Tournament Smogon Snake Draft 2019: OU Discussion

INSULT

and every day the paper boy brings more
is a Tiering Contributoris a Past SCL Champion
So... as much as i hated the final months of this tier, there is still a melancholy feeling as we say goodbye to sm, or usm ig, as the cg ou. Never again will we have the absurd power that comes along with having both z move and mega pokemon in the same gen. More often than not, this amount of power made building frustrating, as I found myself throwing out team after team because they were too weak to 'x' or 'y' threat(s). However, the feeling when you finally got something to click was unlike any other in my teambuilding experience. So in this post I will be posting my 11 (er well 10) snake teams that each hold a special place in my heart. Although I won't be in stour, I still cant wait to see what the other guys use to close out this gen, and I'll see you again in march sm!

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Some basic zam zone bulky offense with sd z fly lando to break vs balance/fat.
At the time of this game the gear wasn't energy ball but now I have realized
this team really wants that to hit opposing gastro/pert/to a lesser extent toad.
Taunt torn is also probs not needed on here bc you have zam to take advant of
tspikes pex as well as zone to trap spikes ferro but w.e. Defo a solid build that leaves
alot of room for maneuverability in game.

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Pretty cool sd bulu + diancie build here. Having pex/steela allowed me to go
pretty wild with my tran set, and after alot of contemplating, I landed on this gem.
Nature power is rly cool with terrain as it allows you to pop rotoms and gliscs that
are roosting. It's also a nice midground move whether or not terrain is up since tri
attack is 80 bp with chance to prz/frz/brn. Wisp is last move to punish grounds like
lando and sd chomp as well as catch mega tars which we knew the taipans liked.
Wisp was p clutch in the game as I caught a pert on the switch in, thinking it was safe
from energy ball bc terrain wasn't up. SD bulu is also a monster when you can fit it.
+2 z woodhammer nukes anything whos taking neutral damage + alot of resists aswell.
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Charms rmt is what I would use for these 2 weeks as I found myself vs two newer sm
guys. Didn't pull the best mus but was able to squeeze out 2 wins thanks to some
missteps from opps/them not knowing the hp fight tech on lati. Overall solid build,
a pillar of consistency (defo moreso during olt) as we leave sm.

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This was probs my fav team I used this snake. Whipped up by suapah, its a nice
offensive spike stacks that takes advantage of 4 atk ebelt gren's,
zap plate koko's, and z bd azu's breaking potential. Sadly I fumbled the bag
heavily in this game, not staying in with ferro vs bulu to force a kill with bd azu.
Nevertheless, a very enjoyable offense to pilot with some sweet techs like roar lati
and the afermentioned gknot protean gren.

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Another zone + psychic mega team this time using bolt beam mlati. Pretty similar
to week 1 team with steel + fat water defensive core aswell as z fly lando to break and
glare sub seed serp for speed control/win con. Zone ended up putting in ot this game,
forcing his sciz to stay low as well as cleaning up a couple kos in the end game with
the sheer power of specs tbolt in terrain.

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Rly fun build here that uses lo zam. Defo a very slept on mon (altho prolly still bad),
lo zam is a nice breaker to have if you want to keep a mega slot. This was another
game I fucked around in heavily which was pretty sad since I was stoked to use this
team. Dual u-turners in glisc and sciz are nice here to bring in zam/weav safely vs alot
of teams. Z grass serp is again on here for speed control as well as it's nice defensive
typing/access to synthesis.

