Draft

[jade solar]

but like i don't have engh slots to muster judgement + coverage

and include recover

ep might be a good mid ground maybe

[rancid kestrel]

EP definitely could work for sure

[jade solar]

who do i bring rocks on?

[rancid kestrel]

Ting-Lu, like you mentioned, Arc has too much it wants to do already.

[jade solar]

do i drop spikes

[rancid kestrel]

Could do that. Could drop EQ.

[jade solar]

fair

[rancid kestrel]

Whichever you feel better about.

[jade solar]

but w/o eq i do almost 0 to rockceus

[rancid kestrel]

Yeah, it's a tradeoff for sure, just a matter of if you're hoping to spikestack or not - I'm not super sure you'll have the turns to, modern weather tends to play super aggresive by nature of the weather fading eventually (in the formats I'm more familiar with, at least!) so I'm not sure you'll have 4 turns of Ting-Lu being alive to place all your hazards. OTOH, is Ting-Lu really the thing that needs to be checking Rockceus? You have a Mewtwo X and (maybe?) EP Arceus of your own. I dunno.

I don't know that there is a right or wrong choice here, just a balance of pros and cons and how you wanna approach building.

[jade solar]

hmm i'm not sure myself LOL

this is an insane sun team and not exactly sure how to approach this type of draft especially

[rancid kestrel]

Necessitating a mon without recovery to both handle defensive backbone stuff and potentially stack multiple turns of hazards seems like asking a bit too much of it personally, but I'm also not super familiar w/ NDUbers Draft

[jade solar]

fair yeah

i think i just use rocks as my main hazard here maybe?

idt i will be able to get spikes up consistently

[rancid kestrel]

I think that's a fair estimation, especially in the world where Webs do come and you have to spend time Defogging - if it does come, Vaporeon always kinda welcomes in Araq to setup.

[jade solar]

yeah

what else do i change?

[rancid kestrel]

Hard to say further than those original thoughts since the format's pretty largely different compared to standard Gen 9 Draft. I'd do a ton of calcs on Vaporeon to see if it is worth bringing over a Tera Shell Terapagos or priority-opening Thundy, but I asusme that Vap's on the paste because you're satisfied with the calcs. I just am having a hard time imagining that 130/95 is going to do well against something like Mane or Bolt under Sun? I dunno, just a concern having not done calcs, I can see the value of WishTect stalling Sun, though.

[jade solar]

yeah

[rancid kestrel]

But yeah. I'm sure someone that is more knowledgeable/skilled in NDUbers draft could provide more targeted suggestions, but the further away from Gen 9 Draft here, the more likely you are to not find someone here who's super knowledgeable on the format.

[jade solar]

mhm

[proven zenith]

id like suggestions for possible improvement
format: national dex doubles
my team:https://pokepast.es/a304fe706212d905
my pokemon:
Hydreigon(tera dragon, steel, poison, fire)
Iron Hands
Mega Aerodactal
Stackatacka(tera rock, ghost, flying, fighting)
torkoal
cofagrigus
venasuar
escavalier
Zygarde-Complete
Slither Wing

Foe's team:
Rilaboom
Pheramosa
Sneasler(tera poison, fighting, dark, ghost)
Grimmsnarl
Indeedee(M)
Celesteela
Togekiss
Chandelure
Floatzel(tera water, electric, ground, ice)
Mega Camerupt

[final marten]

whats your general gameplan? id be concerned about camel outrunning all of your guys in trick room while doing very well into ur sun mode too. with something like togekiss to support it with follow me sounds scary asw

you have hydra and smth like escavalier or staka to pair with it obv but hydra isn't doing much in trick room, or the escavalier seems not too challenging for them to answer especially with stuff that does well into hydra too. the most obvious fix to me would probably be something like tera rock on hydra to still be strong vs camel and do well vs togekiss too. beyond that, if eel like iron hands is really good here and can match up well vs all of what your opponent could be trying to do (it should grab a ko with ease and also helps check all of their guys decently well. maybe smth like covert cloak to blank fake out guys)

im not great at doubles draft though so take what i say with a grain of salt

isn't really a popular format tmk

[valid void]

Natdex doubles AND limited tera types 🥴

[jade solar]

lol

[loud sedge]

Alright, so I'm currently in a NatDex LC Draft League, and this is the team that I currently have before I make any official grace changes via transactions:

List of Pokémon by highest to lowest point cost:

• Diglett - 13
• Chinchou - 12
• Minccino - 11
• Snivy - 10
• Zorua - 9
• Darmanitan - 8
• Fletchling - 8
• Machop - 8
• Nosepass - 8
• Hoppip - 3

[rancid kestrel]

You're admittedly going to find little help here - NatDex LC is a far ways off from SV Draft, which is what most of the folks here would have experience with. Plus, we don't know the league rules without a link.
Some things I noticed that may be entirely applicable or not applicable at all:

• You don't have a lot of hazard choices. It's just SR and just on Diglett/Nosepass - is that normal for NDLC Draft? Maybe it is, I dunno, but if I saw the lineup in standard draft equivalent - 2 Defog, 2 Rocks, and 1 Tidy Up, that'd be cause for emergency.
• You have some pretty rough type chart deficiencies, in part due to stacking a number of similarly-typed mons (diglett+nosepass, hoppip+snivy). For example, your have two resistances to Ice, one to Fighting (and Hoppip doesnt strike me as the most defensively-minded 'mon), one to Normal, and two to Rock. Maybe these types aren't relevant in NDLC Draft, but surely a lack of Rock resistances matter in any meta with SR, and with how much I see stuff like Fake Out or BellyDrum in average LC, I'd imagine it's not non-existent in NDLC Draft.
• Your speed tier spread seems good here maybe? I'm not an LC player so I'm not sure I'd be able to so clearly understand it, but you've got a nice range I'd think. Though obviously it's hard to bring some of these 'mons, probably, my gut instinct is that you're probably not going to have too much trouble being eternally outsped (for whatever that means in LC)
• Yeah, admittedly, again - I dunno! This is for Draft, yes, but most folks here's primary experience is gonna be Paldea Dex, and NDLC is a far cry from that. I'd look at spreading out some of these typings, maybe - do you need both Hoppip and Snivy (esp w/ Fletchling on the team for Hoppip) and both Diglett and Nosepass? Minccino and Machop strike mas the type of mons to run the same functionality, too. Could potentially look into spreading out type resistance coverage or hazard depth if you swap out some of these potential overlaps.

@loud sedge

[loud sedge]

I see, I mostly have Nosepass not just for Stealth Rock, but also Volt Switch like Chinchou here, and if you're talking about type overlaps with Diglett and Nosepass, Nosepass is just a Rock type, not a Rock/Ground type like Geodude and Onix

It would've made more sense to probably get help in the LC channel for team rating instead, even if there's 10 of these guys, lol

Also, it makes sense why I don't exactly need Hoppip around, as it overlaps types with Snivy and Fletchling, but it helps out defensively against Fighting types which Minccino and Nosepass are weak against

[rancid kestrel]

re: Nosepass - yes, but the two mons interact with the type chart somewhat similarly. Again, not super knowledgeable on NDLC draft as to how much it matters, but just was a thought that came to me on looking at your team.

[loud sedge]

Alright then, thanks for the info fast, I appreciate it

[jade solar]

thoughts on this MU?

https://pokepast.es/76d54bceae85b2d7

what i made for the game

[rancid kestrel]

What are the rules for this league? NDUbers I assume, what are the Tera/DMax/Z-Move/Mega rules? Guessing Tera Captain, DMax banned, Z-Move banned, Mega 1/per?

[jade solar]

tera only legal

1 tera cap free tera

[pine cargo]

who the hell allows mgar in an nduber draft

[rancid kestrel]

Some things I've noticed. Be aware that NDUbers is a pretty far distance from what Paldea Dex is, so any of this advice might be not particularly helpful.

• You have a lot of speed troubles, I think. Gar, Zama, RMoon, all outspeed your fastest mon (RMoon technically not but Speed Booster will) - with your only scarfer being Chi-Yu, a fragile mon that can be lured and then removed by MGar, I wonder if you'll quickly find yourself unable to hurt something before it hurts you. MGall can't solve that problem necessarily, Treads can only get Booster once (and even then, can't do anything against ZamaC) and Xern's Geomancy is for sure going to get planned around by your opponent via a Ditto, Red Card, or Sash Phazing.
• Your opponent's removal is bad, unfortunately your setters are also not great. Your opponent has a lot of setting options, and while some of them are able to be disregarded (Cacturne is not real), you could find yourself quickly getting stacked on if Treads gets lured and MGar'd. It may be worth Defog on Rotom-W, maybe dropping HPump? I see the value of the other three moves for sure, but I'm worried that you don't have sufficient removal if that's the direction they go with Tusk and/or Glimm.
• I think you already sorta realized this by bringing Snorlax, but Ghost-spam from your opponent's Gar is terrifying for you. Unfortunately, it's Gar, meaning it can always pick the time to come in on something non-threatening and kill it.
• I'm also not sure I understand your Lax set - ZamaC walks over it, aside RMoon most of your notable opponents (Mana, Glimm, Gar) hit from the special side - what's Counter doing? Tanking a Tusk Headlong and hitting back, I guess? It seems to me for a very low-powered 'mon in this format that Lax is perhaps a touch fishy or out of place. You're facing Gar, ZamaC, Rmoon Mana as their four main killers, and the concern is that you're gonna get burned by Arcanine so you run Lum? I'm not sure I understand it.

[pine cargo]

yeah in the end i think the biggest threat to you is having a way to deal with mgar

[jade solar]

apparently they do

[jade solar]

1. yeah, i hope twave solves that to some extent, so far in all my mocks, it's been a torn icy wind into dead into rko by treads, gotta see how to fix that
2. i need those moves on rotom but maybe i can fit defog in
3. yeah
4. prob have to change that a bit and it is lum r?

[rancid kestrel]

What is "lum r" sorry?

Which mon are you talking about w.r.t. point 1? MGar or ZamaC?

[jade solar]

both

LOL

[jade solar]

lum and 'right'?

so like

lum right?

[rancid kestrel]

I just don't know what the value Lum has here. Snorlax can't heal - no Boots, Rest+Chesto, no Leftovers, not even a Sitrus. What is the fear here? Wisp Gar? TSpikes from Glimm? Some Clefable nonsense? Is that worth being permanently damaged every time you take a hit?

[jade solar]

hmm yeah i have to think abt that

who do i replace him with

[rancid kestrel]

Was there a reason you weren't bring Mega Gallade at all?

[proven zenith]

Might be my toughest opponent:
format: national dex singles
My pokemon:
Hydreigon(tera dragon, steel, poison, fire)
Iron Hands
Mega Aerodactal
Stackatacka(tera rock, ghost, flying, fighting)
torkoal
cofagrigus
Venasaur
escavalier
Zygarde Complete
Slither Wing

My foe:
Raging Bolt
Melmetal
Ice rider Calyrex
Sinistch(tera ghost, water, fairy, poison)
Bronzong
Araquanid
Hisui Arcanine(Tera Fire, flying, water, normal)
Enamorus Therian
Mega Abomasnow
Perrserker
Breloom
Alcremie

[jade solar]

felt a bit awkward in the MU since so many things outspeed and kill it

[rancid kestrel]

To be fair, that's a bit of a universal truth when facing MGar, Zama, RMoon, potentialyl Speed Booster Tusk, etc. I don't even think you need to replace Snorlax, to be clear, but the question of why Lum remains, since it doesn't look like there's a ton of status setting on your opponent's team compared to the much more pressing threat of getting 2HKO'd by ZamaC regardless of Curse, and being unable to heal..
+1 4 Def Zamazenta-Crowned Body Press vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Snorlax: 488-576 (93.3 - 110.1%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO

[rancid kestrel]

Okay. I'm assuming there are no Z-Moves or Dynamax in this, and that Zyg-C just means you're running Power Construct.

• I'm stunned by the speed tiers in this lineup. There's one Pokemon above 100Spe, and it's a Mega? Five of your Pokemon outspeed their second fastest. There isn't all that much TR to go around either, your opponent only has 3 setters, two of which (CalyI and Sinsicha) find it hard to reliably get off. I'm genuinely curious if your tour had some niche gimmick about speed tiers, because if not for MAero, I'd have thought that everything about 100Speed was banned. Unfortunately, you don't have a ton of Taunt to try and prevent TR going up, but you have a few 'mons that can also underspeed them if you know they're going hard TR - but it kinda looks like it.

• They have zero hazard removal. That's stunning for NatDex. You don't have Spikes, which is unfortunate, but their only way of getting rid of TSpikes is if they Tera PSN Sinischa. Unfortunately your only TSpikes setter is Cofagrigus, but Mummy might genuinely be a genuinely good bring against HArc/Breloom/Melm. Their setting is also bad, with Rocks on Zong and Webs on Araq being the only ones really worth noting. And Webs have anti-synergy with potential TR. You might legit not have to run removal, though I'd never outright recommend not bring removal.
• Their Rocks situation kinda wack, but you were already bringing rocks surely. A few resists that are varying levels of "real", but all their weaknesses are all vaguely legitimate brings. Maybe they boots spam? Makes HArc and CalyI less powerful though.
• Cofagrigus also benefits from them having 0 Ghost immunes or resists. Three weaknesses (though one can tera out) and everyone else is neutral. SBall from it won't do a ton, but you don't have any others who can do it.
• They've got a rough Fire weaknesses, too. Hydreigon can take advantage of this, as can Torkoal. Three resists, one of which is Water Bubble (Flash Fire HArc is a waste of HArc), means Tork and Hydrei can potentially just spam fire moves into a mostly clear field.
• OTOH, your opponent's gonna be seeing a pathway with Ice, since your resists are limited and Staka folds to Caly's coverage. They could also see a pathway with fairy spam (Alcremie is not real) with Enam, and your weaknesses are all real, there. Melm kinda goes hard here too, your Ground immunes fold to DIB.

• If I'm you, MAero, ZygC, and Hydreigon are non-negotiable options. I personally probably get worried about TR and fill out my remaining 3 with defensive Cofagrigus with TSpikes+TR(to undo, maybe), Slither Wing, and Torkoal. Slither Wing is the most easily droppable, but the loss of priority can be worrying (plus it likes playing w/ Tork). Could replace with IHands or Staka, but that's not something I thought super in depth about. I expect smth like, Enam/Caly/Melm/Bolt/Arc/Sinis, maybe you drop one of those for Bronzong? I dunno.

[jade solar]

i replaced snorlax with sinis

[proven zenith]

we can either choose to be in a single battle or double battle format, he chose double battles, I chose single battles, we aren't exactly paragons of speed haha

[rancid kestrel]

...That's an interesting approach to a draft league, sure. NatDex Doubles is going to be something that I don't think you're going to get much help here on, frankly - the further from standard SV Paldea Draft, the less help you're likely to find here, and doubles is a pretty large difference from singles.

[proven zenith]

yah, the format we're battling in is singles, so i'll take your suggestions to mind, I'll post a team shortly

[proven zenith]

After careful planning with the points that fast made...here is the team i am planning on using
https://pokepast.es/8f4cfb38cc362e39

[rancid kestrel]

What are the EVs here for? They look like ladder format spreads with the exception of Zygarde (and even still, not super far off) and that seems real bad? Like why does MAero and SWing have 252(+ for SW) speeds? Are there wack Scarf sets you're trying to get the jump on?
And then on top of that, you're DD instead of Hone Claws on MAero? There isn't speed on your opponent's team! You're risking missing SEdge or Dual Wingbeat after a setup for what, exactly?
At least with Hydreigon you do kinda need the speed, though you're still outsped with Modest by +Spe HArc, something I'd recommend switching to Timid for unless you've got some game-winning calc you need Modest to hit.
I'm not sure I see the logic behind Lefties-only healing and SpD Cofagrigus, since I'd imagine it wants to be taking plenty hits from Melms HArcs and Calys to spread Mummy. Maybe if the calcs seem fine, but I'd much rather Torkoal be kitted out to take resisted special hits from Enam and Sinis than rely on it tanking EQ/Stomping Tantrums and Head Smashes, while Cofagrigus has to handle Shadow Balls and Moonblasts instead of physical hits. I guess Torkoal's special bulk kinda rough, but that'd be my inclination anyway.
Is Flare Blitz the best choice for SWing? Seems like it'd quickly wrack up chip between potential hazards, moving second in TR, and then recoil. I guess if you're unlikely to ever click it then it might be fine, but it seems like a U-Turn could fit real well there and keep the pressure up on your opponents trying to defensively answer FImp or CC with Melm or Enam by bringing in something that scares them.
What's Knock on Cofagrigus for? Space filler? Is there value in something like Pain Split or Rest to make it more likely that it'll live longer? I guess I'm struggling to imagine a situation where you desperately need something Knocked and Cofagrigus can provide that.

[proven zenith]

i had knock off to get rid of items like boots or left overs...maybe a choice item

https://pokepast.es/415ad7dc7f686933

here's a improved version

[mystic sundial]

What are some good teammates to go for? This is Natdex VGC draft

Havnt played VGC since early Gen 9

[rancid kestrel]

It would be great helpful if you provided a doc link so we can see the rules, NDVGC is a format that sounds like it could be wildly different depending on the rule structure.

Unfortunately, you're not likely to get a lot of help here, unfortunately, as NatDex VGC is a far cry from standard SV Draft, and I'm not even sure how common ND VGC Draft is in the first place. I believe @spice peak and @solar karma are two CompHelpers who know a fair bit about VGC and could maybe weigh in?

My gut instinct right now is that I see two supporting 'mons that don't even seem too terribly good at supporting - I would look into some level of power, a 'mon that can deal damage. Something like an Urshifu, Raging Bolt, Chien Pao, or Iron Hands (i think...?), something that can traditionally use whatever support you have access to in order to make progress in KOing 'mons.

[jade solar]

yeah

[mystic sundial]

Here’s the doc link https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OaYHgEw3G6xog16udotioYhAH2GpbtJMHY51sV9h714/edit?usp=sharing

[spice peak]

probably something that'd be immediately a threat

togekiss is a fantastic support so it's not too bad

[mystic sundial]

I was thinking of getting iron hands next

I’m last so when it’s my turn I get to make 2 picks

[spice peak]

is this actually vgc

[mystic sundial]

Natdex VGC

[spice peak]

this looks like a singles draft board

[mystic sundial]

Yeah we’re using a singles doc with some points adjusted

[spice peak]

lmao

jirachi at 15 is a massive steal

it's the singles most oppresive support pokemon

but u already have pecharunt and togekiss so its kinda moot

[mystic sundial]

Do u think mega manectric would be a good pick

[spice peak]

no

...is terapagos not tera banned?

mega manectric is really bad

[mystic sundial]

Let me check

I think it’s above 10

[spice peak]

oh huh

this tier list is so confusing i don't even know where to start

[mystic sundial]

It’s 15 points

What about iron hands and ogerpon wellspring

[spice peak]

iron hands is good

wellspring is bad without tera

[mystic sundial]

Ah

[spice peak]

oh

get chien pao

for sure

chien pao for 15 is a massive fucking steal

zeraora is also fantastic

at 14

[mystic sundial]

Chien pao and iron hands?

[spice peak]

dondozo tatsugiri is stupid cheap

yea that sounds really good

[mystic sundial]

What builds does pao typically run in VGC

[spice peak]

sash protect 3 atk

is the most common set

[mystic sundial]

Ah

And then iron hands is usually fake out helping hand 2 attack right

[spice peak]

no it's just

fake out 3 atks

w/ assault vest

or clear amulet sd + 3 atks

it never runs helping hand

[mystic sundial]

Ah ok

What would be a good mega to go for

So far Swampert, Gyarados, Voir, Zard Y, Scizor, and Mawile are taken

[spice peak]

i would not take a mega

[mystic sundial]

Why

[spice peak]

none of them are good

or like

the rest of them aren't good

[mystic sundial]

Not even mega diance

Or sable

[spice peak]

no lol

maybeee mega diancie

id consider getting something like

tornadus + volcanion too

[mystic sundial]

I or T

[spice peak]

i

tornadus t isnt good in vgc

[mystic sundial]

So my pick order:
Iron hands
Chien Pao (zeraora if taken)
Tornadus I
Volcanion

Volcanion is good in doubles?

