Hey I'm zee and I went 9-0 in SCL V. By a count done by ego, I'm the 18th person in the site's history to 9-0 in an official team tour. This really means a lot to me. If you've been in DOU for a while, you probably know that my previous two campaigns in SCL were nothing short of disastrous. In SCL I, I teamed with Actuarily. Someone who I have immense respect for as a person and builder, but we were both pretty green to doubles at the time, and I just couldn't get anything going. I went 0-6 in games, though a lot of that was my own fault, as I volunteered to emergency sub in for LC one week...and sub in OU for fun in week 9...and sub in to DOU in semifinals after the match had been decided...just to take Ls each time.
In SCL II I benched the entire season for Z Strats, and it was such a waste of my time that I was building teams for Animus halfway through the season. I figured I should consider my Official Team Tour career over and done with, but when I finally got into SV DOU after the release of Pokemon Home in Spring 2023 I found myself having a lot of fun, and after a top 4 finish in OSDT III, I found myself for the first time starting for a full season in SCL III. Well, I went 3-7. Definitely my fault, poor teams, poor play, and the ego to tell any manager that hit me up that I was okay without having any support. Oops. In SCL IV I found myself managing after I was mislead into making a joke post that turned into a real post. Oops. But in that tour I was able to provide support to my good friend Spurrific, who went 8-1 without a lot of prior context of the SV DOU metagame. It was at that point that I realized... maybe I do have the faintest clue of how to actually win an SCL game.
Week 1 vs Ann | Replay
Nicknames are various Bladee songs
In some ways I felt like this was the best opponent I could've gotten to start. Ann is a friend (though I would consider pretty much the whole pool "a friend") and we had just came off winning DPL together, so I felt quite comfortable with the familiarity. I also knew that Ann was someone who I could expect to be a bit more conventional with the team choice. However, Ann has my entire teambuilder due to DPL and was coming off her own win in the Kunal invitational, so I knew I had to lock in and bring something that breaks the mold from what I fixated on in DPL/spring and summer DOU in general.
For me what this meant was staying away from the Glimmora and NP Gholdengo structures I had been spamming so far this year. I would surely be met with a Poison and lots of ways to pin and pressure an NP Ghold. Since we had the break week during week 1 for the PRs to be written, I took my time building and tested a Chi-Yu + Raging Bolt sun hyper offense that I thought would be a good pick after seeing Ann struggle with aggressive weather teams for both the matches she played in DPL finals. At first the team tested well, but it was really, really fragile and after getting owned by bagel in some tests I was seeing (SHEER COLD) visions of me getting one turn wrong or getting caught off guard by a set I didn't expect and instalosing. Wednesday before the game I told Kunal we had to scrap the sun and go for something new.
What I ended up posting was the above snow composition. Pretty boring, but I figured that if I considered my skill on par with Ann's, meeting conventional with conventional should result in a playable match. I really liked the Bulk Up Okidogi set, I think snow having a slot that can actually match up well into all of Diancie, Iron Hands, and Incineroar in one Pokemon is just incredible. I chose to pair this with Calm Mind Thunderbolt Raging Bolt, with the gameplan being that I could open the game with Aurora Veil + Blizzards and create openings for at least one of the setup users. It was during this planning that I thought of Fake Tears Ninetales in order to give Kyurem and Bolt some extra kill potential. Sinistcha was a no brainer to add next, it's just too easy to slot when you have both screens and setup. I opted for Shadow Ball over something like Life Dew to put more pressure on Bronzong and opposing Sinistcha. The last choice was between Incineroar and Hearthflame Ogerpon for me, and I decided to pick the cat. Having Follow Me next to double set up is quite nice to give you safe plays vs Encore Ogerpon, but Incineroar seemed more useful in every other department, being able to intimidate guys like Hearthflame Ogerpon and Chien-Pao, providing a Dark-type for the Psyspam matchup, Will-O-Wisp to cripple Diancie and Iron Hands, and not adding another Flying-type weakness.
The game starts out immediately with a huge misplay from me. It's obvious Ann's Okidogi was Assault Vest given the team structure, it has no need to be setting up itself, but I tunnel visioned on it being the Bulk Up set due to my own Okidogi being so. This meant that it ate the -2 Earth Power. I think the better play would've been to Aurora Veil and either Blizzard or Earth Power the Okidogi followed by a Fake Tears + Earth Power on turn 2. I was able to play back into the game thanks to hitting Blizzard out of snow and some pretty fortunate mid-game Incineroar dancing.
Week 2 vs ratpacker | Replay
Nicknames are from deftones's private music album
ratpacker and I have played twice in tournaments, the former was for SS cup last year, and the latter was a double header for National Dex World Cup + Kunal invitational...where I got fried. Needless to say, I was quite anxious for this rematch. When Kunal pulled the scout together I immediately gravitated towards a Psyspam weakness, and I felt like it would be a pretty safe bring for me given that I typically don't play the archetype, and my previous attempts were unsuccessful at best.
I think this is probably the strongest team Kunal and I crafted in this tournament. But I do have to give a shoutout to bagel, because I initially had a Yawn Ursaluna-Bloodmoon in the Kyurem slot, until we played a test game where I noticed he made excellent use of a snowless Kyurem. Naturally, I yoinked that for myself!! I really liked that it put pressure on Landorus-I and Wellspring Ogerpon, which could definitely be tricky to dance around otherwise. What I really like about this team is the gameplan: the standard plan is to use Iron Crown to punch holes in the opponent's team or force them to use speed control to get around you, which sets up Indeedee + Iron Hands to win the game. Wellspring and Incineroar felt like pretty natural ways to add some consistency to the team. I don't typically see Incineroar used on Psyspams because their goal is generally to win the game at a fast pace, not slow it down, but I really enjoy the control Incineroar brings to this team.
