Project Team Bazaar

Dr. Phd. BJ

aphasia
is a defending SCL Champion
OMPL Champion
Screenshot 2024-02-02 11.22.22 AM.png

Heya, it's drphdbj here. There has been some talk about nu resources and teams being outdated in the discord (example above), which is a fair criticism. However, with dlc, tier shifts, and bans that have been occurring, it is really hard to keep these resources updated. I figured I would try and help contribute some teams I used during nucl, overall meta thoughts, and maybe add some insight from my pov. I am not one to hide my teams or my thought process, so I thought sharing would be beneficial. This will be a lengthy post, but all the pastes will be attached to the sprites. I will try to explain notable ev spreads, set explanations and some teras, cause some are definitely weird to look at.

w1 vs zeeLitium (w)
:arcanine: :tauros-paldea-aqua: :brute-bonnet: :toxtricity: :iron-thorns: :braviary-hisui:

Before week 1 dropped, we had dlc and tier shifts really shake up the meta. I knew I was 100% bringing ho, as it is hard to build consistent balances when such drastic change happens in a meta. This structure was one I built for scl finals as a way of testing with etern, the only major difference is that I used hazard stacking iron thorns as opposed to froslass/lycan. The main idea was that the tier finally regained good priority, and prio is particularly good into opposing offenses and notably weather. There were a couple minor changes such as crunch arcanine for chandelure, and psychic noise toxtricity for terrakion/preventing fat stuff from recovering. I didn't drop a game in tests nor ladder, and when I tested other stuff I found myself going back to this base. I had no knowledge of my opponent, so I just played my game and things unfolded really nicely. There isn't a single complex ev spread on here, super simple team that is unfortunately outdated with sleep ban + thorn bans respectively.

w2 vs Phantomistix (w)
:registeel: :avalugg: :scrafty: :vileplume: :delphox: :flygon:

For week 2, I wanted to load some scrafty fat. Tera poison bulk up scrafty was the best progress maker in the tier imo, as there isn't really a way to safely midground knock off + bulk up + [dark/fight + poison] synergy. It is also an extremely dangerous wincon (hence why it is now banned!). Registeel has enough speed for paralyzed chandelure, which is useful because you have eq to actually hit it. Scrafty has a ton of speed for opposing scrafty to win bulk up wars, para'd mismagius, scyther, and delphox. Avalugg has enough speed to outspeed vileplume with some cushion after a spin so you can icicle crash the next turn. Delphox is sub + encore to avoid sucker, get into blaze, and act as a last resort against fat setup. The mu was decent, I played like shit, and got fortunate. The team is really nice, just a little slow off rip.

w3 vs zS (w)
:copperajah: :tsareena: :meloetta: :diancie: :tauros-paldea-aqua: :gligar:

This was the first week I felt the meta was starting to stabilize. This was also the first week I took scouting somewhat serious, as zS is very good but also very unorthodox. I loved subcm meloetta into his builds, and I originally wanted to build around np glowbro + subcm melo to dismantle fat. From testing this concept, it made me realize that glowbro was not in fact broken (at this time). So, I decided to go a different route. The team is really cool, tr diancie helped a ton against offense and provides makeshift speed control for another relatively slow team. The core of tr diancie for offense + subcm meloetta for fat was put into place. Copperajah has rock slide for oricorio, and it has 16 attack evs as that was just a nice number in the calc for general damage (attack damage outweighed the defensive evs). Tsareena had enough bulk to live +1 booster energy ice punch from iron thorns, and enough speed to outspeed bonnet/altaria creeping bonnet + base 95s after a rapid spin. Melo had enough speed for jolly overqwil. Pauros has scarf aqua jet for the following interaction: hard switch it in on iron thorns dd -> wave crash as thorns probably pops tera and dds again -> switch out and come back in and kill with aqua jet. Gligar has some spdef for pivoting around chandelure shadow ball. I played really well. While I wished that melo put in more work, pauros went ham this game.

w4 vs outbackrabbit (w)
:registeel: :tsareena: :diancie: :slowbro-galar: :flygon: :oricorio-pom-pom:

Outbackrabbit is currently in circuit finals for the nu circuit, and I remember competing against him for a spot during the last cycle of nult. I really wanted to win this, cause I wanted to qualify for both and qualified for neither. Originally, I was gonna load up some hail. Upon testing, I realized that it was far too inconsistent, especially with where our team was in the standings. I ultimately decided to intentionally load up the most boring spike stack balance I could, as I felt as if that gave me the best odds to win. Registeel has enough attack evs to 4hko glowbro with eq, as I felt as if that outweighed having ~430 spdef as opposed to ~400. Tsareena has bulk for dd flygon now instead of iron thorns. Diancie has enough speed to encore sylveon. Glowbro had enough speed for para'd bonnet and enough spdef to eat a hit from meteor beam diancie at full. Oricorio has enough speed for scarf 100s (flygon/staraptor) after two quiver dances. I felt decent about my play, thundurus could've popped me if it was double dance or tera'd at the correct turn. I also roosted with oricorio for no reason. Thankfully tho, I pulled out the win.

w5 vs Kiyo (w)
:tsareena: :copperajah: :overqwil: :tauros-paldea-aqua: :flygon: :oricorio-pom-pom:

Kiyo was 4-0 just like me, so I wanted to bring something standard. I noticed some cheese, so to be proactive in prep I wanted to avoid losing to terrain and glowbro because that mon is super good rn. I thought overqwil would be perfect to build around. It had haze for sceptile/graf/uxie, matches up well into glowbro, and has spikes. I had a build with hisui-qwilfish during nult that I piloted super nicely once I tweaked sets, so I wanted something similar in gameplay if possible. Tsareena spread is same as above, copper is same but without the 16 attack. Overqwil has enough defense to live +0 flygon eq after rocks, +1 sceptile eq after rocks, and enough speed for max speed neutral abomasnow, fat tsareena, some gligar & qwilfish (clusterfuck speed tier lmao), rest is dumped into spdef for melo + gbro. Pauros is tera electric for insurance against thundy/oricorio, also immune to twave and just eliminates weaknesses for bulk up since you roll grounds anyways. Oricorio is offensive water as opposed to defensive fairy last week mainly to snipe diancie, but it also puts in work against rain and is nice general type synergy (rotom-wash type beat). I played solid and pulled through in the spikes war.


Overall really happy with my performance this tour. I do not want to say I solved the meta, but I felt as if I had more depth into my decisions this tour than the vast majority of the playerbase. I have some quick takes before the meta changes with recent shifts:


- Fat tsareena is the best tsareena rn. Do not run jolly, do not run max attack. Run some pdef for dd flygon and pauros. The moveset is pretty splashable depending on the team.
- My top 5 mons in the meta (in no particular order): flygon, glowbro, diancie, tauros-aqua, oricorio-pom-pom.
- Breakers people are sleeping on: emboar and hisui-braviary. Emboar has knock, and prio in the form of sucker. Slow, but immediately threatens steels to the point that it is worth. Braviary has great bulk and mus well into most of the tier's rockers (not diancie but I don't like sr diancie much fwiw). You can hard switch it into most rockers not named diancie and threaten to 2hko 90% of the tier. While the rocks weakness does admittedly suck, you can hard switch into those rockers and make progress anyways. Be proactive, claim your kills folks.
- While oricorio doesn't have amazing bst and shares the same typing as thundurus, this mon is insanely stupid. Its functionality is completely different to thundy thanks to quiver dance, rev dance, roost, and actual flying stab in hurricane. You have to fear both offensive and pdef sets, and some spdef walls like registeel and toxic umbreon can get shut down pretty easily thanks to roost and taunt respectively. I found myself using this often times as a defensive check to stuff, not just exclusively to bring in after a sac and try to sweep.
- Watch glowbro, this was kept in check a bit when scrafty was in the tier. The tools are super good, but it also provides some valuable defensive counterplay to a lot of the tiers physical attackers.
- Cheese is pretty good. I respect a good cheese team such as the one slice has been spamming for the past month or so. At what point does it become uncompetitve? I think terrain stuff is fine in the tier right now, but something to look out for. Sun has potential too
- The tier does not have a lot of "viable" removal options right now. I think spike stack is easily the most consistent play style rn. My teams in the last 3 weeks are fairly similar in structure, and quite frankly I find it hard to face those archetypes even when you know it is coming. The general structure for those who are curious is:
sr setter + spike setter + spinner (usually tsareena, can be avalugg) + speed control (scarf flygon is usually best because it has coverage, immune to opposing spikes + resists rocks, gets u-turn, respectable speed tier) + wincon + filler/glue mon.

