Tournament Smogon Premier League XIV: SV OU Discussion

[Duck Chris]

Week 6 is done and uniquely this week we had no changes to tiering, available pokemon, or suspect tests so I was excited to see if people might experiment a bit more.

Dragon stab seems to be back in a big way. This week more Dragonites packed Outrage, more Garchomps packed dragon claw, and in general dragon stab has been on the rise. With only one and a half viable fairies and Corviknight on the decline, Gholdengo is hard pressed to handle all the strong dragon moves and also do all the other things it wants to do. Which is why

Fairy tera is a great random tera to throw on your 5th or 6th mon and it seems a lot of teams are using that now. It doesn't have to be a primary win condition or gameplan but having it in the back just in case is certainly useful and was used a few times this week to stop runaway dragon types. This almost singlehandedly checks stuff like Dragapult since it always has to think twice before clicking its most powerful moves. Even against seemingly harmless targets, its lack of bulk means a simple tera blast is usually enough to severely weaken or finish it off.

Great tusk... is good. But specifically this week saw more offensive variants popping up. Bulk up variants with rapid spin to boost speed, booster energy variants for both attack and speed, and eject pack all showed up and put in work. Looks like not having to tank crunch every fourth turn opened up his options a bit.

I've been on the dozo train for a while and I definitely think it's underrated as this week showed. It's pretty linear in gameplay but tera and curse give it just enough staying power that it can suddenly become unbeatable. Glad to see it finally get some wins.

The tera fire eruption torkoal was so heat I had to give it its own section. In general I really like seeing a random offensive tera that works out, always gives me that :o face. Hope to see more like this.

Scizor is underrated bro for real (well until Walking Wake gets here). Tanking flower trick as well as anyone is really nice and bullet punch is still quite good against most top threats like Valiant, Dragonite, Baxcalibur, Dragapult to name a few. Enjoyed seeing him put in some work this week.

Game of the week: [CLA] Lunala vs crying [CRY]
I don't get tired of watching crying pull out weird shit like rest talk Dragapult but even if you just want a close competitive game this one is neat to watch. Good usage of Tinkaton and dondozo
also shoutout to [TIG] Lily vs Baloor [RAI] for an excellent use of revival blessing by Lily and a well played game overall

 

[Duck Chris]

Short recap of the last gasp of banned users spl xiv experience the pre-walking wake SV OU metagame!


Corv has quietly and unceremoniously been dropped from the metagame. In week 7 it was used three times with only one win, up from zero uses in week 6. Corv has the second worst win rate overall (| 22 | Corviknight | 22 | 7.91% | 31.82% |) of any OU usage pokemon and has consistently got goobed by standard cores like Tusk Gholdengo Rotom. Its only real niche among the top 10 threats is being a soft check to Kingambit Meowscarada and Dragonite.

Meow hits a new peak of 8th in this weeks usage stats and for good reason. The tier really lacks many other strong offensive pivots that can threaten nearly everything between its special and physical sets, knock off, uturn, spikes, sucker, and solid coverage.

Can't say enough about the mushroom, he's like the defensive version of Meow. Valuable pivot, great glue, always threatening with sleep, checks rain, Valiant, Tusk. 100% win rate again this week in six games.

Gholdengo fell to 5th in usage this week and only won in 3 of those games. He's been on a slow but steady decline over the weeks with most players having seemingly figured out how to play against him. Hazard stack is as good as always but Gholden loses to the most common hazard remover and also loses against many other top threats. Make no mistake he's still shaping the metagame but maybe some one-dimensionality is showing a little.

Coolest set: Kythr's lead armarouge

 

[Duck Chris]

Week 8 has wrapped and we're ready to look at the first returns on the new meta.


With only a few uses Zoroark hasn't made a huge impact but it did do it's thing twice, taking out a Tusk with grass knot and a Pex with hyper beam (swag). With how offensive the meta is I think he has a solid niche but without any bulk he definitely just dies randomly sometimes.

WW splashed onto the scene fitting well on a few different structures. Classic sun was the most popular but he also showed up on some shed tail teams as well as more mixed offenses with partners like meowscadara and Dragonite. Most people went with choiced sets with one agility attempt that did not pan out. It seems like its strength is the biggest selling point, as well as ability to switch in decently well on neutral attacks. What we did not see is a runaway sweep, players were decently prepared for WW.
One notable feature is the revival of stall. A couple people chose to use stall this week and a few more showed up in the opening week of Smogon Tour as well. It seems like a pretty classic case of offensive pokemon that pressures balance a lot, forcing the meta to shift to either offense or full stall. time will tell if balance can balance out

This pokemon does not exist

Coolest set: cryings offensive AV toxapex

 

[Duck Chris]

Week 9 has wrapped with a very dramatic finish involving a stockpile Clodsire clutching a playoff spot for an entirely different team. But the regular season is over which means it's time for some Awards.
While some may award the players for their excellent skills (valid) here we talk about pokemon so I'm laying out the candidates for the major awards among this seasons star team members.

Rookie of the year: this pokemon brought something brand new to the metagame this year, changing the game right from the start, and has a bright future ahead of them in SV OU.
Candidates:
Gholdengo changed the game with its absurdly annoying ability which helped hazard stacking reach new levels. Iron Valiant brought back mixed attackers as well as being the premiere user of Booster Energy, all off a unique Fairy Fighting typing. Garganacl made history as the new most annoying rock type, proving defensive pokemon can still be threatening and forcing many pokemon to consider using substitute.

6th man of the year: this pokemon (outside of the top 5 in usage) was the ultimate support teammate, ensuring the success of its team without being a main star.
Candidates:
Meowscadara did so much this season, being the premiere dedicated lead and offensive spiker, checking defense boosters and knocking everyone off. Hatterene kept the ball rolling on offense and balance with amazing hazard control and a unique and valuable typing. Skeledirge checked and swept often at the same time, offering teams emergency volcarona checks and being one of the more prolific users of tera.

Defensive Pokemon of the Year: This pokemon absorbed hits, checked sweepers, spread status, and otherwise won games on the defensive end.
Candidates:
Rotom wash held the tier together all season, surviving the chien Pao onslaught, spreading status, and checking the biggest threats. Toxapex showed regenerator is still broken by gluing many teams together with defense, status, haze, and toxic spike control. Ting-Lu whirlwinded everyone out constantly, living endless hits on both the physical and special side and keeping up pressure with spikes and Ruination.

