BAgs of Money - a BW DOU Cash Tour Team Compilation & Retrospective

DaWoblefet

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Hello! My name is DaWoblefet, and I'm a VGC player and battle mechanics researcher. Thanks to players like n10sit, lady lumps (formerly stax), and EmbC, I've come to greatly enjoy the Doubles OU community and tournament scene. There's a decent bit of overlap in playerbases between the tiers, and my experience playing doubles at in-person and online VGC tournaments made the transition to DOU back in late ORAS-early SM feel natural to me. My first competitive Pokemon experience came from the Black and White days in VGC 2011-2013, so when Checkmater announced a $500 prize pool being played in BW DOU, I was excited to sign up and revisit the generation with which I began competitive Pokemon.

My experience in BW prior to this tournament was watching replays from Smogon Doubles Tour II, my playing and reading/studying back in the days of VGC 2012-2013, and about 3 test games done in DPL 3 for the Space Jams. Although I had a pretty good grasp of what sort of sets existed back in BW and I knew the major mechanics differences, actually understanding how to fight Pokemon like Sub Kyurem-B and relearning how to play against bulky Thundurus were just a couple of the skills I had to pick up for the tournament. Playing test games with stax early on in the tournament made me realize just how much I didn't know; transitioning from the more offensive VGC 18 and SM DOU metagames to the slower, more methodical style of BW was tricky.

BW DOU Metagame
To start off, I think this metagame is incredibly fun overall, but I also think the general resources on current BW DOU are a bit behind. Although the banning of Swagger and Jirachi in the tier wasn't exactly recent, a lot of metagame resources still reflect these things being legal in my opinion. Generation 5 is notorious for being a wide open metagame with a lot of viable strategies and Pokemon, but I think you can identify some of the key factors of BW that sort of summarize the tier:

Dragon-types (
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Because Fairy-type didn't exist yet, Dragon has no immunities in this metagame. Dragon Gem- or Choice item-boosted Dragon attacks can OHKO otherwise bulky Pokemon and chunk Steel-types, the only resistance, for more than half of their HP. The viability of many Pokemon can be measured by how well they stand up to Latios's Dragon Gem Draco Meteor. In addition, Dragon-types offer important resistances to Water, Grass, Fire, and Electric-type attacks, making them flexible switchins to a variety of targets, furthering the role of the Dragons. To give some examples of offensive calcs:
  • 252+ Atk Choice Band Teravolt Kyurem-Black Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Cresselia: 226-267 (50.9 - 60.1%)
  • 252 SpA Life Orb Latios Draco Meteor vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian: 359-422 (112.5 - 132.2%)
  • 252 SpA Dragon Gem Latios Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 108 SpD Thundurus: 363-427 (100.2 - 117.9%)
Steel-types (
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Steel-types are a must-have on the majority of teams, not only because of their important resistance to Dragon, but also because of their own inherent power. Boasting 11 resistances and a good STAB against many targets, including Kyurem-B, Tyranitar, and a variety of neutral targets, Steel-types are really only threatened by opposing Water-types and Fire-types (though Ground and Fighting still need to be respected). Both Heatran and Metagross can take advantage of defensive Substitute + Leftovers sets or offensive Gem sets, with Scizor behaving as another key offensive Steel and Ferrothorn taking another defensive slot. The inability of Pokemon like Cresselia to pressure Steels often forces it to run an offensive set with Hidden Power Fire, for example, and other Pokemon like Abomasnow or Skymin struggle to get good footing because of the resists they must account for against their STABs.
Rain (
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Rain's high octane damage output and Speed make it a powerful force in the metagame. While there is some inherent inconsistency with the strategy (many of the strong Water-type moves have <90% accuracy) the reward is high. Rain's ability to blast through Steel-types opens the door for Pokemon like Choice Band Kyurem-B to dent holes in an opponent, and the Fire-type being weakened and threatened out helps Pokemon like Scizor and Metagross withstand stray HP Fires. Rain struggles against the primary forms of Speed control (Thunder Wave and Trick Room), but generally has enough options to handle weather wars against Tyranitar and Abomasnow. Stratos's popular Whitewater team is probably the definitive version of rain in BW; other variants just tweak their builds to handle certain rain checks better than Whitewater could. Rain being permanent once set in Generation 5 removes the counterplay option of just stalling out rain, forcing other methods to be used to deal with it. This also frees up the item slot on Politoed from Damp Rock to a number of viable choices (Eject Button, Sitrus, Leftovers, Specs, Water Gem, etc).
Thundurus
Thundurus is easily one of the most difficult Pokemon in the tier to handle. While offensive Thundurus holding Electric Gem is a reasonable strong offensive threat, bulky Sitrus Berry Thundurus is an incredible pain to deal with in BW. Bulky Thundurus often EV for Latios's Dragon Gem Draco Meteor, one of the strongest special attacks in the metagame. Through Intimidate support, Thundurus can survive almost every physical attack as well. Combining this bulk with Prankster Thunder Wave allows Thundurus to serve effectively as a Speed control option, especially since Electric-types were not immune to Thunder Wave in Generation V. Prankster Taunt slows Trick Room, Amoonguss, and certain setup, and it is the sole reason gimmick strategies are pretty much nonexistent in BW; it's difficult to overcome a +1 priority Taunt.
Tyranitar
Tyranitar's raw stats and utility make it a worthwhile Pokemon in the BW metagame. It is probably the best answer to Thundurus, destroys Cresselia, trades well with Latios and the popular Jellicent, and offers Sand as a way to turn off the rain in an emergency. The sand buff allows it to take special attacks incredibly well, complementing its already stupendous 600 BST. Tyranitar can run Choice Band or Choice Scarf sets effectively, as well as Chople Berry to withstand the non-STAB Fighting attacks in the tier. Because Sandstorm also lasts forever, Tyranitar is able to support the team in many important ways, such as breaking opposing Focus Sash, turning various 3HKOs into 2HKOs, and setting up for endgame sand KO win conditions.

