DCL I Coverage

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Introduction

Draft Champions League, or DCL, is Smogon Draft's premier team tour. The inaugural edition had three Paldea Dex slots, two Galar Dex slots, and one each of USM, ORAS, and VGC draft and was met with a huge outpouring of signups from Smogon and Draft mains alike, with nearly 480 signups, making it one of the largest subforum team tours on the site.

Managing the first ever DCL were Draft Leader and DPL admin Tjb145 and consistent high-level draft player hjkhj, who rarely has a negative season; former UDL champion Matty Brollic and long-time Smogon player kumiko; former LC Circuit Champion and current PWS owner Hacker and burrg; DPL owner King L5 and Professor Shuckle, better known as Darkrai; Draft Leader and WPF owner Rissoux and Smogon OU Tier Leader Finchinator; OSDT III winner Feyy and vengabenga; Smogon ORAS player Sylvi and highly decorated Smogon tournaments mainstay Garay oak; and former DPL champions Almighty Rye and GeniusX.

For those unfamiliar with how draft team tours work, the process is as follows. First, the player auction occurs, as is normal in all other premier leagues on the site. Following that, there is a week-long break in which Pokémon teams are drafted. Every team drafts n+1 teams, where n is the number of slots for that tier, so four Paldea Dex teams were drafted for the three Paldea Dex slots, and so forth. Each week, every team submits a lineup with players, as well specifying which draft each player will be using that week to determine the matchups that players have to build for.

Draft (Players)

The most expensive player at auction was GypsyKing for 27.5k, followed close behind by robjr at 26.5k. Six more players (KCric12, SkyhorseTamer, 100percentpureheat, 2playLuffy, HarrisIsAwesome, and Habaduh) also went above 20k. Eleven of the tournament's sixteen managers also elected to self-purchase for 15k each, with the Barbies and Girlbosses notably electing not to self-buy either manager.

Draft (Pokémon)

Full drafts for every team can be found on this spreadsheet.

Singles

First off in SV, we're going to start off with some big trends across the board. The first was that Annihilape, which had been regarded as a top Tera Captain for a while, went undrafted in every pool. Considering the number of new high-tier Tera options and the consensus in the Draft community that Annihilape has been largely adapted to in high-level play, this at least makes some sense, but it's still strange to see that none were drafted at all. Ogerpon and Ursaluna-B were introduced in DLC1, and since DCL tiering was over the first couple days after it came out, Ogerpon with all four formes in one slot and Ursaluna-B were tiered differently than they maybe should have been, and you can see that reflected in the Winter Seasonal tier list, where all the formes are separated and Bloodmoon has been Tera banned. Additionally, Munkidori was worth sixteen points, as the tiering team thought it would be a slightly worse Enamorus clone, but thankfully no one fell into the trap of drafting it, and it has since been reduced down to a more reasonable eleven points.

There was some notable overlap in the drafts. If drafts had Kingambit as their top Pokémon, they would secure top-tier speed ASAP. Two teams got Zamazenta + Zapdos + Hisuian Samurott + Tera Iron Moth, which made it extra awkward when the teams faced off. Ogerpon would usually go late round 1 or early round 2, with a couple of Ogerpon + Garchomp and Ogerpon + Galarian Slowking cores. If teams got Iron Valiant as their top Pokémon, they'd often opt for either Tera Bloodmoon or a top-tier Tera Fire-type. One final notable draft was extremely odd post midseason transactions, with Tera Zarude and Snorlax as their Teras but no real top-tier option; unfortunately, the team didn't come to many games post mids.

Time for the low tier bullet round: thanks to the new Tera rule that specified two Tera Captains could be picked with their point amounts totaling to 25, lots of lower tier Pokémon got made secondary Captains, like FOUR Tera Hatterene getting drafted, Hisuian Electrode being drafted in every pool with multiple being made a secondary Tera Captain, lots of Tera Braviary of both the Hisuian and Unovan variant, multiple Tera Klawf, and finally multiple Leafeon, Komala, Grotle, Misdreavus, Arbok, Ursaring, Grafaiai, Muk, Oricorio, Orthworm, Forretress, Diancie, and Mismagius. Overall, there was a variety of popular low-tier Pokémon (lots of teams opted for cheap Poison-types as their grounded Poison-types to threaten to absorb Toxic Spikes), with a certain prominent few coming to the forefront.

