely with their incredible stats and support movepools. I then went for a pivot squad of Frogadier (who is too good not to use right now) and Raboot who can pressure switches from teams after hazards are up. Stonjourner is still as strong as ever and works great for speed control. Pupitar is my Electric immune/wincon to clean up games after the opposing team gets chipped down by hazards and U-Turn damage.

Boots Offense -

team description

I brought this team this past week in UMPL and won with it. Hazards are really solid right now and Glimmet being able to condense that role is super nice. Frogadier and Raboot were another choice for my pivot core, both working well off of each other to put pressure on their switch-ins. Eelektrik is a great momentum grab with its slow U-Turn and does well as a general wall for stuff like Stonjourner. Grumpig was my choice of speed control, helping with opposing Psychic-types and being faster than opposing Scarf Stonjourner. Ampharos is a nice pivot if you want to try to grab Static procs against U-Turn users like Lumineon, but acts better as a late game cleaner with its incredible Special Attack and access to Agility. This team really relies on you being able to pilot well by keeping momentum and figuring out your wincon early.

I hope some newcomers can use these teams to try and get an introduction to the tier. Feel free to put your own spin on them and have fun!

 

[Corthius]

Sure! I'll make the first second post! Gonna drop a couple one teams that I've built for UMPL/Seasonal fun (click on sprites for paste).

Basic Boots Build
​

I designed this team to be as resilient to entry hazards as possible, because I think most removal is lowkey bad and a momentum sink. It is pretty straight forward too, Camerupt is the VoltImmune and SR setter for the team. I'm absolutely in love with the offensive Heavy-Duty Boots Eruption set. Tera grass to flip the weaknesses and still resist Electric if needed. Ampharos is a strong and slow bulky pivot, that threatens the metagame with its strong moves and hard to challenge Volt Switch. I like tera Fairy + Dazzling Gleam or tera Dragon + Dragon Pulse, both of which could work here. I also used to run Dragon Tail last to force more chip damage on special walls that take hazard chip. Static punishes contact moves. Clefairy is my special sponge, that can take on bulky pokemon that rely on passive damage to chip pokemon down, while supporting our own hazard game with its Knock Off. Encore is broken in SV, and I like tera Steel for its superb defensive profile. Stonjourner is the only pokemon that takes damage from entry hazards on this team, but it acts as speed control and wallbreaker with its high BP moves and great coverage. Tera Steel boosts Heavy Slam, which complements Stone Edge very nicely. Tera Ground can also be used. Frogadier is a hard to answer wallbreaker that can set up entry hazards and U-turn out of unfavorable matchups, with Protean shenanigans potentially catching opposing pokemon off-guard and boosting its coverage moves to basically being STABs. It can also act as natural speed control versus slower builds. Banette is the last pokemon and offers a Rapid Spin immunity and priority to revengekill more easily. Again, Knock Off is amazing in conjunction with laying hazards. I opted for Will-O-Wisp as a last move to catch Stonjourner and other physical attacker that try to switch in thinking they are save. Tera Dark to flip weaknesses and boost Knock Off's damage.

I hope some newcomers can use these teams to try and get an introduction to the tier. Feel free to put your own spin on them and have fun!

 

[plznostep]

Standard Vullaby Offense


This is a quite standard offensive team consisting of Vullaby, my Psychic answer who also checks Banette and more importantly gives my team Defog which helps keep Stonjourner and Hakamo-o healthy to check threats like Squawkabilly and Stonjourner. It also acts as a pivot alongside Lumineon on this team which can synergize well due to how Vullaby can lure in Pokemon like Stonjourner, which it can pivot on and bring in Lumineon to threaten Stonjourner out. Squawkabily is this teams form of speed control with a Choice Scarf, being able to throw out strong Normal-type attacks in this meta is quite nice and thus made it a good cleaner lategame. Camerupt is my answer to Electric-types like Dedenne and Ampharos while being a great offensive threat itself, as its Fire/Ground STAB is very hard to switch into, especially when it is invested in. It also carries Stealth Rocks for my team, allowing my Stonjourner to run Heat Crash to hit Tera Steel Levitate Pokemon like Eelektross and Bronzor. Hakamo-o is one of the tiers most threatening setup sweepers, boasting a great defensive typing allowing it to check Pokemon like Stonjourner and then setup on them with Swords Dance + Scale Shot, with Drain Punch for recovery and a good ability in Bulletproof to block moves like Focus Blast once it has Terastallized and Shadow Ball from Gastly. Stonjourner is a great blanket check to physical attackers in the tier like Squawkabilly, Persian, and Vigoroth while also being a phenomenal breaker, as basically nothing wants to take its moves, especially when boosted with a Choice Band. Lumineon is the main answer to Water-types on this team and can use them for momentum with U-turn. Encore also gives me a way to stop Curse Sliggoo-Hisui and other setup sweepers in the tier.​

 

[love chants]

Gonna post this here as I think its a pretty easy team for new players to use and pilot.

Vullby + Sliggoo H + Dunsparce just sounded like a good defensive core to start off with and it likely covers most if not all of the meta to some capacity. Scarf Grumpig cause I wanted speed control and trick scarf as an easy way to disrupt any sort of cheese. Lumineon was added for more speed control and encore / uturn utility and momentum. Monferno is the breaker and I wanted some more knock on the team. Sorry if the explanation was rather poor, but I think all of these mons are pretty easy to use and self explainable. Sets are standard you can opt for uturn > toxic on Vullaby but I think that toxic utility is pretty nice.

E: Also toto beat monai with it in UMPL as I slept through the game :x

 

[wooper]

reviving this thread with a bunch of teams featuring rotom-fan! im pretty sure the general consensus among the entire community is that it is busted and that it will be banned, so it would be a shame to see these all just sit in my builder and collect dust. and if by some miracle it stays legal, or if you want to try and bang out reqs on the final day of the suspect test and need teams, then i hope folks will find these useful!


sd tera fire duggy


webs v1


webs v2


bulky sd gabite v1


bulky sd gabite v2


quax + sandy


specs indeedee


quaxturne balance

everything below here has not been tested, so proceed with caution!


twisted spoon indeedee


offensive pivot golduck


chimecho balance + dedenne


chimecho balance + scarf frog


chimecho balance + boots frog

will probably make a post in the np thread detailing some of my favorite sets and cores that ive been using recently, so keep an eye out! thats all for now, ping me on discord or in the zu room if you have any questions about the teams or the sets!

 

[Bice]

this meta is about to get nuked so might as well put this here


a bulky offense team built around funny servine contrary shenanigans. camerupt helps beat a lot of what smacks servine around such as tinkatuff and swalot, quaxwell serves as removal + completes the fwg core, indeedee is a hard-hitting scarfer, and swalot is the defensive glue. some problem mons for this team include combusken and magmortar, so play carefully around those. from my limited testing (dead ladder lol) it seems v solid.

 

[Hiusi guy]

I decided to dip my toes into ZU when the new year started and immediately saw Vulpix and Scovillain were allowed...

Pretty simple team based on the OU sun teams of old where you use eject button to get in your sun abusers with mbounce helping protect against hazards (even tho I still have scov boots which could definitely be changed). The main star of the team is definitely scov being able to find set up turns and theb proceed to 2HKO any swithin and OHKO almost anything with sun boosted Flamethrowers while giga drain keeps it healthy, and everyone else helps with having switchins to other stuff and sweeping at the same time. The main weakness I've found with this team is weirdly lead tinkatuff who kinda just ignores everything I can do because of knock and moldy twave/rocks (and weather ballin from Vulpix doesn't kill it just to lose heat rock)

 

[Danny]

just won circuit gonna post all my teams here
FYI a lot of these are outdated but the IDEAS are not so feel free to take some ideas from it for whatever tours u wanna try to use em in
https://pokepast.es/dedfb3d75062f06e

 

[diegoyuhhi]

quick random open team dump, might add explanations in the next days

band pauros semistall

gloom + honch offense

hail + otr rabsca ho

mareanie + bulky sd leaf fat

gloom + amphy balance

 

[love chants]

https://pokepast.es/431fa56ad678b4c7
huge dump of teams I've built a lot out of boredom and laddered a lot out of boredom I think I'm top 4-5 on ladder or something but the meta has been pretty fun as nothing is too outright broken. I think bellossom and veluza could be looked at though. Teams closest to the top are most recent.

