Resource PUPL IX - Team / Set Dump

[asa]

amazing art by Chloe and UberSkitty!
​

The playoffs teams have been decided, so let’s get the team/set dump underway! Feel free to post the interesting teams, sets, and other ideas you or your team had throughout the season, even if you didn’t end up using them. Any explanation of thought process is appreciated, no matter how lengthy.

Good luck to everyone in playoffs!

 

[gum]

season didn't go how i would've wanted for the twinks, but i still enjoyed coming back to swsh and building / honing teams. i think it's a very fun tier to play, probably my favourite of all time. games often don't feel like they're over on preview, and i generally like how the better player ends up winning - either by bringing a better team or simply playing better. i admittedly got pretty lazy in the builder this season, but at this point in the tier's life it feels pretty solved. pushing building boundaries feels unrewarding at times with how consistent gigalith balance is as a playstyle, and there's still a decent amount of things you can do with that, anyway. i don't really like doublade being in the tier, and i think banning ice cream back then was cope, which people are starting to realize, but oh well x! think tiering last gen should've been handled differently, and i wonder how the tier would look now if, say, drampa was suspected earlier on and there was more time towards the end of the gen to tackle scyther / scrafty / drops. i know i'm doing a lot of complaining after just saying the tier is my favourite one to play LOL but to me it feels like it had a lot of potential, and i get why people generally dislike it. looking back i do wish i brought some terrain or classic ho simply for fun, but it really doesn't feel like something you absolutely need in your swsh toolkit anyway

week 1 vs shaneghoul | sd qwilfish + jolt audino balance | win

i built a ton of teams week 1, mostly to get back into things since i didn't really build much since scl ended, outside of a couple teams for sspl. i knew shane liked supergeist and mareanie so i didn't want to lose to that, but i didn't really know what i wanted to bring. audino balance is a playstyle i enjoy in those cases, where i feel less confident in the builder. it's generally safe vs most things, and i just wanted to aim for a playable mu. sd qwilfish might seem like a dumb bring considering i just said shane is a mareanie fan, but it absorbs tspikes, is a potential wincon, and provides me with something to prevent the centiskorch preview forfeit. jolteon is also cute to round out the magneton + ho matchup, as well as allowing me to drop toxic on gigalith for earthquake

as for the game itself, i felt pretty good abt my mu; gallade + doublade could be annoying, but i had the tools for both while my qwilfish also looked really good here. sadly things went pretty sour when my eldegoss got crit and at that point i had to hope that shane would throw by giving me free set up for qwilfish, which happened thankfully teehee x

week 2 vs oranberryblissey10 | specs magnet + sd evio thwackey | loss

i think this is the one week i had an idea day 1 and kinda just stuck with it. i think obb had a lot of gunfisk usage, and generally used teams that weren't that good vs the magnets so thwackey to punish gunfish and get magneton in vs weezing / gourgeist felt like a good idea. the rest of the team kinda built itself really, with gigabee being a free add. i felt like my w1 team was pretty good vs electrics so i didn't feel the need to use a volt absorber again. i was scared of gourgeist, so i decided i'd use a defogger for once

i didn't get the mu i wanted, centi + ferroseed were going to be annoying, but i would've played differently if i knew it was nasty plot mesprit; i just assumed it was scarf on preview cuz that 6 looked pretty slow otherwise. i was a bit bummed about this one cuz i liked the team i brought even if it was a bit fishy, but hopefully i get to use it again at some point x

week 3 vs dj breloominati | vikavolt + sash kadabra spikes | win

i didn't really know what to do in the builder this week, dj uses pretty weird / off meta things at times so i felt like no matter what i brought it'd be a mu fish, and also wanted to stay away from eldegoss for the week. i ended up just using this ryan team from last scl, as it felt like it covered a lot of mus and gave me good odds no matter what i ran into; vikavolt tends to farm slower teams, while kadabra gave me an out vs more offensive builds

i got a favourable mu and was pretty confident on preview. bouffalant could be annoying if its sub had bulk to tank a ferroseed gyro ball, but i knew i'd at least be able to set spikes freely and be annoying with vikavolt. kadabra was also good, so i didn't really feel like i had to risk anything that game when playing safely meant i won. vikavolt + ferroseed unsurprisingly ended up doing most of the heavy lifting that game, and with aroma bee + kadabra in the back i could afford to get some turns wrong

week 4 vs fc | hatt + double specs | win

this is a team i built last scl that was never used outside of ssnl, and once in sspl with guno > zard. whoever was building for fc didn't seem to respect gigalith enough, so this seemed like the perfect week to bring double specs as i think it's a really fun playstyle. team is really just built to support the core of specs zard + specs bee, with elde acting as a 1 time pivot and additional removal. sd slash pairs well with the other 5, and can act as an emergency switchin to physical attackers when sand is up. i had quagsire over it in the original version for doublade and sandslash but that's a bit more boring

