Smogon Premier League X: UU Discussion

[MunchlaxAndChill]

So this dude Alaan claimed to be a clanger master, but he refused to bring the Clanger to his week 7 match. Nice job dude, I hope selling out was worth the win, especially when Shiba, a man of culture, brought the clanger and showed you up. You may have won the game, but you lost your fan base.

If Alaan brings clanger vs Pearl he will win, otherwise, he will lose. If neither of them brings clanger then honestly give both players a loss because neither of them deserves the win if they can't comprehend how amazing the scaley one is.

 

[Adaam]

Alright looks like I have to carry the corpse of this thread once more. I am typing this up while in class so if I fail you all owe me (although I will forgive if you toss a like :D).

Me vs Shiba

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-426523
So going into the match fellow Tiger HarrisIsAwesome noticed how good Moltres was against Shiba. Past replays showed not much use of Rock-types (mainly Aero), and in the off-chance he brought Blissey I went overboard with 4 solid checks to it. I was surprised to see him bring Lass HO since it isn't an archetype I've seen him use often, but Moltres looked fire at preview as predicted. However, I knew I'd have to find a Defog turn if I wanted to win since Moltres was my one way of stopping Sciz. With hazards off I figured I could win with Malt after abusing the Scizor switch-in with my Moltres. That being said, the first few turns went as you might have predicted with a Frosslass. Shiba got hazards up, and I got my breaker in with Moltres on the clanger which then proceeded to basically OHKO the Lati switch in with confusion + 75%. I thought about going Krook, Emp, or Scizor here and opted for Emp to get the Defog since I needed Krook healthy for Sharpedo. I got lucky and Lati hit itself, so Defog was free but in came Bisharp. In hindsight the hard Terrakion was a bit unnecessary since Emp did literally nothing afterwards and getting hit with Iron Head ends the game right there LOL. But it worked out cause switching into the Knock pretty much gave me the win. I was up a mon, with no hazards on, and with little damage taken overall against a basically dead Lati and 4 other Pokemon I have checks for. At one turn Shiba tried to regain momentum by doubling into Lati on my Terrak, but I figured he would try to make that play, and if he didn't, I get Moltres in on Scizor and kill another Pokemon.

The endgame was played a bit poorly since I opened myself up to a Sucker Punch crit on my Krook to potentially lose. I was not max speed Altaria, so if he was Jolly he could have potentially won.

sjneider vs soulgazer

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-426723
Two UU mains duke it out here with two similar looking teams. I give soulgazer the MU edge here since his Sciz is a big threat once Nape/Emp are chipped and his Moltres claims one every time if Specs. It later revealed to be Z-Hurricane, but that just means Emp can switch in once before being 2HKOd.

sjneider leads Nape while soulgazer leads Krook. Krook is obviously SR so it looks like sjenider doubles to his own Krook to catch the Moltres switch in (unless he was scouting Scarf which was unlikely). I think doubling to Emp in that case is better since getting SR up is far more valuable in the Molt MU and luring in Tenta and chipping it helps out Nape. That being said, soulgazer scouts the Edge and gets a lot of momentum crippling Gligar with Taunt. Gligar again is not ideal I think since Sr Krooks often carry Taunt and it revealed turn 1 it was not Scarf. However, soulgazer makes a big ball play a few turns later (which was allegedly cancelled lolol) and Knocks out the Altaria with EQ as it mega evolves. The next turn, however, he sacks Krook to Nape which was unnecessary imo since going Tentacruel was free there.

From here, sjneider's game plan had to be to find a way to win with Infernape. Killing Tentacruel was one step, but Empoleon getting burned and Knocked opened up Moltres' breaking abilities. After getting the burn turn 10, going for SR was greedy since Tentacruel can spin stall Empoleon. Gligar was probably better, but it isn't an easy or obvious play since it is in no way a Tentacruel counter. At the very least, going back into Empoleon and then letting it get burned and chipped turn 18 was bad. Sacking Gligar was much better here, but Tenta finally dies bringing in the Altaria. Sjneider gets Tspikes off and goes into Krook to force out Moltres, but doubling into Gligar seemed meaningless as Moltres was beyond free there for soulgazer. Sjneider needed to Pursuit to chip Moltress for Nape/Zor or at least catch it with Toxic instead of Roosting as Molt just dropped it from 100% anyway. From there Moltres claimed a kill every time it came in and proved to be too much. Emp being healthy would have let it rock up without Tenta, but sjneider didn't have much of a chance without them.

