Resource DPL X Team / Set Dump Thread

[Idyll]

approved by moderators​

The DPL X regular season has come to an end, so now I decided to make this thread so we have a centralized place to post our sets and teams that were used throughout our individual runs. We could talk about more or less anything about them, such as insight on why they a certain set / team was used, what kind of prep was done for a specific opponent, how a tech / unique Pokemon fits into the overall metagame it was used in, etc. We could also talk about ideas that perhaps had potential and could have made an appearance but ultimately didn't, among other things.

Feel free to post anything here!

 

[Meminger21]

Never ended up using, but Charm Whims was on my mind a lot of times. I think a lot of whims teams like tsar, mainly to stop rilla, but charm whims helps vs that freeing a slot.


Scarf Naga is specially good vs vish and dracozolt and it's able to setup tw fairly well. I think naga is particularly good in today's metagame and kinda underexplored, with faster games naga can trade damage very well and keep plenty of relevant mons in check, mainly fini, shifu and rilla. Also sash is probably the best set, but lo is also really good, av and scarf are a bit more niche, but they are good on some specific teams.

 

[Idyll]

Ended 6-1 with at least 1 win in 4 different formats. I really made this thread so I don't have to post 4 times in different threads. This DPL was fun, but I feel like I could have done better. I digress. As per usual, the teams follow a nickname scheme of being songs from a particular album, because I find that it helps set the tone for how I approach a game like a mental switch—I'll just link the albums as well, for anyone interested.

Idyll Teamdump: 6 Wins across 4 Generations


Week 1 vs Amaranth // XY // np: BELIEVE IN ME, WHO BELIEVES IN YOU - Aries

Notes

First week, so I wanted to keep it simple. This is really just a rehash of my double Ghost team that I used vs zee in US vs World, with Mega Gengar as the original Mega. However, I didn't want to use Mega Gengar not because I thought it was bad at the time (I feel confident I could outplay), but mostly because that 6 would have had info publicly available and I wanted to at least have a bit of a mixup. Mega Kangaskhan felt good over Mega Gengar simply because it's a good generalist Pokemon.

SpDef Toxic + Wide Guard Aegislash is something that I've always felt was good into the metagame at the time. It completely destroys Deo-S teams by itself, at least. I also liked Mega Kangaskhan into Amaranth because I was facing the Spindas, umbry's team, and I felt like they would probably bring something weird. Hence, there was an emphasis on having a team that's just boring but stable. Let's just say, Aegislash would have been really good into Mega Abomasnow...

The paste's team name has (REAL) at the end of it. This is the reason why:

Week 2 vs talkingtree // XY // np: This Place Will Become Your Tomb - Sleep Token

Notes

The entirety of my prep was literally just all about deviating from what I've usually done. Of course, that doesn't mean I stopped using the entirety of LTV— there are limits, so I still restricted myself to the two genies. However, the four others I haven't really have had any extensive history of using. Aegislash I've used a few times before, but they have always been offensive, and the Aegislash set that was used the week previous may seem crazy enough to seem like an anomaly. CBG has been a Pokemon that I've never actually used in an XY DOU tour game, so it was making its debut in my hands. Mega Salamence has been a Pokemon I've always been talking up, but I've never actually used it in a DPL game as well. Lastly, Blastoise—granted, I've used it once last year in an MGarde team, but still, it has both the tangible utility of redirection as well as the zanyness that I wanted. Between Mega Salamence, Aegislash, and Blastoise, I really could have had anything on me, and that's what I wanted—I knew talkingtree was a prepper, but they're also not the most active of XY players, so I wanted to throw a curveball and see how it goes.

Week 3 vs SinlgeThunder // XY // np: always - keshi

Notes

Ego and hubris—these two words succinctly describe what was going on for my prep this week. Simply put: I had a mental block. Couldn't really think of anything, so I went back to an old reliable: Mega Gardevoir. A great Mega Evolution, and one that I consider to be Tier 2 level while properly supported. While properly supported, I must emphasize, because this week I turned my back on a teambuilding truth I always held: Mega Gardevoir must always have two redirectors. I really don't know why I decided to run only Blastoise, of all redirectors, because in hindsight Conkeldurr doesn't really fit in MGarde comps, anyway; it coud easily just have been Rocky Helmet Amoonguss and I would have been more than fine into Mega Kangaskhan, while also still having one more way to make space for MGarde. I decided that I was somehow above running good teams and just went with a flawed product, and then I had to get bailed out. I do not recommend.

It really could have been way worse, though.

Week 4 vs SMB // SM // np: 9 - Cashmere Cat

Notes

At this point, our SM slot was getting tossed around. Since I was originally signing up in DPL to SM anyway, I figured I had to come in to save the day. Well, I did not; I decided to run an SM Mega Venusaur bulky offense for the first time in my life, and proceeded to run into Mega Charizard Y + Gothitelle + Zygarde. What the flip!

Well, it is what it is. The team itself is nothing really special. It's mostly an adaptation of umbry's week 1 team, except I didn't like Zapdos. I had something far more sinister in mind, and the Mew that was put into the team instead was performing well in testing. As a fun fact, this was the first time this DPL I actually bothered to extensively test the team I was gonna use. I figured I needed the reps, as even if I claim that SM is my best format, I still had to recalibrate.

Week 5 vs Croven // SM // np: Heaven knows - PinkPantheress

Notes

After tasting defeat the previous week, I decided to go back to winning ways using a trusted yet vile method: recycling a team. Croven is a fearsome opponent for sure, and Demantoid Rain being my team of choice for the week was purely for comfort reasons and nothing else. There are certain teams that just makes one feel infinitely powerful and incapable of doing any wrong, and this is that team for me. After getting a scout just to do my due diligence, there was little more that happened during preparation.

This team also doesn't need much explanation—it has effective ways to isolate fights and force picks between all the positioning tools and heavy hitters, with the team having the necessary synergy to facilitate getting something going with Kommo-o.

Week 6 vs Mishimono // BW // np: So Much (For) Stardust - Fall Out Boy

Notes

At this point, my team was basically out so I was like, okay let's try to get at least one win in as many Generations as possible and become the answer to a future DOU Jeopardy question. It's a shame that this meant I couldn't play zee and give the people a game they wanted, but it couldn't be helped. (XY was getting kinda boring anyway).

This team does look really wacky, but I assure you that even if my team was still in the running, I would have still used this team as-is... maybe. Well, it has this little problem of having only one EQ-immunity. If we were still in the running, I probably would have a voice in my head tell me to use Landorus-T instead of Terrakion, considering it more-or-less does the same thing while also being a Flying-type. If I or anyone wants to use this team, they should probably make this change. The rest of the team, though, I believe to be quite serviceable, Choice Band Arcanine and all.

I like Choice Band Arcanine. Arcanine in general would be kinda spooky for my opponent to see, because it could run pretty much a variety of things and they would have to find out the hard way. Its best niche is definitely as an Intimidate Pokemon that resists both of CBG's STABs, which is pretty epic in itself. Outside of that, it's also kinda a spooky breaker purely because of CB Flare Blitz, and it also has CB Extreme Speed to get some picks, though it actually doesn't hit for that hard by itself.

Scarf Metagross I put on the team for the zanyness, but also because I get a surprise kill line against enemy Lati@s when paired with Arcanine—this line of play actually happened in my game, where Mishimono's Latios got sent packing turn 1. I also feel like Scarf Metagross is always good for at least two, because it's still Adamant Metagross spamming Meteor Mash lol. The set can be kinda meh vs rain and some bulkier match-ups, though, but Amoonguss + Jellicent is there specifically to cover the rain matchup while Trick lets me dump the Choice Scarf onto like a Ferrothorn or something if needed. Explosion is also really nice in general to go for more, and it's especiall great for grabbing tempo with my Jellicent.