i was pretty relieved to not run into gigalith on preview, and i knew charizard would farm if i could hit a hurricane vs wishiwashi. sadly after only hitting once my zard became blind, but it still managed to get 5 kills, even sweeping late-game. this game is a pretty good example of like, structures that punish teams without gigalith - they usually get overwhelmed by special attackers way faster. even something like lanturn wouldn't be enough by itself, as that leaves you vulnerable to ribombee, guno, frosmoth, haunter, vikavolt, etc. in this meta, role compression is much more important than in most due to doublade's impact on the tier, so straying away from gigalith balance usually exposes you to more, so by nature, those structures are much more mu fishy

week 5 vs meri berry | frosmoth tspikes | win

i felt like i was pretty vulnerable to neutralizing gas weezing setting tspikes on me, especially as the only boots elde i used was on a team with a tspikes absorber anyway. my mu vs the poltergeist grasses was also worrying in previous weeks, so really sitrus weezing with neutralizing gas felt like a natural bring. i went through a lot of ideas this week, as meri generally brought teams weak to guno and haunter. i didn't like anything i was building or already in my builder though, and frosmoth is a pokemon i like a lot that looked pretty good into her scout. ninjask was there was random cheese, and i felt like the 2 bugs could help eachother win. whimsicott is a fun pokemon i don't use often cuz ribombee is my go-to fairy-type, but knock support is fun, even if it comes at the cost of aromatherapy

my mu looked pretty dire, sd qwilfish and doublade looked like they both could win pretty easily. this was especially true when my sandslash got toxic'd early on the one week i didn't bring a cleric so ermies. meri probably won if she didn't go for the greed powder, but i'm still happy with how i played this one to prevent losing to 1 of doublade or qwilfish

week 6 vs meru | knock archeops + doublade audino balance | loss

to be quite honest at this point in the tour i didn't care anymore LOL, whether i lost or won didn't really matter since playoffs odds looked very very dire anyway. i ended up building this 6 right before going to sleep the day before my game, and it ended up looking a lot like a team i built for meru last pupl, just with audino > weezing and a different doublade set, as well with scarf ribombee. i really like this 6 and i think it covers most of the tier very well, outside of being pretty poor vs magneton but oh well..! at least gigalith and doublade can trade vs that if needed, but yeah not a great mu

i liked my mu on preview, thwackey and vikavolt could get annoying but i had options for most things, i just ended up having a clicker moment and not calcing and that cost me the game. not like this game mattered anyway, but moonblast over switcheroo was always a win. we live and we learn..

---

ty pix for managing w me, and everyone on the team for trying. especially our adv core, i didn't know much about the tier but it was always great to see u all put in a ton of effort every week. this season wasn't so bad despite us being out by week 6 LOL. gl to the teams in playoffs x

 

[Melt Gibson]

ty pix for managing w me, and everyone on the team for trying. especially our adv core, i didn't know much about the tier but it was always great to see u all put in a ton of effort every week.

speaking of our adv crack den: I present to you some of our magnum opuses. (+ some of the cursed shit we made along the way.)

Magnemite @ Magnet
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 44 HP / 36 Def / 252 SpA / 176 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Thunder Wave
- Protect

MAGNET MIKE!!!! This little dude was a 4 am bender build that I tried to put together as anti-Mawile tech. faster than the standard spread, enough HP to not get slapped by Seismic Toss, Def to not get one tapped by Brick Break, and full SpA with a Magnet to OHKO or 2HKO with Thunderbolt. I put way more effort into this than I really should have. We never did get to use him, but it was a lot of fun trying to put it together.

Abra @ Salac Berry
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA
- Endure
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Water]

Another weird set that I played around with, this one got four whole teams dedicated to it. Broth used it once in a scrim and I kinda just took it and ran. +1 Speed makes you faster than everything else in the tier, and since Mightyena and Houndour are the only real Dark types, I definitely thought that this could steal us a game.

Wigglytuff @ Leftovers
Ability: Cute Charm
EVs: 252 Def / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Thunderbolt
- Counter

Another innovation in our series of new and exciting ways to fuck over Arbok and Swalot. This one was all Broth, but I'd feel terrible not giving it a part of the post, especially since it ended up not working out. I audibly shouted "no!" when Bouff went for the Counter and it whiffed :(

Nuzleaf @ Choice Band
Ability: Early Bird
EVs: 252 Atk / 64 SpA / 192 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Giga Drain
- Fake Out
- Explosion
- Brick Break

One of zoowi's bastard children that I found to be really funny, this was for a week where our opponent used a lot of Marshtomp and we were struggling to pick out a dedicated lead. Again, never used it, this one because Duskull and Tangela gave it too many issues, but still really funny and one I really enjoyed using in test games.

Ivysaur @ Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 248 HP / 228 SpD / 32 Spe
Careful Nature
- Swords Dance
- Synthesis
- Sludge Bomb
- Hidden Power [Ground]

And lastly, the HP Ground Ivysaur meant to stop Swalot that I used in my game vs MrSoup. Sad that this one didn't get to do too much, but that's the game we play.