Pearl vs Pak

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-426697
I am so sad to see Doomer being finally used, but Pearl brings Aero, Hydreigon, and Tenta :(. MU looks rough for Pak since his breakers are all accounted for (except a potential SD Knock Off Scizor) while Pearl has a very scary looking Mamoswine and Hydreigon. Pearl plays the early game very well, doubling into Aero to get Sr up and crippling Rhyperior with his CB Mamoswine. With Rhyperior chipped, M-Aero is now a huge threat and Pak needed to make insane plays to find a way to win. Pearl, however, did not misstep at any point. Staying in on Celebi with Tentacruel and not hard switching into Drei/M-Aero on the Houndoom ensured that Pak could never regain momentum, and then he revealed his Drei to be Corkscrew Crash so Pak had nothing for it. All in all this was a dominating performance for Pearl and I look forward to dethroning him this week

HT vs Robjr

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-426527
Again two similar looking teams with Tenta/Drei/bulky Fairy/mega Steel-type. HT's wincon was a likely SD Scizor while Rob had a Reuniclus that needed to take out Scizor before it could really do anything. Or so I thought when HT revealed the ghost of ORAS past in CB Krook LOL. Anyway HT makes the ladder play turn 1 and sacks his Tentacruel to Steelix for some chip (you know I don't mean this HT <3). Not much happens for a bit until turn 18 when HT gets CB Krook in on a chipped Rotom-H and Pursuits it into 10%. While his Krook dies in the process, it gets the job done in crippling the Scizor counter. At this point Rob had to emphasize keeping Tenta/Steelix healthy for Scizor, but Tentacruel gets chipped heavily by Primarina. I think Rob should have kept Tenta healthy with Florges' Wish whenever Primarina came in, as once it got down it was inevitable that Scizor would sweep (and it did just that).

Christo vs Lycans

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-426501
I will leave this game to pif if he wants to analyze it, but from preview there was really no way Christo was losing this unless he choked on tremendous balls. The only possible breaker was CM Cobalion with Fight-Z, but it was SR so there was not anything Lycans could do here.


Usage stats analysis:

Scizor and Krook are absolutely dominating right now with 48% and 42% usage respectively. This is pretty insane to me since even in the past our top Pokemon had like 30% usage max. Gligar also at 27% is shocking to me since I do not think it is that good, but the role compression cannot be overlooked. Looking at winrates, Altaria at 61% and Terrakion and Slowbro at 71% is pretty neat since these mons are grade-A BUSTED. Tentacruel at 68% is a big ?? to me cause I think this mons peters but the stats say otherwise. Togekiss at 37% however is unsurprising, it's so bad now with M-Aero, Terrak, Sciz, and Rotom running around.

 

[Pearl]

Tentacruel at 68% is a big ?? to me cause I think this mons peters but the stats say otherwise.

small interjection here, but to put it simply, tentacruel is a "bad" 'mon that enables good 'mons by creating scenarios where they can do good 'mon things, which ultimately "justifies" its win rate (small sample size and other factors such as hax make justifying a tough term to apply here, but it is winning spl games after all). hazard removal is colossal in the current metagame, especially rapid spin, which eases the burden on rocks setters, as they no longer have to get in a position to set them up multiple times a game (check out my sr mega aerodactyl vs pak for example). scizor checks continue to be in high demand, and tentacruel is one of the best at doing that, at least for enough time for its user to set up a winning scenario before the steel menace wrecks havoc. it's also one of the best checks to primarina and scald spamming bulky waters, knock off is a godsend on defensive pokemon and haze's utility is unparalleled.

do note though that i'm not trying to paint it as a good pokemon when i say this. its base stats are complete cheeks and it doesn't pack the punch that the other water-type spin users do. it's also not resilient at all, and teams that rely on it extensively for defensive purposes are bound to be punished for that, making it a better fit on fast paced squads. however, the fact that it fits on so many good teams filled with actual threats by virtue of its ability to remove hazards and check the #1 threat to offense justify its place in the spl metagame.

once again, thanks for the contribution to the thread. i said earlier in the season i would try to post actively, but so far i haven't managed to muster up the motivation to do so

 

[avarice]

moltres to C

Kommo-o to S

 

[Adaam]

Another week (almost) in the books! Playoffs start tomorrow so get ready for some fire UU action. Until then, more analysis (in case you were wondering I smashed that exam oml Astronomy 100 can't stop me).

Me vs sjneider

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-428278
Going into the game Harris and I noticed the Wolfpack's fetish for Gligar, which was often paired with Tentacruel or Empoleon. Harris thus had the idea of using Jellicent spikes against them. From preview the pick looked nice since his only removal was Hydreigon (which also appeared to be Scarf), and I had counters to his wincons in Cobalion and Mega Altaria. However, his Mamoswine looked very scary, especially since my Klefki was not Magnet Rise (I had Foul Play) and let it in for free. I was also afraid of Toxic Milotic since my counterplay was Latias and it outsped Jellicent.

