Metagame SV Draft League General Discussion

Lady Writer

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relating to the point distribution of the different levels of tournaments for the circuit, I think that the point distribution should be a little more fair towards the lower tier tours. Right now, there's very little incentive to play in the type b and c tournaments because doing well in type a has a far greater impact than type b or type c, with the current system putting type a at about 3.33x greater than type b and about 5x greater than type c. In past circuits that i've seen these types of tiered tournaments, the lower point ones have been far more valuable than these. I would propose a 500/250/125 or 500/300/150 type spread for a, b, and c type tournaments respectively rather than the current 500/150/100 for the winners.
 

SparksBlade

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relating to the point distribution of the different levels of tournaments for the circuit, I think that the point distribution should be a little more fair towards the lower tier tours. Right now, there's very little incentive to play in the type b and c tournaments because doing well in type a has a far greater impact than type b or type c, with the current system putting type a at about 3.33x greater than type b and about 5x greater than type c. In past circuits that i've seen these types of tiered tournaments, the lower point ones have been far more valuable than these. I would propose a 500/250/125 or 500/300/150 type spread for a, b, and c type tournaments respectively rather than the current 500/150/100 for the winners.
The reason for that is there is one Type B event (Classic) which has three tournaments that give points + playoffs that give additional points. With a very rough estimate of how many points one would need to secure Top 16 at the end of Circuit, we decided that to qualify from the Type B events alone you should need to do well in all three + in playoffs. We only have two Type A tours while other Tier Circuits have more Type A tours so they're not outnumbered too heavily by Type B + Type C tours. Another issue was that we wanted to give points for each individual Classic Cup as well, which is usually not common in other Circuits. For example Ubers only gives Type B points for playoffs, and no points for any of the individual Cups. In most circuits the idea, I believe, is that non-current gen/non-Type A tours shouldn't make it too easy to qualify. Together the Type B and Type C tours still give you a significant amount of points without making it too easy to qualify from them alone. That said, we'll still take any feedback or suggestions on the points system with the main points I mentioned earlier in mind.
 

Dorron

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Time to revive the thread.

I'm eliminated from the kick-off tour in Round 3, and even though I went 4-0 in the groups stage, I don't feel I've made a great tour overall. Groups stage games didn't feel like a challenge, both teambuilding and playing.

My team
1674474123158.png


To begin with, I didn't like my draft at all. I lacked realiable hazard removal, picked mons with limited movepool due to the new gen, picked Ceruledge which needs Tera to really perform, and had a pretty obvious six mons to bring to battle. Moreover, I thought we were fighting the other people from the same draft pool, which made me choose counter picks. Overall not comfortable with my team and decissions.

Groups games
Before anything, I want to clarify that after my poor draft, I decided to play the games with absurd sets to have some fun. Some sets will look very questionable so expect anything.

Game 1. Zer0
1674474137692.png

Zer0 was my first game and I was honestly scared from Dondozo and Espeon, and I didn't know what to build if I'm honest lol.
:baxcalibur: :ceruledge: :glimmora: :roaring-moon: :gardevoir: :gyarados:
:sv/baxcalibur:
Baxcalibur @ Lum Berry
Ability: Thermal Exchange
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Ice Shard
- Tera Blast
- Dragon Dance
- Glaive Rush
Simple spread. Maximum investment in Attack, enough Speed to outspeed Meowscarada after a Dragon Dance and the rest in HP. Glaive Rush hit everything but Scizor and Sylveon which were hit by Tera Blast. Didn't need more coverage so chose Ice Shard in case the chomper became a problem. The item made absolutely no sense as I can't be burnt. Probably didn't know what to run and forgot to change it.

:sv/ceruledge:
Ceruledge @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Weak Armor
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 40 Def / 216 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bitter Blade
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond
- Endure
Yeah I know this looks horrible but made a bit of sense back then. Spread is to outspeed Scarf Meowscarada after Weak Armor. Their only Fire resists were Garchomp and Dondozo, both of which were easily lured by Ceruledge. Endure allowed Weak Armor to trigger and outspeed Garchomp to take it with Destiny Bond, while Taunt ensured Dondozo would attack me instead of using Curse or Rest. Weakness Policy was used as a way to scare the opponent and lure them into attacking me so I could use Destiny Bond easily. Unlike the other games, I run Ceruledge over Slowking simply because the King had nothing to do against their whole team (Scizor, Meowscarada, Rotom, Volcarona...).

:sv/glimmora:
Glimmora @ Focus Sash
Ability: Toxic Debris
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 Spe
Bold Nature
- Power Gem
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Mortal Spin
I was on drugs or something but this actually makes no sense considering they have a fucking Espeon and I lead with Glimmora lol. Basically I hit everything with Power Gem and the rest is hazard stacking as their only hazard control was Espeon and Scizor who lacks recovery. Enough Speed to outspeed Adamant Scizor and the rest in HP and Defense.

:sv/roaring-moon:
Roaring Moon @ Haban Berry
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 16 HP / 252 Atk / 240 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fire Fang
- Crunch
- Dragon Claw
- Roost
The staple of the team. Spread hits 334 to outspeed Garchomp, I didn't give a fuck about Espeon for some reason. The moves are pretty self explanatory, Roost 3 Attacks to cover their whole team. Haban Berry here to be able to tank an Outrage from a potential Scarf Garchomp or just in case I needed Roaring Moon to switch into it.

:sv/gardevoir:
Gardevoir @ Babiri Berry
Ability: Trace
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 120 HP / 252 SpA / 136 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Mystical Fire
- Moonblast
- Thunder Wave
- Healing Wish
My only special attacker which has served as good utility every game. Spread outspeeds Adamant Scizor so we could still roast it even if they clicked U-turn. Moonblast is general coverage, Thunder Wave was an emergency option for a potential Volcarona sweep and Healing Wish allowed any of my other teammates to be brought back healthy. Babiri Berry just to tank a Bullet Punch and ensure the kill.

:sv/gyarados:
Gyarados @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Careful Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Rest
- Waterfall
- Sleep Talk
Yes, I thought I was playing DPP. It was an excellent Volcarona answer in case they weren't Tera Electric, and if they were, Baxcalibur would have easily dealt with it. Basically maximum investment in special bulk and Intimidate along with ResTalk+Chesto to make it as bulky as possible and setup easily and serve as a longterm answer to Volcarona and Espeon.

The Game.
:baxcalibur: :ceruledge: :glimmora: :roaring-moon: :gardevoir: :gyarados: vs :garchomp: :volcarona: :meowscarada: :scizor: :dondozo: :espeon:
I played horribly but won because for some reason they didn't have Rest in Dondozo lol. Besides that, Ceruledge just switched in to die and Gyarados claimed two kills.


Game 2. KiwiCarnivore
1674474160921.png

Second game, another Scizor and another Garchomp. But this matchup looked easier to build for me; more threats but my team was alright to deal with them. From now on, the team will always have the same six mons. I had a lot of fun building for this matchup, even though they had both Quagsire and Skeledirge.
:baxcalibur: :slowking: :roaring-moon: :gardevoir: :glimmora: :gyarados:
:sv/baxcalibur:
Baxcalibur @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Thermal Exchange
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 120 HP / 188 Atk / 200 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Glaive Rush
- Tera Blast
- Dragon Dance
Speed to outspeed Gardevoir, Attack to get the KOs it needed and dump in HP. I think you'll understand the set better with some calcs.

+1 188 Atk Tera Fire Baxcalibur Tera Blast vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gardevoir: 289-342 (104.3 - 123.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 188 Atk Tera Fire Baxcalibur Glaive Rush vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Sandy Shocks: 312-367 (100.3 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 188 Atk Tera Fire Baxcalibur Glaive Rush vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Unaware Quagsire: 163-193 (41.3 - 48.9%) -- 59% chance to 2HKO after 2 layers of Spikes and Leftovers recovery
188 Atk Tera Fire Baxcalibur Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Salamence: 328-388 (99 - 117.2%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
-1 188 Atk Tera Fire Baxcalibur Glaive Rush vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Salamence: 326-386 (98.4 - 116.6%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO

:sv/slowking:
Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Chilly Reception
- Ice Beam
- Slack Off
- Flamethrower
The King makes its debut with the most basic set in existence. It could be used in UU and nobody would complain. It just hits everything but Skeledirge for neutral damage.

:sv/roaring-moon:
Roaring Moon @ Lum Berry
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 64 HP / 252 Atk / 192 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Roost
- Jaw Lock
- Dragon Dance
The demon. This set was the perfect lure for Quagsire, which would allow me to set up freely and sweep. Jaw Lock would prevent Quagsire from switching, while Taunt would prevent it from recovering its HP. Lum Berry along with Taunt made sure I wouldn't get statused by any meanings. Spread outspeeds Sandy Shocks. A beast set I wanted to run in my last game against Ting-Lu but the latter is much stronger and resisted Jaw Lock.

:sv/gardevoir:
Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 96 HP / 252 SpA / 160 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Mystical Fire
- Healing Wish
- Will-O-Wisp
Another Gardevoir, another support set. This time a Scarf set with a spread that reaches +353 Speed and Healing Wish to retry a sweep.

:sv/glimmora:
Glimmora @ Babiri Berry
Ability: Toxic Debris
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 48 HP / 252 SpA / 208 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Sludge Wave
- Dazzling Gleam
- Energy Ball
Bad hazard removal means Glimmora party time. Spread to outspeed Gardevoir and Babiri Berry to avoid a nuke Bullet Punch. Coverage for everything and Spikes to rack up damage, which would help Baxcalibur a lot.

:sv/gyarados:
Gyarados @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 128 HP / 252 SpA / 128 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Surf
- Flamethrower
- Hurricane
Lovely. A set some GSC nostalgics have probably used in a low tier. Hits Garchomp, Salamence, Scizor and Skeledirge for a great damage, potentially OHKOing the former three, as well as being a potential Quagsire lure to give Roaring Moon a free double switch. Speed investment to outspeed Adamant Scizor so it doesn't U-turn out.

The Game.
:baxcalibur: :slowking: :roaring-moon: :gardevoir: :glimmora: :gyarados: vs :gardevoir: :kingambit: :garchomp: :sandy-shocks: :quagsire: :scizor:
A successful OHKO to Scizor in turn 1 makes the game much easier. After Baxcalibur revenge kills Kingambit and dies from Counter Quagsire, Roaring Moon switches in and sets up as expected, easily cleaning the rest of their team.

Game 3. Zeoro
1674397942370.png

Third game, still needed to win to secure making it to playoffs. Two titans in Palafin and Annihilape, as well as very good supports like Noivern and Klefki made this game prep scaring.
:baxcalibur: :gyarados: :gardevoir: :roaring-moon: :glimmora: :slowking:

:sv/baxcalibur:
Baxcalibur @ Lum Berry
Ability: Thermal Exchange
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 100 HP / 176 Atk / 232 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Glaive Rush
- Dragon Dance
- Ice Shard
Same idea as the previous one. Lum Berry for Thunder Wave Klefki. Speed to outspeed Jolly Tsareena, enough Attack to get important KOs and rest in HP.
+1 176+ Atk Baxcalibur Glaive Rush vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Palafin-Hero: 342-403 (100.2 - 118.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 176+ Atk Baxcalibur Glaive Rush vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Annihilape: 400-472 (94.3 - 111.3%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO - OHKO with chip or tera
+1 176+ Atk Tera Dragon Baxcalibur Glaive Rush vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gastrodon: 408-480 (95.7 - 112.6%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
+1 176+ Atk Baxcalibur Glaive Rush vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Tsareena: 339-400 (97.4 - 114.9%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
176+ Atk Baxcalibur Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Klefki: 190-224 (59.7 - 70.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

:sv/gyarados:
Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 32 SpD / 224 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Ice Fang
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Substitute
Waterfall + Ice Fang covers everything but Palafin. Spread allows to outspeed Noivern at +1.

:sv/gardevoir:
Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Trace
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 24 HP / 252 SpA / 232 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Energy Ball
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Trick
Simple Scarf, same spread purpose as Gyarados.

:sv/roaring-moon:
Roaring Moon @ Haban Berry
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 72 Atk / 184 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Roost
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Taunt
Dragon Claw and Earthquake cover the whole matchup. Taunt stops Palafin and Annihilape from Bulking Up, Gastrodon and Umbreon from recovering, and Klefki from doing Klefki things. Spread to outspeed Iron Moth and Haban Berry to lure Noivern into using Draco Meteor.

:sv/glimmora:
Glimmora @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Toxic Debris
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Energy Ball
- Spikes
- Dazzling Gleam
Since the plan with Gardevoir was to Trick Scarf into Klefki, Glimmora was my backup Scarfer. Spread outspeeds Noivern too.

:sv/slowking:
Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Chilly Reception
- Psychic
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
Slowking acts as my main answer to Iron Moth, which is exactly what it did. It switched into Specs Iron Moth and pivoted out to any teammate that could deal with the move it got locked in. Psychic hits everything and Thunder Wave worked as Speed control as well as fishing free turns.