Hope this was worth the read n_n
 
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Kiyo

the cowboy kid
is a Forum Moderatoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Top Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Moderator
Hey guys, it's your friendly neighborhood Kiyo here. I'm in the process of writing a long np: thread post and I realize some of my points are about teambuilding in general may be better expressed in this context. I'm going to take some time to talk about the teams I built for NUCL and the factors I used to inform decisions week to week. Without further ado, here goes.

Week 1: This metagame was definitely one of the most difficult to build for in large part because the ladder metagame did not line-up perfectly with the NUCL meta. Not being able to use (and having to face off vs) Slowbro-G, Snorlax, Oricorio, and Inteleon made it difficult to make judgement calls using ladder trends to predict which defensive cores players would bring. There were some polarizing threats that helped to dictate metagame direction at this early stage, namely Terrakion and Cloyster.

Kiyo vs avarice (W)
:Cloyster::Terrakion::Qwilfish::Tsareena::Meloetta::Thundurus:
https://pokepast.es/d5689a0038022e50
I used a lot of do nothing teams this past ORASPL and reminded myself a lot that intiative and being the aggressor is important when we have access to immediate power. With this philosophy in mind I wanted to take advantage of the raw power offered by Terrakion, Choice Specs Meloetta, and Shell Smash Cloyster. I noticed that there were a good number of Pokemon Terrakion would bring in by threatening its stabs that Cloyster could then set up on, so I decided to try Eject Pack on my Terrakion to not lose momentum by clicking Close Combat into Gligar, Scream Tail, etc. Supplementing these threats with Flip Turn Qwilfish and a relatively bulky Tsareena seemed to make a lot of sense to help with slower paced teams by setting spikes, and spinning hazards that the other 5 pokemon can't switch into, respectively. I don't have a lot in the way of defense on this team and I'm heavily relying on the natural special bulk of meloetta to deal with special attackers, and the tandem of qwil and tsareena to handle physical attackers. My read is that the meta would be offensive enough that simply creating chances for Meloetta, Terrakion, and Cloyster would limit my need to switch into threats by virtue of being the aggressor and forcing my opponent to switch into attacks. Scarf Thundurus was particularly good at cleaning up games and forcing out threats that I couldn't handle defensively due to its naturally good attack and speed - outpacing and ohkoing cloyster was a major factor in my decision to use scarf thundy, but the overall utility it provided such an offensive team with a fast u-turn and cleaning potential cannot be overstated.

twinkay vs feen (W)
:Terrakion::Meloetta::Vileplume::Flygon::Registeel::Tauros-Paldea-Aqua:
https://pokepast.es/7f381362e5759ee2
Whereas I built my team very early on in the week, I didn't decide on a direction for this team until probably saturday night or sunday morning. Not as many people were deciding to abuse Cloyster as I thought, people were having a difficult time getting thundurus to work, and I personally felt people were painting with too broad of strokes when constructing balances and leaving themselves exploitable to type stacking. The philosophy of being the aggressor is still prevalent here despite this team taking a more balanced direction with Vileplume and Registeel. I wanted to take what was consistently working from the balance games I saw (Flygon, Registeel, Pauros, and Vileplume) and construct a team that utilized double switching from walls to threats to create chances. A lot of games the idea is to make progress by exploiting the opponents (likely) inability to make significant progress vs vileplume and registeel quickly. These pokemon force very linear gameplay and predictable responses from the opponent and make doubling to terrakion, meloetta, and pauros to create breaking chances much easier.

Week 2: I think these first couple of weeks good teambuilding fundamentals are the key to not getting run over and we see a lot of dragon/fairy/steel, fire/water/grass, and dark/psychic/fighting based compositions. It still feels like the meta is in a state of fux right now and people are starting to refine their attempts at balance teams by being more intentional with the role their flygon, scrafty, steel and fairy types do. A lot of the fighting type compositions lose their primary gameplans in terrakion so I predict those fall off a little bit and players will explore other options.

Kiyo vs mncmt (W)
:Indeedee-F::Copperajah::Thundurus::Overqwil::Sceptile::Floatzel:
https://pokepast.es/4315c599f3d486a8
I thought SD Overqwil presented a lot of problems for balance structures that rely on fastest pokemon scarf Flygon, I felt like some people were still playing very carefully around thundurus assuming it would nasty plot and go for progress quickly and wanted to take advantage of that by having the primary function of setting rain and u turning to a sweeper. The next two pokemon on this build were custap copperajah and floatzel. Copper is something I had a lot of success with on hyper offense builds during the nuwc metagame and I kinda wanted to see if it would still work now, it does okay, living scarf flygon eq with max hp is very nice but I find that dropping some HP for speed is usually better now to proc custap more often and not struggle with avalugg and other bulky stuff that will just tank ur knocks and iron heads as much. Floatzel is good outside of rain, but better in it, so it was a naturally pick to pair with sd overqwil. The last two slots were Arboliva and Sceptile for most of the testing during the week, I really liked the grassy terrain interaction with overqwil, copperajah, and tera fire sceptile. I still think Arboliva is probably better but I was having trouble making it do things other than set terrain and get ebuttoned out, it was a momentum suck on an otherwise offensive build once the ebutton was proc'd so in an effort to make the team more offensive I swapped it out for Indeedee at the last second. I think both are ok, but the setter doesn't matter much on this team since Sceptile usually can trade effectively or weaken one of float/qwils checks enough to make an impact

twinkay vs DugZa (L)
:Copperajah::Sylveon::Flygon::Scrafty::Vileplume::Chandelure:
https://pokepast.es/d6fb47f8bff4857a
This one was a bit of a stinker. We ended up losing to CM Florges and honestly I think that was always going to happen long-term. I lacked a lot of clear direction with how I wanted to handle Chandelure this week and its a problem that I just ended up slapping on a spdef scrafty and said "that'll hold" for. I think the scrafty could reasonably be dd on this team to get past the fairies a little more easily or I could have tried to do something completely different with the copper and scrafty, some interesting tries might have been spdef mudsdale and p2, or bronzong (which i was still fighting internal bias about using fsr) and something fast. Lots of indecision led me to a decent team that was competitive on ladder and in tests but struggled with a more refined balance composition in the game we brought it.

Week 3: I dont have a ton to say about meta trends this week, things are stabilizing and the only real take I have going in is that scarf flygon is old news and every one that I see will be dd or some sort of pivot that could even be special since ppl are getting lazy about switching glowbro, avalugg, and tsareena into flygon imo. I guess I also think tsareena is overrated and too many ppl are running offensive for a role that defensive fills better.