Now we move on to SS drafting. Four new top-tier options were introduced to the meta in Landorus, Zamazenta-C, Speed Boost Blaziken, and Kyurem-B (without Dragon Dance). None of these came out particularly ahead of the others with the possible exception of Zamazenta-C, but with their introduction, some teams were forced to skip out on top-tier picks as a side effect, and in this case, it fell onto Clefable—there was only one Clefable drafted across all three pools, which without these unbans would have been unheard of.

When it comes to the cores, there was a bit more homogeneity. First off, there were two teams with Tapu Koko + Victini + Dragonite + Cobalion + Piloswine, and if one team didn't get sniped out of Blastoise, there would've likely been even more similarities. Tornadus-T drafts tend to either go more offensive or lean into the bulky route, and in this tour, they tended to get way more bulk-oriented on top of the typical extra Regenerator that's normally paired with Tornadus-T. Landorus-T drafts would always get Weavile as their top-tier speed, pairing it with a top-tier Psychic-type (either Latios in two cases for offensive pressure or Slowbro in the other as a complementary bulky pivot). There were two Garchomp teams with Rotom-W + Necrozma + Zarude + Steelix as partners and a speedy bird in Crobat or Talonflame to help. This uncreativity in drafting is in stark contrast to the Kyurem-B drafts, which had a pretty wide variety of cores and didn't share a single Pokémon across them, including different Fairy-type checks in Scizor, Celesteela, and Talonflame and varied entry hazard support from the likes of Uxie, Crobat, Copperajah, and Blastoise. Zamazenta-C drafts happened to get Mew every time, and two of them went with Zapdos, which gave the teams potential for an insanely oppressive defensive backbone. Blaziken only got drafted twice, and Landorus only got drafted twice (weirdly once on the same draft as Blaziken), with one team dropping it at midseason.

For the low tier bullet round, we have: Eldegoss, Munchlax, Clefairy, Thwackey, Roselia, Guzzlord, Scrafty, Stunfisk, Qwilfish, Piloswine, Comfey, Copperajah, Dragalge, Steelix, and Diancie as our popular picks. A lot of low-tier Grounds, Steels, Poisons, Fairies, and Spectrier answers, which is pretty par for the course in SS.

For USM drafting, the format was also shaken up by some newly freed top-tier options. Aegislash is a relatively recent addition to the meta, and the jury is still out on whether it's a healthy one. Sheer Force Landorus and Mega Mawile were both introduced, but Landorus wasn't drafted at ALL. Mega Mawile at least was drafted both times, so we got to see it a bit.

People would often opt for very similar cores across the board, so for combinations, there were two Celesteela + Kyurem-B cores, two Zeraora + Mew cores, two Landorus-T + Kartana cores, and two Garchomp + Thundurus cores. For the other drafts, both Mega Mawile drafts went with Mawile + Latios + a 15-point Electric-type (either Zapdos or Rotom-W) to help pivot Mega Mawile in safely, while both Tornadus-T drafts went with a top-tier Fighting-type Mega (Gallade or Medicham). The only top-tiers that had significant variety between the two drafts were Tapu Koko and Aegislash. The Tapu Koko drafts saw one opt for Tapu Koko and Zygarde-50% as Z Captains, with entry hazard support from Seismitoad and Mega Sharpedo and Unburden Hawlucha to round out the core, while the other went with Tapu Koko and Kommo-o as its Z Captains and also chose Seismitoad for entry hazard support, though it rounded the core out with Greninja and Mega Scizor. The first Aegislash draft picked up Aegislash and Zygarde-50% as Z Captains, then filled the rest of the team with potential entry hazard support in Uxie, Stunfisk, and Qwilfish, while the other draft opted for Aegislash and Infernape as the Z Captains and finished off their core with Zapdos, Steelix, Blastoise, and Weavile.

For the popular low-tiers, Emolga, Rotom-F, Tangela, Qwilfish, Scrafty, Steelix, and Blastoise were the only ones that were drafted in both drafts. Each of these seems to either be an all-round type of Pokémon (Rotom-F and Blastoise) or drafted specifically to take on some top-tier options.

Finally, we move on to ORAS. The ORAS meta usually just stays the same every time, but it was shaken up by Landorus being introduced and actually being drafted as a new top-tier. Some shenanigans happened at mids, where Mega Gardevoir, which is widely regarded as the best Pokémon in the tier, was dropped right at the end, so no one could pick it. No Mega Lopunnys being drafted as top-tier picks was also surprising to see, since Mega Lopunny was once a top-tier round one pick.