[spice peak]

ya

heatwave steam eruption is great

[mystic sundial]

I forgot, does steam eruption hit both opponents or no

Nvm it doesn’t

[spice peak]

it doesn't

[mystic sundial]

I love volcanion. He was my teams MVP in the last singles draft I competed in

[spice peak]

volcanion is good in doubles bc

u have teammate that can support volcanion through speed control/fake out/redirection

[mystic sundial]

True

I’m trying to think what else I’ll need

I have a ghost resist + prankster immune mon

Water+fire core planned

Prankster tailwind

What are togekiss’ common roles in doubles other than follow me redirection

[spice peak]

follow me redirection...

lol

and thunder wave air slash flinch ig

or just

super luck scope lens dazzling gleam

[mystic sundial]

Should I trade it for something else during grace period

[spice peak]

maybe for mew or jirachi

better supporting options

[mystic sundial]

I might have to secure one of them before drafting ends

Surprised no one has picked either of them yet

[mystic sundial]

Dang someone got mew

I might just have to take jirachi and iron hands when my turn comes

[mystic sundial]

One problem I realize with my team so far is a lot of the mons I plan to draft are weak to ground

[mystic sundial]

I have a crazy idea @spice peak

What if I drafted Tapu bulu

[earnest bobcat]

Choice band calyrex-ice looking juicy into the team

Or maybe not, torkoal and stack is there.

[mystic sundial]

Update

[vital olive]

Tonights the deadline for free trades in my draft league and I would appreciate any feedback on my team. With team I drafted it seems like I'm going for a half Weezing Neutralizing gas team with Toedscruel and Regigigas on my team, the half snow team with Alolan ninetails and Abombasnow (Mega).

https://pokepast.es/32a4ea02f8def479

https://pokepast.es/6d64727274ef697d

[rancid kestrel]

Hi, can you elaborate on this league's rules and what exactly these Pastes entail?

[vital olive]

These are all 11 pokemon that I drafted. What I need help with is deciding if I should make a big trade in today. I have to use all 100 of my points and stick with 11 total pokemon. The big trade I was thinking about doing was trading Maushold for Galaring Weezing (as they atre worth the same amount of points), then getting rid of my normal weezing for articuno (worth the same points)

These are all the restrictions for the draft. The rules are bring 6 pokemon and have 1 battle, it is doubles as well

[rancid kestrel]

So your 11 mons are Maushold, Weezing, Toedscruel, Bisharp, Regigigas, Sunkern, Ninetales-A, Abomasnow, Arctovish, Magby, and Wingull?

And this is a NatDex Doubles draft?

[vital olive]

yes that is correct, and today is the last day to trade your pokemon with other players/see what pokemon are left on the draft board, you just need to have 11 pokemon total and spent all 100 of your points for the draft

Yes, I think we are doing custom battles with custom rules just for some of the pokemon as there were a few secret ones in the draft that had stats changed with

Would you like me to share the list of the draft pokemon by chance?

[rancid kestrel]

That'd be helpful, but I'm not sure I (or anyone else here) will be of any use, let me explain:

[vital olive]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/3/d/1QL7X6Ho_krgWcXoRbya-tFJv-PY7ig5IXArGJg_OXZo/htmlview#

Should have access to it maybe? lol

[vital olive]

Yeah no all good, just wanted to see if there were any glarring issues with my team that needed to get solved quick lmao

[rancid kestrel]

You are not going to get a lot of help here, unfortunately, as ND Doubles draft is already pretty far from standard Paldea Dex singles, which is what the vast majority of experience of folks here have. This place is for all draft, but the further you get from SV Singles, the less likely you'll have folks with meaningful experience in the format commenting. For example, I don't play either ND or Doubles, and I suspect most folks here are going to be very similar.

Additionally, your strategies are pretty gimmicky, and gimmicks rarely if ever succeed in Draft. Stuff like Weezing+Regigigas or Toedscruel work primarily by surprising an opponent that didn't prepare for it. This works on ladder for folks who have to prepare for the entire standard metagame, and can't pay too much attention to hail matchup fishing or NeutGas strategies. When your opponent can see these strategies coming and prepare for them, they will not work. Gimmicks in Draft work when they are cheap and not the main strategy - if you have a Ditto as a last round pick, your opponent suddenly has to worry about bringing setup sweepers, even if you don't bring Ditto.

Your situation is that your late round gimmick to unnerve your opponent is also your only win condition. So all the prep your opponent needs to do is to set a different weather condition/KO ATales, or ensure that Weezing can't accomplish its goal, and the gimmick collapses.

There are powerful Doubles options still on the board, such as Incineroar, Tornadus, Basculegion, Rillaboom, Ursaluna, Farigaraf, and I'm sure others. I don't mean to tell you that you can't run this or that you wouldn't be successful, but if I was handed your draft with Free Agency to change it to my liking, possibly the only 'mon I would keep would be Maushold, and even then, maybe only if I could grab Annihilape or Archaludon.

[vital olive]

Yeah ok I get what you mean, that does make sense. Would work better when they don't have time to really prepare for the Gimmicks. I only had 30 minutes of looking at the pokemon on the draft sheet before it started so it was just what i came up with on the fly and now I feel like I do have to stick it out lol. What my mind is going to now is having more gimmicks than they can handle/prepare for to where I can always find a line through their team. So ig rn I'm more worried about perfecting the gimmick rather than doubting how they can be countered. i 1000% see what you mean though!

[vital olive]

People were late to the draft so the sheet isn't fully updated, it only has crossed off from what people originally drafted. So some pokemon (like Archaludon you mentioned) have been drafted/traded and exchanged for

[rancid kestrel]

Yeah, then I definitely don't think you'll find much help here. Some thoughts, maybe - you probably don't need two snow setters. Toedscruel even without MycMight is kinda not worth it. I dunno why you have three throwaway mons, do you have a minimum size requirement? Otherwise toss all three and get something that adds a new gimmick (such as Sticky Webs, Ditto, Trick Room, an omnibooster like Falinks) without being totally irrelevant - you're never bringing Sunkern to battle, and your opponent is never needing to think about it.

[vital olive]

So I was given the bad burden of randomly being giften Sunkern and it taking up 8 of my point slots, so from there I kinda leaned heavy into the gimmicks. As for Magby and Wingull, you need 11 pokemon total and I was low on points (every team has 2-4 0 point worth pokemon) so i chose them as they were some of the better move learning 0 point pokemon

[rancid kestrel]

So it is a minimum size thing, gotcha.

I'd really try to find some third gimmick and figure out how to fit it onto your team. At the very least it'd stop people from going "need an answer to regigigas, need an answer to arctovish, I'm finished prepping" so much.

You don't even necessarily need to bring it or whatever. But just a matter of making your team more flexible/unexpected, which is what gimmicks need to be anywhere, but certainly in Draft when you have the entirety of prep to hone in exactly on what the gimmick will do and how to counter it, from your opponent's POV.

[vital olive]

I was using the team comp Weezing, Toedscruel, Regigigas, Alolan ninetails, Abombasnow, and Maushold,. I was running this is Gen 9 national dex doubles and was doing pretty good ish with the team. because I have Regi and he is already super hard to get off the field. So Maushold seemed kinda lackluster with setting up. The best it was doing was being a "Follow Me" user but I already have rage powder Toedscruel and follow me on Magby incase I ever 100% needed to bring that

[rancid kestrel]

Yeah, as mentioned the big difference between ladder formats and Draft is that in the former, your opponents don't see that stuff coming.

[vital olive]

Yeah I get that. I just hope that my opponents won't know how to able the gimmick teams fully, espically if they are all weaved in together, that is kinda hoping for a lot I see now

[rancid kestrel]

I wish you the best of luck, yeah

[vital olive]

Thank you!!!!!

When drafting I drafted mew in hopes i could power up and baton pass to another pokemon, but I learned after the draft that Baton pass was banned, so I've been trying to trade in pokemon from there

[rancid kestrel]

I am heading off now, it's possible others will have more focused advice/suggestions for you, but yeah generally speaking, Toesdcruel's not great you can prob replace him with Slaking or something, you probably don't need a second setter, find something that can take advantage of hail more than just Arctovish.

[vital olive]

Ok gotcha, thank you!!!!

I'm just gonna leave this question here still for anyone to help answer. . I have to set a specific TERA captain tonight, and that will be the only pokemon I will be able to tera through out the games. I have to choose 3 tera types before hand (one has to be stab, so 2 new/different types). What pokemon on my team would you think would be the best for being my Tera captain. I was either thinking Regigigas with Tera types Normal, Ghost (so i don't get slowed down my fake out), and Stellar (with life orb and stellar typing, no one would stop it). Or do I focus on giving it to Weezing to give it more chances to stay alive?

[cerulean aspen]

Any thoughts on this matchup? struggling to find a way to reliably answer both ape and espathra

(spring seasonal for anyone wondering)

[rancid kestrel]

Re: Spring Seasonal, be aware that by using a public Smogon RMT resource for advice, you risk the chance of your opponent seeing your conversations and learning your prep.

Your opponent's removal is pretty thin, with only Rapid Spin on Blastoise. You have some pretty good setting options, such as Ogerpon-C and Klefki's Spikes or Terapagos' SR. Both Annihilape and Espathra can find it much more difficult to effectively play when hazards fill the field, though Annihilape moreso than Espathra. Terapagos with Tera Shell can ignore Rage Fist boosts and tank a CC, responding with Toxic (beware Rest) or Specs Dazzling Gleam (2hkos, beware Scarf and losing your Tera Shell). You can also use Final Gambit on your own Annihilape with Scarf and aim for the trade, though that's risky. Lando-I also can 2HKO with Psychic, though you need to EV carefully to not risk the chance of Rage Fist return OHKOing (and if they bring Ice Punch, eh, no go).

As for Espathra, you could tech a Slowbro or Klefki set with Endure + Red Card - even a well played Espathra will struggle to set up twice. A surprise Tera Steel or Dark could also limit its damage output, and Espathra's not really physically tanky enough to respond to continual hazard damage over two turns of setup. Espathra's a fairly matchup fishy mon, and you have plenty of options between Prankster TWave, Encore/Taunt, Sturdy on Oger-C, Trick/Switcheroo, that you should be able to react fairly quickly in most cases on an Espathra attemtping a sweep even without Endure + Red Card.

[thorn stirrup]

Need advice on team building for a paldea dex ubers draft league

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1o19GAByHkoI2blVmNRGiWh-Va5ynQUDR9OjHRIkXdIs/edit?gid=374248923#gid=374248923

this is the doc

https://pokepast.es/062c6d1d6aa9cb70

and this is the team I am planning to draft

any improvements?

planned tera captains are hoopa unbound and rotom heat

[rancid kestrel]

I'm not super familiar with Ubers Draft, and I'm not sure you'll find someone super knowledgeable there in here, but I'll give some loose thoughts.

• Your speed tiers are pretty rough. 128 - 111 - 95 means you're leaving huge ranges of speeds uncontested, which can result in EVs being much more flexible for your opponents, allowing them to invest in bulk or offenses via EVs or natures. Aditionally, your 111 is Scream Tail, a 'mon that is hit and miss when it comes to pressuring Speed.
• You have a lot of Pokemon that flatly won't ever come to a game. I suppose it's part of the game rules, but Muk, Slowking, Kricketune, Komala, and arguably Rotom-Heat are all unlikely to be able to reasonably come more than a third of games, if that. Is there perhaps value in dropping Muk, Kricketune, Komala, and maybe Slowking and replacing them with one or two actually relevant Pokemon and then a few irrelevant NFEs to hit the minimum 'mon count?
• Your hazard gameplay is alarmingly bad - You have just Rapid Spin on Komala, and literally nothing else. You can set SR with either Lando or Scream Tail, and both can probably manage it, but you have no other hazard setting (Muk TSpikes does not count) and no actual removal. This on its own is a risk of losing a season or games off rip, and I'd urge you to figure out how to improve that.
• As an addendum, you have little to no Rock resistances (just Zama) and plenty of weaknesses (though none are real). You also have very little resistances to a lot of types - Dark, Dragon, Flying, Ghost, Normal, and Rock(see hazards above). Some of these types may be more or less relevant than others in an Ubers setting, but the lack of resistances to what I'd think are common types like Dragon or Ghost mean that many teams will have the ability to slap a Choice item onto their breaker and be very hard to stop even with defensive neutral responses.

[thorn stirrup]

alright thanks will definitely look into it

[cerulean aspen]

they're not in the server, so there's no problem with that part 👍 ty for the concern though
I was thinking along the lines of NP torn-t (though I'm still unsure which tera type)
roar terap to handle espathra at least once
lando-i is most likely sub here?
scarf gambit ape
sd encore rockpon also beats ape here w/ low kick to smack arch
then between keys to better handle espathra (something like psych up cm imprison stored power) or slowbro to check mamo since I don't switch in well to ice stabs if keys is the dedicated espathra answer

I was just wondering how much to commit to answering Espathra + Ape while keeping check on the other threats ie shell smash stoise and mamo

[rancid kestrel]

That's a cool Espathra check, I wouldn't have thought of either Psych Up or Imprison. I'm not sure that Klefki will have much use as a solo answer to Espathra, especially with some threats on your opponent's lineup such as Archaludon, but it's definitely within your hands overall, you certainly not auto-losing.

I think that Espathra is a bit of a new player trap, both in use and countering it, and that Annihilape in this context can be maneuvered around given the hazard gameplay. You obviously don't want to completely forget about a (non-tera) Oger-H or Arch, but I think that having techs for Annihilape and Espathra will keep you from losing on a bad turn 1, yknow?

As for Torn tera type, at a glance at the type chart, if you're using it offensively, something like Fire, Ghost, or Ground have little to no resistances on your opponent's team.

[lofty wigeon]

The only vgc draft I've ever done my best mon was always a support with prankster. Whimscott and Thundras other than that I don't have any advice lol

[mystic sundial]

I managed to get my hands on sable

This what the teams looking like now

Gonna make abomasnow a tera captain and idk who to spend my last 7 points on

Grace period ends in an hour

[lofty wigeon]

How much is Alolan ninetails ?

[lofty wigeon]

If you could I would swamp snow and tails

[solar karma]

For vgc?

[mystic sundial]

Yes

[mystic sundial]

Let me check

[lofty wigeon]

Alolan ninetails is the best veil setting for sure

[mystic sundial]

It’s 14 points

[lofty wigeon]

If you can switch snow for it

Idk about Tera types an such

[mystic sundial]

I could sell snow and get it

[lofty wigeon]

Yeah that's what I mean

[mystic sundial]

Only 10 point and below can tera

[lofty wigeon]

Gotcha

[mystic sundial]

So you think if sell snow for A-tails my team will be fine?

I won’t be able to get anything else and sabel is the only one other than snow who can tera

[lofty wigeon]

It would be better I think but only one tera mon is rough and I'm not sure sableeye really wants to Tera.
It's preference for you at that point do you really want the snow? You could just give it up completely and get a decent Tera mon.

[mystic sundial]

I was thinking of spending the rest of my points on arboliva, who’s tera legal

[lofty wigeon]

I have never played with or against it

Tapu already sets grassy terrain

[mystic sundial]

I’ve used it in singles draft and it did well

[mystic sundial]

True

[lofty wigeon]

It gets harvest too right ?

[mystic sundial]

Yes

It also has strength sap and leech seed for utility

[lofty wigeon]

Yeah I mean that could be cool

Tera fire and get a sunny day user

Harvest go burr

[mystic sundial]

I’m just not sure what else my team might need

[mystic sundial]

Sabl learns sunny day

[lofty wigeon]

Nice

Straf berry for BYO moody

[cerulean aspen]

i-is that 15 point Chien-Pao

and 12 point Volcanion
holy fuck that team is a steal

nah you win right there
Pao Hands Volcanion Diancie is absolutely wild
Pech normally goes for 14-16 points
Togekiss is aight
Sableye goes for 11-12 usually
Pao for 20, Volcanion for 20

Hands for 19

actually what the

nah that team is taking you to finals if you play it even decently @mystic sundial

[mystic sundial]

Do you have any strat ideas with these mons 👀? It’s my first time using them for VGC

The final team

[rancid kestrel]

Strategy planning without knowing your opponent's team in Draft isn't super useful. But you can take a look at what some of these 'mons do or have done in VGC formats elsewhere, via looking at old VGC competition OTSes or PS Ladder statistics or what have you.

[mystic sundial]

Ah

This is my first opponent

[lofty wigeon]

Not sure but I think he's gonna play sun

[vital olive]

Just had my first battle in my draft league, would anyone want to watch the replay of it perchance?

[rancid kestrel]

Hey there, @vital olive - this is a space for draft RMT, we don't do replay reviews here. You may find other spaces to do that, but this space is for draft board reviews and team prep, not replay review. Sorry!

[vital olive]

Oh ok gotcha, so sorry about that, should have read more of the rules first I’m specific🤦‍♀️

[rancid kestrel]

No worries!

[cerulean aspen]

so they're a sun team which is quite interesting with waterpon
7 point indeedee female and 2 point volbeat this league is actually out of their minds
istg this is singles like tiering
well at least their psyspam is limited to delphox which is good for you
volcanion single handedly sweeps them
something like vest heat wave steam eruption rock move sludge bomb should do the trick here
rain dance sableye w/ sitrus and bulky here
bring hands pao volc diancie sable arcanine

[mystic sundial]

What item would you recommend for hands and arc

[jade solar]

ogerpon wellspring on a sun team

sometimes i wish i bleached my eyes

where did hearthflame's ass go 😭?

[full meteor]

First draft, randomized SV and ive got 5 swaps before we start what should i keep/change

[rancid kestrel]

So, some thoughts.

• You have a bit of trouble with the 100-110ish speed region, and frankly anything faster than 100. Scream Tail is not a particularly effective speed creep threat, so if a 'mon doesn't care to try to outspeed Scream Tail, like say Zarude or Garchomp, they can lose a lot of Speed EVs to put into bulk. This is especially true since your top three speed mons, Scream Tail Mimikyu and Tinkaton, all hit primarily off of Fairy stab - the latter two have useful secondary STABs yes, but a Tera Steel Zarude for example could drop so much Speed EVs not having to worry about outspeeding some 'mons that don't really hurt it.
• You have 0 removal. A draft is basically doomed without any removal at all. This is probably the biggest concern I have with this lineup, that you cannot ever remove a hazard once it gets set up. Sure, stuff like Lando or Garg or TingLu can get hazards up for you, but you're either stuck taking 20ish% on every mon every switchin (note how few mons you have that aren't grounded), or eternally locked to Boots every game. There's maybe some concern too that you have one Spiker, but that's not quite as bad as zero removal.
• You have a pretty glaring weakness to Water, which is scary given how motivating that type is as a defensive Tera, and how many Drafts really enjoy a Water-type. Something like a Tornadus-Therian using Water Tera Blast seems very difficult to switch in, your only resist is Rotom-W which won't withstand consistent pressure and is going to need to do more than just tank water hits regularly.
• Less of a concern, but you have next to no priority - Shadow Sneak on Mimikyu is the only reasonable thing to run, and that has type and damage questions (immunity, but also Mimikyu unboosted doesn't hit very hard.)

I'd try to solve the hazard removal thing first and foremost, most everything else can be worked around in builder or would only cost you a game or two all seasonal. My gut instinct would be that of things to drop, mons like Skeledirge, Mimikyu, Magnezone, and Garganacl are maybe some of the easier things to let go, as they all either serve little theoretical purpose on your team (Magnezone), double up on other 'mons things (Garganacl, Skeledirge to some extent), or are redundant given your offensive coverage (Mimikyu). Perhaps with those removed, you could find reliable removal, a 'mon with a speed tier within the 100-110 range, and ideally something that can handle Water-type STAB.

