Tournaments Smogon Premier League IX: DPP OU Discussion

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Hey, with SPL9 starting soon, this thread will be used to discuss DPP related topics, whether it's about the players, general metagame trends, matches, predictions and so on. This thread will be updated frequently with each new week, player standings, and replays.

SPL Schedule
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Potential DPPers (likely starters are in italics):
Circus Maximus Tigers: Tamahome
Indie Scooters: boudouche, Ojama, Go10
Team Raiders: roscoe, Jirachee, BKC, 6A9 Ace Matador, Mael
Ever Grande BIGS: Honor, Eo Ut Mortus
Starks Sharks: ToF, deluks917, Kevin Garrett, Smurf
Wi-Fi Wolfpack: Void, Nails
Cryonicles: aim
Dragonspiral Tyrants: Bluewind, badabing, JabbatheGriffin
Alpha Ruiners: We Three Kings, jacob, Gilbert arenas, undisputed
Congregation of the Classiest: NightFox, Jimmy Turtwig

Week 2 Matchups:
NightFox vs ToF
roscoe vs We Three Kings
Honor vs Bluewind
Boudouche vs Void
Tamahome vs aim


Power Rankings:
http://www.smogon.com/articles/spl9-power-rankings
Player Standings: Soon™

So rey asked me to help power rank which gave me the idea of putting this up, just because discussion is a nice thing to have.

I think the obvious top 3 here are Tamahome, ToF and roscoe. The three of them are just extremely far ahead of the competition in terms of skill level, team creativity, past records to keep up, support...you name it. I don't think I need to write an essay about why Tamahome is one of the greatest players of all time but I do want to point out that the DPP pool looks weaker this year and so a player of Tama's caliber should have no issues with going positive.

Between Jirachee, BKC, AM and mael, roscoe has a simply absurd amount of support behind him. Seeing any of those four in DPP once or twice would not be too surprising imo. Still roscoe should be able to equal (or better) his record from last time around.

ToF is just consistent and good - people rag on him for being dated but he always shows up and puts up good records. deluks is also extremely capable to the point where it kills me to see him playing second fiddle but yeah his input will probably be clutch in helping ToF keep his teams up to date and whatnot. I imagine all of MDrag / KG / Smurf will be able to chip in on that front as well, and while ToF doesn't have the absurd level of support that roscoe has, it should prove to be more than enough to let him focus on winning his games.

After the top 3 I think there is a noticeable drop off, and the next five players all fall into the good but not out and out stellar category.

Void and Honor had absurdly solid performances last World Cup, both ending undefeated from 5 and 4 games respectively. People criticised Void for jacking other people's teams though, which might prove to be an issue down the line if it can be exploited. Honor's offensive style can be a little hit or miss.

aim always does well in high level tournaments, though, and even though he has no visible DPP support on his team I don't see that slowing him down.

NightFox has been one of those under the radar players for a while. Like Honor, his style can be hit or miss sometimes, though. He has JT for support though, so he should be able to put up some wins somewhere along the line.

Moxie does have a good amount of support on his team - undis and marcop are both proven DPPers who can support him with teams, and either of them could rotate into DPP if necessary. I think the first few weeks will be make or break for him to see whether he acclimatises to DPP or has to rotate out.

I'm not sure what to think about Bluewind. That said, one doesn't make finals of Smogon Tour without knowing what they're doing, so I'm going to assume that even after accounting for rust he's reasonably competent at the game.
 
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MANNAT

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Sample Set:
Machamp (M) @ Focus Sash / Custap Berry / Lum Berry
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 16 HP / 252 Atk / 240 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dynamic Punch
- Payback
- Ice Punch / Stone Edge
- Bullet Punch

Machamp leads have been running amok so far this year in DPP. Machamp is a fantastic lead, having solid natural bulk and being able to disrupt the rhythm of opposing teams with Dynamic Punch while still being able to smack Ghost-types with Payback. Ice Punch and Stone Edge make excellent coverage moves vs opposing Flying-types. This thing is an absolute savage because Dynamic Punch can completely throw the opponent off rhythm and the 50% chance can end up screwing them over and more times than not forcing switches. Additionally, Custap Berry can be a really cool tech that can check key threats like DD Gyarados, Scarf Flygon, DD Tyranitar, Agility Zapdos, Agility Empoleon, and many others in the late game if you save it for later or just serve to smack something super hard at the start of the patch. This thing is one of the most potent leads in the current metagame and has showed off its prowess quite well so far this SPL, having a 3-0 record in week 1.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-339773 - In this game, Machamp serves to take down the opposing Zapdos, showcasing how good Dynamic Punch is, which ends up being very good for him because Electric/Ice/Fire Zapdos can actually be very threatening to his team. Following taking down Zapdos, Machamp uses its respectable natural bulk and shaves off half of Starmie's HP for Flygon to threaten it out with U-turn and maintains offensive momentum for Moxie that carries through the ends of the game until he eventually wins.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-339609 - In this game, Machamp serves to severely weaken Bluewind's team, eliminating Skarmory and Tentacruel altogether while also putting him in a position in which he could immediately get up rocks and Bluewind could never come back from the early lead that Machamp gave Nightfox, eventually losing 4-0 in commanding fashion following the incredible advantage given early.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-339993 - Another game where a Machamp lead decimates the opposing team and leaves room for the other threats on the team to put in work. Machamp weakening everything for Kingdra/Flygon was key to Cress winning in the end because ToF ended up sacking his Tar to Kingdra as a result of his usual Kingdra checks being so low.