Some thoughts on a couple mons ig:
I really love using this mon in older gens but I cannot make it work its very unimpressive to me, Mixed LO has been the most fun to me.
I dont see this thing a lot but I think BU Resttalk with Tera Fairy and Play Rough is pretty fire, just gotta get rid of Orthworm and other shit but it can clean up games handily.
Has a pretty nice matchup into Pyroar and other random special attackers, idk if it just got Toxic but its pretty nice since not a lot of poisons are being ran.
Super cool both mixed and SD are nice at cleaning and breaking, Wind Rider is pretty cool allowing it to semi wall some birds like oricorio (running Hurricane) and Swanna.
Really fun and it picks up free wins on ladder with the CM Agility I think its legit and not much of a matchup fish.
Tera Dark boots is not only a good breaker but a cleaner Tera Dark with sucker can snowball pretty quick.
really good i think i like running Fire Blast Hyper Voice with Tera Ghost and boots a lot, speed tier is very good and Wisp + Taunt is great utility.
Definitely a top glue mon in the tier, but it can be easy to chip so its very easy to overwhelm
Love this guy Salt Cure is really good and Spdef is cool into a lot of mons, doesnt like hazards though
I think this mon is a bit controversial at the beginning I was pretty underwhelmed by it, but then people started running Spex and its really easy for it to just completely overwhelm its checks and counters. SD Trailblaze is a pretty nice mixup as well.

Top 5 mons in the meta imo, in no order (keep in mind I ladder a lot so it might not be too accurate):






HM:

 

[lettuce]

Felt like posting smth but I'm too tired to have opinions, so I figured I'd share this goofy little stall team I made.

what does it do

I was actually trying to see if subseed sceptile would work when making this team, but it needed a special wall and spinner more than a sceptile, which led to this version!

These 3 are the physical walls on the team. I have rarely had them broken through by a physical threat. Palossand can handle any fighting type that isn't running a grass move, Orthworm can switch into Qwilfishes and threaten an iron defense sweep while also being able to sponge physical hits, and Palossand gets fighting types that threaten the other two, with cloak to prevent Decid hax. Palo also spinblocks and doesn't really care about what else most spinners can hit it with. These 3 also have basically every hazard to make your opponents feel like they are stepping on legos.

most replacable mon on the team, prob with a trace porygon2 to improve the matchup v special threats named typhlosion. However, pressure stalling something like a draining kiss is something that I've had to resort to, so I can defend the cuno. Tera poison is to resist fighting in the off chance that you run into a fighting type with a grass move since I copied it from a team that lacked 3 dedicated phys checks, and I didn't change it because i haven't faced a mesprit yet.

This is that spinner and special wall that I mentioned sceptile not being lol. Tera dragon is the only way this team can defensively deal with a typhlosion, and it's prob the tera I pick most. The EVs outspeed non-scarf typhlosion while giving more to the spd. Speed is kept because wheee fast spin. I've felt like having cuno + Cryo is more like getting around species clause than doubling up on weaknesses, since these are prob 2 of the most capable special mon destroyers on a team that could really use a second one of them.

And finally, YOU DARE DEFOG himself. Thought a defog deterrent would be a good addition, but I faced defog zero times with this team lol. However, having a cleaner and knocker is pretty useful on a team that would totally leave something with 40% hp.

If you lose with this team, it's probably because the opponent's special attackers aren't walled by 2 ice types, so be aware of that. However, outside of Typhlosion, most of them are setup mons that can't do much against 64 freeze drys and 96 hazes anyways.

 

[fish anemometer]

ZUPL teams i built. Some of the older weeks are outdated now, but go ahead and grab ideas. I think the zu builder is criminally underexplored in favor of "safe" teams that are about as mu fishy as cheese or weird. EVs aren't the same as real team but should give an idea.

w1
vs havocknight (W, W): - Dipplincuno. Very good team with speed, power, a lot of bulk, wincon and double phasing. Designed to withstand all kinds of cheese and not be passive which I think I succeeded at here. Hitmonchan def the weak link. Also used by Havock in w2 to win vs SK.
Mada vs asa (L) - Primeape spikes. Not sure why I thought this was ok to be brought, it was one of the "sample teams" I posted so my team had sth to test with but the team is pretty bad. Especially for that meta where scarf brux just outsped scarf rotom. Might be ok now but I still find defensive slash to be worthless garbage.

w2
Mada vs sufys (W): - Broken trio. Idea was simply that bruxish, zard and hecid are all broken so why not make a team with all 3 of them. I should've done this in more slots more often.
vs Danny (W): - Double dance Qwil. Danny haxes a lot so covert cloak on dudun, double dance qwil worked perfectly in game and brux was broken. Lurantis was a neat pick, I like it over physdef hecid as removal.

w3
vs Nunes (L, W, W): - Sky attack brav webs. I lost cause I had the wrong paste and couldn't kill sneasel with lugg LOL... I think this team is great and i got reqs with it with 1 loss and Nunes would later steal this and win 2 ZUPL games with it.
Baddy vs Leni (L): - just a generic spin on sun.

w4
vs Beraldo (L): - fsight farig. A cool team I built 5mins before my game. I was outplaying and would've won until all my momentum stopped when Decid was revealed to be wrong ability.
Baddy vs Avarice (L): - Diabolical paraflinch team. Sawsbuck can catch teams foregoing a normal immunity, which aren't always the most appealing builder choice. The team lost to specs typhlosion cause tera dragon was never clicked.

w5
Baddy vs ima (W): - Meteor beam ampha+throat spray dudun+eeveeto cramorant. This is one of my favorite teams I built. 4/6 mons have unconventional sets yet the team always worked wonders in test, and in game lead ampha killed 3 mons and left 2 crippled. Sand spit+endure is a bit tough but I found the sand chip is usually helpful.
Hiko vs Tuthur (W): - offensive cuno bird/normal spam voltturn. I found the cuno+dodrio core really deadly and easy to bring in and out. Copycat grafaiai worked out too and chips stuff for dodrio. The team is weak to Toxicroak/Sneasel-h to the point where I think tera poison might be right on cuno. However in game grafaiai was able to kill croak.

w6
Hiko vs Lax (W): - Triple hisui. Lugg+p2 are kinda like a skarmbliss core and blanket most of the meta. Fun team structure to build and unexplored by virtually any other team before this. Got lucky dodging scarf qwil gunk t1 in the game.
Baddy vs Bouff (L): - Same team as above but oriented towards hazard stacking. Baddy had sth else built for him but felt more comfortable with this. It kinda got farmed by fairy glastrier. Big lugg needs to be tera ghost or something.

w7
avarice vs Danny (W): - CB thwackey. It's a real threat. Most of the guys here appreciate a lil grassy terrain healing, wether it be to help with set up, or boost eruption or something. Still hate slash but with helmet+healing it's salvageable.
Baddy vs Taka (W): - Glast balance. Learned from w6 that fairy glast is broken and this team was pretty good into most things. Vika gave it some trouble in the game but from then on was smooth sailing as long as moves hit.
Hiko vs tko (W): - Catfish hazards offense. This team is pretty cool cause while it's offense it's much sturdier than a typical offense. Catfish is useful now without trode, although passive so red card is necessary, that item pairs nicely with stack anyway tho. Passi is the defog punish+knocker, zard is broken and bello is a neat wincon and water resist.
Mada vs Bloodace (W): - Originally specs venomoth>whims. I built this team in under 20 seconds because I didn't want havocknight to wait long between test games. But this did well in test vs multiple ppl. I thought whims would be a good call into bace but it ran into zard+orthworm. The game was rly goofy and I changed the sanda to a rhydon post games to have a real fire switch in.

ty for reading

 

[kyuss]

had some PU burnout last week and decided to hop into ZU a bit. Made 2 very succesful and somewhat unique teams and since i don't plan on playing much ZU in the near future decided to share:

How to ZU


First team i built based on some idea i've seen ayo using in PU (Destiny Bond + Revival Blessing). In the end decided to drop a bit this idea in order to solidify the team (rotom over mismagius) and it's much more solid and balanced. Had some issues with Electrode-h so might be a bit better now. The last slot is the one i've struggled the most to find someone suitable, tried Snorlax, Mabosstiff, Hitmonlee and even Slaking for the memes, while they worked, Toucannon has proven to be the best fit and helped me on the lat run. I think it's current #3 with a pretty high win ratio. I'm also glad i haven't checked viability rankings prior, as you can notice, most of the squad sits low there.

goofy missile in ZU

I've made a pretty successful team in PU recently based on Custap Cramorant and decided to give it a try in PU also. HO is not very friendly there it seems but i managed to make something out of it, as i post it sits at #1 in the ladder. Basically you start the game avoiding hazards and distributing residual damage with Cramorant, hopefully also some status and then proceed to be aggressive with your glass cannons. Pretty fun to use. I particularly love this Dugtrio-a that ALWAYS put in some work and recommend everyone giving this hairy goofball a try.