Seeing as the ORAS meta has been around for a long time, there are a lot of cores with many overlapping Pokémon. Garchomp was drafted with Keldeo + Snorlax + a top-tier Flying-type + Mesprit or Uxie in both pools. Landorus was drafted with Mega Gallade and Weavile both times. Landorus-T was partnered with Serperior + Klefki + Mega Charizard X + a Water-type spinner in Blastoise or Starmie both times. Finally, Mew would be partnered with Infernape + Mega Blastoise + Crobat + a 10-point Steel-type in Registeel or Bronzong.

For the low-tiers, Quilladin, Vileplume, Roselia, Qwilfish, Granbull, Seismitoad, Blastoise, Bronzong, Donphan, Mesprit, and Registeel were drafted in both pools. Every pick with the exception of Vileplume and Granbull has at least some contribution to make to the entry hazard-driven metagame, so all of those make sense. Vileplume and Granbull are pretty popular as cheap quality defensive staples that can be an annoyance for certain higher-tier Pokémon, Vileplume vs Keldeo in particular, and Granbull for the top-tier physical threats.

VGC

As expected of a draft, every top-tier Pokémon was taken in each of the drafting pools. The interesting picks and misses start to appear when you look down the list. Notable in the 17-point tier is the complete lack of a Dondozo/Tatsugiri pick, a Pokémon pairing known for tearing through eight-Pokémon drafts that are unprepared to deal with it. Similarly interesting is the lack of a Regieleki pick, at least at the end of the season. One had been picked up during the initial draft, but it was dropped at midseason.

Below the 15-point tier, there were 10 Pokémon earning the coveted title of “Drafted in Both Pools”, with two being reasonably understandable in Scream Tail and Basculegion—Pokémon with distinct strengths that can maybe fit on a variety of teams. Alolan Persian and Gothorita were also drafted twice, fairly common VGC budget picks with deep support movepools. Magnezone and Hisuian Zoroark find their way onto this list as well, likely to provide some level of disruption through damage, trapping, or surprise Illusions. The last four double picks, however, are surprising to say the least. In the 4-point tier, we see a Misdreavus, with Toxapex taking up the rear in the 3-point tier. Both are low-tier supportive mons with “All My Friends Are Dead” syndrome, but they have seen a surge in popularity recently in the VGC draft meta. The last two picks are actually from the same evolutionary line and, based on conversations during the drafting period, were two of the most wanted Pokémon on the entire board. These two mons? Spewpa and Scatterbug. Yes, these Kalosian first-Route Bugs found their way onto four teams, while their final evolution wasn't drafted a single time. Spewpa and Scatterbug both offer redirection with the added bonus of applying Friend Guard to their partner, and to say they do more than that would be generous, but nonetheless, DCL was able to see this oddity occur.

Looking more at the drafted teams themselves, there's a large variety of cores drafted across the 16 different teams. Only three noticeable cores were mirrored over the two pools, with those being Urshifu-S + Gholdengo, Rillaboom + Hisuian Arcanine, and, surprisingly enough, Chi-Yu + Tornadus + Great Tusk. Outside of those parallels, many teams looked noticeably distinct from one another. All of the 18-point Fighting-types, aside from Urshifu-S, found themselves on vastly different teams, looking to be more of a piece for the team to be built upon instead of focusing the team around supporting them. As would be expected of Chien-Pao teams, a lot of strong and fast physical attackers were added, but interestingly enough, not a single other Pokémon was shared between the two drafts. The final interesting thing to note is that both Ursaluna formes found themselves as the centerpiece of a sun-focused team.

The Timers' VGC 1 definitely is a standout draft from DCL. At the start of the season, I remember looking at this draft confused as to how it would function, but time and time again, we saw it show results. On top of that, I believe the team ran it with Choice Band Urshifu-S each week, a testament to the consistency of the team.

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Early Weeks

In the first three weeks of the tournament, the Foxes and the Timers quickly established themselves as top teams, each going undefeated in the first leg of the tournament and securing the top two seeds, which they would keep throughout the rest of the regular season. The Infernal Armory, one of the favorite teams to win, and universally last-ranked underdog team Slaying Girlbosses rounded out the top four for the first half despite a decisive week one loss to the Foxes and plenty of shittalking before and after their games (mostly from the Foxes). Conversely, the Bitter Barbies and A Mew Beginning were off to a rough start, as neither were able to get any wins, with the former only getting a tie, having lost one of their top starters to a ban week one, and the latter suffering increasingly crushing losses.

