Classics is one of my favorite tournaments of the year. I get to assemble an army of friends and strong players and play it out in a bunch of old formats that I have ancient oldhead wisdom in. This year the tournament featured a lot of formats I wasn't particularly familiar with. I started playing in 2015, so having 3/8 of the slots taken up by formats that I didn't have veteran experience in was a little daunting, but also exciting. In the end I took a pretty big role in these formats, as I started by playing 2014 and sent my good buddy BigMikeOG to the 09 mines. We would swap at the midseason, but I'll be covering the 2009 teams I built for Mike as well.
To make this report easier on myself I won't be linking replays, but you can find all my replays within the forum or the spreadsheet.
Week 1
2014: I tried to fiddle around in the builder to come up with something that would maybe give me a semblance of an XY Doubles OU team but ended up drawing a pretty big blank. Thankfully Edu and Kenan provided some cool teams and I also had a wealth of nugget bridge articles to peruse for inspiration. In the end I loaded up Edu's Mega Tyranitar team with a few changes, though since it's mostly his team I won't be posting a paste.
I was paired against Braverius who loaded Randy Kwa's KhanArtist + Blastoise team into me. I lead Talonflame + Tyranitar game 1 to break Smeargle's Sash, but I found myself worried about Zach going for a potential Helping Hand + Water Spout play, so I Brave Birded the Blastoise. This however, was incorrect. Ultimately I lose too much material to stay in the game. Game two Zach smartly calls my double Protect and side PuPs himself to put me on the backfoot again. However, a burned Kangaskhan sets me up for a late game clutch, despite some unfortunate Crits. Game three I manage to down the Smeargle early and am left with a call of who to double up into on turn 3. I picked wrong, but my Tyranitar flinches Zach's, turning a pretty tight game into an instant game over. 1-0
2009: My knowledge of 2009 was pretty much just watching the 2009 nationals finals PBR footage on youtube sometime around a decade ago, which I remember distinctly because I tried to make Azelf work at my VGC 2015 locals because of it. Anyway, a brief study session on the format gave me an image of lots of Zapdos/Garchomp, Infernape, and Psychics. I built this team for Big Mike and he piloted it perfectly. Infernape and Latios act as a fast mode meant to take a quick kill and leave the opponent scrambling to grab their bearings, then having the rug pulled out from under them with the ZongRhyp mode. Togekiss and Abomasnow work as adjustment options.
(For this team and all following teams, if you click the sprites you can get my paste!)
Week 2
2014: With a win under my belt I felt pretty good and wanted to try building something for this week. I ended up deciding on Mega Gengar + Talonflame because I loved playing Shadow Tag + CB Talon in XY DOU and figured it would transfer decently well. I added rain, broken aegislash, and Liepard for Encore Disable to round out the squad.
Game 1 I got a perfect trap setup but got ran down by David's backs, not considering the Talonflame would have and use Protect set me back quite a bit. Game 2 I managed to 2v4 with Aegislash and Politoed to clutch up what seemed like a disaster game, but in g3 David calls me on the crucial King's Shield vs Attack turn to win the set. 1-1.
2009: I was pleased with how ZongRhyp performed in week 1 and figured it would still be strong into oops, who was likely not as accustomed to fighting teams crafted by someone from the DOU side of the DPP double battles coin. This team decided to give more options to the fast mode, with Gengar to catch a potential Smeargle or hard TR lead, and Zapdos and Scarf Latios for some special firepower for subsequent game adjustments.
Week 3
2014: Mancuso had certainly humbled my confidence in building, but I was quite intrigued by Kenan's suggestion to play a bulkier more defensive oriented team, so we iterated on Ben Kyriakou's 2014 Worlds team.