I felt like my matchup was solid going into the game. Kyurem starts out the game by whiffing a Draco Meteor on the Ninetales switchin, followed by whiffing a subsequent Draco Meteor on the Hearthflame Ogerpon. Rough, but we move. I was glad to see my suspicions of Focus Energy Ogerpon were shown true, and opting to Flare Blitz instead of Parting Shot opened up the Ogerpon to Tera Psychic Expanding Force. Iron Crown is able to put on a lot of pressure mid game and even KO Roaring Moon, eventually going down to perfectly Taunt the Ninetales. You see, in SCL 3 I used a heavy setup team and got owned by Xrn having Roar Ninetales, so I was playing the entire game with that flashback in mind, it's just a perfect tech to include in a tour like SCL. Indeedee is able to TR and Iron Hands sweeps the game, just as planned. My biggest weakness here was that I definitely clicked too fast in the endgame turns, and I think taking time to make sure I was clicking the best-odds moves in the face of Blizzard and double Protects should've been a no-brainer.
Week 3 vs EternalSnowman | Replay
Nicknames are from Plastic Tree's Ink album
ESM and I teamed for both DPL and Derby in 2024, and additionally he's very close with Kunal, so coming into this week I felt like we were able to produce a solid read on his habits and tendencies. ESM definitely has a "style", and while I think he's brought a few teams that look like they break the mold at a first glance, under the hood you'll find that it's a lot of what makes his teams truly his still. We had only played once prior to my knowledge, that being a few months ago in the Kunal invitational.
My early read on ESM was that he often played teams lacking rock resists, as he was generally a lot lower on Pokemon like Gholdengo and Iron Hands. I really wanted to pressure this with Sand, as I figured his affinity for sun strategies would struggle greatly with the Tyranitar + Excadrill composition. The initial idea I had drawn up had both Howl Gouging Fire and Hearthflame Ogerpon, as I figured the more room for Fire resists, the better. Latios was selected to pair with the sand core almost instantly. While I knew it was a Pokemon ESM was super familiar with, from testing it was undeniable that it had some incredible synergy with the sand Pokemon, with great matchups into the Ogerpons, Landorus-I, and levitate to help create Earthquake pins.
When the game went up I felt like I hit pretty much what I expected, but I once again was burned by my early game tunnel vision. Not being too afraid of what Rillaboom could do to my Latios, I quickly found it pretty much OHKOed as he hit it with a Choice Banded U-Turn into the Breaking Swipe Walking Wake getting around my follow me. This was a horrible start. I do think I was able to play a solid midgame with Tyranitar, Amoonguss, and Gholdengo to bring the game back in my favor, but I quickly found myself in a dire position again with Torkoal in Trick Room perfectly positioned against my Amoonguss and chipped Tyranitar in sun. I tera the Amoonguss hoping for a miracle and switch out Tyranitar as ESM...Protects the Torkoal..., allowing me to switch Tyranitar back in, live the Helping Hand Tera Fire Eruption with Amoonguss, and Spore the Torkoal for game.
Lots of lessons to be learned from this one. I think the first is that I focused too hard on trying to get matchup with something I wasn't comfortable with, and I probably could've had just as viable odds by building something under similar constraints as the previous two weeks. The second is that I opted into a volatile lead vs a volatile player where the uncertainty factor is super high, which I would generally advise against doing. Leading with the bulkier pieces and trying to statcheck would've likely been much more productive than throwing my Latios out for a free surprise kill on turn 1. Lastly, Amoonguss should've just been Tera Water, and then I wouldn't have had to be bailed out by a choke. Alas, I picked dark over Psyspam fears, which is kind of bizarre looking at the rest of my team lol. Oopsie.
Week 4 vs Nails | Replay
Nicknames are from Loathe's I Let It In and It Took Everything album
Nails is one of the players I definitely have the longest history with. We played for the first time in tournament all the way back in 2019 at a Moon Series VGC regional, and he was also my first ever opponent in an official capacity all the way back in SCL I. He's definitely won more of exchanges, but I like playing him because I think he's a super smart guy that forces me to be my best if I want to walk away with a win. Preparing for Nails in DOU tournaments is quite difficult, because he only plays a handful of tours a year, and SCL is pretty much the only time he's in current gen. Because of this, I went into this week deciding to be completely agnostic of any scouts.
I thought the screens team he ran in week 3 was super solid even if he lost the game. So I decided to build my take on Grimmsnarl screens. Honestly, the team's philosophy isn't super different from the snow team I brought to week 1, it's just another screens setter and some different setup Pokemon pretty much. Two ground weak boosters, one physical, one special, both having their ground weaknesses compensated for by Kyurem, and enabled by the double redirection options. I went with Scary Face on the Grimmsnarl here to add some 'fast' speed control on a team that looked like it might not have any, and the use case where I found this particularly strong for was in the matchup vs Ogerpon-Wellspring after terastalizing Kyurem to Ground. The opponent might think they have a free Ivy Cudgel and then find themselves quickly dropped to -2 Speed and exploded by Freeze-Dry.
The game was a wash. The only real way Nails had to break my Kyurem was his Gholdengo which went down to a turn 1 Earth Power crit. I decided that firing off the hit without clicking Tera was a pretty reasonable play given Light Screen + Sinistcha + Gholdengo making itself weaker on repeated hits, but moving first is broken and sometimes you get hella rewarded for it. Once the Gholdengo went down there was just genuinely no way for Kyurem to die at a reasonable opportunity cost. I got some lucky dodges to preserve the 6-0 for style points. I'm generally not the biggest fan of Torn + Waterpon + Rilla structures, I think they have some pretty sizeable offensive and defensive holes, and unfortunately for Nails, AV Kyurem screens definitely qualifies.
Week 5 vs bagel | Replay
This week I was working under some time pressure as my VGC tournament bunk buddy bagel was off to a VGC tournament (without me...). I offered to play him early in the week because I know finding the time for games during the weekend can be really tough between travel, the tournament itself, and taking part in the festivities (I won my OSDT win and in at a Sunday brunch at Milwaukee regionals this year). bagel and I have played a lot and he was also a consistent test buddy for me so far in this tour, so once again this was someone I felt like I had a good read on.
When Kunal passed the scout I once again felt like I wanted to attack a Psyspam weakness. So at first we tested the aggressive Iron Crown + Regidrago builds but after starting off strong, I felt like there was just this huge uphill battle in the more difficult matchups with guys like Diancie and Tera Fairy Calm Mind Raging Bolt. I asked if he would be okay with me reusing, and there was definitely a little hesitancy, but the bottom line was that we were running out of time and I had to load something I thought was powerful.