Four players went 3-0 in the first part of the tournament: The Foxes' GypsyKing in ORAS, the Girlbosses' JimmyG in Galar Dex, Armory captain King L5 also in ORAS, and the Timers' PZZ playing three different tiers in Paldea Dex, Galar Dex, and USM. On the other hand, the Fishermen started out with two 0-3 players, Paldea Dex player ALG Spies and team captain burrg. Both of the Girlbosses' Galar Dex players, SkyhorseTamer and BLAZING HAWK, along with two of the Mews' Paldea Dex slots in Legits and OdinRM, faced similarly rough starts.

Midseason Standings

Team	Wins	Losses	Ties	Points
Zero Fox Given	3	0	0	6 (+12)
Land Before Timer	3	0	0	6 (+10)
Infernal Armory	2	1	0	4 (+4)
Slaying Girlbosses	1	1	1	3 (+0)
Low Horsepower	1	2	0	2 (-4)
Forfeit Fishermen	1	2	0	2 (-6)
Bitter Barbies	0	2	1	1 (-4)
A Mew Beginning	0	3	0	0 (-12)

Midseason Draft

After week three, all of the teams were given a week break to review and adjust their drafts, dropping and adding new Pokémon as needed, within a limited number of transactions.

The Forfeit Fishermen used half of their Paldea Dex transactions to drop five Pokémon and remake their SV1 team after not bringing it at all the first three weeks, only to bring it for the next four weeks and have it go 1-3. The Timers also struggled with the strategy of replacing more than half of their roster at once, with five transactions resulting in their 1-0 SV1 team going 1-3 in the next four weeks. In SV2, the Horsepower could be seen making the bizarre decision to drop Chi-Yu, Galarian Slowking, Tinkaton, Tsareena, and Hisuian Electrode to replace them with Zarude, Gholdengo, Glimmora, Snorlax, and Illumise and moving their Tera Captains from Chi-Yu and Hisuian Electrode to Zarude and Snorlax, replacing an 0-3 team with a team that went 2-0 and then was never seen again. The Foxes capitalized on this decision to use half of their Paldea Dex transactions to pick up Galarian Slowking in place of Hydreigon and replace four other Pokémon on their SV2 roster, turning a 2-1 team into a 1-2 team that was then benched until finals. The Horsepower used the other half of their Paldea Dex transactions to drop and replace five Pokémon from their SV3 roster, a team that was not brought at all in the first three weeks that was then piloted through semifinals to a 2-3 record. In SV4, the Foxes also joined in on the complete team overhauls, with their remaining Paldea Dex transactions going towards redoing this roster as well, transforming their 1-1 team to a 2-4 team in the back half of the tournament.

Galar Dex midseason tuneups found slightly better success, with the Timers adjusting their 2-0 SS1, expertly piloted by SebbyVGC for most of the season, to go 3-1 in the last four weeks and their SS3 to go from 2-0 in the first three weeks to pick up another four wins in the rest of the tournament. On the other hand, the Armory used six of their eight Galar Dex transactions on their 0-2 SS3 slot, only for it to go 0-4 in the rest of the tournament, and the Fishermen and Horsepower could both be seen dropping half of their SS2 rosters only to never bring those teams again.

Limited to only five transactions across two rosters for each of USM, ORAS, and VGC, the remaining slots had less room for dramatic team overhauls. The Mews could still be found using all five transactions on their 0-2 USM1 roster, which OdinRM then piloted to a 4-0 record in the next four weeks, but a similar strategy could not save the Girlbosses' USM slot, which rotated between the two rosters evenly but couldn't seem to find success with either. The Girlbosses also bafflingly dropped Mega Gardevoir, widely regarded as the top Pokémon in ORAS Draft, from their ORAS1 roster with three minutes until the midseason deadline. They had seemingly jokingly offered to do this the day before, but no one believed they'd actually do it. The team, however, went 2-1 in the next three weeks.