The Game
:baxcalibur: :gyarados: :gardevoir: :roaring-moon: :glimmora: :slowking: vs :iron-moth: :umbreon: :klefki: :palafin: :annihilape: :tsareena:
Glimmora leads and hits Palafin while forces Iron Moth to switch in thanks to Toxic Debris. This allows me to early scout a Specs set thus not having to risk turns in the future. Sending Roaring Moon gives me a free double switch to Gardevoir to Trick Klekfi. The game was becoming a bit slow with the many switches to Glimmora, Iron Moth and Slowking. But a Thunder Wave in Annihilape allows me to try a sweep with Gyarados (get rolled) and Baxcalibur afterwards, which thanks to Lum Berry healed off from Thunder Wave and swept the whole team.


Game 4. Kizaco
1674402237746.png
(they were subbed in that's why it says PokeKingz)
Rain and mirror Baxcalibur lololololol. I technically could still be out of the tour if I lost this so a win was the only option. Tera Armarouge sounded dangerous specially since it could hit everything but Gyarados super effectively.
:baxcalibur: :gyarados: :roaring-moon: :glimmora: :slowking: :gardevoir:

The TEAM
:sv/baxcalibur:
Baxcalibur @ Passho Berry
Ability: Thermal Exchange
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 216 HP / 252 Atk / 40 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Glaive Rush
- Tera Blast
- Freeze-Dry
The beast. Spread outspeeds Palafin after a Dragon Dance, Glaive and Tera Blast hit everything and Freeze-Dry with a Naughty nature OHKOes Pelipper
0 SpA Baxcalibur Freeze-Dry vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Pelipper: 324-384 (100 - 118.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

:sv/gyarados:
Gyarados @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 48 HP / 252 SpA / 208 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower
- Surf
- Dragon Tail
I love how different every Gyarados set I used is so different. Spread outspeeds Armarouge and Assault Vest grants it checks it more effectively. Special Attack investment was necessary to OHKO Pelipper and Scizor.
252 SpA Gyarados Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Pelipper: 324-384 (100 - 118.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Gyarados Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Scizor: 292-344 (103.9 - 122.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

:sv/roaring-moon:
Roaring Moon @ Yache Berry
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 152 SpD / 104 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Throat Chop
- Roost
- Taunt
- Fire Fang
Spread outspeeds Palafin. Throat Chop helps to deal with Hyper Voice Sylveon and Taunt shuts down many of their Pokemon. Fire Fang simply hits Scizor as I didn't need more coverage.

:sv/glimmora:
Glimmora @ Focus Sash
Ability: Toxic Debris
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 88 HP / 252 SpA / 168 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Power Gem
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock
- Sludge Bomb
Once again, their only hazard removal is Scizor. Spread outspeeds Armarouge and double STAB hits everything.

:sv/slowking:
Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Chilly Reception
- Psychic
- Slack Off
- Flamethrower
Psychic does good damage to Palafin and Pelipper most notably, while Flamethrower covers Scizor. Physically Defensive spread to endure hits better.

:sv/gardevoir:
Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Synchronize
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 160 Def / 252 SpA / 96 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Mystical Fire
- Moonblast
- Thunder Wave
Spread outspeeds Palafin with Choice Scarf. Almost no utility here, just 3A + TWave. Should have brought Trace in case they used Swift Swim Beartic but forgot.

The Game
:baxcalibur: :gyarados: :roaring-moon: :glimmora: :slowking: :gardevoir: vs :palafin: :baxcalibur: :armarouge: :pelipper: :sylveon: :scizor:
Glimm sets Tspikes and Rocks turn one and their Scizor stays in Gyarados so I can delete it. After that Baxcalibur switches in freely thanks to Slowking and uses Tera Fire to set up and tank a Sylveon attack. It effectively sweeps after a Dragon Dance.




Playoffs. Y Parahax
1674472677209.png

Pretty tough matchup, specially against Tera Volcarona. Ting Lu is also a pain to deal with, Azumarill shuts down both Roaring Moon and Baxcalibur, and Ditto doesn't let me set up with any of my three DDancers.

The team
:roaring-moon: :baxcalibur: :slowking: :glimmora: :gardevoir: :gyarados:
:sv/roaring-moon:
Fakundo (Roaring Moon) @ Life Orb
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 8 HP / 252 Atk / 248 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Thunder Fang
- Roost
- U-turn
Spread hits 336 Speed, which is more than 334 but I'll exaplain why later. Moves hit everything and allow me to pivot out of Ting-Lu.

:sv/baxcalibur:
Bolas (Baxcalibur) @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Thermal Exchange
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 204 HP / 252 Atk / 52 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Substitute
- Glaive Rush
- Icicle Spear
Spread outspeeds Garchomp after a Dragon Dance, and with Roaring running a bit more Speed, it won't outspeed it at +1, so Ditto doesn't sweep freely. Glaive Rush and Icicle Spear+Loaded Dice 2HKOed everything and Tera Steel/Substitute were to deal with Ditto.

:sv/slowking:
Diplodocus (Slowking) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Chilly Reception
- Future Sight
- Slack Off
I was absolutely terrified of Azumarill, so PhysDef and Rocky Helmet to chip it, as Baxcalibur could easily defeat it after a Dragon Dance.

:sv/glimmora:
Retrete (Glimmora) @ Mirror Herb
Ability: Toxic Debris
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 212 HP / 252 SpA / 44 Spe
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Power Gem
- Mortal Spin
Mortal Spin deals with Rocks and Spikes as well as poisoning the opponent. Mirror Herb was intended to work along with Mortal Spin to stall out Volcarona's HP. Coverage for everything but Garchomp and spread outspeeds Jolly Azumarill.

:sv/gardevoir:
Papu (Gardevoir) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Synchronize
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 16 HP / 240 SpA / 144 SpD / 108 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Trick
- Thunderbolt
- Healing Wish
Another Scarf... Moonblast and Tbolt cover everything. Trick was brought to hinder Ting-Lu or Volcarona. Healing Wish to bring back to 100% any of the Volc checks. Spread outspeeds Garchomp without outspeeding Roaring Moon, and survives a +1 Fire Blast from Modest Volcarona.

:sv/gyarados:
Rancio (Gyarados) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Dragon Tail
- Waterfall
- Rest
- Endure
I was on drugs doing this set bruh. My focus was completely on Azu and I forgot about Volca. Same role as Slowking. Rest gives me longevity and Endure could be used to fish some Rocky damage.

About their Volcarona, I was convinced they were going to be either Electric or Fairy, both of which Glimmora could easily deal with.

The Game
:roaring-moon: :baxcalibur: :slowking: :glimmora: :gardevoir: :gyarados: vs :ting-lu: :azumarill: :ditto: :garchomp: :volcarona: :corviknight:
A disaster. I forgot Gardevoir wasn't suppose to take damage, their Volc wasn't either Electric or Fairy and I should have brought Tanga Berry Roaring Moon with no excuses. Volcarona sweeps 5-0 and gg.



The hosts have been almost perfect so far and I can't wait for more Galar Dex Draft Tours. Good luck everyone
 

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Nyx

Anyways - so then I cursed her.
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Attempt II at reviving this thread. Gonna drop my thoughts on tera-rules in 11 mon because I’m sick and bored. Just based off my experience/watching friends play, nothing too serious. I’m also assuming Post-Home Paldea here, Tera in NatDex is a joke.

As a mechanic, I think it’s incredibly fun to use, much like Dynamax was but, also like Dynamax, I think it’s hilariously uncompetitive. Alas, banning it hasn’t become the norm yet so out of the options that do exist, my favourites are:

One captain: This just makes the most sense in my head, it limits the mechanic to one member of the opponents team, making both prep and play much easier. You’re not forced into endless 50/50s every turn you attack, just vs the Tera-Captain.

Tera Points: It does a similar thing to this, it “rewards” people for picking more middling Tera Captains with a stronger second one (or third if you’re in leagues that don’t add rules mid-draft /j). While it does add more frustrating in game turn/out of game prep decisions, at least you’re prepping for roughly the same relative strength each week, it’s better than some of the alternatives I’ve seen.

Now for the ones I dislike, there’s a lot because I’m a hater I like balance :3.

Tera Tax: Typically implemented as 1.25x the Pokémon’s original price, rounded down, with a maximum of one captain/using 25 or so Tera Points. In theory this is great, it means mons such as Baxcalibur (my beloved) can be tiered somewhat reasonably to account for Tera and no Tera. The issue lies with Pokémon such as Regieleki, Skeledirge etc. Pokémon who already have an inflated price because of Tera. To take a somewhat common example, I’ve seen a lot of 18pt Regielekis with Tera Tax, effectively making it a 22pt mon, and if I draft it, I’m forced to Tera it, if not I’ve got a 10pt Pokémon at best. Tax would be a great system in theory but in practice too many Pokémon fall between the cracks.

Drafting Tera Types: This is exactly what it sounds like, draft 1-2 Types and that’s what your team can Tera into. I’ve never been a fan of drafting types for Z-Crystals and it’s the same case here, it feels like you’re accepting the mechanic is too broken to allow but trying to force it to work, imo just ban it at that point. + it comes with the added issue that Water, Steel, Ground and Fairy are aeons better than whatever 8th pick can get, let alone 16 if you’re playing that.

Declared Type Captains: Similar to captains/points, I’ve mostly seen this with 2 Tera Captains, each having two types. This has similar flaws to drafting types imo, you’re trying to say that you think a mechanic is too broken but still want to allow it. Just seems too restrictive and frankly imo, it’s also just unfun, there’s no random ass Choice Band Head Smash Rock Head Hydreigon bs to be pulled off. Of course that’s subjective but you’re reading a rant on a forum in 2023 so you’ve no right to judge.

Limiting Tera to Pokémon below X points: This tends to be a combination of any of the previous systems, carrying their flaws and benefits, as well as saying that Pokémon below X points are the only ones who may Tera. This instantly makes the Pokémon in tier X much, much better than those in X+1 or X+2 etc etc, it creates an artificial power spike in the middle of the draft board which I don’t think is

Tera Types at Preview: All Tera Types are displayed at team preview. Honestly have no strong opinion on this yet, it’s not been seen enough yet for me to form an opinion on it beyond I don’t think it fixes the issue of Tera forcing too many 50/50s but again, it’s not existed for more than a week so,,,

Free Tera: Yeah just, no. I’d rather play with Minimize unbanne.

I think that’s every Tera system I’ve seen. I’ve probably forgotten something but hey, was fun to rant about Tera. TL;DR Tera sux, ban it.
 

AngularPenny5

[Spheal Squad]
Tera Points: It does a similar thing to this, it “rewards” people for picking more middling Tera Captains with a stronger second one (or third if you’re in leagues that don’t add rules mid-draft /j). While it does add more frustrating in game turn/out of game prep decisions, at least you’re prepping for roughly the same relative strength each week, it’s better than some of the alternatives I’ve seen.
This is my favorite way to do it so far. Especially keeping the points lower so coaches gotta choose between one single high cost captain or multiple lower cost caps.
 

Nyx

Anyways - so then I cursed her.
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This is my favorite way to do it so far. Especially keeping the points lower so coaches gotta choose between one single high cost captain or multiple lower cost caps.
It's definitely a good system, I just prefer one captain period, am partially scarred by Tera Ho-Oh + Sneasler + Ursaluna, that was nasty,,,
 

a fairy

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I quite liked the Tera Captain system I played with in Kickoff.

The generation gimmick is rarely something I give a whole lot of consideration, since I never got into the generations that had those (counting permaweather gen5 as a generation gimmick), so Tera was something I went into my draft pool kinda having no idea about. I didn't anticipate it being as powerful as it was, so I had kind of put it in a secondary thought for when I was considering what to draft before pools started - I just decided to draft with disregard to it and then make my captain whatever my highest mon that could draft would be.

I ended up getting Dragonite in late Round 2 after grabbing IV in Round 1 from a position 2 draft. I had read in the server chat that Dragonite was a scary Tera Captain, so I decided to stick with my "ignore tera" plan and continue to draft, and give it to Dragonite down the line if I wanted. Obviously, if you get Dragonite, that's who you Tera, so I did.

I think from the workshopping of other systems when we discussed Seasonal, I think that Tera Tax was the system I liked the best in theory. Though I think I liked it best when it was tied to some max value limit, like "can only captain a mon worth less than 10 points" or something. Obviously this is complicated for Kickoff theory since a lot of Mons probably needed a better score, with that example obviously Espathra and Garganacl become S+ tier draft choices. But for a Seasonal where draft might be more solidified (assuming Home doesn't entirely upend the meta) such a thing might be worth exploring.

I think that entirely removing Tera in draft is something of a worst-case scenario in my mind, I don't think it's necessary or even beneficial. I'm a Tera apologist or whatever, but my interactions with Tera in preparation/scouting and actually playing was quite fun. The Tera Dragonite problem I think was genuinely a problem with how little we knew of what the meta would look like, not Tera itself.