In the game I found a matchup that was definitely weak to Psyspam, and I took full advantage of this by opening with Tera Psychic Helping Hand Expanding Force to force tera out of the Kyurem and drop the Arcanine. Turn 1 tera is definitely risky, but I felt like if he wasn't going to Tera his Kyurem I would be taking about 1.67 KOs that turn and it would be a worthwhile trade. By the time my Iron Crown goes down a few turns later, Kyurem + Iron Hands are in prime position to run his team down. I decided to attack first with Iron Hands instead of Swords Dance, fearing an Encore from Ninetales. I get a little lucky with the Drain Punch crit on the Ursaluna through Aurora Veil, as bagel informed me after the game that it was Yawn, which would've forced some awkward maneuvering from me. After this KO, the game is pretty much over. I think my sizeable advantage in pressure/material would've made it quite comfortable for me regardless, but, again, attacking first is broken.
Week 6 vs MADARAAAA | Replay
Nicknames are from Title Fight's Floral Green album
After a few weeks of playing familiar opponents, I was back to fighting someone I had a lot less insight into in Madara. We had teamed for Doubles Derby earlier this year, but besides our semifinals tiebreaker where he played a game of SV DOU, he was in DUU for a lot of that tour. Our one previous match was him handing me an L in last year's Doubles invitational, and I generally considered him one of, if not the strongest SV player going into this tour, so I was looking forward to the game regardless.
This week was I think where the teambuilder struggles really began. I came up with this idea a couple days into the week and while it tested alright, I felt like something was missing. You see, I think for a physical offense team to survive right now, you need some sort of Breaking Swipe counterplay. Tera Fairy is great, but it doesn't exactly cut it when the Roaring Moon clicks Tailwind for the Gholdengo and now your Gouging Fire is dead. This is where Covert Cloak Okidogi came into play. I decided to pair this with Grassy Seed Ting-Lu, who seemed to be a demon in a lot of our test games. Wellspring was added because it's too good not to have on these types of teams, as the damage on Incineroar and Landorus-I, as well as the SpDef boost in something like a Psyspam matchup, is invaluable. Scarf Gholdengo was added as a revenge killer/cleaner slot, and tested very effectively. The EV spread is the minimum investment you can run to live Chien-Pao Sucker Punch.
In the game I felt like I hit a pretty neutral matchup, some of my guys were definitely happy to see sand, but Tornadus + Drago could definitely be scary, and Excadrill hits every Pokemon on my team for weakness if it's Tera Bug X-Scissor. I was going to have to be very careful about preserving ways to find the kill on that mole if I wanted to win this. Tornadus + Hearthflame into Rillaboom + Ting-Lu is less than desireable, but I can't really concern myself with switching Rillaboom to Gouging Fire yet. I try to chip the Tornadus with a Ruination but miss the attack, though this does give me boosted Stomping Tantrum for turn 2. In tandem with U-Turn, this almost takes out the Ogerpon, but not quite, and Madara's 2/2 on Bleakwind Storms turns into 2/4. Burning Bulwark from me on turn 3 is, admittedly, a little strange rewatching this replay, but I finally get the Ruination off onto Tornadus. On Turn 4 the Ogerpon goes down, and now I've let in the Regidrago. Dragon Energy crits my Ting-Lu, which seems to have been a roll for me to live without it, and I was really hoping I'd live as I Body Pressed the Tornadus switching to Excadrill. Unfortunately, the Tera Fairy has been forced and I found myself staring down an Excadrill. I spend some time weighing my options and conclude that my best play is to just go for the kill to free up my other Pokemon, as Gouging Fire is guaranteed to survive an Iron Hand. Well, I flinch, but thankfully Rillaboom is able to find the KO with Wood Hammer, so at least the nightmare is over. The livestream commentary made a point that I erroneously switched in my Gholdengo to take way too much free damage, and I definitely agree. Still, I just had way more pressure and pieces in the endgame, so I'm able to wrap things up. Pretty messy game from both of us but I think I didn't do a horrible job recalculating in the face of all the RNG that game. I do think I could've taken cleaner endgame lines.
One thing I should mention is that I had a fullblown crashout over this team like Saturday afternoon when my game was scheduled for Sunday morning. I wanted to scrap it and just scan my builder for anything viable to reuse instead, and Kunal stepped in and reaffirmed me that we were not going to scrap a week's worth of prep. We worked our way through the tough boards in practice, and I'm super glad I stuck with this pick.
Week 7 vs Schister | Replay
Nicknames are from Whirr's Distressor album
Akaru was busy this week, so he subbed out for Schister. We played in a seasonal last year, but that's it. Still, Kunal had a lot of insight due to Schister being one of the more vocal teambuilders from the US West crew. I wanted to run something fast and disruptive this week, and quickly found myself looking at a core of Roaring Moon + Hearthflame Ogerpon + Landorus-I, as I felt like the fast offense, high damage output, and utility from Roaring Moon formed a really oppressive core. But in testing I just could not get it to come together at all. Kunal and I took like a day or two break from building and regrouped on something entirely different.
I tested a funny hard Trick Room team that was winning a lot of test games, like a criminal amount. However, I think the team had to take some risky lines vs Gholdengo that I was hesitant about reproducing in tournament. When I decided I wanted to play something more semiroom focused, Kunal told me to hit up srvoltmike for some advice on the archetype, and to my surprise mike was more than willing to help me with all sorts of feedback on the paste I showed him and some other notes as well. Taking his feedback into account, this was the team I settled on.
Well, Sinistcha + Moltres is a matchup you never really want to see with Bronzong + Ursaluna, but I knew I was just going to have to play a really smart game. I was hoping to bait Tera Fairy from what I assumed was a Specs Ghold turn 1, and the damage on Incineroar reveals I was correct, but no dice on wasting the tera early. Turn 3 I play passively, expecting a Fake Out onto my Raging Bolt that turned into a really annoying critical hit Flare Blitz onto my Wellspring. I was pretty mentally defeated after this turn. I spent the next few turns scrambling for position and getting owned, finally being able to set Trick Room at the expense of my tera. I knew I had to call which slot the Sinistcha was coming in to and not give up any free KOs this turn, and I decided that really, the only way I had a chance of winning the game was if I found a kill on the Ursaluna this turn. I get exactly that, and this gave me remaining material enough room to close out victory from the jaws of defeat.