Week 7 vs Paraplegic // SV // np: Remember That You Will Die - Polyphia // built by Grandmas Cookin, with edits by me

Notes

After getting a win in BW, regardless of the heinous methods I got it by, it was time for me to find my next victim in another Generation. At this point, there were zero stakes anymore as playoff slots were essentially locked. Fortunately, my boy Paraplegic had a standing challenge after I canonized them as "washed" in their fraud vs washed Week 1 DPL match-up with bage1. I could simply not pass this up.

Of course, as stated, this team wasn't built by me but my boy Grandmas Cookin. What, did you expect me to build an SV team myself? That's asking too much. Instead, I pulled up to our SV chat and was like, ayy yo anyone wanna spot me a Long Neck team? To which my manager promptly obliged. I wanted Long Neck because—surprise, surprise!—it looked like an excellent holder of the immaculate item known as Assault Vest. I liked this team when I was given it; the original had different sets such as CM Long Neck, but after a little bit of personal tinkering it suited my tastes perfectly. This was basically the perfect team team for me as it was tough to break and trade into, it had a great number of positioning tools, and had ways to force a breakthrough with strong attackers in tow—there are teams that just feel natural to play with, and this was that team for me.

I'll actually discuss the game here because I was actually a bit proud of how I played this one and think it's my performance this DPL; it was a slow game with a lot of tension in-between considering it's basically a Screens + Setup + Breakers mirror matchup, and I think the key for me getting out of it with the win was in how I managed to find the right timings to do certain things.

• Turns 5-6 had the first key moment here, wherein I opted to go hard into my Ninetales on Paraplegic's Raging Bolt to deter CM with my Encore. This was also relatively risk free as, on average, Rillaboom never really does anything to the Ogerpon slot, where Ninetales came in, and it instead just hits my Incineroar with a Fake Out. With Ninetales then able to Encore the Raging Bolt, I was able to Parting Shot the Rillaboom slot, hitting the Chi-Yu while being able to go to my Landorus-I myself. My Landorus-I has a strong position on the board vs -1 Chi-Yu and +1 +1 Raging Bolt, and I figured at this point of the game Paraplegic is still likely uninterested in committing their Tera. I force Paraplegic to switch both of their Pokemon out for their Ground-immunities as I double my Ninetales out into my Incineroar, maintaining my advantage.
• Turns 9-10 were the turns where I started to put my foot on the pedal. Turn 9, I finally got the proper timing to set up Aurora Veil as this was the first turn where Ninetales was not under threat or forced to Encore. I also got a sick Parting Shot through onto the Grimmsnarl coming onto the Cresselia slot, which I targeted specifically because 1) It was less likely to Protect, unlike Enamorus-T; 2) It was not incentivized to stay in, as I could Encore it onto Ice Beam vs Ninetales-A and Incineroar; and 3) I didn't need to Parting Shot Enamorus-T anyway, considering it was already -1 and I'd have Aurora Veil. The Kingambit was then free to SD, against -1 Grimmsnarl with all 4 moves revealed and Enamorus who I was Encoring into Protect.
• Turn 12 may seem weird to the untrained eye—I basically just wanted to get chip damage onto the Chi-Yu, but as safely as possible without having myself commit my Tera. I knew Paraplegic's Chi-Yu could never be Clear Amulet—a rare item, to be sure, but this is a Bo1 tour game we are talking about—and this is because of Chi-Yu's two revealed moves: Snarl and Overheat. A set with three attacks + Protect (which is what a Clear Amulet set would be) is very unlikely to have both, and thus I put Paraplegic instead on a Choiced set or Assault Vest. I also opted to Sucker Punch instead of Kowtow Cleaving because of the possibility of a Tera Ghost, which would get around my Fake Out. My mindset here was that, indeed, Kingambit was going to win this game for me, but it didn't have to win the game immediately—I could just take my free ~40% damage and see how the game goes on.
• Turn 16, I was quite cognizant of the barrier timings; Paraplegic's Reflect only had 2 turns remaining, +2 Sucker Punch did 37% to the Chi-Yu with Reflect, and the Chi-Yu was at 63% health. Raging Bolt is also not threatening to do anything to my Kingambit, as I was putting it on CM / Thunderclap / Dragon Pulse / Protect; it had to Dragon Pulse me through my final turn of Aurora Veil if it wanted to actually hit my Kingambit. Still, I opted to just Kowtow Cleave the Raging Bolt, thinking I could just simplify the game by putting it in range of my Landorus-I, but at the same time I was also switching in my Ninetales-A. This was the nail in the coffin; it was Turn 17 and Ninetales-A was preventing Raging Bolt from doing anything, Kingambit was free to SD to +4, and Grimmsnarl was useless on the board as it couldn't Spirit Break nor Parting Shot my Kingambit due to Defiant and Reflect was still on its final turn. Grimmsnarl Parting Shots my Ninetales-A instead as it encores onto a Raging Bolt Protect while my Kingambit SDs. Chi-Yu comes in, but with Reflect now inactive, Kingambit at +4, and Raging Bolt forced to switch or get Encored, it was dire straits for Paraplegic. My Sucker Punch to kill was inevitable, and I was always going to Encore the Raging Bolt; Paraplegic could have double switched out, but I would still have a +4 Kingambit that never took damage the entire game behind Aurora Veil, and there was also no one to switch into that could deal with the problem at hand. The Chi-Yu falls, and the game was done.

Teams-wise, I also had some other... ideas. Thankfully I had the restraint to not go for these.

Bonus Teams

Week 4 GrandmasCookin vs Voltix // XY

Notes

This team is, without a doubt, my magnum opus for DPL X. By this point in Week 4, the relevance of Deoxys-S on the XY DOU consciousness has been firmly established, and this has had significant effects on the wider metagame. Of course, one big development is Mega Gengar being effectively shut out. Mega Diancie exploits both the rise of Deoxys and drop of Mega Gengar, as it's a Magic Bounce attacker that no longer has to fear being isolated and picked off, and it is very good at punishing LTV considering two of their pieces are weak to Rock and it's also effectively a Thunder Wave immunity. Another development has been Mew possibly being unlocked—previously, the relevance of Mega Gengar meant that it had to fear being picked off and thus meant it could only be reasonably run as a utility bot, but this may no longer be the case.

I talked about the Mew set a lot on this post I made in the XY thread. TLDR; this guy is the absolute truth, burn damage is actually a lot so you can whittle down a lot of thigns with it, Snarl + Wisp makes you unkillable with Softboiled, and the team has Gastrodon to not worry about enemy Steam Eruption burns + it also has double Rocky Helmet and afaster Attacker in Mega Diancie to soundly defeat Mega Kangaskhan. Mega Diancie and CBG fit on the team mostly as a breakers, but their ability to deal significant damage while going first make them great at just applying pressure and securing KOs as well.

Team considered for Week 6 (okay not really lol) // BW

Notes

The voices took over, they told me, "yo Rhydon in sand is totally the BOMB yo!" It indeed gets morbillion Special Defense in the sand and becomes the ultimate counter to Thundurus, and okay, maybe the team ends up having potential. However, the team still has a bunch of other synergy problems that need to be resolved. The idea of double Rock-type will also just never pass the eye test, so there's that.

 

[ratpacker]

Multi-gen and last team-dump I make. It's time for me to have a life outside.

SV DOU:
I'll add it once I lose in OSDT

SV DUU:

Week 1:
I like sun and i figured Robbie is from VGC and would never bring hazards, I was wrong.


Week 2:
Hazard stack was strong in the meta and I liked Choice Scarf Roaring Moon to easily deal with Basculegion, but I made very bad calls in-game.


Week 3:
I like Wochien so I wanted to bring it. The nicknames are from my pets for good luck.


Week 4:
Roaring Moon Mew Gyarados Metagross was top meta so I brought that.


Week 5:
Hugo only brings Fullroom or Hyper Offense with physical attackers so I brought Iron Defense with Fake Out support.


Week 6:
I liked the idea of Weakness Policy Metagross with screens so I brought that. People in chat keep saying Coaching is busted but I believe they are wrong. It is really the most droppable move on Mew.