Thanks for having me, hope I get to see some of you guys again next year :) <3

 

[Slowbroth]

Continuing the thread with only twinkatuff posts! I was also part of the crew on the twinks that supported building ADV. First, some of my preamble thoughts: I was super happy to see ADV PU finally in PUPL with solid success. Big shoutout to SergioRules and the rest of the community for keeping the project going strong. I did take a 3 year break but when I found out that ADV would be in this PUPL, I couldn't not join. And even though we weren't able to make playoffs, I had a blast building and hanging out with fellow teammates -- shoutout to Bouff who expertly piloted any of our builds with aplomb and learning the meta so quickly, shoutout to Melt Gibson who didn't mind me nagging them with constant tests, shoutout to zoowi who would bring off meta teams in tests and still somehow win. And thank you to gum and Vulpix03 for managing.

Week 1: Bouff vs Jisoo (L)

We wanted to go for something off meta right off the bat with Clamperl, in hopes that we might be able to catch them off guard not prepping for Clamperl or bringing a slower balance team that Clamperl would feast on. (Plus zoowi loves the mon) Another thing that we wanted to make sure was that all of our builds had was a solid defensive backbone to pivot on, and unfortunately due to me not having played the meta for a while, we brought a Mawile / Swalot / Togetic defensive core thinking that it'd be solid enough, but only having Togetic as the Ground check was not good enough, and it got crit by a Rock Slide and then we had no EQ switchin. Thankfully, we learned our lesson and you'll see later builds having plenty of checks to Ground types. Unfortunately, on turn 5, we lost our Clamperl to Chinchou due to being unfamiliar with defensive Chinchou's speed tier (even without investment, it still outspeeds Modest Clamperl), which put us on the back foot the entire match. We did takeaway that Chinchou is a mon that should be used a lot more, as it has very good utility, being able to check Electric, Water and Fire at the same time, so you'll see Chinchou being used later by us in the season. Regarding the Minun EVs, it's just enough to outpace Furret, as we didn't see a great need to speed tie opposing Minun and we could instead put it into bulk. You'll see this spread (or some variant) in later builds as well.

Week 2: Bouff vs Medeiaa (W)
[click here for alternate version]
We knew we wanted to use Sealeo this week, as our opponent really liked using Dragonair and it seemed it would be a good pick against their builds in general. We also wanted to bring something super solid (especially against Grounds, which our opponent did end up bringing) to avoid an 0-2 ADV record, so we eventually found our favorite defensive core we'd eventually go to rely on all season: Tangela / Duskull / Swalot. This defensive core allows you to check Normal, Ground and special attackers (Water, Electric, Fire), so it gives you a good matchup against 95% of the meta. (My personal comment: Duskull is super good! It was only brought like 8 times this PUPL which I felt was a bit criminal. I know some people dislike the passive nature, but it walls so much and Wisp is so good and Night Shade is even better.) We decided to opt for HP Grass Minun to hit Marshtomp, which was also a common bring from them. We prepared this team to do well against defensive Dragonair so we were OK with running both HP Grass and HP Fire on Minun and Tangela, respectively. Also, this Sealeo doesn't have Surf, as we felt we could play without it and we had sufficient counterplay to Fire and Steel types regardless. (Just be aware of this if you decide to steal this team.) We also decided to go with Toxic on Vibrava, as we didn't think our opponent would bring Duskull for HP Ghost to be necessary, and Toxic can catch some random stuff off guard. In the game, despite some initial hax earlier on, we were able to get into a position to kill the Dragonair and Sealeo, and from there Tangela didn't face much pressure and was able to wall the rest of their team.

Week 3: Bouff vs Lily (L)
[click here for alternate version]
I ended up getting COVID this week and felt like shit so I wasn't able to do super deep prep. However, I had some stuff in my builder that I knew I could possibly lean on and maybe make work. We wanted to bring something a little bit wackier to catch them potentially off guard but still normal enough. Bouff wanted to bring a Marshtomp, and we wanted to bring Arbok as well, as we were getting tired of Swalot. We ended up throwing Mawile onto the build with SD Pass. But because we had round out the defensive core with Tangela and Sealeo (to check Ground, Water and Fire), we needed one last fast mon and ideally another SD recipient. So Minun technically didn't fit in that last slot (even though it probably would have been a better bring than Yanma). Unfortunately, our build didn't have enough breaking power and wasn't good enough, and we were down early again. To make matters worse, we lost our Sealeo to a crit and we weren't able to find the opportunity to pass an SD to Yanma. We almost clutched the game back in the end when we dodged a Fire Blast, but we couldn't capitalize by hitting a Sleep Powder. This team ended up being leaked in a separate chat and got passed around, and it was actually brought by the Leafeons twice for a 1-1 record. In Thiago's game, due to the Sealeo not having Surf, it ended up losing as it wasn't able to actually kill the Houndour. So do be aware of this if you take the original version. The alternate version changes Toxic -> Surf.

