Big shoutouts to everyone on Bouffalants, we had a great season - this tour was a very enjoyable experience for me to pick up DPP UU again, and we had a really great run as a team. I also have to give specifically shoutouts to
Bouff,
BKC, and
Ark who all helped me tremendously with building the teams during the entire season, as well as always being available for test games.
Week 1 vs mael (W)
This team was built with esche in mind, who was subbed out last minute. Because this was week 1, there we no replays from this tour to go by yet but we looked at a couple of replays and Rhyperior seemed good vs most of their teams with enough paralysis support. I built a bunch of versions of this team but we ended up settling on this one: Sub Rhyperior + Sub Azumarill are both super threatening with some para support (and of course without as well) and also provide some defensive utility. There was not as much paralysis as originally planned but Slowking and Clefable can spread it and form a formidable defensive core with Torterra. Finally, I have one of my favourite sets with Scarf Mesprit, which has a lot of utility: revenge kills against offense, Tricks against fat, gives me momentum turn 1, and Healing Wish allows me to play a lot more liberally with Rhyperior and Azumarill which helped a lot during the game.
Week 2 vs atomicllamas (W)
This team wasn't really prepped for llamas specifically as much, but it was something I wanted to build and seemed to fit well for this week. I wanted to combine the ideas of: Kangaskhan + Dugtrio, as the only types that resist Scrappy Normal moves are Rock and Steel; Kangaskhan balance, as it seemed like a nice fit as the main threat for a fatter team; and Dugtrio balance, where you wear down the opponent's team into range for Dugtrio to pick stuff off where needed. The team was pretty straightforward to build from these ideas and ended up like this. SpDef Venu might be the most interesting set there, which is honestly a great tank. Also Sleep + Dugtrio is kinda broken.
Week 3 vs TSR (L)
So for this week I think I didn't have a ton of time cause I went for a more standard-ish team style that I knew from way back when I last played (like 2015-2016). I was pretty happy with my teams for the first two weeks, but I figured I should change it up to something a bit more offensive as well, and I found Scyther / Swellow + Leafeon + Dugtrio to always be super reliable. From there on it's pretty standard, I went with Houndoom + Kabu to be able to trap Rotom and Mismagius mainly. I was a bit worried about using the third pixie lead in a row, which I indeed got punished with. (Also Dug is kinda useless vs Shed Shell Regi, of course)
Week 4 vs Leru (W)
I actually had other ideas for this week, but didn't get quite get them to work. I had the random idea to build a Specs Altaria + spikestack team,
and threw six mons together. BKC suggested Clef > Altaria which was a great change for this iteration, and this team did great in testing so I went with this. What I specifically focused on for Leru was keeping Venusaur as a threat. His teams so far had been pretty weak to it in my view, so I wanted it both as just one of the best goodstuff mons in the tier, and as a solid wincon - which paid off in the end. This team is a bit weak to CM Clef, but it is managable with Encore Clef and backup sleep and boom.
Week 5 vs Eternal Spirit (L)
We noticed that at this point in the tour, Gama was spamming Registeel hard: bringing it every single game, even leading with it twice. On the other hand, I think I must have been the only one to not bring it in a single game so far, as it was at like 75% usage or something. I don't remember who had the idea but someone brought up the idea to use Sub Moltres as lead to get a free Sub up if so possible, and can cripple whatever comes in with Toxic. I also brought SubCM Uxie as it seemed very good against his teams so far, if I am able to somehow cripple Registeel for example by burning it with Rotom. They also work nicely together, as if I can toxic Milotic with Moltres then SubCM Uxie can't be stopped by Haze Milo - on the other hand, if it's Refresh it sets up on it. I added Registeel for defensive utility and also to not get too predictable and abusable with my non-usage of it. A spinner is a requirement, and Toxic Hitmontop is just so good and works well here. SubPunch Azu rounds out the team as it's just amazing.
Week 6 vs MrAldo (W)
I remember that we wanted to bring spikestack offense for this game cause 1) it's really good, 2) it matched up nicely vs Aldo's teams so far, 3) from my point of view it seemed like Aldo was newer to DPP and this seemed like a good way to try to take advantage of that, 4) I hadn't brought it yet. Ark suggested Sceptile for this team, BKC suggested to use Specs Sceptile. God this mon is scary, fast and crazy powerful. SubNP Missy is so fucking good too, both spinblocks and just sweeps too many teams that do not have enough checks for it. Double Fighting is crazy strong, I originally had SD Croak but shoutouts to BKC and Bouff for making me change to NP. Band Azu is ridiculously strong and helps me beat down fatter teams with Spikes and Waterfall / Return, and pick off faster threats with Aqua Jet.
Week 7 vs Heysup (W)
So this week didn't matter for us, as we were qualified regardless of result. I wanted to build something fun with Monferno / Nidoking / Glaceon, but in the end I didn't spend the time on it so I went with this team I already had and I used a bunch during the RoA Olympics tour, with some small changes. This team is just super offensively focused with not a lot of defensive utility, but its goal is clear: U-turn with Primeape (or Mesprit) out of their Ghost switchin, trap it with Houndoom, and go to town with the bull.
Semifinals vs Thiago Nunes (W)
For this game I really wanted to bring Venu + Dug, I think it's good in general but for this game especially. Thiago's Venu checks (and Leru's before him) have all been trappable by Dug: think Drapion, Arcanine, Registeel, etc. I went with Scyther as it is a great threat too vs those teams with the same mons trapped, and allows Dugtrio to come in freely. Kabutops is the best spinner on these kind of teams in my view (although we also experimented with a bulkier spinner eg Blastoise + Regirock), and Registeel provides much needed defensive pivoting and doesn't give away momentum too much thanks to Thunder Wave. I was messing around with some pixie sets in the last slot, but Ark suggested ChestoRest Uxie which worked out amazing and was the perfect addition to the team, as it is another mon that abuses Registeel removal and can wear it down in case of Shed Shell or something along those lines.
Finals vs Eternal Spirit (W)
We had a lot of ideas for the finals game, but this was the one that we ended up bringing. Gama used a lot more crazy shit as the tour went on (Jumpluff, Drifblim, Cacturne) as well as a lot of Entei, so we had the be prepared for both. BKC suggested Roar Arcanine + Spikes balance, which works nicely for checking random shit as well as Entei, and is also a big threat on its own with the right conditions. In essence, this team is somewhat similar to the one I brought in week 4, but with a different spinner, spinblocker, etc. I had a couple of iterations of this team, but ended up changing later in the week to this version, bringing back the Specs Altaria that I dropped in week 4. The downside of this version is a weakness to Ice coverage on Water-type mons, as you have to rely on Qwilfish to handle it, but after the semifinals game we didn't expect them to bring rain and something like a single Milotic is managable.
Feel free to hit me up for any questions or comments about any of the teams, or anything DPP UU related.