Week 7:
We were confirmed for playoffs so I brought something more wild but ended up into a horrible matchup.


Semifinals:
Robbie never brings Ogerpon-Cornerstone answers so I obviously brought the big 4. But the heat wave miss just canned the game so we're out.


What I had for finals and what I think is currently the best team in the format :


More stuff I built :










My boxes of horrors :
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3

SS DOU
Since Yoda2798 never actually edited the pastes but would just express his autocratic will through cryptic messages, these are my teams and I'm posting them. I mean, just look at this pure unadultered Pokemon bullying :

Before week 5, we only stole stuff so I'm not putting it here.

Week 5:
Meminger loves Diancie Genesect Tsareena so we made sure to stack the team with answers.


Week 6:
Don't remember who we were facing but Tenzai's team looked great so we remade it.


Week 7:
Madaraaa hates Incineroar and loves Zygarde so he got Dragon Dance Kyurem-Black. That Urshifu set lives Expanding Force from Necrozma and Choice Specs Moonblast from Tapu Fini, wild stuff.


Semifinals :
Tenzai loves pivots and setup so he got hazards and setup answers.


Shoutout to all my great teammates Raf Entrocefalo Loudwinner SingleThunder RL Robjr Xqiht Dawoblefet for the amazing team experience, to our managers Yoda2798 and Fangame10 for drafting us and advising us, and to aldrichyan for the support. Big thanks to Nido-Rus, Idyll, Checkmater, Eragon and Sunrose who joined us for playoffs, and to the organizers of the tour. A special mention towards Queen of Bean and Test Bots, who were amazing helpers and testers all throughout this DPL. To any future managers these are definitely people worth drafting and who invests themselves in the team effort.

 

[Test Bots]

Thanks to the Cold Crew, I had the pleasure of experiencing my first DPL as a helper. At first, I wasn't really sure of myself. Like... what are these DPL players going to expect out of me? After a couple weeks, I kinda got the message that some players just want feedback of their teams and if not, just their strategies. I knew my teams were never going to see the light, and I was okay with that. What I wanted to contribute was ideas. I thought that if my ideas was to be shut down, then at the very least I learned something that I can improve on.

What I will now present is a couple teams that I made right before and during DPL.

XY


A team I made right before DPL. It's centered around Volcarona. Fake Out and Guard support are available. Tested against SingleThunder for one of her teams.


A team that SingleThunder helped me make. It was also used to test some of her own teams.


SM


Sun + Kommo-o team that I made prior to DPL. I rarely ever see Bulu, so I thought EQ on Lando was fine; there are plenty of checks for bulu on the team anyways.


Another weather team. Mega Diancie is probably old fashioned, but I like its fast spread move as well as its coverage.

I learned a lot from SingleThunder and Yoda2798. The metagames of these old gens have changed a lot since its prime.


UU

UU was particularly a crazy meta. It was constantly changing and we had figure out which mons were actually good. Teams below were more so "concepts" than something to win with. s/o to ratpacker and Queen of Bean for doing so much for the Cold Crew.


Coaching + Priority Spam Team. Brought Deoxys-S from XY cause I like Rocks to do additional chip damage before spamming priority moves. I thought Icy Wind would be nice in case both my and the opp's team used TW. (No longer usable.)


Rain Team featuring Scizor and Meteor Beam Iron Jugulis.


OU

Couple of teams that I offered, but no longer useable due to bans. s/o to Fangame10 for humbling me via the numerous matches we had. Now, please remove me from the Shadow Realm.


An actual team that was taken for a match in DPL, but lost. I put Trick Room on Flutter Mane on purpose, but the move was removed (or just not used) during the match.


I just put two mons that both use a two-turn move to increase their SpA.


A more hyper offensive team that has double setup as well as double redirectors.


CLOSING

Well... yeah. I don't know if this post is appropriate for a helper, but I felt like I ... for a lack of better words... at least did something during the duration of DPL. I'm pretty sure I said this before, but I really enjoyed interacting with all the players of Cold Crew. It really has been a pleasure. Hopefully, I'll see y'all in the Derby.

 

[Xrn]

dpl team dump/report!

if you wanna read cool, if not there's a paste with all of the currently legal teams at the bottom

Week 1 vs Lemurro (W)
Farigiraf Special HO

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Lemurro had very little to go off of besides a few DLT ladder replays and I hadn't played DLC2 at all so the prep for this was just whatever works.

Everything I built this week started with Flutter + Wellspring because they really just Do Everything. Specs Chi-Yu seemed like it'd have a good matchup into the balancey stuff people spammed at the start of the meta and pairs great with Icy Wind Flutter. Meteor Beam Glimm was a new toy that helped my matchup into Pao teams and adds to the special overload. People used plenty of mons in the Farig slot on this structure like Gambit and Hands but I thought Farig helped the most in annoying matchups. It's another safeguard against Fake Out and strong priority threatening my frail attackers, Imprison helps against TR, and is a decent check to Deo-A. Torn is an obvious pick for Tailwind, Focus Blast was a last second call to patch up the annoying Gambit matchup. Torns usually a free entry point for it and my last moveslot was flexible so fuck it.

Loading into a near mirror was annoying but with Timid Glimm and Focus Blast Torn I could be advantaged. The lead is an exact mirror and with Timid Glimm I feel good just attacking immediately. The Focus Blast tech hits T2 and doesn't kill AV Gambit but I gain hella momentum. I should've been able to ride that to a clean win but I fuck up the endgame and it gets much closer than it should've been.

Week 2 vs raf (L)
Baxcalibur Diancie Balance

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Looking back on my prep this week there wasn't much thought to it either. I was between a P2 team I would use later, a Gambit Gouging team that was considered last week, the prototype of my Semis TB team, and Baxcalibur.

Bulky SD Bax seemed strong to me with Steels being less common and Flutter turning into fodder after tera. Rilla and Incin form a nice double Fake Out pivot core that supports Bax really well. The Grassy Terrain healing in particular is huge and so is removing Psychic Terrain. I dropped U-turn for Low Kick because Gambit is really scary!! Lando is an amazing Bax partner due to pressuring Steel, Rock, and Fairy types. Building on that Flutter was the best partner for Lando and provides much needed speed. I hate Diancie but it matched up nicely into HO and I really needed something like that here.

Matchup was good enough, Bax/Lando/Dia all had potential here but I'd need to be careful vs Glimm and Gambit. I opt to try to get Bax going early and the first 2 turns are great for me, though not being max attack Rilla is punished by missing the Low Lick roll on Gambit. A double Bleakwind miss makes missing the Gambit kill less bad as the game turns into a Bax goobing. Unfortunately I choke by not covering for a double tect, get punished for dropping Icy Wind Flutter (oversight), and lose an endgame 50/50. Pretty embarrassing game, oops.

Week 3 vs qsns (W)
Archaludon Rain Offense

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I was really happy to pull qsns since I respect them a lot and wanted a good win to get back on track. They had just been reusing ideas from invitational but that still gave me plenty to work with. The aforementioned Gambit Gouging build was considered again but this route seemed stronger into them.

Arch with proper support looked like a menace into their common cores which qsns rarely deviated from. I think Pelipper is shit so I used Torn for Rain and Tailwind and opted for an offensive route. Rilla provided recovery for the bridge as well as Fake Out and a psyspam matchup. Wellspring checks Grounds which would typically be the best way to kill Arch, plus has both STABs boosted to enable it offensively. The Lando Flutter core returns to finish the team as it's just a super natural fit on rain offense. Notably this is the only Lando I used with Sandsear because as good as it is I do not trust it!!

The team qsns brought was pretty on brand although Bloodmoon could be scary if TR goes up and I play poorly. I blow Tera early again because I didn't see a better use for it and fail to take a kill T1 but do get good damage. Arch does a nice job at spreading damage early/mid game despite not being able to set rain. After taking out Farig it's pretty straight forward, I can just click my attacks trade down and win.