 

[diegoyuhhi]

big swiss dump, don't have time to write explanations rn, i might add them later but i might not who knows

r2 vs estra:
w
l
w

r3 vs feen:
w
w

r4 vs chung:
w
l
l

r5 vs tbg:
w
w

r6 vs tony:
w
w

quarters vs zause:
w
l
w

semis vs tuthur:
w
l
w

finals vs toto:
l
l

other teams not brought:

 

[asa]

UMPL IV team dump! I know my record isn't impressive, but big thanks to a fairy and Rasche for giving me a chance and believing in me the whole time anyway. Thank you also to the Sh(a)ymin as a whole for being insanely good at the video game and fun to interact with, and to big tony 2014, FlamPoke, and fish anemometer for the test games/insight. Not gonna spend too long on explanations (especially not for the unusable teams), but yeah enjoy.


Hadn't played much ZU after ZUPL ended for my team, so I wanted to load something safe against Toto. Flame Charge Charizard is the only standout thing here; it seemed like a good cleaner with all the ways this team can spread residual damage. This is when I learned Lanturn is terrible and banned it from all of my following teams.


This team is just a bunch of Pokemon I didn't use much until now, though the end result isn't super good. This is when I learned Charizard is terrible and banned it from all of my following teams.


I also made this for week two, but gulch was the one to bring it. Kinda wish we traded teams here because this one is like a way better version of what I ended up bringing. Choice Band Hisuian Decidueye is definitely outclassed by Hisuian Sneasel, but with paralysis support you kind of forget that. Defog Frosmoth is something I stole from PU that actually translates kind of okay to ZU, though it's definitely worse here.


Pretty simple hazard stacking build with some annoying VoltTurn to get Black Glasses Brute Bonnet in and break for Passimian and Mesprit. Poison Point in tandem with Tera Steel + Haze on Qwilfish was specifically to avoid losing to any setup Dudunsparce variant, Intimidate would probably have been more valuable overall but the snake was broken.


I wanted to use something different from my ordinary style of ZU building here, my teams until here felt pretty basic. Paraspam with multiple brokens to capitalize, most of all Dudunsparce. Despite having three Fighting checks and Tera Fairy on Dudunsparce, this team felt incredibly Fighting weak, so running into Bait's Fighting spam team was definitely a shock. I expected the game to go a lot worse for me, but thankfully Dudunsparce is broken and carried me.


Webs seemed interesting for dealing with Drip's more offensive teams, and this take on the playstyle was different from the Typhlosion team people (Drip included, I think) were using. I don't like this team much because it feels a bit too slow even for webs, but it won with a very fortunate turn 1, so I can't complain too much. It's also a pretty fun team imo.


FP and I agreed to Monotype ZU since our teams were both already in playoffs by now. I went with Ice because snow makes Glastrier and Frosmoth kinda broken, but I got a little unlucky in the actual game and lost.


The Mabosttiff lover finally uses Mabosttiff in tournament. The dog seemed great against all the defensive Mesprit that estra was bringing, and I figured it would get at least one in against their more passive builds. Past that, P2 and Weezing are Pokemon I never really use and wanted to give a try; suffice it to say, they put in overtime. tony was a huge help in coming up with this team, and he also stopped me from loading Rock Blast Orthworm here because I was scared estra would bring Oricorio vs me...


This team is terrible and was made in like two minutes. Choice Scarf Whimsicott and Defog Oricorio seemed like fun subversions, and Sneasel-H + Floatzel looked like a strong offensive core against a lot of FP's stuff, but it did not pan out at all.

Unused teams/ideas

Surprisingly, this team was made before Choice Scarf Decidueye-H was used in SCL and subsequently took over PU. This was the first thing I made when I was building for Toto, and it's... definitely a team. PyROAR aims to wear down grounded special walls in tandem with Spikes so that Jolteon can sweep. Tera Blast Rock on Hecidueye is for the obnoxious Fire-types, this guy gets no real Rock-type coverage. The idea of hazard stack + Roar popped up a lot in my builder, though I only brought in one actual game.


Bad, Virizion is awful.


Wouldn't bring this to anything serious, but Swords Dance Decid-H farmed me w1 and so I had to try it after that. Covert Cloak Palossand is something I believe Danny used in ZUPL, seemed like a fun idea for not losing to opposing Decid-H.



Pretty much the same team, but these were the rough drafts of what I brought against BaitWiz. More Swords Dance Decid-H, except this time it's SD + Roost because I believe GXE ran that in SCL and it seemed really cool with Tera Fire to dodge burns and potentially cheese Fires.


Woof woof.


The other webs team I made for the week I played Drip. Less good than the one I actually used, but still has some fun sets like Air Balloon SD Grafaiai, Muscle Band SD Hecid, and CM Roar Jolteon.


Choice Band Brute Bonnet + entry hazards. I don't use Snorlax ever, but TankLax is way better than Curse and didn't seem terrible against FP. OBB10 used a team similar to this against FP, though, and I grew less sure on Brutus after tony (the best ZU player ever) said it sucked.



tony suggested Choice Band Sneasel after Brute Bonnet disappointed, and that ended up being kind of boring to work with, so I went with something else: Protect + Leftovers Glastrier. The idea is that, in ZU, you rarely need to click SD with Glastrier to do anything and benefit more from just attacking most of the time. yo cho's experimented with Roar Glastrier before, but Protect seemed interesting for scouting what move stuff like Passimian clicks and staying healthy enough to trade all game. The Drifblim team was my first attempt at supporting the set, and the second one was what I came up with before concocting the awful actual finals team. Never EV'd Oricorio, but you can kind of EV it to do whatever you want really. Both teams looked inconsistent af, but they might work on ladder or something.

Probably not playing much ZU until the next team tour, so see you then :)

 

[FlamPoke]

Heyo, just got done with UMPL and wanted to drop the teams I used and talk a bit about my opinions on the current metagame. TLDR I had a ton of fun and am thankful to have been drafted, it was getting kind of late in the draft and a lot of the ZU slots filled up so Imperial was a legend for actually picking me after I told them I'd beat Toto at the bare minimum LOL. Our team environment was great and we fell shy of the trophy but still had a ton of fun.

Yapping

Hiding this because it isn't particularly pertinent to this thread, but wanted to say thanks to the handful of people who helped me with tests and stuff in UMPL, especially asa BaitWiz BloodAce estra Sputnik THE_CHUNGLER and wooper, all of whom were gracious with test games and would yap a bit which was nice considering my team had zero support. I know I'd ping you all randomly if I saw you online and you were generally available to help so thanks.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9zu-794601
This is actually a team I had built in late ZUPL that I enjoyed a lot, using it a bunch on ladder and in room tours. This team was good enough (minus the Honchkrow slander) to get included in the first batch of samples and is still one of my favorite recent teams I've built, so I was happy to secure a win week one with it.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9zu-797217
OBB was one of my top two players in the tour and I wanted to use this game as a way to establish myself a bit... I decided to use some cheese after he cheesed me in ZU Seasonal a while back and really liked this slightly updated version of my ZUPL team. Got a tad lucky with some flinches but feel like I should have been favored even without them, though it obviously was much easier with some help early. Snorlax is a really cool mon that I feel like I don't use enough, especially on terrain teams, and this was my first real exposure to how much of a menace Brute Bonnet can be.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9zu-800203
DripLegend week, which again meant a non-ZU mainer, though I had suspected he was getting fed teams by fish. Loaded a balance team that I built kinda sorta right before the game after not really liking some of my funny ideas I had that week (Maranga Dudunsparce)... EQ on Passi was a last second change over Gunk and helped vs Dudunsparce, which was really nice. AV Clawitzer is still one of my favorite sets to use since it already hits so incredibly hard, and the core of Mabosstiff and Passimian is really nice.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9zu-802227
Toto... the other top two player in the pool. I wanted to be very good into any kind of structure and have plenty of breaking power, and kind of felt like Gloom would be deceptively good vs him because he used a fair amount of Hisuian Decidueye and Passimian. This week was good for obvious reasons but also kind of forced me to adapt as he loaded Poliwrath and Shaymin, as my team structures were getting a bit complacent... This was a fun week to not have another ZU player in my team though because any reasonable person would have made fun of the Gloom + SpD Oricorio idea and I would have lost using some standard team.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9zu-804725
Feen was, in my mind, definitely going to load some sort of offense so I went with a Brute Bonnet balance that got into a matchup vs Trick Room. This week also showed me how Mesprit and Regirock together form a core that is practically unbeatable if played well, so you'll see that more in the following weeks.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9zu-805061
My loss... this team was admittedly not that great and I was so annoyed at Grafaiai for being a bad mon here. I wanted to stray from my norm a bit vs BaitWiz and thought Grafaiai and Lanturn looked like a good pivot core to position my winners vs him, though both of my setup sweepers lost to some unfortunate events.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9zu-806961
Not much to say, asa and I had playoffs locked so we decided to load Monotype to be fun like she mentioned above. I went with Poison because I was convinced it was broken and she'd load Fighting, though she brought Ice. I have been preaching Venomoth as a really sneaky good mon and am still convinced that it works well, though I think you need to run mono Bug Buzz with Toxic last - this was more of a Dudunsparce tech but it probably still warrants usage.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9zu-807991
I missed my game vs Toto in Semifinals because of irl stuff that was very unfortunate, but I got my chance to play regardless as we went to tiebreak this week. Our team actually really wanted to not ZU because of how good Toto and avarice had been, but they picked it first and I was a pretty obvious choice because of my record (and our lack of ZU players..). I was incredibly surprised they picked avarice over Toto. I felt like the two times we played their team thus far we loaded VERY favorable matchups into him just to lose because of unfamiliarity with the tier, so I figured he would not load HO and instead load more of a bulky offense / offense type of team. Using this, I decided Specs Jolteon and Band Hisuian Sneasel were a really good core to build with, as they really make life miserable for offensive stuff because of their immediate power and Speed, and I thought a bulky Braviary could also be insanely good. All three picks paid off and I won a clean game, redeeming myself after feeling bad about missing my Semifinals game on short notice. This was the team I probably spent the least time on outside of my week three game and I still think it was really solid and submitted it to samples.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9zu-809410
Running it back vs asa for Finals, who did NOT agree to play Monotype again... I thought a ton about this matchup and felt like an offensive core of Vikavolt as webs support plus two Swords Dance mons in Hisuian Qwilfish and Virizion would be very good given her overall weakness to Bug and Grass and only using Defog for removal thus far. I got a pretty nice matchup and played cleanly in my opinion. I had mentioned in ZU Discord how my last Mesprit in tiebreak was Healing Wish so loading it again was a bit greedy, though it just provided so much upside to give any of my setup mons another life. This was a really, really solid offense team to me and I was really happy with my prep and play this week vs one of the strongest opponents in the pool.

