DPL 9 SV DOU Game of the Week
Hello, I'm planning on highlighting one SV DOU game each week of DPL for interesting team choices, fun gameplay, or any reason I find myself wanting to talk about. To kick things off, the game for this week is a DOU council member showdown between JRL and YoBuddy!
YoBuddyTheBaker (Storms) vs JRL (Thieves)
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As the first SV DOU match of DPL, this game obviously generated a lot of interest, and I’m glad to say it lived up to the hype. Both JRL and YoBuddy are highly respected players who can build and pilot a variety of team styles, and from team preview it was clear the game was going to be a fast paced back and forth shootout between two powerful offensive teams.
YoBuddy is running an Indeedee + Armarouge psyspam team with lots of speed control. The team has a Trick Room mode complemented by Iron Hands, which is likely to be Swords Dance to take advantage of redirection from Indeedee. Under Trick Room, a boosted Iron Hands looks very difficult for JRL’s team to handle, so positioning it correctly is key for this match. Iron Bundle and Roaring Moon offer speed control rivaled only by Murkrow’s prankster tailwind, so the team’s fast mode can be potent with the combination of Tailwind and Icy Wind. The team also threatens a potential Weakness Policy + Weak Armor Armarouge, which can be proc’d by a Flip Turn from Iron Bundle to quickly run away with games and is something JRL has to keep in mind at all times. YoBuddy’s team is rounded out with the tier’s premier hazard control in Glimmora, which can remove hazards with Mortal Spin and pressure the opponent with hazards of its own, all while being a proactive offensive threat with its powerful base 130 special attack and wide coverage options.
JRL’s team is a fast paced sun hyper offense team that looks to outspeed and bludgeon opponents with strong sun abusers such as Great Tusk, Chi-Yu, and Walking Wake. Great Tusk most commonly runs an Assault Vest as its item to patch up its miserable special bulk, but other options such as Focus Sash and Life Orb aren’t out of the question. With a Protosynthesis boost, Great Tusk offers unrivaled physical breaking power with its strong STAB Close Combat and Headlong Rush. On AV sets it commonly runs Rapid Spin for utility, and it takes great advantage of the speed boost. It also has access to Ice Spinner, which could potentially swing the matchup heavily by virtue of removing Indeedee’s Psychic Terrain. Chi-Yu and Walking Wake can both run a variety of items, from choice items to Life Orb to Focus Sash, and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. Booster Energy Roaring Moon provides fast tailwind for the team in and out of sun, big damage of its own with tera-flying Acrobatics, and potentially more utility with Breaking Swipe, Snarl, or Taunt. Torkoal is here to set sun first and foremost, but has a wide range of utility options in its own right such as Stealth Rocks, Will-O-Wisp, and Rapid Spin. On a team as fast paced as JRL’s its item is likely to be Eject Button to safely bring in the team’s strong attackers and better compete against opposing weathers. Lastly, Tsareena fills out the team for more utility, serving as a check to priority attackers such as the deadly Chien-Pao + Dragonite combination, which could otherwise rip through the frail attackers on the team. Tsareena can also provide hazard removal, positioning via U-Turn, Taunt, and rare strong grass coverage in a meta where it is lacking.
At team preview a couple key questions arise:
1) Who is able to gain the initial speed advantage?
2) Can JRL stop YoBuddy from keeping hazards on the field?
As mentioned earlier, in a game with so many powerful attackers, speed control is more vital than ever. JRL’s heavy hitters look to be naturally faster than YoBuddy’s, so YoBuddy has more pressure to gain speed control this match, whether that be through Trick Room or Tailwind / Icy Wind.
With regards to hazards, JRL’s team struggles with Stealth Rocks on the field, and there is no Toxic Spikes absorber, so it is up to the team’s spinner(s) to keep hazards off the field in order for Chi-Yu, Torkoal, and Walking Wake to thrive.
With all that out of the way, let's get on to the game!
On lead we see Glimmora and Roaring Moon from YoBuddy facing off against a Great Tusk and JRL’s own Roaring Moon. Both reveal a speed boost from Booster Energy, indicating they are both extremely likely to be running Tailwind, opposed to the unlikely but not unheard of Choice Band. JRL’s Great Tusk is in an extremely favorable position here, threatening big damage or a KO on both of YoBuddy’s pokemon, while YoBuddy would have to double the Great Tusk with both Glimmora and Roaring Moon to pick up the KO even with a tera-flying Acrobatics.
The match starts off with a bang, as YoBuddy’s Roaring Moon teras into a flying type in order to resist the expected Close Combat from JRL’s Great Tusk, but instead JRL predicts this play, and the Great Tusk counter-teras into a rock type! YoBuddy wins the speed tie, using Tailwind with Roaring Moon and setting rocks with Glimmora. JRL answers with a Tailwind of their own, and reveals now-STAB rock slide on Great Tusk, hitting the YoBuddy’s flying type Roaring Moon super-effectively for 83% and the Glimmora for 40%!