Week 8 vs Feyy | Replay
Nicknames are from Donald Byrd's Places and Spaces album
Another player I've only fought once before, in OSDT III semifinals. I was pretty excited for the chance of a getback vs Feyy, but they had clearly gotten into a sharper form than the first few weeks of games gave the impression of. I was pretty set on using the same Dragon Dance Gouging Fire idea Hasayo and Nails ran into Feyy week 1, I figured it was something they'd never expect to happen twice. Well, all the initial builds of this team sucked. Every single game I found myself telling Kunal, x and y components feel good, but these slots did nothing. We revised the team several times before I finally just agreed to play some games with the actual Nails six. I hated it!!! I did not like Torkoal Lilligant at all, and Farigiraf felt like such a swingy pick, but I actually really did like Brute Bonnet.
Kunal also mentioned that he thought Incineroar would be nice to have, but I kept shutting him down because I felt like there was no way to work him into the Earthquake idea efficiently. That was until...I decided to put Protect on him. This was actually super clutch in tests. Gholdengo rounded out the team as a Diancie check. Initially it was Choice Specs, but I liked going with a Nasty Plot Tera Fairy set to have some pressure on Roaring Moon and the freedom to switch moves.
I felt like the matchup I rolled was pretty okay, maybe slightly favored. I spent a lot of time on turn 1 trying to weigh the odds of if I could win the game if I tera'd my Gouging Fire into an Earth Power turn 1 or 2, and then I realized that Earth Power actually does no damage if I just switch in my Landorus. The Bleakwind Speed drops were nice but not super impactful, but the real jackpot on this turn was getting the Landorus to burn its tera. Now it could be hit by Earthquake and I wouldn't have to worry about a tera from Iron Crown. This game was going absolutely swimmingly for me until Feyy manages to set Trick Room next to the Special Attacker booster Iron Crown that just so happened to reveal Substitute on my Protect + Incineroar switch. Thankfully, I live the Helping Hand Expanding Force after a Parting Shot, and I'm able to break Iron Crown's Substitute. From here it's just really difficult to close out for Feyy, and Landorus wraps things up.
Week 9 vs eragon | Replay
Nicknames are from 2hollis's White Tiger album
I was really hoping to play SEA this week. I thought it'd be quite symbolic of all our time together as friends on this site to play. However, instead I was fighting eragon, which was honestly quite terrifying. Genuinely cannot think of a worse opponent to play in this scenario. He's played 1 game in this tournament, is already guaranteed to make the playoffs, is no slouch of a player in his own right, and has an entire army of teambuilder friends who all want him to be the one to stop me from completing The Run.
This week kind of sucked from the builder. I was just done. I couldn't figure out how to deal with some pretty common cores anymore, and it was pretty obvious I was really in the burnout period now. But the job wasn't finished. Like halfway through the week I had some absolute bullshit in the teambuilder and messaged Kunal asking to test it out. We concluded from the tests that we definitely had something here. Booster Special Attack Raging Bolt is just an absolute menace at +1, and I thought with double Tailwind support and Comfey healing it would be nearly impossible to take down. I decided to change from something closer to the paste linked a few sentences ago to the final product like a day before the game, as I wanted to use more consistent Pokemon like Tornadus and Incineroar.
I got called out by the matchup. We knew Diancie was gonna be coming this week, it just made too much sense when looking at US West's preferences versus my own picks. But CressLax?? Oh brother. I had selected Taunt Covert Cloak Tornadus specifically because I figured it could be a lifeline vs something like this, but then it revealed Mental Herb. Well fuck me I guess. However, I found a turn where I could throw an attack in the Snorlax for a kill if my Raging Bolt didn't die this turn, and miraculously, I hit skip turn and my Raging Bolt was still standing. Choke, misclick, whatever it was, I definitely didn't deserve this one but the results screen says I won. Job was finished.
I didn't make the playoffs despite going 9-0 because we had several underperformances on the team. Not everyone can play their best tour every tour but damn that shit sucked. But honestly, after what I went through in week 9, and I wasn't too upset about not playing more Pokemon. Finally, after years of flops, I proved to everyone, including, most importantly, myself, that I could hang in this tournament.
I don't have a lot of shoutouts. Kunal was my absolute lifeline during this tournament, his help with scouts, tests, and just being a competent voice in my corner was surely a huge contributor to this run. bagel, SEA, and Akaru were people I tested with pretty frequently, so shoutouts to them as well. If you ask me what the three biggest things I personally did to get better results this year, I spent more time in the calc, I was thinking through the paths in more detail, and I used teams with strong Pokemon that could generally afford to whiff a turn or two and still be in the game. I have worms in my brain and the fact that I'm still 12-13 on The Sheet means I have to play another one of these and try to get to at least a neutral record, so I'll see you for maybe one final SCL next year. Adieu.
In SCL II I benched the entire season for Z Strats, and it was such a waste of my time that I was building teams for Animus halfway through the season. I figured I should consider my Official Team Tour career over and done with, but when I finally got into SV DOU after the release of Pokemon Home in Spring 2023 I found myself having a lot of fun, and after a top 4 finish in OSDT III, I found myself for the first time starting for a full season in SCL III. Well, I went 3-7. Definitely my fault, poor teams, poor play, and the ego to tell any manager that hit me up that I was okay without having any support. Oops. In SCL IV I found myself managing after I was mislead into making a joke post that turned into a real post. Oops. But in that tour I was able to provide support to my good friend Spurrific, who went 8-1 without a lot of prior context of the SV DOU metagame. It was at that point that I realized... maybe I do have the faintest clue of how to actually win an SCL game.