Week 4: Bouff vs SuperEpicAmpharos (W)

Some IRL stuff caused me to be absent this week from helping with prep, so this team was built by Melt and Bouff. However, we definitely wanted to bring Furret as we hadn't even brought it once the previous 3 weeks. Other than that, the rest of the build is fairly standard, with lead Arbok, and a defensive core Chinchou / Tangela / Duskull. (The Chinchou set was stolen directly from the one we faced in Week 1.) Offensive Sealeo rounds out the team and is never not good. In the game, SEA ended up accidentally not bringing Intimidate on their Mawile, which allowed Arbok to weaken it a lot easier. Duskull was super good in this matchup, as the only thing that mildly threated it was Hydro Pump from Seadra and Shadow Ball from Furret. All in all, our defensive core was able to answer their entire team. In the end, due to Mawile being eliminated early, Furret was able to clean the rest of the team.

Week 5: Bouff vs SergioRules (W)

We wanted to bring something a bit different from our standard builds of Tangela / Sealeo / Duskull / Swalot and bring something more offensive, and more importantly, something that denies Spikes from being set up, as we were worried about getting pressured by a defensive Spikes team. So we wanted to have a build where every mon pressures opposing Omanyte. The original build had Omanyte over Shuckle, but we found it to be too weak to Arbok and Seviper, so we chose to go with Shuckle instead (which took some convincing for Bouff), which also patches up a Ground and Fire weakness that a lot of the tier's Normal resists have. We especially thought that this would be a perfect week to bring Seviper of our own, which carves holes in a lot of builds, and with ample defensive support it would find many opportunities to break. We also threw on Vibrava for more offense and a soft check to Grounds. Our Minun was HP Grass for the Marshtomp that we thought Sergio would bring. We also deviated from Shuckle's standard Rock STAB / EQ / Toxic / Protect set, and chose to go for Encore over Rock STAB (HP Rock is better than Rock Slide btw!) to prevent any setup shenanigans. Plus EQ + Toxic hits almost everything anyways, so losing Rock STAB isn't that bad. Lastly, we decided to go with Wigglytuff over Lickitung in the last slot as Wiggly is a touch stronger offensively at the cost of sacrificing a little bit of bulk. We went with Tbolt for Omanyte and then Counter in the last slot to maybe catch a physical attacker off guard, although we were unable to pull it off. In the game, we were able to get the lead early by eliminating the Marshtomp and Minun, and then once Sealeo was gone, not much could threaten the defensive core of Shuckle + Wiggly, and we were able to cruise the rest of the way.

Week 6: Bouff vs felines (W)
[click here for alternate version]
This was a team that I built at the start of PUPL when I was experimenting with Pokemon (e.g. Seadra) that benefit from Trapinch removing Poison types like Swalot and Ivysaur. I paired Trapinch with Paraspam support, as the biggest flaw with Trapinch is its speed, so being able to outspeed everything and kill them is fantastic. This team originally had Seadra but was changed to Omanyte for Spikes support and Normal resist. Swalot is back to blanket check special attackers, Togetic is here to check Grounds and beat them with HP Grass and Tangela is our wincon, because we're using Growth. The idea of the team is that once Trapinch removes Fire/Poison/Steel pokemon such as Swalot, Ivysaur, Mawile, Charmeleon, it can just win once everything else is paralyzed. Since Ground types can't be paralyzed, we made sure that every Pokemon on the team can pressure Grounds in some way. We deliberated for a long time on Substitute vs Seismic Toss on Minun -- Substitute allows you to give Trapinch a safe switchin to a hit and protects Minun from status -- but we decided to go with Toss instead to be safe. Unfortunately, Sub would have been a lot better in the game for avoiding a potential Sing and giving Trapinch a safe switchin to trap the Swalot. We eventually got ourselves into a position where we just needed to kill the Magcargo (which wasn't on our prep list) for Tangela to win, and we somehow got the Trapinch in safely after a Twave to revenge. We did not run HP Ground on Swalot, which would have made things on a lot easier. Overall this is my favorite team and I do recommend giving it a go if you're interested in stealing any one of these teams. (Just know that it gets 6-0'd by Seviper if your Trapinch is not healthy.)


Trapinch @ Choice Band
Ability: Arena Trap
EVs: 244 Atk / 128 SpD / 136 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Quick Attack
- Hidden Power [Ghost]

Regarding the Trapinch EVs, it's designed to live an Ivysaur HP Grass and Chinchou Surf from full guaranteed and guarantee OHKO Ivysaur back with EQ. The Speed allows you to outpace Duskull as well.


Thanks for reading and I hope the next PUPL brings even more meta development and innovation!

