Relicanth Primal DPL 8 Writeup (annual or semi-annual tryhard post)
Holy fuck what a run. I wasn't even sure I was going to get drafted since I didn't do any tryouts, it was 6 slots and near the end some more good players signed up (tho some ended up deleting). In retrospect there wasn't that many DUU players tho any SS main that is a builder type could do decent easily. I thought If I got drafted it was most likely going to be SMB and then maybe Zstrats or Tenzai. SMB ended up drafting me for a whopping 6.5k and the rest is history.
In-team I tried to act a bit as a vice manager giving macro thoughts on how to prep for specific opponents and I think my calls were pretty good overall. After my DWCOP experience, seeing other top players prep I realized I was already around that level and DPL just helped solidify that. Main thing I need to improve is not letting the pressure get to me. I am pretty satisfied with my results going 4-0 at one point although going 0-3 in my last 3 games wasn't great. All my losses were due to some misplay with a dash of bad luck but I had a great time regardless and learned a good bit.
Prep Summary: The way I prep’d involved not much testing, mostly a lot of brainstorming with SMB. For all reg season games I only tested shortly before the game. For finals ofc more effort I tried testing different team ideas more and testing before the game day. I ended up using rain or sand every week in duu and while I lost my last 3 I dont think it had to do with using weather, weather just feels super strong there. Rip hail, killed by DOU sample.
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Regular season
Week 1 vs Mishimono
Game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesuu-1529952808
Team:
https://pokepast.es/31bb1c3c593b46be
Prep:
Week 1 I had some ideas for my typical agro stuff but wasn't too sure about anything. From the kickoff scout it looked he used a few mons mainly and also weirdly mold breaker exca which is just bad since sand is common, which made going sand seem safer. I kinda doubted he could get that approved in DPL and that ended up being the case. SMB thought pex was very good vs him and since I was unsure what to use we ended up going with a team he built, my only change was adding poison jab to scrafty which I would go on to use in all 3 of my scrafty teams.
Fite:
Going into the game I was rather nervous since it was my first DPL game and with a team style I was not used to. The matchup looked quite annoying since they had exca which threatened so much. I made sure to set tspikes as early as possible to win in the long run. Turn 3 I tunnel visioned into trying to get a ko on scrafty with CC when really it made more sense to just horn leech it. Mishi didn't know I was band so switched out primarina the turn after so things worked out ok but ideally I would have leeched that slot the turn after and bulu would be healed a decent bit from the 2 attacks + 2 grassy turns. The turning point was turn 7 when pex lived a hhp to ko exca and chans healed back to full. From there I was able to set up sand for zolt and clean up, mishi needed a triple tect to win. Definitely my shakiest win from inexperience with the stall teamstyle.
1-0
Week 2 vs Atago
Team:
https://pokepast.es/762a5a6a8a538092
Orig:
https://pokepast.es/9711c270158104d5
Kickoff team orig idea was based on:
https://pokepast.es/19191283aa9402b4
Prep:
Coming off a close win with a team type I was inexperienced with, I felt confident and I was facing a non dou main so it seemed like the easiest MU I would get this run. SMB advised I use lots of spread since Atago likes setup stuff so I just went with a rain psyspam team based off the one I used in kickoff. I thought slowking-g was a very good mon that just wasn't being used, bulky tr setter with perfect typing to counter the bulus that want to turn off terrain plus regenerator is super good. I think it shines best with psyspam but ironically I used it more without (2 uses). The original version had moltg since another spread and it can finally use hurricane thanks to rain, just a cool bulky setup sweeper. But it made the primarina, milotic and ferrothorn MUs look very tough so SMB wanted to use something different. He suggested rotom mow which wasn't something I even considered so I thought he meant a wisp set (for ferro) but was thinking trick. We picked specs and it was indeed the perfect choice for the team, fixing its weaknesses and working as glue for the whole team. A bit bummed I didn't get to rep moltg rain but rotom mow was definitely the move.
