Metagame XY Doubles OU (VR Post #2, Samples Post #3)

talkingtree

large if factual
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I didn't have the greatest tour performance this year, but I wanted to share some of the teams that did work and some of the ideas that are actually worth sharing. Click the sprites for a pokepaste; I don't remember what a lot of the spreads do but if you really need to know, feel free to ask and you might get lucky with my remembering the answer (Scroll down for my favorite, the Mega Camerupt team).

Week 1 vs Yellow Paint --:diancie: :gastrodon: :gengar-mega: :landorus-therian: :conkeldurr: :genesect:
I wanted to go with something more comfortable for week 1, and after I made a few quick uninspiring builds Bagel also noticed that Diancie + Gastro looked pretty solid into Paint's teams from last year. This was largely inspired by the team Idyll made last year, with a few other changes for things that I prefer and slight changes to the meta. Substitute Mega Gengar is a huge comfort pick for me, but also helped with Amoonguss. Diancie should probably be Safety Goggles on this team, Hard Stone was a greed pick because Paint wasn't a huge Amoonguss user. Gastrodon is typically better off with Toxic > Protect as well, but with Paint's more offensive style I felt Protect was better here. The game itself was a bit of a haxfest, but I felt alright about how the team performed and somehow squeaked out a win with some well-timed flinches.

As far as possible changes, Conkeldurr could maybe be Iron Fist on this team since Gastrodon already discourages the usage of Steam Eruption. Speaking of Gastrodon, my spread here was also a bit greedy (and I later fixed in in my Week 6 team, more on that later). Here, the greed got punished because Paint's Conkeldurr shouldn't have been able to get that KO with a better, more defensive, spread. I also am probably using the wrong Gastrodon forme for the vibes of the team -- blue Gastro here is just my bias showing.

Week 2 vs Idyll/Memoric --:deoxys-speed: :kangaskhan-mega: :thundurus: :volcanion: :genesect: :landorus-therian:
Normally I wouldn't bother talking about a pretty standard-looking Kang Deo-S team, but there were a few techs that I think paid off even if the game didn't end up the way I'd hoped. Fran brought up the idea of Substitute Mega Kangaskhan, which was a great twist on the general idea and really popped off in testing. Many people will play around Mega Kang by switching to a Helmet user or using Protect to dodge Fake Out, giving it a free chance to set up Substitute. This also helps it evade Toxic users like Gastrodon and Aegislash. I should've been more careful to not target a Helmet mon with Seismic Toss, but the set definitely has potential if anyone else wants to run with it.

As far as other techs, Volcanion was originally Flame Charge > Hidden Power Ice as a 4th move, but I was too eager to use my clever tech in testing and kept clicking it at times where it lost me the game, so I reluctantly changed to something that would give me a panic button answer to Mega Salamence... which later proceeded to crush me along with redirection from Blastoise. Oh well. I almost also brought Lum Berry Taunt Deoxys-S (and Helmet SR Lando-T) instead, geared towards preventing non-Taunt Thundurus from paralyzing it, but Taunt was becoming more and more popular as time went on anyway, so I stuck with the more standard Deoxys-S variant.