 

[Baloor]

amazing outdated teams built by yours truly

https://pokepast.es/45dde3dbc9b2c1f6
https://pokepast.es/4c386c5c831509c1
https://pokepast.es/9b307f287624a3f1
https://pokepast.es/89e15cf51d1c3c08
https://pokepast.es/5fbdfb2244b5cd23
--------------------------------------------------
https://pokepast.es/4d52bf50eb1601d9
https://pokepast.es/4d1ee36e130670ce
https://pokepast.es/249c13e27adce9c8
https://pokepast.es/9750f8683c3d0b92

 

[justdrew]

https://pokepast.es/2ccfc22d7fae0e49

I don’t have much time to type up an explanation for all the teams. I’m also not much of a pu building expert. That said here is all the SV teams I built that were used this season.

I am so grateful to pdt and Drud for taking a chance on me. Only reason I got drafted was because I asked pdt to give me a shot.

Massive shoutout to ManOfMany Hera BlackKnight_Gawain bb skarm Fogbound Lake tier gum Baloor for your goated support and work on SV this season. You’re all the best!

 

[asa]

Bit of a delayed post all things considered, but enjoy the (outdated) teams I used this season!

- Week 1 vs TyCarter (W)
- Week 2 vs Liz Angeles (L)
- Week 3 vs ProDigeZz (W)
- Week 4 vs clean (W)
- Week 5 vs zoowi (W)
- Week 6 vs Fogbound Lake (W)

I was occasionally uncertain what to use or how to go about building throughout the first six weeks, but I'm proud of how these teams turned out nonetheless. There were some fun picks mixed in with the standard stuff (Scovillain, Final Gambit Bootsculin to chip and then remove Gogoat, RestTalk Crabominable) that definitely were definitely fun to try, and most of them worked out too!

- Week 7 vs Fc (L)
- Semis vs clean (W)
- Semis Tiebreak vs Floss (L)

By this point I was admittedly somewhat burnt out, and I feel like it sort of showed in my building and play. I don't dislike any of these teams or anything (don't care much for the week seven one, though), and they definitely had their fair share of cool things going on. Choice Specs Basculin, for example, is one of my favorite wallbreakers in the tier, and double dance Klawf is also fun if you can get it to pull off the boosts it needs. That said, I could've did more at the time to polish each of these teams. None of these games felt very smooth for me either, especially because of the insane luck that happened in semis.

Thank you ishtar for having me as your co-manager and to the rest of the Sliggoomfies for giving it your all for so long as well as trusting and helping me. I had a great time with everyone at every stage of the season. Good luck to each of you in whatever other tournaments you enter, and congratulations to the Mags for winning this year. You guys played well and you played hard (especially when you smashed us week six lol).

See you all in next year's PUPL!

 

[rien]

as some of you may or may not know, i ended up not signing up to play due to my crippling tour anxiety and instead chose to support the destructive dedennes which i joined on day 1. gonna go through sv quickly because these are already obsolete (or will be very soon) and will take more time to delve into sm right after.

(click the teams for importables)

-----

SV


week 3 - Floss vs Luck O' the Irish (W)

can't take full credit for this team, i built the original version but it has since undergone a few tweaks by the good fellas in the server, the most notable of which was replacing tinkatuff with stockpile swalot which ended up being a really cool wincon in that game.


week 5 - Floss vs Bella (W)

frankly don't have too much recollection of building this team other than that it was a last-minute build. very reflective of my building preferences in july/august metas with multiple setup sweepers usually supported by a defensive backbone, with one of the defensive mons being able to spread wishes. just a bunch of mons i liked stacked together really. leafeon was originally a dachsbun but no one else but me likes it so it became a leafeon :(


week 6 - Floss vs DugZa (W)

this team was very much influenced by the new drops, utilizing a klawf+whiscash+misdreavus structure to enable spikestack. semi-bulky subcm missy striked me as an incredibly efficient sweeper that can easily take advantage of would-be defensive answers like chansey, while ofc still providing spinblocking in a pinch (not that we expected goated wigza to bring qu*x, mind you). if this team seems familiar to you, it's because we added it to the sample teams shortly after this game (completely unchanged including the female only pyroar oops)


semifinals tiebreaker - Floss vs asa (W)

frankly yet another last minute team with a bunch of mons i like, i especially wanted to use sd leafeon as a cool wincon that can really dismantle common team structures while still providing a lot of defensive utility and insurance against physical waters like basculin. some other mons like skuntank and raichu were moreso there to provide insurance against haunter and electrics respectively but ended up fitting pretty well into this team. don't really have much to say about this one but i'm very pleased with how it turned out and ofc this game determining whether dedennes get to final or not was very cool (and nerve-wracking to watch!)