I lead Jellicent since it stops his SR lead and dissuades Mamoswine, which again was the biggest threat to my team. I manage to Wisp the incoming Milotic and then get a Spike up as Amonguss Spores my Klefki. The Spike ended up being huge for Mamoswine as the game played out. I made a stupid play turn 5 by Ice Beaming a Cobalion with Latias, I should have pulled the trigger on Z-Tbolt but I was afraid of Hydreigon or Mamoswine coming in and having nothing to hit Coba later in the game with Latias. I make another dumbass play turn 8 (the worst of the game LOL) and Hex a Mamoswine that is unstatused. I pay the price as Jellicent is crippled but at least I chipped it for 20% lol. The damage revealed CB which relieved me since it had to play 50/50 with its STABs and I could trap it with my Aero. Turn 11 is exactly what I planned on doing after sacking Jellicent, leaving Mamo at 8% and dead upon entry with the Spike up. With Mamo gone my plan was now to win with Latias by continuously chipping Hydreigon. Hippowdon was looking like a snack too without the pig alive, so I thought I had a good chance to win now.

However, sjneider gets in Cobalion on my sleeping Klefki and sets up SD. I was debating going hard Latias but I feared a raw Corkscrew Crash so I went Hippowdon instead. +2 AoP basically killed my Hippo, so I decided to sack Aero instead to get Lati in. Unfortunately my Z-Gigavolt is absorbed by Hydreigon, but with Cobalion neutered I still thought I was in good position since my Hippowdon + Lati core was gonna be hard to break. Turn 20 was a big one for me too since I get Latias burned from Milotic so Amoonguss is useless for the rest of the match, and any potential Toxic is not a threat. Turn 25 he brings in Hydreigon on my Hippo, which I presumed was to Defog, so I decided to spam SR to keep his Mamoswine off the field. I ended up getting good sand chip on his Drei and eventually forced it out with SR up. He makes a good double to get it back in and Defog, so I EQ to keep Mamo off because that was his only chance at breaking now with Cobalion Z-less and Lati burned. I thankfully caught the switch and from there played it safe to guarantee the win.

robjr vs Pearl

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-428245
Looking at the preview I thought rob had good MU. With Mega Slowbro/Toge/Emp I thought Pearl would have a tough time breaking even though his Rotom-H was very very annoying since Terrakion was not Rock-Z and could not break Starmie. Both players play the early game well. Pearl got useful chip on Empoleon with Mega Sceptile and managed to get rocks up and Toxic rob's Togekiss. With this situation, Mega Sceptile looked poised to claim a kill next time it came in. Turn 15 Slowbro comes in as Cobalion sets SR, but the next turn changed the tide of the game since Rob makes a play and raw Ice Beams the incoming Sceptile. This was huge since again Toge was not healthy at all to check Sceptile (Giga into Storm killed), and now Pearl has this massive threat to deal with without any way to immediately pressure it. From here, Pearl makes a series of great plays to keep Terrak and Slowbro at bay. He double switches into Krook (and gets 6% chip on Terrak ), and then later doubles into Rotom-H from a frozen Togekiss and catched Empoleon. Tbh I thought this game was done when Toge froze but I was definitely wrong.

Volt Switch gets a solid 37% on Emp as it looks like Pearl tried to catch a Scald to thaw Togekiss. Instead, Rob Defogs. Pearl then goes Cobalion, presuming Rob would not Scald here but makes a good midground into Slowbro. Pearl sets SR again as Rob CMs, and again I thought the game was done but Pearl catches Ice Beam with Rotom-H and scares it out with potential Toxic. Turn 31 Pearl finally Toxics the Slowbro in exchange for 92% damage from Scald, so he can know safely go Starmie without fearing a Slowbro sweep. However, Rob again makes a nice midground and goes into Empoleon, assuming Pearl would not Volt Switch on a potential Krook switch in. From here, I still though Rob was in a dominant position since Heal Bell would cure Slowbro, and Toge was still frozen. Pearl had to either make insane plays or thaw Toge to have a chance. And again, he does just that turn 36 and catches Empoleon on a double from Slowbro with his Cobalion, keeping SR up. Turn 37 was a bit confusing for me, although I think Pearl tried to catch another double switch into Krook/Togekiss. However, he ends up thawing Togekiss at last by baiting a Scald from Slowbro, giving Pearl a chance again. Terrak comes in and Pearl goes into his knocked Krook, and surprised me by staying in after it set SR. I suppose he feared Z-Rock killing Starmie, although I figured it would be very hard to pull the trigger on a Krook like that.

