Tournament NDPL IV Set & Team Dump Thread

[R8]

OP Stolen from this thread

Cool art by Gummy​

Since playoffs are on the horizon, NDPL IV Set & Team Dump is here to serve as an opportunity to post whatever anyone has used or considered to use so far! It's pretty self explanatory, post teams you used or built in NDPL IV here!

Rules

• This is for teams used in, or heavily considered for use, in NDPL IV ONLY.
• Teams from any of the metagames featured in NDPL IV can be posted.
• A Pokepaste would be preferred in terms of formatting. Sprites would also be a helpful addition.
• Descriptions/stories about the teams are allowed (encouraged, even) but consider using a spoiler tag if they end up being very long.
• These teams may be considered to be used as Sample Teams so no need to post in the bazaar as well.

And that's it! Happy posting, and good luck to the teams in the playoffs!

 

[peap]

Tox Tricity Offense (nd ss)
https://pokepast.es/56876cd924e8bef4
Toxtricity is a special breaker that beats Chansey and Blissey thanks to its double immunity to Paralysis and Toxic, as well as Drain Punch which 3hkos Ferrothorn at +1 with Life Orb
Boomburst kills grounds, Overdrive Corv and Pex. We banned Dragapult last gen so this has no hard counters except Golurk
Feen brought this last week courageously and almost pulled it off
If you break ferro then Jirachi can cheese
Rest of team is a desperate stopgap against other setuppers that do more and act faster than toxtricity…

 

[Mada]

Quick dump, I won't be explaining everything extendly but feel free to pm me questions.

Revamped/Recycled NDWC Teams:

Pretty standard HO, I wanted to try BD Azu as I believe Z-BD is incredibly broken, and with Dpult's ban it could do pretty well. Valiant has an sd physical set to help Rilla breaking some annoying Steels and Poison types. Gholdengo has Memento over NP to try and give Azu opportunities to setup.


Quite standard Psyspam that abuses strong mons, we loaded that in NDWC Finals iirc; Sneasler can Run Tera Ghost/Dark with a STAB over Acrobatics.


One of my favorite teams which can probably be improven by fitting Alomomola somewhere (over pex?) to help Garchomp more. This team does fairly well vs Offenses with Tspikes, 2 strong prios and bulky mons that can stop setup sweepers. Against Fat and Balanced you can almost always safely pivot with Glowking into Band Bax which then farms kills against those teams. Black Sludge Trick is also incredibly helpful against BO and Fat. We used this multiple times in NDWC and NDPL and I believe it's a very solid team, despite there being room to improve it.

New NDPL Teams:

Another type of fat team. I made this before Dpult Ban, so I really wanted to find a good Ghost Resist which I did in Muk Alola, which still is incredibly useful as it can stop most of special threats and Koff is always strong. We still have BS Trick Glowking as it's very good against BO and Fat, as Offense MU should be alright with Double Regen + Punny + Unaware + Mukky. Overall a great team, a bit too passive tho so you might have to force plays against some threats like ZardY.


Just some sort of Hstack with Dengo with offensive pressure, overall good pivoting and different ways to get chip damage, not a fond of this team and we didn't use it iirc but I think it's still fun.


Some testing with Munkidori, very cool mon that doesn't have a lot of switch-ins which can still pivot with Parting Shot to eventually create setup opportunities. Again, against Offenses we have Strong Priority Spam + hazards and good walls, whereas Balances and Fat struggle a lot vs Munki and Bax, and Val helps a lot too with Encore.


Finally a Blace team, I think that mon is Crazy and should be abused more. Fat structure with Alo+Heatran and Torn+Gliscor. Probably a bit too weak to Ogerpon so maybe Samu is replaceable (Tran can also run Tera Grass) but overall I think m,ost mu's are okay. Specs Blace just cooks and for the rest u pivot safely against the whole tier.


A team I specifically built based on a scout but overall solid enough. Pex+Moltres+Treads are quite strong as a core and can get a lot of chip damage for Lele or Punny to win later. Gacl with that set can be a very nice wincon pretty quickly.


Webs team, popular in OU for a couple of weeks so why not trying in NatDex. Mega Pinsir cause it's cool and strong and badass.


Some strong offense with Specs Lele and Band Rilla, which just destroy everything. Sneasler is a great cleaner, for the rest we got rotom and glowking to help w pivoting and Ting-Lu to not lose to anysetup sweeper or random Ghost.


Strong and funny semistall, I am quite a bozo myself for not making Dozo tera Dragon (I still have Kingambit Trauma's) for the rest it's pretty standard, incredibly hard to break and hazards + leech + koff + toxic to get some chip, Gliscor also always very annoying and can pick some kills here and there.


Imo very good Hstack team, we didn't load that (thankfully lol we loaded vs Hatterene) but I think it's very good. Not much to say, Worry Seed Guss is kinda a meme as it's become popularish in OU to fuck up non-Roost Scor but overall it's funny to also just remove some other abilities, can surely be Synthesis tho. Ting Lu can prolly try to run some Rock Move but Ruination is always good chip. Kommo-O for role compression with Hazards + Prio + Pretty annoying mon anyways.



This tier has Bax + Volc + Urshifu and nobody abuses them lol? The other team has Gren cause Prio is still helpful, dnite set is pretty fishy but it was like that cause of the scout that always had a ground-flying and then all mons 1x or weak to DWB. Valiant can prolly put Psyshock / Tbolt as last move and it becomes able to 6-0 70% of the teams by itself. Glimmora is also a possible lead.


This tier has Bax + Volc + Urshifu so I got fucking traumatized and decided to build Blissey + Slowbro + Mega Scizor. Teleport spam with HDB Valiant that is very very strong, especially with FS u have like 0 switchins lol not even protect gonna save them as u click Encore. Again, Strong Prio in Mega Scizor to help the speed control and to help vs Pursuit Users, maybe it could be more bulky but overall they shouldn't break. Koko is Crazy, Roost / Dgleam are both very fine even tho DGleam is kinda useless so i prefer Roost. Overall I think it's very solid team.

I am not a mainer but I think most of those are very solid and I had fun building this tier, ty entrocefalo for managing with me and our players for their activity and presence

 

[ezra]

rip luvdisc is rage 2 since i kinda dont care about this game anymore ill show all the teams that i built in the hit tournament ndpl iv. feel free to use any of these for samples
https://pokepast.es/c4ab7a10097147b1

 

[zee]

Although I've been involved with ND DOU from practically the beginning, NDPL felt like the tour where I really sharpened my understanding of the tier. 5 of the 7 teams used by me and JRL were built by me, and I have a few extras to share as well.