Most Improved: This pokemon looked completely different by the end of the season, improving greatly from its initial or past roles to break new strides in the meta.
Candidates:
Azumarill glowed up more and more as the weeks went on, finding a home on rain, offense, and balance as one of the best Walking Wake checks and general priority users, rising from a near nonexistent presence in the first few weeks and a UU home in SS. Baxcalibur started off very quiet but rose to be the most fearsome wallbreaker in the tier by the mid weeks. Slowking waited out the chien pao days until players realized chilly reception was just as good as teleport and it has been rising ever since.

MVP: this pokemon was the best and most valuable teammate to have on its team. It was the most dominant pokemon this season.
Candidates:
Great Tusk remained number one in usage all season, giving offense, defense, hazards, hazard control, utility, and even sweeps. A truly dominant performance and from a newcomer no less. Chien pao remains top 10 in usage despite being banned after only four weeks, and remains the only member of the top 10 with over 60% win rate. This pokemon controlled the meta with speed power and priority, making its mark in a short time still worthy of nomination. Kingambit rose throughout the season to become perhaps the single most threatening offensive option, turning games on their heads with its choices of item, tera, and sucker punch 50/50s. As perhaps the slowest offensive pokemon in the tier this is a historic feat and a dominant performance in its first spl.

I will post my winners later this week once final stats come out, as well as ALL-SPL teams. Just for fun I've kept all nominations unique, obviously many pokemon qualified for multiple awards but I kept them where I thought they fit best.

 

[awyp]

Week 9 has wrapped with a very dramatic finish involving a stockpile Clodsire clutching a playoff spot for an entirely different team. But the regular season is over which means it's time for some Awards.
While some may award the players for their excellent skills (valid) here we talk about pokemon so I'm laying out the candidates for the major awards among this seasons star team members.

Rookie of the year: this pokemon brought something brand new to the metagame this year, changing the game right from the start, and has a bright future ahead of them in SV OU.
Candidates:
Gholdengo changed the game with its absurdly annoying ability which helped hazard stacking reach new levels. Iron Valiant brought back mixed attackers as well as being the premiere user of Booster Energy, all off a unique Fairy Fighting typing. Garganacl made history as the new most annoying rock type, proving defensive pokemon can still be threatening and forcing many pokemon to consider using substitute.

6th man of the year: this pokemon (outside of the top 5 in usage) was the ultimate support teammate, ensuring the success of its team without being a main star.
Candidates:
Meowscadara did so much this season, being the premiere dedicated lead and offensive spiker, checking defense boosters and knocking everyone off. Hatterene kept the ball rolling on offense and balance with amazing hazard control and a unique and valuable typing. Skeledirge checked and swept often at the same time, offering teams emergency volcarona checks and being one of the more prolific users of tera.

Defensive Pokemon of the Year: This pokemon absorbed hits, checked sweepers, spread status, and otherwise won games on the defensive end.
Candidates:
Rotom wash held the tier together all season, surviving the chien Pao onslaught, spreading status, and checking the biggest threats. Toxapex showed regenerator is still broken by gluing many teams together with defense, status, haze, and toxic spike control. Ting-Lu whirlwinded everyone out constantly, living endless hits on both the physical and special side and keeping up pressure with spikes and Ruination.

Most Improved: This pokemon looked completely different by the end of the season, improving greatly from its initial or past roles to break new strides in the meta.
Candidates:
Azumarill glowed up more and more as the weeks went on, finding a home on rain, offense, and balance as one of the best Walking Wake checks and general priority users, rising from a near nonexistent presence in the first few weeks and a UU home in SS. Baxcalibur started off very quiet but rose to be the most fearsome wallbreaker in the tier by the mid weeks. Slowking waited out the chien pao days until players realized chilly reception was just as good as teleport and it has been rising ever since.

MVP: this pokemon was the best and most valuable teammate to have on its team. It was the most dominant pokemon this season.
Candidates:
Great Tusk remained number one in usage all season, giving offense, defense, hazards, hazard control, utility, and even sweeps. A truly dominant performance and from a newcomer no less. Chien pao remains top 10 in usage despite being banned after only four weeks, and remains the only member of the top 10 with over 60% win rate. This pokemon controlled the meta with speed power and priority, making its mark in a short time still worthy of nomination. Kingambit rose throughout the season to become perhaps the single most threatening offensive option, turning games on their heads with its choices of item, tera, and sucker punch 50/50s. As perhaps the slowest offensive pokemon in the tier this is a historic feat and a dominant performance in its first spl.

I will post my winners later this week once final stats come out, as well as ALL-SPL teams. Just for fun I've kept all nominations unique, obviously many pokemon qualified for multiple awards but I kept them where I thought they fit best.

I love this analysis Duck Chris, your work never goes unnoticed.

My opinions of the winners for each category from what I've watched all season in SPL

MVP:
ROTY:
Most Improved:
DPOY:
6MOTY:

 

[Savouras]

My SPL teams:

One thing about my team Wolfpack in SPL is that they were all extremely active during prep. There was not a single chat on discord not spammin every day with teams, different options, ideas etc which is super cool to see. I work like that too, i believe half the game can fortunately or not be in the preparation. You dont wanna handicap yourself because simply you were lazy and didnt took the time to see what type of teams ur opponent is using, how he is playing and what u could possibly be bringin next week so u gotta give yourself the best chances of winning before even the game begins. Not how it works for everyone tho, each one of us does his prep differently and as long as u win then thats the correct way of doing things for you. For me tho and my team we preped a shit ton and ended up the season with over 300+ teams built for SV OU. Some of them I used in my games, other teams my teammates used or some just never been used at all either cuz we didnt feel as comfortable with them or they just werent as good. For this reason i decided not to post them all here however i am going to post the teams I personally used for my 7 games in SPL and give alittle bit of info what the idea was behind em. Keep in mind some of them are old Chi yu - Chien Pao metagames so they will only be for inspiration but the latest ones feel free to grab and use if you like them.

https://pokepast.es/bb56a35f1e3903c8 Week 9 team - Meowscarada offense with AV Azu and CB Dnite