The next big turns are 46/47, as Pearl tries to catch Krook with an Overheat and instead Toxics it as its -2. Rob wins the 50/50 here and KOs Rotom wiht Knock Off, which makes Slowbro poised to sweep again. Unfortunately the freeze earlier prevented Pearl from being able to Roost, so it could not directly switch into it when it came in turn 49. Instead, Coba is sacked and Pearl forces it out, but at this point its Toge vs the world. It cannot break Pain Split Rotom, Terrak, and Krook on its own, so Rob eventually wins with Slowbro. Great game overall, def my highlight match of the week.

Shiba vs Accelgor

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-427911
Loooool Shiba wyd bringing 0 Ground resists in a Krook meta and fastest mon Scarf Scizor. From preview I thought Accel has big threats in Infernape and Cobalion, with Nidoqueen being the only thing switching into Coba and Nape outspeeding everything but Scizor. However, Blissey + Nidoqueen would be a tough core to break outright, and Accelgor didn't have many Queen switches besides Moltres. Both players tickle each other for a bit, getting SR up and removing them while Blissey eats everything (as it usually does). The first big event to happen is turn 26 when Suicune burns what reveals to be Facade Alt. Normally that is really bad but Nidoqueen ended up taking nothing from boosted Facade so Shiba forces it out. Having no burn ended up being more useful since EQ could smack it for good damage (and Scizor had no Roost). Turn 32 Shiba gets a super useful para on Moltres, crippling it for Nidoqueen. From here Shiba slowly cuts away at Accel's team, as nothing could easily break his core. However, I think Accel could have pulled through if he played aggressively with his Infernape once M-Alt got burned. For example, turn 42 M-Alt came in at 5% and was going to Roost. Hard switching Infernape here and NPing would put Accel in amazing position, assuming he dodges a Body Slam Para. Shiba would have to sack a bunch of mons to take it out, opening up Malt or Coba to clean. Even NPing on a Blissey Toxic could have helped open things up. That being said, Accel made it pretty close thanks to Krook nabbing a bunch of kills (fr Shiba Blissey is not a EQ switch in ).

Sage vs ToF

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-428288
Hope everything is ok with Lycans :(. ToF is rocking stall that is older than my father while Sage has some heat Rose/Luc bulky offense. Sage has greta MU here with SR Empoleon against Defog Molt/Malt and a Lucario which is always threat level 1000 to stall. Lucario ended up being Adamant LO as well which is nightmare scenario since Quag gets cleanly 2HKOd turn 11 and Moltres cannot switch in with SR up. This game was fairly straightforward from here since Lucario is pretty much unstoppable, although Sage either didn't have Mash or is too much of a WUSS to risk it on a Mega Altaria so the game ended up being a lot longer that it should have.


sg vs Leru has yet to happen, but for my team's sake I hope Leru pulls through. LIKE if you agree, ANGRY or SAD react if you don't.

 

[Sage]

I was CC / E Speed / Crunch to explain why i didnt ever kill the Altaria. With non Synthesis Roserade (a relatively easy mon to chip / trap) as my only reliable way to break through a Slowbro I was uncomfortable having my Luke stonewalled by it, and it also helped vs Doublade. Close Combat was a roll to kill at some points but wasn't comfortable risking that around 50/50 odds instead of the Alomomola which very likely could have been Knock Toxic (I don't think Knock Scald is great.) Didn't get burned luckily and was smooth sailing from there.

I'm gonna do some analysis on the week 8 games which were missed later, i'll edit them into this post. thanks Adaam for all the analysis, but go MAGMA BIGS

edit: lost to adamant sub virizion, I can't think of a worse way to go

 

[Hogg]

Been pretty quiet here. Now that SPL is almost over, what have everyone's thoughts been on the state of UU in SPL? What were some of your favorite matches? How did the players compare to your expectations/predictions? Any interesting trends you want to talk about? Any predictions for the final games? We get to see Christo versus Pearl for the last UU game of SPL. I'm pretty excited that the finals are between IMO the two best UU players around right now. Obviously I'm pretty biased in Christo's favor, but I'm expecting a great match regardless.

Usage stats are up to date, for those who like that sort of thing:

+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Scizor             |   42 |  44.68% |  59.52% |
| 2    | Krookodile         |   39 |  41.49% |  56.41% |
| 3    | Aerodactyl         |   29 |  30.85% |  51.72% |
| 4    | Hydreigon          |   26 |  27.66% |  42.31% |
| 5    | Rotom-Heat         |   24 |  25.53% |  54.17% |
| 6    | Gligar             |   22 |  23.40% |  50.00% |
| 7    | Tentacruel         |   21 |  22.34% |  61.90% |
| 8    | Latias             |   19 |  20.21% |  57.89% |
| 8    | Altaria            |   19 |  20.21% |  57.89% |
| 10   | Cobalion           |   15 |  15.96% |  46.67% |
| 10   | Empoleon           |   15 |  15.96% |  46.67% |
| 12   | Primarina          |   14 |  14.89% |  42.86% |
| 13   | Moltres            |   13 |  13.83% |  38.46% |
| 14   | Togekiss           |   12 |  12.77% |  33.33% |
| 15   | Blissey            |   11 |  11.70% |  45.45% |
| 15   | Amoonguss          |   11 |  11.70% |   9.09% |
| 17   | Slowbro            |   10 |  10.64% |  80.00% |
| 17   | Aggron             |   10 |  10.64% |  60.00% |
| 17   | Infernape          |   10 |  10.64% |  20.00% |
| 20   | Terrakion          |    9 |   9.57% |  66.67% |
| 20   | Kommo-o            |    9 |   9.57% |  66.67% |
| 20   | Manectric          |    9 |   9.57% |  44.44% |
| 20   | Doublade           |    9 |   9.57% |  33.33% |
| 24   | Celebi             |    8 |   8.51% |  87.50% |
| 24   | Sylveon            |    8 |   8.51% |  75.00% |
| 24   | Alomomola          |    8 |   8.51% |  37.50% |
| 27   | Hippowdon          |    7 |   7.45% |  71.43% |
| 27   | Quagsire           |    7 |   7.45% |  42.86% |
| 29   | Bisharp            |    6 |   6.38% |  66.67% |
| 29   | Steelix            |    6 |   6.38% |  33.33% |
| 29   | Mamoswine          |    6 |   6.38% |  16.67% |
| 32   | Suicune            |    5 |   5.32% |  80.00% |
| 32   | Diancie            |    5 |   5.32% |  60.00% |
| 32   | Nidoqueen          |    5 |   5.32% |  40.00% |
| 32   | Articuno           |    5 |   5.32% |  40.00% |
| 32   | Reuniclus          |    5 |   5.32% |  20.00% |
| 32   | Starmie            |    5 |   5.32% |  20.00% |
| 38   | Klefki             |    4 |   4.26% |  75.00% |
| 38   | Kyurem             |    4 |   4.26% |  50.00% |
| 38   | Blastoise          |    4 |   4.26% |  25.00% |
| 41   | Silvally           |    3 |   3.19% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Nidoking           |    3 |   3.19% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Gengar             |    3 |   3.19% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Nihilego           |    3 |   3.19% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Roserade           |    3 |   3.19% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Virizion           |    3 |   3.19% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Sharpedo           |    3 |   3.19% |  33.33% |
| 41   | Froslass           |    3 |   3.19% |  33.33% |
| 41   | Florges            |    3 |   3.19% |  33.33% |
| 41   | Rhyperior          |    3 |   3.19% |  33.33% |
| 51   | Snorlax            |    2 |   2.13% | 100.00% |
| 51   | Volcanion          |    2 |   2.13% |  50.00% |
| 51   | Florges-Yellow     |    2 |   2.13% |  50.00% |
| 51   | Swampert           |    2 |   2.13% |  50.00% |
| 51   | Lucario            |    2 |   2.13% |  50.00% |
| 51   | Florges-Blue       |    2 |   2.13% |   0.00% |
| 51   | Sceptile           |    2 |   2.13% |   0.00% |
| 51   | Bronzong           |    2 |   2.13% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Magneton           |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Tsareena           |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Chesnaught         |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Rotom-Mow          |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Shaymin            |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Stoutland          |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Florges-White      |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Jellicent          |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Palossand          |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Seismitoad         |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Zygarde-10%        |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Azelf              |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Mantine            |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Mienshao           |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Araquanid          |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Crawdaunt          |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Pyukumuku          |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Bewear             |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Houndoom           |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Heracross          |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Milotic            |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Registeel          |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |

And (almost) final player rankings:

 

[Freeroamer]

IMO the two best UU players around right now.

Week 8

robjr vs Christo

Week 9

robjr vs Pearl

Semifinals

robjr vs Pearl

Hide

Big fan of Pearl and Christo too though, hopefully it’ll be a good game, in terms of skill its very close so I’ll take the easy option and say I hope Pearl wins cos I want the Ruiners to win the whole thing!

 

[Kink]

Been pretty quiet here. Now that SPL is almost over, what have everyone's thoughts been on the state of UU in SPL? What were some of your favorite matches? How did the players compare to your expectations/predictions? Any interesting trends you want to talk about? Any predictions for the final games? We get to see Christo versus Pearl for the last UU game of SPL. I'm pretty excited that the finals are between IMO the two best UU players around right now. Obviously I'm pretty biased in Christo's favor, but I'm expecting a great match regardless.