Going into preview I breathed a sigh of relief for how good my Charizard-Y matchup was, and then I realized it was Charizard-X. I didn't have a Tyranitar to just safely throw Rock Slides at this guy or a rain mode to weaken its output, so a lot of this match was going to come down to how well I could control it using my double Intimidates. Game 1 I felt like I did that pretty well but I couldn't beat the Azumarill hiding in the back, game 2 I told myself that I had to respect both the boosters and pulled off a win. Game 3 I missed a couple moves to set me behind but Chase also just called me on some crucial turns. Well played to him. 1-2
2009: This week Mike was up against our good buddy Bagel. I know Bagel has a better idea of how to catch opponents' tendencies given his history in team tournaments, so I decided to veer off the ZongRhyp for this week and take the building in a bit of a different direction. Thank god I did too, because Mike rolled up into a pretty obvious mono-don't-lose-to-Rhyperior team with Clamperl and Parasect. Instead, the team we focused on utilized the speed and power of Life Orb Heatran and Scarf Abomasnow having a lot of good type coverage into the format, rounded out with CM Suicune to do better into Metagross or ZongRhyp if needed and Machamp to pummel Snorlax. Apparently Kangaskhan was unranked on the Poketopia VR before this tour but I was and still am quite pleased with it, though in this instance it was primarily a response to all the Gengars that got loaded in week 2. One of those fun things you get to see in a tour where the meta evolves weekly!
Week 4
2009: Given my 1-2 in 14 and BigMike's dominance in all aspects of life I decided to swap formats with him. Mike would end up loading the Edu Mega Tyranitar team this week so I only had to worry about my slot. I had no idea who Prof.Fluffy was, there was a rumor in the Poketopia discord that it was Duy, but I ended up finding Prof.Fluffy's Twitter some time after the match which unconfirmed this. Anyways, I really liked the Kang Cress comp and decided to iterate on it further this week. I kind of got the idea to jam ZongRhyp into it and run a Cress + Zong SemiRoom. So I did. For my sanity, I am going to decline to comment on the actual match I played this week. 2-2.
Week 5
2014: By this point we were not only locked into playoffs but also first seed, so we decided to have some fun this week and force KhanArtist for this week since we are in fact the Smeargles. I built this team like an hour before the game. It could maybe use some more Amoonguss counterplay but I think it's overall pretty decent.
2009: On the other hand, I was quite interested in winning my game and being a tryhard about it. Mosquito was someone who I had really come to respect as I spent more time in Poketopia and got to spend some time around him, and I knew this would not be an easy game. I saw some matches of him using Smeargle, and he also Smeargle'd me in a 2010 friendly match we played, so I decided to hit him with max speed Safeguard Cress, with Twave and Swagger for maximum evil (but also SafeSwag on my guys). This team worked super well, game 2 was a lot more contentious but in the end he couldn't find the kill on my Snorlax or Cresselia so I emerged victorious. 3-2.
Semis
2013: BigMike once again decided to load EduTar so I didn't have to worry about that slot. However, Edu himself had a pretty busy week this week and I found myself playing about 30 games of the 2013 spotlight ladder since it was all the rage in the Poketopia discord. I ended up giving Edu my Gastrodon team and he made it look incredible. I shared this in Poketopia already, but if you didn't see:
2009: I felt like I was in a bit of a rough spot this week, I had run out of ideas and I lost my good friend bagel as a test buddy, since he and I had played a match every week (week 3 being the obvious exception) and it was a great way to get a vibe check on the team. And I was absolutely right about the bit about exploiting tendencies, as I found myself staring down an Empoleon that was faster than my Metagross and pretty much unbreakable for my team, sending me to 3-3 in a pretty anticlimactic final game for me in this tour.
Final Thoughts
In some sort of sick and twisted form of irony, those 3 formats I mentioned in the start ended up being the ones where my presence landed in the most. There were a couple other slots here and there where I passed a team or made a rec but I don't feel as responsible and the teams aren't that exciting anyways. I must admit, I was quite skeptical 2009 would be a good fit for this tour when it was suggested, but between Poketopia, a couple boomers, and the DPP DOU players, we ended up having a pretty competitive field. It was also fun to dip my toes into some 13 and 14, and I hope to spend some more time between now and the next classics learning more about these metagames.