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Fat aggron build here made by eo. Forsure an extremely consistent team despite my
loss vs sacri. 4 atk gron is a beast with very few switch ins, especially for more
offensive teams. Also filter is pretty broken, allowing it to take a hit from anything.
Sadly sacri brought a specs lele which was defo problematic for this team. In conjuction
with little speed control, a poor pain split by me early on, and hazards, lele was easily able
to shred through me. Clef is wish to support aggron/gear, bro is 3 atk fblast for ferros
and torn is z fly knock turn fog for hazard control, speed control, and a bit of breaking
power.
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After clinching this week, I decided I wanted to save the team I was going to use
and bring some tried and true zone + 3 atk mlatios. Again, very similar to the past
2 squads with zone + psy. Gear pex defensive core, z fly land to break, and scarf kart
to clean. Sadly I let my lando get too chipped and amane's grounds were able to overwhelm
me with ease. I also choked at the end and got greedy for more health on lati
without considering the idea of a dragon move on zard x (misty terrain usually has
eq from my experience) and my lati got ohkoed by a drush, taking away all my outs.
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This has to be in my top 3 fav sm builds. Nice volt turn offense with some cool
sets birthed in late sm, sdef rocks kommo and synth fog kart. Z rotom is surprisingly
hard to switch into for alot of teams and is a nice lure for pex. Kart here can also be
z but i wanted to go with seed for the extra damage vs glisc if i had already blown
my z with rotom. Specs ssh gren in last slot as prolly one of the most consistent wincons,
as well as adding a dark type is a nice way to wrap up this team. Went on to not use
this in poffs so yea, defo kicking myself rn.
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Built this one all on my own with some inspiration from a sacri game. Fog zard
+ magma zbloom tran is a deadly core for any bulky offense to face. Weavile is
a nice trapper and breaker as well in conjuction with these twos, being able to get
rid of latis as well as revenge alot of threats is very nice for tran zard. Sdef fini and
phys def tang are a nice defensive core, being able to cover alot of the threats in the
meta as well as scarf land for more speed control/momentum.

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Got this one from my boy hallows, rly wanted to use hera (as you can tell from
my snake folder for ima https://imgur.com/a/ThIl4Qh) since it looked good vs
ima's scout/taipans scout in general. Ima had been using alot of toxic glisc + bulkier
defensive cores so substitute was fosure the play. Glad the risk in using this
underrated mega paid off as it allowed to me to pull out the win thanks to some
aggressive subs. Secret power rachi + twave rotom is pretty grime, but it is kind of
needed for how slow hera is as a breaker. Taunt tran is another not so common set
in recent sm, usually dropped for toxic/rocks/wisp/tect, but i did kind of like it here as
I didn't see myself needing tect or status (due to having dual twave). Anyway yea that's
the final sm team I will use in officials for sm as cg ou ;(, and I'm so happy I could end
off on a win.

Thanks for reading this, just want to say a big thanks to levis/everyone who has supported me, whether it has been as snake/indivs/anything else. I hope to continue to keep improving in ss and play this amazing game (kek) for as long as I can. And now for some quick personal shoutouts.

Tace suapah Mannat Hayburner Ricardo FMG Sjneider Jytcampbell Leo talah Luthier Sayuze cleann imsosorrylol KingKdot The Hallows Energy bush

Thanks for all the great memories for the past 2 years or so, glad I got to know all you guys and couldn't have asked for a better chat than lab.

shouts dot, started my mons journeys with u guys and thanks for still supporting me. I know im inactive af but i still love all of you and check the chat every once in a while. DenisTheMenace @dokk Sealette BHARATH_THEBEST T Be Stuntin

<3. I'll never forget my roots.

also shouts ne,ng,tss for all the laughs love all of u.

And now goodbye sm, for now.
 

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Proud of you bro, crazy to see how far you’ve come in such a short time.

Congrats to all the Suapah’s and especially Genesis, showing that the memers can rise. I definitely enjoyed watching Snake way more this year and looking forward to the next one
 
I dont wanna share everything since SPL is around the corner & it would also take way too long to do so, but I will share two of the cooler offenses I built this tournament (click pictures for import).



