Teams and metagame insight further down
Going 4-1 in my return to SS OU was cool, but this tournament predominantly served as a reminder about how underachievement has defined my tenure. Northeast took a step in the right direction and I am proud of my teammates for getting it together after some pre/early-tour nonsense, but it is not a secret that we have underperformed overall. The same can be said for my teams across SPL/SCL, which have never won, and myself across individual tournaments. We won WCoP in 2018 and then I made Smogon Tour finals later that same year... surely that is not my peak, right?
This is what I said when we won WCoP back then:
With that said, I'm really fucking happy to finally have a trophy under my belt. I have been playing this game since 2011, played in PO tournaments since 2012, and have been a staple in the Smogon tournament community since ST18, which was all the way back in late 2014 -- I think it is safe to say that I was a bit overdue.
nobody tell him...
It obviously should not be my focus and I am still having fun with the game, but I do think it is natural to watch my peers, competitors, and good friends soar to heights well-above my heights despite starting later or playing less than I have. I am genuinely proud of them, too. There will be people I am happy for no matter who wins the ongoing finals tiebreak, but it only makes me want to win more for both myself and my future teammates. I have managed to (slowly and sometimes painfully) get most other aspects of my life together, but somehow this one goal I have in this hobby continues to elude me and it sometimes weighs on me more than it should. I have done a lot I am proud of on here, especially in the contribution sphere ranging from Charity Bowls to being one of the leaders of the community where so many people enjoy their hobby, but my legacy will never be complete and I will never be satisfied until I right the ship here.
I tell myself repeatedly that I am good enough and there is a mountain of evidence showing I am capable, but with every passing tour being one where my team does not win the least match of the season, my personal frustration grows. I am 10-4 on the sheet this year individually and it does not even fucking matter to me. I just want to win -- everything else is and will continue to be secondary. I am not going to blame being on poorly constructed SPL/SCL teams, bad timing, or sample sizes either...I've been doing this for well over ten years. At a certain point, all you can do is look in the mirror.
Hopefully I turn it around next time. You already know I will be trying my best to do so.
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As for my experience in SS this WCoP, it was a struggle despite my 4-1 record. Clutching up two meaningful playoff games will always be a positive and the Scarf Garchomp pull was awesome, but I think everyone in the room knew this was far from my best prep and not quite my cleanest execution. Building teams I found satisfactory was more of a struggle than I recalled it being back when I played SS during CG. I attribute part of this to not frequenting SS OU teambuilding heading into the tournament and part to the nature of pools, giving you three people to prepare for with some overlap. My self-talk was really negative during pools -- it absolutely felt like team selection served as a limiting factor during this period -- and I was able to flip the switch for playoffs, which was encouraging despite my struggles. I would like to thank
ojr and
tofa for some assistance throughout the tournament. I do not normally consult people outside of my team chat too much and I do not normally go through dozens of teams every single week, but somehow it worked out!
Pools vs Padox:
- click for import
Plenty of people have used this structure. I have seen Punny pull off similar teams with CM Clefable and Explosion, hidden lead Landorus-T. I have seen Chait use a similar structure, which is actually what prompted my own exploration into the archetype. I am sure some others have tinkered with it, too. There are variations with Volcarona + Healing Wish Clefable, Dragapult over Zeraora and other sets changing, Eruption Heatran with Stealth Rock Landorus-T, etc. -- I was not particularly original with this team or my next team.
I did not know what to expect from Padox as he was not the most active player in recent years, but I knew he used to be formidable and I tend to have a big target on my back for obnoxious breakers. Multiscale Dragonite and the fastest non-choiced Pokemon in the tier, Zeraora, felt like great fits given this. I actually find Zeraora to be incredibly underrated in the tier, oftentimes pressuring teams well while providing something quicker than Dragapult, Weavile, and Tornadus-Therian that threatens each. Will-O-Wisp Heatran is another good pick, surprising Garchomp or Dragonite often. This and Sticky Barb Clefable felt like some nice, modern technology to bring against an opponent who I did not see playing the modern tier a ton.
It turned out Padox brought a nice, current metagame team with some threats, but thankfully I was able to dance around them with the help of all of the aforementioned Pokemon/sets in a good win
here.
Pools vs I Feel Stabby:
A few small edits to th Ox team from SPL. This was a lousy bring for me that I wanted to use since it was different than my normal stuff. There are a number of reasons this backfired including giving someone like Stabby, who seems to have a background on the ladder, a match-up into a known/sample team is silly. Also, it really did not cover the dynamic offenses I expected too well. I got what I had coming, losing the game to a Rain team
here.
