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Metagame Champions DOU (Archaludon banned, Now with VR and samples!)

On what timeline should we expect a free ladder, and Champs DOU tournaments?

I don´t like tera as a mechanic xd, I´ll stay on VGC for the meantime.
 
(A few days late oops)
After the first few weeks off the kickoff tournament, the council has opted to vote on Espathra. Similarly to when it was legal in SV DOU, Espathra quickly solidified itself as a prolific baton pass option, creating generally uncompetitive games with teams being entirely dedicated to baton passing to strong mega special attackers like Floette. These teams take much of the interactivity out of the game and as such the council has opted to take action:

akaruanneragonlogicenailsxrnzoe
Espathrabanbanbanbanbanbanban

Having received 7/7 votes, Espathra is now unanimously banned from Champions DOU!
 
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very preliminary, current impressions of the format somewhat based on vgc but with some dou-specific nuances. Arch is somewhat broken and very centralizing, Mgar is boring and almost certainly extremely broken. Tiers are unordered. There's probably a lot of fat in tiers 4/5 to be trimmed, but wanted to be a bit more comprehensive for my first take on this. Despite that I'm sure I've forgotten a few mons here and there. Chomp-Z, YChu, and Indeedee-F in tier 2 might be too high depending on how well they convert to DOU, I can def see them in tier 3 instead.

tierlist maker: https://tiermaker.com/create/pokemon-champions-regulation-m-c-18200725
 
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We voted on a vr! Nido-Rus and Schister have been added to the council as both have been very invested in the tier.

Tier 1​

:Garchomp: NEW --> T1
:Incineroar: NEW --> T1
:Kingambit: NEW --> T1
:Rillaboom: NEW --> T1

Tier 2​

:Archaludon: NEW --> T2
:Gholdengo: NEW --> T2
:Glimmora: NEW --> T2
:Charizard-Mega-Y: NEW --> T2
:Floette-Mega: NEW --> T2
:Gengar-Mega: NEW --> T2
:Salamence-Mega: NEW --> T2
:Staraptor-Mega: NEW --> T2
:Pelipper: NEW --> T2
:Sneasler: NEW --> T2
:Sylveon: NEW --> T2

Tier 3​

:Annihilape: NEW --> T3
:Arcanine-Hisui: NEW --> T3
:Basculegion-F: NEW --> T3
:Farigiraf: NEW --> T3
:Delphox-Mega: NEW --> T3
:Garchomp-Mega-Z: NEW --> T3
:Gardevoir-Mega: NEW --> T3
:Milotic: NEW --> T3
:Politoed: NEW --> T3
:Sinistcha: NEW --> T3
:Tyranitar: NEW --> T3
:Venusaur: NEW --> T3
:Volcarona: NEW --> T3
:Whimsicott: NEW --> T3

Tier 4​

:Aerodactyl: NEW --> T4
:Dragapult: NEW --> T4
:Excadrill: NEW --> T4
:Hatterene: NEW --> T4
:Houndstone: NEW --> T4
:Kommo-o: NEW --> T4
:Maushold: NEW --> T4
:Aerodactyl-Mega: NEW --> T4
:Blastoise-Mega: NEW --> T4
:Camerupt-Mega: NEW --> T4
:Froslass-Mega: NEW --> T4
:Glimmora-Mega: NEW --> T4
:Golisopod-Mega: NEW --> T4
:Metagross-Mega: NEW --> T4
:Raichu-Mega-Y: NEW --> T4
:Swampert-Mega: NEW --> T4
:Ninetales-Alola: NEW --> T4
:Primarina: NEW --> T4
:Sableye: NEW --> T4
:Talonflame: NEW --> T4
:Torkoal: NEW --> T4
:Vivillon: NEW --> T4

