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Hey RoA! With SPL X underway, this thread will be used to discuss DPP related topics, whether it's about the players, general metagame trends, matches, predictions and so on. This thread will be updated frequently with each new week, player standings, and replays.
Hey man, I'm glad that there are threads to discuss DPP because I think a lot is going on right now, but I just want to correct you on a few things in this quote:
ToF was traded to the Sharks
In the same trade, DeepBlueC was traded to the Wolfpack
Giara will be DPPing for the Scooters
Malekith will be DPPing for the Cryonicles
Hope you can edit these in and am anticipating some great discussion!
Well, this is very sad not being drafted after winning kinda the 55% of the competitive dpp tours(including PPerfect and the competitive tour) and gettin at least the semifinals of the 35% dpp tours i took part, but well, im not here to talk about myself..
Roscoe is the best dpper of the pool and probably the player i always wanted face in a tour. Im pretty sure Tof, jimmy and the kingpin will do an amazing run; they all are very experienced players and one of the best in the dpp world. It would be amazing if Tama, the player i always admired and got inspired, also plays dpp. In the end, they all are great players and we will have great games.
I expect lots of clef-queen teams, balanced and psuedo stall..can not wait for it! Hopfeully to get drafted at mid-season acution and finally join to this amazing dpp party..good luck to all competitors..lets show how this tier is so fucking competitive and beautiful!
Sorry for my terrible english...id like to tell more, but.. :(
a bit late but here are the dpp pairings of week 1
[CONG] Void vs Roscoe [RAID]
[CRYO] Malekith vs DeepBlueC [WOLF]
[RUIN] Jimmy Turtwig vs ToF [SHRK]
[TYRN] GaryTheGengar vs 69A Ace Matador [TGRS]
[BIGS] soulgazer vs giara [SCTR]
feel free to make your predictions and give your thoughts, looking forward to those matchs!
[CONG] Void vs Roscoe [RAID]
[CRYO] Malekith vs DeepBlueC [WOLF] [RUIN] Jimmy Turtwig vs ToF [SHRK]
[TYRN] GaryTheGengar vs 69A Ace Matador [TGRS]
[BIGS] soulgazer vs giara [SCTR]
Those games are all kind of hype imo, but JT vs ToF and Void vs Roscoe are the one I wanna catch the most.
[RUIN] Jimmy Turtwig vs GaryTheGengar [TYRN]
[SCTR] giara vs Void [CONG]
[BIGS] soulgazer vs ToF [SHRK]
[WOLF] DeepBlueC vs roscoe [RAID]
[TGRS] 6A9 Ace Matador vs Malekith [CRYO]
Let's keep discussion going week 2 matchups are now up will give predictions later.
Didn't post my predictions last week but it went Roscoe, Kith, Gary, AM, SG
Predictions
[RUIN] Jimmy Turtwig vs GaryTheGengar [TYRN] - Gary seemed to suffer from tons of rust last week while Jimmy looked super good. I think Jimmy will take this comfortably.
[SCTR] giara vs Void [CONG] - Despite Void having a lackluster week 1. I think that he is still a superior player to Giara who also had a mediocre showing. I believe Void also had a hard game to win last weak given the team and player he was facing so I think this is a comfortable game for him to bring it back.
[BIGS] soulgazer vs ToF [SHRK] - SG is looking hot rn and I think that he will hold up to a high standard of play. Secretly rooting for ToF to pull this one out but I think that it is definitely going to be an interesting game.
[WOLF] DeepBlueC vs roscoe [RAID] - Roscoe had a great week one and I think that if he preps well for Deepblue then he should take this one rather comfortably. he played well last week and showed why he deserves to be #1 on the power rankings.
[TGRS] 6A9 Ace Matador vs Malekith [CRYO] - This one is super close and definitely could go either way. I want to say Malekith but I also want to say 6A9 so we'll see.
Highlight Matches: AM vs Malekith, SG vs TOF
Storylines to watch: Jimmy and Roscoe dominance, Vets proving they can keep up with the young'uns.
Overall, a weaker week in terms of matches but definitely has some promise to the matchup between the Vets and to see if ToF can return to form.
Will post some Week 1 stuff in the next few days, a trends / lati sets, teamstyles used, and potentially a game analysis if I have the time to write it.