Kiyo vs Danny (W)
:Mudsdale::Meloetta::Houndstone::Tsareena::Klefki::Diancie:
https://pokepast.es/cdf1c267b718bfe4
My read was that Danny would either use grassy terrain out of laziness or a well balanced team using top tier pokemon. I wanted to use Houndstone and Spikes this week because I felt the playerbase was being a little too reliant on tsareena for their hazard control. SpDef Mudsdale makes a lot of sense as the rocker to roar out boosted special attackers and rack up damage through hazard chip. At this point I thought it was going to be difficult to swing this team back in the balance direction with how slow it already is so I leaned into the defense side and went for a semi-stall. Physdef Tsareena is goated and can 1v1 dd flygon and bulk up tauros in a pinch, knock off is key to making progress vs the boots mons and trop kick is still strong despite being significantly lower bp than power whip. av meloetta is a really nice trump card into special attackers, it takes zero from most of thier attacks even boosted and forces switches to rack up residuals from hazards. Knock off is good here too to hit different targets than tsareena, u turn is usually safer than hard switching and ur fast enough to do it out of umbreon and stuff before they it you with toxic/twave/etc. Psychic v Psyshock is tough to decide and I go back and forth a lot. Its not actually this simple but basically psyshock lets u beat oricorio and psychic lets u beat glowbro. Diancie is good at making progress and fills a really important role for a team this bulky that doesnt have access to a good unaware mon, encore. Encore paired with a phazer beats most of the annoying af set up mons such as snorlax and glowbro.

twinkay vs The Strap (W)
:Altaria::Copperajah::Sylveon::Meloetta::Grafaiai::Flygon:
https://pokepast.es/d89a27d15e3c019b
Shengineer had the idea to use scarf grafaiai this week, I thought it sounded cool to do things like outpace scarf flygon t1 and poison it with uturn. In theory you should be able to spread poison touch a fair bit with u turn and knock, but I dont think it happened once in practice. After getting bopped by a cm fairy last week I decided it was a good enough cleaner to warrant a try on this build as well, I think wish protect Sylv was probably better than Synth Florges on this team, but there aren't many I feel that way about. Fast Florges is super underrated and does a great job of cleaning balances with little support. Wish tect was good for helping vs the sun matchup twinkay encountered. I also wanted to get away from using vileplume as the primary pauros answer and this type of balance needs reliable hazard removal so altaria was a natural choice. Copperajah had nice defensive synergy with the rest of the team and formed another encore + phazer combo that allowed us to get away with running something like grafaiai that doesnt meaningfully contribute to the teams defenses. Another AV Meloetta to glue together a team that could otherwise be run over by special attackers such as np delphox, np thundurus, etc.

Week 4: Meta still seems fairly stable and now people are trying new things again, seeing more glastrier, toxtricity, emboar type stuff come about.

twinkay vs Leru (L)
:Oricorio-Pom-Pom::Glastrier::Flygon::Espeon::Florges::Overqwil:
https://pokepast.es/63140cac6ec9cba6

This is probably one of my favorite teams so far, I didn't put a whole lot of thought into it other than: Glastrier and Oricorio always do something so an offense with those two as progress makers prob gets a lot done. Custap Glast is surprisingly effective at nabbing surprise KOs and Kee berry Oricoio can win games single handedly. There's certainly a lack of cohesion here, I don't think flygon, espeon, or overqwil were necessarily the best picks but they worked well enough at what I needed them to do. The max speed Florges has been one of my favorite techs so far, it naturally outpaces everything under chandelure on balance comps. I think some more spatk evs would be good but I wasn't sure what to do and max HP was working well in tests so I just kinda kept it. Tera Ghost and Dbond was a cute way to get ppl to sack their avalugg to overqwil so that glast could make progress, it happened a lot and the tricky part is gettting the turns right when theyre at like 75% and its not clear whether recover or spin/eq is the play, but its usually not the best tera anyways. I think we get the win here if we 100% know (and remember) the scream tail set, but twinkay forgot it was weakness policy and the rest is history.
 
What's up gamers, today I wanted to make a quick post sharing this absolutely unhinged team that I built. It is built on three principles:
  1. Lilligant in sun is not okay
  2. Trick room is very strong at countering terrain and sun teams, as the majority of their team will be fastmons
  3. Alolan Exeggutor and Emboar are two mons we have recently acquired that can bridge the gap between these two archetypes
Therefore, I present to you my Sun + Trick Room Offense team. I would say it still has a lot of room for optimization regarding EVs, tera types, and movesets, but it has been a blast to play in the current chaotic state of ladder.

:Ninetales: Ninetales sets sun. It packs healing wish and memento to help sweepers (aka Lilligant) set up.
:Lilligant-Hisui: Lilligant-Hisui is our late game (or early game) sweeper to close out games. Could even justify Jolly to contest other Lilligants.
:Diancie: Diancie has pulled off countless sweeps against Sun as it can easily sweep with one :power herb: meteor beam boost. TR setter and sweeper in one.
:Golurk: Golurk is easily exchangeable for any mon of your choice, But it has useful defensive typing and hits like a truck.
:Emboar: Emboar one shots Glowbro with :choice band: flare blitz under sun (lol). Could run speed EVs to hit targets outside TR or go min speed, up to you.
:Exeggutor-Alola: Exeggutor-Alola gets walled by steels here but still puts in the work. Gives crucial water resist and sets TR. What sets can I consider instead? :custap berry:

My experience with Trick Room this gen is that the best setters are those who are threatening by themself, and that the best TR teams don't put all their eggs in one basket. This is to say that you should have some pressure while TR is down as well. Sure, :porygon2: can always get trick room up, but it can be a struggle to switch your TR abusers in on powerful attacks from the opponent. I'm looking for feedback on how to improve this team, or if you think the whole concept is doomed from the start let me know. I think I'm cooking something here.

Edit: Please run earthquake on :Exeggutor-Alola: over wood hammer. The demon :Lilligant-Hisui: is gone, replace it with chlorophyll sweeper of choice: perhaps :scovillain: or :vileplume:

Here is an updated team for your convenience.
 
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Special Sceptile is back

Info

The idea of building a team around Special Sceptile was when I recently watched False Swipe Gaming remake of Sceptile and it got me thinking if the special sets are viable. Since the main purpose of Sceptile is just being a sweeper on Terrain teams so I decided to give special Sceptile a shot and after using it the team was very successful and it got me into the top 10th on the ladder.

The Team

1708284886395.png
@ Life Orb
Ability: Overgrow
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Focus Blast
- Tera Blast
- Giga Drain

Sceptile is just the typical all out attacker and most of the time it's a late game cleaner. Focus Blast is for hitting Steel and Dark-types like Copperajah, Registeel, and Scafty. While Tera Blast Fire is for hitting Grass-types like Tsareena and Vileplume.

1708285662104.png
@ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn

When Building the team I did notice that most of my team was very slow so I decided to add Scarf Flygon to fix the speed issue. Stone Edge is there to hit Flying-types like Thundurus and Altaria, while Tera Steel is a good defense type for handling Fairy-types and the powerful Normal attacks from Lucario Extreme Speed and Toxtricity Boomburst.

1708286509050.png
@ Leftovers
Ability: Heavy Metal
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 168 HP / 16 Atk / 252 SpD / 72 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

Copperajah is still in my opinion the most useful Steel-type in the tier. Copperajah purposes is just to Knock Off items and set up its own rocks. While also taking hits from Special wallbreakers from Inteleon, Dragalge, and Thundurus.

1708287115040.png
@ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 Spe
Impish Nature
- Ice Spinner
- Earthquake
- Recover
- Rapid Spin

Avalugg was the main highlight of the team along side with Copperajah and Flygon. The amount of times Avalugg safe me from physical attackers is very useful. Earthquake is for hitting Steel and Fire-types such as Copperajah, Chandelure, and Delphox, while Rapid Spin is for getting rid off entry hazards, and Tera Ghost is to be immune to any Fighting-type attack.

1708288021648.png
@ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52 Spe
Impish Nature
- Flip Turn
- Barb Barrage
- Spikes
- Pain Split

Qwilfish is the main three defensive core with Avalugg and Copperajah. Qwilfish handles the powerful Physical wallbreakers and the Fighting-types. Qwilfish and Copperajah makes a great team since both can setup entry hazards while helping each other for beating their checks. Tera Ground is a solid defense type for being immune to electric attacks.