-----

SM


week 1 - soulgazer vs Gondra (L)

wasn't really actively building until like week 3 as i mostly intended to chill in the server and just dumped my sm builder in the chat, so the next three teams are all pre-built. danny originally planned to use it in bo3 but ended up winning in 2 (GOAT) and soulgazer got to use it instead. this is quite an old team dating back to 2020 i think? when i ended up making a ton of quirky spikestacks like this one (that were mostly bad kek). this one features some uncommon sets like icium qwilfish (very much representative of late 2019-early 2020 metagames where ppl used torterra a lot more often and this was always a funny nuke to it), subpup kanga, scarf simisear, and crotomb for spinblocking (far from the best ghost in the metagame but a fun one on tspikes teams nonetheless). close and pretty cool game despite us not winning this one with a nail-biting endgame.


week 2 - soulgazer vs Xiri (W)

like the last team, this wasn't built especially for pupl but ended up fitting just right against the opponent's scout, compared with a bit of unpredictability as this team deviates greatly from sg's scout with mons like regirock. built this shortly before pupl as i was trying to get back into sm and break by builder's block, and to do so i challenged myself to build the most basic bulky offense without trying to reinvent the wheel. this team is incredibly standard except for like, spdef jellicent which is very much a result of me overthinking matchups and being really afraid of simisear (and it ended up being useful against another offensive fire in grassium camerupt), but i've grown to really like it to the point that i often prefer it over physdef jelli.


week 2 (bo3) - Danny vs pdt (W)

another old team, honestly have zero recollection of building it LOL so i can't provide a lot more input than the obvious gameplan - spread paralysis and win with sawsbuck. danny is a really cool guy with a liking for more eccentric builds and this was a perfect fit, despite getting what was basically a nightmare matchup (3 para immunes in frosttom+alolachu+muds), it was fun to see every component of the team be useful at some point - subsd saws using physdef jelli as setup fodder, liepard nailing a twave against an otherwise game-ending threat in sd fairyvally, and bulky lanturn just doing a lot more pivoting than any lanturn should be allowed in a game). this is definitely more of a fun team than a traditionally consistent tour one but i'm glad it provided for a fun win.


week 3 (bo3) - Danny vs mncmt (W)

one of two purpose-built sm teams for this week, the other one ended up not getting used (more on it later) since we got an act win but i did notice a glaring weakness to certain waters like swanna and mostly lanturn on the opponents' scout so lanturn was basically a lock-in in this week's prep. haven't built with musharna in a long time at that point and got this fun idea of pairing it with costa and scarf lanturn (basically a rien trademark at this point, admittedly more effective when the team composition doesn't give the set away hehe...). went for a less common spdef musharna spread to better handle threats like victreebel that this team otherwise struggled with, as well as psyshock bc psyshock is always cooler than psychic. this team is not without flaws; ferroseed proved to be a real pain in test games, which prompted hp fire on lanturn, and the lack of thunderbolt made the defensive jelli matchup worse (and danny was unfortunate enough to face both of them in the game). definitely a bit of a weird game which we probably shouldn't have won, but cm spdef musharna really pulled through and costa was able to get into a sweeping position which was nice.

(fairy)
week 4 (bo3) - Danny vs DAHLI (L)

don't use this team. at this point the sv brainrot had fully engulfed me and i thought gabite would make a cool rocker that reliably beats simisear. very big mistake. ended up facing hail which kinda obliterated this team. np grassium simipour is cute though!

(ghost)
week 6 - soulgazer vs Santu (L)

the idea of bringing webs vs santu was kindly suggested by an anonymous twink who hoped the outcome of this week could improve their team's chances of getting into playoffs (thank you twink!). i allowed myself to have a bit of fun with some of the set choices - costa is running knock off to remove basically any non-colbur jellicent (colbur jellicent is a lot less common these days), lurantis tailored to beat victreebel with enough speed and the ability to ko with hp ice after slight chip (even better if vic switches into a leaf storm beforehand), and sd ghostvally for spinblocking (which is actually a really solid primeape switchin too). skunk is an unconventional last mon on this structure that handles common haunter brings like haunter (kek) and mr. mime, and can recover one of the four sweepers with z-memento. pretty fun and close game.

(water)
semifinals - soulgazer vs Chloe (W)

one of the most fun teams i got to build this pupl, and imo one of the most fun games too, definitely go watch it if you haven't already. sd watervally is a really unconventional but cool pick that looked very solid into chloe's scout as it's really good on paper at dismantling common defensive cores like muds+eel, and i wanted to pair it with victreebel as these two share great defensive synergy; this also gave us a bit of insurance against hail teams that oomfies have been liking quite a bit. eventually the team evolved into fitting lanturn as a scarfer as a way to improve the simisear matchup, but the coolest thing about the team composition is that lanturn played a pivotal role in concealing silvally's type, which led to very favorable plays for our side like chloe sacking a would-be defensive answer in altaria. a really good endgame by sg with watervally sealed the victory.

