Tournament Smogon Snake Draft 2019: RU Discussion

Howdy. Another year of snake incoming, feel free to discuss the draft, games, metagame trends, and more here. We had some really nice discussion last year, and am hoping for more with this rendition as well. I'll do my best to keep this (fairly) up-to-date with replays and standings, bear with me.



Potential RUers:

Terminus Taipans:
Mana, Alpha Rabbit
Berry Forest Bushmasters: Eternally, SPACE FORCE meeps, passion
Black City Mambas: ict, averado, Eeveeto
Celadon City Cobras: Ultraballz, Bouff, KingKdot
Shinto Ruin Serpents: Nat, Bobby Dagen, yjh971203, yoppie, DurzaOffTopic
Lanakila Nagas: Tricking, Kink, Nails, Ren-chon, Sam
Sky Tower Lindwurms: Ajna, col49, HT, -Tsunami-
Ambrette Astrotias: Santu, Lycans, Feliburn, Harrisisawesome
Lake of Rage Leviathans: Charmflash, Luthier, Welli0u, roman
Rumble Hall Rattlers: TDK, Tonyflygon, GarytheGengar, august, Gondra, rozes

a

b

c
 

Feliburn

is a Community Leaderis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
RU Leader
I hope aim talks about me

Also this draft seems p fire in terms of ru mains quantity and quality, almost all the teams have dedicated players that have shown success in the past months so it should be a really good showcase of styles all around, rlly stoked to finally be able to play in a snake draft too
 

EviGaro

is a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Battle Simulator Staff Alumnus
RU Leader
hlelo, power rankings have started and what better way to do them than make them public! I kinda remember who I voted for - I hope - so here's to it.

Actually no, a quick note first: yea I manage, no I'm not ranking my players, if you're mad about this rank and you do better than I said good on you but I think everyone here knows what pokemon is so it's really for the heck of it so if I see a ROFL OWNED because someone unsurprisingly did better than this one rank said then slay queen. This is a rankings of things as I see them now based on the past, and while I do expect some things to happen it's pointless to assume I'll be right on most of these. Good? Good.

1- Ajna, Lindworms: Yeah yeah big shocker amirite, but logically there's no question here. Ajna loves this tour - for reasons still unknown - and has won in it more than any other player since it started. He's an acute builder even though he uses variations of the same ten mons, and has done about everything in terms of playing so there's little worry there as well. He also has help from 49, which I still think was a total luxury pick for this team r3 but it might give Ajna another wrinkle with which to dominate the tour. Great player, great builder, great person, great rapper too check out his soundcloud.

2- Nat, Serpents: The CC1V1 main herself landed on obii's team, and is obviously the closest competitor to Ajna in this tour. She plays very well, she builds very well when she claims she's building, and has won in every dang tour including high level money matches against most of the ru playerbase. Questions were asked about the Serpents picking five RU literate players when Nat is infamously famous for building alone, but to that I say, who cares? Like anyone else will start over Nat ROFL should be solidly positive in this pool with obii being the goat at motivating people, including famously defeating racism last year.

3- welli0u / roman, Leviathans: rumours abound over the well being in RU again, therefore this ranking is a lot more predicated on that happening. The well is a no nonsense player at his best, which is good in a pool that is completely turned on its head. He has multiple high level experiences in RU, knows the tier, is good at it, etc etc. The lol roman is newer at this but at his best is a total tryhard, willing to take on any task possible, which is good here with a pilot that - no offence - isn't kingler12345 in terms of playing variation. If roman subs in and welli0u gets to, well, ou, I still expect them to get wins, roman is competent against this playerbase and confident in his style. I like those here (can you please remove evilgaroux now suapah thanks)

4- SPACE FORCE meeps, Bushmasters: meeps to me, is a better variant of the oddball ru player than some teams decided to go with this year. As in, he has a unique style sure, but not only does he pilot it well, he's also good at coming up with completely new ideas that are still functionally him. Has experience in these tours, won this one too, and has wanted to play RU from the start for like a year now. Eternally and passion are also amazing test partners for his style, and definitely creative minds as well, so I really expect quite a lot from them.

