Tournament World Cup of Pokemon 2021: OU Discussion

[TPP]

​

Hello everyone! This thread will be used to discuss the OU metagame and its games and trends from World Cup 2021. I'll leave some helpful links below and then we'll have a list of replays in the post underneath. Feel free to discuss metagame trends/predictions, as well as your own power rankings/predictions for the tournament overall.

​

Useful links:

- Records/Standing Spreadsheet
- Usage Stats
- Replays thread (will also be available in the post underneath this one)
- Round 1 thread
- Pre-tournament article

 

[TPP]

Round 1:

SS OU #1:
[USS] TPP vs Niko [ITA]
[USS] TPP vs Poek [SPA]
[USS] TPP vs Genesis7 [CAN]
[ITA] Niko vs Poek [SPA]
[ITA] Niko vs Genesis7 [CAN]
[SPA] Poek vs Genesis7 [CAN]

SS OU #2:
[GER] MAX UND MAX vs Tamahome [BRA]
[GER] MAX UND MAX vs Sugarhigh [ASI]
[GER] MAX UND MAX vs Leru [EUR]
[BRA] Tamahome vs DeepBlueC [ASI]
[BRA] Tamahome vs Leru [EUR]
[ASI] DeepBlueC vs Leru [EUR]

SS OU #3:
[OCE] byronthewellwell vs apologies [USW]
[OCE] byronthewellwell vs Akola [FRA]
[OCE] byronthewellwell vs Star [USN]
[USW] apologies vs Akola [FRA]
[USW] z0mOG vs Star [USN]
[FRA] Akola vs Star [USN]

SS OU #4:
[LAT] beatiful vs John W [USM]
[LAT] beatiful vs fyfyk [CHI]
[LAT] Lets in the Sun vs Astamatitos [GRE]
[USM] John W vs fyfyk [CHI]
[USM] John W vs Astamatitos [GRE]
[CHI] fyfyk vs Astamatitos [GRE]

SS OU #5:
[USS] TDK vs mind gaming [GER]
[USS] TDK vs Ninjadog [OCE]
[USS] GaryTheGengar vs Gondra [LAT]
[GER] mind gaming vs Ninjadog [OCE]
[GER] mind gaming vs Feliburn [LAT]
[OCE] Ninjadog vs Feliburn [LAT]

SS OU #6:
[ITA] Tricking vs xray [GER]
[ITA] Tricking vs Vaboh [USW]
[ITA] Tricking vs Vusty. [CHI]
[GER] xray vs Vaboh [USW]
[GER] xray vs Vusty. [CHI]
[USW] Vaboh vs Vusty. [CHI]

SS OU #7:
[SPA] reiku vs Gefährlicher Random [GER]
[SPA] reiku vs Welli0u [FRA]
[SPA] reiku vs dahli [LAT]
[GER] Gefährlicher Random vs Ktütverde [FRA]
[GER] Gefährlicher Random vs dahli [LAT]
[FRA] Welli0u vs dahli

SS OU #8:
[CAN] Bushtush vs Dragon Claw [GER]
[CAN] Bushtush vs DeeJ [USN]
[CAN] Bushtush vs guangguang [CHI]
[GER] Dragon Claw vs DeeJ [USN]
[GER] Dragon Claw vs guangguang [CHI]
[USN] DeeJ vs guangguang [CHI]

SS OU #9:
[USS] Gray vs Askov [BRA]
[USS] Gray vs Attribute [USW]
[USS] Gray vs Luthier [USM]
[BRA] Askov vs Attribute [USW]
[BRA] Askov vs Luthier [USM]
[USW] Attribute vs Luthier [USM]

SS OU #10:
[ITA] Empo vs Century Express [BRA]
[ITA] Empo vs RedEmption [FRA]
[ITA] Empo vs CBU [GRE]
[BRA] Ash KetchumGamer vs RedEmption [FRA]
[BRA] Ash KetchumGamer vs CBU [GRE]
[FRA] RedEmption vs CBU [GRE]

SS OU #11:
[SPA] Garay oak vs elodin [BRA]
[SPA] Garay oak vs Finchinator [USN]
[SPA] Garay oak vs Tace [USM]
[BRA] elodin vs Finchinator [USN]
[BRA] elodin vs Tace [USM]
[USN] Finchinator vs Tace [USM]

SS OU #12:
[CAN] suapah vs Eternal Spirit [BRA]
[CAN] suapah vs PureJules [OCE]
[CAN] suapah vs Mysterious M [GRE]
[BRA] Eternal Spirit vs PureJules [OCE]
[BRA] Eternal Spirit vs nikitas [GRE]
[OCE] PureJules vs nikitas [GRE]

SS OU #13:
[USS] Ox the Fox vs haxrme [ASI]
[USS] Ox the Fox vs Sacri' [FRA]
[USS] Ox the Fox vs lza [CHI]
[ASI] haxrme vs Sacri' [FRA]
[ASI] haxrme vs lza [CHI]
[FRA] Sacri' vs lza [CHI]

SS OU #14:
[ITA] Santu vs devin [ASI]
[ITA] umbry vs Nat [USN]
[ITA] umbry vs Lycans [LAT]
[ASI] devin vs Nat [USN]
[ASI] devin vs Lycans [LAT]
[USN] Nat vs Lycans [LAT]

SS OU #15:
[SPA] SoulWind vs Analytic [ASI]
[SPA] SoulWind vs Snowy [OCE]
[SPA] SoulWind vs wuqianying [CHI]
[ASI] Analytic vs Snowy [OCE]
[ASI] Analytic vs wuqianying [CHI]
[OCE] Snowy vs wuqianying [CHI]