Week 1 - JRL vs Akaru (W)



This team was an edit of the team I used for the suspect test ladder, swapping Diancie for Speed booster Flutter and Scarf Urshifu for CB Urshifu. The team uses double fake out to either support Zygarde setup or lock down a slot with Fake Out + CB Surging Strikes. Helping Hand Kangaskhan really makes all the weaker attacks on the team much more impressive, and that was JRL's idea so credit to him. All the priority as well as Speed Flutter really ensure the team can function in the face of any speed control as well, which showed as JRL took down a Tornadus offense team.

Week 2 vs tyo (W)



During the Zygarde test I was chatting with Spurrific about how I thought the real problem was Jirachi being a stupid enabler of setup. So I decided to runback a pretty similar team to weak one with SD Urshifu. I figured tyo probably would not want to load Volcanion into the team that brought Kang Zygarde last week, so I was pretty okay dropping Close Combat. Water Tera Jirachi ended up being huge for dealing with his Dracovish.

Week 3 vs xqiht (W)



I wanted to change up the style of teams I had been bringing so I went with a sun HO for this week. Because of all the things you need to check offensively and defensively in ND DOU, there's a lot of teams that either can't run a rocks setter or just never have the time to click rocks, which I think is pretty good for Charizard's position in the metagame. Charizard + Ogerpon-H is also insanely difficult for balanced comps to handle. Scarf Fini was used for the Salamence matchup and Marsh + Chien Pao gave me strong priority should I need it, and Whimsicott was added for speed control + disruption. As a sidenote I'm a huge fan of Helping Hand Charizard in this meta, you really do only need to click Fire attacks and the added damage you can give to something like a +1 Tera Fire Ogerpon-H is just ridiculous.

Week 6 vs Spurrific (W)



Bulky coaching offense. Spurrific was the person I was doing the majority of my testing with for this tour but I still felt like I wouldn't have a good read on what he'd bring, so I went with something that was flexible but had a proactive gameplan of its own. I really like this Z Move Coaching Zeraora set, as it turns the mon into a real threat of its own instead of just a coaching bot, and it was used to grab a crucial turn 1 OHKO on Justin's Indeedee, removing his Expanding Force potential from Gardevoir. Marshadow is employed here as my way to switch into and threaten Kangaskhan with an OHKO. Kingambit was added as I really didn't have a great tera user, it deters intimidate, threatens Flutter Mane with an OHKO, and adds more priority. This Tapu Fini was a bulky support set as I felt like chipping things into priority range would be great for endgames, and I didn't need the improved Mence matchup that Scarf gives you.

Week 7 vs Smudge (W)



Hands down my favorite team from this tournament. The gameplan is very, very simple: we're clicking Dragon Dance with Kyurem-B and sweeping. That's exactly what happened in the match too. But it's just ridiculous, Kangaskhan and Rillaboom were not meant to be used in tandem with Coaching Electrium Z Zeraora and Loaded Dice Tera Poison Kyurem-B, but here we are. NatDex is a chaotic evil tier that should definitely not exist, but I'm glad it does, because it's so much fun just getting to use pieces like this.

Week 7 - xqiht vs ???



xqiht used this and won but I can't remember vs who and I'm too lazy to look it up. Just a really aggro team made around the Z Move Coaching Zeraora and 4 Attacks Mega Metagross. Tera Ghost Flutter Mane is not a mistake, it's so you don't die to Bullet Punch Megagross.

Bonus teams
1 2

Thanks entro and mada for drafting me and I'm glad I could put up a good result. ND DOU is awesome and I'm looking forward to watching the playoff games.

 

[sealoo]

Had a lot of fun this tour, thanks to all the homies on Weaviles and a special shoutout to peap for being a great teammate to bounce ideas off of, I admire your ability to grind this ladder and find out what works in practice as opposed to my theoretical approaches. kDCA you are a legend, phenomenal manager and always made sure everyone was ready to go, essentially picking up NDUU to support Seasons shows a lot about your character. Good luck to everyone in playoffs and if you don't main ND, I hope you enjoyed your experience with everyone's favorite petmod. Gonna be a lot of text here so ill divide it up into segments

Teams

Easily my favorite team I've built during NDPL, I wanted to try my hand at something with "Blud" (affectionately nicknamed by Kayzn) and this was my result. Alomomola is disgustingly good, easily A tier or higher in my opinion, controls the momentum so well for balanced teams such as these. Mega Tyranitar was an obvious choice to complement Alomomola's wishpassing abilities while crucially threatening to trap Gholdengo, Mega Charizard Y, and Heatran, the latter 2 being great for my own Gholdengo. Zapdos is one of the best mons asw I believe, not much to say besides it being the greatest glue to ever glue. Kartana was my speed control of choice, I like how it matches up into many of the offensive teams rn and can synergize very well with mttar. Specs Ghold has been the star of this team, an absolute nuke that is probably one of the most underrated mons there is rn, will detail more abt it later.


An offense team featuring mmedi + hsam, a very simple but effective core. Sd HSam might be the single best progress forcer in the tier rn, scarf Gholdengo gives pseudo speed control while offering a useful defensive presence vs Sneasler, Iron Valiant, and Lele. Volcarona was a nice wincon who offers a good moonblast resist for the mmedi + hsam core, tera water being one of the more underrated sets on it rn imo. Zapdos and Garchomp round out the defensive core, with Mada mentioning this Garchomp set earlier, and I firmly believe in it, stellar set


Probably my only rendition of a "fat" team throughout this whole tournament, centered around mola + mttar with the rest being mostly filled out standard. Molt provides a nice mu into Giga volc and mlop, Skarmory is Skarmory, sd glisc is broken, scarf lele speed control of choice. Was pretty effective whenever I used it but fat isnt in a great situation with them Ogers runnin around...stay safe.


This is my attempt at a Yard/Mola team, its a very interesting core that has been quite effective for me. This is very similar to Kyo 's sun with a Gastrodon instead, so credit to him.


Huge shoutout to peap for editing an intial skeleton of this, this is pretty much his team but figured id drop it here cause of how damn good it is.


Random team I built to play vs Kayzn in EPL, tera ghost garg is crazy good and the rest is relatively normal. Lele + Weav is an effective offensive core while msciz can sometimes lure Ghold for Lele, also checks BROKEN BAXCALIBUR!!!