Obviously as we go into classic, we handle "solved" gimmicks like Megas and/or Z-Moves, but Seasonal is closer every day, and I'm looking forward to playing in that.
 

Dorron

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Any option that isn't one captain or tera points is far from ideal. Captain is completely fine to me, I've found it fine in the kickoff tour and was able to deal with opp's tera user most of the time. It has both surprise factor and balance which is what we should seek in a mechanic like this one. If it isn't broken don't change it.
 
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Nyx

Anyways - so then I cursed her.
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But for a Seasonal where draft might be more solidified (assuming Home doesn't entirely upend the meta) such a thing might be worth exploring.
Tera Tax could definitely work but the issue with applying it to the seasonal will frankly be it being “too complicated” at a level of 512+ people I’m hopeful okay . The point about below 10 points, it just makes the 10 point tier an effective ban list of Pokémon that would be busted with Tera (eg idk, Noivern), mons that otherwise would see themselves in 8/9, just leads to a really messy draft board.

The Tera Dragonite problem I think was genuinely a problem with how little we knew of what the meta would look like, not Tera itself.
I’m not sold here because even with a Dragonite ban, other mons do rise to fill that spot, for example Tera Volcarona is hilariously obnoxious, being able to viably run a plethora of types in most matchups. While it’s not immediately as oppressive as Tera (Normal) Dragonite was, it’s still equally as uncompetitive (imo).

On the other hand, I also do think that how people use their Tera might change though, something I’ve noticed over the past month is the increase in popularity of lead/early game Tera sets, notably on Baxcalibur and again, Volcarona. While these are from offsite leagues, I’ve been seeing a lot of early game Tera + setup dictating the swing of matches, using your Tera captain to wallbreak out the gate; something that wasn’t as prevalent in the early stages of Kickoff.

It has both surprise factor and balance which is what we should seek in a mechanic like this one.
This is 100% a personal line but I don’t think the surprise factor is balanced, it’s a complete mismatch of information and there’s nothing the opponent can feasibly do about it. A lot of Pokémon do only have 2-3 Tera types they can (viably) run in a matchup but, each exchange vs that Pokémon is both a guess as to whether they Tera or not but also what type they Tera into. You can definitely argue that it is a level of outprepping your opponent but, I think that Tera takes it to an unhealthy level.

Also, something that hasn’t been discussed thus far, what are peoples thoughts on Tera Blast? My experience with it so far is that in theory it’s a cool move but for 90% of Pokémon, it’s just too weak, even with the STAB bonus.
 
Tera Tax: Typically implemented as 1.25x the Pokémon’s original price, rounded down, with a maximum of one captain/using 25 or so Tera Points. In theory this is great, it means mons such as Baxcalibur (my beloved) can be tiered somewhat reasonably to account for Tera and no Tera. The issue lies with Pokémon such as Regieleki, Skeledirge etc. Pokémon who already have an inflated price because of Tera. To take a somewhat common example, I’ve seen a lot of 18pt Regielekis with Tera Tax, effectively making it a 22pt mon, and if I draft it, I’m forced to Tera it, if not I’ve got a 10pt Pokémon at best. Tax would be a great system in theory but in practice too many Pokémon fall between the cracks.

Pretty on board with Tera tax because of the inflation you mentioned here. Garg without Tera is like an 8-point mon (obviously exaggerating) and paying like 14 points for it not to be a tera captain is a crime.

Some mons just shouldn't Tera though, like Dnite, just too much of a headache even in a format where you know it's coming and can prepare counterplay. We've seen how well it did in Kickoff and I'm looking forward to how the draft community treats pokemon like Spectrier, Regieleki, and mons that are literally only held back by their lack of coverage which Tera gives them. Those will be up in the air I think until we see them in another high-level tour setting.
 

Hacker

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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My favorite format with tera I have seen so far is one tera captain but I wanna explain why I dislike or dont mind other tera formats first.

Tera Points
This is like barely in my top 3 of favorite tera formats but I think this format is cool. The best strategy is to just tera your best pokemon that is an excellent tera abuser anyways along with some lower tier mon that wouldnt be mind using tera. Actually little to no complaints about this format.

Tera Tax
I agree with some of the points that Autumn said regarding that it makes it so you can actually tier some pokemon correctly with or without tera but my problem with this in 11 mon since thats what the post was targetted towards is that this doesn't actually impact the draft that much on if they lose a few points because I think that some of the best drafts are top heavy drafts that don't really mind losing a mid price pokemon in the first place. Overall, tera tax a great concept but in practice I don't think it changes much.

Drafting Tera Types
This format was not good in USUM with z-moves, with tera it just makes no sense whatsoever to do. I also don't really like this a lot because if your opponent drafted a tera type thats good into your tera type that would be a huge advantage for your opponent that just shouldn't exist.

Tera types on preview with 2 set tera captains
I actually have grown to not mind this format at all after playing with it for a week in Draft PL. Being able to adapt your gameplan on whatever you see your opponents tera types are on preview is an excellent display of skill. I think overall this format is way less fun than other tera formats because the best part of tera in my mind is the surprise factor but in exchange for that I think it puts the game on a much more even and competitive playing field.

Declared Type Captains
Pretty much my exact opinion on drafting tera types except its worse because any mon could tera lol

Limiting Tera to Pokémon below X points
My thoughts on this are exactly what autumn said. It could make 5 pointers better than 6 pointers which in my mind says enough about this format.

My favorite tera format, one tera per team
I like this because its very minimalistic in allowing tera, a mechanic that I am overall against including as a whole but its also way easier to only have to prep for one great tera mon than a few strong tera mons.

My actual favorite format, no tera at all
This mechanic sucks why does every turn have to be a constant 50 50 :blobsad:
 
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Rissoux

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I refuse to have another gen 8 with no mechanic whatsoever; if it's a little hard to balance or slightly overpowered you know what? I'm fine with that.

Inclusion of the mechanic whether through low tier tera caps, tera tax, or whatever, is vital to making this gen not feel incredibly stale and without end. It's for sure got a great learning curve to it but I think it's absolutely within each player's wheelhouse to adjust their prep and playing style to compensate - and isn't that the measure of what sets players apart? Whose become better at adjusting than their opponent?
 

Nyx

Anyways - so then I cursed her.
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Attempt II at reviving this with the same discussion as last time. It’s been more than a month since my last post regarding Tera and my view’s not changed a tonne since then. If anything, I’m feeling more pro-ban than I did at the time.

Looking at tier lists that have dropped over the last month and comparing them to those of 3-4 months ago has shown me one thing, at a community wide scale, people are complex banning more and more Pokémon from being able to use Tera. While this doesn’t seem like a bad thing, you’re just removing the best abusers of Tera, I feel like it’s definitely crossed the point where it’s no longer “these mons are broken with Tera” and become “Tera’s the broken thing”.

I don’t think it’s healthy for a meta to need 15+ complex bans to function, I think that alone is telling of the state of Tera. In Post-Home Paldea, I’ve been seeing at least 9 Tera bans (Chien-Pao, Pult, IV, Zama C, Bundle, Spec, Palafin, RM, Dnite), and this list is only growing further with bans like Urshifu-SS, Volcarona, Baxcalibur, Chi-Yu, Sneasler and many more all being in discussion. This is all of course assuming that transfer moves get axed, if they return, both Landos and Chomp could easily be “Tera-ban worthy” as well. Further on the speculation note, Tera-banning these mons opens up new mons to be broken with Tera, such as Kingambit which wasn’t worth Tera-ing in 1 captain/Tera points formats because of the better Tera abusers on the board.

While I get the fear that removing a mechanic will lead to a repeat of SS, I truly think that it’s a shortsighted take at best, there simply aren’t the mons in the Paldea Dex (even post-home) to lead to a disgustingly balanced metagame like we had in SS. Tera is ridiculously obnoxious and it forces 50/50s on every turn, that’s not outplaying our adapting, that’s a coin flip.
 
What better way to revive a thread than with a megapost?

Before this kickoff draft tournament, it had been well over 5 years since I’ve done a draft league, and well over 6 since I had drafted for myself so I went into it with pretty low expectations, but once I saw my draft my expectations for it raised substantially. Given my performance I thought it might be beneficial to someone to see my recap, especially since so many people on Smogon are really just getting introduced to draft. I didn’t win the whole thing but I think I won enough to have a voice. And the game I lost is a master class in what not to do so that can be learned from as well. This isn’t a school project so I’m not going to use ChatGPT or correct grammar so just live with it. And if no one sees this at least I can reflect a little and maybe improve for future draft leagues.

THE DRAFT
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.34.37 AM.png

I knew I wanted Dragonite as soon as I saw it could be a Tera captain, and luckily since I was wheel pick I was able to get the fantastic core of Tera Dragonite/Great Tusk. What Great Tusk does for Dragonite can be seen plain as day in OU, providing a defensive or offensive supporting tool to pave the way for Dragonite to sweep a team. After that, I wanted to complete the ever important Dragon/Fairy/Steel core but I valued a strong special attacker since if I had completed my plan of picking up Kingambit and Scream Tail I would have been seriously lacking a strong special attacker, in a meta where special walls are few and far between. Instead, I opted to pick up Gengar and Kingambit, giving me what I considered to be the strongest Steel type and a really strong special attacker, especially in draft. My next two picks were where I made the biggest mistakes in my opinion, picking up Gardevoir and Rotom-Heat. This was also the first time I had played SV in a competitive climate and so I was unaware of just how much the Rotom forms lost, but Pain Split and Defog were big hits that were part of the reason I picked Heattom up in the first place, so seeing both of those moves gone after the fact was pretty painful. I also thought Gardevoir would be a mistake since its middling speed tier and paper thin defenses would force me into a corner I did not want to be in, having to choose Choice Scarf for it every game, but seeing Scream Tail and Hatterene, my other options for Fairy types since Azumarill was long gone, perform pretty badly on other people’s teams made me confident that Gardevoir was actually a pretty good choice. I was content enough with the 6 I got so I wanted two supporting members, and Grafaiai and Vaporeon seemed to fit the bill very well. Grafaiai is literally everything you could possibly want in a support Pokemon. Priority Taunt, Encore, Toxic, Parting Shot AND Switcheroo as well as Knock Off and U-Turn with two other usable abilities with a pretty decent defensive typing all sounded great to me. Vaporeon on the other hand, lost Roar, Scald, Flip Turn, and could not Baton Pass so it was a horrible option and I wish I had gone with literally any other defensive Water type. Anywho, that’s my team and any regrets I have about it I’ll just have to live with, and see how far I can go with it.

ROUND 1: POOL

Round 1 was a pool stage where you had to battle 4 other people, and I had absolutely 0 clue how my opponents played, what any of their gen 9 Pokemon did so I was pretty concerned even though I had a very favorable matchup in all of the games. My first battle was against abriel, and this team.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.34.37 AM.png
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Something that stood out immediately to me about this team was how easy Tera Normal ESpeed Dragonite could mop the floor with their team as soon as Gastrodon and Corviknight were softened up a little bit, so that’s exactly what this team sought to do.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.10.07 AM.png

Not a ton of thought into this, enough Speed to outpace Ghost Tera Iron Moth at +1 in case it gets brought, Silk Scarf +1 ESpeed literally oneshots every Pokemon that isn’t Gastrodon or Corviknight, Fire Punch and Roost mean I can beat any Corviknight set 1v1 that isn’t exactly Iron Defense Body Press. Rest of EVs go into bulk since ESpeed is the move I’m clicking anyways any Speed doesn’t matter.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.10.18 AM.png

GT has an ok matchup but just ok. I wanted to possibly live a hit from Iron Moth to try and force it to Tera since as soon as I discover what Tera type the Iron Moth is I can plan out how to win with DNite, and even though a physically defensive GT would make Roaring Moon a non-issue, I discovered that Roaring Moon is a non issue anyways since as long as Stealth Rock isn’t up. Oh, and if he brings Torkoal I threw the last EVs into Defense so I could get the Defense boost from Protosynthesis and take on Roaring Moon even easier. I still thought Protosynthesis was a 1.5x boost to any stat at this time (it is 1.3x for everything besides Speed which is 1.5x) so I wasn’t at all concerned about it.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.11.54 AM.png

Scarf Gengar punches holes, and that’s all I really need it to do. Coverage hits all of my opponent’s team super effectively and there aren’t really any moves I mind being locked into. Max/Max to at least speed tie with Booster Energy/Protosynthesized Iron Moth.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.12.14 AM.png

Kingambit is here to get rocks up since it at least doesn’t invite in Hatterene and getting chip damage on Slither Wing/Corviknight/Torkoal, none of which I anticipate being HDB if they end up being brought. 8 Speed to outpace Hatterene (I’m incredibly stupid and thought Hatterene was base 50 Speed) and Gastrodon that invest 4 Speed to outpace me, rest is thrown into bulk. I didn’t see a use for Sucker Punch because honestly I hadn’t played competitive mons in a while and losing a game to a Sucker Punch 50/50 wasn’t on my to-do list.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.12.23 AM.png

Double Scarfed team with double super effective coverage on everything. Speed to outpace unboosted Roaring Moon.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.12.34 AM.png

Physically defensive Rotom-Heat here to spread red magic and always switch into Corviknight and Slither Wing, Resto Chesto to also potentially tank a Yawn from Torkoal, and if Yawn never happens I get a free full heal off.