I want to speak a little bit about my opinions on the current metagame while I'm here, and I'll also do similar to asa and drop some other teams I didn't use or passed to my teammates. Overall I was really happy with the meta during this tour, I think Dudunsparce was a really good mon and could offer a ton of healthy elements, though I agree with its ban because of how insane it could be as well as an unstoppable setup monster. Even with Dudunsparce around I think the tier was healthy and all styles of teams were viable. I think the current VR could be overhauled quite a bit, as you'll notice the only Fire-type I brought was a defensive Oricorio - building with either Charizard or Typhlosion felt really bad to me this tour and I think they're not quite as good as they used to be. My 7/9 Mesprit usage speaks to who I think is truly the #1 mon in the tier, especially since I never dipped into the offensive sets that I also think are quite potent. My opinion on Hisuian Decidueye fell a bit throughout the tour, I still think utility sets are better than offensive and it's a good mon, but I had so many other things I wanted to use and try and Virizion was a really easy choice over it because of its Speed in my Finals game. Hisuian Sneasel is one of my favorite clickers in the tier, up there with Floatzel and Passimian as the best Choice mons for a team. I think losing Cramorant will be the biggest annoyance next month, as it really does so much for a team and can make so much progress in every matchup. I won't be in circuit playoffs (sobbing) but will probably still be active as a builder, so anyone who wants a sponsor or test games is free to hit me up whenever!

Teamdump

This team was used in our Finals week as well, with Kata losing because of her unfamiliarity with Swalot's game. I think this was a really cool team and used something I had been wanting to fit on a team all tour, Nasty Plot Alolan Persian. This felt so good into offense which we expected Ampha to load, and probably could have won if we used Regirock and our Tera more aggressively.


We loaded this vs avarice in Semifinals and unfortunately lost because we gave up a ton of progress early making some misplays, along with some pretty bad luck overall. I don't think stall is a great team style in this meta but this team felt really nice to pilot and had a lot of resources that could keep up with any offensive structure.


A really solid team with a great defensive core that enjoyed double Choice item Trick support. I liked this vs avarice too, we just let a lot of our momentum die when Hisuian Sneasel was given up early.


Like mentioned above, I had some stuff come up during Semifinals week so my prep was pretty poor and I missed my game anyway. Felt like this was a really out of the norm team structure for me and would do well vs Toto, though our sub decided to use stall instead.


My last team to drop, this was something I built in the middle of the tour and tried to revamp for Finals but never liked it enough to bring it. I never got around to using Glastrier and wanted to so badly but it was just a bit too tricky for me overall, though the bulky Rotom idea still seems solid.

 

[lettuce]

Kinda waited for a thread for this to exist, but there isn't one and its been too long to ask without being awkward. I've been working on a ZUOL teamdump/reflection since like Week 3, and it gave me a productive way to think about what I should have done against a Porygon2 that I really couldn't answer. Overall, I'm super glad I got the chance to not only play but to start, and for a 3k player who was just hoping to be picked up at the end of the draft, 3-3 isn't bad at all. It was fun seeing how the predicts went from 'idk he loads weird stuff' to the hurdles predicts (last????), to however you normally predict someone 2-x named LettuceLeaf07 vs Baddy or BloodAce, and for the only predicts in finals to circle back to 'idk.'

I built my teams each week (with help obv), unless you don't count finals bc Fish took the idea I had and made it actually good by making every set. As far as building as a whole went, I really didn't like the removal mons and I'm so glad that hazstack hasn't picked up in this tier because holy moly I would have been punished for it. Starting weeks 3-4, I knew I needed to not build things that camouflaged into my scout, which is hard when the only mons I knew how to build with were Mesp, Viriz, and Zard. It was also difficult to make sure I didn't forgo removal 6 weeks in a row, since I have no faith in any of the removal mons except Avalugg (and cryo but still). Each replay is linked to the words parts if you want to click on the ones I won, and click on the sprites for the teams.

W1 v. Fragments (L):
Building this week was crazy for me because I had too much free time on my hands. I spent most of the week developing this, which is as offensively potent as a delibird and often left me feeling like I didn't have the tools to win. After probably a lot of failed attempts, I basically built the team I used in one go. As for the game, I threw. I knew it was a bad idea to leave Qwil in on Mesprit because I lost games to this interaction on ladder before, but I thought I was faster that day for some reason. My other fatal flaw was having no idea Sneasel ran SD. Team was good imo, and I did double take every time I saw something that looked like these 6 on ladder or elsewhere for the following 2 weeks. After the game I immediately swapped sacred sword for CC on viriz because everyone else in the discord favored it and my choice didn't help me win. Psyshock was on Mesprit for Oricorio-s, so run a different psynoise move if you rip the paste.

W2 v. DripLegend (W):
Once again, a team that started crazy and became normal right before the game. Toto liked the Veluza, but Monai, Sleid, and Tuthur didn't, so I switched to SD Qwil. Sleid did some last minute tests with me and suggested Jolt>Ditto since I had a P2 for the Ori MU, and so the set isn't as optimized as I think it could be (it actually changed between transferring the team to smogtours so I got zard reqs with just boots jolt lol). You would never guess I was SD Qwil by the way I didn't click it turn 22. This was my second bad endgame in a row, and winning by triple para isn't something to brag about, but I'll take it for my first teamtour win ever.

W3 v. feen (W):
You'll never guess how building went this week. Here was Plan A. I brought the same team twice this tour and needed something different. I never got playing the HO team down, since tests on ladder killed it because I was using HO, but testing vs Sleid never went well. Tuthur's game made it clear to me that being Snorlax weak was a real problem with my team that I actually needed to address, and after an hour of theorycrafting (to land on Regirock) the team still had the same problem of "I suck with it." What I brought was just sitting in my builder as what I expected Danny to bring vs me. As for the game, I didn't throw the endgame this week, which is huge. I knew I needed my H-Qwil dead so I dont give anything a +1 atk and Zard was only good into Malamar (and maybe pass if i scouted for not rock slide) really, so I was fine with throwing those away. Other than Bpressing where a rock blast woulda been good and not predicting a regi switch once, I think I played pretty well, and I'm glad that their Passimian died before my Regirock did. Crit helped. After using this team more, I wouldn't use it today unless you like drop hqwil for Weezing, since the way I won was the only way I didn't hard lose to the entire fighting type.

W4 v. Baddy (L):
This actually was Plan A this week. Yes, I did have a crazy plan B to stay on-brand, but it was never seriously in contention, except for the fact that I think it has potential and therefore am not giving it out. Made this because Weezing was good into stuff like Passimian and Sandslash from the scout, and come game time it wasn't a bad team or that bad of a MU, except for the fact that I had basically nothing for that tera ghost charge beam P2. If I didn't click any buttons from turns 10-23 maybe I would have spent that time thinking of a better way to counter that thing than to sack 2 mons and tera water flip turn, but I opted for the former and put myself in the position where the person who sacked Lurantis on turn 11 had to perfectly position a Floatzel to win (aqua jet KO'd thwackey so i had a shot at least). This is the worst I played so far (and second worse overall imo), and I had messed up some endgames pretty badly.

