I'm sad and now out of seasonal with nothing better to do so here's a team dump of the stuff I brought and some extra thoughts about it.
W1 v Razachu: W 2-1
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2361616399-rubuko3eq4fu2dayi8n0xs4hc65o6ukpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2361617868-uypxrom3noixu26j7bi7votefgm8h0jpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2361619319-9r8k64902g98blq4yaurqbpobixhvrlpw
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This is a team I had been experimenting with before the tour a bit on ladder as I was getting back into mons, I know there's another team of the same 6 that saw success in... OSDT? BLT? One of them, but I came up with this one independently. I figured Diancie was goated in semiroom and the best rock type of the tier (which I learned to be false later), and Incin + Amoong was enough to win a large amount of ladder games with just the three of them. Paonite is Paonite and I like running those two, and Lando was good for things like Hands and other mons that this team struggled with (as well as just being a good mon with good special damage). One of my main teams this tour, though it was one I had the most losses with. I played g1 a little iffy and also was pretty rusty so the loss was kind of a given
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This is a similar sort of team to the previous one, aka Paonite and friends, though it's way more aggressive and just a mess of a Hyper Offense team with 3 Choice mons. I like Lando-T and had made what I thought to be a pretty decent set out of it with Scarf all the way back last year, so I ran it with Paonite and built around that. It was probably one of the least cohesive teams I brought, and it's no real surprise that I didn't bring it that much (if at all after this week), though looking back on it the fact it beat Hugo's fullroom team should have made it clear it wasn't a bad team by any means.
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This is a team that I made way back when eragon made his teambuilding video for DOU, which was way way long ago. Bulky Hex Chi-Yu was certainly a choice, but I liked the team and didn't have anything else prepared for the tour back in week 1 so I just figured it was as good as anything else I had. Team definitely feels kind of dated when I run it, though Chi-Yu into Cress and Glimmora into a no-poison team definitely felt good. Overall, week 1 was rough but a good way to sort of get back into things.
W2 v Eric: L 0-2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9doublesou-843741
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9doublesou-843750
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I love Hitmontop. I think it's a very versatile support mon with a lot of good moves (Feint and Wide Guard specifically), and this team is just a modified version of the Diancie team from week 1. It was solid, though I misplayed a lot in game 1, and threw away a win by not clicking Feint into Spectrier on turn 19, which likely would have won the game for me... and led to me never bringing Hitmontop or this team back to the tour.
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Another old team from before I took a break from mons for a while. This team is... okay. It's Regidrago + semiroom, which is fine, but I definitely could have built it better when I did and probably shouldn't have brought it to the tour while having like zero experience in recently piloting it. Even so, I almost won, but an unlucky flinch in turn 7 killed me and my chance to get a bye week. This is sort of like with Hitmontop, where after this week I never brought Regidrago (or this team) because I was afraid of running it and getting punished hard for it, though Drago is obviously a better mon than Hitmontop in most instances.
W3 v iPetBigFoot: W 2-0
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2370254222-3mgjffhwkl7orrc7ombalfwenspvtq0pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2370258649-biqlo3h7iomtddr62s759b8k69new1spw
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I didn't build anything special for this week, both thinking it would be a major waste if I lost and also just figuring I had enough teams as-is to not really warrant anything extra being built. It worked out since I won 2-0, though I definitely got lucky in game 1. I don't have much to say about this week.
W4 v Lemurro: W 2-1
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2375403325-dyqq3a32be7j2ys6pfeeobufcnrdakspw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2375409430
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2375412897
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This week is sort of the first one where a lot of things changed for me. Firstly, where I sort of dreaded being eliminated every round, because all my opponents were a lot better than me (or at least I felt like it). Secondly, I started building a lot more, and discovered two facts. 1 is that Entei is actually goated, and the other is that Glimmora is actually the best rock-type in the tier (and also one of the best pokemon outright). This team was really good, and I didn't lose a single game I brought it (or Entei) until the round I was actually eliminated in. Aurora Veil is great, even on non snow teams, and Entei and Gholdengo behind screens and with Wellspring support can be nightmares to deal with. I went Specs for extra damage and it turned out to matter a lot, because in the first game here I won by the literal skin of my teeth and the fact that Gholdengo was specs was one of the only reasons Torn was able to knock out both Hearthflame and Atales in the last turn. Also, this team was inspired by some of the stuff Nido-Rus had shown me in a ladder match we had, specifically the Specs Ghold and the Icy Wind Torn.
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I brought this into g2 again and while it wasn't the worst matchup (though into snow was a pretty big ask), getting Hands froze so early and for the rest of the game kind of just made me tilted and really ruined my mood for the rest of the match and the start of next game. Also never brought it again after the beating I recieved with it, but oh well.
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The matchup I had here was pretty decent, and I recognized that Diancie was going to be the way to win this game. I played around that the entire time, trying to eliminate Gholdengo, and with a little luck and a few reads I eeked out a win that I may or may not have deserved. It was the first point where I felt like I could make a real run in the tour.
