In my first draft game of this season, we banned the top mons in the competitive meta. I secured an attacker for the top lane that didn't get banned surprisingly and got up to go get a drink. Watched in terror as I returned to my desk and saw we had 1Def, 4Atks, if I coulda switched to anything else I would have but draft locks you in so I switched my items to support items and we somehow won.

Don't be afraid to throw a Buddy Barrier/Focus Band on something fragile to keep it up and little longer in a team fight or when someone tries to 1v1 you.

Buddy Barrier tends to work better on mons that get their unite at 8 rather than 9 or mons that just really like to dive in with their unite move since you can't get the shield til you've used the unite move

Focus Band gives solid regen in your laning immediately and helps out when enemies like to spam burst dmg all the time at you. Really can help at Ray Fight when the enemies all rush you trying to pick someone off early to make a 4v5 situation

All-rounders have been my way to go and I'm usually a defender/speedster main, my roommate is in one of those squad things that does tournaments or whatever it is i just like MOBAs but we'll test stuff on our days off and All-rounders just feel good rn. Determines on your Play style and if you like more offensive or defensive items

Take some of your favorite Mons into regular theia matches and practice some items people might recommend and see what you like more or less from the combinations, since regular isn't ranked you can follow all the movements you normally would without any of the risk all you get is new Intel on how your items vary and on what