You got it tycarter, this was a long one, W6! And a w7 game :) I’ll start w the pkel vs bkc game and do the rest.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-822103
Pkel:
Bkc:
Pkel: pkel brings an interesting offense based around offensive water types with 3 choiced attackers and sd Lucario. This is very similar to the teams he was running all last year and in spl so far (and id prob bet his last was something that builds off sd luke, like a Breloom or a scizor, although I could see like a scarf heatran?). I think these teams do have flaws — they particularly struggle if they brick momentum on a like Breloom or a gengar for example, and generally, while this team has empo to fall back on, if that one pivot falls, the wheels can fall off very quickly. But you do have offense — if you come to play w reads and just synergetic offense, you have the fire power (double specs attackers and scarf gon (I think?)) to give balances and offenses trouble, while stalls hate dealing w multiple trick users and Luke.
Bkc: this is going to sound particularly harsh and I’m sorry in advance, but this is perhaps the worst Dpp team used in the tournament so far. I think this team is a particularly poor choice into pkel for a few reasons. The biggest is that triple steels like this is that they’re typically strapped for team slots as a defensive team, as you need mag, a mag Bait, and then a wincon — some bad choices include a) forcing you into an uncomfortable conundrum of either using double hazard defensive skarm (who isn’t fun to use) or using rocks on clef, another terrible rocker against offense. b) your fire/water resistance is often solely Latias, who is pursuitable or like here one read away from getting drilled or if you’re lucky or sacrifice elsewhere, milo/quag, but are difficult to fit. c) good luck fitting good loom counterplay or other fighters without overloading your Latias. I would say the best version of this team either going for sd sciz (which still has huge flaws imo) w skarm /sciz / lati / mag / clef / rotom or milo or going all in on pp stall w hippo / stalk zong / skarm / mag / clef / lati or maybe all in on curse quag. I think going all in for this fast SubTect wish rachi is a bad idea, bc it doesn’t really solve any of the problems you have, it needs a lot of para support, you don’t really remove steel resists well here imo. You know pkel is probably gonna run something that particularly stresses this type of team and your teams recently have been weak to specifically hyper offense (although his team w6 not so much). His clef/lati ev spread choices particularly made empo hard here, as it 2hkoes clef and nails lati. Yeah as you can tell, I really didn’t like this team, I know bkc is one of the goats, but he made it almost impossible to win ingame w this team choice.
W6!
Pkel vs groudon
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-821741
Pkel:
Groudon:
pkel brought some genuinely insane choices alongside a pretty old school offense, similar to what void brought against him a few weeks ago. Salac outrage swampert + LO loom + sciz is very cool synergy on a special offense like this to open up Latias. Everything seems to be all in on opening up the zap loom combo. I do think this team misses a heatran, maybe over the rachi (but I do think the Hp ground rachi does fit here) to help open up more defensive teams for the zapdos and give you a fighting chance against defensive rotom, but hey a very cool team that tweaks the special offense structure and still performs well.
Groudon: yeah this one is a classic that I’ve seen pkel himself use as well as oipon and I saw the original structure from pdc I believe? Normally you see scarf/trick iron Meta over the rachi slot (and I think it really should be) but hey rachi can fit there too. You see the forgotten thunder variant that died out once you realize how bad it is into grounds, but hey it fits here pretty well. I think the changes groudon made are good into the types of teams pkels typically runs though, as you don’t really need to power through defensive teams against what he’s run so far. But the basic idea of double dragons + cune + tran + steel + ghost is a well trodden team idea that works pretty well. I might have picked gar here personally as I think pkel’s teams are particularly weak to it, but I think this team had a decent shot to do well this week.
Bkc vs wtk
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-821221
Bkc: 
Wtk: 
Bkc: I think it’s clearly you shouldn’t listen to me, bc bkc did change it up and then instantly lost. Queue the music, time for me to head out. But hey I do like this team choice from bkc, even if there’s some things I struggle to see the vision. you got a pretty classic physical offense backbone of meta/tar/gyara w an anti hazard scarf loom lead alongside specs star and tran. The thing I think messes me up are the sets, bc his choices on tar, Meta, and Gyara make me think he really wishes he had lati > star, unless his tar has blast last, which seems unlikely, bc for an offensive team this looks awfully weak to loom. I mean I get it, iirc excal doesn’t really like loom, you have ample offense for defensive teams, but I think someone of bkc’s caliber doesn’t have to play those games. It’s an interesting choice that’d I need to see Gyarados’s and tran’s coverage to make a comment on, as idk if I see how the pieces fit.