W5 v. BloodAce (W):
I really liked Farigiraf + Glast in the w3 Plan A team, so I brought that into this team. I did have other teams in the builder in case I hated this, but I eventually realized this was the best team I had. Mesp > Hatt here bc I hate hatt and hazards cant hurt me, in addition to liking mesp having helm + not being just an hwish bot. Original draft had Sandslash + Lanturn as the last 2 mons, but they felt replaceable. Was less confident in this after doing tests vs Estra, Feen (who also loaded glast lol), and SBPC (where I played not thaaat well, sorry yall) it felt like nothing worked, but even more tests with Risin_glory proved that the TR team was better than the non-tr I was trying, so between that and getting more time playing the team in those tests, I once again felt really confident in this. In the game, I'm glad I didn't bring smth typical of me because it would have lost into BloodAce's team, I'm glad that they didn't load Regirock or charge beam P2, I was completely ready for Venomoth, and I was even more glad to see the FWG core for my late game tera dragon giraffe. I played incredibly safe against that Charizard (and calc'd lax for 55bp acro lol), and from there putting all my faith in Vikavolt worked out. Hwish mesp is almost clicked exclusively so I have a second Vikavolt when I need one, which should show you how much I liked this Vikavolt. I also somehow was not nervous this game once I started playing, which is very different when compared to uh, every other week.

Finals v. Michael Jordan (L): (you dont get this one im NOT facing this on ladder)
I did try building stuff for this week during semis, but between testing with both of the teams in semis last week and otherwise coming up with nothing, I basically had one Magneton in my builder lol. An old version of this PsyTerrain team was the only other thing I had that I also liked, and Fish basically rebuilt it and made all the sets better. From there, landing on replacing a Mesprit with a Spiritomb and then making p2 fast finalized the team. As for the game, I feel like I threw that really badly. The team on preview threw me off for how non-standard it was, and between that and the nerves of the situation (surely it wasnt just the camerupt), I didn't have a good read on my gameplan. I thought that the Camerupt + p2 + malamar was a trick room core (probably from memeing with contrary room service and that being the last time I remember using a malamar), and despite knowing I could take on a specs eruption camerupt with brav and killing the P2 early, I frankly forgot I was TR tomb on turn 26. By time I sacked my Malamar answer, my timer was low enough that I started to panic, which is the explanation for how I played that Braviary (I lived stone edge btw. i knew i didn't need tera and I realized how nice tera fire was for eating the viriz too...). The game wasn't over if I wanted to spam bulk up on my poli, but I wasn't even registering that the malamar was using superpower. I feel like this game could have gone so much better, but it didn't, and all I can do is learn not to panic, when to trust my gut, and most importantly, not to panic moving forward.

Despite how half of this post is 'man i threw this week,' I'm still pretty happy with how I did this tour, and I'm especially happy with my only real builder L being Charge Beam P2-related. I felt like an underdog each week (as a 3k with maybe one prior deep tour run), so I had both nothing and everything to prove, especially early in the tour when that stuff mattered. It's fun looking back, since I was definitely a lot worse a year ago.

how far ive come

I technically had my PS account back in gen 7, but I wisely emptied my builder when gen 8 started because I knew I probably would never need those teams again, since I was still learning that you do not run waterfall + surf on a Milotic that gen. Here's a really bad SM team, which was my only SM team from current gen, and I've been resisting the urge to drop it somewhere. Here's an older version with an atrocious Ampharos set that I particularly remember from someone in a roomtour randomly (and WRONGLY) predicting this to be agility ampha. I had to dig for that one, and no I am not better at SMZU today. If you're wondering why lead Lairon isn't rocks, it's because I'm cool and innovative like that (his words not mine). That is the only question I'll answer.

I was gonna close with shoutouts in a spoiler tag, but I'm feeling a little lazy, and while most of this post was written in broad daylight this part isn't. Thanks sleid and toto for drafting me, hope i was marginally worth the 3k. Thanks everyone who helped with tests/feedback/telling me not to run veluza, sceptile, klawf, and quaxwell, thanks risin for week 5 tests because that really helped lock in that week, thanks sleid for tests basically whenever you were free and being the voice of reason when i needed to scrap a team that wasn't working, thanks fish for help in finals (and by help i mean rebuilding my team and doing tests while i figure out what flavor of not running mesprit I wanted and agreeing to keep facing psyterrain). thanks lice for converting the entire cord into future gsc zu mains, and thanks skrimps for all the pre-draft hype

 

[RG Madao]

Defensive Core​

The team has a defensive core that is meant to facilitate Our two key trick room mons in Arbovila and Clawitzer. Alolan Persian's role in the team is to soak physical hits and fast pivot on bulky threatening pokemon. This way he can make our naturally bulky Arboliva get its ability off or help both flareon and Mesprit sustain easier. Foul Play ensures kills on pokemon that want to set up in your face. Tera Ghost to mitigate this team's biggest threat in Malamar. (Primeape is tied for threat level). Flareon finds itself on the team as a special sponge that can wish support the team in order to prolong Mesprit's Trick Room usage and keep the pivot strong as this team lacks hazard removal. With its incredibly high Attack Stat it can be the wall that is needed while also killing opposition with a natural strong flare blitz. We ale also running flash fire for will o wisp immunity while threatening stronger flare blitz and tera ground to catch choiced electrics out to regain momentum. We round out its moveset with scorching sands to catch regirocks and others on a switch for a burn fish. Lastly, Mesprit is rocking rocky helmet to chip key fighting types down enough to revenge with psychic or set up trick room and revenge with allied pokemon. U-turn for pivot and rocks for further chip/kill secure.​

1. Alolan Persian - Leftovers, Fur Coat, Tera Ghost, Bold, 252 HP/252 DEF/4 SpD.
   1. Parting Shot
   2. Foul Play
   3. U-Turn
   4. Snarl
2. Flareon - Leftovers, Flash Fire, Tera Ground, Sassy 252 HP/252 SpD/4 Attack
   1. Flare Blitz
   2. Wish
   3. Protect
   4. Scorching Sands
3. Mesprit - Rocky Helmet, Levitate, Tera Normal, Bold 252 HP/252 Def/4 SpD
   1. U-Turn
   2. Psychic
   3. Stealth Rock
   4. Trick Room

Burst Options​

Oddly enough this team features three pokemon with burst capabilities. First two are rather obvious in Clawitzer and Arbovila. The last being flareon due to its high natural attack. Clawitzer is given specs with Water Pulse to have high impact water damage at 100% accuracy and confuse chance. Aura Sphere so it can smack Regirock without worry if a Lanturn or Lapras is on the opposing team. Flip turn is needed for pivot as often times you need to chip the enemey team before you can just spam water pulse in trick room on Clawitzer. Last move can be anything you wish but I have landed on Dragon Pulse just so I wouldn't have to worry about dragons and everything it doesnt hit will not appreciate a water pulse or aura sphere from Clawitzer. Arbovila is the MVP of this team. Tera Fairy allows it to stay in on fighting types only to ohkoe in return with Alluring Voice. Hyper Voice and Alluring voice also allow it to come in an opposing substitute with little worry. Eject Pack lets us get of a giant leafstorm and either pivot if they have a switch answer or reset the stat drop to not allow a free set up turn for your opponent. Earth Power rounds up the set nicely for pesky fire and steel types that we don't want to deal with but will switch in. This thing HITS HARD. Lastly, Flareon does a lot of damage for a wall. its Flare blitz is two shotting a lot of the tier let alone after a flash fire proc. Also because of wish protect, opposing players will try to set up or switch on what they think is a guaranteed protect turn only for you to finish off whatever is in front while staying alive and healing back up.​

1. Clawitzer Choice Specs, Mega Launcher, Tera Water, Quiet, 252 HP/252 SpA/4 SpD
   1. Water Pulse
   2. Flip Turn
   3. Dragon Pulse
   4. Aura Sphere
2. Arbovila - Eject Pack, Seed Sower, Tera Fairy, Quiet, 248 HP/252 SpA/8 SpD
   1. Hyper Voice
   2. Alluring Voice
   3. Leaf Storm
   4. Earth Power

Sweeper​

This is probably the most vulnerable to change pokemon on the team. Sneasel-Hisui was brought on for its speed and ability to press swords dance or Hone Claws. Its presence gives us a strong Close Combat and Gunk Shot to free up Arbovila to spam hyper voice against or to get rid of pesky bulky fairy types. Tera Dark lets us stay in on prankster pokemon while also granting us an immunity to its number one weakness in psychic type moves. Throat Chop can be changed but is clutch in a niche scenerio. We could pop on a life orb but i find eviolite better as it lets it live a suprising amount of hits while still returning decent damage. Its ability Inner Focus allows us to stay in on fake out users and one shot them in response. This increases its longevity once set up. Also solid against mons stuck in dark pulse.