Later Weeks

The Timers and Foxes continued to dominate in the last four weeks of the tournament, putting up three and two more wins, respectively, and locking themselves into the first and second seeds. The Mews and Barbies each managed two wins to keep them in the playoffs race, while the Armory struggled to keep their third seed with only a tie to show for the next three weeks. By week seven, only the Timers and Foxes were guaranteed to move on to the semifinals, with every other team at five points and in a position to clinch a playoffs spot. The Mews and Girlbosses faced an uphill battle, as they were facing the top two teams, and they each fell 3-5, ending their hopes of an underdog run to the top four. The Armory were able to reclaim their third seed spot with a lucky game from Zooch to secure the week win over the Barbies. The Fishermen and Horsepower were tied for points, but the Horsepower were ahead in differential, so the Fishermen needed a win. Unfortunately for them, Grankie, 100percentpureheat, and vengabenga were able to come back from a 1-4 disadvantage to tie the week and claim the fourth seed in playoffs.

Of the eliminated teams, the Girlbosses' JimmyG and the Barbies' Star and SMB ended with the most wins, boasting a 5-2 record each, on par with King L5, Habaduh, and 100percentpureheat in the regular season. Unfortunately, the Girlbosses suffered from 2-5 records from Mogo and sablolol in VGC and ORAS and a 1-6 overall USM slot across four different players, while some of the Barbies' most expensive players failed to perform, with 23.5k SkyhorseTamer and 13k BLAZING HAWK combining for a 2-8 SS record. The most wins on the Fishermen was a tie between HarrisIsAwesome and team captain Hacker, at 4-3 each, with Lindwurm and kiliminati rounding out the team's positive records, while ALG Spies ended 0-5 and the team's other captain, burrg, ended 0-4. On the Mews, only sempra at 4-1 and OdinRM at 4-3 had more than three wins, while captains hjkhj and Tjb145 combined to go 2-6 and their other most expensive players in Legits and HJ5ean going 1-5 and 2-4, respectively.

Final Standings

Team	Wins	Losses	Ties	Points
Land Before Timer	6	1	0	12 (+16)
Zero Fox Given	5	2	0	10 (+12)
Infernal Armory	3	3	1	7 (-2)
Low Horsepower	2	3	2	6 (-2)
Forfeit Fishermen	2	3	2	6 (-8)
Bitter Barbies	2	4	1	5 (-2)
Slaying Girlbosses	1	3	3	5 (-6)
A Mew Beginning	2	4	1	5 (-8)

Semifinals

The number one seed Timers had twice as many regular season wins and eighteen more points of differential than the fourth seed Horsepower going into the semifinals. Despite this disparity and their last matchup ending in a 5-3 victory for the Timers, the Horsepower started the series up 2-1, with 100percentpureheat and JCMShadow claiming early wins for the underdogs. In return, however, the Timers put up four more wins from Finchinator, clean, Habaduh, and LeJon Flames, swiftly securing themselves the first spot in finals at the cost of PZZ not getting to play VGC to have a game in every tier in the tournament.

The Infernal Armory started the semifinals at a 3-0 advantage with wins from Professor Shuckle, KCric12, and King L5, and, while Trace and Addison0727 brought it to 3-2, SlickPanther put the series at 4-2. With the Armory one win away from the finals, Foxes team captains Almighty Rye and GenuisX won back to back to tie the series and send them to a tiebreaker. The Armory chose VGC and the Foxes chose Galar Dex, and the tiebreaker ended quickly, with Trace beating charmdi in three games and GeniusX triumphing over KCric12 to win the tiebreaker 2-0 and send the Foxes to the finals, though King L5 and Almighty Rye still played out their Paldea Dex game, with King L5 winning and technically ending the tiebreaker 2-1 instead.

Finals

The finals of the first-ever Draft Champions League was between the tournament's two most dominant teams that had battled back and forth between the first and second seed. Their last encounter ended with a 5-3 victory for the Timers, who looked to repeat this victory in the finals. Venoo drew first blood against GypsyKing in the only non-Sunday game of the series, and Tiddvicious began the Sunday rush with a VGC victory in two games over trace. Habaduh put the series at 3-0 for the Timers, and within an hour, SebbyVGC and clean had finished out the final match in a decisive 5-0 victory for the Timers. ~Undead~ and Almighty Rye played despite the loss to bring the series to 5-2 instead of 5-0, but the Land Before Timer were still the champions of the inaugural Draft Champions League.