(poison)
finals - soulgazer vs Xiri (L)

as you may have noticed, this team doesn't have a paste attached to it - in some ways it feels personal to me and i'm not ready to release it to the public domain, but it would've been weird to not give it a mention :) probably my favorite sm team that i built from the last 3-ish years, originally built during week 6 to be used in bo3, and then intended to get used in semifinals bo3, and didn't get used until finals where all the stars aligned and it looked really good into xiri's scout (he eventually brought heavy offense which put more pressure on this team than we anticipated). favorable endgame rolls come and go and we unfortunately weren't able to nail the win but i'm incredibly proud of this team and glad we got to show it before the tour ended.

unused SM teams (speedrun):


not built for any week/matchup in particular, just a weird regen spam stall with band slaking (Musharnanigans hi <3)

(fairy)
the other team i built in w3 with the bidoof's scout in mind, fairly standard bo featuring lanturn and physical swanna (which is really cool, people should use physical swanna more often!). sg ended up getting the act win on that week and we had more optimized teams for every following week so this ended up unused.

(fairy)
another very basic but very lovely bulky offense moment, loosely based on specs's sample team while fixing some matchups i didn't really like, like mudsdale which the original team struggles with a bit. always had this team ready as a backup plan and ultimately ended up bringing more optimized stuff every week instead.

(dragon)
built during w4 as a chloe cteam, noticed a glaring weakness to offensive torterra on her scout and band torterra was a very cool pick that could easily dismantle her defensive cores. paired with another cool slow breaker in nasty plot spiritomb. ultimately got scrapped for not being consistent enough.


built in w7 for inder to use in bo3, didn't get used bc they won in 2 (goat). built this fairly quickly after inder requested a team with simisear, there are probably some glaring flaws in it that are waiting to be found but i allowed myself to be more lenient since we already qualified for playoffs and the outcome of the week didn't matter.


ofc no good team dump is complete without a fun team :) needless to say but this was obviously never intended for anyone to actually bring to a game. double dance dustox is kinda mother when it doesn't get critted


breaking up the sm homegeneity by sneaking in an sv team (gasp!). really liked this august day 1 stall which we unfortunately never got to use, it's probably not great now that there are better options for stall but it was an absolute banger at the time.

-----

it's no secret that i didn't really enjoy my last pupl experience but this has been a totally reparative experience, i did not expect to get this involved and to care so much for the team (and the teammates! THE TEAMMATES!) to the extent that i did. not gonna tag everyone but i want to thank all players (and the literal army of dozens of helpers who we slowly accumulated over the course of the tour) for a lovely experience that i'm not soon to forget. hope we can do this again next year if we're all still around, thank you all so so much <3

 

[Chloe]

I'm not going to make this post as long as I would've previously intended given it's taken me this long to write anything, but this tournament was really enjoyable for me and it feels wrong of me to not post something. It was one of my most enjoyable team tournaments from a team atmosphere perspective which definitely encouraged me to put effort in a lot more than I would've at a time I was feeling like quitting singles. Loved all my teammates. Big shoutout isha, asa, meri, evi, mike, luna, dahli, rag, hantsuki, sergio, tuthur, ara, raahel; i appreciated interacting with all of you.

I played SM this tour. I was down to play anything but SM PU is by far my favourite PU generation and I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to play it this time around. I built a fair chunk for this tournament, given I actually wanted to be there. I spent hours each week just building new SM PU teams when I already have hundreds. I also built DAHLI a new SM team most weeks for our team's Bo3 slot, but most times it went unused due to the series finishing in two games either in DAHLI's or the opponent's favour.

==================================================

Week 1 vs Leru [L] | https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7pu-702078

https://pokepast.es/6902c6830f6d5b7a

I built a substantial amount for Week 1, but never really knew how to approach building for this matchup. Pix said that robjr would probably be passing teams so that was my basis, but I definitely developed a very narrow focus due to this. The idea was that robjr was seen using a ton of Regirock, Jellicent, stuff like that, and so I wanted a Pokemon that could set up on that. In the long run, they brought stall, I didn't have enough firepower, played my one potential breaker like shit, and couldn't use my Silvally to do anything due to Aggron completely walling it.

The EV spread I used on the Silvally was a very good example of how hyperfocused I was on counter-teaming here when my approach really should not have been this at all. But lessons learned I guess.

DAHLI Team For The Week:
https://pokepast.es/d2c549504f9498e7 (Unused)

Other Builds for Week 1:
https://pokepast.es/56529bc6626f8bf2
https://pokepast.es/e6f271d55c6b0455
https://pokepast.es/cf7b86e79e942b41

==================================================

Week 2 vs oversway [W] | http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7pu-702868

https://pokepast.es/83a07c36e60cb556

I don't think my team here was any good really looking back, but I didn't do myself any favours in game. I overpredicted him a ton when he was giving me several opportunities to Toxic his Throh for free. Not really sure what was going on there. Started tilting from all the times he was throwing the game and I wasn't taking advantage of it. Regardless, I won in the end and we take those.