As for shoutouts, I have to thank my team, it was of course a really fun ride even if we couldn't convert the regular season into a playoffs victory. Additionally, the Poketopia discord has been a great place to hangout during this tour, the love you guys have for these formats is really infectious. Finally a quick shoutout to bagel again for all the 09 test games, felt like a nice substitute for DOU especially since I was cruelly robbed by !pick of playing you in cup.
See y'all next time!
To make this report easier on myself I won't be linking replays, but you can find all my replays within the forum or the spreadsheet.
Week 1
2014: I tried to fiddle around in the builder to come up with something that would maybe give me a semblance of an XY Doubles OU team but ended up drawing a pretty big blank. Thankfully Edu and Kenan provided some cool teams and I also had a wealth of nugget bridge articles to peruse for inspiration. In the end I loaded up Edu's Mega Tyranitar team with a few changes, though since it's mostly his team I won't be posting a paste.
I was paired against Braverius who loaded Randy Kwa's KhanArtist + Blastoise team into me. I lead Talonflame + Tyranitar game 1 to break Smeargle's Sash, but I found myself worried about Zach going for a potential Helping Hand + Water Spout play, so I Brave Birded the Blastoise. This however, was incorrect. Ultimately I lose too much material to stay in the game. Game two Zach smartly calls my double Protect and side PuPs himself to put me on the backfoot again. However, a burned Kangaskhan sets me up for a late game clutch, despite some unfortunate Crits. Game three I manage to down the Smeargle early and am left with a call of who to double up into on turn 3. I picked wrong, but my Tyranitar flinches Zach's, turning a pretty tight game into an instant game over. 1-0
2009: My knowledge of 2009 was pretty much just watching the 2009 nationals finals PBR footage on youtube sometime around a decade ago, which I remember distinctly because I tried to make Azelf work at my VGC 2015 locals because of it. Anyway, a brief study session on the format gave me an image of lots of Zapdos/Garchomp, Infernape, and Psychics. I built this team for Big Mike and he piloted it perfectly. Infernape and Latios act as a fast mode meant to take a quick kill and leave the opponent scrambling to grab their bearings, then having the rug pulled out from under them with the ZongRhyp mode. Togekiss and Abomasnow work as adjustment options.
(For this team and all following teams, if you click the sprites you can get my paste!)Week 2
2014: With a win under my belt I felt pretty good and wanted to try building something for this week. I ended up deciding on Mega Gengar + Talonflame because I loved playing Shadow Tag + CB Talon in XY DOU and figured it would transfer decently well. I added rain, broken aegislash, and Liepard for Encore Disable to round out the squad.
Game 1 I got a perfect trap setup but got ran down by David's backs, not considering the Talonflame would have and use Protect set me back quite a bit. Game 2 I managed to 2v4 with Aegislash and Politoed to clutch up what seemed like a disaster game, but in g3 David calls me on the crucial King's Shield vs Attack turn to win the set. 1-1.
2009: I was pleased with how ZongRhyp performed in week 1 and figured it would still be strong into oops, who was likely not as accustomed to fighting teams crafted by someone from the DOU side of the DPP double battles coin. This team decided to give more options to the fast mode, with Gengar to catch a potential Smeargle or hard TR lead, and Zapdos and Scarf Latios for some special firepower for subsequent game adjustments.
Week 3
2014: Mancuso had certainly humbled my confidence in building, but I was quite intrigued by Kenan's suggestion to play a bulkier more defensive oriented team, so we iterated on Ben Kyriakou's 2014 Worlds team.