If you wanted to be more granular/reach-for-the-stars, your reliable removal should be something defensive that can remove multiple times through a round (your core is defensive, even your current offensive pieces (Lando-T, Tink, Hoopa-U) are slower and a bit on the defensive side. Your 100-110 speed tier 'mon should be an offensive piece that doesn't have an overlap with the three I mentioned already, something like Zarude or Lilligant-Hisui or Walking Wake. For Water-type STABs, if whatever you pick happens to be able to take Ice- or Electric- type hits (which is admittedly a tall order, esp. for Electric) as the most common coverage alongside Water, that would be somewhat ideal.

[full meteor]

thank you!

[jade solar]

my next MU in this ubers league. very fishy one ngl, gonna have to run some weird stuff. https://pokepast.es/21aaa2faa5482221 what i made so far. would love some advice on how to improve this or anything i shld cover for

[rancid kestrel]

What's the legality of Mega Rayquaza for your opponent?

[jade solar]

it's not legal

[rancid kestrel]

Okay. Like I've mentioned before, NDUbers Draft is a long distance from Standard SV Draft, so some of this advice may not be particularly helpful or may be missing important info.

• Your opponent's speed tiers are wack. Fastest 'mons are Genesect and Fezandipiti? Regigigas isn't real speed. This is super useful to see what comes out when you have, say, Chi-Yu on the field - that's probably their Scarfer. My guess would be Genesect or Gholdengo? You have an alarming Ghost-type weakness
• Your opponent has 0 removal. Your hazard gameplay is kinda weak itself, too, but if there was ever a week to bring Sash Cutiefly webs (this is not advice to bring it)... A nearly entirely grounded team where the only possible removal is M-Sab or Defog Ray? But for some reason you've dropped SR. What is Megahorn hitting on ITreads so necessary to not run SR against the team that cannot remove it? Wobb? Your opponent also only has one resist to SR!
• On the other hand, I'm not convinced that the presence of Psychic moves on Xern and Gallade is beneficial to you either. It hits Fezandipiti, I guess? But you're running into a wall of resists and immunities elsewhere. It hits nothing additional other than Fezandipiti, leaving you bouncing off Ghold and Genesect with both of Xern's moves and most of Gallade's moves. Is there something else that can slot in there, like a Fire-type or Ground-type move that could possibly provide coverage against the Steels?
• I'm trying to figure out this Torn-T set. Iron Tail is for what? Is Brick Break really the best option? What led you to run a physical TornT set? I guess I just don't see the value of it but maybe I'm missing something.
• Like I mentioned before, you have an alarming Ghost weakness - I'd expect your opponent to build around that in some manner, especially with Ghold and potentially MSab. Chi-Yu helps, as does the threat of Snorlax, but can be worked around with proper prep by your opponent.

[jade solar]

1. yeah pretty wack i know shld prob watch out for that
2. i'll pack sr, but yeah maybe not the week for sash cutiefly lol
3. gallade maybe i can slot fpunch, xern's set is basically what i can pull considering it's middling coverage of sorts
4. fezan, there's hammer arm over break maybe. i feel generally i have a more positive MU into here with a physical set maybe other wise i just get sat on by bliss and fezan.
5. yeah, that is a valid concern but i feel i have engh ghost answers or checks for that problem anyways

[jade solar]

https://pokepast.es/2a1736ea4473790f changed up the torn set a little bit

as for the need of a fire move on mllade, cc shld do more than engh to geneset

and knock is engh for ghold

[jade solar]

for this MU

[lofty wigeon]

I like specs over NP on torn

Makes icy wind ohko ray

Even without modest

[cerulean aspen]

spring seasonal, have checked opp is not in this server

switching into wake / zapdos + dealing with gouging is tricky
and breaking zong reliably

[jade solar]

my next MU in this league. pretty tough one to crack lmao. what i have so far: https://pokepast.es/6191e3e277f9e8d1
Xerneas is the classic Sub + Geo set which is built to outrun jolly Gouging naturally and should be enough to outpace the entire team after boosts.
Scarf Chi-Yu is invested to creep Zacian and kill it
Sinistcha is Max Bulk with Tera Fire to basically being there to check Gouging and Zacian with Strength Sap.
Rotom-Wash is also built to be physically bulky with double status to lock down every mon that it can.
Iron Treads is the classic Booster Speed spread with High Horsepower to deal with mons under terrain and maybe a better move than Volt Switch, but it's just a filler for now
SD Mllade looked pretty free here, CC spam is very nice, Zen is for Ape and Qwil and Axel for Lati and Rilla

[rancid kestrel]

Not a whole lot from me, today, I think. I like what you got generally speaking, and blah blah NDUbers Gen9Draft blah blah.

• Wisp on Scarf Chi-Yu feels like a touch of a reliability nightmare. I suppose that's for Annihilape? Though TBF I'm not sure what else would it be running. Maybe Memento for lategame to avoid lastmon Shell Smash 'Toise or boosting Annihilape?
• Your opponent's roster feels difficult, like you said, but from my POV it's a sense of "what even can they justify bringing" - everything on their team crumbles to +2 Jolly(!) Moonblast, even 252/252+ can't survive. I have no idea what their plan is going to be against your Xern. Wild. If they run Roseli, they can't run Red Card. Whirlwind Roseli Ting-Lu? Scarf Zac-C? Get chip then Scarf FGambit Ape? I dunno!

+2 252 SpA Fairy Aura Xerneas Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Vessel of Ruin Ting-Lu: 516-608 (100.3 - 118.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

• As such, I do vaguely think your wincon is actually gonna be Xern here, I think Sinis/ChiYu/MGall can definitely poke enough holes through your opponent (and potentially indicate what their Xern emergency counter is via their play) to allow Xen to nab a free turn (somewhere...) to get going.
• Maybe it's an NDUbers thing, but no hazards at all feels weird to me. I know your options are super limited, but like, you said it yourself, maybe there's a better move than High Horsepower? Could I perhaps interest you in the third coming of Jesus, Stealth Rock? (This is mostly in jest.)
• Weird to me that you're putting so much tanking emphasis on Rotom-W but it doesn't have Pain Split. What's Protect for?

Ye, not sure I have much else to say, which may be the headache but may also just be a pretty solid paste and battle strategy as well.

[jade solar]

• Ape anyways gets smoked by Chi-Yu's Stabs, it's mainly for crippling Ting-Lu switches like they think they have a free in but then get burned.
• They do have Zacian-C who takes a Moonblast decently generally speaking and AV Tera Poison Belli is also an option but Psyshock dunks on that anyways. And Maybe Farig exists, take that how you will lol.
• Yeah that is definitely the gameplan but have been struggling in mocks to get up until that point since Gouging just breaks apart my best tools, and Zacian gets a free in to clean up.
• Maybe yeah, I can prob fit rocks over Supercell Slam in there and High Horsepower i necessary i feel to revenge Zacian always especially under Grassy Terrain.
• Protect is to scout for unnatural moves that work well like Terrain Pulse Blastoise under GTerrain and to stall out Terrain turns but maybe Pain Split could also work here.

[plucky berry]

Any glaring weaknesses and any mons I could swap in to help with them

[plucky berry]

I am leaning more towards a bulky offense but idk what trades would get me there

[rancid kestrel]

Can you share the league document so we can see rules and available options? There are some interesting choices here (Dragapult, 16pt non-Tera Ogerpon) that make me wonder how far this is straying from standard Paldea Draft ranges.

[rancid kestrel]

That said... Some thoughts:

• Annihilape (90SPE) to Ogerpon (110SPE) is a rough range to be lacking any presence in. It doesn't help that I'm not sure what non-Tera Ogerpon is doing here, to be honest, but the jump in speed means that there's gonna be a lot of stuff that either does't care about Ogerpon and only needs to outrun Annihilape, or doesn't care about Annihilape and can run basically no Speed at all.
• I would be worried about the lack of Ghost resistances. Two of your biggest hitters are weak to it (why is this? Surely there would be better duos to have headlining your team that don't share a STAB type?), and your only resist/immunity is Blissey. I'd also be vaguely worried about Electric, as a good BoltBeamer like Tera Jolteon can chew through your team.
• Frankly, I wonder how much of your defensive backbone can reliably come to every game. Rotom-W, Corv, GWeez, and Blissey are the defensive stars of your team, but the latter two for sure are momentum sappers and bringing three of them each week functionally locks your team to Pult/Ape/Ace/3 of them, meaning if you ever want to bring Ditto for a setup sweeper, Ogerpon for its Speed tier, Sylveon for Tera, you're risking your backbone a fair bit. Without knowing the drafting rules, I wonder if it makes sense to have spread so many points out on so many slots down the draft.
• Your hazard setting isn't great. Oger really doesn't want to be running Spikes every game, and forcing either Blissey or Ape to run SR every single game dramatically impacts your teambuilding potential (Blissey) or in-game flexibility (Ape). You actually have pretty solid removal for as limited as Paldea Dex tends to be - Ace Court Change and Corv Defog alone is pretty satisfactory, but the GWeezing pinch hitter Defog will likely help a lot.

Some questions to answer

• Are Pult and Ape distinct enough that you won't find yourself constrained by their shared weaknesses to Ghost and Fairy, and rely on a similar resistance profile of Normal, Poison, and Fighting?
• What is Ogerpon's purpose here? Without Tera, I'm not confident it's worth 16 points, and I'm struggling to see what it does for you that justifies the cost. Can you designate it as a Tera Captain?
• Is there value in finding a more consistent way to put up Hazards?
• Are you prepared to deal with the +ATK and +SPA natures that will come from not having any Pokemon within the 119-110 (and, possibly, the 119-90 range, given Ogerpon's unique case?)

[plucky berry]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VScWxGTuSd_d2aWmFVq7Nk0k51DkA7W-rGdroJdfgbg/edit?usp=sharing

• I have noticed not a lot of distinction between the two since my last match and would like some better coverage
• I’m relatively new to Pokémon and kind of just had some spare points and saw it was one of the few grass attackers left so I took it
• Most of my opponents drafted Pokémon with removal but I’d like it as an option
• I’d be fine with it but I was trying to get rid of ogerpon just didn’t know what my team needed

[plucky berry]

I need to update the doc but my friend Tyler traded ting Lu for landorus therian

[rancid kestrel]

Grass is not a particularly strong attacking type, frankly. I'm not sure I'd be so worried about not having one. Just spitballing without strong consideration towards the details:

Something like Iron Treads, which would actually cost you less than Ogerpon's cost, would provide an additional Rocks setter (the loss of Spikes is sad admittedly) and removal, while also being at a useful 106 Base Speed threshold. Treads can also work as an offensive Pokemon with Booster if needed.

I would consider changing Annihilape for maybe Urshifu-Rapid-Strike? It doesnt seem to me to have too much overlap with Dragapult, Cinderace, or Treads, doesn't really have an overlap with Rotom-W, and would be within the same point range. This would also result in a 119-106-97 top end speed tier distribution (discounting Dragapult's 142 which is not relevant, lol), which is better IMO than 119-110-90 for sure.

I don't know how much you want to mess with Ditto/Blissey/GWeezing/Sylveon, but seeing that it's min-10, I don't know that I'd bother to mess with it too much personally. You probably could find a cheap 112-113 ish Base Speed mon or a cheap Spiker to potentially patch up either hole if you wanted, but that's less important I think than the changes above I'd maybe consider.

[mystic sundial]

Any glaring weaknesses and mons I could swap to help with that?

Format is Natdex VGC

[cerulean aspen]

I believe I've told you this the team is cracked beyond belief
everything bar the last 2 and abomasnow are underpriced asf
and mdiancie is a little high
just build well

[plucky berry]

Made some possible changes and revamped the team a little and was wondering what you guys thought of this

havent confirmed it yet but wanted some feedback on this team

[jade solar]

u have way too much removal

lmao

what is the minimum amount of poke u can have

[rancid kestrel]

Not super sure you need Corv when you have Treads+Wash+GWeezing. You also have very bad hazard setting, it's basically just Treads. I really like the Tera Zarude+Dragapult duo, that's an incredible duo that you should absolutely not drop. But I'm not sure why you have Sylv+Corv+GWeez+Bliss+Croc+Sableye when you don't have any hazard setting. I'd dump Corv, probably dump a majority of the low point 'mons that you're never bringing, and then grab a good setter and a good ground immune. Yeah, it's a bit "unwinding role compression" but Corv feels out of place on your lineup, and you really do need more hazard setting.

[plucky berry]

anything you'd recommend?

[spiral thunder]

https://pokepast.es/8014e37b88ff062e

ways to improve my team?

other guys i have

[rancid kestrel]

What is the paste for?

[spiral thunder]

the team im using rn

[rancid kestrel]

Sorry, I got distracted by other things.
@spiral thunder - I'm not sure what you mean by "the team im using rn". You should be building a team of 6 to counter your opponent's options and draft, rather than building a team unconnected from everything as if it were for ladder. Did you have an opponent you built this for you didn't share? The paste kinda doesn't mean anything without an opponent, since you'd need to rebuild it from the ground up once you see what your opponent has.
Additionally, I can't give strong advice on this roster right now, as without a sheet link for the tournament's structure, I can't understand what rules you are playing by. The point system and 'mons available make me think this is a NatDex Low Tier tournament, but I'm not sure - I can't imagine Chandelure is worth 18 points in most any format or ruleset. If you could provide a league sheet link or something, I could probably take a look at things and provide some advice sometime tomorrow.

[spiral thunder]

i thought it was like ladder. idk this is my first time doing draft and im doing awful

i think its just non-ou stuff

[spiral thunder]

probably natdex low tier

[rancid kestrel]

Is this your opponent for your first match? Can you please link the league document this stuff is from so I can see the league rules and board? It really is looking like y'all are running a nonstandard format, so the more info I have the more advice I can provide.

You can also find beginner Draft info in these two articles by wonderful members of our community:
https://www.smogon.com/articles/beginners-guide-draft
https://www.smogon.com/articles/beginners-guide-draft-2

[spiral thunder]

no it's like the 6th week

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Myzyz8oMuPHsQspQI3bP_XSOV3LU7KCfZweqq6LiFcY/edit?pli=1&gid=306118906#gid=306118906

[valid void]

I sure love when people steal wpf’s doc without permission

[rancid kestrel]

Some thoughts, @spiral thunder

• What is Power Gem on Ampharos hitting on your opponent's team? Eiscue? You have TBolt for Oricorio already. Eiscue is likely to Tera if it comes given how bad a typing Ice is, so it seems like a moveset better put towards something like Heal Bell or Volt Switch.
• What is this Tinkaton set intended to accomplish? SD Focus Sash when you're already slower than 2 mons (3 if Armarouge/Feraligatr/Falinks use Scarf), I'm not sure I understand the intent of Focus Sash here. Surely something like Sitrus Berry to increase longevity, or maybe an Occa berry to surprise turn the tables on Oricorio or Armarouge?
• I can't say I understand the Gothitelle bring. I certainly don't understand Covert Cloak + Competitive, that seems like anti-synergy. Apparently Shadow Tag is banned? I guess. But I don't know what purpose Gothitelle serves if not Shadow Tag. What is Trick Room bringing to the team? All your sweepers are invested in Speed, Arboliva is not going to be getting the KOes to make TR worth anything.
• Your EVs could probably be a bit better apportioned, both Tinkaton and Chandelure could stand to lose a touch of HP EVs - Tinkaton only needs to hit 314 (4 EVs saved) and Chandelure only needs to hit 281 (something like 12 EVs saved?).
• You've ceded hazard setup entirely to your opponent. Your opponent has many strong options for hazard setting between Forre, Shocks, and Ogerpon, and your removal options are Avalugg and Butterfree. You don't even have any hazard setting on either of your options that you intend to bring, but their removal is also pretty good. I cannot ever in good faith not recommend bringing either setting and removal, and I almost always recommend bringing a bit of both. I frankly am not sure how to manage this given the lineups, but perhaps a more defensively inclined Tinkaton can at least chance putting hazards up on your opponent's side of the field? Maybe Avalugg can replace Gothitelle and provide some spinning.

[spiral thunder]

would volt or heal bell fit amphy better?

running a diff set for tink, i'll send it all over in a minute. oh yeah wait covert + competitive is awful why do i have that 😭

i will swap out for avalugg

unless butterfree can bring more

[rancid kestrel]

I would use whichever you feel better with, re: Ampharos. I don't have a lot of faith in Butterfree to be able to do much of anything ever, frankly.

[spiral thunder]

very fair

i think volt switch will provide more, unless feraligatr is tera ground

thoughts?

[spiral thunder]

what about cotton guard? re: Ampharos

[rancid kestrel]

I would not run Own Tempo over Sturdy. I'd also not try to have it take special hits at all. I'd sooner run stuff like Recover and/or Iron Defense and just avoid special attacks.

[spiral thunder]

hmm

alright

[rancid kestrel]

This set can work I suppose, though I do think without Recover you're likely to struggle a lot. I'm not sure Curse actually adds anything to Avalugg here.

[spiral thunder]

and a work on chandy

[spiral thunder]

makes gyro ball and body press stronger

i think recover will be fine though

[rancid kestrel]

Well, not really. I'd be very surprised if there were any calcs that Curse actually affecfted. Armarouge, Feraligatr, Falinks, Ferro, and Bastidon all resist Gyro Ball, and Eiscue is weak to it. Body Press is already going to be doing a ton of damage due to the high natural defense.

[spiral thunder]

i see

true true

[rancid kestrel]

As for Chandelure, remember that you only need 281 Speed because you can't outspeed Skintank/Oricorio/Sandy/Oger anyway, and you only need 281 to outspeed Feraligatr.

Be careful with Air Balloon expecting to freely get in on Shocks, you don't have a ground immunity or an electric immunity so your opponent can freely click Volt Switch to figure out what your answer is to Shocks and respond in kind, and Air Balloon only works once.

[spiral thunder]

maybe

i can do something with a dondozo?

[rancid kestrel]

Sure but then you return to the problem of no removal

I'm also not convinced that going Dondozo into a team w/ Shocks, Ogerpon and a bunch of special attackers is a great idea?

[spiral thunder]

true true

[rancid kestrel]

Why Shell Bell? Leftovers is always better, no? I don't recall your league having Item Clause.

[spiral thunder]

hmm i guess

it doesnt but

yeah

maybe i can give tink an air balloon to pressure opponent to use armarouge on tink?

or a sash?

[rancid kestrel]

Air Balloon doesn't provide pressure like that. Your opponent will click U-Turn or Volt Switch or something and then pop it.

Why Own Tempo? This is the second time you've chosen it over actually viable abilities that a Pokemon has (both other abilities are good for Tinkaton but Mold Breaker is more overal useful, usually). My recommendation against Sash on a setup Tinkaton remains. Maybe something like Sitrus or something could help?

I have to go eat dinner, I'll be back later, probably!

[spiral thunder]

doesnt feraligatr have intimidate

https://pokepast.es/cdbfcabc095f2a36

ignore avalugg, its this

[rancid kestrel]

Feraligatr's abilities are Sheer Force and Torrent

I don't know that I have any further comments on the paste, to be honest, most of my thoughts on the league format and the rosters were made known already above.

[spiral thunder]

ohh gotcha

[tardy shale]

Is armarouge any good for singles

[rancid kestrel]

Hey, this isn't the place to ask for competitive assistance. You can find info on Armarouge in standard Draft formats here: https://www.smogon.com/dex/sv/pokemon/armarouge/draft/

[spiral thunder]

how should i change my team to fit this roster?

https://pokepast.es/bd674f02457a6fce

[rancid kestrel]

So, a first note before I ramble: Throw out that paste. It's not going to be particularly useful, you should not be adjusting/changing your team each round, you should be building from the ground up based on what you're facing.

