#Draft

1 messages · Page 6 of 1

rancid kestrel
#
  • From there, I think I'd bring STail and Tentacruel to handle hazards and serve a bit as the backbone of the team defensively - the last thing I want is to get bowled over by a runaway DD Baxc or something. With one 'mon left, I'm kinda stuck between Ting, Rotom, and Hydrei. I personally would lean Hydrei, but you could see other options for sure - it's a bit "pick 3 of 5", with maybe a touch consideration towards Dudunsparce, but I'm not convinced it's real here.
  • For you, obviously you bring TornT and Baxc. Those are your wincons, generally speaking. Baxc appreciates Glowking, and Glowking's just generally good and is a decent Sneasler answer, so that makes three. I do thing Cyc is important here, too. That leaves two slots for any of: OgerH, Shocks, Sinistcha. I'm inclined to agree that Prim doesn't serve much benefit here, it's scared of basically everything they're likely to bring. My gut instinct personally would be to bring OgerH and Shocks, the former can get a Trailblaze off on Tenta or Ting and then suddenly be a huge problem for your opponent, and the latter provides hazards (I think Oger needs its slots). Sinistcha can definitely come too, hell you don't even need to bring something like Cyc in some variants depending on how your prep/mocks go, but I think generally speaking that's what I'd expect.
  • My gut instinct is that I'd go Tera Flying over Steel on TornT, you really don't wanna miss the Hurricane on Rilla or Sneasler, and I would like to think that a well-played Glowking can handle Sneasler somewhat. But that's all theorycrafting, that's not real calcs or whatever.
  • I like DD Baxc, Cyc is a bit straightforward - Scarf and Band here don't seem super good. Oger I can see something like, SD Trailblaze Ivy... Rock move? Ivy? Shocks should probably be able to put hazards up, and whether you're Red Card for the Sneasler gotcha, Speed Booster as an emergency, or something else entirely will be dependant on your personal piloting preference.
dawn briar
#

What a long post

#

Thanks !!!

rancid kestrel
#

Happy to help, ye! That's unfortunately become a habit of mine, these very long posts.

jade solar
#

Semi-final matchup in a reduced standard ND league, a rematch of the week 5 game we had, won that game 2-0. Not sure how to approach this differently this time. Yellow highlighted mons are Z-Captains.

Team I used in last meeting: https://pokepast.es/1202d4bf9fe3521d

Replay of last meeting: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9natdexdraft-2366504345-nhdvlpci1kqsvi9yitc58i3idnkclebpw

Screenshot_2025-07-02_at_12.png
[Gen 9] NatDex Draft: MG vs. VagueParallels - Replays - Pokémon Sh...

Watch a replay of a Pokémon battle between MG and VagueParallels! Format: [Gen 9] NatDex Draft; Date: May 18, 2025

misty plumeBOT
#

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.

rancid kestrel
# jade solar Semi-final matchup in a reduced standard ND league, a rematch of the week 5 game...
  • Your opponent has a pretty stacked top end, but it falls off fast. Their fourth best Pokemon is what... Skarmory? Florges? Their sixth best is... Froslass or Skuntank?
  • Their speed tiers are alright. Disregarding MScep, Alakazam's a decent 120, there are better 110s than Froslass, but that's made up a bit by Terrak/Galvantula, though the fall off from there to what, Pyroar 106 Morpeko 97? That's rough. What's their Scarfer, even, Terrak? It wants to run ZMove, surely, feels like a waste for Zam to be running a Z Item I dunno, maybe I'm too Gen5-focused after BW WC.
  • I guess you could rely on Webs Galv to tip the speed scales in your favor, but I'm not sure I buy that? Especially not into your removal option(s) without a spinblocker. So, what's their scarfer if it isn't Terrak. Pyroar? It kinda doesnt really have the attack stats for it.
  • I like your speed options better, though the dip from Infernape to... Drifblim? Metagross? If you ignore Fez as a threat is a bit worrying. Like, luckily you do force the speed on Terrak, but like, there's a ton of EVs on like, Pyroar if it comes (I doubt it comes) not needed in Speed. It doesnt look like it's gonna bite you here, at least.
  • But yeah your speed here is nice - MSpect is fastest on the field, but you could do a Scarf Ape or something potentially, or even a Trailblaze OgerC or Agility MPidge. Oger outruns most of their team, Ape gives Terrak and Galv a headache, it's really just Scept and Zam that necessitate a Scarf/speed control somewhere. Beware Webs.
#
  • Their hazards kinda rely on like, Skarmory, and then some gimmicks - Froslass is alright, but Terrak Rocks, Galv Webs, and Skuntank TSpikes are definitely more reaches than anything else. But like, if Galv or Skun comes, you can reasonably expect it, I guess? Their removal is alright, Skarm cant run all of Spikes SR Defog, but like, Florges Skun Morpeko can all reasonably carry Defog/SR here, if any of them come, I'd think. But it is a fair bit of dependancy on Skarmory, for sure.
  • I like your hazards here - they're a bit light, OgerC can do Spikes and the three rockers can for sure trade duties depending on the week. You're kinda reliant on Donphan for removal, Drifblim I suppose can do it but would struggle, and I doubt MPidge can fit the slots frankly.
  • If I'm your opponent, I feel obligated to bring all of MScep, Zam, and Terrak. The first two are my wincons, and the latter can be a wincon but I'd be inclined to put a Scarf on it to help into MPidge/Oger/Ape - between SEdge (No Guard go brr), CC, and EQ, I could see all three of your big mons dying quick. Though, Rock Polish is possibly just as scary - Balloon Metagross can kinda stuff you, but that's work-around-able. Get a RP off on Fez or Donphan, go win?
  • Skarm has to come here, if only for the hazards gameplay. I probably leave Spikes at the door, but rocks seems necessary. It can handle removal too with Defog.
  • Final two mons, I could see all of Froslass, Galvantula, Florges, Morpeko, ad Stuntank coming. Maybe I'm disrespecting Pyroar and Kingler, but they seem to not be able to do enough here to me. If I had to guess, I take Froslass and Florges?
  • For your team, I'd think MPidge, OgerC, and Infernape all are necessities, they seem to be your progress makers and the three 'mons most likely to be on the winscreen at the end of the game.
#
  • My gut instinct is that I'd want to bring Fez and Meta as a defensive core, Meta can help with the Terrak and Zam spookiness, and Fez can help with Zam and MScept. Meta also gives you rocks potentially depending on your last 'mon, which is nice.
  • My instinct on the final mon is Donphan, removal is always important and I really doubt MPidge has the space to run Defog. It also lets you loosen up Meta's moveset? I could also see a defensive Clawitzer depending on calcs, or even Webs Cutiefly, but like, not really, yknow?
  • Your old paste trakcs sorta to what my thougths were, my gut instinct is that I'd put Air Balloon over AVest on Metagross, but it depends on what it's teched for, the EVs give me the idea that your set's been spent a lot of time on.
  • Obviously, don't reuse your team, but I think loosely speaking you have a good grasp on what to do - or at least, how I'd prep for it.
  • Your opponent's team strikes me as odd - obviously some kinda FA happened here - did they not have Terrak at the time? That seems like the natural slot-in over Arctovish, at least, but even then, Florges and Stuntank aren't what I'd expect to see - Florges, sure, maybe, but I dunno. Not how'd I'd approach it, I think.
spare relic
#

Any ideas on what to do? Team of the left is mines

image0.jpg
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

Is this just standard lower tier?

spare relic
#

Yup standard LT

olive halo
#

Also, this team is real weird, yours I mean

#

I guess it has a steel and a fairy

#

Eh ig theirs is equally as weird

#

But the 3 most important types in LT are steel fairy and most importantly fighting and neither of you have a fighting--anyway actual worthwhile analysis

spare relic
#

Does it count as real?

olive halo
#

How many games have you brought it to?

spare relic
#

One, it late game sweeped

#

Sorta

olive halo
#

If you brought it to more than 1 fair, but usually sneasel only gets about 1 good game a season

#

Okay actual analysis

olive halo
#

Blastoise here is very good, shell smash is so good. Water move plus eq goes crazy. No resists with that coverage will just win the game in the end game. Bronzong also looks really strong here. Should be solid into meloetta/torn just watch out for either shadow ball or knock off. Noivern with tera is pretty cool. Opponent has no fairy so you can tera dragon and go to town. Just, of course watch out for meloetta as after piroutte it outspeeds and can triple axel you. Blissey is a great blanket check into torn, tenta and rotom. Torn could maybe run physical but but runs into issues breaking fez otherwise. Speaking of physical torn, watch out swapping your incineroar in this game and triggering the defiant boost. That would be very annoying if it bulks up. An unfortunate problem is I don't love either of fez or incineroar. Incin gets knock off and parting shot which is nice, but isn't great into defiant torn, goodra, tenta, tera meloetta, or even rotom really since it can outspeed and thunder wave you. And fez has a pretty bad match-up into both goodra and tera. And tera meloetta isn't doing it any favors. As for fez what can it do here? I'm struggling to fill out a role for it other than check torn. Toxic chain is bad becuase if can't really beat tenta and goodra. There could maybe actually be an argument for like swords dance since goodra and tenta both have high spdef but I couldn't tell you what moves. Maybe brave bird? I have no idea. Maybe this is a rare time for sneasel to shine, but sneasel hates rotom, tenta, and goodra. Goodra less so because of cc but you are never OHKOing it. Also torn clicks acro and it dies. Blissey also isn't half bad. Should be able to check tenta, special torn, and non heavy slam goodra, but goodra might bring h slam anyway for fez. This is going to be a tough battle

#

If I had to give a general strategy it would be this: Lead bronzong, set rocks and use psy noise to force out tenta. Then get in a position to break with noivern and sneasel and try to dent the team as much as possible. Unlike your team, with a wish blissey, it's very hard for them to recover hp. Speaking of wish blissey, run that. I think this game might end up being a long one, 45+ turn slug fest. Because your best options a good chunk of the time, are defensive. Switching in and out with blissey and fez, eating a hit with bronzong, u-turning and lauching a tera dragon noivern draco meteor. And just slowly but surely take away their options and recovery. And then win the game with a shell smash blastoise after everything has been chipped at least a litttle

spare relic
olive halo
#

Like last pokemon scenario

#

Tenta should be chipped

#

And if they don't tera fairy their meloetta draco will kill everything after noivern tera dragon

#

oh wait cc does WAY more with sneasl into goodra than I was expecting

#

252 Atk Sneasel-Hisui Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 64 Def Goodra-Hisui: 296-350 (81.3 - 96.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

#

Yeah def run sneasel over incin unless you can think of a great reason to run it right now

spare relic
# olive halo Blastoise here is very good, shell smash is so good. Water move plus eq goes cra...

About noivern, I feel like lack of Dragon resist would basically force AV Goodra in no? And it can easily eat a Draco. But I like the idea of Tera Draco

Blissey can blanket check torn but my will prob bring physical like you said so Blissey will get goobed in that case. But fez can kinda handle that

Speaking about fez it’s kinda rough this MU since both tenta and Hoodra exist. The only set I can think of is SD technician wingbeat & double kick

olive halo
#

I think just a fez set with u-turn roost is probably best

#

Moonblast but you shouldn't click it and like idk

spare relic
#

Taunt can work too ig

olive halo
#

yeah perfect

jade solar
jade solar
#

@rancid kestrel can i just only reuse the meta set cuz idt air balloon will be useful for much apart from like eq scept/terrak prob and that set is kinda useful for switching into alakazam

jade solar
olive halo
#

Uh yeah I have no idea how your opponents team made semi finals. It looks so bad.Just run something solid and you'll be fine, which it looks like you already did. The only thing I will say is that your mega pidgey probably shouldn't be clicking agility ever, because they have no answers flying + heat wave combo so the damage is probably just going to be more valuable, even if with agility you'll be faster than all their pokemon

jade solar
#

maybe u turn in that slot?

olive halo
#

Let me check it's moves but probably. Realistically you shouldn't be clicking anything besides hurricane or heat wave

#

Yeah either of those are fine I think agility or u-turn

jade solar
#

agil is mainly for like mscept

#

although i think he might run scarf terrak/kazam

#

well will have to run some test games

rancid kestrel
#

Yeah, not sure I have anything to add from what Happygate said. I do think Agility is the way to go, because if you can get it off on a forced switch or something, all of the sudden they don't have a reliable answer to MPidge, I'd think.

rancid kestrel
# spare relic Any ideas on what to do? Team of the left is mines

Bit of a shorter one for me today. Sorry.

  • Their speed tiers are scary. Torn, Tenta, and Rotom/Melo are all legitimate threats when it comes to speed, which is worryingly not quite as true as yours - HSneasel desn't quite meet the same level of strength, though Blastoise threatening Smash is certainly more scarier than Whiscash threatening DD.
  • That said, you do have far and away the fastest 'mon on the field barring boosts and scarves. I would guess that their Rotom is Scarf, Trick + it matches up well into most of the things you've got. I could see scarf Melo, but that seems less likely to me.
  • You have surprisingly good hazard gameplay for 8mon, but your opponent does too. My gut instinct is that yours is better, since their setting is mostly just TSpikes and then two mons that are gonna be hard to always justify bringing, but their TSpiker is also their removal which helps, compared to your removal being entirely seperate from your setting. But your setting and removal are both better in a vacuum.
  • If I'm your opponent, I probably leave Mabosstiff at home, it seems poor into Zong/Golem/Fez/Noivern to me. I probably leave either Sanda or Whiscash at home too, my gut instinct would be Sandaconda - it just seems worse into Stoise Noivern Fez due to its statline and lack of Water neutrality.
  • If I'm you, I think I leave AGolem and... Incin at the door? I'm not sure what Incin adds here, based on your chat with Happygate you probably like HSneasel. But Incin's intimidate kinda doesn't matter against their top threats, it gives Tenta free entry, I guess it resists Rotom SBall. And then AGolem just kinda I'm not convinced about as a Pokemon.
  • My gut instinct would be to scarf HSneasel, but maybe then it loses too much damage. I dunno what else you could scarf though, but I guess maybe this team's defensive enough with Fez Bliss Zong you don't need a scarf, and Smash Toise is decent-enough speed control.
spare relic
# rancid kestrel Bit of a shorter one for me today. Sorry. - Their speed tiers are scary. Torn, T...

Hi afairy!

About my opponent I’m confident Mabo is getting benched, but not so sure about Sanda since they can technically bring Tera water sanda and glare/coil on my blastoise,

About hazard play they could potentially just bring whishcash with hazards

About who I bring I’m not sure, I think my opponent might run stuff like physical torn and relic song melo-pirouette to not give Blissey breathing space. And Goodra does have the ability to run heavy slam and rotom just spams Volt switch

spare relic
olive halo
#

Give me a minute I’m a bit busy I’ll get to it later movie watching

spare relic
#

Kk

rancid kestrel
#
  • What is the sped on Incin for? Are you really worried about 252+ Hoodra/Whiscash? Neither can really justify running that. Outspeeding Sandaconda maybe? Just seems odd to me.
  • Same with Noivern - nothing even comes close to it needing 252+, surely? DD Whiscash surely can't get there at +1? Outspeeding 252+ +1 only needs 188+.
  • I don't understand this Blissey set at all. What is Rain Dance and Damp Rock for? You aren't even running Hurricane on Noivern. Are you trying to make Torn/Tenta's day? Sand Spit Sandaconda is not the threat you think it is. Also, what's the Speed 4 for? Just put it in Defense or something, at least it maybe changes some calcs a tiny amount rather than being totally irrelevant.
  • What's with Bronzong being Heaproof? What is attacking you with Fire here? At least you can avoid like, Sandaconda Earthquake spam and Spikes with Levitate.
olive halo
#

Why are you damp Rock what?

#

Damn fairy beat me to it but yeah blissey needs to be reworked, incin should just be sneasel, some evs need be updated it’s a very odd build that I do not like

spare relic
#

I kinda need help with EV efficiency tho

#

For example can’t think of much on what I want to invest in noivern

olive halo
#

For example, let’s say h-goodra is at 51 hp and the roll for Draco to kill is 45-53, if you want to drop a draco you better make sure you live the goodras attack if you don’t get the roll you want

#

So in that scenario you make it spdef

spare relic
#

Hmm ic but can’t take out too much speed evs cuz I need to outspeed torn

jade solar
#

First week of my own Ubers League lol (yes I'm hosting my first ever draft league). I ended up at 16th in pick order, which is why my draft looks a little like your average ND draft. An average matchup but would like some help for it.

Screenshot_2025-07-06_at_10.38.48_AM.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

made this team too

jade solar
#

@olive halo @rancid kestrel

rancid kestrel
#

Is that Arceus-Fire vs Arceus-Fighting, @jade solar ?

jade solar
rancid kestrel
#

Is Shadow Tag legal?

jade solar
rancid kestrel
# jade solar First week of my own Ubers League lol (yes I'm hosting my first ever draft leagu...
  • Double Mega from your opponent is odd, but I suppose it's not really like it'll ever be not MMeta. My gut instinct is that I think your opponent's team is fine, but struggles with a lot of "could they couldn't they" mons that are hard to really say they can reasonably come - Tera Jolteon's a good example of like, yeah it could come, but are you really gonna give up a slot for one of your Uber-level Pokemon?
  • You have a similar situation, but your could couldn't questions are like... less gimmicky? Gimmick doesn't necessarily mean doesn't work, but like Screens Grim is a gimmick, STag Goth is a gimmick, Tera Jolt is a gimmick. Your equivalents are like... OgerC? ThundT? Gengar? I dunno. These feel better to me.
  • That said, threat level, I'd think they have a higher Tier 2 than you - Arc for Arc sure, then if you say MMeta and Giratina are their 2 and 3, compared to your MMX and Chien Pao, I'd like yours, but their next three are Lando Ho-Oh... Fini? Meanwhile yours is like... Palkia, ThundT.... Lele? I do think though that I like your T3 over theirs, with yours being like, OgerC Corv Geng to their Jolt Goth Grimm.
  • I like your speed tiers a lot here. I think the 110-100-90 that your opponent followed (with complimentary 120 of Arceus and a "yeah sure its there" 130 Jolt) is maybe a touch not good enough for this power level. And then, salt in the wound, your third best Pokemon is flatly faster than all of them, and has wicked good Priority (Chien-Pao.) It just is mortally scared of MMeta Bullet Punch, but I'd imagine that can be played around, Meta gets no justifiable recovery. I'm sure there's a Helmet Corv set or something that can stomach a TPunch.
  • But yeah, I do really like your speeds here, since it's hard to see Jolt coming - not impossible, Tera Ice go brr into your team a bit, but like, it's hard to find the space for it I'd think.
#
  • I don't like your opponent's hazards here. Is Roserade coming to every game? No, it can't. So what's setting hazards here? Arceus can deign to rocks, maybe occassionally and be less effective as a god, but MMEta and LandoI hate running rocks and can't justify the space for it. At least their removal kinda follows the logic, with 3 'mons who can easily run Defog whenever they come. Just play without hazards ever by constantly keeping it off the field with Tina/HoOh/Fini Defog. And like, at least two of those are likely to come every game, that's their defensive core for the most part.
  • I like your hazards much less. It's hard to see setting here barring Spikes from OgerC on the weeks that it comes, maybe a surprise SR from Arc or TSpikes from Gar, but grounded poisons are easy to fit in a large team format like this. See Roserade, see Gengar. Your removal is also less ideal, with really it just being Corviknight. I don't think it'll be a problem this week for you, but I think you're going to struggle into teams that have like, LandoT/Terap/TingLu/whatever.
  • I haven't looked at your paste yet. I don't know who your opponent is either, so I can't really estimate whether they'd try a gimmick of theirs or not. At a glance, I'm not convinced screens can hold up to ChienPao SoR, or MMX's bonkers attack stat. So I'd think that wouldn't come. I also think that outside MMX, which Goth can't even trap (Brutal Swing of all things is a 2HKO on un/low-invested), I'm not seeing what value Goth brings trapping-wise.
#
  • So let's just assume yknow, week 1, goodstuff build here. Arc, MMeta, Giratina have to come. Maybe you could bench Tina, but physdef takes hits from MMX like a champ and can Wisp or DTail it. MMeta is kinda straightforward, Mash Bullet and then coverage as wanted - in my mind it's Ice Punch and a ground type attack for ThundT Krook Arceus Gengar, I dont think Corviknight is so scary enough to justify needing electric type coverage.
  • HoOh surely comes, if only so Tina's not the only defensive 'mon. I also think LandoI comes as a scarfer, it outspeeds your obvious scarfer of Palkia and your other option in ThundT it ties with. This is sorta the goodstuff five for them, I'd think.
  • From there, it's probably a counterbuild pick as a general rule. I could see Roserade if they think Gengar's unlikely, basically every threat of yours is grounded and can't/don't want to run Boots. I could see a defensive/utility Fini, though I'm not sure how valuable the Terrain is for them and could even see it complicating Tina DTails. Maybe they run Roar instead. Screens are never BAD, trapping is never BAD, so those two could come. BoltBeam is as real as it ever is in modern gens, and your opponent appreciates a touch of speed...? Sorry MAudino, I don't think you come. If I had to guess, Jolteon comes, otherwise the team feels frighteningly slow. Second chance to Fini, though.
  • Now, I did open your paste already to check Arc type back when I asked the question. And there was no Arc to answer my question. Which is... a choice. I guess I can see the logic here, it doesn't like being matched into MMeta, Lando, HoOh Tina or Fini. I will respect the lack of its presence in the paste and work on the assumption you're sitting out Arc here.
#
  • It's hard to see Pao or MMX ever not coming. Sure, Pao matches bad into MMeta, but it brings so much value as a general statement that surely it's the core here. I think Palkia has to come here as a scarfer, even if it underspeeds scarf Lando I think you do still hold the advantage in that circumstance.
  • Corviknight feels okay here, but it plus ThundT is hard, but I'm not convinced ThundT is great here. I'd inclined to think Corv is the fine bring here but it's definitely a harder decision at this point in the building process.
  • I think you do need more firepower here, so I can see Lele coming. From there, you need one more thing, and my gut instinct is OgerC? But that foes feel wack. Though, benching an Arc is always gonna be wack.
  • This paste is... not what I would've done, for sure. I like the Helm Corv, the Scarf Palkia, I do agree this is the right Cornerstone set (is Knock here good into Arc/MMeta?), but like... Are we really benching both MMX and Arceus? That feels like a lot of firepower left on the table. +1 Shadow Ball from Lele doesn't even kill uninvested MMeta, what's the lure here doing?
jade solar
#

@rancid kestrel my arceus is arc-fire, theirs is arc-fighting

jade solar
rancid kestrel
jade solar
rancid kestrel
# jade solar so i drop lele and krook for mmx and arc-fire?