THE BATTLE

A very short battle where everything went according to plan. I was willing to sacrifice my whole team to allow Dragonite to sweep so luckily I only had to sacrifice 2. I made some unnecessarily “bold” predictions but since I only cared about getting Gastrodon and Corviknight low they seemed wise at the time to me. I saw my opportunity against Hatterene and I took it, I made an assumption based on damage taken/done that it was a very offensive spread which meant it probably did not have Nuzzle, and my prediction was more than likely correct since I was able to effectively get all 6 kills with Dragonite, resulting in a 4-0 win for me, GG abriel.

My second match was against Pure_Peach, and including the game I lost this is the game I am most disappointed in so let me get into it.

Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.34.37 AM.png
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Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.16.25 AM.png

Noticing a very physically biased team, I wanted a solid defensive DD Dragonite with Fairy type and no STAB moves seemed to be the best option. Since I was very physically defensive and a Fairy type, I wanted to outspeed Iron Moth and OHKO it with an Earthquake, with the rest dumped into bulk to allow me to get free DDs on a lot of my opponents team. EQ and Fire Punch hit everything besides Mimikyu super effectively and my team has a ton of answers to Mimikyu so it was not an issue for me. I couldn’t ever see Dragonite sweeping my opponent’s team so I instead opted for a set that allows me to wear it down.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.16.31 AM.png

Again, physical attacking team so I bring physically defensive mons. I brought Brick Break and Knock Off since I assumed Bronzong with screens would be the dedicated switch in to this, and Earthquake allows me to take on their Iron Hands, Iron Moth, and Toxapex a lot better. Rapid Spin is honestly more for speed boosts since my opponent does not have any Knock Off users and my Heavy Duty Boots users are likely the ones I’m going to be pivoting to the most anyhow.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.16.46 AM.png

Sub Nasty Plot Gengar allows me to play around Kingambit a lot easier as well as switch into Toxapex and start setting up on it, with the moves I have hitting their entire team at least neutrally. Max/Max allows me to at least speed tie with the Iron Moth.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.16.53 AM.png

Scarf Garde clicks moves and can clean up fairly nicely so long as some of my opponent’s team is weakened. Modest hits for harder and I don’t have an exact reason for going max Speed, however I was a little concerned about losing the Scarf to Trick or something and not outspeeding Scream Tail with no Speed investment, and since 259 outpaces it I thought it would be ok to lose out on some bulk.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.16.59 AM.png

Here to spread red magic and click Volt Switch again. Foul Play is to 1v1 a Tera Fire/Substitute/Lum Berry Garchomp and Overheat is to nuke the Bronzong and Kingambit. Since I needed a Pokemon that at least could sort of take on Scream Tail, I spread out my defensive stats a tad.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.17.11 AM.png

Grafaiai is here to make sure I don’t lose to a random Mimikyu sweep, as well as pivot against all of my opponent’s team but Kingambit. Low Kick makes sure at the very least I don’t lose to Kingambit if it comes down to it, and it can also hit Iron Hands for a substantial amount more than Foul Play does. In hindsight, having a team already weak to Iron Moth and choosing to bring a Pokemon that can’t really hit it is incredibly dumb, but that’s why they say hindsight is 20/20.

THE BATTLE

Well here we go. I led Grafaiai expecting to get a free Parting Shot off, and got in Rotom-Heat with the idea to Will-o-Wisp on my opponents rocks. Unfortunately, the pivot move draft demon possessed me to overpredict for ABSOLUTELY no reason and now my Gengar is chipped to 27% and after the worst series of plays imaginable, my opponent gets a well deserved dodge and my plan for Toxapex is gone because I decided to be very, very dumb and overpredict like a madman. I at least sort of made up for it by predicting the Bronzong set correctly and taking a little damage with my Great Tusk as a tradeoff for the Bronzong. I also crit the Toxapex on the Earthquake which was very lucky for me, since it meant I could freely Knock Off after rather than taking a 50/50 against Bronzong, securing a kill against it. The Iron Moth revenge kills me, and I use the opportunity it is locked into Energy Ball to begin setting up with Dragonite, and I unfortunately get thrown out with Whirlwind into Grafaiai. I decide to Encore it into Whirlwind to keep it from doing anything to my team, and after a couple I am able to kill it and learn the Kingambit was Assault Vest, meaning that even if Focus Blast had landed earlier it would not have killed. I incorrectly assumed my opponent would Sucker Punch to pop my Multiscale and thought I had a free Dragon Dance, however I was wrong and since I Tera’d to avoid an Ice Punch from Iron Hands earlier I took more damage than I could sustain with Roost from Iron Head, meaning I lost the potential Dragonite sweep. In another thankful twist for me, my opponent forgot Regenerator on their Toxapex so my Grafaiai could kill it and the Garchomp with Foul Play, forcing me into a tough predicament. If my opponent Sludge Waved the only way I could have possibly won is if I Parting Shotted, sacked Gardevoir and avoided a crit, and then avoided a crit on 5 possible Sludge Waves from Iron Moth after Parting Shotting again. If my opponent had Fiery Dance and got 2 boosts, I had a 25% chance to lose. Thankfully neither of those scenarios happened and I pulled the least deserved win out of absolutely nowhere, GG Pure_Peach, now I am 2-0 +5 in the pool.

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After the last embarrassing display on my part I really needed a well played win, and fortunately my next opponent had a team that demanded I play well.

Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.17.39 AM.png

I wanted a Dragonite set that beat Dondozo, Annihilape, Chien Pao, AND Baxcalibur and the best solution I could come up with was a physically defensive Fairy tera with Encore to beat Dondozo and tera Annihilape. Even though I had Dragon Dance, I wanted to be very slow initially so I could get a slow Encore against Annihilape and Dragon Dance myself into having a fast Encore. Although I can’t hit Iron Treads at all, the rest of my team takes care of it with little to no problem. EKiller doesn’t really work for me here because Tsareena exists and can hit me pretty hard.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.17.47 AM.png

Offensive Great Tusk does a lot for me and the Scarf is invaluable for speed tying +1 Baxcalibur. My opponent does not have anything that resists both Ground and Fighting, and in fact the only Ground resist is Tsareena meaning I am able to click Headlong Rush pretty freely excluding a possible Tera Flying Annihilape, which I did consider a possibility. My tentative plan was to bluff a defensive set by getting up rocks, only to bring it in later to surprise something.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.17.57 AM.png

My opponent had a lot of solid choices for Stealth Rock, and this set is remarkably dangerous since if it fails it will fail hard, but I had a sneaking suspicion I could pull something off with it. At worst, I might be able to take the Iron Treads with me, freeing up the game for Dragonite. My real plan was to stop any turn 1 shenanigans from Iron Treads since it’s a fairly safe lead against my team, possibly allowing my Rotom-Heat to avoid Stealth Rock damage since it was Leftovers and not HDB in this game.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.18.08 AM.png

For the 3rd game in a row, I decided that Scarf Garde is best for me. I really needed special attackers for Dondozo and having something faster than Chien Pao is always helpful. I have something I think will be able to hit every possible tera type Annihilape brings against me, and Healing Wish in case I need to reset my Dragonite after an unfavorable late game trade. I wanted the rest of my bulk to go into phys def specifically so I could tank a Sucker Punch from Chien Pao that much better. Usually dumping into HP is correct however the lower a stat is the more EVs affect it, so since Gardevoir has such low Defense those 52 EVs add up (or multiply up if you want to be technical).
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.18.08 AM.png

Heattom kind of handshakes with a couple Pokemon like Scream Tail and Annihilape that neither of us can damage each other too much so I decided yellow magic + Nasty Plot would be a nice workaround for that. Speed EVs to outpace paralyzed +2 Baxcalibur as well as Tsareena EV’d to speed creep me, rest in physical bulk since there are a loooot of physical attackers. I didn’t see much benefit to pivoting with this Heattom since I wanted to snag every turn of Leftovers I possibly could, and sometimes getting damage alongside the yellow magic is nice.
Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 10.18.25 AM.png

Finally, my suicide Baxcalibur answer in Vaporeon. Only thing it will realistically do is spam Haze until it dies against Baxcalibur/Chien Pao. That’s it. Helmet over Leftovers pressures my opponent to stop taking damage from the likes of Dondozo spamming Body Press and Chien Pao spamming Crunch which would allow me to revenge kill either of them a lot easier. Having a water immunity is also helpful since it means Curse RestTalk Dozo can’t run through my team.

THE BATTLE
Turn 1 went off like clockwork. I hoped since I missed my last Focus Blast I would be able to connect this one and I was able to kill such a huge threat in Chien Pao Turn 1. After that I cared more about finding out the Scream Tail’s spread than I did possibly getting a cheese kill with Destiny Bond, so I sacrificed my Gengar, however my opponent opted to set up a Light Screen. I figured that meant I was safe to switch out, since dual screens Stealth Rock sounds like a pretty bad set, and I got in my Heattom since from the Sludge Bomb damage and the fact it was faster than my Gengar I deduced Scream Tail was just max HP max Speed. Oh and now is a good time to mention that if you aren’t calcing after turns, it is so extremely helpful. You have 5 minutes on the standard SmogTours battle for a reason, use it. Using calcs to find out if your move kills does not matter if you have not first determined the opponent’s EV spreads. Back from that sidebar, I thought I would be safe to fire off a TWave and then a Discharge to get some damage off or possibly paralyze the next incoming mon, however I miss the para on Baxcalibur and deploy my dedicated Baxcalibur answer in Vaporeon. My opponent doubles to Iron Treads and since I’ve deduced that the Iron Treads is likely the Stealth Rocker and I have no removal, I take the risk in going hard to Gengar. I could have just stayed in and gotten some solid damage off with Surf, saving my Gengar as a sac later, but since my Gengar was faster than everything with Scream Tail paralyzed I would be able to possibly stall out some screens turns by making my opponent flounder trying to avoid getting killed off by Destiny Bond. Rather, my opponent killed my Gengar and I took out their Iron Treads with not too long on their screens left. I correctly predicted Dondozo to come out, and decided my Heattom’s worth would be preventing the Dondozo from sweeping and since I had the sac lead, an important stat to recognize in a game with screens, I did not mind losing my Heattom to threaten Dondozo into killing me. Gardevoir comes in to revenge kill the Dozo as well as kill Scream Tail, but not before it gets up double screens. Funnily enough, since I had Traced Unaware from Dozo with Garde I actually would have been able to 1v1 most Baxcalibur sets, however since the threat of Taunt Annihilape still loomed in the background and Vaporeon couldn’t do anything about it, I opted to let Vaporeon do its job and suicide to control the Baxcalibur. After, I wanted to scout if it was Adamant or Jolly since I was 99% it was Adamant, and even though I did not care much if Dragonite lived I was happy it did. I will be honest, I was still new to SV at this point and did not know of the item Loaded Dice, but if the Bax was indeed Loaded Dice I may have been in a bit of trouble. Finally, after an exchange where I just had to make sure to safely diffuse the Annihilape I secured a 2-0 win in a game I think I navigated fairly well considering how scary my opponent’s team was. GG Jedonn, now I am 3-0 +7.

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Honestly, this team was the one I was least concerned about since I was already 3-0, a scoreline that all but confirms you make it past round 1, and the matchup was fairly heavily in my favor. I still wanted a win though so I put together the team I thought would best deal with my opponent in a riskfree way.

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Ground tera removes Scream Tail, Forretress, and Gyarados’ ability to Thunder Wave me and more importantly stops Forretress from Volt Switching on me meaning that there won’t be any way for them to use my Dragonite as a way to pivot while breaking Multiscale. Ground and Ice were really good types against my opponent and my only reason for not choosing Thunder Punch over Ice Spinner was I wanted to catch the Garchomp off guard if it had tried to Dragon Tail me. In my infinite wisdom, I noticed Gyarados lost Roar but did not even think of Dragon Tail, so my decision definitely would come to bite me later. EVs allow me to outpace Scream Tail, and with it Iron Moth and Garchomp. Being a little slower was important to me since my plan was to set up on Forretress which, thanks to Gyro Ball, thrives off faster Pokemon.
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Iron Hands really scared me for some reason. Phys def GT as a counter to it, and a check for physical Garchomp. Looking back this was a pretty bad set, but if it looked good to me at the time then that’s no big deal.
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My opponent had a pretty slow team and Specs Gengar really chewed through it. Shadow Ball was such a clickable move that the last 3 were just filler, Trick and Thunderbolt since my team was still weak to Gyarados and Psychic for increased damage against Iron Hands/un Tera’d Iron Moth if it came to it.

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Can’t say anything about Scarf Garde I haven’t said 3 times before. Revenge kills, hits somewhat hard, prevents sweeps.

