Thanks SHSP and my lovely team mate againa for letting me do a team dump of my own without double posting. The Brattlers are also, unfortunately, out of playoff contention, which means I can share a lot of the silly techs I bould over the course of this tour as well. I did a lot of building, and I'm excited to share these dumb, yet effective, teams with you all. Click on the set of 6 mons to get to the pastes, and give the music a listen if you can.
To build, I basically went into either the "OU Next Best Thing" or "OU Good Cores" threads and found something "cute" to build around. Additionally, given the amount of non-CAP players in this tournament, I went into building mindsets designed to throw off players who might be relying on standard builds from a majority of players. Sometimes, I went a little overboard, but typically there's at least two slightly unconventional sets on every team in one way or another. Wouldn't recommend these teams for a beginner, but that's ok.
Brought this Week 1 against K3ppr. I was fully expecting some kind of HO, but I wasn't expecting them to bring Trick room, but I think that ended up being fine. This was still in the Mosa meta, so I wouldn't call this team a great reflection of the current meta, but I digress. I wanted to initially build around Slowbro + Blissey, but along the way Blissey get replaced by Colossoil as it was a better Spect answer and Electric immunity. This was also when the Protect sets on Melm ere gaining popularity over Band, and I think my match against K3ppr showed why they're particularly effective. Since this is balance, Haze Hawk was necessary in order to stop dumb snowballing, and I threw Ace on there just because you can really put Ace on most teams as a Cawm check. Jumbao exists as a water resists as well and a general answer to Mandibuzz which otherwise gave the team a LOT of problems.
Nicknames from this album:
Made this team to generally test tams against rain, and I ended up coming around to this team a lot to the point where I nearly brought it Week 2. While I didn't i still think this is a cute lil team that puts in a lot of work in Rain. I wanted to use Thunder Regielecki with a Magnet to make sure you're not locked into Specs damage. This was also paired around Kartana, the other mon I wanted to build with at this point since Kartana is an effective Ground-type mon remover. From there it was a matter of adding Skewda because how can you not on Rain, and then an way to deal with Ferrothorn. I wanted to give Bulk Up pads Urshifu-S a try here since that way you actually have a secondary wincon, and you're not dying to Future Sights. Scarf Volkraken wraps the team up, blowing holes into oppposing teams like no one's business when it comes to forcing switches. Honestly, you could probably use this team right ow just by switching Surf for Scorching Sands.
Like with the rain team, I needed a general Trick Room Team to help my players test against this ridiculous archetype. I have always loved Cursola, and I've never been able to really make it work, but this team is really quite cool. Cursola's Perish Body, you can basically use it as a free pivot after 3 turns which I found to be really useful in keeping momentum. Obviously it wasn't foolproof, but Cursola hits surprisingly hard with its amazing coverage and can live quite a number of hits. Fidgit is a natural partner on Trick Room, which is cool too. Then from there you need just more breakers, so Melmetal and Crawdaunt works as acting as a way to break through special walls too. Of course, any good Trick Room team with have three setters, so I opted for Hatterene over Cresselia for the offensive presence, and then Stakataka as a win condition. One might argue that having two physical steel types is redundant, but Staka's ability to boost under Trick Room is too useful to give up. Ultimate, not a tour team, but one of my favorite non-tour match teams.
Arguably the most "heat" team in this dump, but I don't care. Roxiee brought a version of this team to their match Week 3 but replaced Zone with Mage iirc, but I stand by Zone being just as effective. I was testing a lot with the Libras all tour and Dex kept bringing Poison Jab Toxapex to tests from craing's team dump. I was using a lot of CM Taunt Fini at the time and I was getting fed up with it consistently losing, thus began my quest to find the Fini that didn't immediately lose to Pex. I decided to drop Taunt for Stored power as a better way to deal with Pex as well as Arghonaut, Blissey and Amoongus. As some may have seen in my single room tour win, this team put in a to of work. Zone was added here since Fini had serious problems with dealing with mons like Ferrothorn and Melmetal, and I had seen this Zone set in the "Next Best Thing" thread, and I instantly knew that was the move. It's so fun setting up an Iron Defense and then just clicking BP. You live a nonbanded EQ from Melm and that's really cool. Even against Mage you can win 1v1. But then I was like, "you know what else would be fun here to beat fat waters that are Electric Immune? Specs Jumbao". Specs Jumbao is really cool and does like 64% to bulky Astro which scared a LOT of people when they first saw it. Typically nothing likes switching in on this coverage, and then you can always HWish to give yourself momentum late game. From there I needed speed control, as well as some kind of way to at least get a hit on Spectrier lol. Scarf Landorus-Therian is always really cool and then you've got like Tanky Chomp with Endure to maximize chip damage. And then Sucker Punch Ace so that you can at least have a Cawm check plus some priority on the team.