• Your opponent has basically no removal. Only Gurdurr and only Defog, with Grafaiai able to absorb TSpikes. You could maybe look into hazard stacking. Additionally, your opponent has next to no hazard setting, it's just Webs on Grubbin (not real) and SR on Golem.
• Your opponents Fairy and Dragon switchins are just Grafaiai and Gardevoir respectively. Everything else takes neutral. Grafaiai and Girafarig also are the only Ghost resists/immunities, but I'm not sure how much of that value provides.
• Your opponent's team is scarily slow. 110 Grafaiai but then it dips to two 85s, an 81, and an 80? That's their hgihest speeds, and that includes... Golduck and Girafarig. Your team's not particularly fast either, but a Scarf Chandelure probably goes real hard.
• Your opponent's team feels vaguely TR-y, but they only have TR on Gard/Giraf/Gourg. So maybe it isn't? It just seems like a strange defensive lineup but I'm not sure where the firepower comes from. Gyarados I guess? Gardevoir?

But yeah. Build a new team based on what you see of your opponent and what you think they're likely to bring. In your shoes, I'd prob bring Scol/Tink/Chandy/Amph +2 but I think those are probably also your 4 best Pokemon. Dondozo for Gyara/Glast/Golem, maybe? CM Gothitelle? I dunno.

But yeah. Don't try to change a previous week's team, start anew based on what your prep doc indicates to you.

[spiral thunder]

tr?

[rancid kestrel]

Trick Room

[spiral thunder]

cm?

ohhh

[rancid kestrel]

Calm Mind

[spiral thunder]

cosmic/stored power gothitelle?

[rancid kestrel]

Maybe. Feels a bit dangerous with something like Prankster Encore Grafaiai as something your opponent might bring, or any number of hazing/phazing. Could work for sure depending on how you play it.

[spiral thunder]

who should i hazard set with?

also im worried about that goodra

what can i do abt it

should i run bear or arboliva

or avalugg

oh gothitelle

whoops

alright so this is a good set for chandy since scarf is best

[rancid kestrel]

Just to be clear, @spiral thunder, I don't mind helping out a bit, but this is an RMT space (with drafting advice because of the nature of the format), not a place for back-and-forth building help.

Do you have a prep doc? The Techno prep doc pinned in the channel will show you that you only have two hazard setters - SR Tinkaton, and Spikes/TSpikes Scolipede. I've talked about TSpikes in my initial thoughts, though I think both else can be of value.

Hoodra is going to be difficult to break always, even in a format with actually powerful mons. However, if it's the only think that can consistently check offensive pressure, it can be broken down over time. Something like Chandelure can put pressure on it consistently, in theory. You'll have to spend time building and running calcs to figure out your preferred six and the best approach for them.

Like I said befvore, I'd suggest Scol / Tink / Chandy / Amph, but that's partially because those are the only mons I'd think would be consistent locks to bring every game more or less. Dondozo maybe too, in this matchup it looks alright, but it suffers from being predictable and abusable. But this isn't really a "build my team for me" type of place (or at least, I'd rather it not be / I'm not willing to consistently build people's teams for them) so I'd advise you to put your stuff in a prep doc, do your own looksee and see what you want to build, and then when you have a full lineup you feel you want rating, come back here.

[spiral thunder]

thank you

[spiral thunder]

https://pokepast.es/3227435e8512f20f

thoughts

[jade solar]

next MU, thoughts on how to crack it? https://pokepast.es/7febd4de65520bff what i have so far

need a win direly this week

to stay in the POs race

been having a rough time so far, 0-3 -10

[rancid kestrel]

A few small thoughts, @spiral thunder.

• Why is Tinkaton 252+ Speed? It's never outspeeding Grafaiai, and even as slow as Gourgeist outspeeds if it's Choice Scarf. You're 94 Base Speed, and the next fastest is Girafarig. You do need +Spe, but you've got of EVs wasted on Tinkaton's speed - you only need 184+ to outspeed Girafarig/Golduck.
• What does Reflect do for you here on Tink? Your opponent's likely physical attacking 'mons are Gyarados, maybe Glastrier if it comes, maybe Grafaiai if it loads an offensive set, and then... what? No Giraf, not Golduck, not Garde or Hoodra or Gourgeist.
• Why is Scolipede also max speed? It's already the fastest Base Speed, if it gets a free turn it can outspeed Scarves, let alone two turns. If you want to outrun Grafaiai at +0 that's fine, drop to 351 speed, but it seems like a lot of EVs "wasted" against a 'mon likely to use Prankster something to try and mess with you.
• I'm not super convinced that Gothitelle or Dondozo are holding the correct items. If the calcs work for you, if you're satisfied by Dondozo's ability to take special hits or by Gothitelle's ability to take hits and survive long enough to make use of both WP and CM, then go for it. But Dondozo feels like a "why are you trying to take special hits, stay in your lane" and Gothitelle feels like "are you sure you're bulky and fast enough to do this?". I dunno.

[rancid kestrel]

Which Urshifu does your opponent have?

[jade solar]

single strike

[rancid kestrel]

Some thoughts @jade solar - standard NDUbers blah blah you've heard plenty already.

• Your opponent has some wack speed tiers. 142 + 130 but then the third fastest is 97? You could reasonably expect a scarf on Single-Strike, sure, but Gliscor Solg and Terapagos surely have other items they really want to be running. Your opponent is either outspeeding with Pult/Jolt/whatever Scarf, or it's always underspeeding, basically.
• I've talked about your hazard situation before. Your opponent has a ton of hazard availability, though a lot of it (Spidops, Gastrodon) is either totally not relevant or very limiting (Gliscor appreciates being able to run other things). You both have serviceable removal in this game, ITreads actually has a decent swing against most of your opponent's threatening mons.
• Your opponent has a clear 5 I'd expect them to bring every week - Pult, Solg, Shifu, Terap, and Gliscor. The sixth could be Jolt, Togekiss, or even maybe Licky or MAboma or Gastro, depending on opponent structure, if I had to guess? Does that match up with what you've seen in their replays?
• It's notable that Gliscor is in their clear 5 to bring. Glisc is good and a pain to play against if done well, but Glisc isn't exactly a world-beater in NDUbers. They really are relying on Pult, Solg, and Shifu to do a lot, because non-Tera Terapagos is good but has its limitations, and Gliscor is good but not great even in lower power level formats.
• You kinda also do have an obvious top 5 (TornT, MGal, Treads, ChiYu, Xern), but you've shown flexibility in previous weeks at disregarding some of these.

• Some thoughts on type vulnerability - they kinda just don't have resists, do they? Shifu resists all of Dark, Ghost, and Psychic, which is super limited across their roster - it is literally half of the resists to all of those types, shared with Kiss, Terap/Licky (okay one third), and Solg respectively. Shifu wants to be offensive and not take constant hits!! It's not like they even have a defensive Tera user, either... Unsurprisingly, Solg has the other defensive spine, resisting all of Flying Dragon and Fairy basically alone - Jolt/Kiss/Croc, but one of those wants to offensively Tera and generally speaking, YMMV with regards to how effective any of these secondary resists matter. Ice and Normal vulnerabilities too, but those seem less real.

Now, thoughts on the paste.

• Of all the weeks to not run Psychic coverage on Xern, I dunno if this week is it. Is TBolt the best move here? You've got FBlast (if it hits) for Shifu, Fairy+Psychic+Fighting coverage kinda hits everything for Neutral at worst, doesn't it? I can understand the Horn Leech bring, sorta, though I question if it'd actually provide additional turns of life. But I also think there's little else to run, probably.
• What is the logic behind MGal's attacking moves of choice? I guess it kinda hits everything alongside fighting, but like... I dunno. It seems like a dangerously unreliable move for a situation where I feel like there are better options - Ice wasn't exactly a type that caught too much attention in my type ramble, though I can see the limits there. Maybe there is some sense here, but when I was writing about the Psychic stuff I was sure that there'd be an MGall and Xern going hard with that type, only for neither to load it up.

• A new week, same song and dance. No SR? I know it's tough to fit, but it's such a good move in most every case. They've only got two real resists, even... Rapid Spin for sure is an important bring, though. I dunno what you'd feel most comfortable with dropping if you wanted SR, though. Just an eternal thought of "hazards good" that you can probably disregard.
• What's the double status on Rotom-Wash for? I'm not necessarily against it, but it gets stuff like SBall and Dark Pulse for potential offensive pressure or Pain Split for longevity, and I'm not sure what you're clicking Toxic on. Terapagos, I guess? But even then if it's a Terapagos built to use Tera Shell multiple times it'll probably be Rest and disregard Toxic altogether? I dunno. I'd want to para all of Pult/Solg/Shifu personally, so I'm not sure I like the Toxic bring personally.

Nothing else immediately comes to mind on your lineup or the matchup doc

[jade solar]

well i'll be with u in a hot minute after reading this

• That is very annoying for me personally, i find it very stupid that this guy has ended up undefeated so far, and yeah that aspect of it is very wack.
• Yeah, Treads has a decent MU in here and his hazards game is there but from what i've seen of his hazard game, it's not that much anyways.
• Yeah you're kinda spot on with the top 5, although he has favoured some other mons like Jolt in there and surprisingly his last slot is preferably Crocalor.
• That Gliscor is a monster, do not underestimate it, it's kill leader in the league going 13-0, but mainly because it just comes in and cleans the damage already done but yeah i can see that
• Yeah, different MUs call for different mons, but those have not exactly worked the best, just hopin for a good comeback rn.
• Lookin to take advantage of those setbacks, Xern and Chi Yu both can rip holes in there team considerably well.

My reply to thoughts of the paste:

• Yeah, maybe Tbolt isn't the play and technically psychic coverage isn't needed that much since they can pretty much eat those hits, maybe Toxic could be a play?
• Idk why Psychic moves are needed here, i pretty much don't need much of it against him. Also this set is just to spiral out of control if it can get those two dances off, Axel and CC is more than engh for his team i believe, not sure what else to slot in.
• I prefer Ihead to just blast Toge for good, SR isn't exactly needed into his team, and just brute forcing through there should be enough
• Maybe yeah, but toxic is nice to have for wearing it down slowly but surely. If he is rest or heal bell i can take advantage of Pagos being pretty passive in those moments and i don't exactly need longevity here.

https://tenor.com/view/tuesday-after-christmas-gif-246022315313086585

phew got there

[rancid kestrel]

Response thoughts as they come to mind:

• Sure, up to you in the end as to what coverage you use. I just look at the type preview and I see Psychic/Ghost/Dark as my preferred attacking types, so seeing it only really show up on Chi-Yu confused me. TAxel is an unreliable move and I'd hate to rely on it to lock the win in. Psychic is the type I'd be relying on to do a ton of damage, so I'm not sure I agree "i pretty much don't need much of it against him" - sure, you don't need it, but it seems to me to be the safest/most consistent secondary coverage to me.
• I'm surprised that your opponent's not using hazards much, they've got a lot of options (even if the only viable ones really are Terap/Glisc). I'm never not going to recommend hazards conceptually, though I recognize it's limited in your lineup.
• I'm not convinced Togekiss comes let alone is willing to take a hit from ITreads, but I can see the logic I suppose, and it'd be helpful to remove it I suppose if given the opportunity.
• I really dont understand the Toxic choice even with the explanation. It's your choice in the end, but when you have the opportunity to heal up with Pain Split or do good damage with surprise SE Coverage, I dunno that I'd be motivated to bring a second status that I'd not even rather use on basically anything on your opponent's LU.

I definitely like your paste. You've definitely improved in your building and understanding of your roster and its pros and cons since the first week! Obviously never any upper ceiling for improvement, even the best Draft players still have things to learn and improvements to make. But compared to what I remember of the conversations the first time you came in here with the Pult+Zarude team for another tour/league, I definitely have less in these pastes that I see as urgent need-to-changes and more of just, "hm I think I'd approach this differently" musings.

[jade solar]

• Probably yeah, i understand what you mean but it's tought to slot Psychic moves, when i need other moves that get the job done easier.
• Yeah i might consider making some changes in mine, but definitely he does use Rocks
• Yeah that's main point
• alright, I'll slot in pain split in there, might be better yeah.

Thank you man! Glad i'm able to improve in a very new format like this, and hoping to make that comeback real and making POs. Yeah it's been a while since then, but I'm going to aim higher and improve continuously until i get my first chip in draft. Thank you so much for your help so far, i'm really glad to get advice on my MU from experience players like you and I'm going to try my best to win this week!

Gonna test out this team a little bit and report on what i struggle with the team so far, and what can maybe fix them

[spiral thunder]

i swapped gothitelle's for a kee berry. idk about dondozo bc its probably gonna be like my at the end wrapping things up when i might not have enough spD resistance, it can be an all-rounder.

https://pokepast.es/e3f4557e10dab8d2

but thank you

[spiral thunder]

https://pokepast.es/46bc38b9f24b8191

did some work

[rancid kestrel]

I definitely like this paste a lot better. I have loose questions about the items for Tinkaton and Dondozo, but it's probably nothing that would be five-star alarms.

[jade solar]

@rancid kestrel won this MU

gallade went bonkers

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9natdexdraft-2326116131-s1ndooyohk9p3bkpccnmiv1ocf07qvfpw

https://tenor.com/view/me-atrapaste-es-cine-its-cinema-cinema-esto-es-cine-gif-17729711691959966457

[jade solar]

Week 5 time in the league. Pretty okayish MU imo, i can win and need to, to make sure i'm in the POs race. https://pokepast.es/a694eba19edcdbf7, The paste that i made so far.

looks like another good gallade MU once like Lokix dies

[jade solar]

thoughts?

[tacit steppe]

Need some suggestions on what kind of team I should make around this

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1IZTXTKX-cEjsuYG8_N3Xoyi6nmqpRcfAjSf7d0-5Sxw/htmlview

Two Tera Captains and 2 Z captains (Pokemons that are below 21 points individually) are allowed, Total point is 130

My current two picks are Greninja and Dragonite leaving at 100 points

I'm planning to Tera Captain Dragonite

[rancid kestrel]

Alright, @jade solar

• Your opponent doesn't have a super deep pool, do they. Seventh best Pokemon in an Ubers format is what, Lokix? Hoodra? Oof. Skymin Palafin and ThundyT aren't exactly the most terrifying things if you've got the options for em.
• Their speeds are kinda spooky for you. I like the Scarf Chi-Yu and Geo Xern for sure. This def feels like a world where you wanna make sure you're making use of your Booster Treads, too.
• Their Rock resistances are kinda fake and a ton of things are weak to it. How often do they run Boots? Good to make em use a slot ofn an otherwise unbeneficial item.
• They have a lot of Fighting, Grass, and Ground immunities/resistances. Ground less so, but still 3 immunities in their viable 'mons. CC and Matcha may be useful stabs, but perhaps there are other moves that are more freely spammable? Gallade's moveset especially I'm not convinced on, why Leaf Blade specifically? What is it hitting? Surely it's not just a Palafin check that's gonna Jet Punch you anyway.
• Skymin is infuriating to play against. Unfortunately, you can't fit Covert Cloak anywhere really, since it'd be just Sinis/Rotom and both of them are not Skymin switchins. Could be cool if you could fit in Cloak Dragalge or Torn, maybe? But I see the value Rotom and Sinis provide.
• What's Focus Blast for on Xern? Seems resisted into most of their top tier threads in a way that something like Psyshock wouldn't be.
• I'm actually not sure Chi-Yu needs that much speed. Surely we'd not expect Scarf Thun-T? And Palafin even if Scarf again just Jet Punches you.
• Their hazards kinda sucks. It's basically just Lando rocks? You're not even that scared of Dewpider Webs (lol), between AgilGall, GeoXern, Rotom/Sinis ignoring it... I guess ChiYu hates it. At least their removal is good, Court Change + a few reasonable Defogs!

OK, @tacit steppe
Tera Captain Dragonite is really good. I'm not sure Greninja holds up quite as well compared especially in a four-team pool(?), but it's not a bad pick either. Are y'all drafting from the same SV ND Conference board? Like, if someone in Kalosian picks a 'mon, is that off the board for you? I'm going to assume so.

You have two offensive pieces - TC Dragonite can be defensive yes, but you're spending so much on something that really should be relying on TC position to be a sleep paralysis demon. You should look into picking up some powerful defensive backbone pieces, especially with you coming out as a bandit when it comes to point cost pieces (15pt Tera Captain Dragonite? That's some late 2022 stuff, super broken!) - you've got a lot of budget to build up with one or two more offensive demons (which can even be stuff as cheap as like, Z Captain Victini, omniboosts go brr) and a difficult to manage defensive/supportive core.

You don't have a ton of good hazard play right now - Greninja can Spikes, yes, but doesn't want to do that every game. Something like Iron Treads can be a great option to provide both removal and some setting, which can be supplemented later by cheaper removal alt options as well as other 'mons that can do some setting of their own (such as, for example, Ogerpon Spikes, which is a cool secondary TC, or Gligar/Gliscor).

Pivoting or some way of healing your offensive mons would also help. Dragonite would love a Healing Wish or Lunar Dance Pokemon, and everyone appreciates a Regenerator slow pivot like Glowking or Alomamola.

As for other super offensive threats you could pick up... MAlakazam or Spectrier would be a big budgetary commitment but are priced there for good reason, both Urshifus are quite strong, Gouging Fire can be very versatile, Annihilape can be a nightmare for opponents to prep against, the Tapus can hit surprisingly hard... Plenty of scary cheaper options too depending on how your build turns out.

[tacit steppe]

Yeah I was gonna pick Kingambit for my second Tera but it got snipped, and Greninja was a panic pick

[rancid kestrel]

Greninja is fine. You won't ever feel like it was a waste I suspect, and its comparative cheapness and ability to be both Battle Bond and Protean can give you flexibility to kit it very well even if Dragonite wants you to give it ESpeed and Tera Normal four out of five games. It's also prices quite cheaply IMO, you've got a large budget without falling too far behind (if at all) on the power curve. Tera Dragonite is that.

[tacit steppe]

Yeah Kalosian is off-board too it's just there for the battle (like kalos and Paldean can only fight each other in playoffs)

[rancid kestrel]

Sure but what I'm asking is - I see that Spades in Kalosian took Chien-Pao, is Chien-Pao unavailable for you?

[tacit steppe]

Yes

[rancid kestrel]

Thumbs up gotcha. Yeah, that was what I had assumed, my thoughts above were based under that assumption then, yeah.

[tacit steppe]

I'm going for a high-pointer next Round

[rancid kestrel]

MAlakazam and Spectrier are bonkers mons. Pheremosa is good but I'm not personally a fan. Chi-Yu is very overpriced here. The 3 20pt Megas are all good but two of them overlap with Dragonite too much for the cost, I think. MKanga is probably a cool pickup, though. MDiancie might be cool for you, but Garchomp and Deo probably not.

[tacit steppe]

Hmm I'll pick one between Specteir and Alakazam

Problem with Specteir is its movepool feels a little limited

[rancid kestrel]

Be aware that you will have two and a half very frail 'mons - Multiscale is kinda the only thing standing between you and half your team getting OHKO'd. This isn't a problem, because those 3 can dish out OHKOs in return, but you really need to be cognizant of the fact that the three 'mons expecting to do the most killing can't switch into hits.

Spectrier isn't that frail, but. You get what I'm getting at.

[tacit steppe]

Yup

[rancid kestrel]

These kids would love to be escorted in via a slow pivot.

[tacit steppe]

Yup, I am in for getting them on later rounds

[rancid kestrel]

Yeah. Between Spec, Gren, and Dragonite, you may benefit from using your Mega, second TC, or your ZC slots on more utility options. Plenty of good defensive megas, and while ZCs tend to be offensive (turns out the offense gimmick is offense in nature), I'd be looking at a defensive core forward.

[tacit steppe]

So I think I'll be going forward with Mega Alakazam

[rancid kestrel]

Oh right you were between the two. Yeah, MAlakazam is also very strong and powerful.