This team was used against mncmt who has the best record in SPL currently 9-0 and was using pretty offensive stuff overall the whole season. We figured AV Azu and CB tera normal espeed Dnite would have incredible matchup vs offensive teams as Dnite currently is one of the strongest priority users available with good overall resistances so u can use of it vs things like Iron Moth and Volcarona as a one or two times switch which is great when u are aiming to deal with offense. Azumarill is also similar to this, its a bulky water type but not as defensive and passive as something like Toxapex or Dondozo which can reliably heal or throw tspikes but it does check plenty of pokemons all in one pokemon, eats a ton of hits and actually does good damage back. For example Ice Spinner has v good chances of 2koing Amoonguss on the switch. We went for Meowscarada Lead because its one of the best leads available currently and i havent used it all whole season and finished the team with one of the deadliest sweepers Tera Flying Roaring Moon aswell as some good utility pokemons that provide good hazard control with +speed booster energy Tusk outspeedin and spinnin even versus Scarf Gholdengo and Specs Pult and Eject Pack spdef Gholdengo which aims to trade vs Dragapult (eats the hit and 40spatk modest to always kill) that can provide key setups or breaking potential with momentum from make it rain. Unfortunately tho the team didnt seem to have the matchup i was hoping for. Mncmt switched it up alittle bit and brought something alot more bulky than usual, physdef Dondozo was big stop for my physical attackers especially combined with Corviknight, Tusk and Hatt. Speaking of Hatt it bounced of all the Hazards Meowscarada tries to throw aswell as the taunts, heals all the dmg from leaf storm or knock with draining kiss and Tera Fairy Bax was a deadly setup mon that can 1v1 or get big dmg vs most of my members on the team. Either way i think its an incredible team, i def could have done it if i played alittle bit better and didnt get predicted every damn turn from mence.

https://pokepast.es/3a4f3867a79eb25a Week 8 team - Red Card Glimmora offense with Shed Tail and Eject Pack Walking Wake

This is another team im hella happy with. It was used against Devin who is also using alot of offense so Toxic Spikes felt great. The idea is you shed tail into big setups with spdef orthworm that can do it vs specs pult, specs valiant, gholdengo etc but it also does get free shed tails vs very defensive pokemons like Toxapex, Amoonguss and Clodsire. This is how I came up with the Eject Pack Suicune, u can drop a strong draco vs these Pokemons and get your Shed Tail Orthworm in for free to provide a clean setup. It also leads incredibly well vs CC great tusk and Garchomp. Orthworm leads great vs meowscarada and glimmora so they did a rly cool offensive core. Spdef Glimmora with Red card was not actually the lead, it was a bluff lead so i can do Suicune instead of it aiming to anti lead vs CC tusks and it also had alot of good defensive utility vs Valiant and spatkers, it ended setups like Poltigeist at +2 vs Shadowball that u had to bait with your gambit, it removed hazards and felt great on the team. Finally other than the 2 setups on Gambit and Roaring Moon i came up with this SD Tera Fire Valiant set which not only is immune to Will o Wisps so it can be v useful against Volcarona Rotom and Skeledirge but was resisting now Fairy atks so versus opposing Valiant, resist bullet punch from Scizor, hit Gholdengo and Corviknight for a kill at +2 and was my speed control for the team.

https://pokepast.es/7a0890e008ce20a7 - Eject Spam + Tera fire Specs Moth and Scarf Hydreigon

One of my favourite teams this season that unfortunately needs abit of an update cuz it was made before WW meta. Specs moth is a killin machine, fake Chi yu as i liked to call it. It appreciated alot the momentum i gave it with Eject Button Amoonguss and Eject Pack Tusk that can get Moth in for free vs opposing tusks, uturn corviknights, Gholdengo and more. Scarf Hydreigon with Tera Steel was my check and lure to alot of offensive hitters mainly dragons and fairies. Valiant, Dragapult, Baxcalibur all can be lured by this and it can even prevent setup attempts from Dragonite, Hatterene and Bax. Dragapult with this EV Spread was meant to support my team vs Tera Ground Iron Moth which rised in popularity around the time i built this, u are able to eat any hit and kill back with strong DDarts. Speaking of strong DDarts they also aimed to support my Specs Moth vs its number one check that also rised in popularity that week, Spdef Slowking. Really like that build, if anyone comes with an update for it that we can use for current meta i would love to try it!

https://pokepast.es/4aa62ddaee2c5d01 - CB Baxcalibur + Thief Scizor

This was arguably my least favourite team. I wanted to use CB Bax all season cuz as a pokemon it really felt like my playstyle but as soon as i loaded it vs Booty i immediately hated the matchup it provided. I had no lead i can do vs standard lead Hydreigon (taunt vs Ting lu, tera steel flash cannon for Valiant and Bax, Draco Eject pack vs Rotom) so i decided to lead Scizor and Tera Turn 1 with it which ended up working great as i got hit by flamet but i lost my steel type aka fairy resist and got swept by Valiant. If only i didnt forget i terad and didnt lose it vs Scizor uturn so i can atleast bulletpunch back the valiant. Anyway the team is not it, didnt like the synergies much at all and there are way better CB Baxcalibur versions u can use with Eject Button Amoonguss and more.

https://pokepast.es/5a474ca63432aa53 - Barraskewda Rain with Specs Pelipper and Tera ground Volc

This is my absolutely favourite team the whole tour. A completely different approach to standard Floatzel rain that although it does more dmg it dies way quicker too. Instead my teammates created this rly cool squad aswell as like 8 other options for Rain for me to choose from. Talah and my guys were so ahead of the game at the time that week 5 they already knew Tera Ground Volc was big. This is another team with alot of Eject spam with this cool amoonguss set that aims to win 1v1 opposing Amoonguss mus for rain + checking dragonite the number 1 nemesis of rain. Provided momentum for gettin in specs pelipper to get kills every turn. We went for timid tera flying, timid 251 speedtier was hella important at the time as everyone was running 248 bu tusks, gholdengos, rotoms etc but with tera flying it still did insane dmg to would be checks for standard rain aka Dondozo, Toxapex and Clodsire. Gholdengo and Tusks were my dragapult lures which is another big nemesis of Rain and Barraskewda over Floatzel for the more consistent hits over raw dmg with strong hitting movepool of Psychic Fangs and CC aswell as the better speedtier outspeedin even +1 setup mons, booster energy threats and opposing rain abusers.

https://pokepast.es/befa9eb8237f36a9 - Black Glasses Chien Pao + Tera Fairy BU Tusk