Rather than detail every set on every viable Pokemon in BW DOU, here is my personal tier list for the BW DOU metagame (you may want to compare it to the current viability rankings for reference):
Tier 1
Heatran
Kyurem-B
Latios
Thundurus-I
Tyranitar

Tier 1.5
Amoonguss
Conkeldurr
Cresselia
Hitmontop
Jellicent
Kingdra
Landorus-T
Metagross
Politoed
Scizor

Tier 2
Breloom
Excadrill
Ferrothorn
Gothitelle
Hydreigon
Keldeo
Rotom-W
Skymin
Suicune
Terrakion
Tornadus-I
Volcarona

Tier 3
Abomasnow
Chandelure
Escavalier
Gastrodon
Genesect
Gyarados
Heracross
Infernape
Latias
Landorus-I
Mamoswine
Manaphy
Marowak
Rhyperior
Salamence
Scrafty
Thundurus-T
Togekiss
Victini
Zapdos

Tournament Experience and Team Dump


Bracket
As a disclaimer, I want to point out that most of the EV spreads on my teams are not optimized with respect to the team, often being carried over from previous teams or ideas. Many aren't even optimized with respect to to their particular goals, as I often borrowed EV spreads from other players or slapped together something more quickly than perhaps I should have done. As a result, I won't be talking in-depth about the particular team's six or the specifics of each member, and instead just briefly talk about why I brought the teams I did. Click on the "game" text to see the tournament replay involving that team, and click on the sprites of the six Pokemon to access an importable for Pokemon Showdown.

Round 1: vs. Fantasy: Activity.