I definitely drop Krook here personally, I don't think it has the value it needs to into ArcFight, MMeta, and Lando. I'd replace it with MMX, since I could at least justify in my head leaving ArcFire at home when I realized the paste didn't have it. I think personally I never even get to the point where I consider benching ArcF, that probably comes over Lele or OgerC in my ramble had I not seen the paste and limited myself (now mind you had I realized MMX was also gone, I'd prob have tossed that restriction out.)

I do think that my gut instinct build is Arc Pao MMX Palkia Corv Lele? That doesn't mean it's Correct, but that just strikes me as what I'd be inclined the bring. I don't think I ever even consider leaving the first three behind.

jade solar
#

lol

#

my opp has arc-fighting

rancid kestrel
#

Yes

#

Oh I see

#

Damn typing is hard.

jade solar
#

lol

#

so just first 6 r?

rancid kestrel
#

Up to you, my gut instinct build is Arc Pao MMX Palkia Corv Lele - I think you got the Palkia and Corv sets done well in your paste barring personal quibbles (I probably run HPump over Surf). If your calcs are satisfactory in Lele's set then sure but +1 SBall only 2hkoing MMeta makes me think the calcs aren't satisfactory?

#

I also vaguely think I'd want priority on Pao, but I could be wrong about that. But I do think Scarf LandoI is scary.

jade solar
lofty wigeon
spare relic
#

We move on though

jade solar
jade solar
jade solar
rancid kestrel
#

I guess my concern is like
Turn 0, Lele switches in
Turn 1, MMeta switches in, Lele CMs
Turn 2, MMeta Mashes (69-81 through Babiri at 252), Lele Shadow Balls (68-81 at +1 to uninvested MMeta)
Turn 3, MMeta Mashes, KOes

jade solar
#

cm + 3 is just in general for other stuff too

misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

patched up mmx and arc-fire sets

#

yes i am proud of that mmx set xD

rancid kestrel
#

That's fair yeah Vague I just worry about how much it's going to accomplish with Babiri. That's fair.

I like the MMX and Arc sets but I haven't looked too closely at the matchup. I do worry that ArcF is maybe a touch passive, but Arc is gonna be good at basically any time or way you use it. You can definitely benefit from the defense, but are you sure it needs to be physdef? You do have Corv, though I guess you match bad into their SpAers of LandoI and Fini? But yeah, scary to not have an easy answer into LandoI generally speaking.

jade solar
#

from physdef to spdef

#

to handle lando a bit better?

rancid kestrel
#

Yeah, I could see that working. My gut instinct is that HoOh if it comes offensive is gonna wreck you anyway, but you have Palkia and ArcF to tank Sacred Fire off resists, anyway, probably. But a specially defensive Corv seems like it'd help against basically everything but Jolteon?

jade solar
#

yeah

rancid kestrel
#

Can only cover so many things, yknow? But yeah I do think there's something to explore there, for sure.

jade solar
#

@rancid kestrel a few things to note after mocks:

  • Matchup's actually rougher than it looks as screens makes it tough for my sweepers to sit and settle to sweep through him.
  • My defensive pokemon have nothing to deal with Ho-oh which doesn't allow me to transition from them to my attackers
  • Grimm and Ho-oh are definitely the annoying aspects here with me having no middle ground mon to keep both at bay and allowing me to get in Chien or any other mon to sweep
rancid kestrel
#

Could you do something with Arceus, like tech Brick Break for screens? What are the SacFire calcs on Arceus?

jade solar
#

252+ Atk Ho-Oh Sacred Fire vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Arceus-Fire: 57-67 (12.8 - 15.1%) -- possible 7HKO

rancid kestrel
#

Seems like a decent enough reaction to both?

jade solar
#

well keeping both at bay is like how do you put it

#

like dealing with both

#

not just switchin into them

rancid kestrel
#

It's not great, yeah, but it's hopefully enough to keep them from grabbing momentum

mystic sundial
#

The league I’m in went on pause for a bit, but it’s back up again. I know I posted this here before, but I completed my paste for my opponent. Thoughts? https://pokepast.es/83f7f283fac40e4e

IMG_7726.jpg IMG_7725.jpg
jade solar
#

i have a lot of questions abt ur opp

#

2 useful megas on the same draft?

#

where terrain for sneasler?

#

(i know it's not a one trick pony but still)

mystic sundial
jade solar
#

why silvally second pick?

#

if ur drafting mchary

#

atleast build arnd it

rancid kestrel
#

What's Incinerate for on Darkrai? Dig on MLop? Drain Punch on Azelf?

I like Red Carf Alo here, I like Darkrai though I'm not sure Azelf Scarf is enough speed control here - what is Specs getting rolls-wise for Darkrai?

Those are the immediate things I see that I'm concerned about on this paste, I'm trusting you have the calcs for stuff like Yache Lando or Beat Up on Fez (though is that just for TChain proccing?)

mystic sundial
rancid kestrel
#

I can't say I'm super onboard with these answers.
Dig gives a free swap to CharY, Lurantis, or Serp given that it's an entire warning turn. In response, they're to cover for... Coalossal, who isn't realistically coming, and Salazzle, who has 68/60 defenses. Then again, you have Bounce, so honestly this whole set looks overcooked to me. I don't like basically anything on it.
Incinerate doesn't OHKO 0/4 Weavile but you at least avoid the TAxel OHKO back since it has to run Boots presumably. If it isn't, it's not running Band anyway.
Yache - Morpeko is another "teching for something that isn't coming" I'd think, but like, I dunno you could eat an Ice Shard.
Drain Punch isn't a filler move, it's a throw. Why isn't this like, Thunderbolt or U-Turn, more coverage or utility? Hell, even Trick could do something here.

mystic sundial
#

What if I were to replace drain punch with future sight and dig with frustration?

rancid kestrel
#

It's your team and tour, I'm just giving my thoughts, to be clear. You should be scared of whatever you think is likely that would cause you problems. That said: I don't know how I feel about Scarf FSight but it can work, but I feel like I'd sooner want U-Turn. I'd also want to replace Bounce at least on MLop, but I'd also throw out the entire set and start from the ground up - Fake Out goes hard in the "turn sun turns" game.

mystic sundial
#

I’m mainly scared of Silvally since I don’t know what type it’s gonna be and it has access to some good utility moves

rancid kestrel
#

Yeah, that for sure makes sense. Silvally is a good utility "gods fuck i need a defensive [type]" kinda Pokemon. Into you, I'd guess Fairy, since it helps against Darkrai and Lop, without opening too much avenues for LandoT Oger Hyph and non-Heavy Slam Treads.

cerulean aspen
#

National Dex AAA (idk if anyone can help with this just looking for general input), Ability Rules are attached

image.png image.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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.

cerulean aspen
#

My first very absurd thought when looking at this mu was that fluffy gloom went absolutely stupid 😐

rancid kestrel
#

Will try to take a look later tonight

rancid kestrel
# cerulean aspen National Dex AAA (idk if anyone can help with this just looking for general inpu...

Alright. 2AC NDAAA is gonna be pretty far out of range, but let's see what's what.

  • I see that NeutGas is valid when on its original holders, so that Weezing is going to be a pain for like, your Regenvesters or your -aters or PHealers.
  • I don't really see another 'mon that inherently wants to run its base ability, even like SoR is an upgrade for Maus. I would guess that Comfey wants to run Triage by default...?
  • I super don't like the speed situation you've got going on. 119 -> 100 x2? Meanwhile they've got 130 -> 123 -> 111 -> 100? I guess you've got ways around that in AAA, and a decent scarfer or two, but like, super rough hill to climb for sure.
  • You have good Rocks setters, but where is your hazard gameplay otherwise? 2 good removals (Comfey and Komala count for .5 each) and just three SR setters? Wild to me. Their hazards are kinda over-reliant on Meowscarada, Heatran can set Rocks I guess. Their removal is a buncha mons that would rather be doing other things, though. I guess they play hot potato with the responsibility each week.
  • I haven't an idea of what to do for selection of 'mons and abilities. Fluffy Gloom? Does it have the defenses to do that? Surely 60/70 even with Eviolite isn't enough to withstand a SoR PopBomb or TAxel after Knock?
  • It's a shame that your fastest mon gets chewed alive by their two mons faster than it. It's still gotta come, you can't be showing up with your only fast mon being a Base 100 or slower Scarfer... Lando, Ape, Rachi, those gotta be good, right, no matter the setting? Throw a Gloom in, why not, then... Comfey for removal or Triage priority?
  • If I'm your opponent, I probably bench Golurk (bad into Ape and Moon I'd think), Melo, and... Quaq? Maybe I'm overrating NeutGas Weezing. Prob can take Melo if Weezing's not worth i.
cerulean aspen
#

my thoughts were something along the lines of Scarf Tinted Lens Moon, Hadron Bolt (their only resist gets obliterated by unboosted rising voltage)

#

after that it's a little foggy

rancid kestrel
#

Those two make sense to me. Lando could maybe be a Regen 'mon, hough it kinda wants to set SR so not sure it can be a Regenvester...? Maybe ape is the regenvester, Rage Fist go brr.

olive halo
#

The only AAA drafts I’ve ever seen had you drafting abilities and you can only bring those abilities you drafted

lofty sparrow
#

hey im in that league actually

lofty sparrow
#

(except for the banned abilities and obviously it still needs to conform with 2ac)

lofty sparrow
#

your speed control is pretty awkward

#

i think something like volt absorb jirachi + def lowering ruin ability comfey + stamina ape covers most of your opps offensive brings pretty well, jirachi can even wish up ape to sweep late game

#

gloom works over comfey as well but it loses to meowscarada knock and taxel so

#

and then your offenses can be like hadron bolt scarf/mglo dd rmoon

#

and flex slot lando-t

cerulean aspen
cerulean aspen
lofty sparrow
#

to be fair if its band you can probably rk it with like

#

scarf moon or scarf aerilate lando

#

or something

#

ok maybe not scarf moon idk if sor dragon claw kills

#

252+ Atk Sword of Ruin Roaring Moon Dragon Claw vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 270-318 (92.1 - 108.5%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Sword of Ruin Roaring Moon Dragon Claw vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Meowscarada: 246-289 (83.9 - 98.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

#

yeah so u have to outrage which sucks considering they have a fairy

#

wait this doesnt even work sword of ruin just cancels it out

#

ig u-turn kills tho

lofty sparrow
#

now that i think about it u can prolly get away with regen scarf

#

which checks heatran too

marsh hatch
#

Any tips for this matchup?

image.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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.

rancid kestrel
marsh hatch
#

Oh yea no tera and status zmoves are allowed

rancid kestrel
#

As in, you can use status zmoves, or you can't?

marsh hatch
#

You can use only status z moves

rancid kestrel
#

Jesus. OK.

marsh hatch
#

Except z-hypnosis

rancid kestrel
#

Including omniboosting stuff?

marsh hatch
#

Yes...☹️

rancid kestrel
#

Oh boy.

#

Let me finish a thing real quick and then I'll write up some stuff.

solemn warren
#

be thankful that Shaymin is the land form

#

on a more serious note
i could PROBABLY see a balance-ish team with Lycanroc, Lucario, Milotic, Froslass, Decidueye and Whimsicott

#

although i dont really know what Whimsicott would be doing

rancid kestrel
# marsh hatch Any tips for this matchup?
  • First things first, omniboost Z-moves. I see Shaymin and Munchlax with Celebrate and Happy Hour, both of which I could realistically see using it. Shaymin's obviously scarier, 100 base across the board +1 is something you can't just leave ignored, but your Haze options aren't fantastic. Maybe you could fit a mirror herb on like, Lucario, but even +0 Earth Power really frustrates you.
  • Wow I hate their speed tier structure. 125-100*2-95-85? That's super slow. They have some okay scarfers, Hoopa and Kleavor stick out, but like, rough. It's doable, for sure, but their speed control is limited and their actual speed isn't fantastic here. This is not a team that seems to have put effort into speed tier balancing.
  • I like yours better if only because of 116-115-110*2, but you do fall off after there down to 91. At least you'll be able to figure out their scarfer based on what they switch into Lycanroc. You have a few good scarfers too, Rotom Lucario primarily, so aside ensuring that Kilo doesn't run circles around you (it shouldn't, you have some combination of Goodra/Orthworm/Lucario/Lycanroc) you should mostly have the speed advantage here barring omniboost Shaymin.
  • I like your opponent's hazard play. Webs isn't real, sure, but they have good rockers and even a legit TSpiker (be careful here, you don't have an absorber). The downfall is removal somewhat, Tentacruel is a fantastic spinner but it's mostly left alone in that (Defog Kleavor isn't great).
  • Your removal is quite nice, a buncha mons that can reasonably do removal without feeling obligated to. Your setting is less good, it's kinda entirely dependant on Orthworm - Lycan can, Fross can, but neither can do it weekly or are great at doing it.
#
  • If I'm your opponent, I must bring Kilowattrel, Shaymin, and Tentacruel - these are mandatory I'd think, as speed, a Z-Move user (I can't see a reason to not Z-Celebrate), and as removal. Maybe you could do a different Z-Move somewhere on the team, but even still, I think Shaymin's a requirement.
  • The back three are much more flexible. Bisharp and Hoopa seem bad into Whimsicott and Lucario to me, and if you remove those two plus the NFEs, you're left with Mudsdale, Arcanine, and Kleavor. Is that good? Hm. I'm not sure what Mudsdale does for your opponent, maybe EVd to help shut down Luc and Lyc? Kleavor gives hazards, sure, and Arcanine is probably useful some way or another. I could see either Arc or Mud dropped for either Bisharp or Hoopa for sure, if they feel like they want the power those two bring - it's not impossible tat Arc/Mud share the same lane somewhat in your opponent's brain.
  • For you, I'd think that you have maybe more flexibility here. I'd personally never bench Lucario, it seems like your best damage dealer to me. I'd also be inclined to bring Rotom as a choice scarfer, trick seems useful here ontop of just normal speed benefits.
  • Orthworm and Goodra come as a defensive backbone. Goodra can mostly blank Kilo, help with Tenta and Arcanine, and depending on the set, can help with Shaymin omniboosting. Orthworm matches well into Bisharp/Kleavor/Mudsdale as offensive physical attackers.
  • Two Pokemon left, and this will come down to mostly personal preference - I dislike the low damage output overall here, so I personally pick up Lycanroc here I think - decent priority and a nice enough damage output. I'm also inclined on Whimsi, but I'm a speed demon and can see logic behind Frosslass and Hecidueye.
jade solar
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

tapu lele didn't feel good here so swapped it out for scarf krook

#

went with a more offensive arc set

#

and just added dtail on palk incase i run into cosmic power arc-fight

rancid kestrel
#

Krook gets Darkest Lariat. Neat.

#

I can't say I'm thrilled at the lack of any hazard placing, but you're the one doing mocks yknow.

jade solar
#

well i'm gonna be defogging them away and hazards didn't play much of an impact during mocks

rancid kestrel
#

Makes sense

#

What's Krook need 252+ for?

jade solar
#

oh i need to creep, i replaced krook in there right after one mock and frgt to tone the set

#

shld be 240+ to creep all the 90 mons

rancid kestrel
#

I'm not super convinced any are gonna try to scarf, but its not like you can creep scarf lele or lando, and like, scarf rose can def ruin your day randomly

jade solar
#

oh scarf is mainly to you know catch meta and then double down as a snowball wincon once it gets boosted with moxie

#

but now that i think about it intim and non scarf sounds better to spam moves

rancid kestrel
#

Oh I definitely wouldn't not have a scarf personally

jade solar
#

and meta's coverage ain't the strongest against krook

#

what item do i play instead?

rancid kestrel
#

What I was trying to say is that 240+ works but I'd prob run Scarf Ada 176 to outspeed Jolteon 252+ and not bother trying to outspeed scarf 90s

jade solar
#

ohhhh

rancid kestrel
#

But maybe that's not the best idea, I dunno. I just can't see Ho-Oh or Tina running scarf, and Roserade scarf exists sure but like, it'd still have to respect it getting speed crept

#

And you aren't ever outpacing scarf Lele up

jade solar
#

yeah fair

#

but scarf is good here r?

rancid kestrel
#

I definitely think unless you have other speed control (like a speed boost mon, or some reliable means of setting TR), most teams will benefit from a Scarf generally speaking

#

(Also, Ada 176 Scarf Krook outspeeds 252+ Scaf Goth)

#

The ability to, conditionally, outspeed the fastest 'mon on your opponent's side is traditionally very helpful. I kinda view it like SR, you can run without it, but the value it brings is hard to ever give up outside of specific cases.

jade solar
#

yeah

marsh hatch
#

I would like some removal but I'm torn between Whimsicott,Komala and Decidueye

rancid kestrel
#

All three are viable, for sure. I think I personally would struggle to use Komala, but it is definitely usable.

jade solar
# jade solar First week of my own Ubers League lol (yes I'm hosting my first ever draft leagu...

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9natdexdraft-2401971434-oy0hi1pwusb27o2pmnvl7grsg19ultapw @rancid kestrel @olive halo won the game, was a tense affair. nearly sold there in the middle, but good old chien pao saves the day.

[Gen 9] NatDex Draft: VagueParallels vs. cor.oculi - Replays - Pok...

Watch a replay of a Pokémon battle between VagueParallels and cor.oculi! Format: [Gen 9] NatDex Draft; Date: Jul 13, 2025

olive halo
#

Congrats!

jade solar
#

ty!

olive halo
#

And yeah a legal chien pao will do that

jade solar
#

tera chien pao too ShuckCool

rancid kestrel
#

Good stuff! Seeing both Goth and Grimm to me is so wild, but it's good to not fold to the pressure from mock stuggles for sure. Watching the replay now, glad to see the special MMX paid off against the Goth for sure!

jade solar
rancid kestrel
#

I'm glad I didn't push against it, haha - it was definitely a, "hm, I dont know about this, but it's not like it Cant Work..."

jade solar
rancid kestrel
#

Not the "i sold" "it happens" into win...

jade solar
jade solar
#

Last week of regular season at WPF, 4-3 +2 now, in 7th, and in prime position for a solid playoffs spot, just a solid wins sends me to a higher seed. Looking for some advice on this interesting matchup.