This is the team i got my first win in SPL. I came up with this black glasses chien pao set which had a couple of purposes. First it looked like CB set as it had similar rolls with it and took stealth rocks dmg which means u can get key sucker punches vs Dragapult, key sword dances or just hitting would be checks for CB for ex Tusk thinkin u are locked on Crunch. Then BU Tera Fairy tusk was rly cool because not only fairy type is one of the best defensive typings but you can use it to be immune to draco meteors from dragapult that can ohko you and u bait them nicely as Shadow Ball doesnt ohko you so Draco they have to click. Doesnt stop there, its defensive utilities are great but offensively its a menace too. BU Tusk that normally used EQ, Knock off, Spin and BU cant target unfortunately everything for example u need CC to be able to hit Corviknight, Defensive Rotom-W and ting lu b4 it whirlwinds you but u also need Knock and cant go EQ CC on BU so u can target Dragapult, Dragonite, Air Balloon Gholdengo and Bug Ceruledge. Tera Fairy playrough hits them all in one move, hits tusk way harder and whats good about is that u can use it without dedicating your tera on it that other setups like Terablast fairy Gambit do so its rly cool u can use this set and have the option to tera and sweep with it over being forced to tera it with tera blast users.

https://pokepast.es/2d3519193970a040 - CB Quaquaval + hazard spam

This team was made for early Chien Pao + Chi Yu metagame, quaquaval with this bulky evspread was meant to take advantage of em and destroy offensive builds on its own. it was also capable of bluffing defensive sets of Quaquaval that were used at the time with Spin and uturn as the only real moves i used to hit with were Aqua Step and CC so i thought its a great anti meta pick. Clodsire with Water absorb and Black Sludge was used so i can prevent the 2 biggest stops to my Quaquaval and Chien pao, Rotom-W and Scarf Gholdengo. You see Scarf Rotom and Scarf Gholdengo were big at the time so having this Clodsire that can block them both with Black Sludge, Waterabsorb and big spdef was rly important. It does mean that when u tera u take dmg instead of healing but in some situations when u aim to targets Trick users u have to value the benefits and the downsides and choose. It was still v useful for me to be able to stop TPPs Tera Fire Espathra and if i wasnt hella nervous and didnt sack my Gholdengo vs his Terablast i think i had a great matchup, it is what it is, was my first game ever ofc i was nervous. Team was rly cool tho, it had all the synergies u need for what was the meta at the time, one of the earliest Eject pack Gholdengos that aimed to momentum into Quaquaval against Chi Yu and spdef mons then a defensive core of Tusk, Rotom and Clodsire for all the big threats at the time Chien Pao, Dragonite and Chi yu.

Finally ill provide some last few teams that i didnt end up using in SPL tho. Some i used in OST and they are teams i felt great with in current meta so I wanted to share them too.

Also shoutouts to my boys TheSergio235 and MAVERICK SHOOTERS for helpin us the whole tour!

https://pokepast.es/c89b44a8cc7cb145 Wise Glasses Tera fairy Shocks + AV Azu and Wisp Ace

https://pokepast.es/711b5cb169440f6e Walking Wake Sun with offensive but spdef bluff Brute Bonnet + LO Tusk

https://pokepast.es/bbcb9bf8abe05f85 Specs Moth + Hazard spam

https://pokepast.es/6fa86d70bca1c75a +def Iron Hands with Shedtail and Tera Flying Iron Thorns

https://pokepast.es/9c7c443238fe4f57 CM Hatterene Balance

https://pokepast.es/bea7159d3c9d4c7f Lax's Hisui Zoroark lure + CB nite and Fs

https://pokepast.es/a6f9a416ad2c5b81 Scarf Baxcalibur + Black Glasses Meowscarada

Hope you liked the post, imma be making a youtube video on my channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_cwQfoVdY8Z4KD65I1J_zQ about SPL and explainin these teams too if u want check that out and yeah hope you enjoyed me explaining my builds.

 

[Lily]

I figured I'd share what I used too, following in Sav's footsteps above; I always love teamdumps like this and I'm pretty happy with how the teams I used turned out for the most part. I didn't use every team here; some were used by teammates, some by non-teammates, some weren't used at all. Here they are:



Going into week 1 during the gap week I built this to sorta get my grips with SV OU again, given I hadn't played in a few weeks. My idea was that a lot of the Pokemon people were using at the time (Clodsire, Garganacl, Dondozo, Washtom as examples) could be subbed up on for free by Hydreigon, and SubNP didn't really have much counterplay with this coverage; the only thing in OU that resisted both moves was Kingambit, which obv ended up mattering a lot more later and is part of why you saw people using Earth Power more in later weeks. Wasn't super happy with this overall; the double Dark core worked pretty well and it was probably fine enough to bring to a real game, but it's probably for the best that it didn't get used.



Meme cheese but ESeed Espathra was quite the silly pokemon


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-675342

So in Week 5 I got subbed in and had to get back to prepping, and typically my go-to for initial prep in a tier I'm still figuring out is trying to "solve" hyper offense. I don't know if I'd say this team did that lol, but I do think it's very good. I have a bit to say on the process here:

- Meow is just the best lead, Glimm is great at trading one for one but adaptations have led to it not actually being very good at keeping em up.
- Iron Valiant and Kingambit are mandatory on hyper offense. Kingambit because of how much utility it provides while still being the best offensive threat in the game (dragon check, sucker punch, etc) and Iron Valiant because it's too strong, too fast and too versatile to ever be worth dropping in any scenario, esp since it's not Tera reliant.
- Volcarona and Baxcalibur are both genuinely broken and should probably be banned.
- Dragapult was the weak slot but was mostly there because it's the best Ghost and I can sack it to spinners.

I had some other variants that I didn't like nearly as much:




and then in Week 7 vs Hyoga I used what I considered my "perfected" version (stylistically for me, at least; I liked it way more).


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-678213

I found that DDPult was usually useless and looked for other things to fill that void. Believe me when I say I tried everything.

Eventually I settled on Screens + Curse Pult. Screens turn Bax and Volc from Ubers to AG, they are absolutely ridiculous. Curse was great for tempo; not only did it let me really frustrate problematic mons like SD Kingambit and Hatterene, but it also just let me sack my Pult if need be to get something safely onto the field and put my opponent in a serious lose-lose situation; they either stay in and attack my setup sweeper, losing 25% every time, or they switch and give me a free setup turn.

