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[Guide] Uranium Championship Series Debrief Part 1: How To Draft
#1
Hello, I am FamSlayer, the champion of The Uranium Championship Series for Season 1. Through no shortage of luck, I managed to go undefeated through the entire tournament, finishing with 9 straight wins between the regular season and the playoffs. To help competitors preparing for next season, I want to share as much of my strategy as possible so that the tournament and players can grow. This is the first post where I will be briefly breaking down the first part of the UCS: the draft.

The Uranium Championship Series is a draft league format, and if you don’t know what that means, you can read up on it here. The short version is that each of the 8 players take turns drafting from the Pokédex to make up a team. This draft will inform your entire season, and it is incredibly important. There are three general types of Pokémon that you should be prioritizing in draft.

The first type serves a vital utility in removing hazards such as Stealth Rocks and Sticky Web. Defog users are better than Rapid Spin users because they cannot be “spin blocked” by a ghost type, so prioritize them first. The best Defog users are Coatlith, Gliscor, and Gligar at the moment, although Gliscor and Gligar only get defog due to a bug in the online simulator, and that might be fixed before next season. I do not recommend a Defog (or Rapid Spin) user that is already weak to Stealth Rocks as you will have to take (at least) 25% when switching in. You have a couple more options when choosing a Rapid Spin user, but S51-A and Gararewl are still the best of the bunch, so pick them if you can. Unfortunately, assuming Gliscor’s access to Defog gets fixed, there will only be three “good” hazard removers, so I recommend drafting first! Remember, Pokémon like Splendidfowl may get Defog, but its weakness to Stealth Rocks will limit its effectiveness. If you were not lucky enough to get good hazard removal, you need to think more carefully about whether the key Pokémon on your team can be weak to rocks. Think twice about drafting Harptera and Inflagetah if your only way to remove hazards is Dermafrost.

Secondly, you want offensively threatening Pokémon with raw power. Actan, Yatagaryu, Harptera, Seikamater, Garlikid, Inflagetah, Mega-Archilles, Frikitiki, and Paraboom are perfect examples of pokemon that can 6-0 teams after just one turn of setup, and some with less than that. You’re looking for Pokémon  with very high speed or speed boosting moves, or ones that can easily spam high base power priority moves. Sometimes a Pokémon that is extremely difficult to kill and tends to OHKO things with its STAB moves like Actan or Mega-Syrentide fit the bill as well. 

Lastly, you need defensive Pokémon. You can’t expect to win every week with hyper offense, even though hyper offense is very strong in Pokémon Uranium. Antarki, Mega-Syrentide, Actan, Laissure, Luxelong, Gliscor, Escartress, Nimflora, Cubblfly, Tofurang, and Tubareel all serve different roles, but have unique typings and niches that make it difficult for one Pokémon to break through more than one or two. Pokemon with reliable recovery on this list deserve special recognition, like Antarki, Luxelong, and Escartress with Recover, and Gliscor, Nimflora, Cubblfly and Tofurang with Roost. These recovery moves allow these Pokémon to serve as true walls to much of the metagame, and will all serve you well on your team.

I made a tier document at the start of the season, and have updated it throughout as I have seen different Pokémon perform. This is only my opinion, so do not follow this as law. Also, don’t draft straight down this tier list, as there are far more important factors than what tier I put a Pokémon in, like how well it would work on your team.

FamSlayer's UCS Draft Tier List.


This is some basic information I wanted to get out before I made my followup post about teambuilding and preparation where I will be dumping (as promised) all of my teams. Thanks for reading, and be on the lookout for a followup post in the next couple of days!
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#2
Hi Fam Slayer, 

Our draft league wanted to get into Uranium Draft League. Our discord is https://discord.gg/eEhHFd5H , and we have ran a couple seasons of draft, including a bunch of off meta stuff like rad red and insurgence this season. If you have a bit of time, I would like to discuss with you about Uranium Draft league. 

Thanks,
Bajram1892
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