5- Ultraballz, Cobras: Ok admittedly the next few ranks are pretty much muddled in my mind, but I think he was fifth by virtue of having played the tier in an official before, and knows the meta enough to get comfortable in that setting. Plays a lot outside of these tours too, so definitely kept up to date with the tier. He also has the GOAT assman in Bouff, who is absolutely gonna be there every day to throw ideas and make sure this slot succeed, just don't forget the Croak counter :cwl: jk Bouff you're great

6- Averardo, Mambas: Averardo is a newbie to officials, but he really couldn't have been on a better team. The Italian representation is strong with this one, and being around familiar faces helps a ton obviously. Leoshad is no stranger to team tours though, like me participating in pretty much all the possible untours that go yearly and being generally good at them except a crash in the second brpl in his beginnings, so part of me sees the crash as already having happened, and him being on a general rise. He's a solid builder, will have loads of familiar support, and is a competent player, but at the same time facing people who have all of that on top of the experience available to them makes it difficult for me to rank him higher, although he was on my short list and none of them were ROFL yeah.

7- Alpha Rabbit, Taipans: Now this is a lot lower than a lot of those rankings have him, and I expect the official prs to reflect that moreso than what I'm writing but... there's probably a reflexive reaction to this. The Rabbit hype is predicated a lot on the herk / jerk, and not at all on the RU players. He does have a great run in the current RU Open, but Open isn't necessarily the best measure of consistent delivery in official team tours. He's been known to build for others, like Pohjis in last circuit, but none of these teams particularly led me to believe he was the next Ajna / 49 in terms of building either. So... I'm not convinced at all, really, and a win against a KW that had no reason to care isn't enough to sway me for now. He is a decent player when I see him, but everyone in this pool is decent, so until he gives me a reason to be unable to deny he belongs I'll remain unconvinced of the reputation he has gathered, but hey there's a chance to prove me totally wrong!

8- Kink, Nagas: Despite being preoccupied with having to pick for three teams during the draft, seeing Kink go round five to Gama made me choke irl. Now, Kink is a person I dearly appreciate, and I kinda don't like having to do that here because I really was hoping for him to be picked up and I'm glad he did and I'm super thrilled someone believed in him that much. But... Gama and Kink? In RU? Can I be invited in that discord if it blows up, which is not really an impossible scenario? It's two people with extremely precise views on the tier that are really difficult to push in another direction, but if they can find common ground this could be an amazing pairing. Just... I'm very wary of that not happening. On Kink himself, he's majorly unproven in team tours, though unfairly at times because he got ignored way too often, but hasn't had the greatest year when he participated in them even with a manager - me lol - that does believe in him. Still, he has his style, and if the wins start racking up he can absolutely go positive and beyond.

9- rozes, Rattlers: Now again, this isn't about rozes the overall player, and the Rattlers ftr are the team that terrifies me the most and ofc we're playing them week one. That team has undeniable chemistry, is full of super good players who have done literally everything there is to do on this website, so any slot needs to be taken seriously even if you're like ROFL where's the support haha noobs. That being said, rozes in RU is... not really predicated on a whole lot of successes. He was good at a time in oras ru, pushing forward that metagame, but it hasn't happened the same way in sm. He was good in ru wc iirc with Ajna teams, and I think was more than adequate in the pokespain pl, but... see how I'm stretching? I wouldn't be surprised to see him go positive either, although if he was in meeps' spot his chances of that would skyrocket in my eyes, and if the Rattlers go to playoffs he could definitely clutch some wins, but I tried to rank based on what I know of the players in RU and their surroundings, so while saying rozes is the worst player on that list would be a bit farcical, he's the guy I know the least about in the tier so someone had to go there sorry.

aim please talk about Feliburn for me
 
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I think all these players are phenomenal.

Alpha Rabbit has a knack for off kilter aggresion which I think will trip up some of the more veteran players in the lineup. I'd expect fairly standard compositions mixed with some niche but metagame relevant picks, probably geared more towards standardized offensive and balance builds rather than innovating with anti-meta team structures or heavily theoretical cores. His long game may be less developed than tour veterans but that is an issue he can easily circumvent with the right team structures and support. SPACE FORCE meeps (who I guess is starting? apologies been out of it for a while) is more of a candidate for stylized types of builds, which tend to lead to tour runs that in my opinion have more polarized results, but is clearly highly component as a player, and I'm sure will be able to mold the metagame in interesting new manners. Averado as the designated mainer slot will probably feel a lot of pressure, but I suspect can perform well. I think this is especially true if he focuses on gameplay and avoids the temptation of becoming obsessed with the builder. Ultraballz is a competent and reliable tour player. Nat's still around and with nothing to prove except maybe that they're better than Ajna, but in this game thats hardly a settleable question. Roman is a more limited, but very insightful builder. Off all the players, I'd expect roman to overperform expectations (again i have no idea if Welli0u is starting or not mostly going by OP). I scheduled a tour game once with GarytheGengar and I nearly had an aneurysm, so that's a definite plus. Looking forward to spectating some great players, I think everyone in the draft lineup has potential to put up an incredible record. Can't wait to watch, good luck to all!
 