When the tour went up this year I was leaning towards not signing up. I was (and still am!) taking my studies seriously, as I was studying for both college and some professional exams for my intended career. However, at Worlds, when I was hanging out with Shiloh, kunal, emforbes, tko, Pearl, and a banned deucer...I was fomo'd into signing up. What's funny is that out of that list of names, I'm the only one that ended up actually playing in this tournament... WTF Pearl you were gonna make it big man... After Pearl deleted, I went ahead and asked a TD to delete my signup as well. Just wasn't feeling it. Well, I got a message from Dave Friday before the auction asking how I was feeling about playing. I told him I deleted, but having someone I respected a lot reach out to me about picking me up made me realize that I really should give playing just one more shot. I'll talk a bit more about this below, but I was having a solid 2025, and I really felt like I could right my wrongs from SCL I and III this time. So I asked Dave if he could undelete my signup, and even though he didn't see my message until after the signup deadline closed, the TDs graciously allowed me to compete. Shoutouts TDs.
My 2024 was extremely whatever. Outside of a 7-2 DPL playing XY, really the only thing I did of note that year was choke a seasonal finals to SMB, going from up 1-0 in set 1 of finals to losing 4 of the next 5 games for him to take the tour from me. But as I mentioned, the Spurrific support run filled me with some confidence. I skipped DLT as per usual (I did sign up apparently, but I definitely didnt play for more than one night lol), and when OSDT came around I started off with a pretty apathetic attitude towards the tournament, loading Covert Cloak Deoxys-D for all of my early rounds. Fun times. At some point I decided I would actually lock in, and I went from 3-2 to 9-2 to make the top cut bracket, finishing top 8. During this tour I also shifted to SV in Derby playoffs (I played 2 games each of 4 different tiers in that tour, really fun experience) I then went on to win seasonal for the first time in 3 attempts. It just felt like things were different for me this year.
I also had a pretty strong VGC season with a top 8 at a regional and a top 32 at worlds on very, very minimal prep. I think in recent years I've just grown super averse to prepping a lot and instead have relied on fundamentals, but this time those fundamentals carried me quite far.
My 2024 was extremely whatever. Outside of a 7-2 DPL playing XY, really the only thing I did of note that year was choke a seasonal finals to SMB, going from up 1-0 in set 1 of finals to losing 4 of the next 5 games for him to take the tour from me. But as I mentioned, the Spurrific support run filled me with some confidence. I skipped DLT as per usual (I did sign up apparently, but I definitely didnt play for more than one night lol), and when OSDT came around I started off with a pretty apathetic attitude towards the tournament, loading Covert Cloak Deoxys-D for all of my early rounds. Fun times. At some point I decided I would actually lock in, and I went from 3-2 to 9-2 to make the top cut bracket, finishing top 8. During this tour I also shifted to SV in Derby playoffs (I played 2 games each of 4 different tiers in that tour, really fun experience) I then went on to win seasonal for the first time in 3 attempts. It just felt like things were different for me this year.
I also had a pretty strong VGC season with a top 8 at a regional and a top 32 at worlds on very, very minimal prep. I think in recent years I've just grown super averse to prepping a lot and instead have relied on fundamentals, but this time those fundamentals carried me quite far.
Week 1 vs Ann | Replay
Nicknames are various Bladee songs
In some ways I felt like this was the best opponent I could've gotten to start. Ann is a friend (though I would consider pretty much the whole pool "a friend") and we had just came off winning DPL together, so I felt quite comfortable with the familiarity. I also knew that Ann was someone who I could expect to be a bit more conventional with the team choice. However, Ann has my entire teambuilder due to DPL and was coming off her own win in the Kunal invitational, so I knew I had to lock in and bring something that breaks the mold from what I fixated on in DPL/spring and summer DOU in general.
For me what this meant was staying away from the Glimmora and NP Gholdengo structures I had been spamming so far this year. I would surely be met with a Poison and lots of ways to pin and pressure an NP Ghold. Since we had the break week during week 1 for the PRs to be written, I took my time building and tested a Chi-Yu + Raging Bolt sun hyper offense that I thought would be a good pick after seeing Ann struggle with aggressive weather teams for both the matches she played in DPL finals. At first the team tested well, but it was really, really fragile and after getting owned by bagel in some tests I was seeing (SHEER COLD) visions of me getting one turn wrong or getting caught off guard by a set I didn't expect and instalosing. Wednesday before the game I told Kunal we had to scrap the sun and go for something new.
What I ended up posting was the above snow composition. Pretty boring, but I figured that if I considered my skill on par with Ann's, meeting conventional with conventional should result in a playable match. I really liked the Bulk Up Okidogi set, I think snow having a slot that can actually match up well into all of Diancie, Iron Hands, and Incineroar in one Pokemon is just incredible. I chose to pair this with Calm Mind Thunderbolt Raging Bolt, with the gameplan being that I could open the game with Aurora Veil + Blizzards and create openings for at least one of the setup users. It was during this planning that I thought of Fake Tears Ninetales in order to give Kyurem and Bolt some extra kill potential. Sinistcha was a no brainer to add next, it's just too easy to slot when you have both screens and setup. I opted for Shadow Ball over something like Life Dew to put more pressure on Bronzong and opposing Sinistcha. The last choice was between Incineroar and Hearthflame Ogerpon for me, and I decided to pick the cat. Having Follow Me next to double set up is quite nice to give you safe plays vs Encore Ogerpon, but Incineroar seemed more useful in every other department, being able to intimidate guys like Hearthflame Ogerpon and Chien-Pao, providing a Dark-type for the Psyspam matchup, Will-O-Wisp to cripple Diancie and Iron Hands, and not adding another Flying-type weakness.
The game starts out immediately with a huge misplay from me. It's obvious Ann's Okidogi was Assault Vest given the team structure, it has no need to be setting up itself, but I tunnel visioned on it being the Bulk Up set due to my own Okidogi being so. This meant that it ate the -2 Earth Power. I think the better play would've been to Aurora Veil and either Blizzard or Earth Power the Okidogi followed by a Fake Tears + Earth Power on turn 2. I was able to play back into the game thanks to hitting Blizzard out of snow and some pretty fortunate mid-game Incineroar dancing.
Week 2 vs ratpacker | Replay
Nicknames are from deftones's private music album
ratpacker and I have played twice in tournaments, the former was for SS cup last year, and the latter was a double header for National Dex World Cup + Kunal invitational...where I got fried. Needless to say, I was quite anxious for this rematch. When Kunal pulled the scout together I immediately gravitated towards a Psyspam weakness, and I felt like it would be a pretty safe bring for me given that I typically don't play the archetype, and my previous attempts were unsuccessful at best.