I do not think I outright threw the game, but if I was able to read Choice Scarf Tapu Lele or make 1-2 more aggressive reads, I had a good chance to win. The high roll crit sucked in the game, but I was going to need to get a 50/50 or two right to have a good chance to win anyway, so nobody to blame here but myself. Great job from Stabby for taking advantage and poor, uninspired team selection from me.
I also think future Mandibuzz teams need hardcore Clefable insurance -- ideally two Steels or GKing + a Steel that beats Clefable, which Ferrothorn does not do. I actually got owned in a lot of tests with this and then tried to build other Mandibuzz teams, but just never quite made it work well enough. Ox has a gift of catering his teams to his playstyle and expectation better than just about anyone else this generation (perhaps up there with Damien) -- major kudos to both of them, but nobody should take their stuff and expect to match their results. It takes feel, comfort, and informed decision making to succeed after all. I lacked that here.
Pools vs xavgb:
xavgb is really fucking good at this game. I feel like he is incredibly battle tested into cheese and hard offenses, facing a ton across formats over the years. I wanted to bring something middle-of-the-road into him and give myself a chance to outplay in a generation I had more experience in. It worked out thankfully, but it was not all pretty.
My team was mostly just a standard Sand 5 with Victini. I was probably too weak to Swords Dance Garchomp and opposing Zeraora, but otherwise I quite liked this actually. Wisp Victini is cool as it forces progress simiarly to Wisp Heatran against offense while still working nicely with the pressure from Future Sight, Toxic Drill, etc. Nothing too crazy here though. Was a pleasure to play xavgb in
the game and I was happy to escape with a win despite making a mistake or two with Slowbro, but I still felt there was room to improve and this could've easily gone either way. One hell of a game.
Quarters vs Zoyotte:
This week was a struggle to find a team until I let myself take some risks. Then, it all clicked in to place. I fully expected offense and him to try to abuse my balances, Ferrothorn being 3/3 in R1, and general tendency to pick safer teams. I needed to change it up and do so dramatically.
I had virtully 0 Tapu Fini usage and it covered Blaziken, Urshifu-R, Weavile, etc. with this RH set nicely, so it felt like an awesome partner for Choice Scarf Tapu Lele, which somehow...I have NEVER used in an official before this in SS OU. Crazy, eh? From there, I just pieced the team together and kept editing as I got in reps. Rotom-W was a huge pain in the ass to face, but otherwise this team was pretty awesome for me. Chople Melmetal is nice glue for SD Kartana and Focus Blast Tapu Lele among others. Timid Tapu Lele helped with Arctozolt if it ever came while also getting the jump on opposing Modest Scarf Lele.
I did mess up a little at the end of the game, giving myself a chance to lose to a critical hit. However, it did not crit and I won an otherwise pretty strong showing in our quarterfinal game
here. I know I can still do better though. Was nice to play Zoyotte, who I feel is an underrated player and had the pleasure of teaming with in ADPL leading to WCoP. Great job to Africa for a good run and keep on pushing for the future!
Semifinals vs z0mOG:
Scarf Garchomp's soul read was nice and I had a feeling I could catch something...it just happened to be turn 1 lol
This week was chaos and the final product of it I was proud of despite it not being the most sound team. I probably built fifty teams and tried to make so many random permutations of AV Lele offense work before pivoting to this creation. My only way of beating Rotom-W was an early Toxic, Suicune stall (and maybe this one, but I got ahead and never let it roll me) was super uphill, and SubRoost Zapdos ended my life in some test games, but otherwise this team can be ok. I do think Choice Scarf Garchomp is more of a one-off than a new metagame adaptation though, so tread lightly if you intend to re-use this.
My game was pretty simple from the jump. Deep down, I knew I would win this game and it went mostly according to plan. I refuse to lose my game to West in playoffs for the second straight year, especially after I threw last season vs PZZ and there is always some narrative nonsense about me vs z0mOG since ST finals. He is my bro and I got so much respect for z0mOG, but this was an absolute must-win for me. My fucking fire alarm went off late-game, but by then I had it on ice and was able to navigate without too much risk thankfully. I remember my heart jumping out of my chest at this though lmaooo
I am pretty tired at this point and most sets are self-explanatory, but quote me or PM me if you got questions and I am happy to give a breakdown ofc.
Here was the game.
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Overall, SS is a good, balanced metagame with lots of room for further evolution. It is slowly moving past "new" old gen shadow realm status, we are beginning to see a lot of people build new stuff again (major shoutout to SPL SS players, who did a great job showcasing stuff), and I think that the future of SS will be exciting!!! It was not an easy run for me, but I will be back for Masters for sure.
Specs Lele
vs Jordy004
vs zioziotrip