Round 2: vs. The Cheesen One
Game 1: ///// (Kyurem-B / Scizor / Amoonguss / Jellicent / Landorus-T / Thundurus)
Game 2: ///// (Latios / Metagross / Hitmontop / Thundurus / Volcarona / Tyranitar)

Since I already had teams built for round 1 and The Cheesen One and I scheduled immediately after the round went up, I decided to just bring the best generically strong teams that I had built so far. The first team didn't really have a lot of structure and was just sort of "I want to try out Sub Kyurem-B and Jellicent and look here's a Scizor uh how about genies" sort of building, while the second was a bit more refined. The idea of Latios + Steel + Intimidate sounded incredibly strong, with the other members sort of naturally falling into place as a method of Speed control, a way to hit opposing Steels, and needing somewhat of an answer to rain. Apparently several players had already built those six independently, so I was pleased to see my teambuilding was roughly in line with what other good players were using.

Round 3: vs. Kory2600: Activity.

Round 4: vs. Paraplegic
Game 1: ///// (Tornadus / Metagross / Kyurem-B / Amoonguss / Jellicent / Conkeldurr)
Game 2: ///// (Latios / Metagross / Hitmontop / Thundurus / Volcarona / Tyranitar)

Having an extra round from the activity win gave me extra time, which I used to catch up on all of the replays of the tournament thus far to search for team ideas. The team from game 1 features the same six as a team MajorBowman used with slightly different sets, which I overall liked as a semiroom team. Because I didn't really have a read on Paraplegic's playstyle, I just used the Latios-Metagross-Hitmontop team from the previous round in game 2.

Round 5: vs. Level 51
Game 1: ///// (Suicune / Hitmontop / Tyranitar / Amoonguss / Latios / Heatran)
Game 2: ///// (Suicune / Hitmontop / Tyranitar / Amoonguss / Latios / Heatran)
Game 3: ///// (Rotom-W / Cresselia / Heatran / Kyurem-B / Tyranitar / Conkeldurr)

From my matches against Level 51 onward, I dedicated serious time in preparation to properly scouting my opponents for their teams and playstyles. I typically would have a Word document with 2-5 pages of notes on the teams a player was using throughout the tournament, complete with approximate pastebins of all recent teams via reverse engineering replays, the sorts of Pokemon they never used / playstyles they preferred, and ideas on what my own teambuilding ideas should be as a result. Early round players using sample teams was especially helpful for my scouting, as it made reverse engineering EV spreads much easier and often allowed me to land within ~40 EVs of precision if I had sufficient data. This was pivotal for two major reasons:
  1. I could ask other players for advice with extreme precision, saying "what's good against these specific teams" or "this player never uses x, how can I best take advantage of that?".
  2. I have a reference mid-battle so I'm hardly ever caught off guard by surprising moves / techs, can weigh risk/reward scenarios more freely, and develop endgame plans more confidently.
Pokemon is a game of information, and being able to glean information is a critical skill in team-locked best-of-three play, which is what I'm used to in VGC. Since Smogon best-of-three is really just 3 best-of-ones, not being caught off guard by a move / EV spread already revealed in a previous replay can make or break a game. I often violated this principle myself by bringing the same team to multiple games in a set, but I tried to avoid bringing the same teams from week to week if possible; I felt that the sort of dedicated scouting I was doing isn't possible mid-set, so I felt ok with bringing teams that I thought were overall positive against anything I expected my opponent to bring, even if it was fresh in their memory.
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In doing prep work before facing Level 51, I noticed he was bringing a Rainroom team with Thundurus-T quite often. At this point in the tournament, I was exploring with sets I remembered from VGC 13 that I thought were underrepresented in DOU so far, and Calm Mind Resto Chesto Suicune came to mind. Although I didn't get the matchup I wanted in game 1, I did hit it in game 2 and was able to remove Thundurus-T on turn 1, making Suicune's life a lot easier. AuraRayquaza mentioned Rotom-W as another Pokemon that was generally strong against all of Level 51's common teams, so I chucked that on a Trick Room team with Band Tyranitar and Conkeldurr and it worked wonders in the final game of the series.