1. Sneasel-Hisui - Eviolite, Inner Focus, Tera Dark, Jolly, 252 Atk/252 SPE/4 SpD
   1. Hone Claws/Swords Dance
   2. Gunk Shot
   3. Close Combat
   4. Throat Chop

Focus on Pivots​

This team excells at consistently shifting the playfield into its favor. We have a myriad of options with U-Turn, Flip Turn, Parting Shot, and Eject Pack that allows us to lead with a strong Leaf Storm to pressure hazard set ups with little downside. Trick Room becomes extremely viable when we can hard switch or pivot into the correct option which can in turn pivot into our offensive momentum. The trick is to ensure little to no hazard set up on your side and if it does get set up keeping flareon as a key strategy to heal up your pivots.

Examples of Play​

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9zu-2355636657 - ZU Lobby Tournament Final
2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9zu-2355622103?p2 - Sneasel vs Prankster finish

 

[MasterSang]

https://pokepast.es/0cc23951319f82e4 - Abomasnow balanced

First time posting, no idea how to use sprites so I just took a screenshot in teambuilder instead ...

The idea behind this team is to enable Abo as a special attacker whilst not making it take too many hits since so many things can hit it super effectively.

The speed investment with Scarf lets Abo outrun up to base 112 speed mon (Lycanroc) or base 59 with Scarf (Clawitzer). I decided to switch to Soundproof + Ice Beam instead of Snow Warning + Blizzard for the following reasons:

• It wins Vikavolt mu instead of getting destroyed by Bug Buzz (people still click Bug Buzz into it even at higher ladder).
• Managing snow turns for Blizzard accuracy can get quite clunky sometimes.
• Tera Ground + Soundproof completely blanks Jolts that don't have any coverage move other than Alluring Voice (which is pretty common).

This mon has only 1 useful special coverage move in Earth Power so that's a no-brainer, and since it has no other useful coverage moves, Leech Seed lets it provide a bit of utility to the team, especially against tanky things like Lax, which is much more reliable than clicking Focus Miss.

Weezing is a general check against physical threats. Tera Water gives it a better mu against Glastrier and Float.

Vikavolt provides web support to help Abo and Misma outrun things that they can't otherwise. Its paralysis spreading with Discharge also helps this further. It also deals with most common Orthworm sets fairly well. Tera Steel lets it deal with Minior.

Mesprit is here for the utility it provides. Tera Fire is mainly to tank Specs Eruptions from Typh.

Komala doubles as special check + utility support. Tera Ghost lets it block a spin attempt from Cryo and freely spam Body Slam/Knock in its face.

Mismagius rounds out the team as a fast revenge killer with access to STAB Hex, which synergizes well with how easy this team can spread status. Dazzling Gleam is an obvious coverage move with Tera Fairy. Power Gem is mainly to hit Articuno and various Fire mons. Psyshock to hit things like AV Muk and CM boosted Jolt. The speed investment lets it outrun up to base 100 speed mons. There are so few relevant mons in the tier with base speed between 101 and 105 (basically only Cryo and itself) so I decided to save those extra EV for special def instead.

Highest I got with this team on ladder is top 50. In my experience it does well against other balanced teams as well as stall teams but can struggle against HO teams (especially trick room HO) depending on the mu.

 

[diegoyuhhi]

the 2 main teams i used when laddering for the suspect

- lilligant sand
my favourite sand structure rn, mainly just a revamped version of the one i brought vs bloodace in circuit finals. after hippo sets up the sand (it's running stone edge for mons like zard and corio), slash and lycan abuse it by becoming incredibly fast (with the former boasting the ability to setup and the latter being able to just punch holes), and probo becomes a trade machine thanks to its good bulk and high damage potential. lanturn helps check threats such as floatzel, and it's using an offensive set with a custap berry for some extra surprise value; meanwhile lilligant works as a mowtom softcheck and a setup wincon that also abuses sand by turning weatherball into a rock type move, destroying mons like zard. this latter duo is also very helpful in the sun matchup.

- specs typh semistall
another revamped version of an old team of mine (original had hecid > lur), an amazing stall structure with a fantastic breaker in specs typh. naclstack checks a buttload of stuff and sets up rocks; lurantis defogs, handles stuff like float and mowtom, and is the main wincon of the team thanks to superpower + leaf storm; cuno checks practically any special breaker either pre or post tera, and with uturn it provides a safe entry point for typh; and weezing helps lurantis by switching in on basically any physical attacker. tera types could be improved but these are the ones i've been liking the most (i've been very back and forth between poison and dark on lur but dark helps with mesprit more). typh punches holes through defensive cores to shorten game lenghts (especially relevant when using stall in a metagame as fast as this) and ditto is able to revenge kill a wide array of fast threats.

 

[sketchy ecchi]

Reverse Sticky Web Team

Hello ZU, it's been a minute. I wanted to share a fun gimmick team that I've been using to some success on the ladder. The strategy is simple- to set up Sticky Webs and use the move Court Change to move webs to my side of the field. I can't remember where I saw this idea first, but it has been used in other tiers and I also ran into some guy using the same strategy on the ladder as well. Shout out to that guy!

I experimented with different mons and sets and settled on the following. This version features Focus Sash Vikavolt to set webs and Choice Scarf Smeargle to follow up and use Court Change (and probably just die). This is a pretty costly strategy as it's saccing possibly two mons just to set field conditions. However, the abusers are quite powerful. Gothitelle and Falinks take advantage of webs by recieving +2 to SpAtk and Atk respectively, and Malamar and Servine get +1 Speed from Contrary. This gives mons a permanent boost on switch-in which they can use to sweep, or just wallbreak.

I really enjoy finding creative and unique ways to teambuild, and maybe it's just me, but something about the newer gens makes it feel harder to find gimmicks (no perma weather, assist nerf, etc.). Nevertheless, I was happy to come up with this team and it was a lot of fun to play. I will wrap things up with a fun replay that also shows off a lot of potential for these mons' movesets. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9zu-2406239213?p2

 

[Tuthur]

Week 1 - JJ09LIE vs Chaos23333

Two years, I built a Gastly team for JJ and he adored it (especially because I couldn't win a single test game against him). I figured out I should try out Haunter as it's a Pokémon I also like to build around when given the opportunity and that Cherbou had used during LTWC. Toxic Spikes were at their best at this point, so I figured out a Pokémon that could double up on spinblocking + setting them couldn't be bad. I also wanted to try Granbull as an alternative Spiritomb check over Whimsicott. Put a physical Zard because Chaos' LTWC scout only had Lanturn and Snorlax as checks, and well it paid off in the game. Mesprit+Rotom-Mow+Sandslash because back then that was just the filler on most of my teams.

Week 1 - Tuthur vs Metallica126

This team was bad and I threw. I really wanted to make Primeape work, but I came at a point in the week where it was too late to build something else and couldn't reuse.

Week 2 - JJ09LIE vs Django

You can tell I made that shit on phone, because I didn't even reorder Pokémon alphabetically. Django only had one game in his scout, so I just asked JJ what he wanted to use. As he loves silly Pokémon, he picked Farigiraf and I built the team around the idea of Floatzel + Rotom-Mow attract Grass-types that are set-up fodder for Farigiraf. Charizard rounded up the FWG core, Sandslash made for an Electric immunity + SR, and Lanturn was Zard check + additional pivoting. Eventually Farigiraf did put a lot of work and demolished Django's team once positionned on Rotom-Mow.

Week 2 - DDJoe vs Michael Jordan

So this is not exactly a team I build for ZUPL, as I used it in LTWC against PTK. DDJ wanted a Trevenant team and that's what I had ready while on vacations. We lucked that poor MJ after donating our Trevenant which farmed that match-up. I think it's kinda funny to see the paste with such outdated spreads, why is Snorlax spread like this? why was Floatzel so problematic my Mesprit was Tera Dragon? why was Trevenant Rest? why did we convince ourselves Weezing needed to outspeed Clawitzer?

Week 3 - JJ09LIE vs diegoyuhhi

So week 3 was the week people started complaining about that shitass Pokemon named Bellossom, so I figured out we could try it. diego's scout was also demolished by BD Zard so I wanted to try this too. I just ended up making up some HO (that I still couldnt test because on vacations). Well diego's team ended up being completely destroyed by BD Zard, but he got a lucky crit; I'm feeling a bit sad, because I almost made the Zard tera Dark for Prankster Encore and that would have made an amazing gif, but w/e, JJ still won because he's the best.

