W6 vs Excal (L)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-475882
You can kind of say I went through a more cteaming approach this game. Excal’s previous week team vs Honor was an incredible stall team, and when I just looked the teams in my builder, I was just so grateful that I didn’t face it. This was also a period where I began to hate Dugtrio (will explain more in the third post), and I tried to think of as many anti dug measures as possible. I thought of SD Drain Punch loom on a para oriented team, and I thought it could do really well with Scarf TTar support. During the game, Loom did in fact put most of the work, so I’m happy with the choice I made there; however, I overlooked the defensive flaws in the team, and I was heavily punished by Excal’s sub Loom. I initially had Lefties Twave / Psychic Uxie, but I later changed to Scarf Uxie because I was otherwise very weak to Lead Meta. This change also heavily cost me the game. I didn’t play as well as I could’ve, and I still had ways to win the game (with my Loom or Lucario) by paralyzing his Jirachi with Scarf Twave Mag, but Excal never gave me this opportunity, and credits to him for that. In hindsight, I realize I could’ve played this game better. I hope the spectators were entertained by a game of two mushrooms causing destruction. GG Excal, love you brother.
W7 vs ToF (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-477589
Without revealing too many details about my approach, that would give my future opps ideas, it seemed clear to me that I was doing something wrong. M Drag was able to spot the issue, and told me where I had been wrong the entire time. I’m sure my ex-Wolfpack bros know about this, but I’m someone who builds a ton of teams, then tests them all out, and select my SPL team based on the team that performs the well in tests. The issue was that I had multiple teams with multiple ideas, which was just very cumbersome. He advised me to build teams focused on ONE idea, and so I decided to approach my games in this manner. My hatred for Dugtrio still didn’t leave me, and so I made sure that I would want the ideas around my team to be focused on DD Dnite + not insta lose to Dugtrio. Excal had sent me a template of a DD Dnite team that he planned to use vs that weeks opp, and I really liked it a lot, so I stole that template and adjusted it to what I liked a lot. M Drag wanted me to test the DD Dnite team vs a CM Fable stall team that ToF used in prior seasons. On paper, I thought I would lose to ToF’s CM Fable team, but I performed well with my DD Dnite team, and so I decided to use it. Once I saw Swampert + Clefable, I was able to tell what his remaining team members were. I wasn’t sure if TTar was last or Breloom, since that’s a variant that Tamahomie ran, but it was something that I was keeping in the back of my mind. I was very patient this game in the manner in which I set up my DD Dnite, and it was just so, so satisfying to get a crucial W for the team after my four-consecutive-loss streak, and against ToF who was in great form. GG man, and I hope you and your family are keeping well during these times.
W8 vs Emeral (W)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-478296
Decided to go with the same approach as last time, where I focused my teams on one idea. This week’s idea was use DD Yache Dnite + a second DD’er + not-be-weak-to-dug. DD Yache Dnite has the potential to take out a scarfer or damage a wall of opposing team, and thereby support another DD’er; the issue here was deciding between Gyara and TTar. I’ve just been loving DD TTar a lot, and so I thought of using it. Prior to SPL, I have been loving Lum Berry DD / Taunt / Crunch / Low Kick TTar. Coverage wise, I think it’s amazing, and Taunt is fantastic to be able to set up vs a Rotom / Clefable without incurring a status. Loom is a pain to such a TTar, and so I paired the TTar with Lum Zong so that I could blow up on a Loom. I had a fantastic MU this game, and so I think it was a bit out of Emeral’s hands. I was very fortunate with an Overheat miss, especially after being outplayed by Emeral that turn. But that was also when I got triggered. I made the cardinal sin of not closing the lobby when playing, and also reading chat during the same time. It bothered me that for the very first time where I got super lucky, a majority of the community raised their pitchforks at me for something that was out my control. Chat just simply wouldn’t leave it, and then later when I started DD’ing with TTar and decided to take out Latias immediately after a first DD, that play was criticized too. Like at least give me the benefit of the doubt that I might be knowing what I’m doing. My ego then took over, because my mindset was, “How dare these non-DPP mainers criticize my plays?” I was very disordered by this that I couldn’t even type coherently in the proceeding turns. I also want to thank blunder, starry, CMx, and my teammates for their messages after the game. It was very uplifting and it meant a lot to me that people whom I’ve never interacted with were also standing behind me.
W9 vs Bab (L)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-479371
Looking at Bab’s teams, I thought SD Crunch Lucario would be a good pick, and so I made sure to build around this while also sticking to my principle of not being weak to Dug, especially because Bab has heavily used that combo. I’m not sure if this was intentional or unintentional on Bab’s part, but his team felt weak to Skarm, and if he used this team by being aware of my low Skarm usage, then credit to him for that. I tried to play to the best of my ability around screens, but that was not enough. Remember when I said that it never really occurs to me to fish for a crit / hax? That happened towards the end of the game where I was specs Lati vs DD Ttar, and a DD Dnite in the back. For some reason the best play to me was tricking the TTar if it DD’d, and then spamming Dpulse. Maybe if I fished for a DM Crit, I could’ve won that game. Nonetheless, I think this was a very tough game for me to have won. Another way I could’ve possibly won was if I went into Latias the turn Metagross EQ’d my Lucario, and then tricked it a specs. If Bab stayed in, then my Lucario could’ve SD’d and potentially cleaned. Unfortunately I realized this only after the game, and only after talking with Osgoode. GG Bab, I hope you continue playing DPP in the coming years.
I ended up with a 4-5 record, which is worse from last time. But outside of the sheet, I’ve seen an improvement in myself in terms of playing + building, and I’ll keep working towards improving. This was also a period in my life where I had a lot of personal issues, and I want to thank Excal for helping me through them and also because he was a significant part of my prep. I want to apologize to my teammates for not stepping it up when they needed me. I keep asking myself how our playoffs situation would’ve changed if I could’ve grabbed just one win during those weeks we lost 7-5 or tied 6-6. This is my burden to bear, and thank you to my Shark mates for still being a fantastic group to be around. I’m not sure if you’re reading this Indigo Plateau, but your messages are filled with positivity that can turn someone’s bad day around, and just know that you’d easily make it into my list of top ten best teammates. The same goes for players like BKC and Somalia who have shown endless support to me; a simple nice message can go a long way.
If anyone has questions about the teams I used, or want to comment on how I could've played differently, please reach out.
I loaded up a Curse Swampert team that I thought was well-equipped to handle almost everything in the meta. The DD TTar here was also Chople to lure Breloom, which in turn would help Swamp. I think it did seem like I had a great matchup, but I think people are exaggerating how good of a MU I had. I had SR Toxic Rachi / Curse Swamp / Scarf Lati / TTar / Scarf Mag / Bold Rotom. Fakes’ Lati was Toxic + Reflect, which was very capable of answering Curse Swamp since it forced it to rest, which gave Hippo a turn to roar. Taunt Gliscor was also very threatening, since Careful Swamp takes a bit of damage with EQ, and Rotom loses to Taunt Glisc. I made a huge, huge, huge mistake letting my Jirachi take a para, when that could’ve been a great switch-in to his Lati. I was greedy by fishing for a burn vs his Jirachi, and I got punished for it. I could’ve possibly also played the long game, but I tried to hurry things up, and made mistakes in the process. Fakes played really well after that turn 2 mistake, and it’s not such a huge mistake either since it let his Hippo switch freely into Rotom, and keep Roaring for rock and/or sand chip. I was outplayed in the game by Fakes, and beaten in the builder by Osgoode.