SS OU #16:
[CAN] Skypenguin vs shawyu 1313 [ASI]
[CAN] Skypenguin vs Valentine [USW]
[CAN] Skypenguin vs Gtcha [LAT]
[ASI] shawyu 1313 vs Valentine [USW]
[ASI] shawyu 1313 vs Gtcha [LAT]
[USW] Valentine vs Gtcha [LAT]

SS OU #17:
[USS] HSA vs mael [EUR]
[USS] HSA vs Sabella [USN]
[USS] HSA vs the pharoah [GRE]
[EUR] mael vs ABR [USN]
[EUR] mael vs the pharoah [GRE]
[USN] Sabella vs the pharoah [GRE]

SS OU #18:
[ITA] Raiza vs Pohjis [EUR]
[ITA] Raiza vs afakedugong [OCE]
[ITA] Raiza vs Confide [USM]
[EUR] Pohjis vs afakedugong [OCE]
[EUR] Pohjis vs Confide [USM]
[OCE] afakedugong vs Confide [USM]

SS OU #19:
[SPA] Sagiri vs Ruft [EUR]
[SPA] Blanko vs Maki [USW]
[SPA] Sagiri vs Ace-11 [GRE]
[EUR] Ruft vs Maki [USW]
[EUR] Ruft vs Ace-11 [GRE]
[USW] Maki vs Ace-11 [GRE]

SS OU #20:
[CAN] Jytcampbell vs frisoeva [EUR]
[CAN] Jytcampbell vs BIHI [FRA]
[CAN] Jytcampbell vs Fruit [USM]
[EUR] frisoeva vs BIHI [FRA]
[EUR] frisoeva vs Fruit [USM]
[FRA] BIHI vs Fruit [USM]

SS OU #21:
[SPA] Trosko vs watashi [CAN]
[SPA] Trosko vs false [OCE]
[SPA] Trosko vs 64 Squares [USW]
[CAN] watashi vs false [OCE]
[CAN] watashi vs 64 Squares [USW]
[OCE] false vs 64 Squares [USW]

SS OU #22:
[BRA] bruno vs Leo [LAT]
[BRA] bruno vs Void [EUR]
[BRA] bruno vs Separation [CHI]
[LAT] Leo vs Void [EUR]
[LAT] Leo vs Separation [CHI]
[EUR] Void vs Separation [CHI]

SS OU #23:
[FRA] Pierrick vs robjr [USN]
[FRA] Pierrick vs FMG [USS]
[FRA] Pierrick vs BK [ITA]
[USN] robjr vs FMG [USS]
[USN] robjr vs BK [ITA]
[USS] FMG vs BK [ITA]

SS OU #24:
[GER] LNumbers vs odr [USM]
[GER] LNumbers vs Altina [ASI]
[GER] LNumbers vs Fear [GRE]
[USM] odr vs Altina [ASI]
[USM] odr vs Fear [GRE]
[ASI] Altina vs Fear [GRE]

SS OU #25:
[SPA] Kenix vs mncmt [BRA]
[SPA] Kenix vs Cicada [FRA]
[SPA] Kenix vs Storm Zone [LAT]
[BRA] mncmt vs Cicada [FRA]
[BRA] mncmt vs Storm Zone [LAT]
[FRA] Cicada vs Storm Zone [LAT]

SS OU #26:
[CAN] SpookyZ vs TonyFlygon [EUR]
[CAN] soulgazer vs Insult [USN]
[CAN] SpookyZ vs kahili [CHI]
[EUR] TonyFlygon vs Insult [USN]
[EUR] TonyFlygon vs kahili [CHI]
[USN] Insult vs cscl [CHI]

SS OU #27:
[OCE] March Fires vs Frania [EUR]
[OCE] March Fires vs Eo Ut Mortus [USS]
[OCE] March Fires vs ZDen [LAT]
[EUR] Eeveeto vs Eo Ut Mortus [USS]
[EUR] Eeveeto vs ZDen [LAT]
[USS] Eo Ut Mortus vs ZDen [LAT]

SS OU #28:
[USW] ez vs Lusa [BRA]
[USW] ez vs Kebab mlml [ITA]
[USW] ez vs Master Origami [CHI]
[BRA] Lusa vs Kebab mlml [ITA]
[BRA] Lusa vs Master Origami [CHI]
[ITA] Kebab mlml vs Master Origami [CHI]

SS OU #29:
[SPA] M Dragon vs MichaelderBeste2 [GER]
[SPA] M Dragon vs Giannis Antetokommo-o [USN]
[SPA] M Dragon vs dice [USM]
[GER] MichaelderBeste2 vs Giannis Antetokommo-o [USN]
[GER] MichaelderBeste2 vs dice [USM]
[USN] Giannis Antetokommo-o vs dice [USM]

SS OU #30:
[CAN] Splash vs ShinyAzelf [ASI]
[CAN] Splash vs Samqian [USS]
[CAN] Splash vs roudolf13 [GRE]
[ASI] ShinyAzelf vs Samqian [USS]
[ASI] ShinyAzelf vs roudolf13 [GRE]
[USS] Samqian vs roudolf13 [GRE]

SS OU #31:
[OCE] TrueNora vs IPF [ASI]
[OCE] TrueNora vs Punny [ITA]
[OCE] TrueNora vs IronFlashGaming [USM]
[ASI] IPF vs Punny [ITA]
[ASI] IPF vs IronFlashGaming [USM]
[ITA] Punny vs IronFlashGaming [USM]

SS OU #32:
[USW] TJ vs Lord_Enz [GER]
[USW] TJ vs Dflo [FRA]
[USW] TJ vs Stathakis [GRE]
[GER] Lord_Enz vs Dflo [FRA]
[GER] Lord_Enz vs Stathakis [GRE]
[FRA] Dflo vs Lycon [GRE]​

 

[Katy]

WCOP Discussion: ​

Pokemon with consistent usage:

- great defensive pokemon with the capability to pivot around for its teammates and sending out stealth rocks to further dismantle opposing pokemon and knock off / toxic are useful tools to wearing down the opposition, one of the pokemon which can help against the ever common zeraora and it also helps with soft-checking heatran, pressuring tapu koko and also checks garchomp, tyranitar, and excadrill very well. therefore a very solid pick overall and with partners like corviknight to relief pressure on landorus-t to check rillaboom and kartana it is a solid pokemon all around.
- great stallbreaker with disabling function due to taunt to hold back slowking (and the less common slowbro) to pivot around with a slow teleport, can also disable slack offs, which is pretty important too, as slowking isnt able to outheal damage which regenerator cant do alone by itself. toxic'ing slowking is also very valuable to force progress in the long haul.
- really consistant answer to rillaboom, dragonite, excadrill, kartana, and opposing landorus-t and also checking threats such as tyranitar and garchomp goes a good way, as especially garchomp and rillaboom alongside kartana is still and in the future will be a core people will use in tour- and ladder-games alike.
- specially defensive sets are capable of checking the many dangerous dragon-types in dragapult, kyurem, and hydreigon. it can also go a long way with soft-boiled and consistent stealth rock settings and with thunder / thunderbolt it can even eitehr super effective or at least neutrally hit steel-types such as corviknight, skarmory, and heatran, which is valuable to force damage on them especially on heatran, as this pokemon is very consistent and furthermore great in its longevity with leftovers alone.
- our rising star on both, ladder- and tournament-games, urshifu-r makes itself a standout pokemon, due to its ability to hard hit with water- and fighting-stab moves and with the ability to constantly revengekill boosted volcarona with a great move in aqua jet. urshifu also is great at pivoting around and is one of the best offensive pivots in the current metagame with threatening weavile, heatran, landorus-t, and even wearing down pokemon such as slowking with u-turn.
- choice specs with flamethrower sees more and more usage after it was being used alot in the SPL SEASON already. choice specs and the status + hex sets are really great and they force constant damage on opposing pokemon and can even wear down checks like weavile, bisharp, and forcing weakened mandibuzz to roost. dragapult is one of the most consistent pokemon and one of the top-offensive threat currently and it shows in WCOP too.
- futureport with slack off + regenerator makes it a top difficult defensive pivot to deal with for special wallbreakers. people realized it quickly over the recent weeks how annoying it can be and the great WCOP usage shows how valuable of a team-support this pokemon is with forcing progress due to the access off futureport and additionally being able to dish out the one or the other scald burn.
- this tapu shines a lot right now with constant usage during the tour with its heavy-duty boots pivot set, making it a great answer to common threats such as corviknight, slowking, and toxapex due to its access to roost and u-turn.
- great electric-type immunity which can make use of either the great physical pivot set or a bulk up set with threatening coverage in knock off, close combat, and a great stab in plasma fist, with which it is able to hit numerous pokemon at least neutral and with an abnormally great speed tier, it found itself on a lot of different teams, even tho its win-ratio doesnt speak for itself, but it will always find its way back and is a pokemon which people will still account for in their teambuilds.
- & grass-type spam core, the usual, with still a great success.

Pokemon Highlights in Week 1 (Qualifiers):

- | 26 | Zapdos | 5 | 7.58% | 80.00% |
- | 31 | Rotom-Wash | 4 | 6.06% | 75.00% |
- | 31 | Slowking-Galar | 4 | 6.06% | 75.00% |


Pokemon Highlights in Week 2 (Qualifiers):

- | 5 | Heatran | 10 | 27.78% | 70.00% |
- | 20 | Kartana | 4 | 11.11% | 75.00% |
- | 14 | Magnezone | 5 | 13.89% | 80.00%
- | 14 | Tornadus-Therian | 5 | 13.89% | 80.00% |

Common Cores:

- Landorus-Therian and Slowking
- Landorus-Therian and Tapu Koko
- Corviknight and Rillaboom
- Dragapult, Garchomp and / or Weavile
- Heatran and Landorus-Therian
- Clefable and Landorus-Therian
- Dragonite and Heatran
- Weavile and Heatran
- Tapu Koko and Heatran
- Clefable and Slowking
- Slowking and Dragapult
- Dragapult and Bisharp
- Corviknight and Clefable
- Zeraora and Urshifu-R
- Rillaboom and Magnezone


with that being said, im excited for the next couple of weeks in the WCOP season, and i am pretty sure we see more of these cores in the future, as they're all strong and pretty reliant with landorus-therian and corviknight checking overlapping pokemon, slowking giving dragapult great momentum and weakening its checks with futuresight-support. tapu koko especially is a pokemon i want to point out, as it is a great offensive pivot and answer to a lot of common pokemon currently being used in wcop and sees consistent usage. the old reliable rillaboom and magnezone core is still being used because with the heavy usage of corviknight rillaboom adores magnezone as a partner to trap and remove it. landorus-therian and slowking are especially a great core, since they check each others enemies, with landorus-t checking zeraora and tapu koko and slowking checking nidoking and tapu lele. both are able to pivot and therefore standing their ground as a great core in the WCOP season so far, and i am more than certain that we will see this core in many future games again.

these are my thoughts at the moment of WCOP mostly from the qualifier rounds. thank you for reading and have a great day! ​

 

[Seucra Lockhart]

Hey guys I wanted to talk about perhaps one of the best replays I've seen in the tournament by far and that's Ox the Fox vs Haxrme:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-564307

The reasons I want to talk about this replay was because of this pokemon

Not only has this mon been seeing a resurgence as of late in the WCOP with it usually being outclassed by its brother but I think this replay is the best example I have seen of future sight being used to apply pressure along with its partners urshifu and weavile. Because of future sight Ox was able to force a KO on 4 of his opponent's pokemon which is insane. What I wanted to do was analyze all the moments in the battle in which Galarking was able to set up future sights for its partners as it was able to switch into clefable and most notably tapu koko, a mon that regular slowking can't switch into at all so that glowking can easily in order to get kills