Fite:
Off preview it looked great, we had everything needed to win as long as seismitoad was not faster than kingdra (doubling kingdra with toad phero would ko it). I was expecting phero to be scarf or sash from preview and it ended up being scarf. Lead was a free kingdra politoed HH muddy which took out their toad and then I went scrafty to intim phero if he wanted to ko it with CC for another muddy spam. Turn 3 the game was sealed with me ruining the regi by tricking it and it was smooth sailing from there on. Near the end I made a misplay by clicking muddy on t11 instead of locking spectrier with huricane and setting tr with slowking-g which gave them a 15% chance to hax me. I don't understand why they went toad instead of kingdra, it would make the MU a lot more even. I thought the team was interesting with the scarf phero and I would end up using it myself later. (but scarf would do nothing that game lol)
2-0
Week 3 vs Yellow Paint
Game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesuu-1540058197
Team:
https://pokepast.es/7b4cb18203a09341
Team its based on:
https://pokepast.es/b5bbd65033e8149a
Prep:
Looking at the scout SMB noticed he looked very weak into tr so we went with a fullroom sand team with dracozolt, based on a SMB lurantis oranguru sand team since he looked fighting weak so lurantis scrafty looked really good. I decided to go slowking-g again to help with the bulu MU. The original version had gogs oranguru but I thought taunt was more likely so changed it, which ended up being the wrong call lol.
Fite:
On preview things looked great, I just needed to set up tr and delete stuff. I was expecting tr kling with min speed tangrowth but for some reason that was not the case? Turn 2 I went for double pjab on primarina to make it very low and sack scrafty to bring in lurantis but I ended up getting a crit which ruined YP’s set which turned out to be super bulky 252 hp 244 def. From there I just played aggressively removing any chance for an outplay and their only out was a draco miss.
3-0
Week 4 vs Actuarily
Game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1545412034
Team:
https://pokepast.es/2878aeb78386826f
BW team inspo:
https://pokepast.es/dda97a08b9ef5fb2
Prep: Unlike my previous opponents we were not sure what was good to use since Actuarily uses a lot of different teams and is a strong builder. He hasn't looked like himself this DPL but obviously I wasn't going to assume that would be the case every game. We had both come off a win with a lurantis oranguru gigalith scrafty team so I did not feel like going intim for the 4th time in a row. In week 3 Dawob used a SMB paraspam team that was absolutely hilarious and I noticed there was very few twave immunes in DUU (just krook, exca and zolt) so I thought of using it with rotom wash ferro and cress. I then thought of adding rain since it helps wash and ferro but in the end we removed wash since the grass MU was too shaky. Rain also beats ground which is ⅔ of the twave immunes. I originally thought of a cool type null last resort twave set but it just gets owned by both intim mons since they have knock. I replaced that shitmon with chansey and SMB suggested togekiss instead of rotom wash for grass MU and super hax. I didn't want cress to be too passive so I went with a cool wp set. Thanks to all the twaves toed could also hit first often enough so i went for icebeam coverage and muddy for extra hax. Encore could also get value easier too. I put a bit of speed creep on ferro so that it could outspeed the aprox 60 stuff like primarina for flinch hax with ironhead or just attacking. Bpress was good for scrafty and exca and lets it hit zolt. I also thought of serene grace rockslide chans but that makes toxic counter it and no consistent chip damage so I stuck with the more reliable set.
Fite:
On preview I was surprised to see 3 unmons entei darude and mudsdale. Doubles LC might’ve brainwashed ya lol mudbray is amazing stats for LC mon but mudsdale stats are very mediocre for evolved mons. MU from hell like he said, I just clicked and after a while everything was paralyzed and chipped. Definitely the most disgusting team I brought and the little touches made it more polished than I originally thought this team could be.
4-0
In week 4 I also got madaraaa to use my sun semiroom team. He tested a decent bunch of games with other teammates (private games didn't post em after) so I thought he could pilot it properly but he ended up using it wrong and won thanks to a draco crit. Leading naga necroz looked a lot better. The MU was not ideal but it was not a guaranteed loss like many seemed to think since we have 3 ep and bpress dian. Gogs cress would rly own it but it wasn't that set. In retrospect I should have prep’d him better by getting them to send the replays to me and to talk the best leads and combo mons as he went venukoal twice when other options were better.
Game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1544585352
Team:
https://pokepast.es/c0b0f2bfb24f74a4
Oops this is where shit hit the fan.
Week 5 vs Lord Death Man
Game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesuu-1550511930
Team:
https://pokepast.es/b49fb9bf78ed491e
Prep:
I wanted something that beats weezing since I used so much weather and he's used it before so I went with swords dance excadrill. I got inspo to use tangrowth from Yellow Paint’s week 3 team vs me and since that resists ground I thought to use eq. I wanted to try double trick so went with cress and rotom wash. Zapdos was a good last fit to counter intim which annoys exca and gig while also being another eq immune. The cress set is rather awkward if you want to set tr while still holding specs but it can also provide a lot of value being able to hit harder than expected or trick disruption. Its funny this team ended up being 4 choiced and I did not realize it until teammates pointed it out lol. One of my favourite DUU teams for sure.