Week 4 - Tuthur vs MAVERICK SHOOTERS

So this is very boring? When I ended up on that pokepast.es, I couldn't believe I brought something so boring. I was 0-10 in ZUPL games at this point and didn't want to lose to stall of all things. Well, I think my team wasn't great, but it somehow won, which I didn't believe I could do after my Passimian got frozen, but w/e, it felt good to win; especially against zause's teammate after he couldn't shut it about me being 0-10.

Week 4 - JJ09LIE vs Danny

I just said JJ is the best, so please don't watch this game. Team was a recreation of the cool team Metallica had brought against me, and JJ asked to change Jolteon for Tomb.

Week 4 - One Last Kiss vs Taka

Taka really wanted to use some HO, but I didn't like the paste, so I adapted it. I don't have much to say about it, we didn't test it much and it's probably full of holes, but despite losing, I believe it had the tools to win.

Week 5 - Tuthur vs Dead by Deadlight
Week 5 - Taka vs feen

DBD never brought Tspikes absorbers, so I just wanted to bring Tspikes + Tomb and win. The plan would have worked if DBD didn't get so lucky; I guess I should have had a second Pokemon faster than Mesprit so it didn't come up to getting a paralysis with 2 Body Slam, hitting a Gunk Shot, or not losing the tera mind game. Taka also used that team and got a match-up just as free against no removal, and it felt good to see the team win.

Week 5 - JJ09LIE vs kyuss
Week 6 - Taka vs Trichotomy
Week 7 - FlamPoke vs LBN

Despite how great JJ is, he has his vice and asked to cheese this week... So I made some evil team that would make you regret voting DNB on Oricorio (why is that not banned, but Bellossom is??). JJ won because, well, Oricorio actually is broken (shockers). Taka used it week 6 and while Oricorio was totally garbage in that game, Mesprit almost went with the game (but got crit) and Dodrio finished it (I hope fish was proud of it). FlamPoke reused it week 7 and probably could have won if he didn't get lucked (or if he tera fired the Farigiraf).

Week 6 - JJ09LIE vs yo cho

So yo cho was obsessed with Bellossom, so I went with Swalot. Made it SD because passive shits aren't viable in that tier. I also had a Gurdurr because it fucks with Lax and Sneasel, two Pokemon yo cho likes. rest was kinda boring VoltTurn + Lax to wall special threats. Well the shitmons won, because we matched into a very standard yo cho team.

Week 6 - Tuthur vs esteb4n

No trashtalk, because esteb4n is my french bro, but I wanted to punish pekos for their use of Snorlax as only special check, so went with Ghost Doom + Ghost Oricorio. The Def EVs on Houndoom let it live U-turn from Mesprit behind Sub (something that would have been useful to have during tb :disguised_face:). Oricorio did Oricorio things (shockers) and then I just had to not be unlucky to win.

Week 7 - JJ09LIE vs TJ

TJ's ghost checks were kinda bad in the scout, so I wanted to bring back Trevenant. Basculin seemed like a good Pokemon for that, inviting Grass-types in; however TJ brought a Grass-type that beats Trevenant u_u. We had Mesprit + Sandslash because it's a generic core that always works, Charizard to complete the FWG core and Sneasel for Speed and Tspikes absorbtions. Despite JJ losing, this was a pretty cool game.

Semi-finals - Tuthur vs yo cho

I still wanted to take advantage of yo cho and fish always building the same kind of teams. Bastiodon and Volbeat both seemed great into them and have good defensive synergy if paired with Lanturn. I added Arboliva for immediate power, Hitmontop for removal, and Mesprit for Speed. Both Bastiodon and Volbeat gave a lot of trouble to yo cho and I think that was quite funny.

Semi-finals - JJ09LIE vs fish anemometer
Semi-finals - Taka vs Trichotomy
:
sleid suggested to bring Malamar and he couldn't have been less wrong about it. I don't really remember the reasoning behind the rest of the slots, but it worked well at enabling Malamar. Well Malamar didn't come out against fish, but it honestly farmed at preview. I don't think we played very well the other semi-final game, and I think it had potential with Toxic Spikes up if Whimsicott was thrown away so quickly.

Semi-finals tiebreak - JJ09LIE vs yo cho

So after owning Pekos really hard (6-2 in SV with some games being totally one sided), I knew they would switch up the paste of their team and adapt to the very boring nature of the two teams I built for semis. Both teams were slow af and used some bulky wincon spamming a Fight-move. We also brought Toxic Spikes in all 4 games (counting FP there), so a Poison-type was coming. Finally all of our team really shat on Bellossom, so it wasn't coming. With that in mind, I planned on building a faster paced team, with Houndoom to take advantage of the potential Snorlax and Spiritomb (the Pokemon that owns Bastiodon and Malamar). So I went for some fast paced VoltTurn, as I expected some mid Speed breaker like Clawitzer or Magmortar, and on paper I think we had a good match-up as beside Snorlax all my calls were correct, we probably could have won with some different lines. Well done to yo cho and the rest of Pekos. I'm proud of you JJ for going to tiebreak when I felt low.

Tone of the post was kinda fun because it was long to write and most teams will be obsolete in 2 days (some already are). ZUPL is fun, don't get mad if I made a little fun of you.

 

[diegoyuhhi]

ZUPL TEAM DUMP

week 1
me vs danny (l) - sd samu bo
i had built this crackhead sd samu team, i didn’t know what to load w1, i took a look at danny’s scout and this seemed good into it. sd samu is a funky breaker with some interesting applications like megahorn for mesprit and grasses. helmet shay is smth i was loving the days before zupl started thanks to its good allrounded stats letting it check a wide array of threats (float being the main one, but also stuff like mowtom). av offensive slash was a set i wanted to try, and i packed tb fairy since the team kinda struggled into tomb otherwise. spdef mesprit for stuff like zard and tomb for heasel and friends rounded up the defensive core and pass gave me speed control. i think the game came down to a 50/50, had i just gone shay on slash i could’ve won it, but both lines were fair and danny just took the correct one.

week 2
me vs sufys (w) - specs mesp + vic hstack
started with the idea of specs mesprit since they often packsd scarce psychic resists + hazards to pressure lax, which was their main special wall on a lot of teams. rotom is an interesting spinblocker which i was testing a lot before zupl started, wisp hex + pivoting + ground immunity is a very nice combination of traits. whiscash is a solid spdef tank and zard/jolt check with access to both hazards which is nice. min speed max atk roar glast is a good trade machine thanks to its massive bulk and great damage output, can roar out setup sweepers if they get out of hand, and min speed helps beat tomb under tr. i then wanted a grass and speed control so i slapped in a mowtom completely forgetting about species clause i added pass and defensive vic, which i thought had a sick niche i had never considered before, but it turns out many other ppl came up with it in the same week and continued using it a lot in the weeks going forward. game went flawlessly.
shadow vs career ended (l) - dodrio gterrain
i had built this during like, circuit poffs? and i included it into a teamdump i made at the beginning of the tour for teammates; shadow liked it and wanted to bring it. dodrio is a pretty unconventional mon but flying + fighting coverage is pretty nice in the tier and it can click sd on quite a few mons, esp with the grassy seed defense boost. farig does farig things, and bello was yet to be considered broken, but it's still a qder => busted. jolt and regirock appreciate the extra passive recovery and pseudo ground resist. unfortunately no removal setup spam into hazard stack stall was possibly the worst matchup we could've gotten.

week 3
me vs jj (l) - cb perr + subseed whimsi
imma be 100%, i didn't love this team. cb perr looked good into a lot of recent tuthur teams by matching up well into their common defensive cores, and subseed whimsi both looked good and was smth i wanted to try. rest of the team is very basic but also very slow and passive and lacking big power and and and. slash is still a terrible mon but speedy slash is kinda less so, even tho packing rocks + spin on it really sucks. liqui on lanturn is the anti sub cm jolt/non tera corio tech which NEVER hits, and relying on lefties + protect instead of resttalk for healing on a team with a terrible remover and 1 boots mon is kinda not it. focus punch zard hits lax hard which was otherwise pretty annoying to switch into. scarf mesprit is scarf mesprit. i still think that bringing drumzard into ditto spammer was a crazy choice but it worked out so who am i to judge, after it destroyed my defensive core and i got bailed by a crit i still didn't have enough tools to deal w the rest of the team.
ho3n vs ddjoe (w) - sub heasel + av arbo
av arbo was smth that had been on my radar for a while, thanks to its combination of good damage output + solid defensive applications + unusual longevity for an av offensive threat, and heasel looked good into their scout, with sub being a decent anti weezing tech. helmet mesp is helmet mesp, psychic over noise helps w slash, and regirock is fairly standard w twave over rocks, which i thought could fit ho3n's liking. vika is an unusual sight on balance but here it works as a secondary check to stuff like mowtom and pass, a way to give the team pseudo speed control thanks to webs, and a solid offensive pivot to create a voltturn core with mesprit and band float, the team's main breaker, which appreciated the free entries its partners could give him. we played pretty terribly but we still manage to somehow get a win.