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Hey, I never said I’m reinventing the wheel with my sets but you know what? They work, and that’s enough.

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I’m sure I split the bulk for a specific reason but I’m writing this a pretty long time after so I can’t remember. Otherwise, just here to ensure Gyarados doesn’t wipe the floor with me since it lost Power Whip this generation and even if I get Taunted I have a chance to win the 1v1, assuming it is HDB and not Leftovers.

THE BATTLE

Predicting either Forretress or Garchomp, I led my Great Tusk into my opponent’s Gyarados, starting off with an already unfavorable matchup. This caused a series of events that allowed my opponent to get a Spikes off on me as well as chunk my Heattom to 32%, a very dangerously low number. Playing on the back foot with an aggressive team is never good so I needed to wrestle some control of the game back from my opponent, and did this by letting my Gengar get extremely low just to kill Forretress, AKA the Pokemon I had planned to set up on with Dragonite. Nowhere near disastrous, however the situation I find myself in is very bad and at this point the best out I see is just start setting up with Dragonite and see where I can go from there. The answer is not very far, and I lose my Multiscale for nothing except the information that Gyarados still learns Dragon Tail, something I should have really known before the match started. After a couple more meaningless exchanges, I am finally able to get going with Dragonite, and here is where if I had Thunder Punch instead of Ice Spinner I would have literally just won the game. Instead, I take out the Gyarados and get revenge killed by Iron Hands. I am able to return the favor with Gardevoir, and since Iron Moth is a whole lot more threatening than Garchomp at this point I try to stave it off by using Psyshock instead of Moonblast. If he goes Iron Moth, I can assume his tera types matches up with Psyshock very advantageously, but he does not and I can sort of deduce what the types probably are. I sac Gengar to ensure Gardevoir can return to Moonblast safely again, since I still have Great Tusk as a sac, and am able to finish up the game with Gardevoir. GGs Nametab, and I finish the group stage 4-0, meaning I get a bye past Round 2.

ROUND 3 VS. HAPPYGATE

Having a bye meant that it was actually about a month before my next battle, meaning that I had a ton of time to learn what exactly was happening in SV, and now I felt a little better about myself in terms of both prep and play.

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Noticing a pretty glaring weakness to EKiller Dragonite, AKA he has no Ghost types, I decided a bulky set with enough Speed to outspeed max Speed Jolly Great Tusk would be best. Aerial Ace does more damage to Great Tusk, which is important since I saw a physically defensive set coming, as well as hits Tsareena since Queenly Majesty blocks ESpeed. EQ is of course for Magnezone. Thanks to Multiscale, and the fact that my opponent’s only Stealth Rock setter is Great Tusk, I was confident I could bring Silk Scarf to confirm +1 OHKOs against the likes of Chien Pao, Iron Moth, and Braviary after rocks.

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I wanted an offensive Assault Vest Great Tusk for this game so Magnezone could not freely click Volt Switch, as well as allowing me to get some extra damage against Florges and Slowking. Enough Speed to outpace Adamant Chien Pao at +1 since Adamant Chien Pao naturally outspeeds my entire team anyways, rest thrown into Special Defense to make my AV more effective. CC and Headlong Rush do a lot of damage to everything but physically defensive Great Tusk and Knock Off is overall good tech of course.

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My plan for this Gengar involves some of my other Pokemon, Kingambit and Gardevoir. I bait Magnet Pull physically defensive Body Press Magnezone in, get in Gardevoir to Encore into Body Press or Iron Defense, then Gengar for free, and start setting up since my opponent will likely almost always save Zone. Dual STABs do a lot to his team, and Payapa Berry helps against Psyshock Florges and psychic move Slowking, two specially defensive threats, since neither of them are guaranteed to get OHKOd by +2 Gengar.

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Here to get Rocks up and prevent Chien Pao from spamming a Banded STAB move, as well as bait in the Magnezone. No Speed or anything like that just so I can tank the most possible hits.

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Scarf for the 5th time in a row, provides much needed speed control, Encore as the final piece of my Magnezone plan, and dual STABs hit everything hard enough. Healing Wish is mostly to bring Heattom back from the brink, with enough Speed investment to outpace Jolly Chien Pao.

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Here to spread red magic as usual. Protect is pretty nice tech this game since I have no clue what Florges wants to do to me and I would also like to actually be able to get some regen from Leftovers. Overheat + VS is the tried and true best dual STABs so it’s what I brought. 16 Speed EVs speed creeps Florges and possibly Zone, and the more speed I put to creep the more likely it is to work.

THE BATTLE
Heattom seemed like a safe lead, and I got a free Volt Switch off into Kingambit. My plan started a little earlier than I expected, which is probably good since it meant I did not reveal any of my cards earlier than I would have wanted to, and it went off even better than I expected. I was able to take out the Slowking AND Magnezone, as well as keep momentum by letting Gengar faint. At this point I did not really care what happened to Kingambit, and so it got Tricked a Choice Specs to replace the now null Shed Shell. Thankfully, since I really do not care what happens to Kingambit I stay in and get the item knocked off. Now that I have something to lose, especially with the Great Tusk weakened as much as it was, I decide to preserve Kingambit for a little longer. Since Overheat kills -1 Great Tusk and Florges is the most likely switch, I decide to Overheat and get some nice chip on Florges. I didn't even remember Copycat existed as a move or know that Florges got it, so unfortunately I lose some momentum after carrying it the entire game but good on my opponent for that play, since it caused me to have to sac both Kingambit and Great Tusk to Chien Pao. Luckily, Dragonite was able to freely set up on Chien-Pao barring a super mega crit and I was able to click Extreme Speed thrice, securing me a one way ticket to round 4, GG Happygate.

ROUND 4 VS. LEGENDARYSERPERIOR

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This was the first battle I could reasonably see my opponent bringing any 6 of the 8 Pokemon, and all of them required an answer to an extent so this is also the first game where prep feels more important as play.

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With spooky physical walls in Slowbro and Corviknight, I decided this game would be the best opportunity to bring out the special Dragonite. With enough Speed to outpace scarf Mowtom at +2 and the rest in Special Attack/HP, I did not seek to sweep my opponent’s team with this mon but rather catch out either the Corviknight or Slowbro out for the real sweeper of my team: Great Tusk.

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Seeing as my opponent has 1 Fighting resist in Slowbro, I saw this set doing quite a bit to my opponent’s team. I can Bulk Up on Corviknight, Chansey, or Garchomp confirmed to be physically attacking without Dragon Tail. Rapid Spin is mostly used as a Trailblaze in this game, being extremely useful as he has no Ghost type without going tera Ghost Garchomp. I will need to weaken Slowbro a little bit, which is tough with Regenerator, but after Great Tusk can indeed 6-0.

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Gengar does not do too much in this game with both Chien-Pao and Chansey acting as deterrents, however since Chansey would likely be the switch in, I decided to make a lure set for Chansey. The idea was to always Substitute turn 1, then Mean Look, then Toxic. If it didn’t work it just meant Gardevoir and Dragonite had a much harder time playing the game, but if it did work I also had enough Speed to outpace Garchomp and could always Toxic Maushold so it isn’t like my opponent could really take advantage of my passive set.

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For the first time, I actually stole this spread from Smogon. They said it outspeeds Corviknight, my opponent had a Corviknight I wanted to outspeed, so I took it. Chople is a nice failsafe against Maushold since I had seen that thing sweep from out of nowhere, and rocks over SD is just because I like having rocks more to reveal if my opponent has HDB than actually get chip in this game. I wanted to go Defiant to try and sneak off a kill on Corviknight if it wants to Defog on me, but I valued my Kingambit and Chople Berry more than I did maybe getting a cheese kill on something.

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Another game, another Scarf Garde. Same type coverage as Dragonite since it works so well against my opponent’s team, Healing Wish just in case, and Wisp in case Chien-Pao or a random SD tera Garchomp I am not expecting gets too big too fast.

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Another game, another red magic Heattom. Burning Pokemon, even Natural Cure Chansey, is so helpful in this game so I take no issue doing it. I brought this exact set against another tera Garchomp team and it worked so how bad could it possibly be, right?

THE BATTLE
Although I saw the Chansey lead coming, I did not really care since I had what I thought was a free Volt Switch into Great Tusk. I also had Protective Pads just so Rocky Helmet from Slowbro/Corviknight would not hit me on my Rapid Spins and saw Slowbro as a free opportunity for Dragonite to tera. I must have played my cards a little too obvious because my opponent got Chansey in, and to prevent Future Sight damage from Bro while having a Dark type in, I went Kingambit. After a couple relatively tame turns my opponent reveals something very terrifying on Chansey: Sing. This means that my Great Tusk can’t set up as freely as I originally thought but since I couldn’t see my opponent stay in to go for it again, I got rid of the rocks. After playing the first 10 turns pretty passively, I decided to make a play that I hope would make the late game a lot easier and get some real permanent damage on Slowbro. I Overheated instead of Volt Switching because I wanted to try and gauge what exact EV spread Chansey was and Volt Switch’s damage rolls were never enough to do that. I decide it’s time to start clicking CC with Great Tusk, and after a couple clicks I decide my opponent will definitely save Slowbro so it is in my best interest to preserve CC pp. With the lowest Low Kick damage possible and highest Kowtow Cleave damage possible, I determine my opponent has brought 0 EVs on it and that is why they decided to sac it, and now that my Kingambit has outlived its worth I am able to weaken Garchomp to a point where even if they tera into a type that resists Fairy I can revenge kill it with Gardevoir. Now that I am aware of Sing, I decide to let Gengar fall asleep to set sleep clause into effect, but before I do that I get off as much of the set as I can before sleep inevitably lands. With something asleep, I decide that I can set up with Great Tusk and end the game. Luckily for me I miss the only Megahorn that doesn’t actually matter and am able to mop up the rest of my opponent’s team, GG LegendarySerperior.

ROUND 5 VS. GENGASTER

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Aside from Chi-Yu my opponent does not have any special threats, so I opted to go with a physically defensive Water Dragonite that beats any of my opponent’s team 1v1 aside from Azumarill thanks to my Covert Cloak. Encore is to assure my opponent cannot spam moves with Garganacl, and if my opponent has Belly Drum Azu then I can make certain I don’t lose to it. I have enough Speed to outpace Garchomp at +1 since I would like to fish for flinches against it. I thought about a couple of options but not knowing what tera type my opponent’s Garg would be along with Chi-Yu, Scizor’s revenge killing Bullet Punch, and Azu’s Aqua Jet keeping me from going certain types brought me to the conclusion that this was the best type.

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Dedicated Garg switch in with the ability to beat most of his team thanks to EQ in Great Tusk. Taunt will be helpful in ensuring my opponent can’t set up on me with Garg, and spreading Knock Off against my opponent’s team will also be great.

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Since Gengar naturally outspeeds all of my opponent’s team aside from Hawlucha, I decided Specs would be best for busting through the likes of Garg, Azu, Garchomp, and Chi-Yu. Enough Speed to outpace Garchomp, and type coverage to hit all types of Garg I expect to see. (AKA Water or Ghost) [sidenote what a disgustingly broken ability Purifying Salt is for a tank, free status protection AND a free Ghost resist I mean who thought that was a fun idea??]

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It’s scarfed again

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Also scarfed! I wanted double scarf since Hawlucha spooked me and none of my Pokemon naturally outspeed it, and Modest Volt Switch OHKOs a lot of Hawlucha spreads while Timid misses out, so I opted to only speed creep max Jolly Hawlucha.

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It switches into Chi-Yu and yawns a bunch so nothing sets up on it. That’s about all.

THE BATTLE
Every game my opponent has had a Garchomp they would never hard switch into it against Heattom but of course this is the one game where they did and now I am immediately on the back foot. I don’t have a solid switch in to Azu so instead of letting Azu do what it does and click moves I decide to take the opportunity to weaken it for Dragonite later. Now this turn I make quite possibly the biggest mistake imaginable since I didn't even notice my opponent had Mold Breaker on Hawlucha, and I myself have used Power Herb Dig Hawlucha against Rotom forms in draft so I was aware of the set, but I suppose it would not have made much sense for my opponent to go for it turn 1 Lucha was out, and I am able to take out a massive threat to my team. In comes threat #2 and mistake #2 I make is with Vaporeon. I have no clue why I did not click Surf when his Water resist was at 46%, I knew for a fact it was banded, and I had Protect anyways! Instead I lose a lot of tempo and end up trading my Great Tusk for a lot of my opponent’s HP and item on Garg. Based on Dark Pulse damage to Garchomp and Leftovers I determine it is probably Stealth Rock and since I think that Garg is weakened to a point of no return I decide to try and kill it then and there. Chi-Yu comes back in instead and now I finally wisen up and start clicking Surf with Vaporeon. Unfortunately it allows my opponent to get Garg back in and this is when I decide to start with Dragonite. I wanted to keep my Multiscale up but I did not think my opponent would hard swap into Azumarill, and so I unfortunately take a pretty big hit. I am not terribly concerned though since I can tank a Bullet Punch from Sciz- and it’s scarf Scizor. On one hand it’s good news for my own scarf Mystical Fire Gardevoir since I can fire off a free Moonblast, which I use to take out the Chi-Yu in 2. Thankfully I have more sacs than my opponent and I am able to use them to squeeze out a very scary win, GG gengaster.