Going into preview I breathed a sigh of relief for how good my Charizard-Y matchup was, and then I realized it was Charizard-X. I didn't have a Tyranitar to just safely throw Rock Slides at this guy or a rain mode to weaken its output, so a lot of this match was going to come down to how well I could control it using my double Intimidates. Game 1 I felt like I did that pretty well but I couldn't beat the Azumarill hiding in the back, game 2 I told myself that I had to respect both the boosters and pulled off a win. Game 3 I missed a couple moves to set me behind but Chase also just called me on some crucial turns. Well played to him. 1-2
2009: This week Mike was up against our good buddy Bagel. I know Bagel has a better idea of how to catch opponents' tendencies given his history in team tournaments, so I decided to veer off the ZongRhyp for this week and take the building in a bit of a different direction. Thank god I did too, because Mike rolled up into a pretty obvious mono-don't-lose-to-Rhyperior team with Clamperl and Parasect. Instead, the team we focused on utilized the speed and power of Life Orb Heatran and Scarf Abomasnow having a lot of good type coverage into the format, rounded out with CM Suicune to do better into Metagross or ZongRhyp if needed and Machamp to pummel Snorlax. Apparently Kangaskhan was unranked on the Poketopia VR before this tour but I was and still am quite pleased with it, though in this instance it was primarily a response to all the Gengars that got loaded in week 2. One of those fun things you get to see in a tour where the meta evolves weekly!
Week 4
2009: Given my 1-2 in 14 and BigMike's dominance in all aspects of life I decided to swap formats with him. Mike would end up loading the Edu Mega Tyranitar team this week so I only had to worry about my slot. I had no idea who Prof.Fluffy was, there was a rumor in the Poketopia discord that it was Duy, but I ended up finding Prof.Fluffy's Twitter some time after the match which unconfirmed this. Anyways, I really liked the Kang Cress comp and decided to iterate on it further this week. I kind of got the idea to jam ZongRhyp into it and run a Cress + Zong SemiRoom. So I did. For my sanity, I am going to decline to comment on the actual match I played this week. 2-2.
Week 5
2014: By this point we were not only locked into playoffs but also first seed, so we decided to have some fun this week and force KhanArtist for this week since we are in fact the Smeargles. I built this team like an hour before the game. It could maybe use some more Amoonguss counterplay but I think it's overall pretty decent.
2009: On the other hand, I was quite interested in winning my game and being a tryhard about it. Mosquito was someone who I had really come to respect as I spent more time in Poketopia and got to spend some time around him, and I knew this would not be an easy game. I saw some matches of him using Smeargle, and he also Smeargle'd me in a 2010 friendly match we played, so I decided to hit him with max speed Safeguard Cress, with Twave and Swagger for maximum evil (but also SafeSwag on my guys). This team worked super well, game 2 was a lot more contentious but in the end he couldn't find the kill on my Snorlax or Cresselia so I emerged victorious. 3-2.
Semis
2013: BigMike once again decided to load EduTar so I didn't have to worry about that slot. However, Edu himself had a pretty busy week this week and I found myself playing about 30 games of the 2013 spotlight ladder since it was all the rage in the Poketopia discord. I ended up giving Edu my Gastrodon team and he made it look incredible. I shared this in Poketopia already, but if you didn't see:
2009: I felt like I was in a bit of a rough spot this week, I had run out of ideas and I lost my good friend bagel as a test buddy, since he and I had played a match every week (week 3 being the obvious exception) and it was a great way to get a vibe check on the team. And I was absolutely right about the bit about exploiting tendencies, as I found myself staring down an Empoleon that was faster than my Metagross and pretty much unbreakable for my team, sending me to 3-3 in a pretty anticlimactic final game for me in this tour.
Final Thoughts
In some sort of sick and twisted form of irony, those 3 formats I mentioned in the start ended up being the ones where my presence landed in the most. There were a couple other slots here and there where I passed a team or made a rec but I don't feel as responsible and the teams aren't that exciting anyways. I must admit, I was quite skeptical 2009 would be a good fit for this tour when it was suggested, but between Poketopia, a couple boomers, and the DPP DOU players, we ended up having a pretty competitive field. It was also fun to dip my toes into some 13 and 14, and I hope to spend some more time between now and the next classics learning more about these metagames.
As for shoutouts, I have to thank my team, it was of course a really fun ride even if we couldn't convert the regular season into a playoffs victory. Additionally, the Poketopia discord has been a great place to hangout during this tour, the love you guys have for these formats is really infectious. Finally a quick shoutout to bagel again for all the 09 test games, felt like a nice substitute for DOU especially since I was cruelly robbed by !pick of playing you in cup.
See y'all next time!
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