Like I pointed out in this post (week 5), I believe Lando+Mag to be a very powerful archetype which is even pretty consistent considering its offensive nature. This team follows the formula given in my SPL post, but it also has a touch of balance with Tornadus-Therian + Suicune being able to play a longer game than you'd usually see from this archetype. Tornadus-Therian gives the team a new way to abuse its powerful VoltTurn while Suicune serves as a good win condition, especially with all the Knock Off support, which allows you to be a much greater annoyance to things like Toxapex. Double Knock Off is not too much of an overkill in this particular instance since your opponent will try their utmost to limit Kartana from attacking whatsoever, and Kartana doesnt depend on enemies having their items to deal damage. We brought this team three times over the course of the tournament, won all three games, and I do love this take on Lando+Mag so I figured people might find this interesting too.




At long last I managed to fit Shift Gear Magearna on a team. This is a personal achievement of mine on its own, but the team itself turned out pretty powerful as well. It's incredibly focused on Shift Gear Magearna as a win condition while still showing good consistency, and it also utilizes Ferrothorn really well despite being an offensive team, who is one of my favorite Pokemon. The team started out as a defensive Mag + Lando team featuring Mega-Medicham since we noticed that Jimmy was neglecting him more than we thought acceptable. However, as with many Lando+Mag builds Mega-Latios turned out to be a complete menace, and in order to fix that I pivoted to Ferro as the main defensive steel, who has Mag and more importantly Victini at his side for things like the Psychic-types of the tier, and Victini can also Final Gambit many problematic Pokemon for Shift Gear Magearna. Welli0u won with this team in a cool Semi-Final game vs. Jimmy, but the main reason it is here is because I finally managed to fit the Mag set on a real team!!!

Overall, I think SM OU is in an acceptable state, but I would definitely prefer it if certain problematic Pokemon like Mega-Mawile and Kartana would be put up for a vote by the general (qualified) public, and the inaction of the OU council is a bit saddening.

See you all soon in Sword & Shield OU, SPL
 
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Updated Kanto

Banned deucer.
So I didn't really build any teams except the one I used vs JYT
VS JYT.png
Funnily enough a fellow kekker kept telling me about this kyu-b set but also about how curse gyro analytic magnezone is a good set so I mainly dismissed it and then I saw Tricking use it and was actually interested in using it as well. Don't get me wrong this isn't Kyu-bs best set at all but against a fat match up it is without a doubt amazing. Pairing Kyub with Fini was a no brainer so I could switch into stuff like Rotom-W safetly and everything else here is fairly standard. I think heat wave knock (hurricane-less) torn-t is probably the best if not at least my favorite torn-t that isn't Z-move and since you aren't running hurricane you can EV to outspeed scarf magnezone since winning torn-t speed ties won't really help and you'd probably rather get the slow u-turn out. I liked hp fire over shadow ball on zam here as well because I wanted to remove scizor for kyu-b and idk how eager someone would be to scout it when you have rhelm hwave tornt and tran, and also I don't think shadowball was gonna help me beat mlati or reun anyways.

Something that I fell in LOVE with prior to the start of Snake and felt was severely underrated atm was Mega Heracross. Sub + SD is actually a nightmare and a half for balance teams that lean towards a more defensive stance and anything thats more towards that direction. I think hands down the best partner for this set is Fini because it gives you more freedom such as switching this in on Pex or anything that might run toxic and it's great at keeping out tspikes which is essential when running this Heracross. Don't think there's any set EVs you should run on this but I would recommend removing a decent amount of speed and adding it to HP instead as I don't think Speed is valuable on MHera and it most definitely appreciates the bulk. I also experimented with a more HO- route with Hera Koko Lucha and that works okay.
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I didn't use this in Snake Draft but I wish I did because I made it for my OLT series vs Sacri and it woulda pwnd but with Focus Blast comes great risks. As far as HO goes I think the best types of HO would be the ever so famous Koko Lucha (Specs Koko + Lucha since specs koko gets a ton of momentum off a specs volt switch and any ground type is essentially set up fodder for Lucha) and the lead drill gyara lele archetype. I actually "made" this team when cdumas wanted to use victini and I remembered xtra having a z tini team with lele and drill but it also had zygarde so I had to revamp it. I did this by removing zygarde for kommo-o to essentially check the same things zygarde would have checked (fire types) and then adding the serp set ABR had on his HO team from OLT to help keep hazards off the field for Tini and Gyara while also chipping stuff like ferro for gyara or providing set up opportunities with taunt and being ton of help vs rain. The kommo-o is DD roseli berry to help chip stuff like uninvested non lo clef and fini. You might be able to invest more to live other things but the main point was to weaken these things for mega gyara so I would just keep it as is.