Tang + Glowking + Molt is one of stupidest yet weirdly effective defensive cores ive ever used, Val/Weav is a solid offensive core to accompany. I wanted a rocker who wouldnt be too passive and could offer additional breaking, so I opted for a Fly Z LandoT which has put in a lot of work. S/o to the Sneasler users who try to tera fly in front of it


eterrain offense with mmedi/hsam, same points from earlier team still stand. Team is pretty weak to opposing hstacks and quite unoptimized but the concept has been effective so far, someone better than me should explore this


kinda troll ho, cloyster was my option as a lead to anti-lead the grounds ppl love to lead into screens koko to force a 50/50 between rocks or eq. I value its offensive presence asw, being able to chip Ferro/Tran for jirachi endgame while getting spikes up on anything else.


Z-Zap is still very effective, same with its old partner Weavile. Rest of the team is pretty standard stuff, although if i were to remodel id like a more pivot focused team to get Zapdos into position easier


man I will talk about this Zapdos set in more detail below lmfaooo, actually hilarious and farms so much running around rn. rest of team is pretty normal stuff with gknot glowking for garg antics and weav for stray clod/bliss. Chillionaire is the greatest nickname oat...


Mmedi balance with zapdos works very well, can easily clean up largely paralyzed and battered teams. Have I mentioned how good Weav is? Weav is good!!!


Team from NDWC remodeled with garg > gambit, fire punch mmedi can lure ghold for an easy lele win. Still one of my favorite teams! Mmedi is still pretty sick in the head, v good mon. You could definitely take a more offensive approach on this, maybe with a Sneasler to further benefit from a lured Ghold maybe ill make that now.

This team sucks vs lele and no i wont do anything to fix it

Chilly Reception + Weather Ball TornT is a cool lure for potential Zapdos to clear the way for MLop or TornT itself, would recommend


i probably couldnt tell you what I was thinking when i built this either, jolly mmaw is cool and should be the standard prolly


This is like my only team with av pex guy, cool mon. Rockium Tusk + Kart is a very interesting core for luring birds, but you need good infrastructure vs LandoT, could do Ice Spinner > CC ig.


My SECOND favorite build during ndpl, pure sun will forever be one of the most enjoyable playstyles (not cringe Yard semi sun) and this reinforces my theorem. One of my favorite teams to use easily


Fatter balance team similar to the mmedi one, just with Skarmory/MLop instead.


I love scarf tini!!!! Tera fire vcreate!!! Av tang nice pick too...ig


random offense lgrhkierhkierpellbl


Hey this still works I think


Shoutout to shelbert man. IYKYK seth


Some degen no brain eterrain offense i built during NDLT


If Sample ppl dont think these SUCK i am happy to offer them as potential submissions

Sets

Zapdos @ Electrium Z
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 24 HP / 252 SpA / 232 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Thunderbolt
- Substitute
- Roost

Very potent threat, Electrium lets you finish off weakened Gholdengo and Heatran although Heatran can often be PP stalled, this can usually 1v1 Bloodmoon while avoiding Toxic from common midground options like Toxapex and SpD Mola. Also lets you set up on eq/tox spammers like Gliscor, Garchomp, Clodsire, Hippo, Lando etc... can ohko mdia which is a common Zapdos check for offense

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-1970629906-zl4jygl4p831ryeqam0qobcqsc5rewtpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-1972857966-soo2smws8yj56rx0qdg0wafciuyli18pw


Samurott-Hisui @ Protective Pads
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ceaseless Edge
- Razor Shell
- Sucker Punch

Absolutely insane breaker, not only shattering through defensive pokes but also ignoring chip from Iron Barbs/Helm and Static/Flame Body ruining your day. Tera Poison is the best Tera imo since defensive utility can give you that one extra hit and extra spike that could win the game. Very good Sucker user asw, overall great mon. Alternatively, Taunt/Encore can stallbreak while Sub can troll Mola/Pex

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-1973798212-3lg8tw1jd7t1jb3dc9xm065krvxvv6hpw (not tera poison but mon in action)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-1973135367-625thar5bcp14juxmwusbi85jpz8adrpw


Gholdengo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Make It Rain
- Shadow Ball
- Recover
- Trick

Strong breaker option asw, superb utility with Trick with a very spammable Shadow Ball. Mola can give you free turns throughout battles on passive mons like Ferro/Pex/Skarm particularly, nice synergy. Get this thing on the field and its probably claiming one

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldex-1968333531-yqb7hn3paoe0nfq7e2al6vf740kynfmpw


Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 248 HP / 64 SpA / 20 SpD / 176 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Taunt

With everyone and their mother using max SpD Glisc rn, you can very easily creep your Heatran up and lure it to ohko with Magma into HP Ice. Suddenly Heatran now 6-0s the fat team like it did at the start of the gen, gg!!



Mawile-Mega @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Play Rough
- Knock Off
- Thunder Punch / Sucker Punch

People have become quite content not creeping up to the 220 range anymore (including but not limited to Skarmory, Heatran, Rotom-W, and Gholdengo, even some Moltres. Jolly MMaw can prey on these defensive pieces it barely gets the jump on at the expense of bulk and a slight bit of power. Imo tpunch is the best option since you should be aiming to break, not sweep.


Diancie-Mega @ Diancite
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe OR 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid / Naive Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Earth Power
- Power Gem / Diamond Storm / Mystical Fire
- Magnet Rise / Hidden Power [Ice]

I think mdia can very effectively wield either Magnet Rise or Hidden Power Ice, both being pretty nice options. EQ/Tox is pretty common on a myriad of mons letting Magnet Rise wall them while eating away at their recovery PP, serves as a very good anti-lead into landoT. Hp ice can often surprise a LandoT or Glisc by outright dropping them (need a bit of chip on the latter if max spd tho)

Random Opinions on Mons

Take a shot for every time "mon" is said

i think Hawlucha is still very threatening and has a defined niche in comparison to mr Sneasler

not the worst mon ever tbh, pretty solid especially into wellspring guy

this thing is super good

flip turn/tox mons can do no wrong, cool dual typing gives it niche over alomomola

super super super good, best speed control in tier

Blocking fog isnt my gripe with it tbh, being a stupid tera setup sweeper is so ill vote ban

idt this mon is broken, but it isnt very healthy of interactive either. would support ban

stupid stupid stupid BROKEN ban it

should be qbed after ghold test results realistically, no reason for this to still be in the tier ngl LOL

insanely good, should be A rank on VR next slate imotbh

his viability hates the above guy, also hates Glisc resurgence that has been happening since April. Still good tho

underrated, hates the 30% bird twins but still very good. dual prio is invaluable

a tad bit underrated, but its been getting its recognition lately

this thing is like top 7 mon in the meta rn, super good

if u think this mon is only good cause of being a fogger good into ghold, i disagree. solid regardless

i think this mon has an application...i just need to find it

OVERRATED

give this mon its flowers, very solid pick

incredibly good, love it atm

i saw this mon do work on an LBN squad, and have had good games with it myself. I like it

getting overhated as of late

good, needs more use

i think this mons offensive presence is very underrated

this mon is...weirdly solid!?!?

this mon is also...weirdly solid!?!