Screenshot_2025-07-14_at_12.46.38_PM.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

Draco shadow ball goes brrrr

spice peak
#

on a first glance, it looks like a really bad matchup vs blaziken

jade solar
jade solar
jade solar
rancid kestrel
# jade solar Last week of regular season at WPF, 4-3 +2 now, in 7th, and in prime position fo...
  • Your opponent's team seems so strange to me. Not necessarily in a strange way, Spec and Blaziken are obviously powerful threats, but like, everything else just feels kinda underwhelming. Non-tera Ogerpon, Corv Weezing in Draft feels not fake but less usable than in standard ladder formats, and then they have a buncha niche stuff like APersian, Kleavor, Farigiraf, even Blastoise to an extent. Like, huh?
  • Can't say I'm a huge fan of their speed tiers. APersian is fake, and that's their fastest non-Spectrier Pokemon. So, in reality, they're looking at Ogerpon 110 or Sandy Shocks 101 as their second fastest Pokemon beyond the glassest of glass cannons, specifically one that matches up so so poorly into your Dragapult?
  • Like, Oger and Shocks aren't even easily bringable, by nature of the former having no access to Tera and the latter likely being burdened with setting hazards, more on that later. So, in reality, their speed presence in Spectrier, whatever they bring of APers/Oger/Shocks, Blaziken, and then a Scarfer if they bring one? I don't think that's all that great, frankly.
  • Your speeds are better, featuring mostly mons that are actually easy brings. Sure, not all of your 97+ mons always need to come, but basically all of them are useful and you have enough useful speed and options compared to them, I'd think. Even Jolteon, your fake speed 'mon, is more real than APersian.
  • Not a fan of their hazard setting. It really does feel like it fall on the shoulders of Shocks and Kleavor, the latter of which isn't even that great as a Pokemon. Ogerpon isn't the right form for reliable Spike stacking, and like, I guess GWeez could TSpikes, but you have an Iron Moth. So, it's kinda just on Shocks, assuming Kleavor doesn't come.
#
  • Their removal is better in a vacuum, but reliance on Defog is rough for them, because Stoise Spin being their only option to remove just your hazards? Is Shocks jut not gonna set until they don't think they need to Defog again? Are they gonna be fine going hazards-less? Is Stoise going to be a defensive set and not bother shell smashing? But yeah, Corv or Weezing can happily run Defog if they figure out what they want to do with hazards, I guess. Shocks doesn't have the defenses to set hazards multiple times, which makes me think they're either not gonna bother with removal or they're gonna rely on Spin Toise.
  • Your hazards are what they are, what they've always been. I think specifically into your opponent's teams, I do vaguely like TSpikes, even knowing they have a GWeez. I think it might not be realistic to pull off, but all of Spec/Blaz/Baxc/Oger either can't run Boots or really would rather not to, making it harder for them to figure out what they're doing, since hard switching in GWeez to remove the spikes opens them up for Moth's Psychic, Zap Hurricane, or Treads EQ, or something. Weezing doesn't have a ton of ways to easily recover health. But like, even just rocks to chip at Spec, Bax, or Blaziken is helpful as always. I'm gonna open the paste you've linked and see no Rocks on Treads, aren't I. :P
  • If I'm your opponent, I think that Spectrier and Blaziken are non-negotiable. I think that those are my win conditions, and leaving them home is a T1 /forfeit. They even do look good into you. From there, I add Baxcalibur, it may be slow but it can take hits from Zap/Jolt and threaten both by setting up. It's not quite non-negotiable like Spec/Blaz, but it's a key 'mon.
#
  • You've mentioned being worried about Toise, so let's say smash Toise is coming too. Sure. Let's give it spin too, it probably doesn't need more than Surf +... Ice Beam? Simply don't set up before the theoretical Primarina is gone.
  • Two slots left, and we don't have any hazard setting. We have spin though, which is cool! Why don't we bring Sandy Shocks, it can blank electric type attacks from Jolt or Zap, and it can set hazards. From there, we've got a ton of offensive 'mons, which is worrying to me. Maybe Baxc doesn't come? I feel like you wanna fit both Corv and Weezing, so maybe you go hazardsless/hazard-light, drop Shocks and Spin on Blastoise (though idk what you'd replace it with, tbh), and then grab both CorvWeez? Otherwise, I think if I have to pick one of the two, I probably pick Weez, since Corv seems less than useful into Moth Zap Jolt. Honestly, yeah, not sure why I didn't see that earlier, the answer is probably Shocks Weezing.
  • For you (again, not opening this paste till I'm done with this section), the only mandatory is Dragapult. Shifu's actually quite nice here, maybe with a scarf, but I'm actually about to suggest Scarf Dragapult. It outspeeds their Spec, which I anticipate could be their scarfer if they bring one, but it also outspeeds (with 252+) +2 Blaze and +2 Toise.
  • So, Shifu of some kind, and Scarf Pult. Surely Treads comes, it's probably your third best 'mon. Let's just run goodstuff IMO, Rocks Spin +2. Can't go wrong with a ground move, and then honestly, Volt Switch kinda goes hard here? But there may be better options.
#
  • I like a specially defensive Zapdos here, Toise/Spec/Shocks are all gonna hit on that side and like, presumably Blaziken is teching SEdge for you - even super invested PhysDef Zap gets 2hko'd. But like, +2 Spec SBall doesn't OHKO from Spec? I just think that SpD makes more sense here.
  • Primarina, hear me out, I think makes sense here as a PhysDef option, it kinda collapses against Oger but that can be teched possibly? But the goal here is to just stuff non-TPunch Blaziken, it doesn't have enough moves to run between one or more of SD/Tect, a fire move, I guess it doesnt need a fighting type move? The more I'm typing the more I'm talking myself out of it, frankly. Maybe it's a PysDef Mesprit?
  • One more slot. Could see you bring the other of the two above, could see a Jolteon to just abuse the speed (Spec doesnt want to be the answer to Jolt, and if it is, bam you know it's scarf) and lack of a Ground type - Tera Ice Jolt go brr against Shocks. Could see Moth, obviously, that's never not gonna be a good 'mon - Speed Moth does 85% min with Psychic to Blaziken.
  • I'd prob do Scarf Pult, Shifu, Treads, SpD Zap, PhysD Mesprit, and Jolteon, but it's real easy to see something like Def Zap with Charti and SpD Prim over Mesprit, or Moth over Jolt, or something.
#
  • On opening this paste, I don't know that I agree with SpA Booster Moth, or double Def PrimZap. I think Pult is reasonable as Specs, but I do think there's value in considering if Scarf Pult can do some things here. The only think I'd really consider like, majorly needing to change is the double Def ZapPrim, I don't know why that is what it is when Toise Spec and Shocks are all special threats? No Rocks on Tread is what it is, you run you friend but IHead doesn't strike me as hitting much of value here (its not Levitate Weezing, and you are not staying in on Baxc surely) and the lack of Rocks is rough.
lofty sparrow
#

tips for this mu? (HUGE NOTE I AM THE OPPONENT HERE)

#

uh

#

why didnt the image send

rancid kestrel
#

ROFL I thought that you were revealing that you were VagueParallel's opponent in their message earlier...

lofty sparrow
#

give me a sec my wifi is godawful

#

ok there we go

rancid kestrel
#

And you're the Meow team?

lofty sparrow
#

yeah

#

i feel like no matter what i bring i just die to their unwallable stuff especially when ghold is tasked with checking like 3 mons

#

i can probably cheese a few with scarf outrage chomp but idk how viable that is given 2 fairies

rancid kestrel
#

Shed Tail is banned, yeah?

rigid barn
# lofty sparrow

Believe in Torkoal.

John Torkoal believes in Torkoal supremacy

lofty sparrow
#

yeah its banned

#

baton pass the move is just banned in fact theres no drypassing

jade solar
#

maybe jolteon might be a better play than moth here

#

not sure

rancid kestrel
# lofty sparrow
  • Weather is tough in Draft - usable, but when you can see it coming, it can be tough. Double weather is stranger - sure, you have two "modes", but generally speaking you have a leaning one direction, which means you often have deadweight 'mons, such as Scovillian in a SandSun team that wants to run Sand, or a Alolan Sandslash on a HailRain team running Hail. Doable, but not like, great. This team seems like the ATales is there more for AVeil cheese than it is for Kyurem, since I'm not seeing a ton of Hail-advantage mons here otherwise.
  • I like your opponent's speed structure here, Moon-Lati/Wake-Shocks is fine for sure. Rough for them to not have anything outspeeding Meow or Cyc, but a scarf or Proto Speed can solve that a bit, somewhat. I'm less thrilled with your speed, 123-121-102-100 is a rough position to be in for sure, both season-wide but also specifically in this environment. It doesn't help that, like you said, your opponent's Pokemon are powerful hitters and hit you hard in spaces that you struggle with, like Ice.
  • I like your hazards a lot. Your removal is not good, exclusively relying on Cyclizar, but it's not the end of the world especially here - see what a commitment to a "gimmick" gets you, their hazard play is alarmingly weak, it's basically just Shocks with maybe an occassional help from Torkoal, and their removal is just Torkoal. That's a lot of effort expended on two 'mons, and I'm not even convinced that Shocks can come regularly and not get in the way.
  • Something I've noticed on your opponents team is just how much they lean towards specially offensive sets. Wake, Shocks, Volc, Latios and Magnezone all cannot reasonably run physically offensive sets, Kyurem can do both but leans special (especially since they'd love access to Freeze Dry here), RMoon is really the only 'mon that bucks the trend here. Not to say RMoon is able to be ignored, but like, that's a lot of special attackers.
#
  • If I'm your opponent, my biggest question is if I try to mess with AVeil. I'm inclined to think not, since I'm not sure there's space for it, frankly? You have to bring Torkoal here, RMoon and Wake for sure come as primary abusers, and then what?
  • I'd think Kyurem comes, it does super well into your whole team like you've indicated. That's four mons and not a single defensive option, but we have both Latios and Volcanion unaccounted for. I think there's a world where, based on what your opponent's drafted leading me to think they're a more offensive/aggressive player, that it's Latios + [1 of atales, shocks, fez, volc]. If I had to guess, it's Latios + Volcanion, but I could be wrong about that for sure.
  • For you, it seems like a no-brainer to bring Meow, Chomp (with a scarf, but I do think the Lati might be scarf, in which case maybe you want it on your Meow and then a Haban or Scarf or something on Chomp to trade with Moon/Wake), and Dengo like you've said.
  • I think a SpD Swampert with Tera... Steel? could be a decent bring into their legion of special attackers. Need to be worried about EP Kyurem or Shocks, and like, FThrower Wake, but I'm not sure what type otherwise can tank hits from Dragon, Ice, and Freeze Dry. Could maybe do Fairy or Water and leave yourself open to some things.
#
  • Amoonguss and Kingambit seem like viable options here, but I'm struggling to grasp my head around them working, TBH. Like is that really Amoonguss's special defense stat? Gambit also doesn't seem good from a specially defensive side, but maybe a more offensive Gambit could be usable?
  • Could see Hatt, could see Zapdos. Could even see Cyclizar, it's pretty fast and provides you removal should you end up needing it. I'd personally be inclined to run Scarf Meow, some kinda lure or setup Chomp, Gholdengo of some kind, Tera Fairy or Steel defensive Swampert maybe with AVest, Amoonguss maybe with Rain Dance, and then... gods it's not easy for sure. Zapdos? Could be Kingambit here as a reverse sweeper. I kinda like that personally, I dunno.
rancid kestrel
jade solar
rancid kestrel
#

The easiest change that I'd personally do is Scarf Pult, it outpaces what I expect would be a Scarf Spectrier, as well as outpacing +2 Toise and Blaze.

jade solar
#

alr

#

anything else?

#

like slapping in jolt or something

rancid kestrel
#

That's a valid approach, I'm not sure it's what I'd do personally, given the structure, but it's not out of reason either.

jade solar
#

Second week in the ubers league, last time scraped out with a close win thanks to Pao but now have a kinda rough matchup on my hands against a very offensive draft, would really like some advice on how to approach this.

Screenshot_2025-07-16_at_2.37.49_PM.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

What’s their arceus?

jade solar
olive halo
#

Honestly I think chien pao just goes hard here. Nothing resists its 2 stabs and you can just tera dark and kinda crunch everything

jade solar
rancid kestrel
#

Hi, is this a Draft format team? I think you may be in the wrong place.

broken parrot
rancid kestrel
#

If this is Draft, please do share the board sheet, your full draft and your opponent's full draft, and the draft rules - we don't know anything off of a single paste, since Draft you build specifically against an opposing team, and the NDAG format gives us no information on the format rules and specifications.

rancid kestrel
# jade solar Second week in the ubers league, last time scraped out with a close win thanks t...
  • Your opponent's draft is ridiculously top heavy. I'm assuming that basically every week of theirs is Deo, M2, ArcE, Yvel, Zyg, and KyuB, maybe you drop one of them for one of their secondary mons at any given point? Like maybe one week you want it to Webs Shuckle, maybe one week you want it to be Indeedee for PsyTerrain, but for the most part it seems to me that thy have six Pokemon that they'd quite like to bring every single week. You could maybe say that KyuB and Zyg are less so, especially with their alarming Ice Weakness generally speaking, but yeah.
  • Their speed is weird, because unless Tentacruel is a key core of their plan, they're jumping from 120 ArcE to 99 Yvel. I guess its Ubers so like, the primary speed tiers are higher up, but like, yikes, yknow! Like, a Scarf Palkia outspeeds everything of theirs, because barring a Scarf Mewtwo (which is not the worst idea they could have tbh) they flatly can't outspeed that.
  • Like, their speed structure is their fast three, of which you mostly do have responses to around the same speed region, and then it dips hard into the 90s, which like... your dip is to the 110-100 range. I definitely don't think that's great for them, personally.
#
  • I also like your options into theirs. Sure, you lose your resist to Psychic on mega'ing, but like Happygate said, Chien Pao does a ton here every time you get it in. I did a few calcs, and while Band Shard (beware Indeedee, lol) doesn't auto-win the game, it's an incredibly powerful cleaner if you go that direction. I feel like Lele can stuff M2 and Deo if properly prepared, but I haven't done the calcs there. Scarf Palkia like I said outspeeds anything unboosted/unscarved, and hell, if we're honest, it even outpseeds a number of good options of theirs for Scarf (Yvel Zyg KyuB) - it really just has to fear M2, but like, Psytrike is a 2HKO, so it isn't even like they're using it for an incredible amount of work. Their scarfer and second fastest 'mon for your scarfer and like, idk, fourth best 'mon?
  • I'm scared to click into Moves tab, frankly, because I'm looking at their lineup and I'm not seeing where their hazards are coming from... Yeah, yikes. It's basically just Deoxys, isn't it? Arc could be setting rocks, I guess, or they could bring one of their lesser 'mons, but it's really just their Deo. Is Deo going to be wasted on hazards? The one mon that can naturally outspeed Chien Pao is going to be responsible for losing all of its health to get up a layer of Rocks and Spikes? Is An ArcE going to be tasked with defogging? Surely it's not Yveltal. Me when I give the freest switchin to Chien Pao in the world because I wanted to remove Stealth Rock from the field...
  • Your hazards aren't a ton better, obviously, but that does somewhat come with the territory. Arc can rocks or defog, I guess, and you have some mons who can set hazards. Corv's a decent Defogger on the turns it comes, but it seems like bait for a setup Zyg if you don't have a way to avoid that problem.
#
  • If I'm your opponent building a team, I think you have to start with the assumption of Deo M2 ArcE Yvel Zyg KyuB, and then decide to drop things. I honestly think that you have to bench... Zygarde? I can't see it doing particularly well into Palkia, Chien Pao, Lele, or even like, Corv. Yeah I know what TArrows does, but a +1 fully invested TArrows from ZygC against Lefties 248/0 isn't even a 2HKO. What a joke.
  • It very well could come, to be clear, but I think that it's super reasonable to wonder if you could bring Indeedee to block an Arc ESpeed or Chien Shard/SPunch, or Shuckle to try to get webs up and be a pest. Now, is it great to bring Indeedee into a team with Lele, Krook, Gengar, and Chien Pao? Is it great to bring Shuckle into ArcF, Chien Pao, Krook, Corv, etc? Maybe it is Zyg, but I am struggling to see what it can accomplish, outside of being boosted behind a sub or being boosted within PsyTerrain (which necessitates the drop of another of their good mons).
  • For you, Chien Pao has to come here. Whether it's boots, sash, or Band (or smth else!), that'll be a decision of your own based on what you feel happiest with. At a glance, honestly, the rolls on Band vs non-Band, I suppose it'll be a matter of, do you view Pao as the cleaner or breaker, since the rolls are roughly in the range of "oh with just a bit of chip", so maybe it's a thing of like, hazards, or maybe just having your other 'mons soften things up? I dunno.
#
  • MMX and ArcF seem like obvious brings here, maybe as a utility set for ArcF? I wouldn't want to be in the situation where Webs are up and you don't have any way to remove it. Kinda a called shot that ZygC isn't coming which is maybe scary to do, but it can do well into a buncha special threats that they have and like, KyuB doesn't want to eat a Judgement. You probably don't wanna be super utility, but it'd help to carry Defog in this game I'd think. MMX is probably just a damage cudgel, few things can match up to it (other than Scarf M2 worries but even then what is it doing, realistically) and can take repeated hits from it. You can probably tech for Yvel somehow.
  • Sheen this is the 7th week in a row you've shown Ultra Lord in class. But here me out, Scarf Palkia does look quite good here. It messes up every Scarf option they have other than M2 (which has to play unfun mindgames btwn MMX Chien Pao and Corv) and outspeeds even Deo. I dunno, like, what is their Scarf Spacial Rend switchin besides ArcE?
  • Two slots left. I could see Lele here, uninvested AVest eats M2 everything aside Psystrike which invites in Chien Pao, Deo SBall, it can even avoid the 2HKO 75% of the time from DPulse Yveltal. Add in the amount of investment you want for making sure it can survive the hit you want, SpA to get the return KO you want, seems like a decent lure for a lot of their scary threats.
  • Final slot, could bring a physdef Corv for ZygC and KyuB but IDK what you really do back to either, or bring ThundyT for pivoting and pestering, OgerC for hazards... Decent options - not sure Gengar or Krook offer much here frankly, but there are probably builds that you can find where both provide meaningful benefit.
jade solar
#

Do i bring Psychic Surge lele at all here lol

#

or is it gonna be telepathy lmao

rancid kestrel
#

That'll probably depend how you envision Chien Pao doing it's thing, honestly. I could see PsySurge boosting damage from MMX and Lele, but it does limit Chien Pao's ability - not necessarily in-game what it can or cannot do, but like, what sets you prepare for it and how you envision Chien Pao to participate in the game.

jade solar
#

well cooked up a paste based on the above, maybe something else in last slot?

#

or like maybe rocks over defog on arc

#

and then slotting defog on corv

#

speed on palk creeps deo-a max speed

rancid kestrel
#

Damn, responding to that straight up crashed my Discord. Yeah, I don't think I really have much to comment here, other than the lack of hazards, obviously I've said this a thousand times before but like, especially in this game, the last thing you wanna run into is a Sash Deo coming in lategame, not worried about any hazards, and grabbing that one extra crucial turn to swing the end result.

jade solar
#

changed it up again just nothing big

#

just rocks on arc and defog on corv

rancid kestrel
#

Trying to remember, what exactly is making contact from your opponent for Helmet here? TArrows isn't contact, nothing I'd expect KyuB to run is contact... what's the tech there?

jade solar
rancid kestrel
#

I feel like I'd more expect a Thunderbolt personally? I guess I can see it, but I do wonder if there'd be more value out of something like Leftovers, Sitrus, or something else?

jade solar
#

yeah probably lefties

rancid kestrel
#

Yeah. Anything else is gonna be minor quibbles or personal preference stuff, probably, so I don't think I have any other thoughts on the paste worth mentioning.

jade solar
#

alright. ty so much for the help!

rancid kestrel
#

Happy to help as always

mystic sundial
#

Thoughts and advice for this matchup?

IMG_7894.jpg IMG_7895.jpg
misty plumeBOT
#

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.

mystic sundial
#

Oh yeah I ended up winning the matchup I posted her a couple days ago : )

mystic sundial
random geyser
mystic sundial
rancid kestrel
# mystic sundial Thoughts and advice for this matchup?
  • Sun. Sure. It's probably the best or second best weather in SV Draft/ND Draft, but I'm not super convinced they've prepared it well. Their primary abusers are like, ChiYu GFire MVenu, with secondary abusers of like, idk, Trev Whimsi? I guess that's five Pokemon to load into a battle alongside Torkoal. But like, you can
  • Their speed stuff is real rough. Sure, a scarf is probably ChiYu's favorite item, pre-Mega Venu goes real fast, Gouging can boost Speed, Unburden Hitmonlee... exists... But like, their speed tiers naturally are 116->100->95 at their top level. You have seven Pokemon faster than their third fastest, five on their second fastest, and two on their first.
  • Needless to say I like your speed tiers. A bunch of dangerous Pokemon at fast speeds, as well as a large number of viable scarfers or other speed boosters in one way or another. Sure, you do need to be cognizant of their sun boosts, but I think generally speaking it's weather in Draft and can be played around.
#
  • One of the drawbacks of weather is that you miss out some stuff. For them, for example, they're missing out on hazards. They have SR on Torkoal and Sandaconda, one of which is super difficult to fit on a team. Their removal is ever so slightly better, with mindgame Xatu leading a handful of Defogs/Rapid Spin options, some of which are even vaguely reasonable to run. The problem is that for weather these are largely time sinks, eating up precious sun turns on hazard gameplay. Doable with Heat Rock, sure, but a turn with weather spent up not killing is a turn that sun wastes, usually.
  • If I'm your opponent, I think that ChiYu, Gouging Fire, and Torkoal are mandatory. Which like, honestly, is super rough for them. Three grounded fire types is no fun, especially walking into a team that has Treads and LandoT. Like, it's their best two mons and their sun setter, but it's a rough opener. I would think that GFire is a boosting set of some sorts, taking advantage of turns where Oger or HTyph or Alo might be out to nab the substitute or dragon dance.
  • I would think that they'd have to bring one of Whimsi/Rilla/MVenu/Trev as a response of sorts to the ground spam, my gut instinct would be Rilla as it adds GTerrain, can depower EQ, and actually does resist Ground with a usable defensive stat. None of that matters if you load SpA Lando, but that does struggle into MVenu.
#
  • So, let's say Rilla. Two slots left. Xatu and Hitmonlee are both hazard mitigation options, with Hitmonlee adding speed via Unburden and Xatu adding a ground immune. I'm inclined to think it'd be Xatu if they want to, a ground immune seems quite helpful here.
  • I'm not inclined to think that Guzzlord (chewed by MLop and Fez) Sanda (has no space/relevance) Trev (chewed by MLop Darkrai) are all likely to come, leaving the other two grass types I passed over for Rilla. I think both are alright here, it's possible they bring the three I mentioned in this paragraph though. If I had to guess, they bring Venu.
  • So, Torkoal, Gouging Fire, Chi-Yu, Rillaboom, Xatu, and Mega Venusaur. We'd expect this to not be perfectly accurate, admittedly, you could see anything between 0 and 3 Pokemon different, but I think this is what I view as their most effective lineup.
#
  • For you, I think that MLop and Darkrai are mandatory, they're your best Pokemon and provide use here. I would think Darkrai is the scarfer here, it outspeeds Booster Speed Gouging, Unburden Hitmonlee, Cloro Venu, and any of their scarfers (not scarf booster speed gouging). You can revisit later for personal prefernece, but I don't think I would, I love having the fastest thing on the field.
  • I think that Treads and LandoT have value here. Treads maybe less, it does kinda cook itself alive, but with a Booster Speed you can outpace Scarf ChiYu and threaten it with EP - you'd have to be careful if they still have Rilla around at good health, Ice Spinner doesn't do enough to be particularly threatening. I'd bring both personally, though, but I can see leaving Treads behind. Lando can provide hazard control which is nice. SR Defog EP UTurn or something goes hard.
  • Azelf could be cool here, can even change the weather. I'm sure a well-EV'd Fez can blank ChiYu's attacks. Alo can probably do the same to Fez, and the two are a known painful duo. Murkrow provides Prankster which could mean something, but probably not. HTyph and Oger like, could do things, probably, but I'm not convinced that they're not just bait for the weather threats.
  • I probably load MLop, Scarf Darkrai, LandoT, Fez, Alo, and then either Treads or Azelf. My gut instinct personally is Treads, but I could definitely see valid other approaches. You could even drop Fez Alo if you want to run HTyph/Oger, both Treads and Azelf, or something else entirely.
mystic sundial
rancid kestrel
#

Could see it as a Scarfer with Stomping Tantrum/Knock/SuperPower/UTurn. If you're playing dangerous, could drop Knock Turn for SD Trailblaze but I'm not convinced it has the time for that stuff.