Obviously, it is only the first week of SPL and even despite the skill of these players they all have to adapt to this new Latias metagame. In week 1 we have seen some experimental teams come out from these players as they try to figure out what truly is the "strongest" team style is before their competitors do. Given how recent the modern Latias meta came to be with it's unban and how it is only been unbanned for a bit, it is going to be a while before we can statistically back metagame trends and as such a lot of what you will see in this review of SPL X Week 1 is obviously subject to change as the meta develops the further we get into SPL. Without further ado, let's begin.
Let's start with the elephant in the room, Latias. What sets are being used? Are the players using it as a sweeper or a wallbreaker? How is it affecting the meta? All of these might be questions that come to your head, especially if you haven't been watching the games or keeping up with the Lati unban discussion threads here in RoA. I hope to answer these as we go on.
Latias Sets seen in Week 1:
1. Choiced (3)
2. Safeguard + CM (1)
3. LO + 3atks (1)
It can be seen that these sets show the amount of potential and role compression that latias fits in DPP. It can act as a swiss army knife of sorts doing a lot of things really well but not excelling in one particular role. The choiced set comes out as the front runner mostly because of it's the potential utility. On the specs side you can drop dracos or spit dragon pulses to your heart's content; this set not only pressures defensive teams through it's strong moves but also the threat of trick. We also saw a nice tech on the specs set in the Soulgazer vs Giara game which is the move sleep talk. This tech could prove to be useful as Latias can take the common sleep spreaders (breloom, roserade) attacks rather comfortably and this tech helps the player from having their lati completely removed from the game. The scarf set on the other hand has some nice utility versus offense as there is a multitude of moves you can run. That and the fact that Latias is one of the fastest viable scarfers in the game now at a roaring 110 base speed. Scarf Gengar's begone as Latias has now taken the throne of the elusive 110 scarfer. There is some merit to running the scarf set as the resistances given by a Latias are a boon to most teams and the threat of trick to a sweeper or defensive teams can be incredibly dangerous. Be wary when using these sets however because as we have learned from newer gens, these sets will often end up being bait for TTar and other trappers to put you down a mon.
As for the Safeguard + CM set, this set has gained traction after recent posts of it being "broken". This set offers a lot of utility over your basic CM 3atks as it allows Latias to avoid being statused by its foe entirely. If there is one thing that Latias hates, it is definitely being stated. There is a lot of merit to using this set and it's definitely one I want to see more of in the future. the only downside to this set is that you usually have to give it hazard support of some kind and give it defensive cushioning like those given to you by a stall team. Be on the lookout for this set through SPL.
LO + 3atks is a very modern set that is usually used to help wallbreak as well as to act as a pseudo check to certain attackers (such as water types. I am not sold on this set yet in DPP OU and I definitely need to see more to affirm to myself that it isn't outclassed by other wallbreaking sets that it could potentially run.
All of these set have some good pros and flaws to them depending on your team structure. Latias being added back to the metagame has also raised questions on how it may affect team structure. I assure you that Latias has changed the structure of teams slightly but a lot of the teams we see used are very similar to modern builds before Lati was reintroduced. In fact, we say a team used by Void which was a very popular hazard stack stall through the last meta and still seems like it can hold up against most teams today with a lati in place of a Starmie. Speaking of, Latias also brings around some very interesting changes to the scope of the meta.
Metagame Trends
Latias > Starmie?
There has been a noticeable lack in the usage of Starmie in this first week despite it being one of the only practical methods to remove hazards. It's not even like there were teams that were hazard resistant naturally, we saw at least 2-3 teams where they had at least 3-4 grounded mons that were susceptible to spikes and or toxic spikes. The main reason that I can think of is that Latias is becoming a replacement for Starmie on a lot of teams due to the fact that it brings a ground immunity and synergizes type wise with a lot of mons better than Starmie does. When you build with Starmie it is never guaranteed to get a spin off. There is always a chance that you will just be prevented from getting hazards off of your side through trapping, reliable spinblocking etc.. Also given the facts that bulky starmie hits as hard as a pillow and Latias can actually hit pretty hard off it's STABs even when bulky. The disdain for Starmie and reliable spinning will make it hard for this star to find it's way into more teams as another competitor has risen to challenge its spot.