As far as SM goes I think it's perfectly okay right now. I personally enjoyed the metagame and the concept of Z moves because it allowed people to get more creative with sets and I think creativity should be rewarded I mean cmon who the fuck invented z toxapex?!? I noticed people arguing about kartana and how its annoying that it can run cb scarf or sd which makes it hard to know how to check it but I think it's similar to the variety of options that shift gear magearna could run and as for Mega Mawile, yes it does put a strain on fatter teams but it's a stall breaker / wall breaker for a reason, because its the mons role not because its role is to be a wall chipper :pikuh:
I think what's gonna be the most interesting about this metagame is that as it becomes an old gen the meta will obviously continue to change and with the wide variety of zmoves its safe to say that certain z +mons combinations that we brushed off or overlooked could very well be anti-meta later on which I find dope.
 

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suapah

stfu anime pfp
is a Tiering Contributoris a Community Leader Alumnusis a Two-Time Past SCL Champion
Hello OU friends, so I initially wasn't intending on posting here in the forums although I churned out a fuckton of teams for my OU core but some of them have already been posted above and I cba to post all of them. However, there's one team in particular that is absurdly good (largely in in part of one mon) and I wanted to talk about.


Original Paste: https://pokepast.es/f0d590a05dd1111e

So this is a team I built during WCOP featuring sub seed serp + cm lati + z fly lando. All 3 of those mons have insane synergy with magnezone which is capable of performing a variety of roles in this team such as removing sub seed serps most hated mons (scizor/ferro), removing the bitchy steels that lando and lati hate such as celes and skarm. Finally its filled off with a backbone of toxapex + magearna which can generally check nearly the entire meta. Double toxic pex is so bullshit on this team because if anyone has a non torn defogger/pex tspikes is usually insanely aids to deal with because you have to be wary about giving serp +1 evasion. In addition, if there is a torn, this specific serp set usually rapes if played well. This team has found a lot of success in a variety of tours such as WCOP, OLT, and in snake as well. You can see the team (or at least some variations fo the team as there are some versions with fini > pex and bolt beam lati over psyshock beam) in action in some of the replays below:

Some replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ou-445386 Me vs. TDK (wcop) <---- original team in action
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ou-445562 Tace vs. BTB (wcop)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ou-447172 FMG vs. Axel (wcop tiebreaker) <--- fini version
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-953331545 Hayburner vs. Chait (Final qualification game during Cycle 2)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ou-453730 Tace vs. Dora (OLT playoffs)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ou-460651 Insult vs. Tamahome (Snake) <--- bolt beam lati version

So I think the BIGGEST reason as to why this team is so successful is because of one mon:

This mon in my eyes is quite easily one of the most bullshit mons in OU and I had my OU core spam this mon in the back half of our snake push and we had some stupidly absurd record with serp like 7-2 or some bs like that, you can find some replays where guys like tace and cora just muscle through teams with serp. I think that there are two serp sets that are incredibly stupid and add an underrated amount of versatility to each team:

Serperior @ Leftovers
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 104 HP / 152 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Glare

OR

Serperior @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 248 HP / 28 Def / 232 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Glare
- Synthesis

So the first set is SOOOOO unbelievably bullshit and it's the sole reason why I believe that having seed blockers is near mandatory. For people who don't bring grass types this mon like almost 6-0s on matchup. If you glare torn, that shit isn't an answer. Sub seed beats heatran. Sub seed beats the lati's. There are so few counters to this mon besides like amoonguss venu which those things themselves are already stupidly niche. If you pair this shit with magnezone, stuff like scizor are no longer answers too. On my team I posted above it features tspikes pex too so that it forces grasses such as vest tang to take poison and ultimately get beaten as well.