DAHLI Team For The Week:
https://pokepast.es/a1c7adae1b4e5144 (Unused)

Other Builds For Week 2:
https://pokepast.es/1810a7168ad3b292
https://pokepast.es/10910bde7fc19aa4

==================================================

Week 3 vs Santu [W] | https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7pu-704519

https://pokepast.es/8f33d8a3e73697a6

I feel like this is where my season really turned around. Like generally I was building decent stuff and I was playing well enough to get me the wins in games. Wishiwashi VoltTurn was cool because this mon is hella underrated and should definitely be on the VR. I like it a lot. The team kept up momentum well, and definitely avoided being super passive, an issue of mine from previous weeks.

DAHLI Team For The Week:
https://pokepast.es/caeb17f9092739b9 (Unused, But Used In Week 4)

Other Builds For Week 3:
https://pokepast.es/70662fc6bf125390

==================================================

Week 4 vs soulgazer [W] | https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7pu-706522

https://pokepast.es/45d38a9142d8614c

This felt like my most solid build of the tournament. Reliable Drampa balance that had a lot of potent threats into sg's scout, lots of Cryo weak stuff that it felt like a crime not to bring it. Sorry I'm not writing more on these, I am feeling pretty lazy, if you have genuine questions just DM me.

DAHLI Team For The Week:
https://pokepast.es/ed6241af7e5cee18 (W vs Danny) | https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7pu-707049

Other Builds For Week 4:
https://pokepast.es/74af4538629932e6
https://pokepast.es/676c9d9d93e72d43

==================================================

Week 5 vs Gondra [W] | https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7pu-707487

-

Not really my team but I made a bunch of edits to specifically target Gondra's scout. This is the team he used the week before with minor edits. I think gum built the original version. This team looked good into his scout so I thought it'd be good and funny. It worked out so I don't regret it. I built a lot this week as I genuinely was just enjoying building for fun.

DAHLI Team For The Week:
https://pokepast.es/6d35a405bbef3d64 (W vs Punny) | https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7pu-707948

Other Builds For Week 5:
https://pokepast.es/aeb48911c41ca225
https://pokepast.es/9397bca0d2afe707
https://pokepast.es/b4e8658b675241f3
https://pokepast.es/179d360441773883
https://pokepast.es/0e91b620472902ea (you can tell i was getting bored LMAO)
https://pokepast.es/41c8d8ec4b946abe
https://pokepast.es/0e951c6fc0db8198 (im strange idk)

==================================================

Week 6 vs Xiri [L] | https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7pu-708937

-

Not my team. Stole an MZ team from ages ago because I thought Kadabra + hazards looked great into Xiri's scout. I would've preferred to build something myself in retrospect, but I was being pretty lazy. I still think this was a good bring but I played this like my brain wasn't fully developed yet so :(

I built nothing else this week, as I've said several times, I am very lazy. :(

==================================================

Week 7 vs Oathkeeper [W] | https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7pu-711358

https://pokepast.es/13af7a604ddc8f08

Literally a team I gave DAHLI earlier in the tournament, with two choice items switched around. Felt better this way though as Scarf Aurorus has a lot more favourable matchups than Specs. Both are broken though.

I built nothing else this week! We were already guaranteed in playoffs it was hard to find motivation to build more for no reason.

==================================================

SF vs soulgazer [L] | https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7pu-712461

https://pokepast.es/bfcae26b70c4da17

Don't watch the game I think the team was fine and all. I knew I was weak to water types going in, but I definitely could've dealt with this by preserving Altaria. I did not know it would be Watervally.

DAHLI Team For The Week:
https://pokepast.es/a7e69382e448f341 (Unused) - It was initially SD which is illegal on that moveset in Gen 7, but I didnt notice that until they tried to load it up in the series. They ended up playing SS instead and losing hence the team being unused.

Other Teams for SF:
https://pokepast.es/44c28b1f77610ee5
https://pokepast.es/9c841994076b8433
https://pokepast.es/a37afc73df946276
https://pokepast.es/b9493c0b99f64d4e

==================================================

isha and I built this for Evi in W3 and she used it and lost :(
(BW) https://pokepast.es/13cd9c3fc8263e0b

meri, isha and I built this for DAHLI in W5 and they used it and lost :(
(SS) https://pokepast.es/2f291b917413b399

I got bored a ton and built silly stuff for SV to help test :3
(SV) https://pokepast.es/7eafaa055ac99b6e
(SV) https://pokepast.es/51e299870265b73f
(SV) https://pokepast.es/0e63d88eb6b9ba9f
(SV) https://pokepast.es/3b5bc3b7f7eb3ae0

==================================================

We got knocked out in Semis so that's where the tournament ended. I had a really amazing time, not because I ended up doing well, or anything like that, but my teammates were great and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. A huge massive mega thanks to asa and ishtar for drafting me, you're both wonderful & kind managers and there is no other team I would've enjoyed being on anywhere near as much. Sorry we couldn't go all the way in the end but the experience was well worth it for me and I hope it was the same for you too!

Thank you everyone for reading!