OFFENSIVE PERT
This has been a growing trend in recent years due to the former dominance of Breloom for the past 3 years who pretty much makes tank pert a reliability. I honestly love these sets due to the mind games you can play with your opponent, whether it is special or scarfed initially is the real challenge. Pert acts as a good lure to a lot of mons while also providing a good defensive backbone and typing to your team. The rise of this mon is due to the surprise factor of it and how it can completely dismantle certain defensive threats. It's hard to switch into and definitely a modern way of luring enemy pokemon.
A decline of Fight Spam offenses
I doubt this is a trend a more of a coincidence given the players in the SPL pool's playstyles. But we definitely saw a lack of Infernape + Breloom + Pursuit offenses which are to be one of the best team styles in the previous meta. The noticeable trend here is that people also didn't seem to prepare that much for this type of team style as Scarf Tar was used multiple times this week. I believe this is mainly because people are wanting to experiment and not spam one of the most popular team styles of the past 2-3 years.
/
Taunt Leads / Taunters
There was a slight trend of taunt lead coming around as people were preparing to be facing mostly defensive teams. We saw this not only in the leads but also on sweeper mons such as Gyarados or on Stallbreakers such as Gliscor. Taunt is becoming a more common move as the meta shifts towards that of a slower one.
SR Celebi
An old set which was used by vets this week. Celebi has in recent years been seen as a liability on most teams due to commonly getting pursuit trapped by other pokemon and being hazard bait for a lot of pokemon. I expect to see a decline in its usage as SPL goes deeper.
This is the end of this edition and I hope to continue a cycle of doing this. This took me a little while to write so I hope that you enjoyed reading this. I might do an analysis of a game from this week and next week or two games next week but this is the extent of my time to sit down and write today. Thank you for reading
Now that SPL is over me, I'd like to share some of my thoughts on my experience and approach to my games.
With a 5-5 record, I cannot say that I performed well, but I'm sure that there are aspects of my playstyle that I've improved on and will continue to do so. There were some mistakes regarding team choice, but also during my gameplay. One glaring mistake that comes to mind is in my game vs sig where I didn't scout for Tbolt on his Jirachi that had already revealed Fire Punch, which proved to be super costly to me. Perhaps because of my short-sightedness no other mistakes immediately come to mind, but for those of you who have or plan to watch replays of my game, I welcome any and all criticism. I've gone into some games where I had the complete upper hand because of which my opponent couldn't do much about, and the same goes vice versa where I just looked like a complete fool. To console myself I'd say, "Well that's pokemon" but sometimes it makes you feel incompetent or helpless when there's nothing you can do. Nonetheless, time to move onto my approach:
W1 vs Malekith - W
I didn't really have much info to go on. But prior to SPL, I was known for loving fat stuff, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to surprise people and decided to bring a rain matchup, something that no one would ever foresee. I managed to have a good matchup and hit my hydropumps, so all went well for me. Malekith played well but some offensive teams just have a TTar to handle the occasional Kingdra, but are unable to stand against an entire rain team, which was the case for him.
W2 vs Roscoe - L
It was an honor to play him, and I know that we both hoped to get our rematch in POs, so we'll get that next season. Having seen Roscoe stall W1 vs Void, I wanted to make sure I had enough stall breakers, and I did. LO Azelf Lead is devastating for teams that lack Scarf Tyranitar, because there isn't really a safe switch in, and would require serious outplaying. It's easier to handle with certain offense, and Roscoe did that. The Fire Blast live on his Roserade from my Heatran was game-changing, and since then I was on the backfoot. I misplayed with my Wish Jirachi in hindsight, because the turn he surfed into my incoming Jirachi, I expected him to switch out because I hadn't revealed that my Jirachi set was special, but I didn't take into consideration that he would have realized that a physical Jirachi was not usually a part of such an archetype. I think after a certain point in the game, my entire chance of winning was luck-reliant where I needed a crit on his Jirachi with my choice scarf tricked-rotom, or getting favorable sleep talk outcomes on Suicune. But this was a really enjoyable game for me to play, and for others to spectate. Roscoe played this immensely well.