ROUND 6 VS. CHROME_

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The first thing I noticed about my opponent’s team was that they have a lot of supporting players. Altaria, Gothitelle, Forretress, Pawmot, and Vaporeon all kind of just sit doing nothing, so I decided to employ some stat checking for this game. In essence, stat checking is kind of like Hyper Offense. Load a team that has strong base stats and just use those to your advantage, winning based on the fact your opponent can’t do anything about you rather than outplaying.

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I thought this Dragonite set was perfect against my opponent, hitting everything super hard and allowing me to set up freely on a couple different Pokemon. Rotom-Wash isn’t exactly free, however I think Wisp is far more likely to come out than Hydro Pump would be, Altaria is free, Volcarona is free, and thanks to my Lum Berry Nuzzle Pawmot and TWave Forretress are also free. Fire is a great type since I resist Ice Shard from Chien-Pao and both STABs from Volcarona as well as having a solid way to dispose of Forretress easily. ESpeed and Outrage are overall great moves since my opponent has neither a Ghost type nor a Fairy type.

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GT is here to click moves, simple as that. Shed Shell is a necessity unfortunately because of Gothitelle existing, but anything to make clicking 120 BP STAB moves from a 131 base Attack Pokemon easier is fine by me.

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With the only Pokemon naturally outspeeding Gengar being Chien-Pao, I decided bringing Choice Specs again would be optimal. Dual STAB works so perfectly against my opponents team that I saw little reason for other moves but it would have been stupid to just bring 2 moves so I brought Destiny Bond as a last ditch effort and Psychic as a way to guarantee an OHKO on max HP Pawmot.

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I mostly wanted Kingambit as a preventative measure to Chien-Pao spamming STAB moves so you may ask, why do I not have any moves to hit Chien-Pao? Great question. I don’t recall my thought process honestly. I wanted to use Kingambit as a dedicated lead so Taunt as an anti-Forretress measure seemed pretty good. Defiant was in case of Defog Altaria.

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I brought this Rotom-Heat set as a countermeasure to Volcarona. Coming in on Quiver Dance with a Mirror Herb and then Nasty Plotting ensures I OHKO his entire team, and luckily 271 is perfect to outpace Chien-Pao so I was able to go Modest. If he does not QD, I can always click TWave crippling Volcarona enough that it doesn’t matter if I don’t get the cool tech off. (Although I did really want this to work) [Like really, I have only brought two “cool” sets; the first one didn't work and I didn’t think I would be in this tour much longer].

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It’s scarfed again, big shocker.

THE BATTLE
Looking at the matchup, I did not mind using Gengar as a spin blocker exclusively since I would be able to deal with the rest of the team pretty easily so long as Forretress’ Sturdy is broken so getting rocks up was a top priority. Unfortunately it was all for naught since it was Defog Altaria and now I’m playing from a disadvantage again. Psychic from Volcarona does a lot more than I would have liked, and I missed out on paralyzing something because my opponent went into Rotom-Wash. Like almost every game I have played I’m playing from behind, and now I am pretty much forced to sac off Kingambit. Of course the turn I REALLY wanted Kingambit to faint it missed Hydro Pump, since I wanted to go for game with Dragonite at that point. I decided to preserve Kingambit a little longer against the Pawmot and make a safe switch into Great Tusk, followed up by Knocking Off the Altaria. I figured my opponent would try and finish Kingambit off with Altaria so I went for Sucker Punch, however my opponent read that and made the safe switch into Forretress. Since rocks were likely there to stay with Altaria as low as it was, I did not mind losing Kingambit to get rocks up. I lived an Earthquake no problem so I decided to pop Foretress’ sturdy, and luckily for me my opponent then made a switch into Volcarona which did not tank the hit very well. He got Chien-Pao in and I decided it was time to win. My Dragonite lived a Crunch + Sucker Punch from Adamant Black Glasses Chien-Pao and OHKO’d everything with Outrage at this point, with my opponent having no priority to deal with Dragonite, besides a possible Mach Punch from Pawmot which I did not mind anyways. GG Rasche/Chrome/JollyFlygon

ROUND 7 VS. GENIUSX

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Well, no sugar coating this I lost and lost hard. In my defense, my opponent did have a pretty good matchup against me and getting Chien-Pao and Dragonite should be a crime. Instead of talking about my team I’m going to go straight into the battle and cover everything I should have done differently. My plan was always to Trick Ting-Lu the Ring Target so I could freely Volt Switch, but I should have NEVER let Dragonite keep its Multiscale with Kingambit. My plan for Dragonite was always to go hard into Rotom-Heat and when you make a plan it is usually for a reason, and you should stick to it. I assumed with how reluctant my opponent seemed to be to switch out, it was not HDB Dragonite, and my automatic assumption was Lum Berry so I did not want to click Wisp. This was not necessarily a mistake, but it was presumptuous and my opponent should have never been able to even get the Weakness Policy off. I predicted Ghost tera Dragonite in my prep since I have brought EKiller DNite so much but I ignored it as a possibility in favor of prepping for things I was slightly more concerned about, and I lost the game from there. Looking at the replay, I had well over 3 minutes to think but I didn’t and I got punished for it.


FINAL THOUGHTS

I honestly thought I played a lot worse in the game I lost in but I really don’t think there was anything I could have done besides the turn where I Sucker Punched with Kingambit.

I noticed a ton of new draft players which is really cool to see because of how much different draft is from Smogon tiers. I think having only one battle per week and if you lose you’re done for the week is probably an unattractive concept to some people but it really is fun, direct counter teaming and using Pokemon that normally might not see much use in the respective tiers you play is really fun. I’m happy to see draft make an appearance in Smogon and hope this kickoff tournament has cemented draft on Smogon permanently. As a final remark, for anyone who reads this and is new to draft, I would suggest really involving yourself in draft communities since it’s pretty hard to get into if you don’t know people. Also, watch videos! Don’t work any harder than you have to, a lot of people have already figured out this whole draft league thing. The BBR https://www.youtube.com/@breedjectsbattleroyale4004 is currently going on and there are a bunch of talented players you can learn from.

This took a while and like maybe 3 people are going to end up reading any of it so I won’t be doing it again, but hope these insights have at least moderately helped with becoming a little better.
 

Attachments

Looking for a mentor to help me through the playoffs of the league I am in. Round 2 I am playing someone who is VERY good and would love some to help guide my team building towards success. I would be willing to trade discords with anyone willing to mentor me.

If you want to just give your input on the matchup i'm so worried about, I am the Metagross team. I got 6-0'd by the volcarona in the regular season. I made a few trades and pray it wont happen again.

Finally this league has a strange rule, only pokemon 9 points and under are allowed to Terastilize
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Thread revival time, now that HOME is out, what are the thoughts around the post-home draft metagame? We've obviously been toying around with post-home for a bit but now that it's out in the general public, what are the bigger threats to look out for/what's been fun to try?
 

Celestiial

Free Palestine
is a Pre-Contributor
my initial take is that tera is uh... not in its healthiest spot to say the least. Specifically with standard post home and 16 mans formats it makes an already limited pool of mons even more hard pressed to answer to insane threats with sub par answers. Tera only makes this problem worse with mons like Volcarona, Bax, and Espathra getting almost effortless setup often forcing defensive tera in response to it or just the insane wallbreakers like tera chi yu and urshi s.

A lot of leagues have taken to banning a lot of the worst offenders like dragonite, chien pao, Spectrier and all that still doesnt negate the fact that tera is still an insane mechanic with a lot of less highly tiered pokemon anyways. Mons like skeledirge can handpick what the want to wall, Frosmoth is a random win button, etc.

Ive recently been in a lot of discussions as to how to approach the post-home meta and I really think there is 2 answers.
  • Ban Tera
Obviously this is the most simple answer, and I think a perfectly fine one at that. I've seen a lot of complaining about how "it would just be gen 8 all over again" but I don't really think this is a very strong argument, there are a lot of new pokemon, new items, abilities, new ways to build teams like sun and e terrain, and nerfs to things like recovery create very interesting options for what is looking to be a faster meta with the crazy offensive options this gen has produced, even without tera being a factor. I dont think it is at all worth abandoning a gen because the mechanic we are forcing ourself to play with is unbalanced.

  • Balance Tera (Spoiler alert, Smaller draft pools)
One of the things that in my opinion makes specifically post home tera so difficult to make work is the fact that with the size of most standard leagues draft pools, most players are forced into many bad options to actually deal with a lot of the metagames most powerful threats. And while I know the whole point of draft is to get creative, I can promise there is no creativity in having your only espathra check have to play a 50/50 in the builder for whether the bird becomes a fairy or a fighting type, provided you even have one as a tera captain. The reason I think smaller draft pools is a BIG solution to this problems is because it allows more players to have just a stronger team, therefore having more viable mons that are gonna be able to act as more then niche checks to *insert threat that sweeps if it runs a different set here*. I Have seen this succeed pretty well in TBC, where it really felt like everyone was in the running compared to 88gols (a league I mod in) where wheel took bax and zapdos because thats really all there was. And I feel VERY STRONGLY that this is probably the way to go about it, I'll go into a few of the main alternatives ive seen and why I think they dont work well.

  • Tera Captains
    • Actually do do these because free tera is a hellscape, and drafting one tera type for your whole team just doesnt work well because some tera types are just inherently better then others, and you know some poor fuck is gonna end up with tera normal or sm stupid like that
  • Tera Captains (Assign Tera Types)
    • While this is a step in a direction, it defeats the point of tera for me. I see no reason to say "hey lets play with this mechanic but since we think its too broken lets make it boring and get rid of the whole thing it promotes: Unpredictability." Along with this it still doesnt limit the best tera caps in the format because if you see an espathra with anything other then fighting and fairy as its types, its a bad player moment. All it does is neuter everything but the best abusers because most top tier mons only need 1/2 tera types anyways.
  • Tera Preview
    • Okay, getting somewhere. This is something I would personally suggest most leagues at least seriously consider, because while it doesnt make the problem of teras insane power go away it does help avert 6-0s from your neighbourhood tera grass medicham pullin up in the club to eat up a lando-i earthpower and sweep with no counterplay. TLDR: This is one step of a solution, not a whole one.
  • You can only tera _ and below!
    • This just causes pain for whoever is doing your tiering. Hard limits on what tiers can tera causes you to have to fuck around a lot with where low tier abusers end up, for example if you lock tera at 10 and below do you *really* want a 11 point regieleki? Because the whole point of limits like that is to avoid complex bans and shit. I would pretty much always say never do this unless you have a realllly good reason to.
I have a whole other tangent for good ways to handle natdex but i wanna see what people say to this, that way its not just my fellow mods having to put up with my rambling
 
Finishing Your FWG Core: Budget Options to Save Your Draft


spoiler: neither of these mons made the cut
Ignoring the tera discussion for a moment, I want to talk about some of the budget options going into the Summer Seasonal, so I figured I'd go about it with the most basic of basics; a fire water grass core.

I want to start by mentioning how easy it is to just fall into this core if you're paying attention, especially in gen 9. Waters should be slotted into any decent draft, so fitting one in early never seems to be a struggle, and fire types have a lot of great options, especially after home, with things like volcarona, iron moth, skeledirge, and heatran being very versatile and desirable picks. Grass is definitely type I struggle to fill the most out of the three, but there are still options that are flexible enough to slot in, and cheap enough to not break the bank.

if any point values change before the start of the tour don't blame me

Grass definitely can feel a bit forced at the end of a draft. Some of the lower tiers never feel like they provide enough, and even when they do they can be awkward to slot into a matchup. Here are a couple picks I think are the best at the low end of things.


Dhelmise took all the coverage, the recovery, the setup potential, and the bulk, but it did leave spikes! I'm not a huge fan of this thing, but access to rapid spin and spikes can definitely be worth considering if you're in a pinch. This may honestly be the worst option on the list, but at least you gain an immunity to heat wave and hurricane. With Tornadus-t back in the format post-home, and torn having lost knock off, this is a niche counter for an opponent who forgets what the ability does. For 4 points you could do worse.

Subpar in a lot of ways, but honestly not too bad. Eject pack draco meteor is a very funny pivot option, and thick fat makes this only 2x to ice which makes its role as a spdef wall much more reliable. Leech seed support, dual screens, access to recover, the only thing this is truly lacking is special coverage options (and bst), but the physical side gives this a few more choices (albeit with 15 less base attack than special). If you want the real heat with this thing it even has iron defense body press. Really solid option for 3.