1708297900229.png
@ Assault Vest
Ability: Serene Grace
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psyshock
- Hyper Voice
- Knock Off
- Focus Blast

Meloetta is for checking Chandelure since my team doesn't have the greatest switch-ins to Flamethrower or Shadow Ball. I decided to run AV Meloetta if Copperajah does go down then they have to deal with another special wall that can't die to easily. Knock Off is to get rid of held items and Focus Blast is to hit Steel and Dark-types like Registeel, Brute Bonnet, and Grimmsnarl. Tera Fighting is there for making Meloetta Focus Blast hitting a lot harder while resistance Sucker Punch from Zoroark, Grimmsnarl, Brute Bonnet.

Overall I enjoyed both building the team and using it. I'm also glad to use my favorite gen 3 starter that isn't Terrain teams.

1000003297.jpg
 
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:whimsicott: :umbreon: :avalugg: :slowbro-galar: :registeel: :lanturn:

The stall team that hit number 1 on ladder:
https://pokepast.es/0061c161190ea977

:whimsicott:
Sub-seed plus encore can cause a lot of chaos against an unprepared team and has clawed me a into a win in a number of bad situations. Phys def to help sub live more attacks such as u-turns or wall non poison jab scrafty, which those that do will usually tera poison fearing moonblast leaving them vulnerable to being encored later or encored into poison jab on tera steel shutting them down. Whimsicott helps in stopping set-up and wearing things down with leech seed, and moonblast chips the dark types that otherwise block prankster on switch in. Things to watch out for are things like infiltrator chandelure and mons with sound moves or multi hit moves to bypass your sub, niche but underrated mon overall.

:umbreon:
Standard wish protect toxic foul play tera poison full spdef what other umbreon set do you need. Jokes aside wish support helps a stall teams longevity especially to the mons that struggle with a lack of reliable recovery, toxic helps wear things down and foul play is consistent damage against the physical attackers that would otherwise wish to prey on the weaker physical bulk. Just a reliable mon that sometimes wins on its own if the opponent can't break it and pairs great with glowbro.

:avalugg:
Avalugg gives the team a spinner as well as a blanket check to most physical attackers, and body press does good damage with that great defense stat. Tera ghost helps not only stop strong fighting moves but also allows avalugg to block opposing attempts to trade rapid spins from those trying to safely eliminate the hazards on their side as well. Of course it's pitiful special defense and defensive typing pre tera are downsides but nothing that can't be played around with teammates to fill the gaps.

:slowbro-galar:
Glowbro as mentioned with umbreon makes a great pairing with it, checking the fighting moves and u-turns thrown at umbreon as well as avalugg and getting solid chip with rocky helmet. Regenerator is a fantastic ability especially on a stall team where it can get monstrous value and slack off helps whenever glowbro has to sit in on a mon. I elected for three attacks as I felt the coverage would get better usage than a nasty plot or calm mind boost but you certainly could exchange psychic for one if you preferred. Sludge bomb is a good spammable move that can spread poisons and flamethrower hits the steels that are immune, and psychic is a nice midground option that can open up opportunities with a nice spdef drop every now and then. 4 evs are tossed into speed as base 30 is a surprisingly popular speed tier so being able to bypass speed ties with such little investment is certainly nice and tera water helps check basculegion and water is just a good defensive type overall. Glowbro is an excellent glue for the team.

:Registeel:
Looking at what else I needed registeel gives a steel type and a rocker for the team, spdef helps alleviate some of the pressure of umbreon for taking the special hits and glowbro + avalugg already check the majority of physical hitters on their own. Protect helps with getting more leftovers recovery for longevity as well as scouting opposing choiced mons. T wave support helps cripple poison immunities, and in general 25% chance for the opponent to do nothing is, well we have all been on the receiving end before. Heavy slam rounds out a reliable damage option for certain mons. Registeel rarely ever feels like it needs to tera so I went tera flying in case the ground immunity becomes necessary and it's still brings a fighting resistance. Registeel is certainly an appreciated bringer of support though it may not be carrying any games on its own.

:lanturn:
Lanturn was certainly and interesting pick at first but this mon has shined greatly in a quite a few matches. AV makes it an excellent check to many mons that the team struggled with otherwise such as choice specs inteleon, gives the team an electric immunity, scald burns, and even volt switch momentum, ice beam coverage helps hits the grass and the dragon types that resist your stabs as it always has, and dazzling gleam with tera fairy for the last slot, tera fairy already has it defensive merits and getting a boosted gleam is a nice bonus, though tera grass and thunderbolt are fine alternaive options. Max hp for the added all around bulk and max spatk allowed for more damage than I honestly expected lanturn to be capable of at first, it's not claiming one hit KOs left and right except maybe the flygons that switch in on ice beam expecting volt switch, but the damage sticks quite often. Lanturn surprised me as a very solid option on stall that can fill its own unique role and does it well.

In the end it ended up being a pretty fun team to use overall and won nearly every game I've played with it.
 
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What's up gamers, it's your pal Shengineer here again with a few team showcases. I had some pretty clean wins (dodged hydro pumps with sheer skill) in NU seasonal just now, wanted to share the teams real quick - especially the one I used in game 2.

Game 1: Dragalge Balance
Team: :dragalge: :sylveon: :copperajah: :avalugg: :pawmot: :rotom-mow:
Replay: :houndstone:

The first team is a pretty tame balance build with a fairy-dragon-steel defensive backbone, further heightened by Avalugg as the spinner. Pawmot acts as the breaker while Rotom-Mow acts as a scarfed pivot with a useful ground immunity and water resistance (:inteleon:). Dragalge is a very good progress maker in NU right now, and my opponent's team was unprepared for toxic spikes. I also tried out roar on Sylveon to hopefully spread this poison better, get some surprise phazing, and stop mons like Umbreon from wish healing themself or their intended target. The special attacking Copperajah didn't really come into play, but it gets big chip on a lot of mons that would otherwise safely switch in. Thank god he didn't have a Delphox though, I think my team gets devoured by that mon. Emboar was pretty scary tho.

Game 2: Tatsugiri's Revenge
Team: :froslass: :diancie: :oricorio: :flygon: :glastrier: :tatsugiri-droopy:
Replay: :basculegion:

The tatsus are coming. They are in your walls. :tatsugiri: :tatsugiri-stretchy: :tatsugiri-droopy:

This is my first foray into building and using Hyper Offense in a tournament setting. I had rarely played it on ladder until recently, when I set out with the goal of adding this playstyle to my arsenal. From the get go, I know I wanted to use Tatsugiri with all the Inteleons and Basculegions running amok, as it excels at stealing momentum. In combination with a Froslass lead to get spikes up and keep off enemy hazards (and maybe nab a surprise KO with Destiny Bond + Avalanche), I was able to enable some rock-weak mons to flourish, those being Oricorio-Baile and Glastrier. I used my favorite Glastrier set, Custap Berry, and went full on-offensive with Oricorio. Taunt stops so many walls from touching me, and with the extra HP from a Sitrus Berry I didn't plan on needing Roost. I noticed I was a bit vulnerable to certain scarfed mons like Staraptor, so I included Diancie to help cover those matchups and further enable Glastrier with Trick Room. Finally, it's hard to beat Flygon as a late game cleaner with Dragon Dance, especially if you opponent has to guess which of the 6 or so Tera types you could be running.

All in all, I created a team that I am very proud of. There is a great deal of synergy between the team members and some creative sets were really able to flourish. I knew I had something special when I laddered this team on a new account all the way to 1500 on a 31 game win streak. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. Shengineer out.
 
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So everybody is sharing their secrets...
1708379446053.png


I'm far from being good like others here but I have success with balance teams and they all follow the same gameplan idea but with different mons.