week 4
me vs b8 (w) - double fairy balance
the original team was smth pretty different from this, with ditto for anti cheese, the "double fairy" combination of np mesp + specs whimsi to break down checks for each other, and muk to check way too many things. team was feeling decent the first days but i lost EVERY SINGLE test game (even games on ladder) the day before the game so i scrapped it. this new version suffers hazards much less thanks to slash + more boots, and still keeps the "double fairy" core, while switching to boots whimsi for anti setup. orth is a bit unconventional nowadays but i really liked having spikes on this build and i wanted a lax check and smth that could switch in on various physical attackers at least a few times (float being the main one). game was admittedly a bit sloppy but we brought it home in the end.
shadow vs lbn (l) - claw offense
another team from my teamdump, this time one i built for kebab during ltwc. claw is a stupidly strong special breaker, and i paired it with fellow special threats that appreciate special walls being broken down in jolt and zard. jolt in particular also works as a much needed voltblocker and subcm can sometimes win games on its own. helmet mesprit is helmet mesprit, and glast is kind of a catch all check by being a great trade machine with practically anything, here again with the min speed roar set. pass gives speed control. ho3n was meant to bring the team he ended up bringing in week 5, but he didn't show up, so shadow had to emergency sub in and just grabbed this. this team is so offensive that it relies on doing more damage than the opponent in a short time span and using the mons' natural bulk and defensive typings to check threats, and we did exactly the opposite.

week 5
me vs leni (w) - malamar bo
i really wanted to use malamar cause it looked great into shiis, and camel cause they had a lot of jolt and mag. malamar looked great because most of their anti setup relied on stuff like sableye, and it also served as a good bello check which they were spamming (especially acid spray). camel originally had rocks but i realised i wanted all 3 atks and roar on it. scarf mowtom and band float are a tried and true offensive pivot core, and they looked like very good fits here. fast helmet weez checks fighters and other physical guys and can dbond on stuff like defensive mesprit, which really opens up malamar. clef was the last mon i added to the team, checking a couple of needed boxes, being a tomb check, a encore user, a way to lift some pressure off of weez when facing multiple physical guys, and a way for camel to not run rocks. they ended up bringing a weird stall team against which camel had a fantastic mu, and the game finished way sooner than what i could've predicted at preview.
ho3n vs chung (l) - bello + drumzard ho
team that was meant to be brought in w4, ho3n wanted some ho and i kinda copied tuthur's idea for jj's team vs me with bello + drumzard. mental herb on bello helps vs sableye and whimsi, which they were using a pretty good amount of. froslass is a pretty standard suicide lead, setting up spikes and dbonding stuff. trailblaze heasel has been a bit off the radar but it can be a crazy good wincon in some games. subcm jolt gives some offrip speed control and simply does classic busted subcm jolt stuff. lvl99 tomb is an interesting tech which can dissuade your opponents from setting up tr with their tomb to not get revenged by your slower tomb, and viceversa (not letting them revenge your tomb under tr with their tomb). we played like ass, and yea we lost a speed tie which would've won us the game, but still, that's really not how we should've won the game.
tnk vs metallica (l) - medi + cuno voltturn
life orb medi was the main idea considering they didn't have much mesprit on scout, and it looked very strong into their lax + weez builds. magnet also looked good into a lot of slash, and it could pivot on lax (their main spdef mon) to safely bring medi in position. whimsi and cuno also provided medi with free entry points, and they both dealt with setup (which they were running a lot of) in different ways, via prankster encore and haze. regirock does regirock things and fast weez once again to potentially trade with mesp via dbond to open up medi. i think this is one of the most fun teams i've built whole zupl, despite it not working in the game; i also think that our play wasn't perfect, we used our medi way too aggressively early in the game and we should've kept whimsi around at the end even just for mindgames. articuno losing to bello 1v1 just in virtue of being burned is still kinda wild to me ngl, and this game ended up being one of the main arguments that lead to bello suspect.

week 6
me vs mj (l) - taunt heasel + komala hstack
i wanted to heasel cause i hadn't run it yet and it looked pretty good, especially taunt, and bello for the two same reasons. covert cloak acid spray lets it beat a lot of things 1v1, especially after you tera poison. sableye was there for anti setup and to spinblock their massive slash usage, while whiscash set up hazards and served as a needed zard check. scarf mesprit felt like the best speed control there, with its solid bulk also helping lift some burden off the not-so-bulky defensive pieces in a pinch. komala is not a great mon but it felt ok there, giving me spin, an extra knock user, and another pivot to give stuff like heasel and bello better entry points. play rough with the atk investment i have helps pressure tomb and sableye. i just completely glossed over sigma sneasel in prep and my team was admittedly very weak to it, so ig good bring by mj, tho i'm still kinda mad about the early game crit on bello, even tho i probably shouldn't have gone for it.

week 7
me vs yo cho (l) - ebelt mesp + ape
i had had this team's idea already for like 2 weeks, and even tho it looks very out there it did quite good in tests. ebelt rocks mesprit was the main idea: i realised they often used slash to switch into mesprit, and ebelt eball could one tap it not letting it spin, while also hitting stuff like regirock and lanturn. psyshock pressured lax better and sball did massive damage in the mirror mu. drifblim is a pretty wild pick but it did what i wanted it to, being walling lax, while checking heasel and pass and keeping rocks off the field. going bold with 64 hp lets you live pass knock with item into knock with no item from full which is cool. ditto was anti cheese, and primeape was there to punish uturn while abusing bello. lanturn checks your classic special offensive threats candidates, with flip turn breaking jolteon sub. zard rounded out the team by being a whimsi check and a way to have more immediate damage. i think this would've been great into classic fish/yo cho builds, but i didn't account for the fact that yo cho was likely going to hail in a week that didn't matter, and the team was pretty damn weak to it.
xrn vs codex (w) - lurantis + ditto bo
xrn's debut in sv was against another player with almost no experience in the tier, so i just wanted to give him something solid to just outplay. specs jolt looked good, so i started from that. lurantis is a solid spdef grass that also provided removal and a pinch bello check; helmet mesprit and lax rounded out the defensive core, with the latter running a less standard curse protect set, since i thought we could afford it with removal and help on the spdef side from lurantis, while better pressuring stuff like tomb. ditto felt very needed against very likely cheese, and heasel is always a good mon. the game itself was a little sloppy but for being xrn's debut it was actually pretty solid.

semis
me vs lettuce (l) - vic + chan voltturn
defensive vic looked pretty incredible into crams sv, doing well into their big jolt and whimsi usage, while also checking a lot of the physical breakers they were bringing. i also realised i had 0 jolt on scout so i decided why not and slapped specs on the team. resttalk lax + helmet mesp is always a goated defensive core, especially with vic lifting some pressure off of mesprit, particularly against certain mons like heasel and basc. speaking of basc, i felt like it was the best speed control option here, and it also gave me an extra pivot to bring jolt in. chan was the last thing i added on the team, and i preferred it to top because of his access to knock, which felt relevant to click on stuff like mesprit. i was originally av with mach but twitt suggested sd, and after a couple test games i realised i really liked it. i got the matchup i wanted and i played pretty well overall, but that throw in the endgame might be the biggest one i've ever done, i still think about it to this day, and i'm fucking mad.
xrn vs lbn (l) - viriz + pyroar webs balance
vika felt very good into lbn, and after all my webs ho attempts failed miserably, i decided to go back to webs balance. viriz was another mon that felt really good into lbn, especially with the power boost from lo, with zhb sniping weez and a slowed down heasel. a fast fire also looked good into the scout, and i settled on pyroar over the more standard zard because of its speed tier (yes apa) outspeeding opposing zard, a more powerful secondary stab that also hit lanturn for neutral, and access to taunt to pressure lax and regirock in tandem with wisp. helmet sableye spinblocks slash and non-pads top, while checking stuff like heasel and lax and providing anti-setup via prankster encore. offensive cash provided rocks, a zard/jolt check, a voltblocker, and a way to snipe unsuspecting grasses via max spatk ice beam. glast is still a great trade machine and it worked well as a catch-all defensive/offensive piece. this game happened to be the decisive one, and i think it was overall played pretty solidly despite the tight endgame loss.