So first off we see early on already one of Ox's future sight abusers already taking advantage of future sight. In turns, 8-10 glowking is able to come into a clefable, Set up a future sight then immediately switch out into urshifu to claim a kill as his opponent literally has no switch-ins that are able to take a surging strikes AND a future sight.Then in turns 43-45 glowking is once again able to set up a future sight this time against a skarmory.This is where Ox has to play more carefully around hippowdon as he can't afford to hard switch his Urshifu against hippowdon anymore since it's at low health.So he sacks his kartana so that he can safely switch in his urshifu to claim another kill which in this case would be the opponents clefable.Shortly after that the opponent immediately switches into Tapu Koko.This is a great example of a moment where galarian slowking shines that regular slowking would not as its easily able to absorb the thunderbolt and fire off another future sight.This is where we shift from one future sight abuser to another as Ox switches into his healthy weavile to take an EQ for hippowdon and more importantly take advantage of the looming future sight.At the end of turn 49 the combination of triple axel and future sight easily takes out the toxapex.And now that leaves us with the final future sight that claims a kill this time being the hippowdon.After switching into glowking to face skarmory and sets up yet another future sight at turn 73 one of the opponents pokemon is essentially already dead.Ox switches out into weavile correctly predicting his opponent to set up rocks and at this point, I think you get the idea.Weavile clicks triple axel to claim hippowdon and from there Ox just has to clean up. This is an incredible replay that shows glowkings traits that make it better than slowking in certain matchups, how pressuring future sight can be and the effectiveness of various future sight abusers all in one replay, I immediately wanted to write an analysis of this replay after watching it. Also sorry if my formatting is awful I don't usually write analyses.

Also shoutouts to Vabeh for using the GOAT arctozolt and winning with it lmao:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-564468

 

[Finchinator]

Round 1 usage statistics are now up thanks to Aurella.

I will be sure to give my thoughts once my run is over, but pretty cool seeing Weavile and Urshifu-R in the top 10 -- always good to see new offensive staples arising in the metagame. On the flip side, Mandibuzz was once a top tier defensive pivot and utility Pokemon, but it has now fallen outside of the top 4 and would be UU by WCoP R1 standards.

 

[IPF]

My season is done so I figured I'd do a write up of my team choices and general thoughts on the metagame now that round 1 of WCoP is over.

Game 1 vs IronFlashGaming: (L) (Click image for the replay)

Going into this game my knowledge of my opponent was his background in draft leagues and starry blanket calling him the goat at every opportunity, so I had a general idea of what I wanted to bring, Buzzwole or Pex. Pre-tour I had tested a lot with offensive Buzzwole which ended up seeing a huge amount of usage during the tour itself, so that's the route I decided to go with. Ended up managing to get a hold of xray's team that he used vs iNoLife for Smogon Tour Playoffs and made a few edits.
Looking back at the game I think the matchup was in his favour but I definitely got stuck on the back foot early, Taunt-Toxic Heatran was an absolute nightmare to deal with and in the end my Buzzwole did nothing but get 80% Helmet chip onto the Urshifu. I nearly managed to pull it back at the end with the double to Excadrill on Heatran, but I should've clicked Rapid Spin on the Magma Storm dodge so that I have the chance to flinch Dragapult and win from there. My timer was low so I wasn't able to consider it fully. Overall, not my best performance, but not my worst either.

Game 2 vs Punny: (L)

By the time this game rolled around our season had taken a nosedive, but so had Italy's, with both of us struggling going into this. During the prep process the initial thought was to use either Kart-Zone, or Kyurem. Based on Punny's build tendencies we figured Zone would be a good bring but eventually we scrapped it altogether since Italy as a team had barely been using Corv or Skarm. In the end we ended up going with a Scarf Lele+Band Kart core. This team is one that I built myself and really enjoyed using but ended up deciding against since the SpecsPult matchup is pretty poor, which ended up coming back to bite me considering the matchup I got.
So yeah, first thing I noticed at preview was how Kyurem weak Punny was, and how my team had a distinct lack of Kyurem '-'. I didn't like my matchup at all, and to add on to that Punny just absolutely demolished me, getting me t2 with Toxic Koko as I tried to catch the switch back to Buzzwole, nailing me with Hydreigon, getting me on the Lele turns, and to top it all off, killing my only chance at winning with Wild Charge Koko. Was definitely a game to forget for me, and the frustration was compounded by my hesitation to bring Kyurem here.

Game 3 vs TrueNora: (W)

At this point I was desperate, and really hungry for a win. My opponent is an Ubers main and has limited OU experience, so I decided to break out the cheddar. This decision was a combination of my desperation for a win and our collective frustration at the metagame and how much matchup fishing was going on. Original team was SubHex Pult, which I ended up changing to WP DD to take advantage of Veil better.
Very straightforward game, got Veil up, clicked DD with Pult, game ended, and our first consecutive wins of the season.

EDIT: Tiebreak vs guangguang: (W)

Figured I'd add this in just to keep everything in one place, got subbed into relegation tiebreak after one of our players got sick. Considering the lack of stakes in this game, I figured my opponent would reuse a team, and expected him to bring some form of Corv-Clef-Pex, so I went ahead with a Specs Lele+Expanding Force Victini core, along with SD Weavile.
Got the exact matchup I wanted, I played the early game pretty well managing to kill both the Corv and Kyurem without much issue, and having all Spikes up. Got caught out being ultra aggro turn 39 and wasted a few sacks after which made the game a lot closer than it needed to be, especially after my Weavile decided that it was too good to hit Triple Axel. Managed to pull the win out the bag at the end though.