Still overrated i think

idk why ladder has stopped using idpress suddenly but THANK YOU

hates zapdos, still decent

has had some good results this ndpl, ill give him his flowers

really good, saw a lot of success this ndpl asw

high ranking guy, probably like A+. Undying as always

cm fini is really crazy ngl u guys should try it

OVERRATED (altho hype died down a bit)

veryyyyy underrated

still not convinced. good into mola with wabsorb which should be explored a bit tho, my opinions on una havent changed rly

OVERRATED

fell off pretty hard, good bc its OVERRATED

Meta is in a solid place rn, however a few things need to happen imho. Namely, banning Baxcalibur, Ursaluna-BM, and Sneasler would be my top priorities in that order. I think Gholdengo is bannable asw, but its less broken than Bax or Bloona.

Now we look on to NDWC V...GO SOUTH!!!

 

[Runo]

Building in this tour was pretty fun to be honest. Playing could've been better. I did well at the start but it was pretty clear that I was getting burnt out by the end. Thank you for Dunoks for recommending me to Mada, pretty sure I was gonna go undrafted if not for that so I really appreciated that. Mada and Entrocefalo thank you for giving me the oppertunity to play in my first PL. I know my ending was a bit dissappointing but I'm glad I went positive at least. I will definitely do better next time. Lupla thank you for helping me out with testing and the occasional building help during the season, I know you didn't want to join the team cord but I valued the assistance you gave regardless. My only two regrets are choking the hell out of my Week 7 Game and not loading stall at least once this season. Next year I'll get the cool custom though. Anyways I built a shit ton of teams for this Tour and I will now dump my builder so that others may infest this ladder.

Week 3:
- Week 3 - WIN

Week 3 Description

Week 3 was basically "build something that owns Sand and Snow Teams" so I made Araquanid Webs. Depending on the TTar set, you can outrun and get webs off and if they greed with the Stealth Rock click then you can hit it for massive damage. And if they click Stone Edge then you generate a ton of momentum since you get webs off with Sash while dying from Sand Chip. Toxic is to punish foggers such as Salamence, and Mandibuzz, while also not making you setup bait against Mega-Latias and Hydreigon. Special Attacking Anti-Leads such as Serperior, Sandy Shocks and Magnezone get hit with a nasty surprise with Mirror Coat. Ceruledge was the second Sand Cteam mon (also being a spinblocker was nice) as Air Balloon Ceru shits on ExcaTtar Sands super well because the Drillers never carry Rock Slide. Next Mamoswine was loaded solely to have a mon to abuse the Zolts just incase but the priority against Serperior was also nice to have. Gyarados also abuses Excadrill pretty hard but also has the added bonus of shitting on Mola balances too so of course I gotta load that. Also Gyarados is just broken in general lol, shit just autowins into far too many matchups please ban this thing! Bisharp is for Defiant and to troll Iron Moth and Aegislash. It also soft checks Boots Meowscarada. Serp is the second defog punisher but it was specifically added to get easy setup against Hippowdon, Mola, and Slowbro.

Truthfully I wasn't planning on loading this team originally but I was in a bit of a time crunch due to epic IRL activities :3

Other teams that were considered

__
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Week 4:
- Week 4 - WIN

Week 4 Description

Week 4 was an interesting build session since I knew that TBIC106 and Rasche were gonna spam Mola builds since the former thought it was broken here, so I needed to prep for it 100%. Looking at the mons Rasche loaded previously, I REALLY wanted to load stall and almost did if not for the fact that TBIC106 loaded a Taunt CM Mega Gardevior + Mola squad and it ruined my confidence in the stall, so I switched it to the Thundurus build at the last minute. This entire team is basically supposed to annoy the shit out of the TTarMolaGlow cores they were known for building, which Thundy at the forefront with Nasty Plot and Dark Pulse to demolish the entire core on its own. Glowking was still going to be moderately annoying if it was Assault Vest so I added MegaTar to give the team a rocker and to trap Glowking for Thundy. Volcanion was to block Flip Turn from Mola but also added a nice Excadrill / Treads lure with Shuca berry. Also nice to deal with annoying mons like Skarmory and Steela. Meowscarada is probably the main breaker that is more than capable of making fantastic progress against TTarMolaGlow cores with correct prediction. I made sure to add Thunder Punch in order to give myself a midground move incase I winded up dealing with MolaSkarm. Gapdos I forget why I wanted it, but it worked out well loool. It forced out Mega Venusaur though which was very valuable to me. Iron Treads was to give myself a strong pivot into Enamorus while also being a nice spinner to support Thundy and Volcanion.

Other teams that were considered

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Week 5:
- Week 5 - WIN

Week 5 Description

Like 2 minutes after my game with Rasche, I realized I caught I really bad cold and was going to be out of commission for most of Week 5. As a result I didn't build a lot. Infact this wasn't even a prep team I made, it was just some Day One team I had in my builder lmfao. Basic rundown is that I thought Cornerstone Screens was broken because I got merc'd by it multiple times. Then you have the usual offenders on Screens: Gyarados to abuse Mola and Driller for free setup, Iron Hands to just be fat and setup on nearly everything, Steela to annoy Grass types and Skarmory, and Ursa to break fat.

