Hey, had fun this season. Got to to live the impossible dream of playing every (good) tier at least once over the course of a single season and even though I ended up lazily recycling for the one ORAS I played (that tier's crazy btw, why do I have to try to figure which of more than one mon could feasibly be wielding AV) it was pretty nice to get to tinker on this and that. Much appreciation to my team for granting me the freedom to use what is likely big trash in the interest of personal enjoyment, makes me feel like I'm not quite washed yet. Figured I might share what I brewed this season (thereby exempting the one recycle, which I think is a neat team but is ultimately imperfect by way of no Psychic resist among smaller things, and the two dead games since I didn't end up finishing one and could maybe salvage the other one, which is currently less-than-playable) in an effort to dissuade further lazy recycling in future iterations should I play for them, but maybe they might actually be worth something to someone other than me and that would be cool too. Regrettably I only SM'd in post-plume ban weeks, but what can you do.
Week 1 [BW] vs PinkTidal
Didn't have a lot to go off of in terms of replays from this tier, I was really only familiar w/my opponent insofar as noting they'd be pulling some solid performances in these lower tier pls recently so I went with some fairly mercurial anti-bo / balance. Ended up taking a somewhat non-traditional approach w/the usual Spikes BO to work (I think) somewhat better around the strengths of Scarf Gothorita. This led me to pick up [Substitute] Mantine as an ok way for the team not to necessarily fodder to Ludicolo / Charizard, as well as providing a tool both to coerce Alomomola to stay in to position a safe Goth trap and either exploit Goth-forced Earthquake locks (as it did in the game) or simply undercut the necessity to hit every Hydro Pump or suffer crack-back. I have noticed a habit of mine to play balance and bulky offense more aggressively than most are comfortable, and that has sort of carried into my building practices at times, such as here where I really present very little with which to handle Scarf Rotom-F. This does prompt you as a player to consider it more actively in the early-game, keeping SR and using Golem if not as a direct switch, at least a deterrent for the 'free' Volt Switch and from there either getting the requisite chip with Gothorita as it is Blizzard locked or counterplaying via Mantine.
Week 2 [SM] vs HarrisIsAwesome
Just as I'm sure is the case for everyone expecting to play a Finchinator team, I was very bored prepping this week. Seriously though, I was for one reason or the other somewhat transfixed with making Gurdurr work this week; while a tendency to take Knock Off in playing its usual role as a tank does hinder it and overall we weren't without sturdy Fight resists, I was really enamoured with the top end it provided in your average offensively-skewed balance game, where I felt with proper support it could very easily make a turn for itself and eek at least a couple ko's by merit of most popular revenge-killers struggling with either his priority or natural bulk. Guts to me was no good, as Mach Punch just didn't meet my expectations without Iron Fist, nor did Ice Punch do enough to then-monstrous threat Vileplume, so I could reply upon it too heavily to play into Scald. Settled on what I felt was a pretty comfortable blend of members that could effectively apply pressure as needed to the key defensive pokemon and afford Gurdurr a sweep, which it did! As wack as the starting idea for the team was, I was fairly happy with the way all the moving parts here synced up, between Knock Off Toad targeting various key items for the team (Colbur Dhelmise, Colbur / AV King, Golbat Evio, Plume Sludge, etc.), Magmortar and Gurdurr finding outs to open up a win from the other, even Nuzzle Toge paralyzing Vileplume on generally safe Effect Spore fishes such that Gurdurr can outspeed and KO. CB Drudd is also tragically under-appreciated atm, SR sets are definitely strong and I used them in both my other games but it's such a brutal mon and its Pursuit is liquid gold. Also until 89-95 Base Speed Scarfers start gaining massive traction you might struggle to convince me Jolly Toge is better than Adamant, the biggest boon is that you have to luxury to lose initiative by U-Turning first in the mirror.
Week 4 [SM] vs tko
For whatever reason, I had the Laxes pegged as the Passimian-est, Golbat-edest team in the league, so I wanted to prep for that. Resist berry Pangoro was something that he been drawing me in since it dropped, and now to me felt like a perfect opportunity to make use of it. The general premise of it all was to use Pangoro as a tool with which to set up another Pokemon in the endgame, be it Vileplume in the balance match-up or Specs Accelgor vs offense. This sort of pushed me to go down the rabbit hole that was the Vileplume mirror match-up, of which my conclusion was that a Modest nature nature with a certain amount of SpA (the one I have listed in the case of Z Poison or I believe a final 298 SpA in order to 2HKO any given spread at +2) and a ton of creep, to diminishing returns on bulk because of course that creep is basically just for that one match-up and by the time you're EV'ing for it security against something like Heliolisk is already out the window. Fortunately nothing like that became quite so difficult in application, since I was given liberty to just force that mirror outright and reap my OHKO at +2 in spite of losing the creep game, but I digress. Scarf Rotom isn't a Pokemon I have much love for and I understand why many people feel the same, but there comes time where the speed control is valuable and oftentimes when it doesn't using it simply as a Trick user is fine too. As for RH Drudd, I do feel it's genuinely underrated by the average tour type, terrible stigma behind it but being able to force a Passimian or Toge to take all that damage just to get the prediction "right" in scaring out Pangoro and U-Turning is something that is ripe for exploitation on the proper team, and from the perspective of someone that admittedly doesn't play all that much, Xatu just doesn't feel as good as it used to (not bad, just less great, and maybe not worth dedicating an ability slot to every time).