Life Orb Meowscarada was chosen for a simple reason - I would test this team vs countless people, and they would all recognise that it's Lead Meow and just lead with Dragapult, either U-turning to get me to Sash or, if CB, just KOing me with Dragon Darts. Life Orb Sucker Punch dropped it in one. It does make this team a lot worse against Glimmora lead, though; maybe Leaf Storm is still better than Flower Trick.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-677308

I like Pawmot, I like Floatzel, I wanted to use them, this is the team. I edited this a bunch but I think TPP actually made the skeleton after shiloh came up with the idea to use Eject Pack Pawmot; I'd been preaching CB earlier in the season and Life Orb later on, and I truly do believe Pawmot is one of the most underrated mons in this tier, but anyway that's not the point here. This is mostly just a standard rain; you kinda need Amoonguss + Kingambit to patch up weaknesses to mons like Pult that you inherently gain, and Tusk is too good to drop (plus using Pawmot as sole Gambit check is a bit ). I really like this team although it's kind of polarising in its matchups; you tend to either win really hard or lose really hard, and while almost nothing is unplayable, lots of games were really tough. Especially stall. Speaking of...


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-679001

Yeah. That game. So essentially I was a bit panicked this week; njnp had offered to play early, which signaled to me that he either a) was going to use Walking Wake sun (this was the first week the mon was legal) or b) was going to use something old that he was comfortable beating Wake with, most likely hyper offense since he'd been using lots of offense up till this point. I worked under this assumption and started prep, offering to play Wednesday, but I couldn't finish prep in time so I had to john - sorry again! But then on Thursday, as if the universe was rewarding me for my misdeeds, I saw that this RMT had been posted and I was like "wait, shit, he could definitely stall me". So I kinda panicked. I had already changed the Pawmot to a Choice Specs Iron Valiant but I looked at the matchup and realised it just... wasn't doable. What I did know is that I needed a Pokemon that could threaten out Walking Wake on a free turn, so I wanted to keep my Moonblast spammer... but I didn't really need Specs, so I came up with this set. In fact, here was the process in its entirety:

logs

So yea. I had exclusively used hyper offense up till now so I think the call to stall was a valid one and I'm glad I managed to catch the possibility before the game.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-681294

In this last week I tried to use something a bit less similar to what I'd been using before, which meant no hyper offense. That said, I did (and do) believe that Walking Wake's presence in the meta makes it pretty close to impossible to build a decent balance; this is the best I could come up with. It's a tad janky but I'm happy enough with it; I felt the sun matchup was great when I tested it, so when I saw sun on preview I was really happy... until I realised how big of a threat Cinderace was. The suns I'd been playing against didn't have it, but it really did a number on me; I got kind of lucky to beat it in the end. I'm not sure how much closer that endgame would've been if I had to tank Pyro Ball with Slowking, it's very possible I would've lost, but hey I got rewarded for messing up I guess. Anyway, this team was originally built around Block Garganacl; the idea was to Block a Torkoal and trap it turn 1, but I figured out later on that it only worked sometimes; some players would keep their Torkoal in to get rocks up since it doesn't fear much, but others would switch to Hatterene to deny my own, both of which were valid plays. In the end I felt that I'd rather have coverage and midgame utility in EQ, so I moved on from the block idea. One thing I wanted to do was make sure pretty much everything on my team could make use of Slowking's Future Sight in fat matchups; I find that if you use something like Future Sight + Fighting-type, it doesn't work as often as you'd like since positioning can be hard once your opponent knows what's coming. This is a decent team overall tho, can recommend giving it a try. Be really careful around Iron Valiant.



Didn't get used but I tried to convince a few teammates to lol, The dragons in this tier are so silly that mono dragon actually does work quite well, I'm undefeated w/ this in testing but of course didn't want to bring it to tournaments. Truthfully it sounds silly but there aren't many Fairies in this tier (pre-Tera anyway), so as long as you can stave off Booster Valiant once you should be fine. Give it a try in stour or something, it's pretty fun to just click with. Realistically something like Meowscarada or Glimmora is better than Garchomp but then you don't have six dragons.



Didn't get used by my team but Baloor brought a variant of this vs NJNP. Protect Skeledirge was nice in a sun meta, stalling out turns and scouting Choice Specs Walking Wake made balance feel a bit easier to build for me. I wanted to use SkelePex and then just kinda filled it out with Good Mons. I wasn't really vibing with it myself so I didn't end up using it, but it was a pretty cool team imo, glad it got brought.



I didn't like this team bc it gets mega ultra farmed by Baxcalibur to the most depressingly hilarious degree you can imagine but I did like Salamence as a mon. Intimidate + better speed + less reliance on Multiscale + higher firepower makes it a good pick over Dragonite a decent amount of the time IMO, at least as a special attacker. I believe someone else brought it this season too which was cool af but I can't remember who.

I have a few more teams I want to share but don't want to write about so I'll just drop them below.






They mostly aren't very good but maybe you'll have some fun or success with them!

Thank you very much shiloh EVIL z0mOG for picking me up and Finchinator TDK for convincing me to sign up in the first place!! I was really unsure if I was gonna sign up to begin with, mostly because I didn't think I'd get drafted but also because I knew I'd be busy. I couldn't dedicate the time I wanted towards every SV slot which is a shame, but considering how well our SV did in general, I don't think it was too big a problem. TPP, TheFranklin, Fc and our other non-SV playing teammates like c0mp, mael and crucify who helped me with ideas, testing, building or anything else - you guys are amazing and I hope to team with you again in future. We had kind of a rag-tag group when it came to current gen, so I'm glad we showed what we could do. Special mention to BluBirD by the way, who even without knowing SV all too well was able to help not only me but literally every slot. A phenomenal teammate through and through. And then a final thank you to Nat who helped me with prep like, every week, despite not being on my team, and is also doing super well in SV herself.

Tigers, it's a shame we couldn't make it in the end, but I thought you were all great and I hope each of you thought the same of me. I appreciated how everyone was not only humble but also immensely helpful and receptive when it came to advice; that was a huge part of what kept me so motivated all throughout the tournament. We may not have a trophy but we do have a season to look back on proudly.

Thanks to all my opponents for the great games & once again to my managers for picking me up, and thanks to all who watched my games & offered me kind words afterwards. Rooting for the Sharks from here, best of luck everyone!