Conclusion: Machamp is a really good lead that can generate huge advantages and momentum for its player in the early game and the leads that it consistently produces early on can be difficult to come back from.
 
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Alright, Week 2 is up!

NightFox (Classiest) vs ToF (Sharks)
roscoe (Raiders) vs We Three Kings (Ruiners)
Honor (Bigs) vs Bluewind (Tyrants)
Boudouche (Scooters) vs Void (Wolfpack)
Tamahome (Tigres) vs aim (Cryos)
 
This is my longest post on Smogon in 7 years, I hope someone reads this

Honor vs Roscoe https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-339935
Honor's Team - Tyranitar/Bronzong/Zapdos/Starmie/Jirachi/(?) (I'd assume his last is something to switch-in against Blissey or a scarfer)
Custap Lead Ttar, SR Zong, Non-subs Toxic/Discharge Zapdos, Superachi, Standard Starmie

Roscoe's Team - Heatran/Celebi/Starmie/Gliscor/Tyranitar/Jirachi
Tran(?), SR Non-Twave Celebi, Reflect Starmie, Band Ttar, Scarf Rachi, Spdef invested Gliscor(?)

I like Roscoe's team a lot, you don't see this type of sands/bulky teams with gliscor anymore (unban sand veil please) but this type of teams generally have a big weakness against bulky sweepers like Jirachi or Cune. Gliscor getting burned on Turn 8 also contributed to the fact he lost pretty heavily to Superachi. Honor's Team has a more standard aproach, I just feel that his team is super weak against classic Blissey stall, and the fact his Zapdos doesn't have Subs support this (I assumed he did not have Subs because otherwise he would probally use against Celebi in turns 12 and 13).
Turn 3 gave a big advantage to Honor, some could argue Roscoe should play Starmie instead of Tran (maybe starmie had dual screens instead of recover?). Band Ttar had a pretty good matchup in this game but after burning Gliscor and wasting Jirachi's Trick, Honor's Jirachi just carried the game.

Boudouche vs Aim https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-339065

Boudouche's Team - Bronzong/Cresselia/Kingdra/Qwilfish/Heracross/Metagross
Rain Dance SR Zong, Lunar Rain Dance Cress, Specs Kingdra, LO Qwilfish, Band Heracross, Agility Gross(?)

Aim's Team - Skarmory/Breloom/Gyarados/Scizor/Jolteon/Infernape
Standard Skarmory(maybe a fast version?), Mach Punch Breloom, CB Gyarados, Lefties SD Scizor, NonSpecs Jolteon, Scarf/EB Nape(?)

A really creative team by Boudouche (note that creative is generally used as a pejorative word, but that was not the case!). Rain Teams normally have a good matchup against offensive teams, especially the ones with bad water resists. Heracross main job is to absorb Breloom apparently (even though I personally dislike this because you have so much momentum that you don't really need to spend a slot for that with a not-so-great Pokémon, you could've easily played Qwifilsh/Cress or a Ludicolo for example instead of Hera in Turn 8).
Don't know if Aim could've played differently in this game (maybe Scizor on Turn 11, unlikely HP Fire there) but if Scizor had ATK investments, Bullet Punch would be the winning play on turn 17 (CC Nape would KO Metagross on the Next Turn). Nice Refreshing game to watch, Rain Teams are always fun.