I won't lie to you, this is my favorite option here, but I am also reasonable. This has the same base attack as Appletun, and lost access to grassy glide this gen, so what's the big deal? Firstly, I don't think I need to sell the benefits of grassy terrain,
0 Atk Great Tusk Earthquake vs. 96 HP / 252 Def Zamazenta-Crowned in Grassy Terrain: 86-104 (24.6 - 29.7%) -- 0.1% chance to 4HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
Not to mention the passive recovery for defensive mons like dondozo and heatran, as well as pivots like cinderace and iron bundle. This thing saves you 8 points over Rillaboom, which lets you go from an Inteleon (9) to Iron Bundle (17) without changing any other slots. Access to eviolite can make this thing live more hits, or choice band to hit things harder. Losing access to grassy glide definitely hurt this thing's potential overall, but it's still a decent option especially for 2.

I feel like trailblaze should have been this guy's signature move in gen 6, but better late than never. Bulk up sub sets are quite annoying with horn leech, and it even has access to wild charge for hitting flyers. It gets decent coverage on the whole, but it does have a bad speed tier (which can be fixed with trailblaze, but you lose access to horn leech so not sure if it is even worth it). I have seen it clean out games, and honestly, it's probably the best option at 2 (though there are a couple mons I like more personally). Try it out in testing and see how it does, but this might be one of the most underrated choices going into the draft.

Fire definitely does not struggle at any point total. There are great mons available at almost every threshold, but these are the ones I think are value picks.


Ok, he's a bit expensive for this post, but he's also cheap for how much he does! Nasty plot sets are threatening, it has access to dual status in twave and will-o, dual screens, it even has rest for recovery! This mon is like top 3 for defensive fire types, and sitting at only 7 points is an absolute steal. Really consider this one for your draft if you have the point allowance.

Rapid spin and spikes much like Brambleghast, but this guy also gets access to stealth rock, which is a huge plus. Flame body punishes annoying u-turners but it gets will-o-wisp just in case. Honestly a decent option, if you're lacking hazards and a fire type it's a must grab, otherwise I'm not super excited about this guy. The role compression is appreciated but I don't think it's worth the downsides. Maybe someone will go for something silly with this, but it's a pass for me in most drafts.

Not a bad mon at all. This guy has solid rock, which helps a lot. An extra ground type never hurts to have around, and an extra rocker. Gets double status in will-o and yawn, and honestly under trick room can do a decent chunk. Overall a solid and cheap mon to glue together a team. Don't rely on it to do anything spectacular and it won't disappoint.

I don't like how he is looking at me. Budget Skeledirge, but unlike Thwackey you lose a lot with this guy. Doesn't have access to torch song which is big, but does still have unaware and, like Camerupt, has access to yawn and will-o for status support. Worth a consideration if nothing else is available, but you probably want to look for a knock absorber to preserve his eviolite.

Like mentioned earlier, you rarely need a water by the end of the draft since the options at higher values are so prevalent. Most even remotely playable waters are also a bit too expensive for this list, so I just have 2 to cover here.


This thing is great. Dragon water is a great typing, access to storm drain for a water immune, nasty plot to boost its already good special attack. Quite a good deal for 5. Biggest thing is coverage not existing, but if you can dodge the Azumarill matchup you should be able to hit everything neutral at least. Even has memento for those really weird endgames.

It's not Gastrodon, it's not even Quagsire, but it does serve its own little niche at 2 points. Water ground is great to give us an electric immunity, and access to dual hazards is always appreciated. While I don't think dragon dance sets are going to be winning games every time, it at least has the option to put fear into the heart of your opponent.

These are just my thoughts for some good budget picks around FWG. I thought about doing SFD as well, but I think this is enough to get started. What are some cores you like to look for? Any budget mons you gravitate toward?
 
Getting a Grounded Poison Type
As a more casual draft player, I found the above post on finishing your FWG core interesting and helpful for the upcoming Summer Seasonal draft so I wanted to share my input into why you should get a grounded poison type. Poison types are a decent defensive typing on its own, being only weak to ground and psychic and can be worth picking up alone for that reason (and to hit the important Fairy type super effectively) but why the grounded specification? Two words: toxic spikes. While not necessarily common in singles, toxic spikes can be a monster in draft as they can 6-0 an unprepared team, especially with the limited hazard removal. For this reason, getting a grounded poison type is good as it can remove them by just pivoting in and can then pivot right back out the next turn without having to waste a turn on removing them through defog or rapid spin. A "grounded" poison type is any that touches the ground, (in other words doesn't have the levitate ability or a secondary flying type) and they're actually easy to fit on a team as there are many both high, mid, and low point options. I've included some examples below that I think are particularly good at their job, along with their point value (subject to change still until signups are concluded).

First off, our three high tier poison types.
1686948539522.png
Coming in at 17 points, you either love Sneasler or hate Sneasler depending on what side of Dire Claw you're on, but with a good offensive-oriented BST and STABs its a good offensive threat on its own or boosted by SD or CB that has to be respected in the MU. With access to U-turn, its also a good toxic spikes absorb-er as it can come in and then pivot out on slower threats with U-turn clearing TS while also making progress in the game. Or instead of pivoting out it can force progress with T-Spikes as well before switching or U-turning away.
1686948827199.png
One point cheaper at 16, Iron Moth is just as big an offensive threat boosting itself with booster energy and fiery dance for sweeping potential, and more relevantly to this post can come in with a fast U-turn to clear those toxic spikes and go to your next offensive threat, or it can stay in to lay its own T-Spikes to punish your opponent for switching around.
1686949047314.png
Our first grounded poison type we're looking at that can go defensively, it sits at the bottom of high tier or top of middle tier at 14 points and can be a potent special wall while still exuding offensive pressure with AV or other sets. Losing teleport is unfortunate, but this mon got saved with the new chilly reception which is sometimes even better as it can also set up snow for your partner Pokemon or aura veil users. The advantage of this over the fast U-turners is you can safely bring in your next Pokemon for free without it taking any damage while removing toxic spikes. On top of that it heals a 1/3 of its health whenever doing this meaning you can do it consistently throughout the game. It also has its own T-Spikes to threaten the opponent.

Now, we move into the middle tier where there are many viable options but due to how long this has taken me to write I'll be discussing only three (sorry Amoongus: it does basically the same thing as Toxapex but has spore to put opposing mons to sleep and is cheaper at 10 points)
1686949492892.png
To start with at a more affordable 12, we have Alolan Muk and while it doesn't have a pivot move like the high tiers or Regenerator like Pex and Amoongus, what it does have that makes it unique are access to Knock Off, a key move if you remember Gen 7-8's meta at all, Brick Break, a good move in draft to answer Screens teams, Toxic to force progress on the opponent, and finally Rest for some alright recovery.
1686949809866.png
Also at 12 points, while Game Freak tried to nerf this thing into oblivion after the pleas of many an OU player with the discovery of AV Pex it has made a resurgence and can be a formidable wall in Draft or even an offensive threat like in OU. This mon has its own T-Spikes to damage the opponent passively, Haze to neutralize opposing boosted threats, and Recover and Regenerator to keep itself healthy making it a top pick.
1686950324987.png

Our last mid tier mon, at 9 points Salazzle offers an excellent speed tier and can use this to wear down the opponents with its fast Toxic/Sub/Prot set, including steel types due to its Corrosion ability. You could also run a support set with Knock Off (how did Weavile lose it and this thing keep it?), Will-O, and T-Spikes. The only drawbacks are the lack of recovery or a way to pivot but it still makes a good T-Spikes absorber.

Just because these picks are lower makes them no less effective, and many have unique traits that can help them shine on teams.
1686951229393.png

Dragalge as a Pokemon has a great defensive profile with its unique typing and good BST, and also hits quite hard with its 123 SpAtk boosted by Adaptability. The only reason its not worth more than 8 points is its lackluster base speed of 44, which I actually think makes it an even better pick sometimes because it forces some slower defensive mons to invest in speed or risk getting out-sped by it. With access to great coverage moves, Toxic, and T-Spikes, Dragalge is a powerful mon that can surprise the opponent with a sudden T-bolt or Shadow Ball and bring utility at the same time.
1686951571641.png

With access to three great abilities, Overqwil is also a great option at 8 points with the same good typing as Alolan-Muk that can be as radically different as a Swift Swim abuser or status spreader with Intimidate, Barb Barrage, Toxic, and T-Spikes, making it a Pokemon that you can never 100% safely predict and that has to be respected in the MU. (And it also has Spikes, Haze, Taunt, Destiny Bond, Chilling Water, and Swords Dance to really keep them guessing!)
1686951763093.png

Its smaller form (and consequently a point cheaper at 7) has access to the same great abilities and even same great moves, including the signature Barb Barrage, and since its not fully evolved it can hold the Eviolite making it actually bulkier than its evolved counterpart (or maybe the same I didn't do the math) meaning its still just as solid a pick and can be even better as its a point cheaper. It and its evolution also run in at base 85, a good number to force your opponents at base 90 to run speed investment, and even more critically forcing Great Tusk (87), the Rotoms (86), and even other 85s (to many to mention lol).
1686952057026.png

A cost-effective Pokemon of 4 points, Skuntank has a good ability in Aftermath for chip damage, and a good movepool with Toxic, T-Spikes, Taunt, Haze, even Trailblaze to raise speed and go for the Tank sweep (lol), but most importantly stab Sucker Punch to pick off weakened threats, which can give your team needed speed control and at 84 it helps vary the speed of your team to force your opponents to run speed investment over attack investment in some cases which can be invaluable.
1686952468919.png

Finally, if you have 3 points left to spend Muk is one of if not the best option. It's solid defensive typing and BST allow it to make for a pretty good defensive Pokemon, it has Brick Break, Memento, Haze, Taunt, Toxic, T-Spikes, for great support on draft and good offensive coverage with Poison Touch to pile on the hurt when you need it to. Unless you already have a poison type and need to fill another niche, I would highly recommend Muk as an easy pickup with valuable utility.

If you took the time to read all of that thank you very much, and of course these are my humble opinions but I hope they can come in handy when making some of those hard draft decisions. If I got anything wrong, missed something, or if you have your own favorite poison type feel free to post down below about it.
 
LC Draft League Usage Stats
Hello ! I wanted to share with the community the usage stats I had fun compiling from the ongoing LC tour after the pool phase. These are stats about usage in battles from the replays, not about draft picks.

Here is the top 10 (full list in spoilers below):

RankSprite Pokemon Usage%
1:abra:Abra7114.14%
2:ponyta:Ponyta6813.55%
3:pawniard:Pawniard6512.95%
4:scraggy:Scraggy5911.75%
4:staryu:Staryu5911.75%
6:timburr:Timburr5711.35%
7:zorua-hisui:Zorua-Hisui5611.16%
8:grookey:Grookey5410.76%
9:ponyta-galar:Ponyta-Galar5210.36%
10:chinchou:Chinchou499.76%