 

[Duck Chris]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-677308


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-679001

Really enjoyed your approach to the meta, the pawmot team was especially cool and that valiant set was evil as hell.
Really wish someone had pulled up with the 6 dragons LOL that shit is epic

 

[Duck Chris]

My awards picks:

6th Mon of the Year:
Rookie of the Year:
Most Improved:
Defensive Pokemon of the Year:
MVP:
bonus: scoring title (highest win% with at least ou usage) finishing with 73.5% wins

ALL SPL First Team

ALL-SPL Second Team

ALL-SPL Third Team

 

[njnp]

Identity Crisis

​

SPL has been an experience and was rather taxing to play/prep as a player. The tier changed in structure practically every week, with various factors being bans, tera types, and pokemon being added due to tera raids. I'm gonna delve into the identity crisis this tier has faced during this SPL and will continue to face until home comes.

Week 1

Heading into week 1 a lot was unknown, we just had the quick bans of Chi-Yu, Annihilape, & Cyclizar. So the pokemon that stood out in Week 1 benefited from those bans.

/

+

&

What stood out to me was Gholdengo/Corv + Toxapex core & Chien Pao by itself. Corviknight + Pex as a core had a usage of 5 times in week 1. Gholdengo + Toxapex as a core had a usage of 6 times in week 1. This structure was very popular due to how overwhelming Chien Pao, Kingambit, and other demanding physical attacking threats were. Toxapex and Gholdengo by themselves performed fine but Corviknight was rather underwhelming posting a 33% win rate. Chien Pao itself controlled how teams were built for the most part and still posted a 70% win rate in w1 of SPL.

Honorable Mention

Skeledirge

was a prevalent pokemon in w1, especially a sub set that was popularized by ayevon about a week before SPL started.

Week 2

Somehow Tusk went up in usage a tiny tad bit for week 2. 4 SPL teams completely used tusk this week, all 4 of their SV players fully committed to it. Its fighting counterpart Iron Valiant went from previously 9 uses to 14 uses this week.

&

+

I feel people fully understood at this point you'll need to establish a banded crunch switch in along with a banded ice spinner/crash switch in from Pao. Tusk being the defensive option for banded crunch and Valiant being the offensive option for banded crunch these pokemon truly shined this week. Tusk and Gholdengo people fully turned to as a defensive/offensive synergy core, I feel people didn't appreciate the passiveness Corviknight gave as a steel defensive option so turned to Gholdengo to be the savior. There also is the fact Gholdengo has one of the best abilities as all time so why not. The Tusk & Gholdengo core got used 16 times this week, in fact all 4 tyrant SV slots used this core.

Week 3

Checkmate.

This is when the Kingambit renaissance began. Kingambit posted an 85.71% win-rate. We also saw fire tera Kingambit become a main staple, alot of teams were using a wisp user to slow down not only gambit but also Chein-Pao with this surplus of wisp users from Rotom-W, Volcarona, and even Cinderace its no surprise tera fire became such a mainstay. Tera Fire gambit was shown 3 times this week, the defensive utility it also bought against Volcarona which was such a prevalent threat (and still is) that showcased top 10 usage back-to-back weeks.

Week 4

This was such a hyper-offensive week. A lot of teams and players committed to the hyper-offensive archetype. Psy Spam, Shed Tail, Hazard Stack, and even sticky web HO's were showcased this week.

Meowscarda was featured on bulky offense in weeks past but this week it really shined as a lead. The lead leaf storm overgrow set was popularized by Pinecoishot. It really shined this week, with players taking advantage of its high-speed setting hazards and preventing them from going up. It felt like this pokemon was made for HO. Orthoworm showcased this week that banning Cyclizar wasn't going to slow down the effectiveness of shed tail. It had a win rate of 83.33%. HO truly had a grip on the metagame this week.

Honorable Mention

Dragonite

took full advantage of the HO love affair and also posted a win rate of 83.33%. This is a fantastic turnaround from the 16.67% win rate that was posted in Week 1.

Week 5

Chien-Pao has now been banned. Naturally, such a restrictive mon being removed from the tier allowed for a lot more pokemon to shine. 38 different pokemon were used this week which was the most used up to this week.

Dragapult was expected to shine with the removal of Chien-Pao from the tier...and boi..did it. Choice Band, Sub Wisp Hex, Sub DD, & Choice Specs were all used. This was the perfect week for pult to shine with Gargnacal posting very unimpressive results in prior weeks the only thing holding it back was the presence of Chien Pao's priority. Dragapult posted the second-highest usage this week along with a highly impressive 65% win rate.

Honorable Mention

Amoongus

was undefeated heading into this week and that continued. Amoongus had its highest usage of 5 uses this week and it had a 100% win rate.

Week 6
We got rid of one ice monster for another one to take its place...

but Baxcalibur was not the centralizing dragon, especially with an unimpressive win rate of 25%.

&

/

+

The metagame started to revolve around Dragapult in my opinion this week. It fully showed its head this week. Players focused heavily on using a combination of bulky Dark Type + Tusk to handle Dragapult and a bulk of the meta as best as possible. Ting Lu + Tusk was used 9 times as a core. Kingambit + Tusk was used 11 times as a core. This is also around the time when low kick Kingambit for opposing Kingambit was becoming commonplace.

Honorable Mention

Iron Valiant benefited from all the pokemon being weak to its stabs being prevalent and the metagame centering around them. It put together an amazing 76.92% win rate this week.

Week 7

This week was interesting. Abomasnow, Salamence, Magnezone, & other low-usage mons were used this week. What really stood out was the previously high-usage pokemon falling off in usage.

&

Ting Lu & Gholdengo this week was the start of their decline in usage and stronghold (mainly for Gholdengo) on the metagame. Even though Gholdengo had top 5 usage this week its win rate was less than 25% this week. Ting Lu has been up and down throughout SPL but it had Top 6 usage in week 6, which clearly did not continue the following week. Ting Lu dropped down top 15 usage this week and had a 20% win rate to go along with the drop in usage. This week would also foreshadow the impending Kingambit takeover.

Honorable Mention

Pawmot

peaked this week with 5 uses, people finally wanted to bring their pokemon back from the dead.

Week 8

Walking Wake

put us right to sleep with its underwhelming performance in its spl week introduction. It was a heavily discussed mon this week with a suspect coupled right along with it. This week all eyes were on it and the weather sun where it shines.