Other teams that were considered

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Week 6:
- Week 6 - LOSS

Week 6 Description

Seasons really loved passive grounds + steel birds, so for Week 6 I figured I load something that those teams hate. Sub + 3a Volcanion did just that while also annoying the shit out of Fini, Tangrowth, Amoonguss, and Clefable. Rhyperior with Rockium Z was an interesting tech since I really wanted a solid check to Tyranitar while also being a good answer into Arcanine and Cinderace without also being passive like Hippowdon (Or G-Word ig). Enamarous was brought to revenge kill Keldeo and Meowscarada while also supporting Cinderace and Volcanion with Healing Wish Support. Mega Venusaur is also another tech. Not the mon itself, but more the EV spread. It was specifically designed to deal with Iron Moth by allocating enough Spa EVs to OHKO it with Earth Power from full while still having enough bulk to win against it, Keldeo, Fini, Meowscarada, Clefable, Steela, etc most times and additionally outrunning threats such as Aegislash. Skarm was added to abuse Tangrowth and Meowscarada for free setup while also soft checking Iron Hands for the team. Cinderace was for natural speed control and a good pivot to safelt get Rhyperior and Volcanion on the field. It Also packed Wisp for Ogerpon, Meowscarada, and Iron Hands to deter their antics. Sucker Punch was a contingency incase Mega Venu got overwhelmed by Iron Moth since that mon is very much broken.

Other teams that were considered

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Week 7:
- Week 7 - LOSS

Week 7 Description

Week 7 was possibly the most challenging build session of the tour since Saurav had a fairly diverse cast of teams so it was quite tough to predict his building habits. Additionally I had to account for my own self-scout. Basically the premise for this one was to make teams that don't struggle vs HO, Iron Moth, Offensive Waters, and Sand. Cinderace with Zen Headbutt was used as an offensive Iron Moth check since I couldn't really afford to give it a chance to setup as my only defensive answer to it was Hippowdon. Cinderace also deals with Skarmory, Steela, and Boots/Band Meowscarada for the team. Aegislash was used as a check to Lilligant-Hisui and the Latis. Skamory was a nice blanket wall for this team since I needed a mon that could wall most of the HO physical attackers while also setting spikes against more bulkier teams (Fun fact, the original team had Shed Shell Skarm but I removed it because "hey what are the odds he loads Magnezone again lol"). Wellspring was used to break deal with Azumarill easily without having to risk Skarmory. It also helps deal with Gligar, Ursaluna, Mola, and Excadrill. Used Hydreigon as speed control for this build while also being a solid check to the Latis and Serperior. Hippowdon to have a rocker but also to make sure that I had a good volt blocker incase I dealt with any of the dangerous electric types Saurav loaded this tour. Was also a half decent Iron Moth switch in. Minor tangent but I think at this point in the metagame, balance and fat teams need to absolutely have good prep into Iron moth since the mon is simply too common and way too dangerous into those type of structures to ignore. But handling it defensively is very very constraining in general. Very unhealthy mon.

Other teams that were considered

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[TBIC106]

Hello hello, NDUU builder for the Victinis, now we're out I am happy to publicly release these teams! I'll write a brief building explanation with them, so people can understand how the prep worked.

Editors note: My lawyers have advised me to warn you these explanations are not that brief.

Week 1:

Torn Meta Stall

So this was a week. This team was incredibly ill advised, but this was the very beginning of NDPL, I was stressed as hell being a starter, and just wanted something comfy and consistent. Stall offered me both of those. Torn was a nightmare to handle, to the point where I found only a couple answers to the nasty plot set. Slight issue, I'd just made a meta thread post about those options. So I was very sure my opponents would anticipate any and all of those methods that I'd suggested, which meant I needed something new. The answer I found: sp.def skeledirge. And it worked in testing, but I had a few issues vs TTar and pursuit trapping in general since dirge needed to be basically at full to win, and even then it needed some misses. This culminated in a team designed to set up tspikes by bluffing an AV glowking, then just outlasting with poison chip, using dirge and rocks to limit Torn. In the game, my opponents brought a MVenu balance, which does incredibly well into stall, so this ended up working out poorly. Though I think bringing stall to Torn meta in general was just. A bad idea.

Week 2:

First Week of Rasche Supremacy

Now with my performance out the way, we can get onto the real star player. At the beginning of this week, I pinged Rasche and basically just asked "What do you normally play?" He responded with BO or balance, usually around there. This suited me perfectly, so we now come to this. I actually made a few other teams for this week, which I'll put at the end of this spoiler, but this was the one Rasche chose to go ahead with. Basic idea was pretty simple; Cinderace mullers balance; Serperior beats stall; scarf Shocks is good into HO; Glowking handles Moth and opposing Serp; Mence at the time was a relatively uncommon defogger that I was having great success with, and complemented Glowking well by switching in on any physical threat not named MTTar. Which, admittedly, was a weakness of this team but I was confident Rasche could position well around that. Don't laugh at my EVs for it though, I'd not fully optimised it yet. And after all that, you set up for Bisharp to tank a hit, SD, and sucker punch clean through a weakened team. It also gave insurance into HO and did well into opposing offence, which was otherwise this team's weakest MU.

Other teams:
https://pokepast.es/1768ce196f2ce05b
https://pokepast.es/1e503f5021190ead
https://pokepast.es/81af844553262022 - Remember this one, it's a secret item we'll use later

Week 3:

The God Squad

I would like to share with you a message that sparked the beginning of the greatest love affair this tier has ever seen.

I was concerned with this idea at the time. We'd just entered DLC 1 meta, and everything was kinda up in the air, so I wanted something solid. I knew Alomomola was going to be busted, so I wanted to build around that. Rasche sent this, and my initial reaction was "But where am I going to fit the rocker and defog?" When your entire defensive core is meant for pivoting, regardless of how much of the meta mola + glowking blanked checked (spoiler, it's a lot), you end up in scenarios where it can be really hard to fit both of those things offensively. Unless, of course, you slap Excadrill next to Ttar and call it a day while also giving insurance into the HO match up. Call me an idiot for not realising that immediately, but I didn't play gen 6 or gen 7 damnit. Pursuit MTtar also set up perfectly for another threat that I'd seen mentioned, and credit to 3MoreMinutes on this one actually it was your message in the discord that caused me to look into this. Enamorus was, and currently still is, known for 2 main sets; boots calm mind and specs. Now you have a lot of scarf running around too, but at the time that was kinda seen as a waste of an enam, or it was by me. But what that meant was that, if you saw an Enamorus take rocks damage, it was likely specs. Which meant you were relatively safe to send, let's say hypothetically, a sp.def Celesteela in on it. Hey presto, that's a +1 inferno overdrive coming your way the turn after it calm minds. If you've taken any chip at all, that's a dead steela and a +1 enam to deal with somehow. The alternative to this was a groundium-z enam paired with mag so it could nuke through glowking on its own, but it was significantly easier to pursuit trap a glowking than magnet pull a steela. And hey, whadaya know, in the game a glowking got trapped then enam won after taking a free kill with firium-z on a steel. This was the best prep I made all tour.