Feliburn

is a Community Leaderis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
RU Leader
Alright so posting cause nobody else in the community actually gets hyped about these tours

Week 1 wasn't that fire in my honest opinion, tho we did get to see a lot of different builds, that's the part that rlly made me appreciate the games more

UB vs well

To start things off we see Well's Necrozma, a pokemon that is on the rise to being one of the scariest pokemon to face in the tier, just claim half of UB's team, granted mandibuzz was poisoned early on vs the vileplume, making it easier for the legendary mon to break the other team. UB's using a fairly fun lookin team, tho I wouldn't call myself a fan of it, but I appreciate the Jellicent pick cause I dont think that mon is as bad as people make it look to be. And well's team was more offensive oriented with a vileplume to check water types I suppose. Not much to say about this game other than the fact that it displays how dangerous it is to overlook Necrozma while building.

Feli vs rozes

I'm not gonna comment plays or anything cause I know how I performed and props to rozes and team for the prep, he used a tspikes oriented team, assuming he saw my previous replays and saw I dont rlly use poison types and my removal most of the time is Donphan, so good tech to bring. Rlly annoying to deal with tect kou with tspikes on, probs one of the best ways to abuse this pokemon. On the other hand I used a different type of build starting around Nidoqueen and Band Metagross with Z Play Rough Tsareena to lure in mainly Mandibuzz, which I'm surprised I managed to predict yet disappointed at how weak it was rofl, all this to make it easier for mons like Passimian and Gross to break teams easier.

Kink vs meeps

Next up we have the first screens team of the tour by meeps, that aims to sweep with either Shell Smash Barb, SD Viriz or CM Sigi, I am never a fan of screens, whether it be using it or facing it but I think being a non main, it was worth using it vs less standard player in Kink, who is known to use obscure sets in his teams. Surprisingly enough tho, Kink decided to use a more normal looking team with the added Z Ghost Froslass, which isn't even an odd pick with the way his team looked, added with the common DonPodGross core and to finish the Fairy, Steel, Dragon core it's Florges and Noivern. I dig the team concept, however I feel like this team lacks a breaker or a pokemon that offers more speed to the team outside of noivern.

Ajna vs Nat

Next up we have the match everyone was lookin forward to. Ajna brings out a really Ajna looking team with surprise pick Aerodactyl. Also using CM Virizion, which is a set u dont really see much, however it is devastating once it starts getting boosts, and with synthesis and boosts then it becomes incredibly hard to be revenge killed by faster special attackers like Noivern or Salazzle. On the other hand, Nat has the known ditto team made by bebo, which I say is a rlly hot pick since I've seen that team destroy common pokemon time and time again on ladder, and at the end of the day Ajna could not break Mandibuzz, giving Nat the dub.

Ave vs rabbit

Fun match between two new faces and another display of two different build concepts. Averardo using his signature mon Abomasnow paired with scarf Garde, defensive Noivern, Z Kou (I forgot if it was z psychic but I think it was) and what I assume to be band gross maybe. And rabbit using a Toxicroak team with Escavalier and Sigilyph. Can't rlly comment on the sets cause I didnt get to see them, but this game was basically Gardevoir and Abomasnow claiming kills once the Escavalier was weakened enough. Hope to see more from these two since they offer different ideas when building.

Now onto the next week's matchups:

Ajna vs Averardo: Ajna is an amazing player so it's hard to pick against him. Averardo can ride on his week 1 win's momentum but it can only take u so far, and having played both multiple times I can't not give it to Ajna but hope Averardo performs great again.

meeps vs Nat: Nat's also coming off a win vs Ajna in week 1, and even if she wasn't I'd still give it to her, not cause she's also good but cause I don't think the RU support in meep's team is that strong rn tho I believe passion and Eternally could cook something good if they put their mind into it, even so Nat is still the favored player here.