Try to keep hazard in your favor, open holes in the opposition and win by setting up, brute forcing with choice , or stalling with Ubreon. Some times a combination of all.

Team 1 : :Chandelure: :Registeel: :Inteleon: :Umbreon: :Scrafty: :Tsareena:

Replay of NUS1 btw i made Inteleon look like balanced.

What a I like of this team is how it has all the tools you need to play all situations and matchups. Registeel , Tsareena and Umbreon is your defensive core and the one that you usually starts in the early game fighting for hazards, spreading status with TW/Toxic and passing safe switches with Wish pass and U-Turn. Scrafty usually gets some turns as well specially because it gets free Koffs. But than is saved to late game duty.

Usually the benefactor of that pivot is Chandelure that enters to take mid game KOs or Trick scarf to walls (that's really common to happen) or Inteleon so you can double pivot with U-turn or take KOs with Tera Water Specs Hydros.

Late game usually ends up in a 4x4 where you have Regiesteel, Umbreon, Scrafty and one of the Choice mons. With rocks up and probably at least 1 PAR/TOX mon on the oposition. From now on is a matter of understanding how to close the game. Some times trading a PAR for Regi is worth so Inteleon can clean or a Scarf Koff trade for Scrafty so Chandelure can win... There are infinite situations that have different ways to close and take the win. The beauty of this team is that mastering trading for value you have the tools to win.

Team 2: :Avalugg: :Dragalge: :Diancie: :Umbreon: :Staraptor: :Flygon:


Replay of NUS1

This team is bulkier and slower the idea remains the same but it plays different. You don't fight for maintaining hazards on the opponent side, you are more occupied trying to have your side of the map clean and finding openings for Staraptor and Dragalge to clic stabs . Between Avalugg and Umbreon basically nothing they throw at you will grab a OHKO so use them to pivot around hits and recovering using Recover and Wish.

Mid game Diancei and Flaygon set up and grab a couple of KOs so you can enter the late game in a favorable situation , personally I prefer to get rocks if needed mid game with this team to not expose Flygon to dmg and to have a option to punish in the free turn if something switches out of it. An X factor of this team is that if you are facing something that you cant deal you can aways Final Gambit it :)

Late game here is something like Umbreon, Flygon , Dragalge/Diancie/Staraptor vs a bunch of halved mons usually. Again from here you have some options to close but they are more limited. I'd say this team is easier to pilot but less complete than the other. But still is aways fun to see specs Dragalge delete stuff that thought it was SpD+.

Sorry for the wall and not entering on details like sets and spreads but any doubt just PM or hit me on Showdown i'm always up.

Thanks for reading and hope you guys enjoy.

edit: grammar
 
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Django

Started from the bottom...
is a Tiering Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Since it's the last day before chaos sets in, wanted to share my favourite teams from the last month, which have had success on ladder and in the seasonal tournament. The feb meta after Iron Thorns being banned has been great, props to the council for not banning Inteleon / Glowbro / Scrafty who were never broken anyway.

Bulky spikes balance:

:vileplume: - :avalugg: - :klefki: - :mudsdale: - :chandelure: - :tauros-paldea-aqua:

This was probably the most consistent team I built, and I feel like it can handle most of the meta threats. The basic plan is to get up hazards, wall most of their threats with Vileplume / Avalugg / Mudsdale, then win with one of Chandelure or Tauros.

Vileplume I think might be one of the best mons in the tier right now. It walls nearly everything and just does not die. I prefer EQ > Body Press on Avalugg to hit Chandelure here, which is a mon I can't afford to give free turns to. Mudsdale with SpDef checks a lot of things, and tera Dragon is super valuable against Sun.

Scarf Chandelure is amazing, and finds its way onto a lot of my teams. It spin blocks, revenge kills, often sweeps, and Trick + Switcheroo on Klefki lets me break most stall teams. Tera Normal exists because I got bored of Chandelure speed ties. Tauros is a great check for Flygon, and can often sweep with just one free turn. Tera Dark shuts down prankster users (Sableye, Whimsicott, Klefki) which can often stop a sweep, and normally isn't seen coming.

Emboar, SubDD Flygon, and Inteleon are big threats here. All need to be carefully played around and probably tera'd.

Ladder peak:
Screenshot 2024-02-27 at 10.03.21.png

Replay from seasonal round 6


Emboar offense:

:emboar: - :thundurus: - :tatsugiri: - :flamigo: - :diancie: - :registeel:

This team is a lot less consistent I think, but can score some very easy wins. It was basically born out of wanting to use both AV Emboar, and Acro Thundurus. These are both great anti-meta picks I think, catching a lot of teams unaware. Emboar hits like a truck and people often assume it's choice locked because of that. Thundurus also catches so many grass types, intimidate users, and generally just keeps so much momentum. Emboar runs enough speed to hit 211, outspeeding Adamant Golurk and other creepers around there. Grass Knot Thundurus hits Mudsdale, Rhydon, things which can otherwise stop Flamigo.

After that I needed to be able to check Inteleon, spin, and so added Tatsugiri. Emboar and Thundurus punch a lot of holes in Fighting and Flying resists, so scarf Flamigo gets a lot of opportunities to sweep. TR / Rocks Diancie also catches a lot of people off guard, and hits very very hard as well. Trick Room can also give Emboar and Registeel free turns sometimes. Curse Registeel is stupid, and this is basically the only Tera I use here. It closes out a lot of games and can beat stall on its own sometimes.

Replay from seasonal round 6

Double ghost balance:

:scrafty: - :basculegion: - :flygon: - :chandelure: - :tsareena: - :registeel:

I kept struggling to build teams that aren't weak to ghosts in general. So I decided to build one around Chandelure and Basulegion. Basc breaks so many holes in teams with adaptability, basically nothing can safely switch it. And Tera Blast hits so so hard - but often I want to save it for Flygon.
SubDD Flygon with Tera Steel is so fun. Sets up for free on Vileplume, Gligar, and a bunch of other stuff. A few misplays vs this can lead to a straight up loss.

SpDef Scrafty and PhysDef Tsareena form a nice defensive core while also being quite useful offensively, or to spin. Trop kick is a fun tech against Scrafty and Flygon. Tsareena really wants to run 6 moves, Triple Axel and U-Turn are also amazing. In this case though I kind of want to use Gligar and other Tsareena to set up with Flygon, so I left out Axel, and leaving U-Turn out just means I have to predict harder.

Registeel is a bit of a flex spot on this team, but gives some good type synergy, while also stopping Inteleon. Para support is also great for Basc and Flygon.

Didn't get a chance to use this in tournaments, but hit a decent spot on the ladder with it:

Screenshot 2024-02-26 at 10.16.41.png


Overall this meta is great. I don't think anything is particularly broken, and there's so many fun options to build with. It's sort of a shame the shifts are coming, but looking forward to playing with new toys
 
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New month new shifts figured I'd get the new month started with a psychic terrain team featuring a couple of new drops

:armarouge: :indeedee-f: :Espeon: :Hitmonlee: :minior: :diancie:

https://pokepast.es/ad17fd3a9e126f9f

I saw armarouge drop and decided to try psychic terrain immediately, after a weak armor boost you out speed just about everything in the tier running timid is required to speed tie with adamant hitmonlee however and slapped on focus blast to hit incineroar as hard as possible since aura sphere isn't even guaranteed to 2 hit ko spdef sets, tera psychic makes for very strong expanding forces to spam but tera fighting allows you to ohko spdef incineroar about 81% of the time and shadow ball gives you coverage for other psychics mainly opposing armarouge

As for the rest of the build Indeedee (shame we lost male to shifts) is required for the terrain of course and I teched on reflect to help set up for our abusers. espeon helps keep off the hazards and eject button gives momentum if you switch in wrong, and threw on power gem to help chip possible incineroar as well. hitmonlee as the teams unburden user to give an immediate speed threat. Minior looked like a very threatening sweeper with shell smash and tera lets it use psychic terrains priority immunity. And lastly threw on diancie for rocks and to land a few surprise KOs with trick room + meteor beam to those who don't respect this demon still.