W3 vs Giara - L
The week was already won, and so I had a bit more freedom in deciding what to bring. I usually have two-three teams ready to choose before my game, then consult with my teammates on what to bring. I brought a team with (Bulk Up - Force Palm - Ice Punch - Rest) Hariyama because I wanted the game to sort of be an experiment. I felt that Hariyama did well in theory, especially vs a lot of the standard kind of stall that has Nidoqueen / Clef / Bold Rotom / Hippo / Scarf TTar / Bold Zapdos / 252 HP bold or speedy Starmie / Skarm / Gliscor / Defensive Jirachi etc. It does look vs those on paper, although Skarm + Jirachi can pose problems it has the tools to break through. I had a bit of rough start with my Skarm getting demolished, but then also had my fair share of luck towards the end. Giara also made some correct predictions which deservedly gave him an upper hand. To win my game I needed a crit on his spdef Jirachi with my boosted Latias, which I didn't get. After setting Hariyama up, my win was again luck-reliant on me getting force-palm paralysis on his Latias. It has a 30% chance, which are reasonable odds to rely on, but fishing for that should definitely have not been my approach while preparing for my game.
I think this is a lot to read for now, and I'll share my insight about the other weeks if this post gets 10 likes minimum (got to give the fans what they want if they want it). Lastly there are so many individuals that I need to thank for making this a pleasant season for me. I've seen players like ABR, Sacri, Pearl with whom I've never interacted with before saying good things about watching me play, which was very motivating to hear. My family (yes I consider all of you my fam) in the Wolfpack server for putting up with my weird teams and constant need for practice games. A large part of my prep was also thanks to my friends outside of Wolfpack server who gave me their builder/teams that helped them in the Latias suspect test, provided me with test games, and gave valuable advice and feedback on my team. You guys know who you are. I'll see you all in WCOP!
I'm glad you guys liked the above post, so I'll dish out more.
W4 vs ToF - W https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-423597
Arguably my best performance this season. Prep-wise, I had a feeling that ToF would be inclined to bring variants of jirachi / starmie / breloom / ttar / clefable / skarm / swampert / hippo / zapdos, so I wanted to be sure that I was strong against such a playstyle. The way I select the team to use vs my opp is that I build multiple teams, and then start a process of elimination through a bunch of test games. I had it narrowed down to two teams: A CM Lati team that was a lot more passive and the team I used above. The CM Lati was one that I personally liked more, but the team I linked above in the replay was performing much better. This was one of those times where even if your instinct tells you one thing, you go with other as it's what's been proven to be more reliable. And it thankfully turned out that way. There were admittedly some blind plays on my part, like Tricking an Iron Ball into an unrevealed Skarmory t2 + Focus Blasting the unrevealed TTar. With respect to the first play, it works 9/10, and the only time it wouldn't work is if your opponent was running Heat Proof Zong, and was trying to bluff being Levitate (which could've worked). The play behind Focus Blasting vs a Starmie was because he revealed Jirachi / Skarm / Zap / Starmie by then, and neither of them are proper switch ins to Gengar. At times like this it's about figuring out what the opponent potentially has in the back, and my mind was thinking TTar / Rotom / Clefable/ Spdef Tran (though very less likely). He wouldn't have swiched in Rotom, and Clefable isn't a reliable switch-in, so I expected TTar and my calculated risk paid off.
W5 - GTG - L https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-424807
I think on paper, it would have looked like I could've won, but boy was I wrong. T1 vs Nidoqueen was so goddamn costly, and I think it was a huge 50/50 that went wrong in my favor. I'm presuming his Nidoqueen to be Phys Def, so my Orb Psychic would've taken it out. But since Taunt on Azelf was equally predictable, when thinking from his perspective, I expected him to go to TTar or Rotom. But he won that 50/50, and laid down that Tspike which proved to be my bane. Looking back at T8 and discussing this game with Fakes, he said I should've pulled the trigger vs Nidoqueen with Shuca Luc, but I felt that it was too early and I wanted to preserve my shuca by hopefully recreating the same scenario but with a weaker Nidoqueen so that my berry wouldn't be burnt. I pussied out but I was still able to maintain my momentum. At t13, Dragonite vs Gliscor, I looked at his team and I saw 0 EQ resists if Gliscor died, so I didn't mind the trade. It never hit me that he'd have Reflect Starmie in the back. After he revealed Reflect Starmie, I misplayed a lot, lot, lot by not even calcing to figure out that he was Bold Starmie. When it was Luce vs Starmie, I could have gotten a second SD vs Starmie, or maybe just CC'd for the kill to prevent Reflect, but that was a choke on my part. There was a lot of things that I did wrong, and I don't want to go in too much detail, but Gary chose the right team vs me, and he played well with it.