#

I don't think it's a super good option to bring, to be clear.

mystic sundial
#

Ah

mystic sundial
#

I was thinking of running AV alo

rancid kestrel
#

I dunno that wishpassing is ever necessary TBH. I dont think MLop or Darkrai need it, Lando could probably appreciate it though, but it's gonna depend on your calcs for Fez/Alo and if you feel like you need AV on Alo.

mystic sundial
#

Gotcha

mystic sundial
rancid kestrel
#

I'd probably run Trick over Psychic on Darkrai, unsure what it'd be clicking it on, and Trick could be a cool tech into some things. At least for Azelf it's STAB, yknow?
I'm assuming you've properly speed crept stuff, the Darkrai EVs at a glance don't look right though? It shouldn't need 252+ Scarf, plenty EVs sure to get around Unburden/Cloro but does it need all the 252?
I'm also not convinced Lop is gonna have opportunities to click PUP, my instinct is that there are probably better moves out there to use.

mystic sundial
rancid kestrel
#

Is there a reason it's not just CC?

#

252 Atk Lopunny-Mega Triple Axel (120 BP) (3 hits) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Thick Fat Venusaur-Mega: 114-138 (37.8 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Not exactly the most exciting damage calc.

mystic sundial
#

Honestly forgot CC does more damage than return

rancid kestrel
#

Return and CC are both just easy clicks, yeah.

mystic sundial
#

6-0

rancid kestrel
#

I didn't even realize they had a Vikavolt. Good stuff, watching this now through. Benching ChiYu seems odd to me, but you can see a little already about how disruptive even one Taunt ends up being when a weather needs all the turns it can get - all of the sudden they're out of Sun, Outraging at -1 (seems a misclick?), and by the time the sun comes up next you've already done so much to them, only to RD on them again.

mystic sundial
#

My next opponent (Dialga is locked to its origin form)

IMG_7894.jpg IMG_7903.jpg
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

How are you doing in this league btw?

mystic sundial
#

5-1 so far

olive halo
#

Pretty swag

#

Okay this match-up doesn't look that bad. Nasty plot with some bulk darkrai and like dark pulse ice beam is great here

#

And I really like loppuny

#

Especially since it gets triple axel for gliscor

#

And can force out slowking with a normal type move and ghold with cc

#

Fez with no tera should just wall the bulu

#

Only real concern I see on their side is the moth

#

Typically ground is the answer there, but I don't love bringing lando or treads around, maybe just a rocks u-turn earth power set is fine though

#

And then keep alo around to help check--oh dialga is the steel one right, thought it was palkia from the team logo, but alo should be able to stomach hits and flip turn on it fine

rancid kestrel
# mystic sundial My next opponent (Dialga is locked to its origin form)
  • Your new opponent's team is more reasonable, I think. It's... not great! But it's also not hard-committed to a weather in an abnormally higher powered format. I like a number of these pieces they have in isolation, but overall I'm not super thrilled with their lineup.
  • For example, their speed tier ignoring the Regieleki is 110-95*2-90, which is wildly slow, and a huge range open - for example, your Treads should you run it doesn't have to run a ton of speed, just enough to outspeed to 95s and then no more. Regieleki is a fine "fuck your scarfer" mon, sure, but it doesn't have tera to avoid being fodder for your ground types or Fez. Like, 252+ is doing 33-39 to a 248/44 Fez? Literally just the OU strategydex set, c'mon Eleki you gotta be better than this, even specs doesn't assure the 2hko, 2% chance of it? Cmon.
  • The rest of their speed is like... hm. Moth can boost randomly, Gliscor can't really justify running a ton of speed, especially as I'm not seeing a ton of useful hazards elsewhere, Obstagoon exists sure, but is it coming? DialgaO I can see wanting to run a ton of speed. Dengo can be scarf? SWing has priority, I guess. It's not great.
  • We just talked, so I'm not gonna spend a ton of time on your speed tiers, but like, it's different now for sure not being in a weather war situation. Your opponent cannot inherently outspeed you almost always, barring a scarf on Obsta/Dengo/Bulu, Booster speed on Moth, or Regieleki. Sure, you don't have six Pokemon faster than their Moth, but you are going to be faster than them for the most part overall.
#
  • Yeah, their hazards are basically just Gliscor. Even removal is basically just Gliscor, Regieleki can run Spin only because especially without Tera it only has two moves to run anyway, but like, the setters other than Glisc are: DialgaO Rocks, Iron Moth TSpikes. If you're running TSpikes, run it on Gliscor, it can do that job serviceably! Moth doesn't wanna set hazards, neither does DialgaO. So reminder for later that Gliscor is kinda mandatory. Helps them that you don't have a Bundle or Kyurem to make them consider benching their primary hazards player.
  • If I'm your opponent, I'm bringing Dialga O, Gholdengo, and Iron Moth, I think, non-negotiably. Dia is their big hitter, nothing of yours wants to take the combo of DMeteor and Earth Power. It can be maneavered around with decent prediction, but you bring Fez into EP and suddenly it's running away with the game. Kinda hard to not bring the 680 BST monster, yknow, even if it quakes in its boots from MLop.
  • Dengo is I think their obvious Scarfer, it can do funny Trick stuff, but it also serves as a good way to repeatedly be able to respond to stuff like Oger, Azelf, Treads, even Darkrai - not necessarily switching in, but maybe a slow pivot via Slowking or Obstagoon. Moth is probably their wincon, a lategame Speed Booster and hope you get the Fiery Dance boosts needed to break through what DialgaO buttered up.
  • I think Happygate has the right line of logic in Swing, FImp+CC hits basically your entire team barring Fez for SE or at least powerful neutral damage. If Dengo isn't the scarfer, this might be, but I don't think it makes quite so much sense. Plus it doesn't want to cry against Alo, so maybe it runs smth to prevent the Rocky Helmet hell? Because like, it comes in on, say, Darkrai, 24/7, then it can just UTurn out on whatever the response is. But it doesn't wanna take 17% or whatever each time it tries.
#
  • Two mons left. I'm not convinced Eleki is good here into Fez/Lando/Treads, so I'm leaving it out. Gliscor was basically already mandatory, but now it for sure is. SR, Defog, one of the Spikes if you want it, but it's shoehorned again into hazard team player. One slot left, and our options are Obstagoon, Bulu, Lapras, and Slowking.
  • I like Slowking here the most, it matches better into MLop/Azelf/HTyph/LandoT than Lapras, and I'm not convinced Bulu comes knowing that it has to face down Fez and it's hitting... what? MLop with special fairy attacks off 85 base? Obstagoon could come, sure, but it seems likely to walk face first into the Helm Alo chipper, get eaten alive by MLop, and fail to make much progress.
  • For you, I think as per usual your locks are MLop and Darkrai - both seem useful into this matchup, MLop is happy to make Obsta/Dia/Dengo's life hell, and Darkrai can cause nightmares with a moveset of like, Pulse Psychic IBeam... Sludge Bomb? FBlast? I'm sure there's something.
  • I think Fez and Alo both bring a ton of value, so I'd bring both personally. Typical wall behavior, but they do match up nicely into what I'd expect out of your opponent for sure. I'd also want hazards of some kind, removal especially as TSpikes will chew through your headliners. I do think that Lando or Treads has to come, as a result, if I'm being honest. You can maybe make do without, but I do think they aren't as terrible as Happygate thinks (she doesn't think it's terrible tbc), but maybe I'm just a hazards purist. My gut instinct here is that Lando is better if you feel confident into Dengo, IMO it responds better to DiaO/Moth/SWing.
#
  • Last 'mon. I could see a scarf HTyph putting in work here, I could see Azelf with an offensive set acting a bit like a mini-Darkrai, there are probably other mons like Oger or Murkrow that could do things, but I'm less convinced on their greatness here - I don't see much Prankster can do, and Oger's stonewalled by a lot of resists on their team.
#

Four characters over the limit on that last message...

jade solar
#

pretty rough stuff into booster speed shocks

#

and my POs chances are done for lol

#

honestly i can't stop laughing at how bad i am

olive halo
#

Sorry man. It happens some times

#

Try not to sweat it and work harder next time around

jade solar
#

will have to lock in

olive halo
#

And I know that you will!! ❤️

jade solar
#

i've recently become more and more just like entertained by my losses when viewing them later lmao

rancid kestrel
#

yeah, it happens

#

shame to lose the PO chances here but like, learning process for the future, and its not like not making playoffs = waste of time anyways

#

yeah, losing the prim so early/without it contributing quite so much was def a shame

jade solar
#

week 3 of my ubers league now, against a pkyo team, not sure if chien looks so free anymore, would like some advice for this MU. 2-0 +4 now and we're doin well so far, looking to keep the streak goin.

Screenshot_2025-07-22_at_10.32.49_AM.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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 sparrow
#

chien is still a good bring imo with something like band tera dark

#

they are forced to scarf for it and theres nothing that can actually switch in

#

the scariest thing on their team is probably lucario? gouging fire also looks scary

olive halo
#

They have kyogere but nothing that helps them in the rain? Rain is really more helpful for you with palkia and thunder lele

#

I think mega mewtwo is great here as psychic goes pretty much unresisted outside of meow which is just stopped by corv

#

The only major problem for this team I see is giaratina tera which frick if I know what that’s gonna do

#

I really like specs lele here as moonblast is unresisted except by excadril which can’t exactly heal up reliably. Just spamming moonblast is pretty cool here especially with psychic terrain to stop lucario bullet punch

rancid kestrel
# jade solar week 3 of my ubers league now, against a pkyo team, not sure if chien looks so f...
  • Gonna assume this is Arc-Ice in my writeup, since that's the color profile, I think? Honestly a good type for you to face into, you match up well into it at the top end. Generally speaking, I'm not a huge fan of their team, it seems like they just have Good Mons without a ton of cohesion. like their defensive backbone is GiraO and DeoD? Sure, both can tera, but that's not my favorite defensive structure into a format filled with gods, yknow?
  • I like your speed advantage here, a lot. Their speed tiers are fine, the 106-91 drop is suspect, but the problem is mostly how their speed tiers interact with yours. Like, try to figure out what their scarfer/speed control is here - ArcI, MLuc, POgre, GiraO all literally can't be the scarfers, leaving Meow, Enam, DeoD, Exca and Gouging as the options. DeoD is not a scarfer, and Gouging can do Booster once at best and I'm not even convinced Exca is coming into Palk/Chien/Corv.
  • Meow folds to Band Ice Shard (tho be careful, 0/252 takes one from full, tho it can't assure a KO back even w/ 252+ but like, what even is 252def 252atk scarf meow LOL), Enam same story quite literally... Sure, MLuke has like, Bullet Punch, but oh yay you switch into Palk/Corv/hell even Lele terrain and then bam it's in tears. WTF is their speed control? I dunno. I guess it's Booster Speed GFire and then have a tech to stop a defensive ArcFire. Exca Scarf? But does Exca even come here, lol?
  • I like their hazards, but shocker, they have Meow and DeoD so no surprise. Their Rocks are actually a bit suspect - ArcI should absolutely not be running Rocks, Exca can but doesn't seem positioned to do it well, DeoD can sure. But generally speaking, it looks like hazardstack DeoD carrying this, I'm not convinced Meow carries its weight if its here to hazardstack. You also have a Gengar to pressure against TSpikes. Why do they have a Roselia? That's like, budget budget Meowscarada, and they have the Meow already. Bring your child to work day?
#
  • We've been over your hazards before - rough stuff as always but you have a tendency it seems to run defensive ArcF (which tbh looks good here, POGre aside) which can usually run Rocks, so that's not the end of the world. You have okay removal (defog on corv/arc) too for the context, too. It is what it is.
  • If I'm your opponent, I'm actually not sure what I'm bringing here. I would think that AcI, MLuke, and POgre are my default locks? ArcI doing some kinda defensive CM set since like, barring OgerC, it can tank most things on the physical side that you have? MLuke is just good generally speaking, POgre too, and lords know they need the power here. I could see an Agility MLuke and then an Ogre that just runs the classics - OPulse, Thunder, Ice Beam, maybe Rest or Spout or some specific tech nonsense - something for Palkia, maybe?.
  • From there, I'm inclined to think they need something defensive. TinaO looks fine with a tera to get it out oif Palk/ChienPao hell, Steel or Fairy maybe? I don't really like that they don't have hazards or removal here, but I do think they don't have a ton of space for it. I think two of the four names of Meow/Enam/Goug/DeoD have to come, DeoD if they care about hazards (not really since your removal is Gira Defog and you don't have Exca) but I dunno, some tech probably exists for Meow and Enam to lure Chien Pao I'd guess. I do think Gouging is probably the play here, though. If I'm guessing, it's Gouging + some wack ass Yache Superpower Contrary Enam lure.
#
  • If I'm you, I mostly just follow what rightclicker/Happygate said - I like a core of ChienPao band, MMX, defensive/utility ArcF, Scarf Lele (or Specs too potentially if you're fine without a Scarf or Scarf Palkia?)...
  • Two slots left from there. Corv can put in work here, I'm never not going to mention scarf Palkia, ThundT unironically looks good into Meow/MLuke/POgre if you can gamble on the missing coverage for it (like, POgre will have ice beam probably unless its CMing, right, but will Meow have TAxel? MLuke and Ice Punch), Corv is a more defensive variant of the ThundT gamble but has the problem of POgre Thunder...
  • If I'm playing, I probably bring Scarf Palkia (sorry), and ThundT. I think you can make cases for Gengar, OcerC, hell even Krook (maybe not Krook.) and like, I'm maybe the closest to making a case for Gengar, I just don't think they're the right choices here.
jade solar
#

so chien/lele/mmx/arc/palk/corv?

#

or thund in last slot?

rancid kestrel
#

Up to you! I think ThunT is better for me personally over Corv, but obviously you and I are different people. I do think the first 4 are obvious, and the remaining two options are like - you’ve got two imo good options in Palkia ThundT, and then Corv as a third best, and then the remainder are kinda, well, not good contextually yknow

olive halo
#

I think thundy might be better, but not by much. I think what corv will switch into (lucario and enam) could be abused in a way that thundy will not be

jade solar
misty plumeBOT
#

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.

rancid kestrel
#

Nothing immediately strikes me as off, here. I'd maybe run a different ThundT set, I dunno - feels hard to not have Volt Switch, yknow? Ice Tera is probably correct, though.

jade solar
#

hb now?

#

prob shld make thunderbolt over thunder

#

triple thunder is prob overkill lmfao

rancid kestrel
#

thriple thunder especially into primsea not drizzle

#

any nitpicks i have are gonna be personal preference stuff i think

#

nothing seems outright wrong to me

#

id maybe make the arc defense not spd since like arci will for sure have a tech for you, ep or samth, and you prob wanna be switching in on like meow goug not pogre anyways, idk

marsh hatch
#

Looking for some insight in this matchup

image.png
#

FInals match with a rematch

#

No tera, only status z-moves are allowed except for z-hypnosis

#

Z-celebrate is allowed 😦

rancid kestrel
# marsh hatch Looking for some insight in this matchup
  • Well, presumably Sylveon is the Z-move carrier with Celebrate. It can do other things, but like, if you have access to it, why not use it, yknow?
  • Their speed structure is normally fine, maybe a touch slow, but like, you have four mons that outspeed their entire top end, and then the basic entire rest of your team outspeeds/ties their fourth fastest 'mon. That's gotta be wildly alarming for them. I don't actually see a ton of speed control options here, some niche ones are like, Clorophyll Shiftry or Motor Drive Electivire, but like. Their scarfer's probably got to be Delphox or Staraptor, whichever one they're happier to be out of Boots. Both, maybe?
  • You have a huge speed advantage here, like I've stated. A scarf Lycanroc outspeeds everything they can do, or even just Band Accelrock - 81 min to uninvested Delphox, 52 to an uninvested Staraptor that got Intimidate off on you. I think I like scarf more here, lets you avoid relying on Accelrock/prior damage (beware misses...) but like, you've got a ton of speed here - sure, AloPer isn't great, but if you look past their Delphox/Staraptor, you've got so much that outspeeds them. Sure, Shiftry and EVire can afford 252+ (EVire maybe less so), but can Chesnaught or Empoleon? No. Sylv can scarf maybe, but it doesnt even outspeed 252+ AloPer.
  • Jesus their team's weak AF to Ice. Not much you can do there, to be honest, unstab Ice Beam from Milo isn't gonna be doing a ton. Something to consider, htough. I'm also not convinced they have the best responses to Ghost and Fairy, Staraptor/Delphox aside - Hecid or Whimsi could be an avenue here.
#
  • They have a lot of setting, but it seems to be mostly second-rate 'mons - Swalot, Druddigon, Golurk, Chesnaught (why Chesnaut + Shiftry...) - at least their removal are 'mons that will come to most games - Staraptor probably can't regularly, but I'd think Empoleon could. Shiftry exists. I do have to put some respect o Swalot and Druddigon, the former is deceptively bulky and the latter has some useful utility and a stellar typing.
  • Your setting is much more limited, being carried hard by Orthworm. You have more reasonable removal, but still limited. At least it feels like more than one of your mons can carry removal, yknow? All four of your removal options could reasonably run it, compared to their 2ish (Shiftry and Staraptor count as .5 each).
  • If I'm them, my core is always Delphox and Staraptor, maybe Agility and Scarf as speed control options. My gut instinct is that I'd bring a defensive Empoleon, help with the hazards play and also just a generically good type into most attacking moves - rock Lycan, fairy Whims, dragon Goodra, water Milo.
  • I think that Sylveon does well into you, you don't really have stable fairy resistances, and like, when in Z-Celebratetown, do as the Celebraters do, yknow?
#
  • Two slots left. If they want to less pressure on Empoleon, you could bring Druddigon or Chesnaught for hazard help, you could bring Shiftry though I think it isn't great into most things here, Electrivire's alright since you don't have an electric-immune... I'd guess it's Chesnaught + Electrivire, personally.
  • For you, I think Whimsicott, Scarf Lycanroc, and Lucario are where I'd start personally. I think you can bring Froslass here for some hazards, plus I like how it matches up into stuff like Ches/Shif, Staraptor, Golurk, Druddigon. Orthworm is probably the better choice to help against Sylveon, but IDK if it can stop Sylv and set hazards, yknow? Heavy Slam into uninvested +1 Def is safey 2HKOing. Both?
  • I'm gonna say you bring both here, Sylveon is that scary for sure. Last 'mon could be HDecid if you like the strategy, could be Rotom maybe with a scarf if you don't want Scarf Lycanroc, could be Goodra. If I'm playing, I probably bring Scarf Rotom, maybe make Lycan a Band.
cerulean aspen
rancid kestrel
#

Does Lycanroc get Celebrate?

cerulean aspen
#

nope unfort
as long as it boosts atk tho it's kinda free

rancid kestrel
#

Yeah, nothing on their team gets Celebrate/the omniboosting moves, unfortunately. Sylveon does in this matchup which is the notable thing in here.

cerulean aspen
#

legit SD 3a might just win, their only check is golurk kinda and scarf staraptor

rancid kestrel
#

SD 3a makes sense. Could also do Band, or even Scarf given that the speed structure basically necessitates them having a Scarfer/speed response, if not more than one

cerulean aspen
#

in addition spikes stack is incredibly strong against them since their removal is the I-dont-want-to-run-defog mons

#

and you have a competitive milotic to punish any defog

rancid kestrel
#

Eh, they have Empoleon

cerulean aspen
#

empoleon doesn't like milotic coming in on it though

rancid kestrel
#

Empoleon's more than happy to run Defog regularly

#

I'm not convinced Milotic's great here - it's slow and most of the opponents match up well into it

cerulean aspen
#

it needs what
roost defog flip turn +1 (steel move?)

rancid kestrel
#

If I'm them I run something like Ice Beam for Hecid/Goodra/Whimsi, but I'm sure it'll be a matter of whatever they feel like their team needs.

marsh hatch
#

Adamant accelrock kills delphox/staraptor

marsh hatch
#

Rotom could maybe run screens + will o wisp and I'm debating on froslass being a lead or just scarf triple axel

rancid kestrel
#

What are you not bringing?

marsh hatch
#

I don't think milotic comes and whimsicott doesn't look that great as well as persian

rancid kestrel
#

So it's Goodra, Rotom, Lycanroc, Lucario, ...Froslass?

marsh hatch
#

Goodra/Lycanroc/Rotom come for sure

#

Froslass is fast and deals with the almost universal ice weakness

#

I'm a bit iffy on Lucario, I don't know wheter to run physical or special

rancid kestrel
#

I'm not sure I'm seeing the value you're ascribing to Goodra here, what exactly is it doing for you?

marsh hatch
#

Goodra I feel is good into empoleon/delphox/electivire

#

I have it as 252hp/def with curse earthquake knock off

#

But now I'm realizing Torracat does it's job a bit better

rancid kestrel
#

Sure. I guess I'm not super worried about a utility mon (Emp) and I don't know that there's value Electrivire brings to your opponent into a team w/ Goodra/Hecid/Whimsi/Orth/Rotom. Meanwhile, I'm looking at your lineup and wondering how you ever stop the Celebrate Sylveon

marsh hatch
#

I'm thinking about that too

#

Torracat might be the answer

rancid kestrel
#

I don't know that I agree, but it's your game to play

#

+1 252+ SpA Sylveon Psychic vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Torracat: 170-201 (50.8 - 60.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

This doesn't strike me as a particularly good response, I dunno.

marsh hatch
#

you're forgetting about evoilite

rancid kestrel
#

Even still, what's Torracat doing back in response?