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Highlight Games

HarrisIsAwesome vs Legits - Paldea Dex

Week 1 in a team tour always has a hint of the unknown, especially when it's the first foray into a metagame that came into existence ten days prior. Both of these players had shown Scarlet and Violet prowess in the pre-DLC metagame, so it was an exciting matchup on paper regardless but the added element of new toy syndrome notched that excitement level up to 11.

In terms of what came and what didn't, Harris decided to leave the Komala and Lilligant at home (no surprise there whatsoever), with Legits opting to bench Misdreavus and Braviary. This was also not super surprising based on the potential necessity for Weezing in this matchup to deal with the physically potent pieces of Harris's draft. The game started with a demonstration of Harris's Focus Sash lead Azelf not giving a care in the world about how its interaction against Baxcalibur panned out, getting its Stealth Rock up and landing key damage on the pseudo-legend Ice Dragon while avoiding both Scale Shot and Ice Shard scenarios. Legits got his hazards up following an aggressive Sandy Shocks switch, preventing Rotom from Volt Switching out but also revealing itself or potentially bluffing to be Choiced in the process by switching. One Draft League player's U-turn click later, and Urshifu-S has itself in a beautiful position versus Slowking, forcing the Weezing to take chip and the Baxcalibur to be sacked after the Tera Poison activation, where Legits was aware of the Tera type of this Tera Captain due to the Tera Preview format typically used in the Scarlet and Violet Draft format. Sandy Shocks got off some necessary chip damage on the incoming Landorus to try and prevent more lost ground on U-turn. Despite the sack, Legits had the momentum back, allowing for a Chilly Reception to Meowscarada to cause carnage. Down went the Landorus, with Urshifu-S's imminent arrival onto the battlefield causing the Weezing sack.

For the first time in the game, we saw the giant endgame threat Kingambit hit the field, with Legits once again making the aggressive play and catching the incoming washing machine with a Kowtow Cleave to the face. Meowscarada subsequently took it out after taking one Hydro Pump and avoiding the other. Harris brought in Dragonite to click Dragon Dance in this instance, taking out the Meowscarada with Extreme Speed before getting a massive crit on the Kingambit the following turn, with the Tera Fairy mindgame not quite working out as Legits would have hoped, though Scizor would have been able to take out Kingambit with two Bullet Punches regardless. One massive hit on the Slowking sealed the deal for Harris, allowing Urshifu-S to claim the final KO.

The game wasn't quite the grand showcase of what the DLC metagame had in store for us, but it was still a high-quality game that highlighted all aspects of high-caliber Gen 9 Draft.

GeniusX vs KCric12 - USM

A game between two long-time rivals and friends in the Draft community, there was a time when it was a foregone conclusion that these two would be facing at the highest levels. This iteration was no exception, with Genius deciding to move out of the Scarlet and Violet tier to get this matchup. The stakes were fairly high, with a series win giving both sides one foot into playoffs due to their records prior to midseason. The USM draft on display on the Foxes end was an interesting one to say the least, with a lot of uncommon Pokémon in this meta such as Ribombee and Empoleon present alongside powerhouse Z Captains in Landorus-T and Kartana as well as Mega Charizard X. KCric's team was also containing powerful threats of his own, bolstering Z-Move Zeraora and Mew alongside metagame pieces that are forces to be reckoned with in the right hands such as Serperior and Mega Garchomp. This match promised fireworks, and it certainly delivered on that front.

Looking at Team Preview, Genius decided to bench Kartana due to its inability to reliably get through Skarmory as well as KCric's draft featuring Zeraora and Choice Scarf Serperior, both of which would be able to outspeed and threaten it, with Qwilfish also obviously benched due to being a liability vs all of KCric's key threats. On Kcric's side, no major news to report, with Alolan Muk and Emolga unsurprisingly left at home as the least effective pieces to KCric's disposal. The game starts with a bang, with Genius's Mesprit getting up Stealth Rock early in front of Zeraora, which takes the opportunity to wear it down significantly. Mega Charizard X comes in on a slow U-turn and looks to have a serious opportunity to punch some holes, but some expert prep by Kcric sees the scary Dragon taken out easily by a Counter + Sitrus Berry Quagsire. Ribombee revenging Quagsire gave Skarmory an opportunity to get up Stealth Rock up for free, which leads to Genius revealing Agility on his Empoleon, a key piece of information to keep in mind.