RankSpritePokemon Usage%
1:abra:Abra7114.14%
2:ponyta:Ponyta6813.55%
3:pawniard:Pawniard6512.95%
4:scraggy:Scraggy5911.75%
4:staryu:Staryu5911.75%
6:timburr:Timburr5711.35%
7:zorua-hisui:Zorua-Hisui5611.16%
8:grookey:Grookey5410.76%
9:ponyta-galar:Ponyta-Galar5210.36%
10:chinchou:Chinchou499.76%
11:farfetch’d-galar:Farfetch’d-Galar489.56%
11:grimer-alola:Grimer-Alola489.56%
13:drifloon:Drifloon479.36%
13:mudbray:Mudbray479.36%
15:diglett:Diglett448.76%
16:natu:Natu428.37%
16:pancham:Pancham428.37%
18:glimmet:Glimmet407.97%
19:magnemite:Magnemite387.57%
20:toedscool:Toedscool377.37%
21:ferroseed:Ferroseed367.17%
22:dewpider:Dewpider356.97%
22:stunky:Stunky356.97%
24:growlithe-hisui:Growlithe-Hisui346.77%
25:sandshrew:Sandshrew316.18%
25:wingull:Wingull316.18%
27:carvanha:Carvanha305.98%
28:voltorb-hisui:Voltorb-Hisui295.78%
29:elekid:Elekid285.58%
30:onix:Onix275.38%
30:snivy:Snivy275.38%
32:koffing:Koffing265.18%
33:baltoy:Baltoy254.98%
33:croagunk:Croagunk254.98%
33:spritzee:Spritzee254.98%
33:tinkatink:Tinkatink254.98%
33:tyrunt:Tyrunt254.98%
38:vulpix-alola:Vulpix-Alola244.78%
39:crabrawler:Crabrawler234.58%
40:foongus:Foongus224.38%
40:frillish:Frillish224.38%
40:sandshrew-alola:Sandshrew-Alola224.38%
43:wattrel:Wattrel214.18%
44:bramblin:Bramblin203.98%
44:bronzor:Bronzor203.98%
44:snubbull:Snubbull203.98%
47:cottonee:Cottonee193.78%
47:drilbur:Drilbur193.78%
47:mareanie:Mareanie193.78%
47:slowpoke:Slowpoke193.78%
47:trapinch:Trapinch193.78%
52:archen:Archen183.59%
52:corphish:Corphish183.59%
52:dwebble:Dwebble183.59%
52:pineco:Pineco183.59%
52:quaxly:Quaxly183.59%
52:sandile:Sandile183.59%
52:vulpix:Vulpix183.59%
59:anorith:Anorith173.39%
59:mankey:Mankey173.39%
59:numel:Numel173.39%
59:squirtle:Squirtle173.39%
63:clamperl:Clamperl163.19%
63:flittle:Flittle163.19%
63:gothita:Gothita163.19%
63:houndour:Houndour163.19%
67:makuhita:Makuhita152.99%
67:nymble:Nymble152.99%
67:sandygast:Sandygast152.99%
67:surskit:Surskit152.99%
67:woobat:Woobat152.99%
72:geodude:Geodude142.79%
72:trubbish:Trubbish142.79%
74:gossifleur:Gossifleur132.59%
74:purrloin:Purrloin132.59%
76:dratini:Dratini122.39%
76:golett:Golett122.39%
76:taillow:Taillow122.39%
76:tarountula:Tarountula122.39%
76:tentacool:Tentacool122.39%
81:growlithe:Growlithe112.19%
81:machop:Machop112.19%
81:shroodle:Shroodle112.19%
81:slowpoke-galar:Slowpoke-Galar112.19%
81:wynaut:Wynaut112.19%
86:amaura:Amaura101.99%
86:doduo:Doduo101.99%
86:hippopotas:Hippopotas101.99%
86:meowth-galar:Meowth-Galar101.99%
86:rhyhorn:Rhyhorn101.99%
86:scorbunny:Scorbunny101.99%
92:bulbasaur:Bulbasaur91.79%
92:cranidos:Cranidos91.79%
92:magby:Magby91.79%
92:munchlax:Munchlax91.79%
92:tirtouga:Tirtouga91.79%
92:wooper:Wooper91.79%
92:zorua:Zorua91.79%
99:blipbug:Blipbug81.59%
99:clauncher:Clauncher81.59%
99:finizen:Finizen81.59%
99:fuecoco:Fuecoco81.59%
99:gible:Gible81.59%
99:rowlet:Rowlet81.59%
99:salandit:Salandit81.59%
99:varoom:Varoom81.59%
107:bellsprout:Bellsprout71.39%
107:darumaka:Darumaka71.39%
107:deerling:Deerling71.39%
107:duskull:Duskull71.39%
107:honedge:Honedge71.39%
107:klink:Klink71.39%
107:larvesta:Larvesta71.39%
107:mareep:Mareep71.39%
107:meowth:Meowth71.39%
107:morelull:Morelull71.39%
107:oshawott:Oshawott71.39%
107:pumpkaboo:Pumpkaboo-*71.39%
107:shellder:Shellder71.39%
107:shellos:Shellos71.39%
107:shieldon:Shieldon71.39%
107:starly:Starly71.39%
107:stufful:Stufful71.39%
107:turtwig:Turtwig71.39%
125:aron:Aron61.20%
125:arrokuda:Arrokuda61.20%
125:axew:Axew61.20%
125:barboach:Barboach61.20%
125:bunnelby:Bunnelby61.20%
125:diglett-alola:Diglett-Alola61.20%
125:greavard:Greavard61.20%
125:hatenna:Hatenna61.20%
125:impidimp:Impidimp61.20%
125:kabuto:Kabuto61.20%
125:lileep:Lileep61.20%
125:litleo:Litleo61.20%
125:meowth-alola:Meowth-Alola61.20%
125:nidoran-m:Nidoran-M61.20%
125:noibat:Noibat61.20%
125:pansage:Pansage61.20%
125:zubat:Zubat61.20%
142:bagon:Bagon51.00%
142:bergmite:Bergmite51.00%
142:charmander:Charmander51.00%
142:chimchar:Chimchar51.00%
142:cyndaquil:Cyndaquil51.00%
142:dreepy:Dreepy51.00%
142:grubbin:Grubbin51.00%
142:gulpin:Gulpin51.00%
142:maschiff:Maschiff51.00%
142:mudkip:Mudkip51.00%
142:spinarak:Spinarak51.00%
142:totodile:Totodile51.00%
142:voltorb:Voltorb51.00%
142:wooper-paldea:Wooper-Paldea51.00%
142:zigzagoon-galar:Zigzagoon-Galar51.00%
157:buneary:Buneary40.80%
157:feebas:Feebas40.80%
157:fennekin:Fennekin40.80%
157:flabébé:Flabébé40.80%
157:frigibax:Frigibax40.80%
157:grimer:Grimer40.80%
157:hoothoot:Hoothoot40.80%
157:pikipek:Pikipek40.80%
157:rolycoly:Rolycoly40.80%
157:shuppet:Shuppet40.80%
157:venipede:Venipede40.80%
157:yamask:Yamask40.80%
169:bonsly:Bonsly30.60%
169:buizel:Buizel30.60%
169:cacnea:Cacnea30.60%
169:cleffa:Cleffa30.60%
169:exeggcute:Exeggcute30.60%
169:finneon:Finneon30.60%
169:glameow:Glameow30.60%
169:karrablast:Karrablast30.60%
169:ledyba:Ledyba30.60%
169:lickitung:Lickitung30.60%
169:litten:Litten30.60%
169:minccino:Minccino30.60%
169:nacli:Nacli30.60%
169:sewaddle:Sewaddle30.60%
169:silicobra:Silicobra30.60%
169:sinistea:Sinistea30.60%
169:sizzlipede:Sizzlipede30.60%
169:skorupi:Skorupi30.60%
169:skrelp:Skrelp30.60%
169:snover:Snover30.60%
169:spearow:Spearow30.60%
169:sprigatito:Sprigatito30.60%
169:swablu:Swablu30.60%
169:tandemaus:Tandemaus30.60%
169:treecko:Treecko30.60%
169:tympole:Tympole30.60%
169:venonat:Venonat30.60%
169:wailmer:Wailmer30.60%
197:cetoddle:Cetoddle20.40%
197:cubchoo:Cubchoo20.40%
197:cubone:Cubone20.40%
197:electrike:Electrike20.40%
197:fidough:Fidough20.40%
197:fletchling:Fletchling20.40%
197:goldeen:Goldeen20.40%
197:igglybuff:Igglybuff20.40%
197:inkay:Inkay20.40%
197:jangmo-o:Jangmo-o20.40%
197:litwick:Litwick20.40%
197:mime jr.:Mime Jr.20.40%
197:nosepass:Nosepass20.40%
197:phanpy:Phanpy20.40%
197:phantump:Phantump20.40%
197:pidgey:Pidgey20.40%
197:pidove:Pidove20.40%
197:psyduck:Psyduck20.40%
197:shelmet:Shelmet20.40%
197:slugma:Slugma20.40%
197:solosis:Solosis20.40%
197:torchic:Torchic20.40%
197:toxel:Toxel20.40%
197:tyrogue:Tyrogue20.40%
197:yamask-galar:Yamask-Galar20.40%
222:applin:Applin10.20%
222:chespin:Chespin10.20%
222:chikorita:Chikorita10.20%
222:deino:Deino10.20%
222:ducklett:Ducklett10.20%
222:eevee:Eevee10.20%
222:elgyem:Elgyem10.20%
222:geodude-alola:Geodude-Alola10.20%
222:gimmighoul:Gimmighoul10.20%
222:happiny:Happiny10.20%
222:joltik:Joltik10.20%
222:milcery:Milcery10.20%
222:nickit:Nickit10.20%
222:omanyte:Omanyte10.20%
222:pansear:Pansear10.20%
222:pichu:Pichu10.20%
222:piplup:Piplup10.20%
222:poliwag:Poliwag10.20%
222:remoraid:Remoraid10.20%
222:rockruff:Rockruff10.20%
222:roggenrola:Roggenrola10.20%
222:rookidee:Rookidee10.20%
222:seel:Seel10.20%
222:shinx:Shinx10.20%
222:shroomish:Shroomish10.20%
222:spheal:Spheal10.20%
222:swinub:Swinub10.20%
222:teddiursa:Teddiursa10.20%
222:tepig:Tepig10.20%
222:vanillite:Vanillite10.20%
222:whismur:Whismur10.20%
222:wimpod:Wimpod10.20%

Only pokemons used 17 times or more are listed.

RankSpritePokemon Win Rate
1:baltoy:Baltoy76.00%
2:squirtle:Squirtle70.59%
3:ponyta:Ponyta69.12%
4:chinchou:Chinchou67.35%
5:snubbull:Snubbull65.00%
6:croagunk:Croagunk64.00%
7:frillish:Frillish63.64%
8:sandshrew-alola:Sandshrew-Alola63.64%
9:slowpoke:Slowpoke63.16%
10:grookey:Grookey61.11%
11:vulpix:Vulpix61.11%
12:zorua-hisui:Zorua-Hisui60.71%
13:vulpix-alola:Vulpix-Alola58.33%
14:natu:Natu57.14%
15:corphish:Corphish55.56%
16:dwebble:Dwebble55.56%
17:sandile:Sandile55.56%
18:voltorb-hisui:Voltorb-Hisui55.17%
19:sandshrew:Sandshrew54.84%
20:grimer-alola:Grimer-Alola54.17%
21:carvanha:Carvanha53.33%
22:mareanie:Mareanie52.63%
23:trapinch:Trapinch52.63%
24:scraggy:Scraggy52.54%
25:pancham:Pancham52.38%
26:farfetch’d-galar:Farfetch’d-Galar52.08%
27:tyrunt:Tyrunt52.00%
28:onix:Onix51.85%
29:stunky:Stunky51.43%
30:mudbray:Mudbray51.06%
31:bramblin:Bramblin50.00%
32:quaxly:Quaxly50.00%
33:pawniard:Pawniard49.23%
34:snivy:Snivy48.15%
35:ponyta-galar:Ponyta-Galar48.08%
36:abra:Abra47.89%
37:crabrawler:Crabrawler47.83%
38:timburr:Timburr47.37%
39:cottonee:Cottonee47.37%
40:anorith:Anorith47.06%
41:numel:Numel47.06%
42:koffing:Koffing46.15%
43:diglett:Diglett45.45%
44:glimmet:Glimmet45.00%
45:bronzor:Bronzor45.00%
46:drifloon:Drifloon44.68%
47:ferroseed:Ferroseed44.44%
48:staryu:Staryu44.07%
49:tinkatink:Tinkatink44.00%
50:toedscool:Toedscool43.24%
51:magnemite:Magnemite42.11%
52:drilbur:Drilbur42.11%
53:foongus:Foongus40.91%
54:elekid:Elekid39.29%
55:archen:Archen38.89%
56:growlithe-hisui:Growlithe-Hisui38.24%
57:dewpider:Dewpider37.14%
58:wingull:Wingull35.48%
59:spritzee:Spritzee32.00%
60:mankey:Mankey29.41%
61:wattrel:Wattrel28.57%
62:pineco:Pineco22.22%

Only listing pairs used by at least at least 3 different people

RankUsage%WinsWin Rate
1
203.98%1785.00%
2
173.39%635.29%
3
163.19%1168.75%
4
142.79%857.14%
4
142.79%535.71%
6
132.59%1292.31%
7
112.19%763.64%
7
112.19%872.73%
9
101.99%770.00%
9
101.99%770.00%
9
101.99%440.00%
9
101.99%660.00%
9
101.99%550.00%
9
101.99%330.00%
15
91.79%555.56%
15
91.79%555.56%
15
91.79%555.56%
15
91.79%666.67%
15
91.79%333.33%
15
91.79%888.89%
15
91.79%444.44%
15
91.79%444.44%
15
91.79%333.33%
24
81.59%337.50%
24
81.59%450.00%
24
81.59%675.00%
24
81.59%562.50%
24
81.59%450.00%
24
81.59%562.50%
24
81.59%562.50%
24
81.59%450.00%
24
81.59%562.50%
24
81.59%675.00%
24
81.59%450.00%
24
81.59%562.50%
24
81.59%337.50%
24
81.59%450.00%
38
71.39%342.86%
38
71.39%457.14%
38
71.39%00.00%
38
71.39%457.14%
38
71.39%114.29%
38
71.39%457.14%
38
71.39%228.57%
38
71.39%571.43%
38
71.39%571.43%
38
71.39%342.86%
38
71.39%685.71%
38
71.39%571.43%
38
71.39%228.57%
38
71.39%571.43%
38
71.39%571.43%

I find it very interesting to see, especially with the paring stats, what have been working so far, what were the underperforming bait picks ( :pineco: ) and what is clearly dominating ( :ponyta: ).

Hopefully these stats can somehow be used to further refine the tier lists for future drafts. Let me know what else you would like me to check besides usage and winrate or if you want me to do the same for other smogon tours.

:lotad: Shoutouts to Ticken the goat, because I copied his own sheet from WcoP to make this :bulbasaur:
 
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