Week 4 vs KeanuVGC (L)
Gholdengo Physical HO

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There wasn't much to go off of but I was certain I'd be playing some sort of cheese. The ideas ended up being Ghold TW, Pao ESpeed, and the P2 Ting team I used later. After tests the team that felt best put the first two ideas together, neat.

With Flutter gone this week it's natural for Ghold to take it's place as the no nonsense broken ghost. Always been a big fan of the NP set so felt like a good time to use it. The other mode is H-Arc + Pao. H-Arc was never especially popular in DOU and dropped off more with the addition of Incin/Entei, but Rock STAB is still extremely potent and compressing Intimidate + ESpeed is great. Pao is the natural partner for enabling it offensively and provides necessary speed. These two love the absence of a certain speedy Ghost/Fairy type, further capitalizing on the fresh ban. Raging Bolt was another great Mon I hadn't used yet, giving me a nice pivot that resists FWG and statchecks most of the tier. Wellspring's type synergized really well with the rest of the team and provided another Landot check plus redirection. Torn's Tailwind was also pretty much a necessity for this build, Focus Blast makes a return now with investment.

I ran into psyspam which was not a particularly favorable matchup but playable. I played the early game well so despite minrolling Hands with Draco I was in a nice spot by T6. Unfortunately this is where I cancel my move and misclick Ice Spinner into Hands instead of Deo-A which essentially loses the game. Ghold gets crit after just to make sure I lose. Another pretty embarrassing and tilting loss, oops.

Week 5 vs Exotic64 (W)
Baxcalibur Snow Balance

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I meant to ask for bage1 this week but forgot and ended up with Exotic64 who I didn't know played DOU until this tour. Once again considered Gambit Gouging but looked average into their scout so fuck it SnowBax comfort pick.

The team is extremely similar to W2, just updated. Rilla and Incin are the same as before but I opted for Tera Dragon over Poison on Bax now that Flutter is gone. I used Sash Rocks Lando here because I felt like I didn't need the breaking power and this set felt much better into offensive teams. Sub LO can still be great with double Fake Out though so I'm sure a standard Lando works here too. Scarf Ghold replaces Flutter as speed control and is great for threatening fairies. Alolatales has Roar to disrupt TR teams and setup, I prefer it to Encore but that's a totally valid move here as well.

Exotic brings some weird PaoPult hazard stack team that could actually be a bit annoying for me. As long as I get Veil up though Bax should be able to own. A nice read and crit hinders one of Bax's biggest potential roadblocks T1, he gets me back T2 but I still bring Pao down to sash before losing Incin. I get a free revenge kill and SD which I can ride to a win as bulky Bax proves to be unkillable.

Week 6 vs Enzonana. (W)
Kommo-o Semi Stall

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Nana's entire scout was PsySpam and Rain, I figured I'd be playing something different but didn't know what and just wanted to be able to play at my own pace. Obligatory mention that I considered Gambit Gouging, and also considered bringing back G-Molt Veil but thought they might be too prepared for snow. Ended up picking this team that I had been sitting on since like W2.

This is pretty much just ripped from VGC but I'll try to explain the team anyway. I flipflop between IDBP mons being pretty good and really bad but Kommo has always done well for me and it's typing is strong in the metagame. Ting-Lu hinders special attackers that could otherwise blow through Kommo and provides Rocks. Incineroar Amoonguss is a great balance core providing plenty of utility and can check most of the meta. P2 gives me TR to make up for the lack of speed, checks the very scary Lando, and ends up being a big source of this team's damage output. Scarf Ghold gives me a tiny bit of speed and another way of disrupting potential cheese.

Nana brings an interesting sand team where the only mons I'm actually worried about are Mew and Kyurem. Depending on the set Mew could be highly disruptive and Kyurem is the only thing really threatening Kommo. The early game is spent dancing around his setup until I can get in Kommo cleanly. Once it gets going the game is just down to me trying to minimize his opportunities to crit, and after T11 even if he gets past Kommo I can find a win with my remaining mons.

BONUS: Week 7 if I played DOU
G-Moltres Sinistcha Veil

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Like I mentioned this was built during W6 and if I was slotted into DOU W7 I probably would've brought this just for fun. Amaranth almost used it himself but was fighting a Tyranitar merchant so we scrapped it.

The core idea behind the team is pretty simple, Fiery Wrath and Berserk are very silly attributes so put G-Molt next to Sinistcha for Hospitality and Alolatales for Veil. Intimidate is kind of a necessity with G-Molt and Incin also provides Fake Out. Iron Hands completes the double Fake Out pivot core and helps patch up the Rock and Gambit weaknesses. Wellspring rounds it out for an ounce of speed and reliable redirection, though if the team were a bit better vs Amoon I might've gone SD. I've liked this 6 a lot despite being fully reliant on G-Molt to win games, wish I could've used it at some point for sure.

BONUS: Structure I considered for many weeks
Kingambit Howl Offense

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This team went through a ton of different iterations, originally having a Flutter when I stole the core from VGC during W2 and over half of the sets/slots changing by the time I passed it to jonas for finals.

Kingambit is the teams main bulky wincon as well as being Intim deterrent since 4 other mons are physical. I really like Grassy Seed turning a typical check like Hands into fodder but the item slot is definitely flexible. Gouging Fire is The Enabler for all the other goons while still exerting a bit of pressure in some matchups, it can quickly become worthless in others though so you have to be careful. Wellspring provides redirection and a Landorus check while Rillaboom is the team's only true pivot and best check to opposing Wellspring, Grassy Terrain is also excellent for mons like Gambit and Gouging that take a few turns to get going. Landorus is the team's only source of special power, being a generally great immediate breaker and is heavily relied upon against any defense boosters ranging from Diancie to Kommo to Archaludon. The last slot really just needs to be fast and capable of pressuring opposing Lando making Pao the easiest choice on a super physically offensive team. There's also a similar team going around with Latios over Pao which probably works. The team is really nothing fancy but felt worth including with how many weeks I almost brought it, plus I don't think any Gouging Fire team has actually been posted publicly yet.

Semis vs papiloco (W)
Glimmora Physical Offense

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For semis we rigged me vs papiloco because it was the lowest probability of Ducks running full cheese into me. Papi pretty much exclusively used Tailwind HO this tour and I didn't think he'd switch the formula here. AV Bolt, SR, and priority were the ideas for this week.

Pao + Entei was a really hyped pairing early DLC2 that has since lost a bit of traction but Entei is still really solid. Immunity to Fake Out and Intimidate is great and Sacred Fire is a broken move. Outspending Glimm and OHKOing with Tantrum is a nice bonus since that Mon is traditionally a nightmare for Pao builds. Glimm was also the next mon I added, I mentioned that I really liked Rocks vs his scout and my biggest problem building Pao in the past is it's hazard weakness so I wanted to fit the only viable removal. I didn't want to go full HO so AV Bolt + Scarf LandoT gave me nice synergistic pivots that still keep up pressure. Wellspring fit nicely as the last mon to patch Ground and Water weaknesses and give me emergency redirection.

I definitely didn't expect to face sand again, or a Kommo-o or Primarina, but it was still a Tailwind offense. Glimm gets em up early before crit cudgel destroys my position T3, without the crit I'd heal back all damage with Horn Leech and take the Prim kill with Bolt. Thankfully papi didn't feel like winning, because if he clicked Follow Me on T4 and I miss the Sacred Fire range like I did then I wouldn't be able to kill Prim so it gets to click Hyper Voice and I'd probably just lose. I burned most of my timer trying to find any wincon after the crit so the rest is just me clicking and praying really, but he plays quite passively and I guess I click well and win?

Semis TB vs Enzonana. (W)
Gholdengo Tailwind Balance

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After I clutched the tie we had a ton of different ideas on who Ducks could send to SV. I thought MADARAAAA was an option, or maybe they go for a big name like SMB/Actu here. They could've gone for the papiloco runback but both of his losses were to us. We certainly did not expect Enzonana but I knew I just wanted a solid team against him.