At first glance this may seem like an incredibly risky play on turn 1 for JRL, potentially ‘wasting’ their tera if YoBuddy doesn’t tera Roaring Moon or attack into Great Tusk with Acrobatics. Instead, this play is a perfect example of opportunity cost with regards to Terastallization. JRL realizes how important Great Tusk is in this matchup, both as an offensive threat (exemplified by its pressure forcing a turn 1 tera from YoBuddy) as well as an important defensive presence with its ability to remove Glimmora’s hazards for the rest of the team. Even if YoBuddy doesn’t tera or attack into it, tera rock removes Great Tusk’s psychic, ice, and flying weaknesses, which will certainly be valuable for the rest of the game when considering the threats on YoBuddy’s team. Offensively, YoBuddy’s only rock resist is Iron Hands, which certainly doesn’t want to stay on the field with a Great Tusk staring it down. Overall a great play that is more than just a hard read about what YoBuddy will do in turn 1, showing how to skillfully use Terastallization.
Turn 2 is another great play from JRL, where they call Glimmora’s protect with Great Tusk and rapid spin into their own Roaring Moon to remove the hazards! YoBuddy’s Roaring Moon wins the speed tie again, firing off an acrobatics into JRL’s own Roaring Moon before getting KO’d by Breaking Swipe in return. JRL KO’s their own Roaring Moon with rapid spin, but it's a worthy sacrifice if it means clearing hazards from the field. If JRL wins the speed tie they don’t lose Roaring Moon here and are in an even more commanding position, but as it plays out they get a free switch to a pokemon of their choice (which is arguably more beneficial as Roaring Moon has served its purpose).
Turn 3 JRL send out Chi-Yu while YoBuddy sends out Indeedee. YoBuddy protects Indeedee and sacks Glimmora to get the free switch while JRL is happy to limit Glimmora’s hazards to one layer of toxic spikes via Toxic Debris. The Chi-Yu is revealed to be scarfed due to moving before the rapid spin-boosted Great Tusk and is now locked into Heat Wave.
Turn 4 YoBuddy send in Iron Hands, which reveals its Psychic Seed and is now all but guaranteed to be a Swords Dance set. JRL switches out the Chi-Yu into Tsareena and spins away the last layer of toxic spikes with Great Tusk while YoBuddy Drain Punches into the Chi-Yu slot, not risking it staying in, then sets Trick Room with Indeedee. Now the Iron Hands looks threatening with Indeedee next to it redirecting Great Tusk’s powerful attacks away. If YoBuddy can provide enough support, an Iron Hands win is very possible.
Turn 5 YoBuddy uses Follow Me with Indeedee while Iron Hands safely uses Swords Dance. JRL U-Turn’s Tsareena into Torkoal, setting sun and giving a very unnecessary speed boost to Great Tusk, which in turn finishes off Indeedee with a Headlong Rush. In hindsight this is a crucial turn; with Indeedee going down, Torkoal is free to use Will-O-Wisp on Iron Hands, essentially negating its boosts. Of course, YoBuddy doesn’t want Iron Hands to take a super effective Headlong Rush from Great Tusk, but Iron Hands can pretty easily EV to survive the attack and potentially Drain Punch all of the health back. A burn is much more crippling, reducing Iron Hands’ damage and longevity from Drain Punch. This is all easy to say after the match is over with knowledge of what happens, but Wisp Torkoal isn’t too common and Indeedee protecting or attacking on Turn 5 doesn’t guarantee it will be alive later to redirect a Will-O-Wisp away from hands. Alternatively, YoBuddy knew that Iron Hands couldn’t live a Headlong Rush and this was the only play. The reality is that after falling behind from the start YoBuddy needs to make some aggressive plays and reads to get back into the game.
Turn 6 JRL switches out Great Tusk and sacks Tsareena into Drain Punch + Expanding Force while Torkoal burns the Iron Hands.
Turn 7 JRL Sends out Walking Wake and protects, stalling out Psychic Terrain and a turn of Trick Room. Torkoal Overheats into Iron Hands for around 30% and gets KO’d by Expanding Force while Iron Hands Drain Punches into Walking Wake’s protect. With Trick Room running out soon and Iron Hands burnt things are looking worse for YoBuddy, but it would be interesting to consider how things turned out if they had called the Tsareena sack on turn 6 or the protect on turn 7 and Swords Danced up with Iron Hands. It's a hard call because JRL has enough resources left to potentially risk attacking on both of those turns, and YoBuddy likely doesn’t want to lose momentum or waste precious Trick Room turns with setup.
Turn 8 we see JRL’s choice to tera Great Tusk pay dividends once more, as it lives the double up from Iron Hands and Armarouge on 1% and KO’s the Iron Hands in return! Walking Wake then cleans up the Armarouge with Hydro Steam.
All that’s left is YoBuddy’s lone Iron Bundle, which can’t deal with everything JRL has left on the board and gets KO’d by a flamethrower from Walking Wake.
After gaining ground with some great early plays, JRL was able to pull out the win against YoBuddy in a fun fast paced match featuring some serious heavy hitters. If we go back to the key points from earlier we can see that YoBuddy was able to set Trick Room and gain back some momentum after the rough start, while JRL made it a priority to keep hazards off of the fields with Great Tusk, which allowed them to more freely position and stall out Trick Room with their team. Had hazards stayed up, we could have been looking at a very different game. In week 2 JRL attempts to follow up this win with another against Tony and the Sp_ndas, while YoBuddy looks to bounce back against Papiloco and the Tramplers.