The Empoleon gets off massive damage on Serperior in exchange for taking a Leaf Storm, with the Serperior outspeeding it and forcing the Mesprit sack. KCric unfortunately missed the subsequent Leaf Storm on the Eelektross that came in, ensuring that it stayed at full health for the endgame, though the fact that it turned out to be a specially defensive Assault Vest variant meant it may not have mattered as much as it first seemed. Mega Garchomp came in to apply some pressure after the slow U-turn to Landorus-T, getting a massive hit off on Ribombee and forcing Genius to Defog the hazards away with Empoleon on the next available opportunity vs Skarmory. Mew revealed itself to be specially offensive and unable to force any type of progress against the healthy Eelektross, with Genius being able to grab momentum against Empoleon to get off a massive Torrent-boosted Hydro Pump on Mew. KCric thought it was over by this point after Ribombee was sacked, but this was not quite the case.

Genius took the opportunity to grab some momentum with a Landorus-T that was looking ever so Choice Scarf, but the incoming Mega Garchomp decided that it was his time to shine. An unexpected Dragon Rush nuked the Eelektross that was forced in, meaning that this endgame was going to come down to the wire. Landorus-T came back in, and KCric sacked his Mew. The double switch to Mega Garchomp from Skarmory on the incoming Empoleon was crucial, with the Aqua Tail catching the incoming Landorus-T, another fantastic play on KCric's part. Explosion Landorus-T came in clutch in this instance, giving Genius the exact opportunity he needed to get an Agility up one more time with Empoleon on the Skarmory. One Hydro Pump miss made it look as though things may have taken a RNG-influenced turn, but the second gush of water did not miss its target, allowing Empoleon to clean up shop and give Genius the win.

A phenomenal game in both prep and play on both sides, with Genius just about edging it, unlike a large majority of those finals matches many years ago. This game put Foxes in the driver's seat in the series, enabling a comfortable 6-2 victory and all-but confirming their playoff spot.

100percentpureheat vs kiliminati - Galar Dex

Week 7 of DCL was one of the most exciting weeks ever seen in a Draft League team tour, with six teams battling it out for the final two playoff spots. For this particular game, the stakes could not have been any higher, with Horsepowers' playoff hopes hanging on by a thread, needing to win the two remaining games in the series to qualify, Craig's team is very much in his comfort zone, with the Zamazenta-C + Zapdos + Mew core proving incredibly effective throughout the season, supported by some mons that we are aware of Craig's passion for, including Whimsicott and Nihilego. Killi's team has a nice blend of tried-and-tested options with some experimental anti-metagame Pokémon, using a Landorus-T + Weavile + Latios + Scizor core, pairing Azumarill with them for an incredibly powerful team offensively.

Looking at Team Preview, Craig decided to unsurprisingly bring his top 6, with Killi opting for the same. Guzzlord and Turtonator did not look good versus Azumarill, which kept them away, whereas Emolga and Drampa also did not appear to achieve a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. The first ten turns went massively in Craig's favor, with dual status Mew leading to a burned Azumarill and a paralyzed Latios early on, allowing easy damage to build up vs these two and making the trade of Stealth Rock more beneficial to him. Killi revealed his defensive Landorus-T as soon as Zamazenta-C came in for the first time, an unsurprising revelation given how quickly that monster could get out of hand in this matchup. Azumarill and Mew both went down soon after, with an unfortunate Will-O-Wisp missed versus Scizor as the only reason the game looked still to be somewhat in balance. There were some beautiful techs in this game, such as Cotton Guard Whimsicott to act as a midground play against Scizor and prevent Weavile revenge killing and Endure Landorus-T from Killi to get some more vital chip damage on Craig's Zamazenta-C.

This Zamazenta-C had a trick up its sleeve however, revealing Rest on a swap from Weavile to Latios. Sleep Talk came soon after, and all of a sudden this game looked over. Killi tried his best to get back into it, but a Scald burn on Weavile from Seismitoad's Scald seemed to put an end to any hope of a comeback, with it subsequently falling at the hands of the demonic Zamazenta-C. ChestoRest Rhyperior appeared to be one last beacon of hope for a brief moment, but it wasn't to be, with the combination of Zamazenta-C + Zapdos cleaning up shop for Craig to give him a commanding victory.

This game was all about the stakes and overcoming the immense amount of pressure on Craig's shoulders. It is safe to say he passed this test with flying colors. This win left a grand-stand finish to this series between Venga and SirKill (a game that unfortunately no longer has a replay available), with the winner securing a playoff berth for their team. Venga came out on top, and the rest as they say is history.