Early in the week I experimented with some new Howl stuff and a new take on Snow, but neither felt right. Naturally when in doubt you fall back on teams built 2 metas ago.. leaving me with the Gambit Gouging team for like the fifth time and this. The original was built back during W2 but we updated it for jonas' semis game and I had used it once or twice in OSDT. It was probably close to what Ducks expected from me but frankly it's very hard to counter team this sorta build and I was confident in my ability to outplay my opponent.

NP Ghold is amazing into slower stuff which was definitely possible from Ducks and holds it's own against offense. Wellspring is a very natural partner, threatening Fires and Grounds while providinredirection to help Ghold boost. Incin + Hands forms the double Fake Out pivot core I keep mentioning on these setup builds. Those two along with Wellspring can check most of the tier while providing ample utility to create free turns. Lando gives me a more immediate breaker than Ghold, as well as blowing up plenty of Gholds checks like Gambit, Bolt, Hands, and Fires. I went Taunt as my filler targeting likely Ducks brings such as Cress TR or hazard stack stall. I went Cloak Torn since they also love to spam Fake Out, and Sandstorm is a nice tech to improve my matchup into all of Sun/Rain/Snow which I thought were possible.

Despite seeing it coming my team was not fantastic into Ursaluna, but the matchup was very playable. Taunt Lando could be a huge problem for him, my defensive/support core was annoying for him to get past, and Ghold could definitely win in the endgame. Unfortunately Ally Switch Cress makes Taunt Lando whiff and I don't get the goob but as expected Wellspring/Incin/Hands does a great job at spreading chip. I have an oopsie and Parting Shot into a Gambit switch but I get rid of it with an Ally Switch read and his Tera is gone. After preventing the second TR the game is really mine to lose. His double Ground core does still put me in a tricky spot and I might've had a better end game route but I take a pretty clean win.

Finals vs Flying Beagle (W)
Baxcalibur Snow Balance Edit

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This one was kind of a disaster ngl. The initial calls were CM Raging Bolt and Archaludon Rain because Beagle loved FWG and had very low ground usage. I wasn't feeling Arch so I scrapped that after a few days and committed to CM Bolt, but I was super paranoid of snow and couldn't find a 6 I liked in time. The backups were reusing my W4 or W5 team and the day of the game I decided to go with this one.

In the end I only made a few changes from the W5 team. I dropped Flare Blitz for Wisp on Incin to cripple Gambit and Hands, and Low Kick for HHP on Rilla to hit Ghold and Chi-Yu. I briefly considered a DD HHP Bax to surprise my opponent since I always run dual STAB, but decided it just wasn't the right fit here as not having SD Ice Shard would make the lack of speed control really hurt. I also thought about editing Ghold or Lando but didn't have much time and felt they were fine enough as is.

Loading into a snow mirror felt fine at first until I realized that my snow had a bad snow matchup after stressing over the snow matchup all week oops. Bax had a chance if I could work around the Alolatales and not get goobed by a Tera, but Kyurem and Kingambit were hella dangerous. I kinda trolled the early game and had to sack most of my Rilla's HP but T7 kinda gave me an opening. I predict their targeting wrong on T8 unfortunately but get to set Rocks and Veil on T9 which is essential for Bax to have any shot. I'm finally able to get Bax going after a few turns of positioning, though I do troll again by not going for a second SD on T13. The -1 Kyurem is never staying in there so trying to double it was really odd by me, dumbass panic move ig. The next weird move by me is T17 where I just assume +2 Shard kills Sinis, if I had calced it I definitely would've Protected Lando and gotten another free turn. I almost Knock with Incin on T19 which would've made this look much cleaner but they still have to get quite lucky to win from there I think. Ugly ass game for sure, can't be too proud of the prep or play for this one but Baxcalibur is broken or something.

full dump: https://pokepast.es/7df68d35ccc964d8

s/o spindas for trusting a bitch who tries to throw every game & for giving input when I needed it. overall happy enough with my prep and a bit disappointed with my play, still enjoyed the tour a ton really happy to get redemption for last year with a great group. dunno how much dou ive got left in me but cya around!

 

[kaori]

team dump first, meta thoughts/shoutouts afterwards

Week 1 vs Hys // np: getsomerest/sleepwell

overslept teehee, thankfully team had already won by then

Week 2 vs Ratpacker // np: Readymade - Ado

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I had built this team for Week 1 and just ended up using it again since I missed the first one lmao. The idea was kinda funky and definitely needed more time in the kitchen but speedpassing and a really fast Coaching were some of the first things that appealed to me when I looked at the meta. Semi-room is always a favorite of mine, so I kinda just slapped something together that sounded fun, which is basically the thought process behind almost everything I made this year. This ended up being a super close game that I thought I had lost virtually every turn until I ended up with the last Pokemon on the field.

Week 3 vs Nido-Rus // np: MachineGun Kiss [Full Spec Edition] - Kazuma Kiryu

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I didn't really have a whole ton of ideas going this week besides wanting to use Enam-T, so I made something with it and Meteor Beam Necrozma, which was also something I really wanted to try out. I pretty much skipped the entirety of Gen 8, so using a bunch of the new DLC moves from that gen became some of my fixations because I hadn't actually gotten to use them yet.

Week 4 vs Hugo // np: The Apex of the World - Fire Emblem Three Houses

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I really wanted to try building something closer to balance this week rather than just the HO stuff I usually liked. I also wanted a VGC 2017 throwback with the Bulldoze/WP Metagross combo that I brought to NAIC that year. I could have wrapped this game up so much faster if I had been playing better, but thankfully I got the win anyway. I feel like this is when the Coaching discourse really started around DUU.

Week 5 vs big pichu // np: Mad Mew Mew - Toby Fox

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I had a few other ideas for this week that I'll put below, but since we already won the week I went with the fun Psyspam team featuring yet another self-proc Weakness Policy. Turn 1 was a mess and it was pretty lucky that I ended up winning the game anyway.

Week 6 vs RelicanthPrimal // np: Survivor Guilt - Rise Against

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IDBP Cobalion had been calling to me all week, and I'd also been building a lot with a few Regieleki sets. The team didn't really get to show off much vs Rain and still probly should have won without an Acc drop into missing BP on Kingdra, but so it goes. Still think Cobalion is pretty good, but a lot of the appeal had been dunking on Roaring Moon.

Semis vs RelicanthPrimal // np: B S X - Anamanaguchi x Hatsune Miku

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We clinched playoffs so I skipped Week 7, and went onto semis. I'd actually made this team during Week 7, but with a Roaring Moon > Moltres and really hadn't expected there to be a vote mid-tournament. I didn't end up liking anything else I built anywhere near as much so I just modified the team a bit. Rolled into a pretty bad matchup and still would have won had it not been for getting double flinched, so this was probably my most frustrating game of the season since I still liked the team a lot.

Tiebreak vs SMB // np: SURVIVE - WAGAMAMARAKIA

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I was surprised to be put up against SMB for the tiebreak, so I didn't really take any of Relicanth's teams into account and just tried to build something I liked in general. I think the team is really cool, game was a bit of a mess but the luck went both ways so I'm not really gonna complain about it. Specs Toed is super good imo

Finals vs Robbie35646 // np: Show - Ado

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Looking at the scout (not something I did a lot this season), I really liked IDBP Heatran and Tspikes. I made a couple builds I liked with it, but I kept coming back to the idea of Kleavor Psyspam with IDBP Tran. Bundle/Kleavor is a super strong lead, and even though I ended up switching off Tspikes I was a really big fan of this team. Just didn't really play well enough with it unfortunately, but all the test games with it were super fun.

People seem to have a lot of Thoughts about DUU lately so I'll give my own after playing this tier for almost three months now. The tier no doubt has its problems, but I think a ton of them are really overblown and latching onto Coaching as a primary issue is just a weak teambuilding problem. I never felt at any point this tournament that I couldn't make a team I was satisfied with or that Coaching was too restrictive in the teambuilder. You can really let your imagination run wild a bit, and while it's a bit difficult to be super consistent, I still think the tier is both fun and competitive. Excluding it from anything going forward would be a huge mistake.