Usage stats are up to date, for those who like that sort of thing:

+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Scizor             |   42 |  44.68% |  59.52% |
| 2    | Krookodile         |   39 |  41.49% |  56.41% |
| 3    | Aerodactyl         |   29 |  30.85% |  51.72% |
| 4    | Hydreigon          |   26 |  27.66% |  42.31% |
| 5    | Rotom-Heat         |   24 |  25.53% |  54.17% |
| 6    | Gligar             |   22 |  23.40% |  50.00% |
| 7    | Tentacruel         |   21 |  22.34% |  61.90% |
| 8    | Latias             |   19 |  20.21% |  57.89% |
| 8    | Altaria            |   19 |  20.21% |  57.89% |
| 10   | Cobalion           |   15 |  15.96% |  46.67% |
| 10   | Empoleon           |   15 |  15.96% |  46.67% |
| 12   | Primarina          |   14 |  14.89% |  42.86% |
| 13   | Moltres            |   13 |  13.83% |  38.46% |
| 14   | Togekiss           |   12 |  12.77% |  33.33% |
| 15   | Blissey            |   11 |  11.70% |  45.45% |
| 15   | Amoonguss          |   11 |  11.70% |   9.09% |
| 17   | Slowbro            |   10 |  10.64% |  80.00% |
| 17   | Aggron             |   10 |  10.64% |  60.00% |
| 17   | Infernape          |   10 |  10.64% |  20.00% |
| 20   | Terrakion          |    9 |   9.57% |  66.67% |
| 20   | Kommo-o            |    9 |   9.57% |  66.67% |
| 20   | Manectric          |    9 |   9.57% |  44.44% |
| 20   | Doublade           |    9 |   9.57% |  33.33% |
| 24   | Celebi             |    8 |   8.51% |  87.50% |
| 24   | Sylveon            |    8 |   8.51% |  75.00% |
| 24   | Alomomola          |    8 |   8.51% |  37.50% |
| 27   | Hippowdon          |    7 |   7.45% |  71.43% |
| 27   | Quagsire           |    7 |   7.45% |  42.86% |
| 29   | Bisharp            |    6 |   6.38% |  66.67% |
| 29   | Steelix            |    6 |   6.38% |  33.33% |
| 29   | Mamoswine          |    6 |   6.38% |  16.67% |
| 32   | Suicune            |    5 |   5.32% |  80.00% |
| 32   | Diancie            |    5 |   5.32% |  60.00% |
| 32   | Nidoqueen          |    5 |   5.32% |  40.00% |
| 32   | Articuno           |    5 |   5.32% |  40.00% |
| 32   | Reuniclus          |    5 |   5.32% |  20.00% |
| 32   | Starmie            |    5 |   5.32% |  20.00% |
| 38   | Klefki             |    4 |   4.26% |  75.00% |
| 38   | Kyurem             |    4 |   4.26% |  50.00% |
| 38   | Blastoise          |    4 |   4.26% |  25.00% |
| 41   | Silvally           |    3 |   3.19% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Nidoking           |    3 |   3.19% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Gengar             |    3 |   3.19% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Nihilego           |    3 |   3.19% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Roserade           |    3 |   3.19% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Virizion           |    3 |   3.19% |  66.67% |
| 41   | Sharpedo           |    3 |   3.19% |  33.33% |
| 41   | Froslass           |    3 |   3.19% |  33.33% |
| 41   | Florges            |    3 |   3.19% |  33.33% |
| 41   | Rhyperior          |    3 |   3.19% |  33.33% |
| 51   | Snorlax            |    2 |   2.13% | 100.00% |
| 51   | Volcanion          |    2 |   2.13% |  50.00% |
| 51   | Florges-Yellow     |    2 |   2.13% |  50.00% |
| 51   | Swampert           |    2 |   2.13% |  50.00% |
| 51   | Lucario            |    2 |   2.13% |  50.00% |
| 51   | Florges-Blue       |    2 |   2.13% |   0.00% |
| 51   | Sceptile           |    2 |   2.13% |   0.00% |
| 51   | Bronzong           |    2 |   2.13% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Magneton           |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Tsareena           |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Chesnaught         |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Rotom-Mow          |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Shaymin            |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Stoutland          |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Florges-White      |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Jellicent          |    1 |   1.06% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Palossand          |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Seismitoad         |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Zygarde-10%        |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Azelf              |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Mantine            |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Mienshao           |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Araquanid          |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Crawdaunt          |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Pyukumuku          |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Bewear             |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Houndoom           |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Heracross          |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Milotic            |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Registeel          |    1 |   1.06% |   0.00% |

And (almost) final player rankings:

View attachment 166565

The competition level has been fun to observe. I’m super happy that people like Harris, Adaam, Sage and Accelgor finally got their chance to shine. No surprise that Christo and Pearl were able to perform great this season. Robjr was also a pleasure to watch.