W5 v Waffle2020: W 2-0
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2380502861-ilbrmvii79o8bs6qsxw6r78kl7mai8vpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2380509455-f72arh6qt8h2w9kwxodie8sfq2vd24lpw
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This was probably the most ridiculous week of the tour I had, for better or for worse, and that's made evident by the fact that I ran not only Scrafty, but Coaching Scrafty. I had been doing some testing with a different version of a Scrafty team for a while, but it never got off the ground in tests, but Jello (the goat, btw) saw an interest in it and helped me build this version after a few iterations (he also did like 90% of the work because I had to go to my job halfway through lol my bad), and while I only brought it once I definitely liked running it if nothing else than for the fact that it had cool sets like Coaching Scrafty and Tailwind Scale Shot Dnite (and a slow Lando that helped me with the game). Scrafty is a beast.
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The less said about this game the better. I made a lot of mistakes (tricking Torn Specs after letting it get up Tailwind lol), but I won anyways when I may or may not have deserved it.
W6 v YellowPaint: W 2-0
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2384491997-n0ycx3u35ko0h6dejos78d6hoq98u67pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2384494438-osk72vd8gy3a1s65clr2px3d3opti0rpw
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Probably the Magnus Opus of my seasonal - both the team and the week. It was my first real attempt to scout, and I noticed that YP ran a lot of screens/AV stuff, so I ran Brick Break Pao in preparation for that. I also liked MB Glimmora into most of what he had brung, and with a little advice from Jello (like making the Lando-T that was originally there into a Wellspring), the team was pretty much set. Had a beautiful match game 1 where just about everything went right for me, which is rare, and it was one of my favorite matches all tour.
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Have I mentioned I really like Entei? Sacred Fire is busted. I like running Entei. This was a game I played a lot worse than game 1, but still somehow pulled through with thanks to some smart Wellspring plays and Gholdengo hard carrying me. Definitely not my best work, but game 1 made up for it.
W7 v Icypenguin: W 2-1
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2388499983-r0xtloutheycxm36budglpysnpujqrypw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2388502638-psranqdjy15o1cw3xuljfc53fvlx1l0pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2388506591-s40grxcuep16a7hhs4jvkat1gdq57wapw
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Again, nothing new. Ran my two Entei teams (and won with both, that mon is a damage sponge behind AV) and my first Diancie team which almost won but lost a speed tie on the last turn.
W9 v Nephytrix: L 1-2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2395757383-snhpwwqt7fmk78c5lnyxdyko8pap0wbpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2395761892-9sm517dwsevk3q6qfd7xvjrxtiu0l7tpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9doublesou-2395765918-fy2dqnlafjm6yq0g156r5umiuvfq7pwpw
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First and only game I lost where I brought Entei (or Atales or Ghold, for that matter). I simply got outplayed and lost on the first turn where he didn't click follow me on an expected Gholdengo Shadow Ball that could have won me the game. I couldn't get into a position to kill Crown comfortably until it was way too late, and I was unable to risk switching something in and sacking it which I probably should have. Could have gone very differently had I simply led better (though my team was surprisingly weak to psyspam, and going into the scout I hadn't seen anything that I thought I couldn't handle.
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I made up for the ugly game 1 with a good game 2 where I played everything well and got a good, solid win with Entei/Dragonite since Inner Focus is one of the best abilities in the game and makes Incin feel like a waste a lot of the time.
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It's fitting my tour ends where it started with this team. I didn't know what I was going to bring g3 and it was either this or running the Glimmora team I had just won with again... and I really wish I chose Glimmora again. Entei was a REALLY good mon into his g3 team, and Gambit absoluely ruined me (especially when he switched it into a Parting Shot from Incin. I definitely should have just run the same team twice, though hindsight is obv 20-20. I just made misplay after misplay this game, and it sucks that I have to lose so close to the end.
A few of my final thoughts on the tour (and the tier):
I should have/could have ran Hands more (though I don't think running my specific Hands team was the way - I should have just built more).
Glimmora is way better than I ever gave it credit for, partially because I used to run Landorus on more or less every team.
Entei is definitely better than t4, Sacred Fire is one of the most clickable moves in the game and 50% burn rate is absolutely insane. Espeed is the icing on the cake.
It was awesome getting further than I have in pretty much any other big tour I've played in, though losing in top 12 so close to the end is brutal, especially in a 3 game set to someone I definitely could have been had I played better or ran different teams. It sucks, but I'll drown my sorrows in DPL as a benchwarmer.
I wanted to give a special shout-out/thank you to eragon and Nido-Rus for all the test games and advice they gave me while building, and a special special thank you to Jello who helped me more than anyone with building and advice.
If anyone has any questions on any of the teams feel free to ask, and I'll try my best to answer. This is my first time doing something like this, and I hope I did it right.