W6 - Jimmy Turtwig - W https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-425636
Having lost hardcore to Void in WCOP when he used a passive team against me, and the loss against GTG with what I would label as "not offense," I had a feeling that Jimmy would bring something like that against me. So I wanted to make sure that the team I used would excel against such playstyles. I was told August built the team for GTG last week, so I made sure to test my team against the fat nido clef stuff that he prefers. Finally with change after change, I settled on the perfect team. My matchup turned out to be perfect as it was one of those games where you don't have to rely on plays to win. Orb Azelf was deadly because his team needed to maneuver around it perfectly such that skarm was the one that soaked the explosion. A few versions of the team that Jimmy used had Zapdos instead of Gliscor, but since his was the latter, it made life easier for CroCune. He made the right call in running Shed Shell Skarm, but that was negated by me running HP Ice + Explosion Mag. Not much else to say, but this was a huge morale boost for me to win against the defending DPP Cup champion.
W7 - Sig - L https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-426428
By now it's very easy to predict the outcome of my games because it's a very L-W-L-W kind of scenario, and I hoped that this would be the opportunity to break that streak. Guess not! I wanted to run something more stally than my usual set-up offense. I really liked the team I went with, and I felt that it had all the right tools against almost all playstyles, and that's what you try to look for in a perfect team. Osgoode suggested a really nice last minute change to Celebi set which had me run U-Turn. Metagross lead was super tough against Jirachi / Clefable / Forretress / Gyara / Celebi / Dug, so I was really unsure of what my plan was going to be. I knew I had to go to Forretress because I had no other legit switch in, and my only way of beating it was with Dugtrio since Fort didn't have any attack. So I had to find a way to get Dug in vs Meta, but worst case scenario I thought that at least I'd end up with a bunch of hazards. These Meta lead teams usually have a common archetype where its Meta / Dnite / TTar / Gengar or Rotom / Starmie, so I knew what I was up against. When he revealed Jirachi, it never registered to me that he could be Tbolt or to even scout for it. I lost my Gyara that way, which was a massive, massive blow. Thankfully, I took it out with Dug, and then a couple of turns his Meta went down. I felt that I was right back in it then. But I needed to get my rocks up and not having it helped him regain his momentum with the way he played with Dragonite by switching it in. In hindsight, I made a huge misplay by letting my Celebi take the fire punch and not my Clefable, because in turn 24, I could have gone to my Spdef Celebi, and not be forced to sack my Dug to Starmie or attempt to flinch it down with Iron Head Jirachi. Sig played well and deserved the win.
W8 - Void - W https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-427485
A huge game on the line for us because we (Wolfpack) were tied with Classiest on points, and win was what we needed so badly. Moreover, it was an opportunity for me to avenge my WCOP loss. Literally everyone I talked to told me that Void was going to use something along the lines of paraspam. Osgoode was gracious enough to sit this out despite Void's attempt to bribe him by offering to buy him lunch if he helped out against me. Unfortunately with paraspam, even if it's something that you predict your opponent is going to run, it's really hard to be fool-proof against because it's one of those situations where you're both essentially reliant on luck to bail you out. As predicted, Void did run that with a variation by having the nasty Cacturne. I'd like to take this opportunity to give a shout out to ABR and the DPP Council for banning this thing. I felt that against paraspam, offensive Swampert would be a good call as it can switch in on TTar, force out Jirachi, also switch in on Zapdos with ease. Plus offensive Swamp has been tearing it up this SPL. I went with Sub because it has has many benefits such as 1) Your opponent will immediately presume it to be band if you've revealed a separate rocker 2) Sub helps if the opponent tries to sack something to see what move you get locked onto 3) It helps vs Physical Jirachi if it can't get the body slam para on you the turn you sub 4) Helps vs stuff like status users like Toxic Bronzong, and with some speed investment vs Spore Breloom. Swampert got plenty of kills, and I was really happy with my call in running it. I also acknowledge that the Pokegods blessed me since I got super lucky by not missing any of my hits vs his Cacturne. Once again to reiterate, it was a massive feeling to help the team out when they needed the W.