#

Does it get Parting Shot or something?

#

Roar?

marsh hatch
#

Both actually

rancid kestrel
#

I guess. Definitely not how I'd approach the matchup but you already know that given how off direction you are from my estimation of the build plan in my ramble above.

marsh hatch
#

sure but torrcat is kinda my only fairy resist while still resisting mystical fire

rancid kestrel
#

Listen, if it works for you, go for it, my rambles are just speculation on how I would build a team - I don't really think about Torracat, maybe it has value here as a response to Sylveon, but it's not how I would go about doing things.

#

If you feel confident and comfortable with Torracat then by all means

jade solar
olive halo
#

Nice good job!!! ❤️

jade solar
#

ty!

rancid kestrel
#

Good stuff, congratulations! It's always bettwe to focus on the safe win than try to angle for some glory win - I know you said that isn't what happened here, but just a good safe thing internally. I'm watching your play now and I'm definitely of the mind that you did well here, I think the Palkia crit on Kyogre (and a few other things) are like, not meaningfully impactful - Palkia never came back out, for example. Sure, did ThundT need to die, not really no, but it doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things.

jade solar
rancid kestrel
near oyster
#

Looking for some insight on my draft match (I have the mega mawile team)

Screenshot_2025-07-25_160553.png image.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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.

rancid kestrel
#

What are the rules for this format? Z-Moves and Tera especially

near oyster
#

There’s no Z moves No HP and the only Mon that can tera is my captain Froslass his captain is Electrode

rancid kestrel
#

Is it free Tera choice? Is there Tera Preview? Is Shed Tail allowed?

near oyster
rancid kestrel
#

I'll write up some thoughts soon

near oyster
#

Okay thanks sm

rancid kestrel
near oyster
#

++

rancid kestrel
# near oyster Looking for some insight on my draft match (I have the mega mawile team)
  • I can't say I'm the biggest fan of your team. I'm struggling to see any coordination, defensive backbone, or utility - most of your usable Pokemon are generic beatstick 'mons that don't coordinate a lot with others, or are mid-tier niche Pokemon that don't add much to the draft. For example, all of Regieleki, Hawlucha, Indeedee, Froslass and Ambipom are like, not unbringable but generally speaking not going to contribute meanignfully to team cohesion or effectiveness. Meanwhile, LandoI, OgerC, GFire and MMawile are all good threats but are quite isolated - I'm not seeing inherent synergy in what they do.
  • You have alright speeds here. Ignoring the 200 because something that outspeeds everything doesn't matter beyond an "and eleki", I quite like 118-115-110x2-101. I don't think many of these mons are super bringable often, Hawlucha and Ambipom especially, but your opponent will have to commit speed EVs on most of their 'mons to meet demands. You have good scarf options - LandoI and GFire stick out primarily, but Ambi or Froslass (or worst case, Indeedee) can take that mantle ocassionally.
  • I like their speeds less. Helec has the Eleki problem of, "this doesn't matter for speed prep since it just outspeeds anyway", but 121-110-100x2 is not super great, though the quality of their mons is better, generally speaking. They also have Pelipper, meaning Swampert-Mega can outpace a ton of stuff (anything slower than Scarf Froslass, though beware HQwil) and is a necessary consideration. Zap, Lati can both hold scarves, and I guess in a pinch Manaphy or Archaludon can as well.
#
  • Your hazard situation, frankly, is not good. Aside Regieleki, none of your 'mons can remove (LandoI and Hawlucha should not be removing) and your hazards are pretty weak - you have no real Rockers, neither of them should be running it consistently, and your Spikers are satisfactory but that's about it. I could see you getting Spikes on the field some games sure, but you're spending an entire tour either without Rocks or forcing them on 'mons that shouldn't be running them.
  • Their hazards is better, sorta, but it relies a ton on HQwil (which doesnt seem like a top6 mon for them) and Tinkaton (same deal) - sounds like they might be leaving a good 'mon or two on the bench often in order to meet their hazard needs. At least they have 3 usable Defoggers (Lati probably does it the least here) and a stellar Spinner in Cyclizar. I dunno that Cyclizar always comes, frankly, but they shouldn't be hurting for removal. I just don't see their way around taking an unnecessary hit just to get hazards going.
  • They have no dragon resists aside Tinkaton, no ice resists barring Manaphy/Tink, and their Ghost resists are in short supply here. Scarf Froslass might go pretty hard here! It outspeeds even rain Swampert 252+, though it's not like its doing a ton to it anyway. Maybe something like Ice Beam/Blizzard, Shadow Ball, Tera Blast (Grass as a MPert lure?) and like... DBond?
  • Let's start there. LandoI and MMawile for sure should come, maybe some kinda lure set on LandoI (or the dreaded Rocks?) for taking a Manaphy surf or something and then wrecking it with EP? I think LandoI's type mismatch here is manageable, to be honest, it has the potential to make Zapdos's life hell, as well as potentially Archaludon. MMawile is just good, and Sucker Punch doesn't care for swift swim boosts or whatever. Beware Substitute surprises.
#
  • Three slots left. I think Regieleki lets in MPert which is horrifying, but it might be worth it for the removal. Gouging Fire is another option, fire debuff sure but like, Dragon stab still go brr and Tink's not gonna like an EQ. I can see value in Milotic here as a specially defensive wall against stuff like Manaphy and Cyclizar, but it seems Not Enough given the Thunder spam and what have you. OgerC could be cool with some kinda setup set, or even just Spikespam? Hard to not resist Water here, though.
  • I'm less coninced on the others, frankly. Hawlucha seems like the wrong space for it, I don't see how it can get going even if Unburden would outpsace the swift swimmers. Ambipom I just don't have faith in, 100 base attack I don't think is enough. Indeedee, sure, maybe as a defensive wall of some kind, but 60/55/95 stats don't strike me as able to hold up against Swampert and the special attackers, same with Dragonair.
  • I think for me, I load up MMawile, Froslass, LandoI, Regieleki, Gouging Fire, and OgerC, but you could probably drop any of the final three if you see a line with another Pokemon. Rough to bring no defensive backbone into Rain, admittedly, but if we're honest, you don't have a defensive backbone to bring in the first place.
#
  • If I'm your opponent, Pelipper and Swampert are non-negotiable. This is where the rain comes from, and what we do in the rain. I also think that Zapdos and Latios are auto-clicks, Zapdos can defensively respond to a lot of things on your lineup depending on what it needs to do - SpD for Froslass/LandoI/Indeedee, or Def for Hawlucha/Ambi/Oger/Gouging/MMawile. Now to be clear, it can't do all of that, but it can do one or two of that quite well with something like a Charti or Yache berry. Alternatively, it could Scarf, but that seems less logical to me. Latios is a swiss knife of goodness, my gut instinct is that if they want a scarfer itll be Lati, but I could be wrong.
  • I think an Ice Helec chews through your team, so I think that's five. Ice+Grass+Elec is like, unresisted, mostly by nature of you not really having ice resists - MMawile is kinda your only reply from your opponent's POV I think.
  • One more 'mon. I think frankly, if I'm your opponent, I'm not scared of your hazards, so leaving removal at home seems fine. Leaving hazards at home, however, is a crime, especially with stuff like MPert and Lati around. I think this is Tinkaton here personally, maybe with a Balloon to stuff LandoI/Gouging, so at least Pert and Lati get their free 12.5% extra damage to secure KOes thanks to Rocks.
near oyster
#

What do u think

#

Should I edit evs / switch up sets

rancid kestrel
#

I dunno that Oger can run both Spikes and SD/Trailblaze.
I'm not sure I understand the Lando set much at all. Focus Sash is for what? You're not ever going to be at 100 having already switched in, you're constantly getting flip turn'd/uturn'd. Scary Face only to watch the drop get made irrelevant by a pivoting move shortly after? SEdge is a physical attack, what's the point of a mixed attacker here?
What's the Eleki set for? Suicide lead? Are you just gonna let hazards go up through the game then?

near oyster
#

That’s if I’m max hp tho ima have to play very carefully

near oyster
#

And the set on regi is just to set up screens i was gonna run volt but I feel like rapid is a lot better due to mswamp and if I am ever in a situation where I’m in that spot I have Explosion to do half of it’s HP

jade solar
#

first week game dw my draft will look better next week. just this week i have to ride out with this one, already have a funny MU on my hands. Idk who in their right minds allows KB, but here were are. Note: Kyu-B is complex banned with no DD.

https://pokepast.es/0eecfc576003ce4f The team I made, feels kinda rough since it's like setup spam with screens, wanna know how i patch up this team for a better matchup into this.

Screenshot_2025-07-25_at_1.22.21_PM.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

Their ground type is sand slash lmao tera electric bolt with calm mind goes crazy here.

#

On top of that their flying is thundy so rilla boom can power through with powerful either cb grassy glides or like sd wood hammers meaning they probably will need a tera that resists that

#

I will say something though

#

I really dislike your team

#

And my dislike comes from something simple but hard to notice when drafting

#

Tera ghost is just so incredible into your team always

#

Unresisted except by iron jugulus

#

So offensively they can and will roll through your team

#

And then defensively they just beat terap and sneasler

#

Since tera Star storm is ineffective

#

And ghost resists poison

#

So every game, this one included probably you’re gonna be facing tera ghost after tera ghost

#

And it’s going to be incredibly annoying always

#

Cause like heatran can’t do anything about it

#

Mesprit is useless

#

I mean this so seriously and so genuinely

#

How do you beat a tera ghost torn?

#

I genuinely have no idea and like I said it’s hard to notice when you’re drafting so I don’t blame you

#

All that said I actually don’t hate the team you built

#

I think you should also just be really prepared for sticky webs to come

#

Damn this stinks you also only have 1 remover. I fear that webs are just gonna go up, they’re gonna abuse the fact that terap needs to spin—another reason tera ghost is annoying your only spinner is a normal type—and something is going to happen kyurem will get a scale shot off boulder will sd and the game just sorta ends

#

The other thing is that it’s really easy for Glimora to just pull up with a lot of defense a red card and endure its way to to forcing out sneasler, since it resists poison and is neutral to cc

#

You’re going to end up running WAY more poison touch and tspikes sets btw with sneasler than unburden sets

#

I’ve seen it time and time again and it’s not gonna look good into most matchups

jade solar
#

but yeah a lot of people have said they don't like my draft at all lol

jade solar
#

but it's been a recurring theme with people who i have asked for advice or mocks, none of em like my draft

#

which shows how bad i messed up huh lol

#

honestly i'm kinda mad i fell into the terrain sneasler draft bait, gonna be pissed for longer than i can remember abt this

rancid kestrel
# near oyster Focus sash I just incase i ever find a a spot where it’s lando vs Mswamp I can j...

I guess if I'm in your opponent's shoes, I always click Flip Turn there, since it makes more sense to me to be careful, yknow? Like I can understand it but I'm not convinced that LandoI is ever going to be at full health.

As for SEdge/Explosion, I guess, but I'm not super convinced those circumstances are likely - Psychic does about 50 to Zapdos already, so messing with the EVs/natures (-SpD against a team w/ that many special attackers?) seems like a worrying tradeoff to me. And no electric attacks on Eleki against a rain team just seems odd to me even with MPert opposing.

rancid kestrel
# jade solar first week game dw my draft will look better next week. just this week i have to...

I'm not gonna harp too much on the draft, you already mentioned not being thrilled with it and hopefully can change it for future weeks. How you change that will be up to you, obviously, but I won't focus too much on that - no team ever has a 0-100 autolose matchup, we simply find the potential winpaths here.

  • Their team is weirdly top heavy. Their back half of the top six mons are what, ThundI, Glimm, Slowking? Okay, not great not terrible, but what's their seventh best? Umbreon? Tauros PB? Decidueye? That feels like a steep drop to me. Most of their things are like, usable, but like, what's the Magneton gameplan ever? To trap a nefarious Corviknight that ThundI already loves to switch into? Answer an Iron Treads that just EPs it because what is Magneton doing back?
  • Your speed situation is odd. Elephant in the room, they have Webs, and it's relatively easy for them to set up - few things of yours have outspeed potential over Ribombee, and even then most of those things can't actually stop Ribombee. On top of that, they have Tera Boulder and the chance of Scarf KyuB, two incredibly fast things. The rest of their speed isn't actually that great, but can be buoyed by Webs, which is unfortunately quite effective into your team.
  • Your speed options are not bad. Rilla Bolt and Mimi bring non-negligible priority to the table, Terap Jug and Sneasler can all boost their speed, but 120-108-96 is certainly a bit on the weaker side when it comes to modern SV speed structuring. Especially when both of the faster ones often want to rely on one-time boosts to their speed. I think that priospam is not the end of the world, it's certainly doable (like Happygate mentions, their electric responses are... limited.).
#
  • Their hazard game is not great. Glimm kinda doesn't want to spend a lot of time in a game/on the field, to be honest, even as an Endure Red Carder, it kinda wants to hide until the threat is there. Whats their removal otherwise, Decidueye and Sandslash? Are they even going to have space for that? And then on the setting side, they're quite buoyed by Glimmora, sure Sandslash can set things but again, is Sandslash coming ever? And then yeah they have Webs, sure. You have a bunch of good Rockers, all four of them can reasonably set hazards. TSpikes on Sneasler as a fish doesn't hurt, but is a dud in a matchup against their Glimmora. That's TSpikes, though. And then your removal is... I'm less doom prophesizing than Happygate, but it certainly leaves a fair bit to be desired. At the very least, neither Boulder or ThundT want to be Tera Ghost? I don't think it'll be impossible to remove Webs, but it'll be an uphill battle for sure.
  • Okay, if I'm your opponent, I think the core of Boulder, KyuB, and Bee are the start. Boulder can reasonably run Booster Attack here, it never outspeeds Unburden Sneasler anyway and it doesn't need the speed for the most part relying on Webs and its natural speed here. Maybe they wanna outpace Jugulis? KyuB I'd still make Scarf here, if only because you don't wanna be caught unawares against a Boots Terap or Mimi or something. Plus it helps against Jugulis.
  • From there, I think that Glimmora comes, if only as a stopgap against a set-up Terap/Bolt/Sneasler - Endure Red Card nonsense. And hey, if you can get a cute TSpike down, hey yay! After that it's harder. ThundI is good, sure, just kinda generically - Prankster off 111 means it's outspeeding your priority stuff, but Slowking matches poorly into Sneasler/Jug/Rilla/Bolt. I'd be more inclined to bring Intim Tauros PB here, it helps with Sneasler, Rilla, Terap, as well as being threatening to Heatram.
#
  • For your six, I do have the benefit of having the paste open, so I'll just jump to that. I'm not super sure what Sandaconda is there for, Boulder I suppose? Sure. I think it's a shame to leave Jugulis out as the one thing that doesn't care about Webs and can boost its speed, but I'm not sure you have the space to fit it. Maybe leaving Unburden at the door and dropping Rillaboom for it, but like, Band Glide does plenty into most things they have once Thund does Tera should it be the one clicking it. But also like, if it doesn't... you're clicking Glide into a KyuB and untera'd ThundI? I can't say I'm super thrilled about that.
  • I'd put Dark Pulse on Terap here. Tera Ghost is kinda just telegraphed a bit here should they go Webs route, and like, even if they don't, it's nice into Slowking and unTera'd Boulder. And if they do, hey, make it a pain for them to predict the spin/pulse nonsense, yknow? Otherwise, everything is kinda tied into you deciding what you wanna do with the Sneasler Rilla slots - you can avoid the Webs once with Balloon should you go unUnburden, unsure. Maybe Jug ain't it here either, and I'm reading too much into the option.
jade solar
#

Week 4 time in my ubers league now, goin strong 3-0 +9 now. Need help in this matchup against a very speedy draft up there.

Screenshot_2025-07-28_at_7.53.44_PM.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

Wow yeah that is a FAST team

jade solar
#

very fast indeed

#

and the bridging is good too

#

although with slightly off mons

#

lol

olive halo
#

I would run lots of bulk and lots of scarfers

#

Your arceus is fire right?

jade solar
#

yeah

olive halo
#

Because they don't really have a great way to beat a bulky fire type

#

Ursluna exists ofc

jade solar
#

no band tera ice chien pao switchins tho

olive halo
#

But you can go chien pao on it often--exactly

#

I think you run some kind of set-up arceus to force progress; just to try and get them to bring something in that they maybe don't want to--like their dialga--and while chien pao won't be able to switch into it, with solid pivoting from corv and ogerpon, you can get chien pao in at an opportune time and wreck havoc

#

I also do like this mewtwo match-up as well

#

It does pair greatly into their mewtwo, but like after dialga teras nothing resists psychic actually what type is the opposing mewtwo, sorry ubers isn't a strong suit for mewell I guess the weavile exists but still

#

Low-key I think you could get away with an av lele and spam future sight and I think you'll do well as well

#

I would bring top 3 corv lele ogerpon since between dialga, zacian, and zera idt palkia is going to put in work

lofty sparrow
#

mmy is pure psychic

olive halo
lofty sparrow
#

it also has uh

#

194 spa so you are probably not walling that

olive halo
#

actually factually?

lofty sparrow
#

especially with this squad

olive halo
#

God that's cringe

lofty sparrow
#

our mewtwo has 194 physical attack though so it balances out

jade solar
olive halo
#

Surely it gets knock then right? Or like darkest lariet or um anything?

jade solar
#

honestly scarf genagr sounds kinda funny here

lofty sparrow
#

close enough

jade solar
olive halo
jade solar
#

this 6 shld be engh r?

lofty sparrow
#

tbh my mind is screaming spdef occa berry corv uturning into like scarf gengar here

#

but that doesnt work too well into calm mind

olive halo
#

There's also the added problem of zeraora here

#

Which is very annoying

#

cause no ground

jade solar
#

hmm ye

#

this is a weird spot to be in

lofty sparrow
#

well we do have a ground it just immediately dies to cc

jade solar
#

yeah

lofty sparrow
#

or even like cm grass knot if theyre insane enough

pine cargo
jade solar
rancid kestrel
#

rofl i nearly instinctually banned you thinking this was someone gif spamming in every channel they could

rancid kestrel
# jade solar Week 4 time in my ubers league now, goin strong 3-0 +9 now. Need help in this ma...

Odd to see someone without an Arceus at all. Seems like they've hard committed to speed, but then they also randomly have Webs via Araq (why) and TR via Dialga/Ursa/Farig/Araq (why). But yeah, looks like they just really want speed, though maybe a bit at the cost of a particularly weak bottom half of their mons. Why no Arceus? Surely there's garbage on the lineup like Weavile and Scolipede that you super don't need given the context that you can replace with an Arceus, even a less ideal type - it's still an Arceus!

  • Their speed is better than yours. Shocker. That said, it isn't like, all doom and gloom. ThundT it's hard to see a good tech for Zeraora to use to get through it, Zacian and MMY are scary but aren't auto-wins, Lele could do something against Zacian and MMY can be stopped by a surprise scarf or something like Sturdy OgerC.
  • Your speed's normally alright, though into their team it can feel a bit lackluster - what you have to realize is that of their 100+ mons, two of them are Weavile and Scolipede. No real disrespect intended on their names, but like, it's not like these are major skill checks here. Their top three, sure, but for the most part half of their team isn't actually going to be all that fast. Now that being said, the spectres of TR and Webs do concern here, but like, not terrifically so.
#
  • Their hazards, unsurprisingly, sucks. When your best setter is Scolipede, you've gotta be concerned about that. Scoli's not the worst setter, but when you're looking at the "break glass in case of emergency" SR Dialga weekly, that's a bad sign. Their removal is like, worse! Solo Defog Moltres? Yikes. Hazards aren't really permanent for them, but that's gonna be hazards easy and often. Yes, Araq exists and can bring Webs, but you have solid removal here to where I don't think they'd really try it.
  • Your hazards we've gone over before. I could see TSpikes here, ngl, though I suspect that when I get to predictions, I'd expect to count Scolipede as coming? Though, maybe not. Maybe it is RocksDia+Molt for them. But like, you can reasonably expect to get a hazard up, whichever it is that you want. Though I can reasonably see Boots on all of Weav, Zac, and Zera. Not to mention Scol and Molt, but those are more obvious ones should they come.
  • If I'm your opponent, I do think Zera comes, even though it kinda hates ThundT. It's still good even if ThundT exists as a pretty strong counter to it, but it's worth noting that it may try to tech for it. I think that MMY and Zacian come here too, it's their primary core and normal winconditions. I think that like, sure even AV Lele or a defensive ArcF can do stuff against it, I think they're too valuable to leave on the bench.
#
  • Three slots left, zero hazards. I'm gonna say that Moltres doesn't come here, I'm not convinced it can stop ChienPao - fully invested Def takes 45-54 from ICrash, and this is the thing that has to be clicking Defog on top of that? And that's ignoring ThundT, Krook, Palkia, OgerC... I think that it's much easier to put HDB on your Zac and Zera than it is to fit Moltres in. I do think Dialga comes, and I do think it runs SR here. Dialga's good into a lot of what you have defensively, barring maybe MMX, but what is good defensively into MMX barring a Ghost/Dark type? It's probably PhysDef, since it can eat Pao hits much better, something else can try to handle Palkia/Lele - though I don't know what that is, lol. "outspeed and ko" as a defensive strategy, I guess.
  • Two slots. I think a lot of this is gonna depend on what they see as their troubles. Maybe it's a defensive Araq with webs, maybe its hazardstack Scolipede, maybe it's Weavile or Ursaluna or Gapdos - I frankly don't really like most of their options. Hell, it could even be Moltres. Moltres, Gapdos, Scolipede, and Ursa all feel like "please destroy me" invitations to ChienPao or MMX, Weavile would need boots and is like, Pao's little brother that doesn't do nearly as well. Gods, is it Araq? It might be like, Araq+Weav. I've never felt less confident on a six. Oh well.
  • For you, Pao MMX and ArcF presumably all have to come. I liked the convo I saw about Lele, and I think ThundT should come too as a reply to Zera? From there, the last slot I could see being Scarf Palkia or Gengar, I could see OgerC, I could see Corv (but like, way less so.)
#
  • I think I like the six you've shared. I question the Corv to be honest, into MMY and Zera, I'd probably have put Lele there personally. But I think otherwise this is a solid six to start with. I'd prob run Scarf on both Gengar and Palkia here personally, hell maybe even Pao if you get the rolls you're satisfied with. Losing hazards kinda blows, maybe the Arc has to be defensive to get hazards/removal, rather than offensive setup? Or you can rely on the expectation of bootspam to get around that. Hell, TSpikes on Scarf Gar isn't a totally unrealistic thing!
jade solar
jade solar
rancid kestrel
#

Sure, that makes sense. I'm not super sure how likely Ursa is to come into a team with MMX and Chien Pao, but I do understand the worry.

lofty wigeon
#

I took king 18 points is so much

rancid kestrel
#

Yeah, that's way too much for LandoT. IS BoldUnderline = Tera Banned?
Other things that seem overpriced based on this assumption/generally speaking - Kingambit, Ogerpon, Iron Hands, Dragonite, Salamence, ChiYu, Zarude, Iron Boulder, Munkidori, DeoD, Swampert, Espathra

#

So, in a sixteen player pool, I wouldn't expect to get too many top tier Pokemon, since double the amount of 'mons will get taken each round. Darkrai and Glowking are good, that's a super solid start. What it doesn't come with is any removal, and that's already something that's a bit tough to deal with in SV even with just 8 players. You're not likely to get something particularly good, already I can see Terapagos gone, Cinderace gone, Treads and Tusk gone - by the time it's going to get back to you, stuff like Corviknight, Glimmora, hell even stuff like Scizor or Donphan are going to be at a premium. Cheap removal as budget options such as Hitmon*, Lurantis, Maushold, exist, sure, but lacking any removal that you can comfortably bring to most games is going to cause you trouble during a number of weeks.