[tacit steppe]

Just a thing I'm scared of is people in my division, as I'll be facing 2 rounds against them , One seems to be building a Electric Terrain team with Koko and Iron Valient and other has drafted a Dragapult, so they are a bit scary since they can outspeed M-Alakazam

Pult (with scarf)

[rancid kestrel]

Yeah. MZam isn't always going to be the fastest thing on the field. By nature of being a Mega, it can't do the Scarf or the Speed Booster or stuff like that. That might be a reason against taking it, knowing specifically what you might end up facing.

But those things are also gonna outspeed the average Spectrier and wreck it, too, I'd think.

[tacit steppe]

Yeah , I was thinking of Scarfing up Specteir for worst case, tho if Iron Valient Tera started Calm minding it'd be Ggs

[rancid kestrel]

That's the joy of Draft - endless "if you X then I Y!" "no if you Y then I'll Z"

[tacit steppe]

I see

I'll be going forward M-Alakazam itself, I hope you can help me on my next picks too

Thanks for all the help till now

[jade solar]

• What do you mean by that? I didn't exactly get you on that lol.
• Yeah, their speed tiers run pretty deep which is frightening that i'll be playing the game mainly trying to take hits and return them back. Scarf Chi-Yu and the other 2 are key in this matchup for sure.
• I also didn't get you here, but i think you mean rocks i suppose? Yeah, I do have that and it looks like it will dent them quite a bit.
• lol, Leaf Blade was for Palafin idk what else to put in that slot. Not sure what other moves might be spammable. I definitely want CC for Hoodra since it's his best Xerneas check and might definitely try and bring it.
• Most definitely lol, it's going to be a pain in the ass to play especially with scarf flinch hax BS maybe. I can maybe try either of those in there, just have to test out the current version to see if slotting those ideas might fix that problem.
• It's for Hoodra but now looking at the calcs, i feel like what you said is true lol. Psyshock is better here yeah.
• What do I look to speed creep then? Naturally creep Lokix or try and speed creep Ninjask only.
• Yeah, but having spin is good to have since it clears of unnecessary damage that can save HP on mons that might need it later on.

[rancid kestrel]

• re: Point 1, Approach it to like you're ranking your opponent's Pokemon. They have 12, but can only bring 6, standard mons - their best couple of 'mons are all easy to figure out, but once you get to numbers 5, 6, 7, you're looking at (depending on how you rank) Cinderace? Thundurus-T? Lando-T? Those are 4 5 and 6, but what's seven? What is their seventh best Pokemon, what's their first choice of a substitute if something can't come that week? Lokix? Lokix is like, alright maybe, in a standard Draft environment. This is NDUbers and Lokix is your best option? Hoodra? Same problem. The dropoff in relevance is pretty stark here. 12 mons but only 6 of them really are particularly scary for this power level.
• re: Rocks, Mega Metagross doesn't have recovery and often needs to take a lot of hits in order to be dealing damage. Hoodra and Conk are the only other rock resists - they certainly can't come most games. Their options to deal with rocks are just Boots spam and Defog.
• re: Close Combat, sure I can see the logic there, that makes sense.
• re: Skymin, yeah I just dunno what you'd drop. Rotom maybe? Sinis kinda is really useful for MMeta and Palafin, but it's not like Rotom is useless ever. I think that it's not like Skymin is impossible to work around but I also wonder if it can't just 6-0 you on lead, ITreads and ChiYu aside.
• re: Speed creep, definitely don't try to speed creep the Speed Boost mon. I'd probably try to just be faster than Scarf Lando personally?
• re: Spin, yeah I definitely dont want to be seen advocating for a lack of Rapid Spin, for sure. Just that their hazard gameplay doesn't look great to me.

@jade solar

[jade solar]

yeah, understood! So, what do i change up in the team or do i keep this until i run into any roadblocks while testing?

[rancid kestrel]

If you're doing testing, I'd test with this team if I were in your shoes. I have questions about Gallade's movepool like mentioned with Leaf Blade or Focus Blast on Xern that I think you've already addressed. Most of my thoughts were just musings that hopefully gave you a more full idea of the matchup's intricacies, I'm not sure there's too much I'd actively change (and even the things I'd change are maybe just personal preference stuff)

No worries, I can clean that up - @lofty wigeon sorry for the ghost ping in here, someone thought a message from you was much more recent than it was!

[jade solar]

Alright. Will get back you on how the team works after some test games.

[lofty wigeon]

I was wondering why I got a notification when I haven't spoken in awhile haha

[solemn warren]

Yeah discord tabbed me in far too back

[tacit steppe]

Oops

Slowking-Galar got taken so I am picking Iron treads

[tacit steppe]

What should be the next Draft pick I should make?Kinda don't know what to do from here

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1IZTXTKX-cEjsuYG8_N3Xoyi6nmqpRcfAjSf7d0-5Sxw/htmlview

Current team-
Dragonite
Greninja
Iron Treads
Alomamola
Grimmsnarl

[rancid kestrel]

Some thoughts:

• Your speed tiers are currently 80-106-122. You'd do well to get 'mons around the 90 or 100 speed tier, as well as something in between 106 and 122.
• You have a lot of Fairy weaknesses and not a lot of answers to it. That's probably something that can naturally solve itself eventually, but worth being aware of exacerbating.
• You could stand to have better hazard gameplay, with your only removal being RSpin on Treads (good) and Defog on Dragonite (unreliable), and setting being just Greninja and ITreads.
• Alomamola is a good pivot but bad at being the sole defensive 'mon. You should be looking at providing it with more defensive helpful mons (especially ones that can provide Fairy resistances and/or status) - something like Heatran, Slowbro/Slowking, Jirachi, etc.

You have a pretty solid offensive core backed up by a Grimmsnarl (not the choice I'd have made but it's fine) screens. But your defensive/utility options are limited right now and you are going to be playing from behind in the hazard war.

[spiral thunder]

what i have for this week

https://pokepast.es/0013fb446c485f16

[rancid kestrel]

• They have a pretty good speed advantage on you. I'd still not discount a scarf somewhere, on Cacturne or something maybe, but you're gonna have a rough time outspeeding GMolt, Pyroar, and Starmie without having Scolipede already setup. Their speed does kinda fall off from there, but that's gonna be half of their team consistently outspeeding basically all of yours.
• They don't have good resistances/immunities to Dragon or Water. Dondozo (not on your paste for some reason?) and MAmphy are gonna be hard for them to switch in, especially if they can't fit room in for mons like Granbull, Dhelmise, or Cacturne.
• They will see that you have a ton of weakness to Fire. Expect some funny tech on either Weezing/Pyroar to get around Chandelure and then just hard hitting fire type attacks. Specs Pyroar (if it's not the scarfer) is gonna be rough for you to deal with once Chandy's out of commission unless you can commit Tera to blanking fire type attacks, and even then it'll be a huge pain still.
• Their removal kinda sucks, but they can probably fairly reasonably get up a lot of hazards reliably. That's definitely going to be worrying for you, your removals only make your fire type weakness worse. Expect TSpikes from Weezing, I'd think.

Onto the paste:

• Your Tinkaton is missing 4 EVs.
• Why is Tinkaton max speed here? Outspeeding neutral Pyroar, but even then you only need 312 Speed? I can see that I guess but I'm not sure you're doing anything back, really - what's the calcs on Stone Edge, anyway?
• Why is Beartic coming? It matches up poorly into most everything on your opponent's team that's likely to come except maybe GMolt, maybe it's vaguely neutral into Starmie? But then it's... Brick Break? Your opponent doesn't really seem likely to set up screens here, and even if they do, is Beartic really gonna survive the hit and break the screens? Then what?
• What is Colbur for on Goth? Is it really living +2 Fiery Wrath or whatever, and does it even kill back with Thunderbolt if it does? Is Tera Dark the best choice for it here, when you could use it to potentially absorb TSpikes with Poison or use a type like Dragon or Water to resist Fire spam? I'm also not convinced Trick Room here helps your team, what's the game plan for that move?
• Is MAmphy best as a defensive wall? Your chief concerns here are Starmie, Pyroar, and GMolt, all special attackers. I guess maybe you might be scared of Stakataka?
• I'd drop Beartic here for Dondozo, who helps a ton with your defensive backing (assuming you change MAmphy to SpD) and can serve as a useful fire-type switchin.
• I'm not super convinced that Chandelure will be able to rely on keeping its focus sash intact with the hazard play the way it is. Are you confident that your opponent's not gonna set any hazards at all, or are you intending Chandelure to be a Turn 1 damage dealer sacrifice?

[jade solar]

yeah realised leaf blade is useluss so i opted to go SD in that slot

keepin FBlast on Xern tho since i need it for hitting his steels

[tacit steppe]

Kay I have drafted Heatran but might have made some more bad choices, do you have any suggestions to swap since it's the grace period rn

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1IZTXTKX-cEjsuYG8_N3Xoyi6nmqpRcfAjSf7d0-5Sxw/htmlview

Tera Captains -(Dragoite, Heatran)

Z captions( Greninja, Grimsnarl for Z parting shot)

[jade solar]

both tera and z captains?

[tacit steppe]

Yeah 2 Tera Captains and 2 Z captains

Only Pokemon below 20 points

It's a wild draft

[rancid kestrel]

I would drop Iron Boulder, it struggles when it's not a Tera Captain. I'm not sure Heatran needs to be a Tera Captain but that's probably fine. You don't seem to have drafted much more defensive mons other than Heatran, not sure what Lokix or Pikachu are adding for you frankly. I guess Pikachu is one point.

[tacit steppe]

Any defensive pokemon you suggest among the available?

If I drop Loxix, Pika and Boulder

Or you meant like swapping Heatran and Boulder as captains*

[rancid kestrel]

You could def swap Boulder to be a TC. I'm not sure how well they play together since IB really does want Tera often, but Dragonite can give it to IB as needed, sure.

Defensive mons around Iron Boulder's cost, without much consideration to team cohesion since I'm busy right now: Buzzwole, Aegislash, Hisuian Goodra, Mandibuzz
Around Lokix's cost, same deal: Amoonguss, Blissey, Celebi, Clodsire, Fezandipiti, GWeezing, Gastrodon, Hydrapple, Tapu Bulu, Bronzong, Florges, Glowbro, Jellicent, Tentacruel, Cofagrigus

[tacit steppe]

Kayy thanks I'll look what types go well with my team

[rancid kestrel]

My gut instinct based on my recollection of your team is that I'd look closest at Mandibuzz, Florges, and Glowbro? But I dont have the time to think through that in reality.

[spiral thunder]

ty. made some changes
https://pokepast.es/ded99a91bbf2a137

[rancid kestrel]

• Still not sure why the Tinkaton is max speed.
• Are you confident in the Dondozo calcs to be running special defense on it? I see MAmphy is like, a special attacking set rather than specially defensive alongside a defensive Dondozo. Are you happy with the calcs you've tested on these mons?
• Red Card is fun on Goth. Does it get Endure or something, so you can ensure you don't just get OHKO'd from a boosted GMolt? I guess that's what the Tera's for, but you do open yourself up to the Pyroar once you lose Chandy.

[spiral thunder]

what speed should I set tink to?

I think I’m pretty confident but would you suggest trying smth else?

idk abt endure, I might change Tera type tho

[rancid kestrel]

So, in Draft, you know what your opponents speeds range are going to be. Your opponent's ranges (disregarding speed boosts like Scarf, Agility, etc) around Tinkaton are as follows:
Starmie, 252 neutral: 329 - can't be outsped.
Pyroar, 252+: 342 - can't be outsped.
Galarian Moltres, 252+: 306, comfortably outsped.
However, Pyroar neutral hits 311 speed. You absolutely want to outspeed this, if only to force your opponent to run a speed boosting nature so they don't do Special Attack boosting damage. However, that just means you need to hit 312. Anything more is useful, there's nothing that will hit 312 313 or 314 in the match, since you're only worried about 11 Pokemon and not an entire format's worth of Pokemon.
This means that instead of needing to run 252+ and hit 315, you actually only need to run 244+ to hit 312 and outspeed Pyroar by one point. This frees up 16 EVs for you to put somewhere else, like in a defensive stat.
Your opponent will know this and run Jolly because their hand is forced - they need to outspeed your Tinkaton, so they have to go Jolly. If they decide to run Modest for the damage, your Tinkaton will be just fast enough to punish them for that without wasting any more EVs on speed points that won't matter.

[spiral thunder]

gotcha

thank you

[spiral thunder]

got completely obliterated o7

[lofty wigeon]

It's all about learning ! You'll get the next one

[spiral thunder]

yep

🙏🙏🙏

[jade solar]

@rancid kestrel won the matchup!

pretty good game, chi yu and mllade put in the work

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9natdexdraft-2333415259-frpcxj6qm34k4u9siev8349brabfvhopw

the comeback is on 🔥

[jade solar]

On fire so far, Week 6 time now. This is the next MU, man this is a headache lol, it's an all out HO draft. Not sure how to approach it so i made 2 versions to see which might be better https://pokepast.es/e8ad97ae31c53b9b and https://pokepast.es/a37db261b2b50b70

• Cutiefly is my main webs setter here, and the secret trick up my sleeve is imprison + defog which just absolutely shuts down moltres trying to go for defog.
• NP Chi-Yu looks absolutely bonkers here and nothing really resist all my moves in here and webs just makes it a different beast altogether.
• SD Mllade also looks nice here, didn't have engh slots on it to fit in coverage for mmy, +2 stone edge does more than engh anyways.
• Geomancy Xern also looks fun here, not looking forwrad to Unburdern Sneas but does tank a Dire Claw from full and can revenge with Moonblast. Focus Blast is my only coverage against Tink unfort.
• Booster Attack Treads also looks like a fun endgame cleaner here, and has good coverage for his draft.
• Finally, Rotom-Wash is a last ditch defensive piece so i don't immediately collaps against the gnarly offense they have.

In the second version the only change, is Tera Poison Sinistcha over Cutiefly as a dedicated sneas check of sort with Covert Cloak to avoid any Dire Claw BS and Scarf Chi-Yu to just rip through the faster part of his team like Bundle, MMY and Zarude

[rancid kestrel]

Some pre-DRappt stuff at a quick glance since you've obviously already looked at stuff a fair bit.

• Grafaiai looks annoying for you. Prankster at the speed tier it has seems rough for you. I'd be careful for stuff like Encore on it to lock you into Geo, for example.
• Trick Room might actually be a cute tech for you to try this game as another Webs-like niche gimmick to attempt to flip the tables on their fast core.
• I'm trying to see where their Sneasler can proc Unburden. Is it CC White Herb maybe? Mirror Herb on the Geo? I'm sure it can figure something out, just don't know what it is.
• Defog Imprison is a fun tech for sure. I just don't know that it works. Your best case is kinda that Moltres switches in as you Webs, you Imprison and deny the Defog, then...what? You have to stay in to keep Imprison up, and their Flamethrower will quickly bring you down faster than your Moonblast will bring them down. Then, sure, you switch in RWash or Treads or whatever and threaten them out, but they kinda just come back in at the next available opportunity and Defog? Feels like you're hoping they don't bring Defog/Moltres in the first place in order to keep Webs down, or that they choose to use Murkrow to do it instead? I guess like, what else is Cutiefly doing with its moveslots anyway?
• Their hazard setting kinda sucks. It's just Tinkaton rocks since Sneasler can never run TSpikes. Spin on Treads is useful anyway as a speed boost, but wow that's a rough hazards lineup for your opponent. I can understand the webs goal.
• Not super convinced ChiYu needs Boots on the webs version, tbh. They've just got Tinka rocks, and you have Spin. Is Tinka even likely to come? If I'm your opponent surely I'm bringing Mewtwo/Zera/Bundle/Sneasler and two of Moltres, Indeedee, Haxorus, Grafaiai, and Tinkaton. Tink into a team that has Treads, Chi-Yu, and MGall? I'm not sure that it's gonna be my first thought.

[jade solar]

3rd point

i'll give a clue

indeedee

[rancid kestrel]

Yeah, I saw Indeedee, but that's an awful lot of committment into Treads, MGall, Xern, and ChiYu for an Unburden proc. If I'm your opponent I kinda try to Mirror Herb the Geo boost, but maybe that's more revealing on preview with Indeedee not there?

[jade solar]

mm fair

[jade solar]

@rancid kestrel so which version do i go with and make the tweaks?

[rancid kestrel]

That'll be up to you in the end. I don't know your playstyle and space of comfort better than you. If I was in your shoes I'd probably not try the Webs version if I was in a life-or-death playoff race, I'd think, but I'm maybe more scared of techs against it such as Boots Zera or Defog Moltres than might be reasonable.

[jade solar]

yeah i'll go with the slightly defensive one

[lofty wigeon]

Be cautious using this for the league we are in multiple people in that server are in this one too

[jade solar]

alright

but i mainly ask for prep advice here

[full meteor]

Anyone willing to help me make a team out of these or give advice on what mons would work best together?

[rancid kestrel]

@full meteor What format is this, and what team are you playing against?

[full meteor]

theres alot of teams im playing against and format is SV randomized

[rancid kestrel]

SV Randomized...?

[full meteor]

im newer to the game aswell so just getting my bearings would help

yea a scarlet violet randomized draft from what ive been told

[rancid kestrel]

Oh, so you haven't actually selected the 'mons you've shown?

[full meteor]

I can use any of those 10

at any time^

[rancid kestrel]

Right, but the 10 you've been assigned are just randomly assigned to you?

[full meteor]

yes

[rancid kestrel]

Okay. And the format rules are SV, not NatDex, right? What are the Tera rules?

[full meteor]

2 tera captains, can choose 2 typings for each captain but they need to have one of the pokemons type as one of the tera options

and yes it should be natdex

and it looks like we are using the same rules/restrictions as the SV natdex on smogon

[rancid kestrel]

OKay, as I type out a response: What are the rules on Z-Moves and Megas?

[full meteor]

No z moves or megas its only Tera

To clarify i have a baseline knowledge on the roles of each mons i just cant teambuild effectively

[rancid kestrel]

Sure! Some notes.

Firstly, welcome to Draft! You'll mostly expecting to be building each match based on what your opponent has, so your selections are going to vary. For example, in a week where you're expecting your opponent to bring a bunch of Ice-types, you'd not want to bring Landorus-T, but if your opponent has something like Slowbro, you might imagine that Blaziken is less effective.
As such, you shouldn't be trying to figure out what team to make out of these 10 'mons until you know your opponent's Pokemon. You can use something like a Prep Doc pinned in this chat room to put together your lineup and your opponent's lineup and try to figure out what to do.
Pokemon in Draft tend to act somewhat differently than in standard play due to you knowing exactly what options your opponent has. While things like Blaziken are one dimensonal, other things can have pretty wide variance in what they try to accomplish.

That said, there is some advice on your general team composition based on what you have.

• Your hazard gameplay is pretty reliant on Glimmora, with your only other setter being Rocks on Landorus-T. This is going to play a lot into your prep each week, as you're going to have to decide if you have space for a Hazards-focused Glimmora or not.
• You have pretty good removal. While 90% of the time it will be Defog Landorus or Defog Rotom-W, Blaziken or even Mortal Spin Glimmora can chip in. Scyther, if it ever comes to a game, is likely going to need to be doing other things.
• Your speed tiers are alright, but not great. Your fastest 'mon is Walking Wake at 109, with the asterisk of Speed Boost Blaziken. Two 105s, then 98 96 91 (Zarude/Scyther, ICrown, Mimikyu, Lando) is... fine? You're gonna struggle against anything faster than 110 without resorting to a Choice Scarf, but for a random selection, you did pretty well if we're honest.
• You have some good Tera Captain opportunities. Zarude is one of SV Draft's current top tier TCs, if not the standout best option. The rules being as limited as they are is a bit rough, you could maybe grab something like Steel, Electric, Fairy, Water, or some generically good defensive type alongside probably Grass. Iron Crown is another great Tera option, Steel + most any good type would be useful for sure. Lando, Wake, and Mimikyu all can make some use of Tera, but when you have Zarude and ICrown those seem like the standout best options.