The second set is a bit more linear but is something that charm made during snake and I think it's stupid good. It offers a decent defensive niche being a grass type and being a soft check to some threats like ash gren and is a solid rotom pivot. In addition with helmet, it really pisses off mons such as kartana and sd gliscor which can be really bs and annoying to check for teams. The reason why serp is so good is because of glare and it role compresses a lot being a solid check to many threats in the tier while acting as "speed control" with glare + naturally good speed tier,

That's all I wanted to say, see you guys in SPL maybe :)
 

Punny

but I knew you
is a Tiering Contributoris the 10th Grand Slam Winneris a Past SPL Championis a Past WCoP Champion
World Defender
heyo, since the metagame is about to end I'd like to give some thoughts about it. First of all I wanted to show some sets/teams I found really really good during snake so there you go:

As suapah mentioned in the post above, :serperior: is probably one of the best mons in the tier atm, thanks to its great speed and bulk, allowing it to check stuff like kartana (altough not too well), and its fantastic ability.

Serperior @ Grassium Z
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 40 HP / 136 Def / 80 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Synthesis
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Glare

This is, in my opinion, Serperior's best set atm. With this spread, Serp is able to check kart decently well, and, at the same time, be able to pressure the opponent with boosts from Leaf Storm, and even Z if necessary. Z is important because it lets you 1v1 torn by glaring it, and also helps you beat SD gliscor since you're able to live facade decently well and do some really good damage with leaf storm (
+2 0 Atk Gliscor Facade (140 BP) vs. 40 HP / 136 Def Serperior: 175-206 (58.1 - 68.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery,
+2 80 SpA Serperior Bloom Doom (195 BP) vs. 244 HP / 244 SpD Gliscor: 349-412 (99.1 - 117%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO after Poison Heal)

Here are some calcs for Kartana as well
252 Atk Kartana Breakneck Blitz (200 BP) vs. 40 HP / 136 Def Serperior: 254-299 (84.3 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Kartana Smart Strike vs. 40 HP / 136 Def Serperior: 267-315 (88.7 - 104.6%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Choice Band Kartana Smart Strike vs. 40 HP / 136 Def Serperior: 201-237 (66.7 - 78.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Another mon I wanted to talk about is :clefable:. This pokemon might not be as good as it is in ORAS (altough this might be questionable too), but its still really good in the current metagame. In my opinion, the SR set is bad because it lets Gliscor and Tran get in way too safely. LO 3 attacks and LO cm moonblast-thunder (and bolt-beam as well) are amazing sets however. The first is able to put high pressure against balanced teams while still being a check for some mons like toxapex, and has pretty much no counters besides chansey and heatran (with the second one being really easy to lure however). Here are some replays with a team featuring this set that I made:
Tricking vs HSA, Jimmy Turtwig vs Jytcampbell, Santu vs yjh971203 and Frisoeva vs yjh971203.

While the LO 3attacks clef can be easy to kill dew to the fact that you prefer investing the EVS in speed/spa instead of bulk, the LO cm one does not have this issue. With the fairy-electric coverage, clefable is able to beat its common checks being: magearna, scizor, heatran and even spdef jirachi if you provide hazard support, thanks to the para chance with thunder, while the LO helps it beat stuff like SD gliscor and chansey more easily than it does with lefties. Ice beam over Moonblast is also a good option since bolt-beam is a pretty nice overall coverage and lets you beat gliscor even more easily. Replays of the set in action: ABR vs Tace (bolt-beam version), Tricking vs Charmflash

Thanks for reading and see you in SPL!
 

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