Big shoutouts to all the Sp_ndas, especially Lunar. umbry Xrn for the pickup and confidence, and bagel and big pichu for all the tests and building support all season. Thanks to ratpacker and Queen of Bean for the games too! Our team was incredibly strong from top to bottom and I'm so happy to have finally won a DPL after coming in 2nd so many times. Getting to win with Lunar as my manager after dragging him into DOU so many years ago is quite poetic and I'm happy to finish the job with you my friend. I don't really know what to expect for myself playing-wise going forward, but I'm happy I signed up for this DPL and had some pretty good fun along the way.

As promised, some blooper teams/intrusive thoughts from the course of the year.

Eerie Impulse Enamorus but make it even more annoying

Pick A Lead And Pray

252 Atk Mold Breaker Tera Bug Haxorus First Impression vs. 36 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 426-504 (118.3 - 140%) -- guaranteed OHKO
(wip)
LOUD NOISES

TRIPLE CHOICE RAIN RAAAHHHHH (This won a concerning amount of test games)

Comfey + Weakness Policy Lash Out Ting-Lu with Double Intimidate + I Put a Starly to See if My Team Opens My Pastes (nobody commented on it)

Guys Riolu Has Prankster Coaching

Heard You Like Weakness Policy (I keep putting crunch on these ttar because I forgot it got Knock until like, playoffs)

LOUD NOISES (in the sun)

If You Give a Maus a Moth

Oh worm?

Oh worm? (After The Rain)

Oops!

Random Screenshots

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[jonas]

super fun to finally do well in dpl this year, and really happy to win it with the sp_ndas. I didn't build anything but prepped enough, as i have a bunch of really good teammates that feed me stuff. this tour was really good to me, as i'm not sure if i deserved to be 4-0 but i hit the right matchups and had the right amount of luck to end where I did. to that end, shoutout to Xrn, Zeal and sir jelloton for helping me with builds and providing me with teams and tests, I really needed u guys and it was super awesome to get to grind with all of u. thanks to umbry and Lunar. for drafting me (and building such a solid team) and also trusting me to close out the season despite some of my unreliability. in general shoutout to the entire team for always being constructive and fun. if this is the end of sp_ndas i am glad I was apart of it!!

the teams i used: https://pokepast.es/9fc455476d723288

 

[umbry]

This was probably going to be my last time playing DPL no matter the result, figured it would be fitting for me to also make a recap of my final season with the teams I used and a brief description of my general approach to the tier/different opponents, shoutouts will be at the end. If you like reading these long posts or simply need some SM teams for classic, then this post is for you.

Week 1 vs. Grandmas Cookin (W)
Team:

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This is the original version of the venusaur team that's been seeing use a lot recently in DPL and other tournaments, I built it last year for Nails but the sets weren't quite optimised at the time so we never used it. The team is centered about Venusaur outlasting the opponent with defog suppot from landorus, choice band genesect is not something you see very often in SM but in my opinion it is just about the perfect partner for venu. The 2 absolute worst matchups for the archetype are volcarona and zard-y, the two strong fire types, playing around a CB extreme speed revenge kill is your one out against those most of the time. As for why I used it in this specific game, my opponent is a known specs tapu koko lover, venusaur is the the best check you can possibly line up into that so it felt the natural team choice, I also wasn't able to build anything else I was satisfied with so I felt safe falling back on this, which ended working out quite nicely as I got a great matchup advantage in the game. Also please do not use this team with Z move landorus that is a SIN.

Week 2 vs. Yoda2798 (L)
Team:

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At this point emilio was calling me boring so I was on a quest to prove him wrong (I failed.), I stumbled upon serperior while looking at old paste dumps I had lying around and decided that was going to be my pick. Serperior is a very exotic pick, but it does have a great upside into almost all the top ranked mons in the VR, it lines up well into standard lando fini balance which is very much within yoda's range, the theory here is serperior boosts with leaf storm on a free turn granted by koko or persian, and lures incineroar/metagross with a powerful z electric, persian can also parting shot my own serperior to boost my special attack which doesn't come into play often but I thought was a cool niche, as well as being one of the best checks to metagross. What I did not expect going into this game was...running into my own venusaur team...while using serperior....it ended being a pretty dreaful matchup as well as an embarassing loss... This isn't the most solid team so I wouldn't recommend it for an important game but still fun to try it out.

Week 3 vs. Croven (W)
Team:

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This was one of the games I was most excited for, Croven is about as strong of an opponent as I was going to face this tournament so I wanted to make sure I was prepared accordingly, so what better time than now to finally load fake out quiver dance? This is a very standard volcarona structure, salamence here was just my touch, I think metagross doesn't fit the other very popular structure that's been going around and makes it too weak in the mirror against kartana and volcarona, crunch never saw use in actual games I used the team in but it turns out pretty useful against steels like metagross and aegislash if you happen to face them. The game ended being extremely close and it was one of the most fun matches I played in a while.

Week 4 vs. Zoe (W)
Team:

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I was facing my good friend zoe this week, who is the one person I shared my entire builder with so I wanted to make sure I deviated from whatever tendencies I usually have. I settled on trick room because I had a feeling zoe didn't have a lot of experience playing against it, not much to talk about the team choice here this is just sample trick room, I teched safeguard in to be safer into amoonguss if I ever face it but the rest is all the standard sets. The game ended being pretty linear, I faced quite the outlandish team and trickroom did what it does best, have a great matchup into that so I just had to make sure I didn't blunder any sequences.

Week 5 vs. Charlotte (W)
Team:

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I didn't know much about charlotte going into this match, besides that they recently came back to playing and they were playing solid enough so far, I based most of my preparation for the week on what they had been using in previous weeks. Their teams all looked pretty similar, they had the peculiarity of stacking ground types in landot and zygarde together, emilio suggested lurantis here which I was very much on board with as it seemed to line up perfectly. The team is just an edited version of something I built for the spindas last year, both gardevoir and mew set trick room while lurantis and araquanid deal damge, seems pretty simple right? Well, no not at all, I must give credit to charlotte because what I saw at team's preview was probably the last thing I wanted to face, I admittedly got lucky here with a static proc that let my araquanid absorb all the spores amoonguss threw my way, as well as a last minute suggestion from emilio to run sky drop koko, I probably would've been doomed otherwise.

Week 6 vs. SMB (W)
Team:

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I actually built this team a little before the tournament started, I was just waiting for an opportunity to use it and SMB's scout being notably weak to fire types this seemed just about the perfect opportunity for it to shine. The sets are mostly standard, modest charizard has some pretty neat calcs like into landorus, av naganadel was the tapu koko check of choice, as well as making sure my team didn't get ran over by faster threats, the ev spread makes it so fire blast in sun is a OHKO on metagross-mega. On preview I actually didn't like my matchup all that much at all, nihilego was a huge threat and one that could be able to stop my charizard completely, salamence has leeway to setup on half my team if it were carrying dragon dance which seemed likely at preview but it never got revealed and scarf lando-I could prove to be troublesome as strong earth powers threatend most of my team. naganadel actually came in clutch here as I was able to get it in on a double to draco the opposing salamence, after that I managed to get into a comfortable position for the endgame with my own kartana, overall I was pretty satisfied I feel this was one of my most well played games this tournament.

Week 7 vs. Ann (L)
Team:

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I'll keep it brief here since both me and my opponent's teams had clinched playoffs by now so this was mostly a for fun week, I noticed at this point I used a different mega evolution every week so I wanted to complete the challenge at least for regular season so I was exploring all sorts of silly megas this week, ended picking this mega latias team with blacephalon and ran into rain, the game was a little messy and I got a few reads wrong and was owned by kommo-o, truly a tragedy. Bonus paste here with all the fun stuff I considered: https://pokepast.es/20ac21cb70c9cdd3.