Wtk: I love this team choice from wtk. It’s a very cool mix of a balance and very aggro physical offense, which I thought bkc was weak to. I think the most interesting thing about this team is what it’s trying to fake. You have the fat lati + scarf rachi + pert + mag, making you think this could be that popular mag stall w pert > hippo, but then you just ramp up the offense w the cb tar and the sd three attack gliscor. The move set choices on all his mons make sense: even the Tfang w mag. Idk I just love this choice: you got double grounds + double trap gives you abundance of offense against defensive teams, fat lati + scarf rachi + mag for more offensive teams, and we all know balances can’t switch into cb tar forever. Just love this team and hope we can see some more cool builds from wtk!
Malekith vs pdc
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-821896
Malekith:
Pdc:
This game was a lol
Malekith: frankly, this team just isn’t it. If you’re gonna build w cradily (a dubious decision), I really don’t think you can afford spikes. There’s just so many avenues this can go wrong, the biggest being Breloom, who destroyed malekith in game, but even something as simple as Gyara or tox zap or cb tar, is going to give you lots of problems. As mentioned, these triple steel teams really bootstrap against offensive threats, and this is no exception. You pretty much build this thinking cradily needs to win on the spot and your defensive core wins you by itself if cradily doesn’t win. But here it doesn’t. You prob need Latias over Skarm here, and even then, maybe you just don’t mag? Idk, but regardless, it ain’t it. Honestly, this feels more like dredge at the low ladder than in an spl game. Too many flaws to see the light of day.
Pdc: pdc ran a team I think I first built in 2010? when I started to learn Dpp post lati ban. Some interesting stuff here though. Wild rachi lead w shuca + toxic, seemingly designed to stay in vs hippo leads. Honestly, once he toxiced the hippo, zap won immediately bc loom forces out cradily all day long and he can’t keep hazards up vs starmie. I mean this is classic Dpp subroost zap that became popular post lati ban: not much to say here, other than some cool sets like the rachi, kinda odd heatwave zap, and the cb tar. I actually agree w pdc here on the cb tar calc. Even if crazily survived, he prob died to another super, or if he attacked, it prob wasn’t gonna kill tar and cradily woulda been basically dead.
Void vs crucify
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-821314
Void: 
Crucify:
Void: void brought a pretty cool take on the classic Skarm spikes offense w gar and mixed Flygon. I mentioned last week I thought this was too greedy on defensive teams but something more offensive like this it’s right at home. I think I saw bkc first use this kind of structure in jdi, but w scarf rachi instead of the Luke, who kinda died out post copycat mechanics. I like what I see here: tar can kinda do anything on these teams, so I like the rocks lead so he can go spdef skarm. Unfortunately, these teams often have fairly flimsy defensive back bones, so once Skarm is trapped and tar dies, you often have no dragon switch ins and void would have lost this game if he didn’t crit the bulky sd sciz. Regardless, still a cool take on this style, really the only way to get Luke + gar + lo gon to work imo.
Crucify: crucify had a bit crazier choices imo, and it’s sad it didn’t win. Cb azelf + mag + fat sd sciz and specs lati and gyara. I actually like it! I thought the sd sciz might be too slow to afford here, but you back it up pretty well, you have gyara + lati + mag offensively. Like I worry you can’t really switch into tar, and if it dd for free you’re not in a good spot bc sciz does a bit over half and you gotta rely on mag, but hey, the offense is here. You can park sciz in the back waiting for threats like tran, rachi, zap, etc to reveal and die and then take over the game. The name of the game w cb azelf is to win the 1v1s after you make it 5v5 and I think this team does that well.
Laurel vs dridri
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-821395
Laurel:
Dridri:
Laurel: hm, idk about this. On one hand he won pretty handily, but I struggle to see how well cm clef fits here. These teams were pretty common a few years ago: i think I first saw this w Meta > zong and hippo > tar (and admittedly huge change), I ran a variant in a Pokémon perfect tour I won against christos a few years ago. I think you really need normal clef here? Like you’re really putting all your eggs in the lati basket (his almost certain last) and idk if it works? I also don’t know how well tar fits here. I worry this would just get run over should Dridri used a more offensive team? I get it, on one hand, you got mag + cm gk clef, a well worn path that works well. On the other, I don’t see how well loom fits here? I think you need something fatter as your secondary loom check. I mean it works, but you need to get tox orb asap. Idk. Still working it over in my head.