Round 6: vs. MrGX (Top 8) (commentary from Stratos and blood totem)
Game 1: ///// (Metagross / Jellicent / Thundurus / Hitmontop / Tyranitar / Excadrill)
Game 2: ///// (Metagross / Jellicent / Thundurus / Hitmontop / Tyranitar / Excadrill)

MrGX had only used two different teams throughout the tournament, so I decided to just build a soft counterteam that I thought would be powerful against both archetypes (Latios / Hitmontop / Metagross / Volcarona / Tyranitar / Thundurus and Breloom / Latios / Scizor / Suicune / Thundurus / Tyranitar). Substitute Metagross felt especially potent in both games.

Round 7: vs. frania (Top 4)
Game 1: ///// (Landorus-T / Kyurem-B / Heatran / Jellicent / Thundurus / Conkeldurr)
Game 2: ///// (Landorus-T / Metagross / Jellicent / Latios / Tyranitar / Heatran)
Game 3: ///// (Landorus-T / Kyurem-B / Heatran / Jellicent / Thundurus / Conkeldurr)

Although frania used a wide variety of teams, I never saw rain among them, and he seemed overall weak to Choice Scarf Landorus-T as a result. The team I used in games 1 and 3 is probably the best I've built in BW, incorporating what I think are extremely strong elements all into one team: it has semiroom (my favorite playstyle), Jellicent, bulky Thundurus, and two Substitute Pokemon. I intended for game 2's team to be a sort of off-brand of game 1's to maintain a similar counterstyle against what frania liked without just bringing the same team again. It featured Explosion Metagross, which I hoped would catch frania off guard if he expected my usual Substitute set.

Round 8: vs. marilli (Finals)
Set 1:
Game 1: ///// (Thundurus / Hitmontop / Jellicent / Latios / Metagross / Volcarona)
Game 2: ///// (Cresselia / Landorus-T / Heatran / Thundurus / Conkeldurr / Latios)
Game 3: ///// (Tornadus / Jellicent / Marowak / Abomasnow / Metagross / Hydreigon)

Set 2:
Game 1: ///// (Politoed / Kingdra / Terrakion / Scizor / Volcarona / Thundurus)
Game 2: ///// (Tornadus / Jellicent / Marowak / Abomasnow / Metagross / Hydreigon)

Set 3:
Game 1: ///// (Cresselia / Landorus-T / Heatran / Thundurus / Conkeldurr / Latios)
Game 2: ///// (Landorus-T / Kyurem-B / Heatran / Jellicent / Thundurus / Conkeldurr)

marilli was the first player in this tournament that made me sit down and prep for rain. He liked using 2 different variants of it in the past (Whitewater and shaian's rain team), but I also expected usage of Stratos's double Grass rain team since I thought it looked pretty strong against what I brought in both top 4 and top 8. I went through a plethora of ideas (Timid Kingdra, Sub bulky Thundurus, Amoonguss, Sunny Day Cresselia, Jellicent, Abomasnow) before I finally realized that no one team was going to be able to handle all variants of rain. The team that got brought to set 1 game 1 tried to imagine my original idea (Sub Thundurus + Jellicent) while not leaning too far in against rain. Set 1 game 2 and Set 3 game 1 featured Sunny Day Cresselia + bulky Thundurus as my rain answers, but felt overall like a nice semiroom team that could fight against a variety of teams. The Tornadus / Jellicent / Marowak team was actually a rough adaptation of Sejun Park's Worlds Team from 2013, built thanks to the suggestion of Biosci. The rain team I used was bad; I was just hoping to catch marilli off guard since I hadn't used rain before, but I didn't have time to flesh out a proper build. I also personally struggle a lot piloting rain, because I don't like teams that inherently force you to make reads. The final team from set 3 was the team I liked so much from top 4 against frania, and despite disliking the rain matchup, I thought it was probable marilli wouldn't bring rain after it just lost game 1 and my teams were on average prepped for rain. This finals overall was unfortunately dictated heavily by luck elements, which ended up on a whole favoring me.

