"Good artists borrow, great artists steal."
Yahallo Little Cuppers! After an eventful SPL Season, I thought I would share my teams and my experiences throughout the tour.
Record Entering Week: 0-0
Week 1 vs. Pablo
Entering Week 1, I really wanted to start off with a bang. Earlier in the week, I got throttled mercilessly by a Charmander on the ladder and then thought to myself, "Hey, this is pretty fucking good." Too often, people gloss over genuinely good ideas because of where it comes from or because it sounds like a meme. But like any great artist, I stole this idea and built a Charmander sun team that used Eject items to get in Charmander and Co. as much as possible. In hindsight, I was too ambitious; Eject Pack Vulpix (which I've since changed) was inferior to the standard heat rock, for example.
In the game, I didn't identify my opponent's Vullaby set early enough, and while I was punching holes early, all I was really doing was setting up myself to be swept late game. So much for a bang.
Record Entering Week: 0-1
Week 2 vs. Luthier
At this point, I was still hungover by SM and the glory of Z moves. I scoured the teambuilder, but there just weren't many OHKO threats or Fatcore breakers. Beating Mareanie/Ferroseed/Etc cores required you to dissect them through smart pivots and trappers. I wanted something more relaxed, and Band Rufflet was precisely what I was looking for. It was the OHKO threat I was looking for and allowed me to vary my builds to avoid getting a door slammed in my face by a team prepared for a linear Knock Off/Pivots/Trappers team.
Early game Banded Rufflet struck with the force of a thousand Rssp1 ladder games and did precisely what it needed to. I had broken the Mareanie/Ferroseed core. However, I started getting worried about losing the lead and started playing too safe. (along with an objective misplay or two) The endgame culminated in a tense situation. Unfortunately, an untimely crit ruined my chances, and I was heading to another loss.
Unless…?
My opponent choked and made one of the most bizarre plays I've ever seen. It could only be characterized as a misclick or an aneurysm. All of a sudden, I was winning. How lucky could I get? I asked that question too soon. One critical hit and 3 full paralyses later, after my opponent snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, Lady Luck snatched it back and stamped it on my forehead. I was pissed. Luck into choke into luck, and now I was 0-2.
Record Entering Week: 0-2
Week 3 vs. Jake
Honestly, this was the week I was stressed most about. The burden of being 0-2 was bearing down on me and Jake was one of the better players of the tour. Add in the fact that my team had 3k at midseason, and I definitely felt like I was on the hot seat. I decided to go back to basics and use a Fairy Spam core, which was rising in popularity at the time. Remember, this was back when people were still running slow Mareanies and Cutiefly wasn't as common because it didn't have roost. NP Spritzee could run through unprepared teams. Also, I stole the concept of fast Mareanie from Madoka, who had mentioned it earlier. Although FastMar is standard now, at the time, people knew it existed but never used it. In fact, this was the SPL debut of fast Mareanie. During Ekans, I lost to a Modest LO Cutiefly which ohkoed Pawniard, and I decided to implement a similar set on my Pawniard weak team.
Both techs worked perfectly, fast Mareanie lured a Mudbray and LO Cutiefly nailed a Pawniard. Heavy Duty Boots Cutiefly scared me for a bit, but it was a relatively clear endgame to finish off. Finally, my first win.
Record Entering Week: 1-2
Week 4 vs. HT
I was relieved, I got through the gauntlet and ended 1-2 where I could've been 2-1. Up next was 0-3 HT, and I was feeling good about my chances. I decided to use one of my favorite cores of SM, Shell Dig, because I was expecting a Sun Team. Sun had rising support for a ban and was viewed as broken by the majority for the community. HT had never used Sun before, and it seemed like a no brainer that he would use it: Sun is easy to use, easy to build, and an easy way to break an 0-3 slump. However, all that does is make the resulting sequence even more embarrassing.
I prepped for Sun and then made one of the biggest chokes of my career and found a way to throw away a great MU. It's almost like I completely forgot that my Diglett had memento, and I threw away what should've been an easy win. I was shambled and my team was livid, especially because we missed out on a win that week.
Record Entering Week: 1-3
Week 5 vs. zf
I didn't really know what to make of zf; Tazz was the original starter but got benched, so I didn't have any replays to work with. I decided to just go with something standard and outplay. During the week, I was lamenting to myself about how Frilish is so good, but then it means I can't run Mareanie, which was also so good. Then it dawned on me, who says I can't use both on the same team? Stacking bulky waters is perfectly fine when there's nothing that actually abuses bulky waters. I coupled the double water core with broken Drifloon and filled out with some standards.
Fast Mareanie was, yet again, tremendous and gave me a sharp look vs. Corphish+Mudbray. However, I did have to be very careful as my opponent's team looked very dangerous. Threats like SD Pawniard, LO Cutiefly, or LO Wingull could easily break through my squad if I let it. Fortunately, I was able to navigate through and had one of my more convincing wins of the season.
Record Entering Week: 2-3
Week 6 vs. Evigaro
https://pokepast.es/de53bddd729694ea
I felt like this game was going to be a trap game for me. On paper, Evigaro was the 10th ranked player in the tour, but clearly, 3 other people paid the price for overlooking her. I reworked one of my older Fairy spam cores and decided to use it because it was an archetype that I was comfortable with and considered it to be reliable. If it isn't broke, don't fix it, right?