Sun did not get the job done and that is an understatement, the weather's win rate was low...16.67%. Walking Wake had many fearing it would turn the meta upside down. Walking Wake had a standout top-3 usage debut but followed it up with a mediocre 23.08% win rate. It did make its presence felt and caused a rise in the usage of mons such as Slowking and Garganacl. It however did not power its way through the metagame and got the nickname Walking Mid (word to Vert). Kingambit once again was the second most used pokemon making it clear we were pawns in its meta. Zoroark-H had a more stand-out performance than Walking Wake this week, its win rate reflected that as well with a decent 66.67%.

Week 9

Great Tusk

for 9 weeks straight reigned supreme in usage. However, the end of the regular season reflected numbers that were not seen at the beginning.

/

This was the week that balance cores truly shined. You were commonly seeing balance structures centered around the combo of bulky dark/water or centered around tera-reliant Garganacl. These were some of the ramifications of walking wakes presence in the metagame even though it didn't make much of a presence in week 9 (under 6 percent usage, and no wins). Pokemon like Corviknight & Garganacl shined during this week which was a complete contrast to how things panned out for them @ the start of the tour.

Indentity Crisis Meta - Stats

Corviknight
Week 1 Win Rate: 33.33% - 9 Uses

Week 9 Win Rate: 100% - 6 uses
Garganacl

Week 1 Win Rate: 33.33% - 9 Uses

Week 9 Win Rate: 100% - 4 uses

Players such as Nat, mind gaming, & Lily really made these balance cores stand out and showed how effective they can be during this week.


Closing

This metagame evolved like no other. Centralizing pokemon like Gholdengo went from 22 uses in Week 1 to 7 in Week 9. Kingambit went from not even top 10 usage in week 1 and posting a 25% win rate, to then post 85.71% win-rate in week 3 and then ride that momentum to 3 straight weeks (7-9) in the top 2 of usage. Volcarona won games as a grass type, ground type, & even as a dragon type. Toxapex went from being a defensive wall to now wearing a bulletproof assault vest. We saw suspected pokemon showcase why they got banned with Chien Pao having an overall 61.19% win rate and another showcased they were perfectly fine in ou with Walking Wake having an overall 20% win rate. It was truly a blast to be apart of this SPL and seeing how it changed every week, certainly was alot to keep up with the constant changes. This tier went through so much change and it still will develop and evolve as the weeks go on. Hopefully with the forthcoming introduction of home it then will be able to find itself.

 

[Baloor]

pastes for everything mentioned in the post are included in the dump.

hi this is part of my post spl analysis. this post will mostly be about my approach prep throughout the seasons and some stuff im particularly proud of followed my a team dump of used, tested but unused, and drafts of ideas that i had throughout the season for me and my teammates, the dump is exclusively MY ideas so i wont be sharing my teammates teams or things passed to me. while i will post some metagame thoughts in the metagame thread + shoutouts in the spl thread.

in-game wise, this season was kind of a disaster for me. i never really thought I'd start and was mentally prepared to be the prep workhorse but I was kind of thrown into the deep after the bea ban and needed to start onwards which I don't really feel I was ready for. I'm not particularly happy with how I played as prior to SPL I was playing incredibly well and there are a few factors that came into play. I'm particularly new to the official tournament scene and I wasn't really ready for the stress that comes with it, as the season went on I got better with pressure but its hard to start with a losing streak and then try to turn it around as I found I got into my own head a lot. The stress aspect of the game has always been difficult for me to manage when I'm really feeling it so when I got into that rut it was hard to get out of. There were other aspects such as a few irl issues that came into play here and there but at the end of the day it came down to my inexperience with official tournaments and getting into my own head which messed me up quite a few times. regardless, I did learn a lot during this tournament, which I look to apply and practice what I learned in the future when the stakes arent so high so it becomes more of second nature.

what I am incredibly proud of is my approach to prep for myself and my teammates. anybody that knows me and has teamed with me knows I am a giga tryhard and watching others do well with my suggestions and net consistent positive matchups made me just as happy as any win would. helping my teammates learn the tier whether they were playing or not was a very fun experience for me as well. my games, in particular, i feel I only got one bad mu which was the one week i couldn't prep, and my losses mostly came from me playing bad lol. in general, i feel as a team our losses mostly came from in-game errors rather than building so I feel my role on the team as being the local sv prep crackhead (which i was initially drafted for) was very successful. im very grateful for the insane amount of trust Tricking and Raiza put in me by giving me free rein to do whatever the fuck I wanted and letting me do my thing prep-wise for myself and my teammates in this tier. I feel if I was shackled in any way the season might have been way different on the sv side of things.

ill run down some stuff i used and the approaches i took in prep. while this isnt a shoutout post and there was a good few people who helped me with my prep in particular because sometimes i'm indecisive (ill shout these people out in another post). huge shoutout to my buddy njnp who tested with me and quality-checked so many teams I was testing just about every week of this tournament.

vs kythr and stresh

the team I ended up using in finals is actually an edit of what i wanted to bring vs stresh. i figured with streshs record compared to mine he would bring something he was comfortable with and relatively normal for his standards. thought hoing was probably the best play here as he brings momentum-heavy teams so it was a good way to just avoid being pivoted on endlessly. there was two things I noticed that were very nice into the ruiners in general which were tera fire tera blast bax and tera fairy tera blast volc. figured the idea would work best on HO, and other slots wanted to load the bax set so i went with volc. Vert helped me put a ho together that was very similar to this previously so I swapped around the sets to make it fit the game. i think vert laddered with a version of the team previously because kythr ended up using something super similar in his game that week as well? could've been a coincidence but just funny. this was the week ting lu balance and scream tail balance got rly popular and I knew raptor was one of the main people using that scream balance so it wasnt too far-fetched that a slot might bring it. ada taunt moon demolishes both of those so i wanted to bring it then valiant usually has a good team cleaning up those matchups afterward. since stresh and I deadgamed, I was really happy with this team as I got high up on the ladder several times with it and figured I could just edit it and then bring it against kythr. I did have some other ideas but we ended up going with this as I trusted trickings judgment. considering my only win in the tour so far was with HO and i didn't play one of the balances at all I had an itching feeling that I was either going to play scream tail balance or the sharks favorite team in ting dirge. i still needed to respect kythrs offense usage even though I was pretty confident he wouldn't want to face me in offense v offense, i ended up swapping rona for iron moth as i found it was good vs his offenses and made good progress vs his other teams while also being super annoying for the scream tail team to deal with. I switched glimm to meows as i find it has a better time vs offense leads than glimm does, moth already gave me a tspike absorber as well as knock being nice into fatter stuff. I made roaring moon jolly since i figured iron moth wasnt really enough to respect his offenses but i still used crunch/taunt/acro/dd since it netted a good mu into the ting team since you set up on lu cause they ran rest all season then you force dirge to tera to deal with you then you can deal with the team accordingly with valiant. crunch at +1 helps vs corv a lot as you can chip it for sphere valiant, kowtow etc.. i noticed that they started to run enough speed on dirge to out run ada max speed gambit, so i made my gambit jolly just to make sure it was dealt with. tera steel valiant still resists espeed while also resisting fairy attacks (moonblast) and stuff like BB from corv. I think i tested vs scream tail balance and tinglu balance a million times to learn paths vs these teams and I am incredibly happy with the result of my prep here. while the game itself some might describe as fortunate, i still played to my paths that I learned in tests vs that exact team and I'm pretty confident that my prepping would've paid off. I had some serious IRL issues that really fucked up this game schedule wise but we ended up getting it done somehow.