Dridri: I think the main problem w this team is dridri had to huge the dreaded sr clef instead of throwing rocks on his tar or Skarm or something. Not being able to use encore, heal bell, twave, etc made cm clef a gigantic threat to his team. I mean this style of stall is pretty popular: I think this is probably the best way to do this style of team w nidoqueen, I do like the 6. I think you need protect clef + spdef Skarm to make it work, but I think it can get wins. You need these guys to survive against spec lati imo, but maybe the rotom was spdef Or something. It would kinda make sense w the choice of switching in his lati into a force palm once the clef was revealed, not wanting to take a big hit. Still has the classic issues of what do you do once the lati gets pursuitEd and the classic roar vs reflect conundrum (which he got around dropping twave, which idk if that works). Cool team
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-822103
Pkel:
Bkc:
Pkel: pkel brings an interesting offense based around offensive water types with 3 choiced attackers and sd Lucario. This is very similar to the teams he was running all last year and in spl so far (and id prob bet his last was something that builds off sd luke, like a Breloom or a scizor, although I could see like a scarf heatran?). I think these teams do have flaws — they particularly struggle if they brick momentum on a like Breloom or a gengar for example, and generally, while this team has empo to fall back on, if that one pivot falls, the wheels can fall off very quickly. But you do have offense — if you come to play w reads and just synergetic offense, you have the fire power (double specs attackers and scarf gon (I think?)) to give balances and offenses trouble, while stalls hate dealing w multiple trick users and Luke.
Bkc: this is going to sound particularly harsh and I’m sorry in advance, but this is perhaps the worst Dpp team used in the tournament so far. I think this team is a particularly poor choice into pkel for a few reasons. The biggest is that triple steels like this is that they’re typically strapped for team slots as a defensive team, as you need mag, a mag Bait, and then a wincon — some bad choices include a) forcing you into an uncomfortable conundrum of either using double hazard defensive skarm (who isn’t fun to use) or using rocks on clef, another terrible rocker against offense. b) your fire/water resistance is often solely Latias, who is pursuitable or like here one read away from getting drilled or if you’re lucky or sacrifice elsewhere, milo/quag, but are difficult to fit. c) good luck fitting good loom counterplay or other fighters without overloading your Latias. I would say the best version of this team either going for sd sciz (which still has huge flaws imo) w skarm /sciz / lati / mag / clef / rotom or milo or going all in on pp stall w hippo / stalk zong / skarm / mag / clef / lati or maybe all in on curse quag. I think going all in for this fast SubTect wish rachi is a bad idea, bc it doesn’t really solve any of the problems you have, it needs a lot of para support, you don’t really remove steel resists well here imo. You know pkel is probably gonna run something that particularly stresses this type of team and your teams recently have been weak to specifically hyper offense (although his team w6 not so much). His clef/lati ev spread choices particularly made empo hard here, as it 2hkoes clef and nails lati. Yeah as you can tell, I really didn’t like this team, I know bkc is one of the goats, but he made it almost impossible to win ingame w this team choice.
W6!
Pkel vs groudon
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-821741
Pkel:
Groudon:
pkel brought some genuinely insane choices alongside a pretty old school offense, similar to what void brought against him a few weeks ago. Salac outrage swampert + LO loom + sciz is very cool synergy on a special offense like this to open up Latias. Everything seems to be all in on opening up the zap loom combo. I do think this team misses a heatran, maybe over the rachi (but I do think the Hp ground rachi does fit here) to help open up more defensive teams for the zapdos and give you a fighting chance against defensive rotom, but hey a very cool team that tweaks the special offense structure and still performs well.
Groudon: yeah this one is a classic that I’ve seen pkel himself use as well as oipon and I saw the original structure from pdc I believe? Normally you see scarf/trick iron Meta over the rachi slot (and I think it really should be) but hey rachi can fit there too. You see the forgotten thunder variant that died out once you realize how bad it is into grounds, but hey it fits here pretty well. I think the changes groudon made are good into the types of teams pkels typically runs though, as you don’t really need to power through defensive teams against what he’s run so far. But the basic idea of double dragons + cune + tran + steel + ghost is a well trodden team idea that works pretty well. I might have picked gar here personally as I think pkel’s teams are particularly weak to it, but I think this team had a decent shot to do well this week.
Bkc vs wtk
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-821221
Bkc:
Wtk:
Bkc: I think it’s clearly you shouldn’t listen to me, bc bkc did change it up and then instantly lost. Queue the music, time for me to head out. But hey I do like this team choice from bkc, even if there’s some things I struggle to see the vision. you got a pretty classic physical offense backbone of meta/tar/gyara w an anti hazard scarf loom lead alongside specs star and tran. The thing I think messes me up are the sets, bc his choices on tar, Meta, and Gyara make me think he really wishes he had lati > star, unless his tar has blast last, which seems unlikely, bc for an offensive team this looks awfully weak to loom. I mean I get it, iirc excal doesn’t really like loom, you have ample offense for defensive teams, but I think someone of bkc’s caliber doesn’t have to play those games. It’s an interesting choice that’d I need to see Gyarados’s and tran’s coverage to make a comment on, as idk if I see how the pieces fit.