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

If it makes it to you, definitely a good option!

lofty wigeon
#

If it doesn't i'm also looking at Walking Wake and Heatran

#

Tentacruel is what i think my back up spinner will be

rancid kestrel
#

I’m not super sure Walking Wake’s all that great, it’s definitely usable but after Darkrai I don’t know that I’d be inclined to grab another expensive offensive beatstick one-trick-pony if that makes sense.

lofty wigeon
#

yeah forsure

cerulean aspen
#

last respects is not banned

#

oh nvm

#

its so tiny in the rules 😭

#

palafin isn't overpriced tho

#

but I wouldnt expect it to make it back

#

ooh tera iron crown

lofty wigeon
#

I used it a draft before i'm not a fan of it's play patterns imo

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

What’s with the random bolding and italicizing then?

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

Wack, okay. Uh, based on this adjustment, some of these mons are less overpriced. But still, like, something something 16-player draft, yknow? By the time it gets to you who knows what's still around.

jade solar
rancid kestrel
#

Is Sucker Punch right on Band Pao? Seems exploitable.

#

Same with TWave on Scarf Gengar, what's that specific tech for? I think if I'm looking for a cutsey Scarf tech into a team without many Trickable options, it would be Curse or DBond?

Are you sure you don't want to run full speed on MMX? I guess you're at a disadvantage against MMY by default and don't want to just go for the speed tie.

I like most other things, though. I assume Gengar and Palkia are outspeeding Zera?

lofty sparrow
#

mmx is just slower than mmy btw

rancid kestrel
#

Why they do that. That's wack.

lofty sparrow
#

mmx is 394 mmy is like 416

#

idk why they made it like that

rancid kestrel
#

Yeah, makes more sense on the speed stuff. Weird to pick a favorite like that, lol

jade solar
#

yeah lol

jade solar
#

especially when mmy is super healthy

rancid kestrel
#

Yeah, just a question of preference in the end. Band SPunch for sure has its value.

jade solar
#

oh yeah i did consider dbond but i wnated twave to slow some mons down

#

but now that i think abt it maybe dbond has more value

rancid kestrel
#

Would be a cool tech to get around something like a 3a Zac behind sub if you think your opponent doesn't anticipate it

jade solar
#

yeah

rancid kestrel
#

Definitely will be a tough game, but I think you've reasonably got the tools. I do still think sorta that a dead-weight slot against MMY Zera Molt to cover for Ursa is maybe not how I'd approach it, but I do understand needing to account for it.

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

drill and wash are a solid 3rd and 4th. if you can get wash i think youd be in a real good place

lofty wigeon
#

I got about 8 pics so we will see

#

i wanted zap but it was taken with the next pick

#

My back up if Wash is picked is Primarina

rancid kestrel
#

Sure, also a good option

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

I do vaguely feel like investing in sand for Exca is maybe not the greatest of ideas - it maybe doesn't hurt, it has SR and is a good defensive mon alongside Exca, but I do think that's four Pokemon that all get destroyed by an offensive Water-type - something like Keldeo cleans house, for example. At the benefit of potentially enabling a few turns of Sand Rush ocassionally?

lofty wigeon
#

I see the keldeo is picked as a tera capt already too

rancid kestrel
#

Christ. Yeah, just as an example, something that would happily run through your team should you end up with Hippo pick 4.

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

if it makes it there, for sure - i wouldnt be thinking too far ahead in a 16 person pool right now. good to think of options, yes, bad to deeply plan

lofty wigeon
#

Normal Pon is on the board too which is intresting

rancid kestrel
#

Is it Tera available? Not a terrible beatstick on the physical side if it makes to you down the line, since it’s way worse without Tera and folks are gonna be inclined against it if they pick up Tera mons. I’d prob suggest uxie, it offers hazards utility and a defensive profile, just off hand. Useful speed tier too.

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

Definitely useful. Darkrai, RWash, and Glowking don’t really need Tera, so it could be useful to have something to specifically take advantage of Tera. Outspeeds all scarfers base 109 and below, and with a scarf of its own it can outspeed basically anything. It is frankly not a great Tera captain, its linear and predictable and doesn’t have a ton of useful moves for coverage, but it’s probably pretty good in a 16 captain pool

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

Doable for sure. It’s not like, an amazing TC, but it’s definitely usable

#

Most of the best TCs are probably all gone, anyway

near oyster
#

My froslass is now MOTW

misty plumeBOT
#

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.

rancid kestrel
#

Congratulations, happy to hear!

olive halo
#

Congrats!

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

Up to you. I don't think that's a great pick, but it's not an auto-lose either. It doesn't really add anything to your team beyond the speed tier - the typing matters less as a TC, you've already got hitting on the special side as a beatstick, it adds no utility - it's usable for sure, but it isn't something I'd be super motivated to consider. The speed tier is super important for you with 125-95 as your upper speeds, but I also have serious hazards concerns for you right now.

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

Yes

lofty wigeon
#

I'm planning on getting either hippo or Ttar to help on the setting front

rancid kestrel
#

Removal more than setting

#

Ttar does not set hazards

lofty wigeon
#

I swore it got SR

#

crazy

rancid kestrel
#

It may have hazards, but it does not set hazards. If TTar is setting hazards, it's being misused

lofty wigeon
#

So i should be looking at something like Corv or Talonflame

rancid kestrel
#

Both are options for sure. My gut instinct would be Talonflame personally, but both work. I do think it may be better getting something that can do both, but obviously precious few of those in SV and you can always get a cheap hazard mon way down the line.

lofty wigeon
#

Empoleon could do both although i already have a water and steel type

rancid kestrel
#

Yeah, not a good fit for your team. Something like a cheap Sandslash could be decent way down the line depending on what you get. I’m of the mind that it’s easier to build around cheap secondary hazards than it is cheap speed options, but Tslonflame can do both, sorta. But yeah if you do get Talonflame I’d start thinking about making sure you don’t end up filling out the 125-95 space with ‘mons that your opponents don’t actually need to respect.

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

Tera Mew's a strong option. Maybe conflicts a bit with Uxie, but the Tera helps it somewhat.

#

I'd look into getting something around Base 110 speed after that, something that ideally has a presence.

lofty wigeon
#

I can Tera Leaves and Ribombee but not Jug

rancid kestrel
#

Aren't you getting Tera Mew? Of those, I'd recommend Ribombee the most, and Jugulis is good too. Leaves is. not really

lofty wigeon
#

Mew is 15 so i can tera a 10 and under mon

rancid kestrel
#

If it maths out. Jug is maybe a better Tera Captain than Ribombee but Bee adds Webs threat. But neither really needs it

lofty wigeon
#

Jug is unfortunately 1 point over

#

Jug gives another defog mon too

rancid kestrel
#

I would get Tera Mew as a priority. I would not give up Tera Mew to try and get Bee/Jug Tera.

lofty wigeon
#

I don't have a fairy so i think ribom is the pick. Oh yeah i mean Jug can't be on with mew so it's just out of the question

rancid kestrel
#

Do you need to declare Tera immediately? It may be worth not declaring Bee if you get it, in the chance you get a cheaper option that gains more from it. Something like a Naclstack or, I dunno, something lol.

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

wait what do you have currently / intend to take

#

im a bit lost on the full plan atp

lofty wigeon
misty plumeBOT
#

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.

rancid kestrel
#

Is the line what you actually have? Or do you have all the way down to Bee already

#

Wait Bee is 124? 💀 why did you mention it when I brought up 110 area speed mons what

#

I need to be more careful when suggesting things I guess, I don't know how you ended up with 126-125-124-100 with me giving suggestions throughout.

lofty wigeon
#

I didnt know how much around was close to lol

#

yes that's my team

rancid kestrel
#

ok well you desperately need like, lycanroc midday, torn-i/thund-i, serperior, maushold, scream tail - something around 113-111 so you dont have a miserable speed tier opening

#

id also consider getting something defensive that can resist ghost and dark, but that's workable via tera mew

#

gods i need to be more careful bc 126-125-124 is Worrying!

lofty wigeon
#

I also have a 24 hour grace period to make any changes

#

I do like serperior

rancid kestrel
#

Just things to consider, yeah. All of your 12x mons are like, good, but it is wild to have 3 mons at that speed and then nothing until 100.

lofty wigeon
jade solar
#

very bad game lol, played very stupidly

#

ended up getting rocked around

#

0-5 loss rip

rancid kestrel
#

Unfortunate result, for sure. It happens, stings but you learn from it and move forward regardless.

lofty wigeon
#

here is the finished draft, we have a couple hours left for grace period

IMG_1607.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

What’s the board? What’s open?

lofty wigeon
#

I can send the doc one second

olive halo
#

Oh wow not much open

lofty wigeon
#

Yeah it was a 16 man one pool

rancid kestrel
#
  • Not great to go from 113-100-88, but not sure you can do much about it realistically.
  • No real ghost resistance, no good ice resistance, you will find yourself struggling a lot on multiple weeks answering to stuff that can hit off of either damage type.
  • I'm honestly not sure what Missy, Hippo, or Whimsi add to your team. IG Whimsi gives a dragon immunity, and Missy can be a decent defensive ghost, but I'm still not convinced that Hippo is of value at all here.

But yeah, the board here is kinda dire. At a glance I don't really see anything worth actively picking up, most of it are just random beatsticks like GZap, Espa, HArc, Regidrago, whatever. Maybe you could dump Misdreveus for like, idk, Vigoroth, and then Whimsi for... idk. Smth that can take both Dragon and Ghost hits. Bisarp? Lol.

lofty wigeon
#

Well a ghost and ice resist

rancid kestrel
#

Could be doable. Not super sure TTar really works as a defensive 'mon but it's probably usable.

#

And it isnt like you have full open field for free choice.

lofty wigeon
#

It works as a decent Vester and it sets sand for drill so still probably more useful than hippo (my beloved)

rancid kestrel
#

I still am not convinced that sand is all that and a bag of chips, but I can see the perspective

lofty wigeon
#

It's definitely not but it at least gives me another angle

rancid kestrel
#

Yeah, there's nothing inherently alarm bells warning with that swap. I just think that tunnel visioning into "access to sand for exca" is not as good in Gen9 as it was in previous gens.

lofty wigeon
#

First match up !

IMG_1611.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

Mew Tera Serperior Tera
Ceruledge tera Magnezone Tera

rancid kestrel
#

remind me @lofty wigeon - is this tera preview?

lofty wigeon
#

yes it is

rancid kestrel
# lofty wigeon First match up !
  • Your opponent's team is confusing to me. The bottom four make it seem like it wants to be this slow moving team that relies on death by a thousand papercuts to win to me, but there's little else supporting that. No regen core, non-ideal defensive options, active decisions to head in a different direction (such as PZ over P2 or Bundle entirely) - feels a bit like they got to Ceruledge, realized they had .75 mons who can take a hit (half Latias, a quarter Hitmonlee), grabbed Rilla, then panicked further.
  • Why are these the TCs? Was Bundle Lati banned? Surely PZ is better than both of these anyway, and you can put the second slot onto a cheaper option like Clodsire or Hatt. Hell even Mandi or Rilla could have made decent use of Tera.
  • You get outsped here by Bundle, and it kinda goes hard into you. Glowking and TTar can probably be EV'd to handle stuff here, but I'd be worried about a Freeze Dry+HPump destroying basically every 'mon on your team aside. Between their Bundle, Lati, and PZ, I'd think that you'd struggle to consistently take hits. Is DD WP SpDef Tar too ridiculous? You'd need +2 realistically before you're outspeeding most things, and even then, Rilla's lurking out there, and Clodsire kinda DGAF.
  • Otherwise, they do have like, Unburden Hitmonlee and Weak Armor Ceruledge, Shadow Sneak and Grassy Glide as priority options, and two reasonable scarf options in Lati and PZ. Not like, the best of the best speed control here (Scarf Darkrai outspeeds Unburden Lee) but like, def things to consider.
#
  • The 110-90 drop here is worrying for them. That's a lot of EVs free on Mew here, even more if you're running a set that isn't super worried about outspeeding PZ for some reason - you don't even need +Speed to outpace Ceruledge. I dunno if that's the right choice frankly, but you may not even be running a ton of speed on Mew in the first place, not super sure what it'd be doing.
  • Oh boy, this hazard stuff. Their solo hazard setter is a super slow Clodsire that really can't afford to Mental Herb to stop Taunt? Alarming. Their removal isn't fantastic either, Mandibuzz can run Defog sure and Hitmonlee usually has the space for Spin, but this isn't great. Solo-hazards Clodsire when it already wants to run Recover and a progress-making move like EQ or Toxic is not great. I dislike that a lot.
  • I think your hazards are good, maybe a touch weak on removal with only 2 options in a 9+ mon format, but you have two legitimate removal options, and a lot of good hazard settings. Solo Mew Spikes is not ideal, but Rocks and even TSpikes can realistically come on a number of teammates across the team through the tournament. I can also see a Closire set that gets hard walled by Balloon Exca (4 of EQ/Spikes/SR/Recover/Toxic) but they should be smarter than letting that happen. But like, are you really running SEdge/Liquidation/Body Slam over one of those moves? Do you drop EQ?
  • If I'm them, I gotta start with Clodsire, unfortunately. I can't let hazards go totally unanswered, at least I gotta bring rocks. Unaware helps with Serp, potentially Mew and Darkrai... Maybe not so much TTar or Exca, but like, only so much can one 'mon do.
#
  • Bundle is a big threat here, it's gotta come. Probably Boots, but I could see Speed Booster to mess with your Scarf responders. Though if I'm your opponent, I'm not super convinced your first line response to a booster Bundle is to go Scarf Darkrai or whatever? I think Boots makes more sense to me personally.
  • Latias and PZ come too, your specially defensive option(s) are useful yes but can't handle checking all 3, especially when Lati and PZ are happy to switch out and try again later. One of these has a scarf, the other probably has Specs/LO/EBelt or some other boosting item.
  • Two slots left. I think, frankly, your opponent could legit ignore removal, run a few boots or just hope for a lack of strong hazard play, and then rely on Clod to absorb TSpikes. I think here, Ceruledge comes as a Terap Catpain offensive threat, since only relying on special attackers is a risk not worth taking - RWash and Glowking aren't infalliable, but you(r opponent) also don't want to get blanked by those two plus TTar Mew Talon or whatever all having special defensive investment bc you've brought no physcial attackers to speak of.
  • From here, I think the remaining options are Mandibuzz for further defensive presence and removal (good against TTar/Exca, Mew, Whimsi, Serp) and Rillaboom - many things they have benefit from GTerrain and prio is good into Darkrai, Exca, TTar, and Wash.
#
  • Hatterene exists as an outside option for niche hazard control, though against you specifically with the range of what you can run hazards on, that's a prediction game I wouldn't want to gamble on. Mag can be a fishy Excadrill removal option, but like, they have Bundle? I guess they could bring Hitmonlee, but I don't super see the value into Mew Whimsi RWash Glowking Talonflame.
  • If I'm you, I think Glowking has to come as a self-healing special wall that doesn't take SE from most of the Lati/Bundle/PZ core. I think Exca comes here too, alongside a TTar. I could see a defensive TTar doing well here, 252/212+ (the UU SpD set apparently!) never gets 2HKO'd by Boots Bundle HPump, but I could also see the WP DD set of some kind working too. Exca is a self-contained hazard control against anything they do bar Hatt nonsense. Balloon's what makes sense to me, but Shed Shell still exists for the Magnezone surprise, though I'm not sure what it does to you once you're trapped, yknow?
  • Let's say all three. Mew comes in some way, I'd be inclined to have it mirror TTar - some kinda boosting set if TTar's hard defensive, some kinda defensive set if you're doing WP DD or something similar w/ TTar. Taunt on this to mess over Clodsire? Could be a thing. Defensive Tera options to me seem like Fairy, Dark, or Steel, while offensive teras could depend on the set and coverage but presumably something to hit Mandibuzz (if no tbolt) Magnezone/Rilla (if no fthrower) or maybe even something that'd let you hit stuff like Lati, Ceru, or PZ harder.
  • Two more slots. Hard to bench Darkrai, type overlap with TTar sure but a Scarf Darkrai is prob the only place you can really fit speed control beyond boosting/Sand Rush here, I don't think Serp looks good here. It can help with booster-less Bundle, scarf Lati/PZ, though it does force the Jolly on WA-procced Ceruledge it does trade favorably with Ceruledge, just need a touch of chip if it's uninvested.
#
  • Final slot can really be any of them. RWash if you feel defensively weak, Talonflame as an emergency priority, Whimsi and Serp can exist and do stuff too I suppose but it's not fantastic for them in this MU frankly. I'd prob bring a physdef Talonflame to help agaisnt Hitmonlee/Ceruledge/Rilla - just avoid the Knock Off if they've gotten Rocks on the field reliably somehow.
olive halo
#

Bundle low-key--high key as fairy pointed out messes you UP. You gotta play super smart and super safe. Thankfully the rest of their team isn't great, but ceruledge is a threat for sure. I think bringing sand here is kinda crucial, and while it isn't the best weather this gen by any means, it will allow you to outspeed bundle which helps. The other thing I want to note that I don't think af mentioned is... Rillaboom. That guy messes you up. Hecks up darkrai, exca, ttar, and wash. You really need to bring talonflame to just try to get the flame body procc as early as possible and just wisp is down so it's more manageable. I'd bring mew here over serp and just run a standard dd mew with a sitrus berry. Run like fighting coverage for steels + bundle then something to ceru and lati, probably dark but I know ceruledge can tera. Beyond bundle, lati, and rilla/ceru this team isn't very deep and doesn't do a whole lot, it just sorta does the same thing if that makes sense? Like bundle is always freeze-drying, rilla is always grassy gliding, ceru is always sweeping. Just plan for standard sets and you'll figure out the match-up quick

jade solar
#

Second week in this paldex league, just patched up my previous draft to this one now, looking to bounce back after the close loss last week.

Screenshot_2025-08-05_at_8.19.18_PM.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

Words.... why does pex just beat your whole team? 😭 I guess bolt out damages it and sd rilla is good into it, but what is sneasler, tran, scream, and moltres doing to beat pex? Tran I guess gets earth power, but then you're getting surfed or switched on. Thundy is also kinda scary, but not that much since it can't tera flying tera blast, but with your ground type being sandaconda it's gonna be volt-switch city. Sneasler, sans pex, has a great mu here between clef, thundy, ogerpon, and lati is just great. I'm nervous about annihilape here, but also it's an annihilape and it's bad and not worth stressing over if you just run like booster special attack cm bolt. Is mamo an issue? Probably not just hit your moves like magma storm. Beyond that just ignore bisharp, tatsugiri, and last guy bad

lofty sparrow
#

doesnt tran straight up beat pex?