Tier 5​

:Aegislash: NEW --> T5
:Araquanid: NEW --> T5
:Armarouge: NEW --> T5
:Baxcalibur: NEW --> T5
:Ceruledge: NEW --> T5
:Clefable: NEW --> T5
:Corviknight: NEW --> T5
:Dragonite: NEW --> T5
:Floette-Eternal: NEW --> T5
:Gallade: NEW --> T5
:Garganacl: NEW --> T5
:Goodra-Hisui: NEW --> T5
:Gyarados: NEW --> T5
:Hydreigon: NEW --> T5
:Kleavor: NEW --> T5
:Klefki: NEW --> T5
:Lycanroc-Dusk: NEW --> T5
:Mamoswine: NEW --> T5
:Baxcalibur-Mega: NEW --> T5
:Blaziken-Mega: NEW --> T5
:Kangaskhan-Mega: NEW --> T5
:Lucario-Mega-Z: NEW --> T5
:Meowstic-M-Mega: NEW --> T5
:Raichu-Mega-X: NEW --> T5
:Scovillain-Mega: NEW --> T5
:Starmie-Mega: NEW --> T5
:Tyranitar-Mega: NEW --> T5
:Meowscarada: NEW --> T5
:Metagross: NEW --> T5
:Palafin: NEW --> T5
:Rotom-Heat: NEW --> T5
:Rotom-Wash: NEW --> T5
:Salamence: NEW --> T5
:Swampert: NEW --> T5
:Tauros-Paldea-Aqua: NEW --> T5
:Tinkaton: NEW --> T5
:Toxapex: NEW --> T5
:Tsareena: NEW --> T5
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Sample teams soon!
 
i want to share some thoughts to this vr
:Archaludon: T2 to T1
Archaludon is the single best setup sweeper in this tier. For sure it's inflexible, but its strong and bulky enough to sweep most of the teams with teammates' support. Some of its counter, like Sneasler, Garchomp and calm mind mega Floette, are not that reliable when they actually facing Archaludon. As one of the ruler of current meta, I think it should be a T1 mon(and maybe banworthy).

:Kingambit: T1 to T2
Kingambit definitely is a very good mon, but comparing to incin, rilla, chomp and archaludon, I think it has relatively less impact in current meta. First, one of the big role for Kingambit in VGC is countering Basculegion, which was banned in dou, so Kingambit lost one of its main role. Second, Kingambit shared many weaknesses with Archaludon, so many counterplay that people prepared for Archaludon are also quite useful when facing Kingambit(maybe more useful than facing Archaludon since Kingambit have 4× Fighting weakness). Also, Kingambit isn't a ideal option when facing Archaludon. Kingambit is still a good mon, but due to the drawbacks I've mentioned, I don't think it plays a dominant role in current meta.

:Sinistcha: T3 to T2
Sinistcha is the single best redirector in this meta. Thanks to its unique ability and rage powder, Sinistcha is always a good options in setup teams. It worth a T2.

:Raichu-Mega-Y: T4 to T2
Raichu y is one of the strongest mega in vgc, there's no reason to put it in T4. For sure, Raichu y is quite frail and only can stay on the field for a few turns, which isn't good in dou since one dou game are much more longer than one vgc game. However, when Raichu y on the field, it can provide tons of pressure to its opponent. The combination of fake out support and speed control is super rare in pokemon history, beyond that, Raichu y can deal massive damage. By its bulk investment, Raichu can live a few turns, which is enough for it to finish its job and give the team an early advantage. Also, Raichu y is one of the best Archaludon in this tier.

:Blaziken: Unranked to T5
After Espathra banned, Blaziken is the best baton passer in this tier. For sure, this strategy is quite unstable after Espathra was banned, but there's still a niche. Also Blaziken can be a good coaching user, it can pair with Mega gross, help it set up and use its STAB heat wave and aura sphere to hitting some common Mgross counters like incin, ghold, Archaludon and Kingambit hard.

:Grimmsnarl: Unranked to T3/T4
I think I don't need to explain so much. I'm pretty sure council just forgot to give it a rank lol. There's no reason that grim is worse than Hisuian Goodra and non-mega Swampert.
 
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Sample teams have been added here, more may be added in the next few days! We also now have a challengeable format on PS, so you can build your teams under "Champions Doubles". Along with that, to bring us in line with the other champions formats on smogon, Champs DOU will now have item clause. Further, Mega Dragonite (tier 5) and Grimmsnarl (tier 3) have been added to the vr as they were mistakenly left off before.
 
some thoughts overall:
:sneasler: - if i could ban one guy, id ban this guy. sneaslers absurdly good and has every tech move in the world to surprise you which leans well into cts as well as 6v6 being great for seed sets. coaching, 3a, feint, sd all the sets are good and are tricky to guess off bat. i think banning right now would likely be jumping the gun but yeah sneasler is so annoying. also hes definitely tier 1 i missed that entirely for a hot minute

:staraptor-mega: - in my eyes, top 3 if not top 1 mega in the tier, its insanely good and difficult to deal with give it a couple turns and its really tricky to deal with. most of the fairies in the tier dont take brave bird well at all, and in 6v6 its a lot easier to play around initial intimidate as well as run away with games, and it smokes all the best non megas. whims raptor is a nasty mix of terracotta and mausape

:gengar-mega: - shadow tag is just stupid and access to plot now makes it incredibly annoying to deal with.