I think this is probably the strongest team Kunal and I crafted in this tournament. But I do have to give a shoutout to bagel, because I initially had a Yawn Ursaluna-Bloodmoon in the Kyurem slot, until we played a test game where I noticed he made excellent use of a snowless Kyurem. Naturally, I yoinked that for myself!! I really liked that it put pressure on Landorus-I and Wellspring Ogerpon, which could definitely be tricky to dance around otherwise. What I really like about this team is the gameplan: the standard plan is to use Iron Crown to punch holes in the opponent's team or force them to use speed control to get around you, which sets up Indeedee + Iron Hands to win the game. Wellspring and Incineroar felt like pretty natural ways to add some consistency to the team. I don't typically see Incineroar used on Psyspams because their goal is generally to win the game at a fast pace, not slow it down, but I really enjoy the control Incineroar brings to this team.
I felt like my matchup was solid going into the game. Kyurem starts out the game by whiffing a Draco Meteor on the Ninetales switchin, followed by whiffing a subsequent Draco Meteor on the Hearthflame Ogerpon. Rough, but we move. I was glad to see my suspicions of Focus Energy Ogerpon were shown true, and opting to Flare Blitz instead of Parting Shot opened up the Ogerpon to Tera Psychic Expanding Force. Iron Crown is able to put on a lot of pressure mid game and even KO Roaring Moon, eventually going down to perfectly Taunt the Ninetales. You see, in SCL 3 I used a heavy setup team and got owned by Xrn having Roar Ninetales, so I was playing the entire game with that flashback in mind, it's just a perfect tech to include in a tour like SCL. Indeedee is able to TR and Iron Hands sweeps the game, just as planned. My biggest weakness here was that I definitely clicked too fast in the endgame turns, and I think taking time to make sure I was clicking the best-odds moves in the face of Blizzard and double Protects should've been a no-brainer.
Week 3 vs EternalSnowman | Replay
Nicknames are from Plastic Tree's Ink album
ESM and I teamed for both DPL and Derby in 2024, and additionally he's very close with Kunal, so coming into this week I felt like we were able to produce a solid read on his habits and tendencies. ESM definitely has a "style", and while I think he's brought a few teams that look like they break the mold at a first glance, under the hood you'll find that it's a lot of what makes his teams truly his still. We had only played once prior to my knowledge, that being a few months ago in the Kunal invitational.
My early read on ESM was that he often played teams lacking rock resists, as he was generally a lot lower on Pokemon like Gholdengo and Iron Hands. I really wanted to pressure this with Sand, as I figured his affinity for sun strategies would struggle greatly with the Tyranitar + Excadrill composition. The initial idea I had drawn up had both Howl Gouging Fire and Hearthflame Ogerpon, as I figured the more room for Fire resists, the better. Latios was selected to pair with the sand core almost instantly. While I knew it was a Pokemon ESM was super familiar with, from testing it was undeniable that it had some incredible synergy with the sand Pokemon, with great matchups into the Ogerpons, Landorus-I, and levitate to help create Earthquake pins.
When the game went up I felt like I hit pretty much what I expected, but I once again was burned by my early game tunnel vision. Not being too afraid of what Rillaboom could do to my Latios, I quickly found it pretty much OHKOed as he hit it with a Choice Banded U-Turn into the Breaking Swipe Walking Wake getting around my follow me. This was a horrible start. I do think I was able to play a solid midgame with Tyranitar, Amoonguss, and Gholdengo to bring the game back in my favor, but I quickly found myself in a dire position again with Torkoal in Trick Room perfectly positioned against my Amoonguss and chipped Tyranitar in sun. I tera the Amoonguss hoping for a miracle and switch out Tyranitar as ESM...Protects the Torkoal..., allowing me to switch Tyranitar back in, live the Helping Hand Tera Fire Eruption with Amoonguss, and Spore the Torkoal for game.
Lots of lessons to be learned from this one. I think the first is that I focused too hard on trying to get matchup with something I wasn't comfortable with, and I probably could've had just as viable odds by building something under similar constraints as the previous two weeks. The second is that I opted into a volatile lead vs a volatile player where the uncertainty factor is super high, which I would generally advise against doing. Leading with the bulkier pieces and trying to statcheck would've likely been much more productive than throwing my Latios out for a free surprise kill on turn 1. Lastly, Amoonguss should've just been Tera Water, and then I wouldn't have had to be bailed out by a choke. Alas, I picked dark over Psyspam fears, which is kind of bizarre looking at the rest of my team lol. Oopsie.
Week 4 vs Nails | Replay
Nicknames are from Loathe's I Let It In and It Took Everything album
Nails is one of the players I definitely have the longest history with. We played for the first time in tournament all the way back in 2019 at a Moon Series VGC regional, and he was also my first ever opponent in an official capacity all the way back in SCL I. He's definitely won more of exchanges, but I like playing him because I think he's a super smart guy that forces me to be my best if I want to walk away with a win. Preparing for Nails in DOU tournaments is quite difficult, because he only plays a handful of tours a year, and SCL is pretty much the only time he's in current gen. Because of this, I went into this week deciding to be completely agnostic of any scouts.
I thought the screens team he ran in week 3 was super solid even if he lost the game. So I decided to build my take on Grimmsnarl screens. Honestly, the team's philosophy isn't super different from the snow team I brought to week 1, it's just another screens setter and some different setup Pokemon pretty much. Two ground weak boosters, one physical, one special, both having their ground weaknesses compensated for by Kyurem, and enabled by the double redirection options. I went with Scary Face on the Grimmsnarl here to add some 'fast' speed control on a team that looked like it might not have any, and the use case where I found this particularly strong for was in the matchup vs Ogerpon-Wellspring after terastalizing Kyurem to Ground. The opponent might think they have a free Ivy Cudgel and then find themselves quickly dropped to -2 Speed and exploded by Freeze-Dry.