Semifinals vs. SMB (W)
Team:

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My prep ended being really lazy here even if we got to playoffs, I knew I wanted volcarona because of known weakness of the opponent's scout, and I knew I wanted zeraora to control the field against offense, so I ended reusing what was my most solid team from regular season. Luckily being lazy proved itself to be pretty effective here as my matchup was amazing, I lead with broken fake out quiver dance and once the opposing salamence was taken down turn 2 it was just a matter of pushing my advantage without giving up my position.

Tiebreaker vs. Actuarily (W)
Team:

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I was travelling back home in what was probably the most crucial week of the tournament and had very little time at my disposal to prepare for tiebreaks, I was fully expecting to face SMB again here before the matchups were revealed but I said in my chat I was going to bring venusaur in case I were to face literally anyone else, to my apparent surprise I was up against actuarily and so I stuck to my initial choice. However there were still adjustments to be made before I was ready, I knew the original venusaur team wouldn't work, I had to be careful of the difficult matchups for the team and the answer I came to was the same as the previous week, I want to fit zeraora. So I edited the tailwind slot and the support slot on the team to cover the weaknesses zera would leave behind, mew felt the natural pick here and was also going to be my main lead going into the rain matchup, z ground picks up surprise KOs on both koko and metagross, taunt was a last slot filler move that helped keeping up the momentum. In the game I ran into zard nihi, a notably hard matchup for venusaur but I had my outs prepared in advance, I managed to setup the KO onto nihilego with a surprise Z move early in the game and from there it should've been pretty comfortable. Unfortunately I really didn't manage my timer well here and ended making a few key misplays, lady luck bailed me out from what would've been a much harder endgame to play for me. I wasn't too happy with it but still a win is a win and a very much needed one at that while being down 0-1, thankfully Xrn also came in clutch later so it was time for finals.

Finals vs. Ann (W)
Team:

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Another important game, you already know it's time to bring the brokens again (fake out quiver dance). I haven't used metagross in a long while and my only game with it was that disaster of a game with serperior, I did know I wanted to pair it with fake out quiver dance, it would make for about as solid of a team as you could ask for, my goal here was to outplay a strong opponent with strong play and a strong team. I took a structure I had used in DPL a couple years back and began to make some edits, AV koko is the flavor of the week here to support the team and give a much needed boost to metagross' thunder punch, I initially had hp ice on it as I was still afraid of scarf lando-I after tiebreaks but emilio made me realise hp fire was needed here, which ended coming in clutch in the actual game. I still did run ice type hidden power on the mew, my plan in the matchup wouldve been to transform into the opposing landorus-I once it locks into earth power and check it with the stolen hidden power. I did indeed run into a scarf landorus into the game but it was therian so I had a much easier time pivoting into it, the key plan here is stop opposing volcarona and lure kartana with tapu koko so my tapu fini can close the game with calm mind, it didn't end getting to that point as my landorus lived an unfavorable roll and got the final hit on volcarona but I was still confident in my endgame with fini here. Happy to end it on a good note especially after a shaky tiebreak game.

Bonus screenshots from finals week

And...that about wraps it up for my season, I obviously couldn't have done it without such an amazing team to have my back, so you all deserve some words of appreciation.

Team shoutouts

Lunar. Thanks a TON both for agreeing to run it back with me for one final time and for putting it up with my antics for a whopping 10 weeks LOL. You were as good of a partner to manage with me as I could've asked for and I knew I could always count on you to help where I could not, your input in both the draft and preparation was invaluable so thanks for that as well, your SS takes are still as sharp as ever and coaching is still broken in every tier. Enjoy the glory, a well deserved one my friend, I'm glad we finally won one together after all this time. o7

Xrn To our star player, to the one I could always trust to give me a heart attack when it matters the most and still win in the most ridiculous of ways, I never felt so confident and scared at the same time in a teammate, spindas really would not be the same without you man it was a blast teaming with you for yet another season. And you've been with us from the start as well! Thanks for being the missing piece to our manager trio, your SV support was a massive factor in our success as you know it, congratulations on a stellar performance & good luck in future tournaments if you keep playing!

Amaranth We've teamed together many times and already solved oras together once, I was confident we could do it again but the gods had other plans in store for us... I've never seen such a string of bad luck happen to anyone I've teamed with before, I guess our oras slot was cursed to begin with, with neutral luck I'm sure you could've had another great tournament with us. Still I appreciated your eagerness to keep playing even while the tilt was getting to you, like for lunar I'm glad we could get the title together this one time, hopefully see you around!

sir jelloton While planning the draft I pretty much left most of the decisions regarding SV to lunar and xrn as I was clearly out of touch with the new playerbase, I couldn't help but notice your name near the top of the list and I didn't have much of a clue as to who you were, but by watching your kickoff replays I knew we were betting on a really talented player. It sucks your season didn't quite pan out the way you were hoping for, that week 2 incident was incredibly unfortunate but I can tell you your record in no way reflects your strength as a player nor how instrumental you were to our success as a team. We kind of did you dirty as well with the oras swap even if you volunteered for it, still you put forth very solid performances there as well and so did jonas in SV so I guess that worked out well. You have a unique approach to playing offense and a creative mind for the game so I'm sure you will find great success if you keep playing in tournaments, can't wait see you kill it in OSDT.

DaAwesomeDude1 Cheers to our cursed slot #2...I guess it's ironic the 2 tiers we really wanted to spend for solid slots ended being the most unlucky, you played so well in your games it feels bad either ridiculous RNG or insormontable matchups lined up against you. Still I loved your attitude and the fact you still would be back early in the week to start your preparation regardless of what happened the weekend prior, that was a true winning mentality. I'm glad I got to know you a little bit this tournament and enjoy retirement if this really is your final run as well, glad you could end on a win.

Star You were basically our second "Lock" from our early planning together with xrn as you were incredibly solid last year with whatever team you were given, your ability to adapt to any format even doubles is not something you see very often on this site and I'd say is quite the impressive feat, happy we could snag you for such a cheap price. I had a lot of fun teaming together again and watching your games was a treat as always, congrats on another great performance and best of luck with your future endeavors on here!

kaori W. None of us in the manager team had any clue on how to help in DUU so I'm extremely happy we got you for cheap because you absolutely killed it this season. I know you're not happy about how the second half of your season went, but you also got really unlucky... I'm still happy we got you! And watching the lab that duu channel became later in the season was an insane view, thank you for stepping up for that tiebreak game despite of how messy it ended up being, enjoy the win and freedom if this is your last, happy you got the title you were chasing for so many years.

Zeal To this day, I still have absolutely no idea how we were able to get you with basically no credits left, I guess the self upbid really worked wonders LOL. You had some incredibly important wins against some really strong opposition and at key moments as well! Top it all off with an elite record and you being self sufficient despite being busy most of the time, I really could not have asked for more from a mere 3.5k. If there is a single pickup that won us the tournament then that one is you, enjoy the title and best of luck in OSDT!

Lyssa Lyssa XY. You're one of the closest people to me on here so I'm super glad I could get you and share this victory with you, truth be told I was scared when we only had 3k in auction but thankfully it all worked out... You were the MVP for us when we ejected you in semis, we definitely wouldn't have defeated our curse of losing semifinals everytime without that LOL, glad we won something together! Congratulations on the perfect doubles resume here...and hope you can keep killing it in TFT and on here, now let's win UUPL :)!

jonas After a quick scouting of the pool for who to get with our last 3k, we decided you were the best option, we also decided we should keep looking for other names because that probably wouldn't be enough...that is until lunar said he nommed you and got you so that was it for the draft. You were another one of our massive value picks, 3k sub who goes 4-0 and wins both their playoffs games? I hope you're proud of your run because you did amazing, watching your finals replay did give me a bit of a scare being honest but you pulled through like a champion so well done. Best of luck in OSDT and in future tournaments!

emforbes I still remember when I was starting out on here when SM was current gen and I would watch your replays to understand the tier and how to play doubles, fast forward to now you've been helping our SM slot for the last 3 seasons, I cant understate how incredible your support has been to us, you've definitely saved me several times from loading terrible sets or teams LOL I know I can be really stubborn sometimes. You're 100% the best of all time in SM and I'm so glad I could enjoy one more season with you chilling in our discord, seeing my teams and calling them boring as hell, then also making the suggestions that win me the game when I use them, thanks a lot for carrying me friend.