#

provided you hit

#

magma storm taunt earth power

#

it worked in ssou surely it works here too

jade solar
olive halo
#

Shed Shell*

lofty sparrow
#

it does have to check rilla as well

#

maybe you can lure it in > knock

olive halo
# lofty sparrow it does have to check rilla as well

Not really? Bulky oger should be fine because.... it can synth and if you bring grassy terrain you power up ivy cudgle so the opponent doesn't need to attack a ton. U-turn exists though and needs to be avoided, but if the opponent is playing great and goes pex on a u-turn it's just more neutral game. I guess it's not as bad as I'm making it out. Their flying being thundy really helps in this regard. If it got roost this would be way harder

#

I think maybe I'm being a bit too doomer

#

Terap is honestly really good here as is scream tail

rancid kestrel
# jade solar Second week in this paldex league, just patched up my previous draft to this one...
  • I'm not a huge fan of your opponent's team. It feels a little bit like a retirement home, with a buncha Pokemon that used to be considered good but haven't really kept up with the times - Latios, Tealpon, Bisharp, Clefable, Toxapex. It's not bad, they can bring a reasonable six mons for sure, but I do have my doubts generally speaking.
  • Their speed is fine. Tealpon can +1 at will, Latios/Tatsu can happily run Scarf, Minior has Shell Smash, hell even Ice Shard and Sucker Punch are alright brings on Mamo and Bisharp. 110-90 is a weird drop, and not having anything naturally faster than 111 bar Tealpon isn't ideal, but they have ways around it.
  • Your speed is also strange, 120-111-108-96 isn't exactly a traditional topline, even/especially when you consider Unburden and Booster Speed. You also don't have the best Scarf options, so I am curious how to see it play out. Unburden Sneasler ties w/ +2 Jolly Minior, but that's an odd circumstance to reach. Booster Speed Jug doesn't outspeed +1 Tealpon or Scarf Lati, though, which isn't great.
  • Jesus, what the fuck is their hazard game? They have every subpar setter under the sun (okay Pex TSpikes isn't bad, Clef/Ape/Sharp can handle rocks, and I guess Tealpon can spike in theory), but then their removal are two terrible mons - Tatsu's not bad, but it rapid spinning is Not Good. Your removal is better, but solo-Terap into the amount of hazards they have is not good for you. At least you can set rocks probably somewhere, somehow. I wouldn't bring TSpikes here as either of you, since Sneasler and Pex seem like likely brings on either side.
#
  • Okay, if I'm your opponent, I've probably seen most of what Happygate's seen, and probably considered it, since it does blank most of your mons. Sure, it's not perfect, see Heatran(ish), Bolt Rilla, but it's definitely strong into you. I probably also bring ThundI, you don't have a response to Volt Switch really. Nothing new under the sun here.
  • Annihilape can stuff Terapagos, you don't even 4HKO a non-invested Ape (its like a 4% chance, basically 0) - so it seems like an obvious bring to me if I'm your opponent. Pump it up with some defensive EVs, make sure you don't get chewed alive by Bolt (ThundI helps here), and it's hard to see what can go wrong.
  • Three slots left. I think Clefable or Bisharp has to come for hazards at least, I don't see anything else itching to put up Rocks. I'd prefer Clefable here, I think, it seems better to me into Jug/Mimi/Bolt than Bisharp does? Bisharp adds responses to Rilla/STail, I guess? But not even really.
  • Two slots left. I can see Ogerpon to take advantage of the Grassy Terrain, but it's hard to see it being particularly effective into Sneasler/Jug/Heatran/Bolt - you can run shit like Stomping Tantrum to help alleviate that, but you're an uphill battle here. Latios seems like good stuff here, a scarf Trick set seems usable to mess with Terap/Mimi/Sneasler/Heatran/Bolt while also being a good option for speed control if Tealpon doesn't end up panning out. It should be at least one of these, though, as a primary speed option, if not both.
#
  • Potentially one slot left. I think Mamo doesn't look terrible here but is maybe not super up for the task, Minior always exists as a fish but doing it into Bolt seems particularly brazen, I dunno that Tatsu brings value here, either. Caolossal is not a real Pokemon. Based on this I would think both Tealpon and Lati come - both seem just more valuable than Mamo in a vacuum frankly.
  • For you, it seems to me that Terap has to come, and I'd not leave Sneasler behind. STail should come if only to make sure you aren't sat on by Pex - bring Taunt. Raging Bolt works as a good wincon, and helps with Annihilape. That's four. From there, I can see Heatran, I can see Rilla, I can see Jugulis. Those are probably the three I see the most. You could even bring Sandaconda as an option against ThundI, but that depends on how much you hate Volt Switch, I suppose. If I'm in your boots, I probably bring Sandaconda (rocks, volt switch prevention) and Heatran? I think that's what makes sense to me.
  • Terap and Bolt are probably some kinda combo of CM and damage boosting item - maybe CM Terap with Spin and then Booster Bolt? Sneasler I'd consider PTouch Scarf here, it can shut down Ogerpon presuming you don't miss the Gunk Shot - is Dire Claw allowed? 252 always kills uninvested Ogerpon. And you can UTurn on Lati, probably. STail I'd probably bring a specially defensive stallbreaker, something like Wish Taunt, maybe Protect, Psychic Noise?
  • Maybe I'm overcooking, but 148+ Speed 216 Attack Sandaconda always secures the 2HKO with Rock Tomb onto 252+ ThundI - switch in on Volt/Bolt, tank the GKnot (max 94.7% to full uninvested, can run boots or the grass berry) and Rock Tomb it, then outspeed and Rock Tomb it again. Maybe an overcook and you gotta hit them both. Heatran, I'd personally bring Flame Body Balloon with Taunt and Rocks (since IDRT Sandaconda can run rocks and be this burnt toast ThundI lure). I dunno. Definitely more room for variance here.
jade solar
jade solar
#

and yeah dire claw is legal

jade solar
#

but does get encore

misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

made this team based on the above, thoughts?

rancid kestrel
#

Oh that's what I get for just assuming the STail change was the only one, oops. I would maybe consider Dark Pulse over Earth Power on Terap, for better into Ape/Lati - I'm not convinced that Coal Bisharp and Pex are things you need to be focused on for Terap's moveset, but maybe that's the just-woke-up mind and me being off.

jade solar
#

week 5 gotta bounce back from that rough loss, but week 5's matchup is a bit tricky and i don't have much ideas on how to approach this matchup. thoughts?

Screenshot_2025-08-07_at_8.01.17_PM.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

Tera dark crunch goes brrrr

#

Give me a sec

#

Uh yeah while solgaleo is maybe the best tera mon on the board (at least from what I’ve seen—maybe it’s pao) it can’t exactly do anything

#

No dd no rocks no cm no body press

#

It’s just like a teleport bot with wisp? And sunsteel strike and it kinda needs to be defensive

#

Granted, great defensively

#

But their team does have the offense to back it up pult and reshiram are good but that’s it

#

So is she’ll smash toise but also this is Ubers you can deal with that

#

Shell *

#

Um yeah already stated this but tera dark cb crunch goes hard here

#

A pure dark type also makes you a better check into pult

lofty sparrow
#

fireceus looks nice

olive halo
#

And you can run a set like crunch, sucker, ice spinner and (!! Brilliant move) recover. Recover so you can keep switching into pult shadow balls forever and ever and not worry about rock weak

lofty sparrow
#

something like dd flareblitz gknot ???

olive halo
#

I also agree with that slap on recover on your arceus or whatever and you’re golden

lofty sparrow
#

frees up gknot on thundy-t

#

theoretically they can go blastoise on it but i doubt they actually want to do that given that its their only other wincon from pult

#

and it can do it like once? probably

#

you can also ev for it too

olive halo
#

I also think palkia is great here. Takes hits from reshiram besides like a huge Draco you should be able to live that and if donphan tries to be funny or whatever it should check that

lofty sparrow
#

actually now that i think about it their reshiram can run like a weird ass haban berry dd dclaw set how do we check that

olive halo
#

Scarf intim krook?

#

Helps vs mew and zap too

#

Secondary dark for pult?

lofty sparrow
#

i can see that

#

we'd have no rocker tho unless if we wanna lock into rocks

#

its a trade /shrug

rancid kestrel
#

gonna be a bit shorter one today, got a lot juggling.

  • why don't they have an arceus. i dont like their team, they have like 6 good pokemon max and even then some of those are not meeting the expectations of the format.
  • their team's slow. 105 fastest aside pult, and it's mienshao? yikes. their 100ishes dont even really wanna run scarf. toise can shell smash i guess.
  • a lot of hazards locked to shitty mons. poor mew has to hard carry unless quagsire gets dragged along. even their removal is overstated, florges/phan/reshi/toise are all either not coming or super dont wanna run removal. leaves what, mew zap? doable, i guess. but yeah their hazard setting is all predicated on a garbage mon coming, or mew doing it at the cost of doing smth else.
  • if im them, i bring pult mew zap solg resh +1. toise maybe depending on solg/resh sets, donphan maybe depending on mew/zap sets. im not convinced something else comes. maybe wish pass florges if the reshi is some specs overheat nonsense.
  • if i'm you i follow happygate's words like gospel i bring pao mmx arc, i like palkia and krook here, then probably... gengar? seems useful into pult mew solg. lele could be useful into pult resh blast. spd corv into some pult mew solg stoise? could also do like an offensive ogerc, knock+ivy+horn leech feels like it destroys everything but solg at a glance
buoyant sable
#

if that's true, you would have to expect toise or donphan to come if any removal at all

rancid kestrel
#

if it's sv surely mega stoise doesnt exist?

#

so im assuming this is natdex of some flavor and most natdex places dont follow to cut moves

jade solar
#

this is natdex yeah

jade solar
#

made this team so far

misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

thoughts?

rancid kestrel
#

does +1 oger outspeed pult?

jade solar
rancid kestrel
#

whats the corv logic for sitrus? trying to figure out the game plan there with regards to the ideal activation

jade solar
#

i had lefties in mind

#

but i felt sitrus was useful for some scenarios

rancid kestrel
#

solg and stuff right?

jade solar
#

yeah

rancid kestrel
#

gut instinct to me is that sitrus feels less good if you cant do anything back, i guess brave bird is 50% chance to 2hko uninvested pult but like, feels wack to proc a sitrus and then do Not A Lot with the extra turn you're given?

#

yeah, barely not a 100% 2hko on -1 mega blastoise uninvested either. but that maybe at least feels vaguely more worth? unsure

jade solar
#

what item do i use instead?

rancid kestrel
#

leftovers seems doable like you mentioned. hdb might be beneficial but like, less so. sitrus isnt bad, for sure.

#

was just curious what the logic was

#

i feel like if im in your boots i probably put it as lefties

lofty wigeon
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

(op does not have clodsire)

rancid kestrel
#

What's the Expanding Force logic?

#

Also what is the Excadrill, IDef SD?

#

Definitely not sure I understand a lot of this decision-making with regards to some of these sets.

lofty wigeon
#

Expanding force is better if they go Psy seed for a spd boost.
It is supposed to be iron head.

rancid kestrel
#

Psy Seed on what?

#

Where is Psy Terrain on their team?

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

wait, sorry, what?

rancid kestrel
lofty wigeon
#

just a mix up on my part

rancid kestrel
#

so the image is singles and accurate (minus the clodsire)? and eforce is an error of input like idef was?

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

Can you share a fixed paste fixing the IDef/EForce/any other errors

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

I do worry that there isn't a ton of progress making here, but maybe I'm underestimating Exca and Darkrai. Both of them having LO worries me, that seems like a lot of chip damage (taking 10% just to spin? LO Sub?) on your two main progress makers. It's not bad, but I certainly would be running Defog on Talonflame w/ HDB over single-removal LO Spin. Like, yeah, it's "just" Clodsire, but you als haven't brought any Taunt anywhere to actually stop hazards from going up.

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

could do dark glasses, could do expert belt, def options there.
if there's no hazards the drill thing works for sure, though again i do wonder about like, oh we're bootsless talonflame and our removal is also our wincon

lofty wigeon
#

Yeah i definitely can see swapping it, Flames main job is will o bot does not need to set up.

rancid kestrel
#

if your goal is to wisp spam then i def dont understand helm bu fb compared to boots defog fb

lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

does the ttar change still make the damage rolls you want of it?

#

i dont know that "a fairy worries that i dont have enough wincons" is to make 4 of your pokemon setup sweepers tbh but

lofty wigeon
#

Did a couple mocks, AV is better for Ttar, if i change to any item it would be smooth rock
Mew felt better but life orb made its staying power a little rough, swapped it to Leftovers because calm mind was getting me where it needed too

lofty wigeon
#

Specs Hydro Bundle, hit all 7 times it was used and crit my slowking. It happens but what a lose

rancid kestrel
#

Christ. That's the Bundle gambit unfortunately. Can't really feel too bad about it, Bundle's just kinda like that, you can only do so much against it especially with your lineup, something something matchup fish. Salt in the wound.

lofty wigeon
jade solar
# jade solar Second week in this paldex league, just patched up my previous draft to this one...

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9draft-2418935175-jbnpa7resc503v84n42sekf4coi0wv6pw comfortable win, wasn't much of an issue, could've maybe played better to save diff at the eds but nonetheless a solid win.

[Gen 9] Draft: VagueParallels vs. thisisgod326 - Replays - Pokémon...

Watch a replay of a Pokémon battle between VagueParallels and thisisgod326! Format: [Gen 9] Draft; Date: Aug 10, 2025

jade solar
#

mirror herb proc was the cherry on top

rancid kestrel
#

are these mocks or what are these links

jade solar
rancid kestrel
#

ah gotcha, grats on the wins

jade solar
#

they were both today lol

jade solar
olive halo
#

Congrats!

jade solar
#

ty!

jade solar
#

my next ubers league matchup we're goin strong so far. Tricky MU on my hands here rn, and this dude likes playing super early but managed to keep our game to Thursday.

Screenshot_2025-08-11_at_2.45.10_PM.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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 sparrow
#

caly-i looks pretty hard to handle under troom

rancid kestrel
#

@jade solar Is this Arceus-Water?

jade solar
#

yes

rancid kestrel
# jade solar my next ubers league matchup we're goin strong so far. Tricky MU on my hands her...
  • Very odd to me to draft specifically three Megas. You obviously can't activate more than one, but all three are stuck with the stone - no boots for Altaria, no Sludge for Venu, no Choice item for Manectric. It's fine, and you're unlikely to bring more than one anyway, but it's odd to me for sure. I would think there would be better approaches to filling out the bottom slots. These aren't even particularly great megas, but I guess that's the point.
  • Like bh mentioned, ArcI under TR is quite scary. Corv can kinda handle it, but +1 is a solid 2HKO and +0 tickles the 2HKO range lisghtly. They have a handful of good TR setters too, which is worrying - ArcW as a defensive mon can comfortably set it up, and it's not like you want a Wisping ArcF or Corv in front of an ArcW that can Judgment/TBolt. CalyI can bring its own TR too, and it can also have a utility DiaO or NDW setting it up for it. Now, in TR, it kinda is just CalyI and like, Gambit. NDW and DiaO are also gonna be able to underspeed you if they're planned for it, but I'm less convinced both of those can be offensive sets - one of them probably, both of them seems hard to pull off.
  • Their traditional speed is wack. Makes sense if they're TR-focused, but 151-135-120 where the 135 is a throwaway Mega is wack. I guess 120-105-95 isn't horrificly bad, but the 105 is a throwaway Mega's non-mega'd form - no Scarf, no Boots, no damage boosting. The harder I try to understand their traditional speed, the more this feels like hard TR (wild how in NDUbers, 80 can feel hard TR) with a Pheramosa and MMane thrown in for insurance.
#
  • NGL, when I was filling this out, I thought I wouldn't like their removal. I still kinda don't, their removal is weak, and non-SR relies on Gliscor which is hard to bring often, but they have a lot of reasonable SR setting - goes back to what I was saying about one of DiaO and NDW bringing utility of some kind, as barring Gliscor coming as a hazards one-trick, it seems likely to me that one of them is carrying SR. Removal is way harder - Phera cant afford to Spin, ArcW can probably defog, Gliscor can one-trick but Defog removes its own hazards... utility Alt exists but really doesn't here (especially into your Pao Lele Corv).
  • I'm going to assume a TR build here. If you wanna explore non-TR builds, it probably doesn't look too much different, but it's probably something like Band Phera, CM ArcW, utility/pest Gliscor (you dont have easy ways to absorb/avoid TSpikes for example), some kinda defensive setup NDW (think CMID Stored Power for a post-Pao game), and then any of the megas (I'm most inclined to think Venu for Thick Fat, but Mane for Intim could help. Alt is a no imo.) plus Gambit. Could also see DiaO, but I'm not convinced it's better than Gambit here personally? I'm probably just a DiaO hater here, though.
  • For TR, you build around CalyI for sure. I'd think Band, you kinda want the extra touch of damage here to secure the 2HKO on Corv and make ArcF missing Wisp harder. Lum also works here, since [ArcF switchin on Glacial take 38] -> [CalyI HHP does 60 barely doesn't kill into ArcF hit Wisp Lum] is a winning proposition for them.
#
  • ArcW comes, NDW comes. Both probably carry TR, but I overdo TR setters on my teams. A utility ArcW is what makes sense to me here, you need removal if CalyI isn't running Boots (IDT it should here tbh) and ArcW's the best to do so since it shouldn't be your offensive option under TR. NDW could be a Meteor Beam Power Herb set, IDT the defensive one can really come in TR when you're tossing out turns like that. Maybe it can, but I'm not convinced it's a good use of TR turns to be setting up CMs or whatever.
  • I think Phero's gotta come. You can't be exclusively reliant on TR, and having something that can answer Pao and MMX (even if that answer is just to UTurn) outside of TR is a necessity in my mind. I still think this is band here, like it was in the non-TR quickbuild.
  • Two slots left. I could see DiaO here if only to take SR away from ArcW, but it could also be Gliscor. One of those two, hard to see it being both. I think the final slot is some SubSeed MVenu or a Gambit. My gut instinct would be Gambit personally, Thick Fat doesn't do enough against ArcF/Pao, and Gambit adds another offensive option under TR in situations like TR getting set up as OgerC switches in or something and you can't really hard CalyI.
  • For you, I think you should probably run Taunt on a mon or three where possible. ArcF, MMX, hell even stuff like Pao or your other mons (think corv/gar/lele/thundi, whoever you end up bringing) can run Taunt to mess with TR setting where safe to.
#
  • I'm not benching Pao MMX or ArcF here. All three are useful always, and I don't think the TR nonsense makes them impossible to bring. You may see otherwise, but when your third slowest 'mon speed ties with their fourth fastest, you're not exactly matching them speed for speed here. I can see a utility ArcF with Wisp (hoping that the CalyI isn't Lum, but also useful into Phero, NDW, Gambit), a Band Pao for out-of-TR damage or Sash for a "I'm not making it out of the next two turns, but you aren't either" trade with CalyI (Crunch does 75 min, shard does 9 min, if you have rocks up and it isnt Boots you just need to avoid the double min), and 3A Taunt MMX personally, but we don't usually run the exact same sets.
  • From there, I think you have a ton of flexibility. A defensive Corv can help with their physical attackers, though it doesn't usually win long-term against CalyI especially in TR. Phero also 2HKOs w/ CC. Krook brings Intimidate, but it also brings weaknesses to Ice and Fighting. Gengar has immunity to Phero's CC and scares the life out of NDW, but doesn't have the physical bulk to withstand CalyI or Phero coverage. ThundI is similarly weak to Ice, but brings a resistance to Phero CC. I'm not even sure what Lele could/would do here.
#
  • My gut instinct is that if you can keep the ground clean, OgerC can do good work here with the built in Sturdy. Cudgel does 71 min with Ada, so you'd only need so much chip to confirm the KO. It also has some neat advantages against Gambit, ArcW, and DiaO. I think that PhysD Corv also can come, it's not great but it's maybe the best of what's left. From there... SpD Palkia? It kinda shuts down an offensive ArcW and highcrit Spacial Rend could be a cheese way through a defensive setup NDW? though I'm not convinced it can do incredible against all the megas. But yeah, I'm sure there are wrong answers here on what to bring (Krook probably is a wrong answer at face value without some neat tech play) but I think there's plenty of variance of what to bring otherwise.
jade solar
#

it's water arc

rancid kestrel
#

any reference otherwise is a typo

#

i wrote with the understanding it was arcw

#

oh that should be calyi not arci

#

lol

jade solar
#

oh you meant CalyI

rancid kestrel
#

ye ye ye i was like, wdym huh? i dont even talk about arc until like 1.5 paragraphs in

#

how'd you read that fast??? lol

jade solar
#

lol

lofty wigeon
#

my next match up
Tera Oregpon and Sanda
Tera Mew and Serp

IMG_1633.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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.

rancid kestrel
#

This is Paldea Dex right @lofty wigeon ?

