Teambuilding Principles for the Draft League Format

Originally this was going to be a super cool video but my computer crashed and destroyed the nearly-finished recording : ( I know I saved it because in order to play video back on Final Cut Express, I have to render it and I can’t render it until I save it but it is nowhere to be found on my computer so unfortunately, if you want the info, you’re gonna have to bust out the reading goggles.

I’m writing this post to address an idea I saw in comment section from an actual Youtuber (aDrive maybe?) where someone asked them to make a video to learn how to teambuild for draft.  I haven’t seen anything like that out there so I thought I’d outline the principals of my approach so that others might apply them as well.  I thought I’d give it a shot since I help a lot of people with their league prep already, so Wynaut? 

I have four basic principles, and I keep them basic because how you build is totally match-up driven and requires the assessment of too many specific factors to be useful in such a post. My first principle is:

1) Understand your team’s capabilities.

-Not every team can do everything so know what your Pokémon CAN do as well as what they cannot.  Scarf Ferrothorn is not a good revenge killer. Don’t do it.

-Sometimes it helps to draft a team that fits a playstyle you want, but not at the cost of versatility, but I’m not going into draft strategy. I could do an article on that but that would be separate from this.

2) Understand your opponent’s team’s capabilities.

-Their Pokémon have limitations too. Knowing what your opponent can and cannot do with their team will affect your builds.  There’s no need to prep for banded Chansey, trust me.

-Identifying potential roles early will make the process easier too. Do you see a P2? It might be Sp Def w/ Trace to take on your Heatran.

-There are a lot of possibilities to account for so it may be beneficial to simply prep for the most dangerous ones.

3) Consider the matchup specifically.

Understanding what each team can do and how those possibilities match-up directly against each other can be the difference between good prep and bad.

-You might have an amazing set up mon that destroys their team...but what is it going to set up on? (Shout out to Mega Gyarados lololol).  If the opponent's team doesn't provide set up opportunities, you may have to forgo that option.

-Are there any obvious holes in their team that you can take advantage of?  What *can't* they switch in on?

-Are there any obvious holes in YOUR team they might try to exploit? How can you prevent that?

4) Building approach: Defensively vs Offensively

Even if you build according to a particular archetype, you typically approach it from a defensive perspective (what’s my switch-in to ‘x’?) or an offensive one (how can I utilize ‘y’ threat to rip through their team?).  This section is going to include examples so feel free to skip to each bullet point (-) if you're short on time.

-Defense/ Stall

Generally, I find defensive builds to be inferior in league-style because ladder-unviable coverage can be easy to incorporate and can break through cores.  Also taunt is relatively reliable, substitute, etc. Sometimes it can be very effective though and to demonstrate this point, I’m going to show you my build from a match I played in the EBC. 

This was a scary first match-up because my opponent had two things normally banned from draft leagues: Mega Kangaskhan and Necrozma.  He also had great offensive capabilities in Hawlucha, Zygarde, Sylveon, and Arcanine, as well as potential defensive builds for Necrozma, Arcanine, Suicune, Bronzong, and Drapion. I was not even mildly concerned with Armaldo lol. Call me when someone with a similar team gets a sweep with manual rain + swift swim Armaldo.  

So how did I prep?  Well as always, I start with some fire ass nicknames.

 

I started with Rocky Helmet Spaghett! because it checked his physical threats pretty well and got some nice chip damage on Kangaskhan, who'd be hitting it twice. It also completely walls Zygarde 10% and breaks its sub.  Knock Off disrupts his team and potential switch ins like Bronzong, Dhelmise, or Arcanine, Leech Seed means nothing can come in and set up freely because it will progressively lose health and heal my Pokemon while mine wear his down, and Stun Spore in case I needed to spam para. I considered Sludge Bomb for Sylveon and EQ for Drapion but decided I'd rather not stay in on those since, as with all defensive builds, it's important to preserve your walls.

Pako and Mogwai would be proud to see Lord Mountain doing so well even to this day.  I realized that Tangrowth was limited in its ability to wall stuff like Drapion and Sylveon, and thanks to its great natural physical bulk, I didn't need much investment to have a secondary measure against Mega Khan.  Since Sylveon was tough to come in on, a SpDef build made the most sense to me.  Something I also considered was Lord Mountain's lack of offensive investment made him somewhat easy to come in on for Arcanine, Suicune, Necrozma, etc, so spamming Toxic to wear things down was essential to optimal use.