This tour was really difficult for us as a team, our morale was high going into the tour but our builds were consistently caught out and we got stuck behind the metagame trends, which is reflected in our performance. The amount of matchup fishing this tour also felt significantly higher than usual, which was even more frustrating. It genuinely felt like team selection was based on praying your opponent doesn't bring X threat, but at the same time teams like Europe and Germany absolutely cracked the meta so maybe my annoyance is misplaced.
I laddered a decent amount this tour, getting ~200 games over the course of the last couple of weeks to keep myself in touch with the metagame which I'm happy I did, wish I played more but my free time to ladder coincided with PS dead times so rip. Getting my first official win 2 years after my debut back in 2019 was also vindicating but it would've been nice if we performed better. My only regret would be that I didn't build my own teams, something that I'd been doing this whole year leading up to the tour but I just completely lacked inspiration when it counted.

As for my thoughts on the metagame, I do not think anything is outright broken at the moment, and I would not suspect anything right now. I really enjoyed the offense vs offense matchups that we got pretty often, but then you also had 300+ turn stinkers like Ox vs lzaa or SoulWind vs wuqianying. I'll probably make a post in the VR thread voicing my opinions on some popular picks this tour.

So yeah, that's me done for now. Hopefully some more players from teams that have been eliminated will do similar posts to mine since it's interesting to hear their perspectives on the metagame and thought process while prepping. Wanna say a quick thanks to my captains for giving me the chance to start this year, my performance wasn't as good as I would've liked but I'm grateful for the opportunity; to Ewin for helping me with prep for my first two games and my teammates for being amazing even when the season looked dire, especially haxrme since I tested with him the most. There's always next year.

 

[Niko]

Italy is sadly out too so I want to give my 2 cents on the metagame and some insights about the prep for my games.

Click on the sprites to import teams!

Game 1 vs Poek:

(replay)

For this first game I spent basically no time to prep, because this was played 20 minutes after R1 started. I tried for a long time to build some good bulky off with Zapdos-G, but after a lot of trials I realized that it wasn't possible to do so out of Hyper Offense without some compromise, such as using the "unviable" Jirachi.

It has to be considered that my games were played very early in the tournament, so I wanted to stay as aggressive as possible as a general guideline, because the tournament metagame was unscouted. I was confident to use this team that I was building in the previous days, so I just ignored the few weaknesses this team had (ex. Oppo's Safeguard Volcarona was like a 6-0) and joined the game with it.

The actual matchup wasn't that good, but I think I played the game well and despite some unlucky turns for me and one unpunished bad play I made in the endgame, the win was deserved overall.

Game 2 vs TPP:

(replay)

Following the self-imposed guidelines I mentioned before, I approached the prep of the second game with the same purpose of attacking my opponent, so I used a very offensive team I found in ladder that I adapted to myself and to the opponent. Credits go to adel for the original team (adel19 on SD), we can consider this team like a "Wish Killer" as they started working on this in SM.

The MVPs of the team are the Offensive CM Fini + Timid Kartana core that is able to break through the majority of archetypes thanks to the huge pressure they put on the opponent's team, and the Landorus-T set that I invented who does a beautiful job in dealing with fat stuff that might block the sweep of its mates.

The game vs TPP was pretty clean overall, the fact that his only Psychic resist was Scizor helped me a lot, so Tapu Lele did the majority of the work after a lucky drop in the first turn.

I want to note that even if Dragapult is very powerful it's not impossible to play against it without a Ghost resist. Overall Ghost resists suffer other Dragapult coverage moves and they give you no assurance about having it checked; it's reasonable to prefer using a team that limits Draga's switchins instead of having the delusion to have it checked by a Weavile/Bisharp/Hydreigon.

Game 3 vs Genesis7:

(replay)

Here we are. Queen Cresselia joins her king Kyurem in what I consider to be the best team I made recently. Will of Fire gave me the idea of pairing DDKyurem with Cresselia, as Lunar Dance gives back not only HPs but also PPs and so Kyurem is able to stall out literally everything.

The idea was incredibly cool, but also extremely difficult to develop it - it required me a lot of efforts and several trials - due to the support Kyurem needed to work. The challenge was to obtain a good balance against every matchup, considering the fact that you don't have many chances to try the sweep once you commit in it and the fact that I thought to absolutely need that Magnezone set to make the team work.

I dedicated a lot of time in fixing the team, improving movesets and calcing EVs spreads, and I also reached #1 in the ladder with this team while doing so. This doesn't mean that the team is necessarily great and solid in general. It's still a team strongly based on baiting and unexpected sets, and it loses some of its power when your opponent knows it.

However, I believe that the large pool of archetypes not prepared to Kyurem + Magnezone makes the team viable even long term and without the baitings.

The matchup against Genesis7 wasn't great overall, but thanks to the multiple techs of the team I was able to get my third win. I would gladly swap my wins with Italy qualifying for playoffs, but I guess I have to settle for what I have.

Conclusions

This metagame was very different from the previous ones. The fact that the Slowbrothers were so dominant in the tier led to a metagame where not a single Pokémon with a decent usage gave them any space. This caused the Slowbrothers to drop in usage again and give a lot of space to other stuff.

Especially Buzzwole and Toxapex, but also hazards spam strategies and stuff like Cosmic Power Mew/CM Reuniclus obtained a great usage thanks to the decrease of Slowbrothers usage. Some teams expected this and got out of their schemes, using many different strategies in their games that led them to a deserved qualification for playoffs. I have to admit that sadly my team and I haven't been able to do it, and even if we were a bit unlucky in some games, I think it's overall fair that we are out.

I wish good luck to everyone left in the tour but especially my Latin America friends that I hope will get their super deserved win. VAMOS A GANAR!