Week 5 [SM] vs Hootie
Recent scouts were showing a fair few traditional balances with a somewhat physically offensive leaning. More importantly though was Water-types lacking sustainability and Ground immunes that were liable to drop to a well-timed coverage move, which struck me as a solid window for Mudsdale after getting hyped on him, like, two years ago. Settled on a pretty traditionally built bulky offense overall, setting up a paralysis platform to better push through as needed and mons designed to come out on top in attempted trades should all that fall through. The Golbat set is beyond ugly for sure, but losing vs most SR setters isn't so bad here when it's much moreso for [Toxic] Spikes clearance here, and while it was primarily here to respect Plume I still do value it for being able to push through Vaporeon or what have you should the situation warrant.
Semi-Finals [ADV] vs MDragon
Sam had been running a lot of teams I've dredged up from past NUPL's, with the exception of a Baton Pass team and I think(?) a Magby team in the earlier half, but given what I felt was an abnormally high sum of HO's from me in this tier, I was hoping to go for something a bit more restrained for this game. MDrag seemed to simply roll with what he felt comfortable, specifically balance with a focus on punishing the mirror, moreso than actively prepping against what his opponent runs, so the baseline here was bulky offense that punishes typical balance sequences; double Normal / Flying resists to exploit the tendency for players to assume their bird is 'free' once they've pressured the Rock / Steel to trade, fast HP Fly Cacturne to punish zealous Roselia play, etc etc. The Arbok set, which got brought up talking to Pearl earlier in the season as essentially good Swalot, put in quite a fair bit in its game moreso for the surprise factor of it I feel, but all the disruption and defensive utility it provides to a team to me makes it a worthwhile pick overall. Let me use Dewgong as well, which I love as a mon and am only running it as sparingly as I do for the liability it brings as a Water in the game the opp finally makes the Pupitar call and of course the competition of Wailord, best mon in the tier. While I will say that I don't regret the Macargo choice (limits Glalie to 1 layer, explodes on relevant targets, frees up Metang to run something a little more offensive), and honestly Resttalk is a set I think is totally worth running atm, it was a disappointment and I need to be emotionally honest about as much.
Semi-Final Tiebreak [DPP] vs MDragon
I could fish up logs of me getting mad at my team for making me have to not only win games in 2019, but against actual good players twice in a row to stay afloat. Hate to see it, really. MDrag again showed an affinity for fat and just playing better than his opp and if you don't think I'll do my best to take playing better out of the equation then you don't know me. The team itself was a fairly straightforward semi-stall, in the interest of presenting a context where the opponent was more inclined to believe the Block user is a more conventional set (which, at least to me, is the #1 thing folks will neglect in the building process for these kinds of teams), though in application things went a bit more direct. From there some early-game positioning w/Skunk and poison and a shame of a turn w/Skuntank on Plume, everything more-or-less went as intended. There are definitely resources allotted to other match-ups here, but overall is not for the player you think might pull some surprise HO.
Finals [ADV] vs Megazard
I think Megazard is a solid player, but for better or worse is the 'type' of builder that I struggle to find that spark for when prepping myself. Ultimately that lent itself to what I'd see as a pretty blasé Spikes offense from myself, albeit with a few little tweaks for colour; the Wailord set used was (in theory) meant to serve a significant role in the balance midgame, finding a turn v.sableye and discouraging the option of playing around Self-Destruct so I could get favourable results, and after unabashedly taking credit for Brightpowder Glalie I sought to respect his higher Venomoth usage and inclination to assume for a cheesier item via a bulkier Lum set. I also thought today would be the day to cash in on what I think might've been 0% Chimecho usage, which I feel panned out rather nicely. Tragic endgame, hate to see it happen but the game was fun and I had the opp to (begrudgingly) bring it back afterwards so que sera sera.
Finals Tiebreak [ADV] vs Heysup
I had less to go off of with this game and settled on just bringing some of the brokens; a focused Diglett offense to me stood out as both comfortably out of my wheelhouse and consistent vs the types of teams I saw Heysup as feeling most comfortable with. I felt the best way to achieve this was a series of quick / sub-pass users looking to either pay off on an AOA Wailord or Diglett, utilizing either Tropius in the endgame (with the luxury of running both Synthesis and Sunny Day affording it the liberty to avoid nearly as much fishing from Pokemon like Haunter that it might strive to check, as it did in the game) or taking things more aggressively w/Flail Vigoroth. Honestly this one was one of my favourites from this season, and it was pretty cool to see it scare the fuck outta me w/the prospect of losing another to a Haunter crit but then not.
Hopefully this was of someone value to someone. S.o elodin for pinning his hopes on an act loss that doesn't even play mons multiple times, s.o garay for ditching and forcing me to play in the regular season multiple times, s.o the rest of the team for being helpful and the various ppl that swarmed the chat once teams started getting elimmed, and s.o all y'all for watching and making it fun to play.