Reflection on the BW DOU Cash Tour tournament structure
  • Best-of-three sets, single elimination with seeding
Pros: I think best-of-three is always preferable to best-of-one, I was a big fan of seeing it. I think single elimination was also preferable for this tournament, primarily because of the extended round times. Double elimination with 2 week rounds could have drug this out for a long time.
Cons: None, I really liked this part of the structure a lot.
  • Long round times
Pros: having ample teambuilding time in early rounds gave me a lot of time to relearn the old metagame and build adequate teams instead of relying on samples. In later rounds, I really appreciated having extra scheduling time when it came time for big assignments and finals; I never felt rushed for teambuilding or preparation during each round because of the flexibility available.
Cons: There was a really long start time between the announcement of the tournament and actually playing the first round. Checkmater advertised the tournament on August 7th, but round 1 didn't go up until September 4th. I happened to get an activity win round 1 and didn't get to play any tournament games until September 25th, which imo is a fantastically long time. There was a lot of activity wins/losses in round 1, and I think that was at least in part due to this extended timeframe.
  • Prize distribution
Pros: Being the winner of this tournament, I won a lot of money and as a result it benefited me a lot. I liked that it wasn't winner take all, and that top 4 was paid out.
Cons: Despite winning the tournament, I would have preferred to see a more balanced payout. Something like 50% to 1st, 30% to 2nd, 10% to each top 4 would have been reasonable and reflected more on the top 4's time spent to get there (in the case of $500, it means winning from top 4 gives you $100 for each match won). A distribution to top 8 could have also been reasonable, something like 40% to winner, 20% to 2nd place, 10% to each top 4, 5% to each top 8. I think a lot of deserving players were just shy of the cash in top 8, and while it's reasonable to only pay out to the highest placing players, I think it's equally reasonable to say top 8 was deserving of money, too. However, given the entrance fee was $0 and this was all paid out of pocket (and that I happened to win), I can't say too many negatives, as I appreciated having any amount of money be at stake in the first place.
  • The format of finals
Pros: Getting to play more than a single best-of-three means that more teams are showcased, more interactions happen (thus on average letting results tend towards the better player), and the winner is likely to come from who played better rather than who prepped more.
Cons: I honestly just didn't like the idea of best-of-three best-of-three. I should note that due to me being an idiot and not reading the rules thoroughly, I was under the impression that finals would just be a normal best-of-three, and as a result I prepared for it with the idea of only needing to win 2 games. Still, I think the sheer amount of games required rewards the player with greater mental endurance rather than the better player necessarily. You could schedule the set over the course of 3 separate days / times to solve the problem of mental endurance, but being forced to schedule potentially 3 times to complete a set is annoying in my opinion. I think a best-of-five would be my ideal best of both worlds.

Shoutouts
A large number of people helped me practice, teambuild, and encouraged me throughout this tournament.
  • AuraRayquaza: this dude was by far the reason I got as far as I did in this tournament. Being able to reverse engineer teams isn't enough; you've got to be able to apply that knowledge in your own teambuilding. AuraRayquaza consistently offered tangible ideas to test, gave me advice on playing BW in general, and handled my dumb ideas with grace. I legitimately can't thank you enough for your help.
  • stax & Biosci: both of these players helped me teambuild, stax at the beginning and Biosci at the end. Just being able to ask "hey what do I use" and getting a meaningful response meant a lot to me, so thanks a lot.
  • Level 51, n10sit, ninjadog13, Yuichii, AuraRayquaza, stax, Yoda2798, Demantoid, potentially more: for being willing to test with me, often the hour before my match was supposed to start.
  • Wolfey - thanks a bunch for maintaining a genuine interest in my tournament replays, and for teaching me a good bit about how the old days of VGC operated when I didn't really know what was going on. I'm glad we could reminisce together.
tl;dr Black/White Doubles OU is a fun metagame, and through my experience in the BW DOU cash tournament, I feel accomplished and feel like I have a closer relationship with many DOU players. Thanks for reading! Feel free to ask me questions here in this thread, on Discord, or in Showdown chat.
 

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