Week 6 vs SingleThunder --:camerupt-mega: :bronzong: :diancie: :gastrodon: :cresselia: :hitmontop:
I had really underperformed to my expectations up to this point in the season, and finally inspiration struck with this squad. In tests and actual games I was getting rolled by CB Genesect, so I was on the lookout for anything that had a decent matchup into it. Enter Mega Camerupt, a forgotten legend of ORAS past and, conveniently enough, a fun pick for my opponent in particular due to their history with it. I immediately realized that it might also be able to do some fun things into other common threats like Volcanion, Thundurus, and Amoonguss, and got to work crafting a team around it. The key set appeared to be Substitute with Stealth Rock support, which accomplished the following:
252+ SpA Sheer Force Camerupt-Mega Earth Power vs. 248 HP / 204 SpD Assault Vest Volcanion: 270-318 (74.3 - 87.6%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ SpA Sheer Force Camerupt-Mega Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 84 SpD Amoonguss: 390-462 (90.2 - 106.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock (many run more SpDef than this, so I never played as if it was guaranteed)
Sub takes:
4+ SpA Thundurus Hidden Power Ice vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Camerupt-Mega: 56-66 (16.3 - 19.2%) -- possible 6HKO
0 SpA Amoonguss Giga Drain vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Camerupt-Mega: 67-81 (19.5 - 23.6%) -- possible 5HKO
56 Atk Kangaskhan-Mega Sucker Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Camerupt-Mega: 73-87 (21.2 - 25.3%) -- 0.2% chance to 4HKO
-2 252 Atk Landorus-Therian Superpower vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Camerupt-Mega: 71-84 (20.6 - 24.4%) -- guaranteed 5HKO (Intimidate + using it once)
Bronzong was the perfect Camerupt partner, with its ability to set all of TR, SR, and Sun. I almost greeded Heatproof, thinking that everyone would just presume Levitate and never bother to check, but I'm very glad I didn't because it might've lost the game when SingleThunder kept me honest. Gastrodon was another obvious bring, supporting Camerupt with Storm Drain and Helmet/Toxic chip to help it clean, and it had done so well beside Diancie earlier that I brought back that duo. For the last two slots, I committed to full TR which felt like it was due for a bit of a resurgence. Cresselia just doesn't die and also offers a secondary wincon, and Hitmontop enables TR setting and offers Intimidate support for Camerupt's Sub and Cresselia's setup.

There are definitely a few choices here that lean on this team's strength into SingleThunder's tendencies from the tour, but it's honestly strong into a lot of the meta right now and almost won me a few tests that I had no business making close. The game went about as smoothly as possible, with the key turn being Turn 5, where I realized there was a good shot I could set up a Sub and give Camerupt free reign to start spamming attacks. Even with two missed Heat Waves, it still got 4 kills this game. I understand why half of this team is UR on the current VR, but I honestly wasn't making team choices to flex or be different; these are just the best 6 Pokemon for the job I had in mind.