Nails Thanks a lot for joining in our chat as well from the start! It was really fun hanging out and thanks for dropping in to help in my channel and ss as well sometimes that was very much appreciated, good luck if you'll still play on here and in life friend, see you around!

To the rest of our helpers Mizuhime bagel big pichu thanks a lot for joining! You guys were all incredibly helpful to several of our slots, really appreciated having you all around. Thanks also to the people who played test games with me, I didn't test most weeks but mainly to zee zoe Grandmas Cookin thanks for being around when I needed you guys :).

To everyone else who supported us in any way thanks a lot and I'm sorry if I forgot anyone! Good luck to whoever manages the spindas next year if anyone does but this will probably be it for me, was a fun ride, see you guys around!

 

[Tenzai]

Hey folks, dropping my DPL teams here ^^. Most of them are ripped with some tweaks to counter the prevalent cores that have been spammed for months now.

Week 3 vs Meminger: https://pokepast.es/ca2b39d824328ee6

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Meminger had been using Mew a lot in the first two weeks, so we figured building a team around Spectrier would be interesting. I aimed to find something that could maintain high pressure while Spec set up slowly in the background.

Week 4 vs Luisín: https://pokepast.es/b60ba620feb04036

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Luis was heavily reliant on double Fake Out, and knowing his weakness for playing Set up Bulkys, I wanted something that would literally suffocate him. Thus, I proposed the idea of playing Tsareena in Hyper Offense and remembered this old team, which seemed perfect on paper. Gapdos applied immense pressure to Luis's pivot cores, and Naga and Lando dismantled the offensive cores he brought to the table.

Week 5 vs Madara: https://pokepast.es/e19df4e714af4257

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For this week, the idea of fishing for matchups felt incredibly challenging, especially since Madara is known for playing various Play Styles regularly, and during this DPL, he was literally spamming all the SS archetypes. And if you add to this the fact that last week I overdid it trying to beat Luis from Team building, I wanted to play something I felt comfortable with and that could provide answers to different archetypes. So, I built the most basic SS thing, a Bulky Off with Fini+Inci+Rilla hahahaha.

Week 6 vs GMA: https://pokepast.es/20c27245f12832b6

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Since GMA hadn't played SS before in this DPL, and his most recent replays in the tier were quite old, I simply asked Zee. They suggested using something similar to the Coaching Nails team, and in the end, while looking for something similar, I ended up copying it xD. I tried to reconstruct the team with the little information I had and filled in with the sets that seemed most appropriate to me. The result was this, it's a pretty interesting and solid team but somewhat matchup dependent.

Week 7 vs Star: https://pokepast.es/e8c32a0ed2757330

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As it was the last week and we were already qualified for the playoffs, the bosses gave us permission to play something different if we wanted to enjoy ourselves. So I simply grabbed my favorite SS team: The Triple Set UP xD

Semifinals vs Rob: https://pokepast.es/ec22086339ae6e55

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As I was recapping the teams I had been playing in SS in this DPL, they were quite similar, all with Bulky Set Up mons. I thought they wouldn't expect me to use something completely different, so I saw this team by Paraplegic that I really liked. I just made some changes that seemed appropriate to me and started playing.

Finals vs Star: https://pokepast.es/ae2d0544b9271e6a

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For this game, we debated a lot on what to play, although there was a clear idea to play Nihi. The problem was I'm not a big fan of playing the Nihi+Fini+Celes core, although Ann gave me a very cool team with this core. In the end, I tried to find something I felt more comfortable with, and from Ann's super offensive team, I reconstructed it into this Bulky Offense.

Finally, I'd like to thank both zee and tyo for trusting me in this DPL and for all the encouragement they've given me throughout the tournament. Of course, also to everyone on the team, I think we've built an amazing team, and it's been an honor to share the team with all of you ^^.
Ann Mishimono EternalSnowman shadekirby321 Val16 Flying Beagle Tman Robbie35646

I also wanted to thank everyone who took the time to test with this pest who was constantly asking for tests hahaha.
eragon Hugo MADARAAAA JRL Shiritu Frixel FloristtheBudew NinjaSnapple Loudwinner SMB txitxas Nephtyrix

For the first time in a shitty year in competitive play, I have been able to reconcile myself and play again calmly and without pressure. If it hadn't been for everyone I mentioned and their help, I would never have been able to do it. Thank you very much

 

[DaAwesomeDude1]

Better late than never but I wanted to give some quick thoughts about my season and some shoutouts to the amazing people who have helped me out.

Overall this has been a pretty frustrating season with the first 5 weeks feeling like the game deciding that I was going to lose no matter what, and later in the season when the RNG wasn't so bad, I wasn't able to quite put it all together. I've gotten lucky in games before and that's how mons go sometimes, but it was disheartening to have it consistently happen in the games that I cared the most about. It killed a lot of my initial motivation so I ended up reusing teams from Lunar's builder for most weeks. Here are the few teams that I did build tho. A lot of the teambuilding process was me wanting to use a set and then fleshing it out with standard stuff, so I'll just attach the pastes lmao

Lum Kingdra Rain


Sub KB Balance


Double Lati


Scarf KB Metagross


BONUS TEAM (undefeated in tours)
Mono Dragon 2


I wanted to give a massive massive shoutout to Lunar. He always picked me up after a rough game, gave me great advice, and tested whenever I needed it and this is still downplaying how supportive he was of me all season. Easily one of the best managers I've ever played for in all of my team tournaments. Xrn and umbry also for the support after games, trusting me enough to draft me, and for being the two greatest double players of all time. Checkmater and Mizuhime for always being available for tests and looking over my teams and chirch for dealing with my doomposting after games. I'm not gonna tag everyone but huge shoutouts to the entire spindas team for being good at the game and enjoyable to be around. This was one of the more enjoyable DPLs I've been apart of so it was nice to end my last DPL surrounded by such a great group of people. See y'all when I inevitably feel like playing pokemon again o7

 

[RelicanthPrimal]

Dpl X teamdump

Dont rly feel like doing a writeup but heres the teams if ppl r curious. Pretty satisfied with 6 2 record, i think the teams r all pretty solid but many weeks i wasnt trying to build most broken team since team was winning so i didnt have pressure. Saved stuff like eforce coaching mew (which i mentioned a few times b4 dpl but guess ppl were paranoid of psyspam overprep so didnt try) and wp arma sun with flip wake (but then ttar dropped lol).

https://pokepast.es/47e537fe563d9521 nido
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesuu-2046425505


https://pokepast.es/fcfe04eaee550c08 hugo should be terapoison bax was too paranoid psyspam
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesuu-2051721696-sx1erexz0z9wt9bxtcwp0e28p5jxy4tpw


https://pokepast.es/9508eb103a99f34d pichu
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesuu-2057080155-5g2llrzsoxdqr5aijz3g6lg8vlkg26ppw


https://pokepast.es/af7c6a3a3a4045c0 hys
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9doublesuu-748464


https://pokepast.es/574368a646c8c260 robbie
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesuu-2066151461-y1pmkhriah8v2ascq7k9owf4sbxiybmpw


https://pokepast.es/f3d67006654f4154 kaori
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9doublesou-751477


https://pokepast.es/9edbb1be13d9fec6 ratpacker game didnt matter so went with something fun, fyi u cant skillswap tera’d oger unfort
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9doublesuu-752738


https://pokepast.es/66a4317e182adb25 kaori semis
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesuu-2083073271

Overall was ok tour not the best mostly cuz duu was so imba, i shouldve pushed to get moon and mew banned early on, wasnt so sure on mew at first as most ppl were focused on coaching itself which i didnt agree with. Prob my last tour in a while unless derby, gonna try vgc irl when switch 2 drops.