OK, so I'm going to say that this team started around me building with CM RestTalk Echoed Voice Metronome Primarina, please do not come for my head. I remember testing it with SHSP for the first time and watching him shit his pants as I managed to just outright with with Prim after the Grass mons were gone. So with that in mind, consider that
THIS was the OG team (thanks Quziel). Since this started with this Prim, I wanted a secondary lure to beat up dumb stuff like Amoongus or Jumbao, so hehehehe I brought back Z-Fly Landorus-T with Power Herb Fly. But let me tell you, one of the most disheartening things is when you set up and get the lure and then Fly misses. In any case, I then went the Sand Route here to just have more speed control and a way to handle fatter steel mons too, and then Ace and Pult were added to get some speed and everything. I brought this team Week 2 against Splash after changing Primarina to CM Taunt Fini (which was thoroughly sad, but more reliable overall), and while the team REALLY struggles with Banded Rilla (something I wasn't expecting given the prevalence of Moltres and Zapdos this period of time), it's still really cool. Bring the Prim version to room tours to flex.
Nicknames from this album:
I guess I really like building around Sand, huh? In any case, I went on a bit of manic building spree during finals week, and this is one product of that. This is another OU forum finding of Weather Ball Tornadus-Therian, which I thought was suuuuuuuuuuuuuper neat since it let me reliably beat up Moltres and Zapdos with a Tornadus (I'm a sucker for lures, or could you tell?). Since this was standard Sand other wise, you gotta put Tar and Exca there. I run Crunch on Tar here over Fire Blast since I gave this team plenty of other ways to handle Equilibra. From there I wanted to throw something on there to handle Libra better so initially I went for Rocks Pert, but then I realized that I already had Rocks on tar, so I decided to get a little cheeky, and pulled a Bulk Up set out of my ass. One of my biggest gripes with Pert is that it never really chips things enough to be a threat, and with this, I could BU on something coming in and then live a hit and either EQ, Toxic or pivot out of there as needed. It's a really cool set that also made SHSP shit his pants once or twice. Lastly, I needed soome Grass answers stat, so I threw on Sand Jumbao and Moltres, which brought the team together quite nicely. I nearly brought this G3 Week 5, but I think it was ultimately better I didn't.
Another product of the manic building spree (probably the craziest), that I can guarantee you should never bring to a legitimate tour match. I wanted to build around a cool EWbelt Latios set I found on the lures thread, and I figured that since this Larios really struggled with Special Walls, I wanted something a little different. Enter Banded Crucibelle. This was initially Scarf, but I can say with confidence that Scarf Crucibelle doesn't hit nearly as hard as I would like it to, so I opted for Band. Of course, this leads to the problem of having both of these mons: they're comparably slow to a lot of the metagame. So I thought, "ok, how do I solve that problem?" and the best answer I could come up with was making the team a Sticky Web team. I justified it as a "hey, we might play Airwind Week 4 and he always brings HO, so here's a Webs team to proactice against", and then went to towbn. Bisharp is there to absorb FS stuff and make people scared of Defogging and dropping stats, though it's kind bad rn. Finally, SD Lando and SG WP Magearna are other way to set up and win, particularly with Electro Ball on Mage to hit harder with Webs up. IT's goof, go play on the ladder with this, but don't bring it to a team tour match hehehehe.