 

[Katy]

Top 5 Pokemon In WCOP Round 1!
​

Chapter 1:

1. ​
2. ​
3. ​
4. ​
5. ​

Chapter 2:

Urshifu-Rapid Strike is one of the most dominant forces in the current metagame, although its typing itself doesnt seem very terrifying from the pure glance, but its abilities to pressure common Pokemon with its STAB combination Close Combat, Surging Strikes, and a great priority in Aqua Jet lets it break and revenge most Pokemon in the metagame, and Urshifu-Rapid Strike turned out to be one of the most dominant forces in the tier overall. Its enemies are Corviknight, Skarmory, Dragonite, and Tapu Fini (I'll talk on a later point about it as well), but with great teammates such as Weavile, Galarian Slowking, and Tapu Koko it is easily capable of overwhelming its checks. U-turn is a great tool to gain momentum in a general fashion; here is a game which highlights Urshifu-Rs ability: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-564751

Galarian Slowking made a name for itself as well - it pops up again after a decline in its usage the past couple of weeks, but its ability to check dangerous special threats such as Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, Nidoking, and Heatran is very valauable, as all of these Pokemon are pretty dominant Pokemon currently. It is also able to dismantle the uprising Tapu Fini and it saw alot of great moments in WCoP Round 1 with being on a plenty amount of teams, with having also the capabilities to pressure teams with Future Sight and its great ability in Regenerator gives it longevity as well. Teammates such as Corviknight and Galarian Slowking are a great core and it got used a lot during the Round 1, here is an example of a how well both if them work together as a defensive tool: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-564985

Tapu Fini is yet another shooting star, once seen as an underwhelming Pokemon but now shooting up in the usage and also viability as a great defensive answer to common threats: Weavile, Urshifu, Heatran, and Hydreigon it found a great place in the metagame. Scarf + Trick sets are very very valuable atm to shut down offensive and defensive Pokemon alike woth locking them into a Choice Scarf, Pokemon such as Blissey and Slowking are clear targets to help Tapu Fini and its teammates to overcome those defensive answers. Other sets such as Calm Mind + Draining Kiss + Surf are also used with https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-564246 being a prime example of how Tapu Fini is capable of breaking down teams in the lategame.

Volcarona, well that Moth doesn't need a huge amount of explanation, we all know it is great in the current metagame and one of the top Pokemon in WCoP and it works really great with the bulky Quiver Dance set on more offensive oriented teams: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-564342

Weavile is a top threat and it is shown in the usage stats and winrate, Weavile has a valuable tool in Knock Off and a hard to switch in Dual STAB combination with Ice and Dark, this Pokemon fears Tapu Fini, Urshifu-R, and needs some support to overwhelm Pokemon such as Corviknight and Skarmory, but most of the times, Knock Off is the tool to go to achieve that goal. Swords Dance sets are great to clean in the lategame with Ice Shard priority and this game shows exactly how well Weavile can work: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-564395 this shows how much pressure SD Weavile can put on teams.

Chapter 3:

Common Cores and Honorable Mentions:

Common Cores:

Weavile + Tapu Fini
Weavile + Galarian Slowking
Galarian Slowking + Corviknight
Urshifu-R + Weavile
Magnezone + Dragonite
Bisharp + Urshifu-R
Dragonite + Tapu Koko
Buzzwole + Tapu Koko
Ferrothorn + Landorus-Therian

Honorable mentions of great Pokemon:

1. Dragapult​
2. Dragonite​
3. Buzzwole​
4. Corviknight​
5. Garchomp​
6. Tornadus-Therian​
7. Kartana​
8. Heatran​
9. Rillaboom​
10. Tapu Lele​

Conclusion:

Weavile and Urshifu-R cement themselves more and more as a great way to overwhelm their checks and with Tapu Fini and Galarian Slowking on the rise new ways are being find to check common, dangerous Pokemon in the metagame. WCop shows exactly how well they perform and Volcarona stays great and is constantly used. All of these Pokemon are definitely highlights to show and work very well and are worth a try and to explore further. Let's see how the next upcoming weeks of WCop goes and how trends might change or how uprising trends see more exploration.

 

[Pohjis]

it seemed like a fun idea to gather all the teams used in wcop to have a visual perspective on what was used by the 16 teams that made it to world cup from round 1 qualifiers to semi-finals. finals is going to be missing and it just has the 6 mons without spreads, moves, correct abilities etc. i also sorted it out by players but you can do it in many different ways as how you want to so click this or this for the massive paste!

format and europe self-scout for example

i also want to give a huge shout-out to Jordy and talah for making me the teams i used this and last year in wcop. very much appreciate the effort both of you did the last two years!

 

[Katy]

Semi-Finals of WCoP; Usage Stats and general statements!

Top Pokemon:


Corviknight saw once again a lot of usage as a sponge to both physical and special attackers alike, with checking Landorus-T, Kartana, Garchomp, and Melmetal. It cemented itself as one of the best Pokemon in WCoP and its usage stats speak for itself each upcoming week in WCoP. It always finds itself in the Top 10 if not Top 5 used Pokemon each week. Its great defensive typing in Steel- and Flying makes it a great answer to common Pokemon on the ladder and in WCoP. Corviknights ability to pivot out with U-turn and its great assets in Pressure + defog makes it an annoying task for entry hazard setters and with Body Press it has measure against Heatran, another very common and threatening Pokemon. In all this Pokemon stays on top of its game and I dont see it declining any time soon. The metagame is just very fitting for Corviknight and Corviknight is a big part of it.


Even when the metagame tends to be filled up with more and more specially defensive Pokemon, Dragapult should never be ruled out as a big threat to most Pokemon, with Shadow Ball as nearly unresisted STAB choice. With teampartners such as Weavile, Heatran, and Galarian Slowking to break through the many defensive counterplays Dragapult still has no issues turning games upsidedown, especially when teams are weakened.
With Hydro Pump popping up as a choice to break through specially defensive Hippowdon better and also catching Landorus-T which tends to be more specially defensive nowadays, it has options to path its own way through teams. This Pokemon will stay on top, as with such a high Speed tier, which is very appreciated as control over the game, it will always find itself on teams; especially bulky offensive and offensive oriented teamstyles.