lofty wigeon
#

correct

rancid kestrel
# lofty wigeon my next match up Tera Oregpon and Sanda Tera Mew and Serp
  • They have a very top heavy draft. DeoS, OgerW, Enam, IHands to some extent, but then the bottom half of their draft is like, Skarm Tenta AMuk as their best options? They've got a Pachirisu... I didn't even know Pachirisu was in Paldea. They definitely have some threats, but stuff like Sableye and Ditto are more builder threats than they are game threats.
  • That said, their top half is quite nice. Each of their top three/four are uphill challenges for you, from IHand's ridiculous damage, Oger having a good typing into most of your stuff, DeoS's speed advantage on you here. That being said, all three of these fold to Serp Leaf Storm, and a clever Tera type could be used to work around either Skarm/Enam or Muk, but probably not both. Beware Ditto.
  • I'm not the biggest fan of their speed. The 95 is not real, 110-106-100 feels like it's trying to pretend to be 120-110-100 but casually missing an entire half of the section. Tenta can't even invest tons into Speed normally, and Enam doesn't super want to be 252+ regularly. So to some extent, you have a 180 that nobody's trying to outspeed (hear me out, scarf darkrai), a 110 that can't run an item, and then you dip to what, 71? This is an unkind review of their speed tiers, sure, but like, there's gonna be plenty of opponents this player faces where the only thing they have to speed for around the range is OgerW.
#
  • Alarm bells! SV Draft with only removal by Tentacruel! Sure, Skarm and DeoS mean that hazard setting's not much of a worry, and I guess you can get Oger/Sand/Tenta to set some things some time, but your only removal is Tenta spin... While you don't have a ghost type, you can easily punish the removal attempts of your opponent. Can't really TSpikes w/ AMuk being a realistic bring, but Spikes/SR should be readily available for you to put pressure on. Tenta's problem is that it lets in Serp, Exca (beware the callout), Mew, whatever, and then suddenly they're at a huge momentum deficit in order to avoid getting chunked by a spike+sr on basically everything.
  • If I'm them, I bring DeoS and Oger for sure. I'd think DeoS leans offensive, since Skarm later can carry hazards, and having some ripcord to help against non-scarf Serp setup that doesnt necessitate bringing dead slot Ditto along makes sense to me. Oger I think don't think should be setup (+1 still is outsped by Exca in sand or Scarf Serp up) but something like 2/3A Synth is fine here, probably. Cudgel and Power Whip cover basically every use case beyond Glowking. Could be taunt, could be uturn, could be a ground type attack, could even be SD or Trailblaze.
  • Skarm comes, so does AMuk I think, as a defensive backbone. AMuk can help into Darkrai, Whimsi, some Serp, even some Mew, while Skarm can help against TTar Exca. No good answer to an offensive Talonflame, but maybe that can be their Oger?
  • I think IHands comes here too. Barring Flame Body surprises, it does a ton against most of what you've got. Toss in a Shuca or Roseli to respond to Exca or Whimsi, and that's going to be a pain in the butt for you to remove. Darkrai Psychic does only a little above half. Not ideal.
#
  • Final 'mon here could be Ditto if you're scared of runaway Serp, could be Tentacruel for removal and help w/ Talonflame, could be Enam though I'm not convinced it's all that and a bag of chips into this matchup. If I'm them, it's Tenta > Enam > Ditto (love removal...), but it could legit be any of them. Outside chance of Sableye for some nonsense shenanigans, but I don't think that's real. It sholdn't be Sandaconda, it shouldn't be Pachirisu.
  • For you, I'd start with Serp, given its ease of forcing switches, maybe SubSeed Lefties with Leaf Storm and Tera [Elec/Ground/Flying]? This could also be the Scarfer w/ a more offensive set of moves.
  • Darkrai is my personal scarfer here, Trick 3A feels good - try and get the Trick onto IHands or the defensive duo if you can, but beware the Oger messing you up. Something like STAB, Electric, Psychic feels like it hits everything it needs to.
#
  • TTar and Exca seem good here too. Exca likes the speed a lot in this game, and TTar can... idk set up rocks and be a lure? Maybe? I'm sure you can find something of use here - Chople Pursuit as a mess up for Deoxys, Grass/Water berry for Ogerpon, but what would you be clicking? You could do AVest I suppose, but I feel like Tar is the rocker here, and most of their mons are hitting you on the physcial side.
  • Mew should come, it does well here. Set's endlessly manipulatable, but I'd think a setup set can do a lot here - double dance maybe, do you really need more than like, Psychic TBolt once Muk's properly chipped/gone?
  • Final mon is probably Talonflame for removal, but it could also be a defensive RWash (hard into Oger Hands) or Glowking (hard into DeoS Muk). Could also be Whimsi, not a ton of Fairy responses on their side, and it could help with setting stuff up for Serp potentially? I'd prob pick RWash though if I was satisfied with just Exca removal.
lofty wigeon
rancid kestrel
#

Oh, right. Still, some kinda lure set - Chope and Pursuit are kinda contradictory in nature, anyway - you're either taking the hit w/ Chople or you're Pursuiting as they leave.

lunar knoll
#

My next matchup (I'm Quantum Quagsires)

image.png image.png
#

tera for arcanine is fire normal flying, tera for azelf is psychic fairy normal

#

tera for his munkidori is psychic fighting ice, tera for his forretress is steel flying normal

#

this is the current paste ive tried to cook up so far

rancid kestrel
# lunar knoll My next matchup (I'm Quantum Quagsires)
  • Spectrier destroys you. That was always gonna happen in a Spectrier-legal format aside teams that specifically tech for it, but like, aside Venusaur/+1 Fini getting "only" 3hko'd from +1 Shadow Ball, you get walked over here. That'd be what I look at here, first - why is Fini and Venu both Def? Ursa I can understand but that's not the only threat they have.
  • I like their speed here, 121 outpaces everything barring Regieleki which sucks anyway, sure you have ways to boost your speed like scarf on Hydrei/Azelf or Agil on MGall, but like, you're mostly getting outsped here, and it's not really something you can stop - Torn Samu(Scarf) Munki can all put you through pivot hell to prepare for a beatdown from Spec or Ursa.
  • Their hazard setting sucks. It's just Ceaseless Edge, I guess Forry also is not an impossible bring. But that stinks. Their removal isn't much better, their Defoggers don't really wanna run Defog, especially when their main hazards are CEdge and Forry. Spin on Forry, I guess.
#
  • Your hazards aren't any better. No spikes or TSpikes at all in ND? Four rockers, maybe two of which are okay running it? Three removal, most of which aren't really usable? At least you're likely to get Rocks up and removal isn't impossible.
  • If I'm your opponent, I'm setting up for Spectrier to absolutely decimate you. Scarf CEdge Hamu, TornT, Kartana, and Ursaluna all serve the purpose of dealing a ton of damage and being momentum grabbers (Ursa less so) for a Spec cleanup later. Bonus points if they can find your Aegi and scarfer early. Forry's probably the final 'mon to provide hazards/removal, but I could see Munkidori or MAlt coming.
  • Why is your Venu Chlorophyll? Surely Overgrow can help in some circumstances where Chloro is never going to activate?
  • What are the EVs here for Azelf and Hydrei? I can't easily figutre out these speed EVs - you're not outspeeding Scarf Hamu with Azelf, for example, so what's the EVs intended for? Same with Hydrei, both hit the weird 427 region, what sits there that you're working towards?

Sorry this is a bit quicker/less comprehensive, I need to get going but wanted to put some thoughts down.

lunar knoll
rancid kestrel
#

I... That's not exactly high on my worries w.r.t. that speed creep. I'd definitely be trying to get Scarf Hamu personally.

lunar knoll
#

In this ND draft league chien pao, mega lati and palafin are also allowed so 💀

lunar knoll
#

It’s just from watching past battles this guy has not used scarfed hamu yet

#

but could be the first time for everything

rancid kestrel
#

I suppose, but then, wouldn't you be trying to aim to outspeed Spec?

lunar knoll
#

so I wasn’t really thinking about that

rancid kestrel
#

Scarf MAltaria...?

lunar knoll
#

wait my bad

#

ignore that part

#

he probably will bring scarf spectrier like you said

rancid kestrel
#

Scarf Samu, you mean?

#

I don't know that Scarf Spec makes a ton of sense for them here.

lunar knoll
#

didn’t you mention scarf spec too

lunar knoll
rancid kestrel
#

maybe as a side comment to "hey this would mess you up in this specific condition"?

lunar knoll
#

and also any scarf mons of mine

rancid kestrel
#

Regi is not worth prepping for, for the most part.

#

They have an Ursaluna.

#

That is their Regi prep.

lunar knoll
#

hmm

#

I knew this was a hard match up but like

#

Is this truly unwinnable

#

considering both him and I are on similar skill level

rancid kestrel
#

Nothing is truly unwinnable

#

A match only becomes truly unwinnable if you decide it is in your head, don't put the effort in as a result, and show up half-hearted to your game.

#

And, I guess, if you draft solo NFE bugs.

lunar knoll
#

wow

#

inspiring

lunar knoll
rancid kestrel
#

no i'm just saying that you can in theory have autolose matchups if you literally throw during drafting

lunar knoll
#

my best bet is to try predict switch ins and maybe be a bit risky considering he’s very passive when he plays

rancid kestrel
#

weedle kakuna silcoon cascoon caterpie metapod whirlipede combee

this is probably an auto-loss in many matchups

#

but like, if you try in the draft and you try in the builder and you try in the battle, nothing is autolose

lunar knoll
#

ic

rancid kestrel
#

i think spectrier is your biggest challenge, and that ursaluna is a legitimate worry as well. but these are not insurmountable tasks

lunar knoll
#

calm mind fini might be able to do somewhat well here

#

I don’t see much moonblast switch ins

rancid kestrel
#

ye, definitely an option!

lunar knoll
#

kartana gets blown up from moonblast anyways

#

that thing is literally paper

#

That ursaluna pisses me off because he traded out buzzwole for that and I had to reconfigure my whole team

#

I also feel kind of unconfident about bringing M-gallade

#

perhaps I could bring H-arcanine but dude has an ursa

olive halo
#

Not sure if af mentioned it, kinda just skimmed this but agility gallade looks good here. That way you can outspeed spectrier, scarf hsam, and torn. And gallade has such high attacking power that it doesn't really matter that it's not boosting it's offense if everything is chipped

#

Honestly agility with psycho cut (zen head butt? I forget which one has more power) cc, and like shadow sneak (shadow over knock in case you need to revenge kill spectrier, it's safer) is just beast mode and only loses to alt, but you have a whole aegi to deal with that (if you're not bringing aegi totally fair, but you should have an answer to alt)

#

And then just use hydregion to punch holes in their team and there's nothing wrong with a little CB tera normal extreme speed on harc to help out, just don't do it into spectrier

jade solar
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

with the advice given

#

thoughts?

rancid kestrel
#

Is there a reason you've chosen to not run Taunt anywhere? It's a useful tool to block TR getting set up in some situations.

jade solar
#

maybe on mmx and arc?

rancid kestrel
#

I'd consider trying to fit it on MMX, Corv, and Arceus

#

Not necessarily all 3, but

jade solar
#

yeah

#

added taunt on mmx and arc

misty plumeBOT
#

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.

rancid kestrel
#

I'd consider Roar over Dragon Tail on Palkia, if only for worries about Tera Fairy defensive setup NDW, but that's probably more nitpick than direct upgrade improvement

jade solar
#

which becomes useless after tera

#

oh

#

yeah wait didn't i do that

#

lemme fix that rq

jade solar
#

"Peter, the horse is here" Week 3 time and got a fun matchup on my hands, we're not gonna "horse" around cuz it's a tricky one also. Would love advice for this matchup

Screenshot_2025-08-12_at_1.48.11_PM.png
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

made this team so far too

rancid kestrel
# jade solar "Peter, the horse is here" Week 3 time and got a fun matchup on my hands, we're ...
  • Your opponent's team seems odd to me. Sure, you have Spectrier, which while not at its peaks in Gen8, is still a super powerful 'mon. LandoT, Iron Hands, and Tera Hydreigon are no slouches, but them being the second-through-fourth best 'mons available is not exactly keeping up the threat when it comes to the top end. From there, it takes another steep drop - gimmicks like Klefki, Tera Lycan, and Leavanny are not exactly motivating to me. Sure, screens and webs and whatever Lycan's damage rolls reach w/ Tera, fine, and Hands actually super likes Screens on a BD set, but this draft feels like a one trick pony otherwise, pun intended.
  • I haven't an idea of your opponent's speeds. Tenta is a fake 100, Lycanroc's relying on priority for the most part and can't be a consistent game thread, Azelf at least is real speed, and Spectrier is beyond speed concerns sorta. Hydrei or LandoT can run a scarf, Klekfi has Prankster, but for the most part I'm not seeing a cohesive story being painted in your opponen't speed tiers.
  • Unfortunately for you, your speed tiers are not any better - 120 outpaces Azelf sure, but underpaces Spectrier outside of the one turn that you get Unburden, but Klefki face tanks everything but CC, and you aren't clicking CC hard into Spectrier. And that's ignoring a defensive IHands or the LandoT. Scream Tail is underpace dby Azelf and Lycanroc, and then everything past that is slower than their Hydreigon even without scarf. Speed gimmicks (Unburden, Booster, Glide, Thunderclap) aren't long-term solutions, and Spectrier backed by IHands/Klefki/LandoT necessitate long-term solutions.
  • The prince and the pauper here with your solo-removal options. On one hand, Terapagos, maybe the most viable solo-removal (Treads maybe) in Gen9, with the added boost of stuffing Spectrier. On the other hand, Tentacruel the fraud, letting in a buncha scary threats and being a large momentum sink.
#
  • At least they have legitimate setters for all hazards. SR even has more than one! Good for them. It's probably Lycanroc as a suicide lead, though maybe not in this MU where its speed tier is nice, or LandoT, but I think it'd quite like to run Scarf for stuff like non-Agil Goltres. It could legit be Hydrei in this MU. The other hazards exist, I guess, TSpikes are hard into Sneasler, Leavanny webs are rarely real but certainly not into Terapagos with the spinblocker being Spectrier, Klefki can set Spikes sure.
  • You can reasonably get up Rocks. You should not try to get up TSpikes against Tentacruel, though maybe it might be a value of "switch in your tentacruel so I can grab momentum"? Unsure. And hey, it'd help get chip on non-Boots Spectrier, probably. Though you're otherwise hitting what - Lycanroc and Hands? Probably not worth it.
  • If I'm your opponent, I'm starting with Spectrier, even if Goltres and Terap stuff it. My gut instinct here is some kinda set that runs Wisp to keep Terap shell broken, though it can't really touch Goltres. Maybe some kinda NP Wisp SBall/Hex +1 set for once Golres has been handled? +2 Hyper Beam has less than 50% chance to ohko uninvested Goltres, and DKiss fails to trade w/ Fiery Wrath even with unrealistic investment. Rough for them. But I still do think it has to come.
  • Lando and Hydrei come for sure as well, the former as a scarfer and the latter with SR and probably Tera... fairy? Fairy looks good into you I think, barring Sneasler. Lando is the scarfer here I'd think, generic set works fine probably.
#
  • I do think Iron Hands has to come as the primary F U to Sneasler and Rillaboom. A defensive set works fine here, something like SD Drain Punch I'd think? Heavy Slam can keep STail thinking - you switch it in to Encore the Belly Drum/SD/Drain Punch and get destroyed by Heavy Slam? No thank you.
  • Final two mons. Azelf's a good shout, hell it can even be the Scarfer if you want a different type of LandoT, it has plenty coverage to handle basically any holes in the situation - Thunderbolt to turn the tables on Goltres to ease Spectrier's life? Yes please! I like Klefki here, Prankster Switcheroo can shut down Unburden Sneasler and other 'mons would appreciate Spikes and Screens depending.
  • I don't think Leavanny is great here, and I think that Tentacruel is probably not-safe-but-not-impossible to leave at home. Leavanny is (un)fortunately not real here.
  • Looking at this paste, I think overall this looks pretty good. I do like the decision to bench Sneasler here, I think it stands as a threat that doesn't do enough for how much it's likely to be prepared for. I think that the space on the team provided by Sneasler's absence allows for a lot more flexibility here that I do like a lot. I do worry about the lack of a Scarfer, but I suppose Band Glide and the threat of Thunderclap is not like, the end of the world. But I'm not the biggest fan of it.
#
  • I'm not super convinced that Goltres needs both dance moves - I'd think either you go Agil w/ the Weakness Policy to bait the DKiss from Spectrier, or you go NP with some other item (Charti? Boots?) to basically say, this bird hard counters your horse, you lose your best 'mon for my third best or you get out of town and I get my boost.
  • What's DTail for on Bolt? Forcing a switch on what, exactly, here? Seems like they click into Klefki and you get sad. Spectrier at +2 is doing 70-80, surely the better play would be TBolt into TClap? Or Just double TClap? I'm not seeing the DTail logic here. Setup IHands wrecks your day before you can get the DTail off, I'd think.
  • What's the deal with Terap's EVs? What's 252 for? You don't even outspeed some wack 252+ Klefki. I'm not seeing the logic in Speed there.
jade solar
#

wait oh lol i frgt

jade solar
jade solar
rancid kestrel
#

Oh, I see. Hm, that's probably legitimate enough, that does make sense.

jade solar
#

what do i replace np for? air slash maybe?

#

since my matchup into dreigon is kinda rough with this set currently with np

rancid kestrel
#

Dreigon should tera into like... fairy? That's my assumption at least, anyway. Could be slash, could be cane. Could be roost!

jade solar
rancid kestrel
#

Skull emoji, didn't know that

jade solar
#

yeah so i'll slot in air slash

#

hmm alr i'll do cane

#

anything else i change in team?

rancid kestrel
#

what was your thoughts on my dragon tail comments

muted frigate
#

Is this feature still available?

#

Just joined so new here

lofty sparrow
jade solar
rancid kestrel
rancid kestrel
spare relic
#

need ideas, I’m the one one of the left

image0.jpg
misty plumeBOT
#

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.

rancid kestrel
#

Is this BW?

spare relic
#

Yea bw

#

Not the best team but I still think I have a few tools in my hands

rancid kestrel
#

I'll put together some thoughts soon but you're probably not going to get much great given how undeveloped BW is and how different it is from standard SV.

spare relic
#

K

muted frigate
rancid kestrel
rancid kestrel
# spare relic need ideas, I’m the one one of the left
  • Hard to see what you do against KyuB. If they get the pred right/have the right moves, you always get 2HKO'd.
  • On the other hand, they kinda don't have much else beyond KyuB. Infernape and Metagross are alright, but it's definitely harder from there.
  • Your team is not great, like you said. Some alright tools, but it's hard to see what your wincon is on a normal week. Raikou or Gengar, I guess?
  • I like your speed more than theirs, though 110-84 as a drop is rough. That's a lot of defensive EVs on KyuB/Gigas/Ape since they won't try to outrun Gengar, and arguably, don't even need to outrun Claydol/Skuntank. Outspeed a full speed Politoed but otherwise they're good? I dunno?
  • Your hazards and removal are mostly centered in Skarmory, though Claydol can help. You have good removal but not great setting. But you'll never struggle to get hazards up, though it's a free entry for KyuB.
  • They have okay removal, but their setting is a buncha mons that don't want to run SR really.
  • If I'm your opponent, I leave behind Regigigas (not convinced it's good into Gar/Skarm/Loom) and Crobat (bad into Raikou/Gar/Skarm)/Milo (bad into Raikou/Loom). I'd make Kyu sub 3a, Ape could be scarf, pivot Mowtom to get in the breakers, some utility Metagross, hazards-focused Donphan, and then probably a defensive Milo - Burn Orb Marvel Scale can probably stuff Breloom somewhat, and Donphan I maybe make it work against Raikou?
  • For you, I dunno. I'd think Skuntank doesn't come here, not sure what it does here for you. I probably also bench Claydol, it seems bad into most of their mons. Hazards Skarm, wincon Breloom (Spore Sub FPunch Seed Bomb? and just avoid the crobat), CM Raikou or some lure set to eat an EP from KyuB and TWave it or something, idek what Ambipom does, damage attempts I guess. Then it's Gengar, scarf? and Politoed, maybe you bench that since I'm not convinced it does much defensively beside Ape/Meta tbh.

Gen 5's wack. I dunno.

spare relic
rancid kestrel
#

I mean, everything's possible to bring. But if I'm running scarf Ape, maybe even scarf mowtom, I'm not super worried about speed that Crobat provides, and Crobat gets stuffed by a buncha things on your team.

muted frigate
rancid kestrel
#

Based on this reply, I'm not sure you're familiar with what Draft is. What format are you trying to play?

#

@muted frigate - draft is a format where you pick specific pokemon to play with in competition with some other (usually 7 sometimes 15) other folks, who can only use the mons they picked. If you're asking about your own team/random Pokemon, it doesn't sound like you're playing Draft to me - it's hard to play Draft without realizing you're playing Draft.

muted frigate
muted frigate
rancid kestrel
#

The easiest way to get your feet wet is to go to a format's room on Showdown, such as Overused, find their sample teams via /rfaq, and then try laddering. Lurking in competitive chatrooms such as #comp-general or various PS rooms is also helpful.

muted frigate
#

Odd question, but do I need an account to play the ladder on Showdown?

rancid kestrel
#

Yes, but you don't need to register - you can just pick a name and go

#

"Local and regional" aren't a thing on Smogon, FWIW, I assume you're talking about VGC which isn't run by Smogon

muted frigate
#

I would also eventually try out the SMOGON's formats too on showdown to get more tourney experience. I keep forgetting that VGC is the actual formal format for those tournaments tho

rancid kestrel
#

Yeah, most Smogon formats are not VGC, but there is a VGC community in Smogon. There's a RMT thread for that too. Though I will say we're pretty off-topic at this point so I'll end the conversation here - you can PM me or chat in #comp-general if you have further questions.

muted frigate
#

Sounds good

lofty wigeon
misty plumeBOT
#

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
#

Their speed tiers really fall off after Deo-S

#

Deo-s and waterpon are great Pokemon, but give darkrai a scarf and it will just beat both even after a trailblazer

#

Their team also falls off too. Enam is good, hands is good but they’re bad into your glowking

lofty wigeon
#

Serp and Mew for me
Orge and sanda for them

#

Tera capts

lofty wigeon
olive halo
#

New can also just run like a dragon dance set with a sitrus berry and the right coverage and that will just win as well

#

Mew *

#

I would bring darkrai, talon, whim serp mew and gking use gking and talon defensively to check like enam and other miscellaneous threats, whims for hands and then out offense with darkrai mew and serp

lofty wigeon
#

Like this ?

#

Swap the 64 Def for Atk on Mew

rancid kestrel
lofty wigeon
#

I could use something like flame orb though to switch since speed isn't really the issue

rancid kestrel
#

up to you ye, i'm just not super convinced that negative trick is super effective into your opp? but ig burn onto hands isn't bad