Week 4 -

What do about Gyara?

Thanks Runo for helping us in playoffs, btw, and Taka for all your help with building throughout. This match was simultaneously one of the hardest and easiest matches to prepare for, since I knew how our opponent liked to play. So we basically went into this match with the assumption of "Gyara HO or stall." Which meant now we needed to actually figure out what the shit we were doing about Gyara. Notably, up until its ban the best form of Gyara was a dragon dance + substitute + waterfall + flyinium-z bounce set since it specifically preyed on Mola, which I was now very known for thinking was busted and we had brought the week before to incredible results. This then led to the beginning of my signature quartet, mola + glowking + MTTar + scarf shocks, or at least in baby form this week. Mola + shocks could often keep opponents in an eternal vortex of slow flip turn into fast volt switch, punishing its few counters with toxic + spikes + a big fuck off Ttar, while Glowking sealed up the last few holes in the defensive core. On top of this, we wanted to use MVenu since it had a notably good match up into stall, forcing knock offs and leech seeds onto glowking and chansey while putting significant pressure on MSableye. So, to get the best of both worlds, we used a black glasses regular TTar so it could still function as our rocker, while also potentially bluffing band.

Week 5 -

All in the name of Team Diversity

I don't wanna talk about it.
Do I have to?
Sigh Fine I'll talk about it.
This one was... not good. Apologies for this Rasche, we lost this one in the builder, entirely my fault. Going into this week, we had to deal with Kartana meta. And I am notoriously slow to adapt to stuff like Kart, so this one was a bit of a shit show while I got my footing. If you're wondering why there's an Ursaluna in the title but not on the team, it's because Hands was originally an Ursa but it got changed last minute. Magnezone was meant to trap and remove any Kart that wasn't a scarf Kart locked into sacred sword, Hands could tank the rest, Lati broke for Hands Sweep, FiniLucha was an old concept I wanted to revive, Treads was.... there ig, needed a rocker but yeah This Was Not It. All over the place in general, and the only reason I wanted to build a HO despite knowing I was bad at it was to diversify our self scout. Didn't want to get predictable in BO + Standard Balance, so this plus the fat balance team we used in Week 4 were meant to throw opponents off the scent. Didn't quite go according to plan, though.

Week 6 -

Full Force

And now we see the pinnacle. This is basically the most quintessentially me team I made all league, even if I think the week 3 team was better. Bulky wincon that helped with the defensive core, provided an emergency moth check and could set up on and murder anything on the bulky end, incredibly solid defensive core with answers to just about everything, very little prediction reliance, hazard stack to help with bulky teams (this team was just unfair into stall), you could hand this team to a 1200 on ladder and they would do well with it. Nothing much more to say with this, just very solid, now that kart and gyara are banned would probably recommend taking this one onto ladder out of all of these. ᴬˡˢᵒ ᴵ ᵒᵖᵗᶦᵐᶦˢᵉᵈ ᵐʸ ᵐᵉⁿᶜᵉ ᴱⱽˢ ᶠᶦⁿᵃˡˡʸ.

Week 7 -

Hey so maybe a strong rock move with 100% accuracy is kinda good

Yeah this one was a shameless remake of the week 3 team, I'm not even gonna try and deny it. Though it did play slightly differently. This team was dedicated to getting Ogerpon in, spamming ivy cudgel until something died, healing it back up to full then repeat. Also, shoutout to dragonPIMPNITE who hangs around in the showdown lobby, this team was inspired by one he showed me at one point that revolved around the same concept, just without mola and only scarf enam. Nothing much else to say here that I didn't put in the week 3 break down, other than that this would've been boots Mola and knock off Ogerpon if we didn't look at our opponents scout and realise that they hadn't brought a single Aegi.

Playoffs -

All or Nothing

Can you tell we got helpers for playoffs? This is a complete 180 from my usual style, with a lot of effort put in by Runo to help me make this. The way I looked at it, our opponents read me like a book with a MVenu Torn team in week 1, and now had a whole host of replays where we'd brought exclusively Alomomola + Glowking cores. So I knew they'd be hyper prepped into that, and wanted to bring something completely different. This was the result. Highly unorthodox, but man did it work. In particular we were expecting some wild options from Saurav, since he'd been bringing mons from RU up in almost every game he played, and this did incredibly well into similar options. The only issue: hey so what about that Gyara match up? The answer; abysmal. And because of scheduling issues, we had incredibly limited time to change the team. So we took a gamble. It was calculated. We looked at their scout, and while most of it was offence there was no true hyper offence, which is the only style Gyara is seen on. All of our self scouts, in particular our most recent ones, were all hyper solid into Gyara. Mola + Shocks + Ttar ate it basically for breakfast. So we gambled that they'd look at reems upon reems of anti-Gyara tech and not bring Gyara.

They brought Gyara.

And that's all folks! Hopefully some people will enjoy these teams, and if you do take them to ladder I hope they do well. I look forward to hopefully seeing some of you in NDFL!

 

[Drag0n]

Thanks for the shoutout TBIC106 sorry I’m seeing this late lol.

 

[style.css]

First I want to give a shoutout to TDR and skimmythegod for drafting me. You two are goats and amazing managers. The team in general was all great and I had really good time in this tour despite a rough start on my part. Now I might be the only one to post Monotype teams but here we go.

Here are most of the teams I used this tour with a couple exceptions. Ice from Week 1 has banned Baxcalibur (and I got completely thrashed by Trich who prepped perfectly) and the Fairy team from Week 5 was just about as standard as they come.

Week 2 vs Coo (Trouser Snakes) | Loss

Dragon

Still being early in the tour there wasn't a ton of info to go off of to pick a type so I went with a fairly tried and true team I already had. This is modified from the samples prior to DLC/Home but still stands up. Unfortunately the matchup for me was not the most favorable since Iron Valiant pretty much takes a KO every turn it comes in.