I had fairy spam, and on turn 2, my opponent sacked her fairy resist.
Record Entering Week: 3-3
Week 7 vs. Osh
https://pokepast.es/63cc86eb211df72b
Pokemon Home just released, and I knew what I wanted to use: Aurora Veil. I struggled to build a version of veils that I liked because I knew that I had to be prepared for standard veil checks, especially because I had (have?) a reputation as a cheeser. While I was testing, LilyAC came up with the idea of Protect+Disable Vulpix-Alola to stop Timburr's Defog and Pawniard's Brick Break. I immediately Great Artisted the idea and went to work.
This game, the MU was relatively even if not slanting in favor of me. It was always going to be very difficult for my opponent to stop my NP Vullaby + Zigzagoon. Meanwhile, I had to worry about his threats like NP Gunk and Sticky Web. Funnily enough, I never had to set up Veils as Vullaby and Vulpix-Alola were able to break through without any Veils support.
Record Entering Week: 4-3
Week 8 vs. Idiotfrommars
https://pokepast.es/7f8092627cf848fa
Preparing for the week, I went for a similar approach to how I did Evigaro. I went for a "standard and outplay" Webs team with Cutiefly and it's newly acquired roost. I had to be prepared for cheese like Veils, so I opted for a stout core of Onix+Eviolite BB Pawniard and then added NP Vullaby as my webs abuser.
It appears that my opponent heavily prepared for cheese, indicated by Onix+Pawn and garbage like Scarf Frillish. Pawniard was very threatening, but thankfully I was able to catch it on a stay in. After that, it was just playing around with Mareanie and Trapinch and making sure I don't choke vs. something like Trick Frillish.
Record Entering Week: 5-3
Week 9 vs. LilyAC
https://pokepast.es/ceed0037213ba0f5
This was a big week: our team needed to win this week to make playoffs and LilyAC was on fire this season. The core of Levi, Kingler12345, and Lily was clearly working well as they were able to get good matchups most games and had some new innovations every game. From the beginning, I knew that if I wanted to out prep them, I had to go out of my comfort zone. Shellos was rising in popularity, mainly because of ggggd, and while I've always considered Shellos to be very mediocre, I had to admit, it does have its moments. I wanted to use Shellos with a different look than the Shellos team that gets spammed on the ladder so I paired it with a PonyPinch core, something I don't use very often yet is still solid.
This game was heartbreaking, Shellos got robbed and I was left scrambling to try and pick up pieces that didn't exist. Other techs like substitute Mudbray iced any minuscule chance I had left, and I was left hoping the rest of my team could take us to the playoffs.
Record Entering Semifinals: 5-4
Semifinals vs Shawyu 1313
https://pokepast.es/01402b58508f3858
I wanted revenge after I lost to Pablo in Week 1. (Un)fortunately, we already won the week before I could play and they subbed in Shawyu 1313. I reused LilyAC's Koffing team and added Toxic on Ferroseed because I know ggggd loves shellos and would've passed him a team with it.
I swept with NP Vullaby and some dark pulse flinches. I think I was looking good even without the flinches, but meh, no one really cares, this was a meaningless game anyways.
Record Entering Week: 6-4
Finals vs. Jake
https://pokepast.es/e1761787025163a3
The finals. At this point in the season, Cutiefly had cemented itself as being extremely broken. I had resigned myself to the fact that any team should be built assuming that Webs are on both sides of the field. My previous favorites, like NP Spritzee, were simply unviable. I had to look at a new set of abusers. BU Rufflet was an obvious choice and offensive Koffing was an interesting option that I really liked from the team I used last week. However, I still wasn't delighted with the webs MU. I started looking for ways to deny webs, but it's hard to lure Cutiefly and I couldn't get a spinner like Drilbur to work. Then, I lost to Redboy using Scarf Onix on the ladder, and I realized that that's what I'm looking for. Scarf Onix lures Lead Cutiefly and Lead Vullaby, checks NP Vullaby in a web vs. web, and its worst-case scenario is a 150 bp stab move on one of the fastest pokemon in the tier. I ended up with a standard looking webs team with BU Rufflet and Offensive Koffing, but with Scarf Onix as a special surprise.
This was one of the most intense games I have ever played. My lead Onix caught lead Dewpider (which I later found out was Choice Scarf Dewpider). However, I wasn't out of the lurch yet because after my Onix got trapped, I had no switch-in to Vullaby. It was very tempting to switch in Cutiefly on a predicted knock off, but that was just way too risky. I knew I had to get myself into a position where I could Bulk Up with Rufflet, but I also needed Webs up to deal with Head Smash Onix. The game climaxed with a tricky endgame, and I ended up winning with a Trapinch with 1 hp left.
What a season.
Finals ended up going to a tiebreaker and we lost there.
Final Record: 7-4
Conclusion
Overall, this season was a lot of fun, and it's a season I'm proud of, especially after my horrendous start. I felt like I had a chip on my shoulder after all the pundits said I wasn't a good builder, I was even adamant that we don't add any other LC players to the team chat because I wanted to do this on my own.
Shoutouts to all the people on my team who don't regularly play LC but still popped in to help out, mainly
snaga and
suapah and shoutouts to
GotCookies who helped out too, and to all the people I tested with and talked to over these few months