This isn't very defensive, I know, but a LOT of his team hated burns and next to nothing could take repeated Flare Blitz's (besides Suicune). Bulldoze was to predict an Arcanine switch-in and Extreme Speed meant I could pick off worn down, faster foes that may have gotten to set up more than I planned.

Two things defensive builds hate are hazards and being set up on. Haze was my best measure of making sure Necrozma or CM Suicune couldn't run wild.  I also needed something that could beat Hawlucha (I think he needs to be at +2 for Thunder Punch to 2HKO) and an offensive Arcanine, so I put some offensive moves on her as well.  She also served as a secondary counter measure to Zydog.

Is it even defense if you don't have a Chansey?  Chansey gets a lot of shit for being passive and weak, but definitely watch the recording of this one and see how this set lead the team in KOs this week :)  Florence was my most reliable rocker this week, and served as a great utility wall who could pass Wishes to something like Entei or Tapu Fini, who can't really heal themselves.  Florence is a beast so she doesn't need protect and I like to keep Seismic Toss on most Chansey sets to break subs and do something even if Taunted.

When I do beat stall or defensive teams, it's usually because I find it easy to predict what someone's switch-in will be. Zapdos was an amazing option to chunk his team with Volt Switches and give me initiative if necessary.  His sole ground type was Zygarde 10% and because it's so frail, you really don't want to risk sending it in on a potential HP Ice.  The way I see it, Zydog works a lot like Weavile in this way; it wants to come in freely and collect KOs, so I didn't mind having to risk a Volt Switch on it.  I also had great counters to Zydog meaning this set had the potential to put in a lot of work.

See how the team worked here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=043Z89Hy__8&t=9s

-Offense/ Hyper-Offense

Offense is a potent but volatile play style that can leave you vulnerable to unexpected threats but with the right prep can be tough to stop when you manage your sacks and initiative properly.  To show you what I mean, let’s look at the match where I substituted in for my friend @Satoshi_Red_Ash to play against @theflyingfiona.

Nobody likes prepping for Fiona.  She has threats on threats and literally the most intimidating team ever. THREE intimidators. I see so much offensive potential, especially with her Flynium Z, but a little less defensive potential, especially against the rain team I was using.

This team is very hard rain and very offensive (barring the Chansey, but that basically makes this a Chansey Offense build lol) and Water STAB alone is going to crush everything but Tapu Fini, Breloom, and Toxicroak, all of which are hit by Hurricane. Snoop's offensive potential here is severely limited by his speed so I opted for a bulky build to have as many opportunities to live and set up rain as possible. Max Def to ensure I live unboosted Supersonic Skystrikes.

Remember what I said about her only water resists being Breloom, Toxicroak, and Tapu Fini? Guess who hits them all super effectively?  The STAB Giga Drain was the main reason I chose Fruit Duck over Dr. Dra (Kingdra) who was walled by Fini with his STAB.  Toxicroak could have taken this set on pretty well if I didn't have HP Psychic so to keep momentum up, an important thing for all play styles but especially offense, I had to include it.

If Fiona found a way around rain, I wanted a late game cleaner and Ultron fit the bill.  The Shuca meant I could Agility up on basically everything but Arcanine, Clear Body means no amount of Intimidate can save her, and the coverage was sufficient to pick apart a weakened team, which is what late game cleaners do.  Metagross also gave me a solid flying resist (remember she also had access to Flynium Z) as well as a normal resist in case of Bewear.

While it does seem a bit slow for this match-up, it's ability to handle Magnezone, Breloom, and Tapu Fini were really appealing to me.  Also the Sucker Punch for Mega Alakazam, a huge threat to me if it traces Swift Swim, meant I could do some big damage before going down.

AV Magnezone was another thing that could stop the rain pretty well.  She could have prepped and brought Shed Shell, but to me that wasn't a threat.  It also can trap the Toxicroak making it worth bringing to me.  Thugtrio didn't do much else so Toxic and Memento round out the set; Memento to keep Persian-A from getting momentum with Parting Shot or weakening some powerhouses like Bewear, Lando, Mence, etc.

I already explained what Chansey does :P Light Screen was here over Reflect because if I slipped up and let Fini get some Calm Minds under her belt, it was gonna be tough to wear down so I wanted to make sure my Chansey could wear it down with Seismic Toss and put it in range of anything else.

No recording for this battle but here's the replay to see how the team worked: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7customgame-568853231

-Balance and Bulky Offense

These can cover part of both play styles but are jeopardized when stretched to thin.  Typically you have a good spread of offense and defense, so you can switch in on things, but also abuse strong attacks once you get the chance.  One of my favorite balanced builds is the team I used to take on @mattyb in week 4 of the CIL.