UB vs rozes: This match looks p even, UB has been playing a lot of RU lately even tho a lot of ppl think he stopped after SPL so I'm inclined to give him the edge cause I do think he can bounce back after w1, however u cant count rozes out since he has been playing for a long time and his team support seems rlly fine in this tour.

rabbit vs well: I'm gonna give it to well just because I think he's the better player, but that doesnt mean I'm counting rabbit out for sure, he's also a good player but he just needs to take it easy during the game cause ik hes more than capable of winning this easily too

me vs kink: lgi dude, we are gonna have another of our usual ladder games, hope we have a good one for sure
 

Mavis

Banned deucer.
okay here are my PRs after the conclusion of week 1, prepare yourselves gamers

1- Nat
2- Ajna
3- Welli0u
4- Kink
5- rozes
6- Averardo
7- Feliburn
8- SPACE FORCE meeps
9- Ultraballz
10- Alpha Rabbit

Nat's win over Ajna week 1 lead me to come to the conclusion to swap their positions. Nat is poised for the very real potential of going 7-2 or 8-1 this Snake, and Ajna shouldn't be far behind. Week 1's loss is a L he'd rather not have, but it's all the more drive to crush the rest of Snake.

The Well's solid week 1 showing keeps his presnake third place rankings from me. A comfortable win bolsters Kink to fourth place, up one from where I had him.

Similarly to Kink, a nice +1 in the rankings for rozes as his week 1 win puts him in my top 5. Maybe it comes as a shock to see Averardo at #6, but I've got a lot of faith in him. Nonetheless, with one of the hardest games he'll have to play in week 2, I'm looking forward to what he'll bring against an opponent who wants to even out their score.

7th is likely the lowest I'll ever rank Feliburn, as I fully expect him to bounce back in the coming weeks and show everyone what he's made of. The week 1 loss was a setback, but not a dealbreaker. Go get 'em, friend.

Rounding out my bottom 3 are meeps at 8th, UB at 9th, and Alpha Rabbit at 10th. Out of all their games, I felt meeps's was the closest, so he gets #8. Getting brutally smashed by Well's Necrozma in week 1 isn't a great showing, so I've dropped UB to 9th. Alpha Rabbit takes the last place spot, as his loss to Averardo in week 1 cements his place, at least to me, as the last-place position in this tour.
 
looking over the teams, to me the strongest one looks like shinto ruins serpents bc of Nat and yoppie, but ambrette astrotias has felibern and rumble hall rattlers has Gondra so I can't decide on who I'd cheer on...
 

Mavis

Banned deucer.
Ultraballz vs Kink (60/40)- I've been enjoying watching UB's play recently. His haha react to my power rankings was sure warranted with his upset win last week. Keep on showing up, dude.

Welli0u vs Averardo (55/45) - much as my heart says Ave, Well has looked unshakeable for his first two weeks and looks to continue this into the following weeks. Watch for upset potential here.

SPACE FORCE meeps vs Ajna (40/60)- clean win for Ajna expected here. His return to form in week 2 was as dominant as it could have been, and it's smooth sailing from here on out.

TDK
vs Alpha Rabbit (60/40) - AR is still 0-2 this Snake, and with a little support TDK should walk in and scoop up a win to kick off his move into RU.

Feliburn vs Nat (49/51)- bolding Nat here, but I feel as though these two are well matched. They're two of RU's most well known players, and I look forward to seeing what they bring out in each other. This is my game of the week, and the one I would keep an eye on.
 

Feliburn

is a Community Leaderis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
RU Leader
Week 2 post:

rozes vs ub

A game that could have been way more interesting had UB not gotten that early freeze on Registeel, which just gave him way more leeway to switch in and out as much as he did throughout the game. Interesting to see two balance teams because it's kinda looking like the meta has shifted in a way that is favoring balanced teams more and more. I dig rozes' build a lot, I like the Passimian + Slowking balance look because it's two mons that should be getting way more attention than they currently have. UB is using a more old looking team with the Cress + Viriz + Regi core, with an added Vaporeon for wish support which works a lot in these types of teams due to the level of annoyance Mega Blastoise presents.

Ajna vs Ave

Surprisingly enough we get the Dhelmise ditto. Another example of balance looking better and better and Ajna rocking the already mentioned Passimian + Slowking core that I think looks really fun. Meanwhile Averardo is using a more offensive looking team but still conserving a balance look thanks to Milotic. I feel like Averardo was feeling himself a tad too much and made some aggro plays that were just called out by Ajna. Mad respect for the double Thunder tho.