Tamahome vs ToF https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-339993
Tamahome's Team - Machamp/Magnezone/Kingdra/Flygon/Bronzong/Cresselia
Lead Machamp, Endure Zone, Lum DDKingdra, Scarf Flygon(?), Occa SR Zong, CM Cress

ToF's Team - Zapdos/Swampert/Forretress/Blissey/Tyranitar/Dugtrio
Defensive Zapdos, SR Protect Swampert, Spikes Forry, Ice Beam Blissey, Tyranitar(?), Sash(?) Trio

Interesting team by Tamahome, both Kingdra and Cresselia work as his Win Conditions while having the Zone support for Skarm/Scizor, Occa Brozong for opposing Heatran and Machamp Lead which weakens Bulky Teams. Not a common type of team but he has used Cresselia Teams with success multiple times before. ToF brought a Semi-Stall team with dugtrio and forretress but couldn't make it work, ended up with a very bad matchup. I think if he knew Tama had a CM Cress he would Softboiled on turn 16 and keep Blissey alive but I'm pretty sure he thought Blissey was a Dead Weight against a Zone/Machamp/Flygon team and killing Flygon would be better because Zapdos and Swampert were low. Kingdra proving to be a very dangerous poké as always doing the necessary damage and killing Ttar and opening the way to Cresselia. ToF could've made a switch on Turn 27 to keep Zapdos alive and potentially wall the last poké, but that was a guessing game.

Nightfox vs Bluewind https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-339609
Nightfox's Team - Machamp/Tyranitar/Breloom/Gyarados/Jirachi/(?)
Lead Machamp, SR Ttar, Mach Punch Breloom, Lefties Gyarados, Mixed Rachi

Bluewind's Team - Flygon/Skarmory/Tentacruel/Rotom/Tyranitar/Raikou
Flygon(?), Standard Skarm, (Standard?)Tenta, Protect WoW Rotom-A, Ttar(?), HP Ice Raikou

My fellow countryman Bluewind coming back to play dpp with his LA named Team (shoutout to Soto boss) against a player who is well known in Brazil for being the only player who won not only once, but two times against myself in the biggest tournament in Brazil.
Machamp had a gigantic impact in this game, staying alive 9 turns, revealing 4 pokes and killing 2 of those. Bluewind should either Brave Bird on turn 4 or play Tentacruel instantly on Turn 2. At this point is really hard to comeback especially using a defensive based team. He got unlucky again on turn 11 revealing his cool Protect/WoW set. Not sure about how good his team really is, but it's very hard to make Tentacruel Teams work, especially outside Hail and Raikou is not the most consistent Poké. Nightfox's team is pretty standard for him with Ttar + at least 2 Fighting pokes, not sure what his last is though.

We Three Kings vs Void https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-339773
We Three King's Team - Machamp/Breloom/Heatran/Gengar/Flygon/(?)
All supposably standard sets, SR Explosion Tran, Scarf Flygon, Subs Gengar

Void's Team - Flygon/Zapdos/Starmie/Tyranitar/Jirachi/Breloom
(Scarf?)Flygon, Non-Physical Def Zapdos, Colbur Starmie, SR Ttar, (?)Lefties Rachi, Mach Punch Breloom

Another Flygon vs Machamp Lead Matchup. Flygon lead means it's a Expert Belt/Life Orb version or that you don't have a better lead. U-turning directly to Starmie could've been a better play (you would need 2 confuses instead of 1 to be in a bad spot, if you hit at least 1 Hydro you can revenge with Flygon or Zapdos if you don't care about revealing a third poké). We Three Kings probally calculated Flygon's U-turn dmg and played Breloom on 6, which was a good play (Satk Leads Flygon would KO Breloom with Fire Blast). As you can see in turn 8, Void doesn't have a good switch to Breloom anymore, that could be avoid if he sacrificed Starmie instead of Zapdos against Machamp. Heatran managed to stay 7 turns doing damage as he won the U-Turn coinflip and that was pretty big and increased even more W3K's advantage in the game.

As LL said in the post above, Machamp played a huge part in this week's matches (3 wins of 3 games) and it's by far the most dominant Lead (Metagross and Azelf being the other ones).
We also saw only 3 Starmies, which is surprising. That might be due the fact Bluewind and Tof used Tentacruel and Forretress respectively as their spinner.
Tyranitar was the most used poké (6 times) and three unrevealed pokémon (Honor, Nightfox and We Three Kings) .
 

NightFox

Banned deucer.
While Machamp is a fantastic agressive lead he isn't that troublesome if you're prepared against him, something that is a must in dpp ou imo. Some common leads like lum gross, colbur/specs Starmie, offensive Zapdos, band/colbur Azelf, band Dragonite, Sky Attack Aerodactyl, specs Heatran and Iron Head Jirachi can easly defeat him while some less common leads like Crobat, Gallade and lum Raikou can beat him as well. If your lead is weak to Machamp you should have a plan vs that bad matchup like Flygon lead + Gyarados for example.
 
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