 

Matt had a team rife with threats that could easily tear through me, especially Kartana, Infernape, and Magearna, but I'm also a little weak to Starmie and Volcarona.  Initially I wanted to build offense with Toxic Spikes but the presence of Mega Sableye as well as defoggers Kartana, Latias, and Mantine as well as Starmie as a spinner made me think that might not be so easy to pull off, thus I went for a more balanced approach.

Besides being threatening on it's own, my sand mode served as a potential counter measure to a Shift Gear Magearna or Quiver Dance Volcarona.  Big Mama is my auto-sand and good phys def wall for the likes of Gigalith, Infernape lacking Grass Knot, and Krookodile. Smooth Rock made the most sense to me because as one of my switch-ins to Krook, leftovers don't do much good if Knocked Off, and I can always benefit from more sand so it made sense to choose that.

Much of Matt's team outpaces mine without this little lady and aside from Scolipede was the only way I could get mileage out of having Bugnium Z that week.  Swords Dance was to help me break through a Porygon2, who could have walled reasonably well without that.  Since I was bringing the Smooth Rock, I also had extra turns of sand if the opportunity to set up presented itself and I didn't need Iron Head for anything EdgeQuake coverage didn't hit.

If I had to describe this set in only two words, I would use "Pure Heat". This was essentially the only good response to Kartana on my entire roster. Leaf Blade + Smart Strike is deadly but having Sacred Sword and Night Slash options meant even my Chandelure wasn't safe.  Enter Iron Mantis with HP Fire.  Thanks to Technician, I don't need investment to OHKO Kartana with HP Fire even with a -SpAtk nature, which is good because I need that bulk.  Roost was to stay healthy because if Scizor went down, my chances of winning drastically fell.

This seems less than ideal because he has two of the most threatening steel types in the game, but I figured if I could snag a couple boosts, the season 1 MVP could remind everyone she's just as dangerous as ever and I think most of my friends know how much I love forcing Cletus lol.  The Babiri Berry protects me against one of the Steel types and she sets up on just about everything else not named Infernape or Volcarona.  It's also a great lead against Mega Sableye, who commonly lead to get their Magic Bounce right away.  Matt brought a surprising tech to deal with her though, so I won't spoil it.

Matt had a number of specially-oriented offensive threats I was concerned with and I also wanted a fighting resist besides Cletus because Infernape learns Gunk Shot.  I don't have a great way to *hit* Infernape on this set, but I figured I could bluff it reasonably convincingly if need be.  Ziz is also a great switch in to Latias, pivots very nicely for me, and has excellent coverage to ensure Volcarona didn't get out of hand.  Superpower was for a weakened Gigalith or P2.

At this point, the team was good, but also very weak to Starmie.  Due to its speed, power, and coverage, I didn't really have any better options than Beef Jones. Pursuit was to catch Starmie "inevitably" switching out so I could get damage before Sableye or Mantine came in, Rock Slide because this was also my best response to Volcarona, and EQ was just good coverage this week in case of Magearna, Gigalith.  Oh and Facade was in case Beef had to come in on a Scald and got burned :/

To see how this match went: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKf_K4PNm-8&t=898s

It's important to note that these are just examples.  I don't feel there is a general right or wrong way to build because each matchup poses a unique challenge.  Even teams you might not consider threatening can be full of surprises and dangerous in the right hands, which brings me to my final… bonus… super-secret special rules:

5) Respect your opponents.

Besides being good sportsmanship, even the BEST matchups can quickly turn against you if you get complacent.   Or maybe they’ll have some surprises you didn’t anticipate—build your team as best you can, and chose your plays carefully and deliberately for the optimal results.

However, the coach you play against isn’t your only opponent: RNG is a major factor that can undermine even the best preparations, so it should always be taken into account.  If you don’t have to risk losing because your Starmie could miss a Hydro Pump, don’t.  Be aware of potential consequences and in doing so, put yourself in a position to have the best odds at winning.  And finally:

6) Reflect on your choices. 

There’s going to be situations where there’s absolutely nothing you can do, but often you could have done something differently to cop the W. Accept your loss, understand it, and grow from it; you will only be better for doing so.

Nobody can win all the time, but if you apply these principles, you’ll have a solid foundation to approach your team builds on.  If you have questions, you can leave a comment, or it would probably best to reach me on Twitter, @KevinVGC.  Thanks for reading!