My guess is that your team's most common core will be Wake, Zarude, Iron Crown, and Landorus-T, with Mimikyu, Rotom-W, Glimmora, and Blaziken being the common flex slots depending on your opponent. Scyther and Snorlax can work, but require support you don't really have or are very predictable at preview and can take up space better used by another Pokemon. Zarude and ICrown will serve as good Tera Captain options while providing significant offensive pressure, with Landorus and Wake to some extent providing useful defensive backbones and resistances. Then, the remaining two slots will be filled as you need it, maybe a hazard-stacking Glimmora and a defensive Rotom-W, or Blaziken as an offensive threat and a Trick Rotom-W, or something. Again, your team will vary plenty based on your opponent, and it's likely there'll be weeks where some of your main core are dead weight.

[full meteor]

Understood, thank you for your help!

[jade solar]

https://pokepast.es/daf63476dfe7454f so i've kind of patched up the team a bit, went with the more defensive variant. Changed the Treads to be booster Speed, so i'm not deadweight into mmy. Defensively, i have something for Sneas but not sure what to do for MMY.

[jade solar]

i've lost all hope

MMY is too fuckin insane

all my mocks so far have been a disaster

if it's not MMY, it's sneasler

[rancid kestrel]

The only thing I could make think would be Sinistcha's item slot for a Red Card or something, but yeah MMY is a difficult mon for sure to handle.

[jade solar]

won the game wooo

by quite the margin

I luckilly managed to remove MMY early

Sinis helped me steer midgame and would've swept had it not been unlickily crit on one turn

and then Geo Xern finished off the job

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9natdexdraft-2335968706-ocpcxrc07knfv8687ani1c5f1erha06pw

now 3-3 +0

we so back baby

[lofty wigeon]

just finished our nat dex draft. Any glaring holes i can patch up during free agency?

[rancid kestrel]

Okay @lofty wigeon

• You have no removal in a NatDex draft. This is a five star alarm. Defog TornT is not removal, huge alarms here. You need something that will be able to run removal week in and week out, and solo-Defog TornT is not that.
• Your only real setting is Rocks on Hippo and I guess TSpikes on Pex? Galvantula is a meme and every good team will be able to get Webs off the field fast or use Boots. But yeah, between the previous point and this, you're starting off on the back foot in a major way every game by forfeiting the hazard game.
• Your speed tiers at the top are rough. 121 to 108 to 100, the 108 being a 'mon that won't be able to really stay alive long in most games, and the 100 being Base 80 if it isn't Mega'd? Kinda rough even though you have some priority in Rilla and Breloom.
• Why is your Shifu the TC and not TornT? Torn's such a strong TC, I'm curious why you'd choose to not TC them and instead TCing Shifu. I guess it's fine to TC Shifu, but I'm not sure it gains too much from Tera compared to TornT.
• Hippo feels out of place here. Why do you have something doing residual damage on a team around Grassy Terrain healing and Regen-pivoting? It seems like a drain.
• Similarly, why is Breloom here? What does it provide? You're increasing type weaknesses alongside Shifu and Rillaboom, and like, Galvantula is already doing that but at least that gives you webs?

I would drop Breloom and Rillaboom, pick up things that can give you hazard gameplay presence, and I'd move the TC over to Torn-T, but that last one is probably less important.

[lofty wigeon]

so i have made some changes since the discord started cooking me for the teraless torn.
torn is now a captain.
i dropped pex for tentacruel
breloom i wanted just to have a spore user that is fast.
hippo was the only ground type that stood out to me later in the draft. other note worthy ones are gastro and Zygard (PC banned). Alolamola got sniped when i was going for a regen core so i originally pivoted to pex and wanted grassy to weaken ground type damage

spikes is the only thing i really feel im missing

[rancid kestrel]

I dunno that I'd qualify Breloom as fast... It's Base 70...

I'd still be worried about your hazard gameplay, I don't really see what Hippo and Breloom are contributing (and Hippo kinda is anti-synergy with regen cores and GTerrain) but like, your hazards are still just Rocks on Hippo, sorta TSpikes on Tenta and at a stretch Webs on Galv. And then your only removal is Spin on Tenta which in a NatDex format feels really unreliable as a solo-removal.

[lofty wigeon]

i could trade breloom for ribombee and gal for fortress ?

[rancid kestrel]

If you're deadset on having Sticky Webs, I suppose? But you're in a format where Defog is everywhere. Forretress is a serviceable supportive hazard setter/spinner - it's not good but we're in FA and not pre-draft prep so it's not like Iron Treads or Lando-T are still on the board.

[lofty wigeon]

torkoal and espeon are on the board as well espeon would be playing the predication game tho

[rancid kestrel]

Yeah, none really great options. If you're set on having webs, I suppose Bee + Tenta + Forry is serviceable.

[lofty wigeon]

sandslash could work as well

[rancid kestrel]

Downgrade from your other options, to be honest

[lofty wigeon]

thanks for the help

[jade solar]

Well first time for this, but i want some advice on what i can get in my reduced standard natdex league. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LKEbSxqE8KoyUKne2uPXTvSibxpVD7WUVV5M4yDFN_c/edit?gid=2126500332#gid=2126500332 I have Ogerpon-Corner and Infernape so far, not sure what to look for next

have a vague want of swamp or mega pidg

[rancid kestrel]

• Hazards should be your next priority IMO. Both removal and setting, though removal is more important. I see stuff like Empoleon and Mandibuzz for removal, which would also give you quite a nice typing, while mons like Clodsire and Registeel can set hazards. There are a lot of options, it's ND, so you probably want to be thinking ahead to what your larger scale team looks like.
• Your three 'mons currently are offensive powerhouses, but come with little defensive or utility backbone. I'd avoid picking setters/removers in the previous point that are offensive themselves, since you're going to be struggling to do stuff like pivoting or walling if you pick, say, Kleavor.
• You have a good overall speed tier lineup, you may want to consider grabbing something usable around base 100 at some point so you're not in trouble in that region, but in ND that's a jam-packed region that you should be able to reasonably fill.
• What is your Z-Captain plan? Without omni-boosting Z Moves you have much more flexibility in your captain, but you don't have a good one currently - Infernape benefits a lot from items like LOrb, Boots, or Choice items, and your other two choices can't hold Z Items. Picking a general idea of what your ideal Z Captain is now will make sure that you're not giving up a huge power source later by scrambling to give it to a 'mon or giving it to someone who can't make great use of it.

[mystic sundial]

Hey yall I was wondering if I could get some help prepping for my Week 5 match, not really sure what approach I should take

Format is Natdex VGC

[solemn warren]

NatDex VGC is a format I've never seen

@mystic sundial I'd take Diancie for the spread damage, Chien-Pao to further increase Diamond Storms damage, Krokorok for Intimidate, Iron Hands because it's good, Arcanine for a different intimidator and support, and Tapu Bulu for the terrain, and to avoid Mega Manectric and Surge Surfer Alolan Raichu to get out of hand

Also Togekiss at 14 points damn

His Alolan Raichu is probably top priority as it'll outrun and KO at least something
And it also has Fake Out outside of terrain

[rancid kestrel]

Yeah, you're admittedly not going to find much help here, ND VGC is gonna be a pretty far cry from standard SV Draft. At a glance, I'd be most scared of Victini (depending on Z-move permissability), Lando-T, and the ETerrain nonsense.
I'd be careful with Bulu, it doesnt have the same pivoting that Rillaboom does, and Koko has VSwitch, so you're going to need to play heads up to avoid too many issues with ETerrain giving your opponent advantages. It's not impossible to overcome, but you're likely going to be playing from behind a fair bit with regards pivoting and terrain control.
If I had to guess, your opponent probably brings Lando, Koko, TornI, ARaichu, and then two of Victini, TornI, ILeaves, and MMane. My personal guess would be Victini and ILeaves, as that gives them something that can deal absurd damage and also another natural ETerrain user? I'm not convinced that stuff like HTyph, HDecid, or Rotom-W are too good in this matchup or for their gam plan in general. HTyph seems mostly unsupported, HDecid I'm not sure has a niche, and Rotom-W seems too passive for a team of this pace and doubles up on types without the same benefits that ARaichu provides.

[mystic sundial]

What could I do with Krokorok

[mystic sundial]

Yeah z moves are banned

Should I run scarf or vest on bulu, or maybe something else

[solemn warren]

actually nothing just use Arcanine

[lofty wigeon]

this is the team i cooked up
Forretress is my lead to set up spikes, mental herb to at least get one set of spikes up and is EVed to one shot Mega Zam and Lando T
Torn is my scarfer, pretty basic set. It has enough attack EVs to guarantee to 2hko Mega Zam with knockoff even with the - nature to attack.
Urshifu is a pretty standard Band set, it has enough speed to outspeed everything that is below a timid Lando T Clear amulet was another item option but wicked blow had a range to kill regardless of attack drop (crits are busted)
Ghold is another pretty basic set although i swapped recover with T wave for some speed control.
Mega Gard is pretty standard, it's my easiest check to Klefki, also considering heal bell over Taunt.
Rillaboom brings some passive recovery and utility being able to OHKO zam with its knock off.

any help would be appreciated

Tera Fairy is on Torn for Moon and Kinggambit

[rancid kestrel]

@lofty wigeon What is your full roster?

[lofty wigeon]

Hippos

[rancid kestrel]

Some thoughts... In the future, Paste links are easier.

• They have a lot of good removal (Defog on GWeez, Lando, and Klefki). I'm not usre that a specialized lead to set up Spikes even with the surprise KO EVs - I wouldn't expect MZam to try and come in on Forry, for example. But I'm questioning how long those Spikes will stay up long-term, especially in the context of letting Klefki set up screens for Moon or something.
• What is Air Balloon on Dengo protecting you from? EQ Lando? Does it maybe make more sense to run Shuca or something so the Lando doesnt just UTurn out and then get you later, and then you can surprise it with the Make it Rain KO or whatever? You also say you swapped Recover for TWave, but I see Recover on the set? I guess Air Baloon makes more sense with TWave than Shuca does.
• Torn 2hkos MZam, but does it survive the hits in return? A 2hko isnt super useful when it can't get the second hit off.
• Heal Bell seems more logical than Taunt, you'd really only be Taunting Klefki (not as useful as just hitting it) or RMoon which isn't setting up in front of you anyway.

[lofty wigeon]

some answers
Torn T outspeeds Zam so that's the 2hko i'm getting at it does tank 1 hit form any of its moves (need to check TB as it can run that )
Rillaboom is running Brick Break for screens and kos with Knock off and u turn if Zam switch's in on it,
i swapped to t wave right after i posted the pic and didn't want to flood the chat to to much.
I could run V switch on Tress to let me switch in if they set up screens
Lunge 3HKOs roaring moon and with the attack drops it can out damage it if it's running fire fang

replace ice spinner since it non bos with rilla

[rancid kestrel]

Just a thing of like, I'm not convinced Forre can survive long enough to get up spikes and be an offensive surprise, and like, they've got strong removal.

[lofty wigeon]

does Ghold not answer a lot of the removal ?

even if a lando swaps in they need a move before they can damage me

and if they attack instead of removal i outspeed for the kill

[rancid kestrel]

Doesn't Neutralizing Gas supress Good as Gold?

[lofty wigeon]

Ahh

i forgot about that

[rancid kestrel]

Plus the Lando Dengo interaction is a gamble they only need to get right once after your balloon pops, and you need to get right every time (EQ vs Defog switch in or not)

[lofty wigeon]

although mir means i can still threaten a kill

I think they will end up running scraf lando

It's the only way for it to outspeed

[lofty wigeon]

grassy terrian lets it survive a lot more too

[rancid kestrel]

Yeah, just a difficult interaction that I think for myself is tough to always play well/get out ahead of on, even disregarding NGas Defog.

[lofty wigeon]

i honestly think klefki is the hardest part of the match up

[rancid kestrel]

Klefki is a very strong utlity threat for their Gambit/RMoon/Oger. Hell even MZam behind screens is rough when most of your counterplay is carefully crafted 2HKOs

[lofty wigeon]

would heatwave be worth it to replace say bleakwind

[rancid kestrel]

Hard to drop STAB like that, I don't know that I would personally.

[lofty wigeon]

i could go tera Fire and rely on mega gard for Moon

but i'm not sure how good opening my self up to EQ is but with G terrain it may be worth ?

it is open tera btw

so they will know my tera

[rancid kestrel]

I think that it probably comes down to preference - it's not like it's your response to Gambit anyway, but Fire also helps with Gambit potentially (though is more of a problem against Oger)

[lofty wigeon]

bleakwind can OHKO oger and they can't tera out of it

plus i have rillaboom as an answer

[rancid kestrel]

Sure but if you're Tera Fire you need to get a safe switch in, and gods help you if you miss. But yeah, again, it's not like TornT's your primary answer to Gambit or even really Oger either.

[lofty wigeon]

ohhhh i see what you mean

it makes it unsafe to switch in on two mons

[rancid kestrel]

Again in the end it's preference, and there's a decent chance that you're gonna load into Klefki + 4 or 5 (setup) sweepers so stuff like pivoting or what have you are gonna be less important than like, kill trading or predict switching.

[lofty wigeon]

that makes sense i might just give up on spikes and put Vswitch on fort, if i take off Band i can run roar on Fu to prevent some set up

[rancid kestrel]

Roar is an interesting tech - not sure if it's something I'd consider (Band is so good) but it's very disruptive for those kinda teams. I don't know necessarily that I'm recommending no hazards, but I'd make sure that the Forry set is something you're confident in accomplishing what it needs to do if you intend to stick with the set - I don't think it's bad, but the Mental Herb makes me think by T4 that Forry is KO'd and by T12 they've gotten a Defog off and suddenly you're down a sacrifice against one of these ko trade teams.

[lofty wigeon]

i could also keep band and switch fort with Hippo, that allows me to have a bulky mon that can set on the field to repeatedly whirlwind

Slack off and G terrain give it so much staying power

[rancid kestrel]

Yeah, I could see that working. Ogerpon is scary, but like, that's nothing new.

[lofty wigeon]

i'll be back

[rancid kestrel]

I've got to head out and won't be back until later tomorrow anyway

[lofty wigeon]

thanks for the help !

[jade solar]

https://pokepast.es/6aab6ef2e6dbdeba

• Rotom-Wash is my defensive pivot here with Twave to slow down Flutter mainly and reason why no WoW is not much pokemon really get slowed down by it
• Sinistcha looks absolutely bonkers in this MU, CM 2 attacks with Sap is more than engh to dent their team.
• Specs Chi Yu is just here to punish random switchins with random nuke attacks, maybe scarf is better here but like not like I one shot stuff with scarf.
• The best Mllade set is back, just looks also bonkers in this MU, only thing that tanks is maybe reuni but +2 axel shld rip thrgh it.
• Classic Xern Geo set with Tbolt mainly for Corv, Speed EVs to outspeed Booster Speed Flutter at +2. Maybe Something else is ideal since he can just mirror herb me and reverse sweep me. Prob best i run something else.
• Last mon is Booster Speed Treads as a late cleanup mon.

week 7 time baby

we winnin 4 on the run with this one 🗣️ 🔥

[rancid kestrel]

What's the Arc type? Is the Tauros the Fire-type?

@jade solar

[jade solar]

Arc is Ground

and yes it is the Fire Tauros

[rancid kestrel]

• Your opponent's team is so odd to me. It feels like a SV Low Tier draft aside the Arc and FMane and I guess Corv. It feels like a Trick Room team but half of the mons that get it are terrible at using TR, and the other two are super hard to bring.
• Your opponent's hazard game isn't great. It's just SR on Arc Garg Mamo? Who's running it consistently? Garg? TSpikes on Skuntank is whatever. I guess Arceus can be a support set but when your LU is that weak you kinda need Arc to be killing 2 or 3 a game.
• Wack Water weakness for them. Their resistances/immunities are kinda fake. They also have no Fairy resists other than Corv. That's super alarming for sure, I wouldn't want to be going into Xern with no Fairy resists. Maybe they prep some Endure Red Card nonsense?
• What's Cloak for on Sinsitcha? Mamo ICrash flinches or something? I'm actually not sure.
• I'd be careful without a real level of speed control outside of Booster Treads. I'm not saying that you need to change ChiYu to scarf, but like, they're gonna have a Scarfed Mamo or Tauros or something and that's gonna get a surprise kill that is gonna become hard to switch around on.
• I don't actually know what your opp would bring. Rough stuff lol. Arc, Flutter, and Corv have to come. Then it's three of Mamo, Garg, Tauros, Reuni, and maybe P2...?

[jade solar]

Covert Cloak is for Salt Cure Garg

prevents me from takin the extra chip

[jade solar]

• It's a weird one for sure but a lot of stuff goes well into my best threats.
• Yeah, that is true. Can definitely exploit that point with more aggresive sets.
• Oh yes, Hydro Pump is free for sure. Mostly worried abt mirror herb flutter since that just reverse sweeps my team with those boosts. Not sure how to address that problem either
• For Garg's Salt Cure
• I think i should have those bases covered with Double Dance Mllade and Booster Treads. Maybe Scarf Xern or Chi Yu?
• Yeah will have to see what he can bring by testing the team out and see his potential lineup.

[rancid kestrel]

RE: Flutter Mane Mirror Herb, that's a lot of commitment for one of their only two good Pokemon. Xern doesn't need to set up immediately, and if FMane is held back during the game and then switches in on the first turn Xern is in, a safe Moonblast to check their Xern reply will help you determine if it is Mirror Herb. Limiting one of their strongest 'mons to be a counter-sweeper against just one of many threatening options that they have seems like something you could take advantage of.
RE: Salt Cure, sure, that's fair. I do wonder if there's an item that could maybe be more meaningful, but that does make sense.
RE: Scarf Xern/ChiYu, I definitely wouldn't Scarf Xern here, unless you're really that scared of Mirror Herb FMane. I could see Scarf ChiYu lke I mentioned, but this is maybe more of an in-game perspective thing rather than a teambuilder "you must have a scarfer here!" warning.

[mystic sundial]

Thoughts? https://pokepast.es/22e73ab78cc02c67

Dumb idea but ive had some success when testing it on natdex dubs

[jade solar]

is the tera rock on diancie intentional?

[mystic sundial]

No

Krokorok is the only one that can tera

[mystic sundial]

@solemn warren

[solemn warren]

Doubles right

[mystic sundial]

Yeah, VGC

[solemn warren]

Psych Up Baton Pass Diancie...?

[mystic sundial]

The league is doing custom battle since natdex vgc doesn’t exist

[mystic sundial]

Okay so

The strat is

Well one of them

Lead with krook and hands

[solemn warren]

Belly Drum with hands and psych up the attack boost with Diancie?

[mystic sundial]

Yes

Then pass it onto bulu

[solemn warren]

Seems gimmicky
Who's your opponent

[mystic sundial]

^

[solemn warren]

You only have Tapu Bulu for the terrain and even with 3 Earthquake weak pokemon they can slot in High Horsepower instead

[mystic sundial]

Yeah

That’s why I’m leading with intim

[solemn warren]

The most dangerous part of the other critter's team would be a Tapu Koko lead with either Raichu or Manectric flanking it

[mystic sundial]

I was thinking game 1 lead with pao and bulu and have arc and hands in the back

Then if that goes well try the gimmick second game

[solemn warren]

Chien Pao is likely to just die from dazzling gleam if Koko is as the lead

Also Manectric only 10 point hot damn

[mystic sundial]

Luckily Pao outspeed it

Lemme do a calc rq

[solemn warren]

If Icicle Crash gets the KO you're safe... Somewhat

He can also just lead with Raichu and fake you out

[mystic sundial]

+1 252 Atk Sword of Ruin Chien-Pao Helping Hand Icicle Crash vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Tapu Koko: 234-276 (161.3 - 190.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

[solemn warren]

+1?

[mystic sundial]

Howl from arc

Since they’re likely to target pao first

[solemn warren]

How is it +1 helping hand then
That'd be turn 2

[mystic sundial]

Howl boost turn 1

Then helping hand next turn

[solemn warren]

What if the critter makes the most insane read ever and doubles up on arcanine

[mystic sundial]

We uh

Improvise!