Feli vs Kink

For my game we decided to focus a bit too much on what Kink has been using ever since he started playing RU, so the obvious Florges Bronzong core was the first thing we wanted to break. That's why we had stuff like Fat Queen and Snorlax. However it did not fully work as we expected since Kink decided to use something different with the broken Necrozma (we said no cheese dude come on). Jokes aside, his team was p good looking too tho I feel a bit too weak to certain dragon types such as Noivern and Sceptile, but ig the Mandibuzz helped checked them. I'm happy the Gross set managed to clean in the end cause that mon won me so many test games.

Nat vs meeps

This game went p downhill for Nat when she missed a Dragon Tail vs the boosting Sigilyph. I don't dig her team choice however, since it's last week's team with a Slowking over Vaporeon, tho can't complain cause she must have done it for a reason. Meeps on the other hand uses a fairly solid build tho surprisingly weak to the common grasses such as Sceptile and Virizion. Don't really have much to say about it.

Well vs rabbit

An interesting one for sure. Rabbit's team looks like the common team from so many metas ago, but hey if it was solid back then it was for a reason. On the other hand well has the Gigalith to just completely shut down the Ninetales. The most interesting turn was the Esca staying in vs Ninetales and killing the Virizion, this is an odd turn because in hindsight, Virizion was way too valuable for rabbit to be switched in so early on at such risk, however, due to the nature of rabbit's team, letting Gigalith in for free meant that either the Registeel would be getting damage, or that one of Cresselia, Blastoise or Virizion were getting hit with a toxic, and in reality it always was a losing scenario for rabbit had the game been dragged. After the Escavalier died the game became way closes than it should have been, but well still managed to come on top.


Now for predictions:

Ultraballz vs Kink: Love UB but in terms of building, Kink has the more dynamic teams, giving him an edge overall, however UB's playing abilities are p fire so not a surprise if he ends up taking it

Welli0u vs Averardo: Well is just the more experienced player and his game sense should show vs Ave, however, a game is also won on the builder and Averardo is not afraid to follow his odd style through so who knows if he gets the right counter style :eyes:

SPACE FORCE meeps vs Ajna: I am physically unable to root against my brother, he's just too fire and meeps still hasn't convinced me neither in terms of building and playing yet, even though I know he is more than capable.

TDK vs Alpha Rabbit: I really want rabbit to do well as an old friend, but TDK is a long time veteran with a great game sense, and he has decent building support as seen from the old teams rozes has used. I feel like rabbit could take this one easily if he just manages to take it easy and play how he did during open.

Feliburn vs Nat: Long overdue game honestly.
 

Moon

Grossly Incandescent
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Hello, welcome to the snake draft III RU visual replay archive. I wanted to post this since I myself would like to come back and look at it later for convenience. Hopefully some other ppl find it nice as well. Thanks. Also, I predict the first person to bring an Incineroar will win.
 
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Mavis

Banned deucer.
god this thread is fucking dead and so are my grades so here's my week 5 predicts that you all have been so eagerly awaiting


Feliburn (1-3) vs SPACE FORCE meeps (2-2) - haven't been a superfan of Meep's play, but taking away my own felibias he's looked terrible the past two weeks. That being said, those past two weeks were against the two undisputed best players in the pool, back to back, so I'm not ready to count him out just yet. Meeps has looked.. okay. Just okay, not good or bad, just okay. 45/55

Alpha Rabbit (1-3) vs Nat (3-1) - bolding Nat easily, AR has looked shaky/inconsistent at best, while Nat continues her top tier roll through the pools. 35/65

roman (N/A) vs Ajna (3-1) - roman makes his RU pools debut vs the best there is, and while I know he won't flop over and die immediately, Ajna looks to be the clear winner here. I expect good play from roman though, as well as in the weeks to follow. Ajna has looked utterly dominant, with his lone loss coming to Nat in week 1. Since then he's looked untouchable and most likely will stay that way. 40/60

Averardo (2-2) vs Ultraballz (2-2) - two middle of the pack players against each other, this one should be one to keep an eye on. it's probably shaping up to be the closest match of the week, so I'm making it my match of the week if only for the fact that none of the others look very close/interesting. 50/50

TDK
(1-1) vs Kink (2-2) - Kink has been quite unimpressive this snake, and while TDK hasn't been a worldbeater either, I think he'll walk away with a win. 60/40


if you're playing and I didn't bold you feel free to haha my post if you think I'm full of shit, apparently it helps you win or something

edit: apparently I messed up one or two of the records so once I get home I'll fix those

edit edit: kink haha'd my post so he wins now
 
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