Week 3 vs Felines | Win

Normal

This is where I realized how insane Ursaluna-Bloodmoon is and how it complemented a standard Normal structure better than the original form. Disgusting calcs from Z Blood Moon into Blood Moon didn’t hurt either. If you ask me, this is the Normal composition. Normal seemed like a great choice because it's got a great defensive core, strong offensive threats and it's pretty flexible in adapting to unique sets that Felines is always cooking up.

Week 4 vs Crashy | Loss

Fighting

After getting tossed in Week 2 by Coo using Fighting I wanted to build my own but with Okidogi. Unfortunately an untimely miss and a last minute move swap lost me the game (not to take away from the solid plays/prep from my boy Crashy). Always keep Triple Axel on Gallade folks.

Week 6 vs RoyalReloaded | Win

Fire

Here I was operating under the impression that Bka Onon was helping build for the other team and since we build together a lot I wanted to pick something he’d never expect me to use in a million years. I’m so glad I did because Fire is truly incredible right now thanks to Ogrepon-H. I wanted to get a little wacky with this one and used Sub CM Blacephalon which is strictly less optimal than the plethora of other options though it worked out.

Week 7 vs Cielau | Win

Fire

Coming off a little bit of a shaky win with Fire the week before I was still high on the type and thought it lined up well into the generally bulky types that I thought Cielau would bring. I swapped Blacephalon out for Victini because omniboosts are broken. Oddly enough I loaded the same MU as W6 and Ogerpon carried again. If you aren’t a Trailblazer believer, you should be.

Finals vs Coo (Trouser Snakes) | Win

Electric

Up to this point I just picked types I felt like using without a ton of thought about my opponents but this week being the finals I spent a long time figuring out the right type to bring here. After hours of scouting, discussions and me driving everyone around me nuts second guessing what type and what sets to bring I landed on Electric. I have always loved Electric to a point that it was a bit of a meme last year (Thanks Bka Onon). The team is a modified version of what I call my Greedy team. The team doesn’t have Magnezone to trap Steel types, it has both Terrain abusers (Regieleki and Raichu) and half the “defensive” core is removed with Iron Hands not being the standard Assault Vest. Knowing Coo’s preference’s I made one important change that I think won me the game and that was Toxic on Rotom-Wash instead Will-o-Wisp. In previous generations this was a pretty cursed match up for Fire with the only win conditions being a perfectly positioned Volcarona/Charizard X, which wasn’t easy to do with Volt Switch spam (managing terrain turns to avoid getting set up on is tricky for this reason). Now Fire got the broken Ogerpon-H as a third major threat. Any of the three threats pretty much win on the spot if they can get 2 Dragon Dance, Quiver Dance or Trailblaze off. Thanks to great prep from Sunnyboi0 I had practiced this match up a ton and was able to get the win.

Thank you to everyone I annoyed to death with building, test games and my general wild ramblings throughout the tour.
Special thanks to the ones who put up with me the most Bka Onon Neko Sunnyboi0 (plunder Leafium Z for Haha)

 

[hidin]

Well folks, the guy who went winless in WC finally got a win! Even went 4-2 in another tournament playing National Dex as well. While I haven't built as much compared to the past, the quality of how I build has increased decently in my eyes. s/o to the Manaphies, even though morale and activity slowed down real quick later in the tour I'm glad that you guys were able to play. Also s/o to Royal Aegislash, you guys are awesome and I'm so happy we got into finals, its been a bumpy ride but we managed to land at our desired destination. And obligatory congrats to Galarian Pheonix for the double PL win, very deserved and yall had a great performance.

I don't have any pre-Gholdengo ban teams that I want to share, so heres the teams I've built after.

Teams that are post-Ghold

These two teams have pretty simple premises and as such are pretty simple builds, do not have much to explain.


Wanted to make a superman team work and here's the result, the SD Gliscor matchup is pretty not good but that goes for any fat that isn't using Dondozo or Corviknight, and both don't really fit here well. Had decent success in testing, you could use Ice Fang Zamazenta or even Ice Fang Gliscor for the opposing Gliscor matchup.


Psychium Z is on Lele to blow up Garganacl trying to do broken stuff since IDBP is a Top 3 wincon in the tier at the moment. Didn't want to use Tera on it because you'll be wanting to Tera Sneasler more after Lele breaks what it would with Tera with Shattered Psyche.


Used this in EPL and won, check out the thread linked at the top of the post for the replay. SD Ursaluna is pretty underrated since it really breaks like a bastard and with Alomomola support its able to do it a little consistently. Aegislash is here as a flex in the tournament I'm in and as a Sneasler and Lele check.


Standard HO, saw that Glimm + Ceruledge + Dragonite team too many times on ladder and wanted to make my own. Jirachi can late-game with Iron Head hax and a pretty strong Stored Power, and Drain Punch to have some longevity if you want to get the ball rolling earlier with Dark-types alive.

All are ample submissions since we currently have zero teams on the sample slate sheet. I'll also be pushing out some VR nominations so stay tuned for that
I also built some NDUU and NDRU teams but those are pretty new, I'll probably post them in their respective bazaars.

With that all said, I want to add a little segment here about the state of the tier, and how people often overexaggerate in their doomposting when it comes to it. Yes, Tera stayed. Yes, we lost a good chunk of Pokemon with a few more to go. Yes, we lost some notable members in the community. But we are still pushing, aren't we? The activity in the community is good, tournament play has been pretty nice as of late with creative builds and interesting battles, ladder has become somewhat less egregious, and we are still a well known and respected metagame. The tier was never doomed, the two weeks after the Tera suspect did feel like it was but hey, that's just grief. Here we are right now enjoying the tier with Tera, and while you may think that National Dex has gone in a downward spiral because of it, it really hasn't and this tournament is a strong example. Please stop with the tier bashing

Don't want to end this on a negative note, so I'll suggest you watch the newest National Dex team tour NDFL; it has the potential to be really entertaining and I'm sure the games will be fun. Stay tuned for them!

 

[ChrisPBacon]

ggs all, s/o to everyone from the phoenix for your hard work and great games throughout the tour, I wouldn't have chosen a better team to play with. I'll be going through all my teams I used for my slot in SSND since Ryuji was the main builder for ... literally every other slot bar doubles LOL this guy gives 30k worth of support.