[solemn warren]

Wait. It's national dex.

Ok so you're kinda screwed

[mystic sundial]

?

[solemn warren]

Manectric gets Rising Voltage

[mystic sundial]

Oh

[solemn warren]

At that point load up on the resists and pray...

Oh yeah Raichu gets it too for double the voltage

[mystic sundial]

I’ll probably run ice spinner on pao instead of icicle crash

[jade solar]

ahh

[jade solar]

@rancid kestrel https://pokepast.es/069c0769c34d198e final team i'm going to head into the game with. any changes/things i shld account for?

i'm still unsure of whethere to run scarf or specs

[jade solar]

@rancid kestrel won the game

pretty comfortable win

5-0'd em

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9natdexdraft-2341860175-l1ep0kxqspt44v4twxgwnfwaxxfxdtupw

[rancid kestrel]

Grats! Sorry, was definitely asleep when you had pinged me with that, only just woke up about a half hour ago. Happy that the prep and such helped, Taunt Arceus isn't what I'd expect as the Xern counter but I guess we never saw Flutter's item. And Lanturn bring? I'd not have ever expected that I think! Good stuff.

[jade solar]

ty! i managed to get his paste https://pokepast.es/e03a37130546b3ff

flutter was specs

lanturn was awkwardly av but chi yu managed to live a scald and rko

4-3 +5 now, one more win and i comfortably make POs

[silver nacelle]

hi i made the team for this guy

i dont regularly check this channel but its funny to stumble into yall here lmao

[jade solar]

which guy lol

[silver nacelle]

the guy you played vs

lawrence

[jade solar]

ah lol

[jade solar]

yeah i regularly prep here for this league lol

[jade solar]

Last week in here, need a good win to comfortably sit somewhere 4th-5th and secure POs. Bit of a funny MU imo

https://pokepast.es/98ed49c9dcadad43

• Geomancy Xern feels nasty here since he's forced to think between water absorb or unaware clod here, and it just overall destroys his comp quite well
• Specs Chi-Yu looked nice here, since most of what i wat to hit are just slower than it and acts a fun nuke option to hit things on switchins
• Double Dance Mllade this week again, this set is quite good lol, honestly a very tidy MU for it.
• Booster Attack Treads with Ada looks like a great cleaner here after his team's dented
• Rotom-Wash is my best answer DM and Ken with double status to really pin them down lol
• Tera Fire Sinis looks nice once again in this MU and i really get to torture Mega Ken

[lean horizon]

To me it is a clear unawere clod game your water is rotom wash, nothing that will be to threatening to the opp especially since you'll need to run it defensively

[jade solar]

yeah fair

not sure how much psyshock does tho

maybe specs or LO

[rancid kestrel]

• Your opponent seems to have built a very slow and methodical hazard stacking (Ferro, Clod) team with pivoting. Given your limited removal (not bringing Torn, no Defog on Wash, obv not on Xern) you're going to struggle to keep the field clear - you're also loading no boots, so everything is gonna be taking chip just on switching in. Giving that Alo, Blaziken, and Zap all can and will (maybe not will for Blaziken but I would) pivot, even just trying to play equal against the hazard stacking seems rough. Defog on Wash maybe? Your only removal here is a Booster Treads otherwise.
• You are going to get outsped. A lot. Darkrai, Blaziken, and even smth like scarf Nec or Zapdos (to be clear I don't think Scarf is great on either here, maybe Zap) are all gonna easily be able to run around you. I'd recommend finding a way to fit a Scarf somewhere, maybe on ChiYu, so you aren't staring down a "okay darkrai just ko'd my rotom/sinistcha and now i need to figure out smth to take a specs dark pulse, avoid the flinch, and return the ko" without spending your Booster on your spinner only to watch Darkrai switch out into Alo to do it again later.
• That said, your opponent has huge weaknesses to Ground and Ghost. No easy switch-ins for either past Zapdos and Darkrai. You can't really take advantage of Ghost, Sinistcha ain't that kinda 'mon, but I do think you've got something going with Treads. The natural switchin after Zap is like, Alo or Ferro? That can't feel good for your opponent.

• I agree on what Thomas said, Clod's always Unaware here. Water Absorb is meaningless here. Xern's current set Psyshock 2HKOs 252/0, but if it's got Protect+Recover it can be super annoying for you. Specs "only" does 85 min, though.
• What's TAxel doing for MLade here? I guess it's for like, Zapdos, but surely there's something better than risking Static three times.
• What is Wisp for on Rotom? I can't see what I'd click it on over TWave. Run Defog IMO.
• I see you built for the ghost sweeper(ish) on Sinistcha. That's probably fine, though I'm never not gonna be terrified of Specs Darkrai - even at +2, Specs Dark Pulse is still doing 70% minimum. You aren't outhealing that with MG.
• I mentioned this earlier, but I think that ChiYu probably does want a Scarf, if only to help revenge kill Darkrai and +1 Ada Blaziken (much harder here, your answer is probably Rotom tanking a hit and TWaving).

[jade solar]

• Yeah but it hasn't worked out for him so far, my team looks like a perfect way to maybe win for him.
• Best I slap Scarf on atleast something so i don't get outsped every time, and definitely have to avoid trying to get kills by hoping i don't get flinched lol.
• Treads is perfect here yeah just hopin to dent him nicely and they get a spin off to clean up late game.
• Best I change up Xern to Specs and Chi-Yu to Scarf to fix the problems a little bit.
• I can run Stone Edge but that just makes me fodder against Clod tbh but true, i risk getting para'd 3 times with that.
• Yeah it's just playing a more defensive role, CM is just there because idk what else to try in there. Maybe Tera Blast, kek?
• Scarf Chi-Yu might be my best chance to not get ripped every now and then.

[jade solar]

https://pokepast.es/d49611d501198543

made some slight changes

[misty plume]

New [Gen 9] Draft RMT @olive halo, @formal haven, @ripe pine, @rancid kestrel, @final marten, @spice peak, @tidal frigate, @random geyser, @lean horizon. I won't notify you again for at least 6 hours.

[random geyser]

better not notify me again you silly bot.

[jade solar]

lol

[ember knot]

hello chat

bottom is mine top is his

idt theres need for paste since no sets

https://pokepast.es/9b0cb2fe3cadbbe7 to get the ping

or not

https://pokepast.es/53ff64105986aa99

gen 9 natdex ubers uu draft

[olive halo]

This is a natdex Ubers uu? What’s your Ubers mon?

Dragapult just kinda 6-0s you. He will run specs with Draco and shadowball er actually shadow ball with darts isn’t bad either

And every time the dragapult is in it will click a dragon move till komoo dies

Since your resist is scizor

And he will switch out to avoid taking damage and go like blaziken or something

You need to try to win with serperior and get a glare off on blaziken and dragapult to win

Mixed infernape isn’t bad here either with like grass knot fire move knock slack off/rocks

And deo d should be able to 1v1 either thundy or blaziken but it likely can’t do both

[rancid kestrel]

Your opponent only has 6 Pokemon? You only have 7? Odd, but sure.

• Like Happygate said, Dragapult is going to destroy you. You need to be able to outspeed it, via getting it Para'd or smth, or by using a non-Mega'd Sharp to get enough Speed to outspeed it. Though, you need +2 to outspeed a Scarf Pult. And lord knows if you get Burned on the way, or Dragapult just... switches out.
• Dunno how you tank all of Pult, Blaziken, and Thundy. You don't have a ton of defensive pieces. Electrivire can blank Thundy, but what are you dropping for it? Serp? Surely Serp's only one of the few answers in theory to Dragapult.
• Hazard gameplay in favor of your opponents. Regirock and Gastro have little more to do than tank hits so they can set up, but Infernape and Kommoo for you need to be doing other things. DeoD can stack, I guess.
• Meanwhile, defogging, you're the one who kinda needs to be Defogging, so they dont have to waste slots on Thundy or Blaziken doing this stuff.
• At the very least, aside Pult and Thundy, their team is very slow, so you can afford to invest more in defensive EVs than you would normally. This is probably your out against Pult, just invest a ton in HP or something on Serperior and get it TWaved.
• Your wincons are probably an omni-boosting Kommo-O after Dpult goes down, or Sharpedo. Serp kinda needs to be supportive here, it cant sweep into 4 of their 6 mons realistically. Sharpedo struggles into Venu (even uninvested Giga always KOs, and Psychic fangs only does 87 max to 252/0 and it wont be 252/0)
• Their wincon here is Dragapult. They can win with like, idk Blaziken, but I'd guess they use Blaziken to give you problems and weaken your team up for Pult later. That's probably what I would do, at least.

[formal haven]

I agree with A fairy and Happy on that pult is going to be a menace, I think you should consider paraspam, even when thundy is there. Glare is a powerful tool here as Thundy cannot blank it and heal. This set might be a bit overcooked but I genuinely think it could be worth consideration.

Serperior @ Leftovers
Ability: Contrary
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA
Serious Nature
IVs: 0 Atk

• Mirror Coat
• Glare
• Synthesis
• Leaf Storm

You'd have to check speed but the fact that thundy doesn't get a good special flying move really helps a lot for serp

[jade solar]

natdex ubers uu draft huh

[formal haven]

Physical pult is just a lot worse, althought they could run d-dance darts, flamethrower + something like phantom force

[lofty wigeon]

my match up for next week

[misty plume]

New [Gen 9] Draft RMT @olive halo, @formal haven, @ripe pine, @rancid kestrel, @final marten, @spice peak, @tidal frigate, @random geyser, @lean horizon. I won't notify you again for at least 6 hours.

[formal haven]

Not sure what the tera rules are here, but I think they can overwhelm your defensive pieces. Scizor is still going to have a great time especially if it can tera something other than steel. Chomp is also going to be really hard the moment you tera Torn-T. I think mega bro is great here tho.

I tuink the Dengo set is just not worth it here, chomp and Chi-Yu can both pretty much freefire their strong stabs in its face. I want to suggest bringing Rillaboom instead, if they are EQ chomp it just neuters it, the priority is really good to kill chipped mons and you can pivot onto some of their treats

[lofty wigeon]

i'm really worried bringing Boom into a match up that has so many bulky fliers, a lot of my calcs are 2 shots and G terrain makes them 2 shots

it is free tera

torn is EV to out speed a jolly chomp by one point, i was considering icy wind but couldn't get it to ohko unless it has specs

[formal haven]

You have u-turn on mandi and altaria mega doesn't really have a flying stab to use

Brave Bird is strong, but not against your team I'd argue

What do you think about tera flying tera blast Torn?

Bulk up/nasty plot are both good here

Defog feels like such a waste here when you have a great spinner

[ember knot]

sorry guys u didnt ping me so i didnt see all that u said 😭 i dmd some maybe all of u abt it but i ended up winning 4-0

[ember knot]

.

[olive halo]

For starters remove that assault vest from the hippowdon. You need that to keep chi-yu in check and it can't do that if it can't slack off. Just run max hp max spdef. You're going to need to play this match very offensively. Always keeping the pressure up and always trying to do the most damage possible. With your sand ninetails is likely to come which means opponent has veil that will make this team even harder to break. On god on god the opposing team has no flying resists so your torn should be specs tera flying bleakwind or hurricane. It's also way faster than everything on your opponents team so you can run Modest. Your urshfiu is fine as is. And then your gholdengo is bad. Due to how lower stages work. a make it rain at -1 is more powerful than a flash canon at neutral. It sounds strange I know but let me grab a calc...
252 SpA Gholdengo Flash Cannon vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Chi-Yu: 57-67 (22.7 - 26.6%) -- 29.3% chance to 4HKO
-1 252 SpA Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Chi-Yu: 57-67 (22.7 - 26.6%) -- 29.3% chance to 4HKO
Okay slightly wrong it's the same calc but still WAY better off with make it rain.

[ember knot]

this is my r2

[misty plume]

New [Gen 9] Draft RMT @olive halo, @formal haven, @ripe pine, @rancid kestrel, @final marten, @spice peak, @tidal frigate, @random geyser, @lean horizon. I won't notify you again for at least 6 hours.

[ember knot]

they doing 1 battle a day

bottom is mine top is his

[olive halo]

That's psychopathic

[ember knot]

my bad for ping

[olive halo]

Not your fault

[ember knot]

https://pokepast.es/19d0259d12180a37

i have this so far

im thinking maybe protect kommo-o so i dont get hit by lop fake out but wdyt

[olive halo]

This is going to be yet another rough match-up for you kaneki

[ember knot]

pff

the guy im facing is ass

like 1200s

[olive halo]

My guy your normal resist is sciz

[ember knot]

got a whole deoxys tho 😼

[formal haven]

Not sure if specs is the call here, sharp beak might be a shout tho

But yeah Torn defo should be offensive, I agree there

[olive halo]

252+ Atk Lopunny-Mega Frustration vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Deoxys-Defense: 127-150 (41.9 - 49.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Your opponent gets up rocks and deod becomes a 2 hit ko. Unless you want to run defense evs, in which case:

252 SpA Choice Specs Kyurem Ice Beam vs. 248 HP / 44 SpD Deoxys-Defense: 142-168 (46.8 - 55.4%) -- 70.7% chance to 2HKO
Good luck keeping it at bay

[ember knot]

holup lemme just 6-0 with kommo-o 🙏 😭

do u guys mind scarf infernape in this game

js saying this is who im vs

[olive halo]

kommo will not magically beat a crobat. I do like scraf ape here, helps vs crobat and dd kyurem and lop. Has a nice surprise factor and will almost certainly get a kill. Run like cc stone edge flare blitz switcheroo and try to give it to gastro if it's not sticky hold (which it might be but I'd say worth trying)

[ember knot]

im sure hed run storm drain if he sees spedo

but yeah

should i leave nidoqueen out

[olive halo]

Yeah I would say so. It's not that it's bad you just need deod for walling one of kyurem/lop, scarf ape, sciz for kyurem, serp is good vs gastro, kommo is goo, shark is good yeah bench nido

[ember knot]

bet

do i even want to use switcheroo

isnt scarf too valuable

cc 2hkos gastro anyw

[olive halo]

Maybe not but what should your fourth move be?

[ember knot]

u turn mayb

maybe wisp

maybe rocks

maybe mach punch

[ember knot]

ignore this

[ember knot]

also i was thinking av sciz

[lofty wigeon]

AV hippo is my check to a tails, I've used it in 3 separate drafts to great success, one difference is i don't have a good rush passer this time tho so i can see the risk ,
Torn you're probably right with specs i was just scared to lock in to a move although i'll have to switch in with hippo more if i dont have defog for veil.

Ghold is meant to be my last mon after chomp and chi yu are gone, flash cannon lets me bypass the Sp Atk drop

[formal haven]

The drop isn't a problem tho

Like happy mentioned -1 does the same as neutral flash cannon

[lofty wigeon]

i thought it dropped by 2 like leaf storm for some reason

[olive halo]

Your opponent is going to let you get in a situation where chomp and chi-yu are dead but gholdengo isn't?

[lofty wigeon]

Chomp is her only hazards so i assume it will be suicide lead

with specs torn i can get icy wind to Ohko

tera ice is cool but scizor makes it impossible

[olive halo]

252 SpA Choice Specs Tornadus-Therian Icy Wind vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Garchomp: 364-432 (101.9 - 121%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Icy wind will ko offensive chomp

[lofty wigeon]

yeah i mean tera ice on the non specs set

wind does 80ish without

question with Slowbro ? how long should i keep from Mega evo for regen

[olive halo]

Depends on how long you need it. Altaria, chomp, and sciz are all going to be attacking it physically so whenever you think you're getting too run down by those threats then you should mega. If you think you can keep taking hits and taking hits then you don't need it

[formal haven]

I think you could also consider dropping scald for teleport

[lofty wigeon]

yeah that makes sense

[ember knot]

just played this

and won 3-0

ill be back tommorow for next mu

[jade solar]

wha

2 back to back MUs?

[ember knot]

yeah

i think its like 6 games or something

a game each day

match ups come out at 6pm +0

[jade solar]

that's crazy quick lol

[rancid kestrel]

• Their team is not particularly fast. Fini or ChiYu can hold a Scarf, I guess, but otherwise their fastest is a 109 and they only have a 102 and 100 otherwise. Not that your team is much faster, but your mons are much happier holding scarves (Rilla, Shifu, Dengo) than theirs are. Just gotta be careful of Scarf ChiYu.
• You have a TornT. They have no flying resistances. Enjoy. They have a buncha fairies and you have a Dengo. Enjoy.
• Their only hazard setter is Garchomp. If he's setting hazards every game, I suppose that's a key piece unnecessarily limited for them? They do have a lot of removal, though, so that's neat. Most of those mons can even run it comfortably! They kind need it since their back half is chock-a-block full of SR weaknesses.
• Their 6 are probably just their five best mons (ATales, Chomp, ChiYu, Fini, MAlt) and then the final four cycling depending on what they need. Could see reason to leave ATales or MAlt depending on the game for a Scizor or Mandibuzz or something, this team has a lot of unfortunate type overlaps.

• What's this Tenta set? Mirror Coat for... what? Rapid Spin I'd wonder if it's needed at all given the context of the hazard situation. I just scrolled down and you're ALSO loading Defog on TornT? Your opponent doesn't have hazards!!! Haze? For MAlt or Fini I guess??
• What's this Hippo set? Like Twan and Happygate said, it's a set that actively tries to make Hippo worse. No hazard, no Slack Off... This set is self-defeating.
• Just to be clear, you're leaving mons like Rilla and Mienshao out of the game in order to bring an AVest Hippo and Spin Mirror Coat Tenta. You better have a ton of confidence in their ability to do things, and then you've built them to seemingly not do things.
• Please drop Defog on TornT. It's absolutely not necessary.
• Shifu can force a lot of switches. U-Turn could be real cool on it! I'm not convinced Ice Punch is the thing you want especially in the context of a Scarf set. The 50/50 Fini/Chomp PJab/Ice Punch predicts sound like hell to me.
• ...Flash Cannon? On a NP Dengo set? What? I literally cannot comprehend this one, even more than the Defog TornT. It's a straight downgrade in every conceivable way, no?

[lofty wigeon]

Mirror coat is a clean answer to revenge kill Chi Yu
Hippo definitely works i promise although with no wish passer and not bring terrain i can see it not being worth it
MiR i thought was like leaf storm and dropped two stages so that has been fixed
With specs torn i can take off ice punch
Defog was got if A tails gets a screen up or if one of them bring normal screens

[jade solar]

MiR only drops 1 stage

[ember knot]

https://pokepast.es/398175f07324c498

[misty plume]

New [Gen 9] Draft RMT @olive halo, @formal haven, @ripe pine, @rancid kestrel, @final marten, @spice peak, @tidal frigate, @random geyser, @lean horizon. I won't notify you again for at least 6 hours.

[ember knot]

https://pokepast.es/09aef6b857877b31

yo id rather do it in dms when one of u are available do u mind sending me a dm

[ember knot]

this is my team i also has nidoqueen

[olive halo]

What is your opponents team?

[rancid kestrel]

Hey, @ember knot - the point of this channel is to provide rates and stuff and collaborative perspectives, please don't use it to ask folks to go to PMs.

[ember knot]

oh sorry

i ended up winning 4-0

with some sharpedo crit hax

[lofty wigeon]

did some updates for the team

[misty plume]

New [Gen 9] Draft RMT @olive halo, @formal haven, @ripe pine, @rancid kestrel, @final marten, @spice peak, @tidal frigate, @random geyser, @lean horizon. I won't notify you again for at least 6 hours.

[lofty wigeon]

forgot to put u turn on fu

[lean horizon]

what is the mu?

and what is u-turn replacing here

[lofty wigeon]

ice punch

[rancid kestrel]

What's Expert Belt for on Dengo? What KOs is it getting?

[lofty wigeon]

Togekiss but i forgot that it's not flash cannon anymore so i can probably change it

it also makes Tbolt a 2hko on mani

[rancid kestrel]

Mani?