This is the fixed Gastrodon spread I alluded to earlier -- instead of substantial SpA investment, it leans more into the defensive niches filled by our favorite slug. The new spread underspeeds min Speed Conkeldurr, takes +SpA Deo-A Psycho Boost, and takes two Knock Offs from LO Bisharp since the second hit will be targetting itemless Gastro. There are surely better benchmarks out there, but the key is that Gastrodon can tank more hits, especially physically. Bronzong almost had random Hypnosis somewhere (probably over Sunny Day), but I didn't feel confident in my ability to hit. Hitmontop has a variety of different viable items, including Eject Button and Shed Shell, both of which I tested but neither quite came in handy.

~~~

There was a pretty clear connection between the weeks where I found/made the time to prep and the weeks where I at least had a solid game -- it took a while, but the lesson has finally sunk in that I have to try to be good at the game. With how busy life has kept me, this might mean that this was my last tournament (a bold claim, I know). Just in case it is, I wanted to give a big thank you to everyone on Thieves for making it as positive an experience as possible, especially Fran bage1 and Toxigen for helping me with significant testing, building input, and moral support over the weeks.
 

laptops

everything is beautiful
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I had a lot of fun playing xy this dpl; it's become my favorite tier by far! It was my first dpl as a starter and I am more than satisfied with my 5-2 record.

as a student of qsns i was very encouraged to just bring the brokens. This is exactly what I did for the entirety of the time the storms were in playoff contention and it worked quite well. I feel like mega+conk+ltv teams are readily available and you can check memo's ltv dissertation for more info on why this structure is so potent. The rest of my teams included sample rain (lol) and two unserious teams (gorgeist sun/stoutland sand) which I likely wouldn't have brought had those games mattered. If you're interested in any of these teams shoot me a dm and maybe i'll throw them in the dump thread

I was, however, really proud of the team I brought in my final dpl x game vs talkingtree
It is one of my favorite teams I've built in quite a while and I think shows that you can get away with bringing unconventional/unmeta structures and still be competitive. I believe Kyle put it well in his dpl 8 wrapup post
As I have famously said, I think you can win in XY with just about anything and I still believe that. I think what is in tier 4 and what is just outside of it exist in this weird cloud of viability where we see a few bits at a time--there are only so many games in a tournament--but if you’re feeling a little wild stuff... Try some cool Pokémon in xy if you’re feeling it.
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The xy metagame has seen a large move towards bulky offense, with many mons opting to max out defensive investment and look to win the game through outtrading their opponent. This week I was wanting to show that you don't have to use low t sets in xy to win.
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I started off with the combination of offensive mence+ aegi. With bulky toxic aegi seeing a crazy surge in usage I felt like an offensive set could could get the jump on my opponent and surprise them with its damage output. Mence is a great partner for aegi because it can help chunk common aegi switchings like av volcanion with its flying stab, while wide guard aegislash can keep mence save from threatening spread moves (ie. hyper voice and rock slide).
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I wanted fighting coverage in this slot. AV conk probably also does well enough here, but with only mence outspeeding base 100's I wanted something that could be immediately threatening to kang, and given that I would be setting up rain, another water resist definitely helps being able to switch into steam eruptions.
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Mence teams naturally need to have a hard stop to thundurus-i to be able function well, and I gave this job to its brother thundurus-t. This guy hits like a truck, especially with specs. Most people who run this guy in xy opt for a wimpy low t av set and just like with aegi I thought the surprise factor of fully offensive could catch opponents off guard and net some surprise ko's, which is exactly what happened t1 of my game vs ttree.
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I initially thought the best way to round out the team would be a rain sweeper. I was looking to style again like I did with stoutland and almost had kabutops in this slot. Thankfully zee talked me out of it and got me to use a real guy. Thunder p2 gave me a mode of speed control and thunders in the rain hit hard with a download boost. Without a swift swimmer there was no reason to run the traditional eject button set on toed to be able to set up rain and pivot into said sweeper. Unfortunately, politoed is kinda a huge momentum sink a lot of times. This is where zee came in clutch again and suggested a bulky helmet set with hypnosis. In situations where it doesn't wanna click scald it can just fish for sleep. If you're lucky like I was vs ttree this can make the game near unplayable for your opponent.

https://tiermaker.com/create/xy-dou-tiermaker-625518-2
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this is my rough impression of the tier after dpl and i will make some short noms about the guys i feel strongly about.
:kangaskhan-mega: -> t1 I think this guy is a clear step above gar in general, but with deospeed being everyone's new favorite toy it's realllly hard to justify using gar>kang in the mega slot. literally no reason not to bring kang.
:genesect: ->t2 band gene feels so strong on every single playstyle, not just ho like many other priority spammers. this thing is far away the best steel in the tier and deospeed is able to get rocks up every single game which makes it very easy to get things into espeed range.
:aegislash:->t2/3 the spdef toxic set does really well into the current meta and can sit on the field forever. i think the offensive set is still usable, but i think the spdef set it really what should cause it to rise.
:thundurus:->t2 i echo the fraud allegations zee has made about lando-t, but aim them at its genie counterpart. this guy feels like the least mandatory part of the ltv gang. i feel like it kinda bricks into some matchups and stealth rocks being up every single game hurts its bulk. the main problem i have with it now is that its primary utility tool in speed checking the tier with prankster twave has become considerably harder now that band gene is everywhere and can drop it from full.

thank you qsns and eragon for taking a chance on me despite me never having played an xy game in tour. thank you Croven for being my favorite guy to team with, you've got an incredible mind for doubles and i love sitting in vc. zee is the greatest mind to touch xy thank you for help testing or building and ty to all of church for being such an encouragement this season.
 
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