I hope y’all know I watch all the games. Some of you didn’t get the records you wanted or deserved but that will all come with time and perseverance. I’m really proud of all of you, you’re playing at some excellent levels of competition and I hope to join you all next year.

 

[Adaam]

| 27 | Hippowdon | 7 | 7.45% | 71.43% |

Just wanna point out Hippo has been criminally underrated this SPL mainly due to Gligar hype (which is probably a tad overrated itself). With SD Rak taking over the CB set I find it harder and harder justifying using Gligar over Hippo unless I need a remover that can maintain momentum w/Uturn. Hippo being able to check big bads in Mane/Aero is something Gligar can only dream of.

 

[Christo]

UU SPL is over and I'm glad I decided to return from my hiatus because the meta is in a fun and balanced spot and seems to have been for the majority of the generation. The competition this year was interesting and the majority of the of the players that I expected to do well fulfilled those expectations. At the beginning of the season there seemed to be a large skill gap among the player-base, but the records eventually balanced out as the season progressed.

I'll likely return when the new generation is nearing release, and for now I'd like to share the team I built vs Pearl in the finals. It's my favorite team I built all season and has very consistent winnable matchups.

Team: https://pokepast.es/610d1b42fb66cec1

I wanted to create another team with DD Altaria paired with Scarf Magneton because of how well the idea has worked previously in the tournament. While re-using similar or identical strategies would be mostly ill advised in any Pokemon tournament, there is no reasonable way to actually prepare for this combo, so I felt confident. I mainly wanted to build a semi-stall version of Alt/mag that took advantage of alt/mag's defensive utility. The defensive trio of alo/bliss/gligar is a really solid stall core, and CB Pursuit Scizor creates a dual-trapping core with Mag. Scizor traps CM Lati and choice locked ghost types that would annoy the defensive core otherwise. Magneton is a solid Togekiss pivot and provides solid speed control vs pokemon like Terrakion. Altaria is a counter to Block Slowbro and CM Suicune and runs an adamant nature to threaten opposing stall and provide overall pressure to any team. Max HP still ensures the ability to check Infernape, Crawduant, and the aforementioned bulky waters. The defensive trio run triple toxic to provide offensive pressure and to maintain momentum. I believe this is why the team works well so feel free to try it out.

Ggs everyone

 

[Indigo Plateau]

I started writing this almost 3 weeks ago but my draft got deleted so this post is gonna be shorter than intended LOL. This SPL I had the privilege of helping my man Lycans out seeing as Sharks were pretty bare-bones when it came down to UU support & I wanted to dedicate this post to the builds / ideas we came up with every week. Sadly I don't have the time to go too in-depth anymore after my draft was erased but I play this tier way too much to not have contributed anything to forums yet, so here it is:

Week 1: vs. Pearl

Pearl was really hard to prep for since we had to make sure to be safe vs HO and stall at all times. At first we were considering Infernape + Bisharp (which is what Pearl brought funnily enough), but we ended up going with Suicune as a good status absorber that could pressure a lot of Pearl's bulkier builds. We didn't think that Pearl would open up SPL with stall so we went with scarf Togekiss for a better HO matchup, especially alongside Scizor. Hydreigon was a pretty obvious fit and Fight Z was a necessity because Bisharp looked like a massive threat at +2 otherwise. Ultimately, this team matched up well vs a lot of BO/balance that we saw in Pearl's recent builds and we were feeling good about its HO matchup so we rolled with it. It worked out nicely and you can't really ask for a better start than nailing matchup vs Pearl & coming out with a win week 1.

Week 2: vs. Sage

When scouting for Sage we noticed that a lot of her recent builds were exploitable by Spikes + offensive Water-type, so we decided to focus on that. We actually didn't have a ton of time to prep this week so I hit up my man Accelgor remembering that he had a Mega Blastoise + Spikes team & he was kind enough to pass it to us. The initial team had Hydreigon > Latias with Rock Z Terrak but we liked Elec Z Latias being able to weaken Water/Fairy types for Blastoise, so we opted for that & made Terrak Babiri to help this team's Scizor matchup. Unfortunately Sage's only Blastoise check in Florges got confused and left Sage short-handed the rest of the game, which would've turned out to be an exciting one had that not happened.

Week 3: vs. edi0n

Coming into this week we were planning on using Celebi vs edi0n and our plans didn't change even after rob slaughtered him with it the week before. Primarina looked to be an excellent pick as we didn't expect edi0n to bring Amoonguss, a Pokemon he had been using a lot of, and even with an Amoonguss most of his teams lacked proper counterplay to it. The rest of the team was pretty standard and fell in quite easily after choosing Prim + Celebi, with Scizor counterplay being our primary concern (hence Rotom-H + Cobal). We went with yellow magic on Rotom here as it worked extremely well to neuter Latias, Terrak, etc and make both Primarina's and Celebi's jobs much easier. The chosen core worked out wonderfully in game with Primarina claiming a kill basically every time it came in and Celebi checking CM Florges.