vs berald

there honestly wasn't a whole lot of prep here. tricking and I had been high on roaring moon since mid-season and I had yet to use offense. beralds team had little to no counterplay to deal with it behind shed tail and this was sort of the week where these styles of teams started to pop off. zoroark had just came out and I was in love with the idea of using it on HO to bait stuff to help moon and dnite pop off. this was also the week where wake dropped? or week or two after? so i wanted to be good into sun which dnite and moon have positive match ups into. moon ended up just straight up winning the game so i didnt get to show off zoroark at all but i was happy to boost its win rate.

vs lily

this week i played one of my friends lily. based on my previous experiences teaming with lily and her scout, I felt like she would bring some weird shit she cooked up in her head, something very offensive or both. tricking found one of njnps alts on ladder and played vs a team very similar to this but with like a mon different. the game didnt reveal much so i ended up rebuilding this entire team to my liking and then i talked to njnp about some stuff and this is what we came out with. this team was really good into offense at the time and this was also peak amoong week. I really liked this team and thought it was the perfect thing to bring vs lily. I didn't get the exact mu i thought i would but it was still good for me until i calc'd the wrong tusk spread and thought eq would kill it at the range it was at. this was a really upsetting game for me because i had all the tools to win then it went drastically downhill because i messed up a calc and clicked eq instead of a stab move but i'm happy lily had a good season.

vs various opps

wanted to comment on this team because it is easily my favorite team that ive made of generation 9 so far and had a lot of success within our team and outside of it. it started week one when zack was playing tj and with the meta still kind of being a shit show, we figured tj would just load some balance that his team would've passed him. drei came up as a good anti-meta pick at the time into the bulkier teams being ran so i built around it and gave it to zack and he liked it. the team won really convincingly and i figured there was a ton of potential to be had here. i honestly forget why i swapped volc out for dirge, think it had to do with luthiers scout but i feel dirge compliments this team better than moth did as it keeps the defensive profile of moth and then some. i'm really happy that drei took off in general, and i feel pretty accomplished in regard to the fact that its now one of the top mons in the current meta. I liked this team so much that when pao was banned I couldnt deal with parting with it so i made 10 new variants throughout the tour in hopes of having one i liked just as much.

lol

onto some other random stuff that I wanted to comment on. we didnt use this in tour but McMeghan did beat TPP with this in some discord tour. this is what i like to consider the original rain team of the gen, i built the top version prior to week one and spammed it on the ladder a ton then kinda just adapted it over time. while rain is kind of a troll style, this general framework has been used a lot of rain since and are what a lot of them look like nowadays. Lilys rain team above is a version of the team I like a lot for example. While it could be a coincidence that rain teams ended up looking like this general framework over time, I do like to take some credit for this as I didn't see anything other than pawmot rain up until I made this. I do like the takes on this team people come up with and I do consider some of them better than the originals.

this is a revamp of the first sample team I had this gen and i just wanted to put it here because idt i've ever seen a team tested so much and then not used. it wasn't because the team was bad either, it was just we ended up wanting to run something else. this 6 down bad. Didn’t really realize people were editing this 6 and putting a pult > Dnite for a while but that’s is a good version as well (I used it myself) though Dnite helps a lot Vs volc.

this is the first draft of the nuzz stored power hatt idea we ended up bringing to finals since it looked really good into sharks and nat specifically. DAHLI ended up doing their own thing with the idea and it worked really well but I do like my version. pretty proud of this idea since we had it day 1 of the week and it farmed. though im mostly posting this to comment on the fact that i am incapable of building any balance team with dondozo and most of my balances tend to lean towards the pex + corv + tusk style lol.

tricking wanted to use iron jugulis. i made iron jugulis. bea then used this vs ox in charity bowl finals, bea choked on dicks, lost and then got banned because he couldnt control his temper. this team caused the downfall of bea. use this if you want to be banned. IRON JUGULOOOOO as the Italians would say.

to wrap this up i'm going to post my personal building folder for the tour. this includes stuff we used, stuff we tested, drafts of ideas that we used but maybe not the team itself, and shit that never saw the light of day. I don't feel it's right to share teams that aren't necessarily mine to share or things I made very minor edits on even though I did have input on a good amount of the teams used, but this team dump will not include every team used by the raiders and other things we were passed/stole from other people. keep in mind that some teams are more complete than others and you might be able to weed out what is what. some of the teams could be a bit old or have more optimal spreads/teras/sets but I didn't get a chance to completely polish some of them but I did do my best to skim through most of these and update them quickly for the current meta. I think some of the more incomplete teams here can be really nice if a few people took the time to play with them and polish them so feel free to do so! Hell, there are probably some things I might've missed on the more finished teams because I do find this meta a bit of a headache to build lol. The thing about my building style is that ill trial and error several different versions of a singular team and the until I get down to 1 or 2 I liked but im also very indecisive so I did leave in some variants of the same teams. I feel posting this in its entirety will show the inhuman levels of effort I put into this tour as well as a nice time capsule into the meta where I got my first trophy. this tour was incredibly fun and i almost can't believe it happened, i'm going to miss teaming with these people as it was a blast. thanks for reading, hopefully, you can take something from this post.

BIG DUMP - teams here

EDIT: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sv-ou-metagame-discussion.3710915/page-389#post-9577463 here is a post where I talk about my current thoughts on the tier.