The game was a wash. The only real way Nails had to break my Kyurem was his Gholdengo which went down to a turn 1 Earth Power crit. I decided that firing off the hit without clicking Tera was a pretty reasonable play given Light Screen + Sinistcha + Gholdengo making itself weaker on repeated hits, but moving first is broken and sometimes you get hella rewarded for it. Once the Gholdengo went down there was just genuinely no way for Kyurem to die at a reasonable opportunity cost. I got some lucky dodges to preserve the 6-0 for style points. I'm generally not the biggest fan of Torn + Waterpon + Rilla structures, I think they have some pretty sizeable offensive and defensive holes, and unfortunately for Nails, AV Kyurem screens definitely qualifies.
Week 5 vs bagel | Replay
This week I was working under some time pressure as my VGC tournament bunk buddy bagel was off to a VGC tournament (without me...). I offered to play him early in the week because I know finding the time for games during the weekend can be really tough between travel, the tournament itself, and taking part in the festivities (I won my OSDT win and in at a Sunday brunch at Milwaukee regionals this year). bagel and I have played a lot and he was also a consistent test buddy for me so far in this tour, so once again this was someone I felt like I had a good read on.
When Kunal passed the scout I once again felt like I wanted to attack a Psyspam weakness. So at first we tested the aggressive Iron Crown + Regidrago builds but after starting off strong, I felt like there was just this huge uphill battle in the more difficult matchups with guys like Diancie and Tera Fairy Calm Mind Raging Bolt. I asked if he would be okay with me reusing, and there was definitely a little hesitancy, but the bottom line was that we were running out of time and I had to load something I thought was powerful.
In the game I found a matchup that was definitely weak to Psyspam, and I took full advantage of this by opening with Tera Psychic Helping Hand Expanding Force to force tera out of the Kyurem and drop the Arcanine. Turn 1 tera is definitely risky, but I felt like if he wasn't going to Tera his Kyurem I would be taking about 1.67 KOs that turn and it would be a worthwhile trade. By the time my Iron Crown goes down a few turns later, Kyurem + Iron Hands are in prime position to run his team down. I decided to attack first with Iron Hands instead of Swords Dance, fearing an Encore from Ninetales. I get a little lucky with the Drain Punch crit on the Ursaluna through Aurora Veil, as bagel informed me after the game that it was Yawn, which would've forced some awkward maneuvering from me. After this KO, the game is pretty much over. I think my sizeable advantage in pressure/material would've made it quite comfortable for me regardless, but, again, attacking first is broken.
Week 6 vs MADARAAAA | Replay
Nicknames are from Title Fight's Floral Green album
After a few weeks of playing familiar opponents, I was back to fighting someone I had a lot less insight into in Madara. We had teamed for Doubles Derby earlier this year, but besides our semifinals tiebreaker where he played a game of SV DOU, he was in DUU for a lot of that tour. Our one previous match was him handing me an L in last year's Doubles invitational, and I generally considered him one of, if not the strongest SV player going into this tour, so I was looking forward to the game regardless.
This week was I think where the teambuilder struggles really began. I came up with this idea a couple days into the week and while it tested alright, I felt like something was missing. You see, I think for a physical offense team to survive right now, you need some sort of Breaking Swipe counterplay. Tera Fairy is great, but it doesn't exactly cut it when the Roaring Moon clicks Tailwind for the Gholdengo and now your Gouging Fire is dead. This is where Covert Cloak Okidogi came into play. I decided to pair this with Grassy Seed Ting-Lu, who seemed to be a demon in a lot of our test games. Wellspring was added because it's too good not to have on these types of teams, as the damage on Incineroar and Landorus-I, as well as the SpDef boost in something like a Psyspam matchup, is invaluable. Scarf Gholdengo was added as a revenge killer/cleaner slot, and tested very effectively. The EV spread is the minimum investment you can run to live Chien-Pao Sucker Punch.
In the game I felt like I hit a pretty neutral matchup, some of my guys were definitely happy to see sand, but Tornadus + Drago could definitely be scary, and Excadrill hits every Pokemon on my team for weakness if it's Tera Bug X-Scissor. I was going to have to be very careful about preserving ways to find the kill on that mole if I wanted to win this. Tornadus + Hearthflame into Rillaboom + Ting-Lu is less than desireable, but I can't really concern myself with switching Rillaboom to Gouging Fire yet. I try to chip the Tornadus with a Ruination but miss the attack, though this does give me boosted Stomping Tantrum for turn 2. In tandem with U-Turn, this almost takes out the Ogerpon, but not quite, and Madara's 2/2 on Bleakwind Storms turns into 2/4. Burning Bulwark from me on turn 3 is, admittedly, a little strange rewatching this replay, but I finally get the Ruination off onto Tornadus. On Turn 4 the Ogerpon goes down, and now I've let in the Regidrago. Dragon Energy crits my Ting-Lu, which seems to have been a roll for me to live without it, and I was really hoping I'd live as I Body Pressed the Tornadus switching to Excadrill. Unfortunately, the Tera Fairy has been forced and I found myself staring down an Excadrill. I spend some time weighing my options and conclude that my best play is to just go for the kill to free up my other Pokemon, as Gouging Fire is guaranteed to survive an Iron Hand. Well, I flinch, but thankfully Rillaboom is able to find the KO with Wood Hammer, so at least the nightmare is over. The livestream commentary made a point that I erroneously switched in my Gholdengo to take way too much free damage, and I definitely agree. Still, I just had way more pressure and pieces in the endgame, so I'm able to wrap things up. Pretty messy game from both of us but I think I didn't do a horrible job recalculating in the face of all the RNG that game. I do think I could've taken cleaner endgame lines.
One thing I should mention is that I had a fullblown crashout over this team like Saturday afternoon when my game was scheduled for Sunday morning. I wanted to scrap it and just scan my builder for anything viable to reuse instead, and Kunal stepped in and reaffirmed me that we were not going to scrap a week's worth of prep. We worked our way through the tough boards in practice, and I'm super glad I stuck with this pick.
Week 7 vs Schister | Replay
Nicknames are from Whirr's Distressor album
Akaru was busy this week, so he subbed out for Schister. We played in a seasonal last year, but that's it. Still, Kunal had a lot of insight due to Schister being one of the more vocal teambuilders from the US West crew. I wanted to run something fast and disruptive this week, and quickly found myself looking at a core of Roaring Moon + Hearthflame Ogerpon + Landorus-I, as I felt like the fast offense, high damage output, and utility from Roaring Moon formed a really oppressive core. But in testing I just could not get it to come together at all. Kunal and I took like a day or two break from building and regrouped on something entirely different.