Something fun to use until we see what gets banned this coming week
 
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Trying to rebuild my Trick Room team after the tier shifts:

:exeggutor-alola: :slowbro-galar: :diancie: :incineroar: :malamar: :golurk:
https://pokepast.es/828e7b82ad93fb14

So far hovering around 1400 ELO. The team does not yet feel as intuitive as my previous version that took me to top 10 on the ladder.

Incineroar with parting shot works like magic under trick room. I use it on the last round of trick room, switch into a TR setter and voilà, free trick room. I have noticed I click swords dance very rarely so maybe another coverage move would work better there. Close combat, thunder punch, fake out and u-turn are all valid options.

I tried Reuniclus in Glowbro's place but it didn't really do anything that Glowbro does better, except for absorbing burn and hazards. Maybe with access to nasty plot, Reuniclus would be more viable.

Finally, I had Gyarados instead of Malamar as some sort of late game clean up. I must say I don't really get the hype and there are even people saying it should be banned. Maybe I just didn't know how to use it but it was very lackluster in it's role.
 
I don't post much but in light of Suicune's ban, I thought I would share a team that I had very good success with on ladder.

:dragalge: :suicune: :rotom-heat: :brambleghast::registeel: :krookodile:

https://pokepast.es/4620d0065189e64e

This team felt very consistent when using it. Prioritizes getting tspikes up and Suicune taking advantage of them, setting up and winning. Rotom-Heat for pivoting, and threathening physical sweepers with burns. Bramble for hazard control, and to deal with opposing Suicune's. Registeel as a rocker, steel type, and can also sweep late game with id bpress. Finally, Scarf Krook for speed control and volt immunity.

Suicune overall felt pretty cheap to use on this team. Basically just negates most counterplay with sub, Pressure stalling, and Scald fish burning. Which makes it very annoying to deal with and glad that Suicune is banned now.

Overall, this metagame is very fun to play and there's still a bunch of mons I haven't even touch yet so yeah lots of room for innovations in this tier. Use the team while you can before builder updates with bans and Scarf Krook is amazing. Speaking of bans, pls ban Lycan-Dusk. Thanks.
 
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Hey first team after the big drops. And this one is available for limited time only!

I highly doubt that Armarouge will be in the tier much longer.

robert-brown-untitled-artwork.jpg

So after the drops i had a really hard time finding a team to use, HO was too powerful and there were some hard stall in the mix as well. And on top of all there were teams with this beast that were stomping me. So if i cant beat it and it won't be banned.

Why not use it? Got ~1500 with it in a couple of acc.

:Galvantula: - :Tsareena: - :Lucario: - :Armarouge: - :Cloyster: - :Goodra:

How does it work:

80% of the time you will open with :Tsareena:Tsareena or :Galvantula: Galvantula because they can win most lead matchups or get out with volt-turn and keep momentum.
Tsareena is specially made to spin and survive a Lycanrock CC and than outspeed and OHKO back and Galvantula is made to lure Water Grounds and remove them with energy ball and because of Sash and using swarm actually seting webs and being hit makes you hit really strong back.

After a couple of turns positioning is time to break. And you have 3 options its all about understanding in each matchup the order you need to use.
That's the most difficult part of piloting this team and I can't teach you because truly it depends game by game. But usually teams that are too fast you close with :Lucario:Lucario , Gayrados teams are free to :Cloyster:Cloyster and teams that are slower or hit with physical atks are easy prey to :Armarouge:Armarouge.

:Goodra: Goodra is here to not get exploded by special scarfs/specs and to pivot arround hiting with Koff and droping Dracos on switchs.

Honestly might try rocks , webs sucks against naturally slower teams and the team has a lot of speed cheating even without a scarfer. But against offense cant say is half bad. Lucario outspeeding stuff after webs is too strong.

Finally some games against some high ladder guys. This games can work as a team showdown and a Suspect Test ban compilation.

Beating Suicune

Beating Regidrago

Beating Chancey/Quag/Avalugg
 

Django

Started from the bottom...
is a Tiering Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Wanted to make Grassy Terrain work, so here it is:

:thwackey: - :necrozma: - :oricorio-pom-pom: - :lycanroc-dusk: - :cloyster: - :armarouge:

Hit around 1530 or top 30 at peak with this.

This team is like 50% Grassy Terrain, and 50% HO, which is nice as it let's you pick and choose which route to go down depending on the opposing team. The grassy core is very solid, and I wouldn't really change anything about it. Necro and Pom Pom share each others checks (Vaporeon, Umbreon, Muk, etc) and so together they break then sweep. Thwackey is obviously mandatory, but I think having U-Turn makes it the best terrain setter going. Necro has enough Speed EVs to outrun 0 investment Tentacruel and max Jolly Torterra, but tbh you could run this much bulkier if you wanted to. Pom Pom has enough speed to beat Chandelure and all the other base 80s, which lets it Taunt the obvious Trick Choice Scarf.

For the second half of this team, you could honestly swap it out for any HO lead (Brambleghast, Grimmsnarl) and 2 sweepers of your choice, or a scarfer. Lycan I think works best as a lead as it synergizes well with Thwackey - often the Lycan answer is a spinner or a defogger, which is a nice turn to get to Thwackey and U-Turn into Necrozma, who sets up for free on Avalugg / Tsareena / Hitmontop / Noivern / Decidueye-H. Lycan also has great synergy with Armarouge, who loves switching in to Rapid Spins. Rock Blast beats all those Galvantula leads running around.

I've run Hitmonlee and Mienshao in that last slot, but Armarouge feels a bit too good not to use atm. It also shares a lot of checks with the Grassy Terrain wallbreakers, so there's nice synergy there. Cloyster is an amazing end game cleaner - I probably swap between Sash and White Herb every game and always get it wrong which is annoying. Keep in mind with this half of the team that Necro and Pom Pom are very Tera hungry, so try not to fit in sweepers that 100% need Tera to work. Gyarados for example would be a pain to fit in here.

Overall I don't think this team is optimal at all yet, but it does feel like the defensive cores people are running are not effective enough to deal with these setup sweepers. Hopefully we start seeing more Haze, Encore, Trick, or just generally less passive play when in the face of a dangerous sweeper. The best way to beat teams like this is just to set up on Lycan and Thwackey, who can keep momentum but ultimately can't stop something boosting in front of it. DD Flygon setting up on turn 1 for example can be a struggle to deal with. This team is also very telegraphed on how it will work in the preview, so people should use that to their advantage
 
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Hey y'all, just wanted to make another post sharing my teams from my games vs Wadley in the latest round of NU Seasonal. He shared his pastes with me so you can check out his builds too! I've put all the pastes at the front of this post for your convenience.