I wanted to try semistall going into my last week, given that I had previouly brought some form of offense more or less every week. I know this team has some flaws, but I'm not sure whether or not that's due to my playstyle, or if there's parts of the team that could be improved (likely in the Urshifu area). But all the same, I was batnering with Quziel in the CAP Discord VC and I told him "I'm bringing Kyurem Week 5" and I'm a man of my word. Metronome Kyurem is scary, let that be known immediately. The set I had immediately loses to steel types though and hazards, so I needed Tran answers ASAP. Luckily, Pex plus Corv forms a really cool core, and NO ONE preps for Corv these days, so it fit well here. I think the issue I ran into here was that I went alittle too offesnive for the last three mons, but you can be the judge. I think Astro is a fine addition here as a psike layer and cleric, and then I wanted BU Urshifu to be able to act as a secondary winconditino nad Clefable as Clefable. I think The team is a little weak to TomoLibra, which is never a good thing, so if you have any improvements tothe team, I'm all ears. It either wins really well or it loses very quickly, which isn't good for semistall, sadly. Still, really fun to play with though.
Nicknames from this album:
(Play AI: The Somnium Files, it's good)
Unfortunately for me, I am not Rabia and didn't build a Hail team for this meta, but I came really close to hitting all four with this Sun Team. I wanted to build something right in my wheelhouse with the core of Jumbao/Venusaur/Cinderace since it had been incredibly effective in CAPPL. I will admit today that Torkoal Sun > Jumbao Sun, but I really like Jumb's ability to wish pass. Venusaur here isn't running Grass coverage since I wanted to ry something different and found that having Poison/Fire/Ground Coverage was really effective in the meta. Of course, Any sun team worth its salt needs at least one if not two ground types, to handle dumb faster crap like Regieleki (as much as you might not like to admit it). Protox Colo (developed by Heaven Jay) is quite reliable here to throw around Toxics and generally protect against a lot of dumb choiced mons. I will also admit that this Zapdos set is really hit or miss. I just generally dislike Heat Wave since it always misses in the Heat of the moment, and so I wanted to go for Weather Ball Zapdos as a general Rain answer. Plus in my match, Weather Ball Zapsdos in sun came in handy vs. Zera (didn't miss when necessary) which is another part of the reason I like it. Lastly, We have mixed rocks Chomp rounding out the team. I wanted to be able to throw a Fire Blast at an unsuspecting Libra trying to spin away my rocks, or to click EQ on Magearnas that thought they would try to be cute or something. Needless to say, some of the "agressive luring" aspects played to my advantage in my match, but this Sun team could probably be made more conservative and reliable.
Nicknames from this album:
(shoutouts to Tadasuke)
The last team of this dump was the team I brought to my final game of the tour. Another product of the manic building spree, I wanted to build a Spectrier team, since I've always been weirded out by the horse. I also saw a really col SubToxic set for Landorus-Therian that also used Smack Down to rerally threaten bird in OU. The magic of that set is that there are EVEN MORE MONS in CAP that don't like being Smacked Down (Libra, and Tomo mainly), so I could play this very aggressively and either spread Toxics or just try to click Smack Down and EQ on Mandibuzz or Libra switch ins. That said, I'm thoroughly disappointed in myself for misplaying against Encore Astro in my match because it would've put in so much work otherwise. Pex is there to spread TSpikes and be a general nuisance. From there, Banded Urshifu is a generally good wallbreaker, and with Spect being stopped by Blissey, I wanted a strong fighting type to break through the single Normal type in the tier. Rocks Clef with Knock is always good too since so many people never prep for Knock Clef. And finally, Equilibra rounds the tam out with Hazard removal plus a powerful delayed movbe to help with Urshifu. Some people might not like that the only water resists is weak to Psychic, but I don't mind it that much. You can always opt for Mandi over Libra if you want.
Nicknames form this album:
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And that's that. A huge shoutout to my Brattlers for giving it their all this tour. The last week didn't go the way we wanted, but that's how it be sometimes. In particular, I would like to shoutout the non SwSh CAP players on the team who stepped up and tolerated my insanity-inducing building. Also shoutouts to SHSP, Quz, 2spoopy4u, and dex18 for helping me test these teams and more. It's always really fun to see your reactions when I click "x" move on a mon when you weren't expecting it.
Just you wait though, next tour I'm going to bring nothing but standard so you all overpredict.
That's all from me. Thanks for your time and thanks to the tour directors for letting me manage another team. Voltage out.
, cya in CAPPL