Dismissed for a short time, but back in the skies? Perhaps! This Pokemon had a great time the past 2 or 3 weeks of WCoP and slowly cements itself as a Pokemon to account for again. Tornadus-Therian has great choices and is a Rillaboom and Kartana check, it also can help against Volcarona With U-turn, Knock Off, and Taunt + Defog it is a great choice and with 121 Speed tier it can also serve as speed control on some teams. Tornadus-Therian bounced back and with other options such as Heat Wave it finds itself un-walled by common Steel-types, therefore is able to weaken them severely. Other annoying options such as Icy Wind also prove to be fantastic against Landorus-Therian and Garchomp, not only hitting them for super effective damage but also serving as a great way to lower their speed, which opens up the path to revengekill especially the latter with more ease.

Honorable Mentions


Notable Replays:​

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-569235 friseova vs lord_enz: eruption heatran and stallbreaker trapper tapu fini!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-568989 eo vs aim: infestation dragapult and choice band dragonite!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-568752 tpp vs abr: sleep powder + infestation tangrowth!

I like those replays, es they show underrated and heat techs on high level tournament play, each of these players truly gave their best and knew how to work with these sets to make them as effective as they can get, and I think these replays deserve to be mentioned here!

Closing Words:​

Lets see what will await us in the finals, one thing it will be for sure, it won't be easy for either of these teams, as both are strong with not only new(er) players in the top but also old veterans. good luck to both teams, deserving finalists!

thanks for reading and have a great day! :)​

 

[TPP]

Got bored and decided to share some stuff from this world cup:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-559519

So our season began all the way back in qualifiers and the meta was still a lot like late SPL/OST. I quickly threw this together since I was playing first and went for a simple Rillaboom + Magnezone core. This team was really similar or basically a copy of a similar one Eo used in SPL with Urshifu over Slowking, but I liked Slowking a lot at the time and it felt safer. The sets are all pretty standard with the exception of 2:

Slowking @ Kasib Berry
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
- Scald
- Future Sight
- Teleport
- Slack Off

Kasib Berry was specifically so I could get an extra turn against Dragapult's Shadow Ball. Dragapult around this time was peaking in terms of how ridiculously good spamming Choice Specs Shadow Ball was and I needed something to help deal with it. Boots are always good, but I think the item on Slowking is always open if you wanna use something like a resist berry or helmet or something else.

Magnezone @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
Shiny: Yes
- Volt Switch
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt
- Teleport

Teleport is a neat option to give Magnezone a completely safe way to get Rillaboom in on Ground-types in case Flash Cannon isn't worth it or of the Volt Switch 50/50 is too scary. Teleport is a great move in general so this one is kinda self explanatory.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-561920

Going into this game, I wanted to be prepared for something offensive, but also up until this point, I had literally used Lando + Corviknight on every single team and wanted to break that habit. I think this was my first Toxapex in 2021 as well and I wanted something a bit bulkier than usual and really liked the Pex + Dragonite core. I didn't play well this game and got very behind after getting the lead wrong and have my Scizor get its special defense dropped. I do agree with what Niko said above with how Specs Dragapult can be contained somewhat easily if you stack a bunch of bulky mons like Specially Defensive Lando + Heatran + Fini. This trend ended up being common in world cup, which was cool to see since I'm sure lots of people were thinking Pult was potentially broken before World Cup started.

Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
- Ice Beam
- Waterfall
- Heal Bell
- Roost

This was the only special set I had this game and the idea was that despite having mixed defensive lando and Toxapex, I wanted even more insurance against Volcarona. Waterfall was chosen as a midground to hit Heatran and Volcarona in a single slot, especially if there was Grassy Terrain.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-564104

I actually got the idea for this team from MDB2's game here, but decided to try and swap the Fini and Aegi sets. While testing, Rillaboom wasn't that great and ultimately I got a suggestion to try Torn and Taunt Torn turned out to be really good in my game since it shutdown Hippo and was generally pretty annoying for Genesis to handle. Torn could not only remove Koko's terrain so it lived Thunderbolt, but Knock + Taunt could remove its item and also prevent it from Roosting, which was very helpful with the burn and sand chip.

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
Shiny: Yes
- Block
- Shadow Ball
- Close Combat
- Metal Sound

The set flopped in game because Genesis kept Slowbro in on Metal Sound, but the idea was to Metal Sound first if they went Corvi, and then Block something Hippo/Pex if they had one. From there I would Metal Sound, get hit by EQ or Knock Off, and then attempt to 1HKO back. Close Combat hits Blissey and Heatran, the latter of which may die after a Weakness Policy boost and maybe some chip. I don't entirely remember. Specs is probably way more consistent, but this was a fun idea at least.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-564342

This team was originally Blaziken > Zeraora but I got a suggestion that Zera was way more consistent than Blaziken and I rolled with it. I wanted to use something like hyper offense at least once this tournament, or something more offensive than usual. The idea behind this team was that Explosion Lando could help remove an opposing Lando/whatever physical wall for the other mons. SD Scizor was actually my favorite mon on this team because it can single handedly break through Unaware Clefable + Toxapex and still pose as a giant threat.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Normal Gem
Ability: Intimidate
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Explosion

I didn't get to use it, but Normal Gem Explosion feels slightly forgotten this gen but I think it's really good. Corviknight and Skarmory are realistically the only mons that can tank it, but Corviknight takes a lot and also can't use Defog if you explode on it.