Fite:
Turn 1 I went for a bad scout for imprison, I should've doubled it with moonblast tbolt. The MU looked bad on the surface but actually if I could get a tr off after indeedee-m was gone I could get a lot of work done. He misplayed with draco and I should have switched to zapg on gig and if I didn't get scald burned I won.
4-1
Thankfully Akaru was able to clutch the last win so we didn't need to go to tiebreaks for first seed.
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Playoffs
With first seed claimed it was time to grab some popcorn and watch semis. I was expecting Spindas to win since Lands have weaker SM and BW slots (unless nido subs in). The most realistic way for Lands to win is to go to tiebreaks and then it's pretty even, and they were able to get that to win the tiebreak 2-0.
Lands seemed like the easier opponent to get if we were able to win in the 6v6 but madaraa got crit, nido got subbed in vs Dawob reducing the advantage to 1 and I misplayed and we ended up being down 1-3. I thought it was probably over needing a win from both SMB and Akaru but they were able to pull through and bring us to the tiebreaks. Funny enough Akaru’s game was the easy one with a great MU while SMB’s was pretty much unwinnable and required him to outplay at every turn which he did lol.
Finals Prep:
I originally planned to help a lot with all the teams but starting a bit after semis tiebreaks we got a heatwave and my apartment aircon was not set to cooling yet so I was fried. During our break weeks for semis I tried throwing a bunch of ideas out and we used some concepts of those but during the actual game weeks I was Hellmo irl.
Madaraa vs Crunchman
Game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1564826775
Team:
https://pokepast.es/2449855086f5e0a0
I had an idea of HH tsar double scarf stuff, also with bulky zyg. SMB liked lurantis and we ended up going with that, I wasn't a big fan of lurantis for dou, I just dont think it's strong enough here but in the game it seemed to do fine. With a rilla MU the lefties sub could get value. So the only part of the team that's my idea is the bulky zyg, something I haven't really seen people use but I always thought it could get value in semiroom. Unfortunately it got crit which just killed madara’s chances of winning.
Calc:
252+ SpA Life Orb Dragapult Draco Meteor vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Zygarde in Misty Terrain: 265-312 (63.2 - 74.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Akaru vs Yobuddy
Game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1565652565
Team:
https://pokepast.es/956a5c25e784c780
I didn't help with this team but the fini set SMB used is so wild I wanted to put it here lol.
Tapu Fini @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 184 SpA / 48 SpD / 24 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Taunt
Finals vs Lord Death Man
Game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesuu-1564875695
Team:
https://pokepast.es/ba19bee5830e775f
Prep:
Rematch time, SMB asked how viable toge lvl 1 was and it seemed like a sleeper pick, with alola tales gone there is no hail to counter so sand chip could finish off endeavor’d targets. Originally we thought of using victini final gambit to set tr easier but its no good vs weather that outspeeds it. We tried slowking-g +indeedee-m tr duo after but indeedee is not reliable and psy counters fakeout. Malamar was not something I ever thought I’d use but it has rockslide to combo with toge while also setting tr. In the end it was replaced with protect since it was too hard to position. A bulky ev’d slowking-g looked like the most reliable tr setter. For the sand sweeper we chose stoutland for the follow me combo with toge and malamar. I chose scarf phero to have a better MU vs opposing weather sweepers, partially inspired by atago’s week 2 team and scarf phero was something I thought could be legit for a while. Easily the wildest DUU team I've made.
Fite:
The weez-g was very annoying but after I killed it toge could win. Unfortunately I went for a bad prediction thinking he would switch it out to use later and wasted my toge. A few flinches and misses later it was over, although breaking cress would be quite hard if I wasn't able to do it fast enough with malamar. I should've removed the spikes with slowking-g to keep malamar healthier too.
4-2
Finals Tiebreak vs Stax
Game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1570503306-vaf2x5aw3v1zumwjw815wd5oy1wezclpw
Team:
https://pokepast.es/6bdd05ee34bfb4b5
Team orig idea (for madaraaa finals):
https://pokepast.es/9c14f346c4795046
Kyle’s team idea:
https://pokepast.es/d30cf9cd028a8f60
Prep:
We wanted to use bulky band zyg + amoonguss and I had 3 ideas with that duo. Double scarf concept, tspikes mew + hex spectrier and a staka build. I tested a bunch and double scarf seemed best. The final team is a combination of the original idea and a team kyle made by adding diancie to the mix. I think double trick has lots of potential, just extremely disruptive and the less common tricker will be unexpected (metagross in this case).