SHENGINEER ----------------------- VERSUS --------------------------- WADLEY

:Milotic::Krookodile::Reuniclus::Avalugg::Mienshao::Dragalge: GAME 1 :Raikou::Incineroar::Milotic::Decidueye-Hisui::Mudsdale::Munkidori:

:Lycanroc-Dusk::Galvantula::Brambleghast::Munkidori::Diancie::Gyarados: GAME 2 :Slowbro::Flygon::Mienshao::Muk-Alola::Tsareena::Copperajah:

:Abomasnow::Cetitan::Sandslash-Alola::Thundurus::Incineroar::Slowbro: GAME 3 :Galvantula::Porygon-Z::Mienshao::Typhlosion-Hisui::Lycanroc-Dusk::Cloyster:

------------------------- GAME 1: BLOB TABLE REBORN (W) ------------------------

In my first game, I opened with my most-played and tested balance team built around AV Reuniclus and its ability to throw off Future Sights. Lucario and I iterated many different versions of this team, and this final bulid took some inspiration from both of our previous builds. Krookodile is here to tank Knock Offs or other Dark/Ghost moves aimed at Reuniclus and 'sandwich' the opponent between the incoming Future Sight and its powerful Knock Off or Earthquake. Wadley (accidentally?) had protect on his Incineroar, which allowed it to somewhat negate this strategy. I gave Mienshao a Life Orb to make it another potent breaker with a similar idea to Krookodile. The combination of chip from Fake Out and a super powerful Close Combat makes this a very versatile and scary set. Avalugg was used as my primary physical tank and rapid spinner, and I even believe it is in contention for best removal in the tier. I brought along Dragalge for its useful typing, powerful special hits, and access to an alternative win condition with Toxic Spikes, while it can also act as a pivot with Flip Turn. Finally, Milotic serves as an additional defensive pivot with access to Haze to limit all the Hyper Offense teams in the tier. Additionally, it felt like an ideal mon for the final spot for its ability to stall enemies poisoned by Toxic Spikes. I originally tried Vaporeon for this, but with Wish + Protect taking up two slots it wasn't able to fulfill all the roles that I wanted out of the slot.

---------------------------- GAME 2: MUK MOMENT (L) --------------------------

In my second game, I brought a webs Hyper Offense team. Shout out to Nightingales for giving me the perspective of running Life Orb on Galvantula, as it really does have powerful coverage that benefits from the extra firepower. The primary idea I had was Galvantula to set webs, Brambleghast to keep them up and add spikes, and Lycanroc-Dusk as the primary beneficiary. I tried out Red Card on Brambleghast to be used as an emergency switch-in against runaway sweepers, while also becoming Poltergeist-immune in the process. Finally, most of the tier's common scarfers are slower than Lycanroc-Dusk after the webs are applied, and as we all know he is top dog in the tier. I chose scarfed Munkidori for its anti-mienshao properties (it outspeeds by one point) and ability to cripple walls with Toxic Chain or tricking them the scarf. Meteor Beam Diancie is a classic, but this time I wanted to avoid the anti-synergy of Sticky Web and Trick Room, so I went with Rock Polish and standard attacks. Finally, Gyarados helps with my crippling ground weakness and provides an additional win condition, once again outspeeding pretty much every scarfer after a boost. I must admit, Flygon's immunity to webs and spikes was tough to deal with, and my team didn't have a way to easily dispatch of Muk-Alola which put in way too much work against my team.

----------------------------- GAME 3: LET IT SNOW (W) ---------------------------
For my final game, I pulled up with a snow-based team with Cetitan as the primary win condition. Shoutout to LessThanThreeMan for some of the inspiration behind this team. Every snow team starts with an Abomasnow, and I chose to run a defensive set with enough special attack to usually OHKO Krookodile. Aurora Veil helps give your sweepers chances to setup, but also can let Abomasnow 1v1 a lot of matchups on his own with a timely Leech Seed. As stated earlier, Cetitan is the primary win condition; the goal is to weaken the team to a point where a Belly Drum is a near guaranteed win. Liquidation is for hitting Rotom-Heat I guess. Tera is a bit of a toss-up, but I went with ground to muscle through things with Earthquake. Sandslash-Alola wasn't a pure damage life orb set, but a semi-supportive presence with boots and rapid spin to keep my rock-weak team in good health. He's still a threat after a Swords Dance, but with only two attacks can get walled by a good number of mons. Thundurus takes advantage of the Electric + Ice coverage granted by Weather Ball under snow, which can also rip teams apart after a boost if they are slow enough. Slowbro was used as an Eject Button pivot to get its teammates in for free, while also having nice utility in Thunder Wave and pressure with Scald + Future Sight. I tried many things in the final slot but nothing seemed to really click, so I said screw it and brought Weakness Policy Incineroar - a set that I've previously shared on the forums! Behind a veil he can tank even super effective hits and threaten to sweep teams all on his own, but his Intimidate and typing were quite useful no matter what. With some calculated (???) risks, I managed to take this one home.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. I hope you have a wonderful day and a fun time with these teams. Hope I can fight Wadley again in the finals!
 
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What's going on NU, with BLT going on here's a couple teams that got me through the NU tours to get my points to qualify, they both have the same core but diverge after that

https://pokepast.es/d0f5c4a40d2ac07f
:muk-alola: :reuniclus: :avalugg:

First we will talk about the core they share, it's a double knock off core with alolan muk and reuniclus, they can patch up each others weaknesses fairly well and force knocks on a lot of mons, on top of the threats of future sight and poisons they already present, and since they are little lacking in physical bulk and would appreciate hazard removal that's where the table :avalugg: comes in to help out, to help soak up those physical moves (tera may be required) and keep hazards off, this core has been very nice for me and helped sustain a number of matchups

:dragalge:

Both of these teams also had a second poison alongside muk, this team used a dragagle for T-spikes making great use of the cores ability to force boots off mons and get that sweet sweet T-spike value, and the EV spread I borrowed from a shengineer team shout out to the goat btw

:raikou:

I wanted something to abuse the T-spikes and I settled with sub cm raikou, forcing a switch and subbing up gets more T-spike damage to rack up and after a boost or 2 raikou can run away with a game against a team running out of steam after the poisons withered away at them

:infernape:

Lastly this build needed something for a little speed control so I went scarf infernape, dual stabs can threaten any steel type immune to the T-spikes and apes faster than the likes of scarf mienshao and munkidori, u-turns great for momentum as always and another knock off can help out this core that much more

This first team won me my first of 2 tours that got me BLT qualified

https://pokepast.es/09baa42227877f12

Team 2 on the other hand would've also won me that entire tour but I choked the finals trying to flex, don't be like me. Jokes aside let's talk about the new additions to this team

:vileplume:

Vileplume was the second poison I chose for this team as it did nicely to patch up a lot of avaluggs problems of being tera reliant and plume has the benefit of being a solid switch to opposing muk threatening a para or sleep with effect spore and overall being impossible for muk to get through 1v1, spreading leech seeds also help keep our muk healthy as a lot of mons that threaten plume namely psychic types don't do much to muk

:minior:

I love this mon, when people try to status it because they don't know what the ability does I get happy inside. But anyways minior does have mons in the tier it can set up on pretty safely such as muk talonflame and even quagsire that still chose run only toxic and EQ to hit things, I don't care if your unaware I'm getting to +6 and 1v1ing you cause you can't touch me, minior may not always get the job done but when it finds its time to shine it runs away with it, tera ground is also nice for resisting accelrock from lycanroc or setting up on an expected electric move coming out and boosting your EQ

:Lucario:

This sets goated, I already posted this set recently in creative/underrated sets and shared some replays with it there so check it out, but I'm gonna keep it simple since I've explained in another post, Ghost Fighting coverage has 0 resists, and there are a lot of things you can bait/set up a free sub on with or without tera and this set once it gets going it takes names, just don't throw trying to flex like I did :'(

But yeah this balance core helped me run through some tours against some very tough competition and I thought I'd share them with you all, thank you for reading and have fun with the teams
 

quziel

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Been laddering more with the mew set I posted to NBT, and wanted to share the version of the team I've settled on.
:mew: :muk-alola: :tatsugiri: :talonflame: :rhyperior: :rotom-mow:
https://pokepast.es/1a7e54d90cfc359f

I've gotten it to 1602, which tells me the team is at least competent enough, and figured I should explain exactly how and why the team works. The Mew set is something I came up with a few days ago, and I honestly really like how it matches into a lot. Its got the bulk, speed, and just enough power to be generally threatening into offense, especially if they're running Thorns, which has to either tera or just get OHKO'd. Against bulkier builds, Volt Switch makes you remarkably hard to get permanent damage, and forms a neat volt-turn core with Rotom-Mow and Talon. Spikes combines with this by basically instantly winning the game when you queue into teams that run spikes weak Mew checks such as Chansey and Alomuk. While it is a bit hard to keep spikes up vs Tsar teams, you do have Talon and Muk to both punish it for going for lower tempo plays.