I tested a funny hard Trick Room team that was winning a lot of test games, like a criminal amount. However, I think the team had to take some risky lines vs Gholdengo that I was hesitant about reproducing in tournament. When I decided I wanted to play something more semiroom focused, Kunal told me to hit up srvoltmike for some advice on the archetype, and to my surprise mike was more than willing to help me with all sorts of feedback on the paste I showed him and some other notes as well. Taking his feedback into account, this was the team I settled on.
Well, Sinistcha + Moltres is a matchup you never really want to see with Bronzong + Ursaluna, but I knew I was just going to have to play a really smart game. I was hoping to bait Tera Fairy from what I assumed was a Specs Ghold turn 1, and the damage on Incineroar reveals I was correct, but no dice on wasting the tera early. Turn 3 I play passively, expecting a Fake Out onto my Raging Bolt that turned into a really annoying critical hit Flare Blitz onto my Wellspring. I was pretty mentally defeated after this turn. I spent the next few turns scrambling for position and getting owned, finally being able to set Trick Room at the expense of my tera. I knew I had to call which slot the Sinistcha was coming in to and not give up any free KOs this turn, and I decided that really, the only way I had a chance of winning the game was if I found a kill on the Ursaluna this turn. I get exactly that, and this gave me remaining material enough room to close out victory from the jaws of defeat.
Week 8 vs Feyy | Replay
Nicknames are from Donald Byrd's Places and Spaces album
Another player I've only fought once before, in OSDT III semifinals. I was pretty excited for the chance of a getback vs Feyy, but they had clearly gotten into a sharper form than the first few weeks of games gave the impression of. I was pretty set on using the same Dragon Dance Gouging Fire idea Hasayo and Nails ran into Feyy week 1, I figured it was something they'd never expect to happen twice. Well, all the initial builds of this team sucked. Every single game I found myself telling Kunal, x and y components feel good, but these slots did nothing. We revised the team several times before I finally just agreed to play some games with the actual Nails six. I hated it!!! I did not like Torkoal Lilligant at all, and Farigiraf felt like such a swingy pick, but I actually really did like Brute Bonnet.
Kunal also mentioned that he thought Incineroar would be nice to have, but I kept shutting him down because I felt like there was no way to work him into the Earthquake idea efficiently. That was until...I decided to put Protect on him. This was actually super clutch in tests. Gholdengo rounded out the team as a Diancie check. Initially it was Choice Specs, but I liked going with a Nasty Plot Tera Fairy set to have some pressure on Roaring Moon and the freedom to switch moves.
I felt like the matchup I rolled was pretty okay, maybe slightly favored. I spent a lot of time on turn 1 trying to weigh the odds of if I could win the game if I tera'd my Gouging Fire into an Earth Power turn 1 or 2, and then I realized that Earth Power actually does no damage if I just switch in my Landorus. The Bleakwind Speed drops were nice but not super impactful, but the real jackpot on this turn was getting the Landorus to burn its tera. Now it could be hit by Earthquake and I wouldn't have to worry about a tera from Iron Crown. This game was going absolutely swimmingly for me until Feyy manages to set Trick Room next to the Special Attacker booster Iron Crown that just so happened to reveal Substitute on my Protect + Incineroar switch. Thankfully, I live the Helping Hand Expanding Force after a Parting Shot, and I'm able to break Iron Crown's Substitute. From here it's just really difficult to close out for Feyy, and Landorus wraps things up.
Week 9 vs eragon | Replay
Nicknames are from 2hollis's White Tiger album
I was really hoping to play SEA this week. I thought it'd be quite symbolic of all our time together as friends on this site to play. However, instead I was fighting eragon, which was honestly quite terrifying. Genuinely cannot think of a worse opponent to play in this scenario. He's played 1 game in this tournament, is already guaranteed to make the playoffs, is no slouch of a player in his own right, and has an entire army of teambuilder friends who all want him to be the one to stop me from completing The Run.
This week kind of sucked from the builder. I was just done. I couldn't figure out how to deal with some pretty common cores anymore, and it was pretty obvious I was really in the burnout period now. But the job wasn't finished. Like halfway through the week I had some absolute bullshit in the teambuilder and messaged Kunal asking to test it out. We concluded from the tests that we definitely had something here. Booster Special Attack Raging Bolt is just an absolute menace at +1, and I thought with double Tailwind support and Comfey healing it would be nearly impossible to take down. I decided to change from something closer to the paste linked a few sentences ago to the final product like a day before the game, as I wanted to use more consistent Pokemon like Tornadus and Incineroar.
I got called out by the matchup. We knew Diancie was gonna be coming this week, it just made too much sense when looking at US West's preferences versus my own picks. But CressLax?? Oh brother. I had selected Taunt Covert Cloak Tornadus specifically because I figured it could be a lifeline vs something like this, but then it revealed Mental Herb. Well fuck me I guess. However, I found a turn where I could throw an attack in the Snorlax for a kill if my Raging Bolt didn't die this turn, and miraculously, I hit skip turn and my Raging Bolt was still standing. Choke, misclick, whatever it was, I definitely didn't deserve this one but the results screen says I won. Job was finished.
I didn't make the playoffs despite going 9-0 because we had several underperformances on the team. Not everyone can play their best tour every tour but damn that shit sucked. But honestly, after what I went through in week 9, and I wasn't too upset about not playing more Pokemon. Finally, after years of flops, I proved to everyone, including, most importantly, myself, that I could hang in this tournament.
I don't have a lot of shoutouts. Kunal was my absolute lifeline during this tournament, his help with scouts, tests, and just being a competent voice in my corner was surely a huge contributor to this run. bagel, SEA, and Akaru were people I tested with pretty frequently, so shoutouts to them as well. If you ask me what the three biggest things I personally did to get better results this year, I spent more time in the calc, I was thinking through the paths in more detail, and I used teams with strong Pokemon that could generally afford to whiff a turn or two and still be in the game. I have worms in my brain and the fact that I'm still 12-13 on The Sheet means I have to play another one of these and try to get to at least a neutral record, so I'll see you for maybe one final SCL next year. Adieu.
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