Fite: I think the MU was pretty good but I led wrong with fini which removed my amoonguss threat. A hydro miss and a wrong predict later and I ran out of gas to win. The bulky zyg and occa amoonguss were able to get some nice value but it just wasn't enough after that rough start. Between me and Akaru we had 3 first try misses with hydro lol. :(
4-3
SMB vs LDM
Game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesuu-1569671248
Team:
https://pokepast.es/a573f98a55cb6abb
We wanted something that beats weather and weez so we went with exca rain. I wanted to help more with this team but was still being toasted by the heatwave. SMB played a bit passive at start being paranoid of roar/whirl I think should've tried setting up with regi regardless since the mons he had in were not doing much. We should have lost this one if LDM targeted the right mon at end but if I played better I think I won vs stax but guess that's how these games go, pressure can get to anyone.
Dawoblefet vs Nido-rus
Game:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8doublesou-1572108134
Team:
https://pokepast.es/f5b81f42e61cf225
As you might have seen from Akaru’s post in the meme thread we had the most scuffed last minute prep for the final game of finals tiebreaks. Basically Dawob said he would be rdy 2.5hrs b4 game to prep but then arrived 1hr late so 1.5hrs left, so it was speedrun prep time and we gave Dawob a few team ideas we thought would work. He liked the staka cress core so we worked with that.
Wob wanted Lando-I Stak Cress Rilla +2
We thought of incin scarf urshi but realized steela owns (heatcrash does nothing since steela is thicc)
Then we tried volcanion + zera and that seemed good. Shuca volc since 3 ground weak and toxic for bulky wincons, magnet zera to own steela.
SMB, Akaru and meminger did last min testing while kyle and Dawob were in VC and I was spamming in chat.
Set detail info:
The staka set is my take on it, not exactly original but this version lets you use all the bulk, also boosting bpress, instead of being greedy trying to snowball +atk and being weaker defense stat. Also stone edge accuracy is bad so this is more consistent. Dawob really liked this set so we stuck with it. Unfortunately it died before doing anything lol.
For the zera set he insisted magnet was better and in retrospect if investing in atk it is definitely better than sitrus. These evs ko 252hp celesteela and urshi.
They were still testing 5 minutes before the game and this prep was past my normal dinner time (8pm I eat at 7pm latest) so by game time I felt sick and just went to eat lol. I looked back at the game a few times and saw staka randomly died, but the next time I looked over Dawob blew up a pult reading that the urshi wasn't scarf and then the magnet -1 zera chipped urshi enough to stop the substitute play and it was over. So last min prep was worth it but I'd rather not experience that again lmao.
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS! QUACK!
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Final thoughts
I hope you were inspired a bit by my take on building, a style of less protect, more proactive options. I think everyone should try building, after a while some ideas are bound to stick. Nothing more satisfying than seeing your original team put in work, doing exactly as you planned.
To each of my teammates:
Ann nonima: We didn't talk much but you were a great help in testing especially with SMB in SM.
Akaru Kokuyo: Clutch AF helping us secure first seed and the finals win we needed to tie, truly our guardian angel as Kyle said. Your two losses were unlucky, the sand team I should have argued wasn't a good choice since Latam used so much sand and the XY game hydro miss sucked. I'm sure you will do better next time around.
DaWoblefet: Best record of our team, I just wish you prep’d earlier for finals. If I have you as a teammate again I will force you to prep earlier
You won in the end so all is forgiven lol.
KyleCole: I'm glad I was finally able to see your true potential in XY, since DWCOP was SS and you hate that tier lol.
MADARAAAA: You had a pretty rough DPL with bad MU’s and luck but it seems I don't need to defend ya since ppl think you are a good player. You will definitely bounce back next time around.
Meminger21: Playing DPL without prior success I think the pressure got to ya but I hope you learned a lot from this experience and do well in future indiv/team tours as SMB saw potential in you when scouting.
SingleThunder: I wish you got to play more but you played well and helped a good bit in XY and SS, I hope you get a breakout tour soon.
SMB: And of course thanks again to my manager for drafting me and believing in me enough to put me in tiebreaks. Was really fun building interesting DUU teams together and trying more team styles.
Thanks to Arcticblast for hosting the tour, Spurrific for the predix (even tho i didn't join maybe next time lol) and all my opponents for the great games. Cyall in DPL9!