Wtk: I love this team choice from wtk. It’s a very cool mix of a balance and very aggro physical offense, which I thought bkc was weak to. I think the most interesting thing about this team is what it’s trying to fake. You have the fat lati + scarf rachi + pert + mag, making you think this could be that popular mag stall w pert > hippo, but then you just ramp up the offense w the cb tar and the sd three attack gliscor. The move set choices on all his mons make sense: even the Tfang w mag. Idk I just love this choice: you got double grounds + double trap gives you abundance of offense against defensive teams, fat lati + scarf rachi + mag for more offensive teams, and we all know balances can’t switch into cb tar forever. Just love this team and hope we can see some more cool builds from wtk!
Malekith vs pdc
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-821896
Malekith:
Pdc:
This game was a lol
Malekith: frankly, this team just isn’t it. If you’re gonna build w cradily (a dubious decision), I really don’t think you can afford spikes. There’s just so many avenues this can go wrong, the biggest being Breloom, who destroyed malekith in game, but even something as simple as Gyara or tox zap or cb tar, is going to give you lots of problems. As mentioned, these triple steel teams really bootstrap against offensive threats, and this is no exception. You pretty much build this thinking cradily needs to win on the spot and your defensive core wins you by itself if cradily doesn’t win. But here it doesn’t. You prob need Latias over Skarm here, and even then, maybe you just don’t mag? Idk, but regardless, it ain’t it. Honestly, this feels more like dredge at the low ladder than in an spl game. Too many flaws to see the light of day.
Pdc: pdc ran a team I think I first built in 2010? when I started to learn Dpp post lati ban. Some interesting stuff here though. Wild rachi lead w shuca + toxic, seemingly designed to stay in vs hippo leads. Honestly, once he toxiced the hippo, zap won immediately bc loom forces out cradily all day long and he can’t keep hazards up vs starmie. I mean this is classic Dpp subroost zap that became popular post lati ban: not much to say here, other than some cool sets like the rachi, kinda odd heatwave zap, and the cb tar. I actually agree w pdc here on the cb tar calc. Even if crazily survived, he prob died to another super, or if he attacked, it prob wasn’t gonna kill tar and cradily woulda been basically dead.
Void vs crucify
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-821314
Void:
Crucify:
Void: void brought a pretty cool take on the classic Skarm spikes offense w gar and mixed Flygon. I mentioned last week I thought this was too greedy on defensive teams but something more offensive like this it’s right at home. I think I saw bkc first use this kind of structure in jdi, but w scarf rachi instead of the Luke, who kinda died out post copycat mechanics. I like what I see here: tar can kinda do anything on these teams, so I like the rocks lead so he can go spdef skarm. Unfortunately, these teams often have fairly flimsy defensive back bones, so once Skarm is trapped and tar dies, you often have no dragon switch ins and void would have lost this game if he didn’t crit the bulky sd sciz. Regardless, still a cool take on this style, really the only way to get Luke + gar + lo gon to work imo.
Crucify: crucify had a bit crazier choices imo, and it’s sad it didn’t win. Cb azelf + mag + fat sd sciz and specs lati and gyara. I actually like it! I thought the sd sciz might be too slow to afford here, but you back it up pretty well, you have gyara + lati + mag offensively. Like I worry you can’t really switch into tar, and if it dd for free you’re not in a good spot bc sciz does a bit over half and you gotta rely on mag, but hey, the offense is here. You can park sciz in the back waiting for threats like tran, rachi, zap, etc to reveal and die and then take over the game. The name of the game w cb azelf is to win the 1v1s after you make it 5v5 and I think this team does that well.
Laurel vs dridri
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ou-821395
Laurel:
Dridri:
Laurel: hm, idk about this. On one hand he won pretty handily, but I struggle to see how well cm clef fits here. These teams were pretty common a few years ago: i think I first saw this w Meta > zong and hippo > tar (and admittedly huge change), I ran a variant in a Pokémon perfect tour I won against christos a few years ago. I think you really need normal clef here? Like you’re really putting all your eggs in the lati basket (his almost certain last) and idk if it works? I also don’t know how well tar fits here. I worry this would just get run over should Dridri used a more offensive team? I get it, on one hand, you got mag + cm gk clef, a well worn path that works well. On the other, I don’t see how well loom fits here? I think you need something fatter as your secondary loom check. I mean it works, but you need to get tox orb asap. Idk. Still working it over in my head.
Dridri: I think the main problem w this team is dridri had to huge the dreaded sr clef instead of throwing rocks on his tar or Skarm or something. Not being able to use encore, heal bell, twave, etc made cm clef a gigantic threat to his team. I mean this style of stall is pretty popular: I think this is probably the best way to do this style of team w nidoqueen, I do like the 6. I think you need protect clef + spdef Skarm to make it work, but I think it can get wins. You need these guys to survive against spec lati imo, but maybe the rotom was spdef Or something. It would kinda make sense w the choice of switching in his lati into a force palm once the clef was revealed, not wanting to take a big hit. Still has the classic issues of what do you do once the lati gets pursuitEd and the classic roar vs reflect conundrum (which he got around dropping twave, which idk if that works). Cool team