[formal haven]

Mandi I would assume

[lean horizon]

mandibuzz i asume

[lofty wigeon]

manifbuzz

yeah

[formal haven]

Mandi isn't going to touch you realistically, so you can just setup a nasty plot there

[lean horizon]

what is your plan against chi-yu?

[rancid kestrel]

Oh gotcha, yeah sure okay I see that. Not sure it's all that and a slice of pie, but.

[lofty wigeon]

it was mirror coat Tentacruel and AV hippo but hippo is a 3hko and ohkos back so if it's scarfed hippo if its specs i think ill have to RKO it

[formal haven]

You could consider shuca on Dengo here over Ebelt

[lean horizon]

also i'm not sure about teleport on bro here, when you mega it's goes to a different ability so it doesn't really work all to well anymore after you do

since you don't have regenerator anymore

[formal haven]

I really like it

[lean horizon]

it does have potential

[formal haven]

You don't need to mega instantly in this mu, so teleport adds a lot of value

[lean horizon]

fair i just think if opp is like scarf modest chi yu orbit will really struggle switching in to chi-yu

only 1 dark resist on the field and it's a mon that doesn't wanna take to much damage before it can sweep

[lofty wigeon]

yeah scarf chi yu is definitely the biggest threat to this team

AV on tentacruel is another option

[formal haven]

I'm not against AV tentacruel

[lofty wigeon]

i just have to be weary of psychic

[formal haven]

Not that much

If they are scarfed psychic locks them into a move that gives your best mon a free switch

[lofty wigeon]

I suppose and they can't switch chi yu into tents

tenta

[formal haven]

I'm in agreement with AF that u-turn on Shifu feels better than ice punch

[lean horizon]

ye so do i, i also don't mind the av tenta

[jade solar]

so um

it wasn't unaware

lmao

it was water absorb

[misty plume]

New [Gen 9] Draft RMT @olive halo, @formal haven, @ripe pine, @rancid kestrel, @final marten, @spice peak, @tidal frigate, @random geyser, @lean horizon. I won't notify you again for at least 6 hours.

[lofty wigeon]

final draft

i'm so sorry that this pings you now

[lean horizon]

It was meant to ping

[rancid kestrel]

You don't really need to be sharing every update - folks gave you their thoughts and what have you, maybe a text update "btw changed evs to spd or whatever" would help but like, the pings are intentional but like you said it's not necessary for minor changes that aren't going to necessitate actual rates.

[lean horizon]

that aside this does look better tho i'm curious why you have metal coat on the dengo

[lofty wigeon]

life orb was also fine but no recoil felt better with so many fairies

[jade solar]

hmm just run bleakwind storm or hurricane lol

but i can understand why u feel tera blast is better

[lofty wigeon]

100% accurate is better than the confused chance and speed drop imo

[marsh hatch]

Would anyone like to help me with my draft

[misty plume]

New [Gen 9] Draft RMT @olive halo, @formal haven, @ripe pine, @rancid kestrel, @final marten, @spice peak, @tidal frigate, @random geyser, @lean horizon. I won't notify you again for at least 6 hours.

[marsh hatch]

No tera and hidden power and status z moves are allowed

[olive halo]

A lot of us here aren’t that great at VGC but I will try and help you as best I can with my limited knowledge.

For one, the best way to beat a Tera heartflame is to Tera one of your Pokemon tera dragon. It resists both stabs and if it’s bulky enough (see ting lu) it should be able to live a hit or 2. I would suggest running a lot of fake out and follow me if you have it. Rilla sneasler ting, and electabuzz look great here. Focus on trying to out offense your opponent and only rely on 1 or 2 mons defensively to beat heartflame and bolt

[rancid kestrel]

Some thoughts...

• Your team's mostly going to be slower than theirs, which is weird because they have CalyI, but DeoS, PalkO, RMoon, and Enam outspeed most of your team individually. Marshadow is helpful, but HZoro is a gimmick 'mon that is hard to bring into Deo/RMoon/Sciz, so you're really going from 125 Marshadow to 101 Shocks. At the very least, you can Speed Booster Gouging Fire?
• They have 1 Defog, on Scizor. It's a good runner, but it's hard to find the moveset options for it. Additionally, it can conflict with the idea of a stack lead DeoS, though I'm not convinced a MU like this wants it even if you don't have a ton of removal yourself. NeutGas doesn't even look that incredible into your opponent, and MAlt is... fine? Maybe? Do you have the roster slot for it, though.
• It's hard to see them trying a TR team despite CalyI, they don't really have useful setters for it. It's always gonna be a threat, but CalyI doesn't fit in great here.
• Unironically your Arch and Gouging kinda look really good here? I wonder what the DeoS Superpower calc is for Arch, and the Enam calcs for Gougig is. But it does well I think into a lot of their threats
• RMoon is probably scarier than usual here. It can wreck Marshadow with Acrobatics after a Speed Booster (Ada does 103 min to 0/0), it matches well into KyuB, Gouging, and others. I'd spend a bit of time figuring out your game plan around this, because "trading" to get it out seems like a losing strategy when they have a wider range of upper talent than your mons.
• You have a lot of dragons. This plays into the above, but is definitely not ideal. I can see why so many of your picks ended up being fairies or steels.

I'd probably bring Marsh, KyuB(scarf?), Gouging, and Archaludon for sure. That's a lot of dragons, though, so I'd maybe put more thought to GWeezing Meta? But it'd also be nice to have Shocks there, since if not, you're going from 125 to 91 or 95 if KyuB isnt scarf. You could maybe drop Arch, but it's not like Arch was adding to the Fairy/Ice/Dragon worries anyway. Just feels like you can't really drop DD Gouging or KyuB, yknow? I could see outside idea of bringing MAlt or Milo, but those seem harder judgment calls.

If I was asked to mock and had 15 mins to build a team, I'm prob bringing Scarf KyuB, Sash/Coba Marshadow, DD Gouging Fire, Booster Speed Shocks w/ SR, Archaludon Rest maybe, and then GWeezing with Defog and like, Memento or something. The last two, honestly maybe even three mons, are pretty flexible, depending on what you think is the scariest - I think it's RMoon, hence the Arch and GWeez. You might think it's CalyI and drop Shocks for Meta or Milo, or PalkO and drop Arch for MAlt or like, Webs Spidos(lol). I dunno!

[solemn warren]

[considering this as ND singles]
Both teams have plenty of hard hitters, with yours having Black Kyurem, Marshadow, Archaludon, Gouging Fire, and Metagross, and his team having Ice Calyrex, Origin Palkia, Roaring Moon, and Mega Scizor
Enamorus and Xurkitree can also be very scary

Their only hazard removal (i think) would be Defog on Scizor, Roaring Moon, and Enamorus, so Sticky Web from Spidops might be useful

You can also go full hazard stack mode with Spidops and Sandy Shocks

Do be aware of his Deoxys Speed, it's very scary

[marsh hatch]

Thanks for the tips
Deoxys Speed is my main concern so bringing in weezing for defog is hazard control is great
As for my main offensive core I'm still shaky on marshadow moveset, should I run poltergeist or spectral thief
And Gouging Fire has good chance to win with just a dragon dance

[marsh hatch]

Superpower is barely a 2HKO to minimal phys defense into Archaludon
Enamorus does 2HKO Gouging Fire with earth power but Milotic eats it up
Roaring Moon can be dealt with Weezing and Milotic

[rancid kestrel]

Who are you not bringing if you're bringing all of Arch GF Milo and Weezing? Presumably your last two are KyuB and Marshadow, so Shocks I suppose?

[marsh hatch]

Prob Marshadow + Sandy Shocks

Kyurem only works with a choice scarf and I rather not be locked into a wrong move

[lofty wigeon]

Got the win ! they opted to bring specs chi yu which won me the game

[olive halo]

Congrats!

[solemn warren]

Nice

[jade solar]

We in POs baby, wooo. I locked in so hard lmfao. But we got bigger fish to fry now. Rematch of my week 3 MU, was handled 0-3 in that game. Lookin to win the rematch

[misty plume]

New [Gen 9] Draft RMT @olive halo, @formal haven, @ripe pine, @rancid kestrel, @final marten, @spice peak, @tidal frigate, @random geyser, @lean horizon. I won't notify you again for at least 6 hours.

[jade solar]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9natdexdraft-2320947123-hayjtvgsjx2cgmffupbcjdbuvif6fgtpw

last meeting with him

honestly thinking of bringing something shiesty this time

[rancid kestrel]

Their team is for sure scary. I would say that normally they have a pretty strong top six, but then in their last game against you they benched both TingLu and Annihilape. But there's definitely a top six here in my eyes, with Rilla as being maybe a close seventh.

• Their hazard setting is basically limited to TingLu. Swadloon, Qwil, and Graveler are all not coming (even Intim Qwil kinda zzz here) and Annihilape doesn't want to spend time bringing Rocks if it comes (it didnt last time and TBH I see why into Xern/Gall/ChiYu LOL)
• That said, their removal is kinda limited. Lati Defog is legit, but MBlast is less motivated to. I don't know necessarily you can super take advantage of it, Lati invalidates Webs and their scariest mons don't care much about TSpikes (Steel, Morning Sun, Rest; Grassy Terrain potentially).
• Their speed tiers are wack. 148 - 110 - 91 - 90? So many of your 110-99 mons are gonna have a lot of fun, you might legit be able to calc in a damage boosting nature or two potentially. Their scarfer is probably... Rillaboom? What did they scarf last time? I guess Scarf Ape could be a thing, Scarf Gouging feels like such a waste.
• Your opponent doesn't have a lot of good Fairy resists. Zac is kinda it, but that's also their best 'mon, needing to constantly take that chip isn't ideal especially when it's from Xern.
• Same with Flying, again it's just Zacian realistically, I guess Bellibolt is more real than Qwil was for Fairy, but thats still a lot of pressure to be taking Hurricanes or whatever consistently on their best 'mon.

Obviously, Xern and MGall are coming, those are your two best mons. But I'd argue here that TornT has some value here, and should be given serious consideration. Rotom's done a lot of work for you and Para'ing Zac/Goug/Ape is never not helpful, probably. Treads and Chi-Yu probably should also come just by nature of what they provide for you as team members generally speaking. I think that's what makes sense to me personally, those six in some manner.

Maybe a Specs Xern and a Scarf ChiYu, the former to take advantage of the resistances missing on your opponent's side and the latter to take advantage of the speed tier imbalance? MGall presumably will be some sort of SD/Agil/both set (I'm not convinced it needs Agil personally...? mocks might help figure that out) with presumably Fighting+smth for Lati+Ape (it isnt TAxel I promise you you will feed the Scarf Ape Rage Fist probably). I'd make your Rotom physically defensive for Zac Goug and Ape. Torn and Treads I feel less confident in what their sets should maybe look like - Treads kinda just does The One Thing admittedly, so something like that sure, but the Torn presence/set is the one I feel least like I'd know what to do with.

[jade solar]

Can i consider Sinis here somehow?

[rancid kestrel]

If I'm your opponent, I'm bringing Zacian, Lati, Gouging Fire, Annihilape, and two of Ting Lu, Rillaboom, and MBlastoise. I probably pick Lu+MBlast.

I probably make the Annihilape Scarf offensive to patch up the speed tiers. MBlast doesnt even really need to be Shell Smash, a defensive set with enough investment to mess with your lack of water switch ins Rotom aside is probably serviceable enough. Latias is probably HWish support for Zac/Ape, though maybe that conflicts with a defensive MBlast so maybe that is Shell Smash? Zac is telegraphed but strong - I think I'd feel confident enough with just CC+Behemoth to try SD+Sub, but maybe mocks would lock that in for me. Gouging is probably a DD set, giving Lati another option for a HWish target.

This is probably notably worse advice though - I haven't really considered Geo Xern and how to counter it, or MGall at all.

[jade solar]

i tried physdef rotom last time but just gets sat on by sub zacian

but like he did bench ape last time

why would he pick it now

i am considering defog + geomancy xern to get past screens lmfao

[rancid kestrel]

I'm admittedly not putting a ton of stock into the six they brought last time - locking yourself into "These are their six!" is a recipie to being taken advantage of in the builder.

Sinis is probably fine here, I'm concerned that it folds to Fire/Ape, but if you're not expecting Ape to come (which is not unreasonable, Torn/Chi/Xern all make its life hell) then you can probably just Heatproof + Strength Sap your way past non-Sub Gouging Fire

[jade solar]

who do i bench for torn tho

not sure torn does much but prob gives me a decent switchin for rilla

[rancid kestrel]

Defog Xern is fun for sure, that's a cool concept if you're expecting screens Lati. I'd personally think Lati is better served to HWish up Zac/Goug/others later in the fight once Rotom/Treads/whoever are weakened, but Screens definitely are viable here too.

[jade solar]

screens lati and screens belli lmfao

(which is what he brought with tera fire last game)

[rancid kestrel]

I'm not super convinced Bellibolt is real personally, but I do recognize they brought it last time. Again, not putting a ton of stock in the previous six.

[jade solar]

yeah fair point

[rancid kestrel]

Like I mentioned earlier, they kinda don't have a Flying-type switchin, so that's what I'm thinking Torn can accomplish, especially if their switch-in is Zac and you can slam it with a good what, 30-40? from Heat Wave on the prediction. I personally if I'm in your shoes don't think I bring Sinischa, but that's probably the only realistic thing to consider dropping - Treads is maaaaaybe close to consideration but really not justifiable I suspect the more you think about it.

[jade solar]

Sinistcha @ Life Orb
Ability: Heatproof
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 8 HP / 252 Def / 248 SpA
Bold Nature

• Trick Room
• Tera Blast
• Matcha Gotcha
• Strength Sap

thinkin of bringing this

lmao

loses to rilla tho

i considered tera fire but like i don't beat gouging that way

[rancid kestrel]

I definitely don't think this would be high up on my to-bring/to-test team, I'm inherently suspicious of Trick Room and I'm more so in the context of this match's speed tiers, so it'd certainly not be a set I'd personally be stoked to run. Doesn't make it bad, but makes me bad at being able to evaluate it.

[jade solar]

ah alr

https://pokepast.es/216824c7fbf35855

this what i have cooked up so far

might have to change on the sinis set

or even bring torn over it

[rancid kestrel]

Triple Axel... I guess if you aren't expecting Ape. I'm still not convinced it needs Agility either, but if you feel like you do then that's fine. Otherwise, I've commented on the Sinis set, nothing else seems particularly alarming or concerning.

[jade solar]

well what else do i hit rill/lati/ting with?

+2 252 Atk Gallade-Mega Triple Axel (120 BP) (3 hits) vs. 240 HP / 0 Def Annihilape: 377-446 (89.5 - 105.9%) -- 25.6% chance to OHKO

[rancid kestrel]

I suppose if you have the confidence that enough chip exists on Ape before that (240/0 seems low for investment I dunno) and you wanna go for the 3-hit? I dunno I'd prob run SD+3atk, probably something like CC+Psychic+Ice? I dunno.

[jade solar]

that is what i ran last time

but in that case

i'll have to hope zacian dies before gallade its the field

which is easier said than done

i'm especially stuck in this MU since i don't know how else to play around even with many new ideas

[olive halo]

I agree with a lot of what af said, particularly about scarf chi-yu but I also like the idea of agility gallade here and then 3 attacks. Just having multiple, consistent Pokemon that can outspeed zacian is crucial so it can’t just come in and force out your Pokemon with a powerful attack. Keeping it at bay so it isn’t switching in attacking, chunking a Pokemon and switching back out is going to be very important. Focus on trying to beat them quickly and overwhelming their offensive efforts. Doubling on obvious ting lu switch-ins will also help

[lean horizon]

call me greedy is a bulky mega lade set with agility bulk up 2 attacks an option?

looking at the mons cc+something else should do the job, run enough speed tour out jolly gouging alot of tankiness and enough att investment for certain hits after 1 or 2 bulk ups

could drop cc for drain punch but that is a considerable drop in power for some healing

if i recall mega lade has a respectable spdef so you would't have to do much for there especially if you can outspeed and ko alot of mons

[jade solar]

shld i go sd or BU

maybe agil +3 attacks with adamant shld be engh lol

[solemn warren]

"alright what do we have here"
"boy oh boy"

[solemn warren]

i can definetely see Xerneas sweeping games if the dog somehow gets dealt with
hazards with treads and Cutiefly (rocks and webs respectively)
Rotom Wash looks good into Gouging Fire and Mega Blastoise
Mega Gallade can probably get something done as that's a huge attack stat, even eclipsing the dog if it's not first switch
Therian Tornadus can be good utility, and maybe threatening out Rillaboom with Bleakwind Storm if it doesn't miss

[misty plume]

New [Gen 9] Draft RMT @olive halo, @formal haven, @ripe pine, @rancid kestrel, @final marten, @spice peak, @tidal frigate, @random geyser, @lean horizon. I won't notify you again for at least 6 hours.

[olive halo]

…

Did chatot think that mega gallade gif is a paste/team sheet?

[jade solar]

LOL

[solemn warren]

guh

i posted it directly it wasn't a link

i copied it from the smogon page

[lofty wigeon]

i'm doing a draft where you get a random Uber.
i got Giratina, any tips on how i should draft with it ? It's a pretty beefy mon so maybe a more defensive team ?

[rancid kestrel]

Origin or Base? Or both?

[solemn warren]

do you want to go the Big Stall route or do you want to go on the offensive
[insert giratina GIF i don't want 9 people to be pinged because of chatot]

Origin form Giratina is the only offensive Defog user in the midst of the Ubers tier

you also need to specify what mons you can draft and what team style you're going for

[lofty wigeon]

base but it could be both

[solemn warren]

i'd say go more on a bulky offense side with origin form as you never know what the other critter is bringing
just standard SV singles draft right

[lofty wigeon]

Gen 9 Natdex with 105 points

[solemn warren]

what options do you have
(idk what every mon costs)

do you have like a spreadsheet or something

[lofty wigeon]

i don't think they have a tier list yet i'll ask

sent your last seasons in the dm

[olive halo]

Giratina gets removal btw it gets defog, it's very cool I think you got a good mon. Bulky, wisp, removal, blocks rapid spin

[rancid kestrel]

Giratina is. Fine? It's not great. Depending on the power level of what you could be facing down, you're possibly looking at having one of the weakest Ubers in the pool if other folks have stuff like Arc, Mirai/Korai, Xern, etc.

• Having the flexibility between both is a point in your favor I wouldn't toss away. It's just a shift of 40 (20 in defenses to offenses) but it's meaningful, and having two different forms you could in theory bring is helpful, even if the offensive form is item-locked.
• Your speed here is rough, and given the item environment you're often gonna find yourself moving slowly. Ubers tend to be pretty quick, so having yours be slower than 75%ish of the game is gonna be something to be aware of.
• Giratina is built to last, but it isn't inherently a wincon. Get wincons. You've got a bulky SOB who can take hits like no tomorrow, can Rest somewhat reliably (a rarity), and can remove hazards. It's got nice resistances/immunities too.
• It doesn't have pivoting moves, which isn't terrific for a bulky mon like it. Remember that for your teammates that they can't rely on Giratina getting them in.
• That said, between Wisp, DTail, Defog, Pressure, etc, Giratina can become a super disruptive 'mon if taken that direction, and a 90-base 120 attack stats mon is no slouch offensively, btwn DMeteor, Polt, Sneak, Hex, etc.

[olive halo]

I would draft something a little more offensive with a touch of bulk. Get like 1-2 HO mons, and like 1-2 pokemon with recovery. Something like a fighting type with something that can eat fairy moves. AF brings up a good point, that you might have some bad match-ups v other ubers, but versus the rest of the board it's really good. Something cool that you could maybe? do would be get like glowking bundle and then like tera blaziken, where bundle is faster than most regular ubers and can do a ton of damage with powerful ice stabs, glowking can eat a bunch of fairy moves for you, and blaziken threatens the dark types and give you cool secondary speed with speed booster. Again, don't really know the tera rules, but those 4 should be good into pretty much everything