Week 4: vs. bugzi

This build might look a bit awkward on the outside but it is very effective in the hands of an aggressive player. We were actually expecting bugzi to use stall or some fat balance this week and decided to completely overwhelm both builds with a Kommo + Crawdaunt core. Manectric was a pretty natural fit to bring in these two and because Crawdaunt loves abusing bulky Ground-types that Manectric draws in. Scarf Scizor was amazing here because it accomplishes a lot for this team, mainly preventing us from flat out losing to both Latias and Celebi. Last two were pretty self explanatory as Gligar is our Ground immunity, hazard remover, and an extra pivot, whereas Amoonguss was necessary to check Altaria. This team would've worked out perfectly if Kommo was able to fire off Dragon Z vs Aero turn 1 (it was fully physical so it OHKOes) as without Aero and a scarfer winning was really straightforward, but

☆Lycans: raymondLast Tuesday at 6:38 PM
☆Lycans: better pack ur freeze counters :wink:

guess we didn't prep well enough

Week 5: vs. Harris

Already wrote about this week in Break This Team but this team's loads of fun to use. Mega Slowbro is pretty annoying to build with but coming up with something that works is really satisfying. Ice Beam Bro in general is pretty underrated in the current meta, it hits the majority of what people use to blanket check it and can be a major nuisance as shown in this game. The burn was really unfortunate for Harris as it neutered basically all forms of counterplay and if you haven't used this mon, you should definitely give it a shot.

Week 6: vs. rob

Can't wait to receive backlash again for wanting to experiment with Virizion LOL. In all honesty this mon is pretty underwhelming but I still think it has an okay niche in being able to not get rkilled by Krook + having a better stall matchup than Terrak. Alas rob ended up bringing the hardest Viriz counter possible in Doublade so Virizion did nothing despite working pretty well in tests ;-; This whole team is pretty standard but the game was phenomenal despite the hard mu, so I'll let it do the talking if you haven't watched it yet:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-425784

Week 7: vs. Christo

We were meaning to use Specs Starmie for quite a while and it looked to put in a good amount of work against Christo's recent teams. Kyurem was something else that stood out so we decided to try them both at the same time. Cobalion was Volt Switch instead of Taunt since chipping Tenta was awesome for Scizor but it ended up backfiring since Christo brought stall. We didn't give the stall matchup enough consideration until the day of the match (where we actually got a strong feeling he'd bring it) but at that point we didn't care enough to change it since Specs Starmie isn't the easiest to whip up a quick build around. This team doesn't have a Fairy so it can struggle vs Dragons but it seemed to do the best in practice vs the others and you can rock yellow magic on Rotom to make those matchups easier.

Week 8: vs. ht

It'd be a crime to not use one of the best Pokemon in the meta for 9 entire weeks so we had to whip it out vs HT. Gengar looked like a pretty potent pick and a good partner for Altaria since you can sub up on Amoonguss, which we were really expecting, and break down Steel-types with Fight Z if we opted for Refresh Alt. When looking for a rocker, we wanted something that wasn't entirely passive and served as a good Aero + Scizor check since we knew we'd probably be weak to those two with the initial core; SR + 3 attacks Pert fit really nicely, filling those requirements and also allowing us to easily keep rocks up vs Gligar if need be. The rest of the team fell in place easily. This is definitely one of my favorite builds yet and most enjoyable team to use because it just seems to flow really smoothly and offensively synergizes well. Ground-types like Swampert and Rhyperior are underrated, you guys gotta use those more n_n

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We had some cool Sharpedo teams planned for last week vs Sage but unfortunately Venezuela's power had other thoughts about the game There's been a lot of people that I've spoken to say that SM is dry/bad/broken to build for but I think there's a ton of creative/unexplored ideas out there & people tend to get really lazy when building. I had tons of fun building and getting to test/interact with people that I hadn't before at a high level & consider this SPL my best experience yet, can't wait to see what UUPL has in store!

shoutouts

Accelgor for helping me out with literally everything despite the 500 messages I sent you, honestly surprised you're not sick of me LOL e: oh also for building that Week 5 team together
Darksafadao for your advice on most of the teams when I asked you, helped me tweak out a ton of minor things that came into play
Pak for testing with me at any time aka at 11 am during class or 3 am when I def should've been asleep
martha for helping me build that Week 8 team that I really enjoy, stop saying you can't build anything good ffs
HarrisIsAwesome we didn't get to test as much as we hoped but you still helped solidify picks for a couple weeks, sry for that cm beam bro ;(
@ all the Sharks, even if I wasn't officially on there you guys were a blast to chat with & super friendly <3