W9 - k3nan - W https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-428240
Jesus Christ I finally broke my streak. This week I had BKC's help too in regards to prep. The first version of the team was just simply amazing but for the Breloom weakness. So it was a huge, huge brain-racking experience to figure out how to patch up the Loom weakness. Lum Jirachi was BKC's idea, and my initial scarfer was Flygon, which I then replaced with Latias. I wasn't given much guidance on what to run vs k3nan, except to run something solid and that I'm confident with, which I did. I got quite a bit of luck this game by dodging a Hydro Pump from Kingdra against my Jirachi. The miss was 90% useful and 10% harmful, with the harmful part being that I wasn't able to tell if specs or orb. The other piece of luck I had was the Fire Punch burn on Bronzong. There was a bit of luck against me too with Jirachi not paralyzing the Flygon, since I specifically sacked my Dragonite to let Flygon be locked into Outrage. I could have gone to Latias and then DM'd, instead of going Jirachi, but I was a bit paranoid about DM missing. My paranoia about missing moves came true when Starmie missed a Pump, but eventually things worked my way. This was a tense match because of the circumstances since the Tigers were up against us by a large margin, so being able to reduce that gap felt great.
W10 - GTG - L https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-429736
We already lost at this point, but I still wanted to try and improve my record. I didn't want to bring a "meme" team and then if I lost hide behind an excuse like, "I only lost because I brought a joke team or else I would have tried" or try to feel proud if it worked out in my favor, because then that's just disrespectful to your opponent. I went with the team I planned to use, and it was the wrong team for the occasion. I felt that I had the right tools to win if the game was played out differently. I had SD double priority Luca + Ice Beam TTar (to lure gliscor) and he had a slow Jirachi / Roserade / Latias / Heatran / Dug / Gliscor. You'd think I could clean him out with Lucario once I lured Gliscor, but I let my TTar take a massive Leaf Storm that ruined my game plan. I then tried to lure his Gliscor by switching in my Gengar and luring it with Dbond, but that didn't work either. Gary played this well, and tbh Torment Tran really shit all over my team, so my odds of winning were extremely slim once Heatran was onfield.
That's everything there is to be added. I didn't thank the writers of the Power Rankings for writing nice things about me, and also placing me 6th which highlighted to me what everyone's expectations were. Thank you! My only issue with Power Rankings is that while it may be technically correct it, it isn't realistically right because having the right helpers on a team can turn a bottom 5 player into a top 5 player. I had the right helpers and DPP record wise, I turned from a predicted bottom 5 to the top 5. Hope you guys enjoyed this mini novel.
Hello there, I would like to share some of the teams I've used throughout the past SPL season. In general my approach was to try and make as solid a team as possible every week while still having some unconventional sets and ideas to be less predictable. Small disclaimer, not all of these are exactly the same as they were during the battles, since I often realize there are improvements to be made after a game and then update the team accordingly.
Week 1 vs ToF :
Azelf @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 8 HP / 140 SpA / 144 SpD / 216 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Psychic
- Fire Blast
- Explosion
Tyranitar @ Passho Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 8 HP / 188 Atk / 48 SpA / 152 SpD / 112 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Fire Blast
For the first week my opponent was ToF, an old player who is known to me mainly as a user of many different stall teams and more recently some solid offenses as well to mix it up. Knowing this I wanted to lead azelf, it puts pressure on a team with turn 1 stealth rock immediately without ceding momentum. This particular set lures ttar/heatran with explosion by virtue of hitting everything else hard, opening up scarf rotom and jirachi respectively. Breloom and DD gyarados continue the strong wallbreaking trend and Passho Ttar rounds out the team by providing pursuit, sand and a water/electric check. Scarf rotom and breloom is a typical revenge killing core that has great synergy, as the priority mach punch checks things like dd tar and agility luke that rotom has a hard time with. Healing wish on jirachi instead of the more common substitute was an idea to give Gyarados a second try at setting up on many of the things that force jirachi out, like heatran and ground types. It's admittedly hard to pull off in practice though, with DPP's funky HW mechanics. If I remember correctly rotom had overheat during the game but it's not really needed and trick seems more useful overall.