Scizor @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Psycho Cut
- Knock Off

The Psycho Cut slot can honestly be anything on Scizor, since Bullet Punch + Knock Off hit the entire tier aside from Bisharp, but I really wanted to KO Toxapex for Hawlucha and Volcarona and thought it would be a nice surprise. Didn't get to use Psycho Cut in my game, but SD Scizor did help out a lot and I think it's a really good mon in general.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-567159

I was expecting hyper offense this game and ultimately wanted to use Melmetal. As the name implies, I quite literally stole/recreated kebab's team and used it myself.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-568752

This game was probably the one I looked forward to the most as I was facing my favorite teammate of all time, ABR. Prior to 2021 I would've been farmed easily, but this year I felt like I got better enough to where I could hold my own against him and I ended up getting the job done. Prepping was weird because I spent all week long trying to make Mud Slap Rotom-Wash work because I know how much ABR loves accurate moves and also wanted Mud Slap specifically as a call back to a certain Sand Attack game from SPL. I ended up going with Glowking because it was just really good in general and Future Sight + Pads Thunderpunch Shifu looked potent against breaking everything. The button on Toxapex was to help set up what I feel is a very reliable combo, with going Urshifu immediately after using Future Sight from Glowking. I did go hard Urshifu once at least, but the button makes it a lot easier as well and also helps Toxapex take on Weavile better as well since Knock Off does less damage.

Slowking-Galar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
- Future Sight
- Sludge Bomb
- Flamethrower
- Scald

I was debating about the last move and thought about Whirlpool, but went with Scald because it hits Lando anyways and also lets Glowking not get walled by Heatran. Scald turned out be very good in my game with getting burns on Glowking, Corvi and especially Weavile.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ou-569762

I was expecting something offensive and was also afraid of facing something like Rillaboom/Kartana/SD Garchomp since I hadn't been preparing for those mons as much. I tried out a lot of things but settled for Buzzwole in the end since I had never used one before. I think I could've played this one a lot better and nearly lost, but saved myself with a Koko double at the end because I knew I was losing for sure if my opponent went Lando on a potential Toxic. There's nothing special about this team but I did have Payapa Pex to deal with Tapu Lele turn 1 or tank Future Sight like it did in my game.

I did have a lot of fun/bad sets that never made it but I'll share them anyways:

I swear I'm not terrible

SCREW TRIPLE AXEL (Buzzwole) @ Bright Powder
Ability: Beast Boost
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Roost

As the name implies, I was tired of dealing with Triple Axel and what better way to deal with an inaccurate move than to force a miss.

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
- Nasty Plot / Toxic / Mud Slap
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split

Rotom-Wash on paper can look incredible against a lot of teams but can be hard to finish building with. The idea behind Nasty Plot was to allow Rotom a way to be less passive or threaten Toxapex to a better extent than usual. Toxic was an idea to hit stuff like Kyurem/Hydreigon in case they ever tried switching in. Mud Slap was only considered because ABR used Sand Attack and I thought it would generate a hilarious reaction from spectators if I managed to dodge something big after using it.

SPL CHAMPION BKC (Blaziken) @ Custap Berry
Ability: Speed Boost
- Swords Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Thunder Punch

I wanted to bring this against Dragon Claw, partially because I love Blaziken and also because we both love and respect BKC a lot. Unfortunately Blaziken takes a lot of guts to use and I didn't wanna risk it for finals. One day I'll make it work, but today is not that day. The idea here was to have Blaziken nearly kill itself after Flare Blitz recoil, switch it out, and then pop the Custap Berry to get a surprise KO.

Blaziken @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
- Swords Dance
- High Jump Kick
- Flare Blitz
- Role Play

This set is for sure the dumbest thing I've ever come up with, but the idea was that should the opponent ever send in a Magic Guard Clefable, you could use Role Play to copy Magic Guard and avoid all Flare Blitz and Life Orb recoil.

Diggersby @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Huge Power
- Spikes
- Body Slam
- Earthquake
- U-turn

Inspired by ben gay's Diggersby from last year, I was running calcs before world cup and thought it was hilarious how hard Diggersby can hit and wanted to use it. Spikes + U-turn with a Magnezone was what I initially tried since Corviknight has to come in for both tanking whatever as well as dealing with Spikes, and U-turn was an easy way to get Magnezone in easily to trap.

Altaria @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Natural Cure
- Fire Spin
- Perish Song
- Defog / Earthquake
- Roost

I don't remember how this happened but I promise I made this way before Charmflash used it in Grand Slam. Earthquake is probably better since it hits Heatran but you also have to remember that you're using an Altaria and are very likely to bin the team before it gets done.

Weavile @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure
- Swords Dance
- Triple Axel
- Knock Off
- Taunt

This is probably the closest thing to a serious set here, but the idea behind Taunt was just to help Weavile be even bigger breaker by preventing Pex from using Haze/Recover and Clefable from using Soft-boiled.

Weavile @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
- Whirlpool
- Taunt
- Spite
- Knock Off

I never used it and never will but thought it was funny when I put the set together. I guess it traps Toxapex but at the cost of making Weavile go from a broken mon into a useless one. Spite + Pressure is pretty cool though.

Excadrill @ Adrenaline Orb
Ability: Sand Force
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Magnet Rise

I tried making Sand work with a twist. Adrenaline Orb because I had Sand Force and needed to boost Speed to sweep, and then Magnet Rise just so I could wall Landorus and Hippowdon. A regular Sand Rush set with Magnet Rise is probably better but still difficult to pull off since Sand isn't that great atm.

Maybe one day I'll make one of those bad sets work out, but until then, I hope you all enjoy the rest of the post. I'm content with how the metagame is now, although I do think Weavile feels like a bit too much to handle when Triple Axel connects. It's honestly really cool with how after SPL, it looked like Teleport Slowking was going to stay broken and then Dragapult, but both of them were adapted to and are nowhere near as strong as they once were. I'm curious to see how the meta turns out in SCL and whether Weavile will continue to stay strong, or if something new will emerge as a way of adapting to it.

Have a nice day and hope you all enjoyed World Cup.