Week 1 vs Leni - Loss

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Going into the first week I didn't really know what to expect given my opponent didn't really have any prior experience with the tier and nobody in the weaviles bar maybe peap were notable for their ss support. Thus I decided to go with a relatively simple fat team with a notable tech in Trick Choice Scarf Slowbro, mainly aimed towards bulky waters and special tanks such as Pex, Rotom, and Chansey, crippling them for Moltres to break through. The Lati set is also a bit weird, but I knew that CM lati would likely be deadweight given my tendencies to spam it, so I opted for SD glisc as the bulky wincon supported by a Defog Lati. The rest of the team is quite self-explanatory, with Melmetal covering up Slowbro's Weavile weakness and Careful Glisc working here due to Bro, Lati, and Molt handling Heatran acceptably (funnily enough i only used careful glisc this tour). While this team wasn't bad imo, I loaded into a pretty poor matchup and didn't get the burn against Tar that I really needed to make the mu easier, with a bit of poor luck against Glisc in the endgame sealing the game.

Week 2 vs Fc - Win

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Against Fc I went with the fat call as although it was expected, I decided that the reward was preferable as I had a great record against Fc with these types of defensive builds. My aim here was to have good insurance against some of the most prominent fat breakers with the aegi/molt defensive core handling MMedi, MMaw, and Lele well. The team is very similar to the Isza fat built before, albeit changing the Slowbro to Latias, sporting an incredibly unusual set to bait the rain mu while maintaining the check against Glisc. Ingame this mu was near nighmarish from turn 1 after Mawile dodged the burn, making me wish my sole defogger wasn't Moltres against offensive Lando. Fortunately I managed to pull through despite the shaky manevouring with maybe the slightest bit of fortune.

Week 3 vs Sage - Win

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Ngl I have very little to say here, I don't even remember how prep went there other than the fact I didn't want to use lati. Took the zap team and made Tran flame body - probably my biggest obsession this war was with flame body tran, even more so than careful glisc.

Week 4 vs SHSP - Win

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The SS Grassy Terrain balances featuring Rilla, Torn, a steel, Pex/Bro, Chomp, and a Filler were some of my favourite teams to use with how solid and intuitive they seemed to play. I wanted to attempt to replicate them this week using probably the closest thing to a Torn there was in this tier with utility lati and a Seismitoad over Garchomp to better handle the Agren mu. It also compressed the water-type slot, allowing me to go with both CM Clef and Heatran as a wincon and Zor check each. I won't lie that I didn't play particularly impressive this week - going lati on Z Kart was a complete mind blank that should've punished me with the roll although I might've still had avenues out between Rilla and Melm.

Week 5 vs Latiasboy - Win

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Ok I promise I stop using Latias soon. This week I was fighting someone who didn't have much experience in the tier similar to the last, only I knew that pannu would likely pass which means I was gonna use Z Kart, following the standard structure from SM. This was edited fro the jon version of team in that mono lati makes the team incredibly weak to Gliscor and I didn't particularly appreciate what Heatran brought to the team, preferring steela to check Sciz and Kyurem much better. I think I played this ingame quite well in dancing around the Mawile, although I could've gotten way more use out of the Kartana early on.

Week 6 vs Roginald - Loss

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This was the first week where I was really able to examine my opponents tendencies rather than just bringing something that felt generally solid, and I opted for the Diancie call here as their teams were not at all equipped to handle it from my observations. This takes inspirations from both SS and SM structures, with SD glisc being the wincon of choice to complement Diancie after I saw a SPL game with it and the Ferro/Tran/Fini/Zap defensive core just sorta built itself from there. Note: tran evs are to live something related to swords dance weavile I think? I was really happy with this team since I hadn't built from scratch since Week 1 and ingame I loaded into the perfect matchup based on my builds, which is why getting haxxed between a diamond miss, a probable poor roll, and a leech miss at the end really gutted me, though I did get rather lucky in my week 3 so it sorta cancels out.

Week 7 vs MTB - Win

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In the high-stakes finals game where every win made the difference between our team making playoffs and not, I busted out all the creative stops by loading yet another grassy terrain stolen from SSOU, this time even less original as I practically c/pasted the xray bulky blaziken team but had to accommodate for no Torn with Zapdos, which led to me replacing Blaze with SD Vile as a wincon that benefitted from FS support while also providing moderate speed control. I really liked this team and think after this PL that grassy has great potential, but the Z Kart weakness can't really be discounted as it nearly completely shreds the entire team after busting through Zapdos. Fortunately this game I knew the sets of the team from memory and that the Kart was the odd Steelium, which meant Zap was able to check it and my team's defensive core remained intact.

Semis vs Sage - Loss

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Sage's teams all seemed pretty weak to Fight Reuni from my scout, so I decided to bring it here on potentially the most bogstandard balance team known to man alongside TSpikes Pex to help against the prominent amount of offense usage. The choice of 3a Latias was somewhat strange, but I didn't really wanna get caught up against Weavile/TTar without Aura. Aside from that, the team was pretty intuitive, which is why I can crown it as possibly the biggest prep mistake of my season. As soon as I saw Agren opposing me after almost not seeing one all tour, I knew I was in trouble as I had forgone the clef that usually finds it place on these structures and my Pex wasn't necessarily specially sound nor did it have Toxic to at least punish it, which led to my team getting demolished in practise as the Gren proved incredibly difficult to work around.

Finals vs Jordy - Win

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After my biggest prep L, I followed it up with probably my biggest prep W of the tournament for finals, as Jordy's scout was incredibly similar throughout the entire tour and I noticed he steered clear from certain Pokemon, most notably Heatran and Gliscor. To exploit this I opted for another Diancie build against his tendency to use Sciz and Ferro as steels, supported by offensive Zapdos and Victini to put pressure on most notably Gastrodon. Ferro/Clef/Lando formed the simple defensive core here, with CM clef acting as the wincon once steels were removed. Although I really hate BoltBeam I was convinced into it to have some avenue to pressure steels while needing the check on SD glisc. Turns out it did more than check SD Glisc as it killed Lando on turn 1, making the game so much easier as it made pivoting near effortless and turned Zapdos into an even bigger threat when Rocks couldn't be reapplied, sealing the win.

Got some other teams asw, these were all in my builder and considered in some way during the tour
https://pokepast.es/b2cc3ca702da3c69
https://pokepast.es/0d2635249bc5fcf3
https://pokepast.es/b5d41596f2472b81
https://pokepast.es/4e97a145981bef6a
https://pokepast.es/4ba1c842848f2071
https://pokepast.es/8adc3cf094d5c026
https://pokepast.es/4039ab83657f8fe4
https://pokepast.es/df69c120183871da
https://pokepast.es/b17e86660f033dca