Venoo vs GyspyKing - ORAS

It was abundantly clear from early on in this event who the top two teams were, so their meeting in the finals was not of any significant surprise. This was the series everyone wanted to see, with the week 5 encounter not quite living up to the same expectations due to both teams being in advantageous positions at the time due to their strong starts, with Timers winning the series in emphatic fashion. The first game up was probably the most anticipated, with the ORAS meeting of Veno and Gypsy King, two players who had great campaigns up to that point and are regarded as two of the best players in an ORAS pool that was stacked to begin with. This game had seriously high expectations, and boy did it deliver.

Veno rocked up to this game with the tried-and-tested Mew + Infernape + Mega Blastoise team that had been performing extremely well throughout the event, with Gypsy deciding to avoid a rematch with the Landorus-T + Mega Charizard X draft, opting to bring the Mega Medicham + Greninja team. The benching decisions on both sides were not any sort of surprise; Veno left Rhyperior and Maractus at home, while Gypsy decided to leave off the Vileplume, as this was absolutely terrible matchup for it, and Sylveon, which is not the best option to bring vs a Registeel + Mew + Crobat draft.

The early stages of the game were an intriguing watch, with both sides trying to maneuver themselves into beneficial positions for different reasons. Veno was trying to get his Choice Band Infernape in to punch some holes, whereas Gypsy wanted his hazards up in order to force Mega Blastoise in to click Rapid Spin. Gypsy was the beneficiary of this part of the game, getting the desired chip on Mega Blastoise after setting up Stealth Rock as well as using his first possible opportunity to get up Toxic Spikes with Greninja, something that looked really good vs Veno's team due to the lack of a grounded Poison-type on his entire draft. In return, Veno managed to get up his own Stealth Rock and whittle down Gypsy's Greninja. The positioning extravaganza raged on once more, with Veno initially seeming the victor by getting out of the Greninja vs Registeel exchange and preventing Mega Medicham coming in relatively freely by going into Crobat. Both sides proceeded to double, with Veno activating the Lum Berry on his Mew in the face of Gypsy's Metagross before being forced out by a well-timed Ursaring switch on a Shadow Ball. Gypsy finally drew first blood, with Ursaring picking off the Registeel.

The game began to pick up speed—well, not actual playing speed, as the timer was not turned on, each turn lasted approximately five minutes, and the whole game lasted about 90 minutes, classic Gypsy and Veno—with Gypsy's Seismitoad getting a further opportunity to whittle down Mega Blastoise with a well-timed Grass Knot to prevent Rapid Spin. Just as you would think Gypsy was turning the screw and gaining the upper hand, in came Nasty Plot Life Orb Crobat, which outright one-shot the incoming Zapdos that tried to contain it. Gypsy was forced to reveal Choice Scarf Metagross to take it out with Zen Headbutt, which gave Veno the window of opportunity to get in his Infernape on a well-timed double so it would be facing down the Ursaring and able to claim its free KO, with Seismitoad as the victim. The Mega Blastoise and Greninja were traded down for one another, with the former forced by good play from Gypsy around the Mew set and the latter yet another victim to the rampage of the flame monkey.

It was the following turn where the crucial interaction occurred, the first time we saw Kyurem-B hit the field since an early-game double where Veno revealed no information about what it might be. It faced Mega Medicham, which looked advantageous. One Choice Scarf Shadow Claw later, and Veno was in the driving seat. Yes, the Kyurem went down the following turn to a Choice Band Return, but this just let Infernape back in. Metagross barely survived the Close Combat that came its way. Veno's Mew was primed for sacking to Meteor Mash, with a miss on the second time of asking the only reason for this not being the case (it did die to poison, though); afterwards, one Mach Punch sealed the finale between the two Choice Band behemoths, giving Veno and Timers the crucial first blood in finals. What a game!

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Conclusion

The first edition of DCL was a huge success for the Smogon Draft scene, attracting hundreds of players from both sides of the community and becoming one of the site's biggest non-official team tours. The Land Before Timer were deserving victors, with consistently strong performances throughout the entire tournament and only one player on their roster ending the tour with a negative record. Check out the (non-broken) replays from DCL I and stay tuned for 2024's DCL II, where we're sure to see more amazing players step up to face off!

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