Tatsu compresses a few roles the team needs into one slot. Its a spinner, however mediocre it is at the job, and means that you can at least not hard-lose to opposing spikestack. Storm Drain is amazing at giving you a far better matchup into Slowbro, and especially Vaporeon builds, with the latter usually completely helpless into Tatsu. Finally, Plot and Spin combine to make the mon a decent, if not great win condition, when you need the extra power to break through an opposing team.

Talon's here because there's no greater feeling than just harding it in on a U-turn and getting the 30%. It also provides a helpful ground resist, which is nice on a team that is otherwise reliant on Scarf Mowtom, which is hardly a good switchin to well, basically any EQ user. Rhyp's my SR user of choice, and while I do think there's a solid case to change it to be a Swampert, its nice too actually have a flying resist, because Staraptor is still going around ladder. Finally, Mowtom provides a solid revenge killer, especially with Tera-Dark Foul Play, to stuff like Tort, even if its slower, and beyond that Trick is great to cripple some of the more annoying setup mons in the tier, e.g. Scrafty.

EDIT:
Potential changes that I've been considering:
U-turn > Volt Switch on Mew means you can pressure Krook far more competently than you can now, at the cost of being a bit burn weak, and losing significant damage vs Slowbro. Could be worth it, could not be worth it.

Tera Dark on Tatsu means you just hard wall standard Bro forever, barring a potential Twave, and vs Cm bro you're literally untouchable.

Tera Dragon on Rhyperior helps the sun matchup a bunch, which is nice cause Sun sorta OP.

Tera Steel on Rotom-Mow maximizes your overall defensive profile, helps out a fair bit vs Torterra, and also vs dragons a tiny bit, though you're still bad vs them.
 
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Tuthur

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I have managed to stay between 1500 and 1600 with these three following HOs.

:lycanroc-dusk::mew::overqwil::talonflame::thundurus::torterra:
Mew as a suicide lead. Lycanroc because it is broken and any HO should be running that mon with the amount of progress it creates. Torterra is a neat sweeper that can usually trade with anything thanks to its raw bulk, while also bringing an electric immunity and having good synergy with lycan (threatens bulky water- and ground-types). Overqwil prevents the team from autolosing to Toxic Spikes, bring utility with a priority and Intimidate, and can also threaten Slowbro and other Psychic-types that resist Close Combat. Talonflame brings speed control and some key resists. Thundurus brings another layer of speed, while also threatening physical walls.

:cloyster::incineroar::lycanroc-dusk::mew::torterra::toxtricity:
I just put a ton of mon I wanted to try together; lead Cloyster, BU Incineroar, and NP Mew. Then I rounded up by patching weaknesses with the very reliable Lycanroc and Torterra, and also Toxtricity which can absorb Toxic Spikes and threaten Slowbro.

:brute_bonnet::charizard::diancie::espeon::ninetales::venusaur:
Very basic sun. Ninetales is needed as a setter. Zard, Venusaur, and Brut Bonnet are the best abusers. Espeon keeps hazard off the field. Diancie has good mu against Dragon- and Fire-types that can be annoying for sun and can also setup Stealth Rock.
 

Django

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Another HO team which peaked at 1616:

:mew: - :cloyster: - :torterra: - :incineroar: - :gallade: - :mienshao:

The team is built around a two different cores which work really nicely together:

Incineroar + Cloyster + Torterra - a FWG core, all of which sets up to overwhelm physical walls like Slowbro. SD Incineroar sets up for free on Talonflame, Brambleghast, Tsareena, and other common switch ins once lead Mew is dead. Double shell smash is kinda dumb but honestly it works.

Gallade + Mienshao: LO Gallade beats so many defensive mons at the same time (Slowbro, Vileplume, Ghost types) and is so hard to switch into. Those same mons normally stop Mienshao, who can then easily clean up later. Incineroar also does the same thing making a Fighting / Psychic / Dark core.

I'm convinced Tera Ghost Cloyster is the best one to use right now. It OHKOs Lucario, sets up on so many mons which will click Close Combat, and makes you immune to a bunch of priority. It also does a ton to Slowbro, will kill it after some chip. You don't actually need max speed on Cloyster, you can afford to run 12HP and still outspeed Scarf Infernape.

It's a bit weak to Toxic Spikes, but pressuring Dragalage early (don't lead Mew, lead Gallade) can stop that matchup being too bad.

Screenshot 2024-03-26 at 21.32.23.png
 
I've been floating around mid 1500's and peaked 8th with this offense.
https://pokepast.es/82504b25b1ac3848
Screenshot 2024-03-27 at 1.09.46 AM.png


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1711520035758.png1711520066177.png

The core idea of the team is to pivot in pz into anything it's faster than that it get's a download boost on (namely slowbro, swampert, avalugg, gastrodon, quagsire, and many more depending on sets) not a single thing in the tier is able to handle both tera ghost shadow ball and tri attack with a download boost. Keeping tera available to keep the 50/50 against things like lycanroc, infernape, mienshao, and krookodile is important in a lot of more offensive matchups.

Swampert's main roles are providing a bulky pivot, firing off strong earthquakes, and getting chip damage with rocky helmet. For most matchups it's not worth the turn getting rock's up because talon want's to defog and after a knock on talon or thundurus this team get's pretty weak to hazards. Generally swampert will be your lead, but there's no comitted lead on this team, it will also generally die pretty quickly.

Lucario is the main revenge killer as well as being a potent sweeper on anything it can find time to set up on (like a-muk w/o drain punch, dragalge, noivern, overqwil) or more usually when predicting a switch as to not die to prio. Also sometimes used as a breaker in matchups where it can pivot in safely and fire off CC's. Tera normal as well as tera ghost pz are the main two tera's to use.

Pretty simple diancie set, maximize bulk tank pretty much every special hit, pray for diamond storm boosts and if you get them sometimes just simply sweep. In most matchup's where it can't sweep it's just your last resort physical wall or a strong special wall. Against web leads you're gonna wanna lead diancie and a lot of the time with some diamond storm luck they simply lose.

Talonflame compresses quite a few roles for the team providing hazard removal, sustain through roost, and a fast pivot. Generally you're gonna want to bring this in on most of the physical threats in the tier like gallade, brambleghast, krookodile, mienshao, infernape, flygon, and tsareena. In most matchups sustaining pz and talon are gonna be most vital to winning.

Thundurus's job is pretty simple, this team is really slow for it's level of bulk (outside of talon) so it needs to fire off as many t-wave's as it can so thing's like pz can outspeed shao, or ape, or venusaur in sun, or cloyster, or basculegion, or just generally whatever the game calls for. Thundurus is also your band-aid to try to stop any sweeps with taunt and t-wave. Generally against klefki you're going to want to lead thundurus to keep spikes off the field with taunt.

Generally this team struggles most with just being able to stay on the field, with only one recovery option on a team that isn't fast you can find yourself struggling to keep mon's healthy with hazards, toxic, and the prevalence of burn.

Some specific mon's this team struggles with is basculegion who can come in on pretty much anyone on the team and wavecrash to ohko almost anything or flip turn to keep momentum, and doesn't die until super late to lucario. As well as specially defensive vapreon since you can't use swampert as a bulky pivot to bring in your more offensive mons, which a lot of the time leads you to having to take 50% with thundurus or just having to sac a mon, and you can't get download boosts off of vaporeon.

Some replays

Stall
Smeargle offense
Balance
 
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