:blaziken: - this guy is cool, good coaching user and strong offensively into a lot of the tier, also one of the few mons that can realistically play on a dual mega team as to reach certain calcs but functioning just as fine without (also baton pass bullshit but lets ignore that)

:salamence-mega: - mence is definitely not on the same tier as the other tier 2 megas its in a very tough spot right now

:glimmora: - no heavy duty boots makes glimm pop off even harder, its a really strong glue mon that i think is very arguably tier 1 (also life orb 3a is good too) if you dont have a grunded poison then youre cooked (but also youre cooked cause you arent running sneasler or glimm)
 
The best team in cpdou:)
:Floette-Mega: :Gholdengo: :Espathra: :Incineroar: :Rillaboom: :Maushold-Four:

Played CP DOU for a few days, here are some personal thoughts.

The first point is that it's very new, which is a feeling that all brand new tiers bring. Developing a meta is undoubtedly a great way to have fun. If you have been testing CP DOU with me these past few days (especially since the day before yesterday), you'll notice that I often use some very weird Mega. For now, purely as a casual format, this tier is quite interesting. The extremely novel and rapidly changing meta makes CP DOU highly playable. However, you might have noticed my wording, yeah, a casual tier.
CP DOU getting four slots in DWCoP is an "unsurprising surprise". Personally, I am quite against this situation, but since the die is cast, what I should do isn't complain, but accept, adapt, change and offer some humble opinions, hoping to help CP DOU become a circuit tier as soon as possible.

First of all, which is also my biggest concern, is that this meta changes way too fast. M-C, M-D, and M-E are only a few months apart. You might want to say that only a dozen or so Pokemon are added at a time, so the impact on the meta isn't as exaggerated as I imagine. Admittedly, the addition of Furret is almost the same as not adding it at all, but what if it's Urshifu? Even if we set aside the broken Urshifu, in a certain meta change, adding a batch of sub-legendaries like Zapdos and Heatran all at once would undoubtedly be a disaster for past teams. They had no preparation, and were all eliminated. Meta shifts caused by new Pokemon additions that render teams outdated are nothing new. Every SV DLC addition brought massive changes, but SV only had two DLCs. As for the number of CP DOU "DLCs", I currently can't see an end to them. This is truly a super frustrating thing......

However, it's not like there are no solutions. For example: starting from a truly developed M-C, keeping and managing every CP DOU (please treat this as a joke, this would absolutely exhaust the council to death). As of right now, I can't think of any reasonable way to solve this problem; maybe we just have to wait—wait until enough Pokemon are added to the game, so that a massive pool can relieve the pressure of new Pokemon additions.

All in all, this is a great tier, but there is still a long way to go before it fully becomes a circuit tier. I'm really looking forward to that day, and grateful to everyone that has helped push this tier's development. have a good day!

tenor.com_furret-pokemon_1_1.gif
 
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Wait why is Espathra here lol

On a serious note, I agree with this take except I do think that the issue of a constantly changing format is slightly alleviated by the fact that we are using DWCOP to bring more eyes onto the format. This will help people find synergies that last through the different regulations and never really become fully obsolete. An SV example is like double genie, which is still a concept used in top-level games today albeit not commonly. The synergies will bring more light to the format and we won't completely be scrambling every time a new regulation drops, which will hopefully be enforced by the fact that DOU generally just replaces older pokemon with new ones but they end up filling similar roles (something like Roaring Moon instead of Tornadus in recent days). Not to say the constantly evolving tier won't be difficult at times where the meta centralizes around the new X threat which is super broken, but that shouldn't be extremely common given how few pokemon are being added every regulation (could be wrong with this part but we'll see).

Post was a bit messy but hopefully this makes sense
 
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With DWCOP starting imminently and the tier seeing generally more play from members of the community in the last few weeks, the council has opted to vote on Archaludon in champions DOU. Although Archaludon lost many tools that it had in SV (Tera, assault vest, body press), the general lack of strong special attackers (other than a handful of megas) that can easily remove it, coupled with stamina allowing it to wall almost any physical attacker, is still sufficient to make Archaludon an oppressive pokemon. The council was concerned that Arch being legal would hamper the competitiveness of champs during DWCOP pools, and opted to vote on it before the tour starts.

akaruanneragonlogicenailsNido-RusSchisterxrnzoe
archaludonbanabstainbanbanbanbanbanbanban

Having received 8/9 votes, Archaludon is now banned from Champions DOU! (tagging dhelmise and Marty to implement, thanks in advance!)
 
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