Week 2 vs GaryTheGengar:
A way bulkier team this time, this was my first attempt at building with the recently released Latias in this tournament. The concept is that many teams rely on tyranitar to deal with various special threats, so you overload it with specs rotom, CM clefable, roar latias and hazards. The ancient britscor lead set checks tyranitar and provides the team with early stealth rock again. Scarftar makes sure starmie doesn't get to spin after breaking through rotom. Hp fire latias prevents a last mon roost scizor from reverse sweeping and I've found it more useful than calm mind in general. Clefable usually runs max defense on this set, but since my only water resist was latias, the spdef investment allows it to keep up with CM suicune, empoleon and such.
This week I expected to face some dugtrio cresselia team and decided to build around infernape. Normally I'm not really a fan of that mon as it gets worn down so quickly, but the uturn core with flygon and shuca jirachi luring dugtrio appealed to me. Latias' healing wish on the inevitable tyranitar switch should help with the longevity issue and also give jirachi a second life as it's my only steel. He did actually end up bringing dugtrio in the game but unfortunately also two scarfers both faster than mine. This kinda turned the matchup on its head, although I think the team is a bit flawed regardless.
Week 4 vs Void:
Azelf @ Damp Rock
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 8 HP / 140 Atk / 144 SpD / 216 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rain Dance
- U-turn
- Explosion
Scizor @ Damp Rock
Ability: Technician
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Atk / 244 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Rain Dance
- Pursuit
Azumarill @ Life Orb
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Aqua Tail
- Aqua Jet
- Ice Punch
- Superpower
Admittedly this was one of my favourite games this SPL, as successfully matchup fishing vs the cheese master himself was a great feeling. The idea was that rain naturally does well vs offensive teams, and azumarill supported by 3 explosions should manage to break more defensive teams. This is as all out offense as it gets though, if the strategy fails for whatever reason then there is no backup plan. Azelf gets up rain and stealth rock quickly, then makes place for a teammate one way or the other. Being able to dent tyranitar early is a big advantage over leads like uxie for a rain team. The crux to using azumarill is setting up rain and trick room with Bronzong first, then if you manage to predict correctly, the 3 turns you get should equate to 3 kills.
Week 5 vs Malekith:
This team was based on a build from Ojama, the general concept being that tspikes wear down opposing tyranitar and swampert quickly, so that jirachi and scarf rotom are that much harder to deal with. Banded azelf can quickly dispatch of a steel that's otherwise hard to muscle through. SubCM jirachi takes advantage of clefable being all the rage recently in DPP, and pert provides the team with sr and a bulky mon to fall back on. While DPP swampert is great in my opinion, it's important to have a solid plan for breloom whenever you use it. Sleep talk on band azelf tries to do just that, though keeping zen headbutt and fitting sleep talk on roserade is another option to consider for this team. During the game my heatran had taunt, but roar seems better in general as to keep calm mind users at bay. Malekith's team this week was really interesting too and he solidly outplayed to hand me a second loss.
Week 6 vs DeepblueC:
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Roar
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Atk / 44 Def / 176 SpD
Careful Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Iron Head
- Body Slam
Most of my teams had been pretty offensive so far and my lazy ass couldn't decide on a team for my super versatile opponent this week, so in the end I went with a very standard stall similar to what roscoe used earlier in the tournament. Double stealth rock might seem odd at first but since this team has no spinblocker, Hippowdon is basically never keeping them up vs a bulky starmie. One could put toxic or ice fang on hippo instead but the early rocks are really nice vs more offensive teams where clefable has a hard time finding an opportunity to get them up. DeepblueC turned out to be a lot more creative in the teambuilder than me this week and his team was really well prepared for stall, with iirc two trick users, breloom, crocune and a LO azelf lead. Credit to him as I got absolutely rekt.
Week 7 vs Roscoe:
Heatran @ Focus Sash
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 24 Atk / 88 Def / 16 SpA / 128 Spe
Modest Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Magma Storm
- Will-O-Wisp
- Explosion
Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 8 HP / 252 Atk / 128 SpD / 120 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
After our top 3 manager kindly asked me to get my shit together, I came up with some more interesting teams again. Sash tran is a rarely seen set nowadays but it has many nice lead matchups still. For example it turns the tables on sash and scarf metagross lead, naturally matches well vs azelf/jirachi and even does ok vs machamp depending on confusion. This one has enough bulk to take 2 thunderbolts from a non specs Zapdos as well as a hydro pump from starmie even after spin breaks the sash. Ideally it booms on a bulky water which opens the way for LO DD gyara and the OTR Zong + Band Ttar combo. Starmie preserves gyarados' bulk by spinning, provides the team with some important resists and revenge killing reliably without locking into a move. Scarf Heracross rounds out the team, pairing well with the hard hitting physical mons already there and taking advantage of breloom's spore with guts sleep talk.
I couldn't quite make up my mind what to use this week and decided to go with a build Lavos passed me. Empoleon gets up the early rocks, combats many leads well and grabs the momentum after going down. From there it's a very solid bulky offense with some great synergy. Band Ttar punishes the special walls that stand in superrachi's way while dnite sets up nicely on many things that stop a jirachi sweep, like flygon or heatran locked into a stab move. Bronzong is simply an amazing mon for these kinds of offenses, as it provides so much bulk and important resistances without compromising on the offensive pressure. It's the main reason a team like this can afford to go without a scarfer, as it prevents something like an opposing +1 Dnite from instantly sweeping everything *dds twice*.
Week 9 vs Aeroblacktyl:
MoP was a very tricky opponent to prepare for, because he hasn't played a lot of DPP recently in big tournaments and is quite a creative teambuilder, using interesting sets like custap DD tar and double status gengar lead in previous games. I noticed I hadn't used latias much yet and decided to build around her for this week. I was quite pleased with the resulting team, a solid weatherless bulky offense for a change. Ebelt latias has a good shot at 2hko'ing even max hp ttar after stealth rock with surf + gknot, and zapdos + passho tran help further in wearing it down. No sleep talk on latias means there is no natural breloom switchin yet, and going ttar less makes opposing latias a lot harder to switch into as well. Lum Agiligross helps with both these issues, as well as doubling up with heatran to beat down bulky waters and skarmory for flygon. This in turn lets suicune forego hp electric for rest, helping a lot in the stall matchup. The biggest threat to this team is probably lucario, so flygon has a bit of defense investment to tank +2 jolly espeed after multiple sr switchins (adamant luke is slower than suicune).
Semifinals vs Ojama:
So far standard looking teams with a few interesting tweaks had been working well for me, so i sought to continue this trend. Sub tran and subsplit wisp rotom ideally form a combination to set up on what forces the other out, as their typings have pretty good synergy. Breloom takes advantage of swampert/clefable/blissey/tyranitar that could give this core a hard time, and the remaining mons seek to handle what every DPP team needs to deal with: having sr, a revenge killer, checking water types, fighting resists etc. Before going into this game I told my fellow ruiners that lead empoleon would be the worst thing I could face, as u-turn into rotom tbolt only puts it in torrent range. Very plus speed minus spdef approach from me and lo and behold, lead empoleon ripped me a new one. He's not nicknamed the kingpin for no reason it seems. Anyway this team is a bit flawed in general, one of the reasons being scarf jirachi always struggles with 4MSS. It wants tpunch/firepunch for gyarados, luke and opposing rachi, but it's not so easy giving up one of the other moves. All in all a game I would rather forget quickly.
Back to tried and true in the final week, with an interesting twist to the new trend that is lum pert lead. Rindo berry pert doesn't have to switch out of lead heatran in fear of specs hp grass, and also preserves a lot of its bulk if azelf surprises it with grass knot. Still gets ohko'd by roserade though, it's not THAT cool. He can take advantage of trick room later in the game as well, especially if you get into torrent range. Magnezone traps most of the true counters to OTR bronzong, and can Explosion trade with something important when his usefulness has ran its course. I would love to use a different hidden power, but bulky sd scizor can be a real issue for this team without hp fire. Colbur starmie and specs latias form a one-two punch to wear down tyranitar and add some much needed speed to the team, while my own bandtar pursuits the pink cushions that give them trouble.
Hopefully this was an interesting read for the fellow DPP enthusiasts out there, see you all next season.
A couple of months ago, as a part of my preparation for the world cup, I visualized SPL teams in an effort to get a better grasp of the modern DPP metagame and teambuilding. Now